Inside The Blue

Productivity, macbooks and buffet dinners.

2012-02-03T07:10:00.001+05:30

I am a socialist at heart but I am not blind to the distinct advantages of capitalism. Since it is all so very complicated, it is important to think about how we are going to work with the system around us to ensure that we a) make the most of what we get and b) make quicker but more intelligent decisions on what we choose. So how do you go about buying a shoe?

The problem with product satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) is mostly not with bad purchasing but with the fear of bad purchasing even after the deed is done. This is primarily an ill-effect of excessive choice in the market. You buy a bad shoe, it is not a big deal; next time you don't buy that shoe. But when you buy something decent is when this problem creeps up. Nike free's or reebok realflex? How about the vibrams? To average users, these choices and the sub-choices within them, just by sheer numbers, are much too large and overwhelming. But the worst effect of excessive choice is not in how difficult it is to make the choice. It is in how you are going to enjoy the choice you have made and actually focus on using those shoes for your workout. Many times, there is too much choice anxiety and therefore the focus on the actual use is lost. Makes sense - more choice, less focus.

So how do we wade through? Well, if it is decent stick with it. Take baby steps around to figure out large scale improvements but hold on to what you have and use it to the fullest. Interestingly, a lot of quality consumer products achieve it by minimal choice and greater focus on just quality. Apple will be today's example. For the smirking PC user, I am NOT an apple fanboy. But I have been using a macbook for the past three years and have not had much to complain about. In part, this is because I am more focussed on communicating with my folks, making my figures and listening to music, so there is hardly any time to look at the dust on the computer. It is important to understand that if any consumer product promises perfection, you are an idiot to believe it. There are no perfect things and PCs or Macs are no exception. But a quality product is where there would be minimal distractions - good or bad - to draw you away from the experience of actually using it. And that is where Apple delivers. It is not perfect and it still can give you a weird message during a powerpoint presentation. But it is quality enough to let you focus on your work. The immediate argument would be that there are PCs that do that too, and there definitely are. But Apple cleverly minimizes your choices in not just the products but also in the overall feel so you aren't so overwhelmed. That is why an apple fanboy comes across as an elitist - he has less to deal with so he can know more about it. Purchasing a PC on the other hand puts you in the unstable position of wading though a thousand different assemblies to figure out which one gets past the quality threshold. In contrast, I give you one thing but I promise you it will work decently and if it doesn't, I will give you good customer service to fix your problem. That is what Apple sells, not perfection. And it sells it well.

Now there is an other school of thought that says productivity is enhanced not by just making a good choice and using it well but also continuously upgrading and staying abreast with the latest. If you are an average consumer like me, steer clear - it is probably not worth it. In jumping from the latest version to the next version to the next version, the smaller the time and quality gaps are, the more counter-productive it is. By our previous definition, quality is established by minimal distractions and continuous maintenance is a pretty big distraction. You would rather wear that Adidas megabounce until it shows tear and then invest in those new Jordans. Besides, it is important to think about the time and money invested as a trade-off to the fractional improvement in experience. Yeah, if you are thinking about it for more than two seconds it is not worth it. Unless you are paid to critique or something, your upgrade from 3G to 4G did not change your life and you know it.

Very few companies like Apple stick with minimalism. Google is a decent example. So what is achieved by the others with grand choice? What do they get by scaring you away with choice? Why do they feed on your insecurity? The same reason why indian marriages have switched to the buffet system. When you have 20 different appetizers, 4 different cuisines and 25 different desserts to follow, somehow you end up eating a whole lot less! It is true, ask all your uncles with married daughters. The cost of the buffet is still Rs. 600 a plate but you eat for only half of that. It works the same way with pretty much everything. Yeah, I am talking about your 4 different sunglasses, 5 different headphones, 15 different coats and your 20 different shoes ladies! If 19 shoes don't fit your wardrobe or your feet, the 20th won't either.

So while choice is a good thing, and it improves quality by building competition, a company can turn the same on you and make you a victim of it. So calm down on the difference between 720p and 1080p just because you are worried about that douchebag friend-of-a-friend making a comment. If you are comfortable in your torn jeans, the joke's on him. Oh they now sell those in varieties. Damn.

Versus marketing

2011-09-26T08:25:00.001+05:30

Rebecca Black is probably not a bad person. However if you are familiar with that name, you dislike and disrespect her. Heck her song is not nails-on-chalkboard material either. But I have just gotten judged negatively for saying that. And somewhere, someone is making a lot of money out of this situation.

The fundamental thing about contemporary marketing has become a drive to achieve the highest profit with the least possible effort. While that does not sound like a bad thing at all, a rabid pursuit of this ideal is something I find very undesirable. The problem with this concept is where it fixes the threshold of effort required. While it tries to minimize the effort involved by either the use of technology or some other iterative process the desired threshold for effort required is disrespected and that is where you end up with an inferior quality product that still manages to achieve the desired profit. The world is rank with such output and there is more being pumped out by the day. The marketers are happy, the makers are happy and somehow the public is happy and therefore the concept is here to stay. But there is a problem.

