Salvation Delayed --- oh and end of the year!

So the salvation counter has been extended ... from 15th December 2008 to 15th January 2009. There's hope though! for salvation that is!

This post is coming two weeks too late ... and I've forgotten like 99% of the stuff I was going to write about. Anyway today is the last day of the year 2008. And this post is also to hail the new year in ... Happy New Year all!

Of Crabs and Sunsets

Brought to you by a cell phone camera in the absence of a real one. Taken during separate visits to seaview Karachi and sandspit Karachi. As always, clickit to bigit in a separate window.

At Sandspit Karachi: Camels, sunset, wet sand and the setting sun reflecting off it

At seaview Karachi: The slightly reddish spots are the crabs. Always makes me wonder how these survive in the ultra-polluted water

Awesomeness Comes in 167 Pieces!

Of the things I got my hands on when I hadn't even learnt to walk, these were and still are the two of the most precious:



Legoland 6040: "The Blacksmith Forge"
Year: 1984 (that makes it older than me!)
89 pieces, 2 figures

This was an awesome little set. Though small in size it had not one, not two but FOUR alternate models!



I absolutely loved the magical red beams and pillars that made a castle's grand entrance or a blacksmith's kiln depending on how you put them together! I still have the set, though I admit with a few pieces misssing.




Legoland 6688: "Ambulance"
Year: 1985
68 pieces, 2 figures

I was absolutely awed by the colored translucent plastic lights and the rear hatch that moved. Sadly the same story I have the set but the lights are all gone, so are few other pieces.

Despite the never ending infatuation, those were the last LEGO models I called my own and had the luxury of owning, playing with, and growing up with .... until now!

Enters the:

8142 Ferrari 248 1:24
Year: 2007
167 pieces, 1 figure

TOTAL AWESOMENESS!

front of the box

back of the box

The finished model: vs. the box for scale

Some more goodness

The finished model: vs. my 'biggish' Dell Latitude D630 for Scale

Complete with the trappings of a Ferrari F1 Racer

The laptop appears to be a fitting place to park

Oh almost forgot, it comes with a windup motor, so it runs too! Just pull it back as far as it will go and then let it loose!

as always, click on the pictures to enlarge in a seperate window

Documented for Posterity

The best chussis are utter accidents ... and I solemnly believe that they should be documented! Here's an exchange, which took place on facebook, as always after 3am in the morning.

For those who don't understand Urdu, I've translated into English at the end of the post ... though that DOES take away the essence of it

What is a 'Chussi' you ask me?
Here is a wiki entry by one of the masters himself!

Without further ado ...


Ali is looking for some good spacious backpack. 1:39am - 23 Comments

Wajiha Said at 2:47am October 17

why? you wanna fit a body in it?

Adeel Rizvi at 2:50am October 17

no just himself :P

Wajiha Said at 2:52am October 17

phir tau normal size ka bhi chalay ga! -_-

Adeel Rizvi at 2:53am October 17

normal kyun? saath kuch aur bhi dalna hai? small sahi hai

Wajiha Said at 2:54am October 17

haan kya pata saath koi takiya hilaaf rakhna ho? sardi na lagay na!

Adeel Rizvi at 2:55am October 17

lol haan phir sahi hai. warna tao wallet seh bhi kaam chalaya ja sakta tha

Wajiha Said at 2:56am October 17

nahin wallet se nahin chal sakta! phir 5 rupay ka sikka kahan aaye ga! abhi note milna nahin shuru huay! state bank nikamma jo hai!

Mohsin Attaur Rehman at 2:58am October 17

becharay ne ek backpack lena tha .. sirf ek backpack :O

Adeel Rizvi at 3:02am October 17

haan so we are helping him decide ^_^

Wajiha Said at 3:03am October 17

yup yup -_-

Ali Mohsin at 3:18am October 17

@wajiha and rizvi:
mein saath mein aik dual-sim mobile pe le raha hun... sims tou hain nahin mere pass... tum donon ne fit hona hai uss mein?? :0

qasam se kitne wailay log ho!!! :P

Wajiha Said at 3:20am October 17

hum aa tau jayen par tumhara dual sim mobile nahin chalnay wala phir ... will be permanently corrupted -_-

Adeel Rizvi at 3:20am October 17

Ali Mohsin ghussa kar gaya hai. gandi chussiyon peh utar aya hai :P

Wajiha Said at 3:21am October 17

well yeh konsa kabhi achi chussiyon pe charha tha jo ab gandi chussion pe utray ga?

Adeel Rizvi at 3:23am October 17

lol true!

