쒘 Ǎrbitrary and Contemplative̿ ̿̿̿̿̿̿'\̵͇̿̿\

2009-06-11T10:00:00.003+03:00

Note: Due to a special readers request, I've tried my best to make the following post without spoilers. I don't think I write that well when I have to write like that, but this is just a trial.

Wolverine and the X-Men

It's no secret that cartoons more or less suck these days. The 1990s was a goldmine of cartoons, and those of us who grew up in that time were lucky to grow up with the Swat Kats, Captain Planet, Johnny Quest, etc, and with reruns of legendary cartoons such as Looney Toons and Tom&Jerry. Some of the early Cartoon Network creations like Dexter's Lab were pretty good but it seems like the creative mill doesn't have anyone to turn the grindstone anymore. Even Superhero cartoons have suffered. The recent Spectacular Spiderman and The Batman do no justice to their brilliant predecessors. However, I would like to say that one cartoon stands out from the rest of the pack. A diamond among the heap of coal, as one can say.

Wolverine and the Xmen is that cartoon. I don't want to include any spoilers but the series is not about Wolverine, featuring cameo appearances from the Xmen. It's actually about Wolverine being the leader of the Xmen. The series is produced by Toonz Animation, an Indian company. In the beginning I thought some of the animation looked weird as Wolverine looked too tall, but as I got used to it, I started loving it. Season 1 was really good and I can't wait for Season 2 to release. Season 1 itself covers many plots in the Xmen universe such as the Rise of the Sentinels. I won't say anything else because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. As in modern comics, the same story could be different in different forms of media. The same story could be different in a movie, different in the original comics, different in the cartoons etc. I think there are quite a few differences between X-Men Evolution and this series. However I do think that this series is more accurate than X-Men Evolution, especially pertaining to backstories of mutants.. There are appearances from many characters in the Xmen universe which simply adds to the excitement. The storyline(or should I say storylines) is very well paced and they all intertwine together at the end pretty well. The Xmen team throughout most of the series is Wolverine, Emma Frost, Beast, Angel, Forge, Shadowcat, Iceman, Rogue, Storm and Cyclops. Anyways, for anyone looking to get their teeth into a good cartoon series, I highly recommend this cartoon.

The Wrestler

I saw this movie a few days back and it potrays perfectly the life of a wrestler. It shows that wrestling, like all other forms of showbiz, is cutthroat and it's possible to have a completely unsatisfactory life even if you were a huge star in your prime. Mickey Rourke plays Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a wrestler who was a great star in his prime. It shows that once work runs out for him, he doesn't have much money and is forced to take up work at the local supermarket on weekdays. And on weekends he goes and wrestles for a few hundred dollars in local wrestling shows. Randy also has a very strained relationship with his daughter. The movie shows how wrestlers who are opponents on that night discuss their tactics and moves in order to make the match as entertaining to the crowd as possible. Randy also has a slight relationship with a stripper played by Marisa Tomei. Overall it's a good movie and I'd give it 7.5/10.

I also saw Back to the Future 1 a few days back and read this book, Sidney Sheldon's The Other Side of Midnight. Both are good and I'd recommend them to you guys, although I'm too lazy to write about them,

In other news, more and more Indians are getting attacked in Australia. A couple of days back, the Lebanesee also decided to get into the action and assaulted Indians in a park in Oz. Even the Canadians (yeah...beleive it..) wanted their piece of the pie and assaulted a few Indians outside Vancouver. I think it's a disgrace. If people don't like indians, what's the difficulty in just not minding them and walking away? Maybe they're jealous of Indians doing well in their country while they suffer during the recession. Sagar, be careful of those ruffians in Atlanta.

The Confederations Cup in football starts in 3 days and I can't wait. There's nothing like a big international football event to cheer up my days...whooo....till

next time....

CL Final Review, Prison Break Review, and more!

2009-06-03T20:23:00.005+03:00

Ooooookkaaayyyy...long overdue update, so let's get right down to business.

CHAMPION'S LEAGUE FINAL REVIEW

It's been a week since Barcelona thrashed Manchester United in the final of Europe's most prestigious club competition, the Champions League. ManU started off the brighter of the 2 sides, as Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes awkwardly dealt with the bounce from a Ronaldo freekick and Gerard Pique's timely clearance just prevented Ji Sung Park from scoring in the beginning 10 minutes. Had ManU scored, who knows how the game would've turned out? Looking back at the Barca-Chelsea semifinals, I'd say that Barca would've still gone on to win 2-1. At Chelsea they were outplayed by a very physical midfield but they stuck to their guns and continued playing their own style of football. Anyways, back to the match, and a few long range attempts by Ronaldo was followed by Barca's first penetration into the box. Xavi Hernandez, God bless him, supplied a simple through ball to Samuel Eto'o before Eto'o completely jinked Nemanja Vidic and his shot was powerful enough to go into the net off Van Der Sar's glove. I remember that, while watching the match, I didn't expect this AT ALL. It felt like the ManU defence was sleeping or something!

Anyway, the rest of the match was pretty much dominated by Barca. You might as well have called it 'The Xavi and Iniesta Show starring Lionel Messi: A Lesson in Ball Possesion". There was that moment when Valdes ran out to clear the ball and he cleared it all right, and crashed into Park. Hehe I wonder what would've happened if he tackled Park instead and ManU got a penalty. Hehe stupid me, always thinking of 'what ifs'. And then there was that moment when Messi got the ball and ran past THREE frickin' ManU players...well he didn't run past 3 because by the time he got to the third he was brought down and won a freekick. This also resulted in Carrick falling on top of Vidic in what I swear was the most audacious attempt at an on-field gay lapdance. Guess all those showers together in the locker room must've given the lad certain ideas....hehehe. Anyways that dribble was totally awesome *Messigasm* (or was there a hint of a Carrickgasm...hmmmmm) Anyways after that there was more Messi as Xavi flew in a great cross and Messi headed it in. he kinda angled his head while heading it in. He did jump really high for a little guy and his hang time reminded me of a certain number 23. So that's all for the CL final. There was a great celebration afterwards and all the ManU players looked all dejected because they knew they got beat by a team that was much better on this night.

PRISON BREAK, YO!

According to Wikipedia, PB's first season was planned for just 13 episodes but was extended to 22. I think if you've seen the show you probably can remember what was supposed to happen in that 13th episode. But in my opinion, I think they extended the entire show by nearly 2 seasons.

Season 1 was really good. Season 2 showed them blending in the general public and all. The mystery and intrigue around the company was increased and used to good effect. Then Season 3 came and that was a total waste of time. The whole concept of being thrown into jail in another country was really dumb and it took away the feel and that certain American flair that the show had. What was the use of Michael breaking Whistler out of jail. He did nothing useful and got killed shortly afterwards. Season 4 was good in the beginning. Wyatt the assassin was good and scary. Self turning out to be a traitor and the Mother coming back was just plain retarded. Michael dying also was pretty sad. It's like they just wanted to keep on adding twists and turns to the show and I was like 'Dude enogh already!'

