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AMMAN // Jordanians Dima and Lama Hattab are hoping to be the first twin sisters to conquer the world’s highest mountain – but are struggling to find the funding for their adventure in a country that does not have a tradition of professional female athletes. (Source)

It’s exciting to hear other Arabic accents spoken by people I could never have guessed that they’re not Jordanian. Knowing that appearances no longer distinguish people despite of their different nationalities is, in my opinion, something worth celebrating =)

Living in the UAE for 13 years, I can say that one of very few things I liked about living there is that people came from all over the world, literally. They might have come for financial reasons, but the result is amazing. My closest friends over the years were Palestinian (Gazan) and Lebanese in grade school, Egyptian and Syrian in prep school, Sudanese, Palestinian and Emirati in high school and Palestinian and Emirati in college. And those were the close ones but you might have guessed that I grew up surrounded by a mixture of interesting people who came from Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq…you name the country, I had the chance to be around people who lived there, or at least their parents did and hence, they were the result of that country’s culture by their upraising.

Amman is becoming a host to many Arabs, sadly because of political reasons but that doesn’t mean we can’t look at the bright side of this one!

One of the positive outcomes of the situation we have is the transfer of knowledge and cultural exchange at an advanced stage of co-living. But what I strongly believe in, is that it helps us reach higher levels of tolerance and acceptance of the other. But then again, acceptance is a term many people use but seem to never really think about, otherwise no one would feel discriminated against one way or another. Some of us wouldn’t admit that they’re in fact racist, but deep down, they know they don’t approve of something such as an interracial marriage for example, even when the different “race” is really just a family who lives across the border.

I don’t want to talk about interracial marriages and how I personally view them as more successful (and definitely interesting) than normal inside marriages, but on a general note I truly believe that we’re meant to meet and learn from each other, celebrate beautiful differences and look for things that tie us all together…

That’s the conclusion of a US study looking at the spread of happiness and depression across social networks.

Happy people cluster together, the research suggests. And the opposite also seems to be true — so if you are miserable, you are more likely to have miserable friends.

The effect holds in both the real and virtual worlds. People who put smiling photos on their profiles for social networking sites such as Facebook tend to link to one another. Frowners do likewise.

But it’s not just direct contact that counts. The link is significant to three degrees of separation — that is, your own emotional state is connected to that of your friends’ friends’ friends. (Source)

Well, “clusters of happiness” seem too cheerful for me.

I’ll be honest with you, I rarely if ever accept “funny stickers”, “fun wall” posts or other supposedly funny applications for so you can say that I do have happy friends if the definition of that is now measured by the number of funny posts and videos one sends or receives but also based on the same measure, it looks like I’m immune to it.

I also never download any of the funny videos or power point files my friends send to me through Email. I just can’t be bothered by electronic funny stuff. Don’t know why. I probably smile and giggle more than your average Arab friend but online humor in the form of facebooking or Email attachments annoy me. They’re distractions and time wasters to me more than anything else.

Would be interesting though to know if my facebook friends think I’m a happy person !

Jack Nickolson and Morgan Freeman are cancer patients who share the same hospital room (ironically owned by Nickolson). They soon become friends and together co-write a list of things they want to do before they “kick the bucket” (hence the movie’s name).

The movie is a must-see for all ages, simply because it talks about the most important things in life and death: Friendship, goodness, joy and love. I know it sounds like a cheesy movie, but it isn’t. It does get emotional and even real-life serious in some scenes but it balances things out with some of the most hilarious lines I’ve heard in a long while.

My favorite quote though is what Carter (Morgan Freeman) says at the beginning of the movie about how we measure our lives, he says “I believe you can measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you”. And I wonder if that in fact is the sole judge of a life well-lived. It does make sense though, and it was touching to recall what he said in the end of the movie.

I’d give this movie a score of 5/5 on my personal scale.

eXPAND is Faridon Abida’s latest photography exhibition which started on the 16th of this month and will continue till the 26th (you have only two days left so hurry up!). I’ve been to Faridon’s previous exhibition and from an admirer’s point of view, I must say that I was a bit disappointed this time. But again, I’m not a photographer nor an artist. I’m sure that photographers would appreciate his latest collection more, being interested in the quality and all the camera-related details. I liked the grey-scale photography the most.

It is definitely worth checking out. The exhibition is being held at Zara Center, on the 3rd floor.

And I don’t even need to be Muslim to figure that Gaza siege should end. This sort of things should not be Islamized like that, for one, who’s to say we’re going to hell if we don’t speak about what’s going on , and how frequently should we speak before we get the pardon from hell? and second, Palestine is for everyone and not just Muslims.

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??? ???? ??? ???” ?? ??? ?????? ????? ???????? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?? ??????? ????? ???? ???????? “.

???? ????? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ????????? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ???? ??? :” ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ???????? ??????? ????” (Srouce)