The time has come.....

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

~Lewis Carroll, The Walrus and the Carpenter (a very cool thing to read)

So, the time has come i think, to talk about everything.. basically talk with myself about everything in my life... it's the end of the year, time for employee performance appraisals :) so i thought what the hell, i might as well have an appraisal session for myself... contrary to what some might think, i am actually a harsh judge on myself.. I might not appear to you, the reader, as someone who has a clear view of where her life is going and a clear plan on how to get there.... but i do... yes, i may take the longer route, but come on, at least i enjoy the scenery :) and when am old and wrinkled, it's memories of the scenery that remain.. but i always keep my ultimate plans to myself... why? i dont know, i just like it better this way.. you dont get to discuss your plans with people and maybe need to defend them.. and you dont let ppl down when u make a change of plans.. plus, i dont like talk talk talk and no action.. i tell people about dreams, aspirations, sometimes.. but not about plans, unless it involves them.. but i do have some clear destinations in this cloudy head of mine :)

* What I'm reading
These days am still reading Terry Pratchett's Night Watch that i borrowed from Duke (btw, Duke and Da Wife and Ta77an and another friend are in Turkey now for new year's :)) ... i've been very slow on reading the past few weeks, thats why i didnt finish this book till now... When i finish it, my next read is ready: when Karim came he got me The Book of Dreams edited by Neil Gaiman.. its a collection of short stories by different writers about The Sandman and other Endless siblings (who were originally created by NG)

* A-HA, Travis, Oasis, Queen, and the rest..
These are all bands i learned to like from Du my friend... i just remembered because i listened to one song lately that reminded me.. Velvet for A-HA ("her skin is like velvet") a very very sweet song.. try it..

* Song of the post ;)
many many..... the one thats going thru my mind since i heard on the radio yday is Hunter for Dido... i luv her lyrics in general, and this one in particular is sooo cool...
I want to be a hunter again
I want to see the world alone again
To take a chance on life again
So let me go
Let me leave
(am pasting it so that it plays thru your head too :))

* ITWorx is now a CMMI Level 3 certified organization! :)
We just got certified today (well, technically yday since its 1 am).. for anyone who is interested, the CMMI-L3 model consists of 17 process areas.. Organizational Training is one of them, and it was my thing... apparently the indian appraisal guy was really impressed by the efforts of the training function (a.k.a ME!) and by how the measurements are collected effectively and used innovatively for improving the quality of training.. blablabla...

* Smells I like
Fresh rain
freshly brewed good coffee in open air
Good fresh bakery
libraries -more than bookstores- (there is this distinct smell to books...)
Baby powder
the "smell" of the air in a clean place (mountain/sea)

* I now noticed that my blog space is one year old.. From my last days in IBM :D
So much has happened since then, its like i'm going back in history when i read this..

Sliding Doors

I've always thought
that I would love to live by the sea
To travel the world alone
and live my life more simply
I have no idea what's happened to that dream
Cos there's really nothing left here to stop me

~ Dido, "Life for Rent"

So, it all starts at "I have no idea what's happened to that dream".. and i keep thinking what happened to a lot of dreams i had... i always wanted to travel abroad (to Europe) for work or study for a year or two.. i wanted to take up the academic career path (still not late for that).. hmmmm i wanted to maintain a healthy lifestyle (sleep early, wake up early, walk a lot, eat healthy, see a lot of fresh air.. i do all these but the eat healthy one, its not that i dont like healthy food but its that i eat healthy _and_ unhealthy :))
so, the title of this post refers to this.. to aaaaallllll the what if's in our lives.. all the other options and how our lives would've been similar/different...
Anyway, more about that later.. about broken dreams and unfulfilled promises...

* Bounce
a Bon Jovi song.. i wont paste the lyrics here, u can check them out yourselves (way to go Nag!).. Duke reminded me of that song yday because he said it suits my mood, or actually that my mood calls for it to lift me up :) It's all about "bouncing back again".. listen to it, it actually makes me smile instantly.....

