One Year Old!

Hey friends,

So it is one year for me now. As I am typing this, I have about 3 more hours to go before I officially turn one year old. I thought I'd go down memory lane and come up with the ten most loved/ meaningful/ most provoked articles I have written.

Top Ten Articles:

10. The One With The First Musing
--- This was my first post ever on Life of Mansur. I had a certain theme to my blog, which I called Musing Mansur, because I thought it would be cute to have a rhyming name. I had also titled my posts with "The One With the..." after the Friends series, but scrapped this idea later.

09. The One With the Prayer for Pakistan
--- As I am a Pakistani, I hate to see my country in shambles, yet I still profess hope for it. This post was my desire to help other Pakistanis abroad to pray for the nation.

08. The One With the Stampede
--- I remember when Ikea opened up its new branch in Jeddah, and there was chaos, anarchy and several deaths all because people wanted the free SR500 vouchers which only the first 10 people could get. I went early in the morning as well, not expecting to see 1000s of people there already.
07. The One With the Saudi Elections
--- A milestone in Saudi politics, although the big news was that women were not allowed to vote. I questioned the logic of allowing male prisoners in jails to vote, while women were barred. I don't understand that yet even today.

06. The One With the Reunion
--- Aaah! Such a sweet moment for me. I finally met up with my friend after 11 years and spend 4 hours in Chilis reminiscing about our school days. My friend was married and so I got to meet with her husband as well.

05. Pakistani Identity Crisis
--- Again, being a Pakistani living abroad, sometimes it is difficult to identify who I am. I attempted to ask myself this question and come up with an answer. I think I was able to define what makes a person a Pakistani: it's your inner convictions and attitudes more than your outer appearance that defines who you are.

04. Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
--- One question all of us have asked, or will ask, at one point of our lives: why do bad things happen to good people? I attempted to answer this question, and I know several people benefitted from this post.

03. Islam and Music
--- A very divisive and debatable issue: does Islam permit music? Many people brought in their viewpoints, and for a while it seemed like all of them were valid. Personally speaking it all boils down to your personal attitudes, and how easily you succumb to music. I listen to music, but I don't let it control me.

02. A Shattered Life
--- The most personal thing I have written in my blog. I was honored to write this for Rafee, and Rafee has assured me that it was a very meaningful thing because he was able to achieve closure of sorts having shared his story with you all.

01. Burj Al Arab
--- The most popular article by far. People commented on it, and several other bloggers provided links back to my blog, and got many people talking about it. Is the cross really there? Is it a conspiracy theory? Are we wasting time over this? There are still mixed feelings, and in my personal opinion, I believe that at the back of the architect's mind, he had an underlying design all along.

So there you go! One whole year. I have so many other posts that I wish I could include here, and by no means was choosing the top ten here was an easy task. Saudi Personalities; movie reviews; writing about Jawaher and Q8I; my hearing loss; and many others have been meaningful to me.

I have gone through probably all the templates that were available to me, and yet I am still looking for that perfect template! I have added extras on the side bars, and they have been changing from time to time.

Here are some cool facts:
(keep in mind, I started this site tracker in May, so these figures apply from the month of May 2005 onwards)

1. Summary of how many people have been visiting my blog. On average, 57 unique people visit daily.
2. The different countries from where my blog has been accessed. US, Saudi Arabia, UAE and UK top the list.

I know I have had my shares of moments where I want to close my blog down, and I apologize for the inconvenience that has caused to some people who ask me to not close it down. By the way, thanks to all those who voted on my poll...so nice to know more than half of you think there is absolutely nothing wrong with Life of Mansur. I thin credit also needs to be given to my readers for making Life of Mansur a success....so give yourselves a round of applause and a pat on the back!

One thing this blog has been doing to me is changing me as a person. As I interact with people from all different backgrounds and cultures, I learn new things almost on a daily basis. One major change in me has been of ridding myself of stereotypes and prejudices. :-)

All righty....happy birthday to Life of Mansur, and boy, am I ready for the next one year!

Mansur