Blogging is good for your Career

According to the Boston Globe, Blogs are 'essential' to a good career.

The gist of the article is that:

1. Blogging creates a network of friends just like having your own little PR machine.

2. Blogging can get you a job. (I read about people getting fired for their blogs because they where viciously critical of their coworkers and managers, I guess it could work both ways.)

3. Blogging is great training, it helps your become regularly creative and judging what is interesting for your audience.

4. Blogging makes you move up quickly. (unless you get caught on company time, blogging away, then you could move down quickly)

5. Blogging makes self employment easy. ( Well if you get fired, then self employment is the only option.)


6. Blogging provides more opportunities. ( refer to point 5)

7. Blogging could be your big break. (refer to point 5)

8. Blogging makes the world a better place. (I got a comment here, but it is a little harsh)


I liked the article, even though my comments are tilted towards the sarcastic. Read it for yourself, what do you think?

Beggars

It was a quiet afternoon at work. The projects where running on schedule, and things where calm. During these slow afternoons, I usually go and sit in the Chairman's office to chat about things in general.

The Chairman was a kind older man, his manangement style was hands off. He never gave orders, only advice and general encouragements. Anyone could walk in the Chairman's office to talk, complain or just to say hi.

We where drinking our tea stikanas and in walked a young man. The young man was dressed in full Kuwaiti attire with a clean pressed dishdasha, impeccable ghutra and new iqal. He had a sad desperate look on his face. After saying his Salam, he introduced himself, stood besides the Chairman's desk and produced a folded piece of paper. The chairman unfolded the paper and read it quietely, then passed the paper to me.

The paper was typewritten in Arabic, the contents where:

Dear Sir,

My name is XXXXX Al XXXXX,

I was born in Kuwait and am 25 years old, my fathere died when I was 15. He was an officer in the Kuwait Army and we have been living on his meager retirement pay. I am out of work and have taken numerous short term jobs, I am also taking afternoon classes to better myself. I am supporting my mother and 4 younger sisters. We have no nationality (bidoon). I want to get married and need help.

I thank you for your kindness and would appreciate any little assistance you can offer me.


The Chairman was quiet, he opened his side drawer and pulled out his personal check book. The Chairman wrote him a 500 KD check and directed him to finance to encash it.

A week after this incident, it was another quiet afternoon. A new young man walked into the Chairman's office, similar dress, sad face and folded letter. The Chairman took the letter, read it. The letter had word for word the same heart breaking story as last week's except for a different name. The Chairman bluntly told the young man, "Your brother came last week, and I already gave him". The young man walked out, embarassed that his scam was discovered.

The European Commission Directive

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “S” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f” This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “O” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor t rubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Have you Ever - Tag

Ok this is for you Diigmaa cause you tagged me:

