Internet Forums Statistics

The statistics of internet forums are often:

Number of threads

Number of posts

Number of members

Number of currently active (available/ online) users (members & guests/ visitors)

Most users ever online

Number of blogs & entries

The question now to who is expert in the forums: is this counter changeable?! Is it possible to counterfeit these statistics?! How can we differentiate between the true forums & the false forums?! And why memberships' serial numbers are always bigger than true members' numbers?!

What's the better?! To join to a forum of numerous members or to create your personal forum & you are sure of the true number of members?!

Yes, the personal forum enables you to:

1. Upload attachments of any size/ type

2. Control in members

3. Create the departments which you want

But supervising & formatting a personal forum needs to an unoccupied person... Isn't it so?!

I need your opinion please!

The literary contests in Egypt

Unfortunately, the most of literary contests in Egypt, especially novel contests, don't enjoy the impartiality or credibility or fairness.

For example, the annual prize of story club… it's supposed to be the most famous & important literary contest in Egypt, however:

1. The contest of 2008 is announced in 2009 & the contest of 2009 is announced in 2010 & so on!!! Moreover, the contest of the current year is announced in middle of the next year, not even in beginning of the next year!!!


2. The winners are often old people & published authors or writers known by the arbitration committee. The young people, new talents & unknown unpublished writers rarely take their chance in this award!!!


3. The time of submitting the participating works is very short (often less than one month only), and also the time of announcing the results is very short (through few months). So, undoubtedly, the results are known beforehand.


4. The advertisement of contest is published annually in very small space in the newspapers & it's not published in the first page or a marked place. And therefore, it's invisible to a lot of people. There's no fixed date for publishing this AD, every year it is published on a different day from a different month.


5. The conditions of contest are very floating. The story club doesn’t unite the specifications of manuscript novels. The professional contests stipulate one paper size (A4 for example), four equal page margins, one font type & style, one font size, one line spacing. While, the four useless conditions of this contest every year are: (1) the novel must not be less than 50 pages foolscap & three copies are submitted, (2) the novel must not be introduced to another contest currently or in the past, (3) the contestant must not be a member in the club, (4) the contestant must not be a winner in the last two years.


6. The financial awards of this contest are very little. The first winner takes 2000 Egyptian pounds only, the second takes 1500 EP & the third takes 1000 EP!!! Beside, there are taxes about 12 % even on the prizes in Egypt!!! The three winners take also appreciation certificates, but the first winner only can take the membership of club & his/her novel is published in the silver book series of the story club.


7. The club is open three days only in the week & for six hours only (7 pm to 9 pm on Saturday, Monday & Wednesday). The headquarters & only branch is in the capital (Cairo). The inhabitants of Cairo, Alexandria, the Delta & Lower North Egypt can arrive to the club & submit their works before the deadline, but The inhabitants of far places (such as Upper South Egypt, Sinai & the Oases) are forced to send their works in a package by express mail & it's very expensive, instead of traveling for hundreds of kilometers.


8. The club has no an independent place. It's an apartment in very old big building. You will pass across a lot of corridors to arrive to it. The staff is very old people, the boss of club, the members, the secretary & the office boy. If you rang the door bell or called by telephone, you must wait for long minutes until somebody answers you. A lot of people think that there's no body there & they lose the connection with the club.

http://www.egstoryclub.com/index.php?lang=en

Sham el-Nessim Day

Literally, it means Smelling the Breeze (Zephyr). In general, it's Spring Day in Egypt & an official vacation in the whole country.

Every year, the oriental church defines it on any Monday since the beginning of April till the beginning of May according to the Coptic calendar. However, Muslim Egyptians celebrate it like Christians exactly, because it's also an ancient Egyptian feast since the days of pharaohs.

The breakfast is colored boiled eggs and the lunch is smoked or salted fish or sardine & green onion. As Christians don't eat fish during their Lent (55 days) & finish their great fasting on the day before that day or Easter.

The 33rd anniversary of Abdel Halim Hafez

On 30 March 1977, Halim died while he was 47 years old. The Dark Nightingale was one of the most famous Egyptian singers & actors in Egypt & the Arabic world.

The triangle of orphanage, lovesickness & illness made Abd El-Halim a very creative artist.

His mother died after few hours only from his birth, and then his father died also before Halim completes his first year!!!

He fell in love only one time in his life & had never been married.

