I love

the aroma of fresh Ben Al-Amid coffe grinds that have just been delivered from Amman.

I cant even put the bags I received in the freezer, because I want my house to smell like Ben Al-Amid coffe. Too musch s associated with its reviving smell :)

Axis of Evil...

Axis of Evil is a comedy tour consisted of three Comedians of Middle Eastern backgrounds, Palestinian, Egyptian and Irani. From the name of their group/tour you can tell there are tons of George Bush, US airport security and Arabs jokes. I am only familiar with the Egyptian comedian Ahmed Ahmed who was featured on Micheal Moor's DVD Fahrenheit 911. The rest are just as good!

He is sooooo true about the cussing in English. I don't get when people tell me it is okay to say the big F. Mainly because it is the most used English word (kinda true). I don't think you should use English as an excuse to swear in inappropriate settings and around the wrong people. It is not a good excuse!
LOL at Strabakeees...

UPDATE:
The Axis of Evil are coming to Amman. They are performing on November 17, 18, 19 at Court Yard.
Not a single show in Canada in 2007. Ironic...eh

Accounting

I hate accounting with a passion. I hated it so much that in years 1 and 2 when I had to take it I took revengue by memorizing everything in the book just to get that IN-YOUR-FACE-accounting-course feeling. I have to admit, I get sick by looking at simple balance sheets and income statements. Now, in four year, after a year and a half of no accounting, my prof thought it might be fun to live the old days. He thinks it might be good to do some pro-forma financial statements, and probably make it worth some marks, not so much though 10%
This should not come out of a fourth year business student, so shoot me!

Go back in time...cyber space time

Do you have a website that you like but it does not exist? Do you miss the old layout of a website but can't enjoy it anymore because the website is updtaed?

For those who answered YES, you should try the Wayback machine from the Internet archive website. I like to use it to track the development of websites from the day they started up to now. I love to observing how far web development have come along, and how e-commerec has changed website layouts and functions.

You may not be able to access all buttons on your selected website as some links will not be funtioning, and it takes forever todownload pages with some graphics...

This is how sad did the Hotmail page looked like WAY back in 1996. I think Internet time should be calculated like dogs or cats years. An Internet year prbably counts for 5 normal years.What do you think? I think 5 is more than enough!

Kool, kidz friendly e-banking :)

I came across this kids online banking website the other day, it is part of ING Direct Bank, one of the largest virtual banks in the world. I thought some of the readers might like to introduce it to their children. You should, this portal is educational and fun :)

Planet Orange is a website which advocates financial literacy and teaches children the importance of saving and financial planning at an appropriate level for their age. ING Direct got the inspiration to start this portal from customers’ emails requesting information on how to teach their children about financial planning. According to ING Direct this website supports its vision of “leading America back to savings”. Planet Orange acts as a resourceful tool for parents, teaches and children and young adults to realize the need of learning and discussion the topic of personal financing which opens the door to personal financing education at homes and at schools.

The winner of Financial Literacy Award website has a children-friendly design and layout that introduce users to a fun, simple, yet very educational experience. It also offers a level of sophistication that connects with parents and teachers.

The website has a dynamic structure and allows interactivity through two main characters, Cedric and Amy, who guide the user to different sections (continents) of the website. In each section, children are faced with a financial situation similar to what they could face in life such as unexplained loss of money without budgeting.

Just a thought: Why did not I have something like this growing up? I was so bad with personal finance as a teenager to the degree that my dad had to set down and have a talk with me about my debit card usage. His exact words were: "Dana, baba, ATMs are different from a Pac-man machine or a video games where you play and win redeemable coupons. You see baba, you don't win the money, truth is I WORK FOR IT."

3arabi mkasar...broken arabic

This is what happens to kids who move between an Arabic speaking nation to an English/French one (my beloved Canada) and back to Arabia again in less than 4 years!

A message on Facebook from sister #1
how ru ?
sistarr u forget u has a family in za desaert livin iam talkin like ma bio teacher no serizly iam startin to loosing all mine english so calle me or ill stop talkin english.SERIOSLY I MISSED HOW IS ZA NORTH POLE (she means toronto) ZA DESERT IS HOT AND BORIN (she means Jeddah) NO NOT JUST HOT I CAN FRIES EGGZ ON THE HEAD OF ME ...CALL IAM LOOSIN MINE MIND.

A text from sister #2
I earlier told her ed3eele because I have a midterm. and tell mama to make Du3a
She replies as I was receiving my exam booklet:
"I hope that everything you ed3eed for yourself comes true"

The first one was joking and being silly, the second one was not :S
However, the first one insists on saying EJLEYING instead of washing the dishes, because it is easier to use one word. She thinks it is a perfectly good verb, just like argeling !

