These days

These days have never been harder nor have they been easier
These days have never been tougher on the soul nor have they been so uplifting
These days lady luck ain't a comin' knockin' yet she sleeps in my bed
These days I'm worried over the future yet so giddy with anticipation over the possibilities
These days friends come and go, the bullshit stays the same
These days are self-centered, deadlined and dollared yet...
These days are the best days of my life.

In the words of Eddie Vedder in Corduroy- "Everything has changed, absolutely nothing's changed".

A great way to listen to music

*Disclaimer - I'm not intending to come off as an "advertisement" but the subject on which I'm going to discuss has left me feeling very appreciative. In short for the verbally challenged reading this - I'm not being neutral here.at all.*

There's this great site for listening to music called www.pandora.com - it's been around for a while, but I never really used it. I have to say though, the more I use it the more I'm impressed with it. Pattern matching algorithms and music has never been sexier. Way superior to other pattern matching music stations. It's usually quite spot on within a couple of songs. What I like most about pandora is that it doesn't play common top 40 numbers much. Most of the time, it plays obscure artists, and really helps with the whole broadening your musical horizon experience.

Going into the "technicalities" of this website (one of the things I really enjoy doing is evaluating UI designs. I dunno, it's something I picked up at UBC, and these days I do it almost involuntarily) I have to say, this site is a beauty.
Apparently there's been a heavy mac influence with the player resembling the polished steel finish of quick player. The registration process is very painless. enter your email address as your user id and give a password. Thats it.

Their interactive process is very appealing and I find that they keep the user suitably engaged. Textbook UI Designing in my opinion. I think they used Liatt's law (which for the unintiated is used to calculate the optimum spacing between "buttons" on a human-computer interactive device)! They have this cool option called "why are we playing this" (obscure) track which gives a pretty fascinating description of YOUR musical tastes. I found out things about me I didn't know. lol

The more I tinker with it, the cooler it gets. Unfortunately, coz of copyright laws, this service is available only in the US (as of now). Hope you guys get to check it out!

miss home

Today has been a nostalgic day. perhaps it's the strong memories of Vellore attached to pink floyd, pearl jam and ofcourse that good ol anthem sweet child o' mine that I've been listening to. Calling all the sons (and daughters) of the soil back to the glory days of the batch of '03. Like a messiah. I mean don't get me wrong, things have been looking up for me despite a few setbacks here and there, however for the most part - things look good.

Despite it all, I miss almost long for the carefree days encompassed between August 1999 and May 2003. Weird. I wanted to get out of that "prison" so badly back then. Yet I miss it now. I don't think I can ever go through those 4 years again now, but still miss em.

That brought me to another question - I miss "home". But what is home? I've never lived in one place long enough for me to really get attached to it. I've gone from cannibal island nation (Papua New Guinea) to igloo land (Toronto,Canada) to mylapore (a world within itself) to vellore prison to Vancouver, BC (where the only thing that outnumbers trees are starbucks ) to the armpit of america (NJ).

I look Indian and eat like a pattar, I love India, yet I love Canada just as much. My nationality is Canadian, but I'm living outside New York. I doubt I'd want to go live in India or Canada anytime soon, but I don't see myself making New York my "home" either. I mean I love this city, and honestly, I've never felt so alive as I am in this place but I dunno, we'll jus have to see. Don't find myself wanting to live anywhere in the US outside the new york area either. Given such a predicament, will I ever "root" myself or am I a perpetual vagabond? Destined to globe hop for the rest of my life.

So given the circumstances, it's funny that I miss "home". I thought about it and I realised for me home isn't about the place anymore. The whole world is my home. My home is where I can kick back and relax and be a kid once again, tossing responsibility away for a while.A place where I wont be under constant scrutiny, being evaluated. Where it's ok to not be #1 all the time and a place where I can let my guard down. I realised that my parents' apartment in Mandaveli is home. If they ever move somewhere else, that'll be my new home. So yeah, I miss my parents.

Can't wait till December when I can go "home" for a few weeks. Life has been horribly stressful and there's nothing more I want than to just kick back and relax for a few weeks without a damn care in the world. Oh, I'm also planning on going to Goa when I get to India. Hope it pans out.