Had a bunch of things all lined up for a post, but then I learned of the news about Dahab and I just didn't feel like posting anything else.
I really don't know what to say, reiterating what a tragedy this is stating the obvious.
Between this and what was (is?) happening in Alexandria, I really don't know what Egypt is coming to. Are things going way down or is it just me being out of touch and watching things from afar?
The worst thing about this trend of explosions is that they are occurring at a frequency that's low enough so that whoever who did it can get away with it, and yet high enough that they are effectively killing tourism all year round.
I really can't see how anyone whatever his motives are can justify killing/injuring hundreds of people and effectively screeching economy to a grinding halt.
If you're opposing the government what good is it killing tens of people with a bomb and then killing hundreds or even thousands more over the course of the following years with unemployment, starvation, and despair.
For some reason it seems developed countries go in a spiral upward towards more development, while developing countries take the plunge towards... errrm, I don't really know where we're heading, but it's definitely down.
*sigh*
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Interest meter
What is it that makes us call a person "interesting"? Are we born interesting/boring or is it acquired?
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Autocross
One more new thing for me. I participated in an Autocross! If you're not really sure what an autocross is this link should help.
A couple of people from MS were going and they were asking if we would caravan there together as the track is 70 miles away. It looked really fun and I asked the more experience people about it. At first I thought I'd go and watch first before participating but everyone told me I'd be kicking myself if I go and do not drive the track. It really didn't take much convincing for me to do it so I just went for it.
I went out and got a helmet, and based on many people's advice some blue painters tape to protect my bumpers from accidental "meetings" with cones. Sunday morning I headed to the track. I was really surprised how serious some people can get. Lots of people were running on full slicks and rain tires, some people even came with 2 extra tire sets, race tires and rain tires.
After all the preparation, this is how the car looked like:
I didn't end up turning really great lap times, but it was good enough for a first timer I guess. Worst thing is that I had 3 "fun" runs at the end of the day after my 4 official timed runs and every single one of them was far better than the best of my official ones. The best I managed on official runs was 62 seconds. On the fun runs I ran 60, 59 and 58 second laps!
The video here(divx 6.57MB) is for one of my official laps. It doesn't really look that fast on video but it's a totally different thing inside, on the fast parts you'd be hitting 60mph (100Kmh) doing slaloms. Also a part of the track is not on the video because it's obstructed from view by the timing car.
All in all it was such a great time. I'm definitely gonna be goin back for more. Next event is in May and I'll probably be there.
A couple of people from MS were going and they were asking if we would caravan there together as the track is 70 miles away. It looked really fun and I asked the more experience people about it. At first I thought I'd go and watch first before participating but everyone told me I'd be kicking myself if I go and do not drive the track. It really didn't take much convincing for me to do it so I just went for it.
I went out and got a helmet, and based on many people's advice some blue painters tape to protect my bumpers from accidental "meetings" with cones. Sunday morning I headed to the track. I was really surprised how serious some people can get. Lots of people were running on full slicks and rain tires, some people even came with 2 extra tire sets, race tires and rain tires.
After all the preparation, this is how the car looked like:
I didn't end up turning really great lap times, but it was good enough for a first timer I guess. Worst thing is that I had 3 "fun" runs at the end of the day after my 4 official timed runs and every single one of them was far better than the best of my official ones. The best I managed on official runs was 62 seconds. On the fun runs I ran 60, 59 and 58 second laps!
The video here(divx 6.57MB) is for one of my official laps. It doesn't really look that fast on video but it's a totally different thing inside, on the fast parts you'd be hitting 60mph (100Kmh) doing slaloms. Also a part of the track is not on the video because it's obstructed from view by the timing car.
All in all it was such a great time. I'm definitely gonna be goin back for more. Next event is in May and I'll probably be there.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Ethics
You've probably seen it in a thousand movies, read it in hundreds of novels, but do you have an answer?
The question and (mini) discussion was started after Helal and I saw the movie "Saw II", it's kinda hard to know how we went from Saw to ethics but we made the jump.
And the question is, would you go beyond what's normally considered ethical to achieve a seemingly ethical/righteous/good goal? Were you a cop, would you plant evidence to get a conviction on a drug dealer? One that you know for sure (and actually) is a drug dealer. Would you steal your stolen car back from the thief who stole it provided that you can't get it through the lawful and ethical channels?
Would you vote to punish someone who did?
The question and (mini) discussion was started after Helal and I saw the movie "Saw II", it's kinda hard to know how we went from Saw to ethics but we made the jump.
