Here are a few quick facts to convince anyone that life is getting better.

Try this cool life expectancy tool from Google to see.

1. People are living longer. If you are born in Israel today you’ll live ten years longer than if you were born in 1960. 20 years if your are born in Haiti. 37 years in China !
2. Israel is one of the countries with longest life expectancy. 81 years. even better for women.
3. Life expectancy gaps between rich countries and poor countries are narrowing.
4. Hilary Swank won two Oscars for  “Million Dollar Baby” and “Boys Don’t Cry” after horrible failures in 90210 and “The next Karate Kid”
5. The number of traffic accidents in Israel has decreased by 35% in the last 12 years.

Life Expectancy is Getting Longer

Accidents Chart in Israel

The New Karate Kid - Swank

..So I have never read or created a blog before, I also don’t know how to use an iPhone or Blackberry, I haven’t ‘twittered’ (not even sure if that’s what you do?!), before I start sounding too much like a technophobe I will mention that I have Facebooked before! In fact I still probably spend far too much time procrastinating by the means of Facebook. I thought I would start writing a blog about time…and what I do with my time. At this point there is a little voice in my head shouting for me to not indulge in yet another means of avoiding the tasks of everyday life, but I am choosing to ignore it, that annoying little thing people like to call a conscience or commonsense!
I am definitely indecisive; I just don’t like to think of it as a completely negative character trait. It has not yet reached the point where I can’t decide whether or not to cross a road and just end up in the middle of the road waiting for the car to hit me. I am knocking wood as I type!
I’m a university student, a final year, currently in week 2/12 of my first term. Honestly I don’t have time to do this; I am still trying to catch up with reading I was meant to do last week. I want to do well at Uni, still have a social life, oh and build a business, but hey, that’s just on the side.
Last weekend instead of staying at University to catch up on all of the work I hadn’t quite got round to doing because I was still catching up with everyone, I attended an 80’s Roller Disco in London. Totally worth it, until I arrived back on Sunday night wanting to catch up on work until I got guilted (not a word but I like it, origin guilt) into Birthday drinks (they were a close friend, who am I to decline?!) I ended up getting 4 hours sleep and as I had 9AM lectures. I barely made it through the day, let alone catching up. Tuesday, awake once more, ready for some serious work, em…I mean serious baking. Yes I had organized a surprise Birthday Bash (Girls Sleepover in Halls, nothing to crazy), however since I am the indecisive Schofield I couldn’t decide which recipes I wanted to try out of the Hummingbird Bakery Recipe Book, so I ended up doing Vanilla, Chocolate and Lemon! Did I mention that this was for a party of 5? I ended up with at least 40 cupcakes. I am pleased to announce that one massive mess, and several batches of cupcakes later that they did all turn out relatively yummy. I tried to make a couple vegan, they ended up solid. Must remember that recipe writers are the experts and I should not start experimenting when time is of the essence! Tuesday wasn’t a work day, I ended up cleaning most of Wednesday (as I mention, I can’t cook or bake without making a devastating mess along the way!). Today, Thursday I have been surprisingly productive. I did my abstracting homework, proof-read a manual for my little business scheme, scanned a couple of pages of a book the library was pestering me to return. I then obviously had to go to the library to return the book, attempted printed, but failed due to not understanding the new printing system, no it wasn’t just me being reluctant to change, the staff couldn’t figure it out either. Oh and I created this blog!
I’m half way through the film ‘A Mighty Heart’ the only reason I did stop is to do more work, but I still haven’t caught up yet. I have a sneaky suspicion that this is what final year feels like – constantly making up for something you should have done before!

As much as I like president Obama, it seems that he got a Nobel prize  for his great presentational skills, rather than his current contribution to world peace.

To contrast , the Israeli Professor Ada Yonat, who won the Nobel chemistry prize, was quoted saying “As you can see I did not go to the hair saloon”.

Yesterday  I attended a great presentation skills workshop on Power Presentations with Jerry Weissman.

Although I have done hundreds of presentations it was a wonderful insightful day.

Key Takeaways :

• I should talk less and listen more. My wife tells me it is a good idea in other situations as well.
• It is not about me. It is about the audience.
• Saying less has much stronger overall impact on the audience.
• Yoga principles work well . Good stand, open chest, and natural breathing improve the effect dramatically.
• Pause.Slow.Engage. I moved my eyes fourteen times in two minutes ! that was painful to watch.Went down to four times by the end of the day.
• Intuition is often wrong. Reaching out looks stupid when you do it, but looks great when you watch someone else.
• If you nod at someone he will nod back instinctively.
• Bill Clinton was a horrible speaker in 1988 and an amazing one in 2000. Practice makes perfect.
• The word “You” is the most persuasive word in the English language (proven in research).
• Powerpoint animations are not evil. They are just tricky and need to be used intelligently.
• Testing is the key. Once you see yourself on video, everything becomes much clearer and stronger.

I’ll share some takeaways on American life style in the next post ( less is more ).

