Please help us raise money to help Mercy Corps aid the men and women who are starving, hopeless, hungry, and have no home… those helpless men and women, their children, their friends and families affected by the flooding. When you consider the impact that these small amounts can make, it’s clear that we all can have a part in the recovery effort:

$10 — provides a family with clean drinking water for two weeks.

$30 — provides a family with a two-week supply of cooking oil, rice, sugar and other staples.

$70 — provides a wheelbarrow, shovel, hammer and other tools to clear debris and repair damaged homes.

Thank you oh so much!

With prayers and love,
Sameer & Samreen Saadi

Desperation Grows in Pakistan (CNN)

Latest News: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/16/pakistan.floods/index.html?hpt=T2#fbid=P-Ob5YG5MIC&wom=false

]]> http://s2elements.com/2010/08/16/s2elementss-fundraising-page-for-pakistans-disastrous-flooding/feed/ 0 Samreen A family in Sindh province try to save their belongings from the floods which have swept south (Picture: EPA) http://s2elements.com/2010/02/23/sammys-kitchen-webisode-2-hyderabadi-biryani/ http://s2elements.com/2010/02/23/sammys-kitchen-webisode-2-hyderabadi-biryani/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:20:20 +0000 Samreen http://s2elements.com/?p=254 ]]> And we’re back with the 2nd episode/webisode of Sammy’s Kitchen – with some new camera angulations, abundant lighting (thank you Home Depot and their bulb selection), crispier contrast and colors – all thanks to Sameer Saadi’s dedication and skeeellz! And of course, this just couldn’t be Sammy’s Kitchen without my teeth showing at least a couple of times –  And yes, I’m not AS serious as I was in the first episode and I made sure of that! Thank you for pointing that out to me! =D

In this 2nd webisode, we bring to your kitchens, the scrumptious and absolutely delicious Hyderabadi Biryani (by popular demand/multiple requests).  ”Biryani” is a meat + rice + spice (or veggies + rice + spice) dish, originating from Persia, and was brought to the South Asian/Indian subcontinent mainly by Muslim merchants and travelers.  And interestingly, Biryani is not only eaten in Pakistan and India, but its many variations can also be found in Iran, Afghanistan, Malaysia, etc. to name a few more countries.

The meat/veggies are cooked separately from the rice and then layered and steamed (dum‘ified – dum daytay hain! – Main bhi kahoon tu bhi kahay, dum duma-dum!). Hyderabadi Biryani, mainly non-vegetarian, is cooked the same way, and uses fried onions and yogurt to create the meat masala and finally topped off with saffron. (This is different from the “Kachchay Gosht ki Biryani” or the Raw Meat Biryani, also famous in Hyderabad, where the raw meat masala and uncooked rice are layered and cooked together.)

This is our family recipe and has been passed down in my Dad’s family who are originally from Hyderabad, India. And although my Mom (born in Aligarh, India) only grew up in Hyderabad, it was after she and my Dad got married that she quickly learned and adopted the Hyderabadi styles and ways of cooking, still keeping her own “Hindustani” cooking alive.

And since my Dad loved to cook so much, I often witnessed this heavenly biryani (and many other amazing Hyderabadi/Non-Hyderabadi dishes) being made by both my Mama and Pops.  Their duo created, by far, THE BEST Hyderabadi Biryani I have ever, EVER eaten – the perfectly cooked rice bursting with the rich aroma of saffron, accompanied by the finger-licking good meat masala that was always balanced in salt and spice and tenderness and taste!

My lovely Mama & My beloved Pops – This one’s for both of you – for giving me your cooking genes. And I can’t thank both of them enough for passing the recipe on and giving me the opportunity to share it with you as well!

Comments, suggestions, critiques, likes, dislikes are welcome! The few sentences I speak in the “intro” are in Urdu, but in the Hyderabadi accent… an accent often made fun of because, well, it does sound funny! It doesn’t stop me from randomly throwing out a phrase here and a word there in Hyderabadi!

Bon Appetit and we humbly apologize for the delay in getting this 2nd webisode out!

(Thank you Shuja Bhai for the technical suggestions and feedback!)

–

Sammy’s Kitchen is a new cooking show privately produced by Sameer and Samreen Saadi (s2elements.com) where we try a variety of recipes found on the net, created by ourselves or even family recipes that have been passed down from our parents’ generation.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Go Organic!

We watched this documentary and were moved tremendously! Enough that we started searching for local farmers in the area we live in and making a conscious decision to buy organic fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs, etc. We usually get our meat from a halal meat shop in Minneapolis and we have been told that the butcher actually goes to a farm to get the meat, so it’s actually fresh. But we don’t really know if those animals are injected with hormones or not. We hope not! But in any case, this documentary is definitely an “eye-opener” and will make you think before you stop at a Mcdonald’s or any other fast food chain.

Let’s move this movement forward and strive to buy foods that are natural, healthy, and actually good for us, our bodies, and our future generations. Take an hour or so, and watch this documentary. It’s on Netflix and can be played instantly. Search for “Food, Inc.”

http://www.foodincmovie.com

*drum roll in background*

It is…A Dell Laptop – Thank you Husbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!

I’ve nicknamed it “laal bhabooka” – you’ll know why when you see it below and if you know weird hyderabadi urdu (ie bhabooka).

Dell Inspiron Laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor – in Cherry Red

Random Fact:  this is the 3rd RED gift from Sameer!

