Saif Spot

That's right. You read correctly. ROBBED. This past Sunday. Sometime between 5pm and 7.30pm. LeThief decided to break my car's passenger-side door glass, and tried to take my stereo. When he realized he couldn't get the stereo out, hey decided to take the removable face-plate instead. Five quick thoughts: LeThief: What possessed you to take the face-plate if you couldn't get the stereo out? What good is that to you? Nothing. It just ends up costing me cash to replace. It's not enough that you don't win - someone else has to lose too? Jeez... humans... that's a blog for another day. At least the break was clean - if you didn't know any better, you would think that the window was just rolled down. There wasn't a piece of glass hanging from the door at all. Job well done, LeThief. LeThief was also nice enough to lock the doors again, after leaving. Thanks. You know, just in case someone else wanted to steal the rest of the radio and didn...

My buddy Robin , who is the guru of the blogosphere in my limited circle of friends, recently told me about RSS feeds. I had to do some looking-up to understand exactly what they were, but I finally did figure it out. It's basically your way to subscribe to other people's blogs so that you no longer have to continue visiting their site to check for updates. You can use a feed reader website or program (I use bloglines ), which receives automatic updates when new content is added. [Coincidentally, Robin just wrote a blog about how RSS feeds are only used by about 4% of the adult American population today, but this number is due to grow. Google's Desktop application includes RSS, as will Microsoft's next-gen Windows OS] When he was initially explaining it to me, he described it as a 'push' rather than a 'pull' (and, of course, I pretended to understand). This makes sense, since they will now be pushing the information to you, instead of you having to go to...

Recently, numerous articles have been published describing issues that parents are facing while flying with their infants. Apparently, the USA's "no fly list" includes names close to those of some babies leading the airport authorities to stop babies from boarding planes. The parents then have to go through the trouble of proving that their babies aren't actually terrorists. To save parents such troubles in the future, here is a quick checklist to determine whether your son is a terrorist according to the US government. Communication is extremely important. Ask your child if he is a terrorist. If he doesn't answer with a 'no' immediately, it means that, according to the US government, he is a terrorist. Corollary: If your child speaks gibberish, it means that he's speaking in a secret language and therefore, according to the US government, is a terrorist. Feed him some milk. If he drools and has a milk mustache, it means that he is looking fo...

There's something called "The Official US Air Guitar Championships" (Seriously). They even have a website with rules and judging criteria. Apparently, the competitors are judged on: Making it look like they're playing the actual music in the background (I do that every time I bob my head. And I'm good at it. Even practice in the car sometimes for the real event, when I'm a wallflower at clubs) Having stage presence to rock a crowd of thousands (you mean there are people who actually come to WATCH this?) "Airness", which transcends the imitation of a real guitar and becomes an art form (So now, they have to make it look like they're more than just playing a fake guitar. I wonder how this affects their points from criteria #1). Want the real kicker? They're allowed to have "personal air roadies." So, these dudes even have their own lackeys to help load and unload equipment from the stage. Yep, the air guitars need setting...

I use technology I work in the technology field I use technology to pay my bills (literally and figuratively) Technology is cool So now, there's a software for cell phones that tracks whether the other person is actually listening to, and engaged in, the conversation. Man, I would absolutely fail that test. I day-dream. A lot. This is an example of people using technology in evil ways. Technology is not cool Until next time, Saif's out!

[Woman to George Costanza: Extraordinary! Have you ever done any hand modeling?] You know what is a growing issue in society today, that I really believe we should all work to address? The I-read-that-I-should-have-a-firm-handshake-so-I'm-going-to- break-the-other-guy's-hand issue. Don't roll your eyes and pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. [George to Jerry: Where do you get off comparing your hands to my hands?! This is a one-in-a-million hand.] I, myself, ran into this issue yesterday. I met a dude probably half my size and gave him a firm, yet non-overbearing, handshake. He obviously must have read the have-a-firm-handshake book because I think he just put all his might into squeezing my hand. This dude was working hard to have it firmer than mine. He was even squirming in trying to over-power me. (Easy with the wuss jokes about me. My grandpa's a strong guy, alright. And...

