Good Times: Trekking and Playing Music

UPDATE: The Karakorams.com site has been taken offline so the photos embedded and linked-to from this blog post are no longer available. I am trying to find other versions to put here instead...but don't hold your breath. [Ameel; 25 August 2009]

A couple of friends recently posted some photographs of treks that I've been on and gigs that I've participated in over the past decade and it got me feeling all nostalgic. Since those photos were posted on Facebook, I figured I'd post some of them here while linking to other, public ones as well.

Trekking in the Karakorams

First off are some trekking photos. I did a lot of trekking and travelling while I was in college -- there's nothing quite like travelling with lots of friends while on a tight budget -- and most of those treks are nicely documented on Karakorams.com (which I helped develop, by the way). Here are photos from my three favourite treks.

My first real trek was to Fairy Meadows, which is a camp on the north side of Nagna Parbat. You can find many photos from that trip on Karakorams.com but this one is my favourites (click for a larger version):

Saad, Amir, Ameel, and Yasir at Fairy Meadows

This was taken bright and early on the second day of our trek. Alefia, who'd been feeling really cold and had woken up a couple of hours earlier, got tired of our laziness and came to wake us up. You can't quite see me in there but I'm the hint of a face in the darkness of the tent. Yasir wrote an article about this trip and even he mentions this photo :)

Our second trip was to one of the Rakaposhi base camps and, for this one, both Yasir and I wrote articles -- though mine is more of diary-type recounting of events which, when I read now, I'm itching to edit! I like two photos from this trek. This one is of me, Saqib (one of the two friends whose posting in Facebook prompted me to write this), and Alefia with the Rakaposhi peaks in the background:

Ameel, Saqib, Alefia

And this one, which shows the ridge we had to climb across to get to our camp:

Crossing the Ridge

The path across this ridge was broken in four places and that photo is of one of the easiest crossings! You can find the rest of the Rakaposhi photos on Karakorams.com as well.

My third trip was to the Deosai Plains, which is one of the highest plateaus in the world. There are lots of really good photos from this trek but this one of Hasan as he positions his tripod to take a photo is my favourite:

Hasan Karrar on Deosai

Deosai really is a stunning place and I urge you to take a look at the rest of the photos as well.

Playing Music

Moving away from trekking: Back in 2005 a bunch of us in Islamabad got together and performed a couple of really fun gigs at Civil Junction.

What was possibly more fun than the gigs themselves were the jam sessions that we had at my house in the weeks leading up to the events. Sheharyar posted some of the photos from those sessions on Facebook and here are a couple.

This one is of me and Nadia -- we did most of the drumming and "percussing" for the band and, no, Nadia isn't normally surrounded by a motion blur:

Nadia and Ameel drumming for the F-10 1/2 Acoustic Band

The second one is a wider shot of the room -- the drawing room of our old house in Islamabad -- which had awesome acoustics. Sheharyar is the one with the guitar and mic:

F-10 1/2 Acoustic Band - Jam Session

Ah, good times. Here's to many, many more in the future...

Cool Bananas

"Cool bananas" -- I've been hearing that phrase on and off since coming to Australia and I'd always wondered where it had come from but I'd never gotten around to investigating its origins. Then I heard it again yesterday and, after tormenting Nadia with it all afternoon, I finally looked it up.

Initially I presumed that it was from something like a children's TV show like Bananas in Pyjamas but, as it turns out, it's originally a Kiwi phrase from the 70s -- or at least that's what the Wikipedia consensus on it seems to be. How the Kiwis came up with it, no one seems to know. The Urban Dictionary, for example, defines it but doesn't indicate its origins.

The most comprehensive discussion on it, however, is on an ABC message board in which...well, in which all they manage to conclude is that a bunch of them have been hearing it in various parts of Australia for over 30 years. I guess that's about as close as we're going to get to its proper etymology. (Darn, and here I thought the Internet knew everything!). Oh well. At least I got to blog about it so that's, er, cool bananas! :)

Lolcats to Dogs, Graphs & Politics

One of my favourite place on the 'net is the lolcat site I Can Has Cheezburger. In case you don't already know, these fine folk also have three other equally funny sites:

  • I Can Has Hotdog -- for loldogs
  • Pundit Kitchen -- for lolpoliticians; or a place where you can "cook up pictures for your political blog"
  • GraphJam -- for, well, lolgraphs; or, more accurately, "Pop culture for people in cubicles"

They also maintain Speak LOLspeak, which is the "The Definitive Lolcats Glossary" and an invaluable resource.

And then there are three other funny, but more specialized lol-related sites:

There are, of course, many, many more of these sites but those three are, in my opinion, the funniest of the lot.

Good stuff!

