Freakign out

This is an official announcement that I am freakkkinnggggg out about tommorow. Dont understadn why am i so stressed. I should relax it will be ok. Its not the first time I am goona be in the corporate world. Though I can see two reason for my freaking out 1) the whole SHELL status is kinda scary? I feel i might be up to 'their standard' they will demand stuff form me which I will have no clue about. Second and probably the most important reason for being nervous is being behind on what they wanted me to do so far, i got no proposal not even a rough draft. They probabaly think i am stupid or soemthin caus i sent my reasearh idea on two pages and consused closed-end and closed hedge funds. Now i am am really confuseda out what it is I am doing what i wanted to do and is feasable. Must get a move on.

Well to shed the nervous vein i went shopping and bought a belt, a vital accessary as the circumference of my tummy seems to fluctuate so randomly that half of the trousers are either too tight or sag to low. Bought a bag which can accommodate a A4 size note pad, reading material for the tram travels, pen, agenda, wallet, phone, water bottle, Baquero's thesis, few loose papers and bits and bobs. Also bought a black blouse and a green shirt. I have realised my whole wardwrobe is too plain, need to update it with some sort of prints but at this point in time I do not have the funds to do so.

Also paid a visit to AH to buy some sustainenece. I will write out my shopping list caus if you are reading my blog you must already be pretty bored. Bread, Butter, Eggs, Bapao and hmmm cant seem to remeber.

Also had the crazy notion of playing squash today. Not a good idea to do sports if you are totallu out of shape and are going to work for the first time the day after. Experiencing neck/ sholder/ back pains. Had a lot of fun but i was so tiredd by the end of it I was falling asleep.

Apart from today the week's highlights include visiting Utrecht and Gouda. I have a feeling i have already written abotu this but maybe not in the blog. Both cities were completely empty either due to the dismal weather or because it was a weekday. Had a super waffel in gouda and it was lekkkerrr beyond limit. I made a video of the guy making the waffell fresh from raw ingredients. It was a small shop and the queue to buy the super waffell was prettyyy long ( which demonstrates that it was good waffelll place). Gave some apparently poor advice to someone regarding a greeting card for his mum, I personaly belive it was a harmless humour but others beg to differ. it was a M.I.L.K card. how can someone find it rude????? Anyhow, I am still hunting for a bike, went to see one the other day and it looked blatently stolen, and not that nice so I passed on that one. Have a few leads from friends but still need to check them out.

P.S can someone tell me how to post a video on the blog from the computer then i will post the stroop waffel video. I know how to do it if the video is alreay on a website like You tube.

For now on youjust ahve to do with a picture ofGouda

Bah

I am fuming at the ENECO Bill so emotions are not running high in posting a good entry! If you want to avoid having a hugggeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Masssiiiveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Giganticccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc
enerygy bill then Romania, Norway England and Greece seem to be most favourable countires where there is at least some cost sharing among the producer and consumer. Why am I not surprised that the consumer has to pay 100% of the cost in Holland. On the other hand if you want to avoid an electricity bill all together think of joining the Amish.

Exam Over though stress still remains

Been a couple of days since my last post. Exams are over but I will most probably be resitiing caus i did not exactly that good. Extremely easy and doable exam but I JUST COULDNT DO IT. so shove it to that stupid nike slogan "Just do it" or is it addidas, I am not quite sure I am not a sporty person so dont wear sport brands..

Anyhow a lot of stress reamins about what is it goona be like next week at work? will i like the ppl? do they expect too much from me? am i gonna be the only girl in the whole appartment? what about the thesis? is this all a good idea? i guess I should stop thinking about all this rubbish and follow one persons wise advice "DONT WORRY, BE HAPPY"

I think i have had the most fun this month. its been crazy. dont think i have ever partied this much before. and i am pretty surprised how relaxed i was about exams and uni and I think they all went well. So theres no point in stressing, one should realx and let things take their course. Let go and enjoy the days, the realtionships and friendships while you gone, caus when they are gonna you will look back and regret that you missed out on so much. When I look back now I think there is so much I could have done in the first two years, so manyy missed opportunties. But I feel quite satisfied with the last year of bachelor and the master. I have done pretty much what I wanted, joined STAR which was an experience of its own, Internships, Exchnage, partying, meeting new ppl, trying new things........ new hobbies. But then, it all has to end sooner or later and now that the time. Can't believe in a couple of months I will be finished with University for the rest of my life.... the tought will take while to truly register in my mind. Friendship is one thing that I will cherish the most from my university life......

