In an attempt to escape from the daily routine that kills me, the kind of watching Tv after I come from work at 6:30, videogame a bit, watch Tv again..till I start falling asleep. I decided to go to Jarir Bookstores and see if there is any progress on the status of the two books I've ordered "The Secret" and "A brief history of nearly everything"..As I have expected, no luck..They'll arrive by end of April..Good luck for me. I am better off ordering from Amazon. But from the corner of my eye, I glimpsed "Guinness World Book of Records" and I was curious to find out what "Unusual" new records are out there and here are some of the interesting things I like to share: Vodka & Spirits ----Russia (so if you ever talk to a Russian, most probably he is drunk or...drunk) Bread is ----Turkey Cigarettes----China Cars is -----Luxemburgo (576 cars per 1000 persons) Chocolate ----Swiss (I guess that doesn't surprise any of us ;) ) The most political instability period was between 1949 and 1951 was 17 governments in 33 months in ..(Believe it or not) SYRIA... The country that has most debt per capita of 12 billion is...QATAR (So for those who believe Qatar is booming and living there is luxurious..well, think again) The shortest war was between Britain and Tanzania where it only lasted for 45 minutes (from 9:00 a.m to 9:45 a.m.)..all it needed is 3 airships to seal the battle And last but not least A new record achieved in 2005 by one person who managed to carry 11 eggs in ONE hand. (I am gonna attempt this soon, just..when my mother not around...bwahahaha).
There were some really shocking and surprising world records like:
Did you know that...
Work Frustration and Number confusion
We can't sit idle forever. Our current project needs to finish. A small meeting between the 2 managements has finalized the decision. We are going LIVE in 20 days. This is just another extreme decision. Its like going from Black to white. I used to complain that for one month, we have been literally doing nothing. Now, we have to somehow finish a 5 month project in just 20 days. This is just totally unrealistic. Moreover, our team has increased in 3 days from 4 people (project manager, myself, my colleague & mentor, and SD consultant) to 9 people. Me and my project manager are the only NON-indians in this project. Now I don't wanna be a racist but I believe that ALL Indians (except my mentor who's slowly becoming a very close friend) are plainly stupid and are only good at memorizing and doing what they learned. They are just not flexible & adaptive. E.g. if you can't go from A to B, they say its impossible. They don't even ponder the option that you can go from A to C then from C to A. I can't believe that me, the newbie, who have less than one year experience is explaining advanced solutions to consultants who have at least 4 to 5 years of experience Other than that, I have vowed to myself that I will lactate the next bloody bugger who's gonna use any form of word structure related to the word "cricket" in the place I exist. For the trillionth time, I don't care whether India lost to Bangladesh, Pakistan is out of tournament by the Irish, and Srilanka is one game away from advancing to next round. On another note, I don't usually have concurrent dreams. But for the last 3 days, I've been having a weird dream. In first day, I am working on decoding and finding a number. The dream finishes and I still can't find it. Next day, I am still decoding the number, but I managed to find that its a 6 digit number mix of 2,1,0,9. By the time I woke up for Fajr Prayer, I could not pinpoint what was exact number. Third day (Yesterday), the first thing I did when I woke up for Fajr Prayer was scribble down the number, prayed and then went to sleep. By the time I woke up to go to work, I find that the number I scribbled down is "120019". I still don't know what is that supposed to mean as I see this number for the first time. I still can't make any connections to it. At many times I tried to ignore decoding it, it could be result of hallucinations or work stress. But it still bugs me the fact that I dreamt about it for 3 days and that it doesn't mean anything to me...yet.
