Happy Birthday

It is nice to be back under the Nigerian sun. Today was my first full day here. We woke up around 7 am and started the day with fried yam. Later in the afternoon we were invited to the Nigerian Ministry of Health to make a presentation about the sickle cell project. The public health division was incredibly enthusiastic and very supportive about the what our team is doing. It was the division director's birthday today. While we were there people sang her the Nigerian version of the "happy birthday" song. This version was so different from what I am used to in the US that I don't think they will need to pay the Time-Warner any royalties. The song ends with "how old are you nowwww? How old are you nowwww?". She turned 59 today.

In the evening we went to a huge carnival with people from all the Nigerian states representing their respective cultures. More pictures to come on my flickr site when I get back to the US.

I think we are off to the outskirts of the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory (FCT) tomorrow.

peace

My Olympus XA

Both my parents love photography and I grew up around cameras. My parents took most of our childhood pictures on an Olympus XA rangefinder camera. I remember this camera was a precious item in our household. My dad bought it from one of his photographer friends in the early 1980's.
In the last few years my parents have moved on to digital photography and I am starting to inherit all the awesome film gear. Recently, my Mom gave me this Olympus and I have been shooting with it regularly. I feel guilty for letting my DSLR collect dust on my shelf.
My style of photography totally changes when I am taking pictures with a film camera. I can't do any test shots to quickly check my exposure or to see how light is falling on my subject. I have to think much more and it is really fun to go lo-fi once in a while.



This is a picture of Grand River (Lansing, MI) about a block away from my apartment.



This is Eric at an incredible Jamaican restaurant in Lansing. They blast Jamaican music all day.



I had to open the back of the camera in a (not so dark) room. This was an unexpected result. The light leak is perfectly over the manhole.

My friend's dream

Dude,

Last night I had a dream that we were high school friends and we were
in the amazon trying to save children from slavery under this evil
baker. Bread was made by a windmill and the children had to shove all
the ingredients down these Tim Burton-like tubes as fast as they could
before this roulette wheel came and chopped their fingers off. Once
the children got too old, the old lady chopped them up and baked them
into bread.

We tried to get the media involved by telling the children's stories.
But, the rest of the world was deaf and blind and couldn't think about
anything but the loss of their senses. ...They just ate bread.

So...


I woke up.

I still feel a little strange about that dream.

But, on a more positive note - we were high school superheros trying
to save children in the Amazon. That's pretty bad ass.

I think maybe I'm watching too much Highlander. If you're interested,
I want to share my love of that beautiful 1990s TV show. It'd be good
stress relief for you. It's completely mindless.

My Sugar Gliders

Meet Aurailieus: He is typically pretty relaxed but this day he was really interested in what is happening outside the window.



Here is Josephine. She is the curious one and has a really short attention span. I love her.

Orange

Orange, originally uploaded by eatpomegranate.

Another memory of this Michigan fall.

Meet Rusty

IMG_2088, originally uploaded by eatpomegranate.

Fall is approaching!

Language preservation

When I am at home with my family, we do our best to talk in Urdu. Of course, sometimes dinner table debates evoke sentences in English but that is uncommon. I still think of English as my second language. There are some things I can express much easier in Urdu while other topics require English.

A few months ago, I was having a conversation with my sister in Urdu and then she asked me to help her with her Chemistry homework. As soon as we cracked open the book and started talking about how to balance a chemical reaction, I switched to English. I feel like both these languages are distinct tools for me and I can't imagine communicating without one or the other. When it is necessary for effect while telling jokes, Punjabi also gets thrown into the mix too.

Our family tries our best to preserve Urdu in our new lifestyle, but who knows where it will be centuries from now. I was listening to a story about a group of linguists who are making digital audio archives of dying languages and once again I came across an article about them in NYTimes.

"Kim is a dying language, and Dr. Childs a field linguist. From his base here in Tei, a small fishing village on the Waanje River, he canoes up the narrow waterways that cut across the river’s floodplain, and hikes a few miles inland, to where the last Kim communities remain. Based on recordings taken there, he has devised an alphabet and compiled a dictionary and is finishing a book on the grammar."

Check out the full article
here

Hogs out my car window

Islamabad heat

Photo in Islamabad, Pakistan 2006 by Adil Ibrahim

My brother and I and me biking in Pakistan on a hot day (~100 °F).

My Review of Swiss Army Renegade Watch

REI

The Renegade Swiss Army watch features black on black styling and is made in Switzerland with precision Swiss quartz movement.

Swiss Army Renegade Watch

Great watch, not so great wristband

eatpomegranate Lansing, MI 4/20/2009

 

3 5

Gift: No

Pros: Quality Construction, Light, Comfortable

Cons: Strap broke, Scratches Easily

Best Uses: Daily Use, Travel

Describe Yourself: Athletic, Practical

Like another reviewer said; this watch is not designed for water sports. I took this on the lake and water got under the glass (SA fixed this).
I commute by bike in cold Michigan winters and the temperature fluctuation resulted in some fog under the glass (SA fixed this too).
Lastly, I bought a new cloth strap from SA and now I love it. I have had this watch for several years now.

()

Communal Fruit Bowl

A few weeks ago my friend shared a Planet Green article about starting a communal fruit bowl at work. It is incredible how much coffee we consume during a workday, so I thought a bowl of fruit may offer a much healthier distraction. There is nothing like a crisp apple.
I brought up this idea at work and one of my co-workers offered to let me use his wood shop for making a bowl.

The fruit bowl is a big hit and this is how I made it.



After a piece of walnut was cut in half and we put the two pieces through the planer.


Jon getting me comfortable with the table saw


All these pieces were cut at a 60 degree angle.


At the end of Day-1. Check out my face guard. ROCK!


All the pieces glued together


A view from the top before we put it on the lathe


After a half hour on the lathe, the bowl started taking shape


FRUIT BOWL!

Golden Harvest, Lansing MI

This is my favorite breakfast place in Lansing.

Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

The is the best CAPTCHA I have ever seen.

Flickr CAPTCHA

footbaths for muslims

Mosques in Turkey - 2007

After lunch I often look for a quiet hall or empty classroom to make my afternoon prayer. Personal hygiene is a huge thing in Islam and before Muslims pray we perform an ablution. This includes watching your face, cleaning your nose, ears, teeth, your arms and feet. It is almost like a mini shower but usually a sink is used.
Unfortunately for Muslims in the Western world and especially in the corporate environment this ablution invites prolonged stares. I read this article in the NY times about installing foot baths in school where there are a lot of Muslims. With the growing number of Muslim in Mid-Michigan I think it is about time Michigan State University does the same.