… there was a baby elephant and to stop it from running away its owner tied its leg with a rope to a tree.
Since the elephant was a baby he tried to pull free but couldn’t because the rope was too strong.
The elephant got older and bigger and the rope got thinner and more frayed. Yet, the elephant never ran away.
The elephant could have easily broken free with a tug but he never tried because he believed he was still a baby and couldn’t break free.
We toota toota ferghet el 7adoota.
{My sister told me this story yesterday}
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I watched the documentary Food Inc and was this close to turning into a vegetarian. I am not a “meat” person, I am not in love with burgers although I will get a burger craving every once in a while but this documentary made me decide never to eat a fast food burger or any kind of meat of unknown origin again.
I never really thought about where the meat came from, because ground beef comes from cows right. In my imagination it came from one happy cow that munched on green grass somewhere with blue skies and maybe a fresh water stream in the background.
Wrong! It come from cows in these extremely highly packed feeding areas and one burger can come from literally thousands of cows. There was a part about a mom turned food activist because her 5 year old son ate a burger and contracted E.Coli then passed away 12 days later. That wasn’t what scared me the most. It was the bit where she described how his kidneys had failed and he would beg for water. I am not a particularly healthy eater ( I’d be very happy to live on pizza, brownies and diet pepsi if I could get away with it) but this isn’t about healthy eating or not. This is about the fact that even the food that you might assume to be healthy or hygenic could be the exact opposite.
How about fruits and vegetables. Do you have any idea what has been done to them to make them season less? No wonder everything tastes like cucumbers and cucumbers taste like cardboard. A couple of weeks ago my husband bought some kiwis. I love kiwis, but they tasted like pipes. They were so metallic in their taste that we forced ourselves to eat them.
Any way, this started the search for the best homemade burger recipe. We made burgers twice (from beef, ground before my eyes from a trusted butcher), they were good but not perfect yet. It took us over six months (26 thursdays) to get our pizza the way we wanted, so we are not in a hurry.
I just realized that it takes the same amount of time to make burgers that it takes to order them, although if you order them you get to sit on your butt for 30 minutes and don’t have to wash any dishes.
Or the chicken, eeeewwwwwww. I am not eating chicken unless it is free range. Gross how they have re engineered chicken.
One of the other interesting facts was how the food industry has always fought labeling.
This is a movie that you really should see. Just make sure you are not eating dinner (or have plans to).
The lovely Jana from Hijab Style is having a giveaway. She also has links to awesome hijab tutorials and videos, not to mentions her own sets and ideas for what to wear with what if you are a hijabi.
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Psych Files which I had forgotten about for a couple of months and came across a really interesting podcast called “Manhood: Are You A “Real Man”?“. The podcasts are aimed at people who are interested in psychology and human behaviour and nature in general. It is hosted by Michael A. Britt who holds a PhD in Psychology and used to be a college professor, but his podcasts are from bein lectures, they are informal and easy to follow.
Back to the specific podcast I mentioned, which was quite interesting. Britt discusses how men in most cultures need to prove their manhood, and how many cultures have rites of passage men have to go through to go from being boys to men whereas women in most cultures have nothing similar. The podcast was inspired by a specific study about the subject; how also men were more sensitive and defensive about their gender identity than women were. What I also found interesting was that men were more likely to react to to negative situations by aggression whereas women used relational aggression. In other words men fight while women exclude, gossip or spread rumors.
Listen to the podcast and let me know what you think. Do you believe men have to prove their manhood? Why do you think women don’t have to prove their womanhood? That’s what I find really weird, shouldn’t both genders have the need to prove their gender identity?
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I enjoy reading blog posts, but even more, I enjoy following the discussions that result when a post is interesting or hits a nerve.
Organica had a very interesting post on “Muslim Dating” which I found very interesting. Young people today are finding it harder than ever to find a partner and still do it right. The comments that followed were mostly deep, thoughtful and interesting.
Sudanese Optimist posted a very racist video made by Egyptians and called it Reason Number 9734 Not to support the Egypt. I found the video annoying and stupid. I had never given Sudan much thought to be honest, I never thought that Egypt was better or worse than Sudan. I just knew that Sudan used to be part of Egypt one day and that there are conflicts in Darfur. The discussion is a very intellectual and important one. Please go over there and give the comments a read. This is what some people think of the Egyptians and Egypt, it just might change your outlook.
And as James Nathan Miller said “There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation.”
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Are you a history and art buff? Then I have a lovely surprise for you. Part of PBS’s Empire Series, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance is a lovely documentary which tells the story of how the Renaissance was born in 14th century Europe. The Renaissance which means rebirth in French was a period of cultural, artistic, scientific, political and religious rebirth.
And because I just love crowding my own head with lots of tidbits of information I think you should check these out too: Leonardo da Vinci Galileo Galilei Niccolò Machiavelli (also download The Prince) Filippo Brunelleschi Sandro Botticelli
You can also watch the rest of the episodes on YouTube in HDTV.
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My sister asked this question and an interesting conversation took place. How do you decide who is the stronger brand? Is it by popularity, number of albums sold, popular songs, ads, albums released, marketability or by how much the artist makes in a concert?
Deciding on the criteria is always a very critical thing. I did a quick search on facebook and found that Amr Diab has more groups dedicated to him than Mohamed Mounir and with lots of members whereas Mohamed Mounir has more fan pages with just as much fans. How do you compare and decide? One friend commented that Mounir has fans in Germany and all over Europe too which is true, but Amr Diab won the international Music Award too. Every way you look at it, you realize that they are both very famous and have lots of fans and loyal followers. Nevertheless my own personal opinion is that Amr Diab is a stronger brand because :
He was chosen by Pepsi to lead their campaigns which means he is more marketable.
