i'm leaving on a jet plane. i don't know when i'll be back again...

...okay so maybe i do, but whatever. traveling day is finally here, well kinda, and i am uncharacteristically nervous. not the excited nerves, either, but the real oh crap what am i doing nervous. i dunno if it's because i have no idea what to wear on the plane, which for me is a big deal. i always pack the night before, but i'll know what i'm wearing on the plane weeks in advance. not like i sit thinking about it, but when my dad says "we're leaving," my mind replies with a "this is what you'll wear: (insert mental image of outfit)". or maybe it's because i won't see my nephew until he's freaking 6 months old. that's double the time he's been alive so far. i'll miss everything. or maybe just cause there's so many people... and they're all in arabic. i dunno, but whatever it is, it's freaking me out.

oh, and rashad, before i forget... i'd like to clarify my answer to if i would still be blogging from over there. i dunno if my uncle just didnt wanna be helpful or if he was telling the truth or what, but the internet situation is looking kinda iffy at the moment. sooo if i have internet then yes, i will be blogging. duh. if not, then i'm sorry but you'll have to live without my awesomeness for a whole three months. i know, what will you do with yourself?

back to the point, i should probably go finish off my bag and do other getting ready related stuff so that tomorrow i'll be free to deal with my parents' panicking.

a moment of procrastination before i'm off to responsibility: a funnyish story bout my brothers today. they like to play online games... pop tropica, fun brain, postopia. they usually only play those so we put them on my parents' laptop and go about our business. apparently, one of ali's friends gave him a link to other online games. the site has spongebob, scooby doo, ben10... but it also has less appropriate ones. i wasn't aware that they were not playing games about fruity pebbles this morning while i was cleaning the living room. so abdullah goes, "sarah, the computer guy called me the b word." my mom banned the word booger from our house, so i assumed that was the b word he was talking about. i laughed or something and he was like "no the b-i-t-c-h word." that shocked me. why would fred flintstone be using that kind of language?? then ali chimes in with "actually, he said 'fuck you, bitch!'" i was flabbergasted, and of course race over to see what the hell they were playing. turns out they were playing south park. why would anyone put south park next to tom and jerry on internet games?? needless to say, i will be censoring the internet on that computer first chance i get.

*Leaving On a Jet Plane - Chantal Kreviazuk

that's the difference between you and me

One Interpretation of Your Silence
By Bob Hicok

Probably I hurt your aesthetic feelings.
How I said a thing, how I held a lamp
to the night. These should walk without us--
words, the dark--is perhaps your view
of existence. I can't know,

you provide no puppet theater,
no tumbling routine for me to engage
in spirited discourse. That a face
comes with every body, and a body
with every name, makes it seem

like we're the same species,
when a cursory kissing shows how multiform
any one puckerer is. I'm sorry
I'm not the Wednesday or club sandwich
you expected, imagine my surprise

that you're not the world piece
I really do want, it's not just a thing
I say to the judges inspecting my cleavage.
If you'll try again I'll try again,
however trying we are. "To the puppies" is a phrase

I carry around in search of the context
in which shouting it will change everything.
If you have no such rip-chord, we really
shouldn't be seen together in public,
for you are the matter for which I

am the anti-matter, and as "Lost in Space"
showed us if it showed us nothing else,
it's not good for life when they meet,
and I want to do what is good for life,
because I want life to return the favor.

*What's the Difference - The Holloways

i want so much to open your eyes

i find the idea of banned books incredibly idiotic. i mean, really, who the hell do you think you are to tell me what i can or cannot read?? it should be left up to the individual to decide what s/he feels is acceptable. and for kids, if they arent old enough to make a rational judgement about what they should be reading then it's the parents' responsibility. if i was an author, i think i would consider it an honor to ba on a banned book list. i mean, it really just means that some people had a passionate reaction to your writing, it gives your book recognition, and most people choose what books to read by checking out banned book lists so it increases sales. that in itself is another blatant strike against banning books: it never works. sure, you can prevent them from being taught at schools, but can you really stop someone from reading them?? marking something as 'banned' only makes the prospect of doing it more appealing. and a lot of them were banned way back when for reasons that no longer apply - going against a society that has changed completely, language that is milder than what nickelodean shows come up with today - but people are adamant about keeping them banned.

the banned and most challenged books are mostly ridiculous. i read a lot of them without realizing they were banned, and yes some of them because they were banned. but really, huck finn, tom sawyer, the catcher in the rye, the great gilly hopkins, judy blume books, harry potter, the crucible, death of a salesman, of mice and men, bridge to teribithia, a wrinkle in time, go ask alice, shel silverstein, where's waldo? i mean, that one doesnt even have words! how did it offend someone so much that it appeared on the most challenged books list?? a lot of them are kids books with no bad language, no references to sex, no themes that could wrongly influence a child... just a really good read for a kid who has moved beyond junie b jones.

seriously, people need to open their eyes to the fact that banning books is moronic. and in an age where book reading is a dying form of entertainment, should we really be stopping kids from reading the few books that are appealing to them??

*Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol

easy as 1 2 3

My life in numbers...

10 - the number of songs i recently bought from itunes.

9 - number of things i have left to pack into my suitcase before it can be closed.

8 - the number of pages i've gotten into the book i'm reading.

7 - number of books i want to buy from amazon the second i finish the ones i'm reading now.

6 - number of people i wouldn't mind seeing right now.

5 - the number of shelves in my bookshelf dedicated solely to my books (not including the books on ny nightstand, bed, downstairs...)

4 - number of hershey's squares i had for breakfast.

3 - number of years it's been since hgh school graduation.

2 - number of days left until traveling day.

1 - number of people i've spoken to since i woke up.

