N. | One Or The Other

When I was a young boy I loved to read random books, and get random information. I thank my parents for providing us with a huge library filled with books on many subjects. The books that I loved the most, were the encyclopedia volumes.

Sometimes, I would flip through a volume and stop at something I found to be interesting. I would read about it, learn, and probably flip around a little more and then go about playing or watching TV. My thirst for knowledge has never ceased, and I say Alhamduli’Allah for that.

Today, I browse online, scanning pages, jumping from link to link but I have found that the quality of information I read online is not what it used to be. I mostly read blogs, and a lot of them are personal, which is fine, but mostly I don’t come out with anything after reading it, except maybe knowing something more about the person.

I sometimes read Wikipedia. It does provide me with a lot of information, but it doesn’t feel satisfying enough, maybe the idea that it is written and edited by regular people (anyone really) is a turn off.

Lately, I’ve been feeling this thirst again. It isn’t only about reading or learning but something more, I can’t quite place it. I feel I want more.. and what I want is certainly and surely not something tangible.

NB:
While searching for a picture to add to this post, I have found the following post entitled: Excellent Lesson Plan Resource for Younger Children by the Educating the Muslim Child blog. The blog is now closed but there is a lot of useful information there.

:)

Popularity: 8% [?]

المقالة موجودة أيضاً بالغة العربية

In the past there was 8 Things…
Then there was 7 Things…

Today I bring you 6 Things!

Tagged by Amethyst.

The Rules:

1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

The Quirks:

1. If I don’t have a preference, I use a natural logical series to decide.
2. If I can’t think of a series to apply I create my own series.
3. If no series can be applies, I create my own logical parameters and then decide. (for example: juice based on color, or frequency of a type).
4. If I still can’t decide, I let others decide for me (without asking them, just thinking what they’d want and I pick the other).
5. If that doesn’t apply, I relate two unrelated things, and then redo all the above to decide.
6. If I still haven’t decided, I still try to avoid picking by random.

The Victims:

1. Laialy
2. SkinnyBumbleBee
3. Swair
4. Fayoor
5. Falantan
6. G

Popularity: 29% [?]

In 1986 we used to play around in the garden in front of our house. It was a public garden, not one of those large ones, but just big enough for us and our neighbors to play around in. We used to play soccer in the street as well next to the garden. And how can I forget, actually eating some of the flowers in the garden.

We used to run around in it, exploring, the grass was long, and we liked that because if laid down we would be almost invisible. We’d also love watching the tiny grasshoppers jump out as we ran around the garden. If we’d spot one on a leaf, we’d slowly come up to it and try to catch it. We even developed our own grasshopper-catching strategy — by placing our hands in a certain position and a certain distance, so that even if it jumps we can catch it.

We let them go, and try to catch them again. What we also loved to catch were small butterflies as well — you’d think I’m talking about some fantasy land, no, this is in Kuwait, right in front of our house in Bayan. One of the last insects we’d run after and try to catch was the ladybird. There were tons of them. We weren’t mean to the creatures, we’d let them go, but exploring was such a fascinating thing to do then.

Fast forward a few years later, and we’re into video games, and running around the house more — breaking things — and not going out as much as we used to. A few years later I remember going out in the garden, it was quiet. I didn’t see any grasshoppers, or butterflies, or ladybirds. There were a few caterpillars. We entertained ourselves with them, but soon enough, we stopped going to the garden.

When I look outside the window now at the garden. I see garbage around the edges, and the neglected plants. The flowers were all gone, all that was left was grass, and even it, looked like it was in a terrible state. On one part of the garden there was a huge pile of sand and pebbles for construction.

I went out to look at it, but there was nothing there. I hoped that as I stepped into it, a grasshopper would jump out, or a butterfly would flutter away — there was nothing.

I wondered if these were all gone because of urbanization. Was it all because we were changing the ecology so much? New people had to move in, and the creatures had to move out. Thinking about it that way, I’d suppose the people are more worthy of the place. Somehow.

Popularity: 36% [?]

I finally managed to get some posters up that I have been meaning to. It took me a while because I was looking for a good way to put them up without damaging the walls or having to put holes through them. The only thing that required drilling was getting the sword rack up there.
Click on the picture for a few more.

Popularity: 31% [?]

I haven’t done a tag in a while. So here’s the latest tag by Shoush.

Seven things I PLAN to do:
1. Changing my theme, once more.
2. Going to work early tomorrow morning.
3. Be more active, online.
4. Organize my room.
5. Save money (uh..)
6. …. …. …. .. ……
7. READ a book. (OK, it is planned.. for a while now)

Seven things I CAN do:
1. Make a perfect water drop sound.
2. Be completely absent minded (hey.. that’s a skill)
3. Whistle, “This old man.. He played one..”
4. Change a tire (badum-pish!) (thats tyre for you brits out there)
5. Drive backwards. (Don’t ask how I know..)
6. Multiply. (With numbers, not the mitosis kind).
7. Fix things.

Seven things I CAN’T do:
1. Drink a glass of cold water in one go.
2. Hurt someone intentionally.
3. Eat shrimps (I can’t alright.. I can’t..)
4. Sit cross legged for a long time.
5. Drive a stick-shift.
6. See without my glasses.
7. Talk on the phone and watch something at the same time.

Seven things I SAY the most:
1. Hatha oho (”That’s how it is”.)
2. Eeh ba3d (”yes, more” though it is used as a confirmation.)
3. 3adl (”Right” It literally translates to justice.)
4. laaa yubaaa (”nooo daaaad” It just a gesture of disappointment)
5. Laish (Why?)
6. [silence] (yes I do remain quiet a lot)
7. eg3ad! (”Sit!” but it is used as a gesture of impress)

Popularity: 34% [?]

