Fourth is as good as a trophy!

Another season and yet no trophies! This brings the total count to 8 years and trophy cabinet is still empty. The team celebrated finishing fourth in a way that made me wonder whether Arsenal had won the English Premier league.

Arsenal player’s celebrating

The start and the end of the season (2012-2013) have been dramatically opposite to each other. Arsenal struggled and were knocked out of contention-ship of all the championship by the middle of the season and towards the end, while fighting for the UEFA Champions League place (Top 4) they played like a champion side!. Arsenal didn’t lose any of their last 11 matches going on to defeat Bayern Munich a feat which even Barcelona couldn’t achieve this year!

Fortunately this season, finishing fourth is a commendable achievement for arsenal. This team was one of the least talented team Arsène Wenger has fielded in a long time. With the lone world-class player Robin Van Persie leaving for Manchester United. Arsène Wenger signed Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla. Signing of Santi Cazorla was a game changer without which top four finish would have been a mirage.

If a team is formed out of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs players only Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere and Laurent Koscielny would be the automatic choices from Arsenal in that team. This speaks volumes about the quality of the Arsenal side.

The greatest positive from this season is that Arsenal is no longer a one man team, Robin Van Persie’s transfer to Manchester United changed the one man team into an actual team. Although the team is still reliant on Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere but there are quite a few scoring options available now. If everyone else fails, defenders are around to score the winners!

Arsenal still needs to sign 3-4 players: a defender, a mid fielder, a center forwards and a goalkeeper. Olivier Giroud and Gervinho are very inconsistent. Theo Walcott is more of a wide player than a center forward. Arsenal could do with somebody of David Villa‘s caliber.

Next season could be little easier compared to this season. Since there will be managerial changes at Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Everton. I know Jose Mourinho was at Chelsea before and David Moyes has been running his own version of Arsenal themed-budget team in Everton. It would still take some time for these guys to settle down in their roles as manager of Chelsea and Manchester United. On top of that Chelsea team has changed a lot since Jose Mourinho’s days. He needs to re-establish rapport with the players again. David Moyes will be running a successful team after a long time. It all needs little getting used to.

For last two seasons Arsenal have sold their captains: Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie. Next season (2013-2014) this pattern may continue as Thomas Vermaelen might be on his way out! Hopefully he can be convinced to stay for a year and fight for his place.

This might provide Arsenal with an opportunity to start well. But I still believe the best chance for Arsenal to win trophies will be Capital One Cup and FA Cup (Emirates cup doesn’t count). Since Arsene Wenger and Stanley Kroenke have agreed to sign more player and concentrate on winning trophies gooners can finally look forward to next season with some realistic hope!

Positives from 2012-2013 season
1. Aaron Ramsey:
He is finally playing at the level he used to play before injury. His confidence is back. It would be fun to see him play next season.

2. Jack is Back:
Jack Wilshere’s recovery from injury was very important and the impact he has had on the team in unquestionable. The fact that an injured Jack Wilshere made it to the bench for the final game of the season is testimonial to his importance to the team.

3. Defensive setup:
Koscielny and Mertesacker have performed so well that Thomas Vermaelen has failed to get a look in. Monreal and Kieran Gibbs have also done well. Finally there is some hope for the much criticized defence.

4. Arsene Wenger has had a change of heart:
Finally Wenger has agreed to spend money on signing new player without selling anybody! Wenger in the past would say that he would sign a player if good players are available (read available for cheap). Thankfully that attitude seems to be changing.

Disk partitioning on Windows 8

Normally new machines come with single partition but it is safer to have multiple partitions. If the OS goes bad for some reason you may have to format the OS drive which may lead to loss of data if all the contents are kept in the OS drive.

Windows 8 has simple steps for partitioning the hard disk. These steps are given below.

1. Press Windows + R and type diskmgmt.msc. This would open Windows 8 Disk Management tool.

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2. In the Windows 8 Disk Management tool window, right-click on any drive you want to partition and select “Shrink Volume“.

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3. In the pop-up dialog, enter the amount of space to shrink.

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4. Click “Shrink” in the previous dialog and we can preview a unallocated space next to the drive that was shrinked (In this case C drive).

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5. Right click on it and select “New Simple Volume“. Then, we can partition a new volume in Widows 8 by following the guidance.

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6. A new window will open, click “Next“

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7. Click “Next” again.

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8. Assign any letter to the drive and click “Next“.

