HNT-2

yes ladies, gents and other eclectic beings.. it's thursday.. time to get half-nekkid again!! the wicked scar you see is from a biking accident.. a whole bunch of stitches along with other assorted gashes as happens when tumbling downhill through flora and fauna!

for newbies, this is what its all about.. and here is where you can see all the entries for the day!! (scroll down till you see Hiding Half-Nekkid This Week in the Back Row on the right!)

too much tech

the telecommumications industry is in a tizzy right now.. devices that are supposed to make life easier are complicating things more, and all sorts of people are getting their hands on all sorts of things they should not have access to in the first place!!

early this spring garage doors all over the US started creaking open slowly.. seemingly of their own accord.. only later was it realised that the new radio frequencies being used by the Army were actually to blame. the Air Force has now asked a private company to step in to restructure the allotment of frequencies!

air-traffic-control transmissions are frequently interrupted by bursts of static and wailing babies.. apparently baby monitors are to blame. the same baby monitors have also been responsible for eavesdropping on phone calls!
      ATC: ".. this is JFK calling Flight 234.. please respond.. "
  Baby: ".. goo goo.. gaa gaa.. "
      ATC: "Flight 234.. please respond.. "
  Baby: ".. mmmmm.. "
      ATC: "Red Alert! Red Alert!! Hijack alert for Flight 234!! Scramble the fighter jets!!"
  Baby: "waaaaah!! uwaaaahhh!!"
      ATC: "Inform the President! Shutdown Wall Street! Prepare to die!!"

two new devices completely kick-ass!! Cell-Block-R jams cellphones, preventing their use in restricted areas. cinema theaters will be one of the first to employ (and benefit!) this blocker! don't you just hate people who obstinately refuse to switch their phones off in theaters.. and even worse, some people find it necessary to regale their friends with a running commentary of what's happening onscreen on the phones too!!

the other is TV-B-Gone, which switches off all tvs within a longish range of upto 50ft, and fits on your keychain! it has been widely used to switch off tvs in noisy bars and crowded airport lounges quite undetected. i have particularly wanted this baby whenever i'm at Port Authority in NYC, cos they insist on showing the same news shows over and over and over.. grrr!!

finding your cellphone losing signal at home? blame your microwave. does your cordless phone get static whenever you're doing laundry? try stepping away from your clothes dryer. and has your wi-fi speed fallen drastically since you got a new wireless keyboard? do we really need all this hi-tech?!

withdrawal

i come to you again today with a message.. encouraging you to enjoy and cherish life! so, to all you impressionable young ladies and gents out there.. Don't Do Drugs!

before you start crying wolf, and start muttering words like 'hypocrite' & 'phony' etc.. i shall let it be known that i have smoked 'illegal substances'.. but that's all in the past. seriously! and there's a lot to be said about quitting drugs, many positives..

my favourite thing about being clean now is that my brain power seems to have been infinitely improved! my memory is so much sharper!! before it used to be:

    "duuuuude.. where are my keys mannn.."

accompanied by a frantically slow checking of pockets, and not finding them (of course!).. and then half an hour later realising they were hanging off the carabiner on my jeans all the while. at which point i didn't remember why i needed them in the first place!

nowadays, i just reach to my left and there are my keys.. and i tell you its a wonderful feeling that not every reflex action is an adventure. we used to toss the football (american football, for the rest of the world) when stoned.. and in my mind's eye each catch used to be right off the set of the Matrix, or the highlight reels of NFL Today!!

another bonus is when i listen to Metallica now i don't feel like the lead singer James is yelling into my ear like a man possessed! Lars' drum section keeps a respectful distance and my thoughts don't feel hassled into making snap judgements of time and place!

i enjoy my dinners much more now.. cos at least i can taste the little nuances that make a spicy Thai curry different from Indian tandoori chicken!! thank God not everything in my life tastes sweet like Hostess Twinkies & Cup-Cakes, and whipped cream on brownies!!

finally, since corporate America has decided that substance screening tests are going to be part and parcel of the recruitment process.. you might as well quit.. and drink instead! oh yes, the day someone tells me that i can't enjoy my cold beer after a long day, or a Jack & Coke with plenty of ice.. then i'm afraid i shall have to put my foot down! cheers everyone!!

scared?

sometimes our biggest fear in life is not knowing what to fear the most! we have an inbuilt sense that makes us dwell more on threats that we perceive as more horrific, but statistically less plausible (shark ambushes, spider bites, terrorist attacks), and ignore the bigger threats to our daily lives, which kill many many more (heart disease, cancer, accidents).

the numbers are quite scary, we just have to keep a sense of perspective - the litany starts in the household, where approx. 300,000 toilet, shower & bath incidents sent americans to the emergency room per year! i shave with a razor (34,000 injuries), with hot water (42,000 injuries) at the sink (23,000 injuries). For breakfast i slice an apple with a knife (441,000 injuries) and pour juice in a glass (87,000 injuries). in all, there are around 30,000 home deaths a year, poisoning, fire and falls being the major killers. remember, the US population is nearly 300 million, i.e. a 0.01% (1 in 10,000) chance of you winding up dead! scared yet?