In the memory.....my bike

I dedicate this post to the memories of my bike which recently fell victim and added to the statistics of the number of bikes stolen in holland. It had been my companion for three years nnow adn saw me thrtough thick and think, throguh sunshine and rain, through prosperity and sickness. A lot of memories of Holland were associated with the bike. I am not as much sad about the loss in the financial sense but more in a sentimetal and attachment sense. Now when I look out of the window I observe an empty lamp post... which make my heart feel empty too ( ok a bit over dramatic but you get the point)

Memories.....of a Hero

Before the recent media/political attention on global warming and the advent of BSM there was one hero who was teaching the kids about the dangers of pollution, global warming, over farming, deforistation, and eveyrhting the man kind is doing to destroy the mother nature. The hero was Captin planet: an environmental focused cartoon that occupied most of my mid-afternoons of summer vacations. Forced to stay inside, to protect ourselves for them sizzling hot sun of the typical Pakistani warm summer days, we spent most of out time by engaging in any of the following activites in order of preferences

• Trying to sneak out ( occupied around 70% of the time) but alas, a child can never sneak past throgh the sharp motherly eye!
• Fighting ( occupied 5 % of the time. There is not fun if there are no fights between sibblings, and i dont just mean verbal fight, i am refering to full on hand blows, pulling hair, biting, punchingm scratching or anything you can think of! i know sounds grusome but believe me it nice ot think back of your child and think of the fights.
• Watching cartoons ( occupied 20% of the time. after all they brain wrecking on coming up with strategies to sneak out , and the exhausting fights there is nothing more relaxing then sitting back in front of the tv and watching cartoons. Not just cartoons but also Sesamestreet. The most memorables cartoons are ofcourse Captin planet, Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, Pink Panther, Smurfs, Tom and Jerry..... and the list is never ending)
• Sleep ( 5% of the time, that was the last resort)

I would like to point out that this list differed substantially, when we were united with other sousins and friends in holidays, where most of the time wa spent on scheming and doing stupid stuff which was bound to get us into trouble. This is the fun in having big families.

So lets get back to captin planet. I will just outline the main concept behind it. Gaia represent the spirit of the earth who is awoke from a long sleep by the human activities destroying the planet. To combat the destruction, she creates 5 maigic rings to control the elements of nature. she sends these rings to five diffrent people ( Planetters) across the globe, who have the task of now defending the earth. Gaia uses her Planet Vision to discover where the most devastating destruction is occurring and sends the planeteers to help solve the problem. The Planeteers use transportation based on soler power in order to avoid causing pollution themselves. ( how cool is that! they dont just talk the talk but they walk the walk) In situations that the Planeteers cannot handle on their own, they can combine and magnify their powers to summon captin planet, who possesses all of their powers magnified, symbolizing that the combined efforts of a team are stronger than its individual parts.

Wow who would have thought that taking about global warming anf pollution will dig up all this nostalgic stuff. So here is the theme song of Captin planet. ofcourse the lyrics are attached so sing along. And THE POWER IS YOURS! ( to change your ways and try and make a small difference)

Earth!
Fire!
Wind!
Water!
Heart!

GO PLANET!

With your powers combined I am Captain Planet!

Captain Planet, he's our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
He's our powers magnified,
And he's fighting on the planet side

Captain Planet, he's our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
Gonna help him put us under,
Bad guys who like to loot and plunder

"You'll pay for this Captain Planet!"

