Natasha Abbadi's Blog

2011-12-12T14:25:00.001+02:00

حقد طبقي!

هناك حالة غريبة تصيبني عندما أدطرر ان أجالس اناس من الطبقة العليا أو على رأي شخص عزيز "علية القوم" أصاب بالصداع و نوبات من الحر و البرد واللعثمة و الارتباك و عدم القدرة على التعليق على أي من المواضيع المطروحة, و كيف لي أن أعلق على موضوع "اليخوت التي تناسب العقبة و اليخوت التي تناسب دبي!" , "مشاكل الخدم و الطباخين و المعاملات الازمة عند اسطحابهم في رحلات السفر!" , "أكل مخ القرد في المطاعم الاسيوية الفاخرة" , "المطاعم المفضلة في لاس فيجاس و نيو يور" حتى أني لا أميز أي من هذه المواضيع حقيقة و أيها نكتة!! و المصيبة أنه عندما أقرر أن أتحدث , لا تسعفني ذاكرتي المتكركبة الا بأكثر المصطلحات شعبية! و طبعا أطر أن أدخل الحمام من كثر المغص الذي يصيبني نتيجة الحوار الرائع , و في الطريق الطويل لا بد أن أستضم "بغرظ" تقدر قيمة بشقى عمر مواطن من الطبقة المتوسطة!

كل هذا يمكن تحمله , و لكن هنالك جمل تجعلني أشعر بوخزات مؤلمة جدا بالقلب , مثل "لماذا علينا أن ندفع للضمان الاجتماعي عن الموظفين جميعا لأجل تأمين الأمومة, هذا ليس عدل!!!" أو "لماذا يشترك هاؤلاء الأغبياء في مسابقة من أجل ربح سيارة ؟ لما لا يشترو السيارة؟!" أو " يريد أبني أن أشتري له حمارا , وجدت غجرية و حمارها بالشارع ففكرت أن أتي له بالغجرية و الحمار معا للتسلية ".

أظن أن الحالة التي تصيبني تشخص في المجتمع الرأس مالي الحديث بما يسمى "الحقد الطبقي" و هي حالة خطيرة من التوعكات الصحية و النفسية التي تصيب الناس من الطبقة المتوسطة أو ما دون , تؤثر سلبيا عليهم و على من تحتهم و من فوقهم, سببها خلقي (بضم ال خ أو فتحها), يمنع هذا العيب الخلقي الشخص من تقبل الواقع الطبقي بصدر رحب و في حالات متقدمة يصاب الشخص بهلوسات و خيالات بأن كل الناس يستحقون حياة كريمة و أنهم يجب أن لا يتفاوتو بالدخل كثيرا و أن يكون لديهم فرصة متساوية في التعليم و الصحة و السكن و العمل و حتى الدفء, و من الحلول التي تخفف من هذا المرض و يمكن ان تحول دون تحوله الى وباء , اللجوء للديانات السماوية أو غير السماوية التي ترسخ فكرة الرضى بالقدر و النصيب , و العدالة في حياة أخرى .

الله يشفينا و يشفي الجميع !

2011-04-17T09:40:00.004+03:00

أعترافات أردنية عند نقطة الاحباط

انا أردنية بكامل قواي العقلية , أعترف بالخزي ,نعم أشعر بالخزي كل يوم عندما اخذ حمام الصباح و أنا أعلم ان غيري في هذا الوطن لم يصلهم الماء لأسابيع! و غيري في هذا البلد يملأ بركه العبدونية و الدابوقية بالماء دون ان يفكر و لا للحظة بالعطشى ! و غيري يروي مزارعه الواسعة دون حتى ان يدفع الفاتورة! أشعر بالخزي و الخجل لأني أقف في منصف الطريق و أرى و أسمع مكتوفة الأيدي, مقطوعة اللسان

أخجل من كل الشهادات الزائفة, و الخطابات الزائفة, و الأعمال الزائفة , و المواطنة الزائفة, و التدين الزائف , و الشركات الزائفة, و الولاء الزائف ........ أخجل أمامك يا وطني , من عجزي و من قلة حيلتي

أعترف يا وطني أني أعلم الكثير و لا أتكلم , أعترف أني رأيت و مازلت أرى الكثير من السرقات و سكت كالشيطان الأخرس و هربت و خفت و مازلت أخاف و مازلت أرتعب, أخاف من لعنات الجهال و من حجارتم , أخاف ان مت ان يقولو في نشرة الأخبار اني مت بسبب سكته قلبية أو انفلونزا الخنازير! أخاف ان مت و أنا اعبر عن رأي أن يسبوني على الفيسبوك و يقولو اني خائنة و قليلة أصل و معطلة للسير! يا وطني أني أخاف ان مت ان أموت هباء كما مات غيري هباء و تبقى انت كما انت! يا وطني ان دمي اصبح اليوم رخيص لا يحرك ساكن و لا يستحق حتى لحظة صدق أو اعتراف

