When I grew older and discovered bookshops (both new and used), I started buying more and more books, and will honestly admit to being a big fan. For at least the past 10 years, I have been buying every new piece of fiction that he has published, and I have never regretted it! From what I have read, he has another one coming out this year, but that will be the last one – unless of course his son decides to follow in his footsteps and publish more – then I would give him the benefit of the doubt and try a couple. Unfortunately, once an author dies, it is difficult for someone to continue. An example is Erik Van Lustbader taking over from Robert Ludlum for the Jason Bourne series. I bought the first one that he had published, but it just wasn’t up to the level that I expected from a Ludlum Jason Bourne title. Not that I don’t like Van Lustbader – I do! It just wasn’t Ludlum.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank Dick Francis for giving me many hours of reading pleasure. You will be missed!

As for a song, well, I am going to give you one by REM. I saw a MTV Live concert today which featured them playing in Milan in 2008. It was a really good performance, so here is a live performance of REM singing (what I consider to be) their signature tune, Losing My Religion.

Peace!

I was watching the most recent episode last night. It was last night because I had recorded it and my first chance to watch it was last night when I got back from Charlotte.

Anyway, back to the episode.

McGee is examining a car that was blown up at the beginning of an episode. Since the owner was a marine, NCIS was called in to investigate. Gibbs asks McGee to call a tow truck, but when he pulls out his cell phone, he is unable to get a signal. Tony then makes a comment that “My therapist’s waiting room is also a dead zone.” (the dialog is not 100% accurate – this is from memory!)

There is a pause until it dawns upon Tony as to what he has said, and he suddenly looks sheepishly at McGee who is staring intensely at him.

McGee then asks Tony “Therapist?”

“Um yeah, my physical therapist” replies Tony, not looking convincing in any way!

McGee then asks him why he is seeing a physical therapist to which Tony replies, “My knees”.

“How did you injure your knees?” asks McGee.

Tony give him a half smile and then offers up an explanation – “kneeling!”

I guess you have to watch it to understand, but I was almost on the floor laughing!

Watch NCIS – Tuesday nights at 8pm EST on CBS. Some of the best programming on television today!

Now – for a song. How about Hey Ya by Outkast?

Rather than the song alone, how about the song set to some funny moments from NCIS?

Oh, and just to help you understand why I think that Cote De Pablo is really attractive, take a look at this video, which is taken from NCIS:

Peace!

So now that I’ve spoken about Charlotte, you may be wondering about Glenn Beck. I remember when he was on CNN, and wondered how they put him there as he seemed to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic basket. If you don’t know who he is, Glenn Beck is a conservative charlatan, someone who takes slices of the truth and makes a sandwich that suits his divisive agenda. I hate politics, and feel that there are good and bad people on both sides of the political fence, but there are some out there that just plain irritate me. Joining Beck in that club would be the original pill popping Telly Tubby Rush Limbaugh, stick insect hate monger Ann Coulter, and of course Dick “I am Darth Vader” Cheney, the Dark Lord of the Sith himself.

I can understand why one side doesn’t like the other. I can understand that they have fundamental differences, and that it is a base emotion to fear what we don’t understand. What I can’t understand is why people like this sprout their hatred in the name of truth.

For example, I caught a bit of the Glenn Beck show about 10 minutes ago, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he wasn’t crying (he does that quite often, but I guess that’s what a good actor can do – cry on demand). As expected, his diatribe was based upon the State of the Union address from last night. He spoke specifically about President Obama’s threat to sign an executive order to get a bipartisan committee started on the deficit. The Senate had blocked a bill that would have created that committee just the day before. So Beck starts talking about how Obama is saying that Congress is irrelevant and about how the people were irrelevant because Obama was using an Executive Order. Hmm, interesting, isn’t it. When Bush was President and the Republicans had the majority, I don’t remember any complaints then! Look at this, in his 8 years in office, President Bush signed 284 Executive Orders. Obama has signed 41 so far. It’s so funny (not ha ha funny) how these blowhards get so worked up about things that Democrats are doing when they were doing the exact same thing when they were in power. It’s just retarded, it really is.

The country is not out of the woods yet – we are still in the grips of a recession – rather than divisive politics let’s all work together to make this country great again. What’s wrong with that notion? My assumption would be that people like Glenn Beck only want to see an America that they envisage, an America that is devoid of any diversity, where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and people like him with a hate filled rhetoric can run wild.

