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!

On the movie front

I have not been able to keep up with as many movies as I would have liked. the only movie I have gone to see in the cinema is Avatar which I saw in 3D at the IMAX cinema in Melbourne. I guess that experience would last me a while. It was totally worth seeing it in the cinema. yes there were times I cringed at some of the the more obvious things that kept happening but on the whole, visually, a very satisfying cinematic experience. i wouldn't mind going back to see it once more... If I can find the time and money..

Of the other movies in my must see list, I have seen District 9 and Inglourious Basterds on DVD and a friend lent me The Hurt Locker.

District 9 was such a breath of fresh air. There was never a dull moment and it flowed so smoothly from one scene to the other. The acting was excellent from all the fresh faced actors especially Sharlto Copley. The effects were stunning for such a small production and I think it is probably the best movie I have seen among all the best picture nominees for an Oscar this year. Granted I have seen only four out of the ten nominees but I think these were the four front runners and maybe Up in the Air...

Inglourious Basterds was exactly what I expected from Quentin Tarantino. A very unexpected movie! Awesome story, awesome dialogue, awesome acting (Christoph Waltz definitely deserved his Oscar win for Best supporting Actor) A few things I was expecting; lots of people to die in unexpected ways and a scene where the focus is on one of the actress's feet. The ending was quite satisfying. Tarantino has definitely not lost his touch and continues delivering some of the best cinema of these times.

I have been wanting to see The Hurt Locker for a long long time. And after having watched it, I can see why it won Oscars for Best movie and directing and Jeremy Renner totally deserved his nomination for best actor. Some very powerful scenes presented in a very realistic way. I very much enjoyed the unexpected appearances of some bigger name actors such as Guy Pierce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse and Evangeline Lily (Kate from Lost). I wasn't too satisfied with the way the movie ended though. Such a great movie deserved to end with a big a boom but I was left wanting for more. And I guess all great movies leave you wanting for more but with all the hype around the movie I did find something missing from the entire film experience. Maybe I need to watch it once again to get really into it...

2010: a new beginning?

My daughter was born a little over a year ago and I sort of abandoned this blog. It was not because of my daughter but because blogging had become something of a chore by then. I wasn't loving it as much as I used to, and you cannot continue doing something that you dont feel like doing. Its not good for you.

Lately, however I have felt the need to start blogging again. I have thought long and hard about how I would go about it. Maybe I would just abandon this blog and start a new one, maybe a wordpress blog. Maybe I would start writing stories again instead of just blogging.

I remember I used to write lots of stories back in the day. It seems so long ago now. Someone remarked that I have arrived at the middle of my life. Could this be my midlife crisis? Is that the reason I feel like I need to start writing again? Instead of splurging all my savings on a two seater, electric green, flashy phallic symbol such as a sports car, I feel the need to put pen to paper? Some mid life crisis...

So I have a twitter now. And though I have not tweeted a lot I am hoping to change that in the coming months. Keep watching this space.

At Last...

Introducing Miss Sarah Emilia

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

source

MEH...

My younger brother and his wife gave birth to their first child - my second niece last Saturday, the 15th of November. Big congratulations to them! I especially love the name they gave her as her initials spell out MEH! She is gonna be quite the character!!!!

Maldivian wins!!!

Well What do you know... Maldivian has won the Cox Plate! I blogged about this horse a while back when I first heard that there was a horse called "Maldivian". And then again when that awful accident he had. But he has come back against all odds and won!

Read about it here.

The Birthday Post

Last week I celebrated my birthday. I had cake with more candle on it than cake(yeah I am old!!) and I got a couple or recipe books from Dina for presents. I think that was her not quite subtle way of telling me that I should be doing all the cooking till my next birthday. To be fair I had expressed an interest in buying these particular books as they have recipes that could be made with just four ingredients. They are bestsellers in Australia. Go here to check them out.

I also got cake at work. It is part of the work culture to have cake on all employees' birthdays. And since I was fasting they were nice enough to schedule the get together for 6pm and most of them stayed behind on a Friday to celebrate with me. I am really liking this new job!