Finally I think they should've ended with Michaels original plan of everyone being together and happy in Panama or they should've ended it after they stole all 6 Scylla cards. Another alternative is that they should've somehow skipped s3 and gone from the boat scene where that punk of a Chinese company agent gets killed(the killing for which Michael goes to Sona) and somehow gone to the stealing of the Scylla cards.

So, to everyone looking to watch this TV series...watch Seasons 1 and 2, they're awesome, and then read the plot analysis until the episode in season 4 where they steal the 6th Scylla card. Then again read the plot and watch the final 2 episodes. On a final note, the last few episodes felt like they just wanted to do a character reunion or something. I mean, we haven't seen them in ages and then BAM!...C-Note and Kellerman are back....hot dayamn! But ya gotta love that Fernando Sucre and Alex Mahone!

Anyways, with Prison Break over I can, technically start to watch a new 'serious' TV show...The Wire, Lost, Entourage, Hustle, House are all options but I think I'll just stick to the half-hour shows for now. The other ones are too time consuming. And I'm hooked onto Wolverine and the X-Men now.

More comments on that to follow. And for some cool tech, be sure to check out Microsoft and Sony's new game controllers...you can find details on them at any game web site. Till next time....

2009....1/12th done....

2009-01-30T23:47:00.002+03:00

It just seems like yesterday that 2009 was ushered in, but the days really do fly by in these times, and January is on the verge of passing the baton to February. My first sessional exams for S4 are beginning on Tuesday, and although due to various commitments I'm not as prepared as I would like to be, I do have a certain feeling of satisfaction in knowing that I'm not totally clueless about the portions that I have left to cover.

I think I'm at a point in my life where I have to look back at what I've achieved in my life till now and seriously plan for the future. I really hope I can somehow get an opportunity to do an internship somehow. It would really help improve my portfolio. My current GPA really doesn't help me there, but thankfully I have 5 semesters left to improve.

I read this excellent article on the Web's most prolific movie pirate, aXXo. Pretty cool how the Internet can make someone's alias famous.

In other interesting news, Western Digital are going to release a 2 TB harddrive for desktop PCs. This ExtremeTech review says that it's pretty hardcore, so check it out!

That's it for now....I really can't say when I'll be updating this next, cuz last time I said I'll update it in a day and I never did...lol.

2008-12-20T20:07:00.004+03:00

The Champions League fixtures for the Last 16 teams were announced yesterday, and I've gotta say, some really exciting fixtures have come up. Chelsea vs Juventus, Liverpool vs Real Madrid are all good fixtures but the one to be really worked up about is of course Inter vs Man Utd, with Jose Mourinho going to take on Sir Alex Ferguson once again, but this time for European glory. Unfortunately, the 1st leg of these fixtures are going to take place on February 24th, which is really a long time away.

Moving away from football news, my sister went back to her husband's home today. I must say, I'm really going to miss her and my nephew Jordan a lot. Not that I'm not going to miss my niece but I dunno, I got closer to my nephew.

I'm also wondering how many people spend time reading webcomics, because there really is some quality stuff out there for free. Like this site, for example, which supplies dinosaur comics for the thinking man or woman.

Ok, I'm out for now....will be back tomorrow....

It's been a long time...

2008-05-26T20:15:00.004+03:00

Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted in my blog. So much has happened since the last time I posted....I guess writing all that's happened will be like getting back to times with an old friend or something, hehe. Or maybe I can just give a brief overview...

1. Made new friends. They know who they are.
2. Got a back. Yes, I'm experiencing the unexpected.
3. Had a near-death experience. See second sentence of above.
4. And, I'm generally confused about stuff. I'm not gonna elaborate on this. Not because of 'privacy' issues or anything, but just because I'm too lazy to write now.

Euro2008 is beginning soon. And yes, I'm gonna be rooting for them Azzurri this time too. Having the best line of forwards plus the usual Italian defense surely can't hurt, although Materazzi and Zambrotta's form are cause for concern.

Right now I'm at home, bored, nothing's really happening, as usual. For more kicks, check out my look-alike and this imitation of Azad sir.

Till next time, which will hopefully be soon!

A farewell to the Kingdom...

2007-10-23T08:01:00.000+03:00

So, exactly a month after I post after getting to college, here I am posting...again. This time however, I'm not in the CC of NIT Calicut. I'm back home in Saudi Arabia :D. Yeah that's right, since Aramco reimburses tickets for me I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and come here for a few days. And to tell you the truth, it's great to be back! I was able to do some things here which I haven't done here before, like try an Applebee's Cowboy Burger(beef heaven), easily the best burger I've ever had. I also ate the ol' favourite.... KFC(chicken heaven)...lol.

I visited my school here and met all of my old teachers, which was great. Some of them even have kids who they're planning to send to NIT-C. *devilish smile* Our school got a new vice-principal, a dude who comes from an Army background, and he's looking to discipline the school. Hmm...I kinda hope that happens, cuz our school is really going to the dogs when it comes to discipline.

I went to Rashid Mall yesterday with Naimul and Sharbeen. There's a new extension to Rashid mall, and a frickin' FOOTLOCKER opened there. I was pretty excited going into the shop but my excitement died down like a matchstick in the Niagara Falls when I saw that pretty much all the shoes were overpriced. A Quiksilver shop opened too. We ate from Burger King over there and then ice-cream from Baskin Robbins. Naimul rode the rodeo again, lol. And then we all walked home and me 'n' Sherb checked out Lifestylez, which isn't lying about it's discount.

So ...THIS, will actually be my last time posting from Saudi Arabia. It's been 18 years over here, and I dunno how I'll feel once I get back to India. The memories, will, of course, live on forever, and I guess I have to feel lucky to live in an age of fast communication and thank God that a lot of my friends are in the same college as I am.

Hopefully and Inshallah, I'll be able to visit here someday again and roam the streets of Al-Khobar. *cue badass ranger type music* LOL!!!

It's about time.....

2007-09-23T12:25:00.000+03:00

My goodness, I didn't really think it would take me this much time to update my blog, but adly it did.

2 months of college have flied past, and so much has happened that it's gonna be difficult for me to chronicle everything. Basically, I'm here with about 6-7 friends, and add to that a few more new friends from college, and I'm pretty much rolling with comrades here.

Our seniors(2nd years) are pretty nice and fun guys. I didn't get ragged much, I have the feeling that the floodgates will open soon, most probably on Musical Night or something. Classes are seriously boring, and I wish we didn't have a compulsory 80% attendance requirement.

