Blog of Parag

Recent wacky referrers

It is interesting to see what link leads to your webpage. Many times the search engines pick up words from different posts that are not related and puts the page on top of the list for hits because the search keywords appear in the page. Here are a couple of wacky searches that led to my blog:
- Yahoo! Search Results for bodybuilder matthew rush
- Yahoo! Search Results for i hate dante culpepper pictures
- Yahoo! Search Results for god hates ill people
- MSN Search Results for Jessica Lynch nude pictures (multiple times in different forms)

122,000 miles

On the way to work today, my car turned over 122,000 miles. Way to go! I hope to see 150,000 on this gal.

Gay Marriages

Now, there is one more state other than Vermont and Hawaii that will recognize gay marriages. Gay couples can get married in Massachusetts.

Hopefully, this will firmly set a precedent and most of the other sensible states in US will adopt such laws. I am not expecting Texas, Kansas or Alabama to be the next, but at least New York, California, New Jersey, Maryland, etc should follow in Massachusetts' steps. The argument that marriages are sacred and hence, gays should not be allowed to be married is beyond ridiculous. Are people really that foolish not to realise that half the people take those sacred vows only to break them? Are they so blind to not notice all the broken marriages and families with children without their biological parents?

- If Elvis can marry a man and a woman in Las Vegas,
- if Dennis Rodman can marry Carmen Electra and get divorced in a week,
- if Elizabeth Taylor and Jennifer Lopez are allowed to go on their marrying spree,
- if Michael Jackson can marry,
---> then all the law-abiding, tax-paying gay couples should have the right to get married and enjoy all the benefits that come along with it. Marriage between two persons should be a basic civil right protected by the constitution.

What the Blog just happened?!

Mahesh Shantaram published a nice article on history of blogging. Learnt a lot of things I didn't know about.

Bubba didn't vote for Bobby

Democrat Wins Runoff Election in LouisianaLt. Gov. Kathleen B. Blanco, a Democrat, defeated Piyush Jindal, the Republican whiz kid, to become the first woman elected governor of Louisiana in a runoff on Saturday.

First woman governor. That is a good beginning fo Louisiana. Maybe a second generation immigrant like Jindal, next time around. When will US have a woman president? Is Hillary planning to enter the fray this time or wait it out till 2008?

Deer Hunting

The gun deer
hunting season starts in Michigan tomorrow. Our campus is starting to get empty already. People are leaving to get an early start to travel towards their favorite hunting sites. A couple of people I know, have already hunted their deer using a bow and arrow. But, they are still eager to get out tomorrow to use their guns. Maybe, next year I'll join some of my friends on a hunt. I don't eat meat so, it would be wasteful to kill a deer, but, it might be fun to just shoot some shotgun shells.

If I want to be safe and alive, I better stay indoors tomorrow and not stray in the woods behind the house. An old lady got shot a couple of years ago while working in her own backyard near Kalamazoo, MI. She was wearing white gloves and some drunk hunter, in desparation to get his deer in the evening light before it got dark, shot at her mistaking her white gloves for tail of a white-tail deer.

The Meatrix

Check the Meatrix out. It is cool.

Thanks Mayuresh!

Find out where you stand

The Political Compass website has a quiz to figure out political leanings of a person and categorize in one of the 4 bins. Check it out. The answer may surprise you as it did me. Never thought that I'd be a left liberal. I knew about liberal but, not too happy about being on the left. I would call myself liberal on social issues and conservative on economic issues. But, when you take an average of all the answers to some 30-40 questions in the quiz, I guess I fall on the left side of the center, although, some of my answers were clearly to the right. Anyway, it is an interesting quiz and a way to characterize people.

Drummers of West Africa

Last night, I was at the awesome performance of this group from Senegal. The leader, Doudou N'Diaye Rose is 74 years old, but, full of energy. He danced and played the drums with the same or even more vigor than younger members of the troupe who are all his family members. It was an amazing experience. There were only drums, no other musical instruments, but, it kept the audience in their seats for more than 2 hours.

Check out the following link for some interesting information on this master drummer. And don't miss a chance to sway to the drumbeats of this group if they visit your area. The Oral Tradition - Doudou N'Diaye Rose

Lunar Eclipse

Didn't get a
chance to view the eclipse on Saturday, although there were no clouds
in the sky. Was busy with something else. Here is a nice composite
photograph of the eclipse from APOD.

Ha Ha

Barbara Walters interviews Martha Stewart on 20/20 on ABC. Maybe, they should rename this special as 'Witches of New York'.