The 3rd World Rocker

I walked over to the Verizon Wireless store that’s next to my work and made the plunge, that’s right! =)
I upgraded my phone to the Palm Centro, they will be mailing it to me, because they didn’t have it in the store =(, and upgraded my plan to include checking emails, w00t. So Insha Allah (God Willing), I will be PDA Cellaphied by the weekend, yay. Very exciting. I love getting new gadgets, its such a rush, like writing a new song =)

I’m also in the market for a video recording device, so far The Flip is running at #1, it has good reviews and does what I need, and is nicely priced. The reason I’m getting one is to start adding videos on YouTube, and get my face out there..now that I have the time and I can actually do so.

Also it might help with gigs, have a live clip, send a live clip. I hear that in order to get a spot on the Millennium Stage in the Kennedy Center you would have to send them a video of you performing live..so a good archive of such events would come in handy. I’m also thinking “bonus” material for my CD (when I actually start making it) =).

In other news,
the AshPad is STILL without a couch =), but I can’t complain, all the toys are here, and more are on the way.

Take care my good friends.
Salaam.

These are so inspiring, since I’ve finally started going back to the gym. Two articles in the Wired’s blogs relating to how technology can help track your progress, and motivate you =)

The Algorithmic Workout.

The Nike Experiment.

Check’em out when you get a chance.
Salaam.

Wow, today has been CRAZY!! they switched out the phone system during the weekend, and it affected programs we didn’t think of. So needless to say that we were buried in phone calls, luckily it has slowed down al-hamdulillah.

I got an email to check my calendar at work, and it seems that tomorrow is the IS department picnic, so they will shut down the HelpDesk for 2 hours, as we run around outside. Wow, that’s actually pretty cool, looking forward to it, should be fun.

Also a websit for my stage persona is up, wohoo!, it was quick non-pro way, but at least something is up for people to see you know =). You can all check it out at www.mosno.net. There you will find links to all my other mOsno accounts that I’ve created, like twitter, uStream, & YouTube. I’m trying to get a nice little camera to do some video to put up on YouTube, and hopefully use it to broadcast shows on my uStream.
I’m very exctied about this.

Well, its back to work for me.
Take it easy peeps.

Salaam.

Work is going fine, I’m starting to get the hang of how this place. I’ve been pretty pro-active the past few days. On Monday I actually signed up with the gym accross the street from my work, I’m hoping to start getting back into shape. I don’t have an excuse now, and I miss going to gym in general, its awesome =)

Yesterday I installed STEAM on my entertainment box, created my account [BaltiRaf] look me up if your on there, and brought out my USB game controller. One of these days I’m going to start checking out the games, and play some of the demos, and even start getting full games. I really do want to get into the Gaming world, I think I’ll have a lot of fun.

I’m really loving my PC, its multi-purposeness is awesome. I watch my DVDs on it, I catch up on my TV shows through Hulu, and soon, it will be my gaming console as well. And all of this through my 32″ flat screen. All I need now is a couch and a coffee table to set all the little toys on =)

Yesterday was “be lazy” night, so I didn’t go anywhere and caught up on my Planet Earth. I have now only one more disc to watch, and its the “Living Together” disc. Should be intresting to see what kind of advice they have for us. The series is just amazing, not just visually, its like a whole different world out there, so magnificent. I must say that I’m mostly fasinated by the “deep ocean” episode, wow, there are some crazy creatures down there =)

Tonight should be a fun night Insha Allah (God Willing), I get to play Djembe for Sahffi at her show at The Theater Project in Baltimore. Maybe I could get some information to see if they have any musical events that they would need performers for, it would be nice to play in a theater, very rockstar-iesh.

Friday will be AMAZING, I have show with Acacia Sears at TeaVolve in Baltimore. Not only will I get to Djembe for her, but I get to play my own set. Hopefully they will have WiFi, I think 90% of places now do, if that’s the case, I will take my gear to broadcast the evening on my uStream page, so keep an eye out. And for quicker updates check out my twitter page, my Tweet Name is ashAfied.

Have a wonderful rest of week everyone, I hope to see you at a show near you =)
Salaam.