Ali Mohsin at 3:43am October 17

yeah for sure corrupt ho jaye ga... i forgot sim's slot mightl be a lil bigger for u ppl :P
and thanks for explaining me this inverted-bell-shape graph of chussi-meter!
3:45am!! and tomorrow... rather today is a working day :S

Adeel Tassawur at 11:56am October 17

sala aik backpack...aik backpack insaan ko ali-mohsin bana deta hai :P

Wajiha Said at 12:19pm October 17

Allah insaan ka maghphirat farmaye -_-

Adeel Rizvi at 12:25pm October 17

meaning Allah kuch bhi banay lakin Ali Mohsin na banay?

Wajiha Said at 12:28pm October 17

open to interpretation

Ali Mohsin at 4:31pm October 17

eyaar mutt preshaan ho iss baat per... :P
aik mein ne backpack ka lena hai... duniya tension mein aa gayee hai :|

Adeel Tassawur at 4:50pm October 17

i heard this would be the topic of next Obama /McCain debate

Wajiha Said at 12:30am October 18

what? optimum size of a backpack for Ali Mohsin? weren't they already researching it at CERN? pata hai tabhi tau large hadron collider kharab hua hai! they gave it this problem! a little too much for the machine's capacity!

Translation

Ali is looking for some good spacious backpack. 1:39am - 23 Comments

Wajiha Said at 2:47am October 17

why? you wanna fit a body in it?

Adeel Rizvi at 2:50am October 17

no just himself :P

Wajiha Said at 2:52am October 17

in that case a normal sized one will work too! -_-

Adeel Rizvi at 2:53am October 17

Why normal? Does he need to put something else in it as well? small would be better

Wajiha Said at 2:54am October 17
Yea what if he wants to keep a pillow or quilt etc as well? We don't want him to catch a cold!

Adeel Rizvi at 2:55am October 17

lol then its okay. Otherwise a wallet could have made do as well

Wajiha Said at 2:56am October 17

No a wallet wouldn't have worked! Where would the 5 rupee coin fit then? The new bank notes aren't available yet cuz state bank is useless!

Mohsin Attaur Rehman at 2:58am October 17

The poor guy only wanted to get a backpack ... just a backpack :O

Adeel Rizvi at 3:02am October 17

yea so we are helping him decide ^_^

Wajiha Said at 3:03am October 17

yup yup -_-

Ali Mohsin at 3:18am October 17

@wajiha and rizvi:
I'm also getting a dual-sim mobile ... I don't have sims ... but do you guys want to fit in it instead?? :0

Honestly how free are you!!! :P

Wajiha Said at 3:20am October 17
We don't mind coming but then your dual sim mobile is not going to work ... will be permanently corrupted -_-

Adeel Rizvi at 3:20am October 17
Ali Mohsin has gotten pissed off. Has come down to bad chussis :P

Wajiha Said at 3:21am October 17
Well as if he ever managed to move up to good chussis that he'd come down to bad chussis now?

Adeel Rizvi at 3:23am October 17

lol true!

Ali Mohsin at 3:43am October 17

yeah for sure it will be corruped ... i forgot sim's slot might be a lil bigger for u ppl :P
and thanks for explaining me this inverted-bell-shape graph of chussi-meter!
3:45am!! and tomorrow... rather today is a working day :S

Adeel Tassawur at 11:56am October 17

one damn backpack ... one backpack makes ali-mohsin out of a man :P

Wajiha Said at 12:19pm October 17

May god forgive the man -_-

Adeel Rizvi at 12:25pm October 17

meaning god creates you anything but Ali Mohsin?

Wajiha Said at 12:28pm October 17

open to interpretation

Ali Mohsin at 4:31pm October 17

buddy don't be stressed out over this ... :P
i just needed to get a backpack ... the entire world is in tension :|

Adeel Tassawur at 4:50pm October 17

i heard this would be the topic of next Obama /McCain debate

Wajiha Said at 12:30am October 18

what? optimum size of a backpack for Ali Mohsin? weren't they already researching it at CERN?
you know that is why the large hardon collider is not working! they gave it this problem! a little too much for the machine's capacity!

Silently we Creep ...

... towards the number 3000 and beyond!

(click to enlarge)

Rappy Crappy

Since I have started to post chats that stand solemn testament to the insanity of people who stay awake at night at ungodly hours, here is an excerpt from a recent one with Raptor. Raptor a.k.a. Ali Ibraheem Rashid, drama queen, king of absurdity and procrastination, an accomplished chussar and a phenomenon unto himself ...

13th September 2008

.....
.....
blitzkrieg says (01:35):
we'll send someone to pick u up
or wait is ur office in isloo or pindi?

. says (01:35):
yea it's in islamabad

blitzkrieg says (01:36):
kis sector mein?

