Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

yet another airport, this is the second time in my life i travel on my own (first time was in 1995), oh well this calls for another blog post

i want to write about how women are different, i mean look at these two leggy blondes sitting so comfortably with their arms and legs all over the place taking off their shoes playing with their hair all the time

i can never be that comfortable in a place like an airport never seen a man that comfortable (OK there is this guy who is scratching his ass but that's different)

but i am not that kind of blogger so lets just talk about my aunt and tea

here l am sitting at the airport with nothing to do

i decide to do like Uniball and use the time to blog

i want to write something witty about airports but l just cant

just read the opening of Douglass Adams' the dark tea time of the soul , its the perfect airport piece

instead i bring you tales of torture

last week there was a hearing in the Helwan officers case (where police officers tortured the family of a murder suspect and raped his mother) as the judge was starting he called the defendant to make sure he was present, the defendant (ra2is maba7eth 7elwan) replied from the cage.

Object Oriented Sociology ...

Thinking, must be the greatest gift, God blessed us with ... Thinking is where everything starts, and where things never end ...

So I've been having this problem Some people I just don't understand They confuse me I don't know what I want from them. I don't know what they want from me. I am not sure, why I feel about them the way I do, and I don't like my reactions, to their actions.

This should've been posted a week ago or so, But it took me a week to have my brain up and running again!.

The flight has been announced, To the plane, I was searching for my seat, I was surprised tha someone is sitting there, I asked whether this is 45A, They told me no, It's on the other side "though the airhostess told me it's on the side I'm in" So I decided to go to the otherside and aee, It was 45H.

Being sick sucks
I totally agree with the guy from ##slackware @irc.freenode.net.

I have the flu. I guess its a sign for me not to go to college this week :)

This might be totally useless. So if you find this silly don't react or comment. Just go on, find something else to read.

I just downloaded the new CDs for slackware 10.1 and before that did the upgrade with slapt-get.
the official announcement is here:
http://slackware.com/announce/10.1.php

Last year I attended the first phase of an intensive training course called Research Orientation Course (ROC). It provides training for medical students on scientific methods and research.

I learned a lot from this course.

I think we, medical students, are being taught in a negative way which is based on rote learning only. This results in conformist physicians who lack any understanding of the history and philosophy of medical science. And know nothing about why and how science works. Students are oblivious to the fact that what they have learned is not dogma, and medical sciences will be updated, changed and revised in the future, infinite number of times.

All of this results in graduates who will have to overcome lots of hard coded mental sets to be able to upgrade their knowledge and skills. ROC emphasizes on the importance of logic, inquiry, rationality, reasoning and scientific methods in our field.

The way the course is designed promotes sharing of skills and working in groups. Rather than selfish individualism and competition. It involves interactive and brainstorming sessions.

Course organisers share an important insight, regarding course contents. They inject wide variety of topics like cinema, management, ethics, philosophy, information technology, presentation skills and etiquette to round out the course. The course also tries to introduce us to the scientific community, how they work and interact.

Probably the most obvious habit, I developed in ROC, is that I unconsciously add to any statement I make the word "probably"!

Here is a quote from a document describing the course:

It is interactive hands-on training covering basic science, clinical and community based research for medical undergraduate students to qualify as research assistants of one year duration. It is a project that is designed and organized such that the participants, early in their formation years, comprehend and design workable scientific strategies that enable their integration into disciplines destined to implement change in the health arena. This project aims to provide a more inductive way of thinking and problem analysis, to encourage and motivate the undergraduates to participate in health related and research activities, to provide the participants with skills that facilitate their exposure to the professional medical activities, and to provide the research community with research assistants of high standards. This course will be conducted through interactive sessions, working groups, informal meetings with senior professors, orientation lectures and practical work in supervisors' projects. Participants are recruited according to certain eligibility criteria from medical undergraduate students who are evaluated as the best in their interaction and the best score in written evaluation test. They will be placed into currently running research projects as "Research Trainees" under full supervision and guidance of the principal investigators.

ROC takes place in Palestine Hospital, Heliopolis. The first course started in September 2000. The second started in January 2004. The third phase of the second course will take place this summer. The graduates of the first course were very enthusiastic in organizing a second course.

ROC is organized by:

• Dr. Ahmed M. Abdel-Tawab, A pharmacology professor in Ain Shams university who is trying to fiercely change the mental set of the Egyptian academia. He is the kind of professor who always finds himself surrounded by a swarm of inspired students. And probably the one of the few professor with a more profound impact on science, in comparison to others in our university.
• AHED a multi-disciplinary NGO focusing on addressing the health, disability and environmental questions in Egyptian society from community-development perspectives.
• Dr. Adel M. Mishriky, Suez Canal University.
• Dr. Nadia H. Rizkalla, Suez Canal University.
• The course is currently being funded by Dr. Abd El-Wahab El-Messiry.
• The late Dr. FathyArafat the brother of the palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He was concerned with humanitarian aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He was very generous and supportive towards ROC.
• ROC I graduates

I am writing this after I attended a whole day session on the 1st of February, discussing the contents of the next phase, watching and discussing Tarkovsky's Solaris with Ms. Arab Lotfy and a session about etiquette by Mr. Abdel Fatah Shabana former ambassador of Egypt to Japan and Germany. Preceded by a small opening ceremony (the day before) in memory of Dr. Fathy Arafat and a small speech by Dr. Abd El-Wahab El-Messiry.

Great, I passed under the thing that used to beep while I'm in india but nothing happened here, Those Indian guys are very paranoid.
It's now 7 in the morning, My next flight'll be at 12:40
Those stupid Indian guys didn't know that the electric stairs never work unless you approach them as there is a sensor responsible for this ;-)

I didn't charge my laptop much as I was sitting in Mumbai airport and one of the people there was shocked when he knew that i'm flying to bahrain, I don't know why as there are 40 minutes left, Anyway I had to go to the plane.

I don't know why the people at the domestic airport must see your boarding after the plane land and you enter the airport!
I left the domestic airport and went to the international one. After searching for Gate 1 which was the last gate, I passed by some guy who tried to convenes me to spend the night in the hotel, And that he'll arrange the transportation for me and that it's free, I insisted on NO without giving him a clear answer

So here we are, The first thing noticed the ammount of police men beside the door of the plane, 2 or 3. It's either these guys are really paranoid or they suffer from something!
Anyway, No airhostess with sary till now. That's not a god sign.

I woke up at 9 am, I had to run for breakfast, Guess what ? The breakfast ended at 10 or so!
I spent most of the day talking with other people, I took a damn cold shower but I had to, I was smelly!
Guess what I smoked ? Indonisian cigarettes, With cardamom and clove!

That's the lat day, I woke up and I can't remember when, I had my breakfast I realised that I was wearing my slippers when I was about to wash my plate. I had to take them off, wash my plate, And wear them again.

well this is really just a way to inform everyone that I'm safe, all internet cafes in accra are proxied and firewalled, I can't ssh, vnc or even IRC (sucks)

I woke up earlry today, at 8:15.
The breakfast was fine, Off to the tracks then!
Today we had a more hands on fonts and how to create them, More technical introduction on how to add your language to openoffice.

As usual, Late due to network!

Shit, It's 8:45 in the morning, Have to run for the breakfast!
I'm lucky it was served late half an hour at 8:30 instead of 8:00
Now the morning track, And the question "What's your birth date ?"