Prelude to a Wedding

She looked at him from across, descending the stairs gracefully and fell in love with him all over again. He looked sure of himself, his hair swept back, a happy hint of a smile on his radiant face. He did not rush down the carpeted staircase, but climbed down one step at a time, his head held high, not looking anywhere in particular. He had one hand in his trouser pocket, while the other hung loose by his side.

The audience below cheered, then raised their glasses, but she didn't hear any of it. Her gleaming eyes followed him, a slight smile spreading, as she felt her heart pound louder in her chest. Subconsciously, she stopped curling the single strand of hair the stylist had let fall from the high chignon and grasped the handrail with trembling hands.

He hardly noticed the cheering crowd. He was just looking at the spot he had chosen beneath the crystal chandelier where he would stand and wait for her. The staircase spiraled down towards it, its rich maroon carpet soft under his soles, leading him like beacons on a landing strip guide a descending aircraft. Guests stood in groups like small islands in a cove, dressed in their best for the occasion. A live band played soft jazz at one end, their brass instruments shining in the warm glow of opulent lighting. He heard nothing, just a tranquil silence. He might as well have been taking a stroll in the forest.

She saw him stop and turn to look up at her, his eyes warm and inviting. She suddenly felt weak in her knees, and tightened her gripped on the banister, blushing. For a moment, she thought she would collapse. Then, hypnotized, she began climbing down slowly from the other side of the staircase, as if he were a magnet pulling her towards him. She neither noticed the crowd nor the music. He was all she saw.

He looked at her mesmerized. She seemed like an angel descending from heaven, her white dress gliding softly behind her, her eyes smiling. Long earrings dangled from her lobes and bounced at every step. Her stilettos left behind soft indents in the thick carpet. The spartan necklace was prominent against her glowing skin. He was certain he could see a halo around her.

He offered her his hand as she reached the bottom of the stairs, as if inviting her to a dance. She let go of the rail to take up his offer, without realizing it. His warm hand was reassuring, unlike the cold handrail, his grip light, but firm. She immediately felt a rush of energy surging through him, as if he were an electrical outlet providing her the charge she needed to function. He helped her off the stairs and brought her gingerly in the center of the room, underneath the chandelier.
Still holding her hand gently by the fingers, he dropped to one knee, and felt stronger, rather than weaker.
The crowd gathered automatically around them as they saw him present her the ring. It did not see him look lovingly into her eyes, now moist with a thin film of tears clouding her vision. Nor did it see her nod her head imperceptibly, as she returned the look with an approving smile.
"Yes, a thousand times yes", she thought, fighting to keep her eyes from tearing up, but failing.
He slipped the ring in her finger, its solitaire refracting light in her eyes. She blinked, her long eyelashes covering her eye for a brief instant, then abruptly glanced upwards, afraid that the levee would break and tears would come streaming down from her eyes.
When she looked back, he was standing right in front of her. Their fingers locked, as did their eyes and they had lived a lifetime in that instant.

Weep For Humanity

it all started with this article on TechCrunch

I'd Rather Embed Image that makes sense
than something completely irrelevant

go ahead, read it, (if you haven't already....and i really hope you haven't), i'll wait.

 see anything wrong with this?
 i did.
lots of things.

the title: instagram than a movie?!? apparently, her definition of watching a movie is nowhere close to what normal peoples' is. if it is, then either she has some hearing impediment along with a weird  persistence of vision issue, or she has never watched a movie like regular people do, or both. else she wouldn't make a statement that stupid. also, she assumes, wrongly, that everyone watches movies the way she does.

the content: that whole thing reads like a shameless plug for instagram. without the mandatory legal disclosure if the author/company has taken money for the promotion. okay, if for a min, we consider that it was not a promotion and it was what she actually thinks, then why should i read about it on a news blog? doesn't she have her own personal blog to write this kind of garbage that goes under the category of news journalism on? fine. i don't know shit about journalism, but i am sure this definitely is not it. 

this is also what happens when you're running out of time to create content under pressure to write something in support of a different post on a vastly popular blog in the hope that it will be linked together by techmeme and others, so that this dumb article rises to the much needed popularity in order that AOL gets the SEO ranking and ad revenue that pays for writing articles this shitty.
here, for your viewing pleasure, is the nice twitter timeline of online editing that went on for this article

(btw, alexia, the line "This is a pain point that Hollywood is currently suffering through" is wrong grammar. your HilzFuid missed it.)

that video: what does that video have anything to do with what she's talking about in the title? other than the fact that Louis CK is actually making fun of exactly that demographic. and this HilzFuid is saying that this video fits perfectly! perfect it is, for sarcasm!

but the most troubling about it is the twitter reaction for this: (search here, if you don't believe me) "interesting", "good blog post", "so true!"  what are they even talking about? just agreeing because a popular news blog article says so? without any thought?

i weep for humanity. 

I'd Rather Watch Instagram Than A Movie tcrn.ch/wetJ90
— Alexia Tsotsis (@alexia) January 23, 2012

i'd rather watch experience the movie.

