Guitar Issues

Its videos like this of Tosin Abasi playing his song "Wave Of Babies" off his new album that just crushes my self-esteem and I end up thinking "there is no way I'm going to be able to play the guitar".



But then, I get to see a video of this guy playing the bass with just one arm and my hope of being able to play the guitar is restored. I mean, just look at him! He even shreds! On a freakin' bass! How hardcore is that?!



Well, if you're wondering why the Doctor is talking about guitars, its because I've bought a new guitar. Actually, its my first guitar and I'm really excited about it. But the problem with the guitar, as is the problem with any instrument, is that its just so difficult at the start to learn how to play it. Its been 2 months since I've bought it and I still cant play anything... substantial. I mean, sure, I know how to play "Tool - Schism" (and a few other songs) but I cant play the entire thing through.

It just sucks, I tell you. But anyways, I guess I'll stick to it. No reason of just letting it go now when I'm really into it and started to understand it. But it just gets you down when you're not able to accomplish what you started out to do, doesnt it?

The Stuff On slashTHREE Is Amazing!

To tell you what I'm referring to, you have to visit this website that I stumbled across www.slashthree.com.

I came across this website after I was going through www.deviantart.com. I've been going through this "artistic" phase ever since I got my new camera (FYI - my new camera is a Canon 500D which clicks some sick shots!). So I was looking at other people's pictures to get some ideas of how I could try some different angles. I tell you, DeviantArt has been a lot of help (but we're straying away from what I was 'really' telling you guys). So I saw a few pictures and the artists said that they submitted these to slashTHREE. I followed the link to find out what this "slashTHREE" was and when I got there, I was blown away! slashTHREE is a website to a certain online community of artists. It displays "artpacks" which are basically a theme to which the member artists are supposed to create their works of art. The level of professionalism in the pictures by these artists is just amazing, considering that some of these artists are just in their teens. But its not the teenagers that really caught my eye, it was these few guys almost the same age as I and they were making some unbelievable works!

[Picture taken from www.slashthree.com]

One guy that has really blown me away has to be this guy from Serbia who goes by the name 'Gloom' (above). This dude is on a completely different level. He doesn't have a lot of color in his works and his works are usually black and white (with some brown now and then) but the level of detail is just mind boggling! My favorite has to be his "Black Dream". This one is just unbelievable. The level of detail on the hound is amazing! You can see every vein-type thing that makes up the hound and the serpent. Another one that I thought was amazing was "Weiss's Secret". It just has that eerie feeling that you can see that the clown is hiding something, something very frightening. To be able to convey such emotions through a picture is beyond my amateur ass. Therefore I bow to 'Gloom'. You my friend, have a shit load of talent. And I hope you use it well.

[Picture taken from monophotography.co.uk]

Another guy whose work I was particularly fond of is this guy who goes by the name 'Mono' (above). Now 'Mono' is a photographer from Scotland who usually takes pictures of the beach, but his shots are just amazing. His work "Respice Finem" is a personal favorite. That foggy effect he has is basically shooting the waves at a very, very slow shutter-speed also called 'long exposure', which gives an ethereal element to the picture. Kudos to Mono for using minimal fancy camera-techniques to make an illusion of some seriously awesome shit. "Salvation" is also a good picture, which I have no idea how he did it. I don't think its digital manipulation, I actually think that that bridge is in the middle of the water. Oh well, we'll never know. But yeah, this guy sure knows how to take pictures. I might try that long exposure trick as well but first I need a tripod.

After going through all those pieces of art, I'm just amazed at how much talent these guys on slashTHREE have. slashTHREE has got a good thing going on here. Being able to bring together some of the new upcoming artists online is a great thing. Of course those completely eccentric/snobbish artists from art-school aren't here, so the level of some of the other artists is slightly amateur but they're still good with a good concept in most of their works. But I guess that comes with maturity, and most of these people are just teenagers so you can't really blame them.

