i've got a word or two to say about the things that you do

i'm not a very political person, and i think that i have managed to pretty much keep politics out of this blog up until now. but with chaos taking the middle east by storm, i think it is time for me to come right out and say it: i think all the revolutions are insane, and not in a good way. (yes, i realize i may be making quite a few enemies by saying this.)

granted, i'm not currently living in any of the countries revolting, so there may be some really, really good reason for going completely crazy that i am just missing, but from where i'm standing, i think everyone needs to just calm down. in my opinion, there are very few situations that would warrant an extreme revolution. if you are afraid to go to sleep at night because you don't know that you'll be alive to wake up in the morning, then by all means revolt. hit the streets and start all kinds of trouble. if you have a safe house to live in, food to eat, a car to drive, money to go watch a movie... then what exactly are you rebelling against? sure, you may not like the government, but i honestly think that violent revolutions are one of the stupidest ways to show your dissent. how is burning down restaurants going to help you? breaking into banks and stores? setting yourself on fire? destroying mummies? last time i checked, people who have been dead for centuries were not your enemy. thing is, a lot of the people seem to think that the result of a revolution will be instantaneous utopia. um, it won't. and all these things you're taking for granted in times of stability? yeah, you'll probably be missing them pretty soon. you know what comes after a revolution? rocky times as the country tries to stand on its feet again. and sure, there are times when that is better than what there was before and when hope for a better tomorrow will make the misery of today worthwhile, but i don't think this is one of these times. so while you're lounging by your pool responding to facebook invitations to the revolution on your thousand dollar computer, you may want to think about that.

there are no words to describe how desperately i hope saudis grasp onto their individuality and refrain from jumping on the revolution bandwagon. with the flooding from the rains, people are upset, and i just hope that their disgruntledness does not affect their senses. i see no reason for a saudi revolution. destroying a country is not the only way to make changes. yes, they are not a democratic nation. so what? who decided that democracy was the only right way to run a government? yes, it works great for america, but that does not mean that it is a one size fits all solution for world peace. it isn't. saudi arabia follows an islamic regime. i can't see how a democracy will be able to stick as completely to islamic law as it does now, which i believe it should.

that brings me to another point. being the islamic capital of the world, saudi arabia really has no right to stop muslims who want to go to mecca or madinah from going. even ousted government officials have a right to get in touch with their islamic roots, and the saudi government really has no right to stop them. i mean, sure, if the guy is an actual threat to people, then of course they wouldn't let him in, but an ex-leader on the run is pretty much powerless so why shouldn't they let them in? especially when they never really had anything against him in the first place. (this is a general him encompassing every ex-leader who has fled to saudi arabia, which they have been doing for quite a while.)

let me just stop right here before this gets really long, but remember what i was saying before about society being sheep? the arabs have obviously been perfecting their baa's.

agree? disagree? either way, i'd love to hear your thoughts. there's an amazing little box you can write comments in that a bunch of you seem to have missed. it even lets you comment anonymously! try it out, and let me know what you think.

*Think For Yourself - The Beatles

i ignore it and it ignores me too

i have a quiz in exactly three hours and fourteen minutes. i have no idea what it's on, but im guessing it has something to do with marketing in the global economy because that's what class it's for. actually, i'm pretty sure that's the class. it might not be marketing. or global economy. it's some business class, i know that at least. and the book was the most expensive one this semester and i cant bring myself to look beyond the front cover. i havent even looked at the back cover. the professor drops the lowest quiz grade though (i think) so i'm pretty sure i'll be okay. and if not, oh well. i have more important classes to worry about procrastinating in. like ones in which a real world business is depending on my nonexistent technological skills to save the business... or just improve it. and i'm happy to say we are only like a week behind our professor's schedule (and three months ahead of ours).

back to the msom class. it's not really my fault that i have no idea what the class is about because, really, my professor does nothing but tell anecdotes for three hours straight. we're still on the first week's lecture even though we're now in week what? four? three? i'm not sure, but it's not one.

