07-08 all over again...

So as the news comes in that Arsenal have agreed terms with Manchester City for Nasri, I can't help but think this is turning out to be a repeat of the 07-08 season. If anyone remembers, that was the season where many players left the club, including our best. With Fabregas already gone and Nasri leaving, it's a wonder what Wenger is going to do with the midfield. I honestly can't see it functioning without replacements. Wenger said it himself, " we can't call Arsenal a big club if both Fabregas and Nasri leave".

With all the money that Wenger has been making for the club on transfers the past couple of seasons, why can't the club push for someone big? What happened with the Mata transfer that we were so interested in getting? It's really starting to tick us gooners off. There I was relishing at the idea of having Juan Mata and suddenly I hear a Chelsea-Valencia agreement.

It's still early, the transfer deadline is on the 31st so let's hope Wenger has a surprise for us.

Uruguay vs. Paraguay - Copa America Final

It was shocking to see Brazil and Argentina get knocked out early in the competition; not just shocking but a bit sad. Everyone thought they would both surely reach the final as always; not this year it seems.

I believe Uruguay will be the champions this year, their performances in the recent World Cup shows that they are probably the most improved South American side. Its good to see another South American side do well for once.

Starting a Tumblr.

That's right, I'm starting a tumblr. The features were tempting; not so keen on the page cuztomization but let's see how it goes. Obviously, there's nothing on it at the moment but I'll be sure to see what I can do with that. be sure to follow! Thanks!

"Türkçe bilmiyorum"

Just returned from the land with the most history I've ever seen. Turkey, or Istanbul in particular, has been a very interesting experience for my family. At times I was bewildered by the amazing architecture of the old Masjids, or 'Çamii' as they are also called, old Ottoman houses, and other buildings as well, and at other times the scenery of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara were always a pleasant sight. Though we tried to enjoy ourselves as much we could, often we were put off by a number of things which left us wondering what Turkey, and Istanbul especially, was really about.

"A Photo I took of the Ayasofya"

Our entire experience there was humbling, enlightening, insulting, and also stressful; one would question if it was a holiday at all. Probably the most thing that bothered us was the way we were treated. Before leaving for Turkey, we were well informed of prices of entrance fees and transport and such things; as soon as we had entered our transport to the hotel, our "guide" offered us some tours for a price that was 7 times the regular. This wasn't the only occasion we were attempted to be ripped off. Other times there were excessive attempts to convince us we had no other choice but to pay them, lying about how the 'Satiş Noktası' (Sales point) was already closed; it was annoying.

"Further down Istiklal Street From Taksim Square"

We did not feel like guests in a country, we felt exactly like the purpose of our invitation (yes tourism is an invitation by a country); to bring our money with us and give it to them. It was very annoying being constantly called "Hajji" and treated with a friendly smile only to be attempted to be ripped off. Being presented with Menu's that had prices rubbed off, while there were perfectly good ones to give us was a clear sign. I know I'm sounding like I'm calling the entire people rip-offs; I'm not saying that, it just felt like the way we looked was a clear sign for everyone to approach us; but clearly it was alright to push us and bump into us, often being told to move out of our places because we were tourists.

What was insulting about that was the way we were constantly tagged by beggars and pimps, yes pimps, even if they could see we were with family.

During the last days I was dehydrated and couldn't see straight, I huddled over my dad to a taxi. As I got into a Taxi the driver decided... "Hmm, these guys look like in a desperate situation, let's charge them more. $10 Dollars, Hajji". Its a metered Taxi that would cost us less than a third of that!

Our holiday wasn't all bad as you can see with that smile:

"Inside the Ayasofya"

It was absolutely wonderful seeing the sites, and I could honestly say, I did not have anything that I ate there that I didn't enjoy. Everything I had was delicious, from the Döner Kebab all the way to the International foods; the Turks know food! We were cautious as to whether we were served pork or not, some places feeling ridicule for thinking we would be, and others informing us that we had the option. We left with a sense of confusion about what do Turks think is right.

Visiting the Ayasofya, Süleymaniye, and The Blue Mosque were probably the highlights of our trip. Reading the centuries of history behind these buildings was amazing. It makes one wonder which of these were built as Masjids and which were built as Churches or Synagogues, this was the case with all the mosques in the city. At times we wondered if the Sultans knew how to build Masjids or did they build Churches with minarets. My brother and I kept thinking of the Planet Naboo in Star wars and kept humming the Duel of the Fates track; hilarious!

"The Blue Mosque"

"Naboo Palace - Star Wars"

The Blue Mosque, although still functioning as a Masjid, was open to everyone to visit. Back at home in UAE, Women aren't allowed to pray in the view of men, and non-muslim visitors aren't allowed in, both of which were happening not only in The Blue Mosque, but every other mosque in the city. It was a bit annoying not knowing how to answer visitors asking us whether they could go in or not. Maybe my family and I are not built for the Tourist Role, and maybe we're just very paranoid, we could definitely say that this holiday wasn't 100%, but I believe we would definitely give it another visit, to Bursa maybe?

