I'm not much of a flying person

So am back in NZ *sad* (I want to be back in Jordan with my cousins) I've had enough of airports...seriously. I'm so jet lagged at the moment since I'm sitting on a chair, which reminds me of sitting in an airplane lol *nightmare*. It was a really really rough flight from Oman to NZ to the point that I became so pale that I got called a ghost *cries remembering the flight*. It's not that it was scary and like "oh we're gonna die" kind of flight, but it was just really tiring, uncomfortable, unbelievable turbulence, bad "driving" (talking about the pilots here), bleh I don't know...it was just all messed up really. OH!! I'm never touching airplane food again...EVER!!

Despite all of this...this trip is by far the most amazing trip EVER!! El 7amdulellah it was wonderful and we were surprised by how wrong we were about Jordan lol.

*Stay tuned for posts from my diary of this trip + the pictures =D *

Dubai Airport
waiting in front of our gate .

This bag has become my traveling bag and
this is my new favorite key chain.

Our stupid plane (Emirates) at Aussie (Melbourne Airport)
Loved the sky.

Anyways I'm glad that I'm home on the ground...safe xD I'm not much of a flying person (it seems) lol. What I'm loving about NZ at the moment is the cold weather! I think we came back when the coldness hits harder. Also, the thought of seeing Sarz and having sushi for lunch at uni.

I've missed a week of uni...will be getting back to it tomorrow. Aaargh! The thought of that seems tiring lol. Taking 4 papers this semester SMST319 (Game Studies), COMP436 (Advanced Graphics and Computer Games), COMP437 (User Interfaces for Information Retrieval), COMP477 (Report of an Investigation). I'm quite excited actually cos they seem like fun papers. I read what the first project for the "Game Studies" paper and what we have to do is play a horror game (=D), analyze it, talk about it and compare horror games with horror films. It's a 2000-2500 words essay so gotta do some major research also. I have no idea which game to play but I'm thinking of Resident Evil 4. I've played it before and gave up on it cos it freaked me out =\ lol. The "Report of an Investigation" is a full semester project *freaky* where I'll be supervised by one professor (cos it's his topic). I chose "Hierarchical Menus" and it's going to be web based (perfect!) where I have to come up with ways of making menus better and user friendly. That's as much as I know anyways...so hope it's going to be good!

Anywho, this is what I've got to say so far...will start writing about my trip (I kept a diary like I promised =P) and posting more pics inshallah.

Goodbye for now

*Sings P.O.D's song*
Goodbye for now
Goodbye for now
So long...

Wow O.o It's finally....today! To my surprise, I don't feel anything what so ever xD I'm normal, as if today is another day of the week, except we're only going to be traveling a couple of 1000k's horizontally and vertically, to the otherside (*sings Red Hot Chili Peppers song Otherside xD) of the world. lol. I guess it will totally "hit" when we get to the airport and realize =O we're actually going...there.

So it's raining. Yup! Such a prefect day for rain...-________- This whole week was absolutely beautiful, sunny, blue clear skies, but here I am, staring out the window (oh how dramatic xD) looking at how gray, miserable and crappy the weather is. Well on a positive note at least we're leaving this rain, cold (though I'll miss the cold) and miserable weather, to go to an OVEN (lol) and sunny skies. Inshallah it'll be great!

Now everyone, please keep your blogs alive and kicking =P I want to come back to a lot of entries to read and heck I'm going to comment on everything I've missed even if you don't end up reading them...at least I commented =D So yeah! This goes out to Sarz (take care of 3WsC for me and Phat lol...we're both away so it's up to you to make it ROCK!! I know you'll do an awesome job!), mr. cK, sweet faith (I'm going to see you soon young lady =D), dear muggle and nadia...just basically everyone on my blog roll. You guys are all interesting and I love reading your blogs =D

*** I won't make this too long cos I have a few things to do before we get going to the airport, but here I am, asking from ALL of you guys, especially those that know me and talk to me, to forgive me =) If I ever said anything that might have offended or hurt you...I'm sorry =(

N.B. I sometimes do this 'thing' where I say something (I don't realize it then) and after that it's too late and thinking about it I realize that it wasn't such a good thing to say =(...I don't like when this happens =\ Wanted to complain/blog about it even.

