Managing Contacts

I am sure I am not the sole person who is suffering from managing efficiently his/her contacts. Or maybe I am exaggerating about it. Let me explain here my dilemma. How simple life could be if it stopped on issues like this one ;-)

Considering that I am somehow, sometimes, & in some areas I am systematic (again I stress the point some). I have the urge to have an organized contacts; which I don't for these reasons:

1. I have accounts at
2. I have lived the past 10 years in 3.3 countries and worked in 4 different companies.
3. I have 3 major sim cards for 3 different countries that I keep moving between on regular basis. In which taxis, restaurants, services and other daily contacts I need just during a certain period.
4. I am losing contacts with people I would like to stay in touch with, because both sides are in constant move.

What I need to do is to de-clutter my contacts and find a permanent solution for my problem. I need an application/solution that can perform everything (this is what exactly my customers ask for).

Seriously, I need:

• A Centralized address book, for which initial input is done through it, later to populate the date into the rest of the applications mentioned above
  
• Give ownership of some of the data in the contact profile to the person him/herself to keep it update it
• Two ways sync between all applications i.e. between yahoo & google, google & hotmail, etc.
  
• Capable of creating different sync list for the mobile i.e. per category, country
  

Abra Kadabra, the solution is....

Baraka

I didn't read any review before picking the movie, so I spent the first minutes expecting to see an actor, a human voice, a narrative. Nothing came up; not in the first 10 minutes not in the last 96 minute. At the beginning, it was not easy for me to keep my concentration & focus.

It turned out that Baraka is a nonverbal film containing breathtaking images of 24 countries from 6 continents combined with an incredible sound tracks. I was restless to figure out where the shots were taken to the extent that I wanted to pause & google it on the spot. At the end of the DVD Fricke explains that it was intentional to leave the movie without narration or subtitle. "It's not where you are that's important, it's what's there."

At the end of the movie, I wanted to grab my bag and start traveling to India, China, Africa, Cambodia. There is a lot to learn about other cultures, religious, nature and the world over.

It doesn't say anything. But you will find a lot to say about it.

I will watch this movie again & again.

Children Of Heaven

We lose appreciation for a lot of things in life by taking them for granted. This is a simple movie about a lost shoes and how two Iranian siblings, Ali and Zahra make arrangements between themselves to share the remaining sneakers. The story glow of kindness and good-heart of poor people despite the financial difficulties of their day-to-day existence. The movie satisfies you emotionally by the goodness and calmness it disseminates.

Innocent Voices

"Innocent Voices" is a sharply detailed, moving film that tells a powerful human story and documents the horror of El Salvador's brutal, U.S.-funded civil war from 1980 – 1992.

The movie manages not to send explicit massages about USA role in El Salvador civil war or plays any political arguments; it simply depicts the struggle of those who suffered as it is happening. The movie is narrated through the eyes of a child Chava an eleven-year-old boy who takes on the role of the man of the house after his father abandons the family in the middle of the El Salvadorian civil war. I was really impressed of the performance of the lead actor incomparable with any other child actor I have seen before.

The movie is full of well captured emotions and moments of drama that stay in the memory and stir the feelings; moving smartly between brutality of war and the innocence of children in normal moment of life between friends and family. One of the scenes the left a footprint on me is when the boys were laying flat on the tin roofs of their homes hiding from the government military who wants to recruit them.

"Innocent Voices" is worth picking up.

My Relationship with Books

As long as I can remember I have a special relationship with books and an abundance of appetite for them. As kids we had our light curfew at 7 pm, this is when I start my “candle light” readings. Most of my books then had wax spots all over them. At school, I was board of the subjects they teach us; my escape was by hiding a book within a school book and read most of the day. During summer vacation I could spend 10 hours in a row reading just moving back & forth between bathroom & bed.

In a good book I would get so lost in; totally lose touch with reality in the sense that it is very hard to get my attention. I would have less motivation to work or sleep. I would be transferred to another world; to places I have not been to before, with characters I get involved with & grow feelings for. I could laugh out loud in public because I remembered something funny that happened in a book. I could cry in public because I felt the character pain. Sometimes at the end I feel as if I am saying goodbye to real people that I cared about or played a role in my life.

