A Star from Mosul

First, thanks to everyone who sent me a Happy Birthday letter, if only that wish comes true, I would've been the happiest person on earth :)

We'll be in our way to Baghdad tomorrow. I packed my clothes, decided what to wear in the way, chose the shoes to take, the hijabs that matches and made sure I'd put them somewhere to be remembered cuz it's always a disaster to forget such things..

I put some new music in the MP3 player.. It will only work in our way to Baghdad since I won't be able to charge it there.. Dad wouldn't let me take the laptop with me, a relative was arrested for doing so once.

Dad isn't coming because he can't leave the clinic, a relative who has a taxi that drives between Baghdad and Mosul is going to take us there.. He's a nice man, and always have adventures to tell.. You see, traveling in Iraq is an adventure itself. The weather doesn't seem promising, there's loud thunder (might be bombing though) and it's raining, I hope it'll calm down by tomorrow. It's summer, it can't rain for two days!

So, I might not be posting for the coming week, if it took longer, you should ask if I'm alive! Till then, good bye.

Najma
Off to Baghdad, my dear Baghdad..

17, 17, I am 17 today! Today is my birthday :) So, I turned 17, not 10, not 12 as some might think.. You can't believe how many people think I'm 12, how? I have no idea!

I know, I'm not the innocent Anne Frank anymore, stop telling me this.. I will never be like her. There are too many differences between the two of us, we might both have brains, the same sex, both have diaries, and both live in war and hate it, but that's it.. I'm Muslim, she's Jew; I'm 17, she WAS 15; I'm alive, she's dead; she's more famous than I am, and more innocent as some people might think. Believe me, if she lived a little more and wrote something you might not like, you might say that she's "not the innocent Anne Frank any more".

I had the opportunity to read about her, thanks to the Internet.. And I know how she is. We're too different, so, stop comparing, I am not offended when you tell me that I'm not her anymore!

As I entered a new year of my life, knowing that I have lived 2 of the worst already, I decided to be more frank in here.. I will be more direct, more criticizing, and more uncaring about others' feelings. I will tell if I hate someone, I will not fear for their feelings as they do not fear for mine.

I think those of you who do care, won't hate the improved me, I can guess there are many, since the last 100 e-mails in my inbox are hatred-free :)

So, who do I hate the most, next to Sharon, Bush, Saddam, there are Jeffrey (And all of his blog's contributors) and John. Has those names ever come in the same paragraph before?
You see, those are all to be hated, can't help not doing it!

The first time I heard of Jeffrey was when my friend wrote a comment on Iraq Blog Count, Khalid thought it was Jeffrey who wrote it (Since they have the same name) and then, I knew how bad that Jeffrey was (I can't find that comment now, I will link to it as soon as I find it). Then, for every single word he says, for every post and comment he writes, I hate him more.. Some people's job is to hate, he's one of them.

Remember when I closed the comments' section? There were too many people hating each other there, remember Paul? Well, I really was enjoying deleting every comment of his, but I haven't hated him as much as I've hated any of the above, as he's much more civilized in his e-mails.

Oh, and I hate whoever is commenting in other people's names.. Knock it off. And for all of my readers, please check any comment written by any of the bloggers before believing it.. A twisted person is commenting nasty comments in others' names. You can check the profile of the commenter by clicking on his name, and you'll see that he has a completely different profile than mine, with a blog named HEY! There are many other ways to do such things, which I'm not going to mention here, but if you suspect something, e-mail me about it.

So, who do I read the most? Other than my relatives, and my e-mail :) I like reading Khalid and Riverbend (Lately) as I see them more reliable and close to reality than others. I can tell they're Iraqis from what they write.. I read Nabill to see how he's doing since I'm going to go through the sixth grade next year (Which is by the way, as everyone describes, a never ending year, full of studying). I read Ihath when I feel like I have time to read her incredible posts, not always though.. I have no time to read others :( Although I sometimes feel too curious to do so, and so I do it.
I'm partially on vacation now, I know that I won't have to do any more exams since my average in each subject is more than 90, I can go to school if I want to, I will tomorrow since the Biology teacher is giving us some six-grade-related lessons.. I will have the time to read more till the 26th next month.. I think I'll add Nancy to the my list!

We went on a picnic yesterday, with my uncles and their families.. We then went to Duhok and passed through Mazi in which a patient of dad found us.. We couldn't escape and ended up with presents! You see, dad's patients adore him :) Especially the Kurds. We can't go anywhere without seeing someone greeting dad and praising him. We came back to find a LONG truck laying on its side in the neighborhood with tens of people just watching the accident, 30 minutes later, we heard an explosion, a really loud one, two were injured (One lost two of his legs, the other lost one leg) and as they tried to get them to the hospital (Al-Salam hospital-- The largest hospital in Mosul) they found it occupied by the Iraqi Army and so no doctors were in it, they had to move them to another hospital..

