I will forever cherish your novels and short stories…

Born in Cairo in 1911, Naguib Mahfouz began writing when he was seventeen. His first novel was published in 1939 and ten more were written before the Egyptian Revolution of July 1952, when he stopped writing for several years. One novel was republished in 1953, however, and the appearance of the Cairo Triology, Bayn al Qasrayn, Qasr al Shawq, Sukkariya (Between-the-Palaces, Palace of Longing, Sugarhouse) in 1957 made him famous throughout the Arab world as a depictor of traditional urban life. With The Children of Gebelawi (1959), he began writing again, in a new vein that frequently concealed political judgements under allegory and symbolism. Works of this second period include the novels, The Thief and the Dogs (1961), Autumn Quail (1962), Small Talk on the Nile (1966), and Miramar (1967), as well as several collections of short stories.

Until 1972, Mahfouz was employed as a civil servant, first in the Ministry of Mortmain Endowments, then as Director of Censorship in the Bureau of Art, as Director of the Foundation for the Support of the Cinema, and, finally, as consultant on Cultural Affairs to the Ministry of Culture. The years since his retirement from the Egyptian bureaucracy have seen an outburst of further creativity, much of it experimental. He is now the author of no fewer than thirty novels, more than a hundred short stories, and more than two hundred articles. Half of his novels have been made into films which have circulated throughout the Arabic-speaking world. In Egypt, each new publication is regarded as a major cultural event and his name is inevitably among the first mentioned in any literary discussion from Gibraltar to the Gulf.

From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1988, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1989

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Naguib Mahfouz died on August 30, 2006.

I decided to get healthier.

During the past year I have gotten sick more times than I have my entire life!

A few weeks ago, I replaced KDD chocolate milk with fresh orange juice in the morning.  This was extremely difficult for me to do since I have been drinking KDD chocolate milk ever since I was a toddler.

I also cut down drastically on Pepsi.  I love Pepsi but now I only drink a can of Pepsi once or twice a week.

I have replaced junk food with healthier sandwiches for lunch.  Casper & Gambini has the best selection of low-fat healthy sandwiches.  I replaced mayo with light mayo.  French fries with baked potato.

I have replaced caramel latte with drinks such as mojito or minted lemonade during the evenings.

I have also cut down my smoking.  I don’t smoke much while I work but would smoke regularly at social functions.

Most importantly, I have fixed my sleeping habits.  I always had the weird sleeping habits,  sleeping at the wee hours of the morning and sleeping in during the mornings.  I have given myself a 1am bedtime.  I have been doing this for over 10 days now.  I have gotten adjusted to it, to the extent that I get sleepy after midnight.  The latest I have slept so far is 1:30am.  My alarm starts to ring at 7am.  So, I been waking up a lot more fresher and have been getting 6 to 7 hours of sleep every night.

As a result of this health watch, my skin has improved and I have started to take more care of it.

Bottom line is that I feel a lot better this way.

(I got this in the mail and thought it was nice to post)

Find a guy, who calls you beautiful instead of hot.
Who calls you back when you hang up on him.

Who will stay awake just to watch you sleep.

Wait for the guy who kisses your forehead.

Who holds your hand in front of his friends.

Wait for the one who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares about you and how lucky he is to have you.

I am 26 going on 27.  Am I in a rush to get married? No, not really.

I ve posted earlier that a second round is very probable, and listed the causes for this asumption, but the past few days have shown success of Lebanese diplomacy on many levels which is reassuring and could avoid us a second round or at least could result in a concentrated second round.

The situation in Israel is still the same and is even getting worse with lots of scandales showing up and the different parties asking the government and the army for justifications on the military partial failure they faced.

As for Lebanon, the army is still deploying in the South and the government is taking drastic measures, in fact after the LF minister reported spotting Hezbollah armed men dressed as civilians in several villages, the government ordered the army and security to resolve the issue on the spot and spot those armed men and even Hezbollah ministers admitted their presence. Of course we need time for testing the efficiency of the army and i believe general surety and police members should be sent to help the army.

But what is more reassuring are the 7000 troops coming to Lebanon in 10 days time, along with the help being proposed by Germany to monitor the coasts in order to stop any weapons from getting to Hezbollah, added to the UNIFIL troops that will monitor the borders with Syria along with the Lebanese army.

I strongly support the government’s efforts which are showing that Lebanese diplomacy was the only winner in Lebanon.

We have an international support no country in the world ever had, and if we are stupid enough to spoil this opportunity, then maybe we are not worthy being helped.

The only parties that could trouble this diplomacy are Iran and Syria and their agents (Hezbollah and co ) in Lebanon.

Regards,