vendredi, janvier 27, 2006

Searching for a flatmate / Je cherche un(e) colocataire

My flatmate is leaving the apartment on the 15th of February. I have to found someone to share the apartment with. The apartment is located in Watwet, next to Sanayeh Garden in Beirut. Very strategic. 5min away from Hamra and 5 min away from Downtown (walking, of course) and u know with all the traffic we have in Beirut, it's better to walk and healthier of course. It's composed of 2 bedrooms, 1 living room, 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom. It's 370$
(185$/person). (without counting the electricity which is estimated at 20$/month, and the satellite fee = 10$). I hope you will reply soon.

mardi, janvier 24, 2006

Back Again

After over a week without posting, I'm coming back to the scene again, however for a short period of time. (No, I haven't given up blogging!) The reason is that I'm overwhelmed by my final exams, projects, papers, proposals, etc. (Well, not quite etc because that's all but I think it's enough). The second reason for not posting frequently, guess what? The university where I study and work has accidentally blacklisted blogspot.com and even sitemeter and statcounter, by rating them as porn. You know I'm not writing porn, right? Fortunately, the problem was set. So, see you on the first of February, the day when I finish my exams. Hasta Luego!

mardi, janvier 17, 2006

Rien ne se perd, Rien ne se crée, Tout se transforme

In a closed system, during a reaction, nothing is lost, nothing is created. All changes. This is what I've learned in chemistry in the old good times of school. These days will never come back again. We were discussing last time, in a restaurant, with my friends, the concept of plastic surgery. And how plastic surgeons do the liposuction to the thigh or hip and add the fat generated to other parts of the body like the cheek or lips. This process goes perfectly with the Law of conservation of mass of Lavoisier, in chemistry, which basically states that mass cannot be created or destroyed, but can change its form. What do you think? And let's make this topic broader. What do you think of plastic surgery in general?

vendredi, janvier 13, 2006

Join us this summer!



THE LEBANESE EXPATRIATE
UNITY, DEMOCRACY & PROSPERITY EVENT
July 29-31, 2006
BEIRUT, LEBANON
Program Includes
Prominent Guest Speakers,
Live Music, and Much More
Plan Your Vacation to Lebanon this SUMMER!
Join Lebanese Citizens, Nationals and International
S u p p o r t e r s f r o m a r o u n d t h e G l o b e
Also attending in Solidarity with the Lebanese People!!

Contributions Are Welcome

www.LebanonExpats.org http://www.moghtarebeen.com/

Make it Your New Year's Resolution...
TO BE A PART OF LEBANESE HISTORY

mardi, janvier 10, 2006

Aurora Borealis : The Northern Lights





It's a celestial phenomenon of bands, curtains or streamers of coloured light that appear in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the earth. In the Antarctic, the lights are called the Aurora Australis, literally Southern Lights. They are visible also outside those zones however with less frequency. In Finnish they are called "revontulet", which means "fox fires" a name derived from an ancient fable of the arctic fox starting fires fire or spraying up snow with its brush-like tail.
What is the scientific explanation of this extraordinary phenomenon?
"The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth's magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth's atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometres above the earth's surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern. The array of colours consists of red, green, blue and violet."
Personnally, I hope someday to have the opportunity to visit a scandinavian country in order to see this phenomenon, but also to discover the scandinavian culture which really fascinates me.
You can check this small video Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights .
Many songs have been written to describe the magnificency of Aurora Borealis.
One of these songs, is this one : Aurora Borealis by Eternal Tears of Sorrow, which I've already posted a song for them earlier.
Aurora Borealis
Under a darkened sun they are born
When the moon is losing its shape
I'm here again to see
The nightly dance of the flames
Once my father bore his sword
To defend the clan till the end
Now he braves the battles
Between the red northern flames
In the silence of the night
I stare at those ancient lights
Which enlighten the way from the cradle
And lead warriors into the grave
They have always been
And they will never change
They light the fire of a soul
And keep it burning bright
And behind the scattered clouds
The star field of the sky
Brings back the dreams
I already lost
Shall I ever be like him
The brave warrior of the night,
Whose name will be written
In the northern lights

samedi, janvier 07, 2006

4 Schanzen : Vol Plané




Mes amis s'intriguent souvent sur le fait que je suive toujours des sports qui ne sont pas populaire au Liban et même pas au monde. Parmi ces sports, le saut à ski qui est d'ailleurs très populaire en Europe, et surtout en ce moment précis de l'année avec la prestigieuse compétition des quatre tremplins (4 schansen en Allemand) qui se déroule dans quatre sites différents entre L'Allemagne (Oberstdorf et Garmish Partenkirchen) et l'Autriche (Innsbruck et Bischoshofen) qui commence quelques jours avant la fin de l'an et s'est terminée hier, d'une façon très spéciale. Pour la première fois depuis sa création il y a 54 ans, deux athlètes se sont partagés la première marche du podium en finissant ex-aequo en terme de points accumulés après avoir dominé la compétition du début jusqu'à la fin en produisant des sauts impressionnants qui les mettent à califourchon entre les primates et les oiseaux.

mercredi, janvier 04, 2006

"Resolutions for 2006" bis

As I told you before, the list (cf. post : "Resolutions for 2006" on monday, january 3rd, 2006) is subject to changes. In fact, I forgot to add some important issues that have to be treated this year.
The first one, is that I'm trying to be vegetarian, which is one of the toughest decisions, and this for many reasons. I will surely discuss them later.
The second one, is meditation. I'm willing to meditate on a daily regular basis, which is, with the schedule I have, appears to be difficult. On the other hand, sticking to meditation will boost my creativity and help me coping better with my schedule since one of the objective of meditaion is "Do less and accomplish more".
Anyway, that's all for now concerning my resolutions for 2006. Some of my friends have noticed that, with these resolutions, I will be even more boring than I am. Well, what do you think?

mardi, janvier 03, 2006

Resolutions for 2006

This year, unlike the precedent years, I decided to take resolutions for the year and try to stick on them as much as possible. I really feel this year that I have the will to do it. These resolutions are mainly destined to improve the quality of my lifestyle, in a healthy way, and to achieve other goals on my personal (hidden) agenda for 2006.
First of all, I'm willing to quit smoking definitely. Last year, I used to be a moderate smoking, than I made a drastic change concerning tobacco consumption and I became an occasional smoker, till the end of 2005. From that date, (only 3 days ago) I didn't smoke any cigarette. I'm shifting to a non-smoker (not quite a non-smoker since we all are second-hand smokers. In order to shift to a genuine non-smoker, more efforts should be done by the governments (by elaborating policies and implement them effectively) and the smokers themselves.
Second, I will try this year to limit my alcohol consumption, (not completely, since alcohol, if moderately consumed, is considered as a protective factor against cardiovascular diseases).
I will also try to cut down my expenses, not that I'm being avaricious. It's only for a better management that will have repercussions on my lifestyle as well. This will also help me achieving one of my goal on my hidden agenda which is buying a bike plus all the accessories that go with it.
And the list go on... like maintaining a good average in my public health master degree in order to sustain my GA for the next semester. And passing all my courses in the next semester with also a good average so that, in the fall semester 2006, I would graduate.
So, plenty of stuff to achieve. I'm not telling you that i'm going to do 100% of the agenda (which is, by the way, subject to editing and changes (Additions of course, I'm not gonna remove something, of course) but I wish to complete at least, 90% of the agenda.