Man plans to swim length of Amazon River, broadcast live

He already has records for swimming other rivers like the Mississippi, Danube and Yangtze.

Crazy and impressive.
To watch, starting February 1st, go to Amazon Swim.

Another Beautiful Comet McNaught Image

This one is taken by the comet's discoverer and shows its very long tail.

Muharram

Say: “I ask you for no recompense but that you love my near relatives” Qur'an 42:23

"And hold fast, All together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves." Qur'an 3:103

So let us unite together in the season of Muharram with love for the Prophet (saw) and his near relatives and let us demonstrate it by seeking to learn the Straight Path they follow and become ourselves sincere followers and friends of the best of mankind and of one another.

SOHO's images of Comet McNaught's closest approach ot the sun (perihelion)

Here is video from the SOHO spacecraft that shows Comet McNaught's approach within half the distance between the sun and Mercury. The sun is in the center of the image, but blocked so that the optics on SOHO can see the light of objects near the sun. Mercury is also visible in the image and you can see the comet is very spectacular in comparison. It was so bright it almost overwhelmed SOHO's optics. The lower left of the image shows the time lapse between January 11 to the 16 or so....

Cool - Comet McNaught was visible during the day

Comet McNaught visible in broad daylight. If viewing this after January 19,2007 - go to the archives of the Astronomy Picture of the Day site linked here to view January 19th's image.

Don't buy premium

Many car owner's manuals will tell you it isn't worth the money, and if you've actually experimented with the different fuels you've probably noticed that where you buy it seems to make more of a difference than octane rating, and that's still not much.

Scientific American: Fact or Fiction?: Premium Gasoline Delivers Premium Benefits to Your Car
Exploding the myth that premium gasoline delivers better performance in the average automobile

Hearing is a Great Blessing

Sr. Baraka has a good post going at her blog on gratitude.

Good news in my family this week. My dad has long had very poor hearing, but lately it has been getting much worse, so that he has been almost completely deaf for a few months. The family lore, although I'm not sure of its truth, is that he first lost hearing when he had measles and mumps together as a child. But it has continually regressed during his adult life and I'm not sure what caused its recent stronger decline although ear infections may have been involved. It is quite a challenge for all involved when someone loses one of their senses that they rely on; it is like losing a part of oneself and losing a key connection to the rest of humankind and the world. It is isolating. Like many things, hearing is one of those blessings that we really typically do not appreciate how great it is until we don't have it. Many many years ago he looked into hearing aids but they hurt his ear so he refused to even consider them again. This time when his hearing got much worse, he decided to reconsider. My mom said he is now fitted with a temporary one while a permanent one is being made, and that he seemed to be very happy and could hear her talk, could hear the TV, etc. So we are all thrilled that we might be able to talk to him without screaming and repeating everything until he gets upset and gives up, and he will feel so much more included. He might even be able to hear the phone ring or hear the door bell! So alhumdooleluh for his hearing loss worsening as that is what it took to reconsider a hearing aid. Well worth the cost, insha'allah.

On a related note, I am a big fan of closed captioning. When it became fairly common in TV's, it became fairly common in our household. In my adult life, I have rarely watched TV without the closed captioning turned on. I get annoyed if it isn't available. Live closed captioning can be pretty worthless and pretty funny, but for other shows it is very useful, even if you can hear. It fills you in on mumbled dialog, sometimes provides you with lines in the script that were left out of the shot for some reason, tells you how names and places are spelled, appeals to visual learners, aids with language learning and helps children develop their reading skills as well. Sometimes it gets in the way of stuff you want to see, but that is usually not the case.

Sr. Karima

A few of my readers know Sr. Karima of Denver and would want to know that she has suffered a stroke, I guess about a week ago.

I don't have a lot of details, but she is supposed to be at Swedish Medical Center, Critical Care Center in Denver. I don't think she is having non-family visitors, but her daughter is around. If you decide to send something, she is registered under her name Sally Zareie. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Comet McNaught

This morning on the way to work I made sure to look for Comet McNaught, and I was able to see it very clearly. So that was pretty exciting. This is an image of it taken in Germany posted as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day – an RSS feed I have stored in bloglines and enjoy getting. If you don't see the comet, you may need to go to the archives for January 9, 2007. It's worth it if you don't get to see it with your own two eyes. I didn’t have time to pull over and try to take a picture of it myself, or I’d have been late for work. Comet McNaught is one of the brightest comets of the past several decades. Look for it just before sunrise or after sunset, and near to the sun. When I saw it, it looked like comet Hale-Bopp, but perhaps brighter. It was brighter than Hyatuke and Halley's for sure, by my estimation. It reminded me of a distant plane contrail caught in the pre-dawn light, but it was wider, shorter, and fuzzier.

