Tuesday, October 18, 2011

8 Parentings best kept secrets

7 comments

Kids are a blessing,they fill your life with joy,laughter and unreasonable happiness,but everything comes with a price,some are fun,and some are just meant to be remembered after its all said and done..so i am giving you inside info about what you might face in the future so you know that you have been warned! here it goes:

-your vacuum will go out of the job, you son will suck everything before the vacuum does

-the last place to find your bookmark in, is your book, and if you were lucky, it's never on the page you were reading.

-your hair brush becomes you kids favorite fork for spaghetti,and some times if she was a girl she might experiment hair style using spaghetti and noodles.

-your ten minute naps are always full of surprises waiting for you when you wake up.

-diaper rash cream is your kids favorite shaving cream,and some times, hair gel too.

-your kids can give you a live demonstration of how destructive a nuclear bomb can be, just leave them in a room for ten minutes while you shower, it's more than enough for the disaster to happen.

-Morning Alarms will become history,you will always hear "mama" when its time to wake up,give it ten more minutes of extra sleep and you will get a vibration function with too little hands shaking you to wake up.

-finding your belongings where you left them will be a thing of the past, it will be so forgotten you will tell your kids bed time stories about how once upon a time there was a man called daddy,and he used to leave his wrist watch on a coffee table,and comes back and find it right where he left it!


Yet,you will still be very happy for all the things they do,and you can never be thankful enough for having them.. :)
Are you a parent? share some of your hidden gems!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Mile Street [Photo]

2 comments
So,i am finally getting the courage to do something i always wanted to do,i will start publishing some of my photography work here in my blog,but i will keep the ones on my blog to show the process through which i deliver my work.

This Photo was taken in Chicago in Winter 2009..it was a rainy/snowy day in the Mile Street,the most well known shopping spot in Chicago.

Please roll your mouse over the image so you can see the image,straight out of the camera,and after editing and processing.



I am not a photojournalist,my work is not meant to be an accurate replication of the reality and its not intended to deliver it.
i take pictures to express a vision i have in my mind and i work with the aim to deliver that image to the viewer,so the image that you see might not exist in reality as you see it,but how i visualize it through my camera.

So Welcome to my realm,sit back and enjoy,and i would be glad to hear your comments,and if it got good interaction,i shall make this a frequent post.




Saturday, October 15, 2011

What can you miss in 4 years?

1 comments
Two weeks ago,the US media paid close attention to the Italian courts in the law suit against Amanda Knox the US exchange student who was accused in 2007 of sexual assault and murdering her English roommate Meredith Kercher in her apartment in the widely known quiet city of Perugia,Italy.

The conviction was reversed and she was exonerated,she finally returned home in seattle,WA,among her family and friends once again.

Undeniably,such incidences are not something that anyone would want to happen to any one anywhere in the world,its shocking and grieving,especially with the conviction reversal,the trial was not considered a victory,since the real killer remains unknown and on the loose.

i paid close attention to the trial on what growing to be my favorite radio channel WUNC,as i heard all what was happening and the circumstances of it,my mind dived in its own thoughts,how an exchange student full of enthusiasm and excitement flying to one of Europe most iconic countries,and within a week her life turns up side down,and remains so for 4 years.

so i thought "i wonder what did she miss in those 4 years,after all,4 years can pass in front of someone like a blink of an eye.
so i decided to do some research,to see what are the key events that happened in 2007-2008,2009,2010 and 2011.

A lot! Not only Amanda missed the running,election and inauguration of her country's first African American President,and the running of the first female presidential candidate,or the death of Saddam Hussain,but also missed witnessing the infamous financial crisis of 2008,which still resonate with effects till today.

Summoning my research,i found that Amanda have missed over 500+ global events in the time she was in jail,and i only realized how many they were when i decided to list them in a blog.

but then again,as i took the back seat in my usual procrastination,overwhelmed by the amount of events that took place in those four years,i gave it a second thought.

Amanda is an average American girl who went to study outside of her country when the mishap happened,so what did Amanda really,really miss?

i came up with a few:


-She Definitely missed the inauguration of President Obama,and Sadly she was released in a time when his popularity is on the decline.
-ِAm sure she did not miss the job market decline,probably she won't believe the drop in economy and how it affected life in US.
-Last time she used a cellphone,it used to only make phone calls,texts,and some phones have emails.
-She missed 4 Generation of the revolutionary iPhone,the Phone that changed communication,and yet evolves to improve day by day.
-She missed the Launch of Android OS,the iPad.
-She Definitely missed 5 seasons of Greys Anatomy,3 Seasons of Lost,2 of Prison Break.
-Last time Amanda used the internet,Facebook was merely a social website to connect with your friends,i bet by now she is in a culture shock of what Facebook is now.
-Twitter,the 140 letters that flipped 3 presidents and was a cornerstone in the ignition of the Arab Spring.
-YouTube becoming a replacement for entertainment and TV for many internet users,last time Amanda used youtube,it was still something very new.
-Music enthusiasts significantly shift from CDs into Digital MP3 as the main way to purchase,listen to music.
-Netflix Online Streaming,which started in 2008.
-Paris Hilton going to Jail,and Britney spears going bold,Micheal Jackson Dies and his Funeral becomes the first live youtube funeral in history.
-Apple Takes the lead to become worlds biggest computer corporate.
-Definitely she missed this
-And this


These are probably the highlights of what would the average Amanda have missed,i bet she have a lot of catching up to do, luckily for you Amanda,missing on technology means you will only get whats coming next,which is always better,so will follow up pretty quick.

What else,follow readers,do you think Amanda would have missed?



