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91 <span class="description">While I swore that I would NEVER make a blog due ot the live journal voyuer craziness, when I found out I could update a MT blog via my Treo, I had to set one up, if only to avoid torturing HeatherW with constant SMSs anytime I had a thought of any magnitude.</span>
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120 dc:description="I'm in Samarkand, planning to go to the Ferghana valley for a few days and return to tashkent on the 1st... I suddenly felt tired as I sat down on the coomputer so I'll write more later; I'm typing into..."
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126
127 rizwank 1.1 <h2 class="date">August 26, 2003</h2>
128
129
130 <div class="blogbody">
131 <a name="000187"></a>
132 <?php
133
134 // record the referer
135 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
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143
144 ?>
145 <h3 class="title">catchup</h3>
146
147 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
148 rizwank 1.1 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
149 I</b>
150 </p>
151 </td></tr></table>
152 'm in Samarkand, planning to go to the Ferghana valley for a few days and return to tashkent on the 1st... I suddenly felt tired as I sat down on the coomputer so I'll write more later; I'm typing into my palm pilot so i might just blog everything when I return on the Uzbek Independence day (1st) ..</p>
153
154 <p>Oh; I missed July 4 in the states... I totally forgot. </p>
155
156 <p>I've got my ups and downs, but overall I'm okay.</p>
157
158 <p>Site of some fellow travellers; amazing people; expect a lot about them in future blogs</p>
159
160 <p>www.e-xpeditions.com</p>
161
162 <p>Enough for now; cheers<br />
163 Rizwan</p>
164
165
166
167
168
169 rizwank 1.1
170 <div class="posted">
171 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000187" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">06:59 PM</a><?php
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179 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=187" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (7)</a>
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196
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219 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
220 echo "<div class='side'>";
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232 rizwank 1.1
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245
246
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253 rizwank 1.1 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/185"
254 dc:title="The song that never ends"
255 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000186"
256 dc:subject=""
257 dc:description="Okay; while I meant to say some significant things during this post, most of them were warped; opinions poorly stated; facts flat out wrong; and the worst comparisons I could have possibly made. Take this as an example of a..."
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259 dc:date="2003-08-21T19:13:59-08:00" />
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262
263
264 <h2 class="date">August 21, 2003</h2>
265
266
267 <div class="blogbody">
268 <a name="000186"></a>
269 <?php
270
271 // record the referer
272 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
273 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (186, '$referer', '', $time)" );
274 rizwank 1.1 }
275
276 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
277 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=186' );
278 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
279 $hits = $row[0];
280
281 ?>
282 <h3 class="title">The song that never ends</h3>
283
284 <p><b> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
285 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
286 O</b>
287 </p>
288 </td></tr></table>
289 kay; while I meant to say some significant things during this post, most of them were warped; opinions poorly stated; facts flat out wrong; and the worst comparisons I could have possibly made. Take this as an example of a blog gone wrong. </b></p>
290
291 <p>I've been giving some thought to Everquest recently... I'm not considering taking it up again, don't worry. Magic takes enough of my time, and I've got a girlfriend again, and while I didn't lose (ex-gf2) over Everquest, and Serena would probably even like it if we both played together, it didn't help that last relationship much ;p.</p>
292
293 <p>Its just the random factions that I had to learn to be competent. Heres a secret answer to an important question; Beyond the competitive aspect, why do I like games like Magic, Everquest, Final Fantasy, RPGs, certain fields of study etc? Its because they are closed sets.... there is a limted amount of information to learn (not really true in the "fields of study aspect"), I can read articles and strategies and become good, not necessarily through practice but by reading and contemplation. I was a decent druid and a good wizard in EQ, and I knew zones and strategies well, not because I had experienced it all, but because I could read about it. I'm a decent magic player because I know the rules throughly, watch and read about magic enough to try to learn what other people think etc... I'm better in Constructed where my deck has a limited amount of powerful approaches, and a constant set of strategies, rather than Limited where there is more data to take in and many many more decisions to make. Whats odd is that in real life, I prefer opposite situations; engineering problems that are new to me inspire me much more than something I've already done and figured out, designing a memory module in VHDL/Component Level is much more exciting than a module I've already done something similar to (say an 8bit carry adder)...</p>
294
295 rizwank 1.1 <p>Ah, I just found the perfect contrast... Chess. I don't really enjoy Chess nearly as much as I enjoy magic, and while they are wildly different games, the number of distinct states in most Magic games is a minute sum compared to the number in a good chess game. It's not that I want to play games on autopilot, but ... actually this talking has confused me as to what my point was. So much for clarity as an author. I'm sure I contradicted myself there a few times, but whatever; I hate to edit.</p>
296
297 <p>Anyhow Everquest. I liked it, it was a small set of knowledge... oh, there was the point I wanted to make... Its something I could study, and master. I guess Chess is actually like that (rather than the indefinite Poker) too but I haven't studied Chess. I could learn about zones in EQ, I could make up for my lack of experience with studying... I could read articles and have a leg up on others with more experience since I had read ahead. (Later, of course, I had a leg up since I had studied the game structure and telelport around zones, summon people, make platinum, etc; but I'm talking about "legal" stuff right now)</p>
298
299 <p>I was playing a game on my Treo that I had just downloaded... provides a six letter anagram and you are to find as many words hidden in it as possible... you proceed to the next level if you find the six letter word... Its called TextTwist, I believe. Yahoo Games has a good game where you get a 2-d grid of letters and have to find letters within contigious words in the grid. One of the scrambles I got resembled Siren... and I remembered... Siren's Grotto.</p>
300
301 <p>The Grotto was placed between Cobalt Scar and the Western Wastes... the Scar was (pre-POP) a decent XP location if you had worked up your SS faction, had exits to SG and Skyshrine, and was the closest port location to WW; which was the place to be if you were a high level Velious guild. Our guild, ... damn, I can't even remember the name... Started with an M... Oh, Maloudi Clan.. then we merged with someone... Anyhow, SG was interesting... no one actually spent any time... the drops sucked, no one wanted to fight in a zone with high hp high hitters with lousy drops, and many of which were casters that could charm or mez you... Its annoying to watch yourself beat on a friend in a group, they don't really like that, no matter how much you scream "CHARMED, CHARMED! RUN!" Of course, Velious was two years old at this point, so a lot of the people that had first explored SG and deemed it unworthy had long moved on. If you were a big race then you could camp in a wall and it would succor you when you re-entered to the safe point in the zone, which was the other side of the zone; ... The ideal way was to just bring a wizzy or druid with succor though... once in a while people actually trudged through running, bringing lovely trains to the entrance, and there was always a corpse recovery run after that..</p>
302
303 <p>Anyhow, the point... I invested so much time and energy into this, why? It was fun, but there was more... I like limited worlds ... I like being able to know that this spell is always going to take effect, how much hp this mob has, and who my friends and enemies are... (being on a PvP server, especially after I pissed off Ascending Dawn, this became an important part of playing) ... </p>
304
305 <p>The real reason why I totally quit? That war with AD. I couldn't log in without being hunted down, my guild had been deformed, I was the center of a contraversy, and even though I was one of the best 10 wizards on the server, no one would have me. The innately social game of Everquest ceased to be so. I had stopped making money by selling plat at that time, so there was little incentive to force myself to log on... I started reading again (thank God!). I shiver to think what would have happened had the whole war with AD not started... And its such a trivial thing because, as both Rolo and I knew, there is this thing called post-EQ depression... its the feeling you have knwoing that you've spent 8 hours playing a game, had social conversatiosn with people that might as well be very good AI bots, made a great (or little) amount of progress in a world where your progress was a few kb on a server in San diego... Its the false subsititue for human interaction that makes it the worst though; I've spent 8 hours playing Final Fantasy or reading a book and I rarely feel depressed after, if I needed to experience people, I'd hit pause or walk outside... Having the burdens of other people relying on you to be there for raids, organize idiots ;p, do laborious Corpse Runs (which were, by far, the most inventive parts of playing and the most challenging...), skipping meals and showers because people needed you THEN; and without the interaction that comes with it. (Mostly because the interaction was just about the game.... Its like working at a job, most of the conversations pertain to work itself... you start having fun when other topics are introduced... )</p>
306
307 <p>Its another rant, I know; but who says these have to make any sort of point eh?</p>
308
309 <p>So why Magic now? First, I needed soemthing to take the place of EQ... I started and soon stopped on Magic Online because it was too expensive, and to be honest; I got tired of sitting at my computer hours playing Magic... if I can shake a hand and watch other peoples games and get winks at other people when they pass me a nice bomb in a stack of cards during a draft, it adds something to it. I'm thinking judging will probably take a lot out of that, as you aren't necessarily "one of the crowd"... </p>
310
311 <p>Anyhow, its a social game. Its played between two concrete people; and playing Friday Night Magic has meant that I've made friends in the Ville; granted we talk about hanging out and we never do... and granted that many can't drive yet; but its something. I met a good friend, HeatherW by playing Magic, and our friendship has branched out from there... Serena was mildly entertained by Magic at Nationals, allowing me to play and judge some events while she played or watched or chatted with folks... Hopefully she'll come to the Mirrodin pre-release and play, then her and I can start playing together more... either that or she'll start teaching me how to play Harry Potter cards...</p>
312
313 <p>Oh, have I mentioned how much I love Harry Potter? I've finished reading all the books, and am very glad that there is some final restful state that that fifth book ends in; I'm not a real fan of cliffhangers... Serena was right, the third, fourth and fifth books are better than the first two... its her writing style that gets me though... I normally get very tired with overly descriptive imagery (I refuse to read "The Voyage of the Dawn Treder" to this day, even though I love the rest of the Narnia series) but JK shows a lot more detail in facial expressions and looks between people than other authors, and far from being bored by it, I find it entrancing. I really don't see how you can call these kids books, they have never felt like any kids books I've read... </p>
314
315 <p>Digression: Has anyone the idea of the title of a book ... it was one that I read a long time ago, it was a about a kid (Canadian, I think) that went on a driving tour with some group through the states and he proceeded to run amazing scams throughout the way, setting up a disco in a warehouse in San Fran, charging people to milk cows as a tourist trap in Iowa, scamming Las Vegas casinos, and more until the Feds catch up with him... I've went back to the library in Lomitas Elementary, but they have since redone (and rennovated) their library, so looking in the same location for the book is no longer a possibility.</p>
316 rizwank 1.1
317 <p>If you haven't read any of the Great Brain series by Fitzgerald, you are missing out, by the way.</p>
318
319 <p>So questions I've got about Potter, no answer, just wondering peer opinion...<br />
320 1. Where will the books lead after the seventh book... After reading (well, listening to) Prisioner of Azkerban, I wondered how the theme might extend past Hogwarts, and while the underlying conflict is obvious now, <br />
321 2. What happened to Percy after "Phoenix"?<br />
322 3. Have they annouced plans to make movies out of Book 4 and 5?<br />
323 4. What are the guesses on what Harry will do on his OWLs?<br />
324 5. Why is Cho such a whore?<br />
325 I had more, but of course, I forgot.</p>
326
327 <p>There I go again, extrapolating fiction into reality. (slaps his hand.) Thats the problem with more down to earth fictions, its hard to imagine heavy scifi as part of our daily lives, but both with books that take place in known places with characters you can relate to, and games in a "earth like world" I've woken up in the morning needing to sort out reality and fiction... that can't be good, can it?</p>
328
329 <p>Where is a good resource for leaks about whats coming up or a good community site?</p>
330
331 <p>Anyhow, I've ranted enough for today, the plan is to get a tour of Tashkent tomorrow and maybe hope to a nightclub or bar in the evening (Uncle K wants me to be escorted which is a bit much, I think).. Saturday eve has a train to Samarkand where I plan to spend a few days, followed by a quick day or two visit to the desert camps, then perhaps to Ferghana valley, the core of Islamic conservatisim in this part of the world. </p>
332
333 <p>The the indepednce celebrations on Sept 1 followed by a trip to Kyrgistan ... I'm not going to Kahzakstan or Tajikstan or China; the first two being "not worth visiting" and the latter being "too hard to visit" ... I'm a bit disappointed, it seems like a waste to come all the way out here and not see "everything," but its a bit silly to waste days seeing lonely steppes and whatnot if the history is in Uzbekistan and Kyrgistan. I'll have to find out more about East China though... </p>
334
335
336
337 rizwank 1.1
338
339
340 <div class="posted">
341 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000186" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">07:13 PM</a><?php
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345 print " time";
346 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
347 }
348 ?>
349 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=186" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (12)</a>
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351 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=186" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
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355 </div>
356 <?php
357
358 rizwank 1.1 // display the list of referers
359 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
360 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
361
362 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=186 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
363
364 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
365 $n = 0;
366
367 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
368 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
369 $title = $row['title'];
370 $count = $row['count'];
371 $search = $row['search'];
372
373 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
374 $n++;
375 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
376 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
377 }
378 }
379 rizwank 1.1
380 if (!($n)) {
381 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
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383 else {
384 echo "<br />\n";
385 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
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388
389 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
390 echo "<div class='side'>";
391
392 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
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394
395 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
396 $query = '';
397
398 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
399 $title = $row['title'];
400 rizwank 1.1 $count = $row['count'];
401 $search = $row['search'];
402
403 if ($search == 1) {
404 $n++;
405 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
406 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
407 }
408 }
409
410 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
411 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
412 echo "</div>";
413 ?>
414
415
416
417 <!--
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423 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/183"
424 dc:title="Magicially Delicious"
425 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000184"
426 dc:subject=""
427 dc:description="Fun magic stuff... The 8th edition common print runs have been cracked for both MTG and MTGO ... Good way to guess what your feeder drafted or even make decent guesses at what cards your opponent drafted... Too bad most..."
428 dc:creator="Rizwank"
429 dc:date="2003-08-20T17:04:28-08:00" />
430 </rdf:RDF>
431 -->
432
433
434 <h2 class="date">August 20, 2003</h2>
435
436
437 <div class="blogbody">
438 <a name="000184"></a>
439 <?php
440
441 // record the referer
442 rizwank 1.1 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
443 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (184, '$referer', '', $time)" );
444 }
445
446 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
447 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=184' );
448 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
449 $hits = $row[0];
450
451 ?>
452 <h3 class="title">Magicially Delicious</h3>
453
454 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
455 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
456 F</b>
457 </p>
458 </td></tr></table>
459 un magic stuff...</p>
460
461 <p>The 8th edition common print runs have been cracked for both MTG and MTGO ... Good way to guess what your feeder drafted or even make decent guesses at what cards your opponent drafted... Too bad most stores don't draft eigth edition... take a <a href="http://www.togit.com/reports/MS_Aug03Week3.html" title="look">look</a>.</p>
462
463 rizwank 1.1 <p>Ornithopter has been reprinted, that is a nice boost to storm. Mirrodin looks amazing, and quite complicated for (ahem) judging, I can't wait to judge the pre-release...</p>
464
465 <p>Updated text on some very nifty cards</p>
466
467 <p>Shared Fate<br />
468 <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_4_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_4_mana.gif" /> <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/black_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="black_mana" /> <br />
469 Enchantment (R)<br />
470 If a player would draw a card, that player removes the top card of an opponent's library face down instead. Each player may look at and play cards he or she removed from the game with Shared Fate as though they were in his or her hand.</p>
471
472 <p>Grim Reminder<br />
473 2 <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/black_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="black_mana" /> <br />
474 Instant (R?)<br />
475 Search your library for a non-land card and reveal it. Each player who played a card with the same name loses six life. Then shuffle it back into your library.<br />
476 <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/black_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="black_mana" /> <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/black_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="black_mana" /> : Return Grim Reminder from your graveyard to your hand. Play this ability only during your upkeep.</p>
477
478 <p>Thats just damn cool. :)</p>
479
480 <p>Leonine Scimitar<br />
481 <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_1_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_1_mana.gif" /> <br />
482 Artifact - Equipment<br />
483 Equip Cost: <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_1_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_1_mana.gif" /> <br />
484 rizwank 1.1 Equipped creature gets +1/+1.<br />
485 <i><br />
486 Equipment is a subtype of artifacts affected by everything that affects artifacts but with two unique attributes - a cost and a benefit of equipping a creature. We aren't certain if there will be (reminder text) on equipment, or if the concept will just be added to the comprehensive rules. But basically, it looks like after casting the artifact, you can "equip" target creature with it by paying the equip cost. The equipped creature then gets the effect of the equipment. If the equipped creature leaves play, the equipment remains in play as an artifact. You can equip another target creature with it if you want by paying the cost again.</p>
487
488 <p>We that assume equip costs can be played any time you could play a sorcery, since it’s logical that a creature couldn’t put on armor, clothing or weapons faster than an instant. Also, we assume that you can "move" equipment from one creature to another by paying the equip cost. Unlike previous attempts at indestructible creature enchantments like <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Rancor')" title="Card Info on Rancor">Rancor</a>, the host will not need to be removed from play to reuse the equipment.</i></p>
489
490 <p>Distinctly un-fantasy like... well sort of... <br />
491 "When the holy Wotc prints Pickachu as a card tommorow soms people will still say 'what a cool card'. I've been playing Magic for 8 years now and this must be the lamest mechanic since rampage."<br />
492 Some people don't like it... Rampage sounded cool to me though, and we all hate that beast that gives a rampage like ability...</p>
493
494 <p>Was Rancor broken, by the way?</p>
495
496 <p>Anyhow, bet the next set will be very uber-fantasy to balance out the tech here.... Anyone out there ready to predict the end of Magic?</p>
497
498
499
500
501
502
503 <div class="posted">
504 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000184" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">05:04 PM</a><?php
505 rizwank 1.1 if ($hits) {
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508 print " time";
509 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
510 }
511 ?>
512 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=184" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (2)</a>
513
514 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=184" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
515
516 </div>
517
518 </div>
519 <?php
520
521 // display the list of referers
522 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
523 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
524
525 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=184 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
526 rizwank 1.1
527 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
528 $n = 0;
529
530 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
531 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
532 $title = $row['title'];
533 $count = $row['count'];
534 $search = $row['search'];
535
536 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
537 $n++;
538 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
539 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
540 }
541 }
542
543 if (!($n)) {
544 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
545 }
546 else {
547 rizwank 1.1 echo "<br />\n";
548 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
549 }
550 echo '</div>';
551
552 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
553 echo "<div class='side'>";
554
555 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
556 $n = 0;
557
558 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
559 $query = '';
560
561 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
562 $title = $row['title'];
563 $count = $row['count'];
564 $search = $row['search'];
565
566 if ($search == 1) {
567 $n++;
568 rizwank 1.1 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
569 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
570 }
571 }
572
573 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
574 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
575 echo "</div>";
576 ?>
577
578
579
580 <!--
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587 dc:title="A hot steamy room with men"
588 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000183"
589 rizwank 1.1 dc:subject=""
590 dc:description="So, I'm back in Tashkent. After arriving at the ancient silkroad stop of Samarkand, and meeting the most amazing cat I've ever met, the nausea finally tired me out and I returned to Tashkent for a few days rest, with..."
