Happy Budday

Test

Aha.

Call me the King.... of all things boolean.

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Round is the Circle. From Dust. To Dust.

R.I.P. Dio

You were good enough to have succeeded Ozzy in Black Sabbath but met your match in a garden gnome.

Thank you for Rainbow.

Thank you for not indulging in the undignified buffoonery that metal was becoming.

Devil horn salute.

Climbing up a Bloody Great Hill

So although Bhutan is tucked away into the isolated Himalayas between India and Tibet, it seems out of place to discover an affluent way of life that has only newly begun to be exposed to contemporary mindsets and Western culture.

There are plentiful dzongs (temple fortresses) that should be seen on a Bhutan travel tour, but Taksang (Tiger's Nest) Monastery is undeniably the most famous. The name is enthused after the story of Padmasambhava (from India), the monk who brought Buddhism to Bhutan, who in fact flew to Taksang on the back of a tigress to defeat five demons.

They are this intensely spiritual country, who seem to love their royalty and is domicile to some of the most striking temples. As a country that it dumbfounds you with its splendor and fascinates your imagination with its prehistoric culture and beliefs.

Until the 1960s Bhutan had no roads, no electricity, and no telephones. Goods traded with Tibet went by yak, over high windswept passes. But the Chinese invasion of Tibet put an end to that, as Bhutan closed its northern border. Now trade is solely with India, a few hours' drive to the south.

In little over 40 years, a father- and-son team of kings have, with help from India, lifted the country out of isolationist poverty. Bhutan has adopted many of the benefits of the modern world, such as hydro-electricity, schools and clinics, while hanging onto the culture it treasures most, and without destroying the environment. It was the younger of the two kings, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who coined the phrase "Gross National Happiness". In 2008, in a move that puzzled many of his subjects, he voluntarily abdicated his throne and formed the country's first democratic government. The elections were, according to UN observers, "serene".

Changes that have happened to the country are all so very sublime... The country seems to have come to terms with land cruisers parked within bamboo fences, high tension cables across rolling fields, traditional attires in nightclubs, chopsuey in cream sauce, vintage rock on the radio peppered with the Bhutanese jockeying.

The Bhutanese down 12.5 million litres of alcohol a year and a staggering 54 percent of the country’s total 56 percent youth population below 24 years are the main consumers. It is little wonder that Bhutanese youth make up the main consumers. Visit any bar along the streets of the main Thimphu town, where there’s almost one for every ten metres of sidewalk, and the customers are fresh graduates, school students or dropouts. Save for hardware shops, almost every shop in Thimphu town, be it a grocery or a general store, sells liquor.

And who was I kidding. I wasn't in any shape to trek. Sangyang - Taktshang - Wangchang - Rinpung Dzong. I had to wheeze my way through to the top. My head throbbed because we were at an altitude of more than 13,000ft, higher than I have ever trekked in before. Below us eagles soars, etched against the clouds way below, clouds that seem so solid. It was all unnaturally quiet, the air thick with the muffled silence of the fog rolling in.

We were in yak territory now – around 4,000m. Shiny black beasts with lustrous tails and delicate feet, they roamed the high hills with their young. The cry of a young boy carried across the valley from one settlement to another. Here babies are born and bodies cremated under an open sky, a world away from the fast-developing superpowers to the north and south.

At the highest point were tangled strings of coloured prayer flags, sending prayers to the heavens. As the sun hung low in the sky that afternoon, we rested a while on a ridge with a view as beautiful as I've ever seen: hill interlaced behind hill in soft cinnamon fading to golds; and atop a smaller hill, a dzong. From a distance the dzong appeared as two cube-shaped buildings, one a little lower and to the right, mirroring the lie of the land. A camera could never do it; I felt a need to paint, to capture this exquisite marriage of nature and the subtle touch of man.

Of course there is a flip-side to this rural idyll: On one of the isolated dzongs, we got chatting with a couple of monks. They stayed three hours away from water, fresh food and electricity and yet seemed moderately content with their lives.... On a little more prodding they started on their individual stories.... It is kind of shocking to know that they were pushed in to the clergy when they were 7 years old, made to drop out of school, start on a life of religious rigour all against their wishes... So I am not likening it to prostitution but it still doesn't feel right. Being deprived of basic education has ensured that there is no possible exit from the lives they lead.

Whatever happened to "I am going the right way, following the path of the Buddh. I think about enlightenment. I don't want to be attached to the wheel of life."

Who the Force is that?

Ans: Cade Skywalker, the culmination of the long line of Skywalkers who have entertained us over the years. Only this one goes rogue and is much better than the rest.

This Skywalker is a stark drug-addicted pirate with no misgivings for either side of the Sith / Jedi divide. His panic whininess not withstanding, he is Dark Horse's attempts to bring a sense of reality to an otherwise altruistic franshise. And all of the wrangling and scheming between the Jedi, the Imperial Knights, the Sith, the Empire, the Imperial Mission, and so on, gets more and more byzantine and glorious as it goes along.

