Just in Time

Heroes

2008-09-21T17:50:00.001-07:00

I liked season 1 very much. So much so that I got all the 40 odd episodes on iTunes one by one (like an idiot) and kept watching them over one weekend last year. Then I was so waiting to see how Season 2 goes. Disappointment was the word.. or was it disbelief? Well.. I'm not as excited as I was for season 2. Hope to see one of my favorite series make a comeback starting tomorrow.

TED

2008-09-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

For anybody who hasn't heard of TED yet.

Please check out www.TED.com.

Dasavatharam

2008-04-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, the trailer and audio release of Kamal Hassan's newest movie, "Dasavatharam" (10 Avatars) is here. This would be THE film of 2008 for me.

EDIT: Sept, 2008 .. I kinda take back what I said before the movie came out!

Check out the trailer on YouTube :-

dasavatharam trailer

IPL update

2008-04-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Kolkata	2	2	0	4	+3.764	334/39.0	192/40.0
Delhi Daredevils	2	2	0	4	+2.988	275/28.1	271/40.0
Chennai	1	1	0	2	+1.650	240/20.0	207/20.0
Rajasthan Royals	2	1	1	2	-0.692	297/38.1	298/35.1
Bangalore	2	1	1	2	-3.423	248/39.4	387/40.0
Mumbai Indians	1	0	1	0	-0.191	165/20.0	166/19.4
Kings XI Punjab	2	0	2	0	-1.365	373/40.0	408/38.1
Deccan Chargers	2	0	2	0	-1.669	252/40.0	255/32.0

Here's how it is poised after the seven matches. Tomorrow's the big one, the first match in Chennai. And that too against Mumbai. This is going to be huge for both the teams. For one, to stamp their authority once again (Dhoni's team) and the other to salvage a victory to which they were so close the other day. Harbhajan is quite a fierce/emotional captain. Dhoni's 20/20 captaincy record is close to phenomenal. Mumbai won't have Sachin tomorrow because of his groin strain. But, they probably would have Dwayne Bravo instead of the injured Thornely. Its going to be a good one. Meanwhile, Delhi gave Deccan a sound thrashing today, especially to their star player Symo the 'Roy'. Sehwag blasted him for 3 sixes and 3 fours.

IPL Stuff

2008-04-19T08:02:00.001-07:00

Now, now now.. what do we have here.. "Pidge" bowling in India after a long time!! Just after Chennai's win in Mohali.. Here comes the big 'un. .. Shane Warne's team up against McGrath's team.. Wow! As always, Glen getting upset, when someone hits him for six. Whoa! I can't wait to see Warney in action in the second innings. Delhi's got one of the best fielding side in the tourney
if you include Chennai as one of the other better fielding sides, good captaincy from Sehwag and some great bowlers including the all time great, Glen.

So, the Delhi Daredevils have bowled and fielded their way to victory in this one. Gambhir continues his form from the ODIs, while Sehwag let his guard down after three swashbuckling boundaries. Dhawan's 50 was impressive, enough to impress any selector. Anyways a good win for the Daredevils.

The IPL

2008-04-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

The IPL is finally here. What a start to the tournament yesterday..! Brilliant Brendon just murdered the home side, B'luru led by our own Wall. They also backed it up with good bowling. Didn't let Dravid and the others get off to a flyer (well.. how many times do you expect a flyer when Dravid and Jaffer are at the crease? hopefully we'll start soon... ).

We've just got to forget all the hullabaloo around the tournament and focus on the cricket, both cricketers and supporters alike. Its going to be amaaaazzing....!! Today was Hussey's day. A brilliant century by him for the Chennai team. Right now the game is very nicely poised in favor of the Super Kings barring any superhuman Yuvi-Stuff ..

I don't know who to support in this tourney, because there are favorite players in every team. I want to support Chennai Super-kings and will do, but I hate the name. IPL should have got the superstars name dude.. c'mon. Look at the ICL Chennai SuperStars AD. It would have got more of my support. But, anyways it is a good chance for me to see players like Badrinath, Vidyut and Anirudha et al .. play. I'm with Chennai even if it is not riddled with more than 2 of my favorite players.

H1B Season approaching...

2008-03-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

As some of my friends get ready to file their H1Bs this summer, the USCIS expects the same or nearly same amount of petitions filed as last year. There were around 150,000 petitions, around 2 times the cap number : 65,000 (which is the number that they started with when I was 8 years old. I'm 24 now. Briefly, they increased it to 115,000 in 2000. But it reverted back to 65,000 in 2002.) in only 2 days and USCIS had to rapidly shutdown accepting applications to stop getting flooded with petitions. They are expecting a similar amount of petitions this year too.

Here are the caps as far as they mention in their site:

Reg. Cap (65,000 regular cap cases minus the C/S cap cases received)
C/S Cap (Chile/Singapore H-1B1s)
U.S. Masters (20,000 cap exemption for beneficiaries with U.S. Masters or higher degrees)
Exempt (for petitions filed by certain institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations; and nonprofit research organizations or governmental research organizations, as defined in USCIS regulations)

(source: U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services)

Many of my friends who joined companies last year would be in that 20,000 cap exemption for benificiaries with U.S Masters or higher degrees. Some of my fellow academics who join research labs or universities would be Exempt. The other reality and truth of the situation is when you throw in the several thousand off-shore companies shipping their employees on H1 and L1 visas for temporary periods you have a rush to file petitions and hence the 150,000 in 2 days issue.

There have been stark changes in the jobs among the H1-population , as this publication for the CCIS(Center for Comparative Immigration Studies) points out :

In 1989, Healthcare jobs were the top H1 jobs, in 10 years time it was nowhere in the race. In 1999, IT/Computers/High Tech. fields topped the list with almost 60% of the H1 jobs in the IT industry. Click on the pictures and see for yourself.

1989, Job Numbers 1999, Job Numbers

In 1989, The highest number of H1 workers were from the UK and Phillipines. But they were at around 12-14% each, of the whole H1 Population. India was around 4%.
In 1999, UK and Philippines hadn't seen much growth in the H1 numbers and represented 5% and 2% respectively. While, India's numbers show a gargantuan change: 55, 047 / 119,000 odd. Almost 50% of the H1 job population. Even as China's numbers have grown, their share in this has not.