A strong link exists between effort taken and fun generated. Not too much focus is put on the matter but many think about it in some form or the other. Why are we such big fans of the old school way of doing things? Ideally we should have improved on old school methods and ended up with superior grade products that have the positive elements from the old school ways with newer additions thus making it some sort of super product. Somehow that does not seem the case in pretty much everything around us. The current generation of television cartoons is a computer-generated pile of colorful tripe with toilet humor and painfully stretchy formulaic situations that really need to be used in some kind of torture chamber. To my horror, all my nieces delightfully lap up hours of that treatment with their proud parents buying into all of it. The old-school merry melodies and silly symphonies that I grew up with were not just cartoons, they were productions. There was beautiful hand-drawn artwork and perfectly orchestrated music to go with it. The music was in fact a celebration and the cartoon characters came to life to etch out the music in all that they did. I am not alone in stating that these classics are a better watch any day over the current computer monsters. Then why does the industry not cater to this market?

I have really put a lot of effort into understanding the current class of industrial music with its autotune and repeat sound effects but I have failed. There was a time when music too was a production, every hit song - an original string of great synchrony and every album - a story that spoke many volumes. Why is there not a single great band of the likes of the beatles in current existence? Some grey old remains of the rock bands of yore still remain but they have over lasted their shelf life.

Indeed it is a difficult thing to create something and that is why Ilayaraja does not make the kind of music that he used to in his prime. However, just because there are easier ways to make money, a pursuit of aesthetic value in everything that we do should not be abandoned! There, that is my problem.

So there is a system that comes into existence. Someone likes something. Someone else creates it. We define it, study it and become scholars on the subject. And then we try to apply it and that is where we fail. Trying to define a winning formula is like trying to define love; it is impossible and most every one of us fails. But everyone sees a winning formula and tries to duplicate it to succeed. While they may or may not achieve their ends, here is where the dreaded marketing gurus come in and unleash their devastation on the system. It is hard for me to say this but I have to admit that current generation marketers are amazing at what they do. They know exactly how to make you crave for something, whether you appreciate its true value or not. That is why everyone of us has a google+ ID even though we do not know what to do with it. A sinister marketing drive tells you that you must have this because everyone has it and the social police will ensure your embarrassment if you don't. While we may laugh off this stupidity in all our badass right, the effect of the need to remain fitted into society is very powerful and while it should ideally never be subscribed to, it needs to be respected because most of us are subscribers.

So the marketers come up with a model. "Do a, b and c - all that are obvious parts of the winning formula that someone else put the effort to come up with and you will have a concoction that looks the part. For our bid, we will create an idea and influence minds to tell them that you are the drug that they need to be doing right now." Yeah, inception. The marketers are happy to make money out of it, the creator is happy to finish it off with least effort and the hypnotized public is told that happiness lies in following the shiny red dot.

But behind all of this madness, there is lost the aesthetic value of the product. The fun generated because there was an effort put into the product to just make it nice is lost. That is why google and apple products create such a controversy. It is not like they don't have flaws or they don't have formulaic marketing strategies. But in a broader strategy, a product like Macintosh is aesthetically done with the need to make it something elegant and not the need to implement something profitable with the least work.

So where are we getting? Whatever you do, do it because it is beautiful! It will be hard but it will be fun! Don't study for a degree. Don't learn the guitar to pick up groupies. Don't talk in pig latin because that is what gets you drinking beer with the jocks. Create something because it is fun. Put the effort because it deserves that and more. The market is like a little guy with horns on your shoulder telling you things that should not interfere with your drive to chase excellence. Don't become his zombie bitch.

How I created my studio

2011-08-04T20:06:00.005+05:30

It all started with just my trusty Jack and Danny brothers EG3/P lead guitar - Lois. It had a great sound box but needed the right strings. So picked up a standard D'Addario nickel-would steel set and a plugandplay mini-amplifier and I was all set to just strum away at home. But then one day Matt decided that we needed to start jamming together. He did bring it up in the past but somehow it always got put off.
So one fine day we started jamming. A week later we decided that the most fun thing to do at the moment was to go to bestbuy to browse around. There I spotted a Dean Edge hammer bass and suddenly I just had to buy it. Of course I needed a decent amplifier to go with it so within a week came a Fender 10G basic amplifier that worked fine enough for both the bass - now named Lana - and the lead.
But what is a good guitar combo without a voice? So in came a Sony F-V220 Uni-directional microphone with MDR-XD200 headphones. There now had to be a system that allowed for digital recording of vocals and instruments together because garageband sounded so much better without ambient noise. The next piece of the puzzle was therefore a Behringer XENYX502 5-Channel Mixer. I could now connect both the lead and the bass as well as a mike but by now the old 10G amplifier did not seem juicy enough and so a Fender Mustang 1 got involved.
Did I mention that by now I had gotten tired of the old Danelectro distortion pedal so I invested in a Zoom G1N multi-effects pedal? Everything I did now involved wah-wah in some consistency or the other.
It has been one of my oldest wishes to learn to drum at some point in my life. Now seemed like a good time so an Alesis DM7 kit joined the band. The old 10G amplifier now had a new boss. Within a few weeks I had to admit, drumming is way more fun than strumming. It really is.
Of course no collection is complete without a keyboard so a Casio CTK-4000 entered the pack so I could be a little bit Maroon 5 if I chose to. And that is where it stands. For now.

