I have no shame in admitting that I am a fanboi/groupie to certain people on this earth. That’s because I respect their ideals, their mannerisms and the way they communicate. The list so far is
– Guy Kawasaki
– Seth Godin
– Michael Jackson
– Michael Jordan
– Arnold Schwarzenegger
Out of wanting to meet these people or get some memorabilia from them, I have achieved one. This would not have been possible, if the person on the top of the list wasn’t one of the kindest individuals. Guy Kawasaki sent me an autographed copy of his book, Reality Check, which is currently the 4th best selling book in Malaysia!
Obviously, I was super excited especially because this was a book that’s not available in stores (in India), and to have an autographed copy???? WOOHOO.
receiving the courier
seeing the cover and getting hopelessly excited
KICK BUTT !!!
To get what your life number is you have to add all your digits together to form a single number.
For example, if you were born on 1st april 1985 then your number is 1 + 4 (for april) + 1+ 9+ 8 + 5, that amounts to a total of 28. Add the 2+8, that gives 10, that finally equals 1.
Similarly, if you were born on 12th December 1955 you would add 1+2+1+2+ 1+9+5+5 to give you 26, that is 8. I hope you get the picture now. To describe what type of a number you are, once you do that exercise now note down the number and refer to these sites for pretty accurate predictions of the number.
– Life numbers website 1
– Life number website 2
– Life number website 3
I found some of them to be pretty accurate indicators of my personality/character. What about you?
I love comic book adaptation movies. Iron man and the Incredible Hulk (the one with E.Norton) were suprisingly good for being commercial (that’s a slang for catering to the public like Spiderman by altering the story and filling it with feel good romantic titbits). I loved the Dark Knight and Batman Begins, because although not perfect, they were really the closest to the true character of Batman. He is dark, and his graphic novels are not for kids to read. They require you to stand at a certain level of maturity and understanding to be able to grasp the fullness of Batman.
I haven’t read Batman R.I.P but I have a fear they are going to kill him and remove one of the best loved characters of the comic book series ever :-/. But this post is about Max Payne the movie.
It sucked.
It is a ghoulash of video game scene edits combined with a comic outlook with a very weak plotline and very undergrade acting. Mark Walberg’s not the Oscar material in this, but what’s worse is Mila Kunis’ role of Mona Sax that’s 10 times sadder. I was so happy to see the return of Olga (the Bond girl) then I realised that she strips in the movie for like 2 minutes without showing anything and then dies. Then there’s that whole poker faced Max payne who is out to find out who killed his wife and son. I’m not giving a spoiler to the whole plot that’s messed up. If you should want to spend time watching a movie, watch the Godfather instead or watch the Hitman, that was a far better movie.
The story of Max Payne, in case someone is wondering, is that of a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) who tracks down rogue killers that murdered his wife and kid (so far that’s also there in the movie). What happens is that in his tracking of the killers, he infiltrates the Mafia (not there) and tries to find out leads. His old friend Alex Balder (somewhat there) turns out to be killed by an unknown assassin and he is found to be the suspect. The mafia then find out he’s a cop and want him dead as well. He then does the gungho thing, finds out the killers and finally you know the good ending that invariably pops in.
Where was all that in this movie? This is about a pug faced hero with occasional flashes of finesse in the movie and the darkness of the movie is enough to stifle a yawn. Terrible. I didn’t even complete the last 10 mins, I just hit delete to it. My rating 4/10 (2 for Mila Kunis, 2 for Olga).
I had respect for the BBC. They had good reporting and weren’t racy like CNN. However this documentary was sufficient to point that all they seek is to entertain and fill in a sunday spot of a few hours. A friend of mine passed on the “The Secret Swami” documentary that had made it’s rounds a couple of years back.
The documentary throws allegations on the spiritual Guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba as being homosexual and above the law. It takes you through the various temple towns and shows you what the various opinions of Baba are among the common folk. Very heart warming, but ultimately fails against the BBC’s reporting. I have no idea who Tanya Dutta is and besides being hot, I doubt she might have done any other great work. Sadly, more to her 10 minutes of fame, it’s the family in the movie that I cannot completely sympthasize with. I also found out that she’s free lance and this documentary helped catapult her status in reporting. She’s convinced that there is proof to these allegations by just one family’s account, wow that’s some deadly reporting there Tanya.
