This hash-tag [ #stopkony ] has been spreading like fire on Twitter along with the [ Invisible Children's ] campaign to shed light on the atrocious Joseph Kony’sconduct with his own fellow citizens with their amazing video Kony 2012.

Who’s Joesph Kony:

Joseph Kony is the world’s worst war criminal. In 1987 he took over leadership of an existing rebel group and renamed it the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA has earned a reputation for its cruel and brutal tactics. When Joseph Kony found himself running out of fighters, he started abducting children to be soldiers in his army or “wives” for his officers. The LRA is encouraged to rape, mutilate, and kill civilians–often with blunt weapons. The LRA is no longer active in northern Uganda (where it originated) but it continues its campaign of violence in Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan. In its 26-year history, the LRA has abducted more than 30,000 children and displaced at least 2.1 million people.

Invisible Children has been working for 9 years to end Africa’s longest-running armed conflict. U.S. military advisers are currently deployed in Central Africa on a “time-limited” mission to stop Kony and disarm the LRA. If Kony isn’t captured this year, the window will be gone.

They produced this movie [ WATCH HERE ] KONY 2012; A film and campaign that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for

Visit this site for more info & to spread the word  * www.kony2012.com *

I cannot even attempt to imagine how his poor parents are coping with dilemma, allah ye9abberhom o yeshfee Fahad enshallah  and that would be through help we could all assist in bringing together for the sake of this child and the over priced transplant he urgently requires. God, money IS such an issue ha?!la 7awla wala qowwata ella bellah

[ Danderma ] emailed us for this and attached Fahad’s photo as we as a copy of his medical reports. You know how influential you guys can be by just spreading the word on his case here – elsewhere hoping for a miracle to happen…

Danderma’s email:

Remember last time when we tried to help the cancer patient Abdul Kareem and we made quite a buzz he actually got several sponsors. Having a sponsor is their last hope, check out this adorable little baby esh7elwah o his chin killa sa3abeel. His mother is a Kuwaiti and his father is a Syrian. He has lukemia,and needs bone marrow transplant to live but non of his family members are matches to donate to him so they found him a donor in India but they need a sponsor to donate 37 thousand KDs so he can have it.

تذكرون حالة عبد الكريم؟ من خلال نداء اطلقناه من مدوناتنا قدرنا نوصل حالة عبد الكريم للأيدي الكريمة اللي ما قصرت و تكفلت بالمبلغ اللازم لعلاجه. التفاعل مع حالة عبد الكريم كان كبير جدا و عدد كبير من الناس عرضوا يتكفلون بعلاجه عشان ينقذونه.

لكن للأسف مرض السرطان مرض قاس و ما يحرم و لا يوقف. في كل يوم حالات أصابات جديدة لكن مو في كل يوم المريض يقدر يوفر العلاج. حالة من هذه الحالات إهي حالة الرضيع فهد المولود لأم كويتية و أب سوري الجنسية. فهد مصاب بسرطان الدم (اللوكيميا) و يحتاج لعملية زرع نخاع عظم لكن للأسف لم بجدوا أي نخاع عظم مطابق من أفراد عائلته فبالتالي يحتاج إلى متبرع بالإضافة إلى عملية زراعة نخاع.

المتبرع و العملية متوافران في الهند. و لكن المبلغ غير متوفر و هو ما يقارب ال 37  ألف دينار كويتي.

في حالة عبد الكريم كان الرجاء هو منحه الأمل بإنقاذ حياته و ساقه. أما في حالة الرضيع فهد فالرجاء في منحه الفرصة ليعيش الحياة! ليكبر و يدخل المدرسة و يلعب و يفرح و يعمل و يتزوج و يموت رجلا كهلا محاطا بأبنائه و أحفاده.

