Wednesday, May 24, 2006  

High Seven

Its been a very eventful week ending with a lighter wallet and an unbearable stomach ache!! Guess I'll have to stop eating out like crazy, wait and sort other stuff out.. The affects of losing 5 years of contact numbers still hurts *curses thief* ... Plus lately things haven't turned out as they ought to, but I guess its better to keep your chin up instead of jumping into a depression-pit. *shrugs* .. And on the brighter side, it isn't that bad either..

Everyday: waking up around 9. Check email, read bookmarks. Boring afternoons watching TV or spending time at home or grandmom's place (in the next block). Sleeping around midnight, max by 2 a.m. Something would pop near the evening and I'd be going with a few people to some place (new and old). Sometimes spend extra bucks on dessert or cold coffee.. Now. I hate going to some place new or try a new dish.. Its the fear of ordering something crappy and then repenting the fact that you just wasted two hundred something rupees that makes you want to just order just the thing you know tastes really really good.. But how'd you know if the BBQ Sandwich is as good as the Mexican Steak Cheese Sandwich... :/ ... Stupid decisions... There should be something like a "trial version"... Order a free trial BBQ Sandwich, taste it and develop an opinion about that dish before you actually order the real thing! :D ... *dreams of opening such a restaurant* ... Oh and its going to be better than zouk shmouk. Really classy decor :D ... The name should be really cool!!. Something really catchy... The word would have the z and x letters if possible to make it sounds 'cool'... Like people put a z at the end of lol to make it sound cool... lolz!!! *shakes head* ... khair... :|

Me and I-T roaming around defence discovered a place I-T's sister once heard about. A small cafe with a couple of tables, chairs, sofas and shelves of books. You go there, fetch a book, sit under the fan :D and read. And in case ur stomach bothers you, signal the waiter and get a little 'something' and continue... Its new in Lahore. Excellent!!.. Uptown Cafe its called, in the Defence N block market... I-T's been a frequent visitor reading the Google Book.. I read reviews about it and for all techgeeks its a must read. hehe :D

Azi was in Lahore after he gave his Microsoft interview in dubai.. The evil motusilla sucked up lahore's electricity around the evening and summoned the storm-demon to reck havoc. Returning from the techlogix interview we got thru the blinding wind and rain dodged falling signboards and lampposts, and saw a huge old tree fall block the road - shit that was scary... Oh and I tried visiting Aitchison. Guess what? "Order nai hai".. bleh~ ... And the tree fell on sunder daas road!! :D

Aitchison. Its the same (from the outside) except for a new building: the examination centre or whatever they actually call it.. I hope its not called Shamim Block.. lol... heh, and if anyone of us wants to teach there, I heard they'd prefer an Old-boy as long as he is competent in the subject and "can control the class" .. hahahaha .. Oh and since most of us are returning, why dont we go and meet Kashmiri, Naila Burney, Amir Hussain, (Raja?) and the rest.. heh :P

Anywayyyyy, Azi, I-T and I roamed around defence, and experimented with Azi's new awesome Canon camera! Since there was no electricity, we decided to order pizza and enjoy the weather and eat on the balcony!! rad!! There we toyed a bit more with motus's canon. Azi planned to stay just the night, but we convinced him to stay another day... And another day after that.. hee hee... Then he really had to jet.. That following day came Raptor and the eating spree began! I-T took some cool clips from his video camera.. Lets wait for the remaining 20 minutes of the tape to finish and see what it is after the capturing and editing. Its going to be really cool :D ...

For the first time in my life I (tried?) kept a neat mild beard for just 2 weeks. Just for the heck of it. Just to see what I look like.. lol... And that's my last time, ever!! Whenever you're eating something (like cake), you get this feeling that some of the icing might be on your beard, but its not :S ... It felt good that most relatives welcomed the neat beard, who used to make a huge fuss during the days when I kept different hairstyles (especially the long hair...) Plus moustaches feel weird.. When in the sun, sweat on ur moustache gets really irritating.... bleh~ The surprising thing was when my youngest (4 year old) cousin really got along with me. But after the shave, he was the same scaredy ass cousin!!! :\