We're the planeteers,
You can be one too!
'Cause saving our planet is the thing to do,
Looting and polluting is not the way,
Hear what Captain Planet has to say:

"THE POWER IS YOURS!!"

Btw the song is written by Phil Collins :)

Sand sculptures

Went to the beach to check out the sand sculpture competition. To be honest, it was a bit disappointing thought the one in the picture above was amazing! Love the typical esherian concept, a cow lo0king in a mirror which is looking on to itself in another mirror so you see infinite number of cows looking into a mirror .Another sculpture tries to portray the mobius strip but not successfully. A mobius strip is a truly amazing strip with one side. here is a proper use of wiki

"The Möbius strip or Möbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. It has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It is also a ruled surface."

"The Möbius strip has several curious properties

A model of a Möbius strip can be constructed by joining the ends of a strip of paper with a single half-twist. A line drawn starting from the seam down the middle will meet back at the seam but at the "other side". If continued the line will meet the starting point and will be double the length of the original strip of paper. This single contiguous curve demonstrates that the Möbius strip has only one boundary.
If the strip is cut along the above line, instead of getting two separate strips, it becomes one long strip with two full twists in it, which is not a Möbius strip. This happens because the original strip only has one edge which is twice as long as the original strip of paper. Cutting creates a second independent edge, half of which was on each side of the knife or scissors. Cutting this new, longer, strip down the middle creates two strips wound around each other."

MC Escher depicted this concept in his famous litograoph where you see red ants walking on a mobius strip, for an indefinate period of time. The endless ring shaped band has usually two distinct surfaces, take for example one of the cancer bands that most of the ppl wear, you can pait the inside and the outside with two different colours of paint. However on the mobius strip nine red deadly ants crawl one after the other traveling both the foront adn reverse side of the strip. Therefore the strip only has one surface and you cannot paint the front and reverse in two differentr colours of paind AS theres only one surface.

Here is a video I found which shows how to make a mobius strip and it also demonestratees the characteristics of the mobius stip ( incase my explanation is not good).



No Magic At All: Mobius Strip - The best video clips are right here

A mobius strip is not jsuts a mathematical phonemonen but it has also been used in practice. Giant mobius strips have been used as conveyor belts since "each side" gets the same amount of wear. Another application involves the continuous-loop recording tapes (to double the playing time).

Escher has used the mobius strip in a variety of his lithographs. I wont put them all here as it will take forever. They are worth the time so I advise eveyone to go see them at the M.C.Escher museum in The hague.

Hunger: The most shameful issue faced by humanity in this ages and era

The next time you sit down to indulge the warm meal prepared with love, tenderness and warmth with aromas tinglying the nostrils and neurons firing away making your mouth water, Please take a moment and think of the 18,000 childeren who die every single DAY due to hunger and malnutrition. Think of those mothers who put a pot on the stove with pebbles inside, just to pacify those hungry eyes.

The world procudes enough food to sustain the 6.5 billion people in the world. Yet 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs, 11 million children die before their fifth birthday every year and a child dies every 5 seconds due to hunger related circumstances.

This situation is a stark embaracement for the human kind considering the obesity statistics around the world where 22 million of the world's children under 5 are overweight or obese, Nearly one-third of U.S. adults are obese and obesity is associated with about 112,000 excess deaths per year in the U.S. population relative to healthy weight individuals. The total costs realted to obesity in US alone is $117 billion per year!

This involves both direct and indirect costs. Direct health care costs refer to preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services such as physician visits, medications, and hospital and nursing home care. Indirect costs are the value of wages lost by people unable to work because of illness or disability, as well as the value of future earnings lost by premature death

So what can you do to diminish the imbalance in the food distribution around the world. Participate in the organised events, creat awareness about the issue, talk to friend, and only talking will not help : TAKE ACTION! be it as small as donating money.

