La Mala educación - san

that is I guess a short brief of my education in Jordan!
now I don't really know how to do this since I wrote all those parts in one sitting and am hacking and slashing it right now... lets carry on then shall we :)

now to the comments and views I developed through that period and later on.

1. the teachers are under qualified to teach here, I understand all the comments about the public schools and their situation and I do sympathize. here I am talking about the so called "elite" schools per say. Teachers in these schools fall into to categories in my opinion:
-old school: ancients that are as fossilized as much as the material they teach they want the attention of the class and are so frustrated and take it personally when someone proves them wrong.
they also lead the students on the path of you either do it my way or no way !

-new age teachers: these for the first 2 months of school honestly come in to teach, and these are the ones I supported during my school years, although most failed to live up to my expectations. they come in to try new things and due to pressures from the archaic principles and peers, and the rowdy students are forced to adopt a nonchalant attitude of "it's their responsibility to learn ." the only successful teacher I have encountered of this type that was a young red head girl that was teaching physics and was actually getting through to the students for different reasons.

To thwart the underpaid teachers legend here is a fact ! teachers that barely have a clue about the material are hired for 350 JD to teach a two 45 minute classes a day , if you work it out thats being over paid not under paid.


Now for the students, honestly this is normal but I always felt that teachers pets do more harm to the class than good, and teachers encourage this attitude out of the students. a huge fire eats up all the small fires it comes across, those student tend to set a standard for other people that makes it really hard to keep up with. this causes the students to give up.

As for the material am sure its dated and all, and the claim that the tawjihi is a ride through hell and back is one that i can't really relate to since i didn't go through.

what i can say is that what i learned as topics is much more in depth than what was taught to my peers in the tawjihi, and the way they presented was much easier to grasp. my quarrel is that memorizing has been so ingrained in the system that by the time they get to tawjihi they don't know how to study otherwise !


in my opinion memorizing is essential in the first three grades of elementary, after that the students have enough basic to be able to think on their own and start forming opinions which should be the focus of the next 3 grades. then continue with a mix for both.

but education as a whole hasn't really evolved in Jordan, all through my school years i have been a failure at three main subjects: Arabic, Religion, And French. (should i add too lazy to go to P.E.)

Can find the common thread here ? Yes its the emphasis on memorizing that these classes required. Arabic, Religion, and French you had all these poems and grammatical rules and names that you had to memorize without even comprehending !

I always wished that I was able to take core course on these since I was sure that when the time comes these three subjects will be the ones I least use !

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honestly i am not sure how this will read and i apologize if it was a tough read sorry :)

Things that make me laugh (this time they shouldn't)

today and yesterday i came across so many things that made me laugh, while other people were gazing at WTH(trying to be PC here) is wrong with me.

here are a few ;

I was asked to lookup a new channel for my brother-in-law called "Al nas" which is supposed to be a religious channel so I look it up and give him the details, curiously i stumble on the website
and look and behold what I read ~translation of Arabic~
"A channel that takes you to Heaven"

holly ~~~~~ can I sue for false advertising


after coming back from work I watch this promo for Al-Jazeera how they had their offices closed in a bunch of Arab countries and Afghanistan, and here I am naively thinking that they are in it for the money. IT SEEMS that Al-Jazeera is a revolutionary as it gets in the region WOWZ


I shown this clip to a bunch of friends, its :The office: a funny show (IMHO), and no one seemed to get the "funny" part of it.
one even asked "how am i supposed to react to this ?"



now on the other hand i admit that this is silly !


and OH MY GOLLY can I get some of the stuff the Microsoft marketing team were smoking when they approved this ?
http://www.windowsvistaretail.com/
oh I bet that they believed that their sales team are still teething and could relate better to this than .... I don't know.... something MATURE !
I can't w8 to see the rest of those.


The labels were hilarious, works on vista translates into ~ only if ur lucky it works(how assuring is the Grey color for god's sake).