Offline

She could not help it.
"It would be a quick glance", she convinced herself. She had to do it; it was ruining her concentration. One look and then she could be herself again. It was an addiction - a drug that calmed her frayed nerves, and once the mind craved for one, she had to get her fix. She needed it green. It would let her relax. But the dot stayed gray; gray as the overcast skies on a morose winter afternoon. It was making her restless, anxious.
Only a few days ago, it would have been green, restoring her tranquility. It was as if the ends of the network cables were the sensors of a cardiograph somehow connected to him. The glowing dot on her monitor, a bright green LED summing all the data points to signal his well being, reassuring her that he was there, safe, and all was right with his world. The gray troubled her; and compelled her to keep checking it.
“It ought to change any minute now,” she assured herself, impatient like a race car driver at the starting line, waiting with bated breath, and the engine pulsing. She waited, and the light did likewise.
A small tear appeared imperceptibly at the corner of her eyes. She pushed it away, as if in defiance. “Go away, i don’t need you!” she exclaimed, angry at her betrayed emotions. It was him she had addressed, the tears merely an excuse. She would not break down, she resolved, not today. She was stronger now. More mature. Her world had been cruel to her, she felt, but nothing could faze her any more. Through a brief surge of some sense of victory, she felt in control.
It seemed so stupid now, looking back. Why couldn’t he understand? And why wouldn’t he call? Was it too much to ask? She failed to understand what had gone wrong. No one understood her, she affirmed, and no one cared about her or thought of her. Abruptly, she reached for her cellphone, clutching it like a castaway grabbing a life buoy. She wanted to corroborate herself, she reasoned, but there was a faint glimmer of hope that she was wrong. The smudged screen reflected her own beautiful eyes, but only for a brief instant before lighting up at her touch, as if eager to please. There was nothing she had missed. She tossed it back again carelessly, disappointed. She would resist the urge to call. "I will not give in, not this time", she said it to herself like it was a chant. She would fight till the end. It was a brutal battle - her will power against her lack of it. She had to see how long she could last. Suddenly, she was nostalgic. They came flooding to her mind, all the bittersweet memories, like a tsunami, and just as tempestuous. A part of her wanted to let go, a part desperate to hold on. Making decisions always did that to her. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs - “Why?” It came out only as a whimper, more like a cry for help. She felt like running away from it all. She missed the warmth of her home, of an elderly hug, and the melody of the comforting phrase being whispered softly in her ears, “It is going to be all right”. Something felt warm on her cheeks. And wet. She realized she was crying. She did not intend to, but it had happened. “i tried my best”, she tried to rationalize. They were streaming down in rivulets now, faster, giving rise to more, a vicious circle. She buried her face in her hands, hiding from herself, and shielding herself from her surroundings, as if she did not want them to learn of her vulnerability.
It was a while before she opened her eyes again. The monitor had gone dark. She saw herself in it, teary eyed, her pretty face contorted. “No,” it was an order. “Stop it!” she commanded herself, brushing her cheeks with the palm of her upturned hands. A thin, tapering streak of silver appeared near her cheekbones leading up to the corner of her eyes, glinting in the dim fluorescence of the room. She slammed the screen shut, frustrated with herself for breaking her resolve, and somewhat disturbed by the reflection.

He saw the green dot turn gray, and paused; his hands still, fingers poised over the keyboard in the middle of contemplating a greeting. The list shuffled noiselessly as her name moved to the end of the list and settle, like a stone sinking slowly to the bottom of a lake, and probably with the same finality. He closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled.
She was offline.

Any Other Name

For quite some time now, i had the name wasabi for this blog. (and the lame <life> blah blah blah </life> in the description). the reason, apparent if you had read my first post, was simply this: for a lack of imagination (at that time) and an inclination towards learning Japanese.
but quite recently, i was told that this was the exact name under which a friend used to write, and that i was the 'only hindrance on earth' (her words, not mine) to prevent her claim to fame.

oh well, to quote Shakespeare (once more, though in its entirety),

..That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes,

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;

And for that name, which is no part of thee

thus, i hereby publicly abdicate all pretensions to the name wasabi, and the right for a claim to it in my future endeavors.

    Thy will be done

    on earth as it is in heaven.

from now on, this place will go by the name wabi-sabi.


not only is this very similar (phonetically, only, obviously) to wasabi, but also of Japanese origin, keeping up with the tradition, as you no undoubtedly would have guessed.
this one makes more sense, though, for a place like mine - something which isn't too complicated, or exotic. just plain simple appreciation of everyday life.
(in other words, i can get away by giving it a name that means i won't ever need to, or would, work on beautifying rectifying this template that i messed up big time)

more on the beautiful concept of wabi-sabi can be found nicely summarized on wikipedia.

Death of Nations

if this recession has taught us anything, it is the fragility of this society. 

it is the bane of the balance sheets brought upon by the its sorry dependence on companies' profitability. i can see examples upon examples of degradation to quality brought upon by the race to dress up numbers. everywhere. and the only way to do that... make the numbers look pretty, i mean, without spending more money is to cut costs. what these econo-misers fail to do, is realize that there are many intangible aspects in the world that cannot be quantified on their spreadsheets -like quality of life.

they only need to look beyond the sorry piece of paper with their numbers on it and into their very lives that have taken a turn for the worse. 

so all i see around me these days are consequences of someone saving their job by coming up with or implementing a cost cutting action, which then goes on to appease the accountants, coz hey, bottom line! 

i can practically hear the CEO addressing his/her motley crew in closed board rooms "Get me 20% lower cost figures by Q4 this year ..." with dire consequences. call it Management by Liposuction.

so you get a mad scramble to cut costs in every imaginable area (or not!), and presto. you have thinner bottled water bottles with a "saving the environment by using 20% less plastic" label and smaller caps, which makes it drop from your hands half a dozen times before you can put it back on, effectively diminishing eliminating any chances of reusing that bottle. result: more plastic trashed coz that bottle got squashed by the time it was empty. but on the balance sheets? 20% less raw material costs, a "yes, we made it happen!", and more sales! YAAY!

