\m/ Godsmack - A Tribute \m/

I can't help but wonder why Godmack, such a godly awesome "Heavy" Rock band is so very less known and followed by hard and heavy rock and metal music fans !! I have asked many and they have of course heard of them; but back India, when I've been to gigs, none of the local bands ever played covers of Godsmack; more interestingly, they are hardly even spoken about in the Rock/Metal world than by few hardcore fans such as myself ! 

One of the things I like most about this band is the notably big difference in the singing style of Sully Erna, the front man and vocalist of Godsmack; which is I think is one of the purest forms of clean growling vocals. This is something which even death vocalists don't normally do. Death vocals - both the screech and growl versions, are something different altogether. It takes more practice, patience and even a whole of breathing and vocal exercises than clean singing; but blood curdling clean growls is something of the genetics than anything else and that I think is what distinguishes the singing style of Sully from others. Maybe this is also one of the main reasons why bands don't try to play their covers !!

They are widely popular in the US and are known to have some of the best live shows ever. They have been nominated for the Grammys several times and have toured around the world several times which have made them very popular. Well, this therefore sounds very paradoxical, when I say, their band merchandise is very rarely seen in the shops. I myself have inquired at many shops here in Australia , only to hear "Ah..Nah mate..we haven't got anything of Godsmack" ; I'm like why !!?? It is not like they don't know of the band here :P, but simply that they haven't got it. 

I had this feeling therefore that, I have got to do something in my own way to let at least a few random blog readers know of this band. Maybe something like a tribute in the form a blog post dedicated to one of the best ever in the business and one of the bands I have been most loyal to, ever since I started my relationship with rock music. I'm sure people who have listened to Godsmack, are absolutely psyched about them; but for those of you are new this band and are fans of rock music, this is one of the bands you shouldn't miss listening to; correction, Head banging to \m/ !

11 Personal Recommendations -  (For a complete experience, watch their videos !!)

1. Re-Align 
2. Straight Out of Line
3. I Stand Alone - Live version
4. Doing the Best I Can
5. Voodoo 
6. Changes
7. Serenity
8. Awake
9. Enemy
10. Releasing the Demons
11. Speak

\m/ Peace \m/,

$ur

Coffee Shot

People,

I'm going to tell you something which I experienced today evening, while attending one of my classes here at the University. Well, the class was on Automotive Electronics. Well, the name sounds more interesting to me and it might even look nice like a brownie point , if I can put it under one of the course successfully passed, on my resume, but I tell you, it is a lot of pain !! Well, so as I was trying all I can to make the best use of the time in the class, I was failing again and again to get the much needed attention. 

Milan, our lecturer, has this very interesting way of saying "Very Good" when he feels satisfied or comes across something "beautiful", which generally is a technological marvel more than anything else !! So he was just hopping from one application to the other touching briefly upon the fundamental electronics principles in each. Anyways, to me, it was one thing hearing about the new electronic gadgets now becoming an integral part of a modern car, but another thing altogether, trying to comprehend the working of it at a level of transistors, diodes, Op Amps and what not !!! So the point is, there was too much of new information enough to make my mind boggle. One could notice almost every one in our class struggling to keep up (; which basically was because the majority had absolutely no background in Electronics being Mechanical Engineers :D ) with Milan, who as usual in his very jovial tone was smoothly cruising along uttering a "Very Good"  every now and then ! 

And finally, Milan gave us a much needed break. Off I ran to the nearest Turkish place to buy myself a latte !! It was meant to be more of a soother than anything else for my tired brain ! I have read previously about how the caffeine in coffee can stimulate your whole central nervous system, but experiencing it was a terrific feeling ! Well, the effect was pronounced or at least I felt it a lot more today than any time before, because there was a notable increase in the level of my concentration and attention span ! It was suddenly as if somebody put a decoder into my head (see, now I can even use electronics in my vocab, whoa :P !), as whatever sounded gibberish to me previously, made a lot more sense now ! It was like drinking a magic potion, lol ! I even tried to drink it slowly so as to take me through the entire class. Now as much as it sounds funny saying it now and maybe reading this :P, I really thought for a minute, I had found a permanent cure for my distraction ; a coffee shot !!

