Once you own a Mac, there’s no reason why you should be forced to chat with your friends and family on Windows Mac Messenger or by using a third party application like Adium. Not when you can do the same on iChat itself. I, for one, have loved the conversation window of iChat long before I even owned a Mac.

Follow the instructions below to setup your Live Messenger contact list on iChat. 
 

1.   Download Psi (a Jabber client application) and drag it to Applications folder and then launch it. Click Register a new account.

2.   Create a Jabber Account with your choice of server. Here is the list of servers. I use binaryfreedom.info

 

3.   Change your status to Online.

 

4.   Choose Service Directory window.

5. From the Address contextual menu, choose im.thiessen.it and then double click on MSN Transport to add your Live Messenger login details. Click register.

 

6.   All your contacts will now be added to Psi and numerous pop up menus will show up with requests to Accept them or Decline. Click Accept for each one. Once all have been accepted, quit Psi.

7.   Launch iChat. Open iChat Preferences and click Accounts. Click the + at the bottom to add a new Account. Enter your Jabber account details.

8.   All your contacts will now be visible on iChat but with %hotmail.com@msn.im.thiessen.it  as their extension.

9.   Choose Show Info on every individual contact on iChat. Add their details and close the window. Contact names will now be correctly visible on iChat. For my convenience, I only change details of individuals, as they appear online.

10.   Enjoy using iChat.

In this new age of the Twittering and the Facebooking, where is the time left for a person to sit back and read a book. The study of language or literature seems to be reserved for poets, novelists or critics. Or some junior writer on a set who immerses it into sitcoms.

I refuse to let this electronic era make me stop from spending quality time with my classics. For this reason, I have deactivated my Facebook account.

In celebration of that, I’ve decided to share a list of books I currently own.
  

 

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Catalina by William Somerset Maugham

Hardcover    

First Edition    

Publication Date:         1948

 

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The Works of Shakspere by William Shakespeare

Hardcover        

Set number 188th from the only 500 copies existing in the world        

Publication Date:         1891

 

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Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1902

 

———————————————————————————

Descent of Man by Charles Darwin

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1903

 

———————————————————————————

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Hardcover    

Publication Date:         1969

 

———————————————————————————

Shakespeare’s Poems

Hardcover

 

———————————————————————————

Emma by Jane Austen

Hardcover         

Publication Date:         1894

 

 

———————————————————————————

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Hardcover         

 

———————————————————————————

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1897

 

———————————————————————————

Reprinted Pieces by Charles Dickens

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

The Life of Charles Dickens by John Forster

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

Four Plays by Oscar Wilde

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1944

 

———————————————————————————

Intentions by Oscar Wilde

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1947

 

———————————————————————————

Oscar Wilde by Leslie Stokes and Sewell Stokes

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

The Small Woman by Alan Burgess

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         Jan 1959

 

———————————————————————————

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni

Hardcover

Publication Date:         1952

 

———————————————————————————

Inferno by August Strindberg

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1912

 

———————————————————————————

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1944

 

———————————————————————————

Sixteen Self Sketches. by Bernard Shaw

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         Jan 1949

 

———————————————————————————

Shirley by Charlotte Bronte

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey by Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

We Die Alone by David Howarth

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1957

 

———————————————————————————

Stories From Greek Tragedy

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1913

 

———————————————————————————

The Entail Or The Lairds Of Grippy by John Galt

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         Jan 1913

 

———————————————————————————

The Seven Seas by Kipling Rudyard:

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         Jan 1896

 

———————————————————————————

Complete Stories and Poems of Lewis Carroll

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Holmes

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1928

 

———————————————————————————

Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1920

 

———————————————————————————

Cleopatra by Rider H. Haggard

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1914

 

———————————————————————————

Old Mortality by Sir Walter Scott

Leather Bound        

 

———————————————————————————

The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson

Hardcover

Publication Date:         1926

 

———————————————————————————

News from Nowhere by William Morris

Hardcover

Publication Date:         1910

 

———————————————————————————

The Poetical Works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1897

 

