A Blog ........

2006-07-05T02:50:00.000-07:00

The tale of two playmakers......

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Today we might get to see the repeat of the euro 2000 semifinal. France vs portugal, and most essentially zidane vs figo. Many had written off both zidane and figo for this world cup stating they were old and a spent force. At the beginning, Zidane had said, "We're not old, we're experienced." , and now both these players have contributed to their teams reaching the semis of the world cup in no lesser way. These are the two players i have really admired and followed ever since the 1998 world cup. Each of them have achieved so much and essentially gained millions of fans who adore their artistry on the field. All good things should come to an end, but no good things have left me so satisfied. This post is a tribute to both of them, hopefully one of them will get to lift the cup :).

As Luize Felipe Scollari, the curent portugal and ex- Brazil coach said today, "Zidane and Figo should carry on for 15 more years because they can make the ball do wonderful things and even their opponents like to watch them play. "

"Zizou is like a musical conductor on the field, we play around him" ...Fabien Barthez, French goalkeeper.

"That was just typical Zidane; it didn't impress me any more than that. The only difference was this time I was next to him on the pitch. And I can assure you he does everything a lot quicker in real life than on TV" ...Franck ribery after Zidane led France to script Brazil's exit in the quarterfinals.

Read the Fifa article here

Following are two clips i found on the internet:

Zidane

Figo

2006-06-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

Anger Management......

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When you are chatting to someone online you undergo a various range of emotions. However, since you get used to knowing that the person at the other end is not going to be able to see you actually blushing, jumping up and down or pulling your hair, you learn to curb the physical manifestation of those emotions. You learn to equivocate these emotions through cyber mannerisms and emoticons. For example, you will use the blushing emoticon, when you want to express yourself to be blushing without physically blushing at all. Similarly, when you want to scream and shout from anger, you just turn the caps lock on and type in ALL CAPS.

This behavior leads to my new anger management tool to train people with anger management problems. The idea is to subject them to chatting sessions and while they are at it to trigger their anger. This will train their neural network to express their anger through turning on the caps lock key without any whatsoever physical signs of anger like chair thrashing and objects throwing. At the end of the session they will be provided a wrist band with a depressable caps lock key, pressing of which will turn on a green light on the band simulating the real keyboard situation. Thus they will learn to control themselves when they are angry by just pressing this caps lock key on their wristband. Thus when they are angry they can just talk and behave like they would normally do, but then again, it would be taken care of because the caps lock key would be on. Its being planned to get the wristbands out in blue, black, military green for men and soft pink, lavender, silky white for women.

2006-06-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

The imposter......

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A friend called me an imposter today. Mostly because she thinks that after claiming to create a trivial blog i was tackling some deep, meaningful issues. The reasons apart, having known the vocabulary skills of this lady in question, I wish she had called me a charlatan which would necessarily amount to her calling me an impostor. Not all people know the meaning of charlatan. If she called me charlatan some people may think she was calling me cute stuff. Granted they can look it up in the dictionary, but how many people actually do that! They would just try to figure out a meaning for it based on the context and the way it sounds. Charlatan sounds so close to charismatic or chauvinistic for those who havent heard it. Charlatan sounds so french, and thus so sweet. The dictionary tells me it indeed was french, derived from Italian ciarlatano, which means from Cerreto, a city which was habitated by such impostors in question here. So thats what charlatan is, its a sweet sounding word with a negative meaning

Thus I really wish if she wanted to call me an imposter she should have done it this way, with batting eyelashes "Ohhh, you are such a charlatan ". She sill gets to say what she wants to say, and i get said what i deserve. All i want is that maybe some people will misunderstand it and think she was saying something like, "Ohh, You are such a knight in shining armor". Is that too much to ask? :)

This post also proves i am ohh so incorrigible :)

2006-06-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Greatest Unknown Guitarist ever .......

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I grew up listening to Classic rock and Blues. Guitarists like Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Page, and Stevie ray vaughn had long became big favourites. Then a few months back i listened to a blues guitarist named Roy Buchanan. The first thing i said to myself after listening to his songs was, "This is where it's at!". The second thing that came to my mind was why didn't I hear him before! Let alone hearing him, why haven't I heard about him before? I soon got interested and listend to a couple of his albums and he is pretty consistent all throughout, and the song i listened to wasn't a one off.

