http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkZdkHylJ3w

I love it :) Not because I'm a pc fan or anything - hats off to Apple for making the stuff that they do, but I can't stand the elitist attitude in any facet of life. Those comparison ads not only promote this attitude among mac users, but at the same time tries to belittle any other choice made that is not a mac (well, in this case its only one more - a pc)...

The pc ad, in my opinion, is in better taste. The mac commercials are just way too snide. People can use any array of tools they want to create their vision - that can include a pc or a mac, or both or anything else that deem neccessary. The tools used doesn't make anybody more of less 'cooler'. Implying otherwise is just childish marketing and doesn't garner any new fans or 'switch' users from anywhere....

http://www.myspace.com/courtneycriswell http://www.myspace.com/christopherhartman http://www.myspace.com/ianaxel

Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, the so-called "Banker to the Poor", and the Grameen Bank he founded three decades ago were the surprise winners of the award for pioneering a system of small-scale loans that has helped 6.6 million people escape the grind of poverty.

As the head of the Nobel Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, said: "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty."

I couldn't agree more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061013/bs_afp/nobelpeace_061013160046

Few links that have more in-depth coverage of her book.

http://www.newagebd.com/2006/jul/07/liti.html
http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/07/16/d607161407125.htm

I went to see the Bodies Exhibition the other day with Elvi. It generated a lot of controversy for obvious reasons, but I didn't really find it that ground breaking honestly. I've seen a lot of models of bodies at my dad's place of work (he was a doctor) and these didn't look any different just because they were made from real human cadavers. In fact, the muscle fibers looked like beef jerky (sorry). Basically, the perservation process made it look really fake and since you're not allowed to touch them, you wouldn't know otherwise. The other controversy is the fact that 99% of the bodies they used in the New York exhibit were Asian, and not enough information is given as to how the bodies were acuired. Although - it IS a good learning experience, so in the end, I would recommend it.

After that was a photo day all around South Seaport - which has got a very cool view of brooklyn. Pictures here.

Went to Captree Island for a bunch of sunsets shots the other day. Pictures here.

My motorbike is back in commission again ! - after 8 months stored away, I finally got to take it for a long ride. Put some tunes on the iPod and took it for a good 6 hour ride to Orient Point and back... next week - Montauk.

On a different note, my labor certification got approved.... those of you in the process know what a landmark that is... hell, it took almost 4 years ... lets see where it goes from here ;)

If you notice on the left, there is a new section called "PhotoStream", which is now going to house all the random images that I have. It shows the last 5 posts at a time on the home page, but it shows all of them once you click on the title to go to the PhotoStream main page. I've only posted the ones from my cell phone, but I will be adding older ones as I keep going...

PS: To all people from the legal profession reading this for a purpose, I really did think of the word "PhotoStream" on my own, and if it existed somewhere else before, I apologise and I wish to point out that I'm making absolutely no money off this. Neither is anybody else that I'm affiliated with. So. Leave me alone.

Pictures here...

PS. So the photographer in Yinjwu has appeared - 90% of shots on the tennis court are taken by Yinjwu...

Pictures here...

Anyways - Shahaar is an absolute joy - Ammu couldn't stop talking about him - and I took as many pictures as I could - here they are. More next week when I go to PA...

Didn't get to take as much pictures (never do when family gets together) - too busy catching up on old stories and jokes. My uncle and my mom had a blast looking at old pictures of me and making fun of them :(. Btw, I spent hours scanning the old pics that they were looking at so they will be up soon on the site, and maybe more people can participate in the same jokes :)

Today was mostly Wisconsin, with a little bit of Indiana and Illnois. We passed by Wrigley field in Chicago and had Deep Dish Pizza for lunch.

It rained a little bit in Wisconsin and right after the rain, the sky became really bright blue and the clouds were really defined white and fluffy. We were driving downhill along a winding road and there were two green hills on each side of the road, with red farm houses on them and sun was setting in front of us - the music was playing (Hooverphonic, I think) - and the moment was perfect. All I could do was just stare at the horizon - absolutely speechless, just soaking the moment in. Can't really describe what I felt - 'Peace' or 'Serenity' maybe the closest word that I can come up with, not being so eloquent (Sorry Miss Seema).