Here is a nice collection of 80’s vinyl singles I bought in Amsterdam.

Scanned for your amusement.The images are quite large, so click for details.

“Video Killed The Radio Star”  is the song MTV aired with. Now should be renamed to “YouTube Killed the Video Star”.

Shout by Tears for fears was symbolic of the dark Reagan and Shamir days on the early 80′0.

And Road to Nowhere was an optimistic(?) version of the same situation. This is a great album with a very cool (80’s word) cover.

I’m Still not sure I figured this one out, but I used to play it repeatedly back then.

Did you know Rod Stewart performed in Tel Aviv ? Luckily, I was too young to be there.

This video was censored at the time. Is it because of the Banana on 1:07 ?

Today we have CSI Miami with much harder picture to watch (mostly David Caruso whispering annoyingly).

The artist formerly known as Prince does not allow his songs youtube, you’ll have to suffer this version.

One night in Bangkok. First white hip hop ? Rap Musical ? “One town is very like the other”.

And the only one still around. Not my cup of tea , but can’t really resist.

Day 5
5 am! Again I’m up before the sun. And I woke with sore calf muscles. The walking! The walking was not going to happen today. No no no. The only thing worse than achy breaky legs, is a hungry hungry stomach.
But until Nani woke up, it was just me, alone in bed, my iphone and twitter keeping me company. It sucks to use the iphone like an ipod touch! But what to do. Roaming will take me to bankruptcy faster than ever.

‘Nanu, don’t make me walk today no please! My feet hurt!’
‘Chill we won’t, but let’s handle the bank please.’
Okay.

A lazy morning followed. Emails, photos, blogposts, phonecalls. Full on alshi (Marathi for lazy).
‘Call Juliana,’ ‘Did Juliana call?’ and a hajjar renditions of ‘julie julie’ happened. Nani wanted Juliana’s apartment, but knowing how awesome it was, I was damn scared someone else would lap it up.
A chittery chattery lunch and a bank appointment later, we settled back in the hotel. ‘We’ll celebrate the apartment with starbucks ka coffee, ok?’ nani is a good ‘badi behan’ material. Despite my ‘Yaay! Starbucks’ at every odd street-corner, we hadn’t found the time to get a cuppa yet. So Nani’s promise perked me up and how!

We got a few calls asking us how the beach was and we were to scared to admit that we had been uncool. We had been walking around to look for a home but we hadn’t seen the beach yet. Since we had zeroed down on the room, chalo beach bhi dekh le! Just at that point, Juliana called. The apartment was ours! Yaaaaay! Two Jumping Janes got out on the beach in utter delight of having completed the huge task on their list! We were not going to be homeless!
Add to that the delight of walking onto the ‘Shut up and Bounce’ beach! (If you don’t know already, i think John Abraham in this song is yummy…. See for yourself!) My eyes scouted the beach for a dash of yellow. Sigh. No yellow. But the blue green sea, total WIN. And that fab walk followed by a warm cup of Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate with hazelnut and cream, it was a dream come true!

This is what good days are made of. And I can’t wait for Nani to move into her room and cook for her. Yeah yeah, I’m your typical elder sister. The kind, that totally fawns over the younger sister. Nani you better not complain!

Well, it’s been a while… despite my advocacy moment, life has been fine.

Well not really… an close uncle to the family has died. It was shaker to a otherwise fine day, since this is something that cut’s deep in me.
Kind of a shame really, despite all his faults… I loved him very much. And as I said, he is close to me… I have quite a few memories of him, none bad (save this) so it hit the core a little.
Even now, I still feel a little shaky over it.

Aside from this, I am going to try to see if I can salvage a job prospect. I really want that position, it would be good for me to keep within the computing field as I sort out a few things for school. That is unless I decide to just jump back in at full force, uncle’s death as forced me to think about this a little since, I will admit that I take to him a lot.
A lot on the mind, a friend lost… this is going to be an interesting week.

Aside from that depressing news… I have to curl up to a rather large double helping of crow.
For a while, I have black-listed one anime show and wept at another. The black listing was founded, since the vitriol around it with fan was rather large.
The other was something that was hard to me to over looks it’s flaws… which I will explain, NOW.

So let’s Start with the first show… Demashita Powerpuff Girls Z.

Now, here is the funny thing. When I first saw this show, I was thrilled to see an adaption of Powerpuff Girls to the japanese market since I was a fan of PPG. Really I was, but then a few things started to rub me the wrong way when I began to watch it. They turned it into a true “Magical” Girl show in the same vain as Pretty Cure or Salior Moon, and some of the background to the girls is different (but to be honest, it was a very rough thing in the original so I could live with the changes), but the thing that made me stop it was the mud on a character that I loved in PPG.

Mojo Jojo.

Aside from the different background, he was maybe one of the brighter things in the original since the character was very smart and crazy cunning with a good wit on his lips with a VERY unique speech pattern that doesn’t lend itself to translation well, in PPGZ… him becoming this “standard idiot villain” made me want to cry.
So after that, I just stopped. I would not approach the show. I was butthurt over the whole affair of turning my favorite character into a walking dunce.

