Reflections on 2005

As the current year winds down, the media reminds us of the events that have made headlines this past year. These headlines are usually presented through top ten lists. Most of these lists are predictable and uninteresting but I did find one that we may all enjoy.

So the tallies are in and the most memorable phrase of 2005 goes to:

Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job [George Bush]

"Brownie" being the last name of the former FEMA Chief Mike Brown, who resigned amid public uproar over his handling of the aid to New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

In sports, especially hockey it is quite common to add an "ie" to the end of a first or last name. So Mats Sundin will be called "Mattie" or Mikael Tellqvist is called "Tellie". In basketball, you take the first initial of your first name and some part of your last name to give yourself a nickname. For example, Tracy Mcgrady is T-Mac.

Suddenly, I now have the following nicknames:

• Ozzie
• Sheikie (She-key)
  
• O-She (Yoshi)

My true nickname/alias is Jose Shake. The first name Jose is because everytime I say my name to someone in the United States, they always interpret Ozair as Jose, since they have never heard of Ozair before and Jose is common. I personally do not think these two names sound similar. The last name Shake because that is the proper way of saying my last name.

Both Junaid and I did have a previous entry about Bushims so I don't have much to add, but I leave off my last post of 2005 with my favorite Bushisms as mentioned in this article.

• "I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?" Bush asked in a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a U.N. Security Council meeting in September.
• "This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table," Bush said in Brussels last February.
• "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law," Bush said in describing illegal immigrants in Tucson, Arizona, last month.

Have a happy new solar year and extra leap second.

A picture is worth a thousand words

I was looking up an article on Wikipedia for a blog entry, when I came across the following picture under Islam and clothing and decided this picture was more interesting to blog about.

This picture appears on a billboard in Indonesia. The billboard shows a picture warning tourists to wear a proper attire when traveling into this city.

The picture on the left says "Wrong clothing" and the picture on the right says "Correct clothing"

My observations on the picture:

• Picture on left shows the husband with his arm behind his wife but in the right picture they stand with their hands on the side.
• Picture on right shows the woman wearing a hijab with traditional Islamic dress in Indonesia.
• Picture on right shows man wearing a traditional cap worn in Indonesia. He no longer possesses his sunglasses and is wearing a full sleeve shirt.
• Picture on left shows husband and wife smiling, but picture on right shows them more serious.
• Picture on left shows buildings and a garden in the background, while picture on right shows a mosque.
  

I agree with some of the observations, but I don't understand why the modestly dressed Muslims are less happier. Also, what's wrong with sunglasses ? They are so stylish!!!

Are Muslims unhappy non-fashionable people ?

Have a problem with this article on Wikipedia ? No problem, you can edit it yourself.

Say "Cheese"

UPDATE (12/31/2005): On boxing day, I bought this camera.

I have been blessed with a "techie" geekiness, a quality that my family and friends take advantage of to help them provide technology consulting services. I get contacted by people if they have a computer problem or need advice on buying a computer or some other gadget. I do not mind, but at times I feel overwhelmed. I cannot outsource my services to India, as I do know someone who can provide such a quality service for free. Fortunately, I have options now, as my blog will be my forum to educate my techie services seekers.

I have been researching to purchase a digital camera. Many people have asked me tips in the past, but I was unable to give a clear and concise answer. I have decided to post my criteria for finding a digital camera below. For additional reference, you can check out this report.

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Criteria # 1: Resolution

Resolution represents the number of pixels used to represent an image. Camera's measure resolution in mega-pixels. The more mega-pixels (MP), the better the quality. However, most people use digital camera's to take smaller pictures and email them, so you do not really need a large number of MP.

Rules of thumb:
2-megapixel camera: 5-by-7 print
3-megapixel camera: 8-by-10 print
4-megapixel (or greater) camera: 11-by-17 print

I am satisfied with a 4 MP because I do not intend to take larger pictures and I don't want something less than 4 MP because it would be too outdated.

Criteria # 2: Price

Price is usually effected by brand and mega-pixels. The higher the mega-pixels, the more expensive the camera. The maximum I was willing to spend was $350.00. Most of the camera's available at this price were 4 MP or lower.

Criteria # 3: Brand

Most sales people and online digital camera retailers agree that Canon is the best brand for digital camera's. Other brands such as: Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Olympus, and Sony also do well.

Criteria # 4: Optical and Digital zoom

One of the most important tasks you do with your digital camera is zoom. Zoom represents how much you magnify your subject. Optical zoom is more important than digital zoom because optical zoom magnifies without losing quality, digital zoom does not. I would look for atleast 3x optical and digital zoom.

