Was the chief guest's last name Gibson?

Look at these unbelievably ignorant and insensitive jokers - how crass can people get?

Hitler-themed restaurant

A huge poster of the Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, adorned the inauguration function of Hitler's Cross, much to the surprise of the invitees.

The signage at the entrance also showed the Swastika encircled by the letter O in Cross.

“We wanted to be different. This is one name that will stay in people’s minds,” owner Punit Shablok told Reuters. “We are not promoting Hitler. But we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different.”

!!!! For shame.

Polar bear anyone?

As a fan of bears - all kinds, I couldn't help showcasing this one.

Here's Coldilocks - a nice AP picture on CNN.
CNN.com: 'Coldilocks, a 25-year-old female polar bear, enjoys bits of fruit in a block of ice in the midday heat at the Philadelphia Zoo.'


I rarely miss bear stories on the net. Here are a few ursine escapades: =)

• This bear, I think, tried to escape from the zoo on a cycle.

'Juan the Andean spectacled bear first paddled across a moat using a log for a raft, then scaled a wall. Finally he appeared to commandeer a bicycle, before zookeepers with brooms cornered him.'

• This one had a preference for a particular brew, 36 cans of it. Look at him.
  

'Sgt. Bill Heinck said the bear did try one can of Busch, but ignored the rest."He didn't like that (Busch) and consumed, as near as we can tell, about 36 cans of Rainier." '

• A cousin of Coldilocks above, maybe? This bear broke in for some oatmeal.

'It was a real-life version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears — only in reverse. A woman came home to find a young bear eating oatmeal in her kitchen. Three police officers who went to the home Thursday couldn't get the bear to budge, so authorities let the animal finish its meal.'

Enchanting.

The Eternal Mel

Yes, others have said the exact same things, but let me add my note to all that's being said about Mel Gibson:

- He's so obviously an anti-Semite. There's been enough evidence .... his behavior, his film and his family.
- The first apology didn't refer to his anti-Jew remarks. Gibson only said he was sorry for these later, when it was pointed out. He wants Hollywood and movie-goers to not boycott him. Make no mistake, he still has the same beliefs.
- Nothing he'll say or do in repentance now and later will ever change that. It can't, because - unprovoked - he chose to express something that he believes in. He'll always be a Jew hater.

And no, drunkeness is not an excuse. How can they defend this SS Nazi? How?

Syd Barrett

Roger 'Syd' Barrett passed on last week. One of the founders of Pink Floyd, he left the band in the late '60s, well before Floyd's major albums came out. He was replaced by David Gilmour after he lost his mind, and the album 'Wish You Were Here' was with reference to Barrett.

I chanced upon The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, from Barrett's time, in '04. Astronomy Domine, a weird number from this album, wasn't easy to forget.

Again: Murder in Bombay. Resilience?

'Bastards!' I recall this headline in the Daily Mirror after the London tube bombings one year ago. It was also expressed spontaneously, soon as many of us heard about Bombay now.

To help or to look up emergency information click here.

Today, a bunch of hatemonger killers left explosives on trains across Bombay and got off, before hundreds were blown up. A curse on these godless heathen.


All Cities Do Step Up During Tragedies
Now about the media that covers Bombay's tragedies. Oh, the city is used to it, right? The city is 'resilient', and it's residents will rise to the occasion, Bombay's spirit shall ne'er die, this is after all 'Bombay'.

Where doesn't this happen?

What city isn't resilient, where don't citizens step up and help each other after a disaster? It happened in New York, London, Madrid, and in any other terror zone. Why does the media keep on about how each city is unique and shall rise from the ashes. Come on, they all do, and it's not extraordinary. Because it's a question of staying employed, not losing an earning opportunity - there isn't a choice for most ordinary survivors. And people will always reach out during a tragedy, like they do in Bombay everytime.

Excitement For Some Of The Unaffected
However I saw a different kind of 'resilience' on television. There were resilient people in Bombay grinning on camera, yelling, laughing as they waved to viewers, and overall having a good time as clueless reporters asked for soundbites. Happens every time, and so terribly crude when viewed against the background of tragedy.

They were obviously not directly affected by the bombings - no damage, no injuries, no loss of life, and for such people this was some welcome excitement. Trains were bombed in the city where they live, nothing happened to them, but wow how exciting - be all buzzed and do nothing. A diversion from their monotonous daily lives. For every genuine donor, facilitator or life saver(there were many), there were several of these jokers on the sidelines. One of them even said 'It is a sad day for Bombay', smiling cheerfully.

News Coverage - Watch Us, We Sensationalize More.
Do any of us care for reporters and news anchors' faux expressions on Indian TV channels? . Those affected are tired of cliched comments about 'spirit' and how 'Bombay is different'. Did anything change for them since the last tragedy? As always, rookie and familiar reporters were competing for stories by asking the most inane questions:

'How do you feel after these explosions?' (I feel great. What do you think?)
'Do you want to go home now?' (Nope, thought I'd standby until the wee hours)
'Will your family be worried about you?' (No, they're hoping I'd be taken)
'Are you going to get on a train now?' (No, heading to the airport)
'Do you feel different than the last time Bombay was attacked?' (Yes, this time I feel really awful. Last time I was happy.)
'Do you think Bombay will get back on its feet?' (Difficult to say. Let me watch and get back to you in 6 weeks.)

