When Things Couldn't Get Any Worse....

Hey yaars,

Been working for a good part of this week. Only today did I realize how much work I have to do in the coming week - to the point that I was semi-panicking. I still am a tad, but as a good friend just recently told me : "Don't sweat the small stuff"

Which would be fine, had I not been tagged with a fever and sore throat! It had been setting in all day Thursday, slowly but surely making me feel more and more like crap. I still managed to finish work (barely, with Jamie literally getting me water from the cooler 10 ft away), and caught "Date Movie" with him and Cedric. Though I enjoyed it, it might not have been my best idea.

I came home and immediately fell asleep, with my toque still on. Later on in the night my mother, though still angered about me staying out late, managed to take the toque off and give me another blanket, as I was apparently shivering and in the fetal position. Woke up this morning feeling like absolute crap subsequently. It took me about an hour to get up, and another 2 to actually get something to eat and some meds for the throat. Been feeling a bit on the weak side, but a few tins of apple juice, a bottle of Buckley's cough mixture, and some good ol warmth I'm hoping will do wonders. For some reason our apartment's been like a sauna today (my brother agrees on this, so it isn't just my fever talking), so it's been good times sweating the phlegm away!

*Thought of the day*
Why is it that most wester leaders in the "free" world tend to be clean shaven, whereas their Easter counterparts, often more on the "commie" side, tend to have facial hair? Me and my brother were trying to think of any leaders in the west who had facial hair and could only think of the leader of Mexico (if it's still Vicente Fox). This trend seems to apply to the icons of the ideologies too. On one side, you see any American president (take your pick - they're all of a similar mould), whereas on the other side you have icons like Che Guevera, Fidel Castro, Lenin, and Stalin. Who knows, this just might be the Buckley's talking, but I thought it was quite odd.

Hopefully my ph-roat will get better so I can get some work done! L8er

The Jinx Continues...

Hey yaars,

Just came home from work, where I was totally bummed to see Canada get man-handled by the Russians 2-0 in the Men's Hockey Quarter-Finals at the Olympics. It was embarrassing to see our all-star team get dominated for 2/3rds of the game by a Russian team who knew it was only a matter of time before we collapsed. Now I know the guessing games and witch hunts will begin since they lost, but I have some quick observations.

- The fact that they had a Toronto Maple Leaf (Brian McCabe) - a leaf DEFENCEMAN at that - goes to show you that the team was already shaky to begin with

- Todd Bertuzzi has never won ANYTHING, has been hampered by the Steve Moore incident, and ALWAYS chokes in the big game. It was HIS penalty that lead to the opening and winning goal

- What was up with selecting a bunch of big guys? We're there to play hockey, not beat them up! I know we could guess about what coulda, shoulda, or woulda been the best team, but hindsight is always 20/20.

- I know you can't replace players after selection, but after having such horrendous offensive problems, why couldn't they have played Jason Spezza for a game or two to provide a spark plug to a shockingly anaemic offense? He is dynamite on his line with Heatley in Ottawa, and I'm confident he could have done the same for us had he been given the chance

At the end of the day, I have to say if there's any solace in losing, it comes in the fact that we were beaten by a better team. Unlike Nagano, where we got beat in a shootout by a goaltender/machine, this time we were most definitely the worse team. Now all I can say is : Let the witchunt begin!

"When You Lose, Don't Lose The Lesson"

Hey yaars,

I haven't posted in a bit for a few reasons. Lab work has kept me busy for the most part, but so has the cricket, which in this case has turned against me, as Indian wallopped Pakistan in the Hutch Cup ODI series 4-1. Yeah, I could say that Pakistan was missing it's key players, but that's life I guess. We play them in a one-off next month in Sri Lanka, so I'm hoping they win, thought it's not the same!

Even worse off is the fact that Canada lost not once, but TWICE in hockey this week. Switzerland beating us was kind of flukey but Finland shutting us out? That's just not on!

Thank goodness the Pakistan Under-19 team gave me some solace. They made it to the U-19 World Cup Final to play off against India and fought back after being dismissed for 109 all out. They managed to reduce Indian to 9-6 and cleaned them up for 70 runs to defend their title. The U-19 Tournament is a lot like the World Juniors in hockey, it's a showcase of the up and comers of the game. Hoepfully one of these dudes will be an India-killer in the near future.

Anyhow, in tribute of a great 45 days of cricket between neighbours, I posted a tribute video up top, It's pretty cool and just might be seizure-inducing, but I highly recommend giving it a go!

Oh yeah, and the quote that is the title of this post is from His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. YES, I do have some knowledge of spirituality outside of the Muslim faith!

I Hate Lisp!

