Damn Plagiarism!

Breaking News: Posts from this blog found elsewhere on the internet... STOLEN!

Aah, the joys of blogging and creating works that you think are worth sharing with the world (after God's will of course :). The gentle pleasures of posting the posts you've meticulously written one after another like a house of cards created with the utmost dedication and sincerity. And then comes the truly amazing feeling of exhilaration that hits you like fresh air in the face after a long dark stinky tunnel, when people comment on your posts.

The serene silence of the first page of the blog, and the steadily increasing hits in the sitemeter counter at the bottom of the blog. Aah, THIS is peace on the internet! A man could be so happy with just all this... Well happy a man can be with anything ELSE but finding out that his posts are being plagiarized and posted by someone else on her blog (without even a single mention of the author!).

Yes you guessed it right, posts from this blog are being stolen (in the literal sense of the term), and posted on some stupid (matrimonial?) site by a lady called Sohini. Our investigative team found the miscreant doing this and tried commenting on that lame blog to warn her... But it seems that silly site requires a registration before one can comment! (This could also seem like one of those scams we see when people want to make you join a site in order to increase their own points/earnings there... nevermind the 'apparent motive(s)' though). Well we didn't comment there, but comment we are doing on our very site here and hope that through it we might be able do away with all the frustration tingling in our fingers right now. (Well, typing on the keyboard definitely beats pulling the trigger in the miscreant's face, doesn't it :D)

Here's the link to that imposter's blogpost (don't know how many more posts she's stolen from us though):-
http://mad-b.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/11/the-other-side/comment/877012.htm

Ardent readers of our blog might recognize her post to be a (stupid?) combination of two of our earlier posts:-
a. http://abd-elazeez.blogspot.com/2007/09/lil-somthing-to-think-through.html
AND
b. http://abd-elazeez.blogspot.com/2007/09/to-destiny.html

It seems that people who've read that post on her blog did seem to enjoy it, as is evident from their comments (although its hard to figure if they understood any of it, as is also evident from their comments :)

B.T.W., Sohini's also present on Orkut from where we found her blog's link after she had scrapped Mr Write another portion from one of the popular poems on this very blog! (Man, this lady's incorrigible!)

Dame, if you're reading this I really hope you've got the brain to at least not steal this post :P

—Abd elAzeez
[Current Thought: Man this is crappy! But am I really THAT popular on blogger?]

Make it in!

"You are the very best" she said to him,
The boy, he only smiled and restated anew
"I don’t know if that adjective suits or not,
But I really love hearing all that from you

It makes me feel like king of the world
Though all my elaborate plans are yet to unfurl
My eyes, my mind, and thoughts they have you
Yes my dear, I love being able to love you"

She said "I wish you won’t leave me ever,
For a prettier face or a love that’s fairer"
"YOU are my world" the boy, said he
"And how could I ever think of betraying thee?"

"My boy’s the best" she continued yet again,
"And I couldn’t ever live peacefully to see him in any pain".
"Troubles and misfortune they come and go", replied the boy
"But if the LORD wills, united we’ll overcome any devilish ploy"

She said "You are the right one I’d always been waiting for
And how I wish that we’d have met before,
All these years when people tried courting me
Oh how I’d have loved to have been courted by thee"
"My love", the boy said with his teary eye
"How I wish that back in time we could fly
And probably save us both the trouble
Of living without each other, these decades double"
"We’re both a little older than that!" the girl she jokingly exclaimed
"You’re smart" he said, "but wouldn’t you believe if I claimed
Myself as a happy kid when I’m in the company of thee
Coz at these times I’m much younger than I ever could be"

Her pretty black eyes seemed to well with tears
As she re-iterated her own restless fears
"What if we can’t be together forever?
What if we aren’t made for each other?
I’d surely be forlorn if you were to go away
And would it not hurt to look back at this on another day?"
"My dear don’t you worry" the boy consoled her
"If the LORD wills our love will win all over"

Years later when they looked back at that bygone eve
All those years of love together they could relive
And later even when the people laid them both down to rest
The couple were content the LORD had blessed their lives with the best
Working towards the heavens they had always believed in
And their desire to take each other there had helped them both make it in!

—Abd elAzeez
[Current Thought: Isn’t true love about caring for one’s life in the hereafter as well?]
[Another Current Thought: Well, everything happens of course only if the LORD wills! :-) ]

Unfinished! (Or not quite so?)

This song is for anyone a little capable, a little insecure
A wicked little lineup to bring you all up to the fore
Crying out loud, but tis ain't a new anthem
Rhyme rhyme rhyme into the new millennium!

Bang bang shoots out the wicked gun
Killing another teary-eyed mother’s beloved son
These chains of anger, ignorance and bliss
Millions have perished and billions more to follow this

Bam! Out comes the impious tank, rolling rolling rolling on the river bank
Ha! Huh! Ha! The mixed sentiments rang
Oh crap! They’re back at us again!
Run! Shouted the commander,
Soldiers, half-bare, in their broken armor

Deafening screams, their pathetic cries,
The young, blue, wide and dreamy eyes
Shattered dreams, dead expectations
And whatever happened to those promised nations?

—Abd elAzeez
[Current Thought: There, listen 2 ma poetry!]

Two blocks down the road...

There is something called as writer’s block which —as a growing up kid— I thought to be a situation in which writers usually block the door so that no one can to disturb them while they are happily writing away — in their very merry writers’ land! Now—as a grown-up kid—I’ve been taught that it means a time when a writer faces a mental block!

