Tasneem's Blogging

Looking, wishing, hoping .....

2009-11-10T13:40:00.000-08:00

This was supposed to be posted during the summer holidays, but I forgot the draft. So here it is.
I don’t think my kids enjoyed their summer this year. As it was, the only recreational thing I signed them up for was swimming for 4 weeks. It was over too soon. Then there was a 2 week camp, but that was all learning and studying, no fun at all. After that – nothing. Mostly spent reading books (good), watching TV(bad), playing computer games(worse).
Shahre Ramazan is fast approaching, and that will be plumb with the start of school. It promises to be a very very busy start of school year. - UPDATE: It was very busy, but it went very quickly.
What about me? Did I have a nice summer? Hmmm, I can’t actually decide one way or the other. Maybe somewhere in between.

For Bohras, lesson in abstinence begins early

2009-07-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

Taken from Times Of India, Mumbai, July 20th, 2009:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=pastissues2&BaseHref=TOIM/2009/07/20&PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00200&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Technorati Tags: abstinence, roza, bohras

Website Information Worksheet

2009-06-09T09:49:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Website Information Worksheet

View more PDF documents from Kishau Rogers.

Of Education - AAAH! Chocolatious

2009-04-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. My chocolate favs and raves.
Chocolate for me is always Cadbury's, mostly in Mumbai, but British chocolates are not far behind. One of my favorite is Eclairs. I have grown up with these. I still get these from India sometimes, and I always remember to have my fill - if anybody can do that:) - whenever I visit India. My kids on the other hand, can eat whatever and however many candies they can get their hands on. Some candies, I am not sure of their taste buds. I really should get their tongues checked. Any special treatment for this? No? Yes? Whatever?
My kids have their annual SATS next week. This led me to question how and when the formal training started in the human race. I got some very educational (?) answers for this at my linkedin page. I will not quote the answers here, as they are quite long. Read them yourselves, and if you want to offer your answers, post a comment here, or let me know to open the question again on linkedin. Some synopsis is required, hence: Mr. Michael Lyubomirskiy contends that the structured schooling started after the advent of the written word, whereas Prof. Bhushan Lal Handoo states that the idea of education started when the task of educating the younger generation was passed on to a so-called specialist in the community.
There is a newcomer like twitter. Blellow. I signed up there, you can follow me on twitter or blellow. I will do likewise.

Technorati Tags: chocolates, education, candies, SATS, exams, tests

Halal Pizza by Aziz Poonawalla

2009-02-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

What happens when a Domino's pizza decides to serve to all-halal menu? The end of Western civilization, of course:

Chris Yates, 29, a hospital worker living in Moseley, Birmingham, said he was told he couldn't have a 'Meteor' pizza, topped with pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, ground beef and smoky bacon, when he called up at the weekend.

More at: halal pizza - City of Brass

posted by Aziz Poonawalla

2009-02-09T17:11:00.001-08:00

Busy with some projects, both business and my kids. Update soon.

2009-02-09T14:45:00.001-08:00

Updating laptop

Too Busy Summers

2008-07-30T12:31:00.001-07:00

As every mother of a school-going kid knows, summer vacations are busier than the normal school days. For one, we are supposed to entertain them(the kids), rather than let the very excellent teachers do it. On top of this, we have to drop them, pick them, from wherever they are signed up for the summer activities. Not to mention picking up after them. Summer days are supposed to be rejuvenating!

For my kids, this summer was only swimming classes signup, for 4 weeks. That went well, and all the 3 advanced to the next level – levels 8,5 and 4. Now I am trying to sign them up for some martial arts classes, if I ever recieve a call back from the director of the classes.

As for me, I am very busy doing all the above things, thank you very much.

Oh for a beautiful, unstressed, summer day!

Do read my other blog of professional activities.

School's Out

2008-06-18T15:30:00.001-07:00

Today was the last day of school here. Many schools are already out last week, but my kids school was open till today. They got their report cards, and as usual, my youngest is my brightest kid - after all she is a girl.

For now, I have planned swimming lessons for all of them, and we will have picnics etc. to attend too. Other than that, nothing.

Tomorrow will be the first day of having kids home all day, and I am sure I will enjoy it - for a little while at least. By end of June, I will be completely out of my mind. Ask me then.

I am busy working with 2 entirely different things - one a project, other data enty job. I have taken off today from the data entry to try networking. I hope that brings me some business.

An interesting article about our faith and beliefs is in Yemen Times. Read it here.

What's Happening?

2008-05-16T18:45:00.001-07:00

So what is new? Juzar is off to Japan, but thankfully, instead of next Thursday, he is arriving tomorrow. Hopefully, he won’t have to go on any other business tours.

Pity me. My H button on laptop is not working, so I have to push it really hard. That last sentence had lots of h’s. so did this.

