they do...

apparently, the LUMS ITSC department has a sense of humor...

the new message boards (yes, LUMS finally has them too) have an ITSC problem solving forum, and this is one of their helpful messages:

background: it's hot as hell in Lahore right now

"OK, we have set the session time to '0' in
horde. 0 means "end session when user closes browser window. Hopefully
this will lead to the behavior you have asked for. The change will take
effect when horde is restarted. We will do that when the least number
of users are logged in because restarting will cause the users'
sessions to terminate.





Please close the window when you leave the machine. And close the door so that the cold air does not leave the room!"

George Carlin's View on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key. You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50, And your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90's, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

*HOW TO STAY YOUNG*

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them!"

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9 Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

i'm bored with this template...someone know where i can get a funky new one?
it's weird how, during exams, i'll get every last mind-numbing task done, but will refuse to open my books...

...

i love my gmail inbox right now - it's completely empty (yes, i'm part of that irritating group of people who archive all emails after replying!). i'm so happy i finally got through the gazillions of emails that had been waiting for me... yay!

anyway - now that the farewell is over (i made a brief appearance), there's that whole feeling of it's almost over. just these exams left, and May 29th will be the last day this batch will be in the same university. of course, i have to come back after the summers end, but it'll be without all the familiar faces...dang!

anyway - lots of other boring things happening...won't bore you.

The Social Events Team

Team Leader Social Events
Nida Rasheed (Pakistan)

Teamsters
Codruta Stefaniga (Romania)
Dorota Wysoczanska (Poland)
Ekaterina Shishchenko (Russia)
Seun Richards (Nigeria)
Siddharth Shivahare (India)
Vishal Jodhani (India)

2 months and counting...

From now onwards, this shall be known as the blog of the IC CC Team Leader Special Events! Just got the email, cannot begin to describe how giddy with joy I am!
2 months from now, I'll be working on the biggest AIESEC conference of the year, with the largest team possible - in Poland!! Yay!

Coming Home

Somebody forwarded this to me when I was in my sophomore year...

**
When you arrive at college, you know no one, you're in a strange place, and you
can't wait to go home and talk to the friends you left behind. But after a few
weeks, a few months even, you make new friends and eventually get to the point
where you don't want to go home because you don't want to miss a party on Friday
or going to the club on Saturday.

The next time you do go home, it
doesn't quite feel like home anymore. Your little brothers and sisters have
suddenly grown up and created a life that is better than spying on you. Nothing
seems the same anymore, no matter how much you try not to notice or think it's
not true.

When this reality hits, it's enormous, and the fact that no
one understands doesn't help. You find that old friends have moved on, and your
parents get on your nerves even more - they don't mean to, but they do. No one
understands what you have been through, or why you have changed. Only your
friends at school who go through it with you understand. And when you leave at
the end of the year, you leave behind those friends, and take all the memories
with you - the good, the bad and the ugly. It will hurt just as much to leave
your new friends at school as it did to leave your old friends at home.


Home will never seem the same, and you won't be able to bear the wait to
go back in the fall for more fun times, crazy moments and new friends. It
doesn't do much good to explain this to anyone back home, because no matter how
hard they try, they won't understand. Some won't even try. Family members don't
understand what you are thinking when you look around your house and notice that
nothing is the same. They may say you're imagining changes. The empty feeling
you get when you realize how much things have changed and how much you have
missed back home is hard to deal with.

But when you think about how much
you experienced in college and how you have become more independent, that empty
feeling will fade. You will be filled with memories of hanging out in your dorm
room watching movies with new friends, and that warm night you went for a walk
at 3 a.m. just to talk to a friend about a tough time. College things - the deep
conversations, the late-night parties, hours spent laughing at nothing, sad
moments when a friend is hurting - those are what will stand out the most in
your mind. In the end, you will realize that college is one of the your best
experiences.

by Heather C., Hillsborough, NC

i've been thinking about skipping the farewell - for those of you who don't know what it is, it's the LUMS equivalent of the "prom", without the dates - anyway...been thinking about missing it. last year was great, it ran on for too long, but things went well - and we threw a good after-party. this year, the party might not even happen. apparently planning isn't the 2007s forte, thus they don't have money to do anything other then a measly dinner and a title! since all i was looking forward to was the party, i might as well skip the whole shingding if there isn't one, go home, get some time with the parents, something i haven't done in a while.

even if i manage to forget the party fiasco, and do attend the dinner, all dressed up in a sari, with hair all perfect and dressed to the hilt, i'm going to get bored halfway through the 430 titles. yep, 430 people will be called on stage to recieve a title - something people may or may not have suggested for them, mostly its a randomly picked song. we suggested that we could skip the whole title thing this year, why does everyone have to walk on stage like there's a parade happening. but when the organizers (the 2007s) suggested it to the rest of my class, supposedly things were thrown at them...which is just stupid!