H1 Numbers: By Country

So, its more of an Indian thing now, with 50% of the H1 population in 1999 being Indians. I don't know about current (2007) numbers. Need to dig up more information. As "the senator from Punjab" as Barack Obama called her, says the government surely needs to think about increasing the cap. This was during the H1B visa debate which raged around June 2007. It started with this video. Went along with this one, was kept aflame with this one and people like Wogsland also argued against the cap in this video for example.

I feel there should be an increase in the cap, even if it is slight. Probably around 120, 000 in all instead of the 88,000 in all limit. This will keep people working in America whoever they are wherever they're from as long as they are a benefit to the US economy. Otherwise, this will prompt companies to find other reasons like for example: Microsoft has centers in Israel, Denmark,Canada to counter the effects of the immigration cap. More companies will outsource jobs. Talented students will try to find jobs in companies based in other countries. Eventually, USA will not be the only country where world class IT jobs are sought in. Already, Singapore / Hong Kong, Japan are serious contenders. Throw in a resurgent Europe and Asia into the mix, we've got a worldwide job market.

So, if you consider the now existing cap of 65,000 + 20,000 (Maters workers) which has in fact decreased from the cap in 1999 back to the 1991 limit in 2002 and the number of international students studying in the US (around 550,000 odd) out of which atleast 10% or around 10% are applying for a H1B visa when they complete their education, its "almost unfair" to say that "A typical High tech American graduate" is denied jobs to accommodate the ones who are equally suited for the job. Out of a 150,000 applications that comes in at the rate of 100,000 per day for an average of 88,000 odd "non-immigrant" work visas, nearly 70,000 applicants (most applicants have already secured the job in a company after several rounds of interviews) are denied visas by a random lottery.

Is this the price they want to pay for the hard work? The hard time they went through writing effective linked lists, binary trees and hash tables... preparing hard for the interviews, getting through the process and then their life being decided by a lottery? Pure luck?

But, there's another side to the story too, which needs more research before I discuss it here.

The other reason I wrote this blog is that I came across another list:

The Number of H1B petitions approved breakdown by company .. I was surprised to find that among all universities in the US, there were more H1B petitions from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007 than any other univ. which is my university as a matter of fact. It has moved from rank 31 in 2006 to rank 18 in 2007. The "not-so-surprising" facts are clear to see, look at the number of Indian companies in the list.

Graph: Infosys ranks number 1, *UIC ranks 18

[ The web link to the article ] Click

The PDF: http://www.computerworld.com/pdfs/editorial/h1b.pdf

and yeah.. the H1B season for 2008 will be here in 15 days.

Everyday Things - III

2008-03-11T04:14:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, March 11, 2008.

Went back to 1951, the year my father was born exactly around today. I watched Anjali Devi's "Mayakkari". Although I wanted to see a movie based on the cultural/social setting of that time, I had to be content with a fantasy/romantic/musical comedy. It was probably a bi-lingual movie in Telugu and Tamil. But, I watched it in Tamil. Although the film dragged along, I seemed to notice that not much of the plots have changed ever since. Villains have become more villainous(and they don't seem to repent in the end like they did in this one), heroes have become more superhuman( Nageshwar Rao, portrays a kind of a normal hero here) and comedians are still a force to be reckoned with. Was pretty fun.

The biggest discovery of the day was this site where I caught this movie: bigflicks

Not available in India, Nepal or Bhutan I believe. Its commercial, but I think there are some good movies to be watched for free if you register.

Two other movies I watched :

* "Knock Knock I'm Looking to Marry". I saw this for the second time. First time was at "Studio 5" at Sathyam Cinemas around five years ago. Another movie that expertly pokes fun at contemporary arranged marriages and rightly so. Rathi does a great job along with Suhaas.. Overall a fun/casual youth(single) entertainer. But, 2003 seems a long time ago. I don't know if any of the scenes are pretty old-fashioned now.

* "15 Park Avenue". Came in 2 years ago I believe. I don't know how and why I missed it. But, it appealed to me in all fronts. Maybe I saw it at the right time. This one I feel "found me" rather than me finding it. Konkana Sen is amazing (does she ever fail to impress?), Shabana Azmi and Rahul Bose also portray powerful characters. Meethi(Sen) is a S************.. well a long "S" word which I won't use. Since, most characters in the movie use it. Or is she? She doesn't think so. Anu (Azmi), Meethi's sister and their mom are the ones who support her and carry her weight around. Or do they? She doesn't want them to. Roy/JoJo (Bose), who is engaged to her at a point in time and later lets her go because of an unfortunate incident which I won't go into. So, he feels like he needs to make up to her the second time he meets her.

No film in the recent past has touched me so much as this one did. Atleast, I thought so because some dialogues just seem etched into my mind. Like the time when Bose says ".. stepped into her world of another reality.." or something similar and feels for her ".. poor child, she seems to be searching for something that she will never find.." to which Lakshmi(Shefali) his wife replies with a question "Aren't we all?". The film is about the alternate reality Meethi is living in. No one seems to believe her. She is suicidal, feeling like a prisoner under her sister, mom and the servant. Sometimes the film almost borders on the supernatural, but I presume the author left it to the audience to judge. I thought it was a very natural(or superN) and fluid emotional experience. I recommend it for anyone who is looking for a gripping Indian English movie( Yes.. it is 95% of the time in English).

Everyday Things - II

2008-03-10T01:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought of blogging every day when I wrote, Everyday Things - I. But, since then haven'te kept my promise. Thought I would make up for that and write a lot to make up. So, here goes.

In the time since I wrote the previous entry, a lot of things have happened :

a. I've tried a million things (literally) for my project, Migraine and yet to have a breakthrough.
b. India completed their mammoth 3 month cricket campaign with a stunning ODI series victory over Oz.
c. Life's going on.
z. New games that I played of note: Assassin's Creed, Patapon, Bioshock.
d. I've got an admit to Masters in Fine Arts in my university which I hope to do after my CS thesis.
e. Have watched tons of documentaries: On Nazis, Noam Chomsky, Greece, Persia, Iskander(!)
f. Went 'Bowling' (yeah the underarm 9 pin, heavy 3 holed ball sort) for the first time.. and got a Strike on the second attempt. (After that zilch.. zero.. nothing.. )
g. Reading third book by Edward Rutherford "Russka" : Fictional Chronicle of Russia.
h. Today getting caught up with my past, checking out school/college friends' profiles on Orkut.
i. I downloaded Prince of Persia:Classic Arcade 3D platformer for X360.. enjoyed it until those miserable SoBs in Level 4 started testing my patience.

