The need to focus

The 15 day challenge was a bust. I should have looked over it more thoroughly before starting instead of jumping in feet first. If it hasn't already become apparent I have given up on the 15 day challenge and am going to concentrate on writing. Anything. And everything.

I do however believe that the blog needs to focus on something. The most successful blogs ie the most read blogs are those that concentrate on a particular subject or field and is updated often.

This is my problem. I cannot focus on just the one thing.

There are many things that interest me. And this blog was in fact going to be the mouthpiece for all of it, hence the "This is my 'I has a blog' blog" tagline. I think I may go back to those few challenges I set myself when I resurrected this blog.

please bear with me while I find my voice...

Day 5 of 15

Day Five: Share your favorite food picture or recipe.

My favorite recipe right now is Havaadhulee Bis (Curried Tuna Dumplings) from Dhumashi blog. During Ramadan of last year I discovered this blog and tried a few of the recipes. The one I liked the most was this one. This Ramadan I have made this three times. It is a lot of work but the payout is great.

I have made some slight changes to the recipe just because I couldn't get all the ingredients. The recipe is from Dhumashi blog but the picture is that of the ones I made.

Dough

2 cups flour

¼ cup boiling water (keep adding the water until it is the right consistency)

¼ cup grated coconut

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp salt

Filling

1 cup Maldivian smoked tuna Valhoamas (finely chopped) (I used a large can of tuna)

½ cup freshly grated coconut

1 onion (finely chopped)

8 curry leaves (finely chopped)

1 hot pepper chilli Githeyo mirus (chopped) (used dried chili flakes)

¼ tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp lemon juice

1 ½ tsp salt

Curry

1 tbsp oil

1 onion (finely chopped)

2 tbsp Maldivian roasted curry powder Hanaakuri havaadhu (Indian curry powder)

2 tbsp tomato paste

4 curry leaves

2 inches pandan / rampe leaves

¼ tsp chilli powder

½ cup thick coconut milk

1 litre water (to boil the bis or dumplings)

Preparation of the dough

1. Add salt, oil, grated coconut and water into the flour and mix well. Make into a soft dough. Divide the dough into 40 small balls and keep aside.

Preparation of the filing

1. Mix onion, lemon juice, curry leaves, chopped hot pepper chilli and salt. Mix until the juices flow from the onion.
2. Mix in the grated coconut.
3. Add turmeric powder and mix again.
4. Add Valhoamas and mix well.
5. Divide and make 40 small oval shapes.

Preparation of bis (Dumplings)

1. Press the dough into small cup shapes and place the tuna filling inside it.
2. Close the dough over the filling and make into oval shapes like eggs.
3. Repeat the same with the rest of the dough and tuna filling.
4. Boil the water and drop above prepared egg shaped dumplings into it.
5. Cook until the outer layer appears translucent.
6. Remove from water and strain.

Preparation of curry

1. Heat oil.
2. Fry onion, curry leaves and pandan leaves. Fry until onions appear golden brown.
3. Add in the chilli powder, turmeric powder, tomato paste and Hanaakuri havaadhu. Mix well.
4. Add salt and thick coconut milk. Cook for few minutes.
5. Fold the bis or dumplings into the prepared curry and apply curry all over.
6. Transfer to a plate and serve hot.

Note: Can use canned tuna if you do not have Maldivian smoked tuna.

If you cannot get freshly grated coconut for this recipe, you may use medium dessicated coconut instead (dessicated coconut is readily available in most Asian shops in UK and in many other countries).

Day 4 of 15

Day Four: Smile! We want to see your teeth today. Post a self-portrait

It is an old one but I still have the same teeth. And the abs.. yes.

Eid Mubarik!

Day 3 of 15

Day Three: Share your favorite quote/song lyrics.

I had to think for a while about this. And even though the challenge says favorite quote OR song lyric I thought I would share both.

Favorite quote:

Do your best and leave the rest

It will all come right, some day or night

It's from the cartoon Black Beauty. I remember Beauty's mother saying this and thinking how beautiful it was. Every time I was asked what my favorite quote or saying was, I have always replied with this. After all, our best is all we can do. And so far it has all come right.

Favorite song lyric:

Those three words

Are said too much

They're not enough

From the song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. Me and the wife have adopted this song as OUR song. I can listen to this song over and over again for at least half a day (There is no song that I can listen to on repeat for longer than that!) The words are just so beautiful. We know what the three words are. We know how often, how carelessly they are spoken. Still it is not nearly enough..

Day 2 of 15

Day Two: Make a bullet list of everything that happened today.

