Waleed Khamis Blog

offline ?

2008-11-18T16:35:00.001+02:00

Most probably I'm taking this blog offline.

for a while at least!

I hate when people just stop blogging, so what I am doing here is telling you that this is going to be offline for a while (well actually not updated)!

Vote Please

2008-10-09T23:13:00.004+03:00

I'm participating in this photography competition where a portrait should be posted.

This is my nephew Khalid, I'd appreciate your support.

ps... bigger image size is available here

vote

Google Chrome Review

2008-09-04T17:31:00.004+03:00

Everybody is talking about the new Google Chrome, I had my try with it. My feedback is somewhere in the middle, not very positive neither a negative one.

First I would like to mention that everything I would say is relative to available widely used browsers and I mean (Firefox and IE7) - unless stated otherwise.

Let me start with the positive stuff I found.
- Larger space for browsing and less for other distractions : at first this gave the impression of "is that it?!" but I guess simplicity is the key sometimes.
- Lightweight : I had three tabs open that day and only 39 MB of RAM were occupied, that is satisfying.
- Each tab runs on its own process : This is the everyone-talking-about feature, which is announced on IE8.
- Incognito mode : In this mode every site you visit and every search you make isn't stored, so you are in the shadows (happy happy Arab countries! more porn more privacy!).
- Does run a lot of web sites smoothly without wrong alignment as the beginnings of Firefox.
- Loads pages in a more stable manner : you don't get half the images loaded and the other not (on same connection speed this happens on the other browsers).

What I didn't like about Chrome.
- No Google toolbar! : How come, I can't understand. Those who use Google Bookmarks (me) what should we do :S!.
- Connection issues : Failed to get it to work behind a proxy, the settings open the built in IE connection settings, that I didn't like myself.
- Doesn't support AJAX as it should : well some heavy AJAX sites failed to work properly.
- Slow surfing speed : I didn't feel the speed of browsing as you would with Opera browser for example.
- No Add-ons
- Not a lot of features to customize the user experience : This should be a good place to work at.

PS... this is a personal review and shouldn't be considered as a thorough technical one.

First Jordanian Oscar!

2008-09-04T12:53:00.002+03:00

Captain Abu Ra'ed is officially the first Jordanian submission to the foriegn film category at the oscars :)

That does sound interesting. Best of luck (y)

Diet please

2008-07-15T22:33:00.001+03:00

Well being active today, I have loads of ideas sketched inside the drafts and I am not finding the time to bring them into public.

You find this (usually a girl) at McDonald's for example where she goes for a big mac - if you Google "big mac calories" you'll be getting a direct answer of 540 - I would assume a regular size which would add few hundred calories from the fries.

Well I am not judging or looking as in nagging about that, but why on earth after all that she/he goes for a diet coke :S??

Stop staring!

2008-07-15T22:09:00.002+03:00

Out of the many special things we have here in Jordan, the sniper eyes guys have...

I am asking from each visitor to this blog (if you live in Jordan) to notice all the guys around you when a girl passes in front, most probably you'll gone unnoticed by them since their eyes are mesmerized.

I am not talking religion here, nor calling for a utopia. Just some dignity can make it better, whats the use when you "look" at a girl covered sometimes from head to toe and nothing special is appearing. OK now you might get through the usual yada yada that girls get the attention, I don't care just stop staring!

Sha3bak!

2008-07-06T22:32:00.003+03:00

A doctor's mistake... destiny or God's well it is. Changed the life of this kid.

Lack of oxygen, inappropriate handling and the baby and all-to-come troubles are out.

He grows up, he is 29 now but with a brain of a 9 years old who loves to act naughty and play sometimes, has passion for few things in his quiet, simple (complicated) life, first is everything electrical (from hand held radios to complicated devices) second thing I know about is his bike.

Trying to give him the chance to live as-much-as-possible normal life, he is allowed to go on his bike ride or even go to the supermarket to buy whatever he wants.

One hot summer day, he is out as normal with his bike playing, a guy asks for a short ride on the bike (shoo6), being weak unable to refuse he obeyed.

The shoo6 in the basic definition implicitly determines a 5 minute limit to the ride. Hazem sat on that pavement under the hot sun waiting, first ten minutes... second... third and after 2 hours of waiting he gave up on his joy and decided to go home on foot.