Dina and I went out for the obligatory birthday dinner during the weekend. We went to our favourite Indian restaurant on Sydney Road and just stuffed our faces. That always happens when we go out to eat. W e eat too much and then have to spend the rest of the night trying not to move too much in case we burst!

Anyways it was a lovely birthday and thanks to the internet, I got heaps of wishes from lots of people I might not have otherwise got wishes from. My parents and siblings and cousins also called me up. I haven't had that many phone calls in one day since god knows when. All in all, it was a very special birthday.

Baby Season

Looks like everyone is getting into the season. Either they are pregnant or they have already had a baby. I guess it is always this way. Babies are born all year round. But when your closest friends and family members are pregnant at the same time then that is something very special.

Dina and myself are expecting in February. My brother and his wife are expecting in November. And two of my closest friends are expecting. I am assuming they would have given birth by march at the latest.

One of my closest friend just got his son a week ago in India. Another very close friend also got a son two weeks ago here in Melbourne. So a heartfelt congratulations goes out to both of them their families and the new additions.

Hopefully someday soon we could all get together for a play date. hehehe.

A good year

It has been an eventful month, complete with ups and downs. Thankfully it ended on an up. Actually two ups. After months of looking I have finally landed a job. And a pretty good one at that too...

I forget how many interviews I have been to but it was many. And they were all over the place too. Most I had to travel for more than an hour to get to. Some were close by but not what I wanted or I wasn't what they wanted. Anyways about three weeks ago I got two good interviews. They were close by and they were exactly what I wanted. One of them however had hours starting from 2 in the afternoon and finishing at 10 at night. The other was normal hours but was a new role and they had not had any qualified people there before. Needless to say I did not think I would get that one as I had no experience whatsoever. So I was really looking forward to getting the other job.

Imagine my surprise when I actually got the new role. I had to ask twice just to see whether they hadn't made a mistake. I was very gobsmacked for a while there. Anyways last week was my first week at a full time job in a long long time. And it was very exciting. the place is very nice and I can get there in half an hour. The people are also very friendly and the work culture there is out of sight. Its all based on the honour system so that there are no sign in sheets or time cards. They have drinks every Friday afternoon. And at the moment as the Olympics is on they have rented a widescreen plasma so they can watch the games. They are also having their own olympic games playing the Wii. I was put on the shooting team and failed abysmally.. Its not that easy to play the Wii without some practice... but it was a whole lot of fun!!

Workwise it is very challenging and there are a number of things that I have to look into and be on top of for the next few weeks.

Oh and the other up is that we are expecting someone new into our family by february! Its gonna be a good year!!

Sugar

My neighbours came back yesterday from holidays overseas. The lady came over to borrow some sugar since they did not have any at home.

I was quite surprised to learn that the guy used to take TEN teaspoons of sugar with his tea! TEN teaspoons!! There is probably more sugar than tea in that cup!And when I say, used to, I mean that he has cut down on it now. Yeah, he only uses SEVEN teaspoons nowadays...

Suddenly I am not feeling too guilty about the two teaspoons of sugar I used to have in my drinks...

The Right of Way

Couple of months back, I was waiting to cross a busy road. There was another guy who looked to be in his middle thirties waiting with me and he had his little daughter with him. She looked about five years old or so. Anyways we were all waiting for the green man to come and tell us that it was all right to cross.

When he did finally appear and we started to cross, this red car came screeching around the corner. The driver had apparantly run a red light and was heading straight at us. Of course I stopped dead in my tracks. But the other dude did not!

In fact, he actually started walking a bit faster, intending to cut across the path of the car! Thankfully the driver put on her brakes and screeched to a halt, inches away from the guy and his daughter. When the car stopped I resumed crossing as well. The guy said something to the driver in the wake of that he had the right of way and she didn't! She replied with a vehement "Fuck off'" and took off down the road and did not hear his retort of "Bitch!"

All right so maybe this guy did have the right of way and the driver did not! But she was in a car! If I had had a kid with me then I definitely would not have taken on a ton of moving iron and steel. I would hate to think of what would have happened if she had not managed to stop in time. It would not matter who had the right of way then!

But... but... but I had the right of way!

Sure you did! Hush now! The maggots need to feed... They have the right of way now...