I've almost stopped renting DVDs from netflix, since I discovered that subscribers get "watch instantly" movies. There are some 25 good ones from 100, but there are good ones nonetheless. Assassin's Creed features "Altair", a fictional(I presume) Hashshashin who leaps with faith like an eagle across 11th century Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus is an amazing character to play and experience. I love the setting, the graphics, the lifelike people mechanics and the story. Waiting for Assassin's Creed 2.

Bioshock- I just played the demo(to be honest, first 10 minutes of the demo). Couldn't play it alone.. (yeah yeah.. I'm afraid of the dark even if it is virtual and I'm willing to admit it). Our hero is greeted with a documentary about "Rapture", a city under the sea where something's wrong now, clearly. 60's billboards and signs greet us as we enter a world of unfathomable (pun intended) proportions. You have plasmids(bio-stuff) and weapons of course to take care of enemies. Other stuff like hacked bots, fight for you. Andrew Ryan, possibly an anagram of Ayn Rand whose ideas seem to be everywhere in this action/thriller/adventure of sorts. And, incidentally I had seen a documentary of Ayn Rand titled: Ayn Rand, A sense of life 2 weeks ago.

Patapon - I already have a blog entry for this.. right now I'm stuck at the point where "Gong, the Hawkeye" of the Zigoton army splits into 3 and is crushing my pathetic Patapons. I need to upgrade atleast my Yaripons.. who seem to be weak.

Well.. keep checking back, the next Everyday things post may pop up sooner. (I don't have stats on who reads my blogs: I know I read it. My brother does. But, no one else I know of is a regular reader.. many don't bother to comment.. I think.) but, if you(yeah! You!) are one of them, thanks for reading and keep checking back.

Ciao.

Patapon

2008-02-11T18:08:00.001-08:00

Patapon

A great new game for the PSP from SCEA, from the same guys who made LocoRoco. LocoRoco was funny, addictive and the music was childish/exciting. This one promises much more. As the mighty "Patapon", you've got to get your war drums rolling to the rhythm, keep up the beats and get your tiny soldiers worked up to a feverish pitch. The game involves strategy, concentration, intelligent use of materials and the demo promises a lot more to come on Mar 28.The other great thing about this game is the graphics. May look primitive, but is quite amazing and the animation blows you away sometimes. Simple, not stupid, small, not tiny , Patapon promises to be a great strategy/fun game. You have quite an army at your disposal with your Yaripons (Javelinmen/Spearmen), Tatepons (axemen) and archers / horsemen and others follow. Like you can see, they look like eyeballs with legs carrying weapons which you can upgrade from campaigns. Will keep me occupied for quite sometime when it comes out.

Dexter

2008-01-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

A very good series that I caught on TV recently. Its already done 2 seasons in Showtime. Very impressive characterization and storytelling. Based on a books "Darkly dreaming Dexter", "Darkly devoted Dexter" and "Dexter in the Dark" by Jeff Lindsay. Haven't read the books, but I'm pretty sure they are very impressive.

A lot of thought evoking action throughout the series. I'm not giving out any spoilers in this write-up. But, I will say one thing. It will make you empathise with people you wouldn't normally empathise with. But, I don't know if I'd be giving out any spoilers anyways. Because, there is very less suspense all along the series. But, even then it will keep you hooked.

A very new look at the mind of a killer. Very nicely directed, acted and overall a great series. More about the books at: http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/dexter/

Aussies are denied 17 in a row

2008-01-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

Whew! what a relief.. to India and its fans. Although India looked like India would stop Australia in Sydney where they had their 16th consecutive win, equalling the world record, here in Perth they looked better than in Sydney. It was a team effort. Everyone in the team contributed. The key was the first innings bowling performance, where they got the Aussies attacking as usual off guard with very impressive disciplined bowling. Although Australia fought back in the second innings, it wasn't enough.

So, finally India gets the deserved win down under this season. I'm happy for them and for Kumble who got to 600 wickets. Hope we give them a run for their money at Adelaide next.

Unbeatable Aussies Make it 16 in a row: Claremont Lingo-> Aussies bongu their way to Victory

2008-01-06T00:17:00.001-08:00

The last time Australia had won 16 tests was in Mumbai, 4 years ago. It happened again today at the SCG. India gave a run for their money. Guys like Laxman, Tendulkar, Kumble, Harbhajan and to an extent Dravid played with their hearts out. Kumble shined with both bat and ball. Symonds was amazing on both bowling and batting, not so good fielding because of a bad ankle and was adjudged man of the match. Big scores by Hayden, Hussey, Symonds kept the runs flowing for the Ozzies.

But, I'm worried about how umpiring decisions can impact a match. Consider Australia, a side that's much stronger mentally, bubbling with more confidence and on a roll. Consider the other team India who have always had their ups and downs in the recent times. Who does a bad decision affect more? Australia can capitalize on bad decisions more than India. And how many decisions go against India? Atleast five, How many against Australia? atleast 2. Who made the most of it? Australia.

Symonds made 130 more runs than he should have, Ishant Sharma had 1 wicket less than what he should have (zip), Ponting should have made 2 or 3 runs less than what he made in the first innings or should I say he should have capitalized like Symonds and made a hundred?, Ganguly and Dravid should have had more than 51 and 38 runs in the 2nd innings (and practically saved the test match).. A match that was poised to be one of the greatest contests of recent times.. one in which Australia was challenged in all the departments.. ending in a win to Australia.. which shows the tenacity of the Australians and the resilience of the Indians. Well done to both the teams..

They proved they can make the game interesting even with umpires who have their eyes in their asses.

Well, there's a lot of should haves and must haves.. what matters is Aus won by 122 runs. The image that always will stay in my mind, is Gilly (the last man I believe who is worth looking upto according to me in the current Australian Side) going up in appeal just as he brought his glove to stump a well behind the crease Dravid, which had just caught a ball that had kissed the pad of the batsman, off Symonds along with all the other Aussie fielders. Did he think it was out? I want to ask him for sure..

some of my primitive drawings

2007-11-09T21:10:00.001-08:00

I feel like a cave painter now, probably will take me more than a lifetime to iterate and become a better artist. But, there are miles to go before I sleep, thanks to Robert Frost. Most drawings are from observation, 1 or 2 are off my mind and some are from references. I'm taking Drawing 101, very refreshing.