I’m off my soapbox now – so I’ll add a video for you. What can I pick?

The video is “Pork and Beans” by Weezer, and I really like the chorus:

I’mma do the things that I wanna do

I ain’t got a thing to prove to you

I’ll eat my candy with my pork and beans

Excuse my manners if I make a scene

I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like

I’m fine and dandy with the me inside

One look in the mirror and I’m tickled pink

I don’t give a hoot about what you think

Powerful lyrics, eh?

Peace!

Which leads me to this post – I now have a job. Scratch that, I have a job, but I haven’t started working yet. It’s a 12 month contract in Charlotte, and I was supposed to start on Tuesday, but since my background checks haven’t completed, I will start on Wednesday or Thursday (hopefully). After being unemployed for more than a year (I don’t count my 2 months at the dealership since it was a non IT job), to say that this was a welcome relief would be the understatement of all understatements. To be perfectly honest, if I hadn’t been able to find a job by the end of January, then I was going to put my house on the market and move back to the UK. That was not what I wanted to do, but I just couldn’t wait any longer. Look at it from my perspective – I can go home (the UK) whenever I want to – if and when I go back, it should be because I choose to – not because I have to. It may sound like a male ego sort of thing, but I can assure you that it isn’t. I moved here 9 years ago, and to be forced to go back would be tantamount to failure – in my own opinion of course.

When the call came about the job – that the client had accepted me, I was stunned. It was about 20 minutes after my 2nd interview, and it was around 5pm on a Friday evening. My recruiter (a really nice lady called Shannon) called and asked me “Would you like to hear some good news?”, and it was like a great big burden had been lifted from me. No tears, no smiles. Just relief. For a while, not feeling like a failure, not wondering what I am going to do tomorrow, not analyzing every single decision that I have made over the last 10 years and wondering what my life would be like if I had chosen differently. As I said, relief.

The first call that I made was to my parents. After me, they were probably the next in line of a long line of people who were worried about my future. Maybe even more than me in some ways. I guess you never stop being a parent, no matter how old your children are. I could feel the relief coming over the telephone when I told them. My mind wandered over 3700 miles to their house and I could see the relief in my minds eye. It was a good feeling. I was at a loss for words after I told them, my mind a turmoil of emotions. Relief – one of the best emotions that you can feel, believe me.

Anyway, the past week has been one of patience. I signed the contract with the recruiting company on Monday. However, since the client is a Bank, I have to have my background thoroughly checked. They require 10 years of background, and since I have only been here for 9 years, they have to do an international background check. That’s what I am currently waiting for. Once I have that, I can get a start date and then I have to start commuting to Charlotte every week. It’s not too bad, as Charlotte is only two and a half hours away. So my plan is to drive up early on Monday mornings and spend the week there, and then drive back home on Friday nights so that I can spend the weekend at home. My friend Bejoy made a comment about commuting which I think is very apt. He told me that commuting would remove any lethargy that I may have lingering throughout my being. He was right. I’ve spent the past year at home, sitting and waiting and applying. Getting out and about and not having to fly is the best thing for me.

So I wait.

Last week, I saw the movie “The Soloist”, starring Robert Downey Jr and Eddie Foxx. It’s the true story about a homeless man by the name of Nathaniel Ayers (played by Foxx) who is interviewed by a reporter named Steve Lopez (played by Downey Jr). Lopez hears him play the violin, and discovers that he used to be a student at Julliard in the ’70s. It’s a story about a man who was on his way to become someone, but a mental illness derailed his journey, and left him homeless. Lopez starts out as an opportunistic reporter who is looking for a quick story. It develops into a rocky friendship with Lopez reporting about Ayer’s predicament. One of his readers, an elderly lady who used to play the cello, but had to give it up because of arthritis, actually sends her cello to Lopez to give to Ayers, after Lopez writes that Nathaniel actually loves to play the cello. It’s a very nice movie, and one that highlights the plight of homeless people in Los Angeles. I would like to echo one of my earlier posts – how about a war on homelessness?

Anyway, one of my favorite lines in the movie, comes when Foxx is sweeping an area on the street where he plans to sleep. Lopez is asking him about the areas that he selects to sleep, and he utters something like this:

“I used to sleep on Wall Street, but I don’t any more. It’s too dirty.”

