Hanging onto promises and songs of yesterday
One of my favourite funny men, veteran actor Leslie Nielsen started out as a serious actor in Hollywood and it was only by the 1980’s did he find his funny bone!
Here goes the notes for the 28th of April
I was watching Don Ross videos on Youtube, when I found a link to this guy – Antoine Dufour. He is a highly talented guitar player, who has created some really beautiful music. Off his latest record Existence here’s Une Cachette Pour La Luna.
A perfect song for a lonely Sunday afternoon.
Hurray, my blog has been spam free all of a sudden. Both the anti-spam plugins that I installed didn’t seem to be working the way that I wanted them to. There were still quite a few spam comments coming in to my WordPress dashboard and I spent at least 10 minutes per day in deleting them. Now, all of a sudden, the spam bots don’t seem to be working anymore! Or something! I am not complaining; I have been bug free for about 10 days now. Whoopeee!!
I got an invite in my mail inbox to test out a web application called TSheets, who are sponsering FuelMyBlog. Tsheets is a web-based timesheet system that turns ANY PC or mobile device into a time clock, that is ideal for tracking hourly time for employees, salaried employees, contractors, or your own time. They are offering a contest, which I have no chance of winning but it sounded interesting, so I thought “why not?”.
They also want to know, what I do in the first 5 minutes of my working day so here goes:
And that’s about it for a typical work day for me!
Ever wonder how your favourite bands got their names? Well, from a mail I received, here’s the dirt on some of my favs:
AC/DC –
A band member saw AC/DC on a sewing machine. It stood for ‘Alternating Current / Direct Current’. The band didn’t realize it was also slang for bi-sexual, which caused a few misunderstandings in their early days.
AEROSMITH –
Drummer, Joey Kramer used to write “aerosmith” on his high school notebooks because he thought it sounded cool. When he proposed the name to the group, the rest of them said “What? Like that book they make you read in high school?” (the 1925 book, ‘Arrowsmith’ by Sinclair Lewis) Kramer responded “No. A-e-r-o smith…”
ALICE COOPER
The band say the name was spelled out by their Ouija Board. After they split up, lead singer Vincent Furnier started using it as a solo act.
DIRE STRAITS
Their name describes the financial situation they were in when forming the
band.
IRON MAIDEN
download year of the dog dvd
Named after a medieval torture device. It was a box big enough to admit a man, with folding-doors which were studded with sharp iron spikes. When the doors were closed, these spikes were forced into the body of the victim, who was left there to die in horrible torture.
PEARL JAM
According to lead singer, Eddie Vedder, “The name is in reference to the pearl itself… and the natural process from which a pearl comes from. Basically, taking excrement or waste and turning it into something beautiful.”
Do you know any?
It’s her third death anniversary today. 3 years ago, she died. 3 years. The pain will never go away. I don’t believe in god or fairies. I don’t believe in heaven. However I would like it if there is an after life, where you never get sick and you can do anything you want and you ‘live’ forever. On a planet where you have anything & everything that you have ever wanted. And I’m sure I could have my own adventures and go off exploring stuff. And my dog would ofcourse be with me. By my side. My best friend. Ever. She can never be replaced. So I’m not even gonna try.
Yesterday was the birthday of the elder of my two nephews. My sister had called me in the afternoon to ask me to come over for dinner but I was too tired to go and spend time at her place and listen to 4 noisy kids. Plus I didn’t know for sure when I was able to leave the office. I had been doing a 7-4 shift but leaving around 6:30 for the last 4 days and I knew that there might be some issues with some stuff that might require me to be there. So I declined.
I came home, sweating like a ancient Egyptian slave working on the pyramids at noon, around 7:30 pm and made some coffee and watched a few episodes of Friends on dvd. My sister sent some food my way, chicken masala roast & chappathis, with some roasted cashew nuts & cake. The nuts were delicious and the cake was ok. But the chicken was so oily and spicy and the masala sat in my belly and gave me heartburn all night and today. What’s worse, it also has made me sick and I had to visit the facilities 3 times during my training batch. I had no lunch and drank a lot of cold water to calm myself down.
Late evening, I’ve just a couple of coffees and a banana. Funny enough, I am not hungry at all. I plan to just take it easy tomorrow and rest myself. I should be getting my 8 day vacation by the 5th. I just hope I find a place to go to.
I started watching Friends : Season 2 on Monday and although I skipped a couple of episodes which I had already seen many times and which were fresh in my mind, I completed it last night. Among the major events, Rachel feels jealous about Ross’s new girlfriend and later Ross finds out about Rachel liking him and they finally get together. Joey & Chandler forget Ross’s son Ben on a bus. Phoebe searches for her birth father and gets a step-brother in the process. Mr.Heckles dies. We find out that Chandler has a third nipple. Joey moves out after finally find steady work and good pay as ‘Dr.Drake Remoray’ in ‘Days Of Our Lives’ and Chandler finds a new roommate, who however turns out to be a fruit & nut case, so Joey moves back in. Rachel tries to make peace with her former life by being the maid of honour at Barry & Mindy’s wedding but she ends up embarrassing herself. Monica, who had finally found a steady love who she wants to settle with, finds out that he doesn’t want babies and hence they decide to break up.
I had been feeling rather down for a few days because of work. Well, not because of work but because after all the hard work I was putting in, a mistake by someone else was highlighted as a huge mistake by our team and I took the brunt of the blame. And the reaction to it made me feel like, all the work was for nothing. The stress that I went through to personally follow up on each minor detail was all for nothing. It made me feel like I failed and that I wasted 5 weeks. It was hard for me to get out of bed the next couple of days.