591 dc:creator="Rizwank"
592 dc:date="2003-08-20T00:33:15-08:00" />
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595
596
597
598
599 <div class="blogbody">
600 <a name="000183"></a>
601 <?php
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605 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (183, '$referer', '', $time)" );
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608 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
609 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=183' );
610 rizwank 1.1 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
611 $hits = $row[0];
612
613 ?>
614 <h3 class="title">A hot steamy room with men</h3>
615
616 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
617 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
618 S</b>
619 </p>
620 </td></tr></table>
621 o, I'm back in Tashkent. After arriving at the ancient silkroad stop of Samarkand, and meeting the most amazing cat I've ever met, the nausea finally tired me out and I returned to Tashkent for a few days rest, with two loaves of the uzbek bread "lipioshka" in hand ("Its the best in Uzbekistan!") ... I wondered why the other people in our taxi had more than thirty loaves between then... it is a fluffy round bread about a foot in diameter with the center pressed down almost like a reverse bundtcake. </p>
622
623 <p>But before that...</p>
624
625 <p>After the drinking incident and my bemoaning of my poor iPod, I went with a short walk to see some of Bukharas sights... The various merchants had tons of Soviet trinketry and it was all I could do to remember my past overpayments and avoid taking home what would end up to be useless garbage... Wonderful stopwatches, pins of Lenin, anniversarys, military insignia, Military Decorations, old Ruble coins... It was quite tempting, let me tell you.. </p>
626
627 <p>Along the way we saw the ancient Ha'mam, or bathing house... stepping side and feeling quite ill from the steam I ducked out again, but it didn't seem as nearly intimidating as I thought it might be... Foolishly, I agreed to come the next morning and have an early morning bath. We proceeded on to a pair of twin masjits with the tall 46m minaret next to it... (the next day I would see pictures of its shattered hulk after the Bolsheviks bombarded Bukhara in 1920.) Teh restored minart was aew-inspiring, and I probably burnt a third of a roll of slide film on the shadows the evening sun laid across both it and the masjits... Peering around, feeling a bit nauseous again, especially while debating whether to scale the minaret or not. </p>
628
629 <p>I looked down to see a little girl (the afore mentioned one) which brightened my day... I think I've spoken about her so I'll move on... We walked around some and sat out playing my new form of checkers... the next morning, I was almost kicked awake by Otabek... the time had come.</p>
630
631 rizwank 1.1 <p>Arriving, half asleep, aware that I was wearing boxers with an open front and not the (more?) appropriate speedos that Otabek had trounced around the room in, we arrived outside the Hamam to find it locked... I thought about speeding away at this point, as waking up at 6am was something I only did when absolutely having to. (to Work at Comedy World in emergencies, to eat Milano cookies, stuff like that) Otabek walked off leaving me alone to be eaten by the numerous flys... have I mentioned how much I hate flys? Half an hour later, he arrives with the attendant who rings the owner on his cell phone... Turns out he was inside all long.</p>
632
633 <p>We get inside, and change... I'm in a fresh pair of boxers; Otabek, Another tourist and an old Uzbek in his birthday suit join us (thankfully, I'm free of my glasses at this point, so everyone is a big blob and I don't have to do the "I really really really don't want to see that region" thing that guys do in showers.) The first room was a mite hot, but passibly bearable.. I'm used to sauna type things being very very dry... This was the opposite.</p>
634
635 <p>A digression.<br />
636 From reading "A Blind Watchmaker" I've learned how an author can be very branched in his thinking and still keep a readers attention... It's quite amusing to see a bit of inner monolouge ("I really shouldn't try to explain the mathematics, but I will anyhow") in a published book... So back to the digression. (the first one, that is)</p>
637
638 <p>I hate sweating. <br />
639 There are two states of being that I absolutely hate, and they are nausea and excessive warmth.<br />
640 A nice warm feeling across your skin from a morning sun, a hug from a loved one, a lovers breath are all exquisite feelings. Sweating like a pig, on the other hand, is wretched, sticky and I would gladly abolish it from my life if it were at all possible (and reasonable). I avoid activities that make me sweat (one of the major reasons I don't excersize as I should), in fact, there are very few sweaty activities I will voluntarily participate in. (If, from now on, any "passionate" time I might spend with a member of the opposite sex be in, say, an igloo, there would be no sweaty activities I would care to participate in).<br />
641 Nausea is almost as bad... your firm grip on the earth seems to waver, your balance is off, thinking of it makes you feel worse, hearing someone make a "puke" sound makes you want to run to a very private places and retch... the thought of being sick makes you sick, and the thought of being sick constricts your every movement... <br />
642 I once used to say that I could tell a lot about a person whether they would prefer to be overly warm or overly cold... Actually, it doesn't reveal too much about a person, but it sounded smart at the time. Olga hates cold; being a small Russian grandmother, California in summer sounds like a delight...</p>
643
644 <p>Anyhow, the Hamam... I spent about ten minutes in the first room, then moved on to the "main room" where steam literally clouded my vision... the many-hundred year old bath house had ceramic piping running inside the stone, and I felt quite sick after fifteen minutes. I surrended then and ignored Otabek as he tried to explain that the usual sitting time was an hour... (I don't like sitting with nothing to do... my thoughts wander too much. I might think of (ex-gf2) and both pleasant and un-pleasant assocations; of being bullied as a child; the first time I asked a girl for her phone number; the awkwardness of my first kiss (and my intense embarrasment at my being 19 at the time); the beauty of my girlfriend; how much I should write in my next blog; whether I should finish at Cal Poly or UCLA; why is my iPod broken; Did Sirius really betray Harry's parents; an embarassment at whao I was when I was younger; happiness that I am who i am now; missing Heather ... my mind races too much, therefore my fear of boredom and the constant need for entertaining devices... I spent too much of my childhood sitting along and thinking... I do enough of it now as I prepare my blogs... time to consume content!)</p>
645
646 <p>Off to the central room with the smirking massuse, wondering why I'm already asking for my massage. In a culture thats possibly more homophobic than in the states (both here and turkey), i'm amazed how the homophobia never touched the bathing houses... even my latent (" I know gay people and some of them are very good friends and I'm totally okay with it, but don't hit on me, okay?") phobia wasn't triggered... it was just good massage... vigorous... lots of cracking back and knuckles... as I had to lower my boxers a bit, Otabek exclaimed *"Wow, you have a big bottom!" ... that just made my day... I was always told that it was cute! :p <br />
647 The massuse was wondering why my muscles weren't fit ... yeah it wasn't really a day for compliments... It turns out that his family has been working in the hamams for about four generations, just like the spice vendor outside (who, apparently knows ambassadors and digitaries that come to visit and buy spices from him)... The massuse had some sort of oil that he used that smelt a bit like green tea, but I couldn't really place it then.</p>
648
649 <p>Far the best part of it was the pre and post massage wash... cool water, not cold, mind you; but cool water flowing over my body out of a basin.. it reminded me of my first yoga lesson... I never thought I could be in as much pain as I was doing it, and I would have wimped out long before if it werent for my not wanting to disappoint heather (and my annoyance that the teacher had stepped on my brand new glasses, breaking them) ... And then we rested... I can't think of a better rest in my life; every cell was aching and that ten minute nap on the woven mat was pure enjoyment... That being said, I've never been good at delayed gratification, and hurting for an hour or sweating for an hour for a few minutes of pleasure never seemed to be a good tradeoff.</p>
650
651 <p>Post-hamam, we had some green tea ("We got gypped", said Otabek... "They are out of the special spicy tea that they serve today") and headed back to the B&B where we had breakfast... and I had the watermelon that did me in...</p>
652 rizwank 1.1
653 <p>Thats enough retelling for now, I think ill finish my last day in Bukhara till current time tomorrow. I have that list from a few blogs ago and the story 'bout the cat.</p>
654
655 <p>I've been inspired to write a lot recently... although its all been in my head... (ex-gf2) 's comments that i should write have been echoing in my brain recently... I've got enough interest and hobbies that I don't follow up on; should I really add another? Should I learn how to write properly? Enough people have expressed some appreciation in the delicacy I take in some of my personal letters, or have noticed how I speak when I'm thinking about what I plan to say, or the word games I play, interspersing my own forms into literature or movie lines... I dunno; Just pondering I guess.</p>
656
657 <p>Oh, why is it that we name things? I've found that people like to name things quite often... Reason I mention it is that I had a flashback to some story I read where guys were talking about what they named their members... Odd stuff. I spent a lot of time coming up with intracite passwords, the last one invovling a juxtaposition of words about capitalisim, Jack Benny and the fact that it was 2001... Sadly, no one knows how much work I put into those... the only two sets of things I can think that I've named (although I felt close enough to my iPod to name it had it not died on me) were my car (after being seperated from it and driving my mothers minivan for a week, I decided to name it Sapna after I picked it up from the mechanics... its a beautiful name, one that Sis loves and that I picked up from her. I could never name a child it, though, as its a hindi name, and regardless of what you might think, tradition plays a big role even if you arent that cultural... Imagine a shrimp boating family (I just watched "Foresst Gump") in Louisiana naming their kid "Rizawn)...<br />
658 So yeah, I named my car, and .. well... an exquisite pair of breasts. Even then I didn't give much thought to them, I think we decided on "Lefty" and "Righty" before we decided to move on from choosing names to more interesting activities. (I actually started this diatribe as an excuse to mention Lefty and Righty; while I wont mention to whom they belong to, I have quite fond memories of them, just as others might have of a favorite blanket or soft pillow)</p>
659
660 <p>Mum, you can start reading now. In fact, you really should, as you'll like this.<br />
661 Olga is great.<br />
662 She's my uncle's second wife, and while I can't actually remember when they got married, they apparently are. Shes quite taken with him and him with her... Today Uncle Khadim was playing Freecell (actually, let me digress..<br />
663 Uncle Khadim was the stern uncle.. hes the one that would shout if you were bad and rarely smiled and whatever... I don't remember a rapport with him before, even though he had one with Sis (He teased her for her tattered blanket that she carried around with her)... The thought of him enjoying comedies (as he does), musicials (as he does) and ... card games, of all things, bewilders me and I have to remember that my last impression of him was with him towering three feet above me as a "grownup".) <br />
664 So Uncle Khadim was playing a card game, denying that he enjoyed it but instead that he did it for the challenge... I glance at Olga and see this sideways look on her face... I want to describe it as impish but thats just because Olga is short and playful; Impish is too devious an adjective... it was very kind and loving though and we both giggled at his lousy rationale... He caught the look and told me to ignore it, saying that women always come up with silly notions (which is quite true, but once in a while, they are correct), and we all had a good laugh.</p>
665
666 <p>I see her gaze at him with such love and him at her with such caring, it reminds me of the best days with my parents... I see it in them on occasion, but not as much... twenty eight years (happy anniversary mum and dad!) versus their seven years are quite different experiences, but its still cute to see.</p>
667
668 <p>When Olga overworkes herself, or when she had her attack of high-blood pressure; the mix of anger and worry in his face is astounding to see from a man that a month ago I thought rarely smiled... I was wrong, and glad to see it.</p>
669
670 <p>She pats his arm on occasion and tells me "He is very good husband, he takes good care of me, even when I don't listen", and I see a form of love... theres many forms, theres the blossom of affection that I feel for Serena that I dont dare give a title to yet, theres the inkling of love I began to feel for a girl in the past, theres the true and deep friendly love I feel for my best friend, theres the overwhelming and protective love I feel for my little sister, the supporting, laughing and nourishing love my mother and I share, the strengthning and warmth that my father gives me and I return... Its a complicated world for one with so little experience and who knows whether to dive in deep or tread water by the "shallow end." (not just in terms of Serena, but so many things...)</p>
671
672 <p>Anyhow, Das Svdania (Until we meet again, formal)</p>
673 rizwank 1.1
674 <p>Rizwan</p>
675
676
677
678
679
680
681 <div class="posted">
682 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000183" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">12:33 AM</a><?php
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690 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=183" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (2)</a>
691
692 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=183" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
693
694 rizwank 1.1 </div>
695
696 </div>
697 <?php
698
699 // display the list of referers
700 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
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702
703 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=183 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
704
705 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
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707
708 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
709 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
710 $title = $row['title'];
711 $count = $row['count'];
712 $search = $row['search'];
713
714 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
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717 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
718 }
719 }
720
721 if (!($n)) {
722 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
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724 else {
725 echo "<br />\n";
726 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
727 }
728 echo '</div>';
729
730 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
731 echo "<div class='side'>";
732
733 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
734 $n = 0;
735
736 rizwank 1.1 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
737 $query = '';
738
739 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
740 $title = $row['title'];
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742 $search = $row['search'];
743
744 if ($search == 1) {
745 $n++;
746 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
747 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
748 }
749 }
750
751 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
752 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
753 echo "</div>";
754 ?>
755
756
757 rizwank 1.1
758 <!--
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765 dc:title="Why so fat?"
766 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000182"
767 dc:subject=""
768 dc:description="An Axiom : The people you meet and your interactions with them are, by far, the most interesting parts of travelling. The sites you see and historic relics pale in comparison. It's been an interesting few days. I'm going to..."
