"What is the happiest moment of your life?"

Why are we expected to summarize our personality, life, experiences, joys and sorrows into a few lines? How come it's natural to be asked 'What is the happiest moment of your life?' and being expected to answer it as if the person was asking you 'How are you?'

I don't know why it annoyed me when my teacher asked what is the happiest moment of your life? It's tough to have a flash of your life passing in front of your eyes so that you can pick a happiest moment and share it with everyone. I ended up blurting out a few happenings in my life that I knew the teacher would somehow accept and not question me any further. Maybe I was partly annoyed because I didn't find a moment right there and then. You know how it is in movies when the lead character says 'Right then I knew what I wanted to be...' or 'That moment was the happiest in my life...' or 'I realized then that....' It's frustrating because that never happened to me, and I don't know why do I expect it to. My life isn't a movie, and so it is natural to take it's own course. Still, maybe it's because I haven't had such a moment yet, or because I simply don't appreciate happenings as they ought to be rightly appreciated.
Even though this incident happened a few weeks back, I still ponder upon it sometimes. I find it difficult to describe myself, or my life or anything of the sort. Maybe because I'm sure I would end up doing injustice to myself (if that's possible) or to the life I lead.

This frustration of mine may be coming out of the fact that I have a hard time expressing myself, or saying the right thing for that matter. I never seem to be able to succeed with talking about my life, is it because I find it event less? Because somehow it is. Or maybe it is because it is eventful, but events are not what I can tell others since they are the day-to-day events.
I am getting too obscure I know.
But tell me, isn't it annoying when you're expected to put all the experiences you've had throughout the journey of your life in a few words? At least I find it to be so, and even shall I persuaded to talk about myself, my life or any experience I've had, know that I shall never do it justice for how can you put into words what went through your mind? It can not be. Indeed it can not.

It's such a relief to get all of this out, it's been on my mind for a long time now and I think it's better said out loud and shared with people so that maybe voicing it out loud may shed some light on it.

Of English

At English we have to do a presentation about something, and a dialogue. Both sould be done "creatively". It's easy, but the hardest part always seems to be choosing a topic and sticking to it.
I try to choose topics about "saving the world!!!!"

This semester my presentation was about whaling. It was great, because I got to know more about it. I even made two fliers and ended up while heating up and ending my presentation with a flier that said 'Save Whales!' I held it upside down and until my classmates told me I didn't know it. But on the whole I think I did well.

Now coming to the dialogue. I wrote it about the fact that over 25,000 children die everyday. I think it went well too. We said during the dialogue that we should offer our prayers, donate, care about these children and try to do our best to show them that we care. At the end my English teacher commented saying: "Yes! It's a very important topic. But girls what can we do? We can only pray for them, right?"
I was staring at her when she said that with my mouth wide open. Prayers are really important, but our religion preaches the fact that you can't simply pray and wish for something to happen while sitting and waiting for it. You have to do whatever you can to make it happen. All of the things we said about the issue and she simply shook it off saying she can do nothing but wish the condition of the children of the world gets better. I swear sometimes I just feel like standing up to a teacher and pour my heart out on what she says and why I think it wrong! But then again, I say I know better than telling her something she'll think it rude and will forget it by the end of the day.

But it is frustrating seeing how some people seem to think we can do nothing for the betterment of the world outside of our homes. Don't they know it's our obligation to the less fortunate? It's down-right wrong.

Namy 3l hada

I would like to share this beautiful song with you. It's called "Namy 3al hada". No idea how to translate it.
It's just the best!!! I looooove it. Hope you like it as well. ;)




PS: Sorry about this video, I couldn't find a better one, so don't watch it, simply listen.

In Search Of The Perfect Leader

I am a subscriber of The Warrior of Light by Paulo Ceolho. Every month he sends us an article, sometimes I would just read it in a hurry, because the topic wouldn't be very appealing to me or that I was simply too busy to read it. Today however, I thought I'd give it a chance.
I found it amazing. I just have to share it with you. Here it is:

In Search Of The Perfect Leader

"A reader sends me a questionnaire in which he presents the profile of three world leaders who lived in the same period of history, and asks if it is possible to choose the best one using the following data:

Candidate A was associated with witchdoctors and often consulted astrologists. He had two mistresses. His wife was a Lesbian. He smoked a lot. He drank eight to ten martinis a day.

