Allure of Home-made Food

It has been a busy week. My parents visited me and it was awesome. Then my graduation ceremony was also there and that was also pretty awesome. Its better if I had a reason like "I was busy so I didn't blog", than "I was lazy so I didn't blog".

***

The day my mom and dad came to Singapore was the day I didn't oversleep. I woke up at 4.45 am and I hired a cab to get to the airport for a plane that lands at 5.55 am. I was pretty early. Unfortunately my parents weren't.

Just after the plane had landed and everyone was getting of the plane, my dad went to take a leak. What's wrong with that? My mom didn't notice where he had gone and she thought he had got off the plane. She was all alone in one of the largest airports in the world and she can't even speak English properly. So she wandered off searching for him and after much desperate searching, he appeared. As they finally made their way to the luggage collection belt, they were the last to collect and about an hour had passed since the flight had landed.

Both mom and dad seemed happy to see me. We took the MRT to my hostel where they freshened up. The hotel check in was only at 1 pm and they figured that they could use some rest. Soon after my mom stepped into my apartment, she started unpacking all the stuff she had brought for me from India. All sorts of food items including fruits, cereals and ready-to-eat meals were followed by clothes, soaps and shampoo. After that she took out packets of poori and some prawn gravy and fried fish to go with it.

Me, my mom and my dad just sat on the floor. We didn't bother setting up the table. People didn't need dinner tables in India, at least not until the British came to India. In my dad's village, I've never seen a home with a dining table. Our house in India has one, but we don't always use it.

I never sat on the floor when I ate since coming to Singapore, and when I sat down today, I had a strange but good feeling in me. My mom served us food and we ate. I savoured every bite. I rarely eat prawns because I'm slightly allergic to them but I love them. I can't cook other non-vegetarian items as well because my room-mates are vegetarian due to their religion and I didn't wanna "contaminate" the utensils.

There was still a lot of the prawns and fish left and that was for me to refrigerate and consume for the coming week. "Enjoy it while it lasts", my mom said.

The next few days are a blur. I took them to as many places I can without getting them too tired. They loved the view of the Marina Bay Sands from the Robinson Quay. They enjoyed the cable car ride and the 4D Pirates movie in Sentosa. They were surprised by how large Mustafa Centre was. They had  a shopping spree at Bugis street and Chinatown. They fed Lories at the Jurong Bird Park and they went on the Night Safari. And most importantly, they attended my convocation.

***

My convocation was an exciting day for me. I missed my Bachelor degree convocation in India because I was in Singapore. It was a pretty lame one as I would realize after seeing the pictures that my friends had sent. This time was going to be perfect, I thought to myself. I stayed home and made preparations while sending a friend to pick up my mom and dad from their hotel room and accompanying them to my room. I pressed my shirt and trousers, brand new, both of them. I practiced my tie knot, until I got the right size and length. I had resolved a belt emergency (I had gotten thin and my belt was pretty loose. So I had to borrow a belt from a guy skinnier than me.) and by the time I was done, I was pretty sure I can't look any better with my features than I looked right then.

My parents had reached and we started for my university. This was the first time they came to the university and they were impressed. Lecture "theatres" of this size don't exist in the average Indian engineering college and they found this grand. We had lunch and then headed out to the auditorium. The ceremony got under way and I could only hope I didn't do anything stupid on the stage.

When my turn to get the degree certificate from the vice-president, I was surprisingly calm. But only after I saw the video later, I realized the mistake I had made - I held the guy's hand as he shook and got the degree in my other hand. I stayed this same way for graduation photo as well and I can only hope that I didn't make the poor guy uncomfortable or that I had ruined my photo.

***

Then after eating some bad Chinese food (not sure if badly cooked or generally bad) we headed to my room where we changed and then headed to Mustafa Centre to buy a TV. We bought a Sony LED 42" TV and all  I could think was "this is what they write rap songs about".

The last day of their stay in Singapore was pretty ominous. It started raining pretty badly. We went to my uncle's place where we had some great food and watched a Tamil movie. Then we headed to the airport where we were able to claim about a hundred dollars of GST.

The goodbye wasn't long or tearful. But when I headed back home I felt as if I should have said something more than I did. Their stay, though brief, had formed a part a memorable part of my life. I felt a little sad and lonely that night.

There was still some prawn gravy and fried fish left. Eating it seemed to help a little.

Ciao

Imagine The Fire

Well I didn't have much to write about, so I didn't write. But for the past week, quite a lot of stuff has been happening and put aside some time to write it down.

It has been a pretty good 2 weeks actually. As Joel McHale retorts to a bully in the TV show Community, I have been "perpetually on the way to the gym" for the last one year. I finally went to the gym and it felt good. I felt like I was putting good use to my spare time. The physical activity also lets me get to sleep better. I have also been watching my diet pretty carefully. Hope it all pays off well and I look good in my convocation pictures.

I also had a guest recently. A friend of mine, who I met in college during my bachelors in India, came to Singapore last Friday. He had also been pursuing masters right after his bachelors, very much like me, but he doing it in Netherlands. He came to Singapore for a 4 month internship and I am happy to see a familiar face in this country after a year. I am not good at making friends and I prefer to stick with people I already know. Since coming to Singapore I can't say that I have made a great friend so I was glad to see him. I let him stay at my place for a couple of days. He hadn't tasted good Indian food for almost a year so it was fun watching him devour food in Singapore's Indian restaurants. Let him enjoy it while it lasts.

I also helped him buy a new phone, a Sony Experia Arc S and from what I've seen, it is pretty good. I wish I could get a phone myself soon, because the receiver in my phone is pretty quiet and I can hardly hear the person speaking on the other end in crowded or noisy places. But it will have to wait till I get a job. I'm thinking about buying a decent and not too expensive smart phone and a tablet as well. Hope I don't have to wait for long.

***

It has also been one year, since I had come to Singapore. I still remember stepping into the Jet Airways flight, well past midnight. I was excited about flying for the first time. Just a couple of weeks before leaving for Singapore, I had serious doubts about how difficult it would be in Singapore. I had doubts about how my career would pan out in a foreign country. I couldn't sleep at night when I thought about it.

But it was fine. It was actually great. I feel that I have learned much more by coming here than what I would have if I stayed in Singapore. Sure I'd have made some money, gained more weight and stayed the way I always was. 

But now I live by myself. That involves a lot of choices that I have to make everyday. I didn't even decide what breakfast I wanted to have when I was in India. I ate whatever my mother made. I never had to think about how healthy it would be or whether I ate too much or too little. Now I can have whatever I want. I can have chicken nuggets every day for the rest of my life (or till I ran out of money) if I wanted, but I choose to eat multi-grain bread loaves and an egg omelet with a glass of fruit juice for breakfast.

I like the way I've evolved since coming to Singapore. There's nothing like coming to a new country as a foreigner and staying there. There is an awful lot to learn and every little thing you do seems like an adventure. 

***

One of the questions I asked my uncle when I came to Singapore was "Are there IMAX theatres in Singapore?"

The reason I asked this question was The Dark Knight Rises. 

And it finally got released today. It is going to be released on 20th July in the US but in Singapore, somehow, it is released on 19th and if I had been going alone, I would have seen it today. But the friend, who I mentioned earlier, wanted to tag along, so I had to postpone it to the weekend. But I've been in an excited state for the past couple of days. Nolan is a genius, he has an exact vision about how he wants his movies to be and he carries out in a manner that can only be described as near perfection. He does what some other Tamil film directors fail to do and that is utilizing the budget to the maximum. You see great directors like Shankar who are given blank cheques literally to make films and he makes huge sets for songs. I know songs are an integral element in the Indian cinema but really, Robot was supposed to be his magnum opus and he probably spent more money on all the song videos than the action sequences. The chase sequence with Rajini stealing away Aishwarya Rai from the wedding was way better as an action sequence in stark contrast to the action scene in the end in which hundreds of robots form on big robot which felt watered down in terms of action and pacing. In my opinion, if Shankar had spent more money on the CGI and added Michael Bay-ish sweeping shots and whirring sounds, the climax scenes would have stood out. I have the same problem with Shankar's previous films as well, with great looking song sets and average action set pieces.