so there went my brilliant plan of just having a concert and dinner, now we have to sit through at least 7 hours of titles (1 minute per person (yeah right!) = 430 minutes or 7.something hours). thus, i'm thinking about skipping it - after all, it's not a life altering experience...most of us will end up pissed at each other for one thing or the other, the food wil not be eaten (who can eat in a sari?) and the only tangible thing that we'll get will be that one picture we get taken by the photographer at the photo booth (which i've heard they also don't have money for!).

but i know that skipping it will mean i will have to hear the question "but why?" atleast a million times (ok, maybe just a few hundred) between the event and graduation...i'll probably make history - no one misses their farewell - and end up becoming the outcast in the group...no pictures to share, no "d'you remember blah" conversations...

so...still undecided... :)

Raju...

For a creative writing class, we had to write about someone on the periphery of our lives - then we were told to alter it based on the feedback we got from the teacher/TA/class.

Original:
His day probably starts close to dawn, a trip to the market, a bike ride to LUMS. By the time the rest of us wake up and get to the store - for breakfast, or an early lunch - he's midway through his day, though you couldn't tell that from the way he reacts on seeing each and everyone of his customers. Always a smile, a reference to the previous week or the latest serial on TV. In the five minutes that you are in front of him, you have his attention, even if he has a backlog of orders he has to get to.

You would think, in all this talking, that he would mention his life, but he doesn't. That's because during the day, he's one of the students, not a worker in LUMS who has to go back to a life where he can barely support his family, but someone who relates to the average person in front of him. And for the students, thats who he is, he's the happy guy at the counter and if that's what he has to limit himself to, he will.

But if you sit in the store and try and look deeper, you'll see the stubborn spirit in him, the one that tells him to not care about authority and do things his way, you'll see the wistful looks at the new watches and mobiles everyone's sporting nowadays, the side glance at that hot girl who just ordered a juice, the stolen berries he just popped into his mouth and thinks no one noticed.

If you dig deeper, you can see who he is, and forget his circumstances, and that he's behind the counter and not in front of it. He really is no different than everyone else in this place, he doesn't have to try.

Altered:
The day starts close to dawn, a trip to the market, a bike ride to LUMS. By the time the customers start walking into the store - for breakfast, or an early lunch - it's midway through the day, but the smile doesn't reflect that. "Every customer is special, everyone must be talked to", the mantra goes through his head, "Orders can be caught up with later. Who's that new kid walking in the door? Never seen him before! Salam boss, freshie ho?"

You would think, in all this talking, that he would mention his life, but he doesn't. That's because during the day, he's one of the students, not a worker in LUMS who has to go back to a life where he can barely support his family, but someone who relates to the average person in front of him. And for these students, that's who he is. The happy guy at the counter...

"Raju this, Raju that"...the litany never stops. But somethings make it worth the while. The students treating him like he's part of the gang. Being at the front line, watching it all happen. Joining in the revelry as the LUMS teams beat GIKI again. All this makes it worth it.

It's hard sometimes. Watching all the kids go about their life without a care. A four year education gauranteed by their parent's bank accounts. But if he tries hard enough, he can be just like them, share a few laughs with the popular kids, eat the same food they eat, feel like he belongs.

But there's stubborn spirit in him, the one that tells him to not care about authority and do things his way, there are wistful looks at the new watches and mobiles everyone's sporting nowadays, the side glance at that hot girl who just ordered a juice, the stolen berries no one notices.

Dig deeper, and the real him is right there. Forget that he's behind the counter and not in front of it. He really is no different than everyone else in this place, he doesn't have to try.

I liked the original better - anyway - we don't get graded on assignments during the course, so have no idea how I did...but me is liking this class :)

Overload...

Finally, the overload concert pics are online. cool looking team, no? The two lines of people at the back are mostly security and roadies, the most important people in the Music Society :P

what age do i act?

apparently, 16...

try it out for yourself :)

...

don't shoot the puppy

who makes these game?? having said that - it is a must to get to level 14! hilarious!

a softer world...

A Softer World

overload...

last night was another insanely crazy night for the lums music society. the concert, was amazing. i'm too tired to write too much about how it went, but i've heard from people who were there - i was at the gate - that it was great music...and great security - YAY!

the band "overload" is different from the rest as it has in it, pappu saeen, who is plays the dhol. this was my first time watching him perform, and even though i was only there for the last ten minutes or so, it was really really awesome. hehe..that seems like an understatement here. there's really no describing the music, it's just great. there's a post on metroblogging lahore is you want to know more about him.

a huge thanks to the newly recruited security team who had the most difficult first day possible...you guys were awesome!!

the pic i'm putting up, i found on salman suhail's pc, hope he doesn't mind :P

pappu saeen

MC Apartment

Hey - After having seens Kurt's random attempts at trying to figure out where the MC apartment is, I finally decided to take pity on everyone trying to guide him and post the picture up myself :P
*finally got the postcard, the office says thank you*

evaluation of last year

This is late in the year...I filled it out in Jan but didn't think I should post it, but it's just lying there so I will...

