December 27th, 2006:
I prayed Fajr in Mississauga.
Zuhr and Asr in Kingston.
Maghrib in Ottawa.
And Isha in Montreal.
That's five prayers in four cities, a new personal record. Though in retrospect, I should have prayed Zuhr in Bowmanville; I'm due for another visit.
In addition, I found time to resolve a number of long-standing issues, including one nearly two years old, alhamdolillah, and managed to still find time to help someone move for three hours. I feel accomplished.
aah, the joy felt in the simplest of lifes pleasures :))
ReplyDeleteFaraz!!!!
ReplyDeleteIf you are on HOLIDAY should you not be taking a break from the travelling???
Mashallah it does feel really good when you make use of every single hour of the God-given day. I'm so lazy most days but doing a hard day's graft actually gives me a buzz! I also feel really pants [English expression] if i've wasted my day...
The word "day" was used too often in that last paragraph!!
Anyway, let me know if you ever plan a trip to London - i can do with some help in the back yard...
Salaams
Five prayers in four cities, that's brilliant man.
ReplyDeleteShahrukh and I were right - you definitely aren't sane anymore. :)
ReplyDeleteSweeeeeeeet, masha'Allah! :D
ReplyDeleteRe: your latest entry (you disabled comments on it so i have to write it here).
ReplyDeleteThe title is from a joke.
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
“Why?” asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit.
The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“Well, I'm a panda,” he says at the door. “Look it up.”
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”
BA-DOOM-TISH!
The game was fun in a geeky kind of way - i scored 75%!
woah....i'd like to do that some day!
ReplyDeleteKimya: Yes, it was quite a bit of fun.
ReplyDeleteiMuslim: I suppose taking a travelling break might be a good idea... but these travels weren't so bad, it was all within 800km, not the usual cross-country trip I make outside of the holidays. And no flying; just my somewhat unreliable car along snow-covered highways. And it was all in one time zone! The frequent time zone jumping is the hardest part of my non-holiday travelling. Best of all, I got to spend quality time with friends I don't see often enough.
Anyway, I'm home now and get to spend several precious days with the family without having to actually go anywhere. It is quite a nice break. :)
Feel really "pants"? I've heard that expression before; I find it highly amusing for some reason.
And ... umm, I don't think I can help with your yard.
Asmaa: Brilliant? That might be a bit too much. It's rather ridiculous, really. But thanks anyway.
Nauman: That's funny, because him and I were just discussing how insane you are for the unnecessarily long hours you work. (And when someone in consulting says you're working too many hours, that's not good.)
AnonyMouse: JazakAllah. :)
iMuslim: JazakAllah-khair for the explanation; I had a feeling it had something to do with that, but I've never heard this joke before. I don't know why I disabled comments for that post. Oh well. I've been scoring quite poorly on the test. Using apostrophes in the possessive form has always been the bane of my writing.
H: Perhaps one day you shall... all the best, insha-Allah!
And Eid Mubarak to everyone!
Assalaamu'alaykum
ReplyDeleteRe: The Puncuation Game
The game is an excellent place to practice knowledge of the rules surrounding apostraphes, but if you're not clear on how it works, your answers will be as good as chance. The concept isn't difficult, but it takes a little thought. If you can get your mind around computer programing, I'm confident you'll be fine with this, insha'Allah.
These pages might help:
Forming the English Possessive
Owl Online Writing Lab
"The game is an excellent place to practice knowledge of the rules surrounding apostraphes, but if you're not clear on how it works, your answers will be as good as chance."
ReplyDeleteI seem to have more of a feel for English grammar than an actual knowledge of it.
I am one of only two "native" English speakers in my lab group (and that's pretty funny when you consider i'm 2nd generation Indian), and for some reason I am usually the one referred to when anyone has language problems.
My fellow PhD student in the group is a stereotypically curt Russian. He often asks for my opinion on the wording of a sentence. If i disagree with his choice and provide an alternative, he invariably proceeds to question my reasoning. The only problem is i never have a tangible reason to offer! All i tend to say is "my way sounds better", which just drives him CRAZY!
"All i tend to say is "my way sounds better", which just drives him CRAZY!"
ReplyDeleteHeh - i just remembered that according to the game, the above sentence should have a comma placed just before the first quotation mark. I think i actually got it right in the game... oh well, i am only three quarters Stickler!
Farzeen: Wa'alaykum assalam. Thanks for the links. I feel quite silly for actually needing help with this; I spent a considerable amount of time TA'ing College level English, and even served as an editor for a newspaper ... I really shouldn't be making mistakes like this anymore.
ReplyDeleteiMuslim: I also only had the feel for it until I took a special course designed to specifically teach me how to teach English, which was a pre-requisite for my eventual position as a college teaching assistant. That was perhaps the best course I've ever taken, though it wasn't enough to push me over the edge and pursue journalism.
At work, I'm also always the one asked to solve any language problems or revise any e-mail or document that might be poorly worded. While I'm officially the Technology Lead, I'm unofficially the local wordsmith, and spend a lot of time reworking written documents to be more clear and readable. And yet, I must be littering these documents with misplaced apostrophes.
I have no problems with commas or semicolons or colons or any other form of punctuation, but I've received numerous complaints via e-mail from blog readers about my apostrophes. I suppose now is as good a time as any to figure it out.
"I've received numerous complaints via e-mail from blog readers about my apostrophes."
ReplyDeleteYou mean, people actually take the time to email you about your apostrophe problem?
OK...(!)
Btw, what is a Technology Lead?
iMuslim: Yes, a few people have e-mailed me about my apostrophes, which is why I posted that link to the Punctuation Game in the first place.
ReplyDeleteUm, basically, as the tech lead, my job is to identify, assess, and implement the technology required to support the business processes we're trying to improve. My actual daily routine changes quite a bit from day to day, however.