Bald Eagle Sighting

I saw the coolest thing today - I was walking around the track across the street and I ended up watching an adult Bald Eagle soar for about half an hour. I saw a juvenile bald eagle as well, but not for quite as long. They are very large and beautiful.

I asked an El Paso County, Colorado park ranger about them via e-mail and he replied back quickly. He confirmed based on what I reported that they were a juvenile and an adult. He said they don't nest in the county but they do hunt in this area sometimes, especially in winter, particularly at the Big Johnson Reservoir/Blue Stem Open Prairie area or along Fountain Creek. The ones I saw seemed to come from the McRae reservoir (also known as Carp Lake) area, near the Big Johnson.

Best and Worst movies of 2006 Meme - short and sweet

Favorite movie released in 2006 that you saw: The Prestige

Runners up: Invincible, Casino Royale, Pirates of the Caribbean II, Akeelah and the Bee.

Honorable Mentions: The Devil Wears Prada and The Guardian. And I'd like to make a nod to a 2005 movie I loved but saw in 2006: Millions.

Least favorite movie(s) released in 2006 that you saw: Little Miss Sunshine

Everyone is invited to play, in comments or on their own blogs.

The Hajj - Random Stream of Consciousness Memories

I had two people from afar think of me in the past few days enough to tell me about it - Sis. Scorp and Koonj, and it made me feel a bit awestruck and wondering at the significance - thanks and thanks to Allah swt.

As hajj season is coming to a close, I found myself reflecting on my own experience.

I went for hajj in 1999 by the grace of Allah swt. I think that year it was late February to early March or so. I was totally surprised to be going because I didn't have the money to go. However, for some reason, some people I knew up in British Columbia said I should make intention to go for hajj and then if Allah swt willed it, it would happen. I had just graduated from university in December and was working as a substitute teacher and night shift at an assembly line. And I got a call that someone in Dubai had made an anonymous donation to send someone for hajj and the caravan decided I should go.

I had converted in 1994. It had been about 4 1/2 years since I converted and in many ways I still felt like a newbie and an outsider. It had taken me many months just to learn to pray because I didn't have much direct contact with other Muslims to show me and I was unsure about some of the directions I had found and about pronunciations, etc. So I had no idea what to expect in going for hajj - I hadn't read or prepared about what I would be doing and I had never even been anywhere that I needed a passport and vaccinations for.

My family was so worried - they thought something horrible would happen to me because it was the middle east, and I would never come back. I wasn't worried about people doing something to me, but I knew hajj was an obligation and an invitation and I hoped I could be successful at it.

So I went - I few to JFK where I met up with the American caravan and we then flew to Athens. There I made sure to buy something in the airport so I could get Greek coins to bring back to my dad. There I first saw some hajis putting on their ihram. From Athens it was on to Jeddah where I met with the West Canadian caravan that I would actually be rooming with because I had met some of the ladies before. Jeddah was at night and it had no walls but the tent ceilings were like those of Denver International Airport. And they served Pepsi. They took our bags and passports and you just hoped you saw them again. The security people acted happy to see American passports, wanting to see what an American Muslim was, some kind of paradox to their thinking. But the body-searching women in their black abayahs were lunching and waved us through much to my relief.

We started in Medina. What I remember now is spending a lot of time with a few women close to my age who had been on hajj before and had decided to take me under their wings, much to my gratitude because I would've been totally lost without it. We hardly slept. We were within walking distance of Masjid ul Nabiy and walked there many times throughout the day for the prayers and to nearby places for ziarat. I had so much information to take in because I was at that time ignorant about most of the holy places. We would get up in the middle of the night to go there for the night prayer and it was truly beautiful. The room would get so packed that you didn't think anyone else could possibly fit. But it was incredibly peaceful in Medina. It was very beautiful somehow especially in and around the Prophet's (saw) Mosque; something in the air that permeated the soul was beautiful there. At a certain time of day they opened part of the masjid normally closed to women and it would become a crushing horde as they tried to get closer to the Prophet (saw), locked behind a cage, and then it would close again.