(x) Smoked a cigarette

( ) Crashed a friend's car

( ) Stolen a car

(x) Been in love

( ) Been dumped

( ) Shoplifted

( ) Been fired

(x) Been in a fist fight

( ) Snuck out of your parent's house

( ) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back

( ) Been arrested

( ) Gone on a blind date

( ) Lied to a friend

(x) Skipped school

( ) Seen someone die

(x) Been to Canada

( ) Been to Mexico

(x) Been on a plane

( ) Purposely set a part of yourself on fire

(x) Eaten sushi

(x) Been skiing

( ) Met someone from the Internet

(x) Been to a concert

(x) Taken painkillers

( ) Love someone or miss someone right now

(x) Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by

( ) Made a snow angel

( ) Had a tea party

(x) Flown a kite

(x) Built a sand castle

(x) Gone puddle jumping

( ) Played dress up

(x) Jumped into a pile of leaves

(x) Gone sledging

(x) Cheated while playing a game

(x) Been lonely

(x) Fallen asleep at work/school

( ) Used a fake ID

(x) Watched the sun set

(x) felt an earthquake

(x) Slept beneath the stars

(x) Been tickled

(x) Been robbed

(x) Been misunderstood

(x) Petted a reindeer/goat/kangaroo

(x) Won a contest

(x) Run a red light/stop sign

( ) Been suspended from school

(x) Been in a car crash

( ) Had braces

( ) Felt like an outcast/third person

( ) Eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night

(x) Had déjà vu

( ) Danced in the moonlight

(x) Witnessed a crime

(x) Questioned your heart

( ) Been obsessed with post-it notes

(x) Squished mud through your bare feet

(x) Been lost

(x) Been on the opposite side of the country

(x) Been on the opposite side of the world, or close

(x) Swam in the ocean

(x) Felt like dying

( ) Cried yourself to sleep

(x) Played cops and robbers

( ) Recently colored with crayons

( ) Sang karaoke

(x) Paid for a meal with only coins

(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't

( ) Made prank phone calls

(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose

(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

( ) Danced in the rain

( ) Written a letter to Santa Claus

( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe

( ) Watched the sun rise with someone you care about

(x) Blown bubbles

( ) Made a bonfire on the beach

( ) Crashed a party

(x) Gone roller-skating

(x) Had a wish come true

( ) jumped off a bridge


Sorry to dissapoint you all, not much excitement going on here thats because I try to avoid getting in bad situations and try to play it very safe, so to add a little excitment, I added a few extra of my own:

(x) nearly get shot with a handgun
(x) Put on a gas mask because of a potential chemical attack
(x) Skied on grass
(x) Skateboarded down a steep mountain road at top speed and nearly went under a truck
(x) Discovered a camouflaged nuclear shelter
(x) fell out of a three storey high tree
(x) Hitch hiked between countries

Web surfing at Work

Working a full eight hours with maximum productivity is an impossible task. Real work takes a maximum of one hour of intense concentration and that is it, you are free for the rest of the day, unless you are in the army and need to stand at your post to guard against foes and allow friends in, or possibly you work on an assembly line and need to see each little piece of equipment as it passes in front of you on the conveyor belt, or you are a call center agent and receive random calls from random people, or you are a student and in that case there is never enough time.

The rest that work in a bureaucratic establishment know you need to shuffle a few papers; read a few reports and scribble in some comments and do nothing for the remaining seven hours.

How do you spend that extra time? Before, pre-internet, it was by reading all the daily newspapers, followed by calling all the classified ads that interested you, then visiting the offic diwaniyah (meaning the colleague that had the best office with the most seats and farthest from management).

Well that was then, now you just surf the net, catch up on your emails, and talk on your instant messengers. I am happy to anounce that it is also completely legal at least in New York.

So browse away safely in New York, and if you are not in New York, be sure you have your work related application active in the backgroud so when the boss passes by, you can quickly jump to it.

About bad luck -or- why does it happen only to me?

Why does it happen only to me that:

When I am in a hurry driving somewhere because I am late, some poor soul maybe tired of his unhappy life thinks of crossing the street slowly right in front of me just under the pedestrian bridge.

I am sitting in a quiet cafe and all of a sudden some workman thinks it is the perfect time to install a fixture with a very loud drill above my head, at the same time an African man is talking Swahili in a very loud voice on his mobile right next to me, he is so loud, I am sure his friends in Africa can hear him without his mobile.

Stretching my legs on an airplane on an aisle seat, a big lady has a lengthy argument / discussion with the stewardess right next to my seat. I need to lean across the middle seat to avoid accidentally bumping my head on her protruding parts and being blamed for something I am completely innocent of.

I am very punctual for my flights and am among the first to check in my luggage, as a reward, I get my baggage coming out the last in the baggage carousel on my destination.

I prepare an elaborate omelet with tomatoes, cheese and anything that can be thrown in and when I slide the omelet to the plate and carry it out of the kitchen the plate falls omelet first.


I sit at the tempura table with the hot surface in front of me and the cook decides to grill 2 kilos of garlic for someone else's order right in front of me with the fumes bathing me.

I like to think you are allocated a fixed amount of bad luck in your life, so if you get bad luck in minor things your quota of major bad luck decreases. So it is all good in the end.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Seth Lloyd an MIT proffesor say the Universe is a giant Quantum Computer. The bits are atoms and collisons are operations.




Schrödinger's cat disagrees.

Theme Song, Self Esteem and Cooking

Your Theme Song is Beautiful Day by U2

"Sky falls, you feel like It's a beautiful day Don't let it get away" You see the beauty in life, especially in ordinary everyday moments. And if you're feeling down, even that seems a little beautiful too.

What's Your Theme Song?

