The Synaesthetic Colosseum

Ferrous Oxide Homo Erectus

2008-05-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hello My Dead Blog! I have come back to let you know that you and need to rekindle our little secret relationship. You need to be my mouthpiece to the world on this occasion. I have some thing I need people to know. Nothing of absolute importance. Nothing ground shattering but nonetheless vitally important to stir the hornet's nest in my head. Enough to let the juices ooze out of my little head. So what has let the gasket off! Let me pronounce to you - Iron Man!

This North American (read White) male persona - his attitude, his demeanor, - cut to the chase - being a male chauvinistic pig is what he does best. [Kudos to Robert Downey Jr. you have come a long way from being Alley McBeal's Boyfriend, and now that the bruises left behind by the shards of glass in your nose has healed you seem to pick movies a scanner darkly better than bang bang boom boom].

Dear Mr. Iron Man - as an all American hero making r tastit big - MIT magna cum LOUD, Rolling Stone cover, Your father made the atomic weapon and all! I would figured your tastes in women better than the first Vanity Far model, hey your taste in an all American meal was grand when you chose to eat the BK cheese burger, how come you drive an Audi R8 and sport a Bulgari watch?

Geography 101 for the patriots - when you pick you terrorists please make sure that you get them speaking the right language for starters. When you set them in Afghanistan have them speak Pashthun. Don't oscillate between Arabic and Urdu, that begins to remind us too much of your foreign policy. It helps when you have that figured out! Because the kids in the cinema house loved the part when Iron Man picked out the civilians and just shot the bearded men with Ak-47s and the Palestinian Ghothra.

Gender and Racial Stereotypes - The Iranian-Pakistani scientist who helps Tony Stark in the cave was an obvious choice to die. Gwenyth Palthrow was his handy dandy assistant who took his constant abuse because she loved her boss and the job. Terrence Howard a man of uniform also took shit from the millionaire-genius-brat because he was his friend. I tell you each summer the turn the clock a few millenniums back when it comes to any progress in these realms. It's like the good people at the major Hollywood studios rather pedal a few more seconds of screen time for a few more brands to cross promote. And to think this is just the beginning of the summer.

That's good enough for a rant for now. In the words of Jarvis, "There are Tera bytes worth of calculations to be made."

P.S. Watch out for the guy with the eye-patch!

P.P.S. "What?"

P.P.P.S. "Say what again? I dare you..."

From Russia with Love (plus tax)

2007-10-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sits in a car, a Vuitton bag at his side and the Berlin Wall in the background as he appears in a Louis Vuitton ad campaign.
(AP Photo/Annie Leibovitz, Louis Vuitton, HO)

The Nobel Laureate who once pursued 'glasnost' and 'perestroika' to revolutionize Soviet-style socialism transforming the geopolitical landscape forever is now out "brandscaping"in the flat world, for French luxury brand Louis Vuitton. It takes a Bold Comrade! to be 'peddling luggage' for Louis Vuitton in their new ad campaign themed “Exceptional People, Exceptional Journeys - The Art Of Travel. ” The hauntingly dark, gorgeous portrait shows the former Soviet president seated in a 1950s Kremlin limousine with a brown and gold Louis Vuitton duffel bag under a small pile of newspapers and magazines at his side and the Berlin wall at his back. The caption underneath reads “A journey brings us face to face with ourselves. Berlin Wall. Returning from a conference”An ironic juxtaposition of Gorbachev’s personal journey: from Communist Party leader to fashion model.

David Remnick's description of the erstwhile Soviet Union breaths life into Annie Leibovitz's photograph. "[A]n old tyrant slouched in the corner with cataracts and gallstones, his muscles gone slack. He wore plastic shoes and a shiny suit that stank of sweat. He hogged all the food and fouled his pants. Mornings, his tongue was coated with the ash-taste of age.... His thoughts drifted like storm clouds and came clear only a few times a year to recite the old legends of Great October and the Great Patriotic War." (Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick, Chapter 3 - To Be Preserved, Forever)

Charles Bremner of the Times Online writes in his blog titled `Back in the USSR with French luxury`, "He may be unloved in modern Russia but he is a giant. No lesser word applies to the man who wound down the communist empire of Lenin and Stalin and engineered the peaceful end of the Cold War. He shouldn't be selling capitalist luxury goods." From leader of the unfree, communist world, to a slave to capitalist fashion. As for now it looks like if the capitalist will sell you the rope you will hang him with, the communist will sell you his soul for the opportunity.

Gorbachev looks uncomfortable, but this was the man who carried around the sickle and hammer through the Cold War he should not look relaxed in a shot for one of the most elite brands in the world. Apart from being old, sick and tired, he sure does cut a lonely, pathetic and rather confused figure. His notable anxiety, the setting, the photography, the colors, the mood, the message - the mise-en-scène are all a part of the gambit of this astute advertisement. Getting Gorbachev to use the Berlin wall to sell leather is, to put it mildly, unseemly. As Gorbachev appears using a Louis Vuitton bag, the label is instantly associated with high-power, great thinkers, and everything classy. The ad campaign symbolizes the interweaving of high art, mass culture and commerce. Vuitton, part of the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury-goods conglomerate group started in 1854 as a trunk maker, says that it is celebrating its corporate "core values" and projecting the notion of travel as a personal journey in the new ad campaign.

New York Times reporter Eric Pfanner writes that the campaign bears fruit due to the "large shifts in the geopolitics of the luxury business". Pietro Beccari, director of marketing at Louis Vuitton, said the goal of the campaign was to broaden the appeal of the brand, particularly in relatively new markets like Russia and China. A high-class sector of powerful men, and those whose intent is to become one of them, will probably be attracted by Louis Vuitton, and they will more likely start using them. The campaign, developed by the agency Ogilvy & Mather, part of the WPP Group, reflects a move by some luxury companies to connect with the everyday lives of wealthy consumers. In the past, many fashion houses and other luxury brands relied primarily on the so-called product-as-hero approach, featuring their products, perhaps accompanied by a model, in a stylized, static image. The new approach integrates the products into more lifelike scenes. None of the celebrities in the Vuitton ads, for instance, looks directly at the camera.

The ad also states that Louis Vuitton and Gorbachev are supporters of Green Cross International – an environmental organization to promote sustained development which Gorbachev is the chairman of. Louis Vuitton differentiates themselves from other fashion brands by demonstrating that they are intellectual, and that their brand is for people who care about world issues. The LVMH group website now includes a brochure about their commitment to sustainability. This makes the ad both a political and an environmental statement, which, especially in today’s world, is a powerful combination. Furthermore, Vuitton states it was also making donations to former US Vice President Al Gore’s The Climate Project to fight global warming.

"The aesthetics of our era, our understanding of beauty, must be embodied in every painting, must become the most important part of Soviet art, which powerfully attracts the viewer to itself." - Konstantin Yuon, 1957

Attempting to understand the beauty of the portrait , we pose the question what is it that we learn from Gorbachev's personal journey? No man is separate from his environment. For Gorbachev, this means placing him in the backseat of a Kruschev-era limousine, gazing at the Berlin wall, taking him back to 1988. There is an added resonance for those whose habitats remain torn apart by conflict. For the rest of us, the bag symbolises the loneliness of the door-to-door salesman.

So how does it end Mr. Gorbachev, is it "Tear down this ad!", "Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin" or is it "Ich bin ein Louis Vuittoner"?

P.S. The Russian Book Title reads: "Murder of Litvinenko. Treason for $7000"

Enhancing Organizational Effectiveness through Alternative Dispute Resolution Management

2007-07-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

Abstract

As organizations restructure and social stresses escalate, conflict in the workplace is on the rise. Whether in response to organizational goals such as resolving disputes with customers and clients, systemic problems in hiring and promotion practices, or interpersonal issues between managers, employees and co-workers, businesses and government agencies are finding it more productive and cost effective to be proactive in designing systems to manage conflict.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is a rapidly growing field, due to its popularity as an alternative to long and expensive law suits. Resolving disputes of any kind outside of the judicial system can save money and time as well as working relationships. ADR is responding to this important challenge by leading the way in designing integrated conflict management systems to effectively manage conflict both internally and with external stakeholders.

Introduction

Defining Organizational Effectiveness

An organization is an intersection of multiple influence loops; each influence loop represents a constituency bias within the organization. , In terms of its exchanges assessing the organizations activities. Organizations generate different assessments of effectiveness from its various constituencies; such as the distribution of organizational satisfactions, issues of organizational change and the time dimension as they relate to the overall institutional effectiveness (Connolly et al., 1980).

Cameron’s (1986) study of organizational effectiveness and its predictors suggest that the measurable for organizational effectiveness include:

The most important factors associated with both static and dynamic assessments of effectiveness are environmental factors and management strategies.
Proactive managerial strategies and those with an external emphasis are more successful than are reactive strategies and those oriented toward internal institutional affairs.
Multifaceted managerial strategies are required in order for institutions to be effective.

Organizational effectiveness is inherently paradoxical. To be effective an organization must possess attributes that are simultaneously contradictory, even mutually exclusive. The presence of paradox is a paramount attribute in characterizing an effective post-industrial organization others include:

Loose-coupling – encourage research, initiation of innovation, and functional autonomy-as well as tight-coupling-which encourages quick execution, implementing innovation, and functional reciprocity (Morgan 1981; Zaltman, Duncan and Holbeck 1973).

High specialization of roles – reinforce expertise and efficiency-as well as high generality of roles-which reinforces flexibility and interdependency (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967).

Continuity of leadership –permit stability, long-term planning, and institutional memory-along with infusion of new leaders-which permits increased innovation, adaptability, and currency (Chaffee 1984).

Deviation amplifying processes –encourage productive conflict and opposition that energize and empower organizations-as well as deviation reducing processes-which encourage harmony and consensus needed to engender trust and smooth information flows (Maruyama 1963).

Expanded search in decision making –allow for wider environmental scanning, access to more information, and divergence of input-as well as the creation of inhibitors to information overload-which reduce and buffer the amount of information reaching decision makers and lead to convergence in decision making (Huber 1984).

Disengagement and disidentification with past strategies –foster new perspectives and innovation and inhibits defining new problems simply as variations on old problems-as well as reintegration and reinforcement of roots-which fosters commitment to a special sense of organizational identity and mission and past strategies (Tichy 1983).

Defining Organizational Conflict

In the organizational context, conflict is the process of expressing dissatisfaction, unmet expectations with an organizational interchange or disagreement with an interaction, process, product, process or service.

Conflict is a process and state of dissatisfaction; dispute is the product of unresolved conflict. This dissatisfaction can result from multiple factors: differing expectations, competing goals, conflicting interests, confusing communications, or unsatisfactory interpersonal relations.

Conflict is often ongoing, amorphous and intangible, a dispute is tangible and concrete – it has issues, positions, and expectations for relief. Clusters of disputes are simply one of the many ways that conflict manifests itself in an organization.

Discussion

Effectiveness of Organizational Responses to Conflict

Organizational conflict is really an organizational indicator of dissatisfaction. It is a signal of distress from within or outside the system. The organization may choose to respond to the distress call, but that does not mean that conflict ceases to exist.

Organizational conflict is manifested in several ways some of which include disputes, competition, sabotage, inefficiency, low morale and withholding knowledge. Chronic conflict in organizations is often due to internal disagreement and rivalry over how best to distribute the organization’s limited resources among competing priorities and components.

Measuring the effectiveness of conflict management involves looking at the results of dispute resolution efforts, the durability of the resolutions, and the impact on relationships. The effectiveness of conflict management efforts can be measured quantitatively or qualitatively; it can focus on the delivery of conflict management services or the results of conflict management interventions.

Conflict Management as a System

Emery and Trist (1972) pioneered the concept that improving the systemic functioning of organizations requires focusing attention on the social systems by which organizational members interact to produce results and on the technical systems that advance output and productivity in the workplace.

Open systems thinking encourage an emphasis on the whole and the interaction of the parts, not on the parts themselves as discrete, self-supporting entities. Open systems thinking require the organization be receptive and responsive to external changes.

Looking at conflict management as a subset of the many systems within the larger organizational constellation permits an enhanced understanding of conflict as it arises and a sharpened recognition of the opportunities for action in managing such conflict.

Characteristics of Conflict Management Systems

Conflict management as an open system operating within a larger organizational system and within a larger organizational system and within an external environment provides a useful framework for approaching conflict management system design and intervention.

The conflict management system gathers information through assessment, feedback and other participative methods. The open systems perspective in managing organizational conflict lends itself to attaining significant results like:

Identification of key areas for inquiry regarding potential change within the input, transformation and/or output processes of the organization’s current conflict management system
Uncovering dissonance, dysfunction, and dissatisfactions

The focus of conflict management systems design is to encourage and assist whole systems in recognizing and identifying conflict, learning how it operates, and actively involving management and stakeholders in designing and implementing systemic procedures that decrease dissonance and dissatisfaction and enhance achievement of the organization’s goals.

Alternative Dispute Resolution for Organizations

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) enables a process that holds the promise of protecting the statutory, economic and enterprise rights of the employee while avoiding the possibility of slow and expensive litigation procedures along with addressing employer specifics like loss of productivity, sabotage, theft, harassment and violence. ADR implemented as a structured process using constructive multi-attribute techniques and value focused thinking is a comprehensive human resource strategy (Gregory et al., 2001).

Organizations can design conflict management systems to deal with both internal and external disputes in a productive way, and in a way that preserves rather than destroys relationships. Instead of resorting to litigation, strikes, work to rule or withdrawing, disputants can use dispute resolution processes that will resolve their conflict efficiently and effectively. Designing an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system can help improve communication, reduce costs, maximize efficiency, and preserve or improve relationships.

All effective organizations have goals. Those goals may be to increase productivity, provide a pleasant work environment, improve team work and efficiency, empower employees, reduce costs, or increase profits. The organization accomplishes these goals through its corporate strategy or, for larger organizations, partly through its human resources strategy. ADR systems can help an organization achieve its goals. ADR processes have the flexibility to adapt to the organization and help it pursue its objectives.

Specifications for an Effective Integrated Conflict Management System

Rowe (1997) suggests that an effective integrated conflict management system would include the following basic characteristics:

Values of the system: A commitment to fairness for everyone involved in a dispute and freedom from reprisal.
Many options: A variety of interest-based and rights-based dispute resolution techniques are offered to employees and managers, and employed for the clients of the organization as appropriate.
Multiple access points: People with concerns and problems can find access points of different ethnicity and gender, and varied technical backgrounds, to help them. They provide a degree of privacy and support for various options in the conflict management system.
An organizational ombudsperson: designated as a neutral, available to help informally with any workplace concern, and to provide formal mediation as appropriate.
Wide scope: The system is used by professionals and managers with concerns as well as by employees. The system takes virtually eve~ kind of concern that is of interest to people in the organization.
Continuous improvement: An oversight committee is built into the system and meets regularly to improve the effectiveness of the system.

Alternative Dispute Resolution: Why It Doesn’t Work and Why It Does

Carver and Vondra (2000) discuss the limitations of alternative dispute resolution. Used effectively ADR delivers the benefits like lower costs, quicker dispute resolutions and outcomes that preserve relationships. Companies with litigious corporate cultures do not reap the benefits of ADR-based mediation. Ingrained attitudes work against an agreeable outcome. Few companies have made the corporate commitment to ADR wholeheartedly; they manage to turn ADR into litigation-in-disguise.

The Supreme Court of Canada on June 8, 2007 declared for the first time that collective bargaining rights are protected in the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The decision to strike down legislation aimed directly at taking away the rights of working people is a landmark according to the labour movement. The court has validated the sanctity of a contract, thereby disclosing the administrative and structural impediments of a system that hurts workers whose complaints are not resolved in a timely fashion. The inherent delays in labour and industrial tribunals and the courts. Not to mention the budgetary constraints and limited resources that dim the prospects of prompt or effective solutions to employment injustices (Zack, 1997).

Collaboration and consensual methods of employment dispute resolution have emerged in federal sector labor relations as an alternative to traditional, rights-based collective bargaining. In many circumstances, such alternative methods of negotiation result in both more acceptable agreements and a more satisfying process for reaching agreement (Rob Kirkner and Steve Sharfstein, 2000).

Conclusion

Conflict in and of itself, is not inherently bad. If it is dealt with productively, effectively, and efficiently, it can help the organization to prosper and evolve. When a conflict management system makes recommendations about effective ways of dealing with conflict the organization is not admitting failure rather it is proceeding in a logical and productive way to minimize the cost and time spent dealing with conflict and maximize the benefits of dealing with it efficiently.

An effective organizational conflict management system can have multiple implications for many groups of people. Some parts of the system will reflect back on the individuals within the organization – by serving as a model of communication and problem solving techniques that can be used in daily life with co-workers, spouses, partners, children, parents, and friends. Other parts bounce back to groups within the organization – by setting up processes for joint problem solving that engage people of all types, preferences, and backgrounds in working together toward a common goal. There are aspects of the conflict management system that are bound to shine through to help create a changed culture of choice and acceptance of conflict.

References

Carver, Todd B. and Vondra, Albert A., “Alternative Dispute Resolution: Why It Doesn’t
Work and Why It Does” in Harvard Business Review on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, ed (Boston: 2000)

Cathy A. Costantino and Christina Sickles Merchant, Designing Conflict Management
Systems (Jossey-Bass 1995).

Chaffee E. E., "Successful Strategic Management in Small Private Colleges," J. Higher
Education, 55 (1984), 212-241.

Huber, G. P., "The Nature and Design of Post-Industrial Organizations," Management
Sci., 30 (1984), 928-95 1.

Kim Cameron “A Study of Organizational Effectiveness and Its Predictors”
Management Science, Vol. 32, No. 1. (Jan., 1986), pp. 87-112.

Kim S. Cameron “Effectiveness As Paradox: Consensus and Conflict in Conceptions of
Organizational Effectiveness” Management Science, Vol. 32, No. 5, Organization Design. (May, 1986), pp. 539-553.

Lawrence P. R. and Lorsch J, . W., Organization and Environment, Irwin, Homewood,
II., 1967.

Maruyama, "The Second Cybernetics: Deviation-Amplifying Mutual Causal Processes,"
Amer. Scientist, 51 (1963), 149-164.

Morgan, G., "The Schismatic Metaphor and Its Implications for Organizational
Analysis," Organizational Studies, 2 (1981). 23-44.

Putnam Linda L., Folger Joseph P., Communication, Conflict, and Dispute Resolution
The Study of Interaction and the Development if Conflict Theory,Communication Research, Vol. 15 No. 4, Sage Publications August 1988 349-359

Rob Kirkner and Steve Sharfstein, Aligning Traditional Collective Bargaining with Non-
Traditional Labor Relations, Interagency Labor Relations Forum, January 2001

Robin Gregory; Tim McDaniels; Daryl Fields (2001) Decision Aiding, Not Dispute
Resolution: Creating Insights through Structured Environmental Decisions, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 20, No. 3. (Summer, 2001), pp. 415-432.

Rowe, Mary. (1997) Dispute Resolution in the Non-union Environment: An Evolution
toward Integrated Systems for Conflict Management? In Workplace Dispute Resolution: Directions for the Twenty-First Century, ed. S. E Gleason. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

Stitt Allan J., Alternative Dispute Resolution for Organizations: How to Design a System for Effective Conflict Resolution, John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. ISBN: 978-0-471-64295-4, January 2000

Terry Connolly; Edward J. Conlon; Stuart Jay Deutsch “Organizational Effectiveness: A
Multiple-Constituency Approach” The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 5, No. 2. (Apr., 1980), pp. 211-217.

Tichy, N. M., Managing Strategic Change: Technical, Political, and Cultural Dynamics,
Wiley. New York, 1983.

Arnold M.Zack (1997) Can Alternative Dispute Resolution help resolve employment
disputes? International Labour Review, Vol. 136 (1997), No.1(Spring)

Zaltman G., R. Duncan and J. Holbeck, Innovations and Organizations, Wiley, New
York, 1973.

Schadenfreude: Outsourcing Your Life

2007-07-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

‘Schadenfreude’- This German loanword best describes the dilemma outsourcing presents itself with; 'pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune'. We live in a flat world where distance, measured physically, linguistically, and culturally, doesn't isolate our jobs from competition from far-away workers. In a post-industrial paradigm where sub-contracting all non-core activities is at the heart of what new economies do, the outsourcing of intermediate goods and business services is one of the most rapidly growing components in international trade.

However, outsourcing has moved on from being the purchase of inexpensive raw materials and standardized intermediate goods. Today concentrating growth in the company's core competencies, effectively utilizing internal intellectual leadership capabilities, maximizing market preeminence, lowering innovation infrastructural costs, optimizing corporate performance and enabling ‘guanxi’ is the strategic mission of the globalization and outsourcing agenda. (Grossman and Helpman, 2005; James Brian Quinn and Frederick G Hilmer, 1995)

Avant-garde corporatists with networked satellite or pod-like structured companies require nimble leadership that facilitate partnerships, collaboration, and sharing of time, personnel, resources, and credit with other units and organizations. Small business entrepreneurs want in on these cost-advantaged relationships that their corporate brethren have benefited from through outsourcing. The notion that - work gets done where it can be done most effectively and most efficiently is the guiding principle. Outsourcing has created a new economic reality where every person, just as every corporation, must tend to his or her own economic destiny as manifested within the global marketplace. (Arun Jacob, 2006; Edward E. Leamer, 2007)

In this era of outsourcing where every economic transaction is contested globally, intellectual work is readily commoditized and sold in global markets. New electronic technologies (e.g. personal computers, internet access, wireless information services) has greatly increased the productivity of those with natural intellectual talents but it has left the those with less talents with less to do and at a lower pay. Helpers are not required as individuals can source, create and produce their work independently. Educational and infrastructural investments are needed to keep the high-paying noncontestable creative jobs here at home and let the rest of the world knock themselves silly competing for the footloose mundane contestable jobs. Technology seems therefore to be taking us into a future where there are a few very talented, very well-paid people and the rest of us are doing the mundane computer-assisted tasks which don’t require us to read, write, or even think very much. (Edward E. Leamer, 2007)

Thomas L. Friedman in his book 'The World is Flat' speaks of a new global economic order which has come about from ten ‘‘flatteners’’ (three that connect individuals, six that facilitate collaboration, and a final one that enhances the first nine) and the "triple convergence" (Technological complementarities, Global business and communications networks, democratization of economic opportunity). Friedman surmises with the desirable characteristics for the workforce of the 21st century:

‘‘specialization’’ (i.e., customizing products and services to specific demands),
‘‘anchoring’’ (i.e., providing a geographically-dependent, inter-personal, or relational service) or,
‘‘adaptability’’ (i.e., creating a market position as a low-cost or value-added provider relative to competitors).

Through the fragmentation of production into discrete activities which are then allocated across countries outsourcing and globalization poses a fundamental question about how companies respond to import competition and how their responses shape the domestic labour market. (Feenstra and Hanson, 1996). To successfully capture value from outsourcing, companies need to leverage their market knowledge, intellectual property, system integration and cost management skills. Most importantly a brand name whose value reflects its reputation for quality, innovation, and customer service will ensure maximum return on investment. (Linden et al., 2007)

"Following the customer" has shipped and packaged both the rust belt jobs (offshore manufacturing) and the high-tech jobs (outsourcing technology). Large and small companies alike are reducing engineering staff in higher-cost regions as they are no longer economically feasible. Unlike manufacturing jobs, which require significant investments in infrastructure, logistics, and facilities, white-collar service jobs require little more than a computer, software, and an uplink to the Internet. Without any differentiating skills, wages will migrate toward the global average. There’s bad, industrial-era outsourcing, where work is increasingly changing into a short-term contract culture, with long hours, adversely affecting employee loyalty, morale, motivation and perceived job security. Then there’s good, collaborative-era outsourcing., with the broad benefits of being able to connect into a rich, collaborative network of varied 'flat world' resources. Global companies create outsourcing value by transforming the innovations of others into products that consumers find useful and usable.(Byrant, 2006; Cooper, 1999)

Let us all remember what John Ruskin wrote in 1871: ``In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it''.

References

Robert C. Feenstra; Gordon H. Hanson, (1996) “Globalization, Outsourcing, and Wage Inequality” The American Economic Review, Vol. 86, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundredth and Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association San Francisco, CA, January 5-7, 1996. (May, 1996), pp. 240-245.

James Brian Quinn, Frederick G Hilmer (1995) “Strategic Outsourcing”, The McKinsey Quarterly, 1995, Number 1

Arun Jacob, (2006) “Implementing an Effective Leadership Development Program for Community College Students”, Communiqué - Volume 7, Issue 1, ERIC #:ED492857

Grossman, Gene M. and Elhanan Helpman, (2005) “Outsourcing in a Global Economy”, Review of Economic Studies (2005) 72, 135–159

Leamer, Edward E. (2007) “A Flat World, a Level Playing Field, a Small World After All, or None of the Above? A Review of Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat. ” Journal of Economic Literature 45 (March): 83-126.

Greg Linden, Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jason Dedrick, (2007) "Who Captures Value in a Global Innovation System? The case of Apple's iPod", Personal Computing Industry Center (PCIC), An Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Center, The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine

Cary L. Cooper, (1999) 'Can we live with the changing nature of work?', Journal of Managerial Psychology, Volume: 14 Issue: 7/8 Page: 569 - 572

Paul T. Bryant, P.E.,(2006) 'Decline of the Engineering Class: Effects of Global Outsourcing of Engineering Services', Leadership and Management in Engineering, Volume 6, Issue 2, pp. 59-71 (April 2006) doi:10.1061/(ASCE)1532-6748(2006)6:2(59)

Article

Ellen Gamerman (2007) "Outsourcing Your Life" Wall Street Journal, June 2 2007

ACCC Presentation

2007-05-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

calcuLUST

2006-12-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

Lust is an amazing sensation. To experience this exuberant feeling. To see it in another's eyes as they look straight into yours. That's the stuff poets speak of. It exists for one sole purpose to seek out the physicality from a relationship and explore the possibilities. It's egocentric, it's immediate gratification. It is urgent, it's selfish. It's amazing.

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." [1 John 2, 16]

And it is in this world that we live. So I'd recommend a shot of lust to all of you out there. Just to survive the inevitable facts of life. Now I propose we analyze what, why and when did lust become a psycho-pathological problem to reckon with. I'd presume the problems are primarily entrenched in social control, power and thereby domination. If women are excluded from these equations by steering them away from education, health-care and are left predisposed to excel by virtue of the only edge they have - 'sexuality'. Herein comes reason to curb the desires of men by issuing documents that pronounce: "Neither shall you commit adultery." "Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife." [10 Commandments]

To come up with these laws was pretty ingenious to say the least... but don't blow it out of proportion the politicians of the time were only devising laws and rules similar to what their present day counter parts have done with TADA and the Department of Homeland Security ...

