Saturday, June 19, 2010

hello wordpress

8:54 AM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

My blog has a new home. It is http://lordsnapcase.wordpress.com

Friday, June 4, 2010

How to destroy Angels

5:23 PM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

I checked NIN's site and lo and behold Trent Reznor has released a new album as part of new band called How to Destroy Angels. Yay! I downloaded free album. The whole album is sung by Mariqueen Maandig. The first song "Space in between" is a slow song and it is my favorite. The second song Parasite starts off with a lot of distortion that is quite so like NIN. I wasn't particularly enthralled by the third song 'Fur-Lined'. The fourth song is interesting. It back the same style as the second. So is the fifth. The sixth one is like the first and is great

John McClain validated!

10:05 AM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

Classic Darwinism in action, we get to see John McClane in Die Hard-4 validated. In one of the scenes McClane launches a car at a helicopter by letting it run up a toll booth lane ramp and taking the helicopter down. Now watch this drunk driver do the same. It wasn't just John McClain who could do it. Even downright drunk dumb asses can pull it off! I am quite glad that nobody got hurt. Please don't drink and drive folks.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Muscle Bagel

8:59 AM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

This is Q's concoction. The recipe is tad simple. Cut an eggplant length wise. Fry it with a tablespoon of olive oil. Set it aside. Cook eggs (sunny side up). Add a layer of grated Romano cheese on the eggs. Add a strip of bacon on the side and let it cook. Toast the bagel. Pile up the eggplant, the eggs and bacon. This is what you get.

A wild guess says it has a lot of proteins hence 'la muscle bagel'

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

MSR Drangonfly Stove

8:38 PM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

I bought a MSR Dragonfly stove upon B's recommendation I took it to a camping trip. I had an epic fail moment. I couldn't get it to work. It it was mistake I made and apparently it is a common mistake. I didn't slide fuel line all the way in firmly. It is tad difficult to slide it all the way, there is a decent amount of resistance. I had stopped prematurely. There is also a certain way in which the pipe needs to be slid into the fuel pump that comes with the stove. The fuel bottle is sold separately. I got a 22oz fuel bottle.



The yellow circle is around a knob that should be facing in the same direction as the wire handle. The fuel line needs to be firmly pushed to the very end and firmly locked in. The latch then needs to be swung around to be latched in on the other side on the grove.

The stove works just fine. It is fairly simple to get it work once the fuel line is attached to the fuel bottle. The stove comes with a windscreen that is also a heat reflector. The wire handle on the fuel pump and on the fuel line offer a greater amount of control on the amount of fuel that is burnt.

AC Vents & Jane's addiction

8:05 AM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

If there is one thing that can drive me nuts at workplace, it is the AC vents. The side effects of it are many.
Folks start to speak louder in an attempt to drown out the noise. Resorting to working from else in the work area would earn you the title "The nomad, the one who never sits at the desk, the one who is not reachable for face time" etc. This is when noise cancellation headphones come to rescue! The ones from Bose work. Listening to music using these headphones has been a very good experience. However there are problems with that. It drowns out all the "hallway conversations/discussion of ideas" that you can always join/contribute and learn from. Arrggh.

God quips in as usual: Numbskull you can get reusable earplugs for less than $5 instead of using the headphones and adding to the landfill with the batteries that you use for them.

Me conveniently ignores God. Who listens to he/she/it anyway? Come on after all God is responsible for the biggest fuck ups till date by creating/evolving humans!

I digress. Over the long weekend, there was a huge seating reshuffle. I got shafted to smaller desk area and near a louder air vent. Arrrgggh! All the team members are kind of annoyed. They share the pain. This is when Jane's Addiction came to rescue. I started the day with Kettle Whistle. It is a pretty good song.

I heard Jane's Addiction for the first time at NIN's farewell tour in 2009. I drove couple of hundred miles to another city to go that tour since I missed their performance locally :D JA's opening was a full blast of raw/energetic music that blew me away. I bought 2 cds of JA. Yes, I buy cd's. I buy them from used cd stores. I am not a fan of online music stores.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Q and Exits

11:04 PM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

Q and I were at Costco today. We as usual had done our usual monthly purchase of fruits, bacon, port loin chops, eggs, milk and pasta. We tend to not buy a lot from Costco since the produce ain't exactly fresh and cheap. We tend to prefer local farmer style stores. As I started to drive out of the parking lot, I was looking for the exit and then Q says "That appears to be a valid exit!". I turned and looked at him and said "Dude, what you said is logically correct, but ordinary folks say, 'there's the exit or that's an exit we can take or take that exit' ". Arrggh! Normal lingo please!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Operation Rescue bagels!

