Let's wrap this one up folks!

As promised, this will be my final post for this year, and also a review on how 2008 was for me.

Personally 2008 wasn't one of the better years for me. Similar to 2007, only with a varied timeline and a few differences in the actual happenings, but for the most bit it did not live up to what I had in mind for it. Unlike 2007 though, I remember starting 2008 at a major high. This time last year, I would say that I can't be fazed. One year down the line, I will say that I was wrong.

The first half of 2008 did live up to some of the expectations that I had for it. I was doing well academically, personally and professionally. So was she. I managed to land my first paid job, even though it was a mere 20 day stint, it was still something that I really enjoyed doing, and did it with all my heart. It's something that I'd love to do on a regular basis. During the first half of this year I moved from strength to strength and I had it all planned out. I was motivated, dedicated and ridiculously energetic.

Professionally, 2008 was my first real exposure to a working environment. It's not that I haven't ever worked before. All the time I spent at Make A Wish and ERAD & UNOPS was not wasted time. But this was the first time I was working to better my career. And even though it was a learning experience I can, Alhamdulillah, safely say that I only had good experiences. I hope and pray that 2009 continues my run.

In 2008 I've also actively returned to blogging. I've made it a point to post regularly, and I started a few things that keep this blog alive like TWS and BOM. I'm glad I'm keeping the promise that I made when I started blogging, and 2008 has been the more successful of the two years that this blog has been on the internet.

The last third of 2008 wasn't all that it was spruced up to be though. In fact, it all started at one instantaneous moment, and I guess it was something that I wasn't prepared for and wasn't something that I expected. I lost a loved one to circumstances that were.. are.. beyond my control. I guess if 2008 taught me anything it's that I have a fear of not being able to control the happenings of my life, and letting others affect it. If I could change it I would, but the fact that there's nothing I can do to affect it, sorta leaves you with this helpless feeling. It's like doing great at work, but not getting the credit that you deserve.

4 months since, I can safely say that my thought processes have changed beyond what I'd like them to be. I'm not as confident about myself as I was, and that to me is a major blow. I want to regain it, and over time I know I will InshAllah.

I met T this year after lessay 5 - 8 years. T, I want to thank you for being a great friend and.. I dunno. Thanks again. I may not be as much of a friend to you, as you are to me, but as a new years resolution I'll try and change that (sooner or later you'll stop missing Irfan :P ).

Sana left for University this year - I met her today - and I guess I realized that I really do miss her a lot. She's my best friend. No one functions with me the way she does. She's a rare person and I'm glad I met her. Well whaddya know, Anish did something right after all.

I want to appreciate the fact that Barry and I have also become best friends. If at all MAHE did anything right, it was putting the both of us in the same section, and I'm glad I met you buddy. Although, I have to apologize, I can't take you with me to Boston (Harvard). That travel companion position is reserved. (Guitar Hero tomorrow again?)

One of my closest friends, Hussein Ali, got married this month. I've been with him for a while now and I know that no one deserves it any more than he does, and I pray that he get's everything that he wants and that he lives up to everything that his parents want him to. Hussein I know you're never going to read this, but for the record, you're a great friend. Even though we've not met/spoken as much in the last 2 months, you're a great guy, and I'm glad I invited you for my 18th birthday.

As for you. I really don't know what to say. I guess at the end of it all, I've said everything that I've wanted to, and so have you. It was one hell of a ride. 2 and a half of the best years of my life, however short they both may be. I guess at the end of it all, I know that Allah will guide us to what is best for us and our futures. Both mine and yours. Whether they're separated now, or maybe at some point in the future, joined again. Unfortunately, he can only guide us, but the decision is still made by us. For now, I'm going to stick with mine. I am moving on. But I'm never giving up. Because that's what I would have done last year. And that's what I'll do now.

Do me a favour though. What was the name of that song? The one you made me listen to that night? I think it was by She Wants Revenge, but I'm not sure. Either way, be safe.

This time last year, I expected the following year to be just great. In some ways it was. I got much closer to some people, some GOOD people. A Muslim is defined by the company he keeps. And I think I keep good company. In some ways 2008 blew.

At the end of it, I've learned that we as people have very limited control over our lives, even though we claim to be in total control. We're not. Our lives are deeply affected by the actions of others, both in positives and in negatives. The difference is you only tend to notice the negatives because they make your life that much harder. I'm not bitter about it, it's just something that I've noticed. People tend to remember only the bad, and forget the good.

InshAllah, InshAllah, InshAllah, 2009 will bring a change for me, my life and those in it.

This is a story from the Prophet's (SAW) time. It's not the exact words or translation, but it's the same meaning. A man came up to the Prophet (SAW) once and asked him, "I have a camel. Every night when I travel, should I leave it up to Allah to protect it, or should I tie it up and then pray to Allah?" The Prophet (SAW) responded, "Tie the camel down and then pray to Allah." What it means is that you can't leave everything up to Allah and hope for him to fix things. There are things that you have to do yourself, and only once you've done them can you ask Allah to help you.

InshAllah, he will. InshAllah 2009 will be everything that I want it to be.


This is your writer, signing off after a long, eventful and tumultuous 2008. See you guys again in 2009.


Muhammed Ali Jamadar


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The Ballads of M: I can't think of a title for this..

This is something I've done in the past, and I can say without doubt that it's because I am naive and immature. But being another young adult with only a laptop and internet connection at his disposal, I know that this is my little bit in trying to help. I'd love to do more, and maybe one day I can and will be able to do more. Till then, I'm not going to stop writing.

Today, Israeli warplanes launched multiple aerial attacks across Palestinian lands and killed at least 155 people, wounding another 310.

