Habitual Procrastination

2007-08-12T13:31:00.000+01:00

Sorry folks, one last move. Have moved to http://mishaone.wordpress.com

the end of an era (at last)

2007-04-18T19:40:00.000+01:00

And so the bachelors ends. Well, actually, tomorrow is my last exam after which is am footloose and fancy-free. This is going to be a good year, I can feel it. Time for new beginnings, higher earnings, less spendings and mucho weight losings. I'm sorry, I get lame when I'm excited. :D

And yes, of course, the lol moment of the day goes to this little gem from god old gapingvoid.com:

The Ballad of the Noob (World of Warcraft machinima)

2007-04-02T15:40:00.001+01:00

ROFL, hilarious video, although technically impossible, but still... xD

fajr

2007-03-30T20:11:00.000+01:00

The (obvious) downside to a soaring high is the sinking low that must necessarily follow, at least for me. As I struggle with issues of varying importance of the day, drifts of otherworldy chants flow in through the windows. They herald the approach of the fanatics, cheering for the almighty and good while enjoying the ride on the back of a loudspeaker fitted bus. Privileged neighborhood, you say? Not today.

As I prepare to shut down for the day, snatches of mechanical fanaticism wafts in from random windowpanes around me, reminding me of all those mornings I would awaken at fajr before school and lay in bed and hear the ghostly echoes of neighborhood mosques competing to sound the azaan. On those occasions, I would lie still in the darkness and wait for the end of the recitation and the mingled, soft murmurings of the post-azaan prayers, all merging together like snatches of the same symphony that started at different times. Words are so inadequate to describe memories. If only I could describe that feeling of peace in a way that would make you understand it, feel it with me. Truth is even I don't feel that way anymore. I wonder if it was the childhood innocence that let me feel that in those completely illegible words there was a power that could soothe the troubled child's soul and allow for the possibility that prayers leaving those small, cupped hands would actually end up somewhere that they had meaning. Maybe it was just the tone of the voices, the soothing male murmurs for a child looking for a father figure, even it came in the shape of a dozen disembodied voices in the darkness. I would give a great deal to be able to feel that way again, to trust the good that happens and not have to instinctively look over my shoulder for the impending bad.

I want once again to be that which I have left behind: a child at fajr.

2007-03-07T13:28:00.000+01:00

"I am lost... "
"Such is the human condition. "

-Ran (1985)

sunday

2007-03-04T06:40:00.001+01:00

Awaken from jumbled dreams, faces, people, quirks, they all blend together as my subconscious stirs.

Mixtures of strains of music echo through the walls. An alaap here, a guitar solo there, they all mingle together in some odd hypnotic harmony as they reach me. Silence fills in the space between.

Yet another sunday, bloody, sunday.

Othello/Omkara

2006-08-29T06:52:00.000+01:00

I just saw Vishal Bhardwaj's remake of Othello as Omkara, after being nagged by mum and sis for weeks to watch. My short review, Saif Ali Khan is much better in the role of Iago/Langra than I thought he would be, but my favorite Iago performance remains Kenneth Brannaugh. Ajay Devgan disappoints me every time. How is this any different from any of his other role, i.e. the broody, quiet, authoritative man in command? Personally, I always thought the biggest reason for Othello's downfall was his own insecurity, despite winning the fair (literally) Desdemona's love and hand. Devgan portrays none of the quiet insecurity Othello (as a black man in charge of white men at a time when racial prejudice was rampant) feels when commanding the handsome and youthful Cassio and the experienced (and white) Iago. To see how it should be done right, check out the 1995 version with Laurence Fishbourne (yes, Morpheus). Other than that, it's a good version.

My only complaints, however, relate to the heavy UP dialect used in the movie. Mum and sis saw the film in the US with subtitles, I saw it locally minus subtitles, and had to keep asking them "what did he just say?". Either ship a permanently subtitles version or the dialect should have been left out of it. I hear it's making waves in India because of the very explicit language as well. Didn't bother me, personally. I wouldn't expect the local equivalent of villager gangsters in the UP to mind their P's and Q's when they talk.

Anyhow, my verdict: watch but with subtitles so you can understand what's going on. And leave the kiddies at home.

Die Slow

2006-08-20T04:06:00.000+01:00

Die Slow,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

rain, rain, go away

2006-08-13T13:08:00.000+01:00

Rain is not just a weather phenomenon in Karachi. It's a cause of much rejoicing for some (I am reminded of the famous last words of one very stupid frequenter of the DC++ channel "I would rather have rain than electricity!", followed by a 36 hour blackout almost citywide due to the rain) and a cause of ire for others. In Karachi, it is the former for a large number of people who enjoy taking their shirts of and dancing in the flowing heavens. The rest of us sit at home and rant about the lack of a proper drainage system and how long it'll take for the electricity to go this time. I am of the former group.

The last time it rained, the newly constructed underpass was almost completely inundated and thanks to KESC's constant power failures, my hard drive zonked out, taking all my music and photos to digital heaven. God knows what the rain will bring about this time, but I'm prepared. I have a UPS handy and several books to read lined up, as well as a good store of goodies to eat of the two minute cooking variety.

When rain happens to decide to flow down on a normal day, it's bad enough, but add the fact that it's the 13th of august and the loudly maniacal celebrations for the nation's independence day are almost underway. It takes one of more patience than I to wander out this night, so I think I'll just stay in and let our poor, recreation starved yet amazingly reckless awaam have their fun.

Happy independence day, my soaked fellow Pakistanis!

omg

2006-08-10T07:55:00.000+01:00

I have screwed up so bad at work it's not even funny. Where is my mind? Has anyone seen it, because it sure as hell isn't here. I crashed the car yesterday into a motorbike, which was honestly his own fault because he was going pretty fast in the wrong lane on the wrong side of said lane (middle of the road) and I was going the right way on the right side of the road and at a medium speed since my CPU was in the car with me. The guy gets a few scrapes from falling on the road and his bike is absolutely perfect while mine is so very busted and still standing on the side of the road with one of the front wheels pointing north and one west. God, why does this shit happen to me? On top of this, I screw up so badly that I'm send home from work, albiet very nicely, to go "see to my own stuff". God, this is embarassing, where did my concentration go, when did I become incompetent?

*groan* Anyone know where I can find chulloobhar paani and drown in it?

what's going on

2006-08-07T14:12:00.000+01:00

First off, big news is that my mum's checkup went great and she and my sister are going to be back late august after about nine months away in the US for treatment, yay! =)

To balance it out, bad news is that dad is now hospital bound for some tests and treatment. Bah, when will the curse of the 1.5 parents end? To explain, it seems I always end up with 1.5 parents instead of two whole ones since my aunt counts as 0.5 while the principle parties are either unable, reluctant to participate or simply incapable of doing so.

Moving down the chain of the important, my final semester has now officially begun and I have additionally been offered the job of a Teaching Assistant for my Coordinator, who is a brilliant guy. Lord it over other students and be in control of their grades and participate in the torture raining down upon them from the coordinator? I'd do it for free, but I get paid, so even better. I am officially working two jobs now and studying as well. This should be an interesting semester.

Moving further down the list of interesting things happening currently, the world is drowning with these monsoons, as am I, since the contractor who did the enhancement project to our lounge did a crappy job and now half my living room leaks everytime it rains. One memorable evening when all of Karachi did not have any electricity the entire day and night, I spent the night out in the lounge in a mattress (it's the only place with any wind) listening to the radio in my cell phone and sleeping with drops of water splashing on my face. The overall experience is much like camping indoors with no fire to keep us warm or dry, aka "not very fun, thank you very much". =/

This and playing WoW (yes, still, and many hours a day, unfortunately) and customizing friends' blogs keeps me busy these days, but I'm sure that's going to change very soon, since I start classes and TA-ing from tomorrow. Au revoir!

WoW

2006-08-04T19:12:00.000+01:00

Worldcall has, in addition to its many wonderous Value Added Services, added a WoW (World of Warcraft) server to the list. Now let us be clear, I am an old school gamer, mostly because of my sad, low-end PC, but there is no shame in that. That's why I assumed WoW was not for me. All through my vacations I would hear everyone raving about WoW, as gamers with a lot of free time tend to do and eventually, far too late, I decided to give it a try. That, to the right, is myself stuck in one of the game's glitches where I am apparently airborne and treading air.

I am now ready to venture forth an opinion: I love WoW!

I love the fact that I am an undead, green chick with a large sword and I love the fact that you can take on wierd animals to gain levels and I love the quests and I especially love the teaming up aspect. Additionally, I also love the fact that I can travel to select locations in the huge map via bat (see left), a notion that is much more entertaining in practice than it sounds. Playing with real players always make for an entertaining experience. Currently, I am partnered with a young man whose handle is Dragon, another undead creature like myself, but a sorceror, as opposed to myself, the fearless warrior woman. We creep together till five in the morning, we run around together, we bitch about other, higher ranked players with access to various large animals to ride upon while we have to make do with travelling slowly by foot together and best of all, we work together to kill some awesome beasts. Unfortunately, we often die together too and have to travel to our corpses to be revived. Welcome to a twenty first century relationship! :P

To the left you can see myself and Dragon awaiting a zeppelin that would take us to a city across the seas. By the way, for anyone interested, all you need to join in is a decent speed connection and a moderately fast PC since the server is open to non-Worldcall users as well. And people wonder why I stick with Worldcall all this time despite erratic speeds and frequent disconnections.

show of hands

2006-08-04T19:07:00.000+01:00

post of the week, about love by someone in love: hands

almost makes me a believer. almost.

dream on

2006-07-27T12:01:00.000+01:00

New York,
originally uploaded by ben hulse.

Every night it's the same dream.

Driving to the middle of the city at night, getting out of the car and just walking.

