Astro Ganga

Astro Ganga (Jongar in Arabic) was a very popular Japanese animation that was aired in Japan before I was even born. That's right, it was aired in the mid 1970s and was only dubbed into Arabic in the 80s, that is why we remeber it. Some of us claim that Jongar is more powerful than the mighty Grandizer (More about him later), because Jongar does not use any weapons. Only his fists and feet to kick the enemies (behines).









The little boy you see standing on Jongar, is Kentaro. He is the boy that maximizes the strength of Jongar when he is combined with him. That happens whenever a gaint monster/creature is reacking chaos in Tokyo and Kentaro must call Jongar out of nowhere and jumps into his chest and inside a special medalion or something.









I am sure that every one of us as children fantasized about being a little Kentaro and a lot of us envy him for having such a great giant robot to hang around with.

Jongar will always be our Children Time Nostaligic Hero...






Now here are some of the words I heard during the show being song by some Japanese singer:







Doko kabe, Doko kabe, nanika ga areba
faitori faitori ishiya karo,
miyazim sora aoo
itsu demo, itsu demo








I have to learn japanese to know what these words actually mean.

What is so good in Turkish shows?

Three years ago, we did not even know that Turkey is a country that produces any type of shows. Now the Turkish culture is invading our homes through their sitcoms and daily shows, not to mention their movies. The shifting to Turkish shows began about a year ago as a trail by MBC channel which as per their saying "was a successful trail". I don't know how they mueasure success of broadcasting, but I guess it has to do with commercials. If sales increase during the period of airing these shows, it means that more poeple are watching, but it also means that these people are dump enough to buy the silly products that are commercialized. I never met any person that was affected by a commercial to buy any product. Throught my life, I did not buy a product because it appeard during my favourite show.. I would rather not buy it because it ruined my time, making me wait impatiently for it to finish.

I drifted away. Let's go back to the subject. The Turkish culture is very different from our own. I live in Saudi Arabia, and to see these shows dubbed in Arabic language (Syrian dialict) makes one almose believe that the show is recorded in an Arab area. The problem is that Turkey is a country that is home to differenct religins and beliefs. One of them are that non-religous group which acts as if they are in the United States. A good example is showing poeple drink alchohol and wine. Another is a kiss between different sex. And that is the big problem that we have to pay attention to before it goes too late. I mean that might seem normal on a movie from the US but we woluld never accept dubbing a US movie to Arabic because it would seem like we accept that behavoir of the actors as Arab actors.

If we are to watch Turkish shows, then we might consider watching them in their own language and with Arabic subtitles. Also the scense of drinking and mis-behavoir should be cut because there are kids and teenagers watching the show.. You can imagine what would happen if we let this thing go on and on.

I have to end this blog right now, because my sister which is a big fan of these shows are reading my post, and might do anything to prevent me from posting it...

So see you soon

The Beauty of Weekends

Ahhh... Weekends... the long awaited reward after a horrible 5 days of continues tourture... There is nothing to beat the excitment and joy of 48 hours of doing nothing... except having a laptop on my lap and typing an email or reading a blog... Which is sadly what is done during all of the 5 days of torture...

Weekends in Saudi Arabia are Thursdays and Fridays.. Which might seem odd to some of you since the world has the weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

See you again... Very soon

MSX - The Begining

This little thing to the left has started it all for me. I never would have guessed that I will be what I am today because of it. I can still remeber the day my father bought the MSX-AX170 Arabic Customized by AlAlmiah (Kuwait) and a little yellow book came along with it teaching the very basic principals of the Basic Programming Language. For most of us, we just turn on the MSX and play games, but very few paid notice to that yellow book and started to learn a new language.

Microsoft played a part in the Basic Language structure of the MSX. Althought it dates back to 1980's, but still Microsoft has a hand in there. Why not. After all, Microsoft designed Visual Basic and all Visual Studio package as well. So it is not a bad thing.

I will post some of the games and application that I used with MSX in the coming days (If I am still alive and capable that is (In-Sha'a-Allah)).

I have a cold

There is nothing worse than getting sick and having to come to work at the same time... It is ironical that I catched a cold while the temperature here is scoarching 47 degrees. Well, it must be the A/C in the server room... Spending 15 minutes in a room that is 10 Degrees, then coming out of it to the sun directly is your ticket to cold...

You will have to execuse me, because I don't feel much writing when all I think of is laying down with my laptop on my face until duty is done. I would also like to have a thick 3 layer blanket as well. I am cold...

Now where is that box of tissues?

Meet Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown is a voice talent proffessional that has a very deep voice and a memorizable charecter voice acting. I have downloaded all of the stories he has recorded on http://www.lightupyourbrain.com/ for free. I listen to them regurarly and recommend them to friends everywhere. I especially like "How the Leopard Got His Spots" by Rudyard Kippling (sorry for the name miss-spelling).

Another great story is The Light Princess. It is a very long fairy tale that I keep telling to my daughter frequently. Almost everynight that is. Download all of the stories and have fun with your MP3 Player.

Japanese Language Learning

I am currently studying Japanese Language using Pimsleurs Audio Tracks on my iPod.
I reached Lesson 20 of 30 on Level 1. There are a total of 3 levels to hear and practice. So you can imagine how long it will be before you can actually begin to communicate with your new acquired language.

Ever since I was introduced to the wonderful world of anime, I was facinated about every thing that has to do with Japan. That was about 10 years ago. I began collecting anime, reading manga, studying the language, grammar, Kanji and have even bought some books from amazon to help understand and memorize the kanji shapes.

Japanese culture is wonderful. In a very specific way, Japanese honor relationships and will do everything to make any conversation a decent and respectful event. There is alot to say in this topic, but I will just mention one example. When you ask a Japanese person about anything, he/she will do his/her best in answering back, and will appologize for not knowing the answer. Same goes if they want to decline your offer, or in general, have a different idea than what you have. Japanese wives cherish the marrige relation to thier husbands, and will devote their selves to serve and provide a peace of mind to their beloved spouses.

So far, I have only touched upon very little aspects of Japanese culture. There is many to come. And considering this is my second post, I would say that it is modestly long.

See ya... Very soon.

My Very First Blog... Ever!

Hi Everyone...

This is my first time posting a blog.
For the record, my name is Ahmad ALMUTAWA, I am Saudi, 29 years old.

I just want to see how this works, then I will be able to post blogs on a daily basis.

So, keep checking this blog often, or at least take advantage of the RSS service to catch up with previous or coming blogs on this site.

See ya...