Reflection on Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 tools were taught to us in my MIS subject in my final semester before my graduation. This has been a great experience and I learnt a lot from it. The MIS subject designed a project that made us use each and every tool in a different way. It showed us and taught us to explore the different tools and learnt that they have their own specialties and advantages. Some of the tools helped us for presentations and also helped us express ourselves. My lecturer Mr. Tridib, specially assigned one of the tools called “Google Calendar” and made it my topic to train the students and teach them about it.

Some of the tools we used were Google Chrome, Google Calendar, Google searching, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Gmail.

I will now tell you my experience with some of my most favorite tools.

Google Chrome:

Google chrome is one of the best web browsers that I have used till date. Initially I used to use other web browsers but I get the fastest and most accurate results from Google Chrome.

Google Calendar:

This was the topic given to me by my professor and I had to research on it and talk about it to everyone. At the beginning I did not know anything about it. But once I learnt how to use Google Calendar, I learnt how to manage all my appointments and important events in my life. It helps me set and track important things. This tool also has the option to synchronize the appointments and events with any smart phone so that it becomes even handier to us.

Twitter:

Twitter is an online social networking site and a blogging service that enables us to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters that are known as “tweets”. This tool gives us an option to follow different people in life from friends to colleagues to TV stars and actors.

Google searching:

Google searching is one of the best search engines I have ever used. It is very accurate and gives the search results in a matter of seconds. I learnt the tips of how to use Google search for example like searching for a particular file type (like PDF). Google search also has the ability to change the search results according to the different IP addresses in different locations around the world. For example, if we go to the US and searched for a particular thing, the results would be based on the location there.

Facebook:

Facebook is a social website and in this current time, the most popular way to connect with friends, colleagues and family. It is a place where people come together and share their thoughts either good or bad and update their statuses and share photos. Friends also have the options to create small private groups and be an active part of it every day. 

Blog:

Blogs allow me to share my thoughts and experiences that took place in my life among different people. It also allows educators and students to collaborate, share instructional resources and create content.   

Gmail:

Gmail is definitely the best one. It is simple, fast and amazing. The filters that we create help us be more organized with our emails. It also has a great connection with other Google tools like Calendar, Blog, Google drive, YouTube etc. Everything from computers to android phones run entirely on Google all the time.

At the end of the day, doing this whole project and creating the blog and learning about these tools was an unforgettable experience. I was able to share this experience and read about my classmates experiences as well. It helped us connect to each other much more and work as a team. I am very happy that we had a chance to work on it.

The best vacation in my life

I have travelled to many different countries in my entire life, but the best one so far was my trip to Turkey. It was a trip that was planned with my entire college along with 2 staff teachers. It lasted for one week. We left on 14^th December 2012 and we landed directly in Istanbul. Half the day went by in travelling from Dubai to Istanbul. The rest of the day we spent relaxing in the hotel.

On the 2^nd day, the entire day was spent doing the Ottoman Tour including Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and Grand Covered Bazaar.  The best place i liked the most was the Topkapi palace because it housed a lot of important artifacts from the past. the interior architecture of the blue mosque was also a very pretty sight.

On the 3rd day, we spent our day going to the  mountain top where i experienced and felt snow for the 1st time in my life. We had a lot of fun playing in the snow and having snowball fights. We also took turns to ride on the snow mobile. We had lunch and then returned back to the hotel. After that we spent the rest of the day shopping around the place.

On the 4th day, we had a Full Day Bursa City Tour. We went to the Muradiye area and saw the Great Mosque.

On the 5^th day, we had a visit to the Dolmabahce Palace. The rest of the day we also visited the OZYEGIN University in Istanbul.

On the 6^th day, after breakfast,  we took a 1 hr flight from Istanbul to Cappadocia. After reaching there, we visited the Kaymakli Underground City.  It was built 5000yrs ago. We also visited a lot of churches around the area.

On the 7^th day, we visited the Goreme Open air museum. We also did an easy one hour hike in rose valley through fairy chimneys. The rest of the day we also spent going to irchards and vineyards.

