Crack

I am on blogger-crack. Crack is the street name for cocaine. More information here [link]. I am addicted to blogs. Reading, writing, posting, editing, templates, the whole shebang. I want to break free.

A recorded John From Cincinnati is playing on my TV right now. It is a story about these three generations of surfers: a past legend, a son of the past legend turned dope-head and the future legend who is the son of the dope-head. Till the story actually shows itself, there are beautifully captured scenes of surfers riding the waves. I wonder how it feels to do that. I cant even swim.

Anyway, surfing feels like the perfect thing to do right now. I want to get out of this blog world and do something real. I am not saying that my thoughts and ideas that I pen down are not real. They are very much the flesh and blood me. But they are words and words are only good as the person reading them. I like pictures better. A photograph changes with the light cast on it. Just like truth changes color as its narrator pleases. A photograph, unlike truth and unlike words shows what the photographer wants to show.

I am taking a sabbatical from writing only for a few weeks, maybe a month till I straighten this addiction out. I promise to be more active on my photoblog [link]. I wont miss out on reading blogs and commenting on them though.

This is Shek, Southpark Style

Thanks to Rich Legg, I got my southpark style portrait done. Get yours done here: Link

Sakshi is tagged
Neihal is tagged
TGFI is tagged (no hurries)
Vagabond is tagged
Rowe is tagged
Sven and Trini are tagged

The New Dawn

The last post was a vent out against astrology and related 'sciences' that pretend to guide our lives and show us the well trodden path. The real fact of life is that there is no well trodden path than the one you just walked on. All other paths will lead you to stumble on the very ditches that your leader stumbled on. It is just another way of amplifying other's mistakes. I'd sleep better if I made my own mistakes. At least I get to keep my spine.

I am at a point in life that I am finding a voice of mine, a view through my maturing mind and a new world through my lens. No longer am I dabbling in odd and end hobbies and for once I am sticking to one. No longer am I listening to music that other people say I should be listening to. No longer am I believing in what I should be believing in. I believe in myself and I believe in hope. That is all I need to take on the world with my bare hands.

I welcome the ever changing me with open arms. I am changing by the day and am not the same person I was a year back. Every day is a new beginning. A new birth. We are what we say and what we do. Our actions speak more about ourselves than we think.

This post is a new kind for me. I suddenly feel free. I bought my first tripod today to go with my new camera and I tested it out. It felt great. I felt like I have a real hobby this time. And I left no stone unturned to nourish this hobby. A high capacity, high speed memory card and a tripod that most will vote useless. For some reason, taking pictures with my camera and tripod made me feel more mature than the day I signed the paperwork for my new car. The new car was a toy, a mature and calcuated decision. This camera is something deeper.

Star Wars

The way I see it, I am supposed to either talk about eight weird things about me or ten facts about me or both. Eighteen? I dont think you want to read all eighteen. Sakshi tagged me here: link. I already have a clear line of what is personal and what is public. So, these will be the most useless personal pieces of information that I can share in public.

EIGHT WEIRD THINGS
1. I am very successful professionally and financially. Actually, the real words were, "will be very successful blah blah blah" but stooping below the lofty belief that people of this day have for horror-scopes, I have to accept the inevitable and change the sentences from future to present tense. All future tense sentences will be in the present tense.

2. I have a definite divorce. Yes, the verdict has been made by horror-scope makers all over the south asian continent. Shek would like to get married to a nice bengali girl but a divorce is inevitable. Hence, Shek requests permission to conduct a live in relationship till the age of 30 after which chances of a divorce are 'minimal'. I am sure the live-in relationship idea has the same fate as of one Richard Gere.

3. I am extremely moody. So, now I am a pregnant woman in her eighth month? Mr. Horror-scope maker, please decide, you want me to be a man or a woman?! And how the hell do I get hold of a zygote?

4. I get angry very easily. Maybe I should start taking those steroids after all because I ain't nearly as angry as they predict me to me. In fact, I am the most non angry person to ever walk this planet. But that will all change! Testosterone Cypionate, here I come.

