I was recently reading Paulo Coelho’s “the winner stands alone” and was inspired by ‘the list of normal” where the character Javits Wild questioned what being normal meant but with an unusual twist; rather than asking people what they thought was normal he constructed a list of 46 things he saw people doing which are observed by them and others as “normal”



1-Working at a job that bores you and is farther from the dreams you had growing up than Mars is to Jupiter because it’s ‘safe’



2- Forgiving people over and over again who have proven time and time again that they are unreliable. Disloyal and downright selfish hoping that this time…. Definitely this time will be different



3-Making friends only with people who do the same things you do. go to the same places and know the same people as you do and wonder why you are uninspired and unimaginative



4- Women starving to lose weight to look like supermodels when every single heterosexual male in any given town in most countries of the world in the media or in real life insists (and shows) that he prefers curves



5-Working 16 hours a day at your job to get a promotion that will need working 20 hours a day to make more money than at the 16 hour-a-day-job and have no time to spend it



6-Vowing to never make the same mistakes with your children that your parents made when they were bringing you up and in the process simply …….make other ones that might just be worse than the ones your parents made



7-Buying sick people flowers to cheer them up …flowers that will droop and die after a few short days



8-Driving a car for an hour to a gym where you pay to sit on a bike that doesn’t go anywhere



9-Spending a fortune on Plastic surgery to make you stay younger when everybody can tell exactly how old you are



10- Eating with your fork in your left hand , knife in your right and elbows of your table , then travel east for a few hours to totally abandon all that sit on a floor and use your hands and two sticks to simply.....eat... ;-)



There are so many more points i would like to add some politically correct and some oh so not!!

Please share your own

Jessyz and I were talking about the movie and this is a reply to her post .

"He's just not that in to you" *sigh * I read the book a coupla years ago after I'd watched Greg (who wrote the book) on Oprah.  I was really curious to what this book possibly had to say that would help all the girls out there waiting by the phone or crying over some jerk who couldn't find the time to call.

Surprisingly I was really impressed with the simplicity of the whole book it's about 80 pages long, in questions and answers format it's a kind of funny if you've never been in any of the situations greg describe (and quite brutally answers back)  but pretty painful to people who have.  I had a friend who litereally shut off her computer and refused to finish the book when she read a situation similar to her own anyways I was really looking forward to the movie and thought that it would b  one of those crazy type comedies that make fun of serious situations.

The movie I have to admit was a bit personally dissapointing because i expected a comedy, not such a deep movie (yeah yeah sometimes I like being shallow) however the ideas portrayed in the movie were very raw and honest which was quite impressive and mind opening.

My favorite part of the movie was that there was a charactrer that had a guy friend she would ask for advice on guy situations and he would automatically tell her "Run" or "he just doesn't like u" ...here's the catch for u as a viewer its's pretty obvious it's true but the shock that registers on the girls face is humbling we all do it we all get so shocked when some one hits us with  a truth we don't like.

Throughout the movie I would ask myself why why why do girls feel so hurt when a guy doesn't like them who cares it's universally impossible for everyone u meet to like u , not everyone likes oprah some ppl actively dislike babies ....come on i mean what makes me so special that i want everyone to like me.

Aaah then halfway through the movie a light bulb goes off....the girl's feelings are hurt ..an odd reaction because it's the guy who simply isn't interested not that he thinks she's in anyway inadequate or bad.

I get it, the girl was so hurt because she thought she was flawed and for that she repelled a man ....that's it we are conditioned that if we are noce to ppl that they will b nice back if u love them enough the will eventually love u back or ur love will "fix them" but that's not true.  Maybe I didn't relate to the characters in the movie when it came to men but i did relate when it came to friends if u give enough she will appreciate DUH no she's just not that in to me LOL like jessy would say she's just not that good for u.

Which takes me to my next point well yeah a guy can like u and think ur amazing but he's just not good for u drug addict. alcoholic, beater or simply married ;-) and that's ur turn to ...."NOT be into him".

Enjoy the movie!