So the AshPad is coming together nicely, it is defiantly “home” now. I still don’t have a couch, but I do have a bed, WiFi, and a wobbly coffee table =). Yesterday was the latest installment, the ashB0x. I brought in my old 160gb HP Desktop, completely formatted it, installed good old XP, updates, my favorite desktop theme & video applications. I even watched some Planet Earth, w00t. It is successfully hooked up to my screen, my only set back is the outlet is not allowing me to add my mini-sound mixer (its what I use to boost the audio from my computer to the TV) that way I don’t have to turn the TV almost 90% up to be able to hear it. Nothing a little trip to a local hardware/electronic store won’t fix, I just need to find the time for it =).

I was hoping to find my old wireless Keyboard & Mouse, but no such luck. I might give it another look once I’m visiting the family again in a couple of weeks, but if not, I might just go ahead and buy the 2-in-1.

Luckily I’m not doing anything until Friday, that’s when all the crazy musical stuff happens, speaking of which, here are some of my current Gigs:
Jun 12 2009 Fells Point, MD @ The Waterfront Hotel (w/ Teporah)
Jun 14 2009 Baltimore, MD @ HonFest 2009 (The Bacardi stage at 12 noon)
Jun 19 2009 Baltimore, MD @ Teavolve (w/ Acacia Sears)
Jun 26 2009 Frederick, MD @ Frederick Cellars
Jul 3 2009 Baltimore, MD @ Joe Squared (w/ Teporah)

I’m still having trouble finding a stage name, and that fact that I’m so freakin musically active isn’t helping the situation. There is already a band called “ASH” which is why I don’t want to use that, and I obviously don’t want to use my real name, I’m in need of an Alter Ego…so far I’ve had a whole bunch of ideas, but non of them fell through…some of the names were: Mosno, Tarvo, Bex, Zed, Aymek, Yazol, Rafwood.
If you have any ideas, suggestions, or comments, please feel free to let me know =)

So there you have it, music is going strong, the Pad is feeling like home, and I’m enjoying life so far Al-Hamdulillah (Thank God).
I hope your week is going well my friends, keep in touch.
Much Luv.

Salaam.

I just learned this word a couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation with Lisa (I miss you already), who has now moved to St. Thomas Island (lucky). She has a job there, and since I know how awesome she is, I’m sure they’ll want to keep her, FOREVER!. She was telling me that her creative juices are flowing right now, and of course the beautiful tropical weather of “paradise” as she calls it, would help that.

I never knew there was such a thing as a “novelette”, I only heard of Novels & short stories. I must say, this new knowledge is very inspiring. I not a “writer”, she’s a English major, and writer, so I’m very interested to read her novelette in the near future. I have always had this “thing” in me, I’ve always wanted to write, just write. I kind of feed that hunger with my personal journal, and even with my blogs, but still its not as satisfying. I always just have random thoughts and ideas that pop into my head, I always find my self writing tutorials, and post any research I do about a specific gadget and what not. I really enjoy all that stuff.

Now that I know about Novelettes (thanks Lisa) I might focus my energy a little when it comes to it. I’ll have to look into the subject a little more. I’m not saying I’ll be the next New York Best Seller, but I’m hoping to do it as an accomplishment for me. Say. I’m sure there is some kind of monthly challenge (like we do for songs at the Java Mammas) that I could try out, or even put together. Hmmm. we shall see.

As I look at my calendar, I’m glad to see that its not a crazy week for me =).
Today my brother graduated High School, tomorrow I will play a 3 man songwriter showcase, Thursday might be having dinner with an old friend, Friday playing at Joe Squared, Saturday going to VA for my brother’s celebration BBQ, & Sunday playing at KarmaFest…ok, I take it back, I guess I do have a full crazy week. damn! =)
Well, I know I’m not doing anything tonight, wohoo! so I get to enjoy my evening at the AshPad. Ooooo yea!

Have a good week peeps.
Salaam.

Alright, here is an update on my living situation:
I now have a bed, kitchen utensils and WiFi! =). Also the 32″ flat screen that my mother got me (I love you mom). I have my laptop connected directly to the TV and watch all my DVDs & anime, very cool.