Disclaimer: This post is intended to be light weighted post about what is considered to be a heavy matter,so the humor is intended,and its NOT by any means intended to degrade the loss of Amanda's friend and Meredith's family,its intended as a light hearted welcome back to Amanda Knox to the US.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Blog under Maintenance

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Folks,i am doing some renovations on the blog,and for that you might find some of the comments are missing,i am enabling a way to make it possible for Facebook, Twitter, google IDs to be used in comments,in hope to get more traffic into the blog and hopefully revive it and give it a good jump start.

it should be resolved by tomorrow,hopefully.

i appreciate your patience and i really appreciate you passing by!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Kawasaki Disease: A Parent's Experience.

8 comments
No,its not a disease related to the Motorsport bike.

Kawasaki disease is an auto immune disease where the body develops antibodies and attack blood vessels,and causing Vasculitis,or inflammation of blood vessels,it usually develop in children below age of 5 and most commonly infants and toddlers...the is a racial predominance in Asians,but it does occur to different races and ethnicities.

Signs and symptoms starts with a fever that doesn't respond to medication,and stays for over 5-7 days,also,the child lips and oral cavity becomes reddish and its known as strawberry tongue..the skin might show red patches that resemble rash,and a very distinguishing symptom is the bloodshot red eyes,they eyes look so red as if its a horror movie.

If the disease left untreated over 7-10 days,the inflammation will involve the coronary arteries that supply the heart,and develop aneurisms...and result in myocardial infarction and death.

The tricky part about this disease that its diagnosis is purely clinical and highly,if not solely depends on the pediatricians knowledge and experience with the disease,its frequently misdiagnosed,and always dismissed as throat infections and children are given antibiotics,which of course doesn't work.

Its treated by administration of IVIG "Intravenous immunoglobulins" which tricks and attract the circulating antibodies and sort of "bond to them" and sort of "neutralize them"

If this treatment is established in a timely manner the kid most likely will recover completely,and the heart should remain intact,if it was established at a later stage and after cardiac involvement,the child will recover and should remain under continuous observation for heart changes from the aneurisms,treatment also involve anti coagulants like aspiring in low doses daily for a period of up to six months,depending on how much damage there was,giving aspirin is controversial but this disease is one of very few indications to give what other wise considered a drug not recommended for kids.

It was the love of god that got us to treat our daughter on time,being in makkah at the time we went to a pediatrician who diagnosed it as a typical throat infection,i and told us the eye is reddish from lack of sleep,gave her antibiotics and that was that..thanks to her mother who was not convinced,and her pediatrician back in US who was very vigilant in giving antibiotics,we decided to take a second opinion, so i simply put a Facebook status to help me find a good pediatrician,and one recommended her Pediatrician professor in Jeddah,and we went to him.

Imagine your self in my place,he was very warm and welcoming,asked us how did we get to know his practice..then asked whats up.
as i started telling him,and in the middle of me speaking,he suddenly stops me and ask me another question,and as soon as i say my answer he cuts up my answer and ask me another...i was fuming..but carried on,in the again he asked us who referred us to him.
then he asked us,whats our financial status? i told him we are students...no jobs yet...he immediately referred us to the teaching hospital he teaches at and gave us immediate admission papers,and broke the story down to us.

He told us he immediately knew her illness the second he looked at her,and his repetitive questions were to double confirm it,he was worried and rushing to send her to the hospital and establish the treatment,he told us you guys must be really good people,as he did his subspecialty training in this specific field and he have extensive experience in it,and he thought we were referred to him specifically because of that from another pediatrician,and he was stunned that it was pure coincidence.

We went to the teaching hospital,a friend of mine helped us in the admission,who was an intern there and i am very thankful to her,the treatment was established immediately,and she was admitted for 24 hours,the fever went down,almost immediately as the treatment started.

Now this is where i believe it was divine intervention that got us through,her treatment at the teaching was absolutely free,it didn't cause us a dime,and if we were sent to a private hospital it would have costed us 80'000 Saudi Riyals,yup,80 grand!
the IVIG was giving in 8 fluid bags,each cost about 10'000 riyals,and IVIG treatment is known to be extremely expensive world wide,i tell you,its love of god.

But it didn't stop there,the same day,after she was cleared and discharged,we went and dined in our favorite place,and went back home,my daughter and her mommy were sleep deprived and dead tired,they laid on the bed,mommy was hugging her daughter to sleep before she put her in her crib..but both slept..so did i.

Suddenly,we woke up by a loud cacophony of a glass bowl shatter,and a scream who i recognized to be my daughter,in a split second i woke up,turned the light and went to her side of the bed,what i saw was horrifying.

My daughter was on the floor,surrounded by a pool of blood and tiny million little pieces of glass fragments from the bowl we used for cold compressions last nigh,her face was covered in blood from a wound in her forehead,we cleaned her as carefully as we can,and took off immediately back to jeddah once again at 3 am in the morning.

Luckily X-rays were clear,she had superficial wounds and a deep cut in her nose,but fully recoverable,no fragments were forced into the nostril,Hamdulillah, We however, were traumatized by the whole experience,it took us a full month to relax and sooth out the tension that built up,i remember waking up every two hours to check on her fever and everything.

We just got her ECG and ultrasound done last week and she was cleared and her heart is intact,we stopped aspirin for good,and a routine check up is planned every six months.

As a parent, i learned that you can never be careful enough,and no matter how careful you are,accidents will still happen, and all you can be is a caring parent,don't look at what happened,and think of what you can do ahead,it was a horrible experience,i am glad it ended,and i pray to god no one,no matter who they are,would go through it.

This was supposed to be a short comment that blew out of proportions O.O i took the liberty of posting it as a blogpost in my forsaken blog. i shall say thank you to Under The Abaya,as she who got me to write this post by asking about it, which by the way,is the second time i write this post,because the first time i wrote it was deleted by mistake!