———————————————————————————

The Poetical Works by John Keats

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

The Poetical Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hardcover        

 

 

———————————————————————————

The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists by Thomas Dekker

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1894

 

———————————————————————————

The Republic Vol. I by Plato

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

The Republic Vol. II by Plato

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Paperback

 

———————————————————————————

English Dramatic Critics an Anthology by James Agate

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1932

 

———————————————————————————

The Oxford Companion To Classical Literature. by Paul Sir

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1962

 

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———————————————————————————

La Mer by Yoko Ogawa

Paperback

 

———————————————————————————

Charivari chez les p’tites poules by C. Joliboise, C. Heinrich

Paperback

 

———————————————————————————

La Petite Poule qui voulait voir la mer by C. Joliboise, C. Heinrich

Paperback

Publication Date:         Jun 2000

 

———————————————————————————

Les P’tites Poules: Nom d’une poule, on a volé le soleil! by C. Joliboise, C. Heinrich

Publication Date:   2008

 

———————————————————————————

Jean qui dort et Jean qui lit by Christian Heinrich, Christian Jolibois

Paperback

Publication Date:         Nov 2006

 

———————————————————————————

Easy French Reader by R. De Roussy De Sales, R. De Roussy De Sales

Paperback

Publication Date:         Oct 2003

 

———————————————————————————

Collins French Dictionary and Grammar 

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

French Dictionary by Wordsworth

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

 

 

 

 

———————————————————————————

The Meaning of Culture. by John Cooper. Powys

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         1932

 

———————————————————————————

Charles Darwin by Cyril Aydon

Hardcover

Publication Date:         Oct 2002

 

———————————————————————————

In the Freud Archives by Janet Malcolm

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

Classical Islam: A History, 600-1258 by Gustave E Von

Hardcover

Publication Date:         1970

 

———————————————————————————

Sacred Texts of the World: Universal Anthology. by Ed. Ninian

Hardcover        

Publication Date:  Jan 2009

 

———————————————————————————

The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Philip R.

Hardcover

Publication Date:         2002

 

———————————————————————————

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses by James Geary

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Paperback        

 

———————————————————————————

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet by Mark Lynas

Paperback           

 

———————————————————————————

The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century. Will Hutton by Will Hutton

Hardcover

Publication Date:         2008

 

———————————————————————————

Miss Chopsticks by Xinran

Hardcover

Publication Date:         Aug 2008

 

———————————————————————————

Beijing Coma by Ma Jian

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         Jan 2008

 

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Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond by Pankaj Mishra

Hardcover        

 

———————————————————————————

Three Cups of Tea by Greg/ Relin, David Oliver Mortenson

Hardcover        

Publication Date:         Mar 2006

 

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Little Hut of Leaping Fishes. by Chiew-Siah Tei by Chiew-Siah

Hardcover

Publication Date:         2008

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It’s been years since I’ve seen any form of advert that had all the elements in perfect sequence creating the right impact.

Then, yesterday, they released this advert of Keira Knightly championing Women’s Aid. Have a look and you be the judge.

I feel they should’ve changed the statistics line to “Two women are killed every week by domestic violence” instead of glorifying the killings by saying “Two women die every week from domestic violence”.

If you think this figure is shocking, you’ll be even more shocked to know that in the Russian Federation a woman is killed by domestic violence every 40 minutes. And across the world, every 18 seconds a woman falls victim to domestic violence.

Photo courtesy of www.hesjustnotthatintoyoumovie.com

Act I

He says he truly wishes he had met you before he got married. He says you make him fulfilled and he is most happy when he is with you. He says he is leaving his wife and kids to be with you. More than a year passes. He had given countless justification as to why he is still with his wife. But can there be anything in the world that can justify why you are resorted to being nothing but his cheap mistress while he has a loving relationship with his wife?

I’ve been meaning to write an analysis on the movie He’s Just Not That Into You since I watched it. At first I thought maybe I should write a synopsis before I delve deeper, but then decided that there are countless review sites online that has done so already. Which nicely allows me to just stick to saying what I want to with regard the movie.

