(Notice the date)

I have been without Internet at home, for the most part, for over a week, thanks to Orange’s disastrous service AND customer service.

It started last weekend, when my Internet connection was so slow that even Google wasn’t loading. We thought that perhaps its the capping issue, so we call Orange and have our line upgraded to 1MB. Does that do any good?

Not at all. Amazingly, our connection moved from being very slow to nonexistent after the upgrade. Between me and Moose, we have called their CLUELESS customer service line over 10 times in the past week.

Today, the lady on the phone told me that “Sorry, I can’t send anyone over because I do not see a problem with your line.”

Wait. YOU THINK I’M ENJOYING HOLDING FOR FIVE MINUTES EVERY TIME I CALL?

She refused to give me her manager.

I am really, really pissed off. I have had so much work to do this week and no way to do it without an Internet connection. I would have switched off to a different service provider, except I’m already going to dish over cash for their malfunctioning service for the next two months, and I want it FIXED. There’s even a penalty if I downgrade from the nonexistent 1MB connection! Plus, my gut instinct tells me it’s something wrong with the line. Or their modem.

(Notice the date here too)

Honestly, I have no idea what to do anymore. I’m taking Naseem’s cue and blogging about it too. Maybe one of you would have a better suggestion, cause I seriously might end up killing someone if my Internet connection isn’t alive again ASAP. Any suggestions?

After moving from a very socially considerate life in Saudi Arabia, it was a little hard adjusting to Amman’s lack of organized-volunteering activities. I tried to get involved with Jordan University’s initiatives at first, but I quickly discovered that they really have nothing going on at all.

Beyond JU, I was new in town, unfamiliar with local charitable organizations, and the brilliant networking capabilities of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook was years away from formulating. I settled for involving myself in the blogosphere, which was very rewarding for me personally, but a site like Nakhweh could have made my university years so much more useful.

As Mariam of 7iber.com would tell you, a lot of Jordanians are more than willing to help people in need by volunteering their time and effort. Often, what is lacking is organization and a holistic channel of communication. That’s where Nakhweh comes in. Created by Kamel Al-Asmar and Hadi Nasereddine, Nakhweh aims to match volunteers with causes and initiatives across the Arab world.

Yesterday was their launch event, and I encourage you to check out their website, even if you do not have the time to volunteer any time soon.

For example, Hamzet Wasel is looking for four volunteers willing to spend 3 hours next Saturday to work with a group of kids from Jabal Al-Qalaa to participate in the Jo-Bedu “Amman-T” competition.

Check out Nakhweh, and the other volunteering opportunities available.

If you hangout around half as many geeks as I do, you have probably heard of the ArabNet 2010 conference taking place in Beirut next month.

If not, well, then now you have ;)

Organized by IBAG, the 2-day conference is stuffed to the brim with idea sharing, presentations, and coffee breaks, covering e-commerce, gaming, mobile, content, online advertising, social networking, new media, and start-up fundraising. Participating web businesses include Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Intel, AdMob, Al Jazeera, Maktoob, OneCard, Flipmedia, Netlog, Maysalward, D1G, Bayt, and Jabbar Group. The guest speakers list is quite impressive, and you check it out here.

Why am I telling you this a month before the event? Because I am flattered to have been chosen to be an ArabNet 2010 Official Blogger. That means that I will geek out to my heart’s content on March 25 and March 26 on this space. You can either look really forward to it… or avoid me for those two days ;) I’m hoping you’d choose the former, of course :P

I am even more excited that I usually would have been because there are some other awesome official bloggers, like Maya Zankoul and Frankom (two of my favorite toot people).

More about this later. For now… if you’re interested in attending this event, you can register here. If you are attending it, let me know, I’m curious as to who else is going.

Are you a daydreamer?

I know I am.

My daydreaming habit resulted in a few traumatizing F’s as a child (and summers wasted studying, and make-up tests, and sad parents). Every day, I’d spend most of my effort at school trying really hard to “FOCUS!” rather than to understand. It’s a weird sensation, putting so much effort on grasping words being said. These words turn into separate entities, disconnected letters and sounds that don’t make sense together. They turn into a system you’re not familiar with, and even more effort is then spent trying to make sense of these entities when placed together. Listening becomes decoding.

It’s a hard job for a 10-year-old.

One day when I was in the sixth grade, with a science test the next day, my mother interrupted my idle daydreaming while I tried to cram to give me a highlighter and a more advanced biology book. She told me it didn’t matter if I listened at class or not, I could learn more by reading a book that explained better.

It was a revelation. You see, by that time, I was already an ardent reader, bad grades aside. It’s easy to read, I can read at my own pace. I can skim the parts that bore me, dwell on the parts that interest me, and read the book in whichever order that makes most sense to me.

I started to apply this same theory to my studying habits; buying more advanced books from the bookshop and learning by myself at home, and daydreaming to my heart’s content at school. It worked like a charm. By the time I was in the eighth grade, I was already in top percentile of my class. No one yelled at me to “focus” anymore.

Fortunately for me, my listening skills are much better today, after my mother’s incessant nagging to work on my hearing. I still would rather read a movie or a show online, and I’d still avoid music (noise), but I can deal with the most boring blah-blah-blah if I had a pen and a paper in hand to write down what I hear immediately. Which sometimes makes me wonder if I have something seriously wrong with my ears, like a learning disorder or something.

Well, this whole post was started after reading an article on Boston.com about the effects of daydreaming:

“After monitoring the daily schedule of the children for several months, Belton came to the conclusion that their lack of imagination was, at least in part, caused by the absence of “empty time,” or periods without any activity or sensory stimulation. She noticed that as soon as these children got even a little bit bored, they simply turned on the television: the moving images kept their minds occupied. “It was a very automatic reaction,” she says. “Television was what they did when they didn’t know what else to do.”

The problem with this habit, Belton says, is that it kept the kids from daydreaming. Because the children were rarely bored – at least, when a television was nearby – they never learned how to use their own imagination as a form of entertainment. “The capacity to daydream enables a person to fill empty time with an enjoyable activity that can be carried on anywhere,” Belton says. “But that’s a skill that requires real practice. Too many kids never get the practice.”

What’s your experience with daydreaming?
 

So that everything is a hundred percent fair, I had friends choose their favorite pieces of jewelry from the list, and here are the finalists.

Which of these is your favorite?

For larger views of each piece, click here.

Person who picked the piece that gets the most votes wins the gift certificate.

Voting ends on February 28.

Disclaimer: The winner will recieve the token to the gift certificate provided by Sarah, and can follow up on collection, delivery, and all other issues related to collecting the piece with her.

A chocolate shot that Moose invented to please my sugar-loving tastebuds.

Since it’s so yummy, I decided to share it.

Ingredients:
1 Ferrero Roche Ball
Pillsburry Vanilla Frosting
Sugar Confetti

Directions:
Mix all together and eat with a spoon.

Best with:
Chilled Diet Pepsi.

Okay, it’s a heart attack in a glass, but worth it.