BSNL Broadband modem drivers

The good part of BSNL Broadband modems is that they work well. The bad part is that the modem drivers are NOT available HUAWEI's website nor anywhere else, except of course with the CD-pack that comes with the modem. If you are one of those who tend to misplace your CDs more often than your keys, then this link is for you

Dataone modem drivers - Calcutta Telephones

They have all the drivers for all the types of modems BSNL has ever released for Broadband modems.

Email blog

Now that i did a direct mobile blog, am tempted to do an email blog.
And this is that. Sending it now, ...

Blog on the go

Too bored waiting for my people to complete shopping, just trying to kick off mobile clogging er ... Blogging. (damn this t9, doesnt have the word blog.)

Decency is the virtue of Idiots

I have seen people advice that good education turns you into a more social, sensible being. India, Chennai to be more specific, is one place where these sayings are put to the toss on a daily basis. The government has a cleanly built MRTS Railway Station right in front of Tidel Park with a nicely built walk-over bridge nearby. Today, many of all those "well educated" people (with a sick attitutude to the road rules and the general laws), both men and women were crossing the road , jumped the high and wide median, crossed the other 3 lanes of road with full oncoming traffic and reached tidel park/elnet so that they can continue their work culture under the pretext of decency.

These people look decent. Push them a teeny weeny bit, out comes the a$*-#*!# eagerly waiting in them. These attitudes are the ones which maketh for most of the traffic snarls and senselessness in our city. The police and the guides are trying their best to make this a nice city to live in. But, these S#*!!y mongrels are making sure that their job is not done that easily giving madras its (I HATE to use this word) trade mark life-style.

Everytime I see one of this beings, I really wish I had to magic power to do something painful to them. Like,when in a traffic signal and this "clever" f***-o## barges through every single vehicle to lick at the edge of the traffic-constable's patience, I'd love to make his tyre burst. After all, he is trying to move his way ahead of all "poor fear-covered beings" to show-off his "bravery" and talent; and what better way than to make sure he sinks into the s#*t hole of shame in front of all the "poor beings". Similarly, when I see a person reaches for the median, I'd love to pass 12KV supply in the median so that he/she is thrown off the road onto his starting point.

Oh, How I wish I had a magic wand now

Direct link to mp3 files through Google

Paste the following text into google search bar replacing the "artist/song" with either the name of the artist or the song title, but leave the quotes on. Hope this helps.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory”
 +description +size +(wma|mp3) “artist/song”

Mokkai Podathey

The cast read like this.
Movie : Satham Podathey
Director : Vasanth
Hero : Prithviraj
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja

So, here I was waiting for the show to begin. The theatre is almost full (mainly becos, there is a India-Pakistan Twenty20 Match going on right now). I must iterate here that I am a big fan of Yuvan, and so was expecting a good output in the background score.

The gist goes something like this; Nitin is such a seasoned drinker that he has become a "senior citizen" in his 20s. So, he shouldnt be getting married. But, driven by the "manly" powers, he cheats Navya's family into marrying him. And later, the family finds out. Divorce happens. By this time, major part of first half is over. Now, comes Prithviraj and they love and marry. But, the villain is not to be left alone. So, what happens forms the second part.

The moment the movie started with Nitin Sathya approaching the heroine's family and getting married to Padma Priya. The first 5 minutes were engrossing, but after that I wished I was home watching the match. I was not able to judge the winner of the "most painful feature" in the movie. The contestants were the cinematography, screenplay and choreography.

I couldnt decipher the idea of projecting prithviraj as the hero of the movie. The director could have as well put him in the "guest performance" role and put Nitin as the hero/anti-hero. I heard Padma Priya got dehydrated most of the days during shooting becos of the amount of crying and shouting she had to do. Anyways, the one point I wanted to enjoy was the background score. It was awful. The score was ok. But, coupled with the horrific screenplay, it rarely matched the on-screen proceedings. I think yuvan must have had simliar pains when he saw the movie for background score.

