Category: Social

  • Smile like you mean it!

    What's with the whole "vote for my smile" contest for femme magazine cover?

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    Come on! We already have enough voting to do with the municipality elections!

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    So femme and crest are doing a competition for best smile cover girl

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    so i thought.. why not show my smile for crest and femme?

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    my submission, which got rejected...
    I wish they had accepted my submission! Their moderator doesn’t seem to have any sense of humor at all…
    I hope the girls submitting their photos read the terms well!

    “8. By sending her photograph, a Participant assents to its free-of-charge publication at any time by the proprietor of the “mycrestsmile.com” domain.”

    If you want to know what I’m talking about, you can see the campaign site here.

    In other news, I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about another war happening in Lebanon soon… the thought of which brings out very ugly feelings in me. Here’s this song (&video) by Meen produced in 1 day only during the 2006 war. Hoping this is all only talk and Lebanon will keep on growing like it has been doing for the past 4 years. You can listen to the piano version of the song here.


  • Parking Ticket Sticker – update

    UPDATE:

    The parking ticket sticker made it to the newspaper this morning! 😀 You can read it in today”s issue of Al Akhbar.

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    I”ve been getting A LOT of parking tickets around Beirut. So I thought that I might as well be courteous with the policemen working hard on adding the tickets. So I created those stickers!

    In English:

    In Arabic: [I guess the darakeh will understand this better]

    And because I love you all so much, I”ve uploaded the PDFs for you to download, print, and add to your cars!

    * Download CarSticker_EN in English

    • Download CarSticker_AR in Arabic


    The stickers are licensed under Creative Commons, you can download them, use them, remix them. But you cannot sell them. And don”t forget to mention the source! 🙂

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

    If you”re wondering how to place the sticker, here”s a HOW TO image:

    Have a beautiful week my darlings! Here”s a song for you 🙂 Nick Drake”s “One of these things first”.

    04 One Of These Things First

  • Lebanese Laïque Pride

    I am NOT telling you my religion because it”s about time we learned in a country like Lebanon that you cannot judge and stereotype a person based on something that, in 99.9% of the cases, (s)he was born with.

    Tomorrow is the Lebanese Laique Pride. See you at 11:00am near Ain El Mreisseh.

    As for me, if you must know, well I believe in music. It”s the only thing I truly believe in. Here are 2 beauties for you today: Ella”s fantastic Mac the Knife, and Lhasa de Sela”s fantastic Pajaro.

    02 Mack The Knife

    09 Pajaro

  • Briefly in the elevator

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    The guy managed to tell me his autobiography from the ground to the 14th floor. It was interesting and I felt it’s really a Lebanese superpower to be able to converse deeply with anyone you face, in any situation, at any time!

    Today’s song is Tarzan Boy’s Baltimore. This tune is full of positivity! Have a great day/weekend my darlings! 🙂

  • CC Beirut highlights

    To those who don’t know, Friday April 16th was the 1st Creative Commons Salon in Beirut. Creative Commons in a type of ‘flexible copyright’ that allows you to share your work with less restrictions than the classical coypright. All the content of this blog is under a CC license [see bottom of right sidebar], which means you can take the comics, use them and abuse them, as long as you mention the source without making money out of them.

    You can check photos of the event here and here. You can check a video here [thanks to Hyperstage.net]. For more details about the presentations lineup, check the Facebook page ‘description’.

    A big thank you to Donatella, Mohamad, Naeema & Habib with whom I worked closely to make this event possible. Here’s Donatella’s announcement of the Salon.

    In short, it was a fantabulous event. Thank you to all who helped and attended! Hopefully this will be the first of many! Let’s spread the spirit of sharing our work 🙂

    In the spirit of Creative Commons and sharing, Slutterhouse just released their first single EP “Inside the Station – remix EP” in all digital stores worldwide, AND for download. For more about this Lebanese ‘electro-rock with a twist’ band [whose music I love!!],  check their website www.slutterhouse.com, or start your Monday with their song 🙂

    Slutterhouse – Inside the Station (Pushtronic mix)

  • It’s not about the traffic…

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    Thank you so much for the wonderful comments you guys sent me yesterday! You made my day with your support, as usual! I guess I underestimated the power of making a change in your life routine. It’s beautiful. Just like this cover by Brad Mehldau of Nick Drake’s Things Behind the Sun. Enjoy, and have a lovely day! 🙂

    01 Things Behind the Sun [Nick Drake Cover]

  • The Twibbon

    How to use the Twibbon: So, for the newbies, twibbons became the mutant of ribbons when people became avatars and words became tweets.

