Hi Amigos,

 

After long intervel finally I am here. There are numerous blogs to catch up and numerous things to share.

 

Past 5 months (or less than that) has been really busy (well, not daily - I did have some days off) with many activities together starting from trips to couple of middle east countries regarding projects, sickness (same old sickness), laziness and so on. Also, after starting the other technical blog, I am tied up with it, writing technical articles, giving suggestions to solve others problems, etc and etc.

 

But I did miss Space Live, so here I am back. I believe everyone had wonderful time (and some bad time) with yourself, friends, relatives and family. I was in constant touch with Tina, my mom Gail and occasionally in touch with Cassie and Shelley. Completing my one year with this company, now I am looking forward for my vacation. First I thought i'd take summer vacation, but then I didn't want to travel to Eurpean country either. I am a person who like cold climate and so I postpond my vacation to December.

 

I have applied for 45 days leave from December first week till January 2nd week.

 

So far, after lots of surfing and re-planning, I've decided to go straight home on first week, then my native (it's a town), meet my childhood friends, college friends, college lecturers, ex-collegues before heading for Maldives for 5 days, Tibet for 3 days and then possibly London to meet a friend of mine or else, will spent rest of the vacation in India, visiting other place I have never visited before.

 

This vacation I've planned something which I have never done before.... buying a house for myself.

 

Two weeks back my friend along with his family was here in dubai for some shopping and it was nice to meet him after 5 and half years. It's all weird to meet your childhood friends after long time since there is no more childish behavior attached to any of them and the past doings appears silly and funny most time. Anyway, after spending 3 good days with him and his family, it felt nice.

 

Now that summer is started here (about 46 degree C during day time and 42 degree C at night), except for some odd days out roaming, I am at home mostly. It's nothing new for me anyway, but I hate it. I have to wait for another 3 months for this climate to change anyway.

 

This time, I guess I will be in constant touch with blogs.

 

Until next few days, god bless all of you.

Love & Regards, Me.

Question: What is the truest definition of   Globalization?
 
 
Answer: Princess Diana's death.
 

 
Question: How come?
 

 
Answer:

An English princess

with an Egyptian boyfriend
 
crashes in a French tunnel,
 
driving a German car
 
with a Dutch engine,
 
driven by a Belgian who was drunk
 
on Scottish whisky, (check the bottle before you
change the spelling)
 
followed closely by Italian Paparazzi,
 
on Japanese motorcycles;
 
treated by an American doctor,
 
using Brazilian medicines.
 
This is sent to you by an Asian 
 
using Bill Gates's technology,
 
and you're probably reading this on your computer,
 
that uses Taiwanese chips,
 
and a Korean monitor,
 
assembled by Chinese workers
 
in a Singapore plant,
 
transported to you by Bangladeshi rickshaw-driver.
 

 
That, my friends, is Globalization

A store that sells husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband.

Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates. You may visit the store ONLY ONCE!

There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights.

There is, however, a catch. ... You may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. .

On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 - These men have jobs and love the Lord.

******************************************************

The second floor sign reads:

Floor 2 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, and love kids.

******************************************************

The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, and are extremely good looking.

" Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

******************************************************

She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads:

Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead good looking and help with the housework.

"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

******************************************************

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads:

******************************************************

Floor 6 - You are visitor 4,363,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.

Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. Watch your step as you exit the building, and have a nice day!

Hi Friends,

Last few days have been reasonably relaxing to me, but definitely I had usual work, but not extreme hectic. Well, finally, after severe thought I’ve decided to sign up for new blog space purely for my geeky writings (linux and open source) and finally, after considering myspace, friendster, etc… I created an account in Multiply.com (thanks Tina for letting me know this site). The links are http://linuxevangelist.multiply.com/ and http://linuxevangelist.blogspot.com/. Visit that space unless you hate geeks.

 

I like this site because it’s built with all light weight technology and loads fast. Compared to myspace, this site looks more organized and has some good number of templates (anyway it doesn’t matter since I always choose something to with white).

