Sh?tty Sh?tty Bang Bang

The whole Shilpa Shetty incident is hilarious, to put it mildly. Of course, it's a disgrace to the nation, and my sympathies to her and all of that, but still, the way the media and two governments are treating this topic is just amazing! My, what patriotic fervour! I sincerely believed our government had slightly higher priority issues to discuss and comment on.

And Shilpa Shetty herself is surprisingly quiet in all of this. She has not come out to the media, never let herself be seen talking on this issue. The whole thing looks a bit dubious to me. Firstly, that she was there on that program to show-case 'Indian Culture' sounds incredulous to me. Now, we all know how excellent a forum to show-case your culture, a reality TV show is. A reality show, in reality is a cheap, trashy program that pays money to cheap, trashy has-been-in-the-limelight C-grade celebrities and wannabes of questionable talent and achievement (Note: I am not commenting on the character of the persons) to reveal how truly bitchy, dirty and foul-mouthed they are to a voyeuristic population that apparently laps up any shit that's thrown to them in the name of entertainment. Come on, we've seen this filth ourselves in our reality shows like 'Roadies' and the like. If Shilpa's secret ambition was to gain media attention and re-start her flagging celebrity lifestyle, she got more than her due share of it. There's nothing in India that sells like a plea for sympathy, and if you can make yourself look weak, subjugated and burdened while at it, you instantly become the perfect Bharatiya Naari in the eyes of the people. The blogosphere, the entire newspaper community, debaters, my grandmother's friends, the neighborhood dogs, every living being with a vocal cord suddenly has strong views on this topic.

Of course we cannot and will not tolerate racism or abuse, but somehow the credibility of the whole issue is shaky when the victim of the abuse has

a. chosen to be present in such an 'abusive' environment out of her own choice. (Nobody would have prevented her from walking off the sets at the first instance of abuse. She's not under house arrest for God's sake!)

b. been paid / is being paid / been promised a lot of money for appearing on the show.

c. has chosen to hide from the media and on no occasion, spoken to the press directly on this issue.

These trivial points are however of no significance to our media watchdogs and self appointed placard-weilding, effigy-burning Indian-Dignity-protecting brigade of 16 year old girls and boys who consider it their social responsibility to organize rallies and scream themselves hoarse. But what disappoints me is that, a government too has considered it necessary to react in much the same way.

American Byutee

The following text is an extract from one of the comments in the blog YesButNoButYes. To save you the trouble of clicking on that link, I copy-paste the funniest portions below.

The post was called Why People Think Americans Are Stupid and had a hilarious video too.

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up revocation in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix ize will be replaced by the suffix ise. You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up interspersed. There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.
2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.
3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney,upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as Taggart will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is Devon. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become shires e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.
4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as Men behaving Badly or Red Dwarf will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.
5. You should relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.
6. You should stop playing American football. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American football is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays American football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders,your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called rounders, which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.
7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called Indecisive Day.
9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time,you will go metric with immediate effect and conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.
11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.
12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer,and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. The substances formerly known as American Beer will henceforth be referred to as Near-Frozen Knat's Urine,with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen,Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.
13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or Gasoline, as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon- get used to it).
14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapistthen you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.
15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.
16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation and have a great day.
John Cleese

I was in splits, reading points 1, 6, 9 and 12. Brilliant writing!

One of the responses to this comment was by Dr.J, who said:

Mr Cleese (if you are truly who you say you are and I believe you are
because few others would be clever enough to make such a statement), I agree. Well, almost. I must take exception to several points. I think that driving on the left side will make most of us Americans dizzy, which, for driving, especially for driving an American car, is a dangerous state to be in, especially if driving a Ford (you call them Jaguars), which sometimes explode by themselves. I don’t think we should have to pay revenues going back to 1776. That’s just too expensive. If we do that we would not be able to invade random countries which is very costly, especially if we are required to put them back together again after destroying them. Actually, I don’t think we should have to put them back together again because it really takes the fun out of destroying them knowing that soon after we will have to put them together again. No fun at all. I don’t know much about lager, beer, bitters, or brew, but the thought of some warm, flat fermented substance being poured down throats in establishments near to my home is about as appealing as the thought of dirty, sweaty people sucking on each others toes. And finally, I have but one request. If we really must have a Minister for America, would you please do us that honour?
DrJ

I liked that very much.

