Online Life and Real World..

Well when you see around many online internet sites, forums and blogs where people from different parts of the world meet, unite and make friends doesn’t it all give a sense of déjà vu- I mean people try to use these online forms of communication as an escapist route from their troubles and worries in Real Life…Let me take you more into the analogy between the two.  Online sites like Orkut, etc –well they are nothing but a sort of virtual reality, a virtual simulation game where in the people we meet and make friends online are the virtual entities, the virtual characters playing their role…you have not met them in real life and there is no guarantee that you would meet them but why do people find solace in these so called online relationships? Why is it that even though the mind is separated from the physical being of the individual (in the sense that despite your physical absence you actually pen down your thoughts by writing down, scraps, blogging, posts etc) do people actually sense a kind of closeness to each of the other so called ‘online’ friends the virtual entities to be precise? This is one question that seemingly reclusive on its own might have some explanation…  Consider the virtual online world to be The Matrix- a metaphysical world where the physics of life don’t validate or govern an alternate dimension and time frame where despite the physical disparities in the location of the individuals- the characters of the game unite with their minds, their thoughts. However can we expect feelings to be transferred from one person to another- a feeling of closeness to the individual, maybe development of mutual admiration and affections despite the fact that all the individuals have not even once met in real life?  Well as I had earlier stated there might be an explanation to it-after all you cannot expect online relationships to blossom and flourish and get converted into some thing as marriage unless the twain don’t meet! Even then the cases where such have been established are rare…they have happened- like the 2 souls met each other through online first and then in real life and went ahead and married-for one thing this is not easy-you cannot vouch for all the credentials that the said individual is posting on his or her behalf and trust me putting a genuine pic also would not suffice-it can be morphed for all you know.  So how do the trust and friendship develop- is it only through words, the style of writing that one can figure out :- a) the gender of the person. b) that the person is not a poseur? Well partly yes and this also brings us to the 2nd level of communication- and that is voice chatting and telephone conversation-here despite the advances in voice modulation you cannot obscure the true nature of your voice no matter how you try and as you gradually speak along you get to gauge the person somewhat better as you would have say while chatting or orkutting.  People meet become friends virtually but to me it doesn’t make much practical sense – it is just that you are temporarily transferred to a make belief world where almost everything is perfect and going according to you-a place where you can share your thoughts and feelings with everyone, discuss about your interests and that’s all there is to it without going into any emotional attachment of any sorts. Friendship is something which cannot be solely established through the online world-no matter how much a smooth talker you might be and how much you portray yourself as the sane individual who is utmost in terms of character and morality. It goes beyond that-it transgresses the mind and conjugates with the physical being of the person-in short unless you meet ,you cant just call anyone your friend per se-at the most acquaintances.  This is because whatever happens in the alternate dimension-the virtual online world is shut off once you disconnect the internet and shut down your computer-whatever connection was their with the virtuosos it all goes off once everything is shut down- just like when you disconnect yourself from a virtual reality world. It is akin to coming back to the ground reality –if you stay alone then sinking once again into your couched hermit life or if you are among friends then once again digressing into the mirth and laughter with them.  So who does seek solace and comfort in the virtual world-people who are lonely and those who might have got bored and frustrated with life that they think spending 40% of their lifetime on the internet would help them find people and meet people and give him or her that much added sense of relief. However life is so fast paced in the current world and it is so competitive that rarely do you find such categories of people but even then there are sections of them that do exist. So which one do you prefer-online world or the real world-the question itself sounds inane but I just want to derive an opinion out of everyone out of this article I wrote and what do they make of it. For me I would obviously prefer the real world even though I am a self confessed net addict :P

Of progressive rock and Dream Theater

Octavarium album and the title song is epic in every sense of it.The track with a length 24 minute long encompasses in its final few stanzas all the prior 7 songs of the album.What more the ending tune of Octavarium leads to the opening salvo of the first song of the album-The Root of All Evil-in fact the album is like a loop quite aptly put by the lines-"

Trapped inside an Octavarium" it s the lyrics,the vocals and the awesome guitaring of Petrucci and drumming of Portnoy that makes DT a band worth listening to.Metrpolis Part 2-A Scenes from a memory is probably one of the best concept albums in progressive rock that I have listened to.

Images and Words would always remain their core popular album what with tracks like Pull Me Under,Another Day,Under the Glass moon scoring heavily with the fans.

Fall into Infinity also has good melodious numbers as in Hollow Years,Take Away my Pain-with the epic concluding It was Raining,etc 3 part track.

