There is a thin line between whats real and whats...

There is a thin line between whats real and whats not. I am walking that line right now.

Feeling slightly ill. Will go home early today.

Customer Service at HP

My cd writer has been illiterate for some time. It used to spit out CDs as soon as they were inserted, no doubt disgusted with my pirated mp3s and divx rips. I took it to the HP service center (tucked away in Wind Tunnel Road, off Airport Road) to get it repaired. After a bumpy ride over a few craters, I navigated past a few tough looking security guys (TLSG) and a bunch of fancy cars to get to the main office.

I stopped at the reception when another TLSG called me back to the entrance where I had to enter my writer's serial number in a register. Walked back to the reception. The lady there asked me to sit down and helpfully added that my cartridge would be ready in a moment. I managed to convince her I didn't have a printer, didn't need a cartridge, all I wanted was to get my writer serviced and get the hell out of there.

Went back to work. Waited for a couple of days. Called them today.

The lady goes: "Sir, I spoke to you in the morning. This will need a Unit Level Replacement"
"No, you didn't speak to me in the morning. This is the first time you are speaking to me. And I called you, not the other way round"
"er..umm...ok"
"Whats a Unit Level Replacement ?"
"The entire part has to be replaced. Will cost you Rs 6100 sir"
"Let me get this straight. I need to pay Rs 6100 to get my writer repaired when I can buy a newer, faster, sleeker model for just Rs 2900 ?"
"Yes sir"
"Thank you very much"

Well, maybe its a good opportunity to buy a new, jazzy writer. Just hope I don't need to get it serviced after a few months

Found Nemo

Finding Nemo is quite cute. Watched it with Sindha yesterday. I would perhaps have had a different perspective if I had seen it last year, before Rachu was born. Interesting, I think I have become a dad !

Woo Hoo !

Rehman and Tolkien ! Way to go, ARR !!

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Roger Ebert rips apart the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre here. Pretty good review, that.

I had seen the original on video three years back, found it absolutely riveting.

Movies over the weekend

You know you are getting old when you prefer Bhagban to Koi...Mil Gaya.


Koi...Mil Gaya
Ha ha ha ha.



Bahgban
Cliche factory. They keep coming one after the other, relentlessly. Minutes after the mother is forced to sleep in the servant's room, the grand-daughter wears revealing clothes and gets on her boyfriend's bike. The adopted son is more dutiful than the real kids. The daughter-in-law attends kitty parties. The son refuses to get his father's glasses repaired. Modernity vs tradition. Old vs new. Towards the end, the father wins The Booker's Prize (sic) for his debut novel, a la Arundhati Roy. I suppose the sequel will have him write essays against dams and nukes.

On the positive side, Amitabh and Hema make a brilliant pair. Moreover, it was a relief to watch a movie that didn't have songs set in New Zealand passing for Kasauli or Pyar Nagar or whatever. Sindha and I were entertained enough to continue watching till the end, unlike Koi...Mil Gaya where we fell out of our chairs laughing when Hrithik showed up on a motorbike post interval. The TV had to be switched off after that, we couldn't stand it anymore


I've been able to watch most of the latest movies thanks to the friendly neighbourhood cable guy. He's got two channels that happily air the very latest in Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam. He does show English too, but its mainly the Bad Boys 2 variety which I'm not too fond of.

Vernon God Little wins Booker

This made me feel good, not really sure why. I have nothing against Monica Ali, never read her book. However it would be good to read someone non-Asian, for a change. Dirty But Clean Pierre (and thats just the author's name) sounds very promising.

The headline 'Australia-born writer wins Booker' was irritating though.

Music update

Bought quite a few cds over the past few days. There's this nice little shop in Jayanagar called Calypso which has a very good collection. Better than what I saw at Music World or Planet M.

Movies
The 39 Steps (a steal at Rs 99), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf), A Streetcar Named Desire (yes ! Stellaaaaaa !!) and When Harry Met Sally (I'll have what she is having)

Music
Strange Condition, Bent (both modern rock compilations - Travis, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray and the like), Edward the Great (I've never heard of this album from Iron Maiden - its a greatest hits compilation, with Eddie dressed up like a king, on the cover), Everyday (Dave Mathews Band), another compilation called Heroes (featuring folks like Dylan, van Morrison, et al), Takshak and an ARR Tamil hits cd from Lahiri for Rs 42 (!).

