I owe so much to the United States of America. I am a very proud American and lived in the US more than I have lived in my country of birth, Egypt. The land of opportunity was just that for me, a dream come true! A relative of mine, someone I respect and love dearly, told me 20 years ago upon my arrival to the US, “Work Hard and seek high and you shall receive”. Thanks Fred! I followed your advice :) and learned from your ethics and positivity.

At the same time, my childhood in Egypt was tremendously fun and I would not want to replace it for anything. 90% of my friends in Egypt were Muslims, that was never a problem and I was never excluded or belittled because I was a Coptic Orthodox Christian while I was growing up.

I am truly confused in this era of super Internet times when my web browser has multi-pages opened at the same time, one page I have Facebook where I get messages from my Egyptian friends wishing me well, missing me and inviting me to celebrate Ramadan with them (as we always did back in Egypt) and we all can’t wait till we see each other again, and on the other page I read the news of a Church in Florida that it’s pastor is putting together a rally to burn the Quran to commemorate 9/11. What an idiot!

Are there bad Muslims out there, yes of course!, Are there bad Christians out there, you betya! It always amazes me when I see a Christian doing something very wrong how fast his/her congregation and the closest people to that person say “He/She is a not Christian, real Christians don’t do that”. And when a so called Muslim does something disgusting like an act of terrorism, it is the fault of the entire religion not the stupidity of the few that are embarrassing and dishonoring the rest of the Muslim population.

I try to raise my kids in a Christian way that is based on the true values that Jesus tried to teach us over 2000 years ago based on LOVE, tolerance and service. I never remember reading Jesus saying “Love Christians, tolerate Christians, Serve Christians” he intended ALL his people to love each other and serve each other. All here means ALLLLLLLLL It also amazes me that Christianity always calls on NOT TO JUDGE others but it seems that this part of the religion is left for interpretation. “I am not judging, but this guy looks like a terrorist”, “I prayed about it and I feel the Lord is telling me that these people are bad and I should stay away from them”, “I wish they can all leave and go back home and leave us alone”. Man :) I am so glad the Lord did not think about us the way some of us think about others and still thought it was worth it to come down and pay the ultimate price for our redemption.

When I was 17 or 18 years old, I remember a good friend of mine in Alexandria, Egypt (A Squash champion) taking me aside and tried to convert me to Islam by spending hours explaining and trying to make it clear to me. Others might have been offended by that, I was not, I was flattered that a friend of mine cared so much about me that he felt compeled to try and help me out, in his mind, to see me get to Heaven one day. It is a beautiful thing and a beautiful thought. This is not about who is right and who is is wrong, I believe heavily it is a about a calling from God to follow him and be his servent.

I understand that the Bible said that the only way to heaven is through Jessus Christ, that does not make us Elite but have the responsability to bring as many as we can with us. I am sure a Muslim reading the decalartion by the Florida church burning the Quran is saying: "Yeah, I should really consider Chritianity, they are so loving, tolerant and forgiving".

Few years ago I pulled both my kids out of a very presigious Christian school in the heart of the Silicon Valley, the school was beautiful, best campus in the USA, but I found it to be the worst attitude in the USA as well. They were teaching the kids that because they are Christians they are better than everyone else. This was clear to us after several instances and finally my wife and I decided to take them out of there. Now they go to a Blue Ribbon public school next to the house and they could not be happier socially and academically. It is a real life school, they have Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddist and Athiests whom are all welcome in our house for birthdays and parties. Wow, the same people my kids will live with in the USA for the rest of their lives, what a concept!

So many have opinions about the matter, some of you will agree with me and some will not, I respect that. The fact that I lived in Egypt for 19 years and the USA for 20 years should give me at least some credibility that I know what I am talking about :)

Love to ALL

Yesterday, at 5:00 AM, my 10 year old son woke me up and said “Hey Dad, we haven’t had a breakfast alone for a long time, left’s go!”  Of course we could not find anything open besides Denny’s so we said our prayers and headed there.

We had a great time, talked about school, XBOX 360, Spring break plans, summer vacation, it was all around a wonderful time :)

Then came the time to pay and head back home.  Oops, I forgot my wallet at home!  No credit cards, no cash, no driving license, nothing.  The bill was $17, so I went to the cashier and explained the situation and she was not pleased :(

She went and brought the manager on duty who said “I am sorry if you have no way of paying the $17 I will need to call the police”  I laughed, I thought he was joking!  unfortunately he was not.  I asked if he would take a credit card over the phone and he said yes!  So I called my wife and woke her up and got the numbers and passed it to him while he was still very upset.

The final part of the story is my favorite part, while he was entering the numbers manually into the system, he stopped at the end and turned around and asked me “How much would you like to leave for tip?”

What a year this has been! Only God can transform a life like He did with mine this year.

One year ago, my heart stopped during the second operation that was scheduled to make my life better and healthier. After 3 weeks in a coma, I woke up on Christmas day no idea what the future will have for me or how long it will be there for.

I am blogging again today to share with you how the first year went after the operation and how blessed I am in all aspect of my like hoping that this will encourage or inspire others to live their life to the fullest and just simply enjoy the gift of life.

As of today, I lost over 100 pounds this year, I feel great! Energetic, HAPPY and always laughing and enjoying life with my family, my team and my friends worldwide!

In the middle of one of the worst recessions ever in the USA, my company had the best year in business ever with tremendous success financially and technically.

My wife and I grew even closer to each other after 16 years of marriage; embracing life with a tremendous gratitude for the second chance I have been given.

