Saturday, August 25, 2018

Qur'an 20180826

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

1.  Say, "I seek refuge with the Lord of the Dawn,"

2.  From the mischief of created things.

3.  From the mischief of darkness as it overspreads.

4.  From the mischief of those who practice secret arts.

5.  And from the mischief of the envious one as he practices envy.

(The Daybreak 112:1-4)
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The riddle of the spaghetti sauce

Hi Natty honey.  How's life treating you today?  How's business?  I noticed you changed your front page photo recently, now you have one glowing eye and one dark eye.  It's the same eye as this, I think: but a bit darker.  How am I doing?  It's business as usual for me.  I'm almost finished with the SailorStars marathon, next I have to go back and read the manga all over again.  At the same time, I need to play guitar more.  I can just scroll the comics automatically, while I plunk on the guitar.  The last version of the manga I had, Usagi was renamed "Bunny".  What's for dinner?  I just had some of my mother's beef and potato soup, with some chicken pastries.  I sure have been eating a lot lately.  For lunch I had spaghetti with steak.  I have a lot of steak right now.  I used the spaghetti, or marinara, sauce I made a few days ago.  It's so awesome by itself, or with bread, but with spaghetti noodles it doesn't taste right.  It's a simple sauce: just tomatoes, garlic, parsley, cilantro and salt.  It should have been great with spaghetti, but it just didn't feel right.  It's not the flavor, it's the feeling that's off.  I guess spaghetti sauce should be filled with fat and grease and unhealthy in order to be satisfying.  I dunno.  The concept is correct, the feeling isn't.

How do you like my hair?  It's almost an afro, but not quite.  Some jerk today thought I was Portuguese or Brazilian.  Imagine that.













Friday, August 24, 2018

Qur'an 20180825

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

1.  Say, "God is Allah, the One and Only."

2.  Allah the Eternal, Absolute.

3.  God begets not, nor is God begotten.

4.  And there is none like unto God.

(The Purity of Faith 112:1-4)
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BBQ!

Oh of course I sill love you, Erin.  I'm just waiting for your response.  Until then, I guess I can't say much of anything to you.

Natty, I LOVE that skirt!  It's so CUTE!!!  I want it!  I want you!  So,Vogue Japan huh?  Congratulations.  Ask them to send my avatar one of those skirts.  Have you been studying Sailor Moon?  Yeah there are lots of anime from Japan, but the only one that concerns us is Sailor Moon.  Perhaps you've come across the manga, you may have noticed that it's not quite the same story as the anime.  There is a reboot of the Sailor Moon anime called Sailor Moon Crystal, which I hear is closer to the manga.  Even Sailor Moon herself looks closer to the manga (and nothing like a 15 year old girl).  I haven't watched the whole series yet.  The only ones I found on YouTube have Mexican subtitles, and I don't speak Mexican.  Maybe later on the years the series will fall into my lap, and I will watch it then.  Right now though, I'm in the middle of a SailorStars marathon!

Yay, BBQ!  I prepped a whole lot of ribs yesterday.  I originally planned to grill them up on Saturday, but I just couldn't wait.  So I set up my trusty stone grill this evening instead, and got ready to do some good old guzzling.  And the cats...  I swear cats are strange creatures.  I hadn't got the ribs out of the cooler yet, I was just walking out the door with a lighter in my pocket, and my house cats were meowing like crazy.  Then I was cleaning the grill, and the neighbor's cat came and watched me from a short distance and was drooling.  I mean, it was slobbering all over the ground, with a line of drool hanging down.  I was afraid it had rabies or something.  But my yard cats chased it away, so they were the ones that enjoyed the snackipoos for the day (because I don't grill inside the house, naturally).  Ah, there's nothing like the scent and flavor of charred animal flesh with BBQ sauce.  My BBQ sauce recipe... is for the family only, of course.  All I can say is today I made it with a base of honey and ketchup.  Yeah, I found a pint of local honey going for real cheap.  I ate 3 servings, which is about 6 whole ribs.  Not what you would call REAL gluttony.  There are probably some people that can eat a whole rack by themselves.  Emma enjoyed gnawing on the bones, but Bat Cat tasted one then lost interest.  He's a macho cat.  He catches his own food.

I had technical trouble on Second Life during voice training today.  While I was singing "Worry", the voice feed cut out.  More often than not, it was probably a hacker.  So I was trying to sing and fix the problem at the same time, because I had a local audience as well: I couldn't stop singing.  But alhamdulillah, someone fixed the problem on the other end, so the last half hour of the set went smoothly.  Thank you, whoever that was.