You can bet that slashTHREE is going to be on my regularly visited list. And I can also imagine the new artpacks to have more awesome artworks to display. So if you guys want a dose of some seriously screwed-up works of art go and have a look and be amazed.

A Strange Dream

I had a very strange dream a few days ago. I've been a little disturbed by it and haven't really told anyone about it. I sensed the need to write it down because I have never felt this strangely before by a dream. It involved a person who was very dear to me and had passed away a few years ago. Clearly, the loss of this person was very heavy on me considering I was in my teens at that time and had never lost someone so close. That's why the vision of this person deeply effected my emotions. Now, I don't mean this to be an emotional post at all, its just that the strangeness of what I felt is something that I wish to archive.

I don't remember much about the dream other than it had a very comical feel to it. With a TV actor I know to be in it, a few children, a volcano... and that's about all I remember about it. But the entire dream was nothing that I cared for and I forgot about it as soon as I woke up. But the time that I woke up was the most startling part of the entire dream. At the end of the dream, I saw the person who I had loved so much. It was only for a moment. And in that moment I remembered everything about her, how she looked like, the way she smelt, the way she felt, everything. I had forgotten everything about that person, being almost 5 years to her death. And even though I had consciously tried to keep a memory of this person, I had forgotten all I knew of her. But all it took was a moment and all the memories came rushing in. This event was too unbearable for me so I suddenly woke up.

Its been 3 days now and I'm starting to forget what I felt. But for that day, even after I woke up, the feeling was so strong that I couldn't forget it. For the whole day, that was all that was in my mind. The vision was so vivid and I didn't think I could forget, but here I am 3 days later trying to remember exactly how I felt and I can only recall about 75% of it. I tried writing it down the same day but couldn't get the privacy to. And now no matter how hard I try, I keep forgetting about it. It's like new memories are being over-written no matter how hard I try to hold on to them. And it scares me...

Is the "good doctor" in?

Why, he certainly is. "But doc... ", you might ask. "Why no updates for the past month?" Well, its only because I've been having a few technical difficulties with my computer. In the past month I've had everything from my hard-drives crashing, to my motherboard and CPU over-heating. I've fixed the first 2 problems by replacing my hard-drive and fixing the overheating motherboard by opening and cleaning all the components on the motherboard which lead me to creating another problem. When I took my CPU heat-sink out to clean it, I broke off 1 of the connecting points. Now my CPU heat-sink doesn't sit correctly and my CPU is over-heating to some freaky extreme temperatures! Like, 73 degrees Celsius!

So yes, its been difficult. Also, I'll be moving to my new house this weekend so I've got a lot of things that I'd be doing for the move. With all the packing and cleaning, I have no idea when I'll be able to write a new post. But rest assured, it will be soon...

My Own Jagged Little Pills/Clicks

I recently came across an article on www.cracked.com about how game-designers use certain techniques to draw people into their games and turn them into mindless zombies. You can read the chilling article here.


This article came at a time when I recently developed a very unhealthy habit of playing a Role-Playing Game (RPGs). The name of this RPG is 'Dragon Age: Origins'. A great game developed by BioWare, a company which has some award-winning RPGs to its credit like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, and the recent award-winner Mass Effect. Now all these games I've never had the privilege of playing, but after reading a lot of good reviews about 'Dragon Age: Origins', I finally downloaded it and played it. Now that I've played it, I have to say, its an amazing game! With great graphics, art design, musical score and a compelling story, it has me gripped.


The problem with the game is just how huge it is! Till now, I've clocked in 50 hours of gameplay and have only completed 25% of it. This game will take an eternity to finish! I am certain that this can't be healthy for me. But the only thing that has me coming back to it is the story. Now 'story' is an important factor for me. It actually gives me a sense of accomplishment. When I'm done with a game, the completed story give me an assurance that I have haven't wasted all my time and that I've actually learned or experienced something by living through the story on screen. Which is the main reason why I don't play RPGs.


