You've got to be kidding me...

Things I cannot believe are real-and not a joke:

• MP BuRamiya, enough said. (I'm convinced he's Kuwait's Stephen Colbert.)
  
• "Ground Zero Mosque" brouhaha
• Small businesses who sell Kuwait Mills cupcakes with chocolate fudge drizzled over them for a million dinars.
• Sarah Palin's career.
  
• People who say things like "OMG, Mino ma ra7 iroo7 London this holiday?" or "Maligait badla ib a8al min KD 1,000" (They are their own parody.)
• the U.S. is really still in Iraq fighting to rid Saddam of WMD/rid Iraq of Saddam and to preserve the American way of life. (what?)
• Kuwait's Sephora staff.
• Sheikh Sabah attended Fajer Alsaeed's wedding (it was a prank, right? Someone tell me he has a wicked sense of humor and punked all of us)
• The lines at Pinkberry.
• Salwa Aljassar is a Member of Parliament. (I've never needed something to be performance art more than her tenure in parliament.) (google: لا تسيسون السياسه)
  
• Hassan AlBallam's new teeth (I really thought they were part of the costume for his Ramadan show).
  

Dalai Lama’s 18 rules for living

At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living. Since word travels slowly in the digital age these have only just reached me. Here they are.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
   1. Respect for self
   2. Respect for others
   3. Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Found here.

I came across Eric Zorn's "50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order" through The Happiness Project . It's great, you should read it.

My favorites are:
1. It’s better to sing off key than not to sing at all.

3. You can’t avoid offending people from time to time. When you don’t mean it, apologize. When you do mean it, accept the consequences.

6. The most valuable thing to have is a good reputation, and it’s neither hard nor expensive to acquire one: Be fair. Be honest. Be trustworthy. Be generous. Respect others.

7. Prejudice and bigotry is hard-wired into us. You can’t overcome it until you acknowledge it.

17. Don’t waste your breath proclaiming what’s really important to you. How you spend your time says it all.

22. Anyone who judges you by the kind of car you drive or shoes you wear isn’t someone worth impressing.

31. Physical attraction is nice, but shared values and a shared sense of humor are the real keys to lasting love.

46. Be truthful or be quiet. Lies are hard to keep track of.


Number 21 hit me like a ton of bricks.
21. Fear of failure is a ticket to mediocrity. If you’re not failing from time to time, you’re not pushing yourself. And if you’re not pushing yourself, you’re coasting.