For more information, contact me for the medical report – Danderma through her blog or  Q8Rain@gmail.com – Twitter: @Q8Rain

I’ve been at Zajil Telecom since 2002, had my ups and lots of downs and regardless to how I honestly feel about the place and some of those who work here; I managed to create my own connections with decent human beings. Now we all argue every now and then – It’s human nature not to agree but  respect remains so when I heard of the news on Saturday I prayed for the man and no body knows this till now – I dreamt of him dead! I mean he’s old (60+) and he used to work his ass off for the company (Or that’s what I witnessed at least) so no one had high hopes on his survival after that stroke he had during the weekend and although we should have faith in Allah for he mapped our lives ahead but subhan Allah, it was time for Abu Juma’a to finally rest in peace..

Abu Juma3a – Hajji, used to drive me insane asking for gift items and during events for more coupons or giveaway and I used to always contain myself responding to him because he was an elderly but last Thursday we exchanged “HIs” and he asked about my daughter so when I came to know of his death over dinner, I got too emotional… The idea of losing a person is a blink of an eye scares me to hell! I never openly discussed this with anyone but I sometimes can’t sleep at night praying for Allah to extend the lives of my loved ones and protect them from harm.. I start thinking of different scenarios of what will happen if I lose x or y and I almost end up with one scene: Me dying from a heart attack caused by grief over that person… Ok, this is too depressing from early morning.

“يا أيتها النفس المطمئنة ارجعي إلى ربك راضية مرضية فادخلي في عبادي وادخلي جنتي”

Allah yer7amak bas he used to wear that White dishdasha Winter – Summer! <– Me trying to make this easy :/

of course I think the people who work with him – his department would be devastated and I don’t want to even go there today but his Manager emailed us the following:

(Born – 1945  Died 30^th January 2012)

Please accept our sincere condolences for the sudden loss of our dear colleague Mr. Mohammed Juma Hareeb Yesterday  30^th January 2012.  We can only imagine what a shock it must be to his Zajil extended family. Indeed, it was only Last Thursday that Abu Juma and our colleague shared a humorous time prayed Asar Prayer with him.

Abu Juma  Joined Zajil family on 27-Nov-1991 and I go back more than 20 years as very dedicated and hardworking colleague.  Not only was he a great person,  he was also an excellent co-worker with whom I spent many memorable days at Zajil over the years. He had an amazing sense of humor and was a gifted True & honest Muslim. In business dealings Abu Juma was always straight forward and honest. In short, Our brother Abu Juma was an exceptional friend and colleague who will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

We collectively mourn our Be-loved Marhoom Mohammed Jumma Harib’s loss

You see, he’s not the first at this place to suffer from medical issues and as much as I would like to elaborate, I shall keep quiet out of respect to good individuals working there and in the end I say: I have much more to do in life than lose my mind or sacrifice my health for lame pathetic reasons.  (PERIOD)

May you rest in peace Abo Jum3a..

YES I resumed duty! After ONE YEAR, FIVE MONTHS of maternity leave, I chose to resume work with the beginning of  the new year. I’ve been up since 5:30 AM- I made sure baby had enough of me and I left crying because I will be away from her from 8 to 4:30 5 days a week! *CRY* I wish times were much more simple and life wasn’t as expensive so women would stay home and take care of the kids and yes I would totally encourage any mom to stay home (Based on my personal experience and at least for the first 2 years)… I am aware that I will be missing some important milestones but there’s nothing we can do about it unless I win the God damn Jawhara account prize!!! YA RAB !

So many changes which I need to keep track of, too many people left, many yet to leave and I was surprised with a “kind of “ career change in spite of being under the same domain as well as a new location / office but this time there’s a window!! YES some ventilation hallelujah. I am kinda pissed cuz I am away from those that I know but change is good no?!

I am so happy that there are windows <3 !! It’s refreshing and the view’s a killer! I never knew that garden was THAT big! 7amdellah ! As for the office space itself, it’s just great! I am gonna have my own mini fridge – microwave – Nespresso machine! You name it! and am filling it with my baby’s photos <3 so I see her all around me! *enshallah*

Oh, and the Man decided to treat me to a Diet Center subscription, Let’s see how that’d work with 1050 calories per day!!

