Thank you Aaliyyah, I needed something like this. He's funny too!

Hello Londoners I've moved to London a couple of months ago, but I haven't had the time to do anything yet. I still can't get my head around how crowded the place is, but it's really growing on me. I'll have free weekends in the new year and other than the typical touristy things like checking out museums/galleries I don't now what to do. I'm mostly interested in 'sunday market' style places, I've been to one called Spitalfields market in East London which was cool, they sell a lot of old/vintage stuff which is exactly what I'm after. So far I broke up a fight between a rasta and a white guy on a bus, heard the best phone conversations on the buses again, and discovered that the hottest girls are to be found in the underground. Oh, and I've had KFC for the first time ever. It didn't taste any better than the £1 red-bone chicken.

Remember that you will possibly work in a particular career for more than 30 years so don't let your parents pressure you too much. If you are serious about the spending time with kids, then the only 2 jobs I can think of is becoming a teacher or a pediatrician. If you are into the technical side of computers, then I second the Computer Sciences advice. I've been told that software development pays a lot of money, and although difficult at first, it can be fun. My colleague's brother works as a software developer, he creates Apple and Android apps amongst other things. You can earn up to £50k before reaching 30. And depending on the type of company you work for, you could be sent to work abroad for short term contracts. Finally and the most important point, consider your future family life and where you'd want to raise your kids. You might decide one day to go back home or live in a different Islamic country, so you'd need to have a qualification that can get you a job over there. Leave your writing as a hobby, there's nothing wrong with that, and find something in physics or medicine that you find interesting. I wish I had studied harder back in school and 6th Form, but instead I just drew all the time, and now that I want to return to the Middle East for good, my area of work doesn't exists over there yet. Just pray for guidance, Allah knows best!

Alhamdulillah alive and safe. Today was the worst day in our area so far, live bullets and tear gas were fired just 2 mins from our place. I went outside to see what was going on but I couldn't see clearly, the group of protesters were surrounded by plain clothes police officers and a few uniformed riot police. I didn't stay outside long enough since there was a warning that snipers would be called up, and to be honest you can't even trust the seemingly innocent bystanders anyway. An hour later I could see from our balcony a few army soldiers and plain clothes officers patrolling the streets with machine guns, and sure enough one of them was carrying a black sniper rifle. I can't confirm if any one died, I haven't even left the house since! All of this happened after the Friday prayer and last for about 3 hours. Last wednesday the internet and phone lines were cut off for half the day, it turns out they had a list of people who went out to protest, and plucked them out of their homes one by one. Apparently some secret agents take part in these protests and pretend to video record the action when really all they're doing is capturing the protesters' faces and later finding their names and addresses. A couple of days prior to that I was on my way to the city centre and our mini bus was stopped for a routine check by this man carrying a russian machine gun, he looked inside and only asked me for I.D after asking if I was Iraqi. Alhamdulillah on the particular day I was carrying my passport since I was going to Dahabshiil. I told him I was Somali and gave him my passport, he returned it without another word. I can't even imagine the crap I would've gone through to prove who I am if I didn't have it. So far the protests are breaking on Fridays only, I think we'll only leave if it becomes a daily thing. Wallahul Musta'an. Salams

I actually bought (by that i mean downloaded) a book for this 2 years ago, but I still haven't read half of it. Shame really, it has excellent reviews on amazon. This is in my blood.

People are still coming and going, it's not as bad as what the other countries are going through, and inshaallah it won't reach that state. Still, I wouldn't recommend you book that ticket just yet..

There is a clear picture of what I want to look like, but something in your statement made me think for a while, and I realized that I used to focus on the end result too much that I didn't notice the small changes, even when others did. I'll give strength training another chance and see how it goes for at least a year, this time I'll have to try harder to eat cleaner. Bring it!

I want to learn how to speak Arabic fluently again. That, and hooyo lives here.

Hey Adam (stop changing nicknames dude), I can't listen to music when I'm doing any work or training, makes it hard for me to concentrate. For me music is only for long walks or bus rides. As for the squat, 'stronglifts' is based on that exercise, 3 times a week to be precise, for 5 sets of 5 reps. You start with the empty olympic bar which is 20kg, and you progress by adding 2.5kg every workout. I eventually reached 97.5 kg on the squat and 120kg on the deadlift (only 1x5), but other than my thighs getting massive, I didn't notice that much difference in the rest of my body. I've stopped doing the squat now and trying to come up with a routine based on the deadlifts (it's my fav exercise), but specifically for muscle hypertrophy. I don't care much for the strength gains to be honest. How do you train? What's your routine like?