This still appeals to me as an apt definition because I can now think of it as a time when the mind blocks the writer out so badly, that the poor guy cannot enter into his merry writers’ land and get some happy writing done!

Given a chance to re-define the word I’d like to call it a place or a block (on a street) where all writers live! (ahemm…) Fathom this address: 1011 Writers’ Block, Al-Kitab Street, Madinah. Hmm… maybe if we become a lil more famous writing this little pretext of a blog, we could think of calling the shots around the Queen’s language!

—Abd elAzeez
[Current Thought: Hmm, wonder what it will do the real-estate business though]

An Inspiring True Story! | a.k.a. Of brick(ed)bats!

It happened once again… for the N^th time in about a year now, I managed to brick my gorgeous w750i phone (for the uninitiated, Bricked = Rendered completely useless whilst trying to modify the firmware)..!!

I figured that the phone wouldn’t start after my latest modifications and heaved a heavy sigh of despair (now that’s a new term for you all… :-). As it has always the shock this time was devastating as well! Now before this starts look too technical and most readers lose interest in the post right here (leave alone the inclination to comment on the blog), let’s get down to the main topic for this piece of written material. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is about patience and perseverance...

I’ve realized —in the numerous times that I have been through the ordeal of having converted my dearest (modified) k750i into a mere paper-weight— that there is always a learning experience behind every failure. I still remember the many beats my heart almost-skipped the first time I had bricked the phone trying to change the sound quality, the worry that engulfed me throughout the night thinking of how I had voided the warranty by modifying the firmware and how I’d now have to pay for getting all the mess fixed; all that coupled with a sense of failure and dejection which told me that maybe I wasn’t so smart and geeky after all… and not to mention the enormous amount of research on the internet that I had to do trying to figure out what exactly goes on in the firmware that causes it to fail in such a beyond-repair-ish manner (BTW I still haven’t figured that one out completely, and yet I continue to live on and on, marveling at the amazing things that I’ve done with my phone… and the enormous possibilities that lie ahead, if only I’d be ‘brave enough’). I still remember the time when I fixed the phone after that very first failure, within 1 day, and on my own! I was exhilarated beyond words! And I had learnt that there are more than one ways to get things done from electronic devices! It was then when I got my first first-hand lesson in using failure as a stepping stone to success! (And it also strengthened my belief that sincere prayers ARE answered :-)

Yesterday brought by another evening of tribulation as my dearest phone refused to let me in… Being the ardent phone-addict that I am, it WAS indeed a test for me to be deprived of my little thingamabob. Was trying to fix it using my PC at office and it simply wouldn’t budge! Thought I’d do the software repairs from home but couldn’t leave office coz it was just 5:30PM; there was work to finish and the obligatory evening and night prayers to offer before I could reach my humble dwelling place… And so I reached home after a torment-filled period of 4 hours, only to find that there had been an electricity failure in the area since morning! So there I was, holding my precious gizmo (yes, sure there might be better cell phone models out there, but this one has a charm of its own which I guess is far from over for me) just hoping the lights would come back. Had switched my simcard into an older Nokia handset which I keep at home for emergencies (a.k.a. times like these :-) and could use that one to receive/make calls, but how I wished my w750i would work! (yes, it’s called w750i because it is now a cross between the k750i and the w800i). No lights until about 11:30PM when I had retired to bed and almost reached the gates of slumberland… 11:35PM and the lights came back! I jumped out of the covers and into the computer room (mind you, do not think ‘Eureka!’)... Used many of my super-powers (:D) coupled with all the thinking that I had been doing for about 6 hours now, to get the thing fixed. And Hallelujah, it all worked! The truly amazing w750i turned ON! Could even use the phone to get onto the GPRS, read my email, scrap people on Orkut, play music, click a few pictures and do all the usual hullabaloo that my phone is all about… My phone’s working fine now, and I’ve figured out that a file named EPIUSB.SYS was missing from my PC at office, and that caused most of the data corruption… (“what the heck is that file?” one would say… and that is exactly what I would have said too before I had known the trouble it puts people like me into). Bottom line, I’ve learnt something new last evening, and that is sometimes things are supposed to trouble you for a certain period of time, you’re supposed to wait it out patiently thinking of possible solutions, pray well, think of alternate ways and work-arounds, and when the time is right things are back on track just as they’ve always been supposed to be…

—Abd elAzeez
[Current Thought: What super powers?]
[Not-so current thought: A title starting-off like that is a sure way to get a lot of views!? :-) ]

Testing... Three... Two... One!

Stuck between the Devil and the Dead Sea I’d only take the swim;
simply because that Evil dude’s not a companion that I chase

Had I to choose between the Rock and the Hard Place, I’d pick the rock,
and try to devise it into a stepping stone for a better place.

There could be many times when you’re faced with complicated–looking choices in life, but the essential thing to remember is that most of them would not appear as tricky if only you’d just look at them from a different perspective… We (the humble beings that we are) are so used to looking at things from a specific angle, (or should I say we are taught so by our system) that many a time we fail to see the hidden good in most trying situations.

I happened to read a very beautiful email forwarded by someone a couple of days ago; it was titled ‘That’s Allah!’ The entire content of the email was excellent but the one line that that caught my attention the most was ‘Have you ever been in a situation with no clue how it is going to get better, but now you look back on it? That’s Allah! HE passes us through tribulation to see a brighter day!’ [please overlook the mistakes in quoting the line from memory]

That line just helped reinforce my beliefs that everything that we go through is but a test. Some tests are easy and others not quite so… but what matters in the end is how well you stood your ground with faith in all of them. And trust me; the rewards for passing with flying colors are really really good in this case… :-)

—Abd elAzeez
[Current Thought: The countdown in the title… does it seem so apt?]

