Uukh Galbi!

I haven't felt like blogging of late (obviously, lol). I've kinda been enjoying the freedom of not only being liberated from summer course but also my arch nemesis : Business Mathematics. Yes, I can hardly believe it myself (ALHAMDILLAH) that I finally - somehow- managed to pass BM. I gotta hand it to the professor though, he was a bad ass at explaining. Way better than the previous two lady professors I had. I almost wanna believe the sexist saying that male math teachers are the better of the sexes.. big exception will be made for BW - of course, cuz she had the power to make me understand lots ;) But yeah, I'm glad that's behind me.

Mostly since the end of summer course I've been playing tennis, loads of PS2 soccer (football to the rest of the world) - I found this option where u play in this like career mode and you get to create your player including his name and appearance, kinda like SIMS. So yeah I kinda got addicted to it and play everyday.

About the only productive thing I get done is attending art classes in the mornings (w3, I am so not a morning person). Its fun though. We're learning so much cool (useless) stuff. We also take Arabic calligraphy. I like that alot as well. It calms me down when I'm moody.

I've decided (though I haven't actually done anything yet) to go back to Quran classes and seriously memorize. I figure its about time I got holy and did something that would help me in the afterlife. I'm looking forward to that inshallah. I miss the feeling of doing something that actually matters.

In other news, I've been job hunting. Unemployment doesnt suit me =P I scored an interview for Sunday. Khair inshallah.

I found an interesting story about my favorite sportswear company, Adidas. And then read a very retarded story in Gulf News. I mean all these copyrighted things still make tons of money and there will always be people out there who have to have the originals of certain things and will still put money into those things even if they already have a downloaded version. (I mean sometimes I have the original of something and I go and download it from torrents or whatever so that I can use it on my comp/phone/ipod, whatever makes life easier) They should stop being such tight asses about it and live their lives.

Lastly, I'll leave you guys with a Fares Karam clip. Its music, and while I dont usually listen to music unless its like on tv (which is where I first heard this clip) or whatever, I found the lyrics so cute...

Like You Mean It

So the first week of summer course has gone by. Aside from the frequent cluster headaches I've been getting and the fact that the class is a whole hour AND 40 mins long.. math classes have actually been quite interesting. The class is totally on the guy's campus (which is freakin awkward and just plain weird) and we, of course, have guys in the class. A very half-assed partition separates the sexes (I so need to snap a shot for you guys's viewing pleasure!) which is like the joke of the whole school. There are uniformed guards all over - I imagine to 'keep the peace' haha. Right. I wonder how they would describe the status of UoS now? ... "Controlled Co-ed".

Anyways, like I was saying, the classes have been interesting to say the least. We got a guy professor this time around. I know we aren't supposed to be sexist when it comes to math teachers and all but its becoming quite apparent that they are the better teachers in regards to math anyways. The guy teacher at the institute I was going to in Dubai for tutoring sessions was like a mathematical Einstein. When he explained, I understood. When things were difficult, he spoke ENGLISH. Our professor for this semester speaks English as well. Not that any of my other professors or tutors spoke/taught in other languages but they may as well have been for all I understood from them. It was frustrating really.

