Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Motivation or Lack there of!

The midterms are breathing down my neck but I have had no motivation to study yet! This is a big problem for me (and I am sure for a lot of people) that I don't start studying until the very last moment possible. I make every bit of an effort to wait till the last moment possible to start studying. I have come to the conclusion that this is a basic human nature and we cannot fight it. Yes, I have seen tons of geeks who get things done ahead of time, but I am only talking about normal people here. So this column is only for regular Joes like me who wish to waste their time.

I watched the movie "Pursuit of Happyness" last week. The character of Will Smith in that movie personifies what we all do in real life. We might not have to face as much hardship as he does or eventually, be as successful as he is, but we do wait till the very last moment to put together our comebacks in life.

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Did not Complete for reasons stated below:
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I started this post before the midterms thinking that I would write a great post about how we as humans hate deadlines, how we never start things on time, and how we make our comebacks when we reach the point of no return. I even had the pursuit of happyness analogy ready to support my point. So, why was I not able to finish this post? Well, you guessed it! I was busy trying (hoping) to make my Will smith comeback. I was making a last ditch effort to make my midterms good. I had three midterms last week and man they were hard. I am pretty sure I bombed all three tests. I guess there will be more opportunities for me in the future to make my comeback. Specially looking at how the semester is going, I probably will need to make one, but the motivation is still lacking.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

My typical Weekend!

This is turning out to be yet another unproductive weekend. I cannot think of any weekend in the past three years (except for the ones during exams or finals), in which I have done something productive for school. Let me give you a rundown of a typical weekend, taking this weekend as an example.

Friday evening was very uneventful this time around. We usually play basketball or go the dollar theater (very rare!) on Fridays, but this time we did not because all the fellas doing I SYS had exams on Saturday. I watched the Jazz Nuggets game which I have already talked about in a previous post. After that I saw a movie on peekvid called "Love actually" which was pretty funny. Before I went to bed I chatted with my brother for about 20 minutes. I was really hungry in the evening because I had nothing but ramens left and there was nothing to make daal bhat either. I spent the rest of the evening thinking about Everest MOMO in Kathmandu and how I could devour at least 20 if I had the chance.

Saturday was not too special either. Woke up at around 11. Played a couple of NBA Live games with Kalyan and watched TV until we decided to go play basketball. Oh! Wait, we went to Carl's Junior before basketball and also stopped by manylands to get the Jasmine rice (25 lbs. for 17 bucks; not a bad deal). The basketball game was pretty intense and exciting today. The teams were well balanced and there was tough competition between the teams. I was completely out of sorts in the first game but bounced bask in the next two and played at a very high level. Naturally, we won 2-1.
In the car, while returning from the game somebody had a bright idea of making daal bhat. Since we had nothing at our home we decided to take a detour. We stopped at Ranjan's place grabbed some pyaaj, golveda, taama and masu. We decided to cook taama and masu. I made the chicken while anunaya made the tama. After everything was cooked, like usual we sat in front of the TV and watched sports center and naturally each one of us coming up with a critique or an applaud for each play shown. Most of the discussion happened during the basketball highlights, which is no surprise considering the fact that all of us think we are basketball analysts. Anyways, it was fun and after a tiring day I went to bed at about one.

Sunday is usually the same as Saturday. The only difference being that the school is closed which means no basketball. Woke up at around 11 again and was watching the NBA games on ABC when we decided to go to WalMart. I had to go, since I had nothing so I was not too disappointed about missing the game. Spend 42 bucks on WalMart and that was just my personal expenses. The common bill is a whole different story. Came back home in time for the 4th quarter of the Lakers-Spurs game. The game went in to overtime and was pretty intense. After that took a couple of online quizzes for class tomorrow and started writing this post. I will probably watch a movie in peekvid and go to bed at around one.

So there it is my typical weekend. Did you ever read a word called "book" or see a verb called "read" anywhere? I thought so. I totally waste my weekends doing nothing productive. I am wondering why I am even making this post right now! I better stop!

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Melo-Iverson dynamic duo and my favorite team

I watched the Jazz play the Nuggets last night. It was one of the more interesting games I have seen for a while. The competition was fierce. The offense of both the teams played at a very high level, and I think in the end it was the defense of the Jazz that made the difference. I am seriously beginning to think that the Melo-Iverson thing might actually work. Those guys seem to be enjoying each others company and playing off each other's strength. Anthony had a weird smile on his face throughout the game. I think that Iverson might have helped him gain the swagger that he needed to become a next level superstar. I know! Iknow! Melo was the scoring leader of the NBA even before Iverson came to Denver. But the confidence that I saw in him yesterday was something I had never seen before. And this was a game that Denver lost.

