Northern jhb

Technofreak

I was playin around with the blogging feature on my Sony Ericsson K800i. Its the coolest thing since ice cubes!

Just take the pic on the Cybershot phone, select 'blog it' and wait for about half a minute. Fantastic stuff! A 300KB pic gets uploaded just like that. Now if only I could link my phone to my laptop so I could hear streaming audio through the headsets attached to my phone...

Sunset

Sunset outside ericsson

Reaching the 500 mark - the lowdown

With the hit counter reacing 500 anytime now, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the stats pertaining to the last 100 hits ('cause of bleddy freebie limitations - nothins for free in this world!) on this blog. Some interesting info came through...

* Most popular entry was the blog on Gandhigiri with 19.44% of the keyword searches on the word. The effect of the bollywood film industry... what more can I say? (The following 'interesting' keyword searches also linked to my blog :

• mahela jayawardene's wife's name (i'd like to know that too... she's damn fine);
• malayalam film song hackers (now how do u hack a song..? lemme know, i'm interested);
  
• youtube mens workout from baywatch (huhh!!).

* More than a third of visitors came from South Africa (prolly 'cause of the large SA content); the US and India follow closely behind. Scored a hit from Vietnam (yeah!)

* Google is the top search engine and source of most hits.

* Windows XP rules the OS department with IE6.0 the preferred browser, followed closely by Firefox.

* Sundays seem to score the most hits during the days of the week with a steady rise and decline from Saturday through to Monday (respectively).

* The Madam & Eve blog still scores most of the hits from SA visitiors. Varnachitram and the Kerala Blog roll are also popular entry points (thanks for that!).

* Aravind is still the sole 'comment adi kaaran' (thanx Machu...).

* Anush is still my biggest fan ;)


Till the next 500 hits... KANK!

Gandhigiri

Found this video on YouTube. Apparantly quite rare..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5CwyptbBMY

SA's cricketing greats - an overview

In keeping with the gale (excuse the pun) force waves from the start of this long cricket season, as an avid fan of the sport, I’m dutifully prompted to spend some time on the ‘legends’ of SA cricket; and perhaps provide some insight into the reason they’re a team to reckon with this World cup.

Graeme Smith: the chubby captain of the SA team, he’s the SA cricket board’s answer to the NZ tactic of giving captaincy roles to college freshmen (“its worked with Stephen Fleming, so it should work anywhere”). He’s renowned for his links to an SA model who left him after he misunderstood her tips on how to bowl a doosra. He’s been credited for having the uncanny ability to allow the opposition to snatch victory from the hands of defeat. Democrats are currently conducting in-depth research on him.

Herschelle Gibbs: probably the most fearless batsmen in the SA team (probably ‘cause of all the pot from the previous night), Herschelle gained instant celebrity status after his 175 against Australia in 2006 (or was it after he ‘forgot’ his bet with Hansie?). He’s been credited for amicably taking over the notorious ‘Jonty Rhodes position’ when the little master retired. The speculation is that the position keeps him closer to the grass.

Shaun Pollock: declared SA’s best all-rounder a few years ago, till they realised the title lead to a slump in his batting average (its been continuing the steady negative gradient ever since). Commentators have used it reservedly ever since. His claim to fame came after using a 1^st edition ‘Idiot’s guide Duckworth-Lewis’ to predict the results of a career-defining match. The editor is currently being sued. The proceeds are to be donated to Herschelle Gibbs’s garden (see above).

Makhaya Ntini: credited for being the only SA player to take 10 wickets at the Lords. It’s a closely held secret that high-level diplomatic talks were held at No.10 Downing Street to ensure adequate protection for Makhaya against tempting seducers while in England (for a continuous cross-country relationship with SA) – the 10 wickets were part of the deal. His claim to fame is his classy single to 3^rd man to draw level with Australia at the Wanderers (see Herschelle Gibbs). Many reckon he was actually trying to leave the ball.

Jonty Rhodes: No one messes with Jonty… not even me (he's an ex-colleague, you see).

