Blog

Updated as often as I can manage

Friday, April 30, 2004
Just a couple of quick things. Firstly, I bought my second iTunes song: On Her Majesty's Secret Service by the Propellerheads. I'm not into that techno sort of thing, but it's a good remix of a classic song that I've been looking for FOREVER.

Secondly, it looks like I'm finally going to get that vacation I've been dying to take, because I'm probably going to Tokyo on the 18th of May for a few days. I can't wait to go. I love Japan, but I haven't gone there as much as I'd like. Plus I get to pretty much explore on my own for the first time. I'm really, really excited, so hopefully this won't fall through!

Posted at 3:00 AM

Monday, April 26, 2004
I went to see 50 First Dates today with Hersha and Laku, and... I liked it. Firstly, I do kinda like Adam Sandler movies. I'm not a total fan -- stuff like Billy Madison and Little Nicky is TOO stupid for me -- but in general, I've been a fan since Happy Gilmore. One of my favourite Sandler movies though was The Wedding Singer, where he toned his routine down a bit (which I reckon made it more effective). 50 First Dates copies that formula, right down to using Drew Barrymore as the romantic interest, but ups it a bit by toning Adam Sandler down even more and adding a lot of sweetness to the story. And it actually works, partially because Drew Barrymore is very good and the romance in it is quite inventive. And even though it starts with some typical retarded Adam Sandler jokes, it gets a lot better once it hits the story. Basically, it's about a commitment-shy guy who meets the girl of his dreams... only to discover the next day that she suffers from short-term memory loss due to a car accident a year ago and thus can't remember him or anything she did yesterday -- in fact, to her, "yesterday" is the day before her accident. And so rather than have her wake up to discover the horrific truth EVERY DAY, her family and friends construct a clever charade to keep her happily believing that every day is the day after her accident. And though it gets formulaic and predictable at times, it works because of their creativity in playing with her memory problems and his dogged determination to woo her for the "first time" every single day, and break her out of her cycle of repeating the same day forever. It also works because the normally INCREDIBLY ANNOYING Rob Schneider picks up the slack as the comic relief. Seriously, I hate him, but he's hilarious here.

Some crazy football happenings today too... Chelsea managed to totally blow a game they were dominating when Newcastle scored at the perfect times to win 2-1 and thus increase pressure on us for the last Champions League spot. They need to start flopping and SOON if we're to have an easy ride to that position. Anyway, Chelsea's loss meant Arsenal could claim the Premier League title with a draw at Tottenham, despite being 2-0 up early they stupidly conceded a super-late penalty to take a 2-2 draw and the title. The big Spanish game was totally wild. Real Madrid desperately needed a win and played Barcelona off the park but young keeper Victor Valdes stopped EVERYTHING that flew his way. And when Real did make the breakthrough via Solari, it really wasn't a surprise to see a rare Barcelona attack tie the game up again at 1-1. Real just couldn't break Barcelona down, and with three minutes to go Ronaldinho audaciously lobbed a pass right over the static Real defence for Xavi to poke home and seemingly kill Real's title hopes. Seemingly, because two hours later co-leaders Valencia could only manage a surprise draw away, putting them only one point clear of Real. Still all to play for in Spain!

Posted at 6:17 AM

Sunday, April 25, 2004
So I was supposed to pick up my surround sound system today, but... didn't. My dad and sister were due to fly out to Bangkok in the early afternoon, but decided to delay at the last minute to the late flight. Therefore, everyone who woke up early (look, 11am is EXTREMELY early for me) then kinda shrugged their shoulders and went to sleep, while the car was kept busy all day for various "critical" tasks like taking Roni for a haircut. So the entire day was totally wasted, and my chance of buying the set goes for another week (since the driver is off on Sundays and nobody has any time during the week).

In much better news, Liverpool went up to Manchester and beat Man United 1-0 on another Danny Murphy goal -- a penalty this time, the first scored at Old Trafford by an opposition team in almost ELEVEN YEARS -- putting us in a rather good position for the Champions League spot. It was a really boring game though. We shaded it in the end, thanks as always to Steven Gerrard (who is pictured below being chopped down by Gary Neville for the penalty), but it wasn't a good game by either team. We did defend rather well though.

