Fifty Shades Trilogy: Fifty Shades of Grey – Book Review (EL James)

The Fifty Shades trilogy, whose three books are currently are the top three sellers in the United States, is anything but tame. The first book, titled Fifty Shades of Grey, should have been titled Fifty Shades of Scarlet. That’s how your face will be while reading it – especially if there’s someone peaking at your copy.

Ana Steele is a soon-to-be college graduate in her early twenties who’s asked by her best friend, Kate, to go and interview a self-made young enigmatic billionaire named Christian Grey at the HQ of his company. Knowing nothing about him, the interview isn’t exactly top notch. But it works well enough for Christian to develop an interest in Ana, who reciprocates the feeling.

What Ana doesn’t know is that Christian Grey is controlling, seriously into BDSM, with a playroom in his huge Seattle apartment, and who wants Ana to be his submissive beyond anything he’s ever wanted before.

Fifty Shades of Grey is carnal. There’s nothing that happens in the 500-pages book apart from the two main characters having sex all the time. The sex scenes are also graphically detailed. Fifty Shades of Grey is porn on paper.

Ana Steele is so one-dimensional as a character that she can’t even remotely draw you in. For a self-proclaimed virgin who can’t wait to be deflowered by Christian, she sure develops an insatiable need for sex. Her character is so shallow that the few moments where she appears to be different are marred by what immediately follows: her relapsing into the girl/women who can’t but seek Christian’s approval. The words “oh my” are present at every sentence to signal her astonishment as she explores the boundaries of her body, reveling in the eroticism of it all. Her “inner-goddess” never gets enough. And it quickly becomes grating.

Christian’s need, on the other hand, is never fully explained. While he is the more interesting character, the potential complexity is barely touched, never delved in. He’s left to his rough exterior, barely ruffled. And if Ana’s needy for sex, she can barely keep up with Christian who never seems to get enough. It eventually becomes repetitive, not adding anything to the story but useless pages to increase the book’s spine.

Fifty Shades of Grey doesn’t manage to go five shades deep, it remains afloat, blowing you, no pun intended, with sex scene after another, after another and then some. It’s a shallow, useless read. It’s repetitive beyond imagination. The characters initiate intercourse using the same gestures: biting their lips, cocking their heads to the side… that you get to smell it coming, no pun intended – again, from a mile away. The success of this book baffles me. I am not a reader of erotic fiction and I don’t think I’ll ever be. But if an erotic book at least had a plot to support it, I can comprehend people going for it. Fifty Shades of Grey has nothing in it.

I pity the person who had to do the audiobook for this.

2/10

Tayyar.org, Are You Seriously Proud Of This?

Tayyar.org thinks the discourse in the screenshot below is honorable and high-level enough for them to flaunt it on their website. As I said before, that website is to me akin to a tabloid. This only reinforces that. How is this reporting news? How is this reporting anything meaningful? How is this in any way useful?

This goes to the website that published it and both participants in the conversation. Did the so-called activist make a dent? Of course not. Does he think he’s more relevant now? Of course yes. Did Saad Hariri accomplish anything from this? Definitely not. Is he still bothered by it? Of course not.

How about we take all our “activism” regardless of political affiliation, pull it together in one nice basket, and cast it in a ballot 12 months from now?

It is here that I address Saad Hariri directly. You want to reply to snarky tweeps? How about you go all the way through? Some person is harassing you with his/her version of “facts” and commentary you can prove is unfounded? As BeirutSpring said – “let them have it.” On the other hand, you can be the better man and simply not reply. But please, if you choose to reply, draw a boundary where a person can’t call you a “retard” and end up becoming a hero for doing so.

For a country with a multitude of problems some people sure like to be amazed at what’s irrelevant.

There are other tweets as well that go along this way:

I find this too silly to be taken seriously. But I’m not running a political website for a political party gearing up for elections so what do I know?

Memorial Hermann, a Houston Hospital, Live-Tweeting Brain Surgery

The day has come where Twitter is used effectively as a learning tool in medecine. Memorial Hermann, an institution based in Houston, Texas is currently broadcasting updates and answering questions during a brain surgery that’s going underway right now. You can check out their Twitter account here.

