Mind Soup

Who's gonna get me a cupcake? This week, Mind Soup turns three, though it seems that I have been blogging for a much longer time. It has been a great year for the blog; featured several times in print and on Al Jazeera as well as cited in several studies and MBA thesis projects so I'm proud :') I'd love to thank all my readers especially my friends who have always shown great support in my blog and kept it going even when I had absolutely no time to update it. At the beginning of this year, I was thinking that this would be the last year for the blog but with all this encouragement and exposure, I just couldn't retire it. Yesterday, Mind Soup's facebook page  received its 1000th like, and that is possibly the best birthday present :) So here's to many years to come and may you always come back and find fresh posts!

Mind Soup was featured again in this month's Communicate Magazine for the " What Lebanese brands need to know about social media " post. The magazine says: Just in case Lebanese brands might forget (and they usually need reminders in that matter), Mohammad again goes through the basic rules of how to smartly use social media. "Whenever the Lebanese get their hands on a new toy, they become very 'creative' and try to abuse that tool until it cannot breathe any more," he says. Too true. Thanks to @ FunkyOzzi  for the photo :)

I don't know if you already heard about the incident with what I'm gonna call an "excuse of a blogger" and perhaps an "excuse of an educated human being". A person by the name of Ribal Abi Raad revived his blog after he got "inspired" by my post " Breakdown of AUB students " in an attempt to bash my blog post or entire blog or me as a person. He claims that he knows who I really am and bases his criticism on this assumption. It is ironic how someone thinks they know all about you if they met you once in your life (four years ago). I will refrain from defaming this scumbag even though he might deserve it. It is unfortunate how some people can be so tight-minded and cannot appreciate a piece of humor. But what seems the most evident is how he chose perhaps the most popular post on this blog to revive his blog. I never thought that some people in the Lebanese blogosphere could swoop so low. Personally, I do not consider him part of this bl...

Yesterday, Mind Soup has turned two years old. I can't really believe it. It still seems like yesterday when I spontaneously decided to start a blog and worried about design layouts and content. Now, after two full years I stand proud of my commitment to my blog and it subsidiaries. This year has brought a lot of accomplishments which include: having the great Daisy join in and continuously post about her experiences and opinions being featured in several newspaper and magazine articles both online and offline. being the first google search for several articles. 300,000 hits on several pages integrating with several social media sites such as facebook and twitter recently creating a supplementary tumblr page giving me the inspiration to establish Online Collaborative and enriching my interest in social marketing. being known as a relevant source of news and opinion articles and a place where freedom of speech is exercised Even though this year has also...

Screenshot of " A Separate State of Mind " MIND SOUP :  A Separate State of Mind  is a new blog on the Lebanese blogosphere which discusses life, music, politics, movies and thoughts of a Lebanese youth, Elie, who is one of my best friends. I have been trying to get Elie to start a blog since I created Mind Soup two years ago (2nd birthday coming up on Feb 21 :D) but his laziness and procrastination delayed it. He has had some guest posts here on Mind Soup but now he took the plunge and after some quick trial with tumblr, he started his full wordpress.com blog:  http://stateofmind13.wordpress.com . A few things you might want to know about Elie: He's a huge Carrie Underwood fan that I started calling him a Carrieoholic.So you should definitely expect to see some posts about her. He likes country music and pop (Britney Spears anyone?) He likes to watch movies, and I mean a lot of movies, so he will be posting some movie reviews. His taste in mo...

Photo of me featured on MTV last night part of Save Aya campaign ( www.saveaya.org ). They also mentioned that I am a blogger. So proud! You can watch it on the MTV website (around minute 10) Thanks to @ SalvadorRudy who brought it to my attention :)

Mind Soup was featured in TimeOut Beirut 's student magazine Trashed in its pilot issue. Even though I have been very lately and not posting regularly, I'm very glad that the blog is still getting a lot hits and publicity. Im very excited that we will reach 100,000 visitors this month. A snapshot from the magazine The text reads: Mohammad Hijazi, 21, Biology and Business Administration, AUB [ moudz.blogspot.com ] Mind Soup is a cultural blog about Lebanon and the Middle East. It contains posts about various topics including music videos, fun news, entertainment, politics, science, sports, poetry, fails, technology and much more. The blog has several contributers, mainly Moudz and Daisy who maintain the blog. Recurrent topics include student life, Lebanon, Beirut, Middle East, and AUB.

