Board Games

When people look at art, they look at it from the perspective of beauty and pleasure, not how art really resembles history and culture. Just like art, people underestimate what board games add to increasing human abilities. Board games shouldn’t be viewed as just entertainment to pass time; they are, as a matter of fact, both amusing and tutorial at the same time, not to mention their value in building healthy relationships. There are two kinds of board games: the first is the pointless, useless games and the second is the tutorial, challenging games. I like to free my schedule once a week for an hour and have a night in with my family and friends and play the challenging kind of board games. Since I am very competitive, I take it very seriously and actually connect lessons I have taken in school with the board game. For instance, when I play “sequence” I use the probability method. There are masses of board games that require critical thinking and linking life knowledge with the game. I have to admit that my friends now try hard to be my partner. Although board games now might sound silly and futile but in the long run you can see the impact they will make upon your life; you start to take every small details seriously, be more competitive, and be able to masterfully use knowledge you have gained from life more productively.

Beckham & the SAT

May 2nd was the birthday of David Beckham, but also it was the day where millions of high school students around the world were waking up in the morning to take one of the most important tests in their lives. On May 2nd I took my SAT test in Houston, in a school that I have never been to. As the teacher passed the booklets, my heart started beating like a rock band’s drum. Throughout the test, I skipped a lot –and I mean A LOT- of questions. The timing was what most bothered me, if only I had more time. Now I don’t want to scare those who didn’t take the test with my negativity, but the SAT is not hard as much as it is confusing. My tutor once told me:” You can never be fully prepared for the SAT, they will always bring something new to you” So my advice to you that you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, just practice whenever you have free time in your hands. Most importantly, read! Most of the SAT questions that I had trouble with was the vocabulary material questions. I recommend you to read a book that is called “Tooth and Nail” this book is an amusing novel but at the same time it has the SAT vocabulary. One last thing, don’t punish yourself or feel bad about yourself if you didn’t get a good grade, it is a test of “al dunya” what matters is the test of “al akera”

The purpose: I wanted to give my young readers something constructive, and I was bored.

Is appearance everything, nothing or something??

To start off, I want to say that while you are reading this post try not to think based on the community you live in only but other communities in the world. (Try to be open in your opinion)

If I was being interviewed for a job or college and the interviewer asked me if I think a person’s “appearance” is important, I would pretty much be glad to hear that question; because in my opinion I have a near-perfect answer.

A lot of people might think that I am shallow and small minded when they hear me say “I think appearances are important, they are so important that they can guide you either to your dream or to your nightmare destination” but I think I might be able to change what you think of me when you hear what I have to say. I believe that appearances are important for both male and female. The following reasons are for both.

1-    Finding your soul mate. Whether we admit it or not we do care of our soul mate’s appearance. If you had two soul mates to choose from; one is ugly and fat and the other is handsome and athletic you will want the handsome and the athletic one knowing that they are both good people. Some people might say “I don’t care If my soul mate had a face of a frog, the important thing is that he/she is a good person and has good values” I would have to agree BUT you won’t be 100% satisfied with your soul mate knowing that you would be waking up every morning and the first thing you would see is your soul mate’s frog face. I’m just saying. A lot of people think this but they don’t say it out loud.

2-   Pursuing your dream job. In some jobs appearance doesn’t matter, but there are other jobs and careers that rely on appearance, such as modeling, singing, house maid, acting and many more careers. For instance, Angelina Jolie. She is famous not for her talent, which many actresses have, but for her face and -I am very sorry to say- her lips. She gained the public’s attention because of her beauty which is something that she shouldn’t be ashamed of. This is the world we live in! We greatly care for appearance. Another example is Susan Boyle. She is now what everybody is talking about; she is ugly and fat and sings opera. Now let me say that her singing is not better than any other opera singer what made her extremely famous was her voice that came out of her overweight, ugly and old body. Now let’s assume that I am overweight and unattractive and I want to be a model. Now that is a “no way” situation but let’s say I want to be a singer and I do have a good voice. Now here is not a “no way” situation because I will have some fans but not as much fans I would have if I was attractive and slim. Am I right?? Look at all the famous people; most of them are good looking.    

3-   High self-esteem. When you are beautiful and slender you feel more confident. Especially when you are talking in front of a huge group of people. In the contrary, when you are unpleasant to watch you feel less confidant. Let me say that a lot of people might disagree in this point and to be fair I don’t generalize this point on every single person. Some people are very confident despite their looks, which is an excellent thing.

4-   Better pictures. I don’t think it’s necessary for me to clarify this point.