أعترف اني أحلم كل يوم بالرحيل, و كل يوم احلم بالبقاء , و أحلم أن يكون لأبني وطن حقيقي و مواطنة كاملة بحقوقها و واجباتها , أحلم أن أعلمه "من يزرع يحصد" كما علمني أبي و أن لا يخيب أمله كما خاب أملي

يا وطني اني اعلم اني مسوؤلة عن مواطنتي, و اني مسوؤلة عن جعلك أنظف و أفضل , و أعترف سلفا اني فشلت

2011-02-27T13:44:00.003+02:00

I Love Jordan- Are Jordanians Chauvinistic?

There is a widely spread myth that Jordanians are chauvinistic, that we are divided into small groups based on our origins and religion and that each group believes it is superior and acts, hates, loves, helps, works, marries and breaths based on that belief.

If you look at the general shallow behavior, you can claim it is true! But if you take a deeper look at the history of this country you will recognize that chauvinism is relatively new and absolutely fake and illogical!

The biggest chauvinistic myth is based on origin, Jordanian and Palestinian are the two major origins in Jordan, and historically it is known that Jordanian cities and Palestinian cities had a much stronger social and commercial East-West relationship than its North-South relationships! For example Khaleel and Karak had a much stronger relationship than Karak and Salt or Khaleel and Nablus on the other hand Nablus and Salt relationship is very strong, actually most of the Muslim families in Salt are from Palestinian origins who came to Jordan before 1948.

The East-West relationship led to mixed marriages; I would easily assume that most Jordanians have Palestinian blood and vice versa!

Chauvinism in Jordan exists, however it is not original but induced and fake thus it will vanish sooner or later! But definitely that doesn’t mean it is harmless, it is extremely dangerous!!! It makes us (regardless of our origins) distrust each other, distrust the system, disbelieve that we will get a fair chance for education and work, and most importantly afraid to question, criticize and correct the government because we are in constant fear that a stupid civil war will happen, we ended up losing confidence in our ability as a nation.

Is the stupid lie that one origin is superior to the other worth all these loses , worth paralyzing our ability to build our beloved country , is it worth depressing all those talented people and making them escape to a better place seeking justness , freedom and a fair chance for success!

I absolutely believe that fake-chauvinism in Jordan will come to an end, but I am not willing to wait too long for it, not willing to accept corruption as a price for buying peace from “the strong”, not willing to hear the poor beg on the radio for medication, not welling to watch more people forced to leave Jordan with a broken heart and a broken identity.

Change has to happen now, because the Jordanians of now deserve a home and the Jordanians of tomorrow deserve to be raised with an identity.

2010-08-16T13:37:00.003+03:00

I Love Jordan- My Lovely Dangerous Hobby

I have a new dangerous hobby; well it is not dangerous by itself! Especially if I keep my mouth shut! But the problem is that it is so tempting to talk about my findings!! But NO, I have to stay safe :) I have responsibilities :)

So as I am a “super coward”, the only thing I am going to do is tell YOU about my hobby, and you can try it out your self :)

What I do is: I read the news paper, pick some famous names, Google their history, and then find out what companies do they own here

Or sometimes when I learn that some company won a certain project, I go and check out who the owners of the company are! And who are the decision makers in the client company!

Findings are so interesting; there is always a very “funny” direct or indirect connection.

Cheers ;)

2010-08-01T12:22:00.003+03:00

I love Jordan- Our version

Albert Einstein once said: Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value

Jordanians say: To hell with value, become wealthy !

2010-07-14T10:49:00.006+03:00

I Love Jordan-Childhood Incident

I was in the third grade, the teacher told us that the last class will be a “science” class; I got excited and waited for the last class all day!
The time came, the class started, but she asked us to get out our “Arabic” class books!!! How come, I thought!! I raised my hand and told the teacher that she said it is going to be a “science” class.

Teacher: No I never said so; I said it’s an “Arabic” class

I remembered so clearly what she said and I was so certain! So I told her again:
No you said it is going to be “science”

Teacher: No I said “Arabic”

Me: No you said “Science”

She came close to me, slapped me in the face, and said: I said Arabic!!!

Oh my god, first she lied to me, and then she insists that I am lying or crazy!! And on the top of it all she slaps me in the face!!

I told my dad about what happened, and he came to school, the teacher denied most of the story and said that she didn’t slap me and she just touched my face.