A lil somthing to think through

Somethings in life are meant for you to hold on to, while others are supposed to be let go of,
Others yet are meant to hang onto you, while the rest are supposed to let you go!

—Abd elAzeez

[Current Thought: That’s a quarter of a century's experience speaking… more updates/refinements expected as the years keep on ticking :-) ]

And it's been a while...

The fact that this place hasn't been updated for quite sometime might seem like too much of a hiatus to all you ardent readers out there. (Well NO, the author is still alive... although not 'kicking' if you were to consider the literal sense of that term :D)

BTW a few days ago I was actually thinking of what would become of this blog in case I happen to 'move on to a better place', and the answer that came out after some amount of self-deliberation was simple: 'It would be the same thing that would become of all the other stuff that was a part of this life of mine'.

You see, when the 'time is up' for people in this world, everything that was part of this life no longer binds or matters, and the only things that matter are those that have been 'sent forward' by them (if you know what I mean...); and hence I've started concentrating more on the preparations these days. And that's because I believe the smartest of people are those who begin preparing for the afterlife as early as possible... [NO, my doctor hasn't perused through my health checkup reports while telling me that supposedly ill-fated Bollywood movie line that most 'Bolly-docs' are supposed to tell the protagonist, if that's what you're thinking having read this far :)]

Yes I've been busy for some days now and the fact that we're passing through (or rather, 'piously observing') the Holy Month of Ramadhaan, has made updating this place a kind of rarity for me. I do however promise InshaAllah that I WILL be posting more stuff here soon and also hope to keep the audience (that I feel honored to have) out here, hooked to the place as always.

Please do keep visiting back again and again and again and again and again and again... (OK, I guess you got the point! :-)). And in the meanwhile please also feel free to browse through the archives that we have created out here over the months.

—Abd elAzeez
[Current Thought: Maybe I should be sharing the password to this place with someone :D ]

To Destiny!

I met somebody today who made me realize
That in being not a fool, lies the essence of being wise
LORD I’ve been brought to understand and I can only thank THEE
For making me realize all that happens is simply destined to be!

—Abd elAzeez

[Current Thought: Subhan-Allah! The LORD sure works in mysterious ways!]

The 'Right' Time!

Quite contrary to popular belief, there ARE some times in life when things go just right! Fathom this, you half-wake up in the morning (we all know that state of waking up :) and as always recollect the events of last evening to know what to expect next… you realize you’re expecting an important call at 10:30 AM… and its 9:30 AM already! Besides you also have to reach office (where work starts at 9:30 AM incidentally)… realizing you haven’t got much time (to get late by?), you decide you’ll take that call via your trusty cell-phone head-set en-route to office (so you can finish the call, as well as reach office by 11). Your morning routine surprisingly takes away quite a lot of time and you realize its 10:15 already… AND you are yet to have your breakfast (the ONE meal that’s designed to provide the start to most of your day’s energy)! In between minds you decide you’ll skip breakfast and substitute it with an early lunch… 10:26 and you’re still at home, so you decide that you’ll take that call before you leave for office… 10:31 and there’s no sign of that call… being the devout person that you are, you say a silent prayer asking for only what HE thinks is right for you… Your favorite wrist-watch shows 10:32… The ring-tone of your cell phone breaks the silence of your mind (those sound drivers that you’ve put into it play pretty loud and clear :)… It IS the call you were waiting for (talk about punctuality)! The call goes very well, you get EXACTLY what you wanted out of it… last night’s dream come true you call it… you thank HIM for HIS never-failing mercy. You share the good news with your family whilst having a quick bite, and they are all ecstatic.

 

It’s 11:25. You’re worried about the consequences of reaching work after 12… you recollect that your bike is punctured from last night’s ride and so you have to use the services of an auto-rickshaw for conveyance. The journey seems never-ending, and you reach work at 12:15 (having encountered one of the worst traffic jams of your life… and praying all throughout the way). You step into office, apprehensive of facing your boss, and Lo! he’s right  there near your desk. You begin to think of an explanation, and before you can utter a word your boss starts off “It’s a very great thing you could make it in by this time, I was afraid the large oil tanker spill near office would keep you stuck in traffic for more than half of the day! I AM impressed by your dedication!”…

 

Before that big smile of exhilaration manifests itself onto your face you recollect the subtle choice of the rickshaw-driver taking a slightly longer route to reach office saying it’ll avoid more traffic (and you’d thought he was doing it just so he could get a bigger bill out of your pocket)…

 

Things do go right at times, and when they do the feeling of joy is just un-describable! Though the first impression of a certain situation might make it seem otherwise, things eventually fall into their proper place… in fact they sometimes fall into place so well that you just cant believe it were possible that way too!

 

—Abd elAzeez

[Current Thought:]

I don't get no TV!

I wonder why they put those flat television screens inside elevators anyways. You know, the ones that are fastened to the elevator wall with steel fittings and they keep playing random channels all the time… I wonder if it could be another of those silent invectives that are hurled at us every single day by the system that we all live in.

Seems like with these TVs they (the diabolical beings running the system) mean to say to us “Sure this TV’s got a clear screen, amazing picture clarity coupled with superb surround sound… Besides there’s an awesome episode of your favorite program coming up next on this channel. But YOU (Mr. regular-human-being) are NOT going to get to watch it! AND that FACT is reinforced, coz we’ve made sure the elevator is fast enough to reach any floor before you can even get a small peak at the first scene!”

