This Weeks Blog Word: Most

Considering we are heading into the new year, I thought it be a good idea to go over some events of this past year:

Most Awesome Feeling of the Year: The trip back to Pakistan in July/August
Most Shocking Moment of Realization: Seeing an old buddy in the role of a Groom
Most Amazing Experience: Being stuck in Karachi after for an extra week after the monsoon
Most Amazing Hosts of the Year: Kiran, Kabeer, His parents and his 1 year old son Basim
Most Amazing Conversation: Naj and I, at her house, a few hours before my flight back to Canada

Most Amazing Party of the Year: St. Patricks day at the Steam Whistle Brewery
Most Awesome Movie I Watched in the Theatre: Babel
Most Thought Provoking Read of the Year: Charlie Wilson's War
Most Awesome Series of the Year: Heroes on NBC
Most Awesome DVD I Bought This Year: Lord of War
Most Awesome Family Vacation: Montreal on the Memorial Day weekend.
Most Shocking Incident: The random brawl outside the downtown Paramount.

Most Thought Provoking Activity: Jammie's Blog Words/Phrases of the week
Most Amazing Meeting: Meeting Umar and Insiya - Umar after ages and Insiya for the first time.
Most Amazing Thanksgiving: The entire gang at Jamie's place in Waterloo

Most Amazing Website About Pakistan: Adil Najam's All Things Pakistani

Most Missed People: The entire Karachi crowd with all its goods and bads
Most Amazing News: The arrival of Rania, Naj's second daughter, yesterday.

I think I might have missed out a few things, I might make updates to this list.
None the less, its been quite a year, aint it.

Last Weeks Blog Word: Past

Here is a song that got me interested in global politics, pop culture and history in general. A song from my past about a good number of influential events and icons that shaped the present of my generation and those before it as well. Check out the lyrics below.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
Well, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bob Dole, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
Well, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
Well, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatle mania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
Well, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Bejing, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline

Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets,
AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores,
China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars,
I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
since the world's been turning.

We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

-- Billy Joel

Happy Festivus Everybody!

A tradition that started in the 60s. A celebration for the common man, jolted back to life by Costanza and Kramer, its time once again to celebrate Festivus.
Bitch, whine, complain and let them know what its all about. Let the energy out, pin them to ground, shed the marterialism and gather around that shiny pole.

Festivus, for the rest of us.