*ABC's The Jackson 5

it's just my luck to end up getting stuck to everything you are

i took ceramics during my senior year of highschool. one of the projects we worked on was making plaques to teach us slab technique or something. i was obsessed with my plaque; i think i smoothed it over a million times, spent forever cutting out the letters and the pieces and everything. anyways, when it came time to glaze it, i was in a major rush and did a really crap job. the plaque was ruined. so over three years later i have finally fixed it. i repainted the border, letters, and background. it still isn't exactly how i wanted it to look. the letters color is totally off, and i'm still not sure if i made the right choice to change the background color. but what's done is done right??

the old background:

the new one:

But as I stood in the doorway, I didn’t see the bare walls or empty room. I saw conversations about Lily, plans for full moon, studying for exams, playing Quidditch, hexing Snape. I saw all of our fights and mischievous moments. I saw James professing for the first time his love for Lily, and me doing the same for Ria. I saw detentions, sneaking down to the kitchens, learning how to become animagi. Seven years flashed before my eyes, and a lump formed in my throat. An era was truly ending, and there was nothing we could do but move on with the future and hope that it held as many good memories and great friends as this phase had.

love the marauders... especially sirius.

painting this thing brought back so many ceramics class memories. five of us crowded into that tiny stuffy room... good times. and yes, the title doesnt really match the post but i wanted it to be from this song so whatever.

*All Hail the Heartbreaker - The Spill Canvas

pieces of me

i was on facebook and looking through the pictures of some of my friends from when i lived in saudi. great people, but they do something that really annoys me. and it's not only them... it's a lot of the saudi girls that i have on my friends list. they'll put up a bunch of pictures of themselves - sometimes a series of profile pics and sometimes an entire album - but not one picture is complete. like there'll be a picture of their mouth, then one of their eye, then one of their cheek and half their nose, then one of a hand, and one of their eyebrows, etc until you basically have all of them, just broken into pieces. i dont get it. why would you do that?? i mean, i know you're not that ugly that you havta protect our eyes because if we saw all of you at once they'd burn or something. and no offense to any of them, but it's not like if they put an entire picture of themselves they'd be getting harrassed and kidnapped by creepy perverts. and if you don't want pictures of yourself circulating the internet, which is what a lot of people say, then just dont put anything. it's better than that jigsaw puzzle of your face you're posting everywhere.

*Pieces of Me - Ashley Simpson

killing me softly

leave it to a saudi to think this up, because we really need more creepy killer stuff associated with our country. sheesh. it's a microchip to be put in "undesirables" which will keep track of them on a gps system. and then, because that's not creepy enough, it also has a murder feature. yup, at the push of a button it will release cyanide and kill whoever it's in. i mean, really, it sounds creepy enough to be a movie plot. i suppose in theory it might make a little sense. you know, you see that an "undesirable" is about to kill the president and bam he's dead, but that stuff should really be left to hollywood.


*Killing Me Softly - Roberta Flack

isn't it moronic, don't you think?

i watched i could never be your woman today... good movie. the daughter, izzie, parodied songs, and this one has been stuck in my head all day:

(first scene)
Young girl, wants to be a big name
In movies, they must all be the same
She won't need to sing or to act
Just lose all of her body fat
And isn't it moronic?
Don't you think?

It's insane
That they lose so much weight
It's young Nicole with no food on her plate
It's her pal Lindsay barfing up a cake
They think they're all cute --- stick figures!

(second scene)
So hot, must be 98
For December, that's not so great
While the North Pole is turning to slush
On my TV, there's President Bush
And, isn't it moronic?
Don't you think?
Incredibly moronic.
And yes, I really do think

He's a pain in the whole world's ass
Would sell his mom, for a gallon of gas
How can it be, we voted him in?
I just don't see how it figures

Pop star, who went on TV
Tells the whole world, "Kids sleep here with me."
Mother says to her son
Neverland Ranch would be lots of fun
And isn't she moronic?
Don't you think?
Incredibly moronic.
And yes, I really do think

It's so lame
What goes on her head
Do you think it's smart?
To loan him your kid
He won't like them when they're bigger

*Moronic - Saoirse Ronan

call on me brother when you need a hand

i hate how even though i have been nothing but reliable for the past 21 years of my life, or mostly reliable, it still comes as a struggle for my parents to ask me to do something and then just have faith that i'll do it. my mom is sleeping at hannahs house to help with the baby. okay cool, not the first time. she asks me to wake up with my brothers before school. fine, not the first time for that either. my dad says they get up at 5:15... ridiculously early considering a couple of months ago they woke up at 6:20, but i'm okay with that. since my dad is usually at the masjid from 4:45 till 6:45ish, he reminds me no less than five hundred times to set my clock. i assure him thati have woken up early before, know how to set an alarm, and will wake them up at their normal time. i wake up at 5:05, wash up and everything, wake them up at 5:15, and everything is going swimingly. until my dad walks in at 5:30. also, not the first time. and he comes in completely surprised that i had everything under control and tells me i can go back to sleep. um no, i cant. once i'm up, i'm up. if you were planning on coming home super early to get the boys shipped off to school, then why did i have to wake up?? and the thing is, i knew he would do this, because he always does, but if i hadnt woken up i'd be labeled as an unreliable lazy bum for the rest of my life. grr.

oh, and hannah, i hate you too cause it's your fault i'm up so early.

*Lean on Me - The Temptations

the rest is still unwritten

ali, who takes after me in way more than looks, is starting a book. he's planning on getting it published, getting famous, and making it into a whole series. it's actually not bad, and he uses words that i was surprised he knew. okay, actually me and anisah thought it was pretty good, but that could just be parent blindness syndrome. you know, when like a parent has a really really ugly kid but s/he thinks it's adorable because if s/he saw it like the ugly thing everyone else did they would suffocate it in its sleep. you know?? anyways, here's what he has so far. everything in [] is what i added in to clarify some of his points. i'm leaving in all his spelling/grammar mistakes just cuz i wanna have a typed copy exactly how he wrote it.

