Star of the Month--October 2007

"Bad times should be welcomed, they are there for reasons beyond our understanding! Knowing that (the apparent) bad is not negative ... what can be more positive than that! feeling bad is inevitable and that is for a reason too! don't let it overwhelm you :) the state of happiness is not something to be longed for; peace is something that outweighs it!"

~ Saira Andleeb Kiani
On the post This I Believe

Body's Clock Never Adjusts to Daylight Savings Time

You can't fool Mother Nature, experts say

Health Day: Changing to daylight savings time may give people an hour more of sunlight, but it appears that their internal body clocks never really adjusts to the change, German researchers report.

In fact, daylight savings time can cause a significant seasonal disruption that might have other effects on our bodies, according to the report in the Oct. 24 online edition of Current Biology.

"When you change clocks to daylight savings time, you don't change anything related to sun time," explained lead researcher Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. "This is one of those human arrogances -- that we can do whatever we want as long as we are disciplined. We forget that there is a biological clock that is as old as living organisms, a clock that cannot be fooled. The pure social change of time cannot fool the clock."

People's circadian rhythm -- the body's internal clock -- follows the sun and changes depending on where you live. It actually changes in four-minute intervals, exactly the time it takes for the sun to cross one line of longitude, Roenneberg explained. Read On

Brain Study: Sleepy, grumpy and...primitive

Reuters: A few nights without sleep can not only make people tired and emotional, but may actually put the brain into a primitive "fight or flight" state, researchers said on Wednesday.
Brain images of otherwise healthy men and women showed two full days without sleep seemed to rewire their brains, re-directing activity from the calming and rational prefrontal cortex to the "fear center" -- the amygdala.
"It's almost as though, without sleep, the brain had reverted back to more primitive patterns of activity, in that it was unable to put emotional experiences into context and produce controlled, appropriate responses," said Matthew Walker of the University of California Berkeley, who led the study. Continued....

Unbreakable Laws

LAW OF QUEUE: If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move faster than the one you are in now.

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LAW OF TELEPHONE: When you dial a wrong number, you never get an engaged one.

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LAW OF MECHANICAL REPAIR: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.

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LAW OF THE WORKSHOP: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

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LAW OF THE ALIBI: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.

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BATH THEOREM: When the body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

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LAW OF ENCOUNTERS: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

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LAW OF THE RESULT: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will!

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LAW OF BIOMECHANICS: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

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THEATRE RULE: People with the seats at the furthest from the aisle arrive last.

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LAW OF COFFEE: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold

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LAW OF RUGS\CARPETS:The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.

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BROWN'S LAW:If the shoe fits, it's ugly.

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DOCTOR'S LAW:If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better. Don't make an appointment and you'll stay sick.

Time of Your Life

This one is for Saira Andleeb, for our countless arguments on destiny, her spooky link to the song and for reasons only she will understand =)

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

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So make the best of this test, and don't ask why.
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.
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It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
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;)

Content

In the picture, just look at the family's condition.There is no place to sleep, still they have made some space for the cat n the dog. Water is pouring from the roof but still each one of them have a peaceful smile on their face. Simply amazing!!!!!

The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect.

Do you dare to try?

"A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. Never leave that till tomorrow, he said, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying.”

-Dr. Meredith Grey
from the T.V show Grey's Anatomy

Faith

“When you have come to the edge Of all light that you know And are about to drop off into the darkness Of the unknown, Faith is knowing One of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or You will be taught to fly”
~ Patrick Overton

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”
~Gail Devers

“Scepticism is the beginning of Faith.”
~Oscar Wilde

"You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.”
~ Mary Manin Morrissey

"Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof. Faith is an oasis in the heart which can never be reached by the caravan of thinking"
~ Kahlil Gibran

"There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”
~Oswald Chambers

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”
~Martin Luther King

"Faith makes all things possible.... love makes all things easy.”
~Anonymous

"Faith isn't faith until it's all you're holding on to”
~Anonymous

"Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow.”
~Anonymous

Tee-M - Suji Ka Halwa

Inspired by his mom's cooking, Tariq Mirza(Tee-M) came up with this song.It has the feel of nursery rhyme meets folk meets country meets pop meets fusion meets all sorts of other things I know nothing about. I dedicate it to KhanyStar who is a huge fan of his mom.Well, aren't we all.Moms are the best =)

The Other Side Of You

I was watching Grey's Anatomy last evening, Season 1-episode 2. I thoroughly enjoyed this dialog

"At some point you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out.They fence you in.Life is messy.That's how we are made.So you can waste your life drawing lines, or you can live your life crossing them.But there are some lines that are way too dangerous to cross. Here's what I know, if you are willing to take the chance,then the you from the other side is spectacular."

Thanks to Isbah, for introducing the show to me. I am growing fond of it.

Qasida Burda-The Poem of the Cloak

The Burda, or the Prophet's Mantle or Cloak, is a qasida (poem) composed by Imam Sharafuddin Muhammad Al-Busiri, may Allah have mercy on him. Imam Busiri was born in Egypt in 608 A.H. and died in 695 A.H. (corresponding to 1212 C.E to 1296 C.E.).