RPGs to me always seemed pointless. The story-less games where you just clocked in enormous hours to develop a character that has no meaning has always lead me to question, "why?". Why would someone do something that is so pointless? But now I understand. Although the pull of 'Dragon Age: Origins' isn't like 'World Of Warcraft' (WoW) which is actually a Massive-Multiplayer-Online-Role-Playing-Game (MMORPG), it uses those same sneaky techniques WoW uses.

I never play those MMORPGs just because I've heard those game-addiction horror stories of people losing their lives or even dying due to exhaustion like the guy who played WoW for 72 hours straight and then died. Also why I don't play FarmVille or Mafia Wars. Although, these 2 examples aren't as fatal as the previous one but they're still on the same lines.

After reading the above article, its given me a reality check as to how fine the line is that divides the addicts from the normal people. It gave me a clarity of how careful I should be of my own lack of control.

Good people?

I've been reading this book called "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Its supposedly a book that's considered to be the bible for Capitalistic ideology. Even though this book is a snooze-fest, I came across a line where the protagonist, who is an industrialist looking for someone to get a steel bridge made, says to her colleague "Why is it so hard to find good people nowadays?" This made me think, when was there ever a time when we had good people? I mean, all I've ever heard businessmen say is "its so hard to find good people nowadays". But I have never heard anyone say, since the beginning of time, that "good people" were so abundant that if you picked up a stone and threw it, you'd hit a "good person". Seriously, how come every business-person says the same thing? What a cliche.

Oh Africa, Have A Waka-Waka World Cup!

Its the FIFA World Cup 2010 and I am psyched! This is World Cup I'm going to make sure to watch all the matches now that I actually have a good TV set and I'm able to watch it without any problems like I had in India. Although, I wished to make this a memorable one with a whole party going on at home but I can only do so much with the pepsi and the chips. You really miss your friends at a time like this. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

I should have made this post earlier, before the Cup started, but I got so carried away with trying to make this World Cup fun and getting the match viewing more interesting that I forgot to write anything.


This World Cup I'm supporting Argentina just because of one reason, Lionel Messi. I just love Messi. He is like a beacon of hope to all short people like myself. He shows that being small doesn't mean you can't play any physical game better than anyone else. Other than that, the Argentinian legend Maradona is coaching the team which means they've got a good chance at the World Cup. My 2nd choice for the World Cup has to be my all time favorites Germany. Even though Ballack isn't playing this time, they're still my best. So I hope at least one of these teams win.


So everyone, have a great World Cup. I'm off to watch the next match between Australia and Germany. Although, I'm here in Australia, I can't really support them. So, GO GERMANY!! But not to forget, GO ARGENTINA!!

Game Review: "Devil May Cry 4", Score - 3.5 out of 5

I've been a fan of the Devil May Cry series since the first game came out back in 2001. I remember reading about it that it was from the creators of "Resident Evil" which really caught my interest. I didnt have a PS2 back then so I used to mooch off at a friend's house just so I could get to play it. (Ah, the good ol' days)

Devil May Cry is a 3rd-person action game. You take the role of Dante, the son of the demon Dark Knight, Sparda. Dante is a half-demon, half-human, an offspring of a demon father and human mother. Dante is the bad-ass of bad-asses. Armed with his humongous sword "Rebellion" given to him by his father and his dual-pistols "Ebony and Ivory" that he wrought by his own hands, he faces the hordes of demons who have escaped from hell. Dante's day job is as a Demon-hunter, a Private Investigator of sorts, who looks into demonic problems and settles them in his own way (which is basically blowing them to kingdom come).

The DMC series has always had Dante in the lead role battling out the demons on his own (with a little help from a few friends like Trish, Lady or Lucia). But in DMC4 we're introduced to a new character Nero who is a soldier in some cult and he fights off demons. The unique thing about Nero is that his right hand is demonic, giving him some extra abilities. In this game, you play half the game as Nero and half the game as Dante.