Walking on the streets that don't know my name. Surrounded by semi-familiar strangers. Money to burn and nowhere to go. Oddly at peace. Walk on.

leaving on a jet plane

2006-07-24T08:55:00.000+01:00

leaving on a jet plane,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

A late night wedding at the Maritime Museum complex allows for entertainment by way of wandering amidst the exhibits of planes and ships in the dark. I can't remember the last time I actually had fun at a wedding.

the road to becoming fit

2006-07-18T16:14:00.000+01:00

So yes, I joined a gym as of late, and it has brought forth a great deal of misery in my life.

a) Said gym happens to be pricey and I'm wiped out with just getting a membership plus admission fee plus monthly fee plus trainers fee.

b) One needs a gym outfit that is suitably flexible, immune to sweat and plausibly fashionable since gym will be filled with defence aunties in their flashy aerobics gear. I may not be in the best of shape but I refuse to be outclassed by defence aunties at dressing for the gym. Such a gym outfit can be most quickly discovered at a local nike/adidas/reebok/blahblah outlet, and will regrettably end up costing the remainder of one's paycheck.

c) The trainer assigned to one is mostly due to a mixture of luck and availability. With my luck, I get a narcissistic fellow who enjoys mingling with shirtless lads pumping iron and enjoys lifting up his own shirt to check out his biceps in the mirror. Said trainer also has a fondness for weight training and insist that I also need to tone up my upper body. Personally, I would think it's the lower body that screams out for some toning the most, but then, what do I know? The result: inability to lift arms the next day thanks to a series of crushing muscle cramps near in the upper arm and back regions. Oh, and for the record, Icy Hot Cream, despite having a catchy name, does absolutely nothing for sore muscles.

And so, I plunge forward in the workout regiment set, with many a well wisher advising me about diet and fitness and my own personal US-based cheering squad i.e. mum in the background. Fitness, here I come!

2006-07-18T12:37:00.000+01:00

Ill-health is in the air. Everyone I know seems to be falling sick or feeling out of sorts, for some reason. Dad has jaundice, fairly dangerous for someone with a liver as eroded as his is, friend's dad has a fever, anothe friend's mom is facing diabetes issues, little brother may have some sort of virus that's going around and I'm facing health issues as well.

What the heck is going on? :/

Freakonomics

2006-07-18T12:30:00.000+01:00

Freakonomics,
originally uploaded by uniongrrl.

Brilliant book! :D

2006-06-30T10:00:00.000+01:00

You don't seem to get it.

I want to be left alone.

I crave to be left alone. I revel in soltitude. It's the state of choice for me.

So please, gather up your invitations and good intentions and be on your way.

This woman hunts alone.

2006-06-27T06:52:00.000+01:00

Loonatics?! Discard the classic, remix it into stupid "futuristic" junk with no eyeballs and pointy ends and call it "XYZ for the new millenium", as superheroes, no less. Buzz bunny and friends, my tashreef.

Speaking of superheroes, the real deal is coming to cinemas tomorrow. What I wouldn't give to watch Superman Returns at an IMAX theatre on opening day. However, contrary to my initial expectations, previews and trailers seem to be doing thier bit and I'm as excited as any other fanboy/fangirls about the new movie.

move

2006-06-27T06:47:00.000+01:00

When everyone but you is moving on and making something out of themselves (it is to be argued another day whether the smething they are making of themselves is worth being), I remain content to remain as before, to stand still. Now if only everyone else would stand still with me.

exhale this

2006-06-22T21:30:00.000+01:00

exhale this,
originally uploaded by Dabbler.

You know that feeling where you've been holding your breath without even realizing it, and suddenly you notice and exhale? To let go of something you never knew you were holding on to is... liberating. Freeing, somehow. One less thing to worry about.

Letting go of a lost cause is a good thing. I must remember to tell myself that every now and again.

Why is it everyone gets giggly and high on sheesha and my mood dips lower and more pensive than usual? :/

change?

2006-06-22T21:19:00.000+01:00

The saddest thing about growing up is looking at people you've known forever and suddenly realizing that they have changed. A veritable metamorphasis has taken place without you even realizing it (or perhaps not wanting to realize it) that has made them so astonishingly different from who they were that you wonder why you couldn't see it before.

That, and realizing that you cannot look at this new person without sadness and an overwhelming sense of loss for the person you once knew.

x&y

2006-06-21T12:55:00.000+01:00

A function consists of two values represented by an x and a y and possibly a constant.

y = 5x

y is a dependent value. Its identity, its value, all are defined by its relation to x.

x, on the other hand, is completely independent and does not need to be defined by anything but itself.

What does this have to do with anything? Nothing really, until you have to sit back and watch someone who was an x become a y.

Underpass ornament

2006-06-15T19:48:00.000+01:00

Underpass ornament,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

So I finally see what the odd underpass decoration's purpose is. The Clifton Cantt Board people have an odd sense of humor, as pointed out by a friend recently. :)

Additionally, have been snowed under by friends visiting from out of the city and country hence much less time to blog. On the other hand, since vacations started, I have started to get into sheesha big-time, which is odd since I never realy cared for it much before.

Anyhow, back to the old rat race and dreaming of people who have already left.

Wedding Season

2006-06-03T19:42:00.000+01:00

Mehndi / Henna Decorated Hands - Pakistan,
originally uploaded by PakPositive.

It's that time of the year again, the time for no food, revolving fans keeping the plentiful makeup from running and sweaty people who cant dance enthusiastically dancing. Yes, my friends, it is wedding season again, and speaking as the lone Pakistani female who does not rejoice at the idea of yet another wedding to attend, I want to hibernate till it's all over.

I just never got the point of having these multiple ceremonies for weddings. In my opinion, a wedding should be limited to a) the actual wedding ceremony itself and b) the mehendi where everyone would have the chance to express their joy at the union by dancing like mad. All the dholkis, valimas, nikkahs, mayouns and sundry wear me out. Honestly, for one thing it's exhausting, for another there are just so darn many of them and you must attend each and every one or the hosting family will be supremely pissed. Never mind that if you should actually show up you would relegate yourself to a corner with maybe one other person until it's time to leave and the hosts would not give you a second thought. Despite this, try not showing up and the hosts' (especially the mothers of the bride/grooms) "no-show radars" will start to beep.

So, yes, this post has no point, except to excercise my right to rant about the unfairness of it all... right before I go off to get dressed up for another damn function.

Closure

2006-06-02T11:11:00.000+01:00

Out of the blue, I started thinking about Lou. That rhymes, he would probably point out, and add a couple more lines to turn it into a dirty limerick. There was nothing in the world good old Lulu couldn't do, I thought at the time, from forming instantaneous limericks to punching walls to kicking everyone's ass at multiplayer games to laughing about his own expanding waistline with an ease that automatically made it okay comment on your own. He could do anything, that is, except pass physics. I recall this succinctly since Physics class was where I met him in my first year. And then again the following year when, having not cleared the year before, we met up again in Physics class. Not surprisingly, neither of us cleared the course for a second time. I recall how proud he was when he managed to convince the coordinator to let him take calculus instead of Physics and graduate, and the last time I saw him at the university, practially jumping for joy because he had finally cleared calculus and was going to graduate and go on a world tour with his parents. I remember how he would go for a furious drive whenever he was angry and how he would always end up talking to a priest when he was upset. I also recall how he would grin and say that his dad would break his legs if he ever became a priest himself. I remember insisting that I would hold on to him because he insisted on leaning out over the edge to pick out flowers. It all came so easy to him. He could do anything. Except, of course, pass physics.

So I suppose it's no surprise that when I took physics for the third time (in the same classroom where I had last taken physics with Lou), my mind would turn now and then to that corner seat. I like to think he was watching and laughing at me for being stuck in Physics again. Anyhow, I did it at last. You don't have to watch over us now, Lou. We'll all be okay. How do I know? Because yesterday, I got a B in Physics and I can move on now.

Goodbye, Lulu. We all still miss you and love you.

Karachi Anime Convention 2006

2006-06-01T09:20:00.000+01:00

Granted this post is a little late, I should have posted when the anime convention actually took place (May 20th), but I was slowly dying under a pile of deadlines and exams.

Anyhow this was the first occasion in my entire career at SZABIST that I actually was involved in the organizing of the event, which just goes to show how pure unadlterated laziness can keep you out of doing any work for four years if you let it. Anyhow, so having infected me with the bug, Zeesh-san asked a friend and I to assist him in organizing things at the university end while he focused on getting the other otakus together, most of whom he knew personally. Finally, on the day itself, as is usual for any event, everyone was running around like chickens with their heads sliced off while Zeesh-san himself remained elusively "on his way" to the venue.

Luckily, all went according to plan in the end. Cameras, sound, projector, PC, all were up and running, even the AC which the administration, hiding behind some odd admin-logic, would not let us turn on before the convention was due to start. The actual turnout was close to a hundred people, far more that I could have anticipated. I suppose, however, that the lure of watching cartoons on a large screen in the auditorium appealed to the inner child within many, and boy did they get their money's worth (figuratively speaking) when the presentation started off with several AMVs based on clips from the very popular series, Naruto (pictured above), including one developed by our very own Zeesh-san and comrades with music by a local death metal band, and one of the most popular AMVs today, called Whisper of the Beast. The presentation addressed most of the issues related to anime today fairly comprehensively, from outsourcing oppurtunities for Pakistani animators to the no-no that is the selling of anime rather than trading for free. As predicted, the time for trading of anime fell short since there are literally terabytes to be copied back and forth and only three actual machines to do it all on. I made off with Zeesh-san's PC, which contained a large chunk of the data being traded and gleefully plugged it in at the labs and leeched away about forty gigabytes of anime. Bwahahaha!

Anyhow, that being said, a few seried I have been watching and would recommend are:

Naruto, the story of a kid with no friends, family or relatives who strives to become the most powerful ninja in his village to finally get the acknowledgement of a village full of people who seem to hate him. Little does he know, sealed within him is a very powerful demon that attacked and killed many from his village when he was one year old.
FullMetal Alchemist, a story about two brothers who believe in the Alchemist principle of equivalent trade, and are out to find the fabled philosopher's stone to be able to restore themselves to their former form and maybe even bring their dead mother back to life.
Hellsing (english version, Crispin Freeman rocketh), a secret organization in Britain which specializes in the eradication of vampires and demons and ironically, uses a very powerful vampire named Alucard to do it. Alucard is bound to his master, the decendant of the Hellsing family, Integral Hellsing, who has taken it upon herself to carry on the proud Hellsing family tradition of serving Her Majesty the Queen and her country by ridding the world of the supernatural.
Rurouni Kenshin, the story of a wartime assasin who takes an oath never to kill anyone again and chooses to repent for his sins by becoming a wandered who helps people too weak to help themselves.
Bleach, which follows the adventures of a 16 year old boy named Ichigo who appears to be able to see and hear spirits and consequently becomes a death god when he helps out an actual death god slay an evil spirit.

Out of the above, Kenshin, Fullmetal Alchemist and Hellsing are the only ones that are now finished, and both have many OVAs out as well, which are truer to the manga (graphic novels that are the source of most anime series) that the series have been. Bleach and Naruto are still ongoing, stretching out to a hundred episodes and beyond.

