I’m hooked to Lifehacker. This is the best blog around in a while. I always thought Gawker Media would make some great stuff. Gizmodo was good, but this one is my favorite.

Some of you may have noticed that I did not post anything about the counter-terrorism conference which takes place in Riyadh these days. I think such conferences are useless as long as the government — and the people — are not admitting that we have some serious problems in the religious establishment and the educational system. Prince Abdullah said that we must attack the grassroots of terrorism, but I’m not seeing any action to do so. The way the officials here talk about terrorism gives you the feeling that we have an attack every five or ten years, while a quick look to this report will tell you something totally different. The extreme mentality has been in control in this part of the world for more than 200 years, and it will take a very long time to be changed.

The first school in my hometown, Hassa, is getting a makeover.

The story of the first man who drove “The Horse of Devil,” is a good example to understand the Wahabbi mind. Those people look in suspicious to anything different or anything new. It could be because they used to live isolated in their desert, but I think the religious establishment have played a major role in shaping the minds of those people.

Reem al-Saleh: “If I could vote.”

I’ve said before that I’m moving to a new apartment this semester. With three other lads, this is our very first own apartment. The place has two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. I’ll share a room with my lifetime friend Mo, whose also a cousin of mine.

Last night, we went shopping for furniture at IKEA. Probably some will always consider them as a “semi-disposal Swedish furniture,” but I think many of their pieces are good and come in a perfect prices for college students like us.

I never had the experience of shopping for furniture before, and I’ve got to tell you it is so exhausting. We spent more than three hours at the new huge IKEA store in Riyadh, and we still need to do more shopping. The good thing about the apartment is that, unlike the students dorm at the university, I can customize it the way I want. I will be living here for another three years till I get my degree, and I’ll make sure to make it as good and comfortable as possible.

Tonight, I went with a couple of lads to a football match between the home team al-Hilal from Riyadh and guests al-Ahli from Jeddah. The match was anticipated by the fans, especially we, al-Hilal fans, who can’t forget the 3-0 defeat in Jeddah. The tension filled the atmosphere, and more than 10,000 fans remained silent waiting for the first goal. Al-Hilal captain Sami al-Jaber scored first with a fine rebound in the 6-yard-box. The opponents could not make any real chances, and the first half ended faster than we expected.

Early on the second half, al-Ahli scored the equalizer. The home team fought bravely to come back, but they were blocked by a strong defense and an unfair referee. I thought that only one player could score the winning goal. Ahmed al-Swaileh, who is, just like me, originally from Hassa, entered the match in the last five minutes. Last season, we had a similar situation against the same team, and al-Sawileh scored a late goal and led al-Hilal to win.

Actually, I was right this time. On the second minute of the injury time, al-Swaileh jumped and scored the winning header. Most fans could not believe it, however, I always believed in Ahmed al-Swaileh. He is one talented young player, and I think he could be the next big thing in Saudi football.