Alexander Rybak - Suomi

Alexander Rybak singing about his country Suomi "Finland".

Alexander Rybak - Suomi.mp3

Found at: FilesTube

"The Question of the Smile"

Heya! Trying nowadays to find more interesting things to read online. Stuff that I would actually like and beneficial the same time."Why not?" :P. So I just came across an interesting article written by Painter John Howard Sanden. I Never got the chance to see any of his work yet but what he wrote was worthy of note.

Sanden discussed the "Question of the Smile" and "Why is it that a broad smile is almost always wrong in a portrait" Which is kind of funny and true! Almost all of the portraits in past centuries of the women or men usually present the picture of a well composed personality without adding any more flavors "Teeth" ^__^. It kinda contradicts the reality we live in where we are supposed to give a BIG smile whenever we want to present a pleasant image for ourselves. Sanden however, tries to explain the circumstances surrounding this view point in a simple way.

The article: http://www.worldofportraitpainting.com/

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Framing Hanley - WarZone ♪

Amazing song! <3

Alan Wake: An incredible experience!

It's been so long since I've written something in this blog and I think what kinda've made me come back is wanting to share my joy and enthusiasm about the new video game: "Alan Wake".

I'm not a fan of all video games genres and it's kind of difficult for me to put my finger on what I like precisely but my taste would usually go for horror & mysteries, a good Mario game and the occasional guitar hero series.

Anyways, back to the subject. Since the announcement of Alan Wake's development in 2005 I was waiting with excitement like a little kid. It took more than 5 years to finish it. Kind of a long time but it was worth it.

"The plot follows suspense-thriller writer Alan Wake in uncovering the mystery behind the disappearance of his wife while on vacation in idyllic small-town Bright Falls, and having to deal with blackouts and visions of characters and ideas from his latest novel which he has not written yet, coming to life."

Wikipedia.

Nice huh? Like a movie or a novel. Well, this game has managed to combine all of this.

First of all, the game provides incredible cinematic effects & amazing cut scenes in which I never thought they would present. The characters were likable and the acting was realistic and believable.

They did an amazing job on the graphics which was absolutely refreshing and that of course what Remedy "The developers of the game" have always wanted.

The game is presented also in an episodic format. Now THAT we don't usually see in video games. The fact that each part of the Alan Wake ends like a thrilling T.V series was just amazing. Their inspiration of "LOST" was deeply reflected in the game and although I don't watch the T.V series anymore I actually enjoyed this.

Their deal with the band "Poets Of The Fall" was the winning prize for me. They've featured a new song from their new album called "War" plus they wrote 2 other songs specifically for the game.

I finished Alan Wake in 3 days, it should've taken longer but I just wouldn't get out from the daman couch! And what thrilled me more is the promise from the developers with a sequel, which was something they were planning for actually prior the release.YAY! xD

Rating: 8.5/10

Daughtry - No Surprise {MUSIC VIDEO}

Daughtry keeps getting more awesome! <3

Qatar Dayz!

Heya! ;) Got back from Qatar 3 days ago. I always enjoyed this country. It suddenly jumped from being just a small place to the new Dubai in just four years! Ok maybe not the new Dubai to be exact, but it’s heading there. After their discovery of gas things are beginning to change magnificently, and I won’t be surprised if it became the new ‘thing’ in the world.

My cousin and I decided to take a one week trip to Qatar. We have a close relative there who keeps asking us to come from time to time. And when the time was right, we packed our things and headed there without any delay. We arrived at 2 p.m which was perfect. We had time to sleep and take some rest before going out to our usual places. At 5.30 or so we went out to the famous mall ‘Villagio’. We had coffee and dessert and then went on to check out the shops and what else is new. One important thing I did is heading to ‘Virgin Megastore’ to ask about a specific book. I always enjoyed the T.V Series “CASTLE”, and part of their marketing was publishing novel relating to the series. Sadly, Virgin informed me that they don’t have it. I guess Amazon will ultimately be the solution. Afterwards, we had dinner at Villagio as well since there wasn’t enough time to head anywhere else.

Official website: http://villaggioqatar.com/

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The following morning we went to another famous place ‘The Pearl’. Aaaah can’t describe how magnificent this place is! The beach, the yachts, coffee shops, restaurants and famous designer’s boutiques. First thing we did is having a nice hot coffee in ‘Chocolate Bar’, and boy… what a sinful thing we ate!

Yummmy...

Of course, during the week we went to the pearl a couple more times. Not just because it was a great place, but the weather was by far the best we’ve witnessed in Qatar in years and we figured that it would be a shame if we didn’t enjoy it in the right places.

The Pearl: http://www.thepearlqatar.com/main.aspx

My cousins wanted to see a movie afterwards, and they agreed on watching Avatar! I saw the movie earlier but I didn’t complain…… actually I was for it!. Avatar was one of those few movies where it’s easy for you to enjoy watching it again. However, when we entered.. something bothered a lot. Lots of scenes were deleted and I didn’t quite understand why. Was it because they wanted to shorten it – the movie’s original full l runtime is 2 hours and 42 minutes – or they figured that there were some boring details that didn’t matter?!. It was really annoying. Even the cuts were done a non professional way. It’s sad really, to screw up such a good peace of genius for lame excuses, but thankfully, my cousins managed to enjoy the movie despite all this.