Totally worth 20 hours of driving...

PS. For those of you that don't know, Miss Seema was my english teacher in high school back in Dhaka :)

So far, I've covered New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio - Pennsylvania being the nicest drive of all of them.

Had some really weird pizza in Pennsylvania. I mean, it was cheese and bread and tomato sauce - but not sure you could call it pizza.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/4890418.stm

http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/al-taji.htm

In this article, it states that once the person being photographed saw his picture in a gallery, he sued the photographer - for a lot of money. The case was eventually thrown out by a judge, but many say the fact that it even went this far is ridiculous. :-/ More here....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/arts/design/19phot.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=105323&GT1=7701

So - the pictures: I posted my pictures here. Francesco's pictures are here. Kamil's first batch is here. Geforce's pictures are here.

Met up with Elvi - as she states, she has graduated from 'chemo' so Syrap and I visited to have dinner and hang out for a bit... the view is pretty nice from her place...

Tomorrow is the photo shoot party... have to sleep now....look for pictures from the party soon..

• Library Circulation Desk Attendee
• Developer at UNDP
• Connequot Rowing Club Dock Hand
• Math Lab Lackey

Four movies I can watch over and over:

• Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels
• The Apu Trilogy (ok, so its three movies - but its still one story, so there :P)
• The Last of the Mohicans
• The Shawshank Redemption

Four places I have lived:

• Tokyo, Japan
• Penang, Malaysia
• Bali, Indonesia
• Oakdale, New York, USA (changed due to inconsistency complaints)

Four television shows I love to watch:

• Friends
• Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• The Shield
• Monster Garage

Four places I have been on vacation:

• Nepal
• Bangkok, Thailand
• London, England
• Singapore

Four of my favourite dishes:

• Daal & Rice
• Lasagna
• Biryani & Kabab
• Churasco

Four websites I visit daily:

• Powazek
• Elvi
• Daily Star News
• Photo.net

Four places I would rather be right now:

• Asleep in bed (wonder how many people said that - besides, its 1:27 am)
• In Dhaka, going to Samia's wedding
• In Nepal, somewhere in the mountains
• Behind a camera

Four people I am tagging:

• Elvi
• Francesco
• Saurabh
• Zayna

OK, ok - so this is really not really a blog entry - more of a reflective moment. In Oct 2001, one of my very best friends passed away - very untimely. She was not only my best friend, but she was the type of person who was everybody's best friend. She was one of those people who basically keeps the entire group together.... so - this got us thinking and we thought the perfect legacy for her would be for us to stick together and so we started a group email list that we would use to keep in touch with each other - no matter where we are, we would know what we are upto. Well - today, Jan 4, 2006 - Its been almost 5 years and I happened to check the message history and I'm pretty proud to say we have kept it up (see above - those are number of messages per month since 2001)... You'd be proud, Sham :P

Ahhh... turkey. :)

The yearly tradition of thanksgiving dinner at Baqar and Seema's place continues.... This year, like every other year, the food was fabulous and company was great. Thanks again goes out to Baqar and Seema and Sarika for cooking all the food. Pictures are here.

PS: I hate queen & 5....

PS. Btw, Baqar's b'day is Nov 20th....

So - I tried my hand at something new this weekend - my friend Francesco had a great idea - Him, his friend Willow and Tao decided to rent a studio in Chelsea and included me in. I rarely shoot pictures indoors, but I wanted to give it a try - and here are the results. I'm not too impressed myself. Francesco's pictures on the other hand are pretty damn good..

All in all, it was a nice little party and a good time was had by all, so thats what counts :)

PS. I picked what I thought were the better ones out of the lot - but I will post all of them at another location. Coming soon...

I remember when I moved into my first apartment - in 1997 - I moved with 2 big boxes, 2 suitcases and one car trip. If I have to move today, I need at least the 17' truck... and its a pain.

Funny how the stuff you own ends up owning you :-/

School orders students to remove blogs
http://www.travelpod.com
http://www.sportsshooter.com

On another note, my 45 Day letter finally came - don't know if it is any indication of anything, good, but I'm hopeful.