So now, my patient reader, if you have stuck with this post so far, you are familiar with the basic terminology of your average otaku/anime-freak and you may choose to check out some anime yourself, just to see what the fuss is all about. Anime, as opposed to popular opinion, is generally different from cartoons in that it has a very specific way of animation that sets it apart from, say Disney or Hannah-Barberah style animations. It is, however, the last stand of the two dimensional animation style of storytelling seeing as how most major studios in Hollywood have moved on to three dimensional animation instead. Additionally, people will try to sell you anime... don't fall for it. Anime is and should be free since the dubbing (known as fansubs) are done by the fans, for the fans and you will find a hundred people willing to share their collections with you if you want to check some out. For more information or general discussion, you can check out the fairly well-populated and active Orkut community for Anime lovers in Pakistan.

2006-05-31T16:47:00.000+01:00

I passed! :D

for the birds

2006-05-28T12:28:00.000+01:00

the parrot,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

It's been a few months since this little guy came into the house and his most notable contribution here has been in the form of repeated squawks in the mornings and crap on my bed. Why my bed? I have no idea, since I'm the only one who takes pity on him and actually lets him out of his cage for a bit to stretch his legs in my room. One would think, that since 97% of the surfaces in my room are either tiled floor, smooth wooden desks and stony shelves, the parrot would, just by way of a thank you, choose to defecate on either of them, so that upon cleaing up, I could do away with the mess easily. However, as luck would have it, he appears to have taken a bit of a liking to my bed with its clean bedsheets and has indicated by his actions that it is his first choice of all the places in my room to drop a load off in.

I can't really blame him, though. He has the most incompetent of masters ever, my little brother, who gives him five minutes of attention every few days then plonks him back in his cage. I feel sorry for the poor little thing. In fact, I decided to examine him today, just to see how he's doing. Turns out he's much bigger and covered with moisture from the seaview air. This, of course, prompted me to take him for a bath. Luckily, recalling the last time I gave a bath to an animal without consulting anyone (Happy the kitten, may she rest in peace), I decided to consult the Internet, a medium that, I discovered, has a lot of information about many subjects, but almost none on whether bathing a parrot is good for him or not. Due to a lack of conclusive evidence (and the feathers on the poor thing turning black everywhere a drop of water touched them), I decided against the bath idea.

In my online wanderings, however, I did come across an article regarding teaching a parrot to talk. In a nutshell, repeat a simple phrase to the bird for 10-15 minutes at a stretch. Enunciate clearly and reassuringly feed him when he tries to make odd noises in return to encourage speech. The first word is the hardest, apparently. However, if ever you have been in a situation where you feel immensely stupid and hope to god nobody walks in on you, it's nothing compared to my feeling upon having to reassuringly enunciate "hello" to a parrot that is cocking its head at me for fifteen minutes. Thankfully, nobody did walk in and next time, I'm going to use a recording. I will, however, teach this damn parrot to talk before the summer is over. That and not to leave surprises on my bed.

the gamer's manifesto

2006-05-28T11:52:00.000+01:00

I present to you, The Gamer's Manifesto, a great read for anyone interested in gaming.

2006-05-27T18:56:00.000+01:00

I do so very much love StumbleUpon, and even more so for leading me to this strip. Reminds me of the good old days of head-in-the-sand-ism with old friends from the ponytail days.

people don't change

2006-05-27T17:16:00.000+01:00

So the semester is finally over and my exam is done. Now it's time to return to the very serious business of planning a summer full of idle musings and indulgences.

After a good long while, I finally got the chance to take a trip down memory lane and watch a show I watched with my family growing up, The Wonder Years. I'm not sure how many other people around here used to watch it as regularly as I did, but at the time, it used to be one of my favorites. As with so many nostalgic trips, however, anytime you decide to check out something you enjoyed as a child and find it's no longer capable of capturing your interest the way it did back in the day, another slice of your childhood fades away. I figure it's the same logic with things as it is with people. They don't change, you do. Somewhere along the line, you lost that part of your that could suspend disbelief long enough to want to fly with Peter Pan and dance with your Prince Charming. People, too, I realized today, don't change, not really. It's just you that has wisened up. They're still the same they were years ago when you first met them but something in you had changed so drastically that what you were willing to overlook without even realizing it before, is now so glaringly obvious and irritating that you can't stand it anymore. And then you wonder what changed in the relationship.

People don't change, not really. It's just my perspective that's shifted and distorted and amplified everything that was vague before.

Comprehensive Exam

2006-05-25T17:22:00.001+01:00

So the day after tomorrow is the big day, the comprehensive exam which spans the coursework of almost my entire degree (four years of journals and notes to wade through, phew). In theory, it sounds really easy to clear. Multiple Choice, 50% passing grade and only the essential concepts from each subject, but preparing for it practically is a bit of a large order. Anyhow, fingers crossed, here we go.

my100!

2006-05-24T15:01:00.000+01:00

A quick word about one of the best things to happen to me since I started subscribing to WorldCall's broadband services. Forget the fact that their FTP is dying a slow and painful death, crushed beneath the feet of a thousand users fighting to download every last byte avalable on it. Forget the fact that WorldCall's Customer Service is single handedly the most unabashed bs-generating machine in the history of customer support. What I want you to focus on is the fact that all 64 kbps connections (shared by ten users, by the way so in an ideal scenario, you should get approxmately 6.4 kbps speed on average) have been upgraded, absolutely free of charge, to 100 kpbs connections. The above screenshot is on an average weekday downloading from three international public torrents and at nights, I get upto 80 kbps downloading speeds per international torrent, which is amazing considering how long I have had to sit through crawling 2-5 kpbs speeds on international torrents previously on the same connection. Take that, DSL! =D

By the way, even with the new package, browsing speeds aren't anything special however, as I advise everyone who asks (which is a surprisingly small number of people), if you want brilliant downloading speeds, for example for downloading gigabyte upon gigabyte of excellent quality anime files, tv shows, movies, software and so on, you can't go wrong with Worldcall's new my100 package. If, however, your primary concern if with superfast browsing, you should stick to DSL.

Edit: New screenie uploaded in the top right corner.

Update!

2006-05-22T19:16:00.000+01:00

So the semester of evil overwork comes to an end at last. Now I plan to relax for one entire summer before returning once again for my final semester, i.e. fall 2006. Bloody college, just won't let me leave.

Worst case scenario for this week: I fail my comprehensive exam on the last try. A serious obstacle to graduation that would be. On the other hand, if I pass, nothing can stop me from graduating in december, huzzah!

Today was the last day for my new class, the BS conversion kids' final semester. Out of habit, I assume I will miss them but if I'm honest, I have to admit that's not really true. Once we're all graduates, we probably won't spare a thought to most of the other people we shared a year with for the rest of our lives.

Anyhow, am exhausted and worried and feeling the onset of a migraine coming on, so adieu for now, to anyone who still reads this crap I write anymore, and hopefully I shall start updating a bit more from now on that I am free and have a life again. :)

that strange feline

2006-05-13T18:34:00.000+01:00

the pensive mask

2006-05-09T07:24:00.000+01:00

the pensive mask,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

Haha, I love this mask. Had I not given it to little brother for his birthday, I would have taken it for myself and hung it in my room, only to be taken out and worn for special occasions like family dinners when everyone is over fifty and susceptible to enthusiastic "Oooga booga!"s. :)

been a while...

2006-05-09T07:06:00.000+01:00

Okay, so I have given up on the LUMS thing, after a friend who's applying a second time told me he got rejected last year because of not having one year's full time work experience. I keep wondering now why I wanted to go to LUMS at all, and not much comes to mind, save for the whimsical zidd of a spoilt child. Ah well, that news fades in comparision to the fact that mum's treatment is working! Huzzah!

As for my academic plans, I'm half tempted to just apply to good ol' SZABIST for an MBA and be done with it. Things fade from importance when you get your priorities realigned. This I realized when I was watching some of my relatives at a dinner recently talking about how numerous their domestic staff was. "One driver, one chowkidaar, one maid, one cook and one gardener." "Haan, itnay toh zaroori hotay hein", followed by an irony bathed (or so it seemed to me) chuckle all around. Yes, this is your life, these are your relatives and these are your friends. You cannot run away from any of this.

Let there be light... please?

2006-04-26T20:25:00.000+01:00

After true despair, the kind that spares not a glimmer of hope hidden in that corner of your mind you daren't even look for fear of getting your hopes up, comes pure acceptance.

For all my friends living in countries where basic necessities like electricity are fulfilled without fail on a daily basis, I envy you and all the electronic items in your homes that remain unspoiled by the constant comings and going of the electricity at the whims of the KESC.

For those who live within Karachi, sit back and think long and hard about the fact that there has been no electricty in most parts of the city, off and on, for two days now, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. No amount of complaints to the always helpful KESC helpline, no volumous angry letters "edited for conciseness" to Dawn, no praying for relief from the heat will do a damn thing to change it. All those plans of development and underpasses and no electricity. This is probably what heaven would be like if it were run by government officials.

And now, I shall switch off my PC just in case KESC is not quite as satisfied by providing us electricty for four hours out of the past twenty four and decides to cut us off yet again for a few more hours.

We have all the time the world

2006-04-23T14:32:00.000+01:00

We have all the time the world,
originally uploaded by Tsunami Notes.

We are oh so young and reckless. Life is going to take a turn towards the absolutely inconsequential and ordinary soon and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Changing the world is for the unreasonable man, the man who chooses to change circumstances instead of resigning himself to them. I am among the reasonable people of the world. The ones whose existance is justified by the fact that they provide a foil to the unreasonable, special ones, the ones who will truly change the world and remain in memory while the rest of us are dust again.

The most we can hope for is those little things that keep us going till the next little thing. Don't expect grand passions for me, those are for the naive.

I am not your autumn moon.
I am the night.

23

2006-04-21T18:40:00.000+01:00

Nixie, skidoo,
originally uploaded by fatllama.

It's official, I'm old. So proclaimeth the lights in the photo. Unluckily, I also have two finals today, so today may just suck.

tota

2006-04-16T12:07:00.000+01:00

tota,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

The newest addition to our family, the parrot currently known as "tota". Little brother fancies it would be fun to bring up a parrot and teach him to talk and so on, so now he has his parrot, whom he carries around in his unnaturally large pockets and I have Sheru, whose claws dig new holes in my shoulder everytime I attempt to carry him around.

