so why is it that the blog address is *.blogspot.com, but the admin login page is blogger.com? damn it keeps confusing me

am reading Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel prize winning author of novels of postrevolutionary Egypt, his two novels that I've read so far speak of alienation in the face of social and ideological change, as an aftermath of a turbulent revolutionary upheaval. reminds me a lot of soviet literature, not the boorish, Leninist and Stalinist propaganda, but rather the subtle satiritical references to social and governmental ills. as well as kafka and his "Entfremdung" (alienation).

actually i really want to read his "The Children of Gebelaawi", which portrayed the patriarch Gebelaawi and his children, average Egyptians living the lives of Cain and Abel, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. apparently the book was so controversial it was banned in all of the Arab world save Lebanon. fat chance of finding it here


i dunno, lately i've been getting interested in eastern, south asian and and middle eastern culture and philosophical influences. not hardcore, its a little more subtle as yet. and i don't mean the cheesy asian pop culture scene with skinny guys in blonde hair and tight outfits. its that level of mysticism, cultural heritage, combined with the evolution of character and ideals as a result of years of oppression, colonialism and the birth of ideological influences, and not to mention an inherent elegance in simplicity and cleaness in thought and design. suddenly the aristocratic victorian and baroque bombastic influences don't seem so appealing.

after all, in a turbulent world we strive for stability, and often do we find stability in simplicity and straightforwardness.

or am i merely seeking my own definition of the self, my own identity. perhaps that is what the uneasiness and agitation i feel deep, and uneasiness inherent of having no stable ground to grasp and hold the self.

My own Entfremdung?

http://www.johntitor.com/

f. pointed me to this guy, he claims to be from the year 2036, who travelled back in time apparently to pick up an old IBM 5100 machine, to debug the UNIX 2038 bug. apparently sometime in the next couple of years, the civil war will break out in the US, essentially between the oppressive government and the militia. and in 2015, nuclear ww3 will break out when russia nukes the US. china, the EU and russia will be destroyed.

real? first of all, the images of his "time machine" look like some cheesy prop from some cheesy 80s scifi movie. not to mention the quality sucks ass. i'll say one thing though, he's doing the right thing to make people believe him, by going around saying he doesnt give a damn if anyone believes him. and people believe him.

i feel that he's contradicting himself though. on the one hand he goes around saying he wants and hopes to give people awareness to what's going to happen. which can't (or maybe shouldn't?) be prevented, but prepared for. on the other hand, for someone trying to instill an awareness, he couldve done a better job at proving himself. granted its not his ultimate goal. but if he's truly as humanitarian as he claims ..

granted also that many of the time travel concepts he presents are valid and have basis in physics, it seems to me more rather a mash of carefully compiled pastings of research on the matter, which given the time and effort anyone could compile off the web. and when pressed further, the classic answer is "i'm not a physicist" or "maybe i shouldnt tell ya"

so where do we stand. if civil war breaks out within the next year or two in the US, then maybe he's worth more consideration. someone mentioned to me that in that case nuclear war won't break out because either a) he's lying or b) we'll realize he's telling the truth and take measures against it

thats possible. but thats oversimplifying. what if the act of attempting to avoid nuclear war itself creates so much angst and paranoia that it itself leads to war. nervous, trigger happy superpowers with enough arsenal to destroy the world multiple times is a very dangerous thing.

in that case, the very act of coming back into the past and attempting to create an awareness itself could've been the cause of war.

unless of course you buy into his infinite world-line concepts and percentile divergences associated with time travel. which, in my mind, is a convinient "escape-route", should his "prophecies" from the future turn out to be false. easy to say, well, the divergence between this world view and my own mustve been large enough to alter that portion of the future.

not to mention i didnt quite like his depiction of the future. sounds very rural-ish, kampug-ish. and his overt support of the 2nd amendment of the bill of rights:

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. "

basically the right to carry guns. you know, guns. those things responsible for the high death rate in the US. those things kids find under their parents beds or in their parents closets and blow the brains out of their friends and siblings. those things kids bring to schools and start a massacre with.

so lest see. pro-gun. enjoys rural-like lifestyle. must be a redneck.

and why the hell is his machine mounted in a vehicle, when it should be stationary while operated? back to the future?

hope this is constructive criticism. if not .. well if i wanted to be constructive i'd write an academic paper :p

i miss travelling

last great vacation .. while i was studying in the states, spend 2 weeks in Italy (rome, venice, florence), and then another 2 weeks wandering around europe (paris, berlin, munich, hamburg, vienna, budapest, zurich ... errr .. did i miss anything ... )

i argue those to be the best years of my life .. went off to see the world, came back with empty pockets, empty bank account, maxed out credit cards, and a priceless sense of fulfilment and thirst for more. if tomorrow i struck the lottery or inherited a gazzillion dollars, i'd drop everything and wander around the globe

and i'd do it the best way. no cheesy tours being herded around in a bus. pick up my copy of let's go or lonely planet and get myself lost in the maze of civilization

i am my own herder.

was at iguazu all night .. love that place. actually, there was this cute waitress there .. and everyone was like .. go .. go make your move .. go chat with her. but by the time i got enoguh booze in me to get my nerve up, the place packed up and she was busy.

damn...

sheesh whats wrong with me tonite.

anyway i had lunch with L the other day. I dunno, she didnt seem flirty or anything, just normal, friendly. and i found out that she lives with her boyfriend. and she went on a hol with him and his family. sounds like a pretty serious thing going on

but then again she did say she gets bored easily.

so thats why i didnt ask her out for the weekend like i was supposed to. M seems to think i still have a chance .. i'm not so hopeful. but she's still cool though, i wouldnt mind having her as a friend. and i bet she has cute girl friends too :) m suggested i wait about week and if she doesnt call/sms me first, sms her out for coffee or something.

good idea?

"It is not the luck of the gods that has given the countries of the world into the palms of Rome. It is not the weakness of foreign tribes that leads them to throw themselves onto our swords in battle. It is our strength, greater and deeper than anything they can bring to the field. That is our first tactic. Before out men even reach ther battle, they will be unbreakable in strength and their morale. More, they will have a discipline that armies of the world can blood themselves against without effect."

"Each man will know that his brothers at his side will have to be killed to leave him. That makes him stronger than the most heroic charge, or the vain screams of savage tribes. We walk to battle. We stand and they die."

Excerpt from Emperor, by Conn Iggulden.