Its Been A While, A Lot Has Changed

Its been a while since I posted anything significant here. I made up for it with someone catchy little video clips from You Tube and Metacafe. For those who haven’t used MetaCafé, I find it better than you tube since there is less junk on it. That also means that their library is much smaller. Anyhew, I decided that I would use the opportunity of the dull pre-christmas work environment and my boss’s vacation, to slack off and bring this blog back to life. I can see my fans in the deep south high fiving and throwing around Yeah C’Mons, well lads time for some How You Doings.
So a lot has been happening lately, in my life and in the world that surrounds it. On a personal level, I am working on several new career opportunities and balancing the search with my current occupation, which requires intense client facing, has been an arduous task. In the midst of it I also realized there are certain things that we maybe good at and that’s what we want to do in life, but it may not be necessary to make a job or a career out of it. So I have been further contemplating about having a work-work balance i.e. having a job that I am good at and then a little something on the side that I enjoy. So that’s what the life of I has been over the past month or so, lots of work and lots of thinking, planning and executing the crucial little steps that will eventually lead to my global dominance *insert evil laugh here*. Ever since I saw Pinky and The Brain I have fancied saying the line “Tonight, Pinky, we take over the world”.
Speaking of the world, there is so much happening out there that I had wanted to comment on, from the repeal of the Shoaib/Asif doping verdict to the more recent pardoning of Tara Conner (Miss USA) by Donald Trump (co-owner of the Miss USA foundation). However, my biggest complain this month has to be the death or shall I say the murder of Old Man Winter. Yes people of the world, Old Man Winter has died and we are responsible for killing him. It was a slow death; he is now only present in spirit. The pollution, the depleting ozone layer, our love for plastics, SUVs, CFC and aerosol cans have finally led to the demise of Mother Nature’s old friend, Mr. Winter.
Having lived most of my life in a city with pretty much two seasons, I wasn’t much in sync with the concept of global warming. After having experienced all the four seasons in Canada over year last three years, I am disappointed to see a winter that’s not quite winter like. For those people who think Canada is all Igloos, imagine them melting. The temperature drops occasionally but the absence of the beautiful white snow that adds a jolt of life to the grey of winter is just unreal. Its unlike of Toronto to not have had a single snowfall into the mid of December and rest assured, this is not going to be a white Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, we need to learn the underlying science of making Christmas Carols. They frigging get in your head and refuse to leave. You hear them and once and all of a sudden you will find yourself walking down the road, unconsciously humming Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or Jingle Bells. I don’t know if it’s the music, the lyrics, the mention of Santa, but whatever it is, we need to learn it and maybe use it to pass on our own subliminal messages.
In other interesting happenings, Iran recently held a conference to discuss the veracity of the Jewish Holocaust in WW2. I think Ahmedinejad is really going over the top to draw the ideological borders in a world that already has significant ideological differences. I do agree with the fact that people should have the right to express their opinions and beliefs but giving it government patronage is almost like waving a red flag in front of a bull (the bulls being the west). There are other methods of handling political differences and I guess Ahmedinijad should consider them.
On the flip side, there was interesting view presented by an American attending that conference. David Duke was of the opinion that there should be more freedom of expression and the “Zionist controlled media” is depriving people of knowing the truth. Of special interest was an encounter David had with Wolf Blitzer on CNN where they went all out for each others neck. Even if David Duke had an agenda, Blitzer’s behavior belied his reputation as a leading anchor and he appeared to visibly perturbed by the encounter.
There were a few key takeaways from Duke’s appearance at the confrence. First and foremost has to be Dukes own background, with reference to the Klan( the Ku Klux one). Although he claims he does not have any further affiliations with the white supremacist members of the Klan, yet his involvement with the Klan in the past must influence any analysis of his comments. He also spoke how it was a bigger crime to be critical of the holocaust than saying some crap about Jesus, which I believe is a valid complain. All in all, he was very critical of the Jewish control over the US media and the countrys foreign policy. Supporters of the Iran should however be careful in considering it as a show of support to Iran. Their interest and those of Duke collude as long as they have a common enemy.
And finally we come to Miss USA, Tara Conner. Ah, Tara Conner, she thought she was Canadian, why else would a poor Kentucky soul like her indulge in the sauce otherwise. There was a good reason why the Canadians set their drinking age at 19, it was to avoid situations like these. I do pity the girl especially considering the fact that she has spent her entire life in a fake world where women are rewarded for their looks more than their intelligence. In such situations it’s natural for a beauty pageant competitor to forget how to use a brain. It’s also natural for them to find other girls, like the Miss Teen USA, attractive and eventually embrace them with a kiss after an evening of frolicking. She was right when she said everyone has demons, but so was Jon Stewart when he said that “My demons pay to watch your demons”. Ah, classic Stewart.
To further add fuel to fire, she went on to call Donald Trump a person with a heart of gold (Neil Young, anyone?). Yes Tara, he also lives in a house that has a gold ceiling, various accessories in his car are also made of gold. He is a tacky and tasteless person in general who wants to go one up. A brother can get a grill of gold, heck Donald will get a frigging heart of gold. Beat that my ebony friends.
And so it continues, our world and our lives. If an outbreak of a third world war doesn’t kill us, the slowly changing weather surely will. And when you look at this way, you couldn’t care less about a blonde beauty pageant winner from small town Kentucky who consumes anything that gets her high and screws anything that walks on two feet.

Really Funny

I couldnt think of something coherent for the blog word really. However, there is something that I really find funny and thats family guy. So heres a really funny clip from family guy with my two favorite characters from the show, Stewie and Brian.

Enjoy


Family Guy - Brain Beatdown - video powered by Metacafe