Did You Miss Me?

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So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged here. That’s not because I lost interest or that I have run out of things to blog about. I guess that will never happen. The actual reason is simple – my pc died on me!

Yes I am now pc less and life is dull and boring and shitty. I hope to get the suituation rectified in a few days and with a little bit of luck, I will get myself a brand new laptop :)

If I can’t get the money for it then I will buy me a new desktop. So stay tuned and please comeback next week.

Star Trek: TOS Women 6

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Exotic, sexual, a mixed background, curvy as hell, you can’t go wrong with BarBara Luna. She’s of Italian, Hungarian-Jewish, Spanish, Portuguese and Filipino descent, and what a delightful recipe this is, resulting in a beautiful, multi-talented person.

Luna is famous for her appearance as Lt. Marlena Moreau & the alternative universe version of Moreau in the episode Mirror, Mirror. In this episode Kirk, McCoy, Uhura & Scotty are accidentally beamed to an alternative universe’s Enterprise. In our world Malena is a recently assigned Starfleet chemist for the USS Enterprise, while in the alternative universe she is also Kirk’s lover. Apparently she was the Captain’s partner in every way, and privy to all of his most private secrets. Lt. Moreau knew her Captain’s most sensitive secret of all: that he hid the deadly “tantalus device” in his quarters, and that with it, he could kill any enemy with the single touch of a button, without them even knowing what hit them.

Marlena is fueled by ambition in this mirror universe and that’s why she is with the captain. However, even knowing that something was amiss with the captain, in that he was not her Kirk but one from an alternative universe, she still came to his aid. When Kirk, Scotty, Uhura & McCoy are about to beam back to their world, she initially asks to come along. But it isn’t possible as the beam can only hold four lives. She stays back on her ship as our four heroes beam back to theirs.

Stuck On A Loop

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I’ve been having problems with my computer the last couple of days and it escalated this morning. It started when I noticed that despite shutting down my system properly before I left for work a few days ago, when I returned and switched the system on it went to do a system check. I thought that was weird but I chalked it off to perhaps not noticing that I had switched the plug off before Windows had completely shut down.

The next day it happened again and it started asking me if I wanted to do a normal start or system restore or go into Safe mode. I was puzzled and choce the normal start. I noticed no other issues and could use my pc with no hiccups and so ignored it again. Last evening, it got stuck while rebooting so this time I chose Safe Mode. It refused to boot properly and go stuck at a particular driver file – gagp30kx.sys, which after Googling, seems to be not that uncommon an issue.

After retrying bunch of times, I was able to use my system for the night and also early this morning but when I tried to start my system, it just wouldn’t boot completely. It kept looping over and over again – Safe Mode, Restore to a previous setting that worked, Normal mode. I was frustrated and spent almost 2 hours trying to fix the issue. Finally I got into Safe Mode and ran Restore System in Windows and that seems to have done the trick. I’m not sure but I can use the system and have been using it for most of the day. Watched some videos on it as well.

Come Monday and I’m going to get a Windows XP disk and format my C Drive and then reinstall Windows XP. I just can’t think of losing my hard drive. I can’t.

The Big 40 For Sherina

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She was born on this day 40 years ago, May 8th 1970 in Mattancherry, Kerala, India. The first child of my parents, first granddaughter (second grandchild) of our paternal grandparents. Well I suppose the world has suffered through worse calamaties, right?

All jokes aside, I hope she’s having a great day and enjoys her journey into her 40s. I mean next stop is pension and getting senile. She can get senior citizen discounts soon. And in some cultures age is seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, power & wealth. None of those cultures exist anymore.

I can’t believe that she has turned 40. Somehow I almost always picture my sister as this girl with hair pulled & tied back and always quite as she was during her school days. Who knew the kinda horrific evil that lurked beneath that serene demeanor!

Star World Is Downright Lame

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Cable tv in India pretty much sucks. If you want to watch English language series that is. The biggest channel that runs English language shows is Star World – they have pretty much killed off the format that works and instead have resorted to showing too many reruns and showing different episodes of the same series on multiple nights. Good if the serial is something that you like, bad if it’s something that you don’t.

Reruns of Friends are running amok on Star World. This is every day and even though I am a big fan of the series but how many times can they show the same stuff again and again? Ok, everyone loves Friends and I do too so we’ll give them that. Desperate Housewives on multiple weekend nights? Prison Break too? Bringing back reruns of Baywatch Hawaii – come on, how low can you go?

A few evenings back I noticed that they were also showing Pamela Anderson’s VIP on multiple nights too. VIP, really? How many episodes can you watch Pam bounce her twins in pink outfits while running around? Then there is the dumb Indian chat shows – Coffee With Karan. Now they have brought back grandma Simi Garewal’s show Rendezvouz? Oh come on! That is so fucking lame.