Are you a man of faith Mr. Venkat?

2011-07-09T13:53:00.005+05:30

I have been dealing with a few personal losses in recent months and to get some clearance and closure on them I decided to visit a guidance counselor. I poured out my story to her over hot chocolate and at the end of the story she asked me a single question, "Are you a person of faith?". I squirmed in my seat a little bit. I wanted to say 'It is complicated' but I requested a few days to think about it and get back to her with an answer.

By a number of social definitions, I am what one could call an atheist. But I am of the honest opinion that the word is very broad and poorly defines a whole spectrum of psyches that are not unified in their approach to concepts like god and faith. Atheism implicitly demands a point of conformism - that one should be opposed or should reject the existence of the religious convention of a superior power. So a true atheist would be a religious separatist that is now involved actively in the process of rejection and removal of this so-called deity. Unfortunately that fails to cover a whole set of others that do not respect that requirement either. Broadly they may be classified into two types of people - the anarchists that just want an escape from the rules and tediousness of these organizations and the confused souls who still have not found their calling with atheism; something is still wrong.

If you are a true atheist and you are reading this, I am glad that you have found inner peace despite the warlike exterior you have going for you. But that is probably not possible because that would involve a certain calmness that should prevent you from your oppositionist tendencies. I have not managed to understand that paradox and therefore I am not one of you. But I respect your discipline towards your goal and while it is no different from that of a religious zealot, hopefully you have something right going for you. It is the same thing I would say to the other guy.

The inherent problem that I have with accepting atheism is that it fails to be a bottoms up approach where one would start from a point where they do not identify with a god and build up from there. Instead what we have is a new religion of people who are no different from the ones you see everyday debating the morality of Microsoft Versus Apple Versus Linux or what have you. If you think that I have said something positive here, contact me and I will give you my guidance counselor's phone number.

On the ones that embrace a bottoms up approach and do not fight on the battlefield of who is more blind, the two above classifications apply.

I have a simple definition for the anarchists. Basically you do not let religion get in the way of your pursuit of happiness. While I understand the point, it leads me to wonder how your happiness still gets defined by a convention of materialism that conflicts with the very same non-conformism that you originally left religion for. Many people would call that shallow and I hope your current iPhone 4 and your future iPhone 5 help you deal with that very well.

These people occasionally manage to frustrate me with their shiftiness. I do not enjoy the moral recesses that they invoke to save themselves the embarrassment of their lack of botheration over the above conflict. While the pursuit of happiness is not a wrong thing at all, If happiness just involved getting the next better thing, you enter an endless loop of attempting to find greener pastures once you have polluted your own enough. You value nothing, you respect nothing, there is a lot of selfishness and very little else. There is a heavy duty expectation of conformism from the rest of the world; something that their imperfections would never let them measure up to. It does not make you right or wrong, it just makes you a jerk. While I would love to fall for this kind of an easy life, by your definition the happiest people in the world should be Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian and their million-dollar baby. If you think I was not being sarcastic there, call me and the number is yours.

As for the hapless ones that have still not found your calling, I guess I could be one of you. The question is, are you comfortable and happy with not having found it or is it still bothering you? If it is, then brother, there is no spoon. It is really all you. Love, peace and happiness are not in finally finding a system that defines you, the system is already in place. Content. That works. There will be people that will tell you that your are not aiming high enough but they are just jealous. Funnily enough, that kind of thought process would put you in the same category as a religious person in the truest sense of the world. Something like the Jim Carrey from Bruce Almightly. Does that really matter?

So after a few days of soul searching, I returned to my counselor and told her, "Yes I am a man of faith. I have faith in my family and friends. I have not seen or measured brotherhood but I have felt it and it gets me by. Someone held the door open for me today. Someone joined me for lunch. Not everyone needs to do it but someone did. At the end of my day, my dog loves me even if I dared to kick him for pleasure. I have good faith in that."

She responded, "You may leave, you have no need for me anymore. Good day."

Oh James

2011-06-23T04:40:00.000+05:30

It starts

2011-05-24T17:58:00.002+05:30

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ltte-leader-apologises-to-india-says-rajivs-killing-a-mistake/794866/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+indianexpress%2Filvl+%28Top+Headlines%29

I saw this article today on the Indian Express and my first expression was a raised eyebrow "What the hell?!!". It is not like I can confirm the authenticity of the article beyond its publication in a leading daily. Maybe it was drawn out of context and written from a skewed perspective.
But it is very important. Anything good can only be started with losing ego and apologizing even if it is not really your fault. A majority of the world's problems even the big ones, can actually be solved if someone just manages the balls to say sorry and make up. Hope some good comes out of this at least now.