The only hightlight of the movie was the audience. We had a good percentage of young guys in the cinema hall. Their comments and feedback over the course of the movie was what pulled us through till the end. I however started having a headache as soon as the second half started, and my wife and I had to rush out at the fag end of the movie to save our lives. Choreography was done in such a way that even prabhu deva would have looked like a bad dancer.

This movie taught me a lesson NOT to go to a movie just based on technicians' skillset. And for giving such a good lesson, I give it ONE star.

Pitch Perfect

Just enjoy it. I have no words to describe.

Eagles Vs Plaza

I took a diversion from the already diverted route from Old Mahabalipuram Road to go to my home. While passing through the backyard of perungudi, the normally darkness covered government compound was buzzing with high voltage flood lights. More out of curiosity than interest, I went in. A cricket tournament in full flood lights was going on. It was a match between "Plaza" and the "Eagles" team. I got these names from a local commentator struggling to give a pure tamil commentary. Each team had their own t-shirts, one team in red and the other in blue.

Six separate teakwood flood light stands with about 15 flood light in each surrounded the ground. A stage, a stage audience (!!!) a generator to feed the lights, a commentator to feed the 99% youth audience with the details of the match. It was a tennis ball match. I was expecting to see more fireworks from the batsmen. But, apart from the fireworks from the commentator's mouth, the game was pretty decent. Batsmen were placing the ball better than some of our international stars. Local ballooning did happen from time to time with two of them ending up in fielders' hands. At the time of my leaving, the batting team had scored around 20 runs in 4 overs for the loss of 3 wickets.

The crowd mostly consisted of guys supporting their team. Some even had the team's shirt on. While crossing some of the guys, the smell of liquor flavoured the place. In all, the whole place was lit like one giant fair. I was able to see the lights in the sky from my home.

World cup winners or not, cricket fever hasn't yet slowed down in our country.

Has modernization spoilt Indian culture

This was an article I wrote for an article competition in our office.

---

I once heard a definition of Change. It went thus: "A change is something which we hoped not to happen." And when it eventually happens, it can have one of the two effects. It can either be accepted by the majority and renamed as "Growth" or opposed by the majority and termed ... well, some people are good at feeding the hungry negatives like "social evil", "anti-human","anti-social", etc. English language dwells on such creativity.

Modernization is one such "change" happening right now in our country. Its not that "modernization" hasn't been happening, its just that its happening at a faster rate now. This "Change" has been termed as "growth" by some, "westernization" by some, "anti-Indian" by some, and what not. This "change" has impregnated our day to day life. But, how do we view it? How do we feel it? How do we accept it?

If modernization includes changes in the way the younger generation approaches the educational learning cycle, it is "Growth". We see kids nowadays with a higher IQ than the current generation of youth during their time. It is "Growth".

If modernization includes changes in the way people communicate, it is "Growth". Wherever your dad is in the world, he has become reachable right inside your mobile. The other end of the sword here is the loss of one's privacy. Mobiles and telephones are for the phone user's convenience, and not for the caller's convenience. But, this concept doesn't seem to have reached the Indian people. Whatever the situation you are, be it at the temple offering prayers or at office attending a meeting, when a phone rings, people go for it. The people who have graced the "modernized" mobile phones did not grace the concept of proper "phone sense". Is this OK?

If modernization includes changes in the way people see marriage, it is "anti-Indian". Indian style of life has seen marriage as the single binding force to close-knit families. With the "modernization" seeping in (rather pouring in), we see more divorces and more "live-in" relationships. Is this good? From the context of Indian culture - A big NO. Families have moved apart from each other. A feel of "togetherness" normally seen in our families is becoming more of a movie scene. But, this sword of "change" has its other end too. It has shown independence to people, the power of choosing the person to live and love. The power to "Choose". Is this good?

