Missing My Best Friend

I have lost touch with my best friend. He used listen to me, be there whenever I needed him. He used to offer me his shoulder to cry on and I appreciated his forever-lasting silence. He could not speak but the state of mind he put me in did not need any spoken words.

Whenever depression clung its claws on me, I would sink into total darkness, a blackout, whose light of hope was him. He would take me out with such grace as if I did not go through what I did before his arrival, just like my own knight in his shining armor. No matter how far I have distanced myself from him, he would welcome me back, arms wide open, reassuring me that I belong right there, with him. He would stay with me all night long, listening to everything I had to say. Regardless of my many imperfections, he stuck with me throughout, reminding me of my perfections.

When everyone used to turn their backs on me, he was the one I would immediately head towards. Even though it was almost impossible to let my heart out at first, he never failed to make me feel at total ease.

Again, he remained silent: something I have always adored about him. Sometimes, the best conversation is that of pin drop silence. I used to do all the talking and it did not bother him one bit.

Often, I can not help but think that I am getting good at chatting with him. I even believe it's a special talent of mine. With him around, I discover my hidden thoughts, what I would not dare to utter out loud to anyone. I know he would not answer most of my questions but I never gave up trying for he gives me hope and teaches me patience.

Here's a promise from me: I shall get back to my pen, my best friend without whom my life would be meaningless.

Dr. Mohammed AlAwadhi in Oman

Dr. Mohammed AlAwadhi's lecture had the title of "تقديرًا لِذَاتي، أعْلَنْتُ إحْترامِي" was held last night at the open amphitheatre in SQU.

The theme is one of the many campaign themes started by Rekaaz, an organisation aimed at spreading human values. The lecture was a very light one, started by a nasheed presented by a group of guys. Then later 2 promising Omani munsheeden from AlRayan recording sang a beautiful nasheed. The opening was later followed by short video clippings about the organisation that is based in Kuwait and it's branch here, ROV ( Rekaz Omani Volunteers). Dr. Mohammed AlAwadhi has a unique style of delivering his message through retelling many stories to prove his point. There was no 'respect' is this or that, but it was hinted in his various stories to capture our attention. Like the majority, I really benefited a lot from the evening and would have preferred it if the duration was a little longer for he truly captivated us into listening to his encouraging and informative words. He spoke about how self-respect begins from within in order to be respected. When you value yourself and potentials, you then declare your respect and hence people will treat you the same.




P.S: I reviewed two of their previous campaign's (حلو نعيش بمسؤولية) short stories: حسن والمانجو and عشت معها

A Letter From A Mother of a Shaheed

I just received this letter from someone whose identity won't be revealed here or anywhere else. It's a heartbreaking letter written by a mother of a Libyan shaheed.. I could not stop myself from sharing her voice in order to be heard so here goes: (this is entirely her own words without any modifications from my part)

صرخة أم شهيد



أنا أم جزائرية ثكلى، استشهد ابني على يد القناصين من قوات الكتائب الليبية التي تم تزويدها من عندكم بالبنزين والامدادات والذخيرة.


إنني أوجه صرختي إلى الشعب الجزائري الذى كنت يوما افتخر بانتمائي إليه أنا وباقي الأمهات والأخوات والأبناء والبنات أناشدكم وأقول لكم حرام حرام حرامٌ عليكم نحن أولادنا قُتلوا من قِبل قوات الزنادقة الجزائرية. وبناتنا اغتصبنَ من قبلهم أيضا، فأين أنت أيها الشعب الجزائريُ أيها الشعب الأبي العربي الذى تعتزُ بعروبتك أنني أناشد كل أم وكل أب وأخ وأخت أن يستيقظ ويؤازر الشعب الليبي.