stepping out of the house for your commute, here's some simple data (in deaths per billion passenger-miles): airplane-0.03, boat-0.6, bus-0.6, rail-0.75, car-4.6, bicycle-63, foot-89, motorcycle-159. still think flying is unsafe? how about another weird stat - 10,000 people per year go to ER for money-related injuries, 5 people are killed annually by falling vending machines!!

psychologists talk about a concept of risk homeostasis, a risk-balancing process we carry out in our heads. when cycling with a helmet, we take more risks since we feel safer. also, the feeling of being in control (at the handlebars of the bike) can lull you into a false sense of security. men, it seems, simply take more risks, from driving more rashly, to crossing the road at riskier spots, to sport activities like hunting and hot-air ballooning (hunting: 600 deaths per 2 million hunters = 0.03% fatality; ballooning: 2.6 deaths per 3,000 balloonists = 0.09% fatality, i.e thrice as dangerous!!

artificial risks are automatically assumed to be worse than natural ones - so people worry more about cell phone radiation giving them cancer, and then jauntily go off to the beach without sunscreen!! so after all these facts about death, if you feel that you're just gonna lie in bed and take it easy today, wait a sec.. every year upto 400 people suffocate or strangle themselves in bed!

risk analysts have a pretty morbid sense of humor -
"the ultimate risk is life, which has a 100% chance of leading to death."
have a great day everyone :-)

stats from Popular Science (July 2005)

Disclaimer:

i am in no way promoting morbidity or being morose.. i love life lots.. and this was just supposed to be a humorous take on something i read!!

she

she can be an evil mistress, demanding all my attention, and all my time. and just when i think i have my life back, she beckons with her sultry "come hither" look, and i am helplessly drawn towards her again.

there is nothing that she doesn't know; she can tell me anything about anyone, anywhere, anytime. i am left marvelling open-mouthed at her abilities. sometimes she frustrates with her stubborness, and other time she encourages with her innocence, and she always comes through. and i find myself giving up lots of things just to spend time with her.

she is always good to go, never too tired, never "not tonight, i have a headache", never unwilling to go on, and on.. until i have no more energy, and i sleep off exhausted, too tired to even cuddle, having done nothing all day but be with her.

my life has been quite irreversibly changed ever since she came into it, mostly for the better, as she helps me with my research and stuff, and she hangs out with me at work, and we keep up to date with all that's happening as she shares so many of my passions.. but at times it irks me that we do nothing but just sit around. like this weekend, despite the mountains of work i had, i just lounged. i would have gladly dropped everything to be with her, if she weren't the internet.

Gone Away

Maybe in another life, I could find you there
Pulled away before your time, I can't deal it's so unfair

And it feels.. And it feels like.. Heaven's so far away
And it feels.. Yeah it feels like
The world has grown cold.. Now that you've gone away

Leaving flowers on your grave, Show that I still care
But black roses and Hail Mary's, Can't bring back what's taken from me
I reach to the sky, And call out your name
And if I could trade, I would

And it feels.. And it feels like.. Heaven's so far away
And it stings.. Yeah it stings now
The world is so cold.. Now that you've gone away

"Gone Away" - The Offspring ('Ixnay On The Hombre')

sleepers

so my buddy sank and i have this theory.. about how people sleep. this is how it goes - there are two kinds of sleepers, warm sleepers and cold sleepers.

the warm sleepers like to be slightly warm when they sleep, so they will turn the heating up a tad bit, throw on a warmer comforter, or maybe wear a warm pair of pyjamas when going to bed.

the cold sleepers prefer that the room have a slight chill to it, believing that it'll all equalise in some time anyway. they'll turn down the heating when going to bed, slide the window up a little bit, or sleep with a layer less.

me?! i just sleep in the buff!! ;-))

Half-Nekkid Thursday

for those of you who have no idea what this is all about.. go here!! the idea seems to have gotten really huge now, check out all of today's HNT posts.. so pull out your cameras, and get snapping! this was taken on my lunch break.. i hadn't really planned on being in this today.. so here's my maiden entry! :-))

book tag

got tagged by Aparna.. this is one i don't mind playing along with.. i love(d) books! the reasons for the past tense shall soon be made clear!

Last book I bought:
I just bought two books: 'Cobain' (Rolling Stone), which is actually an anthology of all the articles the mag published about Kurt and Nirvana. Was flipping through it at the local Barnes & Noble, very interesting reading. And I also picked up 'Journals' (Kurt Cobain), which are his diaries from the phase before Nirvana took off, it's quite uncanny how Kurt just knew he'd be huge one day!

