Raِmadhan Visiting Early This Year

I know I know. Too much red and yellow, but what the heck. All I could find in my fridge was potatos and tomatoes, and three thighs. Chicken thighs that is.

Bel Janna Inshalla

Inventor of Jeans

Inventor of Ketchup

Inventor of Automatic Transmission

Inventor of Corn Flakes

Inventor of Deodorant

Inventor of Dayquil/Nyquil

Inventor of Vaseline

Inventor of Vicks

Inventor of Kinder

Creator of Tom and Jerry

Inventor of Pepsi/Coke

Inventor of Pizza

Inventor of Chay 7aleeb

Irritating ... Can't Stand 'em

Geraldo

Nancy Grace

Shepard Smith

Sean Hannity

Christiane Amanpour

Carlson Tucker

Greg Anthony

Magic

(Only when he's on TNT's Inside The NBA)

Got Un-Tagged!

I've been a little busy and away from blogging recently that I'm out of date. All of a sudden I find myself "Untagged" by Mobi, and I'm like "what the hell does tagging mean?" Anyway, after some blogger-research, I figured it out, and here I am honoring Mobi's untagging. Don't expect any Fahad Al3askar-type stuff though.

- First long book that I read:

"Into Thin Air" ... By Jon Krakauer.

When I was assigned to read this 400-page book in language school, I was like "oh no, please don't force me to read a book about MOUNTAIN CLIMBING." After I finished it, I developed a better appreciation for this kind of adventure. It's a true story about the deadliest Everest expedition ever, on which the author himself was and survived.

- Book I was inspired by:

"Code Name Ginger" ... By Steve Kemper

I was inspired by the Segway inventor - Dean Kamen. The author was hired by Kamen to chronicle the development of Segway. Excellent read!

- Books that I enjoyed a lot:

"Opening The XBox" ... By Dean Takahashi.

Another product biography. This time it's about Microsoft's mission to conquer the video game market with its XBox. Very enjoyable.

"The Silicon Boys" ... By: David Kaplan.

All about the lives of the heroes of Silicon Valley. One interesting fact the book mentioned was that Yahoo! gained as much capital as Kuwait's annual budget on its IPO day. Very amusing read.

By Dr. Michael Baden.

He used to be cheif NY medical examiner. He talks about crimes he investigated or knows very well about including JFK and O.J. Very interesting if you're a crime junkie.

- Book that wasted my time:

"Who Moved My Cheese?" ... By Spencer Johnson.

Too bad my first self-help book was a disappointment. I wonder if I'll ever read from this genre again.

- Book I was like "Duhh!!" after finishing it:

"The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd" ... By Agatha Christie.

I read a few more crime novels that weren't special enough to post about.

- Last book I read:

الكويت ... مثلث الديمقراطية ... للمؤلف: محمد الجاسم

This read was motivated by the fuss being made by and about Mr. Aljasem's mood/ideology swings, so I said let me come up to speed with everybody. It's an excellent read.

- Book I started and forgot to finish:

"A Child Called It" ... By Dave Pelzer.

- Book I have on my shelf and yet to be read:

الكويت ، الرأي الآخر ... للمؤلف د. عبدالله النفيسي

From skimming through it, basically an Al-Sabah bashing.

"Apple Confidential 2.0" ... By Owen Linzmayer.

I bought this last year when I bought my iPOD and almost switched to a MAC. It's about the history of apple. I was inspired by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) too, so I'd like to read more about him.

- Useful Resources:

مدخل للتطور السياسي في الكويت ... للمؤلف د. غانم النجار

سلسلة د. فلاح المديرس عن التوجهات السياسية في الكويت

مذكرات خالد سليمان العدساني

A treasure, not only a memoir!

- Book that gave out interesting info, but you get a sense that it hid more:

الدبلوماسية الكويتية بين المحنة والمهنة ... للمؤلف سليمان ماجد الشاهين.

Written by someone who witnessed it all first-hand, the book chronicles Kuwait's diplomacy during the Iraq-Iran war and Iraq's occupation of Kuwait. Nice one.

- Book that I read countless times (dedicated to you Mobi :P):

الوتر والدان في حياة محمد جمعة خان

A compliation of all the songs composed by his greatness :P

- Books I want to read:

Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code"

Bill Clinton's "My Life"

Jon Stewart's "America (The Book)"

فهد العسكر حياته وشعره

محاضر لجنة كتابة الدستور

Johnie Cochran's "A Lawyer's Life"

Well folks, here was my untagging. I just wish I have more time and better mood for reading.

Open-Minded II

This is a follow-up on the previous post. I asked the "open-minded" question because I've been hearing about people dubbed "open-minded" for reasons that I think are as far away from open-mindedness as can be.

A while ago, a friend of mine got asked by an american guy why she wasn't wearing a Hijab. She answered "I come from an 'open-minded' family and my parents never talked to me about it." What the hell does wearing a scarf or not have to do with being open minded!

I also hear not-so-religious people being called "open minded." Can't you be religious and at the same time open minded? I'm not talking about religious fanaticism or politics. I'm talking about simple Kuwaitis who practice religion moderately (multazmeen). Can't you wear a scarf and still be open minded? You sure can!

I heard private school studnets being generalized as "open minded;" students called "open minded" because they study abroad; girls dressing up provacatively being called "open minded." If someone makes a judgement based on such shallow matters, then they couldn't be more closed-minded in my opinion.

The moral is: generalization is no good. You can't pick a segment of the population and say they're open-minded.

Now to answer my question, well ... I can't say it any better than what you guys said. The best definition, I thought, was Sloth's (min gaddich:P): "listen and learn." No matter how much disagreement you have with a certain situation or person, just watch, listen, and learn for yourself. I also liked Rasheed's "everything's relative."

Shurouq asked: "is there absolute open-mindedness?" Well, I think there isn't anything absolute. I think it's in in human nature to have some contradictions. It's like Mobi's قصمصم. You can be open-minded and objective, but at the same time be blindedly biased towards something. Nevertheless, let's hear everybody's answer.