3/25/2005 01:36:00 AM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|Thanks to the grace of God, this has been a prosperous week for Oxfam Rutgers. We had a bake sale on Monday and Tuesday, in which we did fairly well. On Wednesday, we participated in a campus fundraising event. Though it started off on shaky ground, with the way Oxfam is currently organized, I'd say it was an amazing success!! We had wonderful people helping us out who put in a lot of effort. They all came despite having been asked literally hours before the event. I don't think I've ever been that nice to so many people in such a short amount of time. I was so fried after having called a million people just so that I could have at least 12 the next day at 3:45PM. To make things worse, I still had my English paper to finish. It was like 1 AM by the time I actually got started on that thing. I was completely exhausted, both mentally and physically, and I hadn't even read Jane Austen's Persuasion, and I had to write an essay analyzing the entire book. So I started working on it with a completely fried brain (not really a good idea when writing a paper that's about 20% of my grade). I was maybe 2 pages in when I looked at the clock and saw that it was 5AM. I was like, wtf, how the hell did it go from 1AM to 5AM when I only had 2 pages finished. Since I was so fried, I thought I'd go to sleep and finish the paper in the morning when I was a bit more refreshed. I set my alarm for 10AM and passed out. Alarm went off, didn't wake up. Alarm went off again, didn't wake up. I open my eyes, look at my roommates clock, and it reads 11:45AM. CRAP!! I had class at 1:10 and I had to hand in a paper, so I couldn't even skip it to finish the damn paper. I had to finish it before class cuz I had a friend handing it in for me since I had to skip class at night for the Campus Fundraiser, and she needed me to give it to her before 2PM cuz she had class and work afterwards. So I started working on the essay again, closely watching my time. I got to around the 4th page a little after noon. My essay had tons of quotes, so I probably spent most of my time looking through the damn book just looking for them, which wasted a lot of time. By the time I finished, the time was 12:45PM, I had class at 1:10PM, and I was still in my pajamas. So I quickly brushed my teeth, washed my face, changed, and ran out of the room. I ran all the way to the Busch Student Center and hopped onto the A bus as it was leaving. I got to College Ave. around 1:05PM. I jumped out of the bus and ran to Van Dyck. Apparently we had a guest speaker that day, so the professor actually showed up on time. The former Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco talked to us about the current state of affairs and his predictions on where the state is headed. A couple of students asked him questions. The entire time I was thinking "Wow, he isn't as fat as he looked in the newspaper pictures from when he was Governor". After he was done talking, we all applauded, and packed our stuff. I took out my essay and went to the front and handed it in. I then left and got on a bus back to Busch. I got back around 2:45PM, so I figured I'd take a shower, grab lunch, and then head over to the ARC for Campus Fundraisers. I wasn't so fortunate however. One of my suitemates decided to take a shower at the same time, so that part of the plan was out the window. So I just decided to grab lunch and then head over to the ARC. I ate what would barely be considered a lunch (it was more along the lines of a snack) and then ran over to the ARC. I got there a little bit before 3:45PM, and I thought I was late. However, when I got there, I walked into an empty room. I signed in on the lady's laptop, picked up the handheld computer, a stack of free music cards, and took a seat. Saad and Anna walked in a few minutes later (apparently they had been there since 3:30). Around 4PM we had about 12 people show up. We didn't have the T-shirts at that moment (Pooja had them in her car) but after a rough start, I got things going. Zain and Talal headed off to Cook/Douglass, leaving me to split up the rest of the group. So I made two groups: people who could stay for 3-4 hours, and those who could only stay for 2. I told the people who could only stay for 2 hours to stay in the ARC and SERC, while the others would either go with me to College Ave or Livingston. Once on College Ave, we split off into two groups. Two of us stayed at the student center while Maliha went off to University Center. I told Anna to start downstairs while I waited for Zain to bring me shirts. While I was waiting, Alima called me around 5 to let me know she was now free. I told her to come to College Ave to pick up the handheld computer (Hussain gave me his since he had to study) and then she could head over to Douglass (she said she wanted to do it there). Alima showed up, I explained to her how to use the computer, what to say to the people, and then I sent her off. I then headed over to Brower to see if I could get any people. I got my first application at the Career Services desk. That was when I found out that the stupid machine takes forever to fill out an application. After that I headed over to the post office to check my mail and then head over to Hardenburg/Frelinghuysen. I walked into the classroom area and found nobody in the halls, so I called up Jen, who lives in Hardenburg, and asked her to fill out the application. I then called up Yury, and I got him to fill it out. I then headed over to Scott Hall, which had nobody in the hallways. All right, it's 4AM now, and I'm too tired to finish this damn entry. I'll edit it