Rambling. That is what I’ll be doing here now. I generally like to string my thoughts, make sure they are tuned and then put them out. I have noticed sometimes that what I say comes out totally wrong. When I speak without thinking, my words are mixed, and my thoughts are mixed, so what I say, doesn’t quite make sense.

This of course has nothing to do with my moments of nervousness. I sometimes become nervous and say completely irrelevant things. This has happened in quite a few occasions and I usually can spring out of it. I can be witty sometimes, other times I use diversions and other means to distract people from my faulty words of meaninglessness.

Popularity: 41% [?]

As I promised I would be writing a series about what I would want to be. In part 1, I discussed why I want to be an engineer. The good thing there, is that the opportunities are all available, but being an engineer is not all what I want to be. I also want to be a scientist.

Since I was a young boy I loved playing the mad scientist. I assume I got the idea from all the TV shows and cartoons back then. It seemed quite cool, to be the evil genius who mixes chemicals and creates an explosion that in the end produces a strange and powerful chemical that would probably make a person invincible! As young as I was, I was quite unfamiliar with the concepts of chemical reactions, only that certain colored liquids mixed together would probably produce something quite cool.

I remember buying my first chemistry set. I was so overjoyed! I didn’t know most of the chemicals on there, but I knew that eating them was dangerous, so I suppose that was all I had to know. There was a little booklet with experiments to go with it, but I was not interested in simple experiments. I remember going crazy one day, and mixing minerals in a beaker and different chemicals and it started to froth and react and overflow! I was overjoyed! I felt like a true mad scientist that has created something!

I was young at the time, very young, so bare in mind I am not naturally cruel to animals, but what came next was only natural. I got a needle and filled it with the evil liquid I had created. I needed a test subject, so I caught a cockroach. Yes, I did. It was evil, and I would never do such a thing again. I injected it with this chemical fluid, I won’t go into detail, but nothing exciting happened.

That is not why I want to be a scientist, but I wanted to create things. As I grew up, I wanted to work in a lab, making all these experiments and creating cures, medicines, chemicals, and God knows what! However that is not science, that is only a brach of it, and what I’d really want to do is become a scientist in all fields.

• I’d want to make a new discovery that would perpetually benefit everyone.
• I’d dedicate my resources on the present situation, and study current problems that are affecting people to solve them.
• I’d try to build on our scientific heritage, after all some of the best scientists were the arabs.
• I’d make the knowledge publicly available, and even explained in the best way, for everyone to understand.
• I’d study, and test, every chemical product to the fullest before making it available to the public.
• Lastly, I would not be doing this for business either, education and knowledge goes bad when it is commercialized.

Popularity: 50% [?]

We ask ourselves if we are who we wanted to be, or if we will be who we want to be. I do hope that we can all be what we’d like, however sometimes we’re not. This doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t like what we do, or we regret not doing what we’d like to have done. (confused yet? :p) I’m planning to write a series of what I wanted to be. The reason is, because I wanted to be many things, what I am now, is one of them, I’ll mention that last.

Today I’ll mention why I want to be an engineer. Sure, I loved breaking radios and little toys just to see how they worked. I used to get scolded a lot when I was younger, always breaking things and rarely ever put them back together. I did learn how a lot of things worked, and wanted to create stuff on my own. I don’t believe I did create something, but I always imagined it. This is probably why I have a hypothetical Slapper product that will probably never see the light of day (hope it wouldn’t its pure evil :p).

I entered engineering school here in Kuwait University, and wanted to be an Airplane designer. Sounds cool doesn’t it? Sadly, my hopes were shattered when I started failing in Calculus B and Physics 2, even the subjects (in Arabic) which were supposed to help me pass and raise my GPA were no good for me. I failed them miserably too. I changed my left and changed my major altogether, and don’t really have much ties to engineering anymore.

I do have an understanding of it, I see things in a very systematic way, and get quite a bit of engineering concepts. I’d really want to be an engineer to make the world a better place.

• I’d try to invent better environmental products. I wouldn’t mind the cost if the long time benefit would be higher.
• I’d research into better raw materials and a systematic and efficient way to use them, and all their byproducts, up until disposal. Sadly, it seems that currently not the whole process is looked into.
• I’d concentrate on building things that don’t easily break, and can be easily repaired by anyone. Wouldn’t it be just helpful if you could fix something for cheap, and get affordable, reusable, durable spare parts?
• As an engineer I’d listen to the people, not the companies, in the end the products I’d create are for the people to use, not the companies to make big $ off of.
• I’d really love to participate in technology and advanced forums as well. New technology is good, but most of it hasn’t been tested that well.

Popularity: 51% [?]

Some of you may have seen the latest changes to the MacBook Pro. Since I have the older PPC PowerBook it seems only natural for me to update my laptop, add to that the constant nagging from some people I know *cough* Bojacob *cough* MJKout *cough*cough* G *cough*… excuse me.. seems like I caught something. Another huge reason for me to update is that PPC processors are outdates, most current applications only support Intel processors (especially work related applications in my case).

I went ahead and tried to order it from Apple but they refused my request stating that:

U.S. SALES ONLY -
The Apple Store sells and ships products only within the continental
United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. No shipments can be made to APO or
FPO addresses, United States territories, or addresses outside the
United States. You may not export any products purchased at the Apple
Store

And then they said something about…

We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Inconvenience? Yeah, you bet! I’m currently looking for a solution to this dilemma. I would rather buy it from the U.S. since it is much cheaper, and would save me well over 150KD which is approximately 550USD! If anyone has a solution please let me know through the comments or you can get my e-mail from my blogger profile.

Popularity: 58% [?]