Spring

This post is supposed to be full of pictures, but as usual, there is something i should forget, otherwise, it is not me anymore!! I forgot to bring my Olympus 6 MPixel digital camera.
I went with my friend Maen Suhiamat on a late afternoon drive to explore the country side on the northern suburbs of Amman. Both of us did not have lunch so we picked up a lousy fast food meal and started the drive. We reached the area of interest, Some 15 Km North of Amman, on hills approximately rising 1050 M above sea level in an area called Al-kamsh, some 10 Km north of Abu Nsair. We picked a nice peak just to consume the food. It was so cold and very windy, we could not find a suitable place to shield us from the wind, we ended up hiding behind some big rock,, It was not enjoyable when your hands become as cold as ice while trying to eat. We went back to the car and took some off road trails. The sceneries were really fascinating, Old Oak tree, greenery etc..
We drove through villages (3alook, Masarra) then moved south east until we arrived to a village called "Birane", an area that i visited several times on many mostly pleasant occasions. Boy, days has passed, and Birane has changed, it is now more developed, the streets are wider and better than the last time i visited it. I was hoping to do something similar and investigate another area before spring is over, however i do not think I will be in town for the coming 10 days

ammar sajdi

Carnage at Virginia Tech

The US media has been preoccupied with the most horrifying carnage that took place at Virginia Tech. While i would like to extend my deepest sorrow for the American people for their loss due to this act of terror and to the families who are mourning their beloved ones and for the mothers, who are crying their children, I would like to remind Mr. Bush and the American people that IRAQI AND PALESTINIAN MOTHERS LOVE THEIR CHILDREN TOO


Ammar Sajdi

Human clock

Yes, this is a real time clock showing current time digitally. Digits are mad up of human formation. To test it yourself and see your PC time realtime visit
http://billychasen.com/clock/
It is an Ingenious clock, do not pretend that you do not like it, you cannot resist but to like

You've got mail

Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, was shown on MBC2 tonight, I watched this movie several times before. Never, however, from its begining. Each time I watch it, it is as if I am watching it for the first time. Once upon a time, Meg Ryan was my favorite. Melancholically, the days when she shined have long been gone! Cast Away, was an Incredibly memorable movie for Tom Hank

Ammar

RJ Voodoo

Since I am doing lots of traveling this period, with a rather volatile schedule, it is a fairly messy job to organize the itinerary in an optimum way. I vested the RJ new website; and I liked the fact that it allows you to reserve your seat on the main deck of the aircraft.
Anyway, I used the website to reserve a flight to Bahrain, and the most impressive feature of the site is that it can predict the future. I logged back to the website to give more information about my reservation for my travel agent, but was really pissed off when I did not find any traces of all the reservations I did the previous day. While I was rearranging the reservation again through the agent in the classical manner, I received a call from Bahrain asking me to postpone the trip till next Saturday. thumps us RJ, you simply had the talent to foresee my future. I hope they RJ can tell me if there is any change on my Trip to London late next week. May be I should travel directly from Bahrain. I will just make a reservation to London through the website and track it. I would be a nice feature if the system can also know about postmonements and book me accordingly

Zareef

One of two Iranian restaurants I know of in Amman. It is located within a close proximity of Abdoun round-about. We went yesterday for dinner
The setting is nice, you could ask for seating in the upper floor over looking abdoun round about. It is a casual restaurant. The menu is good and the food is excellent.
We had mixed Iranian grill with different taste of Iranian rice. I had a spinach soup which I liked very much (may be because if you talk about spinach and me, we click)

I recomment the place (so far)

Ammar Sajdi

They have done again

I would like to congratulate my Uncle Aziz and my cousins Izzat and Mutaz Sajdi for winning The King Abdullah II award for Excellence. Consulting Engineering Center (CEC) has won this award before (2003-2004) for Small to Medium Size Firms. Four companies in Jordan has won this prestigious award twice so far. The announcement has been made last week.

Keep up the good work!

Traveling again

It is getting imminant , i am leaving to Bahrain again on Monday, staying for one or two days.
I have got lots of traveling looming
Next week to the UK
The week after, probably again to Bahrain
Then have to be back by May 5th to Amman, as i am conducting an advanced Oracle Security course.
I will finish the course and again to Bahrain.
I know many people like to travel, but anybody doing the kind of traveling i am doing must be getting really sick and tiered. Late night flights, early morning flights, packing, unpacking, getting late to the Airport!! getting used to the pillows at Hotel, remebering the different exchange rates. And the four things i cannot affort to lose while traveling

1) Myself
2) My passport
3) My laptop
4) Business Card holder

As i am really in deep sh.t without any of the above items

Hugh (John Mungo) Grant - Music & Lyrics

In all honesty, I was in for a better show! for Hugh Grant, the actor who was born in London back in 1960 and studied English at Oxford. He became internationally known following his role in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, Best Actor Golden Globe).

