.a yummy photo post

I feel that with most places (with few exceptions coming to mind) it's always not easily possible for a certain restaurant/cafe/joint to offer excellent choices from all categories, which is why i like experimenting with different places in order to narrow down my choices and make it easier for me and my company to enjoy a nice treat and satisfactory service.

In Irbid specifically, you need thorough excavation work to find a decent place that covers your needs at at least one category and from few aspects, if it's not the quality of the orders that is terrible, it's the service, if not that, the atmosphere is dreadfully uncomfortable,, and so on.

One of the very few places that stand out (in my opinion) is a small Café with a very cute and creative name, called Wake Cup, the place serves breakfast dishes, hot and cold drinks, and also desserts.

The first thing that caught my eye was the interior of the place, it's very relate-able to an old pub, with hard wood furniture and floors that gave a cozy yet pleasant feeling.

Another pro to the place is the fact that it is not so popular thus not over crowded 24/7, once any space is overcrowded in Irbid, the owners might as well say their prayers.

Other than that, everything is supper scrumptious and the service is great and the staff is friendly, that gives it a gold star in my book :). 

.home delicious home

My mother is guilty as charged for being the reason behind my VERY annoying standards regarding eating Pizza (in particular) outside.

It's the constant thought that circles my mind whenever i enter a Pizzaria or a Pizza serving resturant that aside fro the fact that my mother's is more delicious, I was there when it was made and ii know exactly how it was prepared and baked and who is held accountable for the procecesses and outcome, ok my mother is also responsible for developing this paranoia, somewhat..

But i am not exaggerating or being delusional or even emotional, my mom makes the best Pizza in the world!

There are always exceptions to every rule, there is only one Pizzaria in Irbid that I wouldn't mind eating at on daily basis, mainly because the owner who id also the chef, actually got the recipes and preperation methods from legit Italian Pizzarias, and they prepare the Pizza right in front of you.

But other than that, Papa Jones, Pizza Hut, Dominos, thanks for the stomache aches. :/

.bigotry level: Arab

Not just recently, but for a very long time now, I have noticed that we (as Arabs) were designed to believe that we are the most discriminated against group of people on the globe, we were fed this fact so exaggeratively that when signs of it do surface we become absolutely irrational.

I am not at all denying that it is true, the ignorance of some and the media's exploitation of that ignorance by throwing stereotypes in the air to sprinkle the icings on their minds are backing up that fact like no other. I don't want to run the guilt machine or fish in turbid waters, but call it Karma.

When you start making jokes about how the Jordanian soccer team lost to Japan's because they couldn't tell who's who of offense and defense, when you treat foreign labor workers as if they are lower species designed especially for your service, when you consider people who have a skin tone darker than yours Abeed (slaves), when you hate someone from your own country because you idiot come from another area, then yes, do call it Karma.

Discrimination against any ethnicity/religion is always wrong and unjustified in anyway, but it's like punching people around all day then turning to the legal system because someone poked me. Respect people and treat them fairly in order for that to happen to you.

#JustAsimpleRant

.the vintage effect

As requested by Sarah

There are various ways for you to achieve this effect using photoshop, or any other software for that matter, I'm just going to attempt to explain this in the simplest way possible, and by explaining certain steps that will help you later on in editing even if you don't want the vintage effect.

It's basically a washed surface of the picture, distorted edges, yet the colors are still vibrant and saturated


the easiest thing for me to do , is to give you this image, and ask you to fit it on a picture

because it will achieve almost everything, except one thing, you practically haven't learned anything.

so let's move on to the real deal :D

I will use this picture because it's a daffodil, and they are awesome

The first thing you're going to do is add the desired texture, I chose a very light old paper texture, try to choose one that is not too grungy, that is not a work of art itself, something stable and works like a fine base for the beigey overall tone you're looking to achieve, but has a little bit of grunge to add texture to the photograph and complete the old photo effect.

this is the one i have used

 as you can see it's very simple, more like a color filter

Now, the complicated process that is adding to the photo :@ lol

Adding the texture

I am not going to add a screenshot for this because i have too much respect for you, so all you have to do is download the image, open it in photoshop , Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C

Go on to the main image you're editing, and paste

and since you had a problem with this step, if the texture doesn't already fit your picture completely ( which is the usual case ) fit it onto the photo using the transformation points, they should appear as soon as you click the texture .

Now after they're layered evenly , choose the texture layer ( make sure it's the one selected ) and change it's blending mode to Soft light, here's how you do that

Drop the circled menu and choose Soft Light

Here's the result in this case ..