The point is, I don't get what a person is supposed to do with that TV anyway... He cannot watch his favorite show, he cannot talk to the person next to him because that darned TV is blaring right behind his head, and he certainly cannot change the channel coz the buttons are just not there on that TV! Which should also remind you that the TV remote is not inside that elevator! And that at times makes me speculate, could it be that the remote has been (cunningly?) placed in another elevator where there is no TV at all?...!!!

—Abd elAzeez

[Current Thought: Now that's called taking the Idiot Box to an all-new level (via the elevator!)]

---

The copyrighted [mini?] series titled Abd's takes, is a collection of humorous blog posts comprising of completely original but wierd/ obnoxious/ unfathomable/ and seldom-light-hearted tid-bits of humor that are a product of my own twisted mind.

Feel free to use them where-ever you want to, just don't forget to 'quote the author' (in simpler terms, mention me!). Coz if you don't, then bad things might happen to you; things like forgetting the punch-line when in the middle of an elaborately told joke, or meeting an audience-member who knows the answers to all of your original 'amusing-riddles'.

:-)

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A little medical terminology - by Jerry Seinfeld

Jerome “Jerry” Seinfeld is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor and writer. (One of my favorite stand-up comedians of all time, I might add.)

I'm Telling You for the Last Time was one of his most famous stand-up performances, which was recorded at the Broadhurst Theatre, in New York during August 6-9, 1998. Here's a hilarious little snippet from the same:-

---

A friend of mine is going in for a nose job next week. Guy.
You know what the technical term for a nose job is?
Of course you do... Everybody...
Rhinoplasty! [is the name of the term]
Rhino!
Now this guy is aware he has a bit of a problem… he's obviously sensitive about it, that's why he made the appointment. Why do we need to compare him to a rhinoceros?...!!!

When you go for a hair transplant the docs don't say: "We're going to perform a cue-ball-ectomy on you, Mr Johnson… We feel the chrome-dome-ia has advanced... to a level we term skin-head-ia… These are all medical terms, if you don't understand…"

—by Jerry Seinfeld
[From I'm Telling You for the Last Time, Live on Broadway, 1998]

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—Abd elAzeez
[Current thought: ROTFLOL]

Slow down [that camera! :) ]

Well, by ‘popular demand’ [you won’t believe how many people actually asked me to do this!], let me present here another of my collection of tips for the everyday photographer! This time we’ll see how to take an interesting picture in an otherwise mundane setting.

Now we all know that there are a lot of situations where you CANT really figure out a decent enough object to snap your camera at. The roadside is one such example, and it is even more of an example if it is not properly lit [thereby making it almost a pain in the photo-clicking-finger to even think of taking a picture there]. But fear not! (for you are a reader of this blog :P)…

A different angle, coupled with a simple setting of the shutter speed + ISO and off you’re ready to go. We’ve already covered ISO in an earlier post, and this time we’ll hint upon ‘shutter speed’.
In the most layed of man’s terms shutter speed is simply the speed at which your camera clicks a picture… a (s)lower shutter speed thus could mean you’ll probably get a picture that’s got a blurry or in-motion kind of effect.

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL (2-megapixel) SIZE]

Check this out. Picture 1 above was taken on a dimly lit road, (at an unusual angle) with only the ISO set to 100. We’ve got a fine looking picture of a car’s headlights there. Now add to this combination, the power of a slow shutter speed and the next car that passed by (in the opposite direction), seemed like more of a rocket in action in Picture 2 below.

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL (2-megapixel) SIZE]

As always. the results ARE but interesting :-)

—Abd elAzeez

[Current thought: Could I be good at this? :D]

Talk 'bout da good times!

Life’s going good I always say and a lot of my friends wonder why…
There’s just so much pain and anguish in my life at times that they just can’t help questioning me why I still smile and say “Things aren't as bad as they seem to be!”
Well the answer is simple I say; sometimes you HAVE to go through adversity and brave the odds without complaining. Sometimes its best you walk the narrow thorny path rather than sit down and weep over your freshly wounded feet.

You NEED to go through hard times just so that you can realize how gifted you are when you go through the good times again. If life were just a bed of roses we’d all eventually start taking it for granted wouldn’t we?

A few really painful thorns in your way today, and tomorrow when you cross a rosey bed you KNOW you’re having a great day!

—Abd elAzeez

... ... ... ...

Woke up this morning missing all my smiles
Been sleep-walking for miles and miles and miles
My dreams are apprehensive; they’ve a fish-eyed view
By the way I just tried to say that I need you

—Abd elAzeez
[Current state of mind: Perplexingly Optioned]

A sad state of affairs

Condemnation
Eradication
Condensation
Here lies their son

Reparation
Compensation
Cost-infliction
Not all in fun

Syndication
Congregation
Convocation
A dying nation

Hesitation
Consultation
Aspiration
No Ambitions

Here lies their son
Not all in fun
A dying nation
With no ambitions

Reminisce the passed times
Churning out these fast rhymes
Because your motherland dies
Amidst destruction, rubble and lies

Deaths, suffering, anguish and pain
Streets wetted with the crimson rain
Terror, wounds, and flowing eyes
The body rots away, the soul still cries

—Abd elAzeez
[Current thought: It could have been anybody... Damn!]

...a test of friendship

How often do we feel good when our close friends they do
And how oft are we sad when they're feelin low too?
For although the former may seem like an easy thing to do,
The latter is but the actual test of true companionship for you!