2:42 PM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

The department Q works (not the math) in had a conference. Q jetted early in the morning. I came back home around 9.00pm and Q walks in on me few mins later beaming.

Me: How was the conference?
Q : It was good. I am glad I went. Some of the stuff was useful for my research.
Me: Cool
Q : There was a lot of food and there are lots of bagels left over. Like 40 of them! They are likely to go waste.
Me: Hmmn. You want to rescue them?
Q : Well, I don't want to take bagels away in front people I know.
Me: Oh, that's just fine. I will lead the way and you follow. Lets hurry before the cleaners get there!

Hustle, hustle and 15mins later we race down in my car and we arrive at the dept. We glance inside and there are few of his colleagues sitting at a table talking and drinking some wine.

Q : I cant go now, there are people I know.
Me: Alright listen, walk in, say hi to them, ask about the conference and tell them to have a nice weekend and sneak up. (we are getting bagels for crying out loud , not stealing diamonds). You can do it dude. (Cue eye of the tiger song)
Q : Alright.

Q goes, says hello to guys and sits down to drink wine with them. WTF! Grrrr I am sitting out here in the car and this D-bag is drinking wine! He then goes up and packs all the bagels into a bag and walks down quickly in 10mins. He goes 'I got them , lets go!'

We get home and methodically pack all the bagels into the freezer and sit there grinning like a bunch of idiots. Operation rescue bagels is successful and quite bit of food is saved! Woo hooo

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Introducing Q

10:50 PM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

Q is a roommate. He is a whiny bitch. He is also a math geek. He is very fashion conscious and creative in cooking. He is a whiny bitch. He is European and has lived in Japan and NZ for several years as a kid. He is a nice guy. He is a whiny bitch. I will chronicle some of our conversations. He likes to analyze stuff and explain stuff using mathematical terms. He is quite logical. He is still a whiny bitch and I tell him that.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Avatar

4:59 PM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

Hmmn, it was a visual extravaganza and a predictable story line. Watching the movie in an IMAX theater was worth the money. The anti-war, pro-environment, to some extent anti-capitalist and human decadence messages are crystal clear.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Drum and Bass

7:39 AM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

It seems like an eternity and I feel like if I struck gold! I cry that I didn't come across this before. Mini explosions go off in my head with each beat of the music track. The struggle of keeping a smiling face when all your face wants to do is to contort into different expressions expressing the joy! The impossible immobility that is required when all your body wants is an escape from the confines of the chair and break out into a dance!

This is what happens when you listen to a Drum and Bass cd collection with the Bullet Time (Spor mix) as the starting song. An early day in the office and I got bored of the usual music I listen to and turned to this cd collection my friend shared with me. Mistake, a big Mistake! I am hooked! I can't turn this collection off! Help me! I am working and listening to this. I am being pulled into opposite directions. Help me!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Shutter Island

8:10 AM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

It is a mind fuck! As simple as that. It is a psychological thriller. It puts you in a tense situation of where you don't know who you can believe. Leonardo Dicaprio as usual delivers a terrific performance. A must watch!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Skiing

8:54 AM Posted by: Mad Lord Snapcase 0 comments

I went skiing for the first time and took a beginner's lesson. I was doing okay in the beginner's lesson until my friend egged me to go on a slope with higher difficulty. After many protests I relented and went, after all what could go wrong? Aah famous last words!

So I am waiting in line to get on the lift and my friend gives me instructions on how to sit on the lift and how to jump off it. Cool, not so difficult, except when I need to jump off, my ski's get entangled and lo and behold I am stuck. The lift operator reacts immediately and stops the lift and helps me off. Wonderful, a great start!

I start skiing in a halting manner and I ended up skating on the outer edges. Arrgh. Since I am skating down in a halting manner, I have enough time to notice others going by.

I see kids probably of 4-5 yrs age coasting by without any ski-poles and my jaw drops wide open. Awesome! That did wonders to my already sinking confidence. Nevertheless I was determined that I could do this and became resolute to finish this.

Yeh, things went downhill literally from there. Multiple falls, slamming into a tree, struggling to get up, refitting the skis on, took me 45 mins to get down hill. No broken ribs or any other injuries. I didn't go back up again as it was time to go. I will back to conquer the slopes.