 

My this decision is to prevent me from boring you all from writing all those boring geeky stuffs. This blog I’ve kept exclusively to be in touch with all my best and sweet amigos personally. I will be posting blogs continually even the delays are there.

 

Well, don’t ask me how I think to manager two blogs at the same time while I am not even able to be regular to one blog. I guess I can manager both, well, let me give a try and know it than assuming it.

 

This week apart from the exciting news of Cricket World cup which has started since last week and the sad news of the Pakistani Cricket Team Coach passing away following the shock defeat and world cup exit of one of the world’s elite team in cricket at the hands of minnows Ireland, there have been some other major upsets in world cup this time too.

 

The incomparable Bangladesh cricket team with full of teenagers and bunch of aggressive youngsters completely outsmarted and outplayed India (with full of legends and superstars) in the first encounter of the preliminary round.

 

While there were usual angry demonstrations against the Indian team in northern part of India, its nice to see the big teams get whacked by smaller teams due to their arrogance and complicity. Learn the lesson: Don’t celebrate victory until the victory is achieved.

 

I guess apart from these uninteresting topic of cricket which I’ve spoke here (which none of my online amigos have any idea since they are not used to this sort of game which will be played 8 hours at a stretch) I am pretty happy (so do you, I guess) that I’ve put effort to post a blog breaking my lazy attitude towards blogging lately.

 

Have great time my sweet amigos.

Love, Hugs & Prayers,
Amigo.

 
*******************************************************************************
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it seems that I will never be same again. But at least I can be in touch with all my beloved amigos isn't it?

Lately, for about 4 months now, I was bit by blog bug which sucks the blog desire of a person (be careful about this bug... it's deadly) and I am yet to recover.

 

Also, I am not in touch with mama gail for long time. But lately another one msn space buddy had added to my msn messenger and she is Tina (Coffemate Corner Tina). Well, she is another best blogger i know who has the same problem... with blog bugs. Anyway, now I am in touch with her on daily basis after 9pm on my place. It's exactly 12 hours difference between me and her. I mean, it's time for me to go to bed when she wakes up for the day and vice versa. But, since I sleep really late (as late as 2:30 A.M), I get to chat with her daily.

 

So, apart from her, I am not in touch with any of my blog buddies. First, I thought about sending Invitation to join MSN messenger list to Cassie, Shelley and Abs, but then i gave up the idea coz they may not like it. Let me know if I can invite you. I have time to say at least a 'hi' in messenger if not long chat. I like dropping in and saying a hi to my buddies.

 

After long time, I caught my mother (gail) online, but then my niece Bella gave her some work and then she had to leave chat to take care of her... Mama... you never came back.

 

Well, if you wanted to know what I was up to for past 2 weeks, nothing much except my regular geek stuffs. I've become almost an Linux/Open Source evangelist, but I wish I have the same passion for Bible and God, I would have become an amazing preacher. Well, maybe the day is not far :-)

 

I attended one of my friends' wedding on March 01 in Le Meridian here in Dubai. It was a grand wedding and we had quite good time. I met some of my very old buddies (Tina – not the coffematte tina), her sister after long time and most importantly, I spoke to her (well, we had a small clash and we don't call each other for past 8 months) and her husband. Ouch!!! she is pregnant for second time and this time she has put on considerable weight. She was perfect till he first child, hope she don't get too fat.

 

Thursday our church youth band got a chance to perform for half and hour in the colleges event here in Dubai and it was wonderful coz most of the students are non-christians. i am working on the band website now since we don't want to loose the start we've got.

 

Meanwhile, I've signed up an account at 'Multiply', community blog site, introduced by Tina (my online buddy). It might surprise you how am I gonna maintain that blog when I am irregular to my only other blog. Well, they have this facility of pulling blogs from MSN Space so that I don't have to write anything.

 

As of now, it has all my MSN Space blogs and Pictures. I will set it up slowly.

 

And, I am taking this Open Source outreach seriously and I am going to revamp my rhonald.com website to include blogs and keep writing blogs about Open Source and Linux. Well, since it's technical, i might write regularly.

