Author: W

Wissam, Wesley, or simply W, is an educator, writer, entrepreneur, engineer, activist, ex-Imam, humanist, liberal thinker with interest and mediocre attempt at many takes of life. A modern confused Renaissance man, who uses doubt as a path for emancipation and science as a road towards enlightenment.

January 2017 Analysis of Personal Productivity

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January is an important month, and this analysis is very important because it will adjust the plan to what is most probably will have minor changes for the rest of the year.

I tried my new planĀ Ā beginning of 2017 which divided my goals and life into 26 paths.

In the month of January, excluding the last day (which is today), we had 30 days. Ā The 26 paths are divided into 30 steps. That is a total of 780 steps.

Out of the 780 steps, there were 221 cancelled steps. Ā After couple weeks of implementing the plan, I discovered that it will take about 12 hours a day (in addition to work, cook, eat, basic hygiene, spending time with family, open mail, and sleep) to accomplish all these 26 paths simultaneously. Ā So what I did was, I twined some of the paths as to make them alternating. If I accomplish a step in one, I delay the step in the other. Ā So two paths of 30 days each, will be one path of 60 days, taking two months to finish these 60 steps instead of 30.

In doing so, 221 steps were cancelled starting about 9th of January, and it reduced the pressure of the schedule.

The schedule made me super productive, entertained, feeling accomplished, and truly structured my productivity in a meaningful way.

Out of the 559 steps left, 308 were accomplished successfully on time (55%), 52 accomplished successfully but late (9%), and 199 failed or were never accomplished (36%).

Accomplishments of January:

  1. Successful and comfortable Diet plan losing 5 pounds and feeling healthier. (This was under the failed paths since the actual goal was about 10 pounds, but accomplishing 50% of the goal is better than nothing!)
  2. Finished a course on Coursera
  3. Studied one full piece of piano, and half of another.
  4. Established the Advisory Board in one of the Non-profit organizations and recruited a number of volunteers for it. Ā Also started two regular recurring meetups for it.
  5. Established Meetups in about 40 cities for another Non-profit organization and membership skyrocketed. screen-shot-2017-02-01-at-12-27-46-am
  6. Ā Started Facebook Live Series and recorded the first two episodes live.
  7. Bloggins (obviously! 83% successful)
  8. Launching WDD with a full time Chief Designer.
  9. Successful Family Vacation in Florida
  10. Finishing 15 lessons in French (Fluent 2%)
  11. Establishment of a new business group
  12. Other accomplishments in Art, business, and family (confidential)
  13. Accomplishments at work (confidential)

 

Challenges of January:

  1. Workout (60% of planned)
  2. Writing in Arabic (0% of Goal)
  3. Reading two books (67% of Goal)
  4. Daily Meditation (43% of Goal)
  5. Connecting with Extended Family (37% of Goal)
  6. Launching new phase of theĀ W NetworkĀ (17% of Goal)
  7. Working on Autoboard (0%)
  8. Working on consolidating New Personal Site (0%)
  9. Preparation for Publication of book of Poetry (37% and I am happy with that for now)
  10. Getting GeoBuzz.coĀ to work again
  11. Catching up with target weight
  12. Create something artistic in Music or Visual Arts

 

I will be discussing in the next blog how should I tackle the challenges I faced in January in February so I may accomplish more success in them.

Also, I will be discussing some reflections from January and lessons learned, and some resolutions and goals going forward.

The point of all this as far as the reader is concerned is this:

If you don’t control your time, it pours away into the mud, and draws you with it sometimes.

Memoir Part 2: Jesus, WOW, and Ajman

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With a look of despair, Jesus looked down at me from his big wooden cross that was

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Abu Dhabi Rosary School Sisters

mounted on the wall next to the principal’s office at the Rosary School in Abu Dhabi. That was my first encounter with Christianity.  My parents, wanting to give me a better education, enlisted me for Kindergarten in 1980, into a catholic school that was known for its rigorous education.  The headmaster was a Lebanese nun, so my parents–being Lebanese themselves–got along really well with her.  I donā€™t recall anything afterwards except bleeding from my ear.

Oh, you want to know about that?! Ok, so at this point, this will turn PG-13, so if you have any children around, stop reading aloud (it would actually be weird if you are doing so!). Here is the story: I did something wrong.  I wrote the letter WOW in Arabic from bottom up (Yes! We do have a letter WOW in Arabic, and we also have a letter YAA!!!!, but you will never learn these cool letters because they come after the letters KKHAAA and TDHAAAD and GHghayn so you will probably give up early on in the Arabic alphabet before you get to them).  Apparently, there was an international agreement that I missed  that resolved to

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Rosary School in the 80’s

write  the WOW from top to bottom. I was called to the blackboard. I think that was the first public performance in my life.  After I finished writing the WOW, the teacher stared at me in anger! She fumed! I couldnā€™t understand why.  It is the first letter of my name, so I was sure I wrote the right letter.  –  She came up to me and snatched my ear with her fingers, pulled, twisted, and squeezed with the all the might that the Lord Jesus Christ has bestowed upon her.  Her fingernail went into my flesh and I bled.  Well, now I write my WOW from top to bottom, so well done Sister!  My father actually came to school and all I remember is his stance at the door with his black suit and his manly full moustache next to the headmaster, while the teacher apologized to me in front of the class.  I donā€™t know which experience was more traumatizing to me: the public ear-pinching or the public apology of my teacher who will continue to teach me for the rest of the year in humiliation!

