How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)

How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
Published April 6, 2005

Blogs are like personal telephone calls crossed with newspapers. They're the perfect tool for sharing your favorite chocolate mousse recipe with friends--or for upholding the basic tenets of democracy by letting the public know that a corrupt government official has been paying off your boss.

If you blog, there are no guarantees you'll attract a readership of thousands. But at least a few readers will find your blog, and they may be the people you'd least want or expect. These include potential or current employers, coworkers, and professional colleagues; your neighbors; your spouse or partner; your family; and anyone else curious enough to type your name, email address or screen name into Google or Feedster and click a few links.

The point is that anyone can eventually find your blog if your real identity is tied to it in some way. And there may be consequences. Family members may be shocked or upset when they read your uncensored thoughts. A potential boss may think twice about hiring you. But these concerns shouldn't stop you from writing. Instead, they should inspire you to keep your blog private, or accessible only to certain trusted people.

Here we offer a few simple precautions to help you maintain control of your personal privacy so that you can express yourself without facing unjust retaliation. If followed correctly, these protections can save you from embarrassment or just plain weirdness in front of your friends and coworkers.


Blog Anonymously
The best way to blog and still preserve some privacy is to do it anonymously. But being anonymous isn't as easy as you might think.

Let's say you want to start a blog about your terrible work environment but you don't want to risk your boss or colleagues discovering that you're writing about them. You'll want to consider how to anonymize every possible detail about your situation. And you may also want to use one of several technologies that make it hard for anyone to trace the blog back to you.

1. Use a Pseudonym and Don't Give Away Any Identifying Details

When you write about your workplace, be sure not to give away telling details. These include things like where you're located, how many employees there are, and the specific sort of business you do. Even general details can give away a lot. If, for example, you write, "I work at an unnamed weekly newspaper in Seattle," it's clear that you work in one of two places. So be smart. Instead, you might say that you work at a media outlet in a mid-sized city. Obviously, don't use real names or post pictures of yourself. And don't use pseudonyms that sound like the real names they're based on--so, for instance, don't anonymize the name "Annalee" by using the name "Leanne." And remember that almost any kind of personal information can give your identity away--you may be the only one at your workplace with a particular birthday, or with an orange tabby.

Also, if you are concerned about your colleagues finding out about your blog, do not blog while you are at work. Period. You could get in trouble for using company resources like an Internet connection to maintain your blog, and it will be very hard for you to argue that the blog is a work-related activity. It will also be much more difficult for you to hide your blogging from officemates and IT operators who observe traffic over the office network.

2. Use Anonymizing Technologies

There are a number of technical solutions for the blogger who wishes to remain anonymous.

Invisiblog.com is a service that offers anonymous blog hosting for free. You may create a blog there with no real names attached. Even the people who run the service will not have access to your name.

If you are worried that your blog-hosting service may be logging your unique IP address and thus tracking what computer you're blogging from, you can use the anonymous network Tor to edit your blog. Tor routes your Internet traffic through what's called an "overlay network" that hides your IP address. More importantly, Tor makes it difficult for snoops on the Internet to follow the path your data takes and trace it back to you.

For people who want something very user-friendly, Anonymizer.com offers a product called "Anonymous Surfing," which routes your Internet traffic through an anonymizing server and can hide your IP address from the services hosting your blog.

3. Limit Your Audience

Many blogging services, including LiveJournal, allow you to designate individual posts or your entire blog as available only to those who have the password, or to people whom you've designated as friends. If your blog's main goal is to communicate to friends and family, and you want to avoid any collateral damage to your privacy, consider using such a feature. If you host your own blog, you can also set it up to be password-protected, or to be visible only to people looking at it from certain computers.

4. Don't Be Googleable

If you want to exclude most major search engines like Google from including your blog in search results, you can create a special file that tells these search services to ignore your domain. The file is called robots.txt, or a Robots Text File. You can also use it to exclude search engines from gaining access to certain parts of your blog. If you don't know how to do this yourself, you can use the "Robots Text File Generator" tool for free at Web Tool Central .


Blog Without Getting Fired
A handful of bloggers have recently discovered that their labors of love may lead to unemployment. By some estimates, dozens of people have been fired for blogging, and the numbers are growing every day.

The bad news is that in many cases, there is no legal means of redress if you've been fired for blogging. While your right to free speech is protected by the First Amendment, this protection does not shield you from the consequences of what you say. The First Amendment protects speech from being censored by the government; it does not regulate what private parties (such as most employers) do. In states with "at will" employment laws like California, employers can fire you at any time, for any reason. And no state has laws that specifically protect bloggers from discrimination, on the job or otherwise.

One way to make sure your blog doesn't earn you a pink slip is to make sure that you write about certain protected topics. Most states have laws designed to prevent employers from firing people who talk openly about their politics outside of work, for example. Be warned that laws like this do vary widely from state to state, and many are untested when it comes to blogging.

1. Political Opinions

Many states, including California, include sections in their Labor Code that prohibit employers from regulating their employees' political activities and affiliations, or influencing employees' political activities by threatening to fire them. If you blog about membership in the Libertarian Party and your boss fires you for it, you might very well have a case against him or her.

2. Unionizing

In many states, talking or writing about unionizing your workforce is strongly protected by the law, so in many cases blogging about your efforts to unionize will be safe. Also, if you are in a union, it's possible that your contract may have been negotiated in a way that permits blogging.

3. Whistleblowing

Often there are legal shields to protect whistleblowers--people who expose the harmful activities of their employers for the public good. However, many people have the misconception that if you report the regulatory violations (of, say, toxic emissions limits) or illegal activities of your employer in a blog, you're protected. But that isn't the case. You need to report the problems to the appropriate regulatory or law enforcement bodies first. You can also complain to a manager at your company. But notify somebody in authority about the sludge your company is dumping in the wetlands first, then blog about it.

