Wrist Hurts

My right hand's wrist has been hurting me since last night. I have a
feeling I will not be able to type with my right hand for a couple of
days. What caused it? 9 hours of programming per day, add to it the 2
to 4 hours internet-ting at home... that might have caused it! Welcome
to the new millennium.

Spelling competition

- Spell Expectation
- Can you put it in a sentence?
- "A lot of people had the expectation that you and him won't last.
They thought they are not right for each other, that he is just her
rebound guy."
- E-X-P-E-C-T-A-T-I-O-N. Expectation.
- Right.
Spell Difficult.
- Can you put it in a sentence please?
- Sure. "Even though she's very difficult, but he always found ways to
smooth her life away. To understand her and to help her understand
herself. He got it right."
- D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T. Difficult
- Right again.
Now spell Happiness.
- Happiness... hmmm... can you please put it in a sentence?
- Of course
"Happiness is not something you can attain because of someone else,
but something you reach on your own, however it is definitely
something you attain with someone else."
- H-A-P-P-I-N-E-S-S. Happiness
- Right. Ok now one more. Spell Boomerang.
- Boomewang?
- No! Boomerang.
- Okay, I know what Bommewang is.
B-O..
B-O-O-M-E-W-A-N-G. Boomewang.
- Wrong. Sorry.
- But why?
- You said W instead of R
- No, I said UW... I sweaw...
- Oh! Oooh! Hmmm I'am sorry it still counts as wrong.
- It's fine, not only did I lose my Boomewang in the bushes yesterday
I also lost the spelling quiz.
- Oh don't be sad, you still got each other...

Gal El Maleh canceling his shows in Beiteddine

Seriously? (A la Delirious way)

Check it here.

La Dame Blanche

Friday Night had El Día Español, so after being held up at work till 7:30pm, I finally made it to Downtown Beirut. Sat a little bit with the Spanish colleagues, then after some left, I thought I would shoot some photos in Downtown, now that I have a fancier machine (Camera).






Started out the weekend with a visit to Kefraya.


Unfortunately the tour was not available as they are doing some constructions. So after taking a walk among the vineyards, enjoying the scenery and then checking out the Château, we headed to the wine tasting bar.


I am no expert on Wine Tasting, nevertheless it is still an enriching experience. We started out with La Dame Blanche, which I personally really liked, it was smooth on the tongue and easy on the throat. Then the famous Blanc de Blancs came along, afterward La Rosée du Château, which didn't really leave an impression on me, followed by Myst de Château Kefraya, which also isn't something I would like to drink, probably because I am not a fan of Rosée, then Château Kefraya 2005, which had a taste of wood, and that was the main reason why I liked it, and finally Le Comte de M, probably the most prestigious, but I liked the previous red more.


As we were already in West Bekaa, we thought we should benefit from our time and drop by the Qaraoun Lake. Quite a view, although I sort of got bored from seeing lakes in Virginia.




Later on we continued to our next destination, West Bekaa Country Club. A nice place indeed, especially after feeling over-warm due to the hot weather, seeing the pool, you would just want to jump in, however, I couldn't because I had to attend to Loreena McKennit's concert afterward.


When we arrived to Byblos, the place was packed, it took us about 40 minutes to find a parking place. We got there a little bit late, at about 9:15pm, and it said on the ticket that it starts at 8:30pm, however the concert hadn't started yet, and I will tell you why! It is because President Michel Sleiman was attending the concert.


The next day, we headed back to Litani to meet with the rest of the colleagues. And there it was!

The long river



The wooden bungalows on the river side





And the most fun kayaking ever. With my new underwater camera case, I can now take photos while I am ... well underwater!


I have the normal lens, nevertheless I got my opportunity of taking some photos of dragon flies, which made me so happy.


Finally, after I arrived back home, I showered, all my colleagues went to sleep early, while I dressed up again, and went to Downtown Beirut and Gemmayze to check la Fête de la musique. You can continue reading my post about it here... Oh oh and I saw my favorite Lebanese Minister! Wrote about it here.

Good knowledge, Bad knowledge

Imagine you had your "cabeza" (head) scanned, and it turns out you still have a few empty memory slots. Now you have to carefully decide what to "know" next.

For example:
1- Avoid superficial girl who thinks talking about dresses and accessories is interesting
2- Avoid listening to people who explain "conclusions". Mucha información es inútil!
3- Turn the deaf ear (ignore) to the people who talk about politics in Lebanon
4- Listen to your mom for the first 2 minutes only, because afterward
she's just repeating things

What else do you think we should do?

Argh

I don't feel like working, I feel like listening to music, driving (or being with someone who will drive) somewhere in Lebanon, to Jbeil to Batroun, to the south, enjoying the scenery, eating something in some kiosk on the road, if anything and I can't leave this cage, at least I would want to be reading, like reading this blog sietske-in-beiroet for example, she rocks, she makes me see Lebanon from a whole different point of view, I've been in this blogosphere since summer 2006, I've seen her blog, but first time I really dig in deep.

Heh, the word blogosphere is underlined with red, they should add it to the dictionary.

