tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83006642024-03-23T11:19:21.481-07:00Chris' own little worldHere I will post random thoughts of mine, for no reason whatsoever except that I canChristianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.comBlogger138125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-13294406572392866192008-01-21T01:21:00.000-08:002008-01-21T01:23:10.047-08:00In the kingdom of the blindIn the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king.<br />One of the few quotes I've heard that are as true and meaningful as they are catchy.<br /><br />Would you be happy being the one eyed king?Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-12838950930086300952008-01-13T23:04:00.000-08:002008-01-13T23:34:55.120-08:00Home Sweet HomeI went for a stroll in downtown Seattle today, the weather was very un-Seattle-like (read Sunny) and I'd frankly missed it coming back from a long vacation.<br /><br />Coincidentally, I found a store that sells small antiques and other seeminly random but somehow interesting things imported from Namibia, Kenya, and a couple other countries according to the owner. A quick chat started by the owner asking me where I'm from, playing the guessing game, and failing, as has become the norm for me around here (you *have to* make them play the guessing game when it's a (cute) girl asking you where you're from, playing the game is optional when it's guys asking you).<br />Anyway, it turns out the guy is from Guinea and has been in Seattle for 12 years.<br />Interestingly, the guy voluntarily admits that he'd like to go home (not Seattle). I'm puzzled.<br />'But 12 years is a really long time, it (Seattle) must feel like home to you now, no?', I ask.<br />'No, I still want to go back, I go on vacations and it may be a worse place but I like it better, there is no place like home', the man replies.<br /><br />The conversation ended pretty soon, and I felt exactly what his last statement would make most people feel. A mysterious admiration for the man's "loyalty" for his place of birth.<br />But I really don't know why we feel that way.<br /><br />First of all, I'm hard pressed to find a definition for "home". We use the word everyday and one would think the definition is clear, but is it?<br />If a man is born and lives in country A for 20 years, and then relocates and moves in country B for 20 years. Which country is home now for him?<br />And it can't be defined as the country of birth, because a person who is born in country A but only lives there for a day, after which he moves to country B would never call country A home.<br /><br />And the definition of 'home' is not the only problem...<br /><br />Loyalty to one's home, however we choose to define that home, is usually perceived as a virtue, but again the reasons are unclear to me.<br />Most people will admit having a familiar warm fuzzy feeling and feeling mysterious admiration after hearing the phrase 'There is no place like home' or the seemingly-deep-but-actually-not-so-deep "Never forget where you're from".<br />A lot of people will say either phrases and countinue to live on somewhere else anyway, go figure.<br /><br />Maybe I need to study ethics?Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1638840219865279992008-01-01T16:11:00.000-08:002008-01-01T16:35:23.677-08:00SiThe french si, not the spanish one. The one you use to reply affirmatively to a negative question. A silly silly word, if you ask me, because it solves a problem that should have never existed in the first place.<br /><br />Who on earth invented the idea of negative questions?<br /><br />Negative questions do not add any meaning that normal questions don't have, it's actually pretty oxymoronic if you think about it, what does it mean for you to negate something you don't know (yet at least)?<br />Some languages, like formal Arabic and French, took it even further and made up words to denote an affirmative response to a negative question. After all, what does it really mean to reply 'Yes' to 'Are you not going to work today?'.<br /><br />I hate very few things in life, and negative questions are so bad that they managed to make it very close to the top of a very short list.<br /><br />The worst thing about negative questions, to me, is that they suggest some sort of expectancy of a negative answer on behalf of the asker. But why anyone feels compelled to communicate their anticipated answer to their question is beyond me, if you know the answer, just don't ask the question.<br /><br /><em>'Are you not going to eat?'</em> sounds like <em>"Are you going to eat? You really shouldn't" </em>and <em>'Are you not coming?'</em> sounds like <em>'why don't you spare us your company?'</em> to me.<br /><br />Just think of it, how many times have you had to reask a question in the proper (affirmative) form after not understanding the answer to your previous negative question?<br /><br />Negative questions are evil.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-19512077074532446182007-12-27T18:37:00.000-08:002008-01-01T16:11:16.626-08:00Smile! You're in a 3rd world country!First of all, I really don't mean the title, or the post for that matter, to sound condescending (if you don't know what condescending means, we have nothing to worry about). If there's one thing I've learnt, it's that there rarely is genetically or categorically "bad" people. The system (or lack thereof) produces the people and their defining traits (as a people).