4. Reporting on Your Work for the Government

If you work for the government, blogging about what's happening at the office is protected speech under the First Amendment. It's also in the public interest to know what's happening in your workplace, because citizens are paying you with their tax dollars. Obviously, do not post classified or confidential information.

5. Legal Off-Duty Activities

Some states have laws that may protect an employee or applicant's legal off-duty blogging, especially if the employer has no policy or an unreasonably restrictive policy with regard to off-duty speech activities. For example, California has a law protecting employees from "demotion, suspension, or discharge from employment for lawful conduct occurring during nonworking hours away from the employer's premises." These laws have not been tested in a blogging context. If you are terminated for blogging while off-duty, you should contact an employment attorney to see what rights you may have.


Blog without Fear
Blogs are getting a lot of attention these days. You can no longer safely assume that people in your offline life won't find out about your blog, if you ever could. New RSS tools and services mean that it's even easier than ever search and aggregate blog entries. As long as you blog anonymously and in a work-safe way, what you say online is far less likely to come back to hurt you.


Resources
CNet's guide to workplace blogging: http://news.com.com/FAQ+Blogging+on+the+job/2100-1030_3-5597010.html?tag=nefd.ac


How Tor works: http://tor.eff.org/overview.html

Anonymizer's Anonymous Surfing: http://www.anonymizer.com/anonymizer2005/1.5/

A list of fired bloggers: http://morphemetales.blogspot.com/2004/12/statistics-on-fired-bloggers.html

The Bloggers' Rights Blog: http://rights.journalspace.com/

All Bahraini websites must register

The new law which was passed by the Information Ministry of Kingdom of Bahrain has caused allot of critic around the world. The purpose of the government doing that is to monitor the Bahraini citizens more closely and easy access to anyone who criticizes the government.

The law has been passed after the arrest of the Webmaster and journal owner Ali Abdulemam in feburay 2004.

So no more freedom of speech in Bahrain.

Here are some journals form arround the world who posted thier views about it:

Mahmood's take: Freedom of Speech my big toe!
Silly Bahraini Girl: The Bahrain Ministry of Information claims ownership of the WWW
Bahraini by Nature: Free Speech Protected Blog

Muscati & Wife Blogs too?
Desert Island Boy Behind Door No. 2

Webmasters must register or face legal action
Published: 25th April 2005

MANAMA: Webmasters face prosecution if they defy new rules announced by Bahraini authorities. All Bahraini websites set up here or abroad must register with the Information Ministry or face legal action, it was declared yesterday.

A six-month campaign is being launched next Monday to register all Bahraini websites, under orders from Information Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar.

"The ministry will announce soon the details of how each website owner or supervisor can register," Information Under-Secretary Mahmood Al Mahmood told the GDN.

"If they fail to register then legal action will be taken against them based on the country's printing and publishing laws."

He said websites would face similar laws to newspapers, related to libel, public decency and ethics.

Just as a newspaper editor-in-chief is held responsible for what he publishes, so will the webmasters be, he said.

Ministry printing and publishing director Jamal Dawood said registration procedures would be in line with those for all types of publications, including newspapers, leaflets, audio and visual media.

Arabic journals

I don't visit the Arabic journals/blog much as vary few of them I know or intrest me, I would like to write my own journal in Arabic one day, but feeling lazy to type in Arabic as it takes allot of time as I'm a bit slow in typing in Arabic.

“Kingdom of Heaven” dispels Muslim stereotypes

Kingdom of Heaven the movie preview in Islamic point of view.

“Kingdom of Heaven” dispels Muslim stereotypes

Source: news.baou.com

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said that the 20th Century Fox movie, "Kingdom of Heaven", is a "balanced" depiction of Islam that dispels stereotypical portrayals of Muslims.

The civil rights group based its decision after a private screening of the film at Fox studios in Los Angeles.

"Kingdom of Heaven" is expected to open in U.S. theaters by May 6th. The movie, by “Gladiator" director Ridley Scott, focuses on the 12th century period between the Second and Third Crusades, and it highlights the humanity sides of that decades-long conflict.

"Our overall impression is that 'Kingdom of Heaven' is a balanced and positive depiction of Islamic culture during the Crusades”, said CAIR-LA Communications Director Sabiha Khan. "Muslims are shown as dignified and proud people whose lives are based on morality,” she added.

Khan also said that one of the movie’s positive messages is that Muslims and Christians can live together in peace, adding that this will provide opportunity for increased interfaith dialogue.

"It is unfortunately a rare occasion when a Muslim filmgoer can leave the theater feeling good about a movie's portrayal of Islam.” said CAIR National Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed. "This film managed to show the horrors of war without associating those horrors with a particular faith or culture,” he said.

Ahmed also thanked Fox for the private screening and for avoiding religious stereotypes.

Summer started

Summer started, its too hot, becarfull of sun stroke and dehydration, drink allot of fluid (COLD but not freezing cold) or you'll get sour throat.

Who wrote about me?

My baby journal I Revere has been apearing in many articles on the WWW and here are some of the sources:

• The United Federation of Bloggers (Part 2) By Biz Stone.

Oman - Petite For Life is working in the engineering industry as an accountant on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula while simultaneously studying two majors as a part time student. I Revere is one of her four blogs and even though her life is chock full right now, she still finds time for praisin' Allah. All that and she doesn't drive. Man, she must be tired at the end of the week. She's only 25 though, clearly Petite for Life is going places.

