Traffic jam

Being stuck in traffic is one of the most frustrating experience in anyones day. The fact that you are wasting your time and are powerless to do anything about it can make one go crazy. A recent study done in the United States states that people waste about 72 hours a year in traffic. Wouldn't you love to have three days of your life back. Now, I thought traffic in Toronto was bad (it is one of the worst cities for traffic congestion in North America) but then saw the following pictures of traffic jams from around the world. For a complete listing, check out this link.

Sao Paula, Brazil



China


Moscow, Russia

got roti?

I went out to dinner with my family a few weeks ago at a Hakka restaurant. My family does not eat out often and when we eat at home, it is usually at different times. You would probably guess that there were many silent moments while we waited for our dinner to be served. During one of those silent moments, as my siblings played games on their cell phone, I noticed a women in front of us eating her meal with roti. I have never seen roti being served at a Hakka restaurant so I glanced over the menu again looking for the roti menu item, but did not find it.

I thought to myself ... 'this lady must have brought the roti herself'. My mom mentioned that this lady is probably a 'hardcore roti-er' and does not eat rice. I would consider myself the opposite, a 'hardcore chawal-er' or rice eater, but would never go the extreme of bringing my own rice, otherwise I would be a # 1 FOB. I can understand people bringing their own drinks, or spices to restaurants, but I cannot accept roti. I just came to the conclusion that such an event could only occur in Brampton. :)

Going green

This week the United Nations held a climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia. The goal of this conference is to bring together representatives from all countries and agree on a roadmap to fight climate change.

Climate change is a topic on everyone mind these days. It seems that the latest trend involves involves "being green" - environmentally friendly. Governments, corporations, individuals are all making an effort to reduce their impact on the environment. So, I would also like to announce my effort that I am making to become more environmentally friendly.

A pet peeve of mine is the unnecessary printing at work. I notice people consistently printing emails, articles, and books, which could be easily read from their computer screen (don't even start me on the misuse of colour printing). Now, I tend to read a lot of tutorials on the Internet for configuring applications so it is convenient for me to print out the article and follow the instructions, but once I am done with it, I end up recycling the article.

I have decided to not print anything unless it is required for documentation. I have found that setting up another monitor (dual monitor) has made it easy for me to avoid printing articles.


The nice thing with a dual monitor is you can drag and drop applications between the monitors, basically you have increased the allowable space for your monitor by 2. If your interested in setting it up, you can follow the instructions here. Now, you may argue that another monitor requires extra energy, but I do shut it down when I leave work and as the picture above indicates, I am focusing right now on saving the trees :)

Seven!

I visited the dentist today to get my seventh tooth extracted. This tooth had not grown out all the way and had been causing pain for some time now. I have always had positive experiences and rarely felt any discomfort during any visits. Even the first six teeth that I had extracted were not that bad. In-fact, when I got my wisdom teeth out, I was given laughing gas, which would trigger laughter as I felt discomfort. I felt like Joker from Batman, laughing internally without making any noise ... lol.

Dentists have always been nice to me, reassuring me during painful moments, and keeping things positive during negative times. However, sometimes I feel dentists are too nice. I have never understood why dentists make conversations during a visit. I am a nice guy and don't want to be rude, so I express facial acknowledgment of discussions, obviously unable to make verbal confirmation.

During a visit a few months ago, the dentist told me her story of the issues she faced with her cell phone provider. It was an entertaining story, but I wonder if she felt odd talking without any feedback from the talkee, or perhaps, she needed to take her mind off looking at patients teeth. Hopefully, I did not eat gobee and roti before visiting :)

Choices

Like most working folks, my morning routine involves the consumption of coffee. I was downtown for work last week near Yonge and Church street and as you can see from the picture, I had to make a choice between Starbucks and Tim Hortons. Both places were directly across from one another.

As I walked towards the intersection, I observed the people who had purchased coffee. People in suits or dressy office clothes had Starbucks coffee, while the casually dressed person had Tim Hortons. I concluded this observation with the following thoery: Starbucks is for the social elite and Tim Hortons is for the average worker.

As I finally arrived at the intersection, I made the decision to head towards Starbucks (the line was shorter and the workers are nicer too). Now, I am not even close to looking like a social elite, but if I ever want to become one, a good start would be to look and do the actions of one :)

Crazy about the Raptors

I have been a Toronto Raptors fan since the creation of the franchise, witnessing both highs and lows. From being one shot away from the Eastern conference finals, to my blogging strike and Vince Carter (enough said).