Relativity

2006-04-15T09:31:00.000+01:00

Another death in the family as of late. My favorite cousin's (a title which simply means she's the only one I can stand) grandmother passed away, thankfully peacefully in her sleep.

I normally detest and avoid funerals and weddings, both having become a contemporary faux stage to show off our acting skills. I can provide nobody with any consolation. What would I say? Hey, at least she's happy up there, right? Funerals are for the living, and I can do nothing for the living. For the dead, I can pray, although I think it's fairly futile.

Getting back to the point, my cousin and aunt (cousin's mother) were crying at the funeral. I felt sick, looking at my cousin, pillar of strength, honor student, sitting there inconsolable. So this is how normal people behave when a relative dies, I couldn't help thinking. At my own grandmother's funeral, I tried really hard to cry, I really did. Couldn't do it. When my aunt died, I felt like my waxen face was melting, so heavy were the corners. I mean, to be honest, my aunt wasn't ever very nice to most of us, but she was my aunt. She probably loved us in some dark corner of her heart. Recently, a good friend Lou passed away. Couldn't cry. Instead, all I could do whenever I remembered him was smile, that was all I would ever do when he was around, his energy was so contagious. Apparently, I have issues, so I have yet to lose someone without whom I would feel so lost and alone that I would cry for myself at the sheer injustice of it all. How can you cry for someone who's passed on? They're obviously in a far better place than we are. All we can do is cry for ourselves, mourn the fact that the rest of our lives will be that much more ordinary without them around to brighten it up.

Sometimes, pointless rambling helps get it all out.

"Lasts"

2006-04-15T09:22:00.000+01:00

So the gloominess has set in again.

It's another round of last times. I have no reason to be down, since I am finally going to graduate. Yes, you heard it first right here folks, the woman who did not know when or if she would be able to complete the mountain of courses ahead of her has finally managed to do it. Two more this summer and I am an official BS(CS) graduate! That keeping in mind that I still have to clear the comprehensive examination. You're only allowed to take it thrice and the first time I took it, I knew very little, having not taken most of the subjects involved. The second time, recklessly, I took it with a little preparation, but this time (the last time) I shall going all the way. At least I hope so. It would be highly screwed up to hold someone back for not clearing their comprehensive exam when all the other requirements for their degree is complete, but it has happened, to a classmate of mine, in fact. Poor guy remains just an Inter graduate to this day despite having done everything right except clear his comprehensive examination. This whole 3-strikes-and-you're-out deal strikes me as ridiculous. What do you care how many times someone attempts the paper, just as long as he clears it in the end, right? I will never understand the random and senseless rules of educational institutes.

Anyhow, pointless randomness aside, I worry about this city. One of these days, mass panic will break out and we will all kill each other, just like that incident where a horde of women started panicking when someone up front fell down and screamed and in the resulting pandemonium, thirty women were trampled to death. As it turned out, there was nothing to stampede about in the first place. Sad, senseless, pointless deaths. When will they stop?

3-Day Mourning

2006-04-13T13:02:00.000+01:00

,
originally uploaded by Cerys Conner.

So it's day two of our forced three day mourning period. I wonder how forcibly shutting down businesses and insitutions means the city is in mourning? My university, however, insisted on opening its door today, forcing people out of their homes on a possibly dangerous pilgrimage through the city so that they wouldn't miss a class this close to finals. I arrived at my university this morning to avoid just such a travesty and found five other students lounging around in the air conditioned reception area while every few minutes the administration would confirm yet another teacher was unable or unwillimg to make it to their classes.

How do you bring a city to a standstill? Close off the petrol pumps for three days. By the end of the second day, you'll have lines as long as the roads at a tiny roadside petrol station hoping to get a decent price. I can't say I'm surprised, though, at the typically captalistic ventures the smaller fish are upto, since I've gotten several offers to get as much petrol as I want at Rs. 100 per litre, substantially higher than the going rates, but without the wait and hassle of going to a petrol station.

Three days of this, tomorrow being the third. Already there is a record number of users logging into the WorldCall hub to pass the time and complain about the lull the city has been forced into. I must admit after two days of entertaining myself mostly stuck at home due to the instability outside, I'm running out of ideas, too.

2006-04-11T19:20:00.000+01:00

More blasts, more violence, more deaths.

God help this country, this world.

Glide

2006-04-05T19:51:00.000+01:00

glide2,
originally uploaded by ts88mhs.

I want to by a hangglider and just glide till the end of the earth and then glide some more and never stop. I want to leave the world of deadlines and muselessness behind and just fly off, glide too close to the sun and see what happens.

I'm astonished to find people still visit this blog, even after I've been so horrible about updating. What can I say, nothing worth writing about happens to me nowadays. Not that I don't prefer an uneventful life.

FMA

2006-04-02T06:11:00.000+01:00

"Don't Forget..." (FMA),
originally uploaded by Nahuel31.

So I started watching some Anime out of curiosty. One of my classmates over at SZABIST is a huge fan and is even having a sort of Anime Fanfest over at SZABIST on the 15th of April. Details over at the Pakistani Anime community at Orkut if anyone who reads this happens to be into it as well.

Upon the advice of a friend, I started off with two series, Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist. I have to admit they're pretty addictive. I'd recommend the excellent FMA to anyone interested in starting up watching some Anime. What bugs me, though, is this elitist attitude most Anime-enthusiasts have. Very few would be willing to share their terabytes of Anime with others unless the other happens to have a similarly large collection to tempt them. Khair, Anime is a welcome change from the usual Television programs that I watch since they appear to be takink breaks every few weeks.

time

2006-03-22T15:17:00.000+01:00

moonlight,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

Spurred on by huma's [see sidebar] post about a really good book, I went out and splurged on a stack of brand new books. I spent a good part of my paycheck on it and I don't regret it one bit, which just goes to show you that nothing, absolutely nothing, can replace that pleasant passage of time where you get so wrapped up on a book that you lose all sense of time and don't even care.

I'm at odds with myself these days. My birthday is fast approaching and while I look forward to a day other people must give me attention or feel bad about it like any self-respecting attention-hound, I'm also disturbed by the prospect of upheaval, of change. The closer we get to the big day is one less day I have of this comfortable cocoon my life has become. When I leave my house, I am in complete control because I have my money, I know where my ATM is, I know what stops to make and how quickly to do it. I even know the quickest routes now, as opposed to my earlier blunderings where I would end up somewhere I have never even heard of when trying to cleverly take a shortcut to the university. When I walk in, I see a sea of faces, most of whom I know. I wave, they wave, we all wave. Then we walk on. Tomorrow, if one of us should have died, we would be guilt free since we waved at each other. For a brief second, I flickered in your mind and vice versa, and we both were present. After that, I know where my classes are, I know how to get what I want out of who I want without going through the hassles of the inexperienced newbies. This ease of living, this warm and fuzzy and familiar world is what I don't want to lose.

And yes, to round off with the usual, I got a new cell phone... again. A friend remarked on how often I change cell phones, how intensely I crave each new gadget that I have my heart set on and six months later, it's something new. I do always maintain that if you don't love your gadgets, don't buy one. If you can't spare the time to examine your choice and finally settle on the one that makes you itch to buy it and test the outer limits of its workings, you should just get a simple, non-complicated machine and live a life that's just that little bit more ordinary. Oh, and my new cell phone is a Samsung SGH-X700, and a cute little bugger it is too. For those interested, reviews possibly later on when I have used it for a bit.

as luck would have it...

2006-03-15T07:27:00.000+01:00

Speeding along as usual one day, I realized the way I drive, I probably have an unrealized death wish. Unrealized because of sheer luck. I am alive and doing well because of sheer luck. What if, though, there's someone out there who's extraordinarily lucky but doesn't realize it because really bad things keep happening to him and he walks away unaffected because they cancel each other out? Or is that person me, lamenting the little things that happen and not appreciating that my extraordinary luckiness has kept me unharmed thus far? Truthfulness would force me to admit that I am by no means an extraordinary student, not a very nice person either, if truth be told and have never had a hospital stay for anything worse than two stitches to the inside of my cheek because my brother and I decided to take a leap off the bunk bed together because we were bored.

Perhaps the flip side of being really lucky is to have horribly low self esteem because everything just falls into your lap without much effort. Would I get results half as good if I actually had to work for something I wanted instead of just having it handed to me if I should halfheartedly reach out for it?

Anyhow, ignore my ramblings, it's been a while since I've blogged and ludicrous thoughts seem to mutate when trapped inside your head with no outlet. Also, to everyone who's been commenting, thank you, and I haven't replied because I can't access the haloscan comments pop-up, thanks to the block on blogspot websites. LUMS has yet to call, but if they should, be warned, it is the aforementioned luck acting up again and I haven't done a thing to deserve it, taking the test in the half-assed manner that I did one fine sunday morning.

2006-03-09T16:35:00.000+01:00

The world is a blur of familiar faces, places and situations.

On with the round-up. For those few who care, my days consist of driving to the university, working on the always pentiful projects and assignments till it's time for my class/classes and after attending them, I drive back home, picking up some food on the way. The good news is that I applied for the LUMS MBA program recently and scored fairly well in thier entrance exam. The main attraction for me is that I get a change of scenery, move to Lahore and live in a hostel. I realize it's a pretty strange reason for wanting to get into LUMS, but people have had wierder reasons, believe me.

That's about it for now. Now you people know why I don't update a lot, there isn't really much worth writing about, save for sundays, and I've had feedback on my weekly "Depressed Sunday" posts and have agreed to desist with them for a while. :)

geometry of death

2006-03-05T12:35:00.000+01:00

geometry of death,
originally uploaded by deborah lattimore.

There must be more to life than this constant faith vs. science internal debate. Sundays depress me because there's really nothing to do save for think about a lot of things you'd rather not think about. Just about everyone I know lies in on Sundays, watches some TV, has a meaninglessly unproductive day and is happy that another week is satisfactorily ended. Is that all there is, my friend, is that all there is? Either join in the rat race and focus on making money to survive, work harder so you can relax harder and convince yourself you're happy, OR show the unflattering finger to worldly concerns and do what you think you want to do until you think otherwise and wander aimlessly from vocation to vocation until you hit something that makes sense to you and gives some meaning to your existance?