I was hoping that the Melo-Iverson combo would take Denver down the drain since they are in the same division as the Jazz. But I think that my worst nightmares are about to be true. Sure, the Jazz won last night but we need to keep in mind that it was only the third game that those guys had been together. Besides, without a rookie that energized everyone in the building, Jazz would have definitely lost. I think that Jerry Sloan is out of his minds. I can not understand why he did not play Brewer in the last 5 games. Even yesterday they only played him when Kirilenko sprained his ankle. This seems even more weird considering the fact that the best results came for the Jazz when they played Brewer and Milsap regularly in their lineup. Only reason that I can come up with Sloan's approach is that they are giving Giricek some minutes so that he can be of some value on a trade that is inevitable. If that is the case I would be more than happy because I think Giricek does not have a place on this team. I am absolutely sure that Brewer's athleticism is going to do wonders for this team. And he is a very good defender as well. The rotation of Kirilenko, Brewer, Fisher and Harpring in the SF/SG positions would be the best for this team. They can even make it to the western semis if they play this lineup with a possibility of going all the way next year.

This is my first shot at a sports article ever. It is kind of surprising considering the fact that at a point in my life I wanted to be a sports journalist. The level of my writing can be compared to the Oakland Raiders in the NFL right now but i have to keep practicing, I guess. May be I will land the number one pick in the draft someday.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Work and Bill Simmons

I have been utilizing my time at work pretty effectively the past couple of weeks. The tuition deadline was on January 22 which meant that there usually were a lot of checks to do. Also the CISP macro I had been working on took some time. So, today I don't know what to do with my time because everything is done. I have even gobbled up all the page 2 articles on ESPN. I am a little bit disappointed with Bill Simmon's articles this week. They posted the article that he wrote for ESPN mag about some basketball guy from the past, whom I know nothing about. That's why it was a boring read to me. Anyways, his articles are usually very interesting and I can always relate to them. The way he incorporates pop culture in his articles is really amazing. I even tried to give that style a shot but I was nowhere close to coming up with references like he does. Bill's articles have probably influenced me more than anything else in the last six months. I have learned as much about American pop culture as I have about sports. May be not that much but still quite a bit.

I used to read his articles on and off but I became a very regular reader after reading his soccer article that appeared around the time of the 06 world cup. That article is simply superb. I really enjoyed the humorous perspective on soccer from a guy who knows nothing about soccer. His reasons for choosing his favorite club are really funny but Heck! I think they are the best. If you are not born loving or hating a soccer club in England, how else are you supposed to choose your favorite club? I especially like how he ranks bad teams that are sponsored by a beer company ahead of teams that are perennially good. Also, the article is a very easy read and a person who knows nothing about soccer can easily follow it. I highly recommend reading it. Too bad it is only available to insiders now. I have never really followed baseball or ever liked it. May be I need to do the same thing that the sports guy did for choosing his favorite club.

Mesmerizing!

I am just too lazy to keep up with my posts. It's been more than six months. A lot of things have changed. A semester has passed. Our great College Football season is over, the Utah Jazz are suddenly a good team, and war has finally ended in Nepal. Or at least it sounds like it has. Today I was listening to this song by Sting called "Mad about you", and that is what made me wanna log in. Just to post the lyrics. I did not even remember my password and my username for this blog. Had to give it a couple of shots before I was finally able to get in. I have posted the lyrics here.

"Although I claim dominations over all I see It means nothing to me There are no victories In all our histories, without love."

Could the lyrics be any better?

Sting is one of my favorite artists of time. However I haven't listened to him a lot lately, mainly because of school. School almost killed me last semester. Just too much work, it was crazy! I don't know why but this semester the core has been a little bit kinder to us. That is why I am able to make an entry on this blog today.
This time of the night I would usually be staring at an impossible quiz or trying to understand a difficult accounting concept but we have nothing due tomorrow!
I listened to a lot of songs today and googled for most of their lyrics. Here are some phrases I really loved:

From allah ke bande:
"Kho Ke Aapne Par Hi To Usne Tha Ud Naa Sikha
Gham Ko Aapne Saath Mein Lele Dard Bhi Tere Kaam Aayega"


From koi fariyaad:

"Jaagte Jaagte Ek Umr Kati Ho Jaise
Jaan Baaki Baaki Hai Magar Saas Ruki Ho Jaise"

"Koyi Fariyaad Tere Dil Mein Dabi Ho Jaise
Tune Aankhon Se Koyi Baat Kahi Ho Jaise"

Although I had listened to all these songs a million times I had never realized that they contained these mesmerizing words. I will post some Nepali lyrics if I find some quality ones that I really like.

One of my favorite songs of all time

"Mad About You"
-Sting
Click Here to Watch

A stones's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you I'm lost without you
Though all the kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I'm mad about you I'm mad about you

And from the dark secluded valleys
I heard the ancient songs of sadness
But every step I thought of you
Every footstep only you
And every star a grain of sand
The leavings of a dried up ocean
Tell me, how much longer? How much longer?

They say a city in the desert lies
The vanity of an ancient king
But the city lies in broken pieces
Where the wind howls and the vultures sing
These are the works of man
This is the sun of our ambition
It would make a prison of my life
If you become another's wife
With every prison blown to dust
My enemies walk free
I'm mad about you I'm mad about you

And I have never in my life
Felt more alone than I do now
Although I claim dominations over all I see
It means nothing to me
There are no victories
In all our histories, without love

A stone's throw from Jerusalem
A walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you I'm lost without you
And though you hold the keys to ruin
Of everything I see
With every prison blown to dust,
My enemies walk free
Though all the kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I'm mad about you I'm mad about you