Sick and Tired

Most people in this world are individuals that belong to a distinct group. Be it by gender, family name, nationality, occupation, health, religion, etc. And because they belong to this group, they are expected to represent it completely and know absolutely all there is to know about being part of that group. You are expected to spread awareness and knowledge when it is needed. Personally, I always had to defend my groups. I was always defending Islam, Arabs and Journalism. Living in a foreign country where people are ignorant (can’t blame the people for that) yet curious, defending myself was a constant routine. I was sick and tired of it.

Islam. This is the hardest one. Even the basics of Islam are hard to defend thanks to the contradicting events happening in the Middle East and surrounding regions. I would tell them that Muslims believe in and are supposed to respect all the prophets and books sent to us from God. What could I respond with when even the Arkan Al Iman (Articles of Belief) are set aside?

Is it still justified to say that Islam is a religion that promotes peace? To my knowledge in the times of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) people of different faiths lived peacefully in their towns. It was only when the Muslims were wronged that jihad was declared and the peace was disturbed. Let’s not also forget the Islamic movement that was for the purpose of spreading the religion. It was effective, but also violent. That is a fact.

I consider myself to be a religious person, in my own way. I love my religion and it is always on my mind. Almost every night before I fall asleep, my head rests on the pillow as I ponder and think about the things I was told to memorize at school. I try to make sense of it all. I do. And if I need to, I ask my mom to help me figure things out. She gives me the facts and lets me understand them on my own. The only thing that throws me off is that Muslims all over the world believe different things. We claim that that all Muslims are unified in their beliefs, but it is painfully obvious that we are not.

So the only things I said in my defense is that the people that are behind non-peaceful events and actions are extremists. Even though the truth is that some of those people that agree with extremists are just ignorant and don’t know any better. I’m not a history buff, but has there been a time when there hasn’t been a war in the name of Islam? (That’s a legitimate question that I hope someone answers in the comments.)

Oh My Damn.. Is This Really Happening?

School’s Out by Alice Cooper

School’s out for summer
School’s out forever
School’s been blown to pieces

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks

Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not go back at all

No shit! Haha.. see you soon. I’m coming back home.

Earthquake!

It’s about 5:40 AM and I’ve been watching Doogie Howser, M.D. non-stop. Suddenly, my chair begins to rumble and I can feel the floor moving a bit. It was as if a dinosaur was walking a couple of blocks from my building. I could see ripple marks in the Dr. Pepper bottle that was on my desk. I was confused! I really did think there was a monster or giant that was causing this! That thought only lasted 1 second though. The rumbling lasted for about five seconds and then I felt the whole building shake! It was a soft shake. Lasted maybe three seconds tops. I mean, if I was asleep I probably wouldn’t have felt it. But it scared the crap out of me! After it stopped, I grabbed my phone and put my shoes on. Then I realized that none of my neighbors were out in the hallway. I decided to stay put.

Then I went to the US Geological Survey website to see if I was maybe imagining things. I didn’t see any reports for anywhere near my town so I decided to file a “Did you feel it?” report. About 40 minutes later, there was an official report of a magnitude 5.2 earthquake that took place at 4:36 AM in the state next to mine! So I’m guessing that what I felt was an aftershock. How cool is that?!

As of now (8:45 AM), there have been over 16,300 reports from filed just like mine from 2,820 zip codes from hundreds of cities, towns, and states surrounding the initial earthquake location. And I’m guessing it will keep rising throughout the next couple of hours.

This might sound dorky but it was great! I actually felt a real earthquake. I felt was given a little hint of the awesome power that is nature. If I had felt a more intense one, there would have been a 36% chance of me actually wanting to get a degree in geology. But thank God that didn’t happen. I can always watch National Geographic or the Discovery Channel.

Tips For Freshmen

It’s getting to be around the time seniors graduate (I’m actually bouncing after summer school), so I thought I’d spread my college senior wisdom to the blank slates that are freshmen. These are golden pieces of information that would usually take four years to develop through experience. In fact, after reading this post you probably won’t need to go to college anyway. But do, because it will make your parents proud.