<br /><br />If you've been outside this (or any other) country for an extended period of time (anything more than six months will do), things get pretty interesting when you go back. You start seeing things as if they were completely new to you (unless you have extraordinary memory). You don't otherwise get a chance to see things in your city anew because you grow up in it.<br /><br />One of the very first things I've noticed the first time I walked on the streets in Cairo is the people, more specifically the faces of the people.<br />No one is smiling! Absolutely no one!<br />I've wondered since then what makes people on the streets smile in Seattle when they cross paths with a stranger, after all, it should be lack of this thing, whatever it is, that makes people frowny on the streets of Cairo.<br />And I found out the hard way.<br /><br />Yesterday, I went to take my car to run a few errands, only to find it with a flat rear left tire. It was obvious someone had done it, because the tire had not been leaking and both cars in front of and behind mine had the same rear left tire deflated.<br />While changing the tire, a passerby tipped me off.<br /><br />I'd parked it by the school wall (there is a school across from my place) and apparently, the school bus drivers don't like it when someone does that (parks on the street around the school). So they deflate the tires to "teach them a lesson"...<br />That's not the sad part, the sad part is that there is nothing you can do about it...<br /><br />Why would you smile walking around in a country where you have no rights, be it property, human, or otherwise?<br /><br />At least I found my/an answer.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-26480253957841951342007-12-19T18:20:00.000-08:002007-12-19T18:55:53.426-08:00El ToktokI went to visit my uncle and aunt today, one of my cousins was there too so I get to check a significant percentage of family visits that I have to do off the list (can you tell how small my family is?).<br />My aunt asks me if there is anything that I saw in my visit that was new to me (I'd been away for about 2 years) and the first thing that comes to mind is "El Toktok!".<br />If you're wondering what el toktok is, wonder no more, <a href="http://www.hennasingh.com/uploaded_images/Picture-050-727520.jpg">this</a> is what we're talking about, in all its three wheeled flippable glory.<br /><br />Apparently, Cairo currently has way more cars than it was designed for. Actually that's a misstatement, Cairo was not designed. The best way I can think of as to how its streets came to be is that people built their homes wherever they pleased and the remaining space (or lack thereof) was deemed streets.<br />Anyway, back on topic, for lack of space (and money), el toktok sprung as an alternative way of transportation (sometimes to the "afterlife").<br />But this being Egypt, there had to be an interesting twist.<br /><br />Reportedly, the guy importing toktoks is well connected (he had to be) and made a lot of money on importing and selling them, which is fine. A lot of the "offline" (read not connected) poor folks saw it as a worthwhile investment and started saving up and taking loans to buy and operate toktoks and make a living.<br />Looks like a win-win so far.<br />But there is no such thing around here, not that I've seen.<br />Now the powers that be are disccussing banning el toktok, rumour has it. If/when the toktok is banned, hundreds and maybe thousands of people will have tin boxes for their life investments that they can neither use to make a living nor even sell to recoup their losses.<br /><br />But life will go on fe om el donya...Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-56724335378365253602007-12-17T10:41:00.000-08:002007-12-20T07:38:24.691-08:00Re-bloggingIt may be ironic that the factors responsible for my restarting blogging are the symmetric opposite of the reasons I started the blog in the first place. I started the blog mostly because I was relocating from Egypt to the US(which I did) and thought I'd have fun maintaining it (which I did not). I came back to Cairo two days ago (for a visit) and here I am restarting the blogging.<br />Evidently, change in one's geographical location is a big deal.<br /><br />A lot of people (like three of them) have asked why I stopped blogging, my answer was (and still is) that I don't know exactly why I started blogging in the first place. But right now I feel like I have words to blurt so I will. This should not be taken as any sort of promise of continued e-blurting --blogging, as it came to be known in recent times.<br /><br />So I'm back in Cairo, for about a month. I've been away for 27 months (2.25 years for the mathematically challenged) and I seriously couldn't have anticipated the shock. Ironically (I love irony), I was not in culture shock moving to the US, but I am now that I'm visiting Cairo.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I am really excited about meeting all the people again. I love my family and friends and it's the one thing you miss when you leave a 3rd world country, but (you knew this one was coming, didn't you?) you definitely do not miss much else. The list (of things you don't miss when you leave Egypt) is so long I don't know where to start.