A new kind of slave.

Americans in the ‘post’-Economic Crisis world:

Do you know that the savings rate of the average US household is STILL precisely zero? Will all of the hullaballoo about the recent ‘economic crisis,’ I think now is a good time to try to understand what the aftermath of this crisis is going to be.

Not that I am an economic expert or anything… but I want to know what lies ahead… as should you… this is just my take on things… perhaps I am wrong… but given my pessimistic outlook on things… I certainly HOPE I am wrong… and without further ado… Here's my take on it…

The Bailout:

In the wake of the ‘collapse’ of the financial system, governments around the world particularly the US poured umpteen billions TRILLIONS of dollars into these ‘failing’ banks, mortgage companies etc etc. But people are still being evicted from their homes, homes are still being repossessed and auctioned, unemployment is still rising and home values are still falling. This begs the following question.

Where did this money go?

The money went to the banks and their executives/owners of course… and they kept it… and now they are lending it back to the very taxpayers it was taken from AND charging them interest on it… Yeah… these guys redefine daylight robbery. If anything the PEOPLE should be charging the banks interest on that money….

Why did this crisis occur?

The blame falls on the ‘housing bubble,’ i.e. rising home values which prompted US families to ‘refinance’ their homes and pick up some loose cash in exchange of losing all the accumulated equity in their homes. In effect the bank buys back all of the equity that you spent a good portion of your life accumulating plus adds MORE interest and increases the amount of time you will be stuck with an EMI. Oh and I forgot to mention… this new EMI is likely to be higher than your earlier one… to reflect the new higher value of “your” home. Of course you do get some instant gratification for it… but that’s it…

What most people do not realize is that this is not the ROOT CAUSE of the collapse.

Root cause:

While the housing bubble and ‘toxic debt’ WAS the primary cause of the ‘collapse’ of the finance system… it was not the root cause. The root cause is the lack of savings amongst most American, particularly the more ‘modern’ American families. They like to live life from paycheck to paycheck with credit cards to tide them over in times of crises. This was not always the case in the USA. But now… with no (or simply not enough) personal savings to fall back on, losing your job means losing your home, car and pretty much everything else.

Sure you might have a retirement account that you’re putting money into and in rare cases you might even have some money salted away in savings accounts and stocks… but when you lose your job… all of that will dwindle to nothing pretty fast… cause those EMI’s are not going to go away… and lets not forget insurance… Americans have some or the other kind of insurance for practically everything… Health Insurance is a big killer for savings…

Why don’t people save anymore?

Cause its not cool! Its not cool to be living with your parents instead of picking up your own 30 year(!) mortgage for a home you cannot readily afford… its not cool to be driving a fuel efficient sedan as opposed to a gas guzzling SUV (or big ass truck which you don’t ever use to move anything remotely heavy enough to warrant all that horsepower).

But it IS cool to spend your money in pubs/clubs/bars every weekend instead of just once in a while. It is cool to buy overpriced branded consumer goods as opposed to generics/store brands… It is cool to spend all that disposable income and enjoy your life in the present without worrying that much about the future…

But all of this comes AFTER you have a job… most people are saddled with hefty debt even before they hold full time jobs… education loans (because their parents didn’t save for their education)… maybe a car loan too… and lets not forget credit card debt with their outrageous interest rates. Fact is… with digital cash, you usually never even realize how much money you are spending until you see that ugly month end statement…. one reason to stick to cash….

Given that they have gotten used to growing up with such debt… they don’t feel the need to save for their kids… the mentality is… “I had to live with it… why cant they?” The combination of instant gratification and the general ‘me first’ mentality in most humans has created the perfect mix for the banks to exploit.

To this in built human mechanism of rational self interest, we now add the supremely persuasive imagery of popular media. Media which (just BTW) is controlled by the privileged individuals who most benefit from those stuck in the vicious debt cycle. The CEO’s and corporate moguls, the ‘elite’…. think of those snobs from Cruel Intentions… something like that…

Welcome to the the Ninja generation:

No income, no job or assets. In the words of Gordon Gecko, as portrayed by Michael Douglas in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to Wall Street (1987). That is precisely what is happening in the USA today. Everywhere you look, popular media is encouraging people to spend all that they make… and then some…

First after getting you into a 30 YEAR mortgage, they tell you to buy a nice new car… then all the other bells and whistles you don't really need… then they tell you to take vacations in exotic locations… then once you're halfway through those 30 years… they tell you… HEY! Why don't we give you a big lump sum NOW (to spend on other random stuffs) and you can pay us a teeny tiny bit more in your EMI… for another 30 years…

In the words of one of my economics professors: People don’t realize how little they actually own. In the average US household, the family only owns the clothes in their closet, the food in their fridge, their silverware, their pet and possibly their appliances and furniture… but in most cases… their home, their car and most of the things that an economist would consider an ‘asset’ is owned by the bank or some other agency… the family likely still owes years worth of payments and interest on them…

Presto… the new kind of slave…

In effect you become their slave… you keep borrowing and working your rear off to pay the banks back many times more than what they actually gave you… and you STILL end up losing your homes to them if you’re not careful…

These banks take whatever money you ARE able to give them, and then go to the Government and complain about not being able to recover the remaining ‘debt' that you owe them… and take YOUR tax dollars to bail themselves out and thereby ‘save the American way of life’ and STILL ask you to pay back what you owe them by repossessing your homes etc.