IF modernization includes the spread of the "web", it is "modernization" literally. Any information you need is in front of you within a few clicks. The spread of knowledge and information has reached speeds synonymous to the speed of sound. A gun shot in Iowa is heard by an Indian in Andaman in a matter of few minutes. Sports actions reach people in seconds. Businesses are being handled entirely through the "web". The world has shrunk into a 17 inch monitor. But, what does the "web"-coin's other face look like? Human interaction has come down. Students were so drugged with the web that the management of a particular institution had to restrict use of Internet inside their campus because of poor inter-personal communication. People have more friends "online" than in the real world. The world of "friendships" is seen more through e-cards and forwards than in face-to-face chats and sharing. Is this "acceptable"?

If modernization includes the financial state of people, it is "social change". More and more people are able to buy their own house, have their own cars, go more "site-seeing" trips, take the airlines more. With the growth in the power to spend, the variety in the ways to spend has also increased. People have more choices. The idlis and dosais are now competing with food ranges from the dish of the "Continental" to the "Kentucky friend specials", from "Szechwan" style to the "pasta" dishes. The once monopoly of "Maruti" has given way to the Fords, Hondas, Fiats and Opels. The other side of this sword is the increase in the amount of health issues. More and more people have diseases not known a few decades ago. Diseases occurring only to old age people have shifted ages to more younger age groups. Air pollution has increased to alarming proportions. With lackadaisical government policies in respect to the environment, this is already having its effect on the country and its people. How "good" is this?

I leave the decision to the reader.

Japanese kids dancing for Gilli Song

Must say they did a very VERY good job in choreography. I have seen many live programs, but what puts this apart is the varitey and the originality in steps, and the liveliness given the dancers (espcially the main dancer). Kudos to all of them

FIR - Chennai 600 028 - Movie Songs

I am a big fan of Yuvan Shanker Raja. Mainly because of his success although he is not as proficient in the techicalities of western music as his father or his brother. He has come to define the taste and the style of the current generation of youth and music.

A total youth force has come into the team of Chennai 600028. And Yuvan Shanker Raja has done it again here. He has lived upto his reputation of ringing in peppy numbers. With generously interspersed rap-style interludes, most of the song are bound to reach the Nxt-Gen.

Am taking the order of songs listed in the movie's website.

Ulle Vaa - A Hip-hop beat, a rap kick-off and yuvan's voice. Do you need anything more to give a dance song? Instead of musical interludes, a Yogi-B style tamil rap fills the song.


Un Parvaimele - Sung by Vijay Yesudas. Its a bit hard to term this song as a melody, what with the rhythm section making the otherwise melodious tune a funky one. Vijay Yesudas' voice loses its distinctiveness in this song, mainly because of the pitch of the song (pitch compared to vijay's default voice scale). Another good song.

Yaaro (love) - SPB , Chitra. The voice pair which once ruled the tamil industry with innumerable hits come together for this melody tune, again with a peppy beat, though not as peppy as the previous song.

Vazhkaiye yosingada - Ranjith, Tippu, Premji Amaran, Haricharan, Karthik. A fun song with again a peppy rhythm with the harmonium (or is it an accordion) piece the highlight. I guess this to be a song sung by friends.

Oh Oh Ennamo - Sung by anushka, the only song without peppy rhythm. This comes in the category of "vaseegara", "Onra Renda" type of songs. Anushka's voice kneads the lyrics nicely to give the desired "hot" effect. I dont know if this will reach the tamil mass as "vaseegara" or "onra renda" due to its westernized feel. Definitely NOT a "family" song ;-)

Natpukulle - YSR. A full blown YSR song. Lyrics, orchestration and sung by YSR. A typical music director song. A pure melody and like a jingle, the song closes before it ends.

Here, I have to tell; all the songs composed and sung by music directors are ALWAYS a super hit. And most of these songs almost always rely on guitars to enhance the beauty of the song. Here are some of the examples.
ARR - Mustafa in Kadhal Desam, Vellai Pookal in Kannathil Muthamittal, New York in Sillunu Oru Kadhal, etc etc
YSR - Oru Naalil in Pudhupettai, Yeno Kangal in Kalvanyn Kadhali, Kannai vittu in Pattiyal, Yen Kannodu in Arinthum Ariyamalum, etc, etc.
Jassie Gift - Lajjavathiye in 4 students
Baradwaj - Roja Kootam in Roja Kootam

Vazhkaiye yosingada (remix) - As of the original was a melody, this had to be done. Nowadays, remix songs are being done for the sake of remixing. With a heavier rhythm and more synth sound to fill the background, there is nothing more special to update on this song other than being a pub song.