We went to the class room to ask the students about what happened, and students didn’t say a word, except for one student, he raised his hand and said: teacher but I remember you said it is going to be a “science class” the teacher looked at him angrily, the poor chilled got afraid, sat down and didn’t continue what he started!!

We went out of the class room; the teacher started crying in front of my dad and told him I made her look like a liar in front of the whole class!

My father came up with a wise solution, he told me in Serbian –so the teacher won’t understand- “Natasha I know you are right, but I am going to say things now just to end the problem, and we will discuss it at home”

In Arabic he told me that I should not talk that way to my teacher, and that it is her class and I should fully respect her as she is always doing what it best for us and bla bla bla

Lessons they wanted me to learn:

•In some communities , authorities –of any kind- are untouchable, even when they do something wrong , you are supposed to agree with them

•In some communities , if the weak disagrees with authority they turn out to be crazy,liars and disrespectful

•Majority are usually cowards that keep their mouths shut! –sorry I couldn’t find a more polite way for this one

Lessons “Actually” learned:

•Choose your battles , don’t try to fix what can’t be fixed, rather work hard on fixing what is possible and important

•When someone lies in the first place, they will definitely lie about lying, so never tell a liar he is lying unless you have proof

•Majorities are usually wrong, don’t believe or trust them!

2010-05-20T12:14:00.006+03:00

فدى كندرتك معلم

بعد انتظار اكثر من ساعتين ,أتى"الصبي" ورمى برخصة سيارة المتسبب بالحادث على الطاولة قائلا:فدى كندرتك معلم!
منعني احترامي للشرطي –الذي لم يفقد هيبته بعد – من الرد, و بقي الكلام واقفا في حلقي إلى الآن.
وددت أن أقول له إن وقت الناس و ألإضرار بهم و المغامرة بأرواحهم ليس فدى كندرة احد حتى لو كان ثمن كندرة "المعلم" اكثر من المخالفة التي دفعها.

و ما زلت أتساءل , كيف يمكن ان تكون مخالفة سائق على سرعة 120 في شارع فرعي كاد أن يتسبب في دهس فتاة و قام بالاصطدام بسيارتين هي فقط 55 دينار ؟ بصراحة ان الأمر مجدي لهواة القيادة السريعة ! فال55 دينار يادوب تكفي للقيادة السريعة لبضع ساعات في نادي مختص! بينما يمكن للهاوي ان يمارس هوايته يوميا بتكلفة بسيطة لا تزيد عن 55 دينا تدفع كلما لا قدر الله و تسبب في حادث سير!

بالإضافة انه في النوادي المختصة قد يمنع الهاوي من القيادة إذا تصرف بطريقة غير مسؤولة بينما في الشوارع فهذا احتمال اقل ورودا

حماك الله يا أردن

2009-12-17T09:59:00.005+02:00

I Love Jordan-Happy Endings

Once upon a time there was a Jordanian mother, she had a son that she loved more than life, but she was always worried about him, it took him years to start speaking, and he never learned to speak properly, she tried and tried but nothing worked, she had to do his home works for him and write his essays for him, and he was barely able to read it at school.

The mother kept helping her son, studying with him day and night, doing his home works and projects for him she even had to go to school and beg his teachers and bring them expensive gifts to let him pass …

That is how he finished school and university, the poor mother was so happy he finished school but she was still worried because she knew he is not qualified enough for work, he still can’t read well!!! Another thing worried her even more; that is his bad habits and bad friends, more than once he and his friends were caught by the police because of stealing, and more often he wasn’t caught, but she knew he was stealing, she used to find expensive things with him, and lots of money!!

She was miserable, every kid has a talent but her’s !! His only talent was stealing!! She thought maybe if he starts working he will stop stealing and become a better man, so through some good positioned relatives she was able to get him a job in a very good company, she was sooo happy and wishful, and she prayed and prayed that the new job will change him.

To her surprise, he was doing great at his job, getting a promotion after a promotion till he became the CEO of the company, he even started doing investments in other companies and real-estate, but unfortunately the company bankrupted and got closed, the investigation proved that he has nothing to do with it and the reason is some corrupted mid-level managers.

Soon after that he became the CEO of another even bigger company, he made millions, but it also collapsed, again it has nothing to do with him, it is just his bad luck!

His mom never lost hope she was sure god will answer her prayers, she continued to pray for him to become a successful and honorable man, -and here comes the happy ending- god answered the poor mommy’s prayers, her beloved son was appointed a minister in the Jordanian council of ministers :)

2009-08-31T14:27:00.002+03:00

I Love Jordan-Health Care

My love for Jordan is unconditional; it is like the way you love your family, you don’t choose your family but you still love them no matter who they are …

Unfortunately as I get older, I discover things about my beloved country that I don’t like, as a grown up you start worrying about more serious stuff , like your future and the future of your kids, and honesty I am super scared about health care.

