The Last Day

Hello, everybody.

This is gonna be the last post on my blog from Saudi Arabia. My flight to Cochin is on Monday morning, around 4:40 AM Saudi time. It's a weird feeling, leaving a place you've lived all your life,knowing that you probably will never come back, but more on that later. Let's overview what happened in the past few days.

On Thursday I went to school to get my Passing Certificate, and then I went to Sagar's house. We finally got to do what we always dreamed of doing together: being bored. lol. We watched parts of 3 movies- Thank You For Smoking, The Wedding Singer, and Reno 911-Miami!. He took some movies from my harddrive. And at around 6- I left. Damn, I gonna miss Sagar a lot. He's my oldest friends, and I've known him ever since 2nd standard, when we were in the same class. I love you, man.

Friday was a normal day except that I had my breakfast from Aramco' Dining Hall. Actually, I should say i GORGED my breakfast- 2 waffles, bacon(beef, not pork, duhhhh) and an apple tart. Needless to say, I was gasping for breath after that. Just the way I like it! :D I also went to this church here for the last time. Now I'll go to India and go to Malayalam masses in Kerala and not understand a single word. Atleast over here church was in English.

And on Saturday, I went to the gym here for the last time. Not really going to miss it, though, lol. But I AM going to miss the library here. It's a really awesome one, it has loads of books and magazines, and you can request them to buy a book for you or subscribe to a magazine. I went out in the evening with Aryton, we went to Baskin Robbins. I had a Jamoca Almond Fudge ice cream, which was really good.

Ok, so back to leaving Saudi. I was born here, and I've also lived in the same apartment for the whole of my life. It's really strange to know that you won't step into the same house ever again, and these are the last few hours over here. But I think since this is inevitable, and that many teenagers around the world are experiencing the same thing, it's best to try and not be too emotional about leaving.

I installed the software that came with my phone. And now some icon is on my desktop which launches 'Sony Ericsson File Manager'. I can't even move or delete this icon. But considering that this software came from Sony, I shouldn't really be surprised. If you didn't understand why I said that, click here. Also, Arsenal won their first pre-season friendly 2-0 yesterday over a team called Barnet. Considering that they drew 0-0 lat year, this is a ray of hope. Highlights here!

So now, packing and all is done. We have a LOT of luggage this time, and that's making me tensed. Another thing is that the reporting date to the college is on 19th July, and we've decided to go to Calicut on the 18th itself by train. But the problem is that there's a 'hartaal' or strike on the 18th, from 6 AM to 6 PM, so no road transport will be available during that time. So I gotta get to the railway station before 6 AM and wait there for a train. Seriously, in these kind of things, India really sucks.

So I guess that's about it from me....take care everybody. I don't really know when I'll update this again.

Antony.....out!

Project 'Obtaining a Mobile' = Success!!!

As you can see, I have decided to scrap the 'Daily Paraphernalia' title. Although it has served me well, I've decided not to use it because I don't update everyday and I don't think I will begin to in the near future.

So how are all you guys doing? Class at NIT Calicut begin on the 24th of this month for me. It's early, I know.

The few days after the last update have been pretty busy. I've been running around doing shopping and all. Today I went to Extra to look for a mobile. I saw the Nokia 5300 which I've been eyeing for some time. I had even told my mom about it, and she liked it. But sadly yesterday as I was surfing online, checking out mobiles and their reviews, it was written in one of them that Opera Mini doesn't work with the 5300. Ok, I didn't know if this was true but I wasn't gonna take any chances. Also, this is was my chance to spring for a better mob :p! And so, I got a Sony Ericsson W810i.

Oh yeah, I finally got around to buying a new pair of shoes- K-Swiss Kinnard, in red and white. I couldn't find a good pic of them so I can't link you guys to it. I won;t be taking them to college immediately, though. I think I'll wear out my old ones in the rain and then take these later.

Heh, I also got to eat KFC today......whoohoo.....we bought this bucket so it'll inhabit my fridge for a few days :D. This is also the reason I can't really think straight now. I think I ate too much. I get a headache when I eat too much fast food. It happened last week at Pizza Inn and it happened today also. I'm going to Sagar's house tomorrow. It'll probably be the last time I'll be seeing him for a long time :(.

