How stupid was I ?

The above mentioned question or “statement” is one of the consequences of the “facebook” flu, More precisely the “school promo facebook flu” that can haunt you 11 years after your recovery from its last symptoms.

It’s amazing how many times this question pops into my head when I’m engaging in any of the group’s events or discussions!

-checking the tags of old photos , witnessing the hideous wardrobe of my childhood ,(thanks mom), btw mom, no boy , even a 7 year old, wears “collant” under his shorts for the “sports” class, even if it was cold , believe me I have checked all the classes’ photos , not only my class , no one, no one I tell u , wears that!! I browse and I browse asking myself ....How stupid was I??

- when leaving school I kept a specific image stored in my head of every single schoolmate, stamped by the attitude at the time of our last goodbye, and one decade later, in a reunion, I find myself impressed by the maturity and the amazing character of some that I didn’t even consider their friendship back then, and get astonished by the fact that some of the closest people to me during my childhood are still 12 year olds, still bullying the previously mentioned people, dying for attention, inviting you to join the parade! And I ask myself ….how stupid was I???

-and of course, many of the girls that I kind of dated at school wrote notes for, drew their portraits, made them compilation K7s (this alone deserves a “how stupid was I?”) played the whole teenage charade with, I watch them a decade later in disbelief (what was I thinking???) and in relief (thank god that’s over) and I ask myself …How stupid was I?

-On the other hand, that one girl , that I used to spot in the shades of the familiar trees in the playground, very different , very mysterious … I lacked of courage , didn’t let her know , days passed by , always spotting her among all the crowds , years passed by , still I spotted her , a decade later , in our reunion, among everyone, shining more than ever, I spotted her and I asked myself … How stupid was I ??????

-and above all, the flashbacks, the silliest details, the smallest jokes, the conversations with a friend, a friend that asked for my friendship at an age when we didn’t understand grown ups' words like “benefit’ and “interest”, a friend that now is gone, gone for good … a decade later I look back at these fragmented memories and notice that I took them for granted and ask myself … How stupid was I ?????????

At the end of this post , I think for a second and realize that I have just written a Post about a group on facebook and I ask myself : .........

posted by lilo:not so personal "Climate Change v/s Global Warming, What is Climate change?"

-P.S: as a way of spreading the word and contributing in a global cause that transcends over all divisions, I'll be posting about this subject and re-posting original posts by fellow bloggers, in this case from "Lilo:not so personal" blog LINK who has been dedicating quite a time for the issue that is global climate change . more posts updates and links from Lilo and others adressing this theme will be posted later .
the post by its original author is as follows :




In this post, I will be talking about what Climate Change (also referred to as Global Change) is, what Global Warming is, and the difference between them.

Global Warming

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the last century.

The greenhouse effect is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by gases in the atmosphere warm a planet's lower atmosphere and surface.

So in summary, with the greenhouse effect, the more the CO2, the more the absorption of the sun's radiation by the Earth, thus the increase of the global temperature. (See Photo)

Climate Change

Climate change is any long-term change in the statistics of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. Climate change may occur in a specific region, or across the whole Earth.

Lately, a change in the climate is occurring fast, and we can see those changes today. To name a few, increase in the sea water level (see previous post about the Maldives Islands to disappear, causing what we call Climate Refugees), increase in the spreading of diseases (e.g. the Dengue fever in Bangladesh), increase in the number of cyclones (e.g. in Oman), bleaching of coral reefs, glaciers melting, etc...

As now climate change will be affecting the whole Earth, it is also being referred to as Global Change.

Difference between Global Warming and Climate Change

Put in simple words, we can say that Climate change (the recent of course) is the consequence of Global warming. Global warming already happened, climate change is happening as we speak, and the target of these NGOs by December 2009 in Copenhagen is to introduce a treaty that will let the countries work on mitigating (decreasing) the effects of climate change on Earth as much as possible, by setting the goal of decreasing the gas emissions by 80% by 2050, to reach the 350 ppm (parts per million) CO2 in the atmosphere (it's around 378ppm now), to prevent from letting the temperature of the earth increase by 2 degrees Celsius (more details on this in future posts) which if they don't, it will have catastrophic and disastrous effects on Earth.

In future posts, I will be telling you about the effects of Climate Change on Lebanon directly, the difference between Mitigation (increase in gas emissions activities) and adaptation (in case the tipping point in climate change is reached, what will we do then), the science and the politics behind Climate Change and the most common words and expressions you will be hearing that are related to Climate change.

"puffies"...i guess :|

A couple of weeks ago, we had a nice gathering of friends, discussing everything, important and silly, passing time, till the moment I got up and grabbed a bag of potato chips and asked them if it reminded them of anything ? I bought these chips from a near by market, and they were exactly like the ones I used to get 20 years ago…the peanut flavor chips, curly shape , that used to come in small green plastic bags, with a spider like design on them …I guess they were called “puffies” if I’m not mistaken… Little did I know that these curly little ships would steer our conversation towards a 4 hour Nostalgia.