Hazem is my eldest sibling and this is one of many encounters (not the cruelest at all though) he had to go through with us involved as his family.

My mom reminded me of this incident just today, while we were on the balcony chatting and looking at him coming home from the nearby mini market.

I believe treatment for disabled and mentally ill people should be taken into higher level of caring here in Jordan, this should be emphasized in schools and in each and every home.

Hazem is my brother whom I love, but do not forget that this could be the case in any home.

When the phone rings

2008-05-16T19:30:00.003+03:00

Default Image:
Everywhere when the phone rings, the owner makes sure to try his/her best to answer.

At some times people just simply don't pick their phones and decide to call back later...

Distorted Image we have in our place:

Whatever we are doing. Land phone should be answered no matter what!!! its not like the prime minister is calling us or anyone important at all!

The first question dad asks whenever he gets home. Who called? if he ever knows the phone wasn't picked up it'll be like someone stabbed him.

Yesterday the phone rang and for I don't know what reason dad couldn't pick it up. He used the caller ID to figure out the last three digits are 313! everyone in the place were asked whether we know a number that ends with 313. I really don't care that automatically I said no!

After few minutes I passed by the living room, I actually found him setting down with the phone book in his hands (the paper old fashion phone book) looking for that 313 number!! that is unbelievable.

Ok this is a bit private. But today I was in the bath room and forgot to grab my towel, I called my dad to bring it to me, I was like dad could you please and THE PHONE RANG! he left me this simple and went to grab the phone while I was left there standing waiting for him to come back!!

What's on earth is wrong with the phone thing!

I keep on telling them, who wants you will definitely call again if you couldn't pick up... It is ok!

15/5/2008

2008-05-15T20:09:00.002+03:00

60 years have passed.

And I'm speechless

Show off

2008-05-04T20:39:00.002+03:00

I really can't understand the culture of "il bash mohandes o il doctor" we have here in Jordan, this something you usually find when you meet people who hold such titles...

A colleague at the university I studied at and before the end of the final semester he put his name on MSN messenger as Eng. whoever. Does it really matter to show it this much? like were you studying for yourself or to prove you are better than others?!

That day I took my sister's new car for the first maintenance check, the employee came suggested to take a look at the car before he takes the keys (in case anything is lost or sth, he records all that) anyway... After a little bit talking about the usuals, is it ok if we delayed the visit this much? the weather today is so cold! stuff like that. Taking the keys I remembered I wasn't properly introduced to him I was like "bs ma it3arrafet 3ala 7adretak" he quickly went like "il mohandes amjad whatever". I don't know why this made me like pause for a little, this little time was lots more to me. I always can sense people tones watch their movements while I'm talking or them talking in an excellent way which is something I like most of the times but sometimes I don't. This helped make that period longer in a way. Here I was thinking should I say il mohandes waleed?! its like I decided not to introduce myself never this way unless it was of a huge need, was it worth it this time?

I went like waleed khamis, nice to meet you.

Even my dad loves to introduce me to some of his friends just to mention "ebne il mohandes" its like I really can't stand it and just want to disappear from there.

I believe titles are held for the benefit of their owners. Not to show off or abuse it with lots of mentioning.

I-Magazine

2008-05-01T20:39:00.005+03:00

I got a blog post published in the latest issue of I-Magazine.

Wendy Merdian the writer read my post and asked my permission to include it in her article at the magazine, but since the issue had some troubles going out early she put it as a post on 7iber.com and exactly here, the text is copied down here:

Written By: Wendy Merdian

March holds one of my favorite holidays, ‘Mothers Day’. My children have been whispering little hints of the projects they have been making, precious creations of crayon, glitter, glue-stick and stickers. My husband will present me with a nice gift for the kitchen to make my job there easier or prettier. I will never forget a ‘Mothers Day Gift’ I was given one year by a friend: a week’s work of ‘maid service’. It seemed like a dream come true in those foggy, fuzzy days of pregnancy, non-sleeping babies and busy toddlers.