I am an agnostic and while I do believe in the principles of Sai Baba, this God concept is something that I am unclear of. He is human and has stated that he’s human and has taken this birth to do good. So far I think his scorecard is pretty impressive. The other godmen that have come have failed to deliver except for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who has got a good thing going on with the Art of Living course.
What is necessary though is not to bias your thoughts with publicity seeking methods. There’s that “charlatan buster” some Premanand who has a groupie (guy) that can perform the same miracles. Can they attract the same followers and provide over 50 villages water that they didn’t have for 5 years? I don’t think so. Then there’s this “super snoop” reporting, they take a hidden camera to Michael Goldstein (who is the top gun of the international Sai organisation) and try to fish out something. Obviously they couldn’t replicate Tehelka’s success.
I understand that the couple and their son has gone through some trauma, atleast from what they claim. But the guy who is 6 6″ in height was apparently raped. Lol. They have admitted that they love the center of attention and that they feeling special was something that they thrived upon. The mom was a crack junkie and was a Hollywood groupie as well. The dad seemed far better. If this really happened, then I am sad. But where is the proof? What “legal” proof do they have? There is evident proof plus a confession that Bill Clinton had sexual favours performed. What do these guys have? The worst part is the mom says, “Omg we really thought that with this we can bring down the giant following”. Therein lies their intention, claim to fame through publicity when Hollywood sleeping around didn’t work out.
An atheist I respect on the other hand, is Richard Dawkins, who is the author of the God Delusion. There he stats a well grounded proof and shows that evolution is the basis and that this God concept is not really true. That might have some more logical grounds for an agnostic to look at.
The only problem I see with atheism is the lack for an explanation as to why this Universe came into being. They base is it on “random chance” and that there is “no sufficient explanation” to why this universe was created, the reason for the diversity of the species. The good thing though is they don’t stick toone theory, they are researching, so they can keep evolving as and when something is explained. Like the Newtonian mechanics was hailed as God truth (pardon the pun) then came along Einstein to disprove it. Just like the various theories that science has struggled to put forward to explain. They fail in one domain. The reason for this creation, the reason for Earth being chosen as the habitat.
All’s not rosy at the Religious camp either. They can’t seriously believe that 3 billion people’s actions are known by some higher being sitting on athrone and watching us. They don’t have a good justification saying that there is abeing who created us and fooled around with us so that he can see how devoted we are to get back to him. That’s dumb. There are no explanations as to why God would allow so many murders, deaths, train wrecks, explosions and lettting terrorists live.
This is not my view of religion, I’ll get to that in another post. This is my observation that both sides (religious and scientific) fail to have sufficient proof to convince either. Till then we will have them duelling forever.
Update:- apparently even Tanya didn’t share everything she learnt. Read some hidden facts.
Tags: BBC, documentary, religion, Sai Baba
If you have something to say, and the talent to say it, then shout it out. But if you have something to say and you don’t know how, then learn. If you don’t have anything to say, and you don’t know how, then please, save the bandwidth for those who do and find other methods of releasing your passion. You don’t have to blog just because everyone else seems to be doing it. - Lorelle
In other words. If you know something and are an expert, be cool and share it. If you aren’t an expert and want to say something (like me) then learn (which I have started doing). If you aren’t either then please just stfu. Taken from one of the best blogs I have read that talk about Wordpress and content - Lorelle on Wordpress.
I have always been a fan of all things involving lifehacking, prioritisation and money making online. Primarily because I have no clue how the leaders in those fields do it. That’s one of the “goals” of this blog, to share with you whatever I learn. I know you might end up earning more through this, but that’s ok, you’ll atleast get profiled by me here then ;-).
For effective time management, it’s necessary to know a couple of things.
Goals determine your tasks.
You are on a football field, you see a goal. Your aim is to score. It’s that simple. Everyone who comes in your way from the opposite team (and there are loads of them) are just distractions. You have to write down your goals and what it is you wish to achieve and be a selfish bitch about it.