That's the rationale behind shorter cables and lower quality components for electronic equipment, restaurant menus with fewer choices and smaller portions, (also, new menus means the chance to upwardly revise the rates). gone are the table cloths, the napkins and the glassware and silverware, replaced by 'disposable' paper sheets (or in worst cases, none at all!) and paper napkins and 'unbreakable' plastic tumblers and cheap, disposable plastic cutlery. 

dig deeper, and you find suppliers low balling, or offer deteriorated services to make up for the reduced margins, subsequently, you have cleaning services that won't, reduced delivery frequency in the mail room, limited, low quality office stationery, reduced operational hours of the cooling system ... to a point that it gets ridiculous and starts interfering with your ability to get work done. except, you are doing the job with a lot fewer people due to the recent 'rightsizing' of the staff (employees are costs, too). oh, the management has made you believe how can do more with less coz 'you're awesome'. so now a guy (or girl, for that matter) is doing the work of two (or more) for the same - or even reduced pay with the consolation of "hey, at least i have a job" all the while thinking that the moment the job market "improves" they're going to jump ship for a better life.

except, it is not going to. not in the near future

those used to taking lots of things for granted are in for a rude shock - these effects trickle down in our lives really well through the budget gaps.

so get used to having ill-maintained public infrastructure, reduced police force and firemen to tend to your 911 calls, higher priced stamps, higher parking fees, higher taxes, higher health care costs, increased interest and insurance rates, more traffic tickets (the police department is not exactly flushed with funds here), reduced hours and resources for your kids in their schools (ditto, schools) - like teachers and supplies - at the same or even reduced paycheck! and this is to say the least. you would not imagine how low some departments would be willing to stoop in order to cut costs to meet the reduced budgets.

get used to the idea of supporting your kids waay beyond their teens since they're not getting a job anytime soon. oh, and they will have their own education loans to pay, and lives to live, so, of course YOU will be not be retiring in the near future coz your 401k dwindled down to almost nothing and you also have your own bills to pay - leading to even more unemployment.

so YOU cut down on spending - clip coupons, buy in bulk so that it is cheaper, try to look for deals - and spend more time buying stuff than you'd have otherwise. your spouse and kids are furious with you for not spending enough time with them, and you need to convince them how 'less is more', all the while not talking about the elephant of debt in the room.

and the economy takes even longer to revive, since no one is spending any money.

hello, downward spiral of miserable futility.

in today's age of austerity, this is the new normal.

Uphill

my is heart pumping furiously. i hear the tempo of its beats rise steadily in my ears. like someone is pounding huge drums in my chest.
the asphalt appears to be swaying as it travels backwards, it's dark surface is slick with the light rain and is obscured periodically by my white sneakers. i look up and my eyes blink automatically to avoid the raindrops. i am running away from civilization... lamp posts and city blocks long left behind are replaced by trees and fences. cars glide past slowly, their wiper blades dancing synchronously across the windshield, their red tail lights and orange turn signals glowing brilliantly under the misty gloom. the tires raise even finer mist and leave tire tracks in their wake, which promptly dissolve into the black inkiness as rain water lays its blanket over the tarmac.
the road narrows and winds up through the forest. rain falls steadily over the canopy, generating a constant static - like someone turned on the TV, but there was no broadcast. unlike the electronic version though, this seems pleasant in the otherwise serene surrounding. water trickles down my brows and percolates through my saturated clothes. i look down to see the wet fabric clinging to my body like second skin. if i'm breaking a sweat, it's not discernible. the road is now narrower, deserted. the cars are few and far between, and have to cross over the painted separators to pass me. daylight dwindles. crickets start their incessant chatter - like overhead high-voltage electric wires. acorns fall generously, noisily and scatter off among the dense vegetation.  i get off the road when 2 cars cross nearby, and i feel the malleable mulch and the lush grass crush softly from underneath the thick sneaker soles, as if i were running barefeet. unwillingly, i get back on the tarmac which now feels harder than ever.
my pace is steadier now. every stride jolts my body into awakening... i can feel my calfs, my thighs, the pit of my stomach, like i have never felt before. i feel the crisp, fresh air circulate within my lungs and my heart pumping rich, oxygenated blood through my veins. i feel i was born to run - to gently caress the soft earth beneath my toes and let the cool breeze do the same to my face.  dear mother, forever caring, giving; i can never thank you enough. why? why do you care so much for a spoilt, greedy brat, who will destroy your gifts and then throw tantrums? answers elude me, comprehension fails me, but i keep running.
the incline is steeper now. my pace slows. my steps are less and less further apart. my breathing is heavy, deep. my mouth opens to take in more, but the lungs are filled to capacity. almost on the verge of exploding. my mouth is dry, throat parched. i wipe off water from my face as a dull ache begins to make its presence felt somewhere in my guts. each step is an effort. my feet are lead, and the road is a powerful magnet, resisting any attempt to separate the contact. my insides feel like they're on fire. every nerve and sinew has started screaming for attention. "stop, i can't take it". but i ignore the voices. how can i give up? i haven't reached the top yet.
as if on cue, one of my shoelaces comes undone. is this a test? i keep going. the laces turn into wicks, soaking water from the rivulets and thrashing voilently against my ankles, spraying excess water. i am mildly amused for a brief instant. then a strange thing happens - suddenly, i don't feel exhausted anymore. the pain, if it existed, is gone now. it's a miracle - i feel rejuvenated. it's like i've attained escape velocity - freed from the shackles of my feeble mind. i could go on running for miles. the struggle is over.
i reach the top effortlessly and stop. there is no point in going on. i know i can, if i want to. my insides feel like ember. however, the skin is cold to the touch. i feel like there's steam rising from my arms, like it does for horses that have finished a race. obviously, there is none. i turn and start jogging - i'm a long way from home.
the return journey always seems faster somehow. as i near the base of the hill, i cross another solitary runner who is just starting the climb. i smile and give a thumbs-up for the uphill battle.