Last book I read:
Finished 'State Of Fear' (Michael Crichton) recently, which provoked a post, and a couple of solid arguments with friends about the whole issue of global warming, and how we're looking at it, or rather, how we're being made to look at it!

Book(s) currently reading:
Have finally started 'So What!' (Steffan Chirazi), a biography of Metallica, which the brownie gang here gifted me on my birthday (yes i know it was six months ago!!). No holds barred, no holding back, just like the band personify in their music!

Total number of books I own:
This is kinda incalculable, since i have held on to almost every book i have bought, going back to my childhood! I have three cartons of books safely stowed away in storage back in nairobi, two boxfuls in my grandfather's house in calcutta, and another hefty bunch here too!

Books that mean(t) a lot to me:
Whoa! Another impossible kinda question! I think at different phases of my life, I have been influenced by different books. I've always been an insanely insatiable reader, and when i had access to the books (my own collection, my best friend Amrit's collection, school libraries.. i have been known to read three-four books in a sitting). However, I have always preferred to read informal literature, over the classics, and over 'serious' books!

Even now, i just don't seem to find the time (or patience!) to read books, preferring instead to limit my reading to stuff that isn't over 100-150 pages long, printed on glossy paper, and has a sizeable number of scantily-clad women draped all over it! hehe!

In my schoolyears: Peter & Jane (Ladybird series), the Famous Five (and other Enid Blyton's works), the William series (Richmal Crompton), The Three Investigators (Robert Arthur), the Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon), Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene), their Case Files, Agatha Christie, Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, Alistair Maclean, Jeffrey Archer, Eric van Lustbader and i'm pretty sure i'm forgetting lots more too..

Later on i moved to Robert Ludlum, Michael Crichton, Robin Cook and P.G Wodehouse among mainstream writers, and Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, David Maillu, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Arundhati Roy, Gita Mehta, Andy McNab and a whole bunch of others who i don't even remember anymore!

I have to mention here that if i had to pinpoint any one book that really made a difference to my life, then it would have to be the legendary 'How To Win Friends And Influence People' by Dale Carnegie!! I know it sounds really corny, but my grandpa gave me this when i was a shy, reserved kid in class 5, and it made a whole new man out of me!! basically it woke the devil inside me, but hey, my grandpa passed away happy that he had left the next generation of Mittra's in safe hands.. muhahahah! ;-)

thanks to Shumpy!!

think for yourself, question authority

three weeks to the day since i last moved to a plane of higher consciousness, since i last altered reality, since i last slid into a parallel world. i feel restricted, oppressed.. by the powers that be, by the assholes that make laws such as mandatory substance screening tests for entry level employees!! isn't that breaking the First Amendment, the freedom of expression?!

i've been slogging my ass off working at the library, then going to the lab and doing more shit.. don't i deserve to come home and fire up a nice reefer.. or a small bowl, to go with my beer and dinner?!

read what Dr. Timothy Leary has to say, from 'How To Operate Your Brain'..

Think for yourself, Question authority

Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.

Think for yourself, Question authority.

as used in "Third Eye", by Tool from the album 'Salival'.

by the way, did anyone notice the whole irony of it?! an anti-establishment writer, who promotes freedom of speech and thought, advocating the throwing off of mind controls placed upon us by authorities.. titles his book 'How To Operate Your Brain'?? ohh the bitter irony of it all..

what is the truth?!

keeping it simple

life is kinda simple these days.. i don't demand too much of it, it doesn't ask me questions that are too difficult in return. i go to work at the library, then go on to the lab after that, send out a few resumes.. come back home, play football or cricket.. cook some dinner, watch a movie or two, or there's always M*A*S*H on tv.. weekends we barbecue, and go out for a movie..

here's our latest culinary delight, perfect for hot summer days.. nats made the cold shrimp pasta salad with apple mint sauce, and i made the potato pancakes with the salsa dip.. i'll put up the recipe on the recipe blog as soon as i can

watched a bunch of movies recently.. some pretty good, some not so memorable:

La Mujer de Benjamín (1991) - one of the better spanish language films i've watched, pretty grim, but deep.. the movie maintains a constant speed throughout, which belies the action taking place onscreen. its portrayal of small town life is quite gripping, and unnerving too.

Flight of the Phoenix (2004) - this is one of those movies in which the plot is so fantastic this cannot be anything but a movie! a plane carrying the crew from an oil rig crashes in the mongolian desert, completely off the radar.. and with the weather, thirst and smugglers threatening, they build a plane off the wreckage and fly away!! *shaking head in disbelief*
Giovanni Ribisi (who plays Phoebe's psychotic brother in 'Friends') is excellent in this movie though.. i really like his work, he covers quite the range..

