Clashes renewed

It seems that clashes have renewed between pro-government and opposition supporters. I don't know much about what's happening exactly but it seems that one died already. I'm heading back home to know more about what's going on. I hope it will be safe to go. Anyway, this is all wrong and shouldn't happen. We must learn from the past!

I don’t know, you should ask the Hajj!!

After a hard day of work (actual work), I went back to my friend’s place. It turned out that, in the morning, she drove all the way fom Hamra to Grand Lycée Achrafieh to drop her son there. The effective of students was less than required, therefore classes were cancelled. On their way back home, she got stuck with her car in Gemmayzeh because all roads back to Hamra were closed. She had no other to choice other than parking her car and walking back to Hamra. So I volunteered to accompany her to Gemmayzeh by foot of course since all the roads were closed and no cab driver would accept to take us. So we walk all the way. First, we found the first barricade next to Murr Tower where, not only tires were burnt, but also garbage and even the big Sukleen garbage disposals. I don’t know why exactly, maybe they wanted to do something useful and contribute to the recycling process. Anyhow, after we crossed this first barrier, we crossed tent city where we ask the Indibat guys for directions for our target destination. After a walk of 30 minutes, we reached Gemmayzeh and found the car intact. We were very pleased that we found the car, thinking that all our problems are solved. We went from Gemmayzeh to Sayfi in order to take the sea road back to Hamra. We found another barricade, backed with concretes and many soldiers. We ask the soldiers whether we can pass or not. We were more than surprised to hear their answer, which was: “We don’t know, you should ask the Hajj.” Astonished, we cruised towards the Hajj to ask for a pass. As expected, he didn’t allow us a pass. The road is closed. Then my friend said: You can open the road just like you closed it”. Then start our long struggle to cross the demarcation line that all Lebanese thought that this was an image from the past that won’t reemerge. We were moving from one barricade to another, asking the Hajj in charge of the barricade for permission to pass but fruitlessly. Then an idea came across my mind. Since the country has been transformed to a jungle, where no rules apply other than the rules of the jungle. So, we decided to follow our instinct. We crossed from Achrafiyeh, Sodeco, Ras el Nabeh, Barbir, Corniche el Mazraa, Verdun and Hamra. And here comes the end of a long journey where I discovered that I’m ashamed of living in a country where the legal authorities have no more authority, where I have to ask the Hajj for a pass in MY own country, to go back to MY home. I’m ashamed of living in a country where blocking the roads, closing the airport, destroying the economy is considered as peaceful and democratic. I’m ashamed of living in a country where the opposition deal with the country more than the declared enemy would do.

Blackout

I’m really stressed out today. I’m nut sure if it is because of the many deadlines that I have to meet and struggling to meet them or it’s the general situation of the country, which is now on the verge of a new civil war. I can’t manage to put my thoughts together. I’ve been trying since the morning but in vain. I think it’s mainly the strike launched by the opposition. They reminded me of the July war scenes, blocking the airport, obstructing the veins of the country and imposing a blockade on the Lebanese, just like Israel did during the war.

…avec une tranche de citron svp, comme d’hab!

