firelinks's posterous

Respect Dread!

Regard - n. Attention to or concern for something. 

Perhaps, most people are not as old school like me. Don't get it wrong, I don't think I am that old, but I have a liking for "Old School" things, as much as I like things of the present day.

Music, as I said before, is my life. So as expected, I like both old school and new age music. I was told that I could probably find a song for everything and any situation. I don't really feel I am the master of it, but I am sure I am can do a good job. So to begin, I think I will start with this song

Recently, I was presented with a situation that got me thinking about the type of image you portray to your peers, and your friends.

Your friends are often the people your consider most dearest to you. They are in your comfort zone, they are the people you may share experiences and events, that you will not share with other people. The level of friendship depends on the person, and the level that they may want to take it.

Friendship, in itself, is based on a number of factors. The first being mutual interest, of course, If two or more people are "not on the same page", then one doubts a relationship in that case may last. Friendships, also, have many other elements that must be present, even if understood, in order for the relationship to work. One expects that his/her friends, would be loyal, trustworthy, respectful or atleast have some amount of regard for the other parties.

The situation presented is one whereby one party shows utmost interest and regard for that of the second, but the other party does not respond in the same way. Rather the second party thinks that you, and all that which you do, is a joke. An outright joke! 

This leads you to think, how much does this person actually care about what you do. Is it that you are just a pawn used in a game of their play?

The question of expectations arises, and I always thought that relationships break down because we expect too much out of them. Perhaps, that is what this is, Too much expectation. 

I will bask around with thoughts, in my head as I think and assess my new position. One thing is for sure though, my expectation levels have been totally lowered.

DON 2

A couple of months ago, when I went to go see Ra One, I posted that as part of the pre show I saw the trailer for Don 2, and it was quite impressive.

[Now I know, Shanie is reading this and going, WHAT?!, he didn't even complete the first post, and he's is posting again. Well, Shanie, because I can].

I must say that I have not been too fascinated in watching Bollywood movies in recent times, even though, I couldn't say that I regretted watching Ra One. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Besides being a sucker for Artificial Intelligence, I am also a sucker for good movies. And well, the trailer for Don 2 has gotten me pumped with excitment to see it. So here it is, see if you can see what I am talking about?

Now, point to note, is that this is the trailer for Don part 2, the sequel to Don (part 1) which was released in 2006. It should be also noted that I have never seen the first Don movie, so as a result, I have added this on my list of things to do. Have I done it yet? Well No, but neither have I seen the new Don movie, so I am not really at a lost.

My knowledge beyond the trailer of the movie is limited. But I will share with you the little that I can gather from bits and peices.

During his reign of Bollywood cinema, the legendary actor Amitabh Bachan made Don (1978), which I have seen, and really is one of the movies that will go down in his record of classics. In 2006, filmakers, decided to remake the Don film, with the current king of Bollywood cinema, Shahrukh Khan.

In recent years, we have seen a transition in Bollywood cinema to bring sequels to movies, and in more recent times, in 3D. Don 2 has all of these elements, which makes it very exciting to see.

That's leaving out other amazing things like, the fact that Priyanka Chopra is in it again [drools]. It's an action pack adventure, of cop chasing theives in which case the theives are hard to capture.

In comparison of the 1978 Don and 2006 Don, both of them carry a song which is reminiscant of the movie:

[Khaike Paan Bana Rasilwala]

(1978)

(2006)

The Don movies are famous for their songs. Some of the popular joints from the 2006 movie, and probably all that I know about the movies are:

[Aaj Ki Raat]

[Main Hoon Don 2006] - Personal Favorite

[Main Hoon Don 1978]  - Personal Favorite

Here is the only song I have found so far from the 2011 edition.

Conclusion:

Definitely looking forward to see it on the day of it's release. Now let's see how that goes.

That Game Again.

It is becoming a normal trend for the current company I work with, to put out contests, in the form of paper written quizzes for the staff, full time and contract, to fill out for a small incentive. The latest one to arrive to the table is to find a creative Safety Slogan for the company's Safety Campaign. As usual it requires creativity and originality, and even though I am not the slight bit interested, my work mates are very much so. They have now recruited me to act on their behalf, so I am now compelled by friendship, to come up with some creative slogans in terms of the company and safety. What's that I heard? A Challenge? You betcha!

Ubuntu 11.10 - Oneiric Ocelot

It's October 13th 2011, and it's that time of the year again. Another Ubuntu release date, this time, version 11.10 (October, 2011) code named Oneiric Ocelot. I have not paid much attention to what has changed in this version, but I did manage to download and give it a go. So far, everything looks good. I can't until this weekend, when I will do a full backup, reinitialize and reinstall my Ubuntu partition

Breakaway (Speedy Singhs)

Other than being a Music nerd, I am also a movie fan. I am not a movie nerd, just a movie fan. I tend to zone in and out of this area, but I must say, I love to see movies, good movies too. I guess everyone ( or most ) share the same sentiments as me, with everyone having their own taste, thoughts and level of nerdiness about it. 