• المدونات العمانية ... (Omani journals) By Harmoics.

المدونات العمانية ...
المدونات هي موقع يقوم عليه شخص ، يطرح آرائه و المواقف التي تمر به ، و يشارك الآخرين همومه و طموحاته ، و مما يميز المدونة عن المنتدى أنها تكون لشخص واحد فقط ، ربما يسمح للآخرين بتعليق و لكن هو الصاحب الرأي الآخير ...
تعود المدونات في تسلسلها التاريخ إلى بداية الإنترنت ، ولكن مع التوسع الكبير الذي طرأ على الإنترنت في نهاية التسعينيات ولدت فكرة المدونات ، BLOG ، و بدأت تنتشر رويدا رويدا حتى عمت جميع أقطار الأرض ، و تنوعت كل التنوع ، فهناك مدونات إخبارية و اعلامية و سياسية ، وأخلاقية و تقنية ، شخصية و جماعية ، بل هناك مدونات متخصصة بالصورة فقط .
والعالم العربي برغم من تخلفه الكبير ، لم يفته المشاركة و لو بالقليل ، و الملاحظ أن المدوينين العرب كان يدونون باللغة الإنجليزية والفرنسية في الغالب والقليل منهم من يكتب بالعربية ، و يكمن سبب ذلك بأنهم لم يجدوا القراء العرب لإنشغالهم بالمنتديات ، أو أنهم يريدون أن يتمرسوا في تلك اللغة ، و ربما لعدم اجادتهم اللغة العربية بما يؤهلهم الكتابة بها !!
و لكن في الآونة الآخيرة بدأت المدونات العربية تغزو عالم الإنترنت ، و تحقق بعض المكاسب و الإهتمام ، وبدأت مدوناتنا العربية في التنوع بعض الشيء فستجد منها ما هو تقنية و ما هو سياسية و ما هو شخصي و ما هو أدبي .
و إذا نظرنا إلى المدونات العمانية فستجدها في بدايتها ، و طابع الأعم لها أنها تكتب باللغة الإنجليزية و أذكر منها :
- مدونة مسقطي
- مدونة نصرة
-I Revere

وغيرها الكثير ، أما المدونات العربية ، فحسب الذي أستقراءه منها ، فإن الرائد لها هو مدونة زايد السعيدي ، و هو حسب ما كتب في مدونته أنه طالب من جامعة السلطان قابوس ، و مدونته هي مدونة شخصية في أغلبها ، و مع بعض الميل إلى السياسة و التقنية .
و المدونة العمانية الثانية هي مدونة معا نحو مستقبل مشرق ، و هي تأتي بالمرتبة الثانية تاريخيا ، وهي في مجملها مدونة تقنية تتكلم عن المصادر المفتوحة و نظام اللينكس .
أما المدونة الثالثة هي مدونة ناصر الحسني ، بها مواضيع جيدة ، ولكن ينقصها التحديث ، ربما لإنشغال صاحبها ، فهو حسب ما هو مذكور فيها طالب في جامعة السلطان قابوس من كلية الهندسة .
الجدير بالذكر أن المدونيين يكونون مجتمع خاص بهم في عالم الإنترنت ، فهم يقيمون المسابقات حول أحسن مدونة ، و تجد أن يقومون باجتماعات دورية ، و كذلك تجد أن جميع المدونات تذكر عناوين مدونات أخرى بحيث تظل تتنقل من مدونة إلى أخرى في عالم مختلف عن عوالم المنتديات ..

تحياتي Harmoics

The Mayonnaise Jar

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the coffee.


A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.


He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.


So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.


They agreed it was.


The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."


The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things -- your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions-- things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.


"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else -- the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you." Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.


Enjoy and care for your parents while they are around.
Play with your children.
Take time to get medical check ups.
Take your partner out to dinner.


There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."


One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked," he said. "It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a cup of coffee with a friend."

Who do you love the most?

I was liseaning to someone who was parasing the Prophit Mohamed (SAW) through nasheed called "Mawled" "Birth".

She was performing it varywell, from her heart. Then I told her that she has a powerfull voice, she said she does it well only in this because she love the Prophit more then anyone.

Who do you love?

No credit

I've heard allot of cases at the work place when someone who puts less amount of efforts and gets credits of others effort. It does happen in every organization.

What will you do if you find out that you are in such situation and someone took the credit and never mentioned your name at all?

The Interpreter

The movie was good in sense of the content, but not that thrilling at all for its viewers.

Hijab battle

Hijab (headgear) is an Islamic veil for women to ware to cover their head. I wanted to talk about women who remove their veil when their are in wedding and women gatherings then react aggressively when people take their photos and tape them in video cameras.

Women think that they are free to remove it at their wedding day but they don’t realize the consequences of removing it that people take their photos and show it to others like their brothers, fathers, husbands, etc that who aren't suppose to see it, some or most think that she isn't Muahajeba (a veiled woman) at all (sorry to use Arabic terminologies as I don't know them in English).

The true mutahajeba won't show her heir at all only to her mahrem such as her father, grandfather, uncle, brother, husband, son & grandson.

Morse Code Knowledge Game

Any one intrested to expand thier knowledge join Morse Code Knowledge Game zone.

Ops

Yesterday I tried to post an article but had a problem with the blogger so nothing been posted.

I wrote:

I haven't been posting lately because been too busy and didn't get time to post, allot of thoughts in my mind needs to be downloaded, I wish I had a device to download my thoughts.

I need to download them instantly because I hate having allot of thoughts in my mind that creates a headache at the end of the day.

Can't login to my technorati

I've been having a problem to login to www.technorati.com, don't know what to do.