5. Jupiter is my planet and I should only get married to a girl from jupiter. Hey, I thought men are from mars and women from venus? Damn it! Horror-scopes have completely shattered my faith in other similarly useless pieces of information. I want to be from planet Zargon. Can I get to chose the planet? Please Please Please. I want to marry a fellow Zargonian because the Matrimonial Laws of Zargon clearly state the following:"Law 571, Para 5B: No financial exchanges will be allowed at a divorce settlement. Corollary to Law 571, Para5C: If antiquated prediction methodologies of under-developed civilizations prove that the separating husband may have ancestral origin of Jupiter, then he receives alimony and an Aston Martin."

6. I am destined to have a surgery of the leg by the age of 30. This surgery will allow me to carry more weight, only gracefully. By the age of 35, I will receive an extra brain as a rose day present. This will be attached to my butt to make me more productive while sitting down.

7. By the age of 26 and 2 months my you-know-what-that-cant-be-named-in-public-blogs will start growing at the rate of 1 inch per year with a standard deviation of 1/125th inch per year. By the age of 45, I will be able to open the door with my you-know-what-that-cant-be-named-in-public-blogs across the room without getting up from my seat.

last but not the least,
8. I am Manglik. Hence, if I marry a non-manglik, she will die, i repeat, die, within one year (no deviation). Hence, there is a greater chance of dying getting married to Shek than there is while walking on the streets, smoking a cigarette, flying on Air India flights and eating pani puri outside Dombvili Railway Station.

But number 8 is in contradiction to number 2. How can I have a divorce if my wife is supposed to die? Maybe it has already been predicted by the holy texts that I am destined to marry a fellow Manglik (in the female gender). H.G. Wells, eat dirt. We hindus already have in factuality what you spent all this time writing a fictional book about.


TEN FACTS ABOUT ME
1. I hate yahoo messenger.
2. I dig girls with navel rings and/or lower-back tattoos.
3. I am not a dog lover. I just love Laya and Eddie.
4. I have been extremely lazy for the past few months.
5. I have inadequate financial planning.
6. I am working on my financial planning skills.
7. I love food. Not quantity but quality. I may not be the epitome of gluttony but I am up there on the list.
8. I hate it when people don't reply to emails and voice mails. If I have the decency to take up my time to record a message for you, you must show the decency of calling me back.
9. I don't care who you are but I will kick your butt from Jupiter to Planet Zargon if you insult either of my parents or my brother.
10. I will be your best friend if you let me, I will be an acquaintance or a nobody but I will not be your worst enemy. If I cant be your friend, I will not elevate you with the respect of being my worst enemy.





Just when you thought your reading for the day was over...

Crystal Blur is tagged
Rowena is tagged
Glazed Donut is tagged
iz is tagged
Vivek is tagged

Kamakaze Driver

27 May 2007
I would not be doing justice to my own first car if I don’t write about it. I already paid tribute to my dad’s 800. You all knew this would follow. Like all distant memories, this one needed a key to open up. Sven borrowed my satellite radio for the week for his trip to Vegas and I was left to the mercy of a few mp3s on my computer. This song, people, gets my heart racing for not how heavy it is but what I would do when this played. This is the key to some of the best times on a Florida freeway. 2007 VH1 Rock Honors plays on my DVR with HD picture and sound ecstasy and I am already in the mood. So, with my kick-ass shure ear buds on, I let this piece pound in my head one more time before writing…turn it up and put your seat-belts on…

1Stp Klosr.mp3

10 June 2007
I have finally decided to finish this post. A few things have changed from when I started. I cant find my Shure earbuds any more. Maybe one of the puppies got it or it is simply lost in the mess I call my bedroom and I cant remember taking it to my bedroom ever.

This is a post more about this remixed song than the drive itself. The song starts of so subtly, almost like the calm before the song. I was stopped before this red light with Arvind in my Eclipse. This song came up building up this huge potential energy that the car seemed to decipher in symphony with me. Every passing moment of the red light was just like an extending string, closing to its elastic stress point, waiting to be released. I clutched the leather clad beefy steering wheel with my left palm while my right hand tightened the leather grip on the stick shift. My left foot engaged the clutch and I ease the car into first gear. My right foot still holds the brake steadily. No inching. No looking around to see who I am up against at the thick white line of the junction.