Loads of incidents and events have happened, like the 'Friendship Day incident', the 'Marc Antony' incident, etc. Anyways I'm really busy now with tathva work....the seniors call us all to help make posters and stuff for Tathva, our college's technical fest, which is this week. However, I don't do anything there....I just go and watch people do stuff! And talk to our seniors.

Some of us here have shaved their heads, including me. We call ourselves 'Bald Brothers of Calicut' or BBC, for short. It is with great pride that I say that anybody, regardless of age, nationality, location, religion or even sex can join our troupe of obviously cooler people, unless of course you want remain hairy and uncool.

In other extremely good news, Arsenal are totally rocking this season. A 5-0 win yesterday over Derby County finishes off a great week which includes a 3-1 win over Sp*rs and a 3-0 win over Sevilla. Great stuff, gunners!

The Last Day

2007-07-15T14:48:00.000+03:00

Hello, everybody.

This is gonna be the last post on my blog from Saudi Arabia. My flight to Cochin is on Monday morning, around 4:40 AM Saudi time. It's a weird feeling, leaving a place you've lived all your life,knowing that you probably will never come back, but more on that later. Let's overview what happened in the past few days.

On Thursday I went to school to get my Passing Certificate, and then I went to Sagar's house. We finally got to do what we always dreamed of doing together: being bored. lol. We watched parts of 3 movies- Thank You For Smoking, The Wedding Singer, and Reno 911-Miami!. He took some movies from my harddrive. And at around 6- I left. Damn, I gonna miss Sagar a lot. He's my oldest friends, and I've known him ever since 2nd standard, when we were in the same class. I love you, man.

Friday was a normal day except that I had my breakfast from Aramco' Dining Hall. Actually, I should say i GORGED my breakfast- 2 waffles, bacon(beef, not pork, duhhhh) and an apple tart. Needless to say, I was gasping for breath after that. Just the way I like it! :D I also went to this church here for the last time. Now I'll go to India and go to Malayalam masses in Kerala and not understand a single word. Atleast over here church was in English.

And on Saturday, I went to the gym here for the last time. Not really going to miss it, though, lol. But I AM going to miss the library here. It's a really awesome one, it has loads of books and magazines, and you can request them to buy a book for you or subscribe to a magazine. I went out in the evening with Aryton, we went to Baskin Robbins. I had a Jamoca Almond Fudge ice cream, which was really good.

Ok, so back to leaving Saudi. I was born here, and I've also lived in the same apartment for the whole of my life. It's really strange to know that you won't step into the same house ever again, and these are the last few hours over here. But I think since this is inevitable, and that many teenagers around the world are experiencing the same thing, it's best to try and not be too emotional about leaving.

I installed the software that came with my phone. And now some icon is on my desktop which launches 'Sony Ericsson File Manager'. I can't even move or delete this icon. But considering that this software came from Sony, I shouldn't really be surprised. If you didn't understand why I said that, click here. Also, Arsenal won their first pre-season friendly 2-0 yesterday over a team called Barnet. Considering that they drew 0-0 lat year, this is a ray of hope. Highlights here!

So now, packing and all is done. We have a LOT of luggage this time, and that's making me tensed. Another thing is that the reporting date to the college is on 19th July, and we've decided to go to Calicut on the 18th itself by train. But the problem is that there's a 'hartaal' or strike on the 18th, from 6 AM to 6 PM, so no road transport will be available during that time. So I gotta get to the railway station before 6 AM and wait there for a train. Seriously, in these kind of things, India really sucks.

So I guess that's about it from me....take care everybody. I don't really know when I'll update this again.

Antony.....out!

Project 'Obtaining a Mobile' = Success!!!

2007-07-11T23:43:00.000+03:00

As you can see, I have decided to scrap the 'Daily Paraphernalia' title. Although it has served me well, I've decided not to use it because I don't update everyday and I don't think I will begin to in the near future.

So how are all you guys doing? Class at NIT Calicut begin on the 24th of this month for me. It's early, I know.

The few days after the last update have been pretty busy. I've been running around doing shopping and all. Today I went to Extra to look for a mobile. I saw the Nokia 5300 which I've been eyeing for some time. I had even told my mom about it, and she liked it. But sadly yesterday as I was surfing online, checking out mobiles and their reviews, it was written in one of them that Opera Mini doesn't work with the 5300. Ok, I didn't know if this was true but I wasn't gonna take any chances. Also, this is was my chance to spring for a better mob :p! And so, I got a Sony Ericsson W810i.

Oh yeah, I finally got around to buying a new pair of shoes- K-Swiss Kinnard, in red and white. I couldn't find a good pic of them so I can't link you guys to it. I won;t be taking them to college immediately, though. I think I'll wear out my old ones in the rain and then take these later.

Heh, I also got to eat KFC today......whoohoo.....we bought this bucket so it'll inhabit my fridge for a few days :D. This is also the reason I can't really think straight now. I think I ate too much. I get a headache when I eat too much fast food. It happened last week at Pizza Inn and it happened today also. I'm going to Sagar's house tomorrow. It'll probably be the last time I'll be seeing him for a long time :(.

Lots of really awesome videogames will be releasing soon. Among them, Crysis and Bioshock look really good. I also want to play Half Life Episode One and Two. So hopefully I'll get to play them. I also finished reading Masters of Doom. The books is about the 2 Johns.....John Carmack, and John Romero, the 2 guys who started id Software, and created games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3d and of course, Doom. I finished Metal Gear Solid. What an awesome game with a brilliant story and so many classic moments. The game's designer, Hideo Kojima, is really a creative genius. I SO want to play MGS2 and MGS3 now. I was getting really bored tho, so on Sunday, I started playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic again. Another amazing game, one of my personal faves!

Sagar also came over to my house on Sunday. We watched Click together. It's a good movie, plus it has Kate Beckinsale in it :p What's weird is that she looks like Eva Longoria in one scene and looks like Liv Tyler in several others :S

Hmmmm I'm kinda tensed about college. Will I get ragged? What will my roommates be like? Will I be labelled as an NRI? Will the teachers like me? Will my inability to speak fluent Malayalam sentences and funny pronunciations condemn me to 4 years of humiliation? Questions question....only time will be able to provide the answers. I dunno when I'm supposed to report to the college. I wish those guys @ Ed.Cil would let us know already! It's a pain cuz we have to book air tickets and stuff.

Yeah....that's it......I'm also really bored here, guys. Take care, me out!

Daily Paraphernalia 7/07/2007

2007-07-07T00:12:00.000+03:00

'Ello everybody! How are all of you? Hope all of you are doing fine.

I think the boredom is finally getting to me. I've gotten used to coming online and chatting with atleast some 4-7 people, so now that almost everybody's gone to India, the haunting remoteness online is really depressing.

But thankfully, the past 3 days were quite busy. Wednesday morning and afternoon passed quite normally, but in the evening I went to Dammam. We visited a family friend and then went shopping for a bit. I know this sounds short but actually it took some 5 hours to do all this. Plus, Dammam isn't exactly the easiest place to navigate through so driving around took some time. Then I went home and ate 2 shawarmas for dinner. This may sound like a lot, but it wasn't, lol.

