Patapon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.. !

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

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

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

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!!

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

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 ??

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.