Many of these tips are based on saving you money, so you can use the extra cash to buy toys and things like I did! I’m even going to throw in some study tips (guaranteed at least a C-). Finally, socializing is another important factor of the whole college experience and I have provided a great way to meet new people!

1. Ordering take out. Always order at least double what you need. Look for great savings in the particular resteraunt and order the family special or the dorm hunger buster. All that left over food will be your breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two days!

2. Text books. 97% of professors and teachers don’t care about the financial situations (or wish lists) of students. So it doesn’t really matter to them that the new edition of the book, which costs a butt load, only has eight new words on pages 34, 291, and 294. BUT, what they don’t tell you is that the libraries of the university have these books ON RESERVE. What does that mean? You can check them out of the library for a limited time (one day loan, four hour loan, etc.)! Read the assigned readings (or photocopy the pages) and return the book! I know, I know, I AM a genius. I bought only one book in the past two years.

3. Legal alien. Most college kids love foreigners (”dude, I met this guy from Scotland and he speaks English!”). So if you’re going to school in a country other than your own, don’t supress your foreign-ity. It will most likely spark up a nice conversation and you probably will end up being friends. When my friends introduce me to people, they say that I’m from Kuwait before they say my name!

4. Safety. Don’t drink. Don’t do drugs. Don’t have sex. If you do choose to do any of those things well the best I can tell you is don’t take a drink from someone unless you’ve seen it being made or opened and then come straight to your hands. If you want to get high, do it legally (glue, nutmeg, etc.). One night stands are a definite no-no.

5. Early graduation. I can’t believe I only thought of this last summer. Most universities allow you four to six courses for a whole summer. That’s like a whole semester! If you take the sumer after your freshman year and the summer after your sophomore year, you can get your four-year degree and graduate by the end of your third year! Your brain might turn to baked beans but so what, you finished early!

6. Skipping class. Don’t do it.

7. Taking notes. A little recording device goes a looooong way. Get one that downloads the clips to your computer. They’re great for when you accidentally take a nap, or if your Nazi professor has a ton of notes on his slides and you can’t keep up what with the stress of copying down the notes as fast as you can and trying to take notes on him explaining his notes!

8. Cramming. It does work for some people. Find out if it does for you as early as possible so that you can sort out your priorities.

9. Laundry. Separate whites from colors? Segregation was wrong in the past and is still wrong today. Save yourself the time: put EVERYTHING together. T-shirts, jeans, underwear, etc. can all go together, just use the warm water cycle (colors cycle). Put them in the dryer together as well. If you have really delicate stuff, like a dress made out of dragonfly wings, take it to the dry cleaners and they can deal with it.

10. Lock your doors. Always always ALWAYS remember to lock your doors. It will probably be the first time you are the king or queen of your castle so YOU, not Daddy, will be responsible for this simple, yet easily forgettable, task. You don’t want to walk in with your TV, George Foreman grill, and custom Snoopy toilet seat lid missing.

If you have a great tip, leave a comment and I might just add it. Help your fellow youngins!

World’s Thinest Notebook

I am not happy at all.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Co., delivered his annual January Macworld keynote today announcing great new products and updates for the millions of fans and soon to be fans of Apple and the Mac software. It really is a global love affair with this company.

Of those products was the MacBook Air, the thinest notebook in the world, which is 0.76 inches thick. It looks stunning and as usual, I quickly developed a lust. The cheapest one comes standard at $1699 (I get a $100 student discount) and I thought that I was definitely going to get it by May. But when I went to the Apple Online Store, I found a few things about it that turned me off.

No disc drive.
I use the CD/DVD drive a lot because I burn DVDs occasionally and I make CDs for my friends too. I’m also currently working on a project at home transferring all our home videos from VHS onto the computer and then onto DVDs. Apple has made an external drive to go with the MacBook Air and I don’t know how I feel about it. I don’t usually burn DVDs outside the house (because it takes a long time) but I do make the CDs when I’m out. Apparently it’s very portable and easy to carry around. So I’m kind of neutral about this.