There was an Indian Ocean cd called Jhini which I heard raving about. I didn't pick it up as I wasn't sure I'd like the music. Maybe I'll sample a few mp3s first.

I just can't wait

to see Kill Bill. As would no doubt put it, w00t ! And Tarantino r0x0rz !! (if I got that right)

Gods, Dogs and Automobiles

Finished American Gods yesterday. Got the book from who got it from - thanks, guys ! I thought it started off pretty well but meandered towards the end. Maybe my expectations were way too high. Nice idea, though. Should try reading a few more Gaiman books.

Is there any RJ more irritating than Sunayana Lal of Radio City ? She's too sweet and bubbly for the likes of me. I'd like a bit of caffeine in my coffee, not just lumps of sugar, thank you very much.

Have been playing Led Zepp's Black Dog endlessly in my head. An amazing song - dappan kuthu ! When will I get a radio station that plays rock 24 hours a day ? There's only so much of remix I can take without puking. Maybe its a conspiracy - the music companies pay the radio stations to play indipop, thereby forcing guys like me to go out and buy music we can listen to in the car without going crazy.

Funny, there's no one whom I need to pick up from the railway station tomorrow. My car might head there automatically, though.

Oh those Aussies...!

Australia 600/5 and its not even Tea on Day two. Hayden 312 off 370 balls and going strong. He's hit some 9 sixes already.

And we are going there in a few months...this should be fun !

Thanks for all the <a href="http://www.livejourna...

Thanks for all the wishes ! I'm having fun playing with userpics - one of the benefits of a paid account, heh heh.

Anniversary gift

I complete two years on LJ this month. I've been using this service extensively, its transformed into part of my daily routine. Have met some very interesting people and have learnt a lot - about technology, about Bangalore, books, movies, music, yahoo, chat and what have you. Thanks to all you folks for making these two years worthwhile.

I also owe a lot of thanks to the good people who run LiveJournal. So for the first time, I'm paying for something thats available free. I've moved to a pay account for a short period. I guess this is the least I can do. Thanks, LJ !

And that was the weekend...

Blossoms, Hypnos, Samarkhand, Long Island Iced Tea, Cantonment Railway Station, City Railway Station, Inside Outside, A Statue, A Bean Bag, American Gods, Planet M, Music World, Baristas, Coffee Day, Beef, Fish, Grilled Chicken, The Usual Suspects and Criminal Conversation.

Have a safe trip back, buddy.

Happy Birthday, Bapu.

Happy Birthday, Bapu.

Interesting stuff that convince me the world is becoming a smarter, better place for mankind

The wonder that is email

I get this mail from Microsoft on my yahoo account every single day, asking me to use a patch immediately. The mail is sent from the address security@microsoft.com but has a return path to admin@duma.gov.ru. I cleverly went to this website but my browser settings appear to be incompatible with whats displayed. Couldn't make head or tail of these characters. A firebird bug, very possibly.

The mail is very nice though. It reads: "Dear friend , use this Internet Explorer patch now! There are dangerous virus in the Internet now! More than 500.000 already infected!" The mail helfpully contains an attachment called patch.exe which I think I'm supposed to use to kill all these 500.000 viruses (virii ?). Man, I feel like a Terminator already.

Traffic Improvements

The traffice police in Bangalore is implementing a new policy in some roads like MG Road and Airport Road. You need to switch off your headlights while driving on these roads. I think this is a very positive move and will make driving a pleasure, comparable to playing games like say, RoadRash and Need For Speed. I was cruising along MG Road the other evening, having a wonderful time trying to separate the autos from the Qualises (Qualii ?) when the streetlights went off. There was great merriment all round - some vehicles had headlights on, some had none, others had their parking lights and a few were switching from high beam to low to off and then again back to high. All the horns were working very well, though.

Speaking of Airport Road, there is this massive roadwork going on just next to my office. A clover leaf shaped flyover (in contrast to a horseshoe shaped one, I guess) is being constructed. It takes roughly twenty minutes to cover twenty metres on a good day. Not satisfied with this, the good folks of the BDA are planning another constriction construction upstream, near the Windtunnel road junction. This is going to benefit me a lot - I get to work from home or look for a job at ITPL. Win-win.

On the other hand, some really good stuff

My parents arrive tomorrow. lands up in the evening. Mu ha ha ha !!