Intlxpatr: The Name
People keep asking about my name: Intlxpatr. There’s a part of me that wants to keep quiet and let you think it has some deep mysterious meaning. But no, here is the truth.
I didn’t really intend to start blogging as soon as I did. I wanted to think about it, and part of that is exploring the environment, right? So I would look around the hosting sites, and I ended up being asked questions almost immediately. At first, adreneline pounding through my system, I signed back off, thought about it a while, and then signed back on. They wanted commitment; I had cold feet.
I wanted a clever name, but it seemed to be that all the names I liked were already taken, or just not right for me. Even the blog name, which isn’t particularly clever, was a “just for now” sort of thing, I always thought I could go back and change it later. Here There and Everywhere just stuck, and has grown more and more appropriate as I write about all sorts of things. I never much liked boundaries!
For the blogger name, I wanted something unlikely to be duplicated. And something that wouldn’t give me away. Intl – international, xpatr – expatriate. So dull, so simple. . . so vanilla. And, as it turns out, so annoying to people who have to type it . . .
There is a little bit of a joke in the name. . . but I am going to maintain SOME mystery. Anyway, I know it isn’t clean and simple, but it’s who I am. At least for now.
Raise Your Voices
My blogging friend Hilaliya raised HIS voice in an article entitled Kuwait ‘Ministry Of Communications’ Attempts To Extort Internet Users and found an elaborated article on the Ministry of Communication ban. You can read his rant, and go to the Arab Times article by clicking here.
It FEELS Personal
A good friend who is also a psychologist often talked about how things FEEL personal even when they are not.
• When your best friend betrays your deep dark secret to another friend because she lacks self confidence and it made her feel important for a couple seconds
• When your young wife sleeps with your brother because after two babies she wants to feel exciting and attractive and young again
• When your brother uses drugs again, after you paid for rehab and he swore up and down he would never never use again
• When your father divorces your mother and leaves her to raise the kids alone
• When your oldest friend in the world stops returning your calls and communicating with you and you later learn that she if fighting a losing battle with cancer
• When your aging husband buys a small red convertible and turns you in for a younger model, too, because he wants to think he’s hot
• When your internet phone service is declared illegal and gets shut down to spare “government wastage”
In every case above, the situation has more to do with personal issues than with you, but man, it sure FEELS personal. The fact that is doesn’t have to do with you is almost insulting, because the impact can be so painful.
And so it is with internet service. This morning, I was missing internet service for a while. It happens sometimes, but rarely longer than three-four minutes. This time it went on and on. Of course my first reaction is “oh no! Am I being penalized for having written about internet phone service being blocked???” But no, this time it wasn’t all about me. It was just an outage, and – for now – just temporary. Alhamdallah!
But this policy is going to impact on all of us painfully. Please, please raise your voices. You know better than I do where it will be the most effective. It’s important that we be able to communicate with our family and friends in a reasonably priced way. The internet phones don’t hurt anybody. Let’s keep them legal.
Read and Comment from WordPress
This is to my non-blogging readers, those who have never commented, those who think you have to have a blog to comment. . . you don’t! There are ways to sign on with most of the major blog hosts and you never have to use your real name, never have to blog, but you are registered, have an “avatar” and a “home”.
WordPress just initiated a global desktop, just for you.
What’s new? Before, people who didn’t have a blog but just an account didn’t have any sort of dashboard so they couldn’t edit their password, get their API key, upload an avatar, track their comments, or any of the other fun stuff you can do under your dashboard.
Read more about it here and click to start your own global desktop.
You will want to have two or three names, just in case your first choice is already taken, and you will want to have a password in mind. Sign up, and start commenting from your own home base at WordPress.
Dying Laughing: Al Qaeda in Seattle
My niece, Little Diamond has found a SATIRICAL article (I can’t figure out where, it is not The Onion ) on Al-Qaeda buying property in Seattle. If you know Seattle, and the pride Seattleites take in civility, friendliness, and neighborliness, then you, too, will die laughing. Click on A Diamond’s Eye View of the World for your grin to start the week.
And a part of me thinks – isn’t this what we are supposed to be doing? Be kind to our neighbors? Isn’t it the only way to interrupt the spiraling cycle of hatred and violence? Sometimes, an unexpected kind word changes everything – I know it has in my own world.
Who Knew? Skimmed Milk Affects Fertility
Today’s Kuwait Times 1 March 2007 has a front page on women who drink skimmed milk having reduced fertility, inspiring a whole new category for my blog entries: Who Knew?
Skim milk as been a mainstay for women trying to maintain desired weight, along with non-fat yoghurt, low fat cheeses, and tofu – all which help women maintain bone density by providing calcium in our diets. The study, done in the United States between 1991 and 1999 concluded that non-fat dairy products may well be contra-indicated for women desiring to become pregnant.
When I was pregnant, I got nervous. I’m normally NOT nervous, but the new hormones bombarding my system made me really nervous and a little anxious, and it had a spiral effect. When I talked to the doctor – in Germany, where I was living – she just laughed and patted me and said “drink a little wine, my dear, and you will feel better! Have a glass at lunch and a glass at dinner.”
I followed her instructions. I felt better. I had my glasses of wine religiously. Thank God, my son turned out just fine, because now people react with horror to the very idea of a woman having anything to drink during pregnancy. But then – Who Knew???
The truth about the world as we know it changes daily. Our assumptions are challenged, and we have to be flexible, and move with the times and with the newest information. But I’m happy not to have to give up skimmed milk.
