Musings From New York

Moving On ...

2005-04-20T00:18:00.000-04:00

On the one-year anniversary of my blogging, I am moving my blog to TypePad's services. I was quite bugged with Blogger the other day for not giving me any control over the layout of my page ... and signed up for the free 30 day trial at TypePad. After 5 days, I can definitely say I'm sticking with it.

So please point your browsers to, and bookmark:

http://bloreboy.blogs.com

Still On The Subject of WoW

2005-04-14T11:45:00.000-04:00

This is the funniest comic strip I've seen to date.

Some Photos from WoW

2005-04-14T00:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, one of my guildmates, a rogue named Crono, got himself a tuxedo stitched. He was so kicked that we took a bunch of photos outside Ironforge. Frostrane (a guild Paladin) and Caterin (another rogue) were in Ironfroge too, and posed as well.

Frost, Crono & Cat Outside Ironforge

Cheering For Archon!

Mortal Kombat ... Fight!

The Search Is On!

2005-04-11T09:53:00.000-04:00

Yes, a year before the Academy Awards, the hunt for the next host is on.

IMDb reports that "Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, is thrilled with how Rock handled his chores, but that he he has huge doubts he'll be asking the funnyman back - at least not next year."

Thank the Gods, I say! I didn't like Chris Rock's hosting - I thought it was toned down, and frankly ... lame!

You know who would make a good host? Seinfeld! Can you imagine Seinfeld-episode-ish shorts sprinkled through the whole Oscar show ... and stand-up routine at the beginning? That would rock!

Jay Leno might be good too. Conan O'Brien is probably too fringe for the Academy crowd though.

The Final (Version) Of The Solutions Document

2005-04-08T15:42:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I was going through a mock-run of a presentation I gave today to a client. The presentation was about my firm's consulting methodologies. During my presentation, I used the phrase "the final solution document" ... as in, "outputs from these activities will be used to create the final solution document".

Someone told me not to use the phrase "the final solution", as it was what Hitler used to justify the Holocaust. I am now teaching myself to say "final version of the solution document."

Now, I like to think I'm sensitive to other cultures and sensibilities. But this is ridiculous.

Sin City 10/10

2005-04-05T10:39:00.000-04:00

Now, to be fair, I must say that I love Noir, and I love the Tarantino/Rodriguez camp of movie-making. And I haven't read any of the comic books (though now, I plan to!) But damn, what a movie! In fact, this is probably the first non-mainstream comic-to-movie adaptation that's worked. For example, I loved The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic), but the movie sucked!

Thinking about it, you could say that Sin City in similar to Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1: both movies distill the essence of their genre into this highly concentrated, and highly potent mix, that kicks like a mule and leaves you dazed as you exit the theater ... OK, I'm struggling with this metaphor here, and I hope you understand what I'm trying to say!

The look of the movie is great - the gritty, shadowy world of noir is really brought to life. The shadows take on multiple shades of black, with the only color in sight serving to emphasize a character or situation. It's the most visually appealing movie I've seen since ... Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow.

The movie is quite violent - but hey, it's Robert Rodriguez, the guy who made the El Mariachi trilogy & From Dusk Till Dawn! The movie really pulled me in, immersed me in the feel of Sin City, and that's no mean feat considering how jaded I've been about movies recently.

Two mentions about the acting: Bruce Willis as the weary old cop, Hartigan; and Clive Owen as the troubled soul seeking redemption by helping the leather-wearing, machine-gun & katana-toting hookers of Old Town. I hope the top dogs at Sony take a look at his acting here and reconsider casting him as James Bond after Brosnan retires.

Kickstart Your Brain

2005-04-01T11:20:00.000-05:00

Ever feel like you can't get started in the morning? Banana-Strawberry smoothie not cutting it anymore? Get that familiar bitter taste when you have your morning cup of joe? Well maybe you ought to grab one of these!

What the heck is wrong with Blogspot today?

2005-03-30T11:48:00.000-05:00

Anyone else having issues with loading pages, publishing posts, etc.?

Robots 6.5/10

2005-03-30T11:22:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know I've promised to write up about Robots for at least 2 weeks now .. but hey, better late than never.

Now - before I defend the low score let me just say that I laughed .. a lot! The look of the movie is great - kitschy retro-look from back in the 50's & 60's. The colors are bright & vivid, the gigantic robot city in particular has been beautifully realized. In my opinion, this s the best "conceptual" movie since "Monsters, Inc.". There are a lot of jokes & references to, for example, Star Wars & Lord of the Rings (some are not so obvious, BTW). All in all, it's just beautiful, beautiful eye candy! And Robin Williams excels as Fender. Just watch his rendition of "Singin' In The Oil"! It's a classic I tell ya! If I'm not mistaken, it's Robin Williams return to animation since "Alladin" (oh boy, was that an amazing performance!).

Now the reasons why the movie fell short. The script was clearly sacrificed at the altar of eye-candy! On two counts: first, the plot is a little too stock ("Be yourself. Find your strengths. Stay true to your friends." etc. etc.). This might be OK for the wee ones in the hall, but to the adults, it's a little lame. Secondly, there are some inconsistencies with the "romances" in the plot. The "heroine" isn't present for most of the movie ... the audience thinks that the "hero" will wind up with someone else ... but is suddenly back together with the "heroine" ... consistency, people! A thirdly, and perhaps most unforgivingly, Robin Williams does not have enough screen time. Admitedly, when you're working with such a long list of A-Class stars, you have to find screen time to satisfy everyone. But to not deliberately not give Robin Williams enough screen time in an animated movie ... c'mon people! Get with the program here!

So ... it's definitely a movie to watch on the big screen. But you'll come away wanting more! Extra scenes in the DVD, perhaps?

Attention South Park Fans!

2005-03-30T11:01:00.000-05:00

Wing's website does exist! I thought initially that it was a hoax website - I wasn't able to access it when it was displayed on last weeks' episode of South Park.

Now, with all due respect to Matt Stone & Trey Parker - why did they pick this woman to ... butcher ABBA's Dancing Queen? To listen to a clip, click on "Download MP3s", and check out any of the songs. I can honestly say that the high-pitched singing is #2 on my list of agonizing sounds, right below "fingers on a blackboard".

At the end of it, you can't help feel pity ... and perhaps admiration, for the Wing to have put herself in the public eye.

Combining Two Favorite Activities of Liberals

2005-03-28T13:13:00.000-05:00

Talking about Star Trek, and Bush-bashing.

From the article ...

Star Trek fans have turned to the White House for a last-minute plea to keep the show alive. President Bush, while speaking in Waco, Texas with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, talked briefly about the impending doom of the Star Trek series.

“I think most Americans don’t want to see the show just end like this,” said President Bush in a response to a reporter’s question. “I think it’s premature. We still haven’t seen how that Annakin kid transforms into that evildoer. I’m disappointed.”

The "You have got to be kidding!" Story du Jour

2005-03-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

... Can be found here.

I'm Still Alive, Folks!

2005-03-28T12:54:00.000-05:00

Lot of people have been bugging me about why I haven't posted anything for a while. Well ... there hasn't been much to write about! I've watched a few movies, so those reviews are coming up shortly ...

Umm, I heard a few of the covers Ozzy's put on his new album "Prince of Darkness" - which, incidentally, I heard of for the first time on The Daily Show. Specifically, I've heard, and can recommend "Purple Haze", "Stayin' Alive", and "Sympathy For The Devil".

What else, what else? Oh yeah, my character in World of Warcraft, a paladin named Bheema (yes, yes, full points for originality there. What can I say, the paladin is a natural mace-weilder, and Bheema was the only name I could think of at the time!) ... anyway, my character hit level 40 last week, which is a significant event in the game. It means I get to ride a horse, and wear plate armor (it's a big deal, trust me!). I've figured out how to take screenshots ingame, so I will post some pictures of .. myself (!) soon.

Q's India Night

2005-03-17T15:16:00.000-05:00

Q in this case being Qualcomm ... I guess the desis there think it cool to associate Qualcomm with Bond's gadget outfitter.

Divya sent me a few photos of her dances, and Metal's quiz-compering. Here they are:

Divya's the one on the right (foreground). Doesn't this pose have a Matrix-ish "Come here and get your @#$ kicked" look?

Divya's the one on the left. Village belle dance again ... well, she is classically trained, I guess!

Metal the Quizmaster. This must've brought back a flood of memories!

Musings From DC

2005-03-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

I was in DC over the weekend, meeting Andy, who'd come down for a World Bank Conference.