The best part about this game is the amount of moves it has! Playing with Nero is not bad with his few moves similar to Dante's but its his Buster move that allows you to set off a very cinematic move with the press of just one button. Its a visual treat and gives a helluva blow. But my favorite has to be Dante just because his fighting styles are really versatile. I mean, they put a lotta effort into setting up his 4 unique styles, 3 long range weapons and 3 close range weapons. When you have them all at your expense, the combos really start stacking up and its just amazing to watch Dante go all postal on the demon's ass.

The story of DMC4 is pretty clichéd. Although, its different to the previous installments of DMC, they couldn't touch that slight dark and morbid feel of the previous games. The new protagonist is Nero and the game's story revolves mainly around him. He's got his cocky teenage attitude, his own love story, revenge, redemption etc.(why does every Japanese game have a teenage kid with an annoying cocky attitude?!) Yes, Dante still has a sense of humor (which thankfully isn't as annoying as DMC3) and his pun seems to be a breath of fresh air in this hurricane of bad voice acting. But the bright environments and less Gothic feeling makes the setting seem so out of place.


I put well over 20 hours into this game on the Demon Hunter difficulty. This has to be one of the longest games I've played in a while. You have to play the 1st half of the game as Nero, which is actually all the levels of the game, and then the other half as Dante where you go through all the levels backwards to where the game began. It really is a BIG game. But it was well worth it. The fighting system in my opinion is the best any 3rd-person action game has been able to make. The fluidity of the moves and how you chain them together without feeling rigid is a huge task that they've accomplished. It feels like an arcade game but its done with believable and realistic animation so it doesn't feel like its a cartoon or something.


This game is all about the fighting. Its fighting system is the most polished in any of the previous games. Everything feels just right once you get the hang of it. But everything other than the fighting is poorly done. The new enemies weren't really that interesting and seemed few in comparison to the expanse of the game. The OST seemed to work well with the fight sequences, but when I heard the same song by itself, it just seemed so bland. But that doesn't mean it didn't work well with the game. It always got me pumping to go against those hordes of demons with my rock music. It just felt right. But like I said, with a mediocre story and poor voice acting, the main purpose of playing the game just didn't give me enough motivation. All I had to look forward to was the insane moves I could pull of and just stacking up the combos was so fulfilling.

Book Review: "The Kite Runner" - Khalid Hosseini

Like I said in my previous review, Khalid Hosseini is an amazing narrator! He really knows how to get your emotions running. Like his other books, he pulls on every string in your heart. And like his other book, this one is also a roller-coaster of emotions. There were a few parts in the book that had me really holding back my tears.

But because I read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" first, I can't help but compare it to that one. Even though that one came after "The Kite Runner". People said that "The Kite Runner" is his best work and his best story but I can clearly say that "A Thousand Splendid Suns" was better than this. The story is very well written but half way through the book I was waiting when the actual story was going to start. It seemed a little too slow for me at the start. And strangely, the most important event in the book, the thing that happens to Hassan, seemed the least moving to me. Does that make me bad person?

The book gave me a view into the whole anti-Hazara feel that Afghanistan has which was sort of an eye-opener, considering how until now I'd always thought them to be the actual Afghanis. Basically, thats because they were the only ones I had met at the Ruz-Bukhari restaurants back in Saudi Arabia.

I wonder why this book got so much publicity? I remember it being all over the media at the time when Umreeka (USA) had invaded Afghanistan. I guess it was one of those books the American media was pushing so that people thought what they were doing in Afghanistan was somewhat...divine.

This book was a good read. Khalid Hosseini is a good narrator, no matter how lame the story is. He really knows how to catch the attention of the reader. The story didn't seem as intriguing as "A Thousand Splendid Suns" but it still was a good narration of the adventure Amir and Hassan go through, and the life of Afghani social life when Afghanistan wasn't so broken.

Review: "A Thousand Splendid Suns" - Khaled Hosseini

I'm not really a bookworm and I don't really like reading books. Well, that's not entirely true because I do like reading books. Its just that I never have either the time or the patience to read through a book. Novels are one thing that I'd always had a slight bias against. I don't know if its a self-bias or one caused by someone else saying something about them, like my father or some other elderly person telling me how novels are a waste of time and how I should be reading something more important. Well, I'll never know. Its sort of subconscious thing now. I have read a few novels, enough that you could count on your fingers, but the fact is that I have.

