Soldier for a Summer by Sam Najjair - Review coming soon!

 I've just ordered a fantastic new book by an Irish-Libyan man named Sam Najjair from Dublin who fought in the Libyan revolution. The first and only book I read about the revolution was 'Colonel Gaddafi's Hat' by Sky News reporter Alex Crawford. It was a great read and one of only a few books I have actually bought, instead of just borrowing from the library. One of the reasons I also bought 'Soldier for a Summer' is because someday when I'm married with kids, these books will live on, and my kids can read them. I am someone who is very interested in history, and for my children this will be part of their history. Also for a long time there was literally nothing coming out of Libya, and if there was, it was all Gaddafi approved. There could be no books speaking against him, or any free press who could print whatever they liked. It was all a huge propaganda machine.

If you are interested in this book, you can listen to a fantastic podcast that was aired on radio in Ireland on 04/09/2013, you can listen to the interview here.

If you would like to buy the book, this is the link to buy from Amazon .

The review will be up once I've read it. I won't be rushing so it could be a few weeks. I also have the Eurogamer expo coming up later this month in Earl's Court, London, for which I will also post a full review. Thank you for reading!

Wimbledon 2012 - Nadal out!

 I cannot believe that Rafael Nadal has been knocked out of Wimbledon, and in the second round too! He was beaten 6-7 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-4 by a virtual unknown, Lukas Rosol, who is ranked 100. It defeats my wish of seeing Nadal vs Djokovic in the final though! At least Nadal won the French Open, for a record 7th time, about two weeks ago. He's still a good player, but I guess others have to rise through the rankings at some point. We have tennis at Wimbledon to look forward to in the Olympics too, what a great place to hold the tennis, it feels like a double Wimbledon!

Anders Breivik the Terrorist

 I am going to be the first person to dare to refer to Norwegian bomber/gunman Anders Breivik as a terrorist. No newspaper seems to want to call him a terrorist, even though he clearly is. If a bearded Muslim man had carried out such attacks, every newspaper article would refer to him as a terrorist. Let's be fair here and do the same for anyone who carries out killing on such a huge scale. Colour or religion should not even come into it, it should be about the crime committed. Breivik ironically killed mainly white people anyway, which I think kind of defeats what he was trying to achieve, which was madness anyway. Or is it? I actually think he is perfectly sane, my personal opinion is that he is an evil psychopath. Psychopaths don't show emotions such as remorse, they carry out an act and they stick to it afterwards, they don't regret any of it. Serial killers are the same, they would not have killed if they didn't mean to. It's just a shame Norway doesn't have the death penalty.

Also if you want to see how many newspapers and online news sites refer to Breivik as simply a mass murderer, and not a terrorist, just type 'Breivik mass murderer' into Google and see how many results come up.

Samantha Brick: Not beautiful and hated by all

 So these past few days, apparently the internet has been blowing up with comments against a lady called Samantha Brick, who alleges that women hate her because she is beautiful. Hmmm. First of all, she is actually not very pretty, just average looking really. Secondly, has she ever stopped to think that other women do not like her because of her personality? I have never hated a beautiful woman, unless that is accompanied by a bad attitude and cold personality. Also since when is it ok to just go around saying you are beautiful? It's much better to just let people find and notice your beauty themselves. I've been told I'm pretty, does that mean I constantly use that on other people, convincing them I'm so pretty and they have to like me? No, in fact I never mention it because I don't believe it. I can't see my own beauty, if it exists. I don't know anyone who says they look in the mirror and basically fall in love with themselves, and if they did think that, I'm pretty sure they dare not actually admit it!

Samantha Brick in the Daily Mail

 Samantha's problem is her huge ego, which she won't admit to, she keeps sticking to the story that women are envious of her beauty, so they begin to hate her. This thing would have ended a lot faster if she just admitted she has a huge ego problem and needs to tone it down. Truly beautiful women most likely have great personalities anyway, as they are not aware of their beauty, so they do not try and use it to get ahead in life. You can't coast around on your looks forever anyway, they fade with age, so it's better to be known for something other than beauty.

 I also cannot quite believe the freebies she as gained as a result of being 'beautiful'. A man buying her train ticket, the captain giving her a free bottle of champagne on a flight. I wish people would not treat her that way, all it does it stoke up her ego even more, convincing her further of how 'pretty' she is.

 If you would like to read the original article, here it is: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124246/Samantha-Brick-downsides-looking-pretty-Why-women-hate-beautiful.html

 I'll be away for a week starting 9th April, but when I'm back, I'll do a blog post about it (Edinburgh is where I am headed!).

Stop Panic Buying Fuel!

 What is it with people panic buying petrol? There is no need to do that, since petrol is still being delivered, and all these idiots are causing is huge queues at petrol forecourts! I bet the government is absolutely loving all this extra tax. David Cameron isn't worried, so why are you?

From The Telegraph website

 I just think sometimes people operate on a herd mentality. They see others do something, and they actually go and copy it, without even thinking logically. When things like this happen, I wonder why my mind is still working, and why everyone else's has just lost it? I share a car with my dad, and we have just been filling up when we need to. I find the afternoons are much quieter for getting petrol, all the fools go in the morning. Anyway the key thing to remember here is, NO strike has been announced. We have been told Easter will be fine, as they will NOT be striking then. Petrol and diesel is still being delivered! Fill as needed people, don't do what you wouldn't normally do, switch your brain on and think first! If a strike is to happen, we will be warned a decent seven days in advance. That gives plenty of time to fill up, without panicking!

