My Josh Groban Addiction

These days more than ever, I'm listening to Josh Groban intensively, more than I have ever listened to any artist!

I realized I have to explain why I am becoming more and more addicted to his music everyday and it's certainly not because I'm a teenager and that I dream of him or stuff like that :D

Simply, me being Josh Groban's fan means that I totally respect this guy, and adore his music, because I feel he is changing the world with his art, because he is a unique and a REAL artist that carved the history of music; creating music that is not just different, but also classy, modern and supreme...

My first experience with Josh Groban was a few years ago when I saw him on the Oprah show singing "When you say you love me" and I was fascinated by him! So I got his album "Closer"... At that time, I used to listen to the album's songs non-stop all the time (and I still do till now, I never got bored!).

Josh's music inspires me. If I spend an hour or more listening to him, I find myself writing and writing. His voice is so magical to me, his music is heavenly and his performance is so sensational, full of feelings and indescribable!

I don't just love listening to Josh, but I also love watching him perform. He dresses so elegantly and he doesn't even move a bit with the music because his voice, facial expressions and hands show it all! He is such a unique artist; my dream is to one day attend one of his live concerts.



As a music fan in general, and as a poet in specific, Josh's music means a lot to me... It means "real art" and "inspiration". His type of music is not favored by everyone, because not everyone can truly taste it and realize it's so sweet!

Josh's music is a mix of opera, pop, slow, ..whatever genre.. I don't really care.. His genre is the JOSH genre; he has his own style and his own magic.

I love Josh Groban's music, I love the way he inspires me, I love his Italian, Spanish and even French songs.. I consider myself a true fan of his because I see his music in a way that I believe few people do...

Josh Groban is simply a phenom. I wish I can tell him this face-to-face one day, and tell him how many of my poems were inspired by his one-of-a-kind music. I wish he'd sing one of my poems one day...

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I had troubles choosing my favorite Josh's song to post here, because I truly love them all, but I'll post this ad of his latest albums, because it contains powerful bits of many of his songs that show his real style of singing, and great footage as well!



and here's this one too "You're still you".. because its lyrics mean a lot to me..

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[Poem] "Good Night"

"Good Night"
Poem #192
Written 24.6.09


I can’t go to bed without you,
I can’t sleep before I tell you,
"Good night", my sweetest love…
In my mind you’ll be thought of,
In my heart I’ll safely lock you,
In my dreams, I’ll always host you.
My soul will hold you tight,
You guard me day and night;
You’re my angel, you protect me,
You understand the inner me,
You bless every moment with joy,
Stretching a future for me to enjoy,
Enlightening me with much hope,
Never allowing me to sadly mope,
Lifting me up to soar in the skies,
Wiping every tear from my eyes,
Cherishing me so preciously,
Defending me courageously…
You’re more than my dream man,
You’re where my life began,
You’re my miracle, my charm,
Always keeping me from harm.
Without you I will never be whole,
Without you I don’t even exist at all…

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Beta Poem Copy--Still Under Revision
© Evronia Azer, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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[Poem] I Don't Want to Write

I Don’t Want to Write
Poem # 191
Written 23.6.09


Being a writer has many advantages, one of which is to "never underestimate the power of pain, coz it produces great words"…
And that’s one of the reasons I appreciate pain, and that’s one of the reasons I wrote this poem… and the title of this poem is not really true, I still want to write :) Still, pain is hard..


I hate it when I’m feeling severe pain,
Even though I know that I’ll gain,
Even though I know it’ll make me write,
Even though it gives me power to fight.
But I’m tired of pain; I don’t want its gain…
If I have to suffer, rebel and hate,
If pain makes my writings so great,
I don’t want to write, I don’t want the tears,
I want to be free from all those fears…
I want to find my peace and serenity,
I am tired of searching for my identity,
I want to be who I really want to be,
From all these chains, I want to be free,
I want to taste the sweetness of love,
I want to be appreciated and thought of…
I hate being the victim of merely ‘fate’,
But all I can do now is to hopefully wait,
Maybe things will be better, one day,
Hopefully light will shine my dark way…

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Beta Poem Copy--Still Under Revision
© Evronia Azer, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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[Poem] Without You

Without You
Poem #190
Written 23.6.09


Without you, life is a deep dark sea,
In which I am blinded and can’t see,
In which I am stabbed with a knife,
I don’t even consider this a life…

I don’t want to live without you,
Life is full of lies, it’s so untrue,
It’s cruel and you’re the only one,
Who makes all this pain gone…

You can understand what I need,
You help me overcome and succeed,
I am a better person, because of you;
I can find my own way through…

I want to be with you forever,
And not to care about whatever;
Lying in your arms will give me peace,
It’s only where my suffering will cease…

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Beta Poem Copy--Still Under Revision
© Evronia Azer, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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[Poem] When the World Makes Me Blue

When the World Makes Me Blue
Poem #189
Written 19.6.09




When the world makes me blue,
I only want to run to you…
When everyone hurts me badly,
And my world looks at my madly,
I know you’ll know how I feel,
And give me love so that I heal…
I know you’ll totally surround me,
With tenderness, all around me;
You’ll tightly hold me until I’m fine,
You’ll listen and bear all my whine,
Assuring me that it’ll be okay,
That happiness will come my way.

