STORIES, STORIES

I have always heard about Crossroads: the moments in your life when you have to make a decision that will change everything. I've been told of the courage that it takes to make that decision, to have the balls to choose a path while not knowing what the outcome would be. The vagueness of it all seems a little too dramatic; everything I've done up to this point has been clear-cut, black-and-white. It's always been either a yes, or a no, and whatever comes next, comes next, no drama. But I find that it's true. That when you reach that point, you find drama staring you in the face. Courage doesn't travel alone, it walks with fear, pain, heartbreak. Life is a huge videogame of levels, of checkpoints, storylines, decisions, battles, and yes, you might die a swift death, and everything you had worked hard for is gone in an instant, and you are left with not much, save for the controller and your numb fingers. But you are given a chance to start over, and every time you do...

I am now going to proceed to write the kind of restaurant review that I'd like to read. Pizza Fusion. Rawdah Street. Next to Bert's Cafe. If you don't know where Bert's Cafe is, what the hell, everyone knows where Bert's Cafe is. Look it up. Ask a friend. Interior was nice. Lighting not harsh, good for photos especially if you haven't plucked your eyebrows, or you have a zit. Small-ish. There are booths. We've gone twice now, both times as a big group of about 10-15, maybe even 20 people. We fit. Comfortable seats. Smoking. Nice pictures on walls. Very health-oriented. My organic friends loved it. Food was good. They serve salads; the gorgonzola and beet and walnut ones are really good. And I'm not even a salad person. Or maybe I was just really starving. They have a whole bunch of pizzas. The sausage and something was good. So was the Big Kahuna, which was bacon and heaps of vegetables. Thin crusts. Nice and filling, the good kind. Unless you stuff your...

Here is the visual representation of my relationship with my older sister J, me being the one on the right, and her on the left. (Yes, I am considerably taller than her.) Here are this week's recommendations: * Law Abiding Citizen . That 2009 movie starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say that even though I give it a 7 out of 10, I liked that my sister and I got to re-discuss some of our favorite moral-dilemma topics such as capital punishment. Other topics we debated (yes, while the film was playing in the background): Gerard Butler's hotness (or notness!), the importance of psy-wars, and how filling and much healthier watermelon is compared to siopao (a Chinese/Filipino delicacy). Don't ask. * Dancing to " My Sharona " and then totally air-guitaring at the part where they go "my-yai-yai-yai-yaii-yeah-whoaaaa!! M-m-m-myyy Sharona". You know you LOVE IT. Doug, RIP. * Billboard ad of "FIN...

I'm totally used to naysayers. From as far back as I can remember, people have been going against whatever I believed in. I've been made fun of, I've been laughed at, I've gotten all kinds of comments, I've gotten into so many arguments, I've fought fiercely for my beliefs. Yes, I'm talking about the Backstreet Boys. They ARE REAL MUSICIANS, OKAY? In the past few weeks that I've been helping out my friend Sharifa with the Earth Hour event in Jeddah, I came across the naysayers again. It's been a while; I had to get reacquainted with dealing with them. There were two kinds of people we had to deal with. 1. The genuinely curious. People who really didn't think Earth Hour was good for anything maybe because they didn't know much about it, or they had misconceptions, or they didn't believe it would work, or whatever other reason. Yes, they might have been harsh with their questions and comments, but one could tell that these people were reall...

Earth Hour comes to Jeddah! On March 27, Saturday, from 8:30 to 9:30, if you live in Jeddah, show support by turning off lights and other non-essential electronics. For more information, you can head on to the Earth Hour Jeddah blog by clicking this link . In the meantime, you can check our latest podcast episode (on the same topic) right here. P.S. For other episodes, subscribe to the podcast, which may be found in this link .

Did you say Simba? photo from The Big Picture I've never been to the zoo. Any zoo. Ever. It's on my bucket list, to visit one someday. The truth is, there is only one reason I've always wanted to go to a zoo: to see a hyena. Sure, maybe it's from all that Simba-watching when I was younger. Here are some words that, according to Wikipedia, are associated with (spotted) hyenas: * gluttony * cowardice * cruelty * treachery * greed * deviant sexual behavior * hysterical * unhinged Of course, I only picked the ones that I think the hyenas and I share. I'm such a hyena. *** When my brother A was about 7, his class went on a field trip to the Jeddah zoo (I think it was called Beautiful Creatures, and probably still is). I was 10 at the time. When he came back, he told me he had seen the hyenas and actually heard them laugh, and that there was a growling undertone to it. I have never forgotten that description. Maybe this year is the year.

Sink or swim. Everybody needs friends to go swimming with. To remind them of the things that make them happy despite bad decisions, despite misfortune, despite turn of events. Some friends don't know how to swim, they just stay in the shallow end. Some are excellent swimmers and teach you how to swim or tread water in the deep end. Some sit by the pool and wait for you, or come and sit on the edge so, feet in the water, and chit-chat with you about video games while you enjoy the water on a hot day. Some tell you to pull up your bikini top. Some get competitive in the water and just want to race, and whoever wins or loses doesn't really matter, as long as they had that rush of competition. Friends bring their kids and trust you to look after them while they go change into their swimsuits. Some don't even swim, they just come over in their regular outfits to have a smoke and enjoy the weekend. With you. The stuff you will remember in the future. Swimming pools are a lot like...

It could be anything. Things that (used to) annoy you. Your father's low-brow sense of humor. His wheezing. His fashion style. His anecdotes. Your mother's harsh rhetoric. Her haste. Her gait. Her wardrobe. Her gossip-mongering. Inevitably, my cousin said, we become our parents. Do you make a conscious effort to minimize the mirroring? Does it bother you when you realize you act or react the same way even with all that minimizing? I suppose it's the price we pay for inheriting all their good traits: the bad ones trickle down and settle. Always remember the good. Even if it's much less than the bad. I'm thankful for my father's geeky disposition, that obsession with detail. And my mother's obsession with entertaining guests. That's 2 things. Better than nothing.

The secret to living: Books. photo by aphroditeshari I'm one of those people who believe they can learn anything just by reading on it. Seriously. It's my father's fault. He raised us this way. When I was in grade school and I wanted to learn tennis, he didn't stop at training us on the tennis courts of the university where he worked. He would give us articles on how to play tennis better. Read, read, read. It's not uncommon to find books in his library like: How To Play Badminton. How To Play Basketball. How To Swim. (I read all of them). He recently finished reading How To Play Bridge. I also found a book on Origami, and another one on The Art of Gift Wrapping. My dad's a geek and he doesn't even know it. So anyway, this morning, I was hungry, didn't have anything to eat for breakfast, no one was home. I went to the kitchen, found eggs, and remembered how much I suck ass at cooking. True story. I looked up How To Boil An Egg online, and voila. omgilove...

It's been a long time since I last played video games. I remember the first one I ever played on a Playstation. My nephew has no idea what this is. Pssh. People born in the late 90s. *eye-roll* I kicked ass at this game. And that's about it. My brothers love playing with me, mainly because I'm so competitive that I get heart palpitations and extremely red-faced when I lose. Which is often. Also, because I even out the teams. They're always in need of one more player, so I usually get teamed up with the best one so that I don't really have to do much. Now that I've started playing again, I've discovered a couple things about myself as a gamer. Or a non-gamer. I play like I drive. There's a limit to the amount of multi-tasking I can do. But what I lack in this skill, I make up for in precision. And the only reason I can do that is because I take it way too seriously. So, sure, when we're playing Call of Duty, I get killed within the first 5 minutes (o...