The police closed the road and made sure no one will get near the truck.. At 12 PM, I heard a similar explosion, don't know where.

I and HNK cleaned and arranged our rooms today, preparing them for Summer.. HNK found my very first watch, a yellow one! I used it then to know when we're going to leave somebody's house, since visits were the most annoying things to me.. Now, I use my watch to see when the lesson will end, when a certain series will begin, how much time there is between two explosions, and how much time do I have to answer the exam questions.. I can't go to school without my watch, and when I do, my poor friend has to give me hers to escape my complaining, she's unfortunate to have two watch-freak friends.

I've been downloading books from the net these days, so that I can have something to do while offline. There are some amazing stuff for free.. Last year was the year of flogging for me, this year will be the year of reading. I'll read and read till I feel educated enough, which is NEVER.. No one can be educated enough.. We shall read and learn, as Mohammed (PBUH) said "Ask for knowledge from the cradle to the grave".
From a books I've downloaded, I found this:

Sometime, nations will learn that other nations have the right to live, and that no country can wrong another through force of arms without suffering for it in the end. In a blunted conscience, in the loss of the sympathy of the rest of the world, in a lessening of the Christ-spirit of doing good to others, the nation which resorts to force to gratify its own selfish ends, like the individual, pays the full penalty for its misdeeds. It, was a great American who said, "The world is my country and mankind are my brothers.

The World War and What Was Behind It - by LP Benezet

I don't want to satisfy my readers anymore, I am not seeking for perfection, nor entertainment, I'm seeking for satisfaction, going to bed feeling that I have told you what I had to tell you, not what will please you.. Things haven't improved here, not better than ever.
I'm not pro-Americans, nor Anti-Americans.. I'm anti-coalition as a whole, pro-some indivisuals though.. We can't be pro-something entirely, nor anti-the same thing. There are good and bad in everything, but sometimes the bad hides the good, and sometimes the good hides the bad, while in other times, a mask hides everything..

Dad posted about the release of more innocent prisoners in his new post.. He also posted about Islam, two part (Part one, part two).

Hassan posted photos of the gratuation celebrations in his college, they had a day off war, but that apparently offended some of his SENSITIVE readers..

I posted about a rumor that has been moving around on the Internet..

Raghda posted two more photos of cats..

Nothing more, I'll post soon, either today or tomorrow, since it's been too BUSY on our neighbourhood today.

I still can't believe how quick rumors spread!! At school, a girl told me that she received two e-mails telling her that Bill Gates has converted to Islam, I started jumping from happiness for hearing this news.. I told my friend as well, and she was as happy as I was. However, I had to check about it on the net, and all I found was people asking if Bill Gates has joined Islam! Nobody confirmed it!

I remember how a friend told me how fast rumors spread around, and how they play a game at school to show that.. Students stand in a circle with the teacher, the teacher whispers a story for a student who whispers the same story to the student next to him and so on.. Then, the last student tells the story loudly to all the others, and the teacher tells the version she told the first students.. Here, there will be a big difference between the two, and the students will learn about rumors.

But, this rumor apparently started from a lie, April's fool, how much do I hate you? I don't think that lying is something worths celebrating, do you?

I connected to the Internet hoping to put some great news, and ended up talking about rumors..

Anyway, the break was supposedly going to start on Wednesday for me.. Today, the mathematics teacher told us that we have an exam tomorrw! Both ways, the break will start soon, so Hurray!

BBC NEWS | Middle East | 'No hostages found' in Iraqi town: "At a session of Iraq's new parliament on Sunday, politicians warned of attempts to divide the country along sectarian lines."

I think posting news once in a while won't hurt!
Najma

I can finally say this here.. My uncle, Ahmed, and his wife arrived to Dubai few days ago.. BUT, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, check this out..

Have you read it? Are you sure you read it all? Up to the part with my name in? SURPRISE!

Now, I have a new relative in my relatives' list of bloggers.. It's so hard to keep secrets, but it's much easier to let them out.

Now, to the carnival of the relatives..

Dad wrote a post with photos from Falloja, and another one replying to comments, and he's now enjoying reading the comments while I've cut the connection of his computer and connected mine to the Internet :)
He also wrote a short one regarding the new government..

Mom wrote a post about dad and her parents.. Imagine, I still haven't read it!

Aunt Rose :) wrote about the adventures she and the family had on their way to the airport..

Hassan wrote a post about what's happening with him.

I posted about our last journey to the north, and the accident that followed.. I also wrote about what's happening.

HNK posted twice, she posted the poem that she's written during this war. And another about an accident with her geography teacher..