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770 dc:date="2003-08-16T21:12:10-08:00" />
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773
774
775 <h2 class="date">August 16, 2003</h2>
776
777
778 rizwank 1.1 <div class="blogbody">
779 <a name="000182"></a>
780 <?php
781
782 // record the referer
783 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
784 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (182, '$referer', '', $time)" );
785 }
786
787 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
788 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=182' );
789 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
790 $hits = $row[0];
791
792 ?>
793 <h3 class="title">Why so fat?</h3>
794
795 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
796 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
797 A</b>
798 </p>
799 rizwank 1.1 </td></tr></table>
800 n Axiom : <i>The people you meet and your interactions with them are, by far, the most interesting parts of travelling. The sites you see and historic relics pale in comparison.</i></p>
801
802 <p>It's been an interesting few days. I'm going to pretty much skip the recounting of the walled city of Khiva and all of the "to do" marks from the previous posting, I'll get to them back in Tashkent.</p>
803
804 <p>Rewind back to yesterday... the long drive between Khiva and Bokhara was made worse by the three hour wait for our car to fill up. (With shared taxis, they want to fill up every seat to maximize revenue.) About an hour into the drive, my iPod died. Like died. It wasn't a battery issue, I was using the external Belkin battery pack. It still doesn't work and this is a massive annoyance and depression factor for me; Almost every method of entertainment, happinses and sanity was on that thing... it doesn't respond to stimuli except button presses, when it makes a light whine. Apples tech support isn't much help; drain its batteries to allow a full reset, if that doesn't work, send it in for repair. As the nearest repair office is in Moscow, thats not a possibility. Anyone want to scourge soem online resources to see how to fix it? I've pried it open and have checked out the hard drive and the power pack visually.. nothign seems wrong. </p>
805
806 <p>We arrive in Bokhara, I'm slightly bored out of my mind from staring out of the window on the 6 hour drive. Check into a B&B, check my email and have some food. Meet some Aussies and Americans, although they seemed to have a ringleader, (she was from Santa Barbara) and was amazingly unfriendly, so that wasn't entertaining... We were debating whether to go out nightclubbing when a few shots of vodka made the decision for Otabek and me. </p>
807
808 <p>We change and show up... Only now does Otabek inform me that nightclubs in Bukara are havens for part time prostitutes... there are very few "honest girls"... at this point I've had more than I should have to drink and the calculus problems that I do in my head to gague my soberness start to blend into something else altogether.</p>
809
810 <p>Met some folks and started dancing and all... The girl I was with poked my tummy and said "Why so fat?" ... talk about a wake up call... she turned out to be a prostitue and still had the gall to comment on my weight ... must mean I need to work on it.</p>
811
812 <p>Oh, I shaved off my goatee, I'm clean shaven for the first time in quite a while.<br />
813 This girl and I, along with Otabek and his friend progressed to an apartment when the "fun" started to begin... The girl I'm with asks for payment, and I suddenly sober up and realize what I almost did... I paid her for her time and split, not breaking any promises and not doing anything incredibly stupid. I'm quite thankful that I didn't mess up, especially since it was more inertia than any desire that led me to this apartment... </p>
814
815 <p>I was holding my picture of Serena the entire cab ride back.</p>
816
817 <p>I found out the next morning that instead of giving her two $20s like I had planned, I ended up giving her a hundred dollar bill and a twenty in the dark... </p>
818
819 <p>I've done a number of stupid things in my life, but this is one of the bigger ones. I specifically tried to avoid drinking out here because I didnt want to do anything retarded. I woke up today feeling terrible and pretty much slept for an extra eight hours ... I felt even worse when I saw the missing $100 bill, remembered my stupidity and the final straw was remembering my crippled iPod, which might not be fixable until I return it to Best Buy. </p>
820 rizwank 1.1
821 <p>It took a little girl named Sabrina teaching me a form of checkers in one of the bazaars to fix what was until then one of the worst days in the past few years... It was really cute actually... it was regular checkers, except "must-take" and you could "eat" a piece in reverse, but not move backwards (without "Eating")... we had a small crowd and she made me promise to visit "her" shop of ceramics tomorrow; and talking to this terribly intelligent child who can seemingly speak 11 languages was enough to break the incredibly depressed mood I was in.</p>
822
823 <p>It my parents anniversary, I hope I can speak with them... I really really wish my iPod worked; im not so bummed about the exta $80 I lost (we called her but she denied taking the larger bills), its a definiate annoyance, but I can handle the financial lost... </p>
824
825 <p>Heres an interesting thing noted by Ann Coulter, a militant conservative in her new book, (which accuses liberals of plotting the downfall of America) (no, I don't agree with her about that)<br />
826 <i><br />
827 The one reason we have no great American novelists is that all the smartest writers from harvards end up going to Hollywood and writing movies. And if you look at which moves are successful, despite the liberal scholck they stuff down our throats, the movies tend to be family-oriented conservative movies. </i>(She goes on to call "Touched by an Angel" fabulously successful, so I dont really take her at face value, but it is an interesting point.)<br />
828 The interview is quite a good read, as she is one of a very small group of young attractive super-conservative women in the media (can anyone say Ainsley Hayes) ... Its an article on Salon.com on 7/25/2003.</p>
829
830 <p>The little I've seen of Bukhara is quite nice, and now that my mood is improving, I can actually enjoy how beautiful the architecture is...</p>
831
832 <p>The iPod failure is really bothering me though, I had just started the fourth Harry Potter book too ;p My mood fixers are normally music, and the loop of not being able to listen to happy music due to one of the reasons I was down is quite quite annoying... I'm libel to take the entire thing apart piece by piece if i cant get it working ... ;p</p>
833
834 <p>Oh, Chapter 8 got cut off; if I get the ipod fixed, could someone please answer the following?<br />
835 a) How much did Forge and Gred (extra points if you get the reference) win on their bet?<br />
836 b) Who won?<br />
837 c) What the hell happened in the game?<br />
838 d) What was so amazing about those gypsy woman things that Harry became fascinated in (it got cut off right as Ron started to ask Harry if he was okay)?<br />
839 e) Did anything interesting/important happen after that?</p>
840
841 rizwank 1.1 <p>Oh Serena, AIM Express 4.0 works without needing a proxy (or java), it might work at your workplace. </p>
842
843 <p>http://beta.aol.com</p>
844
845 <p>Khiva was interesting of its own accord, but too touristy... I'll get back to more *normal* travel commentary next post. We've extended the trip a day to adapt for the lousy health and mood of today, so I plan to be back in Tashkent on the 22nd. </p>
846
847 <p>Final thought... it is said that around the world, the light of heaven shines down upon the world... In Bukhara, it shines up. </p>
848
849
850
851
852
853
854 <div class="posted">
855 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000182" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">09:12 PM</a><?php
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862 rizwank 1.1 ?>
863 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=182" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (8)</a>
864
865 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=182" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
866
867 </div>
868
869 </div>
870 <?php
871
872 // display the list of referers
873 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
874 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
875
876 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=182 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
877
878 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
879 $n = 0;
880
881 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
882 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
883 rizwank 1.1 $title = $row['title'];
884 $count = $row['count'];
885 $search = $row['search'];
886
887 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
888 $n++;
889 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
890 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
891 }
892 }
893
894 if (!($n)) {
895 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
896 }
897 else {
898 echo "<br />\n";
899 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
900 }
901 echo '</div>';
902
903 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
904 rizwank 1.1 echo "<div class='side'>";
905
906 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
907 $n = 0;
908
909 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
910 $query = '';
911
912 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
913 $title = $row['title'];
914 $count = $row['count'];
915 $search = $row['search'];
916
917 if ($search == 1) {
918 $n++;
919 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
920 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
921 }
922 }
923
924 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
925 rizwank 1.1 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
926 echo "</div>";
927 ?>
928
929
930
931 <!--
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938 dc:title="Boats in Sand"
939 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000181"
940 dc:subject=""
941 dc:description="I'm in Khiva right now, a walled city in a place dating back 2700 years. First, some net stuff. Just found out today about some virus named Blaster ... not being plugged in, I hadn't heard about it until the..."
942 dc:creator="Rizwank"
943 dc:date="2003-08-14T18:52:08-08:00" />
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946 rizwank 1.1
947
948 <h2 class="date">August 14, 2003</h2>
949
950
951 <div class="blogbody">
952 <a name="000181"></a>
953 <?php
954
955 // record the referer
956 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
957 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (181, '$referer', '', $time)" );
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959
960 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
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962 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
963 $hits = $row[0];
964
965 ?>
966 <h3 class="title">Boats in Sand</h3>
967 rizwank 1.1
968 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
969 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
970 I</b>
971 </p>
972 </td></tr></table>
973 'm in Khiva right now, a walled city in a place dating back 2700 years.</p>
974
975 <p>First, some net stuff.</p>
976
977 <p>Just found out today about some virus named Blaster ... not being plugged in, I hadn't heard about it until the local net cafe's computers died because of it. <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/32327.html" title="Blaster rewrites Windows worm rules">Blaster rewrites Windows worm rules</a></p>
978
979 <p>Interesting reads that caught my eye from my home page, they are good automatic RSS feeds folks!</p>
980
981 <p><a href="http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/08/13/editor/index_np.html" title="Make me sound like I don't suck">Make me sound like I don't suck</a><br />
982 <i>When my friends ask me for help with their personal ads, I edit them the way I do writers at my magazine, with a firm but gentle hand</i></p>
983
984 <p><a href="http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2003/08/13/kipnis/index_np.html" title="Two isn't company">Two isn't company</a><br />
985 In "Against Love," Laura Kipnis considers why the institution of marriage compels us to stray -- for good reason.</p>
986
987 <p>Just get a free day pass for the Salon articles.</p>
988 rizwank 1.1
989 <p>Also, Mirrodin spoiled cards :</p>
990
991 <p> <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_2_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_2_mana.gif" /> <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/white_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="white_mana" /> <br />
992 (no name)<br />
993 Instant (C or U) <br />
994 Destroy all enchantments.</p>
995
996 <p><a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Terror')" title="Card Info on Terror">Terror</a> is reprinted. Sucks that I just sold off my foil Terror... heres the thing... with two <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_1_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_1_mana.gif" /> <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/black_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="black_mana" /> Instant removals, <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Terror')" title="Card Info on Terror">Terror</a> and <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Smother')" title="Card Info on Smother">Smother</a> in Standard, can you imagine how powerful black would be (except for the massive Black Hosers out there, like <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Karma')" title="Card Info on Karma">Karma</a>, and the many artifacts/enchantments that make it impossible to be mono-black. Damn.)</p>
997
998 <p><a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Atog')" title="Card Info on Atog">Atog</a> and <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Shatter')" title="Card Info on Shatter">Shatter</a> are back. </p>
999
1000 <p>Fiery Gambit - <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_2_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_2_mana.gif" /> <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/red_mana.gif" height="12"
1001 width="12" alt="red_mana" /> <br />
1002 Sorcery (R?) <br />
1003 Flip a coin until you lose. If you lose, Fiery Gambit has no effect. If you win 1 flip, Fiery Gambit deals 3 damage to target creature. If you win 2 flips, Fiery Gambit deals 6 damage to all opponents. If you win 3 flips, draw nine cards and untap all lands you control. </p>
1004
1005 <p>Quicksilver Fountain - <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_3_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_3_mana.gif" /> <br />
1006 Artifact (R?) <br />
1007 At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts a flood counter on target non-Island land he or she controls. That land is an island as long as it has a flood counter on it. If all lands in play are islands, remove all flood counters from all lands.</p>
1008
1009 rizwank 1.1 <p>Stalking Stones <br />
1010 Land (U) <br />
1011 <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/tap.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="tap" /> : Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. <br />
1012 <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_6_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_6_mana.gif" /> : Stalking Stones becomes a 3/3 artifact creature that's still a land. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.) </p>
1013
1014 <p>Platinum Angel - ? <img src="http://www.geekymedia.com/magic/Symbol_6_mana.gif" height="12" width="12" alt="Symbol_6_mana.gif" /> <br />
1015 Creature - Angel? <br />
1016 Artifact Creature - Angel? <br />
1017 Flying <br />
1018 You cannot lose the game and your opponents cannot win the game. <br />
1019 6/6? </p>
1020
1021 <p>Evo-Morphs are creatures that combine flesh and blood with mechanical parts. They can change their form at will and seem to have 2 or more "modes". </p>
1022
1023 <p>There is a card described as "doggie-style elf" as well as a 10/10 artifact creature for five mana. </p>
1024
1025 <p>Go <a href="http://www.mtgnews.com/tracing/mirrodin/" title="here">here</a> for the updated partial spoiler.</p>
1026
1027 <p>Oh, I've always wanted to make video games for casinos for a living. <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/vegas.html" title="Here">Here</a>s someone who does. He also made the Addams family pinball game that we played Serena..</p>
1028
1029 <p>Now back to travel news, as I am actually, you know, 12 time zones away. (Okay, it isn't exactly 12 time zones, but it is 12 hrs from PST before any geeks start counting India, Arizona and the other places with wacky timezone rules)</p>
1030 rizwank 1.1
1031 <p>It seems that everyone thinks I'm either Arabic, Indian or... wait for it .. Japanese. Go figure.</p>
1032
1033 <p>First, left for Nukus, a city near the dying Aral Sea ... this large body of water is slowly drying up and visiting it was the top of the todo list... Boarded an Uzbekistan Airways flight on Monday... it was 110 degrees indoors, and we waited on the flight for 30 minutes "as if were JFK or something" (someone later commented)... I was with my guide, Otabek... Uncle K insisted that he come along after my little problem with the druggie.. after having travelled, its much better this way, the Lonely Planet sucks, they speaked DIALECTS of Uzbek, so even my phrasebook would have done me little good... his English is quite good, hes 27ish, married with a kid, and quite the philanderer.</p>
1034
1035 <p>Left for Nukus, and air finally started circulating after about 10 minutes in the air ... it wasnt a nice cool blast to make up for the heat but it slowly got better... it turns out that American services have grounded planes for being too hot in the states ,as I guess American customers won't tolerate the discomfort (which was quite extreme)</p>
1036
1037 <p>Arrived in Nukus without lodging plans, visited a number of hotels, including one that didnt have moving water (Otabek described Nukus as the end of geography, a non tourist location) ... ended up in a nice homestay with (gasp) Air conditioning , for $15 a night. Next day consisted of a day drive to Muynak, an old port town in the seventies, now a pitch desert. The drying of the Aral sea had left a number of boats stranded and there were "boat graveyards", with old ships sticking out of the dry sand, quite a sight to see... Muynak is quite far from Nukus though, 250km and the $50 to hire the driver for the day was quite spendy... The drive was torturous, I slept one way, and enjoyed the third harry potter audiobook on the way back.</p>
1038
1039 <p>My allergies have been torturing me here, and teh anti-histamines that I've gotten a hold of make my nightmares worse, makign me quite tired in the mornings. Severed coughing and difficulty breathing have made it quite difficult to travel. Stomach upsets take a back seat to this..</p>
1040
1041 <p>Drinking cold water after a hot day can lead to cramps by the way. Oh, the museum in Muynak </p>
1042
1043 <p>Nukus was the middle of nowhere, but there is a museum there of amazing art, a lot of it taken from Soviet Russia before the Stalinist purges and hidden here... the art is amazing, including some images of the New Economic Policy and the indugence that came from it... it might ahve been a picture of the Swinging 20's in the states.</p>
1044
1045 <p>Ran into some Peace Corps workers there... on their advice I went to a local junkyard... found the statue of Lenin that used to grace the city center... that was quite a shock... lying in a pile of trash was this 10m tall statue...! we all went to Urgench, the gate city of Khiva together on a Damas, sort of a bugish van (what were they called?) </p>
1046
1047 <p>I chatted with them and learned a lot about Uzbekistan, girls around here, about the Peace Corps, etc... it was quite fun having a flowing conversation ... conversation with non Americans can some times be stifling due to the need to explain metaphors and slang.... We went into the mountains for a bit trying to find some old petroglyphs but our directions seemed to be quite poor in the end. We crossed the big pontoon bridge over the ever-shifting Amadariya river.</p>
1048
1049 <p>Realize that I'm tired right now, so this isn't realyl the best blog I've written , and I know it. I've been not going out and instead sleeping a lot. My guide has a girlfriend in Khiva so he doesn't mind spending the nights with her ("once a man leaves his home by seven steps, its as if he wasn't married")</p>
1050
1051 rizwank 1.1 <p><br />
1052 Stuff I need to hit next blog: </p>
1053
1054 <p>*More about boats and climate of Muynak<br />
1055 *What a hole in the mud Nukus is<br />
1056 *Peace corps<br />
1057 *Infidelity rant<br />
1058 *Duality of infidelity and wants/needs, listening to girls and guys<br />
1059 *Clipping about movies writers from Salon<br />
1060 *Urgench<br />
1061 *Khiva<br />
1062 *Photography (preperation, skill, burn rate, digital)<br />
1063 *Clubbing<br />
1064 *have to cancel freecreditreport (ok that was something different)</p>
1065
1066 <p>But theres the quick update. I've got another 6 nights of travelling before I return to Tashkent... on the list is a night in the desert, Bukhara, Samarakand, Shakabriz (?) ... </p>
1067
1068 <p>Oh, people who want to meet me on hot or not.<br />
1069 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=SSOEEZ<br />
1070 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KLGRBQH</p>
1071
1072 rizwank 1.1 <p>Seth thinks that everyone on Hot or Not has esteem issues and aren't worth more than a quick hookup or a few dates.. I've found an exception, but I think I might see what he means... I mean, look at these profiles! ;p</p>
1073
1074 <p>I really should update mine to say that I'm not single... </p>
1075
1076 <p>The current match list:<br />
1077 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KLKQNMR<br />
1078 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=SZRUSM<br />
1079 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KQEZB8S<br />
1080 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KMASB8K<br />
1081 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KMNRHUG<br />
1082 http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KQOESUS</p>
1083
1084 <p>Whoo, I'm 7.9! <br />
1085 (as you can see, i did anything to avoid the mental work required in actually blogging)<br />
1086 http://www.hotornot.com/r/?eid=RUNRN8&key=UHK</p>
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093 rizwank 1.1 <div class="posted">
1094 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000181" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">06:52 PM</a><?php
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1103
1104 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=181" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
1105
1106 </div>
1107
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1114 rizwank 1.1
1115 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=181 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
1116
1117 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1118 $n = 0;
1119
1120 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1121 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1122 $title = $row['title'];
1123 $count = $row['count'];
1124 $search = $row['search'];
1125
1126 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
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1128 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
1129 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
1130 }
1131 }
1132
1133 if (!($n)) {
1134 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
1135 rizwank 1.1 }
1136 else {
1137 echo "<br />\n";
1138 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
1139 }
1140 echo '</div>';
1141
1142 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
1143 echo "<div class='side'>";
1144
1145 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1146 $n = 0;
1147
1148 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1149 $query = '';
1150
1151 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1152 $title = $row['title'];
1153 $count = $row['count'];
1154 $search = $row['search'];
1155
1156 rizwank 1.1 if ($search == 1) {
1157 $n++;
1158 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
1159 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
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1167
1168
1169
1170 <!--
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1177 rizwank 1.1 dc:title="Reality Check"
1178 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000180"
1179 dc:subject=""
1180 dc:description="So, Olga is in the other room with the Uzbeki equivalent of the paramedics, a nurse and a doctor with two suitcases, and my nice tan shirt has blood on it. (Shes getting a shot at the moment, and they..."