Nash lives just 5 houses away from mine. He's a really busy person, on the edge and working in 3 companies at the same time.. heh, so whenever we're free at the same time we'd chill, talk techie stuff, talk giki/netronix(...plus about the time kami turned into darth vader!! hee hee), eat, walk & get eats :P He's the same ol person that was in 45/5 but now he has a new friend/enemy named 'Bob' ... And Bob's evil. His influence over Nash is scary. One day there'll be more a Bob and no Nash.. kekeke

Oh and i tried artpad like basim and I-T recommended, and its really cool! On the page: u draw on a canvas with brushes of different sizes and colors, add text shmext, and smither paint, frame it and hang it in the gallery for others to marvel at.. :D ... I made the one above (centre) in just 5 minutes... Pretty cool!! Give it a try, see what stuff people have been able to make and be creative!! Something similar to artpad is zewall. Its relatively older, but its got really cool paintings and 'graffiti' ... Some of my MSN Display Pictures come from zewall.. tee hee... :#

I found an awesome site for those with ipods. 50 fun things to do!! Do read the Note near the end of the page.. hehe :P ... The thing I love about the ipod is its simplicity. Podcasts are really good especially for those who're always on the go and don't want to miss out on something interesting like music news, tech news, interviews etc. Its like downloading an episode of a radio show and listening to it afterwards.. You put ur ipod on its cradle at night, let it recharge and sync, then take it along with you and listen while you drive/work. I've subscribed to lots of podcasts. BBC and other news agencies have a podcast or two of their own too..

Once nash and rappy checked out my dad's really old Gramophone record player. Its a turntable with an arm that has a very sensitive pin (now rare to get).. That's hooked up to 2 huge speakers through an amplifier.. Place a record on the turntable and switch the turntable on... Use a fine brush to remove tiny dust particles.. gently move the arm over the record and when its above the starting track, use a small lever to let the arm descend and set the pin into the record tracks... Voila!!! \o/

You can hear the music playing at a very minute volume, if you switch the amplifier off and let the pin ride on the record... Dad bought it when he was in England before I was born. Now there are like over 150 records from the 1970s to the 1990s (Elvis, BeeGees, BoneyM, MJ, Eric Clapton, McCartney, Men at Work.. etc.) Maybe now you'll know why i never got into any other sort of music except angrezi gaanay.. hehe.... Nash was amazed to see how the thing was able to survive and took a couple of pictures plus a video of me gently taking the record off the turntable and putting it into its album sleeve... Playing records on it after so many years made me realize how times have changed... People used to buy these huge records that came in artistic album covers and detailed sleeves filled with album art and lyrics.. People used to take some time out and enjoy listening to the music, stare at the detailed work of art on the cover, and read stuff on the sleeve.. Now, its different dont you think?

eeeek!!! o_O ... There's so much left, and so much I've forgotten :ok, this draft has been growing for a while, I'll let this publish and plant another one... :P

Wednesday, May 17, 2006  

The Pre-Convocation Graduate

Hey everyone!
I've been trying to post something new since last november but because I've been really busy with my last semester, final year project and bla bla that they end up in the drafts section. Anyway, my last semester in the jungle* is over. Its time to pack up, get my clearance done (which is one big headache), empty my room, attend the convocation ceremony, collect my degree and farewell. Another era of my life has come to an end. Now its me doing a job someplace somewhere era.

There's so much to tell about the past 5 months! My incomplete Naran Trip story, the never-ending-earthquake season, ipod and podcasts :D, projects, job hunting, interviews, open house, how a salesperson feels like, water fights, packet wars, CS, high speed carrera 911 races, screaming competitons, WoW on a cracked server, running up the hill (also known as togik), the FBI weekend, back to hanging upside down from the tree, recovering my most valuable hard drive, the hike up to the giki fence, pranks with the NCA folks, the Batch T-shirt, the RAR (Run after Rao), Injuring my fibula tibia (heel bone) that got better after 3 painful weeks, running into the must-run-away situation, return of the first must-run-away situation (this is only for hissam) :P ... and what else...

Prison Break is the most awesome-est TV series ever... heh, well who am i?? Southpark is the only other TV series I watch.. so.. umm.. but still.. Prison Break is really kick ass!! except for the last episode. Episode 22: Flight... that episode was the most disgusting season finale i've ever seen... Do not watch it... bleh~
oh! and Kami got married last month.. yippie!!