. says (01:36):
g8

blitzkrieg says (01:36):
hmm and u work saturdays too?

. says (01:36):
nope
i donut

blitzkrieg says (01:37):
do u have a hole in ur tummy too? :P

. says (01:37):
:|
erm, the belly button? :/

blitzkrieg says (01:38):
lol no donut :P
like a thru and thru hole

. says (01:39):
oh, hmm, nai

blitzkrieg writes (01:41):


blitzkrieg says (01:41):
khekhekhe

. says (01:42):
:|

blitzkrieg says (01:44):
:D
this looks like a blueberry jelly donot

blitzkrieg says (01:45):
donut*

blitzkrieg says (01:58):
bleh?

. says (01:58):
blah?

.....
.....

. == raptor
blitzkrieg == me

Too much time, too little sleep, too late an hour, a sweet tooth and hard-wired-to-engineer mental circuits

This can potentially happen to you if you're up too late, sleep very less, chatting on googletalk with a friend who's essentially crazy and both of you have spent a big part of your life studying physics, mathematics and computer science ...

May 18th 2008

4:55 AM

I-T: hello

me: hio

I-T: what are you doing up at this godforsaken hour :)

me: trying to go to sleep

I-T: you're feeling sleepy
sleeeeeeeepy
look into the winding lollipop

me: my eyes feel itchy and gritty

4:56 AM

I-T: the red and white twirls inside the winding lollipop

me: hey u accept my request :D

I-T: the lollipop is rotating about a normal drawn out of the plane of the lollipop towards you

me: on facebook please please please please please :D

4:57 AM

I-T: The normal has something to do with the moment of centroid of the lollipop

4:58 AM

I-T: the electromagnetic field around the lollipop can be calculated by summing up the volumes of an infinte number of infinitesmal pie segments of the lollipop

me: okay shuttup :P

4:59 AM

I-T: you're sleepy arent you

me: i am

I-T: The inverted lollip law states that an inverted lollipop tied to a string can be used as a plumbline

5:00 AM

me: not if u have a very determined lolly pop lover attached to it
corollary one says: in that case hte lollipop can be used as a leash

5:01 AM

I-T: In that case by extension it becomes a heavier plumbline
:)

5:05 AM

I-T: If you embed two jellybear arcs on both the right and left sides of a lollipop and wind licorice tubing around the lollipop and pass molten chocolate through it, while the whole arrangement is enclosed within two Chocolate bricks of opposite polarity i.e. Dark and White, the reaction caused by the spinning of the lollipop actuator motor will cause rappie to appear, breakdance and go back to his room.

5:06 AM

me: wow!
there's an addendum to this one as well ....

5:07 AM

me: depending on the level of rappy's level of crankiness, the entire structure can disappear with him between breakdance and 'go back to his room'

5:08 AM

I-T: All the great Celestial bodies were once lollipops -- Arthur C. Clarke

me: hehe
what are u doing up this late waisay?

I-T: Until they had their sticks removed -- Albert Einstein
The milky way was once a chocolate factory -- Mr Higgins [Whats he doing here]

5:09 AM

me: lol

5:10 AM

I-T: Lollipops with sticks is an unnecessary wastage of resources, because in space nothing falls - - Stephen J. Hawking

me: how do sticks relate with falling
and where in lollipop-land are u finidng all tehse enlightening quotes?

5:11 AM

I-T: The answer seems to be simple, you lick the large celestial lollipops until they become smaller dwarf lollipops
"The best quotes here are the ones made up by me" -- The Narrator aka yours truly

5:12 AM

I-T: "I'm sacking you for your arrogance"-- The Narrators Manager
"But I love him" -- The Narrators Managers Daughter
"Thats it wheres my shotgun" -- The Narrators Manager
"Exit Stage left" -- The Narrator

5:13 AM

I-T: "But which way is relative in space" - Thomas Finnigan

me: "we want licorice" -- the stage bunnies

5:14 AM

I-T: "Sorry, A little typo there, hope you didnt publish my last quote, it was more like which way is left in space everything's relative" - Thomas Finnigan
"Bunnies are evil" -- Monty Python

me: "but they hold the secret of licorice" -- the dust bunny

5:15 AM

me: oh man i must sleep i got a headache

I-T: "No candy for you evil bunnies, you've had your share of mischief for one eon" -- Cheif Snuggums Official Bookkeeper of the Order of the Bunny Kickers

5:16 AM

I-T: "You better get to sleep little girl" - Nurse Freda [???]

me: "but knight googaham of the Order of the Bunny Kickers stole all the licorice and ate it in one night ... he had to be pulleyed out of his room afterwards, after removing the ceiling" -- Willikums, diplomat bunny

