يا شجرة التين لياه طاح الورق ممن تشكين؟؟

Adrift by SnowWhiteLeigh

Difficult, backbreaking, burdensome and last but not least hectic. These are but a few ways I could describe what I'm going through now. Part of it is my fault, but just a very small part! I'm talking about the end of the semester, infact the last week of the semester to be precise. Within the 3 coming days, I am supposed to have handed in 2 assignments (one's not that bad but the other is one hell of a pain in the ASSignment), oh and not to mention this "mini"project I have to hand in. It consists of a lab assessment of a graphic equalizer circuit we're to build from scratch, and of course a report. No one, and I'm sure everyone would agree with me on this, no one knows why it's been called a mini-project. There's certainly nothing mini about it! It required almost just as much effort as any other God damn project we've worked on.

My previous 'pictorial update' post proved to be a crowd pleaser. I doubt it was because of the stunning pictures I've chosen. I suppose it's due to the fact that I've never posted so much pics before. Oh well I'm glad everyone liked them. Wait, how do I know everyone liked them? I only got comments which praised me or the post. I should fairly assume that I also got my share of haters. haha

So who came first, the chicken or the egg? The chicken. But the chicken must've originally come from an egg. Ok fine, the egg came first then. But a chicken must've existed to lay the egg. No, I don't want an answer! I never did actually. But we need not worry about that anymore. The egg came first, 'eggsperts' agree. One of, if not the most, pointless and never-ending debates has once and for all come to a halt! The debate has been unscrambled. Check it out here. I tried, and tried but I failed miserably. I got lost half way through. Let me know if you have a clue of what's going on. For all I know, the next time someone asks me that, I can assure you I won't get into a silly debate.

I have my finals coming up sooner than I'd like them to, but there's nothing I can do about it. I won't say how much or how little I'll be posting throughout my exam period, but I can safely say that I won't be posting regularly. (<=--- Said the guy that posts exactly every 57 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds) Yes, that was sarcasm. I'm sorry but it's not my fault you're out of Prozac! My exams. Four of them. Spread out almost evenly across three agonizing weeks. True I get so much time between one exam and the next, but those three weeks will seem like forever! So what's with the title of this post? No seriously, what is it supposed to mean? I heard it once and I liked it for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that fig trees are known to hold on to their leaves strongly, and if that's the case it could be used as a metaphor or figure of speech right? Winter's already here, and it seems to be getting colder by the minute. But hey, I ain't complaining. I'm sure I'd love to be back here with no second thoughts right after I step foot in Oman. I'll leave the land down under just before winter peaks around here, and arrive in Oman during the mother of all infernos on God's Earth! That of course was with respect to it's unbearable scorching summer temperatures. But I sure as hell miss Oman. I miss everything about it, heat included. See, once I'm back "we be burnin' not concernin' what nobody wanna say".. literally haha!

عمــــان و مـــا أدراكـــم مــا عمــــان... جنة الله في الأرض

(Please don't tell me that was contradictive, calling it an inferno first and then a paradise!)

Funny how people pay the bank interest on a car they cant afford to buy.

There are miracles in life that I must achieve, but I know that it all starts inside of me.

If you thought this post was random, then you can rest assured that I was under the influence of FINAL EXAMS when I wrote it. Random... hmmm, that's something my life is right now.

Until my next post, take care of yourselves, and eachother.
(Jerry Springer sucks!! lol!)

Pictorial Update (part 2)

One of my favourite pictures of His Majesty.


His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said addressing the nation on one of the Sultanate's special occasions.

An old picture of His Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen of England. An ideal portrayal of chivalry.

His Majesty being greeted by the French President Jacques Chirac.
(I like this picture because of His Majesty's suit and headpiece/hat. Kash5a!)

His Majesty in one of his annual tours to various towns and cities in the Sultanate.

An old picture that depicts one of the passionate sides of His Majesty.