* New Year's Resolutions (again!)
New Year is coming.. must add this year's unfulfilled resolutions and add new ones.. i decided to put a lot of small acheivable goals so that i feel some sense of accomplishment...

* Things I confuse :)
by this i mean stuff that get confused by me :) hmmmmm, i confuse the elevators of our Falaki bldg in university where our labs used to be in our last year.. they have the "double click on the button to cancel floor selection" option so i always pressed and cancelled many floors until the elevator (which is also equipped with voice message for special needs people) used to just open the doors and say some message like "please make up your mind" or something keda :)
I also confuse mobile phones and calculators by just doing many things at once...
And, i like to confuse my computer and overload it :D Right now i have 14 Outlook windows, 7 IEs, 2 folders, 2 Excel sheets, 3 Word docs, calculator and 1 MSN window... AND its still not 9:30 in the morning yet!! :)

* Favorite things
Caramel cappuccino @ Harris Cafe (they put this indulgent cream and caramel on top that makes it heavenly)
fresh orange juice (it has to be a bit sour)
lemon juice/ice cream.. in fact, lemon anything :)
cats
curly haired babies.. i just adore the gypsy bohemian look in a kid.. unlike my appearance now, i was a _very_ groomed kid, but i wont do that to my children.. clean doesnt have to mean groomed :)
salsa dancing.. i also like flamingo..
Cartoons
witty children books (and Diwan's children section)

Addendum to the prev post :)

yes i know, 2 "written" posts in one day.. but this one is REALLY worth blogging because an event that should be noted has happened:

Nag switched off her phone! :) Seriously.. a once in a lifetime occurence that took a _lot_ of will.... well, actually it was done in a split second so that i dont change my mind :) :)

cheers,
N.

knicks and knacks

* Coldplay
I'm re-discovering Coldplay these days.. the start was the song called "Warning Sign" or something of the sort that goes like "and the truth is that i miss you".. and i found out i like many of their stuff...... I also discovered www.pandora.com which is a cool Gnome music project that introduces you to music similar to the one you like.. blablabla... try it out..

* Taola
I taught Kareem how to play taola and now we try to play whenever we get the chance... aaaaaand, i always beat him :) He always claims otherwise, but i do, i really do..

* Work
nah.... dont feel like talking about it... the weather seems amazimg and am stuck in a cage-like room :'(

* Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me
While I’m alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me

i like this song.... :) and i was recently thinking of the certain phenomenon of having to have someone to say good night to.. this someone could be a parent, a sister, a friend, a partner, whatever.. and i was thinking of how you sometimes pick someone just to fill that "someone to say goodnight to" syndrome.. hence, mismatched relations and friendships.. anyway am babbling :)

* Karim-bo
Karim is coming tonight... right now he is Amsterdam waiting for his flight.. he is online and bored... when karim comes there will be a lot of going out, movies, cooking :) and everything.. we will arrange something at Duke's place and will rebuild our past glories :)

* Am boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooored.... do something about it!

Snip-it ;) (not Snippet)

(Been in my drafts for a while now.. time to see the light :))

* The Merchant of Venice
(I watched the Al Pacino movie with Mai and Sherif a while ago.. it is highly recommended.. this a piece of Shylock monologue in the trial when asked why he wants Antonio's flesh.. Read it deeply and think.. Aren't we all the same (wo)man after all?)
To bait fish withal: if it feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge! If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

* Sister
My sister now knows the way to my blog.. It is scary :) Weirdly enough tho, it made her know a lot about me, stuff that never came up.. what i like and dont like blablabla...

* Pre-appraisal
it went fine... one time i will tell you all about it :):) now we're preparing for the formal appraisal in 2 weeks time.. wish us (and me) luck..

* Nermeena..
http://nermeena.blogspot.com This girl is a sweetheart really... very very sweet... thumbs up to her.. only met her like a couple of times but we talk a lot.. she is one good girl :D

i was planning to talk a lot but i dont feel like it :D