Pole dancing!

This is really amazing. It makes me wanna pole dance too and pretend that I'm flying!

Oprah, Ellen, Conan!!!!

This year, I am planning to attend their live shows.  I already submitted my request to Oprah and Conan show (hopefully I get it) and have to wait for Ellen.  She's booked all the way through November!  I'll have to check everyday to see if they will accept reservations for the month of December.

The expensive show will be Oprah's for sure but who cares! It's her last show and I never went to Chicago.  This will be a good opportunity for me to go to Masri Sweets .  It's the BEST Middle Eastern sweets you can have.  From baklava to kunafa to cookies.  I will finally see it after ordering it from online for several years.  It will be the only opportunity to have their fresh cheese pastries and cake!  Otherwise, I'll have to pay an arm and a leg on shipping to order it from home.  So, I'm excited for both Oprah and Masri Sweets.

As for Ellen and Conan, they are just a drive away (6 to 7 hours from San Francisco).  

Yay. I am really excited!

If You're Black, Your Color is The Joke

That's comedy in the Arab Entertainment.

I have posted this clip of an Egyptian comedy film, which I translated (my first ever attempt!).  Please watch the clip first, then continue reading.




Welcome back!  So Gamila didn't turn out to be the one they were looking for.  She is an African woman who apparently is understood if she spoke in her untranslated  native language (insert laugh tracks here).  Also, her skin color is the MAJOR joke that closes the scene.  The actor says, "she doesn't resemble the girl in the photo, even in the negatives, even if it's been burned six times."  Wow.

This is not the first, there are many.  In another film, a beautiful dark skinned girl, maybe Nubian or Sudanese, is enjoying her time chatting and laughing with a character named Sameer (named for this blog), both appear to be drunk.  His friend knocks on the apartment door and asks the girl to hide.  Oh, I forgot to mention that the lights are turned off and he tells her to hide under the table and don't smile otherwise her white teeth will expose them!

Wow. Isn't that racism?  Oh by the way, they love Somali references too!

Here's one that will really blow your mind away.  I am sorry for not having a link to the video with translation (hopefully soon).

Last month was the month of Ramadan for muslims and it is the biggest premiere season in the Arab entertainment.  From 60+ soap operas, sitcoms, talk shows, and cooking show (note the absence of religious shows unless it's on a religious channel).  Most of these drama series (30 episode soap operas) are filled with drug, sexual, and romance themed storylines which I believe is not appropriate to watch during this vital month. The audience enjoy watching the series, yet complain about them later for...i don't know....say night gown and passionate embrace actress Elham Shahin in Imra'a fi Warta or Woman in Trouble

In an episode of Kuwaiti sitcom show, Ghareeb Ageeb (Strange Weird), the father and everyone else in the household were waiting for their son to arrive with this new bride from the United States.  Prior to his arrival, they were wondering what happened between him and his previous marriage to Alexandra, also an American.  Now he is married to Monica.  They had a hard time saying Monica.  Here's an outline of the events that took place:

- The son arrives, they greet, next a pretty African American girl comes in and her Afro. ( I suspect the actress is a Somali girl)
- The family is in shock and Monica seems happy and doesn't understand what they are saying.
- Monica is with her husbands sisters and the father and the rest of the family talk to him and asks why, why, why he chose to marry Monica.
- Father asks what was wrong with his previous marriage to Alexandra.
- Father says that Lebanese girls are the best in the Arab world, they do plastic surgery, botox, face lifts, have their lips pumped.  Why go away and marry someone like Monica?
- Father now questions if his son is doing a favor for Obama.
- Son says that you should consider her personality not her looks.
- Monica becomes homesick and then the grandma has a great idea that would make her fee like home.
- They have two not so bright black Kuwaitis that work for the family to be around her.  Yes, because Monica and the two guys have the same skin color.
- Of course, she likes them, they go out dancing, etc.  Become her friends.
- They are surprised that she would party every day and night.  "What kind of a wife is she?" the father asks.  The son defends and says that's how she is in America, implying that that's how Americans are.
- Next day, Monica asks for the guys and the father becomes frustrated then understands why she is so attached to them.  He points at the hand saying, "El sabgha" meaning the paste or color.  Monica is attached because of the color bond.

This story eventually ends when one of the guys she's attached to said, "I will kill you."  He doesn't speak English well and doesn't  even know what it means.  U.S. Embassy gets involved, she goes home and of course the marriage ends.