It’s a smooth and very “chikna” laptop and after browsing/window shopping for a few hours at stores and a few more hours online and with Sameer’s expertise, this was the one I liked the best.  The Sony Vaio caught the corner of my eye a bit, but this one took it home with the look, feel, the specifications and the amazing battery life! It comes installed with Windows 7, has a DVD/CD Burner, has a webcam which I probably won’t need but it’s nice to have, 4 GB memory, HD widescreen display, 3 USB ports, and much much more! Sameer tells me it’s got an awesome processor and the battery life is a little over 8 hours! And I love the color.

Find it here at Best Buy!

Check out the review on CNET

Love  you Sameer!

Butter Chicken: Deeeeeelicious and Easy!

Sammy’s Kitchen is a new cooking show privately produced by Sameer and Samreen Saadi (s2elements.com) where we try a variety of recipes found on the net, created by ourselves or even family recipes that have been passed down from our parents’ generation.

Sameer & I both love to cook and enjoy the food to the fullest – And we mean, savor every bite with a “MMMM”, an “UFF” and a “WOW!” I guess that explains the 20+ pounds we packed on since we got married!  Nothing to be proud of, but we can definitely be proud of the many cooking techniques, skills and recipes we have picked up along the way.

This is the 1st episode/webisode and we are making the famous Butter Chicken.  Hope you like the recipe and our very first cooking show!

Comments, suggestions, critiques, likes, dislikes are welcome!

Bon Appetit!

Butter Chicken’s recipe can be found on: www.sharearecipe.net (Main Dishes)

Sammy’s Kitchen Webisode 01 – Butter Chicken (Part 1)

Sammy’s Kitchen Webisode 01 – Butter Chicken (Part 2)

http://www.mirillis.com/splash.html

If you own an HD Video Camera – you must have run into issues playing those files on your PC.  I have a Sony and it comes with its own software. Although it is nice for organizing and sorting your videos, it doesn’t have a very friendly video player.  I found it really hard to use its video player to use as a stand alone player.

Some people claim that VLC Player will play those files, and VLC does but it freezes after playing two seconds of the video (at least for me).

So anyways, I searched online and came across this player…

Its called ‘Splash’ and it played my HD files without any issues.  Here is the link to download it:  http://www.mirillis.com/splash.html

Their lite version is out for free and they will be soon coming out with their PRO and other versions.

So, I hope this helps anyone looking for a small and fast m2ts file player!

Anyway,

this is how I ran into this error:

Scheduling a SSIS (SQL Integration Services) job with SQL Server Agent which involves connecting to Siebel backend (Oracle), I first had to change from SSIS job to CmdExec to use 32 bit version of DTExec (also required of you are using 32 bit Oracle Drivers – or any other 32 bit libraries in your SSIS).  (Dont forget to add SERVICE_NAME(s) etc to tnsnames.ora file and point to it in system environment variable – TNS_ADMIN etc..).  Everything looked good and ran it and got this error:

ORA-06413: Connection not open.

what does this error mean:

After searching online I found out that Oracle Provider cannot handle parenthesis in the file path for the apps connecting to the provider.

how did i solve the issue:

Originally my 32bit dtexec statement was:

“D:\Program Files\MICROSOFT SQL SERVER (x86)\90\DTS\Binn\DTExec.exe” /SQL “\BITS\[PackageName]” /SERVER [ServerName] /MAXCONCURRENT ” -1 ” /CHECKPOINTING OFF /REPORTING E

Then I changed it to:

“D:\Program Files\MICROS~1\90\DTS\Binn\DTExec.exe” /SQL “\BITS\[PackageName]” /SERVER [ServerName] /MAXCONCURRENT ” -1 ” /CHECKPOINTING OFF /REPORTING E

This resolved the issue but is just a temporary workaround.  I didnt come up with the solution, I found had to search google, thanks to the following links:

More info:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqlintegrationservices/thread/ab662d63-6385-4f73-b27f-d526048f601f/

http://phil-austin.blogspot.com/2008/08/ssis-and-oracle-providers-another.html

Hope this was useful!

What made the movie kick the arse of other horror movies was the fact that there was no sign of blood squirting out of every orifice of someone’s body, no fake plastic masks, no sudden wind tunnels, no ghostly white apparitions, and absolutely no flies crawling up noses and coming out the eyes. By the way, Sameer and I share a mutual feeling and have always hated when they show flies linked with anything horror. Not everything horror is always rotting!!!

The concept of the movie is so simple. Ask yourself this:  where will I be scared the most? Besides a graveyard, a random forest… of course, why didn’t anyone think about this before? YOUR OWN FRIGGIN’ HOUSE!!! There was no major camera angulation and panning and shooting from moving vehicles (you’ve probably heard it’s a little like Blair Witch, Cloverfield, etc). There were no elaborate action scenes, no taking-a-shower-alone-in-the-bathroom scenes, no one walking around with an axe or chainsaw, and… AND… no Grudge/Evil Dead/Exorcist type voices and sounds! The events that unfolded in this film were like those “real” stories our parents used to tell us about when we were kids. Every scene left a chill, that grows exponentially until the end!

Ok, I don’t want to give too much away about the movie so I won’t say anymore. But what I will say is, you will feel the creeps watching this movie. And you may even scream along with everyone else in the audience. You WILL come home with a heightened sense of every noise and every shadow. You may also wake up thinking you just felt like you were being dragged off your bed. Your floorboards may creek and crank, and your pipes may clink and clank louder and louder with each passing minute into the night. You may even stare out from your blankets and sheets, in complete darkness, hoping to fall asleep as soon as possible… and maybe even praying… that the door doesn’t close by itself!

These were our after effects from watching Paranormal Activity (80% mine, because I’m a pussycat and 20% Sameer’s, because this is one horror movie that did scare him!)… what were yours?

Movie’s Website: http://www.paranormalactivity-movie.com/