Temple of the king

When I heard this song at Landmark, Gurgaon, I was instantly hooked. The song was played several times over in the three hour duration that I was in the store. The music sounded familiar, yet it was vaguely unfamiliar and the tune drove me crazy for a good few hours. I memorized a portion of the lyrics so I could get back and do my home work.

It was Doogie White singing Temple of the king for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.

The vocals had a magical effect on me. After about a dozen repeats, the song left me senseless as if I had been hit with a hammer. It did fill the void “of not having my type of songs”. Its been my biggest musical influence this year second only to Green day’s Boulevard of broken dreams. I’ve memorised the song by heart now. Peace can reign again.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-hwCl6J8pY]

Edit on 25th September 2007

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7qtwJ9EQPg ]

One day, in the year of the fox
Came a time remembered well,
When the strong young man of the rising sun
Heard the tolling of the great black bell.
One day in the year of the fox,
When the bell began to ring,
It meant the time had come for one to go
To the temple of the king.

There in the middle of the circle he stands,
Searching, seeking.
With just one touch of his trembling hand,
The answer will be found.
Daylight waits while the old man sings,
Heaven help me!
And then like the rush of a thousand wings,
It shines upon the one.
And the day has just begun.

One day in the year of the fox
Came a time remembered well,
When the strong young man of the rising sun
Heard the tolling of the great black bell.
One day in the year of the fox,
When the bell began to sing
It meant the time had come for the one to go
To the temple of the king.

There in the middle of the people he stands,
Seeing, feeling.
With just a wave of the strong right hand, he’s gone
To the temple of the king.

Far from the circle, at the edge of the world,
He’s hoping, wondering.
Thinking back on the stories he’s heard of
What he’s going to see.
There, in the middle of a circle it lies.
Heaven help me!
Then all could see by the shine in his eyes
The answer had been found.

Back with the people in the circle he stands,
Giving, feeling.
With just one touch of a strong right hand, they know
Of the temple and the king.

Cleaning the keyboard

My PC is 5 years old. I celebrated this by cleaning my keyboard.

Before:

During:

After:

For step wise instructions, see this site.

“Before you start, make sure you know which keycap goes where. Unless you have another keyboard to hand, or it is illustrated in the handbook, draw a diagram, take a digital photograph, or even place the keyboard on your scanner or photocopier and record the key positions in this way. Next, carefully remove the keycaps. A small screwdriver works well and is unlikely to cause any damage.

Insert the blade of the screwdriver under a keycap and lift it up. I suggest you only remove the ordinary sized keys. The space bar and the larger keys like Return and Enter often have wire mechanisms underneath that are hard to fit back into place. Having removed the keycaps, it is easier to remove the debris from the keyboard using a combination of handheld vacuum cleaner, brush and / or compressed-gas aerosol. You can also wash the keycaps, as long as you dry them fully.

Although the buildup of grime on the keycaps can be severe, stick with warm soapy water and a sponge. Do not be tempted to use an organic solvent or any cleaning agent stronger than soap and do not use a scourer. Organic solvents could dissolve the plastic of the keycaps and abrasive cleaning agents or scourers could remove the legends or scratch the keys, making them more susceptible to the accumulation of dirt in the future. Replacing the keycaps – once dry – involves nothing more complicated than pushing them down on to the appropriate switch mechanisms.”

PS: I removed all the keys, including the large ones such as the “Enter” key which had a long bent holding metal wire and two additional guides on the underside.