Sunday, December 31, 2006

Friday, December 22, 2006

Dresser drawer

Do-it-yourself projects


What do y'all think of our deck stain on this dresser? Tried to put 2 coats on and whoops that didn't work. It came out tacky, so had to wipe it off with a rag of mineral spirits. Now this is how it looks...."rustic", is how dervish labeled it I believe!


Personally I think he should go for one more attempt at a coating of the deck stain....I'd like the colour to be more pronounced, but I can accept it like it is now, too.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I've been tagged!

Salihah tagged me, so here it is - 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.
1. I was a child theater star (locally), in numerous musical theater shows including playing "Annie" in the production of Annie.
2.I am not currently actually a Hijabi! Even though my pic online is of me in Niqaab! ...and even though I adore wearing hijab.
3. I am not a "rules" personality type on the Myers-Briggs spectrum (who would've guessed?).
4.My daughter attends a Christian-sponsored preschool, even though we are in fact muslims.
5.Most of my extended family thinks we are spies , because they can't figure out why anyone in their right mind (oh I guess they think we're still sane, that's good) would go live in Qatar. My husband's side thinks we're spies for the CIA; my side thinks we're spies for Al Qaeda!
WHAT NONSENSE!
So nice to be home!
6. I believe in and practice the 5 pillars of Islam.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Racism in Cincinnati

Well, we've been here now since August and my husband and I agree that this is pretty much the most racist place we've ever seen.

The racism is so obvious in people, it's sad.

A man I casually chatted with the other day while our children were playing on the same playground exhibited some prime racist statements; he was telling me about "how much better" the city of Indianapolis is for families (WTF! there's NOTHING in Indianapolis! ..Except of course, lots of WHITE people!), and about "how safe" it is there (meaning; lots of white people)and how there is so much more to do downtown Indianapolis than there is downtown Cincinnati for families (nevermind all of the great Christmas festivities on Fountain Square! They don't count because there are black people present I guess).

He then proceeded to tell me that whatever I do, not to live in the city limits of Cincinnati; that there is conflict between the police and City Council, that there aren't enough police officers to fight crime there appropriately, etc. and so forth, and that I'll definitley be better off living in a suburb or in "any town in Northern Kentucky" because each city has it's own police force, own EMT's, own fire squads, etc. (of and there are only white people!) . He also made some sort of comment about how entitled blacks think they are and that whenever "they" have a problem "they" automatically blame it on the fact they are in fact black and are being discriminated against.

I quickly got myself away from this jerk.

My husband says that the white folks at his place of employement always refer to whomever it is they are referring to not just by his or her name, but they preface their statement with "you know that black (guy/gal) named ______...." WTF? What does the somebody's skin colour or ethnic background have to do with how you identify them? Seriously, something wicked this way comes!

But it gets even more severe. There was a patient who needed to be released. She had nothing but the clothes on her back, seeing as she was admitted as an emergent case in a fire. No house keys, no car etc. Her one relative could not come to pick her up that night, but could do so the following morning. So the social worker was going to release her anyways and send her to the homeless shelter for the night! Outlandish! Luckily for the patient, another staff member intervened, pointing out the fact that this woman was not homeless, she had a home she just didn't have transportation until the morning. 100% chance if this patient had been white the social worker would NEVER have thought to send her to the homeless shelter for the night! But she was black...when probed as to why on earth this would be an appropriate decision, the social worker replied that she "does this all of the time," . Whoa!

I wasn't here for the riots 5 years ago, but apparenlty that set off a serious case of "white flight" from the city limits. Apparenlty now Cincinnati has the lowest home ownership rate of any city in the country (yikes! I hope we don't become another Flint in 10 more years!), and the crime rate per 100,000 people has consistently gone up every year since the riots. The total number of murders is also on the rise, from 40 in the year 2000 up to 79 total murders in 2005.

Luckily for us, the city has set up a lot of programs to help people become homeowners. Let's pray that this year goes well for us, becoming homeowners in the City where Pigs Fly!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Terror has no Religion

From a group of moderate Arabs apparently in Iraq. They have launched a big media campaign, with “Terror has no Religion” (in Arabic of course) as their slogan.

The red bleeding words at the end of the video say “Terror has no religion” in Arabic.

The Real Message; Islam is not the enemy! Idiodic terrorists (from any culture or creed) ARE!

Here is their mission statement;


Our Mission

Our mission is to expose the fallacy of the distorted and politicized Islamic teachings used by ungodly extremists to sanctify and justify terrorism.It has become crucial to inform the Muslim and Arab people -particularly the Iraqi people- about the deceptions terrorists employ in distorting the peaceful teachings of Islam. These terrorists, who claim to follow the Islamic Faith, are in truth only drowning in an abyss of mistaken beliefs.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Unaccompanied Minors

We’ve got to help raise up the children of America today
Because they’re sick and it’s no accident
A Corporate display

They want to make us hungry ghosts and to kill our humanity

Our children are getting “dumb and dumber”
Cheetah girls with sex on display
The stupider the easier to control don’t you see

Corporations know the smart ones
aren’t easy to control
Filll them with desire to buy and conformity their every goal

We have become a Nation of Lust
Hail to Having Need
Hungry phantoms born by the Death of humanity

So I ask you what are we teaching our children

You know they learn by what they see
They run around and imitate everything they see on TV

Insatiable ghosts that can only want more
While losing their humanity

Well Hollywood feeds us crap that’s violent and just plain evil
Like “Unaccompanied Minors” and Harry P.
Then nobody understands how Columbine could happen And they say, “How could this come to be?”

Well there’s no place left for children to just be children
In our Society
Except to become Hungry ghosts
Shadows of humanity.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Thirsty

Do not look at your own form, be it beautiful or ugly;
look at the true object of your love, and the goal of your search.
Do not look at your own state, which is feeble and vile;
look at the true object of your hopes and aspirations.
In whatever state you are, seek God.
Seek God as if your lips were dry and you were seeking water.
Dry lips are a sign that you will eventually reach a spring.
Dry lips are a message from the water:
'If you keep searching, you will find me.'
To seek is a blessed activity; it destroys the obstacles on the path to God.
If you seek, you will find.
-Rumi, "Mathnawi"