They’re Baaaaaackk!

Ouch!

Yo, Call me back.

Now many of you reading this probably have a cell phone yourself and you’re always trying to find the best plan available so you can talk as much as you want and keep the costs low as possible. (Anyone reading this that has a City Fido plan, screw you and stop reading; this is meant for normal people.) Now I’ve realized that one plan majority of people have and I try to sell it as much as I can (for those who know where I work, you know what I mean) because I truly think the plan in question is a good one.

Now the plan I’m talking about is the Unlimited Incoming Calls/100 Outgoing weekday minutes/1000 outgoing evening and weekend minutes (or some combination of the minutes but the main thing is the Unlimited Incoming Calls). Now the plan is really a good one if you get a lot of incoming calls and everyone obviously assumes that they are too important to call people and people always call them. Yea right, get over yourself. You’re as important as ShindaSingh.com, and that’s saying something.

Now the only reason I bring this up is because I think we’ve reached a point where everyone is rolling around with this Unlimited Incoming plan. Now we’re at a point where no one wants to call anyone and just wants to receive the call. If two people want to talk, this is how the conversation starts:

Person A: Yo, call me back. (Hangs up)

Person B: Fuck, this guys making me use up my minutes.

Person A: WTF, why isn’t this guy calling me back? Ah well, I’d rather wait than call him back and use up my minutes.

Now everyone is afraid to use up their outgoing minutes and would rather receive the call instead but what people fail to understand is that, the other person has the exact same plan and has the exact same thinking. So is it really worth getting this plan when no one really wants to call you even though you think you’re so damn important that they should be calling you. Reality is that you end up calling more people and the only people that call you are your parents/siblings and other family members. Now either you get a different plan or make yourself important so that people will actually have a reason to call your lazy ass. Or cell phone companies need to come out with a plan where it has an Unlimited Outgoing so that this can be evened out but I doubt that’s going to happen.

Also, don’t get me started on those people that go to school outside of the GTA and whenever they in the GTA, you gotta call them, hang up and wait for them to call you back just so that they can avoid some long distance charges. (Although if you have Unlimited Incoming that actually works in your favour. This cell phone system is messed up. Just bribe someone and jack their City Fido plan or just go pay some Rogers guy 50 bones and grab the unlimited incoming/outgoing shit.)

Anyways, I’m with my man D (look around, you’ll see him) and I’m gone.

George Takei wants to make Sexii Time

Tim Hardway recently made anti-gay comments which got him banned by the NBA. And now a member of the gay community is after Tim Hardway as well.

The Ex-Number 15

Now Shinda Singh continues to show support for Vince Carter and I for one can not and will not stand for it. Since he’s my boy I ain’t about to pick up a sword or a gun and shoot the man, I’m going to fight him with what I have, my keyboard.

Now Shinda says,

So apart from the coaching staff, and upper management and their lack of direction or focus what more could a player who wants to go somewhere do? What is the point in trying, when you’re surrounded by a franchise who had no vision or goal for success?

Now I considered what he was saying but then a particular player comes to mind, Pau Gasol. Let’s use him as an example because his situation is very similar to the one that Carter faced here in the T-Dot.

So check it, Pau is a legit star in the NBA (obviously not as a big star Carter was in Toronto) and he’s dropping 20points and just over 9boards a game this season after being injured early on. The franchise, Memphis Grizzlies, have no sense of direction as they fired a great mind in Mike Fartello and were sold to a group but then unsold because of some contractual issues. Their long time GM & VP Jerry West is rumoured to be leaving Memphis after this season and the owner himself wants to sell the team. Now when Vince was here, he had a similar situation with the coaches as we had our share of them but in the earlier years we had a constant GM in Grunwald and the franchise wasn’t about to be sold and there were never any rumours of selling. Now Pau Gasol has been playing at a high level even though he asked for a trade and has not quit on his team even though they are in the basement in the Western Conference.

