Delivery Men's Pay

Does anyone know how much do pizza-delivery guys get paid per hour here in the US?

No, I'm not looking for a job (actually I have an opinion on working while studying). The reason I'm asking is that the pizza-delivery men here use their own private cars for pizza delivery. In addition to that, they use their own cellphones for calling customers when needed. And above all that, they are the least tipped people (I think).

I only started thinking of this when the other day I was staying at the dorm's lounge and a pizza-delivery guy came and called his customer to come down and get his pizza. They cannot go beyond the dorm's lounge so they have to call the customers to come down and receive the pizza. I was thinking, they don't only use their private cars for delivering pizza but also their private cellphones for calling customers! How much do they get paid? Is it the regular 7$ ~ 10$ an hour? Does the pizza place pay for the gas and phone bills? Or they get paid something as high as $12 ~ $15 an hour but pay for the gas and phone bills from their own pocket? Any idea?

Also, no matter how much a pizza-delivery guy is paid, is it really worth it since you keep using your own car? Forget about the gas and maintenance expenses, why would anyone want to put all these miles on their private cars? I think pizza places should have their own cars for delivery just like any other pizza place in the world instead of having the one they hire for delivery to use his own private car.

Speaking about tips, I rarely tip. The only person I tip regularly is the barber since I keep going there every few weeks. I tend to tip in those places that I keep going back to. If I go to a certain restaurant regularly, I do tip the waiter since I would be coming back to the restaurant and I want to have a good service the next time I'm in the restaurant. But if I was at a restaurant that I'm not likely to go back to again, I don't bother tipping, especially if the service was not good. With pizza-delivery guys, it's usually $1 ~ $2 or whatever the change is (this depends on his luck). I remember reading somewhere that pizza-delivery guys are the least tipped workers even though their job is tougher than the job of a waiter. So, how much do they really get paid? They are the least tipped workers, they use their own private cars for the job, they use their own cellphones when necessary... is all that worth it? I'm really curious to know.

Happy 38th Omani National Day

I wish I could go down to Washington D.C. to celebrate the 38th Omani National Day...

King Abdullah with Saudi students in the US

It looks like King Abdullah bin AbdulAziz, King of Saudi Arabia, is/was in the US during these days for the Financial Markets and the World Economy Summit. During his visit to the US, a meeting with the Saudi students in the United States was arranged with the King. The president of the Saudi Students Association in my university attended the meeting and represented all the Saudi students in my university since not all of them were able to go.

I think this is really cool. It's a great feeling to have such a caring country that does not only send you abroad to complete your higher education on its expenses, but also to arrange such meetings with the King of the country when he visits the country you are studying at to have a discussion with the King and let him see how your situation is and what you need abroad. How nicer can it get? I admire Saudi Arabia for sending tremendous of students to the US, Canada, UK, Australia and other countries to complete their higher education. Saudis make the largest Arab students in the US, and I think the case is the same in other countries like Canada and the UK. I know for a fact that each year at least 1,700 Saudi nationals are sent to the US to complete their higher education, and I think there is actually an agreement between King Abdullah and President George W. Bush for this. Let alone the number of students sent every year to Canada, UK and other countries. I really admire that.

WD My Passport Extrenal Hard Drive

For a couple of weeks I have been looking for an external hard drive since I figured I needed one. My laptop's hard drive is only 120GB and even though one-sixth of its space is still free, I figured that I need an external hard drive to leave more free space on the laptop, especially that what's taking all this space are movies and TV shows that I have already watched. I didn't want to delete all these movies and TV shows, so I thought of getting an external hard drive to migrate all these movies and TV shows to and also to backup the pictures, music and important files I have. So I began the quest of finding a good external hard drive for a good price.

I wanted something no less than 80GB and no more than 250GB. The first option I found was an 80GB Western Digital My Book external hard drive. I compared its price in different places but then I figured that it's too huge and wouldn't be practical for traveling and also wouldn't be practical for me since I keep moving a lot, so I wanted something small and practical. The other option was then a Western Digital My Passport. They're small and very nicely shaped, and I found a 160GB one that was only 20 dollars more than the 80GB My Book. Double the space, more practical, and just costs $20 more, so I thought that's definitely the one. I went ahead and purchased the 160GB Western Digital My Passport from eBay. The best deals I found were on eBay since almost all of them offer free-shipping and there are no taxes, plus lower prices than Best Buy, Circuit City and these places.

I received the hard drive earlier in the week but I didn't really get a chance to check it out. I just opened the box today and just plugged the hard drive into my laptop and currently transferring all the movies, TV shows, pictures, music and important files to it. I never heard any issues or negative points about Western Digital, so I think I made the right choice. The price is very reasonable, and I believe 160GB satisfies my need. You can read more about My Passport external hard drive from Western Digital [here].

HM's speech in the opening of Majlis Oman

Part 1:


Part 2:


The annual speech of His Majesty the Sultan in the opening of Majlis Oman (Council of Oman) has been uploaded on YouTube earlier and here it is in two parts (English subtitles provided).

