Keep a blog, spend 9 years in prison

I don't recall the last time I've been so enraged.

The gist: An Egyptian blogger criticizes the Egyptian government and El Azhar. He's arrested and is "on trial" and could be looking at 9 years in prison.
The joke, I mean, trial is still going on, please take a look and think of something you can do to help. Anything... Sign the petition if nothing else.

http://www.freekareem.org/

Everyday it's becoming more shameful to be an Egyptian. I would've said this is a new low for Egypt, except that it's not exactly new.

Law lam akon masreyan, I really would have pointed and laughed.

It's a beautiful life

I've always liked Ace of Base, I'm not sure why. I thought they were dead (musically) but a look at their wikipedia page suggested they have an album in the works.

A couple weeks ago I was at my new favorite breakfast cafe. They have friendly baristas, play good music, serve good coffee and an excellent tuna sandwich, and they have free wifi. It doesn't really get any better than that. So they're my Seattle Cilantro substitute (dang it, took me a few seconds to remember the name Cilantro, this can't be a good sign).
So I'm sipping on my coffee and browsing the internets, and a bum comes in. He's black and looks over 50 or so with a plastic cup in one hand and a few quarters in it. He asks me if I have a couple of minutes so naturally I presume he'll be asking for money. I turn around and he starts talking.
"You see, I'm a musician".
'Yeah, right' I thought to myself.
He seemed to have trouble saying complete sentences, he was just blurting words and it was my job to collect them and guess what he meant.
"Can you.... check my name... amazon... music... joe bayana... b a y a n a", he said.
I fired up google and looked for Joe Bayana, the search turned up results and the first is to a page on amazon. This is weird.
I go to the amazon web page and lo and behold. It's an album with a familiar face on it. I look at the man's face, and the picture in front of me, and they match. I take another look because I can't believe it, but there is no denying it.
'Hey, that's you, this _is_ your album, that's great, man', I said. He cracks up a short giggle like someone who hasn't laughed for a long long time.
"music... people buy... money... can you check?"
I don't quite get it so I ask him to clarify.
"check for me... orchard.... last name.... password..."
So I figure he wants me to check if his album is selling and if he has any money to claim out of it. But I don't know how to do that. I ask him to clarify.
"orchard", the man said.
So I try orchard.com and there is nothing there. I rescan the search results and check any promising link with his name in there, but it doesn't get me anywhere.
A couple minutes later I raise my arms up in defeat. 'Sorry man, I don't know where to check for your money'
"That's ok, God bless you", he said. He slowly walked away and out of the coffee place thanking the baristas for letting him in. Never asking for money...

I sit there thinking for a couple minutes. I don't get it. That guy _is_ a musician, at least used to be. He has a published album that's being sold on amazon. He's now homeless. Life is weird.

I go through the amazon page again, and I notice in the album details that the publisher is called The Orchard. Oh, that's got to be what he meant when he kept saying orchard. Another quick search and www.theorchard.com turns up. I go to the page and there is a login link for artists to check their accounts. Darn, that's what he meant. He wanted me to log on to his account and see if there are any new sales that would have credited his account. I look out the window but I don't see him anymore. I run out to see if I can find him, but he'd vanished.

When that man walked in, I presumed he'll be asking for money. But he didn't.
When he told me he's a musician I presumed he's lying. But he wasn't.
When he saw me sitting at a computer he presumed I can help him. But I couldn't.
And however unlikely it is, anyone stumbling on his page on amazon will probably presume he's a well-off recording artist. But he isn't.
Presumptions are cruel.
Or maybe life is.

That man must have been jumping with joy with the recording and publishing of his album. He must have thought it's his breakthrough. Ironically the album has got 3 5-star reviews, so he might have been justified. But life had something else in store for him.
Is it really a beautiful life?

Been some time

It's been more than 2 months since I posted anything, probably my longest blogging abstinence period since the 24 years I spent on the planet before I started the blog.

I can't really say why I haven't been blogging, because I don't know. It's not like nothing was happening or that life was monotonous. On the contrary, we had 2 snowstorms and a windstorm, the latter had us without power for 2 days. Seattle smashed its own record for its wettest month ever in November. I started Salsa dancing classes, and stopped. I went snowboarding twice and am slowly starting to get the hang of it. There was Christmas, and New Year's, and I took my first US road trip down to Reno 750 miles each way.
I also got a lot better at going sideways in the snow thanks to above mentioned weather and summer tires. There is a pretty boring video where you can see the slides improving after the first minute.

Still no clue why I never blogged any of that.
Maybe that's a wrong question to ask, one probably needs a reason to blog any of that, not lack thereof to not blog.

Anyway, I'll probably be back blogging more often for at least the near future.