She was a very rich young woman. He met her by chance in Alexandria & loved her at first sight. She was so beautiful & has blue eyes, but she was married & has two children. This unknown woman who was called (Dawlat) or (Dede) left her family to marry Abd El-Halim, and before their marriage, she died suddenly by brain cancer.

Abd El-Halim was a very reticent person, so nobody saw this woman at all, even his closest friends, except his own driver. However, he sang his saddest & most pessimistic songs to her memory.

In London, he died by Esophageal Varices & returned to Cairo in a box between luggages inside an airplane!!!

His funeral was third of most popular funerals in Egypt, after funeral of Nasser in 1970 & funeral of Om Kalthoum in 1975.

A lot of girls & women committed suicide on hearing of his death!!!

His apartment & tomb are still receiving thousands of visitors till today.

Ahmed Zaki… the black tiger

Today 27 March 2010, five years passed since Ahmed Zaki left us. He was not just a favorite actor by the Egyptians, but he was a genius talent will not be repeated easily. He could play all roles & characters creatively.

Although he was not a handsome or muscular, but he was so attractive. He succeeded to win hearts of many Egyptian actresses & millions of fans.

This black star that defeated a lot of difficult challenges in the beginning of his life, but in the end, lung cancer defeated him while he was 55 years old because he was a very gluttony smoker.

The French doctor, who came from France especially to examine Ahmed Zaki, arrived to Cairo on the same day of death & he attended his funeral!!!

Ahmed Zaki could act 90 % of his final movie (Halim), and then he slept in a very deep coma. So, his only son (Haitham) completed the movie. Halim is the biography of Abdel Halim Hafez who lived & died in similar conditions to Zaki himself!!!

Mother's Day in Egypt

The international Mother's Day is on the second Sunday of May from every year.

In Egypt, today 21 March is Mother's Day & Orphan's Day is on the first Friday of April from every year.

Happy Mother's day to Mama & to all the mothers!

Alexandrina International Book Fair No. 8

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is organizing its 8^th Alexandrina International Book Fair from 25 February to 14 March 2010.

The guest of honor this year will be "French and Mauritanian Books".

http://www.bibalex.org/English/bookfair.htm

Happy Valentine's Day to the Christians!

If we –as Muslims- wanted to celebrate this day, we should celebrate the day itself or celebrate the symbol of love, not celebrate the saint Valentine.

In this connection, I wonder at who says to me: don't be sad if you didn't marry who you love, because maybe he wasn't a good person!!!

Ok, I'm ready to marry him, even if he was the worst person in the world.

This is the difference of love!!! But it is the will of Allah.

The 35th anniversary of Om Kalthoum

On 3 February 1975, the lady of Arabic singing & the planet of orient Om Kalthoum the Egyptian superstar left our world to sing in the sky.

She was circa 76 years old because her birthday is unknown exactly!!!

Although, I was born in 1979 after her death, but a lot of Egyptian youth & I are still enjoying her many songs. She is a unique phenomenon.

The Third Cup Successively & the Seventh in Championship History!

1. The Best Player in This Championship Egyptian!

2. The Best Goalkeeper in This Championship Egyptian!

3. The Best Scorer in This Championship Egyptian!

4. The Prize (Cup) of Clean Playing for Egyptian!

5. The Title of the Best Coach for Egyptian!

6. We were not defeated in any match in this Tournament

7. We defeated all the teams which are participants in the next World Cup!!!

Yes! We are the Egyptians! Viva Egypt!

What a Great Country & what a Great Nation!!!

Congratulations the Revenge from Algeria!

Yesterday, Thursday 28 January 2010, at 9:30 pm (Egypt Time) the Egyptian team of football took our revenge for the tragic match of Wednesday 18 November 2009 in Sudan.

Yesterday, our national team defeated the Algerian team 4-0 in Angola & three Algerian players (including the goalkeeper) were fired from the playground during the match!!! They took red cards at once.

Even if we were defeated by Ghana the next Sunday (the final match), it is so enough the winning of yesterday.

We didn't scandal the Algerians… they who undressed themselves by themselves in front of the whole world. They verified that they are a very barbaric nation.

Cairo International Book Fair No. 42

Today, Thursday 28 January 2010 CIBF was opened officially by the president of republic & tomorrow Friday 29 January, it will be open for the people.

