Day Two

I was able to write a mere 700 words last night before crashing. This puts my total word count at a little over 5k. I had hoped to reach 5k the first day but i am still on track to finish 50k by end of the month.

I have a slight pain in my right hand, the result of working on a keyboard for most of the day and then typing furiously at night. It seems better this morning but I will still try to take it easy at work.

Nanowrimo

I am taking part in Nanowrimo this year. Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. What it means is that I will have to write a 50,000 word novel before the end of November.

I first heard of Nanowrimo in 2008 when a friend decided to take part in it. I admit I was quite intrigued but I had just started a new job and did not have the time or patience to churn out 50,000 words in a month. In 2009 I joined the nano website and decided to take part. November 2009 ended without my having written a single word. In 2010, I had an actual plan for a novel, an actual outline. I was going to do it that year! I wrote maybe a hundred words before giving up.

This year I have a plan. I have an outline. I have characters. I have a plot. I don't know how the story ends but I know how to get there. I put off writing a blog post about it just to make sure I was going to keep my word on participating, really participating this year. I am taking part in the forum discussions, albeit very slowly and keeping in touch with some other wrimos through facebook and twitter. It also helped quite a bit that the first day of Nanowrimo coincided with Cup day. I got a day off work and I managed to write 1500 words starting from midnight before I went to sleep last night.

I was going to write 5000 words before I went to bed tonight but I am tired. I am stuck and my hands are really hurting. I am up to 4300 words and if I manage at least a thousand words for the next three nights (which are workdays) I reckon I will still be on track.

När mörkret faller

Sometimes just one scene in a movie is so powerful that it can grab you by the throat and squeeze tears from your eyes. Last night, while flicking through the tv channels, I came across such a scene.

The movie is called "När mörkret faller" (When darkness falls) and it is from Sweden. It was about halfway through when I started watching it.

A young girl (Nina) has apparently left her family and is staying at a hotel. She misses her family and her younger sister (Leyla) and calls, wanting to come back. Her mother offers an alternative; a trip to Germany with the rest of her family to marry someone of their choosing and she agrees.

In Germany, they stop at a hotel for the night, with the younger sisters in one room and Nina and her mother in another with the rest of the family in other rooms. Leyla wakes up in the middle of the night and sees the men of the family taking Nina out into the street. She runs out and witnesses the men making Nina run across the busy road to the other side. Even as she manages to dodge the heavy traffic and arrive safely on the other side, there are other men waiting there. They make her run back and forth until finally she is hit.

I was sitting up straight and had tears in my eyes as Leyla lets out gut wrenching screams. And I wish I had started watching this movie from the start so I knew why Nina's family decided to kill her in this brutal fashion. As I sat through the rest of the movie I learnt that they had arrived at that decision because they thought she wasn't a virgin. They decided to kill her to protect their family's honour.

This movie isn't just about Nina, Leyla and her family. there are two other story lines. One involving a club manager who witnesses a shooting and decides to testify after getting death threats to him and his family. The other about an award winning journalist who is violently abused by her husband of ten years and finally goes public with it.

The three stories doesn't interconnect yet the movie cuts back and forth between them and their similar themes. The violence that is inflicted upon the main characters and the moment they decide that enough is enough and takes a stand and the fallout of that decision.

The rest of the movie was very good but that Nina's death scene has stayed with me. I cannot imagine myself being that dishonoured to wish death upon a loved one, upon family. I don't understand honour killings.

Everyone has the right to chose their own path in this life. None of us can chose it for them.

Blue

Some days the sky is so blue that it makes you forget your blues...

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.