Problem with my comment hack

I've installed Farrago Recent Comments Hack 1.03 and changed the timestap format, saved the & updated my blog several times and nothing worked.

Lil Pink Submarine

An intresting topic "Lil Pink Submarine"

American movies encourages violent

In a scene of a movie a man kidnaps a woman and when she said "He has no right to kidnap her", he says "We are in America & it happens all the time".

Such phrases encourage others to do so, it creates an opportunity for everyone to do so.

Arabic video clips

Sorry to say that Arabic video clips becoming sexual tool and becoming like a drug in our society.

Most of the artists have no ethics or moral. Vary big category don’t have the voice but they use their charms and body to get the attention they need.

TEN Movies

Do you want to know what movies are showing in the Middle East?

Go to TEN Movies (The Movie Resource o fMiddle East)and check it out, you can seach by:

• The movie name;
• The cinima;
• By country.

By the way Oman is included.

Abuse scandal: Vatican still doesn't get it

Today I came across this article 'Abuse scandal: Vatican still doesn't get it' which I foynd it intresting how the Vatican ignoring the fact that the some priests have sexualy abused allot of kids and still let them free by just moving them from one country to another, as if nothing happend.

Muscle acidity

Yesterday a new general knowledge been added in my brain, it's about Muscle Acidity.

Muscle acidity occurs when a person do muscles workout an acid is produced from it, if the person doesn't have hot shower after the workout or exercise, the acidity cumulates at the same place.

By having a hot shower/bath the blood makes the acid move to other places.

If the acidity accumulates it creates notes and at the long run you end up with pain at the place were the acid is cumulated, and the only way to get rid of it is by physiotherapy and it's painful.

Good luck.

Only several lines

Everyone noticed that I like to write several lines or one to two pharagraph.

I just can't write allot, I like my post to be a brief.

Sometimes I envy thouse who write long articles.

That's all what's in my mind.

Been exposed

Allot of blogger try to keep their blog/journals away from the public at the begining, some of them move it to public when they are ready or they get exposed by accident.

I understand thouse who want it to be a private place for them to write what's they went.

My latest album collections

My latest album collections

# Artist Album Website
1 Julia Butros La Be Ahlamak Julia-Boutros.ws
2 Rashed Alfares Habayeb

My prevuious album collections

# Artist Album Website
1 Dina Hayek Katabtellak dinahayekonline.com

Law & Music: Designs

I'd like to thank "Blue Chi" for posting an article 'Law & Music: Designs' about copyrights related to designs.

Here is the complete article.

Design law involves the protection of the physical look of an article/object/product. This law is in practice very complex, but due to the recent changes in the EU, and the fact that the IP course only involves the current regimes the complexity of the various issues involved cannot be extensively described as there are not many cases on the topic. There are four regimes for the protection of designs in the UK.

1 - Copyright: protects engravings, sculptures, and works of artistic craftsman. Govenmed by the usual CDPA measures but two main limitations make it less useful in this field. Those are sections 51 and 52. Section 51 grants a defence to copy the final product driven from the copyrighten work as long as the final product is not an artistic work or a typeface. Section 52 makes the protection period for limited to 25 years only for anything that passes s51.

2- Unregistered Design Rights (UK): Straight forward requirements: Article, Originality (different from ©, the thing has to be different from the common articles around - not that the person made it by himself), must be recorded, and it must not fall within the exclusions (fomulae, 'must-match', 'must-fit', and decorations). The right granted is an anti-copying right > This means that it must be showed that the infringer actually COPIED from you, not only that both designs look similar. The protection period is complex, it is actually 10 years that could start after a maximum of 5 years from the making of the design, but it cannot exceed 15. So if used after 7 years, the protection would last for 8 years only. (Governed by the CDPA.)

3- Registered Designs Right (UK + EU): This is governed by the Registered Designs Act 1988. This clearly protects the "APPEARANCE" of the design in question. Unlike the unregistered right, the aspect to be protected has to be visible during the use of the product. The requirements are is that it must be novel, has an individual character and must not fall within the exclusions: Must not be a component of a complex product that is not visit (this is the spare parts thing!), the designs shape must not be soley dictated by its technical functions, and there is a similar 'must fit' exclusion as well. The protection granted is of a monopoly right, a person would infringe by making a similar product even if he did not actually copy. The protection duration could last up to 25 years.

4- Unregistered Design Right (EU): Similar requirements to the Registered Right, but does not require actual registration and is an anti-copyright right. The duration of the protection is 3 years only. (Practical for fashion based industries)

About the Author:
Blue Chi is a Law student from Sultanate of Oman studying in UK & very talanted graphic designer.

His personal website: http://www.theblueconcepts.com/idream/

He is the one of the creators of TheBlueConcepts & Oman3D.

Differences between the US and British (in Grammar)

In my mind I wanted to write about people who get their grammar wrongly, while I was surfing the net I found this instead article about 'present perfect difference American British English grammar'.

"What's the difference between the US and British use of the present perfect?"

Although there are few grammatical differences between British and American English (as opposed to differences in vocabulary, which are many), this is, perhaps, the main one.

The answer is simple. Americans will often use the past simple tense where a British speaker would use the present perfect tense. An American will ask:

Did you have dinner yet?
whereas a British person would ask:

Have you had dinner yet?

You can read more about the 'Differences Between American and British English' @ About.com.

Libellula Edition Seven

Phoenix has drove me crazy with her latest edition seven of her journal design, she is really a talented girl that I'm proud of, I really love the design, the color, etc.

I really wish if I could ask her to sell me her design, is original.

http://www.tabulas.com/~libellula

Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAA)

Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAA) is an organization fights against anti-piracy.