Awesome line. Just awesome.

Oh, and so true, too!

So I am sitting here, and writing this post while watching “I love you man”, starring Jason Segel, Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones. It’s a very funny movie, and had me in stitches quite frequently! If you get the chance, you should go and watch it. Oh, I mean get the DVD, or watch it On Demand, as it is not in the theaters!

Ah, now it is time to select a song. Decisions, decisions.

Got it!

Another one bites the dust by Queen!

Peace!

It’s what is officially known as Selective Amnesia, or as I like to call it, Bullshit Fever.

Politicians don’t realize that in this day and age, pretty much anything that they have ever said in public is available in the public domain. Which means, at a very high level, check your own past before criticizing anyone else’s past.

I just read an example on CNN.com. From none other than former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who seems to have had the biggest memory lapse of all. Recently, a lot of former Bush Administration officials (Darth Cheney, Dana “I’m pretty so I can say what I want” Perino and former Darth Cheney aide or paduan, Mary Matalin have made statements about the lack of domestic terror attacks under George Bush.

Really?

I mean, really?

Here’s the quote by Giuliani:

“We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama”

He made that quote on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Do you see where I am going with this?

The biggest domestic attack which occurred on September 11th 2001 happened when Bush was president. We all know how he reacted to that.

Now some of you may say that this was the beginning, and that anything after that counts, since it was only after that, that the “War on Terror” began. I don’t agree with you – he was President, and the buck stops there. However, even if I conceded that point, then what about the Shoe Bomber Richard Reid in late 2001? Wasn’t that a domestic terror attack?

Oh, and those are the ones that are publicly known. Whatever your views, you have to consider the fact that there may have been other attacks that are kept under wraps for National Security reasons.

Either way, ever since Darth Cheney left office, he has done nothing more than criticize the people that have taken over. Instead of constant criticism and name calling, how about doing something constructive? Well, I know that asking him to shut the hell up would be constructive, but I mean how about doing something to help? Terrorists attacking this country is a problem that faces us all – irrespective of our political or religious beliefs. Shouldn’t we be working towards resolving that?

It’s like the time when the war in Iraq was becoming less popular (not long after the “Mission Accomplished” debacle). All of a sudden, if you were against the war, then you were automatically against the troops. What a colossal load of crap! Everyone supports the troops – well everyone except those crazy church weirdos who say that any soldier who dies in Iraq dies because we allow homosexuality to “run rampant” in this country. You know who I mean.

Back on topic though, it is typical for those who want to use pressure and fear to make statements like that. I’ve always supported the troops, even though I have always felt that the war in Iraq was a mistake. If you don’t agree with me, consider one simple fact. We are opening schools in other countries, and closing schools in our own. Does that sound like it makes sense to you? It doesn’t to me. Instead of a “War on Terror”, I have some other suggestions:

“War on Homelessness”

“War on AIDS”

“War on cancer”

“War on drugs”

“War on ignorance”

That last one may sound a little out there, but believe me, the solution for that war is simple – education!

Oh, and I also think that if members of Congress didn’t get such exemplary healthcare, then our national debate wouldn’t be as hard. A friend of mine went for his annual checkup last week, and he asked his doctor what he thought. His doctor said that anything would be better than what existed today. Anything.

I guess that says it all!

Anyway, my post was about selective amnesia. Watch the Daily Show – you will see a lot of reports on it, because it seems like politicians like to talk. Without thinking first )

A song. What sort of song could follow such a post?

How about “Silent Lucidity” by Queensryche?

Peace!

1. I started the year unemployed for the first time since 1993

I suppose that this statement is pretty self explanatory. In addition to that. I started claiming unemployment too – also for the first time! Not that I am particularly proud of that, but it was more of the harsh reality of life at that time. The country was struggling, in the grips of a recession, and we all suffered. I guess my biggest problem was that I couldn’t accept the fact that after working for so many years, and being loyal to a company I was cast out without a second thought. Truth be told, I always knew that the day would come, but I buried my head in the sand and tried to ignore it. Hey – I’ve had a year to sit back and analyze my life – I know where I went wrong!