 

 

Now for these reasons I do believe that appearances are important, and I am not comparing appearance with anything else. Our faces is in the hand of God and God only –unless you have a plastic surgery- but we can take care of our appearance as a whole not just our faces; we can dress better, hygiene continuously, style our hair differently once in a while, speak more elegantly, keep our body in shape and many more ways to appear better.

The purpose: I am not saying that I am neither beautiful nor ugly; this post is to show you –my beloved readers- that I am honest and I share my thoughts with you knowing that some might disagree. Please comment telling me what you think.

Upside Down

It has been a LONG time since I have last posted something in my precious blog. Here’s a list of a couple of reasons for why I haven’t been able to post stuff more often:

1-      School

2-      School

3-      School

4-      School

5-      SAT

6-      School

7-      College applications

8-      SAT

9-      SAT

10-   School

11-   College applications

12-   SAT

13-   College applications

14-   SAT

15-   SAT

16-   College applications

17-   TOEFL

18-   SAT

19-   College applications

20-   TOEFl

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100- School (infinity)

 

I am so stressed, pressured, depressed and all the negative feelings in the world :(  but, the last thing I want to do is make my readers feel the same way, so I’m going to turn this post upside down !

The Eid break is coming up, and I am SUPER excited!!! My cousin’s wedding is just before the Eid. My cousin and I are like sisters, I have a feeling that I am going to cry like a recently born baby in her “zafa”. I just can NOT imagine her married.  My 19 year old cousin getting married feels like my 11 year old sister getting married. Anyway I wish her all the luck and may she live happily with her husband. Tiny secret? I am seriously considering sneaking around and actually going with them on their honey moon.

Another positive thing, I’ve recently discovered  is  that I get depressed and down a lot so I have found a solution that would make me feel better and I wanted to share it with you. Ellen Degeneres!!! She is simply the BEST!! Whatever mood I’m in, she’s always able to make me smile and laugh out loud, I am very proud to say that she is my celebrity role model. Since I live in Saudi Arabia the T.V channels here pretty much SUCK, and the Ellen show doesn’t air in any of the channels here, well except for some really old ones. Fortunately, I have found this YouTube channel “Edwintv29” that would, every night, upload the very NEW Ellen episode. So every day I wake up in the morning, I look forward to that specific hour that I’ll spend not thinking and worrying about school, college and SATs and just HAVE FUN!!  I want to end this post with a couple of Edwintv29’s best videos.

Enjoy ;**

 

 

The purpose: Although we are all going through some tough times we deserve to have an hour or two to just forget of all that C**P and just smile.

Please comment you lovely people ; )

Broadcast Yourself

Aaaaaaah. YouTube is the first window I open as soon as I open my laptop. You know if you ask me “If you were trapped in a desert and you get to choose three things to take with you what would they be?” I would most probably choose: The most important thing, Qur’an. Second, food and water (yes I consider them as one thing) last but not least, MY YOUTUBE – you might comment “ooh Sarah but there is no internet access in the desert”- well this is just to show you how much my YouTube means to me. Some people might not understand me and look at me as a pathetic girl with no life -well actually you might be right about the no life part but any way- I love my YouTube for these reasons: 

1-     Comedy:

-        Blood ( This is classic)

-        kid dancing to low ( no comment)

  – Clowie and the juice box ( like …like ..like … )

  – Chris brown ( What’s that on Chris’s hair? Looks like Henna)

     Japanese boy (Now I don’t speak Japanese but I think I understood what he said hehe. Can you believe he has 907 videos!! :O)  

-        Funny baby makes a speech ( hmmm….I was four when I spoke my first word.. and it was ‘kaka’)

- Funny weather lady ( this is simply HILARIOUS)  

2-     Educational, you can learn ANYTHING in YouTube. ( you don’t have to watch the whole thing just have a glimpse)

-        SAT math part 1  

-        Acoustic guitar lesson

-        How to trim your hair

-        Moonwalk

-        French

-        Geography

-        MIT lecture (53:30 min)

3-     Entertainment

-        Ellen dance ( I LOVE Ellen she is SO FUNNY )  

-        Oprah 24^th season ( WOW Oprah has power)

-        Sungha Jung ( check out his channel he is extremely  talented)

-        Amazing  ( AMAZING)

-        Trick shot ( All I want to know is how long has it taken them to put this all together)

-        Basketball ( The world is just full of talents)

-        Beatboxer ( I have always wanted to learn how to beat box)

-        Michael Jackson  ( RIP )

Now this is just a very very very small portion of the EXCELLENT videos in YouTube. Unfortunaltley there are some people out there who don’t know how to use YouTube appropriately and these following tips are dedicated to you <3:

1-     Make an account; so you can comment, rate and subscribe.

