Missed a few

It's been a while. Work has been driving me crazy so Sundays have been football days. Essentialy Sundays are now spent sitting in front of the TV while I track my fantasy football team. (Battling for first place right now in case you wanted to know) I am curious to know who actually reads my rants it would be great to have some of you drop a line or a comment so I can know who you are.

I have spent the last few days wondering about a lot of different questions, none of which seem to have any answers but here goes anyways. Perhaps you may be able to share your views. In the near future I hope to expound on at least some of these questions at length. For now here are the questions.

Why are religon and science presented as mutually exclusive philosophies?
Is it better to read a lot about the world or listen to it and its people?
Should I be concerned about trying to do too much or not doing enough?
Is it better to be unique or the same as everyone?
Am I a South Asian American or an American of South Asian decent?

Enough Questions so here are some discoveries of the last few weeks..

Midival Punditz - Crazy drum and bass indian stuff definitely worth a listen, Bhangra Fever is a great track although not indicative of what the rest of their music sounds like

Falling Leaves - a book that explores a personal world with a great touch.

A Praire Home Companion- A show that is broadcast on the weekends on NPR. The hosts voice just makes you want to stop and listen. Listen some time you might like it.

Nothing else to report for now... Have a good weekend everyone.

It's SUNDAY!

Its time for another list although I have to say this week was lacking in the inspirational category. Nothing stuck out but here goes anywasy

Blackalicious has a new album out it was a bit too funky for me but the first track World of Vibrations caught my attention perhaps some of you may enjoy it too.

Robin Thicke's song "I Wanna Love you Girl" is good too.

Read Jumpa Lahri's Interpreter of Malidies an insightful set of short stories although I felt some of the stories could have been novels in and of themselves.

Didn't really watch any TV so nothing to report there

Hmmm..... This week was jus a lot of work and very little in the way of Entertainment. Until next time....

Feelings of a loss

I read this article and thought everyone should read it. It just talks about the earthquake and the response or more appropriately the lack of response that has followed. Just a few Statistics to help remind us of what is going on.

Magnitude of Quake - 7.6
Area of Quake - Northern Pakistan and Kashmir all the way to parts of India.
Death Count - An article last week wednesday pinned in at about 80,000.
Number of Homeless - 3 million
Major Needs - Tents & Blankets
Estimated Damage - 5 billion Dollars

It almost seems to late to do something but one has to try...

Another List

I think I am going to make this a Sunday thing reflecting back on the interesting discoveries of the previous week assuming there are any.

Songs

So Sick - Ne-yo (I like it and I am sure you will too)

December 4th - Jay-Z Grey Album (Thanks for this one Terrence I love it, by the way the whole album is good)

Main Vari Vari - Mangel Pandey (A R Rehman does it again)

Books

When Broken Glass Floats (Truly Depressing but provided me glimpses of a history I knew nothing about)

Memoirs of a Geisha (colorfully depicts the history of an era in a fictional medium)

Another list completed...

Just a bunch of mumble jumble

Jus so you know I spend a lot of time on the road. Driving is like second nature and as of late constantly listening to hip hop seems more and more difficult. So been listening to a lot of NPR .... a whole lot of NPR, which means I have heard a little too much about Harriet Miers and the new tactics this week to get her nomination through. I am just wondering would a Corporation of any stature be able to change their course on a weekly basis for their newest product. Well maybe we will try this strategy this week. This administration inability to do anything correctly baffles me. Lets take a look at a few things that have happened during this administration. First of all another man wins the popular vote and Bush becomes President anyways. We went to Afghanistan to find Osama, still looking jus can't seem to find him. Oh and by the way the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan have resulted in the election of multiple war lords and also some of the members of the previous Taliban Regime. We go to Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction, we don't find any, lucky for us we find good ol Sadaam hiding in a cave. Deadlines come and go for our withdrawal and nothing happens, every so called success is clouded by the information that the insurgency isn't getting weaker perhaps there resolve is getting stronger. As if our inability to do anything well abroad isn't bad enough. A major hurricane wipes out a whole city and our beloved president continues his vacation for a couple of days. Lets look at the aspects of vacation, our current president has taken more vacation then any other president in the history of our country in a time when the citizens are enjoying less vacations then ever before. I could keep ranting but I will quote what Churchill once said and then pose a question. "Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain." Although this may be true I am wondering why the conservative leadership doesn't seem to have a brain. I will just post a few quotes from a former Republican VP and our beloved current President.

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls. " -- Dan Quayle

"I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix" -- Dan Quayle

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure" -- Dan Quayle

"Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican." -- George W. Bush

"We must have the attitude that every child in America—regardless of where they're raised or how they're born—can learn." -- George W. Bush

"I've coined new words, like, misunderstanding and Hispanically." -- George W. Bush

"Those of us who spent time in the agricultural sector and in the heartland, we understand how unfair the death penalty is." -- George W. Bush (This one takes the cake there were more death penalty sentences in Texas under George W. Bush as governor then ever under any other governor in any state of the country)

Sometimes I wonder

"Im very confident in my insecurity about myself.."

-- A friend

1st List

I have decided that I am going to sporadically make lists of things I want to see, Songs I like, Books one should read, a Tv Show that may have entertained me, etc... so here goes the first list

One Night Extravaganza by Jamie Foxx feat Kanye West ( you should all hear it it's a pretty good song)

I watched a whole episode of House the other day. I have to say I thought it was unique. I have never seen a character like that on TV before, Dr. House that is.

