XANNY BLOG

Blog-Death

2007-03-30T00:53:00.000+05:00

This blog is dead. I think I have a better (looking) one here

http://www.contra-legem.com

Bye bye, blogger. Nice knowin' ya.

Finally, a Lady with Balls!

2007-03-24T19:00:00.000+05:00

As we are 'recovering' from the recent Philip Green vs. Maldivian culture clash, the nation is gripped with yet another controversy, once again religious in nature. This time the issue in focus is an article published in Minivan Daily written by MDP deputy secretary general Aishath Aaniya titled "Are women a social plague?". Some of the issues she wrote about deals with blind faith, excessive modesty obligations, gender inequalities, unwillingness to apply logic and even misinterpretation of holy scriptures and prophetic narrations. While I greatly admire Aaniya for her braveness in the face of our country's recently found religious conservatism, I was foolishly hoping that most people would at least give some thought to what she had said in the article.

After reading the comments posted under the article, I realized that I was wrong. Only a hand full of liberal minded personages praised her for her words of wisdom and act of bravery (for publishing something so bold), contrasted by the rest of the posts which were basically rants from amateur mullahs condemning her to the pits of Hell, calling her a blasphemer and finally passing judgment over her submission to God (To quote one of the comments "I doubt if at this point, you can be called a proper Muslim"). Its amusing the way these people think they are at liberty to criticize a sacred relationship between God and man by dubbing someone a heretic over an idea he merely expressed with good intentions.

However there was one particular post from an apparent doomsayer, which I found very provocative. It relates to Muhammad's narration of encountering tortured feminine souls on his visit to Hell, which took place on the night of the ascension. He described one particular woman hung from her hair with a boiling brain (due to the hellish heat) because she had refused to wear a veil during her life-time, along with various other grisly inexplicable methods of torture (which, ironically, you can only find in religion) for transgressions with varying degrees of gravity. If a mortal does anything like this, he would be called a "vengeful psychotic sadist with an insatiable taste for the macabre" (subsequent to being burned at the stake, once again, ironically) but since this narration supposedly comes from the prophet, we are led to believe it without contemplating its validity or logic or anything for that matter. Anyone who refuses to accept this or with the intellectual capacity to refute it is hastily called a blasphemer or worse. (For this reason I shall keep quiet on the commonly accepted nature of the divine). Blind faith prevails everywhere. My honest impression is that even some negative comments on that article seem to support Aaniya's cause for writing it.

Ultimately its not going to matter what we (meaning self-proclaimed liberals) think of this woman or her bold piece of writing in which she presents her arguments well, with seemingly flawless logic, fair reasoning and reverence of Islamic principles even though she was negating some of them. Most people who called her a blasphemer ignored these qualities of her writing and focused on superimposing their misguided religious dogmas acquired over years of ignorance. She is undoubtedly going to face repercussions, and if she is too proud to recant her arguments and publish an apology, she will almost surely get sacked regardless of what MDP thinks. The party would feel compelled to do so in an attempt to sanitize the organization and to maintain public trust. (One more reason to hate politics? I think so). Even if she does apologize in the course of the next few days I really can't help myself but to admire her for this single act of courage. After all, she has balls (in the metaphorical sense) that most of us can only dream of having.

Paranoid and Ignorant

2007-03-18T14:06:00.000+05:00

The notoriously flamboyant Philip Green brought a lot of controversy to our little island nation over the course of the past few days. I was having a discussion with my friend "The Slimy Bastard" whom I have mentioned several times on this blog, and since the discussion got a bit interesting, I thought I'd post it here. Of course, what we 'think' may drastically differ from the norm, for obvious reasons, but hey... freedom of expression right? (Note: conversation heavily edited for profanity, clarity and punctuation; also names have been altered to preserve a much desired sense of anonymity)

F1X says:
Did you read about the English billionaire nut controversy?

The Slimy Bastard says:
Hehe yeah.

F1X says:
The articles read something to the effect of "Maldivian staff posted at the resorts were traumatized after witnessing drunken topless people"

F1X says:
Sheesh… overly dramatic huh?

The Slimy Bastard says:
I enjoyed the comments in the Haveeru article.

F1X says:
There are good ones? Not just the usual paranoid religious rant?

The Slimy Bastard says:
There aren’t any good comments there, that’s why I enjoyed ‘em...

The Slimy Bastard says:
…and the article itself is pathetic!

F1X says:
Seriously man, how well researched are these people? The statue was of Lord Buddha... and Buddhism doesn't even consider itself to be a religion, it’s a philosophy, a way of life. There isn't any worship involved but still these idiots behave as if by unwittingly allowing this, we have committed to apostasy.

F1X says:
See the first line here.

F1X says:
You don't have to dwell deeper into it. The first introductory paragraph sums it all up.

The Slimy Bastard says:
I know Buddhism isn’t a religion per se. Our 'reporters' aren’t aware of it and our public sleeps during day and night.

The Slimy Bastard says:
Lord Buddha himself said not to worship him.

F1X says:
Dude, I think you should comment with that on Haveeru. My Divehi sucks, so you go for it.

The Slimy Bastard says:
It’s useless to comment there.

F1X says:
He said not to worship him, and they don't. They adorn their temples with images and statues of Buddha as a sign of reverence.

F1X says:
Not an icon of worship.

The Slimy Bastard says:
Now you know why I had this footnote in my last post?

The Slimy Bastard says:
Religiously sensitive people with clouded judgments will take offense from it without even contemplating my reference, ultimately proceeding to dub me a blasphemer.

F1X says:
Hehe. Yeah. I guess you were being cautious. Didn’t want some ignorant buffoon to call you a 'fucking infidel' over a concept you merely explored.

F1X says:
The problem with the religious types is that they take everything too damn personal. if guy A practices 'shit worship' and guy B practices the true religion, its no business of guy B. Won't God (Allah, Domo, Gott, Dieu or whatever) deal with infidels and hypocrites on the day of reckoning? So why should we interfere?

The Slimy Bastard says:
Our hesitation to be a little 'liberal' is the reason why we don’t have HD and why our condition of life remains the same.

F1X says:
Main hindrance to progress, development and ultimately civilization eh?

Hi-Def Dreamin'

2007-03-07T12:12:00.000+05:00

One of my latest obsessions is High Definition Television. Living in Shitsville, Nowhere means I am going to have to wait at least another 100 years before we get it on our airwaves so the only alternative was to follow the incredible technology on the internet. Thanks to Apple and friends with bandwidths wider than the Suez canal doing that is now a possibility.

If you have a very good computer (for reference purposes I'll list my specs, which barely meets the standards - 1.83 Duo Core 2 Processor, 256 MB graphics and 1 GB DDR2 RAM) plus a decent internet connection, I strongly recommend seeing these trailers in all its 1080P (thats 1080 vertical lines of resolution with progressive scanning, the benchmark of quality HD) glory. Streaming them from Apple is a pain (near impossible for anyone short of a T1 connection) so I've linked URL's from where you can right-click and hit download.