Anyway, on Thursday I woke up feeling a bit excited. Cuz I was going to go to Pizza Inn for lunch with some friends- Aryton, Sharbeen, Adnan, Zohair, and Faraz. I ate some 9 and a half pieces of pizza, 3 glasses of Pepsi and this croissant thing with pepperoni inside. I was so full, that I wanted to never see pizza again for a long time. But at this very moment, sitting here, typing this all out, in my bedroom cooled with a Carrier AC, I feel like I could go for some Pizza now :p Mmmmmmmmm those juicy toppings rolling around in your mouth, the crust, crispy and warm, mmmmmmm...!!!

I came home really full, wanting nothing other than to go to sleep, but my mom said that I had to get ready to go to church. Damn! So i grudgingly took a bath and got dressed, and went. After church, we went for the 'Monthly Movie' thingy. This months movie was 'Angels in the Outfield'. It was a nice, heartwarming movie, but then again, what did you expect from it with a title like that! I also ate some rice, chicken curry-thing, spring rolls, cake and some Pepsi again. Heh, I really don't know how I got space in my stomach for that, but I just couldn't resist.

Today's morning and afternoon were also pretty boring. I just sat around playing Metal Gear Solid. And then today I went searching for shoes. I saw some awesome Vans and Nikes but sadly the shop in Rashid didn't have my size. So I guess I might have to just buy a pair of adidas or K-Swiss shoes, seeing as how Sagar doesn't want me to buy Converse. :|

So, among all this disappointment of not getting the shoes I want, comes a ray of happiness. I got into NIT Calicut for Computer Science Engineering. Whooohoooo!!! Exactly what I wanted! 'Obtaining a mobile' project has advanced due to the fact that I told my dad that the Nokia 5300 was 750 riyals and he was like 'ok'. :D

So that's about it, what happened the past 3 days............take care people....I'm bored here!

Daily Paraphernalia 4/07/2007

2007-07-04T01:01:00.000+03:00

Hello and goooooddd morning, readers around the world! That's right, I'm actually writing this in the morning, at 1 AM, after having watched Austin Powers 2. It was a fun and crazy movie, better than the first one anyway! But, err, I guess I'm not such a big fan of Austin Powers. Soooooooooooo how have all of you people been for the past few days? I'm sorry for not updating(not....like you care anyway...lol) but I dunno, I guess I just found out, like some of my fellow bloggers, that updating your blog regularly can sometimes be a bit of a pain, a hassle, y'know what I mean.

Nothing great has happened over the past few days. Nimi and Maryann left for India. Hope they're doing fine. Sybil is going to India tomorrow night. Or rather, Thursday early morning. Air India flight. Heh, me and him went on the same flight to India after the boards. There were 2-3 more guys with us then.

So today I went out to the Cat shop once more. Strangely this time very few of the shoes looked good to me. And the ones that did, I couldn't buy, because according to my mom and the shop dude who was standing there, the shoes were made of leather which gets stained by water, and begins to stink if it doesn't get dried properly. So the Cat shoe dream just got neutered. Great! My shoe options sure are running out! I'm also hoping that some progress can be made on the 'obtaining a mobile' project this weekend. But that also looks bleak.

I'll also know what college I'll be going ton the 5th. Ohhhh mannnn I'm hoping I get my first choice itself- Comp. Sci @ NIT Calicut. Keeping my fingers crossed, well, not now, cuz I'm typing, but in my mind I'm keeping my fingers crossed, ok!

I borrowed some books from the library. Joystick Nation, Masters of Doom, and Vieira: My Autobiography. I finished Joystick Nation, the beginning parts were good but the towards the ending it was so omfg BORING I just skipped the last few pages. Screw reading about the military's involvement in the advancement of technology. I started Patrick Vieira's autobiography though. It looks to be a good read. After all, it IS written by an Arsenal player. :D

Oh yeah, Arsenal signed this Brazilian-born Croatian international, Eduardo Da Silva for an 'undisclosed' fee, rumoured to be about 7.8million pounds. Man, check out his pic starboard. Does anybody think that with glasses, he could look a wee bit like our own Sreesanth? Lemme know your thoughts on that.

Arrite, me going to sleep now.

Bye bye, and take care everyone. To those who are tensed about college admissions and stuff, here's to hoping for a 'very shagadellic' future, lol!

Sayonara!

Daily Paraphernalia 29/06/2007

2007-06-29T23:09:00.000+03:00

Man....yesterday(Thursday) was a really busy day. I woke up at around 9, and after breakfast, I proceeded to vacuum the house. I played a few games of Command and Conquer, and by that time, it was lunchtime already. So tonight was Aryton's sister's Communion party, and so after lunchtime I headed over to Grill restaurant to help them with the decorations. Sticking balloons on the ceiling was a piece o' cake, I just needed to stretch my hand up and voila!!!! Balloon stuck on ceiling!

Then I came home, went online for ONLY 40 minutes, and then took a bath and went to the party. It was pretty cool with about 70 people in all. My senior Vijay was there, so I was hanging out with him. 'Twas great talking to him after soooooooooooo long! Then there were some games at the party. There was some 'Passing the Parcel' game with a twist, but I quickly got kicked out of that lol. The food was also good, with some tasty noodles. I reached home pretty late, at about 1.

I had to go to church today morning, so I knew I was going to wake up all sleepy with eyes effen tired, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. I think not spending the whole night in front of the comp helped my eyes to be not tired. Came back from church and then slept for about 2 hours. I then started playing Metal Gear Solid again. Aaahhhhh memories! After all these years, I'm finally understanding the story of this game(I think!) I also started on the last mission of Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. That's about it, on what happened different today. Evening was spent in front of the tv, drinking Knorr soup, which rocks!

And I'm online now!

Bah-bye!

Farewell, The Rabid Wolverine!

2007-06-29T13:29:00.001+03:00

I was going through this online forum I frequent when I came upon a topic about the WWE. So I opened it up, and me, not being up to date with the happenings in the wrestling world, didn’t really know what everyone was talking about. Until I saw a post saying

“Yeah, it’s true, Benoit’s dead.”

OMFG!!! SO I started reading through the topic with fervour and came upon a few news sites confirming the fact that Chris Benoit, aka, The Rabid Wolverine, aka The Canadian Crippler, had died. Another shocking fact was that both his wife and his 7-year old son were also found dead in their home in Atlanta, Georgia. Further updates on a few news pages revealed the fact that Benoit had actually committed suicide, and possibly could have also killed his wife and son :o!

This is especially hard on me and my friends cuz we all loved Benoit. He was a hard technical wrestler and his ring work was excellent. We always felt he was a hard worker and served as a role model to everyone with his no-nonsense and workhorse attitude.