<br />And it's very well that I don't too, because I'd probably be like that snobby, "westernized" relative of yours who left the country for a couple years only to come back with a fake accent and attitude complaining about everything he sees and some things he doesn't. Let's just say the complaints are mostly warranted, even though the fake accent is not.<br /><br />As always, I managed to write more than I had intended, and thus I'll end it here.<br />To be continued...<br /><br />(I just entered the letters in the word verification thing wrong <s>twice</s> three times, I feel like Nagia)Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-77724461374182060722007-04-26T17:10:00.000-07:002007-04-26T17:15:04.109-07:00May 0thI just got this random thought.<br />5:00pm means 5 o'clock. The first minute in a given hour is 00 and the last is 59, that's called zero based indexing in CS world.<br />But the first day of a given month is, well, the 1st. So beginning of May is 05/01 not 05/00.<br /><br />Why are we using zero based indexing for minutes, seconds, and hours (in the 24hr format) while using one based indexing for days and months?<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-649370338654257602007-03-12T14:52:00.000-07:002007-03-12T15:10:28.778-07:00Way to go, Egypt!For some reason I keep on stumbling upon these, another addition to our hall of shame.<br /><br />Read and weep:<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition</a><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-50440601436192437282007-02-15T01:20:00.000-08:002007-03-21T20:03:27.492-07:00Does time really fly?It's 1 am.<br />I've had dinner, watched some late night comedy shows, and brushed my teeth in preparation to going to bed.<br />I looked at the 3 stacked books on the bedside table but I didn't feel like reading any of them. At the bottom there is an economics book that I almost finished but not quite, a stock market book on top of that that I almost finished but not quite, and on the top there is a humurous book about one author's first hand experience with extremists, a book that I almost finished but...you've guessed it.<br />But I felt like reading something a little light hearted, so I turned to the stacked book shelf, and grabbed a copy of TopGear the magazine that I got a few weeks ago after looking for it all over the US. I learned that Barnes & Noble seems to be the only bookstore that carries European car magazines around here.<br /><br />It's "Car of the Year" issue, gotta be interesting. But wait a minute, <span class="fullpost">it says 2005 cars of the year. This can't be right. I double checked and it does say 2005. I looked for the tiny date on the top right corner, it said January 2006.<br />I got this issue 13 months ago, not a few weeks ago.<br />And this is probably the first time I really realize that it's 2007, that I've been in the US for 17 months now, and that pretty soon in what will seem like a few days I'll be 26 years old.<br />I have no idea what to make out of all that.<br />And this is when I grabbed the laptop and started writing this post, mostly because I had a mental hang and thought that writing may unblock it.<br /><br />I changed a lot in a year and a bit, although I can't be entirely sure since nobody who knew me from "the previous lifetime" has seen me since I came here to attest to that change.<br />I still, however, can not say that I'm in a substantially different place in my life than I was a year ago. I'm not sure if I was standing still the whole time or running around in small circles.<br />Do I have to be in a different place (figuratively speaking) every year? Or does running around in circles still count?<br /><br />I'd decided to take a break for a bit when I came here, I need one after running for 25 minutes so it seemed appropriate after racing life for 25 years. "I'll just take it all in, catch my breath, and then lock on another target and go for it", I thought to myself.<br />But getting back in the ring after a break is harder than I thought it would be.<br />And somehow I don't feel that much more refreshed than before I took the break.<br />And I need a mark before I start shooting.<br /><br />Does time really fly? Or have I fallen asleep on my break?<br />It's 1:20 am.<br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-53603844231817369392007-02-07T02:00:00.000-08:002007-02-07T02:28:47.900-08:00ConversationsI find it fairly interesting that the level of any conversation I'm in depends heavily on the participant.<br />I find myself talking fairly trivial stuff with some people, and highly abstract and/or philosophical subjects with others.<br />Everyone else is probably like that, it's not like a special ability of mine.<br /><br />So this lame excuse for a post is a snippet of a conversation held with one of my dear and highly respected friends a few days ago. C is my humble self.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />C: The recurring "so what really is the point?" question strikes every now and then<br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">D: Oh, that question :D</span><br />C: Any significant amount of happiness is followed by a similar in quantity opposite in direction amount of unhappiness.<br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">D: Yeah i know all about it.</span><br />C: You can't win.