And the question is, would you go beyond what's normally considered ethical to achieve a seemingly ethical/righteous/good goal? Were you a cop, would you plant evidence to get a conviction on a drug dealer? One that you know for sure (and actually) is a drug dealer. Would you steal your stolen car back from the thief who stole it provided that you can't get it through the lawful and ethical channels?
Would you vote to punish someone who did?
Friday, March 31, 2006
Rollerblading
Well, I decided it's been long since I learned something new. So I took on rollerblading.
Actually, the proper name is inline skating. Rollerblade is a trademark for a company that makes inline skates. The term has however come to be used to refer to inline skates in general, just like Kleenex is to tissue and hoover is to vacuum cleaners.
Anyway, I got a pair of those, some elbow, knee, and wrist pads for protection and went with my friend George to give it a go at Alki beach.
Alki avenue in Seattle is a really nice place, specially for summer activities. I'd been there before on a couple sunny days and the place is always full of people when the weather is good enough. You see beach volley, people biking and rollerblading, flying kites, or just having a walk enjoying the weather.
Back to the skating, having put on the skates I realized that even standing in them is a challenge which is not really surprising. If moving around on wheels was a good idea we would have been born with them in our feet.
Surprisingly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'd thought for my first time I'd get 15 or 20 minutes max of falling down and getting back up till I call it quits. I'm glad I was wrong, for my first time ever in rollerblades I skated (well in my own way of course) for around 4 miles. Took a little more than an hour and was so much fun.
And not only did George help me how to do it but he also shooted a video and a few pictures to go with it. So there goes my very first steps in a rollerblade (divx 3.6MB, right click and save target as). Don't laugh I was doing good to still be on my feet!
I was hooked and today we had a sunny day so I went for a quick run around one of the parking lots on MS campus with Steve (another friend who learned how to skate when he was 5). I dunno if I'll ever get to be as good as him (divx 2.36MB) but you can judge for yourselves and see if I'm getting better (divx 3.93MB).
It's a lot of fun, and I'm hoping that learning inline skating is gonna help later when I tackle ice skating. Wish me luck!
Cheers
Actually, the proper name is inline skating. Rollerblade is a trademark for a company that makes inline skates. The term has however come to be used to refer to inline skates in general, just like Kleenex is to tissue and hoover is to vacuum cleaners.
Anyway, I got a pair of those, some elbow, knee, and wrist pads for protection and went with my friend George to give it a go at Alki beach.
Alki avenue in Seattle is a really nice place, specially for summer activities. I'd been there before on a couple sunny days and the place is always full of people when the weather is good enough. You see beach volley, people biking and rollerblading, flying kites, or just having a walk enjoying the weather.
Back to the skating, having put on the skates I realized that even standing in them is a challenge which is not really surprising. If moving around on wheels was a good idea we would have been born with them in our feet.
Surprisingly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'd thought for my first time I'd get 15 or 20 minutes max of falling down and getting back up till I call it quits. I'm glad I was wrong, for my first time ever in rollerblades I skated (well in my own way of course) for around 4 miles. Took a little more than an hour and was so much fun.
And not only did George help me how to do it but he also shooted a video and a few pictures to go with it. So there goes my very first steps in a rollerblade (divx 3.6MB, right click and save target as). Don't laugh I was doing good to still be on my feet!
I was hooked and today we had a sunny day so I went for a quick run around one of the parking lots on MS campus with Steve (another friend who learned how to skate when he was 5). I dunno if I'll ever get to be as good as him (divx 2.36MB) but you can judge for yourselves and see if I'm getting better (divx 3.93MB).
It's a lot of fun, and I'm hoping that learning inline skating is gonna help later when I tackle ice skating. Wish me luck!
Cheers
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Photography Reloaded
It's been some time since I've put my camera to good use. There sure was a multitude of reasons for that but that's not important. What's important is that I wanna practise more. So over the last few days I've been trying to get back in the game and this post is to immortalize some of the photos that came out better than my usual mediocrity as well as motivate me to go out and shoot more photos more often.
Click on any of the photos for a slightly larger version.
A shopping area at Whistler, BC, Canada
On top of one mountain at Whistler, BC, you've guessed it, Canada
Some random spot on the way from here to Canada.
Bon jovi concert, Seattle.
Alki beach, Seattle.
Alki beach, Seattle.
Again Alki beach, one of my first pan shots. Not the best, but at least I'm trying :)
Click on any of the photos for a slightly larger version.
A shopping area at Whistler, BC, Canada
On top of one mountain at Whistler, BC, you've guessed it, Canada
Some random spot on the way from here to Canada.
Bon jovi concert, Seattle.
Alki beach, Seattle.
Alki beach, Seattle.
Again Alki beach, one of my first pan shots. Not the best, but at least I'm trying :)
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