Saturday, May 31, 2008

Surprise!!!!





Partners in Crime: Dee, Xero, Arima, Cognitive, Embee, Silent Observer and DaySleepeer


It's not extraordinary..but I hope it would give you faith that good things will happen to you isA :)

Random Thought

What if I am supposed to be doing something like totally different from what I am doing? What if I am supposed to be a doctor, writer, poet, rock climber, biologist or even a cooking show hostess?

What if I am like totally wasting my time on something really not my best area..How do I know that I have an undiscovered passion or talent in something ?(I tried singing, and it didn't work, so don't even go there)..

These were just speculations I had while studying a subject I am soooo not comfortable with..

Friday, May 30, 2008

Last One

Hopefully this would be the last post I ever write about Exams..isA Rabbena haystor w te3addy 3ala 7'eer...

El mafrood enn el maddah deh as3ab madda 7'ataha el sanady..ya3ny zay mat2ooloh keda mesk el 7'etam..bass isA Rabbena haystor w te3addy 3ala 7'eer..

It's 2 days till my final final..and it's also 2 days till June..My favorite Month of The Year :)

Although throughout June I would be working on my pre-masters project, but I don't mind at all..actually I am looking forward to it..Anything instead of studying!

So i'll just have to hang in there for 2 more days and all of this will be behind my back..isA Rabenna haysotor w t3addyd 3ala 7'eer..

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A Grateful Post

El7amdolellah.This what I should be saying for a long time.El7amdolellah I had a good day today..After many days of disappointments and frustration, boredom and loneliness.

So today, started with an exam.Naturally my biological clock was mixed up because of caffiene, distorted sleeping hours and stupid dreams. Just before the exam started the doctor came and told us, "The exam has an official 3 hour.But I have designed a 1 hour exam.You can take all the time you want, but I am telling you it is a short and easy exam" . I was thinking "Great! My brain cells will keep functioning for 1 more hour anyway". The doctor was right.It was an easy to-the-point exam, yet it was a differentiator(Smart doctor, one of my best 3ammatan). Despite my stupid stupid stupid mistake in the exam, I did fine el7amdolellah..and was 2nd to hand in the paper.I was ecstatic to get it over with too quickly. Lately, I have been having this stupid habit of mine of studying really hard the night before the exam, by the time it starts I feel tired to solve it.


Then since a very long time bardo, I went out with old friends. At last I have seen Sina! She has really good disappearing powers. So going out with her along with other college freinds was really refreshing.In an instant, we dropped the attitude of being all-grown-ups with our 9-to-5 jobs and acted really silly, while everybody in the restaurant was watching!

So far so good..Then I went with Sina to see Iron Man. Now this is a really good movie. My sister claims that I loved it merely because I had frequent disappointments,but I beg to differ.It was in fact enjoyable and highly recommended by many :)

I spent most of the time in the movie shabtana fe kamm el Gadgets!Throughout the movie I kept telling sina "Ana 3ayza menndah ya 7ozombol".I mean if you intentionally lowered your IQ level to that of an ancient human being, you could actually think that this is a credible super hero. I'll be honest with you and myself:I like hi-tech movies. I was indeed impressed by this one. And then there is Gwyneth Paltrow. All she had to do is wear high heels, a formal dress, a pony tail and smile.

Then I came home to find my sisters in a surprisingly good mood given that they have an exam tomorrow (pray for them) and I also read a couple of posts that really made me feel content.

El7amdolellah for today. Cause you know what, this too shall pass, and I will enjoy it while it lasts.


Monday, May 26, 2008

Childhood dilemma, Solved!

I always had this question as a kid.

But not any more..I feel like I have missed loads of fun though..

بلدنا بتقدم بينا

So this year we ranked 69/140 countries in the GPI, or the Global Peace Index..I liked the criteria...but i really haven't read how they actually measure them..bass maslan we got( On a scale from 1-5, 1=most peaceful):

Level of distrust in other citizens, 3/5
Political Instability, 3.5/5
Relations with neighboring countries, 2
Likelihood of violent demonstration 3/5
Political Democracy Index, 3.9


...and many many more interesting criteria!

ah, 3ala fekra..i deliberately put the criteria that we were bad in, not for any specific reason other than to make the post more interesting..bass we ranked good in other stuff like ..like..organized crime (1) masalan and education percentage(93%).