Progressive rock is defined largely by Dream Theater being at the core but bands like Porcupine Tree,Rush are also good in this genre-Neil Peart is a great drummer,an idol for many drummers that includes Mike Portnoy.

PS: I intend to buy the DVD of Metropolis Part 2.No idea about the prices though.

Chennai 600028 review

Over the weekend I saw a very good Tamil movie recommended to me by my friend, Chennai 600028 with English subtitles of course :P .The movie has everything-action,drama,comedy,romance- it’s a movie based on a theme that is the nation’s favorite sport-cricket. It showcases from gully cricket to tournament cricket and also the rivalry between two teams-Sharks and Rockers. Along the way it highlights team unity,amity,friendship, fights, interpersonal rivalry, ego clashes and also some minor quibbles that happen in friendship but above all it highlights the spirit of the game which is cricket.  The movie starts and ends with a run out albeit the out come is different for the both. The climax of the movie is the all important cricket match and just like Lagaan it goes all down to the wire-the last ball of the match and few runs required to win. The ending is climactic all right and all the actors have played their role well-notably characters playing Shanmugam,Karthick, Raghu( a former Rocker team player turned Sharks team’s lead bowler) and Selvi’s brother(forgot the name who was the captain in the final for Sharks).  Entertainment throughout with a good soundtrack the movie was enjoyable. PS: Learnt some Tamil words in the process-machan=buddy,ball podu pa=bowl,thambi=younger brother-these are the few that caught me the most along with poda=go.:P PPS: I heard Venkat's 2nd film Saroja is equally good as the first and I would check it out once the DVD is released of it with subtitles..the reviews look good so far of it.The star cast is basically the same as that of Chennai 600028 so it should be a good one.

48 Hours

Time is a very important aspect…as Floyd’s Time song specifies…Time and tide waits for none…we often are hard pressed in our lives for time and we hardly manage to squeeze in some rest or entertainment in between our daily hectic schedules..so I was wondering what would happen if say we have 48 hours instead of 24…mind you all other parameters remaining same-you have the same 8-9 hour job…etc…considering I am a kind of insomniac I can do with less sleep..so I would indulge myself more on the entertainment front..be it going on a reading spree..I love reading..or watching movies on a trot…I am a movie buff or for that matter completing the pending series..yes I watch series too..I have lots to occupy myself with and of course I have studies of MBA to tag along with…maybe squeeze in an extra few hours of sleep-here and there maybe 7-8 instead of the normal 5-6 hours of sleep…browse the net at home for more hours..

So tell me what would you do if a day had 48 hours instead of the normal 24 hours?

PS: I am expecting people to say they would sleep for the majority of the hours but one never knows..answers can be unexpected too!..One can visit another city inside 48 hours…Around the world in 80 days…Around India in 48 hours..does it sound too far fetched :P ;)-(one would have to travel by flight only then to make it possible considering the reputation of Indian railways and the faster trains which are a rarity these days..apart from Rajdhani..

LHC-Big Bang Theory replicated-CERN

From the flagellants of the Middle Ages to the doomsayers of Y2K, humanity has always been prone to good old-fashioned the-end-is-nigh hysteria. The latest cause for concern: that the earth will be destroyed and the galaxy gobbled up by an ever-increasing black hole next week.

Well the experiment had been performed and there was no cause for concerns whatsover.The clockwise rotation of the proton beams was successfully done within an hour as it moved through the LHC.The anti-clockwise motion followed suit.On October 21st the LHC would be officially unveiled following which the two proton beams would be made to collide at high speed thus generating large amount of energy.Of course it might create miniature black holes but there are no cause for concerns as by Hawkin's radiation those black holes would be absorbed by gravitation.

Should we be scared? No. In June, CERN published a safety report, reviewed by a group of external scientists, ruling out the possibility of dangerous black holes. It said that even if tiny black holes were to be formed at CERN — a big if — they would evaporate almost instantaneously due to Hawking Radiation, a phenomenon named for the British physicist Stephen Hawking, whose theories show that black holes not only swallow up the light, energy and matter around them, but also leak it all back out at an accelerating pace. According to Hawking, if tiny black holes occurred at CERN, they would evaporate before they got a chance to do any damage. (Even if Hawking's theories prove to be wrong — no one has yet witnessed black-hole evaporation — scientists at CERN say the LHC's collisions are already known to be harmless: an equivalent amount of energy is produced hundreds of thousands of times a day by cosmic rays colliding with the earth and other objects in the cosmos — always without incident.)

