Mind Soup

This is a repost guest post by a good friend Hala Hassan which was originally posted at A Seperate State of Mind , a recommended blog by another great friend Elie Fares . Hear it from those who were there. A neighboring country at war, you sympathize. Innocent civilians torn into pieces under the wreckage of their houses, you shed a couple of tears. Frightened children and sick elderly begging for international intervention, you pray deaf ears listen somehow. But what if you were that citizen in that country, held up in your house, scared like you’ve never been, reciting every single prayer that ever crossed your mind for those bombshells to stop and those warplanes hovering in the sky to go away… Yes, it’s been 5 years since “July war”, “the 33 days war”, “the 6th Lebanese/Israeli war” or whatever they want to call it. But for that traumatized girl, it still feels like yesterday… To survive a war is one supposedly satisfying ending. Not to have lost a family member is considered a bl...

The Standing Committee On Reproductive health including HIV/AIDS (SCORA) in the Lebanese Medical Students International Committee (LeMSIC) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) was holding a campaign to raise awareness for International Women's day which is usually on the 8th of March of every year. That's me :) Their campaign consisted of a photo-shoot of people holding a green board that they can write whatever they want on. Of course it had to be relevant to the topic, though some did go a little out of subject, but that is okay. They also had a very creative idea where they created a bathroom cabin (with no toilet) that people can actually go in and write on the bathroom wall too. There were also purple-green-white handmade bracelets handed out for free to participants. They will be collecting these photos to create an exhibition in AUB to display the statements and people in these photos. Below are just a random selection of photos that I took from the event...

(photo from Dexcomics by Hatem Hamaoui) Well, this would have worked just fine; if octopuses weren't attracted to silicon! I guess that Paul the Octopus could have chosen a better decision than the panel of judges who were there. Most of them were business people or other non-related figures who really had no knowledge of beauty. Such decisions should be made by experts, such as people with the knowledge of the female body, artists, etc... Tallness is not the only criteria of a Miss Lebanon.

Below is a post from a new blog on the Lebanese scene: TnT: A Blog About Life and Everything in Between . Two of my great friends ( Tom and Tal ) are united to bring you posts about "the sports, the thriller novels, the songs, the lyrics, the village, the city, computers, the environment, chances, differences, fates, people, and everything in between." So head on over there and show them some support! (This post is obviously written by Tal and not Tom :P) Last night [Friday], I was lured into watching the elections of Miss Lebanon 2010 because there were no football matches being broadcast and no newly downloaded episodes of Glee on my laptop. But the main reason I tuned in was out of pure intrigue. The newly crowned Miss, Rahaf Abdallah, and I are both alumnae of the same high school and naturally, former classmates and teachers took their Facebook accounts to show their support and encouragement once news broke out that she would be participating in this year’s pageant. ...

I found this picture posted here and it got me thinking. Ah, Disney, you always seem to spread the worst possible message to young girls out there. There's always a prince out there that must "save" us. If they really want to teach young children something new, they should make a "Beauty and the Beast" where the genders were switched. They have improved in more recent movies, but the above characters are "classic" characters and such movies will probably be viewed over and over for many years to come. *Sighs*

I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste. -- David Bissonette When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her. -- Sacha Guitry After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together. -- Hemant Joshi By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. -- Socrates Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them. -- Dumas The great question which I have not been able to answer... Is, "What does a woman want? -- Sigmund Freud I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me. -- Anonymous Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays,...

Please take a moment to have a good look at this picture.... And keep it in your mind for the rest of your life. As much as it hurts, you will be glad you saw it today, because one day it might save your life and the life of the ones you love... I'm sure that none of us would like to stand in that man's shoes Or even worse, in her shoes ... actually both are the same. So the next time you're driving and your loved ones are with you Just remember this picture, drive carefully and MAKE THEM WEAR THE SEAT BELT S . You may be perfect and you never make mistakes, but unfortunately others are not!!!... So stay safe.

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Situation: Not Doing the Dishes Hers: "Someone left their dishes in the sink! Someone who eats Lucky Charms! Didn't you buy Lucky Charms? I really don't want to point fingers, I want to share the responsibilities of living together, but it just upsets me when people don't respect my space and thus, don't respect me. We can all be adults about this and talk it out. If it doesn't change, I'm going to schedule a mediation with the RA." His: "Whoa, check out this mold! Cool!" Situation: Keeping the Lights/Music on Late Hers: "Hey, um, so, I noticed your light is still on, and it's, like, 3AM." "I'm just having a hard time falling asleep." "Oh my God, is there something you need to talk about?! Is this about Brad? It is, isn't it." "I don't understand why he doesn't want to be with me!" "You're so much better than him! I'm coming over there and we are s...

With the media heating up for the December Climate Change Summit in Denmark, it is time to for some reflection. Does the name "Severn Cullis-Suzuki" mean anything to you? Severn was 12 when in 1992, she raised money to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. She spoke to the summit members in a speech which became famous. A speech which -sadly enough- could have been given today. It makes one wonder what progress really happened in the past 17 year. Do we actually make progress on protecting our planet for the sake of our children, and their children? In an age where Green Goes Commercial, where corrupt companies like Monsanto and Cargill start dominating our food chain, and chase the food prices up so the poor no longer have access to food. A world where Western companies buy up fertile land in Africa to grow biofuel crops so less land becomes available for food agriculture? Did we make progress, or are we still sliding downhill?

NOTE: This application will be incomplete and rejected unless accompanied by a complete financial statement, job history, lineage, and current medical report from your doctor.

School buses in Japan School buses in India Can you spot the difference?

I have been reading a book called 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google and found the section below under chapter 9 and I thought I'd share it with you guys. You can download the whole book here . We might forget how much fun a search engine is, and how much time it saves us in doing everyday things, until the internet connection is interrupted and we’re left without Google. (Or, and this happens more rarely, when Google itself is down.) But usually after some minutes, things are back to normal – and we got our extended memory, our library of more books we could ever read, our information center, and our universal answer machine. And now, for just a moment, I would like you to imagine what today’s life would be without all that. What life would be without Google... and how much more time we’d be spending on solving our problems. Finding Your Lost Keys With Google: You enter “How to find lost keys” into Google, and the pages you find suggest to search every place again. Time spent...

The child eats 10,000 calories a day, she cannot walk or bear physical strain and her cardiovascular system is at risk. Seven-year-old Jessica Gaude differs greatly from her pals. With 222 kilograms, she is the fattest child in the world. She eats 10,000 calories each day in Coca-Colas, 15 hamburgers with fries and several kilograms of chocolate. What she eats in one day some children eat in half a year. Her breakfast consists of white bread, potato chips and two litres of coke. And she wants more. When she last visited the doctor four years ago she had 110 kilograms. Unfortunately, she can no longer run and instead of walking she drags herself on the floor. Under such bodily weight her bones have already become distorted. Mother Carolyn gives her daughter whatever the child wants. In the first week after she was born, when the baby cried because of stomach pains, the mother calmed her by feeding her with a bottle beca...