Pet Peeves

Well i am writing this post coz i have been tagged by Zarine . This is the first time i've been involved with a tag :)
Anyway i tried writing 20 most annoying things for me. So here it is:

1. Lies and Liars !! Ok mez not a raja harishchandra myself, but i lie only when its absolutely necessary. I am really annoyed by people lying even at trivial things.
   
2. People not replying to messages/mails/calls.
3. WAITING, u can say mez a tad restless, but anyway waiting for someone is pretty annoying, especially when people arrive late for movies n we miss some part of it, also seeing "brb" on messenger is hell !
   
4. When my TT partner plays really bad at crucial/deciding points in match, like doing a service fault, playing a shot he shouldn't play et al. I have already lost the company doubles TT final coz of this. God i miss Poker at these times, im sure he would be my best doubles' partner :D
   
5. My boss coming after 6pm n saying "we have to do this today", "shall we discuss ..." !!
6. When some how magically my bro manages to get disturbed by my whispering on phone sitting in other room, my typing on keyboard, clicking of mouse, watching TV without volume !!
7. People completely overlooking my suggestions n !deas.
8. When bosses say - "You can do this parallely". Come on god has made us single tasking only. i don't run in multiple threads ! i can do only 1 thing at a time, if mez doing 1st thing i cant do second and vice-versa !
   
9. Woh log jo girgit ki tarah rang badalte hain, they behave differently with "some" people and completely different with "some other" people.
10. People who don't have any !dea what's going on in cricket field, which 2 teams are playing, and suddenly as they see someone seeing the score, start asking scores like they are the biggest cricket fans around !!
    
11. Few ex-cricketers (the so-called experts) who keep giving some of the most idiotic statements, which are eagerly published by media. Latest example - gavaskar sayin india shud play 3 openers, and agarkar was dropped coz he was not in chappell's "inner circle". sheer nonsense !
12. The flat batting tracks and one-sided series' in cricket, which is making cricket a complete bore.
13. Chain mails/messages n Spams. I can't believe how come people believe in those lines in chain mails - "if you send this to x no. of ppl, this will happen n all". AFAIK gals are the ones who believe in these very easily or atleast indulge in sending these chain mails.
    
14. People who like to show-off.
15. People who make jokes over others and get really pissed off when someone cracks a joke over them !
    
16. Power cuts, slow internet speed, slow responding PCs.
17. Man Utd coach Alex Ferguson not buying any good midfielder for last few seasons, which i firmly believe is urgently required to revive Man Utd.
18. Orkut, its donuts, its bugs.
19. Writing this list !!!
20. Did i said writing all this ??
    

That's it i guess. I guess i was pretty honest in writing those :). Now do i have to tag few ppl as well :o ? Ok i'll tag Sanjay and Phoenix . I wonder if they'll comply :D

Addendum:
Now to some of the big sporting sights of the week (wasn't this expected on my blog ??)

1. Kobe Bryant of LA Lakers scored a mind-blowing 81 points alone in a NBA match against Toronto Raptors. That's second most in the history of NBA !
Here's an article over it - link

An excerpt from the above article:
"You begin by telling yourself you've never seen anything like this. As the game wears on, you begin admitting to yourself that you'll never see anything like this again."

Yes, i am an AI fan (Allen Iverson) but still that was simply mindblowing from a player who has simply been mindblowing over the last few matches and is looking for his first MVP.

2. Well this one wasn't anywhere near to even the smallest achievement. But i am mentioning it coz this was simply a treat for my eyes ! In last VB series match between Aussies and SL, Michael Clarke played an awesome stroke which surely needs a mention on my blog.

"Muralidharan was bowling to Clarke, Clarke was looking to give him the charge, he put his front foot out of the crease trying to come down the track, seeing that Murali pitched the ball a tad shorter in length. Clarke was just TOO quick to realise that, the ball pitched just a bit outside off-stump and as any Murali off-spinner, it came back a long way into Clarke. But Clarke had the talent and quick reflexes to go to his backfoot immediately and the audacity to upper-cut the ball OVER the extra-cover fielder. This was simply a treat to watch. A young audacious batsman just dropped from the Test series taking on one of the best spinners ever in trying situation. For the record, Aussies lost the match in the end. "