1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before? lemme see...did a lot of new things. most significantly, i rode a "fun bus" (so named by nicole, because they look like "fun"! you've probably seen them in websites about pk - they're all coloured and stuff) in karachi. most significantly because i'd never considered riding one till she suggested it.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? never make any :) - i just take one day at a time

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? one of my cousins, a boy :)

4. Did anyone close to you die? no...

5. What countries did you visit? romania, india, uae

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? nothing, can't think of anything i'd want that i don't already have...

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? september 27, 2005! opening ceremony for IC 2005 is something i'll never be able to forget...the sheer magnitude of the conference, and the emotions it brought out in the Pakistani delegation - woohoo!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? have never been caught smuggling in visiting aiesecers (always female!) who stay overnight in my room, about 12 or so to date, and if i'm caught 1500 rs fine per person/per night...and a visit with the disciplinary committee (something i JUST found out!).

9. What was your biggest failure? i let a friendship die out because i was too busy with everything else...

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? the usual colds, sore throats, a minor ear infection, a foot problem i have right now...nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought? my nomad - which i have already broken!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? tori and delia - the hottest MC in the world! they've been through everything these last 6-8 months, and i've actually come to think of them as pakistanis!

13.Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? a friends...no names :)

14.Where did most of your money go? travelling

15.What did you get really, really, really excited about? winning LCP elections, both times!

16.What song will always remind you of 2005? the bunty n bubli soundtrack...sounds dumb - but it's so darn catchy!

17.Compared to this time last year,

I. are you happier or sadder? same same
II. thinner or fatter? fatter :)
III. richer or poorer? no change

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? hanging out with friends

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? getting scolded by parents...!

20. Did you fall in love in 2005? nope...

21. How many one-night stands? none...good girl!

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? nopes...

23. What was the best book you read? hmm...all four of dan browns book - can't remember which one i read when though

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? james blunt!

25. What did you want and get? funky new wallet and the nomad

26. What did you want and not get? laptop! boohoo!

27. What was your favorite film of this year? bunty n bubli! i know - kill me!! it's funny!!

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? turned 22, got a cool bag...

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? a laptop!

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005? same old, same old...jeans and t-shirts...

31. What kept you sane? who said i was sane?

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? that guy in lost - the doctor..something fox

33. What political issue stirred you the most? the mis-management of resources after the earthquake took place. people were actually burning the clothes we sent because there were too many for them to use - had this been better managed, we might've been able to help more before it snowed!

34. Who did you miss? weirdly enough - fahd majeed, a friend who moved to the states!

35. Who was the best new person you met? met a lot of amazing people, but nicole was undoubtedly the best! superstar!!

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005: never assume how people will react.

wacky...

i am so bored right now, it's not even funny. and i know most people will be thinking, why isn't she asleep yet (it's 3 am here), but i can't! i have to be up at 8:30 and get ready for the training session for our new members, and if i sleep now i won't wake up on time...and that can't happen. so i'll stay awake. tomorrow's pretty free anyway, so i can..

coming back to the point, i'm really bored. i've been playing "fish tycoon" for a couple of hours now, but it's not something you can do on it's own, so i also played AoE, checked my emails, prepared the sessions for tomorrow, updated the @lhr blog, and sorted out through 500mb of unsorted documents...but now i have nothing to do. so i went on google, and searched for "bored"...and very interestingly, i came up with this wacky website. i'm really tempted to try some of this stuff out now...

feeling depressed...

feeling blue? sad? wanna laugh? wanna see something cute?? Cute Overload

if you're looking for a laugh...

all i had to do was tell naureen i liked guinea pigs...now i'll never be able to look at guinea pig's the same way ever again. check out "the guinea pig way" to see what i'm talking about...

old pics...

while sorting out the many files that i have to upload/change/delete, i came across some pics from last summer...

first...rusty - found behind the tire of a car, brought to me while i was in a coffee shop by some friends and then stayed in my room in the dorms for two weeks, and then moved to islamabad for another couple of weeks before some moron drove to fast in a residential lane and probably didn't even realize he ran over a three month old kitten...anyway - found the two pics i took of him...

rusty


rusty and uzair (my nephew)

the other pictures are from the annual family migration to "dunga gali", a small city in the northern areas where my uncle has a house which gets filled to capacity during certain weeks in the summer...we only went for a few days this time - and as usual, nothing even remotely interesting happened - except for the leopards that attacked some village women and managed to kill a few goats, which resulted in my mom refusing to let any of us even venture outside the front door - thus making the already boring trip a maha-boring one! atleast we had our dvd player, books, cell phones on us. anyway - took these pics on the way back...the weather was really nice and the scenery was jst awesome...