Bad enough when posed to dazed victims, and incredibly worse when asked to the grinning/excited folks above. Completely unaffected, their cheerful smiling demeanor, even as they professed sorrow and shock, should make anyone recoil with disgust.

Speaking of expressing disgust, do read this column. Are these attacks a surprise any longer? No.

Windows Live Mail - what a mess!

Right off my comments on Cnet -

Been trying this beta 'upgrade' on and off a few months now.

What a complete disaster Windows Live Mail, beta or not, is! What the heck is the MS team doing - nothing works on this piece of trash!

1. Can't open an email easily,
2. Can't open a link within,
3. Can't update contacts,
4. Can't delete an email, and
5. Microsoft even threatens us ambigiously when we try to opt out of beta?! Just try opting out.
   

Besides they'll keep telling you they're working on the Classic Hotmail view, and that you should try LiveMail. It's confusing as both do not work. Oh, and it works supposedly on IE only, not Firefox. Another super-smart move from MS. Not.

I've anyway switched to Gmail a long time ago. I used Hotmail for 12 years and it became bad to worse to now unusable. Hotmail was already a usability disaster right from login to logout, and so is 'Live Mail' now.

Can MS get anything right?

Did I miss something?

Just finished 'The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari'.
.......
.......
.......
Now what was so fantastic about the book? Honest. Maybe I didn't get the point. Maybe I didn't like the narration and the way it was all conveyed. Maybe it was too much hocus-pocus? Maybe it was hard to recall it all for self-improvement.

Or

It was all about what most people already knew. It was nothing new. There's a zillion self-help books, new age thinkers, and courses that supposedly do the exact same thing.

Felt like the book was much too simple and random in its message. We get the same preaching in many other ways and often. What was different here?

Back - after miles and miles back east

Was away a whole two weeks back east. The sun came back after the first week. Think I covered like 2200 miles on the road - Boston, Connecticut, Springfield-MA, Syracuse, Niagara Falls, Westchester County, NYC and back to the Boston area. Whew!

But it was great to go back to familiar places, and meet old friends in each. Ye olde and oft repeated stories and anecdotes. Good times..... ah, am wistful.

'Tis good to be in New England

All ye olde familiar places, and familiar people. Good times recalled from the past, and good times now.

Having a great time in Boston, west of Boston, New Hampshire... and all places in between. Feels like home again.

Real nice to meet with old friends, great recollections from years ago, repeated and still fun. So what if it's been raining. Lovin' it much!

Gone batty?

There is a lot of retrospection:

1. Am I learning anything in what I'm doing?
2. Am I missing out on some exciting work or life opportunity?
3. Do I feel like I'm making a difference anywhere?
4. How come I'm not thinking more often like I did here?
5. Are some people and peoples more evolved than others?
6. What was I thinking then and before then?
7. Why do I endlessly wonder about why I did something?
   
8. Will I be wondering what was I thinking now, next year?
   
9. How come I don't meet more people that think and react like me?
10. Why didn't I think of somethings sooner?
    
11. Are there people with the same interests and exposure as I?
12. Why do I dislike 'How to' self-help books?
13. Why don't I care about the seven habits and the 8th?
14. Why do I think sequels to self-help books are a scam?
15. Will I always go through the same sequence of actions before turning the tap off, switching off lights, turning off the ignition, closing doors, and leaving a place?
16. Is everything around me real or virtual?
17. Does everyone see objects, people, colors, scenery... whatever, the way I do?
    
18. Have I lost my mind a lot?
    

Now I'm getting somewhere...

The Da Vinci Code film

Watched this yesterday, and it ran through the book so fast that I had to think about the sequence of events again.

• Yes, the book felt better.
• Some moments made me laugh that weren't meant to be funny.
• Most of the scenes were exactly as I'd imagined from the book.
• No one should watch this film, that hasn't read the book. It'd be hard to keep up or understand.
  

In Hong Kong...

....as I watch giant planes lumber past very close by, out the lounge window. About 500 ft away, airplanes land and take off. I could watch all day at that distance. The sight of a huge 747 whatever it's doing - standing, taxiing, landing or taking off - never ceases to fascinate me. You just have to wonder how that thing gets off the ground.

I'm in Hong Kong International airport, probably the most familiar complex for me in the world. There's nothing I don't know about Chep Lap Kok a.k.a HKIA. I was here when it opened in 1998, and have been here visiting or in transit a zillion times since.

