Magazine

Probably won't post much for a bit because I have resolved to finish 2 books before uni starts. My timetable is looking fantastic!

Have a nice day folks!

Stay and breathe

Returned from Sydney a few days ago. It was alright, and stayed in a nice hotel right in the city centre.

I also fear that maybe my "joking" about agoraphobia may be semi true. I don't mind big open spaces, but I hate people and Sydney is a VERY packed place.

The other may be dead! I haven't seen the other online in ages, but he shall return in a few weeks, so there is nothing to fear.

I also fell in love...with a guitar and delay pedal I saw in Sydney. However the store was incredibly upmarket, with brand names and so on, and nothing I wanted was below $3k!! But on my return home, I purchased a Zoom Multi FX pedal, which I just have to say is absolutely amazing. BUTTT...I also purchased a flashy new Yamaha RG model, so yesh it's all space age looking and comes equipped with a Floyd Rose system. I don't know why I bought it, it was hella expensive, and I don't know how I'm going to pay for my school books now! My buyer's remorse is compounded by the fact that I could have had Kaki King's EXACT replica Martinez Electro/Acoustic guitar for damn cheap. But alas, this will give me a chance to practice some whammy bar madness, especially with the delay and what not.

That's it for today, have a nice day folks. What a terrible update! I apologise!

"You Cannot Hide From What's Inside"

Third Watch is really one of the most underrated Dramas to ever grace our television screens. Each episode is well acted, well written and packed full of enough action and tension to last an entire series! I really wish it had been given more credit than it got, but alas, the series has finished and I for one thoroughly enjoyed it (even though I did start late, so I may have to find the old eps).

I watched In The Name Of The Father again, a bit after 10 years since I first saw it actually! I have a new found respect for the movie and the acting. It's probably one of the most powerful films about injustice that you're ever likely to see in your life. Daniel Day Lewis is superb, and I love his acting style. I'd like to use his style of self involvement if I ever become an actor. I must catch more of his films to see this genius at work.

You know friends are usually picked based on looks. It's natural, we're genetically inclined to hang around with those with usually the same level of genetic attractiveness as us. I can't see how that should be right though. Does it give rise to a lack of morals/natural equality on a base genetic ground? You know what that means! That equality is a man-made concept! It's true, while we're still pre-disposed to thinking like that, it shouldn't be the basis of a friendship.

What I've noticed is that in religion it simply isn't enough for all of us to be good. It takes away the concept of good and evil. Someone has to be better than someone else. The saved over the sinners and what not. Humanity takes solace in knowing that some will go to hell, and that's more than a little sickening. There isn't forgiveness for all, so that really makes no sense. There's an ingrained sense of hierarchy, even when all the central tenets of all major religions are removed and it's scary. People should be equal in these kinds of things.

My poor fingers are scratched, ripped, chaffed and dry. Yesh, I have been getting insane amounts of guitar in lately. I've even had a few 10 hour practice sessions and they're a bit of up and down really. Sometimes I'm awesome, sometimes I just plain suck. I decided to put in a bit of flurry here so that I can become a guitar virtuoso sometime soon, just so I can make an instrumental called Joaquin's Trick Bag O' Crap! I have picked up the entire Harmonic Minor scale, and I want to make a classical piece soon. I also picked up Who Did You Think I was, by the John Mayer Trio and I tell you, at first it was quite tough because there are odd rakes and mutes and obscure flat picking/string skipping in places, but now I have it down and I'm happy. It gives me inspiration to write a funk/blues song with a brilliant riff. I've also been trying to learn some advanced Megadeth stuff (Marty's days of course), as well as the sheer insanity that is Cacophony's Speed Metal Symphony and it is not fun, not fun at all!! Neo classical is so cool, we need to add some of those elements to our music I tell you.

As mentioned, the Joaquin rate list has been updated, so for your viewing pleasure, check it out!! http://dropc.blogspot.com/2004/12/great-fun-to-be-around-you.html ! Have a nice day folks!

"I'm A Rainbow Too"

I must say that Robbie Williams is probably the greatest popstar of all time, barring Michael Jackson, but MJ has obviously lost it as of late, so the mantle must pass to Williams. He wrote the bassline to Trippin' (as well as the entire song) and if you've heard the song, you'd know that the bassline is borderline genius.

Had a crazy episode today, I just clotted out of nowhere and blood just started pouring out of my nose like water out of a tap and it wouldn't stop for 40 minutes. It was really thick and my parental unit was freaking out. I got light headed and almost passed out, luckily it stopped and I'm feeling much better now.

I have officially moved...downstairs! Haha! It's just too damn hot upstairs to sleep, so I have moved to the second spare room downstairs and sleeping comfortably.