Peace,

$ur

Spreading the News !!

Hi All,

All this time, I have been reading stuffs on things that have interested me over the past many years. Off late, I have become a big fan of stumbleupon.com One of the many websites which have really let my imagination take flight, I must say, with the way it works. You just specify your preferences and press the tab that reads "stumble" and BOOM, it takes you on a magical journey.

I'm in no way exaggerating the wonder of the site. My friends to whom I have mentioned this before, would have noticed the sparkle in my eyes when I've spoken about the same :D. Internet is something that came into existence round about when I was 15 yrs old. I also made my first email account when I was that age and I can tell you quite confidently that I have by far seen and been to almost "all types of websites" which most normal and abnormal people know about ; or at least I thought I had !!

Stumbleupon was actually stumbled upon by me or rather an old friend of mine send me an invite at a time when invites to the many, now quite popular, social networking sites were a thing of everyday's email list. Most of such mails went swiftly into my email trash folder, with me not even batting an eyelid while doing so, everyday !! But this one, some how made it into the other list of websites, which I actually, out of the curiosity of the name, clicked to find out whether they were any good ! At that point of time, I must admit that, I wasn't driven enough to the point of boredom, to give the website a closer look than just make an account and then forget about it until a month or so back.

About a month ago, I was so bored of my daily routine of checking gmail, facebook and orkut (in that order) ; that I started to think, isn't there something new that can make you feel that the internet is still kick-ass the way it used to be when it started off !!??

That is when I rediscovered stumbleupon ! Well, again I set my preferences or more or less edited and added new preferences to my old list and BOOM, I was off, in the hope that I would find something interesting !! Well, the last few weeks, though were pretty good, in terms of finding new unexplored websites, which only few loyal patrons knew of ; today I stumbled upon something totally cool and mind blowing.

Yes, if you have already checked out the link, without reading the boring details I wrote till now :P, you already know of the site !! It is called Academic Earth. The site has free video lectures from leading Universities around the world - Yale, Berkeley, MIT etc.. to name a few, on a variety of topics to tickle your quest for knowledge !! I myself, being a big fan of Psychology, went straight into the psychology section to find something interesting. Though cynical I was of such sites, as some of you might also be, that nothing in this world comes free ; I was actually very surprised to find a whole list of video lectures, power point presentations and course material presented in the order they were taught to students of psychology at Yale University, available to the common man for free !!!!

I felt a spasm of excitement to let my fellow mates know of this site as soon I finished taking my first introductory lecture of the course !!!

So here I'm blogging about the way I used stumbleupon to find something useful as this. Who knows, you may find something better. Please do share if you do, as knowledge grows only if you share it ;)

Cheers,

$ur

Few thought trains..

People speak best when they are emotional !! Well, you might say that I'm talking about people here just so that I can report my own stuff in third person ;) Well, I'm part of that "people" too, I guess !!

Anyways, the point therefore is, So sometimes you just have to put some emotion into what you say, to communicate well ;) ! Well, just one of the things running through my head randomly just now.

Been missing blogging since sometime now. Hardly get anything to write, nor do I find it easy to express my thoughts. Into my final semester of my Masters Program and the project work had been keeping me busy the last few days. Now, I have sort of hit a plateau ; I need some feedback from now on to move forward with the research and simulation work I'm doing. Well, when I heard myself saying this out loud, I felt I'm complaining :), so I didn't let that leave me stuck; I have been doing other things !!

Last week or so, I was reading one of the posts of a fellow blogger; I was inspired to write.

I have always held a belief that, only if there is a volley of things to bustle your life, do you actually find time to do all the things that you love. Put in a more coherent manner, if you are busy, you are efficient and tend to manage a lot of things beautifully and simultaneously. Well, so if you can read between the lines here, I have made my point crystal clear.

Well, now it seems as though I have actually written a blog post out of just few thought trains ;) !!

Cheers,

$ur