Bushra’s Blog

I’m a couple of days late on this but Riz MC, aka Riz Ahmed, posted a new video for one of his songs “Sour Times” on 7/7, the anniversary of the London bombings of 2005.

In addition to being a hip hop artist, Riz Ahmed is also an actor and has been in a number of things, like Road to Guantanamo and the new British film Shifty. He was also in the BBC miniseries Britz, which I wrote a bit about when it came on in the U.S. on BBCA.

Anyways, check out the video and listen to the lyrics! Very cool.

It has come to my attention that maybe my standards for people in general and Muslims specifically are too high. In my previous post about the lady who made up the ridiculous story regarding my car accident, I said:

On Twitter, I mentioned that the worst part was that the lady is Pakistani and Muslim. I understand her behavior would have been deplorable regardless of her race or religion but for me, this fact made the whole ordeal just a bit more incredulous.

I shouldn’t be making religion part of this discussion as the fact that she is Muslim has nothing to do with anything.That is merely one aspect of her, as has been pointed out to me.

Looking back at my last post, I can see that maybe I might have to clear up on more thing – I would never judge one’s “Muslim-ness”. A person does what they do and it’s not up to me or anyone else to say how good or how bad of a Muslim one is. Because in the end, I don’t know how good of a person I am so who am I or anyone else to pass on judgment, y’know?

So… yeah

And for the record folks, dissenting opinions are welcome. Yeah, cousin I’m talking to you :p

Last week, I was in a little car incident.

I thought I didn’t have to worry about anything. It was most likely going to be 50-50 so I didn’t dwell on it too much, especially since there wasn’t a disagreement between the other lady and me on how things played out.

However, it turned out that this lady made up a story for her insurance company that put all the blame on me. The story itself was ludicrous. Seriously, it was so out there that it would have made more sense for her to say a sudden flash of blinding light from an alien spacecraft blinded her for a split second, causing the accident.

Upon hearing this ‘dispute’ from the claim adjuster from this lady’s insurance company, I was so overwhelmed with anger that I surprised myself. I think I’ve only been that livid one other time in my life (In October of 2003, in case you’re wondering).

A friend said that everyone tends to lie about car accidents and a coworker said the same thing. It made me wonder: how can one consciously lie about something like this in the slim chance one can save a few bucks while causing the other person a great deal of distress? I mean, the only damage was to the rear bumpers on both cars. It really wasn’t a big deal. However, this lady was perfectly willing to craft a ridiculous lie for a freakin’ *bumper*.

On Twitter, I mentioned that the worst part was that the lady is Pakistani and Muslim. I understand her behavior would have been deplorable regardless of her race or religion but for me, this fact made the whole ordeal just a bit more incredulous. When I was little, I used to think Muslims were all good. They never drank, did drugs, stole, or did anything else remotely illegal or uncouth because they weren’t supposed to (ok, ok, you can quit laughing now). I was really little when I had this thought and I realized how naive I was a long time ago but it still shocks me when a fellow Muslim acts in a manner contrary to what the religion dictates.

If this person, whose name, phone number, and address I have and so wish to plaster all over the internet, pulled this stunt with a non-Muslim, then the non-Muslim person would have come away from it thinking bad of all Muslims. Not the right way to go, but a reality nonetheless.

I then realized that my natural inclination to trust everyone and to always see the good in people isn’t always a viable attitude when dealing with reality.

Sorry, I don’t mean to sound bitter (I’m not) and this doesn’t mean that I’ll automatically think the worst of everyone. I won’t, really. I’ll just be a bit more on guard from now on. This may also mean that I may document every aspect of my life, taking pictures wherever I go and of people I meet so there won’t ever be a doubt as to what happens in my life. This can also help me at work as I can then have pictures that prove that yes, I did iron this shirt this morning thankyouverymuch

I talked to my own claims adjuster about the lie that the lady told and he was even a bit surprised himself when he had initially taken her statement. However, while he can deny her story on my behalf and her insurance can deny my story, neither story can really be proved. So in the end? 50-50.

That’s right lady. You told a lie and it didn’t change the outcome. How does it feel to sacrifice your soul for nothing? HUH?!

(I’m fine, I swear )

I had a phone interview the other day for a permanent position within the department I’m currently working in as a contractor. While I wasn’t actually dreading the interview, I had this fear that I was going to somehow accidentally sabotage myself.

And I sort of did.

I won’t go into the specifics of the position and the company here so I’ll be as vague as possible…

The interview was going pretty smoothly until I was asked a question that I have never been asked and have never thought I would be asked. I sputtered a bit and tried to think of something half way intelligent to say and finally did say something. Unfortunately, this spun off into something I didn’t foresee but should have. Long story short, the HR person sort of made it sound like I would eventually leave this job for the same reasons I quit my last job.

