randompersonalthoughts-blog

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Book review : The Winner Stands Alone

                                           I just ( yesterday) finished reading Paulo Coelho's book the 'The winner stands alone'. In this book, the writer explores the theme of fame , glamour and fashion during the festival of Cannes and as we can see he seems to be criticizing it. The book essentially talks about a Russian guy Igor, who went to Cannes in order to convince his wife Ewa who dumbed him and married another guy, Hamid Hussein , to go back with him to Russia so they can fulfil their dream of living happily in a small house near to the Baikal lake. After a few sacrifices ( or messages) , Igor finds out through one of the victimes soul that his wife  is not worth it and all the love in his heart switched into nothing but hate so he decided to kill the couple.  Usually, the bad guy gets caught but in this case , after killing 6 people, Igor gets away with it and goes back to Russia in his private jet which is illogical because the police was looking for him and since he went back to his hotel room, he should have been arrested. Another thing, we did not know what is going to happen to certain characters such as those who were working on the case of the few murders. It's like they have been forgotten or something.

I actually loved the book , but I think it is somehow unfinished. I read online that Coelho is usually more spiritual and this book was an exception ( this is my first PC book).

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You'd kill yourself for recognition, kill yourself to never ever stop You broke another mirror, you're turning into something you are not

Radiohead - High & Dry

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KARMA POLICE - RADIOHEAD 

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60 second reading : Fame ( Paulo Coelho novel )

This is a excerpt from the book of Paulo Coelho , The winner stands alone which is not only an entertaining novel but also a also a very educational book about different aspects of fame mainly  music , film industry and fashion.

         Hamid looks at the small crowd pressed up against the metal barriers. He has never understood this phenomenon, having been brought up in a place where such things simply don’t happen. Once he asked a friend why there was so much interest in celebrities.

    “Don’t assume they’re all fans,” said his friend. “Since time immemorial, men have believed that being close to something unattainable and mysterious can bring blessings. That’s why people make pilgrimages to visit gurus and sacred places.”

“But Cannes?!”

     “It can be anywhere they might catch a distant glimpse of some elusive celebrity. For the adoring crowd, a wave from a celebrity is like being scattered with ambrosia dust or manna from heaven.

    “It’s the same everywhere. Take, for example, those massive pop concerts that seem more like religious meetings, or the way people are willing to wait outside some sell-out performance at a theater just to see the Superclass entering and leaving. Take the crowds who go to football stadiums to watch a bunch of men chasing after a ball. Celebrities are idols, icons if you like, after all, they do resemble the paintings you see in churches and can become cult images in the bedrooms of adolescents or housewives, and even in the offices of industrial magnates, who, despite their own enormous wealth, envy their celebrity.

“There’s just one difference: in this case, the public is the supreme judge, and while they may applaud today, tomorrow they’ll be equally happy to read some scandalous revelation about their idol in a gossip magazine. Then they can say: ‘Poor thing. I’m so glad I’m not like him.’ They may adore their idol today, but tomorrow they’ll stone and crucify him without a twinge of conscience.”

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The list of 'Normal' from Paulo Coelho novel 'The Winner Stands Alone'

                        1. Normal is anything that makes us forget who we are and what we want; that way we can work in order to produce, reproduce,and earn money.

2. Setting out rules for waging war (the Geneva Convention).

3. Spending years studying at university only to find at the end o fit all that you’re unemployable.

4. Working from nine till five every day at something that gives you no pleasure at all just so that, after thirty years, you can retire.

5. Retiring and discovering that you no longer have enough energy to enjoy life and dying a few years later of sheer boredom.

6. Using Botox.

7. Believing that power is much more important than money and that money is much more important than happiness.

8. Making fun of anyone who seeks happiness rather than money and accusing them of “lacking ambition.”

9. Comparing objects like cars, houses, clothes, and defining life according to those comparisons, instead of trying to discover the real reason for being alive.

