As I mentioned before, if you don’t know her, you are missing out. She’s wonderful!

Br. Placid came to Comboni as part of the Christian brothers to help people regardless of who and where they are.  He gave his stay there his all.  He taught Math and Sciences and did a magnificent job deploying the material to whoever was in his classes.  After school, he joined us in playing basketball and volleyball and was very competitive doing that too.  I still remember the day we both got into it arguing about a call during a volleyball match; he sent me home right away which I am thankful for until this day.  I was being a knuckle-head and deserved it.

Br. Placid made me see Math in a different manner.  Math was not just a group of sequences and operations but rather a conduit to an infinite number of possibilities and thoughts.  He had us solving so many problems and exercises  of all kinds (Calculus, Trigonometry, Algebra,  Projectiles, etc.) and made them so interesting to the point where it was anomalous  if a problem or task wasn’t solved.

I am very fortunate to have had you as a teacher and  mentor growing up and a big believer that you have helped shape who I am today.  I am sure hundreds or more will attest the same thing.   Thank You Sir!

Growing up he was always the quiet, gentle one who never caused anyone any harm.  With a killer smile and perfect attitude, he always managed to automatically gain everyone’s admiration and respect.  He stepped up and filled shoes that even myself, his old brother, could not fill, without any complain or any kind of cry for help.

This week is your week Mr. Gasim and  your time to keep on shining.  You and my sister-in-law to be are going to have a wonderful life.  The both of you are so lucky for finding each other and we are all very fortunate to have both of you in our lives.

Dub Be Good to Me by Beats International

She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals

Don’t Forget My Number by Milli Vanilli (We all loved this one even after the scandal)

Ooops Up by Snap

I need you by BVSMP … Yo Hey … Check this out …  I remember when this was performed on stage by Walter and Charlie …… I think for Fathers’ Day

More will come … Again!

Below are a few :

Dial My Heart by The Boys

The Way You Love Me by Karyn White

Sensitivity by Ralph Tresvant

Close to You by Maxi Priest

More will come!

I stored everything in multidimensional arrays and when adding new sets or new rows with keys that already exist in the sequence hindered the correct reordering of them.  Example:

The grid is comprised of

$set1[$key1][1]= $array1;

$set2[$key2][1] = $array2;

with $key1 and $key2 being numerical.

Adding a new row of $set1[$key1] at the end of the grid, i.e.,

$set1[$Key1][2] needed to generate the following order:

$set1[$key1][1]= $array1;

$set2[$key2][1] = $array2;

$set1[$Key1][2] = $array1;

However, no matter what I did to populate the arrays sequentially, the order reverted to:

$set1[$key1][1]= $array1;

$set1[$Key1][2] = $array1;

$set2[$key2][1] = $array2;

The easiest fix I could find (I know several others are out there) to achieve the goal was change the keys from numerical to strings.  I did that by combining them and separating them by a glue character (-, @, _, etc.).  The result was:

$set1[$key1_1]= $array1;

$set2[$key2_1] = $array2;

$set1[$Key1_2] = $array1;

To process the data afterward, I split the keys into an array by taking into the account the glue character that I used.

I met her 9 years ago at SIU; thanks Ayum, I owe you big time. Due to reasons that are not important, we couldn’t be together. However, we remained friends and kept in touch after she left. We even visited each other!

This was in Pensacola, FL where she moved after she graduated. I think that was when I realized that she is going to be my wife one day, even though we were just friends. I got to meet her parents and really enjoyed my time with them.
	She came and visited me in Carbondale. That was the first time I cooked for her. I think I might have ignited something in her or struck a chord when she tasted the food that I made.

Afterwards, we kept in touch but we got disconnected for a while. She moved to Chicago to go to Graduate School and we lost contact. I called her Mom and she gave me her contact information. Thank you Mrs. Lawrence (I owe you big time too).

I attended her graduation from Graduate School and that was when we started to be an item.
	We both looked beyond the obstacles and decided to give it a try.

We took it to the next level.
	And we eventually landed here.

A lot has been left out since the journey took almost a decade so far. For me, what is important is that it is just the beginning of a very long journey with the love of my life, my peace of mind and my trophy of trophies. She is all the aforementioned; a million other words put together will not do justice to what she means to me.