PS. If you know what the 45 day letter is, then you know how I feel - if you don't know what the 45 day letter is, then it probably doesn't matter :)

Shahaar, my very good friends son is 3 months old ! Can you imagine, it was only yesterday that he was born. He is too damn cute. He is developing into a person and I'm missing it :-/....hey Samu, miss ya, and miss Shahaar's growing up days. For the record, I'm jealous of anybody and everybody that gets to spend more time with him than me :)

So after like 50 billion times making plans, I finally convinced my friend Elvi to come down to LI. It involved a lot of yelling and pursuading, but eventually it worked. It was a nice relaxing day just chilling out. She got to see my place and play some Halo - (she's the one running into the walls and looking up at the sky :) - even managed to catch an episode of Mind your language, which had her laughing hysterically.

After that, we went for a ride on my motorbike, but it was too cold so we only went around the corner - but I think judging by all the jumping around she did afterwards, she enjoyed it :)

Later we went to Port Jeff. by Saurabh and had dinner at Pasta Pasta - which was awesome after a day of not eating...

Elvi was recently diagnosed with breast cancer - she had her operation about 2/3 weeks ago - but lemme tell ya - this girl is strong and stubborn as ever and is fighting a very strong fight. To me, its fucking amazing that she is out and about, let alone be able to take a ride on a motorbike. I think her jest for life is a real treat. Enjoyed my day immensely :)

So, not to digress, in the show there is a character named 'Sid' - who is a 'cockney' - a cockney by definition is those born within earshot (generally taken to be three miles) of the Bow bells, in other words the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. Cockney people usually speak in a form on english slang which very intriguing. Its called "rhyming slang" - basically they use word that rhymes with the words they really want to use. e.g.

- Pigs ear - beer
- China plate - my old mate
- Jack Tar - bar
- Rabbit and pork - talk

To illustrate:

"Allo me old china - wot say we pop round the Jack. I'll stand you a pig and you can rabbit on about your teapots. We can 'ave some loop and tommy and be off before the dickory hits twelve."

translates to:

"Hello my old mate (china plate) - what do you say we pop around to the bar (Jack Tar). I'll buy you a beer (pig's ear) and you can talk (rabbit and pork) about your kids (teapot lids). We can have some soup (loop de loop) and supper (Tommy Tucker) and be gone before the clock (hickory dickory dock) strikes twelve."

Isn't that so cool ? Imagine having a conversation like that :)

More slangs here...

Went to Miami twice, the second of which time was awesome. Went to Atlanta, New Orleans (before the flood) and Philli for the Live 8 Concert. All the trips were very enjoyable - the only thing I regret is not taking more pictures.

A co-worker, Francesco recently showed me his blog, and he updates it almost everyday - I'm hoping this will motivate me to update my site more... Francesco has some very cool photoblogs on his site - he's got a very good creative eye and it shows...

So he recently got the Canon 5D, and I looked through the viewfinder - its BIG !.. it does add a little "something" to the composition, you can see more of the subject, and the LCD screen is bigger too... AND its 13 MP !!!

I'm jealous :-/

LATE TRAILER. GROUND MOVEMENT CAUSED THIS DELIVERY DELAY

Ground movement ??? what gives ???

Just finished watching the NBA finals - Spurs won - tough loss - I was rooting for the Pistons :-/

More updates to follow... as soon as I can get them...

Fishing trip pictures are up. I got very very VERY seasick unfortunately - my first time ever...:(...

I'm feeling very nostalgic, so I'm gonna go dig up some old b&ws from my stash and put on a flashback section. Probably some pictures from Greenherald as well...

Baqar and Seema came over two weekends ago - pity - we only saw them for one, but they were determined enough to drive all the way to my place to hang out for half-an-hour.

PS. The pictures added here can be found in the Misc Pics album as well. Will be adding more oldies in the coming weeks.

I went to Miami to visit Fardeen in the beginning of May - it was only for the weekend - but ahh the humidity and the 80 degree weather....I could live there...

My Canon 20D is now pretty famous for having some focusing issues. A bunch of of people in a lot of forums have complained. I'm pissed because I can't really tell, without shooting in a sports/action kind of scenario. So any comments/opinions are welcome..