It was their way of keeping the masses enslaved, en shackled and under control. What better way to do that than obscure the very biological context for which we are made. Throw us out of the comfortable realm of mammalian existence and dictate on to us this manifesto of civility and socially accepted behavior.

Jousting moral turpitude and the destructiveness of affairs, we swim the waters of psychopathology. The moral disapprovals that we bring forth when we find that our cup is beginning to runneth over with some innocent tantalizing, promising, exciting uncertainty. Could it have just been efforts to make social occasions less boring; to celebrate the overcoming of one’s former social shyness and sense of social inadequacy.

Endorsing mainstream ideals of fidelity battling ambivalent, contradicting, and alienated personal values amidst it's evolution we try to duke it out organizing and regulating our social and sexual behavior. We obfuscate infidelity as a right, a privilege, or an entitlement. Do we blame it all on increased access and unfair social sanctions against infidelity skewed against females.

I pose the question is infidelity a sign of changing attitudes towards male sexual entitlement and conquest or is it a sign of depreciating psychological investment in a given relationship. Which brings me to my next question how effective is dissociating sex and love and to seek sexual variety.

So if we have figured out the biological need for sex, the moral proscriptions of lust, tell me where does passion find it's place and how about some psychological intimacy. Children of Men who among you can answer me. Fly to the skies and find me an answer.

If we are to go by what Shakesphere has to say about lust:

Shakespeare's Sonnet No:129

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,

Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight,

Past reason hunted, and no sooner had

Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait

On purpose laid to make the taker mad;

Mad in pursuit and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell

Casino Royale

2006-12-09T23:12:00.000-08:00

The movie didn't stray away from the original formula to upset the aficionados yet there was a sincere effort on the director's part to breathe life into the franchise. It was kinda awkward to see Bond in this raw state. And since that was the nature of the character we the audience gave into the flaws. And the flaws in many ways added depth in character. We saw James bond with a female associate this time around. A bit more verbal sparring with this Bond Girl this time around. Who got a chance to show off her acting skills along with the usual skin... 007 almost got a chance to emote. It seemed like he did invest into his relationship with the banker. Now shouldn't a man in his line of work know any better. This emotion-business isn't the kind of a thing he should be dabbling with. Can he afford to be swindled him of his pride and hurt his ego. Did he have a choice but to leave it to the spin of the wheel... Alas it was Love,"I've seen this diamond cut through harder men"...Bond should have known better. It was quite the directorial effort to let us see how agent 007 wasn't afforded a sincere relationship and that's what turned him into this suave lady's man that we have grown fond of.

Parkour was a neat add-on to keep the movie hip and cool and cash in on the franchise. Parkour is likely to pickup in the rest of the world after this super endorsement Sebastien Foucan (of Nike and Scion Commercial fame) has done. So was Texas Hold'Em instead of the original Flemingisque Baccarat. The gadgetry and gizmo's were at all time low in this one and I can live that for now. But I must say I almost walked out of the cinema hall when I saw Bond drive a Ford Mondeo. And did anyone else notice how he parked it next to a Range Rover so elegantly. That was a $25 Million deal to have Bond drive a Ford. The Aston Martin was Bond's penis extension. Did everyone in Monte Carlo use only Sony Products. Or was it for the for the world to know that the MGM franchise is owned by Sony Pictures. What's with the Blu-Ray player for security camera footage, the Vaio laptops, the Sony-Ericsson phones...The "Is that a Rolex?" line was a kick in the face...or did it have to be a little more to the left?

This wasn't a movie about the refined dashing debonair super-spy we all so deeply love. We didn't get to see Q and his entourage of über-gadgets, Money Penny didn't giggle at us from behind the desk. It was a bout a rogue-agent who was finding his ways. He wasn't the most beloved agent on the payroll rather he was the most expendable one. Someone somewhere saw that he had in him what it takes to be a super spy but they weren't willing to bail him out when his chips were down. He had to find that himself. So here's a guy who we the audience know will go to the moon, dodge iron jawed & diamond studded villains, will sleep with Pussy Galore et al. But on screen his boss thinks he's a jerk with an attitude so we root for him, kudos to Martin Campell for the direction and Daniel Craig for being so utterly unbondable yet pulling it off with the panache that no one besides he could have.

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

2006-12-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

This test reflects the ideas of Hans Eysenck a pioneer in the field of personality research. Through research and statistical analysis he determined that personality is composed of three main elements: Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism. Most current researchers agree on the significance of the first two traits, but there is less consensus on the third (so he may be wrong about it's central importance but it clearly plays some role in personality). Most people will score lower on Psychoticism. While Psychoticism implies more negative qualities than the other two traits (typically), a link has been found is several studies between higher creativity and higher scores on Psychoticism.

Eysenck's Test Results

Extraversion (57%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.
Neuroticism (47%) medium which suggests you are moderately worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.
Psychoticism (68%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly selfish, uncooperative, and difficult at the expense of the well being of others

Take Eysenck Personality Test (similar to EPQ-R)
personality tests by similarminds.com

Prior to Eysenck's discovery of Psychoticism, he correlated his original two traits (introversion and neuroticism) with an ancient greek personality system known as the Galen types (Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic). Below is a plotting of your introversion and extraversion scores on that map.

Personality : Choleric Sanguine

Melancholy 15%
Strength:4 Weakness:2

Phlegmatic 8%
Strength:1 Weakness:2

Sanguine 30%
Strength:7 Weakness:5

Choleric 45%
Strength:8 Weakness:10

Ocean's 13

2006-11-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

Too much happening all at the same time to write down sometihng coherent and worth while...

For Example:

"Citizen: Shipwreck

Welcome aboard Euthanasia Airlines! We hope you enjoy the trip with us to pity city.

Our inflight movie will be "Sound of Music" starring Julie Andrews. For those of you not familiar with the storyline. You will witness Julie Andrews spinning around like a deranged wind-up toy after having redressed the Von Tropp kids in drapes. SPOLIER WARNING: The movie is about a family fleeing for their lives from the persecusion of the Nazi army.

Passenger safety is vitally important to us. Our inflight safety manual is adapted from the "Titanic". So if you find the aircraft is taking a nose-dive our safety procedures involve furiously rearranging the deck chairs to save all first class passengers aboard the aircraft.

Thank you for choosing Euthanasia Airlines!"

That was supposed to be a full fledged article-column served up as a dry-gonzoesque piece. I got side tracked with other things to complete it... And now I need to flush it out and go back to write it in the same frame of reference when the time is right.

Saw 'Casino Royale' the other day. It was Bond in all his raw glory. Just different enough to tickle your imagination yet true to formula not causing a radical paradigm shift. Dark nonetheless.

I still haven't seen Babel, Bobby and Borat. Oh Baby! That's quite the list. Although chances are Emilio's not going to win a Best Picture Oscar for Bobby this year, not after the way the NY Times ripped him apart. You really cant tell who are the takers this year, is Matt Damon going to get nominated for The Good Shephard and The Departed. Are they finally going to give Martin Scorcese an Oscar? Will Robert De Niro's Good Shephard walk away with a hand full of nominations? I'll let the academy deal with that. As for now all I know for sure is they're filming Ocean's Thirteen across the street. The stars have the trailers parked in my very block. So tommorow I could be running into Clooney, Damon, Pacino, Roberts....

Love Conquers All

2006-11-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

VHS won the videotape war over betaMAX thanks to Porn. Isn't that just simply logical? Neither was the course of discussion around adopting the standard an issue regarding the quality of the product or the technological superiority. It was about getting it to the customer using the cheapest medium possible. Porn wins! The same logic applies to who will win the Blu-ray, HD-DVD battle.

Which brings me to my next point; inequality and corruption. Socio-economic prosperity is the reason people do the things they do. The driving force behind every major decision made is the bottom-line. People exercise negligence, caution and feduciary responsiblity to get ahead of others in the pack.

Sexual intercourse filmed on tape, processed and sold as a marketable commodity indicates the technology adopted. Screaming and screeching into the lens of a camera while having one, two or more men/women/kids or animals penetrate and ejaculate into multiple orifices is profitable.

An industry will adopt the standard that befits its customers best. Profiteering is the name of the game. Pornography is an industry, the Man,Woman and Child on screen are the raw materials required to make this product. we are talking about $57 Billion annual revenue. The oldest business in the world. The most profitable business in the world. The king of kings in the e-business world. The best profit margin you'll find in any industry. Obscene Profits even...

The commercial partnership between technology and the adult entertainment industry has had a tremendous impact on our values and culture, coupled with the government's inability to regulate pornography. The VCR brought us Debbie does Dallas, the internet brought us Pam and Tommy, tommorow in HD 5.1 surround Jenna Jameson will seranade us when we hand over our credit card #s in our homes, hotels, computers, TVs, and all the other hand-held entertainment devices we will possess.

So what's cool about Porn, it's the easiest way to make upto $1000 a day, in two hours. Social mobilty is probably the reason why there's a steady stream of applicants. Social resposibilty exploiting women, creating addicts and breaking families apart aside the industry is doing well. That might be because the community is not harmed by pornography, porn is available only to the individual who buys it and views it in the privacy of his/her home. So gay/bi-sexual/beastiality/bdsm/necro/snuff is all cool... because consenting adults are involved in it.

The day is not far away when virtualsexmachine.com will sell a USB fellatio device and have other designer add-ons to satisfy the sexual appetite of the Noughty Generation.

Saddam is Dead baby... Saddam is Dead...

Our Strength Is People

2006-10-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

GLOBAL STEEL PRODUCTION 2005
(in million tonnes)

1. Mittal Steel - 49.89

2. Arcelor- 46.65

3. Nippon Steel - 32.91

4. Posco - 31.42

5. JFE Steel - 29.57

6. Shanghai Baosteel - 22.73

7. US Steel - 19.26

8. Nucor - 18.45

9. Corus - 18.18

10. Riva - 17.53

56. Tata - 4.4
Source: Metal Bulletin

London-based Indian, Lakshmi Mittal, purchased the Luxembourg-based Arcelor early this year. I know that means jack-$hit to most of us! Let me try that again, Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus has accepted an $8.1bn takeover offer from Indian rival Tata Steel. The Corus buyout makes Tata Steel the world's fifth largest steelmaker.

Still makes no sense? What if I were to make this ubsurd proclamation that all this consolidation is about cutting costs and staying competitive in an era of soaring Chinese steel production. I suppose these booming south-asian economies are going to need some bad ass quantities of iron and steel. I wonder how many steel workers are worried about their pensions. Are thinking about the jobs they are going to lose with all the low-cost steel thats going to available in the world market now. What can I say it's the sign of the times: ailing high-cost undesirable North American and European industries pegged against ambitious managerial talent from India.

Hey 'Days of our Lives' fans this isnt half as complicated as the plotlines you are used to. Mittal bought Arcelor, when Arcelor was interested in buying Dofasco. Flipping Dofasco to ThyssenKrupp AG in the process. Wow! Now that's what I'd a call an incestuous relationship.

Iron-ore oligopoly stories hardly make a dent in our lives. I blame Tomkat, Bennifer, Nick and Jessica for that!

I'm beginning to get the feeling the steel maharajahs 'Lakshmi Mittal' and 'Ratan Tata' think the tagline "Our Strength Is People" suits India best!

Gillette Occam

2006-10-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

If Gillette came up with a new model called 'Ockham'. How many blades would it have?

Byzantine General's are regularly faced with questions pertaining to constructing social contracts and defining the 'greater good' to promote self-interest while maintaining the illusion of assured democratic governance. Their tolerance is based on the commitment to justice spliced with Faustian deals where power tends to invariably shield those to whom the corridors of power are accessible.

The moral ambiguity of the social fabric let's us progress through life without any grounding principles . Shamelessness is the binding contract to which humanity subscribes itself. How does someone refusing to be tied down to an ideological boot camp exercise personal power. How does one exercise personal power when dealing with gross negligence, engineering incompetence, environment issues and sexual aggression. When attrocities are rationalized in the name of truth, justice and freedom how powerful are we. How do we as the human race rationalize statements like "Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values. (Golda Meir, according to Spielberg)" as they exercise their personal power.

A friend of mine has an interesting outlook on this predicament. She tells me,"Just remember the concept "leadership is creating a space for the other to sense their power" and everything else seems to fall into place." She proposes blending authenticity with ethics and moral development, empowerment and possibility.

How do those shrouded in a veil of ignorance practise this craft of empowerment? How do marginalised folk break the shackles? When interests are purely monetary and liberty is a pipe dream refered to in public documents stored away along with the 'notwithstanding clause' which makes it worthless anyway.

When those in the upper echelons of power cook up plans to come up with the highest pay off for the worst outcome, does ethical decision making stick it's head in the ground. (If Gillette came up with a new model called 'Ockham'. How many blades would it have?) When and why do people lose the desire to understand others?

What happens if I am wearing my "V for Vendetta" Glasses and have this 'vengence view' of morality. When the fabric of society has lost the capacity to cultivate in others the capacity to care how does personal power find its place?

And like Grissom said,"A moral compass can only point you in the right direction. It can't make you go there."

Lights and Wires in a Blog

2006-09-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

"This just might do nobody any good. At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest, and your organization may be accused of having given hospitality to heretical and even dangerous thoughts."

These are Edward R. Murrow's lines from his speech at the RTNDA Convention Chicago, Illinois October 15, 1958. As I read the speech a thought pounced on me: 'If Murrow were around today would CBS have offered him space in the blogosphere?' Would they let him have an RSS feed titled 'Blog It Now'?

So what does a corporate blog do for a company? Is it about capitalizing on the opportunity for employees to speak directly to the customer or is it about appearing higher in search engine rankings, personalizing the company and giving it a human face?

If corporate blogs are about keeping an ear to the ground and hearing what's going on in the blogosphere. Does censorship find place in the corporate blog? Mark Jen nods his head violently on hearing that line. (Mark lost his job at Google for something he wrote on his blog.) Technorati executives have asked their employees to have their weblog posts reviewed by staff members before posting. To suppress blog posts from employees and having grass-root corporate conversations vetted through a marketing mouthpiece is more than likely to discourage bloggers from writing.

Blogs allow for some soul-baring and straight talking. They are fun to read because the writing has a gossipy flavor. You can make blasphemous prophecies and get away with it. When a boardroom blogger tries blogging that's like when your grandmother starts saying "O-Snap!"

Does having corporate guidelines, securities and disclosure rules, and prominently displaying disclaimers on blogs make this new found internal communication strategy more trouble than its worth. Or will more companies jump on this bandwagon since its interactive and cheap to deploy.

How does the public sector and not-for-profit sector deploy this technology in enhancing their operations? Will we ever get to hear what makes the public servant blogger’s blood boil and what upsets them? Will actual voices ever be heard from behind the corporate wind bagging and mechanical PR? How will criticisms and rumors be dealt with? Does our charter of rights and freedoms guarantee blogging as one of the freedoms?

In the words of Edward R. Murrow, “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.”

This weapon of blogs could be useful.

Cultural Learnings of Dawson for Make Benefit Glorious College of Mohawk

2006-09-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

“Dzień Dobry! Jak się masz? My name is a Borat, when I is go college in Montreal I is execute not the educate.”

Borat's description of the recent "blockbusterings" in the province of Quebec shouldn’t be mistaken for an episode of "Colombine Idol", "C.S.I.:Montreal" or “"This CEGEP has 22 strenchcoats!"”

The fatal shootings at Dawson College in Montreal, leaves many unanswered questions. This is likely to take a while for all of us to come to terms with. The reality of why such an atrocity was ever committed.

Pointing fingers at the goth culture, listening to heavy music and violent video games is a sad exercise in stereotyping and ample proof that people even in this day and age associate rebellious youth behavior to criminal behavior. Who has a minute to understand what really went on in Kimveer Gill's life?

I am sure he was giving out warning signs. His cries for help probably went unaddressed and reinforced his homicidal urges. If only one of his college counselors provided him with ‘Emotional Counseling'. It could possibly have helped the 25-year-old loner Kimveer Gill.

Unfortunately, if the HPRAC (Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council) get their recommendations to be considered ‘Emotional Counseling' might be the thing of the past. Ontario college students' can kiss their access to counseling and psychotherapeutic services goodbye. Human Service Graduates' trained in emotionally supportive counseling skills may never get to practice their craft.

Colleges will have to stop providing students with access to counseling services and close shop. Human/Social Service programs will be sucked dry of content if the restrictive regulation goes through.

The crux of the existence of community colleges happen to be - 'access' and 'diversity'. This new regulation would jeopardize those very core values.

So I ask the Hon. Minister Smitherman, Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care do you think regulatory practices that exclude competent professionals from providing affordable and accessible services to CAAT students across Ontario is going to be well accepted?

Dziękuję!

Broadcast Engineering: Challenges for the Next Decade

2006-09-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

"Video Killed the Radio Star" sing 'The Buggles' nostalgically of the golden age of radio. The song tells of a singer whose career is cut short by television. Looking back broadcast automation was the 'most unkindest cut of all' to the thousands of radio station employees who lost their jobs to computerized automation systems that could smoothly and professionally run less personalized shows in a consolidated industry.

As today's broadcast engineers battle with static, hiss, pops and fades caused by multipath, noise and interference. A new paradigm gains momentum in the form of IBOC – In-Band On-Channel digital audio broadcasting and the IBOC-based HD Radio technology. HD Radio technology enables AM and FM radio stations to broadcast their programs digitally – a tremendous technological leap from the analog broadcasts of the past.

As broadcasters transition out of analog broadcasts and begin to offer HD Radio a robust digital architecture will have to be in place, for enhanced services such as increased data capacity, surround sound or other multicasting solutions to be made available across unused bandwidth.

To feed the consumers insatiable demand for higher-definition wide-screen pictures iconoclastic broadcast engineers will have to negotiate the balance between terrestrial, satellite and cable networks. Increased variety of digital programming available to the consumer will call for revisiting how broadcasts are to be delivered and receivers are engineered.

Broadcasting solutions for the digital domain are scarce, such as digital rights management (DRM) for digital broadcasting based on home servers (DBHS) using receivers with large-capacity storage devices.

Video-On-Demand systems require broadcast, multicast and unicast transmission technologies to be developed to select the appropriate delivery channel and quality of service for each customer.

Efficient networking distribution, efficient spectrum usage and dynamic sharing of the maximum data rate among several applications will be challenges broadcasters have to face with the ongoing evolution of software-defined compression, modulation formats and receivers. Obstacles for future communications architecture will be employing bandwidth management policies and using available broadcast bandwidth for effective multimedia information delivery.

New business models will dictate how file-based audio-video content is broadcast to consumers in today’s fringe markets such as wireless network operators and internet service providers. Tomorrow’s broadcast network services will be carrying interactive data services with both high data rate and high mobility.

Organ Trade, e-Ursury and India

2006-08-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

"Salah, ek dum phulto bhankas kidney mila dha yaar...Masth karkey mein woh madherchoud ko bhej detha... kider se aay maayth nai yeh lund fakir chini mera sale poora ullat phulat liya re..." "Kahan se mein aaj ka FDI online sale quota reach karooon... yeh job ich poora ek dum pakaao hein re!!!"

That's a line to be uttered in a chai-walah's dabbha in Mumbai 2020, by some savvy call-center employee trying to make an honest days living. What's he selling- a couple of kidneys, livers, sickle cell anaemic cure packages, organ donor compensation fund diwali savings bonus, still born babies for stem cell research, LGBTQ child care savings pack, the list goes on...

His job description involves snipping for better deals, bidding wars, trying to get the best price for his client - an 'anghutta-chaap ghatti' in rural india selling his/her organs at premium for a signing bonus of 6 months supply of drinking water for the family.

"Innak endhinaada monjathi pennu, kaarukunnah aad porey!" asks an entrepreneur in North Kerala to a young man who applies for a visa to go to the Gulf, his gullibility and will to rid his family of their poverty will succumb him to rent his wife's womb to a gay couple in North America who will in turn sponsor his trip and family for the next 9 months. The entrepreneur will be the effective middle man who make's sure he gets his cut.

Online snipping for last minute deals on organs will be quite the lucrative venture capitalist enterprise to take off. Call centers, will have blackberry wielding hench men on the streets look out for a prime candidate.

Fuzzy moral arguements and kosheresque trade sentiments find no place in the potential of the commerce in flesh trade. Once state support will be acquired the flood gates will have opened. The Halal kidney store on Mohammed Ali Road, will have SMS of a "Gora khoon - 5 litre" CS Shivaji Airport will accept the FedEx package and Visa payment for the trade. When an elderly Paris Hilton wants a new liver, because her old one was damaged she will have the power and prowess to acquire one from the shoe-shine kid who sits in front of Infosys, Bangalore. Nicole Ritche might prefer an organic solution to skin grafting than the 90's botox treatement Cher had. Bahraini National Mohammed Jaffer (formerly known as Michael Jackson) will have the "Peal the World" Campaign to raise awareness of the organ trading little boys have to undergo...

In the words of Appu,"Thank You, Come Again!"

Implementing an Effective Leadership Development Program for Community College Students

2006-08-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

Abstract

Community colleges are a democratizing force in post-secondary education, different from but equal to universities. They offer an expedient route to the labour market. This suggests the need for colleges to focus on the development of their students' leadership ability and to implement strategies for evaluating the success of leadership development efforts on college campuses. Student leadership development administered as a comprehensive, integrated and complimentary program is a proactive and strategic investment in the students’ educational experience. The goal of this paper is to document some of the ways community colleges can further promote student leadership development and implement innovative approaches to increase student engagement.

Click here for full paper.

I Wanna Be Like You

2006-08-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Artist: Louis Prima
Song: Wanna Be Like You
Album: The Jungle Book Soundtrack

"Now I'm the king of the swingers
Oh, the jungle VIP
I've reached the top and had to stop
And that's what botherin' me
I wanna be a man, mancub
And stroll right into town
And be just like the other men
I'm tired of monkeyin' around!"

That's my theme song in my graduating semester in 'Electronics Engineering Technology' a 3 Year Diploma Program here at Mohawk College. Why?

My 'terminal education' credits can't be 'transfered' to an undergraduate degree in any university in the province of Ontario. Elitist educational institutions (read universities) consider the occupational mobility of college graduates is better restricted because of the narrow skills and credentials college students' possess. So I better start 'cooling-out' because there's an unskilled, low-level service sector job with my name on it. I don't know if I will be as fortunate as some of my peers who will very shortly be employed in paraprofessional/assistant level jobs working under university graduates, in jobs divorced from all conceptual level work.

Today as I ride my 'cycle of despair' dodging motivational difficulties I ask myself did my diploma strengthen my academic skills and how did it lead to higher educational attainment. As my terminal vocational training comes to a close, I cringe thinking of the tommorow when I wait in line to be the next hired hand. I am disoriented as I try to comprehend this system of dual expectations and it's ambiguous commitment to democracy and education for all.

I have demonstrated by compliance to the system, have I not? I have jumped through all the attritional hoops of academia to reach thus far, ready to advance to the next ideological boot-camp. But then why isn't my diploma being considered an objective indicator of knowledge, why do the registrar's at universities treat me like a leper when I ask about transfer agreements.

Are there any educational reconstructionists in the theatre tonight? Anybody out there who's interested in improving my position in the educational hierarchy. Maybe you could ask the loyal gatekeepers who have pledged their allegiance to the system. How absurd would it be to demand for a "call of change", to be accepted as equal participants in a flat global terrain. It would be impossible for today's college graduate to continue to adhere to many of the traditional claims of the college system. The fallen statue of Mercury (Roman god of trade, profit and commerce) at the old Mercury Mills site is a reminder of why we don't study at the Provincial Institute of Textiles.

Are there any professionally competent, socially responsible and interculturally literate college students out there? Can you help me address this socially untenable system of implied superiority of an elite community of post secondary students and the rejection of all others. Would you help me examine the social inequalities in access to technology and its implications for educational equity.

Bombay Dreams

2006-07-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

I was reading up my older blogs and noticed the last cpl of months that stuff I had been getting was very strait jacket like ...Now that I'm on the cusp with no major projects that I have undertaken I can kick my legs up and write something sinister... Something doggone stupid.. something un-nerving... preposterous... necrophilia, world war 3 they were all topics i had thought of... but here's something better...

The Hindu speakz of a drug bust in Calcutta. Some bad ass amount of E, so now I ask you dear reader, did u really expect IT, Spicy-India-Chai-Tea and Old Navy T-Shirts to be only exports to the west. I was just about waiting to dig this up and show case it..... Sure every one knew abt the slave trade in philipines, the child porn in Thailand, the opium trade of yester years out of China, the desginer drugs out of Hong Kong. But the ganja land of south asia couldnt be safe haven for synthetic drugs now can they...

The Frontline sez Indian immigrants bring drugs to honky-tonk towns and damage the urban youth... that's a hoot if you ask me..

But hey how about the raves in B'lore...read The Hindu ... see the beauty of the drug milieu in India is paan waalah's can sell u XTC, ICE and crack... the big boyz in bombay's underworld will make a cut... and so will the local goondahs... professional college students are just where the west wants them to be... rattling the cages of cultural confines and ready to do something daring and rebellious... call center telemarketers make too much expendable money so do the software code gurus ... and the stress of the western work style taking it's toll on the youth...

Goa, Bombay and B'lore are the prime circuits for these outfits to take camp... but i'dnt be surprised when the peddler on Marine Drive, Kochi comes up with a line that's globalization .. that's outsourcing... the west taught the sepoy's to smoke their crummy cigarette's and provided hootch and cigarette's to them for free...Opium and heroin can move over as designer synthetic drugs will rule the roost... txt msgs will fly across the globe about how when and where the payload will be delivered... It'll be 6 sigma efficient and supply chain managed.. The way I see it for every brown-nosed white apologetic ass in a MNC job there's a disillusioned unemployed sorry ass with just as much potential.. and all those kids need to keep busy and make a lil dough while they are at it ... but be careful kids ...there might be snitches..the TOI sez there will be... the Shashi Kapoor from Don wanna be's...

So India... Bombay Dreams are just around the corner.. Rohypnol is just a click or SMS away.....

What Classic Movie Are You?

2006-07-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Developing an Effective Leadership Development Program for Community College Students

2006-07-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Abstract

Community colleges are a democratizing force in post-secondary education, different from but equal to universities. They offer an expedient route to the labour market. This suggests the need for colleges to focus on the development of their students' leadership ability and to implement strategies for evaluating the success of leadership development efforts on college campuses. The goal of this paper is to document some of the ways community colleges can further promote student leadership development and implement innovative approaches to increase student engagement.

Click here to read the complete draft.