Burning by Sean Paul (you can definitely dance to that one)

The Alchemist although I read it a while ago I think everyone should read it. A short and quick read just amazing.

I used to Love her by Common an old song I know but such creativity, you have to love it.

I guess the first list is done. Until next time....

saturday morning

Its Saturday September the 1oth and I am awake way too early. I just discovered that girls say things like he kissed like a sissy. Girls like to feel kisses in their toes and the lack of shock factor in how you kiss a girl can land you in sissy land. I can't wait till tomorrow another day of football I started the fantasy weekend with a negative point but hopefully things will get better, I have faith. Its sort of disturbing to write about fantasy football in a blog its as if blog space is designed for intellectual thoughts and not for lowly sport talk spew. So on to some intellectual thoughts. Flying out to New York this week to have a great time. Looking forward to seeing old friends and new and those that seem in one breath to be old and new. Its so amazing how we find ourselves in conversations with people that we haven't talked to in months sometimes years and the familiarity of their presence has never gone away. It is even stranger when that presence has no face just a voice and before that just written word. To feel so familiar with someone with the absence of physical contact is in some way to understand the power of language and to at once appreciate human companionship and fear it. One may wonder what there is to fear to me it is the mere knowledge of possibilities. The greater the number of possibilities the larger the number of choices availed to one the more confusing the decisions become. Its as if Robert Frost should have wrote the Roads not Taken for there are so many roads that we dismiss on this journey. Hell look at the blog I passed up on the road of fantasy football a highly entertaining one and ended up questioning the title to a poem. Perhaps I should have taken the road that kept me away from blogging this morning. Oh well....

hmmmm

Hmmm....

Just felt like putting some thoughts on paper. Maybe jus a few babbles of nonsensical questions and realizations that came to mind today. I realized today that life has become a mere need to reach new accolades to feel a sense of accomplishment. It is not fullfilling to complete or achieve one thing for that jus leaves the empty feeling of needing to have something else to do. After pondering that for a while I started to wonder if the formality of the educational system may be in some ways to blame. The system teaches us to yearn for the next thing the next grade, the next degree the next designation. Although I am embarassed to admit it for me it has resulted in yearning for the next level of pay the next big client. I guess life never changes in its most rudimentary sense it is just a mere facade that is truly repetitive.

A simple four letter word

Love, a simple four letter word
why then is it so difficult for me to describe
Love, a simple four letter word
why then to people question its intent everyday
Love, a simple four letter word
why then do we search for it all our lives
Love, a simple four letter word
why then does it bring so many to their demise
Love, a simple four letter word
why then do so few understand it
Love, a simple four letter word
why then does it bring so much pain
Love, a simple four letter word
how then does it bring so much joy
Love, a simple four letter word
how then does it fulfill every desire
Love, a simple four letter word
how then are we so intrigued by it
Love, a simple four letter word
how then it does it turn a frown into a smile
Love, a simple four letter word
how then is it so powerful
Love, a simple four letter word
how then does one long for it so
Love is not a simple four letter word

A nation of arrogant immigrants

Let me preface this entry by saying that I wrote this one day after having spend some time trying to renew my green card that I had managed to misplace.


I slept her last night in front of the INS
on the hard concrete in the cold no less
this nation if full of immigrants
but treats newcomers with zeal
their ignorance or perhaps arrogance
they don't care to see
night after night three hundred to four hundred line up around the block
some of them like me have been here since last night eight o' clock
people that got here at four have been waiting ever since
it is six now shamefully at four today they won' t have gotten in
people all around me have told me they
take usually at most 50 a day
Is it me or would make sense to change this operation in some way
the people here are nice enough they are just doing their job
its those members of Congress that were elected that sit right on top
they have the power to create change
but would they bother
I can't vote and neither can you
so our concerns don't matter...

A friend

Life has a strange way of showing us light
in our worse state showing us how to fight
we survive through it all
from the day we start to walk and fall
I saw today in the eyes of my friend fear
I could have sworn I even saw a tear
be he maintained his composure and grace
he still managed to crack a smile on his face
what can I say we are all built to survive
to suceed in whatever we do we strive
I have to say today I have learned
that little mistakes in life will leave you burned
just keep in mind life is day to day
just enjoy it and play...

some random thoughts

A Bland Idiot
An Empty Book Of Pages
A life Lacking in Experience
No expression in the many faces
A lack of “spice” in conversation
An inability to listen and to remember things from the day
No clear idea of what or how to say
The feelings that don’t really exist
Accept but in a written journal
Yes I suppose I must be a bland idiot
Or is the characterization true to the one who made it…

December 04'

Pleasure or Pain
Flight or Fight
Treasure or Disdain
Day or Night
Love or Hate
Life or Death
Choice or Fate
no regret....

06/09/01

This journey is so inviting
it has lead many astray
this journey is so pleasant
it has made many know not what to say
this journey is so desirable
it has made many loose their way
This journey is so beautiful
it has left many in dismay
This journey is a mirage
This journey is love ...

not dated

How does one define pain
the sky turns dark gray
Adults start to pray
a kid runs across the street
hoping to avoid the crashing sheet
there is no avoiding today
he feels so pelted lost in a sense of disarray
in the corner waves crash and shatter a boat tied to a rope
with it they take something they take something that once brought hope
a car loses control and runs into a store
only to be followed by even more
the noise is ubearable and deafening
the sight so gory yet intriguing
how does one define pain
how does one define pelting rain
how does one define a hurricane
by defining the pain of a broken lover's heart

not dated