some names i’ve used in the past:

• meribia – a town from the lunar rpgs
• weltall – a “gear” name from xenogears
• termina – a city from chrono cross
• zanarkand – a city from ffx
• dalmasca – a city name from ffxii
• lab32 – a location from chrono trigger

the machine names in bold are in-use as of this post’s writing.  some of these were actually named for a reason – termina was named because it’s a linux box (ie a linux termina-l), for example, and zanarkand was named because it was a far away city (and the laptop traveled far away from home).  interestingly enough, zanarkand actually refers to “zanarkand ruins,” a place left in ruins in ffx.  by mere coincidence, this happened to also become the fate of that laptop.

i’ve typically named servers by city names (ie makkah, madinah, aqsa), but have now started using names related to the domain name(s) hosted on that machine.

oh, and any printer i have gets named hydralisk, after the famous zerg creatures from starcraft.

lyrics:

gotta change the favorites i have,
for the new design in store,
cuz right now i really can’t,
take it any more,
and i know it makes no sense,
cuz my farm is nice fo’ sure,
but i can’t wait for gas anymore.

it’s ridiculous…
it’s been weeks, i’ve been playing and i can’t get over it,
and my time’s worth more than this,
enough is enough,
no more sitting around, clicking around,
i am so tired of farmin’ up, to get ahead of you,

and i am so sick of farmville,
hear me loud and clear,
so done with planting, flowers and corn ears,
and i am so sick of farmville, and the much clickin’ fo sho’
so why won’t this game leave me alone?

got nice equipment on board,
a tractor and seeder,
too bad they’re as useless as,
a plastic weed eater,
i am so sick of running out of gas,
and clicking every square,
and how every click must be multiplied by three…

that’s the reason that i am so sick of farmville,
hear me loud and clear,
so done with planting, flowers and corn ears,
and i am so sick of farmville, and the much clickin’ fo sho’
so why won’t this game leave me alone?

said i am so sick of farmville,
hear me loud and clear,
so done with playing a game, makes me bored to tears,
and i am so sick of farmville, unless i find a bot,
so why won’t this game leave me alone?
why won’t this game leave me alone…

what is this:
this is a dish known as “فول” in arabic (pronounced ‘fool’). it’s a bean dish famous in the middle east as a breakfast or late night snack.

ingredients:

• 1 (or more) cans of fava beans
• 1 (or more) cans of sliced tomatoes
• lemon juice
• tahina (ground sesame seed)

these ingredients can mostly be obtained at any middle eastern or desi grocery store.

instructions:
- obtain a pot.
- open beans and put beans in the pot.
- add tomatoes to the pot.
- mix together well.
- add a little bit of tahina to the pot – enough to make it slightly lighter color, but not too much. maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons at most
- heat together and mix well.
- add lemon on top and serve (with pita bread usually).

for an upgraded experience:
of course if you want to go all out, try replacing the canned tomatoes with fresh tomatoes, the canned beans with fresh ones that you must first leave in water for some time, and replace the lemon juice with real lemon. experts can try placing the aforementioned mixture with the fresh ingredients into a pressure cooker for better results.

the meaning of the title:
the title, which means ahmed’s great fool, is a pun on the arabic comedy movie, “فول الصين العظيم”, in which the main character cooks fool in a cooking competition in china.

the main reason i like the blog is it’s interesting to look back and see what i was writing about n years ago.  it just serves as a good documentation.  twitter/brightkite do the job as well (esp with uploading pictures to brightkite on the go and tagging location), but the blog allows me to be less concise.

so yeah, perhaps i will resume the posts shortly ™.

i am not a big fan of sports, but this was one game i had to watch second cup win in a row, the last being against the ivory coast in 2006.

dang, i was being paid to make da3wa and i didn’t even know it, al7amdulillah

1. for some things, right and wrong are undoubtedly clear. but for others, how do you really know? two extremely good people with two extremely good (albeit different) view points can really leave you in the middle, unsure of what the right answer is.
2. why is it so easy to hurt someone you care about accidentally?
3. why do people get carried away trying to live out the “american dream” (ie nice job, nice brick house with a white fence and a dog named spot?)
4. why is life so repetitive and cyclic?
5. why are we as humans so impatient?
6. why are we as humans always looking to be accepted by others?
7. why do we let what people say and think drive our actions and affect them so much?
8. “history repeats itself” – but sometimes it doesn’t… or does it?
9. why is it that most of us are in much better shoes than so many people that we know, and yet we are still not happy?
10. how do you distinguish people being “politically correct” with you and people treating you with sincerity?
11. why do we try so hard to flaunt our accomplishments, yet at the same time rush to cover our weaknesses?
12. if one dies an unexpected death tomorrow, would they have done anything to make the world a better place? would anyone besides their close family notice or care?
13. why do the moments of happiness feel so short in comparison to the times of hardship?
14. why does life feel so hard at times?
15. how do you know who your real friends are?

before someone goes sheikh-style on me answering these questions, let me clarify one thing – i am not asking these questions from a religious perspective, i am just asking why we, as humans, feel this way about certain things.

you can check it out here.

update – i closed it down