The 3rd World Rocker

hey guys, I hope you are all have a save, enjoyable Halloween tonight. Being kind of (out of it) as far as days goes (apparently I haven’t adjusted yet), I thought it was Halloween yesterday, so I went with my friends to see Saw V, it was ‘meh’, but the ending was cool. Then after we get out of the theater they tell me that Halloween is next day..oh man! now we have to do it again tonight =)

I actually wanted to see “Quarantine” but surprisingly enough, it wasn’t playing at any of the theaters we went to, the only one that had it only had early viewings, what? that blows Berkeley Cinema, that totally blows man.

Anyways, Things are great, its still gloomy, and it actually rained last night =(. I don’t want the rain, I want my sunshine, I didn’t drive 3 thousands miles for rain, I had that when I was on the East Coast, get the program Cali, get with the program.

Aside for that, everything else is going great, my apartment is cool and semi-organized, I actually have room now to sit and watch DVDs with out jumping over bags or boxes =).
I don’t have any plans for tonight, maybe I’ll end up just chilling at room trying to finish up “House of Leaves”. Oh my got that book just won’t end.

Nothing too advanced here, I finally have a cool little project here at work that I’m working on, the machines here at the Lab are screwy and were giving me a lot of problems yesterday, so I wasn’t able to work on my SlipStreaming project, so today I brought my laptop, and hopefully we’ll get this thing going.

Mom called me this morning, it seems that everything is going well at their end, Meezo is having a blast with the car apparently, always out and about, that takes a load off of mom, which is great. I’m glad to hear they’re all happy over there, I also spoke to my aunt and asked about the monkeys, and apparently they are all doing well too Al-hamdulillah (thank god). They will be going out trick or treating tonight, I wander what they kids dressed up as =)

Alright, go forth and bring candy, the more chocolate the better =)
Have a safe Halloween everybody.
Salaam.

So I walk into my pad last night after the open mic, and I find John’s matteress and keyboard gone. Hmm what the french toast?. Turns out Eliza left yesterday as well while I was at work, so he started moving his stuff over.
I helped get the rest of the miscellaneous stuff over to his new space, and he was excited and got to set it the way he likes it =)

Today I’m off, so I got up, ate a palmegranet, drank some of my Kefir juice, and started assembling my desk. I cleaned up the area a bit, set up my TV & Laptop rig.
When I tried feeding the audio visuals from the laptop to the TV (yesterday), the video came out great, but the audio wasn’t very loud. Today since now I have space to take things out of my bag, I took out my mini 4 channel mixer. So I have the audio coming out of the laptop, into the mixer, then feed it to the TV, its GREAT. That kind of solved my problem.
My desk is just the right size, I have both the TV & Laptop on it, and now that I have the password of the WiFi here, I can start watching all the TV shows and Movies I want. Both by my DVD or with Surf The Channel.Com Trust me, you don’t need cable TV anymore, all you need a good internet connection.

So there you have it, today is officially my Independence Day here in Cali, I have my “home” set up, and all is great =)

Salaam

I really do hope the sun shines soon, I don’t like gloomy weather, it really gets to me. I need the Sun to survive.

Yesterday was cool, I got to walk around in the city a bit more, I found a little electronic store and bought me tiny portable (no batteries needed) speakers, and put them to use in my room at night. I also went to the Berkeley Bowl and bought some fruit, and something called Kefir (its a milk/yogurt drink) and it tastes AWESOME!.

Later that evening John and I drove up to San Fran for an open mic, SO many people were there, I was number 27, and John was 52. They do this “draw the name from a hat” type of deal to get you on the list. I personally don’t think its fair, we were there early enough to “choose” our spot. John however disagrees and thinks its a well thought out system, so he shouldn’t be too upset at the fact that we left before he got to play.
We got to meet a cool Cameroonian man, his name is Gishlan, and he only speaks french. While I was playing my song “guilt & empathy” he actually went and got his dumbek and got up on stage with me and played. I later found out that his lady friend Karen encouraged him to do so. She asked John if I would mind and he said “not at all”, and I’m so glad they did that, because now he is going to come and play percussion for me at our Nov 11th gig.
Karen had been in Cameroon for a couple of years, and the two of them had just came back to San Fran 2 weeks ago (this is Gishlan’s first time here), and he has been looking for people to play with. He is so excited to have made musical friends to play with, this is going to be very cool. Karen says that she has friends in Berkeley and will ask them to come out to the show. Sweet.

