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has gotta start blogging again! Hopefully will begin sometime this week.
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This is a cool feature:
Apple's Mail looks for tags in all emails you receive. These tags are for addresses, times and dates.
The idea is, you can hover over a time/date and then click to add it to the calendar application (the Outlook counterpart of Mac OS X).
What I didn't know was that it read the tags in French too! I wonder what other languages are supported...
Here is the recipe for the stir-fry that I made a couple days ago.
Turns out, making a stir-fry from scratch requires cool stuff such as corn flour and soy sauce, which, of course, are amenities that I do not have.
Therefore, the stirfry was made with Sun-Bird stir fry mix, which is essentially a powder of corn-starch, sugar, and dehydrated garlic.
Here is the recipe of my little endeavor.
What you need:
* 1 pouch of chicken ( ask the butcher to clean and cut the chicken in pieces suitable for 'salan')
* Bit of oil
* Chow Mien Noodles (one fistful)
* Water (couple glasses)
* Seasoning (one pouch)
* Salt and pepper (a pinch)
* Oriental Style Frozen Vegetables (half bag)
What to do:
Two things are going to be happening at once here. Turn heat on and heat one pot and one skillet at the same time.
In the pot, add about 1-1.5 cups of water and the frozen vegetables and cook on high until most of the water is boiled off (the veggies should still be slightly uncooked; this is normal).
At the same time, in the pan, heat a teaspoon of oil. Add the chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes until it turns brown. By this time, the vegetables should be done ('done' meaning that the water is boiled off, not that they are cooked).
Add the veggies, one cup of water and the seasoning (packet) to the skillet and cook for about 10 minutes on low-medium heat, until the water boils off. Meanwhile, use the pot that was being used for the veggies, and add 3 cups of water and the noodles and cook on high heat until noodles are tender (about 10-12 minutes).
By the time the meat/veggies are done, the noodles should be almost done. Thus, this gives the meat sauce time to cool down and thicken, while the noodles are finishing their cooking stage.
Mix the noodles and sauce, add salt, and enjoy!
Oh, and this diagram might be useful.
I don't feel like coming up with a cartoon for this one, but it cannot be hard. 
There are no political crimes or prisoners in the UAE: official
By Wafa Issa, Staff Reporter
Published: September 24, 2008, 23:39"There is not a single person imprisoned in the UAE because of his opinion...", said Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Deputy Chief of Dubai Police on Monday night.
Al Mazeina was commenting on some reports in the international media which raised the issues of political prisoners and the restrictions on the freedom of expression in the UAE.
"...we do not pay much attention to these claims, and because we believe in the freedom of expression we do not put restrictions on what they write," said Al Mazeina.
Unless their "freedom of expression" means this page, then I'm not sure what he is trying to say:
Also, there are over 21,000 results for 'Etisalat Blocked' on Google.
Freedom of expression, lol.
Pictures from the stir-fry I made two days ago.
Today I was feeling lazy and thus got takeout shawarma 
A new feature in the blog: Searching!
Since the search is not indexed, it is quite slow, unless the server is feeling snappy (which is usually during off-peak hours).
As I make more blog posts, I might update the search back-end to make it faster and more accurate.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - In his old life in Cairo, Rami Galal knew his place and his fate: to become a maintenance man in a hotel, just like his father. But here, in glittering, manic Dubai, he is confronting the unsettling freedom to make his own choices.
Here Mr. Galal, 24, drinks beer almost every night and considers a young Russian prostitute his girlfriend. But he also makes it to work every morning, not something he could say when he lived back in Egypt. Everything is up to him, everything: what meals he eats, whether ...
To read more of this fascinating article, click here.
There is a new working RSS feed.
This feed is more automated, and so it should update more frequently (i.e. whenever the website or blog is updated, the feed also updates), thus making it more useful. So subscribe!
For Week Two, I'd have my money on Dallas, and they did indeed win!
9/15 8:35 ET At Dallas -6.5 Philadelphia
For Week Three, I'd have my money on Philadelphia. They both won, and covered the spread.
9/21 4:15 ET At Philadelphia -3.5 Pittsburgh
It's a beautiful day outside!
Just one of those days where you are grateful to be alive 
Sorry about the bad quality of the picture; my real camera is in Hamilton so I had to use the Macbook camera.
Saw this a few days ago on my Dashboard. Is this rare or what? The desert is colder than Missisauga!
350 air-conditioned bus shelters opened in Dubai
Staff Report
Published: August 27, 2008, 20:49Dubai: A total of 350 air conditioned bus shelters are now open in Dubai.
The shelters are situated in 250 mass transit locations, such as Deira, Al Wasl, Jumeirah, Bur Dubai and Al Ghusais.