Waiting for Superman

2011-05-16T03:41:00.004+05:30

There are two kinds of Pessimists and Optimists - one that use their perspective to do something about the situation and the other that don't. The optimist that does not do anything is essentially a pessimist that feels that anything done changes nothing. Except with a veiled reality of utopia wrapped over his face by either ignorance or media stimulation. The pessimist that does something about a situation - well they don't really exist. If you are doing something about a situation on your own then you feel at least mildly optimistic about the result. If you still insist that you are a pessimist and are doing something about a situation then your "situation" probably does not exist and you are going monkey-tripe over a non-issue.
I struck gold in grad school when I entered the McKenna lab because I needed life lessons and Rob offered them in subtle plentifuls. Rob has been a very inspirational mentor and it has often come when I needed it most. In seconds, a dark mood is replaced by a bright one and it becomes time to change the playlist you are listening to. However we have had moments where my spirit has been crushed brutally and I am urged to listen to RATM for the rest of the day. Why does that happen?
Either out of a larger than life marketing of social icons by the media or a personal sense of fantasy, we romanticize a bit too much with a certain ideal personality in people that is never going to exist too long. Human society is not as evolved as your social bugs or even dogs to get past our imperfections. Romanticizing with an idea is a great high; that is what even got me writing this blog instead of staying in bed with Scoobie. But like all rehabilitated drug addicts will tell you, life cannot be run on highs.
So do I go listen to RATM at that moment? Not when AC/DC still exists on this planet! The point is that Rob never promised to me that he will be the Gandalf that I imagined him to be at my major moments of high. And getting disillusioned now would be of detriment to me and me alone. As my grandmother once said...well never mind what she said; there is always hope. Running away from a situation in a moment of weakness may sometimes involve a lifetime of justifying it with a more stupid idealistic plot or worse.
The important thing is that at least Rob is trying and bless him we need all of that and more. 'Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe.' says a cheap poster on my bedroom wall. My dad bought me that when I was 8. He probably saw me go through this phase after experiencing my first real earthquake.
However it is not entirely wrong to romanticize, in fact it is very important to do that! That is what will drive you towards a certain ideal, build your personality and keep you sane. But it is important to be detached from it enough to save yourself for the future when it does not work the last time you tried. That is exactly what gets Rob from doing something destructive when he stops smiling. All he does is go into a shell and come out a butterfly.
It does not matter what drives you to do something to help the situation, debating ideals really gets you nowhere. What would be real useful though is to be working towards them continuously and consciously. You are never really going to marry Johnny Depp but I am sure if you got the chance to do so it will be a lot less fun than it was in your dreams. But with a little detachment, your life could be pretty cool just the way things are.
So don't get annoyed at that person that smiles a bit too much just because she has too many facebook friends. She is probably doing something right. On the worst day of your life if you laugh at yourself before you go to sleep, all is well.

Midnight inspiration

2011-05-06T05:52:00.003+05:30

There once met the Huskies and the Huskers
On the gridiron like raging tuskers
But the predictions got beat
and the corn got eat
and the huskees had become the Huskers

-Based on the 2011 Holiday Bowl

Testimonial - Dennis Neeld

2011-04-23T07:53:00.001+05:30

It has been my distinct privilege to know Mr. Dennis K. Neeld. He is by far the coolest person I know in the dictionary meaning of the word. Mr. Neeld is a professional bowler, comic sketch artist and a microbiologist but that is not what makes him a great person to know. To just put it simply, whatever he does, he does with style. He owns every book I wish I had. He has every piece of clothing or accessory I was thinking of getting. Any movie that I thought was cult he had already memorized the dialogues. If you got a hi-five from Dennis, you have done something really cool. He has basically been the determinant of what is cool and what is not. He has perfected the art of saying 'thats what she said' within 0.2 seconds of an instance, a day after that episode. You get the idea.
But that is not what makes Mr. Neeld a good friend. We started off quite badly actually; I called him out for talking during my first presentation in my graduated program. He muttered something under his breath but did not beat me up later. A week later however, I did my first serious socializing in the program at his place and I just took off after that. I have learnt to appreciate and judge fine beer from being around him. His wedding was my first american wedding and indeed the first wedding of a friend that I have been to and observed closely. Even during the wedding, Dennis added his own touch to it with a sober hi-five to his sister right in the middle of the ceremony. I have spent countless hours playing rockband at his place and appreciating the finer aspects of american football. Despite my prosperous self-image I still feel like that annoying little friend kid around Mr. Neeld. A privilege indeed it has been sir.

Testimonials

2011-04-23T07:52:00.002+05:30

For the next few months I plan to post a testimonial every friday about one special close friend. Yeah thats that.

Lucy in the sky with Darbari Kanada

2011-02-02T04:14:00.003+05:30

A lot of people do not choose to attach a genre to their favorite music simply because of a seeming disparity observed sometimes. "I just like to listen to anything good that my friends bring to me". Cool. My girlfriend once told me that she has an eclectic taste in movies. She likes Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd and The Nightmare before Christmas. I suggested to her that she probably would like the Corpse Bride too, because she just described every trademark Tim Burton movie this side of Batman (Interestingly she had never bothered to check on who the maker in every one of these movies was). The point is sometimes it can be fun to explore what common thread links your taste, just so you can explore better on your own and find new treasure.

