Blog of Parag

Coool goooogle

Google at its best ever... Google Earth is ADDICTIVE. Adjusting tilt is just a little too much. It feels like playing a video game with an unlimited terrain.

two day stubble

This has always bugged me.... What do women find attractive in a man with a two day old stubble? I can understand liking a fully grown proper beard or a clean cut smooth face. But, what is it about this I-am-too-lazy-or-too-stupid-to-shave look?

MIT weblog survey

You can, too!

Crappiest movie ever

Yesterday, I watched one of the most crappiest Hindi movies ever, on AZN masala weekend. My brother was visiting for the weekend and we had a blast watching it together. Missed the beginning and hence don't know the title. But, the movie was so bad that I want to know the title. I tried searching on Google and on IMDB but, no success. If anyone knows the title please let me know.

Here are some clues... Raj Babbar was the villain, Kalicharan, the underworld boss. Dharmendra was the police commissioner who was fighting the underworld. His sister and brother-in-law (journalist) were killed by Kalicharan. So, it is a personal fight. A witness to the murder, Deepa, was the heroin of the movie. (We couldn't identify the actress; seemed like she was from south Indian film industry) She was good with martial arts and did a lot of action. In stead of killing her off, the villains get her trapped in some silly plot and send her off to jail. She gets martial arts training in the jail. Dharmendra believes her story and helps her get paroled. Then, uses her as a deadly weapon to get to the bad guys. Aditya Pancholi made a guest appearance. Other names for guest appearances were Ayub Khan and Simran. These were shown in the end. Everything about this movie was bad: story, dialogues, acting, editing, songs, everything.

We had a huge laugh about the last frame of the movie which read "Remember, it was a K.C. Bokadia production". Almost a warning... Don't watch any more of K.C. Bokadia's movies in the future.

Again, if anyone knows the title of this movie, I'd like to know.

Update: The title of the movie was "Gundagardi". Please don't watch it even if your life depends on it.

Hudood law

This must be one of the supreme instruments for oppressing women.

Under Pakistan's hudood laws, thousands of women who report rapes are imprisoned and punished for reporting rape.

If rape victims cannot provide four male witnesses to the crime, they risk being whipped for adultery, since they acknowledge illicit sex and cannot prove rape.

A woman witness is not acceptable (it has to be FOUR male witnesses) because women are not really humans in the islamic world.

Pfuh

Pistons grind out Game Six victory to level series - Yahoo! News
Did anyone really not know that this was going to happen? NBA has become so predictable that I have lost all interest in it. Don't know why they play 7 games when everyone knows that the series always gets leveled at 3-3. Why not play only the last game i.e. only one game, and be done with it?

Book Tag

Thanks to JK for tagging me. Although I love to collect and read books, my book-reading habits have changed in last 2 years or so. 90% of the books that I read these days are children's books. Hence, I am going to answer this questionnaire from my daughter's perspective.

Total number of books I own: I have probably a hundred books and I am just two and a quarter years old. The picture above shows just a part of my collection. I love my books and I never ever tear them.

Last book I bought: Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni. The star of the book is an inchworm that can measure anything. A good story to learn the concept of measuring. This same author also wrote Swimmy.

Last book I read: Last night, I read The Three bears by Byron Barton (Illustrator), for the seven millionth time. I know the whole book by heart and can read it to you even though I don't know all my alphabets yet.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: (today's opinion)

1. The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle: This was the first book I ever laid my eyes on and I am still in love with that adorable caterpillar. This book has very colorful drawings of all my favorite fruits and a lollipop. It also got me started with counting and learning numbers. I have almost all the books written by Eric Carle and I like them all.


2. We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury (Illustrator), Michael Rosen: It is a wonderfully illustrated book and the story is well written to sing along. The kids along with their father go out to hunt a bear. But, when they see one, they get scared and run back home.


