Learning to Live | Blind Dayze

Still Hear

2011-10-23T00:51:00.000+05:30

Long time no post.. In the recent past have been downloading some videos from YouTube.. which i want to show to my daughter when she's a little older..

Thing is.. lately she's been picking up a lot of not so great Bollywood songs... Source: School Van.. the driver plays them loud and clear.. naturally the kids sing along.. Dabang Dabang? Chamkak Chalo? and other songs with awesome lyrics and heavily programmed music...

So ....am hoping that one day seeing and hearing real talented musicians will help my daughter in developing a better taste.. .. Hear a couple of videos... mostly featuring female musicians in here..as i hope it inspires my daughter more..

First up is Bat for Lashes... already have an album of hers from a couple of years back and here's a video of her performing live with a fellow musician... you don't want to miss this one..

Next up the really awesome {without sarcasm} duo... Pomplamoose ... multi-instrumentalists they are.. again..watch them sing and play..

Last but not the least.. Imogen Heap... she's solo here but i remember this song
from her Frou Frou album with Guy Sigsworth...and i prefer the album version..
Here in India if you do watch T.V. programmes and Star World in particular.. you'd have seen her performing with the now really fat Vishal Dadlani {of Pentagram fame} in a programme called the The Dewarists

Assuming Vishal Dadlani is real fat cause he's made it big in Bollywood as a music composer / producer.. If you know a little bit of the Indian English music scene you'll know who he is..or rather was..as vocalist in the band Pentagram....

Since i've come to Indian English music scene .. or whatever you want to call it.. do download Indiean Vol. II .. it's free.. Click Here..
i'd blogged about Vol. I last year but this year was asleep on release date..

Since i've also mentioned Bollywood i have to admit that i really enjoyed watching Shaitan. Hearing this woman -Suman Shridhar sing Khoya Khoya Chand led me to watching the film.. If the late Amy Winehouse sang in Hindi i'd imagine she'd sound like this.. the song is actually a remix of an old Hindi classic... Hear it is..

Perceiving beauty in spaces & species

2011-08-26T02:06:00.001+05:30

Perceiving beauty in spaces & species, a set on Flickr.

.....

Seether inspired titled up there... loved their album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces and came up with the title above..

Another reason for this post is to test Flickr' sharing feature on Blogger..

If for any reason you like / need / want the photos you see please feel free to ask for high resolution copies.. free to use ..Creative Commons license..

Back in Blog

2011-08-15T00:11:00.000+05:30

Back into Blogger after a long time... Had somethings in mind to write down but hey this new back-end User interface has totally taken me by surprise!!! Knew Google was doing some face-lifts to it's UI all around but didnt' expect this much in the new Blogger. Anyways guess it's all for good.... like the changes that i've been through in the recent past..

Since my last post, a lot has happened.. in no particular order...

Bin Laden was offed
i got lost in the city of Bombay
Man Utd. lost again to Barca in the Champions League final
massive earthquake / tsunami in Japan
got a chance to sing / scream my lungs out at Someplace Else....

and so much more significant happenings and insignificant things have taken place..
Well, i didnt get lost in BOMBay but my folks did believe so..but i'll leave this for another post..

The city of Kolkata and it's people were good to me but now Nagpur is already doing it's best to to keep me rooted here or should i say.. i'm doing everything i can to get the best out of this new place im living in..Well, 15th August ...already 12:00 AM as i write these words..so hey gotta get some shut eye ...up early morrow morning and try to be in a patriotic mood....

Until my next post, will end with an image....taken in my new habitat... baby millipedes

and heres 2 short clips of them in motion...

below with a soundtrack.. using YouTube's audioswap....+2 Charisma ~ Milligram

Sojourner

2011-02-18T22:55:00.003+05:30

sojourner: noun - a temporary resident {A sojourner is a person who resides temporarily in a place.}
1 Chronicles 29:15For we [are] strangers before thee, and sojourners, as [were] all our fathers: our days on the earth [are] as a shadow, and [there is] none abiding.

A sojourner i am. We all are. Aren't we? Who wants to live forever? .... Well before i begin to sound too serious and start writing about life after death or repeat the word sojourner a hundred times...let me talk about food.

So it happens that because of certain circumstances which have presented themselves in such a manner that things couldn't be otherwise soon i'll be leaving the city of Kolkata...Ta-ta to Kolkata - the city in which i've enjoyed, relished and eaten many fish of different varieties.

If i were to make an abridged visual representing the major places i've lived in it would be as follows..

Porky Pig

Nemo

Now if all pigs looked and behaved like Porky Pig and all the fish like little Nemo i'd never eat them.. Back in Mizoram the numero uno dish i guess is still pork.. and in West Bengal it's fish.

Am now moving to a place know for it's oranges.

How boring.

Anyways a sojourner i am so i shall move on and ~~eat~~ see what's in store for me. Just as i was getting really comfortable living in the city of Kolkata devouring fishes ... them oranges come calling to me. During my earlier days we shifted around a couple of times .. it was in/around Aizawl so at least the pork was always there. Oh well three years i'd spent in Bangalore...now Bengaluru .. Hmmm what is the no.1 dish down there? Wasn't really into the local food tasting scene then....

Image source:

Oranges: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orange_and_cross_section.jpg

Porky Pig : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porky_Pig {Picture of the famous Looney Tunes character, Porky Pig.}

Nemo: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2132 {Nemo from Finding Nemo}

No pigs or fishes were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Love

2011-02-14T23:55:00.004+05:30

So, today is...was Valentine's day. My wife ain't with me but took today as an excuse to indulge my sweet tooths with some choclaty chocolates after dinner. So tasty.. too good to share???... oh well i'd have

enjoyed it even more if i'd shared them chocos with my daughter.

Anyways i dont have anything interesting to post except share this new Foo Fighters song + video

that i absoeffinlutely am in love with....eagerly waiting for their new album!!!
*

*
and also this Lovely Rooney goal from last Saturday' football match....
the very in-form Nani who has been great this season..made the Lovely cross...so check out
the lovely gif image below...

*
All you need is Love

Republic

2011-01-26T19:30:00.000+05:30

REPUBLIC DAY

is a

H O L I D A Y

A republic is a state under a form of government in which the people, or some

significant portion of them, retain supreme control over the government.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic

and i have nothing more to say..oh wait.. match last night Manchester United coming
back from two goals down to win the match 3-2.
....now i post some stuff with which im engaged with..

~ see ~
After ages i held a fountain pen today with the nib tip modified to write this..

{ pen + paper + photoshop }

~ Listen ~

A track by Psychecode. As of now only the instruments recorded + programmed by
my "band mate" Eric Dillen...for which i shall lay vocals over sometime in the future if alive and well.

< the end >

Merry New Year

2011-01-01T23:53:00.001+05:30

Dont know if it's the water i've been drinking lately but i have strong dislike to the Merry Christmas greeting....Happy Christmas sounds more like it it. It's Jesus' birthday.. so happy birthday .. happy Christmas... So anyways Merry New Year to all ye who have landed on this blog....don't know why but i associate merry making with drinking..Santa Flaws would agree..No, we're not suggesting drinking all year through...

My daughter is afraid of Santa Claus though. True. Because of this she' has missed getting gifts a few times on get togethers where at the end of the programmes a man dressed as Santa Claus comes around and hands over some things to children...Her first introduction to Santa was when she was given a Santa Clause doll when she was around a year old. Bad toy character design i guess.

My mother also is not a big fan of X-Mas greeting cards with Santa Claus related imagery. She prefers ones with the Nativity scenes. I hated distributing cards around our locality when i was a kid cause my mother dedicatedly sent out cards to almost the whole locality wherever we lived...

Enough of my anti-Claus message. It's 1.1.11 and just felt the need to post something on this date.
Merry New Year!!!

Journey to the Centre of India

2010-12-17T04:21:00.005+05:30

My journey to the centre of India... well let me make things clear. It was not very adventurous as my blog title might suggest. I did travel recently to the city of Nagpur helping my folks shift base over there and Nagpur happens to lie at the geographical centre of India. Theres a Zero Mile Marker to indicate this point.

View Larger Map

I barely went in to explore the city as i was trying to make myself useful in helping to settle things down in the new quarter so no photos of the place to upload this time around.

The train journey from Kolkata to Nagpur was an experience to remember. Travelling with 32 pieces of luggage is not very pleasant. Much thanks to the two coolies {luggage porters} whom we hired to carry our things and also shove in what seemed like a hundered pieces of bags and suitcases into every available space around us in our train compartment. A few days back i had sent the major bulk of our household items by truck to nagpur and i wished we had all travelled in that same truck which was pretty spacious. Anways we made it through.

Red

Above is a photo of my daughter - a little tired but strong enough to pose for the camera. The only one i took while in Nagpur. She's wearing a Ji-Sung Park t-shirt. He scored the only goal in Man Utd.' recent match vs Arsenal. Park plays for Manchester United. I guess our recent shifting trip was like a football match where we won. A mix of excitement... hard work....tiresome but mission accomplished in the end.

***

Kids working - collecting plastic bottles and other valuables.

It has been a long time since i travelled long distance by train. I learnt that trains always get delayed [departure] by at least 5-6 hours on the Howrah - Mumbai route. We took the Azad Hind while going and above is pic i took while entering Howrah station back today on the Howrah Mail. This train was supposed to reach at five in the morning which would have allowed me to get back to office on time but no chance. While the train halted before entry into the station, seeing kids ...some who seemed just about as old as my daughter ...collecting waste was not a pretty sight.

***

Nakhoda

After the long train ride i decided i needed to take a long walk home back to my pad and i came across this....I recalled seeing it on some travel channel and here i was near it for the first time. A partial shot of the dome + minaret of the largest mosque {Nakhoda} in Kolkata (Rabindra Sarani / M.G. Rd.).

Freely Legal

2010-11-12T21:36:00.000+05:30

Just some free stuff that I've come across i'd like to share.

Words from the inspirational Seth Godin. Not a recent book but if you've not read it, it's just the right stuff you'd need to reinvent yourself. .. that is if you want to... Below are some extracts...