For dinner, we went to W Hotel. It was my first time visiting it and I must say I’m impressed! We dined at the ‘Spice Market’ and it was really crowded. Our dishes were mainly based on salads and Sushi. Everything was exceptionally delicious, especially the Tampora sushi & Mango salad *Drooooools*. My only remark on the restaurant was that the service was kinda slow, but it was redeemed when the food came.

Picture isn't that clear but the taste is great!

And who could forget one of the best cultural places in Al Doha? “Soog Waqef”! . We went there 3 times and I must say we can’t get enough of it!. It presents deep cultural roots combined by a variety of small Lebanese + Italian restaurants that provide excellent food and service.

This was basically what I did in Qatar and I can’t wait to visit it again and again. I'm sure that I've bored you to death! But a blog isn’t a blog unless you try your best to say whatever you wanna say ;)

XOXO

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k
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Longview - Further {MUSIC VIDEO}

Love this song <3
Still makes me sad after all these years....

Lebanese dayz!

I actually came back from Lebanon three days ago..

The objective from this trip? Well I mentioned before that my dear big sis is getting married. She purchased her dress from there and it arrived to us by DHL. However, there were some small details that were needed to be fixed and to her sorrow we couldn’t find anyone in Riyadh who is able to fix the problem in a professional way because there were some risks. Therefore she arranged another trip with my dad and I got the chance to go with them :P. At first, we kept telling ourselves that this trip is strictly business and we must not allow Beirut to dazzle us and sweeps us off our feet >_<. This city is like magic! It forces you to enjoy every single bit of it until the end. Problem is that we only had three days, and we knew that with fear! . We arrived at 7 p.m, and we were staying at the Holiday Inn.

Love the Holiday inn!

My sister’s appointment with the designer was in the following day at 10 am. So what was the next rational thing to do? Movie time Of course! I always wanted to watch Avatar, and thankfully a 3D theater was available. Important note, NEVER EVER watch Avatar in a regular version. Not that it will not be amazing, but a 3D movie experience is much BETTER < We know duh! :/

My sis was not psyched to watch it at first. Plus, she always identified herself as a hater of science fiction films and I was aware of that fact. I assured her that it’s not the case and convinced her to enter it. My dad on the other hand was cool with watching anything as long as the movie has performed well in the American box office.

We were all Wowed! Honestly, can’t think of another word to describe what we felt. The storyline, the music, the acting. Everything was absolutely marvelous. However, as I said before, this movie is a “3D Cinema experience”, and its right would not be justified by a movie night in the living room, unless you have a Home movie Cinema, then the case might be different.

Afterwards, we went dining at a really small crowded yet classy restaurant called ‘Al Mayass’. The waiters were really nice and the food was great. However my only problem at the beginning was how hot the place is, afterwards I realized that I was the only person wearing a coat in the restaurant O_o. I struggled at the beginning... convincing myself that I look better with my yellow coat on, but in the end I was like "SCREW LOOKS!” and took it off. A waiter was right beside me and took my coat to hang it right away.

The food just was delicious, we ordered Hummus Ma Lahma, Batata harra, Armenian salad, Warak enab, rice and our main BEST dish 'Cherry Kebab' .. Yummy! . Later they asked us if we wanted any desserts however by that time we were full. My dad paid, the nice waiter helped me with my coat and then we exited the restaurant. Sure, I’ll return again if I ever had the chance.

The next day, and after we were done from my sister’s appointment, we had our hearts set on seeing some snow! After all it was winter time and the mountains were full it. My dad agreed and said that it’s time for us to see something new than the city. So we headed it off to the mountains. And it was just magnificent!

Pretty cool huh? BRRRRRRRRRR…

Afterwards we had lunch at a restaurant called ‘Babel’. It was a really classy place!, and we actually got the opportunity to see a one famous Lebanese singer ‘Wael Kfoury’ lunching there with some friends and we managed to say hi.. aIthough I actually dislike him! >_<

These are some of the events of my trip and I gotta say it was a really enjoyable one. Next Thursday I’ll be heading off to Qatar Insha’Allah. And hopefully once I'm back I'll be blogging about it without any delay. ;)
XOXO

HapPpY Late New Year!

Hello dear blog, long time no see! I guess this is going to be my first post in 2010~! HapPpY new year by the way! Hope it’s not too late to publish a small post about some of the stuff relating to that evening. It was a lot of fun!

Chill! These are just redbulls ! :P

We celebrated it at a close friend’s place, and she was nice enough to arrange the whole thing! Everything was just awesome and we had a blast. We timed the beginning of the New Year, and once the clock ticked 12... We started screaming with joy jumping around and then having a group hug. We played the classical happy New Year song and invented stupid dance moves to go along with it! I managed to make a C.D MiX especially for this occasion, Arabic music ‘Majed al Muhandis - Abdul Majid Abdullah - Rashid al Majed followed by some Gaga, Katdeluna and Kesha songs. I returned home feeling exhausted, the energy was all gone and all was left of me was a body wanting to sleep it off for many hours.

P.S: To our beautiful bride! We missed you.. <3

The next day ‘The first of January’ our cousin came by the house and we had this ‘new year envelope night’. We were supposed to write about things that we wanted to see ourselves succeed on doing in 2010. I actually wrote a long list of things, some of them important and others were completely and utterly stupid! But the process of closing an envelope and not opening it till next year was exciting for me!. Yes sealing an envelope with wax might sound ridicules to a lot of people, but I actually enjoyed it!.. I’ll let you know if any the stuff that I wrote came true next year! ;0)