 

Apart from these, SORRY FOR NOT VISITING my sweetest friends. Well, If you don't mind me inviting you as MSN Messenger buddies, let me know. I can at least say a 'hi' on daily basis on messenger.

 

Have great day.
God bless you.
Adios.

Aeronautics Engineers

 

 

Automobile Engineers

 

 

Civil Engineers

 

 

Communication Engineers

 

 

Computer Engineers

 

 

Electronic Engineers

 

 

Hurray...

 

The first project that I took in charge with my new Employer was approved by the client with flying colors. Well, it is a huge portal project with 3 phases for the Government in my state to make their complete services online and the first phase was given to us on trial basis. We passed out in flying colors after 6 months of grueling work and won the other two phases of project as well.

 

I feel so excited, but then a bit bothered too (it happens all the time, once the excitement part gets over, it's bothering part). So, now I get to work a little more than normal hours, but not extreme hours (well, being in IT, Can't avoid or complain about working more than normal hours).

 

This is not the first project, but the butterfly on presentation was there. Well, I am not the one who presented, but then I was pondering my thought which might occur due to client's network issues and in that case, no one bothers about where the errors are from, but they will just walk out. By Gods' grace, things went on well and we can see wide smile at everyone's face.

 

I will blong a little later, coz right now I am extremely busy with testing a new version of Linux. Take care.

God Bless You.

Oh yeah, I know I am getting too technical in my past two blogs… But I am sure you can bear me for this one which I thought about sharing.

Well, it’s about the owning a desktop/laptop without much spending and being totally legal with the products you have in it.

 

I remember the budget I put for buying software not long back until I start looking around and educated myself about Open Source, Linux based products.

 

I have news for you. I own a laptop, 2 desktops with absolutely ‘0’ investment on products (of course, depends on what product you want). Oh no, don’t get me wrong, I don’t use pirated softwares. I don’t bother people using pirated software’s of some products because of the unjustifiable price the software companies charge.

 

I know most of you people are so reluctant to try anything other than Uncle ‘Bill’s products. But I feel I have to give a little detail on what I learnt and I use for my daily use.

 

I work on Microsoft platform at office and my company buys the product so I don’t have to pay anything. But when it comes to my personal, I don’t rely on Microsoft platform at all. So, I decided to switch to Linux. I started the effort by switching to Open Source & Free (Not all the Open Source are necessarily to be free of cost) equivalent products in Windows year back and now I am completely in Open Sourced & Freely available products.

 

First I replaced my Internet Explorer with Mozilla Firefox and then quit from using Microsoft Word and start using Open Office (sure they are not as flashy as Office 2007, but what’s the point? At the end of the day, it’s just for my typing and some formatting… It satisfies most of the hardcore typing people with its extensive options that match Office 2003). Being satisfied with this, I switched from IIS to Apache for my programming and from ASP.NET to Perl and SQL 2005 to MySQL.

 

I don’t use Email client, I prefer checking my mail online and so I don’t have issues over that. Now, after a year of using these software and get used to it, I decided to switch to Linux completely (I use partially since last 4 years though). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention about Torrent software too. In windows I used BitComet and in Linux I have BitTorrent.

 

I like the Novell SuSE Linux distribution so much and I downloaded the SuSE Linux 10.1 from their website. It’s one DVD ISO Image which I can burn in a DVD and use it. There is a much popular distribution called Ubuntu, but I prefer Novell’s since I know this company since my school (We had Novell’s netware during those days).

 

Installation is far easier than Windows XP (I swear, since windows doesn’t recognize a damn hardware in my laptop and I didn’t have to install a single driver for linux in my laptop, it recognized all by itself) and 80% of the softwares comes in it by default. Email Client, Chat Client, Browsers (Linux doesn’t rely on single browser), OpenOffice, Firewall, IDE for my perl development, Apache web server, MySQL Database Server, Music players, DVD Players, CD/DVD Authoring tools, Photo manager, Photo editor (GIMP or GIMPShop that matches Adobe Photoshop) & so on.