300 - A

guarenteed epic in the making directed by Zack Snyder and inspired by the graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller (the same genius who inked the Sin City novels). I've been waiting ages for this and its going to finally hit Theatres in Asia tomorrow (9th in the US)The thumbnail image is a full resolution JPEG capture of the trailer. (Download 2:30 161 MB)

The Simpsons Movie - Enough said, see Homer in Hi-def (Download 2:17 182 MB)

Ratatouille - Latest Disney/Pixar endevour. Looks very promising. (Download 1:48 129 MB)

And some neat videos from Japan - BBC Mo

tion Gallery (Download 4:00 309 MB)

The televisions displayed at Reefside (and other consumer electronic outputs here) may be Hi-Def in nature but don't be deceived. The videos are not. They are from normal DVDs upconverted to display on large screen TVs. If you've never experienced HDTV, take one of these videos to a set with resolution 1920 x 1080, connect through the VGA port of a laptop and play. Or get a Blu-ray player or a PlayStation 3. I am going for the latter. To conclude this HD dreamin'/droolin' episode, feast your eyes on the new 70-inch BRAVIA LCD TV from Sony. Price tag? Try $32,000.00!

A Hero's Tale

2007-02-23T17:26:00.001+05:00

The day was greeted by a bright and cheery dawn, but our hero would know nothing about it. He had spent the better half of the previous night making elaborate schemes and last minute preparations for what is to happen later the next evening. Well, that and Linux.

Our hero woke up at half past 2 in the afternoon and without even considering breakfast went out to purchase the tool of his trade. A rubbery marvel that has saved the necks of many a lovers, dating back to the prehistoric times when it was not so rubbery, we can only imagine. Like a scavenger our hero pops his head in into every pharmacy, trying to find the least likely face who will judge him for what he intends to purchase. After getting what he wanted, our hero proceeded with the next phase of the plan. Pick up the young lady and go for a walk, with a hidden motive of stopping over at his friend's apartment.

Our hero was never punctual. He was even born 2 months "postmature", if such a word exists in the medical lexicon. Anyway, the friend, whose appartment our hero was supposed to occupy for the planned romantic evening, was getting bored waiting for him so he had just relaxed in front of the TV when our hero knocked on the door with his lady by his side. They were both escorted in and seated next to each other on the friend's luxurious sofa but there was a problem. Our hero's friend was showing no signs of leaving the lovebirds, making it difficult for our hero to initiate the planned ritualistic act of love-err..making. After a while of nervously fidgeting with this fingers, our hero was finally able to text message his friend "WTF Man?!? Get out,I cant make a move with u in the room". Reading this, the friend groaned a bit then stood up and promptly left the apartment. Our hero was still too nervous to make the crucial first move so continued watching the bleak program running on TV while going through what he had to say to her, on his mind that is, over and over again. After what seemed like an eternity, our hero moved closer to his lady and started 'necking' while still unable to muster enough courage to ask her into the bedroom. This continued for a little while when they 'rudely' interrupted by the friend, who had returned thinking that the action must've moved into the bedroom by now. As our hero and his lady were frantically trying to compose themselves, the nervous friend blurted out "Err.. why don't you guys go to the room??" Understandably, the lady was quite unnerved by this accidental and embarrassing interruption so was by now protesting to go home. Meanwhile, behind her back our hero was having a private conversation with his friend:
"I thought you guys would've moved back into the room by now. I am so sorry"
"Shh... quite down, ya nut. She might here us"
I am guessing she probably did, but she didn't show it... thankfully. So the lady was eventually returned home and our hero showed up at my doorstep and related all this to me. He suggested buying flowers to make up for a nightmare of a date so I escorted him to the florist.

"Six of those lovely roses, please" and after the florist turned her back to get them "How much are they?"
"Thirty Rufiyaa per rose. Would you like them ribbon-ed up?"
"Err... on second thought, make it just three"

So the morality of this story? Spend less time on your Linux programming efforts and more time discussing things with your lady. Also, try to ask for the price of things before ordering them up. ;)

National Bureau of pseudo-Classifications

2007-02-16T18:01:00.000+05:00

I am against ~~all~~ most forms of censorship. Especially the kind that relate to the arts, whose many forms I happen to love. I am confident that most people will agree with me (to an extent) that censorship hinders the creative process of artists to produce art and erm... kitsch alike. However, not to be ignorant, I acknowledge a society's need for censorship which is to protect those people who either can be harmed or simply do not want to be exposed to certain offensive material which art can produce from time to time. So an ideal alternative to censorship would be classification so that artists can give a heads-up to those who prefer to stay away from art that is to their distaste.

The Maldives had always opted for censorship which annoyed me after a little incident in 2005. A friend and I wanted to check out his newly acquired credit card so we ordered two films from Amazon.com. In hindsight it was a pretty stupid thing to do, but nevertheless we received a notification letter from the Post Office exactly 3 weeks later. We went there to be informed that our films would be handed over the Film Censor Board for examination. Feeling helpless we consented and eagerly waited for our call from the Board. About 2 weeks later we received the call and were informed that one of the movies we submitted was to quote "banned from entrance into and exhibition in the Maldives" citing objectionable content while the other film barely escaped with an 18+ certification. We argued that the banned movie had nothing offensive to the current local culture and also pointed out the fact that the same title was even playing on Cable TV that week. The harder we argued, the more apparent it became... it was impossible to ask for an appeal so we just shipped the movie to a Singaporean friend who later sneaked back with it (awesome system eh?) At this point you might be wondering had I, in my infinite ignorance, imported softcore pornography. No, the titles were:

Aladdin (Disney Platinum Edition) and (Rated G for general in 2006)
Mummy / Mummy Returns (Collector's Edition) (Rated 18+ and 15+ respectively in 2006)

For this reason I was pleasantly surprised when I heard (in early 2006) that the Board had revised its criteria for evaluation and now opts for classification instead of censorship. They now called themselves the National Bureau of Classification to reflect that change. I decided that I would call them up and inquire about the newer supposedly laxed standards that the organization had just adopted only to find out (through a series of telephone discussions with an executive) that in practice, they were still exercising censorship. Their drastic makeover only consisted of copying movies into hard disks, editing and ultimately burning it into amateurish optical disks because they were unable to tape over the offending material like they did with the VHS tape. As I mentioned before, they have laxed their "Ban" criteria; titles with depictions of kissing (not intimate) and sex (no female frontal nudity) are no longer exported out as if it were pornography. This I suppose is an improvement but still is neither good enough nor does it comply with the standards they initialled boasted.

