MyLifeDump

Pakistani American Culture Center (PACC) is organizing a Jashan-e-Baharan (Basant) Celebration this Saturday Mar 3rd, 2008 from 12:00PM – 5:00PM. Location is Baylands Park, Sunnyvale (Exit off 237 @ Lawrence/ E. Caribbean).

Activities include a sumptuous Lahori Lunch (Tandoori Specialities, Chaat House, Halva Puri, Samosas, Pakoras, Lassi, and lot more) Bhangra Performances, Adult and Children Kite Competitions with
Live Dhole beat, and Live Music.

Admission is FREE.

I so want to go to this Basant Celeberation but the Urdu Cultural Event is also on Saturday and Nida is performing in one of the skits so I am stretched now.

Pakistani Students Association at the University of California, Berkeley is hosting an urdu language cultural event on May 3rd, 2008. The event called “Eik Dupair, Urdu Ki Sair” which in English means “An Afternoon Dedicated to Urdu” will have a variety of segments in Urdu that will include skits, plays, musical performances like Qawwali, speeches by Urdu literaries and students and other fun activities. From what I hear, they will have english translation to most of the segments so even if you don’t understand Urdu, you can still enjoy the show.

Here are the details:

Saturday May 3rd, 2pm
145 Dwinelle Hall, UCB
Tickets: $5 [To purchase, call (415) 948-8127 or look for the PSA table on Sproul Plaza. Tickets will also be sold at the door]
Refreshments will be served!

The facebook event page can be accessed at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11971077091

Last week I upgraded MLD (this blog) to the latest version of Wordpress which is 2.5. I am writing my first post using the new wordpress admin and it is excellent.

I cannot stop loving wordpress, it is an excellent piece of code written by generous people who have made wordpress available free of charge to the blogosphere. All bloggers currently using wordpress to run their blogs are in great debt to the wordpress developer team.

I am sure that they will keep on improving wordpress in future. My problem right now is that I need to upload my other websites currently running old wordpress versions. I plan on doing that in coming weeks.

I know I have not been blogging lately as time is of essence to me these days but I guess nothing really has been happening these days besides the economy being in the tank and the gas prices reaching $4/Gallon unleaded.

I talked about a girl being disqualified from an interview at Hollywood Video because she was wearing a head scarf a week ago and I am happy to report an update in that case.

Apparently, a CAIR representative contacted the manager to mediate the matter explaining that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment.

Yes, the manager apologized for her actions and will comply with the following CAIR requests:

1. Will provide another interview to the Muslim woman

2. Allow the Muslim woman to wear her religiously mandated headscarf in accordance with Title VII.

3. Provide the Muslim woman with a formal written apology.

When you are on the right side, you usually end up with good results. I don’t know if now she is interested in this job anymore, If I were her, I wouldn’t be…

I attended the SFSU career fair yesterday and was disappointed at how things were organized. SFSU gym definitely wasn’t the place for this career fair. It is very small and it was really crowded in there. I don’t know why the GYM was chosen for this career fair because in the Cesar Chavez Student Center, there is Jack Adams Hall which I believe can easily fit around 1000 people and is the biggest hall on the campus.

As I walk in, I see employers that were not even on the list. Seems like they were there just to market their company or spread awareness. Recruiters were dressed in Polo shirt and seemed un professional. Most of the company representatives I talked to said “GO ONLINE” and apply for the job. What the heck is the point of a career fair if I am re-directed to the internet for submission of my resume? I am not interested in your company pen or paper cutter that is made in china…

I went to San Francisco City’s booth and handed the lady my application which I had already filled out at home and was waiting to turn it in. She takes the application, looks at it then hands it back to me telling me she is not collecting any applications from applicants. Once again, why the heck are you in a career fair if you can’t take applications and resumes? Who is putting a gun to your head? All she had on her table were print out of city jobs that can also be viewed online.

Do the recruiters really think that a job applicant is at their table to find out if the company’s stock should be bought or sold? If I need information about the company, I can go online and do my research. If I am at a company’s booth, I want to know if they have a job available for people with accounting majors, what are the requirements and if resumes are being accepted. That’s It!

Obviously after glancing at my resume if they see fit, they can take me to a side and take an informal interview. That is not something I will be deciding but I am obviously ready for it. I saw students forcing recruiters to take the resumes and the recruiters being hesitant to take the resumes and give out their business cards. Seriously, it was JOKE!