Hating On Facebook

Facebook is a social tool- the asshole way. If you log in you will first and foremost be given automatic updates about all the things no one would ever share with you in person -live and face to face.
For example I can share today's findings, one male friend is feeling nostalgic and in love-ish (mind you we haven't spoken in about a year!) two female friends are suffering and being crucified emotionally thus resorting to a plank from the olden stable days- a song that's extremely haunting and pure!

And I'm not any better either! It is a social tool that's double ended since it keeps everybody involved in everybody's business and stories.(Haha- our social life depends on the double point of the double ended TOOL. how ironic) But the greater part of us social beings, all alien like and hairy, needs to feel solidarity. Meaning we need to share. Yes we have to vent out one way or the other. And for all the Pisces and Virgos out there who pride themselves of being bottled up and shareless,I say unto them: Reflect onto thine lives. Have you not shared and shared again songs and pictures and abstract words on the so called wall of your book of face? And keeping that in mind I was so easily able to tell what state of mind they are in, and ohhhh the frustration, the bullshit, the acting and the parade people fall in.... And the hope.


Hoping that someone will see and experience whatever the hell you can't quite put in words, or can put in perfect words: Booboo is feeling sick, I am the king of the world, John Smith Scored Pocahontas, and many such thrilling and mentally exciting announcements that most of us would be clueless about, if it wasn't for the tool that is. But at the end it's reassuring for us to know that this feeling got through. Even if in a distorted form or another. We want to be heard. And we want to be heard out loud!

Yes we do. And if anyone tries to deny this by saying they don't use facebook that often- well, oh really? Why are you on it then?! Just to keep in touch with friends? To be able to post on your group? So you can spy on your friends? So you can never be called outdated and old fashioned? AHA! To SHARE: share and take part of the social media tidal wave (now available in (Saudi)ArabiC - for my personal misery, but that's a different story), keep people updated on your band/work/gallery/store's news... yes yes and yes- to be heard...

The only people I know who are not on facebook are either ex-users who wanted and longed for the QUIET. Or people whose lives are already loud enough that they can't be bothered to add more to their already flamboyant (did I just type that word?) raging noise.

So I guess Facebook is a social tool, and like all tools it can be useful- especially from a marketing perspective, it's like the one TV Channel everybody always has on. or almost everybody. That's why as I mentioned earlier, we want to be heard on this channel and we want to be heard out loud. But sometimes it just gets so annoying for quite a few of us (no, I'm not talking about my multiple characters here) to have to know that someone's dog got stampled by their grandmother's wheel chair, that someone is sitting at a beach while we're slaving like idiots, that someone's slaving somewhere else on our day off, and that our day off is not as great as someone else's in Miami. So yes. Facebook, here's to hating on you!

Oh, and you can shove your "privacy policy" up the pipe.

Much love :)

The OTHER Theory

Maybe at this very moment in time my dears, I have suddenly fallen on the positive wave, and I'm riding it. Which is why this little post will be uplifting for some. or not... whatever.

The thing is, through close observation of distant people, I kind of formulated a theory. No nothing fancy, nothing bewildering and unheard of. On the contrary, it has probably been said to death and has been used so often it's become an example of fromage and cheese.

The OTHER theory goes like this my little avid readers and thirsty knowledge seekers: We are different people, with different people. (Huh?) I dunno how to better put it actually, but I will try. In my humble inconsequential opinion, I firmly believe that the human soul is contagious and we automatically pick up on soul shreds hanging around people when we meet them. If the shred-bits suit us, we like the person, we call it attraction- "an unexplainable attraction". And if the shred-bits don't suit us, we are repelled and feel uncomfortable around that person "for some reason we can't quite place our butter dipped fingers on".

(Starting to make more sense now, right?) (I know). YES. The soul itself is contagious in all its beautiful energy flows and unseen colors. This makes perfect sense since we more often than not find ourselves measuring the type of person we are with one group of persons or another, and kid ourselves and call it "influence": it's the contagious soul.

And the hopeful part about this is, regardless of whether we believe in the whole soul-mate part, we can't deny that some people bring out the best in us while others bring out the not-so-best. And then if we happen to find that completing other of ours than can you imagine what the two souls will be exchanging? (MY GOD! a world of possibilities just sprung up in my busy head!)Oh and just to make it more interesting, let's - for the sake of argument - assume that certain elements can affect the shred-bit exchange, like say ohhhh ALCOHOL? and Music? Of course they are influenced! It's the SOUL. It's ALIVE. Hell, it IS LIFE! This can explain why we are much easier about meeting people and "letting go" in some circumstances more than others. So imagine your soul dancing to music, intoxicated with a kindred soul next to it. Can you even begin to grasp what kind of dance the shred-bits around you would be performing? And no I'm not talking about the effect of alcohol and music together- I'm talking about how they get tangled and incorporated into something simple, basic, primitive- brilliant. And if we look/listen close enough you can just see the colors and hear the hum they make when these soul shred-bits touch and meet and identify.