You Have Low Self Esteem 0% of the Time

Which can be translated to mean, you have high self-esteem and a healthy sense of self worth. You believe in yourself, and you know how to be the real you. You love yourself, imperfections and all.

How is Your Self Esteem?

You Are Not a Cook

You know cooking isn't for you, and you wouldn't even consider trying to make a homecooked meal. And this is a very good thing. You've saved all your friends and family from unintentional food poisoning!

Are You A Good Cook?

I got great Self Esteem, 0 cooking skills and my Song is a U2 song. Interesting.

Women Candidates in Kuwait and how to get elected.

Women in Kuwait where granted equal political rights in May 2005 and will vote in legistaltive polls in 2007. 60% of the 28,000 eligible voters are are women and these will play a significant role in the outcome of any future elections in Kuwait.

Two women are among eight candidates contesting a by-election for a municipal council seat for the district of Salmiya, south-east of the capital Kuwait City.

Kuwaiti women for the first time in a by-election for a Municipal Council seat, less than a year after winning full political rights. Two women were among eight candidates running for the seat in the district of Salmiya. Both the women, however, lost in the elections although one of them — Jenan Bushehri — performed admirably well to finish second overall to the eventual winner Yousef Al-Suwaileh Al-Azmi, who got 5,414 votes. Bushehri got 1,808 votes to place second while Emad Dashti finished third. Khalda Khudur, the other woman in the race, finished a distant last with only 80 votes.

Even though it was considered a small vistory for women in Kuwait and the region, it was still a loss because no Kuwaiti Women is holding an elected seat anywhere in the parliament. In preparation for the upcoming parliament election, the challenge is to win the hearst and minds of men and women voters in Kuwait. The answer is to emulate successful women candidates like Margaret Thatcher and become a better man than the boys competing against her, or take advantage of their feminine side and be like Yulia Tymoshenko who became Ukraine's first female prime minister. She remained Prime Minister until 8 September 2005, when her government was dismissed by President Yushchenko. Later, he criticized her work as head of government, suggesting it had led to an economic slowdown.

After her dismissal she started to tour the country in her bid to win the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election, she made clear she wanted the post of Prime Minister back.



Yulia is on the cover of the Ukrainian Elle, would our Kuwaiti Candidates do the same?


Thumbs up for a parliament victory.


Campaign Poster for Yulia, I like the heart signature.


Yulia riding a power bike towards a brighter future.



Heck, I am convinced, if Yulia is in my area, I will vote for her.

Waiter Woes

The lights are low, soft music is playing. You are sitting at your favorite place in your favorite restaurant, dressed to the nines and looking like a million bucks. The waiter approaches with your ordered beverages, he stumbles, time slows down. You start seeing everything move in slow motion, the beverages are flying and one lands right on your lap. The restaurant goes quiet, eyes turns towards you, what do you do:

1) You forgive him, while fuming inside.
2) You forgive him and put the startled waiter at ease with a little self depreciating humor.
3) You say "I could buy this place and fire you."
4) You say "I know the owner and I could have you fired."

Well whatever your reaction, it will reveal a lot about you, as Office Depot CEO Steve Odland says how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character and other top CEOs agree.

Back Pain and Feeling Better

Do you get stressed out, do some people give you a pain in the back side?

Here are some back exercises you can do to make your back super healthy. Enjoy and don't spend your long weekend sleeping, get up and do some activities.

Enola Gay and Ahmadinejad (sort of repost)

Iran has joined 'club of nuclear countries': Ahmadinejad




Ahmadinejad playing football




Play Video here if it does not load.

Wiki entry for Enola Gay




Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday
Aha words can't describe the feeling and the way you lied

These games you play, they're gonna end in more than tears someday
Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way

It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been
We got your message on the radio, conditions normal and you're coming home

Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today
Aha this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away

Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way
Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't fade in our dreams away

It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been
We got your message on the radio, conditions normal and you're coming home

Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today
Aha this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away



Original Enola Gay repost.

Moral of the Story: Nukes are not cool.

Computer Tech Support Blues

Dear Tech Support:

Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0.
I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity.

Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.

I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0 , but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0 .
Please help!

Thanks,
A Troubled Us! er.
(KEEP READING)
______________________________________
REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:

This is a very common problem that men complain about.

Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program.

Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING !!!

It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0 . It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this.

Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony- Child Support. I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance.

Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0 , Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2.

However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5.

Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 !

WARNING!!! DO NOT , under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3 . This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Best of luck,
Tech Support

Mashup

Just when I thought there is no good new music. All the music we hear today is just sophisticated studio productions or recycled hits with rap vocals or DJs mixing tracks with extra beats and sampled vocals. I have discovered Mashups, I did not discover mashups per se but I discovered them for myself. I doubt you will find Mashups in Music stores even though there are some exceptions that have become mainstream and released as singles and videos because Mashups are individually produced by all sorts of people by mixing their favorite beats with their favorite vocals, resulting in combinations that you never imagined would sound good together but actually sound incredible.

What is a Mashup, well the official definition is:

Bastard pop is a musical genre which, in its purest form, consists of the combination (usually by digital means) of the music from one song with the acapella from another. Typically, the music and vocals belong to completely different genres. At their best, bastard pop songs strive for musical epiphanies that add up to considerably more than the sum of their parts.

Now where can you get your dose of Mashups, well you will find them all over but a few convenient places are at Alta Vista Music search for Mashup or Google Blogsearch.

Lie Detector to Be Used in Russian Airport

A lie detector will be used in Rusian Airport to detect drug smugglers and assorted criminals.

It will also be useful in Kuwait, imagine the following scenarios:

Official: Put your hand on the lie detector.
Egyptian Man (puts hand on lie detector)
Lie Detector: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, explodes in a ball of smoke.

Official: Next
Official: Put your hand on the lie detector.
Indian Man: Atcha
Official: You are here as a bus driver, have you ever driven a bus before?
Indian Man: Yes
Lie Detector: BEEP BEEP BEEP

Official: Next
Official: Put your hand on the lie detector.
Kuwaiti Man: Inzen
Official: Have you ever told a lie?
Kuwaiti Man: Yes
Lie Detector: silent
Ofifcial: What is your occupation?
Kuwaiti Man: Goverment Employee
Lie Detector: 1/2 BEEP
Official: Do you come to work on time?
Kuwaiti Man: Yes
Lie Detector: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEeeee... (battery runs out), gaweeya gaweeeya.

Most 'Mazin Mashups

I found this site with excellent mashups,
get them before they dissapear.

Mashups here.

They include:

Joan Jet vs Eve vs Alicia
Destiny's Child Vs. Nirvana
Bootystition
Rapture Riders (Blondie vs The Doors
Blvd of Broken Songs (Gre)

Musical Indian

I think he sings really good, we just might have a hit here.

If the above video does not play, click on the post title or here.

Steve Jobs and Apple - The Great Presenter

Here is a video of Steve Jobs in 1984 introducing the Macintosh. Note how he does not talk about technology but humanizes Macintosh like it was a long awaited friend. He shows all the technology features like full audio music, advanced graphics, WYSIWYG displays and fonts, and its compact size he even lets Macintosh speak in a synthesized voice. As a result the hall goes wild.



Here is and ad for the iMac. No technology talk here again, no feature list, no competitive comparisions, just plug it into the wall, connect the network cable, and you have a working useful friend with a friendly curved outer shell and eye catching color.



Here is an ad about iPod, with silhouettes dancing and the white iPod and headphones clearly shown shown. The idea here is not to sell a hard disk embedded digital music player, but more of a lifestyle of freedom, dancing and having fun.



Carmine Gallo from Businessweek explain how to How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs. The main points being:

• Sell the Benefit
  
• Practice, Practice, and Practice Some More
  
• Keep It Visual
  
• "And One More Thing..."
  

Not all Apple products where successful, they declined when Jobs left them and picked up after he joined Apple again.

Here is a comprehensive list of all Apple products.

01:02:03 04-05-06

Do you realize that today at 1:02 and 3 seconds there will be a weird numerological oddity? It will be fourth of April 2006 and that means it will be:

01:02:03 on the 04 (month) of the 05 (day) of 06?

Cafeteria Shuweikh, Canada Dry Street, Kuwait

DiiGMaa asked me about some good Saakaa Restaurants after reading my Bancharchi post, well here are the directions to Cafeteria Shuweikh.

