In every religion that is! My mind has drifted away into food land the past week, and I have been eating out! I need to stop. I feel like my stomach bulged so much over the weekend cause of it. Sometimes I get carried away with eating, and start purchasing or eating heavy lunches. I need to stop that, and I did today and I felt a lot better!

Sometimes when I am too happy, I start eating more. Sometimes when I am too sad, I start eating a lot more! And sometimes when I am extremely pissed off, I stop eating all together. Maybe I need to get angry more often! Anyways, I need to find a happy medium, and a way to tell my stomach to shut the fuck up and stop whining!

[Photo Source]

The problem is not that eating too much makes your stomach appear like a prego lady. On the contrary, eating too much makes me lazy and sleepy. And at my job, I have to be on top of things or I will be yawning non-stop while programming, and feel that my desk should be my new pillow. Bad idea.

So, light lunches will keep me awake and on top of things at work, and I can fit into these gorgeous pants I bought over the weekend! Hehe!!

You know, this post is making me hungry, but I will go fill that expandable barrel with water, and tell it to shut up. Also, I need to walk more, and be more active, but I am lazy. So I will stick to eating normally.

Thank God there is no crazy eating out with co-workers at work or anything. Everyone brings their own lunches, and we have a kitchen, but some do purchase their lunches. Bad idea to purchase. It is a waste of money. Argh!! I rather spend it on more important things, like electronics and clothes!

On the bright side, this job kicks ass! I get paid bi-weekly! It feels great to have money put in to your bank account every two weeks. I used to get it every month in the old job, but now every two weeks, and free coffee.

I am living the sweet life!

Blah Blah, Confused, Random Thoughts, Whatever!

The title of this post should be the title of my new book. Although it was on my life’s pursuits, I don’t have time to write a book right now. Luckily, I have time for my blog writing until my work load at my job winds down a bit hopefully, and I am no longer lazy as a sloth when I get home to do anything else.

So, what to talk about today? Well, someone commented on one of my posts today saying that I am treated respectfully at my work because I don’t wear a head veil. An Islamic religious symbol for females. I somewhat agreed to it to an extent. I will tell you why though. You have to understand though where I live, and why I say the things I say. My observations are not against any religion, but a general observation from my years of living in North America. Which is many many many many years!

Racism

There will always be the never ending trend of racism everywhere you go. People who are racist, are just afraid of what’s different than the norm. Although life has changed drastically, and various immigrants from all over the world live here, the idea of accepting what is different is still implanted in people’s small heads. So what to do?

I am not going to argue with a racist idiot, or bother to explain my view points. All I can do is be my self, and not show others that I am different by any symbol. Who I am is different, and I am proud of being an Arab and Muslim, but I don’t need to wear anything that secludes me from the norm.

Religion is in You

I think I discussed this many times, but I believe that religion, any religion, should be something that you need to follow on your own. You should perfect it and be capable to talk about it, instead of preaching to people for the sake of preaching. I have met many Muslims that love to discuss Islam, yet, their knowledge of the religion is so limited and naive. I knew more things about Islam than them, but they wore religious symbols, and wanted to be different, say they are different, and not accept others, but expect others to accept them.

This Side of the World

Now, this is where it gets to be debatable, and I may get some negative comments. I am not gonna tell others what to wear, or bother. Everyone has the freedom to do whatever they want. However, when some people wonder why they can’t get a job, or are not treated the same as “others”, then there are various reasons why. Look at what you are wearing.

Stories

I knew many Arab-Muslim girls who studied the same thing in University as I did, Computer Science. However, not many of them got a job. You see, they were very smart, top of the class, bright talented individuals. They were 10 times smarter than me, and I was purely jealous of their brains. Unfortunately, they were not able to get any job in their fields because of their head veils.

My field is a very male oriented field. (Technology Field) Finding a female programmer in a small business is rare. Not only that, the female programmers, like the male programmers, are always interacting with each other. Working in specific professions such as mine, really depend on how you look and act with other people. When you seclude your self from them, and appear different than what they are used to, you will not be able to work in a group like environment such as that. It’s just a fact. It’s a racist stupid fact, but this is reality. However, in larger business, it’s a bit more flexible and they are looking for diversity, but in mine, not so much.

So, what happened to those girls? Well, they all got married, sat at home, and popped out babies. This goes for many Arab females who earn a University degree just for show and to get married. However, that’s another story for later that I need to discuss.

What to Do?

I honestly don’t care what any one does. You want to wear a head veil, huge crosses, etc, that’s your choice! I am not stopping you, and no one has the right to. However, when you start questioning why people don’t hire you, or others don’t respect you when they should, then you have to understand the culture that you LIVE IN NOW! Where do you live? How are the people around you act? What can you do to blend in, but still keep your morals and religious beliefs?

That’s my only advice really. Otherwise, pop babies! I could have popped some babies like 10 years ago and married some Arab man who wanted a live in baby popping maid, but I chose to blend in to my current society. To make something out of my self, and make everyone around me respect me for who I am, and what I have become. Also, I had to make use of that piece of paper with higher education that I paid over 35,000 dollars for. I invested in something, and I want the return value that I was promised!

