It has been an exciting few weeks for me with many things going on. But before I jump into all those other things, I wanted to share the results from my survey that you probably participated in. The survey was to find out which email address appeared more professional or easier to understand with the goal to determine which email address I should use going forward.

A few weeks went by and literally dozens of people participated and shared their thoughts, comments and opinions which were very insightful. I prepared a few graphs below so you can see how close of a race it was for some of the candidates. There are three graphs which are show a percentile of each question.

Question Number 1: Which email address appears most professional?

As you can see many people thought that the utah.edu address was very professional and important when working with recruiters and potential employers. However, many people also thought that the farookkhan.com was also pretty professional, which won by actually just a few votes.

Question Number 2: Which email address appears easier to understand?

The second question was pretty interesting because I don’t think I shared the full explanation or purpose of this question. With my gmail.com account, I was always trying to explain over the phone or in person that it is “farook” with an “i”, “u”, and “m” at the end. It was difficult to get this clear. After experimenting with the different options I had, all the addresses would be difficult to some degree because of the nature of my name. Most people have never heard of “farook,” much less know how to spell it and and my last name often ends up looking like “con” or “kahn.” On a side note, the most interesting rendition of my first name looks like “farhook”.

Question Number 3: Which email address would you recommend?

The third questions was really what I wanted to know because it was a combination of what was professional, easier to understand and what email address would be best suited going forward. The results from this one were really interesting also. However, there was a clear winner when it came to the overall recommendation and that was for farookkhan.com address.

So, after contemplating, calculating and reviewing the data I have decided to go with farook@farookkhan.com as my new email address.  

The results hopefully you can see how close and pretty interesting the results are from this survey. I am really glad that so many people participated and that the results were really compelling for either side. An email address that showed up several times under the other category that I would like to give honorable mention to is farook.khan (at) gmail (dot) com. Many people commented that they would prefer to see a farook.khan combination at some domain.

There are some other things that you probably didn’t know about my new decision. My farookkhan.com email account is actually a gmail account; however, I have it through Google Apps for Your Domain. After selecting my new address I started transferring dozens of accounts and subscriptions to my new address. I also was able to copy every single email that I have ever received* over to my new account. It took about three weeks to accomplish the whole goal, especially when you think about the fourteen thousand emails I had to bring over. Having everything on gmail is really nice because it is completely searchable and also “backed-up.” I’ll follow up one day with my extensive back-up system.

Thanks for participating and I’ll send an update on how school at the University of Utah is and my promotion at work and just life in general in the next few days, hopefully.  

Farook Khan
farook@farookkhan.com
www.khanfire.com/blog

It’s the middle of August and school starts in less than two weeks. Thank you for all your thoughts, emails and telephone calls over the last few weeks. This summer has very busy. 

One of my projects that I wish to complete by the start of school is to determine an email address that I will use as my 100% default email address for basically all my communications. I am not sure any of you are aware, but I have at least 15 different emails addresses that are checked via my computer or iPhone at any time. My goal to consolidate all my email addresses into one account. I would appreciate your participation in a survey that I created using Google Doc’s.

To take the survey: CLICK HERE

If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out online: 
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pmAvn1AOCLDaxO_XkQXtvGQ

I would really appreciate it if you shared your opinion. I hope to publish the results here in the next few weeks.

A few days ago I was out in the front yard taking a look at all plants that we planted in the spring and had to take a few photographs. Here are some picture from the front yard garden. I am fascinated with photography of flowers. With fall coming I hope to get some great pictures.

Hope you have a great night and I look forward to talking with you really soon!

Farook Khan
farookium@gmail.com
www.khanfire.com/blog

This last week I lost a friend who took her life. It has resulted in some pretty sad days. Holly was a great person and I am really going to miss her. About two weeks ago, I was able to capture some pictures while at a garden and thought I would share it. The same photograph was also used on the back cover of Holly’s program.

Farook Khan
farookium@gmail.com
www.khanfire.com/blog

Sunday, 15 June 2008, 11:35 pm

Happy Father’s Day! I have been having a great time over the last few weeks. I went home last weekend (to California) and was able to visit with my family and captures some great pictures of my niece Keilani. Yesterday I decided that I wanted to get back into model railroading and had fun setting up a small layout to play on. The plants in the front yard of the house are just amazing and thought I should share some pictures.

Keilani – This is a great picture of my niece. The lighting was great for this picture because the sun was going down in the background. She was actually running around the yard and her hair was trailing behind her making for some great pictures.

Model Railroading – This is my new GP-40 Union Pacific engine. I bough some track and had fun playing with my new n-scale layout.

Water Droplets – I have always loved photographs of flowers with water droplets on them. I figured it was time that I captured some of this pictures for myself. I think I might turn this one into a post card or something.

Colors – This flower has some great color to it. We have planted quite a few flowers in the front yard, each one of them with some great colors to them. I will have to send some more pictures out soon.

I have all the flower names written down somewhere, if you really want to know what they are called, just ask me and I will pull out their names.

Hope that you had a great weekend!

Farook Khan

Zion National Park! After leaving Vegas, we drove to St. George and made our way to Zion National Park. The weather was amazing and we were able to do some hikes and got to check out the Angles Landing Hike. While less than a five mile hike, it was along some step cliffs and required some climbing. The views were amazing. I took about 1300 pictures over the weekend and here are some highlights.

Angels Landing: Taken from the peak looking down on the Virgin River below… there was a cliff right behind me that would take me directly to the river.

Zion National Park: This is a picture looking south toward the entrance of the park.

