Black Balloon - Goo Goo Dolls

After a long long time I decided to start blogging again... All thanks to this wonderful song by the Goo Goo Dolls. I've loved this song for ages but I got the lyrics only this week (yeah, I've been singing rubbish all these years ;) ).

The lyrics are given below and when you first read them you can't figure out what the song is about (at least I couldn't). So I surfed and found out! Answer is given after the lyrics! How many of you can guess the meaning without the answer? :)

Black Balloon – Goo Goo Dolls
Baby's black balloon makes her fly
I almost fell into that hole in your life
And you're not thinking about tomorrow
'Cause you were the same as me
But on your knees

A thousand other boys could never reach you
How could I have been the one
I saw the world spin beneath you
And scatter like ice from the spoon
That was your womb

Comin' down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you get colder
Or are you someone's prayer

You know the lies they always told you
And the love you never knew
What's the things they never showed you
That swallowed the light from the sun
Inside your room

Comin' down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you get colder
Or are you someone's prayer

And there's no time left for losin
'When you stand they fall

Comin' down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you get colder

All because I'm
Comin' down the years turn over
And angels fall without you there
And I'll go and lead you home and
All because I'm
All because I'm
And I'll become
What you became to me

" "Black Balloon" is the third single to be released from the Dizzy Up the Girl album by the Goo Goo Dolls. The album came out in September 1998, but the song was released as a single early on in the following year. This song ranked sixteenth on the US Top 100.
This song, according to the band's frontman Johnny Rzeznik, is about a woman with a heroin addiction and how her lover is desperately trying to save her. He has also said that is about "seeing someone you love that is so great just screw up so bad." Speculation as to the song's subject has included bassist Robby Takac's ex-wife (who overdosed on heroin).

The video for the song opens with a woman blowing smoke into a soap bubble (a "black balloon"). It then focuses on scenes from a 50's or 60's era swim club."

- Courtesy of Wikipedia-

Companies, Profit & Hard Work

Recently there was a discussion (or rather lecture) in office about working hours and the importance of being flexible with regard to "hard work" since apparently all private companies consider profit and ONLY profit as important...

This got me thinking... Is that true? Or is it just a justification for the suck up workoholic attitude of the person who was jabbering on and on...

I don't think that all private companies work only for profit... Employee loyalty, I believe, is also at least a small consideration of big shots in private companies. After all, if all the employees left, the companies couldn't operate at all, forget about the big big profits!!! Yeah, the company could employ new people, but at what cost? They couldn't possibly replace all the experience that they lost... Even big shots have a conscience (as well as common sense!!!). Surely they can understand that an employee can be considered a hard worker even if he feels that he is entitled to free week-ends and mercentile holidays?!!! I mean, come on!!!

For me, hard work and commitment is doing a job that's given to you well, and trying to help others out and excel at whatever you do... Working late and on week-ends and holidays is fine as long as it's not an exception to take a week-end (or holiday) off!!!

Employees are people too. They have feelings, personal lives and goals that are not work-related. Any company that totally disregards these aspects of employees and focuses on profit will not be able to succeed in the long term until it changes its priorities. This is applicable to Managers and heads as well.

Some more Harry Potter

I'm currently re-reading the last book of the Harry Potter series and I'm still amazed at how strange the book feels to me. Parts of it are BRILLIANT while parts of it is actually boring!!!

The start of the book was excellent and a real page turner. I loved Dudley's part in it. The part where Harry and Hermione were going from place to place was dragging on and on. Nagini coming out of Bathilda Bagshot's body was just plain wierd. Even Xenophilius's part felt a bit wrong.

Now let me get into the parts of the book I LOVED.

• Dudley's parting words


• Ron and Hermione finally getting together (I wish there were more lovey dovey parts though!)


• Percy finally joining in the fighting


• Snape's story (God, it was so very touching... That chapter was so well written! My heart nearly broke reading it)


• Dobby dying (so sad!!!)


• Kreacher (totally unexpected!)


• The battle at Hogwarts (COOL!)


• Fred, Lupin and Tonks dying

I also finally got down to watching the "Order of the Phoenix" movie. There were some parts of the movie that were totally different to the book and parts which weren't shown at all.

• I can't believe that they made it out that Cho Chang betrayed the DA meetings instead of her friend!


• The valentines day meeting was also not shown...


• Sirius's mother's portrait was also not shown and Kreacher's part in Sirius dying was also missing.


• As I recall, Sirius died due to falling through the veil in the archway and not due to the "Avada Kadavra" killing curse!


• The other items in the Department of Mysteries were also missing (such as the tank full of brains and the bowl of time or whatever.


• Harry destroying Dumbledore's office was also not shown.


• The true version of how Harry finds out about the prophecy is missing

A review of the movie can be found here.

All in all, I'm sad that this great series has to end. I hope that J. K. Rowling comes up with a new series which is just as great as this one.

July : Month of Harry Potter!!!

Oh wow! It's July already! 19 more days until the world finds out what happens in the final book of the massively popular Harry Potter series.

I've started reading all the books and am now at the start of the third book. While reading the second book, I was amazed to find out that the cursed necklace and the magic cabinet that played such a huge part in the 6th book are mentioned quite clearly! J. K. Rowling is such a genius!

The "Order of the Phoenix" film is to be released on 13th July but the initial opening night was on the 01st. Some reviews of the film can be found here.