Tasks in decreasing order of priority
Brain Tracy has a nice book called Eat that Frog. The basic idea is you have to eat the frog first and forget the tadpoles. Aka do the shittiest job first. AND THEN only do the small ones. This I find is an easy concept to write a book about… but to do is another task.
There are 2 types of tasks
- Important activities have an outcome that leads to the achievement of your goals.
- Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are usually associated with the achievement of someone else’s goals, or with an uncomfortable problem or situation that needs to be resolved.
That’s all, in part of being selfish Focus on the first, ignore the second. They are just distractors and they come in pleas, cries, bargains, orders whatever. Learn to say no, be nice while saying it and keep to it. In the end if you don’t achieve your targets, you’ll be the one thrown out.
So in the end, effective time management is -
- Set Goals (Lose weight 10 kilos)
- Set tasks that will get you to those goals (jog everyday, diet till you are reek thin, don’t dream of cakes and melting chocolate)
- Avoid distractions (please come for dinner, let’s go partying, “dude jog tomorrow man..”)
- Focus on the important
Casino Royale was fantastic. They brought back Bond from just the techno juggling smooth operator sleeping with everything that has boobs to a rugged man on a mission with Daniel Craig who actually shows a sensitive angle to his tough exterior. As an avid Bond fan, I went into this movie with so much hope and I was let down. It was my birthday treat to a couple of losers but I couldn’t help feeling I could have treated them better.
The story is far too complicated and it looks like the directors were trying too hard to get some shit together. I get it, Bond’s angry, he wants revenge, but did they have to make a mockery of this? Don’t get me wrong, the movie’s not ALL that bad, but after a stunning treat like Casino Royale this looked like a noob contender. It is some tightly gripping action scene clips put together by combining a mindless jump over continents with some vague revenge theme.
The pros
- Brilliant action scenes
- HOT bond female, Olga has me checking her website images now
- Daniel Craig doesn’t disappoint in his role.
- Quick paced
- Superior minority report type touch screen technology
- Cool Sony Ericsson technology (I love that phone)
- Bond kills everyone man (that is so cool)
- Brilliant Action scenes (oh wait did I mention that already?)
The cons
- What the eff is Felix Lighter doing in the movie?
- Villian was given such a pussy role
- Over crunched edited too much story has to be here type scenes
- 10,000 BC fart of different countries without explaining how they get there.
- CIA are a bunch of dumbasses (forgiven since Bush is the President)
- M lacks the charm she carried in the other movies Bond seems more assured than her
Here are some comments from RottenTomatoes.com and Imdb that reflect my thoughts.
Quantum of Solace offers next to no solace, if we mean respite, but in plunging its hero into a revenge-displacement grudge mission, it has the compensation of a rock-solid dramatic idea, and the intelligence to run and run with it.
Perhaps this is a tactically ruthless and designedly impersonal Bond movie, a clever tease getting us ready for the returning solvents – next time round – of charm, humour and eccentricity
I get that this new Bond is supposed to be more brutal and vicious, but is he also brain dead and stupid?
The emotional power, intelligence and sheer stylishness of Casino Royale has been lost amidst the noisy blur of sub-Bourne action sequences.
Bond gets his cards frozen yet travels from Austria to Italy somehow. He teams up with a guy he hated and thought had betrayed him to get some shitty help. And the guy dies and is dumped (literally). The opera scene has no relevance except to lead on to another shooting scene.
This was like a high gadget hindi movie with a hot female lead and an actor that loves to kill. I’m pretty sure the Indian heros couldn’t have matched up to Daniel Craig, but seriously, watch Casino Royale again and wait for the next Bond movie, you can pass up on this one. You can oogle at Olga with these pictures, that’s what I did once I got back.
Isn’t she lovely?
If there was one day I wished I was American and a part of that soil, it would have been November 4th. The day Barack Obama won. Obama is hope symbolised. Has the gab, the discipline, the controlled emotion and the direction. Most of all he is a hope bringer to everyone. That’s why a lot of people cried at the convention (I didn’t in case you are wondering, I tend to disappoint like that.), even Oprah!