I know that a LOT of people have Yahoo! as their homepage, but I wonder why I don't see that much of a reaction? I mean, apparently we're still human beings right? When India was attacked and a similar number of people were killed at the Taj and the Trident, remember the buzz? The Media attention? The public outcry? The political pressure on Pakistan to control their people?

I'm not saying that, what happened in India was a small deal, not at ALL. What I'm trying to say is that why is it that people who were SO shocked about the death and murder in India, why those SAME people don't have the same reactions to the terrorist actions of the Israeli army in Palestine? Whether it was a 20 year old waving an AK-47 or it was an Israeli pilot in an F-16, murder is MURDER.

When a few Israelis were killed at the Narmin house in India and a baby ( "Baby Moshe" ) was orphaned, HOW many TV hours were dedicated to them? HOW many news channels aired their plight repeatedly? Again, I'm not saying that an Israeli's life is worthless (although I'm sure a lot of people would), but WHY not the same outcry when SO many MORE people are slaughtered in Palestine?

Where are the NDTV specials? Where is CNN's live covering? Where are the BBC? I'm not even gonna mention FOX news.

It is DISGUSTING to mention that the populace of this world has come to ignore the deaths of certain communities only because, it is now so common to hear of their deaths. Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghanis and even the Chechnyans earlier on.

It is DISGUSTING that the superpowers sit back and allow Israel to do as they see fit, but will threaten Pakistan with military action when India was attacked.

It is DISGUSTING that your average bloke can power up his TV or laptop and read the deaths of a hundred Palestinians and go, "Oh well," and then go on checking the football scores.

It is DISGUSTING that we sit here in our comfortable lives and care about the deaths that happened in India, or the 9/11 attacks or the London Tube attacks only because we know people there and because it "affects" us in a manner of speaking. But when we hear about the other deaths that don't affect us, we can read, comprehend and then continue to ignore.

It is DISGUSTING how people can care when supposedly superior races of humans are killed but then turn away when a supposedly inferior race is slaughtered in broad daylight.

It is DISGUSTING how some countries will defend the perpetrators of mass genocide.

How can an American or an Israeli now sit back and wonder why they really are hated so much. I don't hate every American or Israeli, because I don't want to stereotype. And because I know there are good people on all sides of a war. I know there are bad people in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan too.

But believe you me, it's not easy convincing yourself to remain focused, and not to hate.

M


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Could it be..?

Around mid-October, I heard this rumour and remember laughing it off as unlikely. I mean who would go through such lengths so as to block video hosting, P2P networks and torrents. At that point it seemed unlikely and, to be entirely frank, extremely risque. Can you imagine internet censorship to THAT degree?

Last week, there was a story spreading round (I mentioned even) that a ship had dropped anchor on a deep sea cable, severing lines and subsequently disrupting internet activity in the UAE. Now we all read and acknowledged said event, and understood why a lot of our internet based softwares and websites were acting up. I mentioned that even blogger was slow. By yesterday, all my internet speeds were back up to par.

With one small difference.

YouTube, the web's premier video hosting website, is no longer accessible. NO, it's not 'blocked' but you can no longer connect to their server. So all you end up seeing is a page that reads, "The connection to the server was reset while attempting to contact it." For a while I figured it was just the internet acting up. 5 days and regular internet later I wonder.. Could it be?

Limewire, one of the world's popular P2P networks, refuses to connect. Neither do any of my torrent files. Weird I thought. Internet was fine, so then why do these things refuse to connect. Allowing Etisalat the benefit of the doubt I rang them up to ask them if the internet issues were solved. A nice Pinoy lady responded in the affirmative. Internet was (supposedly) back to normal.

Total brain racking time! What is going on? YouTube, Limewire and torrents STILL not working. Somewhere inside me the conspiracy theorist woke up. I fired up a VPN to check something out.

Guess what I found....

YouTube, Limewire and torrents working JUST fine when the VPN was fired up, but not even connecting when I'm running my regular lines.

From this I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. If anyone has the same problems, or, is not having the same problems, do let me know.

Cheers!

M


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9 days till..

In 9 days we'll be done with this year and onto the next. I'll recap on this year closer to the end.

University is lame. The classes are lame, the students are lame and the timings are lame. But it's nice to have friends there at the very least. This semester wasn't all that, academically. The three week break that I took to India turned out to be one of the lesser smart things that I've done. I missed 3 tests, 4 assignments and another 3 quizzes. You KNOW that's not going to turn out good. This time I do have a legitimate excuse, but it's still just that, an excuse.

The interwebz is still messed up here in the UAE. A cable in the ocean was cut when an anchor dropped down on it and so we have some Frenchies with robot submarines trying to fix 'em. I called up Etisalat and they were nice enough to inform me that they had absolutely no idea when it would be fixed. I asked for a ballpark estimate. "I zhon't know," replied the Egyptian call center guy. "Maybe vun day maybe two days maybe niikist eeyar.."

.......nice..

Oh well, it's really hard to even BLOG, as everything takes a decent amount of time to load up, and considering I've got Zemanta installed, it takes that much longer. 52KBps wasn't this bad, was it?


Oh well. Back to the days of morse code..


M


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100 things everyone ought to do..

tole this off T who, well, stole this off another blogger. Hmm. I really should stop ripping him off...

Or not.

100 things that everyone should do.

Those in bold = done
Those in italics = really really wanna do

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a preying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child [LNZA =) ]
16. Had food poisoning (could you imagine it if THIS was in italics..)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (yes. it's true. I DO want it)
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (How about ONLY killed?)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

So that was my version of the same. Hope you liked it!


M


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