Memoirs of Geisha

Last night I went to the movies. It’s been a while since I been to the movies. There were many movies to choose; from King Kong to Syrianna. Since I was a companied by a lovely lady, I had to be careful not to choose a boring movie that may spoil the spirit of the night. We decided to settle for Memoirs of Geisha. It’s a story based on a fictional novel that was written by Arthur Golden. I have never read the novel. The movie is a story about hurdles in life, betrayal, success and secret lovers. This is a story about women who will never be able to achieve their happiness. It is a story set in early Japanese society of Geisha’s life. Young girls are sold to the sprawling Geisha lifestyle in Japanese city.


A young girl will be sold to a Geisha household that was investing in woman’s looks. The young girl whom the story revolves around is confused about what Geisha lifestyle is all about not knowing that it is the Geisha lifestyle that will save her life! The young girl will attempt to run away to join her sister who also was working as a Geisha in one of the neighboring Geisha houses. When the escape plan fails the young girl will be demoted to a slave. All her hopes of becoming a Geisha will collapse. One day while she was in her depressed feelings she happens to meet a man who treated her to a sweat. This man will become her secret lover and above all her encouragement to be a Geisha!



The young girl will be taken by another Geisha who promised to transform her and make her one of the most celebrated Geisha of the city. Under the direction of this new Geisha, she is being trained and taught the rules of the Geisha game. She happens to catch the attention of a rich industrialist who happens to have a great dislike for Geisha! Her name will be changed to Sayuri. She will now become the object of competition between the men of the city. Every man wants to be the highest bidder. The war comes and ends her lifestyle of being a Geisha. Americans will arrive with their naïve conception of foreign culture. Sayuri and her friend Pumpkin another Geisha will try one more time if they can become a Geisha once again. This will lead to reunion of the secret lovers and revenge from Pumpkin loses of Geisha to Sayuri during the pre-war era.

Good movie.....

Stinky Fridge!

This morning there is a stench in our brightly lighted work place. The stench is coming from one of the fridges we have in our laboratory. We do have two fridges that we use for our daily activities. We use one fridge to store all the lab samples while we use the other fridge to store our personnel belongings like food and drinks. There has never been a smell like the one evolving from our fridge. It seems that the fridge was bad for almost two days and no one knew it. Never have I smelled a horrible smell like this one. It smells like a broken sewer line. I am sickened by the stench (uuff). My co-worker has called the repair crew; they promised to be here in few minutes.I wish you could see the somber mood in my workplace this morning.These stench is smelling like its from the fetid brain of African dictators and warlords.

Ex-girlfreind

A mirror is shattered in my life this morning. Today I am supposed to meet my former ex-girlfriend; am a little an easy about the whole thing. We broke up about three years ago after being together for almost one year. She is a one of the few good looking Somali girls I have ever met. She is a very beautiful Somali woman. Her femininity could overwhelm men at their strongest moment. She was as delicate as that snowflake in a beautiful winter. Her soul-stealing smile hid her purest of pure virtues. She was the first girl I have ever fall in love with.
The reason we broke up is still misery. No one knows what initiated the break up. All I remember is that our lives were heading in different directions. I was going to college in far away land while she wanted to get a job and start a new life. Things were great at first when we started our relationship. We both conformed to the Islamic rules of not touching and kissing opposite sex .Our relationship was so secretive that no one knew it except close friends. We were both cool with the Islamic rules since we were Muslims(still we are Muslims). Our innocent love was an unconditional love of the will and the mind. After we broke up we lost contacts.
One day while I was walking aimlessly in the local Somali community shopping mall; I happened to see her there. Its been three years since the last time I saw her. We were both glad of seeing each other .You could tell that lost and found was our gentle grace. We exchanged numbers and promised to call each other when we get home. The same night I picked up the phone and called her. I felt like a rose once wilted and now full of flowers. Just talking to her brought some of our old innocent feelings vividly. We had a long conversation on how life was treating us. Somewhere along the conversation our break up came up! She started complaining on how I never made the effort to look for her. Chocked by emotions, I did understand all the broken dreams, all the broken hearts and all the disappointment she was going through. There is nothing quite like when you discover the reality of love.
We talked about our love lives .I was honest to her that I have pursued few girls after she spurned my love. I have kissed and played pillow game while in college(college life, can’t blame it!).She was a little surprised but she kept quite and paid tentative ear. She later told me about her dating life too. We decided to keep in touch. We have been occasionally calling each other for the last nine months. We decided to meet after I was done with my final exams. Today is the day we set up for the get together but this morning I am not in the mood of seeing her. I don’t know why I am freaking out or why I am scared of the girl? Am I scared that I will make a fool of myself? I see myself running away from this girl. Even though my body is pleading for me to stop running; I am still running away. If I stop running away from her I feel like I am looking weak.

