Tunak Tunak Tun (Flash)

Daler Mahendi - Tunak Tunak Tun (Flash Music Video). It's a bit funny with the flash animation.

Exam Phase

I haven't been able to post anymore because exams have come and read y'all after the exams! Until then post any comments on this post.

Rant: An Open Plea

Can anyone out there do me a big favor? I don't care who you are, but for God's sake please grant me this simple wish. Can anyone redesign my blog template and make it resolution independent and add another sidebar to the left side. I do it myself, but I am so damn tired of looking at code that I can't even bare to look at one single line of code in any language. My whole career involves programming and software development and I'm about to shoot myself if I ever see another line of code. Is it just me who feels this way or are there some people who feel the same way I do.

I used to be fluent on every programming language. Other people like me will tell the same story, that learning the first programming is always the hardest. After that your on a roll and on your own. The first programming language I learned was C++ in high school. After I got a whiff of the power of Visual Basic 6.0, I immediately got down to read the book on it while still in high school. I played around with VB and designed so many applications that VB became like a second language to me. After VB I got on to MS SQL and MS Access. By the time I got into college, I started to learn Java and DHTML. I finished learning Java in just 6 hours. By now I had read four books on VB, three books on C++, and HTML in just two days. My reading span had stretched to 12 hours without a break of more than five minutes. By the end of my freshman year I had acquired almost all computer knowledge and a long list of applications and then finally I burnt out. Even to this day I can't read a book for more the 15 minutes. It's like my mind just wanders out after five minutes of reading. I don't have that stamina anymore. And worst of all, I can no longer stomach the design interface of anything on a computer anymore. I can now safely and confidently say that I am the grandfather of all computer knowledge.

Voter Info Leaked Through CDs

May Nahhas, Arab News

JEDDAH, 20 April 2005 - With the last round of the Kingdom's landmark municipal elections only hours away, a voters' list containing names of what is believed to be the entire electorate in Jeddah region has been leaked to candidates through compact disks.

Some people are trading in CDs that contain classified information about the voters such as their names and cell phone numbers. Each CD is sold at SR5,000 and some of the candidates are reportedly buying them to call voters for their support, according to Al-Eqtisadiah, a sister publication of Arab News. [Full Story]

All I can say to this is "Bring on the guillotines and off with their heads!" :-)

Iraqi Lawmakers Demand Apology From U.S.

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi lawmakers adjourned in protest Tuesday and demanded
an apology after a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric tearfully said he was handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint. Two American soldiers were killed in a car bomb attack. [Full Story]
Source: Yahoo News

Demanded it like a true Democracy if I might add! America, your days as a puppet master are over thanks to that retard in the whitehouse. :-)

A Self Witnessed Miracle

This weekend's mishap reminds me of the only time I was in a car accident.

I remember it clearly. I was about 5 or 6 years old. My younger brother, sister, and I were in the front seat of the car all held by our mother. I know it wasn't smart, but in the early 80s there were no traffic laws for toddlers that they were supposed to be buckled up in the backseat in Saudi Arabia.

My dad was driving the car and conversing with my mom. At some point my mother let go of me and held my brother and sister one in each hand. A car almost ran into us when my dad hit the brakes just in time, which flung my head right into the wind-shield that made a huge web like crack in the wind-shield. By some miracle that must have been ordained by the Almighty, I wasn't hurt. Not even a scratch and I didn't even cry or scream in pain. I didn't even feel like something had hit me.

My dad pulled over and my mom checked for any visible marks on my head and asked me if I was hurt or not, and I said no! She asked me over and over again whether I was hurt or not, and each time I replied no! Even I couldn't understand why I wasn't hurt? The look on my dad's face, he was in complete shock. He couldn't believe his eyes, I was more intact than the wind-shield. Later on that evening he joked about it, he said to me "You broke my wind-shield?", like I had misbehaved and done something wrong (keep in mind I was around 5 at the time).