Syria

 I went to a dinner for Syria yesterday, well the full title was 'Middlesbrough Action for Syria'. A group of Syrian professionals had set up a charity, and this was the perfect way to fundraise, via the entrance fee and also an auction. There are not many Syrians in Middlesbrough, but it was great to see them organise such a great day. Although it was great, I do a have a few issues with how things were presented to us. We were told all money raised only goes towards food, water and medication. It was mentioned that they do not support the Free Syrian Army, and will NOT send money to them. One speaker also said no politics would be discussed, almost as if they were trying to sweep certain subjects under the rug. Why though? If you are against Assad's regime, then that means you are on the same side as the Free Syrian Army. In Libya when all the fighting was going on, anyone against Gaddafi was always on the side of the revolutionary fighters! I don't think you can be neutral in issues such as these. The mere action of sending food and medication parcels means you know the regime  (POLITICS!)  is withholding such items from members of the public, so you have taken it upon yourself to make sure these people are fed, clothed and have medication should they need it, which of course many do.

 The core of the conflict in Syria comes down to politics, so if we ignore politics, we are ignoring the problem as a whole. Bashar al-Assad and his regime are at fault here. Wouldn't it be better not to have to send parcels of essentials to the people of Syria? Why not give money to the Free Syrian Army? I don't see anyone else stepping up to fight, so they need funding in order to get better weapons, or they need someone to arm them. If Libya did not get any help in that way, we would have failed at the very beginning of the revolution, we would be just as Syria are now, more and more killings everyday. I didn't see anyone saying 'no politics, no funding the revolutionaries' in the Libya conflict, that's because we all knew if we didn't help our fighters, how would we succeed? If we didn't discuss politics, how would we succeed? You see when the Gaddafi regime was toppled, things started to get better almost immediately! NATO also had a big part to play, but I don't see them intervening in Syria anytime soon, so the only hope right now is the Free Syrian Army.

Ramblings

 I've been wracking my brains on what I should talk about on here, so today it will be a mixed bag! Let's start with TV. There's quite a few shows I like, and one pretty good one that's just started a few weeks ago in the UK is 'Body of Proof', starring Dana Delany, who of course played Katherine Mayfair in Desperate Housewives. It's another forensic crime drama series, but it has a different feel to it than say, CSI, which I don't really watch anymore. Megan Hunt is a former neurosurgeon who was in a car accident and somehow killed one of her parents on the operating table. She then turned to a career in forensics. She sometimes has trouble with one of her hands, which shakes sometimes, as a result of the accident. She is also trying to forge a relationship with her daughter, which it seems she lost custody of her after Megan got divorced. Anyway, many interesting story lines, and many more to come. It's on Channel 5, Tuesdays at 9pm.

  There is also the eighth and final series of Desperate Housewives, which continues after the shock ending of series seven, when Carlos hit Gabby's stepfather on the head to stop him attacking her, but the stepfather (accidently) died, so the housewives have had to rally together to hide his body and conceal the crime. A few episodes in, it's already looking good, and it's probably about time DH ended, it's been a long run and I've enjoyed every minute of it! Only thing is, I don't really like the Lynette and Tom divorce storyline, why split them up? They have been through so much, may as well kept them together to be honest!

  Well that's enough TV for the moment. Feeling pretty happy at the moment as I just got over yet another ear infection. I couldn't hear out of the infected ear for a week, as it had swollen shut! I caught the infection much earlier this time, as I immediately recognised the pain, so got myself to an out of hours clinic. I still had severe pain for a few days though. My weird pain dream came back again, last time I was battling through plastic, this time I was trying to push away huge pieces of foam! These are the types of dreams I seem to get when in pain. It's like I'm trying to push something out of the way, but it won't move, much like my pain. I'm trying to ease it, but because lying down makes it worse, even with painkillers, there's nothing much I could do. I was exhausted for about two days with that, I barely slept. So grateful it's over now. But it does make me wonder if I'm going to end up getting an infection every year? I hope not!

 Oh and news on the Libya front, unfortunately we are not going, not anytime soon anyway. Relatives have informed us of the dangers, what with many people now owning guns and using them for any quarrels or fights they get into. Tripoli used to be pretty safe at night. I have even been out walking and returned back close to midnight or later, there are many people out and about and it was strange being able to do that, since the UK is just full of drunks at night time. Inshallah they get rid of the guns, something needs to be done.

  I hope everyone likes the addition of the Feedjit widget, over to the left << It shows people visiting the site and from where. I could always see that through my stats, but I thought it might be interesting for readers to see. I started out with barely anyone reading, now I see people from all over the world reading my rants! It feels pretty good, I never thought I was an interesting person, I started this blog to have somewhere to vent online, and it's been perfect for that, apart from the odd blip here and there. Thank you to my readers!

 My big thing for the moment is nostalgia! I downloaded 'Crash Team Racing' on the PS3 ages ago, but barely played it. Now I'm on it every weekend, racing with one of my younger brothers. I remember playing it on the PS1, and it's still a great game, even if the graphics are not quite what we expect in this age of gaming. I've also been watching some odd clips of 'Digimon World' on YouTube, it was a game I played endlessly on the PS1, and it still looks fun, despite the graphics again not looking so good. I absolutely loved Digimon in those days, amongst other anime.

A screenshot from 'Digimon World' on PS1, ahh memories! Yes they grew meat on a farm!

 Gotta squeeze in a recommendation before I end. Fouseytube! It's a channel on YouTube, created by Yousef Erakat, a Palestinian living in America. His insights on Middle Eastern people are hilarious, he has many videos, so check them out! My favorite is Middle Eastern Parents. http://www.youtube.com/user/fouseyTUBE?blend=1&ob=0

 From the Fouseytube video, Salam is the new Wasup!