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    Before: Ribbon - After: Twibbon

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    The twibbon grew to become an independent customizable organism.

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    This led to common use and abuse of the service, which calls for the below clarifications and rules.

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    Please, one twibbon at a time

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    Please, select a real cause.

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    But please, make sure they're timely.

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    Finally, remember that it will resize your avatar.

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    Thank you!

    If you like Twibbon, you can go ‘”start something” on their website, as their slogan says. Ok i just had to let out what bothers me about twibbons. Today’s song is Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty, I adore the lyrics. Enjoy! 🙂


  • Special gathering

    it's that time of the year again.

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    The annual socio-religio-politico-fashiono-masquerade gaterhing of all 5 family generations

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    Palm Sunday - Les Rameaux - Sha3nineh

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    But I nag not, for the true victims of this are the children (this year I did not wear heels)

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    Yalla mami wlek smile pour la photo!

    In comparison to last year, it was a much easier experience & I spent the occasion observing others – something I very much enjoy doing [in case you haven’t noticed yet] 😉

    It’s Monday, and I have a beautiful tune for you. This is another Joe Hisaishi, from the soundtrack of Howl’s Moving Castle. Enjoy and have an amazing week! 🙂

    Ending_ The Promise Of The World_ The Merry-Go-Round Of Life-cut

  • Heads up for tomorrow!

    The clock is ticking!! Tick tock tick tock

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    2 big events are coming up tomorrow!

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    live.arabnet.me

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    Twestival Amman Beirut. Tweeting can't get any better! At twestical, we'll be tweeting for a cause, education!

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    tweet. meet. give. now what exactly will i be giving, you ask?

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    3 books

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    10 posters

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    how to use a poster

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    I am completely excited about all this, and extremely late as usual, so I’ll leave you to your beautiful days and go back to panicking about TOMORROW!!!!!!!! SEE YOU ALL THERE 😀

  • History repeats itself

    True Story: They FINALLY removed the "iso and elissar" poster from dbayeh highway! Joy! Happiness!

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    I'm sure they will replace it with a cultural event!

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    Or environmental! Or educational! Or even artistic!

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    BUT NO.

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    Presenting... Elianor & Elissar!

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    NOOOOOOO!!

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    I'm left with drinking it away.

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    Believe it or not, this story is 100% true! [Well, except the drinking part, it’s not true just yet.] I wish you all a lovely Monday, with today’s song ‘Wild Horses’ & I’m not exactly sure who sings it… Enjoy! 🙂

    Wild Horses


  • A miracle at Lebanese banks

    Breaking news! Lebanese banks & postal services implement numbering system to avoid waiting in line and to save time!

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    BEFORE: we had to wait in line.

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    THEN, THE MIRACLE: Numbering system

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    2- Get informed of "THE MIRACLE".

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    3- Nag about it and try to negotiate a faster deal. "But my transaction is fast!"

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    4- Resignedly go to miracle and not know how to use it. "Hmm. This looks like toilet paper!"

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    5- Have someone explain the "right" way to use it. "you only get one ticket!"

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    6- go back to waiting in line

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    7- When your turn finally comes 40 minutes later...

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    When your turn comes, lady interrupts

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    "Madame get a number, please!" "But my transaction is fast!"

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    Take the lady to step 4 and repeat to fade

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    If you’ve been at a bank [that I won’t name] or at Liban Post lately, then you have surely noticed the new “numbering” system. I had to wait about 40 minutes for my turn to come, so I thought that I might as well observe and analyze the different interactions happening there! 🙂 I wonder how long it will take for the new system to be understood by people coming for transactions!

    I’ll now leave you with this beautiful song, covered by Eva Cassidy “Song Bird”. Have a beautiful day! 🙂

    Songbird 2

    That this post is being added live at LAU social class!

  • Exotica… The Comeback! Moukarzel… The Fall Down!

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    And if I might ad, the execution of the C&F ad is terrible, as it is clearly a cushion inserted into the woman’s clothes, and not a baby.

    Again, I’d like to thank Exotica and their creative team for responding positively to the criticism of their campaign [I knew from trusted sources that the reason they updated the campaign is because of the reaction they saw through social media]. If that’s the case, then they are pioneers 🙂 What do you guys think about the other campaigns I just shared?

    Exotica is now all over the Lebanese blogosphere: Raafat Hamze analyzes the campaign change here, and there is Plus961‘s, Liliane‘s & Joe‘s take on this.

    On another note, I got back from Zahleh [as you might have noticed :P] and will update you tomorrow! Have a beautiful day with this smooth song from Spirited Away soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi!

    21 Always With Me