Now what would recreation of what caused Big Bang effect help the scientists and science in particular?

Well it would answer many questions about matter,antimatter,dark matter,about the Higgs boson aka God Particle,about CP violation,quarks and other such phenomenon-it would in essence enable science to answer all those questions that were previously considered to be unanswerable.

Scientists believe the LHC's results will help fill in gaps in the Standard Model, the far-reaching set of equations on the interaction of subatomic particles that is the closest that modern physics comes to a testable "theory of everything." For example, scientists believe the LHC will produce a particle, the Higgs Boson, that will end debate over how matter in the universe acquires mass. It could even provide evidence for more ambitious theories of the universe, such as string theory, which unites quantum mechanics and general relativity, the previously known laws of the small and large that are currently incompatible in the Standard Model.

Well with all the unconfounded fears being allayed,and the world still being intact,CERN should definitely deseve the credit due to them..for having performed the first round of experiments successfully..Hawkins is skeptical that the God Particle would not emerge after the collision...he feels it should better not, as it is going to turn a lot of aspects and principles of science head over..but in the end..its a feat that CERN scientists have accomplished and they deserve the praise that they are getting..

The Dilemma

Rakesh had always been the model student for his college..he was good in studies and a decent sportsperson especially in cricket where he was a decent all-rounder…
One day there was a challenge that he had to face…he had got into a fight with one guy who challenged him-in fact his team to play a best of 2 Test Matches.
His dilemma was amplified by the fact that during the course of the Test Matches in fact from Day 3 of Test Match 1 his internal exams would be commencing. He could not let that pass as he was pretty serious about his studies…nor could he manage two of them simultaneously knowing that if he played he would have to practice and that would affect his performance in the exams.

He played the Test Match but he was not performing as he would have wanted to…his mind was elsewhere…this allowed the opponents to get a hold on his team during the first 2 days of the match.
Frustrated and in despair he went to seek the help of his genius scientist uncle…who listened to his dilemma..and then asked Rakesh to undergo few tests one of them including taking a sample DNA from his body…Rakesh had no clue as to what he was up to but knowing the capabilities of his uncle he confided in him. His uncle told him not to worry and told me to get back and concentrate on my studies…I had no clue as to what he would be doing to ensure that my team obtained victory in those two Test matches which was crucial from the point of pride perspective which was at stake.

Well Rakesh’s internals went on smoothly and he managed to do well but he had no idea what was going on in the matches-was he able to come up with someone substantial to replace me or could do better than Rakesh?
Well after the matches when he came to college he was astonished to see everyone hugging and congratulating him…he was about to ask someone what happened..was it because of his marks but then someone told him..man you were a one man show against the team…we won the 2 Test Matches solely because of you man..

Then he read the headlines..Rakesh turns around with his superlative all round performance with the bat and the ball to clinch the test series for his team, his college…and when he saw his photograph he was stunned…it was him in the photo..now how was this paradox possible..he was writing his tests..and he remembers his marks distinctly so how could he have figured and played in those matches…
I rushed to my uncle whom I knew could tell me the answers to this..and when he replied I was stunned:-
“Rakesh, congrats on your clone successfully performing the feat in test matches…I made him watch the cricket videos and the clone being able to memorize everything was able to replicate the performance on field when you were busy writing the tests…I had molded his brain accordingly such that he could pick things up fast..”
There he saw sitting beside his uncle with a vacant emotionless face was Rakesh’s clone..

Spoonerism

A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis). It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.

While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue resulting from unintentionally getting one's words in a tangle, they are often used intentionally as a play on words.

 

Quotations attributed to Spooner include:

• "The Lord is a shoving leopard" ("loving shepherd")
• "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" ("customary to kiss")
• "Mardon me, padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?" (Pardon me, madam, this pew is occupied. Can I show you to another seat?")
• To a student: "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain" ("missed ... history," "lighting a fire," "wasted two terms," "down train")
• To a lady at a college reception: "You'll soon be had as a matter of course" ("mad as a Hatter, of course")
• "Let us glaze our asses to the queer old Dean" ("Let us raise our glasses to the dear old queen")
• "We'll have the hags flung out" ("flags hung")
• "a half-warmed fish" ("half-formed wish")
• "Is the bean dizzy?" ("dean busy")
• "Go and shake a tower" ("take a shower")
• "a well-boiled icicle" ("well-oiled bicycle")
• "Let us pray for our queer old dean"