Spas, puppies and Warcraft

 Well long time no see. I have dreaming about a having a pup for a long time. Aren’t those just adorable? Been thinking of a makeover too. Your messy angled bob hairdo, facial, mani-pedi, the works. A spa sounds great too. Luxuriating in a Jacuzzi, long massages and long naps. Been playing a lot of Warcraft. My druid finally leveled off to level 15, and can teleport to Moonglade, got the bear form, which doesn’t seem very useful. Finished all my Razormane quests.

  

  

Public speaking

Public speaking is an art form, popularised by the likes of Martin Luther and John F. Kennedy. Before that people assumed it was a form of public torture for the public as well as the speaker. 

I was once witness to a mesmerising performance by a speaker on stage. The speaker broke into uncontrollable giggles, with the result that he proceeded to complete the entire speech in a constant state of high rapture. It left the audience completely befuddled as to what was going on and as the speaker tried to control himself, he could only manage to stumble off the stage muttering incoherently.

A much more succesful technique I suppose would be to fix the audience with a glassy stare and to ignore them completely. Then to proceed through the speech with the unrelenting ardour of a army general, proceeding through enemy lines, giving no quarter, no matter what, mowing down resistance.

A third, highly succesful technique, to be used when avoiding questions at question hour in Parliament, is to close your eyes, in effect to signal to the audience to do the same, and then to pause for infinite lengths of time between each syllable until everyone has forgotten what the question was.

In all cases it cannot be denied that speaking in public is like singing in the bathroom, where everybody is glad they don't have to listen to you.

Great Movies

    

My favorite Hindi movies of last year were 

• Kahaani

       I loved Vidya Balan clothes. Bob Biswas was scary.

• Dabangg

        It had some funny stunts, I suppose.

• Zindagi na Milegi Dobara

        What I liked about ZNMD was the jokes. Though it might have come off as silly 
        to some. 

• Delhi Belly

        I liked DB, though the jokes seemed a little toilet humor in parts.

Among the English films

•  Avatar (2009) 

        I found Avatar to be a visual treat. 

• Inception (2010). 

       Though by the time I left the theatre my head was reeling with keeping up 
       with so many dreams.  

• Rango

       One of my absolute favorites’ is Rango an animated lizard with voice over by 
       Johnny Depp. Johnny Depp just gets better and better, doesn't he? Which 
       brings me to the question why is he so popular with the ladies? 

Well there are many more good movies out there, not mentioned here. Do tell which were your favourite movies ??

Check out some cool movies at: http://www.filmhill.com/

Olympics

It is an unfortunate state of affairs when India with a population of 1.22 billion could only manage 4 medals. Whereas Ethiopia with a population of .08 billion won 6 medals, Kenya with a population of .04 billion successfully won 8 medals, along with Jamaica (population .002 billion) with 10 medals. In fact most of the Indian participants seem to come from impoverished backgrounds and can barely make ends meet. There is no infrastructure in place to promote and support sports in India. It is sad that a country which used to be the world champions in Hockey got thrashed by South Africa (2-3) to finish last at the London Olympics 2012 hockey competitions.

Barbie

I have always had a fascination for Barbie since childhood, since they were not available in India then. But my son is all into cars. But being the angel that he is, he promised to buy me my own Barbie 2 storey house. I just love her hair and clothes. All those life like furniture, beds and kitchen appliances and her wardrobe. Oh my god. Just thinking of it makes me drool. Hair that can be combed and styled in different ways, and changing clothes like a fashion model. And an actual real bed to sleep in. I guess my childhood was incomplete without having at least 1 Barbie. 

Anyone out there with a Barbie fascination?

More Web 2.0

In Web Design it is imperative to stay abreast of the latest styles and color palettes. So research, research, research. After that practice, practice, practice. The more you design, the easier it gets. Use good clean images. Images with dramatic angles and colors. Arrange your color distribution around it. Use gradients and bright colors wisely to draw attention to the main topics. Try to present the text in an interesting manner.  3D effects look glossy and rich use them for buttons and to highlight salient points. Use interesting animations wisely and brush up on your javascript skills. Javascript files should be as small and simple as possible. Using pages and pages of JavaScript causes conflicts, especially if there are Body onLoad() functions. Use Flash animations and slideshow to animate your websites.

FYI, Check out some cool websites at: http://disqus.com/. They are amazing. Check out the Showcase section.

How my mobile took over my life

I wake up to the radio on my mobile every day. Zip off to the office, where I fire up my PC to check my daily mail and getting cracking at the pile of work. Then on my way home, it’s the iPhone. It’s amazing what all an iPhone can do. From checking mails to surfing to music, games, youtube, you name it. I guess it’s the same with smart phones, iPads and Blackberrys. At home my trusty old bulky PC has been replaced by my suave Lenovo laptop. Then it's Facebook time. I do feel like a dinosaur now, back in 2006 I didn’t even know what Orkut was. Though I loved Gtalk and yahoo messenger. 

Easy Reading

             

I am presently reading the Litigators by Grisham, its easy reading about 3 bumbling lawyers. One of the last books that I really liked is the Hunger Games. I do like the fantasy genre, especially the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, also the Old Kingdom series. The guy is truly prolific. I have started reading the Secret Seven, Enid Blyton series to my son. He really loves it, other than his Ben Ten aliens and Spiderman and Pumba and Timon and Peter pan.

Check out : http://www.garthnix.com/

What are you and your kids reading??

Best TV Comedies

Currently my favorite TV comedies are 2 and a Half Men, Simpsons and Big Bang Theory. I used to love Friends and Seinfeld.  But those are off the air. 2 and a Half men is a hilarious comedy starring Charlie Sheen and his brother and his nephew, grappling with their different lifestyles. Simpsons is a satyr on the typical American way of life. Big Bang is about 4 physicists putting their own spin on life. Guaranteed a good laugh.

Do tell me about your favorite comedies.

   

Hospitals

I was reminiscing about my hospital stay during my baby’s delivery. I was pretty nervous initially about the c-section, which was to be done only with local anesthesia. But as the operation proceeded, I was filled with wonder after I heard my baby wail for the first time. He blew bubbles at all of us and was whisked quickly down to the nursery. I only got a good look at him the next morning, all pink and wrinkly like a prune, dreaming about whatever it is babies dream about. I really enjoyed my stay at Neotia. I guess it finally depends on which hospital you go to.

Do share your experiences with me.

This site provides some comparisons of healthcare services : http://myhealthscore.com/

Music

Music has been my constant companion since childhood. Started with Elvis (Mom’s choice), Hemanto, Jim Reeves, Dean Martin etc. The love affair continued with Bollywood, QSQT, Roja. AR Rahman stunned everyone with his surreal music for Roja. Hadn’t heard anything quite like it before that. Western music started creeping in with Jon Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, and Springsteen etc. Slowly progressing to Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pink Floyd, Chris Rea, Micheal Jackson, Hootie and the Blowfish, Doors, Santana, Fleetwood Mac. Though Bollywood remains my first love. Presently listening to Gunja sa(wake up sid), Pritam rocks.

Chess for beginners’

I have started playing Chess of late. The origin of chess is supposedly India. It’s interesting how the most of the play happens in the middle of the board. So it’s a good idea to block the middle with pawns. Castling the king early on in the game is also a good idea, as it throws most attacks off kilter. It’s a good idea to move out all the pieces (bishop, knight) on the king’s side as early as possible and castling. Also it may be advisable to bring out the queen somewhere in the middle of the game and changing attacks from one side of the board to the next. I personally find that attacking with the Queen and the rook, almost always ends up in checkmate. Any thoughts?