Most of the trip was uneventful. We spent Friday talking about BITS, and general catching up. We spent Saturday walking around the mall, visiting the National Air & Space Museum & the National Museum of the American Indian (as an aside, when did it suddenly become PC to call them "American Indians"? I thought the description was "Native Americans").

The Inside Of The NMAI - Looks Like The Guggenheim in New York!

I met Mike on Saturday evening for some drinks. I found out that he wasn't a student (for some reason I thought he was), but a technical writer with a history of RJ-ing (so that explains the blog!).

Mike & I (Dunno Why I Look So Leery!)

I watched Robots on Saturday night (review to follow), as Andy had an official dinner to attend.

There was some excitement later Saturday night, as the fire alarm in our hotel went off at about 1:30 in the morning. We had the presence of mind to pull on some shoes, and sweaters/jackets before we evacuated the building. That was a good thing - it was probably close to freezing outside, and there were people out there in pyjamas. As a matter of fact, there was a Chinese TV crew there too - they must've been staying in the hotel too. There was a fire on the 4th floor, which apparently destroyed 3 or 4 rooms - we were on the 6th floor, so we could definitely feel the heat & smoke when we took the stairs down!

We finally got back into the room at about 3:30am ... which meant we woke up at about noon, lounged around (I saw the Watergate Hotel) before I took the 5:20pm train back to New York.

On The Boardwalk at Georgetown

The Watergate Hotel

An Update To My Daily Show Posting

2005-03-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

I posted an entry last week about the Daily Show comment on an NBC news story that "unmasked" an important Iraqi judge. Well I was catching up on my DVR-stored programs, and they talked about this on Monday (or was it Tuesday?).

Their regular guest was grounded in DC due to the snow storm ... so they managed Brian Williams ... who went to great lengths to explain why NBC had got it wrong (bad intel from US Government "sources"). He also got a newspaper clipping from The New York Times that talked about the judge, and that included a photo of the said judge. Also, NBC corrected itself in time for their broadcasts to the other regions, so the error was localized to the East Coast broadcast only ... and they made the apology the next day.

Is it odd that NBC News has to defend itself against a cable network fake news show? Man, that must've been a boost to the egos of everyone at The Daily Show!

On The Subject of MMORPGS ...

2005-03-10T14:25:00.000-05:00

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games ... such as World of Warcraft.

Bill Amend of Foxtrot ran a series on it ... which lead to an interview at a WoW fansite (you can also see the comics strips on the website)

Nikhil sent me a link to a study on MMORPG players ... in a spirited attempt to woo me back to Halo 2 on the XBox.

Speaking of XBox ... I may go back to it for a bit later this month & next month, to play Jade Empire & Doom 3. But it's so hard to leave WoW alone - my paladin hit level 30 last night ... only 10 more levels to get myself a warhorse ...

I need a girlfriend.

Ethnic Superheroes

2005-03-08T12:25:00.000-05:00

I've talked about the desi Spiderman before (as an aside, isn't it odd that the Indian Spiderman comics are not available in India?). I heard about this last week on The Daily Show, but here's an online article about it.

Now I'll say this about the stuff I saw on TV. The heroines are very classical "Western" heroines. Busty, skimpily clad. No objections there, but isn't this an Arabic comic? I wonder how it'll be received.

Also, check out the name of the enemies of the Arabic heroes: the United Liberation Force, and the Zios Army. The ULF ... is that a smirk in the direction of The Coalition of the Ready & Willing (or whatever it's called)? And ...

... Zios??

It's one letter away (and here's a clue: that letter in "N") from reigniting some old enemities, isn't it?

Update: The BBC Article had a link to the comic book publisher. You can see what I'm talking about there. Also, the English site seems to have been directly translated from Arabic. They should really review their work over there. :-)

Update: Short Film Nominees

2005-03-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

I wrote a week ago wondering where I could find the short film nominees in the theaters - especially the animated ones. I found the answer at last, provided by the great man himself - Mr. Roger Ebert.

From The Daily Show on Wednesday

2005-03-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

OK ... there was some good news and some shocking news on The Daily Show on Wednesday. I only just saw it (thank God for the DVR!). First the good news: The Rock is "The Man" (!) in the movie version of Doom, to be released in August. And yes, the B.F.G. is there.

OK now, the shocking news. Allow me to set up the scene. On Tuesday, NBC (Brian Williams?) announced that the Iraqi judge leading the trial of Saddam Hussain had been assassinated, and that the death had been confirmed by NBC News. As it turns out, he hadn't (Jon's reaction: "Welcome to network news!!"). Anyway, NBC showed clips of the judge at the trial. Now previously, the judge's face had been pixellated, to protect his identity from obvious dangers. But now, since NBC News thought he was dead ......

That's right. Anybody watching NBC News on Tuesday would've seen the face of the judge.

I hope the Iraqis have a good protection program.

Musings From Dallas

2005-03-02T15:26:00.000-05:00

I flew into Dallas last night. I thought to myself, "Hey, Texas has to be better than snowy New York!" Was I ever disappointed. It's 50F here ... stormy, too!

I'm staying at the Westin Park Central ... and by my reckoning, it's been about 10 years since I stayed in a hotel better than Days Inn. Frankly, as long as I have a clean room, comfy bed, and a TV to doze to, I'm not really bothered about how many stars a hotel has :-) ... Nonetheless, I was tripping to the extreme to be staying in a hotel like this!

I also went to Benihana's for the first time last night. Unfortunately, we didn't get any entertainment out of our table's cook. He looked like he was auditioning for the part of Oscar on Sesame Street. The food was alright - I had the Marina dish, and suffered a fish-overdose. I should've taken the Shrimp/Chicken combo.

I'm meeting up with Sachin tonight. Marriage doesn't seem to have changed him much - he told me to come to Dallas in the summer to see the real sights. ;-)

The Oscars ... Redux

2005-02-28T00:33:00.000-05:00

The people I feel sorry for:

- Jamie Foxx for losing Best Supporting Actor (Collateral)
- Johnny Depp for losing Best Actor (Finding Neverland)
- Don Cheadle for losing Best Actor (Hotel Rwanda)
- Martin Scorcese for losing out Best Director (The Aviator ... plus, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, etc.)
- Brad Bird for losing Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (The Incredibles)

On another note ... where on earth can I find the Best Animated Shorts? Do I have to live in LA to be near a cinema that shows these?

The Oscars

2005-02-27T23:39:00.000-05:00

Lessons learnt watching the 77th Annual Academy Awards:

- Chris Rock was gagged. Else, Chris Rock is nowhere near as funny as Billy Crystal. I forget details of Whoopi Goldberg's MC-ing, but I don't think it was this disappointing (i.e.: it was up to expectations). But who can forget Billy's Crystal's excellent comic montage to open last year's Oscars? Update: OK ... Chris Rock just hasn't been funny tonight. I feel sorry for the guy. He had to tame his image down to be acceptable to all those white folks, but lost everything that made him funny in the first place.

- The Academy folks is truly on an another plane (no pun intended). How else can The Aviator get so many awards? e.g.: I thought Collateral had better editting than The Aviator.

- Scarlett Johanssen is gorgeous and is likely to pass out in that corset she's wearing.

- Animated characters do not always work with real life (I'm referring to Edna Bird & Pierce Brosnan)

- Al Pacino was stoned out of his mind. Or maybe that's his real self. Who knows anymore?

- Salma Hayek is waaaaay-hey-hay hotter than Penelope Cruz!!

- Santana totally, totally rocks playing the blues. It was like the guitar was wired directly to my soul!

- Beyonce cannot have enough sequins on her dress. She also looks amazing in black.

- Hillary Swank is this year's Halle Berry. God, when will she stop talking?

- The Academy does not like Martin Scorcese.

- I have to see Million Dollar Baby.

Only In India

2005-02-22T09:50:00.000-05:00

As Mr. Indian in "Goodness Gracious Me" says in one skit, many words in the English Language are Indian.

I wonder why "maadi" (for non-Kannadigas, it means "do") never got listed. But as we Bangaloreans say, "Chill maadi"

Ong-Bak 8/10

2005-02-22T09:16:00.000-05:00

The Western world is rarely treated to martial arts gems these days. Jet Li is getting old, Jackie Chan is old ... and movies like Hero & Crouching Tiger are being tarred by the same brush (C'mon, Hero is not a martial arts flick. Enter The Dragon is a martial arts flick).