2. I sold cars for the first time

In April, after sitting at home for almost 4 months, I applied for a job at my local BMW dealership, and they hired me. I sold my first car on my first day on the showroom floor. It was a great experience, and the lessons that I learned there will be with me forever.

3. I went to an American court for the first time

Before you start oohing and aahing, let me explain. A friend of mine was being stalked by his ex girlfriend. The harassment continued across multiple mediums (phone calls, email, text messages), including visits to his office, and the supermarkets that he shopped at. It got so bad that we had to go to the police, and then saw a lawyer about taking out an order of protection. The way that it works is that you are granted a temporary restraining order for 1 week. The police will inform the (alleged) accused, and then in a week’s time you have to go back to court. If the accused denies the charge, then that is the time that they can protest and present evidence to the judge. If you don’t deny the charge, then don’t show up, and then the judge will impose a 1 year order of protection.

In this case, we didn’t expect her to show up at court, but she did. and she denied that events had taken place the way that they had. I may have neglected to mention that her harassment included threatening to kill herself if he didn’t go and meet her immediately so that she could ‘give him something’ (insert appropriate Psycho squeak squeak music here’)

She showed up an hour late and wasn’t penalized, but then decided to protest the charges by using phrases such as “but I’m a woman, and all women are like that – our moods can change – don’t you realize that” and “I didn’t text him that”, at which point we would provide the judge with a copy of the offending text message or email or even phone message. Oh yes, we were prepared.

While she was appearing as a witness in her own defense, I have anointed her as the witness for the prosecution. The judge (a nice lady) was not impressed with her explanations, and the constant lying. So she warned her to behave herself, and awarded my friend an order of protection for 1 year. It was quite the experience!

4. I dialed 911 and “called the po-po” for the first time

I mean no disrespect by using the phrase “po-po”, I was just trying (and failing miserably) to be cool/hip/relevant!

Nothing major here – my neighbor’s daughter backed her car into my friend’s mini van which was parked outside my house. I’m still unsure why, but he wanted me to call the police since it was in front of my house. So I did, and explained that it was not an emergency, but that we wanted a police report for insurance purposes. The officer was really nice, and my friend did get his mini van fixed!

5. I went to Tennessee for the first time

I was persuaded by some friends to accompany them on their long weekend (4th of July) trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains to spend the weekend in a log cabin. I had a great time, and actually left the state for the first time in almost 2 years. Oh, and it was my first visit to Tennessee! In almost 10 years here!

6. I became a Mac believer and traded in my Blackberry for an iPhone

My friend Mithun had constantly explained to me the benefits of an iPhone, and it didn’t take much to get me hooked. I had a Blackberry Bold at the time, but the OS was a little buggy, and the phone would routinely shut down. To make matters worse, there was no indication of the shutdown – until to activated the phone (by pressing any button) – at that point you would see a teeny tiny reset button in the middle of the screen. As a result, I would miss a lot of a calls. As someone who was actively (and somewhat desperately) searching for work, I couldn’t afford to miss any calls. So I traded…up! I must admit that I do love my iPhone. More than I loved my Blackberry! Next stop – a MacBook Pro!!!!

7. I fell down in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant and tore my trousers!

Yes, it is as pathetic as it sounds. While working at the dealership, I went to a local Chinese restaurant for lunch one day. I was carrying a book as I walked across the parking lot (I like to read when I am eating alone), and went over on my ankle while stepping on a broken piece of tarmac. Next thing I know, I am rolling on the ground like a pregnant hippo, and there is a nice Mexican couple rushing to help me. I stood up and realized that I had twisted my ankle, and that my trousers had ripped.

I went back to the dealership and told my manager that I needed to go home to change. It was when I got home and took off my left shoe that my ankle started to expand rather rapidly. I called the dealership and explained that I was going to have to stay off my ankle for a day or two, and they were cool with that.

I mention it here because I must have looked like a drunk, space cadet trying out the Matrix moves as I went down. I am sure that the nice Mexican couple who came to help me must have started to laugh first until they realized that I was hurt! That’s ok though, I would have laughed at myself if someone had videotaped it!

8. I was tipped by a customer at a gig.

My friends have formed a band called G-RaZZ, and I just help them out. During one of their gigs, at an Ind0-Chinese restaurant called Pao Lim, I was sitting behind the sound mixer controlling the music and the mikes, when one of the customers walked up to me, smiled, and slipped $5 under the mixer! I was the one who was contributing the least – I wasn’t singing (my singing prowess has been known to frighten dogs and small children, so I refrain from doing that in public!).