Everyday Things - I

2007-11-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Just a document documenting the incidents of everyday life.. starting today..

well today at work I thought of that unforgettable restaurant in Mysore called Ilapur, 'The Taste of Andhra'. The taste came tumbling back to my taste buds as though it was yesterday.. probably 10 years ago.. Started a chain reaction in the office which is full of Indians, kind of a diverse group too.. Learned about the history of biriyani in this site called "Biryani Merchant(superscript TM)" Eventhough the review in google for the restaurant was like this : "I've never really had a good meal here. And from what I've heard, it's now closed. The meat was like re-tread rubber and the rice over-cooked. No better way ...".. well.. but I liked the history of biryani section in the website.

Thought of all the biryani I've had in my life, Amsavalli, Amravati, Ilapur, Anjappar, Ponnusamy, Thamizhagam, Amala Chettinad Mess .. oh my god! Then we had to order something in from that Gaylord Indian Restaurant in Chicago (funny name!).. Had a great lunch.. Then in the evening.. watched "A peck on the Cheek".. well "Kannathil Muthamittal" as its better known for the 26th time with my roomies (one from Madurai, and the other from Barcelona).. luckily it had subtitles.. Always had fun showing this movie to my international friends.. Once a Taiwanese friend saw the entire movie (good patience) and liked it.. Mani Rathnam is awesome.. Gotta get back to calculating the normals in my terrain during the night. Thought about Indra akka's biriyani, poori kothu karri, mammai's kari kuzhambu, meen varuval.. yummy..

Probably half you guys didn't understand this rambling.. well the document is mainly here for me to read.. hope it goes on everyday..

links:
history of biriyani
hyderabadi biriyani rap

And guys, don't believe that thing about Madurai in the map in the doc_strip for the day..
Madurai's best biryani atleast as far as I'm concerned is Amsavalli.. I don't know if there's a Amsavalli mess in Karaikudi!! Where the heck is Hotel Konark in Madurai!??? dude! who the heck prepared this map ?? Hotel Konark should be somewhere in Orissa not in Madurai!! Geez., ( I had to edit my post after I had a closer look at that biryani map)!! - !! not impressed at all!

Nov 9, 2007

Doc strip:-

I'm nothing but a sperm and an egg

2007-11-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just can't believe one egg and a sperm is all that's needed (of course with the help of a place for them to grow) for a human life to be created. Some questions have never been answered since the dawn of time.. oh.. well that's one of the questions that needs answers.. when did time actually come into being? A lot of theoretical research has been done and I don't know how many more lifetimes are required for humans to find life's answers. So, why the heck are we here? This is one of the major questions that have a million answers based on the interests of the person who's giving the answers. One general very dumb (my opinion) answer is "Well.. we're here for a reason". This "reason" is also like life, just gets more form and shape as life goes on.. Some people don't even find the reason for which they are here in a lifetime. Some actually find reasons everyday. Some just have a single reason to live, some are just plain confused with all these reasons brushing past them .. One standard reason to live that many people agree upon is for happiness in whichever form. Be happy as far as you are alive. Well.. I guess its time for me to be philosophical.

Crappy code

2007-10-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hi guys

Been busy for a while with Drawing-I classes and Digital Photography classes. Was also doing some basic stuff in writing a simple rendering pipeline using OpenGL/SDL. And this is what you get if you write some crappy code. I think I really need some help !! I am too ashamed to put up the code in here in public. But, here's what I got when I typed,

me:> make clean
me:> make
it:> ~~~ yadda yadda yadda -l libs -do tthta trhiss
blah blah blah - o objs - migraine -Glu da add ddaa dda
~~ done ! compiling
me:> ./migraine -dev (expectantly)
it:> &$3%3su73@*|`~~` har har!

wow! this is what I got... guess what I did wrong.

all my characters turned into ascii and chinese ( or is this chinese? ) .. you might wanna click on the image to enlarge and see my modified environment better.

GTA : Grand Theft Auto

2007-08-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

Grand Theft Auto fans, get ready for the next in the series.. GTA IV.

Check out the compilation video of the other 9 or more GTA titles..

Compilation video

Check out the trailers:

Trailer 1
Trailer 2

The graphics looks amazing as expected. The story seems to be very
interesting and GTA like. You better have a next-gen console at home. I'd
personally prefer to play it on a PS3.. but since, I own only a XBOX 360..
got to settle for that I think.

Check out:
GTA4 Wiki for plot spoilers and heads-up on the story/setting and theme. Can't wait!!!

Civilization

2007-08-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

Type "Civilization" in google and see the result you get. It might not be something you expected. But, it was something I expected to come up as the first link. Civilization taught me a lot of things in life. As a good observer and a person who loves creativity I feel that anything that's created by people has a lot of philosophy behind it. I don't know if he remembers it, but I was introduced to this game by my friend Shankar in school. Civ2 was an amazing experience.. more than the strategy aspect and fun aspect involved, I loved the way you could recount the historical civilizations of the world. It instantly kept me hooked for hours and hours. I might have spent at least 1 to 2 months of my life in the game in all (which might be very less compared to the diehard civ fans). Strategy games are real fun. For example, Impressions Games' city-building series: Caesar, Zeus, Pharaoh, Emperor etc.. are amazing fun and graphically impressive. Sim City is also another game in which I might have spent 3 or 4 months of my life. And, I read somewhere the other day that "The Sims" became the most successful PC game ever. Anybody who has not heard about it is probably missing the chance to play a lifetime, well two lifetimes, well .. a generation of different families .. virtually. The next time you are sitting around doing nothing just give these a try and let me know if you got hooked or not. There are several other RTS games that are astounding .. for eg. Rise of nations, Medieval Total war 2, Age of Empires series etc..

Strategy games are the joy of PC gaming ... anybody who hates videogames will surely reconsider their choice if they play strategy games. They teach a lot to both kids and adults alike.

This is Sid Meier, the creator of one of the greatest PC strategy games, Civilization.