INCIDENCE DE L’ÉCONOMIE CHINOISE SUR L’ÉCONOMIE DE L’AMÉRIQUE DU NORD

2006-06-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Lentement, solennellement, Napoléon a tracé de l’index le contour d’un vaste pays sur une carte du monde et a dit de ce « géant endormi » : « Quand la Chine s’éveillera, le monde tremblera ». Cette phrase prophétique prend tout son sens aujourd’hui. La Chine est bien réveillée, sur le plan économique et sur le plan stratégique. Sortie indemne de la crise financière de l’Asie orientale et de l’épidémie de SRAS, l’économie chinoise affiche une progression inégalée sur la planète qui l’a fait passer au sixième rang dans le monde en termes de PIB. En 2003, la Chine était la seconde économie du monde, tout de suite derrière les États-Unis et affichait le taux de croissance le plus élevé de tous les grands pays, sans parler du fait qu’elle a été accueillie à bras ouverts au Conseil général de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce, après sa transformation d’usine du monde en marché du monde.

C’est une réussite à double tranchant. Du haut de sa puissance économique, la Chine défie l’Amérique du Nord sur le plan économique. C’est un peu comme si elle disait : « Faites comme nous ou c’est nous qui vous dicterons votre conduite! ». Il suffit d’observer avec quelle lenteur l’Amérique du Nord répond à ces défis et l’agilité croissante de la Chine en matière économique et politique pour savoir qui occupera le bureau du coin dans l’économie mondiale de demain. L’avenir appartiendra à l’économie qui saura fournir à ses travailleurs toute l’étendue et la profondeur de la formation scientifique nécessaire dans le nouveau milieu du travail. L’élue recevra une partie des fruits de la nouvelle richesse. Une économie lente à bâtir sa capacité scientifique et technologique c’est une économie qui ne connaît pas le remède aux ajustements structurels constants qu’exige la mondialisation.

La contestation par la Chine de l’influence économique et stratégique de l’Amérique du Nord commence à peine à se dessiner. Il faudra à celle-ci encore des dizaines d’années avant de rejoindre l’Amérique du Nord sur le plan technologique et sur le plan de la gestion.

Pour comprendre l’incidence, au niveau mondial, de l’émergence de la Chine en tant que grande puissance économique, il faut savoir que la répartition de la main-d’œuvre mondiale à la fin du dernier millénaire était très artificielle. L’isolement volontaire de la Chine a empêché le cinquième de la race humaine de participer vraiment aux systèmes mondiaux de commerce et d’investissement. C’est pour cette raison que l’intégration accélérée de la Chine à l’économie mondiale amorcée au milieu des années 1990 a entraîné une vague de délocalisations en Chine d’industries à forte intensité de main-d’œuvre.

La transformation de la Chine en superpuissance industrielle a entraîné la marchandisation de presque tous les produits qui peuvent être fabriqués de nos jours. La concurrence de la Chine, avantagée par de faibles coûts de revient, a fait baisser considérablement les prix des biens vendus dans le monde, notamment en Amérique du Nord, où les profits reculent.

La partie ne se joue pas à armes égales. La Chine ne fait pas grand-chose pour endiguer les violations de brevet et de droit d’auteur qui contribuent à la production de copies bon marché des produits de ses concurrents. Elle sait aussi s’y prendre pour obtenir des transferts de technologie qui aideront son industrie à se développer.

La réponse de l’Amérique du Nord est loin d’être exemplaire. Les sociétés transnationales jouent un rôle clé dans la mondialisation de l’activité économique. Le commerce international, l’investissement étranger direct et les ventes des filiales étrangères en Chine augmentent beaucoup plus vite que leur PIB. Une grande partie des échanges internationaux des transnationales interviennent entre divisions d’une même multinationale (échanges internes) et non entre sociétés indépendantes l’une de l’autre. La localisation des activités économiques des transnationales locales et étrangères est de plus en plus tributaire de la conjoncture économique et politique, des mesures fiscales et des encouragements à l’investissement. Autrement dit, les transnationales se préoccupent de moins en moins des conséquences de leur comportement.

Les Nord-Américains ne pourront plus très longtemps vivre dans une région vouée au libre-échange et par conséquent moins portée au protectionnisme. Les Chinois ont su contrer cette éventualité et s’assurer un accès à leur plus gros marché d’exportation et alimenter ainsi le moteur de leur croissance. L’adhésion de la Chine à l’OMC empêche les États-Unis de décider impulsivement et unilatéralement de remplacer les approvisionnements économiques en provenance de la Chine en suspendant la Permanent Normal Trade Relations Act et de relever les droits de douane sur les importations en provenance de la Chine. L’adhésion de la Chine à l’OMC rehausse la fiabilité de la Chine comme fournisseur régulier des marchés d’Amérique du Nord.

Les fabricants nord-américains de produits à forte intensité de main-d’œuvre destinés à la vente sur les marchés intérieurs, des économies où les revenus sont élevés, diminuent maintenant leurs frais de gestion en réduisant la diversification géographique des unités de production. Une partie croissante de la production est maintenant localisée en Chine parce que les coûts de main-d’œuvre y sont moins élevés que dans les quatre grands de l’ANASE [Indonésie, Malaisie, Philippines et Thaïlande].

Les compagnies nord-américaines doivent se concentrer davantage sur les services à valeur ajoutée de la chaîne d’approvisionnement mondiale – conception, service après-vente, design, conception simultanée, ainsi que financement et assurance de la qualité. Pour exploiter les possibilités que présentent les marchés émergents et soutenir la concurrence de la Chine, l’Amérique du Nord doit forcer sur l’innovation et la productivité en investissant dans la recherche-développement, la fabrication et le génie, le capital humain et la révision des réglementations.

En bout de ligne, la seule manière pour les fabricants d’Amérique du Nord de soutenir la concurrence et demeurer rentables consiste à offrir un produit différencié – répondre aux besoins des clients par une spécialisation, une conception et un service fonctionnels à un degré que personne d’autre n’offre.

Le potentiel de croissance de la Chine et son savoir-faire économique laissent présager une hégémonie future. L’orientation future de la Chine, le rythme des réformes et de la restructuration des institutions et une bonne partie de l’activité du secteur privé dépendent de l’action du Parti communiste, guidé par ses dirigeants de Pékin. Le défi pour la Chine consiste à créer 20 millions de nouveaux emplois par an rien que pour empêcher le taux de chômage d’augmenter. La Chine n’est pas en mesure d’employer du capital local pour créer davantage d’emplois dans le secteur privé, la demande de produits de consommation grimpe en flèche et le système bancaire est inefficace : la Chine a un bon nombre de problèmes socio-économiques à régler. Tout montre qu’elle est en voie de le faire.

Les extraordinaires résultats économiques et commerciaux de la Chine ont modifié les rôles de l’État et du secteur privé dans ce pays qui s’ouvre à l’économie de marché. L’expansion économique spectaculaire de la Chine est alimentée par des rentrées d’investissements étrangers directs considérables. Environ 60 % des exportations de la Chine vers le marché nord-américain proviennent de compagnies nord-américaines qui y ont installé des usines de production.

Une autre caractéristique de l’expansion économique de la Chine est l’importance des industries de haute technologie particulièrement dans les domaines de l’électronique et de l’informatique. La Chine n’est pas seulement une superpuissance industrielle, mais aussi un maillon des chaînes d’approvisionnement mondiales des fabricants. Elle n’est pas simplement un centre mondial de fabrication de produits bon marché à forte intensité de main-d’œuvre, mais elle est aussi devenue la source d’une demande importante de fournitures techniques évoluées à forte intensité de capital.

Pour les fabricants et les exportateurs d’Amérique du Nord, la Chine est une source de croissance commerciale, de même qu’un moyen de réduire les coûts de revient, d’améliorer l’efficacité de la chaîne de production, de stimuler les profits et de réduire les prix pour les clients. La Chine ne peut pas exporter en Amérique du Nord sans importer, mais cela exigerait une refonte complète des structures de production de l’est et du sud-est de l’Asie. Un thème sous-jacent s’impose : prospérité ou disette, mais pour qui?

L’arrivée de la Chine dans la fraternité économique par son adhésion à l’OMC ne fait pas que stimuler la sécurité économique. C’est un champ de force qui la protège contre les sorts que pourraient lui jeter la Permanent Normal Trade Relations Act des États-Unis et les nécromanciens du Congrès américain maîtres de son statut de nation la plus favorisée.

L’ascension de l’économie industrielle de la Chine continuera d’avoir des retombées de grande portée sur la logistique mondiale des biens et services et sur l’avenir du secteur manufacturier en Amérique du Nord. La Chine pose déjà d’importants défis aux entreprises et aux gouvernements de l’Amérique du Nord et à son économie dans son ensemble.

L’émergence de la Chine sur le plan des exportations et du PIB au-dessus des cinq économies développées d’Asie de l’Est [Hong Kong, Japon, Singapour, Corée du Sud et Taiwan] présente un important défi aux gouvernements d’Amérique du Nord; il y a la question du recyclage des travailleurs qui perdront leur emploi dans le secteur manufacturier au nom du libre-échange. Les fondements du gouvernement vont vaciller quand la volonté politique et la politique économique s’affronteront pour déterminer s’il faut imposer des mesures protectionnistes au lieu de financer des mesures d’adaptation pour aider les travailleurs des secteurs touchés.

Il est temps que l’Amérique du Nord se réveille! La montée de la Chine ne sonne pas le glas de la fabrication en Amérique du Nord. Elle entraînera sans doute une transition vers des opérations de transformation à plus grande valeur ajoutée et davantage d’emplois dans le secteur des services. Elle forcera une rationalisation des opérations des entreprises et stimulera l’innovation et la productivité. La concurrence de l’économie chinoise s’est intensifiée en Amérique du Nord et dans le monde entier. L’expansion rapide de l’économie chinoise présente des perspectives extrêmement intéressantes sur le plan du commerce et de l’investissement pour les entreprises américaines et élargit la palette des importations à des prix très concurrentiels. Cette expansion augmente parallèlement la concurrence sur les marchés d’exportation nord-américains.

La Chine grimpe rapidement dans la chaîne de valeur. Vu la mobilité des capitaux et des ouvriers spécialisés dans le monde, l’Amérique du Nord doit combler l’écart au chapitre de la productivité et des revenus pour attirer et retenir des activités à forte valeur ajoutée et générer un vigoureux cycle d’accumulation de capital, d’afflux des cerveaux et de forte croissance économique.

Les fabricants d’Amérique du Nord devront profiter des possibilités d’externalisation de leurs activités que présente la Chine de même que des possibilités d’exportation sur le marché chinois ou d’investissement et de fabrication en Chine. L’avantage concurrentiel des fabricants d’Amérique du Nord dépendra de la proximité de l’entreprise de ses clients et de ses rapports avec eux. Les compagnies capables de s’adapter rapidement jouiront d’un avantage sur le plan des délais d’exécution et de la personnalisation des produits et services.

Pour pleinement profiter de l’intégration économique avec la Chine, les économies d’Amérique du Nord devront surmonter des obstacles formidables et devenir des destinations très compétitives pour l’investissement, les travailleurs spécialisés et les activités à forte valeur ajoutée. Les entreprises devront réduire considérablement les coûts de transport, d’information et de communication, faire des progrès rapides au niveau des techniques de production, et faire de la prospection au niveau des marchés, des capitaux, du capital humain et des activités à forte valeur ajoutée à l’échelle internationale. Il est par ailleurs crucial que les gouvernements encouragent la conclusion d’ententes commerciales bilatérales, régionales et multilatérales pour permettre à l’Amérique du Nord de contribuer à sa manière à l’internationalisation de l’activité économique.

Click here for English version

To Sir With Contempt

2006-06-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Why aren’t there more radical teachers? Is it just the difficulty of being radical in a system built around compulsion, discipline, conformity, and reproduction of the class structure? Or is part of the problem the way that people become teachers?

As teachers did your professional education and employment push you to accept a role in which you do not make a significant difference, were you selected and molded to have politically and intellectually subordinate attitudes, thereby making your creative energies available to the system.

When did the idea of "assignable curiosity" come into fruition? When did they teach the use of exams, a powerful legitimating tool used to discriminate while still making it seem to be neutral? How was the nonpartisan exam system developed while actually imposing the values of the status quo? When was it that you learned to accept standard ideas about professional behaviour? Were you told there would be an ideological conformity you would have to subject yourself to?

Employed as a brain worker your work demands advanced degrees from accredited institutions, did it ever occur to you that you indoctrine students in the mysteries of skilled labour, in technical trades without critical thinknig, social conscience, or the will to resist. Does the lack of control over the political component of your creative work ever faze you? How do you accept the norms of your employers to function as semi-autonomous, self-directing workers?

Rooted in corporate capitalism founded on a heightened division of labor, you validate social-institutional hierarchies and legitimate your own place in them at the expense of others. You hold no monopoly on knowledge -- many non-professors know as much about your subjects -- but you act based on your own judgment to promote the establishment interests. You are constrained by law but in fact, more heavily controlled by hierarchically mandated, system-wide code of conduct.

Was it the higher income, status, improved working conditions and the capacity to choose more aspects of one’s work that motivated you to enter into this field of work? Did the institutional dominance redirect your work lives? Does promotion with professional ranks hinge on such work? Did creativity give way to perceived necessity? Do you ever notice your students become less idealistic and more exhausted from the work you assign to them? When did your socio-intellectual goals get replaced by selfish commitments to compensation and rising in one’s field?

Tell me more about the transformation from truth seeker to alienated knowledge worker seeking institutional advancement and not knowledge. What's it like to be a subordinate and disciplined mind engrossed in professional work.

The Are You a Waste of Oxygen Test

2006-04-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

Recycler
How astounding. You scored 56%

You manage to skate along by wasting only about half of the oxygen you intake.... thats something, at least. Still, you may want to consider learning to breathe fecal matter, since your head is up your ass so much of the time.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 39% on oxygen atoms

Link: The Are You a Waste of Oxygen Test written by dramallamamama on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

The Pawntificate of Arun Jacob

2006-03-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

Pontificate

Pronunciation: pän-'ti-f&-"kAt
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -cat·ed; -cat·ing
Etymology: Medieval Latin pontificatus, past participle of pontificare, from Latin pontific-, pontifex

1 a : to officiate as a pontiff b : to celebrate pontifical mass
2 : to speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way
- pon·tif·i·ca·tion /(")pän-"ti-f&-'kA-sh&n/ noun
- pon·tif·i·ca·tor /-"kA-t&r/ noun

The following video deals with mature subject matter and is intended for adult audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.

http://toronto.cbc.ca/clips/Toronto/wmv/strike-031706.wmv

For Your Eyes Only:

CBC News

The Satellite - MSA Newspaper

My Inner Hero

2006-03-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

My Inner Hero - Warrior!

I'm courageous, straightforward, and charismatic. I'm a born leader, but I'm also not afraid to face danger on my own. Nothing stands between me and victory... nothing that lives to tell the tale, anyway. If you need someone to charge into battle for you, call on me.

How about you? Click here to find your own inner hero.

Walmart - East India Company; Part Deux

2006-02-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

North American Governments and Modern Corporations — each in its own way encourages amnesia. The facts of history are dangerous things. They call to mind ways of thinking, ways of living, that are inimical to the modern American way of life.

Corporations have emerged as the dominant governance institutions on the planet. The largest among them reach into virtually every country in the world and exceed most governments in size and power. Corporations are characters in the larger stories of industrialization and capitalism.

Then:

Everyone knows the Civil War was fought the twin issues of slavery and states' rights, but how many Americans know the Revolutionary War was fought to stop corporations? The revolt over the Tea Tax was not a revolt over the fact that the tax had been raised, but rather, over the fact that it had been lowered.

The new, lower tea tax allowed a multi-national corporation, the East India Company, to flood the American market with cheap tea, thereby driving small mom-and-pop tea shops into bankruptcy. In that respect, the Boston Tea Party was akin to an attack on the local cornerstore, the Founding Fathers were dedicated in part to destroying the ability of corporations to operate on American soil.

Now:

There is genuine apprehension that small shopkeepers and intermediaries would be adversely affected by the arrival of the global retailer in India. In the United States, many mom-and-pop corner stores have shut down and others struggle to survive where Wal-Marts open.

Small entrepreneurs and the burgeoning middle class are the backbone of the Indian economy; and it will be a sad day for the Baniyahs of Bombay when they get savaged by Wal-Mart's organizational innovations, advanced inventory system; its bulk purchases of goods, price discounts; and a ferocious anti-labor policy.

John Menzer, the president and CEO of Wal-Mart's international operations said, "India represents a $250 billion retail market, growing 7.2 percent a year, but modern retailing is just starting to emerge." India is not only "a huge organic growth market for Wal-Mart," he said, but also a fast growing outsourcing market, with an expected $1.5 billion of merchandise export to Wal-Mart stores this year.

For those you who dont like reading too much and have better things in life to do just so you know, "Wal-Mart is thinking of operating slave-labor camps in India. They plan to do this through their suppliers and, increasingly, in walmart's own name." "Manmohan Singh and Chidamabaram have jumping up and down silly, giggling like teenage school girls ever since they heard Menzer say the F-word.[FDI-Foreign Direct Inverstment-Of course!]"

Domestic:

Wal-Mart has 2000 stores worldwide; and sells almost every thing at low prices, giving low and middle-class people access to goods which would have been otherwise beyond their monthly budgets. The retailer is able to do so by buying massive quantities from inshore and offshore sources and hiring people, mostly women, at blood and sweat wages.

The seamy side of the retail giant, include its denial of health coverage to employees, unequal wages for women and the elderly, ethnic and gender discrimination and many other not-so-legal practices. Wal-Mart rezones cities, determines the real minimum wage, channels capital throughout the world -- and conducts a kind of international diplomacy with a score of nations.

International:

Walmart's business practices may have greater impact upon the world than Al Qaeda, tsunami and earthquakes if we choose to pay attention. As the retail giant scrounges and sponges the third world for cheap goods, in the process it also creates employment for hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries. In the United States it keeps overheads low by hiring mostly female workers.

Implications:

The Wal-Mart department store chain, which employs 1.3 million people at 4,700 stores worldwide, and in 2002 became the largest corporation in the world, is levelling economies of the U.S., industrial nations, and the Third World.

Wal-Mart is a driving force behind the decadent Imperial Roman model of the United States. Unable any longer to reproduce its own population's existence through its own physical economy, the United States has, for the past two decades, used an over-valued dollar to suck in physical goods from around the globe for its survival. Wal-Mart is both the public face and working sinews of that policy. It brings in cheap pants from Bangladesh, cheap shirts from China, cheap food from Mexico, etc. Workers who produce these things are paid next to nothing. Wal-Mart Is Not a Business, It's an Economic Disease.Wal-Mart is destroying communities; it represents an institutionalization of the values which stink."

Not since the days of the British East India Company as the cornerstone of the British imperial system, has one single corporate entity been responsible for so much misery. At the core of its policy, Wal-Mart demands of its suppliers that they sell goods to Wal-Mart at such a low price, that they can only do so by outsourcing their work to low-wage factories overseas. This causes the exodus of millions of production jobs from the United States and the setting up of slave-labor concentration camps around the globe. Wal-Mart's policy includes crushing living standards in America, forbidding its workers from unionizing, bringing in workers illegally from abroad, and bankrupting tens of thousands of stores and outlets on Main Street, ripping apart communities and their tax bases.

Wal-Mart uses its power to ferociously attack and decimate labor power, and it is the leading force in the mass exodus of North American manufacturing capacity and jobs. The company is militantly anti-union. Reportedly it has instructed its managers never to hire workers who once belonged to a union.

Alarms Bells in My head going off:

It's not the prowess of Walmart that worries me more than the deviance that will be employed to get the niche in the market. As of now, Indian consumers are happy with the convenience of the kirana shop but they were content with watching Ramayana & Mahabharata on the big sister channel too [DD] too. Its when Macaulay's children make food and grocery buying an ambience-driven exercise that I would be concerned.

Conclusion:

The traditional model of American capitalism from the mid-20th century was that American corporations were respected because they were globally efficient, but they also paid their workers a good wage so that workers could become consumers and part of the middle class of American society. I think we've lost that model today, because globalization has pushed Wal-Mart and companies like them towards global efficiency, where consumer prices are the only things that matter.

Confessions of an Academic Hit-man

2006-02-02T22:32:00.000-08:00

Education, like other social services such as health, is far from being a simple ‘product’. The forces of supply and demand can’t be the only factor taken into account, because education is a right recognized in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But the education market is no longer simply a matter of choice and competition between educational institutions. The education market is a diffuse, expanding, and sophisticated system of goods, services, experiences and routes – publicly and privately provided.

The rendering of educational processes into a form which is more readily privatized – into a contractible form, into a form for cost and profit calculation, into a version of education which can be reduced to a commercial exchange based on output indicators, which can be monitored.

Within institutions – colleges, schools, universities – the means/end logic, education for economic competitiveness, can transform what were once the social process of teaching, learning and research into a set of standardized and measurable products.

As part of seeking after new ‘markets’ and the re-orientation to the customer, new forms of ‘delivery’ and consumption of higher education are being created which can result in learning becoming increasingly fragmented. Colleges have been turned into value/commodity producing enterprises. They become institutionally rearranged on a model of capitalist accumulation.

College students are rendered as active consumers but passive learners, a development that further reinforces the idea that a diploma is a commodity that (hopefully) can be exchanged for a job rather than as a liberal education that prepares students for life.

The economy of student worth - seeking success in the performative culture – is very much a product. If only there was some way of curbing the derogation of ethics, brought about by privatization and the ‘disciplines’ of the market. In the business of survival in the marketplace, the niceties of care and equal value become easily dispensable. The social relations between providers and ‘clients’ and among the providers themselves are changed significantly. This is a process of 'ethical-retooling’.

The currency of judgment in education provides an infrastructure of comparisons which value practitioners and institutions solely in terms of their productivity, their performances! Productive individuals are the central economic resource in the reformed, entrepreneurial public sector. The performances of individual subjects or organizations serve as displays of 'quality', or 'moments' of promotion or inspection.

Metrics are constructed which are used to make different sorts of activities commensurable. The use of metrics, targets, linked to incentives and sanctions, and the constant collection and publication of performance data, embeds instrumentality into everything that is done. What they stand for, or represent the worth, quality or value of an individual or organization within a field of judgment.

In the process, what we do is emptied of all substantive content. Increasingly, we choose and judge our actions in terms of affectivity and appearance. Beliefs and values are no longer important - it is output that counts. We have come to value others solely for their performance, their contribution to the performance of the group or the organization, rather than their intrinsic worth as persons.

The commoditization of academic labour has shifted the carriers of culturally valued knowledge bearers into a struggle for authenticity. Authenticity and performance are as easily replaced by compliance and silence. Academic entrepreneurs are determined to improve academic productivity creating a bureaucracy of academic auditors. The pervasive presence of business ethos in the education industry is a sign of the changing balance of power between the state and the market.

The specificities of human interactions involved in teaching and learning are being erased. The practice of teaching is being re-made and reduced to externally generated rule-following and target achievement.

The prerequisite of the commerce of education, is that Knowledge is no longer legitimated through ‘argument and reasoning', rather, through the pragmatics of ‘optimization’ – the creation of profit rather than ideals.

So, what makes up today’s college student? Today's college student is defined by shallowness, flexibility, transparency and represented within performances. Their ‘professionalism’ is in turn their willingness and ability to adapt to the necessities and vicissitudes of policy.

The Deviant's Advocate

2006-01-15T21:24:00.000-08:00

Deviance is the source of all innovation. It can be a force for good or for evil. It's the reservoir of new ideas, products, personalities and markets. All innovation and progress -- commercial, biological, social, scientific, artistic, and personal -- is a direct result of deviance. Deviance is an innovation virus, one that infects the status quo, changing traditional thinking at a primal level.

Today's criminal-justice system and social register are at loggerheads. There was a time when pimps were invective oppressors of women: including physical and sexual abuse, economic oppression and abandonment. And gangsters whose deep and pervasive corruptive influences extend beyond drug trafficking, extortion, and the more traditional forms of vice. Today, "gangsta-ism" is a prerequisite to having a Top 40 hit on the Billboard since "Rhyme Pays".

Deviance drives today's social and commercial agenda. Things that we found repulsive only yesterday we embrace today. Deviance migrates from the Fringe to Social Convention, rapidly creating markets and permanently changing the rules of the social and commercial game. The pace of change has picked up to the point where the functional distance between the Fringe and Social Convention has disappeared.

Yesterday's pariah is tomorrow's market darling, and what was once socially unacceptable is suddenly hot commodity. The rate of deviant change is so intense and so relentless that we are beginning to witness multiple deviances. The game's rules keep change before we get a chance to jot them down.

Deviance is really one of us taking one step away from the middle of the road. In individuals, ideas, products or institutions it is expressed as it chugs along a fixed and predictable path.

Fringe (where it first appears in the mind of a true deviant): you'll find yourself moving from the comfort of the accepted into the fast-paced world of the trendsetter.

Edge (where it picks up a small following): you'll land in the rarified realm of the ultra cool avant-garde.

Realm of the Cool (where it begins to develop a broader following among trendsetters): you are in the seductive yet frightening world of the cultist and the fanatic.

Next Big Thing (where the formerly unthinkable becomes almost de rigueur): you'll crash head-on into the heart of social darkness: the world of naked, pure, unabashed, and largely frightening deviance.

As the deviant enter the "Realm of the Cool", it acquires a growing audience because the idea is starting to win more media coverage. What was once preposterous is now taunting and teasing the sensibility of society. Cool Hunters and culture vultures nurture this market. As the deviant achieves audience size and market scale in the Realm of the Cool, it's ready to move on to the Next Big Thing.
At that point, the original deviant is little more than a distant reference point, and has now become sanitized, commercialized, and packaged. Conventional society may flirt with the deviant when it's in the Realm of the Cool. But when the deviant hits the Next Big Thing, those in the mainstream become genuinely engaged with it.

Athletes, actors, and musicians used body ink as a way of telling the world that they were big enough and powerful enough to reject social taboos. Tattoos shifted from being badges of guilty pleasure to being visible status symbols proudly worn. Today, tattoos are an essential part of the formal uniform of any self-respecting, pampered, suburban youth intent on demonstrating his/her individualism. These days, every male athlete/rock star worthy of the name carries a storyboard of ink on their body.

The pattern is universal for all to see. In film, food, or fashion; In magazines, music, or medicine; or In wellness, fitness, or any other form of being hip. Deviance tells the story of every mass market ever created. What starts out as weird and dangerous mutates until it becomes a saleable commodity for corporate America.