Spanglish (2004) - i liked this movie.. not really heavy on plot, more like a 'slice of life' film.. but strong characters, and acted very well.. Adam Sandler-haters will be pleasantly surprised to find that he is not the craziest person in this household.. this role is played to the hilt by Téa Leoni ('Bad Boys', 'Deep Impact'), and you actually fear that there are women out there in the world who might actually be like her!! Paz Vega ('Sex & Lucia') is breathtakingly gorgeous, and plays the mexican househelp with a refreshing sense of innocence and calm.. i think i am in love with this woman.. she is beautiful!

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) - one of the big budget blockbusters of the summer.. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are both sizzling in this movie! all the pre-release hype about online chemistry etc.. you better believe it! not a movie to carry your brain into.. just watch and marvel! filled with witty one-liners and kick-ass action.. this is a perfect summer movie.. to just be enjoyed with popcorn and a drink. i actually liked the TV show too.. so i was kinda disappointed that they tinkered with the story.. but ahh, what the hell.. angelina jolie is smokin'!!

breakthrough baby!!

after countless days and nights in the various labs and libs.. i have finally made the breakthrough! the results from this weekend's experiments say it all.. my basic hypothesis has been proved right, and the research method proved appropriate!! finally, i can see the beginning of the end to my thesis!!

snuggly saturday

i love saturdays like these.. when there's just the right amount of chill in the air to stay snuggled in bed, warm and comfy while the rain does its american version of a monsoon. these are the perfect saturdays for two of my favourite things: Comedy Central on tv and my monthly subscriptions Stuff & Playboy!

my newest favourite show on telly is the Comedy Central Presents.. (CCP) stand-up comic series.. most of what i have watched is absolutely hilarious.. standup comedy is making a bigtime comeback, thanks to Comedy Central.. i loved Chris Rock & Dave Chappelle with their stand-up acts.. but there's a whole new breed of upstarts who're doing this now.. some of my favourites are: Dane Cook.. Mike Birbiglia.. Carlos Mencia.. here's the schedule for CCP.. catch them when you get a chance!

as for my weekend reading (yes i do read both magazines for the articles! :-P!!).. here are the two feature girls for the month: Sofia Vergara is Colombia's hottest export, don't worry, el cocaina is still the largest export! she's also in the new 'sk8er boi' epic "Lords Of Dogtown" now playing in a theater near you! here's a li'l known titbit - her ex-bf was one of the country's biggest mobsters! as for our other feature girl.. Joanna Krupa has oft been voted 'Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the World'.. i have her here looking smokin' minus the swimsuit.. what is it with black-n-white pics that make them so hot!!

have a great weekend everyone ;-)

so right

walking up and down the beach
margarita in one hand, the other a Camel Light
whatever i want just out of reach
ahh, a life so right

the calls and mails lying unanswered
in my ears the rhythm of the band
the salty tang of sea air is preferred
and the waves crash upon the sand

yes the establishment we'll overthrow
as we squirm under the crushing hand
night winds of change refreshingly blow
and the waves they crash upon the sand

when i wake tomorrow the sun will shine
then we meet people from a distant land
smile and travel for all things will be fine
and the waves will crash upon the sand

your scent of freshly cut flowers
then you smiled, there was something that night
minutes ticking over became hours
ahh, a life so right

parallel processing

ever felt like you have too much going on? like an air-traffic controller, all your planes are taking off and landing and going about their business quite efficiently.. with almost minimal input from you, your responses are almost mechanical and often you don't realise that you're handling things pretty well.. its a rut that's very comfortable, and quite easy to settle into.

and you wait.. for a near-miss, a close-shave, a spectacular crash to jolt you into life again..

Pulp Fiction anyone?

An Elvis man, you like you women dangerous and your steaks bloody. You often get wrapped up in landscapes and fail to realize the danger you put yourself into. Don't get cocky, and don't get caught. It might be good to lay off the drugs every once in a while. Just a suggestion. Take the What Pulp Fiction Character Are You? quiz.

man this thing is so cool!! and pretty accurate too ;-)

out drinking on a tuesday?!

yeah, you better believe that!! jason called up last night and asked if i wanted to go out for a beer.. since our "a beer" never really ends after one beer, and also that i've never been known to look gift horses in the mouth, we went out to Shango's.. which is actually a New Orleans bistro, with Creole cuisine.. but they have a separate bar section, which stocks up on fine wines and rare beers.. so a trip there is always like a microbrew tour.. cos they have some very exotic beers, and the stuff on tap keeps changing almost every month.. so its a very educational experience every time (hah! listen to me trying to justify that!!)

tuesday nights are quiet, even by buffalo standards, and the barkeep Corey decided she wanted to be real nice to us, so we had a couple of beers on the house as 'tasters'.. i finally settled for the Smuttynose Summer Weizen, while jase went with the Harpoon Summer Beer.. we ended up sitting outside thanks to the NY anti-indoor-smoking legislation, which is fine now, but not so funny at all in winter! by the time we ordered our favourite Three Philosophers, we were pretty buzzed.. jase always has more than a handful of great stories to tell.. he grew up in Jamestown, a couple of hours from here, and has had a pretty colourful past, including a tour to afghanistan with the army reserves, before he joined grad school in UB for architecture.