 

But mp3 and certain video formats are not enabled out of box due to patent issues. I had to work out on this area, but it’s not that pain. Since I have broad band, I found the repository where I can get these plug-ins and within an hour, I had my robust, trouble-free dashing desktop that satisfies all (most of) my needs.

 

Only problem is that there isn’t much games available for Linux at the moment, things are changing slowly though.

 

I am not saying anything to anyone, but people who can’t afford spending money constantly, please feel free to check out some linux distributions, or free softwares that are available for Windows too (most linux free softwares are available in windows too). You may save some bucks for something else more useful.

 

Well, at least you can give that money to your church or some poor next door.

 

If you want to give a shot, there are some Live CD (Whole operating system that runs from a CD instead of getting installed in a PC, but of course, performance is so slow, but you can check out and get used to it.) you can try.

 

Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com – for help, just type Ubuntu help in google, you’ll get millions of help on anything). Ubuntu is a very famous, leading linux distribution for desktops.
openSuSE (http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse/) from Novell, second leader linux distribution.

 

 

OpenOfice (www.openoffice.org – replacement of Microsoft Office)
GIMP (www.gimp.org – replacement of Adobe Photoshop for Image Editing)
Firefox (www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ - replacement of Internet Explorer)
Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/ - replacement of Outlook)

 

 

Take care, save money, God bless you.

Hi,

For past few weeks I am digging into various online Photography tutorials and I can't resist spreading some good points to someone who might need it. Personally, I believe, more than the equipment you have, it's the technique that makes you best photographer.

 

Of course, there should be an equipment which helps you to capture your imagination, but then, it's not bad to try out some techniques with something we have and then go for something big isn't it? (for me it works reverse I must admit, I bought a freaky camera which was lying around for a while with me not knowing to use it properly and then I started learning about the techniques).

 

Anyway, if you don't like it, just skip it. I found this Top Ten Tips (Quick) from a website some hours back, I copied it, but forgot the website (I will search and find it anyway).

 

For those people who don't like to read a lot, here are my 'Top Ten Tips'. Most of these free photography tips appear elsewhere, in the tutorials. But here they are, all in one place.

 

Select only the best of your pictures to show to others and leave the rest in the drawer. Showing someone every picture you have taken dilutes the effect of the best pictures and gets very boring. You may want to show twenty pictures of little Johnny at the park because they are all quite good and you can't decide which are the best but, trust me, you will be better off making that decision and showing only the few good ones.

At first it feels awkward holding the camera on it's side, but it is worth getting used to. If the shape of your subject, a person or a building, fits into an upright rectangle, you waste so much picture space if you shoot in landscape. You paid for all those millions of pixels, don't waste them.

 
Framing

One of the easiest ways to improve your photography is with careful attention to framing. Look into the corners of the viewfinder to see what is there. Do you need all that background? Can you get closer to your subject or zoom in?

 
Direction of Lighting

Photography is all about light, the direction of the light falling on your subject is most important, you must look at your subject carefully and see how the shadows fall.

 

If you are able to choose the time of day to shoot your pictures, try to pick a time when the sun is low in the sky, either shoot in the early morning or late afternoon. Shooting pictures of people with the sun too high in the sky, tends to mean the subject's eyes will be in shadow and/or your subject will be squinting in the strong light, both of which tend to look horrible. A nice side effect of shooting in the early morning or late afternoon is that the colour of the light is 'warmer', reds and yellows are stronger which generally gives a more pleasing effect.

If you are photographing in sunlight, try to position yourself so that the sun hits your subject from the side, this will give you nice 'modelling' and help create a 3D effect in the picture.

 

Sunlight behind the subject can give a very pleasing 'backlight' effect but be careful that you are not getting 'flare' in the lens, which degrades the contrast of the image.

