Five Rings

the Good Old Days

2009-03-30T19:19:00.002+03:00

I think I have this post in the back of my mind since a while an I needed a push to post it so I think I must thank Attawie for providing this push "Domo arigato Attawie chan" (yeah I'm in the mood for some Japanese... :)

it has been a while since I've noticed something which is that between every now and then all of us tend to look back and remember the good old days but frankly what good old days and were they really good?
the answer is that they probably not...! so why do we remember them and refer to them as the good old days although when they were our present days we used to think they suck big time and we just want the day to pass (and keep in mind I'm not talking about the good memories we had but rather the ordinary days) let's take an example here for the sake of clarity : as I started my job the job was mainly about studying and exams since I was a fresh engineer so we stayed till 3 am studying only to wake up at seven and go to work so it was really hard because your evaluation depends on your progress and I couldn't afford to mess up, anyway the point is as I now look back to these days I think "OH the good old days" although I was suffering in that period and just wanted everyday to just pass safely. That makes me wonder now if these days were good then what a shit whole is my life heading toward (forgive my french) and if every time I look back and think these were good days then that would only mean I'm heading downhill from bad to worst???!!!

and then another question pops up "was I happy then? and am I happy now" if I wasn't happy on that time then how would I remember these days as the good old days? and if I'm not happy now then how will I remember the present days in the future as the good old days? is my happiness now less than before? all these questions are so confusing yet they need to be answered.

after a while of having these confusing thoughts I've discovered something what I actually remember of these days was not the suffering or the tiredness but rather the sparkling moments I had with friends and co-workers and how I was vital, eager to learn and even afraid of the outcome since for me that was a good experience and even if it was not so good it is an experience. I'm happy to be able to endure it and I'm happy of the result. and as long as I haven't done anything to be ashamed of or hurt someone in the process. Since my is my life I live it how I want and there will definitely be some setbacks, sad moments and even a good deal of suffering yet I shall still live it, I shall learn from my mistakes, cherish the valuable moments and always keep in my mind the good old days and look forward to make my present days a good old days for my future and I hope that I'll always look back and let out a tender sigh and say "those were the good old days"....

may all your days be such a good old days if not don't keep sitting on your ass u have to make them... :)

P.S. I know the structure is week because I'm a bit busy and wrote this post in three days each day I wrote a part so u may see some inconsistency. thank u for your tolerance... :D

From life sign to life sign

2008-08-12T22:18:00.004+03:00

I'm terribly sorry for not posting anything for this long but at least I have a good news on this post I've Finlay found a job and it is in Baghdad I work in a telecommunication equipments vendor company and at least it is a Job that I'll be able to learn new stuff from in order to improve myself. so till other opportunities appear I'm an NSS (Network Switching subsystem) engineer in Huawei. working with this company may not be described as comfortable since every now and then I'm implementing a project somewhere around Iraq but what can I say "No Pain No Gain" and you can not realized your dreams without putting the right amount of effort.

About leaving the country I won't leave Iraq without a destination knowing what I'm doing and why I'm doing it so until a WHERE, a WHAT and a WHY come up I think I'm staying here.

So till next Life sign (I'm just kidding I'll try to be around more) I would say take care and may God bless us all...

Update: I've stepped on this video on Youtube yesterday and it is hilarious so check it if u may...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDDHR81PP6U

Some How "I'm still alive"

2007-12-19T16:35:00.000+03:00

Greetings everybody sorry for not writing anything in such a long time but I have two reasons for that the first one (which is kinda lame) is that my internet line died for good and I was obliged to establish a new wireless connection and the second (which actually back up the first a bit) is that I was extremely busy finishing my graduation papers cause at first I thought that I would escape this hell whole (Iraq) but after all my plans failed to leave the country with some dignity so I'm busy now to find a job that is safe and may provide me with some experience and the search goes on and on.
Anyway I apologize for all the people that asked about me and I didn't reply them and thank u for ur concern.

In the end I just want to say Happy Eid everyone and may all ur wishes come true and since I'm at it ,Merry Christmas everyone and if it is not too much trouble I would really appreciate it if u may mention me in ur prayers and may God bless u all...

A comment on Kid's post

2007-09-03T16:54:00.000+04:00

This a commnet I wrote on the Kids Post and since I'm extra Lazy to write anything new on my post so I'll use this comment as my new post...:D

Hey Kid how r u? I have few points about your post and they r:

First my dear please don’t take as a refrence a couple of books and the saying of an ordinary person and then consider that u’ve done a solid research. Indeed Ali Alwardi is a great writer but yet his writings expresses his opinions rather than information that might be used as a refrence for a research since for a research u need solid data from which u can draw your own colclusions. Relying on on pieces of information from and ordinary Iraqi (not a specialized one) since that person may not be considered a reliable source of information.

Second, You talked about how Shia claims that they rely on logic but they actually not since they actually try to misguide others by the tales about how Imam Al-Hussien was murdered and to magnify that tragedy in order to make others sympathize with them and to think that since Imam Al-Hussien was murdered then he was right. Well let me propose this rather CRAZY idea: is it not possible that Imam Al-Hussien is not right because he was murdered but rather he was murdered because he was right? Well u may say that many villains were killed but that doesn’t mean that they were right BUT how many villains were decapitated and then there heads were draged to other countries (at least not according to Islam) and if u may say that this is a myth then u may just go to Egypt to make sure. Life is not as easy as u many people thinks some times u have to pay a high price for standing for what u believe in so u may find it hard to absorb that Imam Al-Husseien had suffered that much for it is unbareable to even to think of it but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. The fact that most Shia emphasize that tragedy is actually smart they r not trying to brain wash others but rather to remind them of the sacrafices and the pain of our leaders for fighting for what they believed, and as u may already know sorrow is hard to forget. It is just like if a guy died to save your life then u definitely won’t forget his sacrifice no matter after how long cause he sacrificed his life for u and that is why I think emphasizing the tragedies of Jesus Christ and Imam Al-Hussien is not an attempt to pressure but rather to remind us of what is important.

Third, it seems from your post that Shiasim is all about is “HATE”, to Abu Baker and Omar and Mauawya and Yazid and many more and u were missing the main idea. Why do u think Shia was named like that? It comes from the (شيعة اهل البيت) which means the followers of Prophet and his lawful descendant and when I say followers I mean that Shia follow commandment of the Prophet and his lawful descendants (the twelve Imam) and believe it or not most of Shia do know that the Imams r men and the fact that they r infallible is not pretty farfetched if u look at it with an open mind since if a person is born and raised on righteousness and with some help and guidance from God being infallible is not as impossible as people nowadays may picture it. As u may look at how they lived and what r their commandments u may never find something that against what is written in the holy Quran and the commandments of the Prophet so Shiasim is not about hating everyone save the Imams but rather it is about following their commandments and trying to live like them so the “foundation” for the Shia doctrine is how to obey the will of God and to follow the commandments of the Prophet and the Imams after him and the tragedies of Al-Zahraa and Imam Al-Hussein works just as a reminders that our survival till now is the result of great sacrifices made by great people and it is true that these tragedies r very important since these tragedies hold the persons feet firmly on the path he’s walking and giving him an extra push for him to move along.

Fourth, I quite agree with u that many people have forgotten why Imam Al-Hussein was killed and only focused on the fact that he was killed and that is all and that is a terrible thing to do since it is very essential to keep the memory of Imam Al-Hussein alive but the same importance goes to remembering why he was killed and what was he fighting for so it is more important to keep in our minds how Imam Al-Hussein lived than how he died so “Hussein's commemoration” is important in reminding us of that.

Thank u Kid for your post and I apologize for the long comment and I hope that u don’t mind that I’ve put it in my blog as a post since I’m to lazy to write anything new. Take care and may God bless u…

Some steam

2007-08-25T11:52:00.000+04:00

I’ve written I post few days ago and I was about to put it on my blog but I decided not to since it contained “SCENES OF EXTREME VIOLENCE AND GORE” and I’ve decided to replace it with this peace…

Iraqi I am and this is my life
You live by the rules you die by a knife
Once I walked with head held high
Now in the shadows I crawl and lie
Cheap as a dogs my life does worth
Wherever I go east, west, south or north
But you know what? I no more care
When facing death in his eyes I stare
Watching people die, more numb I grow
Not knowing when I’m next in the death row
Every day death I do cheat
Some times I think death is a bitter sweet
I live in Iraq yet I don’t feel like home
Between a shootout and an exploding bomb
Once they said “keep head high for an Iraqi you are”
But now I hold it down to hide my scar…
Now I hold it down to hide my scar.

P.S. I’m not a poet so don’t bother looking for poetic faults.

Still ALIVE

2007-08-13T22:01:00.000+04:00

Surprisingly I’m still alive and kicking and I’m very sorry for not writing anything for so long which may have developed certain worries among some of u and for that I sincerely apologize. The reason for not posting for all this long is that I’ve been terribly busy getting my M.Sc and with all the joy I may announce that the worst part is now over and although I didn’t get my certificate yet but I might be considered as a holder of a degree of Master of Science in Computer Engineering. So let me hear a three hooray for me and wish me luck with my papers…;D
Now to the bad news (may be not for everyone) I won’t be able to post for a while due to the fact that the heat is getting to me and I can’t gather enough thought for writing a post in other words “ME NO WRITE IN HOT WEATHER, ME NEED COOL DOWN” so either some miracle would happen and we r provided with electric power again or I’ll wait till it’ll cool down a bit.

Sorry again if I’ve made anyone worry and may God bless u all…

Hesitation

2007-06-15T16:37:00.000+04:00

Few weeks ago I was numbing in front of the TV and what u know I’ve heard something interesting (for me at least) it is about on of the ministers of Belgium and that minister was in Spain to give a lecture in on of the universities (as I remember) and on his way there he saw a child drowning in the river so he jumped in the water and saved the child. U may say and what is so special about that? Well first of all he is a minister of a country who saved a child in another country but the most interesting thing is that being a minister u must be surrounded by body guards so the fact that he acted on his own not asking any of his body guards to save the child well that is something big (at least in my opinion) what I really admired about him is not his bravery (and he is brave) or his kindness (and he is kind) but rather what he believes in, u may wonder “and how is the world do u know what he believes in?” and that is a fair question since I don’t know his name or even what minister he is (and I apologize for that) well it is quite obvious that he valued the human life very much to act with no hesitation not so ever to save the child since many people may say “I would have saved the child if I was there” and there is no doubt about it but to act at that specific time with determination and no hesitation at all is what really matters.

Well u might be wondering now what made me talk about such old news? Well as I’ve heard this news I realized how connected this incident with my previous post and I decided to write a post about that but due to the fact that my Internet connection went dead on me AGAIN so I’ve forgot that until this morning where I was in my bed looking at the window so I noticed a little spider just standing there so I didn’t give much attention to it but I was waiting for a fly that was bugging me to stand still some where in order to kill it and after a while the fly paused few centimeters away from the spider and as soon the fly landed the spider jumped on it I was like WOW so I came near to them in order to observe from closer view and the fly started to struggle but the spider hold its ground and started to rap his web around the fly and in few seconds he was dragging it to his place so I stood there amazed by the way the spider caught the fly since as far as I know spiders build webs and the insects falls in them and that is how they feed but to see a spider hunt and insect on the fly well that is new for me. I started to think about the spider and the fly for a while (yes indeed I have nothing else to do) and how the spider saw the fly and decided to attack in a split of a second so after I got over my crush on the mighty spider I remembered the news about the minister and the child that I’ve heard few weeks ago.