Imam Busiri composed the qasida after suffering from a stroke which left him partially paralysed. He prayed to Allah for a cure then fell asleep. In a dream, he saw himself reciting the qasida to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, who then touched the paralyzed part of his body and threw his mantle or Burda over him. On awakening, he discovered he had been cured of his paralysis.

The verses of The Burda have since been learned by heart and inscribed on the walls of mosques and madrassas all over the Muslim world, and it is congregationally recited all over the world.

More than 90 commentaries have been written on this qasida, and it has been translated in Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Berber, Punjabi, French, and German, to name but a few languages.

The Burda is in 10 parts and has 160 verses all of which end with the Arabic letter Meem.

I like it in Junaid Jamshed's voice the best. To Listen, click here.
Wear your headphones(full volume),sit back, relax, close your eyes, and listen to it. It's immensely soothing.

Disappearing Ink

TimesOnline: Scientists have unveiled a new kind of 'ink' that disappears from a page 24 hours after printing, allowing paper to be re-used.
Mission Impossible-style self-destructing messages may soon cross from the realm of fiction into the wilds of the nine-to-five office, according to scientists who have developed printer ink that vanishes after 24 hours.
When a document is printed on the reusable paper, the text initially appears similar to normal printed text – only in a shade of dark purple, rather than black.
Eight hours later, however, the image is a shadow of its former self and after a day – much like the McFly family photograph in Back to the Future – it is gone completely.
The blank page can then be put back in the printer.Read On

More Random Pics

I transferred pictures to my pc again. Here are the one's I picked to share.Happy viewing.

Caught red-handed, muHahaHa. Teeba is pretending to work. =)
Deeply involved in playing milkshake

Tazeen made me lasagne

Look at the pearl drops at the bottom of the needle like leaves

Ramadan Full Moon

Ramadan Moon-before iftari time during early Ramadan days

A Falcon up the sky

A Bad Marraige Can Break Your Heart...Literally

Wired News: A lousy marriage might literally make you sick. Marital strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart disease, researchers reported Monday.What it likely boils down to is stress - a well-known contributor to health problems, as well as a potential byproduct of troubled relationships, the scientists said.
In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, those with the worst close relationships were 34 percent more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends.Read On

Futuristic car makes reversing obsolete

Reuters: For all those drivers that hate parallel parking and anything else that requires the reverse gear, Nissan could one day have the car for you.

The leading Japanese carmaker recently unveiled the Pivo2, a battery-powered concept car with a fully rotating cabin that makes going backwards obsolete, since the driver can turn to face the direction they need to go. Its wheels also turn 90 degrees, making parking easier. "With this easy-to-handle car, you can feel comfortable while driving," said Masahiko Tabe, senior manager of the advanced vehicle development group at Nissan Motors.

"You can go everywhere without worrying about your driving skills." The car is as yet not for commercial sale.

The futuristic, three-seat car also comes with a robotic device that Nissan said monitors the driver's expression using censors and tailors its conversation accordingly.

The device, able to converse in English and Japanese, can help an angry driver overcome road rage or wake you up if you're prone to dozing behind the wheel, the car makers said.

"Are you sleeping? There's a cafe 500m ahead," the device said during a demonstration of the car last week. The Pivo 2 will be showcased at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month.

Mujhay Zindagee Mein Yaa Rab

Taken from Junaid Jamshed's album Mehboob-e-Yazdaan.

Click here to listen to the dua.

Mujhay Zindagee Mein Yaa Rab

Sar-e- Bandagee Ata Kar

Mairay Dil ke Bay Hissi Ko

Ghume Ashiqee Ata Kar

Mujhay Zindagee Mein Yaa Rab

Tairay Dard kee chamak ho

Tairay Yaad kee kasak ho

Mairay Dil kee Dharkano Ko

Nayee Baykali Ata kar

Jo tujhee say lau lagaday

Jo Mujhay maira pata day

Mairay Ehad kee zuban main

Mujhay Gumrahee Ata kar

Jo Dilon Main Noor Kar day

Wohee Roshnee Ata Kar

Mairee Zindagee Mein Yaa Rab

Mein Safar mein sau na jaoon

Mein yaheen pay khau na jaaon

Mujhay Zok o Shok e Manzil

Kee Hama Hame Ata Kar

Baree dur hai abhi tak

Raghain Jan kee Musafat

Jo diya hai qurb toonay

Tau shaoor bhee ata kar

Mairay Qalb ko wo faiz-e darayarfy ata kar

Mujhay Zindagee Mein Yaa Rab

Barhey anjuman may reh kar

Nah hoon ashna kissee say

Mujhay doston kay jhurmat

Main woh bay kassi ata kar

Mujhay Tairee Justajo ho

Mairay dil main tu hee tu ho

Mairay Qalb ko wo faiz-e darayarfy ata kar

Jo dilon may noor kar day

Wohee roshnee ata kar

Ramadan Tag

I have been tagged by a friend, here's my response.

