Monthly Archives: November 2009

New Phone, New Life

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Finally cracked yesterday and decided I could no longer deal with a blackberry with the round ball thingy that does not move – rendering my blackberry a useless piece of plastic.I bought the Blackberry Gemini. It was exciting purchase in that it happened so fast – I asked for it at 11 (as I was just minutes from throwing the phone against the wall) and it arrived a couple of hours later totally unexpectedly.The good:

  • nice bright screen
  • good screen size and really light and thing
  • the new interface is slightly easier to use
  • the track pad

The bad:

  • although the shiny screen looks good, it dirty smudged really fast which is annoying
  • the layout of the keys is tighter than the old bb curve which takes getting used to
  • the keys are really hard and you have to press them making typing more work and slower (okay this gets really tiring…)

Overall I really like the phone although I really wish they would fix the keypad which is the most annoying feature.The bold goes for around 42,000 rps (almost double for a leather back, slightly bigger wider phone) so at 25,000 rps the gemini is a really good deal in my view.

A week of sickness

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Been sick for almost a week. Aside would tossing and turning at night in fits of fever sweat and shivering sickness also means watching a lot of movies since I didn’t have much energy to see / do anything else. I don’t have malaria, but I tell you the P.dot virus is stronger than the Canadian kind because I haven’t been so sick in a long while.Here is a round up of the movies I watched:

Inglourious Basterds

So the thing I hate about Tarantino movies is his gratuitous violence (yes I know its Tarantino) and his apparent glee are showing women being violently brutalized. But ASIDE from that, I did like Inglourious Basterds. The mise en scene (thank you film studies 101) is beautiful and the plot line has choppy pacing that is great.Also, I’m not Jewish (obviously) but I can only image the deep rage Jews must feel (deep inside, festering, uncontrollable) about what the Nazi’s did to their people.  (Kind of like what most people of Muslim heritage feel when they see hooded prisoners, secret jails etc.) So the end action of the movie offers a great cathartic relief, as if you spend two hours fighting with the past and for once you’ve won.According to Wikipedia, all the movie posters / websites had to be changed for Germany since all Nazi iconography is illegal to use. Did not know that…I’m not sure if that good, or bad because it offers and easy way to not have to deal with your own past.

Madagascar 1 & 2

I can’t stop talking about the penguins in Madagascar – they are too cute. As a result, I liked Madagascar  2 better since the penguins get more screen time. My favorite scene is when the penguins are negotiating ‘with the commie bastards’ the monkeys, who want maternity leave.

Madagascar Penguins

Madagascar Penguins


Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince

I can’t believe Professor Dumbledore dies!!!By my surprise you would know that I didn’t read any of the potter books. They are tomes / tomes I tell you and I don’t have that kind of time or strength for fictional books. I think this episode was meh for the most part except – I do like that I could actually follow what was going on without getting super confused by the back story (i.e. who is the good guy, who’s the bad guy…) I am kindda getting sick of the whole ‘gosh darnnit – we 3 kids are always getting into trouble bit’ but I’m loving the sophisticated cinematography as the series progresses.

Mailer’s Barbary Shore

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Finished reading Barbary Shore by Norman Mailer. Ok to be honest, I skipped maybe 30-40 pages in the end because I kindda got bored with the inquisition part of the book. Plus the copy I have is so old and tattered that there was pages missing and as I finished the last page the backcover disassembled from the spine.The book is definitely ‘of a certain time’; for the most part it was hard to relate to the Soviet/Communist interrogation as it feel like its part of such a long-gone time.(As in, my post 9/11 world had other concerns like secret prisons, Gitmo, Blackwater etc.)The best part of the book is the way the Guinevere manipulation of the main character are vividly and deliciously described. There are passages of double meaning in the book that make you re-read them thrice and leave my mouth gaping at Mailer’s ability to shape plain ‘ole words into beautiful art.

Marketing 360 gobbly gook

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There is a very popular marketing forum in Pakistan called marketing 360.  Someone told me to get on the list when I moved here because this was apparently where all the marketing peeps connected. Here is a recent post:” The telecom company you are talking about believes in Ethic-ism rather than Intellectualism and ethics are beyond logic & reasons but based on pure experiential wisdom in other words one can call it mannerism of relationships. In ethic-ism its always a real natural benefit and embed in society and culture. Intellectualism is finding the reason n logic and creating a benefit which might be natural or forced when its natural in essence it works like great wisdom but when forced it’s meaningless hence increases the failure rate.Both ways are fine but ethic-ism is more stable, natural and beneficial to the adopter. My experience says ethics sells more!Kindest Regards,Ali Mirza “Now, I have been known to invent words myself – but umn? ” Ethic-ism “  what with the “ism” dude. Maybe you mean Ethicism?Never mind that, he goes on to say…  “ethics are beyond logic and reason” .. wha wha whaaaa?  In a 5 word sentence he’s  x-ed out a long history of moral philosophy that starts with Socrates – based on logic and reason.I can’t even understand what the rest of this mean means… “ethics are … based on pure experiential wisdom in other words one can call it mannerism of relationships”.What the hell is mannerism of relationships???Also, I hate to be nit-picky – but NOWHERE in the definition of “intellectualism” does it mean “finding the reason n logic and creating a benefit which might be natural or forced”.  WHAT?!I think the scary part of this goobly gook is the utter defeat your feel – you can’t really argue with someone if they have no logic in their argument.

Coco Channel + Tropic of Thunder

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Watched the movie Coco Channel, no not the one with Audrey Tautou.From a movie perspective, it was the almost laughable cheesy. I really hated the narrative structure – the reminiscent flashbacks and the weird black transitions used.I did some research on Coco’s life. Apparently, some of the history is a bit glossed over; she had one sister and several brothers.Although the movie focuses on her life with “Boy” Chapel (and partially “Etienne” ) fast forward to her “later years” and ife in the second world war is also filled with a lot of intrigue and scandal.I also watched Tropic of Thunder and its a plot narrative – ahem and editing – and art direction – its a wayyyy better movie. I really loved the fake movie trailers in the beginning which are approved for ‘audiences’.Tropic Thunder – Fake Trailers!! – Watch more free videos