Vince went down, got up but unlike D-Wade he didn’t get up every time after he fell down. He fell down and he stayed down. Pau Gasol comes back from an injury and he continues to do what he does best and that is play basketball. And you’re right Shinda, it is a TEAM game and Pau Gasol certainly doesn’t have any other superstar or star with him but you don’t hear him complaining. You don’t see him giving up on his team. So don’t make excuses that it’s the franchises fault or that it was the coaches and the upper management. He quit on the Raptors, he quit on the fans and he quit on people like us.

I still give respect to the man because he did indeed put the Toronto Raptors on the map. He put us on the map and then he cried and whined and got his way and left the city. We became the laughing stock of the league as fast as Vince put us on the map in the first place. I don’t forgive Carter and I don’t think I ever could. I’ll boo him every time he comes to Toronto until he publically apologizes to the city, the fans and the franchise and publically admits that he was wrong and that he quit on the team, he quit on the city and he quit on the fans. But even then I don’t know if I could truly stop hating Carter.

And I don’t know how people can cheer for Vince “Pwassy Boy” Carter. We should boo him every time he touches the ball because recently he has been rattled by our boos. He’s been rattled because he never thought that we would keep hating on him for this long. He’s become jealous of the Raptors success, jealous of CB4’s success and I, along with many other Raptor fans are loving every single second of it.

We’re all going to keep continue chanting the following even if Shinda Singh doesn’t wanna join in.

Carter Sucks! Carter Sucks! Carter Sucks!

The way I see it and the way the Raptor Nation sees it, If you ain’t with us, you’re against us!

Viva Las Vegas (NBA Style)

Another NBA All Star Weekend has come and gone and once again there was controversy involved in the main event, the Slam Dunk Competition. I’ll get to that later on but first the results.

Rookie-Sophomore Game: Sophomores (MVP: David Lee)

Skills Competition Winner: Dwayne Wade aka D-Wade

The Race: Charles “Chuckster” Barkley

For those of you who may have missed one of the best All Star moments in recent history, fear not, you can check out the race in its entirety in the following video.

3-Point Shootout Winner: Jason Kapono

Slam Dunk Champion: Gerald Green*

Now the only reason I post an asterisk beside Gerald Green’s name is because my main man Dwight Howard (D-How) was robbed. Check out his second dunk of the night and tell me how you could not give that dunk a 45+.

Dwight Howard put a sticker at 12.6 feet and still dunked the ball. The man touched 12.6 feet with ease and the judges (who barely gave out a 10 and were the hardest judges for the Slam Dunk contest as far as I can remember) did not give one 10. MJ was straight up on crack as he was the toughest judge of them all and just refused to give anyone any love. I’m guessing he either lost too much money in Vegas since he’s been there or he’s just mad that he can’t play anymore but either way, MJ was mad at something and this time he had nobody to shit on. Now last year it was Andre Iguodala who got robbed and this year it was Dwight Howard. I have no doubt in my mind that it should have been Gerald Green & Dwight Howard in the final round instead of Nate Robinson, (who STUNK it up in the final round) but then again there is only sooo much a 5′8 man can do. In my personal opinion, had Dwight Howard made it into the final round he would have done something spectacular and also would’ve put the pressure on Gerald Green to do something amazing as well and not just catch a ball out of mid air and dunk it. Hopefully D-How stays true to his word and does come back next year as he said he would. Now I don’t want to take anything away from Gerald Green, the man did his thing and pulled out the victory and I hope he also returns next year to defend his crown. All in all I wasn’t that impressed with All Star Saturday but I wasn’t that disappointed either. On the bright side, at least the NBA had their All Star festivities during the weekend.