Benoit was trained in the infamous Hart Family Dungeon, by the legendary Stu Hart, Bret and Owen Hart’s father. His first championship did not come in North America, rather it came in Japan where Benoit solidified himself as one of the premier junior heavyweights, under the names The Pegasus Kid and Wild Pegasus. He then had a one-year stint with the WCW in 1992 before going on to Extreme Championship Wrestline(ECW) in 1994. It was here in ECM, that Benoit dropped Pegasus name and adopted The Canadian Crippler as his alias. Benoit then came back to the WCW in 1995, where he’s remembered to have some great feuds, including one with BookerT, which elevated both of them as serious singles competitors.

By January 2000, Benoit has many disagreements with the management of the WCW, and so he, and 3 other stars include Eddie Guerrero, left for the WWE. It was here that he was to become world renowned. He also got a nickname- The Rabid Wolverine, in addition to the Canadian Crippler. In 2004, Benoit became the 2^nd person to enter as #1 in the Royal Rumble and go on to win the event. He won the World Heavyweight title from TripleH later in the year.

Benoit’s signature moves include the Diving Headbutt, Rolling German Suplexes, and the ‘most painful move ever’ The Crippler Crossface. (Believe me, it hurts!) His championships include the World Heavyweight Title, the US Title, several Tag Team titles, and Intercontinental titles, which were mainly won during his early feud with Chris Jericho. Benoit is also known for his close camaraderie with wrestler Eddie Guerrero, who died last year. When Benoit won the World Heavyweight Title in 2004, at the end of the show, he and Eddie, who was reigning WWE Champion, stood and celebrated in front of the crowd at Madison Square Garden.

Nobody knows why he killed his wife and kid, but let me tell you that wrestlers live really hard lives. Unless you’re a champion, you don’t get paid all that much. And you have to spend ~350 days on the road. NWA-TNA has all their shows in one location, so their wrestlers don’t have to travel around, but the WWE has their shows all around the world and so the wrestlers have to travel all over the globe. Imagine being on the road for 350 days in a year! Plus, a lot of wrestlers take body enhancing drugs, which has many side effects including random outbursts of anger, also known as ‘Roid Rage’. Who knows whether Benoit was in his right mind when he did it. He must’ve been under the influence of some drugs. Investigations are still going on into the cause of his death.

So RIP, Chris Benoit, The Canadian Crippler, and thank you for all the great moments!

Daily Paraphernalia 27/06/2007

2007-06-27T21:04:00.000+03:00

Quick, look at your watch!!!! Know what time it is????

Iitttt’sssssss *drum roll* blog-updating time!!!!!

Yeah I know, a verrrrrrry ultra(corny) joke. So here’s my roundup of the past 2 days.

Yesterday was the ultimate nothing day. I didn’t do anything! I didn’t even go to the gym because I wasn’t feeling like it. I came back home and I was online for some time. Then I fell asleep in the evening for about an hour and a half. And then the regular schedule took its course…..prayer…dinner…and coming online again!

Today however, a lot happened. I had to wake up early.( Ok, I actually woke up at 9:30, but hey, it’s early for me.) For what, you ask? A hospital appointment. Both my mom and I had an appointment with the same doctor today. The results of the X-Ray and blood test I had given 2 weeks back came in, and thankfully nothing was wrong with me. Everything was normal. My dad then came and took me and my mom to the library. My mom went in and started reading while I went to the gym. I was pretty sleepy and didn’t stay long in the gym. Just half an hour or so.

I came home on the usual bus and on reaching home, I caught hold of this awesome aroma wafting through the streets from the nearby bakery. So I went and bought a freshly baked Zatar….and MAN it was good!

I went back home and ate the Zatar for lunch. Then I went down to this new barbershop here and got a haircut. Ok, this was the first time I was going to this shop. The barber was this Lebanese guy with a huge beard. And he only knew Arabic. Which made telling him what I wanted a bit difficult. But I think, in the end he understood what I wanted. Or that’s what I kept telling myself to make me feel better, cuz lol, he was doing things which I’d never experienced in a haircut before. Like using this huge hairdryer….I mean c’mon…..I just want a simple haircut. Then he kept saying things to himself, I dunno what, but it was like he was motivating himself. Hahahahaha!

So I came home and took a bath, and then came online for some time. I was still feeling sleepy, and I had the feeling that I was falling sick with a sore throat, so I decided to take a nap. That I did, and I was woken up by my parents at around 6:30 cuz we had to go out.

Dinner was kebabs, and it was good to eat them after a long time.

In some extremely sad news, Chris Benoit was found dead in his house in Atlanta, along with his wife and 7 year old son. More on this soon guys.

So adieu, and as Mick Foley used to say ‘Have a nice day everybody’!

Daily Paraphernalia 25/06/2007

2007-06-25T23:47:00.000+03:00

Bonjour Messieurs and Mesdames!

The mornings of the last 2 days were normal with me waking up and going to the gym, but the evening were very much different. Yesterday evening I went to my friend Aryton's house. Heh, it was great, we were just catching up on the times and we were exchanging music and movies and all. And I also got to eat Bugles after a long time :D Later in the night a friend came over. He needed The Prestige from me. In exchange I took McAfee Antivirus 8.51 and Pohotshop CS3. A fair trade, dontchya think? :p

Todays evening was spent visiting my 12th standard Maths tuition teacher- Musarath Mam. I'm really gonna miss her tuitions. We had a lot of fun and studied too! And she's a totally cool teacher. I can talk to her about anything. so I'm gonna miss her and hope she does well in the years to come.

In other news, various players are being linked with Arsenal at the moment- Ryan Babel and Klaas Jan Huntelaar of Ajax, Carlos Tevez of West Ham United and former Arsenal player Nicholas Anelka from Bolton. I dunno who should come but I'd really like Huntelaar and Babel. They both play well together and Babel's best friend is Arsenal's Robin Van Persie. Huntelaar's idol, it seems, is Dennis Bergkamp, so I'm hoping he comes to the Emirates this season.

Oh yeah, and it seems Aparna got into BMS Bangalore for B. Arch, so congrats to her!!!

Adieu readers, till next time!

Daily Paraphernalia 23/06/2007

2007-06-23T23:05:00.000+03:00

Hey guys!

Yeah, I'm sorry once again for skipping a day for updating the blog, but the problem is that there's not enough 'Paraphernalia' happening in a day to make it worthy to post. I'm also not feeling all that sprightly these days. More on that later(look at the picture for a hint). Yesterday(Friday) was a normal day. I got up early for church, which made me feel really sleepy during church and after it, so I had to have a nap after it when I came home. Anyway it was a great nap. I was knocked out cold then. lol. I had Zatar for breakfast, which was tasty. I'm really gonna miss all this one month from now.