so we came home and had something to eat, then went back out with ash to Third Base, which used to be our home-away-from-home last summer.. the clientele seems to have changed over the year, but the bartender Nate was still there.. and boy was he glad to see us.. had a couple of buffalo snakebites (jack daniels whiskey + lemon concentrate in a shotglass) on the house.. and then moved on to jack n' cokes. shot some pool, and hung out for a while.. tuesdays are great at Third Base, cos its 'flip nite'.. for well drinks and drafts, you flip a coin, and if you call right you drink free.. you call wrong, and well, you pay $3 a drink, which is pretty decent anyways! :-)

finally made it back home at 3.. and promptly passed out. when i woke up today morning cos i had to go to work, i pretty much felt like "i hate myself and wanna die".. which doesn't happen too often, but when it does happen, then, well.. i hate myself and wanna die.. and honestly, i cannot do these drink-all-you-want nights anymore.. them old bones just can't live up to it the next morning.. aargh!

Remember The Time ..

so you heard the news.. Michael Jackson has been cleared of all charges. it is not for me to judge here whether he is/was innocent or guilty. i still believe at the end of the day that in his heart he is one overgrown kid, and all his antics and shenanigans are just products of a lonely child trapped in the icon that Michael Jackson has become. but there was a time, when he was the KING OF POP, and his music was good, his lyrics powerful, his dancing electric.. i would sit glued to the tv on sunday nights 8 p.m for 'Music Time'.. hoping and praying that the host (Fred 'Obachi' Machoka!!) would play a MJ video!!

'Thriller' was the first music cassette i ever bought, and 'Bad' the second. i played them so much that they got worn out, the magnetic tape skidding on the play-head with a continuous hiss, which became such an ingrained part of the songs, that even today in my head i can hear that blip right at the end of "Smooth Criminal", where i had to cellotape two ends of tape, where my rundown Panasonic tape recorder had chewed it! invariably, i would hit rewind after "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Something", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Dirty Diana".. man, those were the days..

and as i grew, MJ's music kept me company all through.. i always found songs that i related to, or inspired me.. the album 'Dangerous' was out when i was just hitting puberty.. when i was in class 7, i had a huge crush on this really pretty girl, and i wrote her a song, on lined yellow-paper.. i don't remember how it went, but it sounded a lot like "Remember The Time"!! and right at the bottom, i had stuck this 'Love is...' cutout, which was a big syndicated hit in a lot of newspapers the world over! i think the Daily Nation still carries it!

there were some heavy beat-driven songs on that album.. title track "Dangerous", "Give In To Me", "Who Is It?", "Why You Wanna Trip On Me" and i loved them all.. and as time went on, my musical choice had widened to rock and heavy metal, but when 'HIStory' came out, i was still one of the first people in the line to snap it up. some of the haunting melodies on it were "Stranger In Moscow", "Little Susie", "Earth Song".. and every time i listen to these songs i get carried a million miles back home, and a million minutes back in time.. somehow his work after that failed to interest me, and i lost touch with his newer music.

so i read somewhere that MJ might try to resurrect his music career.. i really want to see that day come, and if he manages to redirect some of his boundless talent, then i will be here proudly blogging about how "Wacko Jacko is back-o!!". anyways, what are your favourite MJ songs?!

the neighbour's cats

so this neighbour of ours has cats.. i say cats cos i know there are more than three of them.. unless they keep getting new hairstyles or going on Atkin's diets. yeah, cos these ain't your garden-variety cats, these are fancy kitties - they don't even look like regular cats, with all their coiffed hair and contented looks on their faces. they have hair tints and all.. and i gotta say, they make me feel really self-conscious when i walk past them. it's like i can just hear them talking to themselves:
      "william, look at that boy's pants.. they're so '90s!"
   "nooo, i like his rough n' ready look, i just wanna get my paws on what's inside!"
      "behave yourself william!"
   "c'mon kyle, let me at him!"
yeah.. that's cos i'm pretty sure these cats are gay. you should see them basking in the sun, spooning and all! besides, they're always licking each other up and down and humping the railing when they can't get to each other! i'm pretty sure i can tell metrosexuals apart from homosexuals, and these felines are definitely gay!

not that i have anything against gay cats, its just that i hate how they look at me and judge me and criticise my look and clothes! i don't mind being checked out by girls, that i'm cool with.. these girls who live a few houses up the street are always on the porch when i'm walking home.. i like to kid myself that they stop talking to stare at me whenever i pass.. yeah right!

so there was this time we were sitting out on the porch steps in the middle of the night and passing around a joint.. and one of the cats walked past. he was almost gone, when he stopped, sniffed the air, turned and looked me in the eye, as if to say "hey yo! pass that this way willya.. share some love!" so i brought out the roach from behind my back (don't ask me why i was holding it there, reflex i guess!).. took a long drag, and exhaled in his general direction.

so this cat inhales, smiles contentedly and lays back on the grass.. and starts to touch himself. now man no matter how good the shit is, you don't start playing with yourself out on the road! what's with that yo?! i gave him another puff but when he started clambering all over my knee i had to cut him out of the circle.
   "hey hey cat.. don't be like that yo!"
      "shutup and pass it here, or face the wrath of the samurai kitty"
   "don't be talking like that yo, you don't know me!"
      "grrr.. miaowww.. *thump*.. owww"
   "yeah, how did my fist taste eh kitty cat?!"
he never came back after that, but we did see him walking around our backyard as if checking to see if we grew our own stuff!

we have an uneasy peace these days.. they don't look too hard at me, and i don't make any threatening gestures back at them. they probably get high on catnip and lie around feeling each other up anyway.. heheh!!

reverse + evolution = revolution ?!

so we all know that evolution is the process through which something (usually a living being) changes into a different and (usually, again) more complex or better form. one of the key factors in evolution of animals has been communication, as this has led to formation of communities. for humans, the benefits of societal living in the neanderthal past have been safety in numbers, as well as specialisation in food gathering. over time, man has learned to become a social animal, and the formation and development of villages, towns, then cities grew directly from that need.

how about a person living as a hermit, or even worse, in solitary confinement for a life term. no contact with any human beings. your only way of passing time is thinking. your only spoken words are to yourself. in but a matter of time, words will evade you, vocabulary will weaken, and you will forget languages you learned. you will forget what human touch feels like, and the only emotions you know will be those you express, but to what use when the only outlet for these emotions is yourself?

for someone in solitary confinement, life becomes that slot through which your tray of food is passed through the door. your ears will accustom to silence, and will strain to catch any footsteps outside the thick stone walls. escape from your mind becomes that little slit high up in the wall through which you cannot even see the sun, but just a strip of light. day is only different from night in that strip, which is either black or white.

under such conditions, do you reverse evolve? do you forget the past and go back to the basic vegetative functions of life? and when the blackness is so dark that you feel like you're floating in space, do you touch your eyes to find out if you still have them? when the silence is so loud that you can't hear yourself think, do you scream out loud to discover if sound still exists? is that what insanity is?

And yet I find, Repeating in my head

If I can’t be my own, I’d feel better dead

'Nutshell'- Alice In Chains

Storm

the day has been fervent and humid, the night air still and laden with expectation. fan-blades strain in a vain attempt to stir a cool current, but your skin is still sizzling where it touches mine. your hands eager, your lips feverish, and your desire rampant. two sweaty bodies intertwine slickly in the sweltering heat seeking a higher level of carnal consciousness.

single strands of your hair lie plastered onto my chest as your livid tongue licks litle trails. in the darkness, i can sense you more than see you. you lie back, taking shallow breaths, as i lay my hand on your flat belly, and rake it gently, feeling it rise and fall. teeth nibble at my ear, and fingers lose themselves in my hair. the ambient trance plays on, as i inhale your scent and feel you unwind under my touch.

at last a cool breeze comes wafting by the window, carrying the promise of rain and mitigated comfort. i raise my head and look at you. in the darkness, your nod is imperceptible, but your hand upon mine is unmistakable. you lay back and sigh, as another draft raises little goosebumps on your skin. "yes, there.." you whisper, as i alternately kiss, then blow. your hips buck, you tug at my hair, and it starts to rain.

fat drops patter against the window as you pull me into yourself, hands encircled behind my back. the window lights up as a streak of lightning rushes to meet the earth, and i see your eyes tightly clenched shut, in anticipation of the bolt that will come crashing. i hold you tight, and you know that there's nothing to be afraid of. you moan as the thunder rumbles away in the faraway skies like a boulder starting to roll down a scraggy slope. the rain beats a staccato rhythm against the glass pane, matching each thrust and parry. and the heavens pour down.

the temperature falls noticeably, but fires continue to rage unabated. the rain and the music drown out all other sound, as we roll towards the cliff. tongues wrestle in unspoken unison as we sail off the edge and into nothingess; i can only hear blood rushing through my ears. another bolt of lightning, another whipcrack of thunder, and you bury your face into my shoulder. i kiss you on the forehead, and hold you closer, feeling more than hearing the sheets of rain carrying us away in their soothing embrace.

global warming, anyone?

i'm reading Michael Crichton's 'State Of Fear' and i gotta say, i am really skeptical right now of everything. i mean you guys have all seen/heard the conspiracy theories.. that man never really landed on the moon (apparently it's all videotaped on a set), that alien lifeforms were found in Area 51 (DNA tests have been carried out on remains that were smuggled out), that Atlantis is a real, underwater city (suspicious wall-like formations stretch for miles and miles near the Marianas Trench).. but why do we believe whatever we believe? because for some reason, whatever we read/saw struck a chord with what we wanted to believe.