Hey yaars,

I totally just botched up my Genetic Programming assignment that is due on Friday! I was going to wrap it up today with a brilliant idea to solve the program, before quickly checking the course site for notes, only to find that my program would be in the WRONG LANGUAGE!

Since I have learned very little LISP, don't have it on my computer, and don't have the time tomorrow or Friday to do it, I guess I don't submit it. I'm pondering submitting a pseudo-code version that kinda gets the idea across, but I'm not sure if all that work is worth 1% overall.

Damnit Damnit Damnit!

I'll try and cool down and post something else soon peeps!

A little bit wicked, a little bit cool

If you missed, the Grammy's last week, here's the opening live performance, Gorillaz with Madonna. IMO, it's pretty good.

When it all falls down...

Hey yaars,

I'm definitely NOT in the greatest of moods today.

After convincing myself not to watch the 3rd ODI Indo-Pak Cricket match (so that I could rest and work on assignments), I somehow found myself glued to my computer watching a horribly buffered stream of the match. Because of this, I ended up falling asleep Monday morning at around 10 AM. Worst off, Pakistan lost. Badly.

Of course when my mother realized this, she semi-freaked. Understandably so, I mean, I have done this quite a bit this month. I think that - combined with the loss, and her taking two buses home while I slept - led to a bit of the "hair-dryer" treatment. I'm promising myself to finish some work tomorrow!

Had to go to the library to return an overdue book. It's the first time I've ever returned a book late and I found myself somewhat trembling as I approached the returns desk, worrying of a huge late fee (like at video stores - which I have been guilty of a few times). For returning a book 2 days late, I ended up paying 60 cents. Not bad at all, making my sleeping in the past few days well worth it. While there I picked up a few books....


The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty by Buster Olney


Slaughter House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Wish me luck on the good reads!

Finished up the night by having my first ever Dairy Queen blizzard. Picked up the flavour of the month (how tell-tale that is!), Choco-Cherry Love. I SHOULD have got the small size, but I went all out for the regular size. It took me 3 hours, and a few long breaks, before finishing the darn thing. Because as I'm sure you all know, ice cream from outside never tastes the same once it's put in the freezer. Oh yeah, the Blizzard was dee-lish.

That's it for now, am slightly depressed that I have work to do tomorrow :(

"In politics, absurdity is not a handicap."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Misc Notes...

Just to fill everyone in on the odds and ends....

- Canada wins a gold on the first day (!) of Olympic competition. Could this be the beginning of the end? What's next, We win two tomorrow?

- The moustache is back! After teetering and tottering I've decided to revamp the 'stache look, but in a more subdued fashion. As I've said before, it's a family tradition. When your dad, uncles, and grandfather's have kept one, you're almost obliged to keep one to keep the flame lit!

- India beat Pakistan in the 2nd ODI in Islamabad to level the series at 1 each. The worst part? This was the first match my brother and even my mother stayed up to watch. Methinks CERTAIN people are bad luck for God's team :P

- More protests about "the cartoon". I'll be honest, I'm a bit tired of this now. It wasn't as if the Danish government sanctioned and sponsored the cartoon. I don't see how protesting in front of their embassies proves a point. I belive a better message would be sent if we just decided to let it die and show some class in the face of prejudice

- Jose Theodore tested positive for a drug that is known to cloak the use of steroids. I'd normally give a guy the benefit of doubt, but in this case the substance was a hair-growth formula. Now really, have you guys ever seen Jose Theodore? Dude does NOT need any help in the hair-growth department. Methink somebody has some skeletons in his closet...

- In the same week, American Zach Lund was kicked off the U.S. Skeleton team for the Turin Olympics for taking a similar hair-growth tonic. As much as I hate to support an American, I think I actually believe this guy has a legitimate reason for taking the tonic...

What I Learned This Week...
According to my mother, any physical contact between the sexes is looked down upon in our religion. This INCLUDES shaking hands. Imagine the look on her face when my brother and I mentioned that we had gone as far as receiving hugs! Oh the horror! (OK, she didn't have a coronary, but she didn't seem super pleased about it. Something to the extent of "You're too modern and Canadian" was mumbled.

That's it for now!

GRRRR....

Hey yaars,

Haven't posted as much as I wanted to lately due to numerous reasons. While late night cricket, Visual Basic labs, and shopping seem to occupy much of my time, Rogers managed to be the object of my obsession this week. It goes as follows...

If any of you know me, you probably realize that I'm quite the download fiend. It's become a sort of crack like addiction where I HAVE to have a daily fix. Well, the good ol' folks at Rogers decided to implement a new system that would prevent me from doing so. Last week they apparently implemented "bit-shaping/throttling" software that would prevent downloaders like me from getting anything remotely close to a decent speed for downloading via peer-to-peer networks. I went from cruising at 120-180 kbps to waling at a mere 5 kbps. And to top it off, a lot of the data I would download would be corrupted/in pieces. Imagine the pain of waiting 22 hours to download an episode of 24, only to find out that it ain't gonna work!