Bob the Llama

Once upon a time there lived a llama. His name was Bob. Bob was a good llama, because he was always careful. One day Bob was invited to a dinner party, and why? Because he's really careful. The next night he went out to the dinner party. and there lay straight on the table hundreds and hundreds of food. Meanwhile the guests didn't show up. and that was because the party didn't start till 9:30 and it was only 8:00. So Bob just ate and ate and ate until there lay on the table nothing! Bob looked at the clock. It was 9:30. and he spoke very quietly and said about 10 times the guests are coming, the guests are coming until they did! But luckily he snuck out just in time. Bob didn't exactly know where he was going but he kept on going. Now he was in bigger trouble! and when i mean trouble i mean trouble. He was in the middle of the city. Of course he didn't keep on going, he just stop't. He kep't calm, took a couple of breath's and turned around. and went the other way. He came to a stop because there were three path's and he forgot which path he took. He thought and thought until he took the first. But they all took him to the place. But the first and third were blocked, and the second wasn't. [all the paths led to the same place. he didn't know this and tried the first, which was blocked. the third was blocked, too. so he ended up taking the second] He came to another stop which was a wall. Every one know's that llamas are good at climing stone. But Bob wasn't. He used a grapling hook so he did. [bob usually used a grapling hook to climb stones, so that's what he did now] He came to a tunnle which led to the back door. So he got inside with no fear. Soon he was finally at the.. at the ocean? He said I can't believe myself I just can't. and then Bob started to cry. He kept crying until he found out it was magic. [the sea was magic] His tears ploped off his own little nose and fell into the water it was so clear to him now it was a crystal! [once again, the sea was] So he got a club and smashed it. So he went on and on and on until he came to another stop. It was amazing! a portal to the dinner party! How did he know because he heard thousands of laughs, but that doesn't mean it's the dinner party he was looking for. Because there are thousands of other feasts he thought, but it was so stupid of him to jump in. [he knew it could be any dinner party, but he jumped in anyways] But it was stupider to actually eat some of the food that was on the table. Because that exact minute he found out he was in mid evil times. But luckily he didn't exist. So he thought he wasn't appart of this once he found out. [he thought that since he went to the past, he didnt actually exist] But he thought he could escape, but one hour laer for every body to take up half of his time to figure out what just happened, he found out ten minutes later that he, Bob Jefferson Llama, has caused a riot. [it took about an hour for everyone at the party to realize what had happened, which wasted half of the time he had to escape. ten minutes after they realized what was going on, a riot started.] But that didn't stop him a teenage llama from being appart of this. [just because he started the riot didnt mean that he could choose not to take part in it... yeah doesnt really makes sense to me either] So he tried to sneak out of a squarish tunnle. of course he tried to use his grapling hook at first, but it failed. so he thought of other bright ideas. one of his ideas were to bounce off the pepoles heads one by one then bounce off the walls.

so that's all he has so far. i have no idea how a llama so careful got into so much trouble, but according to ali "i'm in for a big surprise." he claims his idol is dr. suess (or mr. suess as he calls him) and wants to make his book "a comedy just like all those other great books like horton hatches an egg and horton hears a who."

*Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield

a melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

Auroras Borealis... northern and southern lights. i will see this for real before i die.

*Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie

buried deep as you can dig inside

i was reading a friend's blog which mentioned a bunch of the dirty things disney put in their movies. of course, most of these have been denied: the word sex in the dust in the lion king was supposedly sfx (the animation people), the priest that is thought to be... a tad too excited while wedding ursula and eric in the little mermaid supposedly just has knobby knees and the shot confuses a lot of people, the fact that aladdin's line in the first edition of the vhs sounds suspiciously like he's telling teenagers to take their clothes off is pure coincidence. of course, since they make him talk more clearly in the later editions it's makes you wonder. some of them couldnt be explained away, though, and were just removed. like the phallic tower on ariel's castle.

anyways, this brought to mind all the other easter eggs in practically everything else, books, movies, software, songs, etc. just in case you didnt know, easter eggs are intentional hidden messages, jokes, or other feature in an object. it's really common in software development and animated movies. because, really, the people who do all of the work hardly ever get really credited for it. it's always the actors, characters, or the computer company that comes to mind when the product is mentioned. plus, hiding easter eggs would make a really tedious job slightly more amusing. there are people who live or finding easter eggs in products. they do all kinds of weird stuff to find them. it's amazing some of them are even found i think. some common easter eggs include:

movies - a lot of them flash by really fast or require you to look really closely :
-the gas station andy's mom pulls into in toy story is the one that sponsors lightning mcqueen in cars
-nemo makes a cameo appearance in monsters inc.
-every pixar animated movie has the same pizza planet truck in it, which was modeled after a toyota hilux.
-the beast shows up in aladdin as one of the toys the sultan is stacking before he is interrupted by jafaar. the genie also pulls out sebastian later in the movie.
-belle makes a cameo appearance in the hunchback of notre dame
-in enchanted, robert's assistant is the actress who voiced ariel, and there is a little mermain song playing in her scene.
-there is a hidden mickey in every disney animated movie.

software - for most of them you have to do a bunch of steps that you probably wouldn't do normally:
-in excel 2000: press F5, type: x2000:2000 and press enter. hold Ctrl + Shift. click the chart wizard and you'll see the credits. there are a bunch more for excel which include flying, viewing a hall of tortured souls, the game spyhunter, and a quiz.
-in photoshop cs3, hold down ctrl while pressing help > about photoshop and you'll see a giant red pill appear on the screen.
-to see credits on firefox, type about:credits into the address bar. also try about:robots to learn about robots and about:mozilla to read a passage from "the book of mozilla"
-i dunno if any of you have had to use matlab for any classes. to make it less of a torture, type life in the command prompt to play a game. or type why to get philosophical guidance. typing shower, toilet, penny, lala, and lalala will also get results.
-type /patchou into an msn convo window to see a pic and message from the creator. or type /insult to start an insult duel with whoever your talking to.
-my professor put an easter egg in a program she made for a client who was always late paying them. if she didnt get a deposit into her bank account two weeks after she handed over the program, it would go crazy every time it was opened until she got paid. needless to say, they paid pretty fast.


*The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most - Dashboard Confessional

all my bags are packed, i'm ready to go

so i'm leaving this sunday, which is a whole seven days away, and i'm already ready. ok so my bags arent zipped and locked but i just have to add the two shirts that i just got back from the wash and my toothbrush/brush/etc and its done. so basically, i'm ready. this may not seem like a big deal unless you know me and my family. this has never happened before. ever. so of course it's making me panic and doubt my readiness. am i sure i have everything?? i'm gonna be gone for three whole months. i cant afford to leave anything here. okay so yes, i can, but still... i dont want to.

since we moved to our new house over there we have been forced to use our neighbor's internet connection... which sucks, but most places make you have a year contract to set up the dsl line and there's really no point in getting that when we're here all year. but my dad recently got an email promoting a dsl connection for three months. talk about kismet. he's looking into it, and if it works out then we'll actually have a reliable-ish connection. i'm excited.