So yeah! Please forgive me, just in case something happens to the airplane or something (=P jokes. Shouldn't joke about these things O.o) and I don't want to leave this world knowing that there could be someone(s) that maybe hurt/angry from me.

Take care of yourselves everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful time with what you're up to at the moment and Inshallah I'll be back to blogging and commenting on your blogs soon enough.

To Sarz: Love you hon! You rock!!! Take care and I'm going to miss you so much *cries* Don't watch any movies till I'm back =P

Okay! I'm off to do a bit of work before the mini bus comes picks us up to take us to the airport.

Byeeeeee! ^_^

Travel date - 18th June Friday 2009
Take off - 6:00pm

Oh.My.Gosh!!! >_<

Movie-land

I'm too excited that I have no idea how to start this post.

So I visited the Emirates Airlines website, a few minutes ago, to check out what movies they'll be showing on our flight and WOW!! Okay. WOW! I hope I'm not getting excited for nothing because it's not really clear if all the movies they have in the table are actually the ones they'll be showing...but if they will be shown then that's just....AWESOME!! *cries*

Here's the list of all the movies on the flight (hopefully):

- Australia
- Bedtime stories
- Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia
- Bolt
- Bride Wars
- Changeling
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
- Doubting Thomas : Spies and Lies
- Down and Derby
- Easy Virtue
- Forever Strong
- Frost/Nixon
- Gran Torino
- Happy-Go-Lucky
- High School Musical 3: Senior Year
- Inkheart
- Killshot
- Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (second time...this movie is too good xD)
- Man on Wire
- Marley & Me
- On Broadway
- Paul Blart : Mall Cop
- Pride and Glory
- Quantum of Solace
- Revolutionary Road
- RocknRolla
- Seven Pounds
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Smother
- Take
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- The Ramen Girl
- The Wrestler
- Transporter 3
- Twilight
- Underworld : Rise of the Lycans
- Valkyrie
- Yes Man

They also just added:

- 12 Rounds
- Dean Spanley
- He's Just Not That Into You
- New in Town
- Race to Witch Mountain
- Save Angel Hope
- Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
- Taken
- The Edge of Love
- The International
- The Pink Panther 2
- Watchmen

Okay! So all the bold-ed, colored ones are the ones I want to see inshallah. Going crazy here xD I'm going to read about the others just in case I remember what they're about lol. It looks like I'm going to get puffy, dark under eye circles cos I won't/can't sleep while travelling, especially by plane...but that's totally fine with me =D Though I do hope I get a little nap or something.

Oh and help me out here...if you guys have seen some of the movies in those lists, advise me on the must see, the good and the not worth watching movies.

Yaay! Hope it'll be a good, not scary full of turbulence flight lol *cries*

[What's this?] Your life must be boring

I was washing my face yesterday night getting ready to go to bed around 11:45pm when I hear a bunch of people shouting and talking loudly in front of our house's driveway. At first I didn't pay much attention to them, because it was very obvious that they were drunk and I was really focusing on washing my face lol. But then I heard this guy shout out, loudest of all:

Drunk guy: "STACEY!!! I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABY!!!"

I laughed and said out loud "what the hell?!". Then I started remembering and thinking how (mostly) students here seem to only have fun when they're drunk. It's not what I came up with, it's what I've been told. Getting drunk here is like the only way you can have fun...if you don't drink then you are told that "you have a boring life" or "what do you do for fun?"...so on.

I remember back in my first year, where a friend was telling me, that his friends and himself have a special gathering every Friday at a bar where they'd drink so much at 12pm in the afternoon. That's pretty shocking and he was only 18. He used to say, that he didn't understand how 'we' (Muslims) don't drink...how do we have any fun if we don't drink?! I ended up explaining to him that you don't need to be drunk to have fun. There's a million ways of having any sort of fun with the advantage of being fully awake and aware of what you're doing and what's happening around you. At least you won't end up regretting anything the next day when you realize or remember what happened the day before. Here he replies that that's the 'beauty' of being drunk...even if you do something stupid/crazy/messed up, you won't regret it because you were drunk. You had no control over yourself. You basically can do whatever you want and won't even think twice whether to do it or not. You just do it, because you can! Shocking right?! lol. The conversation went on, where I was trying to convince him that what he's saying is stupid (lol) and that you don't need to be drunk to have fun, while in return he tries to convince me that I must go for a drink to really understand what he means. Yup! Over my dead body =)

