Over the last few days we’ve been keeping ourselves busy socializing and meeting up with friends and family. I know I have said it more than enough times here but I’m extremely happy to be home in Jordan.
Last evening we went to see my cousin Zaidoun and his wife Mirna who just gave birth to a girl they’ve named “Joelle.” She is so precious and takes a lot after her dad. I was so touched seeing the ways Zaidoun chose to show his happiness and love for his daughter. One of those is a top-notch, extremely creative flash website he created: www.joellekaradsheh.com. Zaidoun’s talent and experience in multimedia really paid off here. The website is really something else and a great idea for new parents (Dalia, are you out there? Take a look.)
Another impressive bit of celebration was this 2-meter montage of Joelle’s pictures shown here that he shot, designed and hung on the door of mom’s hospital’s room just one hour after Joelle was born. I was told it blew everyone’s mind. I’m really so happy for them and their newborn, who is already the recipient of oodles of love!
After our brief visit, we headed to the movies. The film of choice this time was Ocean’s Twelve, which we picked primarily because of the number of big stars involved. But I was disappointed and thought the first, Ocean’s Eleven, was more engaging and had a better storyline. This one had nice camera work but just didn’t compare with the first, which I enjoyed tremendously.
It is 10:12am now and I awoke with a runny nose and scratchy throat. The sudden change of weather from Doha to Amman (and perhaps the busy schedule) was bound to hit me sooner or late. It arrived sooner that expected.
Salamtic, takes lots of Ester C and rest. And the baby is adorable 🙂
Tamer, I don’t know you, nor your wife, but I think your link is ADORABLE! very beautiful, specially the videos 🙂
I liked Zaidoun’s also.
I wish you both the best. Yitrabbou fi 3izkom. 3o2balik Natasha 🙂
Hey Cousin:
Baby Joelle is really happy to see her aunt, i’m happy also to see you around….
Thanks for promting Joelle Website…
Iyas here is my email zaidoun@mediaplus.com.jo
Thanks Again Natasha
Alf Mabrouk to you and Zaidoun !!
The competition between me and (my baby Hani) and Zaidoun (3adeelee) is violent and aggressive and by you adding this article (and the link) you are raising the competitiveness to its limit.
You can check Hani’s site at http://www.CarolTamer.com
cheers 🙂
Aha, so you are that Iyas, Zaidoun’s friend? I think we met some years ago maybe on a special occasion, Zaidoun’s tenth birthday party or something like that. Me and my sister Tania were the annoying cousins, you remeber us?
Zaidoun got married two weeks before me, which was around 14 months ago;-)
Congrats
My wife went to watch the movie but said it was too boring for her 3 year old nephew that they had to leave; but the rest of her party would agree with all your above comments. I think I may just wait until it hits the dollar theaters then.
On a different note, Zaidoun is married and just had a baby?! Would you mind, Natasha, sending him Iyas’s best regards? He was my classmate in elementary and junior-high school but since then we haven’t had much contact besides occasionally running into him at UJ.
I was telling the wife that director Soderbergh was trying hard to create a style like that of 1960s and 1970s “caper” films. His use of zooms, color and scene titling all derived from this.
Because of the success of the first one, which was a remake from the 1960s with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin (Now Clooney and Pitt), they felt they had to have a plot that twisted, turned and satisfied. They just twisted and turned too much here, trying too hard to be clever. The story just fell flat in the end because it was so contrived.
The style — the color, camera work and editing — were nice, though some times a bit derivative if you knew the films upon which they were based. But substance trumps style in the movies and in the end the overworked storyline was just a bit much.
That said, it was fun to see so much Hollywood star power packed into one film, sometimes into one room. The movie wasn’t a total loser but just not as nice as the first, as is so often the case.
Yeah, I didn’t like it much either. I was really excited about it because I loved Ocean’s 11, but the plot was so disappointing.
Most people who compared the first and the second part “Ocean’s” didn’t like the second one.. I agree that the first one’s plot is better designed .. but that doesn’t mean that the second is bad ..
We are having some nice “daytime” weather in Amman these days .. it will be a good idea to use it 🙂