Posted by: Marahm | July 13, 2008

Creative Photography

 

Creative Photography

Recently I bought a new camera.  While learning how to use it I took dozens of photos that were out of focus, badly composed, underexposed, and not worthy of holding  space on my hard drive. I deleted a dozen of them before I realized I could edit them, play with them, apply filters and distortions, change color saturation, lighting, etc., and end up with something totally different from the original, and much nicer to view! Here is one of my creations:

Gardens, Greens, and Yasmeen, July 2008 003  This started out as a green vine against a tree stump. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another:

This one started out as a tree trunk with some plants growing around it.

 

I’ve got lots of photos of my grandkids. They are very hard to photograph because they move around constantly, and when they see the camera, they close their eyes because they know a flash is coming! 

The kid photos make for interesting creative effects. Here’s one that started out too ordinary to keep:

My daughter is sitting with her daughter on a swing. My daughter refused to smile. She she made an ugly face and thought she ruined the photograph, but she didn’t!

Gardens, Greens, and Yasmeen, July 2008 042

 I’ve done some realistic ones, too. This is one of my favorite flowers, the fuchsia:

Gardens, Greens, and Yasmeen, July 2008 001 

Last week, a thunderstorm approached mid-morning. The sky became dark as night, yet the sunlight still shone in the distance. I went outside and took a few photos to capture the effect. Here is my favorite:

Gardens, Greens, and Yasmeen, July 2008 011

I suppose I’ll have to start a Flickr account now, like those of you who have inspired me to try creative photography.  You know who you are:  ~W~, Unique, Aafke, Shahrzad, Susie! I’ve already got nearly one hundred photos, and they’re all different, some of them not even in purple or green!

Posted by: Marahm | July 12, 2008

Sharing the Truth

One of my readers has engaged me in an interesting conversation about religion. You can read it on Your Page. I would like to take this conversation to other readers. I’d like to hear other viewpoints. This topic has been discussed before, but it’s one that usually stirs the pot whenever it is raised.

Do you believe in “sharing the truth”? Do you feel so secure in your spiritual beliefs that you are not reluctant to tell people about it? Do you believe in evangelizing? 

Transfered from Compaq 042

 

Posted by: Marahm | July 6, 2008

Do You Want to Know How I Got Rid of Them?

 

“Do You Want to Know How I Got Rid of Them?”

At first, I tried chemicals. Raid was readily available at the corner convenience store, in several formulas aimed at various vermin. Cockroaches weren’t the only pests in the buildings. Other brands also competed at eye-level on the shelves. I realized the problem was widespread.

One morning I opened my kitchen cabinet and found a big cockroach sitting in the middle of my breakfast bowl, rotating its feelers, as if offering itself up in sacrifice for my breakfast. The Raid had worn off. I shrieked and dropped the bowl, giving the roach an escape route. 

I pulled everything from every cabinet in the kitchen, cleaned and wiped all the little spaces between boards and doors and wall.  On a whim, I picked up a roll of gray industrial tape that I’d left on the counter the day before.   Isilver tape stuck lengths of tape over the openings in which I expected roaches might hide. For the next week I kept vigil over the cabinets, opening them several times a day just to surprise any cockroach that thought he had privacy in there. The surprise was on me, however, because I did not see a single roach anywhere!

I phoned Asma to tell her about my new approach.

At first, I taped only the insides of cabinets and closets. When I realized how efficient the method was— far better than chemicals, which reek and then stop working— I taped other areas of the apartment. Over time I perfected the technique, learning how to choose the narrowest width needed, and how to apply it straight, without wrinkles.  I sent my husband out for three more rolls of industrial strength silver tape.

three roles tape

Once that tape stuck, there was no ripping it off. Even a thumb-sized cockroach could not emerge from behind it. I taped door frames, baseboards, stoop, and window frames. I did a neat job so it wouldn’t look  industrial.  An imaginative person could have looked at the strips and thought  they were a decorative statement.

My most significant accomplishment was taping the bathroom. This technique evolved over several years of vacations, because while we were abroad, all cockroaches knew it, and gave themselves carte blanche to move in and set up housekeeping. They liked the bathroom best, even better than the kitchen.