This is turning out to be a season of ironies for us. We focused on Chelsea's flashy new signings in the first game of the season, and then let old nemesis Hasselbaink score the winner; we started playing the attractive, attacking football everyone called on us to play, only to lose more than we used to; we've taken more shots than any other team in the league, yet we have a poor goalscoring record; our two most criticised players, Cheyrou and Heskey, combined to give us a win at Chelsea, a ground we NEVER win on; everyone expected us to face a tired Arsenal in the second half at Highbury, but after going in 2-1 up at half time were blown away 3-0 in the second half; and now, winning at Old Trafford via a penalty -- when missed penalties have been our biggest problem all season.

Of course, the ultimate irony would be if we manage to blow our Champions League place not to the team everyone expects us to fight it out with, Newcastle, but to the likes of Aston Villa. Which is entirely possible, seeing as they're two points behind us and on a ridiculously good run.

And last but certainly not least... I bought my first song from the iTunes Music Store. After much deliberation, I decided to go with a sure thing: A live performance of U2's classic Beautiful Day from Slane Castle, Ireland (if you have iTunes, you can go to the song and preview it by clicking that link). The whole experience was quick and painless -- click Buy Song, put your password in again, the song downloads within 10 seconds and is dumped in a new Purchased Music playlist. And that's it. It's now mine to do (almost) whatever I want with it: Transfer it to my iPod, burn it to a CD, or add it to my iMovies/iDVDs. The only restriction I have really is that I can't share the song with whoever I want. Which, er, is not something I'd do anyway. Honest.

Posted at 3:19 AM

Saturday, April 24, 2004
I made another TV appearance this morning, and so I've put the file up for everyone to see in Movies. It's a Trends segment talking about the rise of malicious Bluetooth uses: Bluejacking, Toothing, and Bluesnarfing. Includes some bonus video of me looking really creepy!

There was a party at the Harilela House today for my primary school principal, Mr. Davies. He's retiring this year and he's pretty much seen everyone in the family through Kowloon Junior School -- he's been there longer than I can remember, and has at the very least served right from the start of my time there (1986) to my little brother's last year there (2004). He also really doesn't look all that old, oddly enough. Hair is whiter and he's a bit fatter than before, but generally the same sort of age. The bottom line is though that he was a great principal and a really nice guy in general, so I really wanted to go to the party... except as you all know, I work late. As soon as my shift ended, I raced to the house and managed to arrive JUST as a bunch of teachers were getting into taxis to leave, and the last one in was... Mr. Davies. It was only a brief meeting, since his taxi was waiting, but it was good to see him again and certainly better than nothing, so I'm glad I managed to make it back in the nick of time (which also means that the ridiculous taxi fare I paid was worth it!).

Posted at 2:22 AM

Friday, April 23, 2004
Couple of cool techie things to report, so I'll give a quick update and then leave you with some cool stories. Firstly, I'll be on TV again tomorrow morning, and rest assured I'll be linking the movie file here so you can check it out. Secondly, major MAJOR thanks to my Auntie Jasmin and Uncle Mahesh for their birthday present (cash money bling bling), and to Leo for giving me an iTunes Gift Certificate! I'm rather excited by the iTunes coupon because now I can finally participate in that much-balleyhooed legal music download arena (stores like iTunes are restricted to US credit card holders -- which Leo is... but not me, naturally). Now my problem is what to buy. Every time I see something interesting I just think it might be better to, you know, get it for free. What should I buy? What would YOU buy? Put your suggestions in the comments section... and I'll update the site with whatever I've bought.

The other cool thing is that Google (via Blogger) invited me into the Gmail beta test! Awesome! Can't wait to kick the tires and see what's so new and different about it. Incidentally, when I tried to sign up my username as "ravi@gmail.com", it informed me that my username had to be 6-30 characters long... and then suggested the following names (in order):

ravi.hiranand
hiranand
rhiranand
ravister

Spot the odd one out there. Incidentally, I picked the first name.

