“Today is the second anniversary of tags”– this is what the Technorati newsletter announced today. The newsletter also said:

The beauty of tags is that they’re metadata: data about data. What does that mean? Tags actually describe (or categorize) their subject, as opposed to, say, keywords, which just occur within them.

We think tags are becoming popular because on the Live Web, categories and topics are just as, if not more useful than keywords for describing and finding content, especially when that content doesn’t contain lots of text (photos, videos, songs and the like).

The folks at Technorati are celebrating the day and the achievement. It’s only natural to express joy at such grand success — after all, tagging goes beyond blogs. It’s Web 2.0 meets usability meets The Users.

Good morning Amman!
As I write these words, I am biting on a rather “resistant”,
triangular piece of bread that I take the liberty of calling breakfast. My
sandwich has light hints of labaneh inside, but I can’t seem to feel the
labaneh on my taste buds.

Stranded in a new office, I am munching my breakfast and noting how very
similar this situation is to when I was a little girl. Being as picky as I am,
I refrained (and still refrain) from eating many types of food.

That preference prevented me from being too colorful with meals that I prepared
for myself or that my mother prepared for me, and that fact left my mother at
the edge of her wits, trying to fathom what is it that I eat and what is it I
do not eat.

Given the particular state of my aliment options, I grew accustomed to some
bare and some overly lavish cuisines. This morning, it is the former type that
I nosh my stomach with — but I’m not complaining.

“Sustenance is essentially a need, not a substance of display;”
I like to think when I feast on humble rations. What’s most delightful about
this conclusion is that I myself sometimes get fooled by it.

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You all know I live in Jordan. Well, last week it snowed a lot in the Southern parts of the country. What was very interesting about the snow storm was that nobody was prepared for it - not the government, not the people, and not even cars. Many people were literally trapped in the snow in the South, and it was comic how the almighty tax-fat government with all its faculties could not save them.

This entry is not about the government, as entertaining as that subject is, but it is about the Jordanian Meteorological Department. The department failed miserably last week when it did not produce accurate weather forecasts, and did not inform the people of what is coming.

That was only the beginning, however. The meteorological department denied that there will be snow on Sunday earlier this week. People checked online weather websites and learned about the anticipated change of weather. But when confronted about this during an interview, the president of the department strongly dismissed any “rumours” of a change in weather and he vehemently attacked the presenter when the latter told him that news about an upcoming change are all online, contrary to his predictions.

The really amusing part was yet to come. On Sunday, the South of Jordan saw more snow and Mr.Weatherman’s predictions were proven wrong. Not only that, his attitude in that interview was replayed during the 8 PM news. I thought Jordan TV did a brilliant job when they replayed the piece and contrasted it with, well, reality.

Mr.Weatherman was evidently scandalized by this and he must have taken it quite personally, because the next day JTV said that they cannot air a weather forecast because the Jordanian Meteorological Department did not supply them with any. How very game-like, won’t you say? Walaw ya3ni!

JTV people now rely on the internet to get their weather forecast for the 8 PM news, and a whole country does not use the facilities at the Jordanian Meteorological Department anymore because that person has a chip on his shoulder. I wonder how can a public servant rebel in such a silly way and deprive a nation of news that is paid for. Why doesn’t someone do something about this?

Since it is all a power game, I suggest we settle this dispute the good old Jordanian way - over a finjan* of Arabic coffee. I should change the title of this entry to The Dilemma of Weather and Wasta** in a Small Country Called Jordan.

*Finjan: small traditional cup of coffee
**Wasta: a local phenomena that involves the use of connections, through family or acquaintances, to benefit unlawfully

Let us rejoice, fellow citizens, for a new year is upon us. Today marks the start, only the beginning, of another year that will make each one of us that much older. Such impending doom!

What cause is there to celebrate?
What purpose for the smile?
A plot is in the works
To ensnare you and I

But certainly, I should shed my dismal melancholy and chant - cheer even, dance, sing, perhaps smoke to exhibit my joy. Yes, maybe that is precisely what I ought to do. I ought to join the mob in their common festivities, don’t you see? Become a sheep willingly blindfolded yet directed to the slaughter house unknowingly? Yes?

I think not.

I fail to impress when I contest a nemesis as potent as mine. It is most unfortunate that I will be in no such gay mood as long as time cheats.