About the only good thing showing on now is Castle. Mondays through Thursdays, which just started this week. I like this show a lot but trying to catch it every night at 10pm is going to be tough. I prefer the once a week format. Almost everything else on Star World sucks!

2012

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I recently watched 2012 on dvd, a copy that I’d bought a few weeks ago. It’s a movie that ultimately grossed over $769 million worldwide, becoming director Roland Emmerich’s second highest grossing film, behind Independence Day.

Such a big budget & big name movie based on the 2012 phenomenon gets a lot of praise and a lot of criticism as well. The special effects are to be commended and the realism of it is absolutely stupendous. Ofcourse not everyone will like it but I did. Here’s my few view points on this film.

  • Disaster & big budget films like this are not usually known for the great acting & the memorable dialogues, but I thought that British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor did a very good job. Firefly fans may remember him as the operative from the movie Serenity.
  • What I didn’t like and found to be unbelievable is the “suddenness” of the events. Towards the end yes some time is shown to have passed before the arcs reach the Cape Of Good Hope but the rest of it? Doubtful.
  • Jimi Mistry doesn’t sound Indian at all in this film. He sounded more authentic in The Guru.
  • Another movie where the American President is shown to be heroic and morally a champion. Really?
  • I thought Oliver Platt was also really good in his somewhat anti-hero role as the President’s Chief Of Staff.
  • Dialogues can be so corny in these movie. Amanda Peet’s character has divorced from her husband, played by John Cusack. She now has a boyfriend, who lives with her and her kids. During all this, the new lover is killed and the family of four is back together again. At the end of the movie, as the arcs sight land and the survivors gather to watch as they approach it, Cusack hugs Peet from behind, she kisses him and says “Where have you been all my life?” Answer: Waiting by the sidelines while you were fucking some other guy, you whore?”
  • Nice to see Stephen McHattie in a big budget movie of this nature, even if his role is minor.
  • A Star Trek connection – John Billingsly (Enterprise’s Doctor Phlox) also has a minor role.
  • (Stargate Universe‘s Dale Volker) Patrick Gilmore too has a minor role as does veteran actor Patrick Bachau.

8 outta 10!

A Wish For Rain & Coffee

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It has been a very tiring week. Month end reports, searching for data. Working on data. Computing data. Struggling to get data. Then putting it together to create more data. Working on Excel sheets and ppts. Sending out emails after emails. But it’s been worse than the previous year and a half. But I am glad that it’s over….for now.

I have also been feeling a little tired. Actually a whole lot tired and it’s because I can’t get much sleep these days. It hasn’t rained since last Friday night. Well maybe a little trickle. And it’s hot & humid and dry as a desert. So I sweat a lot and I get drained of energy. I lie in bed every night watching a movie or tv series. After an hour, my sheets & pillow covers are soaked. I drink a lot of water to replace all the liquid that I lose but what about the salt?

Anyway, I decided to leave the office 30 minutes early and headed out to Cafe Coffee Day near Shenoy’s Junction. After suffering some really annoying fellow passengers who acted like idiots rather than grown men, I got down and walked over to the cafe…it was empty of customers and cool! Perfect. I bought a hot dog and a frappe and it felt good. I love coffee but I love it even more when it’s cold. Especially during weather like this.

Then I came home and it’s even more hot and sweaty. I hope it rains.

I’ve Anti-Spammed Myself

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I recently activated the anti-spam plugin Akismet for my blog. I’ve had it for a very long time but it was lying inactive for all while. I had another anti-spam software that seemed to do the job well enough for me, although it did bury the occasional actual comment.

Then when I changed to this particular theme that I currently have, I noticed that the anti-spam was not working. Not compatible or something. I tried deactivating it and then reactivating it, hoping that it would clear up but it didn’t. Even deleting it, then downloading it again and installing it didn’t do the trick. So I had to look for a replacement. Akismet was already around, so why not give it a shot?

It also seemed to be the choice as far as most bloggers I know go to when it comes to anti-spamming. So I activated it and it seems to be working fine with one tiny glitch – it seems to be blocking all my replies to comments on my own blog! What the fuck? I can’t reply back to comments on my own blog! I have to click on the Spam options and then select my replies and click on ‘Not Spam’ and then approve my comments. It’s getting a bit annoying and I’m pissed off.

Arsenal 1 Blackburn Rovers 2

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Things go from bad to worse to downright shitty for the Gunners. Chris Samba scored the winner as Blackburn came from behind to defeat Arsenal, who must wait to secure third place in the Premier League.

Robin van Persie put Arsenal ahead with a header from six yards but Blackburn equalised when David Dunn tapped home after a corner was not cleared. Lukasz Fabianski saved from Morten Gamst Pedersen and Junior Hoilett. But Rovers bombarded the Arsenal keeper with high balls, and it was from a corner that Samba headed the winner.

