Personal on The Smoking Duck Blog

A train hopping trip

Fri, 31 May 2024 12:17:40 +0200

A long awaited trip

Recently I finally got the chance to go on a trip I have always wanted. Hopping only on trains across different european cities with no hotels or hostels needed. Only sleeper trains. And what an experience it was!

I have had this trip in mind since I was in college in Egypt. The trip would be only using trains. No flights involved and no hotels. Utilizing sleeping trains at night and roaming around cities either on foot or with trains with nice scenery in the mornings. Yet, when I was in college I was too busy and I could not afford such a trip anyways as a college student. Now that I’m older, with a bit more resources, and that I live in Europe, I thought it’s a good time to finally put the plan to action. And there is no mind in treating myself with 1st class seets and sleeper compartments for extra comfort since the budget allows it.

It's windows all over (a song)

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 01:00:00 +0000

The song

The nice song is called “Shababeik” which means windows. Sung by Mohamed Mounir. The poet Magdy Naguib thought about it while he was politically imprisoned for opposing the controversial yet widely influencial Egyptian president Nasser who ruled from 1954 till 1962. The poet was deeply affected by being imprisoned with no trial as a form of political tyranny. Although he was a supporter of Nasser and just wanted to express opinion, he was still falsly imprisoned.

On the internet conquest of happiness

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 00:00:01 +0000

You outgrow your town

Sympathetic surroundings are essential to happiness. I think it’s common enough to find oneself in a situation of recalling the song “Creep” by Radiohead and to be specific the part “What the hell am I doing here?". I dare say that you -the reader- share the experience with me of finding no one to share the interest in a specific subject you deeply care about. You find the people and the environment surrounding you to be not just ignorant about that subject, but also discouraging. A young person who wishes to read a serious book is discouraged by their parents. Teachers tell them off in the fear that these books may disorient their thoughts. And let’s not ignore the mere reason that this fear for the young person from such book induced by the parent, teacher or even friends is due to the mere fact that they have never read such books and they have neither the interest nor the will to read such books. They find that the young person’s interest in such books or topics peculiar and not useful. The young person then, of course, will themself lonesome and unhappy. For they seek to meet others with similar interests.

On the memory of a song

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 01:00:00 +0000

The song

A few years ago, I used to listen to the song “Comme Moi” by Edit Piaf a lot. I had it playing on a loop. I was living in a rented apartment with a flatmate that I met by mere coincidence, but he became one of the closest friends I’ve ever had. I was committed to a healthy lifestyle then. I paid daily visits to a nearby gym. The coach was a very peculiar man. Short, bulky, and with a strange voice, he gave a fun aspect to gym visits. He had very sharp and strange opinions. Very fanatic about football, he used to yell in a funny way at the players on the TV while we exercised, making us all drop the weights and laugh deeply.

Time Preference

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 12:17:40 +0200

Overview

Time preference is an economic term that describes an individual’s affinity to wait on gratification that would be received in the present time in order to receive more gratification in the future. Given the limited amount of time a human has and the fact that a human’s life is very fragile, delaying instant gratification is often a hard decision to make. However, if humans always go for instant gratification, very little progress can be achieved. In this blog post, I’ll be discussing the impact of time preference on the life of individuals and why we should always restrain our instincts to go for the easy guaranteed instant gratification.

On Sarcasm

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 01:53:22 +0200

Overview

In this blog post, I argue that sarcasm as a form of humor comes within a feeling of superiority. It is a passive act that renders a human falsely satisfied with their reaction to an event or an idea. Yet this reaction (sarcasm) is merely a lazy counter-argument that doesn’t help improve the overall outcome of the interaction.

A form of humor

Sarcasm is undoubtedly a strong form of humor. I myself often find it really funny and engaging. Yet we can’t think critically about sarcasm without investigating the triggers of humor _ the funny effect _ in it.