<br />C: and you know a million others would kill for what you have<br />C: but you know better, because one day _you_ would've killed for what you currently have<br />C: and now you'd kill for what somebody else has<br />C: and they would kill for what somebody else has<br />C: and on top of the pyramid there are thsoe who would kill for what nobody else has<br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">D: :D</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">D: well am going through a similar phase myself and it's hard I know<br />D: and harder i guess when you are away</span><br />C: is that what they call growing up or something?<br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">D: exactly<br />D: that line from queen "no one ever told the truth to me about growing up and what a struggle it can be" has never been so relevant</span><br />C: and i dunno why life has this annoying habit<br />C: of giving me a taste of what i want, and then just when I start thinking about how great it is and how I would happily give up other stuff to keep it<br />C: takes it away<br />C: i swear i could see somebody sticking their tongue out every time this happens<br />C: because somebody out there apparently thinks that having everything one wants is too much<br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-36587269009130126322007-02-04T13:42:00.000-08:002007-02-06T02:50:58.250-08:00Ribs and HeartsA <s>wise</s> funny man once said "In order to pretend doing something I actually do it, this way I'm only pretending to be pretending".<br /><br />It's winter and snow is abound, Guy number 1 likes the snow and thinks snow sports would be fun to try. He'll learn something new, have an interesting story to tell, and who knows, maybe he'll find a new favorite sport that he could spend the rest of his life enjoying and perfecting, the guy (affectionately called G1 from now on) thinks.<br />G1 still remembers his rollerblading incident<span class="fullpost">, when he fell on his back and fractured his tail bone. He was in pain for more than a few weeks because of it. He nevertheless decides to go ahead and snowboard, it'd be silly to let that incident scare him off.<br />He goes up and down the slopes quite a few times, 2 weeks and numerous small falls later he's getting better, or he thinks he is. He takes on a steeper slope, and decides to jump off a ramp while he's at it. "How hard can it be to jump a few inches and land on the board?", G1 thinks to himself.<br />He starts the descent, kinda scared at first, but as his speed increases so does his confidence. He's on a good trajectory to make it, he lines up his board perfectly with the narrow wooden ramp and right before he catches air he thinks the hard part is over.<br />He'd underestimated the landing it seems because just as his board is about to touch the snow again he feels something is wrong. His heavy head is determined on beating his feet to the snow, he extends his arms to try and brace for the fall. He lands on both his hands and feet, but he's not slowing down. The slope is so steep that gravity is overpowering the friction. He tries to slow down the fall but it's not working, a second or two that seem like a lifetime later his torso collides with the ground.<br />He can't breathe in for a minute from the impact, the pain is agonizing. Judging by the pain, he realizes he almost broke a rib and dislocated a shoulder. Almost but not quite.<br />It'll take him some time to recover from this one, but he survives.<br /><br />In slightly different four dimensional coordinates, G2 meets a nice gal. "I should ask her out", G2 thinks to himself. He'll get to know a person, have interesting memories, and who knows, maybe he'll find the girl of his dreams in her and spend the rest of his life cherishing and sharing his moments with her.<br />G2 still remembers his breakup incident, when his heart was broken by a girl he loved. He was in pain for more than a few months because of it. But it'd be silly to let that scare him off.<br />They go out for quite a few times, 2 months and numerous small issues later things are getting better. Or he thinks they are. He thinks he's falling in love and he confesses it. "I love you too", she said ", but it's going to be hard". "How hard could it be for two people in love?" he thinks to himself.<br />He starts the journey, scared at first, but as their love grows so does his confidence they can make it. They're on a good trajectory to make it. They've been over a few hurdles and he thinks the hard part is over.<br />He'd underestimated circumstances out of his control it seems because just as he was happily adapting to the changes a serious relationship brings to one's life he feels something is wrong. Other people are determined on spoiling his happiness. He fights for what he thinks is his right to be with someone that makes him happy. But the web of ignorance, love for control, and general nonsense is so complicated that it's overpowering all his efforts.<br />A week or two that seem like a lifetime later, they're broken up.<br />He feels like he can't breathe in from the pain. He got his heart broken again.<br />It'll take him some time to recover from this one, but he survives.<br /><br />I can only pretend to be G1 and G2.<br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-27112522799324648532007-01-31T23:04:00.000-08:002007-01-31T23:33:08.138-08:00Keep a blog, spend 9 years in prisonI don't recall the last time I've been so enraged.