10. Never talking to strangers. Saying nasty things about the neighbors.

11. Believing that your parents are always right.

12. Getting married, having children, and staying together long after all love has died, saying that it’s for the good of the children (who are, apparently, deaf to the constant rows).

12a. Criticizing anyone who tries to be different.

14. Waking up each morning to a hysterical alarm clock on the bedside table.

15. Believing absolutely everything that appears in print.

16. Wearing a scrap of colored cloth around your neck, even though it serves no useful purpose, but which answers to the name of “tie.”

17. Never asking a direct question, even though the other person can guess what it is you want to know.

18. Keeping a smile on your lips even when you’re on the verge of tears. Feeling sorry for those who show their feelings.

19. Believing that art is either worth a fortune or worth nothing at all.

20. Despising anything that was easy to achieve because if no sacrifice was involved, it obviously isn’t worth having.

21. Following fashion trends, however ridiculous or uncomfortable.

22. Believing that all famous people have tons of money saved up.

23. Investing a lot of time and money in external beauty and caring little about inner beauty.

24. Using every means possible to show that, although you’re just an ordinary human being, you’re far above other mortals.

25. Never looking anyone in the eye when you’re traveling on public transport, in case it’s interpreted as a sign you’re trying to get off with them.

26. Standing facing the door in an elevator and pretending you’re the only person there, regardless of how crowded it is.

27. Never laughing too loudly in a restaurant however good the joke.

28. In the northern hemisphere, always dressing according to the season: bare arms in spring (however cold it is) and woolen jacket in autumn (however hot it is).

29. In the southern hemisphere, covering the Christmas tree with fake snow even though winter has nothing to do with the birth of Christ.

30. Assuming, as you grow older, that you’re the guardian of the world’s wisdom, even if you haven’t necessarily lived enough to know what’s right and wrong.

31. Going to a charity tea party and thinking that you’ve done your bit toward putting an end to social inequality in the world.

32. Eating three times a day even if you’re not hungry.

33. Believing that other people are always better than you— better-looking, more capable, richer, more intelligent—and that it’s very dangerous to step outside your own limits, so it’s best to do nothing.

34. Using your car as a weapon and as impenetrable armor.

35. Swearing when in heavy traffic.

36. Believing that everything your child does wrong is entirely down to the company he or she keeps.

37. Marrying the first person who offers you a decent position in society. Love can wait.

38. Always saying, “I tried” when you didn’t really try at all.

39. Postponing doing the really interesting things in life for later, when you won’t have the energy.

40. Avoiding depression with large daily doses of television.

41. Believing that you can be sure of everything you’ve achieved.

42. Assuming that women don’t like football and that men aren’t interested in home decoration and cooking.

43. Blaming the government for all the bad things that happen.

44. Thinking that being a good, decent, respectable person will mean that others will see you as weak, vulnerable, and easy to manipulate.

45. Being equally convinced that aggression and rudeness are synonymous with having a “powerful personality.”

46. Being afraid of having an endoscopy (if you’re a man) and giving birth (if you’re a woman).

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A look up at the 2011 Tunisian elections

For those who were living in a cave or kidnapped for the 9 past months, the revolution spirit has spread in the Arab World, starting from Tunisia who is witnessing today, 23/08/2011 on of the most important events that will be graved in its history, or at least on her citizens fingers for the next two days thanks to the blue INK ( to assure that no one votes twice ) : First free and true elections.

The main political parties are Ennahdha , the islamic party in the country which is expected to gain the most votes . His 1st concurrent is ETTAKATOL - FDTL : Democratic forum for work and liberties , then comes the PCOT , the communistic party , CPR Congress for Republic and in a less degree the Pole.

The voting strated at 7 am and will be closed at 7 pm. The Voting Offices have been full and the voters are from different ages and social degrees , one thing is for sure is that they are all equal and enjoying to practise a right that they have been prohibbited to have or even to talk about about for the last half century,that's why the participating rate reached 70 % of the population

Here are some of the pictures online :

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Dedication to Steve Jobs

October 5 , 2011 is one of those unforgettable dates where the world lost one the most stunning persons in the technological field : Steve Jobs.

