Amazon Kindle

If you havn't yet heard about it, take a couple of minutes to find out what the 'Amazon Kindle' is all about. A few of my avid reader friends are kindled already and their experience has been great so far. Write back and share your thoughts.

The Never Ending Story - Fantastic story; take a look inside yourself ... keep your mind's eye open

President Musharraf's Resignation

I am utterly perplexed by the behavior and opinions of Pakistanis. I have been watching the regional news channel and learning that during President Musharraf's rule, the Pakistani economy reached unprecedented growth. Foreign relations of Pakistan with her neighbor and lifelong rival India, reached a meliorated state. Internal affairs of rebels and fundamentalist were fractured to an extent to debilitate their operations. The democratic state promises freedom of speech; which was experienced by every one under the so called dictator's rule. The freedom of speech extended to the Media has been hailed by all classes of people in Pakistan. On top of it all, up until February this year, Pakistan's gas prices were subsidized by foreign aid funds (A direct impact to the bottom line of a person's spending).

On the flip side, the political scene of Pakistan became hugely unpredictable; Due to which the foreign investment and security suffered. I hear hat President Musharraf's plan for reform was to trickle down from high class to lower class citizens of Pakistan; Sadly, it did not happen so. The trickle down effect only reached as far as the middle class who swallowed the benefits. The lower class; a vast majority of Pakistan, continued to be crushed by rising prices of food, fuel and housing.

All said and done, I am proud to know a time where Pakistan was glorified in the International political arena; by leaders like President Musharaff and late Benezir Bhutto (reserved appreciation). Allbeit, short lived...

23rd WORLD YOUTH DAY

Sydney, Australia - 15-20 July 2008

23rd World Youth commenced tonight in Sydney, Austrailia.
I watched the Final Mass conducted by Pope Benedict LIVE on EWTN, Thanks to God with my parents :) It was amazing !!!

Next 24th WYD 2011 will be held in Madrid, Spain. I pray to God that I can attend in person. Also to note, I heard Jason Evert (A big Fan of him) comment on the Mass on EWTN.

Associated Press reports:

Pope urges Australian youths to spurn materialism
By KRISTEN GELINEAU – 46 minutes ago

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI urged young people Sunday to reject what he said was the "spiritual desert" spreading throughout the world and to embrace Christianity to build a new age free from greed and materialism.

At a Mass before more than 200,000 young Roman Catholic pilgrims in Sydney, Benedict said "the world needs renewal" and challenged them to be the agents of change.

"In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair," the pontiff said.

The 81-year-old pope said it was up to a new generation of Christians to build a world in "which God's gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished — not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed."

The aim was "a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships," he said.

Sunday's Mass wraps up the church's six-day World Youth Day festival in Sydney that has drawn massive crowds to Australia's largest city, and has been watched on television by a global audience estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.

The Mass, delivered at a horse racetrack filled with pilgrims who had camped out overnight, comes a day after the pope made a forceful apology for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy. The apology is part of an effort that began in the United States to publicly atone for what he called evil acts by priests.

In his apology Saturday, Benedict said: "I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them as their pastor that I too share in their suffering," Benedict said in Sydney's St. Mary's Cathedral.

He said he wanted "to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt" and called for those responsible to be "brought to justice." The acts were "evil" and a "grave betrayal of trust," he said.

But the pope's apology was not enough to satisfy representatives of the victims of clergy sexual abuse, who said it must be backed by Vatican orders to Australian bishops to stop what they say are efforts to hide the extent of the problem and block survivors' attempts to win compensation.

Sunday's events wrap up a busy four-day schedule for Benedict in which he touched on all the major themes of his three-year-old papacy, including the need to rejuvenate what he says is a church in "crisis" in the West because people are losing their faith in God.

He also stressed the need for mankind to protect the environment and end its "insatiable consumption" of the world's resources. He continued to reach out to other faiths, telling leaders of Islam and other religions they must unite against those who were threatening the world with "sinister and indiscriminate violence."

The pope flew over the scene early Sunday in a helicopter — dubbed "the holy-copter" by bleary-eyed pilgrims below — to see the assemblage amassed on the track with a jumble of sleeping bags, backpacks and other personal items.

He later took a slow drive through the crowd, stopping once to plant a kiss on the forehead of a toddler held up to the popemobile's window. Pilgrims from more than 160 countries gave him a rock-star welcome, waving the flags of their nations, cheering and chanting: "Benedicto!, Benedicto!" — the pope's Italian name.

The pope was due to leave Australia for the Vatican on Monday.
Hosted by Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Movies...again!