"Stepping into the 'Süleymaniye Camii'. My 1000th Photo"

All in all, the whole experience was good for us; we picked up some 'Türkçe' (Turkish) as some people would refuse to answer us in any other language; (the words "Türkçe bilmiyorum" which would get the message through that we didn't know Turkish) , and we became grateful for what we are used to at home. I myself felt glad that a country such as Turkey was getting ahead in this world; its political influence rising, I'm happy; being a Muslim and all, but I couldn't help feel that the Turkish people are a bit confused as to where they belong and their own identity. These were the same sentiments our "guide" at the start was feeling. In places we saw people who called themselves Muslims and were fully clothed in the 'hijab' and answering calls to prayers, in others we found men of the same claim either selling women to others or themselves to gays, Friday is not a holiday and it didn't matter if you wanted to pray Friday prayers or not. We couldn't tell who was Turkish and who wasn't, some were very western and some very eastern. Though I do not judge, for I see the same thing happening right here at home, and we may be bothered by what goes on around us, but so long as we stay true to what we believe in and provide the rights of others (which Turkey does well), then only God can judge us.

The Darker Side Of The Moon

I'm really starting to hate this habit of mine: fixating on things that I don't like about a movie. "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" was, by far, much better than "Revenge Of The Fallen" in my opinion. There seemed to be a better story line, even though there were many unanswered questions and a lot of things that don't make sense. I guess those are givens when its an all action with lots of damage and destruction flash and bang movie. It had probably one of the longest action scenes I've ever seen in my entire life and all I could think about was "hmm something not right there".

The very first thing that got to me was the American history lesson everyone had to go through before continuing with the movie. Let's think a little here, was there really a need for that whole recap of how Americans reached the moon before the USSR? Did they have to bring in the real astronauts to act in the movie as a commemoration? Couldn't they just skip to the part where they say "we kept it a secret". Shortly after the history lesson, we are introduced to the new female protagonist fan service maiden! What joy! We got to see her bum before her face! Eat your heart out Megan Fox! and too many unnecessary characters; "Deep Wang" being one of them. The boss at the umm- what was it? The yellow floor working place?

I was quite surprised to see vehicles other than American, even though they called them and I quote ''a piece of S%#@'', I don't know if its coincidence but it was a Japanese Datsun that was portrayed as a bad car to have. Interesting to see Maybach and Ferrari in the film; obviously plenty of product placement. It was pretty funny to see somehow, after the final battle was won, there ended up an American flag flying high and proud over the Autobots and the other soldiers.

Being a big Transformers fan from childhood, I was pretty disappointed with 'Revenge Of The Fallen' and was pleased that this sequel was not a repeat of that. I still feel like the first movie was the only one that was close to portraying the real theme of Transformers; don't get me wrong, if you enjoy an action movie, you should watch this one! Enjoy!

Summer Time! Now what?

The hot hazy weather of Dubai is reaching its peaks and surely is a sign of summer! June 21st marks the first day of summer and also the day with the most sunlight in the year! I think I'd rather stay indoors if that's the case. My mind keeps telling me that I shouldn't and that I have to get outside and get some exercise; not in this heat mate!

Living in Dubai, I come across this problem every summer; not knowing what to do. As I am of the many families that don't travel very much. I end up staying at home not knowing what exactly to do. I've always tried to get a summer job until a couple of years ago as my attempts have always failed. Tried thinking of getting some sort of exercise routine that involves swimming and stuff; how much can a person swim? Mall hopping is not an option. Its a problem I think many of our youths here have trouble with. Ultimately, I always end up at network cafes wasting my life on video gaming; very popular during the summer as you can spend lots of time indoors playing games with friends, but there's only so much a person can play.

It really is a predicament for me and my friends. Finding free ways to spend my time has been my goal this summer. I ended up finding a place to watch feature length International and Arab films, I found that the Abu Dhabi Film Festival was screening films at The Pavilion Downtown Dubai; What an opportunity! Then again, it only gets me through 2 hours of my day. Maybe I should check out the Dubai Summer Surprises.

Any suggestions?

Happy Summer, Everyone!

Green Lantern Sheds No Light

Another member of the Justice League gets a movie with this first attempt by Warner Brothers to make a DC comic into a 3D movie; too bad I didn't watch it in 3D. It was still a fun watch though, it made me kind of regret not watching it in 3D. With that said the story had A LOT of unanswered questions and loose ends.

First of all, what was the point of introducing the whole family earlier in the movie? Especially the nephew; it felt like he would be involved in the plot. Next was the antagonist or was he? I can't even remember his name! All I know is he developed a second chin, could read minds and move things at will because he got touched by yellow substance that was consuming him apparently; turns out that was the power of fear. Then, there was the question of what happens to the Yellow Ring that was forged by the guardians. They made a big deal out of it and I think many of the viewers were eager to see the power of that ring. Maybe I don't understand these things because I didn't read the comic? Well then that just makes it a bad script because it was catered only to fans of the comic.

CONSPIRACY ALERT: Notice when the physiologist/antagonist/parallax's human subject? was passing on a disk of information to the other scientist, the symbol on the disk was a triangle with an eye in the middle; very much like the 'all seeing eye' on the US dollar. This obviously suggests Freemasonry/Illuminati and the like. To give an object, which was useless to the plot in anyway, the amount of screen time it got was hard to understand except to believe they wanted to emphasize the symbol.

Am I really uninformed about the comic? Am I reading too much into this? Lemme know in the comments!