 
Direction of Lighting (2)

The very worst kind of lighting is provided by the little flash fitted into all modern cameras. Not only does it give your subjects the dreaded red eyes, but also flattens all faces into shadowless featureless blobs. Use the in camera flashlight only in an emergency, when there is no other choice.

 
In Camera Flash

When you have to use the in camera flash, keep your subject(s) away from walls, especially light coloured ones, if at all possible, and avoid that ugly black shadow which looks like an outline. This will not show up against a dark background.

 
Exposure

If you have a modern camera, the chances are that the default metering system is 'centre weighted average', which means that, although it takes an average reading of the whole scene, it takes more notice of what is in the middle of the frame. Which is good news for us. The other good news is that it takes this reading at the time when you take 'first pressure' on the button to take your picture. When you push it halfway down and it beeps at you, not only is the focus now set (on an auto focus camera) but the exposure reading is taken and the aperture and shutter speed are set.

 

So, if your main point of interest is not in the centre of the frame, it's a good idea to put it there temporarily while you focus and take your light reading, then move the camera whilst still holding the button halfway down and compose the picture the way you want it to be. A common use for this technique is when you are taking a close up shot of two people and there is space between their heads, if you're not careful the camera will focus on the wall or trees behind them. If the background is very dark or very light this can alter the exposure significantly and result in faces that are too dark or too light.

 
Shutter Speeds

When the shutter speed is important as with moving objects, it's a good idea to set the camera to 'Shutter Speed Priority' mode. This is where you select the shutter speed and the camera selects the appropriate aperture according to the light reading.

 
Apertures

If depth of field is important to either make sure everything is in focus or to throw some things out of focus, select the 'Aperture Priority' mode on your camera. In this mode you select the aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed according to the available light.

 
Neutral Density Filters

If you are shooting in bright light and want to restrict the depth of field, use a neutral density filter in front of the lens to reduce the light entering the lens. These are available in different densities, 2x, 4x, 8x etc. each one cutting the light in half, quarter, eighth etc. In extreme circumstances you can screw a couple of them together. Although they are 'neutral density' filters and should not effect the colour balance, if you use two or more together you might need a little colour correction at the printing stage.

 

 

I know that some things given there might not be there available for manual control in your camera like aperture and shutter speeds if you have bought a cybershot or something like that. But definitely you can try out taking pictures with respective of the direction of light.

 

Can you believe that I've stopped using Flash completely in my camera? Yeah, it's an SLR, but still I've got out of that idea of taking the pictures bright and instead started utlising the lights of the surrounding environment.

 

I hope you've enjoyed it atleast a bit, catch you later.

Adios.

Hi,

I am back to my routine after the rocking 4 days off, spending with my cousins and friends at Dubai. The New Year this time was with my family members rather than my friends as in every year. I usually don’t feel that comfortable joking and mingling with lots of elders in crowd, but this time it was a bit different and everybody is so surprised to see me joking and pulling everyone’s legs by teasing them.

 

All that most of the elders out there had to say was “I can’t believe that you could be so funny”. Well, I guess this is one of the effects of me being a geek. I look so calm, quiet and boring all time and it’s so unusual for people to see me going high in excitement with laughs and jokes.

 

The first day went off with me catching up with my youth group buddies at church, having some fun, music and photographs and then back to Dubai to meet my other, Syrian, Pilipino friends and then back to my cousin’s home getting settled.

 

The second day, me, along with my cousin’s and their family friends went for a park called Zaabeel here in Dubai (You won’t believe that it’s some sort of desert country – I’ve posted pictures). We had good day there playing, joking, catching up with old stories and so on.

 

The third day was New Years’ eve and we met at night with cousins and their friends, had some fun, jokes, quizzes for kids, games for adults and then New Year wishes, cake and dinner at early morning 1.

 

Then today, we had church, cool games, debate between elders and youth (the topics are ‘is dating a Christian way’ and ‘is tattoos and piercing okay’). The first topic they won by the clear definition of what they mean by ‘date’ and what they don’t permit as a conduct of a good Christian when meeting a girl whom he is interested.

