Mass Effect has Effected me Massively

I've been spending a lot of time playing Mass Effect in this month. Started from April, now I've done beating all three games which took me more than 90 hours, and what a memorable experience it has been! Some of the greatest RPG moments of my life since playing Dragon Age: Origins. The only low point was the ending in Mass Effect 3; the last 20 minutes of the game, to be precise. That portion was really, really lame and I wish the developers dedicated a little bit more time in thinking out the finale. 

I am glad I started playing RPG games in 2009. Previously, I did not really understand the concept well, which caused a lot of frustration on my part. I remember buying Mass Effect 1 back in 2008, when the game was first released. I tried to play it like a FPS, and I desperately hated all the stuff outside the fights, i.e. walking from point A to B to talk to people and recruit them. I would skip all the dialogues, and did not wait to buy items or level up my companions. Result--premature death of the companions and my inability to progress much farther in the game. I think I stopped playing after I was sent to a distant planet where I was supposed to navigate the terrain using a rover. I didn't even know how to get my squad out of that car, and I got stuck in an area from where I could progress no more. Deeply pissed off, I uninstalled the game and didn't bother to replay it in about four years time.

I also remember getting pissed off at Garrus for inviting himself in to my squad. I thought "What the hell, I already have Ashley and Kaidan, why do I need you?" and so on. I hated every walk down (without throwing bullets) and I hated every conversation. I also made a female Shepard, which decreased the immersion value to a great extent. While I enjoy using female characters in RPG games a lot, but I know believe that at least the first play through should be via a male character, with whom I can immerse myself and do the role playing in a better way.

So the Shepard in Mass Effect was actually me--I was taking all the decisions, and Shepard was just letting others know. I recruited all possible companions and waded through all the missions of the three games, trying not to skip many side missions. I did skip some of them in ME1 due to the tedious navigation system, but I didn't miss any in ME3 and only missed a few DLC missions involving a hovercraft like vehicle in ME2.

Apart from a few design choice flaws, the entire trilogy is an RPG gamer's dream come true, and if you have the remotest interest in planets ans space travelling, you will love to immerse yourself in Mass Effect's world.

The only grievance I have is about the ending. It couldn't have been worse. I won't give any spoilers here, but I surely hope they can fix the damage done with the epilogue video they are currently making. 

No Trespassing

You Know what will happen to violators :D

Animal Jokes!

Animal Jokes from 9GAG

1. I have the necessary qualifications
2. Your qualifications are completely irrelevant
3. Don't listen to him, he's lying
4. The arguing is becoming unbearable
5. Indeed it's making my voice hoarse
6. Please horse when do you ever say something smart? Don't worry, I will wait.
7. Ouch!! Awkward!! 
8. I'm out of here! You are all getting me crazy
9. I'll pack your things
10. Let me know when you get there!

Random April Blog

I am in misery

There ain't nobody 

who can comfort me

Why won't you answer me

Your solace is slowly killing me

You really got me babe (2x)

Misery - Maroon 5

I was once interviewed by a guy (only once)--he asked me what inspires my writings, and without a doubt, I said "music". This might sound a bit strange because I've never heard anyone saying that music has inspired their writings. Most writers will mention other writers, and poets at the best, but for me, songs work best. 

Most songs contain a story or two within them, and I often feel like expanding upon the stories and characters described within the songs. One of my earliest, favorite writings is based on a song by The Beatles. The story is titled "No Reply", which is also the title of a lesser know Beatles song from their "Beatles for Sale" album. 

The story can be found here. Actually, I've started writing a sequel to that story. It's in the draft state, just like almost a hundred other unfinished blog posts. But I am keen on ending the story, and I think I might be lucky enough to get it published, too. 

Let's see. 

Until that job is done, I just want to write away my thoughts. Segments of Random Thoughts, as Amadergaan forum would say. SORT was a very popular thread in the Chit Chat section of amadergaan forum. There was a time when everyday I'd spent a significant time in that forum, posting witty, pointless and meaningless tidbits throughout the day.

