Is it just me or does everyone in Jordan seem to be suffering from a B12 deficiency these days? Everyone seems to either be taking a course of B12 supplements or knows someone who is. Weird.

Roba says:
i love colors
nada says:
i knoooooow
heik yummmmmmm
a7keelik sir
i smell colors
Roba says:
hehe
can i blog that?
nada says:
inno each color has a smell
Roba says:
willa 3anjad sir?
nada says:

no mish sir
bas how r u gonna blog the smell
Roba says:
hehe
whats the smell of yellow?
its warm..
and sweet
yummmm
nada says:
no it’s sour
it’s sweet
ah
heik contradicting
Roba says:
yum
nada says:
purple yummmm
o red
aaaaah
heik
cherry
raspberry
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

num num

:)
Artsy-fartsy question of the day for everyone:
What’s your most delicious color?

Women’s right to equal citizenship is guaranteed by the majority of Arab constitutions, as well as by international law. Yet across the Arab world, women are denied their right to nationality – a crucial component of citizenship. Women who marry men of other nationalities cannot confer their original nationality to their husbands or children. Only fathers, not mothers, can confer their nationality to their children.

The Women’s Learning Partnership joins with regional partners in the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf to call for:

• Legal reform enabling women to confer their nationality to their husbands and children without condition
• Full implementation of reformed nationality laws and equal access to these laws for all women
• ecognition of women as equal citizens in all areas of life

It’s so refreshing and so fantastic to see such campaigns coming out of the Arab world. We seriously need to start working on such reforms. Sign the petition.

Don’t you just love it when female Arab bloggers go a step further?
Go Ihath :)

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”—Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird”

~

It is disgusting how the world keeps going backwards with each passing day. More censorship, more intolerance, more hate, more boundaries, more limits, aaaaah!

What does someone like me do? I just want to live life the way I want to live it, without being preached and without preaching anyone. I want my opinions to be tolerated, and I want to hear out other people’s opinions and ideas. I want the freedom to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, regardless of anyone else’s view.

Unfortunately, things don’t look promising. Life all over the world is constantly becoming closer to an Orwellian world, with Ministries of Truth popping around all over the place, controlling information, “rectifying” history to make them conform to “utopian dreams”, denouncing then banishing works of literature from library shelves as “objectionable reads” (”1984″ is banned by the way).

Here’s the American Library Association of banned books for 2006:

1. “Harry Potter” (Series) (J.K. Rowling)
2. “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee)
3. “The Color Purple” (Alice Walker)
4. “The Outsiders” (S.E. Hinton)
5. “Lord of the Flies” (William Golding)
6. “Of Mice and Men” (John Steinbeck)
7. “Goosebumps” (Series) (R.L. Stine)
8. “How to Eat Fried Worms” (Thomas Rockwell)
9. “The Catcher in the Rye” (J.D. Salinger)
10. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (Mark Twain)
11. “The Giver” (Lois Lowry)
12. “Brave New World” (Aldous Huxley)
13. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (Mark Twain)
14. “Captain Underpants” (Dav Pilkey)
15. “The Anarchist Cookbook” (William Powell)
16. “Carrie” (Stephen King)
17. “Flowers for Algernon” (Daniel Keyes)
18. “The Dead Zone” (Stephen King)
19. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (Maya Angelou)
20. “Go Ask Alice” (anonymous)
21. “American Psycho” (Bret Easton Ellis)
22. “The Chocolate War” (Robert Cormier)
23. “James and the Giant Peach” (Roald Dahl)
24. “The Pigman” (Paul Zindel)
25. “A Wrinkle in Time” (Madeleine L’Engle)

It is indeed laughable, and even more so as I read more than half of these books as required readings for school. I first read Harry Potter, the first banned book on the list, when I was bored one day and decided to borrow my brother’s 6th grade reading material, Harry Potter, as it looked more interesting than TV. I first read the second book on the list, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, in the 7th grade for my literature class. When I was in the 5th grade, I owned most of the “Goosebumps” series (banned on the list as number 7), which I was introduced to by my English teacher.

Other titles in the list account for some of my favorite childhood reads; “A Wrinkle in Time”, “James and the Giant Peach”, and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. I can’t believe that they are deemed of negative influence to children today.

The world seriously needs to wake up, and quickly. Enough with closing our eyes and pretending that if we don’t allow stories to be told, actions that have already happened are erased. Things don’t work that way.

It is unthinkable that we live in this kind of world in the year 2006, and that this is happening in the country that is trying to wage the international war for freedom. Freedom starts at home.