The home team are assured of a mid-table finish after moving from 13th to 10th in the table. But Arsenal’s aim of finishing third – and therefore avoiding having to qualify for the group stage of next season’s Champions League – could go down to the final day. The Gunners have one game left to play, but Manchester City and Tottenham, who play each other on Wednesday, lead the chasing pack and could still potentially catch Arsenal.

Recruiting My Amigo

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A couple of weeks ago, when I came to know that the current AM for Administration in our office had resigned, I asked the center head and the AM for HR if they would be looking out for a replacement from outside or would they want to fill the gap from within. At that time, they weren’t sure but they told me to send in a resume if I had anyone to recommend. And since my close friend Madhu currently works for a company as AM Admin, I thought he’d fit the bill.

He was working for a company in Paroor but wasn’t very happy there. Sure the post was that of AM but he wasn’t getting the kind of pay that he would get here. So I called him up and asked him if he was interested. Having worked for a BPO or 3, he knew most of the requirements and what the role would demanded. He was keen on getting into a company like the one I work for. I filled him in on the pros & cons and asked him to email me his resume.

Well, I circulated the resume and yesterday a Sr. Manager of Administration, who was in town, met me and asked me about Madhu. And today they asked me if I could get him into the office for an interview. Madhu came in around 5:30 pm and attended a 90 minute interview. This is round one and if he gets through the next 2 rounds and does better than the other 3 or 4 candidates who have applied for the post, then he will be selected and I will have an ‘amigo’ around in the office. That will be good.

I Don’t Like Mondays

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Don’t you just hate Mondays? I do and I do so with the most heartfelt hatred that there is. I get two Saturdays off in a month and I really do enjoy the ‘proper’ weekend that I am privileged to receive. But the worst part of a 2 day weekend (after being so used to a 1 day off work week) is adjusting to working on a Monday.

See, unlike when you have only a single day off (Sunday), you have more time to relax, enjoy, sleep and basically get back to doing the natural things that make you human. So now getting back to the office grind is twice is hard. This also happens to me twice a month. Like the last weekend – I had a sore throat and a bit of a cough and so I decided to take it easy and stay in the whole time. Watching movies and tv series and getting lots of sleep seemed very enticing.

So as I went in to work today, I found myself being dragged in different directions at the same time. I was doing 3 things at once, working on 3 reports while balancing 2 calls and 4 issues. Couldn’t attend a meeting properly because my mind is on completing the month end reports. The day did pass by very quickly and was kinda slow too at the same time. Know what I mean? Can’t wait to say goodbye to today.

Touch Of Pink

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There’s one big reason to watch this movie – the acting of Suleka Matthew. Touch Of Pink is a 2004 film directed and written by Ian Iqbal Rashid and takes its name from the Cary Grant movie That Touch of Mink. The film, revolving around Muslims and being gay.

Alim (Jimi Mistry) is a gay young man working in the film industry in London, UK. He originally left Toronto to get away from his conservative family – his mother Nuru (Suleka Mathew), his aunt Dolly (Veena Sood) & his well meaning uncle Hassan (Brian George). He lives a comfortable life in London, sharing an apartment with his British boyfriend Giles (Kristen Holden-Reid). However his life in the closet is about to be turned upside down when his mother decides to pay him a visit, feeling sad that Alim is not around for the upcoming wedding of his cousin & Dolly’s son Khaled (Raoul Bhaneja).

In London Alim pretends that Giles is just his roommate, whom Nuru doesn’t like and sarcastically calls as ‘egg stealer’ when he eats some of the breakfast she had made for her son – even if there is a lot of it left for Alim. She lays on the guilt heavily for Alim and he even pretends that he is going to marry Delia, Giles’ sister to put on a front of being straight. Giles meanwhile wins over Nuru by taking her out on the town and dancing in the evening. When Nuru finds out that Giles & Alim are actually lovers she is upset & humiliated and leaves back for Toronto.

Alim is upset with Giles that he is not taking things seriously while Giles is angry with Alim for insulting his own mother. They break up temporarily and Alim decides to go attend his cousin’s wedding. While back there, we understand that Khaled & Alim had homosexual relations while they were younger, which Alim is not too proud off. Giles relents and comes to Canada to reunite with his love. Seeing the two of them at the party, Nuru decides to welcome Giles into her family and opens up to her relatives about her son being gay and having a non-Muslim & white lover.

One of the highlights of the movie is that to navigate through his complicated life, Alim uses the spirit of Cary Grant (played by Kyle McLachlan) as his confidante and advisor. The witty banter & conversations between Alim & his imaginary friend are well done. As is Suleka’s acting. It’s not a great film but it does have it’s moments and is worth watching. 7 outta 10!