I simply taped every crack and orifice I could find. Each year, the roaches would find new ones, and each year, I’d tape up the new ones. The bathroom actually became a room of visual delight, what with strips and squares of silver tape lining seams and covering holes. I should have photographed it. 

more silver tapeThe day we’d leave for vacation, I’d save the bathroom taping for last. At the last minute, after the luggage had been taken out and the kids were whining, “Mom, come on,” I would tape the entire toilet lid and seat cover where they met the bowl.

When the entire bathroom looked ready to board the plane with us, we were ready to leave. Later, while listening to the drone of the jet engines, I would turn my attention to all the neat stories I’d tell the people back home.  I would stop worrying about cockroaches, secure in the hope that I’d foiled the yearly immigration. I wondered whether I’d be able to boast of my lovely taping to anyone in the States. No, probably not. I wondered if I might at least meet someone  with whom I could share my favorite movie, Joe’s Apartment.

I did! My mom loved it; we laughed like kids. My sister, however, didn’t last beyond Joe’s first infestation.

Joe's Apartment
Posted by: Marahm | June 29, 2008

Do You Want to Hear a Cockroach Story?

“Do you want to hear a cockroach story?”

This is the way my friends and I would sometimes begin phone conversations. We were all Western 558263906women, stay-at-home moms married to Arabs. We were happy with our families and our status as expatriates in Saudi Arabia, with the exception of a certain issue —the country had a cockroach problem.

 

When I first arrived as a single woman, I had lived in a lovely Western compound. The only roaches I ever saw wiggled respectfully out of the way as I walked along the sidewalk. I didn’t even know how to say “cockroachin Arabic.

Only after I “went native”, married an Arab and moved into the city, did I realize that cockroaches claimed carte blanche in Riyadh households. I carried a rolled up newspaper with me from room to room, ready to strike. My husband objected to this method because of its fallibility. Cockroach bodies are hard and elastic; they don’t squash easily.

“Here!” he said, “I’ll show you how to do it.” He grabbed a shoe which was parked next to the door, and brought it down with enough force to make pudding out of the roach and all its cousins.

“That’s disgusting!” I said. “How are you going to clean it?”

My new husband didn’t care. The roach was dead, and he was calm. He knew he wouldn’t have to clean it up; I would!

I continued to use my newspaper method, which didn’t always kill the wretched creatures, but at least didn’t leave roach pudding when it succeeded.

“See!” I said to my husband, “you can kill them without making a mess.” I slid the body on a torn piece of paper and dumped it in the garbage.

“It will come back to life,” he said, and sometimes it did.

We moved into a newer apartment, at my insistence. Our new home was clean, and I kept it even cleaner, yet roaches appeared as if by spontaneous generation. I wondered if some of them hadn’t crawled into the boxes we’d brought from the old apartment. Someone once told me cockroaches like cardboard boxes. I would not have seen so many had I not looked, and I blamed myself for psychically attracting them, so diligent was I in my campaign to eradicate them. Then one day, a new friend phoned me and said, “Would you like to hear a cockroach story?”

3935418665

My goodness! I was not alone. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to hear a cockroach story. I had been so ashamed and so reluctant to talk about the problem because I thought it was my fault. Even though I saw many different brands of roach killer in the stores, which should have tipped me off, I felt somehow inferior because I did not have a maid to help me with housework. Now, my new friend, who lived in a squeaky clean villa, with a maid, not only admitted to having cockroaches, but wanted to talk about it!

She then told me that the previous day her toddler had been spending more time in the bathroom than necessary. When Asma investigated, she found the child chasing a huge roach all over the bathroom, laughing and trying to catch it. “My kid is going to grow up with roaches! I don’t believe it. This is definitely something I can’t write home about.”

Yes, indeed, one did not write home about roaches, but with each other, we spoke about them all the time. It wasn’t long before I felt comfortable enough to phone one of my friends and say, “Would you like to hear a cockroach story?”

“Yeah, I’m listening!”

