merry christmas everyone

cliche cartoon

dear cartoonists of the world .. this whole santa going through an israeli checkpoint or being confronted by the separation wall has been done to death .. literally thousands of similar cartoons exist .. enough already .. think of something new ..

best burgers in jeddah

hot waves .. better than burger king and mcdonalds and hardees and all that nonsense .. a little bit pricier though .. just a little bit .. and just like a pizza they let you add toppings for more money .. also they have these giant fries which are wonderful ..

diablo wisdom

who remembers the game diablo .. well anyone who who has ever played computer games should remember it .. classic game .. anyway here's why i mention it .. like i said i was in makkah the other day .. so remember your first mission in the game .. or was it called a quest .. anyway .. so you go to the town monastery .. and as you enter your character says the sanctity of this place has been fouled .. my feelings exactly .. still .. it is makkah .. and inshala one of my 2012 resolutions is to go more often ..

fact of the day

Israel's Civil Administration issues 101 different types of permits to govern the movement of Palestinians, whether within the West Bank, between the West Bank and Israel or beyond the borders of the state, according to an agency document of which Haaretz obtained a copy.

me in makkah

quality time with the family

my parents came to do umra on monday .. i joined them on tuesday .. they were already done with the umra by then .. i didn't do umra myself .. i took a cab from jeddah to makka .. it's cheap and about a 40 minute drive if the guy is going fast enough .. i got there before asr prayers .. prayed asr in the haram .. had lunch back at the hotel .. then maghreb .. stayed in the haram until isha .. stayed a little longer in the haram .. finally went back to the hotel and had dinner .. and everyone went to sleep .. i think i was the last one to fall asleep .. i slept on the floor .. the next day we prayed duhur and went to jeddah .. they stayed with me for the day .. i took them to a mall for five minutes before we decided to leave because nobody was in the mood for it .. so i took them to a super fancy lebanese restaurant called byblos for dinner .. my treat .. paid a shitload of money .. anyway i learned that i can never drive with my dad in the car .. no seriously .. he wants me to not go faster than 60 .. and he panics whenever he anticipates anything .. which drove me absolutely nuts .. so that wasn't much fun .. dinner was good though .. but i did snap at him at one point .. i apologized later on .. but i feel it was warranted .. i mean he really zawwadha .. anyway .. after dinner they slept over and the next morning i drove them to the airport .. i got this guy to come clean my place so it would be sparkling clean when they came .. and yet my mom who is a super obsessive neatfreak was not satisfied .. she insisted on redoing my dishes .. which were apparently not clean enough for her .. so they are leaving ksa for good in about a week or so .. happy trails .. also mom kept telling me i should get married but i said no .. i'm going to take another short vacation next weekend to go visit my brother in abu dhabi for a few days .. that should be fun ..

doublespeak

apparently RUH is sext for "are you horny" .. which i thought was funny .. because it's also the IATA code for riyadh .. those who have lived in riyadh will appreciate the irony ..

time to get paid blow up like the world trade

i had a little shouting match with my boss's boss today ... he's kind of both our boss in a way ... like on the organizational chart i report to my boss but in reality there's also a dotted line going up to his boss ... anyway ... so i finally said some things i've been wanting to say for a long time ... but it was cool ... we had a laugh later on in the day ... so nobody went to bed angry ... but still it was something ... i told him i had a certain limit and when someone pushes me beyond it i don't know what can happen ... i swear his face went yellow for a split-second ... but he soon recovered and shouted right back ... anyway ... so the group division manager was in the room next door ... as was the visiting consultant ... so they heard everything ... or at least they definitely heard the shouting ... anyway ... i love our group division manager ... he is algerian and speaks english with a delightful french accent ... but anyway ... it was another chapter in the ongoing saga that is my time with this company ...
i can get away with shouting at my boss's boss ... because i am indispensable ... everyone else fears him greatly ... it's like news when someone shouts at him ...

fool me once

is the arab world so dumb to believe that those who have been propping up our dictators for so long have suddenly had a change of heart ... western governments want us to be free ... really ...

quote of the day

“America will deal with the Islamists or anyone else who can deliver what they want,”

from a very interesting article from the nyt about jordan ...

asking nato for help is halal

i read in the news that qardawi issued a fatwa saying that it is ok for syrians to ask for foreign intervention ... i have to say i just lost all respect for this man ... yes he is a scholar and i am but an ignorant fool ... but i beg to differ ... my position is that it is NEVER ok ... i don't give a fuck what the circumstances are ... it's just not done ...

they callin me

well my last post was about ringtones .. so i figure what the hell .. this one is for my best friend at work .. this one is for my boss .. this one is for his boss .. except the one i have just has the catchy part which starts at around 0:40 and ends at around 1:12 .. this one is for my mom .. and i have one for my dad but i have no idea where to find it online .. but it's like this calm serene music ..
by the way it's been a long two weeks at work ... extremely tiresome ... can't wait to finish this project ...

this gets me

it's my current ringtone ...

foot down

i don't care how beautiful you are sorry the answer is no ... and i know i said that there was nothing in the world i wouldn't do for you ... but this is one of them ... and honestly i think it's a little pathetic that you would make such a silly request ... although maybe if you did something for me in return i might reconsider ...

this life oh this life

i did an interview today .. it was the first interview i've done since i started the job i'm currently working at .. the last interview i did was the one that got me this job .. it's nothing to be excited about honestly but if they pay me what i want i might do it ..

jundi does standup

you know what's funny .. one of the side effects of anti-depressant medication is decreased libido .. meaning weaker erections or even inability to get an erection at all .. well isn't that something that would make a man depressed ..