2007 Ends with a BANG!

The bang being the motorcycle bomber and the death of Benazir. Apart from that, I got my new digital passport after a tiresome turn of events. That is a long story, but what I'll tell everyone is that, if you live in Islamabad, go to G-10 markaz for the passport office and if you live in Rawalpindi, go to Hajji Camp. If you end up at the wrong office, you will have your time wasted, and will be in a bad situation concerning the 2100 Rs. Chalan.

My flight is tomorrow, that is, 30th of December and I will pass the new year eve sleeping, as that will be the time when I will reach Finland. I wonder, how many leaves do i have left when I will finally end up in Helsinki.

I have almost no luggage to pack and will do all the packing at night. Oh, and, remember the camera that I bought? Its lens got stuck as it fell from my hand. I do hope that its warranty covers this defect. If not, then i am in for a loss of 150 euros.

Oh the thesis! How will I end thee?

The progress on my thesis has been really slow. Its a problem to work when you have to get up and pick up the phone, bring rotis, see who is at the door and then not allowed to stay up late to work.

I do hope that i get some progress, if not much, so that when i get back, i do not have much of the coding left to do. and all that is left is writing about my thesis. this also brings me to the topic of finding a PhD in USA. I better start my search for the universities, or i will be too late to go this year.

so now I push myself to code a bit

Life goes on

It has almost been a month since mom passed away and life is getting back to normal. One of my bhabis is managing all the household chores, while my brother goes to work. Dad is getting better and I can now find time to sit on my laptop for longer durations.

My time here had been hectic so far. Coming home, spending time with guests, family, traveling. I've been to Peshawar twice already and we will again be going there on Eid. Got my documents for passport submitted and it was one big hassle which I do not want to tell here. Now I just want to spend more time at home, away from everything and everyone (not from family of course).

On the way to Peshawar as Abbu sleeps

Met with sameer in Peshawar and now I think I should change kutts facts to sameer facts, because sameer has expanded into a behemoth and will put kutts to shame. And as always, sameer had no idea and no clue as to what he plans to do in life. But as long as he keeps treating me to some free KFC dinners, I do not really mind his future plans as long as they contain me getting treats.

The time spent at my bro's place in Peshawar was fun. Got treated to many nice dinners and had a good time with bro and bhabi.

At home, Rafay, my nephew gets most of my attention. Right after the picture below, he managed to put his toe in his mouth and suck on it. Anything that he can get his hands on, ends up in his mouth, my neck, collar cheeks, fingers etc.

Rafaybatics

Asim Ghaffar came to meet me and took me to MacDonalds for a treat which I enjoyed. Here we are in front of Cinepax.

Beams and beaming smiles

Things go normal, they always do but the gap left by Ammi is still there and I do not think that it can ever be filled. Yet, we all go on and we must go on.

Miscalculation of 40 days

Today is the saddest day of my life. My whole world was turned upside down at 3 am in the morning when my father called and told me that my mother had passed away.

Inna lillahe wa inna ilaihe rajeuun

Finland gave me many things but took away the time that I would've spent with my mother as she will be laid to rest.

She always used to come online on the weekend to talk to me and she did not last night. I found it a bit strange but it was late here already so I did not call home. She laid down in the computer room as she always did and then did not get up. The only solace that I find in all this is that she went peacefully.

I just talked to IT and he asked me that he cannot begin to imagine how I felt and I replied,

"Its just empty space, a void, you try to place anything there and nothing fits and you know that nothing can fit. All the love, care, trust, faith, everything just gone, stripped away and you feel like you will never be loved that way ever again.

You love someone and you want it to be returned in full, but you always get more than you asked for, now that is gone forever... in a single instant, one sentence and its all gone."

Whoever reads this, just call home right now, tell your mom that you love her, even if it is really hard to do. I always did that now I cannot, so do not let this chance be taken away from you because it will be.

I had waited for 25 months and kept on counting days till I get back and meet my mom. Now that day will never come. How will this void be ever filled? Below is the picture of her with me at my brother's mehndi. Can't hold her like that ever again.

