E-couples

Je rencontre de plus en plus de couples qui se sont rencontrés à travers leur blog ou bien tout simplement via le chat. Des rencontres qui se sont dégénérées, ce n’est pas le mot exact, en relation sérieuse et durable. Cela vous dit de raconter des histoires semblables ? Moi je suis passée par la. J’ai fait une rencontre, à partir de liens sur des blogs que je visite régulièrement, d’un mec superbe Majd(on a meme cree un blog ensemble). Une rencontre qui a changé ma vie a jamais. J’ai remarque les commentaires qu’il laissait chez d’autres bloggeurs puis j’ai visité son blog. Apres avoir lu une grande partie de son archive, je l’ai ajouté à mon liste de contacts sur MSN Messenger et la tout a commencé, on a « chatté » ensemble pendant deux mois plusieurs heures par jour au bout desquels sur un coup de tête je l’avoue, je l’ai invité à venir à Beyrouth. C’était un jour pluvieux, le pauvre, lorsqu’on s’est rencontré, il était trempé jusqu’aux os ; on a passé deux jours qu’on est loin d’oublier un jour. Des là, tout s’est accéléré ; maintenant on est amoureux jusqu’aux bouts des ongles. English Summary: Do you know couples who have met via chat or blogs and who have ended with a serious relation?I have myself met a magnificiant guy throutgh the net. I have read several of his comments on blogger's post then visited his blog. I was impressed by his writings so i added him to my MSN messenger list. We chatted for 2 months then i invited him to Beirut where we have spent 2 unforgetable wonderful days. I can admit now with no fears, we are passionate LOVERS.

Move On

You dumped him. Now, he is over you.

Of Bias and Prejudice

Sometimes I wonder about people. Really. How does one get so obtuse? Are you born with it or is it acquired? There's this hunk of a coworker of mine. 30 years old. All muscles and no brain. He came up with a wonderfully Freudian hypothesis about another coworker of ours - which neither of us can stand by the way, but that's another story. She's 35, single, and without an ounce of humor in her body (she pretends she is the best thing that happened since Bill Cosby, but she fools no one - elle est vraiment insupportable!). A bit on the short side, with short hair and no taste in clothes. But I digress. So his hypothesis is that this girl is a lesbian. Why? Well not only because she is a single woman with short hair, but also because she talks to him while looking him straight in the eye (!!!). In his opinion, women should talk to guys they don't know with a bit of shyness, and it bothers him that she is so blunt and direct. And this - in his dictionary - makes her a lesbian! He was so adamant about it that he didn't even listen to what I had to say about the matter, and I couldn't argue further with him because the woman in question walked in abruptly. So - what do y'all think about this?

Lebanese bloggers meet

You can let go of my arm now Delirious, I'm writing it! Yesterday saw 3 eminent representatives of AD-LIBanaises (Eve, Public Relations; Delirious, Communications Desk; and myself, Foreign Affairs) enjoying a new bloggers' meet in The Coffee, Monnot, recommended by one Maldoror who clearly wished to save his energy to be the life of the party, given he lives around the block. There were familiar faces, such as Ahmad - to me the only familiar face bar the aforementioned 4 – and a great deal of new blood: Nabil (Nobilis), Michael Totten, Charles, François, and I'm terribly sorry but I can't remember the names of the others though I do remember faces and conversations. The point is, that was a lot of guys for only three attending women, but Eve and Delirious smoothly hosted talks and innocently shuffled the seats every now and then. Which as far as breaking up political discussions went, was an inefficient tactic to say the least. At least we managed to keep the sugar out of Maldoror's hands. From the look of things though, we'll need to plan the next meet at a stadium or some other place that can handle us all.

"Tear"ing us down?

A document I've been translating stirred my curiosity today about why we cry, and why is it that we, as women, are often accused of resorting to our "crocodile tears", to make the best out of a certain situation. I mean you've probably heard it all: women's tears are "the world's greatest water power", "stronger than any acid", and "every woman is wrong, until she cries". Confessions of a misogynistic mind, you'd ask? First, since it's really "uncool", according to our prejudgments, to see a man crying, it turns out that women do it 64 times a year, as an average, while men just 17. (Frankly, I'd like to hear what our fellow male bloggers have to say about those 17 times! What do you say girls? Would they be able to name the top 10 times they gave up to their tears, during the past year for example?). Now let's hear what we're accused of. It seems we have figured it all out; it's mechanical: We just release a salty, protein-rich fluid from our lachrymal apparatus, improvise adjustments in the muscles of our facial expression, add a few non-specific and incomprehensible vocalizations, and convulsively inhale and exhale air with spasms of the respiratory and trunk muscle groups! Hmm, we can turn everything into art, even crying! Now, whether those were the observations of really desperate husbands or not, and whether women cry because of lost loves, a silly romantic movie, or just because of onions, the truth is: it makes us feel better. What's more, researches have proved that emotional tears contain 20-25% more protein, including various hormones; and that a "good cry" helps in removing excess chemicals, which are not very good for the body. We live longer, have less heart problems, a more beautiful skin, because of crying. It's also a way of communication; perhaps the only way to express ourselves when words fail us, and we're only left with this call for help, attention or forgiveness. Some may call that manipulation, but all of the above show it's a perfectly healthy situation, don’t you agree? Let's not forget that if we can conquer the strongest of men with just a couple of our tears, that shows we're not the weakest human gender after all! W ba3dein, there are a couple of historic examples worth mentioning. Yes, guys, you cry too! Indeed, Francis of Assisi is said to have gone blind from too much crying. In the 12th century epic, Song of Roland, the lords of France weep bitter tears, pull their beards and faint from grief. And then, there's always Bill Clinton who constantly manage to tear up at need (Once, notoriously, Clinton was laughing and joking with colleagues at a funeral when he noticed he was being filmed. So he immediately became serious and welled up)… Anyway, who says manly tears are something to be ashamed of? Don't you just feel like giving him a big hug, and telling him that everything will be alright in the end? *For more information about crying and tears, check this interesting article*