 

The second topic, we won by aggression but however we were explained to have a line which we can’t cross. Well, it’s big debate and so I can’t type everything here. But anyway, we had good debate, then some games and then breakfast for the whole church with us catching up with new faces of church.

 

After the church, we went to pastor’s house and took some time rest before going out for lunch and then a movie and finally, I parted from them and came back to my ‘Home sweet Home – Abu Dhabi’.

 

I hope you all had blast new year. God Bless you all.
Adios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, I am so sorry for my long time disapearance. I was on leave for 5 days (finally, I got the leave) for 2 reasons. 1. my friend's wedding, 2. youth event at my church combined with another curch uth. 

I gotta say, it's quite rocking the whole 5 days. I hardly slept (I guess, I need a break from my break), but still was energetic the whole 5 days until yesterday where I felt extreme sleepy coming back to office and so my christmas day is gonna be sleepy (I woke up just 10 minutes back and it's half day of christmas over already). 

I have posted the pictures on the side (yeah, finally I have posted pictures). There will be lots of albumns missing since those are old and I've deleted them all (msn space suck... they don't have any facility to delete the whole albumn and so I had to open each albumn and delete pictures one by one). 

 How is the christmas going? It's boring here for me since most of my friends ran out of fuel by the end of Youth conference and we are having peaceful christmas and also I have no friends here where I stay, so I am at home, planning to go for lunch outside in another 1 hour and then my sisters house and then for a movie and then back to home to watch a hindi movie which I downloaded days back. Sparing couple of phone calls, this is my christmas... Yeah.. I know it sucks.. But never had good christmas bashing since i came to this country. 

 Hmm... I thought about splitting the blog since it's gonna be a long one; but then decided against it and so you are gonna read a long one (if you continue to read) according to my standards. 

First, I have one big complaint against travelling... I gotta carry at least 3 bags... One my laptop, the next camera and then my stuffs... I hate that... Planning to buy a huge backpack and make all the three into one thus less bags while travelling. I look like a cliffhanger otherwise. 

Well, between the rush of my project launch, my departure from Abu Dhabi was not like what I liked to be. But anyhow, I reached Sharjah by night along with my cousin and had a good sleep there after watching a tamil movie. 

The next day, first I left home and reached Chris, Cal & Rach's home. Rach & Chris were not there, but Calvin was. I put all my stuff, transfered some files to and fro (exchange) and then we made few phone calls to make our plan for the day. Then we both sat for a movie (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)... lot's of swearing... gosh... when will they stop swearing in movies? Gotta strictly censor these excess swearings in movies. 

The movie was not that great, but anyway we killed 2 hours and finally christopher arrived from his exams and we left home in another 1 hour, by 1:45pm. We reached CityCentre by 2:15pm. Watching a movie was one of the agenda of the day. First, we have to do the shopping. 

The show was at 2:30 (Eragon) and so for sure we can't go for the movie and then shopping since we put the whole suit thing under risk because it may require adjustments and we might run out of time since it's wedding the next day and I am the Best man. 

So, we decided to go for 4:30 show and started shopping. We checked 2 shops, starting from Debanhams (I was amazed that they didn't have black suit) and then I finished my suit in the next shop (I have the principle of choosing the first best I see coz I hate spending hours at looking for things like others do). I finished buying suit in 20 minutes and gave for minor adjustment. 

For the next things, I know the location and so we directly went to Giordano. I got my white shirt & etc there and the guys did some shopping there too. Spending 15 minutes there we left for next shop looking for a leather jacket for Christopher for the concert. Cool... for the first time, we church guys are doing a concert. 

We checked into shops until 4:15 and decided to have our lunch (well it's quite late I know), but then it's too late for the 4:30 since it's open ticket. So, we picked up stuffs from there and got into the theatre. The movie was not that exciting as Lord of the Rings and I could see Lord of the Rings having lots of impact on this movie. 