After last years surprise performance, the expectation for the Raptors are high this year. It seems that the casual fan is becoming a hardcore fan. I have already been to two games this year (Raptors are undefeated this year when I attend a game) and the atmosphere is awesome. All my friends are talking about the Raptors and wanting to attend games this year. The actual game and the events around the game are entertaining to see live in-person. The music, contests between the breaks, and free give-aways keep fans enthusiastic throughout the game. For me, the most entertaining part away from the game is "The Raptor" mascot. His stunts and personality are amusing to all fans. He was voted best mascot last year.

Just like Toronto, the Raptors are an international team, featuring players from Argentina, Spain, Italy, and Slovenia. Fans from all parts of the world in Toronto are embracing the team. Toronto will always be a hockey city, but this basketball team is probably more likely to win a championship before the Leafs.

Are you loonie?

One of the biggest stories this year in Canada has been the rise of the Canadian dollar. It is currently trading at $1.06 US. No one would have thought this would be possible when the dollar was trading at above sixty cents US five years ago. The rise in the price of oil (almost $94.45 US a barrel) and strong commodities has helped pushed the loonie above par against the American greenback. However, the biggest reason of this surge is due to the weakness in the US dollar, which has been caused by a slumping housing market.

In recent months, there has been a public outcry from consumers over the lack of adjustment in retail prices in Canada. Many consumers are spending their money across the border in Buffalo, where wait times are about two hours. Financial advisor's are advising people to exchange their money before they cross the border to avoid the "American exchange rate, i.e. one-for-one. You will also find out that when you exchange money at the bank, they will charge you a 2.5% service charge, so you will never get the current rate.

A high loonie is bad news for some people, such as those who are in the manufacturing sector, which is an export-drive business. Importers now found the price of goods in Canada are more expensive and will look at other places to import similar goods. A recent article in the Toronto Star talked about the effect of salaries on European basketball players who are paid in US dollars. The Toronto Raptors center, Rasho Nesterovic signed an 8 million dollar per year contract which was paid in US dollars two years ago. He spends his off-season in Europe, so he converts that money into Euros. That same contract is now worth 1.5 million dollars less after the exchange rate.

The majority of Canadians feel a sense of pride over the rise of the loonie. When Canadians visited the US previously, Americans always felt that their currency was superior to the Canadian dollar. Now, the tables have turned, and it is not clear how long it will lost. However, I will not stay silent and will let our neighbors to the south know the value of their dollar :)

On time

In South Asian cultures, it is quite common to arrive late for events, such as weddings. The arrival time for event invitations are often ignored and padded with a few hours to generate the “real” arrival time. The invitation time is typically the time when you start to get ready for the event.

The real rationale behind why we (South Asians) are always late is because we do not want to be early. If you come early to an event, you may be stuck helping the organizers finish some last minute tasks, or trying to kill time playing games on your cell phone, or deleting people from your phone directory.

The South Asians are not the only ones who suffer from “being late”, it seems the African people are similar.

The government of Ivory Coast created a punctuality contest to challenge people to arrive on time.

Narcisse Aka, a legal adviser aged 40, who has just won the country’s hallowed Punctuality Night competition — and a £30,000 villa — after he consistently turned up for work on time while his compatriots took a more relaxed attitude to punctuality. As the slogan of the competition goes, ‘African time is killing Africa; let’s fight it.’

Arriving on time is so easy yet me make it difficult for us. Think about the last time you arrived late at the airport to catch your flight, you could make your life easier if you had arrived an half hour early. Otherwise, you may end up like Jerry Seinfeld, who quoted:

You see? Never be late for a plane with a girl. Cuz a girl runs like a girl - with the little steps and the arms flailing out... You wanna make this plane, you've gotta run like a man! Get your knees up!

Blogger is back!

It has been a while since I last blogged, a lot has happened during this time, but none of it has been shared on my blog. I contemplated closing my blog as I have found new ways to waste time and unable to find time to post on a consistent basis, but I thought I give it another chance.

Since I am making a blog "comeback", I have re-branded my blogger template. The header is a panoramic picture I took in Whistler, British Columbia. Let me know what ya think.

Singapore!

After spending the weekend in Hong Kong, I flew over to Singapore where I spent a week taking in the sites, culture and people. I had a fabulous experience in Singapore, the people, food, and scenery was extraordinary. The people of Singapore are comprised of three main ethnicities: Chinese, Indian and Malay. The business language is English (British), which everyone speaks with an accent and has been jokingly referred to as “Singlish”. The reason people have an accent is due to the fact they do speak their native tongue at home and only speak English to communicate with other nationalities or in the workplace.