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.freekareem.org/">http://www.freekareem.org/</a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />Law lam akon masreyan, I really would have pointed and laughed.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-67357522114328230392007-01-30T01:07:00.000-08:002007-01-30T02:27:14.591-08:00It's a beautiful lifeI've always liked Ace of Base, I'm not sure why. I thought they were dead (musically) but a look at their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_base#Albums">wikipedia page</a> suggested they have an album in the works.<br /><br />A couple weeks ago I was at my new <a href="http://www.cherrystreetcoffeehouse.com/">favorite breakfast cafe</a>. 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).<br />So I'm sipping on my coffee and browsing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internets_%28colloquialism%29">internets</a>, 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.<span class="fullpost"><br />"You see, I'm a musician".<br />'Yeah, right' I thought to myself.<br />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.<br />"Can you.... check my name... amazon... music... joe bayana... b a y a n a", he said.<br />I fired up google and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=joe+bayana">looked for Joe Bayana</a>, the search turned up results and the first is to a page on amazon. This is weird.<br />I go to the amazon web page and lo and behold. It's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000021YGU/ref=ord_cart_shr/002-7236947-7292039?%5Fencoding=UTF8&amp;m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance">an album </a>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.<br />'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.<br />"music... people buy... money... can you check?"<br />I don't quite get it so I ask him to clarify.<br />"check for me... orchard.... last name.... password..."<br />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.<br />"orchard", the man said.<br />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.<br />A couple minutes later I raise my arms up in defeat. 'Sorry man, I don't know where to check for your money'<br />"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...<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.theorchard.com">www.theorchard.com</a> 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.<br /><br />When that man walked in, I presumed he'll be asking for money. But he didn't.<br />When he told me he's a musician I presumed he's lying. But he wasn't.<br />When he saw me sitting at a computer he presumed I can help him. But I couldn't.<br />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.<br />Presumptions are cruel.<br />Or maybe life is.<br /><br />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.<br />Is it really a beautiful life?<br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-50700151395692346332007-01-26T01:30:00.000-08:002007-01-26T02:04:18.094-08:00Been some timeIt'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.<br /><br />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 <a href="http://climate.washington.edu/events/2006NovRain.html#Table">smashed its own record</a> 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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reno%2C_Nevada">Reno</a> 750 miles each way.<br />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 <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4699368619856111428&hl=en">video</a> where you can see the slides improving after the first minute.<br /><br />Still no clue why I never blogged any of that.<br />Maybe that's a wrong question to ask, one probably needs a reason to blog any of that, not lack thereof to not blog.<br /><br />Anyway, I'll probably be back blogging more often for at least the near future.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1164237409398139932006-11-22T15:16:00.000-08:002006-11-22T15:16:49.676-08:00Con Art - SolutionThis is the solution to the question I posed in <a href="http://v0od0o.blogspot.com/2006/11/con-art.html">this post</a>, so if you haven't read it you can safely skip this one too.<br /><br />Hussein got it pretty much right on in the comments.<br /><br />What the company could have done is the following.<span class="fullpost"><br />Identify 32000 recepients, that's a very easy feat and most mailing lists for sale contain way more than that.<br />First week, divide them in halves. Send to half of them (16000) saying that X stock will go up, and the other half saying that X stock is going down.<br />Wait for 1 week, see the results. You must have sent the correct prediction to 8000 people, no matter how the stock actually did. Identify those 16000, divide them in halves, repeat the exact same process saying to half of them that the stock is going up and to the other half that it's going down.<br /><br />At the end of 6 weeks you would've sent 6 correct prediction in a row to 500 people. Collect your money and profit :)<br />This con game is illegal when/if played on purpose. Do not attempt :)<br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1164057794424647812006-11-20T13:12:00.000-08:002006-11-20T13:24:13.293-08:00AdaptationYou know you've spent too much time in Seattle when:<br /><br />1. You start to panic when you're driving in a small suburban street and the lane markers disappear.