Maybe I am the only person right now who wants this year to end now now now! This I can tell you has been the worst year ever. It was crazy. It was an emotional roller coaster, and the end of many life changing events.

I put together my favorite posts of this year in order of events.

Favorite posts of 2008

January

- Why do you people hate me?
I still don’t know why, I think it is because I am awesome and I run this crazy ass popular blog, and you don’t!

- Western v.s Eastern Mentality
This is one of my mind boggling posts. I wanted to compare the two because I am stuck in the middle.

February

- The Arab forbidden love
Yah.. the touchy sensitive subject about Arab love.

- My blog is Haram!
I always get religious fanatics. They spice up my blog with their closed mindedness.

March

- Kiss Me I am Arab.
This is my version of St. Patrick’s Day celebration. The Arab one!

April

- I lost Squibby.
The day I lost Squibby!

- SQUIBBY IS BACK!
24 hours later, someone else took care of them, and returned him to me after I put signs up in the hall way.

May

- Honour Killings
Another touchy subject that I don’t agree with.

- Don�t show your face, but your legs for sure!
Only in Saudi Arabia, things like this happen.

June

- You don�t need to be unemployed to feel like one.
I suffered from feeling useless at a job. For many many months.

July

- Squibby is home � cause work SUCKS!
I brought Squibby home because I was sick of my job. I was slowly bringing everything home around that time.

- She saw in 40 days what we experienced all our lives
When my sister went to Lebanon and saw the refugee camps, then she realized that Palestinians lived or still live a horrible life.

August

- The day that I resigned
Best day of this year when I gave my resignation to the idiot of a new boss who knows nothing about management or anything intellectual.

- Arabs justify everything by blaming others
Don’t you agree?

September

- Why am I attracted to Geeks?
I still think Geeks are hot.

October

- And today�s number 1 email is: � (drum roll please)
Hate mail always spices up my site.

November

- Hate mail number 100334� I lost count 2 days ago.
More hate mail. Jeez. Leave me alone people!

December

- I am not your immigration ticket
I had to write this. After I wrote this, I got twice as many emails from guys wanting to come to this country thinking I will land them a job. Hello! Someone! Anyone willing to hire me first?

- So what really happened?
And end of an era. HE wouldn’t leave me alone. He just wanted to ruin my end of year celebration. Which is sitting down doing nothing and enjoying peace of mind. But no! He has to always ruin everything that I enjoy!

- How to explain our lives and culture to everyone else?
I didn’t know this was a touchy subject. Oh wait, religion is always a touchy subject. You can say I ended my blog year with a bang from this post. People are either open minded and open to discussion, or they have two and a half brain cells.

Favorite song for 2008

I think I used to rule the world back in the day when I was queen of my mythical land area in the near east. It was my head quarters!

My final words of wisdom for 2008

Leave me alone people! Holy crap you drove me insane! Next year, stop bugging me. When I talk about the most controversial issues, don’t write crap. Only this year I enabled moderation for comments, because I don’t want other human beings to see how idiotic you are. Also, is insulting a person you don’t know and may never meet in this life time, make you seem to have a bit more power? A bit more say? Really, it does not. It just makes you stupid. So grow up!

On a positive note, I don’t have a new years resolution. All I do in the end of the year is to pray to God it is not as bad as the previous. Also, I want to maybe have a bit of change in my life. I want to do new things. I think 2009 will be just fine. I feel the positiveness coming out of it already. Amen!

Angry, Culture, Funny, Idiots, My taste of Music, Random Thoughts, Squibby, Thank you, They said what?

This is a subject that has been bothering me a lot lately. Well, not really bothering me, but annoying me. I just feel people who are not Arabs, and not Muslims have a really different perspective on life. Which is normal, and we open minded Arabs have learned to cope with your life style, why can’t you do the same for us? Once people hear ours, they are completely surprised and sometimes appalled by our actions. It is ok. It is really hard to understand totally different people’s way of life, and only think to your self, “Why are these people backwards or still live in the 19th century?”

I will explain a few things for people who are friends with Arabs or Muslims, and are having a hard time “understanding” them.

Food

A lot of Arabs don’t eat out, or refuse to eat meat from restaurants that are not run by Muslims. That’s their choice; however, they do have a reason.

1. They don’t know if the meat is halal.
2. Halal does not mean it was only handled by a Muslim. On the contrary, Halal means the animal was killed by a Christian, Jew or Muslim. The followers of the holy books.
3. They don’t know what else can be put in the food. A lot of new technologies and preserved food items have some type of pork in it.
4. A lot of meals have some sort of wine in it, and Muslims are not allowed to drink any form of alcohol. Do you hear me you Arabs that drink and go clubbing? If you think pork is Haram, then why the hell do you drink? Isn’t that Haram too?
5. Arabs love their food, and they want to eat it without having to feel guilty or unsure of what they ate.