The movie revolved around him and Drew Barrymore and as such lacks diversity. The entire movie is about composing a song for some hot chick called Cora. I had to look at my watch several times during the movie as I was getting board, which incidentally, allowed me to find a draw back about my top-pick "advertise-when-possible" Tissot watch; it does not perform well in darkness; Simply stated, I could not read the time. Possibly, nevertheless, it is an aging problem that has to do with me and need not necessarily be attributed to the poor Tissot

In 1995, while dating Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh was arrested in Hollywood for indecent conduct with a prostitute, Divine Brown, in a public place. He offered an apology for this on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

To read the more about this incident , http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/1995/06/28/hughgrant.xml

ammar

Spontaneity

It was Firday 11 AM when the phone rang. It was my sister suggesting that we go to Aqaba to check our "Never-have-seen" apartment at Tala Bay, and return back to Amman on the same day.
When I was younger, I was an easy going, easy to please, and spontaneous guy. As I grew, I became a bit stubborn, hard to please and less spontaneous. Yesterday, I was profoundly impressed by my Spontaneity. At 11:30, me, Jumana, My sister Luma and her husband Zaher where cruising in their 4 wheel drive to Aqaba! To be a bit more honest, what drove towards this venture was not really my urge to see Tala Bay, rather, I was aware of the fact that there was an unstable weather system. The nature of such system is Jordan manifests itself more explicitly in the southern and eastern desert lands of Jordan. It was exactly what I expected. At around 1:30 we were at the highest point on the Desert highway, Ras Al-naqab, rising some 1500 Meters above Sea Level (of course I used my watch to verify that http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-new-watch.html).And Heaven have mercy, Wadi Rum was not the rocky desert area you would expect to see. It was all hidden behind a huge mass of spectacular cloud formation touching the ground, typical to those formed when a cold air front meets a warm air mass; Lightening was occurring at an intriguing rate of almost once every 30 seconds and pouring rain with a drop size reaching the size of a bean.

Rare phenomenon indeed.

At 2:00, we were approaching Aqaba, the skies were almost clear with rain reminiscent. At 2:30 we reached Aqaba, the weather was fascinating, a cool breeze under sunny skies. We immediately went to Floka (fish restaurant) reserved a table for 4 to be readu at 3:45 and ordered the food, so it would be ready at 3:45. we immediately headed to Tala Bay, lcoated at the southern tip of aqaba (10 Km north of the Saudi Borders). To be honest, Tala Bay looks better than I expected, it is a glamorous place; Good size Marina filled with Yachts, Jest Skies etc ..Laguna in between buildings, walk ways etc.. In 45 minutes we were back at the restaurant, where we found the dishes almost ready. We had a nice see food meal (of course paying a hefty price tag for it). At 4:30, we left the restaurant to the Movenpick and had a delicious banana split as appetizers. At 5 PM, we left to what is called "city center" duty free mall right at the northern tip of Aqaba,. We shopped, I bought a Clarks shoes, and at 6:05 we started our journey back to Amman. Wadi Rum, Ras Al-Naqab was all soaking wet with Water, but was not raining any more. However, someplace far to the east, we could also see lightening breaking the eternal darkness.At around 9:15, we were back home. The only thing we did not do in Aqaba was what appears to have become a ritual for Jordanians who visit Aqaba; namely, Buy Cashew nuts, bottles of Rani Juice and 7 Kg of Bananas (these items sell a bit cheaper in Aqaba).
Ammar Sajdi
Amman - Jordan
April 13, 07

Thank God it is Thursday (TGIT)

I need no reason to be euphoric on Thursdays, how about when there is a reason
Today, I will complete a very rich course to FASTLINK IT members about database centric development techniques covering features up to and including 10g. There are lots and lots of topics that span a wide array of technologies. And just to name a few

• Exposing Oracle stored procedures as Web Services,
• Exchanging Database record in XML format.
• Doing Interprocess communication using PIPES and Queues, Sending and receiving
• packets using TCP sockets from PL/SQL.
• Demystifying Analytical Function used in DW OLAP
• Configuring Heterogeneous Service for distributed access
• Data Encryption
• Row Level Security
• many more
• It took me hours and hours of preparation and testing.
• Many more

Thank God it is Over, now we can hit the movies with a fairly un-pre-occupied-mind

Ammar sajdi

Ammar Sajdi