That's it, bye

On Sunday, we went to school to find out that a car bomb has exploded nearby.. The windows were not broken but some parts of the car were found in the school-yard! When we came back, a tent has been set up in the street, the kind in which people make funerals in (In Iraq, sometimes people make the funeral in a big tent to contain all the visitors). One of our far neighbors has been killed by robbers.. He's in his 30s, and was the friend of my closer neighbors..

The principle of our school, along with the school's consoler started asking my friend questions, they are interviewing her as the student who has the best grades, they asked her questions and wrote the answers they wanted, not the ones she was telling them! We laughed long about that..

Winter has ended, and spring is about to end.. We're waiting for summer. I love summer when it's winter, and love winter when it's summer.. Same as loving school in the break, and loving break in the school..
Same as loving technology in peace times and loving peace in technology's? No, no one would trade the safety of his family and friends for satellites and mobiles.

Today, our mathematics teacher told the story of her son-in-law's death after a student started crying because her father lost his eye in shooting at some time.. She didn't tell the story in our class, but in a friend's class. As my friend described, the mathematics teacher started crying while telling the story, some of the students started crying for her, and some others for realizing how pitiful the situation in the class was. Our teacher's daughter got pregnant, and called her husband to tell him the good news, he told her not to tell him the details and that he's going to come right away, which he didn't.. He was shot by the Americans on his way there..

One of the new computer teachers had a car accident when speeding up during shooting near the school.. I don't know how she is. I haven't talked to her at anytime, she hasn't taught me anything, but I'm concerned for her.

Note:The last explosion near our house (As the most trustful sources said) caused the injury of 13 persons, including 2 policemen... None of whom I know but the baker's sons.

Sometimes in life you feel the fight is over,
And it seems as though the writings on the wall,
Superstar you finally made it,
But once your picture becomes tainted,
It's what they call,
The rise and fall

Now I know,
I made mistakes,
Think I don't care,
But you don't realize what this means to me,
So let me have it,
Just one more chance,
I'm not the man I used to be,
Used to beeeeeeeeeee

We want to the North today, finally.. My aunt called and asked if we want to have lunch in the North, and so we did..
I have installed the driver for my MP3 player yesterday, it came with the laptop and we can download music to it from the laptop.. So, I brought it with me to listen to music on our way there. It was a great idea.. The most thing I enjoyed in the journey was the road, all green.. Mountains up and down.. The sky was completely blue. Everything was wonderful and peaceful.

We spend about an hour and a half there, had lunch and hurried back before it gets too dark and the curfew starts..

On our way back, I felt so peaceful.. Mosul looked at its best.. And because of the headphone, I couldn't hear the shooting, the bombing or the police cars.. It was just wonderful.

But, when we reached home, it was not nice at all.. We reached the traffic light, it looked smoky there.. Then, LOOK, there was a burned car with parts of it everywhere.. The windows of the bakery were all broken, and the policemen didn't let us go in the street because the Americans were coming to pass through it..

I turned off my MP3 and started feeling this sudden depression... Here we are, back to war!

Fortunately, our windows were not broken.. I have opened my room's window yesterday.
We went in and found our mobiles (Which we've left home because they take them at the borders sometimes) beeping with SMS, friends have send me messages to ask if we are alright.. Relatives have called.. Mom is still making calls and asking about the neighbors.

The baker's son has lost his eye.. I think 2 others were injured. There were no police nor American soldiers at the time of the explosion, just the citizens...

The fight is not over.. And life isn't p-e-r-f-e-c-t, and I am still depressed

It's too nice to write from the laptop, listening to music, and waiting for a friend to go online.. I can forget that I am in Iraq!

Here it is, this week's carnival of the relatives:

Dad posted his thoughts on the new government in the family blog..

Hassan posted about the big holiday we had last week-end because of the Shiites celebration..

I posted 3 times!! One was after a problem that happened in my blog and made me change the template.. Not important, just my blog dressed in white!
Another about my week-end and how Aya started clapping.. It is kind of a "What's happening?" post.
Another about the new school, new laptop and other stuff.

HNK posted photos of our new school..

Dalia posted some really wonderful photos that she's drown.. Amazing.

Raghda posted some pictures of cats..

That's it.. Bye

Finally, finally, finally... Guess what happened?

I've been dreaming of having a laptop for years.. I almost bought myself a cover a couple of times. The day before yesterday, my cousin called and asked if I still have the intention of buying a laptop because his friend has one that he wants to sell with 500$, which was a good price for me.. I told him that I want it, and told him to wait till I ask my dad.
I SMSed dad and told him to call my cousin, which is what he did, and the laptop seemed to be the right one for me.. Later, he brought it home and we called another cousin to come take a look and tell me if it's a good one. At 4 PM, I bought the laptop, became broke, and owed my parents 250,000 Dinars! I won't get any salary from them till 2006 (My parents give us a salary every month so that we can buy ourselves things that we want, like golden stuff. For me, they were usually computer stuff).

