Indian politicians as leaders?

Every noticed that the Indian media refers to the Indian politicians as "leaders"? This leader said this, this leader went there, this leader farted, that leader crawled up another's ass. It sooooooooo pisses me off. Ha! Ha! Leaders. Most wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Why are they called leaders? Who do they lead? Certainly not me. A bunch of bumbling idiots, save an enlightened few, like our esteemed Mr PM.

Movie marathon

I watched 3 movies over the weekend. Only one gets a thumbs up, and the other two get plenty of thumbs down. The decent one was Batman Begins. I thought it was fairly well made, in an understated, non melodramatic way. Neat movie. Enjoyed it. The lesser said about the other two the better. Mr and Mrs Smith. Agggggg. For a while it was doing OK, and then it began plumbing the depths of bad screenplay and acting. And as for the story... huh, what story? Take a couple of "sexy" people, mash them together, throw in a bit of romance and sex, some SFX, some hanky-panky, some underwear shots, some CIA shit, and voila! houston, we have touchdown. What a frigging waste of time and money.

Finally: War of the Worlds. What the hell was that? That movie made NO sense at all. Tom Cruise as usual can't act to save his life. He should grow a beard and take it easy with Sherlock Homes or whoever. There was stupid girl who kept screaming her head off everytime something when plot. Ghastly movie. I can't believe this movie has got nearly 7 out of 10 on IMDB and was nominated for 3 Oscars. What? Can't believe I watched the same movie. So aliens have landed on earth, or have been buried million of years ago, whatever. Random shit just happens in the
movie, without any attempt made to connect them. At least I watched on DVD. Poor fellows be they who watched it in the theater.

Speedy Gonzales

These days I've been tripping over this totally awesome cartoon character called Speedy Gonzales (nee Gonzalez). I just can't get enough of him. Speedy is a funny mouse (mickey mouse doesnt even come close), wears a large mexican sombrero, has a totally fantastic mexican accent and cries Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Andale! Yeehah! and goes speeding around everywhere.





Its one of the best cartoons I've ever seen, and I have seen lots. So I did a research on the net about Speedy and it turns out that it Speedy was a huge hit many decades ago, and was one of Warner Brother's most successful characters. Speedy was stopped in 1999 because Turner and WB felt that it would hurt the sentiments of Mexicans. But after fans successfully successfully lobbied with the company, Speedy was put back on the air from 2002!

I watched a couple of Speedy cartoons today night and I'm a happy man :) Its a rare treat to watch Speedy. They air it once in a while on the Loony Tunes Show at 10pm every night on POGO.

Wikipedia has a ton of stuff on the Speedy Gonzales page, and Matthew Hunter's Unofficial Speedy Gonzales page is a veritable mine of information.

Photoblog: Dudhsagar waterfalls

Dudhsagar waterfalls, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

A spectacular waterfall on the Cholarghats, inside the swapnagandha forest, on the border of Goa and Karnataka. This waterfall falls for 600 meters and is named "Sea of milk".

Photoblog: Sakla-Vajra waterfalls

Sakla-Vajra waterfalls, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Twin waterfalls on the Cholarghats, inside the swapnagandha forest, on the border of Goa and Karnataka. This photo has been taken from the Wildernest resort, a peaceful rejuvenating place.

The 2 x 2 matrix

The 2 x 2 matrix is the most favorite tool of every MBA type. In my MBA studies, I must have come across a score or more of 2 x 2 matrices, designed to solve every problem in strategy, market entry, segmentation, game theory, decision making, and what have you. I think I'm sick of the 2 x 2 matrix. Here's what I got from one website:

"The 2x2 matrix is a ubiquitous representational tool that has been used
by countless individuals and groups in countless disciplines and
endeavors. However, Lowy and Hood draw on models from the works of
leading consultants, business-school professors, social scientists, and
organizational theorists (including, Michael Porter, Stephen Covey,
Igor Ansoff, Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad, Geoffrey Moore, and other
illustrious thinkers) to raise its status from mere representational
tool and to showcase 2x2 modeling as one of the most flexible and
powerful weapons “in the knowledge worker’s intellectual arsenal.” The
authors demonstrate that the 2x2 matrix is much more than a grid for
displaying a finished and closed set of ideas, but the beginning of a
“dialogue” that “brings richness, depth, and a uniquely dynamic
transformational power to the form.” They demonstrate that there is a
right way and a wrong way to construct a 2x2 model, that the key to
this right way lies in how the primary variables are selected and
applied, and that selection and application depend on “a particular
cognitive and emotional bias in approach”—2x2 Thinking."

BTW, I got the above shit from a book review of a book about... yeah, you guessed it, 2 x 2 matrices, called The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix. 2 by 2 thinking, my ass. Ugh. I think I'm gonna be ill.