Blah Blah, Confused, Culture, Religion, They said what?, Whatever!

I can’t believe it, it has been one month since I have been employed! Wow, it feels just like yesterday I was complaining about the unfair working world, and my utter hate and evident depression of going to interviews.

Yesterday, some people wanted me to do a comparison between my old job, my time off, and my current job. Well then, this will be a long post! Be warned! I will be mocking and hating something from the past!

The Distant Past

When I first started this blog, I had a few reasons behind it. Obviously, all of you know what the main reason was, but that ended thank God; however, horribly. The second reason that somehow evolved on its own, was to complain about a job that I couldn’t stand. I had a job as a computer programmer for 6.5 years straight. From when I was 21 to 27 years of age.  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the pay per say. It was the unfair treatment between all the employees in one room, and co-workers that were arrogant show offs that I could not stand. After about 3 years into the job, I was going to work every day, and praying to God that no one will say anything stupid, selfish and beyond ridiculous for once. Not only that, most of them didn’t do any work. They were there because they were there. What’s the odd of firing people that kiss ass all day, and deliver a Monet software product? Most of our software products had no real hard deadlines, and kept being worked on for years and years? Job security? You think!?

Moreover, I hate sucking up to people. I hate it, hate it, hate it! I feel that I am kissing someone’s shoe when I do that. It’s disgusting. I feel that I am lowering my values and intelligence for someone who is not worth my time of day, and I could never benefit from in the future. To tell you the truth, that last part seems selfish, but there is a difference between friendships and friends for benefits. You can tell that type of friendship right away, and I will tell you eventually in this post how I started hating that particular type of friendship altogether.

So, if you have been an avid reader of my blog for at least three years or so, you would have noticed some posts about my old job. However, those posts were removed after a day or two. It took my brain that long to realize that, oh no, I am gonna get fired! My most regretful mistake at the time was telling some people about my blog, hence, my boss and certain co-workers that read it. I was sure they didn’t read it daily, and that saved my ass! However, I told them because I felt there was a trust, and I really didn’t care at the time. Unfortunately, over time, I just couldn’t hold my anger at all. There were some days when I went home crying and telling my self, that’s it, I am gonna resign tomorrow!

And three years later, I had the guts to do it! The suffering though throughout that time was not fun. I had a serious problem with my co-workers. I did not like any of them, and I had reasons that would have made anyone dumbfounded by my patience and tolerance of such behaviors.  I probably never complained about them directly to my boss, or bothered, because it was a favorites game, and I didn’t want to be a part of it. Hence, the world of IT managers is pointless! They do nothing but hold a title! Anyways, so, some of my x-co-workers over time called me fat, over weight, ugly, stupid coder, I get paid the most with full benefits and you don’t loser, ugly designer, stupid Palestinian and you should go back to your home land, and the list goes on.

I never mentioned these problems, because I decided that I rather take advantage of the stupid job. Like work part time at a full time salary, and take courses while I am at work. What job would have let me leave once or twice a day for an hour or two hour lecture? When the whole place was unfair and messed up, then anything ridiculous to the normal working work is tolerated.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to seem like I am one of those ungrateful people who should be thankful for having a job for that long. On the contrary, I benefited a lot from the job. I learned what type of people to avoid in any work place, to never be personal and overly friendly with anyone, and just do my work and keep enhancing my skills on my own.

That’s all I learned really from being there.

[source]

Self-Forced Vacation Time

I had to resign. I had to resign with my head high, and when every single ounce of patience within me has evaporated to thin air! August of 2008, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was having serious physical problems such as the famous uncontrollable heart palpitations that creeps up on me every now and then. Don’t even get me started on the psychological problems I was having for all those years. When I resigned, I felt that the world was my oyster! I did it, and I was more proud of resigning from that job than earning a Bachelor of Science degree from a famous Canadian University! I was seriously hoping for a standing ovation, and a song to be sang with the title, “Mona rules, and takes shit from no one!”

Therefore, I resigned, and I took a vacation. However, my vacation after the month of January of this year seemed to have escalated into boredom and my parents said STOP BEING A LAZY ASS, and I felt that I needed to be useful to the world. I decided that maybe I should look for a job while I worked full time as a blogger making some money from this little venture. So, I spiced up that resume, and told some companies, “Yo computer peepz! I need a job, I got the skills, so do you want me to come and work for ya?”

After a time span of conception to birth, I got a job. People have labeled me as the most patient complaining person on earth! People said, “Mona, get a job, ANY JOB!” Mona said, “I am not desperate yet! I got money in the bank for two more years and I love to complain!”

Therefore, self-forced vacation time was the best time in my life. I learned patience. I learned what I wanted from life. I figured out that being a highly skilled programmer with eccentric design skills, is better than trying to reach over the top heights so quickly. Also, being lead by some incompetent IT manager who only knew how to talk and get people to like him or her, was not on my list of future tolerated jobs.