Now back to the subject at hand I won’t be explaining how can the spider act like that cause we r not in Animal planet episode about insects but I’d rather discuss the actions of the minister of Belgium since I think it is more relevant to the subject. Now what made his eminence the minister act like that and how can he act with no hesitation not so ever while it is a matter of high importance since his life would be on stake. What allowed him to act like that while he can simply order one of his bodyguards to do that task for him while he remains safe and sound why didn’t he thought of that or may be to send for help which will also ensure his safety? Well the answer for that is that he simply couldn’t afford to think about it while the life of the child is on the stake he did what he did without thinking for him it must be just a common sense, u see a child drowning then u have to save him it doesn’t matter weather u r a minister or a common citizen. He didn’t ask anyone to go for help because there was no time for thinking it was time for actions so apparently for him the life of the child is way more important than his and that he had agreed to that fact long time ago that when the time for testing his beliefs has come he did what he had to without any hesitation. I believe that a lot of people have experienced that not knowing how and why they’ve acted in certain situation and a very popular example of such people is parents so if u have experienced parenting then u already know what I’m talking about since for a parent (at least normal parents) the safety of their child is their top priority and that was planted in them the minute they saw their new born child’s face so if something happens that may endanger their child u’ll find them acting without hesitation moving in lighting speed to save their child.

It is apparent that believing in something and being committed to it to the outmost level makes people act dauntlessly and resolutely so how can we reach such a level of commitment to what we believe in that there will be no doubt in our minds not so ever? How can we assure that we won’t chicken up or hesitate in our actions?

I remember an old Japanese saying that goes like “when u walk just walk, when u sit just sit but what ever u do don’t wobble”. I’ve talked in my previous post about how we should determine the code that we live by in order to specify what is important to us and simply writing it down and trying to remember it all the time in order not to deviate from the path we decided to take but unfortunately just having your own bushido and writing it down is not enough since we have to absorb it in our mind and soul in order to carry own our bushido in our daily life no matter what, in our happiest hours and darkest ones with no compromises or delusions since it is dangerous to accept compromises in our principles and even more dangerous when we r deluded in our way of life. So we have to determine our bushido being truly honest to ourselves as an example if I say that making money is the most important thing to me of all, then I have to think it over for a bit making sure that it is what I said it is putting all other things in one side of the scale and putting making money in the other and see am I willing to sacrifice all the other things for the sake of making big money and if I found myself willing to do so then I should work with no hesitation to achieve my goal. So the most important thing is to be convinced of your bushido it is not something that u could borrow from someone it is your own unique bushido so if u r not convince 1000% of your decision then how can u expect to act accordingly with no hesitation.
In other words u have to be honest to yourself when u r about to determine your bushido since if u don’t do that there is no point in limiting yourself to a code to live by in the first place.

Tatakai

2007-05-18T23:46:00.000+04:00

In the beginning I would like to apologize for the delay and also I would like to apologize for the long post and I hope that it will be worth your time.

As we’ve seen from the results of the survey that the choices differ for each point some of the choices were selected due to past experience for the participant some were selected according to instinct and some were selected according to logic analysis of the situation anyway all the participants made their choices to ensure that the results of this meeting will be for their benefit and that is natural, since I’ve mentioned that it is a very important meeting that would affect your entire life so it is natural for a person to do his best not to mess up, BUT (and that is a big but) as might be seen by the results of the survey that everyone have done their best but not their all and that is also natural it is not because that they r careless at the contrary I believe that whoever to be put in such situation will try his all to ensure his success BUT (and that is another big one) is he really trying his all? Is he really doing everything that can be done?

A great samurai once said “When fighting an enemy and your sword is broken hit him with your hands, if your hands r cut press him with your shoulders and if your shoulders r cut bite him with your teeth” many people may find that a bit extreme well I think the contrary since if I may add “if your teeth r damaged kick him with your legs and if your legs r cut then keep your eyes fixed on him as u honorably pass away regretting nothing”.

Now what could make a person go that far? And how can anyone go that far? Well it is simply that when u r fighting for your life or what is really important to u (more important than your own life) u should not hold back and about how can he do it well that was the samurai of these days was trained, lived and died for.

Now everyone must be wondering, “What the hell does that have to do with the survey” well the situation that I’ve requested the participants to imagine themselves in is the situation of a very important business meeting that their future depends on, in other words it is a situation similar to that of the samurai in a battle since in both situations the person is fighting for what is important to him and in both situations the person should not give up till he reach his goal.

Now let’s get back to the survey, for the first point that concern the preparations for the meeting the majority had chosen to focus on the subject of the meeting focusing on ones self and that may work out most of the times but not all of the times since we can’t forget the influence of the other people in the meeting since by knowing their strong points and week points u would be able to control the flow of the meeting to your interest.
The second point is when having extra time before the meeting. The majority selected to do a second check for the points u r going to propose while others thought that it will be a waste of energy to do the same thing twice and that u should rest to be fresh when going to the meeting (well in my opinion that it depends on the level of confidence in your primary preparations).
For the third point which is the dressing up for the meeting I may say unfortunately we live now in a world that the appearance is more important than the person himself so u should be well dressed for the occasion but that will fall also in the field of knowing the likings and dislikings of the people u r meeting with.
For the forth point which is about how u r feeling before the meeting. Well if u worry u won’t get anything of that, if u convince yourself that u won’t succeed in order not to get disappointed if u get rejected then u’ll probably won’t succeed and that is due to the fact that when u set your mind to losing your motivation will be decreased to minimum since u’ve put in mind that it is OK to lose and u’ll actually lose but when u convince yourself that it is a peace of cake and that u’ll surely succeed then u’ll think high and work reach your goal no matter what since u won’t settle for otherwise and for that u would succeed.

The fifth point, which is about your state inside the meeting room. A lot of people may think that whether u sit at the same level with the others or a bit lower will not be an issue but I assure u the contrary and if u want to make sure of that then the next time that u have a conversation with someone sit in a chair that is lower than the chair of the person u r talking to and u’ll notice in a while that your spirit of arguing is starting to get weaker and that u start to lose motivation while when u r on the same level or higher (I mean the level of height u r sitting in) u’ll get a boost of confidence that will dramatically helps u in your argument.

The sixth point, which is about the level of your defense when the people u r meeting with starts to attack a weak point in your proposal. Many people may think that it is OK to acknowledge your opponents abilities and allow him to take that point against u but unfortunately that won’t do in our life, why? Simply because if u give your opponent an inch then he will take a mile, he may acknowledge your honesty but how is that useful to u if your proposal is going to turned down.

The seventh point, which is in the case of failure. Let me quote from the new Rocky Balboa movie (yeah even I didn’t see that coming) “it is not important to be able to take hard punches but most importantly how u’ll deal with them”. I’m glad that no participant in the survey had chosen to give up after being turned down and that indicates that the world is not as decayed as I thought it is…;D

Now how can a person make the right decision let’s say not all the time but most of the time especially when u can’t afford to mess things up? Well I’ve mentioned many similarities between the situation at hand and that of the samurai in battle and that wasn’t for nothing since life itself is nothing but a constant battle whether battles with outer opponents (people in a meeting) or with inner opponents (fears and desires).
(When I say life is but a constant battle I don’t mean that u should live your life with force and violence at the contrary a great samurai once said, “The real victory is the one u win with your sword unsheathed”)

Some people doesn’t realize this fact or may be chose not to, they just choose to drift through life without having to stand for anything they choose to live a simple easy life and try to run away from any hardship that would meet them in life thinking that they r living a happy life with nothing to disturb them. Well it is enough just to call them drifters.

Now how to prevent yourself from becoming a drifter? The world is a scary place full of pain and hardship and it is possible that at one point of your life u become tired of all that and think how nice it will be just to run away and just to drift through life. Well to prevent that all u have to do is to write down your goal, what u believe in and your principles. It will be your code of honor (just like the Bushido to the samurai) and try to remind yourself from time to time of that Bushido of yours. Whenever u r about to make a big decision in your life u just have to remind yourself of your Bushido and u’ll find out how easy it is to make that decision, whenever u meet a fearsome foe u just have to remember your Bushido and u’ll meet him heads on. In summary once u set your mind to it and know what u r fighting for u’ll be able to move with determination and confidence to accomplish your goals not letting anything getting in your way.
Well this is one of the techniques that would help in our constant battling (LIFE) and I think that I’ll discuss the other techniques in other posts and in the end I would like to thank all the people who had participated in the survey and thank u for reading this post I hope that it wasn’t as boring as it seems to be…

Survey results

2007-05-07T23:34:00.000+04:00

Now let’s discover some of the results of the survey…
First let’s examine the survey and the answers that were provided by a group of people (whose participation was really appreciated) of different backgrounds and as a reminder the situation that the survey mentioned is when a person is having a very important business meeting that your future depends on it and here r the questions.

The first point is to cover the preparation that u would make before the meeting. The collected data shows that choice A is the most preferable choice. The reason for that in my opinion is most people would choose to focus on the subject in hand to be sure that they’ve got all the points of the subject covered and that would increase their sense of security (one Bird in hand is better than ten on the tree) and frankly this choice works most of the times.
Choice B on the other hand was only chosen by the minority I think the reason for that is it require more work than choice A and it gives less feeling of security.
I guess choice C is the worst choice to be taken here (I won’t go as far as saying it is a choice for losers) because the situation is said to be very serious and for a person to go with only minor preparations I don’t that is clever at all.

The second point is to check the person’s behavior when the preparation is over and u still have some spare time.
The majority has selected choice B to do a second check for the preparation to ensure not missing anything and that might be the smarter choice. Choice A on the other hand is to relax and preserve your energy and may be have some sleep and that might be useful most of the time if u r confident in the preparation u’ve made. Choice C which is to worry about what can go wrong is absolutely useless but the sad thing is that there r many people (not among our participants) that got actually caught with their fears.

The third point is how to dress for the occasion.
70% of the participants have selected to wear something neither too fancy nor informal for the occasion while 30% have chosen to wear something really fancy.

The Fourth point is how to act exactly before the meetings.
60% of the participants have chosen to think positively that the meeting will go smoothly and it is just a peace of cake, while 30% have chosen not put their hopes high in order to make it easier in case they fail and 10% chose not to think about the whole thing.

The Fifth point is about the state inside the meetings room.
60% of the participants have chosen to overlook the fault in the chair that they’re using while 40% decided that it is important to be on the same level of height as the other people in the meeting so they’ll substitute the chair with another one.

The sixth point is about the behavior when confronted with a weak point in your proposal.
80% of the participants have chosen to be honest and admit that there is a flaw in the proposal but yet its strong points r much more than its weak points while 20% have chosen to act confident and escape the immediate confrontation and then to make a strong comeback.

The seventh point is about the case of failure.
90% of the participants have chosen to research the reasons of your failure and to try to be better next time while 10% have chosen that there is nothing wrong with the proposal and there must be something wrong with the people who rejected it.

These where the opinions of different people from different backgrounds and I repeat the survey is not about judging those people and their choices. The survey is about helping me in my next post where u’ll discover what the fuss is all about. I’m sorry for making anyone wait this long and I hope that it will worth your while…

Introduction

2007-05-01T23:26:00.000+04:00

First I want to thank again the people that have participated in the survey and special thanks to Ridha Hameed a hard working gas containers delivery guy (I don’t mean that the other participants r not important but I promised him that his name will be on the Internet).

And now for what the survey is about, it is really something simple and it might be very simple that u may had never spent five minutes thinking of it and for some people it is something that they had settled upon ages ago and they r so convinced that it is the right thing and that no one can convince them otherwise so I say to those people “PLEASE just give me a chance and I assure u that the benefit will be all yours, u just have to be a little patient”.

