attabara i was actually talking about community pharmacy...but i can see how frustrating it would be for an arab man vs another arab man...you just can't fight fire with fire hahahahah...i still think that people can change but ONLY if they want to...

Ali, la la, you really do deserve a sculpture!!! shu, you want it of you picking up the garbage ir cooking in the kitchen (with a napron on!!!), or better yet, making the bed!!! lol! but i guess you deserve the credit for appreciating! :)

i think we've just witnessed a guy bonding moment heeheee

haha ali that's too funny......surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre we'll make you a sculpture just for admiring your mother? i wonder what we do for you if you decided to help her??

attabara, i do think there are somethings about us that are very changeable....hana i do believe in the nurturing theory......i just think people aren't patient enough to see the change through......i don't know if this counts as an example or not, but when i worked in community whenever an angry person came they would send me to talk to them even though i was always the new one who knew nothing....i wouldn't say anything different than anyone else but i would be patient with them and this chronically angry loud person would go away calm and accepting of what we said to them...and then they would come back nice (well to me) the next time....i think people need to see the rational behind changing and the reward in order to take on the change otherwise they never will...there has to be something in it for them i think...

OK, this is to announce that the 1 month old garbage has been officially taken out of my condo. Hey, I am a guy living alone, give me a break! Many of you people are still living at home with your parents (lucky you! take advantage of that). Besides, I have no time for garbage business. I can't agree more with you Atabbara about the past. See! In the past, they used to have time to take out the garbage, nowadays we don't. We need robots that do these things for us... Like ironing... Who invented wrinkled cloth!? I don't understand why in 2005 we still need to iron, wash the dishes, do the laundry, vacum clean... This is outrageous! I must say, my personality didn't change much since I left my parents house... I still don't do my bed (why do your bed if you'll sleep in it in 12 hours? why?) and am still a last minute person. My modo is: "Maniana senior, maniana". What changed is that I now admire my mom for keeping up with the house, my dad, the kids, the work, the cooking, the laundry, the ironing, vacuum, shopping, kid's homework, etc. Without taking vacation! How did they do it? (Ok ladies, you may erect a sculpture of mine on the channel, but make me pretty and muscular please)

sura, scientifically there is abig debate about which has a stronger effect on children: nurture or nature? many say that it's a 50/50 balance. i don't know if you guys have heard of the famous study of identical twins, who were separated at birth, and they were brought up in twi different settings. although they looked the same after many many years, their personalities were differemt, amongst lots of other things, one of which was their IQ levels.

I do believe tha personalities do change, but very little by little, and it has to be a drastic emotional experience the person has in order to affect his/her personality. i don't know, it's just what i think!!!

you know, i'm doing my thesis now on teachers' beliefs about a certain issue at school, and one of the aspects i came across when reading in the literature about beliefs is whether we can change beliefs or not. what do you guys think of that?

and, Ali, 1 month old garbage! ewwwwwwwww! honestly, now, how could you!!!!!! it's good your neighbors didn't do something about it before you did!!!! :(

i don't know you guys, i think people do change...its true that you learn lessons from your life, but does that not change your personality? doesn't that shape who you are as a person? if an experience changes the way you conduct yourself, hasn't it changed your personality? i don't believe that you are born with all of your personality (you are affected by what happens to you in your mother's womb)....i think we change constantly....

my original question referred to human beings as a collective...i believe that technology although is serving us very well has made us diffferent....we don't think as deeply about life. in fact, people who do are a rare breed these days...almost strange i am told...we're a lot more in tune with making sure our computers work...we're in tune with our technological spirit and making sure that doesn't die (ie breakdown and we want the latest software because that makes us progress in the world)....maybe because as a collective we have already contemplated our origins, taken up different faiths and now we're need something else to think about??? are you not advanced enough of an individual if you contemplate the origins or is it still a valid philosophy?

I think our human nature makes us believe we have advanced, but really with all the technology we have today, humans are worse off than they were before the stone age. Sure, the unimportant things like life-expectancy has improved, but that just means that we take life for granted and can screw up more often b/c inherently we know that we will live long enough to fix it.

Ali, all I can say is: Eeeeewwww! 1 month old garbage!

Ola! No I am not in Lebanon yet... I will leave this friday, and I have soooo much to do (pay ze bills, water ze plants, do the laundry, iron ze cloth, shop for gifts, work work work, throw the stincky 1 month old garbage, throw the spoiled milk and rotten 2mo old spaghetti from the fridge... All this and I have to keep up with "pumping iron" and emails) Well, to answer your question, I agree with you Atabbara about personnalities don't change. The goofy is always goofy, and the serious is always serious. However, I think that although our basic personnality does not change, life teaches us hard lessons that make us see the world and people around us differently. For example, people who experience a serious car accident frequently have auras about it while driving and are way more cautious then an 18 yo guy like me driving a civic.

well, sura, it has been quite some time since people around here have been active...

anyhow, with regard to what you're talking about, i think that we changed the times. we essentially think the same way, and solve problems in almost the same ways, but the context is what changed. take politics as an example, you can feel that history repeats itself in many of the things that are going on around us.