I met House M.D ... almost

I had informed you guys that I had been having problems with my left eye, which included watching 2 images with it and having a growth on the top eyelid. This called for action and that meant going to a doctor for checkup. This is a big thing because it takes about a month to get an appointment time and if you are unable to reach the place, you are charged for not canceling the appointment. That is what happened with my last appointment and with a month of delay I finally was able to get my checkup.

The doctor in this case was not your everyday sweet and well mannered doctor. He was one rude asshole and only if I had not seen House M.D. I would have been really pissed rather than enjoy the way he treated me.

When I came in he asked me what was wrong and when he saw my eye he said, "Oh! that is apparent." I then added that it was not the only thing that is wrong with it, to which he added, "I do not have time for anything else, sorry about that." Hearing this, I got amused and then I explained to him anyway that I was seeing two images with my left eye to which he got a bit interested ... like House and then properly examined my eye.

While he was switching lenses to make me see better, he asked if I can see better. The thing with watching two images is that, even if you have the correct number on the lens, since the images merge together, you cannot really say, so I said that, its clearer but I still see two images. To that he said, "I didn't ask if I could see two images or not, just asked if I could see better." Very
charming fellow don't you think?

Anyway, the verdict as given by him was that, the growth needs to be taken out before anything else is done and the two image problem can be solved easily with proper lenses as I have astigmatism and refraction problems. So I guess I am going to recover some time soon and I hope that I get the operation done before I go to Pakistan.

Gears of War

I finally finished Gears of War on xbox 360

I must say that it was really enjoyable and i had fun all the way. a few things that really bothered me were getting stuck to the walls when you are trying to run and the AI of my team mates was horrible. I played most of it as Coop and i must say that whoever buys this game, should play it as coop. this is not fun as a single player game... well it's fun but not as much as coop.

great graphics, great gameplay, few annoying glitches but the whole experience is so enjoyable that they do not matter.
The story sucked with no heads or tails. Cutscenes were done amazingly well but they were predictable. The voice acting was done well and i liked the alien voices too.

The enemy variety was not that much but the enemy AI was quite good. I played it on hardcore difficulty so sometimes you get to try a lot of times to pass a stage. That is my recommended difficulty to play. I am going to try it with insane difficulty next, so lets hope that its not too difficult.

The camera angles are sometimes annoying when you are trying to throw a grenade or sprinting. You do not get to see where the grenade might end up or where you are running to; even though the grenade shows its trajectory.

weapon variety is really small:

pistol/revolver almost useless
machinegun which fires small bursts (you rarely use it)
machinegun which fires long bursts and has chainsaw
shotgun
explosive bow (very limited ammo)
rocketlauncher (very very limited ammo)
grenades
sniper rifle
hammer of dawn (used in scripted places only)

with that said, i always enjoy games with ballistic weapons rather than energy weapons, so it was really fun to use the guns over and over again. I loved the chainsaw... if only it would work all the time. The reloading technique is fun too.

I played it on multiplayer and its a lot of fun there. People use good tactics and the action is fast and frenetic

Its a must buy and if you do not play it online, you are missing 60% of the fun of and the picture above is in-game.... so is the video below... I like the song.

Dune

He who controls the spice, controls the universe

I finally read the all time best Science Fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert. It was interesting and every bit the way I had imagined the Dune universe. I came across Dune with Dune 2 which was the first ever real time strategy game which set the foundations for all strategy games to follow.

After reading the book, watching the TV series was a treat. I suggest that who so ever has not seen the series, do not see it unless you have read the book. The series is true to the book and there are going to be many things that will not make sense unless you have read the book. I also watched the other series Children of Dune, which is much better made and acted. Even though I have not read the novels on which it is based, it was fun to see it and was understood easily. If you get the chance and are a fan of science fiction, this book is not to be missed.