The All Star Game itself was one of the more entertaining ones in recent memory as the players put on a show. Also, the windmill dunk has replaced the 360 as to what dunk a player should do if he’s on a breakaway. Chris Bosh showed that he can dunk with the windmill that he did when no one expected it and Shawn Marion was just a dunking machine. Dwight Howard showed that he is the next Shaq with the way he just abused the West Centers with his array of power dunks. LeBron had some nice ones as did Wade, Melo, T-Mac and the rest of the crew. The MVP was no one other than ya boy Kobe Bryant. Now anyone that even tried to guard him had no success whatsoever. Look at it this way, Early Boykins has a better chance of dunking on Yao Ming than anyone has of guarding Kobe. He showed off his full arsenal as his array of reverse dunks, shots and blow bys made everyone get out of their seats. All in all, the game itself was very entertaining and hopefully the games continue to be this good in the upcoming years.

One last note, if you missed the hilarious dance off between Shaq, LeBron & Dwight Howard on Saturday afternoon, no worries, y’all know Imma hook you up.

Actually one more note from Scottie Pippen:

“I know that, but I think people love me just as much as they love Michael,” Pippen said. “The fans who understand the game, the GMs and coaches. I think they’d rather have a Scottie than a Michael.”

There was an awkward, shocked pause after Pippen answered—Pippen over Jordan?—and someone finally asked why.

“Because I’m an all-around player,” Pippen added. “Coaches would rather have a Scottie-type player than a Michael. I was an all-around player. I made people around me better.”

Now I know I said MJ was on straight up crack during this weekend but I think Scottie finally outdid his Airness this time as he had to be doing some real bad crack to say something like that. Scottie looks like he’s a recovering crack addict. Those skinny ass legs combined with that fucked up face he has now for some reason. When he’s laughing, his entire face runs a transformation Optimus Prime style or maybe it’s jus me and he looks exactly the same. Nevertheless, I still say he had to be on crack when he made the above statement and he’ll probably find a team to play for in these upcoming months.

Final Results:

Me: 1-4

Shinda: 2-3

Deep Singh: 3-2

Harsimran: 2-2 (He didn’t feel the need to choose a Slam Dunk winner)

PS: If you want people to come out to Youth Kirtan Darbars, stop scheduling them on the same day as NBA All Star Saturday.

Raptor Nation will be heard…

Now I saw this on Shinda Singh’s blog and it I found it to be quite funny. But then I remembered the fact that Shinda is pro Vince Carter and I felt it was my duty as a Raptor fan to post this and let the fans be heard where the Raptors are appreciated and where we are Anti-Vince Carter.

Vince is straight up jealous of the Raptors success and the success of Chris Bosh.

Bargnani for Rookie of the Year. Chris Bosh for MVP. Sam Mitchell for Coach of the Year.

NBA All Star 2007

With the NBA All Star weekend starting on Friday, I thought maybe it’s time I wrote something about it. Now every year we get together to watch All Star Saturday which showcases the Dunk Contest. Now in recent years the dunks have not been too great although I enjoyed Josh Smith’s dunks and last year Andre Iguodala’s dunk off the back of the backboard. Although many people tune in for the dunk contest, I also like watching the 3-point shootout and even the Skills Competition between the leagues premier guards. Now the one thing I find stupid is the Shooting competition where you have one current NBA player, one retired NBA player and a WNBA player. Now I don’t mind watching the current NBA players and the old timers but a WNBA player? Don’t they have their own All Star Game? And showing them off at the NBA All Star Game isn’t going to make anyone watch that league since majority of those girls couldn’t dunk if their lives depended on it. Now having a competition between people like Steve Kerr and Brent Barry I wouldn’t mind watching since those two can shoot the lights out when no one is guarding them but including the WNBA players is just ridiculous. I propose that Zeke (Isiah Thomas) be the new Commissioner of the WNBA so he can run that league into the ground and we can all just erase any thoughts we ever had of the WNBA out of our minds. I say the over/under for the amount of years Zeke takes to run that league into the ground has to be 1.5years. If he does ever become the commissioner of that league I’m pretty sure Vegas would release odds to how long he would take to run that league into the ground. And don’t act like you don’t want to see that.

