Subzero Blue

Santana – All That I Am

These past couple of days, I’ve been listening to Santana’s new album “All That I Am“, which is another magnificent work of pure art.

Santana’s guitar does another set of wonders on this album, in which he collaborates with artists like Joss Stone, Michelle Branch, Mary J. Blige, Will.i.Am, Steven Tyler, Bo Bice, sean Paul and others.

My favourite songs off this album are: “El Fuego”, “I Am Somebody”,
“I’m feeling you”, “Twisted”, “Cry Baby Cry”, “Brown Skin Girl”, “I Don’t Wan’t Wanna Lose Your Love”…etc.
In fact every song on this album is a potential hit and favourite, making this album another great hit packed album just like “Shaman” and “Supernatural” were.

His music is just so much fun, his guitar is really sexy and beautiful, and his collaborations with other artists are very successful.

I totally recommend this album to every music lover. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

My score for it is: 9.5/10.

Chocolat

Today, I finally got around to seeing “Chocolat“, a movie featuring Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina and Carrie-Ann Moss.

I heard a lot about this movie, and I know that it was nominated for 5 Oscars, and I know that it has great actors in it, but I don’t know why I only chose to rent it yesterday and see it today.

As the name suggests, this is quite a delicious light movie. Very nice story, good acting, cool music and a little lesson behind it all.

The movie is about a woman and her daughter, who open a chocolate shop in a small Catholic French village with a strict mayor, who tries to turn the whole village against them, and how they end up shaking up the village and its community’s rigid morality.

My score for this movie is: 7/10.

Just Not My Day!

You know those days when the only thing missing is to have a big red sign bouncing in front of you telling you in capital letters that “This is a shitty day!”?
Well today is one of those days…

I had to wake up early to go for this “thing” in downtown Tunis, and it turned out a complete waste of time. Blah blah blah… Ah shutup already!

Then I had to go pay my car insurance. I’m with Star Assurances, and my contract was done at this small branch in La Marsa, next to my parents’ place. I used to give my dad the money to pay it for me as it’s just across the street from their place, but this year, they closed that branch and merged it with a bigger one in the beginning of La Marsa.

Anyway, I was driving to La Marsa, minding my own business, not really speeding, or at least it didn’t feel like I was, especially at this place between Ain Zaghouan and Carrefour where the road is really wide and is made up of 4 or 5 lanes. Obviously the cops didn’t share my opinion, and they picked me up on their radar, waved me to the side, took away my driving license and gave me a speeding ticket!!!
They say the speed limit is 70Km/h there. What is it with these illogical speed limits we have sometimes? This specific place should at least have a 90 Km/h speed limit.

However, as if that wasn’t enough, I drove on to La Marsa and didn’t find the damn insurance company branch!
I know where it is, and I go exactly there, but nope, the sign is gone and nothing says where they went.
I ask their ex-neighbours and each one points me to a different direction. I drive all around La Marsa looking for them, and nothing!
I call the main branch on the phone, an answering machine tells me to hang on until someone replies, but no one does!!!

This is so damn unprofessional!!
You shut a branch, merge it with another branch, then shut that branch and move to somewhere else, and I, the paying client, am not notified about any of all this. All I get is a reminder that I have to pay!
I mean, it’s not enough that insurance is the biggest scam mankind ever created and that I personally believe it’s 100% legal theft, I also have to deal with all this unprofessionalism! Please!

So, after cursing the hell out of the world, I just go home in the shittiest mood.
I mean, basically, today on a weekend, I woke up early to go out, get a speeding ticket and then come back with a bad mood. Very nice!!

Save The Whales

The blue whales of the Antarctic are still at less than 1 percent of their original abundance despite 40 years of complete protection. Some populations of whales are recovering but some are not. Only one population, the East Pacific grey whale, is thought to be near its original abundance but the closely related West Pacific grey whale population is the most endangered in the world hovering on the edge of extinction with just over 100 remaining. The number of Antarctic whales is less than 10 percent of what it was before whaling began.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. However, Japan has continued hunting for what it calls scientific research – a claim rejected by critics.

“Japan is flouting international agreements and public opinion by escalating its slaughter of whales, especially when everyone knows their claims of scientific research are just an excuse to get fresh whale meat on to Japanese dinner plates,” said Greens leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons.

Despite international protests, Japan has this year more than doubled its planned catch of minke whales to 935. It has also added 10 endangered fin whales and plans to eventually lift the number to 50, along with 50 rare humpback whales.

[More: Greenpeace]
[Via: Pourquoi Pas?]

Freedom Of Racism?!

A Norwegian Christian magazine has published a set of controversial caricatures of the prophet Mohammed after months of uproar in the Muslim world over a Danish paper’s decision to print the same cartoons.

Repeating a move by conservative Danish paper Jyllands-Posten last September, Magazinet published the controversial drawings in the name of “freedom of expression”.

The editor said he was not afraid of the prospect of facing the same indignation and even death threats that faced the Danish paper after it published the cartoons.

[Source: Al Jazeera]

Since when has racism and disrespect for other people’s beliefs and religions been incorporated into the definition of freedom of expression?!!

[Via: Sabbah]

Levi’s iPod RedWire DLX Jeans

So, what do you know? The Apple iPod has gone to bed with a pair of Levi Strauss jeans, and the result is the world’s first iPod-compatible pair of jeans, called the RedWire DLX.

