Random Ruminations of My Mind

last night i watched the latest episode of one of the wickedest shows on tv right now- Heroes… it was a great episode… won’t go into any of the details about it since it might spoil it for those who haven’t watched it yet…

anyways, after the show i got to thinking, remembering when i was a kid and something would happen that got me either upset or angry and i wished i had some super powers that would magically make me feel better. for example, making myself or someone else disappear (no i didn’t have violent tendencies)… so i then i thought if i had one super power to choose from any of the the characters on Heroes, what would it be??? i thought about each of the characters in the show and wondered if that would be the best one to have…

first person i considered was Nathan Patrelli, the flying dude… now, would i want to fly really? i don’t think that’s really *enough* of a super-hero power on its own, is it? i mean, take superman for example. he could not only fly, he was faster than a speeding bullet, had x-ray vision, enhanced hearing, and was the man of steel!!! so no, flying is way over-rated… the rocketeer (anyone remember him???) could fly for Pete’s sake!

then there’s peter patrelli, who mimics powers of those who he’s in close proximity with… not bad, not bad… but what good does that do him if no super hero is around?… right?… pass.

next on the list, super-hero STRENGTH, as portrayed by Niki Sanders… yeah sure, it would be nice to have this sort of strength, but there’s baggage that goes along with it, in the case of Niki that is… half the time she doesn’t even know she’s doing it, and therefore has no control over it… so scratch that.

reading people’s mind is an interesting ability i think. Matt Parkman on the show is able to do this. this is something i’ve always wanted to be able to do, until they made a mockery of this power with that stupid movie ‘what women want’… anyways, what good is a mind reader anyway… not so much a ’super-hero’ power i think… the world is full of mind-readers… or people who *think* they can read minds…

getting high on drugs, seeing the future, and drawing it comic book style like Isaac Mendez… again, too many fortune tellers in the world, i’m not into drugs, and i can’t draw if my life depended on it…

now there’s two left… the first is super-healing ability like the cheerleader in the show, Claire Bennet… does that make her invincible?… probably not, but its pretty close. everyone has their ‘Kryptonite’ and i’m sure Claire does too… i dunno, its a close second, but not the power i’d like…

which is, of course, the ability to play with space-time like hiro nakamura!!! is this guy like awesome or what! he can reverse time, stop it completely, travel backwards into the past, forwards in to the future, and the best of all, teleportation! the possibilities are ENDLESS!!… i would consider this power to be invincible against all the other powers *combined*. now only if it were possible…

i haven’t posted anything for 16 days now… just been busy with Ramadan and work. i am on vacation (a mini-vacation really) and have been sick since it started, so i finally got the chance to update the blog. as you can see, changed the theme once more. what else… hmmm..

1. north korea tested a nuclear weapon; welcome to the club. of course, its only fitting a pakistani welcome north korea to the nuclear club, given that Pakistan purportedly gave the communist state the know-how in exchange for missile technology. tsk tsk… what was AQ Khan thinking? dolla dolla bill yall!… haha.

2. the raptors are doing great in pre-season action. 5-0 already. new uniforms, new management, totally NEW PLAYERS!!! this season is going to be something to look forward to with the likes of Bargnani, Graham, Tucker and of course, Bosh and Mo Pete. i think they’ll make the playoffs this season, i really hope they do that is, but i don’t see them moving passed the first round.

3. the leafs aren’t doing that well (3-2-2), which is no surprise really, given that not much changed since last season’s dissapointing finish where the leafs didn’t even make it to the playoffs. the only change i saw was in more ice time given to kyle wellwood, who’s making the most of it with 7 points in 7 games. and congrats to mat sundin on making it to the 500 club. 500 career goals that is. what a way to get your 500th but as an overtime goal. kudos! anyways, first-round playoffs loss for the leafs as well. i’m a little hesitant in even giving them a playoff berth, but that’s just me being an eternally optimistic leaf-fan.

4. i got a message on naseeb (one of those *paying* social networking websites) the other day. here’s an excerpt:

“Also ur pics tell me u have lost some serious weight. Good work. Keep it up!”

… arrrr?!?!?! umm, lose weight? okaaaay. not sure how pictures can tell if someone has lost weight or not but anyway, i don’t really go on that crappy excuse for a website anymore. those guys who run naseeb are making a $hit-load of money off people like you and me. its just too bad i didn’t think of the idea first… sigh. i say everyone just boycott naseeb!