It's been ages since I last visited that forum. This shows that you can get rid of any old habit if you really want to.

This year can be termed as the resurrection year of my writing. I've been writing a lot. Random blogs, and serious stuff, too. I still cherish the hopes of becoming a writer someday. I might start writing in Bangla, too, but that is a bit out of question right now.

If it's out of question, why did I write about it, then? Well, I feel like writing in Bangla, but I don't have the logistics available. I need a software and a keyboard with the Bangla characters embedded on the keys. I have the software in my laptop (where there's no Bangla keys) and the keyboard at home (where there's no software). If I can bridge the gap mentioned here, I might start writing in Bangla anytime now.

Yesterday (7th April) was memorable because I managed to pull off a lot of activities within a single day. For quite some time, morbid thoughts are haunting me. Whenever I go out with my parents, I have a stupid feeling that I won't be able to repeat the same again. I need to get out of these thoughts. I fear for my life, I fear for my parents, and most of all, I fear for my wife.

I know, I am being silly, but I just can't help myself in this regard.

Now back to yesterday. I took my dad and my wife to visit the doctor. On our way back, we stopped in Gulshan 2 Dhanshiri restaurant to have lunch. We ate Hilsha fish, assorted bhortas, rice and lacchi. The bill cam out to be approximately 3,000 taka. Now it's quite a lot for having a Bangladeshi meal, thanks to the Hilsha fish. Each piece was priced at Tk 400. That's quite outrageous, if you ask me. We can buy a whole Hilsha fish at that price. But the food was tasty and I have no regrets at all. My family doesn't feel the same way, though.

The waiter dodged our request for providing a menu--they said many items in the menu are not available, so you can ask me and I can tell you whatever is available. The mistake we made was that we did not ask for the price. That'd have saved us a lot of money.

However, it was a lovely family lunch. We were terribly hungry. On our way to Gulshan 2, we had to spend more than an hour being stuck in the road from American Embassy to Gulshan 2, the reason being a sudden desire of the government to wreck the roads and install some drainage pipes. One side of the road was cordoned off, and thus all cars had to be diverted in one single lane.

Results? Disaster and misery.

After having lunch, we went to Bata shoes and bought a two pairs of shoes for my wife, and then we returned home.

During the journey, our chauffeur informed us that he needs to go to his hometown immediately because apparently his parents were fighting and other family members got involved in the fight. His father beat his mother, but his aunts blamed her for the row, etc. etc.

So he's gone now, and today I came to the office via rickshaw. He left in a very critical situation; we have experienced bouts of the kalboishakhi jhor over the last few days, and I won't be too surprised if I have to skip office at least a day or two this week due to heavy rainfall in the morning.

I don't mind coming to the office on a rainy day, but I really can't come if it's raining and I don't get a vehicle. I almost always carry my laptop with me, and thus coming to the office on a rainy day without getting a proper vehicle is out of question. Even a CNG can get out wet if the rainfall is that heavy.

Once I reached home, I immediately got down to work. Well, work is a very subjective term. One man's work might be another leisure, and vice versa. What I did was that I installed a new game which me and my friends are hoping to play together, and I downloaded a new album

Acoustic Alchemy

I've been on the hunt for Roseland, the latest album from Acoustic Alchemy ever since it came out in September, 2011. Within this time frame, I visited Dubai and Thailand, and looked for the album in both places, but my efforts went in to vain. I also asked two colleagues of mine to look for it in India and Dubai, too (he went there after I did), but none of them could find the CD.

So out of desperation, I typed "download Roseland Acoustic Alchemy" in google, and voila, I foud a link from a new and still obscure file sharing site. The sight look suspiciously similar to now defunct Megaupload, and though feeling guilty, I couldn't stop myself from clicking the link. After 5 minutes of the usual crap (if you don't want to wait, buy a premium account), captcha verification and a few ads, I started downloading the 129 MB file.

After 15 minutes, I got treated to a brilliant album. I've listened to two tracks previously--Marrakesh and Roseland, thanks to Youtube. I really loved Roseland. The video was about Acoustic Alchemy playing the song live in a cafe, and I don't remember how many times I've watched in the last few months.