I think this may also be the first time I was actually present for the first math chapter. I don 't remember studying about the basics of the straight line the previous times. Despite only having spent a week with this new professor, I think I like him. He's got a really short volatile temper. Reminds me of Tony Soprano's temper. It doesnt help much that he kinda slurs words together like Soprano as well. The first day (Monday) he was going through the course syllabus and introduction (in English) like a normal professor and then suddenly he starts yelling all this angry arabic. It took me a minute to register that that was definitely not part of the lecture. I look up from the syllabus hand-out to see him waving around a small black thing. Turned out to be someone's mobile. Apparently while he was going thru the syllabus one of the boys was getting in quality talk time on his phone. It was pretty funny. But just as quickly as he was set off he had calmed down and was smiling again. Lol. Tuesday the lecture went by with out a hitch. Wednesday we had a quiz. We knew we were having a quiz that day. So everyone went in and sat down and we were like waiting for him to pass out the quiz papers. Instead he surprised us all and told us to get out our own sheets of paper, write our names and IDs on them and then copy the quiz question he was going to write on the board. I was thinking Oh Wow we are all sitting next to each other (like usually they make us sit at alternate desks and stuff) so just before we start his angry alter ego "Mr. Soprano" (fitting name) comes out and threatens that if we attempt in any way...even if he so much as 'thinks' we are attempting, we'd get a zero. Then he adds that with him there are 'two' zeros - a red zero and a yellow zero... I imagine it must be something along the lines of Soccer (football to the rest of u guys ;P) with their red and yellow cards lol. So he wraps up with 'You all be careful.' I almost felt sorry for the girl beside me cuz even if she wanted to cheat, i'd be like the last person she'd wanna cheat from! When I saw the question my brain immediately froze. Like what the hell? I knew that I knew how to solve it and it was a relatively easy problem but I was having trouble remembering how to go about doing that. In the end though, I put down pretty much all of the correct answer except for the last part of the equation. I guess I'll see on Sunday how much leaving out parts of equations cost in marks.. After the quiz we carried on with the lesson as usual. Like half hour before the end of class the teacher makes this swift movement on the boys' side of the partition and next thing he slams a familiar black device on his desk. He's glaring angerily at the boys' side but says nothing surprisingly. Instead he turns back to the board and starts writing again. Once he finished writing, he opens his mouth to speak and I imagined he'd be explaining what he had just written - and maybe thats what he had originally wanted to do but the object on his desk caught his eye and set him off. Haha. There was no stopping him. He went on and on about how rude and wrong it is for someone to be using their phone while in a lecture. And the retarded guy he took the phone from was arguing his case saying he wasnt doing anything like texting. He claimed he was just receiving. Oh the professor loved that. His face got all red and his eyes turned mini-saucers and he looked like he was ready to drag the kid out by his ear and drag him all the way to that great and mighty (cough cough) chancellor of ours. And like everytime he seemed like he was winding down to continue the guy argued some more. A couple of girls grinned. A few giggled. I tried my best not to laugh, smile grin or look amused but in all honesty it was hilarious. And what's more, it was the same boy from the first lesson with the phone. Some ppl just dont learn, sadly. I guess its a good thing though, it makes the hour and 40 mins a little less mundane. ;)

This summer promises to be very busy, aside from summer course. I registered for art & calligraphy classes. I'm going to finally learn to swim (though I still very much hate that sport). I'm also going to try and finish my new novel -which entails learning welsh and perhaps gaelic or latin. Should be fun I hope. Oh, and I got an invitation letter from this cadet pilot programme I registered for. I had signed on ever since last year, I was really depressed and needed a change of routine so that was like the most random spontaneous thing I could do. I'm not as interested in it any more but since I have the invitation letter I may as well go on for the assessment test and see how far I get. They say its 6 aptitude tests that you have to take in 4hours and based on ur performance on them you get to move to the next round/part of assessment which is held on a different day. It'll be interesting at least - I wonder if I'll be the only female there...

I need to go put some honest hours into my neglected novel - and most probably play sims 2 ;)

Laters ^^

Cupcakes anyone?

I have alot of time to kill at the moment.. I don't have a class till 11:00. It's really boring using the net when no one is online!

Check out this blog, it's really interesting in a cupcake sorta way lol.

Yesterday I unexpectedly found myself with the car and the sudden urge to play PS2. So at 9:00pm I stopped off at Baskin Robin, picked up some sherbert for my friend and drove out to her house (she lives out past shj uni across from the horse club, I'd say 3 or 4 miles from the Ladies Club where I was) I took the airport road (which is really more like a highway) and was really surprised to see they finally realized that the "written" speed limit should be 120 kph (140 is the max you can now do when the limit is 120 without getting a ticket) on that road. Of course that one lone sign only appears after interchange 5 so technically the speed for the rest of the road before that is 100 (means u can do 120 without getting a ticket).

The lights were off in most of her house and her room was completely dark except for the light coming from the TV. It was really relaxing playing PS in the dark. She has tons of games and though there was already something in the PS (when I walked in the room the game intro was playing) I couldn't decide what to play. In the end I asked her what was the game that was playing. She said it was Kingdom Hearts (or is it Heart, no "s"?). I think she said it's a disney meets Final Fantasy game. It looked interesting so I played. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to stay cuz I knew it wouldn't be long before mother would start calling and I couldn't exactly say I was there cuz mother would have 10 cows and a goat if she knew.

My friend has this really cute cat. I remember when she found it last semester and called me over from uni to see it. I have pics of it when it was a kitten..actually it still is a kitten just bigger than when I first saw it. I also snapped some pics of it last night. I'll upload them when I go home inshalla.

I guess maybe I can take this time to do my IT homework....

Randomness

Here are some random news articles I came across while reading the news.

Guardians of Pizza and Pasta Attack

Camel Pageant

"Guardians of culinary standards in Italy have accused restaurateurs abroad of being responsible for the "barbaric" interpretation of the nation's dishes."

I was laughing out loud at that last bit about the barbaric interpretation. Lol if they could see my Fettuccini or homemade pizza they'd probably go borrow a katana and commit seppuku!

