New Blog

Ok, its been ages since I blogged. Just been really busy. And I decided to switch over to wordpress which took me longer than I thought. But its done now. Please update your links! My new blog address is http://geekisiddiqui.wordpress.com/

The more you say goodbye I say hello...

Its been ages since I've really blogged. I've just been incredibly busy. Let me see if I can remember all thats happened. I don't have time so there won't be any pic right now. July 18th I had my last day of work at TowerData. In August it would have been 2 years at the company. The longest I've worked anywhere. It was a great opportunity it and I enjoyed but I was totally ready for a change. Call it the waterloo co-op syndrome. After switching between working and school every 4 months for 5 years it was definitely a bit difficult having to stay put in 1 place for so long. If I hadn't got into grad school I would have started looking for a new job. I think I'd gained all I was going to from that job anyways. I flew home to Mississauga that night and drove back to NY the following day with my sister. We did a lot of walking and a lot of eating. Went to some restaurants for restaurant week like Terrace in the Sky and Sea Grill that were just fantastic. Went to a couple of broadway shows that were wonderful (Les Miserables and The Drowsy Chaperone). And spent a good deal of time just walking around new york and chilling in union square. It was really nice and I'm definitely going to miss nyc. And of course all the friends I made there. As a going away present they made a little scrap book for me with pictures from the last two years and then signed it with messages like a yearbook. It was an awesome awesome gift. Drove back on the 22nd and left behind new york, my home for the last 2 years. And returned to my home home! My house for the last 19years. Its sold now. My parents have bought a new house, still in Mississauga. Actually its only 5mins away from my current place. We just needed a house with a room on the main floor we can make into a bedroom for my grandmother. Going up and down stairs is just too difficult for her now. I like the new place. Its certainly bigger. And I guess its nice that its the same neighbourhood so its not too different...and yet, it'll be totally different. I know I haven't really been living at home for about 7 years now but still. 19years in 1 house...I think it'll be awhile for the new place to be home. Anyhow, once I got home I didn't unpack at all really. Instead I had to start packing some more. I thought I had packed a lot into my place in new york.....it doesn't compare at all to this house. I've been packing forever and theres still so much to do.... In between the packing I had the 5th annual bbq with my friends. It was a smaller turnout than previous years. But we still had 17 people come and all the food turned out great. We played some good games of soccer baseball, ultimate frisbee, badminton (thanks Mezba for bringing the equipment!), and then we ate some more :P The weather as well turned out fantastic, those weather people predicting thunderstorms don't know what they're talking about. Near the end of the day as what has become an unfortunate tradition, my friends did chase me and try to get me wet. They only semi got me but it turned out fine since afterwards most people got most people anyhow. So I wasn't the only victim. And with the weather as it was I was almost dry by the time I stepped back in my car to leave. You can see some pictures on my friends online album here -> BBQ Pictures I saw the Simpsons movie. It was alright. Good but nothing great. And then i packed some more. And in the midst of all this packing there was the stress of travelling. Or at least trying to travel. See the plan is for my mom, sister, and I to go to fly to Saudi on Saturday for Umrah! But to get the visa's my sister and I needed birth certificates. We're both canadian born but we have the original small birth certificate cards and apparently when applying for visas we needed the new longs ones that state who your parents are and everything. We applied for this early in July and it still wasn't here! After several trips downtown and a visit to the MPs office to try and help expedite the process, we finally go the birth certificates just this past monday. So then we sent them off for the visa application and finally we got visa's today! A full 2 days before the flight...my parents shouldn't have worried so much hehe.... So tons of packing to do since we'd fly out this saturday. Return on the 16th and the move on the 18th! Thankfully I've finished my school loan stuff but as for finding a place downtown...don't think I'll have time when I get back. So it also looks like I'll be commuting from the new house downtown for school for at least a little while. I just haven't had anytime whatsoever to look for a place downtown...hopefully the commute isn't too bad...anyone done the commute before for school? How was it? I'm really excited about Umrah. I've never been and everyone tells me its an amazing experience. So inshaallah it will all go very well. I don't think I'll be blogging again till after I'm back...well who knows...but if anyone has anything in particular they'd like me to pray about please let me know. And please pray I remember as well :P thanks. I will definitely try. And finally please pray about the following. A few days ago I was just sitting at the computer as I am now. Eating some food while reading some random articles when my friend sent me a link to a new article. I clicked on it and started to read. The headline said a local Waterloo student died in an accident at school. I though omigosh (I went to waterloo) thats terrible. And then I started to read the article. And it totally shocked me. I had to read it again. The boy who died was a friend of mine. We weren't particularly close we only chatted online every once in awhile. But still he had worked with me on school projects, group assignments, and had studied with me. He was a real honest and down to earth person. And its just really tragic that his life has ended at such a young age. InshaAllah his family and friends able to find strength and peace. My prayers are with them.