5:17 AM

I-T: "You lie, they all lie" -- Mongizumoid Head of Legal Affairs of the OBK

me: "and we dont' do mischief, some of our things just randomly explode, take this 5 legged chair for example ... *boom*" -- wonikins, technology bunny

5:18 AM

I-T: "For more information on evil acts commited by bunnies you shall have to watch Monty Python - The search for the Holy Grail" -- The Narrator

5:19 AM 

me: "I'm afraid wonikins will be unavailable till further notice, the explosion of the 5 legged chair has addled with his brain and he thinks he is a flying tortoise" -- winkadins, nurse bunny, gasping for breath while trying to restrain wonikins

addled his*

I-T: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MID=367137231&MemberId=3951291356

me: time to sleep :) tomorrow is a long day!

5:20 AM

I-T: sure
take care
AH

me: you too
hehe what is this site?

I-T: dunno. It says that bunnies are evil
Anyways I'm off
ciao
AH

5:21 AM

me: sure
AH :)

I-T: Exception Caught : not geeky enough
Handler being INvoked
Send Ack

5:22 AM

I-T: Return Ack timer expired , trying resend Attempt 1 out of 3
Resend Ack

'Chrome-d'

Up till today, or rather yesterday, since I am, as usual, awake at an ungodly hour, chrome brought two things to my mind: fancy bathroom fittings or snazzy alloys that people invest into when they are trying to 'supe up' their cars (i hope that is the right spellings, i remember reading 'soup up' somewhere, but that really reminded me of a soup kitchen serving goulash) ... anyway, today we have a third definition for Chrome (and no i'm not referring to the Chromium alloy). Google has come up with its own web browser, to rival IE and FireFox, and they for some reason only known to them, have christened it Chrome.

I found out about it only today, rather yesterday. And my techie/nerd/geek sensibilities were temporarily bruised by the fact that I didn't find out about it earlier. But then the thought that I wouldn't have to wait for a million or so clicks for it to become available for download cheered me up a little. And i decided to while away the time by reading their pre-launch 'comic' gimmick here. This helped restore my faith in my own geeky prowess as I was able to get almost all of the concepts presented despite the fact that Object Oriented Programming and development is not really my forte and I haven't done any coding in over 2 years! even while at university I chose MATLAB over .NET as early as 4th semester so you can imagine. Anyway once done with the 30 page or so comic, I made my way to the Official Google Blog and resorted to clicking refresh once every 15 minutes for the announcement of Chrome becoming available for download. Which turned up sometime around 1 am our time. It can be downloaded from here. Time to give it a test drive:

1. Download & Install: The download was a surprisingly small 476KB. Turns out you have to be connected to the internet to install. Once you run the 'small' setup, it connects to the net to bring in the rest of the installation files ... hmmm something we're not very fond of. We prefer having the entire setup offline.


2. Interface: Okay I agree its clean and uncluttered and the browser itself doesn't compete for attention with the content it has been instructed to display. All the tabs are on top, which is good, they resize to all fit in the width of the window, which is not-so-good. If you have like 30 tabs open at one time, often several of the same site, you would want to know what EXACTLY each is displaying rather than going through each seperately. Take out the 'favicons' and you'll be left tab switching all day. Compare google tabs to firefox (my previous favourite browser) tabs (click image to enlarge):
   
   
   
   
   Would  be good if we get the *option* of either fitting all the tabs on a single screen or letting them disappear into the unknown space on the right of the window, calling any of em back, when needed, by a mere click of the tiny arrow you see in firefox.
   
    Also, no status bar at the bottom, and no option to display or un-display it. I always go for the display option for the status bar. Otherwise it feels like my web-pages are scrolling up into existance from an uncomfortably deep abyss!
   
   I also cannot remove the weird tool bar that says 'customize links', 'free hotmail', 'windows marketplace' yada yada. I don't like it! I never keep any toolbars in my browser, and I always keep the google toolbar! Time to see if we have a google toolbar set up available for Chrome! Would be funny if they don't *snorts with suppressed laughter*


3. Options: So expand the little arrow next to the blueish-greyish monkey wrench (see the image above) and you will find the option for 'options' (yea, yea I know i'm funny!). Rather amusingly named as 'basic', 'minor tweaks' and 'under the hood', the options sadly donot have that many of just that ... i.e. the options! Oh well can't complain, its pretty simple, i must admit ... but oh WAIT I still don't know how to purge the cache in this one! darn!


4. Functionality, Plugins and Add-Ons: The basic run of the mill stuff is well obviously what works, it won't be a browser otherwise. The URL bar is nice and big, with large text which you can easily see without squinting at it. The minimalistic blue-grey interface is pleasing to look at. I wish the tabs were more to the silver gray side rather than the boring winXP blue.
   
