Thought Clouds
The Digital Bender

Khobezeh , originally uploaded by LotusGem . Long time no post. This is one photo I took back in 06. I feel better when I look at this photo.

I changed my screen saver to star field on my XP machine, which has a descent size LCD. Try this if you do have one. Turn off the lights, and watch that star field, and you will have the sensation that you are flying through space. It's a nice feeling, and in fact reminds me of one lucid dream I had.

I was just looking at the recently launched NBC direct service, which is a YouTube equivalent of NBC's shows, only really annoying. I say that because every show I tried watching would play a long ad before it begins, and then tell me "this show is not available for your location" or something of the sort. Now I have no problem with content being locale sensitive. It's the right of the content owners to decide on that, but what I do have a problem with is making me sit through the whole of a number ads repeatedly and then telling me I can't watch the content. How I am dealing with it? I watched a few more, just to see the ads, and now Dove, Oreos, and Careerbuilder are on my no-more list. Thank you NBC for annoying the customers of your advertisers. Update: Looks like this blogger had the same experience.

I just discovered these guys. As far as I am concerned, these guys are the funniest thing to watch on the net.

I bought the HD-DVD add-on for the XBOX 360 a while back, and got "King Kong" in the box. I also bought the documentary "Planet Earth", which is nothing short of absolutely amazing. And got "Happy Feet" for my and my family's benefit, especially my daughter who likes to skip around like Mumble. This was about 6 months ago, and I have not been able to buy any more, and here is why. There really isn't anything compelling enough about the movie lineup to pay $12 for a hi-def "experience", which is for most movies only marginally better than DVD. I mean, if you see "Anchor Man" in DVD, then you've seen it in HD-DVD because the extra pixels will probably not add any more enjoyment or appreciation. And fan boys. I am not saying that BlueRay lineup is better. It's just that the whole concept of paying $12 extra on the average for a movie that looks nearly as good on DVD is not a very attractive concept. Come to think of it, onl...

Yelsmin Grunge , originally uploaded by LotusGem . This is my daughter Yelsmin. I was not looking through the camera when I took this, I was talking to Yelsmin and resting the camera on my hand to get a more natural expression from Yelsmin. It's post processed in Photoshop for a grunge effect. I found this lying around in my e-Folders and decided to play around with it and publish it. I got the frame a number of tips from spraguelab.blogspot.com/2006/05/come-chat-tonight.html

Beautiful song, lyrics below. Enjoy. 'Twas Halloween and the ghosts were out, And everywhere they'd go, they'd shout, And though I covered my eyes I knew, They'd go away. But fear's the only thing I saw, And three days later 'twas clear to all, That nothing is as scary as election day. But the day after is darker, And darker and darker it goes, Who knows, maybe the plans will change, Who knows, maybe he's not deranged. The news men know what they know, but they, Know even less than what they say, And I don't know who I can trust, For they come what may. 'cause we believed in our candidate, But even more it's the one we hate, I needed someone I could shake, On election day. But the day after is darker, And deeper and deeper we go, Who knows, maybe it's all a dream, Who knows if I'll wake up and scream. I love the things that you've given me, I cherish you my dear country, But sometimes I don't understand, The way we play. I love th...