There are additional problems I find with this organization. One is that the NBC is unwittingly resorting to piracy with their current method of censorship. I did bring this issue up with the executive I mentioned earlier but he was sure that they were not violating any international copyright laws citing the British Board of Film Classifications' similar methodology. I had to remind him that, unlike Britain, Maldives does not have distributors of film-related intellectual property (who, in this case, would have the legal rights to modify the product to fit local customs and tastes). In the end he just blamed their incompetence on the lack of a proper regulatory framework and asked me to provide sample policies which they can possibly adopt in the future. (WTF?)

My other problem is that their "film classification" guideline seems to be extremely biased towards nudity by completely disregarding both context and subtlety of usage. Scenes depicting nudity even outside of sexual situations are excised without any consideration to the plot or any other aspect of the film. They do this, claiming to maintain their rationale of protecting families and children, while remaining completely oblivious to the adverse effects of exposure to violence. They have rated nearly 3,000 films till date and its highly unlikely that you will find a single movie or scene either banned or excised due to graphic violence from their extensive database which even maintains lists of excised scenes with time frames. Here are my case studies:

Sin City (2 scenes removed depicting nudity and sexuality, violence is acknowledged but left out. This movie has excessive violent depictions even compared to Western features).
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Once again acknowledged but left out. Contains excessive violence including blood/gore although presented in a comical fashion).
Crash (Banned due to extreme graphic depictions of sex while violence is acknowledged though not attributed to their rating decision. This 1994 David Cronenberg film contains a fictional fetish where the characters are turned on by - automobile violence).

This hypocrisy does not end here. It extends to their stance on depictions of religious figures in film media. Movies such as Ben-Hur, Passion of the Christ and the Ten Commandments are all banned due to portrayal of Jesus and Moses while Bruce Almighty is left without a single cut even though it depicts Morgan Freeman as God Himself. It is important to note that countries like Malaysia initially banned the movie then allowed it to run heavily edited. (Not that I am supporting Malaysian censor policies).

Great work cutting out every butt and booby under the guise of "classification", guys. After all, its established scientific fact that nudity and sexuality are much more detrimental to a child's mental well-being rather than a scene of decapitation or disembowelment which will leave them dreaming about butterflies and bumblebees. While you are at it, may I suggest you change the last initial in your organization's name back to "Censorship" so that people like me will shut up once and for all.

A public-dignitary conflict

2007-02-11T22:34:00.000+05:00

I am sick and tired of these damn foreign dignitary visits. Not because I am xenophobic (au contraire, I actually love foreigners -- especially hot chick foreigners) but merely because their arrival interfers with my life by causing all this traffic chaos. Its as if we should either stay indoors (imprisoning ourselves?) or vacate the city during the lenght of their visits to avoid constant traffic jams and detours. This gives me an idea... the government should just publish a mass (temporary) eviction order so these foreign jerks can enjoy an even enhanced sense of security (I think they get off on those kind of feelings). Here is an excerpt from a fictional press conference I just thought up of:

Presidential Spokesman: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. We are having this conference to announce what is called a "mass eviction" order to the citizens of the greater Malé area effective from 20th June 2007 till 23rd June 2007. This is to "commemorate" the King of Shitland, His Royal Majesty Ass Clown the 3rd's visit to our humble capital. I see a lot of you have questions at this point therefore I'll grant you 3 or 4. Yes, you... in the distant corner in the red shirt with a low neckline.
Journalist1: [Clearly distraught] Err.. you can't do this. This is ludicrous, I am not a lawyer but I am sure we can find at least one constitutional provision asserting our right to live here without let or hindrance from the government.
Presidential Spokesman: [Clears throat] I don't think so... You guys are constitutionally allowed freedom of speech but do we see that happening? Get my drift?
Journalist2: Just one question from here... are you out of you fucking mind?
Presidential Spokesman: [Calmly] Nope. I retain at least 30% of my brain functionality and I have been working for the Presidential Office for 3 years now. Thats quite an achievement you know. Which reminds me... you "constitution freaks" will love this. The earlier mentioned eviction thingy was issued under a special Presidential Decree which is entrusted in the President of the Republic of Maldives under Article 4 subsection D, so I strongly suggest you, meaning the beloved citizens, to pack your bags and vamoose.
Journalist3: [Filled with rage] But where the hell are we all supposed to go?
Presidential Spokesman: Pfft.. we maybe heartless bastards in making you leave your homes and business but c'mon, give us some credit. We are not a bunch of half-assed dimwits who only execute part of our jobs. We've set up lovely tent-based accommodations in the outer islands with all the third-world amenities you can ever dream of.
Journalist3: [Unconvinced] You mean refugee camps?
Presidential Spokesman: For the love of God!! Why didn't you call it a concentration camp? Anyway, this issue is not open to debate. I just cited a frakkin' Presidential Decree here. Now about the consequences of civil disobedience... if any of you wise guys, think you can outsmart or out-brawn the security forces by setting up protests and whatnot, I am obligated to remind you that the State will not hesitate on using pepper spray, tasers, canine flees and rabid cops to bring you under control. Furthermore we will proceed to prosecute any would-be offenders to the furthest extent of the Law, and by that we mean charge you with sedition and err... maybe even throw in terrorism while we are at it. We can tolerate a shitload of corruption and civil service ineptitude here but we are not going to tolerate anarchy [shudders]. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go ... just received an SMS from the big guy saying I got promoted to Foreign Minister. This press conference is so over.

On a more serious note, its unquestionable that they (dignitaries) need to visit and since the capital island is so damn small, can't anything be done to reduce the public-dignitary conflict which is pissing us all off?

Sad State of Affairs

2007-02-06T11:37:00.000+05:00

I just came across this State of Environment Report 2001 (published by the then Ministry of Home Affairs, Housing and Environment) and read about aquifer contamination in both the islands and in Malé (p. 37-38, Paragraph 5). I was already familiar with the situation in the islands though most of them now has at least some sort primitive septic tank, but there are a lot of ways groundwater can get contaminated other than sewage. A hydrologist recently tested the water collected from one island household ground well and observed a thin film of oily substance resting on top of the water level. Tests conducted on this oil revealed its origin to be human. Not feces in this particular case, but the household from which the sample was obtained was right next to a cemetery. I'll leave you to guess what the oil was.

People in Malé, the grand capital of our nation, may not be drinking their own diluted feces and ... and their (for the lack of a better description) forefathers' liquefied remains (cemetery leachate?), but according to the aforementioned report our sewage system isn't exactly safe either. To quote:

"...there are critical design and long-term maintenance concerns that has contributed to rapid fecal contamination of Malé groundwater aquifer"

Under no circumstances am I trying to compare our misfortune with the plight of our fellow Maldivians in the islands. (We are just bathing and washing in it). I just wanted to convey the ironic disparity which exists in our nation even when it comes down to levels of contamination suffered by the populace.