The “Nobility”

There is a reason why the top 1% of the US population control over 35% of the wealth, why their income has grown at a steady clip of close to 10% per annum for most of the Clinton and Bush era whereas the bottom 80% owns about 15% of the wealth and has only seen their income rise by about 2-4% per annum in the same period.

Its because we do all the work for them. We pay them interest, we pay the taxes which bail them out of trouble and then we return everything we earned via the consumerism implanted in us by their media (propaganda). But more importantly… we are the ones digging ourselves into this little hole. A leaked Citibank Memo discusses how the wealthy were free to even manipulate the process of democracy in the US and how it surprised them that the general public had not already rebelled.

The point is:

I am not telling you to quit having fun and become misers and I am most certainly not advocating any form of violent revolution ala the French Revolution.

All I am saying is that you should quit handing over control of your life to these people. Save as much as you can when you can. Stay out of debt whenever possible and never incur long term debt. Always plan for the worst, hope for the best and anticipate everything in between.

As the new generation entering the world faced with an uncertain economic climate, we need to be prepared to make sacrifices. The mistakes of the past should not be repeated. The middle class must be rebuilt and wealth must be redistributed.

Before some idiots start clamoring about how I am a communist and trying to make you believe that communism and socialism are the same thing… let it be known that I am not asking for either of those. I am not asking the government to do this for us. I am saying we need to do it ourselves.

We need to realize that in the long term, by falling into this quicksand of debt, even if we do manage maintain an illusion of a ‘comfortable’ lifestyle, the fact is that we will be condemning our children to the same drudgery that we will be going through. They will be forced to work just as hard and always live in fear of the pink slip. (The figurative whip of the figurative nobility)

Why this should matter to you:

While this scenario is already unfurling in the US, the sad fact is that the same disease is starting to take hold around the world. Its even starting to take a hold in the historically conservative economies of Asia. My concern lies there. They have already sucked the US middle class dry, and now its time to move on. China and India have a combined middle class larger than most of the rest of the world combined. It is here where the crosshairs are now being pointed. We need to prepare and beware.

It just aint the same no more...

Anime and manga are almost starting to bore me.

Yeah... you read that right... but before those that know me start to hyperventilate... I guess I should be more specific here...

Its the glut of cutsey/moe, harem and battle themed anime and manga that are starting to bore me. Its not the fact that they have the same themes and similar characters that puts me off; because that is something I have come to accept (Heck thats something any Adachi fanboy/fangirl would accept).

What IS ticking me off is that people are putting more effort into character design than actually building up a character. Sure they are pretty to look at... but nowhere near as memorable as characters from an old school manga and anime.

I can barely remember the names of some of the more recent manga I have read (let alone the characters). Its not that I didnt like them at the time nor that I found them unfunny or uninteresting. Its just that they really were TOO generic for me to care to remember much about them.

There is a glut of emotionally disturbed/dark past pretty boys (or pretty girls), the dudes or dudettes who for some reason has been stuck into a harem situation (which they must pretend to either hate or be completely indifferent to...), the klutzy-cutesy or cutesy-klutzy kinds of girls with boobs bigger than their brains, the supernatural female characters whose costumes could have been pieced together using less fabric than a pillowcase (if that) and must also include some cute animal appendages. They all look the same, act the same and really dont have any standout qualities. This basically makes it impossible for me to actually remember their names.

What gives me hope is that there are some exceptions to the rule (Thankfully!) . We have characters like Kou Shuurei from Colorcloud Palace, Sawako from Kimi No Todoke, Integra Hellsing and Alucard from Hellsing OVA, Rock and Revy from Black Lagoon, Jin and Mugen from Samurai Champloo. Think about them for a bit (if you know them) I am certain that some scene or dialog immediately pops into your mind. You are able to remember some defining characteristic pretty easily.

Its just not the same with the majority of the current breed of anime and manga. Characters are no longer as "strong" as they used to be. The character of the characters (so to speak) is no longer the driving force behind an anime and mangas popularity or marketability anymore... and that really sucks...

I think back to the days when characters like Rurouni Kenshin, Saito Hajime, Lupin, Fujiko Mine, Faye Valentine, Spike Spiegel, Yang Wenli, Reinhard, Captain Harlock, Maetel, Miyuki Kobayakawa, Natsumi Tsujimoto, Ken Nakajima were the norm, where the characters had enough "power" in them to make me remember their names... even years later...

Thats not to say that the women did not rely on sex appeal, and the men werent pretty boys in the good old days... Its the fact that they were more than just that.... Heck Fujiko is (arguably) more "provocative" than any of the anime women in this generation... She was sexy and she knew it... But the point is that their characters were more important than just their appearance... They used their sex appeal, but it wasn’t their sole selling point... they may have had 'complicated' pasts, but they had more to offer than that...Again... using Fujiko as the example... her character was based on her utilization of her sex appeal, but she did it with style, and she knew how to take care of herself in a scrap.…

I wish I could bring back those days. But perhaps thats just me... the fact is that such manga are popular among the new generation of anime and manga lovers... So yeah... It just aint the same no more...