MASR, MASR..TA7YA MASR!


5 Most Peaceful countries:
Iceland (go figure)
Denmark
Norway
New Zealand
Japan

5 Least Peaceful countries:
Israel
Afghanistan
Sudan
Somalia
Iraq

See the whole list here


P.S.:USA got the 97th rank..

Friday, May 23, 2008

Change is the only permanent thing.

She might not know this,but Juka's post on "This too shall pass" had a tremendous effect on my perspective in life.

Nothing stays the same. No one will stay for ever, no pain will last, no joy will reside. Everything changes. Whether its the good times, the bad times, the ugly times. It will all pass..and the only fact of life that remains unchanged is change itself.
This might be something we already know at the back of our heads because its intuitive. But let me explain how it changed my perspective in life.

Whenever something good happens to me I start appreciating it and valuing it more because I know it won't last forever. I also think that I should be grateful to Allah for this specific blessing as long as I am having it.Before I came to this realization of "everything changes", whenever something good happens, I used to come to the conclusion that "life is great, everything is perfect and from what it seems, it will be perfect for a long while".Yeah, that's what I used to think.
Now I think I am just in a "good phase" and I might as well thank my Lord as much as I can before things change.

Whenever something bad happens to me, I start consoling myself by saying it won't last forever. There will be happier times yet to come..I have to be patient until it goes away.And I might as well learn from the pain accompanying it. And as short as my life is, I already got the lesson that pain is almost only there for us to learn from it, and to make us stronger.


I became more content with the joys of life,and less depressed by the trauma it brings sometimes.

It is all the same with things around me. I don't jump into the conclusion that certain people are happy and doing well in life and others are sad and el denya mellatasha ma3ahom.I realize that what I see is just a snapshot in time and things are very likely to change for either, because it always does.

و تلك الايام ندوالها بين الناس

It's like sometimes a person enters a hospital and becomes deluded that everyone in life is sick and that life is full of pain,diseases and suffering.And another one might enter a restaurant and think that everybody seems to be happy, in love, together wel 7ayah bamby bamby..
That is absurd and a totally narrow perspective of things.I used to think that way, and I was under the illusion that some people are just happy and others are just sad. Life does not work that way. Everybody takes their turn.That's why life seems to be unfair.It is because you compare yourself or 2 people at different phases in life, thinking that things will stay like this for both forever.It's our judgment that is not fair comparing apples with oranges.

I think it is a good lesson in life not to be arrogantly happy by the good stuff happening to you and never be devastated by the bad stuff,because nothing is permanent.



Enough philosophy for one day. I will save it for the exam answer sheet paper.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Vodafone Commerical

ايه احلى حاجة في النهاردة؟

انه خِلص

انا عندي امتحانات ابتدأُُُ من يوم الاحد الجي ان شاء الله..ده طبعا معناه اني هابلوج زيادة عن المعدل الطبيعي و ذلك لأن البلوجينج ايام الامتحانات له طعم خاص لما يصحبه من مشاعر تأنيب الضمير و ندم و هروب من الواقع المرير

و الان اترككم مع رائعة علاء ولي الدين الناظر مصحوبا بترجمة للانجليزية


Sunday, May 18, 2008

25 things to do that would make your ordinary day more interesting


Everyday could be a special day in numerous ways..It just needs a bit of creativity and
time to come up with some ideas. Well, I came up with a medium-sized list of things that
hopefully would make any boring day of yours a lot more interesting.


1- Call an old friend that called you a couple of times and you havent called back. Blame
them for not calling and checking on you. The conversation could take interesting turns.


2- Get dressed, find a busy street and try crossing the road a couple of times back and
forth.Try to intentionally cross the street infront of microbuses and CTAs..(Praying el
Fard be Fardo is a prequisite for this one. Its is also adviced to give a warm group-hug
to your family)

3- Smile at strangers in the street.But be selective.This could be dangerous. If someone
smiled back, put on the blank face suddenly.

4- Get the newspaper and read it loudly in the street, or if you are stuck at traffic,
open up the windows and start reading. Perfect newspaper: El dostoor beta3 yoom larba3

5- While watching TV with your family(some movie on channel 2 for the 4th time) read the
subtitles out loudly in a cartoonish tone(aaaaa..ma hatha ya saa7). Dont stop until there are serious threats.

