Planet.Syriamirror.net - Bassam in Syria

Silly question!!!

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 01:51:25 +0300

How come the Latin nation and linguists could not come with a single letter for the sound "sh"???
Isn't it annoying to have to write two letters for a gen

Long Time.... No See (aka: chatting, taxes, شوف الواوا, and the mourning literature)

Sat, 8 Apr 2006 15:41:24 +0300

I know I have been away for a long time now. And those who have been keeping up with me are now forgetting to pass by. I don't blame them, I have almost forgotten.
To start with, I haven't been busy more than normal lately; in fact I wish I were. But there hasn't been much thing to write about. No new experiences. But I think I can come up with some new events. And I will try to summarize what was going on with me over the past two weeks or so.
First of all, I transformed to Batman. The first half of the day is killed by sleep. As I stay late till 4 or 5 AM, I am bound to wake up late too. And lately there wasn't any work for me in the morning, so I'm enjoying it. If you wanna ask what do I do at night... god bless the video chat, a totally good invention, brings close all the elements that exist, except the one you want... a sweet killer in other words.
I am done with my taxes too. Not the Syrian taxes, those do not exist really. But as a part-year employee in USA I had to file my taxes before the 15th of this month. Now that was a pain in the ass. I have read tons of forms and publications in addition to using a couple or more tax softwares, and when I thought I got it, I found out I was an asshole. It is the first time I do it myself you know. Previously accountants took care of it; they did the job, but in retrospect they sucked. I am happy to announce that I think I did it, for free too.
Sudoku has taken some of my time. Like any new toy or gadget you buy, the first weeks are spent in admiring it then the brightness fades. Sudoku is a mental game in which you have to fill empty squares with numbers. Although these puzzles seem silly but some of them are really bad. That took out some time too, but now is, as mentioned above, fading.
What else... Haifa Wehbe released her number one hit: "شوف الواوا" and in it the lyrics reads as follows:

شوف الواوا بوس الواوا خلي الواوا يصح
لما بستو طاب الواوا صار الواوا بح

Absolutely...... No Trash

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:04:23 +0200

Ok, I know the picture isn't great, but that is what you can expect from my mobile camera.
Anyway, the green sign (almost illegible) says:
يمنع منعاً باتاً إلقاء القمامة تحت طائلة المسؤولية ودفع غرامة مالية
I had the idea of taking this picture (which I will replace with a better one if I can) when I saw a girl walking gracefully across the street to throw their home trash under this sign...

Coupling

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 16:05:22 +0200

I am not sure how many of you have seen the sitcom, but I am going to talk about it. So my brother got the whole series with him and lured me into watching it.

MasterCard 2 – the wedding version

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:34:21 +0200

Ok then, my brother is here, he is getting married after 4 months, and he with his fiancée are struggling through making decisions as to what service they should get, what flowers they should pick, and who should do this and that, etc...
It is not easy to get married I figured.

Research – Subject: Truck muffler exhaust

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:11:20 +0200

I will write this as if it was a research study. As me and my brother were going back from Aleppo I came up with the idea of checking how many trucks or buses (anything bigger than a car, usually used for non private transportation) emit visible exhaust or black smoke from their muffler.

Military Service – Cheating the Stationary Service

Wed, 8 Mar 2006 20:38:19 +0200

As some know, I have changed my status in the military to stationary, and now after paying the بدل there is no more duties to worry about. Or so it seems, as recently, while meeting with some people, I was told that by law a person who pays is still subject to 6 months service....

Watching Sport

Sun, 5 Mar 2006 18:18:39 +0200

I think I mentioned that earlier, but currently if anything drives my attention on TV, it is Eurosport. Constant events are showing all the time. Some need tactic and brain, some need physical fitness.

Euthanasia - الموت الرحيم

Fri, 3 Mar 2006 13:40:38 +0200

Yesterday I lectured on the euthanasia subject to a group of young people (19-22 yrs) who form the musical band of the Church of the Cross (كشاف الصليب). The topic although controversial, thus very interesting, was requested by them (and the offer to me through one of them who I know). I intended the whole thing to be interactive to check on personal experience, previous interpretation of the subject and so forth.

أرقام في الطب

Wed, 1 Mar 2006 00:14:29 +0200

هذه المعطيات أخذتها من "الصفحات الطبية"، يعني صفحات صفراء ولكنها للأطباء والموارد الطبية وكل ما يتعلق بها (ممرضين، صيادلة، معامل، وكالات.....)

طريقة جديدة في الكتابة

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 20:46:11 +0200

أظن أنه ما من أحد وهو يحاول أن ينقل كلمة من اللغة الانكليزية إلى العربية إلا وقابلته مفردات تصعب كتابتها لفظاً، او أن كتابتها العربية يمكن أن تقرأ بأكثر من شكل. وما لفت نظري أكثر حديثاً إلى هذه النقطة هو اسم Boole في الكتاب السابق ذكره (العدد: من الحضارات القديمة إلى الكمبيوتر). وطبعاً بالعربية كتبت على الشكل التالي: بول. و هذا الاسم قد يقرأ على أساس أنه Paul أيضاً، وكذلك قد يفهم بمعنى آخر (هل حزرتم ما هو؟)
ولهذا آمنت بوجوب إيجاد طريقة للكتابة تجعل النقل العربي لأسماء العلم الانكليزية أو غيرها من المفردات العادية سهلة وغير خالّة بلفظ الكلمة. طريقة تجعل اسم كتاب كـَ : بو ل و فرجيني يفهم على أنه: Paul and Verginie وليس Piss and show me.
لذا فكرت بمايلي: أولاً: الأحرف P و V و G (كما في goat) يجب أن تكتب بمعادلاتها العربية كمايلي:

Number: From Ancient Civilizations to the Computer

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:18:35 +0200

I finished reading this book: Number, about the history of numbers as we know it from ancient civilizations until current times. I read this in Arabic. The book is published in 1991, so it is way before more advancement in technology, as far as computer goes. So some of the figures in the book are not quite adequate by current standards. Anyway, the part about the computer at the end was very boring and deosn't compare to the evolution of mathematics. After reading the book I felt an urge to reread our school math books and refresh my memory, knowing that I got a complete score in math in بكالوريا, which I am very proud of.

السر المصون في شيعة الفرمسون

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 02:50:12 +0200

هذا آخر كتاب انتهيت من قراءته وهو كتاب شيق وممتع ومفيد. ألفه سنة 1910 الأب لويس شيخو اليسوعي في فضح ادعاءات وأكاذيب وغايات الماسونية في ذلك الوقت على الأقل. والطبعة التي بين يدي هي من منشورات نوبل.

The Dream Blog

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 01:40:15 +0200

I frequently dream whacky and adventurous sci-fi kind of dreams. Although I always wanted to leave a pencil and a notebook at the bedside to note my dreams in the morning, I have not done that.
Today I just got the idea of a dream blog.

Vote: Why Doesn't Our News Media Cover the Winter Olympics in Torino?

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 23:43:30 +0200

As any good citizen, I don't watch news channels (especially the Lebanese ones) unless I am extremely bored or have to because someone else is watching it (usually older than me).