Al Jazeera Here I Come!

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Doha to attend Al-Jazeera’s 3rd Annual Media Forum which will be henld under the banner “Media and the Middle East: Going Beyond the Headlines.” The Front Line will be covering the topics and issues discussed at the conference and I will definitely try to interview as many scholars and media pundits as I can. Maybe even get some Al-Jazeera Executives to comment :)

If any readers of this blog have any questions or issues they’d like raise.. leave a comment, I’ll be sure to get it and try t oaddress as many issues as possible. Many heads are better than one!

I’ll be back next week with a report back, Wish me luck till then!

Peace,

M.

Technorati Tags: Al-Jazeera, Media Forum, Bloggers

Star Wars vs. Lord of the Rings

After watching Clerks II, which wasn’t as good as Clerks I, but still was a lot of fun… I like the debate about LOTR vs. Star Wars. Which is why I started the little poll to the right of the blog :P As of this moment, Star Wars is winning. Anyhow, the debate takes a step ahead of the internal Star Wars debate which was in Clerks I.

Either way, for a movie like Clerks II you need to sit back, relax and take your critic hat off and just enjoy it, otherwise you get all grumpy and idiotic when you think too much watching a movie which was meant to be enjoyed instead of thought about. Sometimes you just want to enjoy a movie and not have to think if the directing was good, if the acting was right, if the actors were spot on or poor.

Back to the topic… I’m torn between the two… Star Wars was a brilliant set of Sci-fi cinema, LOTR was the best fantasy book I’ve read, right up there with Battlefield Earth (They really, really messed up the movie but the book was brilliant!) I have to say though I like LOTR the book better than I like the movie… so the kudos goes to Star Wars for this one. Sorry Legolas, Gimli, Frodo and gang… but Obi-Wan and R2D2 trumped you this time.

Peace,

M.

Lekker Recipe.

Stumbled onto this on the Net somewhere and it made me hungry.

Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie

Ingredients:

Crust:

* 2 cups finely crushed Oreo cookies (about 20 cookies)
* 3 TBSP butter or margarine, melted

Filling:

* 1 quart vanilla ice cream
* 1 cup coarsely chopped Oreos (about 10 cookies)
* 1 quart mint chocolate chip ice cream

Toppings:

* 2 cups Cool-Whip (you can use Stork Cremendous)
* 1/4 cup hot fudge ice cream topping
* 2 TBSP grated chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degress F. Combine cookies with melted butter; mix well. Press into bottom of a round pie pan or springform pan. Bake 10 minutes; cool completely. Place in freezer until ready to fill.

Scoop vanilla ice cream into crust and press to form an eve layer. Spinkle with chopped cookies. Scoop mint chocolate chip ice cream over cookies; press to form an even layer.

Spread cool whip over pie. You can decorate with the cool-whip if you have a decorating pipe and tips. Garnish with fudge and grated chocolate.

Technorati Tags: Recipe, Ice Cream, Yum

Die Garbage Die!

I read this very interesting article, these guys are trying to rid the world of the entire concept of waste… not just eliminating waste…

The deeper purpose here is to change the way things are made. “From our
perspective, waste doesn’t need to exist,” says San Francisco’s
Blumenfeld. “It’s a design flaw.”

Word.  Reading the article, it actually makes sense… Why didnt anyone think of it before?  Strange how simple this stuff is and it was right in front of you, right in front of me.  Imagine… No Garbage.  George Bush wouldn’t be able to say a word.

Technorati Tags: Garbage, Design Flaw

Soccer @ Ras Al-Khaimah

I remember Arab kids playing soccer in the sand with made-up goal posts like you see in those movies which like to make dangerous “terrorist” territory seem endearing and more human. It felt really good to see that soccer game… all that innocent competition amidst all the money, the big buildings and the construction of this empire in the desert. It was cool, reminded me of home.

This was all at Ras Al-Khaimah… an emirate about 1 and half hours north of Dubai, past Sharjah (We had our Team workshop at a resort there).

Technorati Tags: Ras Al-Khaimah, Soccer, Arab Kids

Why Intelligent People Tend To Be Unhappy

clipped from www.scribd.com Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. - Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961) Children develop along four streams: intellectual, physical, emotional (psychological) and social. In classrooms, the smartest kids tend to be left out of more activities by other children than they are included in. They are “odd,” they are the geeks, they are social outsiders. In other words, they do not develop socially as well as they may develop intellectually or even physically where opportunities may exist for more progress. Adults tend to believe that intelligent kids can deal with anything because they are intellectually superior. This inevitably includes situations where the intelligent kids have neither knowledge nor skills to support their experience. They go through the tough times alone. Adults don’t understand that they need help and other kids don’t want to associate with kids the social leaders say are outsiders.

Back in the Habit.

This is my first post since leaving on my journey through finding myself and my way to I don’t know where, but I do know I have to move forward.  Whether to the next city or the next continent.  It’s time to change and change with things which are always changing because I just cannot sit still anymore…

From the last post till now, I did the Garden Route (Durban to Cape Town and Back), I got the Sunburn, experience and everything.  Week later had to leave with Work to cover Dubai and Egypt.  You know… Team building, Consumer Understanding and all that Jazz. (I’ll post pictures later). It was rush, my first trip overseas with my wife and it was a Freakin Awesome Time :)

The learning which is most important from this trip is above all “Gratefulness”.  I realised I have so much to be a fucking nag or complain about my current situation because I am in a place most people only dream of, especially in today’s world.

I have far too much to not be grateful.

On the trip:  Dubai is a shopper’s paradise. Women will love it, and they do.  It didn’t impress me though, it seems exactly what people with a lot of money should do.  Well they over do it, but it does take a lot of money anyway.  The mindset is very weird though, like a mesh of the bad stuff between Arabs and Americans.  I have to admit though you can have a lot of fun there. Especially if you have a lot of money… or sponsorship :P and you do get some stuff very very value-for-money… you just need to know where to look!

Egypt was awesome, I realised that this was becuase of the company though. I really really loved it.  the Pyramids seem to humble you because its only when you get there that you realise how freakin huge they are and “How the hell did they build that 4000 years ago?”  and the Sphinx and the Temple as well.. the construction was immaculate.  The people are mostly poor, but down to Earth and very Friendly.  the pollution in Cairo is Crazy. it seems to line your whole oesophagus after a while… the air is thick with it.  Also the place really isn’t that clean, any good clean imaginations of the Nile, should be washed away from your head.

What was funny though was that even though they’re poor… EVERYONE has satellite TV. word.

Soundtrack at the moment: My Chemical Romance, Saul Williams and Paris. (No, Not Paris Hilton… Paris)

Peace,

M.

Technorati Tags: Egypt, Dubai, Trip, Gratefulness