Yaaro (friendship) - This version of the song fares far better than the SPB, chitra starrer, with a more pumpy rhythm and a good tune. Till I see the movie, am going to maintain that YSR just lost interest to compose a new tune for the movie and stuck to the other tune. Atleast he used his own compositions rather than using the xerox machine.


Saroja Saman Nikalo - THE audience song. Its "adra adra adra adra" right from the start. A nice mix of raw tamil rhythm and heavy rock instrumentation. I dont whats with the voice of Shanker Mahadevan, but it just blends into the song and adds to the tempo nicely.

In all, a definite success among youth anywhere. Hats off to YSR.

Joe

Laughing Baby

Via: Video Blog

Sillunu Oru Movie

I'd really love a home-theatre room full with a 20K Lumin projector and a 7.1 surround effect in my house. Given the rates at which these stuff come nowadays, and to avoid getting murdered by my wife (for just thinking of it), I am contented with a 1000 sq. ft entry in the CMDA to my credit. Now, comes the good part. Coupled with the 250 odd houses in our community is an open air theatre which saw the light of a film projector on 4th Feb, 2007.

The TVH Builders management decided to host an evening party along with screening of a tamil movie. They decided on "Sillunu Oru Kadhal" with Jyothika and Surya in their last movie as lovers in real life before they tied the knot in what was seen as a much awaited and talked about wedding attended by almost all cine personalities including the CM/ex-CM of tamil nadu.

Coming to the matter at hand, the screening was scheduled at 1800 hours. True to the "fresh" culture of TVH Park Villa, many of the residents started gathering at the open air theatre at around 1800 hours and kinda completed gathering by around 1830 hours. Now, it so happened that the audience was ready for the movie, but the projecter wasnt. It decided to be snobbish about running with 25 high pitched power packed kids around it.

After fixing the technical snob with the projector, the movie finally started by 1900 hours. Since, I had seen that movie enough number of times to actually recite the scenes and dialogues, I went in a bit late. The management had arranged for good speakers, and in spite of the open air system, the sound quality was better than the drive-in theatres around the city. I saw some "balcony" seat viewers from the neighboring houses. Lucky for them, they get to see free movies for which we need to pay.

The food arranged was a buffet system and had both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, although only 2 dishes were there to support the non-veg team. Arranged from good caterers, the quality of the food was decent and enjoyable. The whole community had a gala mood that evening. The movie ended at exactly 2200 hours. Most of the crowd had stayed on despite the cold climate to complete the reels before returning home. All in all, a good evening. I wish this community feeling goes longer than I hope it will.

Pay and buy mp3

In another step to be a "honest" music lover, I decided to purchase songs online and use them, rather than scrapping around the net for hours (sometimes days) for a dismal 64kbps audio dump.

http://gomusic.ru is a russian site for pay and download english songs in mp3 format.

It works out something like this. You first deposit some money into your "account" in the website (using your credit card). Now, you have money in your "wallet". Most songs cost between $0.10 to $0.15. If purchased as a full album, then you get a 10% discount.

I was very skeptical about the usage of credit cards, as the internet-word was that most russian sites were fraudulant and misuse the credit card details submitted online. But, so far nothing untoward dip in balance has happened to the credit card. I initially deposited $20 to my wallet, in may last year (2006). So far, I am able to download all songs, the account is properly getting debited and my credit card is safe.

You get most songs in 192kbps bit rate and the download speed is pretty good (approx 70kbps). One thing though is that you cannot use any download accelerator with the site (with that speed, it shouldnt be much of an issue).