Anyways, let’s move onto the important stuff since I wasted way too much time talking about the WNBA when it can be summed up in one word, I’m sure many of you know what that one word is.

Friday Night:

McDonald’s All Star Celebrity Game

Now this game usually sucks ass since half of the people in it can’t shoot or jump or drive. But it’s always entertaining to see man dem try and fail. Nevertheless I predict that the West Team will win since they got Jamie Foxx, Reggie Bush and Bow Wow. The East time has Nelly, Taye Diggs and some other people that I don’t recognize without a picture. Now if you really want, you can check out the complete rosters here.

T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam

Now the Rookie Challenge I get but I still don’t know what the Youth Jam is. Guess I’ll just have to tune in to find out. Now this game between the sophomores and the Rookies isn’t always boring and actually ends up being an entertaining game. Now this year the Home Team, Toronto Raptors, got two representing the Red & White, Andrea Bargnani & Jorge Garbajosa. Bargnani will be the MVP of this game. If you want to check out the rest of the rosters, you can do so here.

Saturday:

On Saturday afternoon the teams usually run some sort of practices and they are televised on Raptors TV. Now the only reason I mention this is because last year the teams had contests such as makin the most shots from half court and stuff like that. And if you don’t have Raptors TV, no worries, there’s a free preview going on until Sunday.

Now Saturday Night starts off with the NBADL having their All Star game as well and it will be on NBA TV. Now this game will pretty much be garbage but I seen on the rosters that James White, product of University of Cincinnati, is going to be in it. This guy should have been in the Dunk Competition has he can jump out of the building. I also recognized a couple of other names with Raptor relations. First off there’s Stephen Graham (Brother of Joey Graham) and Loren Woods. All the Raptor fans know how Loren Woods kept the end of the bench very warm. Other than that it’s mostly a bunch of nobody’s but here are the rosters for the game. I’m taking a guess and saying the East wins it.

The Haier Shooting Stars are usually the first thing on NBA All Star Saturdays and they haven’t released the rosters of all the teams but the Spurs will be coming back to defend their title from last year and their team consists of Tony Parker, Steve Kerr and Kendra Wecker. Like seriously, who in the blue hell is Kendra Wecker? Anyone heard of her? My point exactly, no need for WNBA up in here. I don’t really care who wins this.

Now onto the good stuff:

Chuckster vs. Dick Bavetta. Dick Bavetta was the referee at the Lakers-Raptors game we hit up and the old man can move but there is no way Charles is losing this race. I got Charles to win by the length of two of his stomachs.

The Playstation Skills Challenge should be entertaining since you have Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James & Chris Paul. Now the original roster had Steve Nash but he got injured. D-Wade came within 0.3 seconds of breaking the all time record last year. This year I say my main man Kobe wins it, whereas the majority of people will say D-Wade since the whole Kobe-Wade rivalry thing. LeBron just seems too disinterested in doing anything this year. I think if he had to sign a contract this year he’d be too lazy to do even that.

The Foot Locker Three Point Shootout is always fun since some players can light it up and while players just end up missing everything since they are in game shooters like Antoine Walker. We all remember that horrible shooting display he put on. This year we got the defending champion Dirk Nowitzki, Damon “I’m the best shooter in the world” Jones, Jason Kapono, Mike Miller, Jason Terry and Agent 0 aka Gilbert Arenas. Now Gilbert might end up saying he’s going to win it all and then stink up the joint. Last year at the all star game he said he will be the All Star game MVP and didn’t come thru and just this week he said he was going to drop 50 on Portland and doesn’t even hit double digits. I say Damon Jones will win this with ease. He wanted to be in this competition very badly and I don’t think he will disappoint.

