2010 February Refocus

So its February now. Already. And I thought I’d just see where I am in terms of my resolutions. Maybe checking in monthly will help me achieve them. If you’d like to see my full original resolutions post you can click HERE.

1)  Workout and try and get into better shape (more quantifiably: go to the gym an avg of 3x a week so 156x in the year. so far its been 1.

So….January…not that great. I was sick for 1.5 weeks…but still not that great overall. However, I have gone 3x in the last week so inshaAllah I’m back on track and can keep it up

2)  To read more (I have like 20 unread books sitting on my shelf, I want to get through all of them and more this year)

I’ve been reading a lot lately. The news, random articles here and there. And of course my books. I finished Outliers (Great book! I highly recommend it), Blink (Good), and The Tipping Point (Good). If I find time I might write a post on them because there was a lot of cool information in them.

3)  Travel someplace new (I’m hoping for Egypt in April inshaAllah)

I booked my ticket to Egypt! InshaAllah I’m flying there April 1st

4)  Complete the PMP designation

……ahh not that great. Forcing myself to sit down and study is so hard! I need to do something to fix this…not sure what right now…but inshaAllah this month goes better…

5)  Spend less time on people that aren’t really friends and more on those that are (so if I don’t know you, and you don’t make an effort to talk to me equivalent to the level I put into you, bye bye)

I feel I’ve definitely improved in this. I’ve cut back on the amount of time I spend with some people that don’t really deserve it. I’ve reconnected with some other friends. But trying to find a balance between finding time for everyone (time that I want to spend) and then time for myself is a struggle. Theres still more people I haven’t had a time to really talk to or hang out with recently so I have to reach out to them.

6)  Smile more

  This was really about being more expressive. And……its still a work in progress. Feel free to encourage me

7)  Take more pictures with people (with me in the picture, and more pictures with family)

Hmm…I’ve been taking pictures…but…not a lot with me in the picture…I’ll have to keep that in mind.

8)  Meet more new people (particularly a certain type of people ……..help welcome :S  )

…no progress…… :S

hmm….I think I might have to make these progress updates protected in the future……just on the off chance there is progress…

9)  I will make a stronger, more conscious effort to be a better person.

I believe I’m moving in the right direction.

10)  I will try to do more, because I know I can.

Slowly but surely. The key now is to prioritize and fight the laziness.

How’s everyone else doing on their resolutions?

Where in the World? – Round 2 Answer + Where Next?

So its Friday, yay Friday!!!!!! haha. And I believe I’m allowed to reveal the answer now. And if not…..oh well, I already did haha. So the picture for round 2 can be found HERE. Interestingly people guessed 1 of 2 places. The first being France which………sorry is incorrect. And the 2nd being the correct answer. That being…….

INDIA!  The India Gate in New Delhi to be percise. I tried to trick people by putting a picture of myself freezing but I guess it only partially worked. As for why I’m freezing in India? Well I had just spent 3 months living in Chennai (Madras) in South India and its like 25+ Celcius there. Then going to Delhi at night, in windy area, it was still probably 10C but it was freezing to me! haha

If you’d like to guess the pictures of the others in this game you can follow This link to Liya’s Blog.

Now one more piece of info. This past weekend, Sunday actually. I booked my tickets for my next vacation!  I can’t wait!!!!  Although I’ll have to since I’m not going til April. April 1st to 11th actually inshaAllah. So here’s a pic to show you where I’m going.

I can’t wait!

Where in the World??? – Round 2

Round 2! – Where in the World??   Round 1 was here and the answer is in the comments.

For another view

I’m not sure how hard this one will be…..so I might post another pic for help in a few days.

To try guessing the other pictures in the contest you can visit Liya’s Blog Here.

You can do it. And you should start now!

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you can do,
or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius,
power and magic in it.

-Goethe

Where in the World???

Round 1! – Where in the World??? – Credit to Liya for the challenge/contest/fun idea

http://liyapilly.wordpress.com

5 years ago

A month or so back my friend Anojan emails me and several friends a email thread from 5 years ago. It was pretty funny looking back at it. We were all talking about what our plans were for the weekend and the upcoming winter holidays.

I was at the time doing an internship in India and talking about I’d just gone to Bangalore last weekend and couldn’t wait to explore more of northern India.

Anojan was doing an internship in London and talking about how he might take a full time job in nyc from the same company.

Gabe, Seiji, Ben were talking about the world of war craft haha

Darrin was talking about how he just won two 20 gig ipods worth $500 each.

Hillary and Vince we’re looking at what ppl wanted to do for winter break.

