PhilAsify 101

So here marks another one of my unexplained hiatuses from blogging. What a big surprise. While I tried to hold myself to writing weekly through thick and thin, I just couldn't write until now because I was in the middle of a transitional period. I was hired for a job! Alhamdulilah (All praise goes to God). More than one actually so, of course I was really busy. I wanted to check back in to give you that update and tell you all that things can turn around on a dime, bad times don't last. There I was struggling for months unemployed, just barely making it and the future was totally uncertain. I didn't know whether I'd have enough to pay the rent at the end of the month, I didn't know when things would get better. But that just reminds me that it's not my job to know the future. I'm just a player in this script of life and I can't turn the page until I get to the bottom, when everything on the current page has played out. That's on Allah's ti...

For some reason this title  can't help but make me be reminded of Randy Orton's entrance theme: But I digress. This is not really the video I wanted to share with you, the video below is. I came across this video on YouTube a couple of months ago titled "Overcoming Negative Inner Voices" and boy was it tremendous and really made me ponder life and just how your mind is the biggest thing holding you back from achieving the life you want to live and do the things in life you want to do to be fulfilled. Here I will post the video and then come back with my thoughts after the jump.

So I didn't get to write an entry last week. Big surprise huh? Aside from being consistently inconsistent, your trusty old PhilAsifer is also consistently getting hurt. This time it wasn't a phantom injury from coach potatoing it up, however. I decided to dust off my sneakers and played an impromptu game of pick-up basketball. Here's some news for you: I Injured myself, AGAIN. I injured myself because I'm out of shape. Meaning I'm overweight at the moment. Meaning I'm too overweight to be playing basketball.  Hey But Wait a minute, Asif, look at this! Maaaaan. Number 1) That guy is about 6'10. I'm 5'6 on a good day. Number 2) He's DEAD! (RIP Escalade) He died from heart disease which I'm positive had to do with his unhealthy weight. and Number 3) Thanks a lot for making me feel like a schlub when even immobile obese heavyweights can ball better than me.  Back to the subject at hand. What I mean by being too overweight to pl...

Hey gang. A little bit late on my goal for a weekly post, that's because I'm still trying to figure out a way to make a decent living as a freelance writer. As I expected, it's no walk in the park starting out.  Before I even lost my job , I was looking into freelance writing as a possible next career option because my job hunting had fallen into that terrible catch 22 conundrum. All the writing based media jobs I wanted were looking for someone with 2 to 5 years experience and there I was wasting my life away shuffling papers at a tax firm NOT GETTING EXPERIENCE. Freelancing looked to be the best option to 1) write , 2) build a solid body of work with a portfolio and 3) eventually get noticed by those same media based jobs that were denying me because of  my lack of experience. Getting into the freelance writing game, I faced pretty much the same trouble because I needed to show experience as well and show that I've written and had things published in various are...

So for over the last week or so I've been getting over a really painful hip injury. A sharp, nearly unbearable pain has been shooting from my right hip, making it hard for me to lift my leg, walk or even get into bed without groaning in agony. Sleep has been terribly uncomfortable and I had a few days of sleepless nights because of the stabbing pain and discomfort caused by my ailment. At first, I thought it was just some freak injury and the pain would disappear in a couple of days after implementing the RICE method. When the pain didn't go away, I went to look up the injury online and listed the symptoms to find out that it may very likely be a hip strain which is typically a sports injury or caused by a fall. So what was the cause of my hip feeling like crap? Nothing. I have no friggin' clue why it's been hurting like the dickens. I haven't been outside playing sports in Houston's sauna type heat, are you kidding me? It's hotter and more humid than...

I'm a little over two months into my freelancing career change and at the moment it's not going all that well. I haven't been hired for any steady jobs and the jobs I have been hired for haven't paid all that well--though I'm grateful to have gotten them, something is better than nothing. However, I am in pretty good spirits and I am learning a lot about freelancing and a lot about myself. I still couldn't be happier and I am positive things will get better. I have been listening to podcasts and reading blogs and articles about how to make it as a freelance writer and it's mind blowing how a lot of these folks share my mindset when it comes to college institutions. All of these freelancers want the same thing: they want to be their own boss, run their own life, make money the way they want to make it without being a slave to a corporate paycheck. So Naive I was... Sooo not worth it. Keep your diploma, I'll take that money back. I WASTED four y...

"It's just not working out." That was the reason I was given when I walked into the conference room where my Supervisor and the HR Manager sat and had me sign off my termination papers. Nothing else was stated between my boss. She got up and briskly walked out of the room. My reaction? Well...I didn't exactly say that but that's the vibe I gave. And as cool as a response as that is to getting canned, that wouldn't have been my reaction a year back. A year ago, I would've been floored by getting fired. I could see it now, my heart sinking, my voice cracking as I would pathetically beg them to reconsider. Anxiety would take the wheel and I'd be terrified with the outlook since there was no backup plan or steady income of any kind that I could fall back on. What would I tell my wife? How would I pay the bills and the rent? What are we going to do!? Nope. None of that happened. I was truly at peace with the decision. And it was the right d...