Now assuming that all I said above is universal information, I am simply baffled because I have not, till date, heard a of a single public outcry demanding access to cleaner drinking water. Heck, if I had to drink and bathe in my own filth, I'd do a little more than make demands. So the big question is... why is nobody doing anything? Or am I just ignorant? (Note: The water tanks granted to many islands post-tsunami are not exactly safe either. I have seen reports claiming that the water collected is often contaminated by both feline and rodent excrement which has caused outbreaks of certain types of diseases, of which one is totally new. Check with DPH if you find it hard to believe me).

Its not just our water that is unsafe for consumption, but our air isn't exactly breathable either. Current waste disposal efforts in the central region of the country involves open burning (for compaction purposes; the government is too stingy to install a proper incinerator it seems) which releases "giant plumes of smoke" into the atmosphere. Apart from that, waste is disposed off in an unsanitary landfill site at Thilafushi island, which paves way for an immeasurable amount of leachate being released into the surrounding lagoon. Now unlike the previously mentioned water contamination issue, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Water has been quite vocal on expressing their disapproval with all this. Which led me to do a bit of research into our legislature, in all its obsolete glory, to find out exactly who is responsible for protecting us from the elements. Article 3 of Environmental Protection Act (No: 4/93) reads:

"Formulating all policies for the environmental protection, preservation, making regulations and enforcement of these regulations, except those that have been delegated to another governmental authority by Law, shall be carried out by the Ministry of Planning and Environment."

Since our government keeps periodically shuffling its executive offices just like it does with its executive employees, I thought I'd point out the obvious here. Ministry of Planning and Environment is today's Ministry of Environment, Energy and Water who has somehow interpreted (and subsequently reduced) their obligation in this Act to provide vague commentaries and criticisms on all environmental violations. (I know the article mentions "except those that have been delegated to another governmental authority by Law" but the problem here is that no other authority has been entrusted by that non-existent law). Convenient huh?

Gift or curse? You decide

2007-01-09T08:17:00.000+05:00

Since I am somewhat of an early bird I tend to watch a little TV before I begin my day and this morning I had just parked myself in front of the tube with a glass of warm milk when I landed on the local propaganda machine (actually the only machine with the license to pollute our airwaves). The airing program was showing nature videos and the narration goes "The Earth with its vastness was created for only us, Humans. Its constituent rivers, ponds and oceans were created to quench our thirst. The firmness of the ground is just for us to trod on...". The program had the conspicuous undertones of TVM's famed religious documentaries so I decided to linger on for a while to catch the Koranic or Prophetic quote justifying this stupendous claim. Guess what? There were none! I am guessing that someone just woke up and realized all that for the benefit of us all.

Humans undoubtedly have the most power as it is well within their limits to either destroy their planet or to restore it to its former paradisaical glory. Our actions does have a higher impact than any other creature's but this doesn't mean we are the most important. It seems the higher a species is on the food chain, the less important it is for the survival of that chain. Scientists agree that we have virtually left the food chain and would not create a missing link if we are to go extinct for any reason. In other words, we are expendable in nature. Remove all humans (yes, all 6.5 billion of them) from the face of the Earth today and its biosphere will continue thriving with diversity and abundance. On the other hand, remove all the insects or the trees and life itself will come to a screeching halt. They deserve to gloat, if only they were capable of doing so.

I am disappointed to know that despite having all that power ot make a difference, the only thing we seem to do (without hindrance) is parade around thinking about our extremely confined self-centric universe, completely oblivious to our minisculity in a grand cosmic scale. As if it is not enough that we plunder the Earth and wipe out whole species in the process. There is genuine concern for our planet though (Kyoto protocol? Nope, thats just a joke by the industrialized nations) and I feel obliged to thank them all for their efforts.

Oh, and I just realized this. If we are God's gift to anything (the belief at least in the part of the word that I reside in) it would definately have to be arrogance and ignorance.

“The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

- Ted Perry (attributed to Chief Seattle c. 1786)

Evil Manifest

2007-01-05T17:35:00.000+05:00

I was quite young when I was first introduced to the Islamic concept of the Antichrist (Arabic الدّجّال for the Deceiver/Impostor) and until last night I knew relatively nothing about him except that I was to flee when and if I ever caught sight of him. In order to know more I watched a video of a speech given by Canadian Islamic scholar Dr. Bilal Philips on the subject of the Antichrist.

Philips began his speech first by comparing the different versions of the Antichrist. He found the reference in the Christian scrolls to be to be vague and obscure. He continued to dig deeper into history by examining the Jewish scrolls (namely the Book of Daniel) and ridiculed the description found therein. Finally, he moved on to the Islamic concept after an initial bout of praise for the complexity in the narrations by the Prophet’s companions.

According to Philips, the Antichrist is a sun-tanned Caucasian male, with a muscular physique, stooped back, curly hair, green eyes (of which one is blind), protruding forehead and a most prominent feature, the Arabic letters ف , ك and ر which would be deciphered by all devout Moslems, regardless of their literacy, as the mark of the Disbeliever.

Then Philips began describing his earthly manifestation prior to the Day of Resurrection. Three years before the Antichrist is set to appear, God shall command the skies to withhold a third of its rain and the Earth a third of its produce. The second year two-thirds and everything on the third year. Then only would the Antichrist appear before man, bearing powers only a god could possess. He shall carry mountains of bread and meat, along with rivers from both Heaven and Hell, he shall be able to raise the dead, cure the sick and fling those who oppose him into the pits of Hell for all to see. (These contesters enter the real Heaven as Martyrs). Most important of all, he shall claim to be God. This ultimate trial of faith will save the faithful who reject him and bring out the infidels and the hypocrites who align with him. The latter will suffer eternal damnation.

I listened intently but all the while I was disturbed by an irritable conflict with the circumstances with which the Antichrist appears. Philips mentioned that he will be preceded by the Mahdi who will wage a global war against the infidels (a sort of crusade). Based on the narrations, I assume that after this war humanity’s stance on Earth would already be weakened. Then comes the drought and the famine brought about by Divine Intervention. We can all imagine what kind of a scenario this would create… think poverty struck regions of Africa, only a million times worse than that if agriculture is eradicated altogether. After taking this into consideration, how could any man (or woman for that matter) refuse the salvation offered by the Antichrist? How could anyone who is on the fringe of death refuse a morsel of food, even if it comes from this unholy impersonator, aided in his deception of mankind by God Himself? If a man were to be responsible for such acts of deception, would he not be deemed unfathomably cruel? Nobel winning physicist Steven Weinberg once said in an interview by a BBC documentary “The Atheism Tapes” by Jonathan Miller:

“Maybe at the very bottom of it... I really don't like God. You know, it's silly to say I don't like God because I don't believe in God, but in the same sense that I don't like Iago, or the Reverend Slope or any of the other villains of literature, the god of traditional Judaism and Christianity and Islam seems to me a terrible character. He's [a God] who obsessed the degree to which people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don't worship him in the right way. Now I realise that many people don't believe in that any more who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians, but that is the traditional God and he's a terrible character. I don't like him”

Sadly, I must agree with Weinberg. His observations are accurate albeit exaggerated. However, I REFUSE to believe that those traits are inherent to God’s true nature. They are in stark contrast to the Divine Characters that I do believe in... that God is The Most Beneficent, The Peace and Blessing, The Merciful, The Ever Providing, The Loving and The Truth and The Compassionate. After a lot of contemplation I reached only one conclusion. We have distorted our collective perception of God to further our own trifle agendas.