Crapometer warning: Incidentally, this is the 51st post!

Pongal Vazhthukal

Hey, here's wishing all the readers of my blog a Happy Pongal / Sankranthi / Whatever!

In other words: Here's wishing myself a Happy Pongal.

Have a terrific uttarAyaNam ahead!

New wheels - an update

Over the weekend I had time to do over a 100 km on the new wheels. And I feel this purchase is the best decision I have ever made. Terrific grip and handling. I am able to take tight corners at 100kph. The same corners i used to feel jittery about at 60 kph. And the grip during a panic braking is phenomenal. I still cannot believe that tires can contribute so much to the ride. Even the cushioning seems good, so all in all a great buy. Incidentally, 2k for my old wheels seems like a good deal now, after speaking with one of my friends in the know. What compounds the joy is that the dee loves the wheels too, so much so, she was inspired to start driving the car.

Zen and the art of blowing all your money

I blew 30,000 bucks on my second love! She got a brand new set of pretty shoes to strut around town in. Details: A set of 5 Bridgestone Potenza GIII 165/60 R13 tires. A set of 5 Aura C9350 13" X 5j hypersilver alloys. They look super-sexy now. It was a long pending purchase anyway. Sadly, I got only 2k for my old steel wheels. Pictures pending. Will post them soon. Right after i get the new bumpers, tacho and high power headlights. Which should be very soon, maybe a couple of weeks. I am excited!

1 A W S = 1 awesome web site

check out the intelligence tests here. Much fun they are.

Love Actually

How in Love are you?

Millions of teenagers ask the question: "How will I know I'm in love?" As Dr. David R. Mace, executive director of the American Association of Marriage Counselors, put it: "It's always difficult to know for sure - especially when you're young."

This quiz was prepared after extensive consultations with experts who have made wide-scale studies of this wonderful yet mysterious emotion. It should help a young person make that all-important decision: "Is it love- or something else?"

Instructions:
Answer the following questions with Yes or No.
Choose Yes only if you have quite definite feelings about your answer. If there's some doubt in your mind, check No.

1. Did this thing happen all of a sudden?

2. Would you be very jealous and upset if someone else made a serious play for him or her?

3. When you aren't together, do you find yourself mooning around, unable to do much except sigh over your beau or belle?

4. Are you more in love when you are together than when you are by yourself?

5. Do you honestly feel that the boy or girl is just about the Most Perfect Person in the world?

6. Are you, on the whole, pretty unhappy at home with your parents?

7. Do you know how your heart-throb feels about money and children?

8. Do you find that, when it comes to this particular boy or girl, you are always anxious to appear at your best - that you are conscious about what you say and how you look and act?

9. Most people agree that there cannot be real love unless two persons share common interest. But how about common miseries? Do both of you have a substantial number of complaints in common about homes, parents, school and other things in your life?

10. Suppose your beloved has gone on an extended trip and written you beautiful and affectionate letters. Would you show these around in your group?
Scoring


Give yourself ten points for each No answer, zero for each Yes except in Question 7, where it' ten for Yes and zero for No.
A score of:
70 -100 It looks like the real thing
50 - 60 Indicates some uncertainty may exist
0 - 40 The romance may grow into love, but it's not there yet!

Perhaps you thought Yes answers revealed true love. Not so! It's the No reply that counts in each case except for Question 7. Here is why, according to the experts.

1. Real love does not happen all of a sudden. When people say, "We fell in love the moment we met," they actually mean that each corresponded to a certain ideal image held by the other. Most of us create these ideals in our minds whether we realize it or not. Thus, when we find someone who looks, acts and talks the way we imagined this special individual would, we are attracted- but that's all it is. Love can develop, but it takes time.

2. Jealousy is not a sign of true love. One of the greatest mistakes young people can make is to believe that the more violent the jealousy, the stronger the love. Some jealousy is normal between two people who care deeply about each other. But jealousy is really possessiveness, not love. Psychoanalyst Dr. Theodor Reik says that people who suffer acutely from jealousy often have an underlying sense of insecurity which leads to an overwhelming need to be loved. As a result, they can be extremely jealous even though they may not be in love at all.