Back

Back in Canada Back in Mississauga Back in my home home. Back from the pages of reading Harry Potter. Back online. I've just been fairly busy and when not busy, just lazy. Lazy in emailing, blogging, and reading blogs. Sorry. I'll get back into it soon enough. In other news that I will blog about in detail later (Hey I just said I'm feeling lazy didn't I?). I have no idea where I'm living this fall yet (whether at home or downtown). I have last minute bbq planning to wrap up. And my house which I've lived in for the last 18-19 years is now sold and we're moving.

Going offline

Its my last day! =) I think I'll leave work in a couple hours and after that....I don't think I'll be going online till I finish book 7. No blogging, msn, email, facebook, etc. You never know where spoilers may appear. I mean, they even had spoilers in The Star today! Anyone else think thats really dumb? K, time to wrap up last minute things. hmm...I just realized this will be my last post from nyc....

1 more day!

I just had my last status meeting! This time tomorrow I'll be saying goodbye to my co-workers and I'll be free! I like the company, its been fun. But I can't wait to be done! The past couple of weeks have been really busy so theres been a lack of posting. Just a lot of packing, hanging out with friends, and lots of dessert. Sigh, I just found this wonderful and amazing cheecake place last week and now I'm leaving it behind :( I was actually feeling quite sad about leaving the other day, though that may have been picked up just by reading my last post. I'm not down at the moment though. I'm going to miss it for sure, but the excitment of things I'm going to do this week and the excitement of going home are also starting to kick up a gear :) I went to a circus yesterday. It was by the seaport by the water side facing jersey. Pier 17. What an odd place to have a circus. Made odder still that the show was a 930 and to my surprise (though it makes sense now) it was not family friendly. Nothing too bad but still a bit risque. It was really quite good though. In Canada whenever I have loose change at stores I usually drop it in the unicef boxes or whatever donation boxes you'll usually see at stores or fast food places. I don't see those as much in new york so I just had this little box I dropped change in at home. I didn't think much of it. I though ok maybe I have about 10-15$ or so in there now. I went to the bank yesterday to drop it in the coin counter machine and get cash for it and it turned out to be....$184! Sweet, that just bought me my circus ticket (hehe bought me my circus ticket...I dont know why I'm amused by that) and my restaurant week meals! Anyhow, that was a fairly ordinary post. I'll try to be a bit more interesting next time. Probably have a collection of new york pics I think...

And then it hit me....

I have less than 1 week left in New York..... :'( Well, it came up to me And asked me if I wanted a glance It looked kind of nice And so I said I might take a chance When I glanced it held my eye And when I walked home later that night All the stars were shinin bright And then it hit me...

Los Angeles Pictures!!!