When I am at work, sometimes I listen to the preview files posted in Amazon for this album.

Naturally, one can imagine how elated I am right now to be able to listen to the album whenever I want, wherever I want--because I've inserted them in to my Ipod rightaway.

I will definitely buy the CD when I find it, but until then, pirated Mp3s will have to do the job. And wow, the some of the tracks are so nice! I've been listening to Roseland and Stealing Hearts on and on. I am sure the other tracks will "grow on" to me, but these two are exceptional.

The sound and composition of this album is quite different from their last album, This Way. I wrote an elaborate review of that album which can be accessed here.

I will write a full fledged review after listening through the entire album.

"Draw Something", the latest Android and Itunes App Store phenomenon has grown on to me as well. Everyday I am guessing other people's drawings and doing my own bit of finger painting. It's a fun app and a must have if you have an Android or an Apple phone.

Well, I guess that all from the randomness department for the time being.

I love to write and I will write again.

New Writing: The Rude Awakening

Please take a look at my latest writing below:

The Rude Awakening

I wrote it for a Quora board challenge. The challenge was to write a 250 word prose on a certain theme. The theme is given below:


And that is how he came to awake in the alley behind the Taco Bell, 400 miles away from where he last remembered being, wearing a nun's habit and clutching a naked Barbie doll. 


Please read and provide comments. In case the submission doesn't get approved, this will be the only record of this writing. 


I wanted to write more. In fact, I might elaborate the article sometime later. I already published a draft which actually had around 500 words. 

The albums that I'd like to take with me If I Were Stranded On a Desert Island With a Six CD Changer

Via Quora

In no particular order, these are the albums that I'd like to take with me if I were stranded on a desert island with a six CD changer.

I tried not to pick more than one album per artist/band:





1. Rubber Soul - The Beatles
Although I'd love to take along the entire catalog of Beatles songs, but if it has to come down to one album, this is the one I'd love to take. The songs have enough variety and versatility to serve the purpose at hand.



2. Dire Straits - Dire Straits
It is often true that the signs of a great band is most prevalent in their first album, and Dire Straits proves this point the most. Though most of the songs int he album don't belong to a "best of" collection, I still love them.



3. Legend - Bob Marley 
Perhaps the most definitive collection of the best songs Bob Marley has ever sang. 

4. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
One of the most adventurous journey a music fan can take. 



5. L A Woman - The Doors
Jim Morrison was very, very talented, but he was also very, very crazy. His last album with doors still leaves a heavy impact. 




6. The Best of Sixpence None The Richer - Sixpence None The Richer
I can't imagine living a life without hearing the sweet voice of Leigh Nash and pacifying strums from Matt Slocum

101 Qualities of Bangladeshi Women (Link Inside)

http://www.khobor24.com/?p=29258

Just go through the list. It's hilarious!

I take no credit for the article. I am just sharing it here.

A Quick Realization

I just realized today that most of the people that started blogging around the time I started have given up writing totally and "moved on" to other things.

Perhaps the social networks are to be blamed.

We now see more sporadic, short expressions like status updates and tweets instead of well thought and detailed blog posts.

Even I am seeing a rise in blogging activity on my part only after facing issues with social networks.

Even this blog entry is small :-)

Which are the ten greatest songs of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr?

Original

I've listened to most of their solo material, and the following list is based on my preferences. 10 songs per artist, in no particular order of preference. 

George Harrison had the best solo career; each and every song he wrote after the demise of Beatles are of great quality, both in terms of lyrical depth and brilliance of composition. 

Paul McCartney still writes and records, but compared to the huge discography he has managed to produce, the number of noteworthy post-Beatles material is small. 

John Lennon started off in a great manner, but lost his track after a while and started producing inferior sounding experimental tracks. He came to his senses and released his last great album "Double Fantasy" only to be shot down and killed brutally. 

Ringo Starr is not the star of his own show. It was quite difficult to single out 10 songs from his discography, but I could manage it somehow. Two songs stand out though, It Don't Come Easy (collaboration with George Harrison) and Photograph.

