Thursday, May 19, 2011

Some Jokes I found:

Once upon a time there was a female brain cell which, by mistake, happened to end up in a man's head.
She looked around nervously because it was all empty and quiet.
"Hello?" she cried, but no answer.
"Is there anyone here?" she cried a little louder, but still no answer.
Now the female brain cell started to feel alone and scared and yelled at the top of her voice,
"HELLO, IS THERE ANYONE HERE?"
Then she heard a faint voice from far, far away
...


"We're down here ."

______________________________


A boss' best worker named Colin claims he knows absolutely everyone, trying to convince the boss he should get a raise. So the boss goes: ''Riiight, let's go fly to Hollywood and meet... Tom Cruise!''
Colin: ''Sure, me and Tom are good buddies.'' Later, Colin and his boss are in Hollywood and are knocking on Cruise's door. Upon opening the door, Tom shouts: ''Colin! What a great surprise! Please, you and your friend come in and join me for lunch.'' Upon leaving the house, Colin's boss is dumb-founded, but not 100% convinced. So Colin proceeds to say: ''Fine, let's go to President Obama.''
Later that day, Colin and his boss arrive in D.C. Upon entering the White House, Colin gets eye contact with Obama who exclaims: ''Colin! How great to see you! Please, come have a cup of coffee with your friend and I to catch up. So the boss is now 90% assured that Colin does in fact know everyone. So as one last attempt, the boss challenges Colin to have known the Pope personally. Colin says: ''Why sure, my family and I lived in Germany for a while, and we knew the Pope very well.''
So after landing in Rome, they head for the town the Pope is scheduled to be doing a speech on. After many attempts of trying to make eye contact, Colin says: ''It's no use. I can't make eye contact through all these people. Wait, I'll go up the stairs, as I know the guards well, and come out on the balcony with the Pope.''
Sure enough, the Pope is shortly joined by Colin on the balcony.
5 minutes later, Colin returns to where he was previously standing to find that his boss had a heart attack, and was surrounded by paramedics. Colin asks him what happened, to which the boss replied: ''Well, when you were up there, a guy next to me shouted - Who the F*CK is that next to Colin?!''


_____________________________________________________________


I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital after my wife had gone into labour and the nurse walked out and said to the man sitting next to me, "Congratulations sir, you're the new father of twins!"
The man replied, "How about that, I work for the Doublemint Chewing Gum Company."
The man then followed the woman to his wife's room.

About an hour later, the same nurse entered the waiting room and announced that Mr. Smith's wife has just had triplets.
Mr. Smith stood up and said, "Well, how do ya like that, I work for the 3M Company.

The gentleman that was sitting next to me then got up and started to leave.
When I asked him why he was leaving, he remarked, "I think I need a breath of fresh air."
The man continued, "I work for 7-UP."

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Book Reviews...

I just finished a two day book marathon, lol. Well I guess you could sorta call it that, I started reading this book and couldn't put it down until I just finished it.

At times funny or sad, at other times a disturbing and even surprising account of daily life for a Muslim Expatriate within Saudi Arabia.

The book title is: "In the Land of Invisible Women" by Qanta Ahmed, MD.

What I found most remarkable about this book, is the unknown fact that even the men and boys suffer from their own "imprisonment" within the system of religious doctrine in the extreme form. We normally only hear about the women, how they cannot drive, or how the Mutawaeen seem to seek the complete removal of all women from the public face of society.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that women do not suffer, but I was (obviously mistaken) under the impression, that the men there on a whole just accept the situation for what it is and exploit it to their favor.
I suppose I need to hereby express my ignorance of the fact that even men there are uncomfortable and feel emasculated and powerless by the way the Mutawaeen accost anybody who does not behave/dress in a "proper" way. I was somewhat aware of the fact that this generation of Saudis fall back to Bluetooth and other modern age devices to "date or even hunt" young Saudi females. I just wasn't aware of just how stifling such a societal upbringing can be for young adults.

I am gladdened to read that there are Males there that are patrons and empowerers of Saudi women, and help guide them towards educational and professional success.

And I weep for all the young children and women who suffer abuse and death in their everyday lives. May Allah (swt) grant them peace.

The authors description of her Hajj and Ummrah make me want to hop on the next plane and head to Mecca.

Her journey throughout this book, of a westernized woman who rarely gave her Islamic faith any deep thought, to a woman who recognizes her intricate role within the Islamic Ummah is fascinating.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, even if it is just to learn a bit more about life within Saudi Arabia. It is so much more than just that, and I'm sure that many more books can dissect the enigma that Saudi culture is to us Western bred people, but this is very relatable book that will make you worry and laugh with its author as she moves from one mishap, to another.