Thursday 29 May 2008

Beatles Night!

There'll be No Head Banging, No Mosh Piting and definitely no Screaming at the top of their voices onto the mics.

Yes, finally there's going to be a whole night dedicated to the Beatles. There's this concert being held by the Rolling Stones Magazine (Which the Beatles as the Greatest Artists of All Time) and the Band Association of Chennai at the YMCA, Nandanam on 31st of May.

This is huge. There are posters everywhere and tickets are being sold like crazy. I'm there. Obviously. Despite the Chennai Super Kings' semi-final on the 31st, I'm there.

When it comes to Cricket or The Beatles, with me, there's no question At all..

The only problem is, I'm terribly excited and terribly scared. I can't bare to watch a bad performance of a song from the Beatles. That would leave me depressed for ages. But at the same time, I'm not keeping my hopes very high either. Let's hope it goes well.

And on a totally different note, I was browsing thru the Rolling Stones Magazine's website when I found this List of top 100 songs of 2006. Not surprisingly, I've heard just 7 of those 100. That just proves my lack of Contemporary music knowledge.

Anyways, see you at the Beatles Night, tickets are available at Landmark priced at Rs.100. That's a 100 rupees well spent. Definitely!

Sunday 25 May 2008

Crash! Bang! Rain! News and Frustration!!

It was an awesome start to the Monaco Grand Prix. Raining like crazy and crashes and stops all over. Frequent place shifts and amazing pit stop speed. An amazing dream-run for Force India running in 4th. Behing Mclaren, BMW and Ferrari. Vijay Mallya must've fainted.

Just when I thought a Ferrari 3, 5 was ok as long as 4th was Force India's, My dad as usual steps in, grabs the remote and changes to Sun TV. Apparently, the same news that he saw in the 130 telecast is waaaay more important than the Race I was watching. I swear by God that it was the same news. You know how those things work, make different news readers read the same stuff and successfully fool people into believing that its fresh news.

I don't know who to pity more. Raikonnen crashed into the 4th running Force India car at the Chicane out of the tunnel and they both went way back. Raikonnen had to pit and change his front nose and Sutil (The Force India Driver) retired. Raikonnen finished 9th and out of the points and Sutil retired.

Obviously, I pity my poor life. I had to watch this on Live Timing and commentary from some unknown fellow, when my dad was happily watching the same old "news".

I feel SO frustrated that I feel like Ripping off a few heads. I HATE MY LIFE!!!!! If not being able to watch a program that's been telecast once in 2 weeks in peace, why the hell should I like what's going on?????

Monday 19 May 2008

Scaring People with an Advert!

You would've definitely seen that Insurance Company Advert where the woman goes around the Home screaming "sanju..sanju". That ad from the Max New York Life Insurance company is a brilliant case study.

What's so special about this ad? Well, for one, its got just 2 people. It doesn't have any animations and it doesn't show an Old Man with glasses! What it shows is something negative. It potrays the wife to be scared, shocked and surprised. This is something new cuz most of the ads for Insurance companies we've seen so far shows someone dreaming about some danger or something like that. But this ad is negative deep down.

And funnily, in this Sadistic world, Negativity sells. Max New York's business has trebled since the ad's been telecast. The prime time slot on one of the most watched channels (Set Max during IPL matches) definitely helps.

Thursday 15 May 2008

Bro the Clown!

Being the Geek my Brother is, he started working for a Networking Company while he's waiting for his MS Admissions to arrive.

First day of work, goes to office wearing a Half-Sleeve Shirt, Ironed Pants and Sports Shoes!!! LMAO!!!

Monday 12 May 2008

Nature

I spotted one of The Most Beautiful Chameleon's near my Place and I went Click Crazy.






The Colours were tempting enough. You can Check out the Other Photos here You do not need a Facebook Account! :)

Sunday 11 May 2008

Spoiling the Fun, Dad Style...

You know how Dad's can Spoil your fun? Well, my Dad just spoiled the thing I was looking forward to for the past 4 years!

I've been wanting to watch a Formula 1 Race at home ever since the CAS was introduced and Star Sports became a Pay Channel. Well, thanks to my sister, Set Top Box was installed at home and I was really excited about the Turkish Grand Prix which is going on as I type this. I watched the Qualifying last evening and it was all set for an amazing race. Woke up this morning, wondering how awesome it would be to enjoy a Ferrari Victory sitting in the Comforts of Home. Waited a long while from the time I woke up till around 515 in the evening when the race was all set to start. The men were on the Grid. Warm up lap over and everything was perfectly lined up for the 5 lights to go off.

Enter DAD (Villain of the Piece)

Him: Change the channel, I want to watch the match, last 2 overs.
Me: Just a minute, I'll watch the start and the first lap, it'll take just 2 minutes (It really will, the lap takes around a 1min 30 secs, from standstill, around 2 mins)
Him: Formula 1 is crap, stupid guys sutthi sutthi coming around the same track. Boring. Keep Cricket.
Me: I will, just gimme 2 mins.
Him: NO! Change NOW.

Not wanting to spoil my moment of fun, I changed the channel and Immediately a Wicket fell. I waited for the replay to be shown and Immediately switched back to F1.