When you thought you knew it all...

I just learned that the word necrophilia is the erotic attraction to dead bodies. That's gross...so gross

Venetian Glass

As one who sails upon a wide, blue sea Far out of land, his mind intent Upon the sailing of his little boat On tightening the ropes and shaping fair his course Hears suddenly, across the endless sea The rhythm striking of some towered clock, And wakes from thoughtless idleness to time; Time, the slow pulse which beats eternity! So through the vacancy of busy life At intervals you cross my path and bring The deep solemity of passing years For you I have shed bitter tears For you, I have relinquished that for which my heart cried in selfish longing. And tonight, having just left you, I can say: "Tis well, Thank God I have known a soul so true, so nobly just, so worthy to be loved!" by Amy Lowell, as tears drip from the heart

The Top 10 Lies Happy Husbands Tell

"Sure, honey, that dress looks fine." Why he tells it: Hassle avoidance "I can fix it." Why he tells it: Ego protection "I was not looking at her boobs." Why he tells it: To achieve a delicate balance between marital harmony and 4 million years of biological conditioning "Nothing's wrong." Why he tells it: To lick his wounds in private "I tried to call you." Why he tells it: Self-defense "I don't want to have sex unless you want to." Why he tells it: To avoid seeming like a sex-crazed monkey "I'm the best, baby." Why he tells it: To make you glad you married him "My old girlfriend? She was just okay." Why he tells it: Self-preservation "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Why he tells it: Desperate self-preservation "I'll never lie to you." Why he tells it: To live happily ever after

The wounds of the war haven't healed

The following article brings up an essential question that is being asked in Lebanon and no one really has the correct answer to it. Should the Lebanese forget the past? Forget the war? Forget their loved ones who are missing or dead? Or do they need to find out the truth for closure? How difficult is it to find the truth? What are the consequences of finding the truth? What do you think should be done? Mothers Press Issues of War That Lebanese Want to Forget Loved Ones Still Missing From Years of Conflict By Anthony Shadid Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, January 2, 2006 BEIRUT -- On this morning, as on every morning since Oct. 17, 1985 , Audette Salem cleaned the rooms of her son and daughter. She left his razor, toothbrush and comb as they were on the day her children were abducted from the streets of Beirut during Lebanon 's civil war. She fiddled with her daughter's makeup and straightened her bed. She dusted the three guitars, the papers still on their desks and the pack that holds a 20-year-old cigarette, the artifacts of two lives interrupted. "Everything is there as they left it," she said. "I haven't changed a thing, nothing at all. It's all still there." At 70, quiet but determined, Salem is a woman who clings to memories in a country that prefers to forget. In the heart of downtown Beirut , ravaged by a brutal 15-year civil war, then rebuilt into a graceful, if somewhat soulless, urban hub, Salem joins other women every day in a protest demanding to know the fate of their children. Many believe they languish in jails in neighboring Syria . Others are not sure. Behind them, their children's faces stare from pictures tacked to billboards, blank faces with generation-old haircuts, the dates of their disappearances reading like a war memorial yet to be built. Continue reading here

A New Year Wish

I wish this will be the year when our country's legislation will cease to be so blatently sexist and will allow Lebanese women to be rightful holders/transmitters of their citizenship. Perhaps, then, my passport will mean a little more than just the visa it is right now. Some people have given me shit for saying things like that or thinking this way and that my love for the motherland should supersede my selfish interests. Yeah, well, I love Lebanon's soil, I love my fellow countrypeople, I love the smells, sights, sounds of it all. But I'll have no respect whatsoever for ANY Lebanese governing institution or politician so long as they'll have none for me. So let them keep their precious little booklets and papers. Mine sit at the bottom of a dusty drawer, while the French version is neatly put away. I don't necessarily like France better than Lebanon. But France, at least, does not treat me like a meaningless second class citizen. Yes ladies. If you don't have the power to bring your loved ones into the Lebanese tribe, then you're a second class citizen. You're still cute, sexy, fun, smart, intelligent, a contributor to the country's GDP, a voter and so forth. But you have no say in the admissions process. Part of the system and all that. How utterly depressing. Happy New year.