I thought a lot the other day, about what it must feel like to die in a car crash. This was a few days prior to the tragic accident in which a friend of mine passed away. I imagine someone up there must think. "Oh, that's enough of that living rubbish for you" and pull a lever and down here, blissfully unaware of my fate, I would be speeding along a seemingly empty road and humming to myself and suddenly, a moment of darkness hits that is both over instantaneously, since my next thought would be when I next gain consciousness and then it would appear as if a milisecond has passed, and eternally ongoing, since I may well never actually have that next moment of consciousness at all. I wonder now what it was like for Lou, if he even felt it, or knew that this was it. I wonder if he had time for any emotions or thoughts at all, and if he did, whether he was excited about the prospect of finally finding out if all those sundays spent at Church has been worth it or not, or if he thought of the people he loved and was reluctant to leave. I wonder if he wondered if anyone would miss him, whether people he only knew "online" would wonder if he had just stopped logging in or if something horrible had happened to him, and have to content themselves with never knowing for sure. Such is the double edged sword of anonymity.

R.I.P.

2006-03-02T05:58:00.000+01:00

R.I.P.,
originally uploaded by McCann_M.P..

Yesterday was a bad day, an email suddenly popped in on my class group about an ex-classmate and good friend, Llewelyn Soares, having been involved in a tragic car accident and susequently passing away. My first reaction was to stare at the screen for about five minutes in complete shock. I'm still not sure the shock has worn off, I can't seem to actually believe he's gone, probably won't unless I actually see him now at his funeral, which I don't want to do. The last image I wasnt to remember of him is how I met him last, out at lunch with the love of his life and her parents, celebrating the fact that he was slowly getting everything he wanted from life.

Today's the funeral. I've never met him parents, but he was an only child, and so full of life and practically radiating charm that I shudder to think how empty their house must seem now. This morning, however, I am awakened by the horrible yet familiar explosive sound that suggests that the KFC nearby must have been the target of some "statement" once again. However, Geo insists that the bomb blast was actually at the Hotel Metropole, which is actually very close to the region where the funeral is to be held. I'm determined to get through to bid a good friend farewell, but sometimes I loathe the people of this city. Llewelyn deserves a packed church, full of everyone who loved him, with people overflowing out into the street. Thanks to some SOB, he will never get it. I hope they're proud of killing innocent people for some twisted cause.

Rachel in Pakistan!

2006-03-02T05:40:00.000+01:00

Presenting: Jen Anniston in her first ever local ad!,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

Presenting Jennifer Anniston in her firt ever local ad! :P

what next?

2006-02-25T18:19:00.001+01:00

I was just conversing with a friend about the end of our bachelors degrees. So I'll be a CS Graduate degree holder in a matter of months. What is it I want to do now? I expressed sadness, a sense of loss for that routine, that familiarity with everything in my life that I have had for the last comfortable four years. What next? I might as well go for an MBA, but that seems so... ordinary, so arbitrary. It brings to my mind the image of a long line of treadmills with corporate employees on each one, trying to outrun the other all their lives, not realizing its a fruitless endeavor. In the end, they're so spent with trying to play catch up that they are running just to keep their positions in the line until eventually they fall off the treadmill.

I don't want to be on a damn treadmill.

I always envisioned a life to have some meaning, some creative outlets by which one could potentially change the world, or at least change the "mahulla" (neighborhhood). When I think of people changing the world, I think of artists, architects, poets, painters, writers, directors, et all. I do not think of MBAs. Maybe that's why I'm reluctant to join the ranks of the millions who graduate from business school each year. How can you change the world when your primary concern is maximization of profits? Let's say though, I do become one of these ultra-creative people. Let's say, somehow, by working my ass off for half my life, I manage to actually do something worthwhile, provide some meaning to my otherwise meaningless life. What then? Is that brief moment of glory within and without going to have to be the sutainence for my soul for the rest of dreary life, which I would spend trying to duplicate the past success and most likely not being able to? Is that what life is supposed to be about? Flogging yourself to death to leave your mark and then basking in the brief glow of recognition and appreciation, only to be relegated back to the end of the line so that the next person can have his scheduled 15 minutes of fame? Would that fill in the void in my life? If yes, then how shallow does one have to be to prostitute one's own art, one's own creations just to satisfy that lust of public approval? Is that who I want to be? Is that who I already am?

Oh, for a life of sensations rather than thoughts.

Silent Hill 2 Remix

2006-02-21T06:08:00.000+01:00

For the avid videogamer, here's a great Silent Hill 2 remix entitled There was a hole here. There's something ominous about that phrase, despite it appearing in a very literal context in the game itself. By the way, for a perfect example of droolworthy graphics, please click on the picture to the right of this text.

Oh, and for a great many more great remixes of videogames, old and new, visit OCRemix.

Apple!

2006-02-21T05:10:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I finally got a chance to visit the Apple retailers that have opened up at Zamzama. I'm not exaggerating when I say that when you enter, you'll want to buy everything in the place, from the Rs. 146,000 iMac with the huge screen to the gorgeous white crystal mouse with no buttons, just sensors and a little ball instead of the scroll wheel. Unfortunately, the keyboard and mouse were only compatible with iMacs, otherwise I would have walked out with an armful of goodies and no money in my account and a goofy grin on my face.

sundays

2006-02-19T09:11:00.000+01:00

I have become that which I hated: a person who has so little meaning in her life that she needs the bloody TV always on or something going on to distract her from the very shallowness of existance. The sort of person who must be surrounded by people to alleviate her own intrinsic loneliness.

That being said, it's sunday again. I never could get the hang of sundays. A day of rest just doesn't appeal to me anymore. I find myself bored out of my mind, with a million potential things to do but no drive to do any of them. In theory, sunday sounds great, in practice, sunday is a depressing day with nothing to do which will end on an introspective note, which is never good.

Valentine's day has come and gone. On said day, the MBA students at my university had some sort of function going on involving carnations and music with horrible "although we are far apart/ you're always in my heart/ you make me feel so high/ I feel like I could fly" sort of lyrics. Watching the MBA lot, dressed up in red and spreading the festivity, I realized that even if I could fake a smile and be increasingly peppy and active in such events for my own inevitable MBA "projects", did I really want to be? Which is when I started actually looking into Indus Valley as an option. Yeah, I know, I change my mind more than I change my clothes, but then I've never had a set path I want to follow. So now I'm looking into liberal arts degrees for my masters.

And so begins another depressing sunday.

2006-02-17T06:33:00.000+01:00

Today's the third day of holidays in a row this week for me. The good news is that yesterday's protests in Karachi went off really well, completely non-violent, yay! Of course, KFC, the inevitable target to take out all your frustrations at the Western World, has closed up shop today just to be on the safe side. The bad news is that Roberto Calderoli, Italy's Reforms Minister has decided to wear a shirt he had made up with one of the cartoons of the Prophet and the most the Prime Minister can do is "ask him to resign" since under the Italian constitution, the PM can't actually sack a Minister.

And so commences another day of doing absolutely nothing.

Driving and Dreaming

2006-02-10T10:38:00.000+01:00

I have come to the conclusion that the majority of people in Karachi who can and do drive do so like complete jackasses. This does not, by the way, exclude myself, but heck, I'm a beginner, what's your excuse?

My aunt asked my brother to tape a big "L" to the rear window of the car that I usually drive. My brother found this infinitely amusing and informed me right away just to watch my expression of horror. People are patronizingly understanding when it comes to "women drivers" as it is, and the last thing I need is a sign that shows I'm a rung lower than even "women drivers": a novice.

Life, in general, is good. I'm a bit afraid to comment on how well everything seems to be going, less I jinx it. Yeah, I'm wierd and superstitious that way. I had an odd dream where I was a part of a family stuck in the backstage area of a very large stage and everyone but me goes through the door that leads to the main stage and I can't find the door after they've all left and the clapping is over and done and everything's dark and quiet. Not so bad, when you compare it to other dreams I've had, the really bad ones, but in this one I actually get to live my life in non-linear flashes of living in a cluttered and lonely backstage area for the rest of life and being forced to eat anything to survive, including eventually my own flesh. Blame Stephen King for that gruesome image. I suppose the more disturbing thing is that I woke up and went about my day as usual after that. No lingering revulsion or occasional shudder as an image from my dream came back. How disturbed do you have to be to not have disturbing things disturb you as they once did anymore?

Don't let the sun go down on me

2006-02-09T15:16:00.000+01:00

Don't let the sun go down on me,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

A spot where I stopped for a spot of wading.

Filled to capacity

2006-02-09T15:08:00.000+01:00

Filled to capacity,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

As promised, photos from my driving practice. This one taken while driving on the main Seaview road and all the kids seemed delighted to have thier picture taken. :)

The Cartoons

2006-02-06T11:32:00.000+01:00

Many of you, if you have nothing else to wonder about, may have been wondering at my lack of comment upon the hot topic among the Muslim world these days, the mean spirited cartoons of the Holy Prophet that originated from a Danish newspaper and were subsequently reprinted in many other European newspapers. First of all, I'm proud to see that on all the blogs I've check out that have commented on the issue, none are inflamed by what is obviously a cheap publicity stunt and an action as mean spirited as prodding a bear in a cage at the zoo repeatedly then gleefully waiting for him to react so that he can be reported to the Zoo authorities.

Upon observing the cartoons (yes, one must observe to make an informed decision), I felt more sad than angry. All the world appears to be behaving highly childishly, with the instigators of the cartoons refusing to apologize despite a global outcry, some of the enraged Muslim population lashing out at Denmark and of course the silent majority that is sitting and watching. If this is the general direction humanity is going to be travelling in, the treading of minorities rights and the lack of basic respect for one anothers' beliefs in the name of freedom, I'm quite sure we're on the path to self-destruction in about forty to fifty years. The world is behaving like a child with a near-genius intellect dropping out of high school and going to work mugging old ladies to be able to pay for food. You can't help but be sad at all the wasted potential. As for the cartoons, feeble attempt at provocation shouldn't matter to the mature mind. After all, would you, as an adult, be offended into action by a six year old brat who whacks you with a stick and then runs away sticking his tongue out? If this distasteful disrespect is what passes for humor in Europe, then they're welcome to it.

For a more interesting post on the issue, and a good discussion in the comments section, please visit Lahoree's Blog.

Sunday Ends

2006-02-05T13:56:00.000+01:00

Sunday Ends,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

I've never actually seen a sunrise, although I've seen (and captured) dozens of sunsets. Ah well, ends are more interesting than beginnings anyway.

the void

2006-02-04T16:47:00.003+01:00

I have never felt more intellectually alive and less articulate in expressing it. Thanks to a friend who's preparing for the GRE, I have been brought down to earth about the pitiful state of my vocabulary. I need to learn some more words, and fast to gain back my intellectual street cred.