I blame maple for the rather genital push to get me to watch it again… It’s funny, the show has it’s own little charm, since it would seem that the director here carved out there own niche with it. I approached it as a straight adaption, you know… PPG in Japan… and I was wrong in doing so, there is much to like out of the show (once I could bare Mojo’s dumb down). I was surprised and it was very enjoyable.

YUM! One plate done, on to the last one and hoo boy it’s a big plate.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
This show was one of those cases where it was nothing to do with the production (aside the CLAMP designed characters, the design aren’t my taste but it was passable), it was the fan-base around it. In the animation circet, I have this theory that keeps being proven right with fan’s of anything. Sometime it’s the fan’s that can turn one off of a production and Geass is a show falls into this trap of the anime fandom… where some fan’s have so much damn zeal about a production, it’s really hard not to sneer at it since it is fawned over by (apparent) idiots.

Let’s put one thing to bed right there, they are not idiot’s… completely. After watching the show’s two seasons, I can see what people like about it. The characters are unique, the action is a cut above, the mecha… delicious, the plot was complex and something different.
But MAN, does it got issues that keep it from becoming a instant classic (or becoming a classic with time in general). The action takes a HEAVY nose dive in the second season (through, that last episode save it a bit… it’s a cut above both seasons and the two main robots, both, get brought back down to base right when it counts the most during a nail biting fight. You just don’t see that often in mecha [or anime in general]… I just wished it ended there) , and suffers greatly from “’strike’ a pose” syndrome. The characters, well… some of them (one of the main characters in particular) doesn’t grow like they did in the first season and even then it’s a bit sparse on the character development. The plot dynamic’s (the shows major hook) falls by the way side completely mid way into the second season, but then when you consider that it got needless complex with some add-on characters, time-skipping and a needless habit to keep pushing back to the setting of the school for no real reason… the plot decay of this magnitude is reasonable, just disappointing.
Did I enjoy it, Yes… more than I did with Gundam 00, which was MUCH more disappointing for much of the same reasons as pointed to above with a few other things on top of it. R2 (what Geass calls it’s second season) is quite the artful train-wreck, which is disappointing, unexpected … and the parallels to the same issues that plagued Gundam 00 production in the second season are uncanny. They are the exact same, through to be far, their is more on 00’s plate of shame… it’s just the big issues that plague both Geass and 00’s are the exact same so it is still rather startling to watch it all crumble like that.

I am torn, it hard to not like Geass. It tries very hard to be something fresh and different… to deliver something that the viewer might not have seen before (or hasn’t in a LONG time). And it is successful on those merits…
But yes, much like anyone whom watched it will tell you… R2 is very much a train-wreck of much of what it tries to accomplish. It degrades itself to a mecha show that goes by-the-numbers, or seems to lose as many plot hooks that it managed to create with characters that do get static. It does get bad, but as I said… it’s a artful train-wreck, as big as the problems were it’s not something that took much away from the show, just a lot of the impact it had but hey it was damn pretty to see it.

Duv

To my Uncle Lindon, may you finally have some rest.

If you already got an email about this post, ignore the previous one. It was premature unedited version. this is the real thing. Apologies.

This post is a tribute to Jerry Pournelle’s “Chaos Manor“, which I just found out is still being published after 30 years.

Reach out for me and hold me tight. Hold that memory
Let my machine talk to me, let my machine talk to me

World Leader Pretend, Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe

Apart from running a small cloud computing Start-Up and feeding a cat I find myself as full time PC technician for the family. Of course, working professionally in software development for 15 years now and earning a BA in physics\math\cs  makes me the best person to call whenever a screen is involved.

Here are a few recent samples :

• My mother in-law needed a visa to USA. Therefore she needed to set an appointment in the Tel Aviv American embassy. This can only be done using the most horrible web application ever written. Naturally, I’m the guy since I have reasonable English, I’m considered as someone who can handle bureaucracy and I’m the “Computers” expert. This site is so annoying It makes me happy I have an American passport.
• My mother is planning a trip to Timbuktu, Mali (really, this is not a joke ). She needs me to print for her the lonely planet chapter about the country ($3.36) because “Your father does not know how to do it. It will take him a month  and I need it now!”

Timbuktu

• My father in-law is traveling to a conference in new york. Although he is one of the brightest medicine professors in the world, he needs my help to reserve a hotel in New York. Not that I get to decide on anything, but I’m the one who fills out the forms and get the “holy” confirmation emails.

