Unboxing Hoxton Mini Press’s extra mini series

These three, cute little books came from a Kickstarter the folks at Hoxton ran a couple of months ago. The goal of the project is to support the

hundreds of projects by great photographers that don’t make it into book form because the subject is not considered serious enough, or the photographer doesn’t have the funds, or heaven forbid, the work is not considered arty enough.

We want to change that.

I’m down to change that too, in whatever way I, as a collector (I guess) of photobooks can, so I jumped in and received 3 Collector’s Editions a couple of weeks ago…

Continue reading “Unboxing Hoxton Mini Press’s extra mini series”

Fasting the Six Days of Shawwal

Abu Ayub narrated that

the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever fasts Ramadan, then follows it with six from Shawwal, then that is (equal in reward) to fasting everyday.”

Alhamdulillah, today marks 4 of 6… My neighbors mostly think I’m crazy, and Alhamdulillah it feels great to continue the fast, to continue seeking Allah’s pleasure, to continue remembering Him with the entire body, and not just with the tongue or the brain. Continue reading “Fasting the Six Days of Shawwal”

Unboxing Galaxy’s ‘Photographer’s Planner and Handbook’

Galaxy kickstartered this groovy little project planner back in November 2015 and it was successfully funded as of 1 December… Better late than never!

https://youtu.be/2W8ACzdLP3o

To their credit, they sent me a 10% off coupon for the 2017 version (this one has calendar pages through June 2017) and a 20% off coupon for anything in their store (which I can’t find at time of writing), and they did have a good-enough excuse (though they didn’t really need one: all we backers could do was complain), but it’s still 7 months late.

Continue reading “Unboxing Galaxy’s ‘Photographer’s Planner and Handbook’”

Ramadan wrap up: what can I do?

If it’s not Eid, it must be the last day of Ramadan (at time of writing, I don’t know yet, and won’t for awhile). And if it’s the last day of Ramadan, I need an action plan for the next 11 months, to try and make sure I don’t slip into the same hard hearted, selfish, snack food devouring person that I was when Ramadan began… Continue reading “Ramadan wrap up: what can I do?”

Ramadan wrap up: what can we do?

In the first 6 months of 2016, Chicago saw 312 homicides and 1,949 total shootings. In the same period, U.S. Police killed 536 people,  49 of them in Texas, and there were 163 mass shootings, some by ‘Muslim extremists’, most just random acts of violence by unstable people. A Muslim was shot and stabbed yesterday morning on his way to Fajr, right outside the mosque. The media calls it an attempted robbery. Muslims were beaten outside mosques in Queens, NY and Orlando, FL, one a possible hate crime, the other possibly a concerned citizen.

Happy Independence Day.

In Chicago, according to the article linked above, gang violence is the cause of most of the homicides, but then what causes people to join gangs? (Hint: it’s not just race.) And what drives people to commit mass shootings, to go and stab or shoot or assault people on their way to worship services?

Clearly, there are problems here. And where there are problems, there are solutions.

But what can we do? Continue reading “Ramadan wrap up: what can we do?”