Blogging timeout

I will be officially taking a break from blogging for 2006. I will be away starting this week and will not return untill the new year. Hope everyone enjoys the holidays they will be getting, either from school, work, or leaving for a vacation. I will have lots to say once I return, hopefully, that "lots to say" can translate into blog posts.

On the GO

A few weeks ago, I used the GO Train to commute into downtown Toronto. I had a few observations about the people and their habits when riding the GO.

• The experienced GO train drivers know exactly where the train stops so that they are directly positioned in front of the door when it arrives.
• The cooler or younger people always sit in the upstairs area of the train. It reminds of taking the school bus in elementary school, where all the cool kids (like me ;-)) would sit in the back of the bus and the not-so-cool kids would sit in the front. Interestingly, in China, everyone on the bus sat in the front of the bus.
  
• There are the regular GO train riders who talk throughout the ride about every single occurrence of their day. Taking away from other riders any opportunity to get a quick nap or read a book.

Throughout all these observations, I do miss working downtown and not having to drive to work. I would take the GO train if it was possible for me. I do not like commuting at all, but I wonder if I did not have to drive, perhaps I could build some liking to commuting and even form my own GO train clique.

Beijing

This year has probably been one of my most blessed years. I have been given the opportunity to travel to many great places in this world. I will now add Beijing, China to that list. I just spent a little over a week in Beijing, China, where I had a chance to visit many unique places, meet interesting people, and learn about Chinese life and culture. I planned on blogging in Beijing, but the higher-ups at the Chinese government decided to censor my blog, in-fact no blogs on blogspot were accessible. I have lots to talk about on my journey to Beijing, and will not mention it all in this post. So, watch out in the near future for posts on Bargaining in China, Muslims in China, and Driving in China. In the meantime, I shall leave you with my pictures and some interesting happenings during my trip.

• Visited Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City or Palace Museum, Temple of heaven, Great Wall of China, and the Niujie mosque. Check out my pictures here.
• My tour guide got a call from the Chinese government congratulating him on being single … LOL
• Spitting is quite common with the locals.
• The cars have the right-of-way in China, not legally, but if you want to survive.
• Visited the Nuijie mosque, a blend of Islamic and Chinese traditions. It was built in 996 AD. Beijing is home to 250,000 Muslims, most of them living in the area near this mosque.
• Bargaining is quite common in China. The sales people will do anything to get your attention. For example, “Hello sir, you are quite handsome”, “Here, loookay, loookay”.
• Chinese people thought I was from India and were impressed that my English was so good.

What's in a name?

I was looking through some documents a few days ago and came across an interesting letter written by my dad. Here is a snippet:

Ontario Registrar Office

I would like to change my son's name from Ayyaz Sheikh to Ozair Sheikh
...

Sincerely

[my Dad's name]

I was shocked to learn that my parents had initially named me Ayyaz instead of Ozair. My dad wrote the letter to the Ontario Registrar Office to make this amendment. I took the letter to my mom and asked for an explanation. She confirmed the story and said that my grandparents actually preferred Ozair rather than Ayyaz. I was interested by this finding and queried my parents to the thought process that was occurring at that time. It was interesting to hear the other possible names that were being thrown around:

• Waheed
• Sarmad

I cannot picture myself with any of these names. There are people you probably come across in your life and concluded that so and so "looks like a Mohammad" or "acts like an Ahmed" without any reason.

If I had not been named Ozair than I would have lost out on my potential nicknames such as:

• Oz (My official Western name)
• Jose (My official American name)
  
• Ozwald (Unofficial name used by my high school friends)
  

and then there are the many times where my name has been mispronounced:

• Hozair
• Ozaaar
• Ogar (z looked like a g)
  

What's in a name ... there is a lot to a name, an entire life of nicknames, misinterpretations, and being called out to accept prizes, the latter which I am still waiting for ;-)

Sleepover at 24 Sussex Drive

Check out this snippet of Rick Mercer's sleepover at the Prime ministers house. Very entertaining! You can check out the full video here.

To read or not able to read

The avid reader of my blog should have noticed the addition of several new columns. Since high school, I have not read many novels. In-fact, I am not alone, most youth growing up today rather use the Internet, play video games, and watch television rather than read a book.

In my elementary schools days, I was an avid reader. In school, we had a program called book-it that rewarded kids who attained their reading goals. In high school, I worked part-time at Chapters and was allowed to borrow books from the store. During university, the only books I ever read were on Calculus, Economics, and Java. Hopefully, I can rejuvenate this reading passion with my current novel.

It has been a while since I have related a blog post to Seinfeld, so I shall leave this post with a quote from the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is fined for a book he has not returned since high school and George revisits his embarrassing atomic wedgie.