We got back home around midnight or so, John decided that he will go over to Bennet’s and hang out for a bit. I on the other hand had to go to bed, because of work today. But I gave John the cash for Bennet’s T.V. So I woke up this morning with a nice little flat screen TV on my chair. I looked it over and it seems that I have all the cables needed to turn it into my entertainment system (using my Laptop). So once I get home tonight, I will start plugging things in and get this thing running.

We will be at the Starry Plough open mic tonight, which is 2 blocks away from The Muse.
Our housemate Shiela leaves today, I got to say buy to her before I headed for work, I saw Eliza moving her things yesterday, so there is a chance that John might get her room sooner than expected, which would be awesome.

Well. That’s the latest update so far.
Hope you are all doing well over there.
Take care.

Salaam.

The past few days have been really awesome, John and I went to IKEA and bought my furniture =). Not all of it is assembled yet. So after a nice chill day at work on Friday, we made the IKEA trip, and slept on a mattress that night, YES!

On Saturday Elizabeth (my friend from work) brought her friend Gualepay, and the 3 of us went out to lunch at the Taste of Africa, a Cameron cuisine that is a walking distance from me, then they showed me the Flea Market, as well as a little music store that’s not too far from where I am. That night I got to go to a costume party, Liz (who used to live in the Muse) was having it with her house mates, the house was literally a 5 minute walk from The Muse, I was Lenny Kravitz, of course. The funny thing is, I actually didn’t need to get a costume, I wore my Leather Jacket, Funky Yellow Glasses, and let my puffy hair by, well, puffy. It was helariouse. The night was full of laughs and great costumes, loads of fun.

I woke up Sunday to Guita & Steve making us brunch, they make pancakes, eggs and hash browns, the few of us to were up on time got to sit around the big kitchen table, eat and enjoy a few laughs. It was so pleasant.
After we helped cleaning the dishes, I went to my nook, finished reading Alien Harvest, then started assembling my closet, it was a little bit frustrating, I did it by my self, and I almost sawed a part off, because they neglected to mention that one side of the closet is “wider” & “longer” then the other. Anyways, It was successfully assembled, and I was able to finally take my cloths out of the bag, hang my suit, and then put my travel bag inside. It has sliding doors, so its very space efficient.
John’s car got broken into, they stole his GPS, and his HardDrive. Poor guy. They actually left his keyboard, and stands. So yesterday he moved those into the nook with us, which means I got my nightstand in my room, sweet.
It now actually looks like a humanized room, with a place to sleep, my little table with things in it, and my closet. Sweet.

After John gets his room, which should be by the end of this week or so, then I could assemble my desk, and arrange my “living” area, which will be both my office/ entertainment area. Luckily I’m using my Laptop as my main machine, so I didn’t need to get anything massive. I will also be buying a small flat screen from John’s friend Benet, it takes in VGA as well as A/V hookup, so that was I can use that when I want to watch DVDs, instead of watching it on my laptop screen.
I got all set up, I think by next week I should have everything set up for my Ash Space.

Last night, they had little party for Shiela, who is moving out in 2 days or so, so a whole bunch of my new friends from the costume party were there, we all stood around telling jokes & riddles, it was hilarious. Then at night, the guitars came out, we all huddled up at the common room and started singing and having a jolly good time. It was nice.

Now I’m here at The Nomad Cafe, checking the interweb, and then I’m heading over to Radio Shack to get some supplies. Is it funny than when people need supplies they go to Home Depot, but when I need supplies I go to an electronic store? heheh, I’m such a geek.

I hope you are all doing well over there, I’ll keep in touch. =)
Salaam.

Alright, so I’m still sleeping on the floor, but at least I won’t have to worry about the wind blowing me the tent away =). Insha Allah (god willing) today I will go to IKEA and grab a few things, I looked on line and I could get all the I need (including a closet) all for about $200. And then I’m SET! w00t.