6- This is fun at work or college: Put your mobile in your pocket and then pretend you
lost it. Get up and try searching for it, panic, and aggressivly ask people to join your
quest(Fezz oom dawar ma3aya ya bany2adaam). After 20 minutes of searching, when someone
asks the stupid question of "Tab shofteeh fe gebeek?", Check your pocket, put an innocent
smile on your face and say: "Ah aho la2eetoh"..Sit down and avoid eye contact.

7-(I actually tried this one) In the club, find a small kid who is dressed in his/her
training suit and heading for el tamreen..talk to him/her and ask them about themselves
,their school and their dreams.Encourage them to have a bright future in whatever sports
they are practicing and ask for their name because they are going to be famous in the next
10-15 years. If you have the time, introduce them to your imaginary friend.


8- Send an email to your friends/coworkers with an attached sketch of your plan to rob the
bank from which you get your salary.

9- Try writing a song and ask your family or friends-of-your-friends about what they think
about it. But first say its a symbolic song and has a hidden meaning. You should have
something written like Adel Emam's "El7alazoona, el7alazoona, yamma 3ala el 7alazoona".
Ask them when your done if they got the hidden meaning and if they don't, be very
disappointed. If they think they figured out what the symbol is, play along.

10-Play "Bedoon Kalam" with some friends.The movie in question should be "The eternal
sunshine of a spotless mind" or "The secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood"..or it could be a
short arabic name like "7eena Maysara" or "Kalashenkoof".

11-Say you have friends X,Y and Z. Send an email to X that was supposed to be sent to Y
blabbering about Z. They don't necessary have to know each other. The less they know each
other the meaner your email can be, the more fun you have.

12- Divert all your calls to someone you recently had a fight with.

13- Go to Google.com and then start typing "Serial Killers", " Extinct-Threated Animals",
"How to make a bomb at home","Deadly Hurricanes and the friendly Names behind
them","PanCake Reciepe", "Human Cloning". Check a few links, print the results and
distribute them among your friends. Improvise when someone asks what are these for.

Or:

14- Find a really really depressed friend,who has just told you how sick they are of their
life. Google "10 ways to commit suicide creatively" and Forward them the results.
Make a Group on facebook titled ": RIP..we will never forget you, nor the way
you died".

16- Create an event on Facebook "Watching Monday's Movie Premier: Hantffarag kollena 3ala
el film elly haygebooh..w hankol we7na bentfarag". Make it a weekly event.


17- Go to a pet store.Head for a favorite animal of yours and start talking to them(As in
really talking). This works best when you have something that you need to get out of your
system and have no one to complain it too.

18- Make a 10-leveled club sandwich. Take some pictures of it, and put it on your blog.

19- Start an extremely debatable conversation in an outing,and play the devil's advocate.
At the end of the outing, accelarate the heat of the conversation and decide that you
have to go because you can't believe that your friends are thinking that way. Stand up
,and go. Send an sms after you have left saying that you are punishing them for the way of
thinking by making them pay for what you had. Only then you could be friends again.

20- Try to memorize your favorite song backwards. Brag about it all day long and ask
people to sing along.If you can't sing, humm.

21- If you have enough credit, send to people of your personal choice any of following
smses:
A-"Na3eebo Zamanona Wal 3aybo Feena..w Laysa lel Zaman 3aybon Sewana "
B-"Today is the first day of the rest of your life, unless you die today ofcourse."
C-"Beware what you wish for."
D-"Hat2olhomly Nelly, Nelly..Ha2olhomlak Sherihan Sherihan."
E-"Do some good today. "


22- If you are sitting among people you know on your computer or laptop suddenly look up
and say "What was that sound?"..Look attentive,and then after 5 more seconds say "Did you
hear that?".Repeat.

23-Wear something that you hate. Something that makes you fatter, shorter, or just doesnt
look good on you. You would probably find it in deep dark corner in your closet. Complain
about how bad you look in this.Perfect for the start of the week.Or you could wear eye-
irritating mismatching colors. (Recommendation: Green/Red-- The water melon effect.)

24- I resisted trying this in the metro:
Get out your closed-cell and pretend to have a fight over the phone.

25- Add some items to this list or make up your own list.


Have an interesting day.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

One Last Time..

Although I am still in contact with a close circle of friends from college, I still feel like I want our big "reunion" in our delayed graduation party. I never thought it was a big deal and wasn't very excited about it until very lately when I, out-of-the-blue, felt like I need a closure for college days..