   The search within web-pages function is not as cool as the one in firefox. e.g. firefox also returns results from script windows and other paraphernalia embedded in your webpage, like looking for a word in this post i'm currently writing. Not the case with Chrome. It only searches the parent page and doesn't return results from the embedded content.
   
   I absolutely LOVE the home page that shows your most visited pages and recent bookmarks. Makes it all the more easier to open those 7 AstroEmpire pages (click to enlarge):
   
   
   
   I won't give them marks for the 'awesome bar' that goes through your recently visited pages, bookmarks and history to return results. Firefox came up with it already, but the fact that it takes you to the main page and not to some obscure sub-sub-sub-sub page is good.
   
   And I still don't know what is the status of adding stuff to the basic browser. I for one can't survive without greasemonkey and flashgot on Firefox. How will I run all of those snazzy scripts that let me supe up my AstroEmpires pages? :(


5. Memory Usage: So it claims to open each tab in a seperate process, which is true, and freaks you out a bit the first time you check your task manager:
   
   
   
   So just to test I decided to open my usual 30 or so pages both in firefox and Chrome. I do have trouble managing all the tabs in firefox because the thing gets miserably slow and often hangs or needs to crash and restart in safe mode. Oh and how many times in both IE and firefox you have to end task cuz of one runaway process and mourn the loss of all of your 30 or so painstakingly opened web pages! Chrome so far is working okay ... but I will have to let it run for 2-3 days without so much as a hibernate to see how it fares >:) Here's the memory usage:
   
   Firefox: CPU usage 50, Mem Usage 131,288 K
   Chrome: CPU usage 2, Mem Usage 252, 796 K (cumulative).
   
   I suppose many little processes are better than one mammoth process. And I can feel it, as the response rate of each tab is significantly faster. And now I must stop *@&!*$ my laptop and kill one of these browsers ... or at least 28/30 tabs in firefox ... Chrome still doesn't qualify to run my Astro Empires ... hummph!

Overall Chrome hasn't been disappointing. Coming from someone who bashes her head against the nearest wall some twenty times a day due to a slow system and also persistently refuses to restart it, I think it might do good to the overall health and longivity of my much used and abused laptop. With my prowess not being development and coding and more into requirements gathering and analysis, a skill honed in 2+ years of designing and launching business intelligence applications here at good old P&G, I can't really use its open-sourceness for my benefit without significant time and effort investment, but I hope someone thinks of including a few more 'tweaks' in the package.

Rechargeable Fan for the Soul

No sir, chicken soup is not the only thing needed for the soul, rechargeable fans are just as important, especially if you live in Pakistan, and specifically Karachi.

The other day, I woke up in the morning to no electricity, bumbled about in the dark, got dressed, went to work, came back to no electricity. In frustration went to sleep, woke up 10:30ish, had barely managed to get out of bed and think about dinner when electricity went the third time, coming back at 1:30 am. One can endure the pitch dark but not the stuffy, humid Karachi heat. Humidity here was 81% or something yesterday. Anyway I have a trusted rechargeable fan. It runs like no tomorrow. Charge it fully once and it can last 8 hours or more without needing a recharge. Small enough to put on your bed and sleep with the wind in your face.

And I don't know why I made this post, maybe cuz the title is probably the only interesting statement in the entire thing or probably just for the heck of it I guess!

*poof*

Go Knock Yourself Out!

Many of us have tried doing quick funky graphics designing at one time or the other. Anything worth its salt requires time, effort and preferably loads of processing power. While stumbling around the internet today, I ran into Glogster. A site that claims you can 'poster yourself', and that too in 5 seconds. Essentially it is a flash based site with loads of background and artwork available, which you can throw together to create anything that comes to your mind. You can even upload your own photos/artwork and even video/audio. It is *pretty* cool. At least you can spice up your websites in no time!

The catch is it is only web-based. Trying to come up with a hack to download it as .jpeg or something. Maybe croft might have some clue. Anyway signing up is for free, and here is my first attempt for the purpose of this blog. Just random stuff put in a bag and jumbled. I swear the cat thinking about the fish climbed onto the scooter on its own! Pretty cool no? :D



*let the glogging begin!*


Addendum (after a few hours of experimenting):
Okay so the best solution I've figured so far for saving to your computer:

1. Use AFPL Ghostscript (also called Aladdin GhostScript. Make sure you get AFPL and not GPL as that doesn't have support for color printing). The current stable version is 8.54, available for download here . Also download and install GhostScript View GUI from here. The current version is 4.9.
2. Now right click on your glog and select print. Make sure you have a color printer installed. Select that, and check print to file. Save to disk by using .prn as the extension.
3. Now open the .prn file using GSView. Select file -> convert and save in any file type. for regular desktop printing .bmp with 72 pixel resolution would work. It also has 600 pixel resolution available which I suppose can be used for commercial printing. Though I won't vouch for the results.
4. The saved file will have a glogster tab on the top. Using trial and error, work your graphics below it and then u can edit out that area using image cropping.

