Swept for Six!

Hey yaars,

It's been a busy few days stuffing envelopes, but thankfully that ended today. The above video just made me chuckle after a long day and I thought y'all would like it too. Tim Hardaway, ya better watch yourself!

After months of waiting, I'm finally officially an intern at the group development department of the Jays. It took a while to get everything sorted, but I signed the papers today and start wednesday. From what I understand, my role will be less gopher and more of a co-ordinating assistant, which sounds great. I'm really looking forward to this, though I will miss not wearing jerseys to work :P

Dinner tonight was some food at the Pickle Barrel. All I'll say is that their BBQ chicken is dee-lish. So are their milkshakes (all 36 ounces of them!). Which is why I'm a bit sleepy and bloated, and going to take a nap as the "itis" kicks in. Talk to y'all l8er

Stuck at home

Hey yaars,

At the moment I'm a bit occupied at home, tending to my ailing mother. You see, thanks to the great hygiene of her co-workers, she's managed to obtain that stomach flu everyone's getting these days. And after laboriously taking her to the doctor's (it took a while to convince her to go), we got her some meds and she's in bed attempting to re-cuperate.

This morning I finally received the Threadless t-shirt I've been hunting for the past few weeks. If I haven't mentioned it already, the shirt's called The Communist Party and has this print on it...



I hope some of you see the humour in the image and when I don the shirt in public.

So here's my conundrum of the day : Methinks lil' brother is up to some hijinks that are unimaginable to me. Yes, I think he's pursuing a female or two. I do have some accurate evidence, but to top it off, he went to the movies today. Which normally isn't a big deal, except when I saw him dressed in a collared shirt and argyle sweater! This ain't no night with the guys, and I'm certain of that! Which leaves me thinking whether to scold him for being inappropriate (long story), or to leave him alone. Though to be honest, I think leaving him alone his led to this predicament!

Alright peeps, I'm off to go and get some soup from Tim Horton's for Mom. Though I still find it stupid to pay full price for broth (she doesn't want the chicken or noodles).

L8er y'all!

More Car repairs...

Hey yaars,

If the cold freeze of last week wasn't bad enough, upon getting to my parked car last week I discovered that my windshield wipers didn't work. And after a few days of driving real real slow, I managed to get it down to my friendly Saturn dealership (they know me on a first-name basis at this point).

After the $1200 debacle last month, I must admit I had my skepticism heading in. I came out mildly surprised, as they didn't surprise me with another whopper and said the only problem was a blown fuse, stemming from me trying a few times to get the wipers to work.

Now it isn't a Naveed story if I'm not dinged just a bit. They asked whether I had experienced grinding problems with my car whilst turning, which I still did a bit. Evidently the steering fluid needed to be replaced. So of course, $175 later, things look good.

As I've said before, it may sound like a lot, but it's not so bad as long as my car doesn't have too many problems (*touch wood* it hasn't so far*). Still though, it's not a pleasant sight to see your bank account decrease that much more. And yes, I STILL haven't gotten the money for the door lock repairs from my ma...

I guess I'll just have to amuse myself this evening enjoying the best primetime weeknight. Prison Break/Heroes/24 - an amazing monday combination.

Vegas Baby, Vegas.

Hey yaars,

No, I'm not going hedonistic on you all and heading to Sin City. Just another tedious usual sporting blog post. The NBA all-star weekend is in full swing, and tonight is the skills competition, something my family looks forward to each year. I can recall watching as far back as '96 when Brent Barry won the Slam Dunk competition with his lame Jordan homage. And if you're a fan, how could you forget Vince in 2000? For me, the most unheralded win was Josh Smith's back in 2005. J-Smoove pulled things out of his arse to win. And you gotta respect him wearing the Dominique throwback for the final dunk.

This year? I'm thinking Gerald Green to win. I haven't seen enough of him, but it's basically by process of elimination. Nate Robinson can't possibly do anything new, so his midget extraordinaire gimmick is done. Tyrus Thomas opened his mouth way too much so don't expect anything from him. And Dwight Howard is a big guy - big guys (relatively speaking since they're all huge!) never win this competition.