Oman, a beauty both on land and off-shore.

A beautiful sunset.
(Shatti Al-Qurm if I'm not mistaken)

The Southern Region of the Sultanate during the monsoon (Khareef).

Pictorial Update (part 1)

At the start of the welcoming ceremony on the auspicious occasion of the appointment of Mr. Hamad Al-Hajry Consul General to the Sultanate in Australia. The night was organised by the OSSV (Omani Students Society of Victoria).

The president of the OSSV (left - Mr. Ibrahim Al-Manthery) handing the Consul General of the Sultanate (right - Mr. Hamad Al-Hajry) a keepsake on this memorable occasion.


Pride and joy. One of the many flags hung in the hall at that night, but it was the cream of the crop. ;) (The hall is in a college I studied in.)


The famous Melbourne Central tower dome. Melbourne Central is a very classy mall which is more or less a shopping haven located in the heart of the city.


Ceiling lamps outside the cinema in Melbourne Central, waiting for the movie The Da Vinci Code.


Meet my lava lamp. I think it's normal to stare at it for prolonged periods of time when you're in my room and especially if it's dark. It's ALIVE! lol


Our weekly indoor soccer matches. 3 teams (usually), 15 minutes per game, winner stays on the court. Great fun!
Who's going to make it to the ball first?


In or out?
Going once... going twice...


GONE!
Whoops, a second too late goalie.


Only in Oman will you find a car parked in a trolley bay, why? Obviously because there's a shade! Oh how I miss these sights.


Yes I'm a Piscean, but that's not why I loved this shot. That whale must've been in a good mood to allow that shot to be taken :p Isn't it wonderful?


Betrayal, treason... 5yana! After all these years... haha


Viva la Barcelona! A friend proud of the champions, and so was I, hence the pic!


House of cards. Had it not been so late, I might've bothered taking up the challenge to make a bigger one.


What the hell was I doing?! I remember the day, and I certainly wasn't bored. This should not in anyway depict how much I love the sun'n'sand.

"I'll bring you flowers in the pouring rain!"

Meet two little princesses. My cousins, I love them and miss them so much.

Meet mini-me. That's me in the portrait and this is my little cousin. He has a twin brother but it's only him that my whole family says looks like me. Any resemblance?


Awww! Another cousin, brother of one of the princesses above. This shot says something... "a devil caught in a moment of serenity" hahaha. Love him and miss him just as much.

Emily Ruete

Does the name ring a bell? Ever heard of it? Well read on and you might be amazed just like I was to find out about her.

One dull and rainy day, I had nothing better to do but to self-educate myself on the internet. Well I basically think of a term, a name or anything that I might've wondered about and search away. This time I was looking for sites that contained information on His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Busaid, Sultan of Oman. I recalled once doing the same thing and ending up on a site that had contained interesting and very detailed information on His Majesty, Oman and the renaissance. I was probably hoping I'd stumble over that same site once again.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Bin Taimur Bin Faisal Bin Turki Bin Said Bin Sultan.

"Said bin Sultan was Sultan of Muscat and Oman from November 20, 1804 to June 4, 1856... Said had 36 children"

His 36th child was Sayyida Salme of Zanzibar and Oman (1844-1924).

"Sayyida Salme was born on August 30, 1844 as daughter of Sultan Said and Jilfidan, a Circassian concubine. Her first years were spent in the huge Bet il Mtoni palace, by the sea about eight kilometers north of Stone Town... She secretly taught herself to write, a skill which was unusual for women at the time... While living in Stone Town she became acquainted with her neighbor, a German merchant, Rudolph Heinrich Ruete. In 1866 she fled with him to Aden, converted to Christianity and married Ruete, and moved with him to the North German Confederation."

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Sayyida Salme bin Said bin Sultan a.k.a. Emily Ruete.