أنني أم شهيد جزائرية الأصل مقهورة على أبني وأبناء هذا البلد الكريم، الذين سقطوا تلبية لنداء الواجب والحرية، الذين استشهدوا دفاعا عن الوطن ورفضاً للظلم والقهر والاستبداد. أستيقظوا انهظوا افعلوا شيئاً لصد هذة المهزلة التي تعززت أمداداتها من عندكم ليُقتل بها أبناءُ هذا الشعب الأعزل،أمٌ تصرخ بأعلى صوتها صرخة ألم و نجدة موجهة إلى الشعب الجزائري وتقول لكم ياأخوتي الجزائريين تذكروا عندما كنتم فى محنة أيام الحرب من وقف معكم؟ من ساندكم؟ نحن ساندناكم نحن آزرناكم و اليوم جاء دوركم لإنقاذِ أولاد يموتون و بنات يغتصبن ، نناشدكم مراراً ومراراً.


أن تهبوا ياشعب الجزائر الأبي وكونوا معنا لوقف هذا الدم نحن اخوة العروبة أخوة الإسلام نناشد كل العرب لوقف هدر دماء أبنائنا و هتك أعراض بناتنا كفى كفى ........ و يبقى صوت الحرية صارخاً صامداً دائماً وأبداً ضد العدوان

Phones Comparison

Before..
On a Samsung Corby

1. There's no auto correct, I had to use the T button thingy that would give me options which weren't related to what I was going to say in any way possible.
2. The twitter's app I used to have had little options and only displayed a maximum amount of 6-8 tweets per page. Ignoring the huge font size, that is.
3. Thanks to #2, I had to log on Twitter from Mobile Web which was a serious pain on my rather weak eyes.
4. To Twitpic, I had to log on Twitpic.com, upload a picture, press on the link to redirect me to it then post a comment so that it's shared on Twitter.
5. To reply on a tweet, there's a reply button which, again, directs you to another page with the tweep's handle (thankfully!) But when replying to a tweet with multiple handles, I had to type them on my own. Which obviously required learning the exact handles with every number or underscore.
6. No quote retweet option.
7. No copy option.
8. No e-mail checking configuration thingy. Okay there was but I just couldn't put all the info in the mailing wizard that required a lot of connection type kind of crap.
9. No YouTube. Again, there was but you'd have to wait for ages in order for that '4%' buffering signal to change so I simply didn't bother.
10. Blogger would take forever to load and if it did, you simply can't type in the box beneath the New Post button.
11. No apps or games or any fun material (you'd have to log on the Samsung site but you'd need a code or some complicated stuff)

There are a lot of points to add but these got on my nerves the most. Fortunately, I have an iPhone4 now and wouldn't have to worry about any of the above!

Nine Facts


(1) Whenever I take the first initiative into making change, no matter how small this might be, I feel good about myself and I wouldn't let anyone make me feel otherwise.

(2) I'm afraid of animals, kittens included. It's not that I think they'll pounce on me or something but the thought of having a physical contact between them simply terrifies me. That's one of my most complicated phobias that I haven't gotten over yet.

(3) I've done some silly things back in my first teenage years that I don't necessarily regret but makes me think twice of how my mentality changed (wait for the most embarrassing post) .

(4) I don't understand too sensitive people. Like my sister for instance who would prefer to live under a rock, not knowing what's happening currently in the Arab world just so it wouldn't affect her emotionally. On second thoughts, I think she's just being selfish.

(5) Sometimes...or often, I think that a lot of us live to impress. We buy this or that because it's cool, wear this style or that to follow the trend and the list is endless.

(6) My older sister and I fight a lot. Our mentalities are so different and our ideas are always contradicting. Only rarely do we agree on something. Nonetheless, we get along pretty okay. Our fights will only last for 5 minutes, then after 15 minutes or so, it's either I bring up a topic to discuss it or she does it.

(7) Two topics that would trigger me to talk on impulse: Religion & family. You can diss everything related to me except these two because they define me more than anything else.

(8) I'm only writing this because I couldn't find the analysis of two poems I've been looking for.

(9) I liked the image up there since my eyes look exactly like that after hours of studying.

Sohar Protest #2

After Friday prayers, there's said to be a peaceful march of about 50 people in Sohar protesting for those who were arrested on Tuesday. Things then got serious when approximately 400 people gathered around, throwing stones resulting into clashes between them and the army who were guarding the place. Rubber bullets were fired, causing injuries and reportedly one death just confirmed by ROP. [Source: @Mohana1]

A video taken by @BaderHinai after the clashes:




Other sources: In English: Gulf News and Arabic: Jidar.