Slippery When Wet

Oh my God what the hell have I done to myself now?! This is definitely going to leave a mark.

About an hour ago, I was making a snack (Ramen Soup) in the kitchen. I finished pouring it in the bowl and made my way out of the kitchen. The bowl's contents were really hot and had a fork in it.

I don't even remember exactly how it all went down. The kitchen floor was a little wet I guess. As I was almost at the door, I began to slip and lose my balance. Next moment I know, I'm lying face down on the kitchen floor with this tremendous amount of pain on the left side of my face, and I see hot Ramen soup splattered all over the kitchen floor with my right hand on it.

I got the wind knocked out of me. First I tried to gather my senses during which I figure out that the pain on my face is not the burn from the hot soup. Then I feel this extreme burning sensation on my right hand only to discover it was lying on top of hot soup. I thought I should get up fast and put it in cold water before it leaves burn stains. As I tried to get up and get to the kitchen sink to wash my hand, I notice that my left knee was hurt bad too and I couldn't get it to move. At this point I don't even realize the severity of the accident. All I had in mind was to get my hand in cold water pronto.

As I sat on the kitchen floor waiting to regain my strength, I notice that the pain at the upper left side of my face was increasing at an exponential rate. I put my left hand on my eye brow and left cheek bone in order to press on it to ease the pain, it didn't help, instead it hurt more. I took the hand off my face only to discover the horror that it was covered all in blood. I looked around to find out how much of my blood was splashed around. I saw a couple of drops on my T-Shirt and a couple on my Jeans.

By now I thought I had a deep cut on my cheek. I got up, tore a paper towel set on the kitchen counter and put it over my wound or wherever I thought it was. Shaken but not stirred :-), I get up, wash the blood off my hands and walk over to a mirror to see how bad I was cut. I see that my cheek was all red like someone had hit it with a club and then there is this long deep cut on my eye brow and it was bleeding profusely. I washed the wound some more and stuck a Band-Aid on it. I go to the couch, sit, and try to relax. I try to recall what had happened and figure out what had hit my face so hard. Was it the kitchen counter, the floor, or the fork? Whatever it was it sure hurts like hell.

Still to this point I'm not sure what caused the deep cut, but I'm certain that it was the floor that hit my face hard because I vaguely remember my face hitting the floor real hard and that's why my cheek bone area is all red and blue.

First thing next morning, I'll go to Student Health Services and make sure nothing is broken from the inside. It doesn't feel like that it's serious or else I wouldn't be sitting here writing this, but I'll have it looked at it nonetheless. It's been over an hour since this mishap, and my eye brow and cheek are all swollen. I don't remember having a headache before this incident, I think I'll have that checked out too. Thank God(Allah) nothing serious happened. The fork might have poked me in the eye or something.

I can see it now, tomorrow every guy on the street will ask about the face. Oh, oh it's leaking blood, time to change the bandage.

Predicting Iraq's Future

From the looks of the present situation in Iraq, my crystal ball shows that it looks like the calm before the storm even though there is so much violence and killing in Iraq. I predict that after things go from really chaotic to a little calm then a brutal civil war will breakout between Sunni's and Shiite's.

Public services like sanitation, electricity, and police, etc will employ some potential insurgents and keep them occupied. The Iraqi people will eventually realize that an employed Iraqi is a happy Iraqi. But, jobs in the private sector aren't the only jobs. What about the civil jobs? Of course they will realize the importance of the jobs in the public sector.

Iraqi's will come to learn that most of those jobs in the public sector will go only to those people of the same race (or in this case religion) of the elected official in the government, be it Sunni or Shiite. Both groups will try to grab for power in the government. Those political groups will play dirty politics as a result leading the whole nation into chaos all over again. We all know what happened the last time someone in Iraq was cut out of the political pie. I hope I'm wrong about this whole prediction for the Iraq's sake.