—Abd elAzeez
[Current state of mind: Apprehensive Exhilaration]

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Following this post I've decided to record my current state of mind in each post. That, I believe, will give bring some more insight for ya'll into the twisted workings of my grey matter as well as provide me with some record-keeping for future reference (just in case this place becomes too darned famous and some big business tycoon proposes buying it out from me... in millions :-)

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...worth dying for!

Why do we have to die?
Life kills you in the end doesn't it?
Life is about being alive...I wish it would last forever!
...and many such clichéd statements prove to be an indispensable part of our conversations everyday, and we humans keep fooling ourselves into believing that probably some miraculous discovery of science(?) would save us from dying! ...something which our fore-fathers and their fore-fathers and their fore-fathers in turn, pursued just as much, but (as is evident :-) never attained.

Someone asked me what I thought about the whole hullabaloo, and I replied (with analogies as always):
---When you go to sleep at night (into the elusive dreamy-world) do you wish for eternal sleep and never to wake up again to the reality anymore?
---Do you appear for an exam hoping it would last forever without any results?
---Would you ever –on arriving at the start of a bridge– think to yourself, "I want to keep walking on this bridge forever and never ever reach the other side, because this bridge looks so damn pretty to me"?

NO you and I don't say all that! We realize all that goes up has to come down and everything that starts has to end. Then whydo we trick ourselves when it comes to Life?

The truth is, this life's just a test to see if you're fit-enough to 'fit in' to a good place.
Do well in this and you'll be given stuff that's 'worth dying for' ...in the literal sense of that term!

—Abd elAzeez

The Lonely Fish

There are certain times in life when you don't need to be alone to feel lonely.

[CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL 2-Mega-pixel SIZE]

With almost a quarter of a century's experience of being alive, I'll tell you what I've learn't about situations like these. The trick in those times is to keep doing your thing as you always did AND never lose hope even in the least bit... eventually things will fall into place... well atleast they'll all fall into that place where they are 'supposed to be' according to HIS will, and THAT my friend, is what's the best for you and the best for everything else.

—Abd elAzeez

Picture Titled: The Lonely Fish – Oil on Canvas effect

...accept the whole package.

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[CLICK TO SEE FULL 2-megapixel SIZE]

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Here’s one of my favorite quotes on love.
This one was pinned onto a colleague’s desk and never failed to amuse each time I visited him.

A little history to introduce this picture:- It seems this colleague had 'inherited' the picture from another dude who’d left the company a few weeks ago, who himself had inherited it from another person who in-turn had been shifted to a different location in the building. All this, within a span of 6 months; and the pic’s seen em all come and go at the same desk. Besides no one ever wanted to take the picture down from right infront of them.

Now having a camera equipped phone can be a very handy thing when you’re ‘out there in the wild’ as I like to call this world (yes everything is ‘out there’ for me because I believe we are all just travelers out here on our way to a better place.. and that could very well be a topic for a new blog post). So as I was saying, having a good camera-phone at hand is immensely amusing, and if that camera is our very own super w750i with modified cam drivers to get that awesome macro-mode pic, what can one do except keep clicking everywhere :-)

This pic never fails to inspire whenever I’m down in the dumps or feeling low about something in life, simply because in the end most things that we ever feel sad are about those which we love aren't they?

—Abd elAzeez

Break the Language Barrier

Abd's Takes

You know you're writing a popular blog when...

...the only comment you get on your blog in quite a long time (apart from the numerous personal emails and telephone calls from your own close buddies praising your writings) is from some random dude who you haven't met yet... one who's into selling funnily customized t-shirts... on some fanciful Portuguese website.

Now that's called 'reaching out to an international audience'. :D

P.S. The uninitiated may check out the (sentimental?) post below this one
P.S.2. While the others may comment on this one :-)

—Abd elAzeez
Amigo aqui vindo

---

The copyrighted [mini?] series titled Abd's takes, is a collection of humorous blog posts comprising of completely original but wierd/ obnoxious/ unfathomable/ and seldom-light-hearted tid-bits of humor that are a product of my own twisted mind.

Feel free to use them where-ever you want to, just don't forget to 'quote the author' (in simpler terms, mention me!)If you don't, then bad things might happen to you; things like forgetting the punch-line when in the middle of an elaborately told joke, or meeting an audience-member who knows the answers to all of your original 'amusing-riddles'.

:-)

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A little more time for me please…

Oh well it’s been but a long boring day
Weather’s cold and the sky’s been gray
The workplace’s dreary and my eye's getting weary
Couldn’t I’d be anywhere except in this friggin’ chair?

Yet I’m happy and content in a tranquil way
Not feeling as lifeless and dull on this protracted day
Grateful at being alive just to pull through it
For surely THAT gives me some more time to prepare for the grave

—Abd elAzeez

In Disparation...

Aloha people, today I'll post a couple of pictures taken with different camera settings and lighting conditions. The differences in the output I believe, are very profound.

To begin with, the flower in the first picture was subjected to the LED Flash light from my W750i, thus causing a yellow-ish green tinge to the picture, as also some shadows behind it. The ISO setting on the camera was at ISO 100 which meant that the time the photo-sensor would take to capture an exposure was quite less (in lay man's terms), thus leading to an under-exposed picture with the given lighting conditions. The white-balance setting was at 'Daylight' for this one, causing a mellowed overtone.

The second picture however, used only the lighting from a tube-light right above the subject (yes, it pays to turn off your own light source i.e. the flash at times), and a slightly higher ISO value of 125 (a subtle looking deviation, but very powerful in the given situation) which caused better exposure than the one on the left. This one however was shot in 'Flourescent' setting of the white-balance.

Note that there was no digital editing on any of these pictures.

Click on images for full (2 mega-pixel) size.