May God forgive us all for the atrocities we have committed and continue to commit in His Name.

The Fact of Evolution

2006-12-22T15:30:00.000+05:00

I had just woken up from my early mid-evening beauty sleep and since I didn't have anything better to do but to watch the 5 episodes of Dexter I had downloaded all throughout last week, I thought I would engage dad (the only unsuspecting victim in the nearby proximity) in a little father-son debate. The subject being Evolution, I asked him what he thought it is. Just turning 50, Dad never studied the kind of science kids today are subjected to and I was pleasantly surprised to hear him reply "some kind of change brought about by nature?".

I explained to him that Evolution is the process by which organisms (every living thing) changes, for the better or worse, in an attempt to cope with its changing Environment. I took him to the Savannahs of Africa, where a lioness (This species have a strange social hierarchy. The more agile females does most of the hunting while the alpha male defends the pride's territories. A task coupled with his brute strength, for which he demands the Lion's Share) uses her fur color of orange to blend in with the surrounding grass (camouflage). I asked him what would happen if the lions' environment changed to a different color and he promptly replied that the lion's much more agile prey, the gazelle or the antelope would take off before she got close enough to pounce or pursue it. As a result, the lions would go hungry and eventually fade away from the face of the Earth (Extinction). But this doesn't happen, not always. Something triggers a series of changes in the species which allows them to cope with their surrounding changes, to adapt. In a fictional ecology, the lion's coat simply changes color, once again affording the mighty beast of its stealth, on which it is entirely dependant on for the very sake of survival. Dad contemplated all this for a while, and agreed that its a very likely possibility. I further explained to him that the adaptive measures the species took were built-in by nature and that they didn't necessarily have to be good or progressive. Then I explained the reason why I personally supported the theory. Morphological evidence (fossil records of creatures detailing descent from the Cambrian period more than 500-million years ago) and molecular evidence (DNA comparisons of organic life showing similarity). I also explained that most eukaryotic organisms take hundreds of thousands of years to develop a single feature, while simpler creatures such as viruses evolve rapidly, as shown by HIVs resistance to medication. (The reason why we haven't found a cure).

Evolution explains that all life on earth descended from a common ancestral being (common descent) and this is where the theory's non-conformity with religious ideologies begin. They are chiefly two sources of controversy. Some people think that Evolution limit the actions of an omnipotent God on His creation. Professor Frink when asked about his professional views on the matter, responds:

"Of course not [agreeing that God exists]. It just says that God is an impotent nothing from nowhere with less power than the Under Secretary of Agriculture, who has very little power in our system".

Dad was quick to point this out too. I told him that I did not believe that the lack of a divine intervention on each and everything that He created suggests that either He is non-existent or having power less than the under secretary Frink mentioned. Why does people find it so hard to believe God is unable, even with his omnipotence, to create a cosmos that is self-sustaining? Create life that can change with its surrounding environment? I told dad that is one of the most important reasons why I believe in His existence. The second reason why creationists dispel evolution is where it places us humans, as animals, sharing common ancestry with all other animals. Dad contested this for a while, but I told him that he was just speaking out of his human pride instilled by religion. Just because we walk upright and build weapons of mass destruction does not mean we are God's gift to the cosmos, and nor does it mean our creation is anything special. We have evolved too, probably from a less intelligent creature, and we have vestigial remains to prove it; the vermiform appendix and wisdom teeth to name some. To put it in the words of Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould:

"Evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

Still undefeated dad quoted the Koran (sorry, I like this anglicization better than the apostrophe-ridden conventional spelling) attesting God's creation of Adam from dust. I simply suggested that scholars may have misinterpreted the verse (Quite possible the way I see it, after all the book was written by the Almighty Himself. We can't expect it to be anything shallow). All life on earth has been characterised as carbon-lifeforms, which suggests that not just humans, but all life on earth was created using Carbon (a major constituent of soil, which makes up dust). Well, needless to say, dad swallowed this up and now believes Evolution is valid, that is until something else comes along and disproves it.

Note: I just read that evolution does not necessarily have to be progressive. Natural selection may favour less complex features if this adaptation increases the chance of survival; devolution.

Holy Human Misery

2006-12-21T09:08:00.000+05:00

For as long as I remember, I have harboured an inexplicably deep resentment towards organized religion. My dislike was not as strong as it is now, not in the beginning. I use to pray five times a day and read from the good book at least once every week (I don't do neither of that now, not because I think they are meaningless occupation of one's valuable time, but because I am just too lazy to worry about the hellfire which is to greet me in the afterlife, as I am told by the likes of my grandmother). I suppose back then, I just found too restrictive, dictating the simple joys of life such as indulgence in music (a brother of a friend, who is a bearded mullah, denounces all form of art, including film and music. The freak won't even allow his infant to be photographed or play with soft toys or kids or even go to preschool! My friend reports that he also ripped some Britney Spears' posters off his wall - for which I am secretly thankful).

Anyway, a few months ago a friend of mine, whom I've previously described as a slimy bastard, gave me a documentary called "The Root of All Evil?", a Channel 4 (England) documentary by Richard Dawkins. I found the two part episode simply enlightening. Not because it strongly vilified organized religion, but because it illustrated, in great detail, the flaws that religion has picked up over the millennia of human history.

Now I don't support abolishing religion like some of you would, I am sure. But I want it to function the way it was originally intended by the Creator. Ever heard this lyrics?
"You gave me life
Now show me how to live" - Audioslave
That's the original intention. As a divine guidance, probably because we humans are too damn stupid to function as proper beings alone, and eventually fall into despair because our thoughts are always somehow mingled with our inevitable mortality. (According to anthropologists, this is how primitive pagan religions surfaced - out of our collective paranoia). Needless to say, religion, like their accompanying holy scriptures, has fallen into the intended dirty hands of Man, who has crafted it to benefit his own needs over time. Dominance, through any means possible; politics, wealth and even warfare. No price is too great to extend our own dominion, to inflict our faith even on those who reject it. Welcome to Organized religion.

