November 7, 2011
Al Najaf
Arrived at 9 AM today at Al Najaf in order to pay a ritual visit to Imam Ali (salam allah alaih). On our way to the hotel, the streets were just like what you see in the news; poor people all over the place, 80% of the buildings looks damaged if not totally destroyed, and a lot of street vendors selling toys, garments, and food of the cheapest kinds. Few moments later, we arrived at our hotel “zamzam complix”, and for a moment I thought it’s not going to be any different from what I saw in the streets, untill my cousin told me “they have wifi in the lobby!”.
Walked into the lobby to find it pretty decent, and they did have wifi! But I remembered that someone told me al Najaf has beautiful view, so I asked him where was it, and he showed me what you see in the picture. Sorry for the poor quality, but I had to use my ipad since I left my iphone with my cousin before I went to Al Haram. My cousin went to Al Haram later and he never told me where he kept the phones. Ok too many details haha.
Anyways, if you ignore the sand in between the green and imagine that the whole area is green, you’ll find yourself living the jurassic park era! Of course you’ll also have to ignore all the traffic and telephone cables.
Here’s a better pic taken by my iphone.
November 6, 2011
Happy Eid everyone
I guess so many people received this photo today.
For you all who don’t know what’s funny about this photo, today is the first day of Al Adha Eid. It’s a muslim ritual to sacrifice sheeps and give out meat as food for the needy on that day. Thus the black stripe (or ribbon) for the sheeps community. Al Adha means “the sacrifice”.
That of course doesn’t mean muslims are careless or cruel to creatures. The pic is just an inside joke if you will.
عيدكم مبارك means happy Eid
November 4, 2011
Karbala
Since the situation in Karbala at Imam Hussein’s courtyard is under strict security and protection, phones are not allowed inside. Thus, my phone always stayed home. Today however, I decided that I’ll go through the hassle and leave my phone at the valubales boxes (not sure about the term, but it’s like safety boxes). Everyone told me it’s going to delay us, but it took no more than 10 secs to give them the phone and receive a traceable box number.
After we finished our rituals, we got out, took the phone and we all were happy that we had a chance to take photos. But I was also happy that now I can show my friends the old methods they use to sell consumable goods.
The pic is for a ciggerate stand and a sammoon (bread, or pretzels) stand at the street of qeblat imam hussein. At least ten scenes I passed by made me wish that I brought my DSLR to get those good shots I always wanted.
September 2, 2008
Anime, kicked off by “Death Note”
So the first day of Ramadan wasn’t that bad, but hunger really got to me because I didn’t eat suhoor. Although it is Monday, we were safe from experiencing school on a first day Ramadan; yes I’ll be in school for the rest of Ramadan, but the first day of Ramadan was better with no school.
Setting school-work aside, I have been playing video games lately a lot, specifically GTA IV and COD4. Also, lately I’ve been really into anime.
I started liking anime after watching “Death Note,” which I randomly decided to watch and it turned to be one of the best things I watched whether it was a movie, TV shows or anything else.
So I downloaded other anime hoping it would be as good. The anime I downloaded are:
- Ghost in shell
- Blood: The last vampire
- Ah my Goddess
- Full metal panic
I watched “Ghost in shell” and it was very good, but it’s one of those stories that need a good attention or you’ll get really lost. You could get the basic idea of the story and it would make the movie watchable, but you’ll not enjoy it as much as if you understood it well.
Now “Blood: the last vampire” seems like one hell of an anime. I watched the first few minutes of it, and it couldn’t tempt me more to watch the whole thing. The graphics are cool and, for me, it’s something new making it a bit different than a normal anime.
I’m still wondering how I am going to watch “Full metal panic,” because it is in Japanese and no subtitles. So, until I find a way to add subtitles in it, I’ll wait before watching it.
This is like a new path that I’m taking by watching anime. It feels good to know that you have an interest in something new and you know that there is a whole world of this thing you are interested in.
One of the other main reasons why I am watching anime right now is a blog I read constantly. The blogger is a big fan of anime and he has a huge segment in his blog for the anime he watches. I recommend that you visit his blog and check the anime he watched and reviewed. I check his blog if I wanted to look up good anime. You can do so here.
August 31, 2008
Ramadan Kareem
mbarak 3alaikom el shahar
As usual, every year in this beautiful holy month one keeps missing the astonishing nights of Kuwait and the beautiful family gatherings.
January 28, 2008
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Yesterday TBS aired the Screen Actors Guild Awards for 2008.
I was so interested to watch the ceremony because there were many actors and actresses that I like. Of course my DVR screwed me up by not recording the whole thing, but I got to watch some of the main things that I wanted to watch. There were shows and people that I never knew before or didn’t know them very well, and there were my favorite actors and shows. So my judgments is only based on my own knowledge and perceptions.
I was disappointed to see Steve Carell lose the “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series award” to Alec Baldwin,’30 Rock.’
However, “The Office” team won the “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.” The strange thing is that the spokesperson the chose for the award was Jenna Fischer (Pam). It should have been Steve Carell (Michael). Well, she wasn’t bad anyway.
You can check out the whole award news and winning list and more on this [link].
October 14, 2007
تقبل الله طاعتكم و عيدكم مبارك
بعد انقطاع طويل عن البلوج و عن كتابة المواضيع ابي اقولكم اني أعتذر على هالتأخير.
و أتمنى ان الكل يكون مستمتع بلحظات الفرح في عيد الفطر السعيد.
و هذه اغنية اهداء مني حقكم. هالأغنية بس أسمعها أتذكر أول يوم عيد الصبح مع التجهيز والاستعداد حق السلام والترحيب بالأهل والأصحاب.
والدشداشة اليديدة اللي امس مطلعها من الخياط مكوية و جاهزة معلقة ورا الباب. و الغترة أيضا جاهزة, و ريحة العطور والبخور ودهن العود.
الديرة كلها كاشخة و متسنعة والجو ولا أحلى, والناس كلها مستانسة.
كل هذا صورة تدش براسي لمن أسمع هالأغنية و غيرها من أغاني العيد القديمة بالذات.
عيدكم مبارك و كل عام و انتوا بخر والله يعوده عليكم بالخير والصحة والسلامة.
September 19, 2007
Advertising time
If there is something that really exhausts a fasting person, it will be creating ideas from scratches. I am working on the final round for project 1 and it could not be any harder. I hate it when the professor would be very brief in feedbacks and directions. I love Ramadan, but when it comes to be mixed with school work, it becomes a little bit exhausting. If you are wondering why am I writing this down, then you should know that this is a way for me to self steam a little bit.
September 16, 2007
within the hour
Fast breaking is happening in 30 minutes, and I am still not done cooking the food. My cousin is going to yetfa6ar with me and he is bringing some stuff too. He’s also not done yet. I am starting to get impatient, so I decided to post something of what I am doing right now. I am re preparing the machboos of last time and also cooking my famous chicken Alfredo pasta. I wanted to post the cooking directions for both, machboos and chicken Alfredo, but I wasn’t ready yet. Next time enshalla. For now try to figure out the cooking process with these pics.
This is the machboos that I made
And this is the pasta I’m using for the chicken Alfredo
This is the chicken and the potatoes cooking
When I am done with the pasta, I’ll post a picture of the dish.
Oh, that’s the timer beeping telling me that the chicken is ready.
I’ll be back with more soon enshalla.
famanellah.
Relaxing 