“Roobee! Why the hell are you wearing a ski jacket in May?” was the first thing my friend Nisreen yelled when she saw me today. I haven’t seen Nisreen in over 10 months, she dropped unexpectedly today after “escaping war in Beirut” for the second time in under two years.

And indeed it was very close to a ski jacket, I was wearing my much beloved faux-fur-lined, super-warm, bright-red winter jacket, because well, the weather is being very unpredictable these days, and whether it’s May or December, I really do not enjoy feeling cold.

My beloved red jacket:

Plus, anyone who knows me will most definitely agree that I am a little more warm-blooded than most- I am almost always very cold.

In April, when we were hit by the heatwave, I refused to switch my winter clothing for summer clothing. After all, we were still in April, and there was no way in hell I was going to switch to t’s and skirts in spring.

The heatwave came and went… and May is here, and the next heatwave is no where in sight. I keep looking longingly into my closet at my gorgeous sandals and beautiful shorts, and just thinking how much I miss 35+ degree weather.

I guess I’m sticking to my red jacket, but perhaps it’s time to remove the detachable faux-fur-lining and
cap. Hmm… but then again it rained the other day, and I was the only one who didn’t get wet. Perhaps it’ll rain unexpectedly again?

• Biesan (Jordan) is saqata al qena3 akheeran 3an wajh el sayed!!!!
• Dana (Palestine) is God Bless Lebanon!
• Eva (Lebanon) welcome to our f…ed up country.
• Saria (Lebanon) To all those who still believe in their so called LEADERS, WAKE UP…
• Sander (Holland) prays for Lubnan.
• Roof (Syria) God help Lebanon.
• Mohammad (Lebanon) I don’t need your civil war, It feeds the rich while it buries the poor.
• Manal (Morocco) is hearing the shots in Beirut…
• Oula (Jordan) hates “civil war 2008″ in Beirut…
• Isam (Jordan) is لبنان : فلم أمريكي إيراني طويل.
• Fouad (Lebanon) ’s heart is emptier than his city’s streets.
• Nour (Lebanon) is stuck in Egypt w lazem terga3 delwa2ti!!
• Yazan (Syria) Our heart go to Beirut.
• Farah (Jordan) is going to stop reading the news. garaf.
• Carmen (Lebanon) is speechless again.
• Carole (Lebanon) A strike turns to chaos!!!
• Ibrahim (Jordan) is من قلبي سلام لبيروت.
• Nada (Jordan) [ prayers for Lebanon ].
• Carole (Lebanon) لبنان يحترق.
• Nada (Jordan) BEIRUUUUT.
• Biesan (Jordan) is they are burning what Hariri tried to build!!!!
• Iman (Palestine) Lebanon on my mind.
• Saria (Jordan) To all those who still believe in their so called LEADERS, WAKE UP…
• Ola (Jordan) is sad… want beirut back.
• Mood (Egypt) thinks Sad Harriri should hire Blackwater immedietly!
• Sarah (Lebanon) عمادنا عماد النصر ,ونصرنا نصرالله.
• Omar (Jordan) is wailing Lebanon…
• Marcy (US) is ketir worried about her friends in beirut.
• Manal (Morocco) is witnessing a civil war :S.
• Eva (Lebanon) STOP BEING PLAYED ON AND BLAMING EACH OTHER… ITS A GAME, WE LEBANESE R THE LOOSERS.

(cartoon by Mazen Kerbage)

I haven’t watched a news channel in a very long time, I usually stick to reading the news online. But today my dad had the TV on Al-Jazeera, and I couldn’t believe how much more horrible the situation in Lebanon looked than it did in photographs.
Masked gunmen… Blockades in the middle of the streets… It’s really horrible.

I can’t believe that Lebanon is still heavily divided- “Sunni living quarters”, “Shia living quarters”, “Christian living quarters”, “Druze living quarters”… they seem to have a million divisions. And I cannot relate to that.

I was young when the Lebanese Civil War ended, but the thought of it still really scares me. Beirut still has bullet wounds in its buildings… it isn’t time again for another civil war. It’s never time again for that. Let’s hope this passes “3ala kheir”.

Where’s the summer?

[link to more images]

My cousin just added this vintage photograph of the family to Facebook. My father is the third one from the left on the bottom row, and my grandfather is the man holding the baby. Everyone else in the picture are my dad’s brothers and sisters.

This photograph was taken in Nablus, Palestine, and was probably taken around 1955.
For more vintage family pictures, go here.

After the brilliant Radiohead move, the Nine Inch Nails are following suite with their latest album “Ghosts.”

In March, the Nine Inch Nails released their album ‘Ghosts’ under a non-commercial Creative Commons license, meaning that it can be shared freely. The band confirmed that they had uploaded the album themselves to sites like The Pirate Bay, Waffles.fm and What.cd.

Even better yet, thanks to the Nine Inch Nails, the free music vibe is going to get a fresh boost today. A brand new track from the band entitled “Echoplex”, is now available for free download on Facebook. Yes, Facebook.

If that’s not cool…

[source]

Related links: The Pirate Migration

That’s pretty funny, designed by artist Mark Jenkins and Evan Roth. Too bad there’s no color for Arab. [link via]

Microsoft walked away from a bid to acquire Yahoo when its increased, $45-plus billion offer was rebuffed by the pioneering Internet company as not enough by half.

The surprise Saturday announcement came after a week of tense negotiations and about three months after Microsoft informed Yahoo that it intended to buy it, the better to compete with internet ad behemoth Google.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft in a prepared statement.

[source]

Apparently though, this is not the last we will here about this deal.

Related posts:
In your Face

And it’s just that summer is almost here, and that really makes me happy. There’s something about summer, about the summer shades of green, about the heat and the clothes and the sandals and the icecream, that really makes me happy.
First comes May… then comes June… the comes July…
And life is all about askimo, tanning, and walks.
Well, and other stuff this year too, but whatever.

Past Files:
On March
On April
On May
On June
On July
On August
On September
On October
On November
On December
On January
On February
On March

Pretty cool video of Homer drawn completely using CSS.

Remember the first way they ever taught us to draw a tree? A green bumpy circle with a brown rectangle stinking from the bottom… Well, this is really the same thing, except I wish someone considered trying to get kids to be as creative with stick figures and colors and these same bumpy-circle-brown-rectangle trees. For more really funny tree-related illustrations, go here. [via]

I have to admit that although I’m an art major and although I really love images, I am not a graphic-novel sort of person. I find their flow rather confusing, and their fonts and styles hard to read. Which is why I at first I was very reluctant to read Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.

But then, I managed to get my hands on it, and found myself unable to stop, until I finished Persepolis, Persepolis 2, and Embroideries in a few days.

The books are brilliant, beautiful, and absolutely hilarious. As an Arab, I found that they are very easy
to relate to, especially when they talk about the culture. Having lived in Saudi Arabia, I could also relate to some of the issues brushed upon in the books.

Anyway, I heard that the movie is banned here after Lebanon banned it (out of fear of inciting hate, boooo). I hope that’s not true.