The following animation from MapsofWar.com depicts the rise and expansion of all modern faiths. After viewing it, I realized that the ancient world remained in relative tranquility, even with a handful of different faiths. (Most are obviously not shown here). Only in the last two millennia did religious conflicts arise, which I imagine must have lead to a lot of human suffering. Human Suffering. Just two words to most of us. Its hard to grasp a full understanding of this concept unless you are starving for three days because of some religious war or just had both your parents beheaded right in front of you by a heartless crusader. If you do understand it, you would share my contempt too. All in the name of God, right?

Divine Rump

2006-12-20T16:59:00.000+05:00

Its human nature to venerate a divine entity (a divinity) one way or another. This has probably been true for every civilization that graced the Earth. I come from a predominantly Moslem country and I've noticed that most of us venerate God (the One God) to impossible limits. Questions about His nature, will or even existence are generally frowned upon and if you are not careful, you might even wind up being either persecuted or labelled an apostate/heretic (the penalty for the latter is death according to the scripture, I am told). I am sure a lot of people suppress questions pertaining to Him, as blind faith seems to be our answer to every religious affair we ever bothered to deal with.

By writing about such matters I don't beg to differ, but I don't believe that certain questions (sensitive and controversial they may be) should be conveniently swept under the rug. I am told we cannot contemplate certain things that I've discussed or questioned about, but this is a ridiculous notion. Brian Greene (in his PBS TV Show The Elegant Universe) demonstrates the futility of explaining Theoretical Physics to a dog. The dog didn't understand a single character he was writing on the chalkboard, simply because its primitive brain didn't know what the character resembled, which is probably because it was incapable of understanding the related symbology. We are different, not only do we understand quantum and theoretical physics, but we CAN also understand a lot about God. Things we cannot understand, shouldn't, as I believe, even cross our minds just like that dog doesn't wonder about the existence of the Lambda or the Delta. In case the dog does in deed wonder about those things, err... I'll stop asking questions as soon as anyone proves it.

Well, now that we have that behind us, I can finally get to the real reason behind posting today. We were taught in some ancient grade school (religion) class that God, in His infinite impeccability, does not have any embodiment (or character) that reminisces with anything in creation. We were also told that defining him with such mortal characteristics is a grave sin. Now I haven't asked a scholar on the validity of such claims but I am pretty sure that this is the universal islamic belief, since we aren't allowed to graphically depicts Him (squiggly lines of His name is OK though - see Arabic Calligraphy). Now I don't believe religious stuff that contradicts the other stuff (unlike poor Ned) so I am out to prove that God indeed does have a body, one that is akin to a quadruped (not limiting it to just humans) and my assumptions are based on religious dogmas (not subjecting their veracity) that I have been taught over the years.

On the day of Judgment, humanity in its entirey would be assembled on the judgment grounds and while they are awaiting their verdict (eternal bliss or damnation) they are subjected to the immense heat of a sun which is placed strategically over their heads, barely making contact. (Note that the surface temperature of our sun, Sol, is around 6,000 °C, and it isn't even a gass giant, so God would have to modify our skin to resist melting away -- in hindsight, kinda meaningless huh?). Those who were pious throughout their lives would be assembled closer to the divine throne, which would shade them from the blistering sun just a few inches away from the exposed heads(?). Now the contradictions inherent to this prediction of ultimate human fate aside, we are told that God has a throne. If He has to have a throne, its natural that we assume He sits on it. By doing that, we also have to assume He has a posterior. To further add more detail to this, the prophet Muhammad accounts sitting right next to God during his ascension into Heaven while he was still alive. So there it is, God does in deed have features similar to that of creation, only in its most immaculate form. (I can dig that). That is unless we take the Omnipotent Paradox into account; that He can do things which limits his own omnipotence (the ability to do anything).

Now let me make it perfectly clear... I don't have anything against the Almighty, and my most fundemental belief is that He exists, and he retains ultimate power (omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience) over existence and beyond. I just have a lot of qualms with religion (though I believe its the only one that is anywhere near the real deal) and these silly arguments arise from my deepest desire to resolve them. :)

(Graphic depiction is that of the Christian God. They are all different from one another right? Right?!)

Surreal Mortality

2006-12-18T10:48:00.000+05:00

Some of my most horrific experiences were from my ~~childhood~~ nightmares. Just last night I dreamt that I was in my very own sitting room around 11:30 (the time when I usually go to sleep during weekdays). I sensed something wrong and promptly got up to lock the door and to go upstairs (in this case, my safe haven). I had just turned after locking it when I felt a breeze and was horrified to know that the door had mysteriously flung itself back open. Unlike what a rational person would do in such situations, I went back to get the door when I suddenly felt what I call "virtual death". Its kind of hard to explain but my best attempt would be "an implosion of all thought and consciousness" followed by a blackout which makes me feel like I am fading away into oblivion. (Think real death would be a bit like that huh?) Then I woke up. Obviously, this is not the first time I felt such a thing. Lately, dreaming has taken a weird turn for me. When I was younger, it was quite bleak and monotonous with nothing interesting and the occasional nightmares involving my little brother's head turning into a pumpkin, subsequently exploding in my face (I actually dreamt that once).

A few months ago, I had even felt what the experts call "lucid dreaming". Its a kind of dream in which you are aware that you are sleeping and I experienced it several times. I contemplated the absurdity of what was happening and just realized that I must be dreaming, waking up to find myself doing just that. Death has become a prominent occurrence as well. One night I dreamt that huge waves were travelling ominously towards an unknown destinations, then suddenly waking up. The next thing I knew was a huge wave crashing onto me from nowhere followed by err... the surreal death I've been talking about earlier. Then I wake up again to find myself abed, this time in the real world, where I am furiously typing away to craft this blog. For this reason, sometimes when I wake up (into the real world) in a state of denial, wondering if what I was feeling is real for a little while. Of course, I come to my senses soon after, since real life has a heck of a lot more detail than slumberland and you can manipulate your thoughts in anyway you deem fit. (Try telling that to yourself immediately after you wake up though, the grogginess just won't let you think rationally for a few seconds at the least). And the worst part of having these particularly dreadful episodes is, me being the wimp that I am, feeling hesitant to get out of bed for a while, even after regaining full consciousness. Hehe. Lame huh? Yeah, I keep telling myself that.

I have always been fascinated about the origins of dreaming. I read somewhere (quite a while ago) that dreams are the product of the subconscious accessing our endless archives of audio, visual and haptic data (in a recent article I read, this data is not fact, merely experiences stored as electrical impulses) subsequently pushing some of them into our conscious mind, which is resting during this stage. The poor conscious mind tries to compile this influx of data into something sensible and voila, dreams are formed and experienced. I am not sure where I read this from, and I may be right (Freud, anyone?) but it certainly seems plausible to my own sensibility. Err... just for the record, I don't believe dreams have any significant spiritual value, so interpreting them is just a stupid waste of time.