First, yay! This is my 200th post! =) I wonder how many posts I'd be at if my old blogs were still around... And now for California pictures! Omar's place in 1000 Oaks, California After dropping off our gear, we're ready to roll. Driving to the Beach The beach! Another beach pic The Ocean! Aamir and Omar at Muscle Beach Venice Beach Promenade Venice Beach park area Me playing catch with Wilson and Tom Hanks Poking the Lion at the Famous Grauman's Chinese Theater The Mall beside the Theatre Aamir attempting the water-defying walk through the randomly spraying fountain Me trying to eat the Hollywood sign Then I saw some of Cap't Jacks treasture and just couldn't resist. Hook tried to stop me. But with Shaft on my side I wasn't scared. At least I wasn't until Jason showed up...ahhhhhh! I ran, but Neo & Trinty put an end to me....don't ask why, it was a weird script. For our amazing performances Omar won an Oscar for Best Lover (that scene was not shown do to the PG-13 rating of this blog). I won the Best Body award. And Aamir won, Puss in Boots Still not entirely convinced show business was for us. We went to work at the construction site Omar is supervising/planning/some sort engineering or whatever supposedly does while chatting and facebooking with us. Zoom, Zoom I wonder how long it takes to change the tire... And then we were off again To Downtown LA! ...but that was rather meh. Though the Buddhist Temple was nice. So we were off again! And driving on Malibu Canyon Rd was awesome. The scenary was just amazing. We went to Bevery Hills and Hollywood Hills. Sorry, I'll only post 1 pic of this b/c I don't like how they turned out. None of them really captures how hilly/steep some of the roads are and how nice the houses look. Santa Monica! Walking along the beach Just chilling and enjoying the view. The Ocean is so fun to just sit and watch. After chilling on the beach we decided to get some Chocolate! And head to Universal Studios for some fun I just barely missed out on the discount =( But I still had fun on the kiddie rides And the not so Kiddie rides, yeehaww Bull Riding! That was fun! I actually didn't do that well though, 14-15secs or so. But I fell off not b/c I slipped but b/c the jerking action of the bull was hurting my hand a lot and so I let go, maybe I wasn't holding the reins right...). Omar lasted the longest at about 17-18 secs. Thanks for making me do it though Omar =) Random pic I had to take for any Waterloo'er out there. Random scenary shot taken at Univeral. Good night LA, I'll be sure to visit again. ps. There are a few more pictures on facebook for those interested.

Back from LA!

I'm back from LA! And it was awesome!!!! It wasn't a very relaxing vacation but thats not what I was really looking for anyways. It was a lot of going here and there and seeing a bunch of stuff and being a tourist. And I definitely saw a ton of stuff, Long Beach, 1000 Oaks, New Port, the OC, Leguna Beach, Topanga Beach, Santa Monica, Beverly HIlls, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, Malibu Beach, Malibu state park, Universal Studios, and lots of other stuff which I'll point out when I put up pictures. Which unfortunately will not be with this post. I went out with some friends last night and I'm going out again tonight so pictures will have to wait till the weekend. Sorry! hehe. The only disappointment was downtown LA. Theres really like nothing there....its like the anti-new york. Everything worthwhile is outside of downtown in the suburbs. And the downtown core itself is really small. I also got fairly well versed with the layout of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). I arrived in LA late on Friday, about midnight. Omar was driving to pick me up but was running a bit late so I had some time to walk around and explore the terminal for about 30mins or so. After he picked me up, things became a bit interesting. Without detailing the entire story, let me just present you with: Ahmeds Traveling Tips: 1) If you're flying 3000 miles across the continent to visit friends, please provide your flight details. Simply saying 1am at LAX isn't enough. 2) If you fail #1 please bring your cell phone. 3) If you instead decide to leave your cell phone behind with your family...it helps to leave your flight information with them as well. 4) If you've now failed the above 3 steps, remember to bring the phone number of friend your visiting. 5) If you fail #4 and mistakenly call the older sister of your friend waking her up in the middle of the night....you might as well get your friends number from them. 6) If you've now left your friends with the only option being to drive in loops around the airport terminals hoping to spot you.....it helps to stand outside.