Now the Main Event of the evening. The Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk competition. You have the defending thief of the year Nate Robinson, The NBADL alumnus Gerald Green, Chicago’s Tyrus Thomas and the athletic freak Dwight Howard. Now I’ll be pissed if Nate Robinson or Gerald Green win this event, mainly because these two guys have HUGEEE egos and their egos will only get bigger if one of them wins. Tyrus Thomas doesn’t deserve to win especially after the comments he made about why he’s in the dunk contest in the first place so it’s only fitting that Dwight Howard takes the title. Now some might say that a 7 footer can’t win it but if you have seen D-How’s high school dunks on YouTube, you’d know this man is capable of anything. Especially after that ridiculous game winning alley-oop against the Spurs. Now the word is that Gerald Green has a dunk that will be top 10 ALL TIME in NBA dunk contest history. Couple of his teammates have been saying that this dunk will be remembered for all time and will be up there with the Jordan’s and the Carter’s.

Tony Allen said that if Green nailed the “crazy” dunk he has planned, it will go down as “one of the top 10 in history.” Green did divulge that Paul Pierce would be present at the contest and incorporated into one of his dunks

Now maybe it’s just hype or maybe he does have one dunk that will leave you speechless but nevertheless, I have Dwight Howard coming away with the crown. He also said that he’d like to be back in the dunk contest in the upcoming years. Finally someone who actually wants to be in the dunk contest for more than one year.

Sunday:

2007 NBA All Star Game.

Now I personally don’t think this game will be very exciting for the simple fact that it’s in Vegas and the night before majority of the players will be out partying. Michael Jordan’s 44^th birthday party is on Saturday and so is Paris Hilton’s 26^th birthday party. According to Sal from the Best Damn Sports Show, there are tons of parties happening that Saturday and majority of the NBA All Stars are going to be hittin them up. Now with that said, the East is going to win it and Chris Bosh is going to be MVP. First time All Star and he will dominate to bring the MVP trophy north of the border. You can check out the complete rosters here.

And for all the girls that are mad over my WNBA comments, I bring you the same video that someone sent to me to put in the other post.

Down… but not out

Alright, here it is. I was messing around with my computer thinking I was an All Star and what not when in reality I didn’t know what I was doing. And as a result of that, i burnt out something in my computer and now no monitor will work with it. Thus, my computer is out of commission and so am I. It could be for a day or two or it could be much longer but the fact is I don’t have home base to work with and because of that I can’t post some of the stuff that I wanted to. Anyways, bare with me as I may be down for the moment but I ain’t out. And no worries, when I do come back, I’ll be back with a bang!

In other words, The Pind is being blackmailed by the Punjab Police (you know who you are) for some serious flow and until I pay up, I ain’t gettin my Pind back.

SikhiToTheMax – Respek

Someone actually used my blogs email address and requested that I post the following. I’m assuming the email account was a made up one since the name on the email was Ronald McDonald. Guess someone wants to be heard but not shitted on but nevertheless, here it is.

If you attend weekly keertan programs or a Rehansabai once in a while, you know that SikhiToTheMax has had a huge effect on the sangat. A couple of years ago, keertan programs used to be quieter then an Atlanta Hawks home game, hosted by the Atlanta Public Library. Then one day something magical happened. A screen appeared. It had writing on it. It gave out an ambient blue light. Everyone was drawn to it, and what it had to say. SikhiToTheMax told us what we were singing about. It gave everyone a chance to participate in the keertan, not just the people on the white chaddar. The youth was the luckiest demographic. The translations were beautiful; they were telling us stories of our Guru’s and lessons for our lives.

Although Gurmukhi is not really too complicated once you get down to reading enough of it, the second generation youth of North America grew up with the emphasis put on learning English. No one wanted to be in ESL. Usually and unfortunately, this came at the cost of an understanding for our own language. I only know a small group of people that were lucky enough to integrate Gurmukhi and English in their youth. The majority of us were left with an understanding of basic Punjabi, and recognized a few words in Gurbani. Then SikhiToTheMax came along, and I honestly think it was a better tutor then anyone else around. Slowly but surely we began to remember the meanings of words and phrases. It made singing the Guru’s praises ten times more uplifting.