Here is what my .jpg looks like (without the cropping, click to enlarge):


Thats all for now.

*Over and Out*

Cause to Celebrate

Long ago, I celebrated here, the 400th visit as recorded by my faithful statcounter. Since then we have progressed nicely along, and with the last post, the one below this one, we have reached another milestone; one whole year of faithful blogging, at least one post every month in the past 12 months.

*blog roll please*


oops i mean drum roll! ^_^



disappears into thin air *poof*

for your past *click* *here*

So I have a counter on my blog, which as is obvious counts the visits to here, and also comes bundled with a number of features including where the recent visitors came from and also the referring URL. While I was randomly clicking away at the referring URLs, one of them was a google search for I-T (Iqbal Talaat Bhatti's) blog. So I clicked away from link to link and this is what I stumbled across:

this blog → my statcounter page → Google search: "Iqbal Talaat Bhatti's blog" → youtube result for Iqbal Talaat Bhatti (movie alpha) → Similar vidoes on youtube → *some more clicking* → Batch12 GIKI welcome add → Batch12 GIKI farewell video.

So here it is. Some things I can say about: "I was there when it happened"

Batch12 GIKI Welcome Ad (2002)

Every year, the freshman batch in GIKI is welcomed in by the junior year batch. Typically it includes publicity, multimedia advertisements, all leading to the weekend of the welcome show and the concert. So in 2002, my batch i.e. batch12 (class of 2006) was welcomed in by batch10 (class of 2004). And here is the welcome add that they made for us:




Batch12 Farewell Video (2006)

So like the welcome, the farewell to the senior year is given by the Sophomore year. We did it for Batch10 in 2004 and Batch14 did it for us in 2006. Crofty (Saad Sadaruddin Khan) and Polly (Fahad Rasheed) surprised the rest of us Batch12 people with the following dedication to the batch. Reflects croft's skill at flash and polly's eye for photography and ear for music. It was an emotional 4 minutes 39 seconds for the 170 or so people in the auditorium. Here it is:




About Movie Alpha (sometime in the dark ages between 2002 and 2006, actually the 5th semester)

There are no words to describe this piece of work which I-T, Basim, Babarman, Rizvi and some other people in my batch found the time and brainwave to make back in the 5th semester. Here it is, and you have been *sufficiently* warned!

Farewell my friend!

19th July 2008 is one of the saddest days I've known in my 23 years. I lost a friend. It is one of those curve balls life throws at you. The ones you can't possibly do anything about. The ones that bowl you out, and you pick up and move on, hoping to bat another innings another day.

At 26 years of age, Immad Muzaffar (ganges) passed away in his sleep due to a cardiac arrest. This goes out to you my friend, though I know you will never read this.

The first clear memory of you that I have is of our first semester in GIKI in 2002; in the auditorium during the declamation contest. You came, asked if you could sit next to me, and introduced yourself. You are one of the few people I made friends with in the beginning of the four years that changed everyone completely, and you're one of the fewer still that I can still call friends even now. You will be remembered by most for your single 'mera number', for your red electric guitar and all night guitaring sessions, for your love of lennon and dylan and hendrix and morrison. For your incredible rendering of 'waiting for godot' for the GIKI stage and your love of english literature. For 'Aqualung', 'badge', 'shararti' and various other irc/msn nicks. And for your incredible sense of humour.

I will remember you for your love of Urdu poetry. For your quoting of Ghalib on irc at 4am. For your pestering to download and listen to Dylan's 'My Ramona'. For your very interesting interpretations for every random letter/symbol I would keep typing over the chat just to see what you would come up with next. And your well placed and well done ascii arts. For your setting fire to a random poster on the cafe wall and for your harebrained schemes of throwing food over the Girls' Hostel gate after 2am cuz I had missed dinner. For your suggestions at 3am on Saturday mornings of me coming down to Lahore from Karachi for the weekend so we could hang out and I could get a break from my gloom and doom, and then your cheek for asking the next day "Hey weren't you coming?" For your confidence, and your always kind words. And your reassurance and encouragement whenever I was down, which was often. For your good humoured enumerations of my successes that made you proud of me, to cheer me up and assure me that I wasn't completely useless afterall. I will remember you for all these and a million things more that I haven't put down here.

