These are the views of two graduate students suffering from excessive amounts of assignment and lack of sleep and who share a common yearning for good food, some noise on the streets and a dirty road.
PS: Hot girls who think that this post is funny, Mr. Chan is largely responsible for it. Please feel free to contact him at…
“The light music of whiskey falling into a glass – an agreeable interlude.” - James Joyce
After some fair experimenting , I finally realized that I am a scotch man. It’s not that I don’t like other spirits , it’s just that I tend to like scotch whisk(e)y more . Now I am not a pro but I know I am on the right track and I can fairly differentiate the different flavors , nature and complexity of the spirit. Like most stuff ,the more varieties I try , the better I’ll become in judging. 
But, I have to say , I don’t believe in guzzling and binge drinking. I don’t think its the right way to enjoy such a pleasurable drink . Getting high is good , but its imperative that one stays within limits and drinks responsibly.
Since this is my first post about this , I would like to just briefly describe ‘what is scotch whisk(e)y ?’
Scotch is whisky from Scotland. If the whisky is not made in Scotland, it is not Scotch. Period. A mistake commonly made is calling whisky, scotch. This is because there are several other sub-sets of whisk(e)y, besides scotch. Besides certain requirements on how the whisky is produced (ingredients, duration of aging, etc.), most whisky are classified according to the regions where they are made. Only water and barley are used to make scotch whisky. sometimes whole grain of other cereals may be added. All scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for a minimum of three years. They must have a minimum alcoholic strength of 40% by volume.
The various blends are made from 2 type of scotch whiskey :
Single Malt Scotch Whisky : It’s a scotch produced from water and malted barley from a single distillery.
Single Grain Scotch Whisky : It’s a scotch that is produced in a single distillery but is made up of water, malted barley and whole grains of other cereals. The ‘single’ here is referring to single distillery and not single grain. These whiskys rarely get circulated in the market and even if they do they are circulated in limited numbers.
Blended Scotch whisky is a blend of one or more single-malt Scotch whiskies with one or more single-grain Scotch whiskies.
Blended malt Scotch whisky is a blend of two or more single-malt Scotch whiskies from various distilleries.
Blended grain Scotch whisky is a blend of two or more single-grain Scotch whiskies from various distilleries.
some famous whisk(e)ys are :
‘Whisky Vs Whiskey’
American and Irish liquor producers tend to favor the spelling WHISKEY, while Canadian, Scottish, and Japanese producers tend to favor WHISKY. Now why this difference in spelling ? Well , that’s a big debate and its better if I don’t get into it 
I hope this article is a good start for the new section, ‘Scotch – Reviews’. I will be posting my first review soon .
I have been a Star Wars fan since a kid. To me like many Star Wars is not just a movie , it is a dream , a fantasy/science fiction epic filled with motivation and inspiration (most of my friends don’t concur this view 
). It’ s creator is no less than a demigod or superhero to me . George Lucas ! I always admired and loved him . The story of how he made star wars itself is an inspirational one . It was not all rainbow and sunshine for him , he was low on budget , almost every studio turned him down saying the movie will be a sure flop . His hard work and sweat finally payed off , when star wars became the highest grossing movie of all time till 1983 when Steven Spielberg’s ET broke its streak. The creative vision which George showed to the world set new benchmarks for how movies could be made. The merchandising of the star wars brand is still strong and is a benchmark for comparison.
Crazy fans and their love – hate relationship with George Lucas.
This is bit of a delicate and convoluted topic. A group of fans took things too seriously. When George decided to make edits to ‘His’ movie to correct some errors, this section of fans went wild with protest , claiming he had spoiled something very pristine . They went to the point of saying that he had no right to do such a thing ! But George was stubborn and fighter as he was always stood his ground. This caused fans to hate him. When George made the prequels , things became even worse and this section of fans started hating him even more.They hated the prequels as they had piled up their expectations to such unrealistic levels that it was close to impossible to satisfy them . Some I feel were influenced by the negative propaganda by angry fans and thus have biased opinions. Jar Jar Binks was the center of most ridicule.There were some hysterical quotes like ‘ George Lucas ruined our childhood ‘,’He is a very terrible person’ and so on – which is ridiculous !
My view :
I respect George and I stand by his every decision. I say he did nothing wrong by editing the classics , as he rightfully says “… its my movie , with my name on it… ” he has every right to make it or keep it the way he wants it. I feel its just not right to take ones work for granted and make edits yourself , but deny the author from making it ! as for the fans saying that he had no right to do so , I say , you have no right to say so , as its not your work. you don’t like the edited work, fine ! that’s your opinion and I respect it . But, this doesn’t mean you have to castigate the author. Regarding the prequels, I think all 3 were cool ! I don’t like Jar Jar binks but heck with it ! I love the movies , the battle, the duel scenes were just awesome ! They didn’t end up in the’ top 5′ highest grossing movies in their respective year of release for no reason.
To put the paradox bluntly ‘The more people(supposedly) hate George , the more they love star wars , which in turn leads them to love him for making it in the first place ! ‘
Imagine what would have happened if George didn’t make ‘star wars’ and he didn’t show us his fantasy world.
To conclude, regarding his latest decision to stop making blockbuster movies , all I wish to say is ‘May the force be with you ‘
Thanks to Woody Allen , I was forced to consider the other side of ‘happy birthday’ and ‘happy new year’ . we just finished 1 more year of our worthless existence and are one more step closer to the grave , is it a reason to celebrate !! ? 
or is it truly worth , to be happy about surviving another year with most friends and family and looking back at the pleasant , not so pleasant and funny times during the year ? unfortunately , I don’t think we can ever come to an agreeable conclusion on this topic. The person supporting the former idea would be termed a negative person , but unfortunately the idea is true , so one can’t deny it . On the other hand if the person sticks to the second idea , he would be termed as emotional , nostalgic or worse as happy-go-lucky . The only conclusion one can draw is that it depends upon personal opinion and thereby opinions and choices have to liberty to differ (stalemate ! 
)
Now why am I babbling all this? well, this has been running on my mind for quite some time so I had to put it out . Alright let me get back to 2012. 2012 whether we like it or not , want it or not (unless we have a functional time machine we got no choice here really ) it’s here . Compared to its predecessors it has loads of expectations to maintain, thanks to Mayans, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce , humans and every other thing in case if I left any. Homecoming of gods, Effect of global warming , changing climate , economic crisis, presidential election , London Olympics are some of the events that are to be watched (I agree the first one is too legendary for rationals to believe ). 2011 did handover a very rich heritage to 2012 it handed over scams , world cricket champions – India , A never before seen treasure at the temple depths (who said India is poor ! our gods are definitely not ) , revolutions in various countries, huge share of natural disasters (rather huge damages after the natural disturbances), a nuclear power plant explosion , a royal wedding , 7 billion world population (according to UN) , death of few bad guys (‘bad’ is the majority accepted description ) and Mr.Steve Jobs finally updating his status to i-dead.
But at the end of the day , despite the bitter cynicism one only hopes for the best and wishes to have good year. whether we believe it or not events will unfold sooner or later, the only thing that matters is how much we care for it.
Well coming to the end of this circular thought , All I wish to say is , ‘Hopefully happy 2012′ to all.
