Gloomy Onam :(

So one more day goes by... well, took up that book on GATE and tried out some objective questions in the noon. Then, what else... watched TV after that.

There was this New Zealand-Sri Lanka game which Sri Lanka threw away or like I prefer to say "They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory" Chasing ~140, they made a great start and Dilshan was on fire - 50 from 23, but wickets kept falling at the other end... soft dismissals, and two moments of brilliance from Jesse Ryder - how does that guy field with that bulky body! I should say McCullum's catch (the eighth wicket) was also vital, as till then, Sri Lanka was still in the game with a target achievable at approximately a run-a-ball. But New Zealand's fielding was uncharacteristically bad throughout... Their batting (which I didn't see) - only Ross Taylor performed I think, the overthrow and 3 runs on the last ball of their innings will haunt the Sri Lankans. So a good T20 game to watch.

Marat Safin was on at the US Open... Thankfully the fellow seems to be in his better moods and is playing well. When I was watching, he was one set up, and playing well. The guy can be a top-ranked player if he plays consistently - its there in him even now.

Meanwhile, news channels are having a field day reporting the mysterious "missing" YSR, the Andhra CM... this time around it seems a serious matter, but when these guys report about it as Breaking News for hours on end, you never feel like following it (atleast I don't!) And thats what I did - I'll catch up the updates on that issue in tomorrows papers.

Nothing else, Onam, our traditional Malayali festival, was spent at home all gloomy with the weather outside and other matters in mind :( Food was special with the payasam and chicken curry (even though Onasadya is traditionally all-vegetarian) So no floral carpets to be seen (except on TV) this time around.

Getting into bed early today because I've got to be at T.I.M.E. tomorrow at 10am. I'll be missing the test this Sunday (cause of that DRDO exam at Coimbatore)...

A New Month - Happy ONAM!

So here's a new month... what to talk about?

On my front I'm still at home, nothing much to tell, Onam tomorrow, so everyone getting geared for it. Other than that, I've got an exam (for DRDO) on the 6th of September, and trying desperately to prepare for that... just can't get into the groove. Anyway, what can one 'study' when almost the entire syllabus is being prescribed... I'll maybe check out some objective type questions and something about the organisation (DRDO) too.

US Open has started... and I just happened to see Dinara Safina's first round match, and she was really given a tough time by an Olivia Rogowska (who). Apparently an Australian wildcard entry, she never gave up against Safina's big returns. She got the first set on a tie-break and lost the next one... Safina managed to win the match, after being 0-3 down in the third. Unlike most unseeded players, who play well in the start only to fade away, Rogowska managed to fight till the end. So this match turned out to be good, with some good play by both players (but so many double-faults!?) Safina managed to keep her cool most of the time, but she'll have to do better in the coming matches, after just avoiding being the first No. 1 seed to be knocked out in the first round of the US Open.

NoDjo is playing right now, has a tricky one against veteran Ljubicic... now 3-0 up in the first set, so I think he's going good... can't follow that match. No other upsets it seems. Our Indians, Somdev and Sania are through to the second round too. All the best to them!

Transfer Window is closing... don't think Arsene Wenger will be going for anyone considering his frugalities and  (can tell for sure though, maybe Marouane Chamakh?!) And definitely can't say anything regarding Real... they may even pull off a Ribery transfer! Miguel Torres has gone to Getafe... he was a hard working defender (with some frailties though), but with Marcelo and Ramos, maybe he doesn't stand much chance. Robben and Sneijder have been offloaded... they've given their best for the team inspite of injuries and all, so hope they have a good career now on (hope not at Real's expense) Grosso has come to Juve... Juve's transfers this summer have been surely one of the best in Europe - Diego, Melo, Caceres, now Grosso... remains to see how they click now.

N900 in promos! With new Maemo 5 UI!

The Maemo 5 UI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au_uRmoy8Fs&feature=sub

Great OS its seems like... will hopefully put to rest all the complaints from ppl who claim that the Symbian 60 is too old-fashioned. Hopefully, my next phone will be one with this OS in it!! (So do I have to survive with my present 6681 till then!?! And till when?)

Movies...