Sivaji : The boss

2007-06-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

Summa athirudthu thala! I nearly cried when I saw Rajnikanth come down the escalator after the opening scenes. I grew up seeing him, enjoying his movies. A total entertainer, a profession I personally respect. He's done what he does best in the movie. It was way above the expectations that have been piling up from all corners of the earth (the media of course was the reason behind the hype). But, the movie experience .. well, there's nothing like it. It will certainly live up to the hype and do even more (probably break a few records).

It feels as though we're in a state of anachronism, like as though we're in the present and we are seeing the superstar of yesterday in a spine kindling new version. Even if our hero's face shows his age at certain points in the movie, he's a very good example to prove that the commitment to entertain is still fresh in his blood. Well, as modest as he is when he said in his interviews that all the credit should go to Shankar, it is true that Shankar has done a really remarkable job with Rajinikanth.

A truly amazing experience. Any true Tamilian who was born around & after the late seventies would surely share my opinion and I can guarantee you that. Shivaji rocks! Anybody who has still not seen it get ready for a spicy platter served up Rajini style with the usual Shankar magic coupled with Shriya,Vivek and the divine music of AR Rahman. You wouldn't be able to hear the background music with all the fans screaming in the theater, but trust me it is one of the thousand highlights of the movie.

vaada vaada ... vangikkada.. vayila beeda pottukkada.. .. Cool!

Looptopia, May 11

2007-05-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

At the square just next to Washington/State station I witnessed a free performance which was part of Looptopia. It is a night long celebration with music/dance/drama and art in downtown Chicago's loop area. Well, I'd heard about the festival, but I never remembered that it was today. I knew there was something unusual when I saw the CTA trains overflowing with people, carrying maps that noted places of activity and festivities.

There was this desi band performing "bhangra" alongside "Sweet Home Alabama". People were dancing to the beat even as Chicago's weather slumped down to the 50s(in F) yet again. Might have been mighty fun, but I had to do some last minute shopping before my trip. Got some shoes, replaced the battery for my macbook and came home to rest.

Spidey 3 at Navy Pier

2007-05-04T19:36:00.000-07:00

As I was walking along the now familiar stretch of Grand avenue towards Navy Pier, where Spiderman 3 was released today, with the wind in my face I was thinking of all the time I'd spent watching movies back home in India. I was one of the privileged few to have reserved the tickets quite in advance(again a habit from my movie watching experience in India) for a special 12:00 AM show. Well, it was worth the wait I should say. The IMAX screen coupled with fantastic special effects and the usual antics of spiderman made my early morning sojourn at the theater enjoyable. Everyone who enjoyed 1 and 2 will surely enjoy this one too. Guys and girls alike were sporting spiderman costumes and posing in front of the lone cameraman who was covering it for the 7'o clock news the same morning.

Toby, Kirsten and James all play their roles equally well (Toby steals the show at one point in the movie, literally and at some points you feel sorry for Kirsten, both in the movie and as an actor) and at some points there is more comedy than action. Overall worth watching.

What a Bummer! But anyways.. !

2007-04-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

The ICC (International Cricket Circus) provided one of the worst world cup finals ever. The players who put up with it deserve more than this. Anyways, negatives aside.. what a match for Australia!! Gilchrist's 149 off 104 balls easily the best match-winning innings I've seen in quite a while in a crunch match like a world cup final. Hats off to both the Aussies and Sri Lankans who provided the entertainment in an otherwise dull tournament, the only two sides along with New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh and Ireland who need to be applauded for their efforts. Well, let's hope other teams fight better in the next one in 2011. And.. Goodbye Glenn! We will be looking for someone like you for a long time!!

A repeat of 1996

2007-04-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

Like I'd hoped Sri Lanka is going to the final to meet the Aussies who are on a winning streak like no one has ever seen before just after having drawn the semi-final against South Africa. They have never lost a single world cup match since that tie in 1999 which shows phenomenal attitude and the push for victory everytime they take the field.

The finals which would be a repeat of 1996 between Sri Lanka and Australia should be a good contest. Let's hope its not as one-sided as the semi-finals were. Australia would be looking to stop Sri Lanka from doing it twice and Sri Lanka would give their best to put an end to the world cup winning streak of Australia. Let's hope the final atleast makes this world cup memorable for the right reasons.

Super Eights : Right now

2007-04-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

God.. I'd lost the pace (like Irfan had), as soon as India crashed out of the world cup and various incidents that had taken the spirit out of the game. But, I'm so happy to witness the spirit of the Sri Lankans (Kumar Sangakkara seems to be their spiritual leader, always creating something behind the stumps, he is a match-winner).. Check this video out from youtube, which emphasises the importance of such a player in such a side, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFF98dM8sA. And, wow ... is Bangladesh making a name for itself or what. If they improve their consistency with the bat from now on, they can beat any team in the world on a given day and can fight till the last ball. Their bowling and fielding is god-like at the present, something I would expect of my own Indian team. Well anyways, here is how the points table looks like:

Super Eights	Mat	Won	Lost	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Australia	4	4	0	8	+1.510	1053/161.1	864/172.0
Sri Lanka	4	3	1	6	+1.549	1057/196.0	747/194.2
New Zealand	3	3	0	6	+1.437	567/109.4	560/150.0
South Africa	4	2	2	4	-0.629	855/179.5	996/185.0
England	4	1	3	2	-0.062	955/200.0	911/188.2
West Indies	4	1	3	2	-1.177	776/188.1	993/187.2
Bangladesh	4	1	3	2	-1.775	641/168.0	778/139.1
Ireland	3	0	3	0	-0.934	566/133.0	621/119.4

After India went, I started to support Sri Lanka. Well, they were my second favorites anyway to win the world cup eventhough I had the feeling, Australia's world cup winning streak will take some doing to break. When Sehwag got out in the most dubious fashion with a slow throw from Sangakkara during their India tour, I believed that he would create such opportunities in the world cup and he did. Brian Lara's stumping off Vaas was un.... believable! Malinga's 4 in 4... Murali's performance against India, Jayasuriya's 100 against the West Indies, Ashraful's tenacity against the world no. 1 team (his scoop over fine-leg, I mean..), Aftab's amazing sixers, Tamim Iqbal coming down the wicket against Ntini (and Zaheer Khan of course, who can forget that... no Indian who was awake that night can forget that.) etc.. send a strong message to the world, that now, the sub-continent has 4 world class teams who believe they can win at the highest level (well, two of the teams haven't proved themselves of late.. but they will eventually as soon as other petty/off the field issues get solved and they concentrate more on the game) .