John Lennon

• Imagine
• 9 Dream
• Woman
• Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
• (Just Like) Starting Over
• Beautiful Boy
• Stand By Me
• Gimme Some Truth
• Instant Karma
• Dear Yoko

Paul McCartney

• Maybe I'm Amazed
• Coming Up
• Band On The Run
• Vanilla Sky
• Live and Let Die
• Another Day
• C'Moon
• Wonderful Christmas Time
• Ebony and Ivory (feat. Stevie Wonder)
• Say, Say, Say (feat. Michael Jackson)

George Harrison

• My Sweet Lord
• Blow Away
• All Things Must Pass
• All Those Years Ago
• This Is Love
• Cloud 9
• Any Road
• What Is Life
• Got My Mind Set On You
• Bangladesh

Ringo Starr

• It Don't Come Easy
• Photograph
• You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful and You're Mine)
• Back Off Boogaloo 
• No No Song 
• King of Broken Hearts
• I Was Walkin 
• The Other Side of Liverpool
• Peace Dream
• Walk With You

Bangladesh Tunnel Vision

I have personally felt that if you listen to the same song over and over, no matter how insipid your original reactions were, you start liking it. It means, the song has "grown on" to you. The greatest example of this phenomenon is the infamous song "Kolaveri Di". The stupidly catchy tune has managed to play in loops inside my brain more than once.


The same thing can be said about personal relationships, too. Let's say you hate a person to such an extent that even his/her shadow makes you annoyed. Let's call her "D". As you don't like D, it is natural that you will try to avoid her as much as possible. Maybe you will turn right when she is headed left, and maybe you will go to sleep when she has just awoken, etc. etc.

However, what happens when D is assigned as your boss? Or your day to day work depends on her close cooperation? You start meeting her everyday, and eventually chances are high that you start developing a liking for her (in a non-romantic way--usage of "her" instead of "him" has been emphasized solely on a random basis, and you, the reader might be a "she", too). Although you two become a good team, hints of your past bitterness and resentment stays, and sometimes gets exposed, too. However, work being the priority here makes things easier for you and you are prompt in ironing out any wrinkles that might have caused due to the unintended exposure of "true feelings"!

Logo taken from BTV Website

In a nutshell, time heals all wounds--no matter how deep they are. However, this doesn't work for me in the case of BTV; the national television channel of Bangladesh. I have desperately hated this channel from my youth, and the feeling of hatred has reached such a peak that it is now more comparable with apathy mountain and mount sympathy. Initially, it was a curiosity as to why a state run channel is so boring and lame, but then the feeling of antagonism started flowing in when we got exposed to cable TV.

Before the cable channels came in, BTV had monopoly business over TV viewership in Bangladesh. Just like many other monopolies of Bangladesh (e.g. Citycell), they took extreme liberties with what they wanted to feed the customers.

Watching a live cricket game on TV was almost always thrilling. Even though Bangladesh did not have the ODI or Test status, we still enjoyed watching our lads play against Pakistan or India during the Asia cup tournament. Also, the Abahani VS Mohammedan seasonal clashes for the Football league or Federation cup was always exceptionally thrilling. Actually, the football games were more frequent and popular back then. However, just like the perfect killjoy, BTV would step in with their stale, bigoted, biased and most uninspired brand of "News" every hour or so, effectively interrupting the live telecast.

Abahani 1 - Mohammedan 1--just 5 minutes left till the game ends. The time is 7:58 PM, and suddenly Kaiser Hamid has made a foul on Aslam--inside the D-box. Result? A penalty. Aslam is slowly advancing towards the penalty kickoff area. Suddenly, you see the "Smritishoudho" (Martyr Monument) and a music starts playing. That dreadful music....that blasted announcement of the abomination called "Raat 8 tar shongbaad". Just because of BTV, I have always hated a beautiful song like "Shob kota janala khule dao na".