I feel so thrilled about this theory of mine that I do not know what to do with it. Should I perhaps perform studies and experiments to prove it? and then document said studies and experiments and go crazy and even write a book and achieve fame and be hosted on the then-woulds-be-long-deceased Oprah show?

Only time will tell my little ones. But for now, it definitely puts people exchange and relationings into a new(er) perspective.

So go, mingle, meet people, and infect them with your beautiful souls :) Who knows? You may just meet your match in this new disease spreading. What a positive way of plaguing the world that would be.

Oh August...

It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. And when we start to understand that, life becomes simpler automatically. Because that is exactly when we let go and become free.

We do not love. Most of us become enslaved in love, and that's why we suffer. Then we start to keep ourselves there by diving deeper into all the wrong things. in the name of love of course. and some of us just get so deep they can't ever go back up again. (It's called permanent damage)...

You know? lately I've been having this moments- no not the crazy ones, those are a given- moments of just pure basic joy. Yesterday I dropped my friend home and on the way back to my place, I was driving in the sun, with the windows semi opened. There was a minimal breeze seeping inside, and it was just cold enough to refresh the car . Then the traffic stops at the red light and there I was listening to my music, stuck in momentary traffic, and Beirut looking so god blessed beautiful... That's love. I mean it was a moment of deep authentic affection. and it was FREE. and isolated. and the thing is these similar moments have been happening lately more and more.

The point is, if I had been looking to set up this very experience it would never have happened. And no matter how hard I worked to make it work, it would not have happened. Cause it is what it is. it is FREE. and free is something we can't capture.

and the music! oh the music... Why can't there be a system of government that's based on music? Can you imagine what it would be like? The Minster of Jazz Artists. The attache to the ambassador or blues and soul. His Majesty King of Classiconia? Colonel Rock it, head of the House regiment. You get the point...

So may we always know how to let go.
May we always remember NOT to choke people around us.
May we always be free in love. So that we can be free TO love.
May we learn that love is multifaceted. And may we allow ourselves to love in abundance. Love life. Love people. Love work. Love the stupid traffic. Love our mistakes. Love the sweet agony and misery. Love failing. Love succeeding.


Oh August... Thank you. You've given me quite a few unique people. My dear August.

Visualization

People. We are visual creatures. It's where the whole seeing is believing thing springs from. And I'll tell you why. It's not that we're not capable of hope, or that we like a safe bet. BUT. For most of us, we've just been through enough in life to discourage us from believing blindly and just throwing random faith in things... Particularly when that very faith proved to be unjustified, and that very thing ended up shredding us. Poor us.

Seeing is believing because even when we say we won't believe it until we see it, on the other side of that very same statement of ours is the fact that we do believe. We doubt being doubtful! How sincere we are in our characteristics. And we only hang on HARD to the opposite of believing, because we have SEEN that believing gets us nowhere, where as skepticism is a good guarantee.

It just really gives us such an incredible push. and THAT, the push I mean, you CAN see wherever you look. When you give someone a gesture of good will, a token of faith, a down frigging payment, things get done and you set things in motion. That's how trust is built. From visualization, and it is lost though de-visualization!
Exhibit A: I Trust my Boyfriend he will never cheat. I've seen him blow off girls when he didn't know i was looking.
Exhibit B: I Trust my Boyfriend. he will never cheat. oops. he sc***ed me over. trust gone. guys are shit. i'm giving up.

It's also one of the basics of marketing. You sell things by showing them to be so much better than they really are. And the difference between a good salesman and a great salesman is that only the second one can get you to imagine, believe and superimpose a picture over reality :)

And let's not forget faith! which is such a difficult thing to maintain. I mean on a regular day, pick out a random person from a religious crowd and start asking them about God. and their beliefs, actually don't ask, QUESTION them and interrogate them. They'll absent mindedly repeat things for you. and while you probably would give up on the debriefing thinking they're block headed, trust me, that very same person will feel OUTRAGED! APPALLED! how DARE that atheist ask him these infinite and intimate questions... and why couldn’t I feel a passion in my heart for it.... Why did I feel like a friggin echo chamber bouncing back statements that were stuffed and hammered into my head?
Because that person never saw to truly believe. and to the extremely religious and devout people who have seen proof or signs justifying their faith, just take a minute and ask yourself, would you still have been a firm if you had horrible losses in life? and if nothing good ever went your way? and if we throw in a few diseases, breakdowns and hmmm solitude?