I tend to pick and choose my movies, especially given the circumstances of not having enough time to sit and watch a bunch of them. I usually pick up a friend, or go alone to the theaters, now that I can to see my movies. 

About 3 months ago, a friend of mine and I went to see Fast Five, and during the preshow trailer ads, we came across this

The excitement started. A RUSSELL PETERS MOVIE! I couldn't wait to see this. Why?

Russell Peters

Russell Peters, in case you don't know, is a Canadian born comedian. His parents are of Indian heritage, who he comes from a diverse background. His specialty in Comedy, which is mostly Stand-up, is doing imitations of people from different backgrounds and cultures.

Breakaway

If you have watched the video above, you would have already known, that the movie is based on an all-star Sikh hockey team trying to win the cup. The team is created by Rajvir Singh, the main protagonist after he was reject to play in the champion leagues. He also falls in love with the sister of his coach, who is a white girl.

The film, which is a bridge between Hollywood and Bollywood, displays the fight against culture to get one's dream. It also speaks out a lot on "accepted" racism that is prevalent, especially in multicultural societies

Following

Well since the film wasn't due for another 3 months at the time I became aware of it, I paid no attention to it. There was not much information, or a proper trailer released as yet, only the one posted above

The poster

I kept it in the back of my mind that the movie will come out in the fall, so I need to go see it as soon as it hits. I didn't recall the date of it's release, so last week, I asked a coworker if she knew what the release date was. She, herself being a movie lover, did not know. Coincidentally, the said day, as I was going to my classes, I saw a poster in front of my school, for the same movie, with the release date: September 30th 2011

Preview

Today I decided to do some research on the movie, and came up with this:

The Official Trailer

So after figuring out that the movie release will be on this week, I decided that I will be rewarding myself for this week's work by going to see the movie

It will be interesting, however to see the amount of people at the theater to see this movie. Why?

The movie is based on 3 main things:

• Hockey (the sport of Canada)
• Indians (specifically Punjabis)
• Russell Peters

Here's facts about me:

• I am going to see the movie in Canada.
• I live in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, which is the most populated Indian area in Canada, especially Punjabis
• Brampton, is also the hometown of Russell Peters. In fact I live on the same block as he used to. He now lives in Los Angeles, California.
• The movie comes out at the start of the 2011/2012 hockey season.

I guess by now, you are beginning to see an anticipated difficulty with getting into the theater to see the movie. 

More

Here's some more interesting things about the movie.

• Anupham Kher, the famous bollywood actor, plays a part in the movie.
• The movie is produced by Akshay Kumar, another famous Bollywood actor
• There's a nice song featuring Akshay Kumar and Rap/Hip-Hop Superstar Chris Bridges a.k.a Ludacris

Extended Trailer

That Song - Shera Di Kaum Punjabi

Performed by RDB, Ludacris, Akshay Kumar, & the Speedy Singhs

Ludacris Promo

Luda joins the team to promote his song

Conclusion

Breakaway looks like a fascinating film. I can't wait to see it. Stay tuned to this spot for my review after I have seen it

Writing Tonight.

It's time to get out of this syndrome, of relapse and begin doing what I want to do. Yes, I have been planning to do lots of writing since a very long time now, but start with a haste then suddenly stop. I know the solution would be to take it into little chunks and do it day by day, but for some reason that doesn't work for me. so I'll tell u a little bit about what I have been doing, what I want to do and how I am going to handle this situation. Look out for more posts coming shortly.

Tea!

It's 2 am on a Sunday Morning, and I am very much occupied with what I spend most of my weekends doing. Reading/Writing Code, Social Media, & Blogging. Suddenly I felt a little drained, so I decided to go for the next best thing, a cup of Tea! Yes, a nice hot cup of Green Tea. Very delightful.

Now, if you known me well, or you didn't know, I was a caffeine addict. Caffeine-aholic you may say, since I lived on Pepsi, and Coffee. I drank a lot of it, until I was up to 10+ cups in a day. A little over a year ago, before I moved to Canada, I was a Pepsi-holic too. However, since I moved to Canada, I declined my usage of Pepsi, since, in my opinion, the Pepsi here, is not as great as the one in Guyana.  

I had decided that I would cut down on my coffee usage to see if there would be any changes to a constant headache I would get everyday. This was based on suggestions I received from friends, who just sounded like they knew what they were saying, but have no medical background. This cut back did bring some amount of changes, but it was still there. It was until one night, in a discussion with Shanie, that she suggested that I quit Coffee completely. Shanie's opinion is that coffee is "nasty" and not good for you. Of course, Shanie is from a scientific and somewhat medical background.