My dad had a very handy AM/FM radio which would be frantically searched and activated during times like these. Sometimes Radio Bangladesh/Bangladesh Betar also betrayed--they'd also start broadcasting news. But in most cases, when live telecast was blocked out by news, radio came as the savior and instead of seeing the action, we would have to remain satisfied with listening to the commentaries from "Hamid bhai/Tawfiq bhai/Jafrullah Sharafat bhai", etc.

By the time the "news" is over, you can actually know the result of the game. BTV was not even generous enough to show the missed portion of the game later on. They would just move on to their crappy brand of drama and or musical shows pretending that nothing really happened in between. 


The anchors on news at 8 were truly jokers (shongs) and they should have been removed (baad) from live telecasts. Things got really comical during the English news telecasts. Wrong grammar, incorrect pronunciations, heavy reliance on cliche and usage of archaic vocabulary made the "News at 10" a true assembly of duffers and dumb peoples. I even had to bear watching the most horrific of scenes--a newscaster picking her nose thinking that she was offline. I even got to hear another person alerting the nose picker.


Thanks to the plethora of cable channels and the blessed internet, I no longer need to rely on BTV for anything!


Recently, however, I have been forced to watch some live telecasts on BTV. Reasons? Either no cable channels were showing the game I wanted to see or those channels were not available in my cable network. I painfully realized that nothing has changed when it comes to BTV. I really feel sorry for the people who lack the freedom of choice during watching the TV.

A problem with our nation is that we are often good at doing the wrong things. When you go to a concert or any cultural program, it never starts on time. Either the musicians are too busy "jamming" or they just don't show up on time. To make things worse, sometimes the "oh so busy I can't buckle up my shoes" chief (read cheap) guest who is supposed to inaugurate the event has forgotten the day and time and forgot to show up.


These are atrocities, and they are no less in number. I am yet to see a public or private event start on the billed time, i.e. no wedding ceremony has actually started at 7:30 PM sharp, nor did it end before midnight. Also, you never work from 9 to 6, it is either 10 to 9 or 9 to 9 or some other, random, overtime filled working hour.


However, when it comes to showing us the abomination, BTV has remained super efficient. In my whole life, I haven't seen the BTV miss even a single episode of this show(!). Even when the whole nation was gloating in darkness, BTV still showed 8 tar shongbad! No matter whether it's rain or sun, or even snow(!), BTV will show you 8 tar shongbad and news at 10.


Surprisingly, BTV is very much a neutral organization. No matter whether it is BNP or AL, they still side with the government. They are the most unbiased and inelastic organization in Bangladesh.  No matter what the situation demands, they will refrain from criticizing the government. They are never biased towards any political parties, they are impartial to the government.


So basically, BTV has become like Pravda, which acted as an unofficial propaganda machine of the Soviet communist party. (Joke) Nepoleon was heard saying that if he had a newspaper like Pravda, people would not even know that he lost the war in Waterloo.


By the way, BTV has a website(!). Surprise! Surprise! According to the site, their objective is:


As a state run organization, it is accountable to the mass people of Bangladesh. It aims at the development of the lives of the people and socio-economic progress through its creative programs. The core objective of Bangladesh Television is to dissemination of information, extension of education, motivation for development activities and entertainment are the major principles followed by BTV for its broadcasting. National and international news, documentary and development programs and various entertainment programs are aired by BTV. For international news BTV gets supports from international News agencies and broadcasters. On the other hand, BTV imports some foreign entertainment programs. However, for national news, documentaries and entertainment programs, BTV produces programs by itself. Besides, local production houses have come forward with their productions and BTV televises the programs on terms and conditions agreed to both.


Tunnel vision (Also known as "Kalnienk Vision") is the loss of peripheral vision with retention of central vision, resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision. This is what is wrong with BTV. Instead of being a television channel, they have turned in to a tunnel vision channel.

Resolutions Revisited/Reloaded/Rehashed...or Whatever

This link refers to a blog post I wrote 5 years ago. I wrote about some resolutions in that classic blog post. It amazes me to see how my life has changed over just half a decade. Expectations from life has changed, priorities have changed and as a whole, I am changed man. What I was doing in that blog was basically a self-evaluation of 2006 resolutions I set for myself. Won't it be fun to revisit and review those same, 5 year old resolutions? I'll write the new comments in normal font and italicize the old ones.