The formal speech HM gives in the annual opening of Majlis Oman is a big thing in Oman. A lot of issues have been touched in this speech directly and indirectly. The major point is where HM emphasized that no corrupt official would get away from justice. I think this indirectly implies what happened in Oman recently with some senior government officials, and comes as a clear message to the other junior and senior officials in the country. After the speech, His Higness Sayyid Fahad bin Mahmoud, deputy prime minister, further emphasized that this IS indeed a clear message to all the officials in the country not to use their powers for their personal gains and benefits, and whoever does he will NOT get away with it. All in all, it's a beautiful speech by HM. May God bless him and give him a long life.

Grocery shopping...

The worst day in my life is when I need to go to walmart for a small shopping. This "small" shopping usually ends up with getting a lot of stuff that I don't really need, but I just get them as a result of aimlessly going around and around in walmart. I see something and I say let me try it out, it might be nice, or I see non-food items and I say I "might" need them in the future so I just get them anyway. Probably that's because when I went to walmart in the past I didn't take with me a list of the items I really needed and the items why I went to walmart for in the first place. Result? Get out of walmart with a LONG grocery bill and stuff you don't really need...

Of course having a list for the stuff you need helps a lot. So I started doing that. I only limit myself to the stuff I wrote on the list which I really really need. But then I might see a foodstuff that I would think of trying, and again I would end up with having things that I don't really need. A friend of mine gave me a tip and told me to eat and stuff my tummy before going to walmart. That way I wouldn't leave any room for my tummy for cravings or looking for foodstuffs. And guess what? It worked! Today I went to walmart with a very short list only with the stuff in the picture above, and I had a good lunch before going to walmart so I was really full. I just spent a few minutes, got the stuff I needed, and headed back home. Since it worked, I think I'm always eating first before going to walmart so I can stick only to the items I have on the list.

Any other tips for reducing your grocery bill?

Obama on election night

There is this set of backstage pictures on flickr for Barack Obama on the election night, showing him and his family throughout the election night, the most tense night for them I must say. The set is interesting so I thought of sharing it... Click [here] to see all the pictures.

via SOME contrast

Omani Ambassador in Town

We had a great event on campus last night. It was a panel discussion about the Sultanate of Oman, and the guests were H.E. Ambassador Hunaina bint Sultan Al-Mughairy, Omani ambassador to the US, and Ambassador Frances Cook, previous U.S. ambassador to Oman. This event was great and successful because it covered a lot of points, mainly focusing on Oman and the role of women in Oman in specific, and the GCC in general.

H.E. Hunaina Al-Mughairy is the first woman to represent an Arab country in Washington D.C. She was appointed ambassador of Oman to the US in late 2005. She is an economist with a strong business background and currently is working on the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Oman. The discussion was started by giving a brief information about Oman by the Omani ambassador, and then the other ambassador talked more about Oman from her own perspective and her experience while she served as ambassador of US to the Sultanate. The Free Trade Agreement was then explained and discussed and other discussions followed such as the role of women in Oman, the Omani basic law (constitution), the vision of MAWLANA His Majesty the Sultan and the form of democracy (Shoura) in Oman. They also talked about the historical relations between Oman and the US, and what Oman means to the US. An open Q&A session was followed after the two ambassadors covered all the points they had. A lot of people, especially Americans, have attended the discussion and it was really beautiful.

This discussion was great because first, it let people in west Texas know about the Sultanate and second, it is one of those attempts to try correcting some of the misconceptions about Islam and the role of women in Islam. The audience did not hear about these things only from the Omani's ambassador point of view, but also from the point of view of the other ambassador, who served as ambassador of the US to Oman for three years. This event is unusual and I think such an event happens for the first time in my university. There is no single Omani student in my university and I think only a handful of Omanis came here in the past years, so almost nobody knows anything about Oman here. It was great to have the Omani ambassador herself come down and let people know about Oman. If they did not know Oman before, now they know about it. If they briefly heard about it before, now they know more about it. If they had a lot of misconceptions about our form of democracy (Shoura) and the role of women in our countries, now these misconceptions are cleared. So, the discussion without a doubt was very successful.

After the discussion, I went and introduced myself to H.E. the ambassador. She was so delighted & happy and so was I. She's extremely down to earth. I really hope such events are held in bigger cities and other universities to let more people across the US know about Oman.

Sen. Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States of America

It's not over yet, but now the image is crystal clear. It's clear that Obama is winning. Last I checked, Obama was leading by 207 electoral college votes and McCain only 89 electoral college votes. The biggest state McCain won so far is Georgia and that's only 15 electoral votes (He just got Texas (34 electoral votes), which is no surprise at all. He also got all the Southern states except New Mexico). The biggest states Obama won so far are Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois and also many other states, pretty much leaving nothing for Senator McCain. If Obama only wins California and Florida, it's over.

Congratulations to Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden in advance. When counting is officially over, I'll update this post and cofirm that Senator Barack Obama is the next president of the United States of America.

LATEST UPDATE: It's officially over. Obama just won California, Washington and Oregon and now he has 297 electoral votes vs. McCain 145 electoral votes. It's over. Barack Obama is officially the first African-American president of the United States of America.

No holiday?

... and I thought we get a day off on election day! =(