For commuters, key benefits and conveniences of the air-conditioned bus shelters include improved air quality, offering protection against vehicle emissions, as well as noise and air pollution in an ambient temperature of 22 degrees Celsius.
The environment also benefits at the air conditioned bus shelters. Every shelter site is also fitted out with recycling units. These units include separate bins for glass, metal and plastic waste, which encourage commuters to be environmentally conscious.
Umm....the environment benefits from continuous air conditioning? How so? Adding a few recycle bins while a power-hungry air conditioner churns away is not benefiting the environment.
I like what Go Transit did at their new bus shelters. They have a button, which you press to get 10 minutes of heat from overhead heaters. When no one is there, the button will not get pressed and thus electricity will not be wasted! Too bad the heating system in the only Go Bus shelter I have ever used does not work. lol.
Tried cooking for the first time in life today.
Turns out, this thing isn't so hard after all. Nor is it a very "impatient" process (in the sense that I had always thought that waiting for things to cook must be very annoying, but my experience today showed that waiting is actually not that bad, even when you are really hungry!).
I didn't know if I was going to succeed in this cooking process, so I made Nanak's Palak Paneer (which should last two or three times before it runs out or gets too boring to eat) to back up my spaghetti. Here is the recipe of my little endeavor.
What you need:
What to do:
In the saucepan, combine the ground beef, onion, a spoonful of oil and any spices you find. Cook, stirring to break up meat, until browned, 6 minutes.
Add the water, the spaghetti sauce, and spaghetti and bring to a boil, stirring frequently (if you don't it sticks to the bottom, and I speak from experience). This takes about five minutes also. At this point the mixture looks extremely nasty.
When six minutes have elapsed, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook, until the spaghetti is just tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let the pan stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Season with pepper to taste and sprinkle with the cheese if available. Add some cold ketchup on top and serve!
Adopted from http://southernfood.about.com/od/spaghettisauce/r/bln108.htm
Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched a Dh1 billion road network plan for Meydan, a huge development project with the biggest racecourse in the world.
Mattar Al Tayer, Executive Director of the RTA:
"Meydan project...includes the biggest racecourse in the world. The project spans an area of 76 million square feet and includes a hotel, golf courses, shopping and entertainment centres, modern stables, Godolphin racing gallery, waterways, parking for approximately 10,000 cars, and a four-kilometre canal running from Dubai Creek to the racecourse."
The Meydan is scheduled to open in 2010 to host the Dubai World Cup. The project will be a landmark tourist destination attracting visitors from all over the world.
Obviously, it will be built using cheap slaves 'workers' from South Asia, and the project will do nothing to solve the social/societal problems plaguing the country.
Exactly 1,083 days (or 2 years 11 months 18 days) ago today, I made this post:
Life
Saturday September 24, 2005Its Thursday night at 9 o clock and that means it is, for some unknown wierd reason, the party night here in hamilton. so these retards are going to downtown to eat harveys or something... did i mention that it is raining like hell here???? the last trip to downtown we took was pretty......interesting... in many ways!
The tone of the above post was gleeful and mellow, relaxed and 'happy' (the coined word 'heeful' used to describe that in my terminology/language). This post was made when I was still in first year. We were all very naive at that time and, as a consequence, life was very different for us then.
In contrast, today I am pissed. I don't, or rather, I can't take offense to the loud drunk white people at 9:00 PM on a Thursday in Hamilton (still, Thursday being the drunk day in Steeltown). However, there is a tone of anger, resentment and irritation today, as opposed to that day 1083 nights ago.
End of rant.
The budget for food is such that I can spend a maximum of $100 per month on eating out. This amounts to eating out (on average) every other day, i.e Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Even if I spend $7.00 on each of these meals, there would be twelve such meals a month, which is $84 per month.
Speaking of food, some books I now want:
Classic 1000 Beginners Recipes.
Eat Me Now.
So the thesis is off to a solid start; did an introductory reaction today, which (unsurprisingly), did not work out quite as planned, according to preliminary tests. Also learned how to spot TLC plates (TLC being the preliminary test mentioned in the last sentence), since the last time I had done that was in the first semester of second year (roughly two years ago).
Tomorrow, the reaction will be completed and we'll see how it actually went (enough shit can go wrong with TLC plating; so much so that the boss advised us to stop wasting time on TLC and actually work on the reaction!).
Adding some basil/thyme/rosemary/Italian/garlic powder to simple "dishes" produces some major awesomeness! Simple Lipton Sidekicks teriyaki can be transformed into a gourmet meal by adding generous pinches of the above herbs and spices. If only I had some margarine...
Does this house ever get locked?
It is so easy for someone to break in here and, at the least, steal things to make tonight's dinner!
