Disclaimer: I have recently been a very easy-to-annoy person, so take this bitching with a grain of salt.

There’s been an excess of weird emoticons making the rounds in the Arab social media space. And it really bothers me.

The very idea of ASCII emotions is simplicity. When the whole sentence should ideally be less than 40 characters, a squished facial expression composed of 20 characters really does not make sense. Ya3ni what the hell is this stuff?

|￣￣|
＿☆☆☆＿
（ ´_⊃｀）

Fugly, if I may say so myself. Visually polluting the online space. Of course, that’s the extreme side, but these look just as horrible:

(^_^)
La2, bil marra mish katkoot

(>_<)
JAD?

O_O
Um. Okay. Punch in the face, anyone?

It isn’t just about these way over the top East Asian style faces. It’s also about “cool” simple smileys. I don’t get this stuff at all either:

:]
What’s that supposed to be? A vampire with fangs digging into his nose? Ugly, ugly, ugly.

(:
La2. Mish faye3. Abadan.

Regular smiley faces are okay. I mean, it’s just ASCII. And this is online. It’s the sentence that should be expressive, not the gunk that follows.

Thank you for listening.

I’m totally OCD about making sure I have everything in my bag, because I’m always carrying so much junk.

Here’s a list of the 10 most common places people lose their smartphones, to help you watch out.

1. Swimming pool
2. Taxi
3. Airplane
4. Bus or subway
5. School
6. Airport security
7. Changing room
8. Roof of your car (WTF?)
9. Restaurant/Bar
10. Purse

Thankfully, I’m too OCD to lose things.

If you have ever lost your phone, where did you lose it?

1. The Cairo equivalent to a valet is a random guy who decides to make a living by pushing cars on neutral gear around a crowded street, very much like a game of Highway. You tip him for that.

2. Mori Sushi is damn good. The urban legend in the rest of the Arab world is that Egyptians can’t cook for shit, but Mori Sushi was AMAZING. Highly recommended.

3. The atmosphere in Tahrir is amazingly festive. 

4. MASER LA ALLAH SHOWB. It’s so hot it’s almost hard to understand. I feel awful for the people demonstrating in Tahrir. You definitely can’t have a summer revolutionary season in the Arab world. The heat is unbearable.

5. In Tahrir, the women pray next to the men. عظيمة يا مصر.

6. Some childhood friends remain awesome even after 15 years. One of my best friends in middle school is the sister of one of my brother’s best friends in primary school. The family friend outing was awesome.

7. AlMoez Street in AlHussein was recently renovated. I strongly recommend you visit it at night. The gorgeousness is breathtaking.

8. Egyptians are pros at tourist traps. It is really annoying and depressing. Especially since we weren’t exactly tourists.

9. Weddings in Egypt are more creative than ones in Jordan. Mabrook Sara and Mohammad! :)

10. Unlike Beirut, you can’t just walk around in Cairo and stumble into cool places. Make a list before hand.

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Originally published in January, 2006.
This post is a part of the “NotSoFar Archive Project”. After eight years of blogging, the project aims to help you rediscover old posts, as well as go back in time. Somehow.

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I first started blogging for myself- I needed a space to sort of “save” things that inspired me and jot down random notes about various designs and products that I thought could be useful for inspiration later on. As a Jordanian blogging community developed, my blogging style changed and became more personal- instead of just “reblogging” various designs, I started commenting on them (thus earning myself various reputations such being “all about colors”, “imphalsapheh”, and “control freak”). The community kept growing, and like any trend, blogging started to attract people because it sort of became “cool”.

Anyway… while doing my regular blog-surfing, I came upon a list compiled by the dudes at Gaping Void entitled “Top 10 Reasons No One Reads Your Blog“- inspired by it, I will share some of their reasons as well as add a dose of my Jordan-centric usual imphalsaph commentry.

I will even go on and risk being called a biatch by dedicating this list to some of the recent submittals to Jordan Planet(and this is where Isam and Iyas shoot me).
Take it with a grain of salt.

1. You’ve only been blogging for a week. Heck, even a month.
This is a huge turn off. Work on your blog. Perfect it. Love it. Make it you.
Then share it.
(bonus link: it less than a blink to judge online content, so make it good!)