I've been studiously attempting to find a solution and last night my harbinger of justice flew in. I don't want to advertise (in fear of Big Ted finding out), but I've managed to find a way to get my speeds back to reasonably effective levels. Hopefully things stay this way for a while! Long live the download world!

Cartoon Catastrophe

Hey yaars,

After giving it a few days of thought, I figured I'd make a post with regards to the now infamous cartoons of the Prophen Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper. I, like many Muslims, was outraged, and felt I should give it a few days before commenting in order to carefully select my words.

For those who have been under a rock, the whole hub-bub regards a cartoonists' satirical drawings with regards to Islam. Along with the usual jabs at the whole "72 virgins for a martyr" jokes, the key drawing - which has incited many Muslims worldwide - was a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad, wearing a turban with a bomb secluded inside of it.

Now, for the non-Muslims out there, I can see why there might be a tad bit of confusion as to why such a fuss. Well, to begin with, most Muslims avoid depicting the Prophet Muhammad in ANY means in order to prevent any sort of idolic worship. As the Prophet had said, he was only but a messenger, and it was Allah (God) who was worthy of worship. Now seeing as we don't take a liking to generic depictions, one can understand why a mocking cartoon would cause such a stupor.

I totally agree that freedom of speech should be adhered to, with some guidelines. The caveat should be that you can say what you want, so long as your expression isn't meant to be deliberately hurtful. Now arguments can be made as to what defines being hurtful, but if you argue based on fact, and do so in a respectable fashion, I have no qualms.

Personally, I felt that the other jokes were somewhat amusing. There's a drawing I've seen of terrorists waiting in heaven with the caption saying "Sorry, we're out of virgins". I thought that to be a decent jab, and something that occurs commonplace amongst religions and sects. It didn't aim it's punchline at the founder of the religion.

In arguments, I've heard the European press justify it's publishing of the picture by stating that it is in the interests of free press. I find that to be utter rubbish. If that were the case, publications across the globe should have carte blanche to print anything hurtful towards others based on colour, religion, sexual preference, etc. There's a fine line to be taken, and to ignore this would be simply archaic. There's a reason there aren't satirical cartoons about the holocaust, why should it be different for others. (And no, this is not an anti-Jew rant. It was simply the first example that popped into my head that puts things in perspective)

In the end, I think the protesting Muslims are directing their anger in the wrong direction. We should remember that it wasn't Denmark that published the cartoon, but one of their newspapers. Though I think protests in front of their embassies are commendable, burning flags is not. By doing so, you're only encouraging the ignorant, justifying their reasons for creating such garbage. And if you truly believe in God, you'll know that those responsible will get their just desserts.

OK, OK, long rant from me, I hope I haven't alienated anyone (except if you liked that cartoon, than I'm getting my gangsta gear ready). It was my thinking that I should expand the horizons of this blog and talk about more than just sports, tv, and base-runners :P

Steelers = Super Bowl XL Champs

Hey yaars,

I planned on beginning this post with an obligatory "We ROCKED 'EM!!!", but in the interst of slight impartiality, I'll lay low on that one. I don't think I've liked the Steelers long enough to truly enjoy this victory. In fact, that's what's leading to me pondering the thought of flipping to a new team (with the Steelers as a secondary team).

Watched the game at Derek's on the ultimate TV : 60" Sony HDTV. I truly believe that's how God intended TV to be viewed! The night was fun, though it was a little rough in a room with Steeler haters. Thank goodness I didn't go out and buy a Steelers toque to wear there (I woulda been killed!).

With regards to the game, it was an average Super Bowl. Many of the guys and gals who watched the game came out of it thinking that the Seahawks got robbed, I'm not of that viewpoint.

Yes, the called-back Jackson TD was questionable, but according to the rulebook it was a push, therefore interfered on the play.

Yes, the infamous "phantom TD" by Roethlisberger should have been called back. Though when it's a matter of inches, slight misjudgements can happen EVEN WITH instant replay. It wasn't as if he was yards behind the goal line. It was just one of those bad breaks.

Yes, the number of penalities called on Seattle did seem exorbinant. A lot of people have noted how the Steelers didn't get called for nearly the same amount of infractions despite committing the SAME offenses. To this, I have no real explanation since I'm not totally knowledgable about the holding rules.