Today the World Food Program organised Fight Hunger: Walk the World. "..is a global fundraising and awareness event that takes place every year in all times zones with one sole purpose - to call for an end to child hunger.Today the World Food Progamme and its many partners are taking to the streets to make a global statement: children should not die of hunger in a world where there is enough food for them all to eat. In many parts of the world today is Mother's Day. If you’re celebrating Mother’s Day today spare a thought for the many mothers who lose their children to hunger every day"

In Rotterdam 2500 people walked despite the poor weather conditions and the fear pf rain. The proceedes from the events went towards feeding the children in Africa. If you missed the event here is your opportunity to take the firts step of making a difference:

www.wfp.org

and Donate

Your donation of Euro 25 can sustain a child for a whole year

Open up your heart and liberate your mind

Milestone

I am proud to make this special entry regarding the 100,000 download milestone for my sxc photos! Wohoo. It all started last summer, equopped with my new camera i decided to attack the boredom and forayed into the art of photography. I remeber the very firts photos i took were of henna on my hands and some summer flower bushes outside the university. Later my brother intorduced my to photoshop and I spent pretty much the whole summer taking and editing pictures of various subjects.

Now its been almost a year and I can say that I have learnt quite a lot from it, apart from being a relaxing hobby it has been very rewarding. Especially when you get requests whether your pictures can be used a book covers, in leaflets, as postcards, for backgrounds, blogs etc.

I guess i've always had interest in more 'creative' activities. The first ever painting/ drawing I remebr was that of a steam boat. I was around 6-7 years old and with the help of my brother I painted a red stream boat with grey smoke comign out of it and dirtying the light blue sky. And ofcourse very comical dark blue wiggly lines representing the unstable sea. The painting was a thank you gift for my younger brother's doctor. The next time I visited the hospital I was ecstatic to see my paiting in the 'common room' wall. Lets not go down the memeory lane as it will only invoke melancholic thoughts.

So to celebrate this milestone, here's a slide show of some of the pohotos ( which has obviously crashed, after having spent 3 hours on uploading the pics to it! technology! dont laugh)

Thursday, 10 May 2007 Marketing Oh I omitted a very important time pass activity from the previous entry. for all those who are bored out of their mind and can't think of what to do: Count and categorise the advertisement on Italian TV. you can make your own categories but experience tells me the most popular ones include - food - beauty products - cars - lifestyle Enjoy Wednesday, 9 May 2007 Pinball While lying in bed reading the magazine and tying to go to the land of sleep and dreams, a thought came to my mind ' I haven't made an entry i my bolog for almost a week now'. My mind is like a pinball machine: when a glistening shiny silver metal ball is catapulted in some invisible arms bounce it around to each and every corner of the mind, bruising the soft pink pulp of my brain until i descide to act on the thought and make the ball fall throught the gap between the arms and so that the lights on the top of the pinball machine flash the 'game over' sign. Here I am trying to put my mind to rest. I belive that ther is a positive correlation between the amount of 'bordem' and the lenght of blog entry. Now there might be some mediating factors like avalibility of time, tiredess etc which could effect the realtionship. However this is not the case at this pont in time. I am simply posting to ease my mind which has been itching to put the thoughts into words and give a reflection of some recent antics: walking throght the streets of venice, sigtseeing in Bergamo, climbing the Duamo in Milan, breathing in the mountin air in Veza, killing time in the trains by pulling faces and being scared shitlesss of a 2 month old kitten! Here is a pictrure to set the mood. I make the entry blue which represents calmness and scerenity. I dont belive I am calm now, lost metal balls bouncing around. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) About Me shuggams View my complete profile Blog Archive ►  2009 (5) ►  February (2) ►  January (3) ►  2008 (13) ►  December (3) ►  November (3) ►  October (6) ►  April (1) ▼  2007 (37) ►  July (1) ►  June (20) ▼  May (10) Freakign out Bah Exam Over though stress still remains In the memory.....my bike Memories.....of a Hero Sand sculptures Hunger: The most shameful issue faced by humanity ... Milestone Marketing Pinball ►  April (5) ►  March (1) Counter Stats free counters Counter