Engineer

The pessimist sees a glass half empty. An optimist sees a glass half full. An engineer sees a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be!

Today I 'escaped' a minute or so early from school ;), which is why I saw R., Kr., P. and C. (all of whom I know from work) walking.

I had fries from the cafeteria for lunch, and ate rice with aloo gosht after coming home. It actually SNOWED today, at around 11:45 in the morning!

M

Yesterday, M. Auntie came here to give some chicken and speghetti for some reason... So, that's what I had for dinner.

Today, for lunch, I ate aloo, whose recipe my dad acquired a couple days ago.
For dinner, I had aloo gosht, which was cooked two days ago.

Lateness

Here the top nine comments made by NBC commentators during the Athens Summer Olympics that they would like to take back.

1. Weightlifting Commentator: "This is Gregoriavia from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."
2. Dressage Commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and
father."
4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."
5. Softball Announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think that we could expect the same thing again."
6. Basketball Analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."
8. Soccer Commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."
9. Tennis Commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them."

Today, I woke up at 8 in the morning, which is about the time I leave for school. I unfortunately had to hurry up through breakfast, which is somethign I usually don't like to do (hurry that is).

For lunch, I had Chow Mein from the Chinese restaurant from the weekend. Plus some waffles which I bought with my dad in Food Basic on Sunday (I think). Plus, I had some spaghetti and meat sauce with it, which was also from a couple days ago.

For dinner, I had daal and roti. That was mixed with some Keema Daal from the freezer which was defrosted. Pretty ...

Also, my dad phoned N. mami in US, to learn how to cook aloo ki tarkari and chicken salan. That will be cooked tommorow.

Originally, I was naming this post El Salio, but chose Lateness instead.
Lo sali, hane yuk insan kaun furae salio, al poochna yuk question aas o. Howae kub howoe pedoe (walking) presde el hugga (school) daas frero. El insan, yuk mard, drivae ein el Lisgar Drive ein yuk red van. A stopae vana (van) aur questae aas o (ein yuk 'accent' British: "Excuse me; do you know where Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School is?". It's just that a bolae na "Carmel", na "Mount Carmel", mais "OLOMC", the whole thing in a British accent. That was interesting aur el insan furae salio.

No Post

No post yesterday. I was working from 7 to 3, an 8 hour shift...

This effect is really nice!!

For dinner yesterday, we went to H Auntie's house, who is my mom's friend. There was rice, black daal and chicken for dinner

Today, I had work from 12 - 4 PM. For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs, while for lunch my dad made Karahi Gosht. It was precariously close to something my mom might have made.

Hakka

For breakfast I had honey and toast

For lunch, I bought fries from the cafeteria, and a McFlurry from McDonalds.

Since I was starting work @ 4, I decided to go straight from school. Like all Friday shifts, it was a fun one with many different people working.

For lunch I went to a Chinese Hakka restaurant, called Salt N Pepper. At first I thought it was pretty pricey, but after seeing their portion size for each plate, I thought it wasn't so pricey after all. All in all, the food tasted pretty nice. Not too oily and fatty, and not too dry and tasteless, either. Also, the ambience and the general air and mood in the restaurant was just fine. I'd give it a 7/10.

Popeyes

I went to Popeyes for lunch today... had original Chicken Sandwich

For dinner, my dad made spaghetti..

The Fourteenth

What happened on December 14...
December 14 is The Feast of Saint John of the Cross (in the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England)

Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland (1542)
Alexander Hamilton proposes creation of a Bank of the United States (1790)
Max Planck publishes his study of quantum theory (The birth of Quantum Theory) (1900)
First telegraph cable laid across the Pacific Ocean (1902)
NASCAR founded (1947)
Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly by Venus (1962)
The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history (1962)
The news of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's capture is finally announced (2003)

Charleston, South Carolina evacuated by British (1782)
Alabama became the 22nd state in the United States (1819)
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole (1911)
DNA synthesized for the first time (1967)
The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations (1939)