Two great links for you. The first is from the BBC, which finally highlights just how stupid all those studies streaming out that claim certain foods are better or worse for you or cause lower rates of something or another in a story here. Their examples include pizza reducing the risk of mouth and colon cancer and curry preventing colon cancer. Every week I swear there's something new in the press claiming that Food X prevents Illness Y and thus is now a good thing. Hell, that story says BEER is good for you (helps lower cholesterol). Bottom line: It's all nonsense. Yes, some foods do help in some way or another. But some also do more harm than good. As much as I love pizza (and I do, it's on the menu for dinner tomorrow night...) the side-effects surely outweigh the benefits.

The second link MUST be seen to be believed. Seriously. You have to click this and see it. It is totally, 100% legitimate -- CNN Tokyo actually did a story on it earlier in the year. It's a Japanese Naval Recruitment ad. And yes, those sailors are shaking their hips, dancing and singing SEAMAN SHIP FOR LOVE.

Remember to put your iTunes recommendations in the comments section!

Posted at 5:30 AM

Tuesday, April 20, 2004
So, it was my birthday today. Thanks to all who remembered; no worries to those who didn't (i'm awful at remembering birthdays myself). I didn't really want to do anything, but quite a lot ended up happening.

Firstly, I was dragged out to lunch. I'm not a huge lunch fan because although I start work at 3pm, I like sleeping in as much as possible... like, past lunch if possible. And since it's my birthday, I figured I should do things as I enjoy them most, right? Wrong. So we went off to a Japanese restaurant in the Island Shangri-La for lunch. I'd give you more details (like the NAME of the restaurant) but to be honest I was feeling so sick before lunch that everyone actually left without me, leaving me to come 45 minutes later. On the bright side, the tonkatsu was REALLY good and I felt a lot better during lunch, if not after lunch -- though the chocolate birthday cake that they shoved my way the second I finished my tonkatsu (seriously) migh thave something to do with it. Soy sauce and chocolate don't taste too good together, you know.

So then I get to work. I didn't tell anyone there it was my birthday, which may seem odd to some but generally it's because I like to keep a low profile (which is ironic, really). I don't really like being the centre of attention or anything. Praise is always good, but too much makes me feel weird. Anyway, someone obviously told them because word of my birthday got out... and then the penny dropped when I was tricked to go outside a bit later only to see a cake and a massive platter of food waiting for me. It seems my mom called the Holiday Inn and ordered a veritable feast of cold cuts, pate, cheese and salmon for everyone to snack on, while the office chipped in for a cake for me. It was both cool and awkward at the same time: Though it was good to make everyone happy with a ton of free food, I felt somewhat uncomfortable that such a big fuss was being made over my birthday (when others seem to pass by fairly quietly). I just don't feel like I deserve it. Still, everyone was happy, so that's a good thing.

Throughout the whole day, one thing I stuck to was the fact that I did NOT want to go out. No way. I just wanted to go home and sleep. Or watch 24 and sleep. Either way... I did NOT want to go out. My family is rather more forceful though, and Rina got my cousins Hersha and Laku to drag me out for a few drinks... that turned out to be a bit more than a few drinks, firstly at Chapter 3 and then at Dragon-i with my parents. I was already a bit gone by the time I hit Dragon-i. So, just the one bottle of champagne we figured... which quickly became two... and suddenly a third just magically appeared (for free, apparently). Which is normally a good thing, but we were already well past drinking. Why doesn't free champagne appear when you want it to?!

Last but certainly not least... presents. I had a rather good selection. My sister got me a Snoopy DVD; my next sister down got me a Snoopy picture frame with a cool picture inside; my NEXT sister down got me an awesome little sign that says SILENCE when you light it up and thus has INFINITE uses around the house. My cousin got me cash money and another cool picture from a party we went to a few years ago. The big present though is coming this weekend: DVD player and surround-sound system, for home theatre audio. Awesome.

Oh, one moe birthday note: Today's actually a cool sort of day. See, I was born on April 20th, right? And this year is 2004, right? So the date is... 20/04/2004. Which is cool! Really, it is!

