Basem Aggad tweeted last month about how people were asking “What’s the catch?” when AmmanTT offered free stalls for tech companies in their anniversary edition. He said he blames the telecom sector in Jordan for ruining the concept of “free” for everyone, thanks to their habits of disinformation.

I remembered that tweet this morning, when I saw this ad on Zain’s Facebook page:

Check out the replies on their Facebook group:

Person 1: “It’s free?”
Person 2: “Are you sure?”
Person 3: “Till when is it free?”
Person 4: “Is that possible?”

In a country where regulations to maintain integrity in advertising and journalism almost do not exist (except to actually kill integrity, i.e. all the rules against tash-heer, which often result in the killing of truth), consumers have wired their brains to weed out disinformation.

Prices on menus aren’t real, as you need to add 16% sales tax and 10% service tax.

Different jewelers open stores that have the same name, and end up fighting for eternity over who was there first. It is disgusting.

Restaurants sometimes claim that they are a Western franchise, when they’re not.

It is disgusting, to say the least, that we all expect everyone to be lying.

The solution? Better governmental regulations, obviously.

Anyway, for those of you who are wondering whether or not Zain’s Gmail SMS service is for free, it actually is. The catch is that there’s a 50 message quota, placed by Google.

Here’s what Google has to say about it:

A quota is an allocation of SMS (text messages) that you’re able to send to a mobile phone:

• Initially, you’re granted a quota of fifty messages.
• Every time you send a message, your quota decreases by one.
• Every time you receive an SMS message in Chat (for example when a phone user replies to one of your messages) your quota increases by five, up to a maximum of 50.

If your quota goes down to zero at any point, it will increase back up to one 24 hours later. So, you won’t ever be locked out of the system.

“Buying” additional messages

Keep in mind that if you’d like a higher message quota, you can always send an SMS to your own phone, and then reply to that message multiple times. Every time you send a reply message, your quota is increased by five. Effectively, you’re buying more messages by paying your phone company for these outgoing messages.

Google makes my heart dance.

(Hattip: Ban)

I’ve been craving some wholesome glitter food since I was a kid. Unfortunately, I’m not crazy enough to eat glitter.

Then yesterday, I found REAL EDIBLE GLITTER ICING at Cosmo. Like real, shiny, beautiful sugar you can actually EAT. They also had dozens of other beautiful things to put on cupcakes.

I’ve never baked cupcakes, but I’m obsessed with the idea of decorating them. I still have loads to go before my cupcake decoration skills become good, but I can’t possibly explain to you how much fun I had squeezing the little tubes of colorful glitter.

Now the question is, how bad would it be if I went to Cozmo after work about bought some really overpriced cupcake decorating material and had a cupcake decorating fiesta tonight? I can’t think of anything I’d enjoy doing more but I know my brothers won’t eat the cupcakes and then the time and money that went into decorating them would be a TOTAL WASTE.

Any ideas on why I should decorate cupcakes?

I’m really excited to present “Getting Around Amman”, a little inforgraph I created that aims to make the daunting task of navigating the hills and areas of West of Amman a bit easier.

The eight circles of Amman in the inforgraph form the spine of the city; the First Circle is on the edge of IlBalad (downtown), the oldest part of Amman, and from there the city spreads westward to the Eighth Circle (the last one before Airport Road). If you have these eight circles figured out, you’ll be able to get around like a true Ammani.

Many of us Ammanis use the roundabout system to navigate; locations are often defined by their proximity to major circles, and many areas are indeed named after the circles themselves, as opposed to the other way round. Thus, the “Fourth Circle area” actually consists of bits of Shmeisani, Abdoun, and Jabal Amman.

(Click to enlarge)

It is safe to say that the roundabouts have long stopped being functional spaces for traffic management and turned into the very essence of the soul of Amman.

When we were kids, we really enjoyed it when my mother took us around Abdoun Circle. When she was a teenager, her hobby was driving between the first three circles. The Fourth Circle was once a traffic light junction, but when it became too important, they added a bridge. The Dakhleyeh Circle was used as symbol for reform, and the Eighth Circle represents the end of West Amman. The Second Circle is often lovingly referred to as “Dowar Reem”, after the best shawerma place in town.

It has taken a century, but today, the circles reflect the constant change, the growth spurts, the citizen classicism, the childhood fun, and even our local landmarks.

Here’s a cool video that my friend Khobbeizeh created of the circular experience:

Check out how cool that is!

Via Yousif

It’s been 63 years since the Palestinian Nakbeh.

Uprooted. Ethnically cleansed. Cheated. Viciously kicked out of our homes, our villages, our lives. Robbed. Heartlessly murdered.

Punished by the Zionists for a crime against the Jews that we did not commit, our lives made miserable for the past 63 years.

Related:

• Nakbeh: 58
• Nakbeh: 59
• Nakbeh: 60