The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

A couple of months ago, actually, many months ago, a bookworm friend recommended I read "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower". She emailed me the ebook and I downloaded it to my Kindle but I never got around to finish reading it until last week. Its one of those books that sticks with you, especially with the use of some of the most interesting quotations such as:

“we accept the love we think we deserve.” 

“I am very interested and fascinated how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other.” 

“I would die for you. But I won't live for you.” 

And on the last page, it ends beautifully with these words:

A Stormy Saturday

I’m still trying to adjust to Saturday evenings without Toastmasters. It still feels a little empty, that slot of time between 5pm and 7pm. I also keep getting bombarded with their weekly invites, which I’m thinking of unsubscribing to as well (with all due respect). I need to find something else to do, and with this weather, there isn't much happening…

I remembered when I was a kid back in Ottawa, Mum used to take my brother and I to the public library on a weekly basis, where we’d spend hours picking out books, reading, and checking books out to read at home. Even till this day, throw me in any library or bookshop and I could spend the entire day there going through books, a little book worm I was!

Then, it suddenly hit me that thanks to the Safadi Cultural Center, we've actually got a public library here in Tripoli, the Al Mouna Library. And without a second thought, I grabbed my umbrella and I drove right over! Registration is simple; all you need to bring is a copy of your ID, a passport size picture of yourself, and LBP 45,000 (which is valid for 12 months), and you’re good to go! And mind you, for a public library in Tripoli, it’s pretty amazing with a good selection of books, magazines, computers, comfy couches, and reading areas…

I headed over straight to the section on Photography and Digital Imaging, and I was quite impressed with the selection of books that they had. If I could, I would have checked them all out, but I decided to take it two at a time and went for a beginner’s book called “Digital Photography” and another called “The Complete Guide to Digital Imaging” to refresh and up my skills in Photoshop and the like. Actually, I have a confession to make; I don’t know how to use Photoshop. In fact I don’t even know the first thing about Photoshop! :-$ So how do I play with pictures? I use Paint, MS Office Picture Manager, and other simple websites:-P HOWEVER! I’m adding “Photoshop” to my list of New Year’s resolutions for 2011. But that’s a different post for a different day… ;-)

Till then, I’m going to leave you with the picture of the storm, which began to escalate on the drive home from the Library:

SuSu In The Souk

“In April 2010, a writing competition was held for the youth in North Lebanon as part of Beirut World Book Capital. Around 40 persons have participated in this project and the best stories were picked, collected, edited and constituted this book…”

That’s right; I finally got a hardcopy of “قصتي”. It’s a brilliant book, and it’s even more brilliant how fast it’s been put together and published! Here are the front and back covers:

But I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to see that instead of my illustrations, there were someone else’s. I asked why. And apparently, the printing press had asked for the book a little earlier than had been scheduled, so that by the time I had sent in my illustrations, the book was already in print :-|.

Here were supposed to be my illustrations (+ cover page):

Oh well, I guess it’s a sign I’m a better writer than I am an illustrator. Here’s the full text version of “Susu in the Souk” (Comments Welcome!):

SuSu in the Souk

Once upon a time, in a city by the sea,

That many know as Tripoli,

There lived an orange in an orange tree…

…

One day the orange was picked by a girl named Susu

Who bent down to tie her shoe

When all of a sudden, a gust of wind blew…

It rolled the orange down the street,

So Susu chased after it, under the summer heat

Till it rolled between an old man’s feet…

…

All around her, Susu saw shoes

But where had the orange gone? She needed clues

So she asked the old man, had he any news?

He said, “This is ‘Souk Al Kindarjieh’ my dear,

Shoes are all we’ve ever had here.

But keep on looking, your orange must be near”

…

So Susu walked on, till she saw a young man

“Can you help me?” she asked him, he said “Yes, I sure can”

“I’m looking for my orange; it’s of a yellowish tan”

He said, “Well it can’t be here in ‘Souk Al Siyaghin’

We only have gold, fit for a queen

Look, isn’t it the finest you’ve ever seen?”

…

Susu walked on, till she saw soaps of every shape and size,

Towering up towards the skies

She almost couldn’t believe her eyes…

She turned around to look at a sign

It read ‘Khan Al Saboun’ in a nice design

But Susu had to go make sure that her orange was still fine…

---

So Susu walked on, to the next path she chose

Where a scent began to fill her nose

And the smell of herbs and spices rose…

“Welcome to ‘Souk Al Atareen’” said a young boy,

Who stopped playing with his car toy

And he asked Susu, “Want some herbs? I’m sure you’ll enjoy!”

---

Susu walked on, till she reached a pool filled with water

She needed a drink, as the weather was getting hotter

When she heard a lady say “come sit with me, my daughter”

“Where am I?” asked Susu, the lady said, “‘Al Mallaha Pool’”

And she turned to join the old lady sitting on a stool

She was eating a plate of hummus and fool…

---

Susu asked “where oh where could my orange be?”