*Leaving on a Jet Plane - Chantal Kreviazuk

i wonder what will it take for you to call me?

technology has allowed for many advances in our lives. doctors can perform surgery on someone across the world. you can video chat with someone on a different continent. you can buy food, clothes, music, and videos all from the comfort of your living room couch. but as amazing as technology is, we still have to acknowledge that it is destroying an entire lifestyle.

telephone conversations are gradually going out of style. i'm not saying that no one calls anyone anymore. while landline phones are starting to die off, cell phones are booming. but if you just want one thing from a friend, to ask one question, to remind them of a specific point, most people will just text them. because of that, you dont get the hours of pointless conversation that result from calling for that one thing. you get your answer and thats it. you'll call them when you have a story to tell that can't be done online, or when you're bored and need to kill time, or every once and a while just to make sure they're still a live.

another dying art form is the written letter. when was the last time you opened your mailbox and got something other than magazines and junk mail?? i used to have a bunch of pen pals, and the greatest feeling in the world is flipping through the mail at the end of the day and seeing a letter addressed to you. to know that someone thought of you and took the time out of their day to sit down and write out - not type - a letter just for you. whoever said that emails are the same as letters had some serious problems.yes, it's great getting emails too, but letters are so much more personal... you have to sit down and think more, choose the stationary, address the envelope, take it to the mailbox. you cant send out a mass letter. you can't copy and paste. each one is unique. and writing takes longer than typing anyways. sure, it costs a little more than an email, but 40 cents is totally worth it in my opinion. i think i'll find myself a new penpal over the summer for next year.

another thing that's happened since technology... when was the last time you bought a cd - like a real tangible one - and then never listened to it?? never for me. when you go to the store and pick out which ones to buy and stand in line and then buy it, you listen to it. but i have downloaded tons of songs and entire albums that i never listen to. ever. i download them, get busy, forget about them, and then months later realize that i never even played the beginning of any of them. this would never happen when i bought the cds at stores.

i mentioned the ability to buy everything online as a benefit of technology. it can be seen as a bad thing too. without ever having to leave your house, you're losing essential social contact. you're also losing the opportunities to build up your tolerance for obnoxious people. when you had to wait in traffic to get to the store to buy stuff, you were forced to wait in never ending lines behind that mom with the child that just wont shut up. you built up a tolerance for that kind of stuff. now, you can bypass all of that. great, right?? well, yeah, until you're in a situation when you have to deal with a crying child or a long line and you're so unused to it that it seems so much worse than it really is. you also lose all the small talk that people used to have while waiting for a bus or whatever. you just whip out your cell phone or your ipod and never have to talk to anyone about the weather.

i mentioned in an earlier post how playing video game sports is now super popular. well, that's great except for the fact that you're losing most of the health benefits of the sport and the fresh air and the social contact with teammates. so while you're enjoying yourself playing baseball on your couch, you're also developing your couch potato skills.

technology has also created a whole new language. a language where omg, lol, thru, u, wtf, etc are all not only acceptable but common words and spellings. we got into an argument in a class last spring because a girl (overly pretentious) who was a self-proclaimed linguist refused to even recognize this "internet talk" as part of the english language. like it or not, though, it is. a big part. it's the only language most of the younger generation speaks. sad, but true.

*Birds of a Feather - The Rosenbergs

all right, that's it, i've had enough

the incredible shrinking woman. by far the worst movie i have seen in a really really long time. which of course means it was hilarious to watch. me and my sister were still laughing over it's stupidity way after the last credit floated up our screen. it was made in the 80s so of course we were expecting it to have laughable effects and stuff, but this movie went so far beyond that. the little blurb said it was about a lady who started to shrink and shrink and shrink after being exposed to some chemicals in her makeup. immediately drew us in of course. but the lady had the most obnoxious voice, everyone had the most hilarious facial expressions, their reactions were so over the top dramatic, and the plot was made up of one bad joke or pun after another. mothers living in dollhouses, sign languaging apes, a company trying to shrink the entire world cuz they were already "as big as they could get," an entire police force stymied by a barrel of banana peels... this movie had it all and more. we were really hoping that by the end it would all be done, but then, the last second of the movie just threw in another horrible plot twist, leaving it open for a sequel. i dunno if they ever made a sequel or not, but i kinda hope they didnt. they've already used up their alotted amount of pure stupidity.

*Teleport: A & B - The Spill Canvas

all this cliche motivation

early summer, with graduations everywhere you look, is the season for people to spew out motivational "advice" to everyone they meet. and as a recent graduate, there's nothing you appreciate more than people telling you to "reach for the stars," "the sky's the limit," and "you can do anything you want" with the airs of someone bestowing upon you the wisdom of the ages, right??

out of all the cliched motivational one-liners out there, i think my worst is 'follow your dreams.' i hate it. first of all, by definition "following" something means to continue behind it. never catching up, never moving ahead. you can follow your dreams to the end of the world, but that doesnt mean that, once there, they'll decide to come true any faster than they did here. and anyways, since when was stalking anything acceptable behavior?? even if it is only stalking your dreams.

*Self-Conclusion- The Spill Canvas

a whole new world that has since been in disguise

new books are amazing. one of my favorite smells ever is that of a new book. the pages, the binding, the ink. and the sound it makes as it's opened for the very first time. and that moment when the entire world is just a breath away because the possibilities are endless. the book can take you anywhere, make you anything. take part in the civil war, travel through time, witness unrequited love...

books are my escape. i have had major crushes on book characters, and i have hated characters with an unhealthy passion considering they're fictional. i have been to places that i could never even hope to dream up alone. whenever i get sick of reality, books hold fictional havens for me to escape to.

people treasure photos and other mementos to remind them of the places they've been, the milestones they've passed. i treasure my books. each book in itself is a family video, a photo album, a box full of souveneirs. within its pages i can relive my favorite adventures as many times as i like.

i envy writers, even the worst of them. not a petty jealousy, but more of an envious admiration. they had the intelligence, the creativity, the wit, the perservence, the guts to create these other worlds and characters so believable you can almost forget that they aren't real and put them out there for the world to love or hate. my biggest dream, as i'm sure you're all sick of reading about by now, is to hold a newly printed book in my hand with my name embossed on the spine as the author. my absolute fear of failure pretty much puts a stop to that dream, though. i think that fear also inspires some of my love for books. because, unlike with people, you can never fail a book. you can never not be enough or disappoint. the characters pour out their hearts and souls, the book tells you their complete life stories, and you don't have to share anything. sharing stuff is not something i do often... or ever. so it works out great.