It is continuous for two weeks. It will be closed on Saturday 13 February.

Neturei Karta International (Jews United Against Zionism & Israel)

I tried to contact the Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, & nkusa.org told me that he has no an email address, a blog or a website & he is not on computer at all.

They gave me his phone number, but I want to greet him from here for his noticeable activity against Zionism & Israel.

I watched him since a while in a TV program on the Egyptian satellite (Nile Sat.). He was a very good spokesman.

The Difference between the Novel and the Fiction

According to Wikipedia,

The fiction is a branch of literature which deals, in part or in whole, with temporally contra-factual events (events that are not true at the time of writing).

There are also the definitions of non-fiction & semi-fiction in Wikipedia.

The novel is a long narrative in literary prose.

According to English-to-Arabic dictionary,

The fiction is a short story, a novel, a novelette (novella), a tale, a narrative, children's book or story, but it must be an imagination or a fantasy (fable, myth, legend).

The novel is a long story only. Maybe it is a fiction, maybe it is a true.

If anyone knows other definitions, please he tells us.

Stop the wall between Egypt & Palestine

To the last pharaoh, to our Egyptian stubborn president Muhammad Hosni Mubarak: Who gave you the right to build an underground metal barrier on the eastern borders of Egypt?!

Who gave you the permission to separate between the Egyptians & the Palestinians?! USA, Israel or yourself!!!

You wanted really to block tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian land or you wanted to leave the Palestinians as a prey for the Israelis!!!

Please, our aged president: don't isolate our brothers from us!

2010 & 1431

Happy New Year

Today 2010 started & before two weeks ago exactly on Friday 18-12-2009 the new Islamic year 1431 started.

1430 years passed since the great migration (Hijra) of our prophet & messenger Muhammad from Mecca to Medina (the light city).

Muhammad & his close friend Abu Bakr As-Siddiq emigrated at night & were hidden for three days in a cave in the mountain.

When the unbelievers arrived to the cave, they thought that the cave is empty & went without killing Muhammad & Abu Bakr!!

As there was a spider weaved a web closed the entrance of cave & two doves built a nest & laid eggs in front of the cave.

If one of the conspirators looked under his feet, he would see the two men, but this didn't happen & the two friends reached Medina safe. And from The Light City, the message of Muhammad arrived to the whole world & the Islam became spread till now.

The First Chapters of My Novels on Scribd.Com:

All of them in Arabic Language:

The first chapter from "Be luckier than us"

The first chapter from "Qenawy ollas"

The first chapter from "Memories in the corridor"

The first chapter from "My heart is zigzag"

The first chapter from "Made in Egypt"

The first chapter from "Messages to Allah"

The first chapter from "A hole in my heart"

The first chapter from "Reda"

The first chapter from "Chechnya"

The first chapter from "Cabin no. 9"

The first chapter from "America Brunei Egypt"

The first chapter from "Foreigner, but!!!"

The first chapter from "12 Circassian roosters"

The first chapter from "A Somali pirate"

Sufi Literature & Sufi Novel

In the websites, there is focusing on the Persian (Iranian) and Indian Sufi literature only, although the Arabic Sufi literature is very rich also.

So, I hope from International League of Islamic Literature or www.adabislami.org to create an annual prize especially for the Arabic Sufi fiction.

The Ban on Construction of New Minarets in Switzerland

Although my blog this mainly interests in literature & writing, but any cultured human can't ignore the current political events, especially if he was a Muslim because the true & good Muslim doesn’t separate between the religion and the policy. Any other religion is a part of life, but the Islam is the whole life. It enters in all details of our daily life.

So, I'm as a religious Muslim, not a Secular Muslim, I was not surprised when Switzerland banned on 29 November 2009 the construction of new minarets for mosques, while it allows with the towers & bells of churches!!!

I didn't feel angry because I realize well that the conception of freedom in the most of European countries is unbalanced & the scales of justice in these countries are not equal.

They criticize our Islamic headscarf, while they clap the hands for the nuns who wear the same headscarf. It is the Swiss freedom!!!

Standing on Arafat Mountain

To who doesn't know; Arafat is a mountain in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Like every year, today 26-11-2009, millions of Muslims from all nationalities stand on Arafat from the daybreak till the sunset, according to the rites of Islamic pilgrimage.