Mugen Si FAQs

What is Civic Si?
it's a civic that grew up.

What is Mugen?
copied this blurb from the glorious internet:

"The name MUGEN symbolizes Honda performance throughout Asia and around the globe. MUGEN, under license by M-TEC Co., Ltd., of Japan, has been closely associated with Honda for more than three decades in the design and manufacture of racing and premium aftermarket performance products."

in short, it's like Mopar for Honda.

What are the specs like?
"i though you'd never ask", replied Ace Ventura, taking a super deep breath.
Engine:

Engine Type: In-Line 4-Cylinder
Displacement (cc): 1998
Horsepower @ rpm (SAE net): 197 @ 7800
Torque (lb-ft. @ rpm): 139 @ 6100
Redline (rpm) 8000
Bore and Stroke (mm) 86 x 86
Compression Ratio 11.0:1

Transmission: Close-Ratio 6-Speed Manual with helical-type, limited-slip differential.

Gear Ratios:
1st: 3.267
2nd: 2.130
3rd: 1.517
4th: 1.147
5th: 0.921
6th: 0.659
Reverse: 3.583
Final Drive: 4.765

Are you fn kidding me? those are the same specs from the Si sedan. what the fk is wrong with you? what's with the Mugen?
ah. but you are right.
God, my friend, is in the details.

okay. AND?

this is what comes pre-installed from Mugen.

MUGEN sport-tuned exhaust
MUGEN track-tuned suspension
MUGEN Limited-edition placard
MUGEN 50mm spherical aluminum shift knob
full aerodynamic body kit including adjustable MUGEN rear wing spoiler - functional - front spoiler with a sports grille, side skirts and a rear diffuser(!)

Wheels: Forged MUGEN GP 18x7.5 (pattern 5H-114.3 +48)
Tires: BFGoodrich®2 g-Force KDW 215/40ZR18 high performance summer

okay, go on. i'm listening.

let me put some details on the above points:

sport-tuned exhaust: full "cat-back" system reduces back pressure downstream from the catalytic converter. Additional 6HP on an engine dyno, according to Honda engineers. (which brings the figure to 203hp! W00t!)

The track-tuned suspension: tested at the Twin Ring Motegi racing circuit in Japan, lowers the vehicle by 0.6 inches, bringing the ride height to 5.3 inches, with aggressive spring and damper tuning for enhanced handling performance. Compared to the conventional Civic Si Sedan dampers, front and rear damping force (both bump and rebound) increased between 8 and 24 percent.

Wheels are 17lbs ea., 27% lighter than the stock 17x7-inch alloy wheel.

whoa. that's a mouthful. but why don't i just take the stock Si and put all these mods in?
you sure can. one slight minor detail. you void the Honda warranty when you do that. plus, the insurance company is not gonna like it too much.

nice. so what do you think is the best part?
the best part? pun intending, undoubtedly, the fact that on paper, it's just a Civic!

i'm impressed. i'll take mine in Nighthawk Black Pearl, please.
well, like Henry Ford said, you can have it in any color as long as it is Fiji Blue Pearl.

what? no color choices?
no sir. and better hurry. there are only a few available. (probably half a dozen out of a 1000 left. but you could ask me and i can point you to a few dealers who still have them)

seriously? what's the retail on one of those things?
sorry my friend. you know how it goes. if you have to ask...

Perfect Car

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

never has it been any truer than the time when i was searching for a perfect car. the search had been futile for many years due to my next-to-impossible requirements. i struggled to find the balance between a sporty daily driver that, while burning rubber on the tarmac, wouldn't burn a hole in my pocket. i wasn't looking for creature comforts...for a long time, i had used cars without stereos, so even the most basic model would be equipped with more amenities than i would bother to care about. nor was i looking for exotic super cars. (simply coz i couldn't afford them). so, other than the features that make the most wanted list of any basic car buyer - safe, reliable, practical, economical, etc., i had a few more options to append and it was this combination that was hard, if not impossible (now that i have found it) to find.
my kinda car would have to be a great handling drivers car that i could take to the tracks, if i so chose to. obviously, this car would give me the luxury of being commonplace, would incur low insurance costs, and i wouldn't have to search high and low for spares and pay through my nose for maintenance, if ever. more points, if it were naturally aspirated and sipped on gas, rather than guzzle.

if you were thinking on the lines of Subaru Impreza WRX or STI or Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, you were pretty close, but the last couple of points elimiate those choices. Additionally, they are more on the expensive side than one would have imagined... not just the MSRP, but also the insurance costs.
Other option would have been to take a used stock car and install all the tuner mods to make it track-ready. but i'm a lazy guy. it would take too much in time and efforts to do all the mods. firstly, i wouldn't know how to install the parts even if my life depended on it. secondly, i had neither the tools nor the skills. (i call myself an enthusiast, nevertheless) getting a mechanic to do all these things would be fruitless. i would might as well get the above mentioned vehicles, coz the cost for either of the alternatives would be almost the same.
besides, i wanted a new car - there's too much information asymmetry in getting a used one than i am comfortable with.