Ski Alpin ou Ski Nordique?
UMP ou PS ?
Chocolat blanc ou chocolat noir ?
Café Cortado ou Café con Leche? (Que piensas, Del?)
14 Mars ou 8 Mars?
Rat des villes ou Rat des campagnes?
Frites ou chips ?
Végétarien ou Végétalien ?
Eau distillée ou eau minérale naturelle ? (Attention à la turgescence)
Occidental ou Oriental?
Crossdresser ou Transsexuel?
Mistral ou Sirocco?
Snooker ou 8 Ball ?
Vélo de course où VTT ?
Studio ou Palace ?
Mille Millions de Mille Sabords! ou Tonnerre de Brest! ?
Pole Nord ou Pole Sud ? (le Pole Nord est plus proche)
Pekin ou Beijing ?
Bombay ou Mumbai ?
Juan Manuel Fangio ou Michael Schumacher ?
Instruments à corde où instruments à vent ?
Musique classique ou musique baroque ?
Ton petit orteil gauche où ton pouce droit ? (Chou khass ?)
Démocrate ou Républicain ? (Ou Ralf Nader ?)
Berline luxueuse ou citadine ?
Orange ou Bleu?
Résistance ou tourisme ? (Ouuuups !)
Talons aiguilles ou converse ? (Krys ?)
Tokyo ou Kandahar ? (Je préfère Kandahar)
N’Djamena ou Stockholm ?
Rotterdam ou Amsterdam ?
Patapam ou Tararatatam ?
Caraibes ou Océan Arctique ?
Entorse ou luxation ?
Rupture du LCA ou Syndrome rotulien ? (LCA = Ligament croisé antérieur)
Corée du Nord ou Corée du Sud ? (ligne 58?)
Timor Est ou Timor Ouest ? (ça existe Timor Ouest ? J\entends toujours parler de Timor
Est)
Décaféiné ou non Décaféiné ?
Saturne ou Uranus ?
Oussama Ben Laden ou George Bush ?
Forêt de Cèdres ou Forêt de pins ?
LCD ou plasma ?
Cream sugar ou Black ?
Oscar ou Palme d’or ?
Ordinal ou logistique ? (MMMMMMMMM, tu as la réponse)
Myopie ou Astigmatisme ? (Oui astigmatisme. Arrétez de dire Astigmatie !)
Feuilles de vigne farcies ou un Big Mac Meal ? (Upsize? Large fries?)
Ténor ou Baryton ?
Mezzo soprano ou Alto ?
Violoncelle ou Viola ?
Heptathlon ou Décathlon ?
Marathon ou Triathlon ? ( Je suis déjà fatigué, right Otter?)
Lancer du disque ou lancer de poids ?
Mallorca ou Minorca ?
Sao Paolo ou Rio de Janeiro ?
Reykyavik ou Le Cap ?
Stéréotypes ou clichés?
English educated ou French educated ? (ou tout simplement uneducated ?)
Touffe ou crâne rasé ? (Je n’ai plus trop le choix :( )
Sana’a ou Aden ?
Franc français ou Euro ? (Tu dors ou quoi ?)
Livres libanaises ou Dollars Américains ? (Avec les taux d’intérêts actuels, y a plus de différence)
Cash ou chèque ?
Jacques Brel ou Francis Cabrel ?
Marc Lavoine ou Daniel Balavoine ?
Fibres de carbone ou Titanium ?
Voltaire ou Rousseau ?
Alfred de Musset ou de Vigny ?
Salvador Dalí ou Juan Miró ? (encore Krys ?)
Cheval cabré ou Jaguar ?
Croix rouge ou croissant rouge ?
Croissant au fromage ou croissant au thym ? (Ca n’existe qu’au Liban)
Brie ou Jebneh Baladieh ?
Hélium ou Hydrogène ?
Climat tropical à hiver sec ou équatorial humide ?
Vodca sec ou avec du Red Bull ?
Vodca sec ou avec du Red Bull ?
Vodca sec ou avec du Red Bull ?!
VODCA SEC OU AVEC DU RED BULL, Mr. NOBILIS TOBILIS !!!!!

NT : Euh… pardon…..avec une tranche de citron svp, comme d’hab :)

I’m happier

I’m happy when I live, I’m happier when I die
I’m happy when I eat, I’m happier when I’m full
I’m happy when I drink, I’m happier when I’m wasted
I’m happy when I meet you, I’m happier when you leave
I’m happy when the sun rises, I’m happier when the night falls
I’m happy when I run the Marathon, I’m happier when I cross the line
I’m happy when I have the perfect date, I’m happier when it ends
I’m happy when I have long hair, I’m happier when I’m bald
I’m happy when I find a job, I’m happier when I’m fired
I’m happy when I sleep, I’m happier when I wake up

I’m happy when I leave, I’m happier when I come back

And I’ll always come back again and again, stronger and stronger

Everything has to come to an end, whether we want it to end or not. I hate the end, even if it was a happy ending; however, I have to keep going and think positive...

The perfect sound to me

The perfect sound to me is when I hear the sms tone in my phone telling me that I have just received an sms. I'm not that desperate but this sound always gives me relief. However, the big deception is when I discover that the sms was from a polling agency, asking me if "You support Sanioura to stay in the serail?" or "Aoun for Presidency?" I'm paying enough for my phone bills. (In Lebanon, we have the privilege of having the most expensive phone call) So please, refrain from all these meaningless, full of biases studies that are boosting the tensions between Lebanese and ruining my perfect moment. (which is the sound of sms)

To kill or not to kill

Every time I encounter a cockroach in my apartment, I’m plunged in the middle of a dilemma. First I don’t kill animals and second I have an excessive phobia from cockroaches and I don’t want any roommate. So, if someone has an advice for me, please let me know, and don’t tell me that I have to clean because this has nothing to do with it, especially that this specie has evolved in a way that made it very adaptable to the external environment, therefore, you can find it everywhere! Cockroaches are going to ruin the world!

Why am I so stupid?

This morning, I took 2 pills of Paracetamol and 2 pills of "1 2 3" with an empty stomach. And now, I'm not feeling well. My stomach is aching, I feel drowsy and I'm all shivering. This is what happens when you deal with medications as candy. :)

Man versus Beast!?... Give me a break!