Are you offended?  I am.  Being Somali, and an African, I am mad.  This is disrespectful.  I believe if the Arab entertainment had an agency equivalent to the FCC, they would help prevent subjects like these from airing.  Reality is, they wouldn't bother to prevent them from being produced.  It's racism and it's offensive.  First of all, Islam teaches peace and love and that everyone is created equal.  Well, that is the same as with every other religion, but I wouldn't image that the Arab entertainment is still producing prehistoric comedy.  Seriously.  That shows the lack of creativity.   Above all, it was aired during Ramadan.   Unfortunately,  opportunities are limited if you are an African living in an Arab country.

Baby is alive after he was pronounced dead!

Amazing. A Mother revives her baby after he was pronounced dead . Miracle or what would you call it?This shows that miracles do exist. An Australian mother had given birth to twins at 27 weeks. One baby survived, the other pronounced dead after several attempts to revive him. The parents were allowed to have the deceased baby for couple of minutes for final goodbye.

The mother laid her son on her bare chest, a skin to skin contact called "Kangaroo Care." Minutes turned into hours and the baby's arms started moving. After they mentioned that to the doctor over the phone, the doctor notified them that that's muscle spasm, normal for a dead body. But the baby's eyes opened and his hands moved. Amazing, even the doctor was amazed. A Miracle indeed.

Roller Coaster

I am not as excited about going to Six Flags anymore.  Not sure what it is, but I actually fear for my life.  I admit it.  I have these thoughts of what ifs and imagine these director's cut scenes of the tragedy of the falling roller coaster.  I shake it out of my head but it comes back.   Wait....is this a sign of me getting older? ***GASP***

I am still a kid at heart.  I'll get excited over anything else, more excited than my nieces and nephew.  They even sometimes look at me funny and shake their little heads.  For example, I bought my nephew video game called "Prince of Persia."  I was so excited for three reasons:  

- I love action/adventure games like Lara Croft;

- I don't have a PS2;

- Did I mention I love action/adventure games like Lara Croft?

He got excited and I encouraged him to go try it.  I ended up staying for an  hour and playing the game.  Wait, I didn't take over the control.  I was his cheerleader.  I sort of sat next to him and helping him out if he gets stuck.  Hahaha, he actually became tired and bored from trying to find a way out.  He was too shy to say I'm tired.  Lol. He's so sweet.

Another scenario, a song that my nieces like comes on the Disney channel and I start dancing.  They ask me not to.  What a why to suck the fun out of the air?!?!  Millennium kids.  Recently, I bought my three year old niece a really really really awesomely cute Halloween outfit as a present for her birthday.  I wished I was little like her and wear it.  It's so cute to be a kid!  Until they start crying, of course.

 

Going back to the roller coaster story.  For my sanity, I am staying away from roller coasters but that doesn't mean I am going to stay away from Disney's "Magic Mountain."  Well, that depends if I get those thoughts in my head.

Conan O'Brien's new show....simply...Conan

I absolutely can't wait for the show.  Nov. 2 is too far away!  Loved the video though!

Paris Hilton...Can't Act...Can't Lie

According to SFgate.com's Daily Dish, when Police was about to check Paris Hilton's purse, she requested to get her lip balm out of her purse.  A substance in a plastic bag fell out of her purse.  She claimed its not hers and thought the powder substance in a small plastic bag was....gum.  Thats right, gum.  Wait, a powder like gum??? No...way!

She is now charged with a possession of a controlled substance and faces up to four years in prison, which in Hollywood standards is few days if convicted.
 

Septmeber

In celebration of the new month and new me, I have chose to update my blog layout.  It certainly does reflect me.  I am a traveler and would like to someday travel the whole world.  The only thing that's bothering me about this layout is not having a centered title.  Hopefully I can figure that out, whenever I get home.

Alright, back to work!!!

UPDATE:  I finally figured out how to center and it wasn't easy but did manage to solve the mystery in less than 30 minutes!  All I can say is that HTML codes are amazing.  It reminds me of my computer science class in high school.

June, I'm glad to see you.

I am completely blank. I have the urge to blog tonight. It's 3:18am Sunday and it's Ramadan. Yes, almost 10 days left to go and September is around the corner.

It's a pretty interesting year. Nothing exciting happened but it went by awfully fast. Yes, for the first time, I have a hard time keeping track of days. I know it's Monday, then magically we are jumped to Thursday, you get home and it's the weekend (which is short too). Here, at this hour, watching "Staying Alive" starring John Travolta, which I can say it's awfully bad too. Oh my, what's this dance?!?!

The 80's. The years of reinvention. The year where "Step-Up" was breakdancing. It's the era of self discovery through base filled music and rave like dancing and colorful fashion.

Oh wow. The blog was in the draft file for almost three months, got around to it last week and here I am tonight writing. It's 2:35 am. I washed my hair two hours ago and it dried and I haven't combed it yet. It's crazy frizzy curly now and I have work tomorrow. Booooooooo.