Jerry: What's amazing to me about the library is it's a place where you go in and take out any book you want. They just give it to you and say bring it back when you're done. It reminds me of like this pathetic friend that everbody had when they were a little kid who would let you borrow any of his stuff if you would just be his friend. That's what the library is. A government funded pathetic friend. And that's why everybody kind of bullies the library. I'll bring it back on time ... I'll bring it back late .... Oh, what are you going to do? Charge me a nickel?

*Nerd Alert* You got too much mail

It has been a while since I have “geeked” up this blog with a techie entry. It is a challenge to make technology sound interesting. I remember growing up watching a science show by Bill Nye the Science Guy. He tried to make science “cool” and fascinating with his over the top enthusiasm. At the other end of the spectrum you have that nerdy guy from the Simpsons, who is funny only because his geekdom is out of control. Hopefully, my techie entry will be somewhat in the middle.

Today, I will talk about E-mail spam. It is estimated that almost 80-85% of all emails sent in a day are spam. It is a common nuisance that bothers anyone who uses email. All email servers use spam filters, which block the majority of spam from entering into your inbox. Recently, I have been receiving more spam email, which the spam filters have been unable to block. All these emails center on a common theme of advertising “penny stocks”. The Penny stock emails bypass spam filters because information is contained within an image and most spam filters look for common key words in text.

The spammers goal is to use a fraudalant scheme called "pump and dump". They advertise these penny stocks in hope they will get people to purchase these stocks. The artificial demand drives the stock price up. Once the spammers see this rise, they will sell the stock and profit and when the market corrects itself on the true value of the stock, the penny stock investors will lose out.

Hopefully, no one has been coerced into purchasing a penny stock. As the old adage goes, if it is too good to be true, than it probably is.

Belated Eid Mubarak

A belated Eid Mubarak to everyone.

I am still accepting Eid ul-Fitr hugs up until Eid ul-Adha, but please no Eid hugs in public places. People unaware of the "triple-hug and handshake" dance step will likely raise an eye brow.

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. Shaking Hands

Ramadan Happenings

Tis the season of Ramadan and I have been collecting my thoughts for this month.

This Ramadan, Suhoor is later in the morning than past years, and I rarely get enough sleep because Tarawih ends late at night. There are always eventful happening at Tarawih as documented by Ali’s antics. Last week, after prayers finished, a man asked me where I went to groom my beard. After realizing the seriousness of the question, I responded that I shave and trim my beard myself. The man left and so did the awkwardness. However, I did feel flattered by the question. I work hard at grooming my beard and finally someone has noticed :)

Last week, I was in Dallas, Texas, where I went to Irving Mosque for Iftar and Tarawih. Irving Mosque is the largest mosque that I have seen in North America. The nicest perk about Tarawih at Irving mosque was the 4-rakaat tea break. People take a break for 10 minutes to get tea and rest. This idea is great; in-fact it should be extended to include more options such as: coffee, donuts, leftover iftar; the potential is endless.

Finally, I would like to end this post with a complaint. When praying you must stand shoulder to shoulder, when a spot opens up, a person must fill that spot. However, there are situations when there is no room and people are forcing themselves into a spot where they should not go. I always get volunteered to fit into a small spot and have to maneuver for positioning. It takes a prayer to re-establish my space, but then the "musical fill the spots" begin. Yes, I will fill the spots, but only if you give me acceptable space. Thank you.

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan Mubarak to everyone who will begin fasting today, tomorrow, or Monday. The yearly "which day should we start" Ramadan questions encounters us again. I just hope too much time is not spent arguing with each other about the starting day (the arguments repeat every year) and instead focus on the month ahead.

Interestingly, I wrote a post last Ramadan on my current state and not much has changed. You can read it here again.

Below is a summary:

I think most Muslims agree that they suffer from the y=-x^2 imaan problem. Let me illustrate this point with the following graph. If you recall your basic grade 12 Math, you should notice this graph is an upside down parabola. It describes my imaan problem.



The y-axis represents my imaan level, and the x-axis represents the months in the year starting from the month of Ramadan. The first point on this graph represents my faith level level right-before Ramadan. As I progress through Ramadan, my faith level increases quadratically, until it hits its maximum level at the center of the graph when Ramadan ends. After Ramadan, my imaan level drops back down until Ramadan occurs again in the following year.

Inshallah (God-willing), I will take advantage of this month, do the good stuff and keep it up for the rest of the year. Who knows maybe next year I will use a different graph to illustrate my imaan level.

UPDATE (9/23/2006): My imaan level graph remains unchanged this year.

Down under

Last week I had a unique opportunity to spend a week and a half on the other side of the world in Sydney, Australia. It was an exceptional experience in talking with local Aussies and seeing the sites of the city, especially the Sydney harbour, which is quite gorgeous.