If u had read my previous post u may find that I’ve mentioned that the situation that u have to imagine yourself in is the situation of having a business interview that is very important as it will make u or break u and I’m sure that u’ve been there or will be there someday. My point is that life is not fair and u may find yourself in a very serious situation, whether u like it or not, but the decision u would make then might be crucial for your future, your life or for what is really important to u and believe me u don’t want to mess that decision up. So the big question is how u make sure that u don’t?

An obvious answer for the previous question is “KNOWLEDGE” and that is quite true since knowledge is power and u do need to be powerful in life so through knowledge u may acquire the wisdom that may help u in your darkest situations but here another question rises “How do I acquire that knowledge?” and here another terms pops up and it is “LEARNING” since acquiring knowledge requires a great deal of learning, to learn about science, history, logic, art…etc. Another way of acquiring knowledge is from experiencing and learning from life itself and that is a process of a life time so u may live and learn from your mistakes and I assure u that eventually u will acquire a great amount of knowledge but I’m afraid it will be too late to benefit from that then.

Knowledge is very important yet acquiring it will require a great amount of time and a greater deal of effort and frankly many people don’t have enough of them both and another thing is that u may not have the time to acquire that knowledge and that the moment of truth would come when u r still making your first step along the long path of knowledge and it is a very branched path and that will add another burden of picking the right path and relating that to your way of living. So how in the world will we be able to secure ourselves against life? How can we be sure that we r not missing anything and that when the moment of truth has come u wouldn’t give it just your best but rather to give it your all in order to regret nothing and even if u fail to stand up for what is important to u (as I said life is unfair) u would be able to be in peace with yourself.

I guess this is too long to be an introduction so I’ve decided to make it a post of its own and I promise that part two will be coming soon…

Hontoni Komene (I sincerely apologize )

2007-04-30T23:10:00.000+04:00

I apologize for not being able to post anything earlier because of the lack of Internet connection till now and I promise that after processing the data that u've provided from the previous post I'll write the post for u to understand what the previous post was all about.
Thanks for all the people that participated in the survey and may God bless us all...

Survey

2007-03-23T11:48:00.000+03:00

The following post is a survey that the next post will depend on. It contains simple questionnaire about an ordinary situation that has occurred to almost everyone of so I hope that u’ll be kind enough to spare some of your time and answer the questions given by pointing to the choice that u most likely to do in your ordinary life and I’m already thankful for your kindness…

You have a very important meeting with some officials (let’s say that your career depends on the outcome of this meeting) and it is a meeting that u definitely don’t want to mess up.

1.The meetings has been assigned three days from now so u will:

A- Focus only on the subject u r going to propose and make sure u r going to cove all points.
B- Try to collect information about the people u r going to meet up with their likings and dislikings week points and strong points.
C- After minor preparations for what u r going to say u decide that u’ll depend on your wit in this and see how things goes.

2.After doing all the required preparations for the meetings u found out that u have an extra five hours before the meetings so u will:

A-Sit back and relax may be get some sleep.
B-Perform a second check on what u r going to say and search thoroughly for pints that u may have missed.
C-Start thinking how things could get wrong and worry about that.

3.You r going to get dressed up for the meeting so u will:

A-Dress up casual in cloths that is comfortable for u.
B-Put on your fancy 10000$ suit.
C-Put on something neither too fancy nor informal.

4.Before the meeting u will:

A-Worry your ass off thinking of everything to go wrong.

B-Convince yourself that your request would be rejected in order not to be upset if it did.

C-Convince yourself that it is a peace of cake and that u know for sure that your request will be accepted.

5.You r now in the meeting room and the people u r going to meet haven’t shown up yet and u noticed that the chair u r going to sit on has a defect that made it lower than other chairs so u will:

A-Quickly change the chair before they enter the room.
B-U will pay no attention for such a trivial matter and focus on more important things.
C-U won’t risk being seen changing the chair so u’ll wait till they enter the room and when u sit u will point at the defect in your chair and u’ll change it then.

6.After an hour of tiring arguments they mention a week point in your proposal that u haven’t thought off so u will:

A-Acknowledge how sharp they r and tell them that it may have some week points but they overall benefits is satisfactory.
B-You’ll get confused and say that u haven’t thought of that.
C-You’ll act cool and point at another strong point in your proposal that is relevant to what they said then u tell them to think about it while u go to the bathroom where u r going to find a suitable answer for their question.

7.You think that your performance in the meeting is splendid yet they turn u down so u will:

A-Get upset and decide that u’ll quit this job since u suck at it.
B-You’ll study why u were turned down and make use of your errors and start again somewhere else.
C-You’ll say that there is nothing wrong with u and that there must be something wrong with the people in the meeting.

That is all folks and I hope that I didn’t bother u and please try to answer with what u think u’ll do not what is better to do since I’m not here to judge anyone and thank u again for your time and effort and may God bless us all…

P.S. for my blogger friends I'll be very grateful if u may spread the word cause I need at least 10 different surveys and thank u for your effort.

And then there were mating

2007-03-13T16:52:00.000+03:00

Although it is out of ordinary for me to talk in such a subject but I found it to be very interesting both funny and sad at the same time so I have to talk about it and for people who may find it offensive I apologize…

The story goes like this:
I have a friend who is a newly wed (let’s call him M) and since we both live in Iraq so I haven’t seen him since about 2 months although we live in the same district (well that is normal in Iraq) so the other day I was on the phone with a mutual friend of us who lives next door to M so I asked about M and the guy told me that lately he has been very gloomy and get pissed of easily and although M used to be a joke master the guy told me that M has fought with another guy because of a joke so I was extremely surprised and he told me that M is always sitting at the shop near his house and that he has become an unpleasant person to be with.
After I hung out the phone I started to think about M and I though how marriage has changed him this much since he was a cheerful guy joking about everything even in his darkest moments so I decided to go to see him against all the advises of my family to stay home (as if I’m going to a battle field) so I went to his house and here is what happened.
I knocked the door and after a minute M showed up with his big smile and he ran toward the door and he gave me a worm welcome with his usual cheerful style so I was a bit surprised but I though he was polite to greet me after a long period so he invited me in and we sat down. He started joking about the situation in Iraq and we did some chitchat for a while and I though why did they say that he is gloomy he is pretty cheerful to me. So after finishing all the stuff we could talk about I couldn't’t stand not to ask him so I said “the other day I talked to one of our friends and he told me that u were in a terrible shape and actually he got me worried but I see that he was wrong”. M paused for a while and then thanked me for my concern and he said “I was like shit indeed but now no more” so I told him that I’m glad to hear that and I asked him for the reason and he simply answered “Because it is summer now”. Actually that was an unexpected answer cause almost all Iraqis hate our summer cause it is very hot that u won’t know what hits u (I don’t believe anyone would understand till he sees for himself) so I was like “and so? R u going somewhere this summer” and he answered “ no I’m just glad that summer has come” when M saw that I didn’t get the idea of him loving the summer all of the sudden so he kindly explained that for my simple mind.
“u know that I’ve been married for about four months now and that I got married in winter?” I told him that I knew that but yet I don’t get the idea so he explained more. “in winter there is no electricity and no gas so u can’t boil any water and for a married man not having hot water is the worst thing ever, don’t u think so?”
Only then it hit me and it did so hard that I kept laughing with him for about 10 minutes and here is a simpler version for those who didn’t get it yet:
For Muslims, a Muslim has to have a shower after each time he have sex with his wife and he can’t go to his prayers unless he do so and since we have fiver prayers then he have to shower before the time of the prayer is on.
So M has explained that since he got married he had that problem and every time he sees his wife he get upset knowing that she is out of his reach although they r married and he get angry and blame anyone and anything so now while it is summer he won’t think about boiling water anymore at least till next winter…
So after we made few jokes about that and how the absence of electricity and fuel is part of a country wide scheme for birth control in Iraq and as Red Forman in “That 70’s” show says “best birth control method is not to do it”….;D so I left my friend enjoying his summer and I wished him that there won’t be any new schemes ( no water is another obstacle) and I wished him and all the Iraqis a healthy life…

P.S. this is an actual story and the permission to publish this information has been acquired from the persons related to this event.

A comment on Kid's post

2007-03-06T17:06:00.000+03:00

After reading a post on the Kid's blog I was obliged to say few words and one thing led to another and it has became a long comment that I've decided to publish it on my blog since I'm too lazy to write any new post and I really thank the Kid for his post cause I was unable to write anything about this subject cause I was too afraid that I would not be giving Imam Al-Hussein what he deserve but the Kid's post moved somthing inside me so thank u Kid again and here is my comment:
Nice post indeed but please don’t discuss things when u don’t have enough background on them u r very good in political analysis but when it comes to Shiite doctrine I’m sorry but u r very week if u have just heard the story of Imam Al-Hussein don’t try to analyze such an event politically and I’m saying that not carried away by the built up legend I admit that there r a lot of stuff added but u can’t say it is nothing but a myth it is a truth as much painful and great. U can’t say that Imam Hussein revolution is a revolution for Shiite only it had a great effect on all Islam, u may say “Wow, this is too much” but I tell u it isn’t at all the revolution of Imam Hussein was not a political revolution to get to the chair, why? I should answer with these undeniable facts:
First Moawya started the corruption of caliphate u may say that I’m being too prejudice but the unfortunate truth is that I’m not since have u heard in the time of Abu Baker, Omar, Othman or Imam Ali, of a caliph having a big castle or hundreds of slaves and having bacchanal everyday with dancing and wine? (if this is how the prince of the believers is then how would an ordinary believer be?) In the time of the first caliphs the caliph was in the service of Islam and the people, and after that the caliph was served by the people and he is higher than Islam and for that Imam Hussein has started his revolution nothing less and if it wasn’t for him who knows how Islam would have been.
Second if u may do a little search u may find that Moawya used to write poetry and if u search all his poems u’ll never find one verse praising Islam or the prophet and some of his poems r very shameless so does such kind of a person is fit to be caliph?
And the last is a document written by Moawya himself (and u can find that if u search historical documents) in which he is assigning Omar bin Al-3as as a ruler of Egypt in which he say “مصر طعمة مني ما حييت” and that means that Egypt is a gift from him as long as he is alive and is that a way of a righteous caliph to act? Acting as if the Muslims land belongs to him and he may give them to whom he likes.
Well no I may consider the part that u’ve said that people claims that Imam Al-Hussein knew his fate while he actually didn’t well I’m not going to argue with u about knowing the future or not (even I could do that) but let’s say that Al-Hussein didn’t know and he went to Iraq and then he was surrounded so if he was caught of guard then he could easily got off hock since we all know that the truth that Moawya lost the real battle so Al-Hussein was able to give up and accept Moawya as caliph and then no one can open his mouth and that will be the real victory to Moawya but although Al-Hussein knew that he was going to be killed and also all his followers and that the women of the house of the prophet will be taken as slaves but he didn’t because he was fighting not for himself or for the caliphate but rather for the glory of Islam and for what is right so he knew his fate and he did accept it even for cost of his life.
In the end all can I say is if u r about to write a delicate post like this one please don’t take it so lightly and if u want to compare someone to Saddam u’ll never find a fit more suitable than Moawya himself since a lot of people now glorify him.
Thank u Kid for your post and may God bless u…

Death

2007-02-27T11:28:00.000+03:00

Death is the end of our mortal life; it is when our internal organs seize to function and that is when we die…

It is a fixed fact that all mortal tend to die and that death is inevitable for all mortals and that u can’t escape death nor delay it when your time would come and that is that. So after all that I started to wonder why do we fear death? If u can’t escape it and no matter what your life will end with death whether u like it or not then why do we fear something that whether u r afraid of it or not it will come? Some times we even not talk about death as if death would hear its name it will come. I guess the reason of all that is the lack of knowledge of the true meaning of death…

If we take a look at death from a different perspective we might find it to be something not ominous at all it is simply an ordinary phase of our life think of your life and death as a beautiful flower that was raised till the day it blossoms as a beautiful flower and then it will wither and die (I like to resemble life with a Sakura blossom) u can never forbid a flower from withering but the picture of the flower blooming in its prime would stick in your memory for ever and that is exactly how life and death is, u can’t gain immortality nor u can prolong your life more than God has given u and the only thing that is left is for u to ensure that your life has blossomed in a way that would be remembered by others and in an honorable way that u would be proud of.

