Recently my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital due to health reasons, and she passed away in the early hours of Friday morning. I woke up and saw a few missed calls and texts on my phone which alarmed me. I spoke on the phone and had a feeling something was wrong, I got the news and knew what I had to do but I didn’t have to be anywhere for a few hours. So I sat on my chair for about an hour not really doing anything but thinking.

Took off to my grandmothers house to find a lot of family there, I don’t know how to describe the atmosphere. I gave my condolences to the family, and I was just waiting to know what was going to happen next. I was remembering all our Ramadans in her house, it was always a lot of fun, and I was always a stubborn kid, I wanted to be seated close to the chicken on the dining table. We had a bite to eat before going to the cemetery in Sulaibakhaat.

Everyone was feeling sad to one degree or another, but it hit me really hard when we were burying her. I just got a flood of tears and tried to keep it together for the 3aza. That is one of the things that I do appreciate about Kuwait, a lot of people care for one reason or another but a lot of people want to support you. She was a wife, a sister, a mother to many of us, her kindness really knew no limit. May she rest in peace.

I am always paranoid about the data on my phone, losing my phone numbers, pictures, ring tones, and messages. I try to back up my phone often, but the last months of 2008 I didn’t back up my phone and I added a lot of phone numbers and took off to the states. Around the 2 week of January I was riding my motorcycle to Palo Alto (Stanford) to get a bite to eat and then head back from there. When I was riding back to San Jose it started to rain, I stopped at the gas station next to the house to fill up gas, and as I was riding out I left my jacket zipper open which had my phone, so when I rode up hill I felt something fall out of my pocket. I stopped right away and saw my phone sliding a bit down the hill, I got off and tried to get to it before it slipped into a puddle, but I was too late.

I picked up the phone right away, wiped it off and saw the screen flickering to its death. I pulled out the battery right away, then I used a fan to try to dry it off a bit. I was hoping for the best, but I’m in the states with no spare phone, and I pretty much lost all my numbers. I’m lucky I have most of the important numbers memorized but I lost a lot of new numbers. I went picked up a crappy Sony Ericsson from Tmobile to last me the last two weeks. I wanted to break the phone in half after the first day, from such a good phone to a crappy one. I tried powering it up after three days of drying and heat, it came on, the phone shook, the keyboard lit up, but the screen would no power up. I was very annoyed at this, so I took out the battery and left it at that.

When I got back to Kuwait I took the phone to Phone Center in Sharq, 24040890, and told them the situation. They didn’t think it was salvageable. I gave them my spare phone in Kuwait, and I was hoping they can do something about it. They called me and told me that the phone is completely damaged and not worth fixing, but they managed to recover all the phone numbers off of it and transfer it to my spare phone. I have to say that the good news really made my day, and now I’m backing up the phone numbers and I have to make sure that I don’t overwrite any of the new ones.

There is one thing that I do enjoy in the morning more then sleeping and that is a really hot shower. I think that because its warm or hot that I spend a little bit more time there, not wanting to be cold. There is a calming feeling with that hot shower, you come out feeling less pain in your joints and refreshed. To my luck the boiler decided to stop working, and there isn’t any real indication of that. I get the shower and its warm, but not as hot as I like it, didn’t bother me that much. Two minutes into the shower the water turns ice cold and I receive the strangest shock to my system. It felt like a freezer burn, I froze up a bit, checked the levers which indicated hot and turned it hotter with no results. I had to continue the shower to clean off the shower gel and it was a unique experience, I felt so cold at one point that I felt my head spin. Wrapping myself up in a big towel once I was done did wonders for me to regain my balance, cold showers is only good after a work out but not that cold.

What a year 2008 has been, the writers strike which greatly affected all the shows were watching left us with odd shows to watch since we ran out of episodes. It has been an interesting year for sure, and the down turn in mid-2008 has now come full turn affecting everyone in the world, literally. And Obama is now President of the United States, we shall see what he will be doing.