• My sister has a new second hand laptop, X30 Thinkpad. Need to install Office. Need to setup new printer.My sister’s second hand laptop fails. Need to try and fix. Need to reinstall it. My sister got a virus form someone at art class. Need to reinstall from scratch. Replacing my sister X30 with a new second hand X40.Repeat.  You get the idea.
• My father in-law laptop from 2003, a Dell Latitude D600 is running very slow.This is not surprising , since it has 256MB of memory and needs 384MB just to power up. I spend couple of hours understanding which memory to order. It seems like I need DDR PC3000 on 333MHZ. Or Maybe PC2100 with 266MH. Or is it DDR ? . Back in 2000 I was interested in memory technologies ( remember Rambus ?) , but in the last 10 years I thought this field was standardized and commodotized. OK , I think I know what I need. Ordered 2 1GB DIMM cards it from e-memory-co-il which was the cheapest on ZAP and had good reviews. 512 Shekel.  It took them some time to get the memory out of customs and I still didn’t get it. It turned out they sent it to an accountant next to our office and he sent it to the billing address , which belonged to my father in law. Well at least now I have the DIMM’s. 12 hours of installation later I’m willing to give up. Trying to understand BIOS signaling to me using LED is killing me. the darn thing would not boot.

• I watched the following youtube movie, which helped me to understand I was not pushing the DIMMS all the way in.
• I tried every possible combination . First Slot – first new DIMM. Second slot – first new DIMM. Old DIMM and new first DIMM. Old DIMM and second new DIMM. Each time unscrew the lead, put the dimms inside, make sure the dimm is well seated. Screw the lead. Press Power. Still nothing. OK, I emailed the store and he recommended I install the newest BIOS. Download bios version A15 from dell, or is it A16 ?. Installed it, rebooted. Nothing.after browsing many web forums I found Dell explanation of the strange blinking lights after boot. It least it was not beeps codes.
• 

  Dell Flash Indicators Boot

  

  Dell Flash Indicators 2

• Although web support site is great (build for idiots, which is actually good ) and much better than IBM’s , I still could not make it work. there was one hint that in Dell D600 there is a BIOS bug – It does not recognize memory over 1GB when 266MGZ chip is combined with 333Mhz Chip….
• To make a long story short. I had to waste 3 hours traveling to Petach Tikva and replace the memory cards with slightly different model from the same company. For unknown reasons this worked well. And BTW, this Part of Petach Tikva is built a like a horrible maze of one way streets. Problem solved.

• 

  The Road to Nowhere - Come on Inside

• My father bought a new NetBook from orange. Need to setup wireless, new gmail account, outlook express and Office 2007.
• My grandmother, 85 years old, is having problems with word attachments in her outlook express. Since she is in Haifa, I log in remotely using VNC ( she knows her IP ! ) and find the lost attachments.
• My sister in-law R60 thinkpad  laptop screen is black. Does not seem to be any power feeding it. She comes to the office, I take out the battery, connect it directly to the power and it turns on. Scream of joy.
• My brother got one of those annoying Trojan anti-malware malware thingies installed. Five hours of trying to remove the darn thing. I finally gave up. Without a hardware debugger this is a lost cause.
• My brother got a new desktop.  A great , perfectly new computer does not recognize the Ethernet card and the sound card. Relatively easy fix this time. Installed one of them on premise (guess which one )  and the second one using log-me in. Only an hour work.
• One family member does not know how to install a facebook application (” Are you interested”). I go and install it for them (1.5 Clicks…)
• My mother in law printer stopped working after 7 years ( HP 900C). She really wants me to fix it ( “It was the best one at the time”) , as she has a very hard time saying goodbye to electrical appliances. After spending 400 Shekels on new cartridges, just to see the printer still does not work, she needs a recommendation. I foolishly recommend a new HP model. than I get to install it. However, the Dell latitude D600 only has 2 USB ports so we needs to get a USB hub ( ADSL, Printer, Mouse). That does not work since the ADSL modem stops working if it is not connected directly to the port. It can no be connected in parallel to the hub since the hub is too thick. I thought about moving to a PS\2 mouse, but it seems the dell is too new to have it . Went to the store, bought a USB extension cord, brought back the dell with the 2GB memory, installed windows update , removed some junk, de-fragmented the hard disk connected the new cable, printer, mouse and ADSL cable.

Cloud computing is really the easy part of my work life. Would anyone bring GeekSquad to Israel ?  Please. Pretty Please.

I don’t usually get into the whole petition thing but this one is an issue close to my heart.

Please go to the following link and add your name to the petition concerning urgent action regarding climate change.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tcktcktck

Gaming day wasn’t all that bad. Still feel a little guilty for having been the third wheel with some of my pals.

The gaming wasn’t all that bad, the atmosphere was good. It was crowded, so alas on of the bigger turn off was the massive amount’s of BO, even for me.

Was really liking the arcade stick, might consider one… seeing as I might get back into fighters as a semi-serious thing. But still, even good games is not enough to remove the self imposed boycott of this generation for home-consoles. It now comes down to the players, and sadly I am seeing the same line being drawn now as I did when I drop fighters as a serious thing.

Oh well, time to relax some and enjoy some Faiz and laundry.

