Friday, June 22, 2007

A Window to my Nowadays Life

It's a new day. So I guess I survived the exams. It was hectic for this entire month. I had to submit my projects and assignments according to the deadlines, I had to revise the material for three subjects, I was and still preparing for the coming exhibition, besides that my eldest sister was here in UAE for a visit. And now I have my other sister here in UAE also staying for a month.

So many things took place on many levels, internationally, nationally and personally. The horrible news all over the world and the clashes within nations in the Arab area besides the horrifying news we hear from Baghdad are just too much to take. I stopped to follow up. I just hear from people around me about what happens the next day or so. I stopped reading news on-line; the last newspaper I read was about three weeks ago. For now I just have to read the business paper as a part of my study.

First time for "Four courses semister"

The busy life has captured me. Lately I started to wish we have 24 hours plus 8 hours to sleep. Somehow the 24 hours are not enough to accomplish everything on my "today list to do". It is taking much more time then ever to study the chapter and preparing for the lecture before the session. The four subjects I registered for might be the reason behind that. Back in collage days I used to register for the maximum hours per course, that's the advantage of a 3.6 GPA. For MBA, I'm used to three courses a semester and now it just seems impossible for four. Most of my friends who have 4 courses are preparing bits and bites for each course and some of them are even neglecting the Managerial Economy class. I'm not used to such thing. When I take a course I don't want to only pass, I want to learn.

First time for Graphics

Besides the 24 + 8 hours a day I wished if we had three hands. Wondering why? I swear it sounded smart when I said it the first time. Lately I've been working on Graphic artwork which I'm preparing for my coming exhibition and for your knowledge Graphic is not such an easy job. The first two Graphs I made were silly and childish, but eventually I could manage work on metal better than working on leno. The tools resemble those of surgeons. They are sharp and when I'm saying sharp I don't mean the glazed edges, surely not *remembering the scratches I got because of this aggressive art techniques*. As for the acids, don't get me started. They smell so bad and they are really really dangerous to inhale.

Back to the three hand idea. With masks and rubber gloves, inks, various types of acids, turpentine, thinner and other stuff that I haven't been introduced to, the toxic part of the blob effect ruins the skin and clothes. At certain times I have on hand with inks, and the other fixing the metal piece on the table, out of a sudden because of the smell my nose start itching and I have no free nor clean hand. The third sounds brilliant, right?
That's all for now
Until then...

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8 Comments:

Blogger David said...

Hi Attawie,

It sounds like you have more to do than time to do it!

I can understand why you are not following the news closely. In some ways, I am feeling that way to. There is just so much pain in the world that I feel overwhelmed by it all sometimes. So, instead of feeling bad about things that are out of my control, I try to concentrate on making a positive contribution in my own way, where I can.

I very much respect your desire to learn from your classes rather than just pass. I was always that way in school too.

I have done a bit of metal work also, but not really in an artistic way. I have tools that can cut and bend heavy steel bars, drills that can make holes in steel plates, and files that can smooth and shape pieces of steel. As far as being around dangerous fumes, good ventilation and proper safety masks are very important! If you don't have a high quality respirator mask, I strongly recommend that you buy one. I bought the sort of respirator used by professional painters and chemical workers. It was somewhat expensive, but very cheap compared to potential lung or brain damage!

Keep up all your good works Attawie and I hope you have a bit of time for fun too! :)

6/24/2007 2:16 AM  
Blogger programmer craig said...

Thank you for the update :)

6/24/2007 2:28 AM  
Blogger David said...

Attawie, I have learned about a very famous artist from the early 20th century from a post written by my friend Naj. The artist's name is Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz. Her drawings and sculptures are very emotionally expressive. What I have seen of some of her work reminded me of some of yours. I really think that you will appreciate Kollwitz's work! :)

6/26/2007 9:51 AM  
Blogger programmer craig said...

Lots of overt bigotry on that blog, David. Which I considers bit strange, since Naj spends so much time complaining about bigotry against Iranians.

She talks about the US and Israel as if her country is at war, and at the same time she complains how much the unilateral US sanctions (since 1979) have hurt Iran. But never mentions the egregious aggression against the US perpetrated by the Islamic Republic in 1979, that caused the sanctions.

She complains about Canadian "racism" against Iran too, without mentioning any of the things Iran has done to Canada. Such as imprisoning, raping, torturing and then beating to death a Canadian journalist a few years ago.

Not a nice person. Despite her claims of being unhappy with the Iranian regime, I wouldn't believe it. She is a regime supporter.

She's not a peace advocate, either. She referred to "Zionists" as "the enemy" at least once, that I saw. Peaceniks don't talk about enemies. Nor do they talk about how they can best do harm to that enemy's cause.

The woman is a fraud. I'd have more respect for her if she was open about her true opinions.

6/26/2007 11:01 AM  
Blogger Joel said...

I have a "today list to-do" and I googled it and found you today. When did you come up with that name for it?

When I came up with it I thought it was so clever of me, but I guess you should get the credit.

What was yours like (and) do you still have one?

4/23/2008 12:03 AM  
Blogger attawie said...

Hi joe,
welcome here, I think if you haven't heard of it then you're still creative to come up with this expression. I'm glad to hear I should get the credit :D though

I read Chicken Soup for the Soul and there was a short story about someone who had a life list to do or something like that, so during 2005 I came up with the expression "my life list to do" and then I found out that i won't be able to acheive them all unless i have day-to-day list and then i got my weekly and monthly list to do.

That's how i can organize myself and acheive all the goals I want to reach :)

As a muslim, my list start with saying prayers and ends with reciting Qura'an. Including three meals and two snaks, doing house keeping chors and doing homework were my basic stuff. Reading the current book I'm reading, listening to music, playing violin, spending time with my family and friends. what else? Doing the laundry, some grocery shopping. Writing in my diary to compare what i did with what i planned to do and that's the best way to track things.

I used to write a list the night before but then it became a routine. it's just a way to keep the good work going.

Good luck with your list.

4/23/2008 2:22 PM  
Blogger Joel said...

Attawie,

it's very interesting to hear about all the different ways you can manage and organize your life.

I came up with the name once when I was talking to my friend and I asked her if she had a to-do list today. And when I realized it sounded fun, I swapped it "today list to-do". Since it's a list for today of things to-to, it made perfect sense.

I am a Christian, and I too include spiritual discipline tasks on mine. Like "read Bible" or "pray".

The reason I started writing TODAY on the tops of my to-do lists was because it helped me live one day at a time, like Jesus said "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Otherwise, I get stressed out with all of my responsibilities at school / work / etc.

Normally I get stressed pretty easily, but when I have explicitly listed all of my to-dos, I can function peacefully, and get through the day.

I never would've thought of chicken soup for the soul being in some way behind all of this. Cool.

: )

5/06/2008 12:40 AM  
Blogger Joel said...

(sorry for all the typos. I was writing this at work, not as focused as I should've been)

5/06/2008 12:41 AM  

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