Status Update I

Well... I thought from now on, since I don't have enough time to do any blogging these days, that I'll do a weekly status update... The idea here's that I'll post, on weekly basis, short notes on what's happend during that week of my life. This doesn't mean that I won't be posting anymore, I'll just do it with less frequency.

Anyway, this is the first one of these STATUS UPDATES:

As far as the Robocon's going, there has been some huge changes. Remember the pschotic T.A. I've talked about in my post about the Robocon, well... that guy's gone! We've split from "under his command" and now we're doing our own thing! A team of our own, with our own designs and our own ideas. It's a bit harder but things are shaping up with 2 robots already in the finals touches so wish us luck.

On a more personal note, last Sunday and Monday were off because of the Eastern Easter and the Shamm El Nessim vacation. I made use of this 2 day vacation and travelled with a couple of friends to Stella Di Mare in El 3ein El Su7'na. It was great... 2 days of sun, beach, BBQs and bikinis (lots of them as well)! I am back now and it's all back to the normal daily routine of lectures and robocon!

Other than that, everything's just good. I'm refreshed and in a fairly good mood! Hopefully, I'll be able to do this more often and Insha'Allah I'll try to post some more stuff... in the near future!

Until next time, Take Care!

"Egyptian Rock"

Honestly, I haven't heard the term "Egyptian Rock" until recently but when I did, I was shocked! Egyptian Rock did not turn out to be what I'd hoped for! In reality, the so-called Egyptian Rock genre is a hybrid of oriental music played using electric guitars, usually clean of any head banging, heavy riffs or distortion. But the term is so vague that sometimes, some songs are clean of any guitar tunes, they're not even heard in the background! It aught to be called Alternative Egyptian/Oriental or something, just not Egyptian Rock! The other problem I've had with the self proclaimed Egyptian Rock genre is the lyrics. Some of these lyrics simply stink and from meaningless lines to messed up rhymes... ya alby la te7zan!
But it's not always bad, there are some really good bands out there that you should look out for. Bands like Massar Egbari which plays some amazing Sayid Darwish and Salah Jahine covers plus some original material as well. They have a huge following, specially in Alexandria. The other band is Wyvern which is not really an "Egyptian Rock" band, it's a rock/heavy metal band from Egypt. Their music is heavily influenced by bands like Metallica and Opeth.
IMO, and with the exception of Massar Egbari's music style, rock and arabic shouldn't be mixed. The outcome is something BAD! Rock in Egypt should either be something like Massar's music which I honestly consider the real Egyptian Rock or bands to the likes of Wyvern, with lyrics written in English, head banging, riffs and distortion... the whole nine yards! W DAH RA2YIE EL SHA7'SI...