Tagged by Intlxpatr: The 7 things tag

7 things I plan to do:

1. Allow my heart to be in the driver’s seat for a change (not that it asked anyone for permission; it just shoved my head out of the way and took over)

2. Go to Malaysia in mid-May :D

3. Learn what all those buttons on my camera do :O

4. Learn to play at least a couple of guitar chords

5. Start reading Rumi in Persian (thanks A.N for the motivation)

6. Motivate my mom to start painting (I already taught her how to surf the net :D)

7. Re-lose that 5 kg I have re-gained and lose an additional 5 kg… and then decide if I need to lose more weight :D

7 things I can do:

1. Just like Intlxpatr, speak in public…don’t get nervous at all…an NO I don’t not imagine everyone sitting naked. I honestly want to know if that tip has ever worked for anyone!!!

2. Talk and talk and talk endlessly for hours and hours on end

3. Forgive and forget (of course the forgetting part is coz of my terrible, terrible, terrible memory)

4. Lie and get away with it (a skill I have recently mastered…at least I think I have)

5. Procrastinate effectively (I work a lot better when I am under stress…yep that’s my excuse

6. Speak my mind (another skill I have acquired recently)

7. A.N says I am an expert at coming up with a 1000 excuses for not-doing something

7 things I can’t do:

1. Bake!!! (it just never turns out right; but then again I don’t need to, my bro makes excellent cakes)

2. Not cry when watching most movies (it’s embarrassing watching a movie with someone, they always go, now why are you crying at this scene???

3. Give up easily

4. Sing (except in the car and bathroom…and when I want to clear the room)

5. Anything artistic, e.g. paint, draw, music

6. Dance…heck even my 10 month old niece dances better than me…actually I should add this to the list of things I plan on doing…learn Persian dancing

7. Remember where I have parked my car

7 things I say a lot

1. Magical (my favorite word)

2. Lovely ass (as in “I’m too tired to drag my lovely ass out of bed”; or when messaging friends to let them know I have arrived “my lovely ass is here, where are you?”

3. ‘Baba joon’ when talking with Persians; ‘ya ammy’ here in Kuwait

4. Extremely (instead of very)

5. What the hell!!!!!

6. Serious??!!

7. No way!!!!

(Based on my last 3 catch phrases I can see that I’m surprised quite a lot, hmmmm)

Jack Handey Quotes

On my old blog, I used to regularly publish quotes I liked. And since tonight, well heck I bored, I thought I’ll reinitiate that tradition. Here are a couple of quotes from Jack Handey:

"When you die, if you go somewhere where they ask you a bunch of questions about your life and what you learned and all, I think a good way to get out of it is just to say, 'No speaka English.'"

"Whenever you read a good book, it's like the author is right there, in the room, talking to you, which is why I don't like to read good books."

"I wish I would have a real tragic love affair, and get so bummed out that I just quit my job, and become a bum for a few years, because I was thinking about doing that anyway.

"One day one of my little nephews came up to me and asked me if the equator was a real line that went around the Earth, or just an imaginary one. I had to laugh. Laugh and laugh. Because I didn't know, and I thought that maybe by laughing he would forget what he asked me."

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is, "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, "Probably because of something you did."

"Whenever I see an old lady slip and fall on a wet sidewalk, my first instinct is to laugh. But then I think, what if I was an ant, and she fell on me. Then it wouldn't seem quite so funny."

"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other."

"I think a pillow should be the peace symbol, not the dove. The pillow has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn’t have a beak to peck you with.

"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."

"If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at some guys, throw one of those little baby-type pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think of how crazy war is, and while they're thinking, you can throw a real grenade."

"Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis."

Man Carves Wife a 6,000 Stair Path in Mountain

I just stumbled on this story and all i can say is aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh, sniff, sniff, sniff:

A weird love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half century.

Over 50 years ago, Liu, was a 19 years-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu. At the time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman.

To avoid the market gossips, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing area.

In the beginning, they had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to lighten up their lives.

Started the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began, and continue for over 50 years, to hand carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.

A half century later in 2001, a group of adventures were exploring the forest, they surprisingly found the elderly couple and the over 6,000 stairs of hand carved ladder.

“My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day.” Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, “He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she doesn’t go down the mountain that much.”

The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years-old, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms.

So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife’s hand even after he had passed away.

“You promised me you’ll take care of me, you’ll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?” … …

Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband’s black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.

