All posts by Yasmine

About Yasmine

I like orange sunshine and blue slurpees.

Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine

Glorious mundanity, NineToFive outside the 925

Somehow I trick myself into believing that if I go around wearing floaty summer dresses, winter will end all the sooner
Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz

I took the above photo in mid-January and uploaded it to flickr in mid-February. The title:

Somehow I trick myself into believing that if I go around wearing floaty summer dresses, winter will end all the sooner.

The caption:

This day’s wardrobe consisted of the following: Flared jeans + floaty summer dress + gray sweater + puffy down vest. Four, five layers on any given day is quite normal, as far as I’m concerned. This is what happens when one is a proponent of the HIPPIEFUNK style.

Also, the lighting in this photo is on crack, and winter is not ending anytime soon. Both of these things bother me – the latter more so than the former, obviously.

Well, guess, what? My trick WORKED! It’s mid-March now, and we’ve had temperatures in the 70s and 80s for the last week or so. That, coupled with the recent Daylights Savings time change (which means it gets dark later now), are as perfect as it can get. It’s only too bad I’ve barely gotten a chance to enjoy the sunshine and daylight, since I still leave work later in the evenings anyway. Lunch break? What’s that?

I hope my proposition to be your friend will not be an exemption

All-Star Crackstar Squad, Salaam Namaste

Is it just me, or is this sign disturbing?
“Not that I’m a handwriting expert or anything but that handwriting looks kinda needy,” originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

I came across the above Urdu sign last fall while wandering around with friends on the infamous-amongst-Desis Devon Street in Chicago. My buddy, Zana, calls the sign “dodgy.” The translation reads: “Girl needed for computer work.”

Speaking of dodginess, Somayya forwarded me the following email a couple of mornings ago, adding, without any prompting from my end, “You can certainly post this on your blog and we can all get a good laugh out of it. HAHA.” While she was sincerely confused as to how the…uhh, GIRL…got ahold of her email address, the note is hilarious, regardless. I present, unedited for your enjoyment, Vick from Russia:

Hi,

I got your contact from the cyberspace on my search for a sincere man who is marriage minded and have value for love and friendship and recognized the significant of having a good and sincere relationship, so I saw your profile on zackvision.com and decided to contact you and I hope my proposition to be your friend will not be an exemption.

Well I am Vick Mazur as you may know me and I am from Russia, which my father is from Russia and my mother is from Liberia but at present I live and work in the Republic of Benin in a Charity Organization but I am a very good girl from a good family, my hobbies are playing basketball, reading the bible, working hard and watching movies. I dislike people that lies and dishonest things, i am not too fat and not too thin, i am average in height, i do not smoke nor drink, white in complexion with blonde hair and a nice eye ball and i am also a easy going lady but i will leave that for you to to judge when we start this friendship and I hope you are satisfy with this little details about me and I will also pray to God to make our friendship last longer without regretting knowing each others.

Please I will like to stop for now, kindly tell me more about yourself, your profession and country so as to march one more step towards forever, honest and sincere friendship and I will send you my picture when I hear from you.

You can also reply me at my yahoo email address: [ ]

Yours truly,
Vick.

Back in business

Links to love

This is just a Public Service Announcement to let you all know (as if you really care) that all my 2003-2007 archives have been imported over from Blogger!

Those of you who don’t care about such things can just ignore this post, but others who are interested in importing from Blogger to WordPress may find this helpful, for your future reference.

Hamza, who mysteriously seems to know all about this drama, pointed me to the New Blogger importer. If you have a free weblog hosted on WordPress.com, you just log in, click Dashboard > Manage > Import > Blogger, and you’re good to go!

However, I now have a WordPress.org independently-hosted weblog, and the WordPress.org dashboard only lets you import from what they call the Old Blogger; those of us on the .org who want to import from The New Blogger Formerly Known as Beta will have to wait until WordPress 2.2 comes out.

However, if you are like Yasminay, you are hella impatient. So, I sat down and read through the ten thousand bajillion (okay, only 141) comments on that post that Hamza pointed me to, and finally found something helpful. BRILLIANT! I logged into my placeholder WordPress.com account, clicked the “Import” tab, and imported everything from Blogger. Then I clicked the “Export” tab, saved the file. Then, I logged into my brandnew fancy schmancy WordPress.org account, clicked “Import,” selected the file I had just saved, and voila!