As of late, I have been really enjoying my Physics classes. Anyone who may have been bored enough to have been reading this blog for the past two years would realize that I have, on occasion, confessed to a great dislike for the subject, but as of late, it's made me realize more than ever how important a good teacher is.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the concept of space, an airless, soundless vacuum, scares the crap out of me while being oddly attractive at the same time. I imagine being in a space suit floating through space with no concept of up, down, forward, backward or gravity or any sort of direction whatsoever would be a bit like a return to the womb. An ever-expanding universe full of just light and dark and black holes. Stars below your feet and stars above your head, at least until your suit's oxygen runs out and your insides burst through to become your outsides. Did I mention outer space fascinates me?

flying in two dimensions

2006-02-01T15:09:00.000+01:00

I was out driving again today. One of these days, I'll take a camera along and capture the beautiful scenery along the way. The Darakshan area is idea for driving practice, and there's such a sense of liberation to be had from speeding along an empty, smooth road at sixty miles an hour with nothing on your mind but staying on the road. Flying in two dimensions is my new favorite hobby, as soon as I get a darn license, because, as everyone feels compelled to remind me time and time again, if I hit someone and don't have a licence, I can be charged with attempted murder.

on choices

2006-02-01T09:36:00.000+01:00

Choice is an illusion. Every choice I make is either because:

a) I am influenced by past experiences to make that choice

b) Because that's the way I'm genetically wired

c) My choice is guided by events in my life at the moment which leave me little room for personal tastes.

I may choose to believe that I have the freedom to make a completely free choice, but then again it becomes a moot issue because belief is probably an illusion as well.

While decieving the self is normal, in both day to day matters as well as the larger issues, to truly understand yourself and your motivations, I think we need to closely examine our choices and determine which of the above three it was that determined this particular choice for us and if it was A or B, what the source was. Identifying what went wrong isn't enough anymore, it's more important to identify why exactly what went wrong went wrong to be able to prevent it from affecting your choices in the future.

fire in the hole!

2006-01-30T19:01:00.000+01:00

I have been mired with various exams this week. Luckily, I'm doing great in almost all my subjects, save the one that I detest, Computer Organization. A great teacher has even made physics bearable. Additional fun is to bad since the computer labs at the university now have Counter Strike installed and LAN gaming with classmates has never been so much fun as when you're sitting close enough to yell at them when they take a sniper to your sorry ass.

2006-01-29T16:24:00.000+01:00

Death is in the air. A friend's father just passed away.

Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Rajioon

2006-01-29T14:02:00.000+01:00

If you're feeling vulnerable to all the negativity in your life, some movies I strongly you not watch at the risk of spurring on a bout of depressive broodiness:

1. Event Horizon
2. Requiem for a dream

Unfortunately, I chose to watch Event Horizon today. Even in the best of moods, the movie can freak you out and at the worst of times, it brings out the seven year old in me that wonders if there really is a hell and if we're all on our way there, even if within the movie, the "hell dimension" is described as a place where chaos and evil (the abscence of good) reign supreme. *shudder*

submergence

2006-01-25T12:37:00.000+01:00

I always has this objectivity about emergencies and crises, they never affected me, hence I was always able to be the one who could calmly assess the situation and come up with a solution while everyone else would be running around like chickens with their heads chopped off. As of late, things have happened, horrible things, events that managed to drag me down into the mud too and I can understand and sympathize with the people around me I see who can't sleep and worry incessantly. For a while, I was that person as well. I could not sleep till everyone in my family was in the house and asleep and even then with a sleep so fragmented that it would be broken by a creak of the door as the cat wandered into the room in the wee hours of the morning. I was convinced something horrible was going to transpire and that if only I was awake, I could stop it. If someone was gone a half hour too long, I would worry. All it took was the electricity to go and the house to be entirely quiet for me to start to lose it. Overly emotional, lonely as hell and very, very pissed is how I spent the last month. Suddenly the recluse was seeking superficial company just for the sake of having someone next to me talking and keeping the overwhelming quiet from gaining a firm foothold. Understandably, I was disgusted with myself during this period.

Yesterday I finally got a grip. I think I'm finally returning to that higher, oblivious plane of existance I have lived on all my life, where no problems can really have any dire consequences and nothing bad can happen to me and everything happens for a reason. I still worry, but at least I can sleep with my door closed, convinced that nothing horrible is going to happen. It's good to be myself again.

Vet Tales

2006-01-22T07:45:00.000+01:00

I have been more wrapped up in myself than usual to post anything half sensible. As of late, I noticed that my cat appeared to have a bit of a problem. Should you pat him anywhere near the rear, he would hiss and scratch and, failing to get you to stop, he would run away. This was a cause for concern. In fact, I became a cause of concern for my family who would see me trying to lie almost flat on the floor and get a peek at the rear end workings of the cat without touching the area. It requires some dexterity, I must admit. What really concerned me was that the cat appeared to have some sort of bleeding issues from the rectal area. If it was a boil or something, that was okay, but God forbid it should be some sort of internal bleeding, so I took him to the local vet. Unfortunately, the vet wasn't in, so I asked the throng of assistants available about the problem. Unfortunately, I've never enjoyed talking about rectal areas in public, not least to a bunch of guys who apparently are not familiar with the word rectal and I myself unfamiliar with what one would call a bum in urdu and a curious yet amused onlooker with a small white dog looking on from a bench on the side.

Me: I think my cat may have some problems. He won't let me get close enough to check, but I think there's some rectal bleeding going on for some reason.

Random assistant: Acha jee. Kahaan se ho rahi hai bleeding, moun se?

Me: Um, rectal? Rec-tal. *impatiently gesturing behind me* Peechay se, yaar.

Assistant: Oh acha, acha.

Anyhow, that being done, we brought him in for a check up. After the usual yowling for which he is famous at the doc's, it turned out to be nothing serious, just a sort of boil that he had irritated by constant licking. Goody. :)

vroom!

2006-01-19T16:22:00.000+01:00

I went out to practice my driving today. Turns out the darakshan area is brilliant for practicing driving with only two or three cars on every stretch of road. I then moved on to the more crowded areas such as Khadda Market and had a spot of trouble reversing out of my parked position. Lucky for me the driving population of Karachi comprises of jackasses who insist on closing off every area of possible movement except reversing and then honk at you from all sides to get you to get on with the backing up process. I have since decided that at the risk of having to walk a bit of the way, I will park only in ways that will allow me to simply move forwards out of the parking space and be as far away as possible from crowded parking areas.

So far so good. I'm pretty good at the zipping about cutting off other cars. By next week, I hope to have enough expertise to be able to drive myself to and fro like a pro. :)

2006-01-18T14:14:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry, I got overemotional and depressive. I try not to do that and it takes talking to a relative who's a lawyer (the two best kinds of people to talk to for good, hard, practical advice: doctors and lawyers) to drive the point home:

"You do realize you're just not being at all practical right now?"

That hit hard. A good hit.

Thank God for friends like S though. You know who you are, buddy, thank you for reawakening my ambition to get into a good university via Norway. Thank you just for caring. :)

So now common sense is back in the driver's seat and I'm looking for practical solutions to my problems, not overemotional ones.

The university has started up again and thank God for hefty courseloads. I hope to be able to spend all day at the university once again. Escapism takes commitment, you know.

I also vow to learn to drive myself around once and for all. Enough with the rickshaws and calling for rides. Tomorrow, it's driversville or bust. :P

dark days

2006-01-17T19:20:00.000+01:00

If there is a god up there, I would just like to ask

what the hell did I ever do to you?

80's Optimism

2006-01-16T18:42:00.000+01:00

Thanks to friends who love 80's music, I got to listen to a lot of old pop music as of late. There's such a thread of optimist in these songs, even when they're singing about heartbreak. Some great mood lifters on my playlist currently:

Go West - King of Wishful Thinking
Phil Collins - Can't Hurry Love
David Bowie - Golden Years

:)

the sea has vanished!

2006-01-13T10:03:00.000+01:00

the sea has vanished!,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

What an odd thing to wake up and look outside and notice that the sea has vanished.

Motorolla RAZR V3

2006-01-11T22:21:00.000+01:00

Motorolla RAZR V3,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

Ah, the Motorolla RAZR V3, one of the hottest phones (looks-wise) out there today, in my opinion. Don't know about reliability and processing speed, though, so if anyone has used it, please feel free to leave comments on how you found it.

Information about this phone on GSMArena

Motorolla RAZR V3 on Beliscity

cornerstone

2006-01-10T14:24:00.000+01:00

Spurred on by my own inability and unwillingness to meet its demands, my world contracting, this self drawn circle in the sand is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.

Eventually, all that will be left of my world is myself and my own mind.

It is then that I shall lay the cornerstone for an entirely different world for myself and build upon that cornerstone brick by brick to fashion a new world, based on what I want from it and what I am willing to give it in return.

The circle is always expanding and contracting, let's see how far I can take it.

If this seems like pointless rambling to you, I may make some sense tomorrow, but don't count on it.

Yeah, Eid Mubarak to you too

2006-01-10T13:03:00.000+01:00

It's Eid again, whoop-de-doo.

Relatives have started calling up bitching about how we (my brother and I) have not visited or attended as many functions as they would like. It's times like these that make me want to call an F-you Press Conference addressed to all my relatives, because they are not concerned with if we are okay and so forth, but the fact that when my mum was here, we would appear in public functions as much as propriety demanded, even if we were blackmailed by mum into doing it. Little brother managed to get himself into aforementioned shitty situation right when a cousin was getting married. God forbid anyone should not be able to attend a wedding. Oh, and I make some friends wait outside the venue in the freezing cold for twenty minutes on our way to dinner so that I can pop in at the venue and make the expected "Salaam-rounds" and leave and they bitch about this as well. "Why did you leave so early?" Because your kids are annoying and I have nothing in common with them. "We could have given you a ride home!" Yeah at two a.m. when you were finally ready to leave? No, thank you. "Why didn't your brother come too?" He's not well. "Phir bhi...!"

Bah, I hate holidays. I was planning to have a little moviefest, ignoring as usual the fact that the streets are running with blood spilled gleefully by hands too young to hold a knife but proud to do so anyway. With the guilt trip laid onto aunt it looks like it's going to be another great holiday season involving us visiting relatives who don't give a shit about us and ignore us after the initial salaams just to meet the demands of propriety. Oh well, at least there will be lots of pepsi.