Winter has arrived

It snowed here 3 days back, which gave a bit of an indication that the winter has finally arrived. With temperatures reaching -30 C sometimes, this is no easy winter. It feels that harsh, but since you hardly spend any time outside, you do not get to feel that much. This photo shows how it looks from outside my apartment. Snow has melted now but believe me, there is going to be loads after loads of snow in the coming days.

Yoda in the family

You all might think that this is the great jedi master Yoda, but its none other than my nephew Rafay. His favorite habits are smiling, sleeping, watching TV (yes, he is 3 months old and watches TV) and crying at night. Anyway, this is the youngest member in the family after me so let me celebrate a little.... yaaay!
According to my brother, he talks to him with his babylingish for hours and smiles at any new face that he sees. By the looks of it, he is going to be a very active child and a geek ... qualities that will make his uncle proud.

Wii ... 10 minutes fun

We have Wii in the office. If you had been living under a rock, then let me explain what Wii is. Nintendo launched their latest console which had basic graphics and advance controls. In my opinion it is the best control scheme that anyone has ever come up with... I give nintendo full credit for that. The controls are based on motion sensing, so you play games as if you play them in real life. Got a gun, aim and shoot. Got a golf club, swing it... well you get the idea.


My experience with Wii has been brief and that is because, its 10 minutes of fun. You like the idea and all for the first 10 minutes and then it gets boring. Just do not take my word for it here is the link that says it all.

So we had a small Wii party in the office and I got to do some boxing. Don't mind my weird posture as I could not make out how my punches were being thrown in this boxing game. After I knock the guy down, i was actually checking if going round has any effect on the motion sensing, but it came up as if i was dancing. Anyway, here is the small clip:

A bad day, Monday

Today was a bad day, I got up late and after getting ready to work, just as I entered the lift, i realised that i had forgotten my keys inside. I called up Juke and asked him if he has a spare key that he can lend me so that I can enter the apartment. Luckily he did, so i took the metro to his office. Just as I stepped out of the metro, I realised that I had forgotten my umbrella in it.

Luckily it was not raining in that part of Helsinki so I got the keys from Juke and then started walking to my office. Unluckily, by that time the rain had resumed and I got wet on the way to my office. The work was boring and I kept yawning all day.

My left eye is giving me problems for the time being. There is some growth inside the upper eyelid and also, I have dual vision which makes it harder to read anything. I have an appointment with the doctor on 17th so lets hope that it is nothing serious.

4 rozas left and i cannot wait for them to be over. Rozas are difficult in a foreign country specially if you are working. They mess up your schedule which is very important if you go to office daily. as long as i was a student, they were not a problem, now they are. anyway, so far so good, just a few days more.

A friend left Finland for good

Haroon, a B10 guy, whom I did not know before coming to Finland and made good friends after being here, finally went to Pakistan. His actual destination is Japan, where he is going to do his PhD but what I meant to say is that, he won't be coming here for a while.

Well, this is good bye to Haroon till we meet again... someday

I sold my soul today

Yes, I did it, I finally did it. I do not have any excuse, I do not call it sanity and I still cannot believe that I gave away a lump sum to Microsoft, a sum that is more than a month's rent. I gave it all away to get what you see in the pictures below.

Yes, this is XBox 360 Limited Halo 3 Edition. It was 25 Euros expensive than the Premium version and both do not have anything different apart from the cool Halo finish that this one has. Was it worth the extra money? HELL YEAH! Plus, it comes with the 65 nm Falcon processor, which will put an end to the 3 rings of death (Hopefully). So why did I do it? Why when I was pro PS3 all the time? The reason is simple, I am still pro PS3 and i will get it when the time comes, but for now, the reasons for me are:

• Gears of War
  
• Bioshock
  
• Mass Effect
  
• Halo 3
  
• Ace Combat 6
  
• Condemned 2

Need I say more? Well anyway, once i take the box apart, more pictures will follow. By the way, I do not have a TV at the moment. If my attempt to run xbox on my laptop via a TV tuner card fails, then I will get a TV as well.
This is why we earn...