A group of alexandrians have come up with an awesome idea (because we rock !!) to create a group on facebook that meets every friday morning at Montazah

On the Alexandrian beach front and ride their bicycles all the way to Qauitbay fort

The group appeared as a segment on the famous Cairo today show

The aim of the group is to enjoy the beuatiful mediterranean city of Alexandria and encourage the use of bycicles as transport instead of cars

Today was my 4th ride two of my friends tagged along and it was so amazing and exhilirating it poured non stop from Stanley bridge to Bibliotheca Alexandrina

I has my Ipod on shuffle and just enjoyed the music , my thoughts and the  beautiful city I just had to stop and take a picture with my cell phone

The lovely jessy over at chocolate mints in a jar
had a pretty strong status on her facebook profile a few days ago

It read :"I have something more important than courage, I have patience."

A powerful quote created by Micheal Jordan's brand for the NBA ad campaign

Day in day out we chat via e-mail and at the end of each email she sends me I see that quote it kept drumming in my head patience and courage

Having patience is indeed more important than courage but then what?

Today the question just popped out

RJay: Jessy what are you doing with YOUR patience?

Jessy: How do you mean? doing ? what do you do with patience crazy crazy sister hehe

Rjay : I mean what do you do with your kindness , ur fire ur smarts??

god given morals and attributes do u just leave them lying around or what? what do you use them for? what goal do you use them to achieve? WHAT ARE you doing with your patience ? or are you just leaving it lying around??

Jessy: lol u do nothing
u share them with the world

I liked her answer you share them with the world because that's how you make the world a better place

If you use your patience with the world and the people around you

Wouldn't that make the world a better place?

Then I thought "I know what I will do with my patience "

I will use it to let people show me who they really are I won't judge them or shun them because I was to quick to write them off as different

I will wait I will be patient and I will let the world show me it's true self

What about you ?? what will you do with that one strength you know you have to make the world a better place...........

I will get right to the point no emotional introduction

Other than watch the news and horrendous pictures of the israeli massacre of our palestinian brothers , sisters , and children

What have YOU done for Gaza today

Looked at their dead maimed corpses? cried with their widows on the news? passed on emails?

I'm sorry for my cruelty but you have done NOTHING for them if that is all you have done

DONATE DONATE DONATE

No excuses every single person in the world can donate to Gazza IF you live in ANTARTICA you can wire money to numerous releif funds

Google it or you can go here

In our case here in Egypt the two most prominent and reliable sources are

-The arab doctors association (call up 140 from a landline and get their number)

The Egyptian Medical syndicate http://www.ems.org.eg/contactus.htm
(they take money, blankets and clothes) also if you are a doctor and would like to volunteer it is possible

Also if you are a business man or someone who thinks they can help out with services contact any organization in your country (in Egypt you can visit the Medical syndicate offices which are found on the site)and ask to speak to the committee in charge and give them your suggestions

Can't do that PRAY muslim or christian please pray PRAY long and hard for them

Not religous? EDUCATE educate the people around you to the things they can do, go online educate non arabs who view palestinians as terrorists

Be polite , and calm do not insult anyone even if their views are radical or extreme

Educate yourself on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it's history
Have facts and sources to back them up , then pass it on.

And for all the people out there who live in countries that allow more things to be done such as lobbying or demonstrations please don't hesitate

They need us.....

Every day when you wake up ask yourself what have I done TODAY for Gazza?

In my opinion most people who blog do so because they have alot to say and not enough friends , time or phone credit to do so ;-)

At least that's why I write ,alot of the things i write i burn later (aka shift+delete) because I'm not ready to show the world who i am or everything i feel

So i usually share these intimate thoughts and ideas with my sister or my bestfriend

Anyways to get to the point of this post

I think I think too much...

That sounds wrong

I think too much , analyze to much, and delve into too many layers of human emotion....

I went on vacation recently to istanbul which i loved to pieces (another coming post with pictures coming soon!!)

I shopped alot, visited as many mosques and museums as I could and...yes you guessed it thought alot

I just realized something i need to relax stop thinking so much all the time and stop trying to change the world so I'm taking frankie's advice and I'm going to relax and I'm making a list for all my fellow chronic thinkers to relax

1-Try out the aqua massage

2-Go sit by the sea or the Nile and do absolutely nothing

3-Smile really hard and close your eyes

4-Don't listen to gossip (this one is amazing but quite difficult)

5-Take a nice long shower when your clean

6-lounge in ur living with the lights and tv off


after you have succesfully done one or some of the things on the list (all 20 minutes of them ;-)

Go back to your life and remember to relax