"apparently, God gave us hips!"

2006-01-09T17:02:00.000+01:00

Thank God for Black Fish! Were they not performing sporadically, I would be stuck going to Cineplex and paying a heft Rs. 250 per person for tickets to a mostly edited one and a half hour version of a two hour movie and paying Rs. 60 for a bucket of stale, cold popcorn and another Rs. 60 for a medium sized cup of Coke. Anyhow, enough lamenting about my depleting nature of my finances and more about the show.

This particular show was their 3rd Anniversary and so we got noisemakers (aptly named and much used by all who got them) and cupcakes. The show, of course, was hilarious as always, with the whole troop being in higher spirits than I remember seeing them last time due to the anniversary. Anyone who has not seen them, simply must go at least once.

The show started off with a short stand-up routine by new Black Fish in training, Danish, who got off to a slow start and told everyone how he was plucked off the streets by Sami Shah to polite smiles waiting for the laughs to begin. Of course, once the guy launched into his routine, it was hilarious, as expected, including my personal favorites, a joke about Lahori women which was predictable but side splittingly funny thanks to the delivery and a bit about the odd names of schools in Karachi (the strangely suggestive "Jolly Jingle School", "Model School for Boys" and "Happy Home school"). Definitely one to watch out for and a possible replacement for Ishma, the only female left in Black Fish, who will sadly be leaving to study Psychology abroad for a year.

Sami Shah, the MC for half the event, was harassed (as he always seems to be) by a chorus of females to his left screaming constantly for a "Shezi", who was eventually called up to the stage by an exasperated Sami midway through the show. The games were clearly inspired by "Whose Line Is It Anyway" this time around, as the Sami Shah admitted, since they were trying out some new ideas for this special show. One of the much loved games in Whose Line, Party Quirks, didn't translate as well as it does on the telly, unfortunately, but was still fun to watch. The whole group was at the top of their game, as always, but the severe lack of air conditioning and overselling of seats meant that people were sitting (and rolling) in the aisles and even standing up to allow the elderly to take their seats.

Oh and of course, there were the mandatory jokes at the expense of Karachi Grammar School and it's attendees, the "Grammarians" and this time even Lyceum was included in the festivities in a hilarious ending segment called "Gunda goes to Karachi Grammar School" where fun was mercilessly poked at the "burgerr" population of said schools, the lack of space on campus at Lyceum and the population segments at KGS.

Oh, and in a smart move, Black Fish decided to start cashing in and introduce some merchandising tactics into the mix and even start up a mailing list to inform more people about their gigs. Uptill now, the Karachi Metroblog has served as a great way to find out about their gigs and miscellaneous other comedy events, but I guess a mailing list is a great way to keep the populace informed. A must see!

my TV

2006-01-07T13:13:00.000+01:00

Today is a good day, for it is today that my favorite shows return from their oddly timed mid-season breaks. To celebrate the return of my PC-TV pastime, I shall quickly recommend a couple of shows I am absolutely hooked on for the past year, both of which are not easily available on any of the channels in Pakistan but are well worth the extra effort required to obtain them.

The single most expensive first episode ever, Lost starts off with an airplane full of passengers crashing into in island in the middle of nowhere. Amid the chaos that ensues, we find out that the protagonist (one of over forty survivors of the ill-fated Oceanic flight 418), Jack, is a doctor and a noble, if reluctant leader of the band of survivors, and that there is something very fishy about this Island. Each episode is divided into a narrative of the present with scenes from one characters's past life before boarding this flight was and the circumstances that led them to this Island. The other main characters whose back stories are explored in the brilliant first season include ex-Iraqi National Guard Sayid, Convict-being-deported Kate, the mysterious John Locke, Father and son with issues Michael and Walt, step-siblings Shannon and Boone, Southern con-man "Sawyer", ex pop-idol and current cocain addict Charlie, unlikely billionaire Hurley, pregnant Aussie Claire and Korean non-English speaking couple Jin and Sun. What with polar bears, dead people, "the others" and constant surprises popping up and budding theories about the Island representing some sort of purgatory and the numbers 4-8-15-16-23-42, this is my personal favorite new show of 2005. I'm doing a poor job of describing it, but trust me, watch the first three episodes, and you'll be hooked.

Visit The Official Lost Website

Second brilliant new show in 2005 was Veronica Mars. The title character is a 17 year old living in the town of Neptune, where the 09-ers are the filthy rich and everyone else is poor and looked down upon. Accepted into the 09-er crowd because of her quick wit, 09-er boyfriend and best friend and the fact that her father is the town Sherriff, Veronica has a good life up until the day her best friend Lily (also her boyfriend Duncan's sister) is found dead by her swimming pool. Who did it? Was it Duncan, the possibly unstable boyfriend who stopped seeing Veronica for no apparent reason a week before Lily was murdered? Was it Duncan's parents, the uber-rich Kanes? Was it Lily's boyfriend, someone at school who had a grudge? Thus begins an entire season of twists and turns and more surprise twists than you shake a stick at. Veronica's father accuses the dead girl's father and thus loses the town's respect and his position as Sherriff and Veronica is unpopular by association and spends her time partly by solving crimes working part time at her dad's detective agency and partly tossing around scathingly witty remarks to all who cross her for her fall from grace. Sound like yet another teen show with a perky blonde protagonist? It is, but it's written by Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas, and features a great cast, sharp writing and a mystery that will keep you guessing. I already got one friend hooked, so I may as well give the rest of you a try as well.

Visit the Official Veronica Mars Website

"that lovin' feeling!"

2006-01-05T22:25:00.000+01:00

I realize there is no such thing as love. A sad testament to the fact is that I have several objects of affection/lust right this very moment and I could turn my thoughts to any of them and convince myself that they are the one and I must have them or perish in the process. At the end of the day, at least I have that little bit of my brain that would instantly call "Bullshit!" at such a notion and so I remain oblivious to that lovin' feeling.

This is precisely why I'm so cynical about other people falling in love with people they don't even know. How can you possibly do that? If you don't know the person and claim to be in love with them, then it's lust, isn't it, since its inspired exclusively by the looks of said person and nothing more? How can you help but roll your eyes at the hapless majnoo who claims to be besotted with someone he has never spoken to and claims he simply cannot see the point in his life without said person?

Yeah, this post is recycled off another of my blogs. What can I say, I'm busy yet lazy at the same time and inspiration seems to have gone on strike rather than strike me.

2006

2006-01-02T21:01:00.000+01:00

Oh what a shitty, shitty new year.

Let me start off with a quick roundup of the events of the last few days:

27th December, little brother totals the car, escapes unhurt.
29th December, little brother takes two sleeping pills as a cure for insomnia and does not tell anyone. Everyone assumes he's had a fight with his girlfriend and is consequently depressed.
31st December, Early morning Internet and TV connection both die and WorldCall says they can't get someone to fix it till monday. Brilliant.
31st December, (late night) little brother is still in zombie mode, everyone starts going bananas and forbids him from leaving the house in this state.
1st Jan, (1 am) People celebrating New Year's on main Seaview go bananas as well and leap over the walls towards the residential area in a torrent of mob-frenzy. They are subsequently beaten back with sticks. I am saddened to think this is what god's (apparently) greatest creation is reduced to.
1st Jan, (2 am) little brother is given the keys to drive because I insist it will do him good to get some fresh air and get back his driving confidence. Little brother has not returned from a simple errand for an hour and everyone is imagining the worse and snapping at me for letting him go out.
1st Jan, late night, little brother is taken to hospital and has an IV drip pumped into him to get the effect of the sleeping pills out of his system after consulting a doctor about his constant drowsiness and lack of coherence. He is admitted to the ICU and pumped up with something or the other. He returns two hours later lookig much better and gaining some coherence and stringing sentences together.
2nd Jan, Classes commence.

So I have had a very stressful and all-round bad start to the new year. Morbid and entirely unappropriate humor keeps me sane, but remarks like "We should get season tickets for the ICU in this hospital, maybe they'll give us a discount" are apparently not appreciated by family. Anyhow, here's wishing all of you the most uninteresting year you have ever had, and believe me, you better appreciate it when you do get a highly uneventful year.

the blower's daughter

2005-12-30T10:01:00.000+01:00

In addition to everything else, I am now also emotionally distant to boot. Hysterical people, overly emotional people just annoy me now. I want tograb them and wring them until all those tears just come out in one go, as one would wring a wet towel and then begin to talk some sense into them. FYI, it's not very effective, a strategy like this.

Nowadays, a good friend have travelled up to Karachi from Lahore, where she is studying and she's staying with me for the duration. It's quite interesting to watch all these emotions in effect that I have never felt nor could hope to feel. One day she's so nervous she can't eat because she's off to meet someone who gives her honest to goodness butterflies in her stomache. I honestly didn't know it was possible to get those with regards to a person unless you were a character in some teenage romance flick. It makes me wonder what other emotions I may be dismissing as ridiculously overdramatic and possibly even extinct just because I have never experienced them.

I saw Closer a couple of days ago and besides being bitingly funny and completely relatable, the song it starts off with and ends with has been haunting me since.

And so it is

Just like you said it would be

Life goes easy on me

Most of the time

And so it is

The shorter story

No love, no glory

No hero in her sky

I can't take my eyes off of you

I just can't take my eyes off of you

I can't take my mind off of you

'Til I find somebody new

Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter

^&%^&#

2005-12-29T22:40:00.000+01:00

Complexity is overrated. Give me a simple life with simple issues that skim the surface of reality and simple, one dimensional relationships.

2005-12-28T21:07:00.000+01:00

Holidays are nearing an end all too quickly and checking out new semester schedules to carve out a mixtue of courses for my own this spring seems as all-depressing as buying back to school supplies used to be. To add to my general very non-festive mood, someone from the university called to tell me that my interview with the UN people is tomorrow morning! So now I know nothing, will probably be answering questions miserably and screw myself out of something I didn't want in the first place just because I have little to no interest in world affairs and geography in general. Let that be a lesson to all you kids, pay attention in class! The only thing worth looking forward to is that tomorrow morning, 'twill all be over and I can look forward to new years with buddies watching fireworks and eating hot pizza in warm clothes.