Any new movies you watched? How about the following:

• Layer cake ... not so keen any more
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix *****
• The Gloden Compus *****
• Boewulf *****
• No Reservaions*****
• Ocean's Thirteen *****
• The Bourne Ultimatum *****
• Fantastic Four *****
• Pan's Labyrinth *****
• The Messengers *****
• Casino Royale ***** ***** :D
• OVer the hedge *****
• The Wild *****
• The Guardian *****
• Borat
• The Departed (anxiously awaiting to watch) *****
• The Nativity Story
• Ergon
• The Man of the Year *****
• Open Season *****
• Janeman *****
• Stranger than Fiction (Will Ferrel)*****
• Santa clause 3

The last episode of LOST

Jeremy Benforth ... John Lock
What an episode. Life is so unfair! Now I have to wait until the next year to know what happens next ... LOL ... So, Ben is scheming to get everyone back to the island which by the way is LOST. See, Ben never had a real life outside of the island, with his cheesy dialogues, "Don't you know John, I always have a plan" or "How would I know, I lived on a island all my life" He does not have ESPN sports or lavish ski trips to go to or hiking trips or biking around his favorite part of town...See Ben, is a loser; His only form of entertainment is moving around islands, time traveling and playing the role of an arch rival. For all we know he is being chased by a debt collector. Now he wants to escape again. But he doesn't know where to escape since he LOST the island. To make everyone else's live miserable again he will make it back to the island. And guess what the OTHERS will say when they see him, "oh, NO , not him again! Leave us be, enough of your cheesy dialogues and stop moving the island around, would you? It makes my head spin" Jacob would tell him, "I had to move the whole island and still you came back, don't you get it! You are not welcome!" Alright, alright, now for my favorite scenes of the episode...drum roll please ... Penny and Dez; Awww, what a pleasant surprise. And finally, we know what happens to John. John's character is still as annoying as Ben's, but at least Ben's get lots of dimensions. John is just so confused all the time. Annoying. I have to say I will miss Ben's cheezy dialogues, Jack, Sawyer, Aaron, Penny, Dezzy and Dan. Until the next season then.

NickleBack - If Everyone Cared

"If Everyone Cared"

From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive

[Chorus:]
If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died

And I'm singing

Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive
Amen I, Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive

And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll show the world they were wrong
And teach them all to sing along

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
(I'm alive)

[Chorus x2]

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died
When nobody died...

[Chorus]

We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day when nobody died

My dedication to the late Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body.

Proverbs 31:30

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)

Awesome -- Must watch -- must ...

Jesus Calls ministry has a collection of desktop background images with bible verses written on them. These images are beautiful and inspiring. See for yourself.

Superb Qawali - Neray Neray by BJS

Must see! The new generation of Qawals.

--- LOST --- episode 2/22/08

Aaron...Aaron...Aaron!
Kate's baby- is Aaron! That has got to be the biggest twist of the season. Why doesn't Jack want to see the baby? Why is Kate so attached to Aaron? Finally, Kate's mother came to her senses and recede her testimony, and no wonder Kate does not want her mother to meet Aaron; Aaron's not Kate's baby! John - oh John, honestly, I started hating that character since the day he joined teams with Benny boy. I think John's character is losing momentum; he seems to be desperate and LOST, precisely why we must have much to see from his character soon as he does seem to resound the theme of the series. Great show, I am glad I caught up to the season 4 in time, thanks my colleague Ivan :)

Sharper Image closing stores; files bankruptcy

Sharper Image is filing bankruptcy; closing down half of it's stores nationwide, sad news. I love shopping in Sharper Image, always finding innovative products for gifts or pampering myself :) I hope my mall's store stays open; plenty of support here. I wish them all the best.

Daily Devotional - Beautiful words of Christ

Matthew 6:31-34, 7:1-1231) " Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' 32) For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. 34) Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. 7:1) Judge not, that you be not judged. 2) For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3) Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4) Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5) You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. 6) Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you." 7) " Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8) For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9) Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10) Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11) If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 12) So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets."

Lent - Jesus' sermon on the mount.

Part 1



Part 2

VMware - run multiple operating systems on one machine

VMWare server is freeware which allows one machine to run multiple operating systems. This gives you the flexibility of running Window, Linux, or any other 32bit/64bit chip processor OS on which ever one machine you choose. Comes in real handy when you are not ready to migrate instantly to another OS; instead you can test drive it on a Virtual Machine. I will share thoughts about ease of use/install once I have completed an install of Windows XP Pro on a virtual machine on my laptop which currently runs Vista.

John Legend - New addition to my music library

Check out his album ' Live from Philadelphia '
- Slow Dance
- Save Room

Different vocals, Jazzy, enjoyable.
Take Care !

Beautiful soundtrack - Jodhaa Akbar

The song, "Jashn-e-Baharan" sung by Javaid Ali is so sweet to the senses like the taste of spoon full of honey. Beautiful lyrics, compositions and singing. Also a great listen is 'Kwaja mere Kwaja.'