Happy New Year!!! (and other assorted holidays)

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to comment on two momentous events that happened recently:

1- Marcel and Bourgui came to my place on the 30th of December 2006. They left on the 1st day of 2007, well fed and happy. As for me, I was ecstatic. Good times were had by all, and we missed all of you who weren't there when we weren't too busy staring at the family of my fiancée (looking at member of both sexes I should add) or reminiscing about old times.

2- Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30th, 2006. He deserved to be punished for all the suffering he inflicted. Unfortunately, the wrong person was killed on that fateful Saturday... The person who died was a martyr that represented the whole Sunni group in Irak and the Arab world, and was executed by his Shi'a victors while they were mocking him and gloating by chanting the name of their religious leader, the day before the biggest annual Muslim holiday. The person that should have been executed is the tyrant that ruled Irak with an iron fist, killing his enemies indiscriminately and sending hundreds of thousands of Irakis to their deaths in pointless wars, while squandering the wealth of a strong nation. That mostAmericans can't see the difference is just one more reason why they keep losing good men in the Arab world.

I should be updating more often, as I realize that it doesn't have to be a long post every time...
Love,
Karim

So what's new?

How could I sum 5 months of absence?
1- MBA full time, which means I quit my job at Alogia+Logient as a Network Administrator and am a full time student/glandeur :p again. It's actually a lot of work but I'm having a blast.
2- Parents are here, and I'm in my sis and bro's appartment. Actually, in their living room. Not the best for privacy, but you can't beet the cooking.
3- I'm now 27 and jobless. What a loser :P Thanks yall for remembering, it was awesome.
4- No travel plans lately, so if you want to see me, move your ass to Montreal. Or rather, wait until my parents are gone and come visit, so I can have a bed for you
5- Saw Bourgui a couple of week-ends ago. He came to kick some ass at W40K. He arrived, having not slept for a couple of days due to last minute painting on Saturday night, with 3 victories out of 3 games. He then slept on the couch of death and I went to check things out with him Sunday. He lost the last two games

So, in summary, I'm good and you don't want me next to you in a tabletop tournament :p

Love,
Karim

P.S: It's exam time, so no news till much later. But I guess you're used to that...

Back Safely from Lebanon

Just a quick message to let everyone know that Janine and I are safe and sound in Montreal as of late Sunday evening.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, it was truly a miracle that got us here safely.

Love,
Karim

P.S: I'll send an email to let everyone that we're OK ASAP.

MBA application and more

So I'm applying for an MBA at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Five years of work experience showed me clearly that more studying is required to succeed, or least more advanced degrees.
Studying now will be good for me, an excellent change of pace. Five years ago, I wasn't ready mentally for more studying, right after graduating from my bachelor. Now I'll give it my best and actually excel. When I get back to work, after that, I'll have both experience and academics. The best would have been to keep working AND study part time, but there are complex reasons why I'm not doing so. You can consider the reasons to be extremely simple too: Janine, weddings, parents, pressure, getting things done fast.

Basically Janine and I want to get married next summer; my parents don't want that unless I get a Master's degree. I talked to them about that recently and it raised a lot of issues, and a lot of valid points.

I wanted to get the master's anyway so getting a head start and doing it full time for a while (to get most or all of the courses under my belt) feels right.

The other options are: 1) getting married anyway and upsetting my parents (not that bad, but they're great support financially and morally, plus I see the advantages of getting ahead in the masters) 2) studying part time while working (would take forever, still not cool w/ parents, hell if not living with Janine, i.e. not married)

That's it for the quick status update.

no time to procastinate

yet I still find some time to watch the first 1/2 hour of Daredevil on TV, read everyone's blogs (well, that at least wasn't too hard), post this comment here, and lose time on a couple of other things.
I guess some (bad) habits are just too ingrained at this point...
I'm feeling a lot better today, a long emotional talk w/ Janine helped get things off my back and hers, so I'm a lot more relaxed now.
Basically, Janine and I are talking marriage (and have been for a while). We really want to get betrothed next summer, but my parents had a very different point of view. The problem is that I think my parents have made excellent comments, and for once even the way wasn't too bad...
I need to get ahead with my education, and although I thought I could wait until after marriage, now would be as convenient, or even possibly more convenient if I do it full time w/ financial support.
Of course, it's a huge change in the way things have been going, and a master's degree is a couple of years usually.
-- I started this message on wednesday night, but didn't post it and went back to doing some useful application stuff. Yesterday night was TV and much needed sleep. This week-end will be busy to make up for the delays :)
Thanks to all of you who left comments and tried to cheer me up on MSN. I love you all.

I'm a slow poster usually, but lately...