So watching this movie was such a welcome relief from artsy and chop-socky movies that I've watched over the last couple of years. It doesn't have much of a plot - village kid is sent to the big city to recover a stolen religious artifact, and gets involved with a local fight club. Watching the movie, audience reactions can be categorized as follows:

Huh?
What just happened?
Cool!!
Holy (expletive deleted)!!
How did he do that?
Awwwwwwww! (usually when some obviously painful stunt is performed)
He did whaaaa?

Why these reactions? After all, you find several outrageous stunts in Jackie Chan movies! The reason is that there are no stunt doubles, no CG, and no wires. So while there might be some artistic creativity (e.g.: dusting clothes so when people fall down, a huge billow of dust blows out, making audiences think it was a hard blow), you know its Tony Jaa (the lead) that just jumped through a 2ft coil of barbed wire!

The stunts are outrageous, and obviously downright dangerous. The fight club scenes would put any episode of Ultimate Fighting to shame, and its all a glorious voyeuristic pleasure to see people get twelve kinds of !@#$ kicked out of them.

If you like action movies, you will like Ong-Bak, and it's a movie you should not miss.

Let Me Be The First To Admit ...

2005-02-20T20:53:00.000-05:00

... that I was wrong!

(Spoiler Alert)

So the closet gay in Springfield wasn't Barney. It was Patty. Looks like Fox & Groening had fun with playing with our minds and the TV schedules.

Musical Evolution

2005-02-17T14:34:00.000-05:00

You know, the entry yesterday about blues being the "core" of my musical tastes got me thinking about how my tastes have shifted and evolved over the years. I think the bulk of the "evolution" was in my 4 years in BITS ('94-'98) for those wondering. In fact, you could look at the whole thing by semesters!

School - Def Leppard, Bryan Adams
Pre-University - Guns 'N' Roses, Metallica-light (i.e.: The Black Album)
BITS Semester 1: Iron Maiden, Metallica
BITS Semester 2: Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen
BITS Semester 3: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai
BITS Semester 4: Dream Theater, Deep Purple
BITS Semester 5: Rush, Led Zeppelin
BITS Semester 6: General Blues/Hard Rock ... AC/DC, Whitesnake, Van Halen, etc.
BITS Semester 7: The Beatles, Black Sabbath

After that, I don't think my core tastes have changed that much ... I'm listening to a lot more electronica & R&B nowadays. Hence my previous lament that I haven't heard anything new or exciting in quite a while. The nearest thing I got excited about was The Darkness ... and that was over a year ago!

Expanding The Office

2005-02-17T14:29:00.000-05:00

We've taken on additional office space here ... a little 12ft x 12ft (I guess!) alcove just around the corner from the main office. It's going to be a project management room, leaving the main office for the sales staff.

Guess who needs to setup the IT services? :-p

Well, it's fun - I've never worked on a Sun Solaris machine before (that's a new file server)

A Ray Of Light 8/10

2005-02-16T10:33:00.000-05:00

Damn, Jamie Foxx eerily looks like Ray Charles! I watched "Ray" over the weekend. Admitedly, I have never listened to Ray Charles, and knew about him passingly ... And so, I approached Ray with an open mind.

Now part of my liking of the movie is the fact that I love the blues. It's something I keep deep down inside ... underneath Eminem, The Chemical Brothers, Metallica, and Rammstein ... underneath Joe Satriani, Led Zep, The Beatles and Sabbath ... it's like this core that all my musical tastes are built on. Admitedly, the first time I listened to "pure" blues was in my 3rd year of undergrad, when I heard some Muddy Waters tracks ... and I was referred to that after tripping on Zep.

Anyway, back to the movie. I loved the music! I enjoyed Jamie Foxx's acting (definitely Oscar material) ... but thought the script was a little light. It skimped over details of Ray's early life, jumping from one incident to another ... quantum leaps, rather than continuums! I would have liked to have seen more about how Ray's drug problems affected his music (did it enhance his productivity? There was just one scene where they show him breaking down), and how he brought up his son.

Don't get me wrong, this movie is a must-see, but it left me wanting more!

Now I gotta find a good "Best Of ..." collection!

A New Blog

2005-02-16T10:30:00.000-05:00

I chatted with Malz last night. She said she's started a blog of her own. She hasn't posted much, but I'm hoping that driving up the traffic to her site will be incentive to write more!

Go Malz!

WOW!

2005-02-14T22:44:00.000-05:00

WoW ... World of Warcraft. The best MMORPG I've played. Granted, I've played only Asheron's Call 2 and beta-tested EQ2. Still ... it's the best!

A lot has been commented on the graphics seeming "lo-tech". For example, EQ2 made a big deal about how their game was developed with future tech in mind. This is a noble concept, but it also means that most people with average systems are not going to be able to enjoy the game. I suffered massive lags and load times, even when I reduced the graphics options. WoW has amazing landscapes that really seem lush and vibrant. Kudos to their art teams! Each race has their own unique look - humans for example live in a very medieval forested landscape. Dwarves live in a frozen tundra. Taureans (high minotaurean creatures) live in open praries (their artworks resemble Native American). The Foresaken live in a gothic nightmare. It's beautiful!

The gameplay is very simple. Most common actions have dedicated hotkeys. The most frustrating thing I've encountered about gameplay so far has been my multiple deaths. Death in WoW is handled beautifully. There is no penalty for death, except for time. When you die, your spirit appears at a graveyard in the nearest village, and you begin a long trek back to your body. When you come close to your body, you can "re-enter it" and take control. There's no loss of XP. equipment, or money.

Money is a bit of a doozy though. It's not very easy to come by. I've slaved and slaved with my mage - put in perhaps 7 hours in all - and racked up about 30sp. Now that can buy you a lot of low-end gear, some pieces of mid-level gear, but a tabbard (that's a piece of clothing you wear to identify your guild) costs 1gp (thats 100sp). To form your own guild and design your own tabbard, you need 10gp (1000sp). So I guess this means you really have a sense of accomplishment when you get a new weapon or spell, etc. ... but the flip-side is that you can get frustrated with the process of accumulating so much wealth. A new feature in WoW is the ability to get mounts at level 40 ... training to ride costs 10gp and a mount itself costs 40gp. Thats a LOT of money! But it looks oh, so cool!

I've got 3 characters right now. My primary character is a (currently) 11th-level human mage, my second is a 7th-level dwarven fighter, and my third is a 7th-level taurean druid. The only reason I have so many is that I wanted to get a look at the other characters and artwork. The taurean look is gorgeous!

Anyway, to heck with Halo 2. WoW rocks!

Weekend Update

2005-02-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

Well, half my weekend was spent in a Nyquil haze - looks like I picked up something in my trip to Gaithersburg last Thursday. But the other half was spent playing World of Warcraft. Yes, I found a copy here in Manhattan - at Gamestop on 44th & 6th. Co-incidentally, the dude from CompUSA (who told me to put my copy up on eBay) was the one who suggested the store. More on the game later.

In other news - congrats to Jon Stewart & The Daily Show team for winning the Grammy for Best Comedy Album (their Audiobook version of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents...America: A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction").

It's interesting that I've kinda lost all interest in the Grammy's ... and to an extent in contemporary music. The most contemporary I've ever gotten is purchasing Dream Theater, Rush (who lost in the Grammies ... AGAIN!), or Metallica. I don't know why, but I find modern music is pretty bland and unappealing ... on one hand, the pimping from R&B artists ... and on the other, nu-metal & post-punk from artists who want to turn the volume knob upto 11.

Where are the musical geniuses that also make popular music? Why is it that the only place I'll find them on the music dial is on the Classic Rock or Oldies channels??

This SUCKS!

2005-02-11T20:45:00.000-05:00

I've been to six stores in Manhattan today! Six! And not one of them carried a copy of World of Warcraft! One dude told me that if I found a copy, to put it up on eBay!

This totally sucks!

A Funny Link From My Brother

2005-02-09T17:16:00.000-05:00

I just got this ...

Kartik Anand saw this story on BBC News Online and thought you should see it.

Message: Can you imagine John Stewart talking about this one..especially regarding the last line of the article..

** Army pilot rap over pizza flight **
A lieutenant is disciplined after using an Army helicopter to deliver a pizza to his girlfriend.

Ash Tuesday

2005-02-09T15:45:00.000-05:00

Ash was on David Letterman last night. I thought I'd watch it ... damn, it's a late show, isn't it?