I found the usage of the house that was being renovated the perfect depiction of the willing woman who is trying her best to make a failing marriage work. A marriage where the husband is cheating with another woman, while lying himself blind to that woman with claims of wanting to leave the wife.

The scene where the wife walks into her home, after having a surprise rendezvous with her husband in his office, was almost picture perfect. It was as if all the pieces of her life have fallen into its right place. Her husband wants to save their marriage and she is looking forward to their improved marriage. Their home is finally all set up, just waiting for them to start over again. Until she finds out his lie. This truly shows that there are things worse in a marriage than one partner cheating on the other. For her the ultimate betrayal is not he having cheated on her, but how he lied to her about his smoking.

The movie ends with some hearts broken, some people better off alone, some people back to their usual womanising ways and some people finding that special someone.

I advise my friends time and time again to refrain from jumping into marriage and to bring a stop to the trend where a girl is always someone’s daughter and then someone’s wife. Or always with someone. Life holds so much more and a woman should find herself before she decides to start a life with someone.

Moral of the story? To paraphrase the main character, happiness cannot be found by finding someone else, but only by finding oneself.

At its advent, they claimed Facebook was bound to change the way people communicated with the people they knew (or hardly knew).  The reservations I had back then seem to be based on what was yet to come. Oh the precognition of it all.

My reckoning back then was that the things people end up writing on their Facebook status could have detrimental effects. What with the “XX just had hot Indian curry and is too full to be working the rest of the day”, when there’s a pile of urgent things that needed your attention at work, to “XY just bungee jumped over a park with view of Windsor Castle” after pulling off a sickie at work, is bound to do more than just stir some ruffles on your boss’s back. At long last, people are now being made to face the consequences of those actions. When you thought things cannot get much worse, in walks the abuse of the relationship status.

When I read some of the things on people’s Facebook relationship status it makes me cringe with embarrassment. A mere mortal will have a hard time deciding which is worse. The one where a man is still dead set on keeping the façade of being in a relationship with the girl who has had amateur porn flick videos with two other men or the one where two straight girls are married to each other or the worst one in my opinion, The Breakup and The Makeup.

I’m sure each of you must’ve come across couples that breakup on Facebook and then are back “In a Relationship” with each other in the next frame. Seems that people are announcing to their friends, acquaintances and the insulting classmate they never speak to (and yet on their “friend” list), that they’re in a relationship by letting their name appear next to someone else’s with a heart icon in the middle on their news feed. People suppose that this suffice as the basis of a perfect relationship.

Then comes the breakup. Every time the girl (or on rare occasions, the guy) is feeling hormonal, the supposed deep, loving, intense relationship goes up in a puff of air and out comes the broken-hearted icon. Or at its best the status changes to “It’s Complicated”. Is this the state of today’s average relationship? Is this what it has come down to now? Or is this just a ploy for attention deficient people to try and get the rest of the people on their list to see what goes on in their sordid life?

I cannot accept the off-again-on-again relationship status on Facebook day-in and day-out. My advise is, people, think, think, and think some more before you even contemplate of changing your status to “In a Relationship” on Facebook. Especially if you’re the type who goes through relationships where you like to keep things rocky and has no issues letting the whole world (and its neighbours) know what goes on within your relationship.

It’s been a couple of months since my last post. Life’s been way too frenzied for me to get a minute to sit down and write. Between moving house and work, my days have been focused on nothing but work, work and more work. I’m working on changing that.

Over the past week, things have finally been settling down and now I’ve found time to do things I love once more. I’m back to reading. Even made time to catch a movie at the cinema. And most importantly, I have finally started writing again.
My posts may remain very much numbered over the following months as I am currently in the process of writing a book. It sounds so cliché I know. I don’t expect or hope to get published. This is just a book I am writing for my own personal sense of achievement. I’ve created time everyday out of all the chaos to sit down and write at least one line.

Let’s see how much time I can make for posting while I’m involved in writing. 