2-     YouTube’s home page is where I find my top videos, so when you visit YouTube have a look at the home page (videos being watched now – featured videos – most popular) and explore =)

3-     You need to have favorite users. When you watch a video (blog – vlog..) and you like it check out the user’s other videos and if you like all the videos or most of them subscribe to the user so you can know when this user has made a new video.

4-     After subscribing to the users you are interested in have a look at the related videos next to the video you are watching.

5-     Have fun and share the videos you like with your loved ones.

 

The purpose: I am grateful to YouTube; I now don’t watch TV at all; because all what I used to watch in TV I can now watch it in YouTube whenever I want. YouTube pays those users who are successful and have a large amount of subscribes thus, they are thrived to produce more videos to entertain us. So thank you YouTube for your amazing work.

p.s: There might be a part 2 =D

Friend X

Ok. So I will be talking about this girl from school who is a very dear friend of mine but I will be calling her friend “X” so you can guess who is friend X is while I am talking about her in this post. I will be telling you who is friend X in the end but do not I repeat do NOT cheat by scrolling down before you finish reading the post!

Friend X is a very …hmm let’s say unique girl. I guarantee you that you will fail to find someone like friend X. She is funny but serious, she is nice but rude, she is intelligent but dumb, she is there but isn’t. Friend X is a girl who loves life and lives it like there is no tomorrow! Friend X is a friend you go to when you want to have fun and cheer up when you are feeling down. Friend X is sweet like chocolate chip cookies, beautiful like her mirror image, shinny like the moon, funny like Letterman, sexy like Megan Fox -__- and friend X is trustworthy like a psychology doctor. Friend X likes to sing, dance and did I say sing?

Friend X is a friend who will tell you the truth when you look bad or even when there is lice in your hair (NEVER happened to my btw). Friend X will sing and sing and sing even though her voice is so… piercing. Friend X will skip school when she doesn’t feel like going to school, it’s not like she needs school she is too smart for school any way (A little bit of exaggeration over here). Friend X does not usually study for her exams and if she does it will only take her a couple of hours and she will still get a high score in her report card (mashallah). Friend X is an easy going person. Friend X likes to scream…oh yes she likes to scream especially in the beginning of a phone call “HALLAAAAAAAA WALLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” “ouch stop doing that”.

When Friend X is absent we all feel her absence. Friend X is my friend, your friend….our friend. Friend X is the girl I miss often.  Friend X is a girl I love with all my heart and will always love.

So do you know who friend X is??

She is the gorgeous, the gifted, the intelligent Reem Al-Hamdan!!

hmmm What Do I Like??

Before you start reading, pay no attention to the order. This was randomly orderd.

I like food:

I like strawberries dipped with brown chocolate or white chocolate.

I like vanilla ice cream with raspberries and blue berries.

I like pizza.

I like chicken nuggets.

I like burgers (all kinds… except bacon of course :p)

I like Chips with dip

I like pasta (especially penne arabiata)

I like sushi (recently)

 

I like sports:

I like soccer (not that good of a player but I enjoy playing it with my friend “seco ;*”

I like basketball (I play better in basketball than in soccer)

 

I like men:

I like David Beckham

I like Robert Pattinson

I like Simon Cowell

I like Ed Westwick (actually I like the character Chuck not Ed)

 

I like T.V series:

I like gossip girl (who doesn’t)

I like grey’s anatomy

I like desperate housewives

I like dirty sexy money

I like Chuck

I like The O.C

I like one tree hill

I like 90210

I like The Janice Dickenson modeling agency

I like life of Ryan

I like almost all Disney’s series

 

I like music:

I like Rap (Lil Wayne)

I like R&B

I like Hip Hop

I like country

I like soft rock

I like khaleji

I like MUSIC !

 

I like random stuff:

I like having a “to do” list and then I like the feeling I have when I cross something from the list.

I like jet skiing! (In fact that should be “I LOVE” )

I like playing “dance revolution” ( I am soooo good)

I like the feeling when mama defends me over my little brother (RARELY happens)

I like Facebook.

I like Youtube (this point will have an individual post..it is too special)

I like having a massage (neck and back particularly)

I like dancing.

I like singing.

I like the feeling I get after I shopped for clothes and shoes.

I like the feeling after threading my eyebrows.

I like standing up for myself.

I like theme parks.

I like giving presents.

I like going to the grocery store but without my mom (no need to say why)

 

I LOVE life =D

People To People

So there I was, standing in the campus of one of the most excellent universities in the world, the university that the most popular president, Barrack Obama, studied in, Columbia University. It was registration day.

