technology tips and music recommendations with a personal touch

It’s that time of the year again. In fact, today marks a special milestone for me: I’m finally turning 25, that is, two and half decades!

It’s become a tradition here on the blog for me to write a “reflection” post on the year that’s passed by. I always start wondering how fast the year has passed by, and this one is no different. Well, except that 2007, the year I turned 25, has ended on a high note. It was such a dramatic year. However, if I were to make a theme for 2007, it would be this:

2007 is the year I stopped looking at the world in black and white, and starting seeing the different shades of gray within.

More on this later. For now, here’s a brief outline for the rest of this post:

1. Good things happen at last
2. The different shades of gray
3. Major accomplishments
4. 2008: the crystallizing year

Click here to continue reading →

Has it been one year already since I last blogged about turning 23? Well I guess it has. Funny how when we look back in time, life seems to have gone by in a flash. But when we look ahead in the future, we think it’s still gonna be long time to come.

Well today marks my 24th birthday. Unlike last year, turning 24 hasn’t come in much of a surprise to me. That’s because beginning 2006, I had set out bunch of some specific goals I wanted to do by the time I’m 24. I was very aware of the time that has passed. I can’t claim to have achieved all my goals, but overall I can say I was lot more productive than any time in the past. This was definitely one of the best years of my life!

For this year’s blog, I’m going to start something new. I’m going to highlight the major events of the year. I’m also going to list things in various categories that have I’ve favored or discovered throughout the year. Finally, I’m going to nominate one song to be the Song of the Year!

So starting with the highlights, here they are in chronological order:

• I’ve started the year (Feb 18) by ditching my stupid old company that I worked for since 2004 and switching to a much bigger one. This was difinitely a wise choice and a move I won’t regret.
• Passed the TOEFL exam (March). Important step in preparation for my Masters degree.
• Having a renewed energy and desire to prove myself, I proceeded to obtain the Microsoft Certified Application Developer and Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certifications in a 2 months period!
• To show my gratitude to God for helping me achieve the above certifications, I promised myself that I would never neglect or miss a prayer time again. Usually promises are broken, but I can’t believe how I made myself stick to this one and, you know what, I have, and will, never miss one again. It became a habit. Thanks God!
• Finished my car payments. I now fully own my own, self-financed car!
• Finished my university paper work. (Thanks MoE!)
• Opened my own bank account here. This was so much of a relief as I’ve started doing my banking and bill payment online and on the phone.
• For the first time in my life, I’ve managed to stay on top of all my income and expenses and I’ve tracked all that down to the smallest details using a lovely software package called AceMoney.
• Maintained a healthy relationship with my family and friends. I don’t recall any major problems all throughout the year. This is by itself an achievement for me. I have grown to be more tolerant and friendly.
  ..well to some extent.. don’t you dare sticking a pointy piece of paper in my ear I’ll smack you down! :)

Now, I’m not perfect. There are still some things I wish I would have achieved. Of course, those are going to be my objectives or resolutions for the new year:

• Get used to waking up for Fajr prayer on time.
• Pay monthly charity.
• Read Qur’an on a regular basis.
• Stick to a gym plan.
• Start my Masters study.

(Tip: I found this great online goal tracker, called Joe’s Goals, which I’m going to use to track down my progress in achieving the above objectives)

Alright, now to the part where I tell you whole bunch of different things that I’ve favored throughout the year (and things that I disliked as well):

Category: Friends

The stars of this year are my colleagues at my new company, namely: Ahmed, Saleh, Ubaadah, and let’s not forget Hamdein (aka degre’ mama). Together, we have turned the dull atmosphere of this workplace into an energetic and fun one. Those guys are the kings of jokes and sarcasm. Sometimes, we laugh so hard we have to run to the meeting room to blow off all the laughs. I believe we are all going to end up kicked out of this place someday, and I’ll be the first to go. Hey, I like setting examples!

Category: Music
Till recently, I have heard about a type of music called Ambient Music but wasn’t too interested in exploring this field of music. That was till I recently wanted something so relaxing I could put on and still continue to focus on what I’m doing or relax to. I went ahead and downloaded an ambient mix CD called The Chill Surrounding the Promise of Snow and, needless to say, I was fascinated by the level of sophistication yet simplicity this genre of music has got to offer. I became an instant fan and ended up downloading all the CDs at ambient-nights.org.