On of the reasons of our fear to death is the concept of life after death since the great connection and I believe greatly in the concept (or most suitably the fact) of life after death and for those who don’t I have only one thing to say, “Big surprise is waiting for u”. Life after death has a great effect of our fear for death since one of the big reasons that we may fear death for is our fear to the outcome of our life (whether we were good or bad) and how we’ll be judged accordingly.

Other reason is that we fear death because of our need to fulfill a specific duty for us in this life and we fear death before fulfilling that duty or reaching that aim for us in this life and actually I found this very respectable and I want to point on something and it is the fact that if u die for the sake of reaching your goal and your life ends before u do that is just more respectable. One of the examples of this is of someone fearing death for the sake of someone dear to him since whether we like it or not death is always the cause of grieve for the love ones but the idea of seeking immortality for the sake of your loved ones is kinda stupid cause u’ll get to see all your loved ones die before your eyes and that is more painful for the heart than anything in the world.
In the end all I can say that we should fear death not since death is an inevitable thing u may fear it as long as u want and that will not change the fact that we all die so the only thing we can do about it is to eliminate the reasons that keep us afraid of death we should live our lives to the fullest and never forget what is important to us and what we aim for in our lives and to always do what is right to avoid the punishment afterward. Life is too short and there is no time for fooling around and as one of the great samurai once said
“Wake up with the idea of death in your mind in the morning and refresh your self with it in the evening”

P.S. since I'm currently surrounded by all means of death I should give it a quite amount of thinking so if anything should happen to me I hereby transfer the property of this blog to my friend and brother Anarki and he has full authority to do anything he desires with it and may God bless us all...

Seppuku

2007-02-12T21:49:00.000+03:00

Hey check out this post by Forest Acre Whispers it is really a good post about Seppuku and thank u....ja matta
http://forestacrewhispers.blogspot.com/2007/02/honor-and-seppuku.html

the 10th of Muharam

2007-01-30T20:27:00.000+03:00

I was assembling the information for the next post about the great Miyamoto Musashi sama when I overheard a conversation between my parents about the weather (Yesterday we had a terrible sand storm) and they were discussing how come that every year on the same exact day the weather get crazy and that made me take a pause for a second and I decided something “Kumineh Musashi sama ur post should be postponed”…
Now back to the subject what is so special about this exact day well actually it is the 9th of Muharam (first of the Arabic months) and anyone in Iraq knows what that means and why the 9th and the 10th of Muharam is special.
The 10th of Muharam is the day that Al-Hussein was murdered, he was a great man that we r in dept for himand will remain forever since if it wasn’t for him the line that separate right from wrong would have been blurred so he chose to sacrifice himself and his kin to straighten the path of Islam for us to take and he protected Islam (the message that his grandfather prophet Mohammed held to humanity).
So in the end I just hope that Muslims will appreciate the sacrifice of A-Hussein and that they will work together to keep the name of Islam high putting aside all their differences and arguments.

عظم الله اجورنا و اجوركم باستشهاد الامام و نسأل الله الثبات على الدين و الولاية,يا ابا عبد الله ياليتنا كنا معكم فنفوز فوزا عظيما

Demonic announcement

2007-01-27T20:30:00.000+03:00

Attention all class B demons and below, the high console of Demonic affairs has decided that all demonic operation in Iraq to be suspended until further notice due to the fact that the actions that have been performed by humans in Iraq has surpassed those of our jurisdiction and this statement hold from this moment forth till stated other wise by the high consul of Demonic affairs and the consul will hold a meeting do discuss the possibility of sending a special trained unit in a trial to bring balance to the area since the humans have taken no active moves and for the sake of protecting the cattle (protect the humans from their-selves) so those who would like to join this unit submit ur applications at the Balance restoration office and for ur information the members of the unit will have the privilege of feasting on what they hunt.

Yours Demonically,
Class B high consul official Kitsune Kyubai Samma

P.S. The birthday of our beloved Queen Lilith is approaching so all Demons be advised to take the suitable preparation for the event (be careful not to repeat last year tragedy by offering low life sacrifices)...

the truth about V-Experiment

2007-01-21T19:42:00.000+03:00

After completing V-experiment here r the things that I’ve concluded:

The implementation of the virtues in our daily life is easy if u want to do it and the key word here is WANT TO
People of this world always wants u to act righteous when u r dealing with them and when it comes to their side of the deal they simply bale on ethics it is like saying “don’t lie to me” or “don’t cheat me” and from their side the lie and cheat.
You would be called crazy for suggesting such a thing as V-experiment and when u ask why they say it can’t be done in this time and that should make u think what part of implementing honorable virtues is related to a specific time?
You would be called unrealistic or in Iraqi (واحد فايخ) if u suggest to commit to a virtue and when u ask why the answer will be “in what world r u living can’t u see people getting killed every day and u talk to me about virtues” not realizing that in virtues lies solution for all our problems.
It is a human nature to try to be righteous (well not every human) but the lack of mind drove us to the wrong way of living, as an example let’s say that some child broke a vase in the house as soon as the parent hear the voice of the broken vase he/she will go straight to the child and ask him angrily “did u break the vase? “ as the child sees how angry his parent is he –in fear of the punishment- will simply lie and even if the parent knew that his child was lying he/ she will act in a way that won’t encourage the child of not lying again but rather to be more skillful with his lies another example that include adults let’s say that a certain man/woman is not satisfied with his/her partner for a certain fault in that person so he/she would cheat on his partner to satisfies his/her need rather than talking to his/her partner to solve that problem because his/her partner tends to overreact when being directed to small details on his/her personality that needs work on. And many more examples.
People with high level of confidence of their principals would find the idea of V-experiment quite interesting because such people can’t bare the idea of themselves living a dishonorable life even at the cost of some mortal achievements.
Being virtuous is pretty contagious specially when people see that u r very committed to what u believe in so it starts with jealousy and if that person has an open mind he’ll show the same level of commitment for what he believes in.
All these conclusions r personal opinions of me some might be right others might be wrong but the indisputable truth is that this experiment was an eye opener for me on things I haven’t perceived before and I’ve gained a new level of respect to the BUSHIDO.

In the end all I can say is what an Arabic poet once said
انما امم الاخلاق ما بقيت
فان هم ذهبت اخلاقهم ذهبوا
In English:

The nations of ethics and morals are no more

Their morals are gone and so did they

I'm back (I guess)

2007-01-17T21:42:00.000+03:00

I'm sorry if I kept anyone waiting (although I doubt there is someone dying for a new post from me) but due to the great circumstances in Iraq it is kinda difficult for me to be online and the solution is simple yet complicated for me anyway that is not the subject in hand let me give u the latest update of Kyubai:

* About V-experiment I went one with it and completed it (me and the few friends who accompanied me here in Iraq) so I'm sorry David and Anarki if u feel that u were left behind, u have the option of continuing on ur own if u like and I'll post the details of my weeks later-on.

* About my personal Info here is a brief confusing description:
NEW VERSION: "ALIVE AND KICKING"
* Now I'm trying to get a wireless Internet connection but it is simple -as u may think - I just need to go out by the antenna and the wireless LAN card and then get connected, well it is all easy except for the going out part since if I want to go to a decent computer shop I need two fake IDs and an armored vehicle so I think I'll pass for the time being.

Well that is all for now wish me luck and may God bless and protect us all...

Week review “Honesty”

2006-12-15T17:49:00.000+03:00

Surprisingly the implementation of honesty in our real world is not that hard at all and the results were splendid so I have concluded that the reason of that is that when we lie –no matter how we r used to it- we know all the time that we r lying and part of us is urging us not to and that good lies needs more times to think them over so I used that as an indicator when I’m about to lie and it worked just fine and the score is much less than that of respect cause I always knew when I’m about to lie and stopped it right then.

To be completely honest I did lied on Wednesday about a question that was a bit personal from a not very close friend so I didn’t want to share to much info with him but I tried at first to give a vague answer but he wasn’t satisfied so I was obliged to lie to him, I’m not very proud of that but it has to be done that way.
The conclusion that I came up with about honesty is that we can be honest if we want to be so it will only be hard for us in the times we r used to tell lies but that should be an indicator for us to reconsider why we r lying since it has to be something wrong either with us or in the situation that we put ourselves in so it has to be changed and that will be the key to be honest with ur self before being honest to others u should know why u r lying and what r the consequences of ur lies and how to fix that all…and may God help us all.

Another week another virtue (Honesty)

2006-12-09T19:58:00.000+03:00

Honesty is the virtue we r going to apply this week and we r going to find out is it possible for a normal human being (that is used to casual lying) to keep being honest for a whole week and how it is going to affect us is it a negative effect or a positive one the only sure thing is that I’m going to score big on this one and it is not because I’m a big fat liar (at least not fat) but it is just simply that we r used to tell little white lies in our lives and to quit that it is a challenge.
I remember once a comment by David about honesty in which he said”it can be very difficult to criticize the person you love. Say your girlfriend asks you a question and wants an honest answer. Well, sometimes a completely honest answer may hurt her feelings. So, do you tell the complete truth, or do you hold back part of the truth so she will be happy? ” well I quite agree with him about one thing that we certainly need to be careful about commenting on how a girl look but that definitely doesn’t mean that u have to lie cause not a lot of men has super models as their girlfriends but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t enjoy being with that person and there must be reasons for that, so when a guy is asked to comment about his girlfriend’s looks he doesn’t have to comment on her physical appearance –that is definitely dangerous if u say the wrong answer- so the only thing u have to do is to describe her beauty in ur eyes and why do u love her and forget about the others and in that way u’ll neither be lying nor hurting her (or actually getting hurt urself :)).

So I think that would work on a lot of situations being honest doesn’t mean that u r authorized to hurt people and if u have to tell a hurtful truth do it gently and be honest in ur heart.