It's September 1!!!!! Wow, a new month. I am making some serious changes to my lifestyle. I am going to eat healthier and most importantly, exercise. YES!!! We have a treadmill that I have used once since it entered our house a year and a half ago. I seriously need to get in shape to be able to wear all my clothes again and be healthier. I want to get rid of this weight I carried which reminds me of the dark days I had two years ago (unemployment and loss of a family member). ENOUGH!!!!!

It's not easy. It's really hard to do that but I am committed. I've tried to change my lifestyle into being me again by going back to school. Graduate school. But honestly, I can't afford it and don't like debt.  I don't need bigger financial burden. My original plan was to move to L.A. and I can't because I help out my family and without having a job first. I am not some wild child who would abandon her family as they are struggling. I can if I want to but I don't want to and I can if I land an amazing job opportunity first, then everything will be ok.  Moving without a job, I can't.  I am not that type of person. I've been raised better. I am just hoping that whatever sacrifices I am making, God will have a better plan for me. Maybe it's for the better ( I need to think positive).

So here I am canceling my Graduate school plans and looking for better jobs in the Bay Area and L.A., which by the way I've been doing for a long time. It's hard. Oh God it's hard!

I have planned to take a writing class that may help me step away from the environment I am in. To help turn on this dusted light bulb on my head. I hardly picked up a book to read for sometime. Also, I have a hard time writing in general: poetry, script, blog, etc. I used to write lots of poetry.  We'll see how that goes.

In that note, I need to go eat something before I sleep. I'll go with my wild crazyfrizzycurly hair like that to work. A new way to start the new me. Welcome, September. You better be nice to me.

I've Had Enough!

"I'm sorry, who sings this song? Isn't this Jay Sean? Wait...no...he sounds like him! What about this song? What? So this is not Trey Songz? Whaaaaaaa???!"

Okay as you can see, I am really frustrated with today's music. It's bad enough that the radio stations are over playing songs and instead of liking them I end up hating them. Like I did with Jason Mraz song "I'm Yours."

I don't know what to say? Many songs sound like each other, worse, most of today's biggest hits singers sound like each other.

Today anybody can make a song about anything as long as it's catchy (think "Tick Tock" and "Blah, Blah, Blah" by Kesha, "Videophone" by Beyonce, "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa, "How Low" by Ludacris, "Carryout" Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake. Okay many listed are not anybody but listen to the lyrics and you'll understand what I am talking about) and you will make millions of dollars and maybe get lucky and earn a Grammy. Its more of who can be the daring artist as in fashion. Who can offend the most and get lots of buzz? Who can SELL more in the end? It's more of a competition in sales than talent and the quality of the album. It's really sad to see that it's coming to this.

My Former "Celebrity" Boyfriends

My sister and I had a conversation about my former boyfriends in the kitchen as I was busy preparing my dinner and she's making her tea.

So how did this conversation start? She was telling me about Leonardo Dicaprio and his girlfriend Bar Rafaeli. Here is the history:

I dated Leondardo Dicaprio in 1997 but after several months broke up. Justin Timberlake and I met and we dated for few years then we went to our separate ways. I went out with James Blunt on couple of dates, yes, as my sister has said, he was my rebound boyfriend in 06. Then last year, I met Robin Thicke. No, I am not in a relationship with him. He is a really good friend even though my sister thinks the opposite. He has a beautiful wife and is about to have a little boy. No...he is my good friend. So now...I am single and still friends with all of them.

So after the minute and a half conversation, we both went to the leaving room and enjoyed our dinner and watched some TMZ then the "Karaoke" Idol.

Look what so called "celebrity crush" does to a person. Such a high school thing to do. I'm so over it!

Welcome Home!

Welcome back me. I am officially going to make the time and effort to start blogging again. Oh, how I miss you blog! It's a feeling like no other. For almost a year, I've been working at two jobs, seven days a week. Now, I am glad I have Saturdays off (still with the two jobs). The only day I get to sleep in late. Oh, sleep! How I miss you too. Though I had a full time job two years ago, I used to sleep in late on the weekends and still had the time to go out, online, and write; most importantly I was relaxed!

Time is different now with the economy going down the drain. It's disheartening. Thousands of jobs lost and excruciatingly difficult to find one. People losing their homes, some elementary and high schools closed and others nominated for closure. More and more cuts everywhere. It's very stressful. We need to solve this now but no one has the magic wand to make all the problems go away. Let's just hope that in another year or so, all this will be in the past and find ourselves at a better stage.

Well, that's all I have for tonight. I have to go to sleep and be ready for work. For tomorrow's blog:

-- Today's music: Where is the Talent?