Designed for both men and women, The RedWire DLX jean comes complete with a built-in docking cradle, retractable headphones and a joystick in the watch pocket to enable easy operation.

The new Levi’s RedWire DLX jeans have been developed to be practical and leading-edge in their aesthetic. A crisp white leather patch and joystick, bluffed back pockets with hidden stitching, and clean minimalist buttons and rivets allude to the iPod’s famously pure design. Special care has been taken to marry the physical design with a great-fitting jean. Or so they say…

This is yet another iPod-based fashion apparel; after the haute couture fashion houses’ pricey iPod carrying cases, Burton Snowboards’ iPod-compatible waterproof snowboarding jacket, and Kenpo’s men’s jackets featuring iPod controls on the sleeve.

I wonder if Victoria’s Secret will be incorporating the iPod into some of its designs 😉

[Sources: Reuters, MacDailyNews]

The Brothers Grimm

Today I watched “The Brothers Grimm” featuring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Monica Bellucci.
The reviews I read about the movie weren’t that good, but I went on and rented it anyway, I don’t know why. And no, it’s not because Monica Bellucci is in it. Maybe it’s because I was a fan of the Grimm tales when I was a kid.

Anyway, the reviews were right, this movie sort of sucks.
It tells the story of brothers Will and Jake Grimm who are travelling con-artists, and how they encounter a genuine fairy-tale curse which requires genuine courage instead of their usual bogus exorcisms.

The sets are well done, the design and era is good, the special effects were nice, but the script and directing didn’t make good use of it all, making it a boring and pointless movie.

If you’re expecting Grimm tales in this movie, you’ll get nothing but small references or snips here and there.

If you were thinking of watching this one, go get something else. It’s not worth the time.

My score for it: 3/10.

Still, if you’re interested you can buy the DVD here.

BioDiesel in Tunisia

The prices of fuel keep on rising all over the world, and no one is winning except the big oil companies.
The consumer is losing more and more money on fuel for transport and other uses, and the environment continues to be suffocated by our fuel emissions. It’s just those big oil companies that happily sit on very fat wallets while the whole world goes to hell.

Us Tunisians are luckier than others because the government subsidizes a percentage of the fuel price to keep it lower for us, but the country won’t be able to go on doing that forever, as prices soar even higher and demand continues to grow.
That’s why, just like the rest of the world, we should be looking for alternative fuel and energy options.

There are many directions that companies and governments around the world are pursuing to get rid of the human dependency on petroleum based fuels, ranging from the simple to the really sophisticated.

An option that I find really accessible for a country like Tunisia, that can’t afford to invest a lot of money in hydrogen-powered fuel cells for example, is BioDiesel.

Biodiesel is fuel made from renewable materials such as vegetable oils or animal fats, or even recycled fryer oil. It is biodegradable and non-toxic, and has significantly fewer emissions than petroleum-based diesel when burned. It also functions in current diesel engines and reduces engine wear by as much as one half.

Biodiesel is made through a process called transesterification whereby the glycerine is separated from the vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products – biodiesel (Mono-alkyl ester) and glycerine (a valuable by-product used in soaps and other products).

I really wish the government or some private companies would explore this option and maybe other ones too that could help reduce our dependency on environment-unfriendly foreign fuel and keep the fuel prices low.

Konami’s Penguin Adventure

Penguin Adventure I spent a big part of this past weekend playing Pro Evolution Soccer 5 on Playstation 2, which is a really cool game, although I think I’ve worn out my beginner’s luck in it now, and it seems that the more I play, the worse I’m getting at it.

Anyway, PES5 was developed by a company called Konami, and well the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the name Konami is this game they developed back in 1986 which was called “Penguin Adventure“.
The story of the game follows Pentarou, a cute penguin who has to go on a quest to bring home a golden apple in order to cure Penko Hime (the Penguin Princess).

The game was for the MSX computer platform, and it must’ve been one of the best and most popular games of its time. It was a sequel for an arcade game by the name of “Antartic Adventure“.
I remember endless days playing that game with my sister and cousin. It was so much fun and so cool at the time.

The graphics were great (by 1986 standards) and the gameplay, depth and variety were really good.

I think it is certainly one of the games that could be revived today, especially on mobile phones.

That penguin is a legend that will live in my memory and the memories of many others forever, representing a beautiful time in our lives, when I guess we too thought life was just a quest to find some golden apple.

I don’t think we were too far from the truth anyway, as everyone of us has his own golden apple waiting for him at the end of one of life’s roads.

Eid El Adha Mubarak

Eid El Adha, or the big Eid, as we Tunisians call it, is tomorrow.
The big Eid comes with the end of the Hajj, and is the day in which muslims worldwide sacrifice sheep in commemoration of the prophet Abraham’s story with his son.
It’s also a day of sharing, as people are supposed to give away some of the sheep meat to the poor.

Prices for sheep have sky-rocketed this year, even more than previous years, it’s as if they run on oil or something. Yet that hasn’t stood in the way of Tunisians obsessively competing to buy their sheep.

As usual, we’ll be going to my parent’s place for lunch, then visiting some close relatives.

Eid Mubarak to everyone.
May it be a happy and blessed Eid for you all.

And hey, take it easy on your stomachs…