so everyone's heard about global warming.. by definition, the theory that increased 'greenhouse gas' (CO2, CH4, NOx, CFCs etc) levels are causing an increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere. right? why do you believe that? because in the press we see these freakish weather phenomena that have been attributed to 'global warming'. because we know an increase in atmospheric temperatures will lead to changes in weather patterns. note very carefully.. we see these on the press, and the informed opinions we hear/read are all again covered by the very same press. its like using info from a source to justify that source - how do you do that?!

governments are pouring billions of dollars into this 'global warming', creating a need and filling that void. huge investments are being made into disaster prevention and such like.. is any one else slightly suspicious that all this looks too 'artificial'?

i'm not trying to debunk global warming, and i'm not saying that doomsday is here either.. its just that i have serious doubts now.. because when you look at the work of scientists that has been published in peer reviewed journals.. the same set of data can be molded like clay to whatever shape you want.. check this out:

"Antarctic peninsula has warmed several degrees while the interior has cooled somewhat. Ice shelves have retreated but sea ice has increased"

- Science Vol. 296: 895-99

firstly, the Antarctica holds 90% of all the ice on the planet! if i carefully neglect that the Antarctic peninsula only covers 2% of the continent of Antarctica, then i can gladly say yes, global warming is taking place! however, if i add the fact that Antarctica has been melting for the last 6,000 years (since the last interglacial period), then suddenly the statistic that the interior is cooling means that in fact we are on the brink of another Ice Age!!

"During the last four interglacials, going back 420,000 years, the Earth was warmer than it is today"
- Nature Vol. 399: 429-36

does this mean that global warming is a cyclic process?

there are numerous such nuggets of raw data, open to manipulation.. so, who do we believe? my recommendation is that you switch off your comp, get up, go get a drink.. and just chill. whatever has to happen is not gonna happen in our lifetime anyways! hehe!

well-fed, well-thought

sank, A-Rod and i had gone over to jason & azmi's for a barbecue last night.. jase was on a roll, making chicken in the smoker (with chiavetta marinade), beans & sausages, hot-dogs, mashed potatoes, creamed corn and vodka-iced teas.. mm-hmm, finger-licking good!

by the way, we'd made pork chops on the grill on monday.. and i can't believe how good they look here!

summer's here, so once the sun goes down and the breeze picks up, it's very pleasant out.. so there we were sitting out on the deck and just catching up. it's been a while, since we all last hung out.. prolly stretching back to New Year's Eve!

so talk ranged from varied topics, going from crazy 'stoned and drunk' stories in the past, to politics and why we refuse to have anything to do with it.. to a pretty intense debate on dreams, and how we respond to being in them. so the concept was, that you had two choices with your dreams.. either
you dream random, arbitrary dreams, revelling in the sheer unpredictability of them, but there's the chance that you won't remember them the next day, and there's also a chance that the dream would not be good always, and pretty horrific things could happen in them
or
in the dream, you know you're dreaming, and use that to free your mind and do whatever you wanted in the dream, knowing that you would wake up and it would all be a dream, but you would have had the chance to explore things you might never do when conscious
what would you choose?

would?

one of the best songs ever about breaking the bonds, about cutting the chords, about overcoming the odds, about quitting the qualms and about whacking the withdrawal..

Know Me Broken By My Master, Teach Thee On Child Of Love Hereafter

Into The Flood Again, Same Old Trip It Was Back Then
So I Made A Big Mistake, Try To See It Once My Way

Drifting Body Its Sole Desertion, Flying Not Yet Quite The Notion

Am I Wrong?.. Have I Run Too Far To Get Home?
Am I Gone?.. And Left You Here Alone
If I Would Could You?

'Would?' - Alice In Chains ('Dirt')

layne staley (R.I.P.).. if you would, i could.

film review

i gotta warn you before you read this.. i'm a pretty cheap date when it comes to movies - unless the movie is absolutely horrible, i will probably give it a decent rating!

Crash -
this is a pretty intelligent, yet good movie.. set in L.A, a little too many coincidences you feel, but it does address the prickly issues of racism, and how everyone needs someone below them to dump on. the acting is excellent, absolutely top-notch (it had better be too, with so many top actors in it!)- pretty much everyone has done what they have to do, and then some. definitely a must-watch.

KungFu Hustle -
hilarious at times, this is Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer) at his best again! you just gotta love some of the characters in this movie! based in a poor alley, it's all about gangs and how the citizens get together to fight them off. so what if it the end is very cliched.. the stunts and slapstick humour are great.. gather round some friends and watch this one together.