Regardless of which way you go, this migration tool imports all your Blogger posts, comments, and categories/labels, without modifying your Blogger weblog in any way. And now I have three copies of all my weblog posts all over the internet, so I guess I can finally stop worrying.

Basically: Hamza is a rockstar, even though he’s one of those instigating chai-lovers. Thanks, buddy!

Stop sniveling and get over it

Links to love, NineToFive outside the 925

Get stoned at work
Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz

Driving along to work this morning, I heard on the radio that today is Get Over It Day. The website is hilarious – you can type out what you want to get over, and click “submit,” and it turns into a piece of paper that gets tossed into the blazing bonfire on the homepage. Here are some issues that people are getting over. Also, some girl called in to the radio station, sniffling that she wanted to get over her ex-boyfriend named Alex, who had just dumped her. Also, she was twelve. TWELVE! Yes, I laughed.

Anyway, one of my personal philosophies has always been, If you refuse to do anything about it, then you have no right to whine about it, and it’s served me well so far. In all honesty, though, Princess Pretty Pants and I whine quite a bit whenever we’re around one another – but, in our defense, at least it turns into fun stuff. Like the time PPP and HMan and I trudged up the summit path in Muir Woods. By the end of it, PPP and I were hella tired, we couldn’t even see the ocean from the top of the mountain, we whined about how much our feet ached, and we stubbornly refused to walk all the way down to my car.

So, we all hitchhiked instead. TWICE.

Beautiful solution.

A lot of my whining lately has been about work – when I can even muster up the energy to whine. And, of course, there are always random trivial things I should get over.

Things I’d like to get over:

– People who call me and don’t leave voicemessages, and then get offended when I deliberately don’t return their calls
– People who answer the phone with a tentative, questioning, “Hello?”, even though they can perfectly well tell it’s I who am calling
– People who reply to my text message(s) by immediately calling me back. If I had really wanted to have a verbal conversation with you, don’t you think I would have called you directly?

Okay, enough with the phone.

Also:

– Work-related meetings on weekday evenings
– Work-related meetings/events on weekends
– People who are micro-managers
– Traffic
– People who don’t wave when you let them merge into your lane
– People who make hanging-out plans that don’t involve food. What kind of friend are you?
– Friends who make me miss the previews when we go out to see a movie together (I LOVE previews, dammit)
– People who borrow my beloved books and music CDs and then lose them or somehow just never get around to returning them to me
– My own possessiveness about personal items like clothes, books, and accessories

What would you like to get over?

Once more: Where it begins

Blogistan and the Wide World of Webs

Things to write in: ROCKING
Things to write in: ROCKING, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

I remember when I first switched from RamblingMonologues to SweepTheSunshine.v1 (as I have taken to calling it), one of my favorite blogistanis, Binje, groused, “Yazzo, only you would go from one loooooong weblog URL to yet another long weblog URL.”

So, here we go yet again – another switch, but with a shorter URL this time. I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting it is for me to type “sweepthesunshine.com” without my fingers tripping over the keyboard, attempting to type “blogspot” without screwing it up. Then again, I can’t even type my name half the time without misspelling it, so…

This whole switching-to-Wordpress drama would not have been made possible without the help of my buddy and Tech Support Rockstar Extraordinaire HijabMan, who put up with all my questions and issues and complaints with good humor. Clearly, I pick my friends really well.

When we virtually “sat down” at our respective ends of the country and rolled up our sleeves to get started on this drama, he first told me to go ahead and install WordPress. I said, “It asks me, ‘Please create a MySQL database for this software to use.’ Holy shit, what is THAT?”