But, if you still feel that I can live with a ripped-off 64kbps stuff, check out this link for a step-by-step tutorial to becoming a unassuming heartless brain-challenged nitwit. (hehehehahaha...)

About their wives - as said by people

I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry.That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
-David Bissonette

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.
-Sacha Guitry

After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.
-Hemant Joshi

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
-Socrates

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.
-Dumas

The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What does a woman want?
-Sigmund Freud

I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.
-Anonymous

"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."
-Henny Youngman

"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years."
-Sam Kinison

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage."
-James Holt McGavran

"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me, and the second one didn't."
-Patrick Murray

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
-Nash

The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once...
-Anonymous

You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.
-Henny Youngman

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
-Rodney Dangerfield

A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
-Milton Berle

Contrary Proverbs

All good things come to those who wait. BUT Time and tide wait for no man.

The pen is mightier than the sword. BUT Actions speak louder than words.

Wise men think alike. BUT Fools seldom differ. The best things in life are free . BUT There's no such thing as a free lunch .

Slow and steady wins the race . BUT Time waits for no man .

Look before you leap . BUT Strike while the iron is hot .

Do it well, or not at all. BUT Half a loaf is better than none.

Birds of a feather flock together. BUT Opposites attract.

Don't cross your bridges before you come to them. BUT Forewarned is forearmed.

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. BUT Faith will move mountains.

Great starts make great finishes. BUT It ain't over 'till it's over.

Practice makes perfect. BUT All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Silence is golden. BUT The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

You're never too old to learn. BUT You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. BUT One man's meat is another man's poison.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. BUT Out of sight, out of mind.

Too many cooks spoil the broth. BUT Many hands make light work.

Hold fast to the words of your ancestors. BUT Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.

The land of Sand

On sep 7, the land of sand was overcast by around 4 PM by ... what else.. sand. Heard from people here that this was a "softer" version, more like a breeze (if u want an anology, and am damn-good bad in that) See it for yourself.

Now, this is a view from the balcony of my house, on a normal day.


This was how it looked on the day of the sand-breeze.

Shift+Delete Software Engineer

Its been quite sometime since I last blogged. It was a long transition period for me, with my brother's marraige and then the much awaited resignation drama from my last software company. In fact, when many of my friends were resigning and moving out of the company, I used to think how I have to go about this job. I have had long "teetee-hours" thinking of how to present my resignation to my project manager/HR without spoiling anything, if and when that time comes.

And the time did come. It was May 23, 2006. And with all the build-up, its natural to expect a gem of a presentation, so much so that my project manager would have personally taken care to see me off till the main gate. Nope. It was a major screw-up. Infact, you can use this as a good sample for "how NOT to give a resignation speech".

On the D-day, I come to office a little early (by around 9 itself). A swarm of butterflies were making a visit to my stomach. I still couldnt figure out why they came at that time. Poor guys, so many of them, so little space (hey, seriously, the crowd was big). In fact, they were not going to fire me, I am quitting. It really takes a skill to make a mountain of a mole and I was having a high percentage of success right at that time. I dont know if others go through a similar routine, but since this technically was my first proper resignation, it was kind of eerie to go through that process. (the other resignation needs another blog).

I didnt want to give it as the first news of the day to my project manager, and so, waited it out till 1030 AM. And did it seem like a long time. I've heard people say that, when waiting for your lover, every minute will seem like 1 hour. Now, in this case, I was waiting for 1030 to come. So...????????

At exactly O-1-3-0 hours, I took my notepad, my visa which had come (now, here I need to tell that some people before told that they were going to some other job when actually they entered some of the competitor companies. So, I took my visa as proof of my honesty and validity ). It went something like this;


Me : Dear San (named changed on purpose - ha.. how i wanted to use this phrase), I ... well... because of some personal reasons, and.. you know.. health reasons.. I .. I ... have decided to .. move out of SCM.

San : I expected this for quite sometime now. I could see this from your performance in the last few months. (to be honest, in my 4 years of work, to my personal observation, I was actually performing better in terms of delivery schedule only during the last few months. man, now I am getting the creeps on the definition of "On-time" delivery).