1181 dc:creator="Rizwank"
1182 dc:date="2003-08-09T01:27:47-08:00" />
1183 </rdf:RDF>
1184 -->
1185
1186
1187 <h2 class="date">August 09, 2003</h2>
1188
1189
1190 <div class="blogbody">
1191 <a name="000180"></a>
1192 <?php
1193
1194 // record the referer
1195 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
1196 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (180, '$referer', '', $time)" );
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1198 rizwank 1.1
1199 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
1200 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=180' );
1201 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
1202 $hits = $row[0];
1203
1204 ?>
1205 <h3 class="title">Reality Check</h3>
1206
1207 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
1208 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
1209 S</b>
1210 </p>
1211 </td></tr></table>
1212 o, Olga is in the other room with the Uzbeki equivalent of the paramedics, a nurse and a doctor with two suitcases, and my nice tan shirt has blood on it. (Shes getting a shot at the moment, and they feel that gluetus shots are better here, so I was asked to step out.) How did we arrive at this catacylsmic state?</p>
1213
1214 <p>Last blog was right before I was to meet Nargiza... met her at exactly 7pm in front of the Opera house... oh and she, like Mohira, was early... by the way, what wrong with you people that think being early is a virtue anyhow? What traumatic event in your childhood led to the opposite of procrastionation, and that being super-puntual was an asset...</p>
1215
1216 <p>Anyhow, off the bat we negociated that I would have to speak slower for her to comprehend my English... took a cab to the Japanese Gardens (at which point I tried to read the Cyrillic off of the tickets.. I was right but it was still a comedy of errors... The garden was, by no means, impressive, but it passed some time and we talked about family etc... Next stop was a nightclub/restraurant that she knew about, but it seemed to be closed for the season.. next was a choice that I was given... some word similar to Acropolis and (after about three minutes of inter-language confusion) a restaurant with a strip-tease... she wanted to go to the strip tease, oddly enough, but was weirded out enough at the surprised look that she felt quite shy afterwards... not sure what the deal was... Ate an ok dinner, the soup, whos name I will put in when I think of it, was the same I had in caravan, a soup of mutton and potatos... and I succumbed to some desire to have a familiar meal... I ordered the steak. BAD IDEA. First, a steak for $3.00 should always be suspect. It was super well done, tough, rubbery, and totally lacking in flavor. Yes, I learned my lesson. </p>
1217
1218 <p>Nargisa and I talked about dating and the guy that wanted to be her boyfriend, and I realized that if I were trying to meet "girls" in that sense, I was going about it the wrong way... Uzbeks are the conservative half of the population... whats odd is that we could never agree on the concept of dating... the word, and how I described it, was quite different... Even as to physicality, it took a while for me to understand if this boy was with her or just a hanger-on... It was quite a culture shock, anyhow; and while there were still signs of her being interested, I gave up... (and am glad for it)</p>
1219 rizwank 1.1
1220 <p>Next cabride had her a) promising to hook me up with her female friends that spoke English (while she was out of town, so that I have a friend), b) making plans for next time (museum and nightclub), and c) her promise to make a list of places I should visit while she is in Germany (for the next two weeks)...</p>
1221
1222 <p>Exit Broadway, and I happened to stumble onto a salesman... and he had pocket watches... and he had a stopwatch like the "60 minutes" one, something I had been wanting for about 20 years... and it was Russian, 25 years old.. I had to have it. I looked around at the other wares, including the 70 year old German stopwatch and some wonderful older German compasses and Soviet Insignia (what I really want is a Communist party pin), then I returned to the stopwatch... $20 was his offer; sadly, this was the first time I had not actually brought US currency with me, so hes holding it (perhaps) until tomorrow, but I'm going back to get it... A real pocket watch might be more useful and I would actually wear it, but I've been wanting a 60 minutes timer for years... He also had $260 pocket watches that were 150 years old... how amazing is it that the machinery still works. I don't know if my Kenneth Cole chronometer will last for ten years, much less 150.</p>
1223
1224 <p>Now heres the thing. The bill for food was 10100 sum... about $10 max. Two person meal, excellent deal. She was flabbergasted at the cost (she had seen the costs when she ordered, I would think she could have done the math); after counting out the very large amount of bills required to cover the bill, I led the conversation towards the difference in prices etc... She makes, it seems, $80/month, 80,000 sum for an entry-level travel agent job with multi-lingual skills and a B.A. ... so, at six days a week, I spent three days salary on her (from what I made at Comedy World, about $400). I can see the shock, and my wanting to buy a trinket (which at $20 was just that), that would be a weeks salary... Its odd being rich (when one really isn't).</p>
1225
1226 <p>Anyhow, we walked around broadway, got some ice cream and walked back... We are laughing a lot and having a blast, I was having a ton of fun... We walked by a Russian group of girls and I finally found out (through my translating friend), what it was they whispered whenever I was around ... "Is he Arab? No, I think hes Indian." Oh, oddly enough at the restuarant, I passed twice by a table of Russians, and the second time, one of them said Namaste... I said Namaste back, started to walk away, and then returned to join the conversation... I found out that his friend were from Moscow and I told them I was Pakistani actually, at which point they started to profusely apologize for saying Namaste, until I said, "Actually, I'm American, and as far as I am concerend, they are close enough." which actually led to quite a few laughs. I can be funning to people with poor English, the timing has to be re-done, thats all...</p>
1227
1228 <p>Outside of the apartment, I flag down a cab for her, but it pulls up with a bunch of Russian gals that look at me... who knows if it was with puzzlement or whatever.. she had been teasing me that I should go meet russian women so she hopped in the cab and encouraged me on... The girls had a head start so they had already started on their way up the elevator... and it began.</p>
1229
1230 <p>waiting in the open air, open access, mosquito infestion, urine smelling lobby of what used to be one of the best apartment buildings in the city (with still lovely interiors), a boy, about my age, comes out of the shadows and comes up to me... offers his dirty hand, "Salaam Ul-Akium." I took his hand and shook it and then proceeded to wait for the elevator car to return, when he started trying to talk to me... I obviously know almost no russian at all, so i say so, attemping to remember my russian for English please... his eyes are dilated, and he strikes me as a panhandler... I do what I've sadly had to learn to do here, ignore (its really hard when a five year old pulls on your shirt for three minutes begging you for cash, when you've been told that giving them cash just makes their parents put them out onto the street in the first place).</p>
1231
1232 <p>Another Russian woman walks up and he keep trying to talk to me.. then points at the girl and says "Woman... no?" Elevator thankfully arrives, but he gets in after the two of us... He obviously doesn't live in the building, but we let him pick the floor (remind me to tell you about the Soviet elevators, later); He picks ninth, and halfway up the shaky ride, he grabs my shirt, twists it and pulls me close to him, muttering something un-intelligable... At the ninth floor, we try to let him get off, but he wants to keep grabbing me, and we try to step aside to let her out (I asked her to "please leave" ... I can run like the devil, but not when someone else is there), and enough shoving got both of us out... the lady split and he comes to some sort of sense and attempts to pat my shirt and seemingly apologize. I say ok, and make haste down two floors to Olgas apartment... I don't like revealing the apartment location, but what can he do... then outside of the apartment, he grabs me again, and makes a cutthroat motion and points to what apparently is a knife in his shoe, yelling strange words that, of course, make no sense to me... I start knocking on the metallic door of the apartment and struggle to push him off... Olga finally got out of bed and opened up the door, at which point I shoved the nut back about 5 feet and slammed the metal door in his face... He spent the next ten minutes kicking the steel door and yelling and cursing Olga and I... aparently he was quite rude about it... he wanted $30... </p>
1233
1234 <p>Sorry to say, but I think he was a druggie; not because I'm like the paranoid adults assuming anyone deviant is on drugs, but this man needed a fix... my shirt was partially covered in blood from, assumedly, his hands. Inside the apartment, I put away my belongings in disgust, and Olga starts to feel tired. She proceededs to have a full massive high blood pressure attack, to the point that we have her in bed, hot water bottles to warm her and trying to avoid a stroke... It was quite frightening..</p>
1235
1236 <p>All is good now, Olga is fine, a lot of the surprise was that she was lying down, so getting up quickly, and the shock combined was a lot for her. My dirty shirt is in the hamper, the "ruffian" is not to be found and we assume that he was too blasted to know where I lived, and the only major problem will be a lack of freedom of movement for a while; they are both now nervous about me travelling on my own. Watching UncleK in action was amazing.. he was calm, patient, and ever loving with his wife... it was a sight to see. </p>
1237
1238 <p>In four years, nothing like this (the crazy man) had ever happened in their apartment building, and it quite visibly bothered them that it had. The private ambulance service was 16000 sum... Uncle K tipped them to 20k... Anyhow, my eyes are filled with sleepy dust, so that was the reality check...</p>
1239
1240 rizwank 1.1
1241
1242
1243
1244
1245 <div class="posted">
1246 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000180" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">01:27 AM</a><?php
1247 if ($hits) {
1248 print " | Read ";
1249 echo "$hits";
1250 print " time";
1251 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
1252 }
1253 ?>
1254 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=180" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (5)</a>
1255
1256 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=180" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
1257
1258 </div>
1259
1260 </div>
1261 rizwank 1.1 <?php
1262
1263 // display the list of referers
1264 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
1265 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
1266
1267 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=180 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
1268
1269 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1270 $n = 0;
1271
1272 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1273 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1274 $title = $row['title'];
1275 $count = $row['count'];
1276 $search = $row['search'];
1277
1278 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
1279 $n++;
1280 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
1281 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
1282 rizwank 1.1 }
1283 }
1284
1285 if (!($n)) {
1286 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
1287 }
1288 else {
1289 echo "<br />\n";
1290 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
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1293
1294 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
1295 echo "<div class='side'>";
1296
1297 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1298 $n = 0;
1299
1300 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1301 $query = '';
1302
1303 rizwank 1.1 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1304 $title = $row['title'];
1305 $count = $row['count'];
1306 $search = $row['search'];
1307
1308 if ($search == 1) {
1309 $n++;
1310 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
1311 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
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1315 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
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1319
1320
1321
1322 <!--
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1328 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/178"
1329 dc:title="This is Halloween...."
1330 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000179"
1331 dc:subject=""
1332 dc:description="I owe very special thanks to HeatherW for renting "A Nightmare before Christmas"... I just listened to the soundtrack again and its phenominal... Actually her Cd collection is quite good (time for me to visit with a laptop and RIIIIIP,..."
1333 dc:creator="Rizwank"
1334 dc:date="2003-08-08T17:31:01-08:00" />
1335 </rdf:RDF>
1336 -->
1337
1338
1339 <h2 class="date">August 08, 2003</h2>
1340
1341
1342 <div class="blogbody">
1343 <a name="000179"></a>
1344 <?php
1345 rizwank 1.1
1346 // record the referer
1347 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
1348 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (179, '$referer', '', $time)" );
1349 }
1350
1351 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
1352 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=179' );
1353 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
1354 $hits = $row[0];
1355
1356 ?>
1357 <h3 class="title">This is Halloween....</h3>
1358
1359 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
1360 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
1361 I</b>
1362 </p>
1363 </td></tr></table>
1364 owe very special thanks to HeatherW for renting "A Nightmare before Christmas"... I just listened to the soundtrack again and its phenominal... Actually her Cd collection is quite good (time for me to visit with a laptop and RIIIIIP, haha RIAA) and she's a music-geek, so much for me to learn when I get back :)</p>
1365
1366 rizwank 1.1 <p>I was gonna quote from the soundtrack, but you either know it, or you don't. </p>
1367
1368 <p>Today was boring enough, awoke to go to work and edit some English etc... Made a date (or tour, not sure which) with Nargisa, one of the girls in the office, for tonight, so should be nice... </p>
1369
1370 <p>As for my next travelling, the problem is one of language... I can fly to Nukus and see the Russian Art Museum (an eccentric millionare hid them in his mansion after the Revolution, so there is a ton of 19th century art that would have otherwise been destroyed), and the dying Aral Sea (two main rivers feed it, and both have been partially siphoned off for human use... and there seems to be an underground channel between the Aral and Caspian that isn't helping either.), but these are not touristy places.. Uncle K has offered to send along a guide with me, but of course, I'd have to pay the expenses, and I really don't feel like bringing my own tour guide with me ;p</p>
1371
1372 <p> Past Urgench to Khiva, where the normal tours start, there are local English speaking guides and complete information from Sitara... I could always pull out my phrasebook and rough it, but its far off, so im a bit nervous. I'll probably go to Nukus and the sea, worse comes to worse, there WILL be a B&B already booked... Also, sadly, my phrasebook is Uzbek, not Russian; althoguh outside of Tashkent, I gather that a lot more Uzbek is spoken.</p>
1373
1374 <p>They've got this division between Uzbeks (the brown people) and the Russians (the white people.) Walking along broadway, I saw the first black man I've seen in three weeks... It was really odd how out of place he was, and it brought attention to how nearly mono-chromatic this place is, split solely between three groups, Uzbeks, Koreans and Russians... Theres a enconomic divide between the Russians and the Uzbeks, but its not nearly as pronounced as in the states, and while there are social clubs for each, there doesn't seem to be much along the way of racism...</p>
1375
1376 <p>I'm still marvelling at the metro system, the stations are GORGEOUS! Apparently the stations in Moscow are something to behold as well... Might go nightclubbing tonight... probably not, though, you all know how I feel about that... </p>
1377
1378 <p>Just got a long wordy answer to my FOCUS request meaning that "we don't have time to deal with you, even if you want to volunteer free here for three months..." - Guess its just as well, I can do school and all, but it was a good opportunity to volunteer and serve... especially in such an amazing place... :sighs:</p>
1379
1380 <p>Maybe Peacecorps when i'm done with school ;p</p>
1381
1382 <p>Ok, speaking of "Nightmare" and every other reference to Halloween ive ever heard, what the hell is a Banshee, and how does it scream?</p>
1383
1384 <p>UncleK was marvelling at how much we waste pumpkins in the states, starting next week there will be pumpkin soup available all around, its supposed to be quite good.</p>
1385
1386
1387 rizwank 1.1
1388
1389
1390
1391 <div class="posted">
1392 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000179" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">05:31 PM</a><?php
1393 if ($hits) {
1394 print " | Read ";
1395 echo "$hits";
1396 print " time";
1397 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
1398 }
1399 ?>
1400 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=179" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (11)</a>
1401
1402 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=179" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
1403
1404 </div>
1405
1406 </div>
1407 <?php
1408 rizwank 1.1
1409 // display the list of referers
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1411 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
1412
1413 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=179 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
1414
1415 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1416 $n = 0;
1417
1418 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1419 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1420 $title = $row['title'];
1421 $count = $row['count'];
1422 $search = $row['search'];
1423
1424 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
1425 $n++;
1426 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
1427 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
1428 }
1429 rizwank 1.1 }
1430
1431 if (!($n)) {
1432 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
1433 }
1434 else {
1435 echo "<br />\n";
1436 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
1437 }
1438 echo '</div>';
1439
1440 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
1441 echo "<div class='side'>";
1442
1443 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1444 $n = 0;
1445
1446 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1447 $query = '';
1448
1449 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1450 rizwank 1.1 $title = $row['title'];
1451 $count = $row['count'];
1452 $search = $row['search'];
1453
1454 if ($search == 1) {
1455 $n++;
1456 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
1457 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
1458 }
1459 }
1460
1461 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
1462 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
1463 echo "</div>";
1464 ?>
1465
1466
1467
1468 <!--
1469 <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
1470 xmlns:trackback="http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/"
1471 rizwank 1.1 xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
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1474 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/177"
1475 dc:title="And now for something completely different..."
