Linkin Blogs

Healthymuslim.com

I found this gem on instructables.com. Itsone my favorite sites but the only complaint I have is that I used to get free pdf downloads of their content but now you’ve got to become a “pro member” pay for them. I guess the Internet 2.0 realized that giving away others venture capital from Internet 1.0 days doesn’t work. Umm Saliha says to me I used to have six pack abs when I got married in 1994 but I don’t think I had any definition, just no fat and a really flat stomach. I gotta get back to that state, God willing….

I finally got out of the lazy doldrums of real exercise (wasted all of my $18/month for all of January and a good portion of February, I’ve gotta use some days there before the the 28th inshaAllah to cut my losses) at the Goddard Fitness Center. No, I’m no pampered geek nor did I hire undocumented workers to clean out my driveway and walkway and even some of the road from the blizzard of 2010 that dumped record amounts of snow on us. I’m talking about aerobic intended exercise…aka…running. Today I ran, walked, panted, felt pain in my lungs but never once crawled about 3.35 miles. Finally all the roads are clean of all snow but they are as dirty with sand and gravel as most any road you’ll find in the residential roads of Karachi or Lahore in Pakistan. Muslims may have been “green” (in the environmental sense) 1400 years ago, but now the vast majority of the Muslim World is brown (as in ecologically polluted). Unfortunately, I had to run through suburban streets because the park trail was unpaved and still had too much snow for running shoes. The only difficulty was when I reached a busy section of New Hampshire Avenue and ran on the raised median with only a couple inches of snow on some spots. Where I could see clean sidewalk, I sprinted to that side of the road after finding a gap in traffic. I only had about 20 feet of sprinting on New Hampshire before any cars could splash me or run me down in the rightmost lane until I could duck back into the safety of residential sidewalks of those good Samaritans, or potential Muslims, who actually removed the snow in front of their house, where I had to duck out onto the road. Running feels good. One of my friends once asked me, what do you get out of it? No reward from Allah, no benefit in the akirah. I disagree. I think in this contemporary world we’ve become more sedentary and suffer from physically, mentally and spiritually as a result.

Yesterday, we got pounded with over a foot of snow. My last measurement based on the amount of snow on my wife’s Corolla’s rooftop was 13” as of 3:30pm. I decided to go for an a walk….about 1.455 miles altogether. I ran some of it (where I could) but mostly trudged through either making my own tracks (closer to home), on the road (East Randolph Rd) or on top of another brave soul’s previous tracks (Valley Mill Park). I did manage to capture some stills and video with a Nikon Coolpix L20 camera, even the video quality and shake is much worse than that of this Blair Witch Project trailer, (which I never saw but was filmed in Burkittsville, Maryland for between $500K – $750K but grossed $248,639,099 worldwide).

What prompted me to go out? I’m 3/4 Punjabi and 1/4 Afghani (maternal grandmother).
It was the 25% that drove me for such an adventure….enjoy the pics and videos.

Walking on East Randolph Road
Nearing Valley Mill Park
Walking thru Valley Mill Park (trail next to Paint Branch stream?)

Blizzard Trek 12/19/2009

Milkyway

Check it out.

Photography from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of Martian Landscapes…

Saw this documentary. I noticed Yvonne Ridley (a British revert to Islam) was one of the journalists featured in this film. You may freely view it online or download it (legally by Bit Torrent). Its only about 21 minutes long.

America’s fattest states..MD is #27..sigh. I wish I lived in DC which ain’t a state but it’s at #45 out of 51.

Read this article on the director Roland Emmerich on what he wanted to do in this movie.

Another article about the movie.

Courtesy of one who signs off his emails to me with the byline.. “Tales of a travelling vagabond…”

Finally got back into the gym. The Goddard Fitness center at NASA-Goddard. IT used to be free and only for civil servants but then they were going to close it down due to budget cuts. Then after taking a survey, the opened to contractors and civil servants for a reasonable $18/month. It has lots of new equipment and is never very crowded (too many people probably wasting their time browsing and email when not working). Yeah I could join the Gold Gyms, the Bally’s or the Lifetime Fitnesses of the world and pay more money and get all those other “perks”, but this is about 200 feet from my office, its convenient and easy to fit into my schedule plus it costs a little bit of money, so I will make the effort go (God willing). I used it last when it was free. I found my old workout sheet (where I record the exercises, weight, reps, sets and date in the file cabinet and found the date to be 12/10 but I don’t have a year on it and I know for sure it wasn’t 2008. So, its at least 2 years old..Now, I go to work early, work out after Asr prayer and get home by sunset..sounds good, feels good too…Just do it..could I get sued for posting that famous line by a shoe company?

Check it out.

This is an excellent article for teachers, parents and future parents alike.

Now this Theme Park would be way cooler than the Muslim Family Day at Six Flags in the US but being in a Muslim country, wouldn’t it, for all practical purposes, be Muslim Family Day every day? Next year MFD in Dubai!!!

My favorite comic strip

Check this out to get perspective of a cell’s size compared to a coffee bean. When you click the link, drag the little slide “switch” across the screen to zoom in and out.

A great set of commercials initiated by Volkswagen of Sweden on something called the Fun Theory. Green is good.

This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

Few know about his color photo work