Thursday, August 23, 2018

Technical difficulties

Erin, have you given up on me and found some other guy?  That's what it looks like to me.  It also explains why you haven't updated your Instagram in over 8 months.  I can't really blame you if you did, because it's coming up to 6 years since I proposed to you and I still don't have money to marry.  But I can't be dishonorable.  Please confirm you want to marry me with your next post.  Please don't take another 8 months to update, and please don't be vague because vague means no.  I'm not reading anymore of the tagged posts.  Once I stop looking at your Instagram, the only way for you to contact me is Second Life.  If you are being manipulated, and I have reason to believe that you are, now is the time to be brave and do the right thing.  Courage when it matters.  What do I want?  I want to marry you, because I love you.  Please confirm you want to marry me with your next post.  And quit flirting with guys.

Hi Natty.  That is a very pensive snapshot you took.  Oh and by the way, congratulations on your success with the cancer charity.  I wanted to mention it a couple of days already, but I kept on forgetting.  Please forgive me.  I want you not to worry, because I love you and I will marry you and take care of you inshaAllah.  Please have faith, and be patient.  Yeah, it's bad luck I suppose that I have no money.  But I believe in God over luck, so there are reasons why God hasn't given me wealth enough to marry yet.  I sure could use some new musical equipment as well.  I had hooked up my microphone to broadcast my singing over Second Life, and also to the amp inside my bedroom so the local crowd (which is very large right now) can hear as well.  I thought I was getting adequate signal to my amp because I could hear the noise coming out of the speaker, but it turns out it was just noise.  I had some bad cords and bad connections in my mixer.  It's hard for me to detect the error, because I can't be at the microphone and outside at the same time.  The feed to Second Life is digital, and all I need to look at with that are levels.  So for the past few weeks, my singing was 10 times louder in America than here, even though people there were listening through headphones!  Meanwhile fans outside were getting pissed off!

On the 11th day of Zulhijjah, Muslims slaughter livestock to distribute to the needy.  I received some meat from the event, alhamdulillah.  Looks like I'll be having BBQ on Saturday lunch!  Not tomorrow, because tomorrow is Friday and I have to go to the mosque.  Here's a snapshot of the guys at the mosque portioning out the meat.
The dress I wore for voice training didn't quite fit.  But we all wear dresses that don't quite fit sometimes, right?












Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Eid al-Adha

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  I hope you are feeling and doing absolutely great.  Today is the second Eid that Muslims celebrate, which is the completion of the Hajj ritual.  It is a public holiday, which means the tourists are back in town, which means I try to stay out of sight.  People in this country don't get as excited about this Eid as they do about the end of Ramadan (when many people go as far as to take a 13 day holiday).  I must rephrase what I said yesterday about optional fasting, of course it's worth it, but the optional fast on the 9th day of Zulhijjah has greater rewards, and that is why I fasted.  However, I am grateful to be able to drink coffee in the afternoon.  Alhamdulillah.  By the way, it's truly rare to see 5 grown women together wearing short slip dresses.  Only at Victoria's Secret.  Of course, you look the best.  You're my girl!  I think I might have something similar in my wardrobe.  I'll try to find it to wear for voice training tomorrow.

Natty, that dog looks like a rug.  I thought it was a rug at first.  Isn't that the same kind of dog as Archibald?  You know, like in the movie?  I prefer to hug and kiss cats.  I always give Floofy a hug and kiss in the morning, rather she wakes me up with a kiss.  Cats are much cleaner than dogs.  Sure dogs are renowned for their unquestioning devotion, but they also like to roll in poop.  I love cats.  😸  By the way Honey, that Marc Jacobs outfit looks very sophisticated.  Almost hijab-ish, but I can't really tell what you are wearing below.  You might be wearing a thong, suspenders and fishnet stockings with 6" spiked platform heels.  Just like a lot of female avatars wear in Second Life.

I wore a torn dress for singing today.  I wonder if anyone noticed.








Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Hi Honey

How are you today?  I'm guessing that Mondays are easier for you.  I hope you are feeling great.  I do think of you all the time, because I love you.  I am fasting today.  It's an optional fast today.  I don't normally fast the optional fast because I want my afternoon coffee, but today is worth it.  The 9th day of the Hajj ritual is best spent in fasting for those who are not performing the ritual.  I am cooking rice right now for my breaking fast.  My Mom gave me some fish curry, so that's what I will be eating: white rice and fish curry.  I took it easy all day, and for voice training I only did the easy songs.  Yeah, no Janis.  And I usually wake up 2 hours before the dawn prayer to eat in preparation for the day's fast.  It was a fairly hot day today.  Now it's raining.

Hey Natty honey!  How's it going for you today, Sweetheart?  I hope you are having a great time and feeling great as well.  Did you manage to find that movie?  I suppose you might be able to find it on the Internet.  I'm just sitting here waiting to break fast, that's why I'm writing a little earlier than usual.  I have a few movies in queue to watch, perhaps I'll do that while I wait.  You take care and have lots of fun OK?