At this juncture, if you are amongst the car enthusiasts crowd, you'd be all nodding your heads, and would
a) refuse to believe that such a car actually exists
b) want to skip to the part where i revel the car.
c) all of the above.

well, hold your horses there. (don't i even get to sound my trumpet for all my efforts?)

for those who say "oh, but that's easy. the answer is Civic Si"
well, you're very very close.
in fact, i was too. very very close. to getting a '08 Si in Feb this year when my '99 Kia Sephia was boosted. Yeah, i know. what a stupid dumbfxxx! it wasn't even fit for a joyride. guess he only wanted the stereo. The cops thought i was lying. ("'99 kias don't get stolen"). fortunately, i found it a few weeks later. but not be4 i had test-driven a 09 Si.
if you have never listened to its exhaust note, you should. it's sweet dibetic! i was hooked. not that i needed an excuse. i had been following the Si development since they displayed the coupé at the '05 SEMA show. i even had Honda send me the brochures and put up pictures on my cubicle wall. not surprizingly, the Civic was the Motor Trend's COTY for 2006. (what was surprizing, though, was that no one mentioned it featured the old-school inward directed wiper blade arms that rested one over the other, if you know what i mean)

in any case.

so.

has anyone of you heard of the 2008 Si Mugen Edition?

Your Attention Please

i used to blog frequently. until twitter came along. now, i micro-blog. it is too easy. and i don’t have to spend time to think.

the world is getting faster and more concise with each passing day, hour and minute. Instant gratification is not merely relished, it’s demanded. Writing this a few years ago would have taken up all my concentration. Today, my mind somersaults through a plethora of activities, a dozen times a minute as i ‘Alt-Tab’ my way through the open windows before i manage to complete one sentence. my attention span has been reduced to that of a gnat. Does all this context switching affect my writing? maybe. for better or worse? can’t say. i know for a fact that my writing is certainly different when i write the old-fashioned way, than when i type.

i feel restless if i don’t click on the ‘You have a new mail’ alert, the moment it pops up. or if the hourglass pointer shows up for more than a few seconds. my irritation is demonstrated as violently shake the mouse as if doing that would somehow cause it to go away. one word: ADD.

the disorder seems contagious. ppl are always on the edge and are loosing it at the drop of a hat. they can’t sit still for more than a few minutes…unless they’re watching TV, in case of which, they can stare at it for hours without moving a muscle (well, except the thumb to switch channels). which brings us to another important observation: ppl (including me) are becoming lazier. most would choose activities like sleeping, watching TV and thinking in decreasing order of priority, given a choice. working out doesn’t even make the list anymore. reading books? forget it… takes too much time and efforts. and who reads books anyways? kindle? sure, just can’t seem to focus on reading one, when the news feeds are updated every other minute. i gotta stay updated on the latest celebrity gossip, you know? it’s pretty popular at the water cooler.

everyone always has had a choice. except, now the choice has gone from choosing between reading one or other to choosing whether to read or zone out. the scary part is, in most of the cases today, it’s the latter that gets chosen.

are we all becoming so poor that we can’t even pay attention?

or is it the other way round? in today’s attention economy, my attention span became one of the most coveted commodity as everyone tried really hard to get my attention. pretty soon, they were all shouting at the top of their lungs clamoring to get my attention. initially, i ignored them. over time, i turned deaf.

next on the list is finding some techniques to combat the impulses my brain so that i can …hey, it’s Friday! wonder what the weather is like over the weekend.

Very Unusual Collective Nouns

A bale of turtles
A brace, paddling, or team of ducks
A brood of hens
A business or fesnyng of ferrets
A cast or kettle of hawks
A charm of finches
A cowardice of curs
A descent of woodpeckers
A dole of doves
A drift or parcel of hogs
A fall of woodcocks
A float of crocodiles
A gang of elks
A kine of cows
A mob of emus
A murder of crows
A pitying or dule of turtledoves
A pod of walrus
A quiver of cobras
A rafter of turkeys
A sedge or siege of cranes
A smack of jellyfish
A troop of monkeys

Literary Pursuits

I’d have liked to call myself a bibliophile, but … i don’t know. it sounds so … perverted. even the word bookworm is somehow disgusting.

so what do i call a person, i.e. yours truly, who simply likes reading? i promptly fired up my favorite browser, pointed it to answers.com and thought i’d be on my way soon. sadly, i was mistaken. and disappointed. answers.com is, contrary to the name, just an incomplete upgrade to AskJeeves. Incidentally, AskJeeves (which is now ask.com) returns the same results as does Google.

in any case, i landed on the word literati after perusing through my own limited vocab. and though it sounds a bit … conceited, i thought i’d stick with it. as the poet once said, “…I confess an itch for the praise of fools”.

being a not-so-elite member of the literati (gotta admit, our names should be on the endangered list), i think it’s only appropriate that i promptly become a member of the nearest library in my immediate surroundings wherever i relocate so that i – in the least - maintain the über-hyped status quo i just defined for myself.

the thing is, with my luck, this is always the difficult part.