He is a trend maker in terms of music and fashion.
His fans are more widespread and diverse and he has the ability to reach a wider audience.
That was my simple analysis, what do you think?
You can click on the image to read the discussion.
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Patrick Jane that is, The Mentalist‘s protagonist. If you haven’t seen the Mentalist then you should run along now and go find an episode to watch. I am serious, the show is addictive and very interesting to watch, I am loving it and totally getting high on it. If you have watched it then you might know why I totally want to be Patrick Jane, or Jane Patrick a female version of him.
Patrick Jane is a fictional character portrayed by Simon Baker on the American TV crime dramaThe Mentalist. Jane is a consultant for the fictitious “California Bureau of Investigation” and helps by giving advice and insight from his many years as a fake medium. He uses his keen powers of observation, deduction, and knowledge of social engineering to help lead the investigation. He plays an important role in the show and could be considered the protagonist. [Wikipedia]
The positivity blog has an interesting post on 7 powerful tips for charisma which you can learn from the mentalist. You really should read the post but here they are in short:
1. Smile.
2. Be interested, open and curious.
3. Be fully present.
4. Be assertive.
5. Be confident.
6. Be amused.
7. Be socially free and authentic.
Personally I have some other reasons I think the character is so cool.
Crazy cool car. He drives a Citroen DS a 60s model maybe. I’ve always wanted a crazy cool car. Something totally unique. Of course it would have to be blue and I’d love to redo the leather interior hot pink and install an iPod dock and cup holders. I always think a car is a lot like it’s owner and your choice of car can tell us something about you.
Cold Reading. Cold reading is a series of techniques used by mentalists, fortune tellers, psychics, and mediums to determine details about another person in order to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than he or she actually does. Even without prior knowledge of a person, a practiced cold reader can still quickly obtain a great deal of information about the subject by carefully analyzing the person’s body language, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. Cold readers commonly employ high probability guesses about the subject, quickly picking up on signals from their subjects as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, and then emphasizing and reinforcing any chance connections the subjects acknowledge while quickly moving on from missed guesses. [Wikipedia]. Yes I would love to be a master of cold reading.
Hypnosis. My first brush with hypnosis was when I was 9 and read The Demon Headmaster series and then like any self respecting nerd I walked into the adult section and asked for a book on hypnosis. The librarian gave me a dark navy blue book which I read but didn’t understand and I’ve been intrigued by hypnosis ever since. Fast forward a couple of years later and I started reading about NLP and cold reading. I am not an expert but an amateur who thinks we are not harnessing our brains’ real capacity.
Who would you like to be when you grow up?
What skills does that person have that you would love to have?
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“Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” Anthony RobbinsIf you are a friend of mine on facebook you will have noticed that it has been ages since I have actually updated the status message with anything personal or related to my life. It’s an intentional thing by the way. After being subjected to other people’s terribly depressing status messages and the realization that instead of using facebook to connect, share or start a conversation it has become all about mostly depression, sadness or complaints.
I used to be guilty of updating my status with cryptic messages of pure depression, frustration or anger. Getting out of my own pity party and canceling all future ones was a great decision. It took me a while t0 realize that the people who really care usually already know and don’t need to be updated and the people who don’t, shouldn’t really know. Instead, I ask a daily question of the day (QotD for short) and wait for my awesome friends to come up with funny, insightful and interesting answers. Basically I have achieved more than I had in mind when I first started to ask the questions.
A conversation is born every time a question is asked. We discuss, we laugh and we talk to each other. I now know what kind of shampoo they would like to be, what their favorite songs of the moment are, what they would say if they were bumper stickers, what false assumptions people make about them and so many other interesting things. Some questions work better than others but overall, someone always manages to amaze me either by coming up with a totally funny or interesting point of view or by showing me a side of themselves I had never seen. Sometimes someone will message me or email me and we’ll talk some more about it.
Positivity and empowerment have replaced the negativity and complaining. Instead of complaining I can ask a question. Instead of feeling lonely, I now feel connected to my friends. When you give yourself permission to moan, you just take away your power to live and enjoy what you already have. I might be living a thousand kilometers away from my family and friends but I have chosen to connect every day with a simple question. In our busy lives it is becoming more and more difficult to connect with everyone on a daily personal basis, so this is my way of doing the next best thing. It might not be as deep having a long conversation, but it works for me.
So to all you amazingly cool friends who have answered my questions, thank you.
What do you do with your status?
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My mother when asked some of these questions, she usually shrugs and says “I can’t remember”.
How did you feel when you first got married?
What was your first year of marriage like?
How did you feel when you first found out you were pregnant?
How did you feel when you held me for the first time?
What was I like as a baby?
What was I like growing up? Was I naughty? Quiet?
What was the first word I said?
What was my favorite book?
What was my favorite activity?
Did I grow up to be different than what you thought I’d be?
I think this would make a great family activity for a rainy day. Throw in some popcorn, family albums and write every thing down in a notebook. Think up your own questions and share them with us.
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Interesting Discussions to Follow
Organica had a very interesting post on “Muslim Dating” which I found very interesting. Young people today are finding it harder than ever to find a partner and still do it right. The comments that followed were mostly deep, thoughtful and interesting.
Sudanese Optimist posted a very racist video made by Egyptians and called it Reason Number 9734 Not to support the Egypt. I found the video annoying and stupid. I had never given Sudan much thought to be honest, I never thought that Egypt was better or worse than Sudan. I just knew that Sudan used to be part of Egypt one day and that there are conflicts in Darfur. The discussion is a very intellectual and important one. Please go over there and give the comments a read. This is what some people think of the Egyptians and Egypt, it just might change your outlook.
And as James Nathan Miller said “There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation.”
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