I just miss one person in this world more than anyone or anything else … :(

All I remember was picking her off the floor, running around the house like a mad woman not knowing what to do, who to call, how to react! It was a disaster and what made it worse was deciding whom to contact first! All I knew is that they were all going to go angry at me so I started to calm the baby down trying to see if she’s drowsy or if she’s throwing up since it’s one of the signs of having a brain concussion which means it’s an emergency – god forbid this happens again but I was so stupid not to have read about such incidents knowing that children are prone to falling injuries mostly when they start to move around. We monitored her for the next couple of days at my parents house and thank God she was ok – we tried to check all her senses mostly eye movement, hearing as well as her body for bruises just because we were all sick worried. You never know HOW precious your child is till something malicious – evil – disgusting occurs. I later remembered to search Baby Center for more information on head injuries and this link was useful to me and I hope it will be for another new mom out there [ LINK ]

I am currently now planning to childproof my house and NO it is not early because my young one is hyper active and there are many things which need to be off the ground – stored in boxes – given away :/ just to make the house safe and ready for her to discover the place.. Any ideas – tips – advice you mamas out there could share with me?

Even though I’m a superstitious person, I’ve never had to let the baby wear a special evil eye amulet – hmm, only once maybe because it’s better if I just recite some Quran verses in my heart or say Masha2 allah loud when someone makes a comment about her just to ward off any bad eye.

And because I strongly believe in Allah’s protective eyes over my daughter; I decided to post her photo here because I want her to be the biggest part of this blog

*TIFF TIFF TIFF* <– Evil eye spit ! Masha2 allah too! Alma’s 6 months going on 7 God willing

Question: When will my daughter have a full set of hair!? lol ! It’s growing but she totally looks like a “Hammoudi” without a band or beanie ! :/ which reminds me, some stupid people still ask “HOW OLD IS YOUR BOYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!” OMG – SHE HAS EARRINGS ONNNNN for crying out loud!

Over at my parents place and to be more specific, my sister’s room when my eyes came across this mini brochure with the Black lady (I have no other description for it and sorry if you find it offensive, I am not trying to be mean nor make fun) and I was curious more than ever to know why they had the Red big sign on that figure so I read the thing which was ok till I got to the back side of it…

I will translate the above and let you know why I was upset from this:

28- (Literal translation) Watching poisonous Satellite channels and pornographic sites:

OK, I get that porn is a haram and no no but can’t a Muslim after fulfilling his Godly duty pass some time watching a documentary? A movie? Some TV show he-she likes? are all channels bad?! I know that some of’em’s level have stooped down tremendously and just to be honest is garbage but we have brains and we can flip if we don’t want to watch just don’t generalize!

29- (Literal translation) Fall into traps of lies, slander and backstabbing:

Fair enough and true! I mean we were warned in the Quran about it however, it is difficult nowadays to keep our mouths shut and this applies on both genders not women alone! and I won’t go over verses here or quotes because we all know them quite well.

30- (Literal translation) Shaking hands with foreign men = strangers:

Besides the hygienic side to it, it’s all about modest, shyness and self respect and I personally find it hard embarrassing some men who extend their hands for a shake however, I never thought a man rude if he turns me down, you know we just do these things unconsciously..

31- (Literal translation) Not abiding to Sunnah when it comes to beauty and fashion:

Eyebrow plucking [ Al Nams ] is haram but how on Earth am I supposed to go around with nasty eyebrows and facial hair (although I seriously don’t need to do that) but still, being “clean” for your husband and for yourself is something good.. I know it’s haram :/

32- (Literal translation) Being fashionable in an Against Islam manner:

I remember when I put the hejab on, I was strict and very uptight about it till my father told me to go slowly and get used to it and not to wear Abaya or Black / dark head carves and praised me for the move instead of coming down harsh on me like some sheikhs do which honestly drive ladies away from doing that . I know that my attire sometimes is not “Islam appropriate” but does Islam accept Niqabi ladies to ditch their niqab at any possible chance? or have a 5 years old kid wearing an abaya!? Does that plant modesty in them from childhood, is that the purpose? In this era – time, I feel this pushes them to go do the opposite! Also, is it haram if a hejabi lady looks nice in colors and prints AND manage to be covered and decent? or does that make her a sinner?