And well several other ppl were in there doing whatever. It was interesting thinking back to then and how life was and the path we were all on and how….things are so…..well where most of are now is not something we could have guessed back then. Thats life though, you can’t predict what the future will hold.  And I also found it cool that despite how different our lives/careers have been we’re all still good friends and hang out regularly

Oh and I also couldn’t believe that 20 gig ipods use to be so expensive

Geeki’s top of 2009 – A retrospective

Some site stats from 2009

Top 5 most viewed posts (excluding Home & About pages)

1. Makkah and Medinah – Umrah Trip (2610 – remarkably this post is 2-3 years old and overtime has grown to now account for a full 1/3rd of all traffic to my blog)
2. When I get older, I will be stronger (312 – I’m really surprised this one gets so many hits)
3. Duas for Ramadan Days 1-4 (192)
4. Ramadan Mubarak! (134)
5. Name that movie (125)

Top 5 Referrers

1. Azra @ azras-adventures.blogspot.com (217)
2. Haleem @ captainchaos.wordpress.com (195 – sorry Haleem, you’ve lost the top spot)
3. Isheeta @ isheeta.typepad.com (101)
4. Google via google.ca/reader/view (65)
5. Tweels @ tweels.wordpress.com (64)

Top 5 Search Terms ppl used to get to my blog

1. medinah (647)
2. toronto skyline (511)
3. masjid al nabawi (310)
4. we are who we choose to be (248)
5. muzdalifah (238) 

 Top 5 blogs visited from my blog (ie. ppl click on the blog link from my blog)

1. Isheeta @ isheeta.typepad.com (55)
2. Ruby @ rubytuesdays.wordpress.com (55)
3. Liya @ liyapilly.wordpress.com (43)
4. Miss Specs @ misspecs.wordpress.com (34)
5. Tweels @ tweels.wordpress.com (33)

Top 5(+1) Countries visiting my blog (with percentage of total site traffic coming from that country)

1. Canada (23.10%)
2. United States  (20.57%)
3. Unknown (12.66%)
4. United Kingdom  (8.23%)
5. Argentina  (6.33%)
6. South Africa (6.01%)

Amazingly (to me) I’ve also had visitors from: Malaysia,Germany, Indonesia, Tunisia, France, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, India, Ukraine, Morocco, Israel, Belgium, Japan, Turkey, Mauritius, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Poland, Oman, Mexico, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia And Montenegro, Italy, El Salvador, & Denmark (and actually I know its more b/c I know China and Taiwan should be on here…but thats where my log cuts off)

Random stats:

• I posted 102 times in 2009.
• I had 15,383 views last year
• I have 1,517 comments

I was going to post my favourite posts for 2009 but….I’m kinda lazy now, maybe another time. And although the traffic at my blog is fairly modest, I thank you all for visiting   And in the words of Apu, Come Again!

2010 already eh

Its 2010? Doesn’t that sound kinda futurisitic? Where’s my flying car and stuff haha

Anyhow, 2009 was a fantastic year. A lot happened, an incredible amount happened actually. And InshaAllah 2010 will be even better

And now to keep this short I’m going to jump straight into my resolutions for 2010

1. Workout and try and get into better shape (more quantifiably: go to the gym an avg of 3x a week so 156x in the year. so far its been 1).
2. To read more (I have like 20 unread books sitting on my shelf, I want to get through all of them and more this year)
3. Travel someplace new (I’m hoping for Egypt in April inshaAllah)
4. Complete the PMP designation
5. Spend less time on people that aren’t really friends and more on those that are (so if I don’t know you, and you don’t make an effort to talk to me equivalent to the level I put into you, bye bye)
6. Smile more
7. Take more pictures with people (with me in the picture, and more pictures with family)
8. Meet more new people (particularly a certain type of people    ……..help welcome :S  )
9. I will make a stronger, more conscious effort to be a better person.
10. I will try to do more, because I know I can.

My gift to everyone

The nice thing about being imperfect is the joy it brings to others.

Boxing Day!

Boxing day was……….it was just ok. I like to shop. Its fun. Particularly when its for me! haha   I hate the big crowds of ppl and waiting and oh man do I hate trying to find a parking spot! Its soooooo annoying. Anyhow, all I went out shopping for was movies and books. And I was kind of dissappointed, not a whole lot of great deals out there. Kind of makes me miss the states, things are definitely cheaper there. But I went about square 1 a bit, futureshop, bestbuy, and chapters and I did get a few things.

Some of the movies I got were:

The Wizard of Oz
Hell Boy 1& 2 (my mom wanted to see them)
When Harry Met Sally (an old but great movie)
Lord of the Rings trilogy (i know its long, but i like it)
Big Trouble in Little China (an old classic), and a few others.

I have to say I’m more excited about the books. Some of them include:
The Tipping Point
The Bottom Billion (a book about the poorest billion ppl in the world)
Blink
And 2 books I’m really excited about are a collection of stories from 1001 Arabian Nights! I`ve heard a few here and there but I`m more familiar with the mother goose, brothers grimm, and  hans christian anderson stories so I`m really looking forward to reading these and seeing what they are like

I`ll have to wait for a couple weeks on those though. I checked the store and it was just cheaper to go back home and order them online, from the same store! Weird.

Finally, I also go 2 boardgames. Risk and Mindtrap. Anyone want to play? hehe?