What Does Your Car Say ?

I just read this hilarious article in Forbes magazine describing what signals your car sends out to others . I thought the whole time I was reading it what kind of mixed messages my car must send out to all that share the road with me .

I have a grey /silver Mitsubishi 4 door sedan .The side mirrors have been smashed out by persons unknown . Then there are dents , scratches , gouges ,bashes , and last but not least .... the whole right side that has been caved in by a man in a hurry . Sat . dishes have made artistic dashes across my hood as they tumbled down from the tops of the surrounding Condo's in storms past .I have a large dent in the rear bumper due to a taxi driver not looking where he was driving ... right up my , well I guess I can't really say where he was going but you get my meaning huh ? The left back fender has a scrape that was a gift from someones son that was upset when I didn't move out of his way fast enough for him . I got whip lash from that one . A man drinking his morning coffee proceeded to plow right into my front fender as he stared right into my eyes . I won't forget him anytime soon , tee hee !

I have to drive like man here in Libya , sorta like Texas Hold Um poker , no holds barred !Once , a man was trying to squeeze me into a wall so he could pass me on a one lane alley. I had to ask him , " Honey , do you think that is a wise decision ? I mean , look at my car . Do you think I am afraid of a little ole wall ?" His eyes twitched . I knew he would give way .

A Special Present

Moe's birthday is the day before Valentines Day . He used to remember Valentines Day every year by giving the kids and I a box of candy each , sometimes flowers or something personal for me. Many times we would go out for dinner and dancing . It was all very romantic and it also served to redeem his lack of memory when it came to anniversary's , birthdays ,holidays , and other special days . I would tease him and say he only remembered it because it came the day AFTER his birthday . He would smile his " I am a devil and you love it " smile never denying the charges .

That was when we lived in the States . We moved back to Libya in 1990 . The dances and dinners no longer where celebrated by outings to restaurants or clubs . We cooked dinners at home and danced around in the living room to the radio/ cassette player we managed to "borrow" from my brother in law . There were no clubs and restaurant's were so exorbitantly over priced we never thought about going out . Candy was a faint memory as it was on the embargo list for some weird reason known only to governments . If you did find candy back in the 1990's it was usually way over priced and well beyond it's pass due date, not something affordable for a family of 6, nor desirable either .

Then as the sanctions were lightened up here and consumer goods were allowed to enter the country things became available to some degree , but still too expensive . About that time my husband became ill and was unable to work because of his heart .I worked and my lovely daughters worked . We got by , things looked up .

Slowly but surely we started to rebuild our lives after we lost our home here in Tripoli to a new road that was being built . They came to knock down our house one day , wanted us to move out of a 3,ooo sq, ft. house with 5 bedrooms , 2 living rooms , 2 large entry rooms , a huge kitchen , with a dinning room , 2 baths , and 3 storage rooms , into a 2 bedroom apartment in 2 days ! Just imagine ! Somehow and not without a lot of hard work on my daughters part , did we manage to do this .

Then my husband had a major stroke . We thought he would die . It took many months of long hard hours of rehabilitating physiotherapy for Moe to return to some normalcy . He had a second stroke 2 years later . He again had to re-enter the world of physiotherapy because this time he had been partly paralyzed on the right side. His memory never returned to what it used to be , although he has continued to make great strides towards improvement even now . So forgotten birthdays , anniversary's , and Valentines Days are the norm , never given any special thought .This year he remembered Valentines Day all on his own . He came to me and said he had a present for me . He gave me a big kiss , he said it was to celebrate Valentines Day . The loveliest kiss I ever had ,the best present of all !

Wanted....

Wanted !

Be on the look out for :
A fat baby angel carrying a bow and arrow set with him.
He has soft curly golden hair , big blue eyes.
He goes by the alias of Cupid .
Anyone seeing this being should approach with caution !
Known to inflict LOVE on anyone he shoots with His arrow !

Happy Valentines Day to all you Lovers out there !

A Quiz For You

Here is a quiz that Khadijateri sent to me . I think you'll be surprised at who you will find compatible , politically speaking . I sure did , and how ! I need to go rethink a few things , lol ! Here is a different one I found in The Houston Post . It is a little more involved , but equally reveling .

"You might find this interesting - answer 10 questions at http://www.votechoo ser.com and find out which presidential candidate is most similar to you!"

