Diving, iPhones and Other Things

Got a new toy.. an iPhone.

Each of the employees in IT have been given the option to have an iPhone or a Blackberry. I chose the iPhone because of its possible use in eLearning. I have added a few free tools that can be downloaded from the Internet. I have a tool for scuba diving (more about each of these later), a tool for Blackboard and the ‘iPray’ tool …. 8-)   Also included in the free tools I have acquired, is a Bloomberg stock-chart tool that is really cool. Each of these tools is a little self-contained program that does something unique.
After my small group of friends got our new mobile phones, my boss passed by while we were standing outside one day and commented on our huddle…. We had our heads together, standing in a circle busily calling each other and then taking the missed calls and adding names and details, building our contact list in our phones. He said we looked like a group of guys planning a conspiracy. There is a lot of work to ensure that one is accessible – we each have a private mobile, a desk phone, our new work mobiles and our home numbers. I wonder what life was like when a person had to walk over to someone and ask a question. Man! That must have been like the Stone Age!

Eating in the Cafeteria

The cost of eating is going up here. Food is now not free in the restaurants in around where the houses are. But, it is still worth the bike ride to the cafeteria as it remains free there and will be we think till after the second Eid holiday (December 4). I have been staying a little late at my desk so that I can stop at the cafeteria on the way home. By around 6 or so the sun is starting to set and it is wonderful to sit at the window facing the sea, looking over a reflection pool outside the window and watching the sun set over Egypt. Some day I will follow the sun and visit that country.

Scuba Lessons
I searched on the phone’s ‘application store’ to see if there was anything for calculating how long I could stay under water while diving. I searched on PADI which is the association that my lessons are through. I found one. Too bad the phone is not waterproof!

This whole diving thing started with me coming to Saudi concerned with how I would fill my time – so I thought that I might look into the following: getting certified for diving, sailing, doing a bunch of fishing and a few other things between my work day…. Well, always keeping my eyes open for an opportunity, I was talking one day with a student and he told me about the scuba lessons he was taking. Ah ha! I jumped right in and invited myself to the lessons. I joined the class at lesson #3, but that was not a problem because they have everything on DVDs these days and I could bring that home and watch just as well as being in the classroom. Incidentally I have attempted to get fully certified two times before but each time fate conspired against me and I was not able to take the final open-water exam although I passed the written exam – I still never became certified. So, I sat in on class #3 and then two days later was in the pool at a local resort just along the coast, south of KAUST. The glass is made up of a large group of Mexican students, a sprinkling of Chinese a Brit and a tag-along Canadian who is just about old enough to be their father. We spent 6 or so hours in the pool (I got wrinkles on the wrinkles on my hands as you can see!)

The sea dive was great! We walked out about 100 ft from the stairs that we went down to get to the water and then swam parallel to the shore for another 50 feet. Where we started to swim, was the drop-off. What a surprise.  There is just a cliff underwater that drops to about 35 feet and all along its vertical surface is living coral and fish all over the place in spectacular rainbow colors. We swam out to a small buoy and dove down from there following a rope that was anchored to a wire frame platform. I understand that this first dive usually has a rope to assist in the drop down to the bottom. I went first because I was indentified as being able to control my air consumption and would be the longest down at the bottom. I held onto the wire frame and watched the fish swim around me like large colorful soap bubbles on a gentle breeze. As more and more of us came down, it was interesting to watch the bubbles floating up like curtains slowly rising at a theatre flashing colors as the sun set. I can not underestimate the pleasure experienced by all when we were traveling home. A good day!

My job:
Presently, I am working with a program that contains online courses called Blackboard. Hence the iPhone tool for Blackboard – I read that it is more of a communication tool for email and course communication than a ‘learning’ tool that you use to do assignments with.
Acting as a Blackboard application administrator, I have been dealing with student accounts and their enrolments into courses. Along with that, there have been technical problems with the way that all the computer systems interact which in most cases means that we have to deal with each issue one-by-one rather than changing something and everyone’s problem is fixed.
Assisting the teachers in their use of this program (training) is another task that I have right now. I have been enjoying getting around the campus on desk-visits to the teachers’ offices. This gives me time to help them and get to know them a bit. I am very impressed with the caliber of researchers and professors that KAUST has. I sure hope that I have opportunity to find out what they do – observe them in action as it were.
It is particularly nice to be sitting eating in the cafeteria (still eating free food!) and when I look around, there is often someone to wave to. 8-)
I have been riding my bicycle around campus for about two weeks now since my shipment came. There is a bike shop on campus now although sadly, the owner has underestimated his customers and I fear that he will not get many. All his product is of the cheapest material around! We got a bike like one of the ones in this shop when we were in Dubai and within a few days it was covered with rust and we were not too keen on riding an ‘ugly’ bike. Shortly later the tires were always flat and the thing just continued to deteriorate.  It constantly amazes me to think of the effort that is put into making objects that last such a short time!
While Arindam and I were visiting this bike shop and asking about a bike lock for Arindam, there was another person who arrived. He was greeted by the owner and then a sales person took him to the side of the shop and opened a door and pulled out a new shiny motorcycle. It was the kind that is halfway between a scooter and a motorbike. The sales-guy spent some time describing and pointing out all the buttons and things while the new owner listened and nodded his head. We went back in and purchased the lock and were standing out beside our bikes talking when the new owner having started the bike, revved the engine a few times and took off right into a concrete post! We turned around to this almighty crash and stood with our mouths open for a while -- then became self-conscious of our appearance and rode away. As we left, the owner was sitting on the bike getting his front forks straightened by the sales-guy. I should have told him to get the bike delivered and leave it in his garage for a few weeks before he takes it out. New vehicles are always jinxed! Come to think of it, maybe this guy is one of the few who did not have a Saudi drivers license? Oh! And Arandam had to return the bike lock because it did not open. 8-/

And for the final iPhone tool, the iPray.
I learned about this this morning finding that many people are using it. Apart for the intended use of assisting Moslems in their daily prayer-life, us non-Moslems have found it quite valuable in assisting us to work around prayer times. You might have read in a previous post how shopping is a challenge to us newly arrived people in Saudi Arabia. Well, this tool provides not only the time of the next prayer but with a simple touch of the finger, the user can see how much time there is left till ‘store closing time.’ For example, today the prayer times are 5 am, 6:17 am, 12:07 pm, 3:27 pm, 5:55 pm and 7:25 pm. The last two are the issue when you travel to the shopping malls on the ‘shopping bus.’ We leave around 5 pm, get there just at closing time or just before, have to hang around for about a ½ hour and then do some power-shopping for about an hour and then hang out again till stores open again around 8:10 or so. The busses leave the malls about 10:20. I think I will have to take the ‘trip’ again shortly as I need to get a hair cut and there is no facility here on campus yet. 8-/

And a final bit of information.
I heard from Mohamed that he had to sign a document at the school here (gr. 8) for his daughter to take home her MacBook Pro. Each of the school children get to use a MacBook. I am not sure if that is ALL the students or just the middle school and high school. But on top of that, they also get an iTouch which is the same as my iPhone but does not have the phone. Students would be able to connect to the internet through wireless or their computers and download all the small programs just like I have. What the schools will do with these bits of technology for the students? Who knows! It would be fun being a teacher at those schools that is for sure!

Post Script...  Today I was awoken by a call to prayer at 5am. from the bedside table.  I was so sure I had turned  the sound off!