Bookmark: Pirate Latitudes.

Pirate Latitudes – the last book ever to be published under the name Michael Crichton.  It was released posthumously and I was super-excited for another M.C. book. His science fictions are truly amazing.

This last book, failed in all points. I had expected a lot out of this book and I was entirely disappointed. I’m sure veryone who’s read just one other MC book will agree, that this was just plain

It started out quite boring, and didn’t really hook me in. The plot wasn’t good, and well, the sequence of events were poor. I mean, to attack a fort is one thing, to survive against the kraken is a whole new thing. It lacked all the science and suspense of MC’s general style.  His style incorporates intense research into the subject which Pirate Latitude evidently lacks. All the statements seemed just there as words, not really forming a picture in my head. The words never gave me sense of believing the story. A lot of the dialogue was cheesy, like some sort of movie.The length was very short, unlike his usual long, content-loaded books.

In fact,  Pirates Of The Caribbean, was amazing compared to this.

I’d rate it 2/5.

I just hope that it had been some draft of some sort that he was working on.

Things that make me feel old

I’m 18. I shouldn’t be feeling old. This is my ‘time’ as they say. Something is obviously wrong with me, well, a lot of things are wrong with me but that’s another story. So, here are some things that make feel way beyond my years, in no particular order.

1. When I was in school, (Whoa, there it is, I’m Old!) I was a “Volunteer”. What this basically involves is me taking care of a classroom/hallway full of out-of-control kids during breaks and lunch hour. My “area” was the ground floor, which consisted of kindergartners. So anyway, it was this little girl’s birthday and she comes up to me and offers me a chocolate. So, of course, I take it, (‘Stealing candy from little kids? Evil Witch!’ I know what you’re thinking..) and wish her. There are of course a bunch of her friends surrounding her (I think we girls start on the whole ‘Herd’ thing pretty early), one of whom, probably wanting the attention too, tells me that her birthday was on some XYZ date, 2003. Then it hits me that I was born in 1991! So very, very old!

2. The other thing that makes me feel old is not understanding the point of Twitter. I admit it. You may start the ‘Its micro-blogging, It helps you connect, It gives you information in real time, You can follow all your favorite celebrities!’ thing. I still don’t get the point. Microblogging seems pretty pointless. I mean, how can you convey something meaningful in 140 charactes or less? Its been done of course, case in point,Ernest Hemingway. He once said that his best work was a story that consisted of only six words, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” It almost made me cry. The thing is, not all of us are one of the greatest writers in the world and posting something every other hour is probably going to make anyone sound insipid. For example, you could try reading our posts from the NaBloPoMo period. And that was everyday!

I really couldn’t care less about what someone is doing this very minute, even celebrities. ( I don’t like that word, should look for a new one.) Plus, following them seems really intrusive. But, maybe that’s just me. It probably is.

3. The third thing that made me feel old was an incident involving my 9 year old cousin. He had just participated in this nation-wide talent exam thing and come 7th in the entire country (Great Job!). My mum was congratulating him and then she asks him what he wants as a congratulatory present and what does he ask for? GTA Vice City! I was like, What. The. Hell. I mean I totally don’t believe in the whole “Video Games are Evil and we must Ban them” thing. In my opinion, shooting space aliens will hardly drive a child to say, “Oh I want to kill people!”. GTA is probably OK for someone older than 16, they can make up their minds (Hopefully) and will not go around murdering taxi drivers (Maybe they will, but they’re probably crazy to begin with.). Back to the point, I say (In my usual articulate manner) ‘What? Why?’ and he replies with ‘All my friends have it!’. Something you should know, parents here probably aren’t completely aware of what exactly these ‘new fangled video games’ have, that’s how a 9 year old ends up with a copy of GTA! That event concluded with me having to say ‘You’re too young for that game, sweetie. We’ll get you something else?’. Which 18 year old says that?

4. I feel really old when my younger cousins come to visit. They’re in that ‘I must run around, throw things, press buttons and scream a lot’ stage. The only way to shut them up seems to be the TV. Their  cartoon of choice? Doraemon. In Hindi. Or Shinchan (That is one Messed Up kid!). Whatever happened to good shows for kids on TV? When I was their age (I find myself saying that a lot when they’re around), I would watch The Little Lulu show, The Flinstones, The Jetsons, the Laffalympics,Yogi Bear, practically anything on Nickelodeon. Those were good times. There’s just so much dumbed-down rubbish for kids on TV today. Someone should tell these TV people that kids are much smarter than they look.

I think that’s it. If there’s more I’ve forgotten it. You know what they say, the first thing to go is your memory..