Do you remember learning to factor quadrilateral equations? x2 -32x +12? Why were you taught this? Why did they spend hours drilling you on such clearly useless content? Simple: you were being trained to be a compliant cog, someone who could mindlessly follow instructions as opposed to seeking out innovation and surprise....

Art isn’t a painting or even a poem, it’s something that any of us can do. If you interact with others, you have the platform to create something new—something that changes everything. I call that art....Art doesn’t follow instructions or a manual or a boss’s orders...

Feel free to click here to download the book- 66.01 Brainwashed [pdf]

*****************

Okay now for some stories..to be precise....

Machine of Death - A collection of stories about people who know how they will die.

I havent read any of the stories in here...but judging from the dinosaur comic inspiration that started this book..i know it's got to be good....

Click here to download a double-page spread version [pdf]

Click here for other options {single- page / podcast} all free.

Okay folks... i think i'll leave the rest of the stuff i'd like to share for a "Freely Legal - part II" post.. :-)

- enjoy -

Food & Drink[s]

2010-10-24T16:31:00.004+05:30

Reading rule no. 8 in the book for bloggers, it says that one must post something about food at least once. Yes that's right..there are 102 rules and this rule is in the top 10. Okay i just made it up but blogger friend Sekibuhchhuak always posts photos of {delicious} food so i felt it was time i posted a photo of something that i've eaten and really enjoyed.

Behold the famous Chelo Kabab for which Peter Cat is renowned for here in Kolkata. If you do drop in the city.. go try it over at Park Street.

****

Also dont {forget to} Drink. I had to pause a bit as i was adding the pic below because it seems posting alcohol related images is frowned upon by some folks ..as i learnt on master blogger Illusionaires post.. :-) hic.. anyways 3 cheers!!!

wrote the little poem in there when i was on my 8th bottle.

Even Shakespeare would admire it. No?

Like money

2010-10-10T20:00:00.002+05:30

The Social Network is getting good reviews. Have not yet watched it though.

In the future, Mark Zuckerberg will have his own country - offline.

The other day, back from work as i got off the bus and headed towards my source of food for the night i realised that i'd left my wallet in the office. I only had 2 two Rupee coins in my pocket..bus fare change. No cash & no plastic card to withdraw money. Luckily i remembered that i had some coins in my cave so quickly i went and dug out my coin bag.

Added up to 21 Rupees and 50 Paisa. Good enough to buy a simple meal here in Kolkata. I was very grateful to the ignored coins that i first did a photo-shoot for them before i bid them coins goodbye. Back in 1991 my mother gave me 4 rupees as pocket money to take to school one day and boy..did i feel rich!!!

3rd Largest Country is Down #facebook

2010-09-24T03:05:00.014+05:30

Facebook was down around 12:57 AM?? here in India and other parts of the world... as i write this post many people are highly tensed as they still cant log into the *3rd Largest Country.....

I logged into Twitter and did a #facebook search.. and started seeing really hilarious tweets.. so im sharing some that i quickly copied and pasted in here.. first off ..below is a print screen i took of the Twitter home page that shows the "Top Tweets".... the tweets ive highlighted had me smiling extra wide ear to ear... highlights in green are my notes..

FACEBOOK is down! I repeat Facebook is down! Apocalypse has come!
EVERYONE CALM DOWN #FACEBOOK IS DOWN DON'T PANIC...*RUNS IN CORNER AND CROUCHES IN FETAL POSITION ROCKING BACK AND FORTH*
so #facebook is dead. I now have nothing to do with my evening. I wish I had a life and some friends.
This is the point in time when we all complain it's unreasonable for a free product with 99.9% uptime to be down for half an hour #facebook
And for the first time in two years, everyone just checked their MySpace account. #facebook #FBjokes
Oh I Thought My Computer Was Tripping .. Cus #Facebook Isn't Working .. LOL.
#Facebook is down and people are goin nuts. I remember life before Facebook...
Holy Shit #facebook doesn't work. What to do now?!Freaking out. Just joking, god save my #twitter account
#facebook is down :)) farmers are going crazy [in case you live on another planet.. this is a reference to the popular "facebook game" called Farmville]

#10thingsToDoWhenFacebookIsDown have a day off. Tell to clients- ' we cant work without #facebook'!!!
Mark Zuckerberg's probably throwing a "I am Web god" tantrum & building a Web browser that only allows people to enter #Facebook. #firefox [Mark Zuckerberg - facebook co-founder]
People are freaking out because #facebook is down. So this is what the Cuban Missile Crisis felt like.
Breaking - The #Suicide rate is up 212.5 percent in America, Western Europe & Asia since #FaceBook is down! #SaveTheTeens #SaveFaceBook
#Facebook is down - publicity stunt for THE SOCIAL NETWORK? Tweet yes or no. [The Social Network is a film being made on the beginnings of Facebook]
First #twitter gets a virus, now #facebook is down. What the heck am I supposed to do at work... work?!?!?
I know what's wrong with #Facebook, I broke up with him and now he doesn't want to talk to anybody. What a big baby.
really hope my 500+ virtual friends are alright. #facebook #fail\
I'm cracking up at all the "Facebook is down" tweets. #facebook
Co-workers freaking out about #facebook. Girls - your farms & frontiers will be fine.
DNS FAILURE: #Facebook is down which means 9 months from today, many children will be born.

and heres my lame tweet:

facebook -down right now, now go read a book.. offline..wait i dont have any offline..im gonna die- help! #facebook #down #sarcastic

In case you are not familiar with Twitter...the hash mark "#" works like tags in Twitter...i hope you get the idea of what tags are..eg: #hungry typed in the search would throw up all tweets that have been tagged with hungry..

*3rd Largest Country - if facebook = a country [via]
If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world with a population of more than400 million people

Living Days

2010-09-21T00:59:00.013+05:30

Zhu Qiyu - Jingtai Emperor was born on this day, year 1428. We share the same birth date. I miss[ed] him.

September 21 also happens to be the International Day of Peace. So hopefully im gonna have a very peaceful day. I hope to rest in peace someday.. but until that day comes i'll continue
Learning to Live...

Learning to Live: Music ~ Dream Theater / Lyrics ~ John Myung.. off the album Images and Words.

What else can i share? well maybe something profound... maybe a little on Life. Yes life, umm my life has been full of life..umm okay let me just share something i read..

LIFE, n. A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. We live in daily apprehension of its loss; yet when lost it is not missed. The question, "Is life worth living?" has been much discussed; particularly by those who think it is not, many of whom have written at great length in support of their view and by careful observance of the laws of health enjoyed for long terms of years the honors of successful controversy.

"Life's not worth living, and that's the truth,"
Carelessly caroled the golden youth.
In manhood still he maintained that view
And held it more strongly the older he grew.
When kicked by a jackass at eighty-three,
"Go fetch me a surgeon at once!" cried he.

these words on life via

I shall end with with a little Kanji... below is Kanji for Life
written using a mouse so it's pretty not upto the mark..

...i love this site which
allows you to create stuff like this...your browser should be on the new-ish side..supporting HTML5..
yes HTML 5 will make your online life better... im yet to find the ultimate secret to the perfect life offline..but im sure it involves a little beer and pork...roast..+ good music...
~ shalom ~

Independent Indians

2010-08-08T20:13:00.005+05:30

Independence Day {India} coming up next week so i'm feeling patriotic and thought i should write a scholarly post on how we got our independence from the British. Since i was an out-standing student i reckon me won't be able to write much on this subject. I guess even a Shashi Tharoor tweet on the subject might be more enlightening.. maybe.

Anways to the point.. hello mic testing.. i proudly ~~present~~ promote .....INDIEAN Vol. 1. A compilation album from IndianRockmp3.com featuring indie bands in India. At this moment, writing this post..the download link for this bilkul FREE album does not exist..so i shall update later or you can keep yourself posted by visiting the IRMP3 site.

and below is a little infographic i made just to show the bands featured in Vol 1 of Indiean...

Click here to view a larger image

So dear readers..pay attention!!!
As you can see in the map we have a band named Demonic Resurrection from Mumbai and promising young band from up north called IAFWAY
[I am fake who are you?]. Judge them not from their names for they are all very good bands.

Hopefully Indiean Vol. 2 will feature more bands from the east and north-eastern parts of our country. I personally have been guaranteed a slot in upcoming albums starting from volume 1½ ...or maybe from volume 555..depending on when i start to write some listen-able music.

Enough of my nonsense...heres the Track Listing:

01 Erase- Dark Horizon
02 – F.O.P.S. – The Circus
03 The Tribe -Lucid Recess -
04 Field of Thought – Blakc
05 Order of the D.N.A – Kryptos
06 Vanquish – Sledge
07 – The Unrelenting Surge Of Vengeance – Demonic Resurrection
08 Battle Cry – Devoid
09 – Engravings – IAFWAY
10 Temple Of Zeus – Artillerie
11 DemonPra – Scribe

+ Surprise Bonus Track

Here's a little info from the folks at IRMP3 about the making of this album

Two years ago when we first started this website we were pretty much clueless about the direction we were heading. Our only aim was to gather all the ‘legal’ download links in one place and provide platform for Indian acts and fans
450,000 hits later we look back at these two marvelous years and take great pride in being an integral part of Indie India over the Internet. And this is our token of appreciation for all you ‘Indieans’ who have supported us in promoting Indian bands , IRMP3 will release its first FREE digital Compilation album comprising of 11 bands that were featured as ‘Artist of the Month’ on the site.

जिंदाबाद इंडियन रोक MP3 डोट कॉम !!!!

UPDATE!!!... TO DOWNLOAD CLICK HERE

Mind your language

2010-08-03T11:37:00.002+05:30

So i was walking home drunk the other day and i decided to take a different route to avoid known faces and i came across this sign board. Felt as if it had been put up just for me... okay well i wasn't drunk.. i never drink and walk.

Anyways this evening i took a snapshot of it.. so that i'll print it out and put it up on my own front door... only problem is that im the one who's waking up the neighbours at night with my loud singing + "music"...

few nights back a group of men from the mosque next door told me to shut the folk up..Yes i really do live wall to wall next to a mosque.

So after promising to keep my volume down i was in no mood to be a nuisance and get kicked out from my neighbourhood. Well the next best thing was to watch some new stuff i'd got from a friend recently.

Yes, the whole 1st season of good old Mind Your Language. Enjoyed it a lot. Loads of laughs... one of my favourite bits..

Jeremy Browns [the English teacher] asks Max [the Greek student] a question..

"Explain to me.. what is the meaning of syntax?"

to which Max answers not very confidently..

"The tax you pay when you go to the church[?]"

Definitely gonna get the whole series..seems it ended because "many people" found it racist... checking into some fan sites and comments on the imbd message boards.. majority of the people actually love[d] the series. Anyways folks ..i shall end with this lovely Bushism..

"We've got a lot of relations with countries in our neighborhood."

~ George W. Bush {Kranj, Slovenia, June 10, 2008} ~

ok just one more {D.C., June 27, 2006}.....

"We shouldn't fear a world that is more interacted."

Bushisms source: http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm

The Yes Men

2010-07-26T23:41:00.003+05:30

THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks. This peer-to-peer special edition of the film is unique: it is preceded by an EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of the Yes Men impersonating the United States Chamber of Commerce. Because the Yes Men are being sued for this stunt, p2p is the only way that this film will get seen. Please spread the word!

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE + GET THE TORRENT FILE.

So..stop your current download session of Inception..and go download The YES MEN FIX THE WORLD film. ...and if you've not yet seen Christopher Nolan's Inception do go watch it at theatre near you... i loved it!!!!!!

I've just watched the Yes Men' film. They even came to India...Bhopal. [context - gas tragedy]

{Screenshot - Andy Bichlbaum posing as a spokesman for Dow Chemicals which took over Union Carbide...}

am not attempt in writing a review... if you've not seen it... do see...

Photos - dogs, meat, gods, car & a bike

2010-07-01T03:28:00.023+05:30

Just clearing up my harddrive... dug out some photos i'd taken sometime last winter....Click on them for a larger view...One thing i've noticed a lot - dogs sleeping in threes..Hmmm what else should i write in this space?

Well, let me plug some..okay two to be precise -- artists relatively not rich n famous.

Ladies first - give a listen to Miri. A hint of Macy Gray in her voice...i love her accent. I had crush on a girl..Miri when i was in high school...yes yes i confess, i did a facebook search sometime back..and instead of finding her i found this Miri... now go listen: myspace.com/wheresmiri One of the best unsigned artists i've stumbled across..

Next up - listen to the Metal Farmer from Mangalore aka Pritham D'Souza...got this one from the IndianRockMp3 fb wall.

This guy plays different genres..and well he is a farmer...Morbid Pitbull being one of his projects.. the others have names like Sticky Frog. He has a rather large banner so scroll down to get to the embedded audio player.

My favourite track from the Morbid Pitbull project is The Evergreen Script. prithamdsouza.com/p/morbid-pitbull.html

No offense intended to anyone ..regarding the photo with car and idols which i've titled as Disposable gods ...on my flickr page

Nothing to Say

2010-06-21T21:58:00.000+05:30

Woke up late yesterday and checked my watch to see if i could make it in time...reach the church before the service ended. At least i would not be late for the youth service where i had to preach. Yes me - preach. A joke. A short sermon they said. I'd declined many times before. No escaping.

Standing in front of our small congregation... the youth barely total up to form a football team.. Cant be so hard i said to myself.... Ive even "performed" in front of a crowd of not less than 400 people during the [cough] wild days of my youth.. But preaching? in a church...Daunting.

Took a taxi and off i went. Put on my media player to calm my nerves and the song that comes up is Soundgarden's Nothing to Say... i'd recently downloaded their old A-sides compilation album..love it.
Sorry i digress...well the song was not very encouraging. Switch it off.

Thumbed through the pages of my little Bible "revising" what i planned to preach and by the time the gates of the church appeared i was in total confusion. I shall end here and report no more. Nothing to Say.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news... the World Cup...the team that i support is doing fine...oh yes i included a LOT of football in my sermon .. this much i shall reveal. Thanks to a tip from Sekibuh Chhuak.
What else?.... oil is spilling and some bands are boycotting BP.
I came across an interesting topic. Mother Teresa / The Missionaries of Charity. In bad light. Lots to say. One could start by visiting this facebook group to get an idea - STOP The Missionaries of Charity. As i am in the city of the Saint this is something i shall to try to investigate further. Time to put my degree in journalism to use.

Destroy angels: how to

2010-06-02T22:20:00.003+05:30

Love Signs, Dance Moves & Death

2010-05-20T13:41:00.015+05:30

Even if you do not listen to rock music all that much, songs like Holy Diver and Rainbow in the Dark must have passed through your ears at some point of time. Ronnie James Dio was the man behind these rock classics.

Am not a diehard fan of Dio and dont really follow his work but hearing about his death from a tweet made me do a quick Google search to confirm this sad news for rock music fans the world over. I'd actually got
this news from a tweet on a popular technology website which had Twitter feeds embedded in one of its pages. Had to mention this just in case my boss thinks im wasting office time reading music news...

Anyways ... for those who might not know, Ronnie James Dio is credited for popularizing the \m/ hand sign - the [devil'] horn...or to put it more mildly the 'rock on' sign. Featured here is a photo of a person showing the sign..but in this case ..it's a little different.. its also used as a Texas Longhorn sign...

Not to be confused with the hand sign for 'I Love You'.

My wife gave me this piece of information and we used to show each other this hand sign while we romanced each other, dancing around the trees in the Victoria Memorial grounds....

Now here is a photo of Barack Obama flashing this 'love sign'....notice the thumb sticks out..

Now, for some piece of information...interesting / amusing ... depending on how you take it.
The person who 'invented' this love hand sign was supposedly an 'occultist' ....meself was smiling ear to ear as i read this line on this site....and headbanging in agreement as i linked it to Dio' devil' horn sign.
Those who 'know' me should not at all be surprised that i read all these kinds of brain draining enligtening subjects with the sincerity of a doctorate research scholar...

Heres my own contribution: .. LOVE ..backwards is EVOL... evol ...evil...get it? the evilution... }:-)

For me it all links up.. the Illuminati - Barack Obama - Love/Devil Horn hand sign ... and of course 'rock music = devil' music....Black Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne who is = The Prince of Darkness.. his successor
as vocalist in Black Sabbath = Dio. Dio's last album with the band members of Black Sabbath who 're-grouped' themselves as Heaven & Hell had a song titled Bible Black.....

I've even discussed this music and Lucifer relationship a bit in an old post of mine.. Music Origins: Jubal Cain..

...and recently i came across this video on YouTube.. "Slayer goes to Church" .. a must watch..with audio on for full effect. NOI. In case this video is longer available here on my blog do a search on Google for the same.. hilarious.

Okay im going too far.. I repeat, no offense intended to anyone... In fact back at home folks dance in church.. dancing to frenetic/fast drum beats..I guess it's the drums that really drives people to headbang to heavy music or do amazing back flips in church ... yes on occasions you'll see the dancers performing back-flips/front flips on the church dance floor!!!! and that too mostly middle aged women folk...

I'm still feeling a little sad that i missed the chance to hear and witness Chris Adler playing the drums... and of course the rest of LOG in Bengaluru.....maybe a day will come when i do get to see them..
But not a chance anymore to witness a rock legend who could have probably made it to India... - R.I.P Ronnie James Dio.

A Heavy Post

2010-05-11T17:30:00.025+05:30

... A heavy post post in a sense because i'm talking about my favourite band that plays heavy music.. and well im embedding a couple videos so it makes this post heavy \m/... For some reason im more comfortable calling this band by their old name: Burn the Priest. They are now [since 1999] called lamb of god. Anyways lets leave the name aside. They are coming to India - Bengaluru. - Summerstorm fest - May 15th. Lucky are the ones who will be there to see this band perform live.

Amongst the many "popular" bands that have come from abroad to play in India LOG is probably {arguably} the only band that is coming while they are at the very top of their game.

Im also very envious of the Indian bands that are going to open for them. Boomarang from Aizawl, Mizoram are one of the bands that gets to share the same stage with them. Extinct Reflections [B'lore based] are goin to to have a nice time. Bhoomi are a little boring to me.. but lucky them too. I expected a band like Bhayanak Maut to feature in this list. Anyways theres still time and they may get a shot at sharing the stage with LOG.

Above is a log - LEGO stop motion based video made by someone..not one of my favourite songs though...
Below is one of the tracks i like from their latest album....
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Anyways to anyone out there who will be going to see the show at Palace Grounds? B'lore ...be prepared for THIS

if log starts playing Black Label... a good chance something as seen in the video will happen.. otherwise a normal calm mosh pit is what you should expect...

{NOTE: LOG is not a Gospel/Christian band. LOG is not a "Satanic" band. They are a band that plays heavy music; period}

UPDATE: okay..i spent last saturday wishing i was in b'lore ~ Palace Grounds..
I asked my brother if he'd gone but he didnt ...his friends who'd gone said it was 'nice but boring'.. what the funk?!!!!

Anyways ..some lines from the Hindustan Times review.."You would have to be a very dull person — a snob, or a sad cynic — to not enjoy this show." Too bad none of the reviews i've read so far have given insights on the performance of the opening bands...

Here are some reviews of the Concert i have been able to get...

The Wrath of Virginia is Upon Us[irmp3.com]
Lamb of God create a headbanger's ball[Hindustan Times]
Something to Die for [Deccan Herald]
Blessed be their name \m/ [detuned by default] {review by a genuine LOG fan :- ) }
The Wrath of Gods [ headbangers.in] {not a LOG FAN :-) but an honest review }

My numbskull thoughts..

2010-04-25T12:15:00.002+05:30

I should have been featuring on Slash' new solo album [featuring friends]... even though im not his friend..
I'm going make my own Blind Dayze [and friends] album.. someday.
Hnama chiang... "Kan pi leh pute kha hnamah lo chiang viau se chuan.. Kristian ah an lo inlet duh miah lo ang" tihte ka lo ngaihtuah vel...
The Indian band opening for Burn the Priest in B'lore? Hell... i had a dream where my band was co-headling with them..
My mother state should have a new time zone... and a new Chief Minister + new ruling party - i vote for me...
think i'm moonstruck[?]

Roots

2010-04-11T20:54:00.002+05:30

Rooting for Manchester United is a responsiblity i take up very religiously... missed church this morning but here i am again in the devil's den.. not a good result again this evening.

Now about roots ~ ancestry... A friend of mine who is far off in a distant land, away from the hills he calls home asked me if i could come up with some "artwork" which he could tattoo on his chest... he gave me a brief as to what he wanted.. and then i came up with something.. adding a little of my own input {cheesy line + the chem [Mizo 'machete'] }. After seeing it he didnt quite like it a 100%... so ..taking in new instructions i sent him something else...

anyways heres the first one i sent him...we did agree that it'd look cool on a t-shirt though...

As i was colouring in the feather i was reminded of Red Indians plus
something an acquaintance of mine told me. While she was in Singapore? some new Mizo students who'd arrived there crashed at her place.
On being asked by some locals out there of their origin, with all seriousness they told them that they were "Yellow Indians" :~)

[i guess they were trying to explain their "far east" features + their country = India situation.]

just for those interested... click HERE ...process i follow to create simple work as shown above.

Pro Bono..I'll work for you

2010-04-02T17:07:00.006+05:30

First off, a blessed Good Friday to all out there. A week ago..at an uncles' place..still half asleep just up from bed i looked at their calender, zoomed in on April... and remarked...[in Mizo] "Tun kum chu Good Friday zirtawpni a nih hi.." ..translation.. " this year, Good Friday is on friday.." :-P

On hearing my wise remark me uncles' wife says, "go jump off from the terrace and dont come to church again if you survive" ...okay she didnt really say it but i guess she said something more mild...and me didnt realise what was wrong with me insightful remark for a good long 53 seconds..

Wokay... enough of my unholy confession...now to Pro Bono...not about Bono from U2. Recently, working on an office project i used a small piece of code/plugin written by a good soul and made available for public commercial use.This helped me complete my job faster 40% faster.

Much inspired by the people who promote the 'spirit of pro bono'.. im *offering my services [ graphic / illustration / web design related ] for free.... and maybe i'll also write some super useful code.. but me thinks me left brains rotten now so slim chance for this....

*This offer stands only for the right requests + circumstances :-)

Example...

No, i wont design a website 'pro bono' for your fortune 500 company. For a proper approach go here.
No, i wont design a logo freely for your upcoming lottery company...
YES!!! i will help design a website..design t-shirts to raise funds for your volunteer group which helps poor children go to music school.... etc..

my conditions getting too specific? but hope you get the drift..

Wait...me lied. just did some work for a friend of mine freely and he aint no saint working for the less fortunate. He's starting a new venture with two of his buddies and i wish them [as Borat would say] "Great Success!!!" Click on the thumbnails to view my identity design samples for their upcoming company Orange Byte Studios.. they are based in Mumbai.

Well they haven't confirmed that they'll be using my design but i had fun doing the simple sample..I must admit this is a ' You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours ' scenario ...so this back scratching is really me expecting something in return... something valuable :-) ..like free airline travel tickets + Burn the Priest concert tickets ..... me and my high hopes...

Anyways... to all who may land up on this web page reading this....Pro Bono work i offer to thee..or do spread the word to anybody appropriate.. [*conditions apply ]..and another shout out for Orange Byte Studios....they'll be concentrating mainly on sound design...audio related work...

Summer Slumber

2010-03-28T18:03:00.001+05:30

Summer's here.. i say. What did i eat last summer?.. the most? all these past summers... my favourite fruit[vegetable??] = watermelons. Below in the photo is our local Melon Man... in slumber. I've got him on speed dial.

________________________________________________________

...and below is a photo of a man who also lives in my neighbourhood. Agonizingly thin.. asleep... with his daily piece of bread beside him. 70% chance that he is a junkie. Never seen him begging for money though.

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...meanwhile tight race in the English Premier League..who is going to win?

I was with the congregation last night..up late...in league with the devils. I'm feeling sleepy now. No, i did not fall asleep in church this morning. Going to sleep now...hopefully i'll dream about meeting Burn the Priest backstage and getting to interview them. They are coming to our country soon....

XXX Rated Comic - Adults Only

2010-03-20T10:56:00.003+05:30

the Last time i made a comic was a century a ago by internet standards..

....anyways heres one again....please dont judge me...by this comic... :-P

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The Audacity to Create and Share..Freely

2010-03-11T18:22:00.003+05:30

How should i start this post?...well let me try to put in some useful information first....

If you've already not heard about 4shared.com.. have a dekho. A really good file sharing site. As in my previous post, ive embedded audio files in this post..all of which i've uploaded into my 4shared account.. and since they happen to be audio files.. voila! i get to share them using the useful audio player widget or as normal direct links... The free account has limitations..and theres always a premium account you can upgrade to if needed..

Next up is Audacity - a FREE program written by a team of volunteer developers around the world.' Free like the books you get in Gutenberg.org ..free like free beer. You are free to use, distribute...and help in developing it if you've got the skills..

Used for? ..recording + editing/mixing audio. Supports multiple tracks. etc etc..pretty, beautiful free software. It has it's limitations and you probably wouldnt want to use it if you've got a more efficient 'pro' software for such needs.. but do give it a try.. it's not like telling you to uninstall your pirated copy of Windows and requesting one to use a Linux OS...
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Alright 2nd chapter of the post...

songs from Abigail's Algorhythm......
First up is one i wrote after i broke up with my 13th girlfriend. She could play guitar so much better than i could... me just couldnt' takes it no more. Served here with extra cheese[y] lyrics..

Okay last but not the least.. by the powers of this Creative Commons License i present a song i've titled 'Fill the Screen' ...originally titled 'HAND OF GOD'...adapted from HERE. [im sure it's got nothing to do with Maradona's 'h.o.g']....

.. my adaption is truly a very good example of how to adapt someones work and screw it up but anyways... please do give it a listen.. i'm also giving this a special genre.. "experimental acoustical alternative pop grunge" .. :-)

...this particular Transcend model is the source for my Lo-Fi recordings...

if you do care to give the songs a listen ..using earphones highly recommended..& do keep the volume settings on the higher side.... you just might miss out the finer details of my ~~Ear-aching~~ ground breaking audio production touches in there...

Download for laughs.. [mp3 format]
> Overlies > Fill the Screen

hello testing

2010-02-10T18:12:00.002+05:30

Dear Blog,

... long time no post.... For anyone out there with limited guitar skills but trying really hard to compose with it.. try CHANGE.. from the standard tuning, switch to some open or drop tunings.. Below is a rough cut of a song i've composed using an Open D tuning...and recorded on my simple but useful Transcend mp3 player..

another reason why im posting this is to test out the above audio embedding widget...it's working.
me happy.

Good things happen to those who wait Vs Its too good to be True
... pretty much sums up where im in these days...

Until then...

Year 2010

2010-01-02T10:19:00.002+05:30

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

~ Ecclesiastes 1:9

The good, the bad and the ugly.

2009-12-04T13:28:00.006+05:30

The Good:
There's Bob Dylan.... and there's a man called James McMurtry. He also pens good songs. Well i must admit i haven't listened to any of his other songs but for this one called 'We can't make it here'. It was only after reading a certain post by a Mr.Lefsetz that i actually heard of him and this song ~ It's good. It's true.

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

Link for the complete >> Lyrics OR Listen to the >> Song

The Bad:
Some bus conductors are bad... they try to take more than the fare on the charts. And this past week i've argued with three..with my broken Bengali. But i'd like to believe it was just an unlucky week. Most are good.
War is bad. Obama and change? i guess just a change in the battlefield.

Read >> An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

The Ugly:
The Bhopal Gas Tragedy... : December 3, 1984. 25 years.....ugly

When people ask, "Why is the disaster continuing? Why has the factory not been cleaned? Why have Union Carbide and Dow not faced justice?", the answer is this: Union Carbide's victims are still dying in Bhopal because India itself is dying under the corrupt and self-serving rule of rotten leaders.

Read >> Bhopal 25 years of Poison

THE END - that never comes?

2009-11-22T18:17:00.010+05:30

How many times has one heard that the world will end during our lifetime? The year 2000 was a strong contender in the recent past but this prediction turned out to be a flop just like Governor Arnold’s film – ‘End of Days’ which was released year end of 1999 if I’m not mistaken.

Now, the hot new date to watch out for is 12.21.2012 according to the Mayan calendar and several other ‘calendars’ out somewhere taped onto a conspiracy theorist’s wall.

Okay, I just watched the film 2012 the other day so I’m in an apocalypticy mood :-). Maybe it’s because I’ve not been to a movie theatre in a long time + the super special fx that I enjoyed the film. So just go to a theatre near you and watch this film. No spoilers from me in case you have not seen or read about it. One of those movies best viewed on a big screen.

Anyways it seems only a couple of us from our office enjoyed the film. Yes, another thing. I guess I was kind of instrumental in generating the idea of going to watch the movie… so off we went. 90.2012% of our office members went to see the film.

So, highly recommended you try this at your workplace. Ideal conditions for this to happen… less workload + the magic words “The world might end tomorrow…[ add other words of your choice appropriate to what you’ve suggested to do…or maybe not do]”.

On a totally not serious note…. How would you want ‘the world to end’? Nuclear bombs? Tsunami + Meteor impacts? A ruthless new world order bringing chaos and destruction?...or an alien invasion. The whole of Earth fighting a war against unfriendly aliens with evil flying saucers from the planet Nibiru would be nice. Of course, here we lose against the aliens and we all die…and planet Earth gets blown up to kingdom come….unlike the film 2012 where the world does not totally end …..yet again.

Anyways I’ll near the end of this post with some lines I’d like to share from the Insight section of a book I was reading last night..‘Two potential dangers in reading Revelation are avoiding it entirely or getting obsessed with its details….’

Now I’m really gonna end. And I’m gonna reveal something. Remember you read it here on my blog called Learning to Live. You might well already know that Oprah Winfrey is ending her talk show in the near future. She’s coming up with her own channel in the year 2011. But why does she want to end her successfully running daytime show? Why? Why start her OWN channel in 2011??.... I say it's because something is going to happen in 2012!!! And something fishy is happening right now in the kitchen…..smells like fish. Food is ready!!!

Ui Fawm from Mizoram..

2009-11-10T15:24:00.021+05:30

Some photos i'd taken during my last vacation which ive "wallpaperized"

..nothing great but..just in case you'd like a

....UiFawm {prayingMantis} & a Hive..

from Mizoram to rest as your desktop wallpaper

... feel free to Download at will.

click on the above pic for a larger one...

click HERE for a wide-ish one..

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click HERE for wide...

Life after a near death experience.

2009-10-21T10:31:00.010+05:30

Sitting in a plane + flying through dark clouds + major turbulence. Whew!!! What an experience and I live to die another day and blog about my near death flight.

Well, okay I admit I’ve exaggerated about the “major” turbulence part and I guess I’ve had a nearer death experience when I was a 3 month old baby which is another story but I couldn’t resist the above blog title after experiencing minor turbulence on my flight back to Kolkata after a long vacation.

Brief summary of my vacation >>

26th Sept: Kolkata to Aizawl
Morning - leave Kolkata ….early afternoon, land in Lengpui airport. Get to meet someone I’ve known only online – Sandman a.k.a Illusionaire over here. He’s busy dropping off some relatives but what surprises me most is that he’s not wearing any Arsenal clothing. Later, I’m in a taxi along with a good young man B.S-a. On our way up to the city the taxi driver stops to get some local liquor – not for himself but for friends as he states. He drops us safely to our homes.

27th Sept to 15th Oct: At home
Truth be told, peaceful “baby sitting” was pretty much what I did during my trip back home…..correction - my 3 year old daughter is nothing but a passive little baby. Anyways there I was back up in the hills; no phone or internet, communication with the “outside world” minimal and enjoying scenes like this on some mornings when I did wake up early enough to witness the mist/cloud engulfed hills….

Private transport absent and public transport scarce from my point of residence, I hardly went down into proper Aizawl city – now a concrete jungle in its own right…..

So, spending the majority of my time at home led me to taking mostly photos of my daughter and sometimes her pet spider ……

17th Oct: Aizawl to Kolkata
Wife and daughter see me off at Lengpui airport. Weather in Aizawl is bad but Lengpui is magically clear. However all is not clear once we enter Kolkata airspace. Our plane goes through grey clouds and then turbulence. Minor, I guess, since the other passengers who seemed to be frequent fliers didn’t make a sound. Me? I was ready to scream at the top of my lungs when the plane bumped a bit through the dark murderous clouds….my knuckles white holding tight on the armrest, my heart beating super fast, my eyes transfixed – looking out at nothing but the dark clouds through the tiny window.

On hindsight I believe the other passengers were all too scared to scream. Well the guy next to me was sleeping soundly. But really, I do recall the woman in front of me straining to see if the ground below was visible or not. The airhostess who’d been skillfully walking up and down the aisle had immediately taken an empty passenger seat during turbulence.

What a relief it was to hear the comforting “…cleared for landing” message from the pilot. Once on the ground I try to act cool and let all the other passengers leave first. What I’m really doing is calming down my highly tensed nerves and silently thanking God and the pilot for bringing us back to solid ground.

Outside it’s drizzling. I’m glad to walk out of the *flying coffin...[Captain Haddock' term for an aeroplane]
Earn to live. Learn to live. Love to be alive. Take a break. Have a vacation away from your vocation... :-)

Click HERE to view pics of my daughter playing with her new pet spider.....

Wealth In Health

2009-09-21T20:00:00.000+05:30

Health is wealth..so the saying goes and with good reason because theres a lot of wealth to be made in health care.

Personally im truly thankful that ive been maintaining good health. In fact I can recollect only one full day that ive been absent from work + another day when I went off a little early because of sickness in almost 3 years since I joined my current workplace.

I recently got hold of Michael Moore’s documentary film called Sicko [released back in 2002]. It’s a must watch in case you have not yet seen it. This film focuses on the health system in the USA. “Moore pulls the curtain back on the greedy HMOs, drug companies and congressmen who keep us ill…” is whats written on the back of the DVD case and that’s exactly what is in there and more.

After watching a couple of Moore’s documentaries I’ve become a fan of his work. In his films there are absurd scenes and statements and one might think that they were staged or written as scripts but they are all real and true…..and that’s why I came up with the line up there in my fan art – “More than just camera, lights & fiction” to state the kind of films Michael Moore makes.

For instance, the part where he opens an account in a bank and gets a gun for free was hard to believe when I first saw his film Bowling for Columbine but there actually is a bank out there in the USA which has this setup and the scene in the film is not staged. Surf over to read the interesting FACTS pages on his website. Moore’s latest film is called Capitalism – A love story.

Back to the health care or should we say careless industry. Watching Sicko reminded me of something Chris Rock said in one of his stand up comedy shows. It was something on the lines of questioning why we can’t find the cure for so many diseases when man has been able to send men up to the moon. Of course I’m one of those who doubt the authenticity of the man on the moon landings… but this is another story :-)

Long post already but September is a month of birthdays in my family and I guess it’s not too off topic to mention about recognizing birthdays. It’s good to be alive and healthy; to complete another year in one’s life. I dedicate the following song to my daughter, wife and all others out there who love this song and to those who might not yet have heard this song.

Forever Young by Bob Dylan … enjoy and take care.

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

FUTURE TENSE

2009-09-06T17:28:00.009+05:30

How well have you planned for your future?
Or are you one of those who “live each day as it comes…”?

I’d taken this photo a couple of weeks back, near a place where
I go to eat food sometimes.

The red robot with blinking lights standing in attention with headphones plugged into it + its owner [the man in the black shirt] regularly set up shop in their designated location. At first I’d assumed that the robot played music …so I thought it was a robo-juke box playing out the latest hit songs from Bolly/Tollywood films. I was wrong.

Now, look closely at the man with the headphones on. He seems pretty tense. At least not the kind of expression one would have when listening to music. When I approached the owner out of curiosity he immediately spoke out in English….”Future”. So, either the robot was predicting a dark future or the man was concentrating on the words streaming through the headphones. I tried hard not to smile...backed off a little as I took out my camera; the owner nodded his approval and I clicked one shot. The man on the headphones didn’t even notice me all that time. Hope he doesn’t mind.

So off I went with a big smile on my face. I forgot to ask how much one session of future prediction from the robot cost. Back home when I looked at the photo again on my computer I felt a little bad for the man with the headphones. Notice that there a couple of stickers on the robot’s “abdomen”. They are pictures of deities. I’m sure some customer s of the robot listened just for fun or out of curiosity but still I think some others would actually approach and walk away believing in the pre-recorded predictions of the future from the machine.

Of course on a different level we’ve got apps on Facebook like fortune cookies or horoscopes and even Orkut dishes out its words of fortune for it’s users…

I myself have a premonition that I’m gonna die in a plane crash
but that’s another story... :-)

Note: The place where the robot stands is in the Sealdah railway station area here in Kolkata. Sealdah railway station is one of the busiest in India and I bet a lot of people coming from outside the city approach this future predicting robot.

How to tell whether you are a Fanatic

2009-08-30T14:14:00.017+05:30

First of all a quick definition of the word fanatic I’ve taken from an online dictionary:

Fanatic:
[Noun] - A person motivated by irrational enthusiasm (as for a cause)
[Adjective] - Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea
Well…I personally don’t really have a concrete answer to tell if one is a fanatic.

So, I’m just going to take my case. There are a couple of artists & artistes I really admire...but now let me just limit my study to the world of football [soccer] and the Manchester United [The Red Devils] supporter in me for this brief case study.

The following are some random points:

1. Taking a photo of one’s 2 year old daughter
and putting in text which says “Little Red Devil” when one should probably be calling her “my little angel” or some other sweet appropriate word + making it appear as if she is wearing a ManUtd kit

2. Thinking realistically and knowing that one will never be able to play for ManUtd. in this lifetime but having recurring dreams where my little daughter becomes the star player of this very club I support.

3. Carrying an authentic Manchester United back pack to my workplace everyday even though all I put inside it is a bottle of water. [I’m saving money to buy the latest original jersey]

4. Asking my wife to give me live commentary over the phone [long distance call] while ManUtd is playing when I’m not in a position to watch the match. Okay a little exaggeration here but I don’t own a TV or have connection to the internet where I live alone currently so I do ask her to give me frequent updates over the phone when I dont make it to someplace where I can watch important matches.

Alright, shall not bore you more with my case. Probably mine is just a mild case compared to any of you fanatics out there … what/who-ever you are fanatics for. Maybe you don’t even think of yourself as a mere fanatic....maybe you are even more than a mere ~~lunatic~~ fanatic.

Oh, by the way Manchester United 2 – 1 Arsenal. Last night's match result. Really, Arsenal.. thanks for the charity shown. :-)

Quote I’d seen on some page on the internet in the recent past went something like:
“I don’t have problems with god. It’s his fan club that I hate…”
It brought a silent smile but it also made me think a little bit…..then I closed the web page and turned back to the latest news section of ManUtd.com.

Shot in the Dark

2009-08-23T15:37:00.002+05:30

...Patience please if the image below is slow to load….

Clicked this photo last Saturday evening after a light rainfall. No idea whether it is male or female but since it kind of stopped to “pose” I think it’s a sheSnail.

I’d seen one of it’s kind on a previous evening but I had no batteries in hand. This time I whipped out my ready camera, set it to macro, got down on my knees, crept up close and took a snap...then a second snap...but I stopped clicking more since I felt the creature would not appreciate the bright flash of my camera. I was worried that other pedestrians wouldn’t see it in the dark and squash it to death but after a few long hesitant seconds I left it on its way….

Another reason I stopped staying with the creature was because I was afraid that people would think I was surveying it up close to decide whether it would make a good side dish for dinner. Snail Soup anyone?

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The above photo of the main road going / coming from the airport I took last Tuesday evening. After having shot the slow moving snail it struck my mind that I should capture something opposite to it in a way – fast moving traffic on the highway. The busy main road is just a jump away from the quiet residential block that I reside in so off I went to shoot the road from a footbridge over it.

There are loads of beautiful shots of this nature one can find on the internet and I also always wanted to at least try shooting one. The easiest way I know is to lower one’s camera shutter speed below the auto or normal settings. Hold the camera really steady or get a tripod and click. Even just a very slight shake will cause undesired results. But if you do want an abstract effect one can intentionally move the camera a bit while clicking. Experiment. I also soon found out that if the stream of traffic is thin then the photo doesn’t come out that cool...
Okay, enough of my tutorial...loads of good resources up online….

One can get decent digital cameras at cheap prices these days or you can always use the inbuilt cameras in your mobile phones or rather use cameras with phones. I own an outdated entry level digital camera by today’s standards but it has all the basic features in it.

Its great fun and with due respect to professional photographers out there I believe photography is a field where the learning curve is not too steep if you enjoy shooting & experimenting with your camera - both technical + artistic aspects. So, start shooting … [Becoming a professional paparazzo is optional.]

In League with Devils

2009-08-15T19:26:00.004+05:30

Yes, a lot of people hate us….but I think it’s the price one has to pay for being in league with a force so united and powerful. I feel truly honored to count myself as one of those who stoke the flames of the empire…
Can the church or other established faiths stop us?

Yes and no…. yes because depending upon their location the church might succeed in stopping some of our fellow brothers and sisters from seeing the battles we fight. But actually some of our congregations pray in the very churches / temples / mosques… that others worship in... praying for the very force we support to achieve more.

No, because many of us choose not to enter customary places of worship but rather watch or be in the very premises where our devils practice their mastery. And yes, many give huge offerings to be able to do so every year. They might not appear to be … but there are many who are in league with the devils that I align with amongst church leaders. I personally know one such person. In fact his whole family approve of the devils and their deeds.

My own family members are yet to believe. I’ve got a wife who is too weak to have any more faith. When she sees me during times of devilish celebrations she shivers and breaks down. It hurts to see her suffer…mentally and the liver problem she has doesn’t make things easier.
My brother went astray many years ago following an army of failures. I truly feel sorry for him and his adopted sect. They have goals but it’s like they always end up firing blanks.

My parents? They just don’t care. Only hope remains for my daughter…but I leave it up to her to make a choice…though a little direction from my side wouldn’t hurt…

I must admit that a couple of strong adversaries do exist to bring us down. Much was accomplished in the past year except for an important battle that was lost at the end of one epic war. But a new period has come again. Glory is what we the supporters of Manchester United F.C. also known as The Red Devils wish for again from the team.
The English Premier League season is in. Whom do you support?

Notes:
> My wife does not have liver problems. She supports Liverpool F.C. who had problems in winning any major trophy last year.

> My brother belongs to the Christian Presbyterian sect. He supports Arsenal F.C. They really do fail to live up to their chosen name when it really matters.

> My mother supports Michael Chang the now retired tennis player. My little daughter and father enjoy watching Mr. Bean.

Image: Silhouette of Sir Alex Ferguson with a pitchfork.
Next time I’ll add him chewing gum. I’d forgotten to add this important attribute.
Source: In-house blinddayze Art.

Ready, Get Set, Read!!!

2009-08-09T20:24:00.007+05:30

An uneventful week has gone by again as far as external activities are concerned [as usual]. Living alone I pretty much stay indoors after I get off from office and in the weekends too I’m mostly confined inside the four walls of my little rented room. Of course on Sundays I TRY to make it to church in the mornings…..but even on those occasions of failure to do so, I do end up at a good Reverend’s place and get to enjoy a tasty Mizo meal which they always generously offer…although I always ~~politely~~ weakly refuse.. saying I’ve already taken breakfast…etc..

Since I don’t own a TV I spend a good amount of time sitting in front of my computer. And this ancient machine of mine has served me well. It belonged to my brother who bought it while he was supposedly studying some computer course many many years ago in the same institute with
Bill Gates. Sadly today I’m not the brother of a billionaire. Okay sorry for the exaggeration….but the monitor and the 2.1 set of speakers are at least 9 and a half years old [passed on from my brother] and the main computer assembled about 4 years ago. The hard disk being the latest part to be replaced. Still, my machine is a far cry from the one I enjoy working on in office with a slick TFT monitor and Core2duo processor + loads of RAM.

My home computer is not connected to the World [wide web] so sitting in front of it does not include surfing the internet. However it serves well for watching movies – three of Jim Jarmusch’s films being the latest that I’ve enjoyed thoroughly. I would highly recommend Down by Law, Broken Flowers and Coffee & Cigarettes for those new to this independent film maker’s work.

Besides films and music… since four days ago my hard disk also happily contains the contents of a Gutenberg project cd [’03 edition] which I dug out while clearing up my cd/dvd suitcase. I’d long forgotten about this collection of [eBooks] literature which contains approximately 8000 titles in it. [HTML and text file format].

So, unless it’s only Sidney Sheldon books you’re interested in, just surf over online to Project Gutenberg and get free access to 25,000 and counting works of literature!!! It would also be a nice thing to contribute your own works or in the form of monetary help and various other means.

Alrighty then, this post is getting long rather quickly….going to get back to my Gutenberg treasure -- reading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne …just completed Edgar Rice Burroughs – The Return of Tarzan….[I’ve always wanted to be like Tarzan in the comic books—sadly having long hair is the only thing I’ve accomplished]. Okay so once again…from Aristotle to Emile Zola’s writings.. it’s all in there!!!! Feel free to read the available literature…..pun intended.
Go Gutenberg!!!

...Justice for All...reality or fiction?

2009-07-26T18:15:00.007+05:30

I'd joined a Facebook group about 15 days back - Justice for Professor Sabharwal...as i type these words i hope that a good number of people are there right now near India Gate [New Delhi] supporting the protest...

The Facebook group profile has the following words...

Yesterday - Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Mattoo and Nitish Katara
Today - Professor Sabharwal
Tomorrow - Me, You and Our Family

The Late Prof. Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal Served as a Professor of Political Science at Madhav College, Ujjain (M.P). At the time of his murder on the 26th of August’2006. He, while on student election duty, was allegedly murdered in cold blood on the fateful day.

It was just a day after i joined the group that i read an article here in The Telegraph, Kolkata "Professor case in sabotage rut "

....It's sad...it's bad..Forget about arresting the guilty..."Some others were rewarded. Manoj Singh, the then city superintendent of police who was accused of not trying to save the professor, was promoted as additional superintendent of Indore."

Click HERE to read more. [The Telegraph]

Music: Origins | Jubal Cain

2009-07-21T01:21:00.030+05:30

Recently watched X-Men Origins | Wolverine and that’s why I’ve got the post title as above. So please X- cuse me for using this bold post title. I could make this post short & precise or long & interesting….but since I don’t feel I’m good enough a writer to achieve either, I’ll TRY to stick to the middle path. Wait. Don’t think even this is going to be possible. Lost all writing skills - whatever I had over the last 6 years. Blame it on the habit of simply ticking off answers from multiple choices and not having to write up credible looking answers on my answer sheets during exams. Alright enough of the intro…on to the main piece.

Why is rock and roll music associated with the devil? Or…there is no such thing as Gospel Rock….There is NO music ever used or approved in the worship of the Holy Spirit…. Besides coming across such statements, I’ve also always wondered about the consistent use of the 5 pointed star [inverted]….goat’s head kind of imagery etc….in the album / merchandise artwork of metal and rock bands.

It was early this year that I started getting a little deep into trying to read and learn more about the link between music and the devil so to say. Google up subjects like this and one instantly gets so many links on it. So for awhile I got interested in something “off topic” -- the Illuminati and their mission to create a new world order or world domination -- which I myself have been planning all along. [ I gave up my world domination attempt when all my mission plan data files were wiped out -- my hard disk crashed last month.]

So anyways back to music… it was an odd dark stormy afternoon in May at the office, [please note: during spare time :-) ] … that I came across the ultimate webpage that gave me the answer I was looking for regarding the Satan & Music equation. Just as I was about to click the icon on my browser to save the site on my list of favorites the power went off and my UPS failed to give a power back up. Sorry I just lied. It was my boss who came to me at that moment and said that some of our sites were being infected with an “iframe.inf” virus…and they’d traced someone in Russia who was injecting the malicious code. They wanted me to fly up to the hacker’s location and exterminate him. However, my body was in no condition to execute such an important mission. [I was recovering from the effects of a street food eating incident gone wrong] Whew!!! thus I was able to carry on reading the contents of the web page.

Now, the subject I was reading on the site was not at all on music. It was on Freemasonry and Catholicism by Max Heindel [1865-1919]. Part two of this exposition titled The Masonic Legend mentions that the Masonic legend “has points of variance from as well as agreement with the Bible story”…. [Genesis]. And it was here that I read that Jubal Cain [a descendant of Cain] “originated music”. At this point I assumed that Jubal Cain was someone who only appeared on this Masonic Legend. Later on I came across another site which mentioned "In pagan traditions, musical instruments are invented by gods or demi-gods, such as titans. In the Bible, credit is assigned to antediluvian patriarchs, for example, the descendants of Cain in Genesis 4:21...”

I read the line again. Back home I opened my Bible and looked up the mentioned verse in Genesis chapter 4. Now, I did go to Sunday School as a child and learnt about the creation of the earth, Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, The flood & Noah’s ark, The Tower of Babel and so on but honestly I never went back to reading or paying attention to Genesis 4:21..”…Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.” and verse 22 ...“...Tubal-Cain who forged all kinds of tools….” [Please note: I mention these points from a Christian/Biblical perspective] So, there we have it!!! Jubal Cain invented the harp and the flute…and I guess he and his sons also made other musical instruments. Thus justifying my post title: Music: Origins… :-) and yes, Tubal Cain too; important man….first man -- inventing tools to make work easier.[Note: The man in the image is NOT Jubal Cain.]

On trying to read more about Jubal Cain on the internet I also came across a band called Jubal Cain :-) [They have a pretty funny FAQ section.] I guess naming ones band after the father of musical instruments does not guarantee musical “rockstardom”…Just Google or Bing up the band.

X-Men Origins…love the opening sequence that follows just after Logan [Wolverine] kills his real father…Oh, wait; I’ve not mentioned the Devil and music equation thing have I?

Back to the FreeMasonic legend / Max Hiendel part. In the Bible, Cain’s father = Adam.
Not so in the Masonic Legend.

The following lines - extract from Hiendel’s exposition:

“…It [Masonic Legend] states that Jehovah created EVE, that the Lucifer Spirit SAMAEL united with her but that he was ousted by Jehovah and forced to leave her before the birth of her son Cain, who was thus THE SON OF A WIDOW. Then Jehovah created ADAM, to be the husband of Eve, and from their union Abel was born. Thus from the beginning there have been two kinds of people in the world. One begotten by the Lucifer Spirit Samael and partaking of a semi-divine nature …..”

So, this particular legend [ for me] is how I believe all these Rock Music = Devil’s Music kind of statements and stories have come to be made and told. After all, this Masonic legend states that the descendants of Lucifer invented musical instruments. Now there are other myths/stories to be read which link up the devil with music.

"Slightly less familiar are the Devil's musical exploits. He not only loves singing but is master of the violin, of which instrument of evil he is reputedly the inventor. By the same token he can give mastery of the violin, bartering infernal skill for the pupil's soul.

These legends are related to the larger belief in the supernatural origin of musical skill and individual songs." (Botkin, B. A., A Treasury of American Folklore, Crown Publishers, p. 718; Cf. The Devil and the Fiddle, Herbert Halpert, Hoosier Folklore Bulletin, Vol II (Dec., 1943).

However, again from a Christian perspective the issue regarding the use of musical instruments in worship is something that I have to read and learn more about to give a definite opinion.

I end with yet one more extract.

In the story of Genun or Jubal, Musical worship is treated as Satan's change agent to seduce God's people down into his dusty world where he lives and where God, in Genesis, assigned him. The following story has many parallels in Scripture often hidden in parable-words in which Jesus said the Truth of God was put in safekeeping from those who see "godliness as a means of financial gain."
Kenneth Sublett, Hohenwald, Tennessee

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: [click on the links below to read more]

Freemasonry and Catholicism by Max Heindel [1865-1919]
Instrumental Worship in Music
Genun - Jubal - Musical Worship - Book of Adam and Eve

Image: Johann Martin Schleyer (1831-1912), photography from 1888
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JM_Schleyer_1888.jpg

Googoo Gaagaa Google!!!

2009-07-15T11:38:00.004+05:30

Besides speaking on the phone.. and sending photos... Google Maps helps.. :-) Featured below is the area where my folks, little daughter & wife currently reside..

View 23.761350, 92.734940 in a larger map

Was "playing" inside Google Maps yesterday....and it's pretty fun to fiddle with in free time...creating labels, exploring areas where you've been, where you want to go..or maybe searching for ahem..someone's house...okay we are getting into intrusion of privacy [stalker] territory .. :-)

Once you've created your map..you get a code to embed.. just like embedding Youtube videos. Google is cool!!! Now about the intrusion of privacy part + Google. Yesterday i was reading some Freemason stuff..and after i few minutes ...i was immediatley getting ads for FreeMasonic clothing..whatever that is. [Ads appear as links to the site inside gmail-- the sponsored links]

So, back to the privacy.. exert from Michael Hyatt's blog.. "For all practical purposes, privacy is dead: get over it. Via Google, people can find out more about you in ten minutes than was possible in a lifetime ten years ago. You might as well intelligently feed the Google search engines with what you want people to know about you. You need to be smart about it, but you are in control."... [+ read more] (Michael's post regarding Twitter) Affirmative i say.

Another new? feature that i read about Google Image search is the added option inside Advanced Search: Usage Rights which includes options like "labeled for commercial reuse with modification" ..pretty neat . I did a random search with certain words and got some pretty good photos [high res too]... and also a good way to look up for images to spice up your blog post.
So i guess i should end with --- Enjoy the world wide web responsibly!! and usefully :-) Cheers.

Already July....time Flies

2009-07-06T11:49:00.031+05:30

What did i do yesterday?...alone on a Sunday.. rain pouring down?

Well i aint no Lennon
and far from Cohen
Just a wannabe Dylan... so i picked up my guitar and tried to write a song...that goes..

It's already July
the rains have come...
Oh.. how time flies
under the sun.....

Said i'd be home
but here i am....
Speaking on the phone
from another land.... ----- to be continued :-)

------------------------------------------------

Watched a film called Into the Wild.....directed by Sean Penn. One word..Wow!.. this man can direct too...direct well. And good acting from the actors. [Great Soundtrack too...for PearlJam/Vedder fans.. Eddie Vedder songs in here are beautiful...]

And talking about Sean Penn... i have not yet seen his latest Oscar winning performance in Milk.. a film in which he portrays an American gay rights activist - Harvey Milk. Now out here in India the dropping of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that makes homosexuality illegal... is making news. I never even knew that it was "classified?" as a criminal act.

My opinions on this subject?.... I was briefly talking with a friend the other day on this issue. Now without beating around the bush....and at the risk of sound a little explicit. The Sodomy part = unnatural behaviour.

I know this is a sensitive issue and i'm not gonna say much more.
But this is my take on it .. ( Probably a very immature way of looking at it) But here goes..
Friends of the same sex. Normal. Having physical relationships [sodomy]?....Not normal.

Human teeth as can be seen in the image.. Canine, molars, Incisors... God gave us these different types so we can eat both Vegeterian and Non Vegeterian food. Animals...--Cows they don't have Canine / Incisors to cut into flesh. They have good teeth to chew veggies. ...herbivorous. Humans, omnivorous.

Now did God design our bodies for homosexual physical activity? No. Again at the risk of sounding crude... the male body only has the part for you know what and not THE OTHER part for well....

I will end my uneducated take on this subject but this is what i feel. It's definitely not a Criminal Act. Rather i think it's a Medical or rather Mental thing involved. Gays should be treated with respect and Care.
---------------------------------------------------
Teeth image - courtesy: USA 2017[dot]com
....

Weakly [in]Activity Report

2009-06-18T11:40:00.026+05:30

Activity One: Watching someone who's not there...

Recently got hold of a not so recent biographical film directed by Todd Haynes... called I'm not There. A film about Bob Dylan. Where he is portrayed by 6 different actors. Now, the interesting part.. [at least to me]---Included in the list of actors who portray Dylan are Christian Bale and [late]Heath Ledger - both starred in the film: The Dark Knight (Batman)]....Bale as Batman, Ledger as the Joker. Bob Dylan has a song called Jokerman...which i really like and i really like Heath Ledger's acting as the Joker in the Dark Knight. I've not heard the studio version[Jokerman] but i really like this live performance with this particular line up. Watch out for the part where Dylan has problems with the harmonica..

Activity Two: going back to The Beach

A brilliant first novel from Alex Garland which i'd read a couple of years back....Read it all over again.... Makes me want to pack my bags and go back packing... be a traveller and not a tourist...
....and we also have Leonardo Di Caprio in the film version...which was directed by Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle.. In my opinion the novel's better..

Activity Three: Case Study

Reading The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. I'd got hold of this book [pdf format] from an online source sometime back. Reading it again. I've sent a mail to the author asking him whether the pdf format of his book was made available online intentionally or is this a case of illegal reproduction.... Anyways this book has helped me a lot and i would be more than happy to give the online source of this book to others interested in reading it... Hopefully i'll get a reply from LeeStrobel.com

Manchester United messed up by Messi and company..

2009-05-29T13:04:00.019+05:30

I'd been saving up the month of May to post only one great "victory post" ...after the Champions League final.. but not so...sadly, the Red Devils were beaten fair and square by Barcelona FC who were definitely the better team of the night. Anyways ManUtd. won the EPL, Carling Cup, FIFA Club World Cup.....

One new fact about Barcelona FC i learnt...which i like...notice the UNICEF logo in their team shirt?....i always wondered how come UNICEF was a sponsor...it's the other way round...unlike other teams which usually sport a sponsor logo in front of their jersey...Barcelona FC donate a part of their earnings to UNICEF....hence the logo. However this is not to say that other football clubs don't do any "charity"...for example ManUtd. has it's Foundation programme...where it carries out this kind of work and activity..

Got some designs in my head for getting it printed out on Tees... though i still havent figured out a name for the apparel line..all the good names i come with starting with A seem to be taken already... :( .... Click HERE to see some of the stuff that i plan to put out...

And now...music...SCREAM ...Chris Cornell's latest album produced by Timbaland...i actually like some of the songs that he's worked out with Timbaland but now i guess the label wasn't that happy...well at least after the album was released and it didn't live upto expectations. In comes a man named Howard Benson...another producer...and he's produced or should we say re-produced the song Long Gone...and Cornell's site actually has it streaming with the words "rock version" after the song title...so in the end rock is what rules...

Now, this Howard Benson is also the man named to produce Creed's upcoming "re-union" album tentatively titled Full Circle... or maybe they should just call it "Let's make some money again" ..lol. I'm sure it's gonna be a good album...Howard Benson's producing credits is a long rich list...which includes Seether's Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces which i got hold of recently only..and i really like...

Okay to see or rather hear the difference ... what a producer can do to a band's/artist's sound check out the clips below...Chris Cornell's long gone...

Rock Version: [Howard Benson]

Timbaland's version....