I know most of the people are thinking it's cheap to get piracy material then pay $50 or 100 but it's not safe, maybe it has virus spyware or unemployment rate increases because of the piracy business.

Coffee

I love decaffeinated Starbucks Caramel Macchiato & Second Cup Caramel Corretto with extra whip cream & caramel. very good mood of having it now.

Smoke Free Zone

I thought of an idea of for healthy and cleaner environment college/university students by making the college/university campus smoking free zone, what I mean by it for anyone who wants to smoke has to get off-campus to smoke.

Qatar has banned smoking in public places in year 2002 under the Tobacco Control Law No 20 (2002) banning smoking in public began being enforced and anyone who smokes in public is been fined. (Read More).

Dubai (UAE 2nd begigest city) has followed its footstep for fw months from October 15, 1994 but on March 23, 2005 the Dubai municipality withdrouw it's enforcment on smoking ban which is not right. (Read More).

Get rid of Hijacker

I’d like to thanks M-Pac for his informative topic PC Housekeeping that he gave a a short tutorial on effective PC Housekeeping written and compiled personally by him.

I want to add an efective utility that well get rid of PC hijeckers.

Digital Art Been updated

Ii've uploaded 6 photos i've taken with my digital camera.

Enjoy it.

My weekend

I had a good time for my weekend despite started to feel a bit down, went to for dinner in a restaurant then visited my Aunt.

The next day had a long chit chat with my sister and cousin then had lunch at my grandmother's house after that went for a drive on the beach from Ghubrah to Othaiba were we saw allot of kyte on the beach tuned out the Pakistani society club had a kyte day, I wish I had my digital camera at that time.

The Omani Feline Society

I never heard of the existence of The Omani Feline Society in Sultanate of Oman, I wish the feline supporters in Oman to start it, as I know allot of Omani houses have cats.

What do you think about it?

Note: Your respond will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Cat Allergies

Despiting been a feline (cat) supporter I'm suffuring from Cat Allergies, I have to take some anticeptics.

Here is an intresting article about a therapy for cat allergies published by LAURA TANGLEY at The New York Times.

f you're a mouse, an attack of the sniffles when you scamper by a bit of cat hair may be a good thing - an early warning system allowing a quick getaway from the predator lurking under the bed.

In the natural world, of course, mice rarely, if ever, suffer from cat allergies. But laboratory mice specially bred to be allergic to cats have been cured by researchers who have developed a novel approach to allergy treatment.

The results may lead to better therapy for millions of people who are allergic to cats - including 14 percent of children from age 6 to 19 - and for the estimated 50 million Americans who suffer from some type of allergy.

The new treatment, described in this month's Nature Medicine, involves linking a feline protein that causes cat allergies to a human protein that stops immune system cells from releasing histamine, the chemical that sets off allergy symptoms.

To test the therapy, the scientists exposed the allergic mice to proteins from cat saliva or dander, then injected some of them with the human-feline protein. A single injection "blunted the allergic response before it began," said Dr. Christopher L. Kepley, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and a co-author of the report.

Dr. Kepley conducted the study with scientists at University of California, Los Angeles.

In earlier work, Dr. Kepley and his colleagues tested the treatment on cultured blood cells from people who were allergic to cats. Cells containing the human-feline protein released 90 percent less histamine than those that did not.

If the therapy works as well in humans as it does in mice, Dr. Kepley said, it may lead to a "faster and safer" way to treat a variety of human allergies. The problem with traditional desensitization treatments like allergy shots, he said, is that they require multiple injections with gradually increasing doses of the allergen, a process that can take up to a year.

And because they expose allergy sufferers to the proteins that make them sick, such conventional therapies carry some risk - and cannot be used to treat potentially deadly food allergies.

Each year, about 150 people in the United States die from food-induced allergies, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which financed the research. Dr. Kepley said his group next planned to tackle peanut allergies. "In theory, you can gear this new technique toward any allergen you want," he said.

Allergy sufferers will have to be patient, though. Even the cat allergy treatment will not be available for at least three to five years, Dr. Kepley said.

A child’s feelings

"A child’s feelings are like a Crystal, if you heart it; you have broken the Crystal into shapeless vivid pieces.".

Boost your mind #1

Two men walked out of the mine, one of them his face was dirty and the other was clean, the man with the clean face washed his face while the other didn't.

Why did the clean face man washed and the other didn't?

Blogging Depression

Blogging Depression is the latest depression I analyzed it based on the experience and other people's too.

What is Blogging Depression?

This kind of depression happens as a result of several condition:

1. The number of counter slows down.
2. No one comments to your posts.
3. Over bloggering (by posting allot).
4. When you are out of thoughts.

How to get over it?

1. Refresh your mind by reading new articles.
2. Redesign your blog.
3. Add new and interesting add-ones.

Digital Art

Digital Art is my new photography gallery, at the moment I uploaded some joke images, I have some photos but didn't have a chance to upload them, my digital camera driver is corrupted as a result my personal computer can't recognize my camera. I have to go to the dealer to get the right driver.

Furniture Hunting

My beloved and elder cousin is getting married soon, and we started looking for furniture for his house, I went yesterday from one furniture layouts, I came back with a headache after 2 hours of running around until they selected some of the pieces of furniture. It was only the 2nd day of his family for looking around.

I never realized how a person can get taired for only trying to get a perfict Furniture for your house.

That's why I hate going shopping with others if I'm not doing it for my self.

In the Arab world, a blog can mean prison

While I was browsing the Google News, I typed 'arabic blogs' and saw the headlines, I clicked onto 'In the Arab world, a blog can mean prison' by William Fisher & I want to refer to the oher post I wrote 'Who's Next?' related to the Bloggers in the ME.

Beirut


In democratic countries, personal Web sites known as Weblogs have grown exponentially over the past few years. In the United States, for example, there are literally millions of "blogs."

Not yet in the Middle East, even though there are many parallels in the region with what has made the phenomenon explode in the United States. For example, blogging technology is available to anyone with access to the Internet, it is cheap, indeed free, and content can easily be created in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and other languages. While home-computer ownership is still embryonic, the deep suspicion of government-owned mainstream media has almost certainly helped spur the growth in the region's Weblogs.

But there is at least one critical difference. In most of the countries of the Middle East, using a personal Weblog to express political dissent can land someone in jail as easily as taking part in an unauthorized political protest in a public square. For example, recently in Iran - one of the worst anti-blogger offenders - a blogger was jailed for 14 years for "spying and aiding foreign counterrevolutionaries," after using his site to criticize the arrest of other online journalists. Despite the risks, an estimated 75,000 Iranians among the country's five million Internet users maintain online blogs. Especially among middle class youth, they have become an important way of expressing dissatisfaction.

Mona al-Tahawy, a columnist at the London-based Saudi daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, writes that bloggers in Iran and Iraq "have inspired others in the Arab world." She also adds: "Despite working in an elite medium, requiring a computer and literacy, bloggers are the voice of the true Arab Street, especially the young."

Like Iran, most countries of the region impose varying degrees of restriction on Weblogs. Saudi Arabia, where authorities block some 400,000 Web sites, is among the most restrictive. It is unclear how many blogsites there are in the kingdom, but those that are accessible focus largely on political dissent.

Typical is a site called "The Religious Policeman." One recent posting asked:

"What reforms? There aren't any reforms! The government promised to set up a higher commission on women's affairs, guaranteed women participation in the recent National Dialogue Forum and in the National Human Rights Commission." It adds: "The National Dialogue Forum agreed to change nothing, the 'team photo' had no women in it, anyone with any sense left in tears."

In Iraq today, there are hundreds of blogsites, most of them run by Iraqis, but also some by American and other coalition soldiers. There are communist, monarchist, Kurdish, Assyrian, Islamist, Shiite, Sunni, nationalist and secularist blogs. Their political positions range from full support for the U.S. invasion and occupation to rabid calls for a jihad against the Americans.

For example, on the one-year commemoration of the start of the Iraq war, a 24-year-old female computer programmer wrote in her "Baghdad Burning" blog: "Occupation Day, April 9, 2003: The day we sensed that the struggle in Baghdad was over and the fear of war was nothing compared to the new fear we were currently facing. It was the day I saw my first American tank roll grotesquely down the streets of Baghdad - through a residential neighborhood. And that was April 9 for me and millions of others." She added: "The current Governing Council wants us to remember April 9 fondly and hail it as our 'National Day,' a day of victory." But, she asks, "whose victory?"

In Egypt, authorities have tightened their control of the country's 600,000 Web users. For example, the Web master of the English-language Al-Ahram Weekly was sentenced to a year in prison for posting a sexually explicit poem, and a 19-year-old student was sentenced to a month in jail for "putting out false information" after reporting that a serial killer was on the loose in Cairo.

In Syria, one blogger asked others to sign an online petition addressed to "The White House" and "The ElysŽes" [sic], the French presidential palace. "With the killing of [former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Lebanon," the site said, "Syrian Baathists are out of control. Who's next? Syria is inciting civil war in Lebanon." Another Syrian, calling himself "Kafka," wrote that a recent speech to the Syrian Parliament by President Bashar Assad "made the Syrian people forget that [he] never cared to give a damn about us since he came to power."

In Tunisia, President Zine al-Abidin ben Ali has been determined to stamp out all cyber-dissidence. The death just over a week ago of prominent cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, who was sent to jail in 2002-03 for publishing an open letter by his uncle, a prominent magistrate, asking for an independent judiciary, provided a reminder of how harshly the regime had treated the young editor of Tunisia's most popular TuneZine Web site. But Yahyaoui was not alone. Recently, a well-known lawyer was arrested merely for posting an article online.

In Bahrain, two online-forum moderators were recently arrested. Nonetheless, a Bahraini blog called "Sabbah's Blog" was busy organizing a "Middle East Bloggers Meetup." Dozens of enthusiastic comments were posted by readers. Even in poverty-stricken Afghanistan, blogging is beginning to catch on. One Afghan blog reports: "During the Taliban we didn't have the Internet, but now there are about 25 net cafes in Kabul, and also some in Herat, Kandahar, and Balkh provinces. People are really interested to use the Internet but it's too expensive." It adds: "Only rich people can afford it."

There may well be an inverse relationship between the suppression of free expression and the proliferation of blogs in the Middle East. Maybe the lesson for heads of state in the region is this: It's far better to increase freedom of speech and reduce the challenge and expense of having to deal with this cyber uproar

William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East for the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

His weblog is www.billfisher.blogspot.com.

Daughters

Daughters is a lyrics that is written and sang by the winner of the 47th Anual GRAMMY Awards for Song Of The Year & Best Male Pop Vocal Performance John Mayer from the Album Heavier Things. I like to share it with everyone.

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
She's just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I've done all I can
To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands
Now I'm starting to see
Maybe it's got nothing to do with me

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Oh, you see that skin?
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left
Cleaning up the mess he made

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Boys, you can break
You'll find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on
But boys would be gone without warmth from
A woman's good, good heart

On behalf of every man
Looking out for every girl
You are the god and the weight of her world

So fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too

Reality TV World

The reality shows have been taking over most of the TV channels arround the world this days, some TV channels show the latest uptodate and some show the last year's show, but it's populer. Most of the shows are no moral behind it at all.

