Thursday, December 8, 2011

Wrong timings

         The finals are round the corner and guess what life offers me. I had to move from San Jose to Sunnyvale last week. The Finals week and the week before that is busy like crazy. We hardly get time to take bath and have meals. During this hectic period, the lease of my previous residence expired and I had to vacate that place before December 13th. Thank fully I did not have to spend a lot of time in house hunting, I moved in with the guys my brother used to live with when he was a student. I can not complain for what I have got, nice people, nice place for a very good price. Although I would say that the timing was not the best of all. But this is not entirely imposed on me by life. I could have moved earlier as I knew that the lease of my previous house will expire during the finals week, but guess I am too lazy to be so pro-active.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Tyring day

                I had a rough day today. I woke at 9 a.m. and had break fast as usual, left for school at 10 as I had a paper due at 10:30 in my 100W class. Right after the 100 W class, I had a doctor's appointment at 12:20 which was cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow. On Thursdays, I have classes all the way up to 4:15, therefore I came back to school to take rest of the classes. By the time I stepped out of my Tax class at 4:15, I was almost starving. I thought that going home and eating is a good idea, but then some thing inside me compelled me to the mosque and pray before going home. After praying, when I was leaving the mosque, I saw couple of lunch boxes lying on a table. I asked the person sitting near by and he told me that I can have one. There I had some feel of spirituality, going to the mosque and praying proved to be a good decision and I was able feed my self quite nicely.

             The best part is when I came home and decided to work for one of my online courses, I saw on the college website that This week we don't have to do any work online work because we have a paper due on coming Sunday. This was a huge relief as I estimated that work to take at least 3 to 4 hours. This left me only with the blog posting for this week. Now I am all set to sleep. Bye.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Every thing is due

                 They say, "in the week of finals, every thing is due". I can feel it in this semester. During the last couple of semesters I took not  more than 4 courses each semester, but this time I under took some thing that I now realize is beyond me. I took six courses this semester plus 19 hours of work on week ends. I think taking six courses is not that bad if half of them are in quarter system and half in semester system because in that case exams for all the courses are not held at the same time. But I failed to realize that for the fall semester, whether it is quarter or semester system, exams for both are scheduled in 2nd week of December. That bring s me to the end of my quarter at Deanza and end of my semester at SJSU at the same time.
               Moreover, things become worse when you one has health problems bugging you on top of every thing. Anyway, I have to play with what I have, wining does not get you any where. I am trying my best not to fail any course.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

             I had three days off this thanksgiving but still was unable to have fun. The first day was spent in catching up with my projects as I am taking six courses this semester. Today, my parents were coming back from their trip after 2 months and they could not have come on a better day. However, the whole day was spent in making the araangements to welcome them. Tomorrow, we all are going to start packing our stuff as my family is moving down to South california. Thats how I spent my thanks giving this year. However, it was better than waiting outside the stores for the whole night.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Changing Iran

        Earlier this week, I watched a program on TV about Iran. It was quite interesting to know how Iran has evolved over the years. I have been to Iran in early 90's, back then Imam Khumaini acquired the power from Shah and Iran was in the process of transformation. That was the time when Persian people were trying to combine the religion and state. The fact that amazes me is that Iran in its 2500 years of history, has gone through so many different political set ups. Before Shah, the country was neither too religious nor very modern. After Shah took over, he made some dramatic changes to make the country viable in his own way. However, he was not modernizing the country, he actually was westernizing the country and that is where he was not well received by the people of Iran.
       After Shah was forced to exile, Khumaini took over. That  era was a complete opposite of what Iran had gone through in the past and the same values are held by the people of Iran till today. I think it is unrealistic to expect countries like Iran to have democracy like USA. Iran is a completely different country with different culture, different values, different dynamics etc. They can have a different form of democracy tailored to fit to their social and political set up.