Enough about Shankar, let's get back to Nolan. There have been reviews from Time magazine and other sources and they have been very positive. Reviewers are giving away plot lines and still say that there are twists in the movie so it should be a pretty satisfying watch. Also the movie is two hours and forty five minutes long so it should be epic with a huge story.

For the last two days I have been listening to the original soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and it is impressive. It draws inspiration from both The Dark Knight and Batman Begins. None of the tracks are as distinct as Joker's theme but all the tracks flow as one single stream. But from hearing some sequences and seeing how they are named, you can point out which tracks are going to be the themes for whom. Tracks carry an electric feel and the lack of James Newton Howard's collaboration is evident with no brooding quiet tracks. Batman's theme come only twice or thrice in the whole album and it is utilized cleverly. Bane's theme is menacing and sounds like a track fit for someone who is full of malice.

I look forward to the release of the movie and I will get back to you with a new post once I see it.

***

Obviously the Song of the Week is a soundtrack from TDKR.

 

Hope you watch the movie too. Check back when you do and lets talk about it.

Ciao.

The Amazing Spiderman - "The New iPad" of superhero movies?

The Amazing Spiderman is the iPad 3 of movies. It is barely any different from all the other superhero movies, yet with the help of an adjective it stands out...well, only barely. Like in the case of the iPad 3, which became "The New iPad", loyal fans of Apple still rally behind the barely changed handheld device and Loyal Superhero geeks like me still turned out for the movie and found it entertaining as any superhero/action flick.

But this version of Spiderman has a different take on Spiderman's origins and love interest. This version introduces Gwen Stacy as Peter Parker's main love interest. Peter has much more than a crush on her, he may even be stalking her, as one may conclude from the pictures in his computer. He's a geek, having in-depth knowledge of sophisticated machinery, such as the central AC in his uncle's basement. He is bullied by his schoolmates,his parents leave him in his childhood to be taken care of by his uncle and aunt and there is nothing amazing about him. Avoiding spoilers, I will get to the rest of the plot. He's bitten by a spider, which genetically enhanced and it gives him superpowers and he becomes amazing. Enter Curt Connors, a scientist, who is working on cross species genetic splicing mutation mumbo jumbo, tries to do the same thing and ends up becoming a giant lizard. He apparently gets frustrated that there is no other female in his species to be his girlfriend, he tries to turn the whole population of NYC into giant lizards and Spiderman needs to stop him and save the day.

There is enough action, humour, romance and plot to get you through the 2 hours effortlessly. All actors do a satisfactory job. I was just glad this movie didn't have Kirsten Dunst. Emma Stone is much more watchable. Andrew Garfield has the comic timing that is essential to the Spiderman character. The villain is villainy enough and Sally Field makes a much better Aunt May.

It doesn't do much justice to compare this movie to the Sam Raimi's version of Spiderman, it will be like comparing apples and spiders. And this spider is in 3D.

I didn't watch the movie in 3D though. Non-3D version was cheaper and I could get my student discount. I just pretended that all the buildings and cars were whizzing right towards my face and it was awesome.

I wouldn't recommend sticking behind after the credits starts rolling for some footage to leave clues for the next sequel. There is such a footage in this movie, but unless you are an absolute die hard Spiderman fan, the footage won't make sense. So far, not even the collective minds in the internet have not come to a consensus about what the eff was that footage about.

***

In the honour of this new movie featuring the superhero who set my childhood imagination on fire, here is a song that was featured in Spiderman 2. It's called Na Jaane Kyon, by a Pakistani band called Strings.

There is a theme of sacrifice throughout Spiderman 2. Peter Parker sacrifices his studies, his family and his love, trying to make good use of his powers as Spiderman. I believe that this song rightly captures that spirit.

***

Only 15 more days to the release of the most awesome superhero movie ever made.

Ciao.

Stone Pillow and Feather Pillow

Stone pillows and feather pillows.

Those are the two types of pillows in my opinion.

There were two types of pillows in my home back in India. One was full of cotton it is rather hard. It is good for people who have a bad back or neck because it eases the pain. I don't like that type of pillow because it was too hard for me. Hence I called it stone pillow.

The second type of pillow, the feather pillow, surprisingly doesn't have any feathers inside it. It is actually full of a material called "Recron", which is widely used nowadays to make soft cushions, mattresses and pillows. It is soft, flexible and feels good against your head. Hence I named it feather pillow.

Now why am I talking in detail about pillows? Since coming to Singapore, I miss my feather pillow. What they sell in Singapore is usually 100% cotton pillow. This pillow is also pretty comfortable, until it gets a little old. Then, the pillow caves in, particularly at the place where you put your head and the cotton inside also gets thin and unyeilding, making it pretty unconfortable. And as a result, I wasn't able to sleep for a long time yesterday. In fact, I slept only two hours after yesterday turned into today.

***

Singapore is a little lame. Today I checked the IMAX movie bookings for The Dark Knight Rises. Surprisingly, even the evening show tickets were still available. And only few of the morning and afternoon show tickets have been booked. It's a shame. In Australia, fans crashed the booking site minutes after opening the bookings.

***

You might have noticed (if you have even read my blog) that my writing is rather lame. I'm not talking about my grammer or anything, I'm talking about stuff I write about. It's about pillows and movies and stuff. I'm not trying to change the world with my blog but I should atleast be able write about something that matters. In India, the politics scene was pretty interesting and it was a perpetual source for something to write about. Moving to Singapore, where politics is practically non-existent, there is nothing really to talk about. People of Singapore may disagree, but really, if you want real politics, come to India.

***
From this week, I'll be starting a new section called Song of The Week. Or something like. There maybe two or three songs. Or there maybe no song at all. Or maybe no post at all. Just listen. I really like this song.

This song, called Breath of Life, was the high point of enduring Snow White and The Huntsman. This song is played during the credits and it introduced me to the deep and strong voice of Florence + The Machine, whatever she/he/they/it maybe. Enjoy the song.

Ciao.

Classics

Recently saw the Snow White and The Huntsman movie. It's a great action movie and it also serves to prove that Kirsten Stewart cannot act. She cannot exhibit human emotions. All she can do is look like she's constipated. On the other hand, Charlize Theron - still hot.

***

Finally managed to go somewhere that wasn't either my apartment bathroom or my college canteen. There was this promotion at the Singapore Discovery Centre with tickets at $18 selling at $6. SDC is all meant for Singaporeans who want to know about their country and it does a pretty good job of doing that with all sorts of colourful exhibits. What makes it more cooler than any museum or exhibition I've been to is that it has its own movie theatre. That is where I saw the Snow White movie. It also has a lake where you can take a pedal boat, an army museum with a badass AV show, a gourmet restaurant, a paint ball arena, a 4D ride and the list goes on and on. Somehow Singaporean government has perfected the way to make state-owned museum exhibitions and parks not boring, something in which my home country can learn a few things about.

***

One of the merits of having a great internet connection is that you can stream great TV shows and movies. Being unemployed, a large part of my day is spent watching these movies and TV shows, but only after finishing my customary, ritualistic 30 minute online job search.