Posted at 11:08 PM

Monday, April 19, 2004
All football today, and it's all depressing too. Warning: I really need to rant, and I'm going to do so here. This will probably be very long and very boring if you don't care about football, so just skip this if you don't care. I just need to get this off my chest!

We start withnews that Diego Maradona, officially tied (says FIFA) as Player of the Century with Pelé, is in intensive care. Whether it's a drug overdose (as rumoured) or not is irrelevant; Maradona has been in awfully poor shape for years now. And it's very very sad, because I believe he was better than Pelé. Pelé was certainly very good, but he gets an awful lot of extra credit because he wasn't just a great player, he was also a great person and a true ambassador for his country and his sport. Maradona, on the other hand, is an unlovable bastard. He's almost Michael Jackson-esque in a sense: His current grotesque state masks and really takes the gloss off the sheer brilliance of him in his prime. And his deterioration is shocking. Admittedly, the likes of Roberto Baggio and Lothar Matthaüs playing on to the age of 38 is a rare sight in football, but when you consider Maradona is only 43 it's pretty unbelievable to see how far he's fallen. And yet, on what he's given us... I still rate him as the finest of all time.

The other depressing football subject is (guess what?)... Liverpool. We're just blowing chances left, right and centre to grab the coveted 4th place in the league. The thing is, I'm not even sure grabbing that 4th place will be a good thing for us. No doubt you're probably confused right now, so give me a minute to explain.

Liverpool have had a bad season, and are definitely out of the running for the league title. We also have no hope of finishing any higher than 4th. Sounds like it's pretty much all over, right? Right. And wrong. Because while we may not win anything this year, the top four teams in the league gain entry to next season's European Champions League. Entry to the Champions League is ridiculously important because mere participation in it -- much less success -- means you're suddenly entitled to a fortune in TV fees. Big clubs NEED to be in the Champions League every year to maintain big budgets and expensive squads.

Look at the fall of Leeds United as an example. They reached the Champions League, and then spent millions of pounds on an expensive team thinking they'd be in it every year. Except when they missed out the next year, they went into freefall and have only just been rescued from going bankrupt. The team itself is a shell of its former self and is currently fighting off relegation.

There are also knock-on effects. Because of the prestige (and the money), players want to play for clubs in the Champions League. You're playing against Europe's elite, and you're with Europe's elite clubs. If you're not in the Champions League, that means you're not in the top four in your country. And let's face it, if you're not in the top four you're not exactly likely to win anything next year are you? Being in the Champions League can also change a team's destiny entirely. Look at Chelsea. They beat us to the Champions League on the last day of the season last year, and it's been widely acknowledged that Roman Abramovic only really took to Chelsea because they were in the Champions League. And would the likes of Veron, Crespo, Mutu and Makalele have switched to Chelsea so quickly had they not been in the Champions League? Despite Abramovic's money, I'd argue they'd have definitely thought a lot longer and harder about it.

For us, we've got a direct ultimatum from Auxerre's brilliant young defender Philippe Mexés, who I reckon is the answer to all our current woes and is also the finest young defender on the continent: I won't sign for Liverpool unless they reach the Champions League. And then there's plenty of talk that Michael Owen will walk away from Liverpool if we fail to reach the Champions League... and can you blame him at all? I can't.

So, it seems imperative that we should reach it, right? Well... maybe not. There's something not right at Liverpool. It's strange, because just two years ago things were going perfectly. In 2001 we clinched a Cup treble (UEFA Cup, League Cup, FA Cup) -- OK, nothing like Man U's 1999 Treble, but still a leap ahead of anything we'd done since our last league title. And the next year we went one better by bumping Man U out of the top two for the first time in YEARS to finish second to Arsenal with a points tally that'd have won us the league more often than not. So all seemed well, especially when we sprinted off to an early Premiership lead in the 2002-2003 season... but then we collapsed. I kept faith, thinking it was a blip, but it's the same story this year. Something isn't right, and nobody can put their finger on exactly what it is ("a lack of consistency" is not in itself a reason, because it doesn't actually tell you what's wrong -- it's like saying "not winning" is why we're doing badly). So whatever happens, we need to address our problems. But the thing is, if we finish 4th... will we really overhaul the team and take a long, hard look at what went wrong? Or will we patch things up slightly and pretend that there are no serious problems? I have a feeling it'll be the latter.

