The Blog

Today, when I booted my computer up, I got a miniature heart attack: I was staring at an error message:

And when I clicked on click here, I got a cryptic message:

After doing some Internet searching, I found this on Microsoft’s TechNet:
Error Message: The System Has Recovered from a Serious Problem
But I haven’t installed anything new that would cause this problem…we had a power outage last night for 2 hours while the PC was on Stand By mode when we were out.
I don’t know if you remember that I have managed to screw up the CD Recording capabilities of my Windows XP professional machine. I mean, it was working fine and I don’t know what got into me, I tried installing a not very well known CD recording application (I forget the name, but it wasn’t Nero or Roxio or something) which didn’t work and rendered my exisiting CD recording interface useless. Now, I need to either repair the installation of Windows XP or reinstall Windows XP from scratch. It’s a daunting task, to say the least. I need to back up stuff like VS, Oracle and a slew of applications that I’ve spent so much time installing and configuring. Windows XP itself takes a good one hour or so to completely install. And I don’t remember if all the drivers for all the hardware I have came with Windows XP or if I had to install them afterwards…plus all my Internet, Desktop, Favorites, Web Sites and other settings…I can back it all up but its just so much to back up…argh! Oracle takes one hour as well, at least…and even then the installation can get screwed up…VS takes another hour at least.
I should’ve created a ghost image of my hard drive and burned it on a CDR…InshaAllah, I’ll do that next time.
I desperately need to buy another computer. There’s so much I am dying to do that I can’t accomplish on this computer…I want to install Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP on the other computer and have fun with that. I guess an XBOX will have to be bought before I even think about another computer

i watched the movie ‘frida’ the other day…a sort of biography [i hope not too far from the truth?] of the life of frida kahlo the mexican artist. it was a lot about her relationship with diego rivera, another famous mexican artist, rather than her painting. Of course this is hollywood, they have to make it relatively watchable for a general audience. It was dark, like she was. and her pain was unbearable to imagine, even as a many times removed on-looker. i don’t know if she was a wife first, and a painter second, like the movie seemed to portray. and that she seemed to only paint to express the deep grievances of her physical pain and debilitation. she is considered a “primitive” artist, i.e. did not attend art school, but she did possess a natural ability to visually express what was in the heart. and of course the movie was filled with scenes depicting her controversial love affairs which was laid out way too explicitly for my taste.

Self-Portrait

Life is weird. You see how weird it is when you see your own kid grow up in front of your eyes. MashaAllah! Alhamdulillah! SubhanaAllah! And you are forced to wonder about your own existence. How you came to be. Just your kid is completely dependent upon you, you were once completely dependent upon your parents. Its thought provoking how God has made the human baby so dependent upon his/her parents even though most other animals start walking and feeding themselves soon after they are born. God could just as easily have made us that way: walk and talk as soon as we’re born. Why?

Isn’t life just amazing? I think anyone that doesn’t believe in God – and that He is the Creator of the everything – lacks common sense. I mean, life is so full of signs of God. Everywhere you look, you ought to see God’s greatness. If you don’t look around, look within yourself and you’ll see God: the way we grow up and develop from a helpless baby into a full human being that thinks, walks, talks, boasts, marries, has children, fights, cries, laughs, marvels at his/her kids and ponders the complexities of life itself…all these are not possible without an All Supreme God that Created everything. I am convinced. If you read surah Yasin (the 36th chapter from the Quraan), particularly verses 77-79 below, you’ll see what I mean.

77-Doth not man see that it is We Who created him from sperm? yet behold! he (stands forth) as an open adversary!
78-And he makes comparisons for Us, and forgets his own (origin and) Creation: He says, “Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?”
79-Say, “He will give them life Who created them for the first time! for He is Well-versed in every kind of creation!-

And read surah Mulk (the 67th chapter from the Quraan) particularly verse number 15 below:

It is He Who has made the earth manageable for you, so traverse ye through its tracts and enjoy of the Sustenance which He furnishes: but unto Him is the Resurrection.

I am trying to take control of my speech more and more these days. It’s very hard to not swear if you have always sworn a little every now and then. I mean, the four letter words such. Sure, you control when and where you say it but when you’re mad or upset one of the first things you say is sh|t or the f word. I’m trying to get rid of that bad habit. InshaAllah, with some effort, I will conqueor this beast as well. It’s like an addiction. Like smoking was. Almost as bad. And just as hard to quit, if not harder. Maybe cigarettes were harder to quit, but it seems like a distant memory now. Reading Quraan and doing the daily zikir is helping, alhamdulillah

Aliyah is the reason that I quit smoking. ‘Cause I didn’t want her inhaling 2nd hand smoke, I quit before she was born. Now that she’s learning speech, I feel that I better correct my own speech or she may learn the improper things to say when I accidentally utter them.

I attended a janazah prayer (the muslim funeral prayer) today. Death is a natural phenomenon and every living being is going to taste death. The basic muslim belief is that the real life starts after death, the everlasting, never ending life. This life is when you get the chance to prepare for the life after death. After someone dies, their record book closes so nothing can benefit them anymore except for a few things: charity that continues (for instance if you contributed towards a school or a hospital or a masjid, as long as people benefit from it, you will keep receiving the reward for it even after your death); your children that pray for you after you die; or if you gave someone knowledge and they keep practicing that knowledge after you die and/or propagate that knowledge to others after you die, you keep getting a reward for that…so there is no limit to how much reward you can get if you really plan it carefully

I am so tired! I don’t even know why…I’ve been busy and hardly had a chance to blog but that’s no reason to be tired. I think it must be ’cause I’m not getting enough sleep these days.
I’ve been getting into the daily zikir routine, alhamdulillah! You can read about the zikir on my articles Blog. Most of the zikir is composed of Quranic duas and well known kalimas…I haven’t fully developed this zikir just yet, but once its finished and I am satisfied that I have all the components in it that I want, I will make it available in MS Word/Adobe Acrobat format, inshaAllah. So all of you can benefit from it as well!
I haven’t been able to play much tennis lately The weather has been weird too…it’s finally nice and warm but I’m just too lethargic. I need to go jogging or something…I was doing so well managing my weight but I had three halal hot dogs for lunch today…I am so bad!
We watched Analyze That last night and Frida tonight. I don’t recommend either of them…don’t waste your time with them.
I think I need to go to sleep now