Iranian ladies would sometimes see us and recognize us by our turbahs and stand around us while we prayed so no one took them, and the Iranians also put together a massive crowd reciting Dua Kumayl on the Thursday night in the plaza by the Mosque. It stopped all traffic. The Saudi police were there in riot gear but everyone just participated or watched and then we disbursed.

Behind the Masjid were complex alleys of shops that went on for a seemingly endless distance, and at times I accompanied those seeking the obligatory souvenirs to take back home like dates, prayer beads, prayer rugs, key chains, perfumes, abayas, and so on. I hadn't saved money to buy stuff, I hadn't even thought about it because I didn't have any Muslims to bring back souvenirs to, but someone in our caravan stuffed 400 riyals in my hand so I could buy things too. In any store there or in Mecca, they wanted to know where you were from and when they found out they expected you to have lots and lots of money. The gold sellers always haggled prices by typing in numbers in a calculator - then the buyer would hit clear and type in a new number, and so on back and forth until they reached a deal - thus bypassing language barriers. Money exchanges were on many corners and if you needed to exchange money you got better deals with large bills.

Janatul Baqi was a giant caged square where pigeons roamed amongst broken, unmarked stubs of pillars that had once been gravemarkers. Those of Imam Sadiq (as) and others were pointed out to me, but nothing distinguished them aside from a square of stones around them to separate them from some of the rest.

I ate my first and only halal Burger King there. Honestly, it wasn't very impressive.

Then at some point we moved on to performing hajj - we entered ihram and traveled overnight to Mecca. I remember the bus stopping and Saudis coming on and handing out food packages to every passenger - I tasted Bobeye milk (Popeye) - it wasn't refrigerated but I laughed to myself at seeing Popeye without the P.

Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik. Labbaik, La Shareek Laka, Labbaik. Innal Hamdah, Wan Nematah, Laka wal Mulk, La Shareek Laka Labbaik.

Here I am at Thy service O Lord, here I am. Here I am at Thy service and Thou hast no partners. Thine alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Thine alone is The Sovereignty. Thou hast no partners, here I am.

We chanted it as we approached. In Mecca we were much farther from the Haram than we had been from the Masjid un Nabiy. We were in Azizia and while we could take a very long walk to Mina it had to be cab ride to the Haram. The order of events isn't clear in my mind anymore, but I remember going to the Haram and seeing to Ka'aba for the first time. It was in a sense something ordinary, but to see it with my own eyes was something astounding - I was overwhelmed that I had ended up here from the other side of the world and none of it my own doing, and it made me cry at the sight. Performing Tawaf was actually very difficult - it was extremely crowded and hard to stay with anyone and hard to keep track of where you were and keep count of the number of circumambulations because you were being crushed and pushed and trying to keep in mind what was happening and what it all meant.

I remember being really quite surprised to discover that Safa and Marwa were not mountains but smoothed small hills and under a roof at that. Saiy, walking back and forth between the mountains was physically much easier although still a good distance walk. And it was easy to think of Hagar walking back and forth in the search for water as we too walked back and forth.

The Haram was large and beautiful and inside of it people at times would form small circles and perform recitation of Qur'an as if in competition and we would listen. We prayed sometimes on the roof because there was room nowhere else, and it was oh so beautiful at night. You would find your place to pray and then more and more people would show up and more and more and more and more would come, and then you'd have to move because you were surrounded by men and they would be upset that you were there as a woman in the area they had taken over.

When we went to Muzadalifa we picked up pebbles and put them in little bags - these were little bags that we carried our slippers in everywhere because you had to remove them when entering the mosques, of course, and we also carried little prayer books in them, and a small thin prayer rug with a grass square sewn in for prostration if our mohr was taken or lost, and a few people snuck disposable cameras in them and usually they weren't confiscated when they were searched. I learned about the birds who had stoned the Elephants in the time of Abdullah, the year of the Elephant. These were their stones.