P.S. - The 'Grammar Nazis' have my apologies for the slang and poor grammar... its one of the devices I use to augment dramatic effect.

A hot deal. Or is it?

I read about the civil nuclear liability bill being passed a couple weeks ago. This is supposed to be a big step for India. Many papers and publications described the passing of the bill as "landmark" and/or "revolutionary."

I agree. It is both landmark and revolutionary. After all...

How often does the government of a country basically open its borders to allow its citizens to (in effect) become guinea pigs for technology that has the potential to destroy entire cities should something go wrong?

Note: The USA has not built a single new nuclear reactor for 3 decades. All of a sudden they want to 'export cutting edge technology' to us? I read: experiment on us. Even if their motives are benign and only limited to the financial gain. It says something that they havent built a reactor within their own borders for 3 decades but want to help us build several dozen.

How often does it basically absolve one of the primary offending parties (foreign suppliers) of any wrongdoing for a paltry maximum liability of Rs 500 cr (approx $110 million) vs $10.5 BILLION in the USA and assume all other liability on "itself"?

Note: To be clear... the bill does not say that the total liability for an accident will be limited to Rs. 500 cr. It just says that any foreign suppliers (who will build the reactor and supply the fuel) will only be liable for Rs 500 cr (approx $110 million ) in damages for basically any kind of accident. The rest will be paid by the operators (NPCIL) i.e. the Government.... i.e. the people of India... i.e. you and me.

Dont get me wrong. I am all for nuclear power. But only if its ensured to be safe and if the parties responsible for accidents will be held liable and pay ADEQUATE reparations. Heck BP spent many times more money cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf than what the government is proposing that a foreign supplier might have to pay if a nuclear plant explodes (exaggeration... hopefully...).

Meh... I bet a lot of money changed hands in Delhi (and elsewhere) that day... but even so... this level of liability for anyone doing anything involving nuclear materials with potential for widespread contamination in one of the most densely populated countries in the world, home to 1/6th of mankind... is a farce...

I would go on about India's poor civil nuclear safety record, but ssh! Lets not scare too many people. If reports by foreign agencies are to be believed.... and even if only 10% of them are true... I would not advocate living anywhere within 200km of the active nuclear reactors in India.

Over to you people.

Video Killed the Radio Star

In case you dont know... the title of the post is also the title of a very popular song by a band called... (oddly enough) "The Buggles"...

But thats not what this post is going to be talking about... heck I didnt know that "The Buggles" even existed until I googled the song... which I have heard a number of times in a number of places... argh! I digress again...

I wanted to talk about the death of Indipop and the role of Bollywood... but theres other more qualified people to do that... and frankly... I am not in the mood to start a rant which will probably include several death threats and wild accusations of "ALLEGED" plagiarism... Then there will be my usual lamentation about remixes and how the music videos that they make these days take the concept of 'Sex Sells' a little too seriously... I mean... have some god damned pride in your own music for f***s sake... (Please excuse the profanity)...

But... to celebrate the short lived golden era of Indipop (read: The 90's)... heres a few numbers you might enjoy....

K.K. - Aap Ki Dua

Bombay Vikings - Kya Soorat Hai

Agosh - Paisa

Silk Route - Dooba Dooba

Lucky Ali - Oh Sanam

Euphoria - Mantra

Despite my defeatist outlook in this matter... artists like Kailash Kher and Atif are giving me hope... even their music videos dont have too many (or any) half naked woman cavorting in a vulgar manner...

55 Fiction #011: The Hit (Ver. 2)

#011: The Hit (Ver. 2)

Scene: 1

Akram: Didja get ‘em?
Abbas: *Hands out three pistols*
Shankar: Our reputation is at stake… we must not fail…
Abbas: Don’t worry… I never miss my target….

Scene: 2
Nanditha: No!!… Don’t!!…
Laughing raucously… they shoot her in cold blood…
Her white dress stained blood red… she collapses…


*Yelling while fleeing* Holi HAI!!!!


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P.S. I figured I would make a new version... making things slightly more clear... since some people actually thought that Nanditha had died... LoL...

The Death Of Trust

Is it just me? Or does anyone else see that people are no longer as trusting as they used to be?

I know I am someone who does not trust people easily. Perhaps that makes me hard to trust as well, but thats something I will have to sort out myself...

The thing is, society has hammered a default setting of mis/dis trust into us. We worry about what that stranger who smiled at us in the street might have been thinking. We always try to find a motive behind the actions of pretty much everyone we come into contact with.

But rather than the examples of mistrust between people, I want to talk about why the mistrust is born; about how and why that default setting of mis/dis trust gets hard wired into us, and about how current trends in society will only perpetuate this trend.

That hard wired mistrust can come from various sources:

Childhood traumas? Betrayal by a relative friend or business associate? Unfaithful or gold-digging husband/wife/lover? Things of that nature...

These examples are outside our control and can hit us hard. People often are unable to ever fully recover from these sorts of things, and thats only natural.

But the common thread of those betrayals is that even con-men and gold-diggers are working for personal gain AND the personal gain (to them) is a direct result of the betrayal that they are perpetrating. This fact at some level makes their actions understandable or logical or justifiable (or some weird amalgam of those three words).

But get this! Here is a new and scary assault on the concept of trust between the common man.

They call it stealth marketing...