Also for your wish for wife and kids, basically family. For your commitment to a job you didn't really like and your persistent search for a better one. For your queasiness over GRE prep and your hopes for getting the fulbright. For your pride and joy in Ghalib Blues, for sharing it with me, and your approval of the review that I wrote for it here in April. For Zzing which you claimed was in you and wasn't dependent on stuff like you being here in Pakistan or in the US for studies.

I will also remember wanting to talk to you on wednesday the 16th of July to ask what was up with you since we hadn't talked in nearly a month. And forgetting to follow it through thinking I would do it later or maybe over the weekend. And regretting it dearly now.

It would be simple to dedicate some beatles song to you. Maybe Golden Slumbers. Or something by Dylan. But I would dedicate something that very much echoes my mood right now. Given your insight into Urdu poetry, I'm sure you would have appreciated and understood it. So here goes:

hamesha der kar deta hun main
zaruri bat kahni ho
koi wada nibhana ho
use awaz deni ho
use wapas bulana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

madad karni ho uski
yar ki dharas bandhana ho
bahut derina raston par
kisi se milne jana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

badalte mausamon ki sair main
dil ko lagana ho
kisi ko yad rakhna ho
kisi ko bhul jana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

kisi ko maut se pahle
kisi gam se bachna ho
haqiqat aur thi kuch
us ko ja k ye batana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

-- Munir Niazi

To losely translate in English for those who can't catch it in Urdu:

I always make it too late
to say something important
to fulfil a promise
to call him/her*
to ask him/her* to come back
I always make it too late

To help him/her*
To encourage a friend
To walk on the old pathways
To go meet someone
I always make it too late

To get the heart caught up in ...
... the changing of the seasons
To remember someone
To forget someone
I always make it too late

To save someone from sorrow ...
... before death
To go to him/her* to ...
... tell him/her* the reality
I always make it too late

Rest in Peace Immad Muzaffar (May 13, 1982 - July 19, 2008)



*Those familiar with urdu poetry will understand the ambiguous pronoun that is preferred for second person and is essentially genderless. I have used both masculine/feminine to capture the essence as closely as possible

P.S.: I have uploaded Immad's 'Mera Number' here for those who might want to relive it:

Perfect World

... is one without boundaries

where great outdoors is truly the great outdoors and one can actually go where the signposts point.

I love road trips. Because you can see the land roll past. The green, brown, grey hills. The blue sky, sometimes sparkling, sometimes with white, grey, black clouds. Fields, green, gold, yellow. Like a massive patchwork quilt. Cities and rivers and lakes. But also because you see signposts. That tell you what lies ahead. Start traveling south from Islamabad towards Punjab and the boards will measure distance to Attock and Jhelum, then to Lahore, then Multan. From Multan they start measuring road distance to Karachi. Travel east from Lahore, they'll give you distance to Amritsar (which is in India). Travel west towards Peshawar and they'll tell you you will reach Kabul (Capital of Afghanistan). Travel from Karachi and they will tell you how far away Quetta is. I can spend my life following where these roadsigns lead.

A week ago I had the chance to travel through northern Pakistan. Through the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. I'll write about that later. While travelling north from the capital Muzaffarabad along a narrow road clinging to the mountain side with neelam river snaking along, one sees roadsigns at a very regular basis. The ones that truly caught my imagination were the ones measuring distance to Srinagar and Baramula. To us Pakistanis, places of lore and also heartbreak. Cities in the heart of Jammu and Kashmir, renowned for their breathtaking beauty, places one yearns to see, but somewhere where we can never go. Srinagar was once the capital of the unified state of Jammu and Kashmir, now a part of the Indian held Territory. It has been that since 1947. So is Baramula.

I'm not discussing politics here. I'm only talking about my perfect world. A place without boundaries. Where you can go where the signboards lead ...






I apologize for the picture quality. Taken from the cracked windshield of a moving bus.

*A little history/geography lesson (from a Pakistani point of view): Azad is Urdu for 'free'. Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is the part of the state of Jammu & Kashmir under Pakistan. Jammu & Kashmir is disputed territory between India & Pakistan since independence in 1947. Predominantly Muslim, at the time of independence people of the state wanted to join Pakistan (I don't know what they want now other than an honest referendum and a right to choose. If East Timor can get it, why not them?). It was instead merged with India as the state had a Sikh ruler. AJK is the territory that was liberated in the 1949 war between India & Pakistan over Kashmir. Muzaffarabad is its capital. The rest of the state is still under Indian rule. We Pakistanis call it 'Maqbooza Jammu & Kashmir'. Maqbooza is urdu for 'occupied'. Srinagar is still its capital.

Throw Rocks at Boys!