Industrial Hygiene

Yesterday was my last day of final exams.This morning for the first time in three months I waked up not murmuring facts to myself .This was one of the toughest semester.No more will I carp and carp on how awful my industrial hygiene class was or how I had to turn a forty pages risk assessment paper in two weeks.Despite the late night calculations of how the employees get overexposed; I still didn’t enjoy the class.The class wasn’t that challenging but when you have an instructor who thinks his students must know things without an instructor making it clear; it sure would be a difficult one.I don’t see myself as being an engineer calculating employee overexposure in some manufacturing plant someday.I must admit though there is something i learned that is ineffaceable;I did learn a lot of engineering control teachniques that will be helpful in my life someday(if I happen to own a plant).


Industrial hygiene is the art and science of anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of environmental hazards.If you look around your job areas; there must be atleast one hazard on your way.This hazard may be an immediate dangerous to life and health .Industrial hygiene wants you to anticipate the hazard that may harm you as an employee/employer.Lets assume you are a trained industrial expert, could you recognize the hazard as a threat?.Is there any chances that the computer key board you are typing on is infected with a bacteria? Do you ever take the chance to wipe your keyboard after someone else used it? It is simple stuff like this that may help you avoid the trip to the doctors office; don’t forget the countless doctors visit fees you have to cough.Your life is an inestimable value.One of the things I learned in this class was noise.Everyday we are exposed to noise whether we are driving in the interstate or watching television.Exposure to a loud noise can cause permanent hearing damage.The rule of thumb is that if you could not hear your partner who is two feets away then you are most definately deafening.Do not despair; you can take an action today and reduce the noise level in your environ.This is where engineering comes handy; you need to apply some engineering control.You can make some physical changes or by even modifying your habits;for example you can reduce the car radio volume.According to NIOSH(National Institute of safety and Health) 48% of US adults have suffered some hearing loss including 35 % of that number being people in the age range of 18-29 years.It feels good when you are cruising on the freeway with a noise attenuation greater than the normal healthy level.This intermittent or continuos noise exposure would one day kill your hair cells in the ear drum.Asymetrical noise induced from sirens and gunshots also do contribute to hearing loss.

Have a Noise free day !

The atom!

"Baby, i know you got alot going on in your life.I want to help you and i think by now you know i love you" Her eyes were locking with my eyes when she uttered those words.With an arrogant bobble i tried to node my head in agreement but i couldn't.A second after she uttered those words panic and fear besieged my spirit.I could feel the burden of cold conscience permeate through my heart.Should i confess to her that i am having a good chemistry with her too?My heart started to retrieve its mental pen and a paper in preparation of copious notes that illustarted how to handle akward situations like this.Don't they say love is a malady without a cure? what if i caught the bug will i find a cure for this disease if my electron fails to form a molecule with this electron?
I have been single for twenty some years now.I have been bouncing around the world like an atom looking for another atom to form a stable molecule with.Occasionally my magnetic field have failed me either because of lack of strong attraction force or due to lack of finding the right electromagnetic field out there.

I like to take advantage of any atom that comes my way.Even if it is sharing an electron temporarily with another atom(no strings attached). This electron i am dealing with now is too demading.He wants to share all the electronegative force by himself.If i allow him to have all the force, how will i form a covalent bond with the girl next door who has been having a shower therapy with me through the wall? My electyromagnetic field loves to be loved but it is not sure whether to return the love in return.I have to make a choice in separating the real atoms that will form a molecule from the already filled orbital molecules!

The Bold and the Beautiful

Do you sometimes experience a keen, almost physical, longing for association of the past. When you pass by your old neighborhood in which you were born and where you spend your earlier life, do you have a sharp funny reaction almost a keen to nausea?