Lots of really awesome videogames will be releasing soon. Among them, Crysis and Bioshock look really good. I also want to play Half Life Episode One and Two. So hopefully I'll get to play them. I also finished reading Masters of Doom. The books is about the 2 Johns.....John Carmack, and John Romero, the 2 guys who started id Software, and created games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3d and of course, Doom. I finished Metal Gear Solid. What an awesome game with a brilliant story and so many classic moments. The game's designer, Hideo Kojima, is really a creative genius. I SO want to play MGS2 and MGS3 now. I was getting really bored tho, so on Sunday, I started playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic again. Another amazing game, one of my personal faves!

Sagar also came over to my house on Sunday. We watched Click together. It's a good movie, plus it has Kate Beckinsale in it :p What's weird is that she looks like Eva Longoria in one scene and looks like Liv Tyler in several others :S

Hmmmm I'm kinda tensed about college. Will I get ragged? What will my roommates be like? Will I be labelled as an NRI? Will the teachers like me? Will my inability to speak fluent Malayalam sentences and funny pronunciations condemn me to 4 years of humiliation? Questions question....only time will be able to provide the answers. I dunno when I'm supposed to report to the college. I wish those guys @ Ed.Cil would let us know already! It's a pain cuz we have to book air tickets and stuff.

Yeah....that's it......I'm also really bored here, guys. Take care, me out!

Daily Paraphernalia 7/07/2007

'Ello everybody! How are all of you? Hope all of you are doing fine.

I think the boredom is finally getting to me. I've gotten used to coming online and chatting with atleast some 4-7 people, so now that almost everybody's gone to India, the haunting remoteness online is really depressing.

But thankfully, the past 3 days were quite busy. Wednesday morning and afternoon passed quite normally, but in the evening I went to Dammam. We visited a family friend and then went shopping for a bit. I know this sounds short but actually it took some 5 hours to do all this. Plus, Dammam isn't exactly the easiest place to navigate through so driving around took some time. Then I went home and ate 2 shawarmas for dinner. This may sound like a lot, but it wasn't, lol.

Anyway, on Thursday I woke up feeling a bit excited. Cuz I was going to go to Pizza Inn for lunch with some friends- Aryton, Sharbeen, Adnan, Zohair, and Faraz. I ate some 9 and a half pieces of pizza, 3 glasses of Pepsi and this croissant thing with pepperoni inside. I was so full, that I wanted to never see pizza again for a long time. But at this very moment, sitting here, typing this all out, in my bedroom cooled with a Carrier AC, I feel like I could go for some Pizza now :p Mmmmmmmmm those juicy toppings rolling around in your mouth, the crust, crispy and warm, mmmmmmm...!!!

I came home really full, wanting nothing other than to go to sleep, but my mom said that I had to get ready to go to church. Damn! So i grudgingly took a bath and got dressed, and went. After church, we went for the 'Monthly Movie' thingy. This months movie was 'Angels in the Outfield'. It was a nice, heartwarming movie, but then again, what did you expect from it with a title like that! I also ate some rice, chicken curry-thing, spring rolls, cake and some Pepsi again. Heh, I really don't know how I got space in my stomach for that, but I just couldn't resist.

Today's morning and afternoon were also pretty boring. I just sat around playing Metal Gear Solid. And then today I went searching for shoes. I saw some awesome Vans and Nikes but sadly the shop in Rashid didn't have my size. So I guess I might have to just buy a pair of adidas or K-Swiss shoes, seeing as how Sagar doesn't want me to buy Converse. :|

So, among all this disappointment of not getting the shoes I want, comes a ray of happiness. I got into NIT Calicut for Computer Science Engineering. Whooohoooo!!! Exactly what I wanted! 'Obtaining a mobile' project has advanced due to the fact that I told my dad that the Nokia 5300 was 750 riyals and he was like 'ok'. :D

So that's about it, what happened the past 3 days............take care people....I'm bored here!

Daily Paraphernalia 4/07/2007

Hello and goooooddd morning, readers around the world! That's right, I'm actually writing this in the morning, at 1 AM, after having watched Austin Powers 2. It was a fun and crazy movie, better than the first one anyway! But, err, I guess I'm not such a big fan of Austin Powers. Soooooooooooo how have all of you people been for the past few days? I'm sorry for not updating(not....like you care anyway...lol) but I dunno, I guess I just found out, like some of my fellow bloggers, that updating your blog regularly can sometimes be a bit of a pain, a hassle, y'know what I mean.

