PhilAsify 101

Ever since my Islamic enlightenment a couple of years back, I've cut mainstream music out completely. I don't know what's "poppin' on the streets" and couldn't tell you one song looping on the Top 40 Hit Stations other than "Call Me Maybe" and that's only because today's media has allowed this song to be absolutely unavoidable. The only other times I'm exposed to hip hop and pop music is at the gym, playing video games or at certain restaurants and gatherings. Whenever I do willingly lend my ear to some tunes, it's very selectively. Hip Hop is dead for the most part. Gone are the days of a true narrative to a song which enlightens the masses on the often harsh realities of the world we live in. However, there are a handful of artists who still use the genre of hip hop for what it was meant for, preaching the truth and opening minds.

I Dare Ya! Don't you love popular sayings? I'm particularly fond of expressions like "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", "Laughter is the best medicine", "A Picture is worth a thousand words" and who could forget this one: powered by Splicd.com However, one that is gaining a lot of traction is the expression ,"You only live once" (aka. "YOLO" to the youngsters). YOLO has taken pop culture by storm ever since the phrase was coined in a song by rapper/singer Drake. Now it's all over people's Facebook pages, on people's T-Shirts, flooding up the Twitterfeeds (#YOLO) and is regurgitating out from the mouths of the simple-minded masses.

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). 

Salams and Hello to my loyal readers which at the moment may only be myself and my wife (and that's usually only when I force her to read my blogs). Now PhilAsify 101 has only been around for only a few months and already it's been a rollercoaster ride in terms of my enthusiasm, creative and consistency in keeping up with the being a new blogger. I've had my fair share of ups and downs. Some weeks I was on a roll, churning out ideas and tapping away on the keyboard. Other days, laziness kicked in and I was spending more time hanging out on Yahoo's Frontpage than logging in hours on my posts. Ideas were hard to come by. Other times, life got in the way and I couldn't put the world on pause to go sit and put my thoughts into paragraphs. It's even more difficult and deflating when you don't think anyone's reading your stuff, so in turn no one is anticipating anything and thus there is no pressure to please the masses. But I don't want to make excuse...

Hey there gang. Your favorite PhilAsifer is back on Blog street after a month long sabbatical observing the month of Ramadan. So let me quickly get you up to speed on what's my month consisted of, aside from the heartburn I endured from being without food all day. I spent most of the month trying to get tight with the Qur'an like crossed fingers and soak up in that Iman (faith) boost that's customary at this time of year. This followed up with the inevitable Ramadan slump where the consistency that was prevalent in the first week just started falling apart. The Ramadan nutrition and workout regimen that my wife and I tried to follow just wasn't happening anymore so we went from working out at Suhoor time and after Iftar at the gym to NOT working out at all. This seemed to have a domino effect with the rest of productive goals during Ramadan. I had hoped to start and finish reading the Qur'an, both reciting it in Arabic and re...

Being new to the blogosphere, I quickly realized that I have a lot to learn when it comes to posting my innermost thoughts together for the world to see. It's not easy crafting my commentaries into the perfect combination of keystrokes with just enough wit and useful information to engage a human being to click my article and scroll through. I also know that the best and most successful of writers are ones who read ten times as much as they write. So I take a good chunk of my time to read and observe what's out there, what's hot and what people latch on to when they want to get their fix on the world around them. What have I found? That people are making the very action of reading content annoying, laborious and complicated! I mean no wonder people are reading less and less! The tactics that businesses and popular blogs are doing these days almost compel a person to just go to someone's Twitter feed to find out what's going on rather than reading things at length f...

PhilAsify reviews the VICE Guide to Travel: Karachi, Pakistan Well, let me take to to the neck of the woods of my hood,  show you wat we livin' like Walkin' like a man, finger on the trigger Got money in my pocket, I'm an uptown n---- --"Neck of The Woods" Birdman ft. Lil Wayne This past weekend I sat down and watched the Vice Guide to Karachi, Pakistan. For those who don't know, VICE is a Montreal and New York City based magazine and media entity known for its whacky news columns. Their style falls in the same category of Maxim, Manswers, TMZ in that it pokes fun at pop culture and world affairs and has that sarcastic, expletive-laden and blunt sort of way it conducts its journalism that guys love.  Some of their more interesting documentaries have been travel guides to dangerous and crazy places in the world, getting a glimpse of how things operate and how a citizen can get by doing things they wouldn't want their parents to know. T...

A famous and often quoted line from  Tom Hanks' movie Forrest Gump   is when the title character is sitting on a bench with a box of chocolates on his lap. He declares, "My momma always said, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."  When it comes to the Muslim community and the religious obligation of Muslims to attend Jummah (Friday) prayers, this quote can be modified a bit to summarize what it's like listening to some of the weekly Khutbahs (sermons) conducted by the knowledgeable in the community:  "Khutbah's are like a box of chocolates...not enough of the delicious caramel kind, too many crappy ones with the orange filling."