There are other smaller, less significant events. I bought my first DSLR and found out that there is more to taking pictures than point and shoot. I changed my car. I lost weight, but it didn’t go very far as I was able to find it again! I saw Transformers 2 twice! I was blown away by District 9. I thought that I had found the one, but I was (yet again) wrong. I made some new friends.

That’s all that I can think of. I need to get some sleep, so I will leave you with a soft, sad song. It’s called “Sad Lisa” by Cat Stevens. I hope that you like it.

Peace!

The story centers around Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a down and out wrestler who once headlined Madison Square Gardens, but is now relegated to wrestling in high school gyms. He is in love with a jaded stripper named Pam, who is played by the still lovely Marisa Tomei (dead on balls accurate!). During the first match, you see Randy cutting himself in the forehead during a match, a technique that I believe they call blading – but I could be wrong.

He lives in a trailer, has little in the way of possessions, and even has a hearing aid. It is as far from the glitz and glamour of the WWE as you can get!

After one very brutal match, back in the locker room you see Randy throw up, clutch his left arm, and then collapse.

He wakes up in hospital, and is told that he has had a heart attack. The doctor goes on to explain that while he can recover and lead a relatively normal life, going back to professional wrestling will more than likely kill him. He then retires, gets a job at a supermarket deli counter, and tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood. She wants nothing to do with him, despite him explaining that he had a heart attack and was looking to fix his life. She believes that he wants her to take care of her, and refuses to entertain any sort of reconciliation.

Dejected, Ram goes back to the strip club and tries to talk to Pam. Since she is working, she says that she can’t really talk to him, but after hearing about his heart attack, fakes a smoke break so that she could go out to the parking lot and talk to him. He asks for her help in buying clothes for his daughter to make amends, and she gives him some suggestions. After thinking about it, she even offers to help him shop for his daughter. She helps him pick up a lovely coat, even though he picks out this hideous green jacket with a big S on it (S stands for Stephanie, his daughter). They go for a beer, and even make out a bit, but she is too wary of getting involved with a customer, so she backs off.

He meets his daughter and gives her his gift, and they have a sort of reconciliation. She agrees to go with him and he takes her to a deserted casino on the waterfront where they end up dancing. He apologizes to her for being a rotten father, and you can see the emotion written on his face. As they walk back to the van, there is a nice scene where she looks at him, and then links her arm in his, resting her head on his meaty shoulder. Very nice father-daughter moment! They agree to have dinner on Saturday night,

However, when he goes back to the bar to pick up with Pam, they end up in a shouting match which culminates in him asking for a dance. She tells him to f**k off, and he gets kicked out of the bar. Dejected by her rejection (my English is well below par!), he goes to a convention, and ends up doing some drugs and having sex with a groupie who seems to be fixated on firemen! He ends up sleeping through the day, and completely  missing out on his date with his daughter. He goes to her apartment to apologize, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She was done and told him in no uncertain terms that she no longer hated or loved him – but she never wanted to see him or hear from him again.

Completely down, Randy goes back to his job at the deli counter, but no longer has any passion for what he does. After an altercation with a fan who recognizes him, Randy deliberately puts his thumb, slicing it open, and then quits his job amidst the blood and a flurry of f-bombs!

At this point, Randy feels like there is nobody in the world that cares about him, so he signs on to do this 20th anniversary show against this faux Iranian wrestler, played by Ernest “The Cat” Williams. Even though his doctor has forbidden him to wrestle, he tells everyone that it was nothing serious, and that he is good to go.

Meanwhile, Pam is at home with her son, and she sees him playing with an action figure of Randy that he had given her for her son. She feels bad about the way that she treated him, and decides to make amends. She finds him packing his van to go on the trip to the wrestling show. She can’t understand why he is doing it, and apologizes for her behavior. He tells her not to worry and invites her to come to the show.

Then we see Randy getting ready to go out, and Pam shows up. She asks him to reconsider, given his recent medical issues. He tells her something along the lines of “it’s people out here who rip my heart up and cause me the most pain – out there is the only place where I am loved”. She continues to plead with him, saying that she was there for him now. He says that he has to go out – that is where people like him belong. Turning his back on her, he goes through the entrance curtains to the sound of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o Mine”.