Apple had their "Let's Rock" event announced these products:
-iTunes 8.
-New iPod Nanos in tons of colors
-New thinner iPod Touch 2.0
-iPod Classic 120GB now
High white people are so funny.
"I'm sooo fuckin' hungry. Where are the nachos?"
A few minutes later...
"There's a reason I didn't wash this cheese grater two days ago!"
lol.
First day here...
Watched the Colts/Bears game. Damn Colts lost, thanks to a shittacular offense (the Bears did have momentum on their side all night tho).
Posted from pda
Manko ourt-parento lu
Canadians will go to the polls Tuesday, Oct. 14, the day after Thanksgiving, to vote for a new federal government.
-Via the www.TheStar.ca
Yay?!
No wonder no one (even the Canadian media) cares about the Canadian elections. They get called on a whim, and thus the candidates have about two weeks to campaign, versus the US elections where the candidates have time to fly to Europe to meet up with former British Prime Ministers and even opposition leaders.
In this case, I doubt Harper will even have time to fly from Nova Scotia to Victoria, BC.
Saudi "cleric" says that celebrating birthdays is OK, as long as they are not called eid. Though he is only trying to bring reform to the godforsaken country (a little too much emphasis on the 'god' part of 'godforsaken'...), and his 'fatwa' was quickly shot down by most other Wahabbi mullahs, he did try his hardest!
Dell's new mini laptop set to enter market
Reuters
Published: September 03, 2008, 23:47San Francisco: Dell is poised to announce a new mini-laptop computer later this week...
The source said Dell "mini" would be a low-priced computer that is two-thirds the size of full-featured laptops, which will put it into competition with the Eee PC from Asustek Computer and other rivals in Taiwan and Japan.
The Journal cited "people familiar with the device" as saying the Dell mini laptop is likely to sell for under $400, have a screen size under nine inches, and run either Microsoft Windows or Linux operating system software.
So this is the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. It comes in three configurations, starting from $349 and going to $449 in $50 increments.
All models run the Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor, with a 533 MHz front side bus. The low end configuration offers Ubuntu as the OS, while Windows XP is provided for the other two models. Only 512 MB of RAM is provided, although it is upgradeable to 1GB (I think).
The storage and video is where these ultra portables cut slack on. The hard drive is solid state, and thus only available in 4GB, 8GB or 16GB, which is not much for anything beyond checking email. In the video department, the outdated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 is used.
Note to self:
Never eat garlic for iftar.
On the one hand, this is happening:
Begging will not be allowed during the fasting month
By Rayeesa Absal, Staff Reporter
Published: August 31, 2008, 23:30More than 93 people were arrested during Ramadan last year across the emirate and deported for begging, said Lieutenant General Saif Al Shafaar, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Interior, in an exclusive interview with Gulf News.
"Stamping out begging is a top priority for us. Unless a crime is committed, those found begging are arrested and deported after security measures such as iris scans are performed," he said.
On the other hand, this:
Khalifa orders pardon of 700 prisoners Published: August 27, 2008, 23:40
Abu Dhabi: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has ordered the release of 700 Emirati and expatriate prisoners on the advent of Ramadan.
Shaikh Khalifa also ordered the settlement of the debts of pardoned prisoners. The amnesty for ... prisoners is in line with Shaikh Khalifa's concern to help those who have served various jail terms, and give them a chance to start a new life...
It was 92 Fahrenheit here today. That is hotter than it was today in Karachi and Sharjah (which happens to be located in the middle of a freakin' desert!).
This one is just too funny.
Religious police demand access to blocked websites
By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent
Published: August 28, 2008, 23:44Riyadh: A number of members of the religious police (the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) have urged the Chairman of the Saudi Shura Council, Dr Saleh Bin Humaid, to enable them to have access to blocked websites to monitor immoral practices by visitors of these sites.
In an open meeting held by Dr Bin Humaid at the headquarters of the Commission in Makkah last night they justified this unexpected request by arguing that there are some male and female youngsters who exploit blocked websites to get involved in negative practices away from the eyes of the Saudi authorities.
"Since members of the Commission have no access to these blocked websites, such immoral practices cannot be pursued and put an end to," they said.
The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is one of the government departments in Saudi Arabia which has come under severe criticism from the press and private bodies.
So on the advent of Ramadan (where they can't have relations with their wives for a part of the day) the religious police want access to porn. How unexpected lol.
My Kingdom will survive only insofar as it remains a country difficult to access, where the foreigner will have no other aim, with his task fullfilled, but to get out.
King Abdul Aziz bin Saud, c. 1930
Hey! That's me up there!
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My name is Abid and I am a 20-something chemistry student at a semi-big research university.
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