I was watching two days ago the second version of “Man versus Beast”. I haven’t seen such a stupid program in my entire life. It consists of competitions between human athletes against other animals like dogs, Ourang Outan, Chimps and camels. For example, there was a competition between a gymnast and an Ourang Outan, consisting of who can stay longer hanging from a pole vault. Hanging from a pole or from a tree, is the lifestyle of an ape. He can stay forever. However, surprisingly, the man won the game. He was a winner by default because the chimp after six minutes was disqualified, since the competition was a feet free competition and the ape touched the bar with his feet. Oh yes! It seems that the chimp hasn’t reviewed the rules of the retard game. It doesn’t end here. During the game, the commentator spoke the stupidest thing one could imagine. He said the primate is using tricks and tactics to distract his human opponent. He was peeing for God’s Sake! He doesn’t care about your stupid game! What’s happening?! Why am I living in a surreal world? Have you run out of imagination? Leave these animals in peace and keep them away from your stupid perverted games because they don’t give a shit!

Blogging…avec modération

I was just wondering, how can you, bloggers, keep up with your blogs, update them on a regular basis, visit other blogs and throw comments here and there. I know that most of you either study or work or both. So, how can you find time to perform all your activities, with all those quality blogs? Do you have a social life or it’s substituted by the blogospere? Because that’s the case for me when I’m subjected to extensive blogging. It just becomes toxic and leads sometimes to septicemia.

* About the pictures, I had only paint brush on my laptop so forgive me if the quality was not that high because of the limited resources :)

New Blogger?

For the experts, do I I have to switch to the newer version of Blogger? Is this Imperstive? May I lose my account if I don't perform this thechnological "Jump"? Because I really find it a jump backward. I don't like this new version. And it has an HTML basic layout. I'm really confused! So I'll have to sign in with my Google account instead of blogger? I don't even have a Google account and nobody has been kind enough to send me an invitation. So please, fellow bloggers, I need your expertise regarding this issue to save me from this madness.

Hang over drink

I have a good tip for you if you were victim to excessive drinking and woke up the following day totally messed up. Usually, when I’m hung over, I don’t feel like having something sweet. And of course, when there is too much alcohol in your body, you are subject to excessive dehydration. Therefore, the perfect drink for me to recover from hang over is definitely Laban Ayran (It’s a type of yogurt that we consume here in Lebanon, but don’t ask me how it’s prepared). Anyway, try it, it works every time for me.

2006 Resolutions: A final appraisal

A year has passed since the declaration of the 2006 resolutions on my blog. (see Resolutions for 2006 and “Resolutions for 2006” bis) and now it’s time to evaluate and have a quick update on what type of a person I have become now and to what extent these resolutions had made an impact on my lifestyle, my personality and my way of thinking. For the purpose of convenience, I’ll try to go point by point.
First of all, my smoking status is still the same, non-smoker/ passive smoker. Believe me guys, it’s just too difficult to lower your tobacco exposure to zero. It’s impossible! Unless you choose a really boring and dull lifestyle, where you will be forced to make tons of sacrifices. It’s a really big commitment I’m not ready for it for the time being. Moreover, the government hasn’t made any progress towards this. You all know what the country and the government have been enduring lately so tobacco policies are still premature to be brought up.
As for the alcohol, I’m miles away from my projected goal. For instance, I’ve been acting for the last week like a real alcoholic. I managed to stay hung over for al full week. I’m writing this while the hang-over effects are still lasting so don’t be tough on me if you find any incoherence in my thoughts.

As for resources management, it turned to be a real success, without by the way compromising my usual lifestyle. And in June 2006, my bike just arrived from the states to my home, and few weeks later, we started with my friend Otter, long rides from Beirut to the regions.
Regarding my academic performance, it went really good. I got my full GA and excellent grades in the following semester. After that, I got accepted to work on a project with a pharmaceutical company, but then, everything went wrong and the July war on Lebanon started. No need to explain more. You all know what happened there and what were the serious consequences of this war on the physical and mental status of the people, on the economy of the country and on the internal and external stability. During the period of the war and the aftermath, all organizations, ministries, companies, shifted their activities towards relief and other war-related activities and so did I. I volunteered in the public health team in a coalition of NGO and then started working with a British NGO (Oxfam) for three months. It was a very enriching experience by the way.
Concerning eating behavior, no need to tell you that I haven’t made any progress!
Last but not least, meditation still follows a very irregular pattern, which by the way has a causal effect on the point that preceded, since the whole approach is considered as holistic.
Anyway, that’s all for the 2006 resolutions appraisal. I can tell that I achieved 75% to 80% of them which is by any means, an outstanding score. Anyway, stay tuned for my next post which is somehow related to this one since I will be discussing my 2007 resolutions.