**Door creaks open, all is heard are the faint sounds of footsteps. A light turns on...SURPRISE!** I'm Baaaack! Did ya miss me? Oh. Hmm...well I anticipated this happening so it's all good. It's been a solid year since I've last updated PhilAsify101. In this fast moving, content-dependent world of YouTubers, vloggers and bloggers if you even get a hint of inconsistency, miss out on a weekly post, and don't give solid regular updates of SOMETHING, ANYTHING--you lose your audience. A whole year passes well, then it's rebuilding time. Surprisingly though it seemed I got a consistent readership of 100 or so views of my old posts, so that's encouraging. That being said, I have made my return and hopefully by Allah's will, it will be for good. I hope to regularly deliver to you consistent, thought-provoking posts. And just as was the purpose of PhilAsify101 when I first launched it, I write mainly for myself to keep my fingers moving and actual...

Alhamdulilah I've been married for 6 years to the woman I was crazy about since I was in High School. When I did marry her, I was met with resistance from family and friends saying that I was too young--I hadn't finished college yet, had barely any money, and was still living with my mom and dad--but I wasn't going to budge. I had found the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and didn't want to waste any time making it official. Marriages, I have learned, are not easy. (A collective "duh!" from everyone reading, I know.) A piece of advice I received recently is that marriage is a 24/7 Job. That is not a bad thing at all. It just means that it's something that always requires work and is always a work in progress. There is a deception that when you have finally snagged the person you're in love with, everything will be effortlessly perfect and easy; problems and arguments will be either small or non-existent. Every year things will get even...

What a terrible, terrible movie. Though I haven't blogged much during my hiatus from PhilAsify 101, I did keep up with the activity the blog had gotten over the 6 months I was inactive. I was surprised to see that I would have on average 100 page views daily of people clicking on PhilAsify from all over the world. A modest amount sure, but for me it's pretty huge that at least 100 pairs of eyes read my blog or come across it everyday which is humbling to say the least cause I can't even get my close friends to even read a Facebook status I put up much less my blog. For strangers who don't know me to click on an article of mine they found interesting and check it out is really astonishing to me. Also despite not having new content up during the timespan, I noticed I would get comments for my different blogposts. Most of them would be comments on what I've learned has been my most popular blog post to date: Dating In Islam: Why Muslims shouldn't date a...

Any fool with a d*** can make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children. -- Furious Styles, Boyz in The Hood The title of this article may seem cliché but I really don't think folks truly grasp the reality the phrase holds. At the time of this post, I have been a father just a little over three months and with every passing day I realize more and more just how crucial of a role fatherhood is. In this short time, I have discovered--surprising to no one--that being a father is no joke. I mean, I knew going in things were not going to be a walk in the park. I anticipated my sleep time being cut short by fusses and grunts. I had prepared my mind to expect getting pissed and spit up on. I had already sucked it up and said my tearful goodbyes to one of my greatest loves--disposable income. I even let sink in the statement a lot of baby articles declare tongue-in-cheek, "your life is over."

The Disgusting Side Effect of the Social Media/Viral Video Age Have you heard the story of Kitty Genovese ? She was a woman who was brutally stabbed to death nearby her New York apartment by a lunatic assailant. She was attacked by the man on three separate occasions during a time span of 35 minutes, all the while crying and screaming for help. Police reports declared that over 38 people heard or saw the attack—which occurred out in public—and no one intervened or even bothered to call police until AFTER the third attack when Kitty was already dead and the man fled the scene. Do you know when this incident occurred? 1964. But judging from the subject matter, you would think it just happened the other day. In fact, if it did happen today, I can’t promise you that someone would’ve intervened and helped the poor woman out but I can wholeheartedly assure you without a doubt in my mind there would be live tweets, Facebook statuses and perhaps even footage of the murder captured on ...

Happy Friday readers. In my recent efforts to enrich myself and broaden my knowledge, I made a promise to myself to watch at least 1 documentary a week on any particular subject. This past week I stumbled upon one which hits really close to home and that's because the documentary was about and filmed in the area of Houston I called home from middle school all the way through college: Alief, Texas (aka SWAT; South West Alief Texas). 

Note: The following is a classic blog I wrote a couple years back on Facebook. Yeah blogging isn't a primary focus on Facebook but I still gave it a honest attempt but naturally, things would get lost in the shuffle and the benefit wouldn't reach as many folks. So I just dusted the cobwebs off of this one and am presenting it now. As relevant today as it was when I wrote it. What? Were you expecting Will Smith?  In my Sophomore year of college at the University of St. Thomas, I took an ethics course and learned about Happiness being not only a Proximate goal but an Ultimate goal. What does that mean? That's the reason for this blog. It's quite apparent that happiness is the greatest objective for all of mankind. Everyone spends his or her entire life and utilizes their utmost energy to reach a high level of happiness. Everything we do--the hobbies we engage in, the people we associate with and what we prioritize in life--we do because we think we will at...