Monday, September 27, 2004
Killed Bill
Man, the second volume rocked! I do not want to pick either one as my favorite, so I'll just say I loved the movie as a whole: Vol 1 and Vol 2. One of the most stylish movies I've seen. Now I need to read about it from the Net and spot the in-movie references. I could get Once Upon a Time in the West and Fistfull of Dollars. More?
Friday, September 24, 2004
And now for the music...
Downloaded a few good albums over the past few days:
- The Last Waltz - The Band (4 disc set)
- Almost Famous - OST
- Donnie Darko - OST
- Honkin' On Bobo - Aerosmith
- 70s Rock - Compilation
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Bleat!
1. Think of a word you would use to describe me.
2. Go to Google Image Search and search for that word.
3. Select the picture you see as most fitting and paste it in your journal.
4. Please do not paste it here. I have enough problems as it is.
2. Go to Google Image Search and search for that word.
3. Select the picture you see as most fitting and paste it in your journal.
4. Please do not paste it here. I have enough problems as it is.
Broadband Blues
I've been struggling to get Broadband at home for the past couple of months. Tried different providers: Sify, Touchtel, Dishnet and BSNL - none of them cover my area. I get Hathway cable at home so I thought they might be able to help, but calling them a couple of times hasn't sent their sales guys racing to meet me. 's review on MouthShut is quite true.
The reason I want broadband so badly is to work from home and take conference calls. I tried using Skype over dial-up yesterday, to join a conference. I had purchased 10 hours worth of talktime, so was hoping this would work. It didn't. Skype did not allow me to punch in the conference bridge id after reaching the conference number. The operator came on after a while, but he couldn't hear me, probably because the connection through dial-up was poor. Damn, damn, damn.
Any bright ideas? How's the speed through (shudder) Reliance mobiles? Or the wireless set from Reliance or Tata Indicom? Would connectivity be better than that through dialup? Or is there any other cheap way to get on to conference calls from home?
The reason I want broadband so badly is to work from home and take conference calls. I tried using Skype over dial-up yesterday, to join a conference. I had purchased 10 hours worth of talktime, so was hoping this would work. It didn't. Skype did not allow me to punch in the conference bridge id after reaching the conference number. The operator came on after a while, but he couldn't hear me, probably because the connection through dial-up was poor. Damn, damn, damn.
Any bright ideas? How's the speed through (shudder) Reliance mobiles? Or the wireless set from Reliance or Tata Indicom? Would connectivity be better than that through dialup? Or is there any other cheap way to get on to conference calls from home?
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Movies
The last three movies I saw were Peeping Tom, The Stepford Wives (the remake) and Where's Poppa.
Peeping Tom chilled me to the bone. It's one movie worth its cult following. Thank you Martin Scorcese, for pulling this movie back into the limelight. Roger Ebert has written a superb review of the movie here.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I watched the last ten minutes of The Stepford Wives. The tacked on climax is silly, idiotic, inane and absolutely senseless. I just hope they don't remake Rosemary's Baby and give it an upbeat ending too. Sheesh!
Where's Poppa may not be the funniest movie ever made (as some blurbs have it), but it has its moments. I doubt if anyone - no matter what the mood - can watch it without bursting out laughing at least once. If the gorilla suit doesn't get you, the rape of the cop will. Ruth Gordon is an amazing actress.
Peeping Tom chilled me to the bone. It's one movie worth its cult following. Thank you Martin Scorcese, for pulling this movie back into the limelight. Roger Ebert has written a superb review of the movie here.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I watched the last ten minutes of The Stepford Wives. The tacked on climax is silly, idiotic, inane and absolutely senseless. I just hope they don't remake Rosemary's Baby and give it an upbeat ending too. Sheesh!
Where's Poppa may not be the funniest movie ever made (as some blurbs have it), but it has its moments. I doubt if anyone - no matter what the mood - can watch it without bursting out laughing at least once. If the gorilla suit doesn't get you, the rape of the cop will. Ruth Gordon is an amazing actress.
Monday, September 20, 2004
The DVD haul, Hokker food, the Blr trained cabbie and the Immigration Incident
The trip was tiring but productive. The demo went off quite well; the project lead has given his endorsement. Didn't get too much time to shop in Penang, but I did manage to get a few dvds: Easy Rider, Last Tango in Paris, Stand By Me, Princess Mononoke, The Lion King and Kill Bill Vol 2 (for ). The store had the cover case of True Romance, but couldn't locate the actual disc for me. Maybe next time. Most of the other dvds available were the blockbuster variety, which I wasn't really interested in.
The sales folks I was helping out wanted to know what kind of food I wanted. I told them I was game for anything except Indian food and wanted to know the speciality of Penang. They spoke highly of what I heard as 'Hokker Food', so I signed up for that for a post-dinner snack, dinner being already booked at a Thai seafood restaurant. The dinner was quite good: I feasted on tiger prawns, chicken and fish, but I did leave some space for the promised Hokker stuff. Sure enough, my hosts took me to a place that looked a lot like Medical College Jn in Trivandrum, or Juhu beach in Mumbai. There were loads of vendors with carts and vans, selling fried rice, noodles, ice cream and what have you. Apparently, this is the speciality of Penang: Hawker Food. It wasn't all that bad, though.