“Well, this morning I was mopping up the bathroom floor, and I was slopping the water down the drain. I felt a tickle on my leg, but I ignored it, thinking it was a drop of sweat, but the tickle traveled upward instead of downward…”

“Eeeuuuuu!!! Grrrosssss! DisgusSSsting!” my friend replied indulgently, but I later learned that this particular story was not unique. Turns out that most women in the same circumstance experienced the same indignity when they first opened the circular drain covers on Riyadh bathroom floors. What seems at first like a wonderful way to mop up a floor turns out to be a wonderful way to let roaches into the house. From then on, I opened the drain cover with care, stiff broom at the ready. I learned how to slop them back down the drain as fast as they came up… Drain roaches were particularly large and active. In fact, bathroom roaches in general were the most aggressive.

Little roaches occasionally entered as passengers from the vegetable suq. The little, light brown ones had an affinity for green herbs. We, too, liked green herbs. Fat bundles of coriander, parsley, dill and mint made such a wonderful aroma in the kitchen, but I learned quickly to shake them out with care, in the sink, rolled newspaper at the ready.

3677697364The problem was unavoidable in that hot climate, and did not indicate particularly filthy conditions. Even my friends with drivers and maids had houses full of roaches.

“Do you want to hear a cockroach story?” It was a morning question, to be asked after the husbands had gone to work and the kids to school.

Asma: “I caught my daughter in the bathroom again, laughing and trying to catch a big roach. She cried when I pulled her out of there. My mother would roll over in her grave if she knew my kid was in the bathroom chasing cockroaches.”

Layla: “I’ve gotten used to them. They’re like relatives. You cannot escape from them, so you might as well embrace them.”

Sara: “I picked up a roll of toilet paper and felt something tickle the palm of my hand.”

Maryam: “Just as I turned out the lights, I caught a glimpse of a huge cockroach running across the floor. It escaped into my closet. I couldn’t catch it, so I tried to sleep with the light on but my husband got mad and turned it off.”

Sharon: “The cockroaches have already moved into our new villa. We met them last night at the construction site.”

Me: “My daughter and I were cleaning the bathroom when a huge cockroach flew directly at us. We backed up so fast we got stuck together in the door. We squeezed through just in time. I barely pulled the door shut, and it slammed into the other side.”

After several years of this, Asma and I decided to write a book entitled Cockroaches I Have Known —with chapters for The Albino Cockroach, The Hissing Cockroach, The Flying Cockroach, etc. Our favorite movie was Joe’s Apartment.

Those days are gone, and we never wrote the book, but I 3677697364still watch Joe’s Apartment from time to time. I still laugh like crazy, remembering our efforts at eradicating the disgusting insects. My method worked best; I developed it myself, and it will be the subject of another post.

Posted by: Marahm | June 27, 2008

For Aafke, and Horse Lovers All

  For Aafke, and Horse Lovers All

                                                                                     

Swaying, rhythmic roll

 

Heaven in green, brown and blue

 

A toss and a snort

 

                                                               

Posted by: Marahm | June 22, 2008

Tagged

Tagged by Hning, http://hningswara.blogspot.com/

Here are the rules:
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers’ blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Six unspectacular quirks:

1. I never use an alarm clock, and never will. If I don’t wake up naturally, I sleep until I do. This is one reason I cannot work day shifts.

2. I am a compulsive reader and writer. I am also a compulsive eater, and that’ not as healthy.

3. I do not wear clothes with any kind of advertising, brand logo, cartoon or message.

4. I love Lapsang Souchong tea. I’ve never met anyone else who can stand even the smell of it.

5. I still think about horses every day, though I haven’t ridden in twenty years. I still watch horse videos, and imagine myself galloping across a field.

6. I hate ball sports. That means football, baseball, soccer, basketball, and any other ball sport not mentioned.

I tag:

http://coolred38.blogspot.com/

http://tootaslife.blogspot.com/

http://juliherman.wordpress.com/

http://strangerinthisdunya.blogspot.com/

http://solaceinislam.com/blog/

http://uniquemuslimah.wordpress.com/

Posted by: Marahm | June 20, 2008

Call for Submissions on MotherVerse

Blogger Mamas,

Many of my readers are moms who blog, and care about the quality of their writing.