Births
Nostradamus, astrologer and mathematician (1503)
Tycho Brahe, astronomer (1546)
Roger Fry, artist, art critic (1866)
King George VI of the United Kingdom (1895)
Frances Bavier, actress (1902)
Edward Tatum, geneticist (1909)
Shirley Jackson, writer (1919)
Ernie Davis, American football star (1939)
Michael Owen, football star (1979)

Deaths
1990 Johannes von Thurn und Taxis, prince in Germany, dies at 64
1989 Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist/dissident (Nobel 1975), dies at 68
1987 Paul Clinton Sundberg, actor (Belle of NY, Easter Parade), dies
1963 Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (SPD), dies at 62
1947 Stanley Baldwin, English premier (1923, 24-29, 35-37), dies at 80
1945 Constantino Gaito, composer, dies at 67
1945 Forrester Harvey, actor (Tarzan and Mate, Chump at Oxford), dies at 61
1943 John Harvey Kellogg, pioneer responsible for creation of the flaked-cereal industry. Developed peanut butter, granola, and toasted flakes.
1928 Theodore Roberts, actor (Roaring Road, 10 Commandments), dies at 77
1926 Theo van Rysselberghe, Belgian painter (pointillism), dies at 64
1909 Leopold II, king of Belgium, dies
1906 John A C Oudemans, Dutch geographer/astronomer, dies at 78
1903 William Ennis, 1st cop to die in electric chair
1886 Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski, composer, dies at 27
1873 J Louis R Agassiz, Swiss geologist/paleo-biologist), dies
1861 George HG earl of Aberdeen, Engl min of Foreign affairs, dies at 76
1799 George Washington, 1st president USA (1789-97), dies at 66
1788 Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, German composer, dies at 74
1788 Carlos III, King of Naples/Spain (1759-88), dies at 72
1754 Mahmud I, sultan of Turkey, dies at 58
1542 James, king of Scotland (1513-42), dies at 30
1417 John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, English nobleman, hanged and burned
1136 Harald IV, "Gylle Krist", king of Norway, murdered
872 Adrian II, Italian Pope (867-72)/last married pope, dies at about 80

Just some of the stuff that happened on December 14.
For lunch, I had some Aloo Keema with rice; some Salmon and Pollock fish; and finally fried chicken from yesterday. I let the fried chicken in the deep fryer too long, which is why it came out burnt badly; I still ate it though...

da-da-dumb

The title was created by my brother.

For breakfast, I had simply honey and toast, the same I had for the past year. Soon (it's planned) I will create a webpage showing how I create this unique delicacy (not too complex, but it is pretty intricate).

For lunch, in school, I went to Pizza Pizza with friends, though I myself had nothing to eat. In English class, which I was about to skip since the teacher wasn't there (she skips 1 out of 10 classes probably), we played President. That was kind of fun, specially being a$$ most of the time after being Pres once... Other than that, pretty neutral day at school...

For dinner, I had Aloo Keema, which was pretty bland at first; after adding salt, however, it was quite acceptable. Though still not as good as my mom's food, of course, but all right.....

Met

Lunch was Rice and Galawat ka Keema

Dinner was homemade deep fried chicken and frenchfries.

Met Karim and Daniel during walk home. K was playing basketball at someone's house. I had a small chat with him on how he could skool the other kid...

Work...

Today for breakfast, I had simple fried egg and toast with honey. I was watching soccer as I was eating this.

I had no lunch, as I was working from 3:00 - 9:30 PM :(. I did eat a Smartie McFlurry from McDonalds though!

For dinner, my dad made koftay, which I didnt eat; I instead opted for Galawat ka Keema.

Another workweek starts tommorow....

Out

Firefox 1.0.3 is out. Some minor bugfixes and security issues have been resolved. Nothing major, but always good to have the latest. Download and read more about it here and here. And look for the Moox optimized builds, which make Firefox faster based on the processor you have here.

