Last weekend

Going to Manipal tomorrow. Sindha is having a few problems with getting her thesis signed (among other things). My place is by her side.

And oh, I'll be 30 when I come back.

Colours

Dark blue splashed on black. Red in a corner, flaming bright. The canvas is big, huge, vast. And black. Black all over.

Black.

About a ditch

There is this plot of land next to my house which is used as a pathway by people moving from one corner of Siddhaguntapalya to the other. The owners of the plot dug the place up last weekend, and have dug a ditch all around. I get a good view of the path from my bedroom window. I find it quite interesting to watch different people tackle the ditch - its probably close to three feet wide and lots of folks have problems crossing it.

Most schoolboys immediately jump across it and sneer at their friends who hesitate. There are a few who jump back and forth several times, encouraging their buddies to try it out. I can relate to those who hesitate, I don't think I've jumped across anything wider than a foot when I was a kid.

The girls mostly move around, looking for a place where the gap is smaller. They usually stop at a spot where its about the same distance, carefully step into the ditch and climb up the other side. Smoothening their uniforms, they walk away.

There are also the overgrown kids on their motorbikes who come to a screeching halt when they see the ditch for the first time. They rev up the engine a few times, look all around and then return the way they came.

Yesterday I saw a young boy jump across and urge his sister to follow. She couldn't gather up the courage to jump, was on the point of crying. Our hero calmly stepped into the ditch and helped her across. He climbed back up, held his sister's hand and walked to school.

Current book - Jingo, by Terry Pratchett

So the Oscars are over. At least now I can open t...

So the Oscars are over. At least now I can open the papers and not have Bhuvan and team glowering at me.

The best moment of this years Academy Awards was Woody Allen coming on stage. I never expected him to turn up, and hats off to the Academy for giving him a standing ovation. The Woodman's speech had me in splits. How do I go about collecting his films ?

Is A Beautiful Mind all that great a movie ? I'm already prejudiced against it, without seeing it. Maybe it is. I had liked Ron Howard's direction in Apollo 13.

Current book - Jingo, by Terry Pratchett

Down

Sounds like quite a few of my friends were down in the dumps over the weekend. I am, too. Maybe its the phase of the moon.

Things that could make me happy:

1. Sindha coming over
2. Sharing a drink with and talking about life, the universe and everything
3. Watching one of those classic comedies like Some Like It Hot, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Angur, etc.
4. Watching a feel good movie like Its a Wonderful Life.

None of these are possible right now. Sigh.

Current books - Jingo by Terry Pratchett, Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre

Switch

Switched to Netscape to read my friends posts in L-J. I just couldn't read them in IE because of the refresh problem.

Maybe its all a conspiracy to convert me to geekdom.

No more Popped Yahoo

Yahoo is going to charge for POP3 access from April 24. Now I need to check my mail on a browser - yecchhh.

Game time

Am feeling the urge to get back into gaming. At home of course. There's this large collection which I have only sampled, never completed.

I'm trying to think of games I've completed - very few, really. And most of them are the older games:
- Prince of Persia 2 (yeah, that was fun)
- Wolf 3D and the Spear of Destiny series
- Doom (but not Doom 2 !)
- Age of Empires (completed the campaigns)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III (the default campaigns)
- Grim Fandango
- Serious Sam

Games which I've played a lot but never completed:
- Doom 2
- Quake
- Quake 2
- Halflife
- Alice
- Caesar
- Age of Kings: The Conquerors
- Hexen II

And games which I have sampled and liked, but put off playing in earnest:
- Starcraft
- Homeworld (both 1 and 2)
- Diablo 2
- Myst
- Riven (wanted to finish Myst first, sigh...)
- Black and White
- System Shock 2
- Empire Earth
- Undying
- Civilization 3
- No One Lives Forever

Must be more in each category, cant think of the names right now though.

Hope to get Max Payne shortly. I have the no-cd crack downloaded. Waiting for the CD from a friend...

Powerless

No power at home, must be an unscheduled cut. Luckily the batteries on my laptop are good for some more time...

504, 404, 500

Funny how all the cricket web sites become inaccessible when India is playing well.

Friends online

Most of the people who read my journal - or have me as their friend in l-j - are folks known to me. Updating l-j has taken the place of sending them email. Which is not a very good thing. My fault really, since guys like still continue to mail me every now and then. But not the other way around. Sorry, buddy !

The good part is that not all the l-j friends are people I know personally. I was surprised to see add me to his list of friends. Went to his page and thought that the name 'Kiran Jonalagadda' was familiar. Poked around a bit and found that he used to work for Chip, a magazine I was addicted to some time back. Small world.

Ditto w.r.t. , who remained mysterious till a couple of months back. :-)

Maybe I should get out and meet more people. At least online.

Sanjiv

i2's founder and Chairman Sanjiv Sidhu made a surprise visit to Bangalore today. Met him during the company dinner and spoke to him briefly. His speech at the gathering was just superb. Beats every other speaker I've listened to, hands down.

Wizards of...

Even though I love to hate them, these guys are really amazing

Some more

Just remembered a few more movies I've watched and enjoyed multiple times on the screen:

- Roja
- Bombay
- My Dear Kuttichathan

I think there is a simple reason why there aren't any English movies in the list, apart from the Star Wars series. Eng movies don't run for long in theatres. And Star Wars was a reissue.

Multiplicity

The Ides of March are upon us. My prediction of this being a great year is going the route of all my normal predictions. March 15 and Ayodhya loom ahead.

Amma is in town. Sindha was too, over the weekend. Good food at home. Watched Kannathil Muthamittal for the second time and didn't feel bored. But no, I cant see it again.

Movies I've seen - and enjoyed - multiple times on the screen:

1. Manichitrathazhu
2. The Star Wars series
3. Kireedom

Hmm..very few, actually. I don't want to list the ones I've seen multiple times on TV, that would be too many. Sholay would top the list, though.

About last week

My home PC got fixed last weekend, phew ! Immediately installed Clive Barker's Undying. Resumed where I left off on Halflife. Burnt a few CDs. Kreegah !

Saw Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal last week. Good movie, one of his best. Its extremely difficult to extract good performances from children. Its tougher to get the likes of Simran and Madhavan to act. However Mani Ratnam has managed both in this movie. The camera angles are good, the photography first rate and the music excellent.
The title song is haunting and you don't mind listening to it twice, once in either half.

The characters are natural and people whom you can identify with. Emotions are underplayed and the whole issue of adoption is handled quite delicately. The director doesn't appear to take sides in the Tamil-sinhalese conflict, which is another blessing.

I think Ratnam could have been inspired by the Elian Gonzales story which happened in the US a while ago. Quite possible.

73 on my scale.

Back in action

My back continues to bother me, off and on. Maybe I'm on the road to being crippled for life. Maybe I'll walk around with braces on my neck and back. Maybe I'll stop feeling sorry for myself and get back to work.

Today

Kill them, maul them, kick them, maim them.

Slit their throats, drink their blood.

Burn them, char them, Cut them, fuck them.

Blood down the sewers,Blood right up my alley.
Blood on my face, Blood on my hands.

Dance, dance on them. Dance and sing. Wave your sword, pour your venom. Burn, burn, burn.

Eat. Cut their hearts out and eat. Gorge. Drink their blood. Bathe in it.

And you, yes, look on. Watch TV. Read the papers. Shake your heads. And switch channels to the latest soap.

Yesterday

Yesterday was Sindha's birthday. She had a good day. I didn't. Got stuck in the lift, was buried in another round of meetings and some other stuff which I didn't like very much.

But hey, the better half was happy ! :-)

Here we go again

...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
..
You may say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one