Who likes to work?

Points of observation, work-wise:

• Even though you may be away from work, structures and hierarchies never go away. 
• You may feel you are doing what you are supposed to do, but your bosses feel otherwise.
• You might be asked to tell how you feel, but, really, no one wants to hear it.
• The more breaks you take, the worse you feel.
• Everyone's grammar might make you feel like bursting but you still can't laugh or correct them, as you are in a team meeting!
• Counting down the days to your salary does not make you work harder for it.
• There will always be people who irk you just because of the way they are dressed.

I am sure there will be tons more in the small period I plan to work.

Drat!

Around the year, again

What’s new about the year?
It’s just figures, ain’t it?
Another number to bear,
Makes me older and you know it!

Under the moonlight and the sunshine,
it’s the blinding beam all over again.
Tired and dead,
We all fall down the drain.

Fighting crime from the ivory tower

I guess when you’re spending a lot of time marathoning The Closer and Law and Order, you also start to notice things like this. I’m not surprised the city isn’t safe – it’s not new. What I am surprised at is things like this:

I thought this was a known fact (or is it just because of television?).


C’mon paper! The headline sucks!! And apart from being sexist, are you saying that one day you’ll be able to say that the city is safe? Is there any city that is??

 

Of course everyone is out to get me!

Disorder | Rating
Paranoid: Very High
Schizoid: High
Schizotypal: High
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: Low
Narcissistic: High
Avoidant: High
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: Moderate

I take these sort of tests once in a while and as I think, so I receive. Though I think there is some conspiracy here. I would say I’m extremely antisocial and dependent. But if I say I let other people make my important decisions, it’s an oxymoron, isn’t it?

URL of the test: http://www.4degreez.com/misc/personality_disorder_test.mv

Cavity: The tale of the lizard and the snake

They just disappeared in the darkness, somewhere
The lizard and the snake
Coming and leaving,
meeting and parting
Reunited, but fated to part.

The colour of the sky, they never saw
only the whiteness of the ceiling.
Never reached out to the brightness,
content to live within the confines.

Living to only die, was the lizard’s wish.
Dying was living, said the snake.
With glazed eyes and shaking limbs,
at the waterworks they parted,
the snake slithered and the lizard stayed.
Both wished to meet again, yet never again.

A fateful coupling, I whispered,
Releasing one and taming the other. 
Watching the snake glide,  wishing it would die,
watching the lizard petrified, wishing it would leave.

The sun in the darkness
the snake dies daily.
The darkness in the heart,
the lizard breaks itself, only to be born again.
Blood and black, craving and despair,
taint me again, today.

Desire

Listening to: Taishou A
Sin exists because I'm giving up
Punishment exists because I want things too much
I'll leave everything behind
And travel, keep traveling through the cycle

how’s the weather there?

It’s definitely the heat.
It’s not the heat where you strike a pose and strut up in less-than-nothings.
It’s the heat of the scorcher; the burning roads, the sweaty gardens, the crispy cigarette, and the melting bodies.
Or maybe it’s some end-of-the-world warning.
Either way I’m toast.

The man who made me love TV more

is being heralded by the Slate as the man who changed TV criticism. Alan Sepinwall has made me fall in love with Mad Men, Breaking Bad and I’m sure more are soon to follow. An excerpt from the well-written Salon article:

His recaps appear online in record time, typically bursting with incisive commentary and wit." Sepinwall's output is also legendary: He's currently reviewing between 10 and 15 shows each week, which he says is "a fairly light schedule for me."

His earlier blog was a wonderful discovery that I am really grateful for. It was the epic series The Wire that directed me towards his blog and since then I have always turned to Sepinwall after finishing every episode that he also reviews.

I loved his reviews of Dexter, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and recently Community.
Sepinwall (or the king of the form) can now be read here.

Technorati Tags: alan sepinwall,tv,popculture

Recently acquired obsession

Via

For the lonely nights

Links barrage

Listening to: Zombie-Cranberries/Strange Fruit-Billie Holliday/Georgia-Ray Charles/

After a long time

- Beginning with self pleasure and masturbation, I have accounts on MAL and icheckmovies. Still have a long way to go in both – although re-watching Se7en on an off day does nothing to increase the list.

- For all your One Piece needs, this is probably the best place to go.

- I often go trailer watching because I skip the new movies. Some trailers look saucy (like Scream 4) and some look immensely thrilling (like All good things). And then there are some, like Biutiful, which are stories in themselves.