Hansie Cronje: SA cricket’s very own spiritualist, he is credited for bridging the gap between reality and the underworld through conversations with the devil himself (usually after meeting a bookie). His characteristic slog sweep has seen numerous spectators on the long-on boundary suffer flying projectile injuries (one injured spectator was confirmed as a bookie). Theories on the reason for his high efficacy on this particular shot include his constant struggle at swatting the devil sitting on his left shoulder.

Jacques Kallis: only referred to as SA’s best allrounder in close circles and under strict confidentiality (see Shaun Pollock), he’s popularity draws heavily from his role as the 'Sanex shower jell guy'. Since the first release of the advert, the Sanex marketing offices have been flooded with applications from bald, buck-toothed, untanned men looking for opportunities in the modelling market (the ads stopped screening ever since its apparent influence on prominent politicians in SA). Baywatch producers have contacted Jacques for a 2nd interview. The Hoff has apparantly taken to cricket.

(Disclaimer: the comments above reflect the blogger's sole opinion, and is not intended, in any way, to harm the players' dismal record on the field.)

Lack of skill in the world's 2nd populous country

I found this link while surfing digg earlier today. Talented people in short supply : Google...

Huh??!!

Dream analysis 101

I work up this morning feeling a tad uncertain of how to face the day. Could possibly have been because of having tossed and turned the whole night trying to swot away those bloody, vampire mosquitoes that seemed to pop out of nowhere in the rainy season. Or possibly 'cause this uncertain feeling was probably the result of the dream I had of myself running through this narrow tunnel with a brightly burning fire at the end (thats it... no more late-night Quake 3 sessions).

Isn't it sometimes quite amusing how the mind and the subconscious churn out these weird yet wonderful stories in our heads when the body is in a state of rest. I've often replayed a few interesting dreams I've had, and marveled at the freakish level of imagination I never believe I could never have. Having read a couple of books that describe how dreams are, in essence, a state that we would like to see ourselves, or how we perceive ourselves to be, with reference to our current state (bleddy stochastic processes course). Some books say dreams can be interpreted.

I believe that, to an extend, it can be.

My reasoning is hence: our mind is constantly aware of its surroundings (that may explain how internal body clocks work).

The fun part is that most dreams are just plain imagination - the creative side in each one of us that churns out those fantastic paradise destinations with the people we are close to doing things we never thought (but probably wished) they would do.

And, as we exercise this creativity in those gravity-defying car chases, Bollywood-hero-styled cricket matches and lustful conversations (to name but a few), there is one aspect we can reflect on as we wake up to reality to start the next day. An appreciation for sanity.

Movie of the week - Se7en

One of my fav English movies of all time is the Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt starrer Se7en. David Fincher, the director, had previously made some acclaimed and suspenseful hits like the cult classic Fight Club and the notable Panic Room.

The commendable aspects of the film that I still enjoy taking note off (though I've probably seen this movie a number of times) are the eerie soundtrack (never before have one tone, adagio notes created such suspense - thanks Howard Shore), an excellent script, and the work of the production designer Arthur Max.

I've mentioned the importance of an excellent script and fitting music for the successful production of a film. Now is probably a good time to jot down a bit on the work of production designer. Arthur Max is renouned as directory Ridley Scott's ace production designer in most of his films (Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down). I was fortunate enough to watch the director's commentary of the Black Hawk Down. The amount of work done to recreate a scene is astonishingly painstaking. An incredible amount of time & money was spent in creating the streets of Somalia in Morocco.

The visuals in Se7en are just brilliant. The sets protraying all the murder scenes were incredibly dreary to carry the unemotional yet frightening methods used by the killer to polish off his victims. I feel the settings of each of the sets used had a lot to play in depicting the personalities of the characters in the film, as well as keep us the audience in 'edge of the seat' suspense till the end of the movie.

The movie will always be one of my favourites. A complete movie that entertaining, yet leaves us with an eery afterthought now how the mind of a criminal works.

I'm an expert in nameology (sic)

Isn't it hilarious two major telecommunications companies in the world are called erection (oops, ma bet) & semens (sorry, siemens). ;)

I found this link on wiki for strange and unusual articles... a nice read if u're keen on brushing up on some GK.