Hanging Out with Friends at Bashundhara City

This week I went out with a couple of my college friends for the first time, and the chosen place was Bashundhara City which is said to be the largest shopping complex in South Asia.

With a camera attached to a wide-angle lens I could take mind-blowing photographs of the complex because it’s really a great place. But that’s not why we went there. Our main reason was to buy some gift for my niece, eat some chicken fries and play pool billiard. However, we ended up playing pool and blessing ourselves with some fried chickens but no gift for my niece. I always find it difficult to come up with an idea for a gift. Since she’s only about 3 months, we thought it wouldn’t be a nice idea to buy her something like a doll or a cuddly teddy bear. Most of my relatives have bought her dresses, but I wanted to do something different. Turns out, at this moment, dress is the only thing I can buy for her.

But you know what, I suck at choosing dress. When I [rarely] go out for shopping, I have a tough time choosing shirts for myself. So, we figured that we need some female to help out at shopping for the baby girl. Therefore, our hangout at Bashundhara City was only for having fun, eating and playing pool billiard.

One of my friends and I went to the complex straight from the college, so I had my uniform on, while others came from home.

aminul islam sajib and rivu hossain

aminul islam sajib, rahman abir and rivu hossain

aminul islam sajib, rumman and rahman abir

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1 Comment
by Sajib on January 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diary, Friends, Fun, Photo
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Posted by Sajib on January 27, 2012

http://aisjournal.com/2012/01/27/hanging-out-with-friends-at-bashundhara-city/

Taking Lessons From Everyday Life

I blacked out my entire day. Not in protest of SOPA/PIPA. The entire day I didn’t do anything. It’s like I wasted a day from my life. I didn’t plan to do it. It just happened that I had a blacked out day.

When you close your eyes, no matter how wealthy and powerful person you are, your world turns black, unless your face is under direct flashlight. :P

With that said, I blacked out my day. ;) I didn’t feel like getting off my bed although I was awake in the morning. For the first time in a long time, I heard my mobile phone’s alarm at 6 in the morning which I miss every day. I don’t have college today. Fridays are weekends here in Bangladesh. So, I didn’t really have to hear the morning alarm. But I did. Tomorrow I need to wake up at 6 in the morning, but I know I won’t hear the alarm as usual.

When you need something, that doesn’t show up. When you don’t, it keeps popping up around you.

I had a dream or a nightmare given that I had that in the daytime sleep. I was given keys to a large NOAH car. I felt that I was in my college and one of my bosses left the car for me in the college parking ground. I didn’t know that I had the keys. The door was open and I got into the car knowing that it was boss’. After having a vision of driving the car around the city, I finally discovered that the I had the keys in my pocket. So, I ignited the car and got out of the parking lot.

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4 Comments
by Sajib on January 20, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diary, Inspirational, Life, Thoughts
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Posted by Sajib on January 20, 2012

http://aisjournal.com/2012/01/20/taking-lessons-from-everyday-life/

New Worms Inside My Head: DSLR vs Android Phone

They say sometimes worms get into my head and stick there for a while. It’s like one of those moments I’m going through when two worms are troubling to survive inside my head. Let’s talk about them.

DSLR Camera

If you would take a look at my 2011′s resolutions that I wrote on January 1st, 2011, you would see that I had a DSLR camera in my wishlist next to a laptop. I was fortunate enough to buy myself a laptop computer and I was lucky as I was picked up as the first runner-up in a blogging competition and was given the prize of a Samsung digital camera.

I loved the camera. Well, I still love it. But after trying out to shoot photos in multiple programs including concerts, I figured that compact digital camera was not my piece of cake. I mean, I love the portability a point-and-shoot provides. It’s good. But my particular camera troubles when shooting portrait photos. If I turn off the flash, it gives a very low-light output. ISO can be set manually but it doesn’t help much. If flash is turned on, the subject face is burned out. I’ve seen other point-and-shoots including an Olympus one that doesn’t have the same problem.

When it comes to landscape photography, I must say that I’m happy with it. But if I were to take outstanding photographs, indoor photographs, my camera doesn’t quite get the job done. It still is useful if you want to keep any photographic evidence of something. But if you wish to be creative, you wouldn’t rely on my camera if you want to play with settings. Above all, it doesn’t deliver sharp photos. Here are some of the photos I loved that were taken with my current Samsung ST60.

art by nature

Art by Nature. Click to visit original photo page.

