I'm just surprised this hasn't shown up in The Times of India yet. [more on that later too]
Anyway, give this a read to know more.
You won't regret it.
----------------
Now playing: Dark Tranquility - Edenspring
via FoxyTunes
6/25/08
The Culinary Wars
Food fights are only the beginning. A theory prophesying a dark future, postulated over lunch tables by a group of researchers with nothing else to do, has arisen. So has a voice, a war cry of a soldier on the winning side. I know. I was part of the "study". I'll be part of the quenching of the rebellion.
I'm just surprised this hasn't shown up in The Times of India yet. [more on that later too]
Anyway, give this a read to know more.
http://supercritter.blogspot.com/2008/06/pulling-veggie-on-vegan.html
You won't regret it.
----------------
Now playing: Dark Tranquility - Edenspring
via FoxyTunes
I'm just surprised this hasn't shown up in The Times of India yet. [more on that later too]
Anyway, give this a read to know more.
You won't regret it.
----------------
Now playing: Dark Tranquility - Edenspring
via FoxyTunes
6/23/08
So, the Yamaha R15
Why hasn't anyone heard of this bike?
Where in the world is the advertising? [Here's one, but it's only on Yamaha's website, not on TV.]
The bike's out. It's out with India in mind. It's the perfect performance bike for this country and apart from the P220 and possibly the upcoming fuel injected version of the Apache 160 RTR, it's the only performance bike here. Looking at the bike and the ad, I know that Yamaha is finally treating India with the same respect as the rest of the world and not just ignoring us and chucking mopeds in our general direction. Knowing that feels good.
For the un-initiated, here are the features.. I know these so well now that I can't help but rattle em all off in a single breath.
A liquid cooled, fuel injected, four valve engine. [First in India (except for the fuel injection)]
A six-speed gearbox [Another first]
Fully faired [Looks like "those Dhoom bikes"]
A delta-box frame and forged pistons [Other firsts, whatever they mean]
Kerb weight of 125kg.
All these together are what ought to make you ignore the fact that the engine is a single-cylinder 150cc one that produces just 17PS of power. Coz, the technology that's gone into this takes it across a quarter mile .4 secs quicker than the nearest competitor and go upto 15kmph more on the top speed.* And what's more, it's handling is as sharp as its looks are. So, for those of you who still don't get it, I'll put it simply:
This bike can whoop the P220's ass... with ease.
But here's the problem. If Yamaha doesn't ramp up its marketing campaign - make that its awareness campaign - it's not gonna sell. Their marketing is good. They had a Launch Day/Race Day/Track Day, whatever you wanna call it, in Chennai on a track, where people who'd booked R15's would get a chance to have a go around the track. Wonder if they'll make that a regular thing. That'd be neat.
Anyway, the turnout wasn't bad, but I didn't hear about it till a day before it happened. Now I know I don't religiously follow news channels [more on that, later], but I keep track of car/bike news in the country. And no, that doesn't include the number of times that John Abraham had a bike crash [I've got enough to count between myself n aXay] or which bike Dhoni is buying..
Now, this event might've been promoted in Chennai, and I get that it didn't need promotion here in B'lore, but the launch at least should've had some hoopla around it. I mean there have to be people like me out there whose dream come true would look like the R15. So, if Yamaha decides to make it possible to realize those dreams, couldn't they let 'em know 'bout it as well?
Now onto how I had a hand in the design and conception of the bike. The story goes as such:
These 2 girls came to my college around a coupla years back. They claimed to be from IMRB - Market research Bureau or somethin in Delhi. They were looking for people who owned Pulsars or Karizmas [which can be interpreted as owners of high-end bikes], for their opinions on a few TVCs they'd show. And for it they's give each willing person a sum of one thousand rupees.
Me n a coupla my friends signed up, although we were skeptical about the whole deal. We expected it to be a prank or something. Who'd just give away 1K for some opinions, right? But we were proven wrong the next day.
But in our time of distrust, we did some snooping around. They'd called us using a landline to inform us of the time and place [Pizza Hut, hehe]. One of my friends called back later to find out more about them. It was a hotel at which they were staying. The person he talked to said that those people were from Yamaha.[besides tellin him that they weren't in their room at that time] So,.. convinced that we weren't heading towards a spot on MTV Bakra, we went to the meet.
There were those 2 girls and another PYT - their senior. We were made comfortable and eventually shown about 20 TV Commercials. 12 of 'em bike ads, 7 car ads and one Kwality cornetto ad. We were told to write our opinions on them on a set of sheets. Three Yamaha ads were thrown in at random.
When we probed as to who they worked for, all we got was that they were working mainly on 2-wheeler market research and were associated with one company in the market. The one we knew about, of course.
All throughout the session, i was subtly trying to give em the idea that I'd be the 1st one to ditch my current Bike for a new Yam 250 as soon as it came out.. When the Yam corporate ad was shown, i expressed my dislike of the fact that they show John Abraham talkin bout big bikes, they show the R1, but in the end all that we're offered to ride are 125cc mopeds. Then a talk started which eventually lead to Xbhp.com where th PYT had read someone say "Yamaha cheated India". I told her that i agreed. Then all subtlety was put aside when I told her that I was one of th people eagerly waitin for th Fazer250. They took that into account and we parted ways, me with a cool grand in hand.
A coupla months later, we got calls from those same girls again and this time, when we got there, there was Sanjay Tripathi [Dept. Head, Product Planning & Strategy - Yamaha India] [Of course I didn't know his position then], and with him were a bunch of Japanese businessmen who didn't talk much. We were shown designs of bikes and asked to pick the better ones, asked about our riding lives (how much we ride, whether we tour on our bikes, how long we intended to ride bikes, etc.) and told to assign priorities to aspects like power, styling, price and mileage (that was my order). And once again we left happily, being a thousand bucks richer.
Months passed by and I started cursing Yamaha 'coz I thought all they'd achieved with that activity involving us was try to make a raunchy ad like the Cornetto ad they showed us earlier [which we liked]. The Alba ad. Don't even get me started about anything to do with that bike.
But here are the actual results of that market research. I'm glad they tried just asking potential buyers what they want. And I'm proud that I helped them create this wonder of a bike. And I'm gonna go on record to say that though I'd much rather have the Fazer 250, this is my next bike, come what may.
There, now they've got celebrity endorsement too. What more do you need Yamaha?
* As per an official release by Yamaha.**
** As heard in the review on the Overdrive show on CNN IBN:
Did i mention i got free pizza too? on both occasions..
EDIT: So I finally did see the ad on TV, but it still lacks information like Yamaha having renovated most of its service centers, the availability of the bike in most cities.. Heck, they make it look like they're making some bullshit promises again. They need to use a simple clear message saying, "It's here."
But I guess that's just me.
Where in the world is the advertising? [Here's one, but it's only on Yamaha's website, not on TV.]
The bike's out. It's out with India in mind. It's the perfect performance bike for this country and apart from the P220 and possibly the upcoming fuel injected version of the Apache 160 RTR, it's the only performance bike here. Looking at the bike and the ad, I know that Yamaha is finally treating India with the same respect as the rest of the world and not just ignoring us and chucking mopeds in our general direction. Knowing that feels good.
For the un-initiated, here are the features.. I know these so well now that I can't help but rattle em all off in a single breath.
A liquid cooled, fuel injected, four valve engine. [First in India (except for the fuel injection)]
A six-speed gearbox [Another first]
Fully faired [Looks like "those Dhoom bikes"]
A delta-box frame and forged pistons [Other firsts, whatever they mean]
Kerb weight of 125kg.
All these together are what ought to make you ignore the fact that the engine is a single-cylinder 150cc one that produces just 17PS of power. Coz, the technology that's gone into this takes it across a quarter mile .4 secs quicker than the nearest competitor and go upto 15kmph more on the top speed.* And what's more, it's handling is as sharp as its looks are. So, for those of you who still don't get it, I'll put it simply:
This bike can whoop the P220's ass... with ease.
But here's the problem. If Yamaha doesn't ramp up its marketing campaign - make that its awareness campaign - it's not gonna sell. Their marketing is good. They had a Launch Day/Race Day/Track Day, whatever you wanna call it, in Chennai on a track, where people who'd booked R15's would get a chance to have a go around the track. Wonder if they'll make that a regular thing. That'd be neat.
Anyway, the turnout wasn't bad, but I didn't hear about it till a day before it happened. Now I know I don't religiously follow news channels [more on that, later], but I keep track of car/bike news in the country. And no, that doesn't include the number of times that John Abraham had a bike crash [I've got enough to count between myself n aXay] or which bike Dhoni is buying..
Now, this event might've been promoted in Chennai, and I get that it didn't need promotion here in B'lore, but the launch at least should've had some hoopla around it. I mean there have to be people like me out there whose dream come true would look like the R15. So, if Yamaha decides to make it possible to realize those dreams, couldn't they let 'em know 'bout it as well?
Now onto how I had a hand in the design and conception of the bike. The story goes as such:
These 2 girls came to my college around a coupla years back. They claimed to be from IMRB - Market research Bureau or somethin in Delhi. They were looking for people who owned Pulsars or Karizmas [which can be interpreted as owners of high-end bikes], for their opinions on a few TVCs they'd show. And for it they's give each willing person a sum of one thousand rupees.
Me n a coupla my friends signed up, although we were skeptical about the whole deal. We expected it to be a prank or something. Who'd just give away 1K for some opinions, right? But we were proven wrong the next day.
But in our time of distrust, we did some snooping around. They'd called us using a landline to inform us of the time and place [Pizza Hut, hehe]. One of my friends called back later to find out more about them. It was a hotel at which they were staying. The person he talked to said that those people were from Yamaha.[besides tellin him that they weren't in their room at that time] So,.. convinced that we weren't heading towards a spot on MTV Bakra, we went to the meet.
There were those 2 girls and another PYT - their senior. We were made comfortable and eventually shown about 20 TV Commercials. 12 of 'em bike ads, 7 car ads and one Kwality cornetto ad. We were told to write our opinions on them on a set of sheets. Three Yamaha ads were thrown in at random.
When we probed as to who they worked for, all we got was that they were working mainly on 2-wheeler market research and were associated with one company in the market. The one we knew about, of course.
All throughout the session, i was subtly trying to give em the idea that I'd be the 1st one to ditch my current Bike for a new Yam 250 as soon as it came out.. When the Yam corporate ad was shown, i expressed my dislike of the fact that they show John Abraham talkin bout big bikes, they show the R1, but in the end all that we're offered to ride are 125cc mopeds. Then a talk started which eventually lead to Xbhp.com where th PYT had read someone say "Yamaha cheated India". I told her that i agreed. Then all subtlety was put aside when I told her that I was one of th people eagerly waitin for th Fazer250. They took that into account and we parted ways, me with a cool grand in hand.
A coupla months later, we got calls from those same girls again and this time, when we got there, there was Sanjay Tripathi [Dept. Head, Product Planning & Strategy - Yamaha India] [Of course I didn't know his position then], and with him were a bunch of Japanese businessmen who didn't talk much. We were shown designs of bikes and asked to pick the better ones, asked about our riding lives (how much we ride, whether we tour on our bikes, how long we intended to ride bikes, etc.) and told to assign priorities to aspects like power, styling, price and mileage (that was my order). And once again we left happily, being a thousand bucks richer.
Months passed by and I started cursing Yamaha 'coz I thought all they'd achieved with that activity involving us was try to make a raunchy ad like the Cornetto ad they showed us earlier [which we liked]. The Alba ad. Don't even get me started about anything to do with that bike.
But here are the actual results of that market research. I'm glad they tried just asking potential buyers what they want. And I'm proud that I helped them create this wonder of a bike. And I'm gonna go on record to say that though I'd much rather have the Fazer 250, this is my next bike, come what may.
There, now they've got celebrity endorsement too. What more do you need Yamaha?
* As per an official release by Yamaha.**
** As heard in the review on the Overdrive show on CNN IBN:
Did i mention i got free pizza too? on both occasions..
EDIT: So I finally did see the ad on TV, but it still lacks information like Yamaha having renovated most of its service centers, the availability of the bike in most cities.. Heck, they make it look like they're making some bullshit promises again. They need to use a simple clear message saying, "It's here."
But I guess that's just me.
6/22/08
On a lighter note...
Q: What would Gary Coleman say while reading about Tom Bombadil in Lord of The Rings?
A: What'chu Tolkein 'bout JRR?
[the following is better heard than read, but still]
Q: Have you ever heard of Madam Yudef?
A: Of course you haven't. 'coz main dumb, you deaf!
Disclaimer [Dis is lamer]: I do not take any responsibility for your brain overloading due to the incredible stupidity of the above "jokes"
A: What'chu Tolkein 'bout JRR?
[the following is better heard than read, but still]
Q: Have you ever heard of Madam Yudef?
A: Of course you haven't. 'coz main dumb, you deaf!
Disclaimer [Dis is lamer]: I do not take any responsibility for your brain overloading due to the incredible stupidity of the above "jokes"
6/17/08
Father's Day
I know I'm late for that, but when am I not late? And I'll be damned if I didn't let the world know how cool my dad is. And what better day to miss doing that (by just two days, mind you) than the day that someone decided to call Father's Day with a whole bunch of people (probably his kids, among others) agreeing with him.
Allow me to explain this mood I'm in. Gave an exam today. It didn't go as well as I'd planned. Add to that a dash of your own friends not really listening to you, a drop of having missed seeing a crow prey on a squirrel in your college's parking lot, with a pinch of having heard a new album of an old artist only to find that it sucks (except for the one song shown below) and you get a crappy mood of the kind you haven't seen me in for ages. And nobody except my mom even found out. And I had to tell my mom. Damn, now I'm certainly not the dark, brooding lone-wolf I always wanted to be.
But what's all this got to do with writing a blog post about my dad? Well, a high speed ride home on my bike, listening to good music and watching a Seinfeld rerun couldn't do what a good long conversation with my dad did. It cheered me up. Now we discussed the all new Yamaha R15 and how I played a part in its design and conception (more on that later), my career, football and more of my career. But what actually cheered me up was my dad's response when he found out that my monitor was giving troubles [It takes a random number of presses of the switch before it goes off]. I told him it's only a minor problem and it didn't need any attention from him, partly 'coz I could need a laptop in the near future and if I did get one, getting a new, good, TFT monitor for the desktop was unnecessary and getting a new CRT monitor,... well, I didn't have to explain the stupidity of that idea to him and I'm not gonna explain it to you. He said that regardless of whether I get a laptop or not, the PC at home should have a decent monitor, and he'd been thinkin of buying a good one for a while now.
Here I am, being all frugal and planning my purchases well, while my dad in his typical fashion, is thinking that life is meant to be lived and lived to the fullest. Hmm, that's more full than I was thinking..
Always, he's been on my side and always, contrary to my expectation. HE was the one who suggested the Sony Playstation 2 to me. I was hesitant at first. But he said he was okay with it and I'm now a game addict and loving it.
When I was gonna get a bike, he suggested I get a second-hand one, so I could upgrade more easily to a future release of a better bike. He understood me. Glee.
A year or so ago, he asked me about pen drives. I told him that quite a few of my friends had one. He told me off for not asking him for one. Here I was, thinking he'd say no or "What's the need?" or something to that effect. And he got me one the next day.
He gave me a new k800i when I was willing to settle for his year old k750i instead. The fact that he got himself an iPhone soon after is another matter. [He did let me take the gadget geek's Holy Grail to college for a day though.]
He never opposed my guitar obsession. In fact, when he found out that I spent a significant amount of my savings on a new effects processor, he asked me what the exact amount was, and handed me that money to return to my savings.
When I started growing my hair long and when he knew I intended to grow 'em at least to shoulder length, all he said was that he did it when he was my age and his dad couldn't stop him. So how could he? [Damn right]
He didn't react in any major way to me getting two backs in my 6th sem.
When I told him I'd be riding over 30 kms on my bike with my friends just to go to an amusement park, all he said was, "Be careful". When I told him that I was going on another ride, only 60+ kms this time, he said, "This is the age to do it. Go ahead."
Now he's getting me what I've been waiting to start earning to buy, to pamper myself. [Y'know, the monitor] Is he spoiling me silly? I certainly don't think so. I just think that he's one of the coolest dads in the world. I know people who're terrified of their dads, even though they're 22, Some are embarrassed by their dads. Some have dads who don't really know their kids, leave alone understand em.. I have none of those issues. I'm proud of my dad: his attitude, his cooking and his sense of humour, which is what makes me funny [if I'm funny at all]. I owe him more than I could ever repay. And what's more, he recently quit smoking.
What more could I ask for?
Well, that'll be a whole separate blog post, I think.
Anyway, Happy Father's Day, Dad.
----------------
Now playing: Liquid Tension Experiment - Biaxident
via FoxyTunes
Allow me to explain this mood I'm in. Gave an exam today. It didn't go as well as I'd planned. Add to that a dash of your own friends not really listening to you, a drop of having missed seeing a crow prey on a squirrel in your college's parking lot, with a pinch of having heard a new album of an old artist only to find that it sucks (except for the one song shown below) and you get a crappy mood of the kind you haven't seen me in for ages. And nobody except my mom even found out. And I had to tell my mom. Damn, now I'm certainly not the dark, brooding lone-wolf I always wanted to be.
But what's all this got to do with writing a blog post about my dad? Well, a high speed ride home on my bike, listening to good music and watching a Seinfeld rerun couldn't do what a good long conversation with my dad did. It cheered me up. Now we discussed the all new Yamaha R15 and how I played a part in its design and conception (more on that later), my career, football and more of my career. But what actually cheered me up was my dad's response when he found out that my monitor was giving troubles [It takes a random number of presses of the switch before it goes off]. I told him it's only a minor problem and it didn't need any attention from him, partly 'coz I could need a laptop in the near future and if I did get one, getting a new, good, TFT monitor for the desktop was unnecessary and getting a new CRT monitor,... well, I didn't have to explain the stupidity of that idea to him and I'm not gonna explain it to you. He said that regardless of whether I get a laptop or not, the PC at home should have a decent monitor, and he'd been thinkin of buying a good one for a while now.
Here I am, being all frugal and planning my purchases well, while my dad in his typical fashion, is thinking that life is meant to be lived and lived to the fullest. Hmm, that's more full than I was thinking..
Always, he's been on my side and always, contrary to my expectation. HE was the one who suggested the Sony Playstation 2 to me. I was hesitant at first. But he said he was okay with it and I'm now a game addict and loving it.
When I was gonna get a bike, he suggested I get a second-hand one, so I could upgrade more easily to a future release of a better bike. He understood me. Glee.
A year or so ago, he asked me about pen drives. I told him that quite a few of my friends had one. He told me off for not asking him for one. Here I was, thinking he'd say no or "What's the need?" or something to that effect. And he got me one the next day.
He gave me a new k800i when I was willing to settle for his year old k750i instead. The fact that he got himself an iPhone soon after is another matter. [He did let me take the gadget geek's Holy Grail to college for a day though.]
He never opposed my guitar obsession. In fact, when he found out that I spent a significant amount of my savings on a new effects processor, he asked me what the exact amount was, and handed me that money to return to my savings.
When I started growing my hair long and when he knew I intended to grow 'em at least to shoulder length, all he said was that he did it when he was my age and his dad couldn't stop him. So how could he? [Damn right]
He didn't react in any major way to me getting two backs in my 6th sem.
When I told him I'd be riding over 30 kms on my bike with my friends just to go to an amusement park, all he said was, "Be careful". When I told him that I was going on another ride, only 60+ kms this time, he said, "This is the age to do it. Go ahead."
Now he's getting me what I've been waiting to start earning to buy, to pamper myself. [Y'know, the monitor] Is he spoiling me silly? I certainly don't think so. I just think that he's one of the coolest dads in the world. I know people who're terrified of their dads, even though they're 22, Some are embarrassed by their dads. Some have dads who don't really know their kids, leave alone understand em.. I have none of those issues. I'm proud of my dad: his attitude, his cooking and his sense of humour, which is what makes me funny [if I'm funny at all]. I owe him more than I could ever repay. And what's more, he recently quit smoking.
What more could I ask for?
Well, that'll be a whole separate blog post, I think.
Anyway, Happy Father's Day, Dad.
----------------
Now playing: Liquid Tension Experiment - Biaxident
via FoxyTunes
6/9/08
Bart Rules!
Ok, no, he doesn't. I'll just say that he doesn't suck now.
So anyway, Bart n Lisa find this mound with ancient relics [*cough*plotdevice*cough*] which would be their little secret or something.
Next Scene:-
Lisa: The Mound Builders worshipped turtles as well as badgers, snakes and other animals.
Bart: Thank god we've come to our senses and worship a carpenter who lived two thousand years ago.
Now, the Simpsons has always been an above average show for me. And I never saw Bart as as much a bad-ass as Eric Cartman. [Dont argue with me on this till you've seen at least the episodes Imaginationland or Scott Tenorman Must Die] But this line alone brings this show to a "comparable to South Park" level.
P.S. Family Guy fans, I pity you people.
EDIT: [After having missed a great match between the Holes and the Italics in Euro '08]
P.P.S. Did Football ruin my engineering life, or did engineering ruin my football/music/gaming life?
So anyway, Bart n Lisa find this mound with ancient relics [*cough*plotdevice*cough*] which would be their little secret or something.
Next Scene:-
Lisa: The Mound Builders worshipped turtles as well as badgers, snakes and other animals.
Bart: Thank god we've come to our senses and worship a carpenter who lived two thousand years ago.
Now, the Simpsons has always been an above average show for me. And I never saw Bart as as much a bad-ass as Eric Cartman. [Dont argue with me on this till you've seen at least the episodes Imaginationland or Scott Tenorman Must Die] But this line alone brings this show to a "comparable to South Park" level.
P.S. Family Guy fans, I pity you people.
EDIT: [After having missed a great match between the Holes and the Italics in Euro '08]
P.P.S. Did Football ruin my engineering life, or did engineering ruin my football/music/gaming life?
5/4/08
So...
So,... I can finally shift into fifth gear while riding on the last stretch before I reach home. No, not because the stretch that was an excuse for a road earlier has been transformed into a smooth, wide, traffic-less road, but because it now just looks like a road with no traffic. It looks tar-black and not mud-yellow/red/whatever, it looks like there's no traffic, but I tell you it's all an illusion. The road just isn't there, they've only painted it. And the people, those pedestrians, they still think that it's an extra wide footpath and they still form the traffic.
You know when you hear about viruses (virii?) infecting the antivirus programs and you give a chuckle? You think "Damn, if that's not a bad antivirus, I don't know what is." Yeah, I felt like that. The road-laying (which by the way, took all of 4 months and 9 days) was supposed to be the anti-virus. And now while I'm bouncing along the road 'coz it looks like a road that I can speed on and not bounce along, I feel cheated by the "solution", 'coz all it's doing is making me go faster on an equally bad road as before. I don't remember clicking on anything that said that "I agree" to an EULA that led to this...
So,... I have my 8th sem seminar to give tomorrow afternoon and after putting a decent amount of honest effort into it, I goofed off all evening. Counter productive, yes, but more like me.
And a guest, my dad's friend asked me yesterday evening if this seminar thing was equivalent to a research paper/thesis. And it got me thinking. Well, not on whether it is or isn't; I know it isn't. But more on whether it's supposed to be.. Took me 6 seconds to decide that it wasn't. Mostly because I remembered the movie A Beautiful Mind and the kind of thesis that they had to give in that college.*
And so,... I just watched X-Men 3: The Last Stand. It was so bad that I had to write about it somewhere. To warn people that though the movie's over, that's just for today. There will be reruns. So, watch out!
I also went onto imdb.com to rate it a 4/10. But when I got there, to my surprise, almost 74000 people had given it an average rating of 7/10! Then I remembered that imdb was one of the sites infested with 13-year-olds. Rotten Tomatoes.com gives it 5.9 which is a bit more acceptable. But it gets worse with imdb. I found from the detailed reports that the imdb staff members gave it an average of 7.6! Holy Pre-pubescent Webmasters Batman! Imdb is run by 13-year-olds!
The only good thing about the movie was that Ellen Page is quite easy on the eye. She has a screen time of just around 10 minutes though. (10 mins spread over the whole movie.)
And also,... I saw a bit of The Prestige last night - one of my all-time favourites. Reminded me of how I tried suggesting it to a friend [who didn't like Batman Begins at all, but thought highly of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift.] Baad idea. Kids don't try that at home, or anywhere else for that matter.
*I know I'm makin' an unfair comparison. That's the fun part.
You know when you hear about viruses (virii?) infecting the antivirus programs and you give a chuckle? You think "Damn, if that's not a bad antivirus, I don't know what is." Yeah, I felt like that. The road-laying (which by the way, took all of 4 months and 9 days) was supposed to be the anti-virus. And now while I'm bouncing along the road 'coz it looks like a road that I can speed on and not bounce along, I feel cheated by the "solution", 'coz all it's doing is making me go faster on an equally bad road as before. I don't remember clicking on anything that said that "I agree" to an EULA that led to this...
So,... I have my 8th sem seminar to give tomorrow afternoon and after putting a decent amount of honest effort into it, I goofed off all evening. Counter productive, yes, but more like me.
And a guest, my dad's friend asked me yesterday evening if this seminar thing was equivalent to a research paper/thesis. And it got me thinking. Well, not on whether it is or isn't; I know it isn't. But more on whether it's supposed to be.. Took me 6 seconds to decide that it wasn't. Mostly because I remembered the movie A Beautiful Mind and the kind of thesis that they had to give in that college.*
And so,... I just watched X-Men 3: The Last Stand. It was so bad that I had to write about it somewhere. To warn people that though the movie's over, that's just for today. There will be reruns. So, watch out!
I also went onto imdb.com to rate it a 4/10. But when I got there, to my surprise, almost 74000 people had given it an average rating of 7/10! Then I remembered that imdb was one of the sites infested with 13-year-olds. Rotten Tomatoes.com gives it 5.9 which is a bit more acceptable. But it gets worse with imdb. I found from the detailed reports that the imdb staff members gave it an average of 7.6! Holy Pre-pubescent Webmasters Batman! Imdb is run by 13-year-olds!
The only good thing about the movie was that Ellen Page is quite easy on the eye. She has a screen time of just around 10 minutes though. (10 mins spread over the whole movie.)
And also,... I saw a bit of The Prestige last night - one of my all-time favourites. Reminded me of how I tried suggesting it to a friend [who didn't like Batman Begins at all, but thought highly of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift.] Baad idea. Kids don't try that at home, or anywhere else for that matter.
*I know I'm makin' an unfair comparison. That's the fun part.
4/26/08
Aa chhule Zameen!
This is how the French part in the chorus to A Tout Le Monde goes:
A tout le monde
A tout les amis
Je vous Aime
Je dois partir
And that second line actually sounds like Aa chhule zameen. Of course, you have to be looking for something like this to actually find it. That is why I'll state it right now that it was my sister who spotted it, not me. Either way, we can conclude that French is a funny sounding language. And even funnier when coming from Dave Mustaine.
So, the show. March 14th 2008. Early on, this band called Prestorika's up there and they're playing good heavy music. So I go closer to the stage, avoid a mosh-pit the smart way - go forward rather than backward. But then during the next song, the vocalist orders another pit and he points right in my direction. Now, I'm no mosher, but seeing people slowly edge away from me gave me a feeling of power. So I stayed still for another few seconds. I could almost shout out "I Have The POWER!!" - He-Man style. But then it hit me [not literally], when the fast double-bass beat began, when a shove came my way, that I wasn't powerful at all and I was at the mercy of the moshers, so I didn't even try to be smart, just dodged the pit sideways. But damn, that was close.
Enough of all that though. Motherjane, Thermal and a Quarter, Junkyard Groove, Pentagram, Millennium and even Machine Head failed to impress as we waited for Megadeth and would settle for nothing less. And when they did arrive, I started making my way forward. I wasn't gonna make the same mistake as I made with Maiden. [I jumped into the VIP area then instead of going forward, and though we got free drinks n stuff, we didn't get to see the gods up close.]
Here's showing how long it took..
Click on em to enlarge. Firefox users middle-click to open in new tab.
The beginning [after the easy part]
10 minutes later. And only now can you see that I'm actually closer.
One of the few pics that came out unshaken despite the zoom-in.
With people jumping vigorously all around me, I should get an award for such pics.
I was in the fourth row from the front by this time. Nearly half an hour to get there.
Around this time I could hardly move. So many fans packed in so little space makes for a tight squeeze. If I moved my feet, I'd invariably step on somebody else's foot. I couldn't get my arms below shoulder level as I'd have to fight for that space too. I just left em up there with my cam-phone, clicking away. Man, did my arms hurt. But then came a wave, not a mexican one, the one that's caused by an attempt at a mosh-pit in the distance. I went sideways by almost two feet[with everyone else of course]. Only my left shoe didn't. I almost knew that I could forget bout getting it back, but hey, I had to try. Simply asked people to move tellin em bout my shoe and in no time I was given space enough to find it and comfortably put it back on. Surprising to find such courtesy in a place like that.. From people who shout "Megadeth" in tune with the riff of Symphony of Destruction. Annoying as hell. JUST LISTEN TO THE SONG DAMMIT! A sample:
Listen around the 00:28 mark.
Anyway, here's a video of em playing Trust followed by a couple more pics..
Sidenote: Coming back out took about two mins.
To conclude, it was amazing fun, and this bit was amazingly funny
I actually had the following conversation with a friend over SMS.
Him: You still at the show?
Me: Yeah.
Him: Megadeth is performing?
Me: Yeah.
Him: Dave Mustaine is there?
Me: Duh, duuude!
I show the messages to my friends around and have a great laugh. I wont reveal the poor soul's name lest he die of shame, which he should, in an ideal world. 'coz he claims to be a Megadeth fan, and more importantly claims to be smart.
A tout le monde
A tout les amis
Je vous Aime
Je dois partir
And that second line actually sounds like Aa chhule zameen. Of course, you have to be looking for something like this to actually find it. That is why I'll state it right now that it was my sister who spotted it, not me. Either way, we can conclude that French is a funny sounding language. And even funnier when coming from Dave Mustaine.
So, the show. March 14th 2008. Early on, this band called Prestorika's up there and they're playing good heavy music. So I go closer to the stage, avoid a mosh-pit the smart way - go forward rather than backward. But then during the next song, the vocalist orders another pit and he points right in my direction. Now, I'm no mosher, but seeing people slowly edge away from me gave me a feeling of power. So I stayed still for another few seconds. I could almost shout out "I Have The POWER!!" - He-Man style. But then it hit me [not literally], when the fast double-bass beat began, when a shove came my way, that I wasn't powerful at all and I was at the mercy of the moshers, so I didn't even try to be smart, just dodged the pit sideways. But damn, that was close.
Enough of all that though. Motherjane, Thermal and a Quarter, Junkyard Groove, Pentagram, Millennium and even Machine Head failed to impress as we waited for Megadeth and would settle for nothing less. And when they did arrive, I started making my way forward. I wasn't gonna make the same mistake as I made with Maiden. [I jumped into the VIP area then instead of going forward, and though we got free drinks n stuff, we didn't get to see the gods up close.]
Here's showing how long it took..
Click on em to enlarge. Firefox users middle-click to open in new tab.
The beginning [after the easy part]
10 minutes later. And only now can you see that I'm actually closer.
One of the few pics that came out unshaken despite the zoom-in.
With people jumping vigorously all around me, I should get an award for such pics.
I was in the fourth row from the front by this time. Nearly half an hour to get there.
Around this time I could hardly move. So many fans packed in so little space makes for a tight squeeze. If I moved my feet, I'd invariably step on somebody else's foot. I couldn't get my arms below shoulder level as I'd have to fight for that space too. I just left em up there with my cam-phone, clicking away. Man, did my arms hurt. But then came a wave, not a mexican one, the one that's caused by an attempt at a mosh-pit in the distance. I went sideways by almost two feet[with everyone else of course]. Only my left shoe didn't. I almost knew that I could forget bout getting it back, but hey, I had to try. Simply asked people to move tellin em bout my shoe and in no time I was given space enough to find it and comfortably put it back on. Surprising to find such courtesy in a place like that.. From people who shout "Megadeth" in tune with the riff of Symphony of Destruction. Annoying as hell. JUST LISTEN TO THE SONG DAMMIT! A sample:
Listen around the 00:28 mark.
Anyway, here's a video of em playing Trust followed by a couple more pics..
Sidenote: Coming back out took about two mins.
To conclude, it was amazing fun, and this bit was amazingly funny
I actually had the following conversation with a friend over SMS.
Him: You still at the show?
Me: Yeah.
Him: Megadeth is performing?
Me: Yeah.
Him: Dave Mustaine is there?
Me: Duh, duuude!
I show the messages to my friends around and have a great laugh. I wont reveal the poor soul's name lest he die of shame, which he should, in an ideal world. 'coz he claims to be a Megadeth fan, and more importantly claims to be smart.
4/8/08
March of Exhaustion
Left.. Left.. Left, Right, Left.
Hut, Two, Three, Four, Hut, Two, Three,
How I detested any and all of that. I, as a left-brained person, have always needed a logical reason for all my actions. And try as I might, I simply could not find one for marching in step with lots of other drones around an empty grounds every Thursday.
But this blog entry is about somethin else. March 2008. It began with a bang, which is more of a gunshot-to-my-head bang than a celebratory fireworks bang.
1st March: Got a confidence-shattering rejection from Alliance Business School, Bangalore. [If these guys dont take me in, who will?] But after putting that behind me, I went ahead and made sure I passed the rest of the month livin' it up.
14th March: Megadeth and Machine Head at Palace Grounds. With a bunch of Indian bands going first. Was there quite early. Waited patiently for 4 hours with just a friend's friend for company. I should've tried getting more free passes. When Megadeth finally came onstage, I started makin my way forward. Cam-phone held high. Didn't care bout company then. The results of that[my shoe!] will be in another blog post. But it was memorable, fun and a bit tiring as well.
18th March: A friend's long awaited treat for getting placed. Heavy lunch at Punjabi Rasoi, RT Nagar.
19th March: Go karting. 7 of us. And 6 of us kart-virgins. Me being the exception, though I was only just comin out of a dry spell. 120 bucks for 7 laps. Almost all of us went twice. And ol' Laughing Gas Diablo, having realised that ol' Jeremy Clarkson wasn't kidding and driving fast around corners is actually fun, went four times. He used to wonder what it was like while watching all those Top Gear episodes, and found true happiness by impulse spending 480 bucks on that track. And also true fatigue having gone around a hundred and forty corners at breakneck [yeah, right] speed.
People going to Patel's inn, R.T. Nagar, note that cars 6 and 7 are the fast ones. I say 6 is better. But then again I didn't even try 7.
20th March: The Prince of Darkness himself invites us to help him spend his Gregorian-calendar-birthday climbing a big rock. And climb we did. And Diablo went radioactive in the Batcave, while Infinitiks played Brave Photographer. Details soon. ;)
20th March: I get home all exhausted and I log onto the internet only to find that another B-school didn't think I was worthy enough for 'em. IMI Delhi, for all who care.
Spent the next 3 days being spent. From the climb, not the (metaphoric, but no less painful) fall.
Then we started practice for the college fest's Western Acoustics competition. Songs were considered, shortlisted, practised and then completely discarded. Coz we heard better songs and I realized that Xay could sing along with the solo for Wish You Were Here a la the Delicate Sound Of Thunder version [Go listen, NOW, if you haven't ever heard it, you filthy scum!]. It boiled down to Little by Little by Oasis or Wish You Were Here. We went back n forth between the two and in the end, we picked one.
28th March: And in the actual end, we ended up playing both. Hehe. And of course, Xay wasn't the only one I was accompanying, there was the other guy... who came first by singing Home by Daughtry. I don't take any credit. Coz I didn't really have much to do during the performance. And of course again, there was the mystery guy who also went up on stage with me as accompanist.. Details soon. ;)
29th March: Day of the Rock Show and the Treasure Hunt. Though the organizers called it T-shirt day. How boring a name for a day as this. Somebody I know, I inspired and guided, performing as lead guitarist for a band is an event to be proud of. Even though the sound system helped screw it all up. Also runnin around seeking treasure [and being in the lead for a while] saps your energy, stretching you to your limits [Well, they were my limits, at least]. And if you waste time on not realizing which assets were being spoken of, and then coming 11th* instead of the first that you otherwise would've come, you start wondering if the girl that called you "a pig just like all men" the other day knew what she was talkin about. Exhilarating fun, but also exhausting like hell.
29th March: It hits me at my weakest time, this rejection business. THE two times I was most exhausted in this month are the exact days that a B-school tells me that 96.56%ile isn't good enough. You need to be a nice person, with a good sense of humor who brings them gifts and tell them how pretty they are while having a high-paying job. IMT Ghaziabad this time. The last one left. But there is hope... in the second and third waitlists every optimist seems to be expecting.. We'll see if the quintessential delusion that is simultaneously man's greatest strength and his greatest weakness shows results. meh.
31st March: I start writing this blog entry... (**)
* outta 50 teams, 11th is respectable. Besides, we even stopped for drinks in between.
** See how cool I'm tryin to be while I do the whole "the end is the beginning" thing? Are you just gonna let me get away with that? Come on, leave a scathing attack in the comments section, you filthy scum!
Hut, Two, Three, Four, Hut, Two, Three,
How I detested any and all of that. I, as a left-brained person, have always needed a logical reason for all my actions. And try as I might, I simply could not find one for marching in step with lots of other drones around an empty grounds every Thursday.
But this blog entry is about somethin else. March 2008. It began with a bang, which is more of a gunshot-to-my-head bang than a celebratory fireworks bang.
1st March: Got a confidence-shattering rejection from Alliance Business School, Bangalore. [If these guys dont take me in, who will?] But after putting that behind me, I went ahead and made sure I passed the rest of the month livin' it up.
14th March: Megadeth and Machine Head at Palace Grounds. With a bunch of Indian bands going first. Was there quite early. Waited patiently for 4 hours with just a friend's friend for company. I should've tried getting more free passes. When Megadeth finally came onstage, I started makin my way forward. Cam-phone held high. Didn't care bout company then. The results of that[my shoe!] will be in another blog post. But it was memorable, fun and a bit tiring as well.
18th March: A friend's long awaited treat for getting placed. Heavy lunch at Punjabi Rasoi, RT Nagar.
19th March: Go karting. 7 of us. And 6 of us kart-virgins. Me being the exception, though I was only just comin out of a dry spell. 120 bucks for 7 laps. Almost all of us went twice. And ol' Laughing Gas Diablo, having realised that ol' Jeremy Clarkson wasn't kidding and driving fast around corners is actually fun, went four times. He used to wonder what it was like while watching all those Top Gear episodes, and found true happiness by impulse spending 480 bucks on that track. And also true fatigue having gone around a hundred and forty corners at breakneck [yeah, right] speed.
People going to Patel's inn, R.T. Nagar, note that cars 6 and 7 are the fast ones. I say 6 is better. But then again I didn't even try 7.
20th March: The Prince of Darkness himself invites us to help him spend his Gregorian-calendar-birthday climbing a big rock. And climb we did. And Diablo went radioactive in the Batcave, while Infinitiks played Brave Photographer. Details soon. ;)
20th March: I get home all exhausted and I log onto the internet only to find that another B-school didn't think I was worthy enough for 'em. IMI Delhi, for all who care.
Spent the next 3 days being spent. From the climb, not the (metaphoric, but no less painful) fall.
Then we started practice for the college fest's Western Acoustics competition. Songs were considered, shortlisted, practised and then completely discarded. Coz we heard better songs and I realized that Xay could sing along with the solo for Wish You Were Here a la the Delicate Sound Of Thunder version [Go listen, NOW, if you haven't ever heard it, you filthy scum!]. It boiled down to Little by Little by Oasis or Wish You Were Here. We went back n forth between the two and in the end, we picked one.
28th March: And in the actual end, we ended up playing both. Hehe. And of course, Xay wasn't the only one I was accompanying, there was the other guy... who came first by singing Home by Daughtry. I don't take any credit. Coz I didn't really have much to do during the performance. And of course again, there was the mystery guy who also went up on stage with me as accompanist.. Details soon. ;)
29th March: Day of the Rock Show and the Treasure Hunt. Though the organizers called it T-shirt day. How boring a name for a day as this. Somebody I know, I inspired and guided, performing as lead guitarist for a band is an event to be proud of. Even though the sound system helped screw it all up. Also runnin around seeking treasure [and being in the lead for a while] saps your energy, stretching you to your limits [Well, they were my limits, at least]. And if you waste time on not realizing which assets were being spoken of, and then coming 11th* instead of the first that you otherwise would've come, you start wondering if the girl that called you "a pig just like all men" the other day knew what she was talkin about. Exhilarating fun, but also exhausting like hell.
29th March: It hits me at my weakest time, this rejection business. THE two times I was most exhausted in this month are the exact days that a B-school tells me that 96.56%ile isn't good enough. You need to be a nice person, with a good sense of humor who brings them gifts and tell them how pretty they are while having a high-paying job. IMT Ghaziabad this time. The last one left. But there is hope... in the second and third waitlists every optimist seems to be expecting.. We'll see if the quintessential delusion that is simultaneously man's greatest strength and his greatest weakness shows results. meh.
31st March: I start writing this blog entry... (**)
* outta 50 teams, 11th is respectable. Besides, we even stopped for drinks in between.
** See how cool I'm tryin to be while I do the whole "the end is the beginning" thing? Are you just gonna let me get away with that? Come on, leave a scathing attack in the comments section, you filthy scum!
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