I came across two Bollywood celebrity's blogs, enjoy:
- Amitabh Bachchan blog aka BIGBlog
- Amir Khan blog aka Aamir Khan
If you know any celebrity's blogs, share it with us.
Dec 27, 2008
During AGCC 2008 summit
News from Times of Oman:
News from Alwatan:
ROP puts curbs on parking of vehicles during AGCC summit
Saturday, December 27, 2008 12:29:35 AM Oman Time
MUSCAT — The Directorate of Public Relations, Royal Oman Police, has prohibited parking of vehicles on the service roads parallel to the following roads on account of the AGCC summit, which will be held here on December 29 and 30.
The prohibition will be effective from 8pm tomorrow (Sunday) to 11pm on Tuesday.
l Sultan Qaboos Road from Assahwa Tower Roundabout to Al Bustan Palace Hotel Roundabout through Muttrah Corniche, Muscat town and Sidab.
l Sultan Qaboos Road from Assahwa Tower Roundabout to Al Bustan Palace Hotel Roundabout through Al Qurum-Darsait-Al Wadi Al Kabir.
l The road will be closed as scheduled below to traffic on both sides from Assahwa Tower Roundabout to Al Bustan Palace Hotel Roundabout via Al Qurum-Darsait-Al Wadi Al Kabir. Instead, the traffic will be directed to alternative routes.
a. Monday (December 29) from 10am to 3pm
b. Tuesday (December 30) from 3pm to 8 pm.
l Heavy vehicles and trucks will not be allowed on Sultan Qaboos Road from Assahwa Tower Roundabout to Al Bustan Palace Hotel Roundabout. They will be directed to alternative routes as from 8am to 5pm on Monday (December 29) and from 12 noon to 11pm on Tuesday (December 30).
All motorists are requested to comply with the above and cooperate with the Royal Oman Police personnel.
News from Alwatan:
أثناء انعقاد مؤتمر قمة دول مجلس التعاون
شرطة عمان السلطانية تحدد الطرق البديلة للقادمين إلى مسقط
كتب ـ وليد محمود :حددت شرطة عمان السلطانية الطرق البديلة التي يجب على القادمين إلى محافظة مسقط ارتيادها بديلا عن شارع السلطان قابوس والذي سيكون مشغولا باستقبال قادة دول مجلس التعاون حيث سيتم إغلاق شارع السلطان قابوس بداية من دوار برج الصحوة حتى دوار فندق قصر البستان مرورا بجسر القرم دارسيت والوادي الكبير كما أوضحت شرطة عمان السلطانية أنه سيتم تحويل السير كليا قبل وصول ومغادرة أصحاب الجلالة والسمو قادة دول مجلس التعاون من دوار برج الصحوة إلى دوار فندق قصر البستان مرورا بجسر القرم ـ دارسيت والوادي الكبير والعكس إلى مسارات بديلة وذلك يوم الإثنين 29/12/2008م بداية من الساعة العاشرة صباحا وحتى الساعة الثالثة مساء ويوم الثلاثاء الموافق 30/12/2008م بداية من الساعة الثالثة مساء وحتى الساعة الثامنة مساء حيث يمكن للقادمين من منطقة الباطنة والمتجهين إلى محافظة مسقط والعكس سلوك شارع 18 نوفمبر بداية من جسر الموالح مرورا بالعذيبة الشمالية والغبرة الشمالية والخوير الشمالية .
أما بالنسبة للقادمين من الشرقية والداخلية إلى محافظة مسقط والعكس عليهم سلوك طريق مرتفعات المطار بداية من معسكر المرتفعة حتى دوار المستشفى السلطاني ومجمع السلطان قابوس الرياضي والخوير الجنوبية حتى مدينة الإعلام أو مرورا بطريق الأنصب شارع الأنصب ـ الجفنين ـ والرسيل إلى دوار مستشفى القوات المسلحة.
من ناحية أخرى سيتم تحويل سير الشاحنات الكبيرة كليا من شارع السلطان قابوس بداية من دوار فندق قصر البستان والعكس إلى مسارات أخرى وذلك بين الساعة الثامنة صباحا وحتى الساعة الخامسة مساء يوم الإثنين الموافق 29/12/2008م ومن الساعة 12 ظهرا حتى الساعة 11 مساء يوم الثلاثاء الموافق 30 ديسمبر .
كما تنوه شرطة عمان السلطانية إلى أنه سوف يمنع وقوف المركبات على جانبي شارع السلطان قابوس ـ جسر القرم ـ حتى فندق قصر البستان وشارع السلطان قابوس من دوار برج الصحوة حتى دوار فندق قصر البستان مرورا بالشارع البحري ـ دارسيت فمطرح فسداب .