Recently, I found this book lying around in my house. I had heard how big "The Kite Runner" had been and was recommended to by my friend's girlfriend who had mentioned it to be her favorite book ever. One that was soooo dear to her that she gave it to my friend as her first gift in their relationship. Now this puzzled me and I had to find out how good Khaled Hosseini is. And because I had so much time while on my new job, I had to pass time doing something and I thought a book would be a good way as I need to work on my reading and writing skills. So I got this book and I started off.

Khaled Hosseini has a strange way of writing. His writing style reminds me of those Urdu passages I used to read in school. How the narration was very poetic even though they were just narrating a story. How they used examples that they had talked about previously in the story. Khaled Hosseini uses that same style of writing in this book by Urdu poets as well. I say "poets" because I saw that it was usually poets who also used to write stories we used to study in school. He uses a lot of Pashtun words in the books which I strangely knew meant. Basically, because Urdu uses some of the same words Pashtun uses. I've got a strange story about Pashtun and Urdu that happened while I was in Saudi Arabia, but thats for another time. There are times where the author just literally translates some lines into English, which I think was a great way to get across what the Afghani people actually say and their particular use of such words. Which is mostly seen when they curse, but then again, you get to see the true person when they're cursing, don't you?

I loved the way he takes the book through the eyes of the two main characters, Mariam and Laila. He starts with the story of one character, then the other. And there's a part where its a single scene and he narrates it through the eyes of one character in one chapter and then in the next chapter it goes over to the other persons eyes and then he tells it from her perspective. Great narration style. At that particular point, he had me on the edge.

But the thing that really had me on was the very, very grim picture he painted of Afghanistan. The war-torn land of Afghanistan. Living through wave after wave of conquerors, trying to take over the land. First the Soviets, then the Warlords, then the Taliban, then the Americans. He's written very well the emotions that go through people at the time of war, but of course, at times they seem very fictitious as well. If there's a word to describe this book clearly, it would be "gut-wrenching". Seriously, at times I was so disgusted to what was going on that it had my stomach in knots. This book is so sad that at times you're like "how can anyone even come out of this kind of stuff normally?". Its that disgusting.

People had told me conspiracy theories about Khaled Hosseini and why his book Kite Runner had become so famous. How the Americans needed his book to be able to push forward their agenda of going into Afghanistan to "liberate" the people there. And how their war was like the cleansing of the land, to bring order and save the people of Afghanistan (which we've found wasn't the truth at all for the war). But yes, you have to admit how strangely, the book ends with everything getting better for the main character once the Americans arrived. But then again, they're just conspiracy theories and can't really be trusted.

Overall this book was amazing to read. The narration style is great with his very poetic Urdu style of narration. The picture of Afghanistan is slightly accurate to how Afghani families are (I say "slightly" because I have never been with an Afghani family, just observed one or two while I was in Saudi Arabia, so I don't really know). At times he had me on the edge as to how much more atrocities the main characters could endure. But at times its just gets too much and you can't really believe that things could get THAT bad. It just loses touch with reality at some points. Its like a sob-story after a sob-story. Like some communist story of the poor man enduring tragedies after tragedies with no end in sight (slightly sadistic, if you ask me). But again, its a good read and I recommend it.

Say what?

Have you ever had a conversation where you couldn't or didn't say anything because you kept thinking about the impact and/or consequences anything you say could have? Well, I've been going through that dilemma for a very long time now. This has sort of turned me away from interacting with anyone at all. I've become slightly paranoid. This kinda reminds me of a line from the movie "The Last Samurai", when that Japanese kid comes to Tom Cruise, when he's losing every fight with that other samurai, and says, "too many minds". Thats exactly what's happening to me. I have so many things going through my head when I'm talking to a person that I don't have the mental capacity to think of the conversation I'm having at the moment. Which in turn leads me to run out of things to say.