Yesterday night, I actually ate something after all, which was kababs and cheese in a bun, which my dad made.

Interesting day today, since I ate various things today.

I was supposed to wake up today at 6:15-ish, since I was starting work at 7:00 AM. However, instead, I snoozed in and was waken up by the manager, L., when my dad recieved her call at 7:05 AM. I rushed to change clothes, and eat two slices of bread before rushing to work. I said sorry, and she happened to be in a not so bad mood, which is unusual for her, and all was good. However, I worked without a break, which was all good, since it was only a 4 hour shift anyway (until 11:00 AM). Actually it was more like 11:30 or even 11:45, since after McBreakfast they keep people for a long time until they are settled and all ironed out (as to who's doing what).

After coming home from work, I discovered that my brother was still sleeping and no one had had breakfast yet.

Breakfast
For breakfast, I had Russian Omlette. Russian omlette contains peas, carrots and cheese, in addition to, of course, eggs. That, my dad made also. After breakfast, we left for getting the car repaired. There was a sound in the car, and that seemed to be pretty serious. Since a brown guy was doing the work ;), we got it done for free! There was a wait of about 45 minutes, but in the end, it was worth it (it's free!).

Lunch
There was no lunch today, instead my dad decided to buy ice cream from Baskin Robbin for all of us. I had a double scoop in a cone of Maui Mocha and some type of Chocolate/Coffee mixture. That tasted pretty good, and it was also unique, considering it featured nuts and the like.

Dinner
For dinner, we first went to Pita Nutsy's in Streetsville. It is close to Town Talk Bakery, a picture of which I posted a while back. My dad, after learning that they serve pork at their place, left immediately. After that, we went to Popeyes, where I had a 3 peice meal and fries.

Fun day!

Never!

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes. Then, you're a mile away...and you've got his shoes! This was also the quote of the day for the Australian day.

Ouch! I'll say why in a minute.

Today for lunch, I had a goal--finish all the 'old' food in the fridge, which included biryani, macaroni and daal. After coming home, I immediately finished all the biryani in no time since I was pretty hungry. A few hours after that, I got the macaroni down, somehow, mixed with some cheese from the $0.99 macaroni and cheese boxed 'dinners' sold in every store, 7-11 included. Still armed with the knowledge that there was more in the fridge, I heated the daal up (which, by the way, was enough to feed all 4 of us [my mom included], if the roti wasn't home-made), and gobbled 2 servings (bowls!) of that down, hoping that the saltmines that I had furnished on top of the daal wouldn't cause me to throw up... This, interestingly, was all in the dire and everlasting hope to see my dad cook something.

OK fine; it was in hope that my dad would be tired on a Friday and he'd go to eat out, but....

Needless to say, my attempts to eat up everything (and to go out to eat) were futile, since he somehow found some chicken in the fridge, and served that on the dinner table for dinner. ****!! Ouch!


Also, I didn't eat the chicken, as I was full from the daal and macaroni from earlier on.

Pennies

This post is dedicated to pennies, which are the smallest denomination coin available in many countries, such as Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Though often underestimated (people throw it at each other for fun :-)), the penny is worth a lot (not really...).

Start off with some basic facts about pennies:
-The first currency of any type authorized by the United States.
-The word "penny" is derived from the British pence.
- The composition of the penny is 97.5% zinc and 2.5 % copper.
-Mass of a penny is 2.35 grams and diameter is 19.05 mm
-"A Penny saved is a penny earned" - Benjamin Franklin

-Reasons why the penny shouldn't be taken out, here.
-What a million, trillion, billion, and even quintillion pennies look like, take a look at this site.
-Doubling pennies, like the rice on the chessboard, very quickly results in large amounts of money, as seen here.
-An anti-penny page
-Wikipedia page on penny.


Above: some interesting penny art done at fincher.org.