عايزة جراديواشن بارتييييييي

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Quote

"There must be more to life than having everything."
-- Maurice Sendak


I have no idea who he is. But he is absolutely right.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

My daily fix


Cilantro happens to be 3 minutes away from home, and 2 minutes away from where I currently work. At last, I became a recognizable face at both, and I can actually tell the waiter ," I want the usual please". That is: Guatemala coffee, Latte with skimmed milk and no flavor.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Only Thing

The only thing I hate about my life is that I am not living it the way I should. I disappoint myself too often.

Lebanon

The situation in Lebanon is really sad. And you know what is getting on my nerves? I found that they are still airing that stupid Star Academy. Yeah, that's right..we just need one more air-head singer and all our problems are solved.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The Rules of Fake Dieting

Diet is simple logic:( Daily Calorie Intake< Daily Calories Burned)= Loss in Weight. We all know this fact. And anyone who went on a diet would know how it feels to count the calories, and get on everyone's nerves but mostly yourself.

You know those Diets that are DOA? The ones which you give in at the sight of the first temptation? These are the funniest diets I believe. They are attempts if you must say, but they are still diets..because you are still counting and keeping track of what you are eating, but you are missing the part where you actually have to eat less.

So, with the help of family, friends and experience, I have developed certain rules for fake dieting. Rules that justify why we are not dieting as we should.Rules that guide you to know exactly what to count and what to,you know, intentionally ignore..and have a good reason for it while doing so. =)

The rules are:

1- If you are eating and nobody is watching,it doesn't count.
2- If you are not paying,it doesn't count.(agblek shokalata?)
3- If you are eating off your friend's plate, it doesn't count.(Wareeny adoo2 dah keda)
4- If you don't know the exact ingredients of the meal, it doesn't count.
5- If you are eating something for the first time, it doesn't count.(Esmoh eh olteely?)
6- Ice-cream in winter doesn't count.
7- If you are eating directly off the fridge, it doesn't count.
8- If you are eating standing up, it doesn't count.
9- If it is a drink, it doesn't count.(I'll have this mocha to-go law sama7t)
10-If you don't like the taste of what you are eating, it doesn't count.
11- If you are eating in the car it doesn't count.
12- If someone 7elef 3aleek yemeen tala2 la takol, it doesn't count.
13- Deliveries leftovers that are cold and already lost their taste don't count (Ana feteret ba2eet el McRoyal elly kaltooh embare7 w kasselt assa7'anoh)
14- If you are eating when you are really really really angry, it doesn't count. ( Dah EH EL ARAF DAH..ENTY 3'AWYA MASHAKEL W 7'ALAS!! NAWLEENY EL KATCHAB.)


Now that the rules are set..you have no excuse to be on a diet for a lifetime.


P.S: I read this in Cilantro's mag: Banging your head on the wall for an half-hour burns 150 calories..

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Great News Wrapped in Saddening Circumstances

A couple of days ago, I woke up on great news.I was really really relieved. Sami el Hajj is OUT!After 6 years of Guantanamic suffering , he was finally released. I remember praying for the guy a couple of times. I mean really praying for the guy.Almost nothing in this world is saddening as first-degree injustice.

Then when I actually watched the news at Al-Jazeera, and saw how he was carried by soldiers because he was too weak, and how he was transported right away to the hospital for his health condition, and how much weight he lost, due to hunger strikes..I felt..I felt..I felt angry, frustrated but happy that things will hopefully get better for him.

Then I heard him speak.. with such heavenly perseverance, something out of this world really. I was impressed. He is a living example of strong will.I would never forget the sparkle in his weary eyes, the strength in his weak voice, nor the sadness in his smile. You could not help but respect the guy and wish that we had more like him.I mean no wonder he got locked up.

Although I never heard Al-Hajj speak before, but I got the feeling that imprisonment changed him. Of course it did, but what went through my mind was that 6 years ago maybe the only thing that was of his focus is how to make a living, build up a career,or pursuit an exciting shot worth putting in the news. But now, I believe that he would have a wider perspective of things, more important issues on his minds, more enemies and simply a different life a head of him. But none of that is anything other than speculations of distant viewer.Overall, I think and hope that he got the best out of this situation, although the word "situation" is a terrible understatement.



You could watch a video Here, read more about it Here and Here.