1476 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000178"
1477 dc:subject=""
1478 dc:description="And now for something completely different... Its been a interesting past few days... its odd, actually; the whirlwind lifestyle of backpacking has settled and things are somewhat near normal right now... So, I last blogged on Tuesday, eh? Lets see..."
1479 dc:creator="Rizwank"
1480 dc:date="2003-08-08T01:48:45-08:00" />
1481 </rdf:RDF>
1482 -->
1483
1484
1485
1486
1487 <div class="blogbody">
1488 <a name="000178"></a>
1489 <?php
1490
1491 // record the referer
1492 rizwank 1.1 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
1493 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (178, '$referer', '', $time)" );
1494 }
1495
1496 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
1497 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=178' );
1498 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
1499 $hits = $row[0];
1500
1501 ?>
1502 <h3 class="title">And now for something completely different...</h3>
1503
1504 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
1505 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
1506 A</b>
1507 </p>
1508 </td></tr></table>
1509 nd now for something completely different...</p>
1510
1511 <p>Its been a interesting past few days... its odd, actually; the whirlwind lifestyle of backpacking has settled and things are somewhat near normal right now... </p>
1512
1513 rizwank 1.1 <p>So, I last blogged on Tuesday, eh? Lets see if I can follow up the time in between..</p>
1514
1515 <p>Wednesday consisted mostly of work at Sitara... I'm going through a catalog of travel agents and associates and removing all but Tour Operators and Travel Agents... they are sorted by location, then name, so I am to determine by name what they are... something that requires a functional use of English... boring, but whatever. Chatted up Nargisa, the girl that, if I didn't know better, my uncle and aunt were trying to set me up with ... (talked about her for like two minutes at dinner together; for the conversation to stay on a topic that long was amazing...) Her barely functional English (and my inoperable Russian) continued to be a barrier... In the afternoon phoned Mohira, the girl I met at the airport; we made plans for that night, upon confirmation and returned to Sitara after work... Left Sitara at 5:30 (early, as Uncle K ended up staying antoher three hours) and phone Mohira, to find out that her relatives were about to visit, so could we do it tomorrow... I said, of course; and only slightly bummed, I lied back on the couch and enjoyed, of all things, "Casablanca." I haven't watched it in quite a few years, and this was the first time that I watched without the sillyness of forwarding "boring" scenes.... Its a lot more compelling this time, I never understood Rick's explaination to (insert name of Ingrid Bergman's husband here) until now ... "She pretended that she was in love with me, and I let her pretend," and Rick's charitible act saving the newlywed polish girl from giving sex for a exit visa... </p>
1516
1517 <p>After that, Olga and I sat down and we started lesson on in Russia... the alphabet.<br />
1518 Now, if you don't know russian, prepare to be astounded that these people actually made it into space. I'm being silly, and Heatherw, don't start extolling the wonders of Soviet technology, please. I actually started a excel spreadsheet to show all the letters and their phonetic similarities, but you'd have to have the Cyrillic lang. pack installed, I dont think the characters are in standard ASCII. Anyhow, reciting letters like a five year old is enough to make one not want to be a five year old ;p</p>
1519
1520 <p>Dinner, walk to another net cafe, wrote two emails to serena, both got eaten by the MSIE monster, and the site was being finicky, so no posting... and then sleep... Woke up the next day feeling pretty lousy, stayed at home and slept a lot longer. Watched a lot of BBC News, then CNN... got tired of the same damn news and slept again. My registration is done here finally, I'm legal. Now to renew my visa, already ;p </p>
1521
1522 <p>Met Mohira at six for our date. We met at what used to be Lenin Square, which is now a statue of Timor .. not sure if thats much of an improvement... She was wearing a cute skirt and top; dangly earrings, definetly date material if it were in the states, or if she were a bred-American. We walked to a hotel, had a Fanta and walked around Tashkent... the fountains here are amazing... theres one where there are 100m of pointed at 45degrees, and there is a walk way right next to them where you get covered in this light misty breeze... twas quite nice. </p>
1523
1524 <p>Next stop was the metro station... heres the thing... its pure marble. They are gorgeous. They were pre-Independence, and I have to wonder where the Soviet govn't got enough money to do all this (then I remember that they have marble stores in Soviet Russia, and they had *free* manpower, the cost of constructing lavish subway wouldn't be nearly as high as in the States) ... anyhow, we proceeded to get lost and find outselves back by the statue of Timor, which was find... </p>
1525
1526 <p>Hopped over to the Turkish owned Mir Burger, for a bathroom break and as we sat downstairs we discussed whether this was a date or not.. (It wasn't obvious, and with me it rarely is. I've been trained by my female friends from highschool to fear the word "date" as it scares women away, and while I no longer believe that, its still in my psyche.) Since she had given me her phone number (and not even given me an opportunity to get hers) and since I hadn't asked her to a concert or movie or something, she thought not ... (As an American, I was safe, which made no sense to me..) Anyhow, we went to Caravan, which i later learned is the nicest restaurant in town, sampled some good food, went back to broadway, which is the near equivalent of Venice Beach without the beach and ended up parting ways, as our various parents needed us (hers were still worried about her and wanted her home, mine needed computer help), so I went home... </p>
1527
1528 <p>We kidded around like it was a date, but nothing for sure; she has a boy (well, 34 when she is 21, so not a boy,but an old man) in Vermont, but they hadn't discussed what happened now... its really weird, signals are incredibly unreliable... anyhow, we laughed, we kidded around, its like we were either flirting 5th graders or the best of friends... I don't know if anything will come of it, and at the moment, I'm too tired to care. Parted on... well nothing. Cross cultural makes it difficult, she got me as funny and cute (cause I am) but signals were way off. Looked each other straight in the eyes, but she commented that its something she always does... big hearty laughs and having fun together.. and I dont mind just hanging out, I just want to be flat out told... and this isn't like my regular (no one likes me) rants, I know plenty of people like me, its just odd working in different territory</p>
1529
1530 <p>I haven't been on a first date in a while... Its easy to lose ones touch, perhaps. Serena doesn't count; we pretty much pole vaulted over the initial (does she like me, doesn't she like me) stages... </p>
1531
1532 <p>Everyone here is thin. Any overweight people are within 30-40 lbs of where they should be ... and its not what they eat, their food is covered in fat, just as bad, if not worse, than McDonalds diets... I guess its because they walk form place to place... its just I havent' seen one obese person either here or Turkey.</p>
1533
1534 rizwank 1.1 <p>Its the UN's International Year of Fresh Water, by the way. Thats why the strange topic.</p>
1535
1536 <p>I'm considering avoiding sweets here. I've gone without a soda (save a single Fanta) for a week now and feel slightly better for it, and not had any significant amount of chocolate in two. I'm at 92.5kg (someone over there convert it for me please), and the odd machine at Broadway (which announces loudly in Russian if you are overweight, why there is always a line for it, I will never know) puts me one light into overweight. (I'ts a simple BMI indicator, 180cm, 92.5 kg, I should lose up to 9 kilos. I've started doing pushups before I go to bed, but last time I only kept that up for about five weeks before I faltered... (then again, I did feel quite good after those five weeks)<br />
1537 >candy</p>
1538
1539 <p>Oh, <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/centra~1.doc" title="The Economist on Central Asia">here</a> are some articles from the economist that Uncle K had, quite interesting reads about the region.</p>
1540
1541 <p>Wow, the 17 comments were actually ... like, on topic. people are discussing points i'm bringing up! Kick ass! </p>
1542
1543 <p>I'm removing the lessig news includes from the side, they are too lengthy, and too static for now. When I can fix the formatting and whatnot, I'll bring em back. </p>
1544
1545 <p>It turns out there are three countries in the world where you have to approach the government to leave (get an exit visa, I guess...) China, Iraq and Uzbekistan. Quite an impressive group to be in, no? They've kept a whole lot of nonsense Russian red-tape; you have to register what hotel you are staying at, residents must have their passports stamped with their offical permanent address, its as if it were still Soviet Russia, but it isn't. </p>
1546
1547 <p>Ok, so Davis is suing to be allowed into the recall election that was started to remove him? Jesus. Oh and the Terminator is running ... I wish I had a proper LA times or good speed access to CNN.com and figure out what the hell was going on in california. I know Gary Coleman, Larry Flint, The Terminator, and a Porn star are running, and thats just what the BBC is reporting... And ISSA ISN'T RUNNING! Feinstein isn't running, but Ariana Huffington is.. (I respect her, just don't agree with her), oh and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who was considering a bid for governor, has said he would not run if Schwarzenegger did. </p>
1548
1549 <p>Coleman, whose candidacy as an Independent is being promoted by an Oakland newspaper to protest the recall process, said he thinks Schwarzenegger will win. Coleman even said he would vote for the "Terminator." </p>
1550
1551 <p>"Now that Arnold is in the race, there is no race. Gray Davis needs to pack his bags," said Coleman, 35, who played a boy named Arnold in the TV series from 1978 to 1986. "I'm going to stay in the race, but I'm not going to campaign." (<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/06/candidate.coleman/index.html" title="Full story">Full story</a>) <br />
1552 TV pundit and syndicated columnist Huffington, 53, also a political Independent, also announced Wednesday that she would run.(<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/07/huffington.recall/index.html" title="Full story">Full story</a>) </p>
1553
1554 <p>"I'm not, to say the least, a conventional candidate," said Huffington, who was born in Greece and, like Schwarzenegger, has a distinct accent. "But these are not conventional times. And if we keep electing the same kinds of politicians who got us into the same kinds of mess funded by the same special interests, we'll never get out of this mess." </p>
1555 rizwank 1.1
1556 <p>Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt also has announced his bid for the governor's office. (<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/04/flynt.governor/index.html" title="Full story">Full story</a>) </p>
1557
1558 <p><br />
1559 Met an Italian travel agent a few days ago, as I was astounded to hear of her stories of the Italian government. The current president has recalled a thirteenth century law that protected kings from prosecution and applied it to himself and his cabinet... hes effectively overthrowing the judicuary, if she is to be believed, and I have no reason not to. </p>
1560
1561 <p>Does anyone know anything about the "Century Club?" Some club that requires 100 stamps in your passport for membership, or something like that....</p>
1562
1563 <p>Gonna see Mohira again tomorrow; I have no friends here and even hanging out is a lot more fun than aimless wandering... I meet people in singular circuimstances, rarely have I been able to meet people in a crowd (HeatherW being the only notable exception) and that makes finding other people to hang out with difficult... I have yet to see any simple cafes or anything where English speakers might hang out.</p>
1564
1565 <p>Leaving for Nukus, the dying Aral Sea, Bukhara and Samarkand Saturday or Sunday...</p>
1566
1567 <p>Oh, I just added <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1568360223/qid=1060288735/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-6404424-3852857?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia</a> to Braincandy.</p>
1568
1569 <p>For next time, the office at Sitara, Nargisa and more... (and whatever I forgot from the rushed ending to Tuesdays post.)<br />
1570 </p>
1571
1572
1573
1574
1575
1576 rizwank 1.1
1577 <div class="posted">
1578 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000178" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">01:48 AM</a><?php
1579 if ($hits) {
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1581 echo "$hits";
1582 print " time";
1583 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
1584 }
1585 ?>
1586 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=178" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (7)</a>
1587
1588 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=178" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
1589
1590 </div>
1591
1592 </div>
1593 <?php
1594
1595 // display the list of referers
1596 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
1597 rizwank 1.1 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
1598
1599 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=178 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
1600
1601 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1602 $n = 0;
1603
1604 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1605 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1606 $title = $row['title'];
1607 $count = $row['count'];
1608 $search = $row['search'];
1609
1610 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
1611 $n++;
1612 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
1613 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
1614 }
1615 }
1616
1617 if (!($n)) {
1618 rizwank 1.1 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
1619 }
1620 else {
1621 echo "<br />\n";
1622 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
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1624 echo '</div>';
1625
1626 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
1627 echo "<div class='side'>";
1628
1629 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1630 $n = 0;
1631
1632 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1633 $query = '';
1634
1635 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1636 $title = $row['title'];
1637 $count = $row['count'];
1638 $search = $row['search'];
1639 rizwank 1.1
1640 if ($search == 1) {
1641 $n++;
1642 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
1643 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
1644 }
1645 }
1646
1647 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
1648 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
1649 echo "</div>";
1650 ?>
1651
1652
1653
1654 <!--
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1658 <rdf:Description
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1660 rizwank 1.1 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/176"
1661 dc:title="International Year of Fresh Water"
1662 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000177"
1663 dc:subject=""
1664 dc:description="Another blog from Uzbekistan, and again I regret that I cannot simply transcribe my thoughts to my blog ... I have spelled out eloquent sentances and thought-flows; concise comparisons, intelligent conclusions... and they were all lost when I lost my..."
1665 dc:creator="Rizwank"
1666 dc:date="2003-08-05T20:50:01-08:00" />
1667 </rdf:RDF>
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1669
1670
1671 <h2 class="date">August 05, 2003</h2>
1672
1673
1674 <div class="blogbody">
1675 <a name="000177"></a>
1676 <?php
1677
1678 // record the referer
1679 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
1680 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (177, '$referer', '', $time)" );
1681 rizwank 1.1 }
1682
1683 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
1684 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=177' );
1685 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
1686 $hits = $row[0];
1687
1688 ?>
1689 <h3 class="title">International Year of Fresh Water</h3>
1690
1691 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
1692 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
1693 A</b>
1694 </p>
1695 </td></tr></table>
1696 nother blog from Uzbekistan, and again I regret that I cannot simply transcribe my thoughts to my blog ... I have spelled out eloquent sentances and thought-flows; concise comparisons, intelligent conclusions... and they were all lost when I lost my conversation looking at one of the pretty Russian girls. </p>
1697
1698 <p>So, you get whats left as I am actually sitting in front of a machine from my (apparently) hormone-addled mind. </p>
1699
1700 <p>Oh, funny note, before I forget. The walk that I took with Olga yesterday passed through a third-street like area known as Broadway (which I am now at alone... Its quite an interesting and funny area, there is an entire building dedicated to dance dance revolution), and Olga pointed out that there were a lot of pretty girls here and I could have sworn she had a small smile there... then she rethought herself and clairifed "But not prosititues. Those are at the hotels."</p>
1701
1702 rizwank 1.1 <p>Remember, we are in ex-Soviet country.</p>
1703
1704 <p>Today, I awoke and left with UncleK (after a scrumptions meal of some sort of honey corn-flake and what I think are Coco-Puffs) for Sitara Travel. After a short drive, Oleg (his driver) pulled over and we walked into Sitara. I met a bit of the staff after time passes, and I noticed an extra-oridnary amount of women... both young and old. </p>
1705
1706 <p>The reason I'm talking about the girls now, is a chronological fact, and doesn't mean that these comments are more important than the later goings on, but just because they happened earlier.</p>
1707
1708 <p>I think being Russian somehow gives you impeccable taste in Western fashion, because these (along with all the other girls on the street), seem to have it together. I was admiring the form of one them in particular (remember, I am a published photographer, this is my job) when Uncle K brought her over to introduce her s the fifteen year old practical student (I think thats an intern)... </p>
1709
1710 <p>Yeah, they dress kinda mature. Short skirts, flashy belt and earrings, mum would have flipped if Sis wanted to leave like that at fifteen. (lets forget that I was admiring a fifteen year old, ok? She didn't look it.)</p>
1711
1712 <p>More about the other residents of the office as I get to know them better, just an interesting note... you introduce someone by both their first and middle names...</p>
1713
1714 <p>The cafe is closing right now, I've been told I have two minutes.</p>
1715
1716 <p>Serena, I was responding to your email when internet explorer crashed, and my crafted response of a half-hour was trapped behind a "This program has had some error of some such", except in Cyrillic. Sorry hun, I'll write later when more motivated. It was cute too ;p </p>
1717
1718 <p>p.s. Commenters, are most of you even reading the post? :) Off topic convos are fine, want me to setup a forum for you, or just a post called "Comment here?" :) If you want crazy things to talk about, you should have been here when I had the old blog entries posted.</p>
1719
1720
1721
1722
1723 rizwank 1.1
1724
1725 <div class="posted">
1726 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000177" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">08:50 PM</a><?php
1727 if ($hits) {
1728 print " | Read ";
1729 echo "$hits";
1730 print " time";
1731 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
1732 }
1733 ?>
1734 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=177" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (17)</a>
1735
1736 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=177" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
1737
1738 </div>
1739
1740 </div>
1741 <?php
1742
1743 // display the list of referers
1744 rizwank 1.1 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
1745 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
1746
1747 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=177 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
1748
1749 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1750 $n = 0;
1751
1752 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1753 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1754 $title = $row['title'];
1755 $count = $row['count'];
1756 $search = $row['search'];
1757
1758 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
1759 $n++;
1760 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
1761 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
1762 }
1763 }
1764
1765 rizwank 1.1 if (!($n)) {
1766 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
1767 }
1768 else {
1769 echo "<br />\n";
1770 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
1771 }
1772 echo '</div>';
1773
1774 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
1775 echo "<div class='side'>";
1776
1777 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1778 $n = 0;
1779
1780 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1781 $query = '';
1782
1783 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1784 $title = $row['title'];
1785 $count = $row['count'];
1786 rizwank 1.1 $search = $row['search'];
1787
1788 if ($search == 1) {
1789 $n++;
1790 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
1791 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
1792 }
1793 }
1794
1795 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
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1797 echo "</div>";
1798 ?>
1799
1800
1801
1802 <!--
1803 <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
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1808 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/175"
1809 dc:title="Methinks it is like a weasel."
