Various things from around the net I wanted to share...

I know I know.  There has been a lack of postings coming from me.  Outside of my full-time job at AT&T and the other 2 days spent in school, I have no time for "thinking".  Ha!

At home, I am doing homework, watching Netflix, or spending my scarce time with Brandi... and lately playing some Halo Reach. I am going to start posting stuff I buy from Amazon up here... Seriously.  Amazon has the best prices for anything, and they have everything you could ever want.  I bought Halo Reach and they shipped it for free, guaranteed arrival on the day of release, plus a $20 gift card.  Solid.  I have bought so many novels, gifts, home stuff, and most of my music on Amazon.  I downloaded Superchunk's new release, I preordered Call of Duty: Black Ops, and the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot. Time to geek out!

But the main reason for this post, I wanted to share some cool-ass videos, links, and pictures... I think I might start making a weekly habit of sharing awesome videos and pics.

What about HIPSTER SUPERHEROES? (click link to see fullsize super-hipsters, its awesome!)

This next link is a little geek heavy from my end.  I love slo-mo footage, you could take mundane events and tasks, slow it down, and it looks cool.  With the new Canon 7D, you can film at 60 fps, which gives you the ability to slow down video cleanly a little over 2x (regular is 24 fps).  Add to that, a filter on Adobe After Effects called Twixtor can replicate frames to make it seem upto 1000 fps (the same idea behind 120-240 mHz HDTVs using smooth-motion settings).  It looks amazing.  Check out this kid doing tricks on his bike:

And to end this blog, a cool pic from around the net to geek out on... fun fact, Nintendo is 121 years old today:

Sleep tight!

Confessions of an Unemployed 30 Year Old

Here is the deal. I took a step that muddles and baffles the majority. One could say that I am regressing backwards, professionally... in fact, many would say that critically. I am started my position as a AT&T Mobile Sales Rep today, Monday August 9 2010.

"Why Umair? Why would you want to throw it all away? You just bought a house... you have job that pays exceptionally well..."

I have struggled with those questions for the last 5 months of unemployment. I have tried to figure out what the hell I am doing, and WHY?! Only a crazy person would walk away from a job where I was making well over six figures, worked with some amazing people, a job that afforded my a nice house, vacations, regular fine dining, stay debt free. The American Dream, right? (Well, the old American Dream, nowadays its about living in excess and selfishly.)

I am going back to the core of myself. Sadly, it took time to figure out and remember what that was. That was ART and MUSIC. I have had a love/hate, on/off relationship with MUSIC, specifically GUITAR. I was good, going on better on guitar. I couldn't find anyone to share or develop that talent with, past a several mediocre bands, so I was solo. You know how that turns out when you have no one to feed off of, creatively. Now, if I pick up the guitar, I play like I am 16 again, playing cheesy punk rock 4-chords. Ugh.

As for ART, I never regressed, but I never progressed either. I can go on without drawing or sketching for couple years, but when I grab a pad and paper (or Photoshop), I pick up right where I left off. It still exhilarates me. I get exited like a 5 years old kid who just drew squiggles on construction paper with Crayons and proudly showed his dad the "house" he drew.

I am going back to school for Graphic Design and an additional Certificate in 3D/2D Animation. So what is I end up with 2 Bachelors Degrees and a Certificate. But I have a extremely good feeling about this. The only way I can do this is by not having a cubicle sales job behind a desk from 8 to 5, leaving minimal time for night/online classes, stretching school for double time. Retail is the only answer. I will be working at a AT&T cellphone store Dallas, near Old Town, a festive part with delicious food. Best part is that people will actually have to come to me at the store to get something they want instead of me trying to sell something. Sweet... for a change! It's not a life career, but a perfect pairing for someone is school, and make decent $ to get by.

Who knows, 2 years from now, I wont have to work pointless cubicle jobs, killing the little spirit I have left. ha! Either freelance work, or a design firm.

It's going to be AWESOME!

America. Think about it.

