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Under The Spotlight

Dear Diary,

I have no interest in birthdays or celebrations of that sort. They simply have (had) very little to zero significance to me. And since I’ve always thought of myself as an awkward person (probably still the same) when it comes to parties anyway, that made it all the lot easier. I don’t really look forward to being under the spotlight on my “special day” (still applies teehee) because of a lot of irrelevant reasons at the moment.

19/01/2012 marks my 25th birthday. Happily enough, 19/01/2012 also marks my 1st “surprise birthday party.” It marks the first time I was shocked to realize I’m surrounded by people that care enough to give you a special treat on your special day. People that will forever be engraved in my memory for how they made me feel on that single one day.

To all those that made this possible and were there, from the deepest spot of my heart, thank you. :-)

PS. Since I try and keep a lid on my birthday (it’s not on my Facebook and it’s not even in plain here on my website,) I spent quite some time during my shocking gaze trying to figure out how it went out. Apparently Ahmed Motaz (the extremely detail-oriented software engineer I so happen to work with) had noticed it on my CV when I applied for Zoboon, Inc.

Thesis Acknowledgements

My sincerest gratitudes and appreciation go to my parents for their faith and unlimited support to me.

I am also greatly thankful to Nourhan Labeeb, whom if it weren’t for her this thesis would have not been been possible.

I also owe it to Prof. Dr. Slim Abdennhader, Eng. Marlien Edward, and DFKI for giving me the chance to work on this project.

I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisor Ralf Biedert for sharing his expertise and giving me guidance whenever possible. Also, I would like to thank Thomas Kieninger and Jane Bensch for making us feel right at home during our stay abroad.

Finally, I would like to extend my warm gratitude to my colleagues who accompanied me, some of which had agreed to being experimented numerous times — without them it would have never been the same. I would like to specially thank Dalia Badawi, Iman Mansour, Khaled Shokry, Loai Ghoraba, Menna Amer, Mohamed Emad, Mohamed Gad, and Rana Ashraf for their humongous moral support during the tough periods of my stay.

Germany — The Experience

Kind of ironic how everyone expects there to be an experience when you travel abroad.

Why should there be “an experience”? What’s so different out there that makes it all worth the while, I wonder.

In short: nothing. (I bet a bunch of you aren’t surprised right now at me saying this, but that’s not supposed to surprise you. Read on.)

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لعله خيراً

كان لأحد الملوك وزير حكيم وكان الملك يقربه منه ويصطحبه معه في كل مكان. وكان كلما أصاب الملك ما يكدره قال له الوزير “لعله خيراً” فيهدأ الملك. وفي إحدى المرات قطع إصبع الملك فقال الوزير “لعله خيراً” فغضب الملك غضباً شديداً وقال ما الخير في ذلك؟! وأمر بحبس الوزير …
فقال الوزير الحكيم “لعله خيراً”
ومكث الوزير فترة طويلة في السجن.
وفي يوم خرج الملك للصيد وابتعد عن الحراس ليتعقب فريسته، فمر على قوم يعبدون صنم فقبضوا عليه ليقدموه قرباناً للصنم ولكنهم تركوه بعد أن اكتشفوا أن قربانهم إصبعه مقطوع..
فانطلق الملك فرحاً بعد أن أنقذه الله من الذبح تحت قدم تمثال لا ينفع ولا يضر وأول ما أمر به فور وصوله القصر أن أمر الحراس أن يأتوا بوزيره من السجن واعتذر له عما صنعه معه وقال أنه أدرك الآن الخير في قطع إصبعه، وحمد الله تعالى على ذلك.
ولكنه سأله عندما أمرت بسجنك قلت “لعله خيراً” فما الخير في ذلك؟
فأجابه الوزير أنه لو لم يسجنه.. لَصاحَبَه فى الصيد فكان سيقدم قرباناً بدلاً من الملك… فكان في صنع الله كل الخير.

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