Another view for honesty is being honest to ur own self cause if u can’t do that u won’t be able to be honest to anyone so u have to confront ur self with what u like and dislike about ur behavior don’t try to live in denial cause there is only one side for the truth so u have to admit at least to ur self of what is right and what is wrong and I don’t mean that u don’t have to be honest to others but start with ur self.
I know it might be hard to implement honesty but the idea of the possibility of an honest world is quite delightful a world that u may not fear to be cheated a world when there is no need to double check more than a source of information, I know that it might be my wildest dream but what r we without dreaming and may God help us all…

For more information about honesty u can go HERE

Sorry for the delay

2006-12-06T17:13:00.000+03:00

Due to the fact that I had a crappy week I was unable to get online so in order to get back on schedule for V-experiment I suggest that we may take these few days to review the last week so that we may continue next week with the second virtue if that is OK with everyone...
Well about my week it started normally and since the first few days there were no difference in my life style -since I was locked up at home due to the ultra violent environment- and since at home I'm only surrounded by my family that I hold respect for them normally-well I could say that I've lessen the teasing for my little sister-but there was some points that were scored against me due to the fact that I was sitting in front of the TV and I passed through some TV programs or video clips that I do not approve so I was unable to hold my tongue and I feel sorry for that and here is a record for the points for the first days
Sunday 15
Monday 9
Tuesday 16 (I know it is disrespectful to increase my points here)
Wednesday 5
Thursday 2
Friday 3

So as u may see I've tried to improve but on Thursday I met with some friends and tried to hold my tongue but it is sometimes hard to be respectful against some people I know that I should be respectful even for my enemies but I think it is OK for a respectable enemy but against terrorists well I can't stand but cursing and that is definitely not respectful thing to do...
Now we reach the juicy stuff on this week on Sunday I went to college and it was all going just fine-except for few points I scored for checking some girls' figures- till it was time to go back so I got a ride in my friend's car and it was OK till we started talking about some girls in our college and one thing led to another and I scored at least 50 or something I don't know what happened to me was it because I feared that if I didn't participate in the conversation I would be looked down at or may be I just wanted to look COOL- As if insulting people and laughing at their account is COOL although that they may be dressed or behave disrespectfully- well when I got back to my place I felt very bad because I was unable to behave my self but u know what I guess that is what the experiment all about.
In summary I've reached a conclusion that respect is a very deep a virtue since I noticed that everything is related to respect cause u can't lie if u respect ur self and respect the person u r lying to, u can't cheat if u respect ur self and do u want to know an extreme level of respect it is that u can't eat what is bad to ur body - like junk food and such stuff- if u respect ur self and ur body so it is all about respect

Implementation of Respect (Rei)

2006-11-24T22:41:00.000+03:00

After gathering the opinions of all the participants we decided to begin with the virtue of Respect.

For information on this virtue u can find it Here .
And now how to implement this virtue in our daily life I think that it is quite obvious how to be a respectful and in return respectable person the only thing that u have to do is to respect all in life and respect life itself with no exceptions u have to treat everyone and everything respectfully...
Let's say that ur Boss is the ideal as$#@l then how could u respect him? well if u don't respect him for him being ur boss (Out of business courtesy) u may respect him for his accomplishment if not then there has to be some qualities that u may respect him for and even if there isn't u have to respect him for being a human being at least.
How may ur respect be met by others? I assume that at first u may find a rejection by the person u may respect as he may think that u r sucking up to him and others may think the same but I assure u that after a while when people find out that u respect them for nothing in return but respect itself then they'll respect u in return.
So this is our challenge for a whole week we have to respect everyone and everything to the out most starting with ur own self so it doesn't mean that if u respect someone u have to stand still when he disrespects u but u have to respond in the most respectable way.
Any way what ever I say I may never reach the answer the question of how to implement this virtue so I will believe in the nature of the Human being to really reach that answer via experimenting and I'm sure that we -some how- r going to find our way.

So I hereby announce the beginning of V-Experiment on the 25/11/2006 and may God help us all...
HAJIMETE

P.S. for the online participants u have the total freedom to suggest, argue about any part in this experiment about the how or the time just say so in ur comment and thank u.

Virtue of Choice

2006-11-24T00:20:00.000+03:00

Where should we start? that is the question going to be, I thought that we should start with a virtue that is not very complicated and vague a virtue that may be understood and implemented easily so I limited the options to three virtues:

and I've got the approvement of the offline participants and I thought of taking the opinion of the online participants so u may agree or disagree with us and also u can name the most suitable virtue to begin with in ur opinion and to help u decide u may check these virtues in my previous posts or where ever u like .

OK that is all for now I hope that u'll respond quickly and may God help us all...

V-Experiment

2006-11-18T23:28:00.000+03:00

We may take years talking about the virtues and how we can apply them in life and what it does feel to be honorable,honest,loyal....or having any of the honorable virtues or even more than one or may be all, but to know what it does mean there is only one way and it is the extreme level of commitment to one or all of the virtues and by extreme I mean holding that commitment in our daily life some may say that is impossible to perform in our current life but I say if a whole class of people (the samurai) has applied and lived by a certain code of honor for hundred of years then why can't we live by it for few days and I don't mean in the same way that they lived (that u have to commit suicide if u dishonor ur self) but at least in a certain respectable level that we might be considered as honorable human-beings and here V-experiment comes in.

V-Experiment is a short for virtues experiment and in that one I tend to experiment the applicability of the seven virtues in the real world, and is the community able to accept whoever lives by such virtues? but in order to do that I need some help as I can experiment on the community in Iraq (and believe me that won't be easy cause lying can be a life saver) but what about other places and communities so I here by announce the initiation of V-experiment for all of the world and for those who r tempted to join me in my experiment u can say so in ur comment and I can only assure one thing that this experiment will be useful to u one way or another u may not realize it now but afterward u'll see the difference in ur personality and the way u see the world around u I know it won't be easy at all but I say it worth the shot, for having new perspective to the world u have to suffer a little and this experiment will manifest the best of u...
The experiment goes like this:We select a virtue and then we try to apply it in our daily life for a brief amount of time and we see from there how things will go, the key is the level of commitment to that virtue and since I've been in the world so I know how hard it will be to be fully committed to that virtue all the time so to ease things up u'll get to have piece of paper in ur pocket and every time u act against that virtue u'll score a point in the paper and in the end of the day u count the points and try the other day to lessen them and so on and u'll get angry some times furious others but u'll be happy when u lessen ur points so it will be an experiment filled with emotions so if u r up to the challenge tell me now and the experiment will be started next week and may God help us all...

P.S. if u r a blogger I will really appreciate if u link to this post even if u r not participating since I'm kinda new blogger so this will be like a big favour to me and thank u in advance.

Tadaima (I'm home)

2006-11-09T21:36:00.000+03:00

Tadaima Baghdad, it's me again and although I hoped that the next time I'll be here I'll recognize some improvements of any kind and I surely didn't expect that it will go worst but what can I say I can't sit with my feet in the sun and expect that everything will be just as I wish for and I think in the mean time I'll be just content if u (Baghdad) just replied "Ukarinasai" and I promise u that I've learned a lot of my trip things that may improve me and will improve me to be a better Iraqi and better human being so as a final words I'll say "BEHOLD, I LIVE AGAIN"...

Saddam A fallen Icon (a post of joy not politics)

2006-11-06T15:54:00.000+03:00

An Icon indeed, but an Icon of what? Bravery? Honesty? Justice? well that is tough question to answer some would say he should be an Icon of bravery cause he stood against USA and didn't fear the might of its armies well I doubt that cause he was sitting on his Butt all the war long, and did he fight? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO he let the army do the dangerous stuff and he was satisfied ordering his minions to broadcast lies, and if he is brave where did his bravery go when he was hiding like a filthy rat in his hell hole before he got caught so I think bravery is not the answer.
Then what about honesty? let's see he lied to God when he did his oath to serve and protect this country while we were the ones doing all the serving and protecting and he lied about being a descendant of the prophet Mohamed while he was killing and torturing the real descendants and all who would say we r following the path of the prophet, and he lied and lied about plenty of things so I think that Honesty is not the answer.
Then it must be justice, let's see annihilating a village, taking the properties of people with no right to do so imprisoning any person that may doubt his decisions right or wrong and many many unjust acts...hmm I doubt that it is the answer of our question.
Well I'm kinda lost here "Saddam an Icon of what?" call me outrageous but let's try something out, let's inspect him for the quality of...hmm let's say Saddam an Icon of tyranny, hmm that sounds interesting let's see he ruled the country for more than 35 years with no just elections during all that 35 years (don't tell me about the time that we were forced to go vote for him against no one), how about the fact that if u want to get promoted in ur job or in anything u should join the Ba'ath in order for ur application to be accepted, and many many more of these actions... hmm that sounds interesting is it possible that he is fit for such hideous quality?
let me try something else how about Mass-murdering? let's see he killed numerous amount of people in Halapcha, Anfal, and in many parts of Iraq he murdered people for a reason and no reason... hmm I can't believe it he is fit for this one too.
And that is when it hit me that believe it or not Saddam Husein is a bad person, yeah I know that is almost impossible to believe "Saddam a Bad person" I must be on dope if he is a bad person then why r there people that love him and support him who would support a trash? why would anyone love and support a tyrant and a mass-murderer? unless...OH MY GOD I NOW GET IT ONLY THE TRASH SUPPORT THE TRASH and that is the way around with Saddam and his minions, oh my God I must be a genius to figure that all by my-self since it does require a genius to do so...Dos it?
Well now I can enthrone Saddam by his true title "Saddam the Icon of tyranny and Mass-murdering" well that's seems more like it and in the end I can only hope that u'll have a nice hanging Saddam and that u may never know peace not now not so ever and I also want to congratulate all the good people of the world for the fallen of this Icon and may God bless us all...

Honor

2006-11-01T16:45:00.001+03:00

Principled uprightness of character; personal integrity, the quality of being honorable and having a good name, a code of integrity, dignity, and pride, chiefly among men, that was maintained in some societies, good name; reputation, glory or recognition; distinction
these r the definitions for honor that can be found in the dictionaries but I absolutely didn't feel satisfied by them so I thought that the best way to know the meaning of Honor is to ask an honorable person so I asked a Friend that I have full confidence in his honorable behavior (I'm not sure of the validity of my judgment but he is surely more honorable than me) and that is what he said:
"Honor is showing great respect for yourself, other people, and the rules you live by. When you are honorable, you keep your word. You do the right thing regardless of what others are doing. Honor is a path of integrity"
After hearing that I felt that I'm almost on the right way to catch the real meaning for Honor so I searched harder, squeezed my brain harder and after ten hours of meditation (that I didn't do) I reached multiple opinions on the matter of honor.
I begin with William Shakespeare and his play "King Henry IV" in a wonderful scene on Part one of the play and her is a quote from Sir John Falstaff while he is defining Honour to us:
"Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no. or an arm? no. or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then. Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll none of it. Honour is a mere escutcheon: and so ends my catechism".
After remembering that I felt closer to know the meaning of Honor so I kept going...
I remembered that I've read a story concerning honor some where so I've searched the web a bit and what u know I've found it and it is a story of a master swordsman who sat calmly through a barrage of insults from potential robbers. The swordsman avoided a fight by expertly catching four flies with his chopsticks and then getting up and walking away. Traditional misunderstandings of honor would see this man insulted and would say that he should get revenge. In fact, nothing that the robbers could say would take away the swordsman's skill or honor. Fighting them would not make this swordsman more skilled or honorable. It was more honorable for this swordsman to walk away so Honor is not to avenge someone or something.
In summary Honor is to know shame and trying to prevent it at the cost of ones life and there is no need for explaining the meaning of the word shame cause we deep inside know what we should be ashamed of and what we shouldn't and as one of the great samurai once said "Shame (haji) is the most important word in a samurai's vocabulary. Nothing is more shameful than not understanding shame" and from here comes the origin of seppuku that the samurai that feels that he has dishonored himself or his master commit suicide (I'll talk about seppuku in another post).
So it seems that Honor sums all the 7 virtues of the Bushido in one and to be honorable is to live putting the honor in front of u in all ur actions...
Note: that was the hardest post I've ever wrote so I hope that it is good and if not then forgive me for my lack of intellect...

Loyalty

2006-10-28T21:53:00.000+03:00

Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person or cause, A feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection for a person or a cause...this is what u'll get by checking the dictionary.
The above might be a very good explanation of the word loyalty since loyalty is indeed being faithful and devoted to a person or a cause but as u look at it u begin to wonder where does that feeling come from? well the answer is :

Thankfulness

Respect

Devotion

Thankfulness develops into respect, respect develops into devotion. In order to develop loyalty, one needs a just person, someone who really cares for him and for others. Loyalty is action, not only thought.