I also started reading Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, which is supposed to be some great award winning book. So far, it's all right. Quite interesting, in fact. I actually started reading it because I heard it was good.

I woke up late today, at around 11, and the day went on normally. I went to this electronics shop here today...called Extra. Me and my parents were checking out LCD TVs..and we saw a nice 32inch Samsung one which my parents really liked. So hopefully we'll get that or something better.

Remember I said I wasn't feeling very sprightly? Well, in some very very sad news, Thierry Henry has left Arsenal for FC Barcelona. Although he can't be blamed for his reasons, his departure will definitely sadden a lot, if not ALL of the Gunner faithful. I understand why he left. Things are getting destabilized at Arsenal. At almost 30 years of age, he surprisingly hasn't won a World Footballer of the Year Award. How he didn't win it last year when someone undeserving like Cannavaro won it is really astounding. Yeah I know, Cannavaro played at an unparalleled level at the World Cup, but he didn't really do much apart from that. Henry also hasn't won a Champions League medal yet.

*sigh*

The Premiership is losing one of its greatest talents today. Arsenal fans, including me are losing their King, their Hero, and memories of so many amazing moments by him will remain in our hearts. Nobody who's seen him score a goal and then do one of his celebrations can admit that they were not enthralled. His flip-over goal against ManU, his hat-trick against Roma, the brilliant double sidestep goal against Liverpool, his destruction of Leeds United!! Those would easily induce feelings of admiration, respect, and amazement in even the most casual football fan. He was easily the best striker in the Premiership(better than RVN anyday), and he might be the most graceful and deadliest striker the world has ever seen.

My own personal wound is like a deep DEEP gash in my chest, and the blood won't stop flowing. My former anti-depressant is now my depressor, and this realization condemns me to a mood of general morbidity. How fucking ironic that I just got a Henry Arsenal! poster yesterday. Hope everyone else's lives are much more cheery.

Farewell, Thierry, good luck with your future endeavours with Eto'o and co.

You will never be forgotten. And thanks for everything!

Daily Paraphernalia 21/06/2007

2007-06-22T10:57:00.000+03:00

Good morning/afternoon/evening dear reader, wherever you are in the world. Thursday was another day of normality. I woke up at the usual time of about 10:30. I then vacuumed the house, which surprisingly doesn't take that long now for me to do. Let's see...what happened next....lunch...followed by an afternoon online...and..whoohoo, yeah not that much happening.

I saw V For Vendetta, which is a pretty cool movie, although I don't think the English setting is right for a revolution-type movie. Natalie Portman gets bald again, lol.

The high point of the day was looking for shoes to buy. I think I want either Caterpillar or Merrell, because I saw some good pairs. and they're not that expensive. Right now I'm inclining more to the Cat side. Anyway I'm hoping that this pair will last me a long time.

Yeah, that's all that happened today....oh yeah, I ate a shawarma too.

Cheerio, everyone.

Daily Paraphernalia 20/06/2007

2007-06-20T23:46:00.000+03:00

Hey guys, what's happening?

Sorry to take a day off yesterday, I know, all of you were disappointed because of that. But don't worry, here I am again, delighting all of you with my witty comments and insightful dialogue. So today I went to the gym again after not going for 2 days. I didn't miss the bus this time, rather, it came late. AH, THE IRONY IS KILLING ME! Anyway, it was great going back. I returned Fever Pitch and Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony back to the library. The Lost Colony isn't as good as the 4th book, there's not much genius plotting by Artemis. Hmmm hopefully Eoin Colfer will pick up the slack in the 6th book.....lolzzz....that Irishman, must've been chugging down beers while writing the 5th book.

So I got my hard drive back, and I watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, which is a pretty funny movie, I thought. I think I'm becoming a fan of Kal Penn. Anyway it's a pretty bitchin' movie, and by bitchin' I mean there are a lot of tits shown in the movie!

In other news, Aparna is leaving to India tomorrow. I'm gonna miss you a lot girl. Gonna miss discussing football, and Shashi Tharoor and other stuff with you. And our arguments......Arsenal vs Chelsea, Italy vs Germany!!! lol! Good luck Aparna. Much love to you!

England U-21s lost to the Netherland U-21s in the semifinal of the U-21 Championships. How did they win you ask? Well Leroy Lita scored for England early on, and that looked enough, but Netherlands equalized in the 89th minute(!), and then went on the win the match, 13-12 on penalties. 13-12!!!!! WHOA! That's a lot of penalties!

And check out this world record, it's pretty cool!

Adieu for today, keep rocking, people!

Daily Paraphernalia 18/06/2007

2007-06-18T21:37:00.001+03:00

It was a day of contrasting moods. I woke up early today....9:30 (!), and since I had nothing else to do, I sat and feverishly read Fever Pitch, and I finished the book today. I was also supposed to go to Aramco and meet my dad to sign those DASA application forms. But unluckily, due to some reasons left best described as 'not my fault' , I missed the bus. And I trudged home......feeling like this was the worst thing that could happen. The phone call to my dad telling him I missed the bus was really short, but his disappointment was obvious, and I knew that a lecture on my incompetence and irresponsibility when he reached home was inevitable.

So I sat in my room, continuing to read Fever Pitch. Eventually my mom called me for lunch, and suddenly I wasn't feeling so bad after all. I decided to go online...and after loitering around for a while my mom came in and asked me to check the SPDC results. I just smiled as I clicked on their website, knowing that the results weren't going to be there. But LO! AND BEHOLD!!! they were out! And I got the scholarship!!!! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!

So, yeah, that's all that happened today. I gotta mosey down to school tomorrow and get a couple of marklists attested. For this, I have to wake up at 6 in the morning and catch the bus. That sucks, but what can I do?

Oh yeah, it's rare that 2 people you know, 2 AWESOME people you know are born on the same day...soooooo HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Nikhil and Ajita!!!! Rock on, peoples!!!

Btw, Paul McCartney was also born on this day, waaayyyyy back in 1942.

Hala Madrid!!!

2007-06-18T14:50:00.000+03:00

And so, as I predicted, and hoped, Real Madrid went on to win their 30th La Liga title yesterday. They won the match just like they won so many of their matches at home this season. Conceding a goal, and then coming back in style. Mallorca scored in the 17th minute after a nice through ball and Fernando Varela had no problem putting it past Casillas. But soon after, Mallorca's keeper had to save a swerving free-kick from Beckham, and Los Merengues started to impose themselves in the game. After a few frustrating minutes, Madrid's late-goal hero, Ruud Van Nistelrooy had to be subbed due to an injury, and the hearts of the Madridista faithful suddenly began to flutter.

And then David Beckham swerved in a brilliant free kick to make it 1-1, and Roberto Carlos appeared out of nowhere to score the second, and Real Madrid won the match.

