The Desk

Desk - Music and Sound Design from Aaron Trinder Film:Motion:Music on Vimeo.

The author who sells his work on the subway, not on amazon!

If you watch this video, you would realize that this guy is quite like and quite unlike modern day authors. A lot of authors have come out with manuscripts in prison, very few have actually made a self help book out of life experiences. When they got out and they got a publisher to back them, they sold their books in big corporate franchises, and on the great electronic stores like amazon. This guy started his own publishing company over time; he makes money and still sells his books on the streets---$10 for 1, $15 for 2.

I tried to look up his book called 'Change your gameplan' on amazon, to see if I could actually find it. I was hoping I would find something in the used section for the usual <$1 price. Think again. 1 new for $75, and 2 used available for $34! From what I read in the New York Times article about this guy, the books are actually quite good. People have been known to bump into him and thank him for the pleasure of reading his book....take that for 'review' in our modern times! Besides, you don't sell 14000 copies of garbage! He has a rule- sell 35 books a day, and to not go back home till he actually does. He writes, he sells, he pays rent for his apartment in the Bronx, and he takes care of his 3 kids, aged 20-23.....

Randy Kearse used to be a drug peddler. He spent 13 years in the slammer for moving 200kg of cocaine on the streets. He has turned a new leaf and written this book to help kids, to stop them from making the mistakes he made.

People have written to him, asking him if his new role would wash off his disgusting history....till date, he has no answer to this question....

This brings us to the point of learning from other people's experiences. But then, if you are reading this article, you probably don't need to derive a lot of message out of it-the irony of life; those who need it the most don't have access to it.......

Despicable Me....What a good movie!

I was kind of apprehensive about going for 'Despicable me'. I went for 'The Last Airbender' a couple of days back; it almost made me lose my faith in the art of movie-making. Shyamalan has certainly come a long way since he made Sixth Sense; his consistency in degradation is just exemplary!

Despicable me had me thinking right at the beginning, 'Here we go again, this shows promise, lets wait and watch, I hope it's just not another bad night', so on and so forth. Thankfully, this one did not fail me. In fact, I would go on to say that it is one of the better movies made this year. Humor, great timing by Steve Carrel, the feel good factor, an appropriate length-it has it all!

This movie reminds you of the essence of comedy, the way it all began in the days of Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. Ever since 'That 70s show' and similar shows took up a lot of airspace on television, we have almost gotten stuck in the rut of situational comedy. What 'Despicable Me' does, is that it reminds us that you don't need come up with clever stuff to make people laugh. Of course, it's all very clever integrally, but the art of making people laugh is more of a knack, and not slave to the wit and intelligence of the writer in coming up with stunning dialogues. It could be just about an audio-visual experience that would suffice....and when you blend the odd killer dialogue on the fly, it just works like a garnish, gives it more appeal.

The editing on this movie is so amazing, they never get stuck in the whole adopted kids drama. Hence, they still maintain the crazy hilarious criminal plot at its best, and still lend the movie that feel good factor.

GO FOR IT! In the meantime, enjoy the trailer.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mqUMQfKmg0

The Chronicles of LeBron James

The drama that has been going on for quite a while now could be justified, considering the fact that LeBron James is one of the most followed players in basketball. Some would even go ahead and call him an all time great (I would!). For me, the whole LeBron drama has just been boring. There's a game going on, and what do the guys on Sportscenter talk about, as part of the halftime report? Any guesses? LeBron of course. Is he going to New York, or is he going with his friend Jay Z to the Nets? Chicago and Miami are also in the running....and it goes on......

Some people have identified this whole event as derogatory to the sport of basketball. I don't think so. People say that this never happened when Jordan was making his decisions. It sure did, just that things happen on a different scale today, and information escalates out of control owing to the superfluous outlets of media. Long back, people would have heard it once on the radio. Then came television. Now we keep hearing the same things on multiple levels, for those not satisfied, they would even head to espn360.com....and believe it or not, people might say they are bored by the whole thing, but when they go to the page, most are tempted to click on the LeBron link, and there......5 mins of life wasted, 5 mins one would never get back! (My sympathies with those who even follow the news on different levels, multiple sites).

Now that he has gone with the Miami Heat, I think the coming season is going to be an interesting one to follow. I would even go ahead to call this the first superteam of the NBA-James, Wade, Bosh on one side.....add Kobe and you have the Olypmics Redeem team. Like always, people have their doubts. I don't-you see I like to commit to a judgment! People say that this means nothing, that better 'teams' would outdo them.Three out of five guys don't form a team? Especially 3 guys who are good enough to score 80 points on a given night. And I can't even imagine what LeBron and Wade could achieve, given that they would be given the much needed rest, given that they would play with the comfort of not knowing that they do not have to go out each night scoring 30+ points. I think this is the team to beat now!