tomorrow. |W|P|111174159301669346|W|P|Hard Work Payed Off|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com3/18/2005 03:49:00 AM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|Woke up to my phone ringing. Zain called up to let me know that we should leave Edison by 1:10 at the latest since we had two meetings today: at 2PM we had to meet some lady at the Rutgers Student Center and then at 6PM we had an Oxfam general meeting which would be followed by a board meeting. So I got up to get ready and found that Anna was over to clean the house. I haven't seen her in forever, so I was a bit taken aback at her sight right after waking up. After recovering from that, I went to the basement to finish the load of laundry I left from the night before and to grab my now clean pair of jeans. I ran back upstairs, shaved as quickly and efficiently as I could, then hopped into the shower. I've found that going to the gym religiously has finally helped me get back into my collection of Express shirts. I had to give those up a few months back because I was gaining weight and they didn't look very flattering. Now that I'm somewhat back in shape (with still much more to lose, and I've got a good 15 weeks left; so if I lose even a pound a week, I'll be getting back to the size where the Express shirts will look very nice) I can start wearing my Express shirts again. I picked out my favorite navy blue one today. I made my hair with the hair creme instead of gel (I really like that stuff, it's just horrible on windy days since it really messes up my hair). I sent all of my ticket files to my gmail account since I knew I would need to print them later in the day. I thought about putting them on floppy, but then I realized that the computers at school don't have floppy drives, so I didn't bother (sort of a mistake, I later found). I then threw the laptop into my bag, along with the business card paper, and the program guide. I headed downstairs, grabbed my jacket, and headed out. Picked up Zain and then headed to Eisenhower elementary where Zain's mom works. He had to pick up his cell phone. After that, we headed over to Staples by Middlesex Mall. We just needed to grab paper for the invites we were going to stick in the envelopes along with the tickets. We found a nice pastel creme color that wasn't too expensive and then headed out. We got to College Ave at 2PM and into the office for our meeting around 2:10PM, which wasn't too bad. We sat down and showed the lady our ticket and program guide designs. She liked the design and suggested an idea about how we should handle ticket sales. There was this idea about accepting Knight Express and credit cards, and we thought about looking it up. We also looked over our budget to see whether we would have enough money to actually pay for this event. She gave us a sample sheet to work with, which we filled out and found that the event is feasible, but we still need some significant funding to meet our deadline. From there we headed over to Cook campus to talk to Susan at Neilson Dining Hall. We talked to her about the deposit and when the balance would be due. We found that we had till next Friday to deposit close to $4,000 and to try and make a deposit of around $500 earlier than that to make sure the room is reserved. Zain talked to this lady about implementing an option for using Knight Express cards, but we realized that it would be a lenghthy process that would take more time than we had. So we just dropped that idea and stuck with cash/cheque only. From there we headed over to Livingston campus so we could use the computing lab to print out the tickets. When we got there, we found that it would be next to impossible for us to print in color without having to deal with the staff. So we decided to head over to the Media library to check up on Saad and the videos. This is where we made our mistake. Rather than just show Saad what to do, Zain and I stayed and looked up videos and actually started watching them. This took us to around 4:50PM, at which point we decided to leave and work on the tickets over at the ARC. We thought the computer labs closed at 6PM. We were wrong. It was now 5PM and we had to get tickets printed before the 6PM meeting, otherwise it would be quite embarrassing. Since we had no choice, we headed over to Staples, which was going to be quite more than we expected. We walked into Staples and went straight to the Copy Center. We talked to somebody about printing our tickets onto the paper we had bought earlier. He said that the paper we had was designed for laser printers and not the large laser copiers they had in the store, so we were effectively screwed. The reason was because the large copiers had a tendency to jam with the type of paper we had. So we decided to try another route by just printing the ticket template onto regular white paper and then feeding the card paper into the self-serve machines. When we tried that, it didn't work out too well (out of 10 cards per page, we only got about 4 decent ones). We tried shrinking the page down, we also tried different formats, but none of them would work. We wasted a lot of time just trying to figure out HOW to get the damn things printed onto our card paper. Since we were wasting so much time with the tickets, we decided to at least get the small invite letters printed. I wrote and designed the page on the spot on my laptop, loaded the file onto the USB key they had (which we used earlier for transferring the tickets) and then told him to just start printing and cutting. I got about 6 invites per page, and they came out very nice. After the invites, the employee decides to print a ticket page directly from