Surfing The Waves of Life

I remember having a very vague discussion with my uncle once. Since i loved talking about anything and everything with deep talks on life being my forte, we came on a very strange discussion. My uncle had once read somewhere that each one of us emit various waves at different intervals. And each wave affects people around. Every trough is a bad happening. And every crest is a good happening. So whenever we feel sad or something goes wrong, it is the trough of one or more waves. And whenever we are happy and things seem to be going great, we seem to be receiving the crest of one or more waves. It didn't leave that great an impression on me. But it did leave its mark on me. Is it possible that it could be? I remember asking him, "What happens if all the waves are a trough?" I didnt require an answer. That explained death. So of all the times when everything seems to be going great as we surf the crests. And sooner or later, we start sliding down to the troughs. And everything seems to get worse. That would explain why almost everything gets bad all at once. And life seems to be on an eternal high when everything seems to be going for you. So all it ends up to is that we all emit some sort of wave every time we do anything. Every moment. And all waves we get from other sources keeps us ticking in the matrix of life. These waves are interlinked to each object in this universe. As William Wordsworth once said that we are all linked through a single soul. Maybe each wave forms a link. And not only do the waves exist in the vicinity of its emission, they can travel far and wide. by using Einstein's theory of relativity and warping space and time. Maybe all these theories are just pieces of the giant puzzle: "what is life?"

Thanks...

Born alone, dead alone.
We live with ourselves in solitude.
Solitude, the worst tool for a life,
Between hell and heaven and alike.
We king ourselves to ourselves.
And as dependence breeds,
Our kingdom bleeds.

Here is an ode,
To show my gratitude.
To those who guard my reliance.
A citation of my tribute,
To the hands that feed me.
As I remain hungry.
As I remain foolish.

I thank you my father and mother.
My authors, my progenitors.
You gave me all I had and ever wanted.
But took from me nothing.
You armed my life and perceived my sight.
And awarded me an identity i'm proud to wear.

I thank you my sisters and brothers.
My sails, my wings.
I would crash n drown without you.
In this menacing storm throwing me around.
You cultivated me well, Sister.
For the world to harvest.

I thank you my friends,
My map makers, my parachutes.
Commrades we were in the quest,
For knowing who we are and will be.
Our endeavors made a beautiful journey.
It’s an honour to travel with you.

I thank you my enemies,
My contenders, my heavy barbells.
You made me fall so I could get up.
You saved me from being who i’m not.
And who I shouldn’t be.
You structured my immunity
So I could brace my resistance.

I thank you all.

-Udayvir

SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

Meet Dream Theater:
John Petrucci - Guitars
Mike Portnoy - Drums
Jordan Rudess - Keyboards (Kevin Moore ruled the throne before him)
John Myung - Bass
James LaBrie - Vocals

Dream Theater was formed in 1985 by guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and drummer Mike Portnoy, while all were studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Kevin Moore, a high school bandmate of Petrucci's, was recruited to play keyboards.

In 1991 a tape arrived from Canadian band Winter Rose's singer Kevin James LaBrie, who was immediately flown to New York for a proper audition. After a short jam session he was hired as full-time singer, and started using his middle name, James, as his first to avoid confusion with Kevin Moore.

After a petition from fans to EastWest, the group recorded their previously unreleased song "A Change of Seasons", which had been written in 1989 and was originally to appear on Images and Words, and distributed it as an EP with a collection of live cover tracks. After a short run of small "one-off" concerts to promote the EP, Dream Theater entered the studio once more to write their next album.

In all, almost two CDs worth of material were written during the sessions, including a 20 minute long follow-up to the Images and Words song "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper". The label, however, did not allow the release of a double album because they felt that a 140-minute record would not be digestible by the general public, so half the songs had to be cut.

Awake was released in October 1994. It featured a distinctly heavier sound than the band's previous releases, which may have served to polarize critical and fan opinion of the album. Shortly before the album was mixed, Moore announced to the rest of the band that he wished to concentrate on his own musical interests and would be quitting Dream Theater. As a result, the band had to scramble to find a replacement keyboardist before planning its next tour.

Jordan Rudess, an up-and-coming keyboardist who was relatively unknown in rock music circles to that point, was invited to play a trial performance with Dream Theater in the hopes that he would join the band. The gig, in Burbank, California, went well but Rudess decided to accept an invitation from The Dixie Dregs to perform with them instead. Derek Sherinian was brought on as a hired gun, and by the conclusion of the Awake promotional tour Sherinian was Dream Theater's new full-time keyboardist.

They decided to rewrite and expand the 20-minute song with a fresh, new band member into a complete concept album, with the story revolving around themes such as reincarnation, murder and betrayal. A shroud of secrecy enveloped the writing and recording process. The only things fans knew before its release were a track list that had been leaked against the band's wishes, as well as a release date. They knew nothing of the title, the music, or even the fact that it would be a concept album. In 1999, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was released; it was cited as Dream Theater's best album by many fans.

Dream Theater once again entered BearTracks Studios to record its sixth studio album. Four years after they first petitioned EastWest to allow them to release a double album, they finally got their chance with Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The first disc consisted of five tracks of 6-14 minutes in length, and the second disc was devoted entirely to the 42-minute title track, split into 8 sections, which is to date the longest song Dream Theater has written.