Now that my first book is done (3/4s edited too) I’m feeling anxious to write another. The desire is there but the time and actual 'will to' aren’t. Actually I’ll have plenty of time after the finals. I finish the end of May inshalla. I guess whats really stopping me is the will. Maybe that’s not the correct word for it. I somehow got it in my head that I wanna write something amazing. Amazing without having to resort to obscenity or anything objectable – is that even possible these days?? I had that intention in mind when I wrote POA. My sister made a biting comment about it in less than half a breath and now I feel a bit squirm-ish about writing anything else.

Aside from that there are about a million and one ideas for new stories that I could write, I’d probably give them a try but don’t wanna use any of the usual modes of writing. I want something new, something unique of my own creation. In Language Practice we are exploring modes of writing and it’s various styles. Ironically we’re only looking at the modes and styles of articles not novels or creative writings.

(I did title this post “randomness”. That should have been warning enough to u guys that I’d be subject jumping…)

I so wanna go back to the art institute this summer. I wanna complete all of the calligraphy styles and learn some border new designs. I had intended to go last summer but unforeseen happenings came along and snatched the chance away from me.

I wanna play video games.. lots and lots of them. And then write about them. I was looking at a new PS2/3 game called “God of War II”. Looks interesting. I want to start a visual entertainment club at school. We’d play video games, watch anime (or movies and shows in other’s cases), create new games (I wanna take online game developing and engineering courses) keep a monthly entertainment newsletter in which all the members would be required to write reviews and things about anime, video games etc...

All the uni would need is a decent tennis court and team and khalas I’d officially move in =D

This semester is really nearly done. I wonder if it’s too late to try and propose such a thing?

Final Fantasy XII

I usually don't find adventure/RPG video games fun but here I must admit to the exception of Final Fantasy XII.

After staying up till I literally just fell over on my side right there on the floor, controller still in hand, from exhaustion- on a school night no less (being fully aware of the consequences of doing so) playing Vaan's mission level I came to the conclusion that I will definitely need to purchase that game sometime in the near future.. Maybe I'll comb Amazon for it and have Grandfather send it along with my GameCube games that have been sitting in his house since summer.

Damn! I forgot we have tennis so early today... (mean's I have half hour to finish up and get moving otherwise I'll be late and just hearing the coach start - even if she's getting on someone else's case- annoys me.)

Mada mada dane

*nod nod* That suits today - rather what I feel about tonight perfectly. Tonight was the night of the tennis tournament. I'll spare u guys the suspense and just up front tell ya..: El Hazard got her (...) handed to her on a platter. Yup, I played 5 games. Each game was settled by the best of 3 (meaning if one of us had won 2 games in a match then that person with 2 games won and that win was given to the coach to record). I lost 2-1, 2-0, and 2-0. I won 2-1 and 2-0. (All together, if that seems confusing, I lost 3 games and won 2.)

One of those losses was handed to me by me and BW's new groupmate's mom. I had no idea that she was the girl's mom till she gave me a general comment about how I play. First when we were doing the grouping to see who played against who, when she found out I was in the same group as her I heard her say 'good'. I wondered about that but said nothing. Figured maybe she was just feeling enthusiastic or something. Then as we were walking to the other court to begin our matches she was like, where is the other girl? I asked what other girl? she replied the girl that plays with me and Ang (new groupmate) I had to think about that.. after a bit I finally realized who she was talking about. I was like "Ooooh!"

Then after our match she was complimenting me on my play (I noticed the winners of the matches tonight were heavy with the compliments upon the ones they beat..hmm) and she said something about what I usually do or whatever, I was like O_o, ok now this lady is freaking me... So I asked her who was she. The look on her face in reply was one of pure surprise. She said I'm ur groupmate's mom. (here El Hazard's mouth dropped while she did a double take.. Oh hell, it's one thing to be beaten but handed ur rear on a platter by a mother!!!)

All in all it was fun. I don't feel badly that I lost, on the contrary I feel this was a growing/learning experience and of course I'm simply not there yet- as the phrase :"mada mada dane" means.

Coach and the sports manager thought it'd be a good idea to make tournaments a regular thing. That would be great. She says the next one is going to be in mid-January after she comes back from vacation. I'm looking forward to it.

The weather was really really REALLY great tonight, I wished Senpai was there to see/ feel it. It looked as if it would rain and the sea just seemed to call out and encourage the sky to open up and let loose with a righteous shower. The shower bit never came but the weather remained excellent.

Well the Playstation has arrived with millions of games ::evil grin:: I have the whole weekend to have a game-a-thon on it!