Also, I thought’s it’s also important to honor Fadl Shaker’s new album (Allah A3lam) which instantly became an all-time favorite with it’s lovely tunes and emotional content.

Category: Food
Nothing major here. I’m into food for enjoyment as much as for survival :p But if I had to a pick a favorite restaurant for this year, I would say it’s gotta be the italian Paninos restaurant. Lately, I’ve been having my breakfast there every day. They rock!

Category: Places
Since all the buzz was out about how StarBucks is all for supporting the Jewish army and stuff, I was determined not to go there ever again. Thanks to my friends, I found this great little new coffee shop called Oasis. It has the most comfortable couches ever (much better than StarBucks) and I just love its relatively quite atmosphere.

Category: Tech Gadgets
Well, I guess we have a clear winner in this category: my new lovely NEC VT767 multimedia projector.

This medium-sized wonderful projector has been a blessing for me and the whole family. I can now read my favorite e-books in a much easier way and watch my favorite sitcoms in a theater-like experience (coupled with my new Creative Inspire 5.1 5200 speaker system)

Category: Internet
This year, the boom of the Web 2.0 era took us all by surprise. It became one of my major interests on the web. Everyday, there is a new startup that promises to offer a new service or an improvement to an existing online service.
But the best Web 2.0 website (service) that has made a difference in my life in this year has got to be Google Reader. Keeping up with the latest news and stuff will never be hard again thanks to this wonderful app that lets me very easily check out the latest headlines (through RSS) in all interesting websites so that I don’t have to visit them one by one. Thanks to Google for making such a wonderful time-saving app. Google to continues to make a difference in the world!

So there you have it folks, a year in review: 24. To end this year, and this blog, I set out to pick one song that represents the past year and the future to come. My pick was on an all-time favorite song by The Goo Goo Dolls called: Better Days (download)

Here goes the lyrics. Have a good listen everybody :) See you next year!

And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just the chance that maybe we�ll find better days

Cuz I don�t need boxes wrapped in strings
And designer love and empty things
Just the chance that maybe we�ll find better days

So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight�s the night the world begins again

I need someplace simple where we could live
And something only you can give
And that�s faith and trust and peace while we�re alive

And the one poor child who saved this world
And there�s ten million more who probably could
If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them
So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight�s the night the world begins again

I wish everyone was loved tonight
And somehow stop this endless fight
Just the chance that maybe we�ll find better days

So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight�s the night the world begins again
Cuz tonight�s the night the world begins again

p.s., much thanks to my cousin Afnan for her wonderful birthday postcard she sent me on my birthday. She is truly the star of this one!

So this is a special blog.. it’s about me turning 23!

See I don’t know though.. this year, it just feels like it passed by all too quickly. And this birthday came along unexpectedly. It’s like I was in the middle of all these life issues and I woke up one day and what do you know.. it’s my birthday tomorrow.

For one thing, I don’t have anything planned yet for tom. But what’s more important is when you reflect back on this year and say.. ok so how did one whole year of my life go by?

Well it’s really not an easy question you know. I mean don’t we all hate it when others start to question us on how we made use of our time. But how is it when we ask ourselves this very question? Will we lie and pretend we had a nutritious year? Or will we face up to the facts and honestly state our opinion of how really this year passed by.Well, in this blog, I’m gonna step up to the plate and state how did 2005 go for me.

If I was an outside observer looking down on AL and watching him all along this year, I’d honestly say he’s made quite a lot of improvements most of which are personality-wise. So if you take, for the sake of comparison, me when I was a fresh graduate and where I am right now, I’m pretty sure you’ll notice the huge difference in the way thinking and behaving. Not only did I become more responsible, my relationship with other people, including my family, has become steady healthy and full of love and respect. Some friends confirm this to the point of questioning whether I just hit puberty this year lol but that’s just nonsense .. hey DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! :)

So with that said, I think I can safely say that in my 23rd year, I’ve been good to my parents, friends, and coworkers and I’m proud of that. I love ‘em all very much!