I used to think this he is an overconfident, rail thin, basketball trouting punk that had a good run. The reason I wanted Hillary Clinton to win was the exact reason people say that he hadn’t chosen her to be running mate: Bill Clinton. I can’t understand why. But he proved me wrong. He showed that he can run a campaign like a President. And if this is the sort of stuff he can continue, he might be even better than Clinton.
Here is the speech he gave which you must watch and allocate 45 mins of your day (if possible every day..) to see what this man is truly about. I have watched it twice and have favourited it, dugg it, stumbled it, sphunn it and you get the point…
Things you can learn from the speech.
Hold composure.
It’s not a plastered smile he wears, he has an assured walk to the podium and doesn’t get over excited like that bimbo VP-elect from the Republicans. He walks graciously as a man who is rightfully taking his place. Lesson: Be calm in victory and defeat.
Acknowledge the crowd.
When you are celebrating your moment of victory and over 150k+ people have been waiting for over 4 hours to see you, there’s no harm in spending time cheering with them. I think the daughters thought they were the center of the attention but that’s ok. They are both less than 15.
Acknowledge your enemy, even if you thrashed his old ass silly.
I congratulate him (McCain); I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they’ve achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.
Be Funny yo
No matter where the place, humour strikes a great chord with the audience. You don’t have to be a goofball laughing at your own hockey mom jokes and cheers (please refer to the bimbo from the Republican party again), but you should have that class. Another person who does that really well is Bill Clinton.
Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the new White House.
Never forget the family. This is da hood.
Put family first, win christian votes. Or something like that as the saying goes. Here is a wonderful man who loves his family. That means he cares. That means he can be president.
And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation’s next first lady Michelle Obama.To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you’ve given me. I am grateful to them.
Stick to a theme
I’m not getting Seth Godin here, but there’s a very important thing that must be known. His story was that of change. An underlying racism current he wanted to change, an underlying goverment filled with corruption led by an incompetent idiot that he wanted to change, an economy he wanted to change. Theme is consistent, he wants to bring hope, he wants to bring a change.
Weave a story.
This was bit of an overkill but he made his point and was consistent with this theme AND struck a powerful thought. He is Jesus.
But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
Don’t think the task is over and remind people the need for their support.
Wow verbose title.. Make sure you let people know that there is work to be done and this is the start. This is not a spin off yarn to cover your ass, it’s something that you should always add as a disclaimer. Because team players are more important than the solo rapper.The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can’t solve every problem.But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
And when you do all of that, the world stands up and cheers for you. I know I did and I’m one of the staunchest Indians around.
Some other great links
– Newspapers around the world paste front page stories of Obama.
– Full transcript of the speech
– Campaign Insider stories
In the costliest election fought in the history of the United States, the winner truly deserves a mention. All hail the man. Obama.
Celebrity Jamie Lee Curtis has already put a thank you post on Huffington. I have to agree on somethings.
Thank you for your brilliant campaign and campaign managers and your staff.
Cooking is a scary thing for bachelors. That is the number 2 reason why most Indian guys rush to get married. The number 1 reason is security and purpose in life, but that’s a long topic and I’ll get back to that later.
I can’t help with the first reason, but I think I can give you some tips on the second one (aka Cooking). First off this post is mainly about some North Indian cooking and a generalisation of various things needed for a kitchen. Please note you wont make food as good as your moms. That is years of practice but what you will learn is how to appreciate her food far more next time you are home because while cooking is not hard, tasty cooking is an art. My mom’s food is the best anyway, and that’s the level one should aim for but not necessarily achieve in this lifetime.
Basic Utensils.
I would recommend certain key things you must have with you.
- A knife (good sharp one to cut don’t be stingy in buying it)
- A cutting board
- A vessel stirrer (thats a tool to stir the veggies)
- A nice stainless steel open end vessel (called Kadhai in the north)
- A cooker (if you boil veggies/make rice)
- Gas to cook on and a stove (not really utensils…but very necessary)
Once you get this gig together, it’s on get the
Basic Spices
No Indian dish is ever complete without spices and it is a must to have certain key ingredients for taste. Indian cooking is a bit spicy so if you aren’t from India but want to try it out be warned this is like eating chilly flavoured stuff. I remember a joke I had heard about a foreigner who ate Indian cooking and then went to the bathroom. He commented on getting out, ” I know why Indians don’t use toilet paper now with the food it would catch fire”.
