A loser? You wish

Some people don't even qualify as losers. Losers at least attempted winning.

Things that we can't understand

The only thing that gets tears in my eyes when I think of home are my youngest nephew and niece. Mom used to always tell me this:

"الله بيوضع سره باضعف خلقه"

My treasures :)

Tech Savvy Sheep

That is what has become of our world today.

Picture source: http://ttgcourses.blogspot.ie

Venus or Mars, it's time to expand your mind

What matters to you the most? To take in all the information you see in this world, whatever the type of the information you're seeing hearing or feeling? Or to show that to others, and if not the way it is already, but in your own way and in your own touch?

This is the world today thanks to the internet, it's everybody's chance to not just take in the information and keep them to themselves. They have the choice to share it as it is, but most importantly, the crucial part of it all is that they can combine what they have seen, read, heard and felt and make it into something. Something that others will see or read or feel or hear, which will then inspire them to combine it with something else that was an input, and something else and something else... and another output will result, and the chain will keep going.

This is the internet today. Oh.. I mean this is the world today. It's open, it's vast, and it gives a chance for good people to make good things for themselves and others.

An inspiring video which does or does not have to do anything with what I wrote today: Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his answer.

Photo source: Nasa.gov - Astronomy photo of the day - June 3rd, 2012 - A Picturesque Venus Transit

Your enemy in a minted box

In general, your enemies will look for two things from you, either a reaction or for you to be in pain. The first is mainly because they're insecure and want to feel like they have power over you, the second is because you have caused them sever pain formerly and they still can't get over it thus trying to inflict the same on you.

Your response shall be one: Ignore. By ignoring, you both don't give them that satisfaction of having power over you, and you're not in pain therefore leading them to always be in pain themselves.

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” 
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

and for that I end this with:

“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.” 
― Sun Tzu

القرار الصائب

ربما تسأل نفسك ان كان قرارك قرار صائب، ولكن هذا لا يعني انك مخطئ او انه كان يلزمك وقتاً أكثر للقيام باتخاذ الطريق الصحيح. أأكد لك انه القرار الصائب، لأنك هنا، تسأل نفسك أسئلة... 

هل تعرف انه هناك دائماً أشخاص يعتقدون أنهم يعرفون مصلحتك وهم نفسهم الأشخاص الذين يعيشون في قنّهم المريح... 

هل تظن أنه يمكن لأي أحد أن يتوقّع لك الطريق لسعادتك، غيرك؟

طبعاً حتّى انت لا يمكنك ذلك ان كنت أو أصمّ أو عبد لمشاعرك. 

اطلق العنان لكن اترك طرف الحبل بيدك انت. 

لا تتركه يتحكّم بك، ولا تكن بخيل بمدّ الحبل.

Queen of..

When is it safe to say "I'm tired" without sounding like a drama queen? 

On another non-serious note, how the funk did people relocate to other countries prior e-mail and browsing?

Blessed.

Thank you...

You against your body

When you control your consciousness, refuse to give up to nervousness and worry. But then your body declares war, and lets subconscious act up and lead the battle. It attacks your sanity and health first. By cutting your sleep in half, your body is bound to deteriorate and your focus to diminish. What can you do as a counter attack? Against your own-self. 

First you negotiate. If it doesn't work. You either surrender in order to move worrying and being nervous to the conscious level, or keep ignoring, until your body utterly fails... and then you fall asleep. Then you win.

Painting: Salvador Dali's "Crucifix"

Sometimes, just find something

You don't always have to try to find your thing so you can go your way. Sometimes, you have to go some way, and you might actually find your thing. 

On your face

You know when you have those thoughts, but don't know how to express them, articulate them and make a straight to the point case? Here's Ashley Judd talking about appearance in response to how the media went coucou over her face being puffier than usual.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/09/ashley-judd-slaps-media-in-the-face-for-speculation-over-her-puffy-appearance.html

If God...

Seriously now, if God has any sense ofhumour, he will take me right up to heaven so I make fun of the douchebags sitting there who are boring the hell out of him.

Walk away

Walking away is not always giving up, sometimes it's just moving on.

You could spend all your life trying to do this one thing yet it keeps failing. 

But remember, it takes courage to fight for something, yet wisdom to know when it's not worth it or when it will simply, not change, and you're just wasting your precious time.

Sometimes, just walk away.

Break it

How far would you go in tying your destiny to someone else's?

How strong would you make that chain?

If they're slow

If they stopped

Worse of all, if they're going backwards?

Break it. Break the chain. And walk along the person who walks at the same pace as you.

