The Makiav3llian Enchantment…

Left with really no choice and the tormenting week that stood I just had to think of new hobbies to do. I mean I totally scrapped World of Warcraft, it just isn’t the game for me and all my other games seem to have bore out, well except for Football Manager 2007. Been back lifting my weights and I am just trying to push myself to get back on the jogging track. I am trying to take things one at a time but sometimes you just got to multi-task. I just think I’ve had enough of my life being over run by a computer.
Yesterday, my brother and I were running a little errand for Popong buying his turn table and we’ll be shipping it to Qatar in the next couple of days. Anyways, so while we were shopping for the Gemini TT-03, my brother and I went to get a guitar as well. I’ve already expressed my desire to learn from Jennifer, our flat mate who plays the guitar too. She’ll actually be my teacher of sorts along the way but mostly, it will be a solo act and I am hoping that I can pickup real quick. The guitar looks wonderful and I did get it for as a promo. Strap, bag, picks and speaker too. Cost me almost 570AED approximately, 7250PhP which is a lot but heck, Dubai ain’t cheap and will not be any different with our strung up friend.
The only thing I can do right now is pour my mind and soul into it and hopefully get my act together and play some serious tunes. My left fingers are already aching just learning the C chord. That is just one chord. Screw it! Pain just kills time.

Everyone is in a buzz in Dubai about Salik. Salik is basically the road toll system in the UAE. Of course, its a big deal or show of technology because there are no toll gates to create traffic. Well, I am sorry to break this to you but this isn’t so high-tech as it may seems and this is probably the reason why you have to pay premium. This technology is already being used in Australia and other first world countries really, so its nothing new. It’s just two things really:

• You pay for the high-tech RF stuff they use that collect credit from your Salik Card
• You pay for the use of Shaikh Zayed Road

This Salik thing actually has been advertised incorrectly, everyone actually thinks that this is there to ease traffic and congestion. Come on people, connect the dots! There are only 2 collection points each route at the moment (Inbound and Outbound Dubai) and these are very easy to bypass and of course, all other road users can converge at their regular traffic points. It isn’t there to ease traffic; Salik was created to collect an amount from the road users because after all, Shaikh Zayed road wasn’t built for free. Of course there are other fines we worry about like parking fines and speeding and these do help in putting up better roads and other facilities. But let’s face it you earn double in Dubai you spend three times more than where you came from. The bridges, fly-overs, underpass, side walks and even the flowers planted by the Municipality, we pay for them.
By the way, if you plan to take cab that runs along Shaikh Zayed Road, each time the cab passes by Salik, you get additional 4AED on your tab. Government run service, and it still isn’t free from government fees… Swell ain’t it?

Well, my so called project has been stagnant for the past 6 months and nothing really new to keep everyone excited about it. Right now, the hardware is still the same and no upgrades have been done. However, I am quite pleased with the out come of events although I am not very happy with my memory and processor at the moment. I believe they will not have a place in the second hand market either as the prices for memory has dropped immensely and selling it off at such a big loss does not make good business sense. The processor on the other hand is a week 24 which is the first and by far the worst when it comes to overclocking. Maybe my combination is not right but usually this is the price you pay when you are the first of all your peers. Of course there will always be bragging rights and I’m glad I had the opportunity. The question now is will I be able to complete the project I started 18 months ago?
You see hardware doesn’t really last a long time, like the mobile phone business, it is over run within the next six months for me, the mobile phone is a worthless investment if you just keep changing every now and then, the PC is the same. The system performs the way I want it and I believe I will be changing parts maybe next year or so. I may actually be following the steps of my friend Cris who just ditched his desktop PC, it was one of the grandest one, and replaced it with an Asus laptop. I may follow soon but let me just get the video card for this baby. I believe I will be looking at a grand total of 7000AED to complete the transition getting a high end video card and a nice AMD tablet for me or I can just scrap the video card and shop for a laptop. Of course, again, I am waiting for DX10 compatible laptops in the market. Darn! I hate this; the waiting game just never ends.

I think you’ve read endless articles of Dubai DOs and DONTs during summer. I guess its time for me to come up with my own. My goodness, it’s bloody hot and humid, I mean I am stating something quite obvious but the words to describe them is an understatement. As we slowly approach the peak of summer (July and August) the whole day that passes by is a typical Mercury evening but the thing that bothers me is the humidity. Humidity is the amount of airborne water particles in the air. It’s so humid sometimes I feel like I am walking in a swimming pool. It’s just so hot and humid that after 3 minutes of brisk walking, the first bead of sweat starts to trickle from your eyebrow. Five minutes later, you are sweating profusely as if your pores opened up an interplanetary portal to Waterworld.

Anyways, here is my version of DXB summer DOs and DONTs.

• Keep hydrated. You lose a lot when you sweat it out. Drink preferably water or fruit juices since soft drinks do not offer nutritional value. I don’t think tea refreshes you at all as confirmed by our friends from the sub-continent (SC friends). If you lose water or body fluids all that remains is chemical goodness (not) from your soda.
• Bring a handkerchief, damn, bring a towel. Bringing handkerchief isn’t as homo as many of you’d think. So if you think using table napkins or tissue is a better idea, I think you’ve got a little tissue torn off on your forehead.
• Wear a shirt or vest inside. It would be extremely disturbing seeing a male wet T-shirt contest coming from sweat, its down right crazy to the 13th level, I’d say you are better off jumping into a swimming pool. Wet T-shirt contests are a male spectator sport played by WOMEN only.
• According to research perfume should be put on sweat prone area as it releases its essence when in contact with sweat. Unfortunately, our SC friends’ essence over power what ever perfume we have on.
• Put a towel on your back. As school-boyish as it seems, it’s an essential. I think the females find it cute. Anyone care to comment?
• If you can’t take the heat, stay in. Contrary to the well known catch phrase, don’t bother going out if you really can’t take it. Stay indoors and well, just stay there. Don’t start whining because the sun and heat will stay there. Ergo, don’t get into a heated discussion outside because it just gets worse there after.
• Don’t wear long sleeve shirts and tie coming to work. Wear it when you arrive at work. Covering your body means covering your pores and if pores get covered, they open up those interplanetary portals. I think same goes for applying lotion. Lotion, particularly those that don’t dry up quick, is there to keep moisture in your body, it’s a counter for water trying to come out.  
• Eye cover not head cover. It’s debatable but I did find out that its better to just have cover for your eyes than having a cap. I would prefer an umbrella over a cap. Your head sweats too you know.
• Lips, don’t forget the lips. They chap and crack because of the heat. If you want to lay a big wet one, make sure your lips are soft and easy on the lips of your partner. Either keep them moist by using water or ChapStick® or let your tongue do some licking around. Don’t be too obvious though, you maybe giving a different sign and you’ll get a different kind of lickin’.