On the 8^th day, we took a flight back to Istanbul, spent 2 hours shopping around and then sadly headed back to the airport to come back to Dubai. 

Here are some pictures in Turkey...

Blue Mosque

architecture of the blue mosque 

Rose Valley 

Dolmabahce Palace

On the way to Bursa

Cappadocia 

Our hotel in Cappadocia

 Kaymakli Underground City

Top of the mountain

The 1st wedding in the family

10 years ago, all my siblings were single and we all wished for a wedding to happen in the family. My brother decided to get married to a girl that he was in love with for 7 years. We all were very excited as it was the 1^st wedding in the family. And at the same time, there was another proposal for my elder sister as well. Thank God, that proposal worked out as well. Both marriages were fixed one month after the other.

We then went to India and bought all the wedding clothes from there for the occasions. We came back here and decorated the entire house with lights and thousands of jasmine flowers that were ordered specially from India for the wedding. We made a lot of Indian food.  We danced around with family and friends till the mornings.

For the main wedding day, we went all together to the designers to make beautiful dresses. We decorated our hands with Henna. Both the weddings took place in the same hotel called JW Marriott.

We cried a lot when my sister was leaving to her in-laws place. In her place, we were also very glad to have my brother’s wife, a new member joining our family.

The Life of a Vegetarian in a Meat-Eating World

A huge population on this planet enjoys eating meat. Some can’t survive on a diet without it. The same applies to my family as well. Everyone in my family are meat eaters except for one exception, me.

I have been a vegetarian since childhood. The story behind this is very interesting. As a child, we used to have goats being slaughtered outside my home during a Muslim occasion called Eid. As a child, I happened to stumble and witness a slaughter that was taking place. As a child, this incident turned to be very upsetting for me. Since then, I stopped looking at meat of any kind and turned completely vegetarian.

These are some of the ways that my life has become better after becoming a vegetarian…

I don’t have to clean up animal juices in the kitchen.

I discovered Thai and Indian food.

We have more grocery money to spend on expensive specialty foods.

I don’t even have to think about adding vegetables to my meals.

I sleep a million times better when I don’t go to bed all bloated and full of animal parts.

I spend 80% of my grocery shopping time in the produce section.

There’s a lot more room in the freezer.

http://www.nomeatathlete.com/75-ways-going-vegetarian-has-made-my-life-better/

The stepping stone in my career

My career path started right after high school when I joined Mashreq Bank immediately. Initially I found it very hard to balance between work life, family and the continuation of my studies.  But after a while, I found it easier to balance everything. Time management was of utmost importance for me.

When I first joined Mashreq, I was given training in the Customer Service, Business English and computer skills department for 3 months. I worked as the support staff for the Central Account Department. After a year of working there, I was promoted as an accountant. This helped me choose accounting as my major when I planned to continue my further studies. Not only did it build my foundation in accounting, it also helped me interact with people of all cultures and walks of life.

Important lessons in life were taught to me at the workplace. I learnt how to manage my time and I also learnt how to take responsibilities. I also learnt how to support my colleagues at work and how to work under pressure. I became more bold and courageous and also learnt how to be independent in life at a very early age. I learnt how to analyze and solve my problems, at workplace and in life.

I worked for a total time of 5 years and 3 months at Mashreq Bank. It was a very important foundation for my life and my career. I currently work at Dubai health authority and I have realized how important the experience at Mashreq Bank has been for me and my career

My Weekend getaway

After having worked 5 days in the week i.e Sunday to Thursday, weekends are something that I really look forward to. One of my personal favorites is spending time with my immediate and extended family members in the desert.

4 months ago, my family and I decided that we needed a place to get away to during the weekends. So we decided to put up 2 big tents in the middle of the desert which is dedicated to us. Here we barbecue and burst fire crackers. We also play games and watch TV. Here we do things together as a family like singing and dancing. We also spend time sitting and talking for hours together.

The best part about this get away is that everyone in the immediate and extended family come together and spends precious time together. 

Here are some of the pictures in the deserts ...

New Year Celebration

Watch amazing fireworks in Burj Khalifa on Happy New Year 2013. It is really incredible fireworks.