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

Techdirt:Banned Searches In Google And MSN
The above article points out a few search terms that seems to be banned by the search engines like Google and MSN. This is pretty interesting and annoying (?). After this, this is just another incident showing that soon its not going to be quite safer to use search! Most of the people (atleast people like me !) rely on searches like Google to reach anything. Most people think of the search engines as the dumb things, who will just reply to their queries and help them. But i guess, these days this is not true. These days search engines seems to be analysing our queries and deciding whether search terms are "GOOD" enough that the results cannot be misused. Ofcourse this is a pretty weak attempt to improve security. Search engines also seems to be keeping track/record of what query was used by which person, which might just be asked/used by various law authorities (as in the link above) to identify people. So in future beware of the search terms you are using. God forbids you, if you search for White House and "some weapon", and the very next day some attack happens on White House! You might just end up in jail ;). Ok this is a tad far-fetched, but still quite possible seeing the current trends.

Browsing down the chain of links in the first article i read a pretty interesting quote : "It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."



In this case, the "many" is Google's servers. The "few" is you. :)

Then browsing down the i get this link which points the current scenario's quote : "The needs of the few outweight the needs of the many". Its an interesting read :)

Happy searching then !!

Update: MSN update on the 2nd link -> here

Priya Get-together + Movie Review - Wedding Crashers

Last Saturday we (me, doc, vik, gogia, ranjan) met at priya as doc was leaving for his new job @ Microsoft, Hyderabad. So he was supposed to treat us :). Plus vik had came back from UIUC for his semester break. We had planned to watch "Wedding Crashers" - 11:30 show, and were supposed to meet @ 11 am. As always me, the punctual fella [ :D], got there on time, or rather a few minutes before time. Vik came @ around 11:15, and he decided to watch the movie too (earlier he wasn't going to). The doc/ranjan jodi as always came late. Even later then the show time !! Between those two its always a competition of who is going to come later ! Gogia would join later after the movie.

We finally entered the hall @ 11:40am, to my amazement priya's security check is pretty strict ! They even made me press the cellphone keys, just to check if its actually a cellphone :D. Gosh we lost another few minutes there, then we suddenly found doc disappearing somewhere ! As always he does some doc-esque things :), we finally got to our seats after missing around 10-15 minutes of movie. With late-latif friends like these, i've now got used to missing few minute of movie almost everytime now :) . Actually i can't remember when was the last time i watched a movie from start !

So finally we began watching - "Wedding Crashers". This movie is supposed to be the number 1 comedy movie of 2005. And hell it actually deserves that spot. Its really entertaining. Really funny all the way till the end. The movie is about two guys who crash weddings (even funerals in the end !). They look out for gals @ wedding and funerals for one-night stands. Wow, what a creative !dea. Reminds me of lots of hostel mates who used to crash weddings for free n good dinner. But, hell this was no where near fun as this movie !dea :). So all was well till these 2 guys decide to crash wedding of the daughter of a Presidential candidate. As always both of them were exceptionally brilliant in wooing their targets. The "Big-guy" Jeremi got to so-called "virgin" Gloria. While the other one, John needed some more time to move his story with Claire, forward. He gets a chance when Gloria forces his father to invite both of these to their family compound. Here we get to meet an amazingly weird family, with a gay-artist son, foul-speaking grandma, an unfaithful wife (in her words - "I've been married for 30 years, but have been loyal only 3 years !"), a rich-mean Claire's boyfriend, almost nymphomaniac Gloria. The story moves forward with some witty situations, Gloria the creator of most of 'em with her too bold sex moves (including a handjob @ the dinner table with whole family around !!). As expected their lies are revealed, but not before both the couples start to "love" each other. While Jeremi gets Gloria still, John *almost* loses Claire. He decides to continue his wedding crashing, but he literally crashes most of them. He even tries to crash a funeral, where he realises that how painful its to lose one's love (thoda sa senti stuff :) ) and runs to join the Jeremi and Gloria's wedding where he *almost* proposes Claire, who dumps his active bf for her love John ! And so the movie has an expected happy ending.

