whats the plot

so countless times have i heard people talking about how san francisco is so hilly… when people would ask me, i’d say, “sure, its hilly” – but seriously, how was i to know? the only two places in san francisco i had visited were the airport several times and pier 39 once…

but things finally changed… this week, i made a trip into downtown san francisco. and man, when people say its hilly, its really, really hilly! while driving up and down the roads, i couldn’t help but remember roller coasters… the hills up were crazy steep, and when you got to the top, you had to keep driving a bit in order to actually see in front of you.

the other really nice thing was that every once in a while, you’d get a nice view of the bay. i think i should take my camera and take some pictures there some day, and see the golden gate bridge while i am at it.

this is insane – they won’t let me take my cologne on a plane because its not in a ziplock bag, but scorpions are okay?

yes, yes, i said a continent per day… but alas, i got busy and there is only so much time and so many continents… (i am not *really* visiting all the continents, i’d just like to think so ) i am currently writing this from qatar. i was in uae earlier (both in sharjah (al-shariqa) and dubai). sharjah reminds me of egypt a lot except for the number of desis and the traffic laws/driving patterns. dubai on the other hand could very well be a city in the us. the cost of living there seems to be very expensive – the price that you pay in the us is the price you pay in dubai, despite the fact that 1 dollar is ~3.6 dirhams. some places are even more expensive – a cup of coffee at starbucks, for example, was 12 dirhams, or roughly $3.33.

qatar is similar to dubai – there’s a *lot* of building and construction happening there. the building architecture in both qatar and dubai is quite amazing actually. some amazing looking buildings! anyway, so yeah, qatar is pretty cool too… very much like dubai (like a city in the us as well). cost of living is roughly the same as that in dubai, as a matter of fact, most places take the dubai dirhams as well as the qatar riyals. the exchange rate is almost 1:1, maybe one being 0.98 or 0.99 to the other.

one last interesting fact – getting into dubai, with a us passport, cost me nothing. getting into qatar, on the other hand, cost me around $27 for the visa.

surprisingly, it seems quite a bit more liberal than the us… but then again, i feel the same way when i go to the airport in germany or france. with respect to absurd security measures, the airport here only allows one carryon bag – unlike in the us where we can carry a carry on and a “personal item” – they said if you’re a lady and have a purse, you have to put it in your bag or check it in… ludicrous.

was able to get internet access for $9 for a whole day here at the airport… not too bad for 24 hours of wireless access when you have to wait in the airport for several hours for your flight.

speaking of prices, cost of living must be insane in the uk – basically, 1 pound is like $2 or close enough to $2. so like the starbucks here in the airport costs the same as starbucks in the us, except that its really double the price because of the conversion factor. i guess though that the person who lives here would be making their salary in pounds so its kind of the same as when i go to egypt for example and things are the same price but in egyptian pounds, so i have a the conversion factor as an advantage (poor people who come from places like egypt to the uk!).

anyway… haha so now i can say i’ve updated my blog from 2 continents lets see if i can add to that number in the upcoming days…

مسلسل قوي بجد و راءع

حال الدنيه يحزن – اءول ايه بس – اللهم احفظنا واحفظ شباب و بنات المسلمين… امين

update – try pasting that into google translate and see what it says… apparently, “ameen” translates to secretary and google doesn’t like egyptian slang…

so i went to visit my parents over this past break… while leaving, i had 2 small bottles of cologne and a stick of deodorant in my bag. at the airport, they of course saw these in my bag, and the man took them out. he said, “you can only have these with you if you have them in a transparent ziplock bag.” i am like, “uh.. i don’t have one.” he’s like “sorry, then you can’t take them unless you check your bag in.” so i asked him, “do you have any bags?” – and he replied, “sorry, we don’t provide bags.” so i lost 2 very nice small bottles of cologne (the alternative was to miss my flight because i was already running late)…

but the thing is – i don’t get it… what difference does it make whether they are in a transparent ziplock bag or not? if the fear is the liquid spilling over stuff, can’t someone just as easily take them out of the ziplock bag and spill the contents all over their stuff? and, if the case is that they examine these liquids separately anyway (which they do), what does the ziplock bag enable that is not enabled without it? and if its so important, why not provide people with it (some airports do this as i found out while i was coming back at the end of the trip, but that did me no good…) i fail to see the wisdom behind these policies… maybe someone can enlighten me?

i am not one to criticize anyone as i have my own huge list of faults, but some actions of some people really really get on my nerves. i don’t understand the following categories of people:

1. the provincial people – those who are so set in their own thoughts and ideas (without any basis) and you can never ever convince them of anything besides what they think is true. the best example of this that i can think of is when people outside of america have this idea that america is “heaven on earth,” that life there is really easy, that people have money falling out of their pockets, and so on. they refuse to believe anything else. these people often miss out on seeing a great number of blessings that they have that people living in america lack for example.

2. the assumption makers – very similar to the above category, this set of people assume things based on what is visible without taking anything else into consideration. this is almost always related to money in some way… for example, someone hears that you got a job, and they automatically assume that you are “making the big bucks now.” or, someone walks into your apartment and sees almost no furniture there but sees a nice monitor or tv and says, “dang, you must be extremely rich.” why do people make these assumptions? if you try to correct these people, they refuse to believe you, even though in most cases, the people who say these things would have several fold more than the person they told the comment to (in terms of both finances and time worked), and so on. reality of the matter is, what is apparent isn’t necessarily what is true because people don’t know the situations of each other. so why do people say these kinds of things?

3. the nosy people… people who want to ask about everything, especially financial things when they have no business in doing so… “how much do you get paid?” — what business does anyone have asking that? or, “how much did you buy this or that or the other?” why do people ask these kinds of questions?

i could go on classifying these types of people, but i realized that there really is no need to, since they all share a common thread – a lack of content with their current situation and blessings. this leads many of them to not realize the great blessing they are in, and always try to look at ways in which others are better off than them financially.

i guess as imam siraj wahaj said about a year ago in a speech, that his mother used to always tell him, “people will just be people…” (it might have been, “people will always be people,” can’t remember anymore). so yeah… people will always be people…

[The findings] indicated that marriage did not figure in nearly 55.8 million American family households, or 50.2 percent.

this is really sad.

in light of the previous post, i saw an amazing 7 minute astronomy video on youtube (or should i say ‘gootube‘?) talking about how tiny the earth really is.

these days, during ramadan, i’ve heard people quote a hadith several times that i hadn’t remembered hearing before that is really quite spectacular – the rough meaning based on what i remember is (i could have forgotten – i tried to find out which hadith book this came from but couldn’t find it, if someone can point me to where i’d really appreciate it), “the worldly heaven in comparison to the second heaven is like a ring in a desert, and the second heaven to the third is like a ring in a desert, and the third to the fourth is like a ring in a desert, and the fourth to the fifth is like a ring in a desert, and the fifth to the sixth is like a ring in a desert, and the sixth to the seventh is like a ring in a desert, and the seventh to the kursiy is like a ring in a desert, and the kursi to the 3arsh (or throne) of Allah (SWT) is like a ring in a desert.”

wsalams.

we are so small… reminds me of this verse (3:191)…

الذين يذكرون الله قياما وقعودا وعلى جنوبهم ويتفكرون في خلق السماوات والأرض ربنا ما خلقت هذا باطلا سبحانك