There is an obvious problem with Labor Law and the Private Health Insurance System, per labor law the employer is obligated to pay for health insurance, which is a wonderful thing! But the problem is it doesn’t insure that employees will get appropriate health care!!!

Why??

Because insurance companies can refuse many medicines, or laboratory test for no good reason, like “this medication is not covered because of taxation issues!!!” Or” this laboratory test is not covered because it is not directly related to your medical case!!”

At the end of the day I don’t have enough medical knowledge to know if I truly need the medicine/test or not and of course I can’t trust my health insurance company because I know they have “business reason” to refuse my medication, on the other hand I can’t trust my doctor!!! coz he has a “business reason“ as well to sell medical products, and get his “reward” from medicine companies

That is not the worst part of the system, the worst part is that it is almost impossible for anyone to stay with the same health insurance company, because when you change your job you automatically have to change your health insurance to your new employer’s one, or your employer can simply at any time -without any notification- change your health insurance company or contract, what does that mean?? It means that you have to admit any disease or health issue you have to your new health insurance provider and it will not be covered (although it was previously covered), the funniest part is that when you retire you automatically lose your health insurance, that already doesn’t cover most of your diseases, and you have to apply for a new one again!

I wonder who created this system? And what is it that they lack to be able to understand that it simply doesn’t serve the purpose of insuring that people get proper health care? Don’t they care about Jordan?? Don’t they care about the people?

It doesn’t need a genius to figure out that there is a problem in the system!!! Ok then obviously someone responsible knows there is a problem and doesn’t care! Is it that he doesn’t care? Or maybe he cares for something else? let’s admit it health insurance within the current system is very profitable; law enforces private companies to pay for health insurance and health insurance companies cuts most of their costs by refusing test, medicines, cases and not covering previous diseases

It makes me also wonder, is it possible for a private health system to provide good health care? And is it possible in any way for a private health care system not be corrupted?? Will doctors in Jordan be happy if people are healthy? the business model targets for health care provides are having more people sick and selling more medicine while the targets of health insurance companies are to get more contracts but less people severed !!!

Enough! I got sick from all this!

2008-03-30T14:58:00.008+03:00

I Love Jordan-Stolen and sold

I went few days ago, to look for glass to do some hand crafts, and while looking, I was asking about the glass suppliers in the country and where do they get it from.

The very bad news was that it is imported!! Imported in the land of sand!!!!

I remembered that when I was at school they took us to the glass factory in the south, What happened to it ???

Stolen!!! oh I remember , I heard something like that, but being the “stupid optimistic positive” person I am, the beautiful memory of the factory working and producing stuck to my head , and never got updated with the story of it being stolen and closed.

Sad Sad Sad …

Sand is one of the very few resources we have.

The sand of our beloved stolen country can produce the best quality glass in the world.

We stole ourselves, our country and the hungry poor people.

They say foreigners bought the factory --BRAVO

What breaks my heart every day , is that steeling –in any form- nowadays is not a secret , it is not something that people are shy talking about , it is something many people are proud of the “7ideg” way they do it , and they will try to convince you and teach you how to do it in the mean of helping you!!

Yesterday my fiancé read me a poem of Muthafar Al- Nuab, it happened that is related to the subject, here are few lines from it:

لا تلم الكافر في هذا الزمن الكافر"
فالجوع ابو الكفار
مولاي!!
انا في صف الجوع الكافر
"ما دام الصف الاخر يسجد من ثقل الاوزار

مظفر النواب-وتريات ليلية

Cheers ;)

2008-01-20T17:39:00.000+02:00

Live as if you are drawing

I am taking drawing classes, and I am enjoying it so much..

I always believed, that results are not worth the work and effort if you do not enjoy the work process

If you do not enjoy your job, and you work only for the salary, then you are living in hell

Same goes for studying, cooking, sports, everything …

And I believe that there is always a beautiful enjoyable way for doing everything you need... you just need to find it

Back to my classes, It reminds me of the observer’s post , he talks about growing up after a certain age not growing old,he found that in reading and many might find it many other things, what makes you "grow up" is the way you perceive everything you do ..

What I like about the classes is that you can apply the taught techniques to almost everything in life..

One of the things we are learning, is looking at the subject we are drawing as a whole, and drawing its frame first…then looking at the small parts and details.. And after that allowing the details to correct the big picture

It is a skill that some people naturally have, depending on the dominant brain part (read about left /right brain parts –it is interesting)

Sometimes we catch part of the problem and work on it forgetting about the main objective and the big picture, that happens a lot in software development, people immediately start thinking about part of the technical problem forgetting about the other parts connected to it and forgetting about the business goals ending up with a solution that doesn’t serve the user.