1810 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000176"
1811 dc:subject=""
1812 dc:description="So, I'm in Uzbekistan. The airport reminded me of LAX enough that I'm convinced that all the airports were designed by the same person, with the same color signs a similar arrangement. Was over 28kg on baggage; turns out you..."
1813 dc:creator="Rizwank"
1814 dc:date="2003-08-04T19:59:05-08:00" />
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1817
1818
1819 <h2 class="date">August 04, 2003</h2>
1820
1821
1822 <div class="blogbody">
1823 <a name="000176"></a>
1824 <?php
1825
1826 // record the referer
1827 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
1828 rizwank 1.1 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (176, '$referer', '', $time)" );
1829 }
1830
1831 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
1832 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=176' );
1833 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
1834 $hits = $row[0];
1835
1836 ?>
1837 <h3 class="title">Methinks it is like a weasel.</h3>
1838
1839 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
1840 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
1841 S</b>
1842 </p>
1843 </td></tr></table>
1844 o, I'm in Uzbekistan. The airport reminded me of LAX enough that I'm convinced that all the airports were designed by the same person, with the same color signs a similar arrangement. Was over 28kg on baggage; turns out you are allowed a max of 20kg, and I was well over that... the lady discounded it to 20kg then rethought it and made it 10kg. $50USD, which wasnt' that bad but still another expense. </p>
1845
1846 <p>Everyone has their dirty pleasures. Something that you wouldn't really think should be a bad thing but is frowned upon for PC reasons, for what others might think, due to taboo.<br />
1847 Mine is getting a Shoe Shine. I've always felt it looked and seemed really elitest and classest, but they had a shoe shine station and I succubmed; my boots were dusty from Cappadocia... Its very silly that I feel bad about it and I think may have over dramatized this paragraphs intro.</p>
1848
1849 rizwank 1.1 <p>While landing in Tashkent, I saw a set of city lights reaching out as far as the eye could see... what made me expect dusty roads, adobe houses?</p>
1850
1851 <p>Turns out you have to check in all of your hard currency, Uzbekistan has very strict rules about exporting hard currencies, so you are given a reciept, and you can't take out more than you brought in... While waiting in the passport check line, I waited in the currency exchange line, the man ahead of me walked out with a shoebox of cash, I wondered why he converted so much at that time. It made a lot more sense after I got my $50 in sum.</p>
1852
1853 <p>It was 45,000 sum... in 200 sum bills. There were two wrapped stacks of 200 sum bills in 100, and I left carrying the hefty sum in my hand thinking; christ, how do they pay for anything. Was told this later:</p>
1854
1855 <p><i>"A man walks into a bar and puts his suitcase onto the shelf, and orders a drink.<br />
1856 The barkeep said, "You have to put your suitcase on the ground, we don't want luggage on the tables"<br />
1857 "That's not my suitcase, thats my wallet"<br />
1858 </i></p>
1859
1860 <p>... it loses a lot in the translation from Russian to English to Web. I had put my cash into my underwear drawer (actually the only drawer i have hear), when Olga stopped me, telling me that the money was very dirty with lots of bacteria, and it would be best to leave it outside. Its a valid thought, have we ever wondered where our greenbacks were before our pockets?</p>
1861
1862 <p>Got all the baggage, thankfully, but first realized that I left my Polariod in Turkey, which is more annoying because I have $30 worth of Polariod film thats useless right now (plus at some point, im going to start meeting people again and wanting their portrait for my journaling...) Second was that my bag, which was marked Fragile, still managed to get broken; the telescoping handle no longer telescopes... one half is stuck in... it was quite annoying.</p>
1863
1864 <p>They did baggage and currency checks after that, chatted with a Tajik girl who was in Vermont and New York for school for a year (She wore a I Love NY shirt, it was kinda a giveaway); shes living in Tashkent too... I was trying to get info on places to hang out where I wouldn't face as much of a lanaguage problem when she offered her phone number, saying that she was half asleep and it'd be best to talk about it later... I got her info, so we might hang out later; shes doing International Relations, seems cool.</p>
1865
1866 <p>Uncle Khadim, Olga, and their driver met us when I got to the other side and he chastized me both about the size of my bags (mum you were right) and that I delayed them by talking with "the pretty girl"... chastized is the wrong word, it was just a comment.. we drove to their apartment, mostly quiet as I could think of little but sleep. We arrived and found that the elevators didn't work.. the apartment looked like a bombed out hotel, tall and proud, but with plenty of scratches, broken things (including lights!), massive cracks in the wall and an acrid odor. </p>
1867
1868 <p>We got to the apartment and after he opened the triple(!) lock, I was let into a beautiful apartment! Olga said that she liked the apartment, but just not the building around it :) They had made space for me in the study and I settled in, unpacking, finding that I was missing my polaroid, had a nice shower, and read for a while before I went to sleep.</p>
1869
1870 rizwank 1.1 <p>Woke around 11:30 (we slept at 5 folks) and Olga gave me breakfast... bread (it was some sort of Russian sesame bread, quite tasty) and some sort of peach jam that was beyond delicious... I was wary at first but after one bite, I couldn't get enough! She showed me more around the apartment and talked some more ... I didn't know before that Olga was a university professor and quite amazingly educated, we've had two or three nice geo-political talks that I'm sure will continue to happen... As I tried to do the dishes etc, she stopped me.. immediately my "mother warning alert" went off, as I could literally imagine the spirit of mom hoving over me, remiding me of my manners (I would have bee nervious anyhow, but she had admonished me a few times not to be a burden ;p ) ... Olga said "Today you are guest, tomorrow, you can wash..." I thought that that was a reasonable arrangement and smile a big toothy smile.</p>
1871
1872 <p>Uncle K came home and we had tomato soup and talked a bit about the plans... they both left, Uncle K back to the office and Olga to the archives to do research for her book... I did some reading and finished my unpacking... upon Olgas arrival, we went out for a walk and we worked on a pale bit of Russian as well as a tour.. there are a lot of youngsters my age around here, mostly Russian, well dressed... it was a real surprise. Enjoyed the walk throughly, returned back with a discussion of the comparison of the effects of the Russian versus British colonial times... Ate dinner and discussed some of the possibilties for tours and working at FOCUS.. I'll stay in Tashkent until Monday, at which point I will join a tour of Italians canvassing Uzbekistan for 5 nights, (I will have to hire my own guide during the day, and I can travel with them)..</p>
1873
1874 <p>Anyhow, thats the current update... Started reading "The Great Game" by Peter Hopkins, as recommended by Unclek.</p>
1875
1876 <p>Colin Powell just said that he won't stay in Bush's administration even if he is re-elected. Wow. He says its for personal reasons, and his wife wants to leave the public eye. (how much in the public eye is Powell, its not as if people stalk his house...)</p>
1877
1878 <p>Nine hundred Uzbeki sum to whoever can find the classic reference of the topic; and another nine hundred to whoever can figure out which book in the braincandy list made me think of this.</p>
1879
1880 <p>Commenters : I'm in a good enough mood now, no longer as easily offended :) I never lobbed an insult there Ger, just a passionate defense. :) Miss you all by the way, if I haven't expessed that yet... *huggles Ger, especially you, you big Irish lug* :chuckles to himself:</p>
1881
1882 <p>Yes, I realize the significance of Wank.<br />
1883 Heres the story, completely and finally.</p>
1884
1885 <p>I was 9. I got a modem two years before as a birthday gift, and we had heard of this America Online thing ... (remember, at the time, Cserve and Prodigy sucked hard, even though they were the most used.. AOL was the underdog. I filled out the signup information and they suggested RKassim as a screen name... I didnt like that, not sure if its because I didnt want my last name to be public or because I like "Rizwan" more than I like "Kassim" ... so I changed it. Instead of First Initial Last Name, it was First Name, Last Initial. And thats how Rizwank came to be. Shamira pointed it out when I was fourteen at which point I had figured out the sad connotation, but it stuck and I use it for all my usernames and handles... if for no other reason than it is a silly story to tell. </p>
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891 rizwank 1.1
1892 <div class="posted">
1893 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000176" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">07:59 PM</a><?php
1894 if ($hits) {
1895 print " | Read ";
1896 echo "$hits";
1897 print " time";
1898 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
1899 }
1900 ?>
1901 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=176" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (8)</a>
1902
1903 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=176" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
1904
1905 </div>
1906
1907 </div>
1908 <?php
1909
1910 // display the list of referers
1911 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
1912 rizwank 1.1 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
1913
1914 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=176 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
1915
1916 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1917 $n = 0;
1918
1919 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1920 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1921 $title = $row['title'];
1922 $count = $row['count'];
1923 $search = $row['search'];
1924
1925 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
1926 $n++;
1927 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
1928 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
1929 }
1930 }
1931
1932 if (!($n)) {
1933 rizwank 1.1 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
1934 }
1935 else {
1936 echo "<br />\n";
1937 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
1938 }
1939 echo '</div>';
1940
1941 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
1942 echo "<div class='side'>";
1943
1944 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
1945 $n = 0;
1946
1947 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
1948 $query = '';
1949
1950 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
1951 $title = $row['title'];
1952 $count = $row['count'];
1953 $search = $row['search'];
1954 rizwank 1.1
1955 if ($search == 1) {
1956 $n++;
1957 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
1958 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
1959 }
1960 }
1961
1962 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
1963 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
1964 echo "</div>";
1965 ?>
1966
1967
1968
1969 <!--
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1975 rizwank 1.1 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/174"
1976 dc:title="Stuff I missed"
1977 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000175"
1978 dc:subject=""
1979 dc:description="Quickly, just before I hit the bus to the airport, stuff I have to do/see in turkey when i get back for the few days Turkish Bath Aga-Sofia, the Underground Cistern, visit and actually pray in the Blue Mosque The..."
1980 dc:creator="Rizwank"
1981 dc:date="2003-08-03T15:41:37-08:00" />
1982 </rdf:RDF>
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1984
1985
1986 <h2 class="date">August 03, 2003</h2>
1987
1988
1989 <div class="blogbody">
1990 <a name="000175"></a>
1991 <?php
1992
1993 // record the referer
1994 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
1995 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (175, '$referer', '', $time)" );
1996 rizwank 1.1 }
1997
1998 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
1999 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=175' );
2000 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
2001 $hits = $row[0];
2002
2003 ?>
2004 <h3 class="title">Stuff I missed</h3>
2005
2006 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
2007 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
2008 Q</b>
2009 </p>
2010 </td></tr></table>
2011 uickly, just before I hit the bus to the airport, stuff I have to do/see in turkey when i get back for the few days</p>
2012
2013 <p>Turkish Bath<br />
2014 Aga-Sofia, the Underground Cistern, visit and actually pray in the Blue Mosque<br />
2015 The Royal Palace<br />
2016 Take more pictures from a Ferry<br />
2017 rizwank 1.1 Clubbing at Babylon, Soho and Jukebox<br />
2018 Visit the four seasons ;p<br />
2019 Turkish Belly-Dancing<br />
2020 See the ColaTurk commerical with Chevy Chase (or is it Steve Martin)<br />
2021 The Spice Bazaar<br />
2022 Just shoot some people... amazing people here<br />
2023 Bring home some apple tea.<br />
2024 Call my aunt's beau, Jalal, and meet him and his daughter (evil grin) ;p </p>
2025
2026 <p>Ok, see you all in Uzbek.</p>
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033 <div class="posted">
2034 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000175" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">03:41 PM</a><?php
2035 if ($hits) {
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2037 echo "$hits";
2038 rizwank 1.1 print " time";
2039 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
2040 }
2041 ?>
2042 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=175" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (1)</a>
2043
2044 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=175" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
2045
2046 </div>
2047
2048 </div>
2049 <?php
2050
2051 // display the list of referers
2052 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
2053 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
2054
2055 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=175 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
2056
2057 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2058 $n = 0;
2059 rizwank 1.1
2060 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2061 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2062 $title = $row['title'];
2063 $count = $row['count'];
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2065
2066 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
2067 $n++;
2068 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
2069 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
2070 }
2071 }
2072
2073 if (!($n)) {
2074 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
2075 }
2076 else {
2077 echo "<br />\n";
2078 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
2079 }
2080 rizwank 1.1 echo '</div>';
2081
2082 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
2083 echo "<div class='side'>";
2084
2085 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2086 $n = 0;
2087
2088 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2089 $query = '';
2090
2091 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2092 $title = $row['title'];
2093 $count = $row['count'];
2094 $search = $row['search'];
2095
2096 if ($search == 1) {
2097 $n++;
2098 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
2099 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
2100 }
2101 rizwank 1.1 }
2102
2103 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
2104 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
2105 echo "</div>";
2106 ?>
2107
2108
2109
2110 <!--
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2116 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/173"
2117 dc:title="Transitory"
2118 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000174"
2119 dc:subject=""
2120 dc:description="First, I've gotten used to backpacking. Now I'm going to live in an apartment with family (aka non-backpackers), theres no upstairs bars to nip off too... I wasn't tired of backpacking yet ... Its a shame, the bug bit me..."
