Inheritance

During my adolescent years, I looked at some of my parents' and grandparents' actions/habits with contempt. My grandmother, for example, gets worked up for little things, if someone comes home late or does not answer phone calls, etc. Both my parents used to have very short tempers which I have witnessed several times and it always annoyed me. My grandfather is a stickler for time and always makes everyone go to the railway station or airport or anywhere else earlier than is required. I remember looking at all these events and to me all of them seemed unnecessary. I prided myself on my ability to always be a cool cat, not to lose my temper and be very flexible.

But, to my chagrin, I have been noticing lately I am becoming more and more like my parents and grandparents, especially in exhibiting characteristics that I didnt appreciate very much and still dont. Agreed, each person has their own eccentricities and quirks. But what alarms me is the exact nature of these behaviors that I have begun displaying. It surprises me, alarms me and also fascinates me.

yay!

Blackberry saved

Newsworthy items

First, the most newsworthy - I saw this and fell off my chair. I would be surprised if it is true, but if it is, it should turn out to be very interesting to say the least.

Something somewhat related- The online edition of The Hindu is sort-of-NSFW. How is that possible? The ad server almost always serves banner ads in the form of a poll- whose sexy legs are these? next to a picture of, yeah you guessed it, the "sexy" legs or who is this? next to a picture of the lady mentioned above (wihout her face, ofcourse) in a bustier. Not cool, Hindu.

Demos' Better human collection is a good read.

Kamal

I was just listening to "poo eduthu vaikkanum pinnale" - a song picturized rather tackily on Kamalhassan and Ambika. I could not help but remember Kamalhassan's expressions in the song. Man, he is SOMETHING ! (This post has nothing to do with his acting skills.) He was so incredibly handsome in most of the 70s/80s movies and also some 90s movies - "Kadhal parisu", "Nayagan", "Vikram", "Moondram pirai", "Kaakkichattai", "Devar magan", etc. In his recent movies, I cant think of any role that showcased his looks well. I wish he would take up some role in which he plays his age and also requires him to look classy ..... its a really bad idea to listen to this song when I am at work ...

Mobile Google Local

This is one of the MOST useful things I have used in a long time. Since I am new to St.Louis, I was always printing out directions from the computer. Now, I no longer have to do that. The GL for the blackberry got released last friday and its super-simple to use. I was using mapquest on my mobile browser before but that always took so much longer, there were formatting issues and frankly annoying to use. I am so impressed with GLM and I cant tell you how much I love it. In fact, the reason i bought my blackberry is that, in addition to email, the hope that there will be more great mobile products soon. I wonder if there is also a RSS aggregator specifically for the mobile that is good to use. Any?

First piano lesson

So I finally managed to go to my first piano lesson. I wanted to do this in 1995 but only got around to doing it now :-). I chose my teacher from an almost random permutation of location/fees/timings using Goog maps. I got a beginners book from the teacher and also got to play around with the keys a little bit. I definitely think its not going to be easy and it's going to require a lot of practice. I am not sure if its even possible for me to be a decent player someday. Being right-handed, I dont feel too comfortable using my left hand on the keyboard. Yes, I work with computers and I can type on the computer keyboard with both hands though i heavily favor my right. But playing the keyboard seems to require the same kind of effort from both hands. After a few classes I guess I'll find out. Hopefully, very soon, I'll be able to play celtic trance.

p.s: Incidentally, this is my 50th post. Didnt think I'd keep at it.

Edge asks 'What is your dangerous idea?'

Here's something I've been reading recently - Edge - The world question center. This year's question is "What is your dangerous idea?".