After the movie, I left those guys and headed home. Between the traffic, I reached my cousin's place where I stay for the day in 1 hour (it's just 12 kilometers in fact). Morning I left home and joined Christopher, Calvin and other guys to Wedding Hall. The rest of the day until 6pm went for arranging things, setting up guitars, little practice for the guys & girls. Evening I got dressed up for the Best man. The wedding started with wedding march at 7pm. It was am amazing wedding and it's good couple, both are funny people having tons of humor inside them. 

After a little dull start with most of the crowd being elders, it got electrically charged with presence of our church youth and our close guys as time went by. To cut short the long day which I've kept for another blog, we had really great time along with  the couple until early morning 3:30 not leaving them to sleep and have private time. Then we left their hotel room, hiding alarms in space of every one hour. 

Once the wedding was over, now it;s time to worry about the concert and so the guys started preparing big time for concert. Me, travelling up and down from Sharjah & Dubai for various reason finally settled in Sharjah Church hall where the settings are taking place. We guys spent the whole night with little or no sleep arranging things along with the hired people. We left home at 7:30 morning, had a brief sleep, got dressed and left to the church. 

I got a volunteer tag to get close to the stage for photographs. There were lots of last minute registrations and the youth crowd added upto 500 people roughly when the even started. DJ started his work right from 8am until 10:15 am, time for our concert. Guys spread over the stage setting things quickly while Shaan doing the talking and gettting the crowd engaged. In 10 minutes things were set and the event started. 

The first part of the concert (first 30 minutes) was not that excitingle among the crowd since there was a little problem with the sound system which suppressed the vocals a lot. But when the band came out for after the break and the adjusted sounds, the crowd gone mad. It's great to see there are these many youth willing to come for a christian event. The band went on for another 60 minutes before they hung up their instruments, tired. 

 After some talking by shaun (Pastor of Church United) to keep the crowd engaged, the girls started their dance. The dance was really cool with little preparation. Some guys & girls were invited for freestyle to the stage after the dance and before lunch time. Not bad, we have some good people who does freestyle. 

After an hour break for lunch we came back for the next set of events, freestyle dance. We've invited the UAE freestyle guys and they were good enough to come for a church youth conference. Next 15 minutes were stunning with those guys doing their freestyle. Once it's over, the Church United worship team came to the stage and the crowd started from where they left. This time they are really wild dancing, jumping and screaming. 

After repeated demands for more songs, the worship team went on for about an hour before our pastor came for his message. The message was about smoke, drugs and sex in youth life and their fancy thoughts about these things. It was hard to make the youth listen to something like this especially after they are really charged up. I am not sure whether anyone took the message serious coz all I can see it that they are recharging themselves for the next event. 

 After another 1 hour of music and dance, our guest pastor came for the message. Amazingly he pulled the tired crowd by his message. I guess the fact that he and his wife were one of the people who witnessed the September 9/11 made everyone listen to it. It was a good testimony and message. After the 45 minutes message got over, we had a small 15 minutes break and then back to the stage for the final part of the bash. 

Our band guys got into the stage with heavy metals to rock the crowd. After another demanding final session by our guys for an hour, the concert came to conclusion introducing all the volunteers and thanking the well behaviour (except some here and there, minor) of the crowd. We were able to finish 30 minutes before the planned time. 

Though there were lots of problems right from the beginning the concert went really good and the organizers were really happy about it. 

I, packed my things and left Sharjah in another 3 hours towards Abu Dhabi. The next day at office was really sad, I couldn't stop from falling asleep. 

I will get back to you all soon. take care amigos... sorry for not being frequent.

 

 

Before I close, HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

This week I have no much to say since I am busy with the project as usual with lot more intense and screwing up lots of team members’ daily social life along with mine except some occasional phone call to the girl.

 

Hi, Yeah I thought things will be normal and I will be blogging daily once I get the internet connection available at home, but it’s not that easy I guess. Cassie I must admire your spirit on having two blog spaces since you were so let down weeks before. I guess the season change hasn’t occurred for me yet.

 

I have prepared the photo to host on my blog, but haven’t done it since my old picture were still there and I haven’t found a way to clean those pictures yet (Gosh… it’s so complicated to host just 10 pictures?).