1- Do you wake up with enough time margin in Sehri or just rush to the dinning room five minutes before Azan time?

I rush down 10 minutes earlier or so after a dozen wake up calls.

2- A must have food item in Sehri / Iftar?

Sehri: Water

Iftar: Lemonade, Fruit Chart, Pakoray

3- A food item you try to avoid in Sehri/ Iftar?

-None as such but I prefer to have snacks at iftar time instead of dinner (heavy meal)

-My Sehri is very light, these days I take fruit chart. So you can say I avoid heavy food.

4- Have you observed fast without Sehri this ramzan?

Nope.

5- Which thing you crave for after Iftar? Milk, Tea, Coffee, Cigarette … etc?

Something sweet;Chocolate—Cadbury’s fruit and nuts or toblerone these days, or jalebee, or some cheese cake or any good pastry, icecream would do too =)

6- Invited for Iftar this ramzan? How many times and by whom?

Not yet.

7- Invited for Sehri and/or invited somebody for the same at your place?

Nope. Teeba, If you are reading this, the sehri invitation is still open on the condition you bring your Godzilla (pet parrot) along for my kitkat (pet cat) to feast on :p

8- Dinned out at Sehri? If yes, how was the experience?

Nope. Sounds like a crazy idea.

9- Would you like to recommend a place for Iftar?

Home Sweet Home. Iftari’s are best at home. Peaceful environment, family around, great food. I prefer iftar at home and would suggest the same to the rest. Besides I haven’t come across a good economical iftar package at any of the good eat-out’s around.

10- Routine changes in Ramzan, so do the college and office timings. With half of the ramzan gone, have you adjusted yourself with this new routine or still struggling? Or your routine varies from weekdays to weekends in a different way than it used to be before Ramzan; and are you quite satisfied with the goings?

Alhumdulilah I have adjusted well. I enjoy Ramadan more than the usual days and look forward to this month. There is a sense of peace and I gets more time in hand, especially to spend with my mom.

11- Are there any non-Muslims in the circle of your colleagues, class-fellows and friends? And do they avoid eating openly?

Nope, no non-Muslims in my circle.Most Muslims in my circle who don’t fast for whatever the reason, avoid eating openly but I really don’t mind.

12- Do you think you are doing justice with your Ebadaat this month, in a true sagacity as it should be in ramzan?

Sadly, no. I can do far, far better. May Allah grant me the will power to do so.

13- Do you go shopping on chand raat? If ‘yes’ then with family, friends or alone?

O yes. Both with family and friends in two sessions ;). It’s less of shopping and more of having a good time. I always get bangles and hina done on chand raat.

14- Are we going to celebrate this Eid with Musharraf as president? And next Eids with both: Mush and BB as ‘P’ and ‘PM’ respectively?

Doesn’t matter. Eid will be celebrated in any case. I pray the best for the nation

I tag Monay,Teeba and Isbah

This I believe

"Happiness is not a situation to be longed for, or a convergence of lucky happenstance. Through the power of our own minds, we can help ourselves.”

Wayne Coyne in his article Creating our own happiness : I believe we have the power to create our own happiness. I believe the real magic in the world is done by humans. I believe normal life is extraordinary.

I was sitting in my car at a stoplight intersection listening to the radio. I was, I guess, lost in the moment, thinking how happy I was to be inside my nice warm car. It was cold and windy outside, and I thought, "Life is good."

Now, this was a long light. As I waited, I noticed two people huddled together at the bus stop. To my eyes, they looked uncomfortable; they looked cold and they looked poor. Their coats looked like they came from a thrift store. They weren't wearing stuff from The Gap. I knew it because I'd been there. Read On

A laptop, a coffee, and disaster recovery

John Locke : "Last week, my laptop died a sudden spectacular death-by-drowning, as a full cup of coffee poured into its keyboard. It emitted a pop sound, and the screen and the power shut off.

What would your reaction be? Mine was to immediately unplug the power cord and remove the battery. Then I took it over to the sink and poured out the coffee. Remembering tales of people flushing keyboards with water, I ran some fresh water over the keys and then set to work. I removed the keyboard, the palm rest, a few of the inner cards, and let it sit without power for several hours. Apparently, not long enough.

Later that day, anxious to find out whether it was really dead or just comatose, I plugged it back in, crossed my fingers, and pressed the power button. The power light came on, I heard the fan start, and for a second or two, I was hopeful. But then... another pop, and it was dead. No further cleaning, drying, or care could resuscitate it over the next few days, so it’s currently back at the IBM factory going through open-heart surgery, if not a total replacement"

For a good reality check for your disaster recovery strategies,and handy suggestions Read On

Quotable Quote

"To expect the world to treat you fairly, because you're a good person, is somewhat like asking a bull not to attack you, because you're a vegetarian!”

~Readers Digest