But by the end of that week, I was more exhausted from having a stranger in the house than the house-keeping. She didn’t speak any of the languages I spoke, had a different definition of ‘clean’, and a VERY different concept about child-care! I found it very strange to have someone hovering all the time; I knew that was what she was supposed to do, but as someone who likes family time to be just family, I found it intrusive and almost more work as I had to put things away faster than she did or I would never find them again!

I tried to bring her into the family circle, but without a language in common, it was hard. When I forced her to eat with us, she was visibly uncomfortable. When one of my little ones, who was just learning to clean up his toys, said: “Why should I if Maria is here?” I realized this was counter productive and I could never be the ‘live-in type’. I was the Mistress of My Domain, and just not cut out to have another woman be a part of it every day. We would be a messier, but happier family with ‘help’ once a week.

Another key to our once-a-week helper working so well is that we were not ‘like family’. It was a friendly business arrangement. We had clear expectations for a results-based employee/employer relationship where she went home to her own house and life. In their book “Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy”, Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild mentioned a Filipina domestic worker lamenting: “to be considered ‘family’ is the kiss of death for us”. For them, it means expectations of more work, but none of the benefits. One of the benefits given many Jordanian families is the ‘protection’ that would be given to a daughter, but to their helper, is feels like prison. “Global Woman” is a must-read for any Jordanian woman with or considering live-in help, to see what life and choices are like for powerless women. To balance the seriousness of the situation with a little humor, make sure to see “Nanny Diaries”, too.

In light of the recent controversies over trash-can babies, the abuses and even deaths of Asian domestic workers, and the frustrations of Jordanian women with live-in-helper horror stories, I had hoped to write about two friends who were excellent examples of making a live-in domestic worker work for a family.

Sadly, both domestic workers broke the trust of their employers. Both were caught having affairs with men. It is easy to condemn their immorality, to add them to the list of stories we rehearse at children’s birthday parties at Jungle Bungle that solidify their bad reputation. The bad rep given makes it easier for us to harden our hearts to their situations, when in fact many of them are mothers themselves, who left their children with grandmothers in order to provide them with food and education. How sad that their only hope for their children to succeed in their country is to let someone else raise them. Then they come here and raise our children so we can work, to provide our children with ‘the best’. Something isn’t right with this picture: two families of children, growing up with someone other than their mother as their primary care-giver.

It seems the nicest, most trusting and kind Jordanians get the most immoral and deceptive domestic workers. If these women come here to work, they need to learn to live within the boundaries of the culture. It also seems like the kindest and most hard-working domestics get the most abusive and cruel ‘madams’. A recent JO magazine article mentioned that the rate of physical abuse of domestic workers is realistically about one in ten. What a dichotomy. This polarization only widens the divide between madam and maid, and strengthens unfair xenophobic tendencies in both women. We women need to stick together in this world, both we who could abuse our position of power, and those who are subversive under it’s’ control.

I think many local families are becoming more aware and doing well at providing for the needs of their workers. Waleed Khamis, a young Jordanian blogger, tells of his ‘wake-up’ call when looking for a new domestic worker:

I went with my mom today to look at the new applications arrived at a maids office to pick our choice.

Skimming through them, a normal conversation would question their experiences and language(s) they are able to speak… Instead of that me and mom were discussing their issues and addressing them like the widow with three children, the single 34 years old… the married with two children…

It made me feel so sad just looking through them, another customer was there and a look of surprise was on his face… It’s weird how we can easily shut our feelings off.

I thought of that widow with three children, she has no experience. She has to work after the death of her husband… she is 37 years old, speaks neither Arabic nor English, she is leaving her kids in a not-known-end adventure. Allah e3eenhom.

The Indonesian 24 years old we have, after 3 years of staying at our place… She opened up and told me how many of her friends who served in Saudi got pregnant or were molested by the “acting religious” fathers there… My assumption is that MOST of the maids there get such treatment.

All of that is for 3.5 JDz a day, I really wonder if it is really worth it.

When thinking of this I always close the subject by re-convincing myself that this amount of money they take is enough and worth it.
But is it?

Waleed is one who will be honoring another mother living in his home on Mother’s Day, and validating her role (and pain) as mother to unseen children as well as her service to his family. May his kind increase.

Memory

2008-03-25T00:10:00.003+02:00

I suffer from this terrible memory I have.

Sometimes I tend to call it "lack of concentration on some issues" but some other times it really shows its a memory thing...