As for the three-point competition, I'll listen to my brother and say Dirk Nowitzki. Though I will say I'm going against my better sense of judgement.

If you have nothing to do, turn on TSN and watch some acrobatics! It's the NBA, and it's FAN-tastic! (yeah I know, So So lame!)

Zzzzz...

Hey yaars,

Day 3 of the 2007 work year has officially kicked my ass. I'm actually pondering going to bed, at 10 PM! Something is most definitely wrong.

Work was tiresome today. I'm basically a one-man assembly line at the moment, repeating the following :

a) put letter into folder
b) put folder into rogers envelope
c) put envelope into larger FedEx envelope
d) seal envelope and attach FedEx label

Out of the 1500+ needed to be done by tomorrow, I'm only about 300 done after a few hours of work (around 3). I'm already beginning to hate the smell of glossy paper. Then again, I'm sure it'll all be better once the dollar dollar bills start rolling in.

Today was also the second consecutive day where I've managed to have some McDonald's, while standing on a rush hour packed subway trains for about an hour. Not the most enjoyable meal I assure you, but it kept me from passing out!

I'll try and be a bit more humorous tomorrow, but in the meantime, I'm going to get some shut-eye. G'night!

Knackered...

Hey yaars,

Just completed my second day of work in 2007 and I'll tell you what : I iz tired.

I'm not sure if it was the cold weather I had to endure, or the repetitive tasks to do (not that I'm complaining!), or perhaps the lack of 'match fitness', after day two, I can already start to see my nightcrawling ways go out the door. Which I guess is a good thing
Here's another funny vid I found that I'm sure will amuse. The idea of a tough-as-nails drill sergeant trying to train a "fabulous" bunch of recruits is too funny. And yes, I did find out that this program did exist



I'm still laughing after watching this at least 20 times :P

Window in the Skies

Hey yaars,

Huzzah! I actually start working again tomorrow, albeit in the excitable capacity of envelope stuffing. I'm sure I'll find a way to make it entertaining nonetheless, cuz I miss the ol' Cable Box.

The sad part? The sight of your boy waking up at 7 - in the morning! I only have a 10% chance of getting a full night's sleep. I can't help it if my computer keeps me awake (if I haven't mentioned already, I'm loving it). Of course, with Rogers "traffic shaping" again, it's becoming more difficult to get blazing speeds on my d/l's. While it's still decent, speeds are about at a third of what they were. What pisses me off are the leechers who download all day and night at 700 k/s + - those bastards ruined it for all of us!

Watched the season 2 debut of Koffee with Karan, which is a chat show hosted by a famed Indian film director. Each week he brings out Bollywood's finest and tonight had three big hitters in Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, and Kajol. It was ok, if only to hear Karan re-iterate that he in fact, is NOT a "queen" (his words, not mine!).

I think I'm annoying the hell out of my brother by listening to U2's greatest hits album over and over again. Sunday, Bloody Sunday couldn't be more fitting for him at the moment.

Anyhow, I'm off to watch some Smallville before attempting to crash. I'll be back to report more on my tedious life with the odd joke tomorrow. Until then my friends, l8er!

Hammer Time

I'm sure by now you've all seen the K-Fed Nationwide super bowl ad, here's MC Hammer's equivalent. I feel kinda bad that Hammer actually had to go through reprising his ridiculous parachute pants and haircut for such an embarrassing ad. Then again, he probably got paid big time, and it sure as hell made me laugh.

Things have been very dreary in the Rathore household at the moment. Notwithstanding the terrible weather, my brother has a terrible cold which he's managed to transfer now to my mother. And while I've tried my hardest to stay away, I feel my brother is trying to infect me. In fact I know it. You would too if you woke up at 1:00 AM to discover he's been in your room, on your computer, chatting on MSN for the past 4 hours. I'm beginning to think he's never going to take my old computer.

With all my spare time I've managed to read a few good books recently. I haven't kept track on the blog of my readings, but from what I can remember I've read the following over the past little whilte : Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, Crime & Punishment, Wuthering Heights, Have a Nice Day!, and Of Mice and Men. Last night I just polished of Terrell Owen's autobiography, and surprisingly found it somewhat interesting. Maybe lowered expectations helped. As for the other books, they were definitely all entertaining, with Doestoevsky's Crime and Punishment being my favourite. If you ever think you're suffering from depression, I strongly recommend you read this to realize that there are other people with WAY worse problems!