Here is a clip of him playing the solo on "Roy's blues"

As it turns out, Roy Buchanan, was a players player. He was one of the laidback guitarists who liked to avoid the spotlight and earned his fame by playing at numerous small clubs to an audience which got addicted pretty fast. He was considered a god by all the contemporary guitarists of his time. Jeff Beck was his student and his song "we have ended as lovers" from the "Blow by Blow" album is a tribute to Roy. He also influenced guitarists like robbie robertson and the ZZ top lead. In the 70's he was offered to play with "Derek and the Dominoes" by Eric Clapton, but Roy had turned down the offer citing that he had a band of his own. He was also offered to join the rolling stones. I still only wonder how Layla would have sounded if Roy was on the guitars. However Roy stuck to his band and to his sound. He was shy of the big music companies trying to push him to adapt a mainstream sound and throughout his career he remained a guitarist who was criminally overlooked.

His songs are soulful, with raw energy flowing through the heart wrenching solo's. The man owned a Fender telecaster and the man made it his own. Even in the 60's without pedals and gizmos, he created the trademark wails and squeals founds on his bluesy tracks. His experiments with volume swelling and pinch harmonics flow freely through his off the hook solo's. His guitar always sounds so soulful yet rebellious at the same time.

I found some videos of Buchanan and decided to try and put them here. These include a very simple tune called "Sweet dreams" made so special by Roy's guitaring. The videos show his swirl and whirl sounds technique with the fender in the song "when the guitar plays the blues". The videos themselves are not of the best production quality being from a time long ago, and the sound quality is not so great, but just to give us a taste of his music, they are very very precious. Thanks to Jack burton, a user on You tube, i don't even know, for putting them up! Go get your headphones :)

Sweet Dreams

When a Guitar plays the blues

CC Rider

Hey Joe

Here are some Roy Buchanan links:

Roy Buchanan Biography @ www.hotshotdigital.com

Roy Buchanan @ Wikipedia

Roy Buchanan tribute site

2006-06-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Fortune Cookie......

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Yesterday we went to a chinese restaurant for lunch. At the end of the lunch me and my friend set about cracking open the fortune cookie getting ourself ready to go through the motions of reading the fortune and going, "Yeah right!". But the fortune that i recieved in my fortune cookie became a point of debate. Here is what it said in clear black letters printed on the trademark little thin white strip of paper:

"Good things come to those who wait
but only the things left by those who hustle"

Me and my friend both had different interpretations. I could not believe my friend thought it meant that people who are patient get rewarded and those who hustle don't. Whereas it was crystal clear to me. It meant that there are enough good things for everyone, but those who hustle get a choice of which things they want, and the patient ones get good things too but only those rejected by the ones who hustle. So the cookie basically advocates hustling, which might be different to the traditional views on patience. What do you think? What is your interpretation? Maybe they revised the fortunes to be more contemporary?

2006-06-03T02:10:00.000-07:00

Self Adulation......

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A conversation on self adulation. Setting, is on a peaceful territory. "her" in the conversation is a smart lady with a witty tongue who hangs around an ink well and churns out a blog with immense regularity!

me : I totally dig self adulation...

her : whats that?

me: Self adulation is adulating the self. And i dig that. Wonder if adulating is a valid word. Mmm, maybe it is.

her : Come on, every one self adulates to a certain extent!!

me: No way, No one self adulates better than me!!! *Beaming*

her : What a Grand Illusion!

2006-05-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

Simple Pleasures......

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It is amazing how the simpler things in life can really brighten up your day and add a spring to your step. It is widely accepted that it takes a small thing to spoil one's mood. However, a few days back, for the first time I experienced a strange sense of well being and utter satisfaction from one of the really simpler happenings in life, which left me with a really really happy countenance.

I have always been unlucky with my hot beverages and soups. May it be my coffee, my coco in my formative years, or any soup in my meal, if its a hot beverage then it has invariably been too hot for me! All through my life i have suffered continuous admonishments through the way of my burnt tongue because of my impatience with my soups which have invariably been too hot! Having given up, I trained myself to blow air to cool down the soup before i could even try it. But the chore just blew all the fun out of drinking the soup, where for every spoonfull I would have to blow air several times and each time partake the spoonfull with the fear of the unknown. I talked to many people about this, but they just said this is how it was meant to be. You order soup and it would either be just too hot or sometimes even dead cold when it gets to you, and it was this state of affairs that converted me into a person who did not order soups.

On that particular day I found myself scanning the menu to find something remotely veg that i could order. I was extremely hungry and really needed something to fill me up. Disappointment soon stuck as nothing tempting could be found on the menu. I soon realized that i would have to order....The Soup. I ordered it very curtly, like a beaten down protagonist of a blog entry with minimum viewership would. I avoided any possibility of small talk with the girl at the counter as she poured me a bowl of their soup. Yet another bowl of soup in my life, placed there on my table, and me ready with a spoon, preparing myself for the chore. I blew the spoonful cold, not taking any risks, and then tried it. Hmm, it wasn't all that hot! Next spoon i tried it with even fewer blows of air and even then it wasn't too hot! My mind was in shock, I wasn't really computing what was unfolding out there, i was only doing. Soon, i was on the edge, about to try the next spoonfull without blowing any air! I did! Oh yessss!!!! Life was beautiful! The soup was just the RIGHT hot!!! I did not believe this was happening to me, I didnt realize i was tapping my feet on the floor. I suddenly felt this air of enthusiasm in me, my friend even said, "You suddenly seem so enthusiastic". Ohhh what would i do to get a bowl of soup that is just the right hot! It was like the stars in the galaxy had aligned themselves just at the right angles for this moment to happen in my life! My life had purpose, I felt positive, and I was using exclamation marks of joy after all my sentences!!!! I still am!!!!! It really is amazing what simple pleasures of life can do to you!!!!

2006-05-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

Strange parcel on my doorstep, makes me happy......

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It was a quiet day. A very normal day in the life of a very normal man. Somehow that day did not have a feel to it. I didn't feel happy, nor did i feel sad. I hardly felt satisfied, but nor was i feeling discontent as i poured milk onto my favourite sugar frosted corn flakes. It was indeed a strange day, a day of no feelings. As i munched into my breakfast,the midday sun refused to shine because of a obscure cloud doing its best to rob us of sunshine, I realised i didnt care for sunshine all that much, not on this day. With the bowl of cornflakes in my hand i opened the door, and lo and behold there it was, a parcel.

A parcel wrapped in a nice little yellow cover. And it wasn't a ordinary yellow cover, it was one with bubble wrap on the inside, the ones that i love to pop sequentially and systematically when i am having those days when i think no one listens to me. What was of importance here was the name on the parcel, it bore my name on it! At this point i should explain that i love recieving parcels. There's extreme satisfaction to be had when you order something online, then track your order proceeding through all those little neigbouring towns surrounding you, and then you finally recieve the parcel a couple of days before the estimated delivery. I just love it, the exhilaration, the thrill, the activity of ripping open the parcel, storing the bubble wrap or making a mess with the thrmocol support and then finally, reading the user manual :). But friends, this day was even special, I wasn't expecting anything, and i hadn't ordered anything! This was something that was blessed upon me! My mind set racing thinking maybe finally someone made a mistake at some big online sellers office and finally am getting something free. I had a birthday a few weeks back, and maybe someone did go out of their way to surprise me, even though a bit late! Maybe dell decided to award me in someway for their only average customer support extended to me with my hard disk crash. Should i trust it if it was a free gift? I mean hardly anything ever is free. If it was a birthday gift, it was nice because I was getting the gift within 3 months from my birthday, which as a matter of fact is a cut off date after which i generally don't accept birthday gifts except for extenuating circumstances. If it was indeed something from dell there was a chance that i would continue being a satisfied dell customer. It all brimmed with possibilities. It was suddenly a day of expectations.

I carefully studied the parcel to take rudimentary safety precautions, because with the life that i live, i do have to admit i have made a few enemies. Finally i decided to cut it open. With a wide grin pasted on my face i opened the package, and i wont make it harder on you the reader by adding a few more lines to increase your expectation. It was a 512 mb memory card. I still gave in to a dreamy picture painting over all 3 possibilities again. Then i rememebred my friend had asked me for my adress because he was here for a temporary stay and wanted to buy something. He indeed must have bought it on my name. The shot of excitement was great while it lasted. It was exhilarating too. My mind began to soon plot how i can deny recieving the parcel and give my friend a hard time of it. It was a day of possibilities....

2006-04-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

And i wonder, but i never dare......

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I have found out a long time ago, that adding all the ingredients you like together does not really make a really likeable recipe. Would the converse be true? Add all the things you hate about a drink together and then maybe the drink created wont be as hated after all?

2006-04-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Why I sleep so much......

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Like every other mortal, when i sleep i sometimes dream. I tell friends i dream about sunny places to go to and engage in fun and frolic during this continuing winter of my discontent. However, most of the times am holding the key to the survival of human beings and in general fighting the evil forces in my dreams. Yes, i am a plainclothes superhero. Invariably, through a deadly and deceptive game of some fine chocolate temptation and an offer from the evil woman to allow me to give her a haircut i fall in a vicious trap and get captured. The evil ones put me to sleep, and attach a supremely powerful device aimed at destruction which would go off as soon as i wake up. A fighter and a complete humanitarian at heart (my friends always say, "You love humans so much!") i keep fighting the urge to wake up just to save the world from the disaster. I sleep, yes. I sleep a lot, yes. But i do it for you, you and also you. I do it for this world.

2005-12-16T03:50:00.000-08:00

The evil monkey explained....