3. Mooning, sighing and daydreaming are signs of infatuation, not love. Here's why: Real love is centered around the other person, with your whole behavior directed toward his or her welfare and happiness. Thus, a boy or girl in love can study and work comfortably, knowing he or she is thereby contributing to the other's happiness. Infatuation, on the other hand, is self-centered. The smitten one becomes absorbed in his own misery at being separated from the adored one or in daydreaming about her. He is in love with love, not a human being.

4. Love does not diminish when one is away from the loved one. If you love a person more when you are with him, chances are that your judgment is being influenced by the charm and excitement of his presence. When he is not around to dazzle you, some doubts emerge as Dr. David R. Mace, executive director of the American Association of Marriage Counselors, put it: if you feel this way, indications are the love is superficial.

5. Love is not really blind to a beloved's faults. The person in love knows and understands the other's shortcomings but cares deeply nonetheless. The infatuated person has a tendency to regard the adored one as flawless.

6. An unhappy home life can trick you into thinking you're in love. The files of marriage counselors are filled with cases of younger people who "fell in love" and married when all they really wanted was to escape from pressures they considered unbearable. For example, a young girl who is constantly battling with her parents sees her boy friend as the rescuing knight in shining armor who will "take her away from all this." She isn't in love- she just wants out.

7. Love cannot always perch on Cloud: it must be practical, too. Two of the most crucial elements in a marriage, experts point out, are money and children. Young people seriously in love must know each other's views on these topics. If a couple hasn't talked them out, chances are the romance hasn't reached the real love stage.

8. Love does not make lovers ill at ease. Dr. Mace declares that when the way you are impressing the other person is the dominant concern in a relationship, real love is still distant. When you know you are loved for what you are, you feel at ease in the other's presence.

9. Being companions in misery is not the same as being in love. Marriage partners should be able to share miseries, but such sharing is not in itself love. All too frequently, young people mix up the two and enter into marriage simply because each has discovered a fellow sufferer with whom to unite against an unfriendly background.

10. Love is a private bond between two people. Authorities agree it can't be real if one party permits intimate details of a relationship to be made public. It may be a bit of prestige in the group, but hardly love.

Yay! Scored 80 or 90 on that. Honestly!

Those New Year Things-To-Do

I meant to post earlier. I even typed out the post. But the transition from old blogger to new blogger kinda deleted that post. Anyway, I can't be bothered enough to type it again.

So here's the official New Year Wishes from the Introspector himself!

Happy New Year, people. May this year bring you good cheer, peace-of-mind, simplicity, and all the other things that you've been desiring (provided they're legal and ethical! ).

In retrospect, the year 2006 has been one roller coaster ride. Looking back, here are some of the major happenings in my life: (all good events are in green, the not-so-good events are in grey)
1. Handled 2 projects simultaneously and performed moderately well on both (I worked very late on Fridays).
2. Took tremendous pressure on myself over a few things. Looking back, these could have been avoided if I had just learnt to think through things calmly without reacting on instinct.
3. Realized that I love my parents more than I have ever shown them.
4. Realized the importance of personal space in a close relationship. The dee will completely endorse this truth. You can ask her.
5. The dee went abroad!!!! To Europe. Official visit, but during the WorldCup Soccer! Super. And she took some neat pics of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. For meeeee! So super.
6. She got me a Creative 1 GB mp3 player!
7. Got an appraisal rating of 5 at work. Tried to show sustained enthu and professionalism in my work. (Really i tried!)
8. Went to Sabarimalai. Went on a trip with cousins.
9. Put on some more weight. Old pants don't fit.
10. Reached an all-together new degree of closeness witht the dee. This is the highest high of my roller-coaster.
11. Had a couple of things sorted out with folks so things sail pretty smoothly now onwards.
12. Made new alliances with some colleagues and found a couple guys who share my sense of humor.
13. Let a long suffering friendship cool down. This is in preparation for my resolution #3a & #7a.
14. Was diagnosed with hypertension.
15. Almost quit smoking and drinking.
16. Got some property registered in my name.
17. Lost my Grandmother.
18. Had a very low-key new year celebration. No party no nothing.

So you can see, there are more greens than grays. Yays!

What i would like to change in the coming year (order of priority, so numbering may repeat):
1a. Stop taking guilt and pressure on myself unnecessarily. Learn to unwind, let my hair (what remains of it) down and relax. Treat myself to more fun times, socialize a bit more. Sleep lots more. The same applies to the dee too.
1b. Lose weight. A lot.
1c. Reduce pressure and other burdens on the relationship. Take responsibility for my negative reactions and emotional outbursts, but understand that these should neither be encouraged nor deserve any sympathy. Treat them as steam-venting times and keep those in check.
2a. Completely quit smoking and drinking.
2b. Work on general fitness and health in a steady consistent approach, pray a little more.
3a. Reduce tensions, smile more, be less grumpy & bitchy & cribby, try to maintain a calm, composed, peaceful and cheerful disposition at all times. I know this needs immmmmense work.
3b. Be more open and frank about the relationship with people, parents or the dee.
3c. Find humor in everyday situations.
4a. Be more mature and steady. Behave like an adult. Get rid of childish insecurities and complexes. Realize that i am stronger and more resilient than i think.
4b. Give myself more time and space to do the things i love doing.
4c. Sharpen rusting mental abilities and memory. Do more puzzles, learn a new trick or fact every day, meditate a bit, try to remember lists etc. Improve learning and excel in atleast 1 technology.
5a. Resist pressure, only bite off what i can chew, bring home fewer work issues, enjoy work more.
5b. Rekindle some old friendships, just to bring back the good times.
6a. Be more modest, and cut people some slack. Don't take myself or my work or the relationship too seriously. All 3 are sufficiently capable of handling themselves without constant introspection and fine tuning attempts.
6b. Read more. Be better informed and updated with current news and technology.
7a. Try not to be involved in/with negative situations, people who get me down, negative emotions. If this means disassociating with a few people I know, then so be it.

This list is by no means final. It shall be modified suitably depending on some comments i recieve, or my own perception shifts.

So with miles to go before I sleep, here's wishing myslef, the dee, folks and everyone a terrific 2007. Let's see what it brings.

Ferrari F360 Modena VS Opel Corsa con Nos Drag Race

Unbelievable! Ferrari F360 Modena VS Opel Corsa con Nos Drag Race. Guess who won?

Pop-up-sick-le

Everyone who writes software must read Joel Spolsky's words on the software industry. I have seen pop-ups, I have been irritated to death by pop-ups, but have never given it a thought serious enough to make me come up with an article like that. Brilliant! My cogitation on the issue usually terminates at speculating how the darned pop-ups are impeding my reproductive instinct. I know this article is not so much about pop-ups as it is about software elegance in general. But them pop-ups are what stick to my mind the strongest. Die, pop-up! Die! (You can maybe imagine that last sentence as a cheap video game where some hideous gooey monster respawns again and again right after you slay it with fluorescent green slugs from your supernova-plasma-concentrator-10k gun each time. Die, then pop up, then die again....)

I am boring

You Are An ISTJ

The Duty Fulfiller You are responsible, reliable, and hardworking - you get the job done.You prefer productive hobbies, like woodworking or knittings.Quiet and serious, you are well prepared for whatever life hands you.Conservative and down-to-earth, you hardly ever do anything crazy. You would make a great business executive, accountant, or lawyer.

What's" Your Personality Type?

Could You Repeat That?

This is a grammatically valid English sentence:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

It was discovered/invented in 1972 by University of Buffalo linguist William J. Rapaport. It means "Buffalo from the city of Buffalo that are intimidated by other buffalo from the city of Buffalo themselves intimidate a third group of buffalo, also from Buffalo."

Is that clear? Be glad you're not in the Netherlands, where Als In Bergen, bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen means "If in Bergen, heaps of mountains salvage heaps of mountains, then heaps of mountains salvage heaps of mountains."

Source: http://www.futilitycloset.com/2006/09/26/could-you-repeat-that/

Grandma, blogs and Mahabalipuram

No updates for the past few days, I know. Grandmother passed away on the 13th . She was 81. She suffered a cardiac arrest on the surgery table when they were prepping her for a cataract surgery. It was extremely unexpected. And I don't think it has sunk in yet.

I wish I had spent a little more time with her. Atleast spoken to her the night before her surgery. Regrets.