On stupidity... or Oxygen

I am glad Stupidity doesn't take from Oxygen, or most humans would be on life support by now

On comfort zones

I want to move away from my comfort zone from time to time, I want to shake my legs and notice the chains that surround them.

Some women...

Well, it seems women can do technology... Whoever knew that the female species can actually be smart & successful? 

On a serious note, look at Sheryl Sandberg, an example of a feminine, cute voice have such loud resonance. Hint to some feminists, a woman does not have to act like a man to prove she is better than a man..

Forbes Woman Of The Year: Women In Tech

Opinions vs facts

"Everything is unsettled, everything is argued about, and very few things are ever totally resolved on the Net." David Weinberger 

I've been thinking for a while about the whole amount of information (whether accurate or not) available on the internet. I forgot where I read it, but if we want to read everything that is available online up till today, well it would take us... maybe a century or so. 

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said famously "Everybody is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts,"

It's really nice and awesome that the digital era, is actually the "everyone has an opinion, can express his/her opinion, will be read by few or many, and possibly influence them into action or a different line of thought." But as every important tool, it's a two edged sword. 

 It seems to me that the world is so chaotic—and that we are so limited by our own perspectives—that the most likely way to advance is through the clash of different perspectives, different data sets, different prejudices, different blind spots. 

Even though, clashes, difference of opinions, prejudices, bad news, natural disaster, nuclear threat, politics, terrorism, hunger, poverty, climate change, the variety of educational systems and whatever comes out of all this... even though it's sad, tough, hard to deal with, unfair, and just a bitch sometimes... it's the world, it is what is and if there were no bad things, no good things will exist. Yin yang... 

The only way to think of good things, of scientific advancement, of ways to improve, to help, to think of the other, to become less selfless, to be a hardworker, to be creative, to stretch your mind into as much as you can, to challenge yourself... is driven by the existence of less interesting things, of sad events, of difference of opinions and of hard situations. 

If we were all to live in a comfort zone, no... the world will not be an ideal place, will not be perfect. It will simply disintegrate... to survive, it's going to need the black and the bad.

Yes, we want all people to realize that x is bad, and y is good and z is the right thing to do. But then what? and who says that we're the right ones?

This post is inspired by this article "What is the future of knowledge in the internet age?" on Scientific American. About a project:

"an attempt to build a computer model of all the social, economic, ecological and scientific factors at play in the world"

Too many factors, too much complexity, how much can you trust a machine that is based on our own knowledge, erroneous one might I add. 

82nd birthday - 21/12/1929

Yesterday, I felt very blessed with the family and friends I am surrounded with. I know I sound high and not like myself. But when you are surrounded by awesome and kind people, you cannot but feel the same as well.

I want to keep this under one place. My brother Pascal Assaf dedicated this poem to me (yes it made me cry)

كنت في العاشرة من عمري، عندما جاءني ملاك في المنام، 

وهمس: "غداً تكبر ويكون الشعر قدرك". 

في الصباح أيقظتني أمي بابتسامة،

وقالت: "هذه أختك الصغيرة"

وكانت أول قصيدة أعشقها.

كل عام وأنت أجمل الأشعار.

Then my brother Roger, wrote this:

Ummmm..
I know I can't write a better poem, not even a sequel 
But in the end of the day, u know that our love 2 u is definatly equal :)

Then my mom Marianne wrote this:

في عيد الميلاد تزين الشوارع والمنازل بأحلى زينة وأنت يا ابنتي زينتي حياتي عند ولادتك! كل عام وانتي بألف خير

And that is not all, my dad Nafez (different time zone since he lives in the US), wrote this in reply to my reply that my brother's poem made me cry:

بكائك يا حبيبة العمر أفرحنى و ريحنى فى غربتى فقد تاكدت انه لى ثلاثة اولاد بقلب واحد الله يخليكن لبعض و عقبال مية سنه و مية قصيده

My family is just amazing, isn't it? I am so blessed. This year was very different, I usually don't like to make a fuss out of my birthday, since after all, everyone on earth is born... what makes it so special? But still, to see all those people happy that I was born 31 years ago, is quite overwhelming in a good way. My friends dedicated crazy videos and wrote touching messages to me, making me smile and laugh and go O.o sometimes. Some practical gifts (yes, I always need a Pajama, I do :D) and the toilet seat O.o :P And of course ... of course... (the picture you see above)

Blessed I tell ya, blessed!

Inspired to say:

You told me to get all my personalities together. I did and we all agreed you're a moron.