Recently, 3 great TV series have captured my attention and made me addicted to them. The first one is community. It largely reminds me of my days getting a degree from a crappy college, but many episodes are also outlandish, often with ridiculous plots that are fun to watch, but are far from realistic. What I like most about this sitcom is the fact that the characters are not run of the mill stereotypes. The jokes are not about a bunch of geeks frequently made fun of their social awkwardness, or blonde women's (supposed) lack of intelligence or the Asian guy's overbearing parents. Community actually celebrates being geeky. One of the reasons I hated Big Bang Theory is the constant mockery made of intelligent sci-fi loving geeks.

The other two series being Sherlock and Game of Thrones. I like Sherlock because just because it is about Sherlock Holmes. But Game of Thrones is different. It's a fantasy that is unlike any other fantasy that has been written or filmed. It has dragons and demons and all sorts of stuff but the core of the story is about politics and that's what makes it compelling to watch.

***

There is an allure to reading novels that are not from this century. Classics have something that modern novels lack and it is the language. Modern novels are easier to understand at the expense of simple language. Complex stories can be understood easily by the reader so long as it is presented cohesively and in order. But classics did not have elaborate plots of ancient brotherhoods executing schemes to expose earth shattering truths. They were simple and relatable and you can enact the whole plot with a bunch of friends without any gadgets or machines or explosions. The language was rich and long, making you read every sentence slowly, taking your time. Complex sentences make you understand that the thoughts and dialogues that characters have are sophisticated. Modern novels are more focussed on the story and you are so engrossed in it that you want to know the story more that you want to read the novel. This has happened often with fast paced novels like that of Dan Brown's, in which I skim some sentences in order to get to the twists of the story more quickly.

One other important thing I like about classic novels are that they make me sleepy. After 5 chapters I can go to bed. If I read Dan Brown or Robert Ludlum, it's always "one more page and then I'll sleep".

I'm reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. If you've read it, go ahead and ruin the ending for me. If not, lets read it together.

Ciao.

The Things We Love To Do

Losing grip. Last time I posted was a couple of weeks ago. Too many distractions and none of them worthwhile. This is the sort of time I wish I was busy rather than have all this free time.

***

FIFA 12, L.A. Noire and recently, Max Payne 3 is all that occupies my time. Max Payne 3 looks awesome. Except Max Payne himself, who looks fat.

I'm worried about the impression I'm making on my new temporary roommate who only sees me either having a plate or my gamepad in my hands. I really do want to spend my time well but there is a not a lot of things an unemployed guy can do except searching for jobs. One bad thing about the Internet is that it made job search too easy - all it takes is just half hour every morning to see if any jobs matching my profile opened up. And then slowly I sink into the inconsequential and useless things that a PC and Internet offer with such ease.

But in the past few days, I've done one thing that brought back old memories and also felt like I was getting better at something real. I used to be good at drawing stuff. I even went to a drawing class to hone my skills and it did pay off; I got pretty good at freehand drawing. And then like many other classes I've gone, I've quit this class before I got significantly good at it.  From then onwards it was hard to get good practice. I got caught up with public exams in school. Then, by the time I was in college I just forgot all about it...until I came across deviantART. In my opinion it is one of the best websites for artists. I used to pass time just by browsing other people's drawings and photographs. It also inspired me into making a submission for a contest in the website (it's also my only submission in that website till now). After that I've made some effort into drawing stuff, mostly superheroes, fueled by my love for comic books. Comic books convinced me that drawings need to be original. Many comic book artists made their names by having their unique style of drawing. I usually just recreate a picture I see, but now I tried drawing new things.

Then during final year, I got caught up with placements, project, GRE and everything and since then I never had a chance to draw anything except during exams and I never took the initiative to rekindle my old flame.

But recently, one of my friend's birthday was coming up and I didn't have any way to gift her anything since she lived abroad. But there was one idea...I had drawn a picture of another friend about a year ago for her birthday as well and it came out great. So when one of them suggested that I draw her as a gift for her birthday, I was like "challenge accepted".

Initially it didn't go well. I couldn't judge the amount of space I needed to draw her features and the resulting picture came skewed and didn't look like her at all. My second attempt resulted in a person looking like Adele but I knew that this was just practice. The third attempt really paid off. I used a technique my drawing teacher taught me a long time ago to get all the features in the right place. Shading took time but I was patient, careful not to ruin a good drawing. I was finished in about 4 hours. I usually wait for one day and then see the drawing again. I do this because after putting all that work my brain convinces me that I did a good job even if I did a crappy one. After one day, it goes back to normal.

So next day when I saw the drawing, it still looked good. So I headed to the library to scan it, so I can send it to my friend through email. Once I scanned it, I compared the drawing to her face and made some changes again. Now it looked really good.

I was happy with the way the drawing came out and my friend was too. I felt really good about myself. So, doing something which I love is very rewarding for me. But it is also hard to differentiate what I love when the lines are blurred. I love gaming, but so does many other people, so it is not anything special. But not many can draw, but I am at least an amateur so that is one thing unique about me.

I don't know where this might go if I try to continue to write about this. I just wanted to get out a piece of thought that was in my mind. I hope you too have something that you are good at and I hope you have not abandoned it like I have.

Ciao.

Few Bad Eggs

Well, I've given up on Skyrim. Chasing the dragon was getting a bit addictive...see what I did there? That's-that's a joke...yeah it's not funny.

***

Cooking is sometimes the most productive activity of your life and also the bane of your existence (oxymoron anyone?). Well there are times when you find an awesome recipe on the internets which uses up all the ingredients you already have and still manages to stand out from your usual crappy cooking which feels great and you end up asking your roommate about how it tastes and feel like a puppy getting a backrub when he says it's good. And there are other times when you wake up after an exhausting dream involving threeways with hollywood actress(es) and the only thing on your mind is "Gee, wouldn't it be great if I had some spicy biriyani and some sweet lassi to wash it down?" and all there is to eat is some stale leftover rice from last night. And then you realize what you used to have in your life that you don't have now. Or, as in my case, you still have but it's too far away to solve the problem at hand. And upon this realization, you draw a conclusion that dawns upon you only now though it had been staring at you for quite a while.

"I miss my mommy".

Happy mothers day.

***

Recently I read news of a car crash involving a wealthy chinese immigrant and a local cab driver. The chinese guy drove a Ferrari and was probably drunk when the incident happened. He tried to run a red light and ended up crashing on a taxi. The crash video is available on youtube and it's not a pretty sight - the Ferrari decimated the taxi. Both the taxi driver and the Ferrari driver died. And this added fuel to the flame that's slowly starting to spread like wildfire - the Singaporean public is not happy with the country's immigration policies and it blames the immigrants for making their buses crowded, living costly and life in general, crappy. Being an immigrant myself, I'm gonna play the devil's advocate and say that it is partially true. But how far is it contributed by the immigrants? 

In Singapore, being a small city, news like this is rare and spreads pretty fast. Road accidents are few and far. Imagine a country like India where trains are perpetually late and the mass transit is, in general, bad and that's being kind in my criticism. But they get away with it. No one is really bothered about it. But in SG, SMRT (Singapore's metro service) services disrupted several times over the past few months and people went batshit crazy. This leads to the conclusion that when the area is small, small problems become large.

Lets draw another parallel with Singapore and India, and this time, we'll compare the immigration problem. India doesn't have an immigration problem with an influx of foreigners. But there is an immigration problem within the states of India. Shiv Sena, the prominent Maharashtrian party, ardently opposes workers from other states from entering Mumbain and the rest of their state shouting "They took our jobs!". Part of this opposition involves a property damage amounting to 80 crores in property damage last year during their protests.

Singapore faces a similar problem. Singapore is like a frustrated housewife - it doesn't feel appreciated. Foreign students bad mouth it in twitter and facebook. Foreign students occupy seats that should be taken by Singaporeans. And there is the they-took-our-jobs problem. But there are no protests in Singapore (mainly because the police never allow it) and people just curse under their breath and move on. Some articles say that this is one of the reasons the PAP is losing is support from the public.