Oh well. Give me a sentence without an H. Please.

Kids are doing very well, in their respective levels. As usual, not willing to do any chore not specifically assigned to them. Actually, not willing to do any chore, period. Getting ready for summer, swim classes, and other activities. I do seriously declare that Summer is more hectic than regular school days.

Answer, anyone?

2008-05-01T12:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, my eldest – all of 11 years old – asked me a question. Are Americans enemies of muslims? He listens to news mostly during car rides, and more from the Time for Kids etc. magazines they get at school. I dont know where he got this idea from, maybe the news or maybe someone said something to him. I dont believe that Americans are enemies of muslims, but I do know that American knowledge of muslims and Islam is very limited. There are many blogs on the internet about Islam, but how to know that what they say is true or false? Then the news media is also quite happy in glorifying the gory details, but not providing any background for those news, or happenings. I find most of what I read in newspapers or watch on TV to be quite misleading, at least in terms of explaining the principles or teachings of Islam.

I explained most of the things to him, and hopefully his question got answered satisfactorily.

Milad Mubarak

2008-04-22T15:08:00.001-07:00

Maula(TUS) 97th Milad Mubarak is approaching swiftly, and mumeneen all over the world are doing various Taabudaat Aamaal during these auspicious days. Our family is also doing its small part. We had so many different activities, some deeni, some fun.

The taabudaat ayyaam start with Milad-un-Nabi(SA) and end with Milad-Dai-iz-Zaman(TUS). For us, we had added barakaat of visiting Yemen during these days, and getting the sharaf of ziarat of Syedna Hatim(RA), and Maulatena Hurratul Maleka(RA).

The days are very busy, as we have activities on individual basis, jamaat basis, madresah programme as well as Burhani Women’s Association programme. On top of this, my son has baseball practice and games for 3–4 days a week.

This is wishing all mumeneen all over the world a very happy Milad Day.

New Server

2008-04-15T13:03:00.001-07:00

We will shortly receive our new pc from dell, which I am planning to use as a windows 2008 server. My present server, windows 2003, is OK, but the hardware is really old(not obsolete, but very near!). So, now I get to update my server softwares, and will be able to hopefully update all other softwares simultaneously.

After Effects

2008-04-15T12:14:00.001-07:00

Had a Chhatthi to attend yesterday. For those who don’t know what that is:

Chhatthi is the naming ceremony in our community(Dawoodi Bohra). We name the child on the sixth day or seventh night actually, as the ceremony is after sunset.

So there I was, and there was the baby, as yet unnammed, and lying peacefully in her aunt’s lap. I could only marvel at such a tiny being. My youngest is 6 years old, so I was obviously very out of date with the physical attributes of the newly born. She was named Ajab, and none of us had guessed at that name. My own guess was tasneem, (my name). So no one got that price :).

After the ceremony and the eating, (there is always eating at our functions, whether they are happy or sad occasssions), the baby finally made it to me. I very seriously checked out her toes, and fingers. I looked at her face to see any resemblance to her mom or dad. I couldnt find any. So I gave her some advice – Daughters look like their mothers, even if they are their father’s princesses! My daughter, people say, looks like me, which is very nice to hear, since both my boys look exactly like my husband.

Sunrise

2008-04-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Sunrise, beautiful over Hutaib, in Yemen. The mountains looked majestic in the early morning mist, as I waited for the sun to rise and enable me to snap this photo. I was almost at the same level as the mountain peak seen here.

More photos on the photogallery.

Social Bookmarking

2008-04-03T14:13:00.001-07:00

You may have noticed that I have put up some social bookmarks below my posts. I had put them up in the old Blogger template(before xml), but when I converted, they got lost. I had a hard time figuring out how to add to the new template, and exactly what to add. I did a search on del.icio.us, and found many sites which were quite helpful. After many tries, I could get them to work and here they are.

For those of you who want to add these bookmarks to their blogger sites, but dont know how, here is how to do it:

Login to your blogger account, click settings, click layout, click edit html. You will see your template in the editable box. Check the expand widget templates checkbox. I put all my links under the footer class div. The code is:

**************************************************

| <a expr:href='"http://del.icio.us/post?url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'>Del.icio.us</a> | <a expr:href='"http://technorati.com/faves?add=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'>Technorati Faves</a> | <a expr:href='"http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&output=popup&bkmk=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'>Google Bookmarks</a> | <a expr:href='"http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title'>Digg it</a> | <a expr:href='"http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=" + data:post.url + "&t=" + data:post.title'>Furl</a> | <a expr:href='"http://ma.gnolia.com/bookmarklet/add?url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title'>ma.gnolia</a> | <a expr:href='"http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/bookmarklet?u=" + data:post.url + "&t=" + data:post.title'>Yahoo MyWeb</a> |

**************************************************

That’s it. Enjoy.