I always have arguments with non-Muslims about the whole pork thing. I just say, “well, Jews don’t eat it too. Does that mean anything to you? Don’t you think it is weird that 2 out of the 3 main religions in the world don’t eat it?” You know what they reply back saying? They tell me, “well, Jews and Muslims all decedents of the prophet Abraham and lived near each other. That’s why.” Is that really a justification of why? Where the heck did the prophet Jesus came from? The moon?

Marriage

Obviously, in the rapidly evolving and crazy social lifestyle we live in, people will never understand why we are still this way. Maybe our culture and religion is a bit hmm, what’s that word, what’s that crazy word, ahh, conservative! Why are we still conservative in such an era? Dude, people, give me a break. People who follow the religion properly are conservative. Any religion for that matter.

So what’s the difference?

1. We Arabs/Muslims don’t live with someone if we are not married to them.
2. We don’t do anything that is considered sinful before marriage.
3. Most Arabs/Muslims don’t even kiss if they are not married.
4. Some Arabs/Muslims get married spontaneously without having a million relationships before, and think we have to work out things and make sure they are the one before hand. Screw that. How many people who had long term relationships actually ended up married? There is no such thing as love. Look at me for example. I am a living example.
5. Not all Arabs/Muslims have arranged marriages. Some meet, get to know each other for a bit, and decide they are suitable. All this takes place within weeks, sometimes a couple of months, and that’s it.
6. Because you know an Arab/Muslim who’s life is the same life as yours, doesn’t mean he/she represent the rest of us. So don’t be surprised.

Religion

1. We believe in yours! We believe in the prophet Jesus and prophet Moses! Why do you go in shock when we tell you that we consider them prophets too?
2. We believe in the same God! We just call him Allah. Same thing. We just speak another language. That’s all.
3. A true Muslim must believe in Christianity and Judaism. You would be surprised how much of those two religions are mentioned in our holy book, the Quran. Hmm, I think almost all of it!

My Questions to you (Non-Arabs or non-Muslims)

1. If you no longer call your self a Christian or go to Church, or believe in it at all, why do you celebrate Christmas? Just for the presents and a tree?
2. Aren’t Christians supposed to fast before Easter? I think Catholics do.
3. Why do you think Muslims are extremist and dress oddly with huge long beards? Some religious Jews have long beards too. Yah.. go check.
4. Have you seen what the Pope and other religious leaders wear? Robes? Big huge hats? Carry a scepter or it is a long cane? I could never tell. What do you make of that?

Advice, Culture, Religion, They said what?

I watched the movie Seven Pounds last week, and I was amazed. I feel like watching it again. I can honestly say that this was one of the best movies I have ever seen. It was too human. Too real. It makes you wonder and ask your self, “My God. Are there people in the world like this? Anyone out there? Please tell me! I want to find them to give them a big hug!”

If you have seen it already, what do you think?

Blah Blah, Random Thoughts, Video

I am not sure why in the world people think you hate them because you disagree with them. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing. There is nothing wrong with giving your point of view instead, but in a constructive and non-insulting manner. It doesn’t make you stubborn, but open to new ideas and different thoughts.

I have no reason to agree with you all the time. Really, I don’t have to. Most of the time I probably won’t. Why? Because I am a different person. I have different thoughts and perceive life in a different way. Since I don’t agree with you, does not mean I will not listen to you, but I have every reason to reply back. I have every right to say what I feel should be said to correct you, or to tell my side of the story.

That’s why we are individual people. Can you imagine if we all agreed on the same things all the time? My God! The Utopian life! Too bad, reality is not like that, so learn to accept my point of view, and LISTEN!

Advice, Blah Blah, They said what?, Whatever!

We all have this thing inside of us that keeps us alive. It is called hope. We hope for many things to happen to us. I think if we didn’t hope at all, we would not have a reason to live in this horrible world. We try our best to hope for a better future, a better career, and a better life. We really just live our lives daily hoping. That’s all we really can do. We try our hardest, and hope for the best.

Lately, I have been hoping a lot. The more I hope, the more I dream at night. I think the subconscious somehow works extra hard when all you do is think and hope a lot.

Really, do you think the reason you are still alive, and anyone for that matter, is due to that hope? I think it is the reason I stayed sane for so long. I think hope gives me that dream and a better outlook to the future. It helps me get up in the morning every day and think to my self, “Today is hopefully a better day.”

Random Thoughts, Sleepy Post