Sameer's weight loss plan

A few days back, I asked Sameer to get Internet installed. He told me that he will not as then he will keep playing it and will not lose weight. When I asked what he will do to lose weight then, check this strip to know...

Blabbering Wombat

This strip is in honour of the blabbering wombat aka Wajiha.

There and back again

This weekend was passed in the good old Tampere. Whenever I visit Tampere, I have that homely feeling over there. Me and Jon had initially planned to play paint ball, but since it was raining, we had to settle for cart racing. Its like formula one racing on a very small scale and trust me, its not easy. The steering wheel is very tight and by the time i finished 10 laps, my hands were aching. Apart from that, you get to experience all those G-forces due to the extreme bends and by the time you finish, you can feel some strange stretching in your back.
Afterwards, we went bowling in which i performed poorly. My hands were aching and some how i could never get the right ball for me. Later that night, Jon took me to a very nice Chinese restaurant, where I had a fried salmon steak. That was the first time that I really enjoyed food here in Finland, and unfortunately, it was not Finnish food (sorry Finnish people)

Then today I met up with Shahzad, Tayyab and Haroon, took my jacket and student card from Shahzad and headed to Helsinki via train. A drunk guy sat right next to me and went to sleep. When the ticket checking guy came, he woke the guy up for ticket and the drunkard started to have a fight with him. The end result was, the train had to be stopped and the drunkard thrown out. Its just sad to see that in such a civilised country, they still have this drinking problem. This is one of the banes for this society and I do hope that they realise that the problems with alcohol are far more than the benefits.

Anyway, I arrived home and then, as always, had to wait for prayers to be over and right now am planning to sleep. I do hope that i get up for sehri, which seems unlikely now as it is almost 11 pm here. No pictures this time folks, as I forgot to take the camera with me :(

Time for 2 songs with good videos

If you guys have not noticed yet, the music scene has become really bad in the past few years. You can hardly hear a good song and since I have not seen regular TV for about 2 years now, I do not get to see a lot of videos. Recently I came across two videos of two songs that I liked. The first one is One Two Three Four by Feist. I like the song because its totally different from what you hear these days and secondly, the video is very colourful and cool. Here, have a look:



The other one is the song, Koop Island Blues by Koop. The song is good but some how this video makes it sound even better. Such a carefree song with all the destruction and mayhem going in the back ground. This is from the game World in Conflict, which got 95% on gamespot. IT, if you are reading this, you know where to try the mettle of your gaming rig.

NostalGIK

When I went to Sweden to meet up with KB, I got hold of the many pics from GIKI that KB had on his drive. I will say that I am not too proud of the many pics of myself that I took, but these are still memories. I am posting them all here for you guys to have a look. I look like such a small kid!

This is me raza and Sarfaraz

Do not give me a camera, or this is how I will take the pictures
Just before final exam 1
Getting chummy with Asim

A sight too common these days

Just before our final presentation

You guys might be wondering that why most of the pictures are from the same place. Well, it was a digital camera that was given to Asim Pai for his FYP. Whenever I went to his room, I took pictures. I am glad that I did, because these are the only pictures that I have got while I was in GIKI. I do hope that you guys enjoyed the pictures.

CD Key doesn't come out with a straight finger

Guildwars is one of the most popular MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) available, second only to World of Warcraft. Those who think that it is just another MMORPG, should consider the fact that it has more than 3 million players world wide. The best thing about this game is that, you buy it just once and play it forever, there is no online playing fee unlike World of Warcraft. I have tried WoW too, but it fails to grasp my interest. Guildwars is better looking and has better quests, which keeps it interesting. You can have two specialties for your characters and even play it alone, if you do not have friends online.

Anyway, me and Kashif Bhatti (aka KB, aka Fryingpan aka Robot aka some other names which are not too ethical) wanted to try it online and we were in luck. My Guildwars copy came in with a trial key which I gave to him to try. But then we ran out of luck because the key was not working.

