I got a Wii boo boo

Two websites dedicated to showing the danger of owning a Nintendo Wii console .

http://www.wiiinjury.com/
http://wiiinjuries.net/

I wonder what is Phat's take on this, since he owns a Wii console. Ever experienced anything like this Phatty? =P

Blog update

Wohoo added a mini slideshow of my drawings (tis on the right at the moment). Am not really feeling the location but it will do for now. Come to think of it, am not feeling the layout at all. As soon as am done with exams I shall make oh so pretty. I also tried adding a Twitter widget. Actually, I did add it, but it looked so wrong and out of place, I decided to comment it out and fix it later. It's pretty cool going through the template and editing it, as I've always wanted to learn html and CSS and all those other web languages, but never did. Totally gonna be one of my summer projects =P

COMP325 exam tomorrow. I really dont feel like studying for it, coz I already had one major exam today, and my exam positivity mood has been drained by it ._. I know I am procrastinating brain, leave me alone xD

lol ? - Rasengan

Too much cyanide and happiness...

Did this in 15 minutes -_-...

Mother of All Religions.

Once upon a time, everything was so serene and calm in my holy homeland, a country that so many are ignorant of. Especially its people whom were newly born, in the 20th century, in different countries. They sadly never get to live and see with their very own eyes how much of an astonishing place their country was. How their country was something everyone wanted to be back then..

People just like me, Born into total ignorance blinded by the surrounding needs and of course self needs without knowing the truth until I found myself with no identity. So when I got a glimpse of truth three years ago, I was really disappointed as well as amused at how we have become and what was of us back then. To find that we are nothing but pawns created by pawns.

History of my homeland, Palestine, isn’t something to be told in a day or two; hence I decided to only talk about one thing – in this article - that most “Arab” countries couldn’t achieve while we did without a notification. Seldom do I remember seeing an Arab country in the age where I came to being that has what we once called "total peace". No, I’m not talking about diversity here, I’m not talking about Canada or the US or even Palestine now. No, I’m not talking about the oppressiveness we kept experiencing nor the wars that we went through. I’m talking about something that would most likely unite everyone: Religion.Yes, the unity of religion, even with all the differences.

October 1921, 78% of Palestine were Muslims, 11% Christians and 9.6% Jew. Back then, before even 1948, when the Jew kept immigrating to Palestine with the notion that it’s their holy mother land which their religion originated from, everyone lived together happily and without any kind of discrimination. Sadly, some nonsense got propagated back then by Zionists, a myth if you want to rephrase. Something that states ‘A land with no people is for a people with no land’ meant by Palestine of course. This myth was created to make Palestine become more filled with Jews. It made European Jews rise its overall population in the country to 16% in 5 years. They later increased to 30% in ten years. Palestine at some point had all the major three religions together, though due invasion that dissapeared. However, it’s a fact that everyone was together once upon a time. Britain only made Jews increase as well as the conflict in the country increase. Although it was never 100% fight-free between both sides, Jews and Muslims, in Palestine, but it became worse because of the Jews came through invasion by Britain.

In my opinion, those whom believed they belong to Palestine, those of “Jews Diaspora” and others, had immigrated normally like how people decide to reside nowadays in Canada and the US, none of those small fights would’ve occurred. We had Palestinians who were Jews, Christians and Muslims living all happily together to the point that Christians and Jews used to celebrate Eid Al Fitir with Muslims and Muslims used to Celebrate birthdays and Easter with them as well. Friends with different faiths used to fast together just so they could all eat together. Our country was full of mixed people due to its historical events. It was truly a holy homeland, mother of religions. People would come every year to pray in Jerusalem, Muslims, Jews and Christians. Some facts about each religion changed again due to culture clashes that I will discuss about later on.

Personally I think the only way to erase every single conflict right now (though it’s impossible and very difficult and I guess many would disagree because it’s so hard to forget what we’ve been through or how many sufferings we survived) is to let go of the conflicts and fights between all religions and just let each supplicate to god in their own way. Unite both flags with all three religions with a symbol that would represent Palestine, ancient Palestine.

Note: Pic is taken 1947 in Hayfa where it includes people who are christians and muslims.

Another honorable picture to share is:

Michel Ayoub, a christian palestinian guy who loves his country and who works as a "Masaharaty" for all religions including Islam. A masaharaty is person that wakes people up at dawn in order to eat and drink water so they can fast for the day.

Abuse in schools

Egypt school beating 'kills boy'

The maths teacher, Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid, who worked at Saad Othman school, was furious because Islam Amro had not finished his homework.

After using a ruler to punish him, the teacher is alleged to have taken the young boy outside the classroom and hit him violently in his stomach.

The young pupil fainted and later died in hospital of heart failure.

He was taken from the school to hospital but suffered a sharp drop in blood pressure and heart failure.

The teacher is reported by Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Alyoum to have told the prosecutor that he was only trying to "discipline the boy, not to kill him".

Mr Abdelhamid was remanded in custody on manslaughter charges.

Source

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Pretty shocking story. The little boy looks so adorable, I can't believe he died because of something as trivial as maths homework ...