Some of you may be looking for a wider audience, or simply an additional venue for your work. I just discovered this publication ten minutes ago and had to share it with you. Some may wish to submit to the proposed anthology:

http://www.motherverse.com/

http://www.motherverse.com/blog/

tn_rosette

 

Posted by: Marahm | June 18, 2008

Learning Tajweed, Part Five

 Learning Tajweed, Part Five

My tenacity brought a big blessing. I inserted myself firmly into that madrassa, never missing a day, and always fully prepared for the lesson. I was surprised to discover that most of the ladies had no problem learning the special rules of tajweed, but all of us had problems discarding the accents of our native languages.

The other women were Arabs, but from various Arab countries.  A Pakistani or two, an Indonesian, and I, rounded out the group. As you know, the various dialects of Arabic are different from one another not only in word usage, but in pronunciation of letters. The two letters most distorted by dialect are Qaf and Geem. The dialect furthest from classical Arabic is the Egyptian dialect, and half of the ladies were Egyptians.

So, I did not feel as odd as I expected I’d feel. My pronunciation issues were not more severe than theirs.

I practiced every day at home, when my husband was at work and the girls were at school. I derived an inner contentment from reciting the Qur’an, as opposed to reading it, or reading the translation of it. I started paying attention to the various recitors; some were easy to understand, and some had melodious voices.

Ahmed Al-AJami became very popular at that time, but I knew people who did not like his style because they thought it was too close to singing. I must confess, I liked his style for that very reason!

During  the year, I discovered that my one and only neighborhood friend, an Egyptian woman, also studied at the same madrassa and was enrolled in the highest class available, with the best teacher. This was the class I wanted to enter, but the waiting list was long, with the requirement that you finished all the other classes first.

My friend spoke to the teacher about me, and I was allowed to sit in. Then I was allowed to read for the teacher, and she invited me to join the class!  I’m not sure she was  comfortable with me, but she  recognized my diligence, desire, and accomplishment to date, thanks to Allah.

I spent the entire next year in that class, learning more than I’d ever expected to learn. To this day, I thank Allah for the blessing of putting me in that class. I am not worthy of it, especially since I’ve neglected the Qur’an since repatriating. The good news is that my solid foundation still stands.

still1_2

Posted by: Marahm | June 17, 2008

Tagged– Let’s Hope

I was tagged by Aafke of Clouddragon: http://clouddragon.wordpress.com/

The rules:

1. On your blog, post the Rules & 10 things you have HOPE for in your life.
2. LINK Tag 10 people (we want hope to spread to people!) and LINK the person who tagged you.
3. Comment/Notify the 10 People they’ve been tagged.

I’m late responding to this tag, so most everyone I read has already been tagged by someone else, so if you haven’t been tagged for this, be my guest.

  
Ten Things I Hope for— Not in Order of Importance   

 

1. I hope I can regain my good health and strong physical condition, to stay active, and maybe even ride horses again.

2.. I hope to remain helpful and influential in the lives of my daughters and grandkids.

3.  I hope my family stays strong in the wake of my father’s passing, and that we continue to support one another as life takes its inevitable course.

4. I hope I can retire at the earliest predictable opportunity , five years from now, if  not sooner.

5. I hope neither I, nor any of my loved ones, will be struck down by crime, massive epidemic or  natural disaster.

6. I hope I will become a good, active, and effective leader for Progoff’s Intensive Journal http://www.intensivejournal.org/.

7. I hope I will see the peaceful resolution to the major conflicts in today’s world.

8. I hope I will become proficient in both Arabic and Italian, and resume an international lifestyle.

9. I hope I remain economically sound and able to live comfortably without financial worry.

10. I hope I will be blessed with Allah’s mercy and forgiveness on Judgment Day, and that He permits me entry into Heaven.

vivid-twist

 

Posted by: Marahm | June 15, 2008

Father’s Day in the USA

First Father’s Day Without my Papa 

Since I can no longer express my love and appreciation for him directly to him, I’ll do it here.

The following poem epitomizes my father’s lifelong attitude, a guiding principle that he applied to his own life and taught to everyone he mentored. We made remembrance cards, with his photo on one side, and the poem on the other side, and gave them out at his funeral.

 

                 Don’t Quit         

         (Anonymous) 

 When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high

And you want to smile but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out–

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are.

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

 

050

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