He then gives a heartwarming speech to the wrestling fans about how they were his real family as they were the only folks that stood by him all these years and he really appreciated it. Once the match starts, Randy starts to have some chest pains, and his opponent, Bob, realizes that something is wrong and says that he will finish the match for him (in Randy’s favor). Randy refuses, and goes through the motions of his regular moves, all to entertain the fans. Clutching his chest, he goes to the top rope to deliver his patented “Ram Jam”, which is a diving head butt. With tears streaming down his face, he salutes the crowd as he makes his leap, and the camera fades to black.

Mickey Rourke has once again shown that he has the talent to portray damaged human beings quite well. The supporting cast also does a bang up job, showing us the harsher side of life.

Going back to my earlier point, while this is a wrestling themed movie, the message that it conveys can be related to virtually any walk of life. It talks about a man who put his career before his family, and stayed in that career long after he should have. He no longer has any of the advantages of youth, and shouldn’t be doing the things that he does – not at that point in his life.

Like most of us, he is looking for love, unsure exactly how to do so. He sees a kindred spirit in Pam, but circumstances and their own scarred pasts make this coupling almost impossible. He makes many mistakes, just as most of us do. He also feels a closer to connection to strangers than he does his own family. Despite not living in a deserted wilderness, he feels like a lot of us do – alone. Alone in a multitude of other human beings. Sort of a contradiction, but something very real.

Anyway, it was a good movie, not something that children should be allowed to watch under any circumstances.

I’m sitting here typing this and watching the end of “I am Legend”, starring another great actor, Will Smith!

Anyway, in reference to that film, here’s my song of the day:

Peace!

I had logged onto my WordPress console a short while ago, intent on writing a post about what I had done for New Years, and how 2o1o was shaping up for me so far. Then I saw the “Upgrade to WordPress 2.9″ button, and went for the automatic upgrade. As I was planning on removing procrastination from my life as much as possible, I figured that I would go ahead and upgrade first. Imagine my surprise when it didn’t work!!  This is the error that I received:

Could not copy file: /public_html/blog/wp-content/upgrade/wordpress-2.9/wordpress/wp-comments-post.php

I tried running the upgrade again, thinking that maybe it was a temporary issue. Alas, that didn’t work. So I Googled the error message and came across a site that had encountered the same error for a WordPress 2.8.5 upgrade. His solution – just manually deactivate all your Plugins and then try it again. Could the solution be that simple? Well, there was only one way to find out – and so here I am, blogging on WordPress 2.9 )

My thanks to Metalpigs blog for posting that – made my upgrade a lot simpler! If you would like to check out the article that I referenced above, then please click here.

Now, onto the New Year.

I may or may not have mentioned this before, but my friends have formed a group, a quintet as it were, and they sing songs at restaurants – mostly Bollywood hits, but some “golden oldies” too. The name of the group is G-RaZZ, and please don’t ask me what it means, because I have either forgotten, and it means nothing. So G-RaZZ were booked to sing at a local Indian restaurant’s New Year’s eve bash. My role in the group is just support – I created their website, their Facebook page, and perform roadie style tasks – setup and dismantling their equipment, as well as looking after the sound during their performances (or at least attempting to!)

The party was a blast! In addition to my friends singing, the restaurant (Sitar India Palace in Durham) had also hired a belly dancer, who put on quite the show! I must admit that it was my first belly dancing performance (viewing not performing), but I thought that she did a great job – from the applause that she received, the audience loved her too! Her name was Sara Beaman, and you can visit her website here.

The guys started playing around 8:45pm, but unlike our earlier shows, people were dancing by around 9:15pm. We had over 3 hours of material ready, but it felt like it went a lot quicker than that. The crowd were very much into the music, and I think that the selection that we had chosen appealed to the entire audience. Knowing very few words of Hindi (the language in which most of the songs were sung), I can’t tell you what most of the songs were about – specifically – but the themes (as I have been told), were things that most of us can relate to – friendship, family and most of all, love!