“Its right there,” said the lady, “can’t you see?”

And she pointed towards an orange tree

“Where we end is where we begin” she said,

Then she patted Susu’s head,

But there’s much more of Tripoli left for you to discover, so go ahead!

قصتي

I have to admit, it’s been a while since I’ve been really online. And by “really online” I mean not wasting my time online checking Facebook and playing Treasure Isle. So I decided to do some catching up on my blog, and reading updates from other friends' blogs. And even though he posted it last Monday, it wasn’t until today that I read one of Raafat’s latest posts: قصتي

Remember on April 10th, 2010, I had a little confession to make? About Al Mouna Library’s Writing Competition? And my story, "Susu In The Souk"? Well apparently, Raafat was co-designing the book and it’s been published (but not yet distributed). I haven’t had the chance to see it but here’s the cover:

Turns out that Raafat’s got a story in it too, “The Close Place That Is Far Away” You can read it at the end of his post... (I Can't wait to read all the winning stories! :-)

Developing The Leader Within You

You know its funny how some things happen. How one thing leads to another. How something small can turn into something bigger…

Something Small: I think it was a little less than three months ago when I posted on WeRead that I was reading a book at the time, called “The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership” by John C. Maxwell…

Something Bigger: Jana from LoudSpeakers noticed my post and thought of another book she had read for him, called “Developing the Leader Within You”. She told me that a while back, at Speakers & Leaders, they had formed a discussion group for his workbook and so she asked if I was interested in forming one here at LoudSpeakers. I thought the idea was good and so we gathered a group of five other interested members and we ordered copies of the workbook from Librarie Antoine…

Today, an hour before our Toastmasters Meeting, we had our first session. What I loved about the workbook is that it’s divided into 10 Weeks, and each Week is divided into 5 Days, and each Day teaches you a lesson. This first week’s lesson talked about “The Five Levels Of Leadership” which I learned were: Position, Permission, Production, People Development, and Personhood. At the end of each Chapter/Week, there are a bunch of discussion questions which we talk about and we think of answers to ideas which we discuss next week…

I think one of the most important lessons I learned from Week 1, is that in one word, Leadership means Influence. From his workbook, “Sociologiss tell us that even the most introverted individual will influence ten thousand other people during his or her lifetime!” […]

J.R. Miller said: “There have been meetings of only a moment which have left impressions for life, for eternity. No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence… yet… everyone one of us continuously exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives”.

Think about it…

Garage Sale

Ahwak Coffee Shop was holding a two day Garage Sale this weekend, selling Books, CDs, DVDs, and accessories starting from as little as 1,000 L.L. And for a good cause too, as part of the profit is going to go to Saint Jude’s Cancer Center in Lebanon. So I decided to check it out…

I wanted to support him so I decided to buy one of the books that most captured my interests, which was one of “The Vampire Chronicles” by Anne Rice. I found three of the chronicles and I got the second one, “The Vampire’s Lestat” (I’m not really into Vampires, apart from Twilight but I thought I’d give this a go). It was originally priced at 10,000 L.L. but he made a special offer for me, for $5, and he threw in a free book “The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries (22 Stories)”, and he let me chose a free CD or DVD from a stack, I picked “Sex And The City”… a super sweet deal! :-)

I have a little confession to make…

On April 10th, 2010, Al Mouna Library at the Safadi Cultural Center launched a Writing Competition for a children’s book about Tripoli (in Arabic, English, or French). And because I love to write, I decided to enter it (but without broadcasting it to neither my friends nor family)…

Today, I got a phone call stating that the winners of the competition were going to be announced this afternoon and since I was a participant, I had to be there. So, I went. There were 9 winners: 3 for Best Arabic Books, 3 for Best English Books, and 3 for Best French Books. When the time came to announce the First Prize Winner for the Best English Book, you can imagine the shock I got when I heard my name! I’m still surprised that I won, I feel incredible!

I got this certificate, a complimentary check, and all the winning stories are going to be published in a book and distributed to schools and public libraries around Lebanon (hopefully by this summer). I’m so excited; this is definitely one of my greatest accomplishments! :-)

I, the Divine

"I had tried to write my memoir by telling an imaginary reader to listen to my story. Come learn about me, I said. I have a great story to tell you because I have led an interesting life. Come meet me. But how can I expect readers to know who I am if I do not tell them about my family, my friends, the relationships in my life? Who am I if not where I fit in the world, where I fit in the lives of the people dear to me? I have to explain how the individual participated in the larger organism, to show how I fit into this larger whole. So instead of telling the reader, come meet me, I have to say something else.

Come meet my family.

Come meet my friends.

Come here, I say.

Come meet my pride"

-Rabih Alameddine (I, the Divine)