Do you have any words like that? you know a cross between Arabic and English, that you think are perfectly usable?

I hear the following occasionally

Shabater (chapters)
Bashalshel (from SHELLE)

Isam's bald head=Buddah

This is halirious...Although Isam might kill me when he sees this. Good thing we will not see each other in a LONG time :)
As for Ibrahim, he is few steps away from Isam. HAHA (evil smiley)

Isam in one of his Buddah poses, yata2amal
!brAheM says:
7a6een temthal la 3esam 3endko b canada?!!
Dandoon... says:
ha? no! lesh?
!brAheM says:
ur pic
Dandoon... says:
LOL
Dandoon... says:
thats actually in amman
!brAheM says:
beshbaho
Dandoon... says:
fe hada2ek el hussein
!brAheM says:
aah..fe 3amman elo kteer tamatheel
Dandoon... says:
OMG... this buddah thing really looks like 3esam
Dandoon... says:
LOL you are always funny ibrahim

Who takes notes at university anyways?/سخرية القدر

I thought this is funny and should be blogged. Isam's university stories were a source of laughter in the family. I just hope the family does not see this. Mainly because now my poor memory is one of their sources of laughter.

Isam: hows everything
Dandoon: i discovered today what does so5reyat al kadar mean exactly
Dandoon: AH 3esam..i have an open notebook midterm tom and i lost my notes
Isam:loooooool
Dandoon: it is the only cousre that i took notes for everysingle class in it
Dandoon:i lost all my class exercises with them and past quizes...kol shee
this has never happened to me since elementry school
Isam:ya 7aram
Dandoon:ya whatever
i dont care about the notes..i just wanna know where the binder went
Isam: mnee7 me de3te inte in the process
Dandoon:i took notes of half of the materials so far
Dandoon: ok mashe make fun of me. why do i tell people this.you too man!
Isam:come on !
Dandoon: 3njad...i hate taking notes...but i did for this course...i ususally do mini stick notes on the text..ta3abee DA3. it is kinda funny
Isam: sorry i dont know what it feels to lose a notebook.i never had one
Dandoon: LOL
Isam:in all UNIV i bought 3 notebooks
wa7ad sar daftar she3er
wa7ad sar daftar tricks
o wa7ad konna ana o basel ne3mal 3aleh el fantasy games taba3oon el football
Dandoon... says: HA?
Dandoon... says: 3esam i am gonna blog this about you. go on explain the last one ...
Isam:blog the whole thing
Dandoon:i am gonna...i am lacking interesting materials for that space
Isam says:fantasy games is when u have a competition
and u pick a team of ur own ... and try to score as much points depending on how the players u picked did in the actual matches.got it ?
Dandoon: huh..sound like fun
Isam:IT IS ... MAJOR
Isam:i've been playing the Champions league (sth in europe) for 5 years now hoping to win ANYTHING.never did :(
Dandoon:lol m3lesh...good luck with hocky baseball...bascket ball...whatever other sport you are into
Isam:just football for now
Dandoon: now type so5reyat al kadar bel 3arbee
Isam:
سخرية القدر

The next day I walked out of my midterm, got into my car and drove home. I completely forgot about my afternoon class, and only remembered it as I was reaching home :S

Abood hearts donuts

My little brother is doing his IGCSE exams. He thinks the best part about it is that recently opened Krispy Kreme Doonuts in Jeddah is near his testing center. For him this is an exam that he is actually looking forward for.

I love you Abu-Karsh
Good Luck on your 3arabi exam :)

And I thought I was lazy...

This conversation actually happened in my class last Thursday.
US: Sir, can we talk about our midterm, we are really confused regarding the material included in the test.
Prof: Sure. When is your midterm anyways ( my eye brow is half way through an arch)
US: next week! on Thursday!
Prof: NEXT WEEK. Well we have not covered actual chapters materials to carry a midterm. We have to do someting aboot this (yes he says ABOOT).
I have to mention that last week was week 6 of the program, we should have covered 5 chapters by now. We only covered 1.5 actual chapters. The two hours lecture is spread between talking about his adventures in some deserted university in the Pacific and another deserted university in BC, as a professor.
US: at this point some of us were about to freak out,,,most of us were about to burst in laugh
Prof: well, I guess a take home exam would be a good idea
US: we've never done one before. What would be the format?
Prof: I will let you know soon. I just thought of that now!
ahhhhhhh....