Another interesting choice of color is that murky brown they used in their new Zune, its totally
speaks out about the quality of a product that they describe as "squirt" according to Steve Ballmer .
and of course with M$ the user comes last so don't excpect to be able to do what you want with the songs you bought.
Now lets all say it together " what is a thing that is murky brown, and squirtable "
well of course its .................
??ZUNE??.


and I'll end with this !



p.s now that I have 2 readers YAY ! thank you summer, and thank you Saned (I wonder is it that you have become sane ? or is it the name sanad am confused)

Is this just a hyperbole Reality ?!

I am confused am I seeing things were I shouldn't.or is this is spider web of intangible gibberish means something ?

The US treasury is printing way too many dollars and with the US national debt(ironically china has decked a large sum to that) at an all time high, and Russia moving to trade oil in the ruble is the US economy heading into a depression that will make the 30's the joke of the 21st century, recession and consolidations in the real estate market is not helping either which was keeping the economy afloat for the past decade.

Canada the valentine teddy bear of the north developing a voice in the international scene ?

Israel wanting to have a cease fire with the Palestinians (ya i used that since am not sure who represents what there).

a Coup d'etat in Lebanon, where some sectarian wounds are starting to fester again, all to the benefit of its neighbors, while the Lebanese people are foolishly ( I honestly hope not) being lead down a snake and ladder game YET AGAIN !

A pope voicing a political agenda against a multiple personality Islamic or not state, just because he can't perceive having a mostly Muslim state as part of Europe ?

A channel that you can scratch the label off it and it will read BBC is claiming to be the international voice of the middle east and Arabs, while not even diverging from the mainstream even a bit ! I just hope it exposes its sister company as the emotion stirrer for higher advertisement revenue channel that it is.

newspaper daily being filled with more tatter than content ! as mass idiotic scheme starts, for god's sake it was the only medium the people who claimed to read were reading.

The world cup is getting fixed like an old Charlie horse race.

The self loathing stock brokers are still dealing in a stock market that looks as lively as an Egyptian mummy. while still fooling them selves that there is a good chance to make money.

A monopoly that is starting to claim all the transportation needs for the denizens, it reminds me of sex with a hooker its nice in the beginning then you end up cleaning the mess for years later on.

Classes a driven across the wall, while the sheep are trying to maintain their status. I wonder how long the banking industry will hold on.

A Real estate bubble thats begging to be burst.

Thanksgiving being celebrated as the day the native and settlers ate together, disregarding the fact that they were handed small pox, chicken pox and measles among other things to aid in the most obscured mass genocide and turned that day into the gluttony day of the year where you get stuffed and play tag football in the backyard of your suburban house.

I guess my mind is hazed and my vision is blurred better get me a couple more glasses of Hard A to rectify the situation and join the masses !

after all as Einstein said

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

I don't know why I even bother about thinking about these things after all I have my home, my family, some of my friends, and my 9-5 job and the daily grind should keep me busy. with a good dosage of Zoloft and I'll be set for the happy life. then all I have to deal with is lack of "HM HM" rectifiable solution. Thankfully they created another one for that and now it lasts up to 36 hours! just in case your plans get interrupted.


TO BAD AM WAY BEYOND WHAT A CHEMICAL ZOMBIFIER MIGHT HELP

La Mala educación - ni

This is the second part, if you didn't highlight while reading the first part it might be worth it.
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For the first part of my education;i.e. till 12th grade. lets summarize by saying that i switched 3 schools in my history, and all three of them were notably boring !

As a kid~still am~ I was not really interested in the facts since some way or another I was able to obtain them on my own, what i was more interested in is to discuss my ideas and thoughts with others (yes, and i still am trying to this day) .

so I was frustrated by sixth grade and decided to start my little rebellion on the system.

first of to test the theory that "I have to study to get good grades".

So on the math final I didn't study, I got lower than what I was used to but i was happy since I didn't spend as much of an effort. so that succeeded.

On to the next major phase; lets test "the teacher is always right" theory.
This is were i bloomed since I always written off from a discussion for just being a student. my rebellion was in full blast ! I was waiting for them to slip, and oh boy they did (I actually feel sorry for my math teachers they had it the worse).
so it was a daily mission to thwart every teacher (except for the very few that i liked) into a know nothing bastard. MUAHAHA

My success was proved by the fact of getting ignored by the teacher, and rarely being quizzed during the class. This developed a weird relationship between me and the teachers, a few truly respected me, and in exchange I respected them(and still do).
So my rebellion was a success and I literally was operating on a different plane during school hours.

