Can you believe that June is over? I can’t! It’s been the fastest month of the year thus far, and I haven’t really done much honestly.
At Bayt, we finally moved from the Abdali offices to a brand spanking new building on Gardens. Believe it or not, but Gardens has turned out to be an improvement location wise: it’s a much shorter drive, and it’s really easy to find a parking spot at 9:00 AM.
Happy drive and quick parking spot = happy Roba. Yeah, I’m simple like that.
June also saw my friend Sara getting married to longterm sweetheart. I’m really happy for her and Omar, so mabrook guys!
When a bad fad goes bad, it goes REALLY bad. And that is what’s happening to punctuation.
Over the past year, I have noticed the increasing amount of terrible punctuation habits. I’m guessing that Facebook is to blame. I mean, when you see so many people adding a space before an exclamation mark, it must be right, right?
Well , I understand the logic , I have been a victim to such thoughts myself when it comes to other matters. But the problem with the punctuation fad is that it’s driving me nuts . I’m not a grammar nerd , really , I’m not . It’s just that sentences look so out of balance and so visually hideous without type being set in the right place .
So to clear any misconceptions about proper type and punctuation practices (and at the risk of sounding like a total smart ass), I have created this handy little guide:
June 27, 2010 at 9:46 am
· Filed under Maintenance
The 7iber guys have put up a survey to get a better understanding of the Jordanian blogosphere. Please take three minutes to answer one of these, depending on whether you’re a blogger or a reader:
Here are the English lyrics to Jagal Il Usek, my own translation:
I was sitting in the cafe with was nothing on my mind and drinking Nescafe.
A guy came and sat across from me wearing sunglasses and his hair was gelled he said “Bonjour ya Demoiselle. I am the cool guy, I listen to 50 Cent, my car is shiny, and I go to every single event, I have a villa in Faraya, and the old Miss Lebanon is my sister.”
I pretended I was dumb and I pretended I was smitten, I didn’t say anything and I wore a shy smile.
“Ana Jagal L Usek, my eyes are colored, I drink Vodka sec, and my shirt is Mousseline. My father is a colonel, and I smoke cigars. Give me your number je t’apelle, so that we go out one day.”
Here I boiled over, oh, no that’s just too much for me. My face became red and smoke shot out of my ears. And that was the day I discovered why they say Eve is alive.
I said, “No way! Fate put us together! My life before you had no meaning, but oh the love of my life and the veins of my heart lets get one thing straight from the beginning of the road. “Love Relationship” in my father’s dictionary doesn’t exist! You have to be serious for my dad to let us be!
That is… We have to get married, and you have to get me a car. We have to have kids, and call the girl Sarah. And make a swimming pool, and change the light bulbs, and take me away to China, and peel mangoes for me, and furnish the house, and get me “jheiz” (clothes), and to cut the gazonet (?), and shine the glass! Wow, the idea of getting married! I really like that! Yalla, when are we getting engaged? So that I tell you where my house is?”
The cool guy turned green. He put away his sunglasses, and he said, “Ahh, sorry I’m busy, I have to go back now!” And I was left alone drinking my Nescafe, laughing by myself as I went up to Saffee (?)
I talked to him so nicely and I was so excited! But he never showed his face again, I really have no clue why!
The cool guy disappeared, the one who listens to 50 Cent, the one whose car shines, and who goes to every single event! He had a villa in faraya, and the previous Miss Lebanon… yeah! He’s her brother! Jagal Il Usek, his eyes are colored, and he drinks vodka sec, his shirt is Mousseline, his dad is a Colonel! He smokes cigars, and he wanted to call me one day…
By popular demand, here are the correct answers to the “How Well Do You Know Amman Quiz?” Try taking it to see how you score before you look at these answers though! :)
1. Which of these places is on Sharia Street? Chocoholic
2. Which of these historical people conquered the city at some point in time? Persians
3. Which of these neighborhoods is in Al-Abdali? Sports City
4. Where does the name “Al-Weidbeh” come from? A plant name
5. What was the coolest place to hang out for teens in 1996? Safeway
6. Which of these places was popular 20 years ago and is still popular today? Amigos
7. Which of these characters actually still lives in Amman? Napoleon
8. What street was called Abu Baker Il Sedeek Street? Rainbow Street
9. What’s the only place that serves argeeleh in City Mall? Pistache
10. Where is the Duty Free Shop in Amman? Ammoun Hotel
I know that many of people who read AndFarAway are not only very active on Twitter, but use it much more effectively than I do. The reason I’m writing this post because I am really, really tired of people giving up on Twitter after half a second and then deciding to claim that those who know how to use it are “dumb” and “narcissistic”.
Seriously. It’s easy. Just follow these awesomely easy 10 steps to use Twitter like a rockstar. I mean if all those lame celebrities can do it, I’m sure you can too.
10 Ways to Learn Twitter
1. Download the HootSuite Firefox plugin, TweetDeck application, or Echofon Firefox plugin. Maybe even all three, because the truth is: the twitter.com interface sucks, and you won’t be enjoying Twitter if you’re stuck in your browser window.
2. RT. RT. RT. RT stands for “retweet”, and you RT a tweet when you want to share something interesting said by someone else with your followers. An RT is like a personal recommendation. It’s very important to RT only interesting stuff, because it defeats the purpose otherwise. Be social. Support tweeps who said something useful or have an event they want to publicize.
3. Reply. I don’t practice this point as much as I should, but as is the case with blogs, replying to tweets that you were tagged in is really very important.
4. Play Twitter Games. Twitter games like FollowFriday and MusicMonday can make Twitter more fun and introduce you to interesting tweeps.
5. Share interesting links. I mean, we all read stuff online all day, and there are so many awesome links that should be shared. Your followers would appreciate a great link, trust me.
6. Keep it simple, stupid. There’s so much beauty in 140 characters. Mainly that people who shouldn’t blab can’t blab. Anything can be said in such a short format if it’s worth it.
7. Brand yourself consistently. Choose one Twitter profile image and stick to it, for god’s sake. People who keep changing their Twitter profile pictures are so annoying, because when you’re looking at the stream, you are looking at icons, not names.
8. Schedule tweets. Use HootSuite or any other similar tool to schedule tweets to assure that your account is constantly updated. Even if it’s a weekend.
9. It’s actually okay to tell your followers what you had for lunch. As long as that’s not the only thing you say all week.
10. Notice the time pattern. Depending on where you are in the world, you’ll notice that there are different time patterns. In Jordan, for example, tweeps are most active early in the morning (9:30 AM), around 12:00 PM, and around 4:00 PM. Target your coolest tweets at these times.
I hope this answers the question I am always being asked, “Why the hell do you like Twitter?”