Speaking of sleep, I am sure you've all heard about alien abduction. On some TV show, the scientists simply ruled the instances described as cases of sleep paralysis, as a hallucination of waking up abruptly in a particular stage of sleep. One night I dreamt that I had woken up, quite suddenly, to find myself completely paralyzed. I wasn't in the state for long but every detail of my room was recreated perfectly including the level of illumination and the weather condition outside my window (light drizzle). Needless to say, I was terrified (paranoia setting in, I suppose). Moments later I "woke up", with all my motor functions fully restored. I initially thought this was a dream but later realized that it was just simple ol' sleep paralysis, probably induced by my supine sleeping position.

I guess I have a lot of trouble with dreaming, but nothing compared to the subject matter of this movie (artfully portrayed in the poster above). Sigh, I just long for undisturbed sleep, or if it is absolutely necessary, to include a harem full of beautiful ladies who are willing to do all my bidding, including (but not limited to) an on-demand appendectomy.

2006-12-14T08:49:00.000+05:00

Yet another glorious weekend is upon us. I am going to watch... FUCK THIS. Maintaining a blog like this is pretty lame... I am outta here.

Sunday Blues

2006-12-10T10:31:00.000+05:00

Its yet another boring Sunday morning. I had to practically drag my lazy ass out of bed to get into the shower. Like most red-blooded creatures, I too hate Sundays (equivalent to Mondays in the West of us). Weekends, oh sweet weekends, why can't you be eternal, like the concept of God?!?

At least I have a bit of good news to cheer myself up. CBNSat has gone live, after a long court battle to re-commence transmission. I have been following up on the issue for a long time and was quite surprised to know how dull and corrupt foreign governments are... not very different from us. Anyway, like I was saying its a good thing. Now maybe our digital Cable operator (B-Net) will no longer have any excuses to add more channels. The head marketing idiot there promised me HBO almost 3 months ago and as you can guess, he hasn't delivered squat. Yeah, I know we already get HBO on some other cable platforms, but this guy promised me a different feed... the long sought after Southeast Asian one, namely HBO Singapore. Why this particular feed, you may be inquisitive enough to ask? 'Cos the current HBO India we recieve is ridden with toothpaste and sanitary napkin commercials which really does not go with the 'premium channel' branding distributors are claiming it to be. They have no idea what premium is sadly. Or they are making a total dumb ass out of local consumers.

Outsmarting a slimy bastard

2006-12-08T15:45:00.001+05:00

Since I originally intended this blog to be private, I asked a certain "friend" to take it off his site, but he conditioned its removal to something totally unacceptable. So I decided to stop blogging, but then I realized that these blogs have a feed or something which ideally disabled if desired. I just did turn off the feed from the blog settings but am not sure if it would work, so I have my fingers crossed. Err... don't know how I am gonna be able to push the publish button with that, but here goes nothing.

A New Outlook on Creation Itself

2006-12-07T12:37:00.000+05:00

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me he had this amazing 13-episode Television series from the 70s called Cosmos by a guy called Carl Sagan, and that he couldn't get over the stuff that he had learned from it. Me, being an amateur astronomer wannabe, was instantly hooked and I immediately asked him for it. When I did get it, my hard disk was busted because the delivery boy had unwillingly given it a good rattle as he made it ride the carry basket on his bicycle. My hard disk 2005 November - 2006 October. It was a few weeks later when I finally persuaded my friend to make some time out of his 'busy' schedule and re-copy the stuff into another hard disk, but even then fate wasn't ready to allow me to watch it. The first two episodes had mysteriously gone corrupt and wasn't working. I was pretty pissed off but nowhere close to giving up. Alas, it was just a week ago I got all the episodes and was ready to start watching it. My friend warned me... that the series was going to change the way that I look at things, and by gosh, he was fucking right.

First, my perspective on the Milky Way, our home galaxy as Sagan puts it. I don't know exactly what, maybe it was my sixth grade education but I had always limited our galaxy to the sun (sol), the nine planets (now its 8 planets with 3 dwarf planets, the IAU, the reguratory body for astronomical nomenclature has recently classified Pluto, Ceris and Eris as Dwarf planets, as they are too small to be defined planets), and the galactic stuff including asteroid belts etc, as the confines of the galaxy. I tried to ask a few friends (ex-classmates) and was surprised to find out that they shared a similar notion on it. Boy, were we wrong. What I had mistakenly thought was the galaxy turns out to be nothing more than what astronomers call "solar system" which is at the end of one of the spiral arms of our galaxy which is fucking enormous. Get this... light takes 30,000 years to traverse it. How many stars does the Milky Way contain? Well, try 400-billion! And there are 100-million galaxies out there. Astronomical right?

After getting a real sense of how large the universe is, I began to really contemplate the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, or life for that matter. Up until now I have always been a bit skeptical but now I am not so sure. Especially when I take the Drake equation into consideration. According to the equation, there should be atleast a billion planets out there which can sustain, that is until the equation deals with the last variable. The ability of a civilization to sustain its life despite its technological advances. After discussing this with a friend, Horny, he was quick to point out that we deduced this idea based on our own inherently violent human nature to expand our domain and conquer everyting. He is right, alien civilizations may well be beyond that, and may acquire universal respect for all life, especially their own. Anyhow, the Drake equation reduces the number of possible civilizations to just 6 in our galaxy, and if that is placed randomly across the universe, we would have a living planet about 200 light years away from Earth. Then lets consider the Fermi paradox for a while, just to look at both sides of a possibility. The Fermi paradox argues that if the universe is so large (which it is) and if there should be so many galaxies with a handfull of viable planets, how come we've never come to contact with them or vice versa? Its a good question, but skeptics of this paradox counter argues a few possibilies. The 6 theoretical planets supporting life were allocated randomly across our galaxy. This doesn't mean they are actually dispersed this way, the nearest planet (or a cluster of planets) may well be over the other end of the galaxy, which puts a distance of 30,000 light years between us. Alien civilizations may still not be advanced enough to reach us, or perhaps we are the first advanced civilizations, points out Sagan, or maybe they aren't just interested. All possibilities, right?