Publisher, laminate it, and then cut it into individual pieces. The result was very nice and professional. He let us pick a different type of paper that had a special design and color to it. He then printed a copy onto white paper, took that page to the self-serve machines, loaded the printer with the custom paper, and then made about 10 copies. He then laminated them two at a time and then I sat there and cut the page into 10 tickets. Since the damn tickets were so close to each other, cutting that page was definitely NOT a fun nor an easy thing to do. By the time we actually got this good idea going, it was well past 6PM and we were definitely going to be late to the meeting. We found the price of the laminated tickets to be quite good, so we decided to do all of the tickets in this manner rather than deal with the hassel of printing them ourselves (I tried last night with my inkjet printer and the results were definitely not good; the ink would still smear, even after 2 hours of drying time). After cutting only half of the tickets we got printed, Zain and I tried to get to Scott Hall as soon as possible. With traffic and incompetent drivers all around us, we finally got there in less than 10 minutes. We had been practically running all day, and we kept on running once we got to Scott Hall. We walked in to only a handful of people, took out the cards and small invites, and told the people to start putting the stuff together. By this point, I hadn't eaten in close to, or possibly more than, 7 hours. I just ran out to the Grease Trucks and picked up a Fat Night with a bottle of water. I headed back and sat down to eat while I watched everybody work and listened to Zain talk to the people about something (I was too busy concentrating on my food so I forget what he was saying). I don't think I've ever finished a fat sandwich that quickly before. I also think it was my first time I ate a fat sandwich without feeling very stuffed. They stuck the tickets and invite letters into the creme envelopes Zain, Talal, and I had bought already and sealed them with a green sticker. They then went about using some numbering system on the envelopes themselves since we had nothing to mark up laminated plastic with. After that was done, they parted out the tickets to various people to sell. Talal wrote down the list of who took what tickets and how many. I then finally sat down with Zain, Talal, Taqi and his sister (forget her name, started with an S). We just talked about majors and what we plan to do with ourselves. I explained why I'm no longer doing medicine and switched to law. It was around 7:30PM by the time we all finished and left. I think Zain went with Taqi to a majlis, and the rest of us (me, Saad, and Talal) went our separate ways back home. I got home around 8PM, which is definitely better than the previous couple of days. My mom made me go back out to buy some milk. I showed my dad the contract and why I've been out doing so much work lately for something non-academic. I then headed up to my room. It was around 10PM when I decided to finally start watching The Return of the King. In the middle of the movie I got like a million phone calls, all of which were related to Oxfam (well, mostly), so I was glad to take them. Speaking of phone calls, the entire day I kept getting calls from my roommate, who just decided to build his own computer without apparently doing very much research. So I got stuck doing technical support, but it was all good though since it was something I could do without much thinking. Some of the questions were quite asanine for somebody who's a Computer Engineer. I don't ever remember asking another person a million questions when I first built my own computer. I remember doing a lot of research on how to do it and what problems to expect, along with their solutions. I also upgraded my old Dell desktop quite a few times (RAM, hard drive, video card, optical drives, sound card), so I also learned the insides of computers that way. I guess if somebody is REALLY into it, they'll read about this sort of stuff just for fun or in case they might need that knowledge later on in life. I tend to do that with quite a few subjects. I may never have to bring to use knowledge on random subjects, but it's good to know that I have it just in case. Oh, BTW, I changed the settings so anybody can leave comments now, not just registered members.|W|P|111113883032767770|W|P|Tedious Work|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com3/16/2005 08:56:00 PM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|Interesting day yesterday was. I had let my parents know on Monday night that I would need the car on Tuesday, so I didn't run into the same problem of not having it when I woke up. I got up around 10, had breakfast, got ready, and texted Zain, letting him know I was on my way. I pulled up to his house, finding him only half ready to go. So I waited in his living room and watched TV. There was this infomercial about whitening teeth with some sort of blue light. Apparently it's the new way dentists are whitening teeth now. Who knew? On the way there, we found Pooja driving ahead of us. Apparently she was sick, and it looked that way with how she was driving. She was swerving left and right, braking hard. If a cop was behind her, I'm pretty sure he would have pulled her over for suspected drunk driving. Pooja split off for Livingston to pick up Lamia, while Zain and I continued on to the College Ave. student center. It's funny, we thought we were late, but apparently, nobody was there yet. Pooja had called us on the way to tell us that Saad was at the student center, but when we got there, we