Another amazing thing is that drawing is about presenting multi dimensional objects with two dimensions, (very similar to database design but that is another story), It requires erasing all what you have learned about a shape or an object and looking at things simply , sometimes you draw a very long street using short lines because of the angle …

Usually life is simple, but our experiences make us complicate things, for example, falling in love is beautiful and simple, but sometimes the pervious bad experiences make us fear to proceed, or make us over analyze things or assume that the same bad things will happen again… unfortunately I see that happening to people everyday … if you just look at things as if you are drawing them..You’ll realize that it is not another long street it is only two short lines and you are already far away from where you started

2007-08-22T13:08:00.000+03:00

Homosexuality and freedom

I have always been gay friendly, well…I am everything friendly , at the end of the day if it is something personal and it doesn’t affect me , I don’t care ..

I didn’t know much about homos , I didn’t really know if it is a choice or a sickness , but I thought something is wrong with these people and definitely they are not normal , but no one is “normal”!! What is normal anyway??

I started to learn about homosexuality only when a close friend of mine told me he is gay, many theories, many possible reasons , and I am not here to convince anyone that they are not sick or that they didn’t choose to be gay … because it doesn’t matter , does it ?

With time I got to know more homosexual people, and I don’t think it is a coincidence that many of them are interesting , creative and special … I think it is a result of what they had to go through. Each one of them reached a point where he realized he is gay, where he finds out that he is not like his parents, and usually most of what we learn about relationships and life -in general- we learn from watching our parents, we usually think that that is what is “normal”.

When one is faced with THE fact, then his background doesn’t matter, culture doesn’t matter, not even religion will matter, nothing will matter anymore, what he feels is the only fact, he will have to believe himself, his mind and his body not anything he was taught.

If one –at that age – breaks the norm then he is forced to become a free man, he naturally stops to be a blind follower, it opens the door for him to explore all possibilities and all solutions, that way of thinking affects all aspects of his life, he doesn’t not fear thinking differently about anything and he starts living his way.

I think that most people are blind followers unless they are slapped in the face or living in an intercultural environment, people who live in closed communities usually think that there is only one way of living, because if you always see the sky blue, and you have never seen pink sky you’ll believe that the sky is blue, but if you see a pink and green and yellow sky, it will be easy to accept that there is many sky colors.

Personally I believe that freedom is not a natural need or instinct for humans (maybe for some animals!), it is something we learn from our experiences , and gays are an example of people who had to grow into free people.

2007-08-02T12:03:00.000+03:00

La vida es un carnaval

I have too much happiness in my blood today.. I wore the colors I like this morning and the necklaces that I adore and normal people think they do not match.. oh god, I love wearing things that do not match ..

--I know I sound stupid when I am happy

Today I am in a state of mind that makes me feel that everything I do is dancing …

A while ago a friend asked about my dream, I thought for few minutes , everything passed through my mind … my family , career , people around me , children, art , painting, travelling, making a change … so many small dreams .. and then I remembered an advice from an old friend … be happy and make the people around you happy that is my dream .. Very simple.. Small but veeery big..

--Yes, I sound so stupid when I am happy, and my thoughts are not organized, I don’t care, I am happy:)

Who are the people who I appreciate the most? the people who taught me how to be happy and yes happiness is something to be learned , a state of mind , a habit .. and a beLIEf

I wish you all a wonderful day :)

2007-05-02T19:02:00.000+03:00

Life from a BI perspective

Every point in life is multidimensional, you can look at it from deferent dimensions/angles, each time you see/understand a deferent image but never the real one, reality is all the dimensions together which is even hard to imagine for humans.

That is why we have different opinions and that is why no one is ever right.

God bless sciences and technology.

2007-04-25T20:40:00.000+03:00

Women’s sexual health- Part I

You know how in every period there is something you’re thinking of, thoughts keep bombarding you, omens are all around you and you’re left with no choice but thinking about it, reading and searching it …

This time it is “women’s sexual health” it all started when a family friend told me an awful story about the “Yemeni Khinjar” -the traditional knife in Yemen- he said that women in Yemen are circumcised and the vaginal opening is narrowed to insure that women will stay virgin till marriage, when a woman gets married her husband uses his “Khinjar” to reopen her vagina !!! Interesting!!!

I couldn’t stop thinking of it , I wished the story was wrong , so I started reading about it ..