Him: How dare you? Keep Cricket itself. I don't want to watch Formula 1.
Me: A wicket fell, You saw the Replay, they'll put ads now and I'll change back to that after the ads.
Him: NO. KEEP CRICKET NOW.

I lost it, banged the remote on the coffee table, threw a few choice words at my dad and stormed out of the room.

4 years of wait, gone in a poof. Dads must Have their way. ALWAYS.
All that talk about "we are working for your future, your happiness..." is Total Crap. Take it from a Disgruntled Teenager.

Friday 9 May 2008

How My Potato Wedges almost became Plastic Potato Wedges!

It was day before yesterday that this debacle happened. I was really hungry at around 5 in the evening and could find nothing in the Fridge worth eating. I thought that if I could get something from the nearby Supermarket, I could prepare something quickly and have a good eat. But I really couldn't find anything interesting other than those frozen foods. I thought French fries would be a serious waste of money when I found these Potato Wedges.
"Delicious Wedges with a Sprinkling of herbs" Easy to make were the words I was looking for and sure enough, they were printed in huge bold red letters.

I got back home and sat to read the Instructions on it. "Pre-heat oven to 230C...". I had never done something like that on the Oven and was rather scared. I knew following the Instructions to the tee would result in a pretty bad tasting dish, so I pre-heated it to 200C and it said "12 minutes, turn around the wedges and 8 more minutes". Going by my lack of Culinary expertise, I baked it at 200C for around 10 minutes. Here's where It all went wrong.

I really couldn't spend 10 minutes staring at the rotating "Microwave Oven safe" plastic vessel that came along with our oven. So I just rushed to take a shower. Soon as I got back and got dressed, the timer said 30 seconds remaining, everything looked fine. The wedges seemed to be brown and looked crisp. Just when it reached the 20 seconds mark, there was a slight tap kinda sound, figuring this would be nothing, I was just walking around in the Kitchen when I smelt a rather Plasticky smell. I just took a glance at the Oven and there was 10 seconds remaining, the Vessel had bent out of shape and looked as if it was ready to melt away.

I definitely didn't want this to happen. Things happened in quite a rush. I turned the timer off, opened the door to leave the Kitchen smelling wholly of Plastic. I put on the glove and pulled out the vessel hastily, while I did this in a hurry, the vessel touched the side-wall of the Oven and it just stuck on there. I tried pulling it, but it left a thin long plastic thread from the side-wall to the vessel. Cutting it with a Knife, I took out the vessel and it felt a bit wobbly. I placed it on the counter, took out the wedges and washed the vessel immediately. BAD MISTAKE. Ever seen those perfectly shaped Kites, imagine how the shape would change if the Centre Wood piece broke in two, that's exactly how it my vessel was. The water made it hard and now it sits on just 2 ends, ever-wobbly.

Thanks to my Presence of mind (??!!), I was able to change the shape of a perfectly melting vessel. But I guess if I had let it carry on for those remaining 10 seconds, it would've definitely been Yellow Plastic Potato Wedges!!!

Oh and for those concerned souls, I did manage to eat some of the Wedges, not the partly done ones, the remaining looked good to be fried in oil. :)

Thursday 8 May 2008

Things that have Happened...with me, without me!

A long break from Blogging thanks to my wretched exams. Those things are finally over and I'm now in the 3rd and final year of college. I still can't believe that I made it through this far! I've always seen myself as this small short boy who just refuses to grow (may be because of the people around me) and there are still people who treat me like I'm 5. That's fun, all the pampering is kinda nice as long as it doesn't get to your head and for me it has.

Anyways, Here are some of the things that have happened, some are of my doing, some of them not even close to me...

* Exams over, 3rd year now.
* Went to a Class mate's Sister's wedding reception which took place in Velachery. Man that place is FAR away. I never realized that Chennai was this big. There are a lot of places in Chennai that I haven't seen/visited. I feel ashamed...
* CAT preparations came to a grinding halt when Sem Exams started. Now to continue with those...
* Some of my College friends and I are planning a Bike Trip to Yelagiri. The weather's supposed to be awesome there and the Bike Trip will help me lose a bit of the tension that's been building up in my head, thanks to numerous things.
* My bro's done with his College. 4 Years of gruelling struggle at SSN college and he's done with it. The worst part is, his Project got delayed and so his MS Admissions are getting a bit delayed too. Meanwhile, my dad wants him to work, understandable, the thing is that, My dad wants him to join work from this Monday!! I was shocked, why can't he be let free for a while. I was telling my dad that It'd be better if he joined from the 1st of June and surprisingly, My bro says he's got No Problems going to work on Monday. Crazy Bugger!
* As CAT is steadily approaching, my dreams of Enrolling myself into a Drums Class and resume Karate Classes seems to be pretty far fetched...
* Narain Karthikeyan winning the final A1 GP was an amazing achievement. 3rd season in and we're 10th out of 20 teams in the final tally. Brilliant progress seeing that we managed to get No points in the 1st season!
* Formula 1's moved to the Europe and this season promises another Thrilling Season. Ferrari dominating the points tally! Awesome.


On a totally different note, My sister's coming home for a few days. I gotta go pick her up from the Airport in the Morning since my parents are in Bangalore attending some wedding. Excited... And I just realized that it's 1230 am and her flight lands at 645 here. I gotta get some sleep!