*All Hail the Heartbreaker - The Spill Canvas

science and progress

i dunno whether to be grossed out or amazed... i think i'm leaning towards the first though. astronauts have made incredible headway in lightening the loads of spaceships. now, they don't have to carry drinking water. they can recycle water. yes, they turn urine and wastewater back into water suitable or drinking and bathing and all that other good stuff. they had a whole celebration with the recycled water recently, drinking it out of clear pouches that say the water was brought by ECLSS. the water recycling system cost $250 million and will be used daily on ships. cool and gross.

cool random fact: every minute, twenty hours of video are uploaded to youtube.

*The Scientist - Coldplay

what if i lost sense of time?

having trouble staying still long enough to study?? it happens to all of us. you have three hours left of study time but you just have to get up to make yourself a sandwich, see what's on tv, get your phone to call a friend, or whatever else you do. then, you look back at the clock and realize all your study time is gone. with the study ball you dont have to worry about this. the manufacture's description of the study ball is:

a prison-style ball and chain that you can program to keep track of how much time you spend studying. Once you’ve selected the desired duration, you chain the ball to your ankle and the manacle won’t come off until the schedule study time is up. A red LED indicator displays the “Study Time Left“ and keeps you informed as to how much longer you’ve got to keep studying. The ball and chain are made of highly durable steel and weighs a total of 9.5 kg / 20.95 pounds, which makes it difficult to move while wearing it.

it costs over 100 dollars and i dunno how efficient it'll actually be with laptops available for procrastination, but i still thought it was a cool/funny invention. definitely creative.

*Falling for the First Time - Barenaked Ladies

call it nothing

lol i wish some of my cousins would use this... or at least only send the forward once between all fifty of them.

*Shining - Kristian Leontiou

just sitting waiting

today was so long. it seems like it's been years since i woke up this morning at 6:30 to get ready for a family errand day. breakfast was eons ago. getting my mason transcript was definitely last century. the only way to measure the time me, my mom, and my sister sat waiting in the car in DC for my dad is in lightyears. and it's still only 4. which means there's at least 9 or 10 more hours till i go to sleep. crazy.

anyways, i wake up this morning, check my email, and go to google to look up something. have any of you been to google today?? the picture gave me the creeps:


it's supposedly the day scientists unveil fossil of darwinius masillae. but when i was half asleep it looked like a creepy fetus or something. gross.

*Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson

there is no life i know to compare with pure imagination

i believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge, myth more potent than history, dreams are more powerful than facts, hope always triumphs over experience, laughter is the cure for grief, love is stronger than death. ~ robert fulgham


imagining something is better than remembering something. ~ john irving, the world according to garp


i believe in everything until it's disproved. so i believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. it all exists, even if it's in your mind. who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now? ~ john lennon

*Pure Imagination - Maroon 5

look how far we've come

being the mother of all commitment problems, i never thought i'd stick with this blog long enough to get to a hundred posts. but i guess i've proved myself wrong. remember back in elementary school when you would celebrate the 100th day of school by counting to 100, making a chain with 100 links, bringing 100 objects to class... yeah this'll be something like that:

100 is:
the number of years in a century.
how old a centenarian is.
the number of US senators.
the number of subunits into which many of the world's currencies are divided.
the number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set
the dollar bill with Benjamin Franklin's portrait.
the American savings bonds with Thomas Jefferson's portrait .
the American treasury bonds with Andrew Jackson's portrait
the police phone number in Greece, India and Israel.
the ambulence and fire fighter phone number in Belgium.
the operator's number in the UK.
the HTTP status code indicating that the client should continue with its request.
how old Abraham was when his son Isaac was born (according to the Bible at least).
the square of 10 .
the basis of percentages (literally "per hundred").
the sum of the first nine prime numbers, as well as the sum of 4 pairs of prime numbers (47 + 53, 17 + 83, 3 + 97, 41 + 59), and the sum of the cubes of the first four integers (100 = 13 + 23 + 33 + 43). Also, 26 + 62 = 100, thus 100 is a Leyland number.
an 18-gonal number. It is divisible by the number of primes below it, 25 in this case. But it can not be expressed as the difference between any integer and the total of coprimes below it, making it a noncototient. However, it can be expressed as a sum of some of its divisors, making it a semiperfect number.
a Harshad number in base 10, and also in base 4, and in that base it is a self-descriptive number.
the temperature in degrees Celcius needed to boil pure water at sea level.
the atomic number of fermium.
the number of episodes at which a TV series becomes viable for syndication.
the number of yards in an American football field (not including the end zones).
the number of runs required for a cricket batsman to score a Century, a significant milestone
the record number of points scored in one NBA game, set by Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962.
the minimum distance in yards for a Par 3 on a golf course.

the 100 most often misspelled words in english include: acceptable, atheist, believe, calendar, cemetery, foreign, harass, height, jewelry, library, misspell, publicly, questionnaire, recommend, separate, until, vacuum, and weird.

the 100 most iconic internet videos include: charlie the unicorn, where the hell is matt, david at the dentist, leave britney alone, and the star wars kid.

new yorks's 100 most wanted fugitives include: Osama bin Laden, Raul Castro, Michael C. Jameison, Ralph Paladino, and Haddon Miller.

the 100 most likely people to die in 2009 include: Andy Rooney, Tom Sizemore, Senator Robert Byrd, Amy Winehouse, Patrick Swayze, Barack Obama, and Pete Doherty.

the 100 most commonly used english words include: the, of, at , be, there, use, it, word, if, will, to, he, your, them, way, made, said, so, people, part, long, and down.