As a branch manager of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, a newly expanding government bank in a newly formed country (1973 was the formation of the United Arab Emirates), my father had to move a lot, accepting promotions and managing new branches.

In 1981, we moved.

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Sand and beach … that is what fills my early childhood memories in a place called Ajman.  Amidst  that canvas of sand and salty beach under the scorching sun, I can barely recall other memories. They are all happy images of playing on the beach between the sand and the sun. I went to the Ajman Model Elementary School in first grade.  I recall nothing from the school, except my box of pencils and instruments that had the Arab World map on it.

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You see, we were raised with the notion that all  of the Arab World was one world which we were the citizens of. We have been submerged into concepts of Pan-Arabism and Islamic identity from childhood, and this was the way in which we perceived the world.  This ideal happy vision of one Arab world, with no borders,  intertwined itself like a vines over our innocence.  Both chattered together once we were at an age that required a passport.

Wait, I have a memory that I think I should not skip: of when I broke the idols and shouted ā€œAllahu Akbarā€.  Here is the story.

Thought of Today: January 25, 2017 at 10:51AM

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How to speak to People who don’t respond well to facts:

1. Keep emotions out
2. Discuss, don’t attack
3. Listen and articulate carefully and slowly
4. Show respect
5. Acknowledge
6. Show then how accepting the fact doesn’t change their believes or world view necessarily.

Source:
Brendan Nyhan, Dartmouth College
Jason Reifler, University of Exeter

Thought of Today: January 24, 2017 at 10:24AM

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The word of 2017:

GASLIGHTING

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation through persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying in an attempt to destabilize and delegitimize a target. Its intent is to sow seeds of doubt in the targets, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Instances may range from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred up to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim. The term owes its origin to Gas Light, a 1938 play and 1944 film, and has been used in clinical and research literature. (Wikipedia)

#gaslighting

Film Review: Fire at Sea

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Each shot can stand alone as a work of photographic art. It is a documentary film from a third person omnicious point of view. 

The sea here plays a big part of the theme. It is the canvas. It is the life and death. It is the silence. It is the observer and the actor. 

There is no more real encounter of the Mediterranean  refugee crisis of our time better and more vivid than this film. 

True work of Art depicting the true scary face of our vulnerabilities and decaying innocence of our humanity. 

Cicely … the calming sea … the apathetic waves … the simplicity of the island inhabitants, the innocence of childhood … the serenity of boredom … the beauty of Italian traditional music … the peace of family … contrasted with what these waves brings of human suffering ashore. 

Must see. Must present. Must act to end suffering of our species. 

Memoir part 1: Electra, Blondes, and Snapchat

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Electra …. My parents were living on a street called Electra when I was born in Abu Dhabi in the winter of 1976. Well, there is no such thing as winter if you are living the United Arab Emirates, but for the UAE residents, if  you are not getting a heat stroke, then it is probably Winter. The street name is probably the only memory I have kept from my parents talking about my birth.  It was, and still an interesting name to me.  Sounds electronic, psychedelic, minimalist, and perhaps little erotic. A kind of prolific name for my future. Electra is definitely not Arabic … and if it was a girl, it would be probably a blonde thin girl that looks like emmm… perhaps Uma Thurman.  

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There is a completely different stereotype of a blonde in the Middle East and a blonde in the U.S.  While, and I completely disagree with it, nevertheless I see the humor in it; The blonde in the US is a reference for that over privileged, unintelligent, blatantly stupid, overly confident, white girl.  In the Middle East, it is a reference for the Western beautiful classy sexy and clean, yes clean, woman.  There is an irrational obsession with love of blondes among my people in the Middle East. Although the contrast is high when you place a blonde, lets say next to Abdulrazak, a Bedouin friend of mine … but you rarely see it happen.  It remains a fantasy for the vast majority of the dreaming teenagers of Arabia.  People are always fascinated with the less familiar.

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I donā€™t remember much of my first 5 years old naturally … and recording a video at that time was something that only the TV station had a capability of doing.  If you could afford the heavy machine that is the video recorder at that time, you would have to pay a lot for it, carry it on your shoulder like a bazooka, and it will break soon… believe me … it will break.  I say that to the privileged Snapchat generation today who have no value given to the recorded media (hence it disappears in 24 hours forever).  The memory of their lives is what they preserve in form of videos and photos, and their brain memory will not keep up with time, and there is a value in oneā€™s history and background.  Many of what we experience during our lives have its roots in our history and childhood, and sometimes it takes reflecting back all the way to understand ourselves today.  Well … just when taking videos and photos became readily available, kids now are choosing to take photos only that disappear.  Hence, if you ask a teenager today about any of his or her childhood pictures … they probably have none  … unless their parents have Facebook!  I will probably come back to hate more on Snapchat later on.  For now, letā€™s jump to the 80ā€™s.