straycat

Hi~ Ramadhan Kareem

I’ve been very busy ever since I made myself a prepaid credit card. Shopping online is so tiring and expensive, specially shopping from Japanese stores So now I’m proud to say I’m flat broke XD Zero! Waiting for my lovely university to give me that SR 850 so I can start shopping again~ Will post my stuff when they arrive.

And while we’re talking about money, let me forward this message to Arab National Bank: I hate you! Wish you bankrupt for the humiliation you try to exact upon your “forced” customers! If only your monopoly over retired citizens’ pensions could be lifted! Believe me you won’t have any customers left!

As usual, my brother nagged over my head to write something in my Arabic blog. Thus, I made a new category called “Ramadhaniat” where I will write daily during Ramadhan about the Iftar, the most famous Saudi Ramadhan show “Tash Ma Tash” and post videos from my YouTube channel. I might discuss one specific topic when it’s interesting, other than that it usually follows this pattern.

So recently, Panda, a very famous supermarket line managed by Savola Group, decided to hire Saudi women as cash registers in their Jeddah branch(es) as a start. The plan is to have 2500 women hired in an attempt to reduce unemployment. So far everything is okay, but Sheikh Youssef Al-Ahmad, aka that guy who issued a Fatwa to rebuild the Holy Mosque, issued yet another Fatwa to boycott Panda because it “demeans Muslims’ women by employing them as cash registers.” Well, I frankly disagree with what he said; having women selling on the street is what demeaning, not working in an air-conditioned and well-paid environment. It’s sad to see that some people are responding to such boycott without considering those who need the jobs. If you like to support Panda in their cause please join this page on Facebook.

That’s it for now, I’ll be soon writing a new post about one of my favorite shows: Layla

     My miseries started when Mom married Dad! I was destined to fall into the social relations hell! Me and every Saudi girl! Here’s one story that happened about a week ago.

     My cousin, who’s the same age as I am, got engaged last year. It was pretty obvious she’s getting married this summer. Unfortunately, we didn’t know the exact time, because of the I-will-tell-everyone-the-date-of-my-marriage-a-week-before-so-no-one-get-the-time-to-prepare-a-dress-prettier-than-mine phobia! This phobia is very common in Saudi Arabia. In my opinion it’s just a way of reducing the number of people attending the wedding! Anyways, this time it was exactly a week before the wedding. I was in Riyadh having my finals, minding my own business, when my sister gave me the call. I said “No way I’m going to this wedding! I have nothing to wear!” Of course, there’s no “No” when it comes to family weddings, specially family weddings where battles of invitation cards, dresses and old grudes are involved! My uncle’s wife never wanted us to attend her daughter’s wedding, despite the fact we’re close relatives and her daughter spent her childhood in our house. So, she called and asked if we want to go to the wedding. We said yes and that’s it! She didn’t sent us anything! Mom got angry –you couldn’t blame her; she’ll be having a hard time with her brother. She waited till the night before the wedding and the evil witch aka my uncle’s wife :p still hasn’t sent anything. So, Mom talked to her, gave her some words to think about and got her invitation card just like a stranger! What was my uncle’s wife excuse? “You’re part of the family. You don’t need cards!” Yeah, I bet our names are registered at the security as family members, right? THEY WEREN’T! Mom said I should definetly attend this wedding no matter what. All of us should be there to foil this evil witch’s plan! Bwhahahahaha! *horror music* =P

     I was bored and didn’t want to go, but the fact that she made this evil plan just to prevent us from coming made me angry. I looked up a dress I wore before. It was still pretty so I wore it. I didn’t have time to dye my hair so I chose a cute haircut and that was it. I felt pretty that day XD Because the last time I went to a wedding was like a year ago! We went there, Mom just kept telling anyone she knows about what her sister-in-law did and how her plan backfired at her~ I was enjoying a little chat with old friends and relatives. In all, the wedding was… so… normal? The wedding hall was very fancy and only riches could afford it, but the decoration was so childish I almost thought we’re attending Barbie’s wedding XD Everything was in pink and white. Even the chairs where the bride and the groom were supposed to sit on (aka Kosha) was white! WTH? How can I distinguish the bride from the rest of the Kosha if it was white? I honestly thought that since the Kosha is white, my cousin will wear another color. Anyways, one of my aunts, whose daughter is going to marry this summer too, saw me! Yet again I got entangled into this social events web! Now I HAVE to attend this wedding, which I didn’t, not because I didn’t want to, but because I really didn’t have anything to wear + I was fasting and got really tired I love my aunts and their daughters, and the fact that I missed the wedding will make me look like I don’t care about them~ There’s also consequences to this single wedding I missed; if I attend another wedding of a daughter of another aunt, it would look like I hate that aunt and her daughters! :X So, to clear this mess, I decided not to attend any close relatives wedding this summer plus if I met my aunt, I have to apologize to her. I don’t want any troubles.

     You see how a single wedding caused me troubles the whole summer? I can’t believe how much intolerant Saudi women can get when it comes to social parties. I frankly believe there’s a blacklist that a woman keeps to list all the women who somehow failed to invite her to their parties, were late to invite her or did not attend one of her parties when they were invited!

     I really want to talk more but this is like the longest post I’ve written so far in this blog. I’ll try to write more about other portraits of Saudis’ life in my future posts.

     Yesterday, my brother and I spent most of our time getting my Japanese Wii to play US games. I really didn’t thought it’ll work, but after lots of trial and error we got it to work~ We played Trauma Center, Castlevania Judgment, Sin and Punishment 2 and Klonoa. We couldn’t get Cooking Mama to work -I know it’s stupid but I love it :p However, I wasn’t satisfied; I wanted an English menu, so we took a dare and installed the US English menu. My Wii semi-bricked T^T but my bro fixed it thankfully. Now, after 3 years of abandonment, my Wii is sitting proudly next to the PS2 and PS3~

     Castlevania Judgment was adequately good. I was surprised because of what I read about it. I don’t mind 3D Castlevanias, specially the ones that came out on PS2. I can say that Judgment can be put right before Castlevania 64, why? Well, to answer this question I made a tag line:

Castlevania Judgment: Where camera is your biggest enemy :p

IGA learned nothing from the 64 games; the camera literally stands in your way when fighting! Well, I don’t wanna talk much about the game as it was released a long time ago. I’m just happy I get to play another Castlevania game… wait, there’s another one: Castlevania Adventure ReBirth. I love this game because I really think that Gameboy games should have remakes of their own; they have good stories, awesome music, but the game control was terrible. I’m excluding Castlevania Legend because… it sucks and I hate Sonia too =p

That’s about everything I did the last couple of days. I’ll be writing something here soon, so see you next time~

Wow… It’s been a long time since my last post here… I think I mentioned something like that on Twitter.
Anyways, I figured I’ll start writing about my family here… since not all of them know about this blog :p

I’m going to talk about my late brother… It’s been app. 7 years since he passed away in a car accident. I’m not really sure about the details… it hurts recalling such incidents. I can’t even say his name Just the thought of him being gone is absurd!

He had been more like a father than a brother to us… I was an 8th grader. The day he died, he drove me to school (I usually go on foot.) He talked to my mother throughly, as to say goodbye to her…

I was young and foolish at that time… Didn’t encounter any serious troubles or incidents… The thought that my big brother could die didn’t cross my mind. I mean he was in good health, never complained once, always thoughtful and ready to help~ His death was like a bomb dropped at our house, changing our life completely.

With that, I’d like to end this post with a video that has been circulating through social networks these days. It’s called “Street Terror” by Ala’a al-Maktoum:

    Yesterday I took several photos of my university… each photo has a story… enjoy~

  Syntax… The thing is, you see, I chose English Literature because it’s LITERATURE! I don’t want Linguistics! I mean, I love Pragmatics and Applied Linguistics, but still… I can’t be productive in a course that has no logic whatsoever! I’m not taking the course “Syntax” right now, but I did help my ex-roommate study for it… it made no sense at that time and I could’t take it.  The only thing that comforts me is the instructor *heart* She’s so considerate~ Wish me luck… I’ll be taking it the next semester…

   Finally, we were able to have a full-functional smart board, and a professor who knows how to use it!  During the three years and a half I’ve been in the university, I never had the chance to try the smart board… The thing is, many instructors don’t use it and even write on it with permanent pen, making it useless. The student, however, are not allowed to use it because you have to enter your ID in order to launch it… Our professor promised to show us a movie (related to the course) on the smart board… I can’t wait to see it~

  The university’s newspaper “Resalat AlJameah” is not as interesting as it used to be… The only column I love to read now is this “gossip” one where an unknown student cheats and gets caught, or an unknown professor is late for work! This time is about an employee who lies through his teeth to slip out of his job… I love how the editor says this “After killing most of his relatives and pretending the illness of the rest (the living and the dead, ) “[he forgot his glasses and asked his boss to let him go get it for real.  The boss couldn’t take anymore of these lies and didn’t allow him to leave.  He couldn’t do anything during that day without his glasses, so he did nothing of his work, again!]

Well, that is all.  See you guys later~

P.S. This is not my finger . It’s my friend’s~

    We got Yakuza 3 for the Playstation 3. I finished the first one along time ago on the PS2, but didn’t play the second sequel at all, because Sega releases the English version only after making sure it will sell good. Anyway, I ripped the soundtrack that comes with it and uploaded it on mediafire… enjoy~

Download (147mb @ 320kbps)

I’ve been tagged~ Oh. God, I’m so happy >> nobody tagged her before
Lovely Rin here~ forwarded this to me. I have to tell everybody 7 facts/stories about myself and pass it on to 7 people … Let’s see if I can live up to it… I’ll try to make this as less embarrassing as possible

1. I always loved to play with my brother’s friends. I mean, they go to one’s house and play Playstation all day… Who would refuse such  a thing? and due to this fact they can all recognize me on the streets, even if I’m wearing nekab or regular abayiah (I wear the one on the shoulder… the bad one >> out) So, one day I was going to my friend’s house which is located in the center of my block. As I was walking, I stood face to face with one of them… All he could do was screaming like an idiot who saw a ghost and ran away~ I guess he meant it to be a funny thing… but it wasn’t… As I said, he sounded like an idiot .
2. Another story regarding those monsters: There was a house, nearly finished in the block. They used to reach the top of the neighboring house and jumped off to it. As I think of it now, it really made no sense. Anyway, I was invited to take my jump~ As the elegant lady I am (,) I took my turn, but got scared at the last moment. One of the guys offered me a helping hand BY PUSHING ME! I landed as if I was sitting. You could imagine how it hurt my back. I had to stay in bed for, like, 3 days… We can say I was miraculously saved –thank God .
3. When I was in school, I used to woke up early. My fellow students woke up at 6 am and me? 5 So, one day we were in the class and this girl tried to show off by saying that she goes to school at 3 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING! The innocent me accepted this heart-fully. The day after, I woke up late and cried. My mom said that I wake up early every morning so it’s fine, let it go~ I refused and said with teary eyes “but my friend goes to school at 3 waaaaaaaaaaaahhhh.” As the considerate family they are, my family laughed so much at the poor, foolish me~ I was irritated, of course, and refused to believe that I’ve been lied to. My sister still recalls this story to these days, while referring to the current me “Who could have forget the day where you said your friend goes to school at 3 am?”
4. Now, let’s go to the facts: I smoked! Once! Well, some of you are already aware of this, but it never hurts to repeat: I was writing my story (Love creates miracles >> very typical name>> out.) I was playing the lead role –as I always do in my writings. The future me in the story smokes whenever she’s upset. So, to be true to the story and the readers I had to try smoking. I asked my sister for help and she offered me the leftovers of my brother-in-law (actually, it was half a package… but he left it behind, so here you have it: leftovers ) We entered the bathroom just to keep the smoke inside. My sister lit it up and gave it to me… I tried, but really didn’t mange to have a full sip. I got suffocated… it tasted like smoke… but it made me comfortable .
5. I’m very good at imitating Halima Poland’s voice! Surprised? I don’t blame you I don’t like her and her voice irritates me, so I made fun of her using her voice! My friends are surprised at how I do it so perfectly they suggested I should post some of my work on YouTube. I refused because I do it out of fun and videos on YouTube will made me look like an impersonator = future problems? I don’t want that.
6. I always consider my niece to be my “successor in the 21st century.” I just love this cutie~ So, one day her mom left her with me. I was bored and she wanted me to draw a “nono” on her hand… a star, you could say. I took the pen and draw ALL OVER HER! I made her foot look like a shoe and I wrote on her arm “straycat’s successor in the 21st century.” Her mom came and looked calmly at her daughter, as to accept the fact that I’m going to mange her daughter’s life instead of her .
7. I was playing with my brother (PS1.)  He picked a different game ( I think it was Final Fantasy VII or a racing game) and left me alone. I took the recorder and tuned it on secretly. Then , I started talking about his friends. I said “I bet they can’t beat you in this game!” He was excited and cooperate with me( evil ) I told him to say they are losers, they can’t win a game like this… etc. Everything was recorded on tape I used it to blackmail him ( forgot what it was about ) The tape was kept safe until one day mom found it and tried handing it to me. She was in another room, so what’s the best method? SHE THREW IT! It turned into pieces. I tried to fix it but gave up.. don’t know why…

There you have it~ It was hard ,you know, finding something good but not embarrassing >>> yeah right~ I forward this to Fahad, To0ona, Musab, Ali, Banotah, Waseem and Mazen.  Now, really, guys… you don’t have to do it in English… you don’t have to do it at all… I know you’re busy, I just wanted to list 7 friends~ Hope you don’t mind ^^

See you soon~

Yes, it finally happened! Somebody actually has the guts to flirt with me via phone! During the 20 years I’ve lived, I never had guys calling my number, asking me to date them… maybe because I don’t go out that much? or the fact that I got a cellphone only after getting admitted into the university? In any case, my inexperienced self could tell me that this is the lamest flirt message any girl could receive… here is the translation:

Can we get together? Your voice is very lovely. give me a “call me,” okay? I’m Aboudi from Jeddah, and I’m 19 years old, okay? . This is my number, okay? Let me learn more about you, okay? .[].[]. Aboudi .[].[].

(Pardon my poor translation… I’m very bored at this time >_>)

Aside from the four “okays” suggesting this boy is unsure of his request, the message teaches you that people can be good because their voice is “cute.  So, how did he know my voice is cute? He actually called before asking for someone named Mohammad. I told him it’s a wrong number and ended the call! My guess is that he was calling his friend and mistook his phone number with mine, but my voice was too cute to the point that he forgot about his friend and tried to flirt with me!

The story didn’t end here. I was in a good mood and  thought: Hey! A guy that has too much free time! Let me teach him some morals! So I sent him a good message, telling him that he can’t judge people based on their voice and refused his offer of “friendship.”  The guy , unsurprisingly, saw this as an encouragement and called me several times, using different numbers. I resolved to put his numbers on live chat rooms, but stopped at the last moment (too soft?) Finally, my roommate was very upset in regard to a family problem, so when he called yet again, she took the phone and threatened him. She said that his voice was shaken; he apologized and hanged up. End of the story.

Sometimes, I can sympathize with guys like this one; never seen the opposite sex, bound by arranged marriages and family ties + other social problems, but to think that you would try to break away from your problems by getting into bigger ones?… This is really not helping you at all… This issue became like stalking and I actually started receiving many calls from many numbers… I installed the black list app and solved the problem, but it could have gone less smoother for another girl, especially if her SIM card is registered ( mine is not ^^;) If you have a friend in any of the three telephone companies we have, you could easily get information about the owner of the number… it is that bad…

Finally, this is my reply to the guy, if you’re interested… Is this really tempting? (my apologies for not translating this… too bored to do it >_> and sorry if my English sounds funny… I saved this post as a draft and edited it a few times without checking for mistakes.)

    I was waiting for the instructor to come up… got bored… and wrote this on the table (I erased it later, being a good student and all .)

There were many writings on the table such as “BANZAI” and a confession to a Japanese idol (forgot his name.) I would love to leave my name there, but I don’t want to end up like Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air .