3. Owl Babies by MARTIN WADDELL, PATRICK BENSON (Illustrator): This is one of the most beautifully illustrated book. The owl babies seem so fluffy and real. Their faces show anxiety, sadness and joy very well. I like the story too.


4. Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss: I like the way this book has simple rhyming words. It is helping me learn how to read. I really liked the last word of the book: "seehemewe patpuppop hethreetreebee tophopstop". This is also President Bush's favorite book. After reading this book, I have learnt to hop on my dad's tummy and give him some exercise.


5. The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton: This is a very nice book that helps me learn all the things to do while getting ready for bed: taking a bath, brushing teeth, finding pajamas, finally turning off the light and say good night. I have most of Sandra Boynton's books. 'Hey! wake up' shows me all the things to do in the morning when I wake up. 'Moo Baa la' was my favorite when I was little. 'Doggies' teaches me how to count and 'A to Z' has all the alphabets.

Tag five people and have them do this on their blogs:
Aditya
Pseuofreud
aNYa

Can't find two more people to tag who haven't done this already....

Pulp Fiction accessories

This is an essential accessory for all the "Pulp Fiction" fans out there. I would love to get one for myself, but, 'boss' won't approve of it.

Some memorable dialogues from Pulp Fiction, one of the best movies ever made.

Colin Mockery and Brad Sherwood show

Went to see the stars of the TV show, "Whose line is it anyway?". They kicked off the three-week long Ann Arbor Summer Festival. They were incredibly funny. Laughed more in that one and half hour than whole of last month combined. I think I almost peed in my pants a couple of times. It was one of the best improv shows that I have ever seen.

Consultants

This series of Dilbert cartoons is so close to the real life.... especially the last one with consultant's advice...

Don't expect me to cry...

Have been listening to "Nirvana: MTV unplugged in New York".

This song "Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam" is just stuck in my head. Must have listened to it at least 10 times.

Click below to see the lyrics...

Jesus, don't want me for a sunbeam
Sunbeams are never made like me

Don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die
Don't ever ask your love of me

Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die for me

Jesus, don't want me for a sunbeam
Sunbeams are never made like me

Don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die
Don't ever ask your love of me

(x2)
Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die for me

Jesus, don't want me for a sunbeam
Sunbeams are never made like me
Don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die
Don't ever ask your love of me

Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die
Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die for me

This song was inspired from a Mormon song: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.

SuDoku

Check out these cool new puzzles, called SuDoku. The idea is to fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.

This one is quite easy. Here is one, that is a little more difficult. Some links that have a lot of these puzzles...

Daily SuDoku
SuDoku at Times
SuDoku at The Hindu
SuDoku Fun
SuDoku Master

Find many more SuDOku sites through Google.

Pink Floyd with Waters

Pink Floyd to reform for London Live 8 concert - Yahoo! News

I hope that this will start off plans for a worldwide concert tour including U.S.

The Revenge of the Sith

Thanks to "Summer hours" at work, we went to watch "The Revenge of the Sith" yesterday. Loved it. As usual, the acting was atrocious and dialogues were horrible. The best actors were Palpatine and Yoda; one of them is computer generated. Overall, the movie was very fast paced and full of action. There is no dull moment in the whole 2 hours. The transformation of Anakin is shown very nicely. Obi-wan's fight with General Grievous was awesone.

The best dialogue was delivered by Anakin while talking to Obi-wan, in the same style as W: "You are either with me or you are my enemy". Also, I can imagine Carl Rove sending out a message last year during the election campaign: "Execute order 66." Fiction imitating real life or other way around?

By the time we finished eating Sushi and rushed to the movie theater, we missed first 5-10 minutes of the movie. That gives me a reason to watch it again.

HOT HOT HOT

It is so hot, I feel like I am melting. It was 75F at 730 in the morning when I got out of the house. Today's high is going to be 90+ again. Lat year, we had only three days with temps 90F or more. This year, today is the third 90F day already. And this is just the second week of June. AAAARRRGHHHH... Can't wait for the Fall...