he's a cool guy though. he knows twelve languages fluently which makes me totally jealous. these include english, arabic, spanish, french, chinese, mandarin, japanese, korean, and i think german. and he like knows them knows them not four years of high school and you leave knowing how to say "hello, my name is sarah" knows them. and in the first class he referenced dorian grey which made him super cool in my eyes (he said he's a lot older than he looks because he has a picture of himself at home that ages instead of him just like his friend dorian. only a few people got it). and he's traveled everywhere in the world practically.

do you know that in japanese the verb is the very last word in the sentence? so you have to listen to the entire sentence to find out what's going on. according to him, this is why japanese people have so little regrets. they rarely do anything spontaneous. they think everything through before they jump into anything. the action is always the very last thing. in arabic, the verb is usually the first word in the sentence. i wonder what that says about arabs?

another thing we learned from him: never give a clock to anyone in china as a present. it's the most disrespectful thing you could do. the word clock means the end or something so giving one is tantamount to wishing the gift-receiver dead. watches are okay though... for guys. giving a woman a watch has something to do with prostitution and also shouldnt be done.

i dont want to study. *sigh* maybe if i ignore the fact that i have a quiz, it'll go away? i think it's worth a try.

*Failure by Design - Brand New

they sit back and watch the evil grow from the youth

i have this problem with taking showers first in a place no one has lived for at least a month... i cant do it. sooo while waiting for anisah to get out, i'll do my rant on stupid arab parents. note: i'm not calling arab parents stupid; i'm ranting about the stupid ones. the ones that have so many kids they just start numbering them and never bother to even glance up occassionally from whatever they are doing to make sure kids 1-45 are still alive.

so on the plane, in the rows next to me and my parents a family comes: a mom, a dad, and like 7 kids all under the age of 7. two were twins. i'm pretty sure the wife was pregnant. mashallah by the way. don't get me wrong, i had total sympathy for the parents. having two little boys could be a commotion so i could only imagine the nightmare life with that many children could get into on an off day. but at the same time, if you can't handle it then space em out a bit. birth control people. anyways, since the kids were all really small, they didnt get seats for them. i thought only a couple didnt have seats, but my mom told me that none of them did. luckily for them, they pretty much cleared out the two rows, except for this one dude who had ear plugs and drugs and didnt mind. these kids were awful. the second that other dude sat down one of the boys went through his stuff, found a lollipop, opened it, and said thank you. the guy was staring open mouthed but recovered, pasted on a smile, and said your welcome. of course, this made the other two kids in that row cry for candy. the guy looked and didnt have anything else. this did not make the kids happy, especially since their bratty brother was rubbing it in their face. of course, the dad was ignoring all of them. the mom was struggling in the row behind them with the younger kids. i felt bad for her, but at the same time, all she had to do was sit them down and buckle them up. kids that age can not for the life of them figure out how to unbuckle plane belts. but she didnt. so the little girl kept disappearing up and down the aisles and you hear the mom call out "youmna! youmna!" from her seat till the girl showed up again. they were crying, screaming, and fighting the entire time they were awake. having two kids in the house, i realize this is pretty common. but when you are on an airplane at least pretend to try and deal with your kids. anyways, they slept like angels mashallah, for which i'm sure the parents are very thankful. imagine having those as restless sleepers. *shudder*.

so anyways, i hate the parents that have no control over their kids. the ones that dont even pretend to be parents. the ones that pop out a kid a year and still act like it's only the two of them. compare the americans at the airport with the arabs... the parents of course. the americans have their kids in death grips. hands are held, leashes are buckled, children are labeled with name, phone number, and address. a little extreme, but at least attentive. then you see the arabs. the kids are running around on one side of the airport while the parents are getting coffee on the other side. of course, there are the good arab parents, too. but for my point i'm just going to generalize. and it's not only at airports. i have neighbor children stories that are hilariously ridiculous, but the shower is free and this post is long enough already.

*Nothing for the Kids - The Holloways

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