You Still Here? (Or Desires of the Heart redux)

Despite popular belief, I haven't killed this blog. Not yet, anyway. Exams got over early this month, and I've gone back to being my usual slacker self. But I didn't want to see a month missing from the archives, so here's a totally uncreative post, rehashing a list I made a year and a half back (which was called 'Desires of the Heart', and can be found here if you're interested).

It occurred to me that some of my 'desires' listed out there have been, well, satisfied. Going by the list, I wanted (in reverse, other than #9 and #10):

8. A violin. Any violin.

Well, I didn't get a violin. Didn't buy one for probably the same reason as to why Ian Anderson didn't get one in exchange for his guitar (a Fender Stratocaster, which he got from Lemmy, of Motorhead); those things don't have frets. He bought a flute instead, and I, like a wannabe rock star (which I'm not), got a guitar.

7. The best keyboard(music) ever to hit the market.

Gah, I didn't get one. I've nearly destroyed my current keyboard. Need to place it at a particular angle for it to work, and makes weird noises if multiple keys are pressed. Makes me wonder if My Bloody Valentine had a similar problem with their synthesizers.

6. A Wi-Fi enabled notebook computer for obvious reasons.

Ok, that's three consecutive things I haven't got.

5. A high resolution digital still camera, Bluetooth enabled.

Finally, something I got. Except for the Bluetooth part. I got a Cyber-shot DSC T7 (yes, that uber slim thing), with which I took most of the photos lying around this blog.

4. The best portable pocket-sized MP3 player.

I can't exactly call it the best, but it's pocket-sized, and can store 21 albums at a time. My Creative MuVo player also has FM and recording abilities, neither of which I've found myself using. Except for that one time when I recorded different people saying bad (but funny) things about other people who said bad (but funny) things about them, but that was an accident. Honest.

3. A reasonably fast broadband internet connection.

I got a reasonably fast broadband internet connection. Unlimited downloads between 9 pm and 8 am, too.

2. The best 128 MB AGP card money can buy.

Well, it used to be the best when it first came out... A GeForce 6800. Ok, so it's a GeForce 6800 LE. Big deal. It's still fabulous to the core, apart from the fact that the computer keeps crashing every now and then when playing graphic intensive games.

And, numero uno:
To get out of my college's hostel.

YIPPIE-KI-YAY! I got OUT! And I'm staying out, forever and ever and ever... Two more years of college to go, and I don't have to go from that wretched asylum.

The Beatles of Thrash Metal!

Ever wondered how it would sound if Metallica did their own versions of Beatles' songs? Ever wanted good ol' James Hetfield to sing/growl A Hard Day's Night? Well, you can experience something similar if you listen to Beatallica. They reek with awesomeness. And I hardly listen to Metal.

The Beatles would've rocked harder if they had tried Thrash Metal.

One last "Woo-hoo!" from the Human

I'm here. Wonders never seem to cease.



I'm still here. Terribly dehydrated, but still here.

I'm gonna hate May. I already hate April. It's hard not to. Hottest weather, elections and exams. The same in May. Imagine walking towards your home, under a blazing sun, sweating profusely. A group of five people, also sweating, start following you. Then you realize that they're not following you, but they're headed to the same place as you are. You wonder why. You've never seen them before. Once you reach your abode, they shove pamphlets in your hands, wet with sweat. Smells different. "Vote for Udhaya suriyan*!", they shout. You stare blankly. They say it again. You're tempted to show them the finger, but nod instead. Bullies.

* - Udhaya suriyan translates to 'Rising Sun', I think. It's what the DMK party like to call themselves, in case you didn't know. Comes from their logo.

Numb, the mind has become.

The desire to be entertained has become stronger than ever. Strong enough to prevent me from doing anything else but seek entertainment. All I've been doing for the past few week(end)s is play video games, watch movies and listen to music. Thanks to my mum.

What does my mother have to do this, you ask? Well, she returned from her trip early this month. And with her came a GeForce 6800LE AGP card, a 7-speaker home theatre system (which supports a whole lotta formats, including DivX), a Sony Ericsson W800i mobile phone, a 2.1 speaker system for the computer, and an awesome pair of headphones for my mp3 player. So every weekend I'm home, I try to make the maximum possible use of the above, except the phone and headphones. Hell, I endured a Star Wars and Godfather movie marathon yesterday and today. And enjoyed watching Baraka on the TV instead of a 15-inch monitor the week before. Borrowed games that I couldn't play before due to an old GeForce 2 video card.

When I'm away at the hostel for the rest of the week, I'm thinking about what movies I should watch when I get back home, while playing Yeti Sports on my phone and listening to songs in shuffle mode on my player. When I'm not in College, that is. There I'm trying to convince friends that Yeti Sports is bad for health and trying to get my phone back from them.

And that's why you aren't reading an entry about why it's really stupid idea to make a short film for the first time in your life in one friggin' day. Or an entry about how I lost a bag full of clothes, a phone recharge card worth Rs. 330 and my room keys. Consider yourselves lucky. And be fooled into thinking that this is a whole new design when it's just a slightly tweaked version of the previous one. MSN Astrology predicted the template change - "Today you could be in a creative frame of mind. Your artistic blah blah... Even if you are just working on your computer, you could design graphics for a web page". I didn't know MSN had associations with the NSA/CIA/FBI/Interpol.

Power Cut

Power cuts can get really long around here. The last one was longer than usual. The local electricity board told me that power was shut down for maintenance purposes in my area. Looking outside my window, I saw a few electricians servicing the transformer.



A little while later, they're still there:



They're taking an awfully long time:



And they finally get down from there, to eat:



And then they leave. But the power didn't come back. It did eventually, about an hour after those chaps left.

And College Life has been updated, after a month.

7 Songs

No, it's not a sequel/prequel to 9 songs. JJ tagged me, again. Apart from wanting this blog to be filled with such filler posts, he also wants to know the music I've been listening to, I think.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they a’re any good, but they must be songs you a’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they a’re listening to.

So, here goes:

Daft Punk - One More Time
Parlour Steps - Hero/Villian
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Mogwai - Golden Porsche
The Decemberists - The Mariner's Revenge Song
Belle and Sebastian - For the Price of a Cup of Tea
Jethro Tull - Bouree

Right, I've got to catch the college bus in a few more minutes so here's who's being tagged, quickly:

Antickpix
Hobbes
Rads
Sandeep
TSB
Nikhil
Hannah

Best. Confirmation email. Ever.

I had decided quite some time back that if I ever got enough bob into my PayPal account, the first thing I'd do with it is get myself more music. Having obtained the necessary dough recently, I spent two days looking for music worth paying for at CD Baby. I ended up buying three albums (Hey, there was a sale). The next day, I get this email from them:

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, February 13th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year". We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

The kings of sweet-talking.

For the record, this post does not have a single letter typed using a physical keyboard. My keyboard's screwed.. Every key. I'm using the On-Screen Keyboard. Yes, the one in which you click letters instead of typing them.