Then the soft chorus starts off and I know the main part of the song is about to stream in full volume. My eyes see the red disappearing and the green slowly appearing. My left foot lets go the suppressed clutch and the car lurches forward. The tachometer needle responds. My right foot has already let the brake go and is pumping in octane into the six working cylinders. No tyre squeal. The feed into the hot engine is perfect and the feed onto the front axels are perfect. The low profile tires deliver exactly what is asked for. I punched in through the gears before the RPM could drop and before a few seconds are up, I am at the speed limit and others at the lights wonder if there was even a car in front. I ease the car at a comfortable gear and cruise around. That was the journey. This is my destination. No race. No triple digit speeds. Just the joy of leaving every one behind and making my own way.

Shek's Aperture

I like to write. At this very moment, there are two posts that are waiting for the right emotion to come flowing back so I can start writing again. I am no longer restricted by what I can write and what I can not. That distinction is clear.

The two unfinished posts tell me something about me. This hobby of writing has its own motivation like everything else in life. My motivation to write is to effectively put into words what my mind sees. I also get motivated when others read my posts. Not being overly competitive, I do strive for quality and recognition of my writing. Shek’s Crib is like my home. Crib being the urban word for a hang-out joint. It is where I hang-out and my cyber friends hang-out. It is where my intellect hangs out. It is a canvas of what my mind, brain and heart sees.

I am quite satisfied with portraying what my mind sees. It is time to portray what my eyes see. A nice camera is already on its way. It is time to decide what type of photography I want to concentrate on. I read a bunch of photo blogs to give me an idea of what is achievable through photography. Sceneries intimidate me. They are always so beautiful; I feel my lens may not do it justice. When it comes to beautiful sceneries, I always have dumped the camera and sat down on the ground to soak it all in. Some things are best kept in memories.

I also do not want to do crazy alterations to pictures till they completely cease to exist and a chimera of nature and digital adjustments is formed. I want to be able to see what is beautiful that we see every day and not notice. I want to take nice pictures of Eddie and Laya. I want to take pictures of people. Everyone is beautiful and I want to capture that. Not models and stars but everyday heroes. I have a ton of inspirations and the sky is the limit.

Cute As A Button

Eddie seems to have overtaken me on popularity, that too in my own blog. How is a 24 year old bong dude with an ocassional goatee supposed to compete with this!?!?!

This is one of the many pictures taken on his first day at our apartment. James brought the seven week puppy from Macon, Gerogia; a four hour trip that Eddie spent cuddled in James's sweat shirt. Eddie was the size of Laya's head or James's size 11 shoe. Eddie's small size did not deter him from bugging Laya then and he continues now with the same dedication.

Ok, Ok, all you girls, here is another picture:

And another one...

Twenty Questions Blah Blah Blah...

I am not the one to follow on other’s footsteps. I believe in making my own way. This is a first, hence only constructive criticism is allowed.

Almost forgot, Sakshi’s post: link made me do this.


1.Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it?
This is a common answer at every immigration checkpoint. I got a scar on my left wrist when Manish Naik’s steel wrist watch banged on it outside Kulkarni Sir’s maths tuitions in 8th standard. Any more details? It was drizzling that day and I had a cream coloured umbrella.

2. What is on the walls in your room?
One poster of a lazy boat tied to a sandy beach somewhere in Thailand.
One painting of a ship with sails in the high seas.
One calendar with greyhounds in it.
One small poster (7X6) talking about how racing is better than sex.

3. What does your phone look like?
Samsung slider. I’d do anything to stay out of flip phones.

4. What music do you listen to?
Hard Rock, Hindi Classical and everything in between. Sirius plays only the Hard Rock part though.

5. What is your current desktop picture?
My home laptop has this picture and my work computer has the picture of a tiger osx theme.

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
Go back in time and kick the butt from Kashmir to Kanyakumari of that ambitious Hindu suffering from lack of occupation and who thought it would be really cool to co-relate planetary positions with people’s future.

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?
I believe in marriage. Period. The human mind is too weak to not have structure.

8. What time were you born?
Why? Do you want to do my horoscope? I will kick your butt too!

9. Are your parents still together?
Twenty six years and going strong.

10. What are you listening to?
Irritating beeps of my roommate trying to adjust his X-box 360’s time, date and what not. Oh...now he is playing newly discovered alternate music that comes built in the X-box 306 hard drive.