Yesterday I woke up early in the morning. The night had been brittle cold. I took a long hot shower in the morning. I let the showerhead gush. I stood under the showerhead for a long time and listened to the sound of the water that was gurgling down the drain. I went to the kitchen and found some cereals and milk. I fixed a quick breakfast. The day stretched before me .The day is like a desert. The desert is treeless. It was another morning. I had nothing to do better. I wondered what to do? The dishes were dirty, the laundry needed to be done, and the floor needed some mopping. I whispered to my self this is the only time I needed a maid (or a wifey! Sorry girls!). I walked in to the living room and turned on the television. I sat there flipping the channels. I was immediately hit by soap operas. I hated soap operas. I never liked it especially the Lifetime television (television for women as the logo goes). Then suddenly before I flipped the channel, I saw the soap opera “ the Bold and the Beautiful ”. This shows reminded back in the days when I was the king of translation in my neighborhood. All the girls used to come to our house and watched the show. The girls did not know how to speak English. They were from Somalia. Every Monday night I used to be called by my aunt to translate for the girls. This was an opportunity for me to escape being pushed to do my homework. School was a drag then.



The neighborhood girls used to let me translate for them. Sometimes they asked me to translate some unsettling questions that were struggle for a seventh grade kid like me to translate. But I pretended I knew everything. I never wanted to miss the chance of being the king of the neighborhood. All the girls in the neighborhood used to respect me. Whenever there is a making out scene, the girls covered their faces and said in Somali “akhaas meyeynan xishoneyn”. This was my favorite part. I enjoyed their reactions even though I was only fourteen. This was close to my puberty age. This show let me participate in girly talks with these girls. The participation was so intense you might think I shared an experience with these girls. I shared grief and shame with these girls. Shame became an experience. We shared the “Bold and the beautiful” experience. Suddenly a siren wailed in distance .The sound rose closer. It distracted my little daydreaming! I turned off the television and continued eating my breakfast while cursing the people who called the firefighters.

The Open Fly!

She is only twenty three years old and already looks like a model.This girl will pass on as a model if she was only famous.She is a picture of a Halle Berry body mixed with Jesica Alba face.Her skin is natural.Her eyes are accented.The accent is of a eye shadow.Her lips glow like a hot charcoal.It is only tinted with a lip gloss.I noticed that she been looking at me all the time i was standing on the wall.I wondered why in the world is she looking at me !.I am not the good looking guy in the crowd.I started blaming the shower i had before i showed up for the party.May be i shouldn't have let the avalenched burble over my head.The buble foamed down my ears.Is it that i didn't cleared my ears well?.I tried to glanced at her but i couldn't handle the presure that was building on my face.I turned immediately and my eyes caught her eyes stealing a glance at me.I started moving towards the table.There were a couple of girls with funny hairdos sitting on the table.My eyes flit from one girl to the next avoiding any contact.I started evesdroping on their silly talk.Whenever i go to parties i like to fill my time with fun things.Throw some words here and there at freinds.But today someone caught my attention like never before.I pretended to enjoy the singer who was singing at the stage.The singer shirts were unbuttoned you might think he was in about to engage in a fight with the fans.Sounded balloned around me of people catching up with their lives.All my attention was on this one girl who was staring at me.I swear to god i never cared if she didn't like me but why was she starring at me?.I tried to nod my head pretending i understood the words of the song.The singer shout was in to the microphone you might think he wanted to burst our ears purposefully.I tried to acted cool and changed my movement to garner some attention from the girls.My movement were strobed with floodlights.All this time i was trying to figure out how to approach this girl.Her hair was long and fashionable you might think she was "mixed".Her hair was pulled back from face.I drool when i see long hair that are well taken care of!.This girl was wearing a red dress that had a short collar.Oh! how i love when girls match their dress with their shoes.Her shoes matched her dress.I keep glancing on the floor acting like i was doing the "ATL stomp" while i was staring at her wide heels.I swear this girl loved fashion.She had a class and taste.I searched for a ring on her hand-i didn't notice any!.She instead had on a watch with a red band.She looked great.I said to myself "either i am going to stand here all night with no number or i will walk up to the girl and ask why she was staring at me?".I may be conceited guy but i like to know why things happen the way they are.I walked up to her and said in unclear voice "i saw you were staring at me,could you be kind to tell me your name?".She looked at me confused and said in a pleasant voice"Abowe am sorry, i wasn't staring at you,i was staring at your open fly". I was blushed at my own audacity..........the rest is history!.