Yesterday, we were talking about migraine and other head pains, and as I have occasional migraines (touch wood, haven't had one in more than a month), my colleague asked me if my head hurts if I laugh too hard, I told her, I don't recall the last time I laughed hard. Nfa2aset, why don't I?

Snow still?

Hmmmm, I think I should change that photo above.

Maybe I should put this, with the recent declaration of the swine flu as pandemic!

Montreal for the 2009 Dabke record in Guinness Book on June 20th 2009

Take part in making history! Come help Tollab - the Lebanese students' federation in Montreal - in one of the biggest record breaking events of 2009!
 
It is within the framework of the annual Lebanese festival in Montreal (held on June 19th, 20th and 21st 2009) that Tollab, in collaboration with MAESTRO travel, aims at setting up a new record for the longest dabke chain ever assembled; an accomplishment that will enter the famous Guinness book of records after being approved by its official representative.
 
The Federation's goal is to gather 3500 people at the Marcelin-Wilson Park on the 20th of June, and invite them to dance the Dabke for at least 5 minutes. This event will provide Montreal an international exposure that will highlight its multicultural face, hence uniting all Lebanese and Montrealers of all colors, religions, names or cultures.
 
The event will take place at 7:30 pm on June 20th 2009 at the Marcelin-Wilson Park, which is located on 11301 boul. de l`Acadie in Montreal, Quebec.

If you would like to participate, there's no registration beforehand, so you only need show up for the event.
For more information, you can visit the event's official facebook page here, or contact Tollab at communication@tollab.ca. 

In case I disappear

Pattern Recognition
Since I was a kid I searched for patterns everywhere, my thing was to recognize patterns, compare dates, colors, events happening before and now. I had the same pen holder (plumier?) since I was in 5eme (7th grade?) till I finished my undergraduate studies, and I even think I used it in my graduate studies as well. It was horrible, old, dirty. Had tip ex on it, some are souvenirs, other statistics formulas, because they were so f*ckin huge I could never remember them.

Something else I used to do (that would qualify me as superstitious) I had this T-Shirt (I had it since I was 15, I think my mom burned it now), it was big on me, black, someone got it from Crepaway and gave it to me, it had several pictures of artists and such. So I used to wear it on the first exam of every cycle, also during high school and university. I had a sweater for winter.

I will not mention the walking between lines, I think that qualifies me as having OCD.

The first time I went to the US I booked my ticket on 6/6/2006. And after the July war happened and the airport closed, I came back to Lebanon on September 5 (same day as the year before when I came back from Cyprus). This year, my flight got canceled so now I will be returning to Lebanon on June 7, same day as last year when I came back from France. Truth is, last time I arrived on September 6, and left the US on September 5. So it doesn't qualify as a pattern. And I had traveled before that only once. Unlike this time, I traveled 3 times, so let..... OMG I sound crazy don't I? K I'll stop this.

I used to be a lot like that, I think it decreased though during the past 2 years. I realized that it was all bullsh*t. But today it's happening again, I think I am scared. I just don't understand why traveling scares the sh*t out of me.

*takes a deep breath* It'll be fine.

Patriotism or something like it
I like returning to Lebanon. The only time I felt home and it was outside Lebanon, it was my first trip to Paris. It was after that trip that the break-up between my ex and I happened. Other than that, I miss it a lot. I miss my home, my car, my life and especially you.

Emotional Maturity
It's amazing how much a person grows within a short period of time. Even if for a long while the person felt like he's stuck, it's okay because in reality he is grasping everything but not digesting them, and one day, he digests them all and understands what really happened.

I don't like regretting anything, I think everything that happened should be a good lesson for a person. I don't regret ever being with my ex, I just regret for the both us the fact that it took us a long time to finally admit it's not working out.

Making the right choice
I recently learned that when your little kid does something wrong thinking that he did great, it's not exactly right to encourage your kid, because maybe he's just not good at it, however it's definitely wrong not to help your kid find out what he's really good at and then encourage him.

Every person has a strong point and a weak point and average points that can be worked on. If you have a weak point the best thing you can and should do is make it average. In my opinion take that strong point and make it amazing. This is when a person excels.

What happens to fortunate and unfortunate persons is strengthening average points while he already had a strong point, to finally have many strong points. When the person is ought to decide which point to take and develop and learn more about and specialize in etc.. He's lost. Because here he is now having to make a choice among so many points, he no longer knows what he likes the most and what makes him happy.

I know the feeling of being torn between what you want and what you think you should do. Fact is, as you're not being able to make the decision, you start building up obstacles to what you like whether them being sub-conscious (like letting yourself fail an exam) or conscious like giving many excuses, like oh the grapes are sour anyway, why even try to reach for those high grapes. Truth is, nothing holds you back but yourself (and natural disasters). So you start leaning towards what you don't like but think is adequate. This applies in choosing your major, choosing your career, choosing the man/woman of your life.

Settling
How many persons do you know have settled? How many persons do you know have done more than we expected them to, but not necessarily what makes them happy? How many persons do you know have succumbed to life and chose to suffer in silence because they would hate the look of anyone to them, the look of accusation, of disappointment or disgust. So they go around doing what pleases the people.