What 0.07 seconds can do
Chastity Pledges
Click here for full information It was what caught my attention on "Good morning America". What the article is saying is that daughters celebrate purity pledges with their dad where they vow not to have sex before marriage. These guys are serious. Its not like "yeah dad, I promise you not to make out with any guy before marriage, not even that pimp that gives me the ride home". No, you go to churches and you sign a written contract with your dad that you will not. Its supposed to strengthen daughter-father relationship and to protect the the daughters chastity. First, I'd laughed the idea off..I mean..ceremony, cakes, dance with the father for this. That's insane. But coming to think of it, I mean, why not? Considering how everyday the world keep surprising us with new bizarre stories (I mean just go and look at the Jerry Springer Show), this ain't a bad idea. So far, its just daughters and fathers. I don't know if the trend will extend to sons and their mothers...the idea is honestly creepy. There is an actual contract where both parties have to sign. However, the article doesn't mention the consequences of breaking this contract. The question is how long will this last? Is it just another trend? And would the teenagers be able to resist their hormone calls and their desires? Will it be a matter of weeks, months, or years before they break this pledge? Its indeed sad that the world reached such a stage where they have to write purity pledge contracts with their parents. Let's just wait and see what happens
A Tuesday to think about
So, this Tuesday was pretty exceptional for me. I mean, me, the homeboy who loves staying at home, just stayed at home for just 3 hours. I mean this is a new record for this year. I used to be very outgoing, social and hyper. But those days are over. This country has its way of infecting the atmosphere with the slumbering effect. So after spending my routine morning at work, sitting idle for the 2nd week in a row (we are victims of unnecessary politics), my colleague at work was desperate to go change his cellphone. I mean I never imagined that cellphones are much cheaper here than in india. The tough nut was that he was looking for a rare model. The Nokia E61. And he preferred a used model. So I took him to the best place..the Mobile Black Market. Its the same place where I sold my Nokia 6610 2 years ago before the place was raided by police 10 minutes ago. But who cares? Its not like I'll ever learn.. :P So after searching for like an hour through at least 60 shops, we actually found 3 shops that sold a used one. There was limited release of this cellphone in the market and they were all sold out. Out of these shops, one was in an excellent condition but was being sold at a high price, nearly same as new one, the other one had a cellphone but it was "abused"..cover is scratched, keys are sticky, software is a bit slow and screen isn't bright. So this was out too. The last one we checked was almost the perfect one. I mean its still pretty clean and its sold at a decent price. So I asked the salesman about how long was it used and why was it sold..."just for few days and the buyer died"...WHAT? did he just say he passed away? I gave him the "are you serious" look..but his face was plain and telling me..."I am not kidding you, he died and his family returned the cellphone but its in very good conditions"..I signalled for my friend that its time to leave the store but he was still out of the loop as he didn't understand the Arabic conversation I just had. He was like: "what hamza..cellphone is good"...."yea, but the one who had the cellphone died.." "huh?..."he expired"..."aaah ok, I don't want it then" Its another thing about Indians that they don't understand the word "dying"..they always use "expired" term. Its like humans are cheese or milk products So after our mini-journey there, we decided to head for jarir bookstores..and I was still shocked that the "a brief history of everything" book I've ordered a month ago still didn't arrive. I mean Amazon.com would have been much better for me. I dunno but I didn't wanna leave empty handed. A good book caught my eye. The "why men don't have a clue, and why women need more shoes". A good look at the index "why women nag", "why do men insist on leaving toilet seat up?", "why do women want to talk so much"..sex tests appeals, "moses wondered the desert for 40 years, yet he never asked for directions"..were enough reasons to convince me to pack that little kid home. Came home just in time to catch the "prison break" premiere..then went out with my friend to a coffee shop to watch the 2nd round of Champions League. We chose a large coffee shop. Large in the sense that it has 3 floors and it was packed. The only place we found was in the basement. Two adjacent large 52 inch Tvs,..two different matches..inter vs Valencia and Barcelona vs Liverpool and worst of it all is two commentators screaming from top of the lungsThat's one more thing. I tried to have an eye on a match and another eye on the other, but our primitive brains doesn't handle real-time multitasking. One second you'd be like "wooo...it hit the post" and next second you'd be seeing ibrahimovic and canizares fighting..one second you'd be applauding a good catch by Julio Cesar, and the next second, you'd be on your nerves after Riise's shot nearly skimmed the net. It was indeed a day to think about. I mean seriously, I don't want somebody to auction or sell my stuff after I die and I'll never buy a a gadget or an item that belongs to someone who is deceased..even if it is Anna Nicole Smith's panties (that if she wore any). Another thing is..don't you wish you can carry a portable brain that comes with an additional eye set that's "attach & run". Its just that I believe that our standard of living is increasingly demanding what I call real-time multitasking and....ok, I'll stop, this post is getting geeky. Looks like my computer science character is rebelling again...