BRB - Gone to Los Angeles

California...knows how to party California...knows how to party In the citaaay of L.A. In the citaaay, In the citaaay We keep it rockin! We keep it rockin! Alright, I'm off to Los Angeles California for 5 nights to hangout with my old highschool buddies Aamir and Omar! Woohoo! I'll put up tons of pics when I get back. Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Canada Day! O Canada! Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise, The True North strong and free! From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free! O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Die Hard 4 Mini-Review

I saw Die Hard 4 last night. There were quite a few scenes where I thought to myself oh man, thats dumb, or thats just so unrealistic. But overall, the movie is great action flick that is just a lot of fun. Its a bit over the top, but the pacing is good and its pretty funny as well, in fact there were many moments where I was laughing aloud. Oh and to think of it, the movie had no nudity and almost no foul language. I'll give a 4/5 and I'm definitely going to add it to my Die Hard DVD movie collection. Next up on my list to see, Ratatouile and of course Transformers!

About labels and movies

Yesterday I started to go back and label my old blog posts but for some reason it was making me sad. I'm not sure why as my previous posts aren't sad or mark any particular event in my life that would make me sad...so because of that, and the fact that I really don't know how to label these, ie what categories to make....I'm thinking of just either only labeling new posts....or just getting rid of labels all together...I'm not sure yet. Any suggestions? I watched Pans Labyrinth last night. It was...well it was engaging. I'll definitely give it that. It pulled me in and I wanted to know what would happen. But at the end, after it was all said and done, I was left unsatisfied. So I'm force to give it a 3/5. I also Apocalypto a few days ago. It was much more gory than I expected. And the reviews for this were good, not just the written but the word of mouth reviews as well. So I think that skewed my expectations a bit. Still I was again engaged and hoping things worked out for the characters. The ending could have been stronger as well, but I'll give this one a 4/5. I'm going to go see Die Hard 4 tonight. Early reviews say its good. I'm a fan of the originals and own the box set actually. I'd rank the 1,3, and then 2. Hopefully this one turns out well. Oh and I saw Fantastic Four on Sunday. It was...meh. Its a renter and a mindless popcorn flick. The Silver Surfer didnt do enough. It was light on action for a popcorn flick. I'll give it a 3 only b/c I like the genre and idea of the film and I wouldn't mind seeing more like it (though preferably better of course).

Name that summerlicious californian beat

What would you do if I blogged out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your eyes and I'll write you a...post I will try not to press the wrong key, yeah... I had the a few random songs stuck in my head this morning. Although I've butchered it abit, the above was one of them. Any guesses what it is? While writing that up, an old post of mine popped into my head...Pakora, Pakora (should be very easy to guess since the answer is in the comments)...and now I'm a bit hungry and wishing I had bought those chocolate ghiradelli squares I saw this morning....oh well. Its probably best I didn't. Speaking of food, the last 2 weeks of July are Restaurant Week! Yay! Restaurant week is like Summerlicious, where restaurants have reduced price lunch and dinner menus. So far I've booked 3 places, Fleur de Sel, Sea Grill, and Terrace in the Sky. I wanted to book this other restaurant since it got 2 Michelin stars! But unfortunately its booked solid. Actually quite a few places are, crazy eh, trying to find a spot in a restaurant over a month in advance and not being able to. I'm not sure yet if I want to book another one or not...I do love Food!...but even at reduced prices, it adds up. We've been on the run Driving in the sun Looking out for #1 California here we come Right back where we started from California, California! Here we come! In other news, I'm going to California this weekend! Woohoo! Aamir and I are flying out to see our friend Omar who moved there a few months ago! Leaving Friday evening and not back till Wednesday, a short but nice 4-5 day trip and a good break from work! It should be a blast, I haven't really hung out with Omar in well over a year I think! And I haven't really been there before so that adds to the excitement because I love to travel! And thats a lot of exclamation points I just used!!! hehe I'll definitely be taking a lot of pictures this trip. And btw, I've updated my Picture Archive. Here's another song that popped into my head this morning. I'll leave this one alone and it should also be fairly easy to guess what it is. There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea. You became the light on the dark side of me. But did you know, That when it snows, My eyes become large and The light that you shine can be seen.