Dream Theater has performed with a diverse range of acts. Some of their more notable touring partners include Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, King's X, Marillion, Megadeth, In Flames, Pain of Salvation, Porcupine Tree, Queensrÿche, Spock's Beard, Fear Factory, Enchant, Symphony X, and Yes. In 2005, Dream Theater toured North America with the Gigantour festival, co-headlining with Megadeth.


AWARDS:


RIAA Gold and Platinum certification
* Images and Words (Gold) - February 2, 1995
* Metropolis 2000: Live Scenes From New York (Gold) - November 8, 2002
* Live at Budokan (DVD) (Platinum) - January 26, 2005
* Live in Tokyo/5 Years in a Livetime (Platinum) - March 22, 2006
* Score (DVD) (Platinum) - October 11, 2006

Keyboard Magazine
Jordan Rudess was awarded the following Keyboard Magazine Reader's Poll award:
* Best New Talent (1994)


Modern Drummer
Mike Portnoy won the following Modern Drummer magazine Reader's Poll awards;

* Best Up & Coming Talent (1994)
* Best Progressive Rock Drummer (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
* Best Recorded Performance (1995 for Awake, 1996 for A Change of Seasons, 1998 for Falling Into Infinity, 2000 for Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, 2002 for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence)
* Best Clinician (2000, 2002)
* Best Educational Video/DVD (2000, 2002)
* Hall of Fame Inductee (2004)

Guitar World
The album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was ranked #95 on the magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time.

Reality... An Illusion?

In the hit movie, The Matrix, Morpheus says "If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

He stole my thoughts...

Think about it... If someone asks you, "What's the biggest thing?" You could answer by saying elephants, mountains, earth, planets, sun and even to the extent of the universe. But i would say that all those answers are wrong. And with good reason too. Everything in this world exists within another world inside our mind. All we see from our eyes are transmitted as electrical signals to our brain. This is where the brain re-creates those signals and shows us what we are actually seeing. Similarly what we taste, touch, hear and smell are again just electrical signals transmitted to our brain through our interlinked nervous system and recreated there. So the answer to the question, "what's the biggest thing", is the mind itself...

Now comes the variant conclusions. Suppose our mind is like a mirror, reflecting the whole world. Then the mind can be fooled and just maybe, the world as we know it, does not really exist. Reality would then just be an illusion. Maybe there is no computer screen you are looking at. No hands and body, no planets, no ground, no sky, no people, no animals and plants, no music, no sounds, no smells, no taste... The list goes on. So if everything is in our mind then the whole world is run and manipulated by our minds or an external force that governs (or fools) the mind. That is to say, our mind tests our reasoning abilities, to how we realise things. Can you imagine? how minutely every detail has been sculptured by our minds. Maybe the celebrities that we see aren't really there. Just "ghosts" created by our minds.

Maybe Matrix's view is correct. That we are prisoners of our own mind. That our mind is a solitary shell. Going to watch movies and enjoying good things in life are just petty things that keep us busy, fooled and blinded to oblivious facts. We are so blinded that any reasoning to life would sound absurd. Maybe what i am saying is true. Maybe not. But we are so deeply blinded by our minds and its manipulating agents that we continue to live this life in monotonous unison and are completely oblivious to any change in thinking and reasoning.

Maybe its time that we not really open our eyes, but instead, OPEN OUR MINDS!!!

The Matrix Reality

"Morpheus: If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain"

This provokes a long existing thought. I'll probably address it later...

What Is The Time?

"i dont have time..."
"the time has come..."
"time's up!"

Time. The very word itself explodes innumerable meanings. But what is "time" really in effect? How can me measure time? seconds, minutes and hours? no... thats just the mechanical motion of a clock or a watch run by batteries and gears.... if there was not a medium to express time in terms of seconds n hours... then what would time really be? does time really pass by? or does it not exist at all?
maybe time does not exist. maybe we live in steady state. thus making it possible for us not to travel forward or backward in time...
but if time existed, then time must have had a beginning. and there must be a subsequent end to it too.
but time is also the motion of an object to a certain distance at a specific velocity (velocity needs time so u could also say relative fastness).

my conclusion:
i feel time is a boundary, a mark or a unit.... but time in effect does not really exist. we live in steady state, where time never began and will never end. where motion precedes the modern meaning of time. that means we can go back and forth in time through motion. if i move a pen from point A to B.... then time passes by.... but when i bring it back to point A from B then i go back in time(steady state... remember!)
we need to break free of being held in seconds. minutes, hours, days. we should have the power to freely navigate through time... which we are socially blinded against...

Who's God?

Being an athiest, this is my view on the existance of god....

the theory of god and religious practices was used as an administrative measure by rulers n kings governing a region... this helped keep peace, love, understanding, harmony etc. among its people... a false image of a supernatural being, ie "GOD", was projected to the people to make them believe in its existance n even fear the consequences of disbelif.... this was supplemented by holy books, images, stories, examples etc... this concomitantly led to idol worshipping and various rites and rituals that through the ages have been exagerated and hence we have them today.... the people hence believed in all this and became kinder and thankful people... this helped the governers to rule their subjects with a greater ease...
this idea used by governers probably came up from egyptian sun, moon, star and water worshipping...