Dec 26, 2008
Monopoly of insurance companies
Ahmed Al Falahi wrote an article on 23 Dec 2008 at the Oman Daily, an Arabic newspaper, about how insurance companies in different Welayats (regions) rip off the Omani citizens because of no supervision from higher authorities.He gave a four wheel drive with 4300 cc with third party insurance, as an example may cost OMR 300 at one company and same specification and facility it will cost OMR 70 in other company.
He said as per my understanding, the lack of competition in the regions comparing to Muscat region and neighbouring regions, which has high competitions and multi options suits everyone‘s needs. The greedy insurance companies at other regions manipulate and set the fees as they please.Can the regulatory authority do anything about it? Or do we encourage the new Intilaaqah participants to go towards setting up new insurance companies, which lacks competitions to kill monopoly and blood suckers?
Bits and Bytes
- No immigration visa to USA for Khat consumers in Yemen. Must have three years minimum of free of Khat out of the body system, with periodic medical test as a proof.
Dec 25, 2008
Rules and regulations
On my way back home, from a lovely dinner, I stopped at roundabout, waiting for the cars to pass by, I was thinking, what will really happen if I got in? what are the risks?I started thinking about how terrific for the person who came up and developed the traffic rules and regulations; how such rules is applied world wide, over years, without that, we would have been living like hooligans.
We have different Rules, standards and guideline for different purposes, some have been developed, some have been extinct and others have evolved, depending on the circumstances, economics, religion, etc many countless factors.
Without all that, we would not have existed at all.
(Click here to view the image source.)
Think out of the Box..
A friend have dropped me this article, from unknown source, and thought of sharing the same with you, it might change your thoughts.
Every company has a performance appraisal system in place to measure the effectiveness of its employees.
Employees are normally rated in most of the companies in the above categories. Apart from the above non performance category is also there, which is not depicted here . Needless to say everyone wants to be rated Outstanding.
What is the yard stick and how do you measure these aspects?
Employee "A" in a company walked up to his manager and asked what my job is for the day?
The manager took "A" to the bank of a river and asked him to cross the river and reach the other side of the bank.
"A" completed this task successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion of the task assigned. The manager smiled and said "GOOD JOB"
Next day Employee "B" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task as above to this person also.
The Employee "B' before starting the task saw Employee "C" struggling in the river to reach the other side of the bank. He realized "C" has the same task.
Now "B" not only crossed the river but also helped "C" to cross the river.
"B" reported back to the manager and the manager smiled and said "VERY GOOD JOB"
The following day Employee "Q" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again.
Employee "Q" before starting the work did some home work and realized "A", "B" & "C" all has done this task before. He met them and understood how they performed.
He realized that there is a need for a guide and training for doing this task.
He sat first and wrote down the procedure for crossing the river, he documented the common mistakes people made, and tricks to do the task efficiently and effortlessly.
Using the methodology he had written down he crossed the river and reported back to the manager along with documented procedure and training material.
The manger said "Q" you have done an "EXCELLENT JOB".
The following day Employee "O" reported to the manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again.
"O" studied the procedure written down by "Q" and sat and thought about the whole task.
He realized company is spending lot of money in getting this task completed. He decided not to cross the river, but sat and designed and implemented a bridge across the river and went back to his manager and said, "You no longer need to assign this task to any one".
The manager smiled and said "Outstanding job 'O'. I am very proud of you."
What is the difference between A, B, Q & O????????
Many a times in life we get tasks to be done at home, at office, at play….,
Most of us end up doing what is expected out of us. Do we feel happy? Most probably yes. We would be often disappointed when the recognition is not meeting our expectation.
Let us compare ourselves with "B". Helping some one else the problem often improves our own skills. There is an old proverb (I do not know the author) "learn to teach and teach to learn". From a company point of view "B" has demonstrated much better skills than "A" since one more task for the company is completed.
"Q" created knowledge base for the team. More often than not, we do the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning from other's mistake is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the team is of immense help. Re-usability reduces cost there by increases productivity of the team. "Q" demonstrated good "team-player" skills,
Now to the outstanding person, "O" made the task irrelevant; he created a Permanent Asset to the team.
If you notice B, Q and O all have demonstrated "team performance" over an above individual performance; also they have demonstrated a very invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE".
Initiative pays of every where whether at work or at personal life. If you put initiative you will succeed. Initiative is a continual process and it never ends. This is because this year's achievement is next year's task. You cannot use the same success story every year.
The story provides an instance of performance, where as measurement needs to be spread across at least 6-12 months. Consequently performance should be consistent and evenly spread.