Now before you guys go and label this is the "Asif is lazy so he's letting a YouTube video do all the work", here me out! PhilAsify101 is not just about me blogging my thoughts on the universe. In this world of consumerism, ignorance and the desire to impress just for the sake of your own ego, there are bits and pieces left that people can still marvel at. Sometimes it's just the phenomenon of God's creations around us, other times man-made. And just sometimes it's those little things that make you go "WOW!". Things that restore your faith in humanity. This post is about the latter. I present to you a video that has captivated the internet world because of the creativity of a child. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out: Caine's Arcade.

Yikes! In my morning internet screwaround before work, I stumbled upon an interesting article on MSN.com's frontpage that immediately caught my attention. The teaser stated "Study: Beards intimidate". What was I, a card carrying member of the Muslim Beard Society, to think? Would this be an article lambasting me and my sunnah (a practice of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) ) following bretheren? Would this study declare that men should be discouraged from growing beards for fear of societal disapproval and disgust, calling for us to assimilate into clean shavery? I WILL NOT HAVE IT!

Me in a nutshell.  Cot Damn! Good Lord have mercy. It's been already an entire month since I last wrote a blog. I have no one to blame but myself and my deplorable organizational and time-prioritizing skills. The whole point of PhilAsify101 was to break my dryspell of literature generation with an outlet for creative content. Epic FAIL.

Note: The following was a article I wrote a while back for a job interview that required me to write an article while being timed. I had to pick from a selection of writing prompts which were titles of news headlines. Out of the list I chose the above title and while I did not get the job, I thought this was pretty darn good. Probably so good that it hurt my chances to work with these folks, who knows? Without further ado... Remember the good ol’ days when people were innocent until proven guilty? When a citizen of this great country was given certain inalienable rights that could not be taken away without going through the process of having their story heard by a jury of his peers in a fair and just manner? Well it looks like these kooky concepts will be a thing of the past, brought up only when we gather around our grandchildren to dazzle them with ancient rubbish. It has been reported that the majority of Congress is putting the finishing touches on an amendment that will pr...

Sometimes being the odd man out isn't such a bad thing. Over the years, we all have seen our fair share of trends. Whether it be in fashion, music or the ever-changing electronic world, people jump onto a bandwagon and are in disbelief when they meet or speak to someone that hasn't been in the loop. Taking it a step further, those type of people act as if they are looking at an enigma when you respond back that you think a certain trend is whack and you don't wanna bother indulging in it. The literary world is no different.

Still on the heels of week 1 of my blog initiative and your boy is still struggling with consistency. My wife told me a tip for first time bloggers is to have 50 blog posts written within the first month of your blog as a goal to have consistency since that in consequence would attract readers to your blog knowing that its being updated on the regular. Well, I don't know how realistic of a goal that is for me with my work schedule and home study schedule (which I will elaborate upon in a future blog post, InshaAllah). In my inaugural post earlier this week, I wrote that I proclaim myself as "The Writer Who Doesn't Write". As shameful of a title that is, I can also declare myself as the "Reader Who Doesn't Read". Explanation? It's coming. Now I do read in the literal sense, I read ESPN.com box score and news items, I read editorials and news bits on pro wrestling, I read threads on internet forums and also random news items on the ever popular Yaho...

Here's a tidbit that some would consider miscellaneous but I find it quite noteworthy so I have to make a mention of it. One of the greatest coin-operated games of all time, WWF/WWE Wrestlefest, is now coming to a smartphone near you! Now one thing that you will find out about me through this blog really quick is that I'm a mega wrestling fan, always have been and always will be, even if the product is absolutely piss-poor at this point in time. I've been a fan of the WWE (then WWF) ever since my Dad sat me down at the age of three on Saturday nights to watch WWF Superstars. It was there that my love for the artform that is professional wrestling became permenantly engrained into my soul. I stayed a loyal fan and defended it at every opportunity, especially against my older sister who absolutely hated wrestling and would never hesistate to rub in my face that it was fake (like that would deter me from watching it). I grew up on the likes of the Ultimate Wa...

So my blog is official. My feelings as of right now are mixed with nervousness and excitement. For a guy that's had a long sabbatical away from creative writing, I am a bit worried when it comes to content. That's nothing that a brainstorming session won't fix but I still want to be able to be the kind of writer that stays consistent.  When it comes to writing project, starting is the hardest part for me. Once I do get over the hump, I usually am able to get the ball rolling with engaging writing on a regular basis. But that initial window is just hell, because I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to posts and am very self-critical. I would re-read paragraphs and sentences and if they don't have the correct amount of wit, or the right verbiage and tone, I would be staying on the delete key longer than a pedophile that's going to be having his laptop scanned for porn. I mean, it friggin took me two hours to write my initial blog last night!

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Whether you have stumbled upon this page by some bizarre accident, or I myself begged you to click this link, I would like to humbly welcome you to PhilAsify 101! I know the first peculiarity you might have noticed is the title of this blog and the odd way that I chose to have it spelled. When I first planned to create a blog for myself, I thought it would be clever to put my name somewhere in the title as a pun while at the same time making it relevant to the overall theme by taking a well-known subject of human knowledge and discussion (Philosophy) and put my own individual stamp on it. Frankly, and I'm sure you're thinking this, it may just be a pathetic attempt at being vain. Regardless, I thought it was cool and I'm sticking with it for the time being (But I do at least deserve some credit in the creativity realm when you take into account how difficult it is to make my name rhyme or sync with any word...