While reading through all the HP books, I keep coming up with various insane theories. I think the craziest one has to be the idea that Lord Voldemort could actually be related to Harry. Could that be possible? After all, the parents of Lily and James Potter is never discussed in detail. I think it would be less crazy to assume that the relationship could come from James Potter's side. After all, the Dursleys connected to Lord Voldemort!!! That's highly absurd!!! However, that could explain why they hate magic so very much! And another fact that could be explained is why Dumbledore always insists that Harry spends his summer holidays with the Dursleys.

The main reason for my theory about Harry and Voldemort being related is that in Book 2, it's mentioned somewhere that young Tom Riddle looks very much like Harry Potter, with his unruly black hair. Harry is supposed to bear a strong resemblance to his dad, James Potter. So that would mean that James also bore a resemblance to Lord Voldemort! Hmmmm.... Another clue could be Tom Riddle calling Lily Potter's sacrifice a counter curse. Could it be that the counter curse is actually the curse that is between 2 people who are related? Why is it that Lord Voldemort never tries to kill Lily Potter? Did he purposely wait to kill her after killing Harry so that he could enjoy the anguish of Lily when her only baby is killed? Or was there another reason?

Neville Longbottom is another of my favourite theories. I'm sure he could play a major role in the story. He's born on the same day as Harry. His parents were driven crazy by Lord Voldemort's magic. Why is it that he is so very forgetful? Always bear in mind that the prophecy was never fully revealed to us! And he was put in to Griffindor after all!!!

I guess I'll just have to wait and see! I hope that the last book is worth all this waiting and anticipating! The plot had better be mindblowing!

Not keeping your word is equivalent to lying, isn't it?

I had the unpleasant experience of being lied to last Friday. In my opinion, not keeping your word is equivalent to lying and breaking a promise.

I have so far led a comfortable life free from lies, deception and broken promises. Fortunately, (or unfortunately) for me, I can't lie. I have never been able to lie and stick to a lie making up so many stories in order to keep up with previously told lies. It's far easier to tell the truth and embrace the consequences.

I guess I'm lucky that for the last 23 years I have never been really lied to (or maybe it would be more realistic to say that I have never found out that I have been lied to!), and by the way, by lying, I mean the HUGE, unforgivable lies that people tell and not the small white ones.

Well anyway, last Friday all that changed. The worst part was that it was the organisation that I worked for, that broke its word to me. The part that really got to me was that this time it was what they had promised some time back after they had broken yet another promise. So, that would make it the 2nd promise that they broke.

It's such an awful feeling, knowing that the place you work for and respect does not reciprocate the same level of respect for its employees. How can people talk bulls*** about processes and procedures while changing them all the time to suit their needs?

It's so unbelievable! I kept thinking, "this can't be happening! Doesn't he remember how he promised us all those things? In front of all those people he told us that we can expect certain things at the end of June, and now everything is changed, again!!! WTF!!!"

I actually cried!!! It's so embarrassing! But it became impossible for me to continue speaking to someone who I realised had broken his promise to me and so many others, and now was skirting the issue and repeating rubbish about a process. What a parrot!

Anyway, I spoke to a few other people who got the issue resolved for me. But I really hate it when we have to go behind people in order to get we are supposed to get anyway! How come, when we're given work, we don't need to have our bosses coming behind us reminding us to get it done, but when we're supposed to get certain things that our contracts promise, we have to go behind everyone?

A few things I believe in...

I got an e-mail today with the attachment given below. It had some of the things that I strongly believed in.

One of them is that you always need to hold on to your values and do what you think is right. No matter how bad the situation is, and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by selling out, don't do it! Even though you won't gain anything by doing the right thing, the plus point is that you don't have to deal with whatever repurcussions that come along with doing the wrong thing.

Another point is to always be aware that there are others in the world you have WAY bigger problems than us. Whenever I get really down or frustrated or unhappy, sometimes I remind myself of people who are living with AIDS or the little children in Africa who are starving for days. At least I'm not going through all of that! But there are times when nothing seems bigger than my problems!!! :)

The main things in life for me are:

• A house to live in a safe neighbourhood
• Good friends and family
• An interesting job with a reasonable salary

I guess I'm lucky to be blessed with the above, but you can never predict the future. There was a period of time in my life which was sheer hell. One day in Feb 2005 I lost everything I had taken for granted. I had to go through it for around 8-9 months, after which I regained everything I lost. The very first day was unbelievable, I never believed it possible to feel so miserable; cried till I was numb. But as time passed I grew used to it, and it didn't seem so bad. Human nature is such that you can get used to anything given enough time. That first day, I received an e-mail in office with a poem that inspired me so much! It went along the lines of no matter how bad it seems now, to cling on to the belief that it'll get better, and that nothing remains the same. Good times will come, you only need to survive the bad times. I dreamt last night that I was back at that awful time, or that it had happened again. I'm still getting over the nightmare, I guess! :)

Harry Potter Book 7 ending all over the Internet!!!

A hacker has allegedly broken into the computers of the publisher of the Harry Potter series and has obtained a digital copy of the 7th and final book. A summary of the ending can be found all over the Internet.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stop myself and visited the site and had a look. I would like to believe that it's all rubbish because if it is true, I am very disappointed. I expected a better ending. The good thing is that the plot is not given. Only who dies and who kills them.

If you want to have a look as well, click here. This will link to a news article which contains the link to the spoilers. Let's hope it's all a publicity stunt and not the true ending!