This is what Dark Horse's Facebook page has to say about pulling the plug on the series even as they continue to fund defunct others.

Recently, we’ve heard several fans voice their concerns over the end of one of our most popular titles — Star Wars: Legacy. So, we’d like to take a second to explain what’s happening with the title and the rest of our Star Wars line.

For many years now, we’ve had the pleasure of taking the rich universe of Star Wars and its characters to exciting new levels. Fans and critics have long agreed that Dark Horse Comics has done well by the beloved property, staying true to the tone of the original films, while introducing fans to new corners of the galaxy far, far away.

In 2006, Dark Horse Comics launched Star Wars: Legacy #1, with covers by Adam Hughes, story by John Ostrander, and art by Jan Duursema. Over the last four years we’ve seen people embrace the tales of Cade Skywalker—a direct descendant of Luke, a rogue Jedi, and a bounty hunter. Much to our delight, Cade quickly became a favorite among comics fans and Star Wars enthusiasts.

Unlike other publishers, Dark Horse has never been one for prolonging a series simply to do so. Our comics come from a place of creativity and artistic expression, and this applies to all of our titles, whether creator owned or licensed property.

One of our promises to ourselves, our fans, and George Lucas himself was that we would treat our line of Star Wars books with the highest level of respect. We hope that you’ll agree that we’ve achieved this goal, and trust you’ll take our word when we say that we’ll continue to strive for such high standards.

We are proud to say that the quality of Star Wars: Legacy has never dropped. John Ostrander and Jan Duursema have consistently created issue after issue of excellent art for nearly four years straight. Very few creators can claim such landmark success, and we hope John and Jan are as proud as we are of delivering such great material.

We have never felt that John and Jan’s work dipped below the benchmark of fine sequential art. So, it was a hard, but ultimately necessary, decision to close this chapter of the Star Wars universe with issue #50.

At this time, we cannot announce what, if any, projects John and Jan will be a part of in the future. We hope fans will appreciate our proprietary stance in this matter. Know that we will make announcements regarding new Star Wars projects at the proper time, in coordination with our partners at Lucasfilm.

We are now focused on making our future Star Wars comics as incredible as possible, including Star Wars Adventures, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Invasion—Rescues, and the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. We are also extremely excited to work in conjunction with Del Rey and writer John Jackson Miller to create a brand-new tale in a largely unexplored time with Star Wars: Knight Errant.

We ask that fans continue to support the Star Wars line, and us, and hope that any concerns will subside as we move forward.

Any questions can be left in the comment section of this note. Please understand that we may not be able to answer some specifics due to the nature of our business. We’ve had an extraordinary time publishing Star Wars, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as we have for nearly twenty years here at Dark Horse Comics. So remember fans, keep hitting the local comic stores for all your Dark Horse Star Wars comics and keep the interest alive! And don’t forget: as always we will bring you the word as soon as we hear it!


In words of Luke's daddy..... "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

Why I need supervision.

Oh well... It's a been a few weeks since I had access to technology. So a lot of the posts that will follow were typed while ago, I just didnt get the time to post earlier.
So Amsterdam is awesome. So one and a half nights of Pub-Crawling later (and I have the t-shirts to prove it) we are back to adding new entries on to our science-experiments-gone-wrong .

Creating a Storm in a Teacup 2 Litre Plastic Bottle

Water vapor, pressure, temperature and seeding are what it takes to make a cloud. Below are instuctions to become a rainmaker with a two-liter plastic bottle, some warm water, a match, and some hand .

This is demonstration is meant to be safe. But all the better, do not try it at home. I well without lawsuits. And if you are my friend I trust you even less with matches. But I suppose it can't be helped.

Empty a two-liter plastic bottle. You don't necessarily have to drink it all. The last thing we need is you doing this while over-caffeinated. Fill the bottom with hot water. Just half an inch should do. Light a match and hold the head of the match inside the tip of the bottle until the bottle fills up with smoke. Cap the bottle tightly.

Wait until the air inside the bottle has cleared and then squeeze the bottle a few times. After a few squeezes, when you release, a cloud should form inside the bottle. Congratulations, you're a Wizard.

Feel free to send me your tuition for Hogwarts.

Look like Tarzan; Sound like Jane

People who have lost limbs through accidents or disease sometimes continue to feel pain in the non-existent body part. It is called phantom pain. The name suggests an imaginary suffering and yet science confirms the pain is real. I used to find this bizarre but it does not seem so strange anymore.

I understand the ache where there is an absence. Like an amputee who leans forward to scratch a toe that isn't there, I still turn in my sleep to hug the emptiness on the left side of the bed. Every time there are some programs on the telly I almost call out to remind. ....

Morphine cannot dull phantom pain just as time doesn't seem to work on the hurt of those severed from a loved one. Forgetting is the other great narcotic for the human heart. But sometimes, you don't want to forget, even if it means holding on to the pain.

I have tried many approaches to deal with my loss. I am still appalled when people resort to drastic measures.