Thus, I contacted the support and asked why the key is not working and asked for an alternate key. They asked for a receipt of purchase, which I had misplaced (unfortunately a whole bag of receipts that I wanted to bring with me to my new place, but I think I threw out without knowing. I told them that I had misplaced it so as a proof, they asked me to send them the digital images of the copy, which I did. then the response came and it read:

Dear Umair,

Thank you for all the images provided.

However, in order to assist you further we need to send also a scan or gigital picture of the receipt of purchase of the game.

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Kind regards
The Guild Wars Support Team

This really infuriated me, so I wrote this response:

"I have lost the receipt for the purchase, but i will try my best to provide the information as I remember it."

we have a history in this mail to read what the other guy wrote. That was the whole reason that i sent the digital images over as proof of purchase. I have given the trial key, I have given my own key which can be correlated with my account to know that my copy is genuine and it has not been duplicated.

On top of that, all I am asking here is a trial key, which lasts 10 hours or 14 days, its a key that will expire.. a small privelidge for those who bought this game. Now if you just think about it a bit, I need the key for a friend, who wants to try the game to see if its worth BUYING it, which in turn will benefit no other than your company and might even influence both me and him to BUY other expansions and guild wars 2 in the long run.

other publishers are giving trial keys for free while all I am asking here is that, i bought the game and lost the receipt which can happen in many ways, let me state some to explain how:

1. I had secret code written on it, so i ate it before my enemies got to it
2. my dog ate it
3. i burned it
4. i threw it with the bag i brought guild wars in
5. it was taken from me at gun point
6. i used it as toilet paper
7. somebody gifted me the game with my own money and since it was a gift, he didnt give me the receipt
8. i just like to keep it out of sight

Now if the high and mighty game company can't even give a trial key to a buyer who has been having problems in using the key which came with the package, a problem which he should not have in the first place, then I believe this is the most awful support for any game that I have come across. I need the trial key, if you can give it, then ok, if not, then thank you for wasting my time.

Umair

Today I got their response and it was this:

Dear Umair,

Thanks for your reply.

Please find your Guild Wars Prophecies trial code: *****-*****-*****-*****-*****

You can therefore give this code to your friend you will be able to create his Guild Wars account by following these steps:

- Open the game client
- Click on 'Create Account or Add Access Key'
- Select “Create a new Guild Wars Account”
- Enter your 25-digit Guild Wars access key
- Enter a valid email address (which will be your account name)
- Choose a password

Thanks for your cooperation.

Kind regards
The Guild Wars Support Team

I removed the key on purpose so that some of you free loaders might not copy it.

So now both me and KB intend to play it online and try it together. If KB likes it, he will buy it. Anyone else interested in playing it online?

Let us all welcome Wajiha

If you guys have not noticed yet, there are now two persons who are managing this blog. One is yours truly and the other one is Wajiha (The description about us is given to the right). I should thank Wajiha for taking her time out and making my blog look much better than before... Even Katta who is critical about everything that I do liked the look of it, so I guess the Wajiha magic has started. So who is Wajiha? A batch 12 gikian who made one of the best looking calculators in C++ (Yes, I was very surprised the first time I took a look at it, as it didn't look like an effort done by a beginner.) Her employment in P&G is yet another proof about the capabilities that she possesses and we will see more about it in the days to follow.

Another incident that I also recall is that, I was asked so many times the same questions over and over again that I got pissed and put up a note on my cabin's wall (facing outside which said).

I do not have any markers
I do not have a stapler
I do not know where Usman Muneer is

So she walked in and took it started to take it off and when I asked what she was doing, she said "its too rude and doesn't suite you, so I am taking it off" and she took it off.

Anyway, I am glad that my blog is getting a decent look finally which also got me to kill my other blog at Vox. May that blog rest in peace. Oh, btw, she prefers the nick "jay" so you can spot the link to the right that points to her blog.

My Apartment

This video is to show where I live these days.

Enjoy!