According to Wikipedia: Undercover marketing (also known as buzz marketing, stealth marketing, or by its detractors roach baiting) is a subset of guerrilla marketing where consumers do not realize they are being marketed to. For example, a marketing company might pay an actor or socially adept person to use a certain product visibly and convincingly in locations where target consumers congregate. While there, the actor will also talk up their product to people they befriend in that location, even handing out samples if it is economically feasible. The actor will often be able to sell consumers on their product without those consumers even realizing that they are being marketed to.

So... Yeah... The most recent example of Stealth marketing that was uncovered in the USA involved the Blackberry cellphone. The mobile makers hired an undercover marketing agency which hired pretty young women to hang out in bars and such like to flirt with men. These women would then invite these men to enter their phone numbers in their cellphones (which would all be the Blackberry Perl). The objective was to get the 'marks' to hold the cellphone and try to use it. They would promise to call back, make small talk and then leave. Never to be heard from again.

This is one example of the betrayal of trust, and while it is for personal gain, the gain does not come from the act of betrayal. The gain comes from somewhere else. The act of betrayal is being turned into a job... a real... legal... job... Perhaps 'betrayal' might be too strong a word, but you get my meaning. It is an example of a breach of trust.

I think that it is a worrying precedent. Ethics of this kind of marketing aside, it presents us with a troubling moral dilemma. What kind of world will we leave our children when people can hold jobs where they are paid to lie to others? Where the act of lying becomes akin to someone assembling a machine on an assembly line, a programmer writing a line of code?

I wonder... What are those men who gave their phone numbers to those women be feeling right now? How will they feel the next time a woman flirts with them? What will any guy who has read that story feel when they flirt with a girl and she whips out a Blackberry Perl?

Will they feel pleased? Or will they feel that twinge of suspicion, mistrust... fear or disgust even?

I for one would perhaps feel less distrustful if that girl had been flirting with me just for her amusement who may think of me as a nerd.

But the thought of being 'worked over' by a professional who is not even getting something directly form the act of betrayal, for whom it is merely a job; that appalls me, disgusts me, worries me. I know that I will feel that twinge of suspicion... of mistrust... whenever I see a pretty girl holding a Blackberry Perl. (Hey that rhymes!)

55 Fiction #010: A Jester in Love

#010: A Jester in Love

The knight rode away from the weeping princess…

The jester approached the princess…

What should I do?

This is likely my last chance …

She is vulnerable now… I can make her mine…

He patted her back…

She looked up…

He helped her stand… and guided her to his horse…

“Go on… chase him!”

P.S. Wanted to make it look like the Jester was stealing her away for himself.... dunno if I managed that...

55 Fiction #009: Voyeur

#009: Voyeur

He adjusted his binoculars slightly

Her window came into focus… she was starting to undress…

Jill was wearing black lingerie…

He licked his lips… she started to unhook the straps…

He waited with bated breath…

Suddenly his phone rang… he dropped the binoculars…

Hey Frank… the rest of me is pay-per-view… you dig?

P.S. Probably my favorite of the heap... a bit riqsue.... but makes it more fun eh? LoL... For those of you who want clarification about how she dialed his number without touching a phone... plenty of phones these days have voice activated dialing... so lets just call it that...

55 Fiction #008: The Ubermensch

#008: The Ubermensch

So what’s the latest?

Not much to report sir…

Global Warming?

Dealt with…

World hunger?

You handled that too…

World peace?

You unified the world in a bloodless revolution…

Oh…. Right… Energy crisis?

You invented Fusion yesterday…

What do I do now?

Take a nap?

Good idea…

*Sleeps*

*Awakens*

Damn! It was all a dream…

P.S. In German... the word Ubermensch basically means "superman" someone for whom all the aforementioned feats would not be impossible... so... yeah... a bit esoteric again...

The End of the World

Many people have predicted the end of the world in as many different ways.

Some thought that the world would end in the year 2000, others have predicted the year 2012 and some thought it would happen when they activated the Large Hadron Collider... the means of the world ending range from the wrath of nature, the effects of the irreversible degradation of the environment (e.g. Global Warming), collisions with large celestial bodies, and from being sucked into a man made black hole...

But... by some miracle... we as a species seem to have escaped at least some of those predicted ends... although the others do appear to be ticking time bombs...

You want to know what I think will cause the end of the world?

I think our end is not going to be because of anything external... at the rate we are going... we will likely wipe our race off the face of this earth with our own hands...

In case you have not understood... I am talking about the specter of war...

Do you know that there are more than a dozen active war-zones in the world today? (This is not even including many of the conflicts in Africa)... Here are some I know from off the top of my head... and the affected regions...

1] Arab-Israeli Conflict: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories and Syria

2] Somali Civil War: Somalia

3] Afghan War: Afghanistan, Pakistan

4] War in Darfur: Sudan

5] Iraq War: Iraq

6] Mexican Drug War: Mexico

7] Colombian Armed Conflict: Colombia

8] Communist and Islamic Insurgency in the Philippines: Philippines

9] Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir: India

10] Naxalite-Maoist Insurgency: India

11] Balochistan Conflict: Pakistan

12] Conflict in the Niger Delta: Nigeria

13] Fourth Civil War in Chad: Chad

Some of these conflicts involve nuclear armed foes. When you add the specter of terrorism to this volatile mix... the threat of terrorists obtaining even one of the massive stockpile of nuclear weapons being hoarded by the world powers... the grim picture emerges...

