Anybody for scuba..

I’ve been planning to go scuba dive for the past one month but just havent got around to actually going ahead. A few days ago, I got hold of the canon powershot A610. Now I’m waiting to get my hands on the underwater shooting kit that comes with it and using that as motivation to go dive….

As a side show, I’ve been planning a vacation trip somewhere close to home. And just south west of Pakistan (about 435 mi south-west of Sri Lanka to be exact), I found an island paradise, Maldives . Surprisingly, I knew very little of this nation of tiny islands and how far ahead it is as an island resort. Heres what I could gather about it and have marked it as my next vacation spot for sure…

Info about Maldives, Wiki Reference:

1. Maldives is the smallest muslim country, south west of Sri Lanka.
2. Its the smallest Asian country that is a member of the UN
3. Research indicates that as early as 2000 BC, Maldives lay on the maritime trading routes of early Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus Valley civilizations.
4. With eighty-six tourist resorts in operation, the year 2000 recorded 467,154 tourist arrivals.
5. And my favorite, the best past time for tourists are white sand beaches, scuba diving, snorkeling, ocean line cruises, nightlife, and shopping.

So Maldives has to be in schedule for the next vacation .

– Tashfeen.

blog…what blog??? prepare to be assimilated….

Writers block…

But wait, its just cured. Just now, I was talking to a friend of mine whose a doctor. He asked me simple question. “What is a blog, its supposedly the IN thing. I want to know more about it so that I can jump on it too…”.

Simple enough answer right. But no, since I’m a techie, I suffer from what the people call “number of electricians changing a light bulb” syndrome. I’ll start off real simple and even though I know the other person has got the real gist of things, but I want to go on and on and explain to him in finer details.

And there I go. Social networking, RSS feeds, posts, ping back….BUT WAIT, not this time. This time I simply let my mind wander off like Dr. John Dorrian from Scrubs and stopped right there instead of ‘thinking out loud’.

So instead of doing what I usually WOULD HAVE done under normal circumstances and explaining in long detail about what a blog is, I just answered and I quote myself in msn messenger text:

//Tashfeens Chat with his physician friend whose a non techie and wants to know more about Blogging

Tashfeen – says:
its some peoples way of saying that they currently are trying to expand their social life without getting out of their cozy homes…and some are more successful than others…

friend says:
but how does it work. how do run a blogg?

Tashfeen says:
just visit any blog site like:

// Here the author gives his friend web urls of various blog sites…

Tashfeen says:
and make a blog…

friend says:
hmmm , nah man ive already t much to do…

friend says:
wudnt wanna add another thing to my list..

now wasnt that too simple. Its not like i’ve told him to initiate the warp reactor by fiddling with the quantum matrix crystals :p…therefore proof, that most people shy away from blogs because they think that blogs are too technical and hence only for techies…

still the trend is fast catching on…

Question: What is a blog?
Answer: GEEKS R US…prepare to be assimilated…

enjoy the weekend…:)

Shaukat Khanum Cancer treatment and Research Hospital

There are only a few things in this world that bring people joy and true sense of acheivement. Charity is one of those things. And what better way to kick it off than a charity drive for a cause. These days Imran Khan , Pakistans former cricket team captain and currently an active politician is running a charity drive for his cancer treatment and research hospital, the Shaukat Khanum Cancer treatment and Research Hospital. Along with him are former Miss World, Shushmita Sen and another former Pakistan cricket team captain Wasim Akram. Their live charity drive telethon is being broadcasted on Geo TV throughout the 9th and 10th of September. Additional information on the telethon broadcast schedules and timings, the donations hotline, and charity pledges hotlines is available at this website.

Imran Khan founded the hospital after winning the world cup for Pakistan in early 90s. Both running the hospital and treatment of cancer patients are done through charities, zakat, and donations from people all over the world. Therefore the treatment for the poor is completely free.

They have a set donations mark that they are trying to acheive for this years patient treatment and any amount of donations would help a great deal. People can get additional details and make pledges and donations through the Shaukat Khanum Hospital Website.

In addition, a very cool Red Wrist Band Campain for Cancer Patients treatment with ‘Cancer is curable’ engraved on it has been initiated by the doctors and TOTAL Parco Pakistan Ltd. These wrist bands are also available at select Bata shoe stores across Pakistan.

Lets help drive cancer into yesterdays problem…

Again important websites for contributions and additional information:

Shaukat Khanum Website

Hot lines, Hot pledges, online donations, additional information, click me

Cool Wrist Band Campaign

– Tashfeen.

Pakistani ‘daughter of the soil’ to go on VSS Galactica..

“Cap’in Archer. The Andorian ship is hailing Enterprise. What should we do”…”Hello Pink-skin…”…

This looks like an early episode from the first season of Star Trek (Enterprise). Since my last post is tagged in the ‘space‘ category, my interest in the dark expanse has been reignited. I recently learnt that a Pakistani artist Namira Salim, is part of the crew of seven people who will head into space in Virgin Galactica’s and Scaled Composite’s  ”VSS Enterprise” in 2008. This is the first commercial venture taking people to space and will mark as a forerunner to the space age tourism.

Last year, I was hooked on a documentary on Discovery Channel titled “Black Sky: Winning the X Prize“. ”

– Kevin Bacon, Angelina Jolie, and I…

Kevin Bacon, Angelina Jolie, and I (aka me) are related…

Interesting thought right, if only it were true. But its not entirely false either. Let me explain… 

Since I’ve been researching a lot on the human genetic lineage, I thought it’d be interesting to look around in the present and see how many people I am related to (through ancestral DNA or anyone who I might know directly or indirectly). We’re all aware of the phrase “six degrees of separation“,  a hypothesis that states that “anyone on Earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances with no more than five intermediaries.”

Related to this hypothesis, a lot of social networking projects started up and gained a lot of momentum. Two such off-shoots are the Bacon Number and the Erdos Number …

The first number is related to Kevin Bacon (yup the Hollywood actor). How did Kevin Bacon suddenly become the centre of the Hollywood universe. Seems like he’s the most linkable actor (meaning any star can relate to either working with him directly or know someone who has) according to the Oracle of Bacon website which houses a large IMDB (internet movide databae). So Angelina Jolie has a Bacon Number of 2 since:

Angelina Jolie was in Life or Something Like It (2002) with Melissa Errico, while Melissa Errico was in Loverboy (2005) with Kevin Bacon.  

So how do I calculate my Bacon number.  ”