2121 dc:creator="Rizwank"
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2125
2126
2127
2128
2129 <div class="blogbody">
2130 <a name="000174"></a>
2131 <?php
2132
2133 // record the referer
2134 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
2135 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (174, '$referer', '', $time)" );
2136 }
2137
2138 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
2139 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=174' );
2140 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
2141 $hits = $row[0];
2142
2143 rizwank 1.1 ?>
2144 <h3 class="title">Transitory</h3>
2145
2146 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
2147 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
2148 F</b>
2149 </p>
2150 </td></tr></table>
2151 irst, I've gotten used to backpacking. Now I'm going to live in an apartment with family (aka non-backpackers), theres no upstairs bars to nip off too... I wasn't tired of backpacking yet ... Its a shame, the bug bit me and now its a return to somewhat normal life (albeit in Uzbekistan)</p>
2152
2153 <p>Yesterday was spent drinking upstairs at the bar in the hostel and hanging out with folks there... spent a lot of good and bad times in that day; I swear it, I tried my best to avoid politics, but I was being rational and conceeding points left and right, but its so easy for everyone else to take the anti-American stand, and the anti-war stand and whatever; and I wasn't even pro-war. I just said I didnt know the facts well enough to make any major decision... the German was very happy to forget the past sins of his country but slam the states for ours... he was angry about hte Monroe doctorine for crying out loud... the Aussie inbetween and I had a very fruitful and intelligent conversation and then the loaded German, Kiwi start yelling... I was actually the calm one... and still, who was the negative energy focused on... even when I said, thats enough; I dont want to talk about it anymore, they did. I was about to expound the entire story, but I find that I don't have the emotional energy for it. Maybe later; hopefully not.</p>
2154
2155 <p>Before Heather and Ger have a chance to pull some anti-American (or anti-riz) comment out on me, don't. Seriously, I'm a nice enough and intelligent enough person, and hang it all, I can be mellow and hang out too. This wasn't my doing. </p>
2156
2157 <p>As you can see, I've had enough with the hostility from other people because of who and what I am.</p>
2158
2159 <p>Ger : Most people are nicer about posting than you. Thats why I ask. I enjoy reading theirs ;p Good for you; my factoids were just to counter the total scrub arugment; but whatever. I'm not in a mood to fight, call me whatever; and lets move past it, k? Hows Ireland?</p>
2160
2161 <p>Rizwan</p>
2162
2163 <p>p.s. Heather, Serena got you there :)<br />
2164 rizwank 1.1 </p>
2165
2166
2167
2168
2169
2170
2171 <div class="posted">
2172 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000174" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">12:10 PM</a><?php
2173 if ($hits) {
2174 print " | Read ";
2175 echo "$hits";
2176 print " time";
2177 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
2178 }
2179 ?>
2180 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=174" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (2)</a>
2181
2182 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=174" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
2183
2184 </div>
2185 rizwank 1.1
2186 </div>
2187 <?php
2188
2189 // display the list of referers
2190 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
2191 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
2192
2193 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=174 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
2194
2195 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2196 $n = 0;
2197
2198 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2199 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2200 $title = $row['title'];
2201 $count = $row['count'];
2202 $search = $row['search'];
2203
2204 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
2205 $n++;
2206 rizwank 1.1 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
2207 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
2208 }
2209 }
2210
2211 if (!($n)) {
2212 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
2213 }
2214 else {
2215 echo "<br />\n";
2216 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
2217 }
2218 echo '</div>';
2219
2220 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
2221 echo "<div class='side'>";
2222
2223 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2224 $n = 0;
2225
2226 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2227 rizwank 1.1 $query = '';
2228
2229 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2230 $title = $row['title'];
2231 $count = $row['count'];
2232 $search = $row['search'];
2233
2234 if ($search == 1) {
2235 $n++;
2236 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
2237 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
2238 }
2239 }
2240
2241 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
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2243 echo "</div>";
2244 ?>
2245
2246
2247
2248 rizwank 1.1 <!--
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2254 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/172"
2255 dc:title="Of Evangelists, Sanity and Sparksmiths (and girls, of course)"
2256 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000173"
2257 dc:subject=""
2258 dc:description=""Islam is reaching out... similarly we must penetrate its heart" I hate Evangelists. I'm sure they think they are doing the right thing, but (excuse me mum), fuck em all. This was quoted out of this weeks Time Magazine which..."
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2260 dc:date="2003-08-02T15:51:51-08:00" />
2261 </rdf:RDF>
2262 -->
2263
2264
2265 <h2 class="date">August 02, 2003</h2>
2266
2267
2268 <div class="blogbody">
2269 rizwank 1.1 <a name="000173"></a>
2270 <?php
2271
2272 // record the referer
2273 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
2274 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (173, '$referer', '', $time)" );
2275 }
2276
2277 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
2278 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=173' );
2279 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
2280 $hits = $row[0];
2281
2282 ?>
2283 <h3 class="title">Of Evangelists, Sanity and Sparksmiths (and girls, of course)</h3>
2284
2285 <p>"Islam is reaching out... similarly we must penetrate its heart"<br />
2286 I hate Evangelists. I'm sure they think they are doing the right thing, but (excuse me mum), fuck em all. This was quoted out of this weeks Time Magazine which happens to have a few page article on some Turkish politics, so i might actually purchase it. </p>
2287
2288 <p>Met my photogal and she showed me a bit around Taksim; declined my invitation to go clubbing, 11 hour work day and all. </p>
2289
2290 rizwank 1.1 <p>Heres the rub; being out, you want to experience the nightlife. Then again, I dont like nightlife; its too much pressure trying to meet girls (self-inflicted pressure, I know), and I dont do it in the States. but I could. <br />
2291 Once in a while in England/Ireland/Scotland, I discarded the need to meet and charm a girl and had tons of fun; its just hard to do. Even now that I know that I've got a pretty girl waiting at home for me, there still is the need to at least flirt and buy girls drinks and get smiles etc... </p>
2292
2293 <p>So do I go out clubbing? Where? How many places do I pay the 20mTL entrance fee? Is it worth it to spend the night vaingloriously attempting to flirt, and feeling lousy if i fail and feeling like an ass if I succeed? Do I stay in the backpacker area, visit the tourist's belly dancer (;p) and call it a night? These aren't new questions, and having Serena hasn't actually changed it much; it was the same thing in England, just a longer stay, lesser communication problems and no blog to think through.</p>
2294
2295 <p>Part of it is sheer tiredness... This isnt the kind of stuff I do in the states and there is probably a reason why... I'm not sure if its attitude or sheer caloric facts... I dont eat until it occurs to me to eat and that rarely makes three meals a day. </p>
2296
2297 <p>I'm in Taskim square right now, looking over the lovely cafes, the Burger King and .. wait for it.. the Arbys. Of all the bloody venues to export, why Arbys?!</p>
2298
2299 <p>Serena likes my blogging because its allowing her to get a taste for travelling alone... and for how nuts her boyfriend actually is. I know I have at least three constant readers now, and thats good; all three are aware that my "sanity is only so-so".. (1 million lira to the first commenter to find the reference)</p>
2300
2301 <p>Python : <br />
2302 My first tourament magic was at GP Los Angeles Sealed at 40k : went 0-5-1... sunk me so far low that its gonna take me a while to catch up. Remember, I'm the guy that kept on tapping a <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Goblin%20Sparksmith')" title="Card Info on Goblin Sparksmith">Goblin Sparksmith</a> for 4 when the opponent had a <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Goblin%20Turncoat')" title="Card Info on Goblin Turncoat">Goblin Turncoat</a> out... sac; deal three only, I burn for three, target Beast stays alive. Still am prone to mistakes when playing with unfamiliar archetypes. Lost a few pts to your gal too.<br />
2303 For that matter, were you L1 Judging and 1750 constr within six months of starting to play the game? My mother reads this site, keep it clean. :)</p>
2304
2305 <p>Anyhow, back to the world around me,<br />
2306 rk</p>
2307
2308
2309
2310
2311 rizwank 1.1
2312
2313 <div class="posted">
2314 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000173" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">03:51 PM</a><?php
2315 if ($hits) {
2316 print " | Read ";
2317 echo "$hits";
2318 print " time";
2319 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
2320 }
2321 ?>
2322 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=173" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (4)</a>
2323
2324 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=173" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
2325
2326 </div>
2327
2328 </div>
2329 <?php
2330
2331 // display the list of referers
2332 rizwank 1.1 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
2333 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
2334
2335 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=173 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
2336
2337 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2338 $n = 0;
2339
2340 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2341 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2342 $title = $row['title'];
2343 $count = $row['count'];
2344 $search = $row['search'];
2345
2346 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
2347 $n++;
2348 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
2349 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
2350 }
2351 }
2352
2353 rizwank 1.1 if (!($n)) {
2354 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
2355 }
2356 else {
2357 echo "<br />\n";
2358 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
2359 }
2360 echo '</div>';
2361
2362 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
2363 echo "<div class='side'>";
2364
2365 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2366 $n = 0;
2367
2368 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2369 $query = '';
2370
2371 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2372 $title = $row['title'];
2373 $count = $row['count'];
2374 rizwank 1.1 $search = $row['search'];
2375
2376 if ($search == 1) {
2377 $n++;
2378 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
2379 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
2380 }
2381 }
2382
2383 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
2384 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
2385 echo "</div>";
2386 ?>
2387
2388
2389
2390 <!--
2391 <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
2392 xmlns:trackback="http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/"
2393 xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
2394 <rdf:Description
2395 rizwank 1.1 rdf:about="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000172"
2396 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/171"
2397 dc:title="American Women Studying In Europe Are Unbelievably Easy"
2398 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000172"
2399 dc:subject=""
2400 dc:description="The Onion : Just Read it. The Wandering Python fan : Its 1550, thank you. Also, bite me. :) Its a Dublin ip (yes, I checked)... I can only guess its Ger in an abrasive mood. Whats up? Whats the..."
2401 dc:creator="Rizwank"
2402 dc:date="2003-08-02T10:26:05-08:00" />
2403 </rdf:RDF>
2404 -->
2405
2406
2407
2408
2409 <div class="blogbody">
2410 <a name="000172"></a>
2411 <?php
2412
2413 // record the referer
2414 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
2415 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (172, '$referer', '', $time)" );
2416 rizwank 1.1 }
2417
2418 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
2419 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=172' );
2420 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
2421 $hits = $row[0];
2422
2423 ?>
2424 <h3 class="title">American Women Studying In Europe Are Unbelievably Easy</h3>
2425
2426 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
2427 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
2428 T</b>
2429 </p>
2430 </td></tr></table>
2431 he Onion : <a href="http://www.theonion.com/onion3510/european_romantic.html" title="Just Read it">Just Read it</a>.</p>
2432
2433 <p>The Wandering Python fan : Its 1550, thank you. Also, bite me. :) Its a Dublin ip (yes, I checked)... I can only guess its Ger in an abrasive mood. Whats up?</p>
2434
2435 <p>Whats the <a href="http://www.letsgo.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=687" title="dumbest thing">dumbest thing</a> you've done to save money while backpacking?</p>
2436
2437 rizwank 1.1 <p>Cool combo ideas, however impractical, I fetched out of <a href="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/rh82" title="Saturday School">Saturday School</a>...</p>
2438
2439 <p><a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Pariah%20')" title="Card Info on Pariah ">Pariah </a>& <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Deftblade%20Elite')" title="Card Info on Deftblade Elite">Deftblade Elite</a><br />
2440 <i>"Pariah redirects the combat damage to the Elite, and the Elite's ability prevents combat damage to it."</i></p>
2441
2442 <p><a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Underworld%20Dreams')" title="Card Info on Underworld Dreams">Underworld Dreams</a>, <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Howling%20Mine')" title="Card Info on Howling Mine">Howling Mine</a>, and <a href="javascript:autoCardWindow('Teferi%27s%20Puzzle%20Box')" title="Card Info on Teferi's Puzzle Box">Teferi's Puzzle Box</a><br />
2443 <i>"If your opponent starts with 5 cards in his hands, if you put the Howling Mine ability on top of the Puzzle Box, he takes 9 damage (1 from the normal draw, 1 from Howling Mine, 7 from Puzzle Box). "</i><br />
2444 (AND Dreams only affects opponents)</p>
2445
2446 <p>I'll be out of town, someone get me one of <a href="http://forums.mtgnews.com/attachment.php?s=320fcef0da4d75dd43df942e2185287f&postid=1710890" title="these">these</a> please.</p>
2447
2448 <p>And I missed last months Disenchant too ;p Spent too much time doing other things to go to FNM :(</p>
2449
2450 <p>Interesting enough, the ran into my tour guide and the two brit girls as the bus station and hugs/email addresses abounded. I'll take it as an ego boost especially since they seemed quite friendly, and I have to remember that single/pair girls travelling may feel the same minor longing at seeing couples as I do... Someones gonna say something hurtful about the girls seeming nice to me, just don't.</p>
2451
2452 <p>Its 10 am in Istanbul, and im still tired as hell, even though i slept quite well through the bus.. the plan is to visit my photog friend where she works in Taksim (have to call her mobile and find her), and make sure I'm in the tower in Taksim before evening to get some lovely panoramas, take a cab back to the hostel and get ready for some clubbing! (or sleeping, I seem to have even less "going out at night" energy than usual.</p>
2453
2454 <p>Got off the bus a few hours early across the Bosphrous from Sultanahmet, my area of Istanbul; saved a bit of time just taking a ferry across (incredibly cheap, espcially with the Vancouver Seabus in mind) and walking to the hostel, instead of letting the bus take us to the main termanal, almost an hour out of Istanbul, then having a minibus drive us back. </p>
2455
2456 <p>One things about the underground tunnels; I realized that that was the coolest I would be in at least 45 days. I already miss air-conditioning and swamp coolers.</p>
2457
2458 rizwank 1.1 <p><br />
2459 Oh,<br />
2460 • <i>Added <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060938455/qid=1059808790/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-9550403-7088011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846" title="Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal">Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal</a> to my wishlist </i></p>
2461
2462 <p>The amazing lack of strict Muslims still surprises me.</p>
2463
2464 <p>As with last time, this seems more like a wandering blog and less of a travel blog... im not feeling so hot at the momen; don't think im getting sick, just tired... its a big tempo change and takes a bit of adapation. </p>
2465
2466 <p>Time for breakfast and a good book, me thinks.</p>
2467
2468 <p>Riz<br />
2469 </p>
2470
2471
2472
2473
2474
2475
2476 <div class="posted">
2477 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000172" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">10:26 AM</a><?php
2478 if ($hits) {
2479 rizwank 1.1 print " | Read ";
2480 echo "$hits";
2481 print " time";
2482 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
2483 }
2484 ?>
2485 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=172" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (2)</a>
2486
2487 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=172" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
2488
2489 </div>
2490
2491 </div>
2492 <?php
2493
2494 // display the list of referers
2495 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
2496 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
2497
2498 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=172 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
2499
2500 rizwank 1.1 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2501 $n = 0;
2502
2503 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2504 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2505 $title = $row['title'];
2506 $count = $row['count'];
2507 $search = $row['search'];
2508
2509 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
2510 $n++;
2511 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
2512 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
2513 }
2514 }
2515
2516 if (!($n)) {
2517 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
2518 }
2519 else {
2520 echo "<br />\n";
2521 rizwank 1.1 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
2522 }
2523 echo '</div>';
2524
2525 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
2526 echo "<div class='side'>";
2527
2528 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2529 $n = 0;
2530
2531 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2532 $query = '';
2533
2534 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2535 $title = $row['title'];
2536 $count = $row['count'];
2537 $search = $row['search'];
2538
2539 if ($search == 1) {
2540 $n++;
2541 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
2542 rizwank 1.1 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
2543 }
2544 }
2545
2546 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
2547 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
2548 echo "</div>";
2549 ?>
2550
2551
2552
2553 <!--
2554 <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
2555 xmlns:trackback="http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/"
2556 xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
2557 <rdf:Description
2558 rdf:about="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000171"
2559 trackback:ping="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi/170"
2560 dc:title="I'm an actor, but I really want to be a waiter."
2561 dc:identifier="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000171"
2562 dc:subject=""
2563 rizwank 1.1 dc:description="Topic inspiried by the show that serena and I went to. If you don't know, most of the waiters in Los Angeles are moonlighting because they want to be actors, and I do mean most. For more about that show,..."