Other than a few hiccups with the sound (as I said earlier, I try my best!), the program went off without a hitch. I took a lot of photographs, and it was an night that was enjoyed by all! We were done playing by around 12:30am or so, and then we had some dinner (we were starving at that point, and the food that was provided didn’t disappoint!), followed by the arduous task of putting all our equipment away. I got home around 2:30am or so, but found that I couldn’t sleep. Sometimes you get to that point when you are really tired, too tired in fact, to do anything. Especially sleep! So I stayed up and watched TV for a while, and then went to bed around 5am. All in all, a great New Year!

As to what I have done since then, well, I’ve had two game nights at my friend Girish’s house. The first night we played a new version of Clue – some sort of spy version – which I really liked. It was fast paced, didn’t require too much setup, and was an enjoyable game. We followed that by a few games of Fifa 10 with my friends Girish and Strat – enjoyed that too. The next game night was slightly different – while we did end up playing Fifa 10 at the end of the night, we played a board game called Power Grid. It was a lot more complicated, but was also very enjoyable. You can read about that game here.

That brings us to today – Sunday.

Well, today I went to see my friends Sonali and Uttam, and their baby daughter Reva. I haven’t spent much time with Reva after she was born, mostly because I had this nagging cold that I was unable to get rid of. Actually, I still haven’t been able to rid myself of this cold, but it has come down to the point where it no longer bothers me – as much! It was good to see her, and boy has she grown! It was nice to catch up with my friends, and Uttam and I took a drive to BJs to do some shopping. We were trying to do some comparison to Sam’s Club, but were unable to come up with a clear winner. I guess my Sam’s Club is closer and seems to be bigger. Oh, and they sell petrol cheaper than most places – normally!

After I came back, I watched the end of David Tennant’s role as the Doctor in Doctor Who. I was sad to see him go, as I felt (as did most people apparently) that he was by far the best Doctor. I haven’t seen anything that the new guy (Matt Smith) has been in, but only time will tell if he will do any justice to the role. Doctor Who has been around for many years, and while I originally loved Christopher Eccleston, I really felt that David Tennant nailed the role. I will write a separate post about Doctor Who. Allons y!

After that I saw a movie called Bangkok Dangerous – not the original, but the remake from 2008 with Nicholas Cage (when he owned all of his houses). The movie was ok, nothing special.

So it’s now 12:16am, and I am typing this while a movie called “The Mod Squad” is playing on the so called idiot box. This movie too is just ok – nothing special. I think that I have to go to the theatre and finally watch something really good like “Avatar” or maybe even “Sherlock Holmes”. Now that people are back to work and school from today, I guess I could go and watch them in relative peace!

So I will end this post with one more “Happy New Year!”

I hope that 2010 brings you nothing but happiness and prosperity.

Here’s a song that I really like – it’s by a singer called James Carrington, and it’s called “Ache”. I hope that you enjoy it.

Peace!

Early last week, I was in my car, listening to the ’90s radio station on Sirius, when I heard a song that was a blast from the past. The song in question is “How Bizarre” by a New Zealand group called OMZ. Here’s the video:

Back in 1996, my sister had just been married, and I had just bought my first car, a white Citroen ZX 1.9TD. Funny side story actually – I bought my car using my sister’s wedding as a reason. Sound bizarre? Let me explain!

I love to drive. Always have. Even though I could ride a motorbike before I could drive a car, I just love being out on the open road. I don’t know why, but that’s just how I am! So when my sister was getting married, and I was due to go to Cardiff and help out with everything, my 23 year old mind thought – now is the right time. So I went to a dealership with my friend Jamie, and bought a car that was just put on the lot. She was beautiful, and she was mine. They gave me the car the day before I was due to drive down to Cardiff – and driving home in rush hour traffic, I didn’t really get to push her at all. When I got back, I called my dad, and said something along the lines of “wouldn’t it be good if I had a car too – that way when I get down there, I can be of more help.” He agreed, not realizing what I had done!

However, I do not get anywhere by being deceptive – even something as harmless as this. When I started my drive down to Wales the next day, I discovered that if I went above 45 mph, the front of my new pride and joy would start to wobble like a hula hoop dancer on speed. This made for a very long journey down to Cardiff – and not an enjoyable. To cut a long story short, when I got to Cardiff and took my car to the local Citroen dealership, I was told that my car was not roadworthy as someone had bent two of the rims and put so much weight on the front tires that I was lucky that I hadn’t crashed. I also found that between that time that I had signed for the car, and the time that I had picked it up (it was over a weekend), someone had added a little over 1200 miles to it. Just my luck, eh?