Five minutes later, thanks to HijabMan, I had a MySQL database. One minute later, WordPress was installed. Hell, that was quick. “I’m still astounded we got even this far,” I pointed out at the end of it, “but that’s cuz I didn’t have to do anything.” Clearly, I am useless, but not totally! While my Tech Support Rockstar dealt with all the complicated background stuff, I managed to tackle the minutiae – things like: Formatting the blockquotes to my liking, resizing the columns, adding an entire section to the sidebar, fiddling with the flickr plugin formatting, changing the font size and search box font and footer colors, adding that slight gray border around my photos, and ten thousand other trivial things, because I am so obsessive-compulsive and stubbornly refused to fully inhabit this space until the design was to my liking (which is a perfectly normal stance, isn’t it?). I am also the worst dictator to work with, and if you tell me that you hate my small font sizes, I will say, “I hate you, so shut up,” and kindly invite you to increase the text size from within your own browser, thankyouverymuch.

Still, I am indebted to my buddy HMan, and this is saying a lot, considering he had the audacity to offer insights like, “Your [blogger] template right now is, umm, kinda ugly.” Vat BLASPHEMY. Also, if I hear him say, “Can I make a suggestion?” one more time, I think I will stab him.

In summary:

DotCom Pros
– Shorter URL
– BETTER COMMENTING SYSTEM! (Multiple exclamation points!!!! Remember when you had to spend a ridiculous amount of time, trying to submit comments through my Enetation system on the old sweepthesunshine? And then I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time deleting repeat comments, since Enetation has issues, pretty much. Basically, that time is over. Also, I hate the Blogger commenting system with a passion.)
– Three columns = better-organized weblog. Or something.
– [I can’t remember what else. I’m still too excited about the spiffy new commenting system.]

All my weblog archives (2003-2007) are still at SweepTheSunshine.v1, because I don’t, as yet, know how to transfer them over. (Thanks a lot, Blogger Beta, for making things so complicated.) If you know how I could do so without breaking anything, please share your expertise. I’m sure you’re much more technically proficient than I am. (There is this option, actually; I’m just too scared to touch it for now.)

Anyway, let me know how you like! If something’s screwy, or could be improved, tell me.

It’s looking really empty around here, I know. I promise real posts soon. Between work meetings/deadlines and the time left over for some small semblance of a social life, I have plenty of potential posts, but little time to actually write them.

Meanwhile, welcome to my new-and-improved sunshine space – we’ll have a high of 72 degrees F on Saturday, and a high of 78 on Sunday. (Seriously, we will, at least in the East Bay, where I live! I’m really excited about this, since I was this close to renaming my weblog STALK the Sunshine.)

And the toppling sand mounds

(3)BeautifulThings, Loss and laments and letting go

We are like these things, impermanent and unpinned.
We are like these things, impermanent and unpinned; originally uploaded by yaznotjaz. [Click here for larger view.]

A few things I have been grateful for, so far this week:

one. …That so many of you took the time to read my last post about Imran Saithna. And that, for once, my commenting system seemed to cooperate just long enough that I could read your own responses to and reflections on Imran’s life. One of the things I love most about blogging is the feedback (I admit it) from those who read, and it meant so much to me that you took the time to comment on the one post that meant more to me than anything else I’ve written in a long, long while. I’m trying to move beyond posting bullet-points and numerical-lists so regularly, and trying to go back to posting deeper, more meaningful pieces of writing. The last entry was a good start, although I wish it didn’t have to begin this way. Thank you all again for the comments, the GMail IMs, and the emails. As Rick said on flickr, No one can say exactly what paths one leaves on this earth. May your friend’s path be one of heart. Amen to that.

two. …That my lovely friend A‘s fiancé has finally woken up, after being hit by a car and unconscious for two days. After the last two days of holding my breath and being too scared to venture saying the word “coma,” I am so relieved about this much. The bad news: Both his legs are broken, and doctors are still unsure about the extent of his back injuries. The fact that A is here, halfway across the world and unable to go see him, makes this doubly difficult for her. It broke my heart hearing her voicemessage on Tuesday, hearing her voice say, “I don’t really know what to do…’cuz I’m sick, too, and I’m worried…and I’m just trying to be okay, but it’s really hard. [His sister’s] leaving tomorrow, and his parents the day after…and I get to stay here…by myself.” I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to be so far away from someone you love. Please pray that he recovers quickly and fully, so that he and A can live happily ever after in the green house in Berkeley that A covets so much.

three. [I don’t know why this list is harder than it usually is. Here’s a third thing:] …Dinner last night with B and N, two of my favorite Pukhtu-speakers and Hindku-speakers, respectively. The evening was filled with rocking (Malaysian) food, beautiful company, and the endless laughter that always characterizes our time together. My new favorite quote is a profound statement by B’s father: “There’s no point in making money if you can’t eat good food.” Listening, amused, as both B and N regaled us with stories, I promised N I’d make up some drama of my own, so that I, too, can have stories to share next time we hang out. As someone who prides herself on the fact that her life is “gorgeously drama-free, always,” this is really going to be SUCH a process. So, I ask you, how does one imbue one’s life with drama? Please provide advice, suggestions, and/or examples.