Got a lot done this year with Windows Home Server and planning a large overhaul of the system to expand on it, it has been very reliable with very few glitches, I’m almost at peak capacity which I didn’t expect to reach. Now we have Windows 7 and Starcraft 2 (Crossing my fingers) to look forward to for this year, I’m playing Red Alert 3 and its a hell of a lot of fun, I prefer playing as the Japanese, The Land of the Rising Sun, since they have the coolest units which can do a lot of damage. Vista hasn’t been a disaster but much better after SP1. Then there was the release of Gears of War 2 which has been a great game, I still haven’t finished it, been busy playing online horde mode. We are still suffering from ridiculous internet prices but we just have to deal with it for now, but seems there will be a slash in prices very soon.

I did a lot of riding this year which I was happy about, I still want to modify the exhaust of the RC8 since it sounds too quiet for a machine that looks so striking. Its hard to chose between the 1098S and RC8 to ride during those mornings both are such amazing machines to ride and so thrilling.

Then there was the camera, I’m really happy I have managed to improve my photography skills even though they aren’t where I want them to be. Made use of those basic skills and enjoying taking all those photographs, I know I tend to annoy people with pictures and then there is the difficulty of taking pictures in public in Kuwait which I pretty much ignore! One simple rule, don’t take pictures of people and if you are make sure they aren’t looking.

One huge thing I was looking forward to this year was GulfRun 4 which was a huge success and a hell of a lot of fun thanks to the organizers, participants, and sponsors. I managed to push my car but not to its limits, I still have next year to keep on trying it out. A lot of people are planning ahead of GR5, I don’t know what to do next, but look forward to it.

Then there was Hajj, somehow the timing managed to work out for me and I got to go on one the best things I have ever done. It was an enlightening and spiritual experience which can’t really be described clearly or probably I don’t know how to describe it, all I know is that I want to go again and soon.

So overall I don’t think 2008 was too bad, it had its ups and downs but I like to think everything has a reason. Heres to everyone having a good year.

So been away for a little while, it has been an interesting vacation. I have been in the US for most of the time, and my friend joined me. We were staying at a friends place and visiting different places, the only thing I did online during that time was check my email and reply to those that I needed to. Other then that did a lot of riding, reading, driving, eating, relaxing, Halo 3 & Gears of War 2, and a few other things.

Looking at my Google Reader is nothing short of a disaster, I probably have over 4000+ feeds to read, which I’m probably going to skip, most of them are the major sites, but I know I’m going to read the regular blogs. Other then the online things I have to catch up with, I do have a billion things piled up to take care of, then there is work.

The jet lag is interesting, somehow I managed to adjust myself right away, I slept enough of the 16 hour flight so that I could function when I got here around 10 pm at night, so I woke up 9 am on Saturday.

I’m wearing jeans and the 24 sweatshirt feeling half asleep, since I haven’t been getting much sleep the past couple of days. Flew in around 9 pm into Dubai, slept a few hours, got to the airport by 5:30 am for the 8 am flight to San Francisco. 

 

At 5:30 am there was very little traffic, but as soon as I got into Terminal 3 it was completely packed. There are so many people walking around and a lot of flighties taking off at this time. I am the business class lounge and its full to the point that I sat with a stranger having breakfast, then took 15 minutes to find a couch which has a plug and it wasn’t taken or being slept on.  Now getting mentally prepared for a 16.5 hour flight, I am planning to finish a lot of anime and pass out very soon, and I’m hoping not to miss a meal. 

 

I have been going through a long list of items trying to remember what I need to bring with me on this trip. First thing I did was check on my accounts and that all my credit cards are functioning, if you don’t use it for a long time and then suddenly use it causes havoc with the credit card companies. Then there is packing for the weather, its cold and raining a bit in the Bay Area so I have to be prepared for that. I have made a list and I have happily started packing, unlike my usually lazy self I have gotten an early start so I won’t be too caught up at the last minute and I won’t have that feeling that I forgot something. I have to make sure that I am prepared for a long 16 hour flight with a large amount of entertainment. 

 

• Winter Clothes
• Jackets
• Shirts
• Under Clothing
• Phone Charger
• Cash
• Passport
• New Music
• Anime
• TV Series
• iPod Touch
• Laptop
• Canon 40D and three lenses, maybe four! 
• Bathroom items
• Book
• And a few other things to keep in mind! 