Some of which I'd seen earlier in the month, some lately... mostly good ones (thats because I usually check the reviews online before venturing to watch a movie, else I watch the ones already in stock)

The Machinist is a great movie to watch.. Dark, and so a little disturbing. But comparing with all the other similar movies, this is one movie I comprehended much more. No major gaps or doubts regarding the story remained after watching it. Christian Bale stars as a machinist who leads a very solitary life... And due to some reason, he doesn't get any sleep (he says he hasn't slept for a year - a bit far fetched?!). From this disorder, starts all his problems... He starts imagining people, he creates problems at work - his whole life becomes a mess. Ultimately, he sorts out all the issues he faces - talking of which, the mysterious hangman game is quite fascinating. Not spoiling the suspense, but in the last scene, he finally gets down to have a calm, undisturbed sleep. Acting by the cast is great. Christian Bale looks quite ghostly as the 'hero'. Overall, I would give it a 9 rating, maybe because I . Worth a watch.

The Shaun of the Dead is a movie which tries to delve into all possible genres - but basically its horror and comedy - interesting mix. Our protagonist, Shaun is an employee at an electronics shop. He is lazy and absent-minded to say the least, which is why he loses his girlfriend. Meanwhile, London sees an incident which results in dead people turning into zombies... Its zombies everywhere and our hero has the duty of rescuing his girl and his mom from the situation. The movie is a fresh break from the American brand of comedy... dialogues are humorous too. Rating 8-8.5

Watching too many 'dark' movies could become boring, so for a change I went on and watched Open Season. The movie is about a grizzly bear who has been adopted by a forest ranger. The bear does shows to entertain people with her and lives in her garage, so he doesn't know what the wilderness is like. Due to some circumstances, his owner feels that its time to release him into the wild. So, she releases him to a faraway part of the forest (since he should be safe when the hunting season begins). The bear struggles to survive initially and is ridiculed by all the other animals. He also has a deer with which he happened to rescue earlier. When the animals happen to be in the midst of Open Season, the bear and the deer plot against the hunters. All the while, our grizzly hopes to return back to his owner's place. The movie is quite bright and colourful - especially the outdoors - even though the characters are not as good as those in Pixar animations (this one is by Sony Pictures) Story is also not bad, though Over the Hedge is maybe better. Overall a 7, and a good watch.

Others I've watched include The Shining, Apocalypto and RocknRolla... will write about them later.

Life goes on...

Yes, life's goin' on... Went to Palakkad one day to get my Transfer, Course and Conduct Certificates back. So that was a break from the monotony of home, and a chance to meet up with everyone at hostel. In between, saw some movies which I'll review in short and some matches of football (which the coming blogs will be about). By the way, joined T.I.M.E here in Kannur for mockCATs, so will hopefully spend time for that (blogging will surely help out in my verbals too!)... Rains are coming back to Kannur, though not so heavy.

Mom's cooked some wonderful, spicy biryani after a long time... bit dry, but spicy (which is what i prefer) - brought me back to the days of old in Abu Dhabi, when mom used to cook biryani on weekends and it would last for 3-4 days! Usually, we buy biryani from outside over here, which varies in taste and has a lot of oil mostly... certain restaurants dry-fry the chicken which is what i prefer (though thats not the norm in biryani)... but usually its less spicy in most places i've eaten out at.... Biryani is what i normally order whenever i'm at a new restaurant - will be of an expected quantity, taste and price. Back in Palakkad, biryani at most places is devoid of much hotness and spice - 'dilute', although some places offering 'hyderabadi dum' and other varieties are tasty. But at home, mom never tones down on the amount of spices - and experiments every time she cooks, which makes it all the more tasty and unique! Biryanis at weddings too (where they hire ppl to cook at home instead of hiring caterers) are outstanding... though i've forgotten the last time i've had one like that. So thats enough for biryani!

I've got to check up on some of our mechanical engg. subjects coz of an exam on the 6th of Sept... hopefully will start today (which is what i've been saying for quite somedays :P ) Gotta go now for dinner, which is... biryani from afternoon, and the spices must've adsorbed more onto the rice making it all the more tasty! I smell it now, mmmm...

New Football Season, Ashes, Rogers Cup

Sports front- yeah.. Peace Cup got over, and Aston Villa win it! After being unbeaten throughout, Juve manage to lose in the final! I had watched the Real-Juve game online (streaming at justin.tv :( ) coz its not available on tv... Juve just held strong at the defence, and Real showed their frailties from setpieces again - even Cannavaro scored from a set-piece! CR9 showed flashes of brilliance (of course he should do better, considering the money he's earning!), Benz didnt shine much... No one else did anything special. And what else... Other friendlies happened too, interesting ones were Espanyol beating Liverpool 3-1 (who said La Liga was inferior), and other "cups" such as the Audi Cup... Friendlies and qualifiers too, and I tried to follow the Mexico-USA one and the Netherlands-England one, but in vain. Again these two are not shown on TV and I had to resort to our justin.tv where the "bandwidth for my country exceeded its limits" :( England managed a draw from 2-o down, and Mexico remained unbeaten versus the US at the Aztec arena... the shock among the matches was when Spain went 2-0 down versus Macedonia... but they saved themselves and won 3-2... phew!

Now EPL has taken off, and Chelsea eke out a win against Hull with great goals from Drogba and Abu Dhabi F C, oops, Man City win too... But it was Arsenal's win - 6-1 away at Everton which will really silence the sceptics who've doubted our position in the top 4... a dominant display. Bendtner, Song and Fabregas was impressive and Vermaelen had a good debut, scoring as well... Almunia was notable too, even though he wasnt threatened much. Apart from the defence which seemed disorganised once or twice, it was a great start to the season... I only hope the team's performance is consistent through out the season, and we are injury free. ManU have started too with a narrow win against Birmingham City. Other match-ups to look forward to include the Champions League qualification round on 18/19th and the week after that(Arsenal-Celtic!! and Athletico too has an interesting matchup) and Real-A. C. Milan - on August 25 i think... And of course the start of the La Liga!

Ashes, and the Aussies've thrashed England... Indian cricketers are adamant about not meeting the WADA guidelines (while so many other athletes, who have security threats and more guarded private lives have signed on maybe) The guidelines look too strict, in my opinion too, but cricket cant be an exception right, especially when it hopes to be featured in London 2012? Dont know whether footballers under UEFA and FIFA have similar doping tests from WADA...

Tennis, and Rogers Cup looks interesting with all the first 8 seeds into the quarters. But Rafa and Federer lose! Ferrero seemed promising, but finally went down... Del Potro and Tsonga seem to be going strong. Hope NoDjo goes on... Men's tennis seems to be 'decentralising' from FedEx and Nadal!

C. B. S. E. bans mobile phones... will it be effective?

Well, have you heard the news about the C. B. S. E. wanting a ban on the use of mobiles in schools? The use of mobiles in educational institutes is perhaps one of the most discussed and debated topics... Whats new about this one?

Well, on the part of the kid.. He may say that its an essential gadget, helps keep in touch, etc etc.. (although schools are meant for study alone, you can argue!) Well, I hardly ever used a mobile at school if I remember right (back then, it was the black and white ones, then a few ones with 4k colours) And only few guys had mobs, and a cell would've been more handy had it been more common. The thing is that the mobile revolution was just starting (or just started) back then.

Come college life - staying away from home, a mob was a prerequisite to living at hostel... At first, no one never really took mobs to class (or didnt we?! dont recall..) partly not wanting to appear flashy in front of the seniors. But then later in the second year, the mobile "revolution" really happened... Breaks between classes were the time for loud music and sound fx (courtesy the Sony Ericsson Walkman series models and other phones like the Nokia 6233 which had atrocious decibel levels) Boring class hours were spent in browsing via GPRS, bluetooth data exchange, SMSing, misscalling, etc., etc... Only possible misuse I could agree with was the use of mobiles in the exam hall, else it was just a distraction (yes, could be described as a big distraction in a place of study ;) ) But I could not simply agree with a ban on mobiles... especially when we needed to communicate from one end of the college to another, and get essential info via GPRS. I also remember using my camera mobile as a mini photostat machine to scan and keep images of pages... so you can see how 'essential' it was to a student like me...

Anyway, coming back to our topic, whatever my views on mobile use at college, a ban at the school level would certainly be a great step forward... especially when it extends to teachers (who otherwise usually practise double-standards in the case of mobile phone use). But the thing is we have heard of countless 'bans' which are usually laws meant to be broken... effective for a week or so and then forgotten. This one seems to be a bit more serious... time will tell how effective it is.

One way of keeping the ban effective would be the use of jammers... but I dont know whether the devices are costly or not. Else, it would be quite useful in making an institution mobile-free... Else, an idea would be counters at a school's entrance where you could deposit your phones and collect it back when you leave. What ever the solution, an alternative should be provided for communication within a large campus - every department and block should be connected by a centralised network of land-phones - by which you can communicate within the campus, and parents/relatives of students/teachers can keep contact in case of emergencies.

To conclude, whatever I said earlier about how mobiles, an effective 'ban' on mobiles would really be welcome at school and even college level - after all it is a place of study ;) And remember... our moms and dads went through their schools without mobiles. Not being averse to technological advances, but the point is - 'mobile-free' study is possible.

Laziness...

So its August 15th, Independence Day, and time again to reflect upon where we've come along as a free nation... Long time I've written something, so just writing something down for a start. New EPL Season has also started, just now Chelsea-Hull going on... In the meanwhile, went to Bengaluru, saw few movies, self-learning a bit of Solidworks 2008, Adobe Illustrator CS3, etc... so not that wasteful either. Started reading Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and moving at a slow and broke and pace . More comments, and blogs when I'm really in the mood to do so... And trying to type everything in the full - trying to cut down on chat language as much as possible ;)

Meanwhile, hoping to start preparations for CAT 2010 soon!!

Calcio Debate: Raul And Alessandro Del Piero - Birds Of The Same Feather? - Goal.com

Check out this comment of two of my fav players....

Calcio Debate: Raul And Alessandro Del Piero - Birds Of The Same Feather? - Goal.com

movies

well, as u've seen in the previous post, my headphones were out of order for some period of time, so cud watch only few movies in the meanwhile (considering all the free time i had and the movies in my laptop)

mirrors was one... stars kiefer sutherland (24 guy). had guys tellin me it was obscenely bloody and gory (2 scenes are a little gory btw)... but finally went ahead to watch it. our protagonist is a suspended cop, who is living away from his wife and kids... he gets stationed at an old mall which had seen a devastating fire some time back. some history behind the place - it had been a mental asylum once where a schizophrenic young girl was held for treatment... so our hero gets to undergo the strange experiences which the policemen before him had suffered - its something with the mirrors at the mall - they seem to show ppl performing horrible things to themselves... so the hero goes on and investigates the case before members of his family come under harms way.

the concept is quite good, and the plot goes okay but couldve been better... 1-2 scenes really startled me (thats what u expect from a horror movie) i liked the ending too (perhaps making way for a sequel?!) anyway a good watch for horror/thriller buffs! i can give it a 6 maybe...

another movie i saw was the grudge with sarah michelle gellar. shes come on to live in japan for a while as a social worker, and comes upon a house where a lady who s suffering from dementia lives. theres a spirit there which results from 'a person dying in a fit of rage/sorrow'...  the spirit passes on to all those associated with that house. our heroine goes on to investigate the happenings behind the spirit and stop it before any further deaths occur. a sequel has come out... this one is quite okay and the setting in tokyo makes it interesting (its a remake of a japanese film btw)... a 5.5 - 6 from me

nadodigal is another movie i got to watch with friends... this ones a tamil one - so cant give a good enough review coz i dont follow the language. its a story of 3 friends who live happily with their families till another friend contemplates suicide following a split with his love... they travel all the way to namakkal to get the couple united - all with disasterous consequences which throw their lives off track...  they live happily thinking all is well with the friend they helped. but what happens when they learn that the couple is thinking of splitting?! a good story of friendship which is quite realistic... good watch for tamil film followers - 7

borat: cultural learnings of ameri....  is one other one ive watched... a satire of american society (and making fun of kazhakhstan all the while) borat is a kazhak tv reporter sent off to america to cover all the stuff that makes america 'great'.... he reaches new york with his producer, and happens to see baywatch on tv. he becomes obsessed with pamela anderson and persuades his producer to travel across america to california... all the while trying to adapt to american society and etiquette, and with humorous experiences throughout. sacha baron cohen is really funny as borat (but real crude at times) and pulls off a convincing performance. the film captures few aspects of american society. The only thing against it is its potrayal of kazhakstan - too harsh maybe, whod like their country to be shown this way - which is enough to create stereotypes among ppl. a 7.5 (pts reduced for the crude humour)

thats it for the movies ive seen lately...