In the period of Kamakura shogunate, Kamakura was the gathering place for all samurai,No matter what, when a samurai received the message "Isa Kamakura!" (at once to Kamakura!) he had to come there at any cost. This was a simple act of loyalty.

So loyalty can not be given or bought it can only be earned since no matter how much u fear, seek the acceptance of someone he can never earn ur loyalty unless u admire, respect, and appreciate that person and I also want to remind u that loyalty can not be only held to a person but in alot of cases loyalty is to be held to a cause or principle and that is what the Samurai code of Honour is all about.

So being loyal to a person or a cause arise from within the person's heart but to act according to loyalty is what's all about, for being loyal even in the cost of ur own life and here comes the big decision to make is ur loyalty to what u believe in more important or is it ur mortal life? some would say " Hey when u r dead u r dead, end of the story" well I can't think of something more wrongful than that in our case since if u r really loyal to what u believe in then dying to it is the most honorable death. It is not about being loyal but how r u devoted to the person u r loyal to and from here we can see how devoted the Samurai class were to the code of honor that they lived by that if they dishonor them-selves or their masters (that they r loyal to) they preform seppuku (the samurai act for suicide) and that is how loyal they where...

U see being loyal is being true to your-self and if u r not true to your-self then u r just living a big lie in which u r trying to avoid what really maters in this life and when the end draws near u'll only think in ur self if only I was loyal and faithful to (My family, my respectable ones, to GOD) but then it is too late for that, so all u have to do now is to determine ur principles and ur priorities and be loyal and devoted to them and determine what is really important and what is ur life is all about do it now since u can....

And here we go again

2006-10-27T19:34:00.000+03:00

And now after Ramadan has left us (the same goes for the Eid) I think I'm obliged (I don't know by what I just feel like that) to pick up where I left about the Bushido's 7 virtues and we have (Honour and Loyality) which I found to be a very distiguished virtues and I hope that I'll be able to talk about them, well enough of the chit-chat let's rock and roll...

Merry Eid to all

2006-10-22T17:30:00.000+03:00

Merry Eid to all, may all ur wishes come true and I wish u wealth health and all the happiness in the world and many many more....

With these warm wishes I start my post ,which will be more like a short message than a post actually, and with a true hope that God will remove the tribulation that has been placed upon Iraq and the Iraqis and replace it by peace and prosperity....Amen.

I just hope that we will carry on what we have been doing in Ramadan from charity, loving, and adoration to God... and to always remember that God is looking at us and that He said in the holly book of Quraan that He won't change the status of a nation till they change what is in their-selves so if we want the distress we r in to be removed then we should start with our-selves and may God bless u all...

Farewell Ramadan

2006-10-21T14:45:00.000+03:00

In couple of days now we will be saying" Farewell Ramadan and see u next year by God's will"...

Now after all the fasting, prayer, and all our trials to be complete Muslims, after all that and as the end of Ramadan draws near a big question is popped up "What is after Ramadan?" will everything be back to "Normal" and actually what is "Normal" to us? does it mean that we will be far away from God as we were before Ramadan? doing all the stuffs that we are forbidden to do, skipping prayer, and not considering what God has Ordered us to do?,all that just because Ramadan is over and we have increased our good deeds so now we can even the scale by doing all what we want of the forbidden deeds till next Ramadan and then we will start over again...is that really how we really want to live?

Some may say that we don't mean to forget about our religion after Ramadan it is just that we tend to forget because we no more feel connected to God like we used to feel in Ramadan, Why is that? it is just because every month that is not Ramadan is simply not Ramadan, it is just an ordinary month in which we r not obliged to perform any deed that may remind us of God so we tend to forget or pretend to have forgotten.

Well I must not forget that in Ramadan all the Devils r manacled so in Ramadan all that we have to fight against is our-selves and desires while in other than Ramadan we've got two sides to fight against, so in other than Ramadan a lot of people would say "I was tempted by the devil" and goes with that all the time and saying "the Devil is strong" and such crap, well let me tell u something the Devil is not that strong at all as many may imagine but ur ultimate war is with ur own self and desire, the person's self and desire is what we really fighting against. The devil may just put a bad idea in ur mind as a choice and u will be the person who is deciding to take that choice and believe me, by following what ur desires tell u, it will be ur downfall.

Now after knowing that should make us wonder if we r able to restrain our-selves and desires for a whole month why r we unable to restrain them in the rest of the year? it is simply because we believe that we r unable to do so, we believe that we r weak and that we can't stand against our own desires, and that is due to the weakness in our believes and minds and because of what we think that we can do and what we can't and if we r unable to free ourselves from that cage of mind we'll never be in peace...

In the end, Ramadan Kareem on u all and Insha Allah it will come next year bringing all the blessing and grace of God upon u all...

How cheap can we get

2006-10-18T12:21:00.000+03:00

Seriously is there no limit for how cheap the Iraqi blood can get it just keeps going down and down and may be the next thing u know before they kill u they'll charge u a fair amount of money like it is a service that been offered to u or may be after they've killed u they'll just go to ur family saying "hey u owe us some money, we r the guys who killed ur son, show some gratitude u ungrateful people"....

Sorry for the rather harsh intro but I had to let out some steam...
This post is dedicated to a person I know, a follow human being his name is "Kareem", I don't know him very well to know his last name, Kareem is a simple guy with a small family, he worked hard for the sake of that family he may have done some mistakes in his life but he hadn't seriously hurt anyone intentionally, he wasn't in a death squad or anything he was just a normal guy trying to live his life with his family in the best way he had known...

So the question is WHY? why in the sake of God why? why in the sake of whatever the guys who killed him worship (if they do believe in anything cause I doubt it) why? is it because of money cause I assure u he doesn't have a lot,is it because of his job I know that he worked as a guard in a simple house and when he was killed he wasn't even there so what is it?, is it because of his doctrine cause I can assure u that it has nothing to do with that because we Iraqis have been living together far far before Saddam like brothers and we had never heard of any casualty because of a person's doctrine in Saddam's time or before so why now? some would claim that the freedom manifests things that were buried deep inside, well I can simply refute this claim since as I look at all the people around me -and I know quite a few people- I have never heard or saw or even felt that the difference in our doctrine would be an issue between us and also I can't even think of a Muslim that would kill a fellow Muslim unjustly after all what had been said in the Holy Quraan and said by our prophet about all the Muslims being brothers so it is rationally impossible for a person to kill his brother.
So if they r not Muslims then what r they well that is even more obvious question to answer "THEY BELIEVE IN NOTHING" except may be for the money that is being paid to them by whoever benefits from the chaos is Iraq and in the world if we r talking about terrorism since "Terrorism has no faith", I remember once that a certain person told me -and it has been said by a lot of people- that "Every terrorist is a Muslim but not every Muslim is a terrorist" well actually it is more like "Every terrorist pretends to be Muslim so every Muslim is an anti-terrorist".
In the end all I can say is "God bless ur soul Kareem" and for those who pretend to be Muslim all I can say is "God may respite but he never forget".
May God have his mercy upon u Kareem and upon all the Iraqi martyrs and God bless us all...

WOW Live and Learn

2006-10-16T14:12:00.000+03:00

You know how some times u think that u know everything about something and u r so confident about it that when anyone speaks of that subject u'll just say "So, I know everything about it" and when anyone tries to explain something about it u'll just say "Don't waist ur time I've learn all that could possibly be learned about it" so I as a human being -as I hope to be- thought ignorantly that I know everything about certain things and one of those things is "Islamic fasting" and I once again was proven to be wrong and here is the story...

I was sitting in front of the TV and just exchanging channels trying to find something good -or may be just to feel relieved that I have lots of choices- and then I landed on this channel that is showing an educational program on Ramadan and the Islamic fasting and I was like "OH not again what is there to learn" I kept watching -and thank God I did that- there was this guy that is talking about the benefits of fasting to the Human body and since I do care about such stuff I kept watching and in the beginning he said the usual information that fasting is good for ur health and there came the new information that I didn't know, he said that in ordinary situations the human body renews it-self at a whole (except for the brain cells) every five years and that from time to time the weaker cells is replaced by stronger newer ones and that is a periodic operation for the human being till the body is old then this operation is slower and slower, so what does that have to do with Islamic fasting? well through fasting the cells of the human body is starved so the weaker cells will be eliminated cause they can't take the pressure so they'll have to be replaced by newer ones so in conclusion after 29-30 days of this process the human body will be completely renewed (of course except for the brain cells) so instead of being renewed every five days by fasting Ramadan the human body will be renewed every year with fresh strong cells isn't that a miracle or what?...

OK now one may ask what is the difference between Islamic fasting and and ordinary diet it is much easier to diet, well the first difference between Ramadan and total fasting is the timing of the food; during Ramadan, we basically miss lunch and take an early breakfast and do not eat until dusk. Abstinence from water during this period is not bad at all and in fact, it causes concentration of all fluids within the body, producing slight dehydration. The body has its own water conservation mechanism; in fact, it has been shown that slight dehydration and water conservation, at least in plant life, improve their longevity, while dieting or total fasting causes sever dehydration or starvation and that is more damaging for the body than being useful.

For those who may say that the fasting hours is unjustly long I say at the contrary it is what it should be for the following reason: when a person eat, about 3-4 hours is required for digestion and then about the same time for the body to absorb and make use of that food so let's say it is about 8 hours for the whole operation and since we Iraqis eat quite big and greasy meals (Suhour) then we need about 10 hours for the complete operation so let's say we have finished our last meal (Suhour) at 5 AM so after 10 hours (about 3 PM) the whole digestion and absorption operation will be ended so the starvation of the body will start at 3 PM (this is a timing for the Arabic countries) till the Futour which may be around 6 PM that means three hours of body starvation (which is not along time at all if u look at it) so in these three hours the body will be obliged to use the stored fat in the body to produce energy and by getting rid of the extra fat the body becomes healthier and in addition to the stored fat the body will get rid of the poisonous materials in the body in this period (it has been proven that during the fasting the human urine contains more harmful materials than in usual days) but do u know what is even more surprising? it has been proven that our prophet Mohammad (God bless his soul) used to nap before the after-noon prayer and after it he some times would take some of his followers and walk around the city which means that he used to walk around the city exactly in the time when the body is devouring the stored fat in order to increase of that operation and he was no nutrition expert but he does that in order that we may learn from him because as he said "strong a believer is better than weak a believer" and by that we keep our bodies strong and healthy and a healthier body leads to a healthier mind, at last all that I can say is "GOD IS THE GREATEST" and "Live and Learn"...

The last of the Iraqis

2006-10-08T13:05:00.000+03:00

It is the year 2017 and all the Iraqis r gone save one and that is "Sa3oody" this is new series that is being broad casted on Al-Sharqya TV channel it is not always hilarious but it is nice and the intro song is very COOL so I hope that u'll enjoy it

(اغنية البداية لمسلسل الحكو...مات) u can find it in here

Note:I've tried to find better pictures but this is all that I was able to find cause as I think that Sa3oody is also extinct cause there r no picture of him anywhere so all I can say is "الفاتحة" ...

The Brain: necessary or accessory

2006-09-27T22:18:00.000+04:00

Actually that is a big question that we have never thought of (at least not all of us) although it is a question that may define the human beings that we pretend to be. so if it is that important why haven't we asked that question to ourselves? the answer for that is simple and anyone can answer it "The human brain is necessary and we all know that so there is no need to even think about it" and because of such answers I disagree and say "the Human brain is an accessory" and I have all the evidences for that starting with the exact answer above that many people may actually give.

