Blue Chi’s

I’m currently in New Delhi attending a training program on legislative drafting at the Indian parliament. The best advice I got was from SangitaSri who told me to make sure to keep my expectations low to be able to enjoy it, and boy I’m just amazed by everything I’m seeing. First of all my hotel is really nice, even though the place is under renovation, but the rooms are really fancy (IMO nicer than hotel rooms I recently stayed at in Abu Dhabi and Vienna) and there is even free wifi in the hotel. (I told you I’m keeping my expectations really low! ) But seriously, the hotel is super clean and that’s the most important thing!

The roads of the city are pretty dirt, there are beggars everywhere, and the driving is INSANE. The littler restaurants and places where they sell food on the road are also super dirty, but there are loads of nice places to go eat at. Yesterday my Indian friend took me a really nice restaurant at Khan Market, and today we went to Select Citywalk, which is like a massive proper shopping mall just like the stuff we have in the Gulf. I event went to check the Apple Store (yes they have one unlike Oman), but unluckily they did not have the Magic Mouse – which I’ve been trying to buy for a while.

I’m going to stay here for a whole month, so I’m hoping I’ll be seeing a lot more of India. We also have a trip within our program to go visit Taj Mahal – I can’t wait to go there!

I have been writing a bi-monthly column called Cyberia for Muscat Daily since the newspaper was launched in October last year. For some reason Muscat Daily still doesn’t have a website, so people could only read my column if they bought the physical copy of the paper. I decided to post all of my previous columns online as well on my blog from now after they get published on Muscat Daily. I have scheduled it so that a new post will appear each week on my myITLawyer, so posts might appear on this blog also. My latest columns will still come out every other Sunday in Muscat Daily.

Making a post on the last day of the decade! In the last ten years I finished highschool, started and finished university, and got my first job. I had the best days of life, I was blessed to meet a lot of amazing people, been to so many different places, and did all sorts of crazy things. Life was really good in these last ten years and looking back at it I think that I enjoyed almost every single bit of it. Thanks to all of you readers of my blog! I wish you the best of luck in this new decade!

I’ve only subscribed to a mobile data plan less than two months ago, but I already feel that the way I use the Internet on the go has changed forever, tharmt is of course also directly related as well to my iPhone as well, but many other smart phones like android devices. Could’ve done the same.

I spoke with several people about how the transition to a mobile data plan is similar to the transition to a mobile phone for the first time, to some people the mobility by itself does not justify the cost of the plan, but used to say why get a mobile phone when I can just go home and make a phone call, most people are not running vital businesses that require urgent instant feedback, but the same thing could be said about mobile Internet, imagine being able to do everything you do on your PC on your mobile phone, from YouTube and Facebook, to editing an excel sheet on Google Docs, and all of that in a big enough screen and running through a high speed connection. Of course the phone plays s big part of it, but it is the connectivity that makes all the difference. It is truely life changing.

So if you did get my opinion yet on whether or not you should get a data plan, even in Oman, the answer is yes of course – provided you have a good enough phone to make use of it. And just to prove my point, I made this blog post from my phone that is connected through a 3G network!

I started going to the gym last month for the first time ever in my life, I thought it would be the only way for me to gain weight. I’ve never been to the gym before so I thought I’ll read a book about it and use an iPhone application to make my gym experience more fun!

The book I read is the one you see above, it is Muscle – The World’s Most Complete Guide to Building your Body – by Ian King and Lou Schuler. The book is mainly written for those who want to get seriously into body building and weight lifting, unlike traditional workout books, Muscle takes a scientific approach by explaining how muscles work and goes into great detail into the function and nature of every single muscle you can think of. I thought that the book was helpful because it explains a lot of about how muscles grow, how to have a proper diet, and explains in a great detail many exercises for working the various muscles in the body. However, at many circumstances I thought that the book was an overkill for someone who merely wants to gain weight to look more normal than trying to be a big buff or a professional weight lifter (which the book seems to be directed at). The book also seems to focus on working with free weights more than using any machines (literally, I think only four machines were mentioned in the book).

However, in my regular trips to the gym I do not actually follow the workouts in the book, and instead I follow the routines specified in the iPhone application iFitness. This is an awesome iPhone application that has detailed routines for all training levels. In addition to the explanation on how to do the workouts and show you videos on how to do then, the application also enables you to log your training sessions for each exercise you do and lets you plot graphs to show your performance.

I really love iFitness probably because I am a sucker for statistics! Apparently I can also back up all my data online and send it by email as well. I haven’t tried these two features yet, but they should be interesting.

I’ve been going to the gym for a whole month now and I feel like I can have as a permanent item in my routine, but I’m away from Muscat for nine days for Eid and there isn’t a branch of my gym here in Sohar, I still got my shoes with me, so I might try going to any gym here. What’s even worse is that I’ll be traveling abroad for about two weeks after Eid, so again, I’m not sure what’s going to happen to my gym schedule.

So does anybody else go the gym around here? Have you read a helpful book on the topic or used a good iPhone application to help you with it?

Eid is tomorrow here in Oman, We got a nine day holiday this time and spending the whole break in Sohar at my parents house.

For everyone on Twitter please use the hash tag #omaneid when making any updates or uploading any eid pictures!

Eid Mubarak to all of you!

My previous post on my addiction to Twitter attracted a lot of replies, many were written by people who are not Twitter. I have reached this stage where quitting Twitter is NOT an option. I feel that I am part of a community of people I care about and whom I have no other direct regular method of communication with. I am, like the majority of people in my Twitter circle, having a lot of fun on Twitter, I’m meeting new people, learning about new things to do in town and discussing topics through methods that cannot be replicated on any other medium. I just CANNOT QUIT.