In Damascus again, this time for 8 months! I think i've captured the first ever protest on camera while shopping in Hamidiya, I was simply in the right place at the right time, or maybe wrong place, since all of them got arrested including some innocent people. It has been pointed out a few times how $tupid it was of me to follow them with a camera..! The way things are going these days though, I think im gonna stay the hell away from the crowds, don't really fancy getting shot any time soon. Pictures soon!

I haven't trained seriously for almost a year now, once stronglifts 5x5 got too difficult, I tried making my own program but still without the desired results. I only got stronger but my body remained almost the same. Getting the diet right is actually harder than the training itself.. any tips?

Great thread Chimera, I wanted to start a similar one for ages. 5, I can't believe you know Syd Mead! The man is a legend and has inspired most of my art heroes today. Daniel Simon (published an amazing book called Cosmic Motors, and designed the Tron mobile) Ryan Church (Star Wars concept artist amongst other things), Neville Page (one of the creature designers for Avatar) and Craig Mullins. James Paick is a fantastic environment artist, Sparth and Daniel Dociu are a couple of the leading video game concept artists. Chimera if you like fantasy art you shold check this website, fantasygallery.net

Wow, the last few years have been rough for me Life in the 20s isn't exactly how I imagined it as a teenager.

I have seen straight men acting camp (floppy wrist and all), including one that actually blushes when I jokingly tell him he looks dapper. So, easy with the name calling. I saw his videos before and I think he's alright, no more no less. Did he win?

Ciid Mubaarak

These are flying off the shelves, girls.

This amazing painting is called “Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante" by a trio of Taiwanese artists. There are 103 famous faces altogether but I've only managed to name 31 of them but there are a few more that I recognize by face.. So how well informed are you?

I'm looking forward to how they kill him off in the coming season, and I hope they bring back the stig's african cousin from the Botswana episode. Some say that he is the founding member of Anonymous.

I'll PM you soon inshaa' Allah.

Rudy that PC is a beast, it's very similar to what I want. Thank you for the offer, but I would like to build my own PC from parts that I pick, it's something I've wanted to learn to do for a while. I've watched a few videos on Youtube on how to build a PC from scratch, and it doesn't seem that difficult. Anyways, there's no need for this thread anymore.

When it comes to PCs, I'm like a car driver who doesn't even know where the oil goes. And within a month I'd really like to build a powerful PC that's capable of running high end 3D softwares and visual effects packages. I want a set up that can play for example Photoshop + Maya/3ds Max + any music player + firefox. All at the same time without whining. I was thinking something like this: Quad core 2.6+ GHz Minimum 8GB Ram 1024mb video card This is where the experts come in, I don't know the type of motherboard to buy that's campatibile with a particular graphics card or RAM sticks etcetc..

*Bump* Useful (relevant) replies only please. Blogspot is blocked as well.

Nerds unite! I need help accessing facebook but it's blocked. I've tried a few suspicious proxy sites but when I enter my log in details and click sign in, the next page is white and the bottom left of the browser shows 'done' as it's loading status. The bhastards have my log in details probably. So now I wanna log in properly and change my password as well. Tislamu

*spoilers* I'm gonna miss it too Seeker. I thought the whole sheeko was about about Jacob, and his brother trying to leave the island. But I don't think it is, it's about the mysterious powers of the Island and the way it brought each broken character there and gave them a second chance. I don't think the man in black could've destroyed anything if he had left, it was their fake mom who brainwashed them into thinking they couldn't leave, and only jacob believed that which is why he didn't let his brother leave. The flash sideways part of the series was the moment before entering heaven, it had no time, it was like the waiting place for all of the characters to 'remember' and meet up before learning to let go and enter heaven. Remember Jack's conversation with his dad in the church? He confirmend that everything that had happened was real. Also when hugo said to Ben "you've been a great number 2", it implied that they protected the island for a long time, and before Jack closed his eyes, he saw his friends escaping from the island in the airplane above, they could've led a long life before dying. Do you think it was just a coincidence that all the main characters on the island lived in the same city with something connecting them all.. I felt sorry for Ben when Jack passed over the leadership to Hugo, because he's been wwaiting for that role for a long time. And when he accepted Hugo's offer my eyes almost welled up with tears. Who knows, Jacob and his brother could've had their own flash sideways life, same for the ancient egyptians who seem to have inhabited the island, and the new group of survivors the lived there under Hugo and Ben's watch. Beautiful. It doesn't matter what the island is and who made it this way and why it had these mysteries, because that's not what LOST was about.

Why do you think so? What would've been your ideal ending?