But that’s not everything right. This next thing I know many of you are tired of hearing me talk about it but let’s face it does change things drastically. Yeah the car! I mean come on ya’ll remember the first time you took control of a vehicle that was all yours to play with. It did feel great didn’t. It opened whole new set of possibilities for you. And that’s exactly what it did to me. Although I just acquired it recently, it has managed to make me feel lot better about myself and also be of use to others. Now I take some load off my father by driving my little bros back and forth to school. I run family errands every once in a while. I run my own errands for god’s sake. And although the maintenance costs are quite demanding, I’d say it’s worth every penny because it does makes me feel good about myself.

While that fuels my self-esteem, what brings it down is the fact that I’m no where ahead in my career than I was a year ago. I mean sure I’ve gained a one year experience, but that’s about all. Just work experience doing the same thing I’ve been doing for a whole year. Actually, in terms of where the project is, we’re back in the first cycle or so of the same project that I’ve been working on this whole year. It really is frustrating. Lots of project management mistakes were made that I just have to put up with.

And that’s why I came to the conclusion that in my current company were business is conducted in an ad-hoc fashion, what I’m really supposed to do is to prepare myself for the next opportunity which is supposed to be a well-established international company that does business the way it should be done! YEP! that’s what I really should be focusing on and this is where I’ve slipped this year. I’ve always had this plan and stuff but I didn’t do anything about it.

So I guess what I’m saying is that if I’m promising myself something for the next year, it’d be to simply CARRY OUT YOUR FREAKING PLANS! Damn it, when did I learn to be this lazy. See, that’s one of the most important things to get rid of next year and I honestly hope my next bd’s blog will check that off the list. I’ll be working towards that.

To conclude, I’d say it’s been a wonderful year, with lots of ups and downs, tries and tribulations, happy and sad moments. But I believe I have the potential to make my 24th rather more productive and worth-while. Dad’s always said to me: “You have the potential for much more”. I believe that heart and soul, and I’ll prove it this year. Nop.. that’s not just a blog talk, It’s gonna be translated into actions and ya’ll will see :)

Happy birthday me .. love you all .. please stay in touch coz I’ve lost enough friends and I don’t wanna lose you now.

Peace

Yesterday passed like any ordinary day! Aside from the few friends who congratulated me, the important people in my life seemed to have forgotten (though I reminded them a week ago) of my special day. I ended up sleeping most of the day, obviously out of disappointment. Frankly, that’s my way of dealing with such depressive situations at the moment. Because the thing is, this day is important to me not only because it’s my birthday, but also it lets me see who does and doesn’t care about me. Of course, I excuse my friends who don’t know or didn’t remember, but those close to me are out to acknowledge this day and make it special for me.

Personally, I look for such days and opportunities to show the people I love how much I value having them in my life. I love seeing the smile on their faces when they know how much they mean to me, when they know that I actually took the time to deliberately choose a gift, write a greeting card, and show up with a smile that says I’m here for you to celebrate this special occasion with you!

I slept last night thinking I don’t have a family of this kind..

But not too long ahead in the future, today!, my family surprised me with a wonderful cake that said so many things I didn’t know before. It said words of love, caring, and being there for me. But above all, it made me realize the judgment I made too quickly.

Today marks my 22nd birthday. I’m trying to figure out how this one compares to the previous ones.. but I keep getting those mixed emotions.On one hand, I’m very thankful to where I am in my life at this moment, to the wonderful friends I have, and for being able to tell those apart from the fake ones.

On the other, I look ahead in the future and try to see where I want to be 10 years from now. It just shows me there is a tremendous amount of work to be done to reach those goals of mine. I need to take it a step at a time, but I fear losing sight of my main objectives and wandering through never-ending mazes, such as getting stuck in dead-job where I can’t grow in terms of knowledge, getting hung up on a girl who turns out to be a total waste of precious time, etc.

Anyway, I’m an optimistic person and I’m so looking forward in this year to ignite the engine that’ll get me where I ‘want’ to be.

Peace and Love!