ramadan ramadan i love ramadan

I had the most wonnnnderful day today, alhamdullilah. It started pretty late (heehee good old sleep in sundays) but I immediately made up for lost time by kicking off the blankets and getting ready. Oh yeah, and doing some french songs with hamza cuz he brought home this tape from school that's being circulated among the students. Get this... some of the lyrics in the book are, 'la squelette danse la twist... doo doo doo doo... danse la twist danse la twist.. doo doo doo doo... accompanied by hamza actually acting like a skeleton and doing the twist. My mom and I were squealing with laughter cuz he does it SO WELL! (thaatt's ma booyyyyyy) hahaha.

Anyhow! back to productivity. Today I:
-made eggrolls for eid, we need more wrappers though so it's not totally done
-made two batches of these pecan chocolate bar thingies, one for my friend's iftar tonight and one for eid
-half carved a pumpkin with hamza, i'll do the rest tomorrow. These are really small pumpkins from our garden! Yay! And I allowed hamza to have one jack-o-lantern one and on the other one I wrote Eid Mubarak in urdu hahah and on the other side it says Allah in arabic. As soon as I wrote it my mom was like, 'Are you sure that's alright to do that? Isn't it contradicting with...'
'ummm yeah it is mom, but i already wrote it.' :P
-and then I went to the best iftar I had all ramadan, thank you bayan #2!!!
-and then taraweeh at WCM as the best taraweeh all ramadan. Thank you bayan #2! (I'll thank her cuz she lives in the area, otherwise I wouldn't have gone)
-and thennnnnn, then I chit chatted with all my buddies and came home.

What a wonderful day alhamdulillah. Okay but just to let you all know now... Open House on Eid at our place, we don't know what time yet though, I'll fill you in. Everyone's invited. Bring your cat even. Well maybe not. Just bring yourselves and give me company! I miss qamer like crazy and perhaps that's why everything this ramadan has been so off, but alhamdullilah alhamdullilah alhamdulillah. Oh yeah, I was talking about open house wasn't I. Alright then! Open house, eid, my place. Fo shizzle.

Peace OUT.
Word to yo motha.

Blondie pulls through!

I finally felt like an engineer today. I mean, it's not like I don't do engineering work.. I mean, if you think about it, what IS engineering work anyways? Beats me. Anyhow, that's another story for another day. So my company was doing animal testing today, which literally determines whether we all have jobs at the end of the week or not. I had to do the regular laser and cooling tests on our product, but this time something happened in that I had to do the cooling tests in the actual procedure room where they were doing the animal testing. I had just finished up assembling one test product and was grabbing it to go give it to them in MRI when my boss runs into the lab and breathes, "Saduf can I leave you here to do the tests by yourself?"
And I'll tell you what that really meant. First of all, he was in such a rush cuz he had to go to Jummah and it was already 1:30. So what that really meant was,'Saduf one of us has to do the tests and one of us DOESN"T have to go to jummah and that one person is YOU so can you stay back please?"

I first whined my answer, "Awww I wanted to go to Jummah toooooo," but quickly realized how stressful the situation was at the moment (we were all runnin' around like crazies) and agreed to do the tests. Besides the whining, my answer to his question was a confused blank stare along with an 'ummmmmm' and he quickly said 'ok Fil will stay with you then'. Usually, Fil gives Salman (boss) a ride so Fil had already parked his car just outside the doors and was waiting for us. Fil agreed with a whine (what whiners we are!!) and said he'd repark his car and come.

I went and started the tests in the same rooms as the doctors and other engineers, all the important people in one crowded stressed out room. Fil didn't end up coming (HAHA) and I managed to fake some confidence and figure my way through everything. I hadn't done the test myself before, nor had I done it outside our lab. Anyways, all I have to say is, today, I felt like an engineer; performing a crucial test at a crucial time in a stressful environment. I think it had a lot to do with my surroundings though: dark MRI computer room, adjacent equipment room with lots of loud buzzing machines, doctors and engineers and technicians standing by as if anything you say or do, like even fake a 'beep' might cause them to jump and run and try and fix something, and of course, the sedated piggie.