We all went back 10 year olds, you could see our eyes sparkle beginning each question with a “and do you remember …?

“ Do you remember the "footballers’ cards" hidden in potato bags that we used to collect in the 1990 world cup? Do you remember “Sassuki” , “ Jongar” , “ mala3ibou el sighar” , “ton amie liliane” , “remi” , “Clementine”, “candy” , “sanafer”, “he-man”, "bel wa sebastien",“khoumasi”, “jaziratou el kanz” , “sindibad”, "count duckula", "thunder cats", "hunter", "night rider","tom sawyer", "moonlighting", "al rajoul el 7adidi", "heidi", "alat el zaman"," zena w nahoul", "transformers" , …. And of course “Grendizer” ( btw I have all grendizer episodes and I still every now and then , have a “grendizer” day marathon , where I watch more than 12 episodes in a row , and where no one is allowed to disturb me , even if they did I can’t hear them , as I did 20 years ago :D ) , what about the “grendizer” magazines , or gum with a sticker inside , or figurines ? Do you remember the set of army figurines with all the equipments, green against gray … the matchbox cars? The wafer bars ? the atari games,river raid... then sega and its sonic ...

What’s amazing is that we lived all these moments in danger , mostly underground, with the dancing flame of a candle and the dim voice of a radio counting bombshells, w "bezr zghir" …but when we went back we couldn’t see but all the good things , the laughing , the playing , the Saturday morning cartoons …all the nice things a child keeps for an occasional nostalgia later on .

Hasta la Vista ... Baby

when i heard its roaring i knew it was one of those vroom vroom "i'm a kitty that sounds like a tiger" drivers...so i let him pass by and ... : wtf ? phone...camera on ... steady ... HAHA took a shot ! all i thought about was thank God he didn't have to spell "Schwarzenegger"

:)

it's rare but it happens ... to wake up and live a day where everything happens just "right" , each single thing takes place the way you imagine ...well today was one of those days :D

Industrialisation...

Industrial Era : "Found to be sold" ... my personal "inked" point of view

José !

with everything going on currently i needed a pit stop, so yesterday i came back home and fell asleep at 6:30 pm, (woke up at 12 watched 2 episodes of "criminal minds" then fell back asleep).
I woke up early, very energetic, showered, prepared and enjoyed my breakfast and off i went to work, well not really, since my dear, beloved,unfaithful, piece of... car refused to start. I tried for 1 hour in vain. I didn't lose my good mood and my current "positive attitude" though so i called a taxi to get to work.
5 minutes and here he was, an old man , with "youssef 2lay2el's" head wear asking if i was the one who called.
I hopped in and i swear that even before i fastened my seat belt he started talking.
He asked for my name, age and destination...the answers to these three questions were the only thing i said the whole 45 minute trip cause he took over, i can literally write his detailed biography till march 03 2009.

Mr.Taxi: listen to me son, and learn from my mistakes, i 'm new to this thing, i used to be a car dealer, i lived in Europe and Latin America, but one son of a bitch that i trusted like my own brother stole everything while i was abroad, do u handle your own work or u have help? don't answer. if you have help they are screwing you over...do u know what i tell my son ? he's almost your age . I tell him my story , it goes like this , i was born in 1952 .....

The voice in my head : Oh boy, is he serious?!

we went through his childhood, his parents, his teenage years, his girlfriends, his marriage, his kids (their respective lives), his sister's divorce, his career, the theft, the traveling, his night life while traveling : , his hobbies, his friends, his politic opinion, his day and after a painfully slow 45 minutes we got to the part where he asked if i was the one who called for a taxi .
As i was paying and unfastening the seat belt , he shouts to say ...

Mr.Taxi: If u need anything I'm José, do not hesitate !

The voice in my head: How the Hell am i going to find you ? should i google you or add you on facebook or something? no way José ... just let me be with my good mood !

Loading Serenity...Plz wait

Reaching for Serenity... clearing my mind for the next phase

Positive

In order to go through this phase of "decision making" and as a way of stress handeling, i'm adopting a new attitude towards things and situations ... a positive attitude !
I have no idea how long it will last, but till now it's working properly.
For example, yesterday night the front tire of my car blew up, almost crashed, couldn't change it because the wheel wrench didn't fit the screws, there was no open repair shop within a 5 Km radius, it was 10 p.m, and i was already exhausted ! Usually in such circumstances, i would kick my car, curse the manufacturer, insult the country of origin, and shout and swear loudly so that the owner of that repair shop, 5 Km away, could hear my frustration ... But i didn't. I stepped out of the car, leaned on it and started laughing out loud like if i'm watching Seinfeld !
Is this a good or a bad sign , permanent or temporary... I have no idea :)

Overloading...

it has been a while ...
these last couple of weeks were very frustrating and very charged .
Views i had about my future changed or at least were masked by a blury layer in some parts and became clearer in other parts .
Stress reached a new high score which drove me to fundamental decisions ...
i'll be elaborating about this phase later on ... but for now , i need to think .