No surprise it's rated the world's best airport - everything works, is available, or is made possible for travelers. Besides, Cathay Pacific's lounges are first rate - long showers, snackies, an amazing noodle bar, drinks, wi-fi, personal television, and lots of space. They make my frequent and long trans-Pacific trips bearable. I actually look forward to transit at HKIA. When I think about transits at airports when traveling as a student years ago, I appreciate the place even more. =)

I wanted to post from the airport, because the view out made me think about HKIA. Off for a little stroll now, and likely some sleep.

It's all good.

This was triggered by one of the usually cheesy-preachy emails sent to a mail list I'm on.

Often times we forget (I forget) there're a lot of things going for us. Going well. Instead we focus on the negative stuff - at work, home, about people around us. I'm not the first one to have this epiphany, but it occurs to me infrequently.

We have cool sunny days, silly humor, our six senses, working arms and feet, and good health that we aren't acknowledging. Things could be far worse. Look at the bad news around.

There's a lot to be thankful for. If not there's always some schadenfreude to perk life up with.

Now if only I remembered this often enough, I'd not be concerned about a lot of things, would I?

Sunday at home

After I shut my alarm down at 11, I was woken up at noon by a friend calling from Boston. A good thing too, else I'd have slept until late afternoon.

Bright sunshine streaming through the window. CNN's all about United 93, and is it too soon. Again.

Then we heard about record oil company profits - woohoo! How nice. Is it as easy as just cranking up gas prices for any rumor? I heard a commentator say sure people will whine and complain, but they'll keep buying gas. The whole thought of possible greedy cartels is disgusting.
I recall gas at 90c/gal in Syracuse back in '97. There were gas stations doing $0.67/gal in Indiana and Atlanta then. The wonderful oil glut, the good ol' times. Heck, gas at $1.50 mid-2000 felt expensive.

Now you get those upgrades to full size real quick n'easy at rental car companies. Downgrading to a compact is near impossible - all taken!

The 9-11 film

I watched United 93 on opening day Friday at the Great Mall in Milpitas. Not many people in the theater, despite all the controversy and the media talking about the movie non-stop. There's 'Is it too soon?' discussions on TV all the time.

Anyway, the film was well made - focussed only on the flight, against the background of the events of 9/11/01. It was a like a camera happened to be observing the incidents as they happened. No flag waving patriotism, no jihadist anti-American rhetoric from terrorist organizations - just a re-enactment of what happened that day.

Many of us watched it all on TV. I kept thinking back to how it was that morning, as I watched from my apartment in Framingham. The jammed phone lines, the incoming calls, the images, the chaos.... My roommate had left from Logan airport just that morning, from the gate next to one of the hijacked planes.

And the theories, the rumors, the controversies... days and months after. Especially about flights 93 and 77. Were they shot down? Did the passengers really save the White House/ US Capitol by bringing United 93 down?

'Let's Roll' is barely heard. I recall particularly how people stopped being sympathetic to Lisa Beamer, after she became a media princess.

The film has none of this. It shows what happens on the plane right from boarding/taxi among passengers, and hijackers on this particular flight. It shows events on the ground among air traffic controllers, and NORAD in response to the attacks. That's it. It ends in abrupt fashion, because there can't be any more to show.

Sunny out the window, nice to see from inside

The allergy symptoms have slowly come down. Nice and sunny clear day out, and I'm again in the office. Actually an endless 3 days in the office, with some progress, and it's been a lot of work. The office is now empty save for two coworkers and I.

Would have been nice to step out for some tennis or a run. Not to be. I've rarely managed going home with daylight out during DST.

Electric cars - need a Reva

Looking at the gas prices around here, I feel the need to find a Reva dealership. Where is one when you need it! $3+ at the pump for regular unleaded at this time.

What happened to all that ethanol from sugarcane that we heard about a few months ago? The way things are going, even the prospect of a hybrid seems uncomfortable.

*Sniff*Koff*Kaff*A-tishoo!

Story of the past 3 days. Must be the lousy rainy weather around here. Haven't been out running either.

Trading up from a paper clip to a house.... lookit this guy!

CNN's lowlife III world view - pretty darn shameless.

This wasn't above the fold but here's what CNN had to say on Wednesday's solar eclipse in India. This is also known as careless presumptive BS. I looked and could not find any such report. This was an AP feed.

Per CNN (AP report):

'Superstition will follow around the world, as it has for generations.

One Indian paper advised pregnant women not to go outside during the eclipse to avoid having a blind baby or one with a cleft lip. Food cooked before the eclipse should be thrown out afterward because it will be impure and those who are holding a knife or ax during the eclipse will cut themselves, the Hindustan Times added.'

Thanks, CNN-Time-Warner of the I world, but where's said report that reinforces your desired III world stereotype? There's not a chance that a mainstream newspaper like HT would do that.

Careless nonsensical reporting, no fact checking by some ignorant moron reporter - makes me lose respect for CNN. For shame.

Celebrities on game shows

Can't stand the celebrity editions on any game show. Where's the fun or thrill? Who the heck cares if they win anything or not - it's not like the $$ is a big deal for them. Couldn't care less about the charities they play for.

When ordinary people play, display their greed on television, get all beady eyed (and lose), that's when it is fun.