However some threads are a bit more elusive that just a surprise common maker. I have always identified two broad genres to define my primary taste in music - heavy metal (with its allies - grunge and punk) and carnatic classical music. Yeah, Metallica and MS, Nirvana and nadaswaram. There is something of a superficial disparity in the matter but I insist that it is not difficult to pick up the general equation to this. I will use the Chala Nattai raga as an example in this.

Here is a standard carnatic classical piece in Chala Nattai. Ilayaraja has been a genius in the use of this raga here and here. A. R. Rehman added some Oscar glory to this (and this) and world audiences noticed. Some more work from "machans" Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy gave them stardom. Finally some talented youngster came up with this and we have hit mainstream psychedelic rock. So what has really changed beyond the beat and some mucus in the voice?

What was psychedelic rock when Black Sabbath and Led Zep started was derivatized to metal after gaining blues rock influences. A decade or so later Grunge was created. And that, is the linking thread.

Waitaminnit!? Am I daring to reduce pure carnatic music to something that people listen to while smoking pot? Is that all carnatic music is? Psychedelic rock? No. But it is definitely psychedelic! And that is what I am talking about. Every so-called rock song composed by Ilayaraja, who had such profound carnatic influences in all his songs, has been a bluesy psychedelic rock piece.

So, fellow explorers, stereotyping (if that be the word for it) may not always be a bad thing if it allows you to identify and understand some fundamental links in the theory of music to make one a better listener. Listening to music is after all, an art.

Yaay life.

2011-01-26T02:13:00.002+05:30

Rob reminded me on Friday to bring my passport to TN. He forgot his on Monday when I waved mine in his face. So he went home and bought his green card but Mavis' passport. After a last minute check we went to his house to correct the mistake. He now has Mavis' green card and his passport.

Virudhagiri – An unquick review.

2010-12-20T02:38:00.002+05:30

Right from the first animation sequence describing Captain Cine Arts – I realized that I was witnessing Captain's next magnum opus. To do proper justice to it, this review will be a running twitterish commentary on key points in the movie as they happen as I watch.

Title song just blow everything that M. G. Ramachandran and a certain Mr. Gaekwad did out the window and the audience's brains. Of course SPB had to sing it.

Captain just made and entry and quickly told the Aussies/English/Tamil-toting Caucasian bobbies to chill out while he shows some Tamilnaad swagger. Yes!
Captain just explained his Holmes-grade teeviravadhis identification strategy. Only captain can make us awe his mental and sentimental faculties at the same time.
Captain returns to Chennai and the media surrounds him. Of course he does not like praise you idiot of a reporter. That is why the title song was so subtle.
Arunachaleshwara/Virudhagireeshwara has been invoked, may kickassery prevail. Was that the Obama – yes we can logo on the drum?!
Captain has made his classic thoppi and thoppai entry. Another quick deduction on attacks on indian students abroad coated again with the warmth of culture sentiment.
The flirtatious bimbo is his niece?! I thought...never mind. One can note that this is an off-beat captain movie – the lady love is not yet in the plot half hour in.
The pace is now slowing down to calm the audience's raging blood pressure. Captain has to stop this international organ trafficking nexus. And Chokkan 65.
Makkal police shows shows off his drosophila dietetics. On an interesting side note, wood can buffer the smell of rotting corpses. From everyone except captain.
I love the cleverly concealed captain political propaganda. It sends a nice chalkboard-scratching shiver though the body every fifteen seconds.
Great world unity touch. Malay guy with fake American accent in Australia/Malaystralia but knows tamil.
Intermission rang in with a great punch translation off of Neeson's Taken. Of course captain will take out the 'Albanian international terrorist' the right way. With his eyes.
Captain has an estimated 96 hours (from a reliable Tamilnaad police source) to save his niece before she is sold to Jabba the Hutt. Time to make a straight beeline to Malay fake accent guy.
Next up, drop in on old crooked accomplice from Scotland Yard where they trained together. Who else but Arun Pandian.
I like the awesome tamil (the most noble language in the world) touch all over the movie. Everyone including the Malay/Australian translator (speaks 46 languages) is more comfortable with tamil than any other language.
35 hours left. Looks like captain's still got a lot of punch dialogue in him left. Thappu seiyaravanga dhan da thappikanum.
“I am from tamilnadu bolice”. “Naanum tamilnadu dhan saar”. Hard to watch captain hold back his paternal affection through his gentle investigation.
More aascar winning dialogue - “Indha visiting card dhan en aayudham”.
I just realized very late that this movie is actually an englipis movie dubbed to tamil with captain doing his own voice dubbing! Facepalm
Captain breaks the villain boy with his englipis shock treatment. Hard to say if the current or the dialogue is doing the trick (Wonly you gan say goodlack? That goodlack has wonly begum yuvar bad lack).
Final plot exposed: 'Albanian international terrorist' got this entire racket going because he's jealous that India has IPL and Issarrai. Indrresting.
A dojen awesome gapten calisthenics later, Inshallah! Villain is defeat. Nobdy can rock the trenchgoat and glaus like gapten!