Some people might wonder, how will the coalition forces handle these predicted events? My answer to the question, how the coalition forces will handle this future situation is all nothing but irrelevant. Simple, if the coalition forces are still present in Iraq they'll be caught in between a brutal, long, and bloody civil war, if not then they'll be safe. They might take up a side, usually to the side that has got the most control and access to the oil fields.

Speaking of oil, what is happening to all the oil in Iraq? None of the news networks have been covering anything about the oil in Iraq. Who's getting it. Is anyone even extracting it? Isn't anyone buying or selling it? CNN, if your reading this then answer me damn it! Ah you good for nothing poor excuse for a new network.

Rant: Christian Rhetoric etc

I am so sick of watching Christian channels on cable. Its the same low budget contradictory nonsense over and over again. I'm not a particular fan of atheists but, I just can't bare to watch atheists and Christians bicker on issues that clearly seems me that both of them are wrong on. I don't even believe that queers should be allowed to live in society let alone have the legal right to marriage. But, when Christians throwing this lame statement "Its Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve" at these queer advocates as an argument that's when I feel like puking. I mean its bad enough to here those queer activist say something half-ass to support their cause, where these Christians come along and say the stupidest thing and try to pass them off as intelligent counter arguments. Enough is enough. Moreover, Dude what's the deal with the "700 club"? What's the deal with the evangelical rhetoric in this country?

Sometimes when I watch Larry King Live on CNN, that show looks so tabloid like for a show on such a reputable news network. Why hasn't Ted Turner fired that old geezer wrapped in oversized suspenders?

From the look of the corporate culture in American firms, I can't help but notice it's parallelism to a cult culture. Does anyone else notice this or is it just me?

There are two more weeks for the semester to end and I am already burnt out. Now a days I look back 4 or 5 years ago and wonder. How did I ever get into the computer field? What was I thinking? It's not like I found it hard, boring, or over my head. I think it's just that programming and computers became my life in other words I got sucked in to the illusion the it would have solved my major problems. But, by the time reality sank in, I lost interest. Now, I can't even stomach the sight of any code or programming interface.

On a related topic, I have tried so hard and long to make my PC work as a web hosting server, and it won't just budge. I have setup the IIS and FTP services, but it keeps crashing every few months. I spend 80% of my time fixing and trouble shooting my web server than designing my own complex web applications. It's been 2 years since I started to work on this digital masterpiece. But, I have made no real progress. What a waste!

Codename: Gordon

Codename: Gordon is a 2D side scrolling fan project based on the Half Life universe and programmed in Flash. In this fast, flash-based plat former, you assume the role of Gordon Freeman and travel through six chapters inspired by the environment in Half Life 2. All the familiar weapons and enemies are present: crowbars, pistols, grenades, the SMG, a manipulator gun, headcrabs, zombies, the infamous G-man... the game even includes a fully functional buggy.

The game's controls resemble a 3D shooter. You use the keys to move and the mouse to aim (similar to Abuse), there are medic and HEV recharge stations and even the weapon selection boxes feel as if you're playing the real 3D game. Furthermore, it also features a high score system with network support and a bunch of funny secrets.

Gabe Newell, in an interview with HomeLAN, said that the original plan was to release Codename: Gordon on April 1st (April Fool's Day) with a message saying, "Due to tremendous pressure from the gaming community to ship Half-Life 2, we looked long and hard at the game to see if there was anything we could cut that would let us ship sooner. It looked like if we cut the third dimension, we'd be all set, so after five years in development, Valve and Nuclearvision proudly present Half-Life 2D." Yeah Right!

Released:	May 18, 2004
Published By:	Valve
Developed By:	Nuclear Vision
Platform:	Windows
Genre:	Action
Perspective:	Platform, Side-Scrolling
Non-Sport:	Shooter

Interview with the Designers

Download: Codename: Gordon (ed2k link)

Song: This Is Your Life

This is a cool song that I've been listening to currently.