Of course Arafat day belongs to the lunar year or the Islamic calendar, so it returns 11 days every solar year. The next year, it will be mostly on 15-11-2010.

Arafat day is one of the most important days as for the Muslims & the best day the sun rose on it. It's the day before the Muslims' Greater Bairam.

Tomorrow, on the Muslims' Major Feast or the Feast of Immolation (Sacrifice), all the Muslims around the world will butcher millions of sheep, goats, cows & other on. They do that like the Prophets' Father Ibrahim who would slaughter his son the prophet Ismail as he saw in the dream, but at the last moment, Allah ransomed Ismail with a great ram.

Boycott Algeria till they apologize officially, The dream of 80 million Egyptian

I don't invite to boycott Algeria for ever; I'm against that any Islamic Arabic country boycotts its sister whatever happened between them. However, Egypt must boycott Algeria till it apologizes.

That the Algerians carry knifes & swords in a football match, that is a usual behavior!!!

That the Algerians throw the Egyptians by stones, smash the Egyptians' buses & cars by rubble in Sudan on 18-11-2009, although they were the winners, that are expected things!!!

That the Algerians abuse the Egyptian women, crash the Egyptian buildings & foundations in Sudan, that are not new things!!!

That the Algerians chase the Egyptians till the airport of Sudan, that is an understood thing!!!

But the not acceptable thing, that the Algerians burn the Egyptian flag, trample it by their shoes and pass above it many times by their cars back & forth!!! As if it was the Israeli flag!!!

So, it is a duty for every Egyptian to boycott every Algerian, till the Algerian president by himself apologizes to Egypt & the Egyptians.

To all the Algerians, it seems that you forgot what Egypt & Gamal Abdel Nasser did for you until you take your independence from France in 1962!!! You forgot the Arabism & the Islam!!!

To all the Egyptians, you proved that you are a very civilized nation. But the civilization doesn't mean the forgiveness in the rights!!!

Important events this week:

Tuesday 10 November 2009:

Opening of Cairo International Film Festival no. 33, it is continuous till Friday 20-11-2009

Wednesday 11 November 2009:

1. Opening of Cairo Arab Media Festival no. 15, it finished Sunday 15-11-2009

2. The fifth anniversary of the Palestinian president Yasser Arafat death

3. Alex Wiens was found guilty of the murder of Marwa El-Sherbini and sentenced to life imprisonment

4. The shining star Leonardo Dicaprio birthday no. 35

Saturday 14 November 2009:

The football match between Egypt & Algeria in Cairo International Stadium, for 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. Egypt won 2-0 & there will be a final match in Sudan on the next Wednesday 18-11-2009

The Madman of Layla:

One of the most beautiful love poetries, that which was said by the sheikh Abu-l-Hassan ash-Shadhili about the Manic of Layla:

The madman saw a wolf in the desert

He dragged a tail from the charity for it

The people blamed him for what came out from him

And they said: you made the wolf obtain a great obtainment

He said: let the blame, my eyes saw it once nearby

Layla's house!!!

رأى المجنون فى البيداء ذئباً *** فجر له من الإحسان ذيلاً

فلاموه على ما كان منه *** و قالوا قد أنلت الذئب نيلاً

فقال : دعوا الملامة أن عينى *** رأته مرة فى حى ليلى !!!

I translated it a semi-literal translation, to let you taste the words of the Arabic love.

Love Day in Egypt

4 November is love day in Egypt; of course it is different from 14 February or Valentine's Day.

4 November this year 2009 is the 87^th anniversary of discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter, that very famous tomb no. 62 in the Valley of the Kings or KV62 at the west bank, Luxor.

62 is the last number in VK, as the 62^nd tombs took their serial numbers according to the sequence of their discoveries. So, KV62 is the last tomb was discovered in the royal valley.

On 4 November 1922, when Howard Carter found this tomb, he was charmed & asked himself: if all these treasures exist in a tomb of 18 years old king, so what is about tombs of the old pharaohs?!

Carter couldn't answer this question until he died after 17 years from this historical discovery.

The pain in the writer's life

The writer, who suffered from a lot of unsuccessful love stories, is creative more than the others.

Except for the lovesickness, the novelist didn't become a creator. That is because he realizes in his novels & fertile imagination what he failed to realize in fact!

Maybe, we meet in the paradise who we couldn't meet in life.

Briefly, the pain makes the miracles.