The three words I would use to describe my Singapore experience are food, shopping and cleanliness.

I had no problems finding Halal places to eat since there are many Malay cuisines which observe the Halal dietary restriction. I had a chance to eat Korean BBQ, Nasi Lemak and Nasi Goring, the latter two dishes are Indonesian/Malay. At the site where I was working, I even ate roti at lunch, something that people avoid at workplaces in North America.

The people of Singapore love to shop. It is an industrialized country and people work extremely hard for their living, sometimes too hard, according to the local taxi drivers. You can usually get a pulse of a nation through its taxi drivers.

Singapore is an extremely clean country; a common perception of Singapore in the West. Spitting and chewing gum is banned in public. In-fact, you cannot buy gum in the country unless you need it for medical reasons. A fruit called Durian is banned in public due to its extreme smell.

Singapore is an expensive place to live. The majority (80%) of the people live in flats, only the elite can afford houses. Foreign cars are almost 2-3 times the price found in North America and the government does not allow cars older than 10 years on the road.

Other places of note that I visited was the Night Safari, Singapore Harbour (Clark quay), and Little India (it really felt like India). I did not take my usual number of pictures since I spent most of my time with colleagues from work, but I was still able to sneak in a few. You can check them out here.

Hong Kong!

I had a chance to visit one of the most unique places in the world a few weeks ago… Hong Kong! If I had three words to describe my Hong Kong experience, I would use: skyline, shopping, and efficiency.

Hong Kong is considered the “Manhattan” of Asia because of its numerous high rise buildings and skillful hard-working group of citizens. The skyline is spectacular, especially at night when the buildings light up the sky with neon lights. In-fact, 4 of the 15 tallest skyscrapers exist in Hong Kong. The population of Hong Kong is just under seven million in an area of 1092 square KM, close to the size of New York city (786 sq km). The limited land capacity and large population has caused the government to build on mountains and ocean water.

Hong Kong is a free port with goods from across the world that are not subject to export taxes. This makes it an ideal place for shopping, especially with a strong Canadian dollar. The moment that you exit out of the airport, you are greeted with flyers about shopping in Hong Kong. I spent an entire day shopping, moving from shop to shop in one of the most efficient subways in the world. The people in Hong Kong do not like to wait for anything – 2 minute wait for a subway is 2 minutes too long. Even the escalators move extremely fast compared to the usual speed in North America. Paying for items with cash will get you an annoyed look from the merchant because with a swipe of the Octopus card (prepaid cash card supported by almost all vendors) you will be quickly on your way.

Hong Kong is a unique place in the world and wish I had spent more time, however, in this short time period I still took my share of pictures.

Why Canadians hate Toronto?

I spent the last two weeks in Western Canada where I got a chance to visit Banff, the Rocky Mountains between Alberta and British Columbia, and finally Vancouver. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the world, and unfortunately many Canadians are unaware of the natural beauty in our own country.

The people in Western Canada are proud Canadians. In fact, I found they show their patriotism more openly than Canadians in Toronto. I am not saying that Torontorians are not proud Canadians, it’s the massive diversity in Toronto which reduces the amount of open patriotism.

One common theme among Western Canadians is the hatred for Torontorians. A perception exists among Westerners that Torontorians are arrogant and don’t respect other cities in Canada, although Quebec is the exception since the Quebecois feel inferior to all Canadians ;-) The anger stems from the fact that the majority of the high paying jobs are in Toronto, scheduling of television shows do not take into account the time difference, and the major sports league with the exception of hockey are in Toronto. Western Canadians cheer for their local hockey teams and cheer against Toronto. There was a general happiness when the Toronto Maple Leafs failed to make the playoffs this year, although Torontorians cheer for other Canadian teams.

As a fellow Torontorian, I did not take this hatred to heart because I do think there is some truth to the arrogance perception. However, if you ask someone outside Canada to name a city in Canada, you know that Toronto would be at the top of the list … so sometimes you have to call it how it is. Like it or not, we are the main economical city in this country, but the question is for how long … hello Alberta.

