h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

our housekeeper had to visit her family, so the mother of the student who lives with us came from another city, with a car full of fresh fruit, vegetables and pre-made meals. she is sleeping in the downstairs guestroom, so now i have 2 nights of good sleep and sleeping in in the morning behind me, am working on finishing the translation project, even made a trip today to get references for the translators forword.

and she really made it in time. dad has been coughing since yesterday after noon, and running a high fever today. she's been handling 3 different meal requirements, washing dishes, bathing my mom, washing her clothes - and complaining that she hasn't enough to do.

*sniff* i'm feeling so relieved that i just want to break down and cry *sniff*

and i'm getting hugs every hour on the hour

Wow - she sounds like a complete star.

Glad you're getting some quality support and are able to concentrate on your own needs for a while.

Take advantage of it and look after yourself while you can!

Can you adopt her as an extra mother?
Glad to hear it. (Didn't quite know what to expect when I saw this title in my messages!)

nim

Have an extra from your friend who's too far away to offer any personal help


Glad you're getting some help and assistance and stock up on those

she is already an "honorary aunt". i just hope she stays for a few days after the housekeeper comes back.

but i invited star over for another movie marathon tomorrow, and she's bringing "sincity". and i finally managed to go and pick up my swimmingpool membership card after 4 month (!!!!!) so maybe i can start going to the pool at least once a week from next week on.

to everybody

Hi Nim,

Glad things are on the up for you at the moment. Enjoy Sin city its a great film

adib?!!!!!

you changed your name?????

WHY??????

"adib" fits you so good...

Well I changed my name as some people where presuming that I am asain and that I come from Pakistan or some thing, which is not true, and its no fun having to translate entire e mails of people from Urdu in to English, and so on and so forth, all because they could bother skim read my page on here for a e mail address but could not bother to read the bit that says that I am white lol.

So I just posted my english name, Adib is my second name that I was given by a Pakistani women I knew many years ago, and its kinda my Islamic name as well, but most people who are not Muslim still call me Rik.

An the other thing is that when ever I wrote replys to posts that said some thing bad about Islam or some thing I would get some people choosing to believe that just by looking at my name I would stick up for Islam against the accusations. An the truth of the matter is I am not here to stick up for Islam, I am here to write entries and read other peoples work, and if I come accross something anti Islamic then I will have my say, because most people are peeved at things that are not even Islamic. I mean if someone came on here and said: "I hate Islam because you have to pray five times a day and have to avoid bacon" no problem, I don't mind that as its their opinion based on real Islam, and tyhats all I ask, if your going to like or dislike Islam then do it for the right reasons not the wrong ones.

An one thing I hate i being judged by those who do not know me, and my name was making people to jump to false conclusions so I just changed it to my english name thats on my birth certificute so people will get the correct view of an white guy in some western country.

Oh dear I have wrote an essay just to tell you wht I changed my name.....

Well anyway as you can see thats my reasons, and I think they are pretty ok reasons really, an hopefully I wrote get any more e mails calling me a dirty Paki cus of my article on womens rights hee hee, they can call me a dirty white man, that I don't mind as at least I am white and so theirs some truth in their sentance.

Rik/Adib - still pissing of uneducated Muslims who think they know are practising Islam, and I'm proud of it.

It is wonderful what people will assume! Especially when it comes to ones religious beliefs. (Guess I'll have to hunt up that article on women's rights now?) I was taught to say "thank you" in Mandarin when I worked for a Chinese grocery, but was afraid to do it in case some homesick Chinese grad student would embarrass both of us by spouting paragraphs in Mandarin before I could stop him. Wonder if I'd get messages in Spanish if I used the nickname an old jazz player once gave me? (La Tigre)

Heres the article on womens rights:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A5838438

What was happening was I posted a few linbks to it on some web groups for Muslims, and I got a lot of good feed back, but also got a lot of feed back from Pakistanis who thought I was slagging of their country in a false way, as those things I mentioned only happens in the small villages and not in the cities, which is exactly what I had put in the article so why they was having ago about that I don't know. That all happened through e mails as the group has my e mail address.

Actually I just annoyed them again cus their topic for the month was on media, and it had the usual stupid few that all western media is owned by Jewisn Zionists who are out to destroy Islam. I simply accused them of lazy thinking and only looking at the nagative things media has said and none of the good and then gave a list of some hundred news articles and programs that was good and clarified that Islam is peacefull etc, and then I pointed out that if I turn what they said on its head you get:

'Any Muslim owned media source that says anything bad about the west must be run by Islamic fundamentalist suicide bombers.'

As I think thats the same stupid thinking that they used, not they listened to it, they just got offended and carried on with their imature conspiracy's and jew hating discussion. Some times I wish I could pick up the Qur'an and manually insert its contents into their head, I don't know seems like I am always in trouble with both Muslim and non Muslim communities lol.

Oh hey Nim the womens rights article has changed a lot since its first outing, have you had chance to see the changes? And I did have to end up splittering it in to three sections, but I have been tols that the linking up of them is good so not all is lost.

Rik/Adib Highlight applicable.

See what happens when you post when your supposed to be in bed sleeping. I posted the wrong link, the link above is for the third and final part, this is the link to the first part, which is where people usually want to start from.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A1124768

Sorry.

Incase your wondering how I manage to piss of Muslims all the time, heres the classis type of reply that I send to stupid silly thought through articles people post on yahoo groups.

After yet another stupidly silly article on how all Muslims problems are due to the west I wrote the following:

Actaully I think you will find that much has changed in the last 1400 years of Islam.