A single nuclear weapon in the wrong hands.... a single error of judgement by a commander of the armed forces of the nuclear armed countries could mean the difference between life and death for practically all of mankind... This is not mere Cold War hysteria... This is a cold hard fact...

They say that the Arms Race had ended... when they should be saying it has only just begun... Whether for self defense or for aggressive purposes... the ranks of nuclear armed countries have only grown over the last half century.... not shrunk.... the potency of these weapons has not been reduced... but increased... Currently... it is said that Iran and N. Korea may be on the verge of obtaining these weapons... (well... apparently N. Korea already has them...)...

Given the expansionist tendencies of most of the nuclear armed powers (India included)... things only look more grim... the race for obtaining nuclear weapons has also spawned an even more frenetic race to build better conventional weapons systems... It is estimated that as a whole... mankind had upwards of 1400 BILLION dollars on 'defense' related expenditures in the year 2008... that figure has only risen... and it likely does not fully account for the untold billions spent on research and development... but most importantly... that number does not account for the man hours spent by the worlds most brilliant minds searching for new ways for men to kill each other... rather than saving each other... or trying to solve issues of world hunger, global warming and the like...

The New START initiatives by the American and Russian governments give me hope... but only a glimmer... the fact is that even after the reductions... they will both retain enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire world many times over... not to mention all of the production facilities and materials to make many thousands more....

Closing Note

I have no real message to send here... this is just my view on the question of how the world could someday end...

Unless some steps are taken by the people in the position to do so... I think that we wont be around long enough to have to worry about Global Warming and environmental degradation...

Given my small audience... I don't think this will have much more effect than alleviating that urge I get to yell this out loud in public when people start to talk about how some hypothetical scenario will cause the end of the world...

This is not to say that Global Warming is less of a threat to the survival of the world as we know it... its just not as immediate... nor will it be as quick to kill...

Fly Daddy Fly

Writer: Based on a novel by Kaneshiro Kazuki (Japanese born Korean Novelist).

Director: Choi Jong Tae

Cast: Lee Jun Ki, Lee Moon Sik

Plot Synopsis:

The movie starts off showing us the daily life of Jhang Ga Pil (Moon Sik). Jhang is a salaryman in his 40's and is married with a 17 year old daughter. The family are seen to share close relationships and Jhang dotes on his daughter. One day he receives word that his daughter is in hospital. He rushes there to find her badly hurt... the victim of a brutal assault by a group of young men.

In the hospital, Jhang is approached by a man who claims to be an official of a prestigious school. The man offers him money and tells him that he will also pay the hospital expenses in full if Jhang Pil overlooks the 'indiscretion' of one of his students. The student in question happens to be a rising star in the world of boxing and is also from a well connected family. The man warns Jhang that if he 'raises a fuss' then it would only lead to defamation of his daughter and that they could easily create rumors that would ruin her public image and credibility.

Jhang is forced to accept this deal under duress, but he vows to take his revenge. To prove that he is not a coward and will do anything for his family, he decides to physically attack his daughter's tormentor. When he approaches the offenders school, he drops the knife that he was concealing and causes a ruckus by brandishing it at random students.

Jhang is then accosted by Go Seung Suk (Lee Jun Ki), a rebellious high school student with talent for fighting who proceeds to knock him out. When he awakens, Seung Suk chides him for his cowardice in bringing a knife to the school and sends him on his way. However when he encounters Jhang once more trying to attack the offender, Seung Suk offers to train him so that he can have a face to face confrontation with the boxer.

The movie follows his training and leads up to a final confrontation between Jhang and the assailant. It also focuses on the growing bond between Jhang and Seung Suk...

My Thoughts:

Acting: Well there was a fair share of overacting at times, but I thought most of the actors did a great job and the cast was supremely well chosen since they all fit their roles perfectly, both in terms of appearance and acting ability. Moon Ski did a fine job portraying the emotions of a father who is enraged but at the same time helpless to persecute his daughters tormentor. There were many scenes in the movie where he made me empathize with him. The final scene where he tosses an envelope of money in the face of the school official and tells him exactly the same thing that the official had said to him in the hospital was EPIC! Well... I thought so anyway...

Story: I loved the story. Sure its a bit cheesy and follows the formula of an underdog overcoming the odds, but it was well executed. It appealed to me... it was an example of an ordinary man deciding to make a stand against a powerful foe and deciding that "Enough is enough" even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds..

Overall Score: 85% I would say.

Do not Judge a Book by its Cover.

What do you think of when someone says the word "Cactus"?

I bet the image in your mind is that of the saguaro cactus or perhaps some smaller 'cuter' version. Most of you probably believe that all cacti only produce spines. Spines that can cause VERY painful injuries if you dont respect them (I speak from experience).

But I wonder how many of you know that cacti also have some of the most beautiful blooms seen in plant life anywhere... in other (simpler) words... they produce some of the most beautiful flowers you will ever see...

Google will help you out with some results here... but I also wanted to share some pictures I have taken myself...

