Shamsa Abid > Recent Status Updates

I cant read any more beyond this. I feel this was written with the intention of making a movie based on it. So I did not enjoy reading it because of the writing style but I would watch the movie if there is one in the future.

"a show without an audience is nothing, after all. In the response of the audience, that is where the power of performance lives. "

Celia's reaction to her father slitting her fingers is minimal and unbelievable. Having recently slit my finger while chopping vegetables, I can recall myself walking and moaning because of the intense and stinging pain. The lack of realism to fantasy makes this fantasy weak. Also, the sudden closeness of Marco with the girl is ridiculous!

Getting Harry Potter feels from the levitating clock and the vanishing ring. Seems to be a book targeted for people who like magic. I'm going to keep reading for now and see what's up ahead.

"The right way to talk to strangers is with humility and caution."
We, as humans default to truth i.e. we assume that a person is speaking the truth. This can have negative consequences,
In the TV show Friends, the actors put on a wide range of facial expressions which suit the situation and we can figure out what's happening even if the volume is switched off. In reality, that's not how humans react to situations.

Malcolm talks about two puzzles. Puzzle 1 is about why we cannot determine whether a person is lying to us. Even a CIA official gets fooled. Puzzle 2 is about why meeting a person can actually worsen the chances of a correct judgement than not meeting someone. A person who met Hitler was unable to determine his true intentions. Can we really judge people based in their word completions? End of Part1.

Malcolm talks about two puzzles. Puzzle 1 is about why we cannot determine whether a person is lying to us. Even a CIA official gets fooled. Puzzle 2 is about why meeting a person can actually worsen the chances of a correct judgement than not meeting someone. A person who met Hitler was unable to determine his true intentions. Can we really judge people based in their word completions? End of Part1.

Off to a good start. Our culture, values and people around us have a profound effect on who we are.

The first story was wonderful with lush and profound sentences. It had a very satisfying end with a blend of realism, emotion and painful irony of the characters involved. Immersive story telling gives an in-the-shoes experience.

The first story was wonderful with lush and profound sentences. It had a very satisfying end with a blend of realism, emotion and painful irony of the characters involved. Immersive story telling gives an in-the-shoes experience.

So far, every story in this book has moved me and made me look at my own life and shortcomings. There is a lot to learn from these true stories. I noticed a common pattern of the lack of spirituality among westerners and how coming to a Muslim country changed their perspective and lives entirely. They were deeply affected by the simplicity and purity and values and customs of those regions.

The Giver is telling Jonas about his job and he says... Here in this room, all alone, i reexperienced them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future.

The first two stories have an element of surprise when the author suddenly flips the personality of characters by exposing their reality. What appears to the outside world is not the reality of the characters. The places and their ambiance are described to perfection and the characters are raw and real which together makes for an interesting read. However, the stories have a melancholic after-taste.

It was interesting. It has inspired me to start practicing dream incubation and interviewing.

Watch for three signs in the dying man. If his forehead sweats, his eyes shed tears and his lips become dry, then the mercy of God has alighted upon him. But if he should choke like a man being strangled, and if his color should turn to red, and if he should foam at the mouth, then this is from the chastisement of God which has befallen him.

When God is satisfied with His bondsman He says, "O Angel of Death! Make your way to S--and-so, and bring Me his spirit that I may grant him rest. His works I find sufficient: I tested him and found him to be as I desired."

never will you see a finer purpose or a thing more rapidly realized than a new act of virtue for an old transgression.

Before he died, Abu Musa Al-Ashari was intensely occupied with devotional practices... 'Horses which have been let loose give all they have when they draw near to their destination. That which is left of my lifespan is shorter even than that.'

and everything which spoils for man his pleasures is one of the means of deliverance.

'I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, 'so I can't take more.'
'You mean you can't take less,' said the Hatter: 'it's very easy to take more than nothing.'
Lewis Carroll was a teacher of logic and mathematics and these lines support the fact.

In my youth, said his father, I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life. :P

It cost me the greatest inner soul struggles, and only after months of battle between my reason and my sentiments did my reason begin to emerge victorious. Two years later, my sentiment had followed my reason, and from then on became its most loyal guardian and sentinel.

Like the woman whose psychic state is determined less by grounds of abstract reason than by an indefinable emotional longing for a force which will complement her nature, and who, consequently, would rather bow to a strong man than dominate a weakling, likewise the masses love a commander more than a petitioner and feel inwardly more satisfied by a doctrine, ... than by the granting of liberalistic freedom ...

And I can fight only for something that I love, love only what I respect, and respect only what I at least know.

To 'learn' history means to seek and find the forces which are the causes leading to those effects which we subsequently perceive as historical events.

something changed. those who analyse battles know about this moment, when, for some apparently inexplicable reason, one side senses victory or the other defeat. perhaps it was leadership.

when armies prepare for action, minds are made up: it becomes harder to make peace than war.

the Sun Tzu aphorism: avoid battle unless victory is assured. How could victory be assured? Bu focusing not on battles, but on the bases in which they were prepared - the castles.