Packing and Praying

So after a restful week, I'm finally packing my stuff to head over to camp tomorrow morning. So for one month, I'll be held virtually incommunicado with the outside world. I have to surrender my cellphone and wallet once I get there. They figure if people have their phones, it would be a distraction and keep them from mingling and making friends there. I see their point, but I feel virtually naked without a cellphone and wallet.

Other than that, I hit up Great Adventure earlier this week. This week was the perfect time to go, virtually no crowds at all. We got to go on every single roller coaster we wanted to, (except Viper, which was shut down). The longest line was about 20 minutes. I love how the commercials say "Just minutes away from the city"... yeah, like 120 minutes. The designers got a little lazy... the area with the 'Frontier' and old west theme now houses the Medussa rollercoaster. The coaster there before Medussa had an abandoned mine theme, and they were too lazy to rip all that down. So Medussa, with its ancient greek iconography, is combined with an old west theme. The sign literally says, "Medussa" in crazy purple and green script, and right beneath is the old west sign in black and white reading, "Mining Company." Seriously, how lazy can you get?

I had to wake up really early this morning to drop my sister off at the airport. Today was Chandraat (new moon), which coincided with Friday. So keeping with Ismaili tradition, I fasted from 6 am to 6 pm. That wasn't too bad, but I was cleaning stuff out of my garage at around 6 am. The problem is that the work made me really thirsty, since by 6 it was already in the 80's. And being the genius that I am, I found my old bike. I dusted it off, and took a ride around the block. That didn't help the thirst situation at all. So I squirmed a little, but the fast was doable. After clearing some more garbage from the garage, I went back to sleep until around 11.

Until next month...

Zahir and Zeba 

Mmm... Barbecue

So I came back from vacation on Thursday. Spent a few days in Puerto Rico with my family, lounging around on the beach, getting rest, playing a little roulette at the casino, and touring around a little. It's the last family vacation we're probably ever going to go on. After this, it's school, work and all the other crap. So Puerto Rico was good.

On the way back from Puerto Rico, the gate was filled with a bunch of kids all between the ages of 13 and 15 and wearing blue t-shirts. They were part of some youth band coming up to NY for the Puerto Rico day parade. They were loud. The gate agent went on the speaker and spoke in Spanish to a loud 'Yeahhhhh' by the band. When the plane landed at JFK, the pilot went on the intercom speaking quickly in Spanish, ending it with 'Boriqua' sending the band wild with cheers. They like to have their fun.

So yesterday was the big barbecue in Madison Park in NYC. The lines totally sucked, but the food was very good. If only they had more stations that didn't serve pork, it would have been better. So I hung around with the folks, ate a lot of food, and walked around to Union Square with some friends. They had some folks from a pet adoption organization walking around with dogs and puppies, even had some cats in cages, showing off their animals for adoption. One guy asked how much one of the dogs cost, and the guy holding the leash, in a very contemptous voice, replied "We are not a pet store. These animals are up for adoption."

Later met up with Joyce, who recently got back from a trip to Beirut. She brought me back a mini hookah that's totally awsome. Spent some time at Cafe Esperanto, on Macdougal Street. That place reminds me of Central Perk, from Friends, but less gay. Now I'm getting stuff prepared for Al Ummah. I'm leaving in less than a week. Looking forward to it, it's going to be a long slog. Hopefully it's fun.

Unemployment in Full Swing

While browsing the web the other day, I came across this link to a site with pictures taken in Iraq, probably by soldiers serving in combat. They're a far cry from the garbage Fox news and all the other tv networks like to broadcast, trying to show everyone that everything is hunky dory over in land of dreams. Well, it's not a nice dream, it's quite nightmarish. So those burned children are what they mean when they say 'collateral damage' and 'civilian casualties.' Luckily we found all those weapons of mass destruction so the terrorist can't get them, and established a pro-American democracy so the entire region can turn toward a brighter future... oh wait.

Other than that, it looks like Michael Moore released the trailer for Farenheit 911. I have mixed feelings about Moore. I enjoy his work, but I don't necessarily agree with him all of the time. Bowling for Columbine was wonderful in commentating on the culture of fear in America, but then went overboard and became mindless and petty. I hope he doesn't do the same thing in this movie. It looks like a typical Michael Moore documentary from the looks of it. In the end, Moore is just trying to protect the little guy.

Well, I went with my family earlier this week to see our friends newborn baby. She's so tiny and adorable. Her 3 year old sister was being very playful though. She had a little hair brush and insisted on giving me a new hairstyle. She was insistent that I would look like Shahrukh Khan when she was done.