Anyway ... back to Ash. By all the Gods, she's short! Or maybe Letterman's tall. There was like this 2 feet height difference between them. I initially thought Ash was being a bit silly ... or high, for that matter. She was laughing hard for no reason when asked questions ... and was kinda bubbleheaded!

But you know, as much as I thought she was dumb, Letterman rose to the challenge and beat her hands down. You know that urban legend that we Indians go through questions & comments from clueless Americans? Stuff like:

Your English is really good! (this really gets my goat, especially after reading stories like this)
Did you ride an elephant to school? ("No, I couldn't afford my own elephant, Dad used to drop me off with the company elephant")
Do you have Internet? ("Yes, its traditional to use it when we fish")

Well, Letterman was about just as dumb, and let Ash get a few digs. Consider the following exchange (I don't remember the exact words, but this is the gist of it):

L: Why do young men & women live with their parents (ie: when they grow up)?
A: Well, that's our culture. It's better than calling our parents to make an appointment to come home for dinner (Audience howls with laughter & applauds)

Honestly, why couldn't she appear on The Daily Show? Jon would've asked her much, much better questions! Even Leno or Conan!

Updated Previous Posts

2005-02-08T01:31:00.000-05:00

I've uploaded some of the photos (approximately a third of all the photos taken) from my San Diego weekend.

Go Patriots!!

2005-02-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

Man, there were times I thought Divya was going to give me a right thump round the ear ... initially for my decision to support the Patriots ... and later for gloating over the win :-)

It was close at times, wot??

Cliff Trek

2005-02-06T15:05:00.000-05:00

Akshay's Log, Date: February 6th 2005, approximately 3pm.

The away team has just returned from an expedition to Torrey Pines. We went there to investigate reports to disturbingly scenic beauty. I am happy to say that all the reports are true, if not understated. The following is photographic evidence of the same.

The Three Amigos

An Attempted Patel Snap

Natural Beauty Of Torrey Pines

A Better Patel Snap

Roy's Patel Snap

We returned home almost immediately after, as we had to rendezvous with others to view the Superbowl XXIX.

Musings From San Diego Cont.

2005-02-06T02:15:00.000-05:00

I've just returned from a night about town. Although San Diego's downtown is spread across a 4 block radius, it's got a lot of restaurants and bars crammed into a small space!

While we waited for Visa to show up (he drove in from Irvine), Divya baked a double layered cake (to which I applied generous quantities of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, and edible lettering to commemorate Roy's birthday & GMAT score). After Roy showed up, we did the usual birthday song, bumps, and cake stuffing.

The Birthday Boy

The night started at a Chinese fusion restaurant called Blue Ginger - be warned, even though they said they were open till 2am, they only meant the bar. The restaurant closed at 10:30. And we landed up at 10! So dinner was a bit rushed, but let me recommend the Red Dragon #3 cocktail (I didn't have it, but both Prashanth & Divya highly recommend it).

At The Blue Ginger (Why Do People Always Close Their Eyes??)

After a couple of hours of amusement from a very happy Divya, we moved down the street to a Latino bar called Sevilla. Expensive drinks, which never had much effect!

Anyway, we're back at the apartment, still awake, and probably going to start playing cards or something.

I'll be off to Old Town tomorrow morning before the game.

Musings From San Diego

2005-02-05T18:51:00.000-05:00

Man, this place is beautiful! By the time we all got ready, it was 11:30, and we started out by driving to the Cabrillo Monument.

The View From Prashanth & Divya's Apartment

The weather was a little gloomy, but we managed to get some incredible views of the San Diego bay & skyline.

Part Of The San Diego Bay & Skyline

The little lighthouse on top is quite quaint, too (though I was struck by a mild bout of vertigo!)

Looking Down From The Lighthouse

Patel Snap!

The Happy Couple

After that, we drove back into the city, to Pacific Beach where we had lunch, and paddled in the Pacific Ocean (now I've done both coasts! Yaay!). The Pacific Beach area is quite a neat locale - it's not very highly developed (coming from New York, "developed" equates to concrete jungles, and skyscrapers!), and there are a lot of little shops, boutiques and restauants on the main roads ... a nice place for a few hours' diversion!

Foot-paddling In The Pacific

In other news, Ashok Roy took his GMAT today and made fantastic score of 720 (on 800). We're now back in the apartment, resting up and baking a cake for him. As luck would have it, Monday's his birthday ... so it's a double celebration! I believe we're going to a restaurant - Blue Ginger - tonight, and then to a nightclub. Tomorrow's the Superbowl, so nobody's going nowhere! :-)

Immortalizing The Achievement (Until The Tide, At Least)

A Little Research on San Diego

2005-02-05T09:38:00.000-05:00

Despite Divya's protestations that there isn't much to do in San Diego, I think this city's full of stuff to do.

How much of it I can do this weekend is another question. It's past 9:30 and the snores from the master bedroom still shake the rafters.

I Love San Diego

2005-02-05T08:41:00.000-05:00

I swear, in comparison, New York is an ugly scab upon the face of the earth! Funnily enough, the apartment complex Metal & Divya live in is almost identical to another I saw in Sunnyvale. It's great to see them again - I've really missed hanging out with them in New York.

It's certainly odd not to be wearing a heavy jacket though! The weather forecast for the weekend - highs in the mid-60's. So ... pleasant, I think, would be the description. A bit nippy for my tastes perhaps, but I'm a guy who's set his apartment's radiator to the "Roast" setting.

Flying into San Diego, one could see these mountain ranges (they were too large to be hills, but they didn't have a layer of icing on the top ... mountainettes?). And coming into land, I saw these delightfully quaint old churches and buildings ... they looked Moorish too. Next to them were terraced slopes, with several layers of houses built into the side of the hill. For some reason, they reminded me of pictures I've seen of Buenos Aires, or Rio. I suppose that just showcases the Spanish influence in this city.

Exitting the airport, one walks out into a palm-tree lines sidewalk, facing a sunset-bloodied sky. I really wish I'd had the presence of mind to take a photo of that ... but in hindsight, the sight of a dark-skinned chap taking photos of seemingly nothing outside an aiport might have raised some eyebrows.

I believe we'll be visiting old San Diego today, and perhaps a beach or two. Will post photos as soon as I can.

Bye-Bye Miss American Pie

2005-02-03T11:46:00.000-05:00

Apparently, Music died on this day 46 years ago. Funny how people can make sweeping statements when highly emotional, eh?

I think I've heard "American Pie" a few times too many. I think the only time I can stand listening to that song is when I've had a few, usually at a Karaoke bar. All together now ....

Baaaaaaaaaaayyy-baaaaaaayy miss American Pie!!

The Axeman Strikes (Ha Ha Ha Ha!)

2005-02-03T10:36:00.000-05:00

Yes, Star Trek: Enterprise has got the axe! I always thought of it as a weak show, and watched it more out of a sense of loyalty to Star Trek, than any real interest. There were some (relatively) good episodes, but they were few and far between.

In my opinion, there were a number of factors that pulled the show down, such as:

Action-oriented than "puzzle-solving" - One of the things I loved about the TNG & Voyager (I was never much of a DS9 fan) was their finding of "strange new worlds, new life & new civilizations". Enterprise spent an entire season fighting the Xindi and their latest season opener had them flung into the past fighting alien Nazis. Sounds like a First-Person-Shooter videogame than a Star Trek episode!
The Temporal Cold War - C'mon, don't tell me that the Star Trek writing team couldn't come up with a better idea than shadowy figures from the future attempting to change the timeline in their favor. Stick to the proven formula, people!
Very, very American cast - The cast/crew of TNG, DS9 & Voyager had veried human races, as well as various species (Klingon, Firengi, Betazoid, etc.). This gave a good mix to the show. Enterprise had an All-American human crew (with the exception of Malcom Reed, who was British), with a Vulcan, and a Denobulan. Wasn't Earth supposed to be united after First Contact? Where are the Africans, the South Americans? Heck, we Indians are pretty good engineers, and we lose out to Americans? I know the show's about an alternate reality people, but have a little variation to appeal to different demographics!

It's a pity that the show was cancelled. It was nearly 20 years between the cancellation of TOS, and TNG ... and, it'll be the first time since TNG's debut in 1987 that there hasn't been a current Star Trek show. Oh, the franchise will live on through comics, toys, and fiction ... maybe even a videogame. But there won't be any more TNG movies ... unless they figure out a way to ressurect Data! I don't think DS9 or Voyager will be movie-fied.

Hopefully, we won't have to wait another 20 years for the next show!