—Abd elAzeez

Both pictures taken with my modified w750i [i.e. K750i flashed with W800i firmware] Sony Ericsson cell phone camera .

To companionship!

With the advent of the internet, we've got more days to celebrate than a year could hold even if it leaps twice each time it comes around. Why we've even got weird sounding days like got 'Drop Some Ice-cream on your Partner Day', and 'Give your Cat a Love-Pill day' and 'Smile at Really Stange-looking Strangers Day' and what nots.... the list is endless so to speak. But well, whether you believe in these days or not, you gotta believe that someone somewhere could be observing them.

That said, perhaps the most celebrated and to-be-remembered-or-else-you're-out kind of days (except your Anniversaries and your spouse's Birthday of course...you'll be kicked out even before you can think of forgetting those, if you know what I'm hinting at :-) is Friendship's Day. A day even well known by words like 'Friendship Day' and 'Best Friends' Day', (even weird ones like 'Love-ship Day'...yes, there are people who've coined that term too...at the spur of the moment probably... Fathom over-hearing this in a local coffee shop "Susan, I don't want to have Love-ship with you yet, I am asking only for your hand..in Friendship..." Damn you dude, what on earth is Loveship? and what in love's name do you ask for in that, a toe from Susan's left foot?]. There's so much hype around this Friendship day (well-deserved of-course), that people have even begun celebrating Friendship Week...that is a week before Friendship's day actually is... AND in fact now it is so much, that we even celebrate Friendship Week after Friendship's Day. But the fact remains, the day does deserve its moments. [Every single one of the 24x12x60 of them]

Absurd humor (a trademark of this blog?) apart, just around the corner is one of those days when people love to tell their best buddies that its been wonderful knowing them and having them around when they were needed the most.

And yes, with the buzz around friendship these days (no puns intended), we thought we'd post out here today, a (very small part of the) collection of some of the best friendship quotes that we've selected from (the plethora of quotes that comprise) the internet.

So here goes... This post is dedicated to the best of my friends, the ones who've stuck with me through thick and thin, through the times of despair as well as the shadows of joy, believing in me and supporting me on every other step ever since they were revealed to me by destiny... You people have made a difference in my life and I simply love each one of you for being there with me. These are some of my dedications for you

—Abd elAzeez
P.S. Please click on images for bigger size

At work!

If the comedy of errors of sharing a common extension at work didn't provide enough material to blog for, it seems that our hero's Clark Kent-ish alter-ego has something else to brag about.

There's been a spate of unusual visitors at his desk in recent times, and he doesn't seem to waste even a micro-second in pulling out his famed mobile phone cam (Sony Ericsson W750i now with updated cameradriver 1.3beta9 by SPU) and taking that one precarious shot at them before they escape into the eternal oblivion from whence they all seemed to have come from (that is, assuming his boss isn't around right then :)...

OK. OK. Ridiculously framed sentences apart, here we've posted two little visitors from tiny-land that Abd's captured in his cell phone. The 8-legged wonder at the top is called 'Arachnid at Work', while the reptile down below is named 'Thin Lizzy' after the Metallica cover of the track called Cowboy by the band Thin Lizzy (anybody got brighter ideas for a name?)

P.S. Don't mind the image quality please, there's just this much time to pull out the cam, frame the subject, reduce the shutter speed, (possibly) change the ISO level from 100 upwards for that perfect exposure, focus the lens and then shoot... in MACRO-MODE!

P.S.2. Clicking on the pictures will open them up in full (2 mega-pixel) resolution.

Step Away From That Thing!...?

Abd's takes

on Safety Warnings

Safety warnings Safety warnings, everywhere, everywhere
Safety warnings Safety warnings, here and there!

With all due respect, it is still at times a matter of amusement to find an odd safety sign hanging around in the most unusual of places. At first glance, some of these signs seem really out of place and incomprehendible to the (lay?) man… the one who knoweth not much about their necessity. [Why is he called 'lay' BTW? And why a man at that? (That thought may call for another blog post it seems)]

Anyways, there was this one sign our hero —Mr Katîb of course, who else did you expect?— saw on the left wing of the Singapore Airlines plane during his flight from Mumbai to Singapore earlier this year. It said right there, ‘No Step’.

Now why on earth (or should it be ‘why on air’ since everyone was flying?) would someone —happily sitting in the coveted window seat— want to step out onto the wing? Or why would he look for a step when all he could see was a flat white wing? Would it be termed stepping onto someone’s foot if he wanted to step out and use the wing as a stepping stone to reach a better place? What did the plane-makers think of when they put that sign on there? And could there be another such sign on the other wing as well?...

Alas, the universe is filled with baffling mysteries like these and more baffling is the fact that not many people actually realize what silent mockery that is made of them every single time they sit on that window-seat, pull out their camera-equipped cell phones, take a picture of the wing (because that is all you can see there…), and quietly think to themselves ‘yes I am not going to step out there no matter how tempting it is, or how ugly the air-hostesses be’… Speaking of, right after that picture was taken, one of those dames actually asked our hero to turn off his beloved w750i phone ‘for safety reasons, or please step up to speak to the captain’. I guess that is when he realized the ‘no step’ could have been to remind camera-phone wielders that there is a captain on the plane…

—Abd elAzeez

As always, picture taken from Abd's modified Sony Ericsson W750i

____________________________________________________________________

The copyrighted [mini?] series titled Abd's takes, is a collection of humorous blog posts comprising of completely original but wierd/ obnoxious/ unfathomable/ and seldom-light-hearted tid-bits of humor that are a product of my own twisted mind.

