Finally Fall Break

We are now relaxing on our much needed fall break.. I haven't planned yet what to do, but a fishing trip would be really awesome. School continues on Wednesday. Until then, have fun y'all!!

Giving up so soon?

In this hard, never easy world that we live in today, life is so competitive. You slack, you lose. It's that simple to fail.
Now let's not go to that extent.

And thus, with all this pressure, it's also so easy to give up and pull the curtain down on ourselves. But that shouldn't be the case. We run, we fall, we pick ourselves up, we dust off ourselves clean. Then we continue running. We don't stop there. We don't pick ourselves up and sit down, or just walk. We run! Yeah, like hell we run!

Think about this: A baby whose just learning to walk. Obviously he's doing something completely unfamiliar to him. It's damn hard for him! His legs are weak, they tremble with each step he takes. He may fall sometimes, and pick up a couple of bruises along the way.

But each time a baby falls, do you see him giving up? Do you see him throwing the towel and just decide not to learn to walk anymore? Check this baby:


He's falling right, ain't he? But just look at how big the smile he's got taking up his face there! I'm pretty sure that after that he'll just pick himself (or with the help of somebody) and continue walking again. And that's how the cycle goes for a baby until he actually knows how to walk.
The point I'm trying to bring out now is that, we should actually learn a point or two from this baby walking story. Sooner or later, after all those falls, after all those cuts and bruises, a baby would eventually walk, and better yet, they even start running! I mean, you don't see a grown up guy on a wheel chair and can't walk because he gave up walking during his baby years do you?

Let's learn something here, people! Hooray to the babies!

Lewis 10 Open House

This year we decided to do add our own spice to the Eid celebrations by holding an open house on the second day of Eid.

Lewis 10 had 4 Malay houses, and so we decided to divide the work among these houses. My house made pulut kuning, rendang and caramel pudding. The full menu was: Pulut kuning, rendang, nasi himpit, lodeh, bee hun sup, agar2, and caramel pudding. The open house was wonderful, and our pulut kuning was an instant hit!! heheh...



Here are some addition facts of the open house (in case anyone wanted to know):

• It was initially planned to just hold a potluck among the 4 houses in Lewis 10, but confusion had it's role, and the open house was staged instead.
• I got the pulut kuning and rendang recipes from my mother. It took till the last batch to get the pulut kuning texture the way we thought it should be.
• it could be considered that all the Malay Vandys came.
• except for the lodeh, everything else was swept out.
• Here's the best part. We forgot to preheat the lodeh later that night, and it turned out that it had a one night expiration date. The next morning, we thought of having the lodeh for breakfast, tapi apekan daya, the lodeh was basi. The smell?? Ya Rabbi!! It took 6 people to get rid of it. We put it in 3 separate garbage bags, 3 lapis each, sealed it in a box, and threw it in the dumpster. The smell was still there, even after being sealed in the box.

Thanks for all the open house committee for their hard work and every one else for coming.

Eidul Fitr... The 3rd Coming..

This year's Eid marked the third one I've had on this part of the earth so far away from my family called America. And it couldn't of came any better.

It was shocking when we first learned that Eid was on Friday rather than the expected Saturday, especially when you learn it the night before. We went scrambling back home to prepare ourselves to have a considerable Eid celebration.

Eid prayers was held at the Nashville Convention Center, as of with all the other Eidul Fitr prayers before. We got there before 8 and we in time for the prayers. After that, we went to ICN for breakfast. Here's some pictures up to this point.



Not to mention, I failed to show up for all three of my classes that day. But hey, it's Raya, only once in a year, I have classes almost every other day of the year!

We didn't do much for the rest of the day. However, we had a batch gathering and a potluck that night. Amid all this, raya this year was still a blast!

Hadith #12

The Messenger of Allah said, "There are three whose supplications are not rejected : the fasting person when he breaks his fast, the just ruler and the supplication of the oppressed." Tirmidhi

Hadith #11

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said: "Whoever establishes prayers during the nights of Ramadan faithfully out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards (not for showing off), all his past sins will be forgiven." Sahih Bukhari

Hadith #10

Narrated Aisha: With the start of the last ten days of Ramadan, the Prophet used to tighten his waist belt (i.e. work hard) and used to pray all the night, and used to keep his family awake for the prayers. Sahih Bukhari

'Tis the Season to be Joly..

As Ramadan draws its conclusions to an end (sadly enough though, as I truly feel that this isn't my best of Ramadans), the anticipation of Aidul Fitr can be felt even here on campus. Yup, even here in the middle of southern USA.
I just got a parcel from my father. Last week I got a Hari Raya card from my mother too. Thanks mak and abah. Really appreciate them both. Over the pass week, the mailbox's bombarded with packages from Malaysia. Baju raya, kuih raya, serunding raya, and in some cases, even cermin mata raya!!

'Tis the season!!

Hadith #9

Abu Hurairah reported the Messenger of Allah saying: "Allah said: 'Every action of the son of Adam is for him except fasting, for that is solely for Me. I give the reward for it.' The fast is a shield. If one is fasting, he should not use foul language, raise his voice, or behave foolishly. If someone reviles him or fights with him he should say, 'I am fasting,' twice. By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the [bad] breath of the one who is fasting is better in the sight of Allah on the Day of Resurrection than the smell of musk. The one who is fasting is happy at two times: when he breaks his fast he is happy with it, and when he meets his Lord he will be happy that he has fasted." Ahmad, Muslim, an-Nasa'i