Except it's no guarantee that scrapping the current team and the current manager will actually result in a better end product. It might just be that -- since we STILL have all the pieces of our successful teams of 2000-2002 -- we need a bit of refitting and a new focus to kick the current team back into the groove they were in almost two years ago now (was it really that long ago?). So I'm stuck in a quasi-pseudo-dilemma here... I'm rooting for Liverpool to hit that fourth spot naturally, but I get the feeling we're still totally doomed. But the alternative of rooting AGAINST Liverpool in the hope that a complete overhaul gets us back on track and back with some hope is also too agonising to think of. I'm doomed, really.

So, so depressing.

Posted at 11:37 PM

Sunday, April 18, 2004
OK, lots to catch up on. Firstly, Starsky and Hutch was AWESOME. Really, really funny stuff, as you might expect from a film starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn; directed by the guy behind Old School; and featuring bonus appearances by Will Ferrell and The Dan Band. Even Snoop Dogg was funny. Unfortunately, nobody else seemed to think so. The film came out here on Thursday and there were only six other people in the cinema. It might have something to do with the odd fact that in Cantonese, Hutch is apparently named "Fit", according to the subtitles.

In other news, I've been catching up on 24. My much-publicised (on here, anyway) disillusion with the direction of the third season burnt me out back in January, and though I kept downloading new episodes I didn't care enough to actually WATCH them. It says something about how I was feeling about 24 that I left it on a pretty good cliffhanger for months on end. Well, I finally decided to start catching up, and it looks like I picked a great place to start doing it. The next two episodes were pretty good and I'm now looking forward to watching a few episodes every night now until I'm up to speed. I guess I just needed a break before I could get hyped up again, though I do maintain that this season isn't nearly as good as the last two.

I went to a huge party in Hong Kong on Friday night. It's Louis Vuitton's 150th anniversary this year and they celebrated with four parties in four cities: Paris, New York, Tokyo, and... Hong Kong. They put up a huge tent in the shape of a Louis Vuitton case on the site where Prince Charles officially marked the UK's military withdrawal from Hong Kong and invited a couple of thousand people to party the night away inside. I snapped a couple of pictures of the inside of the tent, though I apologise for the quality of the pictures: I only decided to go at the last minute, so the best I could do was snap a couple of pics with my PDA's camera, which isn't the best in normal conditions but even worse in low lighting (as you can see below!).

Unfortunately, I turned up rather late to the party and although there were a lot of people there enjoying the music and the free champagne, things were winding down. I was late for two reasons. Firstly, as you know, I only get off work at 11pm. This isn't a huge problem, since Hong Kong is a fairly late-night sort of place, but I was stuck at work for an HOUR waiting for my sister Rina to change and get ready for the party (it's not like she didn't have UNTIL 10:30PM TO GET READY or anything). And it turns out we missed quite a lot. Kelly Rowland performed alongside some trampoline troupe (bizarre, but good... apparently), and then they managed to make an Eiffel Tower model out of a bunch of Louis Vuitton suitcases, which you can kinda-sorta see in below's picture. I thought that was vaguely cool before I heard that all the cases that made up the tower came out of one case originally. Which is actually pretty cool.

Still, it was a good night overall. I think fully half of all the partygoers actually knew my mother, so she couldn't walk more than a step (LITERALLY) without stopping to say hi to someone. As nice as it is to meet so many important people and powerful contacts, it gets really tiresome after a while, so I found a group of colleagues from CNN and hung out with them before heading off to Kee Club to finish the night. Or their night, at least. It being only 3am, I still had a bit left in me so I headed off to Drop to meet up with my mom and sister again. Now, I know at super-late hours there aren't too many places to go in Hong Kong (Insomnia and Drop seem to be it, and Insomnia tends to be filled with hyper-drunken riffraff and US Marines on shore leave), but Drop is really an awful place. It's in a poor location, tucked in a nondescript sloping alleyway a fair trek away from anything else and it is by far the most crowded club I have ever been to. It took us TWENTY minutes to get to my mom's table, and this is a tiny club. Even Dragon-i with Real Madrid (Beckham and all!) wasn't as crowded as this, and you can forgive Dragon-i for those exceptional circumstances. This was just ridiculous.

