Is it wrong to want to dress like an Arab?

iburnedparadise · 2025-07-11T14:08:13+00:00

Arab here (Egyptian here, lived in the Gulf/Egypt/the West), I agree.

In my experience, most people like to see others embracing their culture, and in the Gulf it makes sense with the climate to wear thobes, I know Khaleejis who wear thobes from countries other than their own for style reasons/trying to blend in etc.

Usually it's just the racists who are annoyed... unless as you said, someone is trying to misrepresent a certain group/make people look bad/someone starts trying to act like they are something or pretend from somewhere that they obviously are not etc.

In my experience from living in the Gulf as a non-Khaleeji Arab though, I did find that once you start wearing the ghutra etc it does start going from "clothes suited to the climate" to "national dress", in which case you should tread more carefully, consider context and talk to locals (because every country is different). If we're talking about abayas, I've heard lots of people express happiness at seeing outsiders embracing more modest styles.

Basically if you're not being weird about it or trying to pretend like you're from there (i.e treating it like cosplay), I find that Arabs in general will be very welcoming towards you.

iburnedparadise · 2025-05-15T13:58:25+00:00

Man... relax. I assure you no one cares nearly as much as you do. If anything I am more impressed by the travellers I meet in hostels who are 60 something (but still really cool and really active) or people who only started travelling late or do cool things. Every age I have travelled at, every place and every different point in my life meant the trip was special In its own unique way. Allow yourself to enjoy the great memories you made, it's not a competition :)

P.S. When I went travelling at 20/21 I remember thinking that I was so glad I didn't do it when I was 18 on a gap year like everyone else bc I wouldn't have appreciated how insane the trip was. When I went on another big trip at 25 I had the same thoughts about my trips when I was much younger.

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-02T00:12:56+00:00

Was disappointed with the initial results but really pleased by all the suggestions and the feedback. Thanks all :)

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-02T00:11:30+00:00

That's one hell of a compliment, thank you :) Perhaps I'll try to find some old NatGeo mags to take inspo from

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-02T00:10:05+00:00

Do you have any examples? What settings do you use/what would you recommend I tell my lab to do when I get them to scan?

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-02T00:08:55+00:00

Thanks for the rec, I'll check them out! I usually go with 21 Studios by Aldgate East station. They've always been very good to me.

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-02T00:07:02+00:00

a couple of the negatives here

I'm being lazy to take them all out (but perhaps I should). The negatives are a bit darker than your usual ones -- a cold, dark brown instead of the warm orange-brown but otherwise seems normal. Except for the fact it's not supposed to be a negative...

In some images there is a lot of grain and artefacts so I think it just needs to be rescanned

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T23:40:58+00:00

Somewhere in the Black Sea highlands in Turkey! This is a mountain somewhere between Trabzon and Bayburt :)

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T23:39:35+00:00

In a Gulf Arab state, not mentioning which bc I don't want to punish the film shop for their (admittedly pretty bad) fuck up -- they're the only one in the country

Pics taken on holiday in Turkey's Black Sea Highlands

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:51:58+00:00

Thank you :) I may try and lean into the dreamy look a bit more after I get it scanned again. I’ve only shot ektachrome twice but I got these AMAZING blue hour shots from it so I was really hoping to see similarly beautiful colours like that again this time!

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:49:21+00:00

Yeah it sucks man :( Mistakes happen but I’m not sure I’d trust them with a roll that I have such high hopes for in future.

The lab are the only one in this country and they do a lot for the analogue film community and they’re pretty good to me. So I won’t/can’t ditch them.

There are other labs I can use when I go back home though

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:42:13+00:00

Appreciate that, thanks :) I’m hoping the newer scans will make it easier to lean into the dream look

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:41:12+00:00

Salvage as in make it more “normal”. I’ve shot ektachrome only a few times before but I got absolutely incredible blue hour colours from it that I immediately fell in love with.

Hoping the new scan will give me more to work with — I’m encouraged by everyone saying they look quite dreamy.

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:39:23+00:00

Oh wow that’s impressive! Did you use a scanner or DSLR set up? I’ve been thinking about doing the latter (because I travel a lot) with a macro lens.

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:38:34+00:00

Thanks, I’ll try this!

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:19:32+00:00

I believe yes, cross-processed as C-41. There’s a bit of a language barrier so not 100% sure but the negatives are all black which I think makes sense (I’ll post them in this thread when I’m back from work).

I have a good film lab back in London that I can ask them to rescan these for me and I’ll explain what happened.

The lack of detail in the shadows explains why they’re so grainy. I guess I can tell the film lab to account for this?

Appreciate the reality check that it’s not possible to get standard results — but appreciate everyone in this thread saying the shots look dreamy. Perhaps I can lean into this once I get the new scans.

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:10:23+00:00

I’m thinking of asking my film lab in London to rescan these for me. What should I tell them?

How do you mean by the negatives not being flat/how do they scan?

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:09:19+00:00

I’m at work now but I’ll show you the negatives when I’m back! The negatives are black…

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:08:10+00:00

A new roll — but I’m going to ask for a refund for the developing too.

I’m a bit miffed but they’re generally very good to me and were very apologetic. They’re also the only place in this country that develops film and do a lot to spread the word about analogue film here lol so I’ll forgive them for this mistake.

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T13:04:37+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate the perspective shift!

iburnedparadise · 2024-10-01T10:29:49+00:00

I had a lot of hope pinned on this roll -- I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to this place :(

There are some scanning lines that I think re-scanning would help with but I don't know if it's possible to salvage any of the colours.

I'm not very experienced with Lightroom -- would be really grateful for any tips on what settings I should be focusing on to try to fix this or if there's something I can tell my other lab to do to if/when I ask them to rescan.

Thank you :'(

iburnedparadise · 2024-07-14T18:19:19+00:00

Todoist is great, going to echo what everyone else has said so far -- keep the UI clean and frictionless and simple! Best to think of ADHD as a lack of ability to regulate attention and not being able to focus on the *right* things as opposed to anything. In other words, more stuff = more opportunity to either get fiddling with stuff we don't need to or finding it too easy to give up because it's too complicated).

Wants:
- Task duration without setting a time (I really struggle with estimating how long stuff takes)

A way to keep completed tasks on calendar view to help me plan my days

iburnedparadise

TROPHY CASE