Melody, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten how to blog - or, at least, how to write in general. This is a sad state of affairs. And if that’s not bad enough, Adnan has gone and deleted all RSS feeds from his GoogleReader.
“But how you vill follow veblogs now?!” I exclaimed [mentally, […]

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The better to stab you with, originally uploaded to flickr by yaznotjaz.
Last night, I joined ZMan and my sister and our friend F in Berkeley for dinner and dessert (gelato!) and a catching-up session. I’d not seen Z since our South Bay dinner back in November, and we decided it must have been a […]

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I want a vespa the color of tangerines, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Missed you much, Blogistan. Going through my Drafts folder now, and finishing up old, half-written posts I had never got around to publishing. Here’s one from last month; excuse the slightly disjointed nature of it. More are coming. I promise.
[+]
13 April 2008
We returned from […]

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From an IM conversation with a friend:
M: bas yaara, sorry for boring you
Yasmine: dude, not at all, hope i helped in some way

M: I need some crack
Yasmine: crack is always good
just stay away from the real deal crazy estuff
i don’t want to have to tell your ummy i introduced you to […]

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Evening at the Berkeley Marina, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Back in mid-January, my friend A sent me a very short, simple note with the subject line reading, Salaam, crackstar, telling me his father had recently died.
Doomed to be forever affiliated with my disgruntled, fist-shaking references to “that poetry slam we never went to,” A is one […]

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TARGET dressing rooms have rocking red walls, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Last June, my buddy A left me a voicemessage late one night after having watched the film, Paris je t’aime, which actually consists of eighteen short films by 21 directors, each of the stories taking place in different arrondissements (municipal boroughs) of Paris. Walking […]

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“Welcome to the Purple Zone”, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The last time Z and I shared a meal, it was a year ago. He had switched, just a couple of months before, from being my co-worker to working in Palo Alto, and I drove up from San Jose to join him for jummah at Stanford and […]

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Let’s go home, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
By Tuesday or so, I had already realized this week needed to be over. My GMail status:
Dear God: Please make it be Saturday already, because this week kind of sucks. Thank you.
Love, Yasminay
The responses were hilarious:
Anjum, channeling God:
Dear Yasminay,
*sigh*, I get this request every week from you.
[…]

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A chessboard awaits potential players in an Oakland park, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The Lovely L Lady asked me this evening, “So, what do you do during this meditation?”
“Well. I just close my eyes and concentrate on dua [supplications] and dhikr and any other prayers I have memorized.”
“Oh, good,” she said in mock relief. “I thought […]

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Mid-day meditation, orginally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
From Wednesday, September 26, 2007:
D text-messaged me again late on Tuesday night: Can we please go to meditation group tomorrow? She is in graduate school now, and I detected a hint of desperation.
So, we did. And it was beautiful, as always. D drove down from Vallejo, S came from San […]

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For Baji, my favorite robot monkey pirate, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
A few things, re. Talk Like a Pirate Day, which was on Sept. 19th (must mention them now, before I forget, because they amuse me):
one. My phone shows the following outgoing text message to Baji on August 11th, as I was walking down through San […]

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Gelato! (Back to business), originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Wandering around aimlessly in downtown one day, I stopped by one of my favorite little shops, only to see the following sign on its door: UNOPEN. Which is a hell of a lot better than the deliberate finality of Closed, you know? UNOPEN means, We’re taking a little […]

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My life is little things that make me happy - like tomatillos at $1.99 per lb.
Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - Beautiful things: The mid-week edition
one: flickrphotos. I get to work, check my emails, and the first thing I find is a facebook message from my sister’s friend, which makes me laugh and […]

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Trying to be difficult at the Berkeley Marina, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz
Yesterday morning, I checked my emails and found the following facebook message from my sister’s friend and classmate (this makes her my friend by default, too, I think). S wrote:
hooooly, lardki!
omg omg omg, i just discovered your mad photo hobby. ummmm, what?? you take […]

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“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 […]

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