I was reading Penelope Trunk’s blog when this line in “How to be more interesting to other people” just struck my

So look, interesting does not come from greatness. Interesting comes from conflict.

Something about this line just rings to me. It seems so freaking true, and I cant tell why. She follows it with this line, which I guess illustrates what is meant with the pervious line.

Tolstoy opens Anna Karenina with the line, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” 

Even thought I’m in the last paragraph, I couldn’t continue until I share this line with someone. Now that I did that …. I’ll go finish that post.

Following the advice of many people (notably Penelope Trunk , Steve Yegge), one (I) must maintain and update a personal blog in order to success in the work place/job market. In You should write blogs, Steve lists 4 reasons why many don’t blog. I mostly identify with:

Reason #3: Nobody will read my blog.

and its simple, I got nothing interesting to talk about.

Here I am, a 24 years old software engineering Grad, freelancing on a game project. Technical issues? I’m still not experienced for that, and there are million of blogs for that and will do it 10-20 times better. Work place issues? I work from home and don’t get out much (so that kills talking about local events). And don’t say about working from home. Freelance Switch, Anti 9 to 5 Guide, Location Independent  all do a fine job at that. Drawing? again, million other artists got that covered. Video games … covered. Daily life tips and tricks? …covered (I love you lifeHacker!). Anime …covered. Oh coffee! I can … nope, covered.

That leaves me with the last thing, a blog that points to other blogs entries and talk about them (I know, highly original). I’m not bashing the people that do it, some of them give you a very interesting read, even without reading the blog they are pointing to. But again, there isn’t a single topic that I can devote a blog to (or make it worthy of following/subscribing to), nor can I give thoughtful insights on other peoples blogs.

But, I can try.

What comes to mind is that I can pull a Seinfeld and make it a blog ‘about nothing’. Just daily (weekly … every 10 days) ramblings that may seem interesting to someone. If I can build a crowed, write interesting stuff and get that great programming job in the process, great! If not, then at least I’ll have a log of what I liked and disliked in a certain period of my life (in case I had amnesia or early Alzheimer’s). Or I can read my blog 10 years from now and laugh/cry saying “What a noob!”

Noticing that I wrote 2 paragraphs with almost one ‘I’ per sentence, here is ‘my’ other problem with blogging from Steve’s list:

Reason #4: Blogging is narcissistic.

As much as ‘I’ love to stand out in anything ‘I’ do, ‘I’ hate portraying that ‘I”m narcissistic or even hint it (looking at all the ‘I’s, apparently I’m not doing a good job in that).

But I’ll risk it, just in case one day

When it comes down to it, I’m asking you to write blogs because I know you’ve got really interesting things to say, even if you don’t think they’re that interesting. Your life is interesting, and your opinions of technology, Amazon, and life in general matter to me, and to others. I bet you’ve got a lot you could teach me, even if you don’t think you do. Heck, I was in my mid-twenties when I realized I had a gross conceptual misunderstanding about the reason it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The stuff I think I know is an invisible speck compared to the superset of what all people know today. Do me a favor and save me the effort of tracking you down in the hall and asking you to enlighten me.

Besides, I’m not ready to hear what you have to say yet. When I am ready, it’ll be in your blog

— Steve Yegge

I’m blogging for you Steve (narcissism overload!!).

Thanks for reading, have a nice day!

Apparently Baltimore is not a good city to write blogs in, I keep missing a day and had to include it in the next day blog (or maybe it’s the Sheraton). Anyway, on the 20^th of August, I woke up around 7 am so I can get some breakfast and head out to John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). I called Ms. Linda Brody to confirm that I’m coming and she gave me quick directions. I took the hotel shuttle to the light rail then took that to the nearest stop to CTY. I walked about 5 min until I reached the building I am going to visit. I called Linda from the front desk and she came down to greet me and guide my to the conference room. I spent the next hour with Linda and Ms. Carol Blackburn (I think, unless I mixed my business cards) talking about why I’m here and the story of the Talents Center (I told it so good I was proud that I was working there and not anywhere else! And they were impressed too). Linda then took me to meet Ms. Susan Collins (Senior Program Manager – Distance Education). We talked for a bit about distance learning and then she showed me “The Cove”, a game developed for CTY. It’s a game like Myst with math problems/puzzles, and it’s suppose to let children learn math by solving problems to get them out of an island (it looked really fun, even though it was a math game!). She then gave me a copy of the game to try it (Thanks Susan! J ). Susan then introduced me to Sook Fong Chang (Program Manager – Distance Education) where we inquired about the Arabic language distance learning program and if it will be implemented in the near future (Answer: it will take a while). Then I met Mr. Ben Reynolds (Senior Program Manager – Distance Education). We talked a bit about the writing course CTY covers and how it relates to scientific research papers. Linda then took me to lunch with Susan, Carol and ….. (Forgot the name, Sorry Maim. She is in charge of the summer camps at CTY). We talked through lunch about the Talents Center and the recent summer camp we held (again, they were very impressed with the “companies” idea) and also the education system in Saudi Arabia. After that I went back up to the conference room where Ms. Kristi Birch and …. (She didn’t send me the contacts info yet, so I don’t recall the name. Sorry!) explained to me what Cogito.org is about and we talked a bit about our participation at ISEF2007. I then went back to Susan’s office (I left my bag there) and she was having a talk with Mr. Thomas Forese (Director of Academic Partnerships – Link-Systems International, Inc.). She introduced us and then mentioned that I am a videogame programmer. Thomas asked me how I think a learning material can be a game. I gave him my view on the subject and how I would approach such a task. I think he liked what he heard as he immediately offered me his business card. I stopped by Linda’s office to say goodbye and then I got out of there. I returned to the light rail station where the hotel shuttle dropped me and I went to the nearby bookstore before calling them to pick me up. Brendan turned out to be the driver so we chatted along the way back to the hotel. I went to my room to take a quick nap but like always it ended up being a 4 hour nap! I forced myself to go to the nearby mall to get dinner then came back to my room. I arranged my bag (I bought a lot of books!) and then went to sleep. On the 21^st of August (Today) I woke up and took my breakfast before going to the front desk and checking out. I took a cab to the Baltimore train station. The driver turned out to be from Senegal and his name was “Ahmad”. He has been to Saudi Arabia before (Jeddah and Riyadh). At the train station I bought the ticket and waited for the train. From that point it just was a smooth trip to the Washington Union station where I toured the station first then road the subway to the airport (Union Station was beautiful). I am now sitting at the terminal waiting for my plane to get to Boston. Like every airport I’ve been to recently there is NO free internet, so I’ll post this once I reached the hotel in Boston. Take care and have a nice day J

Its 10:45 pm now, I’m tired and I have to wake up at about 6 tomorrow so I’ll make this brief. Nothing much happened today, I was dead tired yesterday so I woke up around 1 pm (The places for the early tour were filled so I couldn’t go today). After taking a shower and talking to American Airline baggage claim (yeah, it’s now stuck at Chicago airport) and calling the family, I decided I would visit the Butler country college to see where I’m going tomorrow. Asking the front desk, there was no taxis and no nearby bus stations, so I decided to walk a bit to find a taxi then go to the college and then a near by mall or something. Well, its end up in about 6 -7 miles walk! I was lucky to reach there before the staff left for the day (sadly the bookstore at the college was close). I met Mr. Stephan R. Catt who gave me all the info I need for tomorrow and gave me the ride back to the resort (Very nice guy, I also want to thanks a lady at the science building and directed me to Mr.Stephan even though she was just walking out of the office for the day). I took another shower and received a call from American Airline saying my bag is not here yet. Oh well, I went to the restaurant at the resort to get dinner, they made a lovely country fried chicken. I spent there about 4 hours surfing the net and finding a hotel and transportation for my next trip. I came back to my room to blog this … and now I will sleep. Good Night.

Oh, as for photos, I still couldn’t prey them off my phone (my software on this laptop is acting werid)so maybe tomorrow.

Captains’ log - August 14 - Earth, London-Chicago flight:

I have already asked myself this question 3 times “What the hell I’m doing here?!”. I don’t mind trying new things, but one mess-up today and the following might happen”

a) Miss a flight

b) Sleep in the street

c) Miss the conference

d) Denied the entry to the US (and maybe a life-time ban!!)

e) All of the above!

a lot of things are at stake here, so I couldn’t stop worrying since the day started. It’s not enough that I only slept for 3 hours the night before, drove 4 hours to Riyadh non-stop, begged the US embassy to give my passport for an hour then drove back home (again, 4 hours, non-stop, no food except for my breakfast and the damn car didn’t allow me to go above 110 Kmph), but I ran into a “heated argument” with my father.