*You're Still the One - Shania Twain

so this is great britain, and welcome aboard

apparently being a day for decisions, i have decided that i love the british language. okay so this was a decision made forever ago, but whatever. i'm not talking about the accent, though that's great too, i'm talking about the actual language itself. while all the uk versions of american words are awesome, i think the "bad words" are hilariously my favorite. for some reason it doesnt seem as base and crude to me when every other word out of a british person's mouth is a cuss word than it does when the speaker is american. for example, take the television series skins (awesome series by the way... only thing i follow religiously besides lost). i dont think any of the characters in that show are capable of getting out a sentence completely devoid of bad words, okay jal hardly swore and neither did jj but thats not the point. everyone else from 5 year olds to 85 year olds swore like sailors on leave, but it was okay. and when they used british cuss words, it was hilarious. my favorite british cuss words are probably wanker and tosser. seeing as i dont really cuss i'll probly never use them, but theyre still my favorite. bollocks is also cool cuz you can use it for like a zillion different meanings. sodding, bloddy, bugger... all awesome. the word gobsmacked is genius.

what i hate, though, are americans who try to be british and try to use all the words but they dont really flow. like there's that half second pause before each word as they think of what to say, and then when they do get the word it doesnt exactly fit in the context. i hate it when people do this with "big words" too. if you have to think too hard on a word, it's probably safe to say that you should use a different one.

*So This Is Great Britain - The Holloways

lately the weather has been so bipolar and consequently so have i

this whole raining one day and being sunny the next is beginning to wreak havoc on my life. okay to a less dramatic degree, but still, it is screwing around with my moods - not the only thing doing that, but whatever. and so one day ill feel like being all social and love people (to an extent) and want to go hang out with what few friends i have managed to keep this long and the next day i'll be a complete sociophobe with less technological skills than the unabomber. because, really, who needs people?? my family is more than enough for me.

and then i start to think about how in a couple of weeks i'll be half way around the world where i will be forced to be social every day for three months. and while i know that once i get there i'm sure i'll have loads of fun, the prospect of that forced socialness does not seem too appealing at the moment. plus i have so much cleaning to do before i go which is never something to look forward to. and i needa lose some weight so that i can gain it back once over there. ugh.

anyways, on a less morose note, it's summer yay. i'm not sure if i mentioned that in an earlier post, probly did. and there are so many things to waste my days doing that i dont even know where to start. and there are so many books stacking up on my bed that i have to read this summer - some borrowed, some just forcefully recommended - but i havent really gotten into any of them and i rarely ever have time to read over in saudi arabia. there's also this project thing i'm working on and while the end product is going to be awesome the getting there is a headache. i have to work with this program that freezes for a full minute every three keystrokes. its psycho.

ok so i apparently suck with the happy tonight. so while i go off to do something cathartic, i'll leave you all with words of wisdom taken from a bookmark my brother abdullah made for me: read, it's what big people do.


*High of 75 - Relient K

i think i had a point, but i just got distracted

i was watching prince caspian on tv with my brothers today, or the last third of it anyways. actually, i was on my computer while they were watching it and giving me play by play commentary, but i looked up a lot. anyways, i love the ending scene of that movie:



quality isnt great, but whatever. the song matches perfectly with the scene. it's great.

speaking of great scenes and movies that were on today, i also love that flying scene from harry potter and the order of the phoenix. i think it may be my favorite scene in the movie... okay, maybe not, but it's definitely up there in the top five.



another great choice of music. and the background of the river and the castle and the color of the sky. it's really a beautifully shot scene.

speaking of harry potter, have you ever noticed how circumstantial a lot of that plot is?? i mean, don't get me wrong, i love the series to death, but there are a few aspects that always irked me. first of all, um harry was not the only child orphaned by voldemort. yes, he was the only failed murder victim, but everyone is always boohoo his parents are dead. look around people, a lot of children's parents are dead. and then, did none of the wizarding world notice that harry would have gotten nowhere without ron and hermione and everyone else that helps him?? okay, so they do get some recognition, but harry really doesnt do anything. every time he fights voldemort, except maybe the last time, he wins by pure luck. all he really hasta do is show up, and a lot of the time he just barely gets that right. and then there's hogwarts. maybe british children are better behaved than americans, but really, all those children in a far off castle learning magic and they hardly get into trouble. sure, they sneak out sometimes. they get into a few fights. but there are hundreds of students and less than 20 staff members. you'd think the kids would revolt or something.

speaking of hugely popular fictional series, let me explain my views on the twilight series. first of all, it pisses me off immensely the way it's always twilight vs. harry potter. they are completely different and totally incomparable. and i really hate the twilight fandom. every single one of those tweens that have to relate every single little thing back to twilight, it's beyond annoying. omg a song that mentions true love, must be written about edward and bella. omg a pale boy with messy hair, must be edward. omg a book that has a vampire in it, must be copying twilight because stephenie meyer invented the supernatural. omg a girl who tripped, must be channeling bella's spirit. you get the point. but though i abhor the fans, i dont actually hate the books. the writing?? abysmal. the characters?? generic. the plotlines?? cheesy and predictable at best. that being said, sometimes cheesy and predictable is all you really need. reading twilight is like watching some sappy chick flick. one of the pathetically hilarious ones. you know what's going to happen before the opening credits, but you still watch it. you still lose yourself in the predictable plot with the unrealistic twists and bad dialog. and that's what twilight is like for me. a bad movie that i can still watch whenever it's on because i just want the cheesiness. you dont want anything deep or even good. just something.

on a different and completely unrelated note, isn't the color of lightning awesomely amazing?? i love thunder storms because of the lightning. especially at night. the way everything is pitch black one second and then illuminated an eerie electric blue the next. it's gorgeous.

oh, and internet explorer is being gay and not playing nicely with blogger. it is annoying. i mean i know that they are supposedly known for incompatibility and stuff, but come on.

and i hate it when the lead in a movie spends half the movie shirtless when he definitely doesnt have the body for it. old beer belly is not something i want to see for an hour. keep your clothes on or go to the gym every once and a while. gosh.