First, you take the 3rd Ring Road, then you drive West till you reach the very end, where you have Airport Road passing over you in the overhead road bridges. You stop at the traffic light just before the bridge. The street in front of you will be Canada Dry Street. Canada Dry Street is always crowded with cars and big trucks and tow trucks, it is the garage and car spare parts area in Kuwait. The street is always filled with cars and amazingly awful drivers but surprisingly it is always moving and no serious accidents happen.

You pass the traffic light and enter Cananda Dry street, to your left you will see the Al Watan Newspaper head office.



Side View of Al Watan Building and Canada Dry street at the next left turn.
Don't let this picture confuse you, I came to the street from a different direction.

Ok, now you are in Canada Dry street, look to your right as you drive around 1/2 a kilometer down for an Orange Canopy and the Cafeteria Al Shuweikh sign.



Park your car anywhere, in front of the place. Careful not to get blocked, people here don't understand traffic laws and can block your car with theirs and go for a thirty minute errand without a care in the world.



Look out for the waiter standing outside if you want to order from your car, or you can walk in the small entrance.

Walking in the entrance is not reccomended for ladies because the restaurant is filled with assorted male bachelors from all nationalities who have not seen their families for the last five years. Also, there are no private tables there, you take a seat in any empty chair.

They have the best meat fatayer, cheese fatayer, spinach fatayer and don't forget to try their laban. Service is extremely fast and the fatayer's are always freshly made.



Get your paper bag with the fatayer.

Go home, or in your car, unwrap the bag and bon apetit.

Robot Snake

Here is a really cool Robotic Snake, made in Japan of course. It can slither and it can swim in water.

There where a lot of comments here on potential Military applications, but why do people want to kill more people? I think we have a wide array of existing weapons, we don't need new ones engineered.

I can think of more practical uses, like catching mice and cockroaches, finding your lost car keys, fetching stuff across the room and scaring the living daylights out of your friends when you get it to crawl up their leg.

PS just like Erzulie

One (Shelter from the Storm Benefit)

Bancharchi

I drive my car at full speed over speed bumps and climb over pavements. This general carelessness in the wellbeing of my car has paid back.

I was backing up in one of those underground parking, and my rear tire slid across the sidewalk, no problem, my car is a 4x4, I stepped on the gas and climbed the pavement with the sound of my rear tire squealing in pain. I drove out of the underground parking, got back on the road and was driving back when the indicator light lit up and I got a message on my dashboard saying, "Car Tyre Pressure Very Low". I drive slower and find a tire shop, or bancherchi. I park, he looks at my tire, it is badly ripped from the side and slowly deflating.

He takes the tire off and gets me a new tire. Good, "is that all?", I ask, "Well it is if you want it to be, but your other tires are in bad shape also, do you want them replaced?". I think for a few minutes, should I save some money because he is trying to con me into changing all my tires, or he could be right and I run the risk of having a nasty accident later. What the heck, "Go ahead", I tell him. He works on all my tires and has them replaced. He gets me a cup of tea, tells me to have a seat and he starts working.

Just to save you the trouble of reading about the captivating details on how the tires where replaced, I will just show you the pictures.


Bancherchi Street


Smorgasbord of Rubber Tires


Free Tea



Tire Removed



Ring Placed on Machine



Bare foot Car



New Tire Fixed



Tea Finished

The Meaning of Beards

He approaches you with a light one day old shadow, what does this tell you ? he is unkempt, lazy, or maybe he wants that passe Miami Vice look.

You see another man, with a full lengthy beard all the way down to his protruding belly, what signals do you get from that ?

Another gentleman has a neat goatee, or saksuka in Kuwaiti, what message does that give ?

Well, each of you can interpret it in the way you like, but here, it means how much of Unix Wizard you are. Pictures included.

Geek Rings

Rings made out of keyboard keys. I want a Windows Key for me. You can get your ring also from here.

More Geek fashion previously posted are Cufflinks and Earings.

Looking for your Soulmate ?

Dear Boys and Girls,

Are you looking for your soulmate ? Someone that you can connect with ? Someone made for you ?

Well those smart people at Google came with Google Romance. How can I describe it, in one word, hmm, Amazing!

WARNING: People already with a mate, do not try it, you will be dissapointed with your existing partner and looking for a brand new replacement.