I've seen one or two epasods of the highlighted & bloded titles, The Apprentice is the only one wearth watching.

Reality shows maybe cheaper but may damages peoples lives.

The List is as of April 1, 2005 check for the updates at Reality TV World Show Listings.

• The $25 Million Dollar Hoax
• 30 Seconds of Fame
• Airline
• All American Girl
• The Amazing Race 1
• The Amazing Race 2
• The Amazing Race 3
• The Amazing Race 4
• The Amazing Race 5
• The Amazing Race 6
• The Amazing Race 7
• The Amazing Race 8
• American Dream Derby
• American Idol 1
• American Idol 2
• American Idol 3
• American Idol 4
• American Juniors
• America's Next Top Model 1
• America's Next Top Model 2
• America's Next Top Model 3
• America's Next Top Model 4
• Amish In The City
• The Anna Nicole Show
• Anything For Love
• The Apprentice 1
• The Apprentice 2
• The Apprentice 3
• Are You Hot?
• The Ashlee Simpson Show
• The Assistant
• Average Joe 1
• Average Joe 2: Hawaii
• Average Joe 3: Adam Returns
• The Bachelor 1
• The Bachelor 2
• The Bachelor 3
• The Bachelor 4
• The Bachelor 5
• The Bachelor 6
• The Bachelor 7
• The Bachelorette 1
• The Bachelorette 2
• The Bachelorette 3
• Beg, Borrow & Deal
• The Benefactor
• The Beverly Hillbillies
• Big Brother 1
• Big Brother 2
• Big Brother 3
• Big Brother 4
• Big Brother 5
• Big Brother International
• The Biggest Loser
• Big Man on Campus
• Blow Out
• Boarding House: North Shore
• Boot Camp
• Boy Meets Boy
• But The Sex Is So Good
• Canadian Idol
• The Casino
• Celebrity Fit Club
• Celebrity Mole Hawaii
• Celebrity Mole Yucatan
• Change of Heart
• Chasing Farrah
• The Club
• Cold Turkey
• College Hill
• Combat Missions
• The Complex
• The Contender
• Croc Hunter Challenge
• Cupid
• The Cut
• Dance Fever
• The Dating Experiment
• Dog The Bounty Hunter
• Dog Eat Dog
• Dream Job
• Eco-Challenge
• Extreme Makeover
• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
• Fake-A-Date
• Fame
• The Family
• Family Business
• Family Plots
• Fear Factor
• For Better Or For Worse
• Forever Eden
• For Love Or Money 1
• For Love Or Money 2
• For Love Or Money 3
• For Love Or Money 4
• The Good Life
• He's A Lady
• High School Reunion
• Hooked Up
• House Rules
• I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here!
• In Search of the Partridge Family
• Invasion Iowa
• The It Factor
• Jackass
• Joe Millionaire
• The Joe Schmo Show 1
• The Joe Schmo Show 2
• Laguna Beach
• Last Comic Standing 1
• Last Comic Standing 2
• Last Comic Standing 3
• The Last Resort
• The Littlest Groom
• Liza & David
• Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska
• Love Cruise
• Love Shack
• Mad Mad House
• Making The Band
• Manhunt
• Married By America
• Untitled Martha Stewart Show
• Meet My Folks
• Model Citizens
• The Mole 1
• The Mole 2
• Mr. Personality
• Mr. Romance
• Murder in Small Town X
• My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss
• My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance
• My Life Is A Sitcom
• Nanny 911
• Nashville Star
• Nashville Star 2
• Nashville Star 3
• Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica
• Next Action Star
• The Next Great Champ
• The Next Joe Millionaire
• No Boundaries
• The One Who Got Away
• The Osbournes
• Outback Jack
• Paradise Hotel
• The Partner
• Pepsi Play for a Billion
• Perfect Match: New York
• Performing As...
• The Player
• Playing It Straight
• PoweR Girls
• Project Greenlight
• Project Runway
• Push, Nevada
• Queer Eye For The Straight Girl
• Queer Eye For The Straight Guy
• R U The Girl With T-Boz & Chilli
• Race To The Altar
• The Real Gilligan's Island
• The Real Roseanne Show
• The Real World
• The Real World: Paris
• The Real World: Philadelphia
• The Real World: San Diego
• The Rebel Billionaire
• Recovery
• Renovate My Family
• The Restaurant
• Rich Guy, Poor Guy
• Rich Girls
• Road Rules
• Road Rules: South Pacific
• Road Rules X-TREME
• The Road To Stardom With Missy Elliott
• Rock Star
• Scare Tactics
• The Search For The Most Talented Kid In America
• Second Chance: America's Most Talented Senior
• Sex in the Itty Bitty City
• Shipmates
• The Simple Life 1
• The Simple Life 2
• The Simple Life 3
• Sorority Life
• Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search
• The Starlet
• Star Search
• Starting Over
• Super Millionaire
• Supernanny
• Superstar USA
• Surf Girls
• The Surreal Life
• The Surreal Life 2
• The Surreal Life 3
• The Surreal Life 4
• The Surreal Life 5
• Survivor: Pulau Tiga
• Survivor: The Australian Outback
• Survivor: Africa
• Survivor: Marquesas
• Survivor: Thailand
• Survivor: The Amazon
• Survivor: Pearl Islands
• Survivor: All Stars
• Survivor: Vanuatu
• Survivor: Palau
• The Swan
• Temptation Island 1
• Temptation Island 2
• Temptation Island 3
• There's Something About Miriam
• 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave
• Todd TV
• Tough Enough
• Trading Spaces
• Trading Spouses
• Trista & Ryan's Wedding
• Under One Roof
• The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show
• The Weakest Link
• While You Were Out
• Who's Your Daddy?
• Who Wants To Marry My Dad? 1
• Who Wants To Marry My Dad? 2
• Wickedly Perfect
• Wife Swap
• The Will
• World Idol

Another note

Holland has opened the first women-only mosque and led by a woman.

