Monday, December 29, 2008

The New York Faithful

After witnessing a craptastic loss to the lowly t-wolves, i've come to a few conclusions:

1. 7th Ave should immediately be renamed "King James' Way"

2. If D.Lee and Nate Robinson were put on the presidential ballots, NYstate would most definitely go orange n blue

3. Coach 'Antoni' doesn't deserve a "D" in his name

4. Step aside Spike...Turtle (yes, from Entourage) is the ultimate Knicks fan

5. "hey, where you going? there's still twelve minutes left!!" is no longer a valid question/statement while attending knicks games

6. Knicks City Dancers :-)

7. I'm Oh for Six!!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Top of the Moooorning to ya, laddy!

...yes, i know that's not what British people say - but their reactions to my ignorance were priceless. i dunno what it is, but mocking the whole english culture and way of life was too easy, and very entertaining. i think it was the fact that they played along with our jokes almost every time that really made it easy and fun. almost every conversation between us and a local started off with a fake/really bad attempt at a british accent and ended in one of three ways:

1. blatantly ignoring us
2. "oi, piss off!"
3. a big smile, some laughter and questions about where the hell we were really from

we even tried to hustle unsuspecting pedestrians an umbrella for one pound...we almost got em, until they realized that the umbrellas were being given out for free. not to mention, we also out-hustled a hustler himself...and then he realized we were smarter than his tricks, so he laughed nervously and commended us on our skills...he ran away

speaking of pedestrians, those tiny london streets cannot handle the crazyyy amounts of people. every direction you walk, turn, or cross the street, you're bumping into someone - i earned the name "baby hitter" because i accidentally ran into a stroller...luckily the mom was cool about it and apologized before i could realize i almost knocked over her child. at that point, i figured it would be reallllly entertaining to see a pedestrian round-about! since the country already doesn't make any sense, why not have pedestrians use round-abouts as well? i'm sure it would help control the massive crowds - i think i'll bring that to their parliament's attention one day

after 3 days of wedding stuff (btw, congrats to iqbal n sabira), and a day of shopping in london, i find myself in Amsterdam....normally, that would be a fun time, but i'm stuck at the airport for a good 12 hours. it wouldnt be so bad, but europe is so FRICKIN expensive! i went to the currency exchange, handed the lady a $20bill...after exchange rates and "processing fees", i was handed 10euros and 87cents. That bought me a mcdonalds meal, candy from some store and some coins to take home as a souvenior. 20 damn dollars, GONE! not to mention, i had to cough up 16euros ($23) to get internet access for the night. they're a buncha scammers!

as a way to channel my frustration, i learned how to curse in arabic...it worked for a while, until a buncha somali's understood what we said and lashed back - yea, we ran!

all in all, a good trip...it was nice to experience something different

england - fun place to visit...to live, not so much my kinda style

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Laying the Foundation

"You never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression"

...if I could define this past semester in one phrase, it'd most certainly be that quote. If anything, it will probably be my motivation through out the rest of my career and life goals. Who knew, all it took was missing one particular class during the first week of school, way back in August to set the tone for the coming months.

I was constantly barraged with that saying every wednesday by a man who I thought was just trying to make an example out of me and embarrass me in front of my peers. Not only did I hear this from him, but from everyone else in that class as well. It really sucked being the "bad" example for everyone. Every time he deliberately looked at me while saying that damn quote, he was basically saying "hey everyone, make sure you don't do what Reza did."

Long story short, I basically stuck it to the man, kicked ass on the most difficult presentation in my college career, and made him say "i was very impressed"

...but that's not where I'm trying to go with this

Back to making a solid first impression...I realized that all this tormenting from that class really lead me on to something greater. How could I really make a kick ass impression among my school's administration, professors, peers, family, and friends...not to mention every single grad school I apply to as well as corporate america as a whole?

Sounds like a tall task...but I think 3 little letters will accomplish that

C-E-O...yea, big things happening

keep on the lookout