didn't find him. We looked everywhere, but he was nowhere to be found. We called, but we kept getting his voicemail. Pooja and Lamia showed up, but nobody else. So Zain and I went back to my car so we could bring it around to the front. That was when we found out that Saad and Talal were in the student center all along. They walked out with Pooja and Lamia and got into my car. The plan was to go to various car dealerships on Rt. 1 and solicit Oxfam. We started off by going down Rt. 1 South all the way to the Lincoln dealership. I didn't know there was so much more to it in the back, it was an insanely large lot. I pulled up to the front of the dealership. Pooja, Talal, Lamia, and Saad (or was it Zain? I forget) went inside. A few minutes later, they came out, with only the manager's card. They piled in and then we went to the Ford dealership across the street. Talal went in with some girls and came back telling me to go to the main Malouf dealership a few miles further down south. So we went down there, same people got out, and came back with not even a business card. We decided to head back up north, toward the Cadillac dealership. I dropped off Zain, Pooja, and Lamia at the Brunswick Lanes. Then we headed over to Baig's Grill for lunch. Jawaria Appa was working that day, so I met her and talked to Sobia Appa on her cell phone while everybody else sat down. I found out that Sarish's ameen is going to be on July 3, which is great because it's a Sunday, so I don't have to worry about a class interfering. So I sit down and Jawaria Appa comes by to take our orders. I order the same rib-eye steak as last time (24 oz. baby!) while Zain and Talal order combo platters to share. Saad ordered Adana Kabab, Lamia ordered a chicken quesadilla, and since Pooja had a religious vegi day, she had to order the vegi quesadilla. It didn't help much that I was going to be eating a very large piece of beef right across from her. Zain and I ordered the non-alcoholic stuff (forgot the name) while everybody else ordered either soda or juice. Apparently we didn't have time for dessert, so we got up to pay the bill. Jawaria Appa gave us a 10% discount, so that was cool. Us guys paid for the girls. Then we left, and decided that car dealerships were going to be a waste of our time. So we headed back to Rutgers where I could drop off Pooja and Lamia. The guys then went to Alexander library to get some info on any audio/visual aids we could potentially use in our presentation during the event. The lady at the desk directed us to the Media library over at Livingston campus. So we left Alexander library. Zain and I got into my car, while Talal and Saad went to the deck to get theirs. Talal was going to come with Zain and me to Livingston while Saad was going to head back home so he would be able to hang out later on at night. We got to Livingston before Talal. So Zain and I just sat in the lobby and waited for him. He showed up, and then we headed down to the Media Library. The way there seemed like some sort of prison or something, it was very cramped with brick walls. The guy at the desk said we would have to look through the IRIS search thing to find the call numbers of what videos we needed, and then bring those to the desk so we could watch them. We went through the list and found a bunch of possible videos, one of them actually mentioning Oxfam. We sat down in the room, and then realized that even if we watched the movies, we would need to be able to take them out so we could get clips. The problem was that only graduate student or professors could take out videos, and to top it off, copyright laws prevent us from taking out clips. So we talked to this lady in charge and found out that there are certain videos that we would be allowed to show during a public event. She said we couldn't take out clips, but that didn't really mean much since we would do it anyway. Not like a distributor of any of the videos was going to come anyway. It was starting to get late, so we decided to head out. Talal's house was the destination, where we planned to make phone calls out of that list of doctors/lawyers I had. When we got to his house, we started talking about the program guide and the tickets. Next thing we knew, it was past 5 PM, which meant it would be pointless to call people since most had already gone home. So we got some ideas about how to go about the ticket issue. We needed to make something good without spending too much money. Talal suggested we go to Office Depot and check out the prices on printing our own tickets, along with envelopes. We got there and found that the business card templates were free following a mail-in rebate. Talal found envelopes for a little over a dollar for about 80, but they weren't that great looking nor of high quality. I pulled out a box of 100 elegant envelopes that cost a little shy of $6. Since appearances are everything, we decided on getting my envelopes, along with some green seals, which were like $5 for over 1000. I also bought some mini-DVD/RWs that hold about 1.4GBs. Those little bastards were expensive, $10 for only 3. As long as I use them a couple of times each, I should be fine (of course, I also have to make sure they don't get stolen like my mini-CD/RWs (only got 2 of those left, out of 5). We headed back to Talal's house, where we started working on the ticket design. After some work, we finally got the design done. We also worked on the program guide, and did some work involving the top 100 companies in the state. After several hours of work, including dealing with the issue of going to the city that night or not since we were all tired from working all day, the time was 9PM. We