Semi-end of the unannounced Sahar’s Blog Summer Hiatus

Apparently, I went on a summer hiatus, as evidenced by the lack of posts in the last couple of… Well, no need to quantify that statement!

But the Summer Hiatus is now over! Sahar’s Blog is back in action.

But don’t expect full-time blogging until September; after all, summer isn’t over yet!

An apology… Or a confession?

Dear Sahar’s blog readers;

You might have noticed that I haven’t posted anything new in the last 9 days – and if you haven’t noticed, I prefer not to know. In any case, there is an excellent reason for that – I have been catching up on my reading, which, you have probably guessed, is fueling a new series of posts on various topics asunder.

Ah, the joys of reading.

As the various thoughts and opinions slowly coalesce into something worth writing about (what, did you really think putting up posts just comes naturally? Sheesh people!), I have decided to share some of the previous week’s best reading with you, so that when I do finally come up with something, you will know where it comes from.

And who knows? Perhaps you will be inspired to start your own blog, which I will merciless pick at and thoroughly enjoy doing so.

She’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Yes, it’s true, after a week off I am back to blogging! And it feels great. I do hope you missed me as I much .

Now the fact that I took a week off from blogging doesn’t mean it wasn’t on my mind most of the time. Quite the contrary – I have taken numerous notes about what I could blog about. But it was a nice vacation, especially since I had the wonderful opportunity to attend an amazing conference in Toronto last week-end, the Regional Baha’i Conference, one of 41 conferences being held worldwide in the span of two months.

These conferences were called for by the Universal House of Justice so that the Baha’is of the world, working on the betterment of humanity, could rejoice on the success of the various projects they have been involved in and reflect on the increasing need of society for its spiritualization. Rejoice we did, and reflect we did – and both permeated the spirit of the conference with a sense of purpose reinvigorating to the many of us who had been going through sometimes very rough times.

Recall the Chronicles of a Sprained Ankle posted on this very blog and how I would reflect on people’s lack of consideration, how it was getting to me and that it sometimes tempted me to be inconsiderate of others. I have been raking my brain to find something that would counter this overwhelming feeling, and, well, this conference was exactly what I needed to get back on track. It was also a big dose of encouragement not to let these minor things get to me. And I’m fairly certain that’s the case with most of the 4’500 people who attended last week-end’s conference! To read more about the Toronto Regional Conference or any of the other 41 Regional Conferences held around the globe, go here.

So what does this have to do with Sahar’s blog?

Well I would like to try infusing the posts of this blog with the same realistic optimism of last week-end’s Regional Conference. The content won’t change too much; reviews of Heroes and Ugly Betty will continue, and I will share thoughts on old episodes of the X-files and Supernatural. I’m also going to keep looking for documents shedding light on the situation of the world today, and search for ways to make the world a better place. I am going to share insights gained through the study of the Writings of the Baha’i Faith as well as through other readings, as well as insights gained through conversations with the blog’s readers. To be honest, you, beloved reader, might not really notice much of a change – but let me tell you something, everything has changed for me.

Which is the point of this post: how a fundamental change can shift your entire perspective, changing everything but at the same time, changing nothing. We oftentimes think that to end wars and make the whole of humanity prosperous, we need to have a huge, gigantic change. However, it needs to be pointed out that while the nature of the change is awesome – shifting from a self-centered, materialistic view to one focused on spirituality and others – the results of it are not so much so; we still will go about our day to day lives, studying, working, eating, going out etc, but the focus of our efforts will have so radically changed that it will feel like it’s totally different.

So here goes – the new and improved yet just about the same Sahar’s blog!

Another day, yet another question

So I’ve been wondering (surprise, surprise). Am I the only one that seems to think that we live in a society in which we are wired to worry? It sometimes feels like worrying has become a sport. Although the mental image associated with an Olympic event of worrying is quite amusing, the reality isn’t quite the same.

It reminds me also of the fact that it sometimes feel like we live in a society that is proud of being tired. The more tired you are, the better of a person you are: it means that you are working hard and deserve success – or, if you don’t have success, that life just isn’t fair. If you aren’t tired it means that you are not working hard enough, and that the success you do have isn’t deserved – or, if you are not successful, that you deserve to be unsuccessful.

Speaking of which, where are my Wake-ups?

Let the random musings and constant questionning continue…

So I’ve been thinking. Yes, it happens, and it sometimes yields interesting results.