I had changed my schedule a bit, so got into KL only by 4:30pm on Friday. My return flight to Blr was at 10:00pm, so I had a few hours to kill. I took an express train from the airport to the city, which covered about 75km in 28 minutes flat. Much impressed, I got off at the Sentral Station (no, not a typo) and hailed a cab to KLCC, which houses the famous Twin Towers of KL, the tallest building(s) in the world. The cab driver picked me up as well as another passenger and promised to drop us both at our respective destinations. Traffic was as its peak, reminded me of Bangalore/Mumbai rush hour. The cab driver, who had probably done his schooling in Bangalore, promptly drove on the wrong side, on the sidewalk and elbowed his way through. I could spot the towers in the distance when he pulled over, smiled at me and said "Only one dollar, sir. Please take the train from here". I didn't know any Malay swear words so I smiled back at him, de-cabbed and legged it to the said railway station. I wasn't sure whether the cabbie meant $1 or RM 1, but it turned out to be slightly more than a Ringgit and just two stops away. The train reminded me of Bombay too, just that it was cleaner and there weren't any bhajan singing folks around. The mall at KLCC is huge, pretty, choc-a-bloc with brands and expensive to boot. I wandered around for a while and then took a train to Sentral and the Express from there back to the airport.
The return flight was uneventful apart from the Immigration Incident. The immigration person, who usually exists only to wear out the official stamp, took one look at me, another at my passport and immediately called a lackey over. Whispered to the lackey. Both looked at me out of the corner of their eyes. I put on my best namma bangaluru face and grinned. Lackey smiled back and hauled me over to his boss, a tall, dark ogre who was eyeing other passengers. Ogre looked me up and down and asked a few questions about my company and my work, cleverly mixing English with Kannada. I replied keeping my sunny smile intact. He let me go after a while and I got my immigration papers stamped. I still don't know what that was all about.
Didn't take too many pics - didn't get time, frankly. Overall impression - Penang is a lovely, laid back city. Has a lot of islands nearby, which look like prime targets for a holiday. KL is very Mumbai, very New York. Lots of buildings, lots of cars, lots of people. Need to explore it more next time.
Last, I'd like to know who this Irving Savio Sequeira from Scandent Group is. He sent me a mail before I left, with the subject 'LJ' and content 'Heard you are in the region'. As far as I know, none of you good folks have the name Irving and my last LJ post was friends-only. Hmm. What gives?
The sales folks I was helping out wanted to know what kind of food I wanted. I told them I was game for anything except Indian food and wanted to know the speciality of Penang. They spoke highly of what I heard as 'Hokker Food', so I signed up for that for a post-dinner snack, dinner being already booked at a Thai seafood restaurant. The dinner was quite good: I feasted on tiger prawns, chicken and fish, but I did leave some space for the promised Hokker stuff. Sure enough, my hosts took me to a place that looked a lot like Medical College Jn in Trivandrum, or Juhu beach in Mumbai. There were loads of vendors with carts and vans, selling fried rice, noodles, ice cream and what have you. Apparently, this is the speciality of Penang: Hawker Food. It wasn't all that bad, though.
I had changed my schedule a bit, so got into KL only by 4:30pm on Friday. My return flight to Blr was at 10:00pm, so I had a few hours to kill. I took an express train from the airport to the city, which covered about 75km in 28 minutes flat. Much impressed, I got off at the Sentral Station (no, not a typo) and hailed a cab to KLCC, which houses the famous Twin Towers of KL, the tallest building(s) in the world. The cab driver picked me up as well as another passenger and promised to drop us both at our respective destinations. Traffic was as its peak, reminded me of Bangalore/Mumbai rush hour. The cab driver, who had probably done his schooling in Bangalore, promptly drove on the wrong side, on the sidewalk and elbowed his way through. I could spot the towers in the distance when he pulled over, smiled at me and said "Only one dollar, sir. Please take the train from here". I didn't know any Malay swear words so I smiled back at him, de-cabbed and legged it to the said railway station. I wasn't sure whether the cabbie meant $1 or RM 1, but it turned out to be slightly more than a Ringgit and just two stops away. The train reminded me of Bombay too, just that it was cleaner and there weren't any bhajan singing folks around. The mall at KLCC is huge, pretty, choc-a-bloc with brands and expensive to boot. I wandered around for a while and then took a train to Sentral and the Express from there back to the airport.
The return flight was uneventful apart from the Immigration Incident. The immigration person, who usually exists only to wear out the official stamp, took one look at me, another at my passport and immediately called a lackey over. Whispered to the lackey. Both looked at me out of the corner of their eyes. I put on my best namma bangaluru face and grinned. Lackey smiled back and hauled me over to his boss, a tall, dark ogre who was eyeing other passengers. Ogre looked me up and down and asked a few questions about my company and my work, cleverly mixing English with Kannada. I replied keeping my sunny smile intact. He let me go after a while and I got my immigration papers stamped. I still don't know what that was all about.
Didn't take too many pics - didn't get time, frankly. Overall impression - Penang is a lovely, laid back city. Has a lot of islands nearby, which look like prime targets for a holiday. KL is very Mumbai, very New York. Lots of buildings, lots of cars, lots of people. Need to explore it more next time.
Last, I'd like to know who this Irving Savio Sequeira from Scandent Group is. He sent me a mail before I left, with the subject 'LJ' and content 'Heard you are in the region'. As far as I know, none of you good folks have the name Irving and my last LJ post was friends-only. Hmm. What gives?
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Malayalee in Malaysia
Will be flying out to Malaysia tomorrow night, provided I get my visa in time. The current schedule looks like this:
And oh, buy tons of dvds for self and somewhere in between.
15th, 5pm - collect passport with visa
8pm - flight to chennai
1100pm - flight to Kuala Lumpur
16th, 800am - flight to Penang
230pm - customer demo
7pm - flight to Kuala Lumpur
8pm - paint Kuala Lumpur red
17th, 900am - meeting with business partner
12pm - continue paint job
7pm - flight back to bangalore
And oh, buy tons of dvds for self and
Monday, September 6, 2004
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