# I’ll learn swimming

I started, but never finished. It's really sad, because I was really enthusiastic about learning to swim. Now it's so bitterly cold that even imagining about getting inside the water makes me scared. I can swim short distances, but I haven't yet learned the trick of breathing under water.

I am as far as reaching the moon as learning to swim. I don't think I can ever get enough time to go back and complete the swimming lessons, unless there's a dramatic change in my lifestyle. Also, the swimming pool where I started to take lessons some 3 years ago has been filled up and made a commercial plot, so the only option for me to learn swimming is now not an option anymore. 

# I’ll go visit Rangamati

Didn't happen. However, I went to Bandorbon instead.

Well, looking back, this should have been easily addressed. I went to many places home and abroad in the last 5 years, but for some reason, this prominent tourist location of my home country has still managed to remain elusive.

# I’ll propose someone (?!?!)

:-)

Haha, the funny one! I did propose someone and now I am a married person. In fact, 2 years have passes since me and my fiance got married. The smiley up there was a vain attempt to show the world that something mischievous was going on!  

# I’ll drink Cognac (!)

I did. The experience was really nice. It's totally different from any other drink I've had so far.

Nope, I was kidding myself. The experience was not nice at all. Most alcoholic beverages I tried had a bitter taste, and this one was the worst. The acid like substance simply burned my throat while it went down and I won't ever get near that thing, again. 


Just for the record, I totally gave up the minimal amount of drinking I used to do on social events. 

# I’ll start my MBA

I started, and one semester is over. I really had a tough time balancing work, MBA and other stuff.


I finished the coursework for my MBA, but I am still stuck without completing the dissertation. I will get it done this year. Or to be more specific, within first quarter 2012. 

# I’ll try going abroad

I went to India on a business trip. No imminent plans for permanent departure, though.

So that was the beginning of my overseas travels. I have been blessed and lucky enough to go abroad multiple times both on official and personal accounts. Since writing that blog, I've been to India 4 times, Malaysia 3 times, Nepal 2 times and to Egypt, Lebanon, Dubai, Thailand, Indonesia once each. Life has treated me well. 

# I’ll try to be nicer to my friends

Am I really trying? I don't think so. Actually I've been acting very mean and weird towards my friends lately. If this goes on, I'll be losing a lot of friends in near future. Sad, really sad.

Fortunately for me, I haven't lost many friends. The few I had to let go were actually "good to go". I mean, I have been better off without them actually. I lost a very dear one, but thankfully that friendship has repaired itself. Time heals everything--proven once again.

# I’ll be a better child for my parents

I've become an indifferent child. I don't usually face my parents much. I'm either at office, or hanging out with friends, or I'm hiding in my room spending time chatting, listening to music or playing games.

I don't really want to write much about this. I am glad to see that this is still a priority for me, albeit not taken too seriously. 

# I’ll become a millionaire (this I believe, will not be possible at all)

lol..what a joke! It's still a joke.

If being a millionaire means accumulating 1,000,000 Taka, I've been there and done that. But being a "millionaire" in its truest form is still far, far away. 

# I’ll buy a car (if I try doing this, number 9 will not happen)

Not this year; not now. Too little too early.


Done this in 2007.It's becoming very difficult to maintain, though.

# I’ll get out of my game addiction

Succeeded to a great extent. I can spend days without playing games, and not feeling distressed.


I never actually had an addiction (grins). With renewed interest, I keep playing video games. My wife gave me an xbox360 in 2010, so now I have more options to fiddle with.

# I’ll be more honest and truthful

Others might be able to tell.

I think I am on the right track. 

# I’ll write 2/3 more stories

I kinda gave up writing :(

I haven't even attempted writing a story in the last 3 years or so. All I wrote are blog posts that no one read, a few articles that got published and a lot of answers on Quora. 

# I’ll read all the books from Harry Potter series

This is done. The first resolution to be completed.