I'm a slow poster usually, but lately I have been extremely hectic and stressed. Many changes incomming, parents and others all pulling in different directions. I feel stretched. I'm constantly tired, often depressed, not giving friends the time or attention they deserve...
I just seem to suck at everything right now...
Anyway, just thought I'd say that I think about you guys often, but that until Septemberish, I should be sporadic in my posting here (as I have been all along, I guess)
Quick updates on things: 1- trying to lose weight and keep it down 2- applying to master's degrees for real this time 3- going to Lebanon beginning of July for a couple of weeks and many issues arise from that

If this post has depressed you, then I have successfully emptied your bucket. Sucks to be you!

Shopping Spree

About once or twice a year, I shop. No more no less. I don't shop when I need something. I don't shop often. I shop once at the beginning of summer and once before Christmas, and I buy what I've needed for a while then.
My list as it was before this week-end:
- tennis shoes (baskets en français)
- everyday black leather shoes
- socks
- underwear (specifically des caleçons)
- costard (for my cousin Salah's wedding this summer)
- T-shirts
- Jeans
- Summer clothing (bermuda shorts, pantacourt, whatever)

I spent a few hours on Monday shopping for shoes, and bought 2 pairs of tennis shoes (one is more casual and the other one more sporty) as well as my everyday black leather shoes.
My older pair of black shoes is about a year old (a bit more probably), and well worn out by now. As for my previous pair of tennis shoes, I don't even remember when I bought it, but at the least it's before I came to Montreal, so no less than 3 and a half years. I really needed to get another pair, that's done now! :)
More news soon

apres le calme vient la tempete

So, after shutting my clam for over two months, I can't shut up anymore! Anyways, I just thought I'd give a short update on how I spend my leasure time!
I mostly moved on from roleplaying into Magic the Gathering exclusively, my one most lasting obsession. But these days, I'm hooked on board games. Especially Settlers of Catan. I've owned the basic game for a long time, converted a lot of friends, and recently converted the family too (i.e. Janine and her lovely sisters Chantal Celine and Pascale, my sister Leila and finally my uncle Joe's sons, Rami Chadi and Dani).
The conversion of these non-gamers (especially the Sayeghs) took some time, and Alhambra was a lovely game to play to get them on the road to something a bit more complicated like Settlers of Catan.
The excellent part is that I never lack a play group, unlike my days in Boston, or even in Florida. Plus, it's a lot more fun when you're playing with people that are so close, unlike Magic where you play people you don't obligatorily know that well.

Thus, I segway into my shiny new interest: The Settlers of Catan 10 anniversary 3-D blah blah blah edition. This is Settlers of Catan, with Cities and Knights, for 3-4 players, with awesome pieces. Everytime I think about it, my mouth waters and drool goes down my chin. Unfortunately, it's $450 canadian before taxes, so a nice $513 with taxes, aka something I can't afford. I looked on ebay, and I can get it for less. Even better, a friend of mine can grab me one through his special channels for "only" $350. Still, it's probably a stupid thing for me to spend money on a game I already own! So what if I don't have the pretty 3D pieces, and the shiny multicolor elements! It's probably better for viewing and gaming to play on the flat board anyways...

It's just that I have seen something cool and have to try it. Just here I prove that, like most men, I'm just a boy with more expensive toys :)

One last problem: it would be a lot less expensive for me to actually MAKE myself a 3D board. There are at least two places where the process of making boards is documented, but unlike Bourgui and most of the group, I hate the whole painting and crafts part of gaming. MageKnight and the such were made for people like me, who want to play with armies but don't want to suffer the painting.

Here's a couple of links to the home-made 3-D boards, just for reference:
- this board predates the 3D edition, and it looks like it was an inspiration to the people who made the selling version. I mean they even put the same kind of sheep on their board.
- this board comes at a later period, and is also very pretty.

Either way, if I was to make something like this, I would still probably not have the patience to make it look good... Also, even if I do make the board, I won't have all the collateral, like the settlements, cities, roads, knights, robber, merchant and more.

One thing that helps me rethink spending all the money is that there are many issues with the official 3D board:
- there are no spots planned for putting the numbers on the tiles properly (??? is this an oversight?)
- there are no spots planned for putting the robber on the tiles properly (except for the desert tile, where the robber starts the game) (this is also stupid, but not as bad as the problem above
- the numbers are made of a transparent disk, which makes them a lot less legible than they should be (the people who made this version thought that seing the actual board below was more important, a bad decision in my opinion)
- what about playing with more than 4 players? (no news on whether there will be a 5-6 player expansion in 3D, but it's very unlikely either way)
- the price (even at $350, it's about 4 times or more the price of the same game in non-3D form)

Well, I think I'm done talking about Settlers for today. I'll keep everyone posted on further developments! :p
Love,
Karim

for those of you who know a bit about World of Warcraft