• Woke up around 6 am
• Took a shower
• Helped get the kid ready for day care
• Took the train for work around 8:30 am
• Was at work by 9 am
• Someone's PC was running slowly so fixed that
• Set out spare laptops for newbies
• Went to the gym around 11 am. It was a very intense workout mostly abs and legs.
• Took a shower and back at work by 12 am
• Spent an hour on the phone with users in Dubbo, NSW helping them set up their mobile internet connections and connect to the VPN.
• Taught someone how to invite outsiders to our company intranet.
• At 4pm had our team meeting even though the manager is on leave. Thought it would be a good way to set up work for the rest of the week. Don't think my coworker was too please d to have the meeting though..
• Around 5pm setup a hotline for a particular project
• Broke fast at 6:04 pm with a snickers bar a juice packet.
• Left work shortly after
• Walked to the train station and managed to get on the 6:26 train
• Got home around 7ish and had dinner with wife and kid.
• Bathed the kid after dinner and got her ready for bed.
• Watched a little TV
• Had some more to drink as feeling god-awful thirsty
• Right now surfing the web and typing out this blog post.
• Have to do dishes and then go to bed.

Good night!

Day 1 of 15

Day One: Introduce yourself. List your likes and dislikes.

I am Khuscen. It's not my real name but it sounds like it. I find it hard to talk about myself most of the time which is why this sentence has taken me the better part of an hour to type out.

Originally from Male', Maldives I have lived the last 8 years in Australia. I came here to study, fell in love, got married and had kids.

I have changed my field of study many times. I studied science subjects in Male, Maldives. I finished a Bachelor of English in Bendigo, Australia. I completed an MCSA in Melbourne, Australia.

I have also had very different jobs. I was a tutor while I was in school. I was drafted into the NSS straight out of school and was a policeman for 5 years. In Australia my first job was to stock shelves and a specialty store. Currently I am working as a Systems Administrator for a small company in Melbourne and have been at this for two years now.

I started this blog in 2005 and really got into blogging in 2006 and 2007. I lost my mojo after that and haven't been able to blog regularly the last two years. Hopefully I can change that soon.

I like movies. Mostly I dig action flicks. I am a big fan of the superhero genre and like to keep abreast of all new developments in that area. favorite movie of all time is Top five movies include Braveheart, Children of Men, Sin City District 9 and Serenity.

I like TV shows. Most recently i have started watching Breaking Bad and I really like it. Top 5 TV shows of all time are Lost, True Blood, Whose Line is it Anyway, Friends and The X Files.

I like books. Books kept me sane in a sometimes crazy world. I remember going to the library at least twice a week and finishing a book every day. Its slowed down quite a bit now, but I still enjoy a good book whenever I can. I could spend the whole day at a library or a bookshop and be quite content with myself. Top 5 authors are Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, HP Lovecraft, Jeff Lindsay and Ambrose Bierce.

I dislike public speaking or speaking to a number of people larger than 5 at a time.

I dislike how extremely cold and how extremely hot Melbourne weather gets. It is ok when the temperature doesn't go into the extremes and remains cool and constant.

I dislike how out of shape I have gotten. I am really trying to get back in shape at the moment.

I dislike talking about myself.

Back to blogging

It was much harder than I expected trying to resurrect this blog. I am still gonna try even though I may not be able to make all the goals in that last post.

I found this challenge over at http://whenhekissesher.wordpress.com/ and I think this may be a good thing to do in trying to get back into the habit of blogging.

Day One: Introduce yourself. List your likes and dislikes.

Day Two: Make a bullet list of everything that happened today.

Day Three: Share your favorite quote/song lyrics.

Day Four: Smile! We want to see your teeth today. Post a self-portrait.

Day Five: Share your favorite food picture or recipe.

Day Six: Time to take some random snaps of object of your interest.

Day Seven: Provide pictures of 5 celebrity crushes.

Day Eight: Create a bucket list, whether or not your aspirations or rational.

Day Nine: Describe your food consumption today.

Day Ten: Share one of your current favorite tunes.

Day Eleven: List some of your favorite bloggers.

Day Twelve: Set a goal.

Day Thirteen: Provide snaps of objects in your favorite color(s).

Day Fourteen: Recommend a song that you think ‘I will like too’.

Day Fifteen: This is the last day and today you will do some photoshop tricks on your picture and post it. (of 15 day challenge)

Resurrection

This blog has been resurrected!

Goals:

1. To write at least once a day even if it is just one sentence.
2. To write something longer than one sentence at least once a week.
3. To write my take on news from the entertainment industry at least once a week.
4. To write my take on news from the IT industry at least once a week.
5. To write something personal at least once a week.
6. To not give up on any of the above goals.

This blog is dead!

Long live this blog!