<br />2. You wonder how you ever got anywhere before the invent of live/google maps.<br />3. <span class="fullpost">On a strange road the first thing you do is start looking for the speed limit signs.<br />4. You have trouble parallel parking in a spot that is twice the length of your car.<br />5. You regard a Jeep Grand Cherokee or a mini van as a small car.<br />6. You walk around with zero cash in your pocket.<br />7. You wonder how you ever lived without online shopping.<br />8. You think that a 10 mile drive is a really short one.<br />9. You're very surprised to find a place that's open past midnight on weekdays.<br />10. You start using 5+ word phrases to describe how you want your coffee, e.g. Tall Non-Fat Eggnog Vanilla Latte.<br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1163579758827012022006-11-15T00:02:00.000-08:002006-11-15T14:23:50.703-08:00Popular and RightApparently we tend to confuse these two separate things, or assume some sort of correlation.<br /><br />This might seem all a bit random but bear with me.<br /><br />What do you think is the percentage of smart people in a given population?<br /><br />Trying to come up with a definition for smartness or intelligence is not as easy of a task as it sounds. There are thousands of totally different I.Q. tests which are assumed to measure ability at a skillset and call it IQ.<br />Being well informed about a specific topic, however, is much easier to define and measure.<br /><br />So what do you think is the percentage of people who are well versed in medical sciences or philosophy in a given population? The US's or Egypt's for example?<br /><br />My conjecture says<span class="fullpost"> that it's not a majority.<br /><br />This, in itself, is not so bad. But substitute economics or politics for medicine or philosophy and it becomes kind of dangerous.<br /><br />Smart or not, you have to be well informed about a subject to be able to take sound decisions regarding matters of said subject. It took countless smart people thousands of years to build a foundation of science that got us to where we are today. You simply can not, no matter how smart you (think you) are, rebuild it all from scratch in one lifetime.<br /><br />I said earlier that one can get away with little knowledge of medicine because one doesn't get to vote if one wants his son's tonsils removed or not. The decision is made in a dictatorial fashion by someone who is (hopefully) an expert on the subject.<br /><br />But this very same person gets to vote for what his country's policies should be, at least in a true democracy he does.<br /><br />To make matters worse, individuals rarely get to pick from individual policies on a decision by decision basis (or else nobody will do anything but attend political meetings and vote for whatever today's decision is). Instead, you and I get to pick a "package deal", be it a political party or a presidential candidate. For example American voters can (and recently actually did) pick candidates from the Democratic Party for the senate or the house. The Democratic party generally stands for a higher minimum wage and legalization of abortion.<br />If you happen to agree on the latter but disagree with the former, tough luck. It's our package of the day.<br />Or of course start your own party, good luck with that.<br /><br />Combine all of the above and you might arrive at the same conclusion I did.<br />1. The majority of people are not well informed (sometimes ill-informed?) about economics and politics.<br />2. If you're ill/dis/mis-informed about a specific matter, you shouldn't be expected to take a sound a decision regarding said matter.<br />2. Voters get to pick one out of several candidates, each is a bag of specific stands on a multitude of subjects.<br />3. A democracy guarantees that the candidate with the most votes win.<br /><br />Do you see it yet?<br />Democracy guarantees the domination of what's popular. It even actually creates an incentive system for politicians to stay "in fashion" with what's popular and form their strategies or advertised agendas accordingly.<br /><br />The result?<br />What's popular is what will get done. And what's popular shouldn't be expected to magically intersect with what's right. Not until the majority is knowledgeable about economics and politics (in the very least).<br /><br />We might as well be flipping coins.<br /><br />P.S.<br />I'm not anti-democracy. Nor do I have an alternative worthwhile system that I can suggest. I'm just debating the merits and flaws of what is currently, widely accepted as the best system to run a country.</span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1163219951698670382006-11-10T20:31:00.000-08:002006-11-11T00:03:23.820-08:00Con ArtOr How to Make Money using Mathematics.<br /><br />So here is the question, and I'll answer this one after I get a few responses. Just think about it and don't cheat.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />You open your mailbox and you find that a "stock prediction" company sent you this letter saying that it's their business to predict the stock market and they want you as a customer. They provide you with a free prediction that the stock price of company xxxx will go up in the next week. xxxx is a large company like MSFT or something of the sort.