"Her husband died in 1870 after a traffic accident, leaving Ruete in difficult economic circumstances. Partly to alleviate these economic problems she wrote Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar, first published in the German Empire in 1886, later published in the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The book provides the first known autobiography of an Arab woman, only known autobiography of an Arab princess and only known account of harem life written by an Arab woman."

In 1992 the book An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds was published, making for the first time Emily Ruete's letters home, with her reactions on life in Europe, available to the public.

According to the same site I've quoted from, she has boldly described her eldest brother, Sayyid Hilal bin Said al-Said (c.1815-1851) as an alcoholic. That statement got my very interested in obtaining a copy of one of her publications to know all of what she has revealed about her life as a princess.

udnpay ??

I was never a big fan of these 'word verification' mechanisms. Infact the only reason I personally use them is because they keep scammers at bay. They've proved to be a pain whenever I'm prompted to enter the letters after leaving a comment on a blog, especially when you'd have a hard time making out what the letters are and then making a mistake. I was ready to forgive and forget, up until the point where I wanted to reply to some comments on my own blog and made a mistake, so naturally I was prompted with another set of letters to enter. The second word verification picture however showed up with all audacity and displayed the following:


With all audacity they show up on my own blog's comments page and prompt me (the blog's author) with this? Telling me that I didn't pay..! How can they even dare?!

Luckily I'm not the type of devil that they can shoot down so easily.

الامل

لم يبق في هذه الحياة شيء نرجوه .. فكم ضحكنا على انفسنا لنعيش ابتسامة مزيفة لاسباب عديدة منها اننا لا نحب ان نظهر لغيرنا ما نخفيه من هموم الدنيا واحزانها .. حتى لا نغرس الاكتئاب في قلوب غيرنا مهما كان .. لعلنا نمنى انفسنا بالامل ,تلك الغريزة التي لا يقضي عليها الا التفكير وحده, الأمل الذي وصفه أناس على أنه "خروج تحت الشمس المشرقة ورجوع تحت المطر

Hope

There's nothing left of this life that we long for. For how much have we cheated ourselves into living our lives with a fake smile for several reasons, such as avoiding transparency to others and through which we would illustrate to them our deepest worries and sorrows. That’s all for the sake of not placing grief in the hearts of others around us whatsoever. Still anticipating awakening our desire for hope; the natural instinct that is only demolished by non-other than our own thoughts. It’s that same hope that people have depicted as flourishing under the dazzling sun and languishing under the rain.

What a comeback!

الســـلام عليــــكم و رحمـــــة الله و بركاته

تحية طيبة أما بعد،،

(Arabian Prince)سيداتي آنساتي سادتي، نرحب بكم على متن طيران
و على الطيارة من طراز ايربس 380 وهي آخر اضافة لاسطولنا الجوي

24 days, 6 hours and 17 minutes since my last entry. Ok fine it's just been 11 days, but it sure as hell feels like much longer. Remember that last paragraph or so of the previous entry where I went on about not having plans for the easter break and mountains of work etc.. well let's just say there was a change of plans to all of that. I enjoyed my easter break to the max and didn't get through much work, atleast not during that week long break. However, I did manage to discipline/sit myself down the week after and all I saw for 3-4 days was loads of pages, piles of work and many lecture slides and tutorials and nothing else!

والآن اليكم تفاصيل الموجز

Right before the start of the easter break I was supposed to be expecting a couple of friends over from Birsbane, but nothing was confirmed yet. On the first weekend of the easter break I recieved a call from a friend telling me that they were surely coming and it was just a matter of getting their airtickets. The day after was a public holiday and everything was closed so they were delayed, but they got their tickets the day after and flew over right away. My housemate and I went to pick them up from the airport and that's when the fun began!