And I'll go further. Any Tom, Dick or Harry will you that the best part about cooking and preparing a dish is the presentation. Because what looks good to the eye, tastes even better to the stomach. Kinda like Victoria's Secret models, preparing the ravenous men for the consumption of innocent sheep. ha! how I entertain myself. but seriously we need a little something to move on. just a little something.

I do realize that the first quote to spring to so many minds will be : blessed are thou who hath believed without seeing. and i totally agree. they are blessed.
Because, yet again. We are visual creatures. and we need to see.

You see?

ماذا أقول له؟

الحلو والبشع بالحياة هوي انو بغض النظر اديش نحنا حبينا او كرهنا اشيا او ناس، وبغض النظر عن اديش هلكنا وتكسرنا وتفجمنا سعياً للأفضل ويللي مش بالضرورة كان افضل شي ولكن افضل بنظرنا...

شيلو كل هالعوامل وبيبقى انو الحياة عم تتقدم وتستمر وتتغير. وهيدي اخر واحدة ركزولي عليا شوي زيادة: الحياة في حالة تغيير دائم. وهون السؤال بيطرح نفسو... كيف في ديمومة بالتغيير؟

في مرة شخص كتير عزيز عليي (لأنو القلب مشكوك ب وجودو فبالتالي اصبح هالشخص عزيز عليي ومش عا قلبي ) اي بقا هالفلان قلي شي كنت اول مرة بسمعو: التغيير هو الشي الدائم الوحيد. وهنا يا اطفالي تأتي المفاجأة ب انو اه نعم ادجل! هالغرام يللي حسيتوا ب قديم الزمان , كان... ويااااا ما كان. كان تعريف للروح وللوجود والحياة والشعور والجنون والعبثية والوحي ومن ثم تعريف العذاب و الشعور بالتغييب و الانفصال والضياع والفراغ- يعني من اكستريم لا اكستريم، هيدا كللللو بالاخر بيتغير.

بيختفي.

بيزول.

وكأنه لم يكن.

كأنو كان فكرة خرافية ما تحققت ولا تطبقت ولا حتى نكتبت عا قفا شي كرتوني ولا كان مقدرلا انو تنسمع.

وبقت فكرة ب راس أخوت مجنون. وفي حين انو من الجيد انو "الحياة تستمر وتكمل وما نوقف عند حد او حدا معين" ما فيني قول او اقبل انو هالعظمة والضخامة كلا هي الى زوال... لأنا رح تتغير بالنتيجة. لأنو رح نتغير مع الوقت ومع الحياة. ولك شو هالمصيبة؟ مين قال انو يوماً ما عنجد حا نصير اشخاص مختلفة؟ طيب ما انا بحبني هيك! عا نكهة التابسكو! وما بدي صير لا فريز ولا خردل ولا خل ولا شي... وما بدي الجبنة يللي حبيتا تصير بعدان مشمش بعلبك يللي ما استوى :( وما الحل يا ابنائي؟

الأمل... اي، في امل. نتأمل انو يوماً ما بعد سلسلة دائمة من التغيير نوصل لا مطرح نلاقي حالنا الناس يللي منحب نكونا. ونلاقي حالنا مع ناس حبينا نكونن او يكونوهن. ونلاقي حالنا نحنا بعد عمليات التغيير المتتابعة فعلاً مناح وخيرين للاخرين.

بس اهم شي انو نلاقي حالنا!

We’re just different people… خدلك بقا... هيدي جملة فيي الكثير من عدم الوفاء! عا شو جنينا؟ عا شو حبينا؟ وبكينا؟ وكتبنا؟ وغنينا؟ وبكينا؟ وبكينا؟ وشربنا؟ وكرهنا؟! وزعلنا وانقبرنا تعترنا؟ اذا بالاخر هيدا كلو subject to change و مش دايم؟

اذا بالاخر رح نرجع نوصل لنقطة او مطرح انو فينا نرجع لهالانسان يللي كان بدياتنا وقربلنا نهايتنا , ونقول -ومن كل عقلنا كمان- انو لأا! موش قادرة خلاص! اللي بينا انتهى!