*Maintain Consciousness - Relient K

could somebody show me the kind of affection that you only see in the movies?

i'm a complete cynic when it comes to love. i just dont believe it exists. not the fairy tale kind at least. not what you see in disney movies. not what you read about in books. people dont share that one magical kiss and then live happily ever after. it just doesnt work that way. im not saying that people dont love each other or are never happy with each other, it's just not like a disney movie.

and i want the disney movie. i've always preferred fictional life to reality.

you know in the movie enchanted when giselle is telling patrick dempsey's character about prince edward and he's all cynical and goes on about how they've only known each other a day and thats ridiculous and stuff?? when you see it in a disney movie, it seems acceptable. why shouldnt the scullery maid marry the prince?? but under the harsh light of reality it really is ridiculous. they danced together for one night. one night. and that is enough to guaruntee a happily ever after?? i wish. i really do.

there's this line in twilight that always bugged me. every time i read the books it annoys me. i'm not gonna go search for the exact quote, but basically edward tells bella how much better and more powerful emotions - namely love - are when you experience them yourself rather than reading about them. it might just be me, but i think pure unadulterated storybook love is stronger than what exists in reality. maybe i'm just really missing out on something, but i dont think disney worthy love exists in the real world.

*Your Evil Soul - The Spill Canvas

so lost, confused again

oh. my. god.

the LOST season finale was awesomely amazing. i loved it. yes, we have absolutely no idea what happened or what is going to happen or anything, but i mean, it's lost so it's okay. totally worth the cluelessness. did juliet change everything to "what was supposed to happen"? i hope not. i really want her and sawyer to end up together. and i want kate to die. grr i hate her, and she used to be one of my top three favorite characters in the first couple of seasons. and locke... i had a feeling that wasnt really him. i hate him anyways, but this makes it so much cooler.

ahh i love this show. i cannot wait for next season.

*I Feel So - Boxcar Racer

bend to squares five to six times

as exams come to a close, it's obvious that my brain won't focus on studying. so while surfing the web, i came across the dot game online. you know, the one where you have to complete more squares than your opponent?? i used to play this game with a friend every day in math class junior year. making the board took forever. filling up a page with dots would usually take a whole period, so we really only played every other day.

another thing i thought was cool was this sunlight map of the world. it basically shows what it says, where the sun is hitting the world at a given time. not something you can stare at for hours, but still kinda interesting.

one exam to go and i'm free. i cant wait.

*Bend to Squares - Death Cab for Cutie

innocence is the key

what do you see in this picture?

You saw a couple in an intimate love position, right?

Interestingly, research has shown that young children cannot identify the intimate couple because they do not have prior memory associated with such a scenario.

What they will see, however, is nine (small & black) dolphins in the picture!

So, I guess we've already proven you're not a young innocent child. Now, if it's hard for you to find the dolphins within 6 seconds, your mind is SO corrupted that you probably need help!

OK, here's help: look at the space between her right arm and her head, the tail is on her neck, follow it up. Look at her left hip, follow the shaded part down, it's another one, and on his shoulder..

*We Intertwined - The Hush Sound

spelled out on a double word and triple letter score

i think scrabble is one of the most amazing games in the world, and not just because i'm pretty awesome at it. it's a perfect combination of learning, fun, strategy, and luck. it's kind of a family game for us, too. it holds a lot of memories. my parents spent like the first decade of their marriage playing scrabble every single night, so when we got to play it when we were younger it was like an awesome grown up thing. i remember i used to love doing the word cab. i dunno why. even coming close to my mom's score was an amazing feat, and when we started beating her we were ecstatic. i remember the first time i used all seven letters - the word was spewing. and now, whenever my grandma comes down to visit we pull out the scrabble board - not the one my parents played on, that's in saudi arabia. it's become the only time we play besides the summer hours in my saudi grandma's house with turkish soap operas playing in the background. we even have two copies of the official scrabble dictionary. because it's so much cooler than normal dictionaries of course. and by the way, scrabble online and scrabble in real life are totally different experiences. online is way easier. don't ask me why because i cant explain it. it just is. probably for the same reason it's easier to write an essay online than on paper. all i know is that when i play online ive gotten scores close to 600 points. getting over 400 is no longer special, which is definitely not the case with playing in real life.

*Loose Lips - Kimya Dawson

there's so much sad gonna flood the ocean, we're all in tears for a world that's broken

there is something really wrong with the children in the world today. they have gotten way too vicious. this whole bullying thing has gotten way out of control. articles about the victims of bullying flood the media lately. and it's really really sad. kids have resorted to suicide as a means of escape. does no one else see a problem with a system where ten year old children are found hanging from a belt in their closet because they couldnt take the bullying anymore??

this article hurt my heart. a five year old boy was attacked by a group of older kids, one of them his "buddy" that was supposed to protect him because he had complained of being bullied. the kid was "chased into a brick wall and scalped, prevented from using the toilet to the point he wet himself, and was a target for stone-throwing. He was also hit, kicked, teased and ridiculed." who would do that to a five year old?? people are messed up.

how many stories like this are we going to have to hear before schools do something about it?? yes, i know that most schools are "dealing with the problem," but really, how well can they be dealing with it when stuff like this is still going on?? a lot of what i hear is just laying the blame on everyone and trying to get them to fix the problem. fingers could be pointed at lots of people, but maybe everyone should focus more on helping the kids now and finding who to blame later.

*We Cry - The Script

happy birthday to you

i like to read the 'eye openers' when i get the express, pretty funny stuff. anyways in yesterday's paper, an 82 year old guy called the cops on his neighbors. apparently it was always someone's birthday. he would hear the happy birthday song at "irregular intervals and at all hours." so the cops came to investigate and found the problem. he had one of those singing cards on his windowsill - only he didnt know it sang. breezes coming in through the window would open the card just enough to start the music and kill the dude's nerves.

this other dude got thrown back in jail after he was released. why?? because he had stolen his prisoner t-shirt as a souvenier. i mean, really?? who needs a memento from prison?? is your criminal record not enough for you??