In 2006, their story had became one of the top 10 love stories from China, collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the “love ladder” and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

Video showing the real couple:

More Pictures:

(QQ)

Review of 21 films

Bootlegged films are VERY cheap in Iran—about 300 fils—so I brought smuggled in about 70 to Kuwait, hehehehehehehe....Here’s a one line review of 21 films

Non-English Films

Hindi:

1. Jodha Akbar: Recommended by Amu. Great cinematography. Loved the sword fighing scene between Ash and Hrithik :D The film got me to google Akbar the Great. Found out there were some historical inaccuracies but not enought to distort the truth too much. BTW, did you know that Akbar was the grandfather of Shah Jahan of Taj Mahal?

French:

1. Persepolis: This film could be a page out the book of ANY Iranian who lived in Iran during the 80s and early 90s

Iranian Films

1. Ali Santuri (English title: The Musician): Only reason I watched it is coz it’s banned in Iran. If you wanna put yourself through more than an hour of torture then watch this film.
2. Nesf Maleh Maan, Nesf Maleh Tow (English title: Half mine, Half yours): A fun family film.

Half English/Half Farsi film

1. The Kite Runner: The book was MUCH more poignant.

English Films

1. Rendition: Thought pace was too slow but liked the way the two timelines interlocked. Reese Witherspoon’s role was way too trivial.
2. A Might Heart: Pace too slow, film a bit weak, could have focused more on the emotional side of it; liked Jolie’s new hairdo though.
3. The Night Listener: not a lot of suspense for a suspenseful film
4. The Kingdom: Got to see it again to comment
5. The Bourne Ultimatum: Matt Damon was HOT :P
6. National Treasure 2: Liked part 1 much better; learned some interesting tidbits, like there are two Eiffel Towers :D
   
7. No Country for Old Man: I am now convinced that members of the Oscars academy are officially blind, deaf and with no sense of artistic taste!!
8. Lions for Lambs: A loooooooooong lecture. You might as well just watch a political debate on CNN. Tom Cruise was his annoying self.
9. Jesse James: Was never a fan of Brad Pitt; this film proved why.
10. I am Legend: Will Smith is HOT!!
11. The Golden Compass: Nicole Kidman is forcing me to cross her off my list of fav actresses
    
12. Atonement: The only reason I watched it till the end was coz I was too lazy to reach for the remote to switch off the TV.
13. Juno: Loved her character, especially her wit. Screenplay was excellent. Though I did think they toned down the trials of teenage pregnancy.
14. Meet the Spartans: LOL..much more realistic than 300
15. Elizabeth: Made me google it; the film has some historical inaccuracies. Thought the real Queen Elizabeth would have been much more interesting than the one depicted in this film.

Half the world celebrated something on Friday :D :D :D :D

Mom and I will hit the road in about an hour. I couldn't sleep, got up to surf and came across this article. Brought a smile to my face, thought of sharing it:

"...on this particular Friday, March 21, it seems almost no believer of any sort will be left without his or her own holiday. In what is statistically, at least, a once-in-a-millennium combination, the following will all occur on the 21st:

Good Friday

Purim, a Jewish festival celebrating the biblical book of Esther

Narouz, the Persian New Year, which is observed with Islamic elaboration in Iran and all the "stan" countries, as well as by Zoroastrians and Baha'is.

Eid Milad an Nabi, the Birth of the Prophet, which is celebrated by some but not all Sunni Muslims and, though officially beginning on Thursday, is often marked on Friday.

Small Holi, Hindu, an Indian festival of bonfires, to be followed on Saturday by Holi, a kind of Mardi Gras.

Magha Puja, a celebration of the Buddha's first group of followers, marked primarily in Thailand.

"Half the world's population is going to be celebrating something," says Raymond Clothey, Professor Emeritus of Religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh. "My goodness," says Delton Krueger, owner of www.interfaithcalendar.org, who follows "14 major religions and six others." He counts 20 holidays altogether (including some religious double-dips, like Maundy Thursday and Good Friday) between the 20th (which is also quite crowded) and the 21st.

You can read the whole article here: Good Friday! Happy Purim, Eid, etc...


UPDATE: I just realized that Mother's Day in the Arab world was also this Friday :D :D

Hey maybe this is a sign that 2008 is the year of world peace :P :P

What do Da Vinci and I have in common? Polyphasic sleep

Ever heard of Polyphasic sleep? Basically it’s sleeping in ‘multiple short phases’, i.e., you sleep for 2 hours, stay awake for 4, then sleep again for 2, stay awake for 4 and so on. Apparently this is the sleeping habits of some quite a number of world geniuses, namely Da Vinci, Lord Byron, Einstein (though not all the time)…and …well the mother of all inventors--Kramer (remember that episode from Seinfeld)…oh and apparently Batman.