Its been a hectic couple of weeks, and following a diet through all that didn’t work out too well. Work, GulfRun, and Hajj doesn’t let a person follow a strict diet too well. One thing is for sure I was sitting and just eating, I think I was eating out of starvation at different points.

I went to the Doc yesterday expecting full well that I haven’t eaten too much and I will be told off. To my odd surprise after three weeks of not seeing the guy and completely messing up, I have lost about 0.5 kgs which is odd. People told me that I would lose during Hajj but even then I would eat a lot because their were times I wasn’t sure what time I would be back and if I can get my hands on something that tasted good, hotel food was to be avoided. He now gave me a detox diet to follow for the next week and what to follow for the next following weeks because I told him I will be traveling. One thing I’m happy about is that I do feel healthy.

Link: Flickr

After this long and amazing journey, we are all back from Hajj. It hit us as soon as we landed that it is very cold in Kuwait compared to wear we were. I’m lucky our flight wasn’t delayed but many others weren’t as lucky. I thought I might sleep right away but that wasn’t the case, I saw both family and friends, and fell asleep around 2 am in the morning. I couldn’t sleep more then a few hours and woke up around 7:40 am even though I wanted to sleep more I couldn’t.

I even went out on my bike for a bit, went to breakfast, saw family in the afternoon, and in the evening then with my friends for a bit. Out of the past few days I couldn’t watch a movie without passing out. Its interesting going to back to what I know, experiencing so much during a time that I wasn’t sure what was next. Tawaf Al Weda’a was hectic that morning and there was a lot of people, but we went to the top of the Haram and finish it. I was pushing a relative on a wheel chair while doing the Tawaf and that turned it into a competition for me, I was timing my laps while making doa’a which I found to be funny, I think God has a sense of humor. The hard part wasn’t the pushing, the hard part was braking so that I don’t hit the people that cut in front of me. As time progressed I cut the turn from 11 minutes down to 7 minutes which wasn’t too bad. After that morning I took a shower and my legs felt very light, and sore after a little while. Now back in Kuwait in this lovely weather, and so many family to visit and a few things to take care of.

There was some point during our stay in Arafah that I completely forgot how long we have been there. It is a very serene feeling being at Arafah and there is a lot I would like to say about it, and our Hamlah did an amazing job with the timings and helping us avoid the millions of people here. Those 36 hours felt more like a few days but the time was flying between Doa’a and prayer, and talking to people.

You go through such a spiritual and religious experience with a dynamic group of people. You really do bond with these people and you don’t realize how small the world is. Just two more days to go, and it has been the best trip of my life by far. I am very lucky that I managed to come with some family members or else I would honestly be lost. You try to remember everyone you know and family, and even Doa’a for Kuwait to get better. I know people might not say this enough, but Saudi Arabia is doing an amazing job with the organization and the infrastructure to handle so many different people and I am thankful for being able to Hajj, and I hope this won’t be my last one because it is just such an experience.

We just had the 2nd day of Ramee Al Jamaarat and a lot of people were feeling under the weather. I felt queasy and a sore throat but I stayed in the Hamlah in Mina waiting it out and not doing much else. It did get better with time and Hamdilah by 11pm when we headed to the Jamaarat I was doing fine but by that time the flu set in on some of the women in our group and they weren’t doing too well and on the second day it was getting very crowded. One girl was not in good shape and they took her flying to the bus where the doctor was waiting for her, it was the case of flu and dehydration. And as we finished Jamaraat another 6 women fainted as we were walking, it was a moment where our group came together to make sure these women got safely to the buses, it is an exhausting experience and for everything they did they will receive a hasanah from God for each and every hardship during Hajj. You really do bond with people your group I don’t know most of these women but when someone is troubled you can’t do anything but want to help and there is a surge of energy inside of you. I know it might seem a bit strange reading all this but it is a such an overwhelming experience in Hajj. The one thing I am extremely thankful for is that this Hajj has been very easy in comparison to the stories I was told, and I am very happy to meet so many different and good people. There is a lot more that I want to talk about but these days I barely have time to sit in front of a PC and you just want to pass out after these long walks.