Cinnamon Zone

Back when I was around 13 or 14, I used to be fond of animal and wild life shows. I remember being mesmerized in front of the TV when the “Killing for a Living” was on every Sunday. I used to bring those shows on CD’s back before DVD’s came into play. There weren’t many such programs on the available channels back then and with the easiness with which CD’s were corrupted, I stopped watching much of that with time.

Few days ago my sister asked me to go to Prime Mega Store and see if I can find a DVD about animals and wild life, since her husband is pretty much obsessed with animals. So, I went there and as always, I was like Alice in wonderland with all these books and DVD’s around. But this time I focused on the DVD’s with stars in my eyes. There were all those DVD’s about animals, such as: The predators prey, the Arctic Kingdom, Jaws and claws, etc. There were also other interesting documentaries about the Pharaohs, Afghanistan, etc. I was this close to grabbing more than one but I knew I had to save some money for something I’m planning on.

Anyway, I took home the “Predator’s Prey” DVD, and took the liberty of tearing the cover off and watching it with my brothers, who are also as fond of wild life as I am. After all we all loved those animal toys as kids and had loads of them…

As we started watching we were all the way like: Sob7an Allah! Wala ishi! How did they take that shot?  As well as marveling at the amazing facts that were new to us, and laughing at the stupid scurrying ostriches. I was feeling sleepy but with each chapter I was like: Ok, this is the last one. Still I didn’t watch all of it and I can already say I’m willing to watch it over and over again.

Did you know that elephants can weigh up to 6000 KGs? I mean I knew they were giant fatsos but that is heavier than anything I could’ve imagined. If you think that’s super sized, then wait until you hear that the tongue of the sperm whale weighs as much as an elephant! Now that’s big…

I recommend this to everyone. I also decided to start a library of those DVD’s, it’s really worth it, not only animals but all those National Geographic stuff, think they also might make good fodder for blogging…

I’m going to make a wild guess and say that most if not all of us have by now received a handful of emails from complete strangers asking for help in return of making you rich. What’s amazing is how keen those people seem to be in taking their chances in a random fashion. Sending the same emails, same stories and even same titles. “I Need Your Urgent Reply”, “From the Desk of Mr. Zayyid Amir”, you name it.  With time, no one had to ask “what’s the catch?” anymore, because, if anything, the abundance of these emails gave them away.

The news is that this whole thing seem to have turned a new corner, and moved to a more direct and liable stage: Telephones.

The other day my friend called me saying that something very weird happened to her. Her mobile phone rang and the caller ID showed an international number, which later turned out to be from Senegal. When she answered, someone said with a heavy Arabic accent: “Inta saheb had raqam?” (Does this number belong to you?) She said yes, and the man on the other end started telling her this “interesting story”. He said that he was sleeping in the woods with his friends when he had this dream in which he saw her mobile number. He said that he had a message from God to her…

At this point, my friend freaked out and hung up. Later, she was so curious that she called him back. He started telling her things about herself and her family, when freaked her out even more, then he said that she was “mas7oora’’, which means that someone has cast a spell on her. At this point, she could see that he was bluffing, so she just hung up.

Well, in fact I’m still curious to know what was the point of all that. Is it an extension of fraud emails or have prank calls entered a new stage? Well, I have to admit that I have once made a call to Spain just for the heck of it. I wanted to hear someone speaking Spanish, there was no black magic talk involved, I assure you. Anyway, I spent a good amount of my credit on that, and I can’t say for sure that the woman who answered the phone spoke Spanish, it sounded like Philippino. If you’re wondering, I asked to speak to Carmen, but apparently that Spanish number I dialed didn’t belong to someone with a very common name.

About International prank calls I’ve received, I did receive one on my birthday 2 years ago. My phone rang and the number was from Turkey. I answered and there was a girl saying that she was form “sharika 3alamiyya” (International company), and she knew my name. I was puzzled, then after going back and forth with conversation she burst out laughing. It was my friend Kolita. I think she’ll be laughing now if she read this.