Beautiful things from a Tuesday in the month where everyday felt like Monday

(3)BeautifulThings, NineToFive outside the 925

yellowsunshine diptych
yellowsunshine diptych, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

From Tuesday, January 23, 2007

one. The Howie Day album I haven’t listened to in over a year because it inexplicably started skipping just as inexplicably works perfectly again when I pop it into my CD player while driving to work. I spend my commute listening to music that reminds me of college, partly because I once used the opening line of Brace Yourself (So you think/You can hold the world up by a string) as a post title to illustrate the hectic days that marked my last quarter of college. Standing in the Sun and This Time Around are two other favorites (I still distinctly remember having just gotten off work one evening, sitting in my car at a traffic light in downtown Sacramento, head turned, glancing at something to my right, as the line I always knew the sun would burn away spilled out of the speakers for the first time), while Numbness for Sound unexpectedly brings back bittersweet memories.

two. I’ve got my favorite Desi restaurant on speed-dial! I walk in to pick up the one, single naan (and nothing else) that I’ve ordered, and the Indian lady at the counter smiles at me. “I’m sorry we didn’t have samosas again,” she says. “The baba who makes them is out today.”

“That’s alright,” I say. “I always come here for the naan anyway!”

“Your friend didn’t come with you today? She was here the other day.”

“Which friend? The tall one?”

“Yes! She’s so beautiful!” says the woman, wide-eyed. “I asked her where she was from, and she said Afghanistan.”

“Oh, did she?” I say, laughing to myself. “She’s Pathan, that’s probably why she said that.” My family and B’s are both from the Attock district in Pakistan, but, as a native Pukhtu speaker, she also identifies quite strongly with Afghan culture. I can’t wait to get back to the office and say accusingly, “Oh, so now you’re Afghan, huh?”

three. In corresponding with a colleague with whom I am working on a project, I send the following note:

Could you please forward this to ______? My email, below, didn’t seem to go through to him. Thanks so much!

His response makes me smile:

Hi Yasmine, I seem to have forwarded it successfully. But, you know, it goes into cyberspace and then what?

four. Scrounging around for writing instruments, I borrow a pen from my co-worker (without telling her) but like it so much that I decide to keep it. This, I guess, would be called stealing, but who cares? My left-handed clumsiness and I are grateful for pretty pens that allow us to write in smooth, streak-free lines.

five. Driving back to the office from the aforementioned lunch, I notice some beautiful yellow flowers planted across the street. I make a u-turn, park illegally, and walk swiftly, camera in hand, down the sidewalk to the corner with the yellow flowers. The image at the head of this post is a diptych of two photos I took that afternoon. Yellow sunshine flowers on a day that feels like Monday are a warm and unexpectedly soothing remedy when spring seems so far away.

Friday, February 2nd: ‘Rockstars Wear Red’ Day

Uncategorized

Rockstars dress in red dresses Rockstars dress in red dresses (ii)
Rockstars dress in red dresses. Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

It wasn’t enough that I’ve been getting emails about children I never knew I had (Bethany is still quite busy unleashing her slacker tendencies, by the way). Now I’m receiving emails from the Office of the Governor…of the State of Kansas. This is better than Bethany, though, because the Governor of Kansas had this to say:

Dear State Employees,

Friday, February 2, 2007, has been set aside as National Wear Red Day. I would like to take this opportunity to invite you all to join me in wearing red as a showing of support for the fight against heart disease in women and to raise awareness that heart disease is the number one cause of death of women in Kansas, the United States and the world.