I spent a lot more time with my kids and bonded well together. We enjoyed lots of trips this year to Rome, Venice, Bahamas, Disneyland and other small trips around the bay area. It was so awesome!

I took Jessica with me for the first time to almost all my business trips this year, like Paris, Sofia Bulgaria, Redmond WA and others…

I enjoyed my team at Falafel tremendously this year (they worked very hard) and it was a pleasure to take them all to Bora Bora this year. It was a dream vacation for a dream team! All of them volunteered to open a Falafel branch for me in Bora Bora, how thoughtful! But I would never ask you guys to do that for me; I will sacrifice myself for that that mission and will do it for the team J

God has put so many people in my life that have been nothing less than a GIFT and a BLESSING, like John Waters (the President of Falafel), Sean Samuel (Falafel Office manager) , my sister in law Abir Tadros, my mother in law Rosa, the entire team at Falafel in all 4 states (CA, CO, TX & MI), all my friends in the US and Europe that proved to me that a man with friends like them is the richest man in the world!

May God bless you all!  We all here at the Tadros household and the Falafel family wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year 2010!

On December 9th 2008, I went into surgery to place a Lap Band around my stomach in order to get help in losing weight and regain back my health that I neglected for 18 years by working 15 to 17 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The operation was successful but I could not even drink water for several days as the Lap Band was too tight.  The doctor decided to go back in and fix it surgically.

I went back in on December 13th for a second operation.  It was successful and was completed in less than 45 minutes.  In the recovery room few minutes later, my heart stopped.

They had to bring me back which took 33 seconds.

I was in a coma from the 13th of December to the 25th.  I woke up on Christmas day.  I stayed in the ICU for 3 weeks and a total of 28 days in the hospital.

I got back home on December 31st (My anniversary) and for the last 2 weeks I have been learning to walk again like a baby, but things are getting better every day and I am truly blessed to be alive.

I am sharing this personal experience with you for 2 reasons, the first is because God is great, I had a lot of people world wide praying for me.  It was a really tough month on my family.  The second, is because I want others to enjoy the gift of life and not take it for granted.  Be healthy, or get healthy.  Nothing in the world is worth it.  Your family and friends are the biggest assets you could ever have.

I want to thank all the hundreds of people that came to see me or called me from all over the world and for all the beautiful flowers that flooded our home for the last 30 days.

Thank you all and may God bless

- Lino "with a new life" Tadros

Isn't it weird that Joe the Plumber is what the Republican party is trying to focus on in these final days of the 2008 elections?

I have been a republican since I immigrated to the USA in 1991 and I believe the difference between the parties is very clear and has no middle standing. I never thought the day will come when I will be voting for a Democratic President.

I also thought someone like "Joe The Plumber" would be someone that Democrats would use to show their point about equality for all and bridging the gap between middle class and people that make a lot of money in the USA.  I would have thought that MCCain would go for someone like me "Lino The CEO" to show that he will not raise taxes on myself or my small business.

Anyway, my decision is made and I have to say it was not an easy decision.  I am voting for Obama on Tuesday.

Yes, I know, Obama will cause me to pay more taxes because I am in the higher 5% bracket of the country.  But honestly, taxes can not possibly be the only reason someone would vote for a President.  I am voting for Obama because I am convinced he is a great human being, great father, calm person, shows respect to the people around him, shows respect to other countries (friendly or not). I was also in Europe 2 weeks ago and I was amazed on how many Europeans are wearing Obama shirts in the streets.

I am sick of wars and arrogance and looking forward to being led by a decent President that make me proud and continues to remind me of the gift I have been given to live in the USA.

John MCCain is a decent man and I think he would have been a decent President, unfortunately these times call for more than what he has to offer.

I predict that Obama on Tuesday night (before 10:00 PM PST) will be announced the new elected President of the USA by at least 12 points differential.

May God bless our beautiful country and our next President.

The last few month have been very hectic flying all over the USA and Europe for business and yesterday I finished teaching a TestComplete class in Virginia and I decided to take today off and visit the DC area.  I have been in the USA for 19 years, traveled over 27 states and never been to DC.

I started early this morning and visited the Capitol building, the Lincoln memorial, Jefferson's Memorial, Washington Monument, Washington Cathedral and finally I stopped at the White House and spent some time there looking at the beautiful building and grab the moment.

It was a truly proud moment after 19 years in the US to visit these bigger than life places.  My love for the USA is also bigger than life, so the day was extremely emotional for me and will stay with me for the rest of my life.

God Bless America!

I was honored with the MVP award for the 4th year in a row this month from Microsoft corporation.

The Microsoft MVP Award recognizes exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily share their high quality, real world expertise with others. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts representing technology's best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others. Worldwide, there are over 100 million participants in technical communities; of these participants, there are fewer than 4,000 active Microsoft MVPs.

So last night, I took the plunge and decided to update my IPhone to 2.0

It worked, I let ITunes do the work and 20 minutes later, Voila!

Then I decided to hook my IPhone to my hosted Exchange Server for work. It took less than 2 minutes and Voila!  very cool!

Connected my Exchange Calendar to my IPhone calendar and Voila!

I really like Apple's superiority in User Interface, it is just pretty cool!

I heard a lot of people had problem yesterday (first day for the release) to get hooked up to Apple Store and ITunes, but I tried at 10:00 PM PST last night and it was pretty painless.

I am looking forward to start writing some applications on the IPhone 2.0 SDK

More on that later :)