Duv

Oh yeah, I am considering one thing. I am looking into this one odd thing that I have seen missing with art sites, something that game companies have only JUST begun to learn…. collaborating with the community that surrounds it has HUGE payoffs. Art sites seem to miss thing, or if they don’t collaborating isn’t one that big list of things to maintain. So I am looking into some tools, going to see if it can be ingrained in building & maintenance a site… allow people to talk and communicate with each other in such a way that it’s seamless to do on top of holding a portfolio for many artists.

We’ll see if I have any will to follow through with this.

New little series, this being a journal…
I am posting some personal things about my day, links I have found etc. A word of warning, these tend to be vague… for privacy protection on my end, and my mind tends to be a complex abstract thing when I look into the introspective. With that out of the way, onward…

Some good news, some perplexing issues.

The orientation that I had for a small organization I am applying to was a sensory overload. As much as the after effects of that was bothersome, I am pumped at the opportunity… this place presents a fundamental challenge. I am rather eager to see if I am up to it. And hey, the fact that it’s full-time work isn’t bad either.
I can’t wait for the interview.

That was the good, now for the perplexing… A while back, when I was working as a Cashier I had this interesting yet turbulent relationship with a former co-worker, whom also was a student at the same college campus I was attending. Now most the issue that cropped up at that time have been dealt with… or so I thought.
Two things seem to bother me, for every-time that I am near that campus, I seem to get anxious… bad. A borderline anxiety attack seems to hit me every time I near the place. Why has always been a matter of annoyance with me, since it effects my learning and my drive, standing at the base of the ivory tower… looking up.
The other thing, which I didn’t know of till today’s attempt to ride up to campus, there are things that amplify this feeling of anxiousness… and this former co-worker (or anything remotely resembling her), seem to make this anxiety completely unbearable.
This is not a good sign….

Swing your hips
Loose your head, and let it spin
Swing your hips
Loose you head, and let it spin
And we will look together
For the pan within

I was standing in line to buy tickets for the Scouts 90 years reunion (55 Shekel ). It was a long line as the same ticket office is also selling 2500 shekel  tickets for the Madonna concert on September 1st.

While I’ll probably miss the Madonna show, it reminded me of some of the concerts I enjoyed most.Here we go, not according to any specific order.

1. The Pogues in Brixton academy . London, UK, 2001

I flew to London especially for the Pogues reunion with my brother.

There were 4921 Drunk Irish and pseudo Irish in the very suitable surrounding of Brixton. Shane MacGowan looked like he is going to die any second, but still has not to this day.

People were singing before the show, during the show and all the way back on the Tube.

2. The Waterboys in Irving Plaza, New York, USA , 2001

It was a few weeks after 911 and the smoke was still rising over ground zero.Nick Cave has canceled his show due to the events,but Mike Scott kept his.

He played all the Classics with a great band and rock attitude. It seemed he is as nice and talented  in person as his persona is.

Waterboys in Israel Ticket - The one I didn't go to

The pan within is one the greatest Waterboys songs.Not as famous as “Fisherman blues” or “Whole of the Moon”, but it stands for everything great about the band. Watch the Violin solo.

3. Eran Zur – The Pilegesh Club , Rehovot, Israel, 1995

Eran Zur had only two “Carmela Gross Vagner” albums at this time, but the crowd was so excited that he played both albums two times ! Best chemistry I have ever seen. In the end he just said : “I have no more songs for you”.

Strangely, the the venue , a Rock club in Rehovot was a great fit for the show.

4. Red Hot Chilly Peppers – Baltimore Arena, Maryland , 2000

Coolest band in the world, at the time. Definitely the best live band I’ve seen.

No videos at that time yet . But this clip is pretty similair.

And another one , since the “Otherside” is the best song form the album.

5. R.E.M + Radiohead - Ramat Gan stadium, 1995, Israel

We got two for the price of one !

Radiohead were the cover band, just after “The bends” was rleased .What a great start.

Only 20,000 people came and some critics complained ,but seeing “Fall on Me” ,”So Central Rain”,”Country Feedback” and “Let me in” live in Israel can not match anything else.

And here is a very nice interview ( Dave Letterman ?)

6. Barry Saharof and Rea Mochiach 11Aleph – Jerusalem, June, 2006

It was four days before the wedding and we had to do something “different” before all the ceremonies.

An mazing album that conatins the (almost) only instrumental bit that I like.

7. The White Stripes – Primervare Sound Festival – Barcelona, 2003

I actually came to see Belle and Sebastian and Sonic Youth, both gave a nice show.

However, the White Stripes’ energy , at 2AM in the morning came out fresh, massive and made everyone else seem “old”.

I had to fight to get a ride back to my hotel, to make it on time to my 6AM flight back to Israel. No time to shower at all ….

8. Nick Cave -Haifa Blues Festival , 1995

There is no such thing as a bad Nick Cave concert.This specific one was set in Haifa’s port and the rugged atmosphere felt right.

P.J Harvey was a great intro and it seems Mr Cave felt at home in the middle of a blues festival.

I kept the T-Shirt till 2009.