To whom it may concern, It seems that there is a common misconception going on on campus and elsewhere that I am the hidden person behind " The Worst of AUB " blog that contains criticizing articles, photos and videos about AUB. This is to denounce any involvement in the creation, publishing or maintaining the mentioned blog. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from the administrator of the blog "AUBite" who wishes to remain anonymous (I don't blame him/her). The purpose of this e-mail was only to request publishing rights of one of my copyrighted articles , which I granted. Although my articles are being republished there, I take no responsibility of the other content published by this blog, nor any material that may not "uphold the spirit of AUB." I urge those who are making false accusations to get the facts straight before spreading rumors. I value my positions and current jobs and I do not intend to lose any of them because a someone couldn...

I was checking google buzz this morning and I found a post by Joseph Alam about Lebanese blogs being featured in the blogosphere section of Communicate paper-back magazine. I was surprised to find that Mind Soup was featured in the June 2010 issue for the Lebanese Bloggers Convention at AUB post. Too bad that this event was cancelled due to "special circumstances". Anyway, I will still be working for this event to happen and updates will be posted soon. Anyway, I would like to thank Communicate Magazine for featuring Mind Soup in their blogosphere; it came as a unexpected surprise. Here's the page where Mind Soup was featured. (click photo to enlarge) Here's a list of fellow Lebanese bloggers who weer also featured: Plus961 : See Through ads   Bazella w Riz : Dark Days Have Come Beirut/NTSC : Marie France Free Advertising Through Hearsay Maya Zankoul: Smile Like You Mean It  Joe's Box: COPYCHICKEN - Part 2  

If you want to link to Mind Soup on your blog or website, just copy the code below to your blog: <img src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs447.snc3/25638_408514258523_160046903523_5137637_72369_n.jpg" width="228" height="106" id="myphoto" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: left; cursor: pointer; " /> Don't forget to inform us that you linked to us! :) 

Put on your walking shoes and join us on June 6th when we Walk the World to fight hunger. This is an annual global event to raise awareness and funds for WFP’s efforts to end child hunger and malnutrition. Hundreds of thousands of people in more than 200 countries in the world will walk 5 kilometers to show their support and take a stand against child hunger. The walk takes place across a 24-hour time span, in 70 countries around the world, with over 360,000 people walking five kilometers. It begins in Auckland, New Zealand and finishes in Samoa. Last year, enough money was raised to provide school meals for one year to more than 20 thousand children in the world's poorest countries. At walktheworld.wfp.org you can find out if there’s a walk near you, create your own walk, or join our virtual walk. Unfortunately, there is not walk in Lebanon. The closest walk is in Jordan :( This is a sticky post. All new posts before June 7 will appear below it.

Dear readers, I'm sure you have noticed that a few days ago, Mind Soup have welcomed a new contributing blogger, Daisy. This is to officially announce that she is not going anywhere anytime soon. ;) Daisy is an aspiring scientist, an activist and a personal friend. She has also dabbled in journalism for quite some time now. You might also notice that she has a striking resemblance to  Morticia Addams  from the Addams Family , except for the hair. (or maybe not?) I'm sure you will be entertained and interested by her numerous posts on Mind Soup. Daisy, on behalf of the Mind Soup team, I would like to welcome you to the team :)

I am officially not supporting the Tuition Increase protest anymore. Why am I so pissed, you ask? This protest, no matter how important, will effectively ruin around four months of work for the student organized AUB Outdoors and one month work for the Lebanese Bloggers Convention at AUB. What the protesters don't realize is that because of the tuition, the media will badly convey the situation in AUB, will over-explode the protest and portray to the public that AUB is unsafe, which will decrease the attendees of the AUB Outdoors. The profits of the AUB Outdoors goes solely to the AUB clubs and societies and AUB financial aid; these clubs that are helping organize this protest! How is this not a double-standard, really? Also, the fund that goes to financial aid will substantially decrease, and ironically this may be one of the goals of the tuition increase to begin with. Moreover, how selfish are the people who demand that students don't attend classes in a...