Currently listening to Just Dance by Lady GaGa ft. Colby O’Donis
Currently reading Little Hut of Leaping Fishes by Chiew-Siah Tei

Forget the recession - here’s the world’s most expensive phone. This diamond-encrusted iPhone 3G costs $2,517,345 (£1.6m).

This phone is surrounded by a white gold line encrusted with a total of 138 brilliant cut diamonds and a “Kings button”, which is the home button that features a rare 6.6 carat diamond.

Who would be crazy enough to have it?

Here’s some great news for lovers of BBC iPlayer and lovers of non-Windows platforms. Finally, a BBC iPlayer Download Manager for non-Windows platforms is here.

Though I am writing this post using Windows XP, I love Ubuntu. Things that were hindering my Ubuntu usage have been the lack of iTunes compatibility (coz I can’t access iTunes store), lack of Ubuntu compatible Bamboo Scribe software for my Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet and lack of BBC iPlayer.

Now, users of Mac OSX (10.5 and 10.4), Fedora Core 8, Ubuntu 7.10 and Open Suse 10.3 can install BBC iPlayer Download Manager and start downloading the available programmes.

BBC is increasing their content rapidly and currently you can even watch TV Series Heroes on it. 

The trial period for the download manager will last until around February 2009.

“I’d had more than my fair share of near-death experiences; it wasn’t something you ever really got used to.

It seemed oddly inevitable, though, facing death again. Like I really was marked for disaster. I’d escaped time and time again, but it kept coming back for me.

Still, this time was so different from the others.

You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone you hated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers - the monsters, the enemies.

When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?

If it was someone you truly loved?”

I did not write that.

That’s the preface from one of the books that I am currently reading - Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. I have neglected fiction since December 2004 and for a little while now, I have decided to check out if the average fiction writer has been able to come up with something more exciting to captivate me. So far, I have been immensely impressed with A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (the almost prose like writing, at times, left goose bumps on my skin).

To get back onto track, today I was at Gatwick Airport and with a few moments on hand to kill, I irrevocably ended up in WH Smith. After browsing through the nonfiction shelves and choosing This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin, I decided to get a few more fiction books for the collection I already have stacked in my room for my reading pleasure (read: analysis). I left the store with Breaking Dawn.

Afterwards, back in the car, I opened Breaking Dawn and started reading. Truth be told, I reread the preface three times. It was as if it was out of a compulsion. I found that the gist of it had the intensity that is usually found in Hindi language. Though, the preface did contain fragmented incorrectly written English that will never show on the spell check of any word processing software. I suppose that is the difference between most American and most British authors. To be honest, the reason why I haven’t read fiction for almost four years now was that I could not stand the inconsistencies and errors in the writing of a lot of fiction books that were being published. I am, of course, not insinuating that my English language competency is without flaws. Far from it. But, as far as I am concerned, if someone’s work ends up being published, it had better be edited by some really experienced people. After all, I can’t be the only person who doesn’t want to buy a book only to keep noticing errors while reading it.

Before I sign off; this book is the latest edition from the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer. The movie version of Twilight will be out this Friday and I am hoping to squeeze in sometime to go watch it on Saturday.

xoxo.
 

Currently playing: Lonely by Bebel Gilberto from Nip/Tuck (OST)

Now that I have a Top Ten Hindi Oldies list going, I thought, why not share a list of my top five songs that is about music (at least on the surface). Here goes.

Don’t Stop the Music by Rihanna
Clubby with awesome rhythm. I admit that I am fan of club music.

Una Musical Brutal by Gotan Project
Music cannot get much better than the result of tango being mixed with electronic elements.

Music by Madonna
Predictable that Madonna will at some point or other come up with a song that has a reference to music in it. I was actually surprised she hadn’t forayed into it much earlier.

Thank You for the Music by ABBA
I suppose this is the first song ever made that had a reference to music in it.

Make Your Own Kind of Music by Cass Elliot
The lovers of TV series Lost must’ve heard this song on many an episode.