I remembered another occasion - though I wasn't there, I was told about it by Sarz xD - also in first year of uni, where the Engineering Department had a boat race day for the students that took a certain engineering paper where they had to build mini boats with motors. On that day, each team with their built boats are to race each other and so on. They were having a bbq and stuff so that's normal, but what wasn't is the beer. Students actually ended up getting drunk during the day, where lectures were still being given even after the boat racing had ended. I remember when I met up with Sarz for lunch, she told me that T, a former class mate, just came over to her and H, where out of the blue he says 'ALLAAAAH' and made a toast like gesture at herself and H as if he was saying 'cheers' to them. How retarded is that?! lol.

I truly feel sorry for these people. I can't believe that they rely on getting drunk just to have any sort of fun. How sad is that?! It's the worst, most shocking thing I've ever heard while living here. I guess they only look at the 'good side' (if any) of drinking and ignore the bad side. It's bad enough that most, if not all, end up regretting something that they might have done or gotten into because they were too drunk to control the situation and for the fact that they 'can do whatever we want' idea when they are drunk. Sad!

All I say is...El 7amdulellah wal shukur =D

Vehicle Release

So apparently, I parked in the "wrong place" at uni today...ended up having my car held in place with those yellow, clip...thingies that go around the tire (forgot the name) to stop you from taking off with your car. I had to pay 40 bucks to get my "Vehicle Released" (equivalent to 10 Omani Rials). Honestly, what a waste of money....could've watched 2 movies with popcorn and frozen coke *cries*.

Edit: found out they're called Wheel Clamps lol.
Not my car...just an example from google =P

OK! So here's the thing. I thought it was a parking spot. It had the white lines that tells you that it's a parking, but they were severally faded. But I thought it's okay anyway, as long as I'm not blocking any ones way and that place totally makes a good parking spot -______- Anywho, Sarz and I went into the lab and after an hour or so of "working" we decided to go eat something, only to come out and see that there was a yellow clip thingy on the front right tire of my car and a note under the window wiper (what ever it's called lol) -______- The note said I was parking on a yellow line (-___-) and I have to pay $40 to get my car released. Then I started panicking (don't know why)...like I needed this to happen to me today (having a really crap day seriously *sad face*). They were so quick as if they were waiting for someone to park there and fine them. EVIL!!!

I ended up complaining for a while. Actually, I complained a lot today...which is.....bleeeh! I hate when I do that but I guess I reached a point where I just wanted to complain. Yes! The day was that bad, but there were really nice and funny moments here and there.

Mama is half to Oman at the moment and I truly miss her! Allah yewa9elek bel salameh ya rab! <3

I've been working my butt off with house work which is weird coming from a lazy person =P Guess I'm not so lazy after all. I am totally enjoying it but it get's stressful after a bit lol.

I've somewhat started on my MBT assignment (complaining: I wish we didn't have an assignment) but I need to read the book before I can do anything. Actually I can't do anything cos I'm not understanding much =\ YEAH! Here's another thing. Our Golem/Smigel (LOTRs creature) look alike lecturer sucks when it comes to explaining things in an assignment. He asks of us to do...actually taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaf (pass)! lol. Tomorrow is a new day, so I'm going to be positive and hope that the sun shines brighter!! *cries*

This song was in my head for some unknown reason. Out of the blue =S It actually ticked me off, but it was stuck in my head xD The guitar sounds fantastic in the video though. Love it!

[Music] Pillar - Rewind

Wow! I'm so into this song at the moment.
Very beautiful, soft, smooth but sad; lyrics, music and voice wise!

Absolutely beautiful.

[Series] Prison Break

Plot: Season 1

'Prison Break' revolves around two brothers: one who has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and his younger sibling, a genius who devises an elaborate plan to help him escape prison by purposely getting himself imprisoned. The brothers, along with six other prisoners at Fox River State Penitentiary, manage to escape in the final episode of the season.