Of course, that would have been the perfect fairytale ending, but that's not what happened. Capello decided to substitute Beckham and bring on Reyes, the winger on loan from Arsenal. This was, indeed the turning point of the match as Reyes brought Madrid level with his first touch of the ball, and then scored Madrid's 3rd in the 83rd minute with a superb effort out of the box. Diarra scored the decisive goal with a header to take Madrid in front 2-1.

The emotional celebrations afterwards were, of course, nothing short of spectacular, with fireworks and demonstrations on the pitch. Beckham walked the pitch with his 2 sons with an England flag draped around his back. And everywhere, every player was talking about the heart, and spirit, and unity that the team had shown this season. What I would have given to be in Madrid at that moment. A fitting end at Madrid for these two, I'm sure, although I'm not so glad that an SOB like Nistelrooy won a title now.

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Victoria Beckham were in the crowd, as was Rafael Nadal. I wonder if Tom and Katie understood the game. Anyway, both of them, as well as Victoria, looked retarded wearing sunglasses for a game being played at night.

And as for me, although I'm completely neutral in the La Liga, I'm glad to see Real Madrid win the title this time. After all the kicking and pushing Henry got from Puyol in the Champions League final last year, and the referee's ability to magically not see Eto'o offside, I laugh on the inside to see the Catalans suffering. I know that Madrid also has their fair share of haters, for their habit of signing huge names for millions of dollars, for their arrogance, and I know a lot of people like Barca more because of their youth system, and the fact that they actually develop some of the players in their team. I know that Barca were very unlucky to not win this year, because they did play the better football and they did score more goals, but that's the beauty of football.....sometimes.....the better team....... does not win!

Daily Paraphernalia 17/06/2007

2007-06-17T21:26:00.000+03:00

Ahhh let’s see, what happened today? I woke up at the regular time- 10:30, although I’m unsure of the time I went to sleep the previous day. Breakfast was followed by the regular, usual, routine visit to the gym. They changed the bus stop to go to the Aramco gym. Before, it used to be at the Sanyo showroom here, just 2-3 streets from my house. And now it’s behind Rahmaniyah Mall, which is a good 9-10 streets, and I have to walk that much in the hot noontime sun. The gym instructor handed me a programme to follow, but I’ve never been good at following workout or exercise programmes, so let’s see how this works out.

I read about half of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, which is kind of an autobiography of him, focusing mainly on his Arsenal fandom. It’s not a book about football, it’s a book about the consumption of football, and how it helped him and guided him in his life. I’ll recommend this book to all football fans. Well, that’s about all that happened today….oh and I ate a Kit Kat Chunky!

Brazilian scientists now claim that the Amazon is the longest river in the world.

Lewis Hamilton proves that he's the man!

In other news, 7 people in France have threatened the French Government to raise the price of wine, or else 'blood will flow', this dude attains knighthood, and this unemployed lady sure loves her new implants!

There's also some weird shit going on with Blogger's font...sometimes my posts come in another font :S

Don’t forget, Real Madrid’s match is starting soon!

The Grand La Liga Finale!

2007-06-17T00:39:00.000+03:00

Real Madrid is a team that is not used to going a season trophy-less. The team has won a record 9 European titles and 29 La Liga titles. That, coupled with their habit of signing the world's biggest players sets them quite high expectaions every season. So it's kinda weird, to acknowledge the fact that they haven't won anything since the 2003 La Liga title.(3 years with Zidane and Beckham and they didn't win anything!) And it's also disappointing for their hordes of fans around the world, to see their rival club FC Barcelona winning everything- 2 back to back La Liga titles, and a Champions League win in 2006.(which, I will always maintain, that they should not have won......sorry...I AM an Arsenal fan).

Anyway, so, for the first time since 2003, Madrid have the chance to win something. The story of their title chase is extraordinary. Their erratic form early in the season didn't affect them that much, mainly because their competitors- Barcelona, Valencia, and Sevilla displayed equally erratic form. But somehow, after the New Year's, after David Beckhams recall to the squad, they've not been able to lose. Top man, that Becks! He's been knocking in those assists like crazy!

So now, all the football pundits have their money on Real. After all, they just have to match Barca's results(win or draw, losing might give Sevilla the chance to sneak it) against a weak Mallorca side at home in the Santiago Bernabeu. How could they lose??? It would be a fitting farewell to Beckham and Roberto Carlos, a faithful servant to Los Merengues for 11 years. Even FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he wanted Real Madrid to win. And lately, luck has also not been on Barca's side.

So what is my opinion, you ask?

Well, to tell you the truth, even though everyone loves last minute comebacks, the last 2 years have not been the years for them. Michael Schumacher did not make a dream comeback and win the driver's title in the last F1 season.Roger Federer didn't beat Nadal at this year's French Open to become the 3rd man in history to hold all 4 Grand Slams. Liverpool did not beat AC Milan at this year's Champions League finals. The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't beat the San Antonio Spurs(boring as they may be!) at this year's NBA Finals. Zidane and co. couldn't beat Italy in the World Cup 2006 finals. Australia didn't lose their cricket World Cup title to another team.

As you can see, the examples are abundant, and so......I'm predicting shouts of "Hala Madrid" around the world tomorrow!

Daily Paraphernalia 16/06/2007

2007-06-17T00:19:00.000+03:00

Ok finally a day where I woke up by myself!

And after that initial rush of excitement, everything else just fell into place. :|

Gym? Check
Online all afternoon? Check
Read Eldest? Check
Watch movie? Check

Another uneventful day guys.

Well, 2 points of notice are that....I finished Eldest, and I won't spoil anything for u, except for the fact that I really like the plot twists in the book. They are not entirely predictable. And also, the fact that Eragon is not some kid who suddenly becomes an expert in magic and everything. He actually struggles through some things....so that's pretty realistic.

The other point is that I watched The Prestige. A truly excellent movie where almost every scene is of significance. I don't want to say anything other than.....IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS MOVIE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE READING THIS BLOG? GO WATCHITNOW!!!!!"

Ahem, thank you.

And Happy Birthday to Arun K. Anil! Dude, rock the day!

Half Life 2 ♥

2007-06-15T23:54:00.000+03:00

☺

"Ahh luv this game ah tellya ah reely do!"

Before I go any further, a bit of history.

*puts on thick historian glasses, and takes out this old-ass projector*

Back in 1998, the First Person Shooter genre in PC videogames was in a decline. Crappy, low quality products dotted the shelves of video game stores all over the world. FPS games were still a rarity for console systems back then(and quality ones even rarer) , with maybe Goldeneye for the N64 being the only exception. So naturally, gamers around the world were kinda scared.....would the genre started by Wolfenstein 3d, Doom and Quake on the PC be cast aside and then be regarded in the future as just a passing fad?

Enter a game made by the then unknown company Valve Software and published by Sierra Interactive.

Half Life.