2564 dc:creator="Rizwank"
2565 dc:date="2003-08-01T17:54:13-08:00" />
2566 </rdf:RDF>
2567 -->
2568
2569
2570 <h2 class="date">August 01, 2003</h2>
2571
2572
2573 <div class="blogbody">
2574 <a name="000171"></a>
2575 <?php
2576
2577 // record the referer
2578 if ($my_ip !== $remote_ip) {
2579 mysql_query( "INSERT INTO mt_entryhits(entry_id, referer,title,time) VALUES (171, '$referer', '', $time)" );
2580 }
2581
2582 // get the no. of times this entry has been read
2583 $rs = mysql_query( 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=171' );
2584 rizwank 1.1 $row = mysql_fetch_row( $rs );
2585 $hits = $row[0];
2586
2587 ?>
2588 <h3 class="title">I'm an actor, but I really want to be a waiter.</h3>
2589
2590 <p> <table align="left"><tr valign="bottom"><td>
2591 <p style="font-size:16pt"><b>
2592 T</b>
2593 </p>
2594 </td></tr></table>
2595 opic inspiried by the show that serena and I went to. If you don't know, most of the waiters in Los Angeles are moonlighting because they want to be actors, and I do mean most. For more about that show, see Serena's site; its more open and personal than the mode of my current site is, so if you don't have the url, theres a reason for it.</p>
2596
2597 <p>So, for all my bragging about meeting girls last night; we didn't even hang out in the bar. I signed back online after the previous blog, freshly showered, shaved, and drsesed cute to im mum (who wasn't available) and serena (who, as usual, was just *pretending to work*) and then walked, half asleep, to the nearest cafe, ate a very quick meal and decided to visit the local bars at 10:30. Still dead. They advised 11:30, I went to bed, planning to re-awake around that time; Yeah right. Turns out every other person i was going to meet there decided the exact same thing, and the couple that did drop by the bars found them empty. Guess ill save partying for Saturday night, just before leaving istanbul.</p>
2598
2599 <p>Tour was good today, cute Turkish guide my age, so had the additional fun of harmless flirting (or just being friendly, for those of you that can't understand the connection between harmless and flirting)<br />
2600 Went for a looong nice hike.. 2 hrs or so. I really needed to excersize more and this is fate's way of reminding me, I think. also visited the underground cities of ... whatever its called. Twas amazing, 80m underground, with all natural caverns, ventilation, etc exisitng before Christ. I'm passing time until 8pm when my bus returns to Istanbul... its a nice 11hr bus drive, thankfully the roads are quite decent so i can sleep.</p>
2601
2602 <p><a href="http://www.bkgm.com/rules.html" title="How to play backgammon">How to play backgammon</a>: It's played a lot here, like most other Euro countries, about time I researched it.</p>
2603
2604 <p>Just wrote a reasonably lengthly letter to Serena to have it wash away with a "Your session has expired, please re-logon." ... I normally copy/paste fields before I click send for that reason ;p</p>
2605 rizwank 1.1
2606 <p>FYI : French women are stone cold to Americans. I verified that with two other backpackers today, it isn't just that they don't like me. and by stone cold, i mean even just chatting while waiting for the tour guide to come out of the bathroom. </p>
2607
2608 <p>FYI : More westernized Turkish girls seem to like me ... maybe i should bring a bride back with me. (just kidding mum/serena/everyone)</p>
2609
2610 <p>Ack, just found my first bug bite. Yay Melfoquine, malaria has no chance against it... but it does itch.</p>
2611
2612 <p>Kick ass... Cameron, you'll be glad to see this.</p>
2613
2614 <p>Limited :<br />
2615 03-07-567279, Booster @ Kings Comics: 07/26/2003 (16K) <br />
2616 4 Philip C. Haussmann Win 1552 <br />
2617 3 Oscar García Gómez Win 1541 <br />
2618 2 Israel Tapia Loss 1531 <br />
2619 1 Daniel Ohonlon Win 1537 <br />
2620 <br />
2621 03-07-545949, Magic 10th Anniversary Global Celebration: 07/26/2003 (16K) <br />
2622 3 Heather Wiencko Loss 1527 <br />
2623 2 Richard Lee Win 1534 <br />
2624 1 Israel Tapia Draw 1525 </p>
2625
2626 rizwank 1.1 <p>Standard:<br />
2627 03-06-547094, NSEUS 308 Standard: 06/28/2003 (16K) <br />
2628 5 Matt Reis Loss 1750 <br />
2629 4 Jim McCormick Draw 1758 <br />
2630 3 Julie L Smith Win 1758 <br />
2631 2 Adam S Levy Win 1753 <br />
2632 1 Skyler Rivera Win 1744 </p>
2633
2634 <p>There, my standard and limited ratings are withing 200 of each other. Oh, me losing to heather, that was a typo. (actually it wasn't, she wiped the floor with me)</p>
2635
2636 <p>The first person who says girl power gets their ass kicked!</p>
2637
2638 <p>There is some question as to why im in a net cafe in Cappadocia when i had a few hrs to burn. thing is, its just a town. I cant chat with natives, no hostels nearby, no time to even take the exteremly expensive bus tour</p>
2639
2640 <p>Oh, ive been playing Backgammon against <a href="http://www.bkgm.com/motif.html" title="Motif">Motif</a>. I suck hard.</p>
2641
2642 <p>A pair of ladies, covered with hijab, but not completely (full faces exposed) just walked into the cafe and sat down... they have a special barrier to seperate the men and women from each other even here, a table was rolled up and placed vertically ... Is it so they aren't sitting next to each other?</p>
2643
2644 <p>The underground caves (rememeber, I was talking about them) are amazing... even when i was crouched to 2.5 ft to fit through the doors... </p>
2645
2646 <p>Want to see how amazing the evovled human body is? Go hiking. Your eyes seem amazing detail, your memory can recall how tough some substances can be, your cognative parts process the best path, and your knees bend a hell of a lot to make it happen.. its just amazing... you can judge slipperyness, balance, load-bearing capability, stability, etc. instantaneously. Yes i know, this is how its supposed to work, but its really cool anyhow.</p>
2647 rizwank 1.1
2648 <p>Is all humor langauge specific. I noticed, speaking with some Turks, how idomatic my humor is; and I wonder if its a function of my form of humor or of humor itself. Does the monty python parrot sketch work if hes speaking non-idiomatic English, or is it stifiled... Robin Willaims without idioms or euphemisums... </p>
2649
2650 <p>Try this:</p>
2651
2652 <p>Introduction: (its a python sketch)</p>
2653
2654 <p><i>A man walks into an office.<br />
2655 <br />
2656 Man: Good morning, I'd like to have an argument, please.<br />
2657 Receptionist: Certainly, sir. Have you been here before?<br />
2658 Man: No, this is my first time.<br />
2659 Receptionist: I see, well we'll see who's free at the moment. Mr. Bakely's free, but he's a little bit concilliatory. No. Try Mr. Barnhart, room 12.<br />
2660 Man: Thank you.</i><br />
2661 <br />
2662 Now, version one:<br />
2663 <i>Angry man: WHADDAYOU WANT?<br />
2664 Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that...<br />
2665 Angry man: DON'T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!<br />
2666 Man: What?<br />
2667 A: SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB, YOU TIT! YOUR TYPE MAKES ME PUKE! YOU VACUOUS STUFFY-NOSED MALODOROUS PERVERT!!!<br />
2668 rizwank 1.1 M: Yes, but I came here for an argument!!<br />
2669 A: OH! Oh! I'm sorry! This is abuse!<br />
2670 M: Oh! Oh I see!<br />
2671 A: Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.<br />
2672 M: Oh...Sorry...<br />
2673 A: Not at all!<br />
2674 A: (under his breath) stupid git.</i><br />
2675 <br />
2676 Version two:<br />
2677 <i>A: What is it that I can help you with??<br />
2678 (or is that using idiom or imagery as well?)<br />
2679 Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that...<br />
2680 ... </i>I've suddenly realized that while I may have good luck with words and plays on them, i dont really feel like re-writing Python insults. Just be upset that I'm gonna end this example soon without any real effort to translate on my part... (im tired)<i><br />
2681 A: (under his breath) that stupid man.</i></p>
2682
2683 <p>After writing all that, I've realized that its quite poor, but as usual, I've spent some time writing it and refuse to discard it.</p>
2684
2685 <p>Character traits I like about my current girlfriend that my past ones didnt do:<br />
2686 • Shes transparent. I can read her easily and i know when something is wrong, and, gasp, she actually tells me whats bothering her and allows me to apologize/fix it!<br />
2687 • Shes the least paranoıd about her body. She knows I lıke her. Half of looks are attitude, me thinks. Actually only one ex really obsessed about it, but her crying on my shoulder near daily complaing that she was fat (but that she didn't want to do anything about it, or accept it, even though I liked her the way she was) got tiring quick.<br />
2688 • Shes willing to really like me. I've been held at a yardstick by some girls, for fear of ... something. They acted more as men, de-prioritizing the emotional part of a relationship.<br />
2689 rizwank 1.1 This is by no means comprehensive, but all the nitty gritty details of why I adore her are our buisness, thanks. And this came from a mental comparison while waiting in a long drive ;p</p>
2690
2691 <p>I'm in a weird blogging mood, sorry if i've offended. </p>
2692
2693 <p>Flys need to be eradicated from the world. I'd be very glad of a gift of a professional, battery powered, aircraft aluminum fly swatter, please. <br />
2694 Does Amazon carry those?</p>
2695
2696 <p>theres been a lot of driving today so i have a lot of thinking to expound.</p>
2697
2698 <p>Did my finances check and including expenses until tomorrow morning, i'm at $85/day. That doesnt even include the visa fee. Its not bad for travelling as it does include spendy stuff like $20 for the bus tour and $160 for the 2d/3n tour to/from Cappadocia... its just that im not sure how it goes. Thats another problem with other peoples currencies. TLs go quickly. Even if you figure 15 million for water bottles and drinks, 5 million for of internet (2 hrs, which is more time than i usually use), 5 mill for lunch and 5 for dinner, ten for the hostel, thats 35 mil, $25. Where else does it go? I sure as hell am not buying anything. </p>
2699
2700 <p>$50/day is a possible minimum for Europe... and it'll crash to a few dollars a day in Uzbekistan; housing and food are family provided there :) Yay <a href="http://www.bestway.com" title="Bestway">Bestway</a> tours!</p>
2701
2702 <p>Oh, I had a mullberry. Damn good and sweet things.<br />
2703 They gave me halwa on the plane from jfk with my muslim meal. Go figure.</p>
2704
2705 <p>For those well educated among the audience:<br />
2706 <i><br />
2707 Sgt.: Right. Bananas. How to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. Now you, come at me with this banana. Catch! Now, it's quite simple to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. First of all you force him to drop the banana; then, second, you eat the banana, thus disarming him. You have now rendered him 'elpless.<br />
2708 Palin: Suppose he's got a bunch.<br />
2709 Sgt.: Shut up.<br />
2710 rizwank 1.1 Idle: Suppose he's got a pointed stick.<br />
2711 Sgt.: Shut up. Right now you, Mr Apricot.<br />
2712 Chapman: 'Arrison.<br />
2713 Sgt.: Sorry, Mr. 'Arrison. Come at me with that banana. Hold it like that, that's it. Now attack me with it. Come on!Come on! Come at me! Come at me then! (Shoots him.)<br />
2714 Chapman: Aaagh! (dies.)<br />
2715 Sgt.: Now, I eat the banana. (Does so.)<br />
2716 Palin: You shot him!<br />
2717 Jones: He's dead!<br />
2718 Idle: He's completely dead!<br />
2719 Sgt.: I have now eaten the banana. The deceased, Mr Apricot, is now 'elpless.<br />
2720 Palin: You shot him. You shot him dead.<br />
2721 Sgt.: Well, he was attacking me with a banana.<br />
2722 </i></p>
2723
2724 <p>Beautiful plumage! If that doesn't make you smile, consider getting a therapist.</p>
2725
2726 <p>I'm in a Python sorta mood. The aussie couple from earlier on highly recommended ... Dudley Moore and .. someone. I've got it written down.</p>
2727
2728 <p>Reading Asimov's Nemesis right now ... pretty good so far.</p>
2729
2730 <p>From <a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/03/07/29/235254.shtml?tid=126&tid=95" title="Slashdot">Slashdot</a><br />
2731 rizwank 1.1 <i>With Morse code <a href="http://www.wiavic.org.au/" title="slowly disappearing off the air">slowly disappearing off the air</a>, there seems to be a growing number of people who carry out conversations in <a href="http://morsecodeonweb.homestead.com/Index.html" title="Morse over the internet">Morse over the internet</a>. Several Windows and Linux clients using VoIP or special protocols, such as EchoLink, EchoLinux, MorseMail, CW Communicator or CWirc exist for Morse lovers worldwide to pound brass and make contact with one another. Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?</i></p>
2732
2733 <p>Also from <a href="http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/20/1325202&mode=thread&tid=176&tid=188" title="Slashdot">Slashdot</a>, as a comment to the iPod being packaged with VW Beetles.<br />
2734 <i>It is a male fallacy that girls are impressed by long, sleek rocket cars.</p>
2735
2736 <p>The girls I know like clean cars with luxurious acoutrements. Past a certain point, they don't care about how fast or loud or covered with chrome and decals it is. These are people who like SUBTLETY, who obsess over details, safey and cuteness. That's the beetle for you.<br />
2737 ===<br />
2738 Most girls are not impressed, true. However, girls that want to have casual sex know that a guy in a Mustang or Porche is driving it because he's horny, lonely, and wants lots of sex, and acting as if they are impressed is an easy way to open conversation. </p>
2739
2740 <p>Girls who don't want to have casual sex do not interest guys who drive Mustangs. They will drive Astro vans or Volkswagons if and when they are ready to settle down and get married. <br />
2741 </i></p>
2742
2743 <p>By the way, as akward as sex might be, why would you want to sleep with a stranger? Seriously... I can understand the kissing and stuff, but sleeping with a total stranger... just too many things to go wrong! (then again, what do i know) </p>
2744
2745 <p>With the touch of a button on your car stereo you will now be able to listen to MP3 players, Mini Disc Players or any other audio source through your factory installed car stereo. No FM Modulator needed. No complex installation procedures. http://www.rcainput.com/ === its a line in folks! I've got one, but for the rest of you...</p>
2746
2747 <p>Also <a href="http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=73217&cid=6588128" title="SD">SD</a> cool<br />
2748 <i><br />
2749 In the 1980's Radio Shack [radioshack.com] used to sell an FM transmitter that you could wire into your car radio. The range was good enough to transmit from vehicle-to-vehicle. We were in high school at the time and the number of radio stations in town were limited. Therefore, if we were lucky enough to be on the road within a couple of car lengths from someone we knew we could broadcast an obnoxious message through their radio if we guessed what station they were listening to. The girls did not seem to appreciate our unauthorized transmissions. ;)</p>
2750
2751 <p>===</p>
2752 rizwank 1.1
2753 <p>Or, they did not appreciate the attention from a people who probably look like people who shop at Radio Shack and have enough time to wire up such a contraption. </i></p>
2754
2755 <p>Ok, doesn't it seem like ive got too much time on my hands. Brain is in overdrive, i guess.</p>
2756
2757 <p>cheers,<br />
2758 rizwan</p>
2759
2760
2761
2762
2763
2764
2765 <div class="posted">
2766 <div class="posted">Penned by <!-- Rizwank --><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geekymedia.com/email.js"></script> at <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/archives/2003/08/index.html#000171" title="Permanent Link to this Post.">05:54 PM</a><?php
2767 if ($hits) {
2768 print " | Read ";
2769 echo "$hits";
2770 print " time";
2771 if($hits != 1) echo 's';
2772 }
2773 rizwank 1.1 ?>
2774 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=171" onclick="OpenComments(this.href); return false">Comments (2)</a>
2775
2776 | <a href="http://www.geekymedia.com/blogcgi/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=171" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack</a>
2777
2778 </div>
2779
2780 </div>
2781 <?php
2782
2783 // display the list of referers
2784 echo '<div class="sidetitle">Referrers</div>', "\n";
2785 echo '<div class="side">', "\n";
2786
2787 $sql = 'SELECT search, time, title, referer, COUNT(*) AS count FROM mt_entryhits WHERE entry_id=171 GROUP BY referer ORDER BY count DESC, title';
2788
2789 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2790 $n = 0;
2791
2792 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2793 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2794 rizwank 1.1 $title = $row['title'];
2795 $count = $row['count'];
2796 $search = $row['search'];
2797
2798 if ((strpos($referer1,'ttp://') == 1) && ($search == 0) && (trim($title) !== '-') && (trim($title) !== '')) {
2799 $n++;
2800 echo '<a href="', $referer1, '" target="_blank">';
2801 echo $title . "</a> [" . $count . "]<br />\n";
2802 }
2803 }
2804
2805 if (!($n)) {
2806 echo "No referrals yet<br />";
2807 }
2808 else {
2809 echo "<br />\n";
2810 echo 'referrers [referrals]<br />';
2811 }
2812 echo '</div>';
2813
2814 echo "<div class='sidetitle'>Search Terms</div>\n";
2815 rizwank 1.1 echo "<div class='side'>";
2816
2817 $rs = mysql_query( $sql );
2818 $n = 0;
2819
2820 while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ) {
2821 $query = '';
2822
2823 $referer1 = $row['referer'];
2824 $title = $row['title'];
2825 $count = $row['count'];
2826 $search = $row['search'];
2827
2828 if ($search == 1) {
2829 $n++;
2830 $query = "<a href='" . $referer1 . "'>" . $title . "</a>";
2831 echo $query . ' [' . $count . ']' . "<br />\n";
2832 }
2833 }
2834
2835 if (!($n)) { echo "No search terms yet<br />"; }
2836 rizwank 1.1 else { echo "<br />search terms [hits]"; }
2837 echo "</div>";
2838 ?>
2839
2840
2841
2842 </div>
2843 </div>
2844 <?php
2845 //Change the following to your email address
|
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