33- (literal translation) STARING – not looking away:

Hmm… In nature we women are supposed to be shy – decent but some ladies sure as hell master the art of scanning men like a predator mannn they are nasty I assure you and they do more than that when they give guys their numbers or the stupid eye contacts with the BBMs and shit, so I guess BBM – Twitter – FB – internet, alllllllll is haram but we use them and again this is up to the person himself so why specify it in the brochure to women?!

34- (literal translation) Correspond to foreign men / comply to their saying:

I am not sure if I got this one right but if my boss who’s a male asks me for something should I refuse? Because I don’t think a sane woman would take off her panty of a stranger asked her to!

35- (literal translation) Ditching modesty / shyness:

Sometimes ya akhy one goes crazy – upset and voice tone goes a bit, certainly not a nice scene and yes women have to be much subtle and “soft” yet that doesn’t mean that we go into a cocoon and be antisocial

36- (literal translation) Taking pride in your family – ancestry:

Well, to a reasonable extent we all do just don’t go bashing people with you family name … …….

37- (literal translation) Working in a mixed gender workplace:

This point is what ticked me off into writing this post because we are not be zaman el jaheleya! Looooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago things were much different, women were staying home to watch after the family and in Quran we females are the weaker gender and it’s a man’s duty to earn for the household and it would sure be AWESOME if we could all stay home and better watch and take care of the men and children but some scholars really push it when they say women should work in men free organizations and that occupancies are available.. WHERE IS THAT? Even in KSA it’s hard to land such jobs so where in Kuwait good decent women could find decently paying jobs where it’s not mixed for them to support the husband financially? I’ve personally applied at schools and the pay is just not good! yan3y I leave my husband and kid to work for a minimal pay which doesn’t comply to our consumption? la2, I’d rather work with men whom I consider brothers and be normal! If you go back to Muhammed PBUH you’ll read about many examples where he was flexible and understanding and in Islam there are examples of women supporting their elderly fathers so to whomever printed this must further learn about Islam and just not make it harder than it is already for working Muslim decent women :@ Men now can’t just take responsibility for everything! Plain haram because it’s stressful enough to make a decent life and worry about raising kids and living under a roof with basic necessities. Where the hell in my case am I going to apply my studies and uni. degree? being a nurse? teaching girls at a girls only schools? or work from home? who does this in Kuwait, tell me and I will apply? Work at an Islamic bank? Even those places have men, security men? office boys – cleaners!

38- (literal translation) Wearing colored contacts to beautify oneself :

I for one don’t use colored contacts but why not wear them if there’s a girls only gathering?

39- (literal translation) Traveling without a mahram :

A Mahrams is the category that refers to all those males whom a woman cannot marry at anytime in her life whatsoever. In other word a male who is forbidden permanently, forever (i.e. one’s father, brother or son etc). of course if a women is married then she accompanies the husband and again there are many details on certain distances which a woman can go around without her mahram but in the KSA they let them ladies go with their drivers when he is not a mahran obviously so can someone explain how they allow this to happen while Hai2at el amr bel ma3roof people question every single lady and we’ve heard so many stories on women with their own husbands being stopped and asked for some sort of marriage – relation identification eh!  What about business trips?? Do we also say no unless we take a brother, father, grandfather, husband along? no wonder why employers think twice before hiring females besides all the other things we go through from moody PMSing, pregnancy, children and domestic issues to handle..