I know it may sound silly, but all this talk of the game made me harken back to the days of my sport psychology class. I recall reading in a paper how it is a proven fact that teams wearing dark colours get called for signifigantly more penalties than those in lighter colours. Looking back at it now, it applies a bit to this game as well. Not to say that the refs were colour-prejudiced or anything, but darker coloured clothing give the psychological impression of an imposing, dacoit-like figure, whereas a white colour would give a more angelic impression. Keep in mind, I'm applying this to CLOTHES, with the help of someone's research not mine!

At the end of the day, for those who are still a tad upset over the officiating, I say this : Welcome to the NFL. I've sporadically followed the league for years and I've noticed that EVERY game has calls like this go one way or the other. It's all about the way the ball bounces. Be it considered a stroke of luck, or a case of cause and effect, it happens. In the larger scheme of things, everything tends to balance out. In fact I would argue that the Steelers have had their fair share of calls go AGAINST them in the past, so this just may be the football Gods' way of balancing things out.

With all that said and done, I'm narrowing my list down for Team Naveed 2006. I still like the Steelers but realize that their bandwagon will increase ten-fold now that they've won. So far, here are the candidates. Feel free to add anyone else, with a reason, by adding a comment to the comments section:

Cincinnati Bengals
In the first round it was a toss-up as to whether I wanted them or Pittsburgh to win. It would have been a different game had Carson Palmer not been hurt, but who knows what was to happen afterwards. I'm putting this team on the list solely because of Chad Johnson and his wacky TD dances.

New York Jets
Yes, they do suck. But since my brother's secondary team is the Giants, I thought I'd rival him with the Jets.

Green Bay Packers
Only because people will be jumping off the bandwagon once Favre's gone. That and there's a little relevance to us as my mother's in the food packing industry. Oh, and I thought calling me a Packer instead of Paki would sound way cooler :P

Chicago Bears
LOVE watching their defense play. Another reason is that everytime my brother mentions them he makes a slapstick reference to Conan O'Brien's "Masturbating Bear" character. And this may be one of the only teams I have the chance to see live as I have family in the Chicago area.

Philadelphia Eagles
After the loss of all the bandwagon jumpers this year, I think the Eagles will be back with a vengeance next year. They just need a bloody receiver who can get along with McNabb!

Oakland Raiders
I for some reason levitate towards the Penitentiary friendly teams. Be it the Portland Trail Blazers, Detroit Pistons, or Oakland A's. Plus, being from Scarborough, I have the "gangsta" in me to represent !

Cleveland Browns
Up and coming team that nearly NOBODY likes. And I AM brown, technically speaking, so it fits! Though at the same time, us brown people would never stand for being associated with a dog, so I'm iffy on this one.

Aii, that's it for now, going to Cederbrae to pick up the brother from his inkjet job. Stupid snow is going to make this one arduous task!

Thursday Groceries

...Just came back about an hour ago from groceries. Nothing special. Just picked up a little notebook from the dollar store. I plan on keeping it bedside to write down things when I'm too lazy to get up out of bed. I'm sure I'll have the oddest things to say!

Oh, and before I forget, I should clarify that I haven't made up my own language in my last post. The word "Howzat!" is a common expression in cricket. It's an abbreviated form of "How's that?" and is used by a bowler (i.e. the thrower) when he feels the batsman used his legs to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps (the three sticks behind him). Ok Ok, enough cricket talk. For today at least...

Howzat!!!

Hey yaars!

For those who have been patiently waiting for a new post, my bad. I've neglected writing anything for a bit, though I have a semi-decent reason. I've been up from 11 PM to around 6 AM for the past 4 days watching the cricket. And for once it came with a result!!!

As shown in the picture, Pakistan beat India by 341 runs in the 3rd Test to win the series 1-0. To make it easy to understand, it's the 2nd largest defeat India have ever had in their near 50 year cricketing history, and was done so in grand style! And I got to see it live!

You know you're hooked on a sport if you stay up all hours of the night to watch. You know you love it when you shout at 2 AM and wake up your brother. And you KNOW it's a big deal when even your mother wakes up early so she can watch a bit before work! Let's just say that today the Rathore household was in good spirits!

This doesn't just go on sporting lines either. Being Pakistan/India, there are cultural boundaries crossed. My mom tells me that there have been ongoing salvos between her Indo-Pak co-workers, and today the Indians refused to chat with the Pakistanis in fear of being teased.

One of the Indians who usually goes to work early was late yesterday, because he was caring for his sick wife. The Pakistani's response? "She must have watched the cricket, that's why she's ill!"

As I've said before, we treat this stuff seriously. Since the countries can't legitimately go to war, this is the next best thing. Thank goodness they're done the test (5-day) matches, and are on to the One Day matches, starting this Saturday night!

Not to paraphrase Hendrix or anything, but "Excuse me while I kiss the sky!"