Out-of-Box thinkers are always premium and that is what every one constantly looks out for. Initiative, Out-of-Box thinking and commitment are the stepping stone to success.
Initiative should be life long. Think of out of the box.
Every company has a performance appraisal system in place to measure the effectiveness of its employees.
Employees are normally rated in most of the companies in the above categories. Apart from the above non performance category is also there, which is not depicted here . Needless to say everyone wants to be rated Outstanding.
What is the yard stick and how do you measure these aspects?
Employee "A" in a company walked up to his manager and asked what my job is for the day?
The manager took "A" to the bank of a river and asked him to cross the river and reach the other side of the bank.
"A" completed this task successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion of the task assigned. The manager smiled and said "GOOD JOB"
Next day Employee "B" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task as above to this person also.
The Employee "B' before starting the task saw Employee "C" struggling in the river to reach the other side of the bank. He realized "C" has the same task.
Now "B" not only crossed the river but also helped "C" to cross the river.
"B" reported back to the manager and the manager smiled and said "VERY GOOD JOB"
The following day Employee "Q" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again.
Employee "Q" before starting the work did some home work and realized "A", "B" & "C" all has done this task before. He met them and understood how they performed.
He realized that there is a need for a guide and training for doing this task.
He sat first and wrote down the procedure for crossing the river, he documented the common mistakes people made, and tricks to do the task efficiently and effortlessly.
Using the methodology he had written down he crossed the river and reported back to the manager along with documented procedure and training material.
The manger said "Q" you have done an "EXCELLENT JOB".
The following day Employee "O" reported to the manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again.
"O" studied the procedure written down by "Q" and sat and thought about the whole task.
He realized company is spending lot of money in getting this task completed. He decided not to cross the river, but sat and designed and implemented a bridge across the river and went back to his manager and said, "You no longer need to assign this task to any one".
The manager smiled and said "Outstanding job 'O'. I am very proud of you."
What is the difference between A, B, Q & O????????
Many a times in life we get tasks to be done at home, at office, at play….,
Most of us end up doing what is expected out of us. Do we feel happy? Most probably yes. We would be often disappointed when the recognition is not meeting our expectation.
Let us compare ourselves with "B". Helping some one else the problem often improves our own skills. There is an old proverb (I do not know the author) "learn to teach and teach to learn". From a company point of view "B" has demonstrated much better skills than "A" since one more task for the company is completed.
"Q" created knowledge base for the team. More often than not, we do the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning from other's mistake is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the team is of immense help. Re-usability reduces cost there by increases productivity of the team. "Q" demonstrated good "team-player" skills,
Now to the outstanding person, "O" made the task irrelevant; he created a Permanent Asset to the team.
If you notice B, Q and O all have demonstrated "team performance" over an above individual performance; also they have demonstrated a very invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE".
Initiative pays of every where whether at work or at personal life. If you put initiative you will succeed. Initiative is a continual process and it never ends. This is because this year's achievement is next year's task. You cannot use the same success story every year.
The story provides an instance of performance, where as measurement needs to be spread across at least 6-12 months. Consequently performance should be consistent and evenly spread.
Out-of-Box thinkers are always premium and that is what every one constantly looks out for. Initiative, Out-of-Box thinking and commitment are the stepping stone to success.
Initiative should be life long. Think of out of the box.
Dec 24, 2008
George W Bush's farewell party
A simple gesture for George W. Bush’s farewell via shoes turned into a laughingstock. Enjoy.
1
No comment.
2
Locked
3Memories
4Now it’s the property of….
5No comment.
6The memory
7Dec 23, 2008
Spam attack
My journal been Spammed by an Anonymous who has left 6 new comments on 6 different posts, advertising his two Arabic Tunisian blogs.(Click here to view the image source.)
It seems that the person is craving for attention for his blogs, needs to increase the number of traffic (who doesn‘t), as a result I have activated the word verification for comments.
Bits and Bytes
- Mark Ruffalo brother died, and a Saudi woman was arrested then released as it was rulled out his death as homicide. As per Al Arabiya newspaper, she is a Business woman, while the other newspapers refer her as a Saudi princess. So is who is Shaha Mishaal Adham?
- Condoleezza Rice admits USA's popularity decreased since George W Bush became the precident of USA.
- Rumours about 'killer perfume' in UAE and the police denies it.
- A Turkish shoe factory had to employee 100 individuals in order to fill in the 370 thousand pair of Muntadhar al-Zaidi shoes, as it turned out to be a Turkish made.
(The post been Edited on 24 Dec 2008 20:59 PM. GMT 4+).
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