It's an April Fools' Day.

My Gmail has increased to 2 GB instead of 1 GB after Yahoo! has increased to 1GB.

The Egyptian actor Ahmad Zaki has passed away on Sunday March 27 2005 & I found out on March 30 2005.

I've been watching some of the reality shows, some were a west of time to watch such as Outback Jack; and some are good like The Apprentice, its more educational.

The Updates

As I'm writing this topic, I'm doing multi tasks at the sometime on the net such as:
I've Updated 'I Revere' journal with a new look.
I want to talk about EMINEM, & the Arabic music.

Eminem
I'm impressed by Eminem's Anti-Bush Music Video 'Mosh' from his latest album Encore despite I generally dislike his songs, it shows the anger that built inside the American citizens.

The Lyrics of the Song:

Intro:

(Kids: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America..

(BOOM)

(Kids: And to the Republic..)

Eminem: People..

(Kids: For which it stands..)

Eminem: Hahaha..

(Kids: One nation under God.. Indivisible..)

Eminem: It feels so good to be back!

Verse 1:

I scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel, re-energize and rewind
I give sight to the blind, my insight's through the mind
I exercise my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind - what you interpret it as
I say to fight, you take it as I'ma whip someone’s ass
If you don’t understand, don’t even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a father-less past
Who has blown up now to rap phenomenon
That has, or at least shows, no difficulty multi-taskin' and juggling both
Perhaps mastered-his-craft slash entrepreneur
Who has helped launch a few more rap-bags
Who’s had a few obstacles thrown his way
Through the last half of his career
Typical manure, moving past that
Mister kiss-his-ass-crack, he’s a class-act
Rubber-band man, yeah, he just snaps back

Chorus:

Come along, follow me, as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength
Come with me, and I wont steer you wrong
Put your faith in your trust, as I guide us through the fog
To the light at the end of the tunnel we gon’ fight
We gon’ charge, we gon’ stomp
We gon’ march through the swamp
We gon’ mosh through the marsh
Take us right through the doors
Come on..

Verse 2:

All the people up top, on the side and the middle
Come together, let's all form this swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
No matter what color, all that matters we're gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains, let it rain
Yeah, the wetter the better
They ain’t gon’ stop us - they can't
We're stronger now, more then ever
They tell us "No", we say "Yeah"
They tell us "Stop", we say "Go"
Rebel with a rebel yell
Raise hell - we gon’ let em know
Stomp, push, shove, mush..
Fuck Bush
Until they bring our troops home, c'mon, just..

Chorus:

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength
Come with me, and I wont steer you wrong
Put your faith in your trust, as I guide us through the fog
To the light at the end of the tunnel we gon’ fight
We gon’ charge, we gon’ stomp
We gon' march through the swamp
We gon' mosh through the marsh
Take us right through the doors
Come on..

Verse 3:

Imagine it pourin’, it's rainin’ down on us
Moshpits outside the oval office
Someone’s tryin to tell us something
Maybe this is God just sayin' we're responsible
For this monster - this coward that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden
Look at his head noddin’
How could we allow something like this without pumpin' our fists
Now, this is our final hour
Let me be the voice, and your strength and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify it, times it, and multiply it by sixteen million
People are equal at this high pitch
Maybe we can reach al CIAda through my speech
Let the president answer our high anarchy
Strap him with a AK-47, let him go fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to thinking that we ain’t loyal
If we don’t serve our own country, we’re patronizing our hero
Look in his eyes, its all lies
The stars and stripes, have been swiped
Washed out and wiped and replaced with his own face
Mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight, you’ll know why
‘Cuz I told you to fight

Chorus:

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength
Come with me, and I wont steer you wrong
Put your faith in your trust, as I guide us through the fog
To the light at the end of the tunnel we gon' fight
We gon' charge, we gon' stomp
We gon' march through the swamp
We gon' mosh through the marsh
Take us right through the doors
Come on

Outro:

Eminem: And as we proceed to mosh through this desert storm.. in these closing statements, if they should argue, let us beg to differ.. as we set aside our differences, and assemble our own army to disarm this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president for the present.. and mosh for the future of our next generation.. to speak and be heard.. Mr President.. Mr Senator..

(Kids: Hear us, hear us?.. Hahaha)

Arabic Music

The Western music’s has different types of categories such as pop, classic, blues, gospel, soul, funk, jazz, rock 'n' roll, hip hop, techno, etc, while the Arabic music is divided into two main categories: pop & classic which is called 'Tarab'.

The Arabic pop artists are becoming ridicules and more into plastic surgeries or gender idol/model in feminine side, such as Haifa, Ruby, etc.

I wish they were like Majda Erroumi and Fairuz that they dress well and respecting them selves by having some of dignity.



Nojoom Alkhaleej

Nojoom Tv channel has lunched its pop idel show “Nojoom Alkhaleej” (The Gulf Stars) for the Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (AGCC) 6 countires citizins that are from Oman, UAE, KSA, Bahrin, Qatar & Kuwait in addition to Yaman & Iraq which is officaially not part of AGCC countires; The Nojoom Alkhaleej is been hosted by the UAE artist Abdullah Balkher.