However, on Wednesday evening there was a small meeting and in it, to my surprise, my efforts were highlighted and I got a small round of applause (in reality but to my tired & relieved brain it sounded like thunderclaps) for me. I knew then that I was appreciated and that my efforts weren’t in vain. I don’t want the spotlight on me all the time or even at all. I am content to support and work in the background. But a little appreciation once in a while is all I ask for. And that was what I got.
And what happened when I got it? As usual, I was blushing and I wanted to run away :P
I forgot from where I found the link to the link that links to signing up for beta testing the new Mozilla.com website. Mozilla wanted as many users as possible to test the site before the big launch, reaching across to as many people as possible to offer comments, suggestions & to point out the bugs.
By giving the site a thorough checkup and making sure that all the links are working and the pages are loading properly, we the users will be able to ensure that we have a Mozilla.com that is best suited for us.
So I signed up and on Monday I got a mail detailing all the rules and instructions, along with the url and the user id & passwords. I hope to be able to go through all the links provided and provide any help that I can. I will also offer my review of the website by the weekend.
Found this meme over at Meleah’s
Five things you were doing 10 years ago?
Studying Computer Programing
Wasn’t too sure about what I was going to do
Trying to get over my ex (the ‘relationship’ lasted for a few more months)
Playing hours & hours of FIFA 95 with my cousins
Spending a lot of time with my dog
Five things on my to-do list today?
Go to work and train my new batch of inductees
Spend time with those wonderful people I call my friends at work
Try to get through the day
Find a place I can spend an inexpensive vacation in
Come home and watch downloaded episodes of Friends to keep me smiling
Five places I have traveled?
The UK (when I was too young to remember)
Madhya Pradesh
Bangalore
Never been out of my state much, so that’s it
Five snacks or treats I enjoy?
Lays (any flavour)
Blueberry Muffins
Chocolate Cookies
Onion Baji
Mixture (its a local thing)
Five things I would do if I were a billionaire?
Retire
Buy A Palatial Mansion
Become Hugh Hefner’s Replacement
Set Up An All Woman’s Wrestling League
Buy A Big Black Jet with a bedroom in it
Five of my bad habits?
Forgetting Some Important Mails (after spending 5 hours in getting the content required)
Overeating & then Eating too little
Feeling Down Due To Silly Things
Being Online Way Too Much
Falling For Girls I Shouldn’t Be Falling For
Five places I have lived?
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Thrikkakara
Bangalore
Calicut
Kacherippady (currently)
Five jobs I’ve had?
Wholesale Tea Business (with my dad)
Manager of an Internet Cafe
Tele-Marketer
Call Center Executive/Supervisor
Trainer
Okay people.
So? Post your 5 in the comments or in your own blog and let me know.
“What’s in Your FIVE???â€
On April 1st, I came to know that I could get cheaper dvd copies of the entire catalog of Friends at one of the places that sells a lot of these dvds in Marine Drive. Since then I was hoping to get my hands on the set and today I went and bought them. They also had the entire set for Buffy and Angel, the latter of which I will most probably be getting in a week or two. I came home at 3 pm and I have watched most of the episodes of Season 1, including one which I have never seen (“The One Where Underdog Gets Away) which is themed around Thanksgiving Day. That was strange, I thought I had seen each and every one multiple times. I also saw a couple of them which I haven’t seen in ages. Nice way to spend a lazy Sunday.
download pleasure of your company the aka wedding daze 
Loses to Liverpool, Chelsea & Manchester United have almost killed their chances for glory this season. An Arsenal side , without as many big names as previous season, started out well and seemingly played beyond their capabilities. Now out of the Champions League, courtesy of Liverpool and the league loses to the other two big sides, Arsenal will at the most finish 3rd in England. But that doesn’t mean that they are gonna take it lying down. On the contrary, the Gunners bounced back from last week’s devastating loss to Man U, by beating Reading 2-0, with Emmanuel Adebayor putting them ahead on the half hour &
Gilberto doubling the lead. With 3 games left, Arsenal are 4 points behind Chelsea and 7 behind Manchester.
It took me a while to get into Seinfeld. I am not sure when they started showing the series on Star World here in Asia but I guess I started watching it during 2001-02. I watched parts of it while waiting for Friends, which was on immediately after it. At times I just tolerated it but soon, I found it funny and started following it. They had a great show, with a trio of funny guys but I found Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) loud and annoying.
Otherwise Jerry, George & Kramer were hilarious and made me laugh every weeknight for so long. I don’t watch my television now but whenever I get the chance, I try to catch some episodes of Seinfeld reruns.
I remember reading a few articles by some music journalists stating that rock stars better leave the protesting & social commentary to political-minded people and other of their ilk. That there were better equipped people and literary figures who could better put into words about the travesties of the people in power and what some dumbos will do in the name of religion. And I would tend to agree!
watch the machinist online If the musician(s) in question were some pop band, rapper or boyband (not that I would call it music). They have no place in discussing such topics. How weird would it be if Fergie of the Black-Eyed Dogs sang a song about Tibet or Iraq among the other 11 songs about her butt or her lumps? Or how about Shakira? Britney? Marc Anthony? Anyone of those shits!
Now when a rock band does it, I listen. When Pearl Jam does it, I am blown away. Or when Megadeth does it. Leave it to bands like these.
Ok U2 does it, but I can’t stand them.
I’m # 584
Why not add yours?