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9. Preferably select “Format this volume with the following settings:“. Keep “File system” and “Allocation unit size” as it is. You can set “Volume label” to any name you want. This will become the name of the partition/drive.

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10. If everything goes right, you should see this screen.

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11. Mission accomplished! If partition is successful, new drive will show up on Windows 8 Disk Management tool.

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G.I. Joe: Retaliation

In short G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a badly written and directed movie. From the beginning I got a feeling that the writer/s had worked very hard on connecting the plots of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and G.I. Joe: Retaliation with disastrous results. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra wasn’t a great movie and G.I. Joe: Retaliation isn’t any better.

There are mindless action sequences one after another, by the time the movie ends you would be taking a sigh of relief. Now coming back to the plot. The Prime minister of Pakistan is assassinated, the President of United States orders the G.I. Joe’s to secure the nuclear warheads which incidentally is under the control of Pakistani extremist. After the nuclear warheads are secured Zartan who is impersonating the President of the United States gets the entire team eliminated and the Cobra gets the nuclear warheads. Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Flint (D.J. Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) are the only survivors. President of the United States (Zartan) further goes on to blame G.I. Joe’s for stealing nuclear warheads from Pakistan.

Unfortunately Dwayne Johnson can’t act. His scenes of camaraderie with Duke (Channing Tatum) are real drag. An attempt is made to create a romantic angle between Flint and Lady Jaye but uninterrupted action doesn’t provide any scope for any story to develop.

Bruce Willis sleep walks through his role of General Joseph Colton. The ending is even more appalling with world leaders parading their suitcases and nuclear bombs being thrown around like a game of Dodge-ball. Only saving grace in the movie is Jonathan Pryce playing the President of America. The movie also introduces Ray Stevenson as a Cobra mercenary Firefly.

This movie was banned in Pakistan and I can see why it was banned. But if you enjoy Pak-Bashing or for that matter North Korea bashing, it is a good movie to watch!

Thankfully I didn’t have to pay to watch this movie. If you happen to miss out on watching this movie, you haven’t actually missed anything!

Ubuntu apt-get install error

I tried installing few packages using apt-get on my Ubuntu machine and it kept failing and also the Ubuntu Software Center kept crashing on launch.

Error

Reading package lists… Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

To fixed the issue by deleting all the package lists files inside “/var/lib/apt/lists/” and downloaded the package lists from the repositories and “updated” them to get information on the newest versions of packages and their dependencies (sudo apt-get update).

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
sudo apt-get update

This seemed to fix the problem. Not sure what was the reason for the corruption of the files in the first place.

Scar Tissue

Scar Tissue is the autobiography of Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis. The book follows Kiedis’ early years watching his drug dealer father sell to famous celebrities till the release of the album By the Way.

My sole motive for reading this book was that it was written by the vocalist of one of my favourite band Red Hot Chili Peppers. I wanted to know more about the history and dynamics of the band.

Scar Tissue

High Points of the book
1. Making of the albums Californication and Blood Sugar Sex Magick
2. Anthony meeting up with Hilel Slovak, Jack Irons and Flea in high school.
3. Recruiting Dave Navarro, Chad Smith and John Frusciante.
4. Stories involving interactions with Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam and other bands.
5. His involvement in movies (which I didn’t know of before reading the book), particularly his interaction with Sylvester Stallone on the sets of the movie F.I.S.T..

Low Points of the book
1. Constant reference to Anthony’s drug addiction and his numerous relationships (with famous personalities) which always ended in disasters. Reference to which are made so frequently that it makes it very tiring to read the book.
2. There is very little information regarding recording and band dynamics.
3. There is no structure in narration of the story and there is no build up to a story.
4. Constantly trying to justify his actions. Everybody makes mistakes, Anthony should give himself a break.

If you are a fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers and are very patient you can try reading this book. There are some thrills in the books like reading about other artists like Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction but it is too little and too few.

My personal feeling is that his story could have been told in a much better and interesting manner. But I also need to give credit to Anthony for being very honest in telling his story.

Movies to watch in 2013

Mama
Having already seen the movie I can easily claim it is one among the best original horror movie to come out in recent times. Most of the horror movie these days dish out cheap gore to keep people interested but Mama is different. It is worth watching, if you enjoy horror movies. Megan Charpentier is really impressive in her role of Victoria. The ending is a little slack but rest of the movie makes up for good viewing.

Evil Dead
Old wine in new bottle. This is a remake of the original cult classic Evil Dead. I normally don’t enjoy watching remakes but in this case the critics ratings are positive. It would be a nice experience to re-experience some of the memories of the original Evil Dead in a theatre for a change.