Deviance ought to be a big business, if it weren't for one thing: cultural problems. Culture poses major opposing problems for deviants: Popular American culture is full of new opportunities and it loves the deviant. American corporate culture serves as an organizational anti-virus, protecting business-as-usual businesses from new opportunities. Corporate culture hates the deviant; it works to eliminate deviant employees and discourage deviant ideas. Corporate culture punishes deviant behavior and attitudes. Thanks to all this hate, most large corporate lose the opportunity to discover the future and get there first.

Companies are stuck in a deeply disturbing rut that they are unable to work out: All innovation springs from deviance. Innovation is good. But deviance always ends up being bad. As a consequence, established businesses tend to feel caught between their addictive thirst for breakthrough offerings and their fear and hatred of anyone who refuses to parrot the party line.

But it doesn't have to be that way. The history of innovation proves it; corporate leaders need to accept it: The advantage always falls to the deviant, because nature and commerce hates the status quo.

Deviants don't, won't, or can't play by the rules. Their mission to propagate deviance. They are the greatest hope that moribund corporations have for renewing their vision, energy, innovation, and future. The challenge to business is simple: Think deviant!

Dr. Bourgeoislove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bonne année

2005-12-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

Life in North American society embodies a basic contradiction between capitalism - the luminous bourgeois ideals of peace, freedom, opportunity, love, and community and the harsh, brutal realities of the irrational economic system which encourages these ideals and feeds off their unobtainability. The whole function of trade and commerce is to exacerbate this disjunction.

Business destroys the coveted bourgeois values and the familial structures set up to secure and nurture those values. Social mobility, success, depends on brutality; this is the primary law of capitalism. Capitalist competition severely limits the ability of most people to become very close to any other people.

Religion is an important prop of bourgeois ideology, the Church represents a community of sorts. And in it's inability to comfort anyone the church shows its impotence. It is one more bourgeois ideal that does not work.

Family ties, social mobility, quest for security, companionship, and even religious values all relate and correspond to real universal human needs for community, love, respect, support, appreciation.

Social institutions which function in four levels of familial affiliations — the nuclear family, the extended family, the ethnic community, and the Church — upon which the we rely to provide and protect these values, wither before the irrational, destructive forces of capitalism, the main goal of which is profit, not the meeting of human needs.

Each institution strives unsuccessfully to create an ideal community. In all cases, the needs of business destroy whatever communal aspects these associations might provide. In fact, it is the very effort to conserve and support these families that becomes corrupted by business and destroys them.

Capitalism, at its best, must destroy human life and associations to exist. Thus, the more vigorously bourgeois society strives to achieve the ideals it has set for itself, the more destructive and corrupt it becomes.

Economic dependence is a debilitating experience for anyone in this society.

Afterthought: May the new year bring light to more people. From their own personal darkness, may each one be emancipated by his/her own free will.

The Capitalist Who Stole Christmas

2005-12-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hope you have a "Merry You-Know-What" and enjoy your "Christmas vacation"; oops I mean winter closure.

In a desperate cry to escape the tortures inflicted upon me this side of the wall of separation between church and state. I cry for help. This is not a rant about the gumming up of civilized discourse in a phlegm of hateful resentment of everything secular.

Christmas today is an exuberant display of human ingenuity, capitalist productivity, and the enjoyment of life. I'd actually prefer if people saw what it was they were celebrating and called it just that. In this case why bother with the terminology call it what it is - 'Winter Shopping Festival.'

It is not just on religious issues that the media and the intelligentsia seem determined to suppress, it's an ongoing symptom that plagues the entire passive aggressive global society. In the international jungle, made more dangerous by terrorist networks that circle the globe, anything that it is not defended is in jeopardy.

And if we let liberal ideals govern the nature of holidays, we'll learn that the best customs of Christmas, from carols to trees to spectacular decorations, have their root in pagan ideas and practices. These customs were greatly amplified by American culture, as the product of reason, science, business, worldliness, and egoism, i.e., the pursuit of happiness.

Undermining a sense of the worthiness of a society undermines that allegiance -- and, without allegiance, there is no defense. No society can survive in the long run without the allegiance of its people.

Christmas shopping is like pornography -- nobody wants to admit they've seen it, yet everybody seems to know what it looks like.

The majority of the population take part in the tradition of commercialized, secular Christmas. Why? Because it's fun, especially for the kids in the family. What kid doesn’t like candy canes, snowman cookies, Santa Claus, parties and toys?

It’s almost impossible to be a kid in North America or Western Europe and not get enraptured by the “magic” of the Christmas season. We all know that the stores we got our loved ones gifts from and the reatil sales associates who served us were referring to the commercialized, secular Christmas—the one that fattens their profits while raising credit card debt.

Essentially, Christmas has been captured by capitalism. The Grinch hasn’t stolen Christmas. Capitalism has.

Christmas is gradually being secularized into a season of general merrymaking and loads of money making. It is in transition from religious “holy day” to secular holiday.

The retail industry's main goal is for you to buy something. They will jump on any excuse you might have, to not only excite you to shop, but woo you into their establishments.

Capitalism doesn’t care. The market doesn’t care. All that matters is how to make the best profit possible from selling products to the public.

One reason you might shop is to buy a present for someone. In the very late fall, a majority of the population is not only buying one present for someone, but many presents for many people, to the delight of the retail stores (and hopefully the delight of the recipients).

Life requires reason, selfishness, capitalism; that is what Christmas should celebrate -- and really, underneath all the pretense, that is what it does celebrate. It is time to take the Christ out of Christmas, and turn the holiday into a guiltlessly egoistic, pro-reason, this-worldly, commercial celebration.

And -- before it becomes taboo -- a Happy New Year. Oh wait! It's the beginning of a new tax year, and the next five or six months will be spent working for the government.

Are you a Macaulayalee?

2005-12-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

Thomas Babington Macaulay's speech of Feb 2,1835, to the British Parliament speaks volumes of where we as a nation stood. Then his Minute on Indian Education, delivered in 1835 again spoke volumes of us and what was expected of us, "...a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect..."

Suggested Reading:

http://www.hindu.org/publications/fgautier/selfdenial.html

http://www.geocities.com/ifihhome/articles/sk001.html

The Second Slice of the Chinese Melon

2005-12-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

About 200 years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte returned from China and said, "That is a sleeping dragon. Let him sleep! If he wakes, he will shake the world."

Well, China is wide awake today, economically and strategically. The fastest growing region on the global landscape with an economy that came out unscathed out of the East-Asian Currency Crisis and the SARS epidemic just to bolster its place as the 6th largest GDP in the world. As of 2003, China was the world’s second largest economy—only surpassed by the U.S.—and had the highest growth rate of any major country. And not to mention an open arm welcome into the WTO General Council with a makeover from the World's Factory as the World's Market.

What baffles North American Economists the most is the Chinese economic engagement came with a learning curve so steep its continuing development poses a threat to them? China challenging North America's strong holds of industry & manufacturing comes with a lot of political ‘shock’ and wee bit of economic ‘awe’.

China’s economy opening up to the outside world worries those who fear that country’s huge pool of low-cost labor will drain jobs from the North American shores, and less expensive goods will spark trade problems. China’s untapped market present huge opportunities for North American businesses that would surely outweigh any loss of jobs, but the sort of jobs that had left to China a long time ago were the low-wage, low-skill jobs. Will the day when higher-wage, high-skill jobs are outsourced to China mark the epic struggle pitting the American eagle and the Chinese dragon?

There is a distinction to be made between deepening economic ties, fostering multinational trade and global manipulation by companies for their own vested interests. Outsourcing might be distressing to the system prevailing, unwilling to accept the pace of change. But unlike ever before, North America's impotency to produce timely innovative cutting-edge technologies, ideas and industries is hurting its image.

The real question is how many consumers of the 'Welfare Capitalist Economy' actually see the effects of 'Neo-Imperialist Globalization'.

The achievements on the economic plane of life in North America outstrip progress on the political plane to such an extent that economics and politics have lost their synchronicity. The flattening of the global economic playing field, in cohesion with a bastardized global political plane leaves a fertile ground for the gutters of the world to pool together.

Capitalist ruling classes in North America, have an attitude toward government economic policy that needs to be checked. This should ensure the operations of the Chinese marketers do not impede our ability to create jobs in North America and protect the working people of North America from the tremulous changes of supply and demand.

It should come as no surprise that China, of all the bureaucratized and degenerating workers states, has been able to make the greatest progress toward capitalist restoration. The strategic vision of the Chinese bureaucracy to align themselves with the neo-capitalist entrepreneurs of the globe are responsible in their getting rich and morphing into capitalists while the great majority in China, are suffering a decline in their living standards.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has embarked on a pragmatic and outward-looking program of economic development that focuses primarily on exports, foreign investment, technology and closer ties with the West.

The Chinese leadership clearly realizes that domestic development and sound trade expansion rely on stable international economic conditions. China is rapidly becoming the world's biggest "low-cost" manufacturer, flooding the global marketplace with relatively cheap electronics and appliances.

The domestic market in China is rapidly developing, showing every indication of becoming, within as little as another generation, at least as important as the United States as a mass market for global suppliers of everything from computers, cell phones, and other electronic goods to automobiles, refrigerators and other consumer durables. China is already at least as important as the United States in terms of incremental growth in imports.

The Made-In-China world we live exists mainly thanks to the manufacturing plants on the mainland, that take advantage of low wages and high productivity (very high rates of exploitation) and a substantial percentage of China's exports are the fruits of foreign firm production in China (rather than indigenous Chinese firms).

China-"the world's sweatshop" has long been lusted after by multinationals eager to gain customers in the world's most populous domestic economy and to exploit China's natural resources and relatively low cost (and abundant) workforce.

In a world where China's emergence as a major base for foreign firms to assemble manufactured goods;

• Where its influence over the free flow of capital, goods and executive talent across the globe is rocking the delicate balance between economic and military carrot and sticks.

• Where ever-closer political ties have blurred the lines between friend and foe.

• Where North American corporations are willing to sacrifice manufacturing jobs, technology and military security in pursuit of quick profits.

• Where multinational affiliates, these outposts of American capitalism are used by the Chinese to manufacture products exported back to the US thereby creating a trade imbalance.

One begins to wonder the role of China in the North American economy is it one of a ‘strategic competitor’ or is it one of a ‘strategic partner’. Bureaucrats and capitalists on both sides of the mutually incompatible social systems are counter posed to the working class of the world. Be it the world's capitalist countries or the degenerating workers states they outsource to.

East Asian efforts to penetrate the North American industry, to gather innovative technology and sensitive business information, have made headlines in the past. Today the world is changing before our very eyes. Some old rivalries are fading while others are coming to the forefront. Today's friend may become tomorrow enemy and visa versa. This is especially true in the rapidly changing world of shifting political alliances and changing boundaries for economic competition.

Neither China nor North America will ever be a paradise for workers. But workers, like institutional investors, must have the confidence in financial institutions, stock markets and government regulators for an economy to grow.

China is an economy undergoing rapid transformation. Its rapid growth has brought great opportunities and challenges—both for China and for the rest of the world. Some producers see Chinese competition as a threat. They worry about losing market share, about the impact on their markets from highly competitive Chinese exports. That's as familiar a refrain as it is an understandable one.

But China's growth has brought immense new opportunities for exporters—of primary commodities, of manufacturing inputs and of finished goods. China is contributing to the growth of world trade, not displacing it from elsewhere.

And competition from Chinese exports has benefited consumers across the world as well. Let us not forget that competition is one of the great benefits that freer trade brings, even when it forces some painful restructuring for those firms unused to it.

But China, too, is undergoing major and sometimes painful restructuring. It is a large and populous country. It has a cumbersome and inefficient bureaucracy, especially at the local level and in state-owned enterprises. Many of its citizens still live in abject poverty, and the gap between rich and poor has widened. It faces enormous demographic challenges as its population ages rapidly over the next few decades. Its banking system is saddled with bad debts that will, ultimately, have to be written off.

Chinese policymakers are seeking to maintain economic growth at levels that can have an impact on poverty while avoiding inflationary pressures that would ultimately hamper growth. And they are often relying on policy instruments that are at best unreliable in what is increasingly functioning like a market economy.

The challenges for China are not new, of course. The transition we are witnessing today started more than two decades ago. Adjustment is a relatively slow process even in small simple economies—and China is neither small nor simple.

What has changed is the extent to which all our economic fortunes are now linked with those of China. Its sheer size and its dynamism make it increasingly important for global economic growth. With Japan's economy largely stagnant for much of the 1990s, China played a crucial part in sustaining and helping to fuel Asian economic growth. With European growth still lackluster, the opportunities offered by Chinese growth are increasingly important for North America. It is in all our interests that the Chinese economic miracle is sustained.

Outsourcing

2005-12-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing: a.k.a. Industrial prostitution - To whore out work to less fortunate, less informed, more vulnerable workers who will do the labor because they need the work, the money and the security of having a job.

If that's not what outsourcing is what is?

Outsourcing: Manufacturers cutting corners by exploiting workers on some other corner of the globe today for their own personal profits, reducing productions costs.

I thought that was what Imperialist conquests were all about. I thought those days were over. I thought the world was a better place today in comparison to the world described in my dilapidated old history books. I guess I was wrong to come oot of those classrooms feeling it was a better place we lived in today.

Its just too many people dont care to see through it all. Its just too many people intend to live the American pipe dream; to make it being in the capitalist heart land of the world but more often get hit by the realities of the Welfare capitalist economy that they live in. Factory workers are great ... they hardly ever save any money they blow it all away... in booze, food, mortgage. the service industry workers are even better they talk the talk ... but can hardly get anywhere close to walking the walk.

And with all those war monging inbred plaid clad bible thumping red necks, taking advantage of every immigrant that sets foot on the land, with all those political hang ups, socio-economic hiccups. What's it going to take to tear down these walls of mistrust... These walls of hatred .. these walls of racial prejudices, of religious hegimony, of social inequalities...

maybe a whole lotta love...

Why do Engineering Students Whine So Much ?

2005-11-22T06:14:00.000-08:00

If there is a singular commonality in every technology course taught through out the Engineering College system it's this un-deviated classroom style from the following pattern:

1) Greet class.

2) Ask if there were any questions about the previous day's problem set.

3) If so, work out the problem in question on the chalkboard, without further explanation.

4) Repeat step 3) as needed.

5) Announce the pages in the textbook from which the next problem set would be derived.

6) Perform a sample problem from the new problem set.

7) Ask if anyone has any questions.

8) Give the problem set assignment.

9) Dismiss the class.

Going through the above described scenario for the past couple of semesters I have begun to feel like I am on a Star Trek episode. "Captain, I think I understand… these creatures communicate through multivariable calculus problems!"

Through the course of all the harried teaching I saw and experienced that took place there would be the rare occasion where actually the occasional concept would be explained. But for most of the time it's a Whine and Cheese affair. These complaints that I speak of, well are they really serious or are they more of a routine need to vent, that's for you to decide...

"If you get a 60% below on ANY quiz," You would get the "YOU ARE NOT STUDYING HARD ENOUGH." remarks. I have wondered what would happen if you got a 30% on a quiz. Were you branded forever? Expelled? Excommunicated?

The social-life-killing workload is the stuff geeky nerd humor among the 3rd year technology students is comprised of. Often heard slogans include, “Sleep is for the weak!" & "Your underwear has two sides."

First-Year students rarely pose questions that challenge teachers enough. They bail out before they get a chance to learn to think. I don’t blame them; instructors need to re-evaluate how they are teaching students because the stress is showing in students today. Somebody's got to have a look at their blended families, their IM hot wired SNAFU life styles. Students today are consumers and technology education must change to meet that reality.

Health Sciences & Business have changed the way they work with students, using problem based approaches, putting students into small groups where they have to decide what they need to know and how they should solve a problem. That’s the way technology works in the real world, but the college system has been slow to embrace these strategies probably because they require a lot of skill on the part of faculty.

Compose in your mind a montage of quizzes covered in red ink, classes wasted in the stupor of incomprehension, and frowning instructors muttering strange spells in their eerie scientific jargon. And as time passes there grows a void between you and the instructor that seems increasingly unbridgeable as the days go by.

The Technology streams regularly get good students and if they are not successful, it can’t be entirely their fault. It might just be that faculty have to move out of “we’ve covered it; it’s done” operating model to a “knowing how it is that students actually learn their technology courses approach.” I guess it’s time for the college to tell faculty members that they need training in speech.

I honestly believe there are a finite number of smart people who enroll into Mohawk College's Technology Programs who chose this as a viable career option. But if we are to live up to the provincial need for technically qualified people of a certain stature it's high time we find a way to retain students smart enough to do the math and motivated enough to at least take a bite at the technology apple, but who are turned off by the overwhelming coursework, low grades, and abysmal teaching.

Find a way to teach engineering technology to verbally oriented students who can't learn math by sense of smell. Demand from (and give to) students an actual mastery of the material, rather than relying on bogus on-the-curve pseudo-grades that hinge upon the amount of credit a fatigued instructor wants to dole out. Use textbooks that are more than just glorified problem set manuals. Give grades that will make engineering technology graduates get to be competitive in a grade-inflated environment.

None of these things will happen, of course. Our professors are perfectly happy weeding out undesirables with absurd boot-camp courses that conceal the inability of said professors to communicate with words. Fewer students will pursue engineering technology majors, and Canada will grow ever more reliant upon foreign brainpower to design our scientific and manufacturing endeavors.

The Revenge of the von Trapp Family

2005-10-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

When I think about revenge, I think about The Sound of Music. After everything the Nazis put that plucky von Trapp family through, they all end up on the top of that mountain, singing, with Julie Andrews spinning around them like a deranged wind-up toy. They seem utterly at peace. What a perfect final image, as they climb up from the valley of their former lives, perching for a moment on the high border between the past and future before they descend into their new home.

WARNING: I haven't actually seen The Sound of Music in years, and I hardly paid attention to it anyway because I thought it was a girls' movie and I was mad because we had to watch it instead of the show about hyenas.

But think about how bitter the von Trapps must have felt about leaving their home behind, in the hands of the Nazis, even if it was to go to a new, safer place. Their relief at being liberated from their oppressors probably kept them from thinking too much about revenge for at least a few months. Eventually, their human desire for Justice must have reared its head. Captain von Trapp would heave the ax fiercely into the firewood and asked himself how anyone could get away with all that Evil, and why God was showing no sign striking back and reasserting the superior power of Good.

Sure, the Nuremberg trials provided the von Trapps and the rest of us w ith the sense that there was at least a measure of Justice in the world. But as they grew numb and familiar to their new homes, the von Trapps lay in their beds and considered that the overwhelming majority of shitty human behavior goes completely unpunished. Everybody noticed that Julie Andrews didn't lead the family in musical rounds the way she used to. Her and the Captain began to feel secretly, shamefully repulsed by each other, and tried frantically to hide their flagging desires. And that little kid stopped doing that really cute thing he kept doing in the movie. That thing about milking cows or buffing his lederhosen or something.

The valley where they now lived, that had seemed so fresh and alive with promise when they saw it from the mountaintop, was growing cramped, as if squeezing and contracting to expel them. Or possibly, their need for revenge was growing so large that nothing could contain it. That girl who was in love with the Nazi boy began a series of sexual relationships with obnoxious, grabby boys who could never help her reconstruct her shattered belief in the existence of love. When at last she befriended a young man who treated her with respect, Julie Andrews finally broke her heart by seducing him on the family's clavichord. Discovering Julie Andrews helping the gawky, virginal boy to undo her underthings, the Captain flew into a rage and fetched the ax. Everyone in the von Trapp's adopted town was treated to the shameful sight of the tearful and naked young man, running from the enraged Captain, with his still-erect penis bobbing frantically before him.

Another member of the traumatized von Trapp clan took out his pent-up anger by laying out poison for small farm animals. The Captain caught him hiding in the bushes beside a neighbor's field, watching the baby goats go wobbly-legged and collapse into tiny heaving mounds moments after eating the snacks he had left for them. The Captain beat him soundly, venting his helpless fury at the dawning realization that his family was disintegrating around him and he could do nothing to save them. He had led them here to safety, and yet they were each somehow still trapped in the merciless grip of a brutal regime.

WARNING: In the interests of avoiding legal action, this would be an appropriate time to point out that as plausible as this scenario may sound, I made it up.

Every day, millions of men, women, and children beg their gods for Justice, for some small redress of their grievances, and get the cold shoulder in return. To them, the line between Justice and revenge becomes as insignificant as the lines on a sidewalk. When you were a kid, you taunted yourself with the idea that stepping on that line would break your mother's back. You still half-believed in the cosmic consequences of even the most insignificant act. Now that you're older and acquainted with injustice, you walk unafraid over the lines and toward wherever you're headed.

Fear & Loathing in Professional College

2005-10-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

What is the freshman experience? If we follow that question seriously it will lead us past the zone of academic bullshit, where dedicated teachers pass their knowledge on to a new generation, and into the nitty-gritty of human needs and hang-ups.

First, let's see what's happening now. Let's look at the role students play in what we like to call education. College is where we let the dying society inject its venom into us. They exploit and enslave students, they petrify society and they make democracy unlikely. And it's not what we are taught that does the harm but instead how we are taught.

College freshmen are pushed around, their will is stolen, they are turned into timid square apathetic slaves --authority addicts. A student is expected to know his place. The faculty tells us what courses to take, what to read, what to write, and frequently, where to set the margins on his word processed document. They tell us what's true and what isn't. Some teachers insist that they encourage dissent but they're almost always just teasing and every student knows it.

In fact, for the freshman student, it doesn't make that much difference which program you're in. The real lesson is the method. The medium in college truly is the message. And the medium is, above all, coercive. You're forced to attend. The subjects are required. You have to do homework. You must observe college rules. And throughout, you're bullied into docility and submissiveness. They may pad the handcuffs--but the handcuffs stay on.

It's how you're taught that does the harm. You may only study geometry for a semester-- or Calculus for two years. But doing what you're told, whether or not it makes sense, is a lesson you get every blessed school day for twelve years or more. You know how malleable we humans are. And you know what good learners we are--how little time it takes us to learn to drive a car or a plane or to play passable guitar. So imagine what the effect must be upon our apt and impressionable minds of a twelve-year course in servility.

Twelve years pitted against your classmates in a daily Roman circus. The game is Doing What You're Told. The winners get gold stars, affection & envy. They get A's, honours, awards and college scholarships. The losers get humiliation and degradation. The fear of losing the game is a great fear: it's the fear of swats, of the principal's office, and above all the fear of failing. What if you fail and have to watch your friends move past you to glory? And, of course, the worst could happen: you could be expelled. Not very many kids get swats or fail or are expelled. But it doesn't take many for the message to be heard. These few heavy losers are like severed heads displayed at the city gates to keep the populace in line.

The unwritten law of the land when it comes to instructors is: Tell the man what he wants to hear or he'll fail your ass out of the course! When a teacher says "jump", students jump. Even more discouraging than this master-slave approach to education is the fact that the students take it. They haven't gone through twelve years of schooling for no reason. They've learned one thing and perhaps only one thing during those twelve years. They've forgotten their algebra. They've grown to fear and resent literature. They write like they've been lobotomized. But, Wow, can they follow orders!

Students don't ask that the orders they are given make sense. They've given up expecting things to make sense long before they leave elementary school. Things are true because the teacher says they're true. Your english teacher tells you a noun is a person, place or thing. So let it be. The important thing is to please her. Back in kindergarten, you found out teachers only love children who’d stand in nice straight lines. And that's where it's been at ever since.

What could possibly explain what we see in a freshman class? Is it a slave mentality? We are obliging on the surface but hostile and resistant underneath. Students vary in their awareness of what's going on. Some recognize their own put-on for what it is worth and even let their rebellion break through to the surface now and then. Others -- including most of the "good students" -- have been more deeply brainwashed. They swallow the crap with greedy mouths. They honest-to-God believe in grades, in busy work, in General Education requirements.

College entrance requirements tend to screen out the rebels. Not entirely, of course. Some students are expert con artists who know perfectly well what's happening. They want the diploma and spend their years in the penitentiary alternately laughing and cursing as they play the game. If their egos are strong enough, they cheat a lot. And, of course, even when they are angry down deep somewhere, it comes out in passive rather than active aggression. Frequent spells of laziness makes them misread simple questions. They spend their night mechanically outlining and highlighting chapters while meticulously failing to comprehend a single word of what's in front of them.

My question here would be; Why does the medium of education affect the freshmen so deeply while its purported content--the subject matter--so often slips their minds? I believe this is partly because the content varies from year to year while the form remains more or less the same. But also, the form--a structure of rules, punishments, rewards--affects us directly in a real way, while the subject matter may have no such immediate grasp on our lives. After all, don't we tend to learn best what matters most? Under a coercive system it isn't really the subject that matters. What matters is pleasing the authorities. These two are far from being one in the same.

Finally, there's the darkest reason of all for the master-slave approach to education. For one thing, damn little education takes place in colleges. How could it? You can't educate slaves, you can only train them. Or, to use an even uglier and more timely word, you can only program them.

Students don't get emancipated when they graduate. As a matter of fact, we don't let them graduate until they've demonstrated their willingness -- over 16 years -- to remain slaves. And for important jobs, like teaching, we make them go through more years just to make sure.

Educational oppression is trickier to fight than any other form of oppression. If you're a terrorist, they can't exile you. They either have to intimidate you or kill you. But in high school or college they can just bounce you out of the fold. And they do. Rebel students and renegade faculty members get smothered or shot down with devastating accuracy. Others get tired of fighting and voluntarily leave the system.

Students have immense unused power. They could, theoretically, insist on participating in their own education. They could make academic freedom bilateral. They could teach their teachers to thrive on love and admiration, rather than fear and respect, and to lay down their weapons. Students could discover community. And they could learn to dance by dancing on the scantron cards. They could raze one set of walls and let life come blowing into the classroom. They could raze another set of walls and let education flow out and flood the streets. They could turn the classroom into where it's at -- a field of action. And believe it or not, they could study eagerly and learn prodigiously for the best of all possible reasons -- their own reasons.

They could, Theoretically. They have the power. If history has taught us one thing, for students, as for any oppressed group of people, the hardest battle isn't with the enemy, It's with what enemy has done to your mind

Schrodinger's Solipsistic Student

2005-10-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

Concerts tend to bring out the best in musical performers. For some reason uncomprehendible to the most of us, there is sense of connection that you can feel at a really charged up concert. We barely get a glimpse of it and never truely last in that euphoric moment forever.

In a classroom, we're neither looking for a concert like experience, nor are we want a Seinfeld-esque personality.

When I walk into that class room, what I'm secretly hoping for is somebody who can engages the intellect of the class, making them feel good they're alive. Yet there have been several an occasion, you are made to feel like yet another formless boring data dump by someone who not only hasn’t figured out how to connect with the class, he hasn’t even realized he needs to.