Now this draws such a bleak picture of me during my school years, to be honest this attitude was only displayed to the arrogant "I control your destiny" teacher who have been teaching diligently for the past 20-years or so. These guys/gals used to instill fear in their student to be able to teach.

On the other side of the fence we have the fresh teachers who came with the honest intent to teach, and wanted to challenge the stereotype of a teacher. I supported those, and i tried to the best of my abilities to encourage them.
too bad the rest of the class were to eager to take advantage of the lax enviroment they created, more often than not they were reduced to tears, and didn't last long.
Among the victims were a twenty something cute chem teacher who had too much faith in the maturity of the students.

An English teacher who thought being "the macho man" will command the male's population admiration , Ya right took about 10 days to get him weeping like a six year old.
Another English teacher that took the nice route of dealing with student till she found a kid jerking off in class (am not BS'n here that was a popular dare back in 8th grade) then turned in a tyrannical Medusa but i don't blame her.
To top it off a religion teacher that introduced the class to kick boxing more often than religion, and was the proud proclaimer of "I can kick anyones ass in this class, I know kick boxing".


I think it was 10th grade when I had a teacher that truly spent the effort to teach, he was Iraqi and his name was Munir. He taught us O-Level Physics, but in actuality it wasn't what he was good at.
He was the person that would start the lecture with optics and end up discussing the interaction on photons with atoms.(no kidding, totally of the wall lecture)
needless to say the class was a mess, and almost no one listened to him, but what I truly appreciate him for is listening to the crazy ideas of a 15 year old. He was truly brilliant I wish we had more of him. definitely beats the social studies teacher that was surprised that December and January had 31 days ! (where the hell did they get teachers)

Towards the end of my school years (I spent the last 2 years in a different school) the teachers seemed to lose hope, they regurgitated what they had to and then leave. you had the good teachers were everyone was utilizing wasta to be in his class, so you ended with the attentive people in one class, and the "Hamals" in the other. I seemed to mostly be placed in the hamal's class.(not that I cared)
At that point I did enjoy the surge of over qualified teachers we had due to the iraqi situation. my favourite was a couple of doctors, one taught me Human biology(hardly a class it was like 5 people) and her husband taught chemistry. they were such sweet people and was one of the few classes I enjoyed :) I wish them the best of luck, they truly were over qualified.



-I think one more to go, this is a biography of sorts and i appreciate you if you read so far ! i dont really think there is a point for posting it other than that i like it to be documented somewhere.
as i also like to read other's school lives

Things that make me a "Cynical Monstrosity"

I truly don't like being the mean guy, but sometimes am so frustrated with people that it exorcises my demons and unleashes them on the culprit.
when that happens i turn into the cynical monstrosity that you don't wanna mess with

some of the common cases that I face on nearly daily bases

Case 1:
culprit: Hello "no_angel" can you come do so & so for me ?
No_Angel : sure i'll come right down
--so I go down and start working on the issue--
culprit: no thats not how you do so, & so
--I ignore, and start counting one Mississippi ... two Mississippi ....
culprit: no you are doing it all wrong, you need to do the following ..... and he starts doing it
--in the meantime am boiling! Why the hell did you ask me to do what you were already too lazy to do and then start doing it.--

CURE : next call from the guy be politely rude and skeptical, you will hear less from him :D

Case 2:
with out uttering a word of English and meeting the person for the first time and the first line out of his trap

culprit:Hi
No_Angel:2ahlan
culprit: shoo kont fee 2amerca leish 2irji3et ?
no_Angel: (interesting) keef 2i3rifet ?
culprit: 3arabeetak 3'areeb7, ma 2oltilli leish 2irji3et
no_angel: I just didn't like it there, so i came back to work here. anyways the economy is shit over there so wasn't even worth the trouble
culprit:3'areeb 3ad 2illi sa7eb bsoo2 truck 7'odar honak 2o mabsoot
--mind you am an electrical engineer so I guess he found it suitable for me to be a "trucker"--
Cure: make him ur sadistic pleasure plant a mine and enjoy the fireworks