Gay Simpsons Update

2005-01-30T22:59:00.000-05:00

OK, I haven't trawled the Net extensively looking for any other postings, but I still think it's Barney. Here's why:

(WARNING: SPOILERS!!)

After the funeral for Moe's Taven, Moe points out the gay bar across the street (I forgot the name). Barney, Lenny & Carl head over, while Homer stays back ("I can't go into a gay bar! I'm too fat!"). Barney is never seen again in the episode, whereas Lenny & Carl have several scenes.

Most telling: in the end (ie: the scene that plays along with the credits), everybody's back at Moe's ... Marge & Homer are singing a duet, Lenny, Carl, Anonymous Regular (seen earlier in the episode) and Moe are in the bar. Where's Barney??

It's obvious: Barney stayed in the gay bar!!

There wasn't any mention of Smithers, Patty/Selma, or Principal Skinner. There were a couple of scenes with Chief Wiggum, but nothing to nail the issue on him.

PS: When the issue first came to light back in July '04, Barney was my first choice :-)

(Drum Roll) Isn't This A Big Weekend For The Simpsons?

2005-01-28T13:01:00.000-05:00

I remember reading that the closet gay in Springfield would be revealed in January. Well, it's the last weekend of January, and this is what the new episode's about. Not very revealing, is it?

You Gotta Love Dateline Hollywood

2005-01-28T11:44:00.000-05:00

They're like the Daily Show of the entertainment industry. No matter how ridiculous a story may seem, there's a little grain of thruth that makes you go "Hmmm"!

In Preparation of Next Week's Game

2005-01-28T11:29:00.000-05:00

If anyone's enthu-ed enough to bake and make icing ... this should be a hit at any Superbowl party!

Bush Shocks Nation By Attending Metallica Concert

2005-01-23T13:25:00.000-05:00

Apparently, this sign is offensive to deaf people (I think it means BS in sign language).

Redneck Hell

2005-01-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

Isn't it frightening that these people are asked to decide the fate of others?

Calvin Would've Been So Disappointed

2005-01-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

Three cheers for being saved from extinciton!

Hip! Hip! Hurrah!

Hip! Hip! ... Ah, forget it.

Brits Haven't Lost Their Sense of Silliness

2005-01-10T16:51:00.000-05:00

This has to be the funniest ... and the most alarming ... piece of news from the UK in a long, long time.

More funny than alarming, I guess.

Fake Site Update

2005-01-10T15:06:00.000-05:00

Looks like the villains have been exposed.

Halo 2 Rocks

2005-01-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

(first time I've talked about a video game on my blog!)

I bought Halo 2 as a birthday gift to myself (hey, any excuse will do). Played a bit of the campaign on Saturday ... but by far, the best part is the multiplayer mode on XBox Live. I don't think I'm going to be playing much of the single-player mode any more!

One very noticeable change from Halo is the elimination of the health bar - it's all shields now. If your shields drop, it'll only take a shot (maybe 2) to kill you. Which means a lot of the single player campaign is played slowly and very carefully - a marked difference from my playing style in other FPS games. The multiplayer mode is pretty much just pure carnage. Shoot anything that moves, and try to kill as many as you can before you get killed yourself. It's fun, but I wonder if that distracts from tactics in squad-based games like Capture the Flag. Only one way to find out!

Wow!

2005-01-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

Gowri sent me this absolutely massive birthday cake ... tiramisu, I believe.

I don't think I've had cake on my birthday since I was .... 17, I think! Mom always baked one.

Thanks a ton, Gowri!

Interesting Things That Happened Today

2005-01-08T01:05:00.000-05:00

1973 - The Watergate trial begins

1925 - Gerald Durrell was born
1935 - Elvis Presley was born
1937 - Shirley Bassey was born
1941 - Graham Chapman was born
1942 - Stephen Hawking was born
1946 - Robby Krieger was born
1947 - David Bowie was born
1977 - I was born

1324 - Marco Polo died
1642 - Gallileo Galilei died
1941 - Robert Baden-Powell died
1991 - Steve Clark died
1996 - François Mitterrand died

Yaay!

2005-01-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Go, go, go shorty
It's your birthday
We gon' party like it's yo birthday
We gon' sip Bacardi like it's yo birthday
...

Or not.

Sigh.

What's Wrong With This Site??

2005-01-07T16:33:00.000-05:00

I was browsing my blog's archives, looking for a link I'd posted earlier. And the Gooooogle (how many O's does it have?) ads read: "Buy Harry Potter E-book 6. We already have Half-Blood Prince. Buy any and download it now for $7.95"

I clicked on the link, and came across a website offering Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince in electronic format for $7.95

Does this seem odd to anyone? Has anyone heard of this website? How bogus is it? Is it piracy, false advertising, or just too good to be true? Why wouldn't people buy it for 8 bucks, and then print it onto a hard copy.

The company's obviously a Google Ads subscriber (ie: they pay Google to display the ads) ... does Google do a background check on these guys?

Weird Movie/Actor Combinations

2005-01-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

You know how some actors (and presumably, actresses) just don't seem to go with certain movies? For example:

Robert De Niro in Shark Tales
Arnie (I can't spell his surname off the top of my head!) in Twins, Junior, and Jingle All The Way

Well ... prepare for the next generation of miscasts.

Oh Boy! Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

2005-01-07T15:38:00.000-05:00

I can't wait for this to release!

The Saddest Site In The World

2005-01-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

Or pretty darn close.

BTW, is it just me, or do the subjects in the photos have this "Please kill me now! Please!" look on their faces?

Screen-shot Du Jour

2005-01-04T10:28:00.000-05:00

A Sign of The Times!

Meet The Fockers: They're Stretching A Funny Name Too Far (6.5/10)

2005-01-03T01:30:00.000-05:00

Pam: "I'm going to be Pam Martha Focker!"
Gaylord: "Did you meet my cousins? Randy & Arnie?"

That, and several other (supposed) jokes litter the script like smoking debris from a once-proud edifice of humor.

Meet The Fockers is about Gaylord Focker, with fiance & in-laws-to-be, meeting the Focker family. Unwisely, the movie chooses to work the chemistry of the first movie - the hostility between Jack Brynes (De Niro) & Gaylord (Stiller). Gaylord apparently still has issues with his to-be-FIL, and goes out of his way (though not as much as in Meet The Parents) to please Jack. This worked great in the first movie, and might have been great in the sequel - except that the sequel chose to distract itself with two 60's-hangover-personalities (the Fockers).

The result is that the script has to divide it's time between the Jack-Gaylord tension (acceptance issues), the Gaylord-Parents tension (conformity issues), and the Jack-Parents tension ("I-don't-even-know-what" issues). Doesn't quite cut it, does it? Too many situations - so little time!

The performances weren't particularly noteworthy ... the only one that did stand out to an extent was Dustin Hoffman as Bernie Focker. Robert De Niro in particular looked like he was ready to put the whole comedy genre behind him and move on back to Italian/Mobster films.

Oh the movie was definitely funny - I laughed quite a bit. But be warned - if you didn't like Meet The Parents, you definitely won't like Meet The Fockers. And if you did like Meet The Parents ... well, you might be slightly disappointed by Meet The Fockers.

But then again, what's the choice for a funny holiday-ish movie this New Years' weekend? No wonder the movie went to #1 in the US.

A New Years' Resolution: Ineffective Public Awareness Drives

2005-01-03T01:27:00.000-05:00

Don't get me wrong: I hope this drive works. But seriously folks, this is Bangalore, and I seriously doubt the effectiveness of these efforts. They're not the first, you know. I remember there was this "Traffic Cop" who famously stood out on MG Road and caught & ticketed folks on the spot. Did that make any difference?

That was a rhetorical question - of course it didn't!

A Sad, Sad, Sad Day

2005-01-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

Please join me in a moment of silence to the man who has made the world laugh every Sunday with his column in the Miami Herald. These are his last words.

Mercifully, he's not stopped blogging.

Happy New Year! (Belatedly)

2005-01-02T20:26:00.000-05:00

I spent a gruelling 11 hours walking around in New Orleans until the clock struck one (most other revellers got away with minor injuries). I have some photos. However, given the family-oriented nature of this blog, those photos will never see the light of day.

I was supposed to go into NO again today, but Sam came down with some cuttlefish allergy - made his head look like an over-ripe tomato. So I don't have any photos of New Orleans to put up. :-(

I also got to see Meet The Fockers last night. Review coming soon.

What Happened to The Wachowski Brothers?