[youtube-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAf4sIWUMK4]

9. The Pixies &  RHCP – Phoenix Park on Saturday June 12th,Ireland, 2004

The pixies are not a great live band, and RHCP were not as good as in Maryland. Still, it’s the Pixies , Live in 2004 !

Took us about 3 hours walk from Dublin center to get to this huge park ( with a stop in the Guinness brewery ) and 3 hours to get out of it.

It it is 7 times the size of Central park …

Phoenix Park , Dublin

10. Morissey in Tel Aviv, Israel, 2008

Yes, he looks like Elvis now. But that’s a sort of compliment.

And “Irish Blood,English Heart” seems like a good sign-of for the hidden Irish theme of this post.

The timing of Gulaal’s release is just fantastic. Right after Holi and just before elections. Gulaal tells the story of a nobody, Dileep Singh. This nobody is a colourless, passionless character who is a student who looks like a professor. He’s straightforward and never challenges things that happen to him. He takes to the shadows of Rananjay Singh, a hot blood youth who doesn’t fear challenges- a ‘true’ Rajput. As Rananjay steps in to contest for the post of GS, the college turns into a battle field. In the fight for the post, two candidates put everything at stake. It is this fight for power that starts adding colour to our straightforward protagonist.

Gulaal’s story is multi layered and it unfolds itself. But the beauty is in the characters. Every character is complex and alive and it is through them that the story unfolds. The characters create the story and vice-versa, a give and take one rarely sees in Indian cinema. Kashyap’s Gulaal uses characters as a form of telling the story but his characters are also metaphors and symbols. Be it the John Lennon that hangs in Prithvibana’s neck or the dancer/beautician’s obsession with herself, or the Kiran who silently plucks the strings on her guitar as her brother decides the course of her life. Kashyap uses music, lyrics and musical metaphors brilliantly. Of course the neon signs and the psychedelic paintings at Dileep’s residence remind us of Dev D.

When Mr. Kashyap says this is his angriest film till date, you believe it. He uses every possible metaphor to bring out the anger, frustration and disappointment that he feels against the establishment or the system in which people become an establishment. The rendition of ‘Yeh Duniya Agar’ from Pyasa just takes this entire symphony to a climax, where you soak in the anger and you watch it helpless swallow and digest all that comes in its way. It takes me back to the original song, where Guru Dutt dies in a stampede at a function held in his honour and nobody recognises him. And here, we have Dileep, who wonders if he recognises himself as he walks down a street, wounded. It’s a similar ethos, but brilliantly executed in the context of Gulaal.

It depressed me to see an empty theatre on day 4 of this fabulous film. It didn’t deserve an empty theatre, I clapped after the film, for films like these need to be made. Films that use reality to tell a fictional story that is ever so cleverly crafted needs to be seen and appreciated. Overheard after the movie: Dude, Bhojpuri films are not as bad as they’re made out to be. This one was serious and all that! Right! I’m glad the theatre wasn’t as empty as this woman’s brain.

Cheers, Mr. Kashyap!

(Ideea ” ultimului tren ” mi-a venit in clasa . Neavand cum sa scriu pe blog , a trebuit sa scriu precum stramosii nostrii )) . Adica pe foaie . Old school . Datorita lenei mele proverbiale , primul capitol va este servit d’abea acum , la mai mult de o saptamana dupa “conceptie” . Cand voi mai avea chef/timp/inspiratie , va urma capitolul 2 , si tot asa . So stay tuned ! And give me feedback ! )

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Intr-un mod ciudat ,  senzatia de pamant solid sub picioare ii dadea un sentiment de fericire si liniste , desi nu avea vreo fobie de genul . Simtea dogoarea metalului incins al trenului in spinare . Se departeaza mecanic de tren si dintr-un gest reflex , isi aprinde o tigara .

Un bobarnac maiastru si bine plasat ( exersat , se vede ) ii zbura tigara din gura .

- Stai ma , boule ! Ce – ti veni ?

- I-ai promis tatei ca nu mai fumezi , lichea mica ce esti !

- Si ce , e treaba ta ce fac eu ?

- Zevzecule , sunt fratele tau mai mare , si pentru urmatoarele sase zile esti responsabilitatea mea !

- Hai stai linistit , ca pot sa-mi port singur de grija . N-am nevoie de nici o dadaca . . .

- Stii ce e absolut genial ?

- Uimeste-ma !

- Esti cea mai neindemanatica persoana pe care o cunosc , scapi totul din mana , dar cand vine vorba de fumat , ai fost in stare sa jonglezi cu un geamantan , un rucsac si un telefon mobil , ca sa iti aprinzi tigara .

- Daca zici tu . . . Stefan ce tot face ?

- Isi strange catrafusele din compartiment . Ce sa-i fac daca s-a trezit ca vrea sa se schimbe inca de la Lehliu ?

- Mda.

Din tren iesi un baiat inalt , desirat , cu un nas coriat si cu parul exagerat de aranjat . Parul contrasta puternic cu restul fetei . Era nebarbierit de zece zile cel putin .

