self-censored

It's not gonna make a difference for much longer, anyhow.

V

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.

Laws

Law of Close Encounters
The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.

Law of the Telephone
If you dial a wrong number,you never get a busy signal.

Law of the Alibi
If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire,the very next morning you will have a flat tire.

Variation Law
If you change lines (or traffic lanes),the one you were in will start to move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).

Law of the Bath
When the body is fully immersed in water the telephone rings.
Law of Mechanical Repair
After your hands become coated with grease,your nose will begin to itch or you’ll have to pee.

Law of the Workshop
Any tool,when dropped,will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of the Result
When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work,it will.

Law of Biomechanics
The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Law of the Theater
At any event,the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.

Law of Coffee
As soon as you sit down to drink cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Law of Rugs/Carpets
The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.

Brown’s Law
If the shoe fits,it’s ugly.

Wilson’s Law
As soon as you find a product that you really like,they will stop making it.(this one is true every time!)

Doctors’ Law
If you don’t feel well,make an appointment to go to the doctor,by the time you get there you’ll feel better.Don’t make an appointment and you’ll stay sick.

[Source]

I would like to add one law.

Law of Changing Moods
Whenever you find yourself in such a good mood, with no particular reason, know that things are going to take a a turn for the shithole sooner rather than later.

Good Mood

I don't know why, but I woke up in such a good mood and wanted to share it with the world. So go ahead good energy, spread spread!

I met up with an old friend yesterday and we had such a good time. I love old friends. Doesn't matter how much time goes by without seeing them, you'll still be the same people around each other. It's just so much easier than with new people. You don't care what they think of you, you're just you.

Ok enough falsafeh 3al sobo7.

I have a million tabs open to read, so off I go.

Bye!

Blogging from work

First of all, thank you to whoever from the IT department decided not to block any websites on this computer. Other people in the department can't even open Alghad. MUAHAHA.

Note to self: must download Chrome. I hate Internet Explorer. I can't even spell-check what I'm writing right now. I click the ABC button thingie but nothing.

Moving on.

I'm currently doing an internship to finish my remaining mandatory training hours. I finish my hours on Sunday but I want to continue working with them. I don't really know why. It's not that much fun, but it's not bad and I'm kind of getting to see what an industrial engineer does. You know before completely ruling out the idea of working in my field.

The idea of me sitting in an office from 8-5, 6 days a week scares the hell out of me. I mean if I spent it doing something I love, I don't think I'd have any problem with it, but this is not what I love.

Even though I decided against taking summer courses, it hasn't been much of a vacation. But I'm not complaining. I like the idea of working. When I get back from Germany, I'm definitely going to work during my 5th year.

Ah speaking of Germany.

I finally received my invitation letter and went to the embassy the day before yesterday. I should be receiving my visa in about a month. I have a language course that starts September 13th but I think I'll go about a week earlier and stay in Berlin first.

Funny how a few months ago I was scared of the whole thing, but I'm sort of excited about it now, even though I'm going alone without any of my friends. Not too excited, since no expectations means no disappointments, but I'm not dreading it. I want to be completely independent and here's my chance.

I decided to chronicle the whole thing from day 1, so I will probably get back to blogging on the other blog. Observations of a Jordanian in Germany or something.

That's about it.

I'm only blogging now btw because my supervisor's in a meeting and I finished what I was working on.

Bye!

Got Jena!

So on Tuesday we had our rather interesting meeting for the industrial engineering department to decide where each student would go in Germany. At the last minute I had decided against going to the University of Cologne and to go to Jena instead, because turns out the engineering faculty of the Cologne university is not in Cologne but in a godforsaken town called Gummersbach. Now granted Jena isn't that big a city but I just loved it after reading about it. It's got trams, it's a student city with a lot of foreigners so it doesn't intimidate international students like other east German cities. AND AND it's one of the warmest cities in Germany! AND the driest! (as in it rains 5 days a week instead of 6), but still.. Thankfully no one wanted Jena, so my part of the meeting went rather peacefully while other students struggled.


Things I am not looking forward to, however (but my mother is ecstatic about):

1) Cleaning
2) Doing laundry
3) Cooking
4) heck just doing anything around the house/dorm/room/whatever

This should be interesting...

The Road to Germany

Task	Deadline
- information event: embassy gives all important information about the visa procedure - IO informs about university application procedures	March 23rd
Exchange Officers will contact you regarding final distribution of students to German universities	March - April 1st
Legalization of bank account application (by German Embassy	Mid April
Opening of Bank Account and money transfer	April
Students hand out the university application to IO	April 25th – 29th
Training of how to apply for a visa (IO)	beginning of May (not sure yet)
Students apply for visa (at German Embassy)	beginning of May
obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11 Farewell gathering	After June 6th 2010
Obligatory seminar for all outgoings fall 2010/11 C.V.-Training	After June 6th 2010
obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11 Interview-Training	After June 6th 2010
obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11 Intercultural Training	After June 6th 2010
obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11 Seminar: Academic working in Germany	After June 6th 2010
Departure to Germany	Sept. – Oct. 2010

Goalless Living?