2004-12-25T14:04:00.000-05:00

I was watching Matrix Revolutions - the conclusion to the oh-so-promising Matrix trilogy. It was the second time I've watched the movie: the first time was upon release. And as I watched it last night I couldn't help think, "What happened to the original script??" There is no way in hell that script was the original vision of the Wachowski Brothers. Consider the awesome conclusions reached at the end of Matrix Reloaded:

The "real world" is just an illusion created by the Matrix to control the opposing humans within the Matrix.

I mean, how cool is that? Why did they have to spoil that and give Neo Messiah-like powers ... the whole blind seer thing? Why? Why??

I think the Wachowski Brothers must've lsot the original script and scribbled something on the back of an napkin when they pitched the idea to Warner Studios. There's no other explanation: I refuse to believe that minds that came up with the concept & vision of The Matrix could have produced such a dud! There were some nice moments - the defense of Zion, and there's one shot where Neo is helped by the Machines to battle Smith inside the Matrix. As seen in "golden vision", the bright halo around Neo and the position of the wires around him transforms him into an angel. A nice touch. Nevertheless ...

If I had one wish in the world ... I would wish for a hundred more wishes, and then wish that Matrix Revolutions be remade.

Merry Christmas!

2004-12-25T13:16:00.000-05:00

Ho ho ho!

In honor of the festive season, here's a recipie for Christmas Fruitcake that someone forwarded me (might be online at some site, I dunno!)

1 cup water
1 cup of sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
lemon juice
nuts
1 gallon whiskey

Sample the whiskey to check for quality.
Take a large bowl.
Check the whiskey again to be sure it is of the highest quality.
Pour one level cup and drink.
Repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer; beat 1 cup butter in a large, fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon sugar and beat again.
Make sure the whiskey is still OK.
Cry another tup. Turn off mixer. Break 2 legs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the turner.
If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.
Sample the whiskey to check for tonsisticity.
Next, sift 2 cups of salt. Or something, Who cares.
Check the whiskey.
Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.
Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees.
Don't forget to beat off the turner.
Throw the bowl out of the window.
Check the whiskey again.
Go to bed.
Who the hell likes fruitcake anyway?

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (8/10)

2004-12-22T11:55:00.001-05:00

After seeing a totally kick-ass trailer on Apple Trailers, I was really looking forward to this movie. And I must say, it didn't disappoint. The action is top-notch, as is the plot with its twists & turns.

The premise is one that has built many a Hollywood action movie - especially Westerns (as an aside, why is it that Hollywood Westerns resonate so strongly with Japanese & Chinese movies? What is the common link?). Zatoichi is a blind samurai (d-uh!) that wanders into a village and is befriended by an old woman. Add to the woman's nephew looking for his identity (with hilarious consequences) and a pair of geishas (one's a transvestite) looking to avenge the murder of their parents a decade earlier. I could easily see an early Client Eastwood doing this movie, can't you?

One thing that struck me about the movie was the emphasis of sounds - Zatoichi is blind and relies of super-hearing (presumably, like Daredevil ... but I don't think the budget would've allowed any more SFX). As a result, the whole film visual takes backstage to the sounds of the movie. An example: when Zatoichi walks into the village, a group of farmers are hoeing their fields. At first I didn't understand why the film dwelt on the farmers for so long, but at a later point in the movie (during a torrential rainstorm), the farmers are dancing in the fields - and their feet make a squelching noise. Trust me, you gotta see the movie to understand what I'm talking about!

I did have a minor quibble - a lot of the action seemed to be out-of-context. There was a fight (for those who've seen the movie, it's the one where Zatoichi sliches the bamboo staff down the length, thereby chopping off the attackers thumb & fingers) ... and I had no idea if the fight was related to the plot, or if it was some sort of flashback ... I bulbed!

It's also a bit of a grisly movie (ref. the finger slicing above). And the fight scenes are defnitely shorter than what I'm used to. Hollywood movies always create these epic struggles where the hero gets the upper hand, loses it, regains it before slaying the boss villain. In this movie, I had to rewind and play back at a slow speed (almost frame-by frame) to figure out what happened! Of course, when you see what happens, your reaction is going to be "Ooooh! Cool!"

I highly recommend this movie to all!

We Have A State Anthem?

2004-12-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

According to ToI ... we do.

Oceans 12 - A Sea Change (6/10)

2004-12-17T11:32:00.000-05:00

Now a lot of people have the opinion that if one liked Oceans 11, one would also like Oceans 12 ... and if one didn't like Oceans 11, one wouldn't particularly enjoy Oceans 12.

I appear to be part of a third category - those that liked Oceans 11, but disliked Oceans 12. And judging by the reaction of my friends, I'm not the only one in this category.

In fairness, I'd have to say that the theater was not very good. We watched the movie in the Lowes Cinema on 47th & Broadway (i.e.: the one under the Virgin Megastore). I didn't really like the theater - the screen was too small for the dimensions of the hall, and the projector bulb must've been set on power-save mode or somthing, cos the movie was severly under-lit. I'm going to stay away from that theater as much as possible (unfortunately, it's also the only theater in Manhattan that screens Hindi movies).

Anyway, onto the movie.

I didn't like it. It was a confused mess of plot lines. Gone is the charm & wit & sophistication of Oceans 11. The sequel is made up too many threads trying to be woven. You have the Benedict money angle, the Night Fox (sounds like a DC Comics character, wot?) angle, the Rusty-Isabel (Brad Pitt and an oh-so-heartstopping Catherine Zeta-Jones) angle, and two heists. Two! The movie was ultimately stretched - plot-wise, and time-wise. The result: nobody gets enough screen time to amuse the audience, who are ultimately left wondering what the hell happened.

There were some funny moments - Julia Roberts' character, Tess, pretending to be Julia Roberts was quite funny - but ... and this is a general malaise of the whole movie ... she was given too little screen time. And she had to share it with Bruce Willis.

All-in-all, I feel disappointed by the movie. The movie's currently topping the box office (unlikely to contiue after this weekend's releases), hich just goes to show: there's no accounting for some people's tastes.

New York, New York

2004-12-13T09:46:00.000-05:00

I flew back on Saturday night, by British Airways. It was a comfortable (suprisingly no turbulence) ... but in terms of entertainment & food, Virgin Airlines totally rocks. Especially entertainment - the flight over to the UK had video-on-demand with about ... oh, 50 movies!

I must admit: I was getting used to the quiet of the English countryside. It was somewhat jarring to be woken up by a garbage truck moving down the road at 1am! And Java was right when he told me this sumer that New York has a unique smell. Yes - smell!

And driving into NYC on Saturday night was an experience. I've never felt suffocated or claustrophobic before, but I sort of felt that way with all the tall buildings and skyscrapers.

England's ruined me.

Sigh.

The Last Photos of The World's End

2004-12-09T07:15:00.000-05:00

The Magical Leaf: While I was in bed with a fever, I noticed this leaf outside my window. You'll see that there aren't any branches around it - it seems to be suspended in mid-air. At first, I thought it a fever-induced hallucination! I suppse it's held up by some cobweb.

Duck ... or Grouse!!: The entrance to the cottage is a little low-beamed. I guess people notice this when they're entering the house, but not when they're leaving. The sign is classic British humor, what? (for those who don't get it: a grouse is (a) a chicken-like game bird (b) a complaint or grumble. Work it out from there.

Homeward Bound

2004-12-09T04:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm headed back to New York this weekend, and will be there until the New Year (at least).

Pity, I was just starting to enjoy myself here in the UK. On the upside:

Sigh. So many games to play, so little time!

I'm Back!

2004-12-07T06:06:00.000-05:00

Been down with a cold/fever these last few days, so there hasn't been much activity on my end. In fact, I spent the entire weekend here in the cottage/office. Not fun, I can tell you. Cheap, but not fun!

Well, it wasn't so bad - watched quite a bit of TV, and a couple of DVDs. Nothing special.

On the home front, I guess I should be leaving around Christmas ... hopefully, Christmas Eve. Kiran mailed me to say he's coming down with his family for the Christmas weeknd, and I hope to be back to meet them.

Dad's coming in tonight, for the DCD Board Meeting, and leaving Monday (13th). I've taken Friday off, to have a long weekend in London.

I've got a couple of interesting photos to put up ... gotta wait for Kartik to come online first!

MSN's New Blog Service

2004-12-02T05:10:00.000-05:00

Yeah, MSN has apparently come up with its own free blogging site - MSN Spaces. I signed up of course :-) I thought I'd test it out to see how it stacked up against Blogspot. A couple of things that struck me right away:

- The layout can be easily customized. This is one of two big grievances I have with Blogspot - the area for the blog entries is really cramped - it must make up about 40 or 50% of the screen, if that.