told the girls that we would meet them at 9:30, and if they weren't there at 10, then we would leave without them. Talal decided to take his car, just in case he needed to go home early. We got to Menlo well before 9:30 and waited in front of the Rainforest Cafe for the girls to call us once they got there. Around 9:45, I decided to call up Saad to find out where he was. He said that he had just gotten there, and apparently Naureen and Haley had been at B&N for about 10 minutes. That pissed Zain and me off a bit, but we just drove over to B&N. Saad, Naureen, and Haley were there, with Usman showing up a few minutes later. Sheba was supposed to meet us there too, and Nimrah asked if we would pick her up (she lived off Inman, so I said fine). I told the girls that we would only wait till 10, and would leave at exactly that time. Saad kept asking whether his car would be safe in the mall's parking lot, and even after telling him several times, he was still freaking out about it. At this moment Zain, Talal, and me were really stressed out, but were trying our best to keep our cool. Then I decided that if we were going to pick up Nimrah, that we would just leave some of the cars at my house. When Sheba didn't show up at 10, I decided to leave. We started to drive over to my house. When we got to New Dover, Nimrah called Naureen and said she couldn't make it. So I went straight to my house so we could leave Saad's car there (Talal and Usman both wanted to take their cars). So my car had Zain, Naureen and Haley. Saad and Waseem went with Usman, while Talal was alone. We left for the Parkway, then onto Turnpike north (we made a quick stop at Mobil so Usman could get gas). Once onto the Turnpike, Usman called and said he would meet us in the city while Talal and I would go pick up somebody on the way. We made a stopover to pick somebody up, then headed to the Lincoln Tunnel into the city. We were going to Mamoun's first, and then the hookah bar (it was called Horus). The girls met up with some other people at Mamoun's, we all had some food (I forgot how small those falafels were; I was still hungry after one). Then we headed over to Horus, which was on 6th Ave. and B St, while we were on 4th Ave. and McDougal. So after about 10 minutes, Talal led us to Horus. Unfortunately, Talal told his dad that he would be home by 1 AM, so he had to leave. This left about 8 people. We walked in and got a spot. It had a very nice atmosphere, dark with only some candles for light. The seats were slightly uncomfortable, but it wasn't that bad. There was an area where you could sit on the floor with cushions and a faux fireplace (which ironically, still gave out heat). Zain and I ordered the Peach/Mango while the girls ordered Strawberry (which I recommended). The Peach/Mango was very strong, hurt my throat, and I couldn't taste it. I was also having trouble taking deep hits on either hookah, which was weird since I know I'm quite capable, having done so with both my hookah and at Sahara East. After a few minutes, a spot opened up in the floor sitting area, so we all moved there. The fries that I ordered were amazing. They were perfectly crispy, had the right amount of salt, weren't too hot, and the ketchup was wonderful. I'd go back to Horus just for those fries (hopefully they're the same again). After trying to slowly build up my lung stamina again (and pretty much failing), we just sat around and relaxed. The hookah bar had a projector screen in the front where they were playing videos of belly dancers, some of which were actually quite good (most however, were not). After a few minutes, everybody started taking pictures with Sheba's camera. I was too lazy to get up and be in any of the shots, so I just layed where I was and only got up at the end when we were going to leave. The entire time we were at the hookah bar, Usman, Saad, and the girls kept talking about religious issues. It was so stupid, they were being such typical Pakistani's. They focused completely on these tiny things in life that don't even matter. They lost sight of the big picture. Not to be arrogant, but they're also quite lucky I didn't care enough to join the arguments, since I know for a fact that I've studied more about Islam than both Saad and Usman combined. It's funny, Usman had the audacity to tell me that I didn't know my history. Punk doesn't even know that I've read countless volumes on both eastern and western history, on both a religious and secular perspective. Besides that fault, Usman is still a nice guy. I would play cricket with him or just hang out, but I wouldn't have an intellectual argument, because I know it would be like talking to a brick wall: the wall doesn't understand me and it would be an utter waste of time. We decided to leave around 3AM. While Usman went to get his car, the rest of us stood outside Horus just talking. We couldn't figure out who was going to go with who inside the hookah bar, and when Usman pulled up, the argument came up again. Instead of making things complicated, I just came up with the idea of everybody meeting up at Menlo Park. So Moona, Naureen, and Haley went in Usman's car while Zain, Saad, Waseem, Sheba, and Nimrah went in my car. I think Usman took the Lincoln Tunnel to drop off Moona, while I took the Holland Tunnel straight to 1&9 South. I showed everybody the car wash in Linden that's open 24/7. Some of us were still hungry, but it was a little past 4AM by the time we got to Menlo Park. Since Usman had to make a stop at Secaucus, they were only by Newark Airport by the time we got to Menlo. So we had to sit in the parking lot and wait for about 20 minutes until they showed up. We waited right