Today is my 2nd day at work, and things are nice and cool, the first thing that I need to do at this point is format and reinstall windows on one of the machine, but we have to do it Cali style =). I researched a topic called “Slipstream”, Jut (the current lab tech) suggested that we use this method, its actually a pretty good method, I’m going to read up more on it before I dive into this project.

Yesterday (my 1st day of work), was also nice and chill, Jut took me on a tour of the other labs, I got to sit in through part of the session they were having, very interesting stuff, and then Elizabeth took us out to lunch, we had Mexican food. Everyone is so nice and helpful here, and so welcoming.
Elizabeth is also helping me find a part time position to fill in my 15 hour gab, she’s so cool, she has brought me some very awesome opportunities, hopefully I’ll have enough skill to actually be part of it, it would ROCK!

Wednesday night, John & I drove into San Francisco, we went to The Great American Music Hall. Heather (of ilyAIMY) was playing hand percussion for Dar Williams, also Shawn Mullen was the opening act, he’s such a great story teller, and Dar was really awesome. It was my first time to actually hear her, but she has a die hard crowd that sang along and emailed requests. It was great, I also got a chance to have both Dar & Shawn autograph their CDs for me.
After the concert John, Heather & I got to hang out in the streets of San Francisco. It was so good to see a familiar face in person. Seeing her only made me miss my East Coast friends even more. All in all it has been awesome since I got here.

We already have 2 shows coming up in November, with a possibility of a show in December for John (people really love his stuff here). Also it looks like he will move into The Muse, sweet. We all get along so well there, true it has been only a few days, but you can tell from the interactions that have happened so far, that we will all be juuuust fine.
This is going to be one colorful chapter in my life.

Speaking of colors
The mini-apartment I’m in has two (door sized) areas that are unpainted, Guita & Steve (The awesome landlords) gave me freedom to paint/do what ever I want with it. So yesterday I started drawing on one of them. I’m thinking of turning it into a mural, keep in mind I’m not a painter nor an artiest, so it will be one of the ugliest door sized space you will ever see in an apartment, but you know what, it will be MY ugliest door sized space you will ever see in an apartment. So deal with it.

So, in short. I love my job, I love my town, I love my mini-apartment, I’m making friends almost everyday, therefore I absolutely love California.

Salaam =)

So as my post from last night states, I have finally found an apartment, w00t. Its more like a mini-apartment. The Muse is a development project that these two awesome architects have been working with for past few years. Its kind of like a community home, there are about 13 or 14 rooms, each occupied by either 1 or 2 people (depending on the size), there are shared showers & restrooms (depending on the location of your room). There are only few of the “mini-apartments” such as the one that I’m in, what makes them different is, I have my own shower and restroom. We share the community Kitchen, which is fine with me, because I don’t actually cook that much. So even though I feel like part of the community that lives in the house, I still have my privacy, which is important.

Most of the people living in The Muse either work at Nomad Cafe, or end up hanging out there after work. So when Guita & Steve (the ever so kind landlords) were giving me the tour, I recognized a lot of the tenants there, some even by name. So I already feel like I’m living with my friends =). It turns out that sometime they like to have late night gatherings in the yard and play music, the other night they had a play, this is going to be awesome.

This morning I work up nice and fresh, since I had shaved and took a nice long hot shower last night, I woke up to my father calling me asking to help him install his printer drivers, and I then gave him the news of my residency. He sounds happy, and maybe even a bit relieved. I then washed up, did my prayers (including a Thank You prayer), then picked up my laptop, and my book and walked across the street to the Nomad Cafe, and now I’m sitting outside enjoying the sun while checking the internet.

Later today John will be coming over and we’ll go get some ‘furniture’ for the apartment, and then I will start into turning it into an Ash Space =)

Last night I got to see Aiden Hawkin, apparently he is a side project that a few members of the Counting Crows are working with, they came to the Starry Plough open mic because their show with Blind Melon got canceled that night. He gave away CDs and I had the whole band autograph mine =), what a great way to end my Tuesday night (other than being at Perk)

Alright, time to check my mail and enjoy my last day of “non-work” in Cali. Tomorrow I start Lab Teching for UCB.
Salaam.