Not a killer thing to me, but it gets annoying sometimes, specially with the maps! I suck, where did I park my car (takes some time to remember), what did I eat yesterday?! and oh did really your sis finish her tawjihi! how ignorant I am to forget such a thing!. And well the list goes on and on.

This definitely has a bright side. I always can watch a movie twice and never know whats gonna happen next :D!

I actually downloaded a movie (copyrights? ya ok!) I watched @ the cinema!!!

WHAT?!

2008-03-25T00:07:00.002+02:00

Someone actually asked me "inta neswanje"?! what the hell!

The total time I was there with him didn't exceed the 2 hours, how come he would go assume and ask such a thing?!

This is really something I hate (being neswanje!) and friends who are like this aren't my friends!

Cheating, Corruption!

2008-03-10T20:32:00.004+02:00

As much as I hate it I found myself part of it that day...

The story parts go here

That animal store, we are friends with the owner. It is a nice place that brings all kinds of weird animals and lovely cute ones... even savage ones!

I like cats, we have three at our place...

A supermarket near our place sells animal food... does sell with low prices for food that is expiring soon or just expired, I don't use it for the cats in our place.

I thought that animal store could use these bags to feed the cats a better food that they usually get, since its whiskas and whiskas is good...

The first time I got that store 5 sacks, with less than half the usual price for food that is expiring soon... He fed the cats there and it was ok

two weeks ago, he asked from me to get him 10 sacks, headed to the supermarket but found only 9. I made my purchase, gave him what he wants, but this time these sacks have expired for two months (they are still edible since its dry food plus the whatever food these stores put isn't gonna be as good as whiskas)!

Few days ago I was at his store, he had to leave and asked from me to stay there for a minute... I noticed the sacks are laid for selling... turned a sack around and he ERASED the expiry date written!

He renewed his request to get him more of that food cause he is getting 150% profit. But definitely I am not getting him anymore.

I don't know, seems I shouldn't have done that since the very beginning.

Loofah!

2008-03-04T23:26:00.003+02:00

Was at the mall that day grocery shopping with mom, being the usual helper!

Passed next to the section where it had loofah's and sponges there. needing one so I grabbed my choice.

On my daily shower I wanted to use it... It was so rough scratching my skin, I stopped.

When I finished, I checked the label outside, it says (Ideal for GLASS and MIRRORS)! :'(

Maids

2008-02-23T17:25:00.004+02:00

I went with my mom today to look at the new applications arrived at a maids office to pick our choice.

Skimming through them, a normal conversation would question their experiences and language(s) they are able to speak... Instead of that me and mom were discussing their issues and addressing them like the widow with three children, the single 34 years old... the married with two children...

It made me feel so sad just looking through them, another customer was there and a look of surpise was on his face... Its weird how we can easily shut our feelings off.

I thought of that widow with three children, she has no experience. She has to work after the death of her husband... she is 37 years old, speaks neither Arabic nor English, she is leaving her kids in a not-known-end adventure. Allah e3eenhom.

The Indonesian 24 years old we have, after 3 years of staying at our place... She opened up and told me how many of her friends who served in Saudi got pregnant or were molested by the "acting religious" fathers there... My assumption is that MOST of the maids there get such treatment.

All of that is for 3.5 JDz a day, I really wonder if it is really worth it.

When thinking of this I always close the subject by reconvincing myself that this amount of money they take is enough and worth it.

But is it?!

listening to : ra7al - macadi na77as
in the mood for : ritter sport

Status updater!

2008-02-12T00:34:00.000+02:00

It has been a while since I last blogged... (the most used sentence on blogger I know!)

The current status is on hold waiting for a job! the TODO list I blogged about while ago is all done with a very good results actually, I got the highest mark in my graduation project among all other students... Which made some angry and jealous but those who are real friends and real people at first place felt happy for me!

anyway I had few drafts saved here, wanted to finish but still have no time to... I am some time soon

Listening to : Brightness - Naseer Shamma (Love itt)

Obsession?!

2008-01-08T19:51:00.000+02:00

As weird as it sounds... I grabbed all of them took them out of the cupboard!