That's it for now, and I guess since I'm up so early, I'll try and catch some of Pakistan/South Africa live from Port Elizabeth. The best-of-5 is tied at 1 apiece, so I'm hoping our boys can pull it through. L8er y'all!

P.S. - For my critiquing buddy, Pepsi has been in the Pakistani market for over 50 years whereas Pepsi hadn't made it into the Indian marketplace until 1988. So while their new CEO is Indian, they seem to have favoured the neighbour for quite sometime. (In reality, they pretty much throw money at any cricket team in the subcontinent, I'm just continuing this with Mr. Monkey :P

Not Knowing Why

Hey yaars,

While wasting the time away on youtube, I managed to discover this little gem above. It's a video by the Pakistani band Strings , which was featured on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack's Asia release. Zan and I immediately chuckled at the sight of a guitarist playing whilst suspended on a wall, then we remembered that Sum 41 did the same thing for their track in the original film's soundtrack.

Yesterday I managed to be co-erced into getting my hair trimmed. I could've waited a few weeks for the full thickness to come out, but subsided and went to our African barber to sort things out (I'm still not sure which country she's from, I'm guessing Nigeria or Kenya). The shite part was afterwards when I was without the warmth of extra locks to keep me semi-warm outside.

Thanks to the new computer I've been watching a lot of Degrassi : The Next Generation and I must say that I'm dorkily hooked. I've been told about the show by many, though never really watched back in the day as I had more cheery alternatives (i.e. Saved by the Bell and 90210). I've finished watching season 5, and am set for season 6. If you haven't already noticed, I'm still in love with my new computer and yes, I do pet it before going to bed.

That's what I gots to say for the time being, until I find something amusing, stay classy...

Office 2007

Hey yaars,

Just finished installing Office 2007 on my computer, and am quite impressed. I thought I would be able to get by on Office 2000, then changed my mind when I viewed the trial version of Office 2003 that came with my Dell. Of course, it then dawned on me that if I was going to upgrade, I should cowboy up and go all the way. Hopefully I haven't made a horrible mistake!

(And yes, I did manage to use my techno-savvy to get my copy :P)

Is this man invading your life?

Seriously, is it just me or is Akon everywhere these days?

If he isn't in high rotation on Muchmusic, his music is blasting on any and every radio station in the city. Be it 5 minutes or 50, not a drive goes by where I don't hear his voice in a song. I've even flipped stations to avoid hearing the same songs of his, only to hear him on other stations!

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he'd be 680 News.

I guess he's in fashion right now, much like many artists who have come and gone. But do we really have to hear about his opinions on blood diamonds and oil?

I could rant and rave a bit more on this, but I should be thankful. At least we've all managed to avoid Shawn Desman for the past few months.

(Note - the last time I said that, he dropped a new single weeks later. Ask Zan, he still laughs at the mention of S.D.)

Brrrrr.

It's Muthaf***in' Freezing.

I know I know, we had this coming after such a great beginning of winter. It's still depressing to have to endure wearing layer after layer to go and get some milk. And not so fun trying to get your mom out of her stuck winter coat (due to her 4 layers of sweaters squished underneath).

Right now I've been trying to avoid my brother as much as possible to protect myself from catching his fever. Mind you, it's kind of hard when he refuses to take the old computer and sits in MY room on MY computer for 4 hours chatting and writing facebook notes!

I'm listening to Prime Time Sports and just heard that the Super Bowl was the SECOND highest rated program in Canada this week. They lost to CSI?!? Ridicul-ass, absolutely ridicul-ass.

Here's to hoping that things warm up a tad before we all turn into icicles. In the meantime, I'm going to ponder the merits of immediately installing Windows Vista, or waiting for the first complaints to come in.

Congrats Colts

Hey yaars,

I just got back from a Super Bowl party, and am a bit saddened to see the Bears lose. I was really looking forward to going to Chicago in search of Super Bowl Champions gear. It's all good though, they played well this year and lost today to the better team.