Islam has gone from a pure peaceful and loving religion to a twisted consensus of what it once was. Greedy men who have not learned to let go of power have been consummend by it in to a feeding frenzy that has taken a once great gift to man kind and destroyed it. Religious intollerence, bigotry, the denying of rights granted to people according to the Qur'an, materialism, caste systems all these things and more can be found in Islam to day, not in the religious books, but in its followers. It did not take Christians or Jews to destroy the Islamic empire, what destroyed it, that which has left it in tatters, leaving us all looking at the good old days, leaving us with countries with supposed Islamic laws that only serve to mock the very essence of Islam, is greed and the hunger for power. Muslim leaders who have sold out the teachings of Islam in favour of conquering more land, getting more wealth, it is this drive that fragmented the Islamic world. Once you turn down that path it only leads to conflict and disalutionment. Brother turned on to brother, sister turned onto sister, carving their own niches of power, that is what history contains.

We have the self righteous to believe that the path is the right one, that a Muslim who follows Sufi or Shia path is wrong, or vice versa. We have cases of Muslims refusing to pray at Mosque because they are Sunni and their is some sufis present or examples where Arabs have refused to pray due to the presence of Pakistanis at a mosque and vice versa, not only are we intolerent of other religions we are intollerent to other view points of our own faith. Yes their view you may deem as wrong, but we should except that and still recognise that they are Muslim.

But we can take confort in that it is not just us that is corrupting our selfs, and destroying our selfs, as out self deluded enermies are doing the same thing, cases of Muslim hate Muslim, Jew hate Jew, Christian hate Christian and Atheist hate Atheist are on the rise all the time. No matter where you look in the world, where you try to hide, their is intolerence, injustice, indignitites. Why because we like every one else, we only know how to blame others for our problems. Its the Medias fault that the west thinks that Islam oppressess women, regardless that in all countries that are Muslim led the laws are supposdily Islamic, their excuse is that its their religion to not let women drive, work, own property etc etc, While only a few rise to challange these things most people just lie back and except it, silently allowing this oppresion and silently saying to the world yes Islam suppress women. All the while we sit and think well we can't change it can we, we are not in power, and its not our problem, not our fault. No! do you think that oppresion would continue if all the population stood up to be counted.

The west thinks that Islam gives no human rights, its their fault, its the medias fault, while we sit and stew over this letting our leaders of our supposed Islamic countries, toture prisoners in to confessions, and letting the goverment oppress the people. While only a handfull stand up to say this is against Islam and it must stop.

The west hates Islam and its thanks to the media cus the media wants to destroy Islam we say. As we quietly sit at home counting our money, eating our fill while our leaders destroy even more of the principles of Islam. Only a handfull stand up and reject the actions of their countries, yes its the wests fault they have the wrong image of Islam.

Oh yes the western media is out to destroy Islam, even though time and time agian the western media has said that terrorist Muslims are only a small minority of Muslims who are misguided and that Islam is a peaceful religion. Regardless that their has been many tv programs showing the true face of Islam, but we don't care about them, we only care about any thing bad said as it means we can blame all our problems on the west.

Regardless that its Muslims who allowed Cultural practices in to Islam even thoughing they contradict Islam, It is Muslims that think more of culture than Islam, that put more care in to what the neigbours would say, or what the family would say, or what the village would say, and not put any thaught into what Allah (swt) would say.

And now that we are being judged for those cultural practices that we Muslims embraced in to our lives corrupting our deen, its some how the wests fault when they get the wrong idea about Islam, when not even we practice what we preach half the time.

When farthers would rather spend all their savings on their daugthers weddings to impress the family, and neighbours IS THIS ISLAM?

When we marry with the Qur'an over our heads while dancing and playing music and mixing the sexes, so that we are in its shade hoping that this will somehow make us better in married life, regardless of what that hadith actually refers to, IS THIS ISLAM?

When we are judged on colour, wealth, education over piety and character, IS THIS ISLAM?

When we blame every one but our selfs for everyone else views on Islan, IS THIS ISLAM?

Remember this as it will do you well: YOU LEAD BEST BY EXAMPLE.

If Muslims them selves are destroying the teachings of Islam by their actions and their way of life, we can not blame the west for getting it wrong about Islam.

An no doubht I am probably going to get a load more e mails against me but who cares, as it will just prove my point.

sorry, i've had a fever and sore throat these couple of days.

adib, i haven't read the new entry yet, but i intend to link to them as sson as my personal website is up. then my visitors can bother you instead of me

can i still call you adib? it means 'scholar' and i think it is very fitting for you. of course 'adib rik' doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

You can call me what ever you like, thats what most people do.

I don't mind.

Rik/Adib/whomever I happen to be

Poor you, Nim! Please get better soon.

Thanks for the link Rik/Adib/etc...The article looks interesting and I will give it a good look over when I am not just home from a tiring concert. Now, about your uncomplimentary e-mails:
I seem to remember that you are a fairly young fellow, and so you may still be laboring under the delusion that people actually try to read/listen and understand before they react to what you say or do. When you are my age (I get another year older next week by the way) you will probably have learned better. What people think of you has mostly to do with prior assumptions, not current reality.
Having said so much, I will add that the distortions and perversions of religion in the service of greed are indeed everywhere. A great many things are done around here in the name of Christianity that I find rather upsetting. I am still optimistic that people will get wise and give some of those responsible the boot, but then again, maybe H. L. Mencken has proven an accurate prophet. To wit: "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
For now, though, let us think happy thoughts and be thankful for intelligent discourse, wherever it may still be found.

Nim, dear, are you feeling better? I hope the fever is gone.

see http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F41878?thread=1125673&post=12674666#p12674666