Food

For dunch, today, I had macaroni and cheese (the boxed kind) and some kababs and cheese in a hotdog bun. For dinner, I had the last remaining biryani that my mom had made before leaving.

Macaroni

Yesterday night, I had nothing to eat...meaning I slept with a grumbling stomach. Actually, part of it was my fault, since I was too lazy to go down and eat something.

Today, April 14, I had macaroni & cheese and meat for lunch. Interesting lunch, though rations were small :)

Also, my dad says he isn't going out to eat anywhere until the food in the fridge is finished, which, by looking at it, seems that it will take a pretty long time...

Top Ten Places

Did you know that About.com has a blogging page? It does... Anyway, I got an idea from there for a top ten places I want to visit list:

1. Paris, France (where I want to go the most)
2. Pakistan (where I went last year)
3. New York (where I might go in May)
4. Hajj/Umrah/Ziyarat (S.A, Iran, Iraq...) A page about this stuff
5. Los Angeles (for real this time; when I was living there, I barely saw anything)
6. Hong Kong or Tokyo
7. Cancun, Mexico
8. Baltimore-Washington area (aunt/uncle live there)
9. Australia (If I ever have the money...which means never)
10. Heaven! (since I couldn't find anyplace else I really want to go)

For places that I already HAVE visited, see this entry from back in February.

Going with the whole food blog-ish theme started yesterday, I again ate the same thing I did yesterday for lunch, which is biryani. I wonder what's coming for dinner tonight...

Mom

My mom is gone to Pakistan for her neice (my cousin)'s marriage.

She's coming back in the second week of May. So for the next month or so, two things will be happening:

1. I won't have a camera, as I lent her mine for the trip, and

2. I will make this into a semi- FOOD BLOG, as my dad struggles to cook a decent meal for himself, me, and my brother :). My favorite food blog, though I never read it is Chocolate and Zucchini (www.chocolateandzucchini.com)

I do have some pictures in my collection of photos on my computer, but I probably won't be posting anything in the next couple weeks or so. Also, the weather is now good outside

Starting off with the whole food blogging theme, my mom made some biryani before leaving. So for both lunch and dunch (hey, they have brunch; what's wrong with dunch - dinner+lunch), I had that biryani. I wonder what's in store in a couple of days, when all the refrigerated food that my mom made will run out, soon...

Red King

A red checkers King sees other black Kings coming to attack him in the distance.

Sea of Error

Sea of Errors. When Flight Simulator 98 crashed on me a very long time ago, I started dragging the application window around to see if it was responding. The window was dragging around, but it left these interesting trails on whatever path it was taking. And finally, after all the draggin, you get The Sea of Errors.

FireTune

FireTune is a program that improves Firefox. I have to give it a try. Get it here.

Nice Blog

A nice blog I discovered: http://singer.to/

Firefox Moox

Firefox 1.0.2 processor optimized builds are out. Get them at Moox. The optimized builds are divided into processor types. They work a little faster than the generic version of Firefox available from the Mozilla website.

2050 MB

This is cool! For its 1-year birthday, Google's GMail email service just increased its account size up to 2.0 GB from 1 GB! Also, the storage space increases as time passes, and you can even see the total storage space going up in a counter on the Gmail page.

Also new is rich formatting (bold, italics, underline), support for fonts, ability to change the color of text, number and bulleted lists, and alignment.

New! Google Gulp from Google Canada.

Official Website of Google Gulp

I just discovered this. Pretty interesting stuff! Google Gulp is a line of drinks designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intellegent and less thirsty.

"How to get Gulped?
You can pick up your own supply of this "limited release" product simply by turning in a used Gulp Cap at your local grocery store. How to get a Gulp Cap? Well, if you know someone who's already been "gulped," they can give you one. And if you don't know anyone who can give you one, don't worry – that just means you aren't cool. But very, very (very!) soon, you will be."
Pretty Cool!

A Squirrel

This is a squirrel resting around on a tree somewhere in Cambridge, Ontario.