40- (literal translation) Wearing tight – figure showing abayas and clothes:

I mentioned above that wearing fashionable decent clothes doesn’t do harm and MEN should not stare but for the tight abayas, yes I would say them hideous sometimes FAT ASS women in tight abayas should be punished just because they do serious damage to the eye! Either wear it right or freakin take it off since it shows every single part of you and sometimes they wear nothing underneath and that’s nasty! and this is what I mean when I say that they are forced to wear it just for their families – communities / tradition.

At the end, I just want to clear again that I am not making fun nor am I undermining Islam or what we have to obey from Allah – prophet Muhammed’s PBUH’s saying but times are different and scholars should be more open to flexibility and inviting more people towards Islam not the opposite with such a brochure!

9 months of suffering.. 9 months of being deprived decent food since I mainly lived on ice cream and mostly desserts.. 9 months of sleeping like a bear during hibernation.. 9 months of staying home after work started to get me tensed as well as everyone around me (since I throw tantrums excluding no one).. 9 months of wearing 4 colors of the same pants (H&M’s maternity clothes).. 9 months of being smoke free.. 9 months of being bitchier than I usually am and she came along!

The beginning of the whole pregnancy was a surprise although we were planning on having a baby but just about the time I gave up, I came to knew when the ER doctor demanded I get a test and my first reaction was: “How?” of course he had to mock and replied: “You know how it happened” <– DUH! and of course to spare the world my drama and since I was in the mood for nothing, good ol’ blog was abandoned and I think updating will be an issue since little ALMA (That’s my kid’s name) clutches on to me like a Koala! No matter how hard I try to keep her in bed she starts crying wanting to be held all of the time which I don’t mind honestly, I am just waiting for her to be old enough to dress up without puking all over herself and take her out, have her nails done ;p and go around cruising in the car. All moms know that sleeping during this period becomes if I may say a “wish”; Kid has to be fed every 2 hours besides the diaper changing and anything else that comes along yet again I don’t mind since we spend quality time together and I get to “gaga and gogo” to her in the kitchen where she loves to stay it seems in spite she has lots of nice things to do or places to be like her bassinet or that soft mat with hanging toys or her chair! This one is very stubborn (wonder where she got that from!)

Bism Allah & Masha’allah

I am currently blogging with her on my lap farting (yes babies pass gas like men!) which is making her uncomfortable and since the satellite in the building is not working AND since I managed to do house chores I said yalla, let’s do this quick post before she wakes up asking for her snack.. breastfeeding, was not fun at the beginning but I managed to get along eventually and since we’re talking about this I need to rant out the fact that I am being fed like a cow to lactate and I am gaining weight like never before and this is the most annoying thing to me at this point (My jeans don’t fit no more :( ) so I guess I am going to subscribe to one of those diet centers and hope for fast results. As for work, well.. I enjoy being at home but it sometimes is boring but I don’t know if I would be able to leave kid alone or under the care of a stranger which reminds me, I still don’t have someone to help around the  house although we tried a lady for a month but man got bullestic and decided to terminate her services (a7san) my next plan is to teach Alma how to clean and set her loose around the house with me ! Need I also remind you readers that she clutches on to me to the point that I find it hard to go to the toilet *currently struggling*

So, it’s all about the feeding, changing, bottle sterilizing, clothes washing and burping for now when it comes to this baby. I just can’t wait to have her starting conversations with me which makes up for me feeling that I am missing out on a lot of what’s happening around me… Gosh I feel like am 120 years old! I walk around with a bag full of things for her and bottles and bibs.. bas it’s fun :p 

P.S: Mommyhood teaches you patience so expecting ladies put your stress aside and sleep as much as you humanly can because you won’t be getting enough once you pop baby out!! *Drinks Turkish coffee to stay awake* oh, and expoilt your husband during this period ;p

Before I forget,

He heee, I stole Anil’s design and photo-shoped it since everybody else does it ;) <– big hint!