Students have accepted the fact of the matter that most of their teachers simply launch into their own work as if

• they have read and thoroughly assimilated all previous work in the field;

• they can absorb, in real time, all of the material about to be verbally inflicted on them; and

• they can accurately extract all the important conclusions from this spiel with little or no help from the teacher.

It takes quite a bit of effort to stay awake at the best of times to figure out the context, if not surmise that deep down within somewhere hidden away is a logical flow of ideas.

The greatest trick Microsoft ever pulled was convincing the world that PowerPoint was not Evil. "Bullet Oriented" visual aids establish a military relationship between the student and the instructor. Powerpoint has this way of efficiently bulldozing subtlety replacing it with ambiguous phrases and lowering the student's IQ by 20 points.

Very soon one finds the presentation has taken on a rather gonzo element. Moderately promising data morphs itself into chartjunk poking it's finger into the eye of thought.

Well how did these visual aids that were supposed to get the main points across maintaining a logical flow of ideas come to the point of driving students up the wall. Powerpoint allows speakers to pretend that they are giving a real talk, and audiences to pretend that they are really listening.

When the time comes to open your text books to page N, and it's kind of like story time but when the contents of the book are read aloud to the entire class, and you get this eerie feeling you know less about the subject that when he started reading trust me it's bad.

This is when it comes to mind, hey if JFK had powerpoint would he have been a better speaker. Would "I have a dream" sounded any better if we saw it with some animation....

Is it too much to walk into a lecture hall and find someone who's

• Kind without being a pushover

• Knowledgeable without being condescending

• Clearly expressive without being boring

Freaky-No-Mix: A Rogue Explores The Hidden Side of Almost Something

2005-09-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

The following document is thanks to Freakonomics... If there's one thing I detest it's having to create the same kinda stuff over and over again.. I can relate to God .. i mean he did the original patented creation himself and left man with the pleasurable unoriginal procreation mass manufacturing part..

Well back to my original idea of righting the write stuff.. [sic] well this book got me thinking .. it rekindled my thought process and shed new light on already existing preconcieved notions about life in general... it was actually the very first time i read a piece of non-fiction and said to myself ... this guy better come out with his sequel pretty quick...

as for the piece of literature i intend to write... compared to the original book this is going to be a joke of an effort .. but hey it's just me flexing my grey cells ...

ahem.. ahem... testing grey matter ...well let's wind the clocks back to the year 1991... the year the narishimha rao congress I regime came ot power in india... manmohan singh opened the floodgates to international inverstors and the trade markets openned up... we in india saw a huge influx of trade and commerce... the harshad mehta stock market incident ... the Rajan Pillai East-West Airlines scandal; i mean the lil factoids you can gather from the era are gigantormous...But let's just stray away from all that and have a look at something totally irrelevent ...

The year is 1995 and both Aishwarya Rai and Sushmitha Sen won the respective beauty contests that they participated in ... .My pondering in this case is ...what did these women have that their predecessors didnt have.. was it that in the couple of years [91-95] they were able to acquire int'l beauty consultants and we adopted a new strategy in training these girls .... or were their vested interest in choosing these women to be winners in the contest...

Let's speak in numbers ... a country of nearly a billion people ... half of them, are women let's say... and half of em are in the 18-35 age bracket... and half of em are urbanites ... and half of em are in the economic bracket to take full advantage of this economic boom that we have spoken of...

In this case study, when there is a new born market of customers and in india's case such a large majority of people with purchasing power .. in the cummulative numbers have made up for what japan and the US do in pure GDP.. so we have this market place with people ready to buy and markets openning up every day.. so what do the marketters need to do mass promote their goods ...and what better way than to do so other than with the media ..

back to the beauty market ... 1995 ... india has posted it's flag in the international beauty market ... guys are oggling ... girls are getting self concsious ... u have awakenned a slumberring marketting .. and guess what those baby boomers did for us .. they left us with a massive number of urbanite hip youngsters who are soaking up this phenomenon right before your eyes...

within the next 5 years we will have seen lara dutta, priyanka chopra and a lot more of those chicks walking down those ramps and and fluttering feathers as they walk by....
"Femina Miss India" has a category for Miss Perfect Left Butt Cheek and Miss Most Moist G spot...

the market has soaked up this phenomenon and if there's one thing that Newton got right when that freaking apple smashed his skull in was "momentum" ... and with the beauty product growing every minute ... somebody did something right...

well.. the chain of thought has been broken thanks to a lunch break never the less that isnt a problem with our predicament ... well we have figured out that there were ulterior motives behind all those beauty queens being pumped out of india.. i mean think about it ... up until the 90s the world didnt give two shits about the kind of beaty that Indian women had.. and now all of a sudden...OHHH... AHH... they are exotic beauties .. my ass... the capitalist the wolrd over just saw
they could naw their way into ur pockets ...

now let's stray away from that chain of thought and look at the socio-political aspect of it .. let's just say that these girls of the 90s were concieved in the 70s... so that makes the parents those bell bottom flower power folks who were smoking pot and listening to some really cool music .... so what abt those ppl... did they send these girls to the right school ... give em some kinda sensibility that wasnt around earlier... did they take them to the right movies... the right fairs... the right family events ...

Let's have a look at their biology ... were they the product of the green revolutions bio-engineered milk and wheat..or were they picky eaters as kids ... did they opt out of certain kinds of foods .. what kind of foods didd they totally avoid.. what was their exercise routine like as kids ... were they bullied by the boys in school .. or were they used to being oggled at all thru school...

Now how about have a look at really miscellanous aspects: Were they the first borns, where they born in the same kinda of astrological/astronomical star alignments ... did they have pets ? Did they mastrubate regularly? how about sexual escapades... were the involved in lesbian trysts ???

Enough said, There's a lot more I'd like to look into... Cricket Players, the Hawala Scam, The amount of Gulfees, The Mallu brain drain phenomenon...

Partir, c'est mourir un peu

2005-09-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

The first time I tried writing a love letter for myself [I'd mastered the art, and authored several a letter for a fair price in alcoholic beverages by the time...]; it never got sent to the girl... Instead I modified it and included parts of it in a Kalari article [Kairali's in-house mag]...

" I do not know for what deed of mine in my last life I have been rewarded with so many laurels, of which having the good fortune to be acquainted with you becomes the icing on the cake. At times I feel that you are not just human but rather an angel sent from above, perhaps an incarnation of some divine godly form, let's put it as the God of small things, blessed with these gifts which you bestow upon me as I arrive.

The small things that you do that makes me happy in not just small measures but very large heaps. The little parties you throw, the little songs you sing, the little dances you perform, the little advices you give, the little games we play, the little chats we have. The little things that make this life a little, no, a lot worth living.

If I compare each person I have met in this miniscule lifetime of mine to a star, I would call you a shooting star. Few and far between do you come by to emblazon me with your celestial presence. You were not there when just a few stars inhabited my skies, and will not be there when my skies are to be peopled by so many. But when you are around, you just light up my sky, you make all the stars just stop and look on at you.

When I'm with you I feel I'm dancing with the angels in the sky, I see snowfall in the summertime, feel the healing powers of the one above, see the world from the highest mountain, taste love from the purest fountain. With you I saw the sun make love to the sea. You lift me up when I'm feeling low, I see my tears disappear, and I feel my pain pass away. You do the things I've never done; I've sailed in a perfect dream but still haven't seen anything that amazes me quite like you do. "

Today after all these years I'm still being asked to write ... I couldn't help but look back ...

Les Indespensables De Arun Jacob

2005-08-26T17:45:00.000-07:00

I have come to accept the true penetration of confusion, Confusion that dwells within.. Confusion that finds place within the deepest darkest corners of the human psyche.. One that resides amoung th e loftiest of you and me...

Confusion, the horror of this pain it brings, a pains that stings... a stinging we dwell on ... we accept because a narcisstic streak within us calls for this paiin to keep on inflicting it self upon us... the claves knaw into us sucking the life force of our very existance away from us... but there isnt a fear in our minds which ios a vacous entity now for fear and confusion have taken hostage of what used to be afeasible thinking faculty now home to this weird sensation that we have come to hate but havent had the courage to uproot from within...

So who feeds this demon that grows and gathers allies and gets stronger with each passing day ... the priests within have lost their pwoers to conduct the required ceremonies of exorcism which might have been the last hope of rekindling the past .. but we have come to terms that the past will never be back ..and this wild being that has taken control of the realms of the mind, we have to accomodate this being..for it holds divine powers .. the likes of which we have never seen before.. an entity that gains strength in a given instant... a whiff of the slightest fragrance, a bright color ..a melodious tune...this enemy is turning out way too strong for mere mortals to combat...rather it would be better to ally ourselves with this embodiment of all things undescribable

where is this fear coming from ... is it a generalized fear of all things alien and new ... am i afraid of this new entity that i havent been able to figure out yet... is it my ego that cant handle the fact that this might be it's waterloo... this might be an enemy i cant subdue ... who am i dealing with... and why is it that as much i want kill this nemesis .. i'dn't mind dying in his arms ...

how much pain and suffering must one amass, be inflicted upon before one finds the courage to stand up before this fiend or is he/she a friend..

Why do you do this to me 'Love'?

KUNDI-MAN [PBUH; place bum upon him]

2005-08-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

I take great pride in posting this piece here... My hearty congrats to the author for the first episode of the Kundiman Project :"Kundiman Begins"...This happens in a galaxy far far away...and has been happening for way to long ..

KUNDIMAN’S LIFESTORY
BAD BUT GOOD DAY
One day there was a boy named Jamie. He loved cycling. He used to go to school on his cycle everyday. One day he saw the three meanest bully’s of the school. Andy, Axel & Joe. They saw him & came towards him. He wanted to escape but he couldn’t go away because he was already late for school and there was no place to hide. By This time they had already reached him. “Watcha doing wimp” asked Ax. He didn’t answer. He tried to ignore them & started walking when Andy blocked him. “Wait there Jam I have a little present for you on Christmas”. Jamie replied “I know that your gift will be stupid you jerk”. Andy got angry. “I know how to take care of this problem”. He pushed Jamie right into puddle of mud & they went away laughing. Ax said “Take this as your X’mas gift wimp”. He was covered with mud. He was so angry. How could he go to school like this? He thought. He ran fast & reached the school gate. He went right in & reached his class right on time. He got into his class without looking at anyone. His teacher Mrs.Pimpleweed saw him & asked him “Where were you Jamie?” He replied “I got bullied on the way” She thought for a while. Then she said “That’s not my problem, it is your responsibility to look after yourself.” “That’s detention for you.” Some children started giggling. It was not his fault he got bullied he thought. After a horrible day of school he had to go to detention & the worst part was he had to stay at school with the teacher watching his every move. He never knew how detention was as it was his first time and he really did hate cuz Andy, Axel & Joe were there too. He tried to think of an excuse to get out of there. The only thing he could think of was the toilet. He asked her “Madam, may I go to the toilet” asking it in a very kind manner to make sure she would fall for the trick. “Well…………ok.” in a rather annoying way. “But I’m warning you if you don’t come back in 10 minutes you will get detention for the rest of the week.” Detention for the rest of the week! That would be the worst thing that could happen. He came out of the room quite disappointed. His plan had worked at the same time failed. Anyway now that there was no use trying to escape detention he thought there was no use but to go to the toilet cuz he felt like going to the toilet now. He liked almost all the superheroes and sat shiting on “thee seat” and thinking how life would be if he was a superhero. He was so much into it that he forgot the time fly by. He quickly got up (after cleaning his butt) and went to wash his hands. Just when he was going to leave he remembered to flush (which usually happens to me) and then something very strange happened right out the “thee seat”.

I'm the Demon Seed, Satisfaction Guaranteed

2005-08-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

The kinda ecstatcy one kinda develops is pretty enormous ..when it's a personal victory... of the sorts i might try to explain .. but i'd rather not ... coz it's the best possible i can rollick in laughter... the pure pleasure of the sinister minds...i get it now..have u ever noticed there are some conversations u wanna go over... coz they are like chess games... u wanna study the moves.. coz that's how they were executed....

The sheer brilliance of certains acts are best left unadmired by the general and admired by the creator and an elite few... coz vanity is the underlying theme behind it ... I can relate to Dr. Frankenstein... I can relate to Dr.Jekyl ... the virtuosity of this creation of yours isnt for the world to find flaw in ...rather for u to cherish vanquish and encapsulate into a moment ... that can be replayed ...where u can bask in the glory of...

What am I talking abt ? does it matter.... well i guess it does.. the premise is non-possessive intimacy... and how a certain somebody was trying to comprehend it..well... finding something out that you already knew ... is kinda like finding something else right... that too..

I had set out to say way too many things ... but i'm yet to find the perfect platform to latch onto ... falling flat and doing something without conviction isnt what i'm up for tonight... this will have to do..

I Love You...[couldn't come up with a better closing line...]

Nagumomo

2005-08-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

Why have I engaged in a sabbatical... Well the answer would be rather plain and simple... There's this polish proverb I heard recently that makes absolute sense... "You know what they say about families; they look best in portraits" Truly I say onto you ... there are times I question myself ...is it rage sympathy or a bit of both that runs through me ... How irrational people tend to be can sometimes be bewildering... i almost endangered the delicate balance of coexistance on this planet ..while trying to divulge in the inner depths of rationality... a man on a mission is a rather dangerous proposition ... and ppl try to feel your integrity to succumb to their fancies... well emotional battering is another forte one has to flex your muscles in ...this incoherent piece of literature is a creation or loads of confusion empathy pity anger and rage.... if only i could channel it somewhere else and get something out of it .... as for now folks .... bah... who and what am i trying to console..... well... gimme a lil more while ...i'll sort this out ....

R-COONa

2005-07-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

RIF - "Reich Center for Industrial Fat Provisioning" ("Reichsstelle für Industrielle Fettversorgung")

RJF - "Pure Jewish Fat" ("Rein jüdisches Fett")

A source of major controversy, I don't wish to to type out the details of the acronyms mentioned above.

The War of 1857 - Cow Fat used in lubricating, loading the cartridges of rifles used by the Hindu Soldiers.

Fight Club - Tyler Durden, manages to acquire fat from liposuction clinics, to use in his soap factory.

What I would like to share with you, is look at the manipulation technics employed in wartime Germany to instill fear among the victims and sicken them at the time.

And how the same technic was used by the war mongers against the British to disgustipate the mercenary that fought under the union jack.

Why did I include Fight Club on the list, just a tangent of thought. Did Chuck Palahniuk employ this literary device to disgust you at face value. Or were there deeper connotations?

September 13th, 1752

2005-07-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

There is this distinctive element of pleasure that is to be derived from orchestrating an event. To have mastered the whole situation and all the variables that is to be an encountered in the system. It's quite invariably pleasurable to master this artform.

Through history myth and legend alike have amassed, plundered and pilaged through with knowledge of this artform; the Chankya Sutra, The Art of War, The whole Shakuni escapade, we have Shikhandi as the front man in the fight against Bhishma. Through every mythology, you find this elite event coordinator.

Now the beauty of this individual is how well laid out thought out are his/her operations. And it is in the occurence of the event itself that they take pride in and not the egoistic pleasure of having to be accountable to it. I'm sure the ppl behind JFK's assasination would grail. The folks who got the Bush elections to be a success will agree.

The people who control what happens in front of you, where the average joe blow is quite unaware of the calculations that took place to make it happen. that is sheer brilliance... War monging soldiers well never know the intricate delicacies that espionage can serve.

Vera... Vera... What Has Become Of You?

2005-07-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Isnt It Ironic?

Shankar Mahadevan; trained to be computer engineer...turned out to be a singer....

Arundhathi Roy; qualified to be an architect ... ...Booker prize in her first book....

Manoj Night Shyamalan; his folks insisted he be doctor ... but he preferred his 8mm camera instead...

do u see a common streak, ppl or is it just me... what's the deal... hey folks ... so he/she aint a doctor or enggr... doesnt look like their lives went down the drain now did it? so why dont u give em a chance...

"the narrow domestic walls" are yet to meet the fate of their Berlin counterparts...

so what is the root cause of this social dilemma as i'd like to call it now.. is it the insecurity faced by a generation ..and that is being superimposed on this new generation to circumvent the anger and frustration that generation had to face as they realized a non-technical education has it's limitations in the social strata... and is this so called higher education a ticket to all of life's pleasures and are these ppl truly trying to elevate their social status by thrusting upon their children the divinity of these professions..

so does one's profession define who u r ... or was it that worldly pleasures that can be assured the vortex of this school of thought... would they turn around to call the younger generation ungrateful for they never made them have to suffer the sufferings that were forced upon them... the shame anger and frustration of an entire genreation is that what this spew of doctors and engineers are supposed to mean...

but wait a minute.... how abt the flipside of the coin ... the anguish, the retribution, the sheer anonymity of a human life form ... pushing me to exist for the sake of fulfilling your dreams and not mine... what abt my dreams what abt what i want to become .. what abt the little castles i have .. what abt them... am i just ur demon seed for not obeying ...am i to scummb to ur desires or be forsaken for an eternity... do i not get a chance to do what i want to do... why do u create this barrier... and route all communication thru this one channel... why does every conversation we have always have to be about how much i have upset u .. abt how much i never lived up to ur aspirations .. why is it never a positive note... why is never abt what i have attained... why does every conversation we have turn into a confrontation ... is this so called generation gap that u speak off.. actually ur not willing to accept the truth ...ur utopian fantasies being fulfilled is what my life is supposed to be to u....isnt it... u want tobe a ventriliquist forever... dont u ... with ur hands shoved up my arse .... making me say and do what u want me to ...

let's cut it the strings ...it's abt time...

PS. Nikhil Chinappa; engg college drop out ... MTV India Veejay... has a pet goldfish named karup kundi

Being dIsS_FuNk_sHuN-aLi ImPeRfeCt

2005-07-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

a slump is the last thing we should get our selves into .. coz the thing with inertia is .. u tend to make ur selfcomfortable doing what u do.. and if u r rdiing high on the go get em tiger attitude and u get a break... better plan to have the day filled with break neck speed activities coz otherwise ...it can be a shocker... how udr body and mind just shuts down on u ... experience has told me time and again not to do this ... but never do i learn ...

so here u have it ladies and gentlemen in a dire effort to try to cook up something worth while to read or write for that matter i figured randomly punching out my thought s on the key board should account for some form of the creative thought process to crank out a viable form of literature little did i know i was to find my self rotting away at the inside of creative thought centre.. better yet looks like microsoft has taken over...and cnn is covering it on prime time tv... hbo has te movie rights for the tv production wait, wb just heard abt it .. and they wanna turn it into a major motion picture.....yess... who are they going to cast s arun's lost creative epicenter is the question that media moghuls have to anticaipate... i've heard it's a new face but with the mgm take over by sony ...even they dont want to try a new face with bond... hummm so since tom hanks is playing robert langdon and pierce brosnan is playing bond ..who does play me.... i havent the clue ... but wait i hear the exective producer talking abt the apt female to play his better half... ah... see now i knew it was getting to inetersting ...so i perk up my ears and evesdrop into their conversation as to who they have instore to play my better half...

exec#1; "look ... the guy's love life is an absolute enigma... do we really know what he wants and what he's looking forward to ... i mean he could be an ed gein or ted bundy in the making for all i care ...."

exec#2: "no.. the freaking mad erratic behaviour andthe total unpredicatbility i say we can get away with something bigger better... look liz hurley and brendan frasier .. we pulled that of right... and liz wouldnt mind after all her hubby's name's the same one he's got right..."

exec#3: "i dont know guys ... maybe we'll haveto take the iamsam look at things .. i dont know it's mt personal take on it ..."

exec#4: "guy's the bruised emmigrant the perfect tony montana angle i tell u michelle's too old to play it off let's get that keira chick... i kinda got the hots for her..."

exec#5: "personally i think we can give it a good company spin off, and get that scarlett johnason chick on board i think she's got the potential to pull it off"

exec#6: "wait a sec... u think we can sell an ashton kutcher off with this guy... i like it .. if we get working on it fast enough we can get amanda peet on board and make it bigger than a lot like love "

exec#7: "u guys can freaking talk abt who u wann cast till the cows come home .. but i'm telling u it's all abt the product placements... and as long as i see his face in burger king meals and ppl are singing the title track to the soundtrack and music inspired from ... i'm good or i'll make it my life's personal karmic duty to flush down each of ur testicles downt he drain"

that kinda brought a pregnant silence in the room .. which wasw followed by more discussion of the plot line of my life... if these werethe guys in charge of my life... lemme tell u they had no clue what they were doing... and before i barged into a columbine moment ... i made an exit stage left...

I am Payable On Death

2005-06-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

[The following message contains encoded details to an unearthing in the north american continent in the Golden Horse Shoe region; if the message has been deciphered, your are adviced to leave your reply to state your hypothesis as to what the message may have to offer, This applies only till the end of the month]

The brust of extra terrestrial dust that burst forth from the trans galactic pod was not short of breath taking... it shot off at unbelievable speed of close to 60km/sec.... the massive amount of details that was was being emanated from the space craft was absolutely astounding... 65,536 residents of the area came out to see this blitzreig of color... the detailed body work of the craft itself left close to 15000 people perpetually dazed and confused... it was when the telekinetic energy emanated highly dense thermodynamic impulses thru a media much hotter than the average blue flame of fire we get to see on the planet ... what came to happen after that a true display of Sonar power..the gushing sound of audio waves from 20Hz to 20kHz left people amazed ... the dazzling performances ranged for close to 15 hours...

Coke-a-Doodle Doo!!

2005-06-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

“A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.” Andy Warhol

That one line got me going ... the material belongings we strive for ...as soon as it becomes common place it loses it's significance... so it isn't about the material value of the item itself now is it... it's about how exclusive the item is.. and how u can flaunt it for it's non-availablity to the general public..and then rub it in their face...so it can be cheap/expensive... old/new as long as it stands out and you can garner attention for possessing something they do not have and cannot easily get...so it is ADD ..topped with greed and gluttonous consumerist propaganda... would you like some fries with that?

so where does one draw the line .. or does one not think abt lines and narrow domestic walls that keep the apple orchards from growing into the woods dark and deep... My Captain Oh Captain I call out to thee, the one who made the lamb, can u sing me a song of a lad that has gone.. the unkindest cut of all would be to spend an eternity waiting with the alabatros around my neck...

And they live happily ever after

2005-06-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

And they live happily ever after

....

.........

....

[Have they closed the freaking book yet?]

...

good... fuck was that a grotesque exercise in happy story telling or what ... i mean c'mon... this job is just freaking unbelievable ... i mean how long am i going to be working here in this place.... everytime these kids open the book it's the same deal... i have to go around do all the dirty work .. be nice to that bitch who play's the princess save her from that dragon ...who's actually a nice guy and then i'm supposed to live happily ever after.. with her ... holy shit ..gimme a break...i'dn't piss on her if she were on fire...ur collegues are a bunch of whining sissy's!... its a monotonous boring job.. i need some more action .. i need a deviation in the script... i wanna do something outta the ordinary... maybe fall off that stallion i ride and break a leg.. get an extra terrestrial to blow the planet to smitherins... have a govt sting operation on the cocaine dealings of the princess's secret love interest in columbia.... i need go to a bar with my buddies... take a princess out to dinner perhaps..... another one .. one i'm more comfortable with perhaps... this one obviously has no clue what's going on life? i mean each day she comes to the trailer.. and we wait with our costumes and make up on for the kids to pick up the book and read us .. and we keep doing the same jobs ... and some of are getting sick... we need to retire ...we're planning on having a strike... alice is scared of the dark and they send her thru that hole all the time... jack is scared of heights ..and he's gotta go up that bean stalk... the wolf in sheep's clothing ... what can u do ..the guy's foster mom was a sheep... he has an identity crisis.. each time he has to play the part ..he has to go to counselling... the fox ..he's allergic to grapes... the crow ... well the truth is they had to digitally alter his voice ..coz the truth is he sings quite well... lil red riding hood came to try out for baywatch and look where she landed up... goldie locks ...let's not talk abt her eating disorder now shall we... so before i do something totally irrational i better get some rest ... i can smell another shift coming just around the corner..

r u more than a mediocre statistic?

2005-06-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

In today's hyper-selling universe that we live in ... you are all a part of the captialist casualities... instituitionalized thru your so called education... you have lost your voice to be somebody... to be a contender... u wouldn't step up against an injustice in school, college or on your neighbourhood .... coz it doesnt bother you.. it's not a matter of concern to you.... in the capitalist's world... Recession is when your friend loses his job.. Depression is when you lose your job...

The cultural dilemma of yesterday's tradition and tommorow's technology throws u in one of the greatest juxtapositions of all time...do i go home to make microwaveable sambhar and pressure cooked instant idlis... or do i see success in life coming from having to try making my Yuppie existance urn into ur averages DINS household..

Is being mediocre what life is all abt ... and is conformity the end of the rainbow... why on earth can u stand up for what is right... why are ppl so obssessed with your senior officer might see that as insubordination... why are students so freaking scraed of reporting to a higher authority their prof/teacher sucks... why do they just keep sucking up to him/her.. and not just lose it and tell somebody this absolute moron in real life who cant get a real job has taken to teaching!!!

It's my honest anaylsis on the whole teaching proffession.. in a demographic of 100 students in a school class room environment ... 3-5 might be brilliant ...and should mostly like be stalwarts in the profession of their choice... then there 10-15 real bright kids... they are passionate abt certain things ... but undue pressures from parents abt making em follow a career they are least interested will turn these ppl into chornic depressed individuals.. who's true potential was always down played... and they were only made to see their flaws and follies... then there's the 20-25 ppl whose lives started out with not many great expectations and they are cool with what they have ... then there's the crowd that brings out teacher's ... ppl who actually dont have the grey matter to come out at the top .. whose ego's wont let them take a menial ok paying job in the blue collar work force.. these ppl are so frustrated that they didnt turn into those super heroes with dream jobs that they once dreamt abt ...

they take a look at the students they teach .. see the passion and drive these kids have.. and cringe at the ppl they once were and the wasted chance they were given.. they are so freaking frustrated in life at being now where close to the reality they had once wanted to be.. they make it their singular duty to trample the spirits of these youngsters ... turn them into obedient lil puppy dogs ... that havent figured out that that disapproval and disagreement isnt the same as disobiednece........

these kids are so ..omg.. what if he flunks me ... he'll make my life living hell... they have enslaved themselves ..and confined their living to the lowest low of human existance...a mediocre non-entity... a statistic... a roll number .. a tax payer... an identity number... you have thrown away a full fledged human life ... flushed it down the drains of corporate mediocrity ...and made ur self a statistic...