I've seen my share of child abuse during my early school days. The most memorable is back when I was in grade 1 or grade 2. I was playing tag outside with my friends in the hot Omani sun during breaktime at school. The naughty girl of the class, called Aisha, was playing with us as well. The sun was really strong that day, and I started feeling dizzy. Suddenly, Aisha ran behind me and "tagged" me by pushing really hard on my back. I fell face first unto the concrete and blacked out for a few seconds. When I opened my eyes, I was being dragged by my friends to the clinic and had the most incredible pain in my forehead, as well as a really huge bump. The school's doctor sent me to the hospital for head X-rays, and thank goodness I did not crack my skull or anything dangerous. When I got back from the hospital, I walked into class with the nurse to a loud gasp from my homeroom teacher. The nurse informed her what happened to me, and one of the girls who was playing tag earlier told the teacher that Aisha had pushed me. The teacher called Aisha to the front of the class, and started screaming at her. She demanded an explanation for why she pushed me, but Aisha couldn't provide one, so she kept quiet. The teacher gave Aisha an ear splitting slap to the face. I think my eyes opened wide at that moment with shock. I was thinking "Why did she slap her? Aisha didn't push me on purpose." The teacher continued yelling at Aisha, then told her to go sit at her table. Amazingly, even with the red mark of the teacher's hand forming rapidly on her cheek, Aisha didn't shed a tear. She quietly sat at her table and stared ahead. I don't remember what happened after that, but I do remember Aisha having a bruise on her cheek the next day in the shape of a hand.

I realized later that the reason why Aisha was treated so harshly is because she had a reputation for being the "bad" girl in class. She wouldn't do her homework, she always had stains on her uniform, and her hair was always a mess. I suppose the teacher was already displeased with her on many accounts, and her almost breaking my head pushed her over the edge. However, she still should not have slapped Aisha that way. What if she has broken her jaw? Or perhaps caused some damage to her ear?

This article also kinda got me thinking about my little brother and sisters whom are still in school, could they someday face such a situation? I'm kinda worried to be honest, because even the fact of them being in one of the best schools in Muscat doesn't totally eliminate the risk of such a scenario. What if one of their teachers was going through some emotional trauma and suddenly snapped at one of the children.

I do realize that teachers are only human, and that they are subject to anger just like any of us. However, they are the people shaping and molding the brains of children and teens all over the world, and therefore are the elite of the human race and should be better (at least in my opinion). The idea of hitting children really needs to be eliminated once and for all.

Life update

I slept for two hours this afternoon. I was on the couch, reading my book for COMP311 (Computer Organization and Design) when suddenly I felt all warm and fuzzy and tired and just had to shut my eyes for a few secs. I woke up two hours later freezing cold and in the worst mood ever. It took me about ten minutes to get up from the couch coz I felt so tired. I guess the past three days is taking it's toll on me, what with all the stress of getting the stupid assignment done.

I got my marks back for it. 10 out 15. I find it kinda unfair, since I really put alot of effort into it, and Rivera has crashed at uni so I had to find another programme to simulate my VHDL files. Phat sent me the programme he used, which helped alot =) I am not sure what mistakes are, but I am sure the programme runs fine. It must be the component diagram I drew up, since I kinda threw it together about 1 am last night and didn't have a look through it. Meh.

I must get a high mark in the exam. I must I must I must. I wont accept a B in this course, I want an A. I can achieve that, but I gotta put in hard work in the next day and a half studying for the exam. But I am just so freaking tired ._.

Flaky Pastry

I've recently begun enjoying cooking. I guess the turning point was last Ramadhan. The place I live in has decent sized kitchen (unlike the last places I lived in) with all the basic whiteware, plus some advanced whiteware (like a breadmaker). The kitchen is hardly used, and so I decided to change that =P

I think it's also my flatmate's influence. She watches the Food Channel 24/7. So I join her occasionally and watch the different shows and stuff. I didnt realize being a chef is held in such reverie, they truley are artisits. Food at home back in Oman is tasty, but can sometimes become reptitve and boring. You basically lose the taste of what you are eating. I learnt alot of tips and tricks when it comes to cooking from watching the Food Channel, the most important one being that life is too short to eat bad food!

Anyways, here's a lovely recipe to make the flaky crust of pie (taken from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butter-Flaky-Pie-Crust/Detail.aspx). Tastes way better than any store bought one. Am gonna make a batch right now, with a spinach and mushroom filling, that I got from a Greek pastry recipe, called Spanakopita, and kinda twisted a bit to my liking. With the filling, I don't remember the exact amounts I use of each ingredient, I just eye ball it xD But a basic rule of thumb is use a teaspoon when adding herbs/salt/pepper.

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Pie Crust

• 155 g all-purpose flour (about 1 and a half cup)
  
• 2 g salt
• 115 g butter, chilled and diced (a teeny bit more than half a cup)
  
• 60 ml ice water

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

(The idea is to keep rolling the dough and add water little by little. Even if it looks bad at first, keep rolling the dough in the bowl with your hand and it will eventually form beautifully.)
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Pie Filling

• Feta
• italian herb cottage cheese
• cheedar
• parmesean
• 1 egg
• spinach
• mushrooms
• salt and pepper

Directions

Mix everything together, with the spinach being the last ingredient added, in a large bowl. Spoon the filling into the pie dough. Roll out another batch of dough to cover the top of the pie. Bake for about 30 mins, or until golden from the outside. So delecious ^_^

Solid Ground

I am inlove with this song. There is no other way to describe it lol. Her voice, the symphony, the tragic lyrics, the guitar, it all comes together so perfectly. The FMA AMV broke my heart.

Simone Simons is so my woman crush. Screw stupid Amy Lee.

Studying for COMP325's exam which is in 3 days. VHDL assignment going badly. That's what I get for being ill and bed ridden for a week ^_^