I can’t explain why I go out cycling every morning.

For the first fifteen minutes or so my knees are always sore and my hamstrings cramped up from the previous day. For the next few kilometres, after I am warmed up, I feel good but then about 10 km. or so into the ride my back starts to hurt. The grips on the handlebars rip up my palms and they are now covered with thick, ugly calluses from being rubbed raw for hours everyday. A few fingers on my left hand are often completely numb or tingly. 

If it’s sunny it’s so hot that I’m dripping wet with sweat about half an hour into the ride. If it’s raining, I am soaked to my skin within minutes of leaving the house and bitterly cold and uncomfortable for the rest of the ride. Each day I return so tired that my vision is blurry. 

Motorists think I don’t exist. Whether it’s at a crossing where I’m trying to switch down gears fast enough to keep going and a truck decides to cut across me anyway or on a wide road, a bus overtakes me only to brake hard, just a few metres ahead of me or some scrawny Goan mother-fucker on a scooter, who threatens to kick me over because I didn’t let him pass quickly enough.

Today, an auto-rickshaw side-swiped me and my pedal got stuck in the auto. I was dragged along for a few metres. He didn’t brake, he didn’t slow down. I finally got thrown to the side of the road and my foot got caught between the spokes of the front wheel of my bike and the front fork. Considering the violence of the crash I got off pretty lightly: one badly mangled foot, one destroyed shoe, one really sore ass and one scraped up elbow. The rear dérailleur on the bike is shot. Also the the front wheel is bent but I did that, while yelling in agony, trying to free my trapped foot. I got no apology and little help.   

So, I ask myself, why do I do it? Why do I go out every fucking morning, whether it’s in the pissing rain or the blazing sun to push pedals for kilometre after kilometre, torturing myself and pushing a cycle to the point that it is constantly falling apart? Why do I want to be out on the road at the mercy of the elements and of feckless motorists sending text messages from their cellphones while driving SUV’s? 

Maybe it’s because once in a while, not everyday, often when I least expect it, when I’m close to passing out, soaked with sweat, my lungs and my legs on fire after cycling up a steep hill, I go over the top of the hill and start cycling down the other side, free-wheeling down the slope, fast as the wind, with just the right song playing on my iPod and blasting into my head… and for just a few minutes I experience the closest thing to ecstasy that I can ever imagine.

Random, Rants Cycling, douchebag, Goa, militant cyclist, militantcyclist

This morning I woke up whistling this tune from Jamiroquai’s album ‘A Funk Odyssey’ from 2001.

‘Picture Of My Life’ is the last track on an album packed full of some of Jamiroquai’s best work and it makes listening to the album from start to finish truly worthwhile; a beautiful, melancholy song to end an album full of energetic, upbeat music.

This is the acoustic version of the song which is perhaps even better than the one on the album.

Get the MP3 here and sing along to it or do yourself a favour and go listen to the entire album. You can thank me later.

Music, Random

So I found a gem of a little App in the Mac App Store that really simplifies my workflow and saves me time everyday. The App is called Cloud. I know, the most generic name possible that is made even worse by an icon that looks just like the icon for MobileMe, Apple’s short lived and much hated service. This will get worse when Apple starts their new iCloud service. But apart from that little problem this App is absolutely brilliant.

To illustrate the utility of Cloud let me give you an example of a situation most people face many times a day. You are chatting with someone on iChat, Skype or your IM service of choice and you want to show them a file on your computer whether it is a picture or a sound. Most people (myself included) don’t use the file transfer options on instant messengers because they tend not to work most of the time.

So you find the item in Finder and either drag it over to Mail or open a browser tab and log into your Web based mail account and upload the file. You then type in the mail address of the person you are trying to share the file with and if you don’t have it you have to ask them for it in chat.

Once the file is sent they have to log into their own mail and find the message you just sent them and view the attachment. All of this takes about five minutes or so and is a pain to do if you have to repeat it many times a day.

This is where Cloud comes in. You install it from the App store and it shows up as a cloud icon in your menu bar.

Now, say you are chatting with someone and you want to send them a file or just show them a picture or share a screen-shot of  your Mac.

You highlight the file in Finder and hit Ctrl+Option+R and Cloud automatically uploads the file to the web in a few seconds. This works for files in iTunes and iPhoto as well. You don’t have to right click and locate the file in Finder first. Just select it in the App, hit the shortcut and you’re done.

Once done Cloud gives you a Growl notification and plays a sound to say that the file is ready to be shared and it pastes a URL for the file right into your clipboard so all you do is hit Cmd+V to paste the link in your chat window and the person clicks on it and sees your file.

If you still aren’t convinced you should try using it for a few days and see how much easier it makes sharing files from your Mac with others.

Also, did I say it’s free? You can’t argue with zero dollars.

Some would say that they use DropBox for this but I think DropBox is nowhere as simple to use for  file sharing. Even though I use it constantly it is mostly as a means of having a web based backup of the most important files I am working on for when the shit hits the fan. <Dead computer>

It’s the most well thought out App I have used in a while. Your mileage may vary, caveat emptor etc.

Here is a link. Enjoy!

Random, Tech app, Cloud, Cloud.app, DropBox, Mac, Mac App Store, Mac OS X

I couldn’t go for my daily bike ride this morning because the rains are finally here and it’s coming down like nobody’s business. Actually, the monsoon hit Goa yesterday but I was like “Meh! It’s just a little precipitation!” and went out anyway.