Not Your Daddy's Country

I think I am gonna live , well , maybe . Still recovering from the flu that I had all last week .It has settled into my chest . I thought I was gonna die a couple of times . I remember thinking once or twice it might not be such a bad thing if I did .

So, in between sleeping and coughing up my lungs last week , I played cards on the computer to pass the time . I like to listen to music at the same time . This was perfect. A while back a friend had given me a load of mixed music to download onto my computer .I have been lazy, never getting around to breaking it up into genre's . SO , while listening to the music , I decided I would do just that , categorizing hard rock , rock , indie , jazz, blues , classical , and country into separate files .

Aaaah , I rediscovered country . Never was a big country fan growing up , and really never found it interesting until the whole Urban Cowboy thing came along in the 80's. Of course everyone in Houston became a cowboy when John Travolta came to town and Mickey Gilly's to film that movie , even me . I had a hat, boots, the whole nine yards ! But so did all of Houston , even the Yuppies ! LOL ! But after the fad passed I put the hat in the hat box on the top shelf of my closet to gather dust out of sight . That was my very short lived affair , well not a affair really, it was more like a flirtation, with country music .

I sat listening to all these different genre of music sneezing , snuffling among a mountain of crumpled tissues, coughing until I was blue in the face ,when I had a Eureka moment ! I rediscovered the NEW COUNTRY music . It is New and definitely Improved . I heard all about "Acky Breaky Heart"s , "Boot Scootting Boogie"s , saying "Good Bye To Earl".One husband asked his self "What Kinda Gone" was his wife talking about as she slammed the door on her way out . I heard THE song , the one that spoke to me ( truthfully , I ashamedly admit there were a ton of these ! LOL ) but this one made me remember all those times when I wanted to say "Gone " to Moe , too . It made me laugh . A woman declares she is out the door and on her way "Down In Mississippi Up To No Good" . Sort of a Thelma and Louise thing with her and her friends. I became reacquainted with "I Love A Rainy Night" which brought back a flood of wonderful memories of rainy nights gone by . A different song finds another husband worrying how "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off " when he hears his wife is going to have a Girls Night Out . Country has come a long way from Your Daddy's country music . I tried to include links so you could enjoy these songs too , but didn't manager to get it to work . Maybe if you haven't already heard these songs you might investigate them on your own and find a whole new world waiting for your adventurous soul .

Warp Speed To Space

Did you know that the native Americans ( Indians) have names for the full moons ? They say there is a rock on Mars that looks like a womans body .Click on this link to find all sorts of events that will take place this month in the night sky . Here is a link to the solar and lunar eclipses for 2008 . There is a special prayer in the Quran just for a full solar eclipse .Thats pretty interesting huh ?

If you find any of these above topics fascinating like I do , then you might want to take a look at the Space web sight . They have all sorts of things listed ; space walks , missions in outer space ,meteor near hits to Earth , asteroids , astronomy basics 101 , Images of The Day shots of the Cosmos , among a whole host of other things . Have fun discovering the Universe ! If you scroll ALL the way to the bottom of my blog you will find a map of the starry sky widget . You can click on the widget to change the sky setting to you're location any where in the world .

Re : Story On The $6Bln. Award / Economic Blackmail

I posted on Thursday Jan. 24, 2008 a report concerning a lawyers statement how going after American assets of American companies working in Libya might be considered an act of terrorism , or even economic blackmail , considering the state of the American economy now . It would seem to be against American interest to freeze their assets , considering the possible economical recession the American public is facing . I came across a Newsweek article today explaining the how and why this is feasible . I was amazed to read how legislation is counter productive toward economic recovery , and could negatively affect so many lives . Maybe it was a case of good idea , wrong execution ?

"A bill passed by Congress in 1996 opened the door to civil suits against a handful of countries deemed state sponsors of terrorism", the Newsweek article stated .The Newsweek report further states ..... "An amendment passed by the Senate this week allows lawyers to go after the property of countries that sponsor terrorism even if Americans run the property and receive all of the profit—a significant shift, according to analysts and legal scholars. The upshot is that billions in assets here in the United States could fall within the reach of terror victims who have been awarded judgments against countries like Iran and Libya. The legislation has a long history and plenty of opponents. State Department officials say it will deny them a key bargaining chip in dealings with so-called rogue states, while the business community fears it will expose U.S. investors in the Middle East to reciprocal measures. "The government prefers to use these assets in a game of leverage for larger geopolitical issues," says David Aufhauser, who headed the National Security Council's terrorist financing task force until 2004. "To have other voices at the table dilutes the leverage."