What I don't get is, eventhough everyone knows that Singapore needs foreigners to grow, or to even stay the way it already is, what's with all the whining? Foreign talent is necessary for Singaporean industries, and I guess a major part of Singapore's tourism and services based industry is composed of foreigners. Being meritocratic and all, Singapore cannot expect every employee in every company in Singapore to be a citizen because, lets justs face it, not every Singaporean is the best guy for a given job. Sometimes foreigners are just better. Singapore's economy runs on a lot of foreign investment, many companies in Singapore are MNCs based in other countries. To quote a very crappy saying, Singapore wants to have its cake and eat it too. 

For my part, I whine whenever I see a job posting for which only Singaporeans and PRs are allowed to apply. Be happy that you still have that  Singapore, because, back in India, that kind of discrimination doesn't exist because, even Indians don't wanna work in India.

Singapore's problem with immigration is not due to a problem with its immigration system. It's just a case of a few bad eggs. Drunk people have poor judgement in common. Beer goggles works on all nationalities. If any laws or policies need to made stricter, it should be the laws relating to driving.

Ciao

Thane of Whiterun

Oh the joys of playing RPGs. And what better game than Skyrim to experience it?

In my opinion actually, there are a lot of other RPGs that must be better because in my opinion Syrim rarely does offer a great moments when it comes to combat. And that is very important for a hack-and-slash type game fan like me.

If you don't know about Skyrim, you probably use internet only to check your emails, because the last few months, many a website have been plagued by the attack of the Skyrim memes, mainly "arrow to the knee". I'm not gonna explain what arrow to the knee means or even what a meme is. If you're that interested, Google is your friend.

But I will tell you what the game is about. Its about a guy/girl (all RPGs give you the option of building up your character from scratch, including gender, appearance, powers etc., hence your character can be either guy or a girl) who appears out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere and ends up becoming the man/woman who determines the fate of the fair city of Skyrim when a dragon comes out of nowhere and you kill it and absorb its power, revealing that you are the fabled Dragonborn (and you possibly just killed your mom or dad and absorbed its power).

Skyrim was released last year and it has won several awards including game of the year award from several review websites. Which is all the more reason for you to try it out, and also my main motivation to give it a try as well.

I tried playing but gave up the first two times because in the first time, it just didn't make sense. It shoves too much information at your face. There are no tutorials and you are left to figure out everything by yourself (there's a help section which is as big as Wikipedia which makes it not-so-much-of-a-help section). If you are new to RPGs, you're gonna get annoyed often as you don't know how to manage your inventory, you don't know which items are going to be useful and which aren't, which powers/weapons are gonna be useful etc. The second time I gave it up because it was just too boring. Until you own a horse, you gotta get everywhere by foot and you'll spend as much time in the game travelling as you would if you travel the same distance in real life. Realism at that depth is just...boring.

Also when you wanna get new weapons and you don't have any serious dough on you, you gotta collect some metal ingots, get to a weaponsmith and YOU FORGE YOUR OWN WEAPONS. Like you gotta get some leather pelts by killing some wolves, cure it to make leather strips, buy/steal some metal ingots and you literally forge it. And then you can improve it with your "fine smithing" skills. This is one of the reasons I finished Mass Effect 3 first (its ending sucked by the way) before getting to Skyrim. 

About a week ago, I gave Skyrim one last shot, and this time I finally figured it out...and I still don't like this game. Travelling is boring, though you regularly come across wolves and trolls and giants and mammoths who try to keep it lively. You can either sneak past them or you can just kill them with your might. Its not easy as it sounds because you giants can hit you so hard you literally end up flying in the sky. Mammoths are sturdy and they'll trample you to death. Managing your inventory is annoying as you can carry only upto a specified weight and you come across so many items that you can't make up your mind about what you wanna take and what you wanna leave.

And the fighting system - pardon my french but its a clusterf**k. It is clever and stupid at the same time. It allows you to dual weild, and there are many varieties of weapons. You can battle with magic too. But the problem is, you gotta figure it out all by yourself. The level up system is not straightforward - it has too many options and confuses you with percentages and numbers. There is no tutorial for fighting or using magic, and you gotta go to a college to train in magic. No, literally. There is an actual in-game college of magic where you go to learn magic skills. 

B*tch please, I already have and engineering degree and I will get another one in a couple of months.

Your character is pretty dumb while fighting. You end up swinging your weapons at the same direction even when your traget has moved away. There are better fighting systems the latest games like in the Assassin's Creed series which makes this one look like its a game from the 90s. You don't know that you can use magic until you figure it out yourself. Switching weapons is slow and dragons turn you into grilled chicken before you switch your weapon to block its fire breath.

So what is good about Skyrim then? Everything else. The evironment is detailed, looks great and rich with minute details. Non-playable characters are intelligent and there are rarely and bugs with enemy AI. The story is also pretty good, and there are plenty of side-missions to keep the completionist in you pretty busy. To complete every mission in the game it should take you a several months atleast. 

 So, yes, I am going to continue playing this game, to see how the story plays out. And maybe, just maybe, when I finish it, I will make an arrow to the knee joke.

Fus Ro Dah!

Sabbatical

You do know that this is only a phase I am going through. I'd probably write a couple of more posts and then forget about the existence of this blog even though it stares me in my favourites toolbar of my browser every single day. I am adept in ignoring things that once used to matter to me.

Lets get this over with. It should be obvious from the title of this post and the date stamps from the last post, that it has been almost a year since I blogged last time. During this period of time I have been busy doing some actual stuff, which really didn't require me to abandon my blog but I'm gonna try to justify it anyway.

I relocated to a new country called Singapore, got myself enrolled for a masters degree in something to do with lasers (not the Star Wars kind) and diamonds (not the De Beers kind) and chips (not the Lays kind) which I miraculously finished in one year. Normal people tend to take about a year and half to two years to complete a masters degree but there is a reason for the studious-Indian/Asian-kid stereotype to exist.

Now I live in an apartment with 3 other dudes, and I was forced to have learnt to cook and clean up after myself. I had classes for 3 hours on all weekdays in the evenings only. I spend my days gaming, feeding myself and doing other unproductive things and go to classes in the evenings. That's the life of a "full time" student.

A couple of days ago I finished my last exam and I had an overwhelming feeling of finishing something extremely menial. Being a student for almost 18 years tends to do that. Now that I have successfully finished my exams I have to get myself a job. This is supposed to be the difficult part, they say, to which I say, the exams weren't any bit easier.

You probably knew all that story already since all of you who read my blog are either my friends or a sibling. Blogger makes it a point to show it to me that I have only 6 followers and I have racked up a whopping 396 page views.  So I hope you can understand that I didn't need much of motivation to stop writing.

And what motivated me to get back to writing it again?

Nothing, I was just bored.

***

Its gonna be at least 3 more months before my graduation ceremony and I plan to post as often as possible within this time frame so as to prevent any possible brain damage due to brain inactivity. If I do not, then you need not worry, It would only be because I found something much more interesting to do...which is great for me, but I don't know how it would improve your situation. Maybe you should worry. Or maybe not. I really don't care (unless I get like a thousand followers which is highly unlikely).

I'm gonna finish this post and get back to doing something until I can come up with something worth writing about. If you want me to write about something specific, be sure to leave it in your comments. And if I decide not to write about your idea, its probably because it was either too awesome or too lame for me to write about.

Ciao.

Sunday Blues

Another father-son moment:

"You've been buying english newspapers for a week but I've never seen you read them. Are you reading them or are you wasting the money?"

"Yes dad I am reading."

"Well then go read it now. Don't watch TV all the time."