- I’m not sure if it’s a good thing but the Indian section of Wiki’s list of greatest films has Sholay (1975) as the last entry. There’s also some obvious choices like Satyajit Ray films (not in my top shelf), Gandhi (a bit of over-reaching there) and Junoon (which I have never cared for). I know that most films made in India are sort of, often marketing shenanigans and mostly crap wrapped up in decoration. But I would have put something like Pushpak in that list. (and a secret favourite called Teesri Manzil).

- Thought of the day:
When your hands reek tobacco,
and your mouth smells like sushi,
there’s a night you can always remember.

Just about to fall?

Life never gives us straight up choices.

It’s never as easy as in anime, which also tries to show the grey areas. It’s not like fighting good and evil, it’s never as easy to pick a boy/girl. It’s not like Naruto just decided he’s going to get Sasuke back..Oh! wait he did!…

Life doesn’t give a choice at all. What it does it presents you with two options; both that you want to reject. It gives lessons and the funny thing is that you never learn from them. Once bitten, twice shy only applies when you’re watching some one else’s life and shouting at the screen. Even though I always feel I’m watching me watching me (sort of like a meta reality, or twice removed), I make the same mistakes over and over again – always knowing full well what I’m doing, with a tinge of regret but never a full rollback.

I think anime makes those choices very clear. (I am totally excluding Indian films/TV serials and such from this category for it pains me to say but it is mostly useless). I believe (if i can do that) that people can’t change or probably won’t change.

It’s a learning curve of stupidity with bits of experience meshed in. I’m on the edge.

Observer comment: My tone has drastically been damaged. Improve!

Lovers for Rent

Under the sunshine they met as strangers
Words were hurled and hearts were broken.

Under the twilight, observed from afar
They held their hands and sighs closer

He took her by the mouth and gazed in her dreams
She grabbed his shoulder and held his desires

Each touch was calculated
Each stroke was measured
Every kiss drew blood
Every tear drew love

They gazed in the sky till azure was upon them
A final kiss was exchanged and they left each other

Under the sunshine they met as strangers
Words were hurled and hearts were kindled.

Countless sighs - a recap of last few months

The torrents are doing their job and so is radio.
Friends are trying hard but this indecision isn’t going away.
Have caught up on films though.
Checking movies has spurred me on more than anything. Noir is exhilarating and Billy Wilder, wonderful.
I’ll be glad when I overcome this pensive mood of mine.
Have probably written more in the last few days than the last year.
There’s something rotten in my state. Going bipolar, perhaps?
Was this even a post?
PS
In the last icons post, forgot to put the Magnificent Ambersons. Damn!

Tell me what happened

                                            

Are longer conversations overrated?
How many have I had this month already?
There’s no end, no topic, no consensus.
There are pauses, laughs and awkward questions,
declarations and avowals.

Makes you think a bit, though
about the rotten state you’re in.
How you’re tied despite being free and
hating what you’ve become.

Nothing soothing emerges
and all’s in tumult.
The evening fades and roads are shortened.
Clouds dry up and time runs away.

Talks, companions and lovers
are tied up in the circle of fate
watching from close  
Soft eyes, rising passion, melting heart
and nothing to say…

Revisiting friends, loves - Life

I will probably turn older soon, if I survive to see that day. In the last few days, however hard I have tried to rethink my last few years, I’ve encountered either shameful memories or delightful moments that have shaped me up.

If I am to continue like this, the end result would probably be another year as a confused person with issues of self-doubt plaguing every action I take or every potential friendship I forge.

Talking to a friend a few hours back, we travelled through the last seven years – the education, the disappointments, the possibilities and the links. I am still the same in many ways but somehow more real – I love the way the language felt, but along the way either I failed it or it left me. I never had strong emotions within me and they have been loaded with the drug of laziness, which has made me more of a drifter and probably, an unemotional person.

But being what I am, I am looking forward to this. Being myself – even though I dislike it. I think people cannot change and I hope that to some extent it is true for me. I am still that person who loves to read books and watch films, still the same person who loves the physical over the emotional, and the same person who is amoral than immoral.

So is there a way for me to still be the same but change without my knowing? Is there a way for me to like it and dislike it?

If I could only be a distant observer who could feel what I feel while I write this, perhaps.

On a related note:

Rebels, or are we?

What a talk!

Speaking as someone without an opinion, boy, have I got an opinion. And what’s more it’s directed towards everyone.

And what’s more I even hate writing about it ‘cause I know others won’t have the same as mine.

But, for once and for many, I wish my opinion was a maxim. Or probably, the final stopping point… Something like..

BTW: Shinichi Kudo is never wrong. Why is that?

