Good Morning!

One of Prabhu Deva's most memorable...

Song: Chikku Bukku
Album: Gentleman (1993)
Language: Tamil

And a more recent one that he choreographed...



Song: Main Aisa Kyon Hoon
Album: Lakshya (2004)
Language: Hindi

Planet Earth - A Monday morning rant

I am familiar with how the US Fish and Wildlife Service conserves habitats by controlling the population of flora and fauna. A lot of people don't realize this but hunters, for instance, are allowed only certain bag limits for certain animals in certain regions/counties in certain times of the year. A lot of the revenue from annual hunting licenses is actually used in such conservation efforts. And I know at least one family in New Hampshire that lives on meat from a whole deer during deep winter.


Apparently a redneck with a DUI conviction...according to an email that is going around.

Did you know that various states have hatchery programs using which they grow fish and then use these fish to stock local bodies of water? So next time you see a bunch of guys fishing in a pond, they likely aren't overfishing that pond.

A lot of developed countries do have such infrastructure in place to monitor habitat use. But developing countries do not have the resources (or the deep-rooted passion necessary) to regulate environmental use. Take India as an example: the Tiger population continues to dwindle owing to habitat loss, poor oversight of poaching by forestry officials and ill-equipped/ill-trained rangers. And, again owing to habitat loss, people here in the US are having more frequent run-ins with wildlife (like mountain lions).

Here are some photographs from earlier this year:

"Sea Shepherd crew in a small inflatable boat throw smoke bombs onto the Japanese whaler Kaiko Maru. February 12, 2007. (Photo courtesy Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)."


I think that they are both idiots.

"The Sea Shepherd ship Robert Hunter, left, and the Japanese whaler Kaiko Maru collide in the Southern Ocean. February 12, 2007. (Photo courtesy Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)."


See what I mean. 'twas a good thing this accident didn't lead to a fuel oil spill.

I do admire these "doers". But in a way, extreme environmentalists remind me of religious evangelists. They are both, in a word, annoying!

The following is a projection of human population all the way to the year 2050:

Year Population(in billions)
2010 6.8
2020 7.6
2030 8.3
2040 8.9
2050 9.4

The United States Census Bureau has projected that there will be around 419 million people in the US alone by the year 2050.

And this is why when conservation groups talk about restricting fishing on "overfished" seas and stopping real estate development on wilderness, I put on a sardonic smile.

9 billion people by the year 2050! No wonder I don't see any point in restricting myself as to how much fish or meat I eat today. Sure I could go vegan but how will that help feed 9 billion people in 2050? Going vegan today so that there can be enough fish for some jerk born into a royal asshold 30 years from now sounds ludicrous. It is f**king ridiculous to worry about people who are not even born. And if everyone does go vegan, wouldn't there be a higher demand for land use so that all the soy and assorted grains eaten by vegans can be cultivated? And what happens when more land is cleared for agriculture? Wouldn't more species go extinct then?

"Let me in! I gotta go save some tuna!! But first I need a shower 'cause I smell like one..."

No. I am convinced that its a simple supply and demand issue. We can either lose species or regulate human population growth more tightly (and we know that the latter is a losing proposition). We have enough people today who have evolved into something that has little resemblance to a once robust species, a direct result of the heavy reliance on the comforts of technology (and watching too many ballgames). Add a strictly vegetarian diet and you probably will end up with humans with hoofed feet. If that is how we are destined to evolve, fine.


"As you know, we are festively plump."

Anyone who wants to know the sad state of human affairs need look no further than the myriad of costly problems (from a bloated public education system to greedy unions to a huge deficit) being faced in California. That American dream state has had these problems for years and there are no solutions in sight (too much partisan politics). I am quite sure that they have time to worry about a bunch of tuna at 35° 41' N 139° 46' E.

Who knows. Maybe a meteorite will crash on Earth and put a full-stop to everything (too bad the planet does not have a reboot button like that on a computer). Then maybe, just maybe, the planet might re-generate life...perhaps without organized religion this time around.

My Speech to the Graduates, 2007 by TC

Another classic one from TC. It does reflect some of my own "findings" from my college going experience. I have posted an excerpt here. The link to the actual article appears at the end of the post.



"As I stand here on this lovely spring day looking out over this sunny vista and your bright, smiling faces filled with hope, I can't help but feel depressed as hell.

While I'm often told that your generation is so much smarter and so much more worldly and wise, I think it's a crock. Mankind obviously learns a lot more with each passing day, but I don't know who came up with the notion that you guys absorbed much of this knowledge.

Nowadays, a general college education is a mighty thin layer of sandwich spread. Sure, they covered all of the bread — tried to expose you to every subject and topic — but the mayo's so sparse you can barely taste it. Of course, there's the old platitude about how the purpose of college is to just teach you how to think.
To this — honored students, faculty, and staff — I say horse piss.

Frankly, most of you remind me of the ducks, and for that matter, the beavers, the turtles, and the frogs."

Click here to read the rest of the article :)

Drink Life Deeply

This is fantastic stuff. The initial taste felt a little bit similar to Jack Daniels (which is my favorite beverage) but it was distinctly different once I've savored it. It also seemed smoother than Jack Daniels. I thought that it felt stronger too than most other Whiskeys I have tasted. Sure enough, the label said "50% Vol.". That's it. I don't really have anything more to say.