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4 Comments
by Sajib on January 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Photo, Technology, Thoughts
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Posted by Sajib on January 19, 2012

http://aisjournal.com/2012/01/19/new-worms-inside-my-head-dslr-vs-android-phone/

What is SOPA/PIPA and Why the Web is Going Dark on January 18, 2012

You may not be too much into technology. You probably don’t go to Mashable and Huffington Post Tech every day. But that doesn’t get you out of what may actually happen if the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) turns into a law. I know, many people give it a go because it sounds so innocent. A bill to stop online piracy. This sounds so innocent that you don’t really understand the affect of it immediately.

There’s a reason why big sites like Facebook, WordPress, Google, AOL, Twitter, eBay and more are protesting the proposed SOPA/PIPA bill while numerous other sites including reddit, Boing Boing, and our very good friend Wikipedia is going dark on January 18, 2012. Check out a list of websites that are supporting the strike in protest of SOPA. The blackout, also known as strike, has some reasons that not only affect their business but also affect us — the end Internet users. Try to look up something on Wikipedia’s English version on January 18 and you’ll suddenly discover what it would be like if SOPA turns into a law.

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19 Comments
by Sajib on January 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Talk of the Time, Technology
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Posted by Sajib on January 17, 2012

http://aisjournal.com/2012/01/17/what-is-sopapipa-and-why-the-web-is-going-dark-on-january-18-2012/

Cold Wave Strikes Again

This past week has been incredibly cold in Dhaka. Well, don’t start comparing it with your minus twenty degree Celsius because that’s not we deal with over here. Compared to what we’re used to, the weather of the past couple of days had been very cold. It’s like you will give anything to avoid getting off your bed in the morning. I skipped my college three days in a row before finally forcing myself to go to college yesterday (it’s 12:xx am).

winter in bangladesh

This reminds me of the winter seasons I spent at my village. I so love being in village in winter season. It is just wonderful!

But I discovered something. I wasn’t surprised, but it made me wonder. It’s not that cold when you go outside. I went to college yesterday and did every little thing to avoid from ending up in parade ground (well, that’s another whole story, I’ll skip that). I felt the cold wave until about 9 or 10 am in the morning. As the sun rose up, it was sunny day and some of us were even sweating. Read the full post »

7 Comments
by Sajib on January 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bangladesh, Diary
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Posted by Sajib on January 17, 2012

http://aisjournal.com/2012/01/17/cold-wave-strikes-again/

Why My Cycling Came to a Halt : “You’re Never Safe in the Streets of Dhaka”

cycling in bangladesh

If you have been following my blog for a while, or if you’ve coincidentally read some of my earlier posts, you must have noticed how I got excited about learning a bicycle ride and hitting the road with BDCyclists group. Well, I was actually never able to hit the road with the group as my learning phase didn’t complete. The training session was halted, and hasn’t been resumed yet, due to dense fog in the morning. But that’s not what caused my cycling passion to come to a standstill.

I arranged some money, about 8 thousand taka ($100) to get my hands on a shiny new bicycle. I knew, I wouldn’t get that much of a good bicycle. But I’d still be able to manage a branded single gear beginner’s bike. It went all okay until it came down to my family. They wouldn’t approve me to ride a bicycle in today’s risky road. I remember when I used to be in high school, I wanted a bicycle so badly. But my parents never bought me one. They’d say, if we were in village, they’d buy me a bicycle. Since we were in city, it’s risky out there.

Fast forward to 2011, I’ve managed to get some way to earn the money I need as my pocket-money as well as Internet bill, mobile cost and so on. So, I was able to buy a bicycle by my own money, but I’m not buying because of family issue. They say, it’s risky out there.

But if you ask me, in Dhaka, it’s risky to even get out of your home (more on this later). Yesterday night, when coming back from WebExBD office, I saw two bus collision near my home. One was lying on the road upside down. And if you live in Bangladesh, you’ll see plenty of such accidental scenes on a daily basis in newspapers. Watch a few accident scenes caused by reckless driving (which is common among all public transportation drivers) in Dhaka: Read the full post »

24 Comments
by Sajib on January 14, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bangladesh, Diary, Sad
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Posted by Sajib on January 14, 2012

http://aisjournal.com/2012/01/14/why-my-cycling-came-to-a-halt-youre-never-safe-in-the-streets-of-dhaka/

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