As a sample of what they’ve been talking, I took the following screenshots:

They’ve also tweeted a few pictures live from the operating room, as well as a brief video of the brain while they operated on it.

I think this is great. While I am familiar with some of the terms they’re throwing around, I think this a great educational opportunity for medical students, current MDs, and knowledge enthusiasts. I hope they do this again some other time as well because it sure is interesting.

 

To All Med Students: The Rise and Fall of Medicus Studentus

This is an absolutely hilarious video done by medical students at the American University of Beirut (AUB) that was presented during an annual gala dinner which serves as a fundraiser for the Lebanese Medical Students International Committee (LeMSIC).

I was fortunate enough to watch this firsthand at the aforementioned gala dinner and I thought it was totally awesome. Other med students, you will eat this up. For those who have nothing to do with med school, here’s the setting you need to put in your head: cut-throat competition, your med school books are neo-scripture. Caffeine is your BFF. You also hate everyone.

It’s long but definitely worth it. And hey, we have unlimited internet at night now. So why not?

Middle East Airlines (MEA) Responds Regarding Flight 427

For the sake of being fair, MEA responded regarding what happened on flight 427, which I told you about yesterday. In a Facebook statement, they said the following:

To our fans, customers and readers alike,

In the past week or so, videos and pictures have been circulated on the web pointing out problems customers have faced on a couple of MEA flights. They included service quality issues such as an out of use seat and a dysfunctional display unit amongst others. These videos and pictures created with the intention of raising awareness about MEA’s customer service, and which have caused others to provide valuable comments and feedback, have been taken on-board whole heartedly.

Anyone who flies regularly will probably have experienced at some time or another that service on an airline can vary from flight to flight. As such, our company’s priority is to strive to deliver a consistent service across the board. The best way to provide this consistency in our view is to listen to customers’ feedback addressing their issues whenever possible, to implement the latest technologies and systems throughout the company as they become available, and finally to undertake all our usual measures to assess consistency through thorough quality control of flight safety, in-flight services, entertainment and overall passenger comfort.

Here at MEA, we feel it is our duty not only to our customers, but to the country as a whole to accurately represent our nation by reflecting our reputation for outstanding hospitality in every aspect of the service we provide as an airline. Currently, our fleet is being expanded as some may already know from our recent campaign “5000 Mabrouk” where we unveiled our brand new A320 aircraft. We’re expecting two more aircraft to be delivered in coming months. We have also finished planning the new cargo center which will be spread over 20,000 sq. m. of land, will contain a hangar with a 5,000 sq. m. capacity for exports and another 10,000 sq. m. hangar for imported goods, in addition to a large parking lot.

In light of the videos we have seen, the comments provided in social forums and the valuable feedback we are receiving online, we are glad to announce that we will be increasing our presence in various social media to provide dynamic interaction with our customer base worldwide. While we encourage everyone to describe their experience on MEA flights through social media and contact us by whichever means available, we’d like to remind our customers that the most direct means of communication for requests and complaints to be handled effectively within the shortest timeframe is by emailing saader@mea.com.lb (Customer Services Department).

Sincerely,
The MEA Team

As I said in my post regarding the matter, I refused to crucify MEA, as some were doing, for what happened on the flight. I’m sure it happens on other airlines as well. But I blamed them on the way they handled things. This is a step in the right direction. I hope they continue with it and it doesn’t become another Lebanese “saff 7ake” as they say.

Based on many emails I got, as well as comments on other blogs that wrote about this story, many have not been happy customers with MEA. If Mr. Dajani’s story, despite some flaws in the way it was handled, has gotten them to be more aware, then I’m one happier person. And in the long run, if MEA truly ups their game, I’m sure they’d be a happier company as well.

In the age of Facebook, twitter and blogging, Lebanese customers need to know that they have a stronger voice than before and that they can speak up in case something out of line happens. Odds are they will get a response. Good job MEA. Crisis averted?