"But I've read it already!"

"Everything?"

"No I just skimmed it..."

"Then read it again, this time, in detail."

"But dad! I-"

"No buts. Go. Now. And hand over the TV remote to me."

Perfect Sunday.

***

This holiday thing is getting a bit exhausting. Then again, I'm not exactly on a holiday, there's no next semester for me, I'm technically a B.E grad once I get my provisional certificate. And then I am falling into a deep and empty void of nothing.

Seriously, will this holiday ever end?

***

In my quest to avoid boredom in the unconventional way (conventional way would be watching TV, gaming and just sitting on the couch and staring at the roof), I have been experimenting for the last few weeks. I've been trying sketching, my childhood hobby, but my nemesis, an 8 year old who claims to be my nephew is interrupting the process. I was going to make my comeback in deviantART with my drawn and inked Batman sketch, but the brat tore it off while I was sleeping and took it home to stick it in his wall. He'll probably show off to his friends that he drew it.

But I got my revenge. I've tuned out all the cartoon channels from his TV set. You don't wanna mess with the Eggman. I'm pure evil.

Next is my new found passion to read newspapers. Not that I didn't have newspapers before but now I'm buying english language newspapers and tamil activists might protest against me for not helping tamil to grow. Sorry, but tamil newspapers are marginally costlier with less content when compared to english dailies. And the editorials in The Hindu are a learning experience. Do you know that 80 crore people in our country live on Rs. 20 a day? That's less than how much we spend for a coffee at a coffee house in the city.

Then came cooking. It actually started out like this. When I try to watch TV at around 6, my mom will snatch the remote from me and watch a cooking show (somehow all channels have a cooking show around that time), and I thought 'What the hell? Does it matter what I watch, as long as I watch it in a TV?'. TV is entertaining and educational. Even Kalaignar feels that way.

Then I started coming across many cooking recipes while browsing for playboy centerfolds arts and paintings, and I took it as a sign. I cooked Paneer Shabnam and for the first time I liked something I cooked myself (except Maggi noodles). Then I tried to cook Chinese with Schezwan Noodles but I didn't get the sauce right. Its okay, baby steps.

***

This anti-corruption thing is actually gaining momentum and the only thing its missing is a skinny bearded yoga guru who can't stop blinking his left eye. Actually we do have one of those, and its name is Baba Ramdev, who is fondly called 'dhongi baba' by Mahatma Gandhi's grandson. Aptly named one would say. I don't like anyone uses religious means to a political end. Dhongi baba is making ridiculous demands half of which cannot be done overnight and the other half is too silly to even consider a possibility. You've gotta blame Congress though, for acting like a wuss with him from the very beginning. He's a yoga instructor for heavens sake! You don't send 4 cabinet ministers to make nice with a guy like him. 

If you think he's doing something noble, let me tell you this. The Ramlila grounds, which was used for the protest, was actually booked by the dhongi baba claiming that he was going to conduct a yoga campaign. He tried to make under the table negotiations with Congress and if Congress ministers didn't read out his letter in the press conference on the night of the hunger fast, the so called fast would've ended in a day. 

BJP thinks its right to back him, but its gradually giving its ground as the opposition party to these so called civil activists. Its one thing to support Anna Hazare, but if BJP gives support to ignorant manipulators like the baba, it will be hard to please him if/when BJP comes to power. A word of caution to Congress: an RSS backed religious leader is a loaded weapon with a hair trigger.

***

Okay I've written something about current affairs. Now will you believe that I've been reading newspapers?

Until next time.

The Eggman.

The Lesser Evil

MMMMUUUUAAAAHHHH :*


This kiss is for Mylo, my dear computer, who's SMPS was fried by TNEB's notorious voltage surge last Friday. She was finally fixed today and during the last 4-5 days during which she was knocked out cold, I missed her very much and realized how much internet is essential to us and how costly GPRS is.

***

 

This image was made when JJ became CM of Tamilnadu the 2nd time and it was actually used in the ADMK website. Who would've expected those fellas to have a sense of humour?

On the day of voting I was very much indecisive about who I should vote. No doubt ADMK is as corrupt as DMK is. But the deciding factor was that the whole of Karunanithi's family is knee deep in the muck of corruption and it seemed that it might be good to give JJ a chance and see if she has seen the error of her ways.

I am pretty sure everyone except ADMK was surprised by the fact that they actually won. Even though everyone hoped that DMK shouldn't win, they thought it was impossible since DMK has proven its mettle in rigging elections. Alas, if it wasn't for BHEL's homemade electronic ballot device, DMK might have won this election (I've always wanted to use the word 'alas' in a sentence). Kudos to the election commission for conducting this election with least noise and hindrance to the public and at the same time having 80% voter turnout. with respect to voter turnout, any number above 50% is good.

To make a list of surprises,

1. ADMK's huge majority
2. DMK's low vote share
3. TN people's nerve to stand up against corruption
4. The look on Vadivelu's face

 Actually, Vadivelu's face should be on top of the list.

***

It has become almost a common thing that all major games these days cannot be fit inside a commonly available 4.7 GB DVD. Games like  GTA 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Total War Shogun 2 well exceed the 10 GB mark while most other "serious games average around 6-8 GB. However there are some games which can be fit inside a CD and still get higher ratings in comparison to these games. And I'm not talking about Super Mario and Contra. Here are the top 5 so-called casual games of the recent times that pwned the serious games.

5. Angry Birds

One of the highest selling iTunes app of all time, when Angry Birds for PC came out I found that it had the niche to bring out the person inside you who never gave up from beating the level even after seeing the game over screen so many times over and over. The objective of the game is pretty simple - knock out a bunch of funnily drawn pigs perched precariously on top of unstable structures. The difficulty ramps up pretty smoothly and you should be a master of projectile physics to get 3 stars in every level of the game.

4. Plants vs. Zombies

 Plants vs. Zombies was the first game that I've played in the tower defense genre. Brain eating zombies have taken over the planet and you have a bunch of plants that can protect you from them. You get easily hooked to this game as I found that my time was better spent playing this game than to prepare for TCS placement test (oh, that explains why I didn't get placed in TCS).

3. Anomaly: Warzone Earth

 Anomaly is a hybrid of strategy tower defense games. The alien invasion theme also follows in this game but all instead of zombies you have huge mechanical things that zap your ass to kingdom come and instead of plants you have tanks and missile launchers and people talking in British accent. This is a thinking man's game and the gorgeous visuals will protect you from your friends making fun of you for playing children's games.

2. World of Goo

Being a casual game hater for most of my younger and ignorant life as a gamer, World of Goo was the first casual game that I played because of the rave reviews it got. It was designed by 2 programmers who used to work for the gaming mogul Electronic Arts. They started a company called 2D boy and their first product was this game. The game used simple mechanics such as gravity and wind. Numerous tiny balls known as goo balls can be used to construct makeshift towers and bridges and they should be made so that they lead to a pipe's open end. Structures should be made with minimum number of goo balls because the more goo balls you save yields you more points. All this means endless hours of puzzle solving fun.

1. Super Meat Boy

Forget about everything I've said above. None of these games even come close to greatness as Super Meat Boy does. THIS IS THE SHIT.


***

Yawn. Oh so sleepy. Until next time.

Super Egg Boy.

I'm ba...no I'm not gonna say that again

This is strange. I've been here before. Oh yeah now I remember, its my blog!

I know what you're thinking and I can explain why I haven't been blogging. Its just that for the last one year I was tailing Osama in a special joint operation with the CIA and finally we killed that douchebag. So now I finally got some time to blog.

No! I was just being lazy you know...playing video games, watching TV and movies and other stuff and I forgot to write about all the embarrassing stuff I did in my everyday life.

