Akbar Zeb is a love machine.

Dear Blag,

I saw this link on facebook and thought I'd share it with you, totally without commentary or analysis.

Sincerely,

W. Bag.

"In an unfortunate result of translation, Pakistani diplomat Akbar Zeb will not become the next Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Zeb’s credentials seem in order: He is the former ambassador to the United States, India and South Africa. He held the post of High Commissioner Designate of Pakistan to Canada and is the former director general of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.

But despite Mr. Zeb’s impressive career, the 55-year-old diplomat’s name proved to be the immovable hurdle. When translated into Arabic, Akbar Zeb means “Biggest Dick.” In a region that stresses modesty, particularly in public, this could not stand."

I really want to see Zombieland

Lately, I've been thinking about how you can get to do things that you want to do. Sorry, that's vague, but I have been on 3 hours a sleep a night for the last 3 days so there you go.

On a whim, I wrote a play this summer, and I just found out it got selected for competition for the U of T Drama Festival in February. My immediate reaction was "this is awesome!" but, of course, the cynical/pessimistic/humble(?) version of myself was already coming up with reasons as to why it got selected.

I didn't think it was spectacular... it was fun to write, for sure, and I liked the premise, but I didn't really do any planning for it, and I kind of just started writing and it took it's own course. I feel like writing this way equates to a result with no overarching theme, no overall message, etc. Essentially, it's just two characters with 45 pages or so of "interesting" and "quirky" dialogue. (The synopsis in 8 words: "Waiting for Godot but Godot is a zombie.")

My cynical self is convinced that the reason "Waiting for Zobo" got selected is because no one else submitted a play. (Or that the premise is just gimmicky and about zombies, and they needed a "weird" play, but that's not the point).

Here is my point: I think at this stage in our lives, we're fortunate enough that if we want to do something, we'll be able to do it, as long as you put enough effort into getting to do it.

Aka: success is proportional to the amount of effort and determination and drive.

(While not true for everything, it seems to be the overriding rule in my life)

I feel like this only happens in the smaller bubbles of life, like university, or young adulthood.

In the real world, talent and ability plays a much much bigger role, because in the real world there are simply a much larger number of people competing for what you're doing.

(For example, the act of simply writing a play is probably good enough for in university for it to be produced, but in the real world, it has to be good and smart and clever and well-thought out and amazing)

I think right now, we're still able to get by with little talent and a lot of determination, and I'm going to be thankful for that, because it's going to change in a few years and one day and we'll all be old and upset that we were never good enough to do what we actually wanted to do in life, and will look back on these days because that we got to do it anyways, because we chose to and we could.