You can see that the picture has a slightly beige undertone now, and it looks more washed out but it will be fixed later, also, you can notice the caused by the texture

Solid Color Layers

These layers are going to affect the shadows and undertones in the photo as well, since the above is washed out and the colors are pretty dull, these are meant to add more color, yet not enough vibrancy, this will be controlled later

now go back to the layers box, you will see a small icon in the shape of a circle half black and half white
clicking it, a menu will appear, choose Solid Color

After choosing the color, you're going to work with the blending modes again

so just a simple explanation of the colors you'll be using and what blending modes to set them to

Choose a Violet color, like this one but darker , and set the layer's blending mode to Exclusion  
and change the opacity to 70%
Choose a golden orange color, like this one but deeper, and set the blending mode to Multiply 
and it's opacity to 20%


These two colors will balance each other out while giving more color to the picture, and softening it's shadows

this is what it looks like so far

the colors have changed but it's still washed out, now time to add the contrast


The Black and white layer

I love using this to add contrast because i think it it automatically highlights and emphasizes the shadows of the picture without adding a contrast that is too harsh to all the points. It's extremely simple

Go back to the Adjustment Layers button, and choose Black & White

after the layer is added, set it's blending mode to Soft light


Now to the final step, or two steps actually

right click any layer in the layers list, and choose the option : Merge Visible , it will merge all the layers into one, you will be doing this so the next effect will take place on the finished photo and look stronger

Vignette

Go the Filters menu, and choose Lens correction, If you happen to have an older version of PS, this would probably be under the filter Render>Lens correction
I am currently using PS CS5, If you are, then great !

once you choose it , this box will appear , in older PS version the custom window is selected by default, in CS5 however, it is not

As for the amounts set in the screenshot, they are not necessarily obligatory , to be fair i just keep decreasing the first and increasing the second till i get the satisfying result !

aaand you're done !

voila :)

الحاله تعبانه.

مش عم بلاقي باب مفتوح..

كله مسكر ، او عم يوهمني انه مفتوح ،و يضحك عليّ و الاقيه مسكر، و تخرب الحالة بزيادة

الحالة النفسية بالحضيض

العاطفية متضامنة مع اللي فوق

الماديّة شكلها هيّ اللّي لمّتهم عليّ

الصحية بتقدم طلب انضمام 

بس ياللّه زبطّنا اللغة و بلشنا نكتب عربي

عربي  نص كم، و لا العدم

فَرَجك يا عالي .....

:(

في إحدى الحضانات.

"المدرّس الشرس" الذي ضرب 25 طفلاً في حضانة مصرية

I couldn't bear to see the video screenshot again, that's why I only posted a link

I wonder why there's still no law to have teachers go under a psychological health examination before taking off teaching kids, especially when the ages they're supposed to be "teaching" and "taking care of" are this young and sensitive.

But apparently, anyone who agreed to hire this psychopath, needs to be examined as well, so that shows how deteriorated the situation is.

What makes me wonder even more, are the people who actually film this kind of crap, and so proudly post it online, what the frack is so entertaining about 4-5 year old children begging for mercy that is not in anyway given to them, not from the monster who is abusing them in the name of teaching, not from the animals recording this video which can't be considered anything less than a crime, and even when they get back to their homes to find relief from all this suffering they get to go through when they shouldn't even be hearing about, they go back to parents - who according to the article- don't have any problem with what's occurring in that trash shaped kindergarten.

So , 2 more groups in need of serious help.

Reading the comments, some people justify this by saying that they've experienced the worst when they were young attending public schools and they turned out fine, especially that this could be the only way to deal with some students, so the video content isn't much.

Ok, so,, I got hit by a bus and turned out fine, I should throw my kids on the street and let them experience it to prove my point ?

This does not even qualify for a justification, this does not even qualify for an opinion.

I have attended public schools in Jordan, and I know this actually does happen, but thank God - and unlike some people- I have enough rationality and intelligence to know that if it's happening that does not make it acceptable, I know the emotional and mental scarring these experiences can cause, just ask anyone who was humiliated once or no matter how many times by a teacher in high school and listen to how bitter they sound when telling the story, imagine children who have not reached the age that allows them to tell the story properly.

So to those people, congratulations, you'll be joining the other groups in the same category, I don't think you'll mind it TBH.

This is sickening, by all means, it's awful enough to see child abuse, but to see it recorded, enjoyed, intentionally shared as entertainment material and agreed upon, is just too much to take.

I know that if I ever have children, I will seriously go "Egyptian KG teacher" on anyone who comes near them  , be it abusive language or even daring to touch them, I can't imagine how people would have the heart to let something like this happen to their own children.

As for that idiot, I'm not wasting my breath by praying for him to rot in hell, that's probably happening anyway. 

phew

.tamagotchi

I hate it when i intentionally turn down a pretty purchase, and then when it crosses my mind for whatever reason I start whining on how much of an idiot I was by not getting it, always happens. always will..

Being in large malls or stores freaks me out for a reason, I get the feeling that they're designed like that for a reason : pushing the consumer around and forcing them to buy things whether they want those products or not
* That ginormous roof is staring into my soul*

That's why I decided to have some self control when I walk into these stores especially if they're ones I actually like, but the last couple of times I did this, I thought it back and wished those forces were stronger than I was enough to let me buy those things.



they are

an awesome feather ring that looks almost exactly like the one above but in silver, that wasn't an issue for me until I started craving things that had feathers on them.

but then..

The Tamagotchi

I don't know what kind of  idiocy took over the moment i decided NOT to get one when since the moment I have heard of them I have wanted to get my hands on one, I do have several portable game devices, but this is just too awesome to miss out on.

Dear Self : let yourself go next time, I already forgive you for being the push over of corporate agendas.