Nothing great has happened over the past few days. Nimi and Maryann left for India. Hope they're doing fine. Sybil is going to India tomorrow night. Or rather, Thursday early morning. Air India flight. Heh, me and him went on the same flight to India after the boards. There were 2-3 more guys with us then.

So today I went out to the Cat shop once more. Strangely this time very few of the shoes looked good to me. And the ones that did, I couldn't buy, because according to my mom and the shop dude who was standing there, the shoes were made of leather which gets stained by water, and begins to stink if it doesn't get dried properly. So the Cat shoe dream just got neutered. Great! My shoe options sure are running out! I'm also hoping that some progress can be made on the 'obtaining a mobile' project this weekend. But that also looks bleak.

I'll also know what college I'll be going ton the 5th. Ohhhh mannnn I'm hoping I get my first choice itself- Comp. Sci @ NIT Calicut. Keeping my fingers crossed, well, not now, cuz I'm typing, but in my mind I'm keeping my fingers crossed, ok!

I borrowed some books from the library. Joystick Nation, Masters of Doom, and Vieira: My Autobiography. I finished Joystick Nation, the beginning parts were good but the towards the ending it was so omfg BORING I just skipped the last few pages. Screw reading about the military's involvement in the advancement of technology. I started Patrick Vieira's autobiography though. It looks to be a good read. After all, it IS written by an Arsenal player. :D

Oh yeah, Arsenal signed this Brazilian-born Croatian international, Eduardo Da Silva for an 'undisclosed' fee, rumoured to be about 7.8million pounds. Man, check out his pic starboard. Does anybody think that with glasses, he could look a wee bit like our own Sreesanth? Lemme know your thoughts on that.

Arrite, me going to sleep now.

Bye bye, and take care everyone. To those who are tensed about college admissions and stuff, here's to hoping for a 'very shagadellic' future, lol!

Sayonara!

Daily Paraphernalia 29/06/2007

Man....yesterday(Thursday) was a really busy day. I woke up at around 9, and after breakfast, I proceeded to vacuum the house. I played a few games of Command and Conquer, and by that time, it was lunchtime already. So tonight was Aryton's sister's Communion party, and so after lunchtime I headed over to Grill restaurant to help them with the decorations. Sticking balloons on the ceiling was a piece o' cake, I just needed to stretch my hand up and voila!!!! Balloon stuck on ceiling!

Then I came home, went online for ONLY 40 minutes, and then took a bath and went to the party. It was pretty cool with about 70 people in all. My senior Vijay was there, so I was hanging out with him. 'Twas great talking to him after soooooooooooo long! Then there were some games at the party. There was some 'Passing the Parcel' game with a twist, but I quickly got kicked out of that lol. The food was also good, with some tasty noodles. I reached home pretty late, at about 1.

I had to go to church today morning, so I knew I was going to wake up all sleepy with eyes effen tired, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. I think not spending the whole night in front of the comp helped my eyes to be not tired. Came back from church and then slept for about 2 hours. I then started playing Metal Gear Solid again. Aaahhhhh memories! After all these years, I'm finally understanding the story of this game(I think!) I also started on the last mission of Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. That's about it, on what happened different today. Evening was spent in front of the tv, drinking Knorr soup, which rocks!

And I'm online now!

Bah-bye!

Farewell, The Rabid Wolverine!

I was going through this online forum I frequent when I came upon a topic about the WWE. So I opened it up, and me, not being up to date with the happenings in the wrestling world, didn’t really know what everyone was talking about. Until I saw a post saying

“Yeah, it’s true, Benoit’s dead.”

OMFG!!! SO I started reading through the topic with fervour and came upon a few news sites confirming the fact that Chris Benoit, aka, The Rabid Wolverine, aka The Canadian Crippler, had died. Another shocking fact was that both his wife and his 7-year old son were also found dead in their home in Atlanta, Georgia. Further updates on a few news pages revealed the fact that Benoit had actually committed suicide, and possibly could have also killed his wife and son :o!

This is especially hard on me and my friends cuz we all loved Benoit. He was a hard technical wrestler and his ring work was excellent. We always felt he was a hard worker and served as a role model to everyone with his no-nonsense and workhorse attitude.

Benoit was trained in the infamous Hart Family Dungeon, by the legendary Stu Hart, Bret and Owen Hart’s father. His first championship did not come in North America, rather it came in Japan where Benoit solidified himself as one of the premier junior heavyweights, under the names The Pegasus Kid and Wild Pegasus. He then had a one-year stint with the WCW in 1992 before going on to Extreme Championship Wrestline(ECW) in 1994. It was here in ECM, that Benoit dropped Pegasus name and adopted The Canadian Crippler as his alias. Benoit then came back to the WCW in 1995, where he’s remembered to have some great feuds, including one with BookerT, which elevated both of them as serious singles competitors.

By January 2000, Benoit has many disagreements with the management of the WCW, and so he, and 3 other stars include Eddie Guerrero, left for the WWE. It was here that he was to become world renowned. He also got a nickname- The Rabid Wolverine, in addition to the Canadian Crippler. In 2004, Benoit became the 2^nd person to enter as #1 in the Royal Rumble and go on to win the event. He won the World Heavyweight title from TripleH later in the year.

Benoit’s signature moves include the Diving Headbutt, Rolling German Suplexes, and the ‘most painful move ever’ The Crippler Crossface. (Believe me, it hurts!) His championships include the World Heavyweight Title, the US Title, several Tag Team titles, and Intercontinental titles, which were mainly won during his early feud with Chris Jericho. Benoit is also known for his close camaraderie with wrestler Eddie Guerrero, who died last year. When Benoit won the World Heavyweight Title in 2004, at the end of the show, he and Eddie, who was reigning WWE Champion, stood and celebrated in front of the crowd at Madison Square Garden.

Nobody knows why he killed his wife and kid, but let me tell you that wrestlers live really hard lives. Unless you’re a champion, you don’t get paid all that much. And you have to spend ~350 days on the road. NWA-TNA has all their shows in one location, so their wrestlers don’t have to travel around, but the WWE has their shows all around the world and so the wrestlers have to travel all over the globe. Imagine being on the road for 350 days in a year! Plus, a lot of wrestlers take body enhancing drugs, which has many side effects including random outbursts of anger, also known as ‘Roid Rage’. Who knows whether Benoit was in his right mind when he did it. He must’ve been under the influence of some drugs. Investigations are still going on into the cause of his death.

So RIP, Chris Benoit, The Canadian Crippler, and thank you for all the great moments!

Daily Paraphernalia 27/06/2007

Quick, look at your watch!!!! Know what time it is????

Iitttt’sssssss *drum roll* blog-updating time!!!!!

Yeah I know, a verrrrrrry ultra(corny) joke. So here’s my roundup of the past 2 days.

Yesterday was the ultimate nothing day. I didn’t do anything! I didn’t even go to the gym because I wasn’t feeling like it. I came back home and I was online for some time. Then I fell asleep in the evening for about an hour and a half. And then the regular schedule took its course…..prayer…dinner…and coming online again!

Today however, a lot happened. I had to wake up early.( Ok, I actually woke up at 9:30, but hey, it’s early for me.) For what, you ask? A hospital appointment. Both my mom and I had an appointment with the same doctor today. The results of the X-Ray and blood test I had given 2 weeks back came in, and thankfully nothing was wrong with me. Everything was normal. My dad then came and took me and my mom to the library. My mom went in and started reading while I went to the gym. I was pretty sleepy and didn’t stay long in the gym. Just half an hour or so.

I came home on the usual bus and on reaching home, I caught hold of this awesome aroma wafting through the streets from the nearby bakery. So I went and bought a freshly baked Zatar….and MAN it was good!

I went back home and ate the Zatar for lunch. Then I went down to this new barbershop here and got a haircut. Ok, this was the first time I was going to this shop. The barber was this Lebanese guy with a huge beard. And he only knew Arabic. Which made telling him what I wanted a bit difficult. But I think, in the end he understood what I wanted. Or that’s what I kept telling myself to make me feel better, cuz lol, he was doing things which I’d never experienced in a haircut before. Like using this huge hairdryer….I mean c’mon…..I just want a simple haircut. Then he kept saying things to himself, I dunno what, but it was like he was motivating himself. Hahahahaha!

So I came home and took a bath, and then came online for some time. I was still feeling sleepy, and I had the feeling that I was falling sick with a sore throat, so I decided to take a nap. That I did, and I was woken up by my parents at around 6:30 cuz we had to go out.

Dinner was kebabs, and it was good to eat them after a long time.

In some extremely sad news, Chris Benoit was found dead in his house in Atlanta, along with his wife and 7 year old son. More on this soon guys.

So adieu, and as Mick Foley used to say ‘Have a nice day everybody’!