So, I was in a public place last week, and someone's phone went off. The dude had "Ice Ice Baby" as his ringtone. Weird guy. That's what got me thinking... You know what attribute we don't use to its maximum capacity? Cell phone ringtones! Some people put in a lot of effort in trying to read others by attempting to study their backgrounds, tendencies, experiences, habits, etc. By this, they can venture an educated guess into the psyche and nature of individuals. You may have heard of them. They're called Psychologists. But, I'm convinced: You can tell a lot about a person simply by hearing their phone ring. Just think about it. Would you ever use the Austin Powers theme song as your ringtone if you did not like Mike Myers or stupid comedy? Probably not. Same goes for men using Backstreet Boys songs... I hope. [We'll come back to this] Anyway, I pitched this idea to some PhD profs and received some funding to look into this newly emerging area of Psych...

I know, it's been a few days since I updated the blog, but what can I say? I'm a busy (ahem...lazy) guy. Just like you, I also have a list of 100 things to get done before I die. Here's a subset: 35: Encourage Mr. T to challenge Mr. Clean for bling-washing supremacy 36: Strike a pose like Bill Gates 37: Break into old people's homes, just to tickle them while they're asleep 38: Find any role in any movie where the actor is more of a wuss than Orlando Bloom in Troy (this might be the hardest one) Anyway, you'll be happy to know that task 37 has been completed! Relax, it wasn't by me, but by someone else. As much as I hate my ideas being stolen, this has humour written all over it. A guy broke into elderly womens' homes naked, just to tickle them with feathers and fingers. He's even freaked out the neighbours so much that they wake up in the middle of the night and look for the tickle monster beside their beds. Ahh, good times all around. Until nex...

In writing about entertaining activities and off-beat news items, I often neglect serious activities that occur in the world. While sober ongoings in the world probably have a much larger affect on our lives, comical stories just seem to be easier to discuss. After all, we have our own daily issues to get through - we don't need anything else to damper our spirits. Nonetheless, I recently read a couple of articles that really got me thinking about one of the controversial topics in society today. The Globe and Mail published an article describing a meeting that the Canadian Prime Minister, Paul Martin, held with 19 Muslim imams on Thursday, July 28th, 2005. This meeting was organized for Muslim leaders to commend the Canadian leadership for staying out of Iraq, and condemn the terrorist activities that have taken place by Muslim extremists. Although long overdue, statements from this meeting could be significant in helping the wider Canadian population understand the position of p...

So, let me get this straight about O.J. Simpson. OJ can win a Heisman Trophy in college. OJ can play 11 years in the NFL, and rush for 11,236 yards. OJ can be the first RB in the NFL's history to top 2,000 yards in a season. OJ can be involved in low-speed car chase in a white Ford Bronco. OJ can hire F. Lee Bailey, Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran to defend him in his wife's murder trial. OJ can beat the murder rap because "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." OJ can win custody of his children after all this. But OJ gets busted for stealing satellite TV. Gotta love America. Well, with no TV, at least now he'll have more time to find the "real killers." Until next time, Saif's out!

Ahh yes, the famous words spoken by many moms... and no, they weren't talking about me. Actually, did anyone notice this story yesterday? To summarize, it's about Microsoft releasing a free software over the weekend that lets users view the map of the world via satellite pictures, and zoom in close enough to see buildings from a bird's-eye view. I guess it's somewhat similar to maps.google.com. Anyway, so in this product, when a user tries to zoom into Apple Computer's Headquarters, all they see is a warehouse and a parking lot. In reality, Apple's HQ is a campus containing 11 modern buildings! I think this is hilarious! I know, I know, Apple fans will say that this is all wrong, and MS is cheating its customer group, blah, blah, blah. But, from a completely unbiased view -- I don't like or dislike either -- this has got to be pretty amusing. I mean, basically MS decided to pick on one of their rivals by wiping them off the face of the Earth! (C'mon, li...

I know, I know, I'm late to the game. It turns out that while the rest of the world began blogging years ago, I was probably still trying to figure out whether to use online banking. So, thanks to those of you who have welcomed me into this century with open arms (yes, both of you!). Here's the thing: As far as I can remember (which is usually only a few minutes back, but in this case a little longer), the blogs that I have read always seemed to have some depth. The one I used to read semi-regularly was by a friend of mine, who wrote on planetroxy.com (interesting topics, good delivery, knowledgeable... have a look). All the good blogs hinted that the writer had put some thought into it, researched some information, and ran spell-check. Most blogs that I read on the web were even written by people who knew what they were talking about. I couldn't promise that I'd do the same. And then I met Demetri Martin. Ok, I exaggerate. I didn't actually meet the dude, just ran...