Another prof was asked when he would hand out a specific assignment...his answer was..and I qoute " I will give it to you in a future week". What does that mean, can I ever say I will hand you my work in a future date, what is that supposed to mean?
He also was not sure about the number of chapters we have covered. I sure didnt know neither.

How worried should I be at this point?

WE OWN THE NIGHT

It has been a while since a good mafia/gangster/police movie came out. If you are like me, a sucker for mafia movies...then this is a must watchI am not good at reviews, because I don't do movies justice....but I can say this

Brother disgraces his family, however the father's heart is much bigger than abandoning hope...
Chance arises to to get son back on the good guy's side...opportunity wasted! and son chooses living neutral on the evil side, BUT, loyalty is a metal that only shined when things heated up and family was dangered. Son puts father and brother above all... Its a war between Russian hit-mans and the NYPD

Did I spoil it? don't change your mind, there is a lot I didn't mention...
my rate 8/10

Just anozar joke...

European English :

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl

Today..

I stood by the side of a friend... blindly
I prayed...
I wrote a test...
I broke a new record...
I hurt someone close to me
I voted...for the first time in my life..
My heart ached so bad...I cried..
I fall asleep upsest...and woke up to cry somemore..this time out loud
I prayed..and prayed and prayed....for this to end
I called some one I love...and someone I admire..and told them that..
I am studying now...in an effort to live a better future....
somehow....I still feel very unproductive...I need achivemnets in my life...I am tired of waiting and hanging around....
sigh
PS: no idea what am I writing this hear
and one more thing...I am not editing...so if you see any grammer and spelling errors..I DONT CARE NO MORE :P

Panicking

I was doing some thinking..on the side of doing research, discovering how awesome is Pink Floyd music [no comments plz] and I realized that I will write my last final for this semester on Dec 6.
That is in 8 weeks from today...It is scary to even think about the amount of work I have to finish before I even consider preparing for the finals.
HECK...I just started school!! sho haaad
I really hate first semesters, they are so short and packed with work and holidays which I don't get any days off for. Plus, I have been off ALL summer long ...and its hard to get back to studying mood .....sighssss
I guess I should think about my midterms now..and maybe better focus on my projects due this week....too many Mozilla's windows are open at one time..FOCUS DANA
Wow. this has been the longest I ranted about something without someone interrupting me. mmm, I like this

Marcel Khalife...at last!

Well I am saying at last to many things here...
At last I finally went to a concert...It has been a while.
At last I went to a Marcel Khalife concert..my first time..and he really blew my mind!
At last I decided to transfer the photos and videos of the concert to my computer.


I went to his much anticipated concert last Saturday. I gotta say, he is much much better in concert and when his two amazing sons are playing by his side. His son Rami gave the songs a whole new dimension with his beyond belief piano playing. Too bad the quality of my videos are not too great to show that :(
No.... he did not sing Rita and the Rifle ( I really wanted to shout it out to him. Didn't wanna stand out in that way though!)

Enjoy :)

This is Amor Be Esmoke and Montaseb Al-Qamate Amshi



This is Montaseba Al-Qamate Amshe

Be ware of symbolism..

Have you ever wore a piece of clothing or accessory and reflected a statement which you did not realize at the time? Not even once?

Well, I thought I knew it all and never thought I will fall in a similar situation at this point of my life..BUT I did.

Here is the story. Last year I received a gift from my lovely neighbor who has Irish roots.

"It is a traditional Irish ring, it is called a Claddagh ring, I were it, my daughters were it and I thought I want you to have this" She said. " This ring was passed down to me by my mother, and its design reflects love, friendship, and loyalty. I truly feel this way about our friendship, I want you to have it because I think of you as an adopted granddaughter".



I really think it is one of the coolest gifts I received, its meaningful, it has a retro design, it is almost antique, and I love rings!

Recently, I decided to read more about this traditional ring. and here is what I found about the symbolism of it;

The way that a Claddagh ring is worn on the hand is usually intended to convey the wearer's romantic availability, or lack thereof. Traditionally, if the ring is on the right hand with the heart facing outward and away from the body, this indicates that the person wearing the ring is not in any serious relationship, and may in fact be single and looking for a relationship: "their heart is open." When worn on the right hand but with the heart facing inward toward the body, this indicates the person wearing the ring is in a relationship, or that "someone has captured their heart". A Claddagh worn on the left hand ring finger, facing outward away from the body, generally indicates that the wearer is engaged. When the ring is on the left hand ring finger and facing inward toward the body, it generally means that the person wearing the ring is married. soucre: Wikipedia

This ring is like an Irish DEBLEH!
To all those who have possibly seen me wearing the ring lately. I never meant to wear it with the heart facing inward ;)