Batman Rises

I'm sure most of you have heard of the shooting at the Batman Rises premier in Colorado by now. And I'm sure that some of you know who the shooter was. But, for those of you who don't know who he is, his name is James Holmes. He is believed to have a genius IQ. People who knew him described him as a loner and intelligent. Now, if someone described his personality to you and you had no idea that he shot up a movie theater, you'd assume that he's a very well rounded man, right? Well, regardless of what you think, that's exactly what I thought.
Which made it all the more unbelievable that a person like him would do such a thing. For the past week, I've been trying to figure out his motives. It's not like he did this spontaneously. It seems like he's been planning something crazy like this, considering he booby trapped his apartment. I'm just dying to know what drove him over edge. What was the thought process or the series of events that led him to do something like this.
I'm not only purposely trying to psychoanalyze James, but I'm looking for reassurance. Reassurance that normal people don't just snap and commit crimes of this magnitude. I'm just afraid that any one of us normal people walking down the streets, or grocery shopping, or bringing in the mail, or doing any other mundane thing won't just let insanity take over so easily. I'm afraid that some of us might be clinging to the edge of reason.

What Makes People Ungrateful

This is going to be my first actually philosophical post (I am good at these, okay, don't worry) and I've been meaning to get this across for a while now.

When I lived in New York City, I always thought of the stars and planets and everything beyond the elevation at which planes reach, as fairy tales. But the kind of fairy tale that only exists in science books. Anyway, my point is that New York is the city that never sleeps, and that phrase is not the least bit exaggerated. I'm serious when I say that everything is open 24 hours a day. Nothing closes, nothing stops, traffic is always moving, people are always awake. Therefore, lights never turn off in the city. The sky is so bright at night that the moon is barely a speck and the moonlight is just something in romantic stories or on the north pole. I never saw more than three stars in my entire childhood living in Brooklyn.

When I moved to Jordan, everything changed, even the sky. I would look up at the sky during the daytime and I could never so much as find a water droplet, let alone a cloud. At night, the stars are so bright and beautiful and abundant that they look like freckles on someone's face. But more majestic. They seem like impossible miracles. Something sacred and untouchable, forever perfect and untainted by humans.

When I first moved here, people used to ask me to explain the differences between America and Jordan, and I used to respond with, "Everything."

"Everything? That can't be possible. Something's gotta be the same."

"Nope. Even the sky looks different to me."

Sure, I felt like I was on a different planet completely but lately I've been looking up at the stars and finding the constellations with ease. I did research and now I'm able to tell the difference between a star and Jupiter. Or Jupiter and one of it's many moons. I'm finding out that each star has a name and a place in the whole making of everything. That outer space is not just fairy tale stuff. It's real and it's there, even if you can't see it, it will always be there.

It just amazes me to think that the earth is forever rotating and the planets are forever orbiting the sun and if you look up at the night sky tonight, the stars will almost never be in that exact same position with the planets ever again. I like to think that it's an ever changing story. That the next time the planets align this exact way again is in millions of years. I like to think that I'm very very small and irrelevant in the great scheme of things. It's a comforting idea; the idea that none of my problems mean anything when you look at the big picture. I am simply a fraction of a fraction of the people on this earth. The earth itself is a fraction of a fraction of endless expanding space. It's a thought that comforts me and helps me relax, forget my problems and not worry about things. I feel carefree when I look up at the stars and find where they fit in and read the stories that the constellations tell. Age old stories that can't be contaminated by humans (for now at least).

Homecoming

Hello readers,

(all none of you)

I am finally back home after a month long vacation at my cousin's house and the blogging shall commence (seriously this time)

That's all for now, just felt like posting. I'll have more to say later, I'm sure.

Always, Natali

And following the termination of my first blog, started over a year ago during my old NYC life, I opened this new blog, making way for a more unbiased blogging experience. Now, let's get started.
Personally, I'm not very fond of introductions, nor am I at all good at it, but I suppose I should start anyway.
My name is Natali, that's right, it's spelled without an 'e' at the end. I'm not exactly sure why, but my parents tell me that it's so I'd stay unique. Not really achieving anything unique with my life, but hey.
My mother came from a town in the middle east that's so small, you can't find it on any map. She grew up a dedicated fashionista and Christian, studying nursing and working in an insane asylum. Her life was spent travelling and having tons of fun until her mid thirties when she got married to my father and the both moved to the big apple.
My father on the other hand came from Russian blood and a long line of architects. He grew up in a mildly Christian household, but later deciding to abandon his religion. He grew up spending half of his childhood in Jordan and the other half in Russia, later going to college in Yugoslavia, studying math, science, and architecture. He's visited nearly half of the countries in this world and speaks six or seven languages fluently. He married a Jordanian, had two kids with her, moved to Detroit with his family, then divorced and came back to Jordan where he met my mum and they got married, had me, moved immediately to New York City, had my younger brother, and we've lived there for fourteen years.
In the summer of 2011, my father decided he wanted to take his work to Jordan to design and build houses. At least four or five. Therefore, my family made the big move to Jordan, an underprivileged country in the middle east.
Now this is the part where I give you a brief explanation of the place I now live.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a very small, neutral country in the heart of the middle east, placed right in the middle of huge war zones including, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt (not to mention oil king, Saudi Arabia). The neutrality of this country makes it a very war free place. Jordan is one of the only middle eastern countries that hasn't found any oil inside its borders. This tiny desert country is ruled by King Abdulla and his Palestinian wife, Queen Rania. Jordan is also home to one of the seven wonders of the world: the Hidden City of Petra. Not only do we contain Petra, but also Jerash, the Dead Sea, Aqaba, Mt. Nebo, and many, many ancient Arabian artifacts. Jordan is nicknamed, "The Promise Land" for its biblical notoriety.
I will admit that Jordan is an incredibly interesting place to live, but under my circumstances, I haven't been liking it too much (understatement alert). But that's a story for another day.
For those of you who have read this entire (incredibly boring) post, I thank you deeply for taking the time to learn about lil' ol' me and hope you enjoyed it at least a little bit (or enough to come back and read more).
For those of you who read maybe half of this post (give or take), it's okay, I understand. I probably wouldn't listen to my ramblings either.
For all of you: rock on and stay classy.