- Hai ba , mai stateai mult ? ; intreba Liviu , si isi mai aprinse o tigara , care nu a rezistat mai mult decat prima . Alt bobarnac bine plasat ii smulse tigara dintre buze .

- La a treia o sa iti ard un capac de o sa iti tiuie urechile .

Liviu inghiti in sec . Stia ca fratele sau se va tine de cuvant . Mai mult decat atat , capacitatea lui Calin de a arde capace absolut naucitoare era cunoscuta si respectata . Asa ca se abtinu de la inca o tigara . Pentru moment .

Forfota era enervant de ritmata . Lumea parca traia pe muzica . In aer se simtea libertatea . Constanta traia in ritmul specific litoralului .

Cei trei au iesit cu greu din gara si de 5 minute se uitau lung pe o harta a Constantei .

- Stii , am ajunge mai repede daca am lua un taxi pana la hotel . Si asa nu suntem siguri unde e ; zise Liviu uitandu-se cu jind la Fiatul galben de langa el , pe a carui portiera scria mare : ” AER CONDITIONAT ” .

- Ce ma ? Crezi ca n-am ce face cu banii ? Ne jupoaie hotii astia pana la hotel !

- Hai bai scotianule , taci din gura si urca-te ! zise Calin si se urca in masina . Liviu il urma . Stefan injura injura infundat si se inghesui si el pe bancheta din spate a micutului Fiat .

- Incotro baieti ? intreba jovial taximetristul .

- La hotel ” Perla Litoralului ” va rog .

- Imediat ! ranji taximetristul si baga in a-ntaia .

- Asta de ce e asa fericit ? Il intreba in soapta Stefan pe Liviu .

- Pai si eu as fi . Afara sunt 40 de grade , el sta in paradisul aerului conditionat la 20 de grade .

Drumul a fost scurt . Cazarea a mers repede si lin . Stateau fix in camera 1 . Ca niciodata .

- Ba , nu-mi miroase a bine . Prea au mers toate ca unse pana acum .( Stefan mereu a fost mai pesimist de felul sau )

- Taci ma si despacheteaza acolo . Nu mai cobi atat ca ma disperi ! Calin se chinuia sa seteze canalele pe TV . Liviu era in baie .

- Hai bai , ca nu esti mireasa . Hai mai repede ca mor de dorul plajei .

Nici un raspuns .

- Vezi ma ce face fractu’ ,  ca poate a cazut in WC .

Calin batu de doua ori la usa baii . – Ba vezi ca intru peste tine daca nu spui ceva ! Din nou, tacerea a fost singurul raspuns . Calin apasa clanta , si usa se deschise cu un scartait enervant . Inauntru , nu era nimeni . Pe peretele opus usii , geamul era dat de perete .

Hey!!! I have been so busy lately trying to keep up with everything  but I finally managed  to get my Green Fix!  Most of you probably don’t know this, but I’m also a Landscape Designer and Plants are my weakness! I love anything and everything to do with plants (except bugs).  So over the years I’ve managed to collect quite a wide variety of plants and species from all over the place.  I’ve seen them grow and just cant help but feel a little proud of my little babies  

These are just a few of my favourite plants!!!  I find the unique characteristics of each plant so intriguing. The leaf shape, colour, texture…everything that makes it SO perfect! And the Green just has the most soothing affect. 

Hope you enjoy my babies too! I would love to hear about some of your favourties!

Un semn evident ca esti foarte obosit si tre’ sa iei o pauza de somn,este atunci cand vrei sa te dai jos din masina, uiti sa-ti scoti centura si nu stii ce naiba te tine strans legat de scaun. Asta este rezultatul atunci cand dormi 6 ore pe noapte iar ziua esti ocupat si nu apuci sa tragi un pui de somn ca sa fii in forma.

Me doy cuenta de que mi vida es extraña, no sé decir si buena o mala, como todo, con buenos momentos y malisimos también.

En la escuela…no soy un estudiante destacado, a eso le he dado muchas vueltas, pensando lo clásico, “si realmente no te gusta estudiar no lo hagas” ó “no sirvo para eso”, pero no, este no es mi caso, no se me dificulta ninguna materia, me gusta, me encanta aprender, mi problema, el de siempre, la pereza, la laxtitud.

Con mi familia…mi familia nunca ha sido estable, con problemas, claro, (¿que familia no los tiene?), aveces problemas malos, aveces tonterias, eso a mi me afecta demasiado, trato de sobrellevarlo y disfrutar todos los momentos, buenos o no, siempre los hay, el amor nunca se irá, aún sigue y es lo que importa.

El aspecto social…eso no tiene mucha importancia para mi, siempre me he considerado asocial, aún así nunca falta el momento en el que necesites un hombro, algunas palabras para reanimarte y desahogarte, me di cuenta de que tengo amigos, personas que me apoyan y que esperan lo mismo de mi, me atrevo a decir que algunas lo merecen, otras no.