Let’s talk about friendships now. You see, I cannot have fake friendships, and I don’t even want to seem as the fake friend. I believe friendships are meaningful, and you feel that person can understand you and accepts you for who you are. Also, that friend should not question everything you say and your lifestyle, and does not act like they are better than you and know more, and force feed you unwanted advice. When you have a friend that you feel that you need a friendship only to benefit from, then that friendship will never last. Eventually, you will start distancing your self from them, and realizing that they don’t care anyways. They will only remember you when they realize that oh, “Where’s Mona this month?”

Current Blissful State of Mind

After a month into the job, I couldn’t be happier. I don’t have an IT manager. Thank the almighty Lord for my request! My bosses are the owners of a small successful business of a particular professional niche. Everyone is treated equally. Everyone is respectful and educated. Everyone is too busy, do incredible amount of work per day, and I don’t feel like the odd one out. Everyone is nice, and says hi to me every day with a smile. Also, they want to converse with me and tell me cute stories about the weather. I don’t care if they interrupt me while I am working. I love working with people around me while I am coding. When I concentrate too much, I feel lost in a brain of Mona with many mazes. They help me get out of that with their minor interruptions.

Therefore, I work with cute busy-bee people!

Oh, did I mention the free coffee? I was sold on that one, and I had no excuse to argue salary expectations with them. Just give a programmer free coffee, and they are sold on anything!

Joy to the world, I got a kick ass sweet job! Amen!

Angry, Blah Blah, Confused, Depressed, Funny, Happy, Idiots, Random Thoughts, Ranting as usual!, They said what?, Whatever!

I know I got many non-Arab readers, but are you a reader of my site just for fun and entertainment, or something else? For example, after knowing me, and realizing I am just a normal girl with a bit of conservative views about life, would you ever be friends with an Arab like me in real life?

I got many people wondering why Arabs don’t like being friends with non-Arabs. It’s like us Arabs are known to be in a totally different world by our selves, but are we doing it on purpose, or “others” don’t understand us, so they don’t want to be friends with us?

[source picture one] [source picture two]

Therefore, would you accept us for who we are regardless of our conservative culture, religion, skin color, political problems, and fabricated stereotypes?

 Loading ...

Blah Blah, Confused, Culture, Featured, Random Thoughts, Religion, They said what?, Whatever!

I used to know a lot of people in University, because I spent my life not talking to people growing up, and thought University had such cool smart open minded people that I had to be friends with. You guys know how that turned out to be. *sigh* 90% of my friends in University were Christian. Arab Christian to be exact. How and why that happened, I have no clue.

Anyways, I had an Iraqi Christian friend who was a bit stubborn, and lived in a bubble of her own beliefs. I used to argue a lot with her about religion. Even though she lived in an Arab country when she was young and should be very familiar with Arab Muslim lifestyle, her acceptance of Arab non-Christian customs being very similar to hers was something she refused to acknowledge.

Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. So long weekend! YAY! Anyways, one time I had a very long argument with her about Thanksgiving. I blurted out a few years back on this holiday weekend that we bought the turkey and stuff for Thanksgiving. She said, “WHAT? You are NOT Christian!” I told her, “Since when is Thanksgiving a Christian holiday? Is it in the bible?” She said, “Doesn’t matter. Us Christians celebrate it here. Not Muslims.”

I was like wow.

I wanted to know exactly why she thought of it as a Christian holiday. So I asked her, “What is the purpose of Thanksgiving? Isn’t it to thank God for everything he gave us?” She said, “Yes, to our God!” I said, “Your God? Since when is OUR Muslim God any different then YOUR Christian God? IT’S THE SAME GOD!” She refused to believe that.

You can tell that friendship didn’t last too long with her putting that barrier of you are this and I am that! I hate that in any friendship!

Engagement Parties

Oh I hate going to engagement parties. I also hate going to wedding parties. Just celebrating someone else’s misfortune is really bad. I feel horrible! Not only that, you have to give them a GIFT for such an occasion! Sheesh! Anyways, us Muslims have engagement parties. It’s so old school for us, and almost everyone does it. Any type of party, as long as it is a party to celebrate the misfortune with other people. It has nothing to do with religion but traditions. You get engaged or married, you throw a party and waste money telling people,”Dude, someone is making out tonight!!”

Lamos!

You can tell I don’t like social gatherings being an introvert and all. But meh, customs are customs. Traditions are traditions. Waste of money and showing off on engagement and wedding parties is the ultimate manifestation in every culture.

Back to my main point. That same girl I knew had a serious problem with the idea that Muslims have engagement parties. We were discussing it one day, and she said, “Engagement parties is a Christian thing only.” I said, “Aha? So you are allowed to celebrate, and we can’t.” She said, “Muslims don’t celebrate anything. It is a sin for them.”

I was like okkkkkk!! Arguing anymore with her about that subject was gonna give me an ever lasting migraine.

I know that not many people are like her. Actually, I don’t believe there are other people like her with such stubborn one pointed views. In conclusion, I am not friends with her anymore because she has serious problems, but thinking of Thanksgiving this weekend reminded me of her. I can’t wait to devour that turkey! I don’t eat meat much, but I like the turkey that mom cooks in a kick ass way! Yummy! Gobble Gobble!

Confused, Culture, Idiots, Religion, They said what?, Whatever!