Blog Update- Happy New Year 2014

Hello, and a Happy New Year to everyone! Its been a long time since I signed in and wrote a post. Anyways, lots of things going on from my end, like working for a LEED GOLD certification for a garments industry as an engineer and on top of that, have some interesting ideas for the blog. I am currently on rebranding the blog and as it seems my domain http://www.bdpollution.com has been taken by someone else, I am unable to use that for now. So I have decided on rebranding the blog completely. So if any interesting names pops along on your mind, I would love to hear about them. So send me a message about a new name for the blog and what else you would want from it.

Cheers

A Single Man's Walking Challenge 1: Gulshan-Dhanmondi-Gulshan

                                                 (On the way)                                                                   

Last year, I realized I was not doing enough on my part to make a difference so I came up with an initiative of my own. I decided to come up with a series of challenges.  I normally go to the park once or twice a week to walk and jog, so I felt I was already trained. Trained for what?  The challenge was to walk from Gulshan 1 to Dhanmondi and back to Gulshan 1, a distance of about 15kms.

I created an event on facebook (since its one the popular social media platform if you want to spread the word about any event). Once I did that, I made a story to explain the challenge. 

The story begins about a young slim fellow, who is a little bit concerned about the environment and decides to make a little difference if not any at all. As he walks on the streets of Dhaka, it strikes to him why not do a series of walking challenges. A simple task to normal people however for him it seems like a challenge and something he feels he need to achieve. So he plans the route for his first challenge from Gulshan-Dhanmondi-Gulshan. A distance of more than 10kms.

Why walk?

Walking from his experience has indicated certain things

- It saves time
- It saves fuel

- It saves money

- Good exercise
- Makes you feel happier

As a 10:10er and eco-blogger, he feels its been awhile since he had a nice long walk. The timing is perfect with the nice winter weather and he knows he will not get bored while walking considering all the exciting and funny things that happens on the streets of Dhaka. 

When does he plan to do so?

Friday,February 10th, 2012

Route: 

Starting point- Gulshan-1 circleMid-way point- Dhanmondi(short pit-stop, not sure, it will depend on his spontaneity)Ending point- Gulshan-1 circle

Problems he might face:

- Getting mugged on broad daylight.
- Oversleeping and missing the challenge completely being a weekend.
- Getting ill prior to the challenge.

Updates about the event:

He plans on twittering while on the move.

Twitter
twitter.com/fhmtech

How can you participant? 

- Cheer him on!
- Criticize him for being an idiot ( there is something called a bicycle, or even better a car..)
- Spread the word that walking is good for many reasons and is not a tedious thing to do- When traveling short distances try walking instead of using the car.- Send an invite to your friends.

What is 10:10?

10:10 is a global campaign run through out the world to promote carbon cutting and reduce climate change. 10:10 Bangladesh joins with organizations, businesses and educational institutes and promote active participation of people through events/projects and raise awareness. www.1010global.org You can sign up your organization or yourself at www.1010global.org/bd (for Bangladeshi citizens)

Country hub of 10:10 Bangladesh- TERM Magazine, a concern of Bangladesh Information Gateway Ltd.(BIG) Ltd.


 The walk itself was very good considering a nice winter morning. I was a bit worried about the weather but it was perfect. I reached my check point in Dhanmondi and grabbed lunch at Nandos with a close friend. After a heavy stomach, I started the return journey, digesting all the food.

According to pace, I reached Dhanmondi in about 1 hour 30mins. It was slightly quicker if I compare with a car. This being the fact, the car is stuck in traffic most of the time. On the return journey, I took about 1 hour 45 mins, kinda slowed down. At the end it was a good challenge, seeing some interesting things on the way.

Surprisingly, I received a lot of interest from people and those who wanted to participate. Hopefully next time I might just let other people be part of it.

Also have to thank Sandra Antonovic for posting a guest post about the event on the web magazine. She is the CEO of Nektarina non profit, Editor in Chief of Nektarina (S)pace web magazine. Check it out here.

Blog Update 2013 - Possible comeback

Its been almost a year since my last post and as I write this, I am wondering if this blog has the potential to become any bigger. Over the past few months I have been considering in expanding this blog further, not only to increase content but to use it in a way to have an impact. 

When I started this blog back in 2005, I had always dreamed off using it as a tool to make a difference. I started it while studying my A'levels and blogged throughout university. Thankfully I was able to use my experience and knowledge as a blogger to initiate the 10:10 campaign in Bangladesh. Currently its been 3 (three) years that the campaign is running, though it is not under my supervision anymore, it is under someone who has done a marvelous job so far.

Any how, when I read an article a few weeks back, stating that the global CO2 emissions had crossed 400ppm (parts per million), it struck me that it finally happened. I have been blogging for 7 years now, and considering the time-frame, I thought we could make a difference enough not to let that happen or at least slow it down. Even with all the current green technology that is being implemented, we still could not keep the CO2 levels at check. 

Now that I am unemployed and looking for work, I have decided to come back and continue with my efforts to making this blog a tool for difference, to help those that need it and mostly importantly trying to protect what is left. 

The blog will now also focus on Bangladeshi news, different organizations working in the field regarding the environment, their activities, local policies being implemented and so forth.I will also have writers too, so if you are interested to write, do a guest post, just give me a knock. 

There is also another cause which I will try supporting from this blog and will share those details over the next couple of months.

Till my next post..

Some news

Sorry in the delay in posts. My Alevel exams are in January so i have been kind of busy studying and not updating. I just wanted to say that from our country a man has been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The people who received it are Professor Muhammad Yunus and his fellow workers in Grameen Bank. Its kind of a great achievement for our country so great news. I have read few articles about ice melting way faster in the Greenland that predicted, Asia's carbon dioxide levels will treble by 2025( i think, dont remember the exact year). So yeah thats it for today. In the mean time you can visit

www.flickr.com/photos/fhmtech
www.flickr.com/photos/mubeen491
www.flickr.com/photos/bdgamer

The 1st link is my pictures, the remaining 2 are my friends. Check there pictures out. If you want to know abt my country and its culture be sure to check my friends' links.

A New Look

This was my previous template. The template was not arranged hence the sudden change in template. I hope all of u readers will enjoy this template. There is 1 thing i must say is that in Mozilla Firefox the left sidebar is smaller than the rightbar. However in Internet Explorer the template is excellent. It is not a mistake but my friend Rajiv, Bdgamer said that both web browsers have different rendering engines hence the difference in the sidebar length.

Other than that nothing to worry.