Random Walk of Life

Opening Mood: Normal da.
Opening Song: Some peppy thing on Radio Indigo

What is your world view ? Are you a Postmodernist, an Idealist, a Romantic, a Fundamentalist??
Find out at http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=23320

Looks like I am a Postmodernist! This is what the site said:

Well, from the looks of it, I am more of a materialist as compared to a Romantic! Well, I always thought it was the other way around!!

I don’t know, and I don’t care!

Closing Song: Belly Dancer by Akon
Closing Mood: Didn’t you read properly?! I don’t know and I don’t Care.

Opening Mood: Nice  The patch has come out good.Opening Song: El Condor Pasa by Simon and Garfunkel.

It’s been a long time since I blogged. That doesn’t mean nothing happened.Infact lot has happened since I last posted. My first patch got published,It fetched some good reviews, and some *not* so good ones.

I also went for my first trek. It was fun, the trek. We walkedfrom M.M Hills to Nagamale, and from there to Palar. 24 kilometersaltogether. Details can be found here.

Other than that, I also visited my hometown twice more.And did the obvious - Sleep!


Sponsered Advertisement!The Shastra contest is back with Priya’s entry going greatguns. The key words this time are

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Boy!  I still have a thing for Anagrams!


Ok, back to the post, this one is about mushy songs. Doesn’tquite fit in this blog, now does it?! I know, I know, but I seem to havekinda developed a liking for some of these songs lately.

For four years in college, I’ve just been collectinga lot of music, but listening mostly to the instrumental genre.Even at work, I love my Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mae, Yanni. Probablythe lyrics distract me from coding ;). However, I wanted a change and forthe past two weeks I’ve been listening to songs with lyrics.And guess what?! The mush songs seem to be the most relaxing ones!With them, you just drift away, where the singer wants you to.Like taking you back in time. Mmmm, nostalgia, smells sweet!Here’s the list of my favorites. In no particular order that is.I want to spend my lifetime - Mask of Zorro Soundtrack.I guess this one was sung by Mark Anthony. Vipin recommended it wayback in 2nd year Engg. But I was busy listening to Hindi Music back then.

Lady in Red - Woman in Red Soundtrack.Don’t know who the singer is. But it’s damn good. One of thefirst english songs I ever listened to.

I’m leaving on a jet plane - John Denver.I had heard the Aerosmith’s version of song back in college. Probablyit was the soundtrack of some movie. I remember Steve Tyler screaminghis lungs out towards the end of the song.

Love will keep us alive - Eagles Original.A nice song from the Hotel California gang. The vocals are girlish.I had the video of this song from their ‘Hell freezes Over’ concert.

That thing you do - The Wonders soundtrack.Would have deleted this song, if Thamie had not made such a fuss outta it.Thanks maccha, it’s a nice song.  Also saw the movie “The Wonders”.They were truely  The ‘One’ders.

Iris - City of Angels Soundtrack.This has been my long time favorite. Though didn’t quite knowwho was the singer or the name of the song. It was played onRadio Indigo today morning. Seems that original was by Goo Goo Dolls.The one I have is Ronan Keating’s version.

Sealed with a kiss - Bryan Hyland, The Wonder Years Soundtrack.Got this one from the songs I flicked from our seniors. It’s the mushiestof them all. But boy, does it have that retro feeling! Awesome!!

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone - Notting Hill Soundtrack.Bill Wither’s version, this is one those songs which can put youin a light-blue mood!

When you say nothing at all - Notting Hill SountrackSilence is Golden! Reminds me of the night-walk-in-the-park scenefrom Notting Hill.

Love is All around - Four Weddings and a Funeral Sountrack.I haven’t seen this movie, but another *mushy* movie which hasthis same song is Love Actually. Liam Neeson’s story in that moviewas a nice one.

Bridge over troubled waters - Simon and Garfunkel.What a song this one. It’s certainly one of my all timefavorite. Abhinav Chaturvedi recommended it while we wereinterning at Pune. Thanks dude, else I would not have listenedto this awesome duo.

El-Condor Pasa - Simon and Garfunkel.Another one of their beauties. I am not sure which is the stringinstument they use to create the opening tune of this song. Soundssimillar to santoor. The song has a Mexican feeling, evident from it’stitle.

Good Riddance - Green Day.Reminds me of Lenon strumming on his guitar while we were sippinghot tea. This one is considered to be a famous breakup song.Suitably named :D!

She’s always a Woman to me - Billy JoelI had this song since ages. Listened to it only last week. The lyrics arereally good. One of those narrative songs with very little background music.