But now I have realized the truth. I'm a grown up now (sort of), so I shouldn't spend my time playing games and watching TV. I should take charge of my life and perform some responsibilities. Here's what I'm gonna do now. I'm gonna find a job, maybe do some research about higher studies, try my luck with GRE, apply to some universities abroad and decide what I'm gonna do with my life. 

Oh wait a second...I got a job, I aced GRE and I have applied to some foreign universities! So I guess I'll just figure out what I'm gonna do with my life...I'll just stay home, play video games, watch TV until I get my call letter. But I guess that's what I was doing already.

***

Hope that answered what I've been doing since my long absence from blogging. Right now I got almost everything an early ty-ager would want from his life. I am twenTY one, making me a TY ager. See I just made up a word for my convenience just like that guy in that HTC Pulse mobile phone ad who makes up a word called zoot for the convenience of a game of scrabble. Do ad film makers actually think before making ads like that? Isn't it just ridiculous, thinking that if you have a mobile phone with an internet connection you can do anything? Maybe even start a revolution to topple a government? (an exception would be Libya...think about it for a second, their government was so weak that a social networking site was responsible for its downfall.)

Another ridiculous one is the Kellogg's Special K ad in which they say if they eat that stuff twice everyday for two weeks you can lose *upto* two pounds. Then the narrator with the cool voice says that research has shown that by having healthy eating habits people can become slim. Now, the people who watch this ad maybe stupid, but they gotta be real dumbasses if they haven't figured this out themselves. If that piece of information was found out using research then the researchers were real dumbasses.

But the ads which really make my blood boil are the cosmetic ones which really sound as if to make women have a really low self esteem. There's this anti-ageing cream ad in which two couples are having dinner together and one of the women tells the other that there is no need for such creams at the age of 30. 5 years later the woman who uses the advertised cream is living happily with her husband while the other woman is sad because her husband doesn't pay attention to her enough. And the happy woman says its not too late and gives her the cream. What is wrong with this ad? First of all, here's a little information for some woman out there, if your husband doesn't pay attention to you, its probably because your his wife, its bound to happen. You can dress skimpily, that might help (but not in public places, that's perceived a little differently). Second of all, if your husband does not love you because your old, then he probably didn't love you for your character, you should figure that out yourself. So you can divorce him, get yourself an older husband who will find you new, and your ex-husband can get himself a newer wife who will eventually get old, but hey, you'll still get half of his assets and alimony!

And oh the fairness creams! First they said you didn't look fair so you needed to use that cream. Now they're saying that your face is fair but your body doesn't match the fairness of your face so you need another cream for that! Now if these ads were shown in the US or any other country with black people having an appreciable amount of self esteem they'd have sued these companies for offending them by pointing out racist differences. Well if these ads could be applauded for not showing any sort of discrimination then that would be gender based descrimination because there are fairness creams for men also. As Virat Kohli points out, performance off the pitch matters just as much as on the pitch in his Fair and Lovely ad. If Martin Luther King thought that having a darker skin complexion is in someway not good then black people might still be considered inferior to white people. Which is in fact true in India as I know of some people darker in complexion made fun of because they are darker in complexion. Black chicks would dig them if they went to the US or the Caribbean.

So what I am trying to say is, ad makers should take some social responsibility when making ads and not just do what they are told to. The whole strategy of advertising is to make people believe that people think they need something even if they don't and scare the living shit out of them into making them buy. If you look at the moral of the story for each ad film this is what it will be: If you are not fair then use a fairness cream; otherwise you'll never get a date, never fall in love, never get married and you will die a virgin. If you don't have this mobile phone then you won't be able to update your facebook status and your other friends with cooler phone will think that your so yesteryear. If you don't have a pension plan, after you retire, your children will abandon you and you will live in the streets. If you don't have insurance you will die and your family will be left nothing.

Hope you think about why you are buying something before buying it before you fall for this corporate conspiracy.

***

"I decided to keep this post short, so that I don't run out of stuff to write about next time. And hopefully next time wont come a month later."

This was how I ended my last post on Feb 2010. I'm frankly surprised you haven't killed me for my lies. I'm even more surprised you have taken the time off your day to read my blog. Thank you very much. I'm hoping to blog even more. Lets see how that works out.

The Eggman.

More Fun, Less Blogging

Yes, more fun, less blogging. Nice to write to you all once again my dear eggs.

Guess what I got from my brother? A Nintendo Wii and an Xbox 360 Controller for PC. Actually its his Nintendo Wii, which he decided to give it to me since he's getting an Xbox 360 Elite (which is way cooler than 10 Wiis put together, but his generosity is much appreciated). That should explain what I've been doing for one month without blogging.

Its too late to wish you a happy new year. So what was your new year resolution? I took...none. It's for a pretty simple reason actually. Every time I take a resolution I don't stick with it for more than 3 months...okay, not more than 3 weeks.

Why should I take a resolution on new year anyway? Why should anyone take a resolution on new year anyway? With some Google-ing, I found out that there's a god in Roman mythology named Janus. Now this guy had 2 faces, one to look into the past and one to look into the future. So those Romans dedicated the first month of the year to this guy and made resolutions to make things right so that the two faced god won't punish them for their past deeds.

I also found out that

• Of the 28million taking an oath of self improvement for 2010, a remarkable seven million will have given up – within a week.
• 30% of all resolutions are broken within the first week.
• Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals.
• Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting.
• Women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

If you have also given up on your resolution, I hope the above facts make you feel better. You have 7 million others like you.

***

I rarely watch a tamil movie twice. Heck, I rarely watch a tamil movie. Its usually because I can guess most of the story by knowing who's the lead character - especially Vijay movies - man from village goes to town, falls in love, single handedly fights hordes of gangsters, throw in a friend's death in the hands of the villain, a kuthu paatu, and then not so surprisingly, the hero is victorious. Seeing the pattern you can even write a C program for it (gotta try that once).

On the other hand, you can tell whether the movie will do good by watching its trailer. Take Sakkarakatti for example. My friend got epileptic fits after watching the trailer. People knew very well that Aayirathil Oruvan is a rip-off of Indiana Jones, Gladiator, 300 and other half a dozen adventure movies from Hollywood from watching the trailer. And still they complain that the movie is not good. Trailers are a warning to people. They should realize this.

And there will be some other movies with a great trailer, like Aasal. But when you see Ajith's dance in the song Athiri Puthiri (also known as "to-to-doin"), you get dizzy.

So the last tamil movie I saw was Tamil Padam. It made fun of every stereotypical character in tamil cinema. In fact, I liked the movie so much that I saw it twice. The picture on the side is a wallpaper for the movie. You'll get the idea on how the movie will be after looking at it. So no review this time. Just a score.

4.5 stars out of 5.

***

Colin McRae DiRT2 as revolutionized racing games. It is one of the first games to support DirectX 11, and the environments look awesome. The car damage is real enough not to get in the way of having fun in the game, but at the same time, gives you a professional feel to driving the cars. Other drivers react to you when you bump their car with yours, appreciate you if you drive well, congratulate on your victory. Racing in many different locations of the world in many different off road races such as rally , rally cross and some fictional type of races too.

DiRT2 has revolutionized racing games, a genre in which EA Games' Need For Speed franchise was on a higher ground. NFS Shift might be good, but its not as good as Codemasters' DiRT2. This time they've really outdone themselves.

***

I decided to keep this post short, so that I don't run out of stuff to write about next time. And hopefully next time wont come a month later.

Ciao

Eating Spree [Includes Vettaikaran review(s)]

Since my last post I've been having so much fun that I forgot to blog. Not that blogging isn't fun, actually, its a lot of fun, you know...sitting before computer, looking at the monitor, pressing all those keys, clicking the mouse and resisting the temptation to see some skin. On second thoughts, blogging is gruesome.