Star Trek Into Darkness
First non-horror movie in my list. I wasn’t a fan of Star Trek TV or movie series before watching 2009 Star Trek movie. After watching the first movie of this rebooted series I went on to watch all the episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. Now that I know all the characters in the series I just can’t wait for Star Trek Into Darkness to release. With JJ Adams directing this movie, it has to be good.

The Hangover Part III
The biggest problem with The Hangover Part II was it was almost scene to scene repeat of The Hangover. The situations were the same but the events were different. The problem with that is you can correctly guess the out comes of the scenario which spoils the thrill of watching a movie. Adding The Hangover Part III to the list since I enjoyed the The Hangover.

Man of Steel
You put Superman and Chris Nolan together I would say you have a winner. Unfortunately Chris Nolan is not going to direct this movie. This would be second reboot to the superman film series after the 2006 hit Superman Returns. Hopefully Man of Steel will set a foundation like Batman Begins had laid for this rebooted series.

Now You See Me
The Four Horsemen, a magic super-group led by the charismatic Michael Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), perform a pair of high-tech magic shows, first astonishing audiences by robbing a bank on another continent, and then exposing a white-collar criminal and funneling his millions into the audience members’ bank accounts. The other reason for adding this movie to my list of movies is because Jesse Eisenberg has this talent of adding life to most of the roles he play, whether it is serious or funny.

Monsters University
Monsters University is a prequel to Monster Inc. Set about 10 years before the events of Monsters, Inc. It takes a look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at Monsters University.

300: Rise of an Empire
When the Battle of Thermopylae (Battle of 300) was fought another battle was going on at the same time. This was a naval battle led by an Athenian. 300: Rise of an Empire will deal with this Naval battle called The Battle of Artemisium. The story would deal with Themistocles a greek politician and a general who had previously fought against Persians in the Battle of Marathon.

The World’s End
If you have seen Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Paul you would know exactly why this movie made it to this list. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost form a deadly team of mass entertainment. Five friends reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly become humankind’s only hope for survival.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf have successfully escaped the Misty Mountains, and Bilbo has gained the One Ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back from the Dragon, Smaug.

World War Z
Brad Pitt in a zombie horror movie. I never expected a day like this will ever come! As a zombie pandemic traverses the globe, United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) travels the world trying to find a way to stop the pandemic that is defeating armies and collapsing governments.

14 is a special day in Korea

I was pleasantly surprised on March 14 when as part of my lunch I received a lollipop. It’s been years since I last had one and most people around were cheerful. My manager in South Korea was kind enough to explain that it was a White Day and explained the ritual associated with the day. Post lunch break, I spoke to my Korean colleagues and was surprised to find out that there were other days like the White Day. So I asked my colleague and he digged up following days. I was told that the college students would have the latest list!

January 14th: Diary Day
The day of presenting your lover with a cute diary and a basket of flowers.

February 14th: Valentines Day
The day when girls and women present their boyfriends with chocolate and confess their love.

March 14th: White Day
The day when boys and men present their girlfriends with chocolate and confess their love.

April 14th: Black Day
The day when people who are single eat black Chinese noodles together.

Black Noodle

May 14th: Rose Day
The day when couples present each other with roses to express their love.

Alternatively for single guys
May 14th: Yellow Day
The day when those who were unable to eat black noodles on Black Day go to eat yellow curry rice.

June 14th: Kiss Day
The day when couples kiss to confirm their love.

July 14th: Silver Day
The day when couples exchange silver jewelry, usually rings to make a promise for the future.

August 14th: Green Day
Couples are supposed to dress in green, and walk outside in the woods.
Singles drink a (green) bottle of Soju to console themselves.

Soju

September 14th: Photo & Music Day
The day when lovers take pictures to keep memories of their love and in the evening go out with friends to noraebangs(literally means singing room) and night clubs.

October 14th: Wine Day
The day when lovers drink wine and share love.

October 24th: Apple Day
The Korean word for apple, sagwa, also means to apologize. On Apple Day, friends, family and couples give an apple to each other to apologize for past mistakes.

November 11th: Pepero Day
It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date “11/11″ resembles four sticks of Pepero.

Pepero Almond sticks

November 14th: Movie Day
The day when couples go to see a movie.

December 14th: Hug Day
The day of giving hugs to your loved ones. Also singles stand in City Hall with a “free hug” placard.

Most of the these days have pure commercial values. All in all Korea isn’t the best place to be single!