اما كسرنا كؤوس الحب من زمن؟ فكيف نبكي كأساً كسرناه؟

وأهم شي... ماذا أقول له؟!!!!

Swine & Feline

OK. This is how this goes. I will describe two stereotypical characters, and you can feel free to associate people with them. And I'm sure you will.

Swine:
Will eat up anything his snout falls upon.
Not only will it eat up anything its snout falls on, it fill even relocate to take in and devour even more things- senseful or senseless!
The swine wants it all.
Is constantly surrounded by filth.
Cannot look up- literally.
Reponsible for (well they were blamed for and associated with though did not physically spread out the virus- pharmaceutical companies did that)a disease that is responsible for such destruction and pain. oh and the suffering, let's not forget the suffering.
What else is a swine associated with? Well to tell you the truth, it's only benefit is it's good in your stomach. And while some people have taken great care to breeding it into and growing it to become an expensive comodity at times, let's be reaasonable it will all end up as the same end product! The same end product it was happily swimming in during its life. HA! How Ironic- poor little piggies, didn't see that one coming huh? woke up one day and it's a whole different kind of SHI*!

AND ABOVE ALL. The Swine will end up alone. Dead, alone, food. That's what it will be if mother nature runs its course (The writer wishes to disregard external influences on the fate of a pig at this time.)


and now, the Feline:

Adorable, cuddly, has attitude, gets exactly what it wants, KNOWS what it wants.
Selfish, manipulative, prances around flaunting its adorableness like it was the savior on judgement day.
But keep it long enough and it will go in heat, screaming at you for not giving it what it wants! Then it will destroy the homeliness of your home by performing acrobatics in your living room: up the curtains, through the cords, coughing hairballs left right and center. And hissing at anything that poses a threat to it, like say anything that's taking the attention that's supposed to be its own.
BUT, fear not. The FIRST person that comes and gives it better anything than you were, and its bye bye panama for you.

So, by now you're probably wondering why the- well, "talk", of felines and swines mine dwarlings. Well, to be honest, I've had it with the stereotypes. So I was thinking what if we threw them together and created a monster?
We could call it Feswi! ok back to being serious (seriously!),
they would breed a something that would punishment in its own right. oh a girl can dream.

The thing is, when I first realized this incredibly clear association between the stereotype and so many people that have walked in and on and through and around and out of my life- yes they did a lot of walking what do you want?- it just made me feel that much better. cause maybe there are nobler animals that people can be associated with, right? PLEASE?

Anyway I hope a line goes through one and the other gets chopped up in circles.

(not quite) Over and (almost) Out.

Second Definitions

Maybe the regular words and meanings and terminologies lose sense to us when we experience them first hand. Anything from feelings to circumstances will look different when we get involved.

"I never thought x feeling was this serious!" Insecurities, shocks, heartbreak, happiness, hope, disillusionment- All of it! When someone else goes on and on about it we almost always give the "sympathetic" ear- meaning we hear or register but don't really listen. At best we just nod along or just obey our predisposition of not approving and so interrupt at intervals.

But we don't really realize by listening. We don't experience by audio, or by visual either. That's exactly why they teach us theories and force us to practice. It's like cooking; no matter how many recipes you read about preparing the same dish, if you do not re-enact the scene to try to recreate the taste, you'll never know what a pinch of salt really is!
This is why we should admit once and for all that there does in fact exist such a thing as second definitions. They are those that we reach from hand on experiences when we land in the position of trying desperately to convey a sentiment that feels so clear to us, but is just flying right over our "audience's" heads.
Think about it! How many times do tables turn between you and friends or contacts or whatever and you feel so frustrated about making a point about the obvious when it is clear that the other person is not really "getting it"? Mind you, most often than not it will be something they tried to explain and tell you about and put in words and failed miserably. (Oh the wonderful blessing of friendship :))
When your friends teach and advise you that communication is key- common sense assures it too- it probably means that the only person who will ever GET IT is the person involved. It's probably a subconscious way of saying please go mope somewhere else you're depressing us! (And you probably are, I mean come on people have enough of their own crap to deal with without you bringing in your own. And yes I know for a fact that there are friends who are so loyal they WILL give you the sympathetic ear every time. But eventually they will snap, and switch to the tough love :) TO VENT OUT YOUR FRUSTRATION!)
So get dirty, or in this case dirty mouthed. There's no need to define or second define things, it just defeats the purpose then! But speak it up and just hope that one day eventually the message you ached to get through once a while ago, is hitting home by an act of karma :)

There's hope for ya.