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I have been going around asking questions and quite a few people i know seem to have a evil monkey in their closet too, which no one would believe. The evil monkey, just like the one in chris's closet gives a evil grin at the mention and points to some distant object towards the horizon on the right. But like chris explains, the sad thing is that the evil monkey was not always evil. Here on the web i found this family guy clip giving the evil monkey explanation.

Evil monkey explained.

2005-12-14T23:35:00.000-08:00

Would it get them wondering....

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It has been quite a while since i mailed anyone at all, and curiously quite a while since anyone mailed me, except for my parents which does not count. Was revisiting Catch 22 ever since i got a copy of it again, and here is what could form a new experiment. "One day he had a better idea. To everyone he knew he wrote that he was going on a very dangerous mission. 'They asked for volunteers. It's very dangerous, but someone has to do it. I'll write you the instant I get back.' And he had not written anyone since." (Catch 22 by Joseph Heller)

Can i pull this off? Write everyone a mail that i am going on a very bad ass dangerous mission and i would write as soon as a i get back, and then not write back for a while. The scary part is what if no one notices!!! And this way i find it out that they havent noticed!!! But also if i put them in my place, maybe they wouldnt write because its a very easy excuse to stop yourself from writing citing the reason that "anyways, he's gonna be off on that dangerous mission. " I think the plan is much better aborted and i would rather die not knowing than face the truth.

2005-12-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

What is the deal with 6 inch subs....

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What is the deal with 6 inch subs. They are hardly enough to satisfy a thinking mans appetite, far less a working mans. But then they let you have a footlong instead, as if you wanna munch down on all of that!!! Dont they get the fact that 6 inch is too less for a sub and a footlong is far too long!! What is this? A secret plan to start a rebellion because the people just cant get what they want? I think the perfect size for subs is 9 inch, and would be interesting to know if they did a sizing study before someone just decided that 6 inch and footlongs, thats what we are gonna make and then just have fun watching people buy a cookie cos 6 inch wasnt enough or wrap a 3 inch long piece of their sadwich to take home. Yeah, that would be sweet!

2005-10-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

The Return of Eric Cartman

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Less than 24 hours now.....Southpark returns with all new episode....hurray...yay!

2005-10-14T00:58:00.000-07:00

Blues for radha

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I had been looking out for this song a long while. finally i found a place where they stream it. This is a song from an upcoming band named Agni and from their album "Mrityunjaya". Also, listen to the title song called mrityunjaya if you get a chance. Listen to "Blues for Radha" .....happy listening

2005-10-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

And they thought he was a good boy.....

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This one makes this blog very profound since the observation deals with perception. From personal experience and through keen observation i have found that most often the perceptions made from observations dont quite turn out to be true. Who would know that this cute innocent thing named butters...

could in fact be a front to the unfathomably devilish bad boy mind of Dr. Chaos.......

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2005-10-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

The rocker in me....
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You Are an Emo Rocker!

Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing.

That doesn't mean you don't rock out...

You just rock out with meaning.

For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding.

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

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2005-09-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

Woodstock revisited

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I often wonder wether showmanship has changed over the years. I think the classic rockers kept it simple for sure, and yet, were equally effective. Afterall those were the days when the hippies united and tried to achieve something. *giggly face*
Was listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash and it was like one of those days i listen to songs. The intro to the song went like this: "Folks, the song we are going to play now is a rather a long song ....and we....are going to play it real slowww...." followed by a ROARRR from the crowd. Good'ol days.

2005-09-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

Bad Boys guide to good girls

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Bad boys understand seinfeldian and are good at finding good girls. You have found a good girl if:
1. She doesn't poof up her hair when she goes to a movie so people behind her can see.
2. When she see freaks in the street she never, ever stares at them. Yet, she is careful not to look away, you know, because she wants to make the freaks feel comfortable.
3. When she shoos squirrels away, she always says "go away squirrel". She never ever throws things at them and tries to injure them like other people.

2005-09-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

A deep and meaningful change

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Listening to music is not the same when one of the earphone sockets is empty.

2005-07-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

The day that Music Died

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Interpretation of songs and poems has always been fun. To do this, knowing it would not be possible to confirm that interpretation, is even more fun.
Click here for a neat one for Don Mc'Leans "American Pie" by Rich Kulawiec.

2005-07-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Set the controls for the blog world

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"Once in a dream far beyond these castle walls
Down by the bay where the Moonlit water falls
I stood alone while the minstrel sang his song
So afraid I'd lost my soul
There in the fog his song kept calling me
Leading me on with its haunting melody
Deep in my heart a voice kept echoing
I knew I'd soon be wandering
Far beyond these castle walls....."*

....Into the world of blogging.........

* Styx - Castle walls