Married women, is there like a schedule you have for meals to cook everyday !? Or your imagination runs you wild o mashallah y’all are Martha Stewart wannabes! no seriously, if you work and you got like an hour n’ half to whip something up from scratch HOW DO YOU IT EVERY DAY?! and if you don’t what are the options? and do you get to go out like before?! Don’t start giving me the “when you get a baby it’ll be worse” talk I KNOW but why is there so much to do while there’s less time :( !

The End !

I wanted to share my thoughts on this for a while before Frankom posted something similar [ HERE ] , since I am minus “him” today and alone on my sofa here it comes!

Blogging is not like before, by that I mean the good ol’group of internet junkies whom I used to wait for every minute, checking the reader for new posts.. new experiences, learn new vocabulary or get to take a glimpse of their lives from photos they click. I loved when I used to read their angry posts, happy ones or even the sarcastic full of shit and nonsense posts. I miss how we used to have quizzes and we’d all cyber bitch slap each other over winning.. I miss going up with some of you out there! I miss meeting new faces, crazy ones even.. not your regular bloggers meet up, no! This hush hush “let’s get together” gatherings of people who often interact decently with each other and I don’t mean to diss the bloggers meeting but casual meetings with no agendas over coffee or sushi ;p was good..

Guys do you remember the ice cream joint at Beda’a!? I’ve met beautiful people there and ya know who you are ;)

Isn’t blogging supposed to be personal?! you try something and share, you go to a place or event and snap pictures to tell us what you think!? Tell us what happened to you on a certain day or in a certain situation and ask for advice or laugh about it with complete strangers!? Isn’t that what it’s all about?! Yes, some are more successful attracting more readers and generating comments in general but I was always amazed on my ability to aggregate some readers with a touchy post title or post! I love how I get crazy emails from silent readers asking me things or assistance in something. Human interaction done decently is so precious and it is amazing! I confess that I connect with people online better than in reality, I suck in real life but isn’t that why we’re hiding behind those screens with fake nicknames?! You get to know the bad, worse and the worst and along the process you learn to be selective. I love love LOVE how I developed as a human being and evolved my vocabulary by reading YOUR posts out there… I love the fact that when I am looking for something, I go to certain blogs for reference.. I love it when we share a happy moment outside this sphere, you blog it.. Get how much I am attached to all of you in a way and so much to this “space in space” !

- It makes me sad when blogs now are all about sponsors, some deserve it of course, no doubt and are doing a great job promoting these sponsors but seems to me it’s all about personal favors.

- I hate when I read snippets on the reader from a certain blog that shifts between Arabic, bad English then switch to “Arabinglish”! Why don’t you stick to one language based on your target readers man and spare the rest the agony!

- I hate it when all I see on some blogs are email forwards that are OLD STUFF, this is not blogging!! Stick to emails better would ya!

- When you advertise, pls pls pllllllls, try the place out then recommend to others, be a good source of info..

- Viral videos and gossip.. have you nothing better to discuss! I miss when we used to comment on each others’ blogs, I mean the creativity..

- I am not going to talk about blogging ethics since I did that ages ago but if you post something, expect people to answer, condemn, like, hate, argue back and you gotta take it like a champ! I suffered a lot from this and I know some used to hate reading “fuck this – shit that – asshole..” etc but with time, you learn to accept it.. reply or not is your choice.

- Do not underestimate the power of your words, someone out there is reading each and e v e r y letter you type and you are influential.

Will I quit blogging soon?! Hell no! Am I as active as I used to be?! No, I blog when needed and for special occasions or to promote good things / people.. not because someone’s a friend, khalas I HAVE to blog!

Just be sincere and dedicated to your blog man! It’s not about being famous, It’s not about your precious hits and clicks and it sure is not about getting freebies! I respect those who write an honest post on something they received.

Finally, I am happy to see people with ambition and talent out there, you never cease to surprise me! Rockers, techies trying to improve blogging for us.. young ones with visions and fresh ideas.. keep it up, I know after a hundred years, your grandchildren will be reading your posts while making fun of you.. well, I hope me too!

I give up, I surrender, I quit…..