DISQUS

I find it funny to see people getting back to square 1. I mean, aren't these the principles of life for our grandparents without much thinking or debating? Our life got complicated with technology, and we are now trying to make it simple without reducing our use of technology, hence the irony.

I am glad to realize that I keep many habits of my people, and although I am a bit into technology, my life isn't that complicated yet.

@Tim, your book is not available in Arabic, is it?

"From AFRICA to EUROPE"!? Wow, you make it sound like a very far trip. If you meant NORTH Africa, and more precisely Morocco - Tangiers, then the trip is usually around 2 hours by plane.

But still, nice achievement!

Que fait Salman Rushdie dans ce clip!

Completely off-topic: I couldn't help noticing how your crossed your legs Tim. The bottom of your shoes is facing your interviewer. Rings a bell?
Maybe not... In my culture, it's really rude!

I can't believe that there was no pain at all during this exercise. Are you kidding me! *I* felt the pain from here!

I once saw a video of you teaching a lady a self-defense tip. I'd love to see more of those videos.

Hi Tim!

I just got an email letting me know that I won one of the MoGo mouses. Sounds great, right? But actually, I didn't participate in your technology contest, and I see that many people participated properly with videos and everything. I hate to think that I am getting a mouse that someone else deserves better. You probably mistook my email for someone else's, so please take the time to correct it.

Congrats to all the winners!

Hi Tim,

Did you say that was a healthy breakfast? When I see you get the food off many packages and use the microwave, a voice screams in my head: "not healthyyyy"!
According to my Moroccan standards at least, this breakfast doesn't sound/look healthy.

:)

We don't celebrate X-mas in Morocco -since we are Muslims-, but there are signs of it everywhere in downtown.
I found out about the flying monkey on the Internet a few weeks ago, and asked someone in the US to send me a few to gift to my nephews and nieces in our own celebrations, that are for soon as well.

I wonder who won the weekend planning challenge.

Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone in advance.

I gather we should tell you about a real plan for this current weekend? Not possible for me this weekend. It's not too late yet, it's just that I had a crazy busy week, and I'd rather stay home and 'recover' from all the hassle I've gone through during the week, than go out. I miss my personal emails and browsing the net for my own pleasure, so that's going to be my main activity for this weekend. Believe it or not, that's how I'll *enjoy* it. Plus long naps of course, and good food. ;)

I would love, however, to share with you two experiences I had not so long ago, thanks to which I discovered how an email-free day is truly amazing. Both occurred during week days, which added an extra for the experience.

A few weeks ago, I decided to take a break from my life, log out from the Internet for a whole day and go to the beach. I am in Agadir (Morocco), and we have some amazing beaches nearby. I picked the best one of course, although it's a bit far. I went there with the girls, my nieces and nephews (all kiddos). It was not an all adult day, nor one focused on the kids. It was quite balanced, and everyone had a great time.
I played on the sand, ran with the kids, and had fresh air. I was missing that so badly. I also walked for quite a while in the surroundings, and discovered new natural sights I had never seen before, although this was not my first visit to that beach.
We decided not to have lunch at the beach, the traditional way [you know, sitting and eating sandwiches on a towel, struggling with the parasol trying to fix it every two minutes, and trying to calm the excited kids down]. That saved us a lot of trouble and efforts.
It's amazing how you feel by the end of a spent day on the beach, when you go home in the evening.
Now I don't swim, but I make sure I spend the longest time possible around the waves and their great sound, for one purpose (do not laugh!): the feeling of dizziness [due to both fatigue and an all-day spent at the beach] I have during the whole evening, and the sound of waves in my ears. Priceless. I love it when I go to bed, dead tired, feeling great, waves' sound in my ears, and a bit dizzy like if I am still at the beach. I could swear at times that my bed is a huge wave transporting me, to the arms of Morpheus. ;)
I should confess that I cheated though, by checking my emails during the day, but only once, which is a huge achievement for me. And I actually didn't fully cheat by reading them like I would usually do. I was actually waiting for an important email, and could not wait until the evening to get the news. I basically just checked the senders' names in vertical reading, looking for a specific name, when it wasn't it there, I logged out immediately. So that doesn't count, huh?
I have pictures of that weekend, but surprise surprise, I am not on Flickr. I don't mind sharing them with you though, Tim.

My second experience was in the middle of a super active week, and in the holy month of Ramadan [during which we Muslims fast]. We went by 'bus', and the trip started around 3am. My girls and I arrived to Marrakesh around 8am. That means we were there at 8am, exhausted, lacking of sleep, hungry and thirsty. Hmmm, but it was not as bad as it sounds. ;) I have to confess that this trip was not basically for our own pleasure, but we decided to enjoy it to the max. So around midday, we were done with the main reason of our trip, and went to discover the city. Majorelle Garden, we thought! And there we went. It's a famous garden in Marrakesh that has plants from the four corners of the world. Check out its pictures on my blog:
http://www.lalla-mira.com/2007/09/27/my-trip-to...
-- The sight, colors and atmosphere inside the garden were so relaxing we decided to stay there for quite a while.
There were many other interesting places to visit in Marrakesh, but we had to go back to Agadir the same day. We got our bus tickets, spent a few hours on the road and I was home around 8pm. I decided to call it a day, and not even check my emails until the following day, when I felt like I hadn't been online for ages.

I think this will do for now. No need to tell you about the week I spent in Paris, and how I felt about being disconnected from the world. I mean, the Internet. The circumstances were different, I *had* to check my emails selectively a few times during my stay there, but when I came home, I realized how wonderful it is to lose contact with the virtual world for a whole week.

Ooops for the long comment, hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Have a nice weekend everyone. :)

I hope they don't break down after that year and go compensate for it in some massive shopping.

I've always had this impression about Americans being heavy consumers. We can't afford being that in Morocco. No generalization here, I am talking about average Moroccan citizens. Like a working father, earning a monthly salary of $700, a housewife and 3 kids. You can't but be frugal in such cases. You'd be buying clothes twice a year, and major purchases (TV, refrigerator or washing machine in most cases, no dishwasher or vacuum cleaner) are scheduled every dozen of years, if not more.

That's not your handwriting in Arabic, is it? Is it?

I saw this video before, and I LOVED it!

This earth clock does not provide exact information, it's just estimations.