Just thought I would try to share this with more people... what happened was that during the course of a conversation a friend was confused when I told him I wanted to go see cactus blooms... he didn't know that cacti could produce flowers... especially such awesome ones...

55 fiction #007: Love Letter

#007: Love Letter

Dear Ankita,
How are you?
I have something to tell you.
I wrote to your parents about us.
They have accepted my marriage proposal.
They are probably already fixing the date of our marriage.
I can’t wait to see you.
Love,
Ajay.

The letter arrived today… but… Ajay had been reported KIA a week ago…

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Hmm... this ons was a bit on the tragic side... but I feel that the 55 format didnt do full justice to it... I am definitely gonna rewrite this one into a bigger piece... I can imagine a village like setting... where a pretty girl is dressed in white... in mourning... and a postman on a creaky old bike rides up to deliver this letter...

Whistle!

Background

So... the scanslation for Whislte! (one of my favorite sports manga) was completed today... Just thought I should make a post about it... Since I did say there would be a good deal of anime/manga related content on this blog here...

Whistle! Is a football (*Sticks out tongue at the goras*) manga written by Daisuke Higuchi and was serialized in the late 90's and ended in 2003.

It developed great fan following since it was being serialized right around the time that the football world cup was held in Japan and South Korea. Additionally it was helped along by the Japanese team reaching the knockout stage and the Korean team actually reaching the semi finals. But despite all those contributing factors, the manga is pretty damned good all by itself.

Synopsis

Whistle! Follows the story of the young Sho Kazamatsuri, a short boy with a passion for soccer who was never allowed to play in middle school due to his short stature. He transfers schools when he enters High school in order to get a chance to play at a different team. However at his new school (Sakura Josui), people mistakenly assume that he was part of the starting lineup for his old school (Muasahinomori) which happened to be one of the best teams in the region. They quickly discover that Sho lacked both talent and practice and begin to scorn him. However, with his unrelenting passion, Sho quickly catches up to the rest of the team in terms of skill and in the end becomes an integral part of the team. The manga then follows his journey towards the top as he makes new friends, battles tough opponents on the pitch, and grows in skill with every encounter.

My Thoughts

I am a sucker for these underdog coming out on top kind of manga... dont ask why... I guess it is because I have known what it feels like to be in that situation... people who know me well will also testify that I nearly always choose to support the one person doomed to end up having his/her heart broken when it comes to anything involving love triangles or polygons...

But not only that... the manga has superb art... characters all look very distinct and the story is always exciting... there are a few training chapters which are usually the cause of boredom in many manga, but are well handled in this one with good inter-spacing of both humor and drama.

I am not sure what to say about the ending though... it was neat and nifty... and it followed the typical pattern of how sports manga usually end and it left me wanting more... but then... I also hate it when mangakas push their luck too much... as is happening with Hajime No Ippo now... so... in the end... I would say job well done...

If youre a fan of soccer and want to start reading manga... I recommend this one for a start... one reason is that it is a complete series... so you wont have to worry about waiting for new releases from scanslators... and 2nd is that its a superb series without too much in the way of manga unrealism/defiance of the laws of physics which you often see in sports anime/manga. In addition it keeps a good focus on the sports aspect even though it does take a few detours for dramatic effect.

BTW this manga does have an equally popular anime associated with it if anyones into that sorta thing....

Score

8.5/10 if youre a football fan I would say...

7.5/10 if you just like manga with no special attachment to football (*Sticks tongue out at the goras once more... LoL*) ...

55 Fiction #006: The Showdown

#006: Showdown

*Two men are in the center of a crowd… the atmosphere is grim*

Just you and me now bro’…

Walk away and you won’t get hurt…

Right back at you punk…

It’s your funeral….

Bring it!

Eat THIS!

*Joe’s hand descended in a swift arc*

*Frank gasped… then collapsed… moaning…*

Goddamit!… A… bloody… Royal Flush...

P.S. For those who dont play cards... (Not that I am much of a poker player myself)... A Royal Flush is THE best hand you can have in a game of Poker.

The Journey towards Happiness

I was thinking about these questions today... and these are question's I think about often... What is happiness? Am I really happy?

I have a strangely morose face... people often tell me I should look happier.... smile more etc...

I sometimes wonder... am I really unhappy? Do I look that dejected in life?

Lately I had been feeling depressed... I will admit... job scene bleak... my choice of major now seeming like a mistake made due to my whims... perhaps just a choice made to protect my pride? I was hearing about people getting jobs and moving on while I was still in School and struggling with my thesis... I was unhappy... yes... or to be precise... I FELT unhappy...

There are many things which I would like to be different about my life... I would like to have a job, I would like to have a car, I would like to have more opportunities to spend time with my friends and family, I would like my family to be happy... because these are some things which I feel are integral to my happiness which either I currently don't have enough of... or just dont have... I often find myself feeling envious of people who have such things...

But still... am I really unhappy? I would like to think not... no worries about health so far... the wealth aspect has taken a little beating though... LoL... I dont have many friends... but the ones I do have are the kind I can rely on in a pinch... I am doing what I love... studying about aircraft... something I have dreamed about ever since I can remember... so... I have every reason to be happy... why did I still feel doubt?

Then I realized something... I was rating my happiness on the scale of other people... I was letting other people tell me whether I was happy or not... this is not to say that I still dont want those things... or that they would not contribute to my happiness... just that I should be using a different yardstick to measure them... that is.... my own...