What I would like to do is be able to carry on with my life and still have fun on Twitter like everybody else. I have developed a simple strategy to be able to do this. First of all, I decided to CLOSE DOWN TweetDeck when I’m doing something else. It is really not rocket science, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to do anything else when there are 5 new tweet update notifications every 30 seconds. For example, this time I don’t have TweetDeck opened as I’m writing this blog post! See!!!

Second thing, I am going to have a Twitter break each 45 minutes or between switching tasks. This way I will have something to look forward to and will have a systematic method for checking Twitter. In order to time myself I’m using my good old Klok application which I’ve been using for a couple of years now. I cannot live without and I don’t know how I never used it since I got back in town earlier this month. I have Klok installed on my work machine and my computers at home.

I am also starting to get back into a systematic to do list workflow for everything. I have installed a number of iPhone apps and will see which one to go with. Will try using GTD, but not sure if it’ll work.

Finally, I’ve stuck up a new banner in my room to indicate my next goal! I want to receive a 1,000,000 page views a month at the Republic of Code. I’ve been stuck at around 500,000 pageviews a month for a year now and never exceeded. Some of you remember my old banner, which worked. All I need is to have a goal to work towards!

I have already implemented many of these methods today and I managed to respond to all new forum threads, read two chapters in a programming book, AND GO OUT OF THE HOUSE AND BUY A PAIR OF SHOES. I have also chatted with Twitter and had fun with the guys over there. So I think it should work out if I properly focus!

I am going to make a confession, I am addicted to Twitter. I just can’t stop checking it every single minute of the day. I check it before I get out of my bed in the morning, I check it right after I get out of the shower, I check it while I’m having my breakfast, I check it before I leave my room, I check before I start the car, I check it when I’m stopped at a red traffic light, I check it when I get off the car, I check it all throughout the day and I check it one last time when I’m in bed and I decide to go to sleep. I JUST CAN’T STOP CHECKING TWITTER.

I really really like Twitter, I have so much fun chatting with my “online” friends on Twitter, I tell them everything I do, and there is always someone to comment back on my updates. When I am in a shop and not sure what to buy I make a tweet and someone will make a suggestion, when I’m in a restaurant and I don’t know what to have someone will make a recommendation, when my car is stuck because of my careless driving I make a tweet and someone will come to get me towed. I’ve met the majority of the people I chat with all day long and they are all fun and hilarious people, and now I really care about them.

When I’m not actually on Twitter I am most likely talking about it with someone offline, 75% of everything I say to my flatmate starts with “Today on Twitter I read”. I spoke with two people today on the phone and told them about what I did on Twitter and I texted one of my colleagues about what I did on Twitter today. There are days when I say more things on Twitter than actual spoken words offline. It is totally insane.

I just said that I really like Twitter and I enjoy it very much, but I think that’s taken over my life. I really cannot do anything else besides it. I used to accomplish so much in my free time, I’ll write a couple of blog posts, write a tutorial, read a chapter in a law or a programming book, and reply to all new threads at the Republic of Code, but since I got my workstation sorted late last week, I really can’t say that I’ve accomplished ANYTHING. I spend a decent time on my computer still, but I’m JUST CHECKING TWITTER ALL DAY AND NIGHT!!

I don’t have an email notification application because I believe it will interrupt whatever I do and therefore slow me down, but now I can’t force myself to close TweetDeck and it keeps on pinging every single minute with several new tweets from different people. It’s almost like I’m clinically addicted to this thing, I even have it open RIGHT NOW AS I TYPE THIS ON MY SECONDARY SCREEN JUST WAITING FOR A NEW UPDATE TO COME.

SOMEONE SAVE ME!!!!!

I booked my flight to travel back to Oman this upcoming Thursday. I have completed a very rough first draft for my dissertation and I decided I’ll review it and polish it up back home. I have to go back to office by the 1st of October and will be spending the whole of Ramadhan and Eid at home in Sohar. Packing was not as bad as I thought it would be, I’m carrying a whole separate suitcase just for books!

Reflecting back on my experience this year, it was surely different from the LLB, classes were so much more fun because I decided to share my opinion on every single thing we discussed the  IT law and IP law classes. I traveled to more places around the UK this year than the total of my previous four years! I also made friends with people from so many different places and did not just stick around with the Gulfies.

In preparation for my departure I printed a super awesome photo album which I’ll be taking with me home. Click on the image below to see the full version.

I’m also start playing with video. Check out the first video I made, it’s taken in the park next door:

I’ve written about my HP laptop problem last month. Today I got my laptop back and the problem is now resolved.

I have an HP Pavilion dv2000, the screen started acting funny, noise appears, and then the system would randomly just crash. I contacted HP and even though my warranty has expired, they decided to fix it for free because my model is known to be defective and qualifies for extended warranty. HP arranged for a carrier to come pick the laptop, and in about three weeks I got my laptop back. They replaced the motherboard with a new one and now it works like a charm. I had a dual boot setup which they did not touch, my hard disk has all my stuff on it and no data was lost at all.

I had problem with the initial collection because the carrier to which HP hired to come collect is an idiot. (Not directly HP’s fault). Anyway, everything else went fine and HP were swift to act once I contacted them.

If you have a problem with your HP Pavilion make sure you contact HP before you do anything with it.

I am not sure what I’ll do with my HP laptop now that I have my Mac as well. I might try a dual laptop lifestyle because I really like Windows 7 and I hate the fact that Chrome for the Mac is not ready yet.