Of course, everything in the world has its advantages and disadvantages. So let’s break it down.

What’s Really Good

1. Say what? For real??

Who knew that all these words we were singing every week had such amazing messages behind them. All along, Guru Sahib was giving us a chance to learn the history, the values and virtues of being a Gur Ka Sikh. For most, the first time with SikhiToTheMax was a revelation. It made you feel complete, sort of like when the Leafs and Raptors win on the same night and it feels like all is well in the world.

2. Time flew like it was nothing at all … nothing at all … nothing at all (Damn you Flanders!)

Rehansabai’s are not easy to sit through folks. You’ve got to work your way into them. It’s like trying to listen to Glen Healy comment on TSN broadcasts, or Chuck Swirsky yelling MP3 download for the fifth time in two minutes – takes some getting used to. And you need some bionic knees. SikhiToTheMax made it much easier. The majority of the time, you stare at the screen singing along and reading the meanings. Before you know it, your outside in the -20 degree weather trying to break the ice on your front windshield so you can get home to the best night’s sleep of your life … after doing amrit vela of course.

3. I aint cryin’ fool, I got something in my eye!

Face it, we’ve all had that weird feeling at least once during a Rehansabai where you read a meaning that’s so amazing or enlightening, you just feel all tingly and a brother (or sister) gets all emotional. If you haven’t already, read the meanings to this shabad.

kwgw krMg FMFoilAw sglw KwieAw mwsu ]

kaagaa kara(n)g dta(n)dtoliaa sagalaa khaaeiaa maas ||

The crows have searched my skeleton, and eaten all my flesh.

ey duie nYnw miq Cuhau ipr dyKn kI Aws ]91]

eae dhue nainaa math shhuho pir dhaekhan kee aas ||91||

But please do not touch these eyes; I hope to see my Lord. ||91||

 

You have a blessed soul asking for the crows slowing eating the flesh away from his body not to take his eyes, because they have such a longing to see their Guru. Tingly I tell you.

Of course, there is a downside to every great thing. Here are a few disadvantages

1. All was quiet, not a creature was stirring…

There is a reason none of us know how to long divide anymore: the calculator. For this reason, a keertan without a SikhiToTheMax program and screen is like an orchestra without a conductor. We all lose focus and no one seems to remember a single line of gurbani by memory. We became so reliant on the screen, that we just become straight up dumb without it.

2. Okay c’mon, that was funny and you know it.

Most of the people reading this blog are young adults. MOST of us are still immature moorakhs. Hopefully with time it will change, but as of right now, when you read a translation that is funny to you, it’s hard not to smile or laugh. Its wrong, but it’s the truth. We are all victims of our immaturity, and translation involving “sperm” or “Ganika the prostitute” will usually break our concentration.

3. That little scroll bar

Recently, this has not been much of a problem but everyone knows about that scroll bar. When it’s really early in the morning and the bar is so skinny you can barely see it, your endurance seems to go from 88 to 54 (relating to NHL hockey videogame stats). You just know your in for a battle of mind vs. body and can’t wait to hear “Nanak”, signaling the shabad is coming to a close. Again, its wrong but it’s the truth. We all need to try and get it out of our minds, and when that little box is hidden, it makes it much easier.

In conclusion, I know some of the post was tongue in cheek, but mostly I just want to thank the creators of SikhiToTheMax. It is an amazing learning tool, and we don’t appreciate it enough.

One more thing, I’m posting without my name because I don’t want to be associated with Gagandeep Singh in any way but I needed an outlet to write this and Gagan has been known to be a man of the people. I hope he doesn’t turn me down.

Gagan may be a little too dark for his own good, but his hearts in the right place. And for all the bibian going all crazy for the last post, the video illustrates what I think of Sarpanch Gagan. I also think its better that we concentrate on the ideas of the blog, not who writes it. This keeps your minds open and judgments closed.