I realized that people were looking at me and evaluating my happiness by using their own measure or concept of what happiness means... this is a fundamentally flawed approach... because... while happiness as an emotion is the same for everyone, the actions that make a person happy... are different for everyone... not only that... but different people express happiness differently...

So I can confidently say I am happy... even though I might not always look like it...

Let me propose something here.... something I have come to believe strongly... even though it is a recent revelation...

I propose that every single course of action we take in our life... even something as mundane as brushing our teeth in the morning... are all geared towards attaining some goal... and the achievement of this goal is something which (in some shape or form) will somehow contribute to our happiness...

The thing which I have realized while struggling with these questions is that often times... the things that give me the most happiness are not even the goals I am working towards... its the journey... the collection of all the little actions that I have taken in order to attain a goal... which give me most happiness... or satisfaction...

The thing is... as we grow older... our thinking starts to change... our mindsets are constantly being programmed with all the cares and worries of the world and all the pressures of being an adult. We start to believe that if we fail to achieve the goal... the entire time spent on trying to achieve that goal was meaningless... a waste of time... something to feel bad about... a cause for unhappiness...

A crude example: Kids playing a soccer game... they all want to win of course... but at the end of the game... you will find that mostly all of them have a smile on their faces... win or lose... they mostly all had a blast.... just playing the game was so much fun... it didnt matter that they won or lost... they all walked away knowing they did their bloody best...

Now lets look at adolescents/adults... lets say they are on a bus going on a trip... all are expecting to enjoy the trip a lot of course... but the bus breaks down on the way... and they had to walk like XYZ km on foot... all of them will crib about it right? Oh our trip is ruined... we will be too tired to do anything once we get there etc etc... they will be so focused on cribbing about how tired the walk to the hotel or wherever is going to make them... that they take no enjoyment in the journey... they will forget the fun moments they had shared when the bus was still rolling along... they often consider all of that to be a waste...

The point of that mess above was this... I have realized that the process of getting to a goal often provided me with more enjoyment than the achievement of the goal... and many times overrides the disappointment of failure... because somewhere along the way... I stopped caring about what would happen once I got to my goal... and just concentrated on doing my best to getting there...

I think I have my answer now... I will always be happy... it is actually impossible for me... or any other person to be unhappy.... unless we decide to fall into the trap of a negative outcome focused mindset... because happiness is something which we naturally tend towards...

People will say that I am being idealistic here... that the real world does not work that way... that I cant simply stop worrying about outcomes and stop setting targets... to them I say.... I am not against the concept of making plans and setting targets for things you want... what I am saying is that we should try to make up a goal... and then devote all our power and energy towards attaining it... we should consider the journey to be something of value in and of itself... and not just think of the goal as the only thing of value... if we do that... if we are able to avoid falling into the trap of caring too much about the outcome and not enough about the journey... I think we will all do just fine... we will all be happy...

"A traveler who values the journey will always have a more fruitful trip than one who values only the destination."

How to Train Your Dragon

Studio: Dreamworks.

Voice Talent: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, and David Tennant

Plot Synopsis:

In the village of Berk... where Vikings have lived for 7 generations... fighting dragons is an everyday occurrence... Hordes of dragons often swoop down on the village to carry of the livestock, people and any other food they can find whereas the Vikings band together to try and fight them off. The leader of this village is the mighty Stoick the Vast. A massive red haired warrior who dispatched dragons with ease.

Hiccup, Stoick's son, is not strong like the other Vikings, instead he has a keen mind and comes up with inventions which are geared towards the capturing and killing of dragons. Sick of the constant teasing and the overall bullying of the other kids and adults, Hiccup decides to venture outside during a dragon raid to try and catch or kill a dragon. Hiccup sets his sights on the rare and dangerous Night Fury: a breed of dragon that has never even been seen. using the catapult that he invented, Hiccup manages to shoot one down but is unable to convince the other Vikings that he has.

He decides to try and find the dragons body to prove that he had indeed brought one down and discovers that the dragon had indeed been downed... but was still alive... Hiccup prepared to strike the final blow but in the end was unable to bring himself to kill the defenceless creature. He cut the ropes which tied the dragon up and released him. The dragon attacked Hiccup and knocked him to one side before taking off haphazardly and flying away...

Hiccup realizes that he is unable to become a dragon slayer like he wanted to and returns home dejected only to find that his father had enrolled him in dragon slayer training. Unable to protest Hiccup attends the training sessions only to be mocked by his classmates and also his love interest Astrid.

He tries to learn more about dragons by reading a viking manual only to find that all dragons were merely classified according to how dangerous they were and that all vikings were supposed to kill all dragons on sight. Te one exception to this rule was the Night Fury breed of dragon which no one had ever seen and lived to tell the tale... the manual advised that in the event of an encounter with a Night Fury... one should just hide and hope it does not find them. Intrigued by the fact that the Night Fury that he had brought down had not killed him, Hiccup returned to the forest only to find the Night Fury trapped in a canyon, unable to fly out since his tail had been damaged.