Feel free to use them where-ever you want to, just don't forget to 'quote the author' (in simpler terms, mention me!)If you don't, then bad things might happen to you; things like forgetting the punch-line when in the middle of an elaborately told joke, or meeting an audience-member who knows the answers to all of your original 'amusing-riddles'.

:-)

Focus!

Sometimes all we need do is set focus on the one thing that is most important to us.
More often than not we are so engrossed in gathering other 'details' that we tend to lose sight of our main goals, and at times that engrossment is so much that try however we may, we cannot get ourselves to see the main object in 'the big picture' clearly. The best practice to thus follow is set priorities in life, and then focus on them with our best.

—Abd elAzeez

Picture taken from Abd's modified Sony Ericsson W750i (i.e. Sony Ericsson K750i flashed with W800 firmware, customized with W810i sound drivers and Super Camera driver 8.5.2 by ChengRong)

Blocked Writer?

Calvin: Want to see my latest Invention?
Hobbes: What is it?
Calvin: It's a writer's block! You put it on your desk and you can't write there any more!

Calvin: I must be years ahead of my time.

—by Bill Watterson

And we see Katib's been absconding in his entirety for as long as we can remember [and THAT, sounds like a really long time]. Seems like the poor dude's got some 'sorting-out' to do in life, and that's eating away most of his time and head. But fear not, for we shall drag him back here once again after his stuff's done!

VerbatiM

Abd's takes
On Speech-to-Text.

Ever wondered what would happen if our existing speech-to-text converters (became smart? enough and) started typing down exactly how we said something? Have a look at this:--


Slow-gun of the day:
Safety starts with U
Hey, [the word] safety starts with an ass!
huh? aass... esss.... WHAT THE $^*#^%^^$^^&!
I meant essS!... S! S! ESSS!... Safety starts with an essss!!!
OH GOURD!
WHOA! heeere we go again... GAAWD! GAAOD! GOD! GORD!

[*bangs down microphone, heads for the keyboard*]

—Abd elAzeez
[Thank God, the good ol' keyboard works]

______________________________________________________________________

The copyrighted [mini?] series titled Abd's takes, is a collection of humorous blog posts comprising of completely original but wierd/ obnoxious/ unfathomable/ and seldom-light-hearted tid-bits of humor that are a product of my own twisted mind.

Feel free to use them where-ever you want to, just don't forget to 'quote the author' (in simpler terms, mention me!)
If you don't, then bad things might happen to you; things like forgetting the punch-line when in the middle of an elaborately told joke, or meeting an audience-member who knows the answers to all of your original 'amusing-riddles'.

:-]

the comfort zone

How comforting is the warm hand of a friend in a time of distress
And so relieving it is when you have someone to whom you can confess
So very simple do the daunting worries and the maddening pain become
After a true friend has supported you with truly sympathizing kind words some

—Abd elAzeez

Retrospective...

An old friend called up the other day
You know it’s been long since she’d gone away
Some years plus a few months more
It’s been a while since you’d closed that door

Things changed, and you moved on,
You never realized when the nostalgia was gone

Someone you knew, passed away another day
There wasn’t even time for a last goodbye, they say
A crushed bike, some broken glass
Some candles in time, burn out too fast

'To each his own, and life waits for no one'
Reiterated this to yourself, and the pain was simply gone

Yet another day when someone broke your heart,
Did you realize once you too played the same part
With a good friend, and too long ago not
Your own mistakes you easily forgot?

Time changes, and a lot of people do too
Second chances for no one, why crave one do you?

Did you once ever even stop to think,
Your story's fading away like some delible ink?
You’ve come so far, do you know if there’s a road back?
These miles you’ve crossed, do you remember the track?

Is it possible to stop here, and hope to start anew?
It seems a little retrospection will do good to you…

—Abd elAzeez

etiquette?

Abd's Takes
on Telephone Etiquette

At work we have to share a common telephone [extension number] between people in the same cubicle. This is due to the company’s policy of getting people to ‘relate’ to each other (You know, when you say, “Oh you want Susan’s number, here take mine, I’ll connect you to her whenever you want” :-) ).

Absurd humor apart, of late there have been a spate of funny incidences because of this (seemingly un-comprehendible?) setup, since our callers somehow believe that the person who picks up their call is a) either the very person they intended to call up (talk about pot-luck!) OR b) the telephone operator in the cubicle, who’s only job is to wait for their call and hand it over to the right person; or so it seems, since many of them just seem to call up and say ‘Smith!’ or ‘Hi Smith!’, and expect the person picking up the phone to dutifully, without asking any questions, hand over the phone to good ol’ boy Smith and he’ll take it from there. At times if I pick up the phone —yes one of the two telephones sits on my desk… (privileged?)— and even so as make the (intimidating?) mistake of asking who the caller on the other side is, they forget all they had to say and start blabbering gibberish (quite literally) as if someone forgot to write the lines they had to say after I had said mine…

Fathom this, just this morning someone called up:-

Caller: Hi is this Mr XYZ?

Abd elAzeez.: No THIS isn’t, but let me hand it (the phone) over to him.

Caller: OK… err… thank you… will I ask you to call him when he’s back… err… [Click]

[Note: There are no typos in that dialogue]

Now did he, the caller, think that this was Mr. XYZ’s hotline number or something, or did he just forget the reason that he had called up for after that (witty) one line of mine? Well I guess we’ll never know; but I sure couldn’t help laughing loud in my mind, as I decided to give up looking for the answers... And it was only after those moments of ROTFLing -in-my-head subsided, that I realized Mr. XYZ had left the organization just two days ago[sheesh!].