<br />You toss the mail out, but come next week you note that the xxxx stock price did go up. Next week, surely enough, you get another mail from the same company extending one more free prediction that the xxxx stock price will go up (or down for that matter). A week passes by and they were right again.<br />You get that for 6 weeks in a row, and every time they are spot on right about the stock price prediction.<br />For the 7th week you get a mail that they had sent you enough free predictions and you should pay for the next one if you want it.<br /><br />Would you pay? Obviously they're good at predicting stock prices aren't they?<br />If not then why?<br />Just think about if for a few minutes and leave me a comment with your answer.<br />Please don't cheat by looking it up (or otherwise), or at least if you do, don't paste it here in the comments :)<br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1163201409964579032006-11-10T15:29:00.000-08:002006-11-10T15:30:10.350-08:00Hofstadter's LawHave you ever read about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_Law">Hofstadter's Law</a>?<br />If not, it's about time you do. It's true.<span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1162892673620288512006-11-07T01:40:00.000-08:002006-11-07T01:44:35.276-08:00Probability and CoincidenceA man who travels a lot was concerned with the possibility of a bomb on his plane. He determined the probability of this, found it to be low but not low enough for him, so now he always travels with a bomb in his suitcase. He reasons that the probability of two bombs being on board is infinitesimal.<br /> -John Allen Paulos in Innumeracy<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1162804380661799782006-11-06T01:04:00.000-08:002006-11-06T01:14:32.486-08:00SacrificeI just finished watching the movie "The Weather Man". I started watching it at 11:20pm and finished it at 1:02 am.<br />This line, in my opinion, is one of the truest statements you'll ever find in a movie.<br /><br />Robert Spritzel, played by Sir Michael Caine, said to his son David:<br />Sacrifice is... To get anything of value, you have to sacrifice. Do you know that the hardest thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. Easy doesn't enter into grown-up life.<br /><br />This post is for you, you know who you are.<span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1162538904876431862006-11-02T23:26:00.000-08:002006-11-02T23:28:25.106-08:00HomeIf somebody relocates when he's 25 years old to a different part of the world.<br />If this somebody lives there till he's 50.<br />Which part of the world is home to somebody? One..., both..., or neither...?<span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1162461913217715032006-11-02T01:22:00.000-08:002006-11-02T02:05:14.386-08:00Halloween 2006 aka Borat in SeattleTime for a less serious, less important, and a more personal post after the couple past ones.<br /><br />So last year I took a back seat and <a href="http://v0od0o.blogspot.com/2005/10/halloween-at-microsoft.html">watched Halloween</a> in the US for the first time. This year I jumped right in.<br /><br />First of all, if you don't know who Borat is, you need <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat">a primer</a>. You will also probably love <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_fzdEk0r8">the trailer</a>.<br /><br />So, for this Halloween I was Borat! And even though <span class="fullpost">the movie hasn't come out yet, the character is insanely popular. Going out on Friday in the costume was pretty amazing, people are really nice on Halloween. Everybody dressed up in the most creative customes, complementing you on yours. In Borat's case people were taking pictures, yelling lines from the movie. It was truly a weekend of living like a movie star :)<br /><br />Such a post would, of course, not be complete without photos, so I present you with a few.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/991/556/1600/IMG_0485.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/991/556/400/IMG_0485.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/991/556/1600/IMG_0490.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/991/556/400/IMG_0490.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/991/556/1600/IMG_0546.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/991/556/400/IMG_0546.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1161931157024211532006-10-26T23:34:00.000-07:002006-10-26T23:39:35.466-07:00Huh?I don't think I'll ever understand how a person, any person, think like <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/world_news/newsid_6086000/6086444.stm">this</a>, assuming there was thinking involved.<br />I will never understand what can make a person become like that either.<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8300664.post-1161895948705906982006-10-26T13:51:00.000-07:002006-10-26T18:32:36.673-07:00Sex maniacs, are these real?If you live in Egypt please help me out here, is this real?<br /><a href="http://malek-x.net/node/268">http://malek-x.net/node/268</a><br /><br />If you're a girl who lives in Egypt, please be careful. Try to avoid the busy spots and downtown at night. Better safe than sorry.<br /><br />I don't know what to say, it's a new low.<span class="fullpost"></span>Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05907766331051353218noreply@blogger.com3