It’s changing. Probably. Someday

I miss writing.

Somehow, going through the wires each day and seeing political policies, crime and violence and just plain ol’ news, has made me jaded. It has also pushed me away from writing, something that I enjoyed occasionally.

So, now I’ve decided to do something about it. I will probably start writing reviews of things I see daily but am too lazy to post about. And these will be, of course, anime.

Watching these shows everyday, I have somehow managed to form an opinion about them (something I usually avoid). So, even though these reviews won’t be lengthy, they will have more screenshots and comments and less analysis (Which I was trying to do in my other blog…)

So, even though I can’t put a date on it, I’ll start soon. Probably. Someday. Soon.

In any case, I don’t feel too bad cause…

 

Just like that

Long time, no see Post.

1. I am on Twitter HERE.
Just a messenger.
Avoid personal reporting.

2.This is a good link for Encarta quizzes. Got a mixed variety. Pretty interesting stuff.
HERE

3. Check out this site for film posters. The Big Heat poster looks vapour-y.

4. Had a reunion with a friend who returned from the Naxal under-land, changed as a
coffee-monger, but unchanged in many ways.

5. Trying to find The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's a Scholastic publication, unavailable in India. Got interested because of the brilliant art work from Jason Chan HERE.

6. Watched Brick featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Reminiscent of Sam Spade type/The Maltese Falcon but among the immoral, drug-abused present.
Features dialogue like:
"Maybe I'll just sit here and bleed at you."
"I've got knives in my eyes, I'm going home sick."
"Which wall's the door in?"

Personal update:
Life is drab.
Work is mercenary.

Interesting links

This post is dedicated to links.
Interesting links that will become a part of the blogroll that I will one day have.

1. Arts Journal that compiles articles on media, music, people, publishing, etc.

2. Top 100 sneakers (ya, really!)

3. A clock, but not for people who can’t read HERE

4. A package deal starring Kanye West
a. What he did (NYT calls it the celebrity run-in HERE)
b. This incident led to a buzz in the twitterati-activity leading to this Is Kanye the new O.J.? HERE

5. Discovered the classic magazine The Atlantic.

Flashbacks from The Atlantic are available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/index/flashbacks

Includes:

‘Mind over matter’ which compiles articles from the 1920s to the 1990s that reflect on the revolutionary insights of Albert Einstein.

‘Defending Darwin’ that compiles articles from 1860 to the present on the conflict between evolution theory and religious fundamentalism.

‘Private domain’ where three Atlantic authors consider the fine line between security and breach of privacy.

'Obscenity, Censorship, and the First Amendment', featuring Atlantic writings from the turn of the twentieth century forward on the fraught battleground between freedom of speech and public morality.

‘So You Want to Be a Writer’ that features Wallace Stegner, Francine Prose, John Kenneth Galbraith, and others offer advice to aspiring wordsmiths.

‘Broadcast News’ where David Halberstam, James Fallows, and Nicholas Lemann write on the rich past and uncertain future of broadcast journalism.

‘Nobel Quibbles’ cause when it comes to the Nobel Prize, controversy and debate have always been the name of the game.

‘The Diamond Myth’ which compiles articles from the past 150 years reveal the dark side of "the most brilliant of stones."

‘Finding a Place for God’ includes Atlantic contributors from throughout the past century question the value of religion in a scientific world.

'The Road to the Information Age' - Decades before the rise of the Internet, Atlantic contributors were dreaming of the day when all knowledge on earth would be available at the click of a button.

'White America Reacts' compiles Articles from the turn of the 20th century onwards show that the breakdown of racial hegemony in America has been a slow, challenging process.

Cause Random stuff is fun to write about

Random Happenstance:

1. Have been watching True Blood 2 and Entourage 6 among other things. Can I just get a Well done! for HBO. (And then I read that TB has the best ratings ever!)

2. This is Tarantino's list of favourite movies from here:

Battle Royale
Anything Else
Audition
The Blade
Boogie Nights
Dazed & Confused
Dogville
Fight Club
Friday
The Host
The Insider
Joint Security Area
Lost In Translation
The Matrix
Memories of Murder
Police Story 3
Shaun of the Dead
Speed
Team America
Unbreakable

This just reminds me that I got a long way to go..Been planning to watch Audition and Shaun of the dead. Will get on that soon.

3. Apparently, Wall Street 2 is coming soon with Shia LaBeouf as the young guy who falls for the Gordon Gekko charm...Don't know how that will pan out...I am especially afraid of sequels that come later like the disaster that is called Basic Instinct 2!

4. Life's a big mess!