Foreboding

I add my voice to the distressed silence.
What is there left to say?

Bravo Israel, another generation of liberal moderates have started hating you.

For some reason or another, I’m emotionally attached to my Nokia 7250, which I’ve had since the summer of 2003. I just absolutely love it.

Although its geeky features are extremely limited, I absolutely love it’s physical design, I love the fact that it’s dubbed “Il-Mamlakah”, and I love how I can fit it into my wallet.

Alas though, the battery, which has been replaced several times in the past 3 years, is starting to refuse to remain in place, paper slips slipped under its shaky covers or otherwise. The alarm clock occassionally forgets to wake me up. I get the “black” screen-of-death every too often, and every once in a while, all signs of life appear to freeze its little interface only to be shaken back into reality by taking out the battery.

It really absolutely breaks my heart.

And naturally, most of the phones on the market today are not my cup of tea. They’re too bulky and too jam-packed with features that are absolutely unneccessary to me. I don’t like this whole deal of turning the phone into every single gadget possible- I mean, why? Ok, don’t tell me why, I know why, but whatever, I like big bags and my big bags fit a lot of stuff so I don’t want a bulky phone.

If they still manufactured Nokia 7250s, I’m totally willing to buy another one. But since they don’t, the only phone on my mind is another cute, ungeeky phone that derived a “Roba, why the hell do you have to be artsy fartsy? That phone sucks, get something with features!”

Oh, well, features or not, how does one expect me to resist the prettiness of this? I even blogged about it a while ago.

And now it’s mine ;)

This is Gus.. we’re secretly posting from her blog without her knowing, she left the post thingy open and we found this as a great opportunity to say HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAY!!! weeeeeeee :P
For six hours Roba has been “informed” of getting an awesome gift.. since then she has been dying to find out what the present is!

This is hisham:) roba is sooooooooooo hyper:) she cant wait to get that present of hers, i say lets punish her and make her wait more, her birthday isnt over until tomorrow night :D haha..i cant wait to see that robaoic expression as she gets her present :) i loooooooooove you roba and happy birthdayyyyyyyyyyy :)))))))))

This is Omar, yea well Ive been running around after Roba preventing her from finding her gift and putting them in high places so she wont find them, because well normally she doesnt try and find them. We just decided not to give here the presents all at once.. ha go burn up some more :P….. Happy birthday Rooobs and 3uqbaul 100 years

ربى حبيبتي كل سنه وانت سالمه
من 21 سنه انا وبابا بدئنا نعرف ايش احلى شئ بالكون
وجودك خلى الحياه احلى
احلى واحلى واحلى
العمر كله انشاء الله

كل سنة وانت سالمة وعقيال 100 سنة
من عمو ثروت وغنى ولانا وديانا واية ورامي
والى الامام

Seriously. Latest trend. Get one in your boquet for that special someone- marketed as the “Sbecial” sort. Man.

Tawjihi is the Jordanian Highschool Leaving Certificate, and it’s apparently so tough that only 55% of this years round of students from the humanities division passed.

Luckily, to the great happiness of the entire family, my cousin Abed passed (mabrook habeebi), which called for celebration the Jordanian way, getting into cars and beeping the heck out of the horns, although it’s both rude and “illegal” (my job as I’m the car owner).

The first place that popped into my mind was Abdoun Circle, the default place to go beep and spin, spin, spin, but unfortunately, Abdoun Circle is closed this summer. The next best thing was Abdoun Mall, as the Blue Fig Circle is closed as well (damn that bridge, when are they going to finish it? And wow, I’m in such an un-eloquent mood).

And you know, I don’t care if it’s uncivilized, dangerous, and rude, I think it’s awesome.

I’ve recently been going back and categorizing each and every one of the 1150 posts that I have written in the past 2 years, and while going through them, I discovered that my life has literally been recorded on the digital pages of this blog. Although it is freaky to a certain extent, the awesomeness beats the freakiness.

Like, why was I so much more interesting last March than this March?
Did I ever really think that this is cool?
Why did I stop being so random?
Oh, my god. I drew this? Shu 3eib.

The same also goes for dates and occassions, and for someone as horrible with dates as I, it’s awesome to have all of these things recorded for future reference. For example, these are real examples that I have been asked recently.

“When was Hisham’s graduation last year?” Oh, just Google it, I’m sure you’ll find something on my blog.
“When did we go to the Turkish bath thingy?” May 27th, 2005.
“Do you remember when Paul left?” Google knows everything.

Yet, the weirdest sensation when looking back at older posts comes with the realization that I have grown so much. I have become more serious a person and less of a happy-go-lucky one. Here’s a post I wrote back in early March 2005 titled “If Confession is the Road to Healing…“, amended to be more realistic with what my confessions would be today.

1. My only sources of world news are Aquacool, Mental Mayhem, and SubzeroBlue(although I keep myself up to date with news related to culture and technology).
Although I haven’t become a news junkie yet, I am definitely addicted to reading the news.

2. I’m a bad, bad, bad parker.
I’m a good parker.

3. I recently learned how to spell restaurant.
The “recently” isn’t too recent anymore, is it?

4. I don’t have an anti-virus software installed on my computer.
Ok, that one still holds true.

5. I recently learned the difference between a democrat and a republican(ahem, ahem)
Same as number three.

6. I’ve been submitting the same research to the same professor for the past 2 semesters.
Yeah, well, that went on, and once I thought I used it too much, I started using other research papers or the research papers my friends wrote earlier. We still do that. It works.

7. I have quite a hard time distinguishing left from right.
Ok, yeah, I think I’m getting worse with that. Like, much, much worse.