One of the direct effects of reading on my personality; is that I think in pictures not words. For this reason, most of the time movies based on books fall short of my expectations. And if I watch the movie before reading the book I am ripped of my own visualization.

By now I know my favourite things to read, but I still branch out from time to time. I never know when I might find a new favourite. One more thing, I don't collect books, its a shame to keep good books to myself, every couple of years I make sure I donate them to public libraries.

Books for me are a way to enjoy new views on life, to dream, to escape to far off places, to grasp more knowledge, to grow and to laugh.

What I have Learned From My Pocket

We learn from different sources in life, family, books, people, but mostly we learn from our own experience or as in an Arabic expression from our own pocket. These lessons are usually the most learned and memorized.

I am sure my pocket has much more lessons but for today these are more than enough:

• Living my life not other people's life.
• Encouraging people to live their own lives & respect their choices.
• Living life with dignity and integrity is a virtue.
• Taking life easy & not seriously. I will only live it once.
  
• Concentrating my time on positive thinking & activities.
• Knowing my self is the hardest thing in life and it is a life time process.
• Forgiving helps in leaving the past behind & moving to the future.
• Giving importance to initial explicit signs will formulate better judgment.
• Avoiding negative and energy draining people is a boost to life.
• Happiness is a mind set and an accumulation of special moments in life.
• It takes years to build trust but it takes one incident to destroy it or to shake it fundamentally.
• I am the sole person responsible for my well being, happiness and peace.
• I can't please everyone so at least I should put the effort to please myself.
• Once I truly love I can not replace it with hate.
• Life is not fair. I don't wait for justice.
• Since I already hit the bottom some time ago, I won't be scared next time; I already poses the skills and tools that helped me to get up.
• People need to be listened to when they are down, they don't need advices. They will ask for it when they need it.

Adios Cyprus

April is where I evaluate myself & life path. In April 2007, I said WOW. I am here... living my dreams. Having all I wanted. I worked hard on levels to achieve them; myself, academic, knowledge and professional. I was scared I have no more dreams to peruse, how I go in life dreamless!

I started to ask myself what to do next. Absolutely nothing. Just to live & enjoy my life to the fullest. And I did.

I enjoyed every single weekend. I enjoyed laying down on the beach, reading, swimming, listing to music, watching people. I enjoyed my daily morning walks sea side. I enjoyed exploring villages, beaches, & taverns. I loved my car & all the disasters I did driving on the wrong side of road.

At home, I enjoyed my room mate intelligence, sense of humor, easy going, respect, and compromises. I enjoyed our rituals, chores. I enjoyed rectifying our disasters. I enjoyed the cultural exchange we had to go through. I enjoyed cooking & experimenting new dishes. I enjoyed watching from the windows the rain & thunderstorms striking the sea. I enjoyed cold days tucked under the blanket on the sofa in front of the TV just watching series after series. I enjoyed going home with take away pizza & watching CSI. I enjoyed peeling pomegranates every Sat wearing hand made cover from plastic sacs (it didn't work, I can't count how many undershirt I ruined). I enjoyed going back to Amman whenever I could which was often. I enjoyed hosting my family every summer. I enjoyed the vacations traveling.

At work, I enjoyed leading a team, running projects, for sure not handling the customers. Enjoyed the pre sales consultation & product marketing. Enjoyed setting implementation standards. Enjoyed working on new products & ideas. I enjoyed the challenge of working with 7 nationalities in same office and our breaks on balcony playing tricks on each other. I enjoyed the business trips I had by extending a weekend before & after exploring. Maybe this part (work) was the worst of my life setting; stressful but bearable.

I never complained about my lifestyle or settings. I was happily satisfied.

I guess what I am just trying to say here is goodbye. I am closing a chapter of my life, for it I say Salute.

My Birthday Gift

I got this year for my birthday the best gift ever. It was unique very personal. Couldn't imagine different perfect timing to receive it. From excitement I became numb. I have no clue how to react properly to it!

Just mentioning it today let me realize how huge it is … How it will alter my plans!

Yet, my current concern is from where I can buy my preferred ROC rollon deodorant. I have to google it soon.