Let’s back it up a little bit. I was nominated by a teacher from school – which I by the way never saw coming – to go to Columbia University for a summer leadership program. Although I was nominated, I still had to apply and do all the boring stuff. The organization is called “people to people” which is a very successful and strong organization that offers a bundle of programs in different universities such as Stanford University, Princeton University, Yale University, and MIT, just to name a few. The organization has different programs; one of them is the “Leadership for women”, which was the program I chose. After I applied and got an acceptance, I had to read all their e-mails which consisted of a lot of crucial details.

Going back to registration day, I was there early with my family to look around campus; the campus was amazing; seeing all the students, and the different halls, all that was what made me imagine myself in college ….ugh bad imagination! Back to the point, I saw my fellow “leaders” coming in – I knew they were my fellow leaders from the T-shirts- so I went to the registration desk with all of the other girls. I noticed that I was the only muhajjaba girl, which made me feel a little bit nervous.

Long story short, we were divided into groups of twelve. The first few days were awkward in our group. We were shy, unlike the other active groups. Our leader was constantly trying to make us talk.. but nope .. we were still reticent. But, thankfully, with time we talked and laughed and had fun. The program was a six days program, only. So time had to be used carefully and efficiently; there was no minute that passed that we hadn’t used usefully. The workshops that they have given us were tremendously helpful in a way you can’t even imagine. The activities were extremely fun, such as the physical activities in Central park, shopping, attending the musical “Wicked”, going to the United Nations, visiting the statue of Liberty, and touring in other spectacular sites in New York City. As a whole it was the best six days I have ever experienced. I made friends, amazing people that I shall forever be thankful for. I never knew that six days would benefit me in a life changing way.

I surprisingly learned from this experience that my Hijjab cannot and will not stop me from doing anything I want or stop me from achieving my goals in life. From “people to people”, I met this Muslim woman who is a muhjjaba, she visited us a couple of times to read us some of her poems. I noticed the reaction of the girls which surprisingly was not hatred, but on the contrary, was admiration. This woman – Tahani- made me feel that there is nothing in this world that I cannot do. 

 I would like to end my post, and in fact all my posts, with a purpose.

The purpose: I recommend all my readers to register for this program or for your little sisters or brothers… it seriously is a life changing experience. Summer schools teach you to open yourself to the world and learn about different cultures and religions.

I’m too much of a coward

What major I want to study? What state do I want to study in? What college do I want to go to? SAT’s. Toefl. Ielts. College applications etc…
As I said in my previous post, I hate life at this moment. THAT is why I hate life now. I always say “why do I have to go though all of this?! We are all going to die eventually” But I am too much of a coward to not go back and think about all of THAT again. What makes this hard for me is that I can’t make a decision! I just can’t! The fact that petrifies me is that my future is based on what I have to decide now.
Summer. The vacation that all kids around the world enjoy. They forget about school, have no worries, no responsibilities, no “to do” lists. Unfortunately, this is not the situation presently. Kids nowadays have VERY VERY VERY long “to do” lists. I for one plan but don’t take an action. Remember when I explained the blog’s name “aim and fire”? Well I am not following the rule; I am aiming but not firing. I desperately need to start firing!!!! I want to accomplish a lot in the summer so I can concentrate on my studies when school starts. Speaking of school, I really need to work on getting my grades up! Wow I’ve got lots of things to do. When I grow up and have kids I’m going to let them start studying for the SAT in first grade and take the test at 7th grade. Ok I might have gone a little too far, but for real, I’m going to guide my kids and lead them to the right direction so that they won’t ruin their summer like what I’m doing now.
I don’t want to send a negative energy to all my blog readers. I really wish you all the best and good luck. I guess I have one advice to give you, and I just wish I could follow the advice as well: Finish what you start.

Who am I??

Talented? No. Hard working? Yes. Loving life? At the moment, no. Ambitious? I think I can say yes. Outgoing? Not so much. Annoying? Some times. Smart? Not at all. Chatty? Yes. Lazy? Very! Respect parents? Trying my best every day. Love god? The BIGGEST YES! Shy? No. Stand for rights? YES. Work out?  No. Love adventures? YES. Ect..    

In every book the author introduces him/her self to the readers. As a blogger, I want to introduce myself to my readers. My name is Sarah Al-Falih, and I am all of the above. I will not take it as seriously as others are taking in their blogs. Instead, my blog is going to be my diary. I never had a diary so this is going to be something new for me. My blog is going to consist of stories, secrets, embarrassing moments and everything that is captivating my mind. So this is going to be interesting, make sure you check it out every once and a while

The blog’s name “aim and fire” was the first thing that crossed my mind as I was thinking of a name for my blog. When I say “aim” I mean set your goals in life, when I say “fire” I mean work to achieve your goals.