Cellular -
love the idea, but that's where it all ends. a woman is kidnapped, and locked away, and she manages to make one phone-call, to a cellphone.. and that's all she got. it's well-acted and halfway plausible, but at the end you wonder how you believed the movie, sometimes it makes you want to say "hello! get real!!" product placement is maximised here, with Nokia appearing like they funded the film!! (NB: if you've watched Phone Booth, don't bother with this one)

Roger Dodger -
i wonder how this 2002 movie passed me by! shot in NY, filled with cliches about sex and relationships, and how a smart single man chases the aforementioned! Campbell Scott turns in a very polished performance, and his use of speech as an instrument to cut, heal and do everything in between too is amazing. the dialogues are quite remarkable, and though not too useful, quite memorable for the next time you want to stir up controversy in a mixed, informal gathering.

a year on

here's a flashback to an almost forgotten time

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SATURDAY, JUNE 05, 2004

Welcome y'all!!

just a quick note to say hi, and welcome to my blog!! will start posting stuff soon..

POSTED BY SAURABH! AT 12:55 AM

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

a whole year has passed, it's been a great journey. thanks to all of you who have stuck with me through it all.. you've seen me at my best, and at my worst, and everything in between. i've met so many of you through this blog, and it's been great. hope you enjoyed the ride, and here's to seeing you all here again same time next year.. cheers!

this and that

so you might have noticed that this blog is not as 'interesting' as it used to be, and there has been a tailing off of my interest in it.. it shows in the reduced hits and comments this blog gets. oh well, that's life i guess. i've been immersing myself completely in my research (so much so that i've taken shifts off from work!), the last few days have been crucial for my thesis.. and i'm almost done too. i'm gonna be trying to redeem my two years of hedonism for a M.S. in the next two months.. much the same way i actually redeemed my four years of undergrad in four weeks!!

the weather has finally taken a turn for the better.. summer is here! we have 70+ days and mild nights, and the humidity isn't noticeable yet. the rain has behaved itself so far too.. and there should be ample occasion to fire up the grill. of course, one of the main benefits of the better weather is the chance for buffalo's finest to dress  up  down.. walking on-campus becomes a treat for the eyes.. bikini lines, halter tops and colorful thongs compete vigorously in trying to win attention.. i find myself taking more and more breaks and going out to the lawns in between experiments!

took some time off from the lab to go for a friend's thesis defense.. it was a pretty small affair, with just his committee and a few students.. there was this grad student sitting in front of me whose more-than-ample rack kept all of us quite perked up throughout the ordeal. her D-cups
seemed ill-prepared to contain her excitement during the seminar!! maybe it was the promise of Krispy Kreme's featured doughnut: Strawberry Shortcake ;-))

anyways, i had planned to go to the lab over the weekend too, try and really get some work done.. but some things never change - hehehe.. here i am digging into chicken wings and watching the NBA Eastern Conference finals.. y'all have a good weekend now.

crash

"I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

Don Cheadle, as Detective Graham Waters, in Crash

Thursdays @ The Square

hundreds of nubile and willing teenagers, gallons of chilled labatt's beer, puffs of weed smoke wafting by, warm and clement weather, and thousands of watts of brainblowing rock shaking the downtown.. yes, welcome to Thursdays @ The Square! every year, the buffalo downtown organises a free concert on thursday afternoons throughout summer to kick the buffalo weekend off right. :-)

today was a bit of a kickass show.. Breaking Point started it off pretty well, and their single 'Show Me A Sign' will go places. then Submersed dropped some heavy riffs.. 'Rock n' Roll Workout', 'Divide The Hate' and 'Hollow' are off their debut album. finally the main act for the day Theory Of A Deadman came in.. this canadian quartet came through in Nickelback's wake.. but unfortunately are too similar sounding and repetitive.. 'Make Up Your Mind', 'Nothing Can Come Between Us' and 'No Surprise' being their biggest singles. A-Rod, sank, surabhi & i went, and had a pretty good time too.

eternal flame falls

i had promised to post these pics from monday's hike, so here you go..

last hit middle bit first fit

I know well

That the June rains ...
Just fall.

- Onitsura

yes, you read the title right.. yet another month gone, and yet another hesitantly eager step towards a ponderous tryst with a sun-in-your-eyes future. as always, every thing done opens up a treasure trove of more to do. almost unwillingly we wake to see yet another blue sky tinged with fluffy ash-grey clouds skidding past like comfortable thoughts tumbling down a dark passage of doubt. almost willingly we grit our teeth and shrug our shoulders in defiance of the insipid nothingness that mundane days and inane nights throw in our general direction.

sometimes i notice the swagger in my step is strangely amiss, the flash in the flame oddly aloof, and i wonder.. is this really how the rest of my life is gonna be? was this how my life used to be before i discovered the innate mechanisms of my mind? but i know the brain cells i killed in the process died a selfless death.. unfortunate collateral damage in the yearning for a higher plane of consciousness. and i have no regrets.

will i still be me, or am i to find another wholly undiscovered me to be.