I have read the books twice, except the last book--deathly hallows. Need to go through them once more. Will start on them as soon as I am done with reading the unread books I have at home. 

# I’ll try to have a 3.8+ CGPA in my MBA

I dunno, haven't yet checked the grades. Will be damn challenging.

# I'll lose some weight and I'll do regular exercise

Didn't happen. Will it ever happen? I lost many things due to this, and I hear the most comments about me being bulky.

I did lose some weight, but no regular exercising. I still can't force myself to get in to an exercising regime. Too busy and occupied for that. 

# No more procrastination!

This thing never gets away totally. I can only minimize it to some extent.


The situation has improved a lot, undoubtedly. Thanks to a meditation book bought from Nepal, my concentration level has increased, and I can often single out the important information from a noisy environment. 


So that's it. Yet another random blog from me. 

War Is Over

The Bangla translation of the evergreen slogan of John and Yoko:

Pic collected from Yoko Onno's flickr account

All rights belong to them, I am just sharing a great thought.

What is My Favorite Pink Floyd Single?

This is a difficult question to answer, considering the versatility and vastness of Pink Floyd's musical contribution. I have been listening to Pink Floyd on and off for the last 15 years or so, and my tastes and preferences changed as I grew up. I personally believe that really "getting in to" Pink Floyd is a very challenging task--their music, lyrics and overall style is quite complicated. They don't really have too many radio friendly love songs or happy songs that anyone can easily get into.

Saying all that, initially my favorite was Another Brick In The Wall Part 1 and 2.These are probably the most commercialized songs the band has ever produced, and without even apprehending the full context of the song, my teenage ears did not take much time to fall in love with lyrics such as "we don't need no education" and "no dark sarcasm, in the classroom, etc." 

As I grew older, I got exposed to better music, and I started looking at Floyd from a different perspective. I got introduced to the concept of concept albums throughDream Theater's Metropolis II: Scenes from the Memory, and I got totally blown away. That was when I heard "Wish You Were Here (song)" and the whole album. I believe this is one of the greatest rock albums ever made, and every time I hearWish You Were Here, goosebumps go through my spines. 

Other favorites include Hey You, Goodbye Blue Sky, Money, Time, Us and Them for different reasons. Hey You has the most soothing beginning and one of the most dramatic endings for a song. The lyrics is not too complicated, but the thoughts are deep and can be explained in different manners. 

I won't say much about Money as the song is just another elaboration of the "root of all evil" concept. I love the saxophone solos and the tempo of the song is technically proficient and it all boils down to being a great collaboration of extremely talented musicians. 

I never knew listening to a long song can be refreshing until I heard Us and Them. 

As you can see, it really is difficult to single out a favorite single, but if I must, I'd say "Wish You Were Here".

Honorable mention, as suggested by Parvez Rahman Chinmoy is "Comfortably Numb". It's a great song, and can be included in any "Best of Pink Floyd" collection

Sick About FPS Games...

I used to be a big fan of first person shooters, with slight preference towards arena games like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. I've spent hundreds of hours playing Q3A and UT since these games came out more than a decade ago, and recently I played through the Q3A (not team arena, the original game) single player campaign once again to reinvigorate my interest in FPS (first person shooter) games. I enjoyed every minute of playing Q3A; the final confrontation with Xaero was as good as ever, but unfortunately, that's as much as I could get my teeth in to FPSs.

I thought after replaying Q3A, I'd feel more interested to play through some modern FPS games like Battlefield Bad Company 2, Duke Nukem Forever, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, etc., but I couldn't really bring myself to playing any of these games. I did install and play DNF for a while, but even the new age Duke could not interest me much. I have been reading a lot of good stuff about MW3, and I also went to the store to buy it, but as soon as I picked up the DVD box, a silent alarm started ringing in my head which said "Don't waste your money, you'll never end up playing this!".