Fudgin' Brilliant!

Combine creativity, hard work, loads and loads of paint, utter patience, time lapse filming and sheer brillance and this is what you get: Muto wall-painted animation



Again the direct link for those who have trouble running it directly via blogger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhflifd68uo

Very Narrow Aisle

Working for an industry that involves marketing, advertising, manufacturing, warehousing, sales, planning, research, financials and project management (to name only a few) ... all combined with cutting edge technology ... brings me in contact with people, places, experiences, areas and terminologies that we won't get to hear about in our otherwise routine lives.

About three weeks ago I had a chance to visit a warehouse, where I learnt that there are at least 18 different ways to stock product based on its specifications, one of which is called VNA or 'very narrow aisle'. It basically involves multi-tiered storage structures, this particular one had them at 18 meters high, spaced apart by only a few feet to maximize space utilization. However to efficiently move stock in such a storage scheme, special equipment is used, which incidentally, is also called VNA. Here's a picture:



So why is it cool? Because the machine simultaneously moves Up and Back at very high speeds meaning you quickly zip up and down your desired storage location in a sharp hypotenuse! And you see yourself leaving the ground while you do it. Throw in the snazzy hydraulic sounds that the machine makes and the smell of product and packaging material and it is quite an extraordinary experience! It is controlled by two joystick-like controls, one obviously for the horizontal while the other for vertical movement. While I rode in it with an operator, needless to say, I was *itching* to get my hands on it!

Those who would want to invest in this nifty toy, you need (other than about a 20 meter high building the size of at least a football field, with VNA shelves stocked with product for maximum effect) around 8,000,000 Pakistani rupees (about 120,000 US$).

The Humans are Dead!

Unlike the generic-mindnumbing-youtube-fever that took everyone by storm till all flowed away with it like mere jetsam and flotsam of Web 2.0 humanity, I rarely go there or watch barely any of the clips people keep passing on to me. There are however a few people, whose opinion I trust enough to check out what they're recommending. This one came from I-T. Salut, mon ami!

So without further ado, I bring to you: The flight of the Conchords - The Humans are Dead!








Disclaimer: One needs dominant geek/nerd genes to truly enjoy this one!



P.S: i'm getting reports from some that the video doesn't directly run in blogger. For such, here's the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoi1MSGu64

romania 4 - afterthoughts

romania 3 - bucuresting

romania 2 - a transylvanian adventure

romania 1 - I will be king And you, you will be quee

Zzing - The First Review

I prefer my music loud, personal and omnipresent. I listen to what sounds good, be it heavy metal, glam rock or modern pop. Though I do admit I heavily tend to listen to rock & metal. I'm not a celebrity writer, or a music critic, or someone who cares about the triumphs and the defeats of those associated with the music industry. Yet what you're going to read now is the first review of an upcoming Pakistani blues-rock band called "Zzing". So why the sudden urge? Because the lead vocalist and guitarist is a very good friend of mine from GIK (for the uninitated read: Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences & Technology, i.e. my alma mater, refer to the post 'Nostalgia' in archives to learn more about GIKI). Immad Muzaffar, otherwise known as ganges due to his remarkably smooth shaven head, has come a long way from singing 'Mera Number' at GIKI gigs in his raspy voice accompanied by his twangy acoustic guitar playing.

Zzing is so new they don't even have a deal with a record label yet. And to my last knowledge had only recorded four songs, and I had the privilege of listening to the first cut of their first studio recorded number. Called 'Ghalib Blues' it combines Immad's love of classical Urdu poetry and Jimi Hendrix. Only he could sing Ghalib* to upbeat bluesy rock and get away with it, and that too in flying colors. Due to copyright nature of the song and more because I promised Immad to keep it a secret, i'm not going to give any details about it. I will say though that I'm appropriately impressed. If things go right for this guy and his band, I don't see any reason for them not to succeed. Especially since Pakistani music scene is very quickly getting dominated by rock, blues and metal. Zzing can give many of today's established bands a run for their money.

You go pal! :)



*Ghalib for the uninitated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirza_Ghalib

15 feet of Wasted Space

Mohatta Place

Hey Diddle Diddle!

The cat and the fiddle? Well no, not really ... not this cat! This one just appeals to my sense of disinterested-overlording-nonchalance ... sadly the picture quality isn't too great, wasn't carrying my camera so this is about the best that could be done with a cell phone:




The cat is shaded by the drooping branches of the mango tree, as it is wrapped around the lamp on the gatepost of our house in Islamabad in a warm early spring afternoon. I got rewarded with a frosty slit-eyed stare for the next 2 minutes or so. Like i said, disinterested nonchalance, the attitude to be in!