*uh... it's pretty universal

the confidence of a man who's never known defeat

since my academic career is, at long last, drawing to a close (or at least according to the admissions office, though i hope to draw it out a little longer) i have decided to share my secret to success. yes, i have a secret to success and you should all feel incredibly honored that i am sharing it with you. i assure you that i dont intend to sound condescendingly cocky or retardly cliche, though what i'm about to tell you could be interpreted as either.

so, ready for the big revelation?? here it is: if you go into a class with complete confidence that you're going to do well in it, then you will do well. no i am not saying just think positive, anything is possible, don't give up before you try, or any of those other motivational sayings. but, honestly, it makes sense.

say you start a class, and from the first day you walk in, you know that you'll do fine. you're not hoping that you'll do okay. you're not worried about the amount of work there is. you dont care that everyone else has marked the class as an automatic fail. you are completely certain that you'll pass, and not just barely scrape by, but really really pass. since you already know you're going to do okay in it, there's no need to stress. no need to get overwhelmed. everything seems manageable, because you know. a paper is just a paper. a test just a test. and then, because you are not blowing everything way out of proportion, you do do well.

and so that's it, i go into every class knowing that i'll be fine, and sure enough, i am. the hardest part is that you cant have doubts. at all. you have to go into every class as if you're walking into a class about basic addition. you already know that 2 + 2 = 4 so theres nothing at all to worry about.

*Let It All Out - Relient K

we sing, we dance, we steal things

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: 'It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.'"

this quote is awesome. and yes, i do realize that the post title is not actually lyrics from any song but i'm too lazy to think up anything right now and it still has to do with my music so whatever.

*Jason Miraz album title

look at this photograph

these are all done completely with ball point pens by Juan Francisco Casas. don't they look like real pictures?? i love them... they're amazing.

speaking of artsy stuff this is a fun site to check out. be creative. kill boredom. whatever.

*Photograph - Nickelback

a starlight in the gloom

i always wished i was artistic.



on a side note, i think i stuffed too much telecommunications into my brain over the last hour. it may explode. oh, and today's cinco de mayo. yay.

*Apocolypse, Please - Muse

you can take back your memories, they're no good to me

this is kinda old, but i was just having a conversation about it so i thought i'd post it. i dunno how many of you have heard, but theres now a pill that can erase your memories. like completely. they scientifically abused people with spiders to give them huge phobias, and the ones that took the pill suddenly werent afraid of them. not like they had gotten over their fear, but like they were never afraid in the first place.

if you've ever watched the movie eternal sunshine of the spotless mind with kate winslet and jim carrey (good but weird movie) then you've basically seen what this pill can do. in the movie, they completely erase the memory of each other after they break up. if theres no memory of the other person, theres no heartbreak, no having to get over anyone because it is like the other person never ever existed.

of course, they arent just going to be handing out free samples of the pill when you go buy your vitamins. at least in the beginning, they will be using it for people suffering from addictions and post-traumatic stress. if you have no memory of how addictive cocaine or alcohol or whatever can be, then it's easier for you to just say no. they are hoping for miracles from this pill, and it looks like it may be able to live up to the hype.

but think about it, would you really want your memories erased?? i mean sure, you go through an agonizingly embarrasingly awful day or you break up with the love of your life, and you want nothing more than for the whole experience to vanish, but memories help to define who we are. a lot of what you do or think or feel is based off experiences you've had and the memory of those experiences. if they were to just suddenly disappear, would you still be the same person?? would you still have the same outlook on life that you had now?? would you like the same things, the same people??

so, while totally cool that science has been able to once again turn fantasy into reality, i'm not sure that i would really want it.

*Gives You Hell - All-American Rejects

what a big mistake

my latest method of procrastinating lately has been rewatching gilmore girls episodes. awesome show, except for one thing i always hated. warning: pointless rant ahead so feel free to stop reading. so i'm watching the sixth season right now, particularly the episode when april shows up and the ones immediately after. i dont like april. i dont mind the actress, or the character really, but her storyline could have been left out. should have in my opinion. a random girl shows up at luke's diner, takes a hair sample from him, and all of a sudden bam luke's a daddy. besides all the contradictions to earlier plot points in the series (yes i am pathetic and have watched the entire series from start to finish - in less than a week no less - so all the plot indiscrepencies became obvious) it was just so pointless. why would luke have to have a daughter?? why?? they couldnt think up any other way to screw up his and lorelei's relationship?? and why did they have to screw it up in the first place?? and i mean, if you are going to throw in a random kid, at least be creative. but no, the mom is a brunette who started her own business, has a great relationship with her daughter, and never got married. the daughter is super smart but still cute and loved by everyone. sound familiar?? but because they changed the names and made the mom be in the selling business and the kid be smart in science they are suddenly completely new characters. pssht. and i liked luke so much better before april showed up. i think teh 6th season is my least favorite one.

*Big Mistake - Natalie Imbruglia

raise your hand, remember everything you hear

exam time is rapidly approaching, and while most people are looking upon it with the dread reserved for only the most horrible things in life, i have to say that i'm actually glad. i like exam time. i always have. of course, having lived through the week or two leading up to exams which are always packed with final projects, papers, and presentations is always something to smile about, but that's not all of the appeal of exams. i have never really stressed over exams. i try not to get overwhelmed by anything school related and am usually pretty successful with this. so exams were a time when the only required school effort was going over notes and flipping through books for an hour or two. it's like an in between time between school and vacation. and everyone is so focused during exams. everyone has a purpose. the atmosphere is buzzing. sadistic as this sounds, it can also be fun to watch people panic. sometimes.

so weird as it may sound, i cannot wait for exams to finally start. one presentation and one project left.


*Sooner or Later - Michael Tolcher

and it's all in my head

swine flu is only step away from being declared a pandemic and has everyone in the world completely freaked out. i got a cold a couple of days ago and while i really wish it would go away, i'm fairly certain that i am not dying of swine flu. my mom on the other hand... not so certain. the fact that the odds of me being the first person to get swine flu in the DC area are so close to zero they are practically nonexistent doesntt seem to register with her. i'm not saying that the disease isnt serious and stuff, i just think people should calm down. the paranoia is getting a little out of control.

my brother has allergies - always has - but the nurse at his school called an emergency assembly to warn the students about swine flu and suddenly he's convinced that he has swine flu. my dad told him that until he starts to get a pig's tail and nose, he shouldnt worry about it... so he's been checking often for the tail to show up.

maybe it's not the best topic to joke about, but really, everyone who sneezes now is automatically thought to be infected. if you get it you get it people, not much we can do about it.

*Mr. Brightside - The Killers