To sum it up, its a great movie, one of THE best movies i have seen for quite a long time. This gives weddings a totally new dimensions. Gosh, its a damn interesting profession, now mez ruing why am i a software engg, wedding crashing expertise would have been great !! (hehe just kidding) . I really liked few of the scenes/dialogues -

1. Scene1 - Jeremi trying to propose Gloria:
Jeremi - I think its time, we should take our relationship to next level. (thinking of marrying Gloria)
Gloria - Yes, i was thinking of the same. I think we should try with another girl, i really like Brazilian girls !!
Jeremi - I was thinking of something else, but yeah, ur !dea sounds great !!

pretty witty :)))

2. Scene2 - John proposing to Claire (this is a bit senti or witty, depends upon the way u look at it !)
John: I am NOT asking you to marry me, i am just asking you not to marry him (her bf), and give me a second chance !

Ok, so that was with the movie review. If you are reading this post and haven't seen the movie go and watch the movie.

After the movie, we 4 went to McDs, gogia joined us soon and vik left after giving me the headphones i had asked him to get for me. Did i told u they rock ? Then we had lunch at "Khwaja *" in midst of some routine job and future related talks. The lunch was more or less an average one. Then did some "bird-watching" around Priya and we all left for our home.

All in all a pretty good Saturday. Though this meet also signifies that one more of my friend is leaving to different place all-together. So now almost all of my friends have moved to far away places in Bangalore, Hyderabad and some foreign lands (illinois, kobe, pisa..)

Test Player of 2005

Here Harsha discusses over the player of the year. He discusses names of 4 players, all of them were amazing this year. I will start with Warne -

1. Shane Keith "Warney" - Had an extordinary year with the ball, gave his heart out in Ashes with both bat n ball. Finished the year with record 96 wkts and 416 runs (quite good for a bowler). He became first bowler to take 600 wkts in tests and broke Dennis Lillee's record for highest number of wkts in a year.

2. Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff - Proved himself to be THE best allrounder at the moment. Almost single handedly won Ashes for England. Finished the year with 709 runs and 68 wkts. Performed with amazing consistency and with a never-tiring approach.

3. Ricky "Punter" Ponting - Inspite of all the questions raised over his captaincy, especially after losing Ashes, he remains THE most prolific batsmen of the year in both the Tests and ODIs. One of 3 (i guess) batsman to achieve that feat. Scored 2nd highest runs ever in a calendar year - 1543. Hit 6 centuries, scored runs against all teams, in all countries (ok not India). Has now scored 27 centuries. And the rate at which he is scoring runs, im sure he will surpass Sachin's century record in less than 2 years !!

4. "Sir" Brian Charles Lara - Had an amazing year again. Broke Border's record for highest Test runs. scored 1110 runs in the year in just 9 tests. Became the 2nd highest double century hitter. Scored 5 centuries in the year, n surprisingly no halfcentury !! Has now scored 32 test hundreds, another one who is seriously threatening Sachin's record of 35 centuries. im sure he will do this in this year itself !

These were the 4 players harsha discussed, plus he named 2 other players because of some non-cricketing reasons, i won't get into that :). Instead i would add 1 more player who i think deserves to be atleast nominated :) , he is Inzamam.

5. Inzi - Scored 1000 runs in just 8 tests. Turned the Pakistani team on his own. Starting with that amazing 180+ in his 100th test to draw the series against India. He carried on and had an even amazing series against the Ashes victors England. He scored 2 hundreds in 2nd Test, scored 97 in 3rd. Scored pretty consistently at really crucial times in both forms of the game.

Its pretty tough for me to select between these coz all the top 4 had an amazing run, add to this the fact that Warney is my all time favorite player, Lara is my favorite batsman, Flintoff is my favorite allrounder (quite obvious) and Ponting one of the batsman i love to watch. It becomes EVEN more difficult.

Anyway personally i would select Shane Warne as the Test Player of the year 2005, simply coz of his outstanding performances throught the year. His ability to perform at his best inspite of all those controversies and family troubles. And ofcourse because of some personal bias :D

Welcome 2006 and Bye Bye 2005

Another year has gone by, and i have gone a year more older :D than the last time. I will try to look back at some big moments of 2005.

On the personal front -

1. I switched job. Yes finally i moved on to....
2. I started blogging :)
3. Lot of friends moving away to places farther away from the NCR.
4. Ya i got my new cellphone !
5. I got my home PC upgraded, and got an upgraded office PC as well ('coz of company switch) :)
6. I got a broadband connection at home.

So in all life's has been quite a bit better this year for me. Hopefully it gets even better in 2006. Key is to remain happy :)

Mez a sport fanatic, so will surely look at the 10 biggest moments in sports in 2005 for me.

1. Liverpool winning the Champions League. They came back from 0-3 down at half-time against Milan, to complete THE GREATEST comebacks of all times in the European finals. It was arguably THE greatest finale ever played. Ironically, Shevchenko, the man who won it for Milan in penalties 2 years ago, the European player of the year, missed the last penalty to hand over the trophy to Liverpool.

2. England regain Ashes by beating Aussies 2-1. If Liverpool v/s Milan was THE greatest football finale ever played, this one was THE greatest Test series ever played. Both team fought hard and tough. And after a series of enthralling, close and nail biting encounters England beat Aussies 2-1 after being 0-1 down. Warne with 40 wkts and over 250 runs was the star, while Flintoff was THE power behind this unbelievable achievement for England with both bat and ball. Lee too fought hard for Australia.

3. Brian Charles Lara beat the Border's record for most number of Test runs with his brilliant 226 at Adelaide against Aussies.

4. Sachin Tendulkar scored the record 35th century to beat Sunil Gavaskar's record for 34 centuries in Tests.

5. Shane Warne became the first bowler to reach 600 wkts, and he had a remarkable year which saw him picking up record 96 wkts in the calendar year, breaking his country-mate Dennis Lillee's record.

6. Alonso became the youngest ever F1 champion, and Schumi could only manage 1 victory !

7. Federer continued to reign supreme in tennis , with occassional losses, notably to Safin in Australian Open semis, and to Nalbandian in Master's final (his first final loss in 20 finals).

8. Ganguly's reign finally ended, and Rahul Dravid is the new captain. Along with Greg Chappell he is taking Indian team to new heights.

9. Chelsea win the English Premier League after 50 years.

10. Ronaldinho leds Barcelona to win the Spanish La Liga.


Some of the sports person who really made their mark in 2005-


1. Michael Hussey - An average of over 150 in ODIs, backed up by 90+ average in Tests, with some of the most memorable centuries/innings you have ever seen played with tail and team has their backs to wall. This guy has been awesome, he has been the debutant of the year, getting chance to wear the baggy green only at the age of 30 after scoring tons of runs in domestic cricket, he has literally snatched a position in the Aussie lineup with the sheer weight of his runs.

2. Ronaldinho - World Player of the Year 2004, 2005. European Player of the Year 2005. Need i say more ? Words just don't describe him. Just go and watch this magician play and you will forget everyone else.

3. Shane Keith Warne - 96 wkts in the calendar year, 40 wkts in the Ashes, gave his everything in the Ashes by not only taking wickets but by also scoring crucial runs. This old war-horse never seem to get tired. Neither his breakoff with his wife, nor all those scandals can make this guy under-perform. A sheer genius, an all time LEGEND, a sheer magician, who has made me (and millions of others) watch cricket just to see his magic with the ball. He remains my biggest idol ever.

4. Andrew Freddie Flintoff - He's one guy who showed that Aussies are beatable, but that needs someone to take everything out of himself. He gave it his everything, seems to have never ending sources of energy. Has been THE man behind all the english success.

5. Frank Lampard - This Chelsea, England player has risen leaps and bounds under Jose Mourinho. He is not only one of the most prolific scorers in English football but has become one of the best midfielders alongside Ronaldinho.

Rest- Some of the other players who made it rich in 2005 are - Ricky Ponting (most runs in 2005 in both Tests and ODIs), Inzamam (has shown amazing consistency), MS Dhoni (remarkable first year), Irfan Pathan, Justin Kemp, Dravid, Symonds, Bravo, Brett Lee, KP, Fernando Alonso, Raikkonen, Federer, Rafael Nadal, Nalbandian plus a few more maybe.


Some of the players who lost big time in 2005 are-

1. Saurav Ganguly (quite obvious choice, but he deserved nothing less than what he actually got !!)

2. Michael Clarke (lost his test place, a tad unlucky maybe)

3. Gillespie, Martyn, Hayden and Kasprowicz (lost their places in various Aussie sides due to Ashes loss)


I guess its more than enough.

Happy New Year 2006 to all of you :)