Promising's Tips For Practicioners of The Magical Artses

A page from Henry Promising's diary.

Intended to be tips for his students and general guidelines for all "practicioners of the Magical Artses".

If Wishes Were Jessica Alba..

... I Would be Very, Very, Very Happy.

A Very Dexter-ish Xmas

These are all my wishes/ These are all my dreams.
Treat them right/ Or I will have to wrap you up.... *tight*
:[

Week-a-pedia

Truth is for suckers, Johnny boy

Charlie Sheen as Charlie Sheen in Being John Malkovich.
I guess he is finding out now. Get your act together, man!

I saw Being John Malkovich. If you think Inception is cool, Being John Malkovich is a definite recommendation. It does not have the snazzy story-telling, the flawless action sequences and the mind-numbing tension. In fact, it does not need all those.
After watching it, my head is no longer the safe place I thought it was.

Samhain is a Gaelic festival held on October 31–November 1. The Irish name Samhain is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". The West usually calls it Halloween.

Google has put up a Halloween themed doodle or it will soon. This brings me to my favourite Halloween themed picture ever.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. His best known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. I heard it today. I have been enlightened.

I ran into a couple of older Doods, at a xerox place. They had week-old beards, cigarettes idly lounging between their lips, making xerox copies of classical sheet music to play on guitars and basking in a peculiar air of 'coolness'.
I was xeroxing a final year project report.

I asked one of the guys(or was it uncle?) what they were doing with the sheet music. He said 'We are taking xeroxes'. Never felt more lame.

Finally, in my project presentation I was asked ''Why your product?''
I replied with Thomas L. Friedman's classic quote

The only reason for a new product is to make people's lives more productive, more comfortable or more fun

She said, ''This is not the right time to use a quote''.

Oh, hum. College profs- can't live with them, can't bear them.

Pic ME!

''No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. '' - John Donne

A very interesting observation that one.

Especially in context of ''life'' today. Or more correctly social life. The presence of this technological ether all around us has been criticized by many. They have their arguments, some of which include lack of human contact, kids changing into couch potatoes and so on.

I believe no one really cares enough anyway. The need to socialize is ingrained in most individuals in a society. This need also tends to manifest itself with the urge to express oneself.

What better to do so than with photography?
There is a very famous and oft quoted Chinese proverb that says, 'A picture speaks a thousand words.'
SO true.

Apart from a few notable exceptions, almost everyone you know has a phone. And what better way to express yourself than clicking your way through mundane life with your trusty mobile camera alongside you.
Granted, you don't have much options in the tech department. What with scratchy lenses, inappropriate resolutions and in general suckiness of cell phone cams, it is no wonder that the expressionists are befuddled.

Amidst this backdrop, Tata DOCOMO has launched Alcatel OneTouch Net phone to help you share life as you live it. With its 2MP camera and social networking features, it allows you to express yourself. And that too real quick. So, go and grab your chance.

After all, a picture taken with this phone speaks two hundred thousand words.

Evolution, My Appendix!

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
         - Pablo Picasso, Spanish Cubist painter (1881 - 1973)

What does Picasso know? The guy used to draw cubes, for God’s sake.

The technology I wished existed is the one which would help a tech-novice like me to understand all the existing technology. Make life simpler, because all this technology is sure not doing that!

Just the other day I was watching this movie about some megalomaniac who had parenting issues or something on those lines. Suddenly, I hear a ringtone to the tune of some Gujarati folk song blaring from a seat, ahead of me. Now I believe there is a very special place for those who sin, called Hell. However, a very special part of this Hell is reserved for those people who talk in theatres during movies. Even worse the man who looked like he might have been a resident of Alibaug didn’t answer the phone.

Instead he clipped on this body-part shaped headset thingie and talked through it, in a grating voice and very disturbing language. I found out later that this is a new liberal technology called Bluetooth, where a phone can transfer data without a wire. If your phone is internet enabled, you can even use it as a modem and use your new ultra mobile PC to connect to the Internet. Is this ridiculous, or what?

Even more ridiculous?  These computers have been made small enough to actually fit in your pockets. Get this: some actually write on these computers with a pen!

Ten years ago, nobody even thought about writing notes on a mini-sized computer. They used something called pencil and paper! These new mini-computers run an operating system called Windows, probably developed by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh or some such place (I hear they have BPO’s in Dharavi). With these mini-computers, students and adults can play video games instead of studying or actually working. If you are a CEO and think a client is taking notes on his little computer, you may be surprised to find out he is playing Snake instead.


I can never forget the day when my family got our first color television set. The whole neighborhood gathered at our working-class house, where we could watch the latest family-oriented shows like Shriman Shrimati. These days they all watch such immoral shows like Desperate Housewives, South Park, and Rakhi ka Swayamvaar. There is even some marketing scam called "high-def TV."

Do you remember the good old days, when home computers could be used for word processing, study, and even communication between family members?

Now, kids use them to download porn and hip-hop music, which leads to the downgrade of our society. They say it will better help students “organize.” I say this is just an excuse to help dumb down our education system. (More?) Whatever happened to the good old assignments? All Engineers are made by assignments and not by Practical or any other sort of experience. (Not even the weed one). Whatever happened to teachers writing the homework assignment on the board? Don’t get me wrong; I like technology. I somehow feel guilty being a part of the dumbing down of India.

But then We Are Like That Only, No?

For The Beautiful Minds

"No. Paradise Lost lacked the substructure of pessimism." She said.

This is just one gem by Woody Allen, from his NY Times bestseller.

The whole story deals with the possibility of intellectual prostitution. I must admit the idea is very alluring.

In this age of social networking, where does one get a decent conversation that is not peppered with idiotic abbreviations. Plus, the idea of two redheads explaining Proust is very, very tempting.

Imagine a custom made conversation that aims to provide intellectual stimulation. A tailor made talk between two people that titillates your mind. The topic of discussion can be varied. The genres diverse. Start of with a brief exposition of Macbeth, a study of the symbolism in Moby Dick, light banter about the merits of democracy and round it of with a discussion on the music of Dire Straits.

This is just an example. The possibilities are limitless. The conversations endless.
One might argue that the hunger for knowledge might be sated through the internet. This might be true due to the omniscient Google, but still it does not provide the modicum of humanity that the above method does. Plus, there is no guarantee that you will get satisfaction of any sort after reading it off the Net. Talking with friends is definitely not the same because of the emotional angle. Internet based discussions usually end up becoming flame wars and breeding grounds for smart alec types.
Man is ,after all, no island. More like a peninsula, probably.

And there is the slight chance that you might find someone who knows that J.R.R. Tolkien & Philip Pullman are better authors than J.K. Rowling.

{for the concerned, Woody Allen's story is named 'The Whore of Mensa'}