Here is what I got from the web :

•“Female genital cutting (FGC) refers to the excision or tissue removal of any part of the female genitalia for cultural, religious or other non-medical reasons. It is also frequently referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM) or female circumcision (FC)”

•Where is it practiced? Africa , Yemen, Oman, Emirates and Egypt – I stayed in Oman for two months and I can tell you they are proud of their “Khinjar”

•There are many types of FGC, it depends on how much of the female genitalia is removed (it can vary from removing a small part to removing it all), and if the opening is narrowed or not, in some cultures they only simulate the operation, by causing some bleeding and celebrating.

•Why do they do it? To make sure women stay virgin till marriage and to improve men’s sexual experience. In some cultures they wouldn’t consider a woman feminine if she is not circumcised.

•Although science says that the removed parts are essential for getting orgasm, 90% of circumcised women interviewed for some survey claim they experienced orgasm.

•Medical consequences are terrible, infections happen because the operation is done without any medical support, problems with menstrual cycle may happen because of narrowing the opening, and the cutting done by the husband for the first intercourse can cause very bad consequences as well.

The worst part is that the operation is done by women, usually mothers or relatives, and that many interviewed women think/say that this is a good practice and that it should continue.

I am the type of woman who thinks that we “Women” are stupid for accepting all silly inventions such as makeup, high heels, waxing…Etc that makes us beautiful tools for men to play with, unfortunately time is showing me that there is no limits for women’s stupidity and women abuse .

2007-04-08T14:28:00.000+03:00

I love Jordan …

It is interesting how we like to give “ugly “ labels to people who act in an extra ordinary nice way :)

• Nice to his mom : ابن امه
• Nice to women : رخيص
• Nice to his girlfriend: خز
• Nice to her boyfriend : هبله/ مدعوس عليها
• Nice to his/her boss :هز دنب
• Nice to his sister:*قر
• Nice to his/ her friends : خروف
• Nice to clients: نصاب/ بياع حكي
• Jordanian who loves Jordan OR Palestinian who loves Palestine: عنصري
• Jordanian who loves Palestine OR Palestinian who loves Jordan : قليل اصل
• Smiling in Ramadan: اكيد مش صايم... يعني كافر كلب حقير
• Conservative more than me : متخلف, معقد
• Less conservative than me : فلتان, قلت حيا

2007-03-29T17:14:00.000+03:00

KalaKeee33 el shabab

They keep on telling us how silly, moody and inconsistent we are …

Check this out

I got 7/10

2007-03-08T18:05:00.000+02:00

Happy Women’s Day

Today is the International women’s day, it is celebrated in Russia, Eastern Europe and some other countries, all I knew about it is that my mom gets a big bouquet of roses and I get a small one :)

This year I read a little about it, and learned that the 8th of March was marked as “the International Women’s Day” because of the March 8, 1917, strike "for bread and peace" led by Russian women.

Thanks to those worker women we have some of our rights today; unfortunately many women are still not aware of their rights..

So on this day I wish:
· That women will gain more awareness of their rights
· We’ll have less violence against women
· We’ll have less social presser on women
· That women will no longer allow themselves to be dependent
· That the successful women of my beautiful country will shine
· We’ll have less prostitutes and stripers and more scientists
· That women will be able to walk in the streets without experiencing any kind harassment

2007-02-22T14:35:00.000+02:00

Would you steal what you believe is “your right”?

I believe there is no standards in what is ethical and what is not, what is your right, what is mine, what is your company’s right , what is the manger’s right, what are the employee’s rights , parent’s rights, the girlfriend’s rights, the boyfriend’s rights, brother’s rights …

Of course humanity has agreed on many, but it still defers from a culture to another, a city to another and even on the individuals level …

I am talking about the unwritten rights/rules that manage our behavior and everyday activities …

I remember that when I was younger I was struggling to find out the secret standard rights/rules, I found some, created others and there are still vague ones …

I realized that I simply can’t afford following all the announced rules of our society …

I always had the need to announce my rights/rules although I think that no one has the right to judge me… (Not logical)

Back to the original subject: since everyone plays by his rules, is it ok to steal “your right”? Do you have to announce your rules? Would others be able to play if they don’t know your area? Is what you believe necessarily fair?

2007-02-12T18:30:00.000+02:00

Softact T-shirts

Finally we got our Softact T-shirts, Hureeeeh, LoLuLoLUleeeesh,Uraaaaaa

3ogbal el Team T-Shirts wel Prodact T-shirts :)

2007-01-24T11:19:00.000+02:00

Softact's Boot Camping

I was talking to my manager about the project’s progress, plan and usual work stuff, I asked him what he thinks..

He answered: what about boot camping?

Natasha: HaH!