8. I’ve unsuccessfully tried to learn a dictionary(and I’ll probably try again eventually).
Last time I thumbed through the dictionary in an attempt to learn any words I didn’t know was a few months back- I used a regular pocket dictionary, and wow, I actually know most of the words. Hilarious.

9. I think FireFox is too yellow.
What? What? What? Firefox is the embodiment of perfection.

10. I never bothered to learn the multiplication table and never will. There’s also no way that I can add, subtract, or divide without using the marvelous calculator.
Ok, that’s also getting worse. My math-related braincells are dying constantly.

The Israeli/Lebanese Coffin Counter (+Boing Boing)

The Middle East Buddy List (+2:48 AM)

So Lebanon is being razed to the ground in front of our eyes, while the poor Palestinians - Allah y3eenhom - are suffering as they have always suffered from Israeli oppression and destruction. After over 3 years of the start of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, the situation there keeps getting worse and worse. The Syria-Iran issue is lingering threatningly in the air, and after the 2nd Battle of Mogadishu started in May 2006, the folks over in Somaliland are claiming that it has been the worst fighting in more than a decade of lawlessness. Sudan, meanwhile, is not only on bad terms with many of its neighbors and much of the international community, but also suffering from the long-term effects of a number of civil wars, the most recent being the Darfur Conflict.

Fade into this lovely, happy, cartoonish image [insert happy cartoon jingle]: the infamous group of loonies, Al-Qaeda, who want Spain “back”.

Al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s number-two leader called for jihad until Spain is liberated from the Spanish occupation.

“It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails … from Spain to Iraq,” al-Zawahri said. “We will attack everywhere.”

Haha.

+ Beirut Update

“Fuel oil from the Jiyyeh power plant that was hit by Israel has been pouring into the sea, spreading along the Lebanese coast all the way up to the north, As-Safir reported today. Lebanon has asked Kuwait for help and an official with the Lebanese environment ministry told As-Safir that it could take “tens of years” to get rid of the pollution.
The ministry reportedly asked the Lebanese army and two private companies to survey the damage and find solutions. Environmental organizations and the UNDP have also been contacted.”

+ From Beirut to the Beltway

This awesome; web-2.0-ing classical logos.

Added a temporary white background behind the text because I can’t read what I write against gray for the life of me. I like the white better, but as I’m a CSS novice, the white corners and stuff do not not work as well in Internet Explorer (which is a terrible browser anyway) as they do in Firefox.
I’ll fix it eventually, probably even change the whole design, but for now, I would seriously recommend you download Firefox which is like, the best invention since sliced bread ;)

“In a dimly lit underground haven with loud music, stirred drinks, billiards, and futons, darkness was overcome, and once again beirut shone like a star.”

Echoing Fayrouz, the greatest Lebanese legend:

“Give me the flute, and sing
immortality lies in a song
and even after we’ve perished
the flute continues to lament
give me the flute then and sing
the best of prayer is song
did you sleep on the grass at night
and let space be your blanket
abstaining from all that will come
forgetful of all that has passed
give the flute then and sing
in singing is Justice for the heart
and even after every guilt
has perished
the flute continues to lament
give the flute and sing
forget illness and its cure
people are nothing but lines
which are scribbled on water.”

I was particularly upset when I saw these images because it wasn’t too long ago that I was the same age as these girls, and I know that I would have been too scared to look at such tools of mass destruction to let alone sign them.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese children are expressing their feelings with a different approach.

The Arabic part says:
“Today’s Lesson: Endurance.”

+ Sabbah

(See ‘God’ on written in print on his skin?)

Good to know that we’re not the only psycho ones.

“It’s so depressing Roba,” she said. “You turn on the news, and you can’t tell anymore. Iraq? Lebanon? Palestine? It all looks the same- ravaged destruction. I can’t take it anymore.”

I nodded my head sadly and turned to look at the amazingly peaceful view of Amman at sunset from the balcony of Wild Jordan, the Jordanian flag hovering in the horizon.

“It was terrible,” she continues. “It happened too fast. I literally packed only 2 shirts and a pair of jeans, I don’t have anything with me. I mean, can you imagine packing when you can hear the bombs falling around you? Boom, boom, boom. Ahhh, Roba! It is all too horrible. And look at me now! I’m a refugee! Again! Can you believe it? We were kicked out of Palestine, and now we are kicked out of Lebanon. I mean, wasn’t Palestine enough?! We got kicked out of two countries in less than half a century, by the same people! By Israel! How I hate them! Oh, my God. I’m still in shock. I can’t believe this is happening. Everything happened too fast. Everything happened too fast. What do I do with my life now?”

I just nodded, staring steadily at the speckles of light that shone like jewels on the mountain across.

Three countries. Amazing.

+ Rambling Hal

toot invites bloggers and non-bloggers to write in this blog dedicated to the crisis we are facing in Lebanon and Palestine.

All you need to do to start writing in this blog is to register. The registeration process should not take you more than 30 seconds. You can also contribute to the flickr group of this blog: http://flickr.com/groups/toot-crisis/

Another way to voice your opinion is to leave us a skype voicemail message. We will showcase your voicemail messages everyday.

God bless.

Dear Lebanese/Palestinian/Arab/Muslim/Christians - Kids,

Die with love.

Yours,
Israeli Kids

I guess that one develops a sort of apathy towards very graphic photographs as they are never warded off from the eyes of the Arab child. We grow up with them as a part of our lives- in newspapers, on tv, on campaigns- and we just learn to start taking them for granted… It’s just another photograph.

But this one isn’t.

Thank you, children, our own have received your gifts.

Ouch.

+ Sabbah