The Greatest Silent Killer of'em All!!!

2005-05-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

The cure for aids and cancer can wait ... They aren't half as lethal or dangerous as this situation at hand... It's not SARS Leprosy Anthrax or Small Pox... They can never be as lethal as this... The fatality inflicted upon the billions of ppl in it's name is mind boggling ... Yet u and i never pay attention to thru beligrent malady that floods us and flaunts itself and smacks us on our faces over and over again ... Napolean must have felt it at Waterloo, Hitler must have felt it creep down his neck as Colonel Winter brought his Russian conquest to a screeching hault... Gandhi must have felt the screams and scuffles as India got torn to shreds... What is it that has had it's universal prescene on the planet ... yet there's nothing that has been done to fix up the fiasco... Mother Teresa hadn't been able to soothe the one's aflicted by the damage... Pope John Paul never prayed to stop it's attrocities... the Dalai Lama never mentioned it ... Swami Vivekananda didnt seem to notice... those seven laps around Kabbah with those glorious chants of 'labayak allah!' never brought about any change...

So what am i raving about...... APATHY.... yes...apathy... student apathy... in colleges and universities ..after all the SNAFU and FUBAR they go thru on a regular basis ... they can care less... FACTORY WORKER APATHY... TEACHER APATHY... as a nation the citizen's engage in another distinct flavor of national APATHY... at hte end of it u just realize it's the biggest killer out there... and we're just doing absolutely nothing about it...

so y dont u just sit back and do jack shit abt it as well... hey u might feel this a piece of bullshit ... and this moron has nothing better to write about and i should tell him a word or two ...but dont !! dont bother... wtf... who cares??

Quarter Century!

2005-05-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

Ahem ... Ahem... There you have it ladies... I belong to the deluxe category of gents, who have accumulated enough time on the planet to have been acquainted to quite a few people. Having posted my quarter cnetury mark !!!

Here I am, Old enough to know my limits, and Young enough to exceed them.

Phoney Smiles Fake Hellos

2005-05-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've come to learn one very very important lesson. Families should never be phoney. Oh! God No! Not the slightest bit. Dysfunctional is okay. Normal even. But please not phoney. Remember the line from "Pink - Family Portrait" 'In our family portrait we look pretty, let's play pretend that it comes naturally' [I think I kinda choked up when I first saw the video] Now each time I come across a family portrait where the folks in em are posing in front of a camera faking that smile; the men making sure that ties line up straight, the collars are right, the crease on the trousers are proper, the shoes are polished.

The women, the protocol and procedure is quite as elaborate as detonating a nuclear arsenal. The right angle "You dont want to look FAT on camera!" your camera side is the left half of your face so u have to have that side of the picture. The coats of makeup added on to pile up on your face to ensure that over the years the actual facial maladies are never to be deciphered be a viewer. Thanks to digital photography I guess they can relax, but no the fish scales have to be applied to the lips... various types of synthetic mud to the face .. Various grades of charcoal products to the eyes to make the lashes fan out ... Shaved Waxed permed oh my god facial hair on a female's face is truly the lowest low in the incarnation chart ... the inhuman treatment that as facial hair you'll be subjected to is just beyond comprehension of anyone.. except for those less fortunate few who spent time in a concentration camp.. they might know what i'm talking abt.. or conceptualize the sheer gross amount of pain ...

Back to the family portrait ... after these men and women have indulged in unhealthy levels of vanity and pose in front of a camera .. They are preserving shots of memory... which is supposed to remind them of a time, a place, an event ... how is what i cannot seem to comprehend... those fake smiles, the cognitive dissonance, the artificial pleasantaries.. WHY? who's this for? What are you accomplishing by paying some one to take a picture of u .. in the most ill fitting uncomfortable clothing u ever ..probably clothing u leave behind in the closet...coz there isnt anywhere to wear it [that reminds me of the lady with the red dress in Requiem For a Dream] u stuff ur self into it.. wipe the sweat of ur brow... stare at the mirror the photographer has one last time ..as u practice the fake smile for the pic...

It's just outright disgusting... It's sickening coz u have to fabricate a reality to remember.. a pseudo-reality that will last for the length of shutter speed configurations... U need that developed film to look at ...and feel like "it comes naturally" ....

Before u forget ..vacation pictures are abt the fun time u had... like animals you have to be caught in your natural habitat.. doing what u do best!!! and then make funny faces at the camera... Dont wear a freaking suit and look like u have a hemmaroid the size of khilamanjaro stuck up your rear end ... that's not for your family vacation pix .. those are corporate mug shots ... government id shots... go ahead ... be that way... dont fake wedding photos... family gatherings .... and other events.. which mean things to u ... or are supposed to mean things to u ...
It's astonishing the lengths people go to, to make it look good, that's just botched...

That's that about portraits ...here's something else to chew on ... how often do u hear a conversation ..and have ur gut churning up everything u ate over the last decade ..Coz jesus christ how many fake conversations can u stand before you have an Ally McBeal moment ... There's a threshold to the amount of bullshit you can stand... And i've always wondered what keeps these ppl going... what's their elixir of life? what keeps the faketronic processor churning those reposes... one after their other.. they dont have the guts to give u a straight answer.. they cant say yes or no for fear of being politically incorrect.. they cant voice a strong opinion coz it might offend somebody... and the superfical niceties just keep populating the major expanse of their conversations ..if they maybe called that... ppl ...learn to grow balls... voice your response ...it could be right or wrong ..it doesnt matter... learn to have an opinion ..and stand by it ... dont copy some one else's tastes coz it seems cool... or since u have associated with that particular school of thought/product... No!! mainstream media, technology, views, literature has nothing to offer the human mind...

Intellgent thought comes from free thinkers ... non-conformists ... have the niche to stick ur head out to do something other than the ordinary...i believe in the mantra i wasnt born to be mediocre ... and these phoney ppl remind me of how much they want to be a part of a mediocre existance.. free from the chaotic nature of true free existance... independence ....from standards set by industries society and all other bureacratic instituitions out there....or you could just sit back have one good look at life, go up to google and find out "answer to life, the universe, and everything" get the answer ..and just say "FAKE IT!"

P.S. answer=42

Endaro Mahaanubhaavulu Andariki Vandanamulu

2005-05-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Why is it that we as people need to be awarded, gifted, appreciated in front of our peers to feel valid. Actors need award ceremonies to tell them they are good. Students need to be heralded for their respective laurels! Sportmen/women need to compete with each other excel and finally be accredited with a hunk of metal to show the rest of the world they are good.

Why? Why give peace prizes and nobel prizes? Who's ego's are being stroked in the process... Is an award a prosthetic that adds to the aura around an individual. Does a singer's vocal chords sound any better after he/she's been bestowed upon with a record contract and a half... thanks! Do soldiers turn into war monging deities with their bands colors and stripes...

Who is it for? Is it to inform the general public; look morons this individual strived way beyond what you lame excuses for human life forms ever will... This award he/she just won is to show you that your birth certificate is actually an apology letter from a condon factory. Your medicore existance means nothing to humanity. Go win something! and then come back, we'll give u a piece of paper that makes u special. It's a feather in your cap.. and what good is it there? It turns u into a super human... well.. a lil re-enforcement can do no harm... a lil caring, a good word , a regular thanks for the support would be cool.. but that never does happen now does it!

In our day to day lives we spend way too much times sprinting towards some dead line... sprinting to be the first ... to be noticed.. to be touched to be awarded ... to be a part of history.. to be remembered... for someone to flip thru our portfolio and document who we are.. on the basis of pieces of paper and metals in our possession... that's the only way the "-" on our tombstone will signify who and what we were are and will be ....

Those awards who and what r they for ...It's for those whining numb nuts who think they do the world a favor doing what they do.. it's for them to look up from their lil insignificant lives at some one who actually did something with his/her life.. went out and slayed a dragon, killed a giant with a single stone .. went out to battle for his brother's beloved.. yeah it's for them...maybe they need an award too!!!

Auguries of Naïveté

2005-05-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

Thw world of mythology is rather intriguing to say the leas. But here's the best part the commonality in all those ancient world cultures regarding the same themes. How ancient mythologies who had no means of communicating with each other, said the same stories ... How did that happen? How did the same ideal scenarios and story lines get depicted in different stories without ever raising a red flag in ancient literature plagarism... Moses was sent to be raised from a pauper to a prince... Karna born a prince was raised a pauper... Orpheus and Eurydice made a pact with the devil ... but he turned back at the last minute to lose her...anyone remember the indian counterpart.. how similar is that to savthiri?...

Any way what got me thinking on thse lines is the multimillion dollar Star Wars franchise is coming out with yet another movie... and look at Darth Vader he was the chosen one .. but the dark side has invited him over... so now we all know what is to become of him ... hummm.... wasn't this the same Dilemma MT Vasudevan Nair's Chathiyan Chandu was in... wasnt it the same moral dilemma Acchilles was in ... wasnt it the same juxtaposition Karna was in? Warriors with immense power and talent ..groomed by their elders... With lovers who cheated them ... with teachers who betrayed them, with a new propaganda that's bewitching them ..with the megalomanic in them raging to come thru... Havent we all heard these tales before... but we'll be flocking into see the revenge of sith... it wont be james earl jones we'll be hearing thru the hi-fi stereo sound systems...but u'll be there wont u luke?

Title is not the word, But is the first word that comes to mind

2005-04-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Ok People ... I'm back ... with a vengence this time coz man have i had a hectic week... Wow .. it was a real helluva rollercoaster ... Honest to god did some real neat stuff... Went and bought myself another couple of books and have been lost in em ever since.... Lemme list em out to those of who are interested ... Chuck Chuck Palahniuk - Survivor, Choke... This guy is just mind boggling... i couldnt put down the book it was back to back cover to cover.. and the stuff he talks about in his book ... sheer brilliance... with a spice of sarcasm, a tad bit of anti-establishmentarianism, anarchism and out right weird stuff.. [and it some how rubs off, or so i feel coz hummm i got into some pretty nasty pblms, but that's another story]... apart from that i got Gravity's Rainbow, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence, The Bell Jar, Hitchhiker's Guide Deluxe Edition(that's with all the six stories...)

I have had a cpl of rough days not enough sleep... too much of mundane stupid stuff going on .. and the usual load of problems and stuff.. on top of all of this i have to deal with the ongoing tribulations of others wow... what a life ..in the words of louis armstrong ... what a wonderful world ...

Cautionary word of advice to those of you who are reading this ....stop running around ... stop falling for the wrong reasons .... stand up for what is right at the right time at the right place... i'd sure wish to elucidate on the subject matter i'm referring to at hand ... but hummm, i dont get teh feeling u folks are ready yet...

2005-04-18T05:38:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen.. or My Dear Gendiles!!!

I have been indulging in myself for a while.... Yes, It's a weird cool sly feeling .... Yup, What have i been doing well i just realized that my DVD collection over the last 4 months have grown to 22 movies... And my book collection has just grown to over ten titles... Dues to lack of time [i'm in a hurry to leave for a 3 day conference ]and will be out of town and in the wildereness amidst bushes and trees and lakes and forests .... and deers and racoons and loads of bugs and marsh pits and stuff... and not to forget the shit loads of alcohol I wont be punching anything in.... So to beef up the content of the blog here's the list of books that i bought:

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

YES!!! People I've been reading your blogs and i've loads of comments to bring to your attention ... But at a later time and date... Until then Cheerio!!!

Love and Living on Planet Earth

2005-04-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

Parallel Story lines intrigue me... I'm talking abt the likes of Magnolia, Sliding Doors, Requeim For A Dream, Cube, Hypercube that kinda stuff[i'm omitting the likes of pulp fiction and kane & abel here coz it's got too much of public exposure and the real art gets buried away in hype and publicity]... when three or more characters are tackled on in an absolute chaotic and sporadic manner... but the author is totally in control of it .. yet the reader doesnt get the sense of soothing comfort that he/she is...

Well in a consentous effort to make such a lucid comment ... i'm doing a comment piece ... no i'm no roger ebert ... but it needs to be tackled...y...to address this discourse would require a whole conndrum of reasons... but for now my singular need to have it out there in your face...

human nature is fantastic... it truly is ..... the whole process of growth is irrefutably beautiful... the dilemma's we go thru... our insatiable need to rationalize our thought process is even more demanding than ou nature to have sex ... and at different times in our life we under go different kids of dilemma's... from ever since we're kids we keep asking questions...we're all the "HAGAR the Horrible WHY-Kings!"...why is the sky blue what is hot is what is cold... are the clouds made of cotton candy... as a teenager what does a kiss feel like ... Raymond Babbot would probably say Wet!! definitely wet!!! what is with the all powerful all knowing god out there... oh god ..this is rather the most intriguing ..and indecipherable question to the lone crusader...on his fight to unravel the mysteries of faith...

hold on a second any fathomable explaination is likely to lead some kinda moral or ethical standpoint that is not going to swerve in the direction of the majority ... but lemme try my hand at addressing divinity and homosexuality and going back to rekindle your inner child coz u feel there's a part of u left there that has to tended to...

the natural course of life gives us the reasoning capability to address all these and any other dilemma's that may come up... but the first answer comes from within... the quest ... dont let the urge to ask why . dont ever let it die... to rebel with or without a cuase is a part of growing up... to find those answers is what is truly the prupose of life ... and enjoy the journey .each day of it ... each waking moment...

love/hate... an emotion if were to be a quantity that had a unit of measure like any other scientific quantity ...we could probably have unlocked most of life's mysteries ... if there was a love-fission process thru which love could be made in immeasurable quantites and stored ...wouldnt it be great... well listen up ppl..it's already out there... u and i ... we are all a product of a huge love-fission reaction... and we are oozing with radio active love... channelled in the right amounts in the right directions... in the right ways ...it's an unending source of happiness...

happy/sad... an emotional by product of the love-fusion reaction which happens when ppl interact with each in true faith ...where there is no need to reciprocate the feeling with material goods...

poetry and bubbles... gurgling babies... and toothless wrinkled old ladies smiles... mountain tops ...and luscious green fields swaying in the wind...golden brown sand twirling over the copper toned deserts ..and blistering icy winds chilling entires lakes and rivers into serene icy stillness..... gorgeous sunrises and sunsets... where the sun makes love to the oceans every morning and every night...

there must be a reason famines and luxrious parties in millionaire mansions coexist on the planet... for so has the lion and the lamb.for so has the dinosaur and the cockaroach... everyone has a place and a time ...but to be able to accomodate oneself within the scheme of things ... there is a key... to be able to adapt and co-exist without losing one's sense of identity.. one's uniqueness.. the blend of nature u bring with you is unique only to you... dont lose it to be accepted .. but take from it what will sweeten u ...and discard the rest..it's the compilation of hundreds of grains of sand over long durations of time that make a pearl.... and it's your duty oh oyster to see the pearl of your heart take it's form and shape... don't be taken aback for having to be different ... for ugly ducklings meet fairy godmothers that turn them into princess' that eat little bear's puddings and party with seven dwarfs who work in the gingerbread house beside the beanstalk ...

now that your totally lost... do not be afraid to let go... u might have been caterpillars thus fur.. and the coccon and the mulberry leaves may seem like the only things u've ever known or had... but it's ok ... tommorow's a new day... saying goodbye's are a part of life ... for the ppl u really care abt never actually leave u any way.... they are with u forever... from the icky stains on t-shirts.. to scars left from fights... to dialogues from movies.. to stray radio waves that play songs from the past... the ppl u love always have a way of being with u..

A Hard Day's Night

2005-03-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

"It's been a hard day's night
And I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night
I should be sleeping like a log"

Lennon & McCartney were on to something when they were penning that one down... Coz God that sums it all up ... That's what life is ...these days, the preceding lines bear no resemblence to reality though... There's no one to go home to... but then again "why on earth should I moan"...

Comments i've heard from ppl over the last cpl of days...
"You will make a great father..." [From a lady whose daughter i was helping with counting out the cash while paying for the world's tallest pencils..]
"You have the slightest clue, how great a gift you have..." [Guy friends from class, in the men's room pissing away the 6th pint of beer as i honestly expose the truth about palm reading... it's all bullshit... and the girl whose palm i was reading was into all of what i said ... she was like "that's so true ..how do u know all this abt me .. i feel like u know everything there's to know abt me.. omg! that's amazing" ... and in the mean time ..it's just the average gift of the gab..]

the time is 12:00am... i woke up at 4:30am today.. was drunk as a fish last night... made the guys skip class and just sat around enjoy what we call a beautiful spring of 1C... and tonight had a 6 hour long board meeting... now off to St. Patrick's Day PUB... to get a lil' Irish in me... Green Beer looks promising...

UMMMMMMM.... BEER!!!

Temperment Sorter Result: RATIONAL

2005-03-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

Rationals, are the problem solving temperament, particularly if the problem has to do with the many complex systems that make up the world around us. Rationals might tackle problems in organic systems such as plants and animals, or in mechanical systems such as railroads and computers, or in social systems such as families and companies and governments. But whatever systems fire their curiosity, Rationals will analyze them to understand how they work, so they can figure out how to make them work better.

In working with problems, Rationals try to find solutions that have application in the real world, but they are even more interested in the abstract concepts involved, the fundamental principles or natural laws that underlie the particular case. And they are completely pragmatic about their ways and means of achieving their ends. Rationals don't care about being politically correct. They are interested in the most efficient solutions possible, and will listen to anyone who has something useful to teach them, while disregarding any authority or customary procedure that wastes time and resources.

Rationals have an insatiable hunger to accomplish their goals and will work tirelessly on any project they have set their mind to. They are rigorously logical and fiercely independent in their thinking--are indeed skeptical of all ideas, even their own--and they believe they can overcome any obstacle with their will power. Often they are seen as cold and distant, but this is really the absorbed concentration they give to whatever problem they're working on. Whether designing a skyscraper or an experiment, developing a theory or a prototype technology, building an aircraft, a corporation, or a strategic alliance, Rationals value intelligence, in themselves and others, and they pride themselves on the ingenuity they bring to their problem solving.

Rationals are very scarce, comprising as little as 5 to 10 percent of the population. But because of their drive to unlock the secrets of nature, and to develop new technologies, they have done much to shape our world.

The Four types of Rationals are:

Architects (INTP) | Masterminds (INTJ) | Inventors (ENTP) | Field Marshals (ENTJ)

45 Minutes

2005-03-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

Yes folks that's the number of the day.... Why is it the number of the day... On two separate occasions today i spent myself conversing on the telephone with two elegant conversationalists... for a duration of you guessed it .........45 minutes...each i may add.. hummm... awkward silences ..no... just fluid lucid elaborate conversations... god... if only i knew certain things abt life ..predisposition of certain aspects of life would be a truly divine act of grace on the creator's behalf... to be able to access some cellestial data farm to browse thru the elaborate mechanism involved in shaping up who and what we are ...where we are headed what we are to become...if we could hitchhike in to that elaborate little data house on prarie.. to find out that elusive "42" somewhere within us we might quench that thirst, and we might extinguish the whole butterfly effect that would result in what may have become ...but it would be worth it right..

how long would we spend there? on the edge... perusing thru the discourse... living our life all over again or would we live it with mods... change a ringtone[friend] or a skin[looks] perhaps..a screensaver[sibling] ...what would we do given that source code ...would we fix the bugs... all of the bugs... john, paul,george and ringo..all of em... would we destroy em all... but arent they the very bugs who made us who we are ... would u split them apart and see how different our lives would be if they werent together... would they run around helter skelter... and would we be the catcher in the rye ... how long would we spend there....

45 minutes perhaps?

My Oscar Predictions...

2005-02-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

Except for Good Ol' Marty ... i'm pretty happy with all my other predictions...hey i was almost doing a roger ebert ...i called em all ... Charlie Kaufman, Sideways, the tech awards.. except for my three flaws... for animated feature Shrek2, best picture aviator... i was almost sure marty would win...

but damn... You lose The covetted title for Raging Bull, You lose again for Last Temptation of Christ, You lose yet again for GoodFellas, yet once more fate has it that you lose for Gangs of New York ... He lost to Robert Redford(Oridnary People), he lost to Kevin Costner(Dances with Wolves), he lost to Barry Levinson(Rain Man)...he lost to Roman Polanski(The Pianist..) Will he be another Alfred Hitchcock... a great director ... but never celebrated by the academy... always the bridesmaid ..but never the bride..??

Chris Rock was as convincing as Shit on Toast... boo!!! he was being politically correct not turning it into the Chris Rock show.. but expect more... thank god the cool dude from electric company finally won... it was good to see morgan freeman win!

Bienvenue a la Tour CN

2005-02-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

Bienvenue a la Tour CN

Regardez ici pour l'information en francais

Dont ask me how i got it ... but as far as sumbody i asked as to how i sound said ..it looked like i knew what i was saying... Far from the truth of the matter of course.. i don't know jack shit in french ..and i had to end my freaking presentation with these lines...

Any way as for the interview ... Saturday morning ... i'm like do i want to go for this freaking interview .. is it worth my time ..will i get hired ... why the hell dont i get back to bed and get some much deserved 40 winks... uhuh!!! 5:00 and i was up and hovering around.. shit shave shower... and my i wasnt still sure if i wanted to go... i asked myself for some kind of a sign... and u'd think something would happen.. but nothing nade zilch.. maybe that was the sign... i headed out the door ... got my arse off the first bus ...boarded the Toronto Express ... and got off at Union Station ... and once i get there ... i have this whole mental sparring that i'm doing... buzz like a butterfly sting like a bee..thing... that's what's going on in my head... but i'm cool... like i dont give a flying fuck... this job meant nothing to me... that was the inner mantra.. and i reach there ahead of time .. chat up with this chick outside ..was a particularly chilly day to begin with ... (-15C the wind chill kinda brought it down to -22C) ... and there we're chatting up afront of a closed up CN tower.. we get inside ... my scheduled time is 9:30am.. it's almost 9:00am and she has her interview at 9 so heads for the secruity clearance.. i had down to the gift shop place thingy.. browse around once more ..chat up with the sales staff.. the chicks.. are dont worry... it'll be easy ... Andy's a nice guy .. he's supposed tobe the guy who's doing my interview.. and i ask what's the hottest selling item.. and u know throw a lil party in my head....walk up the stairs ... get to the security chk ... and meet up with the elevator chick ... who once again chats up with me how to answer target specific questions ..any way i get to the 360 restraunt.. [a dinner for two here wuld most likely cost a min of $360.00 ... but i'd be willing to shell that kinda cash ... maybe if i were going to propose to a special somebody maybe... but as of now that'll be what i make a whole week working here..] Andy comes up to meet me ... we get to our table to start off with the interview ...

{remember sachin from the world cup match finals against australia.. that's me usually in a technical interview...totally fucked up... but this was me .. taking stance...and it felt like the india-pak match...} it could quite possibly have been the magnificent view..

his first question ... What interests u to work at the CN Tower? i respond.. The Cn .. is after all one big antenna, i'm an Electronics & Telecom Guy ...hey if i could work here in the tech side of things that would be living the dream..as of now ..this gives me bragging rights... {there... i had just smashed my first six...and i hadnt even got started.. }

The inner engines were just revving up.. and i was slick as shit .. cool as a cucumber... i was tanya harding on ice.....he goes on to how would u show ur paying attention to what some one is saying ... i respond with a if you've ever had a girl friend u know exactly how to show ur paying attn to what the other person is saying ... and there.. he was laughing at that ..and he said funny someone else had said the same thing too.. {ok ... humm looks like he things i'm so full of shit my skin is brown.. looks like i have to change gears...}

he asks how would u rate customer satisfaction... and some shit like that ... bam... this is where i exploded... emotional impact of tourism shopping... how u want to take a slice of the action along with u syndrome.. i was fluid ...i almost started a a whole woody allen meets charlie kauffman thing there... it was just great... and the best part was i was digging in to the trench ..and i was calling the shots ... i was loving it ..u can see the powershift.. and i was ho-humming my way thru..

he asked me how i engage myself while doing boring mundane activities... so i told him abt the panel wiring .. 6ft by 3ft long wiring... half a kilometer of cables and wires.. looking up blue brints troubleshooting these babies are what they make corrupt engineers do in hell...for an eternity.. and i do this 8-10 hours everyday.. humm so i told him the honest to god truth.. i use the reservoir dog technic... i call wires by their names... Mr Pink Mr White.. then i do have a cluedo option once in a while .. where Miss Scarlett shorted Mr Cobalt in the Transformer .......it does look like i'm a loony to any one else working around me... but me i'm content in the magical world of wires i create.............he liked that too.......

and there u had it .. he said he was discussing the contract with me.. and said all he was worried abt was my commuting between hamilton and toronto...and i said look this could be my opening to a job here in the tech side of things i'm willing to take the gamble... His eyes lit up and face cheered like he got the best blow job in his life .. he said that was sheer brilliance and very few ppl put two and two together ... and that was a spectacular amount of foresight on my part... well every thing said and done ... i headed outta andy's interview to the panel interview... which is where i had to enact a role play... then there was the product endorsements .. and then finally the french lines... ... well by the looks of it i start next Saturday...

Hey Man!

2005-02-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

Meandering thru the miscellanous today actually.. coz am in a bit of hurry ... humm ... but none the less ... something that i noticed the other day... "Hey Man!!!" the colloquial slang... rather intriguing to look into where it came from .. and how it originated ... the black slaves were called "Ey Boy !" by their masters... no matter even when the black men turned into decript seniles ..were still referred to as 'boy!' as an act of rebellion .. blacks addressed themselves hey man!! and there lies the origins of the term...

The Silver Dollar Conspiracy... sum thing else i was reading about... "http://www.heretical.com/miscellx/usury.html" .. working my ass off all week... u expect to see something in return for all that work ...that's when i read this article... it just made so much sense...

A lot more to blog abt ... right now ... aint the time ... Happy Birthday Amma!!

Where Have All The Beautiful People Gone???