En el amor…el aspecto que rige mi vida, o la mayoría de las veces así es, ¿que podré decir?, no estoy enamorado, pero si encantado, hay momentos en los que llego hasta el cielo, pero de repente caigo, siendo sincero, como ayer, caí, volví a caer, no importa, siempre hay momentos o personas que te hacen volver a levantar, te hacen volver a volar…en este aspecto soy muy raro, últimamente me he confundido mucho, quedandome sin saber que hacer, si seguir, si preguntarle o no, o esperar y ver que pasa, esta última opción no me agrada del todo.

Economicamente…lo que menos me importa, las cosas materiales vienen y van, eso realmente esta sin cuidado para mi, no vivo mi vida rigiendome solo por algo o una cosa, que al final se terminará y acabará.

Reflexiono y pienso que mi vida es una mierda, pero a la vez buena, tengo todo y no tengo nada a la vez.

For a moment, the heat rises from the very tips of the toes all the way to the smallest nerve-endings in the fingertips and from thence to every part of the face. The heat rushes through the veins and tendons, searching out every muscle that can be flexed and made taught. For only a moment, all this happens unfettered by thought, by reality, by anything except the pure and unending rage.

In the one, pure moment before thought, the body is entirely out of its owner’s control, ruled by temper and animal instinct. But for a moment only. Muscles taught, blood pulsing wildly, hands clenching and unclenching, the thoughts nevertheless rise to meet rationality, reality and morals. The rage fights to be heard, to be let out, and while the body might lash out, hit, rend, tear and scratch, it will now be done with the knowledge of what is right, what is wrong, and what hurt is being inflicted because of the temper.

Rage and Temper – two harsh masters of which we all would want to be free. Alas, they are part of our natures. It is only that in some they rise to the surface more quickly, while some are lucky enough to have them lie dormant most of the time.

Friends,

The present flood situation is certainly very devastating, not seen at least over last 25 years. We as a group of people from Orissa has certain responsibility to rise to the occasion in order to help the affected people in whatever manner we can.

We can remember our concerted action during super cyclone. Can we energize ourselves again for this cause? I think we can. This time we can do better this time avoiding the squabbles in OSA management. If some of us feel headstrong to stay away from OSA, we can think of other organizations, SEEDS being one of them. I do not know why OSA should not do it. Is it really illegal? But let’s do it and find a way to help these victims by all means.

The immediate need of the time is relief work. Usually the Government and other outside agencies look after. I may mention that SEEDS is connected with UNNAYAN which has pretty good experience in helping victims in North Balasore flood situations during last two years. Ram krishna Mission is another. SAMAJ is still another. There are many good institutions where you can contribute directly also. One major aspect of assistance is the post-flood period when the victims require to restore their livelihood. Another area of help is to focus on schools, to bring back our children, the future generation to their study soon.

Last time I was part of two groups, CanOSA and SEEDS. I request both groups to be active again. Recently I supported in fund raising activity for Bihar flood. I can be counted again. Finally, after the dust is settled let us not stop and go back to look into causes and start a serious dialogue with both Central Govt and Govt of Odisha. Here I believe Agami Odisha has a responsibility. While I the past their advocacy work concentrated mostly on the Centre’s neglect of the State, it is time it must also point out the Govt of Odisha including politicians and bureaucrats their inability of implementing even their own policy effectively. Just like the advocacy tells the Centre that Orissa cannot tolerate the Centre injustice to this State, it is time to turn its advocacy to tell the State Govt that the people can not tolerate the burgeoning inefficiency.

Best wishes,
Sri Gopal

Professor Emeritus,
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Otro post que habla sobre mi, uhhm, tengo un sentimiento medio raro, entre decepción, desesperación, enojo y coraje, ¿porque?, porque como suele sucederme alguien se me “adelanta”, no, no estoy enojado con esa persona si no conmigo mismo, sigo sin madurar esa parte, el esperar, esperar….

y mi miedo, el miedo a hacer algo, pensandolo bien no es miedo, sería la “falta de desición” eso es algo que desde siempre me caracteriza, pero…supongo que aún estoy a tiempo, si realmente quiero (la quiero, me gusta) HOY tendré que hacer algo, es una buena oportunidad para “madurar” esos malos aspectos mios, como ya mencione, valor no me hace falta, soy penoso, si y mucho, eso no es malo, lo malo es mi falta de desición.

I have been trying to figure out how the stats that WordPress provide works while hosting my blog, I FAILED!…or did they?

It was not a straightforward thing, I would click on a stat number that says I had certain number of views on one post today, I would click on it to see the chart is empty :S.

Anyway, I am using FeedBurner now to see if things get any better.
So if by any chance you have subscribed to my blog, please change the feed address to the following:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/eashi

Well, Kakada who is my best friend that we have been known to each other at University till now around 7 years. After finished our graduate from RUPP we was working the same place . hmmm… after June she is going to leave me alone in Cambodia because she go on her Master degree of IT under Japan scholarship. I am very proud of her effort to get that scholarship.

Last, I wish her success her study and come back to our country with a new experiences to improve ICT field in Cambodia much more better.