5. tv is going great these days. this new show called ‘heroes’ has not dissapointed at all. on the contrary, its almost my new favorite show. gets interesting with every episode. what *has* been dissapointing, however, is ‘lost’. i’m not sure where they are going with that show. i’m not even sure that they are sure where they want to take it. its gets confusing with every new episode. are they alive? are they dead? who the heck are the others?!?!?!

alright, i’m going back to sleep now. lates…

‘Ars Technica’ has a really interesting article (link) about a study conducted at Indiana University which compares the substantiveness of ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ with other news broadcasts such as the ‘CBS Evening News’. The results of the study aren’t really surprising to me, as much as the conclusion made by the author of the study, Julia Fox. Basically, the study found that the amount of coverage of the real issues in the news, as opposed to the irrelevant hooplah surrounding them, was just as much in The Daily Show as in the nightly news.

So is this surprising to me? Not at all. Networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, etc) compete with eachother all the time to gain ratings, and that isn’t limited to prime-time entertainment. That whole idea of whatever sells has induced itself into their respective nightly news broadcasts. After all, these news broadcasts are run by large corporations which have shareholders to answer to. So instead of focussing on the real issues at hand, we get filtered content which drives up the ratings. Not real news.

Now the conclusion Fox comes up with is quite surprising. She goes on to explain that if people are looking for real in-depth coverage of the issues at hand, then they should look elsewhere, because neither the Daily Show nor network news broadcasts cut it. Personally, I don’t look to either for any of the sort. Although The Daily Show serves its purpose by providing humour (and I agree with Afreen, this guy should be president of the United States (link)), the network news broadcasts serve no purpose whatsoever other than providing news equivalent to cheap tabloid gossip. I have found the BBC as well as CBC to be a more reliable news source. Its sad that millions of people choose CBS/ABC/NBC as their primary source of world and domestic news. Sad indeed…

man, i can’t stand it when he does that salute… its like how queen elizabeth has her little wave, hitler had his whatever you call it… saddam even has… err, had his own way of saluting the crowd… anyway, funny interview, check it out…

get ready folks… its gonna be an interesting fall lineup!… here’s what’s coming:

‘survivor‘ (CBS, premieres thursday september 14th, 2006) - always making things interesting… this time its race versus race… black versus white versus chinese versus hispanic!… 5 on each team to begin with at least, and probably merge after a few tribal councils… hopefully tension gets high on ‘cook island’… the more tension you get, the better the show.. haha.

‘amazing race‘ (CBS, premieres september 17th, 2006) - man, this is one show i’m not going to miss… for the first time ever, they have an indian couple on.. and a muslim team too!… should be interesting as always…

‘Lost‘ (ABC, premieres wednesday october 4th, 2006) - if you watched the season finale last season… let me rephrase that… if you watched the last 2 minutes of the season finale, you are probably dying to watch the season premiere as much as i am!… don’t want to spoil it for noone, but wow, i wonder if they’ll have to change the name of the show.

some new and interesting shows this season:

‘heroes‘ (NBC, premieres september 25th, 2006) - basically a show about super heroes… nice concept, although i think they are banking on the whole ’smallville’ idea… teenaged super heroes that is. i never really got into smallville, but this seems like an ‘xmen’ type of show. might be good…

‘Smith‘ (CBS, premieres wednesday september 19th, 2006) - looks interesting also, starring Ray Liotta, about a bunch of criminals performing robberies and i guess getting away with it too… kind of reminds me of one of my favourite movies, ‘Heat’.

upcoming winter season:

‘apprentice‘ (NBC) - going to be a bit different this time, as its not shooting in NYC anymore. off to southern california the latest apprentii’s (to steal a word from randal’s vocab) are headed. should be something different, something to watch for i guess, because NYC was getting a bit boring…

‘24‘ (Fox) - no words to describe this show… except AWESOME!… can’t wait till january

ok, i don’t know if any of you watch ‘big brother’, the latest season being ‘big brother 7: all-stars’… but yesterday seemed like everything was so freakin’ rehearsed, that it totally didn’t look like a ‘reality’ tv show whatsoever!… admittedly, i haven’t been keeping up with the show, and never watched the previous seasons, but i did watch the last, i’d say 6 or 7 episodes and got a jist of what the heck is going on…

so here’s the deal… basically, there’s these two guys that collude with one another, and at the same time, are making these two other girls believe that they are a part of their inside group called ‘chill town’… its quite believable too, that these girls are falling for this trap… i mean, its been going on for the last few episodes now, and everytime you watch these two guys in action, you’re like ‘wow, how stupid can these two girls be’… because even on camera, the girls were saying how ‘vulnerable’ they felt, and how they want to get rid of eachother and would rather side with the guys… except, today, out of complete nowhere-ness, these two girls do a complete reversal and turn on the guys, after say, 15 minutes of discussion… totally unexpected… so unbelievably unexpected that i’d have to say it was all fake… i’m thinking ‘big brother’ isn’t a reality show at all, its just a bunch of people following some script… ie. actors… i’m kinda glad i didn’t waste my time watching that all season…

i’m just waiting now for the real reality shows to start up again… some interesting shows this season… some old, some new… should be good!