You have to give it to Pat Riley. A lot of teams offered the big money to LeBron. Pat Riley offered him a shot at the championship. When it comes to LeBron at this stage in life, when he has 10 good years left in him, he has ample time to earn his dollars. What he is hungry for right now, is the championship ring. That is something that eludes him, eludes their 'big 3'! And this new Miami outfit would give them their best shot at it. If they can't do it with this team, it might never really materialize.......

Beat The Heat....beyond air-conditioning

A heat wave has gripped the Northeast. In places like Western Massachusetts where three digit temperatures were unheard of, this heat wave has made us appreciate the high comfort factor of our usual climatic conditions. It's not just the temperature, but the humidity, that makes such a heatwave intolerable. And to top that, if you happen to live in an apartment that does not have air-conditioning, it's very important for you to know how to beat the heat! Looking at the status updates and tweets on our most popular networks, I have come to the consensus that not a lot of people actually have an idea about what can be done. Well, I can tell you what I did....and it worked, at least as much as it could....

1. Fluids- You have to stay hydrated to avoid the major complications arising from the heat and resultant dehydration. Drink lots of water (even if you don't feel thirsty). It might be a good idea to have lemon juice with some salt added to it. Gatorade would be excellent. A lot of people don't know this, but in this weather, it's very useful to eat fresh fruits- especially bananas since they are rich in electrolytes.

2. Be in air-conditioned settings as long as you can. I spend most of the time in the department. The problem is, you have to be back home to sleep. And sleep you can't, in such hot and muggy conditions.

3. Quick cold water showers multiple times in a day. They make you feel really good. It's an even better idea to go for one just before going to bed. That could be the difference between going to sleep and lying restless in bed.

4. Shut the windows and blinds during the sunny hours of the day. This prevents the air in the room from heating up, also prevents hot air from entering the room. This would, if not totally keep your room cool, at least limit the temperature your room would reach during the day, making it a quicker cooling process at night.

5.

This could be the difference between you bedroom cooling down to desirable temperatures overnight or not. It's a basic simple 10-15 $ fan kept on the window sill after sundown. What this does is, it brings the cool air from the outdoors into your room replacing the warmer air inside, at an accelerated pace. As we know, hotter air being lighter settles near the ceiling and gives you the pleasure of being in the company of some cool air while you're going to bed. To top that, if you are using another fan in the room, it would mean that the second fan would be circulating cooler air in the room.

6.
This could be a real handy device, especially when it's extremely hot and humid. Firstly, spraying cold tap water around the room and along the walls with this spray would not create the mess that splashing water would; this would lower the temperature in the room marginally-something's better than nothing. Second, if you have a towel handy, you could just spray your face with this for a really refreshing cooling effect. And being water, you can do this as much as you wish to.

7. Wet thin towel as a blind on the open window: This would lower the temperature of the air entering the room. Some people even say that keeping a wet towel in front of a powerful fan/air circulator helps- I haven't tried this. Besides, it is not a self-sustaining trick. But then, nothing mentioned above is!

8. Keep wiping off the sweat. It's really refreshing.

9. Have cool beverages, but not in the sun, unless you want to invite heat stroke.

10. I have noticed that if I somehow keep my face cool and sweat free, it somehow feels a lot better than it would considering the alternative. I cannot explain why this happens, like a lot of other things I suppose.....

Stay cool and may we have our cherished weather back soon!

The different food pyramids....

It's Tuesday, the day of the classes. Three classes scheduled, the first one almost done with. The topic to discuss in this class is quite interesting. We are talking about the evolution of nutrition and recommendations in the US. This included a lot of content ranging from dietary recommendation cards in the US; how their wordings changed from assertive words like "avoid salt" to politically correct words like "choose to have salt in moderation", how the decision making with something so scientific as nutrition and health has been influenced by politics and industry.
We also looked at the evolution of the food pyramid. The food pyramid from 1992 explains quite well why obesity is a disease in the US and a lot of the western world.



It is quite evident that the whole issue with this pyramid is that it recommended a superfluous intake of bread and cereal- the whole problem with the current day diet in the developed world!

This pyramid needed flipping, which did happen in 2005. The current day food pyramid would be self explanatory....




The beauty of this pyramid is that it not only tells people that carbohydrates and sugars are bad for them, but also that good health is about healthy eating compounded with exercise!

For the pleasures of those really into this stuff, following is the Food Pyramid drafted by Walter Willett, who can practically be termed the father of Nutritional Epidemiology. Hopefully a lot would be incorporated in the upcoming 2010 food pyramid.....

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Issues

There seem to be some nagging issues with my blogger uploader. I am
trying to sort them.....Sorry for the incomplete posts, if any.....

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