Coackroach

Man has always been fearful of everything. His fears are of the unknown. We always stereotype things as being dangerous without experiencing the danger. Our ability to focus our attention on specific features of our environment is undoubtly important in allowing us to live peacefully. Man is a giant of the earth. His physical size and his cultural environ renders him the most powerful creature on this planet. He has the largest space on the earth; he can roam freely from India to the West Indies and from Somalia to South Eastern United State without the fear of anyone. Even though man is powerful on earth he lacks the brain to understand the little creature out there. If you might look under the soil or on top of the trees you will see there are creatures out there who survive without our help. Lift up a rock from the ground and you will witness different small creatures with different physiological making. Every major group of insect is represented when you remove the top part of the soil we walk on. A fourth grade teacher once said in the presence of sixty skinny kids ‘all insects have six legs and that they fly”. Stoic was one of those kids. When I was growing up the only insect I knew was a cockroach. A sign of filth and stigma was attached to wherever they were found. Cockroaches fascinated me ever since I was seven years old. I wondered how they managed to survive when my mom sprayed “DOOM” on them –an insecticide that was used in Kenya (Dawa ya Mende). I don’t think if my mom knew that roaches have been here long before we inhabited this planet. Roaches have inhabited this world successfully for almost 250 millions years.Yesterday I decided to research what this roaches are all about. I went downstairs to a friend’s laboratory and borrowed some Madagascar hissing roaches that he was rearing for his research .He gave me a box to put the roach on. I packed my roach in the box .At first he thought I was crazy since I am not a biologist. Biologist are always on the look out for some creature to rear for studies. He brushed me off as a someone who has nothing better to do with his time. I convinced him that I want to know what this roaches feed on. After all roaches have helped many basic studies of animal behavior, nutrition, and metabolism. Many studies have suggested that roaches are among the “brighter” insects. When people spray on a surface roaches quickly learn to avoid the sprayed surface. Isn’t that a sign of having a creative power? I bet you if those American soldiers who die everyday in Iraq would have been as “bright” as this roaches they would have avoided all bomb buried in Baghdad roads. Yesterday evening I decided to take the bus back to my apartment with my new friend whom I named “Farax”. He was large, brownish in color, and had a sickle shaped Jaw. I board the bus and exchanged some words with the bus driver. The bus driver is a good friend of mine. She is a nice sweet African American woman with southern accent .We always talk and joke on my way home. But today she was curious of what I was carrying in the box. She asked me what I was carrying. I answered her that I am carrying an insect. She was curious and wanted to know what kind of an insect it was. She convinced me to open the box even though I was against the idea. The bus was full of people back from work. I didn’t want to be the “roach guy” on the bus. I slowly opened the box and let her look at it. She screamed “oh my god! What kind of a roach is that?” .As I was explaining to her, the roach escaped out of the box. My hands were not quick to grab the roach before it escaped. Everyone started screaming “what the heck is that?”. Everyone is looking at me with a scorn. The scorn is a faint. The scorn is almost a sneer. My hands were nervous as I reached for my roach that was under the passenger’s seats .The roach made circles whenever I tried to reach it. It made a circle on one of the passengers leather shoes. He jumped over and in the process stepped on my roach. Poor Farax , Said I, he was dead now. What am I going to do now. My friend is not going to believe me if I tell him someone stepped on it in the bus. My face turned unsmiling. My face was without an apology to the passengers.

Restaurant

My heart swelled with this aching pity for this woman and her debating partners. Yesterday my friend invited me for a lunch at a local Somalian restaurant. I wasn’t working anyway what do I have to loose? I accepted the invitation. In Somalian culture if someone invites you for a lunch it means that your expenses are covered. I went to his new house to pick him up. I entered His house. It was a one-bedroom house. The room was dark and smelling musty. There was a hole in the ceiling. You could see sunshine shining through the hole. Dust danced through the hole. It reminded me of my physics class. My old physics teacher will always wrap two board cleaner together and then run a laser light through it to show how particles travel. My friend had a one bed in his room. The bed was so small that if two of us sit on it at the same time it will break. We left for the restaurant shortly after he dressed up.We happened to bump in to this professional woman with her friend at this restaurant. I didn’t know them but they were acquaintance of my friend. My friend invited them to join us for the lunch. I was immediately tensed and not happy with my friend choice. I am always not comfortable around people especially on a food table. My friend introduced them to me. They were two women in their early thirties if not late twenties. I greeted them while I chuckled with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. They both hugged me. They had a sweet breath. Their breath was frosted. They seemed to be professional women. Their dress seemed eccentric. Each of them had a face that showed ambition. The ambition was youthful. The restaurant was packed with people of different gender, height and speaking tone. We all made different orders. We were all silent while we waited for the food. Then suddenly one of the ladies broke the silence. I was bombarded by what seemed to be people whipping themselves in to a fury about how they detest young Somalian boys. One of the women was so disgusted with the Somalian community you might think she was an alien in the mist of children. Her tirade was brimming with loathing and disgust of the community. She was able to find a willing audience from my friend and her friend who were both nodding their head whenever she formed a foaming mouth. All this time I was scratching my head and reading this woman’s mind. I shrugged my shoulders. I managed a smile whenever she looked at me for an agreement with her tirade. My smile was weak. You could tell I was not in agreement with her.This woman was re-directing all the conversations to draw some attention to her. Whenever you want to present your argument to people, you need to organize your argument in such a way that it meets the need of the people you are addressing. This lady was creating a barrier between herself and the Somalian community. I wanted to dash out of this restaurant before she could talk about my mama. I decided to participate in the conversation but I could not. Generally the best way to persuade others is to identify with them in some ways whether it is religion or values. I asked her to tell me what common ground she has with the community she is loathing. She said only the culture. I reminded her much of what she is said is without any thinking. I asked her if she ever helped any boy to stay in school. She said that was none of her business. If it was none of her business then why is it now? I asked her. She stared at me. The stare is half-surly. The stare is disgusted with the annoying questions. The stare is meant to be what is wrong with you? I said to her sorry mom, you have to identify with the people you are criticizing first.