Of course, I'm not sure how much information I'm bound to withhold from you guys, so umm, just in case, I'll leave it at that. Who knooowws how many corporate spieeessss blurk arounddddd on Get Yo Groooove Onnnnn. (prolly negative 2!)

It was quite an interesting experience alhamdullilah. I'll have to add this though. I probably wouldn't have blogged about it if it weren't for my boss coming back from Jummah saying, 'Saduf, I felt so bad for leaving you here! The whole time in the car, just ask Fil, I kept on saying, of all people to leave back, I left SADUF! Oh GOD what's gonna happen! I hope she figures out that the valves are closed and what computer to use and that if things start going wrong, just walk away...'

hahahahahhaha. He had absolutely NO FAITH in me. hahahahhahahahaha. I don't blame him though. This whole month my coworkers have been making fun of me that I need food and sleep cuz I'd just be limping around or totally braindead. The other day for instance I thought 50mW was bigger than 100mW, and I kept on thinking that for about 10 minutes... and from THAT instance, Salman was super worried. And for practically 20 minutes after he got back, I din't hear the end of his imitations of him worrying and making du'aa at jummah. "Oh God, she's fasting, and she wasn't doing too good this week, Oh God I HOPE she knows what she's doing." hahahahahahahha. Ahh jeez. That was too good.

Anyways, I guess I've rambled enough for a friday evening don't you think? I'll catch you all later inshaAllah. PaYCe!

Oh! one more thing! I've always been fond of orphan sponsorship programs and with experience with some other ones, I'd say that this one was the most straightforward and easiest to go through. www.alyateem.com care of Islamic Relief. My new kid buddy's name is Mubashir. :) I wanted to post a picture but I just signed an agreement not to download any of his pictures soooo... no picture for you! He's 3 years old and his father was recently killed in the earthquake in Mansehra.. He now lives with his mom and I pray inshaAllah they get all that they need and desire. If you think about it, it's only $39 a month, which if you were one of those people that purchase any thing for $1.50 a day, either a coffee, cookie, bus fare, or parking, that would be MORE than enough for a lil' guy or girl like Mubashir.

Anyways, ok now I'm done. You can wake up now. BYYYE!

Earthquake Relief Day on Blogistan

Hey y'all, assalamualiakum wa rahmatullah,

I figure what better day to update you on last week's events then on Earthquake Relief Day in Blog world. The objective of this day is to post sites to build awareness of the projects in place that are aiding the relief efforts in Pakistan as well as to convince one or more persons to contribute to the cause. Brought to my attention by yasminay, I'll be using this post to update you on some numbers from last week.

Last week in the downtown central mosque was as someone said, "an excellent example of divine intervention". In fact, he further went on to express, "I'm a believer now, I'm a believer." The pile of bags and boxes of warm clothing, jackets and tents collected by the community to send to Pakistan was so high that you would never dare look in that direction. If you did, you'd believe in miracles.

The day started at 10 am, when the collection of donations from the st. vital masjid starting coming in by the vans-ful and the items already there were put into piles. Each area of the masjid was segmented off into categories such as 'Men's clothing, Men's jackets, Women's clothing, Women's sweaters, jackets, kids jackets, etc'. There were about 25 of us there, give and take a few, and throughout the day we were sorting, piling, sorting, boxing, opening, throwing, opening, piling... I think you know where I'm getting at, and the pile wasn't getting any lower. One of the MIA members (Manitoba Islamic Association) kept on saying, we're never going to finish this today, but alhamdullilah, I've never seen Muslims work so efficiently. Together. hahaha. keyword TOGETHER. MashaALlah. We had finished packing everything up before iftar and managed to clean up the masjid as well. The end result was 212 boxes filled with approximately 1000 winter jackets, 800 sweaters, 300 tents, as well as huge numbers of kids' winter clothing and various other items. The boxes were then sent graciously by Fed Ex to Toronto, where PIA is accepting all cargo for relief items free of charge, and dropping them off at Islamabad's Pakistani Air Force Base to be distributed by the President's Earthquake Relief Fund. To find out more about the procedures of shipping via PIA, click the links in the above sentence. ;)

Aside from that, more money, (I'm not sure how much) was raised to purchase tents recently, and MIA has been collecting funds since the beginning. So far they've collected $50,000 for Human Concern International, and today's the deadline for whatever HCI collects, the Canadian government will match.

Islamic Relief has also been quite involved, and has been providing brief but useful updates as to their specific relief efforts. The Canadian Military's DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) was deployed last week for Kashmir, and have already been reporting that people have been walking to their camp, be it a multi-day trek, just requesting tents and shelter. They finally have clean water running, as outlined in this article and this one here.

As soon as the quake hit I relied on BBC to provide me with detailed news coverage, as well as news in arabic font urdu if need be. One need only look at a single picture to be moved to help the people there, so inshaALlah, open up your hearts and give in whatever way you can. Make du'aa, for nothing can be stronger than du'aa.

Islamic Relief
Oxfam
President's Earthquake Relief Fund
HCI (Good old Human Concern)
Red Crescent
ERQF (Earthquake Relief Fund)

worst type

I would have to say that the worst type of argument is when people start bringing God into it and don't realize that what they're saying has no relevancy to God whatsoever. God is not backing you on your argument, nor does your faith make sense of anything that you're saying. So take your personal vendetta and cultural crap elsewhere, and don't try reasoning it with religion, or whatever selective aspects of religion you chose to accept. Unless I'm following my own religion, most of the time things seem logical and within reason. What provokes people to twist and mutate except selfishness and personal gain?? Are they mental? Am I mental?? This is a question I ask myself everyday.

And so it's gone...

So my university account is officially dead. All those files on that server, gone. Gone. Dead and gone.

just kidding. I saved them. but still. whatever.

I thought I'd update you all on absolutely nothing because I've been requested to update and I don't really have anything to update you with except that I'm stuck in this phase of regularity and blahness that I don't quite like; lack of energy, lack of spirit, highly opinionated and argumentative. That's pretty much me right now. Kinda disgusting isn't it? Even in ramadan.

The death toll of earthquake victims is expected to be 80,000 now, and I can imagine it to be even worse. What with Pakistan's scattered and remote villages and now blocked roads, and of course being in a mountainous region. (Even to get my dad's village, you have to know exactly where this hidden dirt road is that they call a 'pulley', go down it, and then magically know your way around.) My heart goes out to everyone there; those who have lost their homes, family, belongings, the injured, and those that are there helping. I wish I could go directly to help but I have no means to do so. I expressed to a friend that I'd really like to go into medicine just so that I could be able to sign up for disaster relief easily and go right away. But that would require school and a curriculum that I wouldn't enjoy. AllahuAlim. I've been trying to go just as anything, a helping hand, but agencies aren't getting back to me. This one agency did, but spoke about other stuff. If you know of an agency that'll take on some volunteer help, let me know.
I heard this morning that two aftershocks were felt again today causing more landslides and road blockage. :( May Allah swt help them.

Anyhow, I should go now. Wassalam and Saburday Khuda.

And if you don't comment, I will get you. thank you. thank you very much.

p.s. new blog, the ziggy meister finally sunk. Check it.>

I've conformed. So sue me.

HI GUYYYYSSSSS!!

First off, Ramadan Mubarak. :) All the best wishes go out to you and your families inshaAllah. Second off.. if that's ever been said before, this blogs goin dowwwnnnnnn.

Unlike before though, it's not REALLy going down. I've conformed to blogspot cuz Ullah hasn't gotten back to me about buying a domain yet. :P jk. I don't know if it's really worth buying anyways, so I'll hold off on that until later. Until then, this should be the new blog, youthinkyoureweird.blogspot.com. It'll probably be under construction for a while though cuz ... well.. just because. You gotta problem with my lack of an explanation, then deal with it! :P

Also, new email, shaheenrana@gmail.com

That's right folks, the death of umranass. I've already received letters of condolence.

It's a fatal blow to the consciousness; the university student in me, the philosopher, the brainchild, the queen of procrastinators, the failer of all courses possible, the young, hyper, yet troubled, shaheen in me.

*lowers head* so long umranass. You've been good to me. People made fun of you, but you stood behind me through and through. You always had my back. I'd look to my rear and there you'd be. I'd look to my left and right, and there my friends would be, making fun of you. I don't know how we could ever...

Oh forget this, umranass@gmail.com
HOLLA!