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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!!!

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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.

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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.

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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!

Eggman goes to Thanjavur!!! -Part 1

Hello my friends from the blogosphere! It' been quite a while since my last post. You probably won't believe me if I tell you that I was busy preparing for my model exams. So I'm just gonna say I was busy with some stuff. Oh I'm still suffering from sleep deprivation ever since I'd visited Thanjavur. Yes I've crossed the Chennai border which I haven't done in a long time. The last time I went out of city was like a year ago when my mom took me to a shitty temple in somewhere in on the way to Andhra. I never bothered to remember its name. And the last time I went out of city on my own was like...never. So why would a person like me who travels so little went to Thanjavur?

I know a bloke who knows a bloke. Now this bloke used all his leisure time to work on a paper while I was playing Prototype. This paper was surprisingly good, so good that he won a few paper presentation competitions, and made quite some money, close to five grand. Now you all know how my last attempt to make money worked out like. Yes, I'm referring to the interview incident. Compared to that, this method seemed very lucrative to me. I have to work on a paper which doesn't necessarily have to be my work. All I had to do was to convince the judges that it was really my paper. Like showing them some real references, make a circuit board or a model and there you go! An original paper by a 3rd year BE student.

And so started my quest for a suitable topic. Experienced people in this business said that a paper has more chance of getting selected if it is about a relatively unknown topic. So while I was googling for new technologies, MEMS caught my eye. MEMS stands for Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. It was perfect. Well, the name sounds sophisticated. That was good enough for me.

After 42 man hours of research and typing, my paper was ready: Adaptive Cruise Control system using RF MEMS (RF stands for radio frequency). I got it evaluated by a couple of my professors. Both of them said the same thing - I was going to have a hard time convincing the judges that it was my own work. They told me to make a circuit board or a working model. That wasn't going to happen because commercially available Adaptive Cruise Control system costs nearly $1000. Not rupees, but dollars. To make the modifications that my paper proposed will cost more. And it isn't available in India. So add some overseas courier charges and you have double the cost original cost of the setup. That's low cost technology for you. And me.

So with the working model out of the question, the paper was a goner. Now I wasn't going to throw away 42 hours of work just like that. So I sent it to this symposium they were conducting at SASTRA University called Sakshama.

7 days after sending the paper, I'd given up on the paper as no intimation was sent to me. But it turned out that they did send me one. Its just that GMail decided to play games with me. I didn't receive it but my team mate Chimbao got it. But he never bothered to check his emails because intimation will be sent to both the team mates all the time so if i didn't get it, so did he. One day before the deadline for confirmation, Chimbao went to play Mafia Wars in Facebook and decided to check his emails while he waited for the game to load. And there it was...like Meg Ryan in my bedroom...the intimation (I used the Meg Ryan metaphor to imply that it was the last thing we expected to see).

For those of you who didn't know, SASTRA University is located in the outskirts of Thanjavur, about 40 minutes from the proper town. All the while I worked on my lucrative money making scheme i never considered travel. 228 people were on the waiting list for the train to Thanjavur. Thankfully we got super deluxe bus tickets to Thanjavur.

And that was how I was in the bus to Thanjavur on 9th October 2009. And then what happened? Did I get to Thanjavur? Did my new money making attempt work? Did I finally get Meg Ryan on my bed? Log on to www.placeformwords.blogspot.com in 3 or 4 days or probably a week to find out.

Ciao