Evidence #1:
the exact phrase "The human brain is necessary and we all know that so there is no need to even think about it" and since in the end of that phrase it was said "there is no need to think about it" and since the tool for us to think is our brain then by saying that there is no need to think about something then it means that there is no need to use our brain then it is an accessory...now the defence may argue that is one question so it doesn't mean that I can define the brain as an accessory according to it only, well by asking that question it proves my case not deny it since I've said that-and if I may quote from my self- "that is a big question" and later on "a question that may define the human beings that we pretend to be" so according to that it proves the ignorance of knowing when to think and when to not so the human brain is an accessory and thank u...

Evidence #2:
how many times during the day do people actually use there brains? (let's count them out)

U wake up in the morning (let's say at 7) so u do the systematic procedure (bathroom, clothes, breakfast or may be just coffee and then u take the train, bus what ever to go to work (there is absolutely no brain activity in here).

U reach ur work place and except for the first days at the Job in which u r sharp and always thinking not to screw up, the days afterward it will be just a loop of the exact procedure that needs no brain activity.

U r back at home so u either sit in front of the TV or the PC and doing nothing just numbing and waiting the time to pass (unless that u have some useful activity like sports or something then u'll be obliged to use ur brain a little bit) and u may go out with some friends trying to have fun and believe me that require no brain activity at all since the real fun is when ur brain is shut :D

it is night now so if u have company u'll do some more activities that also require no brain activity ...:D and then u go to bed.

It is obvious that less that 1% of the human brain is used in daily life and that is more than sufficient for the survival of the human race and this is another proof that the human brain is an accessory.

Evidence #3:

Generalizing things around us is the most obvious evidence because when we generalize it is due to lack of brain activity because we don't want to look into things in details to distinguish between things that seems alike but actually r not so we generalize them as in the same category, let's say that there is this group of people who r really a pain in the ass they bother everyone and cause troubles all around and it happens that a lot of them pretend to know how to drive camels so does that make all camel drivers belong to that group even if actually those guys know nothing about camel driving? but due to the fact that the human brain is an accessory so we r obliged to put them in the same category and that example is applied for variable situations.

Evidence #4:

The forth evidence is about " how much do we believe in God" a lot of people may say "we do believe in God" but that is not the question in hand but it is how much do u believe in God do we believe enough and for those people who said that they believed in God do they really?, do they seek God in their daily life or only when they need something and even so do they really believe that God will grant them their wishes or they just ask cause there is nothing better to do, so after all the evidences on earth of the greatness of God we rarely seek God in our life so will a person with a brain as an essential organ do such thing and not to think of the creations of God and the miracle of our existence for even few minutes in his entire life and that is a huge thing to think about and that is just another evidence of how the human brain is an accessory.

There is a lot more evidences for my case but I am too lazy to mention them so it is another evidence of my case since it is a very important matter yet I'm too lazy to do any more.... :D

After all these evidences and by relying on the little capabilities that the human brain should have, I end my case and have a nice day...

In the name of God the beneficent the merciful

2006-09-26T14:00:00.000+04:00

Once a simple Guy(Bedouins) was asked why do u believe in God and how do u know that God does exist? so that guy -who wasn't that deep in religion and has no education not so ever- answer simply "when u see a camel droppings it'll indicate that there was a camel here, when u see a foot mark in the sand it'll indicate that there was someone walking here, so all what u see around u from the sky,earth,trees,animals and all what was created perfectly in this world doesn't indicate that there is but one God and that is Allah?"

U see that simple Bedouin answered a question that a lot of people are asking with his simple terms that he was able to come with according to the way he lives and the things around him without returning to any book or anything he just said what he did think and believe and actually he makes sense more than a lot of explanations I've heard, it is simple, understandable, reasonable and actually true since u see if u look around u anywhere u'll find that everything was created perfectly that can't possibly be due to random events, the earth has been circling around the sun along with other planets since thousands of years without colliding, all the fascinating physical rules that hold the universe, the marvel the human body is all that and more and more of the miracles of God don't they indicate something to the human brain?

People have forgot about many things and started to take things for granted in their life they take it for granted that they'll wake up everyday in the morning, they'll have food on the table, they'll continue breathing indefinitely and they think that everything will be fine if u plan for ur future and choose the right choices in ur life and it has nothing to do with God or anything that we can't perceive then one day u get in a real trouble which no one can help u with and everyone have just abandoned u and suddenly u remember "Oh there is some one that I have not turned to yet" what u know u've remembered that u have a God that had created u and that u can turn to in the worst situations and u know deep inside that no one would help u but him and then u go "Please God help me just this time I promise that I'll be good and I'll never forget what u have done to me Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease" and there u go after the things is alright with u and all ur troubles r gone away u forget everything about God and u say "it has nothing to do with God I worked hard and I managed to survive all the credit is only conferred to me"
and then u go with the same procedure on and on till one day all is lost and u'll start regretting "only if I had done this or that, only if I hadn't forgotten or pretended to have forgotten".

Happy Ramadan to all

2006-09-25T12:59:00.000+04:00

Happy Ramadan to all and may God lay his blessing on u all and may all ur wishes come true...

As happy as I am for the beginning of Ramadan (Ramadan is a holy month for the Muslims) I'm sorry to tell u that the main theme for my blog will be changed for this month only (I know that this is a devastating news for the millions or billions and even more cause the last time I checked there was a comment from an Alien life form) so the main theme for this month will be religion oriented, it won't be like the religion only stuff but more like a religion related stuff to help understanding some issues and by the way don't think that I'm one of those hot headed, stiff, with beard eight feet long (Actually I some times grow a beard but that is due to my laziness for not shaving no less no more), actually I barely made it through religious stuff and I might be the worst person to talk about it so I'll keep it simple and reasonable and I won't go too deep for my sake only, then why am I doing it? it is simple as I've said in the header I'm a kinda selfish person and to benefit myself is essential to me and as I've known lately by doing what I'm about to do it will score for me good, so I wasn't able to resist the temptation to do something good in my life for at least once so that if I get whacked (and that is very likely to be happening in Iraq) I'll get something to rely on up there, sorry for the people that may find that inconvenient or silly but it seems pretty convenient to me and that is fairly enough...

I hope that u'll enjoy these posts and will be open minded enough to scrutinize before passing judgments and I hope that u'll see that these posts as far from radical and accusing as it can possibly be and may God bless u all...

Slight deviation in course

2006-09-24T13:02:00.000+04:00

Hi this is ur pilot speaking and I'm sorry to tell u that there will be a slight deviation in the course of this blog for personal purposes only and there is no one what so ever benefiting from it but me so enjoy ur flight and have a nice day....

Honesty

2006-09-18T14:34:00.000+04:00

Truthfulness, sincerity, veracity, chastity, fairness, straightforwardness of conduct and adherence to the facts... theses r some of the synonyms of honesty...

Now the real question is what is the meaning of being honest, when should we be honest? , what do we get from all that honesty since we all know that lying has become a part of our lives that we can't invalidate since we preform lying in our day life on regular basis and there r some jobs that lying is the essence of that job and being honest is like losing that job and may be all jobs - it is like ur boss who is a typical ass pass by u and u have to greet him and complement him gently even if u hate his guts- so from all that it seams that being honest is noxious more that being beneficial to one-self so why to bother if that is right?!

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthful and with fairness, as best one is able. It is related to truth as a value. This includes listening, reasoning and any action in the human repertoire — as well as speaking.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu taught: “Real honesty is being honest about what your possibilities are, what your potentials are. That’s where true honesty lies. It stretches us. It’s not simply admitting where we are - that’s a beginning step, it’s not the end step. So be honest about where you are but also be honest about what your possibilities are. That keeps the challenge of the path always before us"

The answer for the second question about when is the right time to be honest is at all time u should be honest with ur self so know what u want to do and why u want to do it and don't make execuses to mislead ur true intentions just be honest to ur self cause if u can't do that then u won't be able to be honest to anyone else so to urself u havr to be honest at all time with no exceptions and with others as the meaning of honesty implies that u have to be honest as best as one is able and as long u r honest to urself u'll know when...

The answer for the third question is manifested when u think about the following situations:

u r going to buy a car or may be a used car what is the first and may be the only thing u can think about when u meet the car salesman?
u've lost something important somewhere and u went looking for it and asking people questions and there was this person that obviously dislikes u is in the scene what is the one idea that will haunt u all the time?

I bet that the one thought at these situations is "I bet he is lying to me" and that might be right at most of the cases cause lying is simple and beneficial for that person in that situation but even if he isn't lying u'll keep thinking that he is to over protect ur self so u'll think that all people that u r not very familiar with r not telling the whole truth so to be careful not to be deceived and that is the way all people go over all the details of a piece of information that was given to them to determine whether it is the truth or not and that how the world has besome because we think that lying is simple.

Imagine with me the following:
people r all honest to each other and when u ask someone something u'll get the true answer from him no matter what and u'll have absolutely no doubt about it, how will the world go now when everyone trusts everyone? u'll say what is he talking about it is just a childish dream that will never come true!... well I can't deny that but how can we be sure if we don't try and let's start simple by everyone of us trying to be honest as possible and as they say in an old saying in my country "Start with ur self" and u'll see that u r going to affect all the people that u interact with even if it is very small effect and when they see that u r committed to honesty they'll start thinking about their-selves and that will be just the begining...

Respect

2006-09-07T15:31:00.000+04:00

Veneration, reverence, esteem, regard, all these words represent respect if u look it up in the dictionary but what does it mean to respect and what does it mean to be respected and what will come from all that? and why do they say that u have t respect ur self in order to be respected by others?... these r questions that might cross the persons mind when thinking of respect.

Respect is to to feel or show deferential regard for someone, something, some behavior...etc. so it is like that there is someone u admire and honour whether for his position, behaviour, ethics, or for a good deed that he had done. Respect is showing admiration and regards, not just showing since that the respect does exist at all time else it won't be considered respect but more like fear or blandish and that is far away than respect, the feeling of respect does not come from the must to show respect but more like from the need to show respect.

The feeling of being respected is rather a wonderful feeling it is very nice to feel that there is some one that admires u and look up to but that is a burden more than being a good feeling since if someone respects u for who u r or what u've done u have to maintain that reputation to be worthy of respect and believe me that is very important, Imagine with me a little kid (that kid could be u, me or anybody) that admires and respects someone (a super hero, a movie star,one of his family...etc) and one day he finds out that this person is not at all worthy of respect, imagine the level of devastation that this kid will suffer to love and respect someone for so long only to find out that he is some lowly snide and this is not applicable for kids only it is the same for adults and that is why to manitan that respect is much more important task than getting that respect in the first place.
The last question is the most important one since we always hear that phrase "U have to respect ur self inorder to be respected by others" so how do I respect my self and how in the world the people r going to notice that and respect me? to answer that u have to think a little in a basic way, what does attract u in a person that u admire and why do u admire him? I'm sure that u'll find out that in addition to many qualities that make u admire him a great share belongs to the fact that he is self confident about himself and what he do when he is doing the right thing (for more info refer to the previous post entitled " Rectitude") in other words that he respects himself and his act and that is the answer for the question since when u respect ur self and ignore the others when u r doing the right thing since it is ur opinion that matters not what other people think and with that comes another responsibilty that u have to be 200% sure that u r on the right way since it can be very tricky but if u r then have pride on what u do.