Back in India, i was a member of BCL only for so long. firstly they only had books of British authors, which was certainly lame. and then they went on to raise the fees to such an exorbitant amount, it was obscene.

consequently, i was the epitome of glad when i came stateside and found out that all the local libraries are free! yeah, that’s right! F-R-E-E. as in, no payments. Books, magazines, newspapers, you name it, and if they ain’t got it, they’ll get it for you. it was pure book p0rn. hell, they even had terminals with free Internet!

i could hardly believe my eyes. i began to envision glorious visions of me swimming in books. readable things floating around as if above the influence of gravity and i am plucking one out and reading as i please. i could imagine a halo over my head and harps playing around me. aren’t these things supposed to cost money? well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. and so i did.

sadly though, the glee was short lived. Initially, there were transportation issues. i wasn’t privileged to drive, and though some argue that no distance is un-walkable (i believe no distance is – even the way back from the car-park), there are other considerations like time and the elements. (i could have said ‘weather conditions’, but coming from a literati, it seems, well, lame.) when i did finally become eligible to officially drive, (the process takes a minimum of 4-6 months for a new comer, whether or not you can drive), the public library, it seems, was so flushed with funds (only in the US!), and soo running out of space, that they decided to… erm, close down for renovations and expansion. i was left high and dry. but not before i had consumed at least half a dozen of their classic collection, (quite) a few dozen movies, countless periodicals and novels. (paid a fortune in late fines too… i guess that explains the ‘flushed with funds’ part)

i waited. they built. progress was slow but steady. the days turned into weeks and weeks into months and then multiplied themselves several times over. completion seemed so near, yet so far.

meanwhile, completion did occur - on our lease. we had to move out. in a way, i was glad for the move. the place was dead as the dial-up and just as obsolete. in our new not-so-dead town village, i promptly checked out (pun intended) the nearest library. this one (the library, i mean, not the village) was larger than the previous, and nearer too. i was content for the first couple of months before Murphy stuck. again. they closed down for expansion and renovations.

well, might be just a coincidence, i shrugged. shit happens.

the subsequent weeks were spent watching as they demolished the now desolate place to the ground and later build it from ground up. that stopped once they erected tall barriers around the construction area. the days turned into weeks and weeks into months and then multiplied themselves several times over.

One day, after i had almost given up all hope of the library ever opening its doors to the public again, it happened. while riding past it, i saw lights in the building. there were even some ppl moving about inside. realisation dawned upon me – a brilliant flash of the obvious. my patience had finally paid off.

the new place was roomier, and looked beautiful too…almost like a modern Frank Lloyd Wright design (or should i say, Howard Roark).  

we had recently renewed our lease, and i had absolutely no intention of moving out, so i imagined spending my waking hours devouring whatever they had to offer at the sprawling estate.

but Fate, it seems, was not to be so kind. a week later, my car was stolen.

Severe Weather Alert

Agreed that it’s almost the end of winter, but then, as they say, it’s not over until it’s over.

My colleague, Brian, sent out these simple but very practically thought out tips for traversing the winter wonderland safely.

(Thanks, Brian!)

Winter tips when walking safely on slippery or icy surfaces

• Wear the proper/appropriate foot gear
• Take small steps to keep your center of balance under you.
• Walk slowly
• Never run on icy ground.
• Keep both hands free for balance, rather than in your pockets.
• Keep your eyes on where you are going.
• Test potentially slick areas by tapping your foot on them.
• Step - Don’t jump from vehicles and equipment.

When these helpful hints don’t work, and you know you are going to slip, try to reduce your potential injury when falling by:

• Roll with the fall. 
• Try to twist and roll backwards, rather than falling forward.
• Relax as much as possible when you begin to fall.
• If you carrying something, toss it away from you. Protect yourself instead of the objects being carried.

And remember, pride goes before a fall!

Dusk

Leaning Tower
Originally uploaded by ...Soumitra

An ever so slight portion of the solitary building reflects in the glimmer of the shiny, mirror-like road surface in the low light of the setting Sun.
The evening, a fleeting memory of the barren landscape, rushes past the expanding dull grey cover as if to escape the inevitable darkness bound to envelope it.
The fluorescent, zinc white snow, meanwhile, lies motionless, safe in the knowledge that it's radiance defies the night.

Vodka Martini @ TGI Fridays

Vodka Martini @ TGI Fridays
Originally uploaded by ...Soumitra

Enthusiastic after the last one, I clicked this while a dinner party
at a nearby TGI Fridays.
Believe me, this was the only one I took.

I tried to blog directly from email, but there is something i am missing, not sure what.
The last time, i had only added the flickr email. So this time, i added the '2blog' email too, hoping that it would work. Still nothing. Instead, it posted 2 photos in my flickr account. ( So i had to delete one copy).

Anyways, let me look around what exactly needs to be done so that i don't need to do anything other than clicking the photo and emailing.
Meanwhile, enjoy this (picture of) Vodka Martini (Bombay Sapphire) with green olives, straight up!

Last Post

Now don't be scared. Or overtly happy ecstatic.
This isn't what the title appears to portray. Rather, this is about the last, as in previous, post. Unfortunately.
So, last month, i became, by an extremely unusual of fortunate circumstances, a lucky owner of an iPhone. As my even better luck would have it, it is an old generation 16GB ...yes, the one with a recessed headphone jack, no assisted GPS, and, shiver mah timbers, no 3G network.
Pray, may you ask why this is turn of the cards a betterment of your plebeian life if you are not using the latest iPhone?
You may.
and the simple reason is that i will be saving quite a fortune not having to pay for the data plan. Obviously, i had it JailBroken, and am using my existing service that is off the contract. Plus, this one has a metal body unlike the plastic shell of the new one, which i think is sturdier in my "I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter"y fingers.
besides, there are no other differences between new and the old model that might have made a difference anyways. like copy-paste. (i think it's akin to driving a Ferrari with a couple of missing cogs in the gearbox...not that i would know how that would feel... i'm just guessing.)

anyways, so about the last post.
so i thought that with the iPhone in my life, whatever spare time i used to find for writing (which was almost non existent) would wither away into nothingness.
but fear not.
i mean, i thought that to myself, i'm not asking you to not fear. rather, you should be afraid, be very afraid. {pleased} (i always wanted to say that!)
now i'm gonna be photo-blogging. using flickr and my iphone camera.
you see, flickr has this nice feature where i send them an email with a post and they post it over here. apparently, this functionality is as old as email, but since i've been living in a cave, it somehow slipped my limited attention.

so when i enabled my flickr account for doing just that, the previous post was what resulted.

ah, beholdest thou the complexities of simple things!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Quotable Quotes From LOTR

Some of my favorite quotes from The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R Tolkien) that i had painstakingly noted down while i was reading the series...