In other news, I went to the Eye Doctor’s today. My Astigmatism’s gotten worse. Oh Joy!

Also; to my fellow Indians, Happy Republic Day!

Later People!

PS: Avatar from here. If you haven’t watched Charlie The Unicorn,Go NOW! Also; My brother found it.

Fave.Spam.EVER.

From: My name is a secret Noth.

Sub:  Dark Power..

Contents: “Do you desire dark power? Say yes/no”

This is what I found in my inbox, today. I have to tell you, it’s the best spam I ever got.  Are there any spam-awards I can nominate this for?

I mean “Do you desire dark power? Say yes/no” ?! Omg, that gets me every time! I want this person for a (close,personal) friend,I really do! Assuming it’s  a person, that is. O_o

The Annular Solar Eclipse

This (on 15th Jan) was supposed to be the longest annular solar eclipse for the millennium. It was phenomenal. There’s nothing quite like looking at it.

I happened to get one of those glasses that help you look at the sun and I was perched on the terrace, gazing upward at the sun. Unlike what they showed on the TV, the moon didn’t really move so fast. It was so slow that the movement wasn’t really perceptible.  Well here in Chennai it wasn’t a total annular eclipse, it was more like a really tiny crisp crescent of light. But that was enough to keep the day bright and normal-like. Well, as normal as it could get for an eclipse day (I just learnt that there are so many superstitions circling eclipses. Like you shouldn’t eat during an eclipse and that you should take a bath once the eclipse is over.)

Anyway, here’s a picture from my grandparents’ place where they experienced a total annular eclipse. It shows the sun(and moon) throwing the shadows on their house.

Besides that, currently, my life revolves around sitting with books. Blame it on the forthcoming semester exams. But I also read Atonement during these study hols. Waaaay frikkin’ brilliant book. *Loves it*

Vacation!

..That was nearly a month ago.

However, I find that our page views are going the way of my ‘artblog‘ (which I have shamelessly taken the liberty of plugging once again (=hint!) even though I haven’t updated it in about a year..), so here are some pictures from Mysore and Kabini (?), where I vacationed. I can tell you, they’re pretty easy on the eyes! It was fun trip.While it lasted.Now I’m back to college ( Imagine lots of whining and complaints. Or look back at anything we wrote from Aug-Dec ‘09).

(I’m making it easy for you to just skip the pics and comment on how lovely they are. But if you actually care to see them,  check them out below: )

New Year!

Well, I’ve always loved looking at the zillion ‘Happy New Year’ cards we get. Their designs are so awesome(Most of them, anyway.) But I do feel, it’s a waste of paper. It’s just another card that’s been sorted through in the post office.

Anyway, that made me decide to create one. On Photoshop.

And so, Happy New Year to Lucid and BWC (who is currently somewhere near Mysore.)

‘Mistle Toe and Wine’ Parody

We had a really horrdid time in EG last week. He spent the entire 2 hours yeling at 2 girls. In the meantime, this is what was forming in my head:

(To the Tune of Mistle Toe and Wine.)

Sleepy Time,
Give a bed an’ I’m fine.
Dreams start weavin’ in my mind.
With colours and spaces,
And dragons and faces,
A time to disappear from all things real.

A time for stories, and crackling fire,
A time when you can play the lyre.
Loose ends to tie up, a happy ending,
All ours in the making, just follow your dream.

UPDATE: The Snowflakes on WP is back! W00t!

It’s A Jungle Out There!

Picture this:  About 3 hours to study (for the test) and we sit under a tree, overlooking a mini lawn, the sun’s rays pleasantly falling on the ground through the (very)light canopy, and earphones plugged into our ears.  Almost perfect, right?

Not if you happen to be in our college. Half-an-hour of pleasant studying, we are interrupted by a screech. A monkey. And following it are about a dozen more. *Ack! Jumps back 2 feet, clutching my iPod and notebooks.*  The monkey doesn’t seem to do anything. We lug all the bags from under that tree and onto the lawn. That’s when this big blob of murky black leaps. *Eeew. A frog!* We couldn’t sit on the lawn either.

So we trudged off to the biotech block. Sitting outside, we resume our intellectual pursuits. That’s when a few dogs come silently and sit here and there, in silence. A minute later, as if  they were part of some  special mission, about 10 dogs bound for the tree and fight with the monkeys. The dogs try to bite the monkeys who’re throwing fruits(from the tree) on the dogs.  Barks and screeches later, the monkeys were seen jumping on another tree(quite far off form us, thank you.) They disturb these 2 crows; so ensues another battle, between the monkeys and the crows.

That was that and we were off to make more sense of E.G. And yeah, an eco-friendly campus is where we study. Sure.