You’re my sanity, shelter and cure,
The one who makes me feel secure,
The one who can alter anything;
Make a cold winter feel like spring,
Turn the cruelest stab into joy,
With the sweetness of a young boy,
Who looks happily at the sky,
Knowing that one day he’ll fly,
Carrying me on his love wings,
It’s when I’ll forget all the bad things…


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Beta Poem Copy--Still Under Revision
© Evronia Azer, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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Winning a Prize in Google's Knol Oktob Competition

As you may know from my previous posts, I have taken part at the Google's Knol Oktob Competition that was held at Alexandria University..

I've written this post about my participating essay in the competition
http://evronia.blogspot.com/2009/05/googles-oktob-competition.html

The essay also has received a quality badge from Google
http://evronia.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-received-quality-badge-for-my-essay.html

And today, I received a prize at the awards ceremony that was held at the Great Hall of Bibliotheca Alexandrina...



I'm so glad for that prize :) .. I came among the top 100 best essays from a total of 1649 essays that took part in the competition from Alexandria University students.. !

I liked the event, although it started 45 minutes late, but I managed to take nice pics!

I love this pic with Mr Wael Fakharany, Director of Google Egypt and the Middle East, who's such a very modest, interesting and amazing person who I was so honoured to meet!



Thanks to all those who took time to vote, read or comment on my essay.. :)

Also, congratulations to the Faculty of Engineering Team that publicized the competition for being the top winning team among all the faculties of Alexandria.. They were really great!!

Thanks Google!

My winning essay:
http://knol.google.com/k/evronia-azer/-/a4wyc84intrc/5#

The list of all winners:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rrm9Ion29QlF72DAnjD_KLw&single=true&gid=2&output=html

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The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.
Psalms 121:7

الرَّبُّ يَحْفَظُكَ مِنْ كُلِّ شَرٍّ. يَحْفَظُ نَفْسَكَ.
مزامير 121 : 7

The idea of being in an emergency and having the courage to act and do the right thing in a messy time is hard... And being put in such emergency situations gives us as human beings the courage and experience we need in this life.

I've faced some of these emergencies, including having to call a doctor once, and when I was a little girl I once thought there was a fire and I screamed...But now when there is an emergency, there is just one different thing, I am not a little girl anymore, which means I am supposed to act and do something.

Today we unfortunately had a bad incident in our block that I learnt a lot from, and that's why I am blogging now! A small fire was caused in the elevator basement, And because we live in the second floor, we were the first people to notice the smell, and act.

I took the initiative to call the fire department, who I didn't even know their number! but before I did that.. I prayed.. I asked God to help us.. which is the number one thing I learnt...Because it was the only way the situation was going to be saved. If there is no protection from God, life would have been full of crisis.

The second thing I did after calling the fire people, was that I hurried down with two small bottles of water. Neighbours told me don't put any water there.. I wonder if they thought I was stupid enough to try to extinguish a fire using two small bottles of water of size 0.75 liters! The water was actually from Anba Antonious Monastery and St Abaskhairoun's church. I kept these two bottles for lots of months, and I drank from them once in a while, and the water smelt good till now, because it's miraculous water, I'm sure you all know the stories of this water.

So I hurried downstairs and gave the bottles to dad, I told him to spray it in the elevator, he understood what I meant, and sprayed it. It didn't extinguish the fire, but the fire didn't spread to the elevator body nor any wires (which is what I consider a miracle coz wires were all over the bottom of the elevator, that was at the basement at that time). After few minutes, dad put out the fire, using our car's fire extinguisher (Which was the most scary thing about this issue for me was that he was the one acting).

After that, things became fine, regardless of the emotional and psychological shock everyone had.

Now, one of the very good things that happened was how the fire department acted. When I called them, they asked for my name and number and I shouted at the guy, "We have a fire and you're asking for my name and number, it's not the time for this!" but what they did was actually call the police, the ambulance, the electricity company, the governorate, and every other affiliation. The fire department came within 15 minutes (I think that's fast!) and some people even came to investigate. Every instituation I mentioned kept calling us to make sure we're fine and we didn't need anything. They were decent and so respectful. I actually didn't know before that these procedures happen when someone reports a fire but it made me really glad! I didn't thought the fire people will even come!

I once again, thank God , that my dad was home, as well as my uncle, and that many people were here too, and that things were arranged this way to make the situation fine.

I believe everything in life happens for a reason, and I thank God for everything in my life. This fire thing that has happened has showed me, like many times before, that God protects us, even if we don't know or feel this protection...And that's why I chose that title for this post.

During emergencies, we should have courage and fast action, but most importantly, our faith is the thing that protects us. Maybe people would think I'm a crazy person to spray saints' water in a fire hoping to extinguish it, but I have faith, and I have enough experience in life that showed me that we can do every possible thing in life, but when we don't ask for God, we won't succeed. Our God is able, He is mighty, and so merciful.

I thank God he gave me courage to put up with this hard situation, I haven't broken down during it, I haven't cried or screamed like when I was a little girl, and I had a clear mind to pray and act. The good side of these tough situations is that we actually see God, we see His hands work before ours, we strengthen our faith and love to Him..

Another issue this specific situation has shown me is that women, on contrary to what many may think, have strength and power and can think fast...Women are now head-to-head with men; they can be as influential and can act sometimes even better than a lot of men.

And now, I like reading one of my favourite psalms from the Holy Bible..
Psalm 91
http://copticchurch.net/cgibin/bible/index.php?r=Psalms+91&version=NKJV&btn=View&showVN=1

مزمور 91

اَلسَّاكِنُ فِي سِتْرِ الْعَلِيِّ فِي ظِلِّ الْقَدِيرِ يَبِيتُ. 2 أَقُولُ لِلرَّبِّ: [مَلْجَإِي وَحِصْنِي. إِلَهِي فَأَتَّكِلُ عَلَيْهِ]. 3 لأَنَّهُ يُنَجِّيكَ مِنْ فَخِّ الصَّيَّادِ وَمِنَ الْوَبَإِ الْخَطِرِ. 4 بِخَوَافِيهِ يُظَلِّلُكَ وَتَحْتَ أَجْنِحَتِهِ تَحْتَمِي. تُرْسٌ وَمِجَنٌّ حَقُّهُ. 5 لاَ تَخْشَى مِنْ خَوْفِ اللَّيْلِ وَلاَ مِنْ سَهْمٍ يَطِيرُ فِي النَّهَارِ 6 وَلاَ مِنْ وَبَأٍ يَسْلُكُ فِي الدُّجَى وَلاَ مِنْ هَلاَكٍ يُفْسِدُ فِي الظَّهِيرَةِ. 7 يَسْقُطُ عَنْ جَانِبِكَ أَلْفٌ وَرَبَوَاتٌ عَنْ يَمِينِكَ. إِلَيْكَ لاَ يَقْرُبُ. 8 إِنَّمَا بِعَيْنَيْكَ تَنْظُرُ وَتَرَى مُجَازَاةَ الأَشْرَارِ. 9 لأَنَّكَ قُلْتَ: [أَنْتَ يَا رَبُّ مَلْجَإِي]. جَعَلْتَ الْعَلِيَّ مَسْكَنَكَ 10 لاَ يُلاَقِيكَ شَرٌّ وَلاَ تَدْنُو ضَرْبَةٌ مِنْ خَيْمَتِكَ. 11 لأَنَّهُ يُوصِي مَلاَئِكَتَهُ بِكَ لِكَيْ يَحْفَظُوكَ فِي كُلِّ طُرْقِكَ. 12 عَلَى الأَيْدِي يَحْمِلُونَكَ لِئَلاَّ تَصْدِمَ بِحَجَرٍ رِجْلَكَ. 13 عَلَى الأَسَدِ وَالصِّلِّ تَطَأُ. الشِّبْلَ وَالثُّعْبَانَ تَدُوسُ. 14 لأَنَّهُ تَعَلَّقَ بِي أُنَجِّيهِ. أُرَفِّعُهُ لأَنَّهُ عَرَفَ اسْمِي. 15 يَدْعُونِي فَأَسْتَجِيبُ لَهُ. مَعَهُ أَنَا فِي الضِّيقِ. أُنْقِذُهُ وَأُمَجِّدُهُ. 16 مِنْ طُولِ الأَيَّامِ أُشْبِعُهُ وَأُرِيهِ خَلاَصِي.

May God bless and protect you all...

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