My seven wonders of the world

A global poll conducted by newwonder.com released its seven wonders of the world last week. Many of the sites chosen came as no surprise, such as the Great Wall of China and Taj Mahal. However, many famous sites were left off the list, such as the Eiffel tower in Paris, and the Acropolis in Greece. It is a very subjective poll and very difficult to get a consensus among any group of people, since we have our biases in taste and experience. Unfortunately, none of the Canadian sites were nominated as finalists for this poll, but this disappointment did not stop the CBC to conduct a poll of their seven wonders of Canada, which can be found here. The winner was The Sibley Peninsula, or the Sleeping Giant as it's known in Thunder Bay.

I believe it is hard to choose the seven wonders by looking at pictures, to appreciate the beauty of this world, you have to see it for yourself. I have had a unique opportunity to travel the world and have complied The Ozzies - top seven wonders of the world

Honourable mention

-Rocky mountains, Niagara Falls, and Empire state building

Top seven

7.	Petrona Twin Towers - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
6.	The CN tower - Toronto, Canada
5.	The Opera house - Sydney, Australia
4.	Eiffel tower - Paris, France
3.	Great wall of China - Beijing, China
2.	The Prophets mosque - Medina, Saudi Arabia
1.	The Kabah - Mecca, Saudi Arabia

History of the middle east

Flash presentation on the history of the Middle East.

Islam and science

As I waited in the airport lounge for my usual delayed Air Canada flight, I went over to the newspaper stand and tried to busy myself by staring through all the magazines in a store. The usual gossip and fashion tips filled most of the magazines that I saw, but one magazine headline grabbed my attention ... "Science and Islam in Conflict". This article was displayed in a scientific magazine called Discover. So, I decided to educate myself with this article and forgo my Hollywood fix, which I really don't care about anyways although it can be amusing.

The article talks about the relationship of Islam and science in three countries in the Middle East: Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan. The Arab world has gone through many transitions, from socialism, nationalization, to a religious identity. The author attempts to associate scientific growth in the Arab world to the lack of piety among the citizens, often citing convenient examples and not exploring examples of success such as Malaysia, a strong Muslim government with a growing economy.

The biggest problem in the Arab world is the blame attributed towards the West rather than taking responsibility for their own actions. Muslim societies are close-minded, not open to new ideas, criticizing anything that resembles being "Western". In the article, the Egyptian scientist El-Najjer is quoted as saying:

“We are not behind because of Islam,” he says. “We are behind because of what the Americans and the British have done to us.”

This type of thinking does nothing to help alleviate the suffering of the people and stunts growth by giving people excuses for their failures. Political instability and religion intolerance have been the key factors causing the lack of scientific growth within the Muslim world. The Muslim world was at one time the center of learning throughout the world, where many researchers would come and learn. However, many of the top people have migrated to countries with more educational support without people coming the other way.

The Arab/Muslim world needs to balance their religious views with science, allowing for innovation within the boundaries outlined in the Quran. Waheed Badawy, a chemistry professor at Cairo university summarizes this point nicely, he says:

Islam has no problems with science, Nobody can just write what he thinks without proof. (For example) But we have real proof that the story of Adam as the first man is true. It’s written in the Koran.”

Tip of the week #2 Traffic strategies

Anyone who lives in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) must have some level of hatred for the traffic in our cities. Little has been done to improve our traffic infrastructure over the past twenty years even though the population has increased by hundred of thousands in this time span. News of accidents and traffic jam fills the radio airwaves daily. Last week, a fire at a metals plant in Brampton caused parts of highway 407 to be closed. This closure caused traffic chaos in Brampton as all the alternatives also became jammed with cars. I happened to be one of those unfortunately drivers stuck in traffic. My usual commute of 40 minutes turned into one and a half hour. I have come up with many theories that I will share while hopelessly sitting in traffic staring at the car in front of me.

Tip# 1 Take the hit of waiting in traffic rather than seeking alternatives

If you are stuck in traffic, it is probably better to wait it out rather than seek an alternate side street. Most people often believe that they are the only person that knows about a specific side street, but over time people figure out these alternate routes. It is better to wait it out on a highway or major street with many lanes rather than being stuck on a side street with one or two lanes. I know this fact first hand!

Tip # 2 The right lane is the fastest lane …. in a traffic jam on the highway

The left most lane on a highway is typically the fastest lane and the right lane is usually the slowest lane. During a traffic jam most people try to switch into the left lane hoping it will be the quickest, but most often the right lane moves the quickest, especially since people will be exiting from the highway and the people switch out of the right lane due to the perception of it being slow.

Hint # 3 Listen to the traffic reports

This hint is the simplest of the three and yet people still do not listen to traffic reports. Checking the traffic report before you start your commute can be the difference between a traffic jam and a clear ride into work.

Traffic and living in a big city is inevitable, as bad as Toronto traffic can be, it is not the worst. Below are a list of the three most congested cities in the world:

1. Manila, Philippines
2. Cairo, Egypt
3. Lagos, Nigeria
   

Incroyable!

I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to travel to Paris, France for a conference (Yes, I am extremely lucky and blessed). It was a bit awkward viewing the sites of the city since Paris is known as a romantic city and visiting sights individually, for some reason, did not feel as romantic ;-)



As always, I like to examine random items of interest rather than focus on the touristy things, so below are my highlights:

• I had major language issues, my grade 9 French was insufficient. Communicating with someone where you don’t have a common language is funny, both parties end up speaking in their own language without progress.
• The subway doors do not open automatically; I found this out the hard way.
• Very diverse country, many people of African and Arab descent.
• Smoking is quite common indoors and difficult to cope with especially coming from a city where public smoking is banned.
• The listed price always includes taxes, and discounts are listed with negative signs, i.e. -20%.
  
• The basement and ground floors are not labeled as B and G respectively in buildings or hotels. The French use 0 for the ground level and -1 for the basement. See explanation here.
• The Swiss have their own check-in line when passing through immigration.

• The exit sign … why is the guy running?

• The public washrooms are typically not free, although the one below was free.

As always, you can check out my pictures here.

Email hoaxes

In the early days of email, the majority of personal emails that I received were forwards containing funny jokes, chain letters, and spam. These days, I don’t receive many hoaxes, but after reading this article on the top 25 Web hoaxes, I had a flashback on some that I have received over my email lifetime. Below are my favs:

• Forward this email and Bill Gates will give you money - example.
• Help a wealthy foreigner in Nigeria to transfer money - example.
• Your Hotmail account will close if you do not forward this to X amount of people - example.
  

The most common email hoax that you will find is a phishing attack, which is an email fraudulently claiming to be from a financial institution instructing you to click on a link for some reason (i.e. Keep your account open). The emails are well-crafted since they contain the official company header and email address. The email body contains a link to a URL from the financial institution, but if you hover over the link, you will notice that it is actually a URL to the spammer/hackers site. Most often curiosity takes over and people click those links, although I have never met anyone who admits to doing it until they call me to help them remove a virus from their computer ;-)

The most enjoyable jobs

Finding the "perfect" job is a challenge facing many people. It involves finding something you are passionate about. The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago conducted a survey on the jobs people like and dislike. The full article can be found here.

LIKE

• Clergy—87 percent percent
• Firefighters—80 percent percent
• Physical therapists—78 percent percent
• Authors—74 percent
• Teachers—69 percent
• Education administrators—68 percent
• Psychologists—67 percent
• Security and financial services salespersons—65 percent
• Operating engineers—64 percent

DISLIKE

• Laborers, except construction—21 percent
• Apparel clothing salespersons—24 percent
• Handpackers and packagers—24 percent
• Food preparers—24 percent
• Roofers—25 percent
• Cashiers—25 percent
• Furniture and home-furnishing salespersons—25 percent
• Waiters and servers—27 percent

My general observation is that the jobs on the LIKE list involve helping people or tasks which involve problem solving activities. Most people agree that they would like to work in a field where they are around people. The satisfaction of helping someone in their daily life leads to a happier experience. You will also notice that prestige jobs such as a doctor and lawyer were not at the top of the list. Unfortunately, the prestige jobs are the ones where you make the most money and not the ones people enjoy the most.

Tip of the week

The subject of the post implies a weekly stream of tips, I doubt this will be the case, given my recent record of posting, plus I needed a catchy subject for this post.

Tip: Make sure you are on the correct line before you lineup

Before you join a long lineup, it never hurts to ask someone to make sure that you are in the correct line. Most people make the assumption that a long lineup probably ensures they are in the correct line. Furthermore, people usually join the first line they see and don't look for legitimite "butting" opportunities. No harm exists by asking someone in line or a service associate if they are in the correct line since your not doing anything while waiting.

A recent experience at the airport triggered this post. At the airport, I waited in line to get my boarding pass, only be told when I met the sales associate that I was at the wrong terminal. I argued with the associate to no avail. I should also note that it would have helped had I read my e-ticket to get the right terminal, but that is one too many tips for this post.