It's the people vs you
You end up living your life the way others want it, thinking if you try to do something that makes you happy, everyone will hate you.

Truth is, they know exactly why you did what you did, even if they don't dare thinking it or saying it out loud. As far as we know, we live this life once. Are we going to live it the way they think we should live it? Or at least we should live it being happy instead of trying to be happy.

Life Divorce Chance
Life is not getting easier. When a woman's choice was scarcely nothing, suddenly she would find herself getting out of a tent and marrying a man, how hard do you think it was for her? How much did her consciousness ever develop? I can't know, I won't judge but I will assume, if you don't see much, you don't hear much and you don't do much, you won't know much. So for her, it was probably not a great day, but definitely not an irrational event at all, unlike how it would seem to us now.

So life gets harder, implicated by divorce, because people now look outside and see they can make it on their own, they now have the chance to restart, not exactly from zero, but at least they won't say "what if"

I know how hard divorce can be on children, I understand why the current generation of parents get divorced because I know and especially in Lebanon, a large portion of people did not marry with their own consent 25 to 40 years ago.

But my question is, right now, our generation knows better, we have a million movies out there, a million book, thousands of authors and philosophers, Oprah, Dr. what's his name? Dr. Phil! The morning show of Future TV, people of your society, going to work and mingling... We are exposed to much more, and our circle of acquaintances I believe is much more than when we used to live in tents, or even caves! So all I plead for, don't ever think if you marry someone because you should and not because you love he won't feel it. If he's a good person, he deserves love back. If he's a nasty person, then why the hell are you with him/her?

Apple doesn't fall far from the tree
Try to make a good choice, not all children of divorcees end up well, it's a low percentage in my experience. And even if your parents don't get a divorce, it might have one lousy influence on you that you will never be able to get rid of, or understand or shake it off!

Love, what the hell is love?
Can you honestly tell me how many parents out there you look at and the flame of love is born in your heart? If anything, they kill it. I do not know of any old couple that ignites the hope of love in my heart. I admit I did not know what love really is. I think I know a bit more though.

It's premature for me to talk about love, I think when you really get what love is, and when you experience it, it can come in parallel with a sort of wisdom.
Many people love, but are not wise, thus you can always sense a big hole in their relationship with the other. That's why I insist on wisdom. The only thing I can say, it is not possible to love if you're not emotionally ready.

Lebanese Elections
I am hoping for 3 things:
1-to arrive safely
2-to arrive safely to Lebanon
3-and to arrive safely to find Lebanon in a good state, whoever wins.

Why am I still here?

Right now I am supposed to be boarding on a plane that will take me from London Heathrow to Lebanon, but where am I instead? I am still in the US. My first flight got canceled. And they couldn't book me on the next because it was over-booked, and they only found us tickets on June 6, so instead of arriving to Lebanon tonight, I will arrive on Sunday night. At least I am no longer willingly not voting. BIG BLEH

Disappearing in the Atlantic... damn!

I can never imagine what those people felt just before their plane crashed. The plane is not found yet, but it's out there in the Atlantic ocean with no transmission whatsoever, 99.9999% these people are now victims. What did they feel? Is it like dying in a tragic car accident or falling of a bicycle, or being hit by car? Maybe it is, when you're about to die, it doesn't matter how it's happening I guess.

But maybe when you're on a plane it's more of a shock, people can go into an unrealistic moment, not believing what's happening to them, and if they did, now that's rough, because count the time since the plane starts crashing and until it does, I believe it took a couple of minutes, and maybe it was the longest minutes in their lives. I am so sad for these people and for their relatives, dying in a plane scares me the most, because you're leaving a place, either happy you're leaving this place or happy you're going to another, you were just on vacation or going to do some business, and then bam... your plane gets hit by lightning.

I still get scared when I get on a plane, I got better with time, and tomorrow I will be on another 3 planes, 3 take-offs, 3 landings. See you in 2 days.

I think I snapped

I woke up today to so many weird dreams, like people making me go vote, and then finding out that you have to wear a weird uniform with shreshib on it, like a security officer uniform, everyone has to, and then having to walk for a long time until you reach the voting booth, and I had 2 lists, 1 list having 1 name, of a female candidate, Nadine something, and another list having 3 names, so I thought I might as well vote for the lonely candidate, she's 14 March, so apparently if I have a gun in my head obliging me to vote, even in my subconscious I would rather be ruled by 14 March than the opposition. But then I woke up thinking I don't want to vote, I don't want to vote, everyone shouldn't vote... I am having elections nightmare apparently.

Anyway, I woke up to see an email from a work colleague telling me that as Monday June 8th is supposed to be a day off, a holiday, an official one declared by Ziad Baroud some time ago, the company I work for figured that yes we should be off on that day but on our own expenses. And I barely have any days off left, and if they had made this decision since 3amna Baroud came up with his decision, I could've extended my stay in the US at least 4 more days, because I barely came here for 2 weeks. So I snapped and sent my project manager an email. We'll see what happens, I honestly don't give a flying shit anymore.

It would've been better if they did what they usually do and is ignoring days off that are decided along the year and us going to work normally.