All steamed up

So my parents have a new room set up for steam baths at their place. They took an existing bathroom on the first floor and merged it with the dining room closet that was next to it. The merger has led to a larger, modern bathroom in an otherwise old-world type Victorian home. I used the steam bath for the first time last night. I have used a sauna many times before but this really takes the cake. The steam bath "got" to me faster while a sauna always seemed to take forever (now that I think about it). I was expecting cakes of dirt to come out of my skin but nothing like that happened. Maybe I was not in there long enough (only seven minutes) or maybe I wasn't as dirty a man as I thought I was. By the end of those seven minutes, I was feeling like a pig in heat. It seemed like I was slightly sweating off the bottom of my feet (do we even have sweat pores there?)! Anyway, it felt really good to turn on the cold water, whence I felt like a hippo in heat. Just kidding :) All in all, it was a wholly holistic experience! I can't wait to use it again when I visit them next Sunday.

New York, New York...again!

I went down to visit Sam and Mercy down in NJ for Thanksgiving 2007. I left early Thursday morning from my garage in Boston. It was smooth sailing except in CT where I hit heavy fog for most of the travel there. I arrived in NJ around 9:30 AM. Milton, who lived in Philly, met us there with his wife Shiney and young son Kevin. He was stopping by on his way to Washington DC since Kevin had been itching to see the Aerospace museum there. While the womenfolk were busy prepping the Turkey (for the record, they added a bit of spices to it) and Kevin was watching Chicken Little, Tom & Jerry, and playing with his toys, Sam, Milton and I whiled away the hours chatting.


Kevin. It was unseasonably warm on T-Day.


The food was phenomenal...


...and we made short work of it!

In the evening, we visited Sam's friend Ragu and his family in a brand new community near Windsor. It was a beautiful house with a huge basement where Ragu had a Table Tennis setup. So we played a good bit of TT before returning to Sam's place. Once back home, we put on the projector I had brought with me and watched Shooter before retiring for the night.

On the morning of black Friday, the shopping began. While at home, Milton was placing orders online for some electronics. I was amazed at how these guys shopped, searching for the best deals and using coupons, etc. Wow! I rarely buy stuff and when I do, I buy stuff regardless of the price. Although lately I've become painfully aware of my own spending habits.


Me and Milton. The hunt was on...

Then it was time for Milton and his family to leave for Washington but first...real shopping in the real world! Sam and Mercy decided they needed to buy some stuff at Kohl's while Milton decided that he finally had to get that electric guitar of his dreams at Guitar Center (he did get it for half the price...at $500!). I got tired of Kohl's after about 15 minutes. I think that I was the only single guy there and just could not relate to what was going around me :) So I went to a Starbucks across from the mall. It was across. Sure. But it took me about 10 minutes to cross NJ-18 because of traffic!! Anyway, I was relaxing over an eggnog latte when Sam and Mercy showed up. We lunched at a nearby Boston market where Mercy (this was her first visit to a Boston Market) sampled a variety of sides with her chicken. After lunch we left for Liberty State Park. Both Mercy and I had never seen "the Statue" close-up (on a side note, this has definitely been a "NY month" for me).


Sam and Mercy at Ellis Island.


A message for cynical immigrants.


I don't know who she was, where she came from, anything about the legacy she may have left behind, if she had time for hobbies or the money for after work drinks. But she was super cute. So there!


I played with the light a bit.


I played with the light a bit more. Look, no tripod!

It was bone-freezing cold by the time we were done with "the Statue". As soon as we disembarked from the ferry, we rushed to the warmth of the car and back to Sam's place in NJ.

The next day (Saturday), Ragu and his family dropped by for lunch. So Sam and I did a bit of grocery shopping in the morning. After lunch, I returned to Boston. Traffic again flowed smoothly except near Hartford were 91N was closed because of an accident. I had to take a local exit, drive a bit around Hartford before finding 84E. Once home, I promptly shaved my head, took a piping hot shower and went to bed! All in all, a weekend well-spent!

Until Death (A brief movie review)

This is another movie where the good guy starts off as a bad cop, gets beaten up into a coma, recovers and dispatches the actual bad guys. Having said that, I have to say that for a straight to video B-grade Van Damme flick, this movie had a surprisingly good screenplay and an acting side of Van Damme that I have not seen before. He doesn't throw a single kick (he does throw a variation of punch while in the driver's seat) as the primary means of delivery of violence here is always through a form of gun. But he did show some acting chops.

The supporting cast could have been better fleshed out. On more than one occasion, it was painfully obvious that people were acting. The producers of such low-budget movies apparently cannot rope in a Scarlett Johanssen. So they should commit more time to finding good casting. The girl playing Van Damme's wife was pretty hot (but then I am always horny so I could be...um...gushing here). The romance seems to have been thrown in so as to add a layer of complexity to Van Damme's "disturbed cop" character. And I thought that, for the most part, his scenes with his wife were actually effective.

So the lack of a good supporting cast along with a more expressive look from Van Damme would have elevated the quality of the movie from average to good. For the most part, his eyes stay rather lukewarm, something that I have noticed a lot in his previous "dramatic" work. A certain amount of fear or stark realization conveyed through his eyes here and there would have significantly raised the tension that Simon Fellows (the Director) was trying to convey in many parts of the movie.

Finally, the action scenes, considered a staple of Van Damme movies, are very few and, except one, are rather bland. Had more creativity been poured into the action scenes, that would have elevated the quality of the movie from good to great.

Thankfully there are no cheesy special effects. I didn't really notice the background music but I have to say that the set design was very professionally done (like in a big-budget movie).

So to recap, for a really good movie to happen next time, Van Damme will need to work with:

1. a better supporting cast,

2. more expressive eyes and

3. more thoughtful violence in the action scenes :)