5th Annual BBQ!

On one summer day back in 2003 Anojan was thinking to himself how nice a day it was and how much he likes to eat food. How much he likes to eat food that is grilled. And being the nice guy that he is, he invited a few of his friends to a simple little BBQ in the park. From that small gathering of 9 or so Waterloo CS guys (and a couple girls) began the Annual Summer BBQ, last year..... I think we had about 25-30 ppl or so. Its a day of eating, and games, and eating, and sports, and eating, and water balloon/shaving cream fights which for some reason always involve ganging up on Ahmed and chasing him around the park...outside the park, over the fence, through the parking lot of the senior citizens home, the park parking lot, through the woods, back in the park and then still not getting him! mouahahhhaah....ok maybe they slightly got me last year at the end...... :( Oh and then possibly some eating. So this year will be the 5th Annual BBQ and it'll be on Saturday July 28th. In Scarborough. And every single other detail is still in the works hehe. So if I know you and you're in the area. Feel free to ask for more details and come :) If your some entirely random stranger I've never spoken to, well I think it'll have to stay that way for now. Here's some pics from BBQ of past. 2003 2004 2005 Here's some pics from last year, the 4th Annual BBQ. And heres a video of some evil friends chasing me with water balloons

Katie, Vivan, and Miss. Peacock visit NYC

Sorry for the delay in blogging. I know I'm particularly behind in posting pictures. Its just been a busy last few days. And also facebook just makes it so easy to put pics up...I get lazy in putting them up here. Anyhow, to make it up I'm going to present you all with the answer to everything. Yes, everything. But you'll have to read all the way to the bottom of this post to find out....or you could cheat and just go to the bottom now.......booo cheaters.... Ok, so this weekend Vivian, a friend of mine from first year (wow thats like 7 years ago now...) and her friend Katie (who also went to waterloo and whom I share a remarkable number of mutual friends but somehow just never met) visited new york. And naturally we did what every tourist does...check out Times Square. We then met up with Anojan for some dinner the Afghan Kebab House. The next day we had another visitor as Miss. Peakcock (another friend of mine, and yes, of course thats her real name hehe) joined us for more adventures in the city. First stop, the MET (I only saw the Roman/Greek stuff with Jane last week). Meow This doesn't seem too hard... Some more sillyness And 1 more. After the MET we went to this Mexican/Morrocan Halal restaurant and crashed some guys 20th birthday party. It was a fun dinner unfortunately the food wasn't that great and we didn't get any bday cake :( Left to Right: Anojan, Jane, Me, Vivian, Katie, Miss. Peacock Still wanting Dessert we begin searching for a place to satisfy our cravings Finally we find a diner, and Miss. Peacock and Jane seem to think its fine. But Anojan & I have our doubts... Now I admit, the Banana split looked good...but the ice cream was rather meh The next day we decided to check out Central Park The fresh air did Katie some good as she grew a foot taller than me But after that healthy walking...we wanted some more chocolate. This time we went to good stuf, Max Brenner's Chocolate by the Bald Man mmm......chocolate..... Vivian and Miss. Peakcock trying to decide what to get. Anojan: ahhhhh I can't wait, where is my dessert!? Yes! Its here! mmmm....dark hot chocolate.... Vivian, Miss. Peacock, and I just posing for the camera. A group picture Left to Right: Janes roommates friend, Janes roommate, Jane, Anojan, Katie, Vivian, Miss. Peacock, Me. Some sillyness on the subway And finally the answer to all your questions.