*facepalm*

I somehow explained my way out of the hole that I dug for myself and we we continued from there, talking about other aspects of the job, benefits, and all that good stuff.

I talked about the interview with a coworker and explained the above to her. She said it was a positive sign that we talked for a while (a 1/2 hour) but I just shrugged my shoulders.

I’ll find out by the end of this week if I have an interview with the hiring manager.

If not, no worries. It’s all good.

(Of course, maybe I shouldn’t be telling so many people about something that is so uncertain.)

Ten years ago, I graduated from high school, give or take a few days. I walked across the stage setup at my high school, shaking the principal’s hand while proudly taking my empty diploma holder (actual diploma to be picked up later) amidst the claps and hollers of the few people I actually knew among the 500+ people in my graduating class.

I already knew what I wanted to do in college and I figured within four years I would graduate, have a job lined up upon my last days of college, and everything would be hunky dory, so to speak.

Or not.

While not everything turned out the way I thought I would, I’m still really fortunate to be where I’m at right now: working with savings, being there for my family, and having a few really good friends (the kind that understand me and put up with my sarcasm and the weirdness that overcomes me with lack of food or an excess of caffeine). However, I’m still trying to find out what I want to do “when I grow up” even now, ten years later and a few weeks shy of my 28th birthday.

I used to think it was all about the money. Happiness would come with the bigger paycheck, I thought. That was the mentality that I had back in high school but in the ten years since, I’ve been leaning towards a different definition. Happiness is about figuring out what I want to do and and to just quit worrying about all the things I don’t have control over, an incredibly bad habit of mine.

Now I need to find what makes me happy, InshAllah

In New Muslim Cool, filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor presents a look at the life of Puerto Rican American Hamza Perez over a period of a few years in Pittsburgh as he and other members of the community work to establish a Muslim community.

Born Jason, Hamza used to be a drug dealer in Massachusetts before he found Islam and turned his life around at the age of 21. Although only 83 minutes, New Muslim Cool covers many aspects of Hamza’s life: how he fits in with his (mostly) non-Muslim relatives, his marriage, his work as an activist, his hip hop career, even how he and the rest of the Muslim community deal with an uncalled for FBI raid on their mosque.

Taylor and editor Kenji Yamamoto worked well to make the film as cohesive as possible. Despite the fact that one is watching scenes that have been filmed over a few years, the documentary has an underlying theme. It’s about Hamza maturing, becoming a better person, understanding who he is, and embracing the responsibilities he feels are incumbent on him.

The great thing about New Muslim Cool is that you don’t have to be a Muslim or a convert to appreciate this film. The message given is universal and Hamza is entirely relatable. Check it out if you can. There’s one more screening in San Francisco at the Sundance Kabuki Theater on May 4 and other screenings in other parts of the country. Also, New Muslim Cool has the distinction of airing on June 23 on PBS to start off the new season of POV.

I used to play video games a lot.

In our household, we have had some sort of video game console ever since I was little. The Atari 7800 gave way to the Nintendo, which led to Sega Genesis, then Playstation, and then the XBOX. We didn’t go for the Super Nintendo, N64, or PS2 though. (Although my brother and I once rented the n64 from Blockbuster with the Star Wars game Shadow of the Empire, which was awesome by the way.)

One of my favorite games on the XBOX was Splinter Cell. I loved how it wasn’t a straight shoot-em up but a game that required strategy and patience. Ducking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to move, being discreet while climbing fences and knocking people out (and subsequently moving the bodies to the shadows), awesome.

These past few days, I’ve been missing the Nintendo Entertainment System. I miss the simplicity of just having two buttons, A and B, that have given way to a more complicated set of buttons on video game systems of late. I miss cheat codes, which were usually a combination of something like: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A. Besides Contra, the Nintendo game I miss the most is Battletoads because I was never, ever able to pass it. I know, I know. Shock. Horror. I was unable to pass a game.
It was a pretty cool game but hard (according to Wikipedia, I wasn’t the only one to think it was hard). At one point in the game I couldn’t figure out what to do next. I seriously had no clue how to proceed from the predicament I found myself in and that’s where it ended for me.

I want another crack at it.

Alas, I don’t play video games anymore. I do have an XBOX 360, but I use it to watch DVDs. I can’t justify the hours I may potentially spend playing video games. That and how video game mentality would somehow spill over into the real world. While I was playing Splinter Cell, I would actually think at times that I had night vision goggles on me. I even had to suppress urges to climb fences. That’s not good.