It hurts me to say that I actually give props to the Colts team for winning. They played well all game and I feel glad for Tony Dungy, who finally gets a championship under his belt after so many years of excellence. As for Peyton, just because he's a champ doesn't mean I have to like him!

And no Jamie, there will not be a repeat!

P.S. For a certain Monkeypawer who quipped about Slazenger - The brand actually outsources it's logo to companies (kinda like franchising it). In Asia it's run by Pacific Brands, who are led by an Australian, not an Indian. It would almost be sacreligious for the Pakistan team to wear shirts even remotely connected to their rivaling neighbour.

So Here We Are...

It's Super Bowl Time!

Things are a bit different this time around. While last year consisted of me flip-flopping and finally finding a team in the Pittsburgh Steelers, this year I was steadfastly trying to discover an NFC team to cheer for. And while I alternated allegiances between the Giants, Saints, and 49ers (depending on who I was betting on), I've been strong in my support of the Bears. Now I can hear the collective moan y'all are producing, but fear not, I'm still Steeler Gold. I just like the Bears on the side :P (my football mistress in a way).

So it goes without saying that I'm rooting for Da Bears to win (as I have all year in the points spread pool). That, and I can't stand the Colts (unlike my red-haired friend, who's adopted them as his AFC team). If I see Peyton Manning on one more goddamn ad, I just might smash my TV!

At the same time I have massive respect for Tony Dungy. He built the defence in Tampa that won a Super Bowl the year after he went to Indy, and he seems like a stand up guy. Oh, and he only has ONE commercial which is actually funny!

The spread has the Colts favoured by 7, which even for the most neutral seems a bit large for the Super Bowl. Which is why I'd take the Bears to cover, but then again I'm as good as the next person when it comes to point spread!

Here's to hoping that whenever I get to Chicago (hopefully in the next 8 weeks), I'll be shopping for some cool Bears merch. (I can't get myself to call them Champs in fear of jinxing them).

World Cup, here we come!

So THAT's how Pakistan's shirt is going to look like for the World Cup, which is slated to begin in about 6 weeks time. It's made by Slazenger, whom most of us remember as the not-so-cool converse to Puma. Conspicuous by it's subtle placement is the obligatory Pepsi logo (it's on the right sleeve, as opposed to being emblazoned on the front). And while I'm happy to see that we've finally gotten a somewhat multi-national corporation making our shirts, I'm not sure what to think of this version of the famed green-shirt.

While I'm not a big fan of the black and yellow piping, I have the strange feeling I'm going to find myself ordering a shirt to add to my collection. For those interested - which I know is probably nobody - right now I have about 4 Pakistan shirt:

-1997 50th anniversary Golden Jubilee tournament shirt
(Mom brought it from Pakistan)

-1999 World Cup shirt
(I still can't wear it when I think of how they were embarrassed in the final)

-2005-2006 training shirt

-Traditional white Test shirt

Now all I need is for the team to win a World Cup that I can actually enjoy, and not like in '92 when I couldn't distinguish an LBW from a googly (I challenge any of you to figure that one out!).

My Bootleg Review

Hey yaars,

As some of you may remember, I first heard of Bloc Party while watching the World Cup final. At the end of the broadcast they had a montage of the best moments of the tournment blended with "So Here We Are". I only found out they were the artists when I heard the same song featured in an advertisement for Saturn automobiles. Since then, I've been hooked.

I've waited in anticipation for the sophmore release. And I tried very hard to not go for a bad bootleg download and wait for a high quality rip. I caved only days before it's release (Feb. 6).

While I do like the album, it just doesn't possess the same soul that Silent Alarm had. While still very enjoyable and recommended, like every sequel it leaves something to be desired. Of course if you said that to Zan he'd think you were loony.

Confucious says...

"When anger rises, think of the consequences."

Grrrrr!

So for some reason or another I'm having problems loading my own blog on my computer. I keep getting some error page from blogger and at first thought this was a blogger-wide issue. And you can imagine my chagrin when ALL my friends' blogger pages loaded smoothly!

Maybe it's one of those UK racists ticked at me mentioning Celebrity Big Brother :P