Panda sneezes...

I know that pandas only "look" cute and are infact wild beasts like any other species of bears... but still... there is no denying the fact that this is totally adorable and mildly hilarious...hehe! :)

Think before you send!

After getting all those tons of emails which warned me about how my Orkut account or my YahooMail ID was just about to be canceled, or how I would be visited by the wrath of God if I didn't forward some Scandinavian child's plea for a gonad, I figured that this is most certainly an apt thing to put up on my blog. :)

From the guys who wrote the well-publicized book "The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You", here's a short article that outlines 7 websites where you can quickly (trust me, it takes only 5 minutes!) check out the veracity of your email's contents before you send it out to every single living person whose email ID you happen to possess.

Enjoy, and hopefully, once the word gets around, I will never hear of another email which wants me to spam 10 of my friends to fulfill every wish I every dreamed...:)

--

General Scams and Hoaxes

www.snopes.com – “Snopes” focuses on email hoaxes. You can read carefully researched analyses of just about any popular email message floating around the web. Urban legends, political myths, folklore, and plain old misinformation are carefully taken to task by the Snopes.com team. Snopes is a grass roots effort by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson that is supported by some advertising revenue.

www.about.com – A commercial “portal” which features a search engine and a number of general channels like religion and business. Good, solid well-researched information. About.com also has a helpful urban legends and folklore section. Just go to About.com and search for ‘urban legends’. It’s a good alternative to Snopes.

www.truthorfiction.com – Internet users can quickly and easily get information about eRumors, warnings, offers, requests for help, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and humorous or inspirational stories that are circulated by email.

Healthcare Info

www.medlineplus.gov – A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. Pre-formulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and give easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news. Before you buy into the latest healthcare fad, experimental surgery, herbal miracle cure, or drug company claim – take a moment to surf this non-commercial government site.

www.webmd.com – Provides a very contemporary and comprehensive commercial site on health issues that is supported by sponsor revenues. The sponsors are unobtrusive and are listed as links at the bottom of the page. The information appears to be well-researched by medical professionals but keep in mind that you check with your doctor before making any major changes to your healthcare regimen.

Political Fact and Fiction

Note: Some political fact checking sites can have a political orientation. We recommend reading several of them to get a broader bi-partisan view of politics.

www.factcheck.org – This site claims to be a non-partisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. They monitor “TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.” They strive to provide an ethically and politically balanced view of the political world.

www.cjrdaily.org – According to their website, CJR Daily is a real-time critique of journalism and a continuing discussion and analysis of where journalism is as a craft and a business, and where it's going. Operating under the auspices of the Columbia Journalism Review, the focus is on three areas: political journalism; the larger forces -- political, economic, technological, social, legal -- that affect journalism; and the business and financial press.

Vicco Vajradanti

Yippeeee... and look what I found! Oh this is so cool - I have been trying to locate this one for sucha long time! :) The jingle goes something like this:

Vajradanti Vanjradanti Vicco Vajradanti
Toothpowder, toothpaste
Ayurvedic jaDibooTiyon se bana sampoorNa swadesHi
Toothpowder, toothpaste
Vicco Vajradanti!

Vicco Turmeric Ayurvedic Cream!!

God, this is such a blast from the past - I keep trawling the YouTubes of the world for such goodies... and occasionally you find a gem!

That's Sangeeta Bijlani in her pre-Azhar days... and I must have been like 8-9 when this used to keep playing on the TV and in the movie theaters...over and over again... Was so sick of it back then! Hehe :)

Let's drop the big one...

Just discovered this Randy Newman song from 1972! This is political satire at its best... and still so topical! Who would have thunk that this person who I only knew as the music composer from some of my favorite animated movies (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Cars, Monsters,Inc.) had this in him... hehe :)

Very rarely have I seen the irony of the U.S. foreign policy put so beautifully in words... Read on!

No one likes us-I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paris
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now

Searchin' My Soul...

I've been down this road walkin' the line
That's painted by pride
And I have made mistakes in my life
That I just can't hide

Oh I believe I am ready for what love has to bring
Got myself together, now I'm ready to sing

I've been searchin' my soul tonight
I know there's so much more to life
Now I know I can shine a light
To find my way back home

One by one, the chains around me unwind
Every day now I feel that I can leave those years behind

Oh I've been thinking of you for a long time
There's a side of my life where I've been blind and so...

I've been searchin' my soul tonight
I know there's so much more to life
Now I know I can shine a light
Everything gonna be alright
Ive been searchin' my soul tonight
Don't wanna be alone in life
Now I know I can shine a light
To find my way back home
Baby I've been holding back now my whole life
I've decided to move on now
Gonna leave all my worries behind

Oh I believe I am ready for what love has to give
Got myself together now I'm ready to live

I've been searchin' my soul tonight
I know there's so much more to life
Now I know I can shine a light
Everything gonna be alright
I've been searchin' my soul tonight
Don't wanna be alone in my life
Now I know I can shine a light
To find my way back home

Fleas, ticks, mosquitoes... really bother!

This is one of the cutest TV commercials I have EVER seen - made me want to run right out and get me a puppy! :)



Hello mother; hello father
Fleas, ticks, mosquitoes; really bother
Thanks for the package; that's why I'm writing
K9 Advantix quickly stopped all the biting!

Swimming, hiking; and tent pitching
They're not biting; I'm not itching
Can't wait to show you; all my new tricks
Thanks again for sending me K9 Advantix!

Want kids? Think again!