On Life:

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

-Gandalf to Frodo

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

-Bilbo's birthday speech.

"We live now upon an island amid many perils, and our hands are more often upon the bowstring than upon the harp."

-Haldir to Company in Lothlorien

"...and here my heart dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we still must tread"

-Aragorn to Frodo.

"'Despair, or folly?' said Gandalf. 'It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope."

-Gandalf at the Counsel of Elrond.

---------

...and to them Mordor had been from childhood a name of evil, and yet unreal, a legend that had no part in their simple life; and now they walked like men in a hideous dream made true, and they understood not this war nor why fate should lead them to such a pass.

---------

He laid his hand upon the tree beside the ladder: never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree's skin and of the life within it. He felt a delight in wood and the touch of it, neither as forester nor as carpenter; it was the delight of the living tree itself.

---------

On the World:

"The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out."

-Gildor to Frodo

'I have never been out of my own land before. And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don't think I should have had the heart to leave it.'

-Merry to Haldir.

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."

-Haldir to Merry.

"I do not believe that the world about us will ever again be as it was of old, or the light of the Sun as it was aforetime."

-Merry to Haldir

...it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

-Gandalf to Imrahil

---------

On Elrond:

"The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars. Venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fulness of his strength."

---------
On Galadriel:

Young she was and yet not so. The braids of her dark hair were touched by no frost, her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth, and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring. Above her brow her head was covered with a cap of silver lace netted with small gems, glittering white; but her soft grey raiment had no ornament save a girdle of leaves wrought in silver.

---------

On Lórien:

It seemed to him that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name. All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured for ever. He saw no colour but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lórien there was no stain.

---------

On Man:

"..such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.'

-Elrond at the Counsel

and my favorite...

"It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise."
"Yet seldom do they fail of their seed," said Legolas. "And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again in times and places unlooked-for. The deeds of Men will outlast us, Gimli."
"And yet come to naught in the end but might-have-beens, I guess," said the Dwarf.

Google Chrome: Initial Impressions

when it comes to using browsers, i am a browser.
i mean, not in "computer program used to surf the Internet". not even as in browser of the newspaper.
at this point, if you are thinking "as in animal who eats shrubs", then you would be right; partly though, coz i have turned vegan for a short while, but that wouldn't be entirely the point of this discussion (as you might as well have guessed from the title).
in any case. as i was saying, i'm a browser. as in in "one who looks around without seeking anything in particular". and a power browser at that, i might as well add.
if i say that i have been using browsers (the computer program kind) since ...well, not mosiac, that would make me like 200 yrs old ... the Navigator, you can definitely hypothesize that i am not exactly in my teens i have come a long way using them.
so when Google today launched their new Chrome browser ... funny name, coz ironically, the browser lacks one... i felt compelled to test it for myself.
i will briefly tell the experiences i had so far (a few hours, i confess, but nevertheless).
frankly, i have no idea what the hoopla about "different tabs are launched in their own process" is all about. Microsoft has been having that "feature" optional - optional, mind you, not "take it or leave it", since their IE 4!! (For those of you who remember, IE 4 came default with Win98). Forget that, since IE 5, the designers made it switch automatically if the machine had more than 32MB RAM.
if you don't believe me, do this simple test. Open IE using Ctrl+N in an existing browser instance and it uses the same process. Open it using the desktop icon (or Start menu, or Quicklaunch icon...whatever way you swing) and lo behold, it's a new process!! Oh, btw, one can see processes using the Processes tab on the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc, or Ctrl+Alt+Del, or Ctrl+Alt+Del and clicking on the Task Manager button, or Right clicking on TaskBar and clicking on Task Manager menu! Whew!!)

therefore, Chrome designers, nothing new in that.
but the similarities end there. there are a lot, and i mean an awful (in a good way) lot of UI changes in the Chrome. putting the tabs above the URL ...sorry, the awesome bar... oops, that was for FireFox 3, ... i mean the Omnibar is one. then there are the vista-esque window buttons, especially the close button that ever so slowly glows red on mouse over. i loved the unobtrusive "save password?" menu bar style dialogue box instead of the irritating pop-up alert in FireFox 2 (didn't much want to install 3, though i have the beta, but hardly ever use it. Why? it doesn't support the iFox Graphite theme... well, didn't when i last looked)

one thing i noticed is that this browser is waaaaaaay tooooo faaaaaast. Blaaaaazzzzing, to be precise. i guess that has got to do with the V8 (not the popular 100% juice) engine that has some javascript interpreter or some such hi technology stuff the details of which you can easily find on wikipedia or Google's site itself. but it is using the same webkit engine or whatever that Safari uses. tho i miss safari's amazing tab options and the find feature. you should check them out. i mean, separating tabs into windows, merging.... they're brilliant. right now, only IE8 has the 'coloured tabs for the same group' feature that i'd like firefox, chrome and safari to incorporate too. i have little doubt that they won't.
chrome also copies the 'incognito' mode from safari. it is using that same yellow coloured text boxes for the 'AutoFill' feature from the Google toolbar, that i had the misfortune to see when they launched that toolbar. (frankly, i keep away from toolbars and even google desktop. i think it just makes you even more messy ... haphazardly storing your stuff in the nearest place you find on that ginormous hdd, then relying on such tools to look for it when you need it the most, and then curse them for not finding it.)
there's also a lot of ajaxy stuff - you can move around tabs etc, but what i felt was lacking was the absence of config options. plus, it is too much dependent on the pointy tool, aka mouse.

