By Leo Alvarez
Shimmering white moon
Dances eloquently over the Nile
Elderly mage concocts a bubbling potion
A child smiles at the noon-day sun
Playing peekaboo with nebulous clouds
Slanting rays strike seekers of tans
Night sky crimson as a blood orange
Planes like kinetic stars glide
Venus shimmers like the moon
Soft white pellets
Wrapped in a thin eelskin
Contrast of white on black
A prism of creamy lime-green
Wisps of pink flesh peeking out
A puddle of rich caramel brown
Petals of the palest salmon rose
Herbal green paste carefully sealed
Polyphony of flavors
Deep bass of starchy rice
High soprano of pickled ginger
Notes of fresh fish in between
And the twinkling tingling of wasabi
Mmm sushi.
I’m back in Chicago after spending two days in New York. It was great. I visited Queens and Manhattan. I rode through Central Park. My audition went very well. I passed the contestant test, thirty questions in ten minutes. The interview was fantastic. A woman asked me about my job and why I want to be on Millionaire. I told her about how I teach and how I love trivia. Hopefully, I’ll be back in New York in the near future.
A request for prayers does not always indicate a bad thing. This is a case in point. As many of you may already know, I am headed to New York City tomorrow. I need your prayers and duas (Arabic term for requests directed toward Allah) because I am auditioning for the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” on Wednesday.
I have been training in my own way. I bought a book of trivia questions. I taped several episodes of the show and watched them, playing along at home. I’ve been trying to keep myself in the best of health – mentally and physically.
All I had to do to get an audition was e-mail the show’s website, www.millionairetv.com. They’ve eliminated the preliminary game over the phone. They’ve also done away with the “Fastest Finger” trials.
Please pray for me. Pray for my safe transit to NYC and back to Chicago. Pray that I do well on the test. Ask God to make me appear charming, witty, and personable in my interview. Pray for my health and welfare. Ask God to guide me as I pick people in my life for my lifelines. Pray that I win the million (Why not dream big?) and that God guide me as I spend the money in a way that benefits me, my community and the world at large.
Thanks in advance
As some of you know, some of the time I work as a substitute teacher. I had a rule: I don’t do elementary. I’ve done middle school and high school, but until yesterday I had never done elementar
It’s not that I have any grudge against elementary school teachers or that I have some problem with elementary schools. It’s an issue of personality. I’m not really the nurturing type. I didn’t want to have to wipe kids’ noses and tie kids’ shoes.
Yesterday I realized what I was missing. I received a call asking me to teach fifth grade. I’ve done 6th grade before. I thought I could handle fifth grade. But about ten minutes into my day, I was told that they had an internal sub for fifth grade but needed someone to do first grade. That made me uneasy. Then the school secretary said, “It’s a good thing you subs are so flexible.” Yeah. That’s a good thing. Talk about your bait and switch.
So for a day I was a first grade teacher. I don’t want to bore you with the minutia of my day so I’ll just hit the highlights.
It’s really cool how open the kids are with you. These kids had never met me before but because I was their teacher they told me everything about themselves. One girl told me about a dream she had where her dad made her family his slaves. One boy told the class that he loved Hannah Montana.
Kids get hurt every day and unfortunately some of my kids got hurt. Two girls hurt their fingers and needed band-aids. One boy fell and started limping, but I knew he was faking. But there was no permanent damage.
There was so much drama. It made me wonder why there isn’t a TV show about first grade. One girl said that she had five fights with her friend that day. One boy threw a pencil at another boy and hit him in the eye. The boy who has hit started crying. I talked to him and I think I made him feel better.
One aspect that was interesting was the different levels of ability I saw. One girl told me she had read a book with over 200 pages on the weekend. Some kids had trouble reading a page. Some were already budding writers and some struggled to put words on paper.
It was definitely a learning experience. I have a new respect for elementary teachers. But for the future: I don’t do elementary.
Bosses telling you to think outside the box
Are guilty of the sin
They tell others to avoid
How can you expect a dull cliché
To inspire creative thinking?
When purveyors of burritos
Speak of “thinking outside the bun”
It’s time to retire the phrase.