Ah – but I digress – back to the song.

So at the time that this song came out, I was spending a lot of time with my sister, my brother, and my (then) brother in law. Those were some fun times! The weather was great, the days were long, and we spent a lot of time driving around. So when I hear that song, I can close my eyes and remember this song playing on the car radio, and all of us singing along to it! Now that I think of it, there was another one too – “I can never be your woman” by White Town.

Here’s the video for that one:

In addition to the song, the fact that an Indian was “White Town” intrigued us I guess!

It’s weird – the fact that we can associate music – or songs – to moments from our past. It’s as if the song is a musical trigger, that digs deep into our memory banks and retrieves images at the speed of sound – without any prompting from us. Now that I think of these moments though, I feel old! That was 13 years ago! It was a lot of fun though – we had a lot of good times. I guess since I don’t get to see my siblings that often any more, I can connect with these moments that much more. My brother is still in Cardiff, looking to relocate to London with the first job opportunity that comes his way. My sister is now an English teacher in South Korea, teaching young, impressionable minds that “Jay-Z rocks, innnit?” God bless her!

Anyway, that was my first post in a while – I have more though, and will be posting them either today or in the next day or so. Hey – I said that I was a procrastinator! Cut me a little slack!

Peace!

Unfortunately, along with those that work hard to make your dining experience a memorably pleasant one, there are those that don’t. I remember going to a Jamaican restaurant back in 2002, and the service was not so good. A friend of mine suggested that we put our tip money in a pile in the middle of the table, and every time we experienced bad service, we took back some of the money! By the end of the meal, there wasn’t much left. After everyone had left, I crept back in and left the poor waitress some money – it wasn’t that the service was bad, but she was juggling too many tables, which reflects badly upon her management, rather than the waitress herself.

Personally speaking, my problems have been with my local Chilis restaurant. Other than one person, every time I order food to go, I don’t even receive so much as a smile, or even a thank you. This, despite the fact that I always tip – always! At least a couple of dollars!

Now I’m sure that you are maybe thinking “so what?”  Or that maybe it’s all in my mind. I’m way ahead of you!

I took my friend Mike there one night, to pick up some food, and he got to see it firsthand. He was surprised, to say the least.

Oh, and if you think that I am complaining about the lack of a smile or a thank you – that’s not all. In addition to that, the number of times that my food order is messed up is unbelievable.

For example, I ordered some ribs, and as my sides, I ordered french fries and corn on the cob. When I got to the restaurant, the waiter checked my order, and then I paid for it. I went home, looking forward to my dinner, and guess what I had when I opened the box? An order of ribs, and a small baggie containing stewed apples. Now in what plane of existence does that resemble what I ordered? Don’t know? Me neither!

I usually order the same thing – and I’ve been given rice instead of fries, a sandwich instead of ribs – and the number of times that I’ve gone back, I’ve only been apologized to once.

The only saving grace of that place is the fact that one of the waitresses actually asked me how to pronounce my name, and remembered me when I went back. That does make me feel a little bit better.

Now why a post like this? Well, my latest disappointment has been McDonalds. You would think that a small order at McDonalds would be simple – wrong! I’ve been having breakfast there over the last week, and they’ve messed up my order – twice today in fact. How wrong you ask? Well, consider this. I order two burritos, and they give me a mcmuffin and a bagel. Does that sound bad? Not enough? Well two days ago I order a quarter pounder with cheese meal, and they forget to give me my french fries. Still not enough? Today was the icing on the cake. I went in and ordered two mcskillet burritos with a medium coffee. I get home and start eating my burrito, and get half way through before I realize that something is missing – the meat! I open it up, and nope, there is no meat there. I unwrap the second one, and guess what – no meat!! Now this McSkillet comes with sausage, but I paid extra for “steak” – so I’m doubly pissed by this point. So I drive back to the store, and explain to them – they apologize profusely, and fix my order. When the lady hands it to me, I asked her – “this is the one with steak right?”

She says “yes, yes – steak”

So now you know what I found when I got back home.

Yes.

Sausage

I couldn’t eat them. I took a couple of bites and then threw them away.

I guess I’m done with McDonalds for a while.

Song for the day – “The World” by Earlimart