Did you enjoy a happy Eid?

[stormbind]

I'm not going deep into religious meaning. Did you participate in Ramadan?

I fasted and it was fun! No, seriously, it does increase ones appreciation for the value of necessities. The food tastes nicer, mainly because more time is spent preparing it. I have also prayed five times a day with ablution. The prayer feels more spiritual this way, perhaps because ones extremities are well aired and not sticking to materials.

Not every day went well for me. Among my mistakes were taking paracetamol and cough medicines after getting up at 9am and I apologise to those who were dissapointed by this

Large proportions of our neighbours take Ramadan very seriously, and I think its a good idea to try out other ways of life to understand what it really means to them. It also means the fireworks won't make you feel left out

Would you consider participating? It's worth noting that Jesus Christ (pbuh) fasted in the desert and early Christians followed this example!

Sadly, I cannot do Arabic so here's some Malay instead: Maaf zahir dan batin

 

[Godwynn]

I'm not going deep into religious meaning. Did you participate in Ramadan?

No, I prefer to stuff my face with Little Caesar's and microwaveable breakfast sandwiches.

 

[stormbind]

No, I prefer to stuff my face with Little Caesar's and microwaveable breakfast sandwiches.

So? Can't you can do that at roughly 4am?

 

[LightFang]

I did not!

 

[Godwynn]

So? Can't you can do that at roughly 4am?

No, I am asleep at 4 in the morning.

 

[stormbind]

No, I am asleep at 4 in the morning.

I wish to confess that getting up early was the hardest part. I may have succeeded in this task only once, though to be fair, I was too sleepy to remember what I did



Eating until 2am or 3am is easier.

 

[Godwynn]

I wish to confess that getting up early was the hardest part. I may have succeeded once. Eating until 2am or 3am is easier

The problem with an alarm clock at 4 in the morning is that humans are not polyphasic sleepers.

 

[stormbind]

The problem with an alarm clock at 4 in the morning is that humans are not polyphasic sleepers.

Erm, I don't think that is necessary? In many countries, humans sleep more than once each day, particularly in hot countries where the night and midday are equally ill-suited to labour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep is not required, but also possible if you want to try

 

[Trafalgar]

No. But I did celebrate Englands win over France.

 

[stormbind]

lol, yeah.

I don't drink so the traditional English celebration is made awkward, but, that was a happy end to the day!

 

[LightFang]

It sounds terribly hard to adjust to.

The process of adapting to a polyphasic schedule can involve a mentally and physically very difficult one- to two-week transition period, especially for the variant known as Uberman sleep

 

[stormbind]

It sounds terribly hard to adjust to.

Honestly, I did not find a polyphasic schedule necessary. Getting up at 4am is swiftly followed by falling asleep anyway

 

[ohcrapitsnico]

Yes I did well because I am muslim. I celebrated Eid ul-Fitr with some friends from my local mosque. Not eating isn't very hard for me I just get very hungry at lunch time other than that the hunger pains are there but not bothersome. As for waking up early, well I have kind of gotten used to it. I take naps in the afternoon and try to go to bed early so its not horrible in the morning.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

out of interest, how does it affect your academic performance? I guess you'd have alter your study pattern to the middle of the night after you have some food in your system, right?

About participating, Christians already have something similar. It's called Lent, but it's voluntary and not required.

 

[stormbind]

Yes I did well because I am muslim. I celebrated Eid ul-Fitr with some friends from my local mosque. Not eating isn't very hard for me I just get very hungry at lunch time other than that the hunger pains are there but not bothersome. As for waking up early, well I have kind of gotten used to it. I take naps in the afternoon and try to go to bed early so its not horrible in the morning.

Oh, I played tennis and that probably didn't help! I was trying to not let Ramadan change my behaviour

 

[Japanrocks12]

no I didn't

 

[stormbind]

out of interest, how does it affect your academic performance? I guess you'd have alter your study pattern to the middle of the night after you have some food in your system, right?

This was probably for the other guy, but its a very good question. The best and most enjoyable days of fasting were before term started!

Study obligations meant I had less time for prayer and meals. During term, I failed to get up around 4am every day! A smaller supper and no morning meal made fasting much harder than ussual..

Several lectures were disrupted because my stomach wouldn't allow for concentration. I conclude that the early morning meal is incredibly important when fasting & studying! At Goldsmiths, London University, we are currently experience overcrowding due to the refurbishing of our biggest labs and this means I am required to stay into night.

Certainly, if I had been living with a strict Muslim family, I wouldn't have been able to complete all my workshops because they would be offended by someone missing prayer. On the other hand, I wouldn't have missed the morning meal

Another of my mistakes was breaking fast late and it was suggested that I carry figs as a snack for when I wasn't able to break fast properly.

About participating, Christians already have something similar. It's called Lent, but it's voluntary and not required.

Indeed. Very few Christians fast in the traditional manner. I found its much easier, and imagine this extends to anyone, to fast at Ramadan than at Lent. The Muslims I met will not frown on outsiders and local shops inadvertently assisted me because they stopped displaying certain things at lunch time

 

[Shadylookin]

I'm not going deep into religious meaning. Did you participate in Ramadan?

No. there's no reason for a non-muslim to bother with it. To arbitrarily starve yourself all day and decrease your performance seems counter-productive and dumb unless you think you're going to get some sort of divine reward.

 

[Photi]

Yes I did well because I am muslim. I celebrated Eid ul-Fitr with some friends from my local mosque. Not eating isn't very hard for me I just get very hungry at lunch time other than that the hunger pains are there but not bothersome. As for waking up early, well I have kind of gotten used to it. I take naps in the afternoon and try to go to bed early so its not horrible in the morning.

eid mubarak! just got back from eid prayers myself. the worst for me about fasting is not being able to smoke. it makes me grumpy. on the upside, i work at night right now, so i was able to sleep through most of the fast during the ramadan days. i am a convert (10 years) and when i converted ramadan was in the shortest part of the year, dec-jan. this will get interesting as ramadan moves into the summer. maybe thats when i should move to new zealand or argentina.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I always did want to try the muslim fast. But i REALLY can't get up at that hour. All the religions in the world won't get me to - i'd just wake up and say "I can't do it God - just kill me or let me sleep."
Black fasts are also intresting. I may have acidentaly done that for a day on several ocasions.
But maybe i should put some fat on my bones first.