Dear bloggers, I was informed today that the Students Affairs Office at AUB has decided to cancel the Lebanese Bloggers Convention due to the Tuition Increase protest. I will be discussing this issue with the Dean's Office for the possibility of postoning it rather than cancelling it. If will post updates here later. Below is the e-mail sent from the Coordinator of Student Affairs (Hiba Hamade) to Outlook Editor in Chief (Yahia Hamade). Best regards, Mohammad Hijazi ----- Forwarded message from hh62@aub.edu.lb -----    Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 12:09:47 +0300    From: Hiba Hamade < hh62@aub.edu.lb > Reply-To: Hiba Hamade < hh62@aub.edu.lb >  Subject: Outlook Activity on Wednesday, May 19      To: myh07@aub.edu.lb      Cc: hh62@aub.edu.lb Dear Yahia, Due to special circumstances on Campus this week, the blogger's event on Wednesday, May 19 is cancelled. Thank you, Ms. Hiba Hamadeh, Coordinator ...

Most of you might have heard about the tuition increase protest that will be occurring in AUB on Wednesday. Here's a small briefing: The AUB Administration has announced last week that it will be abandoning the current 12-credit tuition system (whereby students pay only for 12 credits, and can get up to 17 credits for free) to a 15-credit tuition system without reducing the credit price. This will lead to a 25% increase for new enrolling students (around $3000 to $4000 per year). Anyway, the student governance at AUB in coordination with various clubs and societies are protesting starting Wednesday and calling for students to boycott their classes. A huge number of students (around 2000) will be blocking AUB's main entrances, buildings and pathways for some time. It is still not clear how long this protest will last, but I was informed that they are planning to stay longer than 5:00 PM. During this time, security at AUB will be greatly heighte...

This article is featured on the Support Freedom of Speech Blog . --- A month ago, I got recommended by a friend to work for Align, the official Olayan School of Business (OSB) monthly electronic newsletter at the American University of Beirut (AUB). I applied and immediately got accepted. AUB Campus Two weeks ago, the letters of acceptances to the AUB Medical School were sent out to senior premedical students. In short, several very qualified candidates did not get acceptance letters while others with much lower grades got the approval. The role of ‘wasta’ (i.e. connections) was very apparent, especially with the new rolling-out admissions system they are implementing. In a spontaneous effort to expose the truth while trying to cheer the deserving people up, I published an opinion piece on my personal profile on Facebook and my personal blog “ Mind Soup ” discussing the effect of ‘wasta’ and favoritism on decisions made by several departments in AUB whil...

As of February 21st, Mind Soup has entered its second year of existance. This wouldn't have been possible without all its readers, authors and fans. Thank you all. We appreciate all your support.

I have recieved an interesting email recently from Anne Lee, who has informed me that Mind Soup is a googlewhack. A Googlewhack is a kind of a contest for finding a Google search query consisting of exactly two words without citation marks, that return exactly one hit, no less no more. A Googlewhack must consist of two actual words found in a dictionary. A Googlewhack is considered legitimate if both of the searched-for words appear as live links in Answers.com in the blue bar above the Google results. Published googlewhacks are shortlived, since when published to a web site, the new number of hits will become at least two, one to the original hit found, and one to the publishing site. For that reason, I will not publish what exactly the two words, to preserve this googlewhack as long as possible. Can you find them on your own? If you do, please click here to inform me. Here are the official rules of googlewhack. Thank you Anne Lee for informing me.

Since Mind Soup is part of the Bloggers Against Hunger program hosted by the World Food Programme, and because of the current tragic circumstances in Haiti, I am sharing the below as means for anyone who is able to donate and contribute to save lives of people there. A massive earthquake hit Haiti late Tuesday, killing hundreds of people and wounding many more. The quake, measuring 7 on the Richter scale, has caused widespread damage in and around the capital Port-au-Prince, leaving a large number of people homeless and hungry. The people of Haiti need food assistance as quickly as possible to prevent hunger worsening the misery already caused by the disaster. This is said to be Haiti's worst quake in two centuries. Every hour we wait means more lives are at risk.  Donate now by clicking here!

Just a quick note that Mind Soup can be accessed through MindSoup.tk if you don't want to type moudz.blogspot.com every time you want to access the blog. Best Regards, moudz