I love you Mrs. Gasim

I wrote the following poem a long time ago (2000) to my late father.  It’s not here for awes or complements; It’s my gift to him on this day.

It’s been over nine years since you were gone

A fact that is always on my mind I can not condone

I don’t know if this will get to you but I have to let it out anyway

I have been holding it inside hoping it would go astray

However, my efforts to forget went in vain

Nothing compares to the way I feel but agony and pain

Whenever I remember the way you smiled I break down in tears

Your laugh was always the thing that wiped out my fears

I still remember the day you left like yesterday

I always wish I knew, maybe I could stand in your way

I know it was beyond our powers to change our fate

Nothing good on this earth stays or lingers as was said

I get so happy whenever I have you in my dreams

I wake up weeping though realizing it is not what it seems

I just hope that I would grow up to be half the man you were

touch souls the same way you did and be always fair

I miss you father and will always have you on my mind

The day you left I lost my best friend, a person very hard to find

I just wish that one day we will meet again my dear

I just have to work hard to get to where you are or near

I hope this letter finds you in good health.  My name is Haitham Gasim and I am a very proud resident of this great country that you are the head of.  I felt like writing to you to let you know how appreciative I am of everything you have done so far.  Furthermore, I wanted to show my optimism of my future and humanity’s future in general.  I am not sure if it will get to you in person, but I am a big supporter of giving credit when it’s due.

I think your biggest strength is not the fact that you are articulate, cool or accommodating of different views, but rather your care and respect for “THE PEOPLE”. You always talk about the plight, the needs and the rights of the people, regardless of who they are and what they stand for.  An example of that is your quest to provide for everyone affordable healthcare, better environmental conditions, etc.

Your recent speeches are historical and will be reckoned with for decades to come.  Personally, my own family solidifies the points you were trying to make in Cairo.  People can live together in peace regardless of their backgrounds as long as they respect that fact that those particular backgrounds might exhibit  fundamental differences.  Concentrating on what is common and emphasizing what is mutually exclusive might actually result in diminishing the effects of the aforementioned differences.

I know a lot of people have had high hopes ever since you got elected and have expected you to fix everything that they think is broken right away. I also know that those hopes keep shrinking as long as nothing or little is being done.  I think what needs to happen is for them to ask themselves what realistic steps or events need to happen before an issue is fixed or changed.

By nature, humans are very skeptical and unwilling to change anything that might be of inconvenience to them or might disrupt the natural flow of things.  Conforming to a certain ideology and basing one’s opinion and decisions on it, while disregarding practicality and sense, will mostly lead them to hit some kind of a wall or no where.  One should always consider trying different shoes or vessels before they get on a path.  One should always think about what is good for not only them, but everyone and everything that surrounds them.

To conclude, I want to request that you keep up your remarkable guidance and vigilant pursuit of a better life for everyone. I want to assure you that I understand the power of the forces that you are up against and that my support for your causes will never fade away.  May all the seeds you have planted and the initiatives you have established come to fruition. May you and your family be safe and sound.

Yours faithfully,

Haitham Gasim

I keep scratching my head trying to remember the number of letters I had received back in the day, when there was no email and no internet, that started with “FW: ” .  Letters that had pictures of kittens attached, religious scripture or even just requests to put the letter back in the envelope and forward it to everyone that I have addresses for (if I don’t do so, I will have bad luck for x number or years). The answer is always zero!

What happened to “Dear Haitham, how are you?  I hope this email finds in you good health.” or “What’s going on man? I was thinking about you and thought I would say hello.”?  Don’t get me wrong, I get a lot of those and they always make my day, but I also receive a lot of what I am talking about and I don’t read them.  I just delete them before opening them sometimes.

I AM always looking forward to hearing from you and hearing your news.  I want to know how your job is going and what the kids are up to nowadays.  I want to be here for you when you are down , wanting an honest opinion about what you are going through, or when you want to share your joy with me.

I AM NOT interested in Microsoft paying me a $100,000, why the end of time is here, or the funniest little johnny jokes.  When I have time during my day, I can get all of that with a few keyboard strokes and a mouse click.

If I had done that in the past to you, please forgive me.  I promise it won’t happen again.

Yours truly,

Haitham