I still don't know what this type of disorder is called. I guess, I haven't come by this in my medical textbooks yet.

I swear, I tried so hard not to turn this into just another "emo" -blog but then again, I thought that writing about my emotional spasms is necessary 'cause its the product (as well as the essence) of all the things that are going through your mind. I'd say that its essential in psychotic studies, but thats just me. So here I am recording my delusional thoughts in an attempt to understand my own thinking. Haven't got too far, I'll tell you that.

Gears Of Tears

Well, as most of the world has heard, Gears Of War 3 is under development and set to release in 2011. Like the millions of people who saw the trailer to Gears Of War 3, I wept like a little girl after watching it. Not because it was bad, but because it so goddamn touching! The main reason for the touchiness is the OST in the trailer, "Sun Kil Moon - Heron Blue". The trailer gave me the same feeling I got from the trailer to The Last Guardian, the 2nd sequel to Ico. And even in that trailer, it was the music that completely had me.

I've noticed in these few trailers that I saw recently, like Gears Of War 3, The Last Guardian, Crysis 2, inFAMOUS, Fallout 3. All these trailers have some amazing music which gave a very grim undertone to the entire trailer, no matter what was going on in the trailer. Whether its a story between a small boy and his giant chicken-cat animal, an insane battle between The Locust and The Gears, or a guy using his electrical powers to fight and run in a city, this melancholic music sort of gives it a strange clarity regardless of the choas on screen. Although, I'm sensing a pattern here and I'm afraid that this might turn into a tried-and-tested formula which will turn into a cliche. Oh well, I can only hope something like this doesnt happen. And you know what? These trailers just stand in testament how important music is to any visual medium to emotionally stir your senses and be able to send so many messages in a short span of 1 or 2 minutes.

Another update, I've been playing the Xbox 360 alot nowadays and have played quite a number of games in the past month. Hmmm... lemme see, Bioshock 2, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3, Bayonetta, Gears Of War, and Gears Of War 2 being the most recent I've played. I gotta tell you, after watching the GoW3 trailer and playing GoW2, Epic is focusing on Dominic's story more than Fenix's story. Which is ok by me. Coz Dominic has that whole emotional-thing going on with him. And lest I forget to mention, the bromance between Dom and Marcus. (Oh man, how gay!) Oh well, I'm glad they didnt give the mushiness to Fenix and gave to the next most important character in the game, Dom. Although, Dom's story and the whole "Max Payne"-thing he's got going is quite intruiging, I'm left wondering why they havent given alot of info on Fenix's story. All I know at the moment is that his Dad is part of something related to the Locust and the Gears. Adam Fenix (Marcus Fenix's dad), was some sort of a leader for the humans and has some strange thing to say at the end of GoW2... whatever, I'm completely confused with Marcus and his dad's story. Even though Epic tired to make GoW2 more epic (no pun intended) and longer they sort of stretched it for no reason. Even though GoW1 was very short, I thought it had some very memorable events for example when we met the Beserker, the gas station and the Kryll, when we meet Alpha Team for the first time, the fight with the Theron Guards at the imulsion rig, Carmine's death, RAMM. Even the handling seemed better in GoW1 to GoW2 even though GoW1's handling was very tight, but it had a whole different feel to than any other game. Now in GoW2, it just feels like any other game out in the market. That grey visual of GoW1 is what made it stand out in my opinion. It sort of gave it that dry and grim undertone that war has. GoW2 was too colorful and had lost the feel of war. So what if everything was exploding or burning? It still didnt feel like war. I hope they'll be able to bring that grim, uncolorful feel of war into the new one. 

Epic has got a good thing going here and I think this is the perfect time to say how much I freakin' love Cliff Blezinski! That dude has been like my icon since 1998. He's the only guy in the game industry who doesnt have to be a master of something, instead he does a better job being a Jack Of All Trades than any other game-designer. His vision of game-design is absolutely what any game-designer should have and is also the closest to my idea of design. I know I'm going all gay on CliffyB but you gotta admit, the dude's got talent!