Last leg of the Sweden trip

Playing Titan Quest

The last day was spent in KB's room as you might have guessed from the pictures. Whenever you think that your room is dirty enough, just visit his legendary abode and you will find yourself clean and pure. We went out to see the city of Gothenburg on the last day. The city is quite big, almost as big as Helsinki. The best thing about KB's place was that it was 5 minutes walk from his university and about 15 minutes walk from the city.

In the city

at the docks

We roamed around the markets, got to the harbour, took pictures here and there and finally ended up at KB's place with the intention of playing something. The better part of the day was spent installing world of warcraft on our machines and setting up the network. Even though I had told KB that we'll spend the night playing together, but I was so tired of waiting that I hit the bed for 2 hours or so.

Me in front, nude in background ;)

World of Warcraft woes

and I sleep...

Then Kb went to drop me off at the bus station from where i took the bus to the airport, where i boarded the Blue1 flight to Helsinki and i was in Helsinki at about 11 am. An hour's ride back to my place and then I slept for 7 hours, got up, ate and then slept for 9 hours more. Even then I was tired the whole week and was not able to do much at work.

You can't imagine how hard it is to make KB smile like that

That puts an end to my Swedish trip and all the stories related to it. Personally, I enjoyed the trip a lot as it was fun all the time as me and KB had loads of time together where we talked about all sorts of things. Of all the things that i have missed here in Finland are like minded friends with whom I can talk on almost anything. Its not to say that I did not find good friends here, its just to say that its totally different when it comes to people with whom you have spent some 4 years of your life together. They know you much better than anyone else and you know them the same way.

The Helsinki Airport: carrier has arrived

To me, the highlight of any trip is the company. I hate travelling, but when I have great company, I love to do it. Next travel plans are for Germany, where me, saqib, kiani, raza and maybe KB will come together for a long road trip to munich and berlin. Great company, with money to spend and 7 days to enjoy is really going to be something. I am already very excited about the trip... I just hope that it doesnt end in a disappointment.

Thats it for now and oh, now that I have my camera, i might be a bit more regular in posting stuff.

Last but not the least... RESPEKT!

Naach Basanti!

Wonderbase, Sweden, day03

The second wonderbase day was full of disappointment. First, i got a match with the best player of the tournament, who was pretty adept with protoss vs protoss game. So I lost two straight games, which put me in the loser's bracket. This meant that I had just one chance and that too against a player whom i had defeated in two straight games when we were having a friendly match. But as you know, when you need to get something done right, everything gets bad, or wrong.

During the game, if I had stuck to my usual safe protoss game, i wouldve been in a better position. but i tried to do reaver drop and got many things wrong. First off, I forgot to make the srop ship at a critical time, which got everything delayed for me. the reaver drop got delayed, i got into a bad position and was easily killed off by the other player. So, as the saying goes, shit happens.

KB had better luck as he got the easiest player of the lot in his loser's bracket. this meant that he will b able to play a few more matches bfore he is knocked out.But, he lost eventually and both of us were out of the tournament. We stayed there over night and then set out for Gotenburg at noon. The tornament was beingheld in boras btw.

This is how we look after 3 days of non stop gaming and no washing

On our way back, I had to say skeletaun to make KB smile... sameer's sameeries always work

Another fun thing about the trip was that, we went to city center about 4-5 times during the 2 days that we spent there and every time, we got lost. every time, we used to take the wrong road or the wrong turn and ended up in the middle of nowhere. The only good thing about it was that, this gave us ample time to catch up on our past 2 years away.

Tired in the bus

As of now, I am sitting in a bus going to Gotenburg from Boras. I have not washed for 3 days now, so at least, getting to KB's place will give me an opportunity to fresh up. Oh, and I have finally started to like Facebook as I did not know till now that it has these really cool applications which are a lot of fun. I created my very own Simpson's avatar Sine using one of its many applications. SinceI am writing this blog on notepad, so if I do not forget, I will upload it up too with this blog. OK, i think its time that I start enjoying myself a bit, so I am starting a game now. KB is button mashing on my PSP at the moment so you guys cannot talk to him. Till next time, ta!

Standing by the new beetle

before the dinner

In the Simpsons