Spring Forward :)

2008-04-02T10:29:00.001-07:00

So spring is here, and the break is over. We visited Yemen during the 10 days of the spring break, and it was fabulous. We met some German tourists in Hutaib, and they were there because Hutaib has the best pollution free air in the world.

We climbed the mountain Zimarmar, which took about 2 and a half hours. The climb down was easier and faster. The kids were partnered with Yemeni kids, and they were a lot faster than us. The climb itself is quite easy, and there are only 3 spots where you may feel a bit afraid, but just keep climbing, and you will reach the top in no time at all. Take lots of rests on the way, and you will be OK.

We also visited the Museum of Queen Arwa. The building is very old, so the group was subdivided. The museum has old transcripts – handwritten, a history of Queen Arwa’s times, a display of wedding clothes of that time, medicinal display, also how they made perfumes(incense) during that time. It was very interesting.

Other places we visited were Sanaa, Zabid, Hutaib, Zijibla, Shibam and Shareka.

Now we are back, and the kids as usual have jetlag. But it is getting better. They will be back to normal in a day or two.

Spring and kids

2008-03-14T12:04:00.001-07:00

The kids are waiting for their spring break, with easter and egg-hunt and other things going on. Since we will be going out of town, I am getting ready for travel. Still looking thru the visitor’s book, have read half of it.

Latest is I have taken upon some work for a non-profit organisation, and will be doing a pro-bono work.

Update atlast

2008-02-29T19:52:00.001-08:00

My business blog was updated to the latest version of wordpress. Whew! That was a lot of work.

The business website itself is still very much a work in progress. A new redesign attempt is at redesign. Do leave comments for that redesign.

We will be going out of town during the spring vacation, with both of my sons’ best friends. So they are very excited.

As usual, I am busy with so many social commitments, as well as this year my younger son has signed up for baseball. So we go to practice and game twice a week. That seriously depletes his time for homework. Though ofcourse, he is least worried.

Little Help

2007-02-28T12:15:00.001-08:00

My daughter has decided to help me. A lot for a 5 year old. Yesterday she decided to make me some cake, soup, rotis and gravy. I had lots of fun eating it with her.

Today, she helped me to make real rotis by applying ghee on them. She is in Junior Pre-K now, and next year it will be Kindergarten. Have already got her forms and all that, have to just submit them on the date. She is quite advanced in the sense she can read quite easily, and is learning to write too. Her brothers are in 4^th and 1^st grade. My oldest wants to be a marine biologist, and is working towards it. The middle one has not yet decided, but he will in a year or two. They really grow very quickly.

We just bought them a gameboy – but strictly no playing during the week. Only on weekends. They find it a bit restrictive, but then, they need to do their homework too. So the rule stays.

We also got a new pc with windows vista pre loaded, and it is quite good – at least looks wise. I had trouble getting it networking with my work pc, but finally, I solved it. So, anyone who has trouble networking vista with xp, just add your vista pc to the trusted site list in the firewall program on your xp pc. This worked for me, but there are other solutions also. One solution is at lockergnome. There may be other forums too, just google for xp/vista networking.

Don’t forget to visit my sites – Dzigns and Dzignerwebs. Dzignerweb has links to my other demo sites which you will find informational, if you need to install any of the demos I have provided there. Contact me for more information.

New Year

2007-01-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

What a long time it has been for a new post! The new year is here, and more than half the first decade of the new millenium is gone.
I usually post via blogjet, but since I upgraded to the new blogger, blogjet does not work. Whenever they come out with version 2 of blogjet, I will upgrade pronto and perhaps my posting rate will improve.
Anyway, just to be up-2-date, what have I done these past months? Let's see - my last post about my business website winning a webdesign award was in August, 06. OK, now last year was very important for me, as the start of the 2006 year, I went on the Holy Pilgrimage of Hajj. Right now, for this year, the Hajjis are returning, reminding me of my own travel to that Holiest of places on this earth. During the stay, no wordly things entered into my head or heart, even though I had left my 3 young children at home under their grandma's care. I had no worries, either personal or professional. I came home, and the world started again - kids, school, business, job, and all the other things. Professionally too, I had a good year, got more projects than 2005, and also won an award. Of course, our vacation to Vancouver also deserves a note here.
For this year, my plan is to just keep going, looking for projects, maybe earn another award this year too. Let us hope my plans don't go awry.

D.zigns is winner of Webdesign excellence Award.

2006-08-02T18:15:00.000-07:00

Just received confirmation of winning the Silver Award for excellence in Webdesign. This is too great and happy moment for all of us.