***

I had about two weeks of holidays when my semester ended and I spent one week watching all those movies I missed, 4 days in a factory where they make wheels and the rest of the week in the bed as I was suffering from fever I won't be able to attend the class on. Sorry, old habits die hard.

And so I was saying, my fever ruined my 3 days of fun during which I could have done a lot of things (You can ask why I didn't do all those things I wanted to do in the first week but please don't. I don't have an answer.).

So for Christmas I made a list in my mind to do the things that I missed during those three days. They are:

1. Eat at McDonald's
2. Eat at KFC
3. Eat Hyderabad Biriyani

Though it may seem lame to you (you were probably expecting climb the Everest, resolve the Copenhagen issue, assassinate Vijay...actually the last one isn't such a bad idea is it?), eating something tasty is very improtant to me. Meals at the above places are something people should experience.

Eating at McDonald's is an American tradition. Where else can you can feed your whole family for 5 dollars in the US of A?(not that we are in the US of A but I'm just stating a fact. In India, a meal for one costs Rs. 121 only) Where else do kids get a toy with their meal? Where else can you take a photo of you with a statue of a ridiculous man wearing yellow overalls, red striped sleeves and white face?

KFC is the second best thing from in Louiseville, Kentucky, the first being cervical cancer vaccine. I'm sure your mom can cook chicken, but is it crispy? In KFC, it is. To my knowledge no other restaurant gives a bucket to carry your chicken.

Enough of America, lets talk about India. I know that there's a lot of stuff going on in Hyderabad like hunger strikes. But fortunately, Hyderabad isn't the only place where they make Hyderabad Biriyani. Its available in Chennai too. Since I have never eaten Hyderabad Biriyani (In fact, I have never eaten Hyderabad-anything), its third on my list. Hopefully I'll eat it before it becomes Telengana Biriyani.

I struck off item one on the list - McDonald's. I had a mexican chicken roll, some fries and some Coke. It wasn't my Coke actually, I spilled mine and got stares from the sweeper (probably because I'm irresistible) and my friend gave me some of his Coke.

There are still two more items on the list. 5 more holidays. Wish me good luck. And a good appetite.

***

After reading my Kanthasamy review on my blog, an avid reader asked me to review Vettaikaran. My heart was in no condition for it though. However I did get a sneak peek into Vijay's intro scene. It goes like this: A man is running. I know its Vijay. I hear sirens. Then I see a police jeep racing up. I think the jeep is chasing Vijay. But lo! Its not the jeep that is chasing Vijay but its Vijay that's chasing the jeep! Somehow, the policeman in the jeep manages to lose Vijay using his horse-powered engine. Would Vijay give up? No! He finds a horse, takes a short cut, and catches upto the policeman with his horse's power, jumps directly to the backseat, some dialogues, then jumps directly to the front seat and drags him to a hospital. Then I learn that Vijay is teaching a lesson to the drunk policeman who ran over an old man. Cut to a song sequence, in the beginning of which Vijay breaks a pillar stone with his bare hands.

Since when did Vijay start doing superhero roles?

Since I couldn't get the genre right for this movie, I can't review it. But I did find some praise for the movie in some popular review sites:

www.tamilnow.com: "...But, it's slightly average than his previous flicks - 'Kuruvi' and 'Villu'. Possibly, you would be curious to know whether Vijay has imitated anything from Telugu actor Mahesh Babu. Of course, he has aped certain style of uttering dialogues as the same way he does. Indeed, there's a particular shot of breaking a pillar stone just in bare hands (Mahesh Babu in 'Athadu')."

entertainment.oneindia.in: "another B grade flick from Vijay's factory of Mass Masala!...Hard times continues for Vijay.. better luck in Sura!"

I did find one positive review from www.merinews.com which said "If you don't get a chance to go to the theatres, do download the movie Vettaikaran."

Too bad for Vijay, even he wouldn't have thought competition would come from a movie like Avatar.

Ciao

Need Is The Father Of Invention

Its as if some ad-film maker has read my blog. Remember my post about insurance ads? Well, I was watching TV that day and I saw an ad which reflected almost exactly how I felt about these ads. YouTube Link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4az0SydydJE

****

Another glorious first day in college, this being the first day of the sixth semester. Highlight of this semester is that we have one elective subject, which means we get to choose one subject from a list, which is not a very long one. We had two choices, one was Numerical Methods. Since it had the word 'Numerical' in it, I automatically chose the other option, which was Unconventional Machining Processes.

Though the title sounds a little sophisticated, the text book is only around 100 pages and that's something rare for an engineering student. The first unit was already covered in the first week, which means 20% of the subject was covered in 5 days. That's record time in college standards.

And the lecturer isn't a bad guy...if you can ignore his English. It was easy to determine his level when he said, "Need is the father of invention". For those who can't figure out what's wrong with what he said, the saying goes like "necessity is the mother of invention".

Everyone except my Heat and Mass Transfer professor claimed that their subject was very easy. If you'd paid attention while watching Vaaranam Aayiram, you might remember that even Surya had an arrear in Heat and Mass Transfer.

We didn't do much in most of the periods. Taking notes is strictly for problematic subjects and optional for the other subjects. Lectures for theory subjects were spent reading Chetan Bhagat novels (2 States is awesome) and partaking in recreational activities like Hangman and Bingo.

This semester also includes a Design and Fabrication Project for which we can spend 4 hours every week roaming around labs pretending that we're doing something important. There's also a Communications Skills Lab which includes watching movies like Battle Of Britain and The Pursuit Of Happyness. But the best time I spent in that lab was when I was told to pick a story at random from a list and read it. I got The Gift Of The Magi by O. Henry. It's one of my favourites because its about two people in love and to what extent they go to make each other happy (I'm not talking about boning). This story is a must read for hopeless romantics like me and for +2 students because its in their syllabus. Link to the story: http://www.manythings.org/voa/stories/The_Gift_of_the_Magi_-_By_O_Henry.html It also has audio.

On the overall, I think this was the best week of college so far, not because I did something cool, but I was happy without doing anything cool.

****

Observant people might have noticed a new link in the sidebar called Date A Gadget. It's a new gadget review site which is maintained by one of my friends from high school who shares my fascination for Prince Of Persia, Gadgets and hot women. Since there is not much to blog about the Prince and since there are already too many blogs about hot women, he reviews gadgets. And he's not one of those fakers who take reviews from other website but he gets the actual gadgets and breaks down specs for mortals like us to understand. Check it out, the link is on the sidebar.

****

This brings us to the announcement of the winner of the first contest ever held on The Open Book: one invite to Google Wave for the best comment! Now before I announce the winner, I would like to make one thing clear to you - my decision is final. And you can't question it. Actually you can, but I decide whether to answer it or not.

The criteria on which chose the best comment is...I'm not sure. The winner of last week is Mano, who was the only person of all the people who commented to have watched one movie that was on the list. Congratulations Mano...check your email in-box for your invite.

I've got plenty more invites and Google has charged me with the mission of inviting more people to Wave. I've got no contest this week but next week I'll have one and I'm planning to give away 5 invites. So leave a good contest idea in the comments and you might just get an invite.

Ciao.

Apparently it turns out that I had mistaken the Mano who comments with another Mano I know. So he got the invite while the winner Mano didn't. That problem is being sorted out.

Top 5 Movies You Shouldn't Miss This Semester...uh...I Mean This Season

Back in the day dial-up modems were cool, when people were bored, they'd just log in to Yahoo Messenger, go into their favourite chatrooms and chat with some random guy. Now when you go into a chatroom, all you see is guys posing as girls who want to take your **** and **** you so badly your **** is sore for 2 weeks. There is so much evil in this world. Chatrooms are prehistoric. Tweets and scraps are the cool stuff.