Case3
culprit: shoo 3indak rannat 3all mobile
no_Angel: none, my mobile doesn't support them. it's a motorola c51
culprit:shoo maznoo2 3ashan heik ma 3'ayart mobilak, 2il Nokia N73 bijanen nizel 2ijdeed
no_angel: no its good enough for me it makes clear calls when its battery life dies out i'll change it
-- and that is the culprit&Co highlight of the day ---
Cure: none, Do I really have to be an airhead to fit in this society?

I don't how my joking abilities will be met by the masses(the whole "one" of them) but anyways hope I at least got a smile out of you :)

as for me the number on my"be cynical with" list is expanding exponentially so back to teasing my sadistic pleasure MWAHAHAahhahaha

La Mala educación - ichi

Well this started out as a comment for Abu Shreek's post but then carried on a lot longer than it should. so I decided to post it here .

This will be a series of posts that move from my years in school to university, decisions that I made along the way, and a conclusion for how things are now, since am out of the system and more of an observer than anything. WARNING - expect a lot of sleeping so i can't recall moments
LOL ! (my summary of the article)
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Background(were am coming from) : coming from a person who spent his first 12 years sleeping in class, and spent the next 4 years skipping class and still managed a 3.1/4.0 GPA to earn a BSc in EE I might be slightly out of the average in my comments (i am not boasting here but preparing for what i want to say. since i don't want to come off as a lazy idiot of the class, or the highly involved model student) - dont take it against me that I hid this
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Well this trip along memory lane brought back so much joy and frustration and was meant to be a short critique to the system that ended up being a long study & critique of my educational life. plus a realization that I slept too much

My enrollment in the system came in the form of nursery school, a place once called Sindbad. I actually owe it to this nursery for my English language since it was my first interaction with native speakers, which was in fact the empitus for me to get better at an astounding rate in the English language, and defined my usage of the language later on (or so I came to believe!). I can't really expand much more than that due to a hazy memory. it was so cool as a kid to be friends with a prince

Of course then came KG (tamhidi), in a certain historical monument of Jordanian education located in Jabal Amman. one of the girls in my class there got married last summer i was happy for her

- - passing note : "i loved those turtles and that sand box in the middle of all the classes" --

Here was the first time that my artistic abilities been recognized something I am really fond of, to the extent that I still have them to date. what I want to point out is that during this stage the people responsible for me where able to focus on education rather than spoon feeding.
They were able to boost my imagination and help direct my energy into productive things, and rules were set to direct not inhibit the students.

Then came elementary school in the same line as my KG, that boys school in Jabal Amman, then my dilemma with the system started from as early as 3rd grade. At this point my interest were starting to take shape. I started to draw more in classes, and started to be interested in having a discussion as an adult. school teachers there were of such archaic nature that the generation gap and understanding was always a hurdle to get over.
Something else started to develop, the fact that I was not being taught anything that wasn't already understandable and available in the book ! coupled with the fact that my father was teaching me third grade math and science when I was in first grade didn't really help those teachers either. one funny thing is one time in 2nd grade a kid was cheating of me, that didn't bother me. When the teacher corrected the test she noticed something peculiar, the kid misspelled his family name. turns out he even copied my family name from the paper

now that is novel

So since I could not learn much from the classes I stopped paying attention due to boredom. Plus the other classes that I wasn't good in didn't hold any interest to me, and being the stubborn kid I was every time they made the point that i don't have a choice in learning them made them so much less appealing to me. Regardless of that I was always able to achieve good grades. Except for my French and P.E grades those were horrid. "2is2alo labeeba" was a true marvel

the curricula that we were taught was a mixed bag, Arabic language was some how out of context and was written to people who have grown up in the 60's now that was exciting. Religion was a tough one since you were always reminded not to think about it. Social Studies even at that tender age was a joke. Science was actually pretty good and exciting in a way(although maybe am biased). Math was pretty good although I was more occupied during that class with sleeping. P.E was so frustrating I could never understand whats the point of winning the football game, so i like to sit as a goalkeeper and do nothing :)
music was too queer, we even had a mummy as a teacher (the guy was as old as my grand pa "2allah yirhamo", his name was Mr. Charlie but he was nice). I was even in the choir for 2 years (people who know my voice now will frown in disbelief) think Rachid Taha but slightly more tone deft