Instead of buying MW3, I came back home, dug my classics collection and re-installed a couple of old real time strategy games that I really enjoy(ed) playing. These are: Age of Mythology (AOM) and Lord of The Rings: Battle for Middle Earth (LOTR: BFME). I already finished AOM and AOM Titan's campaigns and I started playing the evil campaign in BFME, which I've always wanted to beat but never ended up doing.

I had a blast playing AOM and AOMT as I'm now an experienced gamer. When these games first came out, my primary objective was to beat them as soon as possible so that I could move on to other games. That was when I was still in my 20s. But now, at this point of time in my life, instead of having a rushed lunch, I wanted to try a relaxed meal with starters, 2nd dishes, desserts and even coffee, which resulted in a bigger and better playing experience.

I discovered a lot of optional quests, previously unseen areas, eccentricities and new ways of winning the same battles. The memory of my last gameplay was quite vague, as it's at least 8 years old, but still glimpses came back to me while I was playing, and I found some of the rather tough and irritations missions to be quite intriguing and innovative. Instead of rush based battles, I followed more turtling, and only attacked the enemies when I had a sizeable force, which means upgraded units with all sorts of armors and weapons. Previously I solely concentrated on the mythological units, but this time around, my armies were balanced and often the human units played a better part in the battles.

Both of the above mentioned games are quite old. AOM was released in 2002 and BFME in 2006. I played AOM campaign twice before (I did not finish the 2nd playthrough) and BFME good campaign twice. When I was playing BFME, memories of the movie was fresh in my mind and I just couldn't force myself to be on the evil side and watch the hobbits and the members of the fellowship die helplessly.

However, this time around, I am happily killing the good people and having a blast trying out the different unit combinations of Isengard and Mordor army. BFME was built upon a modified C&C: Generals engine, which has served Electronic Arts (EA) quite well. In fact, versions of this engine was used as recently as in the expansion for Red Alert 3, which is still a relatively new game.

Before getting in to the RTS games again, I've spent a significant time playing only RPG games. I believe I've spent the better part of years 2009 to 2011 Q2 playing Neverwinter Nights, Witcher, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. I am still playing DA2, and even after 5-6 playthroughs, I still enjoy the battles. Albeit the story has become stale and nowadays I skip most dialogues. The new expansions (Mark of The Assassins and Legacy) are quite interesting, though.

Especially, Mark of The Assassins was a welcome change of pace and I look forward to playing it again. However, it is pretty much frustrating in one aspect--you need a high lever player character before attempting the expansion, or else you will keep on dying. Even with a healer character, all my companions died in my very first battle when I tried beating MAO at around level 5 or 6.

Unlike DA:O expansions, MAO can't be played after beating the main game. That is, you can't play it with your previous save games. Thus even if you've beaten the game with a two handed warrior before, you can't use him to play MAO--you need to start a new game with a new incarnation of a two handed warrrior in order to play it, and which also means you have to level up this new character up to at least 10-15 levels (beating Act 2 will take you there) until you get a feel of Talis, the new female companion available in MAO.

I've also bought and installed Stronghold 3, the new version of an old castle building game, and I am finding it quite frustrating. There are two types of campaigns in the game, military and economic. I started off with the economic campaign, and I had to leave the game within 15 minutes--cause a rogue bear massacred my whole city! I thought this was the "economic" campaign where I was supposed to focus on resource gathering and building, but I didn't realise that the poor villagers needed protection, too. I had the poor excuse of a lone soldier; a settler with a weird looking pike (which actually resembled a rake rather than a pike) who was killed by a solitary pawing attack from the rabid bear! Even the apple farmers were tougher, they ran for their lives and took a couple of blows before going down.

I am yet to read a review of Stronghold 3; I just bought the game because I wanted to play a new RTS game. I also bought Cities XL 2011 sometime ago, but that game didn't really interest me much due to the sub-par graphics and complicated gameplay. I found the learning curve for Cities XL to be a bit higher than my current patience level.

As for SH3, I just read the wiki and found out that the game is heavily bugged and there's already a number of patches out. I guess I should apply the patches before attempting it again.

So I guess that's the current gaming update from me. It's been a while since I wrote anything like this, and I am feeling good after getting this done.