By Switchfoot

yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
yesterday is a promise that you've broken
don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
this is your life and today is all you've got now
yeah, and today is all you'll ever have
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

yesterday is a kid in the corner
yesterday is dead and over

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life are you who you want to be
this is your life are you who you want to be

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

and you had everything to lose

Song: Meant To Live

By Switchfoot

Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's meant for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, fly

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside

Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live
We were meant to live

Hackers Add Web, Chat to PSP Video Game Player

Tue Apr 5, 3:08 PM ET
By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp (SNE.N).'s (6758.T) new PlayStation Portable is turning into a great tool for Web browsing, comics reading and online chat -- and it also happens to play video games, movies and music, if you prefer that sort of thing.

The $249 PSP handheld video game player went on sale in the United States on March 24, and it took very little time before techies added the kinds of functions to the PSP that Sony did not include -- and may never have intended. One man needed only 24 hours to get a working client for Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, an older messaging platform.
"I was on IRC, and someone mentioned how cool it would be to use their PSP on Wi-Fi at Starbucks to talk to people over IRC. I said, 'I can do that', so I began working on it immediately," said Robert Balousek, creator of PSPIRC (http://www.pspirc.com), in an email interview. [Full Story]

Rant: TV America Sucks

The TV really sucks in the US. I thought coming to America would have given me access to a broad range of choices for information. Bullocks! I am more isolated from global news than when I was living in Jeddah. All the major news networks like CNN, CBS, NBC, Fox, and MSNBC have the same irrelevant news stories on 24/7. When I was living in Jeddah, I got up-to-date news via CNN International from around the world. I saw so many documentaries about every subject on CNN and BBC. CNN and BBC are the ones who opened my eyes to the world.

Only Fox News is the one news network which actually dedicates 80 seconds to news around the world in their "Around the World in 80 Seconds" section. Oh chee thanks Fox for those measly 80 seconds! I really hate Fox News channel.

How ironic. Living in such an isolated society like Saudi Arabia, I knew more about the world than the country itself. Now that I'm outside the country, thanks to 9/11 I get more news about Saudi Arabia than I get about the world.

CNN International is way better than CNN National. Judging by the TV in America, the outside world does not exists. Now I can understand why Americans think that the world revolves around the them.

Once an American asked me how people celebrated Christmas in Saudi Arabia. I told her they don't because there aren't enough Christians to celebrate and she couldn't even imagine the thought of a place where Christmas was not observed. And I couldn't believe that it was so hard for her to imagine that?

On a very unrelated note. For those Americans who have never been to Saudi Arabia and cry like baby that the Abaya/Burka restricts the freedoms of women or is a very barbaric practice, let me tell you something. For someone who was born and raised in that country, I have heard the women bitch about a lot of things, but I have never ever heard them complain about the Abaya/Burka hindering their freedoms. They complain about how they can't drive, can't go to places, their children, husbands, money, no jobs, unemployment rate, economy, dresses, how much they're fat, broken nail, and what not. But, never the Abaya!

Rant: Allergy Season

This allergy season has really taken a toll on me. My eyes are red, chest is itchy, nose is runny if not stuffy from the pollen. I have taken so much medication in these past two weeks. Some of that medication makes me so drowsy that it made me stay semiconscious most of the day. I am taking Nyquil, Benadryl, and Zyrtec for allergy symptoms. When your nose is clogged most of the time, it is very hard to get a good night's sleep. On an average, I wake up 20 to 30 times a night because of the lack of oxygen. Because of these sleepless nights, my life has become a living hell.

Went to Supercuts the other day and shaved my head. Pollen gets stuck in my hair and that probably causes the allergic reaction. I noticed my hairline has receded too much since my last head shaving. It seems to me that my allergies get worse every year.

Went to Walgreens to buy medicine. The Zyrtec and some Tetracyclene pills came to cost around $91.00. Great! That just gave me another reason to hate the pharmaceutical companies and the Bush Administration.