in front of Haley's white Civic. The mall security drove past us twice, and each time the girls in the car asked whether we would get in trouble for just sitting there. The guys reassured them that nothing would happen and not to worry. Usman and the girls finally showed up. Sheba and Nimrah got out of the car to go with Naureen and Haley. Everybody said bye to Usman, and he left. The girls got into Haley's car. Right after Usman left, Naureen came up to my window, and I freaked a bit. She thanked me for driving them and then walked back to the car. It was around 4:15 when we left the mall's parking lot. Zain's parents called a bunch of times, and I had to talk to his dad explaining why we were out till 4AM. I dropped off Zain first, and then headed back to my house. Saad and Waseem got into Saad's car and left. I put my glasses away, grabbed my bag with the laptop in it, then walked into the house. When I got into my room, it was like 4:45AM. I had officially been out of the house for 17 hours, working way too much and definitely not having enough fun. Can't wait till this damn event is over. That way I can go back to focusing on just school and get back to a normal sleep pattern and actually get to the gym again. I know trying to raise $2,000 in about a week is no easy task, which is why I'm trying hard to get as much work done as possible. I have to print tickets tomorrow, talk to some person with Zain, then have a general meeting, and then finally have a board meeting. Now, this is just what is planned, only God knows what more I'm going to have to do. Guess I'll just take everything that comes my way one at a time.|W|P|111102602926078909|W|P|Too Much Work, Not Enough Play|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com3/14/2005 10:50:00 PM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|I finally caught up on my sleep (about 16 hours a night for two nights). I finally got the chance to watch the Extended Edition Lord of the Rings movies. I watched The Fellowship of the Ring on Saturday night, and then The Two Towers on Sunday (which should be LAST night). So far, the extended/new scenes are AMAZING. They make the story flow so much better and there are these little things that helped me understand parts of the movie that used to be obscure. I really think that some of the little scenes that helped explain other parts of the movie should have been left in. All that's left is the massive 4 hour finale: The Return of the King. So today was an interesting day. My mom was surprised that I was up before noon. Found that my dad took the car earlier, so I didn't have a ride to school. My mom called him up around 11, and he said he would be home by 11:30. So I went to take a shower and then got ready. Dad called me up around 11:30 and said he would be home in 15 minutes. So I pack up my laptop and all the papers into this Banana Republic messenger bag I found in the closet (I'm actually excited about a bag, how stupid is that?) So I got into the Navi, drove over to Zain's house, picked him up, and then headed over to Busch campus. The meeting was supposed to be at noon, and we left Edison at that time. We got to Busch Student Center around 12:20. Great parking space, right up front. Walked into room 115, just to find everybody was already there. I took out my laptop and fired it up while Zain started the meeting. Met Talal for the first time, and I think he's a pretty cool kid. So while Zain was giving his speech, I was on the laptop looking at pics of wrecked exotic cars. The only thing I got out of the meeting was what group I was in and where I was going to solicit. I got paired up with Haley, who, along with Talal, Naureen, and Anna's group, were going to Highland Park while the rest of the group worked on New Brunswick. Zain and I left for a few minutes to go to the ARC to print out general letters that we would give to the businesses while visiting them. We printed out 80 copies (20 of which turned out messed up) and headed back to the Student Center. I signed my copies and Haley signed her's. We handed out the sheets to each group and then headed to the cars. I had to drive the Highland Park crew while the New Brunswick crew went in somebody else's car (not exactly sure who's). There was a lot of traffic, but it didn't take us long to get to Highland Park. We parked and split into two groups, one covering the side with all the great soliciting spots, while Haley and I got stuck with the side that had nothing. Both of us walked all the way down to Seven Hills, crossed sides, and then walked back toward the car. We went into a Century 21 office and got some money from them. We walked out, quite happy that we actually got something. I then helped Haley practice a speech so she wouldn't blank out when we would actually go into some place. After a few minutes, Haley got the hang of it and we went into some other places, and she did pretty well. Not stuttering or saying "umm" anymore. We went to some other places and gave the info letter, not really getting anything concrete since we mostly talked to secretaries. We met up with the other group, and apparently they fared much better than us. Of course, they had all the nice spots to begin with, so it wasn't exactly fair. So we all pile into the car and head over to College Ave to pick up Sheba. Since we're done with Highland Park, we decide to head over to Princeton (Talal lives in the area) to solicit there. I was starving by this point, so I bring up lunch. Talal wanted his car, so I drove everybody to Busch. Naureen went with Talal, and we headed toward Rt. 1 North. Anna and I decided to go to Macaroni Grill for lunch, and everybody just