Explore banned books with Google

I don’t think anything excites me as much buying a new book, and in the past few months, I’ve bought a very large amount, the latest being bought today. So exciting.
Here are some of the books waiting on my shelf for their turn to be read,

1. “Orientalism”, Edward Said
2. “Palace Walk”, Naguib Mahfouz
3. “What is Typography?”, David Jury
4. “Seeret Madinah” (Tale of a City), Abdulrahman Muneef
5. “Pop: Truth and Power at the Coca Cola Company”, Constance Hays
6. “The Best Tables, Chairs, Lights”, Mel Byars
7. “1,000 Greetings”, Peter King
8. “The Historian”, Elizabeth Kostova
9. “Graphic Design America”,

Omar: “Roba will read Harry Potter first and I call next.”
Hisham: “No! You can’t call next! I already called it next two years ago! This is the first time you bring it up.”
Omar: “Two years ago is too long ago, I’m reading the book after Roba.”
Gus: “How about I read it second?”
Hisham: “No. You’re too slow. I’ll definitely read it second, I’m the fastest out of you three.”
Mom: “So they released the book?”
Roba, Hisham, Omar, and Gus: “No.”
Mom: “When is it going to be released?”
Omar: “Umm, still no date decided.”

Harry Potter Book 7

Yes, seriously, at least in India.
You can actually order your very own fatwa for as little as $22.
I can think of plenty ;)

+ Time.com
+ Moorish Girl

Never would I have imagined that one day, I will stand in a circle with some of my colleagues from the department in a backroom in the Sports Complex of Jordan University and well, be taught how to dance.

One two three four. One two three four. One two three four. Can you hear the rhythm?

I suppose that’s one of the good parts about studying fine arts and design rather than just design. I mean, you can’t graduate with a BFA without taking classes titled “Music Appreciation” and “Rhythm and Dance” can you? I’m not sure I became more musically sensitive after last semester’s music appreciation class, and I’m not sure if I will actually learn how to Waltz this semester, but with tri-weekly 2-hours-a-day sessions of dance with a Russian proffessor whose passion in life is “expraissin rhee-tem wid mowment” for 3 entire months, I’m guessing I will learn more than the dance salute we learned today.

So anyway, after 40 minutes of listening to the importance of dance and 60 minutes of practicing our posture, we finished our very first Rhythm and Dance class today, and left the backroom to find that Jordan University had closed its facilities while we were busy trying to perfect our salutes.

20 students and a Russian proffessor were locked in the Sports Activities Complex. Thirty minutes and many phone calls later, a security guard finally comes and opens the doors for us.

So yeah, looks like it’s going to be an exciting class. Tomorrow I’m going to buy a training suit that satisfies the professors demands to wear something that “shows muskles”. I don’t own a single training suit. I don’t even own a pair of pants that are not made out of denim.

Well, that’s what the tub of dye that I just poured over my hair says anyway.

This is the first attempt since my teenage “crazy” years to dye my hair at home- and even when I do dye it at a salon, I go with natural brown (picture of me with my usual hair color). I guess the shade should be more mahogany then auburn as my current hair color is dark… It’s sort of scary.

So yeah, totally holding my breath as I wait for the next 10 minutes to pass before I rinse the color off. I hope it’s not too dark or too light…

Ahem.

*UPDATE*

Results: I love it! :D

I wouldn’t have minded if it was slightly brighter, but this shade is definitely cool. I’m guessing it’ll be a lot brighter in daylight. I think it’s perfect for the upcoming winter season.

For the women interested in obtaining such a color (for future Googling referencing), I used L’oreal Feria Pure Mahogany Auburun, color P55 on brown hair.

… so it’s been two years since my first post.

I started (typically) by uploading an image that I had saved years ago and which I thought was cute (might I add to that that at that point, Blogger still didn’t have the image upload feature and I had to figure out how to link images using html).

For And Far Away, there were no hellos, there were no introductions, there were no “this is my first post”-style first posts. There was a headfirst dive into the world of blogging. Splash, splash.

This blog has gone through many transformations since that initial dive, in terms of content and design. The content grew as I grew, it changed according to my whims and fancies. It’s funny reading all the old posts and remembering what I was thinking as I blogged the older pictures and the older posts- they are full of memories, especially of people who I have drifted further away from during the past two years. I’m definitely a different person today than I was when I first started And Far Away.

Naturally, the visuals of this blog have changed a lot too in the past 2 years. The readers definitely get attached to the visuals, and some still email me saying they miss the very first design of “And Far Away” (which was very simple, white with a red header), and others are fond of bringing up the street header which was so much more ‘alive’(which is still functioning here) than the third design with the gray background and the city scene.