Summer, Summer, Here we Go

2006-08-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

What a lot of hot climate we have had! But now, it has cooled down a bit. On a personal level, my kids are doing great in the swimming classes – eldest has already learnt, and can swim upto 300 yards. He is learning back-stroke now. The middle one is stuck in floating, and needs lots of practice. The youngest is going strong, and will probably catch up with the middle one. Unfortunately for them, tomorrow is the last day of their swim class. But no problem, their father has promised to take them swimming in the neighbourhood swim pool. Let us hope, he keeps that promise.

We go to library every week, and my kids have already finished their summer reading program. I am glad about that. With books, they have also learnt a lot about animals, environment etc. They get those videos and CDs/DVDs also, and watch them all the time. By the time we return them, I too have learnt almost the whole dialogue by heart.

Oh, well, next time – it’s time to go swimming.

Scorching Heat

2006-07-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

This has been a very very hot month here in Fremont, CA. Yesterday, I heard, we had surpassed 50–100 years temperature records. Now, I like to surpass any record myself, but this was hilarious, if anything can be, in this heat. Everything evaporates – even the hilarity.

I have subscriptions to laugh materials, like joke-a-day, siglets and what not. They are very good, releaving some of the heat and tension with 3 kids at home. They are learning swimming and the eldest is already a swimmer. That is one worry less for me when I fly. I am always envisioning a scenario, where the plane crashes into an ocean, and all 5 of us drown. Now, I know at least my eldest one will survive longer than us.

I have one project(corporatewiz) on hand, and am busy looking for other projects. Hopefully, will get some. If you need any web design or development services, be sure to email me. Can also help in hosting and domain name registrations. Dont forget to visit my business site, my business blog, my personal website, and our ERP consultant.

On Vancouver and Sightseeing - We are back

2006-06-30T12:44:00.001-07:00

We are back and here is a snapshot of our visit.

On the 22nd, we went to Capillano Suspension Bridge, as the name says, it is a suspension bridge, over the Capillano River. Beautiful location, surrounded by the temperate forest, trees older than 200-300 years. There is a path also between the towering trees, supported by the huge trunks of these trees.
From the bridge to the highest point - Grouse Mountain. Beautiful views all around. A tram takes us to the top, and we try to get the right seats - by the open windows. There was a logging(loggers?) show, and boy it was funny! The two participants were trying to out race each other and ended up providing an enjoyable show. There is actually an annual loggers show in Vancouver(I don't remember the place name) where all the expert loggers showcase their skills.

Dinner was at an Indian Restaurant, a buffet. We did not like it at all.
On the 23rd, the Stanley Park, and the Aquarium. The big white, beluga whales and dolphins. Stanley Park has miniature railway, a horse-drawn carriage tour, also a shuttle bus(free) for the visitors to roam about. The view of the Lions Gate Bridge is beautiful. We have dinner at a small, street-side tucked restaurant, the food was delicious.
On 24th - we went to Science Centre and Space Museum. The SC was very informative, and had lots of activities for kids. We wandered around the 2 floors, the 3rd was a theatre. There was a toy-science show, some nice tidbits about slinky, hoopla loops, and silly putty. Why does slinky slink down the staircase? What keeps the hoopla looping around you, when you move your waist, but drops down, when you stop? Is the silly putty a liquid or a solid? Then there were the funny mirrors(or were we the funny ones?),. The one I liked most, but did not get to try, as there were too many people waiting for it, was the relaxation race - who relaxes fastest.
From here, we went to the Space Museum, but unfortunately, all rides were closed. All we got to do were some computer games, and a rocket launcher.

On the 25th, we visited the VanDusen Botanical Garden. It is 55 acre of beautiful displays of plants and trees in specific botanical relationships or geographical locations. For e.g. the Sino-Himalayan garden, or the Mediterranean garden etc. As the names suggest, each area is specific to flowers, trees and fauna found in that geographical area.
The next day, 26th, we went to Whistler Mountain Village. The winter Olympics -2010 – will be held here, and we could see the city gearing up for that. The main road leading to Whistler, is being re paved, and both sides are getting an additional lane. This meant passing thru dynamite blasting sites, and slow moving traffic. But at last, we made it. Though the village itself was a little disappointing, the on route stop we made at Shannon Falls was worth the complete drive. Beautiful, to the point of making one swoon. No words to describe.

On the 27th, we took the ferry to Victoria Island, for a visit to the world famous Butchart Gardens. It has four main gardens and I found the most beautiful the Rose Garden. The other three are the Sunken Garden, the Japanese Garden and the Italian Garden.

The 28th, we decided to finish rewinding ourselves, and packing for our early morning flight the next day. We went to the CNIMAX theatre at Canada Place, and saw 2 movies in 3D – DEEP SEA and Wild Safari. We came to the hotel early, and the next day, we were back to Fremont.