For as long as I remember, I have always wanted to be an interstellar explorer but when I started learning about science I began to realize how impossibly difficult that really is for humanity as a whole. The closest star is Alpha Centauri, which is 85 light years away from Earth. Thats an enormous distance that we can never traverse with our current speeds unless we have ships large enough to carry an entire civilization and even then it would take hundreds, if not millions of years. So the only option turns out to be travel at near light speeds. Why near light speeds? Einstein's theory of special (or general) relativity which limits any speed that we may ever come up with to just 99.99% of the light of speed (around 300,000 km per second). I was surprised to learn from the show that when an object nears the speed of light, both time and space tends to bend around the object. Of course, I knew this from various science classes in high school but I never thought the implication of that could be so literal. That time and space does indeed bend literally (not figuratively) around an object when it reaches light speed. Sagan demonstrated the space-bending effect with a bicycle ride sequence but the update at the end of the episode was much clearer with the warping 3D grid effect. And the other, much more significant surprise was how time bends... or more like slows down when you reach those speeds. Not only mechanical, but physical too meaning that if you were travelling at or near the speed of light, not only would your watch be ticking slower but you would be aging slower too! Sagan speculated that we would be able to reach near light speeds in about a thousand years when we perfect nuclear fusion reactors and build ships large (kilometers in width) enough to have these gigantic funnel like apparatuses to harvest interstellar hydrogen as fuel while its travelling. Even more amazing is his guesswork stating that we would be able to travel to the end of the known universe in less than 50 years on such a futuristic space ship. That is 50 years inside a ship travelling near the speed of light. In real time, this would amount to about 10 billion years and the only problem arises. What the heck would these future astronauts return to? The sun is going to go out in 5 billion years from today and it would surely wipe out all life on Earth if not swallow the innermost 4 planets. Seems like all those fascinating tales of interstellar travel to the confines of the universe would die out with those brave space travellers. That is unless we find a wormhole or something, which are considered (theorized) to link distant corners of the universe somehow. I haven't read up on it yet, but intend to do so shortly, but I can understand that if this possible, we might also be able to travel back and forth in time. Another fascinating idea...

All in all, the show was a real eye-opener. My perspective on all of creation has been altered, drastically I might add but I am grateful for that. I thank Dr. Sagan for making such a colossal show and all his efforts in popularizing science in the late seventies and early eighties. If not for people like him, we would remain to be ignorants of how wonderful the universe truly is.

An Ideally Elusive Blog

2006-12-05T12:20:00.000+05:00

Not a lot of people know about this blog, and even the ones who know, would've probably forgotten all about it by now. And you know what? I am perfectly comfortable with that... that my blog, my very first blog has fallen into the vast unknowns of oblivion. To be perfectly honest about it, I myself had forgotten that this existed for a very long time, until a few nights ago when I thought that it would be a cool idea to note down my 'personal' ideas, thoughts, notions, criticisms on stuff that I deem important. This is gonna help me to remind myself of those things I was obsessed with, albeit momentarily, in my bleak and seemingly endless life. Now I must think about what to write ... for now. I have lived in this miserable heck-hole of a planet called Earth for more than 20 years now and I've never had a single moment that I would like to cherish for more than 20 seconds... and since I am not the exact outgoing type, I don't have a lot to write about with regard to adventure either. So its just going to have to be stuff that I see and read, about this miserable world that I share with six billion other idiots.

Wait... I think I discounted the remote possibility that someone else (with bloodshot eyes) migh've stumbled upon this idiocy. Well, in defense of my sanity, all I can say is that "you are fucking stupid for reading shit shit, you stupid fucking moron. I hope you fucking choke on your own dick and die". Yeah, thats right. This blog is not intended for minors or anybody who does not like the F word, or the S word or the fucking A-word. Hehe.

Nah, I am just kidding. I don't swear much. And when I do, that is only with close friends and in quarrels with God. Yeah, yeah... I know, He doesn't argues back, partly because He never answers questions or prayers. But you know... my screw is a bit lose so what?

A lot of rant for my 'first' entry but like you already guessed, nothing remotely substantial. Damn, this blogger-shit doesn't automatically check for spelling. In a way its a good thing to be able to find spelling mistakes and typical typos in one's writings. It gives a human character to it. After all, humans are born flawed. Some of us are just more flawed than the rest of us.

Well, its really time to end my little verbal diarrhea streak, girls and boys (the imaginary type). So goodbye and good luck and try not to fuck up your lives. Peace Out!

[Note: Take a look at Laeticia Casta, my favorite French model/chick. She is really hot on the body department but when she smiles... err ... she kinda looks like the Sea Hag. Anyway, I am just posting her because I've never posted a picture before.]

The Seven Deadly Sins

2006-04-06T08:06:00.000+05:00

Det. David Mills: We aren't just going to pick up two more bodies, are we?

John Doe: That wouldn't be shocking enough. Wanting people to listen, you just can't tap them on the shoulder any more. Hit them with a sledgehammaer and you'll have their strict attention.

[A little later]

Mills: You only killed a bunch of innocent people so you could get your rocks off. That's all.

Doe: Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? Look at the people I killed. An obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up... who if you saw him on the street you'd point so your friends could mock him along with you. Who if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn't be able to finish your meal. After him I picked the lawyer. And, you both must have been secretly thanking me for that one. This was a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath he could muster... to keeping rapists and murderers on the streets. A woman... so ugly on the inside that she couldn't bare to go on living if she couldn't be beautiful on the outside. A drug dealer... a drug dealing pederast, actually. And, don't forget the disease spreading whore. Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. That's the point. You see a deadly sin on almost every street corner, and in every home, literally. And we tolerate it. Because it's common, it seems trivial, and we tolerate, all day long, morning, noon and night. Not anymore. I'm setting the example, and it's going to be puzzled over and studied and followed, from now on.

The above dialogue is found in New Line Cinema's 1995 feature "Se7en" featuring Morgan Freeman as Detective William Somerset, Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills, Gwyneth Paltrow as his wife Tracy Mills and Kevin Spacey as Johnathan Doe. The most sensible thing I've ever heard a psychopath (fictional) say so far in an attempt to rationalize his grim deeds. I believe that murder in cold blood cannot be justified by any excuse but I found it hard negate what Doe was talking about in that dialogue, and the weird thing is nobody in the movie does so either. However, I can't disagree with the fact that this is one cool movie, even without its almost creative and methodical murders for which it got famous.

Blog-Birth

2006-04-01T16:07:00.000+05:00

It all began with a trip to the doctor...

"Doc, judging by the grim look on your face, I know what you are obliged to tell me after reading that report, will almost certainly deprive me of many a night's sleep. I have known, for a long time now, that what ails me is not anything ordinary. Before you must tell me what you found, which ultimately will seal my fate for the rest of my very numbered days, I must instill a great sense of doctor-patient confidentiality, and beg of you to refrain from divulging any information, that I may explicitly request of you, to my parents for I love and cherish them more than anything on God's creation and cannot bear knowledge of their grievances on my behalf. Life is not fair for me, neither is it for any other mortal fool to have been born. So much left unsaid and undone, so many aspirations left unattended, so much greatness which I hoped to achieve, and they all will have to go into the dust as will my bones. I fear I no longer have to time to go around at a leisurely pace, so pray tell me what I have and how much time I have left before I meet this imminent doom?!?"

And the doc calmly replies "Well, the report merely suggests that you have the common cold. As for my appearance, last night my wife caught me in bed frolicking with this young nymphet I picked up at the bar, not quite your age she was. When the wife walked in, we were embraced in the most intimate fashion..."

[End of Dream]

Man, I gotta get myself new doctor in slumberland.