went along with it. Sheba mentioned something about asking Applebee's for donations since they're known to support the local community. We decide to check them out after lunch. We get to Macaroni Grill, go inside and book a table for 7. We sit down and start ordering drinks. The waiter leaves to get our drinks. Naureen and Talal arrive and sit down, at opposite ends of the table (a fact, which of course I made fun of). The waiter came back and got Naureen and Talal's drink orders. I order some mozzerrella thing and calamari as appetizers. When the appetizers come, so do Zain, the other Naureen, and Sammi. We add another table to our table so we can all sit together. While we added another table, I talked to the waiter about the crew singing happy birthday to Naureen and getting some sort of cake. After I confirmed that, I sat back down and then the waiter took the latecomers' orders (he took ours just before the last group came). Zain was hesitant to order the lobster ravioli because of the price, but I ordered it for him anyway. The "other" Naureen didn't order anything since she had lunch with Ghonche. The waiter brought our food. Anna and Sheba shared this "make your own pasta" thing. Saad, Haley, Naureen, and Sammi ordered some seafood stuff. I think Talal might have gotten something with chicken, and I already mentioned that Zain got Lobster Ravioli. I got the Chicken Milano, which was good as usual in those HUGE bowls. After we all finished, the waiters came and sang happy birthday to Naureen in Italian, so loud it hurt my ears. Then we spent like 10 minutes trying to take pictures of Naureen and the cake. The cake was REALLY good, ESPECIALLY the cream on the side. It was so rich, I could only take like 2 bites. Ghonche stopped by, and I forced her to try the cake. She conceded and tried it, but I still couldn't get the "other" Naureen to try it. So then we all just sat around and talked. The waiter brought the check, I payed for the entire thing. Saad and Talal tried to pay for some of it, but I wouldn't let them. Some of them pitched in for the tip. NONE of them know what the total came out to. Then we all got up and started to leave. The group split up a bit, with Talal leaving for someplace and the rest of us heading back to Rutgers to pick up their cars. I dropped Anna off behind the student center, then I dropped Naureen, Saad, and Sheba off in front of the student center. I had to take Zain home and work on the program guide with Haley. When we got to Zain's house, I took the blame for him being late. Then I left with Haley BACK to Rutgers so we could work on that program guide. The student center and the libraries were closed, so we had to go to the Barnes & Noble on Rt. 1 South, by Baig's Grill. We worked on the laptop, and I think the design is pretty decent. Naureen then called Haley, so we headed back to college ave. I dropped off Haley with Naureen, and wished her happy birthday 3 hours early. She said she wanted a call at midnight, sharp. I just gave a weird look and said goodnight, then got back into my car. Realized I still had Zain's stuff in my car, so I called him up. He said he would be home in half an hour, which is about the same amount of time it would take me to get there. So I took Rt. 18, then Rt. 1, which should have taken me a bit longer to get back, so I could kill some time. I got to his house like 2 minutes before he did, so I didn't have to wait too long. I gave him his stuff, and then I headed home, finally. I pulled into the driveway, grabbed my bag, and headed inside. Explained to my parents in like a sentence why I was out for the entire day. Then I told them I needed the car tomorrow too, so I wouldn't have to be late like today. I went upstairs, dropped off my stuff, and then headed back downstairs to spend some time with my parents. I lay there in my mom's lap for a while, watching some desi drama. Then I headed back upstairs since I had to finish the stupid Oxfam work. I talked to Zain and Haley, got some work done. Then I received some plans for NYC tomorrow, along with the day's schedule of soliciting. It's 1:18 AM right now and I don't want to wake up late tomorrow, so no Return of the King for me. I'm gonna head to bed and hope for a fun-filled day. Apparently everybody loves the "nice me", so I think I'm gonna try to keep it up tomorrow. Man, these damn blog entries are so freaking long, and it isn't any easier to type them when you're talking to a million people in AIM at the same time.|W|P|111086044717619709|W|P|Work and Play|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com3/10/2005 05:14:00 AM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|So a 2 mile run at 5 AM is actually a pretty good thing for not only my health, but it's also a great way to wake up so you can study for a couple of more hours. I'm sweating like crazy and my legs are killing me, but boy, I am so ready to study straight for next couple of hours. Screw caffeine, a good 2 mile run in 15F degree weather is all you need to stay awake for studying.|W|P|111044982114398286|W|P|Morning Run|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com3/09/2005 09:15:00 PM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|Apparently people find my life so intruiging that they must share it with others. I guess some people just love talking about another person's life, especially things that have nothing to do with them. I wanted this blog to be a place I could post anything I wanted. I wanted to be able to post events and my innermost thoughts and desires. I guess putting a link to it in my AIM profile didn't exactly help keep my private thoughts private.