Stoning the Jamarats was perhaps the greatest danger - there were three to stone, symbolizing the temptations of Hagar, Ibrahim, Ishmael. But as you are throwing stones so are countless others, and sometimes someone would be hit and bleed in their Ihram. And the ground was littered with this tiny sharp stones from missed throws and people would step on your feet and your slippers might come off and then you were stepping on these sharp stones. One time that happened to me and I fell forward. As I did so I instinctively reached out in front of me. That was a big mistake I guess, because in front of me was a white-robed man in a long long beard who turned around and yelled at me furiously with pure hatred in his face because I had touched him. It was probably good I had no idea what he said, I was just totally stunned by his behavior. It didn't belong in the world of ihram, the world of dying and death and entering the real life. In Mina we stayed in large tents with spring bunk beds and fans and desert sand floors. We wore pink ribbons pinned to the tops of our hijabs to try to identify us in our caravan so we could find one another. The paths in Mina were tiny because every spot of Earth along the way overflowed with people who had no tents and just slept on the sand and stone wherever they found a spot - they slept on the garbage dumpsters, everywhere, and there was no spot of earth in sight where a human being was not on it.

I remember noting how skinny the Saudi policemen I saw were. One time, a lady and I had to ask one to hail us a Taxi because none wanted to stop for us because they didn't want to go to Azizia. I remember seeing dark-skinned ladies with scarred faces where they had cuts stripes down their faces. I remember tiny children being sat in the streets to beg and when their little pockets would get full, an adult would appear to empty it and then sit them out again. But a banana offered would be scornfully refused. I remember when we would go somewhere for ziarat as soon as we got any distance away from the Haram or the Masjid un Nabiy, the landscape changed. You would see crumbling buildings and medium brown desert instead of marble and white. We went to a Shia masjid and it was but a mud brick building without any AC or anything to identify it and people went about quietly not wanting to be identified as a Saudi Shia by someone who might care in a bad way. We were turned away and told it would not be opening that day for prayer.

I remember date palms - shorter than I expected, as my mindview of palms had been giant palms of uncharted tropical isles - fields of them that we walked through. And a tiny decaying brick buildling with an uneven sandy floor of 4th Imam (as).

I remember falling asleep after days of sleeping almost not at all; someone woke me to say Qurbani had been done. I hadn't hardly realized it was time for it. We didn't eat much either and I came home at least 10 pounds lighter; for one, everything served was spicy hot, even breakfast, and it could be hard to stomach, but you were just too busy with other things. We took a bus to Arafat and traffic was crazy as ever. In Azizia, someone was hit by a cab in front of our rooms and the cab didn't stop and the man died instantly. The smell of the gas was awful as the gas was different, like it was all unfiltered diesel, but we couldn't cover our noses from it in Ihram. At some point in each day we had speeches of our caravan leaders explaining what was coming, how to do it and what it meant. There were no street lights that were obeyed and buses hit each other and scraped by each other amongst throngs of walking people.

Arafat was hot and open. People covered the mount and the plain in camps. We recited through the night. By certain particular of our recitations, which were amplified by microphone, other Shia including Saudis wandered our way. Staying in Ihram was hard because the bathrooms were difficult - no running water, just whatever bottled water you came with, and the floor was covered in najis water just behind a door and there is no seat, you just squat. In the hotel it was fine because you had running water from a hose and you could lock a door and take your time as you tried to figure out squatting without falling and without getting your clothes wet. But out in the fields of the hajj, it was harder.

We went to some other masjids - Masjid Quba was one name I remember, the masjid where the direction of Qiblah changed, one where it was said all the prophets (sa) had prayed, and what was left of Fatima's (as) masjid (just an open corner in a plaza, really). Each was different from the others.

While there, one hardly thought of the world. A thought of back home didn't enter the mind, not even of family; - that was another universe, a fake one that one had been dreaming in, and here was the real life, where all focus, despite the pressing chaotic life all around you, was on nothing but God. I walked around in awe most of the time of the presence of God and that here I am, Labbayk. There were no expectations, you were just there where God had called and whatever happened was as it was meant to be and not in your control. There was no such thing as human control, that was only an illusion for the other fake universe. Some stranger might see you and say your face was glowing with piety when really it was just lost to the physical world and thunderstruck by all that was, by Allah swt. Patience was called on because things never went as planned, so you just went and received what came and tried to fulfill what was incumbent of you humbly, knowing that success or failure depended on He Whom upon all things depend.