Candidate B never managed to hold down a job because of his arrogance. He slept the whole morning. He used opium at school, and was always considered a bad student. He drank a glass of brandy every morning.

Candidate C was decorated a hero. A vegetarian, he did not smoke. His discipline was exemplary. He occasionally drank a beer. He stayed with the same woman during his moments of glory and defeat.

And what was the answer?

A] Franklin Delano Roosevelt. B] Winston Churchill. C] Adolf Hitler.

So what then is leadership? The encyclopedia defines it as an individual’s capacity to motivate others to seek the same objective. The bookstores are full of texts on this theme, and the leaders are normally portrayed in brilliant colors, with enviable qualities and supreme ideals. The leader is to society as the “master” is to spirituality. This, however, is not absolutely true (in either case).

Our big problem, especially in a world that is growing more and more fundamentalist, is not allowing people in prominent positions to commit human mistakes. We are always in search of the perfect ruler. We are always looking for a pastor to guide and help us find our way. The truth is that the great revolutions and the progress made by humanity were brought about by people just like us – the only difference being that they had the courage to make a key decision at a crucial moment.

A long time ago, in my unconscious, I changed the word “leader” for the expression “warrior of light”. What is a warrior of light?

Warriors of light keep the spark in their eyes.

They are in the world, are part of other people’s lives, and began their journey without a rucksack and sandals. They are often cowards. They don’t always act right.

Warriors of light suffer over useless things, have some petty attitudes, and at times feel they are incapable of growing. They frequently believe they are unworthy of any blessing or miracle.

Warriors of light are not always sure what they are doing here. Often they stay up all night thinking that their lives have no meaning.

Every warrior of light has felt the fear of joining in battle. Every warrior of light has once lost faith in the future.

Every warrior of light has once trodden a path that was not his. Every warrior of light has once felt that he was not a warrior of light. Every warrior of light has once failed in his spiritual obligations.

That is what makes him a warrior of light; because he has been through all this and has not lost the hope of becoming better than he was.

That is why they are warriors of light. Because they make mistakes. Because they wonder. Because they look for a reason – and they will certainly find one."

***

It's great because I always that that way. Be it when I thought of a world leader, or simply what makes a good person in life and specially when I think of the leading character in a novel, I'm a bookoholic but bear with me. I always thought that if a writer wants to make a good character, and by good I mean the nice and good person, he needs to show us no imperfection, because that way we won't accept it as the "good" person of the novel. Very shallow, I know. I have become to realize that I'm wrong when I think that way. It's the same with life, you can't be human without having imperfections. And sooner or later these imperfections will have to show. We demand too much of people, (or novels for that matter) so these are my ponderings. I don't know if they make sense though, but I can totally relate with this issue of the Warrior of Light.

*If darkness blinds you, I, I will shine to guide you*

There are good things in life. There is a lot to be grateful for. I am just in a good mood, although tomorrow I have school and it's not going to be very pleasant hearing teachers' comments about how much classes I missed this week.
But listening to Josh Groban, and doing things for others makes it feel much much better. I would like to share two of the sources that are keeping me cheerful now.

DON'T GIVE UP (YOU ARE LOVED):


YOU'RE STILL YOU:


I definitely feel like posting more of Josh Groban, but those will do for today. I really hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I just love him!!! His songs just make me feel good about myself, my life and everything really. :D

School Creativity

I promised Ash to show him the master piece I was working on about 2 weeks ago, I'm sorry for posting it late but here it is. It's for school, my teacher asked me to do a cover for a file for our class, she needed it to be "creative". She didn't even say 'Good job' or anything when she saw it, and she had us working the weekend on it. Anyways, doesn't matter what she thinks! I like it.... :D
So there you go. ;)

Take Action

Urge US Government to Stop the War Against Women in the DRC

Urge Gov. Perdue to Support Clemency for Troy Davis

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Anthony_Davis
Source: Amnesty International

Midterm Break Books

These are the books that I read during my midterm break. I really had a nice read this holiday :D


PS1: I started reading The Count Of Monte Cristo before my holidays started, but I finished it during it, so I guess it counts.
PS2: I am still reading The Chamber, but I'm more than half way through it already.