- Photos can be included in the blog entry. This is the other big grievance I have with Blogspot. I have to use a 3-rd party application to upload photos to my blog. That application is limited, meaning: it can only upload one photo at a time, and you can't create a "blog entry" (complete with hyperlinks, titles, etc.) and publish the whole thing. One has to upload the photo, enter Blogger, and edit the entry.

- One can categorize the entries in MSN Spaces. Apparently, a lot of blog sites offer this feature ... but most of those sites ain't free!

- On the downside ... I couldn't figure out if I can edit the HTML code behind my entry. Case in point, the entry I posted with the DC Marathon snaps - Kartik created a table in HTML and sent it across to me to upload. Since Blogger allows me to edit the HTML code, I was able to insert it and (somewhat properly) acheive the desired look. I don't know how many times I'll be doing that!

- Another entry in the con side ... the URL to the blog is a little complicated. Mine is http://spaces.msn.com/members/bloreboy ... doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?!

- One main point yet to be resolved: how compliant is an MSN-run site with non-IE browsers, like Firefox. I opened the page in Firefox, and apart from a little time in waiting for a server response, it appeared alright, but who knows?!

MSN Spaces is still in beta, but with them making a public announcement about it, I think they're ready to go live any day now ... not too sure what they'll tweak till then.

It'll be interesting to see if Blogger fixes any of my gripes (I'm sure they're not uncommon) to prevent people from switching. The switching cost is pretty high for me, anyway - I've got 6 months' worth of posts here, and I can't figure out how to transfer them!

The Foi(b)l(e)s Of The Kannada Film Industry

2004-11-30T13:34:00.000-05:00

You guys might have heard of this minor nuisance in Bangalore, called the Kannada film industry.

In a spirited bid to promote Kannada films, they've decided the best way to do so is to stop people from watching other language films ... including the two "national" languages - Hindi & English. The guy coming up with these decisions has to be the most mentally deficient gutterslob in the world! Here are some of the reasons a moratorium on films will never work in a place like Bangalore:

1. First and foremost, it's a simple case of supply & demand. In Bangalore (where the activism is taking place), let's face it: a lot of people (I don't have any exact statistics, but I can bet a major, or significant, percent of the population) are non-Kannada speaking ... or, are interested in watching both English & Kanadda films. I don't know what it's like in the sticks.

2. Denial of popular methods of entertainment always ... ALWAYS drives it underground, encourages piracy (or bootlegging), which is to the ultimate detriment to society in general. Look at US prohibition against alcohol in the 1930's - it gave rise to a whole load of trouble in the form of criminal gangs manufacturing and/or smuggling hooch ... and ultimately gave us some very fine films, but that's another topic altogether. A moratorium on movies will basically lead to people pirating films in other cities outside Karnataka, and bringing them into the state for sale.

3. The cash-rich urban youth of Bangalore can always hop onto a flight or a train, go across the border to Hosur (!) and watch the movie. Heck if I were a public official in Hosur, I'd be contacting theater owners and proposing the construction of a multiplex just inside the state border! More cash to TN!

4. Ultimately, you're going to scare away business to other states. Let's face it: Bangalore contributes a lot to the state's bottomline ... directly (income tax of corporations & their employees) and indirectly (support services, lifestyles, etc. to all those people). Bangalore has been the posterchild of India Shining. How do you think foreign & multinational Indian companies are going to react to governmental support of such policies?

So ultimately, people are going to be watching non-Kannada movies at home, or in other states. They may choose to watch the movie again after 7 weeks, but I would doubt it. And what about Kannada movies? Would people watch them, when they weren't watching them before? ... that was a rhetorical question, for those of you who missed it.

So my question is ... who's currently using the Kannada film industry's single brain cell at the moment? Surely there's some way to make him see the absolute foolishness of these hairbrained schemes?!

This Is Why India Builds Concrete Bridges

2004-11-30T05:51:00.000-05:00

Boy, people can damage any environment they live in, can't they?

Turkey Turns Chicken

2004-11-29T07:29:00.000-05:00

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this ...

Can You Get Whiplash From Clubbing??

2004-11-28T15:58:00.000-05:00

27-year old looks on bemused that he's standing next to beautiful women

Jeez, what a weekend! I can't believe it's over already. Had an absolute blast at The Bollywood Bar (near Green Street Station) - there were about 9 of us. 3+ hours dancing (or in my case, attempting to dance) to desi remixes spliced with hip & trip hop. As you can see from the photos, it was an AMAZING time.

There were these 2 girls from Bombay in the group last night, Girita & Alithia - first time I've met air hostesses ... er, stewardesses ... no, the PC term at the moment I believe is cabin crew :-) ... with Air India ... yeah, Air India, I know ... I won't hold it against them ;-). So now I've got to figure out when they're flying the NYC-Bombay sector . They've promised me decent grub in even though I'd be flying Economy. Hmm ... talking with pretty cabin crew ... or watch movies ... decisions, decisions!

A couple of minor quibbles over Bar Bollywood aka Bollywood Bar ... it was a bit small - Karim almost got into a fight with some dude jostling him ... and they really water down their drinks - took 5 Jack & Cokes and a whole lot of shakin' to get to the happy zone ... but get there I did :-)

Going to London for the weekend

2004-11-26T09:13:00.000-05:00

On the agenda:

- An American resturant (read: BBQ, NFL, and NBA)
- A desi nightclub called Bollywood bar
- Possibly meet up with Noufail & family, if I can get a hold of them!

Erratum

2004-11-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

On 11/20, I wrote: This is my cousin Nandini and her daughter, Pratri ... something. Parprika? No. Pratrika I think. Close enough anyway!

Nandini informs me that my delightful niece's name is Prakruti. She was quite amused about it. I think she's fairly cool as a mom - my head would've been chewed off by any other new mother :-)

Unfortunately, Hello can't connect to Blogger from my office network, and I'm forced to upload pictures to my blog on weekends only. I'm trying to figure out some way around.

Home Alone 5: The English Countryside

2004-11-20T14:29:00.001-05:00

The front of the home/office

The back of the home/office - behind me is the clubhouse & the swimming pool.

Definitely looks like the setting of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, doesn't it? :-)

Photo of the Year

2004-11-20T14:29:00.000-05:00

Baby looks on as photographer snaps "Photo of the Year". Mother remains glued to TV Screen.

This is my cousin Nandini and her daughter, Pratri ... something. Parprika? No. Pratrika I think. Close enough anyway!

TV Advertising in the UK

2004-11-19T06:09:00.000-05:00

I've been watching a bit of British TV these last few days. Not much, mind you - British free-to-air is even more boring than US Daytime Shows. A rundown of the primetime programming last night:

BBC 1: Wildlife on 1 - A look at the life & times of some sort of lizard
BBC 2: Some sort of ballroom dance competition
ITV: Some god-awful soap
Channel 4: Hollyoaks (another god-awful soap)
Channel 5: The Family Man (Nick Cage senti movie)

See what I mean? I usually watch TV just before I'm about to go to bed - 30 minutes and The Sandman doesn't just sprinkle his wares on my eyelids - he hits me with a sackful of the stuff!

Anyway, about advertising in the UK ....

I've sort of gotten the opinion that even advertising in the UK bears the "I'm ever so sorry to bother you, but do you mind considering purchasing my product? Um ... thank you. So sorry to have bothered you" mentality. That's the prevailing attitude for UK products ... like household products. The usual voice-over is cheerful & bright to the point where you suspect the person behind it is overdosing Prozac. The other category of UK ads shows the person using the product and marvels at how amazing that person now looks ... kind of like what tobacco ads usually do.

You do have some ads produced by multi-nationals. The prevailing attitude behind those ads? "This product is cool. You are not. If you use this product, you can hope to be a little cooler than you are. But don't get your hopes up." The voice-over here is usually cool, dry and withering in tone. You kind of get the impression that the person behind the voice doesn't really live in this country.

Pixar's Sucess Is Attracting Critics

2004-11-18T09:13:00.000-05:00

I ran across this story of envy via IMDb.

Life Doesn't Suck Anymore!

2004-11-17T14:34:00.000-05:00

My laptop is back to normal! Yaaay!

I don't know why it happened - but I do know what fixed it: I downloaded and installed the latest drivers for the video card ... and one of the optional components (which I was fortunate enough to notice tucked away) was a screen rotation utility.

