More sundry dope

Mr Steve Ballmer, among other things, had a taste of what its like to be the target of a egg missile in Budapest - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtBQ4UCXQeo. All in a day's work!!
Song of the day: In my dreams by REO Speedwagon. REO S has produced some lovely ballads and this one is one of the best. They dont have too many popular songs but the ones that are popular, are amazing!

Is this the summer season or the sad season?

My efforts at getting a good break have come to nothing, it appears. That was especially sad because I usually tend to treat those lows as big personal failures. Be that as it may, life goes on. But dont let that news worry you, here are a few news worthy things that you might be interested in.

a) YSL left for heavenly above last week. I am a few galaxies away from fashion and I must admit I dont understand the fuss that some of this clothing creates but well, I am sure they are very precious and represent the best of artistic genius. Might interest you to know that YSL was placed at the helm of Christian Dior at the age of just 21. Amazing.

b) My downloads have taken a bit of a detour towards Devotional and English Classical. So lots of Bach, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Beethowen and their ilk making their way into my collection as are artistes like Krishna Das, Mandolin Srinivas, M Balamuralikrishna & Anup Jalota.

Song of the day: Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi - Kylie Minogue.
One of the first Stock Aitken Waterman hits that I ever heard and got me completely hooked. My musical tastes have travelled far from those days but this song, despite its chocolate sound and schoolboy lyrics, is something that I really like. Kylie, ofcourse, has come a long way from being that shy neighbor-ish girl to become this sexy sytle icon that she now is. That image has only got better with her hitting 40 and her widely publicized fight against breast cancer.

Things that kept me busy or are keeping me busy

Extending the objective of this blog to serve as an online diary of my daily chores, here's a run down on the stuff thats keeping me tied up these days.
a) An MRI reveals that I have a Slipped Disc. Therefore, staying at home.
b) Playing or trying to play "Sparkling Stella" on my Givson.
c) Waiting to hear from some really elusive and hard-to-please companies that refuse to tell me if they are hiring me.
d) Working from home
e) Downloading more stuff from P2P sites

• Among some of the quirkier stuff that I have read on the Net lately, there is this woman who wants a boob job like no other. All salivating souls, please google her name - Sheyla Hershey
• Tania Zaetta insists she did not sleep around with the Australian Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Read more by clicking this link - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23750747-5000117,00.html

Speaking of that tour of Tania, one gentleman who accompanied her to the turban land is called Angry Anderson, who long long ago sang this song called Suddenly. Not a great song but is special to me because this sound takes me back to the days when I started listening to English Pop - and this song was ruling the Australian charts in early 90's.
Song of the day: Suddenly by Angry Anderson.

Quiet Anticipation

Some situations in life are unlike any other. The silent anticipation and hope that you live by seems to transcend every other emotion. So while you are sitting there listening to your favorite music or hanging out with good folks, the thought of what could be is very overpowering.

Anticipation, in this context, is not about laying a woman or whispering those words into your beloved's ear. I am above and beyond that. I am talking professional stuff. You will know what I mean if you revisit these pages. For now, as I said, it is all about that wait.

Song of the day: Get me Novocaine - Green Day. Green Day is one of my favorite bands and this song is one of my all time cool listens. Sheer magic of the guitar solo in the beginning and ofcourse, the mesmerizing Mr Billy Joe. That is such a great combination. Till later then, Cheers!!

Random day, random post

a) Kids are cute and when do something really sweet like singing "Hey Jude" with twice as much passion as the Beatles, you cant beat it. Here is a peek and if you dont find this charming, chances are you are either a serial killer or a just-out-on-parole psychopath.
http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=82169&videoChannel=3
b) For some unknown reason, I want to eat Fondue. I am not too much of a globe trotter. In fact, that phrase has no meaning for me. But on the select occasions when I have stepped out and had something different to eat, some memories have stuck and some have fallen by the wayside.
Fondue is a great community dish and tastes great, especially if you like cheese and bread. Well, they are the two most common things that go into the dish and you can read up more, as usual on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fondue
c) Morning greeted me with rain but somehow, that Ah! factor was missing. Good enough a reason for me to realize that I am somehow taking on life more seriously than I should. Whats life anyway without soaking in the joy of watching a mild shower, appreciating the flowers on the trees or listening to a calm ocean. Need that appreciation back and really soon!

Song of the day: Clarity by John Mayer.
John Mayer is one of the more casual and neighborhood kind of guys who has a voice to die for and is considered one of the better guitar players around today. No wonder, Ms Aniston has got a thing going with him lately. This song is a good example of his skills - vocal and guitar.

Quote

All Human actions have one or more of these seven causes - Chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and desire. - Aristotle

Song of the day: Timeless by Armin Van Buuren. I am not too much of a trance / club floor enthusiast but this track is one of the few ones that really takes me in.

Weekend again!

Sometimes I wonder if I should offer opinions and comments in the first person or just a narration as an outsider. Whichever way I choose to do it, I hope it makes sense and it stays readable. Ok here goes.
a) Yesterday, I took Sonny Boy I to one heck of a movie called Speed Racer. Nice visuals and graphics but overall, pretty disappointing movie that comes from the Disney stable.
b) Unrelated event but mentionable - Shania Twain has divorced Robert "Mutt" Lange. Hmmm.. the woman who sings out so regularly about love, understanding and relationships doesnt seem to have practiced her preaching.
c) Recommendation Time - VerveEarth is an interesting website you might want to look at. The site plots the content of the internet on an interactive map of the world.
d) Lastly and most interestingly, ahem, Drugs. A recent news report on one of the leading news channels talks about stuff called I Dose that administers sound using Binaural Technology - this uses sounds to synchronize your brainwaves and supposedly replicate the effects of everything from alcohol upwards and can also simulate states of dreaminess. Period. Not saying anymore.

Song of the Day: The only living boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel.

FusionMan

If whacky be the way to live, this man is probably living it the best way one can.
FusionMan (Yves Rossy) who is a former fighter pilot soared over the Swiss Alps at 160mph using, get this, a home made jet propelled hang glider. Read the rest of the story here.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1165671.ece

Song of the day: Writing to reach you - Travis. Travis is a Glasgow based band whose musical terrains and sounds will be familiar to anyone who has heard bands like Keane and Coldplay. While all their songs are not superlative, the song above perhaps is best representative of what their characteristic sound is like. More than generous use of the guitar and a soulful voice but average lyrics. You will also find this song mish mashed with two other classics - Wonderwall by Oasis and Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day in the song that is now come to be known as Boulevard of Broken Songs.

Interviews and more interviews

Appearing for job interviews after gaining 10+ years of work experience is a bit like travelling on state owned buses after getting used to the luxury of your family car. (I would have liked to say SUV, but just being honest here).

There is this short lived romance about doing what you used to do but that romance and charm quickly turns into spite and venom. And when that interviewing is subject to the fancies of the recruiting company, the anger is twice its usual amount. So, I walked into this company (name withheld for private reasons) recently that has the culture of getting your prospective reportees to interview you. I played game the first time but when that happened the second time too, I almost lost my cool. But somehow, restored decorum to the conversation.

Song of the day: "Hey there Delilah" by Plain White T's. Sounds great with minimal instruments and makes you want to have a girlfriend called Delilah you could sing this song to. Lyrics are a little dreamy and outlandish but thats what love is.

Weekend

Everyone knows what an idle mind does. And when that idle mind is accompanied by the workings of an overactive 3 year old, even more devilish things result. So, my son twisted my arm into delivering on the commitment of showing him a movie.

9/10th of movie going population of this wonderful city descends on two centers of activity - PVR and Imax. There was only a chance in hell that I was going to make it. I did eventually manage to find a ticket but that was for the first row in both of these multiplexes. Not a great idea.

The alternative was to check out one of the neighborhood theaters - one without frills and one which STILL sells tickets for INR35. How cool is that??!

So, ok, getting back to the Devil. One such forms in which devil has unleashed himself/herself (chances are devil is female, but we will get to that later) in recent times is a Bollywood movie. The only thing remotely stylish about the movie is its name - Jimmy. Everything else is what could perhaps be billed as the India's answer to the the German Gas Chambers. This movie has everything lousy about its contents - Extremely mediocre looking actors, absolutely no acting display by anyone, NIL special effects, forgettable music. Seems to me like Mithun had some axe to grind with his son, ahem, Mimoh and he did the worst thing he could. Launch him in what cant even be called a C grade flick. Even those come with some aha moments - some skin, gore, comedy overkill etc. This movie got one star out of five on TOI. Seems like TOI did this for a favor. One star?! Thats being very very generous.

Will check back later for more news.

Song for the day: Everything by Lifehouse. One of the most soulful love songs you will hear and simple, meaningful words.

Pain and the rest of it.

There is this intense pain in my left elbow thats creating a bit of a mess.
Anyway, more on that sometime later. Here's are two stories that I read the other day.
a) Meet the maker - In a weird and sad story, a pastor who took off to the skies with a zillion helium balloons, went missing and is now feared dead. Read it more here - http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/21/priest.balloons.ap/
b) An age old case of Stockholm Syndrome, Patty Hearst's story is probably unknown to many of us. Read and rejoice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Hearst
"Punctuality is the virtue of the bored." - Evelyn Waugh
Song of the day - Man of the World - Fleetwood Mac
One of the saddest songs that I have heard, this song was written and performed by Peter Green after his schizophrenic attack brought about by his LSD trysts. Whoever said, dope does not hurt you physically, this is a shining example of how it can bring a creative individual to his knees.

Blog awake again?!

If there was ever a Greek God who would wake up for a day and sleep for ten and do it all the way again (not a distant possibility considering how freaky Greek Gods usually are), my blog will come closest to that God's heart.

Anyway, the plan is like this.

The blog will continue to be my personal diary but I will instead use this diary to post some of the more interesting and thought provoking news that I keep encountering each passing day. I shall refrain from making this my tear soaked pillow. That sucks.

Three news stories, actually two - that are gripping me up.

a) The story of Elisabeth Frisl from the Austrian town of Amstetten. The second story of its kind from what I think is one of the more beautiful and prosperous of the European nations. The first one, if you remember, was of Natascha Kampush, who was incarcerated by her kidnapper for 8 years. And now this story about Josef Fritzl who imprisoned his daughter and had 7 children from his incestuous relationship that extended for 24 long years. Above ground, he played the upstanding family man, while in the basement he imprisoned and raped his daughter. How sad can things get and how cruel and psychopathic can some people be.
b) The other story is about this short 15 Minute video called Fitna thats doing the rounds. Fitna is a short film shot by Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician. The movie talks about the Quranic motivation for terrorism, Violence and the domination that Islam wants to seek in this world. For trivia buffs, Fitna means "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial" in Arabic. Thanks Wikipedia, as always. This movie was first released on the Net on 27Mar08 and removed the next day by Liveleak who feared threat to their staff. However, this reappeard on 06Apr08 and the contents are, as is usually the case with content concerning Islam, Quran and their discourses, rather inflammatory.

Song of the Day - Speeding Cars by Imogen Heap. Lovely voice, you will like this song.

Life and its vicissitudes

Isnt that a cute fucking word?! English and its magic, ceaseless fodder for amazement. When God made this language, he sure was in a good mood. And when he handed me some help in learning English, I am sure he had different plans. Look what I do to this virginal angel. Ok, now that you are here.. read on.

There are some things that I do better in life than others. That statement really does not help, cos you my unfortunate reader, dont really know much about me to start with. Not to worry, cos not knowing about me will probably not bring any sea change to your life. However, since I am feeling crappy all inside and I need to get some heat off my chest, this is as good a topic as any to fill the next 10 odd lines.

So what stuff do I do better than others??

I can brood and sleep tight over what could potentially blow up my life to smithereens. I have an unusually calm attitude to some really brain busting issues and I get completely charged up about non issues. Thats a really sad take on my life but hey, when did I say I was completely upto this one.

Anyway, right now, my life is on the highway at 300 mph with no destination in sight and two flat tyres. I cant stop and I cant go on either. I look here and there for crutches that might help me carry on but that is just what those crutches will do - help me carry on. But the big ego bastard that I am, I am not sure if I would want to lean on anyone.

This post is so fucking boring, if you have come here by accident, may God bless you with better luck next time and if you have come here expecting me to tell you a fairy tale, you got 2 minutes to go, puke and forget this address.

Till later, may God richly bless you, may you have good sex and yes, I hope you dont bump into unexpected jerks.

Blog revisited

Ugly Tuesday morning. Well, Tuesday morning really but ugly only because it marks the beginning of the evil of my life. That four letter word called work. What did you think??!

Over the past few days, I think I have woken up to reality about this blog. One that is pretty rational and reasonable but a little antithetic to the reason why people blog. I dont quite think I have it in me to write stuff day in and day out on what tickles the senses to the readers of this blog. I dont think I have the time to draft,redraft and put in place a few lines everyday that would bring in the traffic. So I have instead decided to treat this as my own impersonal diary. Not personal cos I wish some things to stay right inside my head and my soul and I'd rather not want it to become a public reading library of sorts.

So, here is what transpired over the past couple of days.

I have been able to catch the rerun of that series that makes me want to become a teenager again. The Wonder Years is playing again on Zee Cafe. That series, perhaps each episode, makes me think and want to go back and relive my life. That would be a big drudgery but I am sure there would be there little sparks of moments that I could possibly re enact. Ah, what else could I do while I battle my near thirities mid life crisis.

Caught a bit of Doogie Howser MD too after TWY but that will definitely be at Slot 2. TWY is way too good.

I also saw part of this movie, Baby Boom. Pretty normal storyline but Diane Keaton's potrayal brings that Woody Allenish sense of dry, hard hitting humor. Humor laced with irony about life. I could not paint my life through a movie but if I ever did, how I wish I could do it with the touch that Woody Allen does.

Nothing much really to add here except that if anyone, absolutely anyone has gotten this far, drop me a line.

Cheers till later. Be good.

Blogging and personal diaries

I have been subscribing to a million blogs ever since I opened by Reader Account on Google and am running against time to read up all the fantastic stuff that the wise guys have been posting. Some post daily, some poast five times in a day, some post once in a few days.. Makes you wonder what actually encourages people to pend their thoughts.

I am guessing that there are four categories of people who blog.

a) The ones who by design or intent or sheer luck are on the top of the blog charts and would like to see their rank stay that way. So keep blogging, submit links collected from all over the place, add a comment or two to lend your personal voice and keep the fodder for masses stocked up.
b) The ones who treat blogs like personal diaries. A good dose of humor will keep the piece informative and entertaining and I dare say, there are quite a few which are extremely well written.
c) The ones who seem to have a genuine sense of purpose for blogging. They have an opinion to share and more often than not, that opinion is read by a big big audience.
d) Lastly, I guess there are some who would like to be in (b) and (c) above but either lack the skills to write well, lack the inventive skills to think up of something interesting each day or lead a rather unexciting existence to find enough dope to write about.

I am pretty much in the (d) quadrant.

I remember a time long ago when I used to write personal diaries. They were the most dreadfully depressing stuff that this tropical country has seen. I got so fed up writing about my loser existence that I gave up.

Several years later, things started looking up professionally but personal life sucked. This was reason enough for me to pick up the diary again but again, have not been able to do enough justice. Not enough time to do it properly.

Maybe, blogging is a good option. But why should I lay my life bare for others is the question that I am seeking answers to.

If you got this far, thanks. Will write later.

Simon Cowell

Appreciate your patience. Has been quite a while since I last wrote, that is attributed partly to the lack of anything mentionable in my life and to pure old fashioned laziness.

Indian Idol is hitting our screens soon and well, the American version is playing on Star World these days. My interest in that series is frankly all about Mr Simon Cowell and his in-your-face and below-the-belt remarks. I have always held some British in high esteem for their sharp wittedness - The Black Adder aka Mr Bean, Michael Palin, Iain Wright, DLT being just some of the names that come to mind. Simon is ofcourse, known better as the acerbic judge who does not mince his words in AI. Just picked some of his quotes off the web. I am sure you will agree, he tells it like it really is.

"You have just invented a new form of torture."
"If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning".
"You're one of the worst singers I've ever heard in my life."- Simon Cowell on American Idol
"I'm going to reach out with a hook if you don't shut up."- Simon Cowell on American Idol
"If you had lived 2,000 years ago and sung like that, I think they would have stoned you."- Simon Cowell on American Idol
"There's only so much punishment a human can take. I can't take anymore."- Simon Cowell on American Idol

Do give him a view if you can.

More later. Cheers.

A city more expensive than a sackful of gold bricks

For someone who has been in this city long enough, the Hitec city region would come as a bit of a revelation. Back in the days when I used to head for school in our dilapidated buses, venturing into the Airport Area was a bit like venturing into the back of beyond. And that is where the current Hyderabad appears to get started these days. Why am I telling you all this?

Well, reason is part personal, part education. Well, all personal really.

There was this day about a couple of years ago when I was contemplating the purchase of a flat that was then in the region of about INR20Lacs (or 2 M Indian Rupees for the acronym-uninclined folks). I was out of money and definitely out of luck then. And that very property is going out for nearly INR60Lacs now. Sigh!!

Anyway, not to fret. Some other better things in life cost just about the same or even lesser now but you cant live in a DVD Player or a refrigerator, can you?! Someone did try but that experience did not quite work out to expectations.

Hope whatever is left of the work week fades off fast and we enjoy our weekends. Plan to head off into the countryside. That has been the plan for a couple of weeks now but could not get around doing that. Hope as always will prevail.

Start the race, a second time around!

I read in one of the other blogs that I happen to read almost everyday, that good blogging is a bit like sex appeal - you either have it or you dont. (well, i made that up but dont you mind).

I started this one blog almost 14 months back but never got around adding a second post. Let me see if I can turn that story around. Will try to keep this penning experience as far away from being an annoyance as I possibly can.

Technical challenges will also prevent me from making this page anything close to what you see on those amazing pages these days. But I know you will cope with that handicap as well.

Catch you later and be good.