This is a topic that's been on my mind for some time now. Embedded in this post is one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen. It is a video of one of the speakers at NewThink theatre, a concept coined by Maher Qaddoura (the father of late Hikmat Qaddoura who was killed in a car accident). The idea is to get speakers from various domains to inspire to create change, to result in actions rather than talk. Their first event was a huge success and the second event was recently confirmed to take place in May. I will definitely go.

Back to the subject. The video below is of Sanaa' Abdo, a woman who underwent tremendous hardship, from being born with a handicap to having a stroke in her twenties. Yet she believes in being happy, she refused to give up and feel sorry for herself and as a result she is talking about how we, as a society, are negative and tend to bring people down. I strongly urge you to watch the video.

In the end, she speaks about the importance of living life with a goal. She says how she wakes up every single day with a goal, and how no one should live their life without a goal in mind.

That got me thinking.

Do you have a goal? I don't mean ambition, as in becoming successful, earning a good salary, being a good person. We all have ambitions. I mean a goal. An analytical study of how you want to live your life and what you have to accomplish in the coming week, month and years.

I don't. I never sat down and wrote I want to have accomplished A, B and C in 5 years. Is it wrong to live day by day?

This is a comment I found on some site about the subject: "In the speech by Steve Jobs, he talks about trusting your gut and doing what you love and how that you have to "trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future". It would be hard to say that Jobs has pursued goalless living given what he has achieved. However, he does seem to have based his life and career decisions on gut instinct rather than analytical planning."

Do you have a goal?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH

EFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Passing Afternoon

One of the most beautiful songs ever written. The lyrics are amazing, so beautiful. I don't know what the song is about. Maybe it's about how life can end, about our "endless numbered days", the name of the album. Maybe it's about lost love.

Passing Afternoon - Iron and Wine

There are times that walk from you
Like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn
But the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms
There are things that drift away
Like our endless numbered days
Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made
And she's chosen to believe
In the hymns her mother sings
Sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves
There are sailing ships that pass
All our bodies in the grass
Springtime calls her children until she lets them go at last
And she's chosen where to be
Though she's lost her wedding ring
Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds
There are things we can't recall
Blind as night that finds us all
Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls
But my hands remember hers
Rolling around the shaded ferns
Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I'd never learned
There are names across the sea
Only now I do believe
Sometimes, with the window closed, she'll sit and think of me
But she'll mend his tattered clothes
And they'll kiss as if they know
A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

Old Arabic Songs

I've become so addicted to some old Arabic songs lately, especially the ones in formal Arabic language (3arabi fasee7). Our language is really beautiful and I feel we don't appreciate it as we should.

Here are the videos of a couple of my latest addictions:


"Taloomoni al Donya- Lateefa" (words by Nizar Qabbani and composed by Kathem Saher




"Kon Sadeeki- Majida Roomi"




"khaleeni bil jaw- maya nasri" ok the video sucks big time but I love the song.




"7abibati man takoon - Nawal Zoghbi" One of my all-time faves. It's originally by Abd il 7aleem 7afiz but I think this cover is so much better.

I HATE IT

I don't think I've ever hated uni as much as I do this semester and it's driving me into a depression. And the thing is, I don't even know why I'm hating it so much.

Maybe it's my crappy schedule, there's traffic when I arrive and AWFUL traffic when I leave. I now understand why cab drivers are such assholes. Ba3dein to have Java at 3.30? 7aram 3aleikom.

Or maybe it's because I'm not liking the subjects I'm taking. I don't remember liking a subject so much, but I don't know, now I'm realizing that I don't wanna be doing, whatever it is the hell I'm studying, for the rest of my life.

Aaaaah kollo 3a ba3do garaf.

And I tried starting this week with a positive attitude, which lasted what 15 minutes?

I think I'm having some sort of quarter-life crisis.

Are you good at "Bullshit"?

The card game, that is. The point is to get rid of all your cards by placing one or more cards of a certain determined number. For example, player 1 has to put down an ace, player 2 a two, and so on. If you don't have the number you're supposed to play, or wish to pass more cards, you lie. Hence the name "Bullshit". If a player accuses you of lying he yells out "Bullshit", and upon opening the cards you either collect all the cards at the table if you were lying, or if you were in fact honest, the accuser gets the cards.

