Hmm' ing

Greetings, children of men.

A word of advise from one whose doom it was to watch the directors cut of 'The return of the King' - do not begin the task during the wee hours of the morn, but wait and watch it at a more suitable time. The damn thing lasts 4 and a half hours and after that all you can do is pine for the cold steel of Anduril (the flame of the West) in your hand.

Also, the whole birthday thing happened and as someone wisely put it " You (meaning I) are now 23 years old".


JASTI:?
happiness, wealth, sorrow undone
the craving of Shanti
the conniving and wary

BE:?
the union of one
the resting Yogi
the uncoiling kundalini

of Poe's'ms

' Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

The first stanza of Poe's "The Raven". Published exactly 164 years ago to this date. This one is pretty much one of the only poems I actually liked in school. I mean, most of the poetry you read in school is utter CRAP - what the fuck is Wordsworth's Daffodils ( by the way I found out only after school that the poems name isn't even 'the Daffodils' - so much for our textbooks) .

Back to the Raven, this is one fun (in a rhymy goth way) poem, I remember trying to figure out who Pallas ( the bust on which the Raven sits) was and I still haven't completely got it. So is Pallas from the poem Athena herself ( this is the easiest to accept since you assume the the orator is a student and Athena being the goddess of wisdom and all, he would sit under it and crib) or is Pallas on of half a dozen other Greco-Roman entities. I dunno for sure.

To end, reading this poem along with The Phobia (yes, I have capitalisized the phrase for impact) - Nevermore.

** - - Buying an ordinary pair of blue jeans is ridiculously hard. When I say I don't want my back pockets to be made of leather (with sparkles on it) instead of denim I mean it!

Adios.

The New Year Post

The only thing I have to say as the 'New Year Post" is this:

Its amazing how similar this year (including the whole financial scene) is to Floyds Atom Heart Mother.... in a whole bunch of ways.

The Onion Jam Chronicles - The Final Odyssey - Attempt 3

Need I say more. I am frickin Batman.
Lessons:
- I am never cutting Onions.
- Learn how to roast garlic before roasting garlic.
- A combination of onion jam and rum is not as good as you would think it.

The Onion Jam Chronicles - Attempt 2

Christmas eve. the day the jam was to change from recipe to actual physical form.

I had already bought the Balsamic vinegar and brown sugar a day earlier. I bought a full jar of sugar knowing that if the jam sucked I could always use it for mojitos.

The plan - 1) Get done with work 2) Get home 3) Make onion jam

D-day actually D-eve:
Pretty much done with work, I accepted the offer of a few colleagues to go and get some dinner and wine before leaving ( in the spirit of Christmas). After a few liters of wine and at 5 in the morning we decided to call it a night. Chaffing under the criticism I had received over the course of the night (regarding the making of the jam), the will and determination to make it now burned stronger than ever within me.

Reaching home, I switched on some grateful dead and began chopping onions. 1 onion down and sensing something odd, I turned around, and saw my father gesticulating with his hands. A little confused at first, I realized that he trying to communicate that the music was too loud. After Lowering the volume, a fairly enlightening conversation (concerning the cutting of onions at 5.30 in the morning) ensued. Since my debating skills were not at their peak at that time, I conceded defeat. After keeping the 1 cut onion in the fridge and a polite "Merry Christmas" and "Good Night" later, I slept.

Onion Jam Chronicles - Attempt 1

I have decided to cook. This sudden interest to improve my culinary skills occurred last week. Onion jam was chosen as the recipe to attempt as:
1. Not too many ingredients
2. The ingredients seemed like stuff I would find in my kitchen
3. I tasted it in a sandwich once and it blew my mind. Anything that improves a sandwich has my vote.

So after printing out the recipe I began looking for the ingredients. Found the onion and garlic. A quick call unfortunately shattered the conception I had that all vinegars are the same ( I needed balsamic vinegar). A quick trip to Vakola market shattered the conception I had that i could pick up the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar at the local grocer. I then decided to oil my bike.

However, I have not given up. Attempt 2 shall occur this week.

Adios

The Weakness

Hmm. So I have generally been pretty good with most sports. In fact I have never been truly miserable at any sport so far. However, after 2 weekends of testing I have now figured out my Kryptonite.

Drinking games - They reduce me ( without being too modest I can assure you I hold my drink very well.) into a blithering idiot. Its not even funny how badly I lose. Its not like the games are too hard - but I lose, and lose .... and then become a blithering idiot. I mean seriously how hard can it be right? Even the guy who likes men in red underwear did better at the games.

And so without further ado, I have decided to announce my retirement from the world of drinking games.

* for the record drinking games are safer when you are shotting anything but whiskey. Also during the course of the weekend I lost at cards ( oh so badly.. but revenge shall be mine!) and now have close to 67 shots to down in the future.

The Waffling Continues

So then. The biggest fear that I have after an attack of the sort that happened here in Bombay is the opportunity it awards the government to enforce almost any security law it wishes. Its a vicious cycle that has happened many times over in a whole bunch of places all over. The cycle goes like this:
- A horrific attack occurs on an innocent populate.
- The state is found lacking in pretty much every field ( security/ emergency services, etc).
- The citizenry goes wild.
- First the state fires people directly associated (people who bare the brunt of the public's anger). This suddenly looks like the state means business - HA!
- Then the state will come down with a whole bunch of draconian laws ( all in the interest of the safety of the people of course). Now these laws - at least to insane people like me - will seem pretty harsh and an extreme violation of a whole bunch of private rights. However, these laws will sail through parliament on a wave of righteous anger at all enemies of the state and the sentiments of a 50 million people (the other 50 million have no idea wtf is going on and will go along with pretty much anything) - who are seeped in a collective fear psychosis
- Now the laws keep getting worse and harsher - however the rate at which the attacks take place keeps rising. So does that mean the laws aren't working? Nope - the laws aren't strict enough (after all you have to give up something if you wanna live safe - right?)
-Soon except for the media which co-operates with the media everything else is shut - of course, this s something we are already almost at.
- Aaaah crap children, its 1984 again baby!!!

oh yeah its sorta apt that its John Miltons B'day today ( thats why the pic). He was pretty hardcore against censorship in his time. Of course his reasons for maintaining the freedom of expression was more theosophical ( the whole divine thing) and so are pretty debatable.

On a separate note I finally got my hands on the book of short stories by Marquez. Woo Hoo!!

28 years since the guy got shot and we still ain't giving peace a chance.

The 1st of December

December's here. What a lousy way to enter into what is pretty much the best month of the year.

Fire Smoke Fire Rage,
If only I could change the age,
but go where? - into sage smelling cage?
Bullshit! Evermore - Fire Smoke Fire Rage. - HA!