Besides, there is no Smith in our cubicle too, none yet in the organization as well.

—Abd elAzeez

______________________________________________________________________

The copyrighted [mini?] series titled Abd's takes, is a collection of humorous blog posts comprising of completely original but wierd/ obnoxious/ unfathomable/ and seldom-light-hearted tid-bits of humor that are a product of my own twisted mind.

Feel free to use them where-ever you want to, just don't forget to 'quote the author' (in simpler terms, mention me!)
If you don't, then bad things might happen to you; things like forgetting the punch-line when in the middle of an elaborately told joke, or meeting an audience-member who knows the answers to all of your original 'amusing-riddles'.

:-]

...my powers can be only used for the good!

_________________________
Breaking News!

According to the Which Superhero Are You Quiz, our hero, Mr. Katîb's ways most closely resemble those of The Green Lantern!

Having answered a series of (daunting?) questions of the types "Do you wear thongs?", "Do you get in many physical fights with girls?", and "Do you like redheads?", the creators of the quiz (finally) decided to confer upon Mr. K., the title of The Green Lantern.

Now instead of having our readers rush to the nearest search engine, intrigued by this mysterious character, thinking about Mr K. all the while, we thought we'd give a small introduction to this super hero right here ourselves.

For starters, although there have been many Green Lanterns, the one most notably close to Mr. K. is the Silver Age Green Lantern.

According to wikipedia, "This Green Lantern was unique in several ways. He was the first DC superhero (of the DC Comics fame) to use his powers selfishly (in his romance with Carol Ferris), and he was also the first DC superhero with a family. He was given a power ring and battery (lantern) by a dying alien named Abin Sur, whose spaceship had crashed on Earth. Abin Sur used his ring to seek out an individual who was utterly honest and born without fear to take his place as the Green Lantern".

Hmm... Fearless, utterly honest, a(n almost) hopeless romantic, and a family guy, now where have we heard those before?

—Abd elAzeez

Purrrr (?)

“You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this?

And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.”

 

—Albert Einstein

oh Vanity...

When was the last time you stopped,
to take a good look at the person in the mirror

How long has it been since you last noticed,
the disparities between you two are growing dearer?

–Abd elAzeez

A few Unanswered Questions...

All this while, since your life began
You've always yearned for a loving hand
And now you've got your prayers answered
Isn't it time it’s your heart's voice you heard?

Uneasy it is you've always been
For evermore, the other side's seemed green
These days the tide, it seems so changed
Isn't this the reason that racing pulse seems strange?

Time they say, heals all that hurts
In your life you've faced the worst of flirts
The day you found someone you could love
Why's your throat dry, your tongue stuck in its cove?

You've had your highs, and you've seen many a low
You've seen dried rivers that once used to flow
Now your demons are dead, the pain's subsided with your hate
So what is it that now makes you apprehensive of the upcoming fate?

—Abd elAzeez

…and the madness takes over again

Another day for his ailing psyche it is, another wretched sunrise it is
What goes on inside his twisted mind, he cannot explain
He wants to eliminate the sea of insanity that feeds on his brain
He lies weary, on the path he has been walking again and again

His nightmare has come true, and he wakes up screaming in the night
Another love of his is dead, and he’s left alone in the cold hard rain
Crazy thoughts of insanity, like maggots feed on his decaying brain
He tries to fight them, but ends up surrendering to the sickness… again

Stripped to the bone, on the dungeon floor he lies shivering
His wounds hurt, the tears in his eyes wet the blood stain

He struggles against them but the evil thoughts drive him insane

He wants to get back into humanity, yet he just cannot take the pain

In his senses he feels, the depraved world taking over
His mind he sees, wandering in the decadence just like Caine
Corruption, lies, debauchery, sin… the evil tugs at his sleeve again
He tries to resist, but ends up surrendering to the madness… again

Twilight comes around, the sky outside turns crimson

Another nightmare seems true, and he wakes up yet again
He sees the madness take over, and he knows he’s gone insane
He knows not what to do; and has finally given in to the sickening pain.

—Abd elAzeez

...tHe sIcKnEsS

Silently he waits, in this cold dry place
Waits with nothing, not even the wind in his face
Kneeling down on the hard ground
Broken, sad and with face that’s frowned…

The sickness has gotten into him,
There’s no escape in this place where he lies
The demon has woken inside him
And is lurking in the shadows nearby

You left him, so close to dead and decaying
Silently you left, not a word you were saying
He should have known you were a snake from the start
A snake; O yes a snake! One with an evil heart
I wish he never fell to your deathly charms
And in no way trusted your thorned arms

He looks at his reflection in a murky pool
And he sees it’s slowly changing,
Changing with a silent and steady gloom
The sickness has now entered his room

This sickness has gotten over him,
There’s no escape either in the earth or sky
The demon is now lurking inside him
And there are more approaching nearby…

Walking alone and still he's waiting
He's loved you, and now it’s you he's hating.
He's seen his psyche completely changing,
Like a thunderous dark storm that’s been raging

He's lost his soul, and now he's all so cold
It's a horrifying story, that’s still untold
Your words, his silence, all embracing
Like a slit wrist, with warm blood stream pacing

The moon comes around to light up the freak
And pours pale light onto the crimson streak
Tied up, bound in chains and chokingly-gagged
He lies limp on the ground, like a doll ragged

With nothing but the warm air flurrying
He waits the certainty, his vision blurring

The sickness has powered over him,
There’s no escape when it says "Die"
The demons have stopped lurking in him
And gone looking for another psyche to dry…

—Abd elAzeez