If you're semi pop-culture literate, you'll know about the phenomenon that's going around at the moment revolving around hi5 as well as myspace. While it's also a good source of fun procrastination (I have laughed for many hours at some of the people), a site is finally up which expresses my views on the subject perfectly
Check it out at http://www.myspaceisgay.com - seriously, it's a real site!

You'd think that with it being the 21st century, so many of the world's problems should have been solved by now. But no, the problems are getting worse at an exponential rate. Problems of every level, sociology, law & justice, environment, morals, it's just ridiculous. One such example is global warming. If you think global warming is a fallacy, you should just be flat out shot, and just left in an unmarked mass grave with the rest of your stupid friends. That or be forced to live in a hot climate. It's easy to dismiss those things when you live in a comfy airconditioned ivory tower and work in a cushy air conditioned Government building. Try living in the real world and you'll see just how scary it is.

What's really bothering me about religion is hierarchy or levels of faith. Well sure, a two tiered system makes sense, God - and then the rest of us. But it doesn't stop there in most religions. It just spirals out of control. It promotes an inherent class system, and not just that, there are also levels of heaven!! It's not enough to be a good person anymore, because heaven may not be as good for you as it is for someone else! Isn't Heaven supposed to be it, heaven?! Just bliss for everyone?? What will these different levels have??! A deluxe treatment package, but no advanced spa and massage package? It also doesn't help when religion these days is based around fear. It should be about love and having no fear! Fear God and that way you have no fear? That makes no sense whatsoever. All this fire and brimstone preaching freaks me out, and not for the right reasons.

I'm hot and sweaty, enough of blogging for now! I SWEARRR that I'll update the rate list for the next entry. Have a nice day folks.

Song 3.142

It wasn't easy, but nothing is...no!

It's good to see that the other has returned to semi-regular blogging and I find it an excellent read, as well as inspiration to get my own sorry ass in gear and do some blogging myself. But I also must say that I am shocked at the other's decision to ditch MSN and switch to Yahoo!! It's a mad world, but he has good reasons.

Just checked up on my blognotes and besides the latest entry to the Joaquin rate list (which will be done some in the near future...as soon as I remember how to re-link that particular post), there is really nothing new to report.

As mentioned, old comp is on the fritz, but luckily we discovered it's still under warranty so it shall be fixed this week!!! Then hello return to insane downloads south central! I've also been trying to knock off all the remaining films I have left. The latest session included Mean Girls, Enemy At The Gates and Equilibrium. All were absolutely brilliant, then again it's about the 4th time I've seen Mean Girls and it has lost none of it's appeal. I think I may add it to my all time faves right after this post! People think it's just a teen movie, but it is actually probably the most accurate satire of school yard interpersonal relationships.

With all that out of the way, it's about time I start a mini rant-ish thing about the race riots that took place in Sydney late last year.

Alright, here's the gist of the whole thing:
Cronulla Beach had long been the site for lots of ethnic gang related violence and intimidation. Then it seemed that it all reached a boiling point when several lifeguards were bashed. Talkback radio hosts (which in this country consist of many rich white old right wing men who have no concept of reality) fanned the flames of hate with racist rhetoric being echoed across the airwaves. After that, sms messages began circulating in the community that "Australians" should re-take the beach from "wogs" and "lebos" (lebanese people), by force if necessary. This got the state Government riled up and they told people not to pay attention. However, lo and behold, fear and stupidity won out and 5000 people congregated at the beach. This would have been ok if that was the end of the story, since they should be allowed to protest. However, they decided to get drunk and then assault anyone who looked remotely ethnic. This got extremely out of hand, and police as well as ambulance officers were needed to rescue people, and in turn they also bore the brunt of the violence. The crowd had draped themselves in Australian flags and chanted racist slogans. That evening, gangs started attacking residents and property in coastal areas. The day after that, lebanese youths roamed the city creating havoc at night and an emergency session of Parliament was called so that new powers could be given to police to lock down suburbs. This carried on for a few days but eventually everything quietened down.

The scary part is that some of the crowd involved in the main riot were identified as members of various white supremecist groups. Not only that, the Prime Minister then went on to say that race had nothing to do with the riots and he wouldn't say that anyone who used the Australian flat to protest had done the wrong thing. This absolutely disgusted me, and just made it obvious that he supported the actions of the crowd, and was just really a testament to his government's anti-multicultural policies. But it's good, I guess if I ever become a super fascist and need to commit a serious crime, I'll just drape myself in an Australian flag and I'm going to use that as a defence, and it's going to fly, just you see.

However, I'm not saying it's the fault of one side. There is gang violence in Sydney all over the place. There has been reports of gang rapes, shootings etc for many years over there, and I think the community has just had enough. People can't go to some areas for fear of being beaten, and that's really not satisfactory in a supposedly free society.