So we now know the importance of a producer in the music industry... anyone in a band out there who happens to be reading this or if you've got friends planning to put out their music............ i happen to know someone who can get your music to another level....does not have his own personal site online now..but to listen to some of his personal music and work just click HERE... leave the first three tracks..some horrible vocals are in them...just listen to the last two instrumentals...

Now..if you don't have any musical skills or talent...maybe the producer can still help you to put out a good record..but don't dream of doing live shows....and tours..wait wait....hmmmm i guess the lip sync option is there...

Addicted to A's

2009-04-06T11:07:00.008+05:30

As the temperature is going up here in Kolkata I’ve decided to get myself some light tees suitable for wear in the hot / humid clime. Plain white t-shirts can get rather boring sometimes so I came up with a couple of designs to get printed on the the tees….which I will be putting out in stores through my new clothing company called A-One Apparel.

Featured here in the pic I’ve posted are shirts with my newly conceived Blind Dayze smiling skull…just a personal thing..i love music and art so that’s why the sketching pencil + the musical note and I think the skull here looks pretty blind…. So watch out for my designs in stores soon!!… The pink shirt with butterflies?…well I figured that maybe one of the Bollywood actors could wear it [Saif Ali Khan..Hrithik?] and make me some money…since the masses will soon follow suit and buy from my clothing line…

Okay going a little overboard here…I really don’t have a clothing company…but that’s what im going to call it…A-1 Apparel. I’m “addicted” to A’s….like that lady who produces all those soaps on Indian televison…the K obsessed one…maybe I should add some extra A’s in for good luck….Sale! Sale!…A-1 maal from A-One Apparel..sale saaaalee…hmm yes even my “Sale” should have extra A’s …Saaaaaaale…yes that should do ….

Oh, and Manchester United won last night!!!.....yes!!!...still on top of the table in the Premier League...and hopefully that's where we will stay till the end.....

°F going up...weather wise and other-wise..

2009-03-30T18:11:00.008+05:30

Still in the 9/11 atmosphere... I've not watched Fahrenheit 9/11 but will do so this evening..last night it was Bowling for Columbine. ...must get more Michael Moore stuff. Marilyn Manson also makes an appearance in this documentary [Bowling for Columbine]....

It would be nice if Webster Tarpley and Moore team up for some good documentary in the future....and what else.. LOG.......yes LOG would be a good band to put up a soundtrack for the Tarpley/Moore project. The men in LOG have put out a good load of songs on politics.

Their latest offering in Wrath....love it..it's been up for awhile   ..[all the songs streaming in their myspace playlist...] Got to get myself a copy soon....

Suicide...& Redemption

2009-03-24T15:06:00.006+05:30

Currently enjoying listening to Metallica's Death Magnetic album.......especially like the song "Suicide & Redemption" ..instrumental track which is i guess a couple of seconds short of running 10:00 minutes long.. However the opening riff instantly reminded me of a Shinedown song...think the song Devour...i think it's just a really small riff / section....similar kind of sound in there but anyways these things happen....

I wonder what finally happened to the Joe Satriani Vs Coldplay case regarding the song Viva la Vida.....guess the case has gone cold...[pun intended]...and since i have nothing hot to blog about i might as well stop here... Oh, but im reading a nice little book called 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA by Webster Griffin Tarpley

Wordpress

2009-03-20T14:08:00.003+05:30

.....Trying out Wordpress...blinddayze.wordpress.com.......but i think i'm gonna stick to using Blogger as a personal blog...... And hopefully Wordpress as another platform for another purpose... hopefully a good one...

Re-Unions ......New unions...

2009-02-27T17:52:00.000+05:30

After reading news bits here and there regarding possible chances of a Faith No More reunion, i finally got to read about the reunion becoming a reality......without guitarist Jim Martin 1983-93....handling guitar duties will be Jon Hudson, who played on the 1997 album - "Album of the Year"....
[Learnt about this on Blabbermouth]

Next stop--Mr.Big!!!! ...learnt about them "reuniting" through the diary of the one and only Ross Halfin [photographer/diarist/humanitarian]...and i quickly got a confirmation with a quick google search on other sites... This Mr.Big reunion will feature the original line up!!!....hope these guys put out a new album...

And last but not the least...the "new-union"...a band called ChickenFoot..
A super-group if one can call it that..featuring Sammy Hagar on vocals, Joe Satriani on guitar, Chad Smith on drums and Michael Anthony on bass guitar....their MySpace page has just a 54 seconds "teaser" at this moment....but their logo is nice :-) : ...do not click on the logo...don't..don;t..

The reason behind the re-unions??...money?...music?? or just to have a good time with old bandmates + make money??...don't know myself..maybe i will after forming a great or not so great multi-platinum/multi-award winning band and then breakup the band...

Se7en etc.......

2009-02-21T10:57:00.001+05:30

7 DEADLY SOCIAL SINS

Politics without Principle
Wealth without Work
Commerce without Morality
Pleasure without Conscience
Education without Character
Science without Humanity
Worship without Sacrifice

–Gandhi
-----------------

It's been awhile

2009-02-16T19:28:00.000+05:30

इव बीन रीडिंग सम रेअल्ली इन्तेरेस्तिंग स्तुफ्फ....ओं फ्रीमसोंस... सीम्स थे थे व्होले ऑफ़ थे उनितेद स्टातेस इस रन बी थे इल्लुमिनती एंड फ्रीमसोंस रेअल्ली सतरंगे थिंग्स.....एंड आईएम नो अ १००% सुर ठाट नो ह्यूमन हस लंदेद ओं थे मून...ओके थिस शौल्ड फॉर नो...विल पोस्ट मोरे ओं थिस टोपिक इन थे देस तो काम.......hope people can read this........कूल न्यू फेअतुरे हियर इन थिस ब्लॉग टाइपिंग इन थे हिन्दी.....and yes Manchester United carry on with their winning ways in the F.A. Cup...what else?...oh beware of the Barack Obama administration.....
i've gotta keep an eye on this man... :-) ...a wolf in sheep's clothing...a puppet in the hands of एविल में .....अन्योने इन्तेरेस्तेद इन थिस स्तुफ्फ प्लेस फील फ्री तो शेयर व्तेवर दौकुमेंट्स एंड लीड्स यू माय हवे....

ProcrastiNATION..comic strip..

2009-01-23T13:47:00.000+05:30

First Bandh in
Beautiful Bengal yesterday...guess the political parties have made a resolution to organise one once every month and break last year's record...okay joke..there maybe more serious matters behind all these bandhs so let me not comment more on it..

Anyways heres the first of a comic strip "ProcrastiNation Chronicles"....hopefully more will come up if don't keep off continuing them...

Chak de India and BLS

2009-01-19T16:18:00.001+05:30

Got a Vodafone "Filmy Recharge" the other day...for which i got a Chak De..VCD free....the other day someone at my office got some other funny superhero movie free...the one with Hrithik Roshan i guess...i think i got a better offer with this Shah Rukh movie...had never seen this film before and was pleasantly surprised to see that the hockey match scenes were realistically well shot....oh and theres a mizo character too...Mary Ralte...

Also got hold of Black Label Society's "Doom Troopin -European Invasion (2006)" DVD... a real treat to watch Zakk Wylde's extended guitar solos especially on songs like In this River - which he has dedicated to Dimebag Darrell. Good performance by James Lomenzo...who is now handling bass duties in Megadeth. I had actually ordered Boozed, Broozed and Broken-Boned but it wasnt available yet so took this one instead but im really happy i did

......watching this dvd has made me want to do some Zakk Wylde artwork...as i was searching the web for a good reference image of Zakk with a Dean Razorback i came across this image of him.......bloody....i have a vague memory of watching a Mithun film...(yea the disco dancer)...playing a guitar and his fingers bled because he was shredding really fast!!!!...

Manchester United 3 - 0 Chelsea

2009-01-12T12:00:00.001+05:30

No Monday morning blues courtesy The Red Devils beating Chelsea last night.. not that i'm prone to have "monday morning blues" .....

Manchester United 3 - 0 Chelsea........sweet victory... and were it not for the two goals from Ronaldo which he was denied, the first one a controversial corner...courtesy Rooney & Giggs which Ronaldo put in with a beautiful header and the second where he was called offside.. (replays indicate he was not) the score would and should have been ManUtd 5...and Chelsea ZERO..
All the RedDevils had a good day in office...was really happy to see Park Ji-Sung playing so well and was hoping Tevez would come in ....anyways Great Match...Liverpool watch out..Arsenal?..bye bye..

Talking of controversial / disputed free kicks..check THIS out...Youtube..

Let's Blog

2009-01-09T12:44:00.001+05:30

Hmmmmm day2 on blogworld.. nothing to
talk
blog about..here is a photo i took sometime early last year....the church is St.James Church, better known as Jora Girja here in Kolkata....never got to find out what was going up in smoke..on the other side ..

I'm not much of a photographer but you can see some cool photos taken by a person called Indranil Ray....HERE ..he is also a die hard fan of the Mohun Bagan football club... We came to know each other when i saved him from the hands of some East Bengal fans who were beating him up..i'm a black belt in karate, taekwondo and all forms of martial arts.. Okay this last bit is not true...

He is a colleague where i ~~work~~ ..sorry Play!!!... FestoonMedia...

Year 2thousandNine

2009-01-08T17:39:00.001+05:30

Winners make The Days Count ! Loosers Count The Days !! ......i'd Ctrl+C'd from somewhere and Ctrl+V'd this line into my status message in gmail.....to start the new year...and i really did not notice the spelling mistake...or rather the wrong use of the word "loosers" for this particular sentence..which should be "Losers"... my brother noticed and i promptly corrected it!..

Related to this "loser" incident..this morning as i was reading Blabbermouth.net i came across a post where Lemmy of MOTÖRHEAD talked about "saving" a female friend from getting a tattoo that read "Born to Loose"........:-)

Click here to go n read Blabbermouth ...Lemmy story..

So readers who are reading my first post here in "09..remember when to lose or to add the extra O...lose/loose in sentences.....really different meanings...