Another great mental adventure

So I had just gotten married, and it was like the second or third day. Though I wanted to be with my wife, I knew that all of my Pakistan visiting time was soon going to end in a matter of weeks. My cousin and I put together a motorcycle trip to the picnic house in Mustung. My wife was a bit upset, but I think she also understood that I may not see my cousins and friends for many years, and God willing she will be here in America soon, so it was an easy decision.

We finagle 3 motorcycles. All of them were about 100cc to 150cc 2 stroke Hondas and Yamahas, and we took off at about 1:00PM. I refused to ride and insisted on being a passenger. Many reasons: sand, donkeys, no front brakes, paki traffic regulations (HA!), and not getting jacked at a random checkpoint. The fun part was having us 5 guys trying to buy the groceries for living out in the wilderness for a night. That ended up being a crate of oranges and enough cigarettes to last a week.


The ride was crazy. The main road to Mustung was under serious construction, and no way were these shitty bikes going to survive that road, so we too a bunch of back road detours. The scenery was amazing. Only in Quetta have I seen barren land giving birth to a lush green pasture, and fruit trees as far as the eye can see. But the ride was crazy.


We took a quick break at this creek where there was some water to wash up, and then my friends realized a real shitty fact. One of the bikes had a flat.


Now where the hell do we find a Fix-A-Flat dude in the middle of the mountains of Quetta. The only option was to ride the flat bike slowly into the nearest town in hopes of finding a mechanically inclined person. And I think our luck demonstrated the theme of the whole trip. As soon as we got to an intersection, there were drums of oil stacked outside this mud brick hole in the wall. Paki advert for gas station. Luckily the guy had the expertise to fix the flat and we took another break.



The next leg of the trip brought us past that crazy mountain road (see below post) into the the final stretch of road. The little 2 strokes were wailing at the top of their exhaust notes. And the ride was amazing. After enough wind blistering we stopped to smoke a cigarette. At the site there was a large, almost dried out, pond and a Mosque on the other side of it. As I copped my squat and began to daze into my surroundings there comes this 14 or 15 year old shepherd boy crossing the highway with his flock of assorted Pakistani sheep and goats and lambs.


Now here comes the crazy "am I seeing this or am I just hallucinating from the tiring ride" part. I could have sworn one of the sheep had the Arabic word for "God" in his markings. I point this out to the fellas and they agree with me. Everyone was amazed at how the pattern was one little mark away from completing the word "Allah", which looks like this:


And the sheep in question had this marking on it. My eyes see it there very obviously, and the fact that the sheep in the below picture is passing in front of the Mosque was just incredible. The Mosque itself, look at it, it's all hand made by the little towns folk with simplicity and meaningfulness in mind. Ah the beauty.


We sat there in amazement and then thanked God for the moment. After this cigarette it was off to the picnic house in Mustung where we cooked some dinner, played some card games and smoked our cares away into the night. All night I thought about how great everything went on the trip. From the scenery to the random images of life, to the people, to the feeling of contentedness that washed over me.

As far as seeing God's name on all things that He has created, I have always been a big fan. One of the coolest is your hand:


There are so many sightings of His Blessed name in everything...Here are a few more I just found in the past 5 minutes on the interweb:


[Tangent] So I am a big fan of this, because of many reasons. Mainly because I was a bit lost and then I started seeing His signs everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. And then I started reading his books. I started with the Torah, then read most of the Bible, but I really wanted to read the Quran. I finished the Quran when I was six, but it was in Arabic, and I did not understand what I was reading. Simply learning how to read it.

When I picked up a copy of the Quran in 2004, I was in shock. How can there be so much truth and divinity in this book, and the entire world is hating Muslims right now?

The fact is people are afraid of what they do not understand. Muslims are afraid of Jews and Christians because they do not understand, and likewise the rest of the world is afraid of Muslims because they cannot understand what makes a people so so so deeply engrossed in their religion.

The answer is simple: man's demise. Once you read the Quran, a lot of things become simplified. Like why other people cannot grasp the idea of submission. Why people deny God. And why people hate Muslims. It is because a true submitter has given up his ego and his material needs in order set a place for himself in the hereafter.

Man, I read some of these anti-Muslim websites and I get scared. It reminds me of the X-Men comics I read and people were hating on Mutants. "Kill all the Muties", "We hate Mutants"...ecckkk. And then I think to myself "Wow, these are all educated adults that cannot grasp the fact that Islam is just a monotheistic religion that has stuck to it's scriptures".

Judaism and Christianity would be just as strict and thorough with their faith if they had stuck to the original scriptures, but things have changed. Islam, though it has a seriously bad PR problem right now, is the only one of the Abrahamic religions that has stayed true to Abraham. Praying to the ONE God and keeping any other diety from association with Him the Ever Blessed Almighty.