Criteria # 5: Size

I personally would like to put my digital camera in my pocket so that it is easy to carry. Having a small, easy to handle camera makes life easier but difficult if you do not like clicking on the small buttons.

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There are a lot of other features that I could have mentioned, but the criteria mentioned above were the most important to me. It is always good to be an educated consumer before you make a large purchase because many times we purchase items based on price and not value.

So, the next time you go to the store and a Future Shop sales associate tries to sell you a digital camera, you should be able to see through his lies.

Gingerbread fun

I recently came across an interesting set of pictures I took about a year ago. My sister and I decided to compete against each to see who could do a better job in decorating a gingerbread. Instead of doing the typical gingerbread decoration, I decided we needed to make things more interesting. So the theme was to decorate a Gingerbread Muslim brother and sister.

{insert drumroll ....}

I introduce to you here the Gingerbread Muslim brother.


You will notice the colorful candies that represent his beard. The red icing at the top represents his prayer cap. The lines at the bottom of his legs represent his shalwar kameez. This gingerbread has experienced significant hardship, as you can see by the break in the middle.

Now, here is the Gingerbread Muslim Sister.


You will notice the thick icing on the head representing her hijab.

You can be the judge as to who won the competition.

Driving and not flying

A huge winter storm hit parts of the Northeast United States and unfortunately I was caught in the middle of this storm. I am in Boston this week on business and was planning to come back home tonight (Friday). The weather forecasts were predicting a huge snow storm that was supposed to dump over 25 cm of snow ending early afternoon. I had a flight for Friday evening, so I thought that perhaps my flight would eventually depart from Boston Logan airport tonight.

I left the customer site at lunch to head to the airport. I knew that traffic would be heavy, but I never would have expected the driving conditions could be so bad. The snow plows did not clean the highways that I was driving on, neither were there any lights on the highways. It was total white-out conditions, I could not see anything.

The snow was coming down so fast that my car windows were covered with snow and my wind shield wipers could not move because of the amount of snow. I had to stop on the shoulder and clean the snow off my car, but a few minutes later, the snow was back on my car windows.

I even saw a lightning flash during my drive, at first I did not think that lighting could occur in a snow storm, but later I read in the news that a flight was forced to land because it was struck by lighting on the runway.

As I arrived at the airport, not surprisingly my flight was cancelled. Everyone at the airport was rushing to get on the next available flight. The earliest flight I could get was tomorrow (Saturday), so I needed a hotel to stay at for the night. Luckily, I was able to get a hotel room; all of the rooms were close to selling out. However, the room rates were extremely pricey. All of the hotels were charging extremely high rates, knowing travelers did not have many options.

Today was quite a frightening experience; I was driving alone in a city where I did not know anyone nor the surroundings around the city. I was lucky to have arrived safely at the airport. Today is definitely a day where I am counting my blessings.

What am I watching on television ?

I have this habit of not being able to eat without watching television or reading the newspaper. Each night I come home from work to eat, I flip through my usually sequence of channels:

30: TSN
22: Rogers Sportsnet
53: The Score
26: CBC Newsworld
33: CNN

Finally, if I still cannot find something decent to watch on television, I settle for

24: CP24.

At worst, I can stare at the news ticker to see the top headlines. However, this week I am in Boston, so my channel sequence has changed to the following:

ESPN
ESPN 2
ESPN News
ESPN Classic

As you can tell, I am a huge sports fan, so there is usually something on television that I can always watch. Although, out of curiosity, I check to see what is on Fox news, and I am never disappointed as the propaganda machine is in high gear. Fox news is probably the most bias piece of news you will ever watch. Luckily, we here in Canada have a more objective network in the CBC. The passionate eye and the fifth estate are two shows that I watch on a regular basis. These shows take a deeper look into issues that affect us both locally and globally. Recently, the fifth estate got a lot of publicity for its investigative report on the lack of security in Toronto’s Pearson airport.

I am a news junkie (on top of a sports junkie), I like to keep myself updated on all of the news locally and around the world. A show that I have started to watch on a regular basis is The Hour. The Hour is hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, whom many would know from his days at Much Music. George presents his show in-front of a live audience and covers issues in a manner that attracts a younger audience, challenging many current events with various viewpoints.

So, if your interested in the latest news and your looking for someone other than Peter Mansbridge to tell you the news, why don’t you block an hour in your schedule at 8:00 pm to watch The Hour.