The house feels terribly empty now. It's just mom by herself the whole day.

I read a few other blogs today and frankly, I feel my writing is not too bad. I mean, everyone writes the same boring sh*t. What they did, and who they met, and what they felt, and whose birthdays they celebrated and where they went. I am sure they know that nobody gives a sh*t about these. Still, they write. Like me. I am convinced more than ever that this constant need for self expression is going to be the penultimate cause of the doom of humankind. The ultimate cause.. you ask? Well, 'meetings'.

I had beem to mahabalipuram and Pondicherry last weekend with cousins. Mahabalipuram is an awesome place. Stunning. I want to see the place by moonlight. It is so majestic. And quite a romantic place too. Pondicherry is another fantastic experience. The french quarters... Aurobindo Ashram and surrounding areas. We rented bicycles and explored the place. It was an awesome break (mentally relaxing) after a long long time (not considering the Sabarimala pilgrimage of October).

The inside story

A dumb blonde bomb. That's three synonyms for excessive stupidity. Overkill! This one did not know where the processor in a computer was meant to be!

That was the heights. Hilarious.

Leak Tests

This is a test of the most secure Firewall software. Two interesting facts emerge:

1. I use the third best software in the industry
2. Some of the best software is free-to-use!

Priceless piece of advice

I've wanted to post this for a long time. And samba-dee I know should be reading this.

This is how good wives must conduct themselves. By this definition, I do not know a single good wife. God save the husbands of this world!

I bet you'll c(h)oke on this!

What happens to your body if you drink a coke right now. Scary man! They make it look like Evil Death or some such low budget hollywood horror flick. Come on, it can't be that bad. Or the body is a lot more resilient devil than I had thought it was.

World's most boring blog post. Ever.

Pardon my absence. I am sure you all missed me terribly. But please don't stop coming here. I need you people. This blog runs because of its many fans and critics! Anyway, for anyone caring to listen, I did not post here because I was on vacation with cousins in Chennai.

I got back late Sunday night. And since then, many things have happened.
1. Had a ritual fencing match with the dee. (What's new, u ask?). A long long time ago, when the dee and moiself was a-talkin', we got to the issue of 'Loss of Freedom in an LTR'. She insists that an LTR/marriage does not have to curtail freedom. I insist it necesarily does. I think I am right. But she won the argument anyway! See what I tell you? But seriously, the last week was a very important week for the two of us, and we had planned on celebrating our little successess this last weekend. But i had to go to Chennai coz ma cuz wuz (who says I can't rap?) coming down from Delhi and this vacation plan of ours was long pending. I really didn't want to miss that. But now, the dee will never forgive me for 'my mixed up priorities' and 'absolute lack of compassion or feeling'. Well, all I can say is, I hope one day, you'll see things from my perspective.

Anyway, I'm glad she eventually got tired of the fencing match and gave up the fight (of course she believes she won the match, but that's a story for another day). Things brightened up rather quickly after that and towards afternoon we were well on our way to not being murderous. In the same vein, i find this blog very soothing. It calms my frayed nerves immensely just knowing that one other person in this world feels just the way i do.

2. Had some bit of property registered in my name. Thank you dad. That's awfully sweet of you.

3. Had a lengthy chat with the family doc about my high Blood Pressure and threatening-to-shoot-up cholesterol. I need to wake up and start working out now, but the bright side is, he said it wasn't really too bad. I'd be fine, just as long as I took care starting now. That is immensely relieving for a chronic worry-wart like me.

Meet the Barons

Media barons. I wonder sometimes how it would feel to be floating on that much money. Controlling empires, making and breaking deals worth billions of dollars every day, effecting the economy of many nations at the wave of my hand, capitalizing on the stupidities of so many billions of people. Would I be happy at the end of every day, knowing that in breaking the thought barriers and shrinking inter-continental distances, I have further infringed on the silence in people's lives - their precious mind-space that there seems to be such a dearth of these days? Ehhh... I dunno.

Where do you think you've gone today?

I always had my reservations about Windows Vista. Of course, my limited access to high end hardware made all my reservations remain just that - apprehensions not based on fact. Now somebody else has the facts researched and presented. And i'm not sure I want to try Vista. Read on.