Speech by Ron Paul (R-TX) before the US House of Representatives, 02/12/09
(video link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fHfdSi-GDo)

Madame Speaker,

I have a few questions for my colleagues.

What if we wake up one day and realize that the terrorist threat is a predictable consequence of our meddling in the affairs of others?

What if propping up repressive regimes in the Middle East endangers both the United States and Israel?

What if occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan - and bombing Pakistan - is directly related to the hatred directed toward us and has nothing to do with being free and prosperous?

What if someday it dawns on us that losing over 5,000 American military personnel in the Middle East since 9/11 is not a fair trade-off for the loss of nearly 3,000 American citizens, no matter how many Iraqi, Pakistani, and Afghan people are killed or displaced?

What if we finally decide that torture, even if called enhanced interrogation techniques, is self-destructive and produces no useful information - and that contracting it out to a third world nation is just as evil?

What if it is finally realized that war and military spending is always destructive to the economy?

What if all wartime spending is paid for through the deceitful and evil process of inflating and borrowing?

What if we finally see that wartime conditions always undermine personal liberty?

What if conservatives, who preach small government, wake up and realize that our interventionist foreign policy provides the greatest incentive to expand the government?

What if conservatives understood once again that their only logical position is to reject military intervention and managing an empire throughout the world?

What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?

What if we as a nation came to realize that the quest for empire eventually destroys all great nations?

What if Obama has no intention of leaving Iraq?

What if a military draft is being planned for the wars that will spread if our foreign policy is not changed?

What if the American people learn the truth: that our foreign policy has nothing to do with national security and that it never changes from one administration to the next?

What if war and preparation for war is a racket serving the special interests?

What if President Obama is completely wrong about Afghanistan and it turns out worse than Iraq and Vietnam put together?

What if Christianity actually teaches peace and not preventive wars of aggression?

What if diplomacy is found to be superior to bombs and bribes in protecting America?

What happens if my concerns are completely unfounded - nothing!

What happens if my concerns are justified and ignored - nothing good!

Addition to Ich Bin Ein Berliner!

Banksy's got a new documentary coming out on street art/political movement. Looks SOLID!

Here is the 5 min preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0b90YppquE

Here Piggy Piggy Piggy!

(please click on pictures for hi-res format)

Let’s talk food. Actually, let’s talk about the hardship I have been going through with food in this part of Europe. I am a foodie. I love trying new foods and cuisines, be it fine dining or budget eats. I don’t have a food I dislike. I have been served dishes that I dislike, but that is the cook’s doing, because I always give the same dish a second chance elsewhere, and I end up enjoying it.

Lory dropped me off at the base my first day, I went to a German restaurant in the mall. It was over-priced, but delicious. I ordered a cheese noodle dish, the name I cannot remember, with a side salad, and a 1 liter of German beer. I under-estimated how much a liter is. I could only drink half of it, especially with my carb heavy meal. That night we went to downtown Frankfurt to meet with her friends, but we had some time to kill, so we stopped at a Turkish Donner place, Ye Babam Ye Grill House. Donner sandwiches are a little similar to Mediterranean gyros or Mid-East shawarmas. I don’t know how authentic they are in Germany, but Turkish people are the largest minority in Germany, so it has to be close. Why Turks? Because of WW2, there was a massive decline in Germany’s population, especially of men. The government after Nazi rule reached out to Turkey (the only country they had not pissed off) for skilled workers to help rebuild the country. Three generations later, you will see a Turkish place to eat at almost every street. And let me tell you, Turkish food is LEGENDARY! I am going to eat it a couple times more when I am in Munich today and before I board the plane in Frankfurt. Mmm mmm mm!