I'm so glad for finally having another dream coming true.. Now, I can watch TV and write for my blog at the same time! But, I still don't have Internet here.. Will have it if a plan a friend is explaining to me worked.

We moved to the new school this week, Sunday to be specific.. It's still not finished though. The blackboards are still not hanged, the school-yard needs something, it's muddy, I still can't figure out if they're going to make it a garden or not!
The rest is great. The sun enters the classes very well,we have large windows, two fans in each class.. But still, the desks are old. I don't know why they've told us that we'll have new desks. Maybe they'll bring the new ones later! HNK took some photos and posted them at her blog.

Aya was doing some strange activities today, it was like if she's cursing. She was so angry at her mom for throwing a little plastic bag on her, she was offended, and then she started rambling and rambling and we just couldn't make her stop!

I'm getting some really good grades in Arabic this month, if only I had the same teacher at the start of the year (She's also incompetent, but she gives us really EASY questions at the tests), I would've had the chance to skip next year. But I somehow am really relieved for not skipping it. I can take whatever grade I take, without worrying whether I'll still have an average above 95 or not. It makes me mad when I think how I had the best grades among all the other students in Arabic, while this year, it's the subject that I have the worst grades at.

Okay, I have to go beg dad to give me some time on the Internet to post this :) Now, he shall find somebody else to yell at when something wrong happens in the computer.. Wahoo, what a relief!

Bye,
Najma, from her royal new laptop, ASUS..

The day before yesterday--Wednesday, I started doing my homework late, about 6PM, and I was too lazy while doing it.. After 15 minutes, I got an SMS from HNK's friend (Maas) telling us that tomorrow (Thursday) was announced as a holiday! You can't imagine how happy I felt, and so did HNK who was studying history at that time. I went downstairs, told mom the news, and started sending the news to relatives and friends..

In about 15 minutes, dad nocked the door, I hurried to open the door, looked from the door's eye, it looked like if there were other figures behind him.. I asked him loudly and opened the door, he said: "Yes, it's your cousin", I hurried behind the door trying to hide myself and was very angry for opening the door in the first place since I was without hijab.. And, SURPRISE, it was my older sister with AYA! I was so surprised, and the happiness I was in because of the holiday made me give the new visitors a loud shout of "TOMORROW IS A HOLIDAY".. Well, Aya didn't seem to like it, she flipped her lips like she does when she's too shocked or sad, so I held her and ran to mom to show her the very nice surprise..

I spent the rest of the day downloading ringtones and photos of Aya to my mobile (I finally got my cable).

Yesterday was the same, mobile, Internet, Aya and TV.. I can sue OneTV for what they shaw on Thursday.. I get stuck infront of the TV and can't leave the screen..

Today, I studied a little.. Dad drove mom and HNK to a party at mom's friend's house (Celebrating her son's wedding that was 3 months ago-- In a very bad day that less than 10 people came to the wedding). Then, I, my older sis, dad and Aya went to some shops and bought some stuff. I and Aya were having hiccups and I couldn't open my mouth the whole time fearing that the sound will be heard :).. Then, after we went and brough HNK and mom home, I watched some TV again and went upstairs to study.

I suddenly started hearing some loud noises downstairs, as if something really important has happened. I went downstairs, and here she was, Aya was CLAPPING... Her cute little hands were clapping, and all of us started clapping with her.. I think she got scared everytime she claps and we give her this BIG response of hoy and laughter, but she made it. I hope she won't forget how to do it tomorrow :)

I brought the video camera to tape the event for her father, but the little creature stopped making a move.. All our begging didn't pay till I said Good-bye and decided to turn the camera off, she started clapping and laughing. Apparently, somehow, clapping is related to the word BYE in her brain. I think we'll spend the rest of the week-end clapping! We're also trying to make her say MOM or DAD, who knows? Maybe it'll work!

Oh, and for Gmail users, did you get your gift on Gmail's birthday? It's its first birthday today, and they're giving us 1GB of storage!

BTW, I have 49 invitations! If you want an invitation, send me an e-mail and ask for one.. I'll send you one ASAP.

UPDATE: I showed mom the new template and she didn't seem to like it! So, I'm changing it back..

This is how it looked like in white:



I woke up to see that my blog has disappeared! The template was partly gone but the whole blog had nothing in it..

With the help of Google's cache today, I was able to restore my links and counters.. I thought I would change the whole template at the same time. I think the new header seems nicer with a white background?

I would love to see Blogger getting rid of those annoying problems it has. It's bothering me A LOT.