Khawaja: My daily life

Do-it-yourselfers are simply people who dare to build and compose innovative products out of basic things available around. In fact, the term do-it-yourself didn’t enter the language until the early ’50s, and the abbreviation DIY soon followed.

A year ago, I’ve read an article by Paul McFedries, that says we live in the age of tech DIY in which geeks of all persuasions and both sexes engage in various forms of digital tinkering and hardware hacking. It is interesting to know that the vast majority of the DIY widgets fall under the new category of open-source hardware. The recipes and constructopedias that explain how to create them are shared with anyone who wants them. That brings in more DIYers, and the hobbyist renaissance grows even bigger.

Bashiti Hardware –a specialized hardware retailer in Jordan- organized a national DIY competition last year as part of its role in supporting this culture among Jordanians. Unfortunately I was not able to join or -at least- be there take photos and meet the DIYers but I’m sure it was an extraordinary experience for everyone.

I was really impressed when I read a news release that says MIT has recently released fun-filled comic-book called: “Howtoons” that is designed to inspire youngsters all over the world with a sense of can-do adventure, and to teach them a few principles of science and engineering--and a sense of the creative possibilities all around them--along the way of just having fun.

In this comic book, cartoon kids Celine and Tucker set up a home workshop and then proceed to build a whole series of toys and gadgets out of leftover items. The idea for Howtoons came about when Bonsen and Griffith were MIT graduate students. They organized few workshops that include few of the construction projects - for local schoolchildren and invited MIT professors to come and bring their families. The book evolved spontaneously as people attended these workshops tinkered and experimented with a variety of simple materials.

The impetus for developing the concept into a business plan came when they took a class in developmental entrepreneurship taught by Legatum Center founder and faculty director Alex "Sandy" Pentland.

The projects range from rockets and goggles to simple electric motors, a marshmallow-shooting blowgun, and a simple way of making homemade ice cream. The materials are mostly everyday items like plastic bags and bottles, rubber bands and paper clips.

The idea of publishing this comic-book is to make the instructions as visually self-explanatory as possible, so that kids anywhere can use them without having to read the words (although the book will also be translated into several languages – hopefully Arabic language would be one of them!).

I would like to conclude by a quote for Bonsen – one the co-authors of Howtoons: "We want to inspire them to think about the world around them not as it is, but as it could be."

Special smiles for a special Eid! :)

When you fail to solve any problem ... always remember:
The one -who kneels to God- can stand up to anything!

True.. very ture :)

Jood and her little cow wish you a Happy Eid this year and every year!

It is my pleasure to introduce to you Mohammad Shar'; a specialized computer programmer in adaptive technologies.

Mohammed Al-Shar', who was born blind, has exceeded the expectations of his community and today he does what most of his peers with sight might find difficult!

While many blind people have gone beyond the odds to succeed, Al-Shar' has even taken his confidence to a new level of challenging his disability by learning and mastering computer programming. Currently, he is working as a technical support and training executive for Nattiq technologies, an international firm that specializes in assistive (also called adaptive) technologies.

To know more about Mohammad and his success story I invite you to read my articles @ October's issue of JO magazine. The article title is: "Life is Virtual".

You may also view the amazing video broadcasted at Al Jazeera channel few months ago.

If you receive this post by email, you need to accesss: http://mkhawaja.jeeran.comto be able to watch the video.

It's a pleasure inviting you to this Iftar...

Last weekend, mE, Hama and little Jood have rushed to Syria for an amazing trip. I consider that was a perfect opportunity for us to refresh and break out the daily routine while visiting an extraordinary destinations in Syria...

Jood was so cute "mashallah"; mE and Hama were about to eat her!, but the delicious food was enough to keep her safe this time ;)

This trip, I didn't use my digital photo camera that much, since I started to use our new video camera which recorded so nice moments we've spent there..

Damascus the capital was not up-to my expectation, I felt like this city has to be more organized and more beautiful. Being an old city doesn't mean it is acceptable to be less clean and messed up.

Summer resorts like Khadra and Fega was disgusting! I've been there 10 years ago while water was flowing around the place making it such a tranquil romantic atmosphere. but now, water are getting shallow and the place is no longer attractive for tourists.

On the other hand, We have spent a wonderful time at Blodan and Beqqan. The municipality of these two districts were keen to organize buildings and the green areas to come up with a wonderful landscape.

We made our own adventures at Hamidieh Shopping "Mall" and the Omayyad Mosque, it was really remarkable moments with pigeons, merchants and the mangonel of Saladin.

On the way back to Jordan, I was annoyed with the behaviors of Jordanian police officers on the borders; unfortunately, they were arrogant and frowning all the time! I hate to say that ... but this is the truth, I wish they would join a training course in customer service!

I conclude here with few nice photos from Syria.. while preparing to compress video files and post them online soon enshallah...

Ramadan Kareeeeeeeem :)

Yesterday, I was lucky to drive the SolarTaxi; a solar-powered car that travels around the world to promote the use of clean energy and fight against human actions that cause global warming.

Louis –the car driver and the tour director- expressed that the story has begun when he was a 15-year-old boy; his dream was simply to drive a car powered by solar energy and hence it consumes ZERO drops of patrol. But sadly, after 15 years his dream did not come true since it is not affordable now to buy such a car. That was not the end; he took the challenge and worked hard communicating with Swiss universities, research centers, private sector companies so that his dream would come true and accumulated the effort to build the first prototype for his dream car.

I look at this initiative as a wonderful evidence of cooperation between academia and industry in Switzerland, and I think Jordanian universities have to shake the hands of the private sector and work on similar R&D projects that would raise the quality of our education and contribute in the growth of vital local industrial sectors.

Oil will not continue to be the most affordable type of energy in the upcoming 10-20 years! If Arabs is not ready for such a day when other alternatives of energy would be more feasible for both human and industrial applications, they will be the biggest losers ever!!

On the other hand, This initiative rings the bell to take serious actions about the everlasting problem of global warming, and think of effective solutions that we can put into action today to rescue our planet and prevent further abuse of natural resources.

The interesting thing is that the car is equipped with GPS so that you can track it online, through its official website.

I invite you also to read the press release published at Alghad newspaper about the demonstration of the SolarTaxi at the Royal Scientific Society.

last but not least, make sure to watch this short video that I did take for the SolarTaxi...

Good Day!

Enjoy watching Jood's first bath right after her birth....

leave you with the historical video in Jood life :)

P.S. If receive this post by email, I think you need to visit the blog (http://mkhawaja.jeeran.com) to be able to play this video.

This morning Allah enlightened our life with the birth of JOOd -my eldest and only daughter!

Stay tuned to this blog to enjoy watching and browsing Jood impressive photos and videos since the very early moments of life!

Bless you little Jood :)