Bitter Good News.
Last time I was visiting the family, I found out that my beloved desktop has crashed, Dad of course must’ve deleted something, or tried to be a techie and totally killed my machine . Luckily I didn’t have anything of extreme importance on it. So the plan now is for me to bring that sucker to the AshPad, re-format the box, and turn it into my entertainment system. It being a desktop, makes it much more robust than my laptop with the dead battery, also it has a larger capacity as far as hard drive/RAM and all that jazz.
ALSO, I’m thinking of downloading Steam, and that way it could also be my console. I think I still have the USB game controller, if not, they are easily found, and from my school experience I know that with the correct adapter, I could end up using XboX controllers, its a win win situation. =)

I’m very sycked about getting this done, not sure if I’m implementing project AshBox this weekend or not. So far all I’m thinking about is getting home, having some ice tea as I watch the series conclusion of “Outlaw Star“.

Hopefully I’m meeting up with a friend on Saturday, or going to see friends perform. Sunday is very much low-key so far. We’ll see, I’m so excited about this that I might actually go through with it sooner than I think.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Salaam.

I was very delightedly surprised when I found that I was not the only one doing this research =). I found a few of sites that actually compare the two, amongst MANY that praise the super awesomeness of the BlackBerry. Believe it or not, there was one main feature that I am looking for. After my research, which was done in one day, I have decided to stick with the Plam Centro as my next super-gadget.
The main reason (for me): Categories in the calendar.

In my Palm z22 (which uses the same OS as the Centro), I am able to categorize the items I add in my calendar with different colors and names, there for with a quick glance at my monthly calender view, I can tell what days I have gigs, work projects, or bills due, by a simple colored dot. HUGE time saver, from having to go through each freaking day.
Apparently, you would need to install a 3rd party application to do just that with the BlackBerry, but its a built in feature with the Plam. Awesome.

From my z22 experience, I believe you should also be able to plug the Plam Centro into your PC, and actually manipulate data through the computer, add/remove calendar items, tasks, memos, and all that good stuff, and it would update through a quick ’sync’. I have done this with the z22, so I’m assuming that this awesome feature is still there. BlackBerry doesn’t have this feature (as far as my research has shown).

I don’t think my research is ‘too’ bias, I just wanted to make sure that the specific features that I use on a daily basis are still provided, sorry BlackBerry, your awesome, but not for me =)

Salaam.

Sorry for the delay, here are the latest in Ash world:
-I have now officially moved into my studio apartment in Mt. Vernon Baltimore, and I’m loving it. It will be referred to in the future as The AshPad =). It will become my tiny little digital playgroud, I have acquired most of the toys, including WiFi, and 32″ flatscreen TV. No couch, tv stand, or coffee table yet..but they are coming =)

-I am now a proud employee of Johns Hopkins HeathCare, I have been in orientation for 3 days, that’s right, three days! today was my 1st day on the job. The culture here is amazing, they promote a lot of team work and innovative thinking, they also take pride & joy in helping the community ON THE CLOCK, I know I’m in the right place, and everyone has been so nice and helpful, from the wonderful ladies who gave me the orientation, to my co-workers. Good Peeps as we say these days =)

-Still no progress on the studio album, Ehab was preparing for a CAD test, and has been having trouble finding time to take it, its been a couple of weeks since I’ve spoken to him, so hopefully when I call him later on this week, he would have some good news for me.

-A group of my UB Alumni comrades have openly discussed starting a little Simulation company with us being the core people. I was one of the people very interested, and have received an email with a username & password to the companies site, that’s right. They have been so pro-active (and I love it) that they have created a site already. Good thing about the situation is I won’t have to leave my job, most of us actually have jobs, or actively looking. The Company is meant for the time being to be a side project, the target product would be Educational Games for schools & universities. I believe they have their sites on Public Schools, but I can see that changing in the future, heck, I can even see us creating Educational Software for other industries.
I have a lot of faith in my fellow Alumnis, I have worked with many of them during my years of schooling, including projects that had very specific & very tight time frames (such as the 24 hour games and what not). I am confident that with our combined talents, we will be able to do some great stuff in the future.

-I am now researching to see if I should get a BlackBerry Curve or a Palm Centro, I’m still leaning towards the Centro simply because I’m familiar with the OS already, but I’m keeping my mind open. May the best Gadget win.

-And now, I head out to the Java Mamas, its been while, so this should be a pleasant evening for us all.

Salaam