Sweet October

10th: Half-Life 2: Episode 2
17th: Olympus E3 announcement
18th: Ubuntu 7.10

and to cap _all_ that excitement off,

31st: Sepultura concert in Shillong, India

Sweet!

Oh, and also,

14th: I turn 27

The evolution of musical taste

Thanks to my erstwhile roommate's ravings, I started listening to jazz a couple of years ago. And before we parted ways I decided to get a hold of some of his (I think 250+ CD) jazz collection. (RIAA lawyers can go boil their heads.)

Turns out it was one of the best forward-looking decisions I've ever made. These past couple of days I've been discovering a new musical gem in Aaron's jazz collection almost everyday.

Here are a couple of those revelations:


"1+1", Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter

I've been fortunate enough to watch these two amazing artistes perform in concert (though not together), but boy, if I'd digested their music beforehand, I'd have known then just how lucky I was. Shorter's soaring sax in particular, is a treat to the ears. Here's hoping to their health (for obviously selfish reasons!)


"An Evening With Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea In Concert"

This mindblowing piano extravaganza will leave you spellbound, especially due to the fact that there are only two acoustic pianos, and no other supporting instruments. Of course, when you have two masters such as Hancock and Corea, why would you need anything else to embellish the already gorgeous sound?


"Somethin' Else", Cannonball Adderley

It was interesting to hear the different sound of Adderley's alto sax, but then after giving it a few spins I hear a familiar trumpet weave in and out of the mix. "That sounds like a Miles Davis solo", I think, and turns out he does feature prominently on this album! I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship with hard bop :-)

"Patterns In The Ivy"

"Closure"

Working life randomness

Been almost 2 months now. So, obviously, a few rants are in order...

My manager can't say "manager". He says myaanazer. He also can't say "north". He says naarth. Actually this isn't a rant. This is one of the good parts about my work! Wait... that's pretty sad. Yeah, this is a rant.

My cab driver drives like a maniac. Ever heard of the term "defensive driving"? Yeah, this guy does the opposite. It's only a matter of time before he hits someone and all of us commuters get lynched by a mob.

*makes the sign to ward off evil*

I found a cooked caterpillar in the cafeteria food today. Enough said.

The crowd is very nerdy. All the preconceived notions you have about nerdy engineers, yes, they're all true.

There's this one nerdy chap who looks like Gollum. I kid you not. He's got wispy hair on his balding head, he's very small built and thin, has a funny voice, weird teeth, and strange eyes. All he needs to do is get down on all fours and you'd expect to see Sam and Frodo chasing after him.

Okay I'm done.