You see, I did the mistake of telling him that my living would only cost about 47$ a night (we will get back to Why later)….

His objection was that I was representing Saudi Arabia and the Talents Center and that I should be staying in a descent hotel (I just realized this, as my head was spinning at the time and I had no interest WHAT SO EVER to get into a fight) …..

(hold that thought, lunch time!)

….back.

Now, did I shut up and said “Ok dad, I’ll change the hotel”? No, I kept rambling stuff and excuses that I now think “what the heck I was saying?!” (Plus the fact that once my father starts yelling we can’t reason with him until he cools down).

…We are near landing, I’ll continue while waiting for my next flight

Ok, now that I am waiting for the Pittsburg flight (which is delayed!) lets continue the story.

So then Batman reached to his tool belt and …… wait, wrong story!

I guess I have to defend my position at this time. Here are my reasons for choosing cheap hotels:

1) They are ALL within less than 5 miles to the place I want to visit.

2) They were all picked from Expedia with good customers reviews (especially in cleanness)

3) I will be going to a hotel, sleep, wake up very early, go to my visit, and if I have extra time I’ll cruise through town or malls, I’ll go back to the hotel, sleep, then wake up early for my next flight ….. Why should I pay for a pool I won’t even see let alone use, same apply to the restaurant as I will be “eating out” all the time.

4) One of my father’s objections is that it’s in a cheap area…. Will that cheap area is where the college/center is, they are the ones in the cheap area!!

5) Talents is a starting business and this is my first flight with them. I don’t want to set the image that I’m a money waster. (Heck that will even keep some money to come next year)

6) I don’t care for room service, laundry service …etc. All I want is a place where I can sleep, take a shower and keep my bag while I raise hell through town.

7) Another objection is that my stuff might get stolen. Well, all my documents and valuable belongings will be attached to my back, while all that is left in the room is my cloth and the books I will buy.

8) 47$ is the cheapest room in my trip and it will be in Dallas, no one to meet and it’s on my own dime and not the centers.

*Sigh* I’ll stop talking about this issue and try to enjoy my trip.

Speaking of enjoyment, I couldn’t find my bag in the Chicago airport (YAY!). I’m hoping that because I spent an hour in the immigration office they picked it up and shipped it to Pittsburg (let’s hope!). Another enjoyment lies in the fact that there is no free Wi-Fi in any airport so far!

So what is left to talk about? … I started at Bahrain Airport, took British Airways to London, took American Airlines to Chicago, spent an hour(maybe more) at the immigration office with no reason other than them being slow, I think I lost my bag with all my cloth and my flight is delayed for an hour (so far!). The good thing so far is that I called the hotel and they told me there are rooms available and I can just come at any time. Good to hear.

In the end, it’s now 5 times that I asked myself “What the hell I’m doing here?!”. Thankfully I gained a lot confident once I reached the gate of my flight to PA with easy and no problems. So, see you tomorrow.

P.S. Dad, if you are reading this, I’m sorry that I talked about it in the blog, but it really saddens me that I left and you are angry at me. I love you.

I just received this ….

Subject: Big Huge Games Phone Interview Cancellation

Hi Maan,

I regret to inform you that we have decided not to continue with you for the current position.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

We wish you the best of luck as you continue to develop your C++ and game programming skills!

This is really sad, after all the hopes that I had …..
so long game programming job :(

its about time I put some photo in this blog. Let me start with my room, a place I stay in 95% of the time when I’m home.

its a mess, I know, I haven’t got around to tiding it up yet.

and here is the desk, the laptop for chatting, the PC for working on stuff.

as you can see, I got a lot of snacks laying around. I Love snacks!

Now, on my wall, I like to put artwork from great artists. I also add a few photos that inspires me.

Here, the top 2 rows are (from top left to bottom right) by:
Orang3 Razor-the-Fox Morgueprincess
Morgueprincess Tfprince Mskate
as for the bottom row, the two side drawings are by Artgerm , a great artist. as for the middle photo, its for a Spanish dancer that I got off google, I don’t have a reference for it.

As for the wall right in front of me ….