I still miss it all from time to time though.

There’s this phrase that Muslims use: “Allah is the best of all planners.” If you’re not meant to do something or go somewhere, it’s not going to happen if God didn’t will it. I believe people of different faiths have something similar.

This concept was really brought home last weekend as I had so many things I needed to get to but never did. Instead, life was essentially put on hold as my family and I dealt with something personal. Although everything turned out ok, or as ok as things could possibly get under the circumstance, it still made me stop and think and think about the above phrase.

So anyways folks, even the best laid plans may never come to fruition if it’s not meant to be.

Oh, and go hug your mom.

On occasion, I review movies, books, or TV shows for Media and Islam or Illumemedia, usually things that are related to Islam. On this site, I may occasionally review a random, non-religious book or movie for fun (like the DC animated films).

I realized a while ago that I was generally positive when it came to most of these reviews. Any kind of gripe I had was always minor and I always ended up giving a review close to glowing. I wondered, was I too nice? Would I end up giving everything a positive review?

I needn’t have worried.

I was recently given an advanced copy of a book by a marketing company. This particular company gave me a free book before, which was great, so I loved that they thought of me again to send me another book.

The premise of this particular book is a controversial one: it’s a novelized version of the life of one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Aisha (ra). I was a bit hesitant to read it at first because of the fiction mixed in with the true account of religious figures, but I thought I’d be fair and not just jump to conclusions.

So I read the book. To put it simply, I didn’t like it.

As I prepare to write my review, I wonder if it’s okay to even be negative. I’m the type of person who doesn’t take criticism well so I wonder: who am I to bestow criticism on anyone else?

The first copy of the book I received was an advanced copy without the real cover, just a really simple one that characterized it as an advanced copy. The company just sent me the published version of the book and I lamented the fact that I had another version of a book I didn’t like and my bookshelf was already bursting at the seams. I looked at the published version and read through the quotes from other authors that were printed on the front and back covers. The headlining quote was from Amy Tan and it was then I realized: I have my own opinion and I’ll go ahead and give it. People will like
the book and some people won’t and I happen to fall into the latter group. If you don’t want something to be critiqued don’t put it out there. And if by some crazy chance the author happens to read my review, he can take solace in the fact that other people liked it and what do I know because I’m no Amy Tan.

I just feel a bit bad because this will probably be the last time that this marketing company gives me a free book.

I figure any kind of analysis of the finale of Battlestar Galactica on this blog wouldn’t compare to the full on geek debates that have been raging on the web so I’ll forgo that and just say that I’m going to miss BSG.

I have to admit, I didn’t start watching from the moment it came on TV. Even though my brother watched it and it was definitely a show that someone like myself would watch, I didn’t bother with it. My coworker/friend convinced me to start watching it and I was hooked from the miniseries that started it all and berated myself for taking so long to get into it. I quickly caught up with it and by the time the second part of second season started, I was ready. Not every episode has been perfect but overall, it’s been a great show. It was so much more than just a science fiction series.

Here are some random moments/things from the series (SPOILERS!) that ‘got’ me in one way or another (not comprehensive by any means):

-The fact that only around 50,000 people in the entire human race were left after the initial cylon attack in the miniseries.

-Bill Adama’s rousing speech in the miniseries that he WILL lead them to Earth. So Say We All! (although he didn’t really believe an Earth existed).

- That President Roslin’s justice involved ejecting a cylon out of an airlock.

-Boomer completely unexpectedly shooting Bill Adama after a successful mission when he was going to shake her hand.

-In the episode ‘Downloaded’- finding out that Caprica Six saw a vision of Gaius Baltar the same way Baltar would would see a vision of Caprica Six.

-The entire rebellion on New Caprica – I particularly remember when Roslin was being held captive and Baltar insisting that there was no torture being conducted.

-Galactica’s rescue mission on New Caprica. Oh man, the part where Galactica descended and then jumped out? Whoa.

-The reveal of 4 of the 5 final cylons.

-Realizing that the Earth they have been searching for was a radioactive wasteland.

-Dualla blowing her brains out after a pleasant evening with Lee to avoid dealing with the above point.

-The role of All Along the Watchtower.

-The fact that Kara Thrace had known the notes to the above since she was a little girl.

Maybe I didn’t entirely get everything that happened in the series finale but I was still pretty satisfied with the way things turned out.

Also, I just want to say that I loved the relationships in BSG, especially the father/daughter one of Bill Adama and Kara Thrace.

Oh, and…

Least Favorite Episode: Black Market