2. You have nothing to say!
I believe that this is rule numero uno when it comes to blogging (and a lot of other stuff but let’s stick to the point, shall we?). Dude, blogging is all about saying- if you’re blogging to be a part of community, it’s not really blogging is it?
I get really annoyed when people ask questions such as “What should I blog about?” or alternatively complain about lack of inspiration. Blogging is a frenzy- it is not a perfectly calculated and painstakingly edited have-to-be-published-everyday newspaper. Do it because you feel like it, otherwise it feels forced out, and that is baaaad.
My advice to you, if you don’t have anything to say, spare us the pictures of cute babies, the terribly photoshopped junk you found on “Worth 1000“, and content off forwards I recieved back in ’98 (dude, forwards are so Web 0.1, get over it).

3. There’s nothing in it for them.
One of the reasons that got me into blogging is because I felt like it was personally enriching, and you seriously don’t need to be a nuclear physist who’s writing about how to dismantle an atomic bomb to be enriching.
One of my favorite blogs ever is “Dooce“, whose favorite topics(as you can see from her categories) include “Poop”, “Boobs”, and “Sleep”, yet Heather writes so darn beautifully and cunningly that I hang on to every single sentence she writes in an obsessive compulsive way. Her writing style enriches my own and makes me going back for more.

4. “Passion & Authority” are just buzzwords to you.

5. You’re not a good-looking female who likes posting naked pictures of herself. Can’t overemphasize that one enough ;)

6. U rite like an annoyin’ 13 year old boy who just reached puberty. Ya I am serius this pisses me off like krazy. U cant spell for shit u cant expres urslf bi negleh and u have never heard of punctaytion. it is not kewl 2 not know how to spell, kid, use ur spell chicker. it is not kewl 2 replace “are” with “r”, “you” with “u”, and “too” with “2″. for the love of god, c’s are round and pretty, ditch the k’s.
also, pleeze dont go overexited and add tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many leters2make a point or use toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many colors 2 spice things up. Less is more.
finally, pleeze go ez on the use of emoticons and smiley faces- they belong in the 70′s when LCD’s made everything look pritty and shit.
oh, ya, i cant help but add that a sentence never starts with “am” (am so sorry, am so happy, am so annoyed), there’s always a nice long “I” before the “am”.

Such an annoying way of writing is a mockery to intelligence.

7. You’re not Jameed.
Jameed is funny. You are not. Get over it.

8. You think Comic Sans is cool. Go to hell.

9. You whine about traffic. That’s the biggest no-no. Remember, you don’t blog for traffic, you blog for blogging. See points number 1, 2, and 3.

10. Although I can think of a few more reasons, I’d like you guys to tell me what you think number 10 should be. What keeps you coming back? What turns you off a blog? I’d hate to be the only imphalsapheh person around.

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Originally published in August, 2005.
This post is a part of the “NotSoFar Archive Project”. After eight years of blogging, the project aims to help you rediscover old posts, as well as go back in time. Somehow.

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I spend a few weeks feeling extremely lovey dovey towards Amman after every time I travel. I stop complaining about the heat, I stop complaining about the crowded streets, and I stop complaining about the grouchy people. The truth is, the weather here is gorgeous, the crowded streets are actually not crowded at all, and sometimes grouchy is good.

Naturally, in a few weeks, I’ll yell “chowb!” every single time I feel hot, I’ll start whining about the crowd especially the one that’s a result of the hellish Abdoun detour, and I’ll start wondering why my fellow citizens don’t smile more often. Afterwards, I’ll compare our tiny streets to the elaborate infrastructure of Riyadh, our unhappy people to the life-loving people of Lebanon, and our early-to-bed-early-to-rise routine to the energetic 24-hour day of Cairo.

And honestly, I’m not much of a whiney person.

For now though, still feeling sticky from a city a lot more humid than my own, I’m indulging in this city of stone.