2005-02-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

Look out at any metropolitian city bustling with ppl... This is when u have to go downtown.. the bus terminal .. the train station... the heart of the city ...where you have sea of ppl swaddling there way thru in the course of the day... go there at 5:00am... if ur headed out for shift work... this is when u are most likely to notice this phenomenon... u find none of those pretty girls who inhabit the streets in the brightest of outfits ...swaying left and right those pubescent hips in a way only young girls can... thru the streets distracting any mortal male ...They dont live here....they dont exist on the planet... those cute lil kids with water bottles and bags holding mommies hands as the cross the roads in herds ... all dressed alike like they all fell out of some giant candy jar.... they have been sucked outta the planet too... you dont see dazzling young men weilding their immaculate gadgets and brief cases and shades thru which they give those stares to those afore mentioned pretty lil things ... they dont seem to exist either... then who does live on this planet ... if it were to be visited by an alien life form at 5:00 am....well the welcoming coming committee..is a paltry bunch of old men with tired faces... running to get to their jobs to feed their loved ones... no there isnt much enthusiasm on their faces .. it isnt cheery or full of joy and grace... as are those of the other hours of the day.. these men men have faces cast in stone... and spirits that have faded and withered away... they are the ones that make the welcoming committee... no wonder those aliens keep turning back... for as they see it ...there isnt much life on the planet ... most ppl are asleep ..and the ones awake..seem to keep repeating the same things over and over again... they jump off one mode of transport to another ..and then they keep doing some mundane task till they get exhausted and return back to their domicile to sleep and the cycle continues... are u sure this is a sign of intellegent life asks one alien to the other... how different are they from the ants in our ant hill back home? ... what would those aliens know about life on earth, families in far away places, friends we cherish to be with, consuming fluids that play with our emotions...things we do to feel happy, how signals captured through wireless devices make us laugh and cry ... what would those aliens know about money and loans and debts and credits and ursuries... what would those aliens know about death and loss and pain ... what would they know .... about hose faces cast in stone ..those tired old men dragging their feet thru the wee hours of the morning... what do they know about how he makes sure the beautiful people inhabit the better part of the day...

The Canadian International AutoShow

2005-02-20T16:07:00.000-08:00

Ah yes the CIAS ... not only is it North America's largest car expo... Larger than Detroit (humm which is where all the good shit end up going... ) 850,000 sq ft...that's quite a bit of area to cover walking to see the 42 car exhibitors... welll chk out www.autoshow.ca for details... as for me ..lemme say i needed the day off to feel good abt myself... and this surely was a great way to do it ... it was rather chilly thru the latter part of the day ..but nonetheless a terrific experience.. now what did i oggle over... hummm ... i got to sit in the new Mustangs ... the new Mercedes S, E, C Class... the smart Car... well we dont wanna take time out to talk abt all the hondas and toyotas and fords and pontiacs i sat now do we... I got my customized version of the dodge magnum commercial made... u can chk it out on

http://tdw.thindataworks.com/clients/DaimlerChrysler/evideo/videos/t1969.wmv

The cars to oggle over were the lamborginis ..they had 3 of em .. the ferraris ..they had 4 of em... they had 2 aston martins... 2 bentleys ....the classic car section was beautiful .....the bikes were great too... the ducatis..the harleys...

well as for cars to watch out for ..... lemme give u my two cents abt concept cars... looks like every designer out there goes to the same design school ...or uses the same software to design the cars ... coz goddamit.. they all look the same sans the minor differences like perhaps a logo maybe... sheesh... the lincoln aviator concept model and the lexus concept car looked like they were fraternal twins... not that they werent breath taking... but u want a lil variety ... it's like u walk into a jap restraunt expecting a kimono clad yellow female with a funny accent asking u if u want to try sushi... and u walk into a southern ranch expecting a blonde in flannels trying to coax u into getting honey garlic ribs ...

i think toyota's going to be serious competition with their FX cruiser for the Hummer H3... both of em looking pretty much the same .. the H3 is a poor man's hummer..no it's the danny de vito/joe pesci of hummers.... u wanna laugh at it ... then u think it might turn around and say something like "u think i'm funny"....

it was a good experience ... had my arse enjoy the comfort of the leather interiors of BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus, Audis, Jaguars, u name it ..my arse was loving it .. my nose couldnt stop thanking me ..each time i gorged in the new car smell ... lousy part was from ten thirty in the morning to 5 thrity in the evening as i straddled around from car to car ...i tried honking every one of those cars to find each and every one of em was disengaged... not even one that wasnt...

Like every Papillion.. has a Dustin Hoffman that out does the Steve McQueen ... my Dustin Hoffman was the CN Tower.. I get to Toronto a wee bit early.. i was expecting a huge line up for the tickets ... but i had acquired one with adequate ease ..and had loads of time to spare... so as i walk past the "Caution: Falling Ice at the Convention Centre" (sidetrack... have u thought what a freaking icicle from that height could do to u ... holy fuck... i didnt realize that until i was there...).. find a cpl of guys walking around as aim lessly as i was... they ask me are u here for the job fair... so i said yeah.... it starts a 9 so i hear.. and hey it was 8:30... i could kill some time.. and i thought there mught be some companys having their stalls setup and i walk around grab a pen or two and get the hell out there... lil did i know in the next 20 minutes there were close to 45 ppl there with resumes et al... humm ... nine comes rolling by ... i hop jump and skip in to the CN tower... and there's a questionnaire to fill out... after the elaborate screening of course... and then i see what's happening...they seem to be having a job fair for the positions at the CN tower... COOL!!! along comes a chick who gives us the ... hi there everybody ..thanks for coming to the job fair.. as a token of appreciation u get a complimentary pass to go thru the CN tower .. all day today... (now that's a sweet deal... it's like $35 something otherwise... ) so i see the questionnarie usual..facts and figures stuff.. and then i look at who they are hiring .. its for the 360 restraunt... didnt interest me... then there was a retail sales associate position... thought hey..yeah might as well... filled in my sheet... they ask me to proceed to the 360 restraunt for the interview... i mean ... WOW!! hey if u ever have a job interview... this one is the icing on the cake... on top of the CN tower.. it doesnt get better than this... so i have this guy call me over... we start our lil conversation ... and did i have this guy wrapped around me...i'm getting good at the fine art of bullshitting i must say..coz by the end of it .. the guy wasnt just impressed..but he couldnt hide it ...his poker face decimated... and i asked him off the record what were the odds... he said there were 15 positions.. 20 candidates yesterday.. but i was by far the best candidate he had interviewed...asked me to partake on some breakfast served in the lounge as my interview scores are tallied up ... and i wait hit on this cute chick sitting next to me ...nonchalantly talking to her abt the job description... [she actually wanted the job.. wasnt a con like me.]... Any way they call me in after a while... i have to go next saturday for an interview with the sales manager of the CN tower.. there's a speech and stuff i have to prepare it seems... i'm going do it just for shits and giggles...

Happy Together

2005-02-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

"If I should call you up, invest a dime

And you say you belong to me and ease my mind

Imagine how the world could be, so very fine

So happy together"

The turtles sang that... "Adaptation" the movie ends with it playing in the credit roll... hummm .... there's a reason i mention the Nicholas Coppolla movie... for there was a time ... when i felt my life would decimate into one of those endings "Leaving Las Vegas" i pictured myself like that... alone.. washed out... a freak .. where no human soul cares... and better yet even you dont bother...
But like Sting said .... "Those days are over!!!" Today, It's the '05 version Arun u have in front of u ... it's going to be a quarter of a century on the planet very soon... have learnt from a lot of bitter realities ... Have been king of the world and scum of the universe ... have been traded in like a used car by some... fucked around like a crack whore by others ... but i have lived thru it all to tell the tales... But this year has been so freakishly different... my brain is being taken over ..i swear it ..it's like a fungus growing within and taking over the entire place...i clearly remember the 18 year old with all that anger... the 19 year old rebel without a cause... wow ... they seem like different ppl ... not that they aren't there any more .. but they dont control the place... this new guy is .. and u know what i'm beginning to like the new guy .. he doesn't push u around ... he's a 5 yr old at times... and it's all Strawberry Fields Forever..with him ... he takes a beating ...but is very Gandhian ... in the sense ..he'll cum back at u in the most ubsurd way... and take over... well enough abt the new guy ..if he's here to stay i'll introduce him later...

This is a formal thank you... to a cpl of ppl for helping me out with the week.....in ways u'd never know.... and my thank you to the new guy as well.....
in reverse order...

lemme say a big OMG!!! In the words of the Guverner of Hiroshima "WTF was that??!!!" to myself ... and a BIG 10q... to NG(Fri), ACJ(Wed), AJ(Tue), TD(Mon).... for calling me... It meant the world and more to me... you guys have no idea... what kinda days i was having... and how those cpl of minutes over the phone just brushed away all those worries and bothers and pains and pangs and stress of the day ... and u paste on that goofy smile ...and take all the shit coming at u ... just coz ..some one some where cared to remember ....lil ol' me ... and took time out for their schedules to talk to lil ol' me....... Awww..... isnt that the sweetest thing to happen ... I swear it is ............It just puts the zest back in life.. it just has given me the hope to put my trust back in ppl again ... hummm .... it's been a while ... and now that feels good... I THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART ... FOR IT MEANT THE WORLD TO ME AND MORE....

I'll elaborate on the feeling more ... and lemme take off my work boots and live a lil... hummm .... if all goes well... perhaps a movie .. and the Int'l Auto Expo at Toronto ... tommorow... more to follow on the expo after i've attended it...until then ..hang on tight..

Fat Bottomed Girls

2005-02-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen ... Lemme wish you all a very Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope u've spread enough love and joy as can be begotten... well ...

how goes the world .... what makes the world go around ...
A> Fat Bottomed Girls...
B> Love...

for all u flaming fags out there who wish to empathize with Freddie Mercury... go ahead pick A.. as for the rest of us... yes "Love" does make the world fo round... love in all it's forms shapes colors and varieties... from u garden variety ...Kwik-E-Mart corner store love... to the more enduring Walmart love... to the designer boutique variety of love... in all it's merchandized forms ... love does make for the capitalist's bread and butter... as any Jewish Salesman would tell u abt love and sales... in the most Jerry Maguire-isque way possible "You Complete Me!!!" and us.. what abt us... well we ...we were had for at "Hello!"... I quote Col.Kurtz "The Horror, The Horror..."

But anyway... throwing the Cynic that i am back into the closet... it's great to be loved ..and in love ..and do stupid stuff in the name of love.... especially when u have someone special to do it for... it's just a outrageous display of how far u'd go... rather idiotic ... but the way those freaking chemicals that work in ur head make u do stupid things ... it's funny... all material goods lose their significance...if not for being and ornate expression of your deepest feelings... Yes.. Rhett Butler said it best, "Frankly my Dear I dont give a damn!!!" well maybe i do... so does Pooh.. and Hefalumps and Woozles...(good god where did that cum from)

work and lack of sleep and food .. and exhaustion.. does fucked up things to ur head... well... like all the other 24 valentine's day before this on the planet .. this one too bore no significant mark... that would make it remarkable in anyway whatsoever ...or did it???

Abre los ojos

2005-02-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

Yes .. another day at work completed... waking up at 4:30 in the morning ... and working your fucking arse off building PLCs the size of mountains .... I mean it's moronic ... fuck you dont use your head to do anything.. it's just being dextrous and diligent from the beginning to the end .. where the only thing that matters is 1 64th of an inch precision in mounting equipment on to boards and stuff... Well there's one thing i've learnt ...this wont be something i want to do as a living ... fuck no... factory line work is no fun .. and is the sweat and blood of these men ...that has built the west.... years and years of blood and sweat ...and then squeezing taxes out of their hard earned pay checks ... is what has made the west what it is today... I tried the Michael Douglus "lunch is for wimps" on the first day.. then i fucking learnt ....the hard way ofcourse... that keeping up requires energy... and shit loads of it... man i'd be devastated if had to do this support a family... i'd break down and die... any sane thinknig individual shouldn't engage in slave labor... no matter how big the corp... and yeah ... i'm bitching and ranting alright... but it's good .. i've learnt my lesson ... and the good thing abt it being my dexterity and my clumsy fingers get a break...

Hey Jude...

2005-02-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

Paul McCartney kinda revived yesterday night .. it was the least he could do.. considering most of us would want to see a wardrobe malfunction on his part... Would we now????

Any way if you belive in the concept that each of our lives have a soud track ...well "Hey Jude!" just became a part of mine ... the superbowl version was grand ..and splendid... but lil did i realize the next day at work i would have a Srilankan/Tamilian collegue named "Jude" (Figure that Avi!!!) ...

Well the guy was cool ... and he showed me around the placed and is my mentor ... I had a good long 9 hour shift with him... showed the brilliance ... and utter stupidity that "the Arun" can accomplish in the span of a day...

It seems i should be able to handle it ...it's mundane ... it's boring ... after all that's why they call it WORK!!! ... Well cya later ... readers ... that's all for now ... do be considerate enough to leave a stray comment .... it would do my ego a world of good!!!

I'm on the verge of the next step...

2005-02-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a rather eventful busy week... with the usual KPI stuff and a whole load of meandering thru the miscellanious kinda thing ... nothing major just small little things ... and that's abt it ... hummm ... what more do i have to punch in .... i had a cpl of ideas the last time i had thought abt writing something ..but it got lost in transit... Oh well ... another day another time ... i'll see what happens..

As for now just a craving to scroll down something ..but nothing substanial... so lemme get along with what ever i was doing instead of thinking of ten different things at the same time..

In Good Company

2005-01-28T13:16:00.000-08:00

YES... the movie was for every KIDult ..for every ADULT-escent out there... It was my movie... I liked it ...No i enjoyed it... Why coz i had this conversation with elke earlier in the day .. and we were talking abt this certain thing that we were talking abt ... my predicament ... or let's say this certain juxtaposition that i'm in ... it was as though the silver screen was playing it out to me... like i told her... the yr has engaged in some kinda re-wiring my inner circuitry ... where by im turning into this sap ... this uber-romantic of some kind... It's probably got something to with being on the planet for almost a quarter century now... well let's just say there's this agenda i've .. the Tony Montana philosophy of life has three stages... "In this country, first jou get the money, then jou get the power, then jou get the women."

In my lil domain .. in my narrow scope of reality .. the slice of life that i have gotta deal with ... well i'm working on it ... i've got pseudo-power ..that's power in terms of a title.. with no monetary kick backs.. but to get the positive aspect outta it let's just for arguement's sake say i've conquered the power domain ... and now it's the other two domain's that are left... money is over-rated.. in terms of monetary value pieces of ppr shouldn't dictate our lives... but it's the purchasing power of those pieces of ppr that dictate the course of our lives.. the direction ..the pursuit to those desires .. humm... vanity does play a part ... but none the less... it's when money is spent on the ones that we love that it turns into a beautiful thing... (i told u i'm romantizing even money).... well... yeah.. any way money... will come ..or it 'll go .. it isnt substanial how much we make or much we need... it's abt the good times at the end of it all.. that's what we live for ... and i'm pretty sure i've got it in me to take it all the way... now that leave's the final frontier... ok .... this is an open confession ... i think... or let me say i suppose i think i've an idea ...for somebody i want to spend the rest of my life with... have i asked this person ... NO!!! do i intend to tell this person any time soon ... NO!!! am i romancing this dream a lot ... YES!!! will it work out ..maybe... when do i intend all my loved ones to know abt it... 5 yrs from now... that's right FIVE years from now!! that's right... all decisions come 5 yrs from now... but there has to be some kind of pro-active participation in the involvement of a cpl or something of the sort .. i do agree... but i'm not ready... it's just a euphoric idea.. a concept that i'll be incubating till the time is right.... when will it be right.. I dont know... kinda silly.. aint I? yeah ..silly is what silly does... well any way ... like i said .. i'm this kidult.. who's not sure .. who's not yet ready... if relativity were a reality ... i could have engaged in a more pro-active approach... but it isnt.. and i carry on... will i tell any one ... any time soon.. i dont know... well i love it the way it is as of now... Amen..

Oscar '05

2005-01-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

My Oscar predictions ..or who i'd like to see win ..

Best Director: Martin Scorsese

This man has made quite a few good movies in his haydays...Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, i say it's high time he get's his due...

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett

This woman has given us stalwart performances ... and among the lot she deserves it the most (she deserves 2 oscars come to think they gave one away to Haley Berry for Monster's Ball .. ohmygod.. that was a porn flick for crying out loud... all that female every did was cry and fuck...)

Best Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman

As much as i want to see Jamie Foxx win, this guy deserves it ... Have u seen him in Shawkshank Redemption, Driving Miss Daisy, fuck he lost to Sean Connery the last time he was nominated in this category... i hope he wins this time

Best Actress: Annette Bening

She lost to Hillary Swank last time round... i think she's got a better chance this time round... and let's see how they vote this time ..tides might be in her favor...

Best Actor

this is a tough one ... as much as i loved Jamie Foxx in Ray ... i dont think they'll give it to him .... Sidney Poiter, Denzel Washington... Humm is it time for the academy to pick another black actor as the best i dont know ... the prejudices are not in his favor... Johnny Depp... this is his second nomination in a row ... and has he given outstanding performances tine and again... yes he has ... fuck he might just walk away with it this time... Leonardo Di Caprio ... the second biographical contender in the race... my .. he looks much better off this time ... better than his chances from the Gilbert Grape days... Clint Eastwood... he's 70 freaking 4 ..the man's come up to tell us ..GO AHEAD ..MAKE MY DAY!!! will the academy sway his way.. there's a good chance...

so my predictions for winning the esteemed title would be Eastwood, Depp, Dicaprio and Foxx in that order...

Collingwood Times...

2005-01-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

Spent the weekend away on a ski resort ... Collingwood... like i said ealrier .. amazing place.. i've been to desert resorts.. beach resorts ... but lemme tell u this u've to have been at a ski resort to know what it's like ... It's a totally outta this world experience... Hell yeah... It was pretty nasty out there in terms of weather... -24C thru the course of the night sometimes a lil bit more with the wind chilll... but that's not too bad considering that Hamilton was hit bya snow storm and was blanketted by 3ft of snow... so there you have it ... i escaped the freaking white shit storm again... As for what i did there... i drunk my self stupid .. and then regained consciousness and then spent the next day smoking my self stupid... It was divine ... I pulled this chick from western university across the other chalet ... (a slip of the hand and she's a good two storeys away from the ground...) but hey i'm drunk and i give her a puff of my joint ... and away she comes... and then she sez it's her birthday and Anthony pops her beer... well .. she didnt stay for long until she left and we proceeded to their place.. well lets just say things got a bit blurry from their own .. i was stoned off my ass.... had loads of fun though... played a cpl of drinking games... and then hit the sack ...It was good...

today made my first pasta ever ... 'Food and Wine Digest' calls it a new frontier in Pasta... the Chicago Tribune says ..it goes where no pasta sauce has gone before.. The New Yorker calls it an orgasm in your mouth...[howz that for wishful thinkning]

Tyrolean Village

2005-01-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

So I'm off to Tyrolean Village... As I hear of it...it's a ski resort on the base of Blue Mountain @ Collingwood. I'll be there over the course of the weekend...with all the MSA brigade ... We'll upto our usual round of "bored meetings"...and probably some snow boarding/skiing and a trekking session ...or a nature walk or something like that...

What's the weather like you ask... today Friday is Sunny at a High of -18°C. later tonight we'll have some snow and a Low of -24°C. The weekend will bestow upon us blowing snow at a Low of -24°C and High of -10°C... Brrr!!!!

As for the happenings of the week.... Avi has got his visa stamped.. Holy Fuck!!! Hallelujah... i gave him a call as soon as i heard... i was uber-thrilled...

Well.. that's it for now ... will punch in more details later.. have been seeing pretty weird dreams lately... now if they are re-occuring i'll punch it out...

K-OS

2005-01-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday night .... attended the k-os concert.. it was cool... great performance... awesome vibe .. loads of energy ..and it was a very vibrant world music with loads of blends kinda performance .....there was a lotta good energy ...

Ended up realizing something ... i'm turning into some uber-romantic of some kind... everything has freaking romantic overtones to it ..it's hilarious... freaking hilarious ... the inner softie is running the place... everything is u know kinda all abt the love and the peace .. and the harmony and shit... it's freaking awesome when ur high... but otherwise i hope somebody doesnt get a whiff of the inner moron running the place and catch me off guard... must be something to do with what shakesphere said abt the seven ages thing... if it's a passing stage ...i'm up to it .. otherwise ....urghh.... now that's a scary thought..

and i think i've broken my math-tutor jinx... Kathy came up to me yesterday .. and said she passed math... and not just border line but with a pretty good score... and said a big thank you and shit ... well... glad to hear that...maybe the blonde-math jinxed my jinx.. and was some kinda uber fuck up ..well any way it was a good feeling..

got a certifed graphologist to have a look at my handwriting .. and he told me some pretty neat stuff... some of it were bang on ....

as for today... Happy Birthday Chacha!!!

SiLK BOxERS

2005-01-17T08:16:00.000-08:00

I feel great today.. Why because i feel i have been able to contribute to a better human life.. how well..let's look at it this way... you look back at your life and see your self in this particular period of time and see and feel or wished how perhaps things could have been better .. if only someone was there to look out for you.. someone was there to watch out for you .. i mean we've all at some point of time wanted it .. atleast i have.. since i've this unending need/desire/thirst that i cannot quench to empathise with ppl ..put myself in their shoes ... i guess it's my working strategy... put urself in the other persons shoes kinda thing.. see what they'd want ..they'd like done..any way to quit the rambling and to get specific...

Today January the 17th, 2005... happens to be Tina's birthday... she turns 17... WoW!!! a millennium ago i used to be 17... and in some odd way she reminds me of me... away from home ... in the middle of no where in a totally new place... with absolute strangers around you... with none of the comforts of home ...and further more unlike any of the other 16 birthdays you've had on the planet ..this one will be for the very first time that u are away from everything that was familiar to u.... kinda strangely odd... for the fragile mind of a 17 ... how did i feel abt it... i was for one not happiest ppl on my 17th... i was bitching and whining and complaining and oh jesus all that rage ...must have been the testostreone going bonkers... well... as i look at it... if there was any way i could make this kid's b'day any better than the one i had eons ago... being in the very same shoes she was in ... i had a handle of things .. but since it's me things have to have that extra bit of shall we say life's way of saying lemme see u get past that......the geographical disposition was going to be a setback ....

so thanks to that wonderful invention - the digital dog leash aka the MOBILE...i got in touch with a friend of mine... another acquaintance from when i was in those late teens ... we did a lil bit of growing up together shall we say... and i might add learnt quite a few life lessons from each other... saw some real nasty shit.. went thru stuff that moulded us into who we are today ... it must have the intensity of human emotions we shared together that a single cellphone conversation got him to set aside time for lil ol'me off his busy schedule...

and how does this grand plan of mine come to life.. i ask Deepak ... to go in search of the perfect gift ... well ... since i had this vague kinda idea that she might appreciate a CD ... being an Eminem fan in her haydays.. i honestly didnt know her present musical disposition as of today but only went with a gut feeling she might appreciate the idea behind it ...

why am i punching this all down.. i guess .. i'm putting some vanquished souls to rest...it's not demons .. it's this 17 yr old in me that needs to be heard ... that needs to live again..that needs to come to terms with life ...to be able to bring to rest that 17 yr old.. and move on ... that's what it's all abt.. and since it's a self less act that in all intentions is intended to mean more to her than it does to me .. it will in turn mean more to me...

well back to the actual happenings ... i sent deepak on an errand to get T a gift ..which i hear he was able to get her in time... and he tells me... talking to her reminded him of me.... see it's all abt that teenager we once were....and how we first met...uncanny as it may seem... and i guess being around em ...kinda sends u reliving it ..and puts that zest back in life... but the second time around ..u have that know-how of the boo-boos that happen the first time round.. so now the predicament is all abt do u wanna be a spoil sport and give em the parental NO! or the enjoy life u live it just once... right now i'm trying to be on both the boats.. it's a nehruvian dream of the mixed economy thing...the best of both worlds.. but we all know what happens is the kinda the opposite.. let's not side track here...

the point of the matter is... i'm offically calling `05 the year of love...the giving kind... i wanna be around ..in spirit in person .. a phone call ... an email... i have a lotta inner wounds that need healing... and i guess true human interaction with the ppl u love might be the only way to heal em... once again ...thank you life for giving me another chance...thank you friends for showing me what it means to be around.... thank you from the bottom of my heart....

the inner peace n tranquility i feel.... to put into persepective... you might just metamorphasize in to matter... Imagine ... every man on the planet wearing Silk Boxers.... that's how divine it feels.....the pure symphony of SILK BOxERS!!!

Wee.... Pee.... Lakshmikutty

2005-01-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

Yes ladies and gentelmen there you have it .... The year has greeted me with another title... I'm MSA Wee.... Pee.... Lakshmikutty... for those of you who didn't get it... MSA VP Exec... Mohawk Student Association Vice President Executive... I got the nomination package on the 12th at 10am... came back an hour and half later... with 75 ppl that had signed off ... i had it made... but i thought i might have some one running against me ... but what do you know.. i just got thru ...

It's GOODDDDDDD!!!

"CHIN-ju Node ChodheEe Queue"

2005-01-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

I'm back after a much needed break ... I feel rejuvenated... I feel nourished ... I feel GOOOOOOOOOOOOD......... It's been ages since that's happened but lemme tell u this it's an awesome feeling....

Unlike how I usually land up next to a grumpy ol'fart .. this time my flight was different ... I had a decent chick sitting next to me on my flight from dammam to amsterdam ... and what was my first utterence... to her... (i must admit she was looking rather uptight...) ..I said... "For starters ... I Snore... ".. and lo and behold she bursts out laughing ... which i guess was a good sign.. any way .. stirred up a healthy conversation ... the flight were late but not horrendously so ... i had the usual array of hiccups i have at airports across the globe especially in saudi arabia... but years of trying to tame this donkey has been anything but successful for the saudis.... so here i am unscathed by the tribulations that would bring mere mortal passengers to their knees...

As for my holiday... it was by far the best one i've had in this quarter century on the planet... Yes... THE BEST holiday yet.. It came at a time when i needed it the most .. IT had all the ppl i needed to see and be with the most ... we did all the things that holidayers should do ...and it was my little trip to an utopia we created ... we nourished and bade our farewells to .. and i guess each of us will treasure in his or her minds in his or her ways the exact recreation of it all ...as for what was this perfect holiday like ... that is a question for which u'll have to: "CHIN-ju Node ChodheEe Queue"

Karma Accountant

2005-01-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

It's great to start the year with the karmic ledgers balnced out ..and you ring in all the good karma to jump start the year... I mean it's family and friends ..they're just NOS for your karma... All the positive good energy around you ...this must be heaven... yes i must be on the 'Stairway to Heaven' ....

When dreams aspirations and the little things in life that you've hoped for just come true ... It's so uplifting ..it makes you believe.. believe..in people ... in love .. in hope... in the virtues of the human spirit... i'vent felt so good about myself... about the people around me ... about each and every single thing about life... ever... i guess.... If this is a sign of the happy times in life... I'm grateful ... For everything.. for this moment ..for all the people i've met along the way... for all the learning experiences in life i've had...