Hiccup tried to approach the dragon slowly and they soon built up a bond with Hiccup bringing food for the dragon (whom he names "Toothless") and Toothless allowa Hiccup to touch and stroke him. Hiccup builds a replacement tail section for Toothless with his mechanical knowhow and mounts it on him. However the tail is not perfect and Toothless is unable to fly freely. After several iterations, hiccup succeeds in making a design wherein he is able to ride Toothless and fly high in the sky and perform aerobatics and suchlike. In the meantime he has also been acing his dragon slaying lessons since his experiences with Toothless have taught him about the weaknesses of dragons.

However Astrid suspects that Hiccup is hiding something. How could a wimp like Hiccup become so good at handling dragons in such a short time? She follows him and discovers his secret... what will happen next? A grand adventure thats what! Watch the movie to learn more!!

My Thoughts:

Voice Talent: Nordic accents seemed a trifle forced... but I guess I can let that slide...

Animation: Top notch... there is a reason Dreamworks is one of the best studios in the business and it lives up to its name yet again...

Story: Based off a book which I havent read, but I loved it. An adventure of epic proportions and the coming of age story of a young boy I think this movie will be even more of a treat in 3D. Visuals were all stunning and even the end of the movie credit rolls had good art going into them. All I can say is that it blows every post Wall E animated movie clean out the water... a must watch by any standards.

Overall Score: 95% Cant find much of anything to take points off for, but I dont ever give out perfect scores either.

Green Zone

Writer: Brian Helgeland

Director: Paul Greengrass

Cast: Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, and Brendan Gleeson

Plot Synopsis:

Matt Damon plays the role of Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller serving in Iraq as part of a WMD search team. He is frustrated by the faulty intelligence that he is being fed by his superiors which always leads him to sites with no visible evidence of ever having been used to produce or store WMD's. He becomes convinced that the intelligence which they are being given (supposedly by a high level Iraqi general codenamed "Magellan") is fake. At a debriefing, Miller (Damon) brings up the point that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate and anonymous, stating that on his last three attempts to find WMDs, his team had come up with nothing. High-ranking officials quickly debunk Miller's theory about the intelligence being false.

During one such wild goose chase he is approached by a handicapped Iraqi man who calls himself Freedie. He informs Miller about a secret meeting of high level Iraqi generals taking place nearby. Sick of his fools errands... Miller decides to go off mission and try to capture the generals.

The meeting happens to be that of General Al Rawi... a top Iraqi general and his aides who have been in hiding in Baghdad. Many of his aides propose fighting other Iraqi forces and American forces, however Al-Rawi suggests that they remain where they are and wait until the Americans arrive and perhaps make the Iraqi army an offer to join their forces.

Miller raids the meeting... but nearly all of the high ranking generals (Including Al-Rawi) escape... Miller recovers a booklet from one of the captured men (Syeed Hamza) and is interrogating him about the booklets significance when a special forces team arrived and summarily takes custody of his prisoners and demands that Miller hand over all materials recovered from the prisoners. Despite Millers protestations the Special forces officers persist in trying to search him. A scuffle ensues where Miller manages to hide the book in Freddies pocket.

The Special Forces team had been dispatched by Clark Poundstone, a high ranking US official who was supposedly the one in charge of Magellan.

Miller reports the happenings of the day to Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) a CIA officer he had met after the briefing where he had been reprimanded for questioning the intelligence that was being given to him. Miller gives him the booklet, and Martin confirmed that the booklet contained the location of the safe houses of Al Rawi and his aides.

Martin was of the opinion that Al Rawi would be useful in reestablishing order in post-war Iraq... he felt that the erstwhile Iraqi Army had to play an integral part in any post war system of government... Miller was mortified by Martins idea of dealing with someone like Al Rawi who had been responsible for thousands of deaths under Saddams reign. Martin told Miller that he should not be naive and that hard choices had to be made unless he wanted the situation to deteriorate further and for more people to die. He suggested that they contact Al Rawi and make a deal with him to find out the locations of WMD caches and promise him a role in the future Govt. of Iraq.

Poundstone however tries to stymie their plans and forcibly takes possession of the booklet from Martin. He viciously hunts Al Rawi and all his aides with orders to kill and not capture. Why is he willing to kill someone who could be such a valuable source of intelligence... perhaps better than "Magellan"? Watch the movie and find out!

My Thoughts:

Acting: Well... there is so much action in the movie... that there is no real acting going on...

but there were intense scenes and Damon and Gleeson did a fine job IMO. Kinnear was okay... he made his character look like a douchebag like he was supposed to... The actors who played Al Rawi and Freddie did the best work IMO... that meeting scene was superb...

Story: Dont know how well it will be received by the American public... I liked it. Truth be told I was always skeptical of the WMD claims. Powell talking about WMDS being made in the back of trucks which would be on the move in the desert seemed to be far fetched to me. The story also didnt meander at any time. It was tight and kept you riveted to your seat the whole way through. Shame that I was able to predict the ending though my friends all cursed me for a full hour after the movie.

Overall Score: 75% Points off due to the fact that I wanted to see more of what happened in the end... but they sorta just fade out and allow us to assume what may have happened... then theres other minor stuff... plus the fact that Hurt Locker really kinda makes every other Iraq War movie look mediocre by comparison... if you read worse reviews elsewhere... its probably because some people really get offended by the conspiracy theories that this movie puts forward...