at this point, i have to deviate somewhat to tell you this. i am lazy. i mean, i know that you had already guessed that from the frequency of my postings, but you had no idea how much. till now. so here goes. i am sooo lazy, that i hate to even take my hands off the keyboard, and then, in paainstaaking mootioonnss move the hand (with the mouse, natch) to the exact location of the target, making sure that you have the mouse pointer hotspot in the same area as that of the target's hotspot, and then, after you have done all that, click. and then wait for the action to happen. and then do that all over again. except, i refuse. that is sooooo slooooow, it makes you think you're watching yourself do that in super slomo. you could do such actions at warp speeds ten times over using the keyboard. and then some more. (if you're interested, check out a FF extension named mouseless browsing or MLB. awesome!). these days, the keyboard shortcuts in a GUI is often an afterthought.

okay, enuff blamestorming, now back to chrome.
for downloading files, it creates this Download folder in MyDocuments and stores files there. also, multiple processes or not, it does tend to freeze up sometimes. i was on a secure site, and the other window was streaming audio, but it was breaking up. maybe it was me... i mean my measly Celeron equipped with an even measlier 512 MB, but let me check it on my souped up office machine.
and be careful though, these vista-esque menubar buttons i was telling you about, if you're like me and using it on anything else, it isn't a really smooth transition. if you are using modified themes and that blue bar sticks out like the Pontiac Aztec (i don't know why they 'hard coded' that. they could simply have used the OS default.)
then there are a lot of security features etc, which i am too lazy tired to go into too much details.

but there you have it. chrome is here to stay. check out their long, but well illustrated comix and while you're at it, marvel, just as i did, at the way they use their resources to load test their software!

Update:
firefox is also releasing their scriptmonkey or some such, which is similar to the javascript VM/interpreter that chrome has!

the browser wars have started again...

Poison Pill

When was the last time you took some medicine pills that you were actually looking forward to popping into your mouth?
not in quite some time, if you're like me.
Problem is, the pills aren't exactly user friendly (for lack of good vocab.).
i mean, while hundreds of billions of units of currency worldwide have gone into these pharma companies for R&D and what not, why can't their brilliant scientists try and make the misery inducing tablets more enticing to the unwell? Oh, and don't confuse this with the sugar-coated pills or capsules. These shouldn't lose their initial taste once the coating dissolves, thank you very much.
And while they're at it, why not offer a choice of flavours? Novocain that tastes like vanilla rather than nitrous oxide or pain relievers in Jolly Rancher assortments? or cough tablets like hard candy.
Wait. cough drops come that way already.
but i guess you get the drift. this isn't too much to ask now, is it? So why, then, are they not doing it?

Well, i haven't really thought too deep on it, but primarily, if the pills were too candy-like, we'd all be popping them like, erm, candy. while the uninitiated may argue that the pharma companies would prosper that way, a longer term outlook would suggest otherwise.
and they wouldn't like to get sued by ppl getting OD'ed or those long term effects start becoming common place. (as the tobacco companies found out few years ago).

whaddya say?

A Life Less Ordinary

It is the middle of Spring and one of the glorious days of abundant Sunlight and intermittent breeze.
i sit outdoors sprawled on a beach chair on our front porch, listening to a multitude of melodious bird calls and watching puffs of clouds sail by, slowly and silently.
The same wind that drives the clouds noiselessly above, softly rustles the new, green leaves, and the branches wave as if they're happy to get some movement in their otherwise staid existence.
Small birds dive through the dense branches most possibly looking for food, while squirrels jump around and scamper up and down tree trunks seemingly implying they don't have time to hang around.
Water seeps through the soil and trickles down from huge boulders, a drop at a time. Every drop hesitating for a fraction of a second before finally taking the plunge from the edge of its diving board to meet Mother Earth below. Light briefly glints off them in that pause, and goes off. Like fireflies glowing on and off at regular intervals.
Creepers hang from the rocks, snaking across the flat surfaces and moss clumps provide colour to the gray and black background. Some small plants find their way through the rocky crevices and protrude out seeking the Sun.
The scent of the forest - grass, trees, an Earth - gently wafts through the surrounding like incense.
The slow drone of an aircraft somewhere above makes me look for it. It is not hard to locate. The vapour trails streaking across the skies effortlessly lead me to it. The trails stretch for some distance like slashes of light cut through the blue expanse; curling and evaporating into nothingness at the tail end as the aircraft blazes across - as if trying to get away from the very sound it is making.

Mind wanders. Thoughts criss-cross; present, past, future, as i lay still in the placid moment. Why is it so hard to let go? don't i want to?
is it this restlessness of the mind that has brought Mankind to this state? always wanting, always yearning for more, overlooking what it has been bestowed. always brooding, always contemplating.
i close my eyes, trying not to think. only trying. songs play in my mind, and i resist my music player.

time passes, as ever. i try and relish the moments. it does not last. (does it ever?)

The wind falls. Overhead, the clouds begin to gather and Sunlight pales, signalling the inevitable.
i wait till the first of the raindrops crash on my skin and shattering into even tinier droplets that latch on to the surface forming fragile miniature domes... only to dissolve into others to form a rivulet and slide off to the side.

like a fool, i get up and head indoors into shelter.