To aspire of anything of me ..of what i can and could have had eluded me ... but now ... I feel re-energized ...yes ...the vigor the vitality the spirit and zest for life ... to face life head on ... to take up every obstacle there is to come ...and what is the kryptonite you need to keep you going... All you need is to remember the sweetest cutest innocent gurgling babies around you...how they waddle around and talk in that divine baby tongue only babies can ...and how you remember how those kids you used to carry around just till yesterday are as big or bigger than you ... how those tadpole like hairless babies of yesterday ...cum up with the cutest jokes today....babies/kids ... it's just amazing how much karmic energy they possess.. the spirit of innocence... each time they call out your name ..they fill you with all that is their's and more...much more..... An epitome of love.....when they call out to you... it's just divine... to feel wanted ..how i cherish the caring the giving the currency to immortality ... Innocence... the schemes they hatch... their mickey mouse infatuations ...the chuckling laughter .... oh god...lock me up in this time warp where all that happens are these events over and over again...

I've always been the big 1..... never was i the one who could get away with a a shrill scream.... I'd always to give way to the younger ones .. in the process some where along the way the resentment and why me died ..giving way to the eternal big brother.... and for once in my life i'm so happy about it.. i'm in tears.... to ave had everyone under one roof... for these cpl of days ...days i cross my heart not to forget as long as my memory doesnt fail me......in each of their eyes i see me...saying doing something i once did .. i once said....and to be around when they want me would be nice... but i've never truly been a proactive part in their lives have i .. if there is ever a new year's resolution i'd like to take is to be a more active part of their lives ... who am i kidding.... the circle of life has eluded me from the major part of their lives so far.. will they accept me... or am i too old to be included... have they shown me the door .... or am i that weird wacko who shows up once in awhile ... and then just disappears to em....i guess i can always go back to that land of make believe in my head for solace and comfort...or if the new year is any sign of things to come ... there might be a tsunami in the channels of communication....

my life has taken quite a few detours ...but i learnt it's never a race with anyone but yourself... and i've battled a lot of my inner demons ..exorcized those fears that kept haunting me ... it's a matter of conviction i guess... and it's taken quarter of a century....for me to get somewhere in the vicinity of ..or so i think...

Let me come to a close ....with words from Luhrmann:

"Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. "

I Love You

2005-01-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

I truly believe ...I belong to a community of people that comprise the greatest group of buddies that exist on the planet ... and if there was ever an exercise to prove the fact of well we get along .. how much we bond .. of much we enjoy each others company of how truly we share amoungst ourselves the enduring aspect of what as grown way beyond the confines of friendship ... it was the night of revelery we had celebrating christmas eve/new years... It is in the proximity of the heart soul and sweat.... that one experiences the true joys of life...

I could clutter sentences with adjectives of the highest denomination in trying to express what would not even come close to the shallow end of how much fun we had together... it's times like that the true meaning of the of the power of the human spirit is witnessed.... Together we have championed every human emotion ... And that makes me feel good .. It makes me innately happy... I feel elated ..so very in fact .. it is an almost divine experience...

I thank the cosmos to have let it occur... I thank every one for being there... I am deeply indebted to my folks friends and family for everything that has happened and is due to happen...

thank you .. Thank You.. Thank You.....

I love you ......

Tis the season to be jolly..

2004-12-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

Now how long has it been since I last posted anything.... And what's happened in the time that has a preceded.... Well for starters I'm on the other side of the Globe... I had my exams... There's been the hardest hitting tsunami that's graced the planet in the last 40 years... So what have I've been doing??? I don't know ... For starters I'm in a happy place...I'm with ppl I grew up with/around.. kids who've been born around me ...I'ven't the slightest clue when all of us are going to be under the same roof again ... But here and now seems too precious to leave out.. The festive season does add to the whole ambience...

Maybe when I'm sitting back to look back it ... I'll describe what happened in more precise detail... As for now......

I love you guys.... Avi , Ajnu, Tina, Neetu, Acchu, Jamie, Joel, Akhil,Noel....

Merry Christmas ...You kids are the greatest...

In the Midnight Garden of Good & Evil...

2004-11-29T05:47:00.000-08:00

I'm Arun's Enraged, Inflamed Sense of Rejection

2004-11-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

here I am ... blogging ... coming to terms with what it does for me ... what it's about ... how ppl all over the globe ave traken up this ritual..to express their innermost selves.. bashfully nonchalantly candidly ..amorphously turning it into an artform ... blog are the literary classics of the 21st century.. reading blogs is a truly euphoric experience .. ppl share their inner most thoughts with such vigor..with much soul.. it's a form of writing where i find the heart finds it's way out into the wolrd.. blogs; ports or portals rather of emotion... where past memories ..present worries and future dreams meet... why do i blog? a fight clubsque elucidation would be .. when the chronicles 'Arun's Enraged, Inflamed Sense of Rejection' need release ... Alcohol and Narcotics supress that feeling for a while; but the whole blogging process kinda relaxes the inner self .. a kind of ...search for the 'why am i so fucked up?' ..'is is ok to be this fucked up'... i hate rambling about what i am going thru.. it's the bloody self loathing, self hate, self pity state of being that i want to run awa y from ... but then again ..will i ever be able to .. ageis catching up on me.. i feel worthless.. almost pitiful .. i have acquired nothing in this pathetic human existance.. i have lost all my treasured possessions .. and keep losing any of what i acquire... it's horrible .. to top it off the irrefutable arrogance... the the condescending demeanor..the anarchist spirit.. the intimidating attitude...oh ! they've just accumulated over the years ... no human relationship of susbstance has crossed my wretched existance.. fuck ... fuck...... fuck..... what is there to talk abt ...when u have no one to talk to ... am i losing it....i guess so..... is it just the day to day stress and strifes of my well being ... i'm not too sure..... i answer how r u with a blank i dont know these days... it's true...

back after another dose of reading blogs my old passion of reading has found a new avenue rather .......reading sotroes from other ppl's lives.. ppl with lives very much like mine.. nothing over the top.. nothing overtly pathetic...just the same kinda stagnating blatant shit....... where human relationships as we knew it has turned into a reminiscent of a jewish concentration camp... misquoting a blog i read .... my friends and folks and life as i knew it has seized to exist and this mutated being that lives today is just a faint shadow what used tobe and what could have been.....

oh well... all that self bashing has done more than enough damage to my already returbed ego... i'm done for now......

And Then There Were None...

2004-11-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

There are several a times when the mind is overwhelmed to come up with solutions; finite solutions; probable plausible solutions; to bewildering predicaments. Problems find themselves leading to solutions without a certain element of hardship. But what governs the amount of stress and strain that we are to be subjected to. What is the measure of this threshold? And what good is having a threshold greater or lesser than the medicore...

When do we take a hold of ourselves...and "Snap Out Of It".. or do we wait for Cher to slap us! Are we all endowed within this life time to come across our own versions of Cher..

"Science says: before anything else, love yourself, for everything in the world is based on personal interest."
- Lujin of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment

Cui bono

2004-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the state of affairs in your life, kinda baffles those of us who try to make some sense out of it... And for those of us trying not to it remains to simple and plain .. I dont get it ... i simply dont get it... How difficult is it for ppl to acknowledge you for the right u do and the good that comes out of it .... yet how little u have to do to have em at ur throats as u fumble... Disgusting... absolutely... why do those u who whine never look around u ... to see what every one else is going thru.... why is the threshold of pain and suffering not the same across the entire race.... why do those of us who are persecuted have to be in such enormous quantities....

Bah! i'm done.....the ranting is getting me no where in particular... but a release of some of this negativity is of utmost need... to string together the strands of sanity that is left....

arbiter elegantiae

2004-11-04T16:47:00.000-08:00

There's something about people, that kind of resonates through time. People recollect images of public figures or other people in general on the basis of a singular event. One event in time can change how the rest of humanity is going to percieve about from now to the end of time. And no matter how great or small your achievements after the incident you shall always be remembered for that first make or break. And you're stuck with it.

Monica Lewinsky can come up with the cure for AIDS and Cancer, but she'll always be remembered as the greatest knob gobbler of all time. David Hasselhoff may have sold millions of records in Germany and the rest of Europe... but for the rest of the world he's no more than the guy from Knight Rider (if u were a TV viewer from the 80s) or Baywatch (alright i'm ancient ... for u 90s viewers)...

But what if, those people/events in history were to have had slight fuck ups ...Or slight variations? What if fat man and/or little boy didn't detonate? [What a FUBAR that could've been]... What if Oswald missed? [Yeah! I know the fella in the grassy knowles would've made it...] What if Lennon/Morrison/Hendrix/Cobain.. didn't die their ill fated deaths? There are too many what-ifs to ponder over? I'll leave that to you oh beloved audience of mine..add'em as comments ....

But lemme leave u with this one particular thought.......if Clinton had a gay affair.. would the american political instituition have left him in power? Would the world have taken to it as it as just a case of promiscious behaviour? i'd like to hear your opinions......... punch in ur responses.....

Specto Vulgus

2004-11-01T16:19:00.000-08:00

The weekend was rather eventful.. I was at the Rankine Power Plant in Niagra... A 100 year old damn built on the Niagra Falls... It was divine ... Especially the board roam..Wow... most office space dwelling Dilberts dream of a window.. this place had the Falls to look at .. Does it get any better than that? The place had history reeking out of every nook and cranny ... Your talking the very walls within which allegedly Tesla and Edison had a fist fight over whther AC or DC would be the way to go... We all know who won that one... Italian Marble for the Switch Panel boards... Brass Relays .... Turn of the century electricity generation... People who barely knew what they were dealing with were generating power and making a hefty profit selling it out to the infant giants of the Industrial Revolution... Amazingly spectacular to see one of the corner stones of power generation that the world has seen... The hydro-electric project that was truly from an eon ago ..with none of the sophistication that you see today..yet doing a Herculean task... Mind you they used an operating frequency of 25 Hz... and they do generate 0.3 MW of power even today to supply Washington Mills and Stelco who use it for their Arc Furnaces. Up until recently there was a turn of the century cinema hall in upstate NY that had the 25Hz operating frequency used on their arc projectors for their shows... No wonder yhose Chaplin movies seemed all fucked up...

Anyway 100 feet under the damn dam... there i was in the damp humid bottom of this massive shaft running right thru ... The magnanimous size of the place just leaves u awestruck... An engineering wonder... no words could do justice to the kind of blood and sweat that has gone into running a mammoth of this size..Cheers !!! to all those unsung heroes who made it happen... Any way i walk away with a nut that was one of the many hundreds that hold the rusty old shaft that runs like a massive cock that penetrates the core of the earth ........

After that escapade i set out on an escapde which i must say i truly enjoyed... I turned into an anthropologist on a quest to find what drives people to behave in a certain way in public....

There i was at the falls... with this cattle of ppl walking past me .. coming to a halt in front of that railing that must have been touched by millions of ppl ...(Think of finger print analysis of the site... the amount of microbes....)..Any way beofre i get off on that tangent.... Toursits from all over the place arrive at the site to do the very same thing... Take a picture of themself in front of this piece of geography... and the way it's done is exactly the same they fake a smile in that lens... and try immortalize themself.. Probably to satisfy the vanity within...

The visitors themselves could be categorized... there were the families.. the kids who were hungry and wanted to eat ... the kid who wanted that $49.99 slnky ball in the store and was howling its brains off... then there were the kids who wanted to pee...

Then there those who bring their moms and dads along ..u know when it's the guy's folks... the chick's body language just sez.. i hate that ol'hag... and u know it's the chick's folks..the guy's like when the fuck are we going to leave ... it's hilarious ... just sit there and look at these ppl ... it's the same genric display of feelings... The son who wants to so desperately have his son and mom to take a pic together... Why ..so that that kid can look back and see this image of grandma.. a person who this photograph is going to be the only surving relic of ever being a part of his life... And there's the over protective mom who doesnt let the kid peep over the railings .. coz she's freaking out ... each stereotype imaginable in society is there to be viewed in all their splendour... After the family crowd withered away i shifted my attnetion to the yuppie cpls... their hormone levels were too high to engage in any other activity but perhaps what a rabbit could keep up with... Trust me from the meagre holding hands to humping I saw it all ...

The sheer spectacle of people was much more entertaining and enthralling than any movie, song, dance, drug enhanced euphoria..... I had always felt the same about airports... which is going to my next ppl viewing place...

Trainspotting in the Synaptic Realm

2004-10-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

I was waiting for that moment where from within comes that geyser of an energy to jot down a power blog ... yes, it's been 22 days since i could actually figure myslef in front of this machine to punch something down... How has it been in those 3 weeks... 4 hours of sleep..on a mon-fri basis.. with a scheduled drinking time ..makes it bearable... nothing to complain abt .. just some growing pains ..and at certain moments ...moments of vulnerability .... there upon arrives this cloak to blind you ..and stab you with the feelings of loneliness, despair and all the other carnal sins that can be conjured up ...

And in one such fit of despair ... i tried to look around at the kids and hear watz up with em... (ajnu, avi,t,etc...)...it's kinda weird i feel ancient... i've seen been or done what these kids are experiencing as of when we speak .. and there'sn't a thing i can proactively contribute to making a difference... it would have been great if geography didn't separate us in this way.. to quote Baz Luhrmann,"Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young." And the urge to do so just fills me up ...

I'm drifting off into a world of my own.... there are imaginary ppl there ... there are my versions of ppl there... it's all i have ... an enclosure in the synaptic realm....

Right now i'm waiting in that train station in that synaptic realm waiting for the next abstract thought to come my way... how long is my wait i dont know... where will my ride take me ...i havent a clue... will it be there... i sure do hope so...

i am "tHe fOOl"...

2004-09-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

You are the Fool card. The Fool fearlessly begins
the journey into the unknown. To do this, he
does not regard the world he knows as firm and
fixed. He has a seemingly reckless disregard
for obstacles. In the Ryder-Waite deck, he is
seen stepping off a cliff with his gaze on the
sky, and a rainbow is there to catch him. In
order to explore and expand, one must disregard
convention and conformity. Those in the throes
of convention look at the unconventional,
non-conformist personality and think What a
fool. They lack the point of view to understand
The Fool's actions. But The Fool has roots in
tradition as one who is closest to the spirit
world. In many tribal cultures, those born with
strange and unusual character traits were held
in awe. Shamans were people who could see
visions and go on journeys that we now label
hallucinations and schizophrenia. Those with
physical differences had experience and
knowledge that the average person could not
understand. The Fool is God. The number of the
card is zero, which when drawn is a perfect
circle. This circle represents both emptiness
and infinity. The Fool is not shackled by
mountains and valleys or by his physical body.
He does not accept the appearance of cliff and
air as being distinct or real. Image from: Mary
DeLave http://www.marydelave.com/

Which Tarot Card Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Feelings....

2004-09-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

it kinda baffles me at times ... the emotional rides that go thru my head.. what was i thinking off at the time.. if that faculty was functional at the time.. Here are my present predicaments .. if all it takes to conjure up emtions with in the human brain is a couple of meural synapse reactions to a varying array of correspondong reactions to high dopeamine and testosterone levels with low serotonin levels... then why does love evade those who crave it ..... and where does the chemical spectrum end and the human element kick in... and wher do the human vices like greed envy wrath and all those lucartive human factors figure in ...

so when biologists talk abt breaking down romance and love into chemical ingredients .. will the ever be capable of doing so? and when poets talk abt the unending nature of love itself
..will they be ever proven wrong... where does one draw the line.. when do we figure out how to manipulate our inner structure..to irradicate the inner feelings of hate and frustration... or fury and anger....

As for now cannibus will have to do...

AILFs

2004-09-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

An intergallatic sex trade worker.... Or a hyperspace pimp... or life forms from another realm brought to our time domain for the sheer purpose of sexual gratification .... Gladiators fighting for their lives in intergallatic arenas.... Would the future of the human race be free from these kinda ideas... Would porn involve mutants with green seminal fluids and purpule vaginal discharge...... How would treat this third race of beings on our planet...

Their sheer purpose of existance being for the purpose of recreational sex .. or if our genetic engineers employ their true potential give them access to un human strength and no sleep requirements ... where they are not truly cyborg and not exactly aliens on intergallatic sex permits ...would there be technosexuals with online simulations of aliens ...would AILFs be the in the thing.. would the arabs marry this new race? would the queers accept them... would the hindu fundamentalists deprive the access to the country... would the colombians use them for drug trafficking... would the palestinians get them to throw stones for them... would the taliban cover them up... would the republicans enroll em as a potential vote bank for dubya in florida?

Would Pepsi Coke Microsoft McDonalds and the Catholic Church be still around.... or what if they all amalgamated into a united entity ..run by Pope William Gates III...

ScAm of the Universe...

2004-09-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

From the creation of time; if there is an an we humans have engaged in. I guess that would be scheming... Scamming to sucker the fool out of his money... out of his wealth .. out of his position of prosperity ... and acquire it... hey Lucifer played Eve... Cain played Abel... we've been scammed out of our wits .... and is there anything that has been done about the predicament .. We get fucked over and over and over and over again...... Yet each time round .. we end up doing the same thing... bend over and take it in ...

Through the course of the last century we saw Operation Mince Meat fool the all mighty Third Reich... Sell the Eifel Tower... not once but twice... stock markets and fool hardy entrepreuners run into scammers and con artists all the time ...

Ever think what the Matchstick men of tommorow are going to be like? What are their deals going to be... How r they going to scheme you out of your money?

"A plot of land in downtown Mars... Oxygen pipeline to your house ... with that underground waterbed 16 km under the surface you have nothing to worry about .. it's a great spot .. the kids can go to college in Jupiter.... The Uranus University is reknown throughout the Universe... It's an ideal location ... My wife works at the Uranium plant in Pluto and she's back from work in 1.6 Parsec. You should check out the condominium we have going for sale right now... Work will start by the end of the intergalatic calender year... Just as soon as our hyper market project in Neptune is completed ..we should start this one... it is bound to sell out on the galatic online bid. The virtual tour will let you have a feel for the location... So what do u say? Shall we seal the deal?"

One Thing

2004-09-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

What is loud? When your testicles jump around in merriment with the sheer thud of the bass.. and the ears are no longer responsible for maintaining your hearing privilages any more .... yeah that's when i'd call it loud... standing right in front of 14 feet speakers ...with music blaring out of it at ungodly decibel levels ....

What is being close to the lead singer of the band? When the lead guitarist jumps around on stage soaked in his sweat ... and does a lil head banging session .... and the beads of sweat fly into your direction to be captured by the lenses of your glasses.... YEAH !!! you're close enough.... Hey i went a mile further... i was moving around their equipment for 3 hours after the whole concert was over .. way past after the groupies had left.. with the crew and the techies ... It was awesome...

So what am i rambling about.... I was at the Finger 11 concert yesterday night.... and it was down right awesome... loud live music rules.... apart from being not just drunk enough ... (2 pitchers of beers ) humm.... it was great...

Well .. that's 3 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours or more ... gosh i'm still kicking and screaming ... i had a booking made for a short xmas break ... i dont want to pin my hopes on it too much...

Oh well !! that sums it up for the night and the happenings of the day...Cheerio...

Sniffles of Silence

2004-09-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

When the days are crowded with mundane daily activites that drain the life force out of you... It takes quite a lot of dedication and effort to come up with some alone time .. or to do something that makes you feel satisfied... If the intention of this piece of writing was that ..and if this is any sign of what life in the days to come is going to be like I wonder...What if romance like all other pleasures of life tends to take the back seat over the passage of time... When priorities change.... when turning over to the other side of the bed for 40 winks is considered a better alternative than a sweaty session of sordid love making...

Weird .... but if such is the entropy of the state of our being why is there nothing done about it ..Why doesnt man turn away from those activities that turn us into morbid drones... How do we go about enthralling ourselves and our sense of being or well being perhaps... to shatter the narrow domestic walls ...that governs society and sanity and all those jurisdictions that are perhaps the very threads that keep the wheels of society moving and turning .... as each of us yearn to dwell in a euphoria of our own ... to set forth on endeavors that are worth more .. that fill the cups of our spirits.....

But it shouldn't be such the case that we dwell in our own scheluded lil' worlds where none have privy to .. We shouldn't let that inner child in us perish for the sake of all those other goons... And never let us wander off into the blue yonder where the skies kiss the seas in that immortal plane where the worlds merge...

The Purple Danube

2004-09-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

The ways of the world are beyond human comprehesion or is it mere state of being that we set our selves fall into. To let the oppresser's keep doing their thing and the suppressed ones keep feeling dejected... How wrong is it to rebel? what causes the rebel in all of us to function at different levels ... How different am i from the starving child in Ethiopia ... The child prostitute in Bangkok.. The drug peddler in Colombia..or Paris Hilton for that matter... what laces in the Karma in all of our well being to fragment out for that matter into various parts of the spectrum of human existance... from sher pitiable ..to absolute riches... how justified is the human race in matters of their well being...

My personal vendetta lies in the fact that health, education and food should never have turned into saleable commodities... and when the victorian norms of society; not to mention the curse of organized religion that we have subjected ourselves to .. over the centuries we have blanketed ourselves with their norms rules and regulation to make us function as a sane society ... well wake up and smell the coffee ... Sex Sells.... look around u prostitution, pornography, BDSM, homosexuality, this and all the other millions of variations of the norms and problems we have created outta turning sex into a big BOO-boo... had we let things the way the dravidian indians, the ancient greeks the incas and mayans left it ... maybe we would have progressed at a better peace .. rather than the turmoil of wars and exploitation.. and human sufferrring that we have gone through in the centuries in between...

poetry blended with a dash of rhythm ( math) makes music.... and those of us humans with any emotions left in us know Music speaks to us in a language quite different from any other spoken tongue .. it deals with a seperate area of our thinknig faculty all together... isnt it those simple pleasures of life we should tap into and maintain a sane state of being...

that was a tangent in thought train right there ... so any more coherent information to flow thorugh out of this endeavor seems highly unlikely .. coz there's a part in me that kicks in to sa i'm bored let's do something else all the time ... call it the untamed inner soul.. the inner child that pretty much rules the place ....yeah more than likely... so that sums it up for the day ...

it was the first day back in college... was pretty good... lots of eye candy... 2 pitchers of beer... and got thru the day amen...

A Vagabond's Guide to the Astral Planes

2004-09-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

I'dn't believe it myself initially but now that i've done the reading up .. I'd haveto acceptit .. I did have acouple of Astral Projections.. and it was spectacular... on the last encounter though i did hear a conscious part of me tell me i'm not ready for the rest of the journey... i was soaring through the skies .. beyond the yonder.. into an unknown universe the cool breeze of the wind fluttering by was amazing .. i was hanging on to bar of some kind .. sort of like handgliding ..into this cosmic realm.. and quite a while into the journey the astral self gave way to the fears of the conscious self and my journey ended...

Initally i thought of them as just dreams... but now that i look at it ... that imaginary city that i fly through... the neon green lights of the futuristic city out of some neo-cortex, or a fractal plane of some kind ... i travel through it ... i was sceptical of the first few journeys .. but then i remembered haing been here befoer .. and i was hovering over the terrain over and over again till the geographic dispostion was second nature to me.. i guess i gained canfidence in myself over this region and it wasnt till later that i went on to that other journey...

If they were what i think they are.. i'd truly appreciate more of such experiences and suggest everyone i know of to strive towards attaining it ..

Chicken Soup For The Horny Soul

2004-09-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

There you have it ... Here I am finally punching out something fiarly readable and coherent... Amoung the vast majority of ideas and thoughts that has had my mind walloping through .. I have come to terms taht not punching it down is not working in my favor but rather a look at it in the verse does mend and tend to the dilapidated soul with in...

So where do i begin ... The last couple of days has been rather hectic to say the least... been busy with college activities... Orientation and stuff... the honest to god truth is to get away from the solitary confinement i call my residence... now that i dont enjoy a really hard core solitary confinement... But for a guy who has been a Vagabond since he was 16.... i lived on my own since... and 8 years later people put a curfew on you ... what time you get home .. how much of access you get to a PC... how much of TV you watch .... low and behold here me rumble .... ,,,, ... there you have it ... my response.... ppl keep asking me why they dont see me online why i aint doing stuff like download a movie or two a teleseries or two a game .. a cpl of 1000 mp3s.. coz i fucking dont have access tothe one true love of my life ... a Computer god damn it.... Hey i remember when i was in any solitary confinement ..back home in jeddah, my PC died on me for no particular reason and i couldn't get it work after half dozen fuck fests i had with it .. so i had sent down to the shop and i get back home... i wake up in the morning and for once i felt alone and scared being alone... so i walked down to Avi's place... now is that a sign of how pathetic i am... and now they tell me i cant have a PC to access at my own leisurely pace.. fuck that shit Fecal dissmissive!!! ... Oh well !!! When life kicks me in the nuts i've learnt not to take it lying down there ... been around the bloack far too many times to know that... I get right up ..maybe it takes a while but i'm back at game... I feel like a cornered animal most of the time... People push me into that corner.. and i hybernate in there ....in that distant lonely corner of mine away from humanity ..turing into an agorophobic... is it doing me any good .. i highly doubt it ... but atleast that way i get to collect my thoughts and come back at you.. and honest to god.. u dont want to be on the wrong side of the fence when i'm out on the prowl...

The number of times i've lost the simple pleasures of life is unfathomable... I hear stories from the kids i love .. and i shudder within .... tragic ...absolutely pathetic i thought i carried the cross for them all... Leaving home at 16 isnt pleasant ... far from it rather .. and today the scars have healed .. u've picked at the scabs long enough... and you thought it had all come to an end... In the words of Michael Corleone.. Just when you thought it was all over.. they pull u back in ... Jethro ...my baby brother u didnt have hose tears u did... u dont have to go thru the pain of losing family ... that was supposed to be all over.. Tearing the fabric of family and dispersing it over the globe is the most hiedous crime one can ever come it .. take siblings away from each other in the prime of their youth... absolutely catstophic... it must be the work of satan... it must be the cain and abel he wants us to dwell with in each of us... the sheer agony of it all...

those kids are so full of love for each other and the people around them.. one look into their eyes and u can see an eternity of love fly by ...why have they forsaken thee? and here in the artic capitalist jungle.... a latchkey generation breeds where love is a FMCG..and lasts only as long as u can provide with em the item on the shelf with all the bells and whistles... they lack the glow in the eyes ... u see and void ..a darkness.. an incomprehensible generic garble that was picked up from the boob tube is what reiterates for spoken language... there is no finesse .. no true picture of their emotions ... their gestures capture nosings of happiness.. it's so shallow... it hurts to see the slime bags pursue their lives ....disgusting... and even more so is the fact there are those amidst them who mimmick this scavenger way of life... how much lower down the food chain and circle of life can u go...

As the average reader can feel the venting of negative energy ... which is my last goal out of this ... i shall get back at this when my mind can conceive a angelic creature .. and not the demonicbeast that will most likely be the beast of this fornication ...