I personally suck at this game. If I win, it's only because I lucked out and had the numbers I was supposed to play. I think this game is a pretty good indicator of whether people have the ability to "bullshit" people or not.

I'm not talking about lying. I think I can lie. But I can't pretend to like someone if I really don't. It always shows up on my face. Other people have a rather impressive ability to make people think they like them, while secretly hating them. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, let's face it, bullshitting is an important skill.

Not for me though. I can't pretend to be another person.

I'd suck as a politician, no?

I just felt like blogging...

Don't have much to say but I felt like posting something..

So I'm on a break now till next Sunday, when my new semester starts. I'm not looking forward, because the schedule's not so great and all my courses are with the exact same people. Don't get me wrong, I like them, but a change would be nice, no? Plus I'm taking JAVA. I hate programming courses, I almost flunked the C course.

Students must finish 160 hours of training before leaving to Germany (which is next September for me) and I still have 80 hours to complete. I could've finished them this break but I didn't want to do anything, really.

I'm so lazy when it comes to getting stuff done. I don't know if I've always been like this, or if this whole attitude just developed since uni, but I'm always like "meh". I remember reading a post about knowing what you want to be and where you're going, and I realized I'm totally clueless. I have no idea what I want to be, I have no idea what I want to be doing, I'm basically just going with the flow. I mean I'm doing pretty good I think, my average is like 81 but what's the point if I don't know what to do with that? And what I'm supposed to have an epiphany if I don't know? And then you see people who studied one thing and are doing something completely irrelevant. I think I'm gonna end up like that. But whatever it is I end up doing, I want to be happy doing it. I'm just gonna keep quitting till I find something I like.

Moving on.

I started on this project with 7iber. They're receiving funding to hire 3 people to summarize posts from around the Jordanian blogosphere to be published in Alghad (yes, in Arabic). I'm loving it because it's really improving my Arabic language, I haven't written Arabic articles since God knows when. I also remembered how much I love translating. But so far, they haven't started publishing and yesterday we were told to stop writing till we get confirmation on when they'd start posting. Hope the whole thing will work out, because it'll be a serious bummer if it doesn't. I want a paycheck :(

Ok I'm done talking.

Bye bye.

Enjoy Yourself...

House is one of my all-time favorite shows, it just keeps getting better by the season, and the video below is one of my favorite moments in the show. It's from season 5 [SPOILER ALERT], where House realizes that his hallucination, Amber who died in season 4, has not disappeared. It's so creepy, watch it.

Thoughts

• Mansaf for the fourth day. If it wasn't so good, I'd probably mind, but seriously it's so good. For your future occasions, hopefully happy ones, order from Deeretna. Not Jabri, Jabri sucks. Deeretna is heavenly. Guaranteed post-mansaf coma every single time.
  

• Yesterday was the last day at the 3aza. I must have passively smoked the equivalent of 9 cigarette packs. Combined with the Mansaf and the no fastwalking for the past week, this can't be healthy.

• Today I had one of my makeup exams, seeing as I missed two. It was, umm, interesting? Out of maybe 20 multiple choice questions, I figured out what, 3? I tried to study but I couldn't, I even woke up at 5 to study but somehow ended up watching "how i met your mother". Anyway, I have another exam on Saturday and the last one on Sunday. Then I'll hibernate.
  

• I never thought of myself as a family person, but I really loved the unity I witnessed during the last couple of days, not just from family members, but everyone. I think I'm actually appreciating our traditions after all, aside from the fact that the whole thing, as in dying, costs a freaking fortune. But really, the all people coming together part I like.

• If I don't tweet, I facebook. If I don't facebook, I blog. Some urge within me compels me to send my thoughts into the virtual world, one way or another.

Rest in Peace Teta

If ever two people were in love, it would have to be my grandparents. My grampa says their parents decided they were meant for each other since they were kids, I mean their names really were Farhan and Farha. I have never seen a man more in love with his wife. Every morning, he wakes up at 5, brews his special turkish coffee, cuts fresh flowers from our garden, puts them in a small vase and brings them with the coffee to my grandma.

We all live in the same building, and I remember when I was young my mom would leave me downstairs when she went to work. I remember she would teach me these old songs she learned from her childhood, and then I would stand next to her in the kitchen as she cooked and after lunch I would sleep next to her as she took her sacred nap.

Saturday night she suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed away. She had suffered strokes in the past, but for the last 2 months she got so much better, she really was back to her old self.

My grandfather is in disbelief.

"After 59 years of marriage, I can't not see her. How could you go and leave me ya Far7a?" he says with tears in his eyes. He tells us how she kissed him 5 times after he shaved on Saturday. He requested they reserve a grave for him next to her.


Rest in peace ya Teta.