This begs the question of assimilation and multiculturalism, and whether it can effectively work. This is the problem. The crowd that day think that the shared values or what it means to be Australian effectively means being an anglo saxon white. There are more immigrants from Britian and Ireland who come to Australia more than all the other countries put together. However, they are widely accepted as being Australian and there are no qualms about it. But any other ethnic group is treated as ethnic. You cannot be Australian. You are Italian-Australian. You are Chinese-Australian. There is no British-Australian. No Irish-Australian. For them, it's just Australian. From the outset, there is already an assumption of difference and acceptance depending on ethnic groups. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, while regarded as being the indigenous people of Australia, aren't really considered "Australian" by the wider community. This is something that makes no sense. They are treated just as unjustly as any other minority ethnic group. It really is crazy, since Europeans were the second people here and are in reality immigrants. If people are stupid enough to say that since taking land by force makes it legitimate for them to call themselves the only true owners of land, I say that it's also legitimate for gangs to create violence, because in their own twisted minds, they're doing the same thing.

Ethnic people are excluded. They are seen as exotic and mysterious, more of a novel concept than a real person who has feelings or is human. Yesh, there is a natural maybe even genetic inclination to stick with people who look like you, but beyond that, there is something higher which binds us together which we all know tells us that we're all the same. More education needs to be done in schools and so on on this topic.

What's also disturbing is that there always seems to be a need for people of ethnic backgrounds to prove that they are good people. Why is there an assumption that they aren't? They must be shown on the news, writing in newspapers that they are just like everyone else. We need to drop these god awful stereotypes. Go down the street, asian person? Drug dealer. Black person? Criminal. Middle Eastern? Terrorist. Mediterranean? Rapist. I know it goes around, because there's an assumption by a lot of the minority community that white Australians are racist. If we're not careful, that's going to become a stereotype for white Australians everywhere. We need to put an end to stereotypes, because we all know they're just utterly illogical and insulting. People need to start educating themselves about other places, other people, other cultures. Or else they'll never grow beyond what they see on tv or in the movies.

Of course there is a problem with assimilation, people may not speak the same language. But going further, people don't have the same skin colour! Hello!! That's a problem that cannot be rectified, thus a problem will always exist. Humans are just inherently fearful of anything that's different. This is hell-arious considering nobody seems to remember that we're all the same. I don't have the solutions for this, nor do you. But you know who does? WE all do. We only have to want it. Alright, that's enough of that unpleasantness behind us!

I think my next entry will be concerning the rate list, so you can all look forward to that.

Before I go, I must say that I just got the full version of the theme song to "Tommy Lee Goes To College". It's Good Times by Tommy Lee and it's off his album Tommyland. It's an absolute gem of a song (well of course, Dave Navarro provides the delicious acoustic chops), and I demand that people listen to it! Have a nice day folks!

Roads Over Cars??

I am back to post again, this time I have to say that this post is a little sooner than my last break from posting. I have slept all day, yet I feel really tired. Hehe I think there is something wrong with my head, should go see Dr. House.

Firstly I have made a big dessission to leave MSN and move on to yahoo instead. I find the whole atmosphere more soothing, and its a hell lode faster than the bloody microsoft servers. This goes for their email aswell, much better design than the hotmail counterpart. So if any of you decided to use yahoo messenger, you can pm me and i will give you my yahoo id.

They need to invent a guitar that has adjustable actions. So the tuning is always right, and there can be settings for 3 other tuning. Now that would make life a lot easier, and much faster. Not that I dont like tuning a guitar, but its just a pain when you want to play around with the tunings.

This country needs to reduce the number of cars on the roads. It simply takes forever to get from one place to another. What are the methods that we can do this?? Simple increase the taxes. As it is Bangladesh has one of the highest tax rates on cars as it is, it seems a little harsh to increase the taxes so high in a low income country. Even WTO has denied Bangladesh the right to increase the taxes anymore than it is right now. But one thing is for sure the number of cars are increasing too rapidly for the roads. This is due to the fact that most people have a lot of black money and due to that, a lot more cars can be afforded. The black markets are whats killing our economy. The fact is that even if they were to increase the taxes, there is one major lack in our infrastructure that makes it impossible to do. What needs to be done is make the public transport a lot better than it is at the moment. If that is improved, and there is indeed enough good transport options, then people wont mind using them, and hence an increase of tax, and a subsidy on public transport would rectify the situation. Hmmm where are our economists, and why arn't they doing anything about it??

For now that is it, I will get back to a few more issue in the next edition, so keep your eyes pealed. Have a good one. Cheers...

I Need A Sign

The other has blogged!!! Let us all rejoice for his glorious return, especially with such a good entry. At least the reasons for his absence were given.

I am rather annoyed!! My old comp, which is still pretty damn half decent has decided to just die. It's having power issues and it just overheats and decides to turn off at random times!! I think I'm going to need the fan fixed cause it's really pissing me off, especially when I'm downloading stuff and I still have so much crap to finish off!!!

Winamp is also annoying me lately. Even though it is on shuffle, it hardly ever selects new songs, even though I have a playlist of like 1800 songs!! What's up with that??!

It's finally happened, mxtabs and jfrocks were taken offline as legal action has commenced against most tab sites!! I AM FREAKING OUT! This is not good!! They were the best tab sites on the internet and now they're gone!! The Recording industry has gone too far!! Alright so maybe it was warranted against file sharing programs, but tab sites??! Come on, so many of them are so wrong, and it's MUSIC, it's probability, most people may come up with something that sounds remotely similar to another song and ahh it's all so ridiculous. It's true that the recording industry is really only after money, how sad.

Had a scary moment the other day. In the intense heat that we've been having lately, my guitar's G-string (no pun intended) detuned itself to Gb! This of course made all my playing askew, and I was scared, but I eventually re-tuned it to G natural using other strings and I feel grand!! It's good to be able to re-tune by ear...almost anyway. Cause I don't know what an open E is meant to sound like, which means if all my strings were out of tune, I would be utterly screwed.

Hehe that's enough for today. Another post soon hopefully. Have a nice day folks.

Who Forgot What???

Welcome year 2006, damn it seems like the years are trickling by really fast. It feels like it was just the year 2000 a year ago, and whats more, its been over a year of this blog. Its a good feeling to be able to reflect on the year past. From time to time I go back to the old posts just to see what my frame of mind was back then?? I little stressed maybe. A lot has changed over the last year, and a lot of growing up has been done. Its about time for that aswell. I would like to take this chance to appologize for my serious absense from this blog over the last couple of months, but I am about to make a mense. Its good to see that the other has kept up with his deal. What have I been up to?? Well I was sick for quite a while, then it was the exams, and then after that I came back home to Bangladesh, and its been quite a busy time for me. It looks like life is settling down now, so I can get back to the things that need to be done. For instance this blog. Don't worry, I'll make up for the absense in this coming year.

Whats changed the most over the last period of time is that I am no longer scared of what is to come in my life. Its simply pathetic being stressed out about what could have, should have, would have and concentrate on what is important, and once that is figured out, then its all simple, work towards that. Life is not so vague or indecisive, its just the person, once you have it figured out, then everything is easier to decide upon. Change of thought process, maybe...

Went back to the british council today, where the fuckers lost my IELTS papers and caused me a shit lode of stress last year, hehe and finally got to give them a piece of my mind. Interesting experience. No, I am not taking my exams all over again, that would be pointless, but my girlfriend (Sweetness for the sake of this blog) has to do it, so that she can apply to come to a uni to do her masters in aus. No even though shes advanced in her studies, shes not older than me. I haven't lost it quite yet.

Music, its been interesting over the last month or so. Been extremely inspired for once, but dont seem to find alot of time to get down to writing a lot of material. I figure there will be a lot more time once I get back to Canberra in mid Feb. Its not like I have a million things to do there, and might as well do it while the other is around. I have decided on behalf of both the other and me that this year we will get together a lot more, and get some more material on paper, or on computer as it is in our case. So the other, be prepaired, there is a lot to do this year, its not going to be a sit and bum around year. On retrospect, I have written quite a bit of stuff, but nothing thats completely finished, so it will be good to have these half finished songs in our band box.

I've been away from home for the last 6 days, and that gives you an idea of how busy I am when I am back here in Dhaka, so dont slit my throat if I dont post a blog every day of the week. I am having a great time, so I cant really complain about anything at all. Also over the last few months, I have been able to figure out the question that I never had an answer to. That is that I will come back to Bangladesh to live. Trust me that I have pondered over this thought a million times, but never quite figured out what exactly I want to do.

I need to learn how to drive. That is something that needs to be done. I am getting older every year, and yet I seem to put aside things that need to be done. I need to get a job once I get back, and I need to find a place to stay. Hopefully I can find one before I get there, else I will have to ask the other if I stay a couple of weeks with him, before I figure out where to stay. Its a lot harder to find a place, when you are not even in the country. We decided that we will get a place just army boy and me, so the process should be a little easier, that we have better refrences than the other boy who was going to live with us. So everyone, keep your fingers crossed, else I will have to live in a cardboard box, and that way there will be no more blogs, as I will have no internet connection, hahah now that will really send me back to the stoneage...

I forgot when I got here that its wedding season, That I should have brought a lot more formal clothes, haha even one would have served me well. But oh well, will have to reach into my dads wardrobe. Hahaha...

Anyways, I gotts ta go, but I will be back again, with another episode of usless information from the mind of knaves...