Power and Glory

Last weekend, I did something that several of my friends did as well.. I watched the movie 300. Despite the terrible New York times review, the movie was not "gorier than Apocalypto". I did enjoy it very much, along with a very enthused crowd, who applauded several times.

We are not even sure if the battle of Thermopylae happened as it was screened, and definitely there were no giant rhino like creatures involved, nor did King Xerxes have so many piercings, but the quest for power has been a true rage, right from those times.

We all long for power and recognition. Right from school where we compete for grades, or when we compete for that promotion, that chance to lead a project or make that acquisition. In days B.C. the quest for power was perhaps too straightforward.. it was decided on battlefields and courts of counsel and law. These days, it is anything but.

To be known, to be a someone for generations to come; to make use of this chance called life bestowed upon us.. is what would be wonderful. Sadly, not everyone of us can make it.. only when there are several stars, do we name one the brightest.. but to try we must, all we can.. in whatever ways we can..

Of Couture and more

Last weeked I dragged my friend to the Fashion show exhibit at the MFA. It showcased ten designers' looks for the season, the likes of Valentino,Chanel and Dior. I was mesmerized by what I saw. Most of my life, I have viewed poetry, painting and writing as art. The exhibit showcased a new dimension to high art. Most of the outfits took between 800 to 900 hours of work. It was beauty and more. Fashion is something that holds some appeal to all of us. It is a way of expression, like all art is. But It was really nice to see what goes into creating the perfect outfit. I was watching project runway, the reality show on DVD and quite frankly, I was taken in by what I saw.

These weeks I have become quite a movie buff, averaging 2-3 movies a week! There were the ones I loved (Deja-Vu, Babel), Liked (You, me and Dupree, Casino Royale) and hated (Rendu (Tamil)). It was fun to watch Casino.. as we have been playing a lot of poker recently and the game made total sense.

Two weeks ago, we had gone camping in RV's (or Caravans, as I knew them before) in the Rangeley lake region in western Maine. The barbeque and the bonfire were really fun and the campsite with the frozen lake did appeal to our inner serenity, but boy, was it cold! A part of the lake was frozen, but the ice was not thick enough to skate. But the Ice did not crack as we threw pebbles on it, and we had a lot of fun.

As the night dawned, we checked in to our two RVs'. I woke up at midnight, shivering. Then we realized the power was out in our RV. we lay there shivering, and at daybreak we went to get the ranger. It seemed that we had tripped the power, so he fixed it and got us coffee and doughnuts as a surprise! That did improve the scene a bit. So we had the coffee, and then I went back to blissful sleep, till we had to check out :-)

Change

The one factor that governs our lives, be it a new lifestyle, new job or just the new clothes you got yesterday. While some changes are preferable, nice & good, some can be quite unintended, fast or unexpected. They can leave you wondering if life's moving too fast for you to catch up with it.

Now that it's vacation time, I have been kinda relaxed, before I start work again next month. Watching 2 movies per day with my newly purchased Blockbuster rental ticket( Stepmom, Mona Lisa smile(loved it!), Brokeback mountain, Anne Frank, Mission Impossible, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Guess who, the wedding crashers, to name a few) has become a daily routine, along with my part time jobs. But in the middle of the night, there are those days when you get a sudden jerk as like speeds past you & you wonder if you missed something.

Insomnia has become a good companion now, coupled with sleeping sessions till 11 AM as a result, and cynicism is what comes naturally to you at the end of the day. But optimism blooms again, early in the morning & it's what keeps you going till the night.

Graduation day & fork bombs!

Yesterday was commencement day. I was at the stands, as three of my friends were graduating. The music was wonderful, and after the ceremony we had a fun lunch at the Pizzeria Uno. Then we went to watch MI3. Pretty good, pretty unbelieveable. But if you are
the kind that likes the 007 kind of flicks, and if you like Cruise, don't miss this one.

Just a couple of days ago I had watched United 93 and left the theatre with that heavy feeling. That was a well made movie. It read like a documentary but did bring out every one's feelings. Though we will never know what Really happened during those last moments, this movie did bring us scary close to the stark reality. That they did not show the crash was something I liked.

Speaking of fork bombs, I did mange to set one off on my department's very important server during our Netsec competition. I ran the code at the wrong SSH shell. Here's the link to what I did. They were kinda pissed, of course :-(.

Memoirs of a geisha

I just completed reading the book. Quite an interesting read; The movie comes out on the 9th of Dec; Hope I can see it before I fly to India on the 10th. I loved the imagery. Zhang Ziyi looks really nice. I like "Mameha" too.

I saw the GoF a couple of weeks ago. It WAS the best Harry Potter movie shot so far, without doubt.

7 more days of co-op, and then off to India for a nice winter break!

Fantasy worlds

Watched the full trilogy .. LOTR. I read the book about two years ago, and I must say that the movies were not a let - down. They were as interesting as the books themselves, if not more so. The imagery was wonderful, it seemed to have been created straight from one's mind.
I had gone to see the Lord of the Rings exhibit at the Museum of Science last year, but sadly I was not able to connect it to the movies back then. I wish it would run for a second time. It would be interesting to see Narsil, or Galadriel's flowing gown :-), or catch a glimpse of boromir in the boat (I remember that quite well).
Orlando bloom looked great as Legolas, much better than the sorry figure he cut as Paris in Troy.

I'm reading prince Caspian now, the fourth book of 'Narnia'. Narnia is not as dark as our other wizarding world. I noted some striking similarities to HP.

Striking Similarity between HP & Narnia

1. The last name of the Narnian kings/queens was "Pevensie". They go to the inbeween world, which has pools to enter different lands.... Reminding me of the "Pensieve" which is an anagram of Pevensie!!!!


Similarities between LOTR & Harry Potter (This is a long list.. with spoilers)


1. In HP, Voldemort splits his soul into 7(likely) horcruxes.. In LOTR Sauron puts his soul into the One ring.


2. Character similarities:

1. Harry ====> Frodo. Frodo has to destroy the ring, Harry the horcruxes.

2. Ron =====> Sam.

3. Dumbledore =====> Gandalf. (Gandalf appears to have died but returns.. can we hope the same for dumbledore??). They are similar in appearance as well.

4. Dementors =====> Nazgul.

5. Wormtail =====> Wormtongue.

6. Both Harry's parents & frodo's parents are dead. Both of them are brought up by their uncles.


more to follow....................

Books & Movies

Read the first book of 'Narnia'. A good read, but was more for the children. I saw flight plan this sunday. It was good. Jodie foster however bored us to the point of irritation in the first half, with her olympic sprints through the flight. One of the trailers was interesting - "Memoirs of a Geisha". Came to know that it was based on a novel. I looked it up on Wikipedia (My dictionary of sorts). Hope i'll get to read the book first.