Well, I hope either Sri Lanka (which seems all set for the semis), or Bangladesh do well in the next stage.. and who knows we might as well have a sub-continent world champion. And if Sri Lanka manages to do it.. it will be the first sub-continent team to win the world cup twice!..

Go Sri Lanka.. take the world cup!

Day Nine: Big Day

2007-03-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

When Jayasuriya had a word with Tharanga in the first over and they started dropping down balls and running, I expected that they would try to unsettle the inexperienced opposition. How different the bowlers looked, erring in line and length when the batsman took the attack to them. Jayasuriya made merry joining in the sixes fun, like the other teams.They went quickly onto a 96 runs at nearly 7.00 per over, With Jaysuriya having made a 50 already. The experienced Rafique then got the breakthrough by taking Tharanga, but looked like the damage was already done. After having made 318 runs of their 50, Sri Lanka wrapped up the Bangladesh innings for 118 runs, with Ashraful the lone survivor and Malinga picking up 3. Jayasuriya was adjudged man of the match.

Day Seven: Ohh! my God!!

2007-03-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

What is in store for us here?? Sehwag saved.. (That was about time) Yippee Yuvi and savior Saurav. Dhoni, Sachin and Dravid too in the end coming to the party. One memorable loss to another memorable victory, India have performed once again when they were cornered. Only Robin Utthappa missed out. For India, it rained sixes and fours as they sent the Bermuda bowlers' balls out of the ground many a time and they reached 413/5 in their 50. Then even though Zaheer made the early breakthroughs, Bermuda put up a brave batting display with Hemp shining, but everyone else failed. India breathed a sigh of relief as the umpire finally adjudged an LBW for Kumble after turning down really plumb ones and beat Bermuda by 257 runs a new ODI record. A lot of World Cup records fell, with India posting the highest score, the 8th 200+ partnership in ODIs, when India features in 4 of those.. etc..

While West Indies made sure they made it to the super eights with a safe win with Zimbabwe, Lara taking the Windies home with a four and a six to finish in emphatic fashion. It was really an up and down contest. First Zimbabwe slumped with 2/2 and then fought back to post 200 odd runs.. and the West Indies took their time to get there, maybe getting some practice. What matters is that they have reserved their berth in the super 8's the 2nd team to do so after the Aussies.

Day Six: On the field

2007-03-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Australia played like they should against Netherlands and made 5 more runs than what South Africa made in 40 overs. (358 runs) Brad Hodge let his bat do all the sweet talking and made 129 off 83 balls and Michael Clarke made 96 , while Gilly made a 50 too. Australia won this one quite easily eventhough there was a positive aura about Holland's batsmen today, they saw the back of batsmen quite frequently and never let anybody settle down too much. Brad Hogg picked up four, while McGrath and Bracken took 2 each even while they went for over 4 an over to wrap it up quickly.

England having to win this one and leaving Flintoff out of the side, after sacking him as Vice Captain, went about their business, not as blistering as Australia, but good batting by Vaughn, Joyce and Collingwood /Nixon to take England to a very defendable 279. Canada's 5th wicket partnership between Samad and Mulla posed a slight threat but England fielded well, kept their nerves and kept Canada down to 228/7 to post the points in a must-win match.

Day Six: What ??

2007-03-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

As a very close follower of the events of the world cup, besides the gloomy conditions which have perturbed the cricket quite frequently a filthy shadow was surrounding the Carribbean right before the world cup. A world cup where a lot of money was involved, there are battles all over the place not on the field, but off the field. Like world history shows, people's minds are poisoned when three things are involved: money, women and land.
How big a loss was yesterday to everyone who put so much effort/money into the world cup? You never know. Starting with Shoaib and Asif's exclusion and ending with sacking of Flintoff as vice-captain under nasty circumstances it was getting quite dramatic off the field, while Gibbs was burning record books on the field. But, today morning when I glanced at cricinfo.com as I always do, I was aghast. "Bob Woolmer unconcious in hotel room... " it read. It had just one line which was surprising in itself and looked bad enough. Then after a while, it said something about vomit around him.. then the article completely changed with the disturbing news of his death. After a while, nothing in the initial article was found, except that now it read he collapsed and died, while there was a life history going on about his life.

Now the same article says something about the medical report not ready yet.. and that the team is not sure, if he died of a heart attack. If that is so, it is so unlucky for his family, for Pakistan cricket and world cricket, but its quite a coincidence for it has come just after Pakistan's worst loss ever at a very important time.

Day Five: Triumphant Bangladesh & A Sad Pakistan

2007-03-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

India batted first on a track that seemed to do a lot for the quick bowlers. Mortaza hit the deck consistently and picked off Sehwag and Utthappa quite softly while Razzaq followed it up with a great arm ball to get Tendulkar. Then Dravid missed a quick one from Rafique first up and was lbw while Ganguly stayed at the crease all along this drama. Yuvraj and Ganguly played cautiously and paced the innings properly and India was set to score around 220 - 240.. but, India lost 5 wickets for 2 runs.. from 157/5 to 159/9 when finally Munaf and Zaheer put up a valiant effort to make 191. India's woes continued when, Tamim went berserk coming down the pitch to Zaheer hitting him for a six after being hit in the neck with a short one. Bangladesh youngsters Tamim, Mushfiq. Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan powered Bangladesh with awesome shots and calculated risks to reach the total slowly but the innings were well-paced with a nice 4th wicket partnership between Shakib and Rahim. Finally, India had lost in a match in which they were dominated right from ball 1.

While Trinidad looked bad enough for a top sub-continent side against a lower ranked side, Jamaica was worse, where Pakistan made an early/sad exit due to the failure of the Pakistani batsmen to either fire or consolidate their innings against a spirited Irish side backed by an equally spirited crowd on St.Patrick's day which restricted them to 132 runs. Even while, everyone hoped Pakistan will win this with a very good bowling line-up and Sami made early inroads removing Bray who had made an impressive 115* in the previous tied match against Zimbabwe, Pakistan struggled to keep the runs down and put pressure on the other ends. Even as wickets fell down, some lusty blows and truly brilliant strokeplay assured that Ireland won this one by 3 wickets. (bad light had stopped play for sometime, but play resumed eventually)

Now, I'm pretty sure no one will use the word "minnows".