I just called to say I love you - Stevie Wonder.Those who’ve seen Omkara, this is the *same* song whichViveik Oberoi teaches Kareena Kapoor.Only that the original version sounds *much much* better  

Something Stupid -Robbie Williams version feat Nicole Kidman.The original version of this song was sung by Nancy Sinatra. Anotherof my latest discoveries. They played this song on Radio Indigothis morning.

By the way, Bangalore has a new international radio station -Radio Indigo 91.9 FM. Finally some good music in the airwaves.A big relief for anyone bored with nasal “over”tones!!!


DISCLAIMER: The paragraph above is not a sponsered Adfor Radio Indigo. It’s just a token of gratitude for playinggreat music. Keep up the good work guys!  

Closing Song: It’s Probably Me, Lethal Weapon Soundtrack.Closing Mood: Good. Brilliant  infact, to get started with the locks!

Opening Song: Pulp fiction Title track.
Opening Mood: Cool. Infact hangover from ZATAOMM.

The past few days of my life have revolved around only two things.
Locks ( all sorts of them ) and ZATAOMM. I wanted latter to be more of a way to relax so that I wouldn’t dream of the kernel-code.

But, it proved to be much more than that. It was as if you are groping for something in the dark and you find something, which you just keep for the sake that you have found it. But later when you shed light on that find of yours, you realize what wonderful a thing you’ve found.

ZATAOMM is *the* Elixer which has to be sipped slowly inorder to savour it. Gulping it down in one shot might leave you with a dizzy feeling.

Anyway, this post is about Quality. The subject that we’ve been discussing all through our seventh and eight semesters through Software Engineering and Software Quality Assurance. I wish I had read this book back then.

The excerpt below echoes most of my ideas, only that it presents these ideas in a manner that’s way more enjoyable.
So without much ado, I present before thee Phaedrus and his discovery of the qualities of Quality.

The world now, according to Phædrus, was composed of three things: mind, matter, and Quality. The fact that he had established no relationship between them didn’t bother him at first. If the relationship between mind and matter had been fought over for centuries and wasn’t yet resolved, why should he, in a matter of a few weeks, come up with something conclusive about Quality? So he let it go. He put it up on a kind of mental shelf where he put all kinds of questions he had no immediate answers for. He knew the metaphysical trinity of subject, object and Quality would sooner or later have to be interrelated but he was in no hurry about it. It was just so satisfying to be beyond the danger of those horns that he relaxed and enjoyed it as long as he could.

Eventually, however, he examined it more closely. Although there’s no logical objection to a metaphysical trinity, a three-headed reality, such trinities are not common or popular. The metaphysician normally seeks either a monism, such as God, which explains the nature of the world as a manifestation of one single thing, or he seeks a dualism, such as mind-matter, which explains it as two things, or he leaves it as a pluralism, which explains it as a manifestation of an indefinite number of things. But three is an awkward number. Right away you want to know, Why three? What’s the relationship among them? And as the need for relaxation diminished Phædrus became curious about this relationship too.

He noted that although normally you associate Quality with objects, feelings of Quality sometimes occur without any object at all. This is what led him at first to think that maybe Quality is all subjective. But subjective pleasure wasn’t what he meant by Quality either. Quality decreases subjectivity. Quality takes you out of yourself, makes you aware of the world around you. Quality is opposed to subjectivity.

I don’t know how much thought passed before he arrived at this, but eventually he saw that Quality couldn’t be independently related with either the subject or the object but could be found only in the relationship of the two with each other. It is the point at which subject and object meet.

That sounded warm.

Quality is not a thing. It is an event.

Warmer.

It is the event at which the subject becomes aware of the object.

And because without objects there can be no subject…because the objects create the subject’s awareness of himself…Quality is the event at which awareness of both subjects and objects is made possible.

Hot.

Now he knew it was coming.

This means Quality is not just the result of a collision between subject and object. The very existence of subject and object themselves is deduced from the Quality event. The Quality event is the cause of the subjects and objects, which are then mistakenly presumed to be the cause of the Quality!

Now he had that whole damned evil dilemma by the throat. The dilemma all the time had this unseen vile presumption in it, for which there was no logical justification. that Quality was the effect of subjects and objects. It was not! He brought out his knife.

Those of you who are interested to read more, there’s an online version of the book which can be found here.

I am only half way through the book by the way!

Closing Mood: Calm.
Closing Song: IRIS ( Movie OST of City Of Angels).