I would guess that during the millennium of pattering feet against its floors, many other people have indulged in this city, where the first record of a well-developed civilization traces back to around 6500 BC in ‘Ain Ghazal in eastern Amman. In the 13th century BC Amman was called Rabbath Ammon by the Ammonites, and was later conquered by the Assyrians, the Persians, and then the Greeks, who renamed it Philadelphia. The city became part of the Nabataean kingdom until AD 106 when Philadelphia came under Roman control and joined the Decapolis. In 324 AD, Christianity became the religion of the Roman empire and Philadelphia became the seat of a bishopric during the beginning of the Byzantine era.

Philadelphia was renamed to Amman during the Ghassanian era, and flourished under the Ummayyads and the Abbasids. It was then destroyed by several earthquakes and natural disasters and remained a small village and a pile of ruins until the Circassians settlemed there in 1887.

Naturally, the rest is history.

View of downtown Amman from the balcony of a cafe called Balat Il Rashid (during mid-day in spring)

A falafel place in Jabal il Hussein (Jabal is Arabic for mountain, as the city was originally built on seven hills, but it now spans over an area of nineteen hill)

View of the citadel (across) and the downtown area (in the valley) from Jabal Amman

View of Wadi Il Seer (wadi means valley) from Jabal Il Weibdeh

Abdoun area (one of the richest neighborhoods in Amman) from Abdoun Village (one of the poorest as it originally a village, but Amman grew and crawled until the village became in its center)

East Amman, one of the poorer areas.

Levantine architecture in Darat-Al-Funun, an art gallery housed in a traditional Jordanian residence that goes back to the 1920s.

The backyard of Darat-Al-Funun, which is actually the archaeological remains of a six century Byzantine church built over a Roman Temple, all restored for use.

Corn-on-the-cob trolley.

Inside one of the souqs of the downtown market.

Teenagers skateboarding on Culture Street.

Today, 5 years later, I think Souq Jara has completely screwed over Jabal Amman.

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Originally published in August, 2005.
This post is a part of the “NotSoFar Archive Project”. After eight years of blogging, the project aims to help you rediscover old posts, as well as go back in time. Somehow.
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Amman this summer is absolutely wonderful! There’s just so much going on- concerts, festivals, sports events, and even flea markets.

Today, I went to my very first Ammanite flea market, JARA, with it’s lovely little wooden chairs, a mosaic of Jordanian art from embroidery to stained glass, and the underexpressed “faya3a” part of the young Ammanite culture.

A flea market in Jordan is not an unknown concept, because one way or another, the shopping areas crowded with “bastat”(sellers selling on rugs) are actually a more ethnic sort of flea market. Yet, the JARA flea market, with it’s younger more Westernized approach, is probably the first of its type- I totally loved the semi-spontaneous nature and vendor-oriented open-market layout. My favorite part though was the fact that it’s in one of Jabal Amman’s old streets, my favorite place in all the world. Jabal Amman’s history goes back to the 1930’s, making it one of the oldest parts of a new city in one of the oldest countries.

The colorful stalls are laid out along Fawzy Ma’louf Street, a favorite winter retreat of ours. We would buy shawerma, park at it’s very end(like many of Amman’s old streets, the street ends and stairs start), and enjoy the beauty of Amman’s mountains. You can see pictures taken during one of those excursions here. It’s a little weird to imagine that the street that today was bustling and hustling with so much energy is the same street in the pictures.

I will redirect you to a post on 360 East to read a more detailed review of Amman’s very first flea market, but I will share pictures. The flea market will open every Friday until October, when the street will start looking dreary with Amman’s rain season again, and it will reopen come spring.

All images magically grow when clicked.

Left: I really love mosaics, and this is such a cute way to use them. Right: the Abu Mahjoob booth! Yes, Abu Mahjoob actually has a booth. He even has tattoos.

Left: General view of bazaar. Right: the Book@Cafe booth and cafe.

Left: T-shirt competition is hot, hot, hot at the JARA flea market! This booth celebrates the wonders of being a Ammani girl with t-shirts that say stuff like “I survived El-Souq” and “leish za3lan?”. Right: selling pottery

Left: I totally love the first picture, I want those cute little chairs and tables! Center: they even have live music at the flea market, they were taking a break when I took the picture though. Right: A very, very Ammanite scene for you…