After about an hour or so of cycling in the drizzle and feeling like a drenched rat on a bicycle I realised why all the locals generally stay in during the rains if they can help it.

So this morning I am wisely staying indoors, drinking coffee, watching the rain and listening to a playlist of songs about rain. (Yes, I am that lame)

One of those songs is “It’s Coming Down” by CAKE from what is probably their best ever album, Fashion Nugget.

You can steal the MP3 from the internets here.

Be good, watch out for assholes.

Music, Random bicycle, Cake, Cycling, Fashion Nugget, Goa, It's Coming Down, monsoon, rain in goa

So, I have just spent most of the last couple of days playing the single player portion of Valve Studio’s long awaited sequel to Portal, the imaginatively named Portal 2. If you aren’t into gaming you can just go ahead and skip this post because it is going to be #UBERGEEKY.

For those of you still reading, here is a quick review.

Quite simply, if you loved Portal you will love Portal 2. If the idea of a first person shooter without even a single gun in it confused you then Portal 2 is not going to interest you. Go back to your regular shoot-at-anything-that-moves type games. If however you loved Portal, do yourself a favour and get Portal 2 now!

You can do this in two ways. You can pay 50 USD for a digital download on Steam or you can do the smart thing (like I did) and have Flipkart.com ship a disc to you for INR 622 all inclusive.

By the way, I played the entire game on the little 11″ MacBook Air I got earlier this year and it handled the game like a little champ. So far the Air has handled everything that I have thrown at it including Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2 with no fuss and since it weighs just about a kilogram I don’t ever want to carry a heavier laptop again.

For lovers of the original game Portal 2 has a lot of new tricks up its sleeve while retaining the same puzzle solving basic game play as its predecessor. There is now a propulsion gel, a repulsion gel and much, much more fun stuff to master and enjoy. Portal 2 is every bit as witty, smart and challenging as its predecessor.

Also, Portal 2 has one of the funniest people alive as one of the characters in it. GladOS’s nemesis is an AI called Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant, a comic genius who co-created The Office, Extras and a ton of other gems with Ricky Gervais. Stephen alone, playing essentially an evil AI version of himself is worth the asking price of the game. He is that good.

Which brings me to the entire point of this post. Portal 2 has a single player mode which I have just finished and a 2 player co-op mode which I have no one to play with. (I know, I know, I have no friends. I’m just a loser with an internet connection)

So, if you too have zero friends or even if you do and you just want someone to play co-op Portal 2 with (no that is not a euphemism, behave!) add me on Steam. My user name is Macfragga and I want to be your internet BFF. So hit me up yo!

Random, Tech 11" MacBook Air, Extras, Portal, Portal 2, Portal 2 Review, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Team Fortress 2, The Office, The Ricky Gervais Show, Valve

For the past month and a half or so I’ve been in the sticks of North Goa with just a 3G modem for internet, the trade off being that I get to cycle about like a mad fool for hours everyday in the sunshine and the salty air with house music blasting in my earphones and occasionally I get to take photographs like the one above. Fun!

There have been a few close calls while cycling about though and last week I was almost run down by a local bus with a large JESUS SAVES! logo on the back and a small, maniacal driver in the front. Almost.

That would have been the most ironic road death ever but I digress. When I haven’t been doing permanent damage to my ear drums with house music this album from a few years back called Leave It All Behind by the American-Dutch group The Foreign Exchange has been on a loop on my iPod.

Some would say that is way too over produced but this has to be one of the smoothest and most delightful sounding R&B albums I’ve heard in a long time and is even better than their next album Authenticity, which came out last year. This track is called All Or Nothing/Coming Home To You. Enjoy!

Get the MP3 here.

Be good, use hand signs when cycling and look out for crazy bus drivers of all denominations. Give ‘em the special hand sign. You known the one.

P.S. Dear reader my PJs were never dirty. You know who you are.

Music, Random Aldona, All Or Nothing/Coming Home To You, Authenticity, Church of St. Thomas, Goa, Jesus Saves, Leave It All Behind, The Foreign Exchange

I have never been able to listen to this live version of ‘In My Bed’ @AOL Sessions by Amy Winehouse without repeating the track a few times.

I haven’t been posting coz I’m in the boondocks of Goa and all I have for an internet connection is a BSNL 3G modem, more on that later.

Be good and eat fruit.

Music, Random Amy Winehouse, AOL Sessions, In My Bed

So this morning, while I was stuck in traffic on Valentine’s day or as I like to call it VD (coz i’m cool like that yo) I saw a guy driving to work in a bright green shirt with an equally bright yellow tie on and I thought ‘Theres a man that definitely had Love Machine by The Miracles playing in his head as he got dressed in front of the mirror today.’

So, in honour of green shirted, yellow tied going to work and getting his love game on guy I present to you Love Machine which has to rate in my book as one of the best ever doin’ it songs, specially the starting few seconds (which is all the time I need ladies…)

You can steal the MP3 from the internets here and get your own sexy, sexy moves on to the stylin’ sounds of this motown classic.

Have a great VD people.

Steal the MP3 here.

Be good and don’t do anything I wouldn’t.

Music, Random Love Machine, MP3, The Miracles, Valentine's Day

The hair, the clothes, the moves, the make-up and of course the track are all ingredients in the awesome sauce that is this video that you will be watching on a loop for hours.

The track is ‘Gare du Nord’ by Carte Blanche from the album Black Billionaires.

Get the MP3 here.

Music, Random

Quit bitching that I haven’t posted in a while and look at this.

Random lolcats