Today, to celebrate the beginning of the third year, I’m changing the design once again. I’m sure the “I like the old design better” emails and comments will keep coming, which is cool, it’s so interesting to see people get attached to a design, but personally, I think I like this new design the best so far. There’s a lot of white, a lot of colors, shoes, and best of all, there’s Amman right up there over everything else. This design gives an instant identity on first impression; it’s yelling, “Hey world, this blog is coming to you from Amman, Jordan” and I absolutely love that.

So here’s to a third year, And Far Away, live and kicking from the heart of the Jordanian capital, Amman.

I never though it so possible to love a page on the internet so completely.

Check out the first anniversary post ever.

… because I become extremely unproductive and I absolutely hate it.

In Saudi Arabia, they would shift the work day a little further allowing you to sleep till around 10:00 AM, and they divide the work day into a day shift and a night shift, so you work for 5 hours in the day time, go have ftoor, then go back to work at 9:00 PM and work for another 4 hours. The shops close at 2:00 AM, giving you time to get all your needs done. This way, if your morning hours are only fruitful in terms of caffeine-headaches and a hunger panges, then at least you can work at night.

Meanwhile, in Amman, the schedule during Ramadan isn’t adjusted at all. For example, I have a few things to do this week, and I know I need to have my complete mental and creative abilities to get the stuff done properly. But how and when? I have classes from 8 to 4, so there goes my day. Not that it would have been much help because I can’t concentrate while hungry. By the time I get home, figure out the iftar social obligations of the day, which usually drag till 8:00 PM, there goes my evening. By the time I have the chance to get some work done, BAM! It’s 9:00 PM, and I have to wake up at 6:00 AM the next day! That leaves me with around an hour to get something done.

Bracing for a long month ahead…

Hold the atayef. Ramadan will have to wait till Sunday.

Today I decided to go watch a basketball game that my brother Omar was playing in (he plays for the Orthodox Club). I think it’s the second time I go watch a basketball game and the first time was ages ago. It was sort of fun, Orthodoxi versus Fastlink, and Orthodoxy won! Congrats guys.

Sometimes, I just sit and watch my fingers aggressively bend, straighten and whip left and right as they fight to click on the keys. Everything sounds too fast and too angry because the keys are being clicked at almost the same time- something which drives my family crazy, “Roba! Calm down!”. I am calm, but my fingers somehow take a life of their own; an angry life, a life faster and more caustic than that of my own persona, though admittedly, I am an aggressive person- impatinent, with a very low attention span, and generally quite dainty.

I think it’s all so hypnotizing.

I type with three fingers- four if you count my lefthand thumb whose job is to do all the spacing. Everything other than the spacing is handled with three fingers on my left hand: the index finger, the middle finger, and the ring finger. My right hand rests at the mouse and the occassional clicks on “Backspace” and “Enter” (for a live preview, check out video above). I guess I have Adobe to thank for that. Ctrl + T plus moving the mouse around, and well, the Dallal’s for passing on the genes for long fingers.

I was so young when I learned how to type, way, way before I had any idea what the internet was. My dad got us a personal computer in the early 90’s with a Wordprocessor, and I used to write, write, and write. I’m so glad blogging came along, at least all the stuff I write don’t get lost now. I can’t even work the floppy disks that containt my early blabberings anymore.

Does anyone else type with one hand? :P

I know that this had a mention one post before this post, but then I saw more and I’m so totally and amazingly blown off my feet by this wedding cake that I am going to go ahead and give it a post all for itself.
I mean, if a completely edible Super Mario wedding cake doesn’t deserve an entire post, then I don’t know what does. Just look at the detail. Ok, so now, there’s no way I’m marrying someone who can’t find me such an awesome wedding cake.
I grew up with Super Mario; my mother used to sit us all in front of the Atari and organize Super Mario tournaments. Later, I would play Super Mario to death on a GameBoy. I think this would explain my upcoming design for this blog (peak preview of the new design here)… Anyone else grew up with Super Mario?

Now, for the cake, in all it’s glory of details, check this out:

Cake made by Gateaux, and you really should check out their other cakes, because they’re pieces of art. I don’t know how anyone in the world could ever have the heart to eat that.

AA batteries with built-in USB charging-plugs
link

Super Mario wedding cake. I loveeeeeeee this! It’s sooooooo cool!
link

I love this floor decal. It’s such a great idea. I can imagine it coming out of a door…
link

(done by Hisham)

http://itoot.net/

Being a devoted Pepsi fan, I thought these ads encouraging the (alternative) recycling of Pepsi were absolutely awesome:

+ Ads of the World

The view of Riyadh at night from Mamlakah Tower.
It’s quite unbelievable to me how flat Riyadh is. Look at it- not a single mountain, not a single plateau, it’s just a flat expanse of land, sort of like a matrix, or a grid.

My favorite Chinese in the world :)

Saudi Champagne

Sign inside the compound my parents live in

with Whitey’s sister

my awesome new shoes

quite tasteless but delicious looking appetizer

Mamlakah tower from above

What an odd feeling it is to be driven around the streets and highways of Riyadh after years from when I last lived there, and after a life spent mostly in those streets.

~ One ~
… from a route taken twice a day for most of my life
/rewind/
I wish I can stop by Starbucks Tahlia, only a few meters away from home, so that I can get a cold glass of icy Frappacino to wake me up before I get to school. It’s only 6:15. Why the hell do they start school so early? Why can’t it start at 8:00 like half the earth? Losers.
The road to Manarat is really long and quite arid. I always loved the part where we go over the bridge that overlooks the Village Planning Ministry thing- it looks like a palm tree forest from above. Most of the rest of the road is really boring. There’s that white building with a huge black sign that reminds me of the Kabaa, and there’s Al-Juraisi Group(?) that always makes me wonder if the Apple box I remember from when I was a kid was just real or just a made up memory.
I’m still sleepy. I hate the fact that they always make the math classes really early in the morning, I can’t get math for the life of me when with my full mental abilities let alone a half-asleep brain.

/play/
Hello street. You look so familiar, but do I really know you? You’re so perfectly formed, so beautifully done. The cars driving over you are so big and pretty, and the system is intricate. I think I would like to drive my baby blue 1300 CC Mitsubishi Lancer over your asphalt, but that’s not possible eh? I know these buildings so well, I used to count them, but I never noticed the signs, I never noticed the colors, I never noticed the plethora of classical revival and art noveu architecture. Not that I knew what those were then… How amazing it is how a building you’ve driven past almost every single day for 15 years looks so different when the knowledge is different.

~ Two ~
… from a favorite pastime
/rewind/
I know I look nervous and edgy, and I keep pulling up the scarf over my head and looking out for bearded men with their short white tobes. Mama keeps telling me to not worry, there are no Matwaa’, and if there are, all I need to do is start blabbering in English and they’ll go away. I’m still quite nervous. I think I have a fullfledged Mutawaa‘-phobia, but seriously, how the hell can anyone not when they love going into the whole “3areyaton-fasedaton-faseqaton” tirade. No matter… I love how shiny and bright everything is in the malls! I love the colors and the branding and the creativity. It’s so pretty all of it..

/play/
I check for Mutawaa’s again. My mother tells me to stop being panicky and to not put the scarf up. I don’t know how to deal with the scarf. I put it around my neck like I wear wool scarves in Amman’s cold winter; it’s not wool though, it’s soft, and it keeps slipping and falling off and I keep wrapping it around my neck again and again. Stay put. How do people deal with these things?
The mall is much smaller than I remember, although very, very shiny and beautifully designed. It’s all in the details…

~ Three ~
… yummy, yummy, in my tummy
/rewind/
I love this place cause it feels more “natural” than all the other places in town. The families are, as my mother would say, “min jama3etna”, which pretty much means that they’re Levantines- the women with their hair and faces uncovered, the men in their pants and tshirts, and the too-maye3-sounding accents flying around (comes when Levantine accents are a minority of “Eish” and “Shu” among a much coarser one). We have made it a habit to come to Fuddruckers every Friday for so many years now.

/play/
Fuddruckers is fantastic. I just came from Amman last night but I already feel like I need to be around people whose accents I understand. We sit at a table behind the stairs, and it’s ok, I don’t need to see people today, I’m going back home in a few days and all I need to do is go to Mecca Mall to see all the people I want to see. Interestingly this year, and this is something that was never around before, Saudi teenage females are not covering their faces like they used to, although the older women still do. I even saw a Saudi woman of around 17 whose hair isn’t even covered! I’ve never seen that before. Ever.

My trip to Riyadh was relaxing. I shopped so much and I even got to tan. I had Baskin Robbins and went to the 99th floor of Riyadh’s highest building to stare at Riyadh laid out flat beneath me under the glass.

The best part about the trip though was the quality time I got to spend with my mother and father, who spoiled me to death :)

My earliest memories in Riyadh start in a little apartment in Sleimaneyeh in the late 80’s and as far as today stands, end in the living room of a little studio apartment in a compound by the airport, discussing Pope Benedict with my amazingly wonderful parents (whose political opinions are quite different from my own). Love you two :)