Simple really. I mean we even pray for our people to be like Prophet Abraham's people in our five daily prayers. We have Moses mentioned in the Quran so many more times than Mohammad (SAW), and the story of Mariam and Jesus is told about 5 times in 5 different places if I am not mistaken. So why are people so ignorant? Is it because they have forgotten their own religions that state things parallel to the teachings of Islam? Or is it because they just need a new people to hate?

This is the stuff that drives me. I mean I enjoy all material things, but just like my jailbroken, unlocked, bells and whistles iPhone, no matter how much I love it, it is bound to be over soon. This life is bound to be over soon. The End Times are here, right now. I mean look at your age, how many more years do you have? 20? 30? 40? 50? 60? That's about it...what then?

The way I see it is no matter what you THINK is going to happen after you/we all die, there is only one way to be prepared. And that is to be a good person that does not turn his/her back on the Creator. Simple really. And the more you pray the further away you stay from the vices in this life. And the closer you come to the next life.

Accident on the paki mountainway

OK, what do you do when you have an accident on the only road getting you out of a major city. On top of that what do you do when that road in on a mountain, and about as wide as two lanes. Oh, and there is minimal if any response from the authorities. Oh right, and the accident involved a truck filled with vegetable oil?


So now the whole mountain road is backed up bumper to bumper, and it is slippery as all hell, and people with little cars and motorcycles are still trying to weave their way through the chaos...

Pure Paki Pandemonium.


I get out of the car with My cousin Asif and we start walking to the site of the obstruction. Of course it's a truck had been turned over on it's side, and the 50 people circling around it are simply kicking the dirt and shooting the shit talking about how they just got the tanker flipped back right side up. Meanwhile the rest of the people in their vehicles are playing the game of throwing dirt behind and in front of their vehicles so they do not slip off the mountain.


It was great. In this crazy and rare moment of vehicular distress and ruckus, I managed to whip out the camera and start taking shots from the hip. We climbed the mountain about 30 feet and got another couple of good shots at the extent of the backup on this very busy road out of Quetta, Pakistan.

I forgot what I did last summer

This was on our trip to the infamous "Disappearing Saint." A picnic spot or a holy site, people are not too sure. But it takes about 3 hours in car and is located in the middle of a cluster of mountains. There is a natural spring from a vein in the mountain, and it gushes forth water 24/7/365 at the same ridiculous pressure summer, winter, fall.

The specific video is of a little town on the top of a mountain that was on the way. It consists of Hindus in the middle of a Muslim country. The main avenue of this town is used by the rest of the country as a highway. Very crazy with chickens and kids 2-3 feet away from overfilled trucks. I wanted to stop and take a look around, but my bodyguards advised me otherwise.

Getting out to the Disappearing Saint was tough. Since I was the prince of the motherland for 2 months, I got together a convoy of 6 cars with 10 heads in each car. Half the people had never even been because it was a pain in the ass to get the women-folk in and out of this site. But we still made it happen. By this time My wife and I had been married for 2 weeks, and everything felt like I was on drugs.

Getting Married

It's Easy!

All I had to do was travel to the other side of the world, find my estranged fiancee, sign the wedding certificate, have a 3 day bash, and vIoLa!!! Married!

Sad part: I spent one month (April 08) with her, came back to the states in May. I submitted the paperwork to get her ass outta Pakistan and into my arms, but DHS has this thing where they take forever with paperwork. So I have been alone and in a state of love limbo for the past 7 months.

I guess all metal has to be heated to take final strength and shape. It's just that I have never really had a long, long distance relationship...well marriage...like evAR!!!

Good part: It takes not seeing or being with someone for so long to make you really love them huh? I mean when she is finally here I can remind myself of how never to fight with her silly ass or lose my temper or be unappreciative. And if I forget, I'm sure she will remind me.

It's times like this that I wish I knew someone in a high up government position.

Obama, you listenin???

This video is the foot trek from the car to the water at the Disappearing Saint. I talk more about it in the above post.

The End Times ::: The Beginning

So I have decided to start this site for many reasons. Not just to document random images and outings and crap, but more of as a time capsule. I figure the interwebz is going to outlast my ass by many years (unless someone viruses up all things Google) and so I figure I find a place to document this little life God has given me.

Things start strange and end strange. During the past 3 or 4 years I have been coming to terms with life, and of course death. It is an inevitable part of existence to acknowledge the lack thereof. And the mental spiral that results in trying to comprehend all. I have been given many signs throughout my life as to what to do and what not to do. As to what is the nature of the Creator and what is the nature of His creations. The tree that stares me in the face everyday with a different sunset behind it, and the people I see and meet with different objectives behind them; all these things are nothing if not connected.

My life has already taken me to those junctions where many different choices are presented , and making the right/wrong one has made me who I am. I hope to bring more of those choices and junctions onto here. For myself, for my family, my friends, for my wife, for my children, and for you.




So why THE END TIMES? Because that is what we are all headed too. You get in a car and drive, and as much as you would like to ignore your final destination, you can't. At the end of the day you have to stop, you have to embrace the end. It's a countdown already as I see it, and for me coming to terms with your end is the only way you can start seriously living.