Peter Gabriel & Technology

Peter Gabriel, one of my all-time favourite musicians, continues to be at the forefront of technology usage -- particularly when it comes to technology for music and human rights:

On the human rights side:

  • In 1992 he co-founded WITNESS, "an international human rights organization that uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations"
  • In 1999 he started TheElders.org, which is a "new gathering of world leaders who [have] come together to guide and support our 'global village'".

So it's no surprise that he is involved in recent areas of music technology as well:

Both sound really interesting and I'll write more about them once I've played around with them a little more.

[More PG: Wikipedia, Last.fm, Real World Records, WOMAD]

Professional Photo of Me!

I recently wrote about my entry in the Melbourne Business School Class Profile Brochure on my professional blog. Since I wrote that post on the day I submitted my profile to Career Services, I didn't have a copy of my professional photograph that will be used in that publication (MBS hired a professional photographer and got all our pictures taken).

This morning, however, I was e-mailed a copy of that photo and here it is:

Ameel Zia Khan

Good photo, eh? I don't look half bad, either :)

Three Years On...

One of the best ways I have of remembering my mother is through music. When we were little she used to sing us to sleep and it's mostly thanks to her that we're a very musical family (we start to sing at the drop of a hat, for example). Since it's been three years since she died I thought it would be nice to post a few videos of the songs that she really liked or that we used to sing a lot.

She was a big fan of Edith Piaf, for example, and her favourite Piaf song was 'Non, je ne regrette rien':

Her other favourite songs included Dean Martin's 'Under the Bridges of Paris', Harry Belafonte's 'Jamaica Farewell', and Frank Sinatra's 'Three Coins in a Fountain'. I'm sure there were others she liked, but these are the ones she knew the lyrics of and sang most often.

Here's Harry Belafonte singing 'Jamaica Farewell':

Bed Time Songs

A lot of the songs she sang us to sleep with were folk songs like 'Lavender Blue', 'Red River Valley', 'Danny Boy', and 'Tom Dooley'.

Here's a video of The Kingston Trio singing 'Tom Dooley':

And, since this is too good an opportunity to pass up, here's the Muppets version of 'Danny Boy':

I remember Ami having a good laugh over this when we first saw it :)

I believe she was more familiar with the Elvis version of this song, though, so here's the tribute video made for his 29th death anniversary that features it:

Travelling Songs

There were also a number of songs that we always sang in the car, particularly on long journeys. One of those was The Three Stooges song 'Swinging the Alphabet':

Other songs included 'The Animal Fair', 'Why Shouldn't My Goose', 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat', and 'Ten Green Bottles'. There were, of course, many more.

It's still hard to believe that she's gone...and I'm glad we have all this music to help keep her memory alive.

2008 LUMS B.Sc.'99 Class Notes

Calling all of my LUMS B.Sc. Class of 1999 classmates!

If you haven't read the news item I posted on our MyFamily.com site or seen the message I sent 50 of you on Facebook, please read this blog post.

It is time, once again, to write our class notes for the LUMS Alumni Annual. Like we did last year, we are going to do compile them using this wiki: http://bsc99.wetpaint.com/

So please: visit the site and update your (or anyone else's) class note entry. Oh, and make sure you do this before Monday, 26 May. On the 27th, I'll copy edit the notes (tweak grammar, flow, etc.) and will mail them off to the Alumni Relations Office.

Finally, please tell all our other classmates that you're in contact with to do this as well.

Thanks!

No "Consensus" on Climate Change?!

A couple of days ago Joseph Romm wrote an excellent article in Salon on The Cold Truth About Climate Change. In it he tackles the various arguments that climate change deniers use, including the argument that it's the sun -- and not us -- that is causing all this global warming (easily debunked, by the way).

The one he address up front, though, is the argument that there is no "consensus" in the scientific community about climate change. Romm's counter-argument? Er, there's no need for consensus when you have the data, stupid:

What matters is scientific findings -- data, not opinions. The [U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)] relies on the peer-reviewed scientific literature for its conclusions, which must meet the rigorous requirements of the scientific method and which are inevitably scrutinized by others seeking to disprove that work. That is why I cite and link to as much research as is possible, hundreds of studies in the case of this article. Opinions are irrelevant.

A little later, he continues:

How many studies? Well, the IPCC's definitive treatment of the subject, "Understanding and Attributing Climate Change," has 11 full pages of references, some 500 peer-reviewed studies. This is not a consensus of opinion. It is what scientific research and actual observations reveal.

Oh, and you know what? The IPCC report actually underestimates the potential future impacts of climate change because the models used in all those studies are actually simpler than what goes on in the real world (because they "omit key amplifying feedback in the carbon cycle"). Observations over the last eight years have helped clarify that since all the observed changes have been on the high side of model projections.

Ah, yes...we're in for a wild ride.

Mathematically, Waiting Better than Walking

As reported by IT Wire:

According to three U.S. mathematicians, if you are waiting for something, like a ride on a bus, and its late, keep on waiting rather than walk to the next bus stop.