Also ridiculous this weekend was Liverpool... but that's a story for another day. Like tomorrow. Maybe.

Posted at 11:10 PM

Thursday, April 15, 2004
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I saw The Girl Next Door, and... it's actually really funny. For those not in the know, it's about a boring-but-well-meaning overachiever in high school who falls in love with the girl next door. Naturally, not only does she turn out to be a troublemaker who falls right back in love with him, he also finds out later that she's a former porn star. How will madness this go over with our straight-shooting by-the-book hero? Cue insanity and hilarity. Yeah, it's pretty formulaic. But it's clever, funny, fairly raunchy (in a clean way -- go figure), has a kicking soundtrack, and it's tinged with an undertone of sweetness that's light enough to make you go "awww" rather than "bleeeeech".

Incidentally, one of the main character's best friends in the film is patterned after my cousin Kavi. Seriously. I swear, it's him. Obsessed with porn. Obsessed with sex. Likes to say "So did you bang her?" whenever you mention seeing anyone vaguely good-looking, only to follow it up with "Be a man! I would have!" when you reply in the negative every time (and like Kavi, he definitely wouldn't have followed his own advice). It's so close I'm honestly a little worried.

It's also hard to dislike a movie with such a surprisingly good soundtrack. Teen/high school comedies are usually filled with current chart-toppers -- and rightly so, you'd figure. But within the first 10 minutes, you hear David Bowie/Queen's Under Pressure and Echo and the Bunnymen classic The Killing Moon. You know you're in for a good time after that.

Oh, and Elisha Cuthbert is really, really pretty in it.

Posted at 4:30 AM

Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Yesterday's addition of the Movies section of the site naturally caused all sorts of stupid bugs with the site, so if you see any links going somewhere they shouldn't, tell me right away so I can fix it. I really, really hate Dreamweaver.

Other than that, not a lot has been going on. To be perfectly honest, this is because I'm just really, really tired. Totally fatigued and dead. I really need a holiday, but I don't see one coming anytime soon.

There is one neat thing to pass on though. Someone posted a great MP3 of The Beatles' classic I Am The Walrus sung by... Jim Carrey. Check it out:

http://www.goodcowfilms.com/web/06%20-%20I%20Am%20The%20Walrus%20-%20Jim%20Carrey.mp3

Posted at 3:00 AM

Tuesday, April 13, 2004
OK, another blog blackout... but this time I bring the consolation of a new section of the site: Movies. All my TV appearances on Techwatch for CNN are located right there, should you ever feel the burning desire to see me. Just, you know, in case.

Posted at 5:32 AM

Friday, April 09, 2004
Ugh. DON'T GET ME STARTED on the problems with the site. It's HOPEFULLY all sorted out now. Hopefully.

Posted at 2:57 AM

Saturday, April 03, 2004
Sorry for the intermittent updates -- if you hadn't noticed, the site has been up, down and flying around lately. It seems to have been resolved, but you never know.

Anyway, a quick update to show off more CNN TV work. I appeared in another Gadget Guy segment, this time on games. We took four hot new games (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Winning Eleven 7 International, 007: Everything or Nothing, and the Famicom Mini series) and showed them off on set, including some in-game footage (including a sweet Vieri goal scored by yours truly). You can find it on the Techwatch microsite at CNN.com under "Best New Video Games." While you're there, I also recommend checking out the "Need for Speed" story. It's a cool little story I worked on with Kristie on the accurate recreations of Hong Kong in two new games, Project Gotham Racing 2 and Gran Turismo 4. There are some great pictures in there (ESPECIALLY if you're a current or ex-Hong Kong resident), so do check it out!

And lastly, congratulations to Gaz and Sabb on their little surprise this week!

Posted at 7:07 AM