Me : I otherwise have no problem in the working environment or the company.

San : I cannot accept the "health reason" as a reason for you for quitting.

Me : I am not making things up here, and I have the visa to show that I am really going to the gulf.

San : You should have told about this earlier (like how, San, I may or may not go to the gulf in about a month or two or whatever time the visa comes, so, I may or may not resign from the company, so please plan accordingly. That would sound like the weather report, isnt it. I still am trying to understand what prompted him to ask THAT question to me. )

Me : Since the visa validity is only till end june, I need to go before that. Please relieve me by that time.

San : Let me see. Send a mail to me and HR.

Me : Thanks San.

Let me be honest here. I had to edit the above dialogue so much so that the whole conversation is twisted to the extent of the appearance of a better conversation. When I came out of the cubicle, I started breathing better. It was like thriller movie to me.

Then, things went from one to another and it was the last day of my life as a software engineer. So many tatas, so many "keep in touch" words, mails; although I was and am not that good/effective in keeping in touch with my collegues at SCM. It all was sentimental. I must say this company was more like my second home where I was so comfortable working, what with a whole cubicle to myself and 8 computers (including two Mac systems) to work with, you cudnt ask for a better work life. But, life had planned something else for me. I take this opportunity to thank all my friends and collegues for being there for me at all times. It was wonderful working with you people.

I am copy-pasting my byebye mail I sent to all my collegues.


I wanted to write a totally different "Bye bye" mail to you all, but the moment I started thinking (oops.. not thinking... its just... ..mmmm.. a.a.a...... ahem..). well anyway, when I started doing that, my eyes darkened, my heart pulse rate started increasing, the adrenalin started rushing, my brain started sending all the alarm signals.... and it ended just like what I am writing now.

I wanted to write about all the good times I had in SCM, about all the wonderful people I met and worked with here, about all those "thrilling" TTP sessions, those "heart rendering" driver releases and the immediate "congratulatory" bugs, which luckily ended up on the better side of me.. (or is it the only side SCM has??? mmm...), but didnt know how to put it down properly. Then there were the weekly meetings, the monthly salary deposit mails, those quarterly bonus payments, the yearly appraisals, those project reviews, the CFO/CEO/COO announcement sessions, the daily pantry sessions, the war against food poisoning (yup... its food court food alright ), those traffic diversions, the friends' meet.... etc...etc... so much to be happy about, not that much talent to put it in words.

So, then I decided to apologize for any or all of the actions that had hurt anyone during my life in SCM. But then, people in SCM are "choooo chuweeet" they would have forgiven me that very moment. I dint want to hurt anybody's feeling by sending an apology mail. So, I trashed that mail also.

OK,

What do I write now?

mmmm.......

Here's a try:

----------------------------
Dear All,

Today is my last day with SCM professionally. I am moving to the middle east to take up business with bin laden, dawood ibrahim, ... well u name it, i have it (he he cudnt resist the nag). On a funnier note, I am taking up business as my career. I want to thank you all for helping, guiding and supporting me to throughout my life in SCM. My apologies if I had hurt
anyone by my actions or words.

Thank you very much.

I shall be mailing you from ajosephantony at yahoo.co.in or gmail.com,

Now that needs your mail IDs... so, please do drop them in.

Thanks and Regards,
Joseph Antony, A
-----------------------------

How was it? Good? OK? However it was, thats me ;-)

To all my friends (aka collegues)

Thanks a lot for everything.

Wishing you the best in life.

Joseph Antony A.

Complications of English

A nice forward. Cudnt get a better place to store it.. ;-)

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.


2) The farm was used to produce produce.


3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.


4) We must polish the Polish furniture.


5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row .

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a strange language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in

which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"


You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we

awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened

UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. I f you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP .

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........... it is time to shut UP.....!

To Nerd or not to Nerd

Am a Cool guy.... ;-)




Computer Geek? Am I? Naah...