Wear Red Day is a nationwide movement that uses a Red Dress as the symbol for heart disease awareness in women. If you do not think heart disease is of concern to you, consider the following facts:

  • Each year more women die from heart disease than from the next five leading causes of death combined.
  • One-third of women will die from heart disease or stroke.
  • Every minute a woman dies from heart disease.
  • 64% of women who die from coronary heart disease had no previous evidence of the disease.

Fortunately, heart disease is largely preventable. I believe that preventive health can reduce the number of Kansans at risk for heart disease and urge you to know and control your risk factors:

  • Smoking is the single most preventable risk factor for heart disease.
  • High blood pressure
  • High blood cholesterol
  • Physical inactivity
  • Obesity
  • Diabetes
  • Unhealthy dietary habits

Your health care provider can work with you to develop a plan to lower your risk for developing heart disease. Additional information about heart disease and Wear Red Day can be found at the American Heart Association or National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

While this observance is a call for women, I am also asking male employees to be involved as a showing of support for the women in your lives.

Thank you for participating in this wonderful cause on this Friday, February 2, as a way to increase awareness, thereby hopefully preventing and controlling heart disease.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Sebelius
Governor of the State of Kansas

[Just to clarify, I am not an employee of the State of Kansas.]

Heart disease is the number one killer of American women (and men), in case you didn’t know. For more information about women and heart disease, check this. As the poster says, No matter how great you look on the outside, heart disease can strike on the inside. And being a woman won’t protect you.

I’m all for symbolism, but this is really about education. The Resources section of the NHLBI website includes a number of factsheets, print and radio PSAs, and one especially important infograph entitled, Questions To Ask Your Doctor/What’s Your Risk? Spreading the Go Red For Women message Love Your Heart raises awareness of heart disease and empowers women to reduce their risk.

Red is ROCKING. Wear it on Friday (and take the time to educate yourself beforehand about why you’re doing so), like the rockstar that you are. Guys, I’m looking at you, too.

Hands up!

Casa420 and Familia

Hands up!
Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

Cross-posted from flickr, because I CAN. And also because I doubt the Blogistanis check out my flickr photos, except for those I post right here on the weblog. Lazy kids.

The following email came straight to my inbox this afternoon:

Everett High School
Message sent – 1/18/2007
Attendance Message

Hello, this is EVERETT HIGH SCHOOL calling to notify you that your child, BETHANY, was absent from EVERETT HIGH SCHOOL on 1/18/2007 for periods 1, 6. In order to waive an absence the parent/guardian must submit a waiver application form with appropriate documentation attached. Thank you.

—

First of all, I never knew that I had a daughter named Bethany all along. Seriously, why does no one tell me things? Secondly, BETHANY? She’s probably blonde. I bet she’s on the cheerleading squad, too. Clearly, Bethany did not inherit any of my genes. Finally, the hell was Bethany doing, skipping class during periods 1 & 6? (I like to think she inherited some of my genes by sleeping in through period 1 and sneaking off-campus for lunch during period 6.)

Maybe I should ask Bethany if she could teach me how to dance…in return for signing her waiver application form for periods 1 & 6.

PS: Everett High School is in Michigan. It’s hella freakin’ cold in Michigan, I hear. If I had a daughter named Bethany, Bethany and I would not be living in Michigan. I think we just might live in the UAE instead, where apparently it’s sunshine-y and warm year-round.

PPS: The above email reminded me of Jamelah’s post from last year. Jamelah is on flickr, too, by the way. And she’s a ROCKSTAR! who merits all capitals and an exclamation point.

PPPS: Most importantly, those are my nieces, pictured above. They are also rockstars. You can see some of their silliness in action – on the same day as the above photo – here.

Akhtar de mubarak sha & Happy New Year!

Rockstar and Crescent

Akhtar de mubarak sha, and happy New Year!
Abraham & Eid-ul-Adha, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Verses 103-111 from Chapter 37 (Those Who Stand Together) of the Quran
[The Qur’an: A New Translation, by Thomas Cleary]

Eid mubarak, beautiful rockstars! May we accept the challenges that come our way with just as much fortitude and patience and willingness for personal sacrifice as that displayed by the prophet Abraham. May this Eid, as well as the upcoming New Year, be a beautiful and blessed time for you and yours.