Now here is the question , wasn't Libya taken off this list in the past year or so after making amends for past transgressions ; therefore opening the door for trade , business , restoring diplomatic relations between Libya and America ? Libya is wrapping up it's term in rotation as head of the UN Security Council . How is it possible that the esteemed UN Security Council would allow a so called "Rogue Terrorist State " to be in charge of such a important and pivotal roll if it was still practicing "State Sponsored Terrorism" ?

The Newsweek report goes on to state American business concerns for their assets in Libya.
"But could the legislation rebound on Americans who do business abroad? Major business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, warned in a letter to Congress earlier this month that the bill would end up "crippling new (American) investment" in a country like Libya, which also owes money to terror victims. U.S. companies have invested more than $3 billion in Libya since it came off Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism last year. The business groups said American companies are now worried that for every Libyan asset lawyers seize in the United States to pay off the judgments, the Libyans will seize an American asset of similar value in their country. "The effects … are egregious and we urge you to make the necessary correction to the legislation," the groups wrote before the amendment passed."

Computer Stupid -Funny

Here are some calls to different computer customer service assistance centers from around the world . Enjoy !

Samsung Electronics
Caller: 'Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?'

Operator: 'I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand who you are talking about'.

Caller: 'On page 1, section 5, of the user guide it clearly states that I need to unplug the fax machine from the AC wall socket and telephone Jack before cleaning. Now, can you give me the number for Jack?'

Operator: 'I think you mean the telephone point on the wall'.




Caller: 'I deleted a file from my PC last week and I have just realised that I need it. If I turn my system clock back two weeks will I have my file back again?'.

Tech Support: 'I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop'.

Customer: 'OK'.

Tech Support: 'Did you get a pop-up menu?'.

Customer: 'No'.

Tech Support: 'OK. Right-Click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?'

Customer: 'No'.

Tech Support: 'OK, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?'.

Customer: 'Sure. You told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click''.




Tech Support: 'OK. In the bottom left hand side of the screen, can you see the 'OK' button
displayed?'

Customer: 'Wow. How can you see my screen from there?'

There's always one. This has got to be one of the funniest things in a long time. I think this guy should have been promoted, not fired. This is a true story from the Word Perfect Helpline, which was transcribed from a recording monitoring the customer care department. Needless to say the Help Desk employee was fired; however, he/she is currently suing the Word Perfect organization for 'Termination without Cause'.
Actual dialogue of a former WordPerfect Customer Support employee. (Now I know why they record these conversations!):

Operator: 'Ridge Hall, computer assistance; may I help you?'

Caller: 'Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect.'

Operator: 'What sort of trouble??'

Caller: 'Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away.'

Operator: 'Went away?'

Caller: 'They disappeared.'

Operator: 'Hmm So what does your screen look like now?'

Caller: 'Nothing.'

Operator: 'Nothing??'

Caller: 'It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type.'

Operator: 'Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out??'

Caller: 'How do I tell?'

Operator: 'Can you see the C: prompt on the screen??'

Caller: 'What's a sea-prompt?'

Operator: 'Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?'

Caller: 'There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type.'

Operator: 'Does your monitor have a power indicator??'

Caller: 'What's a monitor?'

Operator: 'It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on??'

Caller: 'I don't know.'

Operator: 'Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that??'

Caller: 'Yes, I think so.'

Operator: 'Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall.

Caller: 'Yes, it is.'

Operator: 'When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one??'

Caller: 'No.'

Operator: 'Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable.'

Caller: 'Okay, here it is.'

Operator: 'Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer.'
Caller: 'I can't reach.'

Operator: 'Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is??'

Caller: 'No.'

Operator: 'Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over??'

Caller: 'Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle - it's because it's dark.'

Operator: 'Dark??

Caller: 'Yes - the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window.

' Operator: 'Well, turn on the office light then.'

Caller: 'I can't.'

Operator: 'No? Why not??'

Caller: 'Because there's a power failure.'

Operator: 'A power......... A power failure? Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now.

Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in??'

Caller: 'Well, yes, I keep them in the closet.'

Operator: 'Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from.'

Caller: 'Really? Is it that bad?'

Operator: 'Yes, I'm afraid it is.'

Caller: 'Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them??'

Operator: 'Tell them you're too f --- ing stupid to own a computer!!!!!'