The funniest International call I received, which I can’t call a prank call, was from this Indian guy from Saudi Arabia. I called his phone once thinking it was my cousin’s, so he called me after that a couple of times. I don’t know what he wanted because I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I just remember yelling “I don’t speak Urdu”…

Anyway, maybe it’s a good thing that international calls are pretty costly, because I think I wouldn’t have resisted making one every once in while…

From time to time, I try to spare sometime to restore my Bandicoot powers by playing some video games. You know, Family Game back in my day was much more fun that Play Station now. Really, I love Crash Team Racing but not as much as I was fond of Super Mario, I could never get enough of that. I think there must be a reason, it just doesn't make sense.

So, my brothers told me that they've got a new Tom & Jerry game. They said it was very fun, so I decided to try it. I told my little brother to put the CD for me and do all the necessary stuff, for when it comes to playing video games I like to grab the joy stick and get on with the game, I pretend I don't know how to do the wiring, and I prefer not to bother with as much as putting the CD in the driver. I think it's obvious since I suppose I'm not even using the right terms.

Anyway, the game started with a selection. You have to choose either Tom or Jerry to be your player. I don’t remember how I made the choice, but I went with Tom. As I started the game, my little brother who's always an eager-beaver whenever one of us shows interests in his video games, asks me this:

                          

So, his question about Tom & Jerry wasn't any less puzzling for me. It got me thinking: Really, why is Jerry the good guy by default? Why does he always win? Let's try to set the record straight here:

Maybe I'm being very philosophical here, but go ahead, ask yourself the question: Tom or Jerry? As for me, I don't think I have to make up my mind about that. All I know is that when I was playing that game, it felt SO GOOD mashing Jerry's skull.

- Man or Woman?

- Man

- Does he have white hair?

- No

- Blue eyes?

- Yes

- Your man is Tom?

- Correct!

If you haven't figure it out yet, this is how "Guess who?" goes. "Guess Who?" was one of my favorite card/board games as a kid that I played it over and over with my brothers. We were first introduced to it when my brother got it as a birthday present from our neighbors (They always brought nice gifts, they brought me my first puzzle that I still think of as the best ever!)

But our "Guess Who?" Was damaged many years ago. Recently, my brother grew nostalgic and started looking for it in stores and toy shops, and I joined the quest. We left no stone unturned. We searched in Super stores, malls, toy shops. Nothing.

Just yesterday I passed by a toy shop that I had earlier bumped into its immaculate glass door thinking it was open. So, I was hesitant to go in at first after that awkward incident, but I'm glad I did; because there on the shelves sat proudly an exact same version of "Guess Who?" Just like the one we had many years ago! I couldn't find it in my heart to leave it there so, I took it home with me. Although I was too lazy to unpack it and put the pieces together, I can't wait to get a dose of it… Awesome!

- Habibi, I need to buy a new coat

- Habibi, I need some money

- Habibi, how are we going to pay all this back?

If you're wondering, this is an example of some commercials typically played on Jordanian radio stations. What is bugging about those commercials, aside from sounding totally fake, especially with the unnecessary Lebanese accent sometimes, is the excessive and abusive use of the words "Habibi" and "Habibti" (My love)

The commercial starts with a woman asking her husband for money, and typically she will start almost every sentence with a hollow "Habibi", which doesn't feel like she loves him at all, but as something she's used to say or just a technique to squeeze some money out of his pockets.

But the abuse of this term of endearment goes well beyond radio commercials. Any couple in a relation ship would milk it. "How are you Habibi?" "Where are you Habibi?" "How was the exam Habibi?" "Tfoo 3alaik Habibi"…

I'd love to see all this love filling the air, but the point is this word is losing its meaning; it's being depleted out of its real sense. Words like "Habibi", "Habibti" or "I love you" shouldn't be said every single moment of every single day. To have meaning, they have to come in special occasion, when you feel that you want to say it, need to say it. Saying "I love you" 10 times in one phone call doesn't mean you love that person more. At least save some of this for the times of need! It could work like magic…

Let's keep in mind that love is a verb, meaning you can say "I love you" in 100 ways without uttering a word. And, if you do love each other, you probably won't need to resort to this "Habibi bahebbak" rhetoric.

Let's leave couples aside, since it's understandable that they are experiencing something new and they are struggling to express it. What is with people spreading their love lavishly around, meaning that everyone is Habibi: their colleagues, their classmates, the hair dresser, the office boy and oh, what is it with salesgirl who would call you "habibti' or "ya 3omry" (My Life)!  My mother doesn't call me ya 3omry! Let alone someone I've never met and I light never see again in my life…