One of the twins

Here's what I think of Minneapolis (one of the so-called twin cities) based on what I have seen so far (2 days):

1. It is awfully humid, the very first think that comes to mind when visiting here in summer, something unexpected for me (wonder what would be source, a lake nearby?). The humidity together with the relative high temperatue reminds me of Dubai specially when you enter 'indoors' and notice that ACs are running at full throttle making everywhere inside really cold. Last night, due to sort of extreme weather conditions, we did have a tornado wandering around in the downtown areas and we received subsequent warnings. Although I did not witness it myself, I wish I had since it would have been exicting to see one.

2. The streets are easy, I guess if you live in US and are used to their cities and urban systems i.e. a large matrix of streets and avenues, you will find this one a no brainer as well. Even for an outsider like, it felt pretty straight forward.

3. Public transportation seems to work fine. More importantly, it was pretty cheap e.g. I took a bus and light train from downtown to Mall of America (supposedly the biggest mall in America which could easily be), a 20Km distance, cost me only $1.75 one way...nothing!

4. Sale tax on clothing seems to be so little that is negligible, is it only in Mall of America? I don't know but it is pretty amazing anyhow.

5. No comment on the food due to lack of enough evidence.

6. I have to say that Minneapolis is not as white as I was told it is, I have seen many colored people in the streets and otherwise, surprisingly a lot of them are from Somalia.

Over and out...for now!

What a relief!

Reflections on my poll

These

I can not possibly say how happy I am with the result of my poll, which has been closed for some time now. The turn out, as expected, was very little (6 to be exact!) but to my surprise, everyone who voted was for it. That was a great relief for me because it saved me awful lot of troubles to create a podcast or something which required a minimum space on the internet for uploading the songs and etc. You see, my idea initially was to just broadcast music according to my taste and little by little, depending on the demand, I would have had some discussions and debates on different topics. Using podcast would have allowed the fans to download these directly to their iPod and so on. Now, being a lazy person that I am by nature, I skip this idea for the time being. Plus, there MIGHT have been some legal complications that I would really like to avoid. So to put it nutshell, no music, no show.

Antithese

But I will try to put some playlists in this blog every now and then. If you have the songs (legally or otherwise), then you can easily create that playlist using iTuenes or something and enjoy it during your workout, long drive to work, lunch break and etc. 100% me and no strings attached. I will put these playlists under a separate label so it can be easily reached and I avoid repeating myself.

Synthese

At the end, I have to admit that I have not given up totally the idea of the radio show and I will explore it further...some time...in the future. I feel obliged to thank those 6 persons who took part and not letting me go cold turkey all the way. I will also put other polls up to inspire myself and open up further debates in this tiny humble room.

On consistency...again!

Many thanks to my buddy AB for the invaluable contribution.

Thank you!

Thank you SF for the scenery, steep streets, ocean view, crazy clouds and the air.

Thank you SF for the beautiful bridges, cool and laid back ambiance and great restaurants.

Thank you SF for Francis Ford and everything he has given us.

Thank you (a big one) my man K-man (formerly known as K-me) for the hospitality, showing around, long walks and fine moments.

Thank you my boys for finally meeting up and all the discussions and responses to my challenges.

Thank you my new friends for taking good care of us, making me feel exactly at home with the hookah experience.

Thank you Virgin America for a pleasant flight, friendly and good-looking crew and the entertainment. Thank you Mr. Branson for that.

Thanks everyone!

ON/OFF

One phone call and I'm already feeling better!

Amazing how tiny little things can change one big person.

Thank God for all the patient people who are around me, who tolerate me endlessly. Wish I had only 1/10th of their patience.

And thank Him for loving me for He is so giving.

I...low

Another delay, another laziness, so much of the consistency!
Enough whining, moving on: many events since last, many analyses, far too many discussions and debates, much said less done!

Where should I begin? How about 'now'?

Well, now is:

I am angry
I am depressed
I am sad
I am running low
I don't like nothing

And I don't know why...or maybe I do

"Jesus was an architect prior to his career as a prophet..."

This sucks!

Uncanny resemblance 2

Bono and Jay-Tee (John Terry of Chelsea FC)

Thanks to Partick K with the help ;-)

My way out

Every time I am short of words and have not much to say, I am gonna let the others do the talking and use their song lyrics fill out the space, so here's one for the start; an off-the-top-of-my-head translation of an old love song dedicated to someone special out there

Note. This is something I did at work at the peak of boredom, I know it''s kind of cheezy but I give it a shot anyway

I will put the mountains on my shoulders
I will dress up for every war
I will take away waves from the sea
I will melt all the rocks
I will bring moon into the house
I will capture the wind
I will count all the sands of the eartch...grain by grain

If only
If only your eyes ask me to
These are [just] nothig to do

I will carry the world [on my shoulders]
I will die 100 times a day
I will remove the starts [from the heaven] and hold it in front of your eyes
Your eyes are the pride of the world
Your eyes are the dearest things
If you want, I will not even let anyone set eyes on you

If only
If only your eyes ask me to
These are [just] nothig to do

What is love

"Kärlek handlar om att ständigt förlåta och bli förlåten - Love is to constantly forgive and be forgiven."

1 month's posts in 1

1.

One month of silence caused by some "minor/major" incidents and above all, lack of inspiration. In other words, I basically let my brain to surf freely on the waves of sloth (oh I am so disgustingly poetic now!) and it felt...well...I don't know...not that bad! However, I have to admit that I have been dealing with a little bit of guilt, thinking I should be doing something (else?), be somewhere else but hey, I guess we all have that tickling, one way or another, throughout our trivial lives, right?

2.

I find myself again in a place that I was 4 years ago and I feel...simply apathetic! and don't ask me why cuz I simply don't know! Man...it sure was a b--ch getting here...almost 30 hours door-to-door, 2 hrs on the train, ca 15 hrs waiting at different airports, 10 hrs flight, ca 3 hrs bus ride...still quite short of my all time record of 52 hrs on the bus but almost equally exhausting.

3.

I have recently reached new horizons in the Cuban cigars...amazing stuff...thanks to "Che...The movie" which by the way is really great movie...thanks Steven Soderbergh! I have got to analyze that sometime, for the moment, I just enjoy watching it. I was smoking these stuff before but not to this latitude I guess. I have to come back to this more in the future.

4.

It takes more than one hell of determination for me to finish Marquez' classic "100 years of solitude"...I have started it but I am struggling with my laziness.

5.

"Hero no more!"

I have been banging my head really hard trying to understand why my former hero did that...that destructing rage...man he had failed before, just exactly when I needed him to be the strongest, the most discrete but he failed back then (under that pressure) and left me disappointed deeply. For about 2 weeks I was devastated and everything had shattered to small pieces but fortunately, things turned for the good much faster than what I expected and I was temporarily relieved. I guess despite that saying "Le temps détruit tout - Time destroys everything", the time did some good at the end of the day. Je ne sais pas...je ne sais plus...

6.

Montreal doesn't feel much like Canada, it's more of big french town other than Paris than a big city in Canada. The food has been great so far though...period.