Is this what you call time travel?

Take a look at the manufacturing date and you will know what I am talking about. You don’t come across such things everyday, do you? Time travelling to future! Not a bad idea at all. Just pack your bags and go to Erode! ;)

Rock..Paper..Scissors!

This weekend I visited my parents who live just 8 hours away by train. Soon after I boarded the train, I began reading Small Miracles for Women and slowly drifted off to sleep. Woken up by a loud “Stone..Paper..Scissors!” and some giggles that followed, I found two little girls who sat across me engaged in a noisy animated game. I soon figured how the game works. It wasn’t just me. The entire bunch of people around me was very much a part of the fun and the kids were totally oblivious to it. The older one won, the younger one threw some tantrums, the father chuckled at how the older one exploited the younger sibling’s naivety.

What I thought is a simple game invented to keep a troublesome twosome busy turned out to be a much larger ‘Rock..Paper..Scissors!’, a tournament held at an international level. There is International World Championships, an annual open event organized by the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, there is USA Rock Paper Scissors League Championships and a lot others. Check out the 2009 USARPS Championship video below and see how it takes as much skill as the randomness to bag that $ 20,000 prize money.

Next time you catch up with a friend or you need to bust that stress, try this game, have a little laugh and feel lighter.

Here’s how to play (Text courtesy of Wikipedia)

Each of the three basic hand-signs (from left to right: rock, paper, and scissors) beats one of the other two, and loses to the other.

The players both count aloud to three, or speak the name of the game (e.g. "Rock! Paper! Scissors!" or "Ro! Cham! Beau!"), each time raising one hand in a fist and swinging it down on the count. On the third count the players change their hands into one of three gestures, which they then "throw" by extending it towards their opponent.

• Rock represented by a clenched fist.
• Scissors represented by the index and middle fingers extended and separated.
• Paper represented by an open hand, with the fingers connected (horizontal).

The objective is to select a gesture which defeats that of the opponent. Gestures are resolved as follows:

• Rock blunts or breaks scissors: rock wins.
• Scissors cut paper: scissors win.
• Paper covers or captures rock: paper wins.

If both players choose the same gesture, the game is tied and the players throw again.

Bubble Trouble

It'sa lazy Saturday and I am glued to this game. I was stuck in level 10 for the longest time till I figured I should do away with the smaller balls one by one before dealing with the bigger ones. Now I'm stuck at level 12. The disadvantages I see with the game is there is no way to pause it and every time you run out of lives you need to start afresh. Check out Miniclip's site for more interesting logic games like Bloxorz, Scribble etc.

What’s it with Bebo???

Looks like Bebo is the current buzzword. What’s with the name! First it was Alisha whining “Bebo mein Bebo…Dil mera lelo…”. Listen to the song from Kambakth Ishq featuring Kareena Kapoor who is also known as Bebo in the film circuit. No prizes for guessing the composer. It’s a typical Anu Malik composition sung by his friend turned foe turned friend again Alisha Chinai. Both have made peace with each other co-judging Indian Idol Season 3. Imagine Anu Malik sing the song! It would bring a smile to your face however depressed you are. It didn’t!!! What about ‘It’s raining…it’s raining…dekho barish ho rahi hein’! I bet you did now :D

The other ‘Bebo’ track is from ‘Do Knot Disturb’ sung by Neeraj Shridhar and Anushka Manchanda. What is interesting here is if Kambakth Ishq marked Anu Malik’s comeback, with Do Knot Disturb, it is the former kings of melody Nadeem Shravan, the former’s peers making a comeback. Both the composers were hit makers of their time.

All said and done, enough of Bebo, seriously! If any of you are very particular, there are a lot other potential qualifiers. Try Chi Chi, Lolo, Duggu…!

How do ya say it ?

A very nice site for a non native speaker of the English language. It helps with the pronunciation of words in Standard British English and also tells you the American or World English alternatives.

Some interesting things about the site:

• Unsuccessful searches are automatically considered for inclusion.
• Profane language and erotica are excluded from the dictionary in the interests of child learners.

I verified their claim entering the F word and it taught me how to say yuck ;)