I have an apology to the Kuwait Times, too. I thought they had misused “affect” and should have used “effect”. I was wrong. They were right. I looked it up, and here is the information:
* Note on affect and effect from answers.com: USAGE NOTE Affect and effect have no senses in common. As a verb affect is most commonly used in the sense of “to influence” (how smoking affects health). Effect means “to bring about or execute”: layoffs designed to effect savings. Thus the sentence These measures may affect savings could imply that the measures may reduce savings that have already been realized, whereas These measures may effect savings implies that the measures will cause new savings to come about.
Shaking My Head
Today, two bloggers found my blog by typing “is mayonnaise made of turkey sperm?” It’s bad enough if it were only one, but two??
Lord have mercy.
(Shaking my head in despair)
Saturday Low Statistics
Saturday mornings are also a little slow for me, so this morning, as I looked at my statistics, I thought I saw a pattern. I counted back every seven days, and, sure enough, every week my statistics take a small dive on Saturday.
I am guessing that the quality of what I publish doesn’t vary that much, but that the majority of my readers come from places where they have a Saturday – Sunday weekend. Saturdays are always busy days for getting things done – getting the new garden in, getting shopping done, bringing in the groceries for the week, if you are a working Mom, going hiking or boating or some activity you can’t do during the work and school week . . .
Last night we visited friends who had just accomplished a major project in their garden here – transferring palm trees. It took a crane and a whole team of people to dig the huge holes, dig the trees out of one spot and transfer them to another. What an undertaking!
It was one of those lovely evenings in Kuwait – our friends were relaxed and enjoying the glow of having accomplished a major task, the evening was soft and sweet, and the fire glowed with eucalyptus wood. I came home smelling so good, and knowing it was one of those evenings I will long remember. Kuwait in February – the sweetest time of year.
Tomorrow is Kuwait’s National Day, and the day after that, Kuwait Liberation Day (from Saddam’s troops), so the Kuwaitis are enjoying a four day weekend at this sweet time of the year. Some have taken holidays in connection with the five day weekend (somehow Saturday became a weekend day, too, because it is sandwiched between the Thursday-Friday weekend and the Sunday-Monday holiday) and made it a full nine or ten day holiday.
Happy Holidays to all our Kuwaiti friends.
Book Meme – Too Much Temptation
Friday mornings in Kuwait can be VERRRRRY quiet. Today, I explored Technorati, and found people who have linked to me. One was PearLady and oh, what fun, she published a Book Meme.
I don’t do tags. I don’t do memes. Oh well, she found my weak spot. Here goes. Please read all the way to the bottom.
Hardback or paperback? I prefer paperback, just because I read all the time and paperback is more portable. And because I like to pass it along, and paperback is cheaper. But I buy hard cover when it is brand new from an author I love and I can’t wait.
Amazon or brick and mortar? Hands down Amazon, although if I am in the states, I can’t resist Barnes and Noble, and I always spend money there, and Half Price Books. Both ruin my weight allowance when I come to fly back to Kuwait.
Barnes & Noble or Borders? Either. Both. And all the little independent book sellers, too.
Bookmark or dog-ear? Bookmark is preferable, but occasionally I dogear sections I want to blog about. (Gasp) – occasionally I even underline.
Alphabetize by author, alphabetize by title or random? First by subject, then by author, but not by title.
Keep, throw away, or sell? Part with a friend??? Ah well, sometimes it is necessary. I even keep shelves of books for people to borrow, or to take. I buy multiples of the best ones, and trust that they will find new friends when they depart from my shelves.
Keep dust jacket or toss it? I take it off to read the book, then put it back on and give the book away. Hardcover books are too heavy to ship!
Read with dust jacket or remove it? Oops, see above.
Short story or novel? I love them both. Good science fiction often comes in short stories, stories you can remember years later. And novels – those are the friends that you keep around.
Collection (by same author) or anthology (by different authors)? Collection by the same author, because I am particular and don’t like all authors.
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? I prefer Harry Potter. I don’t know why, but I find Lemony Snicket a little creepy.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? Prefer to stop at chapter breaks, but sometimes I fall asleep and just have to give it up.
‘It was a dark and stormy night’ or ‘Once upon a time’? For me, once upon a time. Love history.
Buy or Borrow? Mostly buy, but sometimes the book I want to read isn’t available for sale, and have to borrow.
New or used? Both. Some books you can’t find new.
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Often look for specific authors, always looking for recommendations and often ask fellow travellers who look absorbed in what they are reading.
Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy endings are nice, and I also find that the ones that end without resolution are the ones I think about the longest.
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Any time. Usually, I use it as a carrot to make me get work done and projects finished, so normal is later in the day.
Standalone or series? Both. I like the Dickensian continuity of series.
Favourite series? Dorothy Dunnet’s Niccolo series. Fascinating characters and I learn so much. Great, vivid images, takes you back to the mid 1400’s.
tag…you’re all it…show me the meme! (If you don’t have a blog, you are welcome to comment below, or cut and paste.)
Egypt blogger jailed for ‘insult’
From BBC News:
An Egyptian court has sentenced an internet blogger to four years’ prison for insulting Islam and the president.
Abdel Kareem Soliman’s trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.
He had used his weblog to criticise the country’s top Islamic institution, the al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.
A human rights group called the verdict “very tough” and a “strong message” to Egypt’s thousands of bloggers.
Mr Soliman, 22, was tried in his native city of Alexandria. He blogs under the name Kareem Amer.
A former student at al-Azhar, he called the institution “the university of terrorism” and accused it of suppressing free thought.
The university expelled him in 2006 and pressed prosecutors to put him on trial.
During the five-minute court session the judge said Soliman was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak.
Egypt arrested a number of bloggers who had been critical of the government during 2006, but they were all freed.
“This is a strong message to all bloggers who are put under strong surveillance that the punishment will very strong,” Hafiz Abou Saada of the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation told Associated Press.
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 