In Berlin, I didn’t have anything mind-blowing. I got some street corner pizza slices, which are always good. Oh, hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurants are everywhere too. When my college buddy Josh got in, we went to an Irish Pub. I don’t know why I chose that, but I was hungry and it was convenient. The next day, we ate at this German restaurant where I ordered this cold pickled fish with cream on top and fried seasoned-potatoes. Sounds gross, right? The potatoes were fantabulous! Funny… my spell-check recognized ‘fantabulous’. Anyways. The fish was good to, but I wouldn’t order it again, as I just wanted to try it.
We did go to Burger King the next day, regretfully, only because they have some bizarre burgers on the menu. I ordered this double meat burger with a third layer being a fried mozzarella patty!! Well they are called Mountain burgers, and in the pics they look huge, but they were smaller than a Whopper Jr. So it was disappointing, but my heart was probably happy about it being small ;) By the way, Cokes taste amazing in Europe. The real cane sugar is god-sent. What doesn’t taste good? Twix, surprisingly. Yeah, I thought German chocolate would enhance the already splendid candy of the US. Side note, Kindereggs are DELICIOUS still. I am bringing back a bunch.

I had a great food experience in Prague though. First night, I ate a dine in Italian restaurant. I had the best Cream of Spinach soup EVER!
With that I had 4-cheese Gnochi (gn-yo-kee) which was superb as well.
Those little potato pastas are heaven in my mouth. With my meal, I had the Pilsner Urquell, and Gambrinus. I met up with Lory and her man the following day, and I asked them to take me to a Czech/Bohemian restaurant. They took me to Pivnice Pub & Restaurant in Old Town Square, where I ordered Beef Goulash with this spongy bread and fried potato balls. All of it was one of the highlight eats of the trip so far. I had a couple dark Kozel beers, highly recommended.

People are going ask me, why didn’t you eat German cold cuts, Schnitzels, Wursts that Germany has to offer? There are very few things I will NOT eat. I will not eat eyes, testicles or penis of any animal. I will definitely NEVER eat bugs. And I can’t fathom eating something that eats flesh (fish doesn’t count), ie: dogs, cats, bears…. humans (!)…. and pigs. Pigs will eat anything, if they are hungry enough. It’s vile. It’s not because I was raised Muslim either (come on, I drink and have a live-in girlfriend). I decided before the trip that I was going to open my mind, and try authentic foods of where ever I go. Germans and Czechs use a lot of pork. They are known to be legendary, so I wanted to try some stuff.

Well this is where I failed (or won, depending on whose point of view). It came down to ordering one of these processed pork dishes, and the idea grossed me out before ordering. I couldn’t fathom eating such dishes. I can’t do it. It smells good, it looks good, and it probably tastes good, but it’s still gross to me. I chose to take the limited menu options almost everywhere I went. Let’s see how it goes in Munich today. I will sign off with the logo and name of this "soon to be famous for its awesome name" cafe. Juvenile humor = 1, Adulthood = 0.

Ich Bin Ein Berliner! - JFK

Berlin is historically the most important city in the last century. I took a free tour 2 days ago with Sandeman’s Tour Company (http://www.neweuropetours.eu/), which I highly HIGHLY recommend. All the questions I had about World War 1 and 2, as well as the Cold War, were pretty much answered, and Berlin was the center point in all of the historic events. I saw the actual places that were significant in all the decisions and events that led to those intriguing events. Even if one is clueless about these events, they will get a great summary, and still be blown away with all the stuff that happened in this city that changed the world.

What really stands out about Berlin is how the Cold War truly affected it visually. I saw the difference between East Berlin (former-communist section) and West Berlin (the democratic section). East Berlin architecture is very sterile, grey, boring, but VERY bold and solid – you get a feel for the Soviet ego and might in the infrastructure. West Berlin in contrast is vibrant. Keep in mind, a lot of the structures have been rebuilt and/or updated in the last 20-30 years because WW2 pretty much destroyed all the major cities. Major rebuilding didn’t start until German Unification, after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I felt the tension of the Cold War, not in the people or structure, but just in the architecture.

