my forecast for today

You could easily be pulled back and forth between reality and your imagination, not always knowing which is which!

Last minute

I have been at it for FOUR YEARS...reading, writing, talking, researching...and only now when I have given myself the FINAL deadline am I actually getting work done. I have always been the sort who leaves things to the last minute-in pretty much all aspects of my life-but I had thought that my PhD would not be like that. I mean you have to write a minimum of 80,000 words you can't leave that to just a week before you submit. But against all odds and against all logic I have done that.
Well not exactly that...but the other day I finally put all the chapters-6 in total-in one document and found to my SHOCK AND HORROR that I was 30,000 words below limit. The thing is that I had been writing the chapters separately and had thought I was writing to much, fa I was selecting HUGE sections and DELETING-yeah I seem to have forgotten that Word has the option of cut and paste!!!!!!! Anyho I sat and looked at the word counter stating that I 50,000 words, and the inspiration hit-I clicked include footnotes and endnotes-and I was up to 60,000 words...the joy was so overwhelming I had to go and get myself a glass of water! I just need 20,000 words now! HOW does one write that in just a week?????? IFFFFTTTT!

Paranoid

There is level of paranoia that is prevalent in our culture. I listen to people talk/whisper sometimes and I just have to giggle to myself.

The Courtyard

Last night a group of friend and I went to the Courtyard tent. It was my first night out of the house in Ramadan, and it was exactly like I had hoped it would be. We arrived to find the courtyard had been transformed into quite a nice place. The white tent over our heads, with the beautiful chandeliers, the fountain, the pillows and couches that were all in colours of red, purple and maroon. The gifts of masabeh, and friends of mine who had not bought jackets getting the traditional 3abay, it all felt very orientalist yet very Arab at the same time.
I loved it, we played cards, while listening to Oum Kalthoum and Abdel Halim. It really made me feel like those old Egyptian movies, where you see them sitting around chatting, drinking tea and just chilling. We tried the different Ramadan sweets and drinks-my favourite being Jalab-love Rose water. It was fun experimenting, since most of us didn't know the different sweets and drinks, so people would order and others would taste...we talked about everything and anything.
The perfect night out!

The First Weekenders Group

If we move fast, we can curb the film world's male bias

Going to movies directed by women as soon as they are released is a pragmatic and enjoyable form of feminist activism

Natasha Walter
Tuesday September 26, 2006

This is the sort of activism that we should be participating in...and this is the sort of stuff that I miss the most about living in the UK. Makes me want to go back. :(

The Month has started!

The countdown to Eid has started for me...but more importantly this Ramadan is that I have decided to give up drinking for the whole of the month. I am not doing it so much out of respect for my fellow fasters...but more because it is detox and I want to see if I have the ability to do that. Don't get me wrong I am not an alcoholic, but I enjoy my glass of wine/gin and tonic/Mexican beer...also I guess it is a bit out of respect. I have Christian friends who don't drink during Ramadan, so you would think that a born Muslim would at least attempt it!
I heard the strangest comment last night, a group of people were sitting having a drink and talking about what they are going to do this Ramadan, and one of them stated-loudly or how else would I have heard it-that he plans to have a drink just before Iftar today, and if anyone wants to join him. Now how rude and unneeded is that?!?!? Especially to say it out load, in a public place. No wonder people get violent sometimes, I mean even me who doesn't believe in any of this wanted to get up and slap him a few times. I have no problem with people drinking, but there is NO need to make it such an obvious statement, sit at home, text/call your friends, and invite them over for a pre-iftar drink!
Anyway so that we don't end this post on a negative note,
I wish all those who are fasting a Ramadan Mubarak.
All those who are forced to fast a Ramadan Mubarak.
and all those who are not fasting a Ramadan Mubarak.
Enjoy the tents, and enjoy the Mint Tea!

Taybeh Festival: village fete meets 'Oktoberfest'

Villagers enjoy the beer and the festival atmosphere

A unique event took place in the occupied Palestinian territories at the weekend. The village of Taybeh, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, held their second ever beer festival.

Modelled on Munich's 'Oktoberfest', this Christian village welcomed over 1,000 international and Palestinian visitors to enjoy their packed programme of traditional, and not-so-traditional, musical and theatrical events, and to support their local produce, including their renowned Taybeh beer.

Rest of article

Maan News Agency
Date: 19 / 09 / 2006

Leap of Faith

As I stated earlier, I am revisiting old episodes of Lost. In the third episode of Series two, there is a discussion between Jack and Locke over what is easier to believe or not to believe? I for one always thought/felt that people who believed in things such as fate, destiny, serendipity, or religion seemed to be taking the easier option. Its nice to believe that things are mapped out, that there is someone who is taking care of us who is on the look out for us. It seemed to me that they were taking the responsibility of their actions and placing it in some other 'beings' hands. But then again maybe people who don't believe-such as myself-are also taking the easy option. We have decided that everything needs to be questioned, that everything needs to be challenged, which in my opinion is a good thing-but what if in some cases it is OK just to accept things? To let issues, dramas, people, situations just go! To believe that situations we find yourself in are part of a bigger plan, a plan to get us to where we are 'supposed to be'. That place might be good, bad or just neutral but it is a place. I know that I have thought it a number of times, if I had not failed my first year at university, I would have met the people that I ended up meeting, I would not have had the experiences I had. For sure the logic is I would have had others, and maybe they would have been better, but it shows you how things sometimes happen for with or without reason. I guess it how we read these 'reasons', 'signs' whatever you wanna call them, is how we become who we are.

In the case of Lost is is all about the button should they press it or not, should we believe that if we don't press it the world would end, so should we not press it just to prove that the world won't end? I didn't like that fact that they pressed the button-made them a slave of it in the end, I felt that Jack should have stood his ground. But at the same time I understood why HE had to press it, what if the world did end? Would someone want to have that on their score card? I guess also for a Man of Science like him-in my case a woman of science-its with a feeling of relief that we press the button...the we take the leap of faith, guess my question is why not sometimes just believe in something?