Plot: Season 2

The brothers, along with six other prisoners at Fox River State Penitentiary, manage to escape, and the second season follows a massive manhunt chasing the group. Dubbed the Fox River Eight, the group splits and members go their individual way, occasionally meeting up to help each other. They struggle to escape from the police while avoiding a secret group of multinationals called The Company, that wants them all dead.

Plot: Season 3

Ultimately recaptured and sent to a Panamanian jail, Penitenciaría Federal de Sona, at the end of the second season, the third season revolves around Michael's breakout from Sona with several other inmates.

Plot: Season 4

A quest for vengeance starts where Michael and Lincoln realize the only way they will truly be free is by taking down The Company. With the help of a government handler, they assemble a group of allies and familiar faces to aid in their seemingly impossible task.

They'll soon discover the only thing harder than breaking out is breaking in.

---------------------------

I don't know where to even begin. Will I can first start by saying that Prison Break is officially the best and most amazing series I've ever seen. Officially!! I'm definitely going to get the Dvds, just to watch it over and over again. Yes! It's THAT good and even better. I only was able to finish the last few episodes of the last season at 2am this morning xD I had to know what happens. It was THAT...BIG. So I'm the last to watch it out of everyone that's following this series and I've been told that it's a sad ending. I wasn't expecting it to be THAT sad to the point that I cried so hard....at 2 am in the morning =P It's the only series where I cried so much...that final episode was twice as much tears compared to the seasons added up.

I got into bed and immediately started thinking about the finale, and shook my head at how unexpected it was. I woke up for Fajr and what am I doing? Thinking about the finale and shaking my head xD Yes! And until now...I'm still shocked and shaking my head. O.O *thinks about finale and stares at screen*

Season 1 was kick @ss, so hardcore. No wonder we came back to watch the second season. Season 2 was great and pretty sad too...I think this is where the tearing started up lol. Season 3 was nice (for different reasons =P) but not as good as the previous seasons...on a certain level anyways. Season 4 though...wow! Yeah season 4 pretty much sums it all up, huh?! Such a powerful season, and the finale couldn't have been more powerful-er. It was SO friggin' good! Shock after shock after SHOCK! It's actually messed up...but then it's totally understandable.

I don't know what to say...Prison Break is too good to be missed. You're ALWAYS at the edge of your seat, always thinking; not just of the what's going to happen (yes cliffhangers at the end of every episode) but just to understand what's going on and as if you're part of the series...you even try to come up with strategies.

I'm definitely going to miss it and miss all the hotties that were in it <3 It had to end sooner or later though. The sigh of relief I gave when it was over...wow!

Really good stuff! A major recommendation.
I'm sorry...but you're crazy if you're not watching or didn't watch this series!

[Movie] Disturbia (2007)

Plot:

After his father's death, Kale becomes sullen, withdrawn, and troubled -- so much so that he finds himself under a court-ordered sentence of house arrest. His mother, Julie, works night and day to support herself and her son, only to be met with indifference and lethargy. The walls of his house begin to close in on Kale. He becomes a voyeur as his interests turn outside the windows of his suburban home towards those of his neighbors, one of which Kale begins to suspect is a serial killer. But, are his suspicions merely the product of cabin fever and his overactive imagination?

lethargy: deficient in alertness or activity ^^

---------------------------

G's thoughts:

WOW!! This movie is AWESOME! I think I remember when it first came out (2007) and wanting to see it, but some how didn't. Am I glad that I did! I found it by chance on the shelve at the video store (I randomly picked 4 movies of the thriller section without reading the back info of the dvd O.O). Haven't seen it there before =\ Anywho, the movie is your typical thriller (but it's good!), except there's a little romance going on, plus a light comedy here and there. It gets you in suspense, then you're fine the next moment. Then again it puts you in suspense. lol.

Shia LaBeouf!!!!!! Who does NOT like this person?! Seriously. This guy is such an awesome actor, that I've enjoyed every single movie I've seen him in (except for Constantine...that movie just sucked with a capital S IMO). He was really good, along with David Morse, who was one chilly guy. Meaning he was scary O.O gave me the chills. Carrie Anne-Moss (chick who played Trinity in The Matrix movies) is in this movie also, and I didn't like her much, because she was really mean. lol.