From the top, there is the baby penguin photo, I find him Very cute (no ref). Then to the left , a drawing by the amazing Frank Cho , I consider this guy my idol, as he taught himself how to draw (no schooling), and boy can he draw!
Next, the row from the left, a drawing by Mitsuu , then a page from “Zombie Powder” manga by Tite Kubo (if you don’t know how he is, he is the creator of “Bleach” manga/anime. Zombie Powder was a great manga that Tite never finished and I hope he will someday). After that, a drawing by Enayla . Next to the row to the right, a drawing by Terry Dodson, another great artist.

As for the two in in red, the first is a photo of Albert Einstein, a minimized poster from the Apple “Think different” campaign, there is a small “think different” written in the photo’s top right corner.
For the 2nd red photo, its a picture of Al-Ittihad soccer team celebrating the win of “AFC champions league 2004″. The thing about this photo is; it reminds me that nothing is impossible! …. why? because Al-Ittihad win came after they lost at home 1-3, and when everyone thought that the hope was over, they won the away match 5-0 !! so you see, anything can happen if you try hard enough.

I will add more photos in the future, thank you for reading and have a nice day :)

Technorati : artist, desk, drawings, photos, room

Summary: Because I had a major health setback and gone into sugary to remove my colon; I was unable to work, respond to emails and phone or do anything really for almost 15 days. This post is telling what happened, and I hope my friends and my co-workers will excuse me for not answering their e-mails and calls.

Full Story: 6 years ago, around the time I started college, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis. This illness effected me through my college days. I didn’t do well in my studies, didn’t do a good job in my projects and I wasn’t able to utilize my time well.
through out those 6 years, I was using medication to control this illness, but they weren’t very effective, which resulted in many down time for me. I was tired most of the time, I fell asleep too much and I bet the drugs were doing a damage to my brain and thinking.
Thank god, I was lucky enough to finish college before things got really worse.
on Feb 12, I was down with strong fever for 5 days. on the 5th day, my fever reached 41.8 C and my mother had to drag me to the ER to receive treatment. the doctors decided that the fever is the result of the illness getting worse. They start using a last resort medication, hoping that it will cure the illness, but after 8 days in the hospital, it was clear that I had no more option other than surgery. So, they schedule me on Saturday 24 Feb for colon removal. They had to remove my entire colon, because it was all infected. I stayed in the hospital post surgery for 8 days and now I am home (Thank god!).

thats the story of what happened. Sorry for drop out like that, and I hope that I get back as soon as I can.

Thank you for reading, have a nice day :)

Technorati : Ulcerative colitis, colon, health, hospital, illness, life, surgery

Ok, as the previous post noted, I’ve graduated with a BS degree in Software Engineering.
Now ….. time to see what road I should walk down.

Current Situation: I currently work for Intel, they have a lab in my university and I take care of it. Nothing much happen there most of the times. they conduct a training session (a week time) every 6 months or so. The rest of the year I just sit in my home and wait for any small stuff work like receiving packages and stuff.

Possible moves:
1) I stay at my current job, and hope for promotion to somewhere where my Software engineering knowledge is used.
I like this option because any promotion means I move abroad. Hopefully to a country that have a good game development industry. I don’t have to do anything for this option but wait.

2) I apply for a job at Aramco, the biggest company in the region.
I’ll get a great income, and I assume a fair amount of work that will keep me happy. the problem is the job there start from 7am (I’m not a morning person) to 4pm. Also, Aramco is a leading oil company, so the type of programs I’ll work with is a bit … not my type, I like graphical, experimental, multimedia …. in short, not oil related. I guess I can suck it up for the last problem, experience is experience.

3) I try my luck and see if a game company will take a guy from Saudi Arabia to work for them.
so far I believe this is my dream scenario. problems include the hardship to actually find a company that will take me (I’m still green).

4) I continue my education to get a Master.
much thanks to the Saudi’s authorities who are giving many scholarships to continue education locally and abroad. The problem is that I’m not a great student, I got a GPA of 2.58 out of 4 (Major GPA is 3.1 out of 4). Also, I tend to believe that in the computer related fields, you get more knowledge and experience on the job, not in classes. and they wont give you a scholarship to study game programming

best looking move:
I guess number 2. I’m still 22ish years old, so maybe if I spent 5 years there getting experience, I might have much better luck with the game companies. I tend to focus on game programming because I think that you should work in what you love, and care less for the money.

well, if you have any thoughts that might light my way, please tell me :)
Thank you for reading, have a nice day.

Technorati : Life, Life thoughs