What I did not know about Steve jobs :

He was the adoptive child of Paul & Clara jobs , due to fact that his biological parents Joanne Schieble American of Swiss and German ancestry and Abdulfattah John gave him up because his biological mother's parents did not approve on the marriage of their daughter to a Syrian  . They got married one year later and had one daughter, Mona Simpson who met Steve in 1986, as they were adults but they had since then a close relashioship. His Biological father's attempts to contact him were unseccessful and the fact that Steve died without bonding up with his father is kind of  sad, but it depends whether those ttempts were before or after his son's wealth.

Jobs has faught the pancreatic cancer since 2004 and gave up the fight on October 5 2011.

A true source of a inspiration :

Dropping out college to pursue his dream , the 21 years old steve jobs started making and selling personal computers in HIS GARAGE ( A lesson we can learn from Jobs is that you can start from nothing, you just gotta have the guts ). He became multimillionaire before turning out 30. Falling but never giving up : Macintosh fell did not stop Steve from building a new computer company , NeXt , then was the Pixar , a computer animation firm that produced Toy Story which was a box office hit. But he went back to basis and rejoined Apple in 1996 .   Anyway , the star products of Jobs and Apple are everything that starts with an 'i' : iPod , iPhone , iPad essentially. The link below contains a very infuential speech by Jobs At the University of Satanford.

"I want to put a ding in the universe."  Steve Jobs

You did. RIP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&feature=player_embedded

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7 reasons to watch the CW latest show ' Hart of Dixie '

7 - Becuase it is new : 

Hart of Dixie is one of the new 2011 fall series. It started on September 26th following the hit serie Gossip Girl ( Speaking of GG, it has the same producers as HoD ). The show attracted  1.88 million US viewers. A tweeple tweetd @ScottPorter : ' I heard about the abyssal ratings for 'Hart of Dixie.' I'm sorry. I loved it.' which response was brief but expressing  'Thanks. I don't panic or worry about ratings'.

6 - Because it is a CW :

The CW is relatively new compared to abc and nbc , since it is the fruit of a corporation between CBS and Warner Bros in 2006. It has produced since high quality and world wide popular series  such as Gossip Girl , 90210 , The Vampire Diaires and yet Hart of Dixie is the latest hit show.

5 - Because it is different

Most of the shows concentrate of the material life of New York and California : High membership clubs, Limo cars and Haute Couture fashion. Well that's about to change because life standards are not the same in Bluebell Alabama.

4 - Because it is funny 

There is a dramatic show , and there is a medical show : But Dramatic , medical and funny. WOW ; well get ready because Hart of Dixie can ensure that. The pilot contained many funny scenes like Dr Zoe Hart signing  the Old man Jackon 's eye exam who run George Tucker over later , another funny scene where G.Tucker started screaming ' Because it is nice' then he fell asleep, But the funniest was the alligator one.  

3 - Because of ' Burt Reynolds'

In case you haven't met Burt Reynolds, it's the mayor pet alligator . His favorite movie : Smokey and the bandit. BEAT IT BURT !

2 - Because of the beautifull bells

The Bells are elite young ladies chosen chosen to keep our history (BlubBell's) alive'.... they are meaner than they look. 

And Lemon Breeland  proved it, but I don't think they can deal with Dr. Zoe Hart.

1- Because of its cast

Keeping the best for last, the main reason why you should watch the serie is that it has an extremely tanlented cast :

Rachel Bilson as Dr. Zoe Hart Jaime King as Lemon Breeland Cress Williams as Lavon Hayes McKaley Miller as Rose Hattenbarger Wilson Bethel as Wade Kinsella Scott Porter as George Tucker Tim Matheson as Brick Breeland