I was asked the "what are you doing?" question many times either by eyes or verbally... the maid went further and kept the laugh inside! I moved them to the living room arranging them again, now my sister and young brother had the chance to make fun out of me :)! my sister grabbed her cell phone snapped a quick shot, it didn't bother me really its for fun at the end!

I wanted to post about this the previous day but thought taking a picture will make it look more fun.

Its not recent that I found out about my obsession with cups just any offer with a cup is something I buy (if the cup is cool lol)! going through normal cups to huge, USB ones and even ones with a motor all these I have.

Don't know when this started actually but totally I can call it a cup fetish :D, the ones you can see in the picture (Click to enlarge btw) are not the whole collection, one of those had 17 siblings (that pepsi glass one to the left), the snickers football shaped one has a sibling too, the ones in the last row have other siblings, well the points is the number is so huge, and those are only for me! its like I am reserving half of the place for cups but its ok I love that :D!

The blue front seated one is the closest to my heart, its a gift from you know who after all :), the one with motor is a gift from a best friend whom I kept nagging on his head to bring it with him from Qatar he made this special call from there to let me know he found it!

My friend yazeed knowing about this fetish called me that day telling me "guess what I found in safeway?" I was expecting something for animals since he is a fan but he was like "a kitkat offer with a USB connected cup". Well it didn't take me long before I went there and got the offer!

(Click to enlarge)

Like never before

2008-01-02T23:03:00.000+02:00

Less than 30 days and I'm out of university! As great as this sounds but those coming days are the busiest ones I am living in my college life...

Daily finishing tasks and what is coming is way more than what is going, I wanted to post this few days ago but just found the time to (well actually I have an exam tomorrow not that I'm free but stopped studying :D:D bekaffe 5alas lol!).

I want to put this here so bad so I share it plus I want to find it lateerrrr... after like few years!

In front of me now the schedule I put for the next 28 days (what I have to do daily), it was put before and thank God I am sticking to it...

I see the date where I have to:
1) Deliver my industrial electronics lab project.
2) Study for my industrial electronics quiz
3) Data base II make up exam! (the first make up exam in my college life "ya nerdy I know")!
4) Data base II report paper plus the presentation
5) Work on my VLSI project and prepare the report for that :'(
6) the date where I should start documentation for my graduation project (me and the guys sure)
7) Date of my graduation project discussion
8) On my TODO list also to work on the patent for our project (yes we are trying to patent it! hopefulllly)
9) I do have to finish commenting the source code for our project too
10) Also have to check about few requirements for the project (with the guys too) like a booth to show the porject on (yes yes the project is funded by the KADDB)! and the video production thingie like an advertisement for the project.
11) I see my final exam schedule which starts on 26th this month (January).
To be more specific the schedule is 26, 27 and 30 of this month
12) During my final exam period I have this presentation at the KADDB to show our final work
13) There might be an exhibition for KADDB that our project is asked to participate at!

That is how my life looks like in those 28 days to be more specific, I got frustrated just typing those...

I hope things turn out well wish me luck whoever you are!

Really those days are soo busy like never before.

Everyone is saying it...

2008-01-01T02:42:00.000+02:00

and I am too!

Amman

2007-12-15T23:59:00.000+02:00

Living in a building surrounded by other buildings isn't the best thing usually!

The area was more quiet back then. After moving into this place, few years and digging started next to us. Watched this building building! and then populated.

The apartment at same level in that building happened to have two single guys. who are extremely polite and the never-look type which was (is) excellent, there was never really any kind of communication between us except for when it snowed few years back we met and played like everyone in the street and thats it.

Few days ago, a college mate calls:
Him: Waleed there is this soccer game I want you in, the team against us is really good plus they kicked our a**es the last time!
Me: Ok inshalla where and when
Him: Saturday (today) at shabab il ordon
Me: Ok

(Well thats not exactly how things really did go but ya whatever)

Since the place is a bit far we needed to fill two cars only (taking more is a waste and less wont fit), anyway I am taking my car so I am picking up some guys from here and there.

After taking the first, he told me his cousin lives close to my place and we want to pick him up too. Few minutes of searching (that first doesn't really remember where his cousin lives), I was taken few blocks away from my place, then only a street away and then he asked me to park in front of my building! (no no it is NOT my building but ok)! he calls and one of those guys living in the same level at the next building is coming down, we both gave this weird "no way" + "could this be!?" look and he got in!