Arts always had the beautiful young female teacher but that was a minor reason I liked. its too bad the other kids always made a mess of this class. I got back at them by messing the football games so we were even


The summary of the situation was as follows;

uninteresting teachers that laid the law, and where there to spoon feed. that made school an unappealing thought for me, that is except for the fact that I could sleep well.

Students that were competitive and the comparisons made between students was moral crushing to them.


btw this part one has been tucked away in the draft since 8/14 wow ! i think it would have better to leave it there. I hope i'll get the other ones out as well

Well Somethings never change

Whenever i attempt to write a serious post and it has an excerpt of my opinions it usually ends up rotting in the drafts:
reason 1. I take so many words to write about the thing
reason 2. usually its crappy on the first run, and I never come around to revise it

So am gonna stick to my rants as usual.

I am working on the header and design of this page (am an illustrator designer of sorts) managed to finish up the draft, inking scanning coloring and resizing will follow.

Lately (as in for the past month) I been contemplating two different paths, and it has been a very depressing time. Oh well the current advice has been go with both and u'll decide later and thats what am doing.

My Reds have been so shitty lately and team spirit seems to be at an all time low, I just hope we can sort that out before the end of the season and I hope we dont end up losing Gerrard b/c Rafa is uber stuborn with him :(

GEEKS w/ Comp skills only
on another note this site has been so funny to me (ya oozing for flaming discussions about the 1337 k0!)N method) but seriously WTF

make sure to check it'll suck u in The Daily WTF

Oh god I MISS DANCING (too shy to dance in jordan)
it has been almost 3 years since i danced freely "to dance like no one is watching"



Current mood : chuggin along (i.e. DGAFF)
Listening to : Cheb Khalid, Rachid Taha, Fudel - E-Rai

lol funny thing is no one is listening so i guess i better bring in the sex in jordan trump card soon XD

Things that made me laugh today !

Usually when am at work i always need to have my music on ! and i mean always. (damn i been doing this since i was like 12 years old bopping and singing to the latest music box collection LOL) anyways so i bet that everyone here at work finds it slighlty (i hope) weird when i start to mumble silently to a song. what is even more out of place is when i start smiling and laughing


honestly i never gave a flying F about what they think as long as my managers like me :)

so here is what got me cracking up today










Interesting fact of the day the senator from Montana Has 7 fingers and makes less than $20G a year now thats a surprise

Things I miss

I miss comedy central so bad, though we get some shows here but not enough.

I miss sitting down having dinner while watching Crank Yankers
this show is hilarious ! the premise is that they get the actors to make crank calls.
mind you these are real calls and mostly they are improvised by the called - according to Wikipedia.org

~ crank calls: A prank call, also known as a crank call or hoax call, is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. As with all practical jokes, there is a thin line between humor and harassment, and the only person likely to find a prank call funny is the person who instigates it. ~

now take it a bit further, think how funny it would be if its done in jordan (people will be so pissed off LOL). and yes I did my share of prank calls when I was young.

so Enjoy YAY

I made another post YAAY

Ed speciale YAAY

here is a snippet

Dogs Bollocks !

Finally they made it, now this is F'n-A.
these ozzies CSIRO made an air guitar shirt, this is bloody entertaining.
I just wish they get one of them crazy blokes that
do air-guitar professionally (ya no kidding there is a world competition and they earn $REAL MONEY$) to promote.

Parents beware the wrath of an angry air-guitar kid!
now only if they could do the air-drum next :D

anyways enjoy these





Mokono Kick Ass


Here is a link to the reuters news about this

Feeling down !!