WOW! A sunday afternoon that I would have wasted on CTF correction, I have now spent productively. Recommended for all like minded individuals.

I have the need etc...etc.

2010-12-09T05:56:00.002+05:30

So I was driving Srividya back to MCO this afternoon. I had the car cruising at 75 mph on the 70 mph limit I-75. 'Anjane' by Strings was playing on the speakers and we were taking in the pretty Florida wetland scenery. Suddenly, Mr. Know-it-all driver on a chromed-out metallic green suv, zipped into the extreme left lane right behind me. He waited about five whole seconds after which he cut into the middle lane with the deft skill of a seasoned freeway zipper and sped up to level with me. He then let out a shrill horn blare to let me know what he thought of me as he readied himself to gain velocity and leave me coughing in his awesomeness dust.

Exactly then I heard a familiar siren go off somewhere behind me with some all-american light effects. A green and white car with 'SHERIFF' displayed proudly on one side closed in right behind Mr. know's chrome monster. The latter slowed down as it crossed out much more respectfully to the extreme left part of the road with torn tyre bits on it. As I passed Mr. know, I vaguely caught him punching his steering wheel. I gave him my eastwoody smile, adjusted my glasses and continued to MCO at 75 mph.

Peace out.

Trippiness

2010-10-19T08:46:00.003+05:30

Since I don't do drugs I did these today.

City of Blinding Lights - U2

Kula Shaker Govinda
Uploaded by ronaldmacdonald33. - See more comedy videos.

Govinda - Kula Shaker

Reptilia - The Strokes

Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins

Pottu vaitha - Singaravelan

You gotta fight, for your right, to sma-a-a-rty!

2010-09-02T21:55:00.002+05:30

Your world really is not that competitive. It simply is not.

There is a statistic that says something like if you have a room over your head, clothes to wear at the moment and two square meals for today, then you are richer than 75% of the world. If you are reading this, you are one of them. You do not have to the need to be this competitive.

You work hard to stay ahead of the rest, cover your tracks, "do what you gotta do", hide your cards, suck-up and does that vault you over the so-called competition? Rhetorical question. No It does not. You end with the same job at the next platform as Mr. Numskull.

Is the world really short of jobs? No, it just never needed that many engineers or mba's. There are only so many lofty positions but there are plenty of positions for which the demand will never die out. You will never look at them so the world seems short.

Does zipping in traffic, overtaking from the blind-side, running traffic signals, going the wrong way and being a speed demon really enhance the quality of your life? You save a measly five minutes with your risky antics that may have actually claimed someone's life by the time you read this. The five minutes you saved are not going to add on. You do not wake up five minutes earlier the next day.

Do not legitimatize it. It won't work unless you want to prove for real what a misanthrope's view is of the human condition.

On Socialism

2010-07-31T21:33:00.002+05:30

Manohary came up with an interesting point the other day,

"Most god-fearing and religion abiding citizens of the world believe in charity and service. How is it, therefore, that we find them opposed to racial, social and economic socialism? Can they not treat socialism as a form of charity and service to the poor?"

Your witness.

Spread the word

2010-06-11T22:19:00.002+05:30

Pro-style or spread offense?

The spread offense has been given this brash new upstart persona even though the concept has been around for close to a century. It could be because most of the teams that are emerging in recent years to national prominence are mostly employing some form of the spread. Or it could be because most opinions on a spread offense are at extreme ends - it either works wonders or fails miserably. Pro-style offensive systems are a lot less under fire with them being called dinosaurs at worst.

The incorrect use of the words spread and shotgun interchangeably can really be confusing. Though the basics of the spread offense starts at the offensive formation, it is not about how the snaps are taken. Both pro-style and spread offenses can be run out of the I-formation, the shotgun or what have you. A pro-style offense is about balance. It is about utilizing your talent to beat the opponent. Whether the QB takes the snap under center or in the shotgun, it is how he goes through his reads and picks the right receiver to pass to. It is about how the receivers' complicated yet complete route running skills are utilized. It is about how you play physical smash mouth football to beat the opponent. The focal point of a spread offense on the other hand is to create mismatches and open routes up for running or passing the ball.

A spread running offense primarily utilizes the read option to create mismatches either in size or speed. For success in that set, nimble speedy backs, big-sized pass catching tight ends and a quarterback who can also run the ball would be ideal. The 2009 Florida Gators team is a typical example of a spread run-first offense with speedy backs in Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey, a big sure-handed tight end in Aaron Hernandez and a running QB in Tim Tebow. A spread passing offense on the other hand focusses on using a stable talented receivers with a quick releasing and accurate QB. These offenses tend to create big passing numbers by beating the secondary with speed, size and sound catching ability. Most passes are quick and sometimes premeditated, before the pass rush gets to the QB. Most of the successful big 12 teams use this style but a typical example is the the 2007 and 2008 Texas Tech Red Raiders team with Michael Crabtree and Graham Harrell putting up some serious numbers.