vibrant:    oscillating or pulsating rapidly , bright

dismay:    to cause to lose courage or resolution

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Political Association

                  I have just been in the USA for two years, therefore I am not qualified enough to understand or comment on the political system of America. Yet, I would like to mention a few things that I have so far noticed about the political set up of this country. America is with out any doubt one of the best democratic systems in the world.In fact, the true sense of democracy was introduced by President Abraham Lincoln when he defined democracy as, "of the people, by the people, for the people". However, there are certain aspects of American political system which raise some questions in the mind of an immigrant like me. In order to be politically active, one has to be associated with one of the two major parties. I do not see any problem with being associated with any of the political groups, but apparently, a person belonging to a particular group is required to agree with every thing that the party says, has to support every thing that the party does. If one chooses to go against the position of the party, that is considered to be disloyalty. This is not the case all the time, but at times this kind of approach restricts one's thinking ability.
                  However the good part of living in America is, you might be perceived to be disloyal if you disagree with the party, but no one can punish you for that.



Refection:      refreshment of mind, spirit, or body

noir:               crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings

Thursday, November 3, 2011

A trip to LA

         I went to LA last week for a job interview, the organization whom I was interviewing with handled all the travelling and boarding expenses. I have done some real lenghty travelling, from one part of the world to another, but this one hour flight to and from San Jose really made me sick. The air craft that I boarded from San Jose was pretty compact. It was even hard to walk straight in the plane. The first 45 minutes in the flight were quite good, its was the last 15 minutes that actually gave me hard time. Right after the announcement of landing shortly, I started to experience a terrible headache in the back part of my head. I would say it was one of the worst pains I have ever had. May be it was some thing related to the aircraft because the moment I departed the flight, the pain begun to subside.
        The organization reserved a nice room for me in a hotel. I must say that their hospitality was over whelming. I had my dinner at a local restaurant and the next morning reported to the office for the interview. After interview, on my way back, the plane was slightly bigger than what I had on my way to LA. However, I had a little pain at the same spot in my head right before landing in San Jose. But this time, it was tolerable. Over all, it was a nice trip but I can still feel the after effects of that headache.


gosling:    a foolish or callow person

tonal:      of or relating to tone, tonality, or tonicity

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Global warming

There is hardly any difference of opinion on whether the earth temperature or not. The only dispute is whether humans are responsible for global warming and the magnitude of the warming. There is scientific data supporting both the arguments, yet the fact that global warming is actually a reality has gained more popularity lately. The first politician who ever talked about this issue was Richard Nixon, ever since every single presidential addresses this issue on some scale.

The people who think global warming is not issue at all believe that change in the climate is natural and occurs due to heat wave that hits the planet every 40000 years. Well, this claim is absolutely correct, but one should bare in mind that the heat wave that hit the world 40000 years ago was not combined with any thing else. This time the heat wave is complimented with enormous environmental pollution. If this wave lasts another thousand years, I am afraid we would not survive to see what the next heat wave will bring for us. I think people who claim that Global warming is not a threat are either ignorant or have their self-interests vested in the industry of fossil fuels which  most our politicians do.


Expedient:  suitable for achieving a particular end in a given circumstance
Nomadic:   roaming about from place to place aimlessly, frequently, or without a fixed pattern of movement .

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Diamonds

           Diamonds are considered to be one of the most precious stones in the world. The best git that one can give to their loved ones is a diamond jewellery. It is a billion dollar industry across the globe which makes a huge portion of many economies in the world. A lot of African countries depend substantially on the export of diamond for their survival. It creates a lot of jobs in countries like India, China, Australia, Canada and many others. However, there is a lot more to it.
          Among others, the issue of child labor is prevalent in the diamond industry. Children below the age of 12 are made to work more than 12 hours a day in the periphery countries involved in diamond supply chain. Specially in India, atleast 40 percent of the total labor force in the diamond industry is made up of childern. Moreover, many kids are smuggled from the villages to work in the industry in Africa so that the labor cost stays down. Also there are more than 1 million child soldiers in Africa who are trafikked from their home towns to be a part of the military of rebellions
          Apart from that, the problem of blood diamonds is also been around for a while. Blood diamonds are the diamonds which are smuggled from one country to another and the funds are used to support the militants groups in Africa. All the countries invovled in diamond trading did make a convention of not dealing in blood diamonds but still the smuggling of diamonds to support the evil doers has not completey stopped.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Anasazi

