Post for the month of July

I wouldn't want to make the blog name a big lie, and I've been pretty skimpy on news like Wendy never fails to remind me :)

Here are some of the promised pictures I brought with me from Lebanon. First, I think this picture goes back all the way to the 5ieme in 1992, although it could also have been during the 4ieme. Bourgui is already tall and sexy, although not quite as much as his modern handsome self. Professor Dubuis (I think) is on the right, and many other familiar faces, although some have gone over the years. On the personal level, this was the beginning of the ugly years, with way too much hair on my head, not enough gel, ugly glasses and the beginning of facial hair.

The second one is from the other extreme of high school, the Terminal year, with many more familiar faces to all of you who read this blog. Ah the joy of having about 3 girls in class and the rest of them being boys... Although Bourgui was taken care of, Damien and I were busy getting record rejections (I won handily, but that's just due to my unabashed willingness to do silly things, or at least back in 1996 it was.

Anyways, I got a couple more pics like this for a future post. And maybe some more news by the end of August :p
I think that Kash Monthly is about correct these days, with not enough extraordinary things happening to be worth taking note of, and too many things pulling attention in other places, such as facebook.com (if you're not on there, you should be) and LinkedIn (which I have but don't really use yet).

I hope you are all OK, and I miss you all like hell.
Love,
Karim

About the wedding

Hi everyone!
Here's some news about the planned wedding in Lebanon: as some of you have commented, the last couple of trips to Lebanon have been all but peaceful. We are considering whether we want to take the chance and try and get married in Lebanon, or if we can and want to do it in Canada instead. I don't like the Canada option at all, as the family's in Lebanon. We are thus in a waiting mode, until the end of the summer. Hopefully we'll know better then about the situation in Lebanon and whether it is stabilizing or not.

Even if the situation is better in September, we don't have any idea if it will still be calm the next summer.

Stay posted for more information on this topic and others soon.

Love,
Karim

Back safely from Lebanon

Hi everyone,

I just wanted you to know that I am safe and sound in Montreal, and Janine as well. More details to follow soon, as well as some cool pics that I scanned there.

Love,
Karim

Going to Lebanon tomorrow

Hello everyone! I have made my title officially a lie by skipping the month of April in my posts. Oh well, at least I did good in my classes, am now the president of the Concordia Commerce Graduate Student's Association (CGSA), got selected for a very interesting case competition class and am going to Lebanon tomorrow (the 8th of May) for 3 weeks to plan for the wedding in 2008. We're thinking mid-end of July 2008, probably the 19th (to be confirmed). So in Lebanon, we're going to tour churches and hotels and restaurants to plan the whole thing. I was also lucky to see Bourgui a few times recently, although I wish that he and Nat had received more joyous news...
Anyways, now I'm sure May will have at least one post, and hopefully pictures and news of the trip end of May/beginning of June when I return to Montreal. We have taken travel insurance again, and this time we're hoping not to have to use it.
Oh, and today's the first real hot day in Montreal with the temperature flirting with 20C! Lebanon and the 30C weather is going to be quite a shock.

Well, that post was pretty much all that happened to me when you remove the details and keep just the essential of the last month and a half. The sleepless nights and crazy endless days of slaving away on papers, exams and cases are over and I am looking forward to Summer II (end of June) when I can resume the frantic lifestyle of an MBA student.

Have a great Spring y'all!
Love,
Karim

Blah blah Exams Blah Blah Tired

By now you must be used to the eternal I'm busy post, but what can I say, it's true and it's the end of the semester madness that makes it worthwhile to go ahead and say "I succeeded, I did well on my exams/papers, I can enjoy some TV and go shop now"
In other news, I'm applying to be President of the Concordia Commerce Graduate Student Association, with a great team of people. This of course adds more to the load, but we're up to the challenge and we are very motivated to win this thing!
I'll keep you posted, and mid-April should have a few days to catch up on the blogs of my friends to see what you guys are up to.

Ciao,
Karim

En Mars, ne te decouvre pas d'un fil?

So, not much to say except that I'm very busy these days, that I missed Marcel and Bourgui's meeting this week-end again, and that I hate the daylight savings changes that seem to have no intensive purpose but to annoy us. I've read scientific evidence that the alleged savings in energy are actually negligible or even negative, and thus we change hours twice a year to please a bunch of politician idiots. Some people say that it works, but I'd like to see the stats.
That's it for the rant of the month!
Love,
Karim

Janine and I last summer during Salah's wedding

Leila fixed the luminosity on the picture as it was slightly overexposed. Otherwise, it's Janine and I in our undimmed glory

Busy month(s) ahead

March is about to begin and it's going to be a crazy month. Break is over, got time to relax a little and to make sure that going back to school would be insanely busy (by taking the time to relax, how ironic). This week is extremely bad, with one exam, one ten-page paper, much reading and the second of three week-ends doing the live case analysis. I can't divulge anything about the case, but I can say that I'm heading to Burlington, Vermont on Friday for two days and when I come back, probably totally fried, I'll still have a shit load of work. At least, I work extremely well under pressure, I just need to have enough sleep :)

Anyways, just thought I'd give a heads up in case I end up not posting in the near (or not so near) future, it's just the second half of the semester, and with 5 graduate level classes, it's not a walk in the park.

Take care y'all!
Ciao,
Karim

P.S: I set up my domain, saliba.ca, on google apps. What an awesome set of tools that is, not because of how powerful and simple the package is, but because it's all these things and it's free!!! Some people think of google as a big brother in the making, but they innovate and do all kinds of cool things to make people more productive, I really don't mind that they're making a huge profit, quite the contrary.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's snowing like crazy tonight, like it has all day, and I for one am loving it. I didn't use to be this way, but the whiteness, the silence, the slowness of city activity, it's just amazing. The snow today was unlike any I have ever seen before, like a hundred thousand diamonds had fallen from the sky and blanketed Montreal in a lovely white veil.
Happy Valentines to everyone, especially those of you who aren't spending it with loved ones. Janine and I celebrate Thursday night so we can have more time, as tonight was busy for me, and tomorrow all day as well.

Love you all,
Karim