A pro-style offense can also depend more on the run or passing ability based on personell and the nature of the defense. A typical run-based pro-style offense would be the 2009 Alabama Crimson Tide team which won the national championship despite only 58 passing yards in the game. The victory was all about the supremely talented Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson breaking through tackles and running straight through defenders. A typical pro-style passing offense would be the 2009 Notre Dame team with QB Jimmy Clausen, WRs Golden Tate and Michael Floyd and TE Kyle Rudolph. Clausen put up big passing numbers with Golden Tate winning a number of close games but the Irish defense failed to show up through the season.

The success of a spread offense would definitely depend on how good the players are and how effectively they suit the system but it also depends critically on how many mismatches are possible with a given defense. And because of that it is true to a certain extent that a primarily spread-based offense may not succeed as an NFL system. However the spread systems cannot be simply dismissed that way.

The reason for the feeling that a spread may have limited success in the NFL goes back to the original focal point of a spread offense. To create mismatches. Now a spread offense where Jeff Demps was faster, Hernandez was bigger and Tebow was more powerful than most defenders allowed the gator offense to sneak past most college defenses where many players are simply average quality or lesser but talent-loaded NFL teams with defenders that have Tebow's size and close to Demps' speed (the kid is really the fastest!) would not have a very hard time stopping at least Demps (Tebow is still more powerful) and handicapping the spread attack. This is evidenced by how the speed of Demps and Rainey were negated by top defenses like Alabama. A top-quality secondary with ball hawks like Troy Polamalu would make life extremely difficult for Graham Harrell or Colt Brennan's passing ability with both speed, size and power in the secondary. The bottom line is that there are few cracks in an NFL defense to exploit because they are made of the choicest players.

However still, there are a number of myths about spread offenses and spread offense players that are unnecessarily out there. For starters, there was a belief that talent in a spread offense, especially from a QB or WR spot does not translate to the NFL; the big numbers generated are simply side-effects of the system against bad defenses. While it is true that pro-style routes and progressions are very different from the spread, and some NFL teams may like players with experience in pro-style routes, it still does not negate the ability of a player to adapt to a new playing style. The top rookie receivers from the 2009 NFL draft - Jeremy Maclin, Michael Crabtree and Percy Harvin all came from spread offenses and had decent success with one of them even winning rookie of the year. Vince Young with his exceptional running and passing ability won similar honors in his rookie year and now is the starting QB for the Tennessee Titans. There are numerous such examples of non-prototypical players who have come through by sheer talent and ability. It was believed that Urban Meyer's spread experiment at Florida in 2005 would never work against SEC defenses. Suffice to say 5 years later that Urban's offenses are not doubted so much anymore.

So is a pro-style better than a spread offense? The 2009 Crimson Tide team after demolishing the Gators at the SEC championship would certainly like to claim so. But a match-up the previous year between more or less the same roster ended with a win for the spread-happy Gators. The 2009 Oregon Ducks offense was all over a well-rated USC Trojan defense while the acclaimed Trojan offense with Damien Williams, Joe McKnight and Allen Bradford could barely get within 30 points of the Ducks. The plays are call to the players strengths but it is who played well on that day and made the catches, tackles and runs.

A match-up of different playing styles only creates intrigue and nothing more. Whether you run the pro-style, the west coast, the run-option, the air-raid, the triple threat, the run and shoot, the wildcat or simply mix it up, make sure you bring your best on gameday because that is all that matters.

"All the same"

2010-06-06T21:51:00.002+05:30

Amongst a dozen other things, sensitivity fail.

"This is my daughter...from the US." "Oh my son-in-law too..."

2010-05-15T08:53:00.005+05:30

A year ago, I had made a post confirming my revulsion with the induced overt-awe of an academic degree. Obviously there was more to the matter than what I picked up naively back then.

I had settled on the bean-bag after a power lunch to watch a matinee telecast of 'Veerasamy' on KTV with a bowl of jelly and a cold glass of mango juice in attire that would make Mahatma Gandhi proud. Mom and dad left to see someone and Pammi decided to give up on stealing the remote and retired for the afternoon. The bell rang A middle-aged couple with their smatter-stache tall-than-me high school son showed up to see the apartment we planned to rent out. I was a bit twitched about being interrupted but tiwo had finally made it to Tata Sky cable so I led them towards the apartment, remote in hand.

"Hi, I am buzz-buzz-blah", said the gentleman as he shook my bony hand and took notice of my skinny build. His wife nodded and his son looked away. I lead them to the apartment and told them to feel free to look around as I parked on the sawdust-layered kitchen counter. The mom examined the apartment in great detail as they noted each point and nodded to herself and looked to the head of the house for his approval grunt. The son occasionally did a slight dance with his feet and said something to his dad, all the time looking at the ceiling. My saw-dust house sketch was nearly complete when the gentleman walked over to me and asked me, "Are there any elders in the house?".