No ethernet port.
I was really surprised with this. There are a total of three ports on this notebook: audio out, one USB 2.0, and micro-DVI. Ethernet is very important! Not everyone has access to wireless internet. Example: I wouldn’t be able to use it at my dorm here since for some reason, wireless access to the university network is not available on the resident floors, only on the main floor and the basement. I have it back at home but what if the wireless is down? With my iBook all I have to do is plug in the ethernet cable. Again, there is an external ethernet adapter available to those who want it.

They have compromised a lot to make the thinest notebook in the world. I’m not impressed. The external options are good enough to please others, but it’s not enough for me to go ahead and get it. I was waiting on getting a new Mac this year but I had to see what was about to be released. It’s a phenomenal design and I’m sure the new trackpad features are amazing as well. However, it looks like the MacBook will still remain on my shopping list for this year. After my custom add-ons and student discount, the total comes to $1450. That is a pretty decent price for all the things I want in a new notebook.

Hopefully many people feel the same way I do and request that the next line of notebooks to include the basic features that are essential.

Negative Nancy

I suspect that many of you have been seeing the “This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota” message all the time lately. Well, I don’t know what the hell that is and I am currently working on it. Frustrating.

I’ve been bitter the past week. As if you hadn’t noticed from my recent blog posts. All I’ve been doing is rant and complain. Boo. Most of my post for the past few months have been about issues with my everyday life. I don’t like that actually. I started this blog as a suggestion from a friend to show a couple of my cartoons about the Women’s Voting Rights issue in Kuwait a couple of years ago. After that calmed down in two weeks or so I told myself I should continue writing informative posts so that I could become a better writer and to exercise my journalist skills.

Well today will be my last personal post (for a while at least). So instead of being ranty, I’ll leave it on a good note.

As we all know, today is October 31st: Holloween. My campus is certainly not a quiet one and the students here are pretty active and diverse. That’s a really great thing.

Anyway, as I was walking to classes today I noticed a couple of people decided to have fun and go to their classes in costumes. One particular costume got the people around me and my attention. A guy was dressed up as a penis with a condom on! I don’t know if he bought it or if he made it himself. I just know that it was hilarious. He must have been afraid of getting arrested for indecency because he added an education element to it by taping a sign on his backpack that said “Please practice safe sex.”

I Just Don’t Understand

I was a party tonight at my friend’s place. It was to celebrate her marriage. Me and couple of others weren’t too happy about this courthouse union to a guy who was definitely less than par. He works at Lowes and she has “temporarily” dropped out of school to work full time at Walmart. You getting the mental image yet? Well that’s just what it looks like.

The only reason they are married is so they can get some sort of amount of money from the army. Apparently, he’s going to Iraq sometime in the winter for a year. So basically, we (her friends) were not exactly celebrating. But that actually wasn’t the point of the post.

It was a party so there was heavy drinking. They guys were fine. I notice that guys prefer beer than hard liquor. The ladies are the opposite. They didn’t have beer so the girls were getting drunk. midway through the “getting drunk” process, the bride and this other girl were very entertaining. It was hilarious! But by the end of the night, they were really getting out of control. My newlywed friend was crying so hard for no reason. Bringing up the past and other shit like that. It was a really sad sight.

I can’t imagine why someone would put themselves in that kind of position. I just don’t see the fun of getting drunk. I asked my close friend one time why she does it every weekend and she couldn’t give me an answer. She didn’t even know. She said that it was like a drug. Well, I didn’t let her drink tonight. I told her I didn’t want to deal with it.

I also don’t get why boasting about it is so cool. “Oh man, I partied so hard last night I woke up in my friend’s neighbor’s back yard! Hahaha!” Idiot.

Even if alcohol wasn’t against my religion, I might have some once in a while but I don’t think I would ever get to the point where I had to throw up or pee in the backyard bushes (I’ve seen it happen). But I will never actually know why it is considered fun.

What the hell is wrong with college kids? I just don’t understand.