Crow's Nest...

I have journeyed across a whole continent, overnight, and am now in New york for my interview. I took a red eye flight out of San Jose into JFK. This time around the check in was complicated because the air line tagged me and thus i had to undergo special security checks. It cost me an extra 5 minutes but nothing much. The flight itself was very uncomfortable on Jet Blue . The check in clerk changed my seat from the exit row to the one in front of it. Jet Blue is a paranoid airline and thus their actions. I had to spend my whole journey crammed in a seat that had minimum leg space and did not recline. It was horrible. And since my boarding pass was tagged i could not complain. Otherwise the journey went well. We landed in New york early in the morning and were welcomed by wind chill temperatures of 19 degrees Fahrenheit. I took the Air train out to the Howard Beach Station and then the A train to 168th street. After this it took me 2 block walk to my very pleasant hosts, FC and AJ. I h...

I am going for my interview at the Brookdale University Hospital on the 31st of this month. I have just received the email from the coordinator. Let us see what happens on this interview. The weather in Brooklyn is very very cold and i will be carrying with me some extra clothing to prevent myself from sheer freezing. the forecast for the week though is better and on the interview day it is supposed to be sunny and not runny. The weather here in Santa Clara has been unusually dry and i haven't seen the better part of rain for quite some time. But there is hope in the air and rain on its way. The preparation for the exam is going good i guess. Today was a better day where i was able to accomplish more and do better on the tests. But overall the exam requires some honest time to sit and study. I am trying to do that and will continue to do so inshaAllah. I have my exam scheduled for the 8th and 9th of February 2007. The hope spring is eternal.

Adil Najam at Pakistaniat.com has posted about nominating Abdul Sattar Edhi for the Noble peace award. I think it is a valiant thought and deserves our whole hearted help and acknowledgment. I say this not because i think i should do this as a proud Pakistani but i say this because i should do this as a proud human being. In this world be-thralled with innumerable examples of human evil handedness and human suffering Edhi is a hope as were Mother Teressa or Nelson Mandela. Adil deserves to be helped and he requires us to leave our own testimonials on the website. I would urge all to help towards this noble cause and help him come up with a fitting testimonial that he can submit to the committee that decides about the Noble Peace award.

To reconstitute political life in a state presupposes a good man, whereas to have recourse to violence in order to make oneself prince in a republic supposes a bad man. Hence very rarely will there be found a good man ready to use bad methods in order to make himself prince, though with a good end in view. Nor will any reasonable man blame him for taking any action, however extraordinary, which may be of service in the organizing of a kingdom or constituting of a republic. It is a sound maxim that reprehensible actions may be justified by their effects, and that when the effect is good, it always justifies the action. For it is the man who uses violence to spoil things, not the man who uses it to mend them, that is blameworthy. A prince should therefore disregard the reproach of being thought cruel where it enables him to keep his subjects united and loyal. For he who quells disorder by a very few single examples will in the end be more merciful than he who from too great lenienc...

Pakistan is going through an energy crisis yet again . The spokesman for the Water and Power Development Authority was quoted as saying that the power shortage was to the tune of around 1,000 Megawatts of electricity. This is a huge shortage, almost 10 percent of what the whole country uses. The local power companies are making up for this deficit by load shedding . And the most apparent victims of this process are those who are from the less influential parts of the country. I am supposing that conditions are bleak in my hometown, Jhang . Although load shedding was going on for the past 4 months now but it must have increased to a more unbearable level. In other news oil prices have been reduced for the consumers in Pakistan. the slash came in the wake of plunging oil prices in the international market. The relief given to the Pakistani consumer is little yet much awaited. One interesting thing to note is that oil companies are earning endless profits not only in developing...

Blogger servers were down yesterday and that prevented me from posting. Even today the page is loading very slowly. They say their engineers are at work let us see what they can do. US is in the grip of a very cold current of air streaming down from Alaska. The Mid West is all frozen and even the West is experiencing temperatures below freezing. Here in Santa Clara new record lows were set this week and over the weekend. But it rained last night and that has brought up the temperature to a bearable level. I have my interview in New York in two week's time and projected weather shows temperatures below freezing. I will have to get ready to brace myself with snow and chill. I hope this chill doesn't affect the environment inside and take away the cordial warmth.

Motor Trend has named the redesigned Toyota Camry as its car of the year. The Toyota Camry bested a field of 27 competitors, comprising six models from the U.S., 10 from Japan, five from Korea, four from Germany, one from the U.K., and one from Sweden. To be eligible for Car of the Year, a vehicle must be totally new or redesigned, and released in the 12 months prior to January 1, 2007 (cars with modifications such as new engines or that are variants of existing models are not eligible). This year's field of contenders for Car of the Year included:Chevrolet Aveo, Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Caliber, Honda Fit, Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Entourage, Infiniti G35, Jaguar XK, Jeep Compass, Kia Optima, Kia Rondo, Kia Sedona, Lexus ES 350, Lexus LS 460, Mercedes Benz S-Class, Nissan Altima, Nissan Sentra, Nissan Versa, Porsche Cayman, Saturn Aura, Saturn Sky Redline, Suzuki SX4, Toyota Camry, Toyota Yaris, Volvo C70 T5, Volkswagen EOS, and Volkswagen Rabbit The question is if they are right in...