Here's a little something about them. Two very dear friends, one I've known for quite a while and the other just recently but proved to be one hell of a friend. My housemate and I went over to Brisbane (& Goldcoast) last Summer (late November) and spent all our time with them. We had a crazy time there. It was literally unforgettable, but there was so much to do and so little time especially towards the end. Nevertheless we really enjoyed ourselves. We made them promise that they would come over the next chance they got. Well... they kept their promise =)

I wouldn't know where to start with all the fun we had, the places we went, the things we did and the things that happened. We had a blast! I am very thankful that they came over, otherwise I'm certain that we would've wasted our easter breaks. I'm quite sure they had a wonderful time. But by the end of their stay I was wondering which of the two trips was 'kra-Z-er' and we safely came to the conclusion that our Goldcoast trip was more of a blast. Well ever since they left, the house feels so empty and it's back to our (my housemate and I) boring routines.

The week after the easter break (which was a day shorter due to a public holiday-Anzac day) was this semesters most hectic week by far. I wasn't prepared at all for an upcoming test, and my last resort was to study for the test the day before. Little did I know that I had not one but TWO tests on that day. I just found out about my second test the day before. I've never been used to being this type of student all my life, I didn't even know what it felt like. So for me to be put in such a situation was a bit interesting because I didn't know how to react. What I decided to do was stay back after my classes, study at the library until they were about to close (I've only done this a couple of times before) and then go back home and study some more. Basically I was determined to study until I dropped, and that's what I did. I also had to study for both tests throughout the next day during my breaks. All in all I managed to do relatively well al-hamdullilah, atleast that's what I think, I'll have to wait and see what the results have to say.

My Warman project! We were informed at the start of the semester that this project will account for 20% of this particular subjects final grade. We were also given an insightful look into the project. It was due 2 months from the start of the semester. I could go on about this project but I'll try to keep it short. The aim or objective of the project is to design and build a device that is capable of travelling along an L-shaped platform/track while seeding allocated field alongside of the track. It's a wooden track/platform and the seeds are pieces of PVC piping. This was percieved by almost everybody as a challenging task, and it didn't fail to prove itself as one! Bear in mind that the unit has very little to no material at all about this project. In other words we (groups of three or four students) were required to come up with this device (be it electrical, mechanical or robotic) from scratch! Analyse the project, solve the problems, design the device and build it all with whatever past knowledge we had. My group of four (my Bahraini friend and two of my Indonesian friends) might've not been the most hard-working of groups, but we certainly put alot into it! We dedicated so much time and put in loads of effort that we were bound to be satisfied with the final outcome.



The project was due the day after my two tests. In order to get our work done, I didn't mind meeting up during the break (despite the fact of having my friends over from Brisbane) but my only concern was to have our meetings early in the day so I could get them out of the way for our outings later on. Since I couldn't attend the last couple of meetings I happily agreed on taking on the task of coming up with our projects final report. The best part was that I only had one day to come up with a whole final report! As soon as I came back from my two tests I got started on the report and it took me the whole night to finish. I just managed to finish it by 1 am. As soon as I was done the guys gave me a call and asked me to come over to the track which had been built in uni to test run our device. For those of you that have read this far and are wondering, it was 2am! At the time I was over at my friends' house helping them out a bit with the final touches on their device. Not too long after that I was in uni. It was my first time (and probably the last) to ever be on campus at 2.30am in the morning. It was bloody cold and I was wearing my comfy home shorts! Had I known that I would stick around uni until 5am in the friggin morning I might've reconsidered. Oh well it was too late by then and I had no choice. Surprisingly there were other groups at that time testing their devices too which sort of felt reassuring to some extent. The actual testing time the morning after (a couple of hours later) was amazing. Getting to see how innovative and creative people have been in building their desgins and how well everyone performed. Our run... let's just say things didn't go as planned unfortunately. But one thing's for sure, we have all learned so much from this project and it has certainly been one of the best hands on experiences in our studies so far. We got the chance to apply all our knowledge, learn new things and gain new perspectives on different things.

I think that's more than one entry can handle. I should've saved some of this for that final report. Enough for now... and hopefully I'll be a bit more active around here.