Dawsar (my manager): reserve a room at a dead sea hotel, the Movenpick or the Marriott if you want, go with your colleague (Heba) for a night or two, isolate your selves, relax and brainstorm :)

2006-12-18T17:22:00.000+02:00

Young Arab Women (not virgins anymore)

Few months ago 3 girls I know got married; all of them are divorced now, which is good! Divorce is much better than a bad marriage.

The three marriages were arranged traditional marriages that happened in no time.

In all three marriages every girl gave up either her studies or her job!

Divorce reasons varied from the couple simply not getting along with each other to mental abuse, sick jealousy and even sexual abuse.

I just don’t get it! How can a girl take the risk of getting married to a stranger? How can she stand the idea of sleeping with a stranger? Why would a girl give up her career or her studies? Why? To become more dependent on someone that cannot be trusted?

2006-11-14T20:44:00.000+02:00

Playing with Terabytes :-D

I am working on an ODS project, ETLing millions of records, I just realized that we’ll end up (when going live) ETLing almost 2 Terabytes of data, It feels soo good, for me it is like bungee jumping, no matter how good you are prepared for it, and how safe and calculated it is, it is still an experience that will make you feel raw adrenalin pumping through your veins!

2006-11-12T17:20:00.000+02:00

SSIS DataReader Source Task

SSIS ETLers,

If you‘re looking for a way to assign an expression to the SQLCommand property of the DataReader Source task , you can do that from the properties of the Data Flow task that contains the DataReader (Not the DataReader itself)

I wanted to share coz it was painful for me to figure it out!

2006-11-09T15:50:00.000+02:00

This makes me laugh soo much:

Natasha: drop table X.
SQL server: Cannot drop the table ‘X’, because it does not exist or you do not have permission.

Natasha : create table X( x int).
SQL server : There is already an object named ‘X’ in the database.

Natasha : ok sweety, drop table X.
SQL server: Command(s) completed successfully.

Natasha: :-) No matter how stupid you can be sometime, I still love you :-)

2006-11-08T09:16:00.000+02:00

Two Jordanian developers having a “Technical” conversation:

Ahmad1: Esmaaa3, fata7et 3al Aazmen, laget el XML file maojuud u faye3, bas mish gabel yisamsem!

Ahmad2: HaDDa hu nafso bikun M6oget3

2006-11-07T14:26:00.000+02:00

Risk: A small tiny area between success and failure

2006-11-05T08:09:00.000+02:00

Softact Team Portal :-D

2006-09-18T11:49:00.000+03:00

Young Arab Virgin

We talked for only 5 minutes, but it was enough to break my heart !She is 18 years old, out with a guy who looked like he is her boyfriend, she failed in 4 “Tawjihi” exams, and when I asked her about her plans she said :

After I failed in “Tawjihi” I got engaged to my cousin who lives in Sweden, Sweden is a nice country, isn’t it?

It sounded like “I got a good offer in Sweden“!!!!

Well may be It Is a good deal for all three parties, the guy in Sweden dreams of a young Arab virgin! While the guy with her wants to go out with a girl without any serious obligations and SHE wants to get rid of her school problems by getting married.

Congratulations!

2006-09-06T13:42:00.000+03:00

Alcohol

I am using a software called Alcohol to browse folders and files, the old version of it is “Alcohol 52% “ the one I have is “Alcohol 120%”,sometimes I start my work day with Alcohol 120%, it makes me laugh sooo much.

Cheers ;)

2006-08-31T16:07:00.000+03:00

Men Are Like Rubber Bands

Girls, this may make you wish you are lesbians, but this is one of the secrets for a successful relationship with your partner.

Guys, Elkom 3en te7ku 3anna Mafaseem?!

Here you go:

Men are like rubber bands. When they pull away, they can stretch only so far before they come springing back. A rubber band is the perfect metaphor to understand the male intimacy cycle. This cycle involves getting close, pulling away, and then getting close again.

Most women are surprised to realize that even when a man loves a woman, periodically he needs to pull away before he can get closer. Men instinctively feel this urge to pull away. It is not a decision or choice. It just happens. It is neither his fault nor her fault. It is a natural cycle.

Women misinterpret a manʹs pulling away because generally a woman pulls away for different reasons. She pulls back when she doesnʹt trust him to understand her feelings, when she has been hurt and is afraid of being hurt again, or when he has done something wrong and disappointed her.

Certainly a man may pull away for the same reasons, but he will also pull away even if she has done nothing wrong. He may love and trust her; and then suddenly he begins to pull away. Like a stretched rubber band, he will distance himself and then come back all on his own.