So I decided to stop, and to call it quit. But how do you stop or quit a habit. It is hard, and you need something to drive it, to keep you constantly motivated. not to keep on doing it. I sat up that night, thinking of ways that I will help myself to quit this habit. The first idea that came to me, was to create an counter, and place it online, as to how long I have stopped. This way, I will keep looking at the numbers, and try to be loyal to it. I did, and you can have a look for yourself, how I have been doing so far -> http://www.michaeldabydeen.com/coffee/

The second thing is, I needed to replace my most favourite drink with something else. So Shanie, again, suggested to try tea. Now I've had tea before, but never really liked it and didn't have much of it. But this reintroduction to tea, led me down an entirely new road. The world of tea was much bigger than I thought. There was lots to explore, and I was just amazed.

A few days after this introduction, I was over at my neighbourhood supermarket, and picked up a box of Lipton Green Tea. Now these are quite good, even though it costs CAN$5.99 (GY$1200) for a box, it was worth it. Later that week, I was at the mall, where I encounter a  store called "Teaopia" which stocks up on all types of tea. It's after receiving a booklet from them about Tea, that I began to learn about all the different kinds of tea, and boy was I amazed.

I then discussed this again with Shanie, who by now, became my tea guru, and she suggested I tried Bubble Tea or "Bubba", as she calls it. At first, I thought, well where am I going to find Bubble Tea from? I'd probably look around for it. It was about a week after I visited the mall again, and ran into a little booth called 'Bubble Tease' that sold ... Bubble Tea! So, silly me, went up to the guy who was selling and go like, "Dude, I need a bubble tea", and his reply was. "well what kind?" and I go, "huh?" and then he starts to explain, that they are a large variety of Bubble Tea. After understanding the basics, I decided to choose randomly from his list, and my first pick was, "Honey Lemon Green " Bubble Tea! . And Guess What? It was just terrible, so I am thinking, I just paid $7 for this, and it taste so bad, I wonder why Shanie was so excited about this?

So again, I went back to my tea Guru, to consult. She, then told me, that I chose a wrong flavor, and then suggested to me a list of flavors to try. I tried, and finally found what she was talking about, the Bubble Tea was just amazing!

While having this 'Bubble Tea', I took some pictures, and later posted them to Facebook. I got some comments, and came to realize that I have a few friends, who apparently are tea experts. I was happy, since I kept learning more and more about Tea each day.

More importantly though, I felt a new life in Tea, I was not tired as before. My daily headache was gone, and generally I felt more relaxed and happier. Was it the tea? or is it a mind thing? I don't know, all I know is, for now, Tea rocks! 

DJ Penguin on the inside

I have already ranted about why I love music and what I do what I do, you can read it here . So now to the fun stuff.

For my birthday this year (2011), I got an ION Audio Discover DJ pro , which might seem somewhat of a toy, but it's a pretty little peice.In case you are still wondering what that is, it's a USB mixing board, that should work somewhat like professional DJ equipment. It is not professional DJ equipment, however.

For me, it gives me more control that using the keyboard, and less work, makes it easier to control your DJ software. This device ships with a customized version of MixVibes Software to create an easy to use environment, for kids and newbies. It is also another Windows-based software. Now usually, you know I will say that once it's Windows, it's fail, but let me tell you why this one's fail.

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The passion of the beat

I have had a reasonable love affair with music since I was a child. Music is my thing, it helps to keep my cool when the weather is warm, I guess you got the picture of what I am trying to say. As a result, I have my music everywhere with me, and am beginning to think I couldn't go a day without it, well maybe I can, but why should i?

With my love and passion for music, I have also developed a habit & hobby of mixing these music, trying to find the right beats, corners, matches etc. I have been around in this business for quite a number of years, so my experience is far more than many DJs of today, and some would like to call me that also, a DJ, even though I think they are being too modest. I just do what I love doing.

Yes, I have been around long enough to know what an LP is from an MP3.

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Python - Print

Being into software development for a while, I decided to revisit an old client of mine, Python (http://www.python.org). The reason being, I need some python practice, and I am trying to make a cloud based game, which I will tell you more about in a later post. 

The initial debate inside my head, was: 

• Reboot from Windows to Linux - Yes I run a dual boot on my laptop - I am thinking, nah, too lazy to do that, too much time wasted. I mean at 3am on a sunday morning, who has time.
• Boot up Linux in a VirtualBox VM - yes, but stand the possiblity of slowing down the performance of Windows, which gets slower each day
• Download Python for Windows - crappy, but lazy option.

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