Yet Another Wedding

2005-12-27T19:07:00.000+01:00

I truly detest weddings, especially those where relatives are involved. They inevitably end up being a vey plastic affair, with the utmost of attention being paid to what each person is wearing and not to the fact that we are all here for a joyous occasion. Even today, as I am forced to attend a function, I hate the fact that I have to check the mirror several times before leaving and that everything has to look absolutely flawless so that we can all ooh and aah at how perfect we are and how the world revolves at our will and everything is fun and easy for one night.

UN?!

2005-12-27T18:32:00.000+01:00

Elaborating on an old post about how everyone but myself seems to think I need more responsibility and am more capable than I already am, it seems now people other than the faculty and students at my university seem to be catching on to this train of thought. I got a call in the midst of an enjoyably frivilous lunch informing me that I had been shortlisted by my coordinator to interview for one of four spots that would be going to Pakistani university students, and may end up going to India to represent Pakistan in some conference conducted by the UN. So now I have to get some serious reading up on world affiars, geography and history to be able to pass muster at the interviews. Not that I have much of a chance of getting it, with people from LUMS (aka well-read and intelligent people) and such in the competition, but hey, one can try. So much for a peaceful and enjoyably frivilous vacation.

Grand Theft Iraq

2005-12-26T13:45:00.000+01:00

Grand Theft Iraq,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

nonsensical rants from the moderately sick

2005-12-24T18:14:00.001+01:00

If one should happen to come visit me as of late, you may only encounter "Muffled Misha", so named because she is suffering from a headache, lack of sleep for no reason and cramps, and hence has semi-permanently retired into her big fat blanket for the rest of the winter. Any conversation you address to Muffled Misha may be answered by the muffled replies that resulted in the richly deserved name, or no reply at all, which would mean either the iPod is on, or she has falled asleep beneath the covers. In either case, poke liberally with blunt instruments to recieve a reply. Be warned, do not attempt to snatch away her blanket unless you are willing to face the risk of losing an arm.

Fight Club and Narnia

2005-12-21T14:21:00.000+01:00

Not new, this article, but still an interesting read:

Fight Club vs Calvin & Hobbes by Galvin P. Chow

Other interesting material for those interested in the same movie:

Fight Club, Patriarchy, and the Politics of Masculine Violence by Henry A. Giroux

Fight Club - A Sociological Analysis

I have a standard policy of reading books before watching their big screen adaptations, so I hastily downloaded and started reading the Chronicles of Narnia series. Hurray for BitTorrents, because had I actually purchased the seven series books from, say, Liberty books, it would have set me back a pretty penny. Now that I'm exactly halfway through the series (4th book out of seven), I can see why it's a classic. String Christian overtones? Mild, yeah, but I didn't even notice when I first read the book many years ago and after the first book, I only noticed because I was looking for them.

Edit: Download the 7 e-book Chronicles of Narnia collection (1.69 Mb hosted by Megaupload)

Rain!

2005-12-19T22:48:00.000+01:00

There's something oddly inspiring about the first rain of the season. Of course, my first reaction to rumbling noises outside, living in the area that's the hot favorite for an earthquake to hit if, God forbid, one should ever hit Karachi, is to wonder why it is I can hear rumbling and feel no movement in the ground. Earthquake eliminated, the next likely choice is that there must have been some sort of bomb blast again (refer to past double KFC bombings in the area) or possibly some other major hotspot on fire (refer to Salt 'n Pepper Village catching fire late one night recently). Spotting no flames or stream of smoke on the horizon, nor any signs of people coming out of their homes with panic, I finally wander outside and discover that it's rain! Good old, harmless rain! Can you blame me for standing in the rain and smiling like an idiot?

Of Weddings and the Food therein

2005-12-18T23:54:00.001+01:00

A prime example of our Government spending far too much time and energy on essentially trivial matters is the shaadi ka khaana law. At four a.m., as I attempt to go to sleep, I remember that I have to attend a dholki tomorrow. Never being a fan of weddings in general, especially the inevitably looming one that shall have me in the starring role, I began to muse upon the more pleasant aspect of a wedding: the food, which naturally led to the wondering of whether that silly rule forbidding food to be served was still on, or had it been called out due to a general lack of interest? There was a time, my friends, in the golden days of yore when a man could enjoy both a wedding and a feast at the same time. Then the powers that be took over and, wishing to divert public attention from the sad state of the, well, State decreed that there would no longer be food served at weddings. Since then, the status of this law has changed so often, I forget which one we're on now.

Anyhow, my mum was a pro at keeping track of these little things. She had noticed, with the all-seeing eye that mums posess, that her children, like so many other ravenous beasts, are only fit for presenting in polite company once their appetites are satisfactorily appeased. Were the offending no-food rule being implemented, we would eat before going. Of course, it's never really that simple. Were the host and hostess sufficiently endowed with the moolah and the influence to serve food anyway, mum would know that too, and what a fine feast it would be. Defiance adds a mildly tangy flavor to wedding food. Anyhow, I digress. So this is my first wedding function where it's just myself and my brother. I must admit, I do not know any of those wedding songs absolutely everyone seems to know and have no zeal for singing them either. I also don't enjoy sitting for hours on end clapping for no good reason save to show my supposed excitement about hearing yet another rendition of the same wedding songs that have been sung at dholkis since my dadi's time. Having already made the no-brainer decision to go as early as is possible to do so and leave as soon as politeness permits, the only descision remains about food: to eat or not to eat? How to tactfully obtain information regarding such a sticky subject from said host? Nevertheless, I suppose munching on a few snacks beforehand resolves the issue. Oh, and should there be no food, there's always the McDonald's Drive-thru for a quick bite on the way home.

By the bye, I can't resist mentioning the best wedding food I have ever had, probably because it's such a random bit of trivia, I'll probably never actually get the chance to mention it ever again in conversation. To my sadness, I have forgotten the hosts, but the wedding was in winter and the appetizer was Chicken Corn Soup. Needless to say, it was gobbled up in twenty minutes flat and nobody left while there was still hope of another helping of the delicious soup coming our way. Goddamn, I would clap like there was no tomorrow for food like that. Now it's mostly salan with far too much oil and naan that has been kept out in the cold too long. A word of advice: if the naan has stiffened, it is dead. Let it rest in peace. It cannot be revived, however the caterers try, with re-heatings and re-re-heatings. The art of the wedding feast is, unfortunately, as dead as the naan.

untitled

2005-12-18T07:48:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure what to talk about here these days. My days consist of sleeping, munching on snacks, watching movies and playing videogames. 'Tis an exciting life. To misquote Green Day, wake me up when december ends.

Cyberlove snicker

2005-12-16T19:42:00.000+01:00

Late night,
originally uploaded by selva.

Man Dates Gal On Internet For Six Months -- And It Turns Out She's His Mother!

Bwahahaha! Goes to show what a nation of media-whores is being bred when someone with a story that embarassing would sell it to the news to get his 15 minutes. I'm not saying it isn't amusing and all, and God, would I love to have been the official photographer for this particular meetip, but what the heck is the world coming to?

School's out

2005-12-14T15:09:00.000+01:00

BULTIN.jpg,
originally uploaded by astou pix.

So I finally, finally, finally am done with this semester. God, it's been a rollercoaster ride, especially since my wingman for projects got himself some major employment which cut down on time that was available for project work, plus another chum totally blew us off at the end of the year. The last day was monday, and what a shitty one it was. After seeing how much work other groups got done while mine was sadly understaffed was frustrating to say to the least. The fact that our report was one of the best ones and could have scored more marks had we the full implimentation included in it was even more frustrating. Today, however, thanks to staying up half the night to catch up on work that I was delaying due to projects and having a long napping session, I'm so ready for the new semester to begin.

Why does it seem like everyone's getting married these days? A 20-year old male friend is getting married this year. When I finally got a chance to catch up, he asked the single most annoying question combination anyone can ask me: "kitna parhogi? kia karogi itna parh ke? shaadi kab karogi?". I have to restrain myself from stuffing a pair of dirty socks in his mouth. Honestly, what is the big deal about wanting to actually study instead of leaping onto the first available male that walks by and heading to the nearest qazi? Why is it so strange that I may want to get at at least a Masters degree and see a bit of the world before I commit myself to ruining some poor SOB's life?

On a positive note, two great ladies have birthdays today. One would be the brilliant and always entertaining fellow blogger Hira/Heewa and the second would be my favorite Canadian schoolchum. I realize there's no way she would be reading this, but we miss you, Fraulien!

Epihany

2005-12-11T21:50:00.000+01:00

He was all out of ideas,
originally uploaded by Patrick.T.

Epiphany: a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence.

My lightbulb moment occurred at two a.m. this morning: I have a talent for BS (the noun not the degree program)! Why else would I be stuck making reports at the wee hours of the morning while groupmates work on Software Designs and Programming?

The downsides

2005-12-11T19:18:00.000+01:00

in action,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

Okay, so now its time for the downsides. Minor, admittedly, but just to get a fair picture of the 5G ipod.

Battery issues. Fear not, nothing major. I initially didn't think I would be playing videos much at all since my use for an iPod used to be primarily playing music. Videos was just a nifty add-on, much like photo support. However, the video playback and display combination works so well that I couldn't resist playing back videos on it even though I was near a TV and PC all day. Trouble with this is, it's easy to get carried away. Battery life with music playback is great, but if you should play two to three hours of videos constantly, the battery will slowly start to die on you. This, however, is an estimation, since I haven't actually played videos long enough to wear down the entire battery yet. If you're into playing a lot of videos, I would definitely recommend you go for the 60 Gigabyte model of the iPod video, which, in addition to the obvious (more space), also has a longer lifespan for the battery.

Video Playback Delay. Okay, this is really grasping at straws to find a flaw, but this one is most noticeable upon the first few times of playing video files. There will always be a slight delay (1-1.5 seconds max) between the instant you click on a video file to be played and the instant it will start playing. I'm not one to make a big deal out of having a portable video device respond slightly slower than my PC, so this one is really very minor.

Style vs Scratching. Which do you prefer? If you go with the black iPod, simply because it is just so much more stylish than classic white, be prepared for scratching. Of course the white one scratches easily too, but with white, you can't see the minor scritch-scratchy network as well normally. The screen has to be protected at all costs. Get a durable and soft cover to protect your iPod, no matter how stupid it may look. Annoying little scratches will keep appearing and accumulating constantly, so have a case handy when you purchase, especially since the case included is okay for initial use for quite flimsy in my opinion.

That's about all the downsides I can think of. Remember, do NOT purchase iPods in Pakistan. You will be purchasing it for nearly double the price with a million justifications for the disparity in cost here and "bahaar se" by shopkeepers.