The game was easily a huge success taking away numerous awards in various categories. But what made it really special was the fact that it was revolutionary. The game dared to be different. With the rise of the PlayStation games now had numerous cutscenes, but Half Life had none. All the games events unfolded in real time, as you were playing it. And the other hallmark of the game were the brilliant 'jumping puzzles' that it had, which were unheard of in an FPS game. It is also now regarded as one of the Greatest Games of All Time.

I don't want to give out anymore details.....spoilers, ya see. (dont' want to bore anyone too! lol). If you're interested in reading more about Half Life, you can check out this Wikipedia article.

So, anyway, you can imagine the delight of gamers worldwide when Valve announced that they had been working on a sequel to Half Life 2.....ever since the original one shipped out! Valve said that the game would be released in the fall of 2003. But due to a security flaw in Microsoft Outlook XP(M$ product right...what can you expect?!!! lol....), the Half Life 2 source code was actually STOLEN from Valve database in early September 2003. The game was leaked by a German hacker by the name of 'Axel G'. He contacted Valve through e-mail and was fooled by them that they wanted to employ him as an in-house security auditor. The actual plan was to have him arrested by the FBI on his arrival in America. However, when the German government learned of this plan, they intervened and decided to arrest him in Germany itself, on account of this and other crimes.

This source code leak delayed the release of the game by a whole year and the game was released in 2004. Valve had promised breath-taking graphics in the game using their proprietary Source engine and realistic physics via the Havok engine, but did they deliver?

I think, a 98% score from PC Gamer, which is the highest score they've given for a game, speaks for itself!!! From the beginning train ride and the voice of Dr.Breen welcoming you to City 17, to the ending explosion with the G-Man coming through, Half Life 2 never fails to entertain and enthrall. The game did feature breathtaking graphics and realistic physics. But like it's predecessor, Half Life 2 also revolutionized. The game featured a new weapon called the Gravity Gun, with which players could pick up objects and then hurl them away, making anything and everything into a potential weapon. A whole new world of physical possibilities opened up to the players, and Valve made full use of this to create physics-based puzzles in the game, just like they made jumping puzzles for Half Life. Add to this a story of humans struggling against aliens, and you've got a classic.

Another new technique was the way the game was delivered to people around the world. Other than the traditional way of buying the game off shelves, gamers could now download the entire game using Valve's download client, Steam. Steam is now also used to distribute other games, as well as patches and updates to these games, and to play multiplayer games like Counterstrike, which was completely redone in Source graphics by Valve. A Source version of the original Half Life was also released. Valve then released that the future episodes in the Half Life saga would be released in episodic form. one very few months or year. So far, one chapter titled Episode One has been released, with the second one, titled Orange Box is slated for an October release.

If you want more on the story of Half Life you can visit this brilliant site for it.

Whew........my wrists hurt now...with all that typing....hope you guys didn't get bored!!! And thank you for reading!

Daily Paraphernalia 15/06/2007

2007-06-15T21:25:00.000+03:00

Today started out with me being woken up early….AGAIN, but this time by my mother. And the reason being that, yeah, I had to go out again. This time I went to this thing where they were showing a video called Case For The Creator. It was basically trying to show the existence of God through scientific evidence. It was pretty interesting and maybe I’ll blog on this in greater detail soon. Anyway, there was a pizza lunch there, with pizzas from Pizza Inn, and after a long time, I ate some really tasty pizza! :D Haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!! and I also met this Filipino-American dude Ivan, who's doing pre-med at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Good luck to him.

The afternoon was then divided between reading Eldest and my favourite and most time-consuming pastime- staying online! :p I would’ve gone off early had it not been for someone who simply wanted to bug me! I then had to vacuum the whole house in the evening and the resulting tiredness forced me to take a nap from about 6:30 to about 8:45, awaking just in time for dinner! Yeah. that's right, I was FORCED to sleep, aight? No further questions and doubts about that ok?!!

You know, it’s weird to sit here at 9:20 PM, and realize you’ve not even been awake for 12 hours! Btw, Happy Birthday to Arjun Unnikrishnan....my pal from those (expletive deleted) P.C. Thomas classes.

This blogging thing is pretty good, and I’ve got some topics to write about in the coming days!

Take care, people!

P.S: The last line………REALLY makes me feel like Frasier Crane addressing his audience on his radio show.

Daily Paraphernalia 14/06/2007

2007-06-14T22:20:00.000+03:00

*sigh*

What a day. After a very long time, I'm actually tired at the end of a day. After being woken up prematurely by my dad, I had to go out for about 2-3 hours in the unforgiving Saudi heat. I had to go out again in the evening to Mass which was followed by the Monthly Movie.

It was a historical drama called Romero, about an Arch-bishop in El Salvador, during the times of military repression in the 1980s. Raul Julia plays the arch-bishop Oscar Romero, and delivers a satisfying performance. His characters transforms from a bookworm to that of a political activist, emulating the voice of the people. Ultimately, he pays the price for going against the military and the elite nobility with his life.

I'm still reading Eldest, with Fever Pitch waiting. :D

In other news, the English Premier League Fixture Lis t has been announced, and Arsenal begin the season at home to Fulham. Hehehe...we also play Manchester United and Liverpool twice in the space of a week and Tottenham and Chelsea within a week in December. Arsenal took 15 points off these teams out of a posssible 24, so our performance last season wasn't so bad. Of course, it was the games against the lower teams that really did us in.

And to end today's episode of D.P., a very Happy Birthday to Jithin A. Kakkanatu, a buddy of mine from school and a member of the fearsome duo known as The Honorary Fat Pundits! Happy Birthday mate!

College Confusion

2007-06-13T23:19:00.000+03:00

Ok, seriously, when is the SPDC results coming out?

No seriously..........WHEN??!!!!!

It's pretty retarded when the results of a test which can help you to get into a college come out late. It's even more retarded when nobody has any idea of when the results will come. Kinda shows the sincerity of the people conducting the test.

I just read Naimuls blog, and he's almost sure of coming to Manipal ^_^

Ah, lucky are those who care not to dabble in science...

Daily Paraphernalia 13/6/2007

2007-06-13T23:06:00.000+03:00

Hmmm well, today didn't seem like it was going to be eventful and it wasn't! I woke up at 10:30, had breakfast and skittled off to the gym after a 8 day hiatus caused by visits by friends and visits to the hospital....nothing's wrong with me, don't worry, just a regular checkup. Then I came back home at 2, as usual, and then ate lunch, and continued reading Eldest. Then, I went online for some time and watched the remaining 3/4ths of an hour of Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. Then I took a bath and was playing a skirmish in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, when I was called to go out. And i did, to.......FARM 9 SUPERSTORES!!!!

WHOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD!!!!

Ah, but not really.

The best part of the day was eating Broasted for dinner....ahhhhhhh how much longer can I savour the crispy skin, the tender chicken, the succulent french fries and the brilliant garlic chutney which consitutes the 'Broasted Chