May 31, 2009

Oh Yea

I've exceeded my internet connection four days back but I'm here. What's the occasion you ask? Monkey-boy-Nadal lost at Roland Garros to an unassuming power hitter who goes by the name, Robin Soderling. To put it in a better way Soderling won it.

I'm a sadist when it comes to Nadal losing. :)

Though I should agree, Nadal is closer to being God on clay than most others, and nothing would be as pleasurable as Federer beating hima nd taking the cup.

May 30, 2009

To Tracy

Mush + Hype + I-read-books-which-are-the-IN-thing-people+shirtless-white-brit --> Twilight

I'm afraid I've read the book and it was a chick lit for the most parts. (Her vampire werewolf thing was decent) But what the book's done to hollywood and audiences all over is something that irks me to no end.

Now all of a sudden everyone wants a piece of Robert Pattinson. You know what I think? They look at him and see Edward Cullen.

Kristen Stewart also has found immense recognition for playing Bella Swan, but her Tracy Tatro in "Into The Wild" was good enough for me.

Tracy Tatro and Alexander Supertramp.

Kristen Stewart, please don't turn into a bitch.

P.s : Watch "Into The Wild". Beautiful movie. Period.

May 28, 2009

I got up early and ran. For the first time I felt what "a stitch in the chest" mentioned in books I've read, would feel like. It was a good feeling. It's good to be back.

The only thing left to do now is to make sure I won't be lying when I say "I got up early and ran", tomorrow, or in the days to come.
-----------

On the GRE front : Barron's sentence example for alimentary - When Sherlock Holmes was asked the name for the digestive tract, he said "Alimentary, my dear Watson."

Outplayed


11:15 PM Sunil: k
i m shit scared
me: i hope we dont concede an early goa;
if we dont do that we re safe
11:16 PM Sunil: hopefully
Sometimes I hate it when I'm right. Barca won. 2-0. The initial strike after ten minutes left us stranded, and then Messi finished it off.

Beaten but not broken. We'll be back next year.

May 27, 2009

Fackital!

I prefer typing "Twelve Twenty Five" out on my phone to switching to number mode and then typing 12 25, though it takes more time. I think it is the characters per second count which matters more than the number of characters.

United Vs Barca.
Ronaldo Vs Messi.
Sir Alex Vs Pep guardiola.

Kick off in 'tee-minus 45 minutes'.

I can almost taste the tension.

May 23, 2009

Books, Quizzing, Pretty-Hindu-Girl and Masala Chai

Yea, those are four reasons I had to smile today; four out of a countable few. Today saw the second edition of the Oxford Booklovers' quiz. I had absolutely nothing to do, and so I went, not that I wouldn't have gone if I did have something to do. Last year me and rotti came third. So this year I was defending my third place.(He's gone to dubai) I needed a teammate because my usual teammate ET had his brother's admissions to look after. Bless the three member per team rule which gave me a chance to join another team as the third fellow. To cut a long story short, the quiz happened and we did come third. I managed to defend my third place, but for my teammates nutty and raji, it was a downshift from winning last year. We missed a coupla easy questions, but you win some and you lose some. We got tshirts and a book each. Mine turned out to be a book on deers in North America. Damn, if only they knew I loved wolves and tigers.

Our friends from the CQC ended up winning, pipping us at the post and like always, winner buys dinner, or this time, Chai. The eleven or so of us, had chai, coffee, etc.

That's why quizzing rocks. You have all these awesome people who know SOMETHING about anything, or atleast have heard of it, or have enoug wit to relate it to something else and then you have these brilliant questions. If you're someone who thinks quizzes should be prepared for and will have questions which you can crack only if you know them, then believe me you cannot be more wrong, or is it wronger? :/ Whatever, the point is, you don't sit and prepare for a quiz, it just happens. Whatever you read, see hear around you is preparation. you just need to think a bit to put things in their place. Attend 10 quizzes, sit through them, and you'll do well in the 11th or so. It is all a giant jigsaw puzzle; some pieces are easy to fit, and some will be really tiresome like when you try fitting the bright blue sky, but when you finish it, you have the full picture and a smile on your face.

Hindu covered this quiz. Last year according to them, "I had just passed out of 12th standard". this year, let's see what happens. This pretty looking girl covered the article. Looking bemusedly interested, taking stuff down which she would probably use for the article later. (See, hindu girl as in "hindu" the newspaper, not "hindu" the religion)

Oxford's cha bar was the venue and they have beautiful music playing in the background. So yea, books, quizzing, music, Pretty girl, and masala chai with a few nice people. Need I want more?

So I come home and when mom asks me I tell her we came third and it was so much fun, there's this hint of disappointment in her voice and she says how I don't try to come first in anything, atleast for her sake. For me quizzing has always an awesome time spent with your friends, having fun and getting to know stuff that won't help with your studies/work but stuff that will make you go, "faaaahhk you're kidding me!". And it will always be that way.

Earlier this day, 10th results came out. that day of the year when people judge students based on their marks rather than judging their performances. My mom felt so proud of some boy/girl who got 496 on 500.

May 21, 2009

Ouch.

The most irritating place to get a sore would be the tip of the tongue.

True story.

May 16, 2009

6 in 3

What goes through a reader's mind on reading "6 in 3"?

*6 runs required from 3 balls? (This being the IPL season and owing to Mumbai's hapless finishing)

*6 coffees in 3 hours? (Given my prolific coffee drinking nature at times, which the reader will know if he/she had read this.)

* Or is it 6 movies in 3 days.(Who doesn't watch movies in the holidays?)

Each one as likely as the other, but if you chose movies then you'd probably have won a million dollars if this were some game show.

Just a line or two about each of the six I watched.

Day 1

Atonement : Classic case of look-before-you-leap. Beautiful sounds, beautiful editing, brutal ending.

Rainman : A tale of a man who finds his long lost autistic brother, "Raymond" and finds out that he is the "imaginary Rainman" who sang to him when he was little and how they get to know each other. A little patience is required but the final stretch is beautiful.

Old School : A bunch of friends start a fraternity to spice up life and as all fun-no-brainers go this one kept me entertained.

Day 2

Fast and the Furious 4 : The image of Vin Diesel's car rearing up and surging forward is something that I won't get out of my head for a long time. After 2 useless FnF movies, here's one to match the first "Fast and the furious" movie.

Gran Torino : Must watch. (Refer previous post)

Day 3

Definitely, maybe : April, Summer and Emily. April, Natasha and Sarah. Story of how Toilet paper guy ends up with copy girl told as a bed time story by toilet paper guy to his daughter when she finds out that her dad and mom getting a divorce. Loved it.

Do I have enough time to make it 7 in 3? ;)

May 15, 2009

My Gran Torino




Father Janovich: [eulogizing Walt] Walt Kowalski once said to me that I knew nothing about life or death, because I was an over-educated, 27-year-old virgin who held the hand of superstitious old women and promised them eternity.
[the congregation chuckles politely and somberly]
Father Janovich: Walt definitely had no problem calling it like he saw it. But he was right. I knew really nothing about life or death, until I got to know Walt... and boy, did I learn.


Another reason why it pains me to see slumdog on the IMDB 250 list at where it stands, because Gran Torino deifinitely deserves to be higher than Slumdog. Take a bow, Mr.Eastwood, or should I say Walter 'Wally' Kowalski.

May 11, 2009

Free update-Build 12/5/09

Today I found out that my grandma who just died a month and a half back had been a violinist for All India Radio before my Grandpa forbade her from playing there after marriage. (My grandpa wasan awesome guy btw. one of his quirks, I guess)

My maternal thatha celebrated his 80th a day back. He's happy. :) I was the cameraman at the function. :P
Above mentioned thatha's brother had come even, along with his wife and children. It was great to see them all together, the ones who were there before us. Listening to him talk about his days at the Reserve Bank, and take jabs at his old wife, was fun. Apparently he schooled with the founder of TTK. He was an awesome fellow. Unassuming and super company.

Above mentioned thatha can't see properly after 6 PM and his wife can't hear without an aid. :D Makes for super stories, and witty remarks.

My Paternal thatha's brother was Nehru's personal secretary and a close friend. Scene only.

My Thatha's brother's wife talks so fluently about portland, Oregon and San jose. Grandparents of children in the united States, yes :)

Women turn deaf to outsiders when they display or discuss jewellery. Don't crib about me generalising, puh-leese. Ignore this if you don't.

My Thatha's brother used to receive 32 bucks as his monthly salary. and it was more than enough.

I played cricket with my cousins, after a long long time when they came for the above-said-function. I even won a match. :)

I slept for 9 hours totally in the two days that went by.

Scrubs just got over. It is a truly different feeling to watch the last episode of a sitcom as it gets done. I watched the whole of F.R.I.E.N.D.S after it got over. I somehow find a difference. Btw, scrubs is awesome.

It has become fashionable to say "I can't make head or tail of the duckworth-lewis system". Sadly. Some even mess up the names on purpose to sound extra-bollywoody.

Swapnil Asnodkar may hit 'em hard in the IPL. But he can't manage well in an ODI or a test match, methinks.

Don't tell me you watch cricket, if the only cricket you watch is IPL.

I have registered to take the GRE on the 24th of july. The impending test date will provide the impetus I need to prepare.

It's nice to know that you do play a role, however small, in people's lives, even though you don't get noticed.

A month long holiday beckons, offering GRE prep, Placement studies, Seinfeld, movies, people and 60 nithya-free days.

This got me thinking about when I was in madurai . We used to have those "Pepsi" tubes in various colors which were sold for a buck, two and five. Five for the big ones. You have to bite a hole in the plastic wrapper and suck the icy stuff out. Was all that we needed back then. I also remember one day of my second standard when Americans came outside our school with a box full of jawbreakers. We jumped out of the van and crowded them and they were happy enough to distribute them to us. :D

It sucks to be me, sometimes. This post doesn't look like it though.

"It's time now, My time now. Give me my, Give me my, Wings..."
-Wings Pt 2, Tool

May 7, 2009

Lights. Camera. Action

I was tagged by Tina, a tag after a long long while, I must say.

Q : What's better than being tagged when you've got all the time in the world for it?
A : Being tagged and having to do a post on movies when you've got all the time in the world for it.

----------------------------------

* Choose 12 films you'd want to run at famous theatre near where you live.
*Explain why you chose them however you want to.
*Link back to Lazy Eye theatre's post.
*Tag 5 other people. Ok, Lemme try to bring some dead blogs back to life, and oh, I'm tagging more than 5. ;). I tag Harry, PV, Brinda, Shreyas, Nithya, Upasana, Floo, s w a t, Rotti, Atulaa and Sticky.

1) Psych day


(Usual suspects and fight club. I'd add kubrick's movies and other stuff to this list. :) )

2)Because his momma said life's like a box of chocolates.


(Castaway and Forrest Gump, among many others)

3)It ain't a movie fest if Quentin's not in it.

(Pulp fiction. Reservoir dogs. Quentin. Class. Can't wait enough for Inglourious Basterds)

4)Men on benches day

(Anbe Sivam. Goodwill hunting. Enough said)

5)Cheers to life(aka A few Good Men)

(Of tango and a ferrari. Of a few good men)

6)20 Hour back-to-back-trilogy marathon

(Seriously. Try it. Watch all three of each back-to-back)
7) Mix and match sunday (AKA the thala day):


(Baasha (Rajni Thala!) and Holiday(JackBLack Thala!) )

If only there were more days in a week,I'd add an animation day(Polar Express and Cars), a foreign language day (Les choristes and Malena), a Cheap-laugh-till-it-hurts-comedy day(Seann William Scott, the man!(See Role models, it is superfun!)), a Docu day(Metal - a Headbanger's journey, bowling for columbine) and a movies-for-the-women-in-them day (Natalie portman, Jennifer Connelly)

Asta La vista, baby!
There's nothing like blogging over a beautiful cup of hot coffee.

Now, what it be for you?