Back to normal now! (Phew!)

From Bad to Worse

2004-11-17T10:13:00.000-05:00

I can't rollback the laptop to an earlier configuration, and it looks like I'm going to have to return it to Averatec.

No support from the IT guys here in the office - already had 2 fights this morning about that!

So basically, my connection to the outside world is dead. 3 days here and I already feel depressed.

Me 2 Laptops 0

2004-11-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

I've done it again ... I've busted up my laptop computer. Well, technically speaking, my current one "works". It's just that the screen is inverted!

Yep, you read right - the screen's upside down. No, I don't mean it's broken off or dangling by a few cables. I mean the image on screen is upside-down! The mouse works "correctly" ... but is inverted for the new screen - leading to laborious re-calculations of perspective every 2 minutes. So now, the taskbar is up, the start button is on the extreme upper-right.

But for some odd reason, the boot up Windows logo displays correctly, and the DVD player (my notebook has a DVD player independent of Windows) display correctly!

When I called Averatec to tell them about this, the service rep couldn't stop laughing for 5 minutes. Go on, rub it in!

My options are to :

Rollback to yesterday and hope that works
Restore Windows XP Home (thereby losing Visio, Office, all other programs and data)
Return the notebook to Averatec (still has to be restored to Windows XP Home). That'd take at least 2-3 weeks to come back to me.

This sucks!

Frustrations!

2004-11-16T13:40:00.000-05:00

I have several great photos - of the place, as well as of my cousin & family (I'd visited them over the weekend for Diwali grub .... my stomach still hurts, but it's a happy hurt). But I have no way of getting these photos off of my CF Card. Until the weekend, at least.

!"£$%%^^&*

Hmm ... the British keyboard replaces @ with " and has both the £ and $ signs. :-)

The End of the World's not so bad

2004-11-16T04:49:00.000-05:00

This place is definitely better than the Port Solent apartment I stayed at last year! I spent a couple of hours in the "clubhouse" at the back of the grounds last night ... playing pool. Apparently, there is a Sky TV (satellite) hookup, but noone knows how to get to it. The clubhouse also has a gym, a jacuzzi, and a sauna - do people get any work done around here? ;-)

On the downside, I don't seem to be able to connect to BitTorrent seeds - so there go my hopes of watching episodes of Simpsons & South Park.

I've taken a few photos, but can't figure out a way to transfer the photos - my desktop came with a memory card reader, and I've lost the USB cable that came with the camera. Gotta ask around to see if anyone has a spare cable.

At The End of the World

2004-11-15T04:14:00.000-05:00

Yeah, this place is actually called "World's End". Doesn't look like the apocalyptic dystopia that I'd imagined. Shows you what too many bad Hollywood movies will do to you.

The office is in a converted house ... waaaaaay out in the English countryside. A 6-bedroom house, that looks like the setting of an Agatha Christie book ... a Jane Marple perhaps. Can't imagine Poirot in a setting such as this.

I'll post photos soon.

Incredible! It's not that great! (7/10)

2004-11-08T13:22:00.000-05:00

So I checked out The Incredibles on Saturday. I'll say this about it: for a Pixar production, it was quite violent.

(spoiler warning!)

I mean, they didn't show it on screen, but the "villain" gets sucked into a jet plane's turbine by his cape! Compare that to the previous Pixar villains: Sid (TS) got scared into looking after his toys, Al (TS2) went bankrupt ... I forget what happened in A Bug's Life - didn't the grasshopper get buried under the model bird? ... Waternoose (M,Inc.) got arrested ... and Darla (FN) had a fish flap about on her head. 1 out of 5 was "violent" ... but not as much as The Incredibles. You have bullets being fired, the hero undergoing shock torture (close ups of brightly lit/flashing/ contorted-with-agony face).

Now I realize I can wave my hand, say "this is not meant for core Pixar tots, but a more grown up audience", and make the whole thing go away. But that doesn't sit too well with me. I strongly believe that Pixar is Disney's heir. Disney kinda lost its way, IMO, and Pixar was there to show them how to recapture the lost magic. Sure older cartoons were violent (ever see a Tom & Jerry? - there's a commentary on this in an early episodes of The Simpsons, were Maggie almost kills Homer trying to imitate what she sees on TV; the whole "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" was a parody of Tom & Jerry!) ... er, where was I? Oh yes! ... sure, old cartoons were violent, but Pixar showed the world how to make non-violent and funny movies ... and have a small moral lesson too!

OK, back to The Incredibles!

The animation was amazing - Pixar has certainly raised the bar, yet again (IMO, the last time they did this was in Monsters, Inc.). The story, as I mentioned earlier, was more "adult" than the norm, but it was certainly funny. Plenty of James Bond references ... which I thought as odd. I was expecting more superhero references, but I guess copyright restrictions might have prevented them from being made. The score/music didn't particularly leap out - not that an OST is a feature of Pixar productions.

Oh, the short at the beginning of the movie was a big disappointment. For The Birds was the best I've seen, followed by that globe snowman short that accompanied Finding Nemo (I forget what it was called). Here's an interesting thing - the short .. about a rhyming song dancing sheep was designed for the little kiddies, but the main movie was for grown up kids. Go figure with the inconsistency!

It's Official ...

2004-11-08T13:19:00.000-05:00

I'm travelling to the UK on Thursday (11th November) ... and I'll probably be back around New Year's. I guess that means I miss Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years. :-( ... but I think I'd rather miss all of them, and be back once and for all, than to keep shuttling back & forth.

I'll be checking in on my cellphone's voicemails every couple of days, but e-mail is the best way to get a hold of me.

Extra, Extra: Divya Meets Boy on Train

2004-11-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

Read all about it!

Divya tells me she graced the webpages of rediff.com last year.

Revenge of the Sith!

2004-11-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

At last! At last! (Dum Dum Dum/ Dum Da-dum / Dum Da-dum).

That was supposed to be The Imperial March (or as other (sniff) non-fans call it, the Darth Vader theme).

LucasArts unveiled the trailer for Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith online today, and apparently accompanying The Incredibles in theaters everywhere today. As if I needed another reason to watch The Incredibles :-)

Here's an account of the trailer. I can't wait! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!

RIP Xandros

2004-11-05T11:19:00.000-05:00

EverQuest II Players

Xandros was a refugee from the Shattering of Norrath. He quickly mastered the arcane to be come a powerful adventuring mage. He made his mark on the Isle of Refugee by becoming a Master Goblin Slayer, and a constant companion to fellow adventurers.

He moved to Queynos, and upon his naturalization, enrolled in Qeuynos U., specializing in wizardry. When the EQ2 beta program closed, he was trying to make his way in the world.

Xandros, we will always remember your sunny disposition, unmarred by 22 deaths, often multiple. May your spirit forever guide our future MMORPG ventures.

A Rush-ed Marathon

2004-11-04T13:23:00.000-05:00

You know .. thinking of the marathon reminded me of the song "Marathon", from Rush's "Power Windows". It's a description of life's struggles, using the race as a metaphor. Here are the lyrics:

It's not how fast you can go
The force goes into the flow
If you pick up the beat
You can forget about the heat

More than just survival
More than just a flash
More than just a dotted line
More than just a dash

It's a test of ultimate will
The heartbreak climb uphill
Got to pick up the pace
If you want to stay in the race

More than just blind ambition
More than just simple greed
More than just a finish line
Must feed this burning need

In the long run ...

From first to last
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light
That gets in your eyes
One moment's high
And glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightening
That flashes and fades
In the summer sky

Your meters may overload
You can rest at the side of the road
You can miss a stride
But nobody gets a free ride

More than high performance
More than just a spark
More than just the bottom line
Or a lucky shot in the dark

In the long run ...

You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don't burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance
First you've got to last ...

Before the marathon

Cheerleading Squad

Divya Running

Soumya running

After the race

Cooling off

The photos of Divya & Soumya running were taken by other Asha folks at the marathon - I only have video clips. :(

And many thanks to my brother Kartik, for putting together the HTML code.

I'm Back!

2004-11-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

I was in Washington DC last weekend - cheering Divya on at the marathon (6hrs 4 mins!), and was down with a bad cold all week. But I've risen from the ashes yet again. :-) I'll be posting a few pictures from the weekend soon, and Divya's promised a few paragraphs describing her experience too.

Bird On A Wire

2004-10-28T11:40:00.000-04:00

A true tale of a stool pigeon ... er, parrot.