Tasty Indian cooking needs the following spices. I buy all of the powders since this is the 21st century and you don’t go around grinding the herbs (although that would taste much fresher). You can get all of these from your local indian store ( I did it in Germany, so I’m pretty sure you can get it in the States as well).
- Dhania Powder (Coriander leaves)
- Haldi (Turmeric, mainly used for color and seasoning)
- Garam Masala Powder (thats literally hot spicy powder)
- Red Chilly powder (for that extra zang)
- Jeera Powder (Cumin seeds powder)
- Salt
- Sugar
- Pepper
I have a nice box that has small containers so I just put everything in it and have a small spoon to pick and choose and put them together. It’s called an Indian Masala Dabba (box). Once you have this you can now get the
Basic Vegetables
Obviously, this is what you want to cook. Each vegetable and the dish you want to cook is impossible to cover in this blog post, so I am going to put the most important vegetables that form a part of almost every North Indian dish that you should keep with you.
- Onions (most important for everything)
- Tomatoes
- Green Chillies
- Potatoes
- Garlic
Alternatively you could also get the paste for these things, MTR (in India) have a good stock of this and plus you can get tomato, ginger and garlic paste pretty much anywhere. They do a decent job.
Now that’s a basic of what you generally need for cooking, in the next series of posts, I’ll explore each dish I have made and what I found wrong, what could be better and hopefully accompanied by a picture. But here are some general tips on cooking.
Oil
It is good to have non cholestrol or sunflower oil to cook the dish in. Even if you decide to steam your veggies and eat, the oil adds a bit of taste and avoids the food from being too sticky. You could use olive oil but I found that to have a weird taste that requires you to get used to.
Cooking onions
Any good cook will tell you that onions should not be over fried. So this means that you should have all the vegetables cut and ready and while you roast the onions, it should only be to the level where they become golden brown. This is what they look like (image courtesy: cookingartsy)
Frying Tomatoes
Tomatoes fry really fast, so it’s important that they aren’t too long in the frying pan. Generally it’s best to have them at the last when the dish is done, but some people to get that taste fry it in the start just after the onions are done and then immediately add the rest of the vegetables.
Adding Water
Water is an important ingredient when you want the dish to be gravy-like. What you basically do is add in some cups of water at the very last and let the whole dish boil for a while, this makes the veggies really soft to eat. You don’t add water if you want to have the dish as a dry dish. Like duh.
Fire tempature (Heat Control)
It’s really important to keep the fire levels in control (if you are abroad then you don’t need this you just need to adjust the temparature of the heating pan to get your desired levels). In the start to test if the oil is just heated and ready for the onion cooking you should add in some cumin seeds till they start to roast and pop out that way you know when the dish is heated. Alternatively, you could put in some water and see if it starts to evaporate so you know the vessel has reached the threshold temparature.
Vegetables that have a soft base like carrots, cauliflower, potatoes etc should be cooked at the sim level. Basically on a scale of 10, it should be around 4. Medium low heat while frying with the onions, you can then heat it up a bit more to 6 or so when you add in the water. If you are just frying it then the onions should be cooked at around 3-4 then the vegetables around 4-5 for ideal frying.
You are probably thinking dude this is like standard stuff wtf, but I had no idea how to make anything. I learnt it on my own with 2 gurus in Germany and my mom on long distance call. It was a valuable education. If you can get into cooking classes to learn the heavy stuff like baking and desserts and etc but if you want to just get to make food when you are alone and not spend Rs 200 on one meal, then I hope I have helped you to get started with the vessles. The next post on cooking will show you some basic ways to mix and match and what spices add what taste etc. Remember the dangers of cooking really well is that you’ll lick the plate clean. Aslo watch Ratatouille, it never fails to inspire you.