We've talked till now about the respect that u have to some one u admire but what about the people that u don't know? the simple answer to that is to respect everybody unless u find out that they r not worthy of respect cause all people have qualities that is worthy of respect and because u don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist so in order to live in a world of respect we have to apply this rule any where and at any time...

Benevolence

2006-09-03T14:39:00.000+04:00

Benevolence characterizes the true goodness of the mind, the unbiased kindness to do good. It confers thought and regard for the welfare of other people, and finds expression in sympathy and kindly gentleness and compassion, with charitableness and kindness.
Those who lack benevolence have little, if any, thought or regard for others, and a tendency to help oneself, in neglect of others.

That was a typical text book definition for Benevolence and we can put it in simpler words and say benevolence is to love people and be kind to them in a gentle and compassionate way and when I say people I mean all people and in other words all living creatures.
Now the big question pops why should I love all living creatures? What r they to me? And if I love all people that means I would love even the person that is trying to kill me and those who hates me and that is definitely has no meaning !?...
To answer the first and the second questions just close your eyes for a minute and Imagine this scene with me "you r walking in the street and few feet in front of you there is a lady with her two children one she is carrying and the other is walking by her side, suddenly an Ice cream seller car passed by and the walking child start running towards it and was trying to cross the street so he came running towards you and the street was full of cars and his mother screaming....Now Imagine with me these two situations:
a-The child ran towards you and you said it isn't my business and walked your way and then you heard a scream and turned around and the child was hit by a car after that u went on your way saying "it is all his mother's fault she should have hold him with her hand, that poor stupid kid".
now open your eyes and think of how you are feeling now.
b-now for the same scenario just imagine that when the kid ran towards you, you caught him by his hand and said to him "hey be careful now the street is full of cars" and then his mother came in haste towards you and thanked you for your kind action and that you saved her child's life.
now open your eyes and think of how you are feeling now.
If the feeling is the same for you then I can do nothing to help you, for ordinary humans there should be a great difference between the two situations and that is because we have the quality of benevolence inside all of us and even if you say "no I don't have that" but deep inside you can still feel the need to be the good benevolent person even if the accumulations of the bad experiences you've had in your life forbid you of that feeling but believe me it is there deep inside your soul.
The answer for the last question is "WHY NOT" even if the person hates you -that is not enough reason for you to hate him back- he may has a reason to hate you and that reason might be because of a misunderstanding or it is out of jealousy and many other reasons that may make no sense at all but they do make sense to that person so you shouldn't hate him for that but rather pity him for such a shallow perspective and that means at the same time that you should cleanse your-self of such feeling at first before applying them on other people.
All that I'm going to say now is that you should try to love everyone and I know it is not simple with so many people done so many bad and evil things but always remember that hate brings no good at all and only by love and benevolence this world may has a chance and as once said "The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring" so if you don't know love then you've known nothing of this world...

Courage

2006-08-31T12:56:00.000+04:00

Courage has many meanings if you look it up in the dictionary such as: bravery, valor, guts, fortitude, fearlessness, prowess....All these words mean is used to describe courage and many other words that we use to describe some one who is courageous and he receive them all with pride and joy and that make us wonder why all this joy and happiness that someone feels when he is being described as courageous and what did he do to deserve it and did he deserve it at all?!
Courage is the quality that we describe by it an army leader who confronted a huge army with only few soldiers to defend something dear to them, a person who risked his life to save a child from drowning, a fireman that rushes into the burning house to save its inhabitants from being burned alive, .....And many other situations that we find ourselves saying "Oh how courageous" and for a split of a second we wish that we were in those people places but the biggest question is "will we react as they did in that situation?" I think that by this question we can really define courage.
Some may say that a man with no fear is a courageous man and only when a person fears nothing then we can say that he's got courage, well as charming it may seems it is absolutely WRONG, you may ask why? If you fear nothing then u may do whatever you want, you can lead an army of ten people against a thousand, you can jump into a lava river to save someone,...Etc.
and if those are not courageous then who in the world is? Well the point is you can never have no fear at all and if you do then you are as they say "a man with no fear is a man with no brain"and I don't mean that you should fear for yourself cause fearing death has never prolonged someone's life not even a day long, as they say "cherish your life but don't fear death" so now one may ask "then what is the world should I fear for then if I'm dead then everything ends there is no me anymore " before saying that you should ask yourself one thing have you ever loved and cherished something more than you life if you haven't then believe me you haven't lived not even a single day and that what you should fear for (your loved ones) and here u can define a new perspective for courage from a person saving a live of a dear one to a fireman risking his life for people whom he doesn't know.
So after all that I think it is safe to say that courage is not having no fear at all but rather confronting these fears in order to do what is right and what you believe in so it is to rush into the jaws of death for what you believe in and you should fear no death if for the right cause.

Rectitude

2006-08-23T19:28:00.000+04:00

You can define rectitude with many words such as:

Moral uprightness; righteousness.
The quality or condition of being correct in judgment.
The quality of being straight in the moral behavior.

That what we'll get if we looked up this word in the dictionary but what is it really mean and how can we classify a person to have this quality or not?

well let's talk a bit about this virtue, it is one of the most important virtues for the warrior since this virtue defines all other virtues and as one of the greatest samurai said once "Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. As without bones the head cannot rest on the top of the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand, so without rectitude neither talent nor learning can make of a human frame a samurai. With it the lack of accomplishments is as nothing".

So what does it really mean to be rectitudinous ? A well-known bushi defines it as a power of resolution: "Rectitude is the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering, to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right."

In simple words it is the ability do define what is right and to do it and stand for it even if the price is the persons own life and from that we understand why it is a virtue defining all virtues.

In Japan back in the old days the the epithet Gishi (a man of rectitude) was considered superior to any name that signified mastery of learning or art so being rectitudinous is not only considered as a posession of a virtue but as an achievement also.

Now we reach the more important question how can we define a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and how to become one, well it is simple in words but believe me it is hard in act. in words I can say that you should put every act in your life to a simple scale whether this act is right or wrong you may say that this is a sentence we tell kids in order to be good children and that for adults it is more complicated than that and that the line between right and wrong is rather vague cause as an adult you'll be in certain situation that will oblige you to lie, deceive, and other stuff for the greater good, well to tell the truth as I was writing that exact previous sentence I was like what is this crap I'm writing how come an intelligent human being is not able to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, that is just absurd to even think of, the strange thing is that we forbid our children from doing or even thinking of these things and why is that? the answer is simpler than you think it is just that we want them to stay pure while in our custody and after that they may got corrupted as they like and that is the story of us all so why do we need to get corrupted the answer for that is cause we choose to be and don't tell me "we have to in order to be able to live in this world" and such crap, it is simply what you choose to be not what the world want you to be so the moment of truth is whenever you decide that it is enough of the lying, deceiving... and it is time to be a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and believe me there is no loss in that not so ever so be true to your self and that is what matters.

Bushido

2006-08-20T04:04:00.000+04:00

Bushido meaning "way of the warrior," is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of life, loosely analogous to the European concept of chivalry, Bushido is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe.
Bushido expanded and formalized the earlier code of the samurai, and stressed frugality, loyalty, mastery of martial arts, and honor to the death. Under the Bushido ideal, if a samurai failed to uphold his honor he could regain it by performing seppuku (ritual suicide).

So here come the question what is that thing that require the samurai to kill them-self if they have to and why are they obliged to live by it if it require them to kill them-self in certain situations since anyone sane enough will say this is not a way of life if it get you to kill your-self for it and what is it for you if you live by that code? I can't say that the answer for that is simple to undersatnd so the answer for this question is in one word it is "FAITH" I don't want to go through a religious stuff ( shinto or Buddhist) I just want to make my point that they believed in that this way of life is how a true warrior should liveand die.
Here are Seven virtues associated with bushido:

Gi – Rectitude
Yū – Courage
Jin – Benevolence
Rei – Respect
Shin– Honesty
Meiyo – Honor
Chū – Loyalty

Others that are sometimes added to these:

Kō - Filial piety
Chi - Wisdom
Tei - Care for the aged

well it is very obvious that these virtues are pretty impressive even for a saint so now it is more clear why the samurai believed in Bushido since it represent everything that a samurai should be endowed with so to hold these qualities and defend them is more important than life it-self for the samurai because these qualities define the samurai and without them they are nothing more than ordinary brawlers with no ethics and principles so in reality by defending these virtues the samurai defend their isism and who they are and isn't that indeed something worthy to give your life for...

I'll end my post by the word of the great Samurai Torii Mototada when he chose to stay behind in his master (Tokugawa Ieyasu) castle to provid him more time to escape.
" It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important.....For myself, I am resolved to make a stand within the castle and to die a quick death. It would not take much trouble to break through a part of their numbers and escape, no matter how many tens of thousands of horsemen approached for the attack or by how many columns we were surrounded. But that is not the true meaning of being a warrior, and it would be difficult to account as loyalty. Rather, I will stand off the forces of the entire country here, and...die a resplendent death"

Ken Shin

2006-08-09T18:58:00.000+04:00

It might be a weird word for some of you so I'll explane a little it is a Japanese word and it is formed of two syllables the first (Ken) which means a sword or blade and the second (shin) it means true (these words can come in other meanings) so these two word together means "True sword" and that doesn't mean that this sword is true and there is a fake sowrd no not like that but it means the true representation or meaning of the sword and when a person is called "Ken shin" it means "Sword's Saint".

Some might say Oh God no not another samurai freak that will talk and talk about how the samurai is great and strong and such crap while he is only a lazy ass kid who wish to be a samurai one day spending no effort, well half that is true I wish to be a samurai one day and to tell the truth I wish to be a "Ken shin" but that doesn't mean that I'll go buy a sword and go down the street and slash people and bring some heads home it is not about that no not at all it is about the essence of being a samurai and how to perform that in our daily life so I'm going to talk about the true samurai and the way of learning from the way of the samurai what will be beneficial in our way of life.

and now we arrive to the big question "why samurai?" and that is an important question really why not Medieval knights, Arabian knights, Mongol warriors....and many others, well to tell the truth I like Japanese every thing but aside from that it makes no difference because the honorable warrior will have the same ethics anywhere so you've never seen or heard of a decent warrior killing a child, a woman or an old man and we've never seen or heard about a honorable back stabbing warrior. Also in fighting technique there is no martial art that say that if your opponent's upper gard is invincible you should keep trying the same place, they all say (and believe me I know about that) that you should make a diversion to trick him so in essence there is no difference between them and as I said I like Japan and it is my descision so I say I'll deal with the SAMURAI.

My first time (don't get me wrong)

2006-08-05T19:47:00.000+04:00

Hi this is my first post ever so I hope that you'll like it and if not then what can I say since it is my first post then I better be polite and keep my moth shut.

I like to think that this post is dedicated to someone that is not me but if there is something that I've learned from all these years for living as human then let's say that not everything that you want is what you'll get and that not everything that I say is true (hey but don't think that I'm a big fat lair-at least not fat-) well I think we'll see about that.

what you should expect of this blog-spot that it will provide you with the following stuff:

Historical informations about some great people.
General and particular informations about various matial arts.
Some wisdom from the mouth of great Kyubai ( and most of it will be stupid)
I'll bore you with some of my great adventures in the Kyubai dream land.

Well I guess it will be a normal blog with some focus on Martial art and some dull remarks from the mouth of certified psycho so I hope you'll enjoy it and

"YOU DON"T NEED TO GO ANYWARE ELSE YOU NEED TO STAY ON THIS BLOG"

and now since you've read this sentence you won'y be able to navigate away from my blog because I'm sure of my talents as a Jedi HA HA HA

have a nice time sitting infront of your PC waiting for someone to free you.....