 

I had good chat with my cyber mom the day I got my internet connection (well she’s missing since then… mamma where are you?). Haven’t heard anything from Tina so I guess she is still in Blog burnout.

 

So, what else is the news? I have some. My photography hobby didn’t go as per I planned so far resulting the freaking expensive camera I bought lying in my cupboard snoring loud. It’s not my fault (what an excuse) that it’s raining outside at least 3 days per week (especially week ends) as I didn’t expect the rain to be this long in this country.

 

Then… O gosh… I have to buy my suit, watch, shoes for my friends wedding… I am the best man… and the wedding is on 21^st of this month. I have to buy this week end.

 

I know I am making this blog too short. Forgive me amigos… It’s just I am not yet recovered from my blog burnout. I will visit you all though, I promise.

 

I will host the photos as fast as I can.

 

Have great day. God Bless You.

Adios.

I had a rocking week end this time with the only problem being the rain (Yes!!! It rained heavily here in United Arab Emirates as we all got soaked in the rain). Finally, I bought my new Sony Alpha D-SLR 100 and took about 420 snaps in just two days (still I couldn't even drain the complete battery – I recommend this camera if someone wants to be a hobby photographer).

 

I tried my level best to read the complete operations manual in one day but couldn't do it resulting in approximately 100 pictures I took were dark or bright or blur. I have to learn to use it in professional way and have to know all the features... It's a big task for me considering the less time I get for my personal works.

 

But anyway, my new camera broke my resolution and made me to publish the photos. Well, as I've told, I didn't take photos of mine (except in group photos) but I've got lots of pictures to post. I've been requested not to post solo photos of the girls (my friends here) and so I won't be posting the solo photos of them. However I can post the group photos. I hope you have enjoyed my first bunch of photos.

 

But I have to apologize for not posting any outdoor photos. The rain was unexpected which lasted for two long days (my entire week end) and so I couldn't take any pictures outdoor.

 

We had out church anniversary with our Youth group performing one of our last minute prepared skit which illustrates the struggle and war of Christians against the dark. Our creative person is so strong and sometimes she amazes me coming up with this ideas and basic scripts within minutes.

 

This time I didn't participate in the skit, instead contributed doing one poster for the skit with the girls (special commandos) morphing into the poster of Commandos game (I've posted in the blog). We prepare for skits in different way. We don't have any pre-written dialogs. Instead, the whole skit will be explained and the roles will be assigned. It's upto the individual to deliver the dialog matching the scene.

 

We made the whole church laugh to death with some serious thinking dialogs. I believe that's the best way to deliver some serious message. I mean, we all are so used to the taste of the sweet. So it's no harm giving medicine in the mold of sweet, isn't it?

 

But the sad part is that some of our old buddies were not able to make it to our fun because of their work, we missed them.

 

The first day of my week end I reached when message part is going on in church. I sneaked into the back row (otherwise my pastor will call me out after the church and demand an explanation for being late and then I have to pretend with sad looking face) with the Gangsters (we call ourselves as gangsters because most of the guys behave like one – well not the violent part, just our greeting is violent).

 

After the church is over, we all youth who are free decided to go to the restaurant since we didn't have our lunch (church is during the lunch time 1 – 4). We mobbed into a South Indian Vegetarian restaurant for a change and occupied 1/3^rd of the restaurant. I finished my lunch sharing from everyone. I just love that than eating from my own plate.

 

After the lunch, we moved to pastor's house for skit elaboration and small rehearsal. We spent good time there knowing the scripts and practicing them with lots of spontaneous humor (we missed lots of funny things we planned on the stage, instead we made up with lots of other spontaneous parts).

 

But anyway, overall, we did a great job.

 

Before concluding, now that I’ve got my internet connection at home (yeah… finally) I will be bugging you all on daily basis… so my dear amigos… be prepared. See you tomorrow.

 

Ps: last minute change… I will be adding my image gallery tomorrow since there is a problem with it.