Fourth Day: Godzilla Gibbs & Sensible Styris

2007-03-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

South Africa displayed world class batting as it should be while Netherlands had no answer to the onslaught of the likes of Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher. But, it was the effervescent Gibbs who overshadowed even a century performance by Kallis, by becoming the first batsman in the history of international cricket to hit 6 sixers in an over off Van Bunge. With an enormous total of 350 odd runs off 40 overs(the match overs being reduced due to overnight showers and a wet outfield), they easily won the match by 221 runs.

England batted inconsistently with partnerships being broken quite often with the upper and middle order struggling to score quickly in a quite slow pitch where Bond bowled a good line eventhough not at the pace he's expected to bowl ending up with 2 wickets and 19 runs off ten. England eventually being bowled out for 209 saw a glimmer of hope when Anderson struck in the beginning removing Lou Vincent and Fleming cheaply while Plunkett took care of the talented Mr.Ross. But, it was Scott Styris (87) along with Craig McMillan and Jacob Oram who plugged the hole in a sinking ship and made sure the sails and masts were intact as the Kiwis cruised slowly but surely to a good win.

Third Day: Impressive Ceylon & The Fighting Irish

2007-03-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

Ireland's tall and bald(?) opener, Bray made his presence felt against Zimbabwe in their opener. A game which was very weird and a last ball tie. Sibanda missed a sitter(or was it a stander) when in 2nd slip, but had made up for it by hitting 60 odd, when he was dramatically hit out. Matskinyeri tried well, but after his fall, Ireland had everything going their way, with half-naked fans and their leprechauns backing them all the way. Was a good game to watch. Never know how that might affect the group.

Sri Lanka lost Jayasuriya and Tharanga early, but the Sangakkara/Mahela duo batted sensibly and briskly to take Sri Lanka to an expected score of 320 odd runs, with C Silva and Maharoof joining the party in the end to get them above the 300 mark. Then the bowlers picked off Bermuda's batsmen one by one while Malinga missed out on a hatrick and Maharoof got four. Bermuda finished at a dismal 78 all out.

If the opener, was anything but exciting with the likes of Samuels, the Dwaynes and Lara giving great work to their willows, while Pakistan struggled with inconsistent bowling and to get the partnerships going, I can't wait to see more. Even the Ireland/Zimbabwe match was quite exciting to watch. The battle of the lesser teams and upsets will be the most memorable of the group stages I think. And, fans will be longing to see their star players coming to form.

Earlier yesterday, Tikolo led his side like a king amassing his troops with a warcry against an ordinary looking Canada side who didn't try enough to a very good win. Ponting on the other match again led from the front with a blistering 113 in quick time while the bowlers made merry with Glenn McGrath taking three, while Brad Hogg impressed with a 15 ball 40 which came from the last two overs when Scotland looked like they would restrict the Aussies below 300.

2007-03-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

Cricket World Cup 2007 is upon us. The carribbean sets up a very special stage for the world's most exciting cricketing event this year.

The West Indian batsmen were cautious and beligerent at the same time, with
Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo kicking off an aggressive start to their world cup. Then when Pakistan batted, they bowled and fielded like champions to register their first win of the world cup with much more to come I suppose. Dwayne smith was man of the match with a fast knock and 3 wickets 2 of which were Yousuf and Inzi.

We haven't seen a very one-sided game just as yet, except the trouncing of Scotland by Australia by 203 runs which should have been around 40 runs less, if not for the last two overs when Brad Hogg and Watson went berserk. Scotland bowlers had very good deliveries coming once in 10 overs and taking wickets too.. they were wavered otherwise. The stumping of Hussey was especially impressive.
Ponting was the king with a win and 100 odd runs under his belt.

Kenya's Steve Tikolo gave nothing away as a captain, bowler, batsman to the Canadians who looked like they needed some inspiration of some sort to get going. Dhaniram's quick hit helped them to score 199, but he was involved in one runout too many. Kenya got there easily with capt. Tikolo scoring 70 odd runs.

Books during Winter Break

2006-12-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

Three books I am reading during winter break:

1. Understanding Exposure : Revised Edition , Bryan Peterson

2. The Complete IDIOT's guide to Drawing Manga , John Layman & David Hutchinson
3. The Lord Of The Rings : Gollum - How we made Movie Magic , Andy Serkis

Well, I thought I'd learn something exciting and new during the winter and something that will sharpen my creative skills for which I haven't paid much attention lately.

The first one, by Bryan Peterson might help me improve my photographing skills. The second should probably improve my drawing skill and the third will definitley inspire any kind of artist in the world.

I'll let you know if the books did some good to me.

Of Pirates, Chip valleys, Jobs & Fortune

2006-12-07T23:26:00.000-08:00

Have any of you watched "Pirates of the Silicon Valley"? I really didn't know there was such a movie until my friend Dinesh showed it to me last weekend. Previously I'd tried to read Bill Gates' biography or do you call it autobiography? Never got to more than 2 pages.. Then, I'd heard of Steve Jobs too (and fascinated that he was behind Apple Computers & talked about karma). Well, eventhough I was skeptical when I first started to see the movie as soon as I started watching the lives of two very important guys in the last 3 decades maybe, It really kept me hooked. For some reason (maybe that's not so unknown among the industry), I liked Steve Jobs better, maybe because he was more of the fighter type than Bill Gates who was the more of the successful/lucky type. There might be people who completely disagree with me.. but as far as I saw, and have heard and read.. just off the top of my head I think that.
And I had to write this blog mainly because I was blown off, by some of the presentations that Steve Jobs had done previously. For example, I think the 1991(I think the year might be a bit off) presentation for the Next Computers' OS. He was describing about features that are part of MacOSX now! And I especially loved the part where he runs Lotus 123 in DOS (in the OS itself) and uses a /f command in the command line interface in Lotus and comments "great user interface" (or somethin' like that) with sarcasm. The other reason was the commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 which was quite inspiring atleast for me. It was surely interesting looking into the lives of both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. More interesting was the relationship between them. Eventhough I am not sure how far there is truth in that movie, I would recommend watching "Pirates of the Silicon Valley" for anyone who wants an inside look on the lives of both the gentlemen.

Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away & Cars

2006-12-07T22:49:00.000-08:00

Today, I saw "Spirited Away", by Hayao Miyazaki (hope I got his name right the first time I'm typing it out). It is a fantastic animation movie, which deserved the oscar it earned. This is 4 weeks after I saw "Howl's Moving Castle", which permanently made me a Miyazaki fan. Then 2 weeks ago I saw Pixar's Cars. All three are great animation movies. In Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away the imaginative genius of Miyazaki just steals the show with stunning visuals and well thought out scenes. In Cars , you could definitely feel that John Lasseter (who coincidentally starts off the DVD version of Spirited Away introducing Miyazaki and those who don't know who that is.. go and watch Luxo Jr. by Pixar) can make any movie scene with just cars in it, like for example a courtroom scene.. If you notice closely even small insect cars make a cute appearance. After watching "Howl's Moving Castle", I was simply mesmerized by the music/OST that the movie has. I've been hearing the theme song every night since that day before I sleep( or maybe repeat it as I sleep) .. Simply amazing and fits the story/screenplay perfectly. The characterization in all the three movies leave you with memories of characters which are not human/not of this world etched forever in your brain. Lightning McQueen, Mator, The Doctor and those 2 Italian cars (I loved the one which I put up in the above image, go see the movie and you too will fall in love with that) in Luigi's tires just steal the show from "Cars". Calcifer (and Billy Crystal who voices him) , Sophie and Howl just keep you mesmerized in "Howl's Moving Castle".

Just watching these movies gives me inspiration and gives me enormous hope when I think about my future in the same entertainment industry, be it games / animation / movies.

23 years

2006-11-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

Whew! 23 years.. today. Man.. I feel old. Anyways.. I've enjoyed every moment of my life, even the moments when I was asleep. It seems like eternity though. I don't know still if I'm taking a road that was least trodden, but I'm sure of one thing. No human's life can be similar to another in every single way. I've made a lot of friends, enriched the lives of my parents and relatives and followed my dreams with the wonderful support of each of the people I know extended in their own way. I thank everyone for being part of my life and putting up with my overzealousness, overconfidence and overindulgence. Okay.. and finally as I end this one.. Happy Birthday to me..

Nov 26, 2006 3:19 AM. - Arunan Rabindran

Star Wars Marathon

2006-11-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

I recently watched a marathon session of Star Wars (all the 6 episodes) in order. The brilliance and inventive genius of George Lucas never ceased to amaze me as I was taking in the details frame by frame. A character that is memorable with just "Grrrr.. Aarrh"(Chewie) or "static.. sound"(R2D2) is simply unbelievable. More than the story and the plot, the technology and improvisational moviemaking that was used impressed me more. I was too young to understand the movie's finer meanings when I first saw it. Whenever I see it nowadays, I find it to be very exciting. Each time I watch it I discover something new that I'd not noticed or thought of before. This series must have surely affected the lives of a great deal of people out there, now I too salute Star Wars and count myself as one of them eventhough I realise this pretty late.

My first Console

2006-11-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

My first console was a Nintendo FamiCom (Family Computer). I was too young and curious about a wierd short red guy in my TV screen, hitting his head on some bricks floating in the sky and becoming a bomberguy when he walked over a mushroom to understand how it worked and I really didn't care(How I wish I could be like that now). My father and brother still played with me. I even remember vaguely, the order in which the the 31 games that came with the game cartridge. Super Mario 2, (names I might not remember properly.) Super Mario 1, Circus, Kung-Fu, Galaga, Battleship, Wrestling, Champion (some streetfighting game, that guys in my family went bonkers about), Excitebike, Macross, Zinja , Ice Climber, Pacman(of course!), Pinball, Balloon(awesome game! balloon fighting rocks.. especially when you can burst your brother's balloon.. ), Road Fighter (or whatever its real name is..), Popeye, Baseball, Tennis.. And even now a million games later I can never forget those games.. ever.

My first PC game

2006-11-23T12:31:00.000-08:00

My first PC game was Digger by Windmill Software. I don't know if it was too old for 1989, since I believe it was released in the year I was born (1983), the year that India won the cricket world cup. But, I played it in my first PC ( A Siva PC - Produced by Sterling Computers ). It had a 40 MB Seagate harddrive which was as bulky and heavy as a DVD drive housed in a big / heavy external enclosure nowadays, 6 MHz processor speed, a CGA video card and I forgot how much RAM I had. There were other games like Cat, Carmen Sandiego that I enjoyed. But Digger, was the first ever game I played. It was great playing it, and I'd always had fun with it. I think the PC itself cost around 47,000 Rs. (around 1000$) including the Epson LX800 Dot Matrix Printer.

I might not have been good in digger because I think each time I start I haven't got past 6 or 7 levels maybe.. but I will never forget that game, ever...

UIC

2006-11-20T23:50:00.000-08:00

Well .. my sojourn at UIC has taught me a lot of things. I can't believe its just been a year since I joined the Computer Science program here. The main reason I came here was there was a game programming course here. Now, I am sure I've learnt a lot more than what I did in the four years of my undergraduate program back in India. Being exposed to a variety of graphics programming , I feel that I've got enough out of the time I've spent here. Eventhough I'd like to improve a lot, my studies here have provided me the confidence and I am pretty sure I will still follow my dreams wherever I go.

My new camera

2006-11-20T19:48:00.000-08:00

A sudden interest in photography has prompted me to purchase a brand new DSLR camera. Well if you don't know me personally I'm a bit unpredictable and adventurous. The thought of uncharted territory has always made my heart go whooosh! So, I just want to try my hand at photography just as I started out on various other interests like poetry, writing that were short-lived but I enjoyed every single moment.

Creative people have always held my interest. I've found that new technology has only increased the number of artists in the world. The photos you randomly stumble upon at flickr.com or any other photo sharing site for that matter are just plain amazing. Maybe I'd also post good photos someday when I've learned how to use this new camera of mine.

Well.. I'm here.. at last

2006-11-20T16:03:00.000-08:00

I've been keeping away from writing blogs until now. You will read my daily log in these columns. Let's hope I don't waste my time and yours.