The Hammer’s Legend
Each one of us has a nickname. This nickname could be for many reasons. It could be coz your name is long and not, as ppl call it, "musical". Or maybe you picked up your nickname because of a trait you have, an experience you had, or even coz ppl can't pronounce it right and they make an abbreviation for it(just think of FEZ in the 70's show). Even yours truly has unfortunately been struck with a bizarre nickname. The What...is "Hammer". The Where..is "Failtes Irish Pub"..The When.. is mT's birthday party. But let us explore the "how" part together. Shall we? Its Friday's night and as usual it's packed. It's almost impossible to converse with the guy next to you without literally screaming. The rest of the guys followed up shortly after I arrived..The Rex, M-unit, Bradiddy, B-tek and of course the birthday boy, mT, who caught me off guard. He wanted to hook me up with his friend. At start, I rejected the idea of a date. I was just not psychologically prepared for a date. As it happened many times, I'd feel out of the loop when the guys start talking about hockey and the Maple Leafs. And when the hockey season is over, its BLUEJAYS and baseball time. And if they aren't talking about hockey or baseball, then its Raptors and basketball. Minutes were slowly ticking away and that's when I decided to approach her. She was bright, creative, interesting and ambitious and we started chitchatting..or to be more specific, shouting at each other (it was that packed). We were into each other. I talked, talked, talked, she talked and I listened, buying beer, I listen, I listen, listening & buying beer, more listening, more listening, talk, more listening, buying beer..etc. This cycle went on for an hour before she excused me to go to the washroom. I went back to my friends. All that time Bradiddy and M-unit are giving me the thumbs, "oh, you are doing well", "she was leaning, she was interested", "she was looking you straight in the eye", "you should take her to a corner and make out with her", "take her home",...etc. All that while my ego is being pumped up, and I assure them with self-confidence that "I have my way, I prefer to take it slooowly". 10 minutes pass..15..20.. the rat inside my head starts biting at my self-confidence...I peak at the washroom..yep, you'd better be watering that tree outside rather than wait in those long queues. 25 minutes, 30 minutes...M-unit is reassuring me "its oook...don't worry, we girls take our time in the washroom...she'll be back soon". And that's when The Rex shows up telling us how mT is smashed, had too much to drink and he is puking all over the place outside in the park. As we went out to be supportive and helpful with our water supply, B-tek blows my bubble saying "oh, look at Hamza's date". We all follow his gaze to see her leaning on two of her friends while she was still spraying the floor with that acidic digested food mix. Ooooh...damn..what did I just do? So much for that hyped up self-confidence...fsssst...a deflating balloon... is I am still confused when her friend approaches me with that guilt face asking me politely "may I ask how many beers did you buy her"?...The words barely came out of my mouth "hmm...three...maybeeee fooour...hmmm...fiiive...or..mooore"..."OMG, she is NEW to drinking..OMG, how will I drive her home? Her parents are sooo gonna kill me"..."hmm...I am sorry..!" I felt like a raged bull that has just been shot by a tranquilizer. I was slowly coming back to my senses to realize that the rest of the gang were still sharing the spoils of my unfortunate date.. "oh, you've hammered her", "Rule #1: never get your date drunk", "she is gone..she is hammered", "what did you do to her? You are really the Hammer", "hahaha..the HAMMER", "hamza the hammer", "the Hammer hammers his dates". Its been more than a year since that day. I got accustomed to "hey, how is it going hammer? ;)"...I mean coming to think of it, it has a nice ring if you are a bully or a gangsta.."the Hammer"...naah..I don't think so.
