I love music. Everybody loves music. Many of us are always looking for new amazing music to help us relax, party, be happy, be angry, or just to hear in the background. Music is part of everybody as everyone can relate to something being played, sang or said.

Last week a friend of mine (Thanks Ahmed!) recommended I download an app called 8tracks (available here for Androids: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.e8tracks&hl=en and here for Apple products: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/8tracks-radio/id346194763?mt=8)

With the slogan “8tracks is internet radio created by people, not algorithms.” I thought it might be a boring app that doesn’t benefit me or my music taste in any way. However, I was pleasantly surprised; finding indie and similar music can be difficult sometimes as it isn’t as mainstream as say, pop music. With 8tracks however, I was able to find so many amazing playlists and discovered countless new songs. Personally, my favourite playlists include “Relax + Sleep” or “Chill + Indie”. That’s the beauty of the app; you search what you want to hear and what you want, you usually get.

It’s an excellent app and everyone whose used it has spoken positively about it so I recommend you check it out if you’re interested in discovering amazing new music. Finally, don’t worry if you don’t have a device or data plan to support the app! There’s a website where you can play the exact same stuff on your laptop! Give it a try now here: http://8tracks.com/

I hope you enjoy this service as much as I did and have a great day!

If you’re reading this, CONGRADULATIONS! You’ve survived the 9123810923809129308123-th end-of-the-world scenario! Take a brief moment to applaud yourself for this life-changing amazing achievement. You really have achieved the unachievable. Done the undoable. Nothing but pure greatness oozes out of your incredible self.

Now obviously if you do not sense the sarcasm in that introduction, the Mayan end-of-the-world scenario should have probably hit you. Just kidding, jokes aside… This ridiculous event that has swept the world off its feet has been pushed just a little too far in my opinion. Have you seen the Facebook posts? If you answered “no”, I respect you sir. Or miss… because you probably did the sane thing and logged off those social media websites for the two days revolving around the event like me!

It all started (well, exploded) with the 2009 movie “2012” (IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/). To be honest, I was one of the people who were most excited about this entire 2012 end-of-the-world scenario and went crazy with all the research about it, about planet X and all that. But for the love of God people, I was 13 back then; I was allowed to be stupid! I’ve seen people as old as myself, or sometimes even older, COMPLETELY freaking out about this whole thing. Even read that some guy managed to get rid of his entire wealth and everything he owns before the “world ended”. I don’t know about you, but I would love a new laptop bought from the generous donations of a lunatic. Until he or she demand their money back of course…

It’s just mind-blowing how we as a society, an advanced global society could still believe in such myths. I mean, whether it’s the Mayan calendar fail, the 2000’s THE ENTIRE WORLD IS GONNA DIEEEE thing or that old redneck guy who told all Christians that the rapture is coming, the entertainment coming out of such ridiculous events NEVER seems to disappoint. And REALLY humans, how gullible can you be? I mean If a 70 year old man on the death’s front doors can fool a few thousand people into believing the world’s going to end, what can a 17 year old IB student do? THAT’S RIGHT. Write about that fool to gain CAS hours. (Does this still count as creativity? ^.-)

Anyway, as I come to an end, more like have nothing to say anymore, I would just like to take a brief moment to tell you lovely readers this:

The world’s ending next week… Seriously… For real, look it up on Google or Bing or isuckwithtechnologyandletmygrandsondoallthesearching.com I don’t know… Just know that your dearest possessions, your money, your house, your cars, and any other things you think I can scam you for with this could be sent directly to my address. I’d be more than happy to receive them and pray for your survival, I mean really, after all, how do you think you survived the last 1238120938910238 near-world-end events?

The Olympics is a huge event that is viewed by an approximate of a billion people worldwide! The event involves over 200 countries competing in different events

The Summer Olympics began Friday, 27 July 2012, and ends Sunday, 12 August 2012.

The highlight of yesterdays ceremony was a surprise entrance from the one and only ROWAN ATKINSON (MR.BEAN). I found it pretty boring after that, especially all the waiting just to see the Omani Olympians!

It was well worth the wait although I was a little disappointed because weren’t on TV for long. Oman is participating in the summer Olympics for the 7th time and who knows maybe one day we’ll compete in the winter Olympics, we might need a ‘Ski Oman’ first!

The four Omanis participating at the Olympics are as follows:

Ahmed AL-HATMI who is competing in shooting

Shinoona Saleh AL-HABSI, Barakat Mubarak Al-HARTHI and Ahmed Mohamed AL-MERJABI who are all competing in athletics

–All information comes from the official Olympic website–

I’m sure we all wish these amazing athletes good luck as they showcase all the effort and hard work they have put in to reach these games.

Blink. Left. Right. They’re everywhere. The object of so much love can be seen around the country, almost everybody has one. Blackberry mobile phones continue to sell very well around Muscat and have been for the past couple of years. The device has swept aside previously huge market-leader Nokia and it still manages to fight off the rest of the world’s revered Apple iPhone. The secret to everybody hearts or pocket has been the notorious BlackBerry Messenger that you may have heard while passing people ‘What’s your BBM’ or ‘BB..BB’. Phones outside the Middle East constantly compete on bringing customers new features in every new model but Research In Motion (Blackberry manufacturer) has managed to get away with keeping it simple and that is changing nothing. They must be on to something. Let us not forget the second most important thing about the phone, BRICK BREAKER.

The device has built a huge fan base in the country. Often seen as a business device of communication and yet it has managed to start a trend that has pretty much set a standard for mobile phones. Users are shocked to hear outsiders admit that they don’t have a ‘BB’, if you don’t have one then I’m sure you have noticed this and trust me you will probably end up buying one just like I did. Even the IPhone and Android users eventually get a BB for the sake of “belonging”.  Thankfully I have managed to not get addicted as the majority have. I try to resist every-time I see an entire group of people at dinner whipping out their phones and sometimes chatting to each-other even when they’re less than metres away.

Get out there and buy one, unless you’re a cool person already *sarcasm*. But on a serious note if you want to communicate locally then you may as well, the service has brushed texting aside with the cost being as low as 2 Rials a week. You’ll be sure to find a lot of funny messages & groups and inevitable a little garbage. The addiction will probably get to you, acting normal will only make you look stranger to ‘BBers’. The trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Excellent for pretend-typing when walking past people.