|W|P|111042114208007296|W|P|Here we go again|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com3/09/2005 05:20:00 AM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|So I might as well write up an official post. Woke up relatively early (around 1 PM) considering the fact that I've been staying up all night lately cuz I've been studying like crazy. Got a paper due tomorrow for NJ Politics, an exam Thursday for 19th Cent. Lit, and an exam Friday for Politics & Culture. Got a call from a certain special person (hereby referred to as S.O.) a few minutes after I woke up. She was at the dining hall and was wondering if I would be stopping by anytime soon. I told her I had to shower and get ready first, but I would try to get there. When I got ready, I realized that it was 3:40, so I might as well wait till 4 PM for dinner. So I sent S.O. a text lettting her know I wouldn't be able to make it on time. I sat in the living room with some of my suitemates. Raphael came in and tells us that he heard classes were cancelled. We turn on the TV, and sure enough, he's right. No 19th Cent. Lit for me tonight, which kinda sucked cuz it was gonna be a review for the exam on Thursday. Whatever, I decided to leave and get some dinner since I was absolutely famished. Left the room with my iPod playing Nickelback. Weather was absolutely horrid. It was like 60 degrees the day before, and now there was like an inch on snow on the ground with 20 mph winds shearing through my bones. I get to the dining hall, nothing good to eat, so I get some Chinese food. Surprisingly, the chicken and beef was actually good, along with the Lo Mein (which they never have). I walk to the student center and find Zain sleeping in the Fireside lounge. Kid looks so goofy when he's sleeping. He wakes up and shows me the contract with Neilson Dining Hall for the Hunger Banquet. Everything looks good, we just need A LOT more money before we can pull this off. We need to get the tickets made, so we call Pooja for a ride. We go to FedEx Kinko's to get a quote, then we go to Staples to get a quote. It's A LOT cheaper at Staples, so we decided to come back the next day to get like 600 tickets printed (about 60 sheets with 10 per sheet). I'm seriously thinking about offering to pay for it as a form of donation. Zain is sort of upset regarding the massive costs of this event. Let's really hope it's worth it. We call up Haley and Naureen to see if they want to see a movie. Apparently both of them need to talk to their parents about living on campus (smart move) next year. Pooja needed to be home by 9 PM (it was around 6:45 when I called). So we just decide to go home (I needed to do my NJ Politics essay anyway). The entire time we were in the car I kept getting hit by Pooja, hard. So I get dropped off, I go up to my room with the labels and envelopes. I leave to get some food. I meet Radhika at the Welcome Desk. Hadn't seen her in a while, so I decided to chat. We talked about book forums and summer courses. The catalog was sitting there, so I browsed through it. Found 2 classes to take, however, I need to choose just one since it's gonna cost like $600 per course and I already have to take a $1200 Kaplan course for those damn LSATs. I got some pizza from Gerlanda's and left for my room. I watched family guy while I ate my pizza. I was disappointed that Scrubs wasn't on, but I just ignored it and went back to my Family Guy (that show is DEFINITELY designed to be watched while HIGH). I started working on my essay. Couldn't concentrate, so I went to watch some Jon Stewart with my roommates. I got my roommate into building his own computer, so I gave him some advice about some stuff (I practically built the whole thing for him). Total price = $2200, about $500 more than my current rig and MUCH more powerful, so not a bad deal. I get back to my room and try to finish the essay. I finish the essay a couple of hours later. Didn't know there was so much research that needed to be done on such a simple essay. Anyway, I finished it and then caught up on all my missed prayers. Decided to take a break before I got into Politics & Culture. Need to finish two books by Friday morning. Two really boring books about political theory. How exciting. Saw some members blogs at OCC, so I decided to get into this again. It was fun back when I used Xanga, and I've been meaning to start some sort of Journal or something, just never found the time or initiative to do so. Well, now I've started one and hopefull will try to post at least 2 or 3 times a week. Back to studying and trying to ignore the other problems in life. Maybe I'll post some stuff about my past just so I have my memories in writing. I'll try to make them shorter next time, just realized how LONG this post was, lol|W|P|111036514099903971|W|P|First Real Post|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com3/09/2005 05:08:00 AM|W|P|Kashaf|W|P|Getting out your feelings is a great way to relieve stress. Now, most people really don't want to listen to another person's problems (besides therapists, they get paid to listen to your problems). So I'm guessing that I'll use this blog as a form of therapy without having to pay the exorbitant costs of an actual therapist. I'm not crazy or anything (well, I might be a little bit) but I think that this would be a great way for me to finally rant about things. A nice way for me to get things down in writing without having to bug anyone. I may seem like I have no problems, but everybody has their fair share of baggage. I just don't want this blog to explode like my Xanga did though. Gonna try to keep a low profile on this one.|W|P|111036316020002636|W|P|Therapy|W|P|kashk5@gmail.com