11. What's something people may not know about you?
I see dead people. I see ghosts.

12. The last person to make you cry?
I, me and myself. Oh yes, I cried, only in my own privacy.

13. What is your favourite perfume/cologne?
Any brand jasmine fragrance on women. I have no affinity towards rose fragrances. I wont want my woman to smell like Roohafza!

14. What kind of hair/eye color do you like on the opposite sex?
Hair – black
Eye – hazel, blue

15. Do you like pain killers?
Nope. I let my body do the fighting unless after oral surgery.

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
I don’t know. Never did. Remember that I said...constructive criticism only.

17. Favourite pizza topping?
Grilled chicken on the Crispani (at Panera Bread)

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Hajmola. I just stuffed myself with a bucket load of Nameless Onion Thingies and a half rack of ribs at Sticky Fingers.

19. Who was the last person you made mad?
My roommate, when I slowed down in front of him in my car to make him slow down. It was a joke, and it worked, and it made him mad, and he overtook me on his 5.6 Liter V8 Nissan Titan like I was standing still. My readers know that I drive fast but he just had too much torque. Unfair battle I say!

20. Is anyone in love with you?
Yes. Laya and Eddie are. Unconditionally.

Turn it up!!!

I ponder over matters of great concern as I drive back from Costco, the full blast of cold air muffling the hot air gushing form the open car windows. The windows slide up, the left one automatically, the right one with the constant pull of my index finger on the supposedly flimsy GM switch. The warm air in the cabin is reduced to that radiating from the windshield. My brain is working on overdrive over a few short and long term calculations and decisions while the car paces through the oncoming traffic, merging with ease and then exiting off the next ramp. I tap the brakes gently to bring the speed down to acceptable limits that are still higher than the posted limit on the full circle curve of the exit ramp.

The next merge was a quick one. The oncoming ford escort didn't think some one would accelerate that quick at a merge. Before the escort could react, I was well ahead, well merged and tackling the car in front of me. That is when this song came up on the satellite radio, six acoustic strings playing a tune only for hardcore electric guitars to take over. I picked up the satellite radio unit sitting on the center console while my left eye focused on the traffic in front.

This is the type of song that is supposed to be turned up high. I let the four factory speakers and two tweeters take the moment over. My right thumb presses on the [+] volume button on the steering wheel while the noise in my brain is automatically switched off. I was getting no where with my worries. Time for hard rock to take over.

Stay heavy people!!!

Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home

Saturday Night Walk

Me, J and P(J's 12 yr old nephew) walk out with Laya and Eddie. Laya on the leash with me, Eddie on the leash with J.
Eddie and Laya pee on the first patch of grass they see.
Watching the pups in ecstacy as they disperse out over-due fluids makes little P want to pee too.
Laya: [peeing in complete satisfaction]
Eddie: [peeing in complete satisfaction]
P: [watching the puppies in complete satisfaction] I want to pee too!
Me: Walk on the grass, P. It works for the pups.
J: [Laughs]

we walk further....

P: [walks away behind a tree]
J: [whispering to me with evil grin] Shek, P really had to go, so I told him to go behind a bush!
Me: You've got to be shitting me! Haven't seen anyone do that in exactly three years!

we walk towards the tree....It is too dark and we see P standing behind the tree with a steady stream in front!

Me: [acting dazed and confused, reaching into my pocket for my cell phone] where is my camera phone!
J: [shouting as if in a shock] what are you doing, boy! What are you doing?!?!?!
Me: [shouting in confusion] How do I start the camera on this thing!
P: [stops half way on his activity and runs from the phone camera's limited range] J told me to. I am not doing anything [in denial]!!!
Me: [laughing my head off] almost got you on camera, P
James: [laughing his ass off]
P: [laughs his ass of on his recent folly]

we walk back home laughing all the way....

Moral: you've got to take life as a joke. If a 12 year old can, you can too.

ozzy

Sakshi wouldn't comply with my continued requests and I am tired of booing her on her comment space here and here. She says she likes Ozzy but I have my doubts. Here is some serious Ozzy for some serious Ozzy fans. Turn it up!

Black Sabbath tribute Nativity In Black - Primus with Ozzy...