A man pulls away to fulfill his need for independence or autonomy. When he has fully stretched away, then instantly he will come springing back. When he has fully separated, then suddenly he will feel his need for love and intimacy again. Automatically he will he more motivated to give his love and receive the love he needs. When a man springs back, he picks up the relationship at whatever degree of intimacy it was when he stretched away. He doesnʹt feel any need for a period of getting reacquainted again.

John Gray – Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

2006-08-08T11:18:00.000+03:00

Work hard PLAY hard
I was shocked when I knew that the law/system in Germany was recently updated to make the maximum legal weekly working hours 40 instead of 35, and not everywhere!

Facts:
o Germany has one of the highest national incomes in the world
o Germany is known for the quality they provide,everything is tested, the juice, the shampoos, even the toilet is designed in a way that makes you “ANALYZE”, ”detect problems” and be able to “fix”!
o In Germany every employee MUST take one month of vacation every year.

2006-07-15T01:42:00.000+03:00

Paris(12th july 2006)

2006-07-11T21:38:00.000+03:00

Colgen (9th july 2006): The biggest city in “north rhein westfalen”, it has the second highest dome in Germany, there were people from everywhere who came to watch the final game, the atmosphere was amazing:)

2006-07-11T19:12:00.000+03:00

You can't just "Pinkeln" the way you want! you are in GERMANY

2006-07-07T13:34:00.000+03:00

What would be your answer to this question:
what places are you interested in the most:
-Holland (Amsterdam)
-France (Disnyland)
-Berlin

My first answer was ya weeelliiiiiiiiiiiii

2006-05-31T12:43:00.000+03:00

How far Jordanian engineers can go!

2006-04-09T10:25:00.000+03:00

Playing by the rules? Or plying with the rules?

2006-03-23T18:20:00.001+02:00

Merge Join
There is that great task in BI studio in SQL 2005, I didn’t need to use it before, but when I needed it, Ijat 3al waja3 !
What it does is simply joining two data sets (I think you can join more than two, but I didn’t try it); you choose which one is the left side data set, you choose the type of join and the join keys, all that is perfect:)
But what really broke my heart is that there’s an additional Bonbon:). Look at the picture, there is a SWAP button:), in case you changed your mind and wanted to make the right side data set left and vise versa , oooooooooooooooohhhh isn’t that sweet!
I wonder what my penguin friends think about it :P

2006-03-21T18:20:00.000+02:00

Chairs (for a change)
I arrived to the presentation late (as usual), the speaker was a Microsoft speaker, so the number of attendees was more than usual (we don’t have time to waste giving a chance to a not well known speaker who spent so much time to learn something new and share his knowledge with us!).
There weren’t enough chairs, so I stood aside as many guys did, in few minutes they brought us three more chairs, someone sat on one of them and they all started looking at me to sit down, since I am the only girl standing, for some stupid reason I didn’t want to sit down (the only plus of being a girl is having the priority to sit down in situations like this, Well, I don’t want it!)
People kept coming to the session (late better than never), it was an important one! Everyone gets in, looks at the empty chairs, and then at the people standing at the back and the sides of the hall, thinks for few seconds and takes the smart decision ; Not to sit down!, that reminded of the story of "the monkeys in the cage"(if you don’t know it , google it ;-))
The last guy came in, naturally thought the same way others did, but he couldn’t find a place to stand, you think that made him change his mind and sit down?? NO…
He is smarter than that; he stood in the middle of the hall:)
Acting like the monkeys in the cage may be natural, but I don’t think it is natural for a guy (tuuul bi 3arrrrd bi certificates bi experience …) to stand in the middle of the hall preventing at least 3 people (ma3 shuayet mubalaghah) from seeing the slides:)

2006-03-12T00:13:00.000+02:00

Has your life been recently changed by a stranger?

2006-03-06T22:40:00.001+02:00

Chairs
In my current company I started seriously to value chairs, don't get me wrong I am still the same old communist, nothing symbolic, literally and physically I need a good chair, coz my back hurts!

2006-03-06T22:40:00.000+02:00

2006-02-26T22:13:00.000+02:00

There are two types of people, happy people and unhappy people, it is not related to circumstances, it is a personal decision or a desire …

I am happy … because I want to be happy, because small things can make me happy, because I enjoy looking to the bright side.

After having a headache for a day or two I enjoy being healthy so much, I enjoy lights and noise because they don’t cause me pain anymore. Even when the headache comes back again I feel happy because it reminds me how much time I spend feeling good.

I am trying to count the good things in my life and I can’t, they are soooo many, the people who love me, the people who smile when they see me, the number of times “completed successfully ” appeared on my screen –that was a little geeky – .

Suffering is just like cigarettes a bad habit that brings you some kind of stupid pleasure, and when you get used to it, it becomes very difficult to quit.