My Morning Gazette

QotD: Speak To Me In...

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 03:29:06 -0500

How many languages can you speak? Which languages can you read or understand?

Languages I Can Read, Speak, Understand and Write

English
Hindi
Urdu (just a bit)

Languages I Can Only Read not Understand

Arabic
Telugu

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QotD: Better on the Big Screen

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:09:49 -0500

If you could watch any movie on the big screen right at this moment, what would it be?

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Extended Version Collector's Set)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. That's the only movie I wanna see right now on a huge screen. The best Sergio Leone movie ever. My favorite Clint Eastwood movie. One of my favorite movie opening scenes ever. A great soundtrack by the great Ennio Morricone. Typical Leone direction - close-ups, long shots, tense moments - everything awesome.

I Want That Poncho.

The thing about this flick is that the actors, the settings, everything looks authentic. Like Leone shot the movie during the Civil War. The make up, the accents, plain awesome. And the chemistry between Eastwood and Wallach is just great.

Yet another movie that hasn't bored me even after like 100s of viewings.

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QotD: Game On

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:12:41 -0500

Valve's Counter Strike: Condition Zero.

Multiplayer with six friends. Sniped 'em all between the eyes. Muahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Real Game: Football

Not the American one, I mean Soccer, with my cuz, draw with 4-4.

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QotD: Kid Flick

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:53:22 -0500

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

It's not exactly a kid flick but a great movie nonetheless. The darkest Harry Potter movie till now, Azkaban has a dark and uneasy feel throughout the movie. Even as impending danger weighs on the story we get to see some very beautiful shots and scenes. Like the "flying on the Hippogriff" scene and the "Lupin-Harry conversation on the bridge" scene. Without doubt the best Potter movie still.

Reason? Director Alfonso Cuarón. Cuarón is one of the best contemporary non-American director today. He is best known for Y tu mamá también, an erotic road trip movie, which I've seen thrice and the upcoming Children of Men (can't wait!!).

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QotD: Can't Get You Out of My Head

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:43:38 -0500

Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Echoes by Pink Floyd
by Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason

Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine

And no one showed us to the land
And no one knows the wheres or whys
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb toward the light

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can

And no one calls us to move on
And no one forces down our eyes
And no one speaks and no one tries
And no one flies around the sun

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Comes streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning

And no one sings me lullabies
And no one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky

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QotD: I'm reading (or about to read)...

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:19:48 -0500

"Is there even a nightstand?" is perhaps the question that I should ask myself. My books are spread all over my little home. Although I don't have a nightstand I keep my most currently reading list on a book-rack beside my 17" monitor. The rack is full of fiction, non-fiction and computing. So here's what's on the stand:

Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development by Michael Glass, Yann Le Scouarnec, Elizabeth Naramore, Mailer, Jeremy Stolz and Jason Gerner
Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman (This is such a spontaneously written book that I can't suffice with a single read)
iCon: Steve Jobs - The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey Young and William Simon
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
The Beach by Alex Garland
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) by Philip K. Dick

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QotD: You Gotta See This

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 10:04:08 -0500

You definitely gotta see these flicks:

Four totally different movies for a great great weekend.

American Psycho (Christian Bale's awesome weirdo creep-act)
Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe's best movie ever, great soundtrack)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Read the book. Watch the movie. Johnny Depp's and Benicio Del Toro's best performances yet.)
Inside Man (A different Spike Lee film, not so classy yet good)

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QotD: In Heavy Rotation

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:58:40 -0500

What albums are in heavy rotation for you right now?

Music, is important. And hence there is always music playing on the PC, on the iPod, on the tube, everywhere, all the time. So here's what's on heavy rotation.

Elizabethtown Soundtrack by Nancy Wilson and Various Artists
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Soundtrack by Various Artists
Good Will Hunting Soundtrack by Elliot Smith and Various Artists
Good Night, and Good Luck Soundtrack by Dianne Reeves
Science of Sleep Soundtrack by Various Artists
Ten by Pearl Jam
Total Hits by Duncan Sheik
Vanilla Sky Soundtrack by Nancy Wilson and Various Artists

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Intro(vert)

nobody@vox.com(Sif) — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 03:30:28 -0500

Before this introvert intro starts I'd like to thank my two first neighbors - Vantan for introducing me to Vox and Travis Lopes for giving that one precious invite. Thanks both of you.

This is taking too much time. It took me four days to come up with a decent name. Meanwhile, I have been picking up chapter titles from Alex Garland's The Beach and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Too bad, that's what it is, Beaucoup Bad Shit.

The names I chose rotated more than our planet did in the last four days. Starting from, Aww Mama ... Is this really the end. Same-same, but different. It's life, jim, but not as we know it. Beaucoup Bad Shit, and many many more. All taken from the two books mentioned above. Eventually the French-English phrase stuck in the tagline.

But good titles doesn't come up easily. Not to me, a lazy ass, no-good fanboy with nothing more to do 'cept reading, writing, watching movies and listening to music. So what do I do. I open my music folder and search for nice titles in there. Nothing good. So, I start playing the daily rotation - Science of Sleep, Elizabethtown, Vanilla Sky, and Good Will Hunting. All movie soundtracks (if you noticed). And right then I saw a name. It was rotating on iTunes under the song title - Where to Begin, and my, do I love that song or what. The name was the name of the band - My Morning Jacket.

I asked my little sis, "how is this name, My Morning Jacket?". And she says "What? My Morning Gazette." And lo and behold, I got my very own Morning Gazette. Not much of a name, but it works. So, here I am, after four days and some really weird blog-titles with - My Morning Gazette.

Now I do think I should manage to write a little bit on myself. The name is Syed Asif Iqbal. It's a very short-long name, cos basically it's two short names and one mid-size name. So to douse all the confusion on what to call me here's a very short name, Sif. I am a budding web developer, I haven't done much work but I intend to. I like to read, watch movies, listen to music, click photographs, write some, and read some more.

I hang around my home most of the time. Online, you can find me on Flickr, General Chat/Water Cooler on SitePoint/Spoono Forums and in the Writing community on Orkut. You can read some of my shit on my original blog - Anonymous Content and catch my photographic skills on Flickr.

On a personal note, I am an introvert most of the time. Its not like I don't talk to anyone or stuff like that. I am just not a very social animal. I love my family. They are the most important part of my life.

On a most personal note, I love my fiancée. She is everything I am not and I am thankful for that. "I love you, baby".

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