There were quite a lot of touristy things I did and captured with my camera. You can check out my photos here. Also, instead of listing the places that I visited. You can check out my itinerary here.

The most interesting part of my trip is identifying the unique parts of Aussie life as compared to my life in Toronto, Canada. Below are my observations:

Aussie slang

• 'You have done well' is good job
• 'G Day mate' is hello
• 'No worries' is thank you
• The word bloke is used to refer to a guy and shelia is used for a girl

Restaraunt etiquette

• I tried ordering a medium coffee with cream and sugar and could not be understood. Aussies do not put cream in their coffee, instead they put milk and they call it a flat white.
• Restaurants are not pushy to have you leave once you are done eating. In-fact, most places you have to go to the cashier and pay.
• No need to tip servers, since they are generally paid well enough to make a decent living.

Misc

• The Australian currency system does not consist of pennies and listed prices already include the sales tax. The amount in cents is always a multiple of 5.
• The Matrix movie was filmed in Sydney.

Random

• David Suzuki was on my flight to Sydney. He is doing a book tour across Australia.
• I was surprised to hear that students from the Philippines and India in Australia had heard of the University of Waterloo and their strong reputation for Computer Science and Engineering.

Tourist Athlete

Last week I was fortunate enough to spend three days in Vancouver, BC and two days in Whistler, BC. These two cities without a doubt are the most beautiful places I have ever visited. It is good reason that these cities were chosen as the location for the 2010 Winter Olympic games. There is so much I could talk about, but will just mention some points briefly.

Good

Weather: I was fortunate enough that it did not rain at all during the week. The weather and air quality is amazing. Imagine a light fan following you around the city with a nice breeze, that is how I felt.

Scenery: Spectacular mountains as you enter the city and a gorgeous waterfront. I had the chance to take a ferry to Vancouver Island from Vancouver and toured around Victoria, BC.

Bad

Homeless people: Vancouver has a serious homeless problem. It is a lot more evident than Toronto. If you ever visit, avoid East Hasting street, people are openly doing drugs, although there is a police station across the street from them.

Real Estate: The most expensive place to live in Canada.

Random

As I waited for my ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver, I ran into a friend from Waterloo also on vacation with his family. Talk about small world and coincidence. I will leave it to my readers to guess that person.

Pictures

My panoramic pictures that I assembled (click on picture to view full image):

• View of Rocky Mountains half-way up Whistler mountain

• View of Rocky Mountains at top of Whistler mountain

• View of Rocky Mountains from Vancouver beach

Pimp my blog

I am one of the lucky ones to have been given an invitation to use the beta version of blogger.

The new version offers more selection of templates, tagging of articles and an easier user interface for managing your blog templates. I changed by template, what do ya think?

Congratulations to those who maintained their spot on my blogroll and to the new entries on my list ... it is quite an accomplishment ;-)

Blogging break

I am taking a break from "not blogging" to officially not blog for the next week. Similar to a joke I always hear, "I need a vacation from my vacation".

No joking now, I am officially taking my vacation and I am flying off to Vancouver for a week of site-seeing. Do not worry, I have packed according to the new regulations.

I did have a few drafts sitting that I was going to write up but will when I get back, so look out for those entries.

As my 3 year-old neice always tells me ... "rock-on" , or should I say "blog-on" to all you bloggers (yes, I know that is lame).

Pictures: The good and bad

Good

A nacreous cloud (top) appears high in the stratosphere some 20km above Australia's Mawson station in Antartica. I always had a fascination with Antarctica and the Arctic from reading National Geographic and more recently watching the CBC News National report on the Arctic.


Bad

Not much needs to be said here.

Me and my camera - Part 2

As per my previous post, I uploaded pictures from trips that I have taken this year. When viewing the pictures, I recommend avoiding the slideshow view, instead click on the picture. I have chosen not to upload pictures of myself since I like to maintain an anonymous identity, but hopefully my amateur picture-taking skills should be enough proof of my presence.

• Los Angeles: I spent the day in Universal Studios theme park. In the evening, went down to Santa Monica beach, a non-swimming beach with an amusement park.
• Pictures
  

• Las Vegas: I attended a conference here for work and managed to find halal things to do ... Even for a person like me, there is enough touristy things to do to keep you busy for a few days.
• Pictures

• Chicago: Spent a day walking in downtown Chicago. I saw the United center, Soldier field, Opera's studio, and various buildings in Chicago.
• Pictures
  

Me and my camera - Part 1

I have been meaning to upload pictures that I have taken from trips this year but have been too busy to find anytime. It is a real busy not the "busy" because I am too lazy busy. I have noticed that nobody ever admits to "not being busy" rather people are either "chilling" or I get the "busy busy" with the shaking of the head and sighing. No one admits anymore that they are really doing nothing.

This situation reminds of a Seinfeld episode, where George pretends to be busy everytime his boss walks by so that he does not get any work.

Jerry: I thought that new promotion was supposed to be a lot more work.
George: Yeah, when the season starts. Right now, I sit around pretending that I'm busy.
Jerry: How do you pull that off?
George: I always look annoyed. Yeah, when you look annoyed all the time, people think that you're busy.
Think about it... (acts annoyed for 3 seconds).
Elaine: Yeah, you do! He looks very busy!
Jerry: Yeah, he looks busy! Yeah!
George: I know what I'm doin'. In fact Mr. Wilhelm gave me one of those little stress dolls.
All right. (gets up) Back to work. (acts annoyed and leaves)
Elaine: (laughs)

I was going to talk about my photos here, but this post has become too long to serve my main attraction, so I end here and will continue in a subsequent post.

All you can eat

These days when eating out at a restaurant or family gathering, I am noticing that it is difficult for people to control their meal portions. When eating at "pricey"” restaurants, the portions that I get are too large for me to finish, it seems these restaurants purposely give you large portions to justify the cost of the meal. Furthermore, when eating in the United States, I find that the portions are sometimes twice the amount that I would usually get in Canada.

When trying to explain others my dietary restriction of Halal foods succinctly, I usually tell them that I am vegetation when I eat out. One would think it would be easier to eat healthier if your vegetarian, however, you will still find lots of calories in a salad, veggie burger, or pizza.

I also find that meals at a family gathering or weddings are quite often dominated by meat dishes. It is difficult to pass up on a portion of meat and people often sample all of the meat dishes. This result in you taking on more food than you normally would.

I remember this Simpson'’s episode in which Homer would not stop eating at an "All you can eat"” restaurant. The owners threw him out and Homer sued them because they would not let him continue to eat (classic Simpson episode).

It seems the standard for a quality meal includes an abudance of meat in large portions. I know if this was not the case, people would complain about their meal. I guess the old saying that "You do not know how good you got it until you don't have it" can be related here, however, I wonder if it is really that good for us, well I know Homer would like you to believe so.

TV critic

I wish I had the time to write a thoughtful entry but like most people have been unable to find the time in-between work, weekend classes and the FIFA World cup. I even forget the current date until Canada day a few days ago. I had a few thoughts on my mind in the past few weeks to write about, but never got the chance to transfer my thoughts into a blog post. I wonder if I should start a podcast to fill in those empty days. To complement my blog, I shall call it A podcast about something.

Most of my thoughts have been centered around the FIFA World cup. I have been following the games quite adamantly for the past month. The British announcers calling these games are quite different than our North American counterparts. They are very dramatic in the language they use. For example,

Beckham scores ... oh!, this is a glorious moment for England. They must be dancing in the streets of London.

or

Here's Beckham and there's an authoritative strike by an authentic artist.

They should also avoid making conclusions about a game before it completes. Once a goal has been scored, the announcers make a swift judgment about the results of the game and potential matchups.

I am totally sick of all of the soccer commercials, especially the Rogers Wireless commercial about three kids who cannot get World cup tickets and then realize the best place to watch the World cup is where you friends are ... that is just loser talk.

Then there are the Jose + 10 and Budweiser (yes, bad, because its about beer) commercial that are quite creative. My favourite commercial to watch these days is the Future Shop commercial about the customer excited by the low prices. The employee responds that they save money by re-dubbing the commercial for each new sale. The enthusiasm showed by the customer is priceless.

Who are you cheering for?

We are currently in the midst of soccer madness here in the GTA caused by the FIFA World cup in Germany. You cannot go anywhere in the GTA without hearing or seeing something about this event.

Canada is one of the most unique places in the world where we have immigrants from almost all parts of the world. This diversity is evident by the variety of flags seen on cars. It is great for people to show passion for their country of origin, however, I can tell certain people are annoyed by all this hoopla. I saw a car earlier today with a Canadian flag and not because they are cheering for the Canadian soccer team, since it failed to qualify for this years World cup, but rather a counter-reaction to all these flags.

I find no problem in people displaying passion for a sport they have grown up to love and continue to when they arrive in Canada. It is no different than a Canadian kid being a fan of the Montreal Canadian because he/she grew up in Montreal and now lives in Toronto. People should not be offended by the behaviour of soccer revellers in our streets rather we should celebrate our differences, since it is what makes us Canadians interesting and unique.

For the record, I am cheering now for Trinidad and Tobago. I know they will not be winning the World cup, but any country that celebrates a tie like they won the tournament must know how to have fun.