Green Thinking

- With thousands (probably millions) of incandescent light bulbs on the roads, couldn't they replace them with more efficient light bulbs? I mean, this thought crosses my minds probably every time we drive around at night. There are tonnes on them on the roads, and we all know how inefficient they are, so why don't governments replace them?
My main concern is not the electricity that they consume, but more on the enormous heat they produce, I mean light three or four in a room and see how hot it gets.
I don't know if my thoughts are right really, I just had to talk about this, because one day I really need to know the truth about street lights, and who knows? Maybe I will, and get to post about it here!

For more info though, check this: Street Lights (Yes! It's a wiki site.)

- Recycling is a very big issue that is on my mind, I mean we don't get to recycle here because there isn't a facility that would do the purpose. There is really not much awareness on the issue, but it's getting better now that we're seeing signs telling people to use less plastic, they're a very good start I think. The best would be actually starting a recycling system.
I'd like to start buying rechargeable batteries, although I have no idea how they work, but at least I learned something today while browsing a few "green" articles online, and that is our usual batteries contain very harmful substances. And I'll definitely try to buy a reusable water container for school, instead of the bottled water I used before. I feel guilty about how much I used!!! But it's high time I start acting like a responsible citizen of the world, or do it in a more conscious way.

- These grocery bags get on my nerves. I am aware of the fact that plastic bags in general are very harmful to the environment. Here at our house we reuse them for rubbish and stuff like that, but those transparent grocery bags that you put the tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber, etc. in them so that they can weigh them and stick a price tag on them and then they'll seal them. They end up being ripped open, and then thrown away, totally no second usage of them. WHY CAN'T THEY COME UP WITH A MORE EFFICIENT, GREEN WAY FOR US TO DO GROCERY SHOPPING?!!! Like maybe baskets that the shop has that we just use for putting our grocery and then we'll put them in a more-environmentally-friendly bag so that we can take them home.
Yes, it is indeed getting on my nerves.


I'd really appreciate any green tips that you follow, or have heard of. :)

It will be Good

"It's better! It's much better!"

The above is what I can manage to say when I'm asked how is the situation in Iraq going. It's a very truthful one, I might add. People no longer fear to express their opinions about anything, even politics. There's much more freedom, and the economical situation of the people is very much improved. The issue of safety has been improving daily. 

The people of Iraq witnessed a successful election for the officials who will be running the cities in Iraq. Only 2 sound bombs were heard. We have good people working for our country, I am very proud of them. They're behind the improvements we're seeing today. I just wish that I can do something for my country, I'm not a patriotic person mind you, but I mean it'd really feel rewarding I think. 

There's so much to be optimistic for. However, I can't say it's "good" in there. The condition there, however improved it may be, is still in need of more improvements.

I think for me to say that it's good there, I need to see that electricity is available at least for 21 or 22 hours during the day. It's a very important point for me, it used to be only 3 hours a day or so, now it's better but still it needs a lot of work, I'm positive they can get it done. Yesterday there was a power cut of nearly an hour, and it wasn't easy handling it, so I can't imagine how people there endure the power cut. However, since I mentioned earlier that the financial situation of the people is much improved so they use those generators. It's better, but the government is required to provide electricity. This is just a very important issue for me.

Also the people who are in charge of official should stop manipulating their power, and misusing it and stealing the money of the people. It probably happens all over the world, but it's just that it could be managed more, I think. 

I'm not blaming the government in any sort of way, I'm all behind our PM! But I guess it's just showing how well he's doing, truly. 

I may not be the person to look for if you need input for what's going on there, since I don't watch much of the news. But I have a good clue on what's up there. 

I just feel like I had to get that out. :)