Then it was time to leave, and a plane that was supposed to leave at noon might really leave at midnight. You just showed up and sat in throngs of people and waited. The Greeks always applauded when the plane landed. The people boarding the plane did not pay attention to assigned seats and would fight if someone tried to sit in their assigned seat that was already taken. Poor Indian women carried large jugs of zam zam water on their heads to take home but looked fearful of security letting them through with it. Saudia airlines was another world of airline - it didn't look like the others - we took it for a short flight somewhere and it had those drop down screens which were new to me then and the Saudi flight attendants shocked me for I did not see them in the black abayahs and three-layered burqahs that they lifted up in the stores to see what they were buying as I had seen on the streets; these were wearing makeup so heavy it might be for a stage show and wore electric blue tight-fitting shalwar khameez.

Somehow I ended up back in Denver, and the transport I had reserved home didn't come, the reservation had been lost. So I was going to stay in the airport all night. But then I met a Muslim cab driver from Afghanistan and when he found I was coming back from hajj he was so excited he drove me all the way home from Denver to Colorado Springs for only $45. I gave him some prayer beads and I still remember his name. I owe a lot of gratitude to those who helped bring about my journey and helped me navigate it every step of the way. They are forever special in one's heart.

Then I was back in my parents' house where I was then living and experiencing the most painful withdrawal I ever felt in my life. I felt as if I had been living and now I was in the aluminum foil world, the fake one, the glaring one where nothing made sense and I didn't know how I could stand it. It was physically painful, an asphyxiation. A fish on dry land or a man held under water. And my parents were glad to have me back and I struggled to relate to the pleasure of being back home when it really felt like I had left home, but I had so little to tell them of my experience, especially what had happened inside me, because there was nothing they could relate to or understand, it was beyond anything I could tie it to for them. I had been to another universe that could not be grasped unless one had been there - like a two dimensional being entering a three dimensional vista and then coming back again to the flat world.

And then gradually the flat world felt real again, with a sense of loss of the real 3D reality of what lies beyond. But there is another home, the real one, and you had glimpsed it. And now you are not a convert, you are a Muslim. There is a difference, and now you are different, forever. Why you were blessed to go, and so early, when others were not you may never know and cannot guess, but can only accept and hope for acceptance of your absolutely inadequate answer to the call. All the answer was, and all it could be, was to be open to receive from God and to set aside any notion of self, for there is nothing to give Him and nothing but Him.

God calls, and we turn to Him. Then we turn away and back and away and back, and but for the guidance and mercy of Allah swt we sell our souls to the flat world. The flat aluminum world would shine before our eyes and fill our vision if we would forget that it is flat and fake. We are not made for this world. We are not made for this world. We are not made for this world. But we can destroy ourselves in it, nonetheless. This dreamworld we can die in, or we can wake up.

"Paradise is gained by practice, not by aspiration." - Imam 'Ali (as)

Eid Mubarak to all observing the Eid of Hajj.

Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik. Labbaik, La Shareek Laka, Labbaik. Innal Hamdah, Wan Nematah, Laka wal Mulk, La Shareek Laka Labbaik.

Here I am at Thy service O Lord, here I am. Here I am at Thy service and Thou hast no partners. Thine alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Thine alone is The Sovereignty. Thou hast no partners, here I am.

Imam Sadiq (as) said about the hajj:

"If you intend to go on pilgrimage, before resolving on it devote your heart to Allah, stripping it of every preoccupation and every barrier between you and Allah. Entrust all your affairs to your Creator; rely on Him in all your actions and moments of stillness. Surrender to His decree, decision and judgement. Abandon this world, repose, and all creation. Perform those duties which you are bound to fulfill for other people. Do not rely on your provisions, the animal you ride, your companions, your food, your youth nor your wealth, for fear that they will become your enemies and be harmful to you; in this way you will realize that there is no power, no strength, nor might except by the guardianship of Allah and His granting of success.