All I wanted to know was how to fabricate a PCB...and they wouldn't tell me! Instead they want to take my **** and **** me so badly my **** is sore for 2 weeks. Well, **** them!!!

-----

After so much talk about movies, it should be obvious to you that I am a movie junkie. Before the exam started, I was supposed to prepare, which involves me in my room with a book in my lap thinking about how sexy Megan Fox would look in Jennifer's Body. During this same period, I also collected DVDs of movies that I shouldn't watch till the exams are over, like little squirrels collecting nuts for the winter season. Now I'm spending so much time deciding which ones to watch now because All the movies I got are equally good. But I separated the cream of the crop for you, my dear eggs.

So the top 5 movies you shouldn't miss this semester...uh...I mean this season are

5. State Of Play starring Ben Affleck, Russel Crowe, Rachel McAdams.

State Of Play is the sort of movie that gives you a feeling of reading a good novel. This one gave me the feeling of reading a Grisham novel, Pelican Brief to be exact. Ben Affleck plays a US Senator whose secretary is killed in a freak accident. Russel Crowe and Rachel McAdams are two investigative reporters who uncover the truth behind her death as Russel struggles to be both truthful to his own profession and loyal to his longtime friend Affleck.

Reasons to watch:

• Rachel McAdams is insanely hot.
• A damn good ending.
• Lots of twists keep you watching.

4. Orphan starring some actors whose names I don't remember or bother to look up in the IMDB.

There's a not so happy family with a not so happy mother recovering from alcoholism and depression caused by their stillborn daughter. The mother decides to adopt an orphan to get over the sadness. They adopt a Russian born girl Esther. Everything seems to be fine in the beginning but soon people are getting killed and the mother struggles to find out the truth about Esther.

Reasons to watch:

• Omen styled horror movie that you just love to watch.
• Deviation from the conventional thrillers. Director makes intentional build ups and lets them fuzz out and you realise that its pretty cool.
• Seems ridiculous in the beginning, makes a lot of sense in the end when the secrets are revealed.

3. Zombieland starring Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone and a new guy whose name I don't know.

This movie is a makes fun of all zombie movies like Dawn Of The Dead, Resident Evil etc. The whole world is infected by a virus turning people into zombies. A college student unaffected by the virus, returns home to find out if his parents survived the epidemic. On his way he meets Woody and they team up with the other two girls and help each other survive and make us laugh in the process.

Reasons to watch:

• A funny zombie movie in a long time since Shaun Of The Dead.
• Good solid acting.

2. District 9 starring nobodies. All of them South African actors who speak in a funny accent. Fock!

Debutante director Neil Blomkamp was supposed to direct the Halo movie. But since that project was on a halt, he decided to make a movie about an aliens coming to earth. Its a completely different treatment of the alien concept. Its easy to forget that this is Neil's first movie.
An alien space ship lands in Johannesburg, South Africa. It turns out that the aliens are refugees, seeking shelter in earth. A whole district in Johannesburg is turned into a refugee camp. The district turns into a slum and humans don't cope up with the aliens very well and the government decides to move them to a new place with the help of a private weapons manufacturer. The leader of the team which is in charge of the operation is exposed to the alien technology and is forced to help the aliens save themselves in return of their help to save his life.

Reasons to watch:

• Aliens don't land in Washington DC but instead in Johannesburg.
• Really professional, serious movie making from the director.

1. Inglourious Basterds starring Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger

Its World War 2 and a group of Jewish soldiers called Basterds led by Brad Pitt are in Germany whose sole purpose is to spread fear among the Nazi forces by brutally executing them. During their mission they come across cinema hall whose audiences are mostly Nazis. Basterds are immediately interested in the cinema hall. The owner has her own reasons for having a Nazi cinema premiere. And it all boils down to one evening that will change the course of history.

Reasons to watch:

• Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
• Do you need a better reason?

If you are wondering why 2012 didn't make it to this list, its because its a movie in which a large number of people die and the hero and his family mirculously escape. It has happened before in the movie Day After Tomorrow and its happening again now. Nothing special.

Leave your comments below. Enjoy your holidays.

Ciao

P.S.: Oh I forgot to mention. The best comment wins a Google Wave invite.

Paranoid Insurance Ads

Hello my fellow eggs...it has been a while. I had my semester exams and I had to focus.

I'd love to write about all the things I missed because of these exams but there is an important issue that I have to focus on before that.

Insurance advertisements.

They've become a nuisance when you are watching TV. There was a time when insurance was just life insurance. Now there's health insurance, property insurance and other stuff. And they don't stop there, they've got retirement plans, pension plans, mutual funds etc. But do you know the worst kind? Child plans. The worst thing about them is not the idea of insuring a child, I think its a great idea actually. But the adverts...that's the bad part.

A family is having a happy dinner. Mom and dad are eating with their little kid. The kid suddenly asks "Have you thought about it?". Dad asks, "About what?". The kid says, "My future". The dad looks like he's constipated. Then some guy says that they can secure their child's future by their child plans.

WTF? I know the easiest way to secure an 8 year old's future - by making sure he finishes tomorrow's home work. What else has a kid got to worry about? Global warming? Are we to think that a school kid will worry about his career because of job cuts due to economical meltdown?

By the way, the best insurance ads are from ICICI. They always feature happy couples.

***

Most of you will be wondering what happened to my "Eggman Goes To Thanjavur - Part 2", I promised you. I really did try to write part 2 but I couldn't write more than 2 lines. I just ended up browsing something else on the net. So I thought I would drop part 2. There was a valuable lesson I learned from that. I could never write a book. I probably won't make it to chapter 2.

For those of you still wanting to find out what happened when we got to Thanjavur : We did the presentation but it didn't stand a chance against the path finding robot PSG Tech guys did - they even brought a working model. I spent the rest of the day at Thanjavur Big Temple (crude translation of Periya Kovil) with a friend. I did manage to get past prelims in quiz but I didn't want to spend the night for a crappy quiz. I left for Chennai that night.

***
There's a thing about remade movies that I hate. Remakes are the easy way to success. Some directors can utilize that very well. But others just make a scene-by-scene copy of whatever the original version was. The difference will be the language spoken. We used to do something simpler in the past. Its called dubbing.

Some are remakes are really good. There was a recent Unnai Pol Oruvan (A Wednesday in Hindi). Billa was ok. I mean, it was stylish, but there was just too much build up and you get sick of watching Ajith walk in slow motion and talking in a monotone in the first half. SRK looked as slick as the Big B himself in the Don remake.

There was a Vasoolraja MBBS (Munnabhai MBBS in Hindi). It had the same storyline. But the locales are different, the plot rewritten to suit Tamil audiences. You might have noticed that remakes with Kamal Haasan end up successful. Auvai Shanmugi was no exception (Mrs. Doubtfire in English).

So if you're wondering what I'm  building up to, its Kanden Kaathalai. The only reason I wanted to watch the movie was because Tamannah Bhatia was in it (Fact : She's only 19 years old. She was paid 50 lakhs to work in her last movie. I'm also 19 years old. You know where I'm getting at.). The director made it no secret that it was a remake of Jab We Met. Since I was already impressed with that movie, I wanted to see how the director had improvised. The only improvisation I saw in that movie was the inclusion of a comical relief Santhanam. Most of the dialogues are literal translations of the hindi dialogues and it didn't suit the characters.

If Tamil directors should ever think of making good remakes in the future, I advice them to watch Ocean's 11 (Yes, Ocean's 11 is a remake). And not to watch Ocean's 12 because it sort of sucked.

Ciao

P.S I'm in holidays and I hope to make frequent posts of short length rather than long ones once a week. But I sure could use a little motivation. Leave a f***ing comment!