I’m a Baha’i, and in the Baha’i Faith we are told we should personally investigate the truth and figure it out for ourselves. Through independent reading, analysis, conversations and consultation, we are encouraged to find out the real meaning of truth – or at least grasp as much of it as we can.

But that is assuming that we have a source of information that we can trust. When it comes to day to day affairs as reported in the news, can we truly trust the information that gets to us? After all, the news is filtered – intentionally or not – before it gets to us. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to read dozens of websites to get all the different angles to be able to figure out what’s real or not.

Go ahead. Get the Advil. You know this question is going to eventually give you a headache .

Bangladeshi group BRAC awarded world’s largest humanitarian prize

Bangladeshi group BRAC awarded world’s largest humanitarian prize

October 17, 2008 – 8:17

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GENEVA – The world’s largest humanitarian prize has been given to the Bangladeshi non-profit organization BRAC for helping more than 110 million poor people with microcredit and basic services.

The US$1.5-million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize goes each year to an organization chosen for making extraordinary contributions to alleviating human suffering.

BRAC founder Fazle Hasan Abed said Friday the award money will be used for anti-poverty programs in southern Sudan.

The organization was created in Bangladesh in 1972 and has since expanded its programs to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan.

It supports, in particular, poor women with microcredit, health services, education and other programs.

The evil that are taxes… Or are they?

Before you call 1-800-KILL-HER, do give me a chance to explain myself. If I don’t end up surprising you, then I’ll dial the number myself.

I’m not saying that taxes are easy to pay; I’ll be the first to admit that seeing, right beside the money that should be going into my bank account, the amount that goes into the government’s account, is a little hard (especially with the MasterCard bill waiting to be paid off). Neither am I saying that the current system, in which an important portion of the taxes that we pay is wasted in needless bureaucratic waltzes or is used to pay for ridiculously expensive “work” suppers, is a good one.

However there are good uses of our taxes, and I’m not only talking about helping the poor through a strong social support system, healing the sick in a publicly funded health system or educating our children in public schools. For example, did you know that the French government’s Air Tax will help purchase drugs to treat HIV as well as fund health and development programs around the world? This includes funding the development of drugs to treat diseases that children living in developing countries suffer from, the same diseases that research and development in big pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Merck won’t touch because the potential revenues are considered too low.

I highly doubt people like you and I would resent paying taxes if we knew that every penny was going towards such worthy causes. So maybe the debate shouldn’t be if we should pay taxes, but rather how much can we willingly contribute and how can we ensure that funds are used correctly?

Election day in Canada!

Don’t forget to vote!

Twenty-four worldwide air traffic

Pretty amazing!

The mystery of Google Trends

Sometimes, when I ponder on the not so many ways I have to increase this blog’s readership, I am very tempted to blog about things that are popular rather than things that I like to blog about. For example, Google Trends has been telling me that, during the last 20 days, over half of the top 20 searches on Google have been about celebrities.

And I have to admit that I was more than tempted – I actually tried it. On that fateful morning, I opened up Google Trends and saw that Miley Cyrus was one of the top 10 searches that day. I opened up YouTube and looked up her songs. Then I went on her official site. Then I checked some personal blogs. Then I opened a Word document and, on top, wrote: Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana: an odd case of acceptable multiple personality disorder.

And then… Blank. I had no idea what to write. I deleted the title, wrote another one, didn’t like it, deleted it, and just left Miley Cyrus on top. I searched for a couple of images and inserted them in my still blank post. Then I went back to Google Trends, hoping that somehow, someone else that inspired me a little more was on the top 20 searches.

Surprise, surprise – the entire top 20 searches had changed. This time, Paris Hilton took some of the highest honours. I sighed, changed the title of my document to Paris Hilton, deleted the pictures, then proceeded to do the exact same thing – i.e., nothing – before doing another Google Trends search and realising, yet again, that the entire top 20 searched had changed.

There is a reason why I eat so much chocolate.

Talk about stressful. What’s a girl looking for some hits on her blog to do? It didn’t seem that smart anymore to base my posts on something as fickle as the top 20 searches on Google, especially when people seem to be searching for things that, well, don’t make sense – like on October 5^th, when the 5^th top search on Google was for – hang on to your hats – ‘nucular’. I know that is has to do with the way George W Bush and Sarah Palin pronounce it but seriously… FIFTH biggest Google search? You have to admit, that’s kind of sad. (Although it did direct me to what I thought was a cute post).