[...]

They developed a mathematical formula that tells you how long you should wait before trying something different. They found that when both options seem reasonable, you should stay where you are and do nothing but continue waiting.

And with the exception of extreme cases:

[Even] if it is frustrating to continue waiting, you are better off doing so.

You learn something new every day, huh?

Geeky Home Cinemas

Deputy Dog has a list of 10 Stunning Ultra-Geeky Home Cinemas. Being a geek myself, I fully intend to build me one of those as soon as I can afford it -- though I probably won't go as far as these people have. Mine will based on the bridge of the Enterprise D, of course -- a bit like #5 on the list -- but it'll be a lot simpler and a lot more practical. Something like this, maybe:

Ameel's Home Cinema

Check back with me in about five years and I'll let you know how it turned out :)

The Arabization of Islam

Fatemeh Fakhraieon has written an excellent article on altmuslim on the Arabization of Islam:

Since the original Muslims were mostly Arab, everything associated with them - their culture, names, and family structures - has been associated with Islam. But this presents a problem since the vast majority of Muslims in our current world are not Arab. Passing off Arab culture as Islam in this regard is inaccurate, exclusionary, and disrespectful of other Muslims' cultures.

Converts to Islam illustrate the issue even further. If a Latina converts to Islam, for example, she may decide (or those at the local mosque may urge her) to take a "Muslim" name, like Fatima or Khadija (which are also Arab names). But why can't Lucinda be a Muslim name? What makes a name "Muslim"?

I know of many non-Arab converts who have taken Arab names upon their conversion. But why? What's wrong with the names their parents gave them? There isn't anything in the Holy Qur'an that mandates Muslims to have Arab names. Changing your name from Carmelita to Khadija isn't going to get you into Paradise any quicker. Changing one's name doesn't change one's ethnicity or personality. But having an Arab name makes one seem more "Muslim," because of the way Arab culture is seen as synonymous with Islam.

Another excellent example is clothing, which mostly affects Muslim women. The niqab (the face-veil) was rarely seen outside of the Arabian Gulf until recently. Most Muslims see the niqab as a byproduct of Arab culture. It is only recently that the niqab has been interpreted as religiously authentic instead of a cultural expression. A minority of women in Canada, the U.S., and Europe now wear niqab because they believe it is religiously mandated.

...

The real danger is that Islam is getting buried under all this cultural expression. It is possible to be Muslim without being Middle Eastern, without having a name like Mohammed, and without wearing dishdashas (the long robe worn by most men in the Arabian Gulf states) or niqabs. We should reconsider why Arab-ness is, all of a sudden, next to godliness.

Fakhraieon also runs Muslimah Media Watch and contributes to Racialicious, neither of which I knew about but both of which sound very interesting.

Of Tea and Tetris

Tea and Tetris are the master keys to my life.

Let's take tea first. What do I do to wake myself up? I have a cup of tea. What do I do to relax? I have a cup of tea. What do I do when I'm tired, I've eaten too much (or too little), I'm watching TV, am on the computer, or am working? At the start and end of things? In order to celebrate? When I'm getting really to have a really good discussion with someone? Or even when I have nothing to do? I have cup of tea. Tea is a constant. Tea is everything.

Yes, coffee, Pepsi, and Coke are all valid alternatives -- and they're sometimes exactly what I need and want -- but there's nothing quite as smooth and gentle, yet strong and powerful, and as...default as tea. Meanwhile, coffee can be bitter, harsh, overly strong, really weak, or really milky while carbonated drinks can be sharp and over-carbonated. And yes, tea can be weak or milky...but, dammit, cold or hot, milky or not, tea it's tea!

Oh, and if you want something even smoother and gentler than black tea, there's green tea, other types of tea (English breakfast, Earl Grey, etc.), and many, many flavoured teas to choose from.

Then there's Tetris: the be-all and end-all of work life. What do I do to energize myself for work? I play Tetris. What do I do to relax my brain? I play Tetris. What do I do when I'm on the phone, in order to stay awake, while I'm uploading/downloading large files, while listening to a podcast, or simply to mitigate boredom? I play Tetris.

Tea and Tetris: what would I do without them?

Thank you China/Burma/India and Alexey Pajitnov.

Excellent Health Advice

Some excellent health advice from Michael Pollan, author of 'In Defense of Food':

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

That's the advice journalist and author Michael Pollan offers in his new book, In Defense of Food.

"That's it. That is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy," Pollan tells Steve Inskeep.

Read the NPR article for more.

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated...

I can't think of anything to say. Besides, everyone else is already saying it -- and saying it much better than I ever could.

All political ramifications aside, though, my thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes go out to Bhutto's family. I know how hard it is to lose a loved one; especially a mother. And the more public that person is, the harder it must be for close family since any sendoff that you might want to give your loved one is inevitably hijacked by everyone else. I hope her family -- especially her children -- are hanging in there.