I remember when the Berlin Wall being taken down. I was living in Saudi Arabia then, and only 9. The coverage had taken over TV at that time, and I was an annoyed kid because it was interfering with my cartoons. What blows my mind about the collapse, its only 20 years ago. Most of the middle-aged people living in Germany right now lived through it. Then you see people walking about who are in there 70s-80s, that lived through Nazi Germany. It’s crazy to think that some of them were Nazi sympathizers, or showed fake Nazi support to stay alive.

The best and worst thing visually about Berlin is the graffiti. All who know me really well, I love graffiti. So obviously I took Sandeman’s Alternative Berlin Tour (paid tour, 12 Euros). I love anything street/anti/counter-culture. I have many coffee table books on graffiti, street art, skateboard art, breakdancing, etc. If you think graffiti is vandalism, you can eat my ass. I will admit tagging (where it’s just an effortless signature scribble) is worthless and primitive, just to mark a territory. But graffiti and street art real detail and effort, and its layer upon layer of genius design. It leaves you saying, “how did they do that without getting caught?”. I would go as far as saying that Berlin graffiti culture might rival NYC, the supposed birthplace of modern graffiti. There is SO much graffiti here, following are some samples, and unfortunately there is a lot of tagging as well. Keep an eye out for an artist names XoooX; he is from Berlin and is following the very-famous Banksy’s stencil graffiti method. Also, an artist named Cuttout, he finds great graffiti in Berlin and paints perforated lines around them with a tiny scissors, like a coupon, pretty much giving importance to the main art because “you must have it!” and also daring people pretty much cut it out of the wall…. which did happen to one of Banksy’s small one in Berlin. Keep in mind, no one knows Banksy’s identity, even having a best-selling book. One of his works sold for 280,000 British Pounds last year.

As for the night life, I tried the Alternative Pub Crawl, which was supposed to include quirky bars/pubs/clubs, like a ping pong bar, a hippie-themed bar, a toilet bar, etc. The only one that was worth a damn was the indie bar called King Kong Club… great music. Great music. Other than that, I have not partaken in the night life. I regretfully missed an opportunity to check out the Berlin dance/club scene. I increasingly love electronic music, and it’s something I should have checked out.

*** Fake bonus points for someone who can tell me what's wrong about my blog title. ***

Magic People, Voodoo People

My 2 roommates, at my first hostel in Berlin, were from Israel. When I told them my name was Umair, I could tell he put up his guard, as he asked “Like Omar? Where are you from?” I told him I was from America. His response was humorous to me – “That is a Muslim name. I hope you don’t have an issue with Israeli roommates.” I laughed and told him it didn’t matter to me. He said he didn’t know where I stood politically because I was raised Muslim and “you Americans seem to have a lot of opinions and issues with everything”. I did not take it personally. I, in fact, am always fascinated by international perception of America and its people.

Yesterday, I moved to a cheaper hostel too. I am having an incredibly hard time with the language, especially street signs and directions, so I figured moving to a hostel is centrally location will help. Thankfully, a lot of Germans speak enough English to help out. Whenever I asked them in Deutsch if they speak English, they always say “very little” and always turns out that they know it perfectly.

There are several other things I have noticed about Germans. Most of the time I don’t get a “thank you”, or even eye-contact if I open the door. They don’t say “excuse me” when moving through a crowd. They just go through it, or say “move” in German without hostility. At first I thought Germans are stiff and rude, but they always greet me, always say thanks when any exchange takes place, and when leaving, they always say farewell. It doesn’t make them rude, because that is just the way it is. Manners in different cultures are always different. It’s a very matter-of-fact culture. I like that.

Here is a weird observation though. I get some unfriendly looks from whomever I try to get info from, when I have my black beanie on. If I have it off, people are much nicer to me. I don’t look that scary or intimidating. But I guess that is debatable. Ironically, the black beanie I own is one of my favorites, and was in the letter’s of the Nazi ‘SS’ soldiers. Creepy huh? I didn’t know that.

Tomorrow I will get into my tour and pub caul that happed toinight, with lots of pictures. I for some cool pictures. YES!