P.S.: Possession by A.S. Byatt is awesome. Go, read, NOW.

Happy People make Happy People

Hihi! I’m ba…ck! So. My creativity is just about dead and for the last month or so, I’ve been opening the new post page and then shutting it without wring anything(obviously). You can blame college (which absolutely Sucks by the way, but I won’t go into that or it will take up an entire post and the 3 readers that we have might decide never to come back). But, today I decided that I will post, no matter what and I went on over to mindbump.com and got this bump, that I really liked!

suggested by The Real Eureka Springs

“Describe somethings seemingly unimportant or ridiculous that make you happy.”

Alright then, here’s a list of absolutely ridiculous things that make me happy;

1. When two characters that I like in a book, movie or a TV show get together: Yup. Crazy and irrational. That’s me. BWC can certify this.
2. Watching Friends: Even on mute! Friends will always, always cheer me up after a crappy day at college or whatever.
3. Dancing around madly to a song I love!
4. Washing my hair.
5. Singing at lunch and in class.
   
6. Getting up late on a Saturday.
7. Chocolate or Chocolate Cake or anything covered in Chocolate.
8. Shopping! ( I can’t believe I almost forgot that one!)
9. The Rain
   
10. Finding out that there’s no college because of rain!
11. Sitting on the beach and talking with my friends!
12. Going to Barista! Also; convincing my friends to go to Barista!
13. Finishing a really good book.
14. Having nothing to do all day.
15. Getting a comment on the blog! ;)
16. Coming home after college : I’m really glad that no matter how sucky my day gets at college, I get to come home in the evening.
17. Planning birthday surprise things (Even if certain people ruin them by figuring out stuff in advance *glares at Adzzie*)
18. Remembering school. ( Yeah, I sound like I’m 80, I know.)
19. Finishing a crossword puzzle.
    

That’s it for now. I could go on but you guys might die or something. In other news, I got an iPhone! I am so in love with it. Also; Tap Tap Revenge! My new obsession ever since I discovered it. Its one of the very few games that I don’t completely suck at. That’s it for now. Later my people! I will try to post fairly regularly from now on, even if it is just rants or something!

Byebye!

OMG, I missed this!!

Just a note;

» mindbump «

1. a remedy for blogger’s block that also serves as a blog promotional tool;
2. the opposite of a “brain-fart”

2012- The 21st Century Noah’s Ark

So, we went for the movie today. The main reason being : Adam Lambert’s ‘Time  For Miracles‘ song (TfM).  This song is just brilliant living up to a Glambert fan! You can hear the power in Adam’s voice and this reminded me of his ‘Mad World’ on Idol.

So enough on Adam Lambert’s awesomosity. We lasted the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes, just for ‘THE SONG’ to play.

The movie wasn’t all that amazing. The first half of the movie was just execrable. It started in India (It jus had to) with rain lashing on the windshield of the car. (Coincidentally, the drive to the theatre was pretty much the same, maybe not that much rain) So the years skip by at an alarming rate, bringing us to 2012. And then, *drum roll* title appears! (I was hoping the sound of ‘TfM’ would play. No such luck) There were tons of moments which reminded me of ‘Day After Tomorrow’ The much-hyped about visual effects weren’t really evident in the first half of the movie, but in the later half, it was much better. (Thankfully) It was quite good by the end.  The script was pure rubbish(cheesy and ridiculous too) , unable to live up to the visual fx. The movie obviously plays on our expectations of such a genre, and you end up laughing at the stupidity to be found. (Like who will not realize something major is going wrong when there’re disaster  all over the world.)

On the actors, I felt the guy who acted as Mr. President (Danny Glover) was a bit of a joke. His acting was poor. And Jackson(a.k.a Daddy, the main guy who will survive) played by John Cusack wasn’t any better.  But Woody Harlesson as DJ Charlie was good. He played a hippie-lunatic  who wears ponchos who also created this comical(extremely) video on the apocalypse. That was hilarious!

Besides this, there isn’t much to the movie. It’s a good time pass when you want to have a good laugh, yet enjoying the visuals once in a while. I wonder what Roland Emmerich was thinking when he approved of the script. I mean, it could’ve been a zillion times better.

MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT: When I found out about Lambert singing the soundtrack for this, I was super-excited. I expected it to come up when someone said something about ‘miracles.’ But instead, it comes out during the credits when the cinema people decide to turn down the volume.

Here’s something I found on the web

The last 40 minutes test your patience — and intelligence — in a way the rest of this big, dumb, crazy movie never does.

That is very true. So is it worth watching? Despite the lousy script, it is, just to have a good laugh.