I watched it twice. Lol. YES! Once was without the commentary the second time with the commentary with Shia, the director (DJ) and the chick who played Ashley (she has a nice voice xD) in the movie. It was really funny *the commentary*, like they made fun of each other, yet at the same time they'd explain how the scene was shot and what they had to do in some scenes, and so on.

9.7/10 hands down...absolutely loved it!!

A MUST watch!! It's too good to miss.

Band: If These Trees Could Talk

I seriously don't get why this band is not THAT famous (?). Why is it always that the suck-y musicians get famous while the hardcore, great ones are not even well known? Huh?!

If These Trees Could Talk self titled album is absolutely great!! Actually it's all that I've been listening to for the past week, and still listening. This is the kind of music I truly enjoy. It's pure music. No vocals, no lyrics. Everything is expressed through the music. Trust me, you will feel it! I've always been the "music listener" more than the "lyrics listener", so that explains my attraction to the band. Plus I'm a guitar freak and this band is all about guitar music.

Genre: a heavy shade of instrumental Post-rock.

So their music is instrumental. Mainly electric guitars, bass guitar and a set of drums. What more can I ask for, eh?! The band consists of 3 electric guitarists, 1 Bassist and 1 drummer. Everything is made using only those 3 instruments. The effects done using the guitars are flippin' awesome. At first I thought there was some piano/techno device but it turned out to be just the electric guitars but with effects!

I first discovered them when I watched the new COOL (=O) PS3 game inFAMOUS (<< cool official website), where their song "Malabar Front" got featured in the trailer of the game. If you haven't seen the trailer yet...-_______-

Watch it here - inFAMOUS Trailer <<<<

So yeah! I liked the song so much while watching the trailer...that I decided to hunt for the song/band name. Yay for me, I found them and managed to get my hands on one of their albums.

They just rock! Seriously.

If These Trees Could Talk - Malabar Front

Yes! It's an 8:05 minutes long instrumental. True that their self titled album has 5 songs only, but they're no shorter than 4:06. Absolutely great! <3

Here I come: Oman & Jordan

By ~jordanians and ~buthy-13

I was supposed to post this on the 26th but a lot of things happened so I ended up forgetting about it and blogging about R instead =\

Anywho, exactly what the title says. My family and I are going to be traveling from NZ all they way to sweet sweet but HOT (=\) Oman and Jordan. Honestly I've got these mixed feelings in me about this whole trip. Like, I'm excited and all but at the same time, I'm like =S this is big. Haven't travelled in while. Things have changed...so on.

We're going to see relatives (Jordan) who we (bros and I) haven't seen for a really long while (since 2003 =\). Go around Jordan and visit all its historical places, and so on. Plus there's Oman...I MISS OMAN!!! I'm actually more excited for Oman than Jordan, which is funny because I'm staying longer in Jordan than in Oman (5 days out of 23...I think it's 23 days). Last time I was in Oman was on January 2006. So I'm sure it's all changed and stuff.

Distribution of days as follows:

~ First stop Oman #Days = 2
~ Second stop Jordan #Days = 16
~ Third stop back to Oman #Days = 3
~ Fourth and final stop NZ -_____-

What am I going to do in Oman for the first stop? Buy a Phone (and burn my 6630 xD), a camera, visit a beach (!), eat Ista6ambooli shawarma (!), a Supreme Zinger, BBQ-ed 7abbar with tamerin sauce (<3) (!) and most importantly meet up with some close friends who I haven't seen since 2006 =( I'd like to go to the cinema but maybe there's not much time for that..who knows *eyeing Faith =P* Also I gotta get as much rest as possible...going to be so jet lagged. The trip is direct from Aussie to Dubai; 14 hour flight. I'm so not looking forward to that >.< but I am looking forward to all the movies I could possibly watch *huge smile*

As for Jordan...things will just happen by themselves...there's no specific plan really. But we know where we want to go, see, visit and what we want to eat! lol.

I've decided to stay away from the net/laptop for the entire duration I'm overseas, especially in Jordan...internet tech is not so WOW there, and I've also decided to buy a little book to write everything I do and happens in it so that when I'm back in NZ I'd update this blog about the trip.

Yaay! I seriously don't know what to expect, what I'll see...WHO I'll see, so on. So this is the "thrill" of it all =D

Countdown: 28 Days to go

Shot by: ~inspelad