Instead of thinking outside the box,
Let’s ponder beyond our heads,
Create doors in the ceiling,
Pull a MacGyver on the situation.
Creativity will be to the next age
What literacy was to the last one.
A year-long project is over. I started reading the Old Testament in May 2007. I read an average of three chapters every day. The version I read was the New International Version (NIV), which I read online (www.ibs.org/niv). Today I finally finished.
The end of the Old Testament contains twelve books about minor Hebrew prophets. There were two verses that I read today which I found particularly enlightening.
Here’s one that I feel many people today can relate to:
Haggai 1:5
5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
Maybe it’s the current state of the economy that makes this verse ring so true. This verse is talking about a lack of fulfillment, a scarcity of contentment. With the global food crisis, it definitely seems like we have harvested little. I also feel like I eat and eat, but I never have enough. Maybe I need to change my diet or maybe it’s something deeper, but I don’t feel satisfied by food like I used to feel. I’m not having money problems right now, thankfully, but I know many people must feel like their wallets or purses have holes in them.
This next verse strikes me as something that closely resembles the Quran and the Hadith.
Malachi 2:16
16 “I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate it when people clothe themselves with injustice,” says the LORD Almighty.
Of course Islam permits divorce and even makes it relatively easy to do, but it reminds us that divorce is one of the things that Allah hates most. Also, justice is very important to Muslims as we believe we are commanded to fight injustice in whatever way we are able. I find it interesting that divorce and injustice are paired together in this manner. Maybe the implication is that one major cause of divorce is injustice. When spouses do not give each other the rights they deserve, divorce may result.
Also, the verse doesn’t just say people commit injustice but that they “clothe themselves” with injustice. It is one thing when injustice is an act that you do, but when injustice surrounds you and envelops you as if it is your own clothing, you know you have gone far astray. In today’s society when our clothes are often the product of sweatshop labor and inhumane working conditions, how many of us are guilty of clothing ourselves with injustice? Think about it.
Coldplay Fans, go to www.coldplay.com to get a free copy of their latest single, “Violet Hill.” EMI Music may not be happy with me, but I’m putting the lyrics to the song here. Some of these might not be exactly right. Get the song, give it a listen and tell me if I got it right.
Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops I remember
There was snow
White snow.
Clearly I remember,
From the windows they were watching.
While we froze,
Down below.
When the future’s architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show.
You better lie low.
If you love me,
Won’t you let me know?
Was a long and dark December
When the banks became cathedrals.
And the fog
Became God.
Priests clutched onto Bibles
Hollowed out to fit their rifles.
And the cross
Was held aloft.
Bury me in armor
When I’m dead and hit the ground.
Love’s a pose
That unfolds.
If you love me,
Won’t you let me know?
I don’t want to be a soldier
Or the captain of some siking ship
With snow
Far below.
If you love me,
Why’d you let me go?
I took my love
Down to Violet Hill.
There we sat in the snow
All that time
She was silent still.
So if you love me,
Won’t you let me know?
If you love me,
Won’t you let me know?
(Incidentally, the line about the banks becoming cathedrals may be an homage to U2. One of the songs on U2’s “Pop” entitled “The Playboy Mansion” says “The banks they’re like cathedrals/ I guess casinos took their place.”)
Pundits say that a McCain presidency represents a third term for George W. Bush. Try this quiz to see if you know the difference between Bush and McCain. It’s harder than it looks.
http://www.bush-mccainchallenge.com/
I’m coining a new term, the “defense astrobellic.” It means an argument or speech that is based on any story from the Star Wars universe.
Here’s an example, in ‘Family Guy,” Peter says, “Strike me down Lois, and I will become more powerful than you can imagine.” This is a paraphrase of what Obi-Wan says to Darth Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Imagine someone comes to your house in a beaten-down jalopy of a car. You could say as Leia said to Han Solo, “You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought.”
Here’s a pick up line from The Empire Strikes Back, “You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life.”
Exrta points for lines taken from The Empire Strikes Back. Demerits for lines from The Phantom Menace.
I'm Asad Jaleel. I'm a law student at DePaul in Chicago (Downtown Campus). My family is from Karachi, Pakistan. I'm a Muslim. I enjoy working out, playing video games, reading, and blogging.