YAY Republicans had their ass handed to them (pun intended) , too bad too many demo-repubs made it through ! even the evil witch of the east has made it, poor man he definetely deserved a better wife no wonder he had to settle for ugly Ho's


Liverpool is getting their ass kicked every time they are away ! freaking Rafa stop the bloody rotation dammit we're not the blues. ok can i also hint at playing people in their position do u really wanna drive Gerrard out of the KOP !

Wimpy UN resolution to condem the Beit Hanoun was shoot down by the US-real vitoe ! can the dems atleast fire John Bolton ??!! atleast a new puppet outfit will makes happier for a whole 30 seconds :?

The freaking SMTP relay server is down and not working such a pain in the ass .

my friends are dropping like flies ! marriages , divorces, uselessness, and charecter evolution are the main contributing factors

HSBC is a retarded bank that doesnt even know how to change a "freaking " address, after 3 visits and atleast a dozen of phone calls. six months later they are still sending my mail to my old company now why didnt i file privacy negligence charges :P

oh well, atleast Green Bay Packers improved to 4-5 with a win over Minnesota Vikings last night, but regardless our defence is still SHITE

ya this is the quote on my msn "SLIVER :Sucky life is a very entertaining rant"
and my mood is that of a tool

ya i know tough read as usual "but who cares no body checks this anyways", maybe when I feel better i would get something coherent out there

WOW am amazed !

-- commorating the historic event of 2 posts in the same month --
yatta, gambaru

this is easily at the "Top 10 things that r COOL" list for this year



wow truly interactive music ! and on top of that the interface is tecky

i wish they make a small ages 13 and under toy of it so i can play with it for hours

come to think of it that could be a new product for lego ! interactive blocks that way they can gain some market share and get out of the dismal situation they r currently in :P

SAVE LEGO -- every kid with a lack of social skills ocupational therapy

Hiatus .... (well more like lack of motivation)

Oh well thnx to Summer for the comment it was a lucky shot that i checked it since i truly gave up !
XD thnx for fueling me a bit

(this is going to be a hard to read rant)
-- Mandokuse --
were should I start, I havent posted anything. few drafts (understatement its 1 draft that is like 7 pages long about education).

Excited about the mid-term election, i don't really know why ? the results will be out wednesday the 8th.

opinions regarding that :
Diebold ]:|
should i say more ? so in a nut shell rigged election GOP will maint control over house and senate, another round of luxury non working senate (curious if they will break their last record it was like 93 working days for the congress)
read this its really good view of the current house and senate


Habeas corpus is dead so say hello to "guilty and never given the chance to prove otherwise"


back to local things -- Amman is still booring as hell, work is funny. its absolutely amusing when everyone at work hates you except for managers ! mindfields by prodigy has been excellent listen in this case .
oh oh and i went to the first multiple personality place ever! its like 3 places with one entrance its the coffe shop/ resaurant / something called barnies/ 3alnar/ "something i forgot what it was - 3albal maybe"
-- they have a suphon coffee which is amusing to look at regarless of the fact that the white macadamia coffee beans tasted like macau manure



Geeks (ONLY)
got Final Fanatasy XII which is excellent so far. the new battle system and leveling is quite nice, the story and the graphics are superb as usual. Best of all got me off my WOW addiction.


Movies & music
3 iron -- is the best silent movie ever made, and can someone please tell what this arabic song is called ? its like the 1st one i like since they burried Lincolen
Rodrigo Y Gabriela - is my new feel good look stupid infront of employees music, the acoustic guitar play is phenomenal ! get their new album its out !


Sports !
Liverpool they are playing well in the Kop time to kick those gooners BEHINDS (PC here :P)
and start playing better at away games (too bad this is kinda late)

which brings me to My Green Bay Packers ! simply alll i can say is come on i love number 4 and all but for gods sake you already have enough numbers screw morino screw young you are already a hall of famer. now can u bring out the reserves !

such a dissapointment that the mo town F' ups will finish ahead of us this year too ! (ok i am being pessimistic )
on the other hand am enjoying Brees playin well, and at first was pesimistic about the move but now am happy for him (hey come on gotta cheer on a fella biolermaker ! aint that many of us in sports these days)


wows a RANT ! oh well C ya next time (in a month or so if am lucky )

Sayonara