Ok, not that I was trying to be Mrs Batman, but it seems I have joined the Exclusive Polyphasic Sleep Club of Geniuses (hereafter EPSCF). My membership started 3 nights ago when I stopped going to work. I slept in late, then got up, ran a few errands, had nothing else to do so went back to sleep, then got up again, slept again, got up again and then I couldn’t sleep all night!!! Before I knew it, I had developed the pattern of polyphasic sleep.

Oh and on the first night I couldn't sleep, I was surfing the net looking for a good Happy Norooz video, but couldn’t find any. So being a member of the EPSCF I go, Hey gurl, see if u can make your own video using windows video maker.

And voila, here’s my masterpiece:

I 'heart' Dust

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and---sans End

Omar Khayam

Thank you Mr. Sand Storm. See I was sitting on my @$$ scratching my head wondering how I’m going to fill up the 20 min rest time I have tomorrow, when in you come and splash dust all over my room. Get up and dust you say with a smile. So thank you for being so concerned with my productiveness.

[10 minutes later]

Ok, so that was sarcastic… scratch everything I said above…me so sorry Mr Dust…didn’t mean to be sarcastic.

[10 more minutes later]

Ok, here’s the thing--on my last birthday I made a promise to myself that from now on I would always see the bright side of things, the good intention of others, the positive long term outcome of things. And I had successfully kept this promise till now that is...now that I offended Mr. Dust.

So to reprimand things, here’s my Top 10 Reasons Why Dust is a GOOD Thing:

1. When I dust, I have a lot of hand movements which means I burn a lot of calories, so basically dusting actually helps me stay in shape.

2. Dusting also helps me save money on gym membership fees.

3. When I dust I have to listen to music, so dusting helps me brush up on my dancing skills.

4. They say that dust is composed primarily of dead skin cells. So I guess this includes deceased people, which I guess includes my deceased ancestors. So basically I connect with my ancestors every time I dust.

5. I also build a close relationship with my household appliance every time I dust. I mean I’m touching them all over and touching always leads to intimacy.

6. I don’t know why every time I dust or vacuum I find lots of lost items...hmmm

7. Dusty days kinda look romantic. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether it’s dusty or foggy. I love foggy days :D

8. Dusty days help mask manufacturing companies increase their sales.


And the number one reason why I like dust:


9. Add a sprinkle of water onto dust and you are in an aroma therapy session

Ok, that was nice…now I feel better…life is beautiful again now that I have made my peace with dust.

*goes to smell a rose*

My apologizes to wordpress

What do my car, my pda, my mobile, my camera, my laptop and wordpress have in common?

1. Things I spend more time with than my family

2. Names I have picked for my future kids

3. Things a certain dude thinks are possessed by the devil

4. Things that my 9 month old niece knows how to use better than me

5. The only words in English I know how to spell

6. Things I have hurt their feeling and are no longer speaking to me



Scroll down for answer












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Ok stop scrolling


1. Nope: It’s more or less the same

2. Nope: Are u kidding me!!! No way I’ll have 6 kids!!!

3. Nope: He thinks these objects are the devil himself

4. Nope: Give her a couple more months and yes she would

5. Nope: I know 1 or 2 more words

6. Aha…yep, I have some how managed to offend these inanimate objects over the past 2 years and 6 have taken their revenge The latest inanimate object I owe an apology to is Wordpress. Ever since this post, my comments have been spammed. So here’s my letter to Wordpress:





Dear Wordpress,

Dude, me so sorry. I never meant to compare you to Blogger. You both have your own positive points. You are both special in your own way. Please accept my sincere apology :D

Mirror Polisher

Blogger or Wordpress

I’m bored stiff, so I’m gonna try something new. Every time I post sth on blogspot, I’ll also copy it here. Let me see which one of these hosts I would grow to love more .

So far I like blogger more coz:

1. It allows you to change the html code (on wordpress you can change it but can't save the new template unless you upgrade)
   
2. It allows you to add any widget (including all the widgets on wordpress)

I like the following features on wordpress:

1. The tag surfer
2. it comes with recent comment widget (though you can add that on blogger easily)

UPDATE:

1. I'm having trouble embedding YouTube videos on wordpress.
2. Wordpress had much better templates
   
3. Wordpress has recently allowed some widgets to be added