    In one of my GE classes, I got to learn a little about a lot of different civilizations that have existed ever since the inception of the world. In one of my history courses, I had an opportunity to explore a little about a civilization called Anasazi who existed about 8000 years ago.
   All the indigenous people who existed in those ages had pretty much similar approach towards life. People living in similar region had almost identical life style and means of survival. The Anasazis were also had a kind of culture that existed in the central America during that era.However, there were a couple of things that fascinated me enough to write a blog about them.
    During the early part of their existance, they lived in villages and valleys just like every other gorup of people, but as the time passed they shifted their residences in between the cliffs. This seemed pretty weired as designing houses in cliffs during those days was almost impossible. Moreover no one knows gthe reason of this migration from villages to cliffs. Furthermore, the most mysterious information about the Anasazis is the reason of their elimination. It is yet to be found that what happened to those people that diminished them from the face of this earth.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Credit History

           The economy of the whole world is revolving around credit, no matter what kind of business one is engaged in, it is almost impossible to do with out credit. For some reason, we tend to forget that all those financial institutions out there have only one reason to exist --- profits. All the so called great deals that they offer are meant to borrow our money and use it to multiple their profits.
         There are numerous examples around us like the foreclosures, which serve as good lessons for those who are rational. However, most importantly, this terrible economic depression is also a blessing of credit. It would be unfair to say that credit itself is bad for society, there are alot of aspects of credit which serve as a very good help for the people availing it. Yet, it is a very detrimental tool through which people are trapped into those perpetual payment plans.
        I think this is yet another curse of Capitalism that when people are given absolute autonomy to run their businesses the way they please, they end up ruining the economies by pursuing their greedy desires blindly. Therefore, it is always worth it to go through the whole 200 pages contract before entering into a loan agreement with any of the profit oriented financial institutions.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Ethics

What is ethics? The word ethics has different meanings for different people. No matter how good or bad a person is, one always observes certain standards of ethics or morality. It always plays an important role in all the decisions we take, yet there is no universally accepted set of ethics. What is right for one person might be completely unjustifiable for others. 

People also often confuse ethics with law; however, there is a difference. Law is something formulated by the governing bodies of a territory one lives in, whether you like it or not, you have to follow it. Ethics or morals are developed by the individuals themselves, based on their perceptions and experiences. Certain acts may be perfectly legal, but its morality might be questionable and vice versa.

I think there should certain widely accepted criterion to evaluate the net social impacts of acts, so that people can not get away with all the evil by justifying their acts on the grounds that they are legal.


Vandal:  one who willfully or ignorantly destroys, damages, or defaces property belonging to another or to the public 

Treacherous: likely to betray trust

Thursday, September 8, 2011

           I have been attending SJSU since fall 2010. During the first two semesters, I did not pay any attention on networking with the professionals of my field. However, with the passage, I have learned that socializing with people is really important in order to have the desired job right after graduation. The best part of studying in a metro city like San Jose is that no matter what  major you are, you can find the work of your field around the campus.
        I am a kind of person that I take my time in being comfortable with people, therefore I tried as much as I could to avoid being part of any club at the campus. Now that it is just two semesters to graduation, I think it is the time to establish some connections with the business professionals. Therefore I applied to Beta Alpha Psi couple of weeks ago and fortunately got accepted right away. I hope to have a great semester this  Fall with BAP and will be attending my first event on Friday.


inocubate (verb) : to inoculate (as medical specimens) in an incubator

technostress (noun) : stress or frustration as a reaction to technology

Sunday, September 4, 2011

first post

Hey people! This is my first blog ever. I enrolled in the class a little late that's why was not sure what is going on with the blogs. My name is Muhammad Afridi, I am a bussiness major, therefore do not know much about Poli Science. I went to Deanza for my lower division classes and hopefully will be graduating spring 2012. I am working on my bachelor's in Accounting which makes me eligible to take the CPA exam, which is my ultimate goal. I am at present working at a retail store. Hope to have a great semester this fall.

Cheers



  • palliate: to cover by excuses and apologies




  • mashup: a musical recording made by combining elements from two or more different songs