Lizard: Or are these things called geckos. This little guy was following us on our way up to Angels Landing.

Flowers: What would a hike be without a few spring-time flowers.

Squirrel: This bushy guy was also one the trails. He was pretty friendly.

Mountains: Cool picture, I used a German filter on this to get the colors like they are.

The whole weekend was amazing and I had a great time. Many more trips are going to happen over the summer. If you are having any difficulties seeing the pictures, feel free to check out my blog at www.khanfire.com/blog

Have a great day!

Farook Khan

Las Vegas! Last weekend was the last week of school and I finished up all my finals and then went to Las Vegas for the weekend. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday and to get out of Utah.

We stayed at Mandalay Bay and had a great room. We enjoyed the eleven acres of pools and got really tan. Went to a Cirque Du Soleil show called Ka’. It was amazing and would highly recommend it to anyone. There were people flying all over the place and the stage could basically rotate in an direction imaginable.

The food was amazing. On Saturday night we ate at Aureole at Mandalay Bay. (Check out their website at www.aureolelv.com) The restaurant features a Wine Tower that is fouty-two feet tall. Vegas also has many buffets and other fine dining venues.

Las Vegas was a blast! Here are some pictures:

The Strip: The view from Mandalay Bay was amazing. Off to the left you can see a whole bunch of cranes. They are building an eight billion dollar complex called the City Center.

Mandalay Pools: This is a look at all the pools from our room. That big one at the top is a fun wave pool with a sand beach.

Our Penthouse Suite: This is the front room with a sixty inch plasma television to the right which you cannot see. Off to the left is the dining room and also a kitchen. The room also had a huge jetted tub along with a steam room.

Hoover Dam: The dam tour was really cool. We got to go inside all the tunnels and I took tons of pictures.

After spending a few days in Vegas we made our way to southern Utah. Check out those pictures in #028 – Zions National Park. If you can’t see any of the pictures in the email, check out my blog at www.khanfire.com/blog

Farook Khan

Hopefully you got the first email. I have just a few more really cool pictures to share that I have taken. Almost all of the flower pictures were taken at Red Butte Gardens. Some of the other ones were taken while walking around Salt Lake City.

Two of the pictures are from the last storm that came to Salt Lake. Notice the cool picture with the bee. That was taken in the front yard.

Flower with Bee – This picture is very cool. I hope to get a few more like this.

Hope your enjoying the spring!

Farook Khan

farookium@gmail.com

www.khanfire.com

Spring! Winter is finally leaving and the flowers and greenery are coming back to Utah. The last day of school is Tuesday and then I’ll be done with finals a few days later. I have taken a few pictures and hope that you like them.

Equipment – I currently have three lenses and looking at getting one or two more over the summer.

Dinner – Another exciting dinner. Barbecued chicken and shrimp with rice and vegetables.

Utah State Capital – This image was taken from the east looking west during Sunset.

Jake – A great picture of Jake sitting in the back of the truck. We like our walks.

Utah State Capital – Black and White… this picture is facing South. It looked cool.

Breakfast Waffles – Some homemade waffles with fruits and homemade whipped cream on top. It was delicious. Notice the home roasted pecans.

Early Spring Flowers – These are the flowers are in the front yard. You’ll see many more of them.

Industrial Salt Lake City – This is a picture I took while going on a walk. It made it monochrome and it looks really cool. That is where I will be working for the next few years.

Look for the second email.

Farook Khan

farookium@gmail.com

www.khanfire.com

Photography! I have been having some fun over the last few weeks with the new Nikon D300. There always seems to be something that I want to capture with a picture.  Each time I do that, I come home with about five-hundred new images to look over.  With a little more money I should be able to buy a few more lenses and combine that with some more time I will be unstoppable.

The last few weeks have been busy with school, work and playing. We are half way through the semester with upcoming midterms next week. My engineering classes are going really well along with a fun english class that I am taking. A few weeks ago I got a promotion at work. My new position has placed me with a very specialized team and they gave me some some great projects to work on. The change of pace in work has been a delight.

I also want to invite you to check out a website that I have created.  The website is at:

http://www.khanfire.com

This website has actually been around for over a year, but I finally put it all together. Take a moment to check out the website. I have included my blog and also a fantastic photography section.  I am planning on updating it with many more pictures soon. Feel free to give me any feed back.

Here are some pictures:

Farook – This is a portrait.  You might not think very much of the picture, but I had a great time with it.  It is one of the first pictures I took with the new camera and also one of the pictures that I was able to edit a little using Apple Aperture 2.0.  I also was working with a brand new flash that I bought for the camera and it is amazing what the camera can do.

Bird – This is actually a picture I took about an hour ago. These birds were outside my window.  I thought it would be fun to capture the birds that are out enjoying the pretty Sunday afternoon.  Never before have I been able to take pictures like this.

Jake – Some of you have asked about my dog. This is Jake.  He is about six months old and full of energy. Jake is actually my roommates dog, but since Jake is at the house, we all clam ownership, except when it comes to cleaning up the crap.

Winter – This is just another picture I had some fun composing.  I went out toward Utah lake to take this picture. It was taken on one of the first clear days we’ve had this year.

Snow – Another picture I took while I was up in the mountains. I like how the wind was blowing the snow and the sun was hitting it just right.

Dessert – What would all this work be worth with out a little break. This is probably one of the best banana splits I have ever had. Please observe the deliciousness.

That pretty much covers what I have be doing for the last few weeks.  At least the interesting parts.  Hope things are going well in your neck of the woods! Talk to you soon.

Farook Khan

farookium@gmail.com

www.khanfire.com