Reality Shows!

Am i crazy or the reality shows is really getting on people nerves.Reality shows is really becoming out of control in America.Every television show is fighting to present the "best" reality show to improve its rating.Most major television channel have atleast one reality show-unless you are MTV then you have over 10 shows!.These shows range from putting a bunch of worn out one time celebrities to a group of men chasing a blonde!.The real world and the American idol were one of the first shows to be aired-they were and still succesful.But don't this television executives understand that all shows will not be the same. These tv channels are trying to win the viewers by hiring either a one time celebrities, or a celebrity wannabees(Trump).Now even Tommy Hillfiger("the cut") and Marther Stewart are hiring people for a reality tv.I wonder what Martha got in mind for her reality tv-life after prison may be?. What will a nanny taking care of a rowdy kids got to do with my past time-although it was funny one time when a four year old boy yelled at the nanny go back to your country(Britain)!. Will this ever stop? are people becoming inane by making reality shows their guilty pleasure?.There is no amount of money that will make me sit and watch these shows.I am done with watching any reality show-unless it is a NASA reality!.

World Environmental day!

This is me and my freinds playing freesbee








The world marked annual world environment day yesterday.From San Francisco to Japan People were urged yesterday to think about how they could make the planet a healthier place to live.World environmental day is one day of the year when people, think, discuss problems related to the environment and figure out how to solve them and prevent further degeneration.In Islam man is seen only as Allah's representative(khalifa) on this earth.The Quran is specific on this issue since in the Quran Allah says "Then we appointed you after them to be khalifah(successors) in the earth so we might observe how you could act"(Q 10:14).This is a warning to us the mankind not to loot Allah's earth.The world today is full of corruption perpetrated by humans on all fronts of our lives.Many civilization have come and gone but once industrial revolution took place there were two consequence that were experienced:wealth was created which lead to human invention of cars, planes, and ships.This industriliazation has come with great deal of comfort and good while at the same time it had come with bad environmental news.Today we have experienced great deal of environmental disaster in Somalia and many poor third world countries.Yesterday i tried to keep up with the news hoping that the united nations will adress the Somalia issue with great consideration but they did not.What does this tell as a collective people who should care for their back yard?.We should take a heed and came a grip with our problems.It is worth reminding ourselves that Allah himself have instructed as to be his representative on this earth!.Today Somalia is sitting on the brink of a major environmental disaster that needs to be addressed-perhaps if you would have written to the authorities it would have made a difference!.We need to return to the nexus of environmental awareness in our neighbourhoods.We all have moral and civic obligations to keep the planet unpolluted.Our government have obligations too that make sures environmental laws are not broken.

MY FIRST POST

Today i decided to give a shot the blogging world-i know I am kind of late. I am hoping not to appear as a prater in this blogging world.I will try to post my daily activities while improve my raconteur skills.I don't have a proclivity for exaggeration as far as i know, but i will try not to exagerate my stories.I will ask for your forgiveness in advance if my writting appears to be redundant to you since i am in the process of improving my writting skills.My writting might not appear a sardonic farce to many, but i will improve as time goes by.If there is one thing i will love to improve in my life today it will my writting skills.My poor writting skills has led to my deracination from the rest of the good writers around the world.If you have any advice as to how i should improve my writting skills, your advice are more than welcomed.