We talked about how weird this is, I am sure this happened to many who live in Amman, its one of the themes here really, You tend to find people through others let me say easily and without ever expecting that!

This is not the first time such thing happens to me, its really interesting!

عربي

2007-12-12T18:04:00.000+02:00

First I was here.

I have been doing some thinking about this too.

Most people use English (and I know I am typing in English), I was trying the whole time to justify this to myself but if you want the truth? there is no real reason!

Yesterday I was at Mcdonald's waiting for my big tasty, another girl came loaded with her bags just filled with stuff from good brands at city mall, she started her order and yes you guessed it. All she used was English and few Arabic words were found there... Honestly I still don't know why!

Just thought of typing when I read what I first mentioned!

Reviews

2007-11-23T13:26:00.000+02:00

I have been through several posts concerning "review" idea of somethings, from restaurants to web sites.

Well here I'd like to post about something I might know about! photo sharing sites and my experience with the few I tried.

I will talk mainly about Flickr, Picasa and skim over photobucket.

I'm dropping my ideas without much sorting so you get what you need out of the lines!

1) Flickr, flickr provides a social network for those who are into photography, you can use it with ur yahoo ID and allows u to store many pictures there but the last 200 are shown (unless you buy a pro account for almost 25 $ a year).

My experience with the site was really positive, you meet with experienced photographars that can really motivate you to do more.

You can use Flickr as a place to share your photos with everyone, usually you'll get the right attention you need for sharing your pix on some place.

you have a limitation of bandwidth which means you can't upload as much pictures as you want there, its 100 MB monthly.

I used the pro account and felt the difference, I feel its worth it to get those advantages and buy one.

Flickr has sets and collections instead of albums, so one image can be in more than one set and more than one set can be in one collection!

Privacy is good on Flickr, but its not the best idea to save your private pictures there (even if you deny public access) cause then you wont have much left of the 200 pictures you are allowed to show!

2) Picasa is a google owned site that provides much more features to act as a (storage area) than a photo sharing service.

It depends on albums not like Flickr, you can have your picture only one time in an album.

My experience with the site wasn't the best really, since the stability of their hosting was wayyy down my expectation. One day you can see your picture the other day simply its not there!

The biggest plus for picasa is their desktop application, where you can modify your images and upload them directly to your picasa albums in a nice easy way. Actually the application itself is very neat and usable even without a web album, search is really efficient and super fast.

One advantage for picasa web albums, is that you can share your albums with specific people you want. Since each album has its private URL (that you simply could copy and paste), it gives access directly to the album.

Browsing through the albums (using their web search feature) isn't really good since you can't open more than one picture in more than one tab, you have to browse them all from the same tab!

About given storage its 1GB to store without a bandwidth limit which is an additional feature so you consider using it as a private storage area or backup for your photos!

Since its a google owned service you can access it with your google account, and start using it.

Picasa allows video uploading, then it streams when viewing it like youtube.

3) Photobucket is the place when you need a quick link to your image you use. although Flickr gives that but Photobucket has more random pictures.

It allows you to upload videos too.

Newspapers!

2007-11-18T00:15:00.000+02:00

Having lunch is never complete unless I have the newspaper wide spread on the table (the usual big one in the center of any living room), sometimes I turn the tv on (not really watching though) and reading and eating... well kinda doing all these together :)

Its just a habit I grew with seeing my dad and older brother doing so, I guess for those who analyze I believe they must be finding a lot of rubbish inside each (daily newspaper) since the weekly ones are not the main axis or let me say interest.

You usually tend to read not only the words written but also the attitude of government so clearlyy.

Well anywayy that day on alghad I read on their web site's main page some news telling that Jordanian citizens aren't much into tourism inside the country. and on the same page another line said (Number of Jordanians who are doing the previously mentioned thing has increased)! lol its like where is the news I am getting here.

Well while reading Alrai newspaper few days back I got into this... "Which isn't true by the way - the first few highlighted lines"

Click to enlarge

How nerdy!

2007-11-02T12:45:00.000+02:00

Well thats what I got, being at PSUT has the biggest effect no doubt, check your score :)