Taking Notes

I take a lot of notes. And I mean a lot of notes. I take notes for things like:

  • Planning out a report, paper, or essay

  • Brainstorming a website, business strategy problem, or a computer program/algorithm

  • Taking notes during a class lecture or conference

  • Even making a shopping list or a list of things to do


I like to think I take good notes and, since I'm a bit of a perfectionist (some would say I'm obsessive), over the years I have actively refined my note-taking technique. Here's how I take notes these days.

Note-Taking Tools

I start by making sure that I have good note-taking tools. These days I take notes with a mechanical pencil with 0.5 or 0.7mm 2B lead (i.e. softer but darker than the typical HB or #2 pencil; see Wikipedia entry on the pencil for details on gradation) on white, good quality, narrow-lined file paper. I also use a good quality eraser.

I use a pencil and eraser because I like clear and neat notes and diagrams (i.e. dark lines and no cross-outs). I use file paper because that gives me more flexibility in terms of storing, organizing, moving, and re-writing notes within subject-indexed, tab-separated file folders ('binders' for Americans).

May I geek out a bit? These days I'm using a Faber Castel Grip Matic pencil, the 2B lead that came with it, and a Staedtler Rasoplast eraser. The pencil's pretty old now so I need to buy a new one. I generally prefer Staedtler over Faber Castel -- I've been using the former's pens, pencils, lead, and erasers for about 16 years now -- but I haven't been able to find the right products in Australia so far. I guess I need to look harder. Oh, and Pilot and Uni products are good too; particularly the Uni SA-S fine ballpoint pen which I have been using exclusively for about 3 years now.

Note Organization

I organize my notes rather thoroughly: listing on each page the date, subject, page number, and, if in a meeting, the names of the participants in that meeting. To organize the notes themselves I use a series of headings and nested bullet points. Here's an example:

Note Taking 1

More recently I've started to take notes on my laptop. For that I use Microsoft Word with 12pt Georgia font and the same sets of headings and series of nested bulleted lists as I do on paper (except that those are now defined as MS Word Styles so they look a little different). This is what my electronic notes look like:

image

The Actual Notes

Then come the actual notes themselves. Since I write a lot, I've had to develop my own, mostly intuitive, shorthand to write things down quickly. For example: "this func. says nothing abt. price lvl.; dep. only on tech, labour & capital." Since I type quickly, I write full-ish sentences when typing notes, though. They may not be entirely grammatically correct, but I don't usually abbreviate words.

In the actual note-taking I try to write down as much as I can while still listening to the lecture/discussion, not missing anything going on (even at a deeper level), and participating in the discussion as well. It's not easy but I've been doing it for years so I'm used to it by now. Taking notes this way gives me a pretty accurate recording of what went on during the class (since that's what I developed my note-taking for) and, even if something isn't quite clear to me at that time, I can usually follow the logic and work it out later.

At the end of every note-taking session (e.g. at the end of every class) I try to review the notes to make sure I haven't missed anything. Then, usually while preparing for an assignment or just before an exam, I do one of two things. I either extract what is important from my notes (and in parallel from lecture slides and assigned readings) by re-writing them on a new sheet of paper or on my laptop. That is, I take notes of my notes. If not that, I make an index in which I identify what I've written and on which page that topic is located. The former helps me prepare for closed book exams and assignments. The latter helps me get ready for open book exams and meetings during which I might need to refer to my notes.

I don't follow any specific note-taking system like the Cornell system that the good folk at Student Tablet PC use [1], though that sounds like a really good methodology. Nor is my system as elaborate as Tim Ferriss' (via Kevin C. Tofel). I am interested in getting into mind maps like James Kendrick, but my note-taking style has always worked well for me so I haven't yet found a reason to change.

I do, however, use a mind map-type construction for breaking down complex problems. But, since I'm a stickler for writing things neatly, I use lists instead of diagrams. For example:

Board Notes 1

And that's about it. Oh, one last thing: storage. Since I have craploads on notes, I generally have a crapload of file folders to store all my notes in as well. And since I've been using, for the most part, the same system for about ten years now, my old notes still come in handy every now and then. The only problem is: I can't take all my old notes with me.

All of that, I guess, goes some way to demonstrate why the obsessive note-taker in me wants so desperately to get a tablet PC. I mean, seriously, how could I not want to get the ultimate note-taking tool? But, since I can't afford one now, I am so looking forward to getting one later and then scanning all my MBA notes into it so that they're ready for use any where, any time. In fact, I'm getting all excited just thinking about it now! Yes. I am a geek. I wrote a whole blog post on note-taking (with pictures and all), didn't I? :)

[1] The Student Tablet PC website has a whole category on note-taking.