The only nice thing about the Summer is "Summer Hours" at work. From June to September, we can work 1 extra hour Monday through Thursday and get half days on Fridays. Hope to see a lot of movies in theatre this Summer. Tomorrow, we are going to watch "The Revenge of the Sith".

Golf IV

Yesterday was extremely hot when we began and then got soaked in a thunderstorm. Managed a score of 67. That was quite good as I tied my average for the season. Was quite pleased with my strokes off the tee. I was hitting too hard on my short game and was going too long. Need to control those shots. Must get some practice at the driving range. The only time I hit balls is when I go for playing. That is not good.

Cleaning the CCD

After I wrote about the dust on the CCD of my Nikon D70 yesterday, did some digging around on the web and found that this is a common problem. Don't have to hyperventilate, thinking that I did something wrong. Eventhough I take all the precautions such as, holding the camera pointing down while changing the lens, the process of changing lenses allows some dust to go inside. Especially, if it is done outdoors, which I do while attaching the camera to the telescope. So, the dust on CCD is going to be a fact of life for me and I shouldn't worry about it.

Here are a couple of nice descriptions for cleaning the CCD:

1. By Thom Hogan
2. By Petteri Sulonen

The tools for cleaning the CCD:

1. Sensor swabs
2. Eclipse cleaner

I have already ordered my supplies for the cleanup. Hopefully, they will be here before the weekend and I can clean the camera for a weekend shootout.

Problem with Nikon D70

Noticed that a couple of small particles of dust and small fiber have gotten onto the CCD of my Nikon D70. I can see it there when I open the shutter, But, I don't want to touch it before knowing more. Does anyone have experience with cleaning such dust from the CCD? Should I use a small bulb blower or a can of compressed air? Any comments or suggestions will be very appreciated.

Cloning...

No. We don't have sextuplets.

An earlier attempt at cloning had turned out much better...

Health...

Since Ashwini was born, I haven't done any regular exercise like I used to. I haven't been watching what I eat, how much I eat and when I eat. I was very apprehensive about my visit to the doctor for a physical a couple of weeks ago and was thinking that my cardiovascular health is in real trouble. Just received the blood test reports and seems like whatever I have been doing wasn't too bad. Here are some numbers to prove it.

resting heart rate	76
Blood pressure	110/70
Total cholesterol	179
HDL cholesterol (good)	50
LDL cholesterol (bad)	109
HDL/total ratio	3.6
Triglycerides	102

Not bad. All the numbers are in the normal range. Some exercise could bring down the heart rate and improve my HDL/total ratio, but, I am not worried.

Thanks, Ashwini for making sure that I get enough exercise by running after you and keeping me healthy.

Reservations & quotas

When I read the news about 50% reserved seats for muslims at Aligarh Muslim University, I wasn't surprised considering who is in power and their vote-bank pandering habits. It is surprising that this hadn't happened earlier than this.

Look who criticised this reservation... A pleasant surprise. Can't imagine I agree on something with CPI(M).

A usual suspect supporting the reservation. Her quote on this matter is really funny.

"This step will ultimately benefit 2000 deserving students," Azmi said.

"It is unfortunate that it has been given a communal colour. It should not have had any political ramification," she told reporters here.

Hah! Could the truth be any further away from her stupid utterings???

A good actor doesn't make a good politician, and an awful actress doesn't make one, either.

Cool wedding

A wedding on Mount Everest

Now, that is the coolest place to get married. Congratulations and best wishes to the newlyweds.

Buy a Ford

If you are in the market for buying a car, please buy a Ford, and express your disgust towards this discriminatory campaign: BoycottFord.com - Sponsored by American Family Association

QOTD

Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.

via kiruba

A draconian move by the Indian government. Usually, I don't like any bans or laws that ban something. If people are stupid enough to do it, they deserve to die. But, this law, I like. It sure would help to deglamourize smoking among illiterates of India. The literates, who continue to smoke even after knowing the hazard, get no sympathy from me. They deserve to suffer and die.