Prepare for the pilgrimage as someone who does not hope to return. Keep good company, and be diligent in observing all your obligations to Allah and the prophetic practices. Take care to show courtesy, endurance, patience, thankfulness, compassion, and generosity, always putting others before yourself at all times, even those who reject you. Then perform an ablution with the water of sincere repentance for wrong actions; put on the robe of truthfulness, purity, humility and fear. By donning the garments of pilgrimage, withhold yourself from everything which hinders you from remembering Allah, or that will impede you from showing obedience to Him.

Fulfill His call with an answer whose meaning is clear, pure and sincere when you call on Him, holding on firmly to your belief in Him. Circumambulate with your heart along with the angels who circumambulate the Throne, just as you circumambulate with the Muslims who go around the Ka’aba. Hasten as you run in flight from your passion, freeing yourself of all your personal assumptions of strength and power. Leave your heedlessness and errors behind when you go out to Mina; do not desire what is unlawful for you and what you do not deserve. Confess your errors at Arafat: set out your contract with Allah by His Oneness, draw near to Him and fear Him at Muzdalifah. Climb with your soul to the highest assembly when you climb the mountain of Arafat. Slit the throat of passion and greed in the sacrifice. Stone your appetites, baseness, vileness, and blameworthy actions when you stone the Pillar of Aqabah. Shave off your outward and inward faults when you shave your hair. Enter into the security of Allah, His protection, His veil, His shelter and His watchfulness and abandon the pursuit of your desires by entering the Sacred Precinct. Visit the House, and walk around it to glorify its Master, His wisdom, His majesty and His power. Embrace the Stone, being content with His decree and humble before His might. Leave everything that is other than Him in the valedictory circumambulation. Purify your soul and your innermost being for the meeting with Allah, on the day when you will meet Him when standing on Safa'.

Take on valour and courtesy from Allah by annihilating your attributes at Marwah. Be consistent in the conditions of your pilgrimage and fulfill the contract you have made with your Lord, by which you will have obliged yourself to Him on the Day of Judgement. Know that Allah made the pilgrimage obligatory, and singled it out from all the acts of worship in respect of Himself when He said,

وَلِلّهِ عَلَى النَّاسِ حِجُّ الْبَيْتِ مَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلا

Pilgrimage to the House is incumbent upon men for the sake of Allah, and [upon] everyone who is able to undertake the journey to it. (3:97)

The Holy Prophet established the organization of the rituals of pilgrimage as preparation for, and an indication of, death, the grave, the resurrection and the Day of Judgement. In this lesson for mankind he discriminates between those who will enter the Garden and those who will enter the Fire, through his demonstrating the pilgrimage rites from beginning to end to those with intelligence and prudence."



May Allah swt forgive and guide us all.

Merry Christmas!

A digital copy of the Beatty Family Recipes is available for download. At least, these are the ones not existing in recipe books somewhere at my mom's house. Let me know what you think. Ignore the instructions about dividers and sheet protectors - that is, unless you decide to make a recipe binder! If the download doesn't work for you, I can e-mail you a copy if you like.

And for Eid, there's some "Shia" Adhan mp3 files in there as well - but these are too big for e-mail, fyi.

Update on Sr. Marzieh

I know several people stopping by this blog had added Sr. Marzieh to their prayers - she is the sister with three kids whose condo was burned in a fire.

I know that many times I heard appeals for help for someone and then never heard about what happened. So I thought you might like this update from her:

Assalam Alaikum
     Sister Masooma thanks for expressing concern about my situation. Alahamdulillah my family and I are fine. We were living in a hotel for 2 weeks then I was able to get a rented unit where we will be living until my townhouse is rebuilt insha'allah. It will take about 5 or 6 months before we can move back into our home. We are very fortunate and Allah's mercy has been with us every step of the way. When I returned to my home after a couple of days and saw the severity of what had taken place, I just was even more grateful than ever that everyone inside the home had escaped without any injuries.
     Alhamdulillah the community has helped and I appreciate all those who have been there for me. I don't necessarily mean financially, but for those even giving me a call just to make sure everything is going okay. i do appreciate it. This whole ordeal has been another learning experience for me and reconfirms certain "givens" for me. One of course is the Greatnest of Allah and two the very temporary state of this world.and all of us in it.
     We should always show our obedience to Him and put our total trust and faith in Him and live each and every day as if it is our last one in this world, because it may be. We must be so attentive to our actions, deeds and words and insha'allah try to pattern our lives after the Ahle-Bait. The tests in this world are many and varied. We just pray that we do well on them and that Allah will be satisfied with our actions.
Thanks Sisters for Caring
Wa Salaam
Marzieh

Big Waves! - and silly/fun stuff updates

XXL Billabong Wow! Check out the pictures and video on this site of some surfing in waves as much as five stories high - impressive!

2006: Year of the Big Waves
Discovery.com reports that 2006 has been a year of unusually large waves, and that there may be a connection to shifting global climate.

Also, on a side note - check out the side bar - if you've never played with the silly/fun stuff, come on, you know you want to - it's fun! I added a few - a different Elvish name generator, and the addicting baby name wizard. If you have some favorites to go there let me know - I suppose santasez is a contender, but I don't know if it is up year-round.

Good Salaat Website

Praytime

This has to be one of the best sites I've seen for prayer stuff - the main page will give prayer times and qibla direction customizable to your location and time zone. It will play the adhan at the proper times if the computer is on and the page is loaded. The education page has a very good prayer instruction guide that can be played and prayed along with or that someone can sit down and study carefully. The services page gives monthly prayer time tables and the qibla on map feature there can be zoomed in so much that you can zoom in right on your house and see the qibla for your house specifically.

Native American group invites visitors to step off the edge of the Grand Canyon

Hualapai's glass walkway to open in March

I'd be interested to see that.

'I'm Not Weird, I'm Eclectic' Meme

I've been tagged by Baraka.

The Code: State six weird things about yourself. Then tag 6 people and leave them a comment to let them know that they've been tagged. I had to think about this one for a little bit.

1. I hate talking on the phone.

I can tolerate it with closest friends and family, but especially with anyone else I abhor it. It makes me uncomfortable. If someone calls and I don't recognize who the caller is, I will just ask to take a message. The one exception to that is a person taking a survey who immediately identifies that - I might participate in the survey to satisfy my own curiosity - I teach AP Statistics and will want to find out if they are following appropriate survey design techniques. :) Lots of men in particular just can't believe that a woman doesn't want to talk on the phone and think it is someone playing games with them or something, but I would much prefer e-mail any day, even with those closest to me. Get me off the phone.

2. I am a fidgeter.

I am that person whose leg is shaking all the time. I hate when someone sitting next to me grabs my leg to get me to stop - it is actually physically painful to try to stop. I also type all the time with my fingers - when I was a little kid before I learned to type it was sign language alphabet letters, and once I learned to type it switched to typing - it is just something that my hands do automatically and only occasionally am I aware of it. This doesn't mean I have ADD or something - I am very good at concentrating and focusing, I just often have a body that moves on its own because it needs to.

3. I don't like quiet.

I work in a school, so I am used to a noisy work environment. When I go and visit my mom at her work, it is so quiet in that office that I think I'd go crazy. I don't mind quiet sometimes, but I need some noise. At home, at all hours of the waking day there is some kind of background noise in my house - singing birds, TV on just for noise, etc. Without it, I'd go crazy. Noise doesn't affect my concentration unless I get too interested in whatever the noise is.

4. I am not in tune with negative feelings.

When I feel good, I usually know why, and I feel good most of the time. However, if I am feeling blue or angry, sometimes I really have to think it out to have any idea why. Yes, I am one of those girls who rarely will find herself crying for no apparent reason. There really is a reason, but it is usually complicated/suppressed. And no, I don't do it publicly. If I am feeling bad, it usually doesn't show, but if it does, I hate being asked what's wrong, especially because I might not know the answer.

5. I don't like crunchy food

Carrots are supposed to crunch. But for the most part, I dislike crunchy food. No hard shell tacos for me, no hard candy or crunchy cookies. Toast. Yuck.

6. I have a very active fantasy life.

I guess some people are never that way, and a lot of people grow out of it when they become adults, but not me. A good portion of my private free time is spent in other worlds inside my head, but no one can tell. It is probably my favorite pastime.

Tag: Wayfarer if she'd like to play. I think Hajar and Sis. Scorp. were already tagged. I won't tag Derek because he hates memes. I've never seen Abu Sinan do one. If Abdul-Rahim Borges is around maybe he'd like to play.

Liquid Water on Mars in the Past 7 Years?

Mars Global Surveyor Found Evidence of Recent Water Flows