Hehehe... This is why people should think twice before they decide to place a home delivery order with the stork express!

From the devilish minds of the geniuses behind "Family Guy"... here's Stewie doing what he does best...hehe :)

Brown Penny... Never Give All The Heart!

Love is such a funny funny thing - one minute, it makes you want to jump up in glee... the very next, it makes you want to whack the hell out of a piñata! Hehe! :)

Was just looking over some poetry by Yeats and I came across a perfect example of this phenomenon... Here are two poems - In the first one (Brown Penny), Yeats urges us to go out there, not waste another moment, and immerse ourselves into the glorious thing that is 'love'! And in the next one (Never Give All The Heart) he warns us against throwing caution to the wind when we fall in love - as his own personal heartache taught him, if you love completely, it will simply come and bite you where the sun don't shine! Haha!:)

Brown Penny

I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

Never Give All The Heart

Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy. Kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.

What weapons has the Lion but himself?

Here are some pithy words that I hold very dear... words that, you might say, I live my life by... God, that sounds so pretentious...hehe. Anyway, while nowhere close to being the complete set of my "guiding principles", this will do as a starter! :)

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."
- Maya Angelou

"The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"What weapons has the Lion but himself?"
- John Keats

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
- Anatole France

"The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed."
- Alexis Carrel, Reflections on Life

"You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note."
- Doug Floyd

"A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around."
- Edward W. Howe

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
- Abraham Lincoln

"If you can come to peace with the fact that you're surrounded by idiots, you'll realize that resistance is futile,your tension will dissipate, and you can sit back and have a good laugh at the expense of others."
- Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle

How the heck did they do THAT!?

Sometime last year the creators of American Idol put on this show on NBC called America's Got Talent - any and every Charlie who thought he could entertain an audience showed up for an audition... So as you can imagine there were tons of jugglers, and strippers, and magicians, and singers, and tap dancers and even a snapper... some entertaining, most thoroughly irritating! :)

Amidst all that mediocre hoopla, IMHO, there was one standout act - this couple who did a routine involving quick wardrobe changes! Yeah, that was their act - they changed clothes with alarming alacrity!

The next time your significant other spends a fortune in time getting dressed, here's a handy "how to do it before the ice age comes again" guide to getting changed quick... REAL quick! Till date, whenever I watch this, I can't stop myself from wondering - How the heck did they do THAT!? Hehe! :)

Sofa King Hilarious!

From the always-funny Saturday Night Live, here's that ridiculously-crazy Sofa King spot:

Why does it always rain on me?

So I was watching this 5-part, reality TV show on ABC the other day... it's called Ex-Wives Club... Using three real-life victims of the ex-phenomena (Marla Maples, Angie Everhart and Shar Jackson), the show ambitiously attempts to tackle that very potent question - How do you mend a broken heart?

Now, admittedly, this is soppy fare... definitely not for the weak of heart! As I watched along, they profiled two people with heart-rending tales... Rebecca is a well-known journalist, who fell in love with a man who she thought was perfect... until he started verbally and emotionally abusing her right since their honeymoon... Kevin was a nuclear engineer in the navy married to the mother of his 2 very cute children... He thought his life was perfect until, one day, he found out his wife was pregnant with someone else's child and wanted to walk out on him and their two children!

As I heard these two perfectly nice people recount their tales, my jaw continued to drop further with every new tidbit! They looked so simple...so pure... so full of love... Until some asshole came along and ripped their belief in love right out of them! Why them? Why does it always happen to the good ones? Now i know it's fashionable to judge them and say, "how can they let someone else make them feel bad about themselves? If they let that happen then they are just weak!". But I don't entirely agree - I think I can empathize with Kevin and Rebecca, and the scores of others out there who have been let down by someone they've invested their hearts, minds, bodies and souls into...

Life is hard - that's not a news flash for anyone... we all get hit day in and day out and we suck it in and we soldier on... From personal experience I know that this "sucking it in and soldiering on" can be far more stressful than we ever let on - that's why people like to come home and take that hot shower, or curl up next to their dog... or go on vacations... We wind ourselves up so tight trying to stay strong, that we forget how draining it can be... Then, one fine day, we find that special someone - someone you can trust implicitly and love completely... You now have someone that you can "let go" in front of - you don't have to pretend to be strong, you don't have to hold yourself together... Finally, you can just relax, for you now have someone there who will hold you and not judge... who will look out for you and never take advantage of your weak moments... To have such a someone hurt you or cheat on you must be such a self-diminishing event!? I just shudder to think! I can almost see Kevin and Rebecca go through months wondering what went wrong... killing themselves slowly over the notion that it must been their fault... that somehow THEY were inadequate... not good enough!

I could feel their pain... and could taste their tears... Haven't we all, that have dared to love, been there before? Aren't they merely kindred spirits? It was like looking into a mirror and seeing something unpleasant stare back at you... This post is not about what happened next. It isn't even about trying to figure out what drives horrendous sociopaths like Kevin and Rebecca's spouses to destroying the lives of the people who loved them. Frankly, after I heard their stories I just tuned out - the images were playing on the screen, but I was somewhere far far away.

The melancholy had taken hold... and this song by the Scottish band, Travis, kept playing on and on in my head, like it were on an endless loop. And it's funny, 'coz the song isn't even particularly about heartbreak... or anything directly relevant... It's just that the melody embodies the same pathos that I seemed to be feeling. The song's called "Why does it always rain on me?" and it goes something like this: