auctions at fundraisers

Ahamdulillah the last two auctions at MAS and PMIS were entertaining. SH should get the compliments for this.Bravo!!! and his attentive companion HN - Bravo!!

But the auction can also be a distraction to the actual fundraising. The same person who donated lets say $500 towards PMIS is left wondering why he did not wait till the auction to donate the same amount. Yes niyat matters, no doubt. But if you are inviting guests over and then tempting them with auction rather than fundraising then the event should be named as an auction. (there is nothing wrong with calling it an auction, its a noble cause). Everyone can argue that the donor (not the auction winner) wanted to soften his heart and extend his generosity and uplift the community and he does it only for the sake of Allah swt (hey this is one of the branches of faith). But arent we ridiculing his intention and making it more difficult for future donors to give in the noble cause without taking anything back in return?

How to wear a lungi

http://www.lungi425.com/how2wear.htm

insurance logic

Anyone ever understood the reasoning behind increasing insurance premium when you change addresses. I moved from Chandler to Tempe and they (AAA) said that insurance will be higher because it is Tempe. I move back to chandler and they put the same argument once more. Cheaters!! If they did not give the lowest rates I would shift away.

Bill Clinton takes on chris wallace

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/22/president-clinton-blasts-chris-wallace/

The best answer till date:

WJC : Well, every even number year–right before an election–they come up with some security issue. In 2000, right before the election. In 2002, our party supported them in undertaking weapon inspections in Iraq and were 100% behind them in Afghanistan and they didn’t have any way to make us look like we didn’t care about terror. And so they decided they would [push] the Homeland Security bill that they opposed and they put some pill in it that we wouldn’t pass–like taking the job rights away from 170,000 people–and then [they could] say that we were weak on terror if we weren’t for it. This year I think they wanted to make the question of prisoner treatment and intercepted communications the same sort of issue until John Warner came and Lindsey Graham got in there and it turns out there were some Republicans who believe in the Constitution and their convictions…some ideas about how best to fight terror.

Please DIGG

Start DIGGING please

http://digg.com/videos_educational/Realization_of_Ramadaan

Nerd? Geek? or Dork?

Pure Nerd 60 % Nerd, 30% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful. Congratulations!

Real-life ‘Iqbal’ lets his pace bowling do the talking

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/13121.html

Never thought it was impossible but didnot think it would follow so soon. Probably the movie iqbal had something to do with changing the mindsets. Gosh India has so many fast bowlers, its time they also won us some matches - I mean with the bowling not batting. :)

In memory of ...

Names of children under the age of 18 killed during the operations mounted by the Israeli military in Gaza since 25 June, according to the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights


Bara Nasser Habib, 3 (hit by shrapnel to the head and body, Gaza City, 26 July)
Shahed Saleh Al-Sheikh Eid, 3 days old (bled to death after airstrike, Al-Shouka, 4 August)
Rajaa Salam Abu Shaban, 3 (died of fractured skull in air raid, Gaza City, 9 August)
Jihad Selmi Abu Snaima, 14 (killed by a shell, Al-Shoukha, 10 september)
Khaled Nidal Wahba, 15 months (died of wounds from an airstrike, 10 July)
Rawan Farid Hajjaj, 6 (killed with his mother and sister in an airstrike, Gaza City, 8 July)
Anwar Ismail Abdul Ghani Atallah, 12 (shot in the head, Erez, 5 July)
Shadi Yousef Omar 16 (shot in the chest by IDF, Beit Lahya, 7 July)
Mahfouth Farid Nuseir, 16 (killed by missile while playing football, Beit Hanoun, 11 July)
Ahmad Ghalib Abu Amsha, 16, (killed by missile while playing football, Beit Hanoun, 11 July)
Ahmad Fathi Shabat, 16 (killed by missile while playing football, Beit Hanoun, 11 July)
Walid Mahmoud El-Zeinati, 12 (died of shrapnel wounds, Gaza City, 11 July)
Basma Salmeya, 16 (killed in Israeli airstrike, 12 July, Jabalia)
Somaya Salmeya, 17 (killed in Israeli airstrike, 12 July, Jabalia)
Aya Salmeya, 9 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July)
Yehya Salmeya, 10 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July)
Nasr Salmeya, 7 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July)
Huda Salmeya, 13 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July)
Eman Salmeya, 12 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July)
Raji Omar Jaber Daifallah, 16 (died of shrapnel wounds from missile, Gaza City, 13 July)
Ali Kamel Al-Najjar, 16 (killed by Israeli tank shell, Al-Maghazi refugee camp, 19 July)
Ahmed Ali Al-Na'ami, 16 (killed by Israeli tank shell, Al-Maghazi refugee camp, 19 July)
Ahmed Rawhi Abu Abdu, 14 (killed by drone missile, Al Nusairat refugee camp, 19 July)
Mohammed 'awad Muhra, 14 (killed by Israeli bullet to the chest, Al-Maghazi refugee camp, 20 July)
Fadwa Faisal Al-'arrouqi, 13 (died from shrapnel wounds, Gaza City, 20 July)
Saleh Ibrahim Nasser, 14 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 24 July)
Khitam Mohammed Rebhi Tayeh, 11 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 24 July)
Ashraf 'abdullah 'awad Abu Zaher, 14 (shot in the back, Khan Younis, 25 July)
Nahid Mohammed Fawzi Al-Shanbari, 16 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 31 July)
'aaref Ahmed Abu Qaida, 14 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 1 August)
Anis Salem Abu Awad, 12 (killed by airstike, Al-Shouka, 2 August)
Ammar Rajaa Al-Natour, 17 (killed by drone missile, Al Shouka, 5 August)
Kifah Rajaa Al-Natour, 15 (killed by drone missile, Al Shouka, 5 August)
Ibrahim Suleiman Al-Rumailat, 13 (killed by drone missile, Al Shouka, 5 August)
Ahmed Yousef 'abed 'aashour, 13 (killed by missile fire, Beit Hanoun, 14 August)
Mohammed 'abdullah Al-Ziq, 14 (killed by drone missile, Gaza City, 29 August)
Nidal 'abdul 'aziz Al-Dahdouh, 14 (killed by rifle fire, Gaza City, 30 August)
Jihad Selmi Abu Snaima, 14 (killed by artillery fire, Rafah, 10 September)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1619227.ece

A hole in the wall

A good concept about spreading computer literacy among the have-nots.

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/21860/itsmorethanjustaholeinthewall.html

I really dont know who does the computer maintainance, or who reboots the machine when windows crashes. I would not be surprised if the local NIIT center handles such requests on a regular basis.

For the know-nots, NIIT is like this computer education institute (like our local ITT tech etc). Once upon a time this used to be the biggest private education center. The dot-com bubble burts has changed things since.

Honda Ads

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A different shower

Imam al-Shafi'i writes at the beginning of his Treatise (Risala) - "Praise be to God, Who, whenever He is thanked for one of his blessings, provides another blessing which in turn obliges one to thank Him again!"

Learning of the outing - If you give cub/boy-scouts with a place to start a fire and chairs around it, and a long stick each, they can spend hours just watching their stick catch fire. And once they have parked themselves, there are very few things that can distract them away from the allure of dry sticks flickering across the fire. Alhamdullilah that food had to be cooked for by themselves, and there was a strict rule about cleaning up. A few of them had never been close to a gas stove before, and a few did not know that dishes could be cleaned outside of a dishwasher!!! But then there is always a first time, and they were quite appreciative of this fact. Hopefully they follow it up at their homes, and realize the good work that their parents put in.

Due to a strange twist, the three elders, get the small tent and the boys get the other two big tents. Surprisingly the boys were on time for all the events and even found stuff at the Geronimo camp that we had not noticed before. Apples from the tree were absolutely delicious!!! (supposedly blackberry picking season comes around in Oct-Nov. Seems like a good time for another outing.)

Wind in the Willows - The temperature drops to 40 in the night and the wind starts howling through the woods. Awesome!!! Add the stars in the sky, at which you could stare at forever. And imagine doing wudoo with the water that exists. Just so many things that you can be thankful for.

Its all topsy turvy

Countless attempts to prioritize blogging over mundane tasks over the period of the last 604,800 seconds met with a futile end. On one part you are happy that one organization gets the funds they wanted (and layoff their intern). On the other you are reminded of a mom, who has two jobs – in the day she teaches at a school and at night works at a Call-Center. Surprising that I don’t get the rude ones and don’t do myself a favor by slapping myself. You are happy at Roger Federer winning the USOPEN and also lolling in front of the TV recounting your abilities as a couch-potato (and your ability to convince people to become one). A new pragma opens the world of scripting even further, dousing you with enough enthusiasm to burn the midnight oil, all in the pursuit of achieving balance between commitments as an employee and a volunteer and a student. And yet in the midst of all developments, the social aspect of stigmas, of heart-aches, of collective grief, all join hands in synchronizing harmony with something that makes us feel human. You try to comfort the loss of a friend; still dabble your way with limited vocabulary when you have to comfort your parents, but will be tongue-tied when you have to comfort your grandmother. SubhanAllah!!

 

Off to Payson to live in the wild with the wild like the wild i.e. with a few boy scouts.

 

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The dilemma in India

Singing Vande Mataram is now an election issue; Forcing people to sing it is now a sign of patriotism. This is the sorry state of affairs that has cropped up in India, and again who are not patriotic - without doubt point the fingers to the muslims!!! South India categorically rejects hindi as a national language, and will have no qualms in skipping vande mataram in schools. But no dont look over there - point those fingers on superficial patriotism definitions.

C's last post obviously reflects on the double standards faced in the media. Sania Mirza is like any other teen in india from the middle/upper-middle class. I (with the wee bit of knowldge) love to talk to my contemporaries in the socio-family network, about the absolute simplest of things in Islam such as namaaz. Many of them will be defensive behind the statement - "But Islam is a moderate religion". Ask them what is meant by Islam, you get a vague explanation extending into pages but nothing noteworthy. Ask them about 'moderate', and be prepared to listen to ideas that contradict the teachings of islam. And, I am supposed to accept the answer from the likes of Ms Mirza!!! These same people have a very good understanding when it comes to inter-religion dialogue - eg namaste to elders, happy new year atleast 5 times a year, cricket on gandhi jayanti etc - and thats a proud trademark of Indians. So how does learning about islam and standing for whats wrong (eg ladies tennis skirt), suddenly break this trademark?

Indian Express is running this series of articles on muslims in India. Obvious coverage is given to exploitation of triple talaq in the low-income class, fatwa-giving-mullahs and how substituting arabic (Allah) for persian (Khuda) is a matter of grave concern. It feels the same way as reporting on muslims in USA - dont ask the intellectuals or the educated class, bias the article on the exploiting and exploited ones and portray that as Islam.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/12036.html
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/12102.html

Roti [v], Kapda [v], Makaan[X]

For all those who are staying by themselves and have to pay the rent every month - start saving more. The rents in Tempe, Chandler area have gone up by approx $70-$90 -- and that is on a 12 month lease!!! It is again quite unfortunate that interest rates have sky-rocketed and now even the rents. I know keeping away from interest is the best, but this is just to pose the situation that we find ourselves in. They are not even offering Move-In Specials.

Whats happening

For the last two months (i guess) there have been articles in the Muslim Voice, either lamenting about the sorry state of affairs of the Mulsim cemetery or the experience of some individual when he wished to finish the final rites.

As a volunteer we tried our best to beautify it, but in the light of the two articles, beautification is the minor issue. I know for a fact that when I was distributing flyers, in the summer sun after jummah, this individual comes up and tells me that it is way too early to come for volunteering - this was 6:30 am in summer on a Sunday. There were many more catch-22 situations that demanded that I only act as the quiet messenger.

But the recent issue, has Br. John Atik's experience, and this seems rather disturbing. He is lamenting about the issue of having less hands and his fear of the grave collapsing. Less hands!!!! how? why?

Extreme Origami

The picture at the side is an Origami creation!!!! This dude with background in lasers and stuff at caltech etc., creates this computer program for Origami. It results in the need of a better (read as thinner and more flexible) paper and so he starts doing that!!!!

Good article on the world of origami and the japanese prodigy who is currently number 1 in the world along with this dude.

On a side note, blogger was inviting people to test out their new blogger that has tags to classify your post among other improvements.