To this day, I have always had the distinct privilege of receiving a semi-dismissive comment on my age and how it poorly fits my current degree of study when my parents introduce me to someone they know. But even as a hardened player, I was not happy about getting that from Mr. Buzz. I reached for my beard to stroke it but I realized that it had been discarded, in part to help me resemble my passport photo. Nevertheless, I was a 25-year old and I was going to stand up for myself.

"You can talk to me, I own this place" I said. Maybe I had over said something there in my moment of irritation. But I was still going to stick with it. I did not call you balding Mr. Buzz, even though I noticed it before I shook your hand.

But Mr. Buzz was not convinced at all. He still had control on the conversation. So he took a deep breath and let it out loudly and responded, " what is the rent?"

"We quoted it on the newspaper ad", I responded coolly.

Mr. Buzz gave a sly smile perfected by the average Indian negotiator and started, " I know but what is THE rent? See, basically I am from Mumbai. I have been living there for 20 years. I lived in Juhu. You know, Juhu beach? It is a posh area. We had a proper society apartment with amenities like a swimming pool and a club house. Even there I only paid 28,000."

A number of thoughts swam in my head. Alright Mr. Buzz. You have just knowingly or unknowingly, in perfect Indian fashion, thrown some mud on my ancestral home that we all blindly loved. Generations of our dogs have marked their ownership of this place with so much uric acid that it would fill your swimming pool a dozen times. The colony that you have somehow found your way to, is an equivalent to Pali Hill or Malabar Hill in Mumbai. And Juhu is NOT a posh area.

I gave a tired smile and responded, "Just tell me how much you wish to pay".

"Thirty thousand." He had read my expression and was now losing some of his confidence.

"Alright. Just give me your number. I have your name and your quote. If we decide to negotiate on the rent, we will get back to you." Mr. Buzz was visibly displeased with how he had to do this routine with a cold little skinny kid but I was the oldest person he was going to meet that afternoon. He said, "Ok" with a grunt towards the end and started heading out as the rest of the family shuffled after him slowly. I retured to the bean bag to continue what was left of my afternoon.

--

Four hours later, the phone bell rang as I just returned home from walking Scoobie. I picked it up,

"Good Evening."

"Uh. Hello?"

"Yes please?"

"Hi. My name is Mr. Buzz. I had come to see an apartment this afternoon."

"Yes Mr. Buzz. Tell me."

"Uh. Are there any elders around?"

I handed the phone to my father without a response and sped off to the kitchen to report to my mom on the caller. Dad joined us in a few seconds, "He is coming over to see us. Wear a shirt Harish."

I had stopped arguing with my parents a couple of years ago. I walked to my closet and returned in a t-shirt that misspelt New York and Brazil and had a tea stain on it. Mom and dad exchanged a glance but said nothing.

--

I was revising our photo album for the nth time. Scoobie and I had retired to my bedroom for similar reasons. Mr. Buzz had been sitting with dad and mom for the last half hour and judging from the level of noise and the topic of conversation, it was clear that they had hit it off well. The phone rang.

Mom answered, "Harish. Its Abi for you."

I cursed and sped out to pick the phone up and bring it back to my room. But mom had picked up the dusty, abandoned supply phone that could only be used the old fashioned way.

One ten-second phone call later, I quietly tried to slink away, when dad turned to me, "Harish...This is my son Harish. He is studying in the US too."

"Oh.."

That was a chorus by both Mr. and Mrs. Buzz. Mrs. Buzz's expression turned from shock to one that reassured her that all the kids of these days end up there anyway and it was nothing special. Mr Buzz's expression turned from genuine shock to a substantial regret that dripped from his expression as he nearly dropped the dry snack he was holding. Sonny boy kept looking out the window at our neighbor's abandoned old garage.

--

Amongst other things that can be concluded from this post, I think now that it may have been interesting to rewind the evening situation to change what my dad said to, "This is my son Harish. He is pursuing a doctoral degree." I guarantee a lesser shock. It think it can sometimes be a bigger social deal to be elementary schooler in the USA rather than a graduate degree holder in India.

"Have you no ambition? Don't you want to study well, go abroad and make your country proud?"

-some nameless R.K. Laxman cartoon.

Matka calling the Kadhai black

2010-04-22T10:28:00.004+05:30

Beneath the 'mind it's, rascallas and bright green clothes, there is a definite dose of spite and smugness that carries through with the bollywood perception of the south Indian movie industries (there are more then one and they are not the same, believe me). As much as I can justify the lack of quality in these other '-ollywoods', there is little that can save these smug faces from these monstrosities.

List of originally dreadful hindi box office hits:

This list is not complete! It is only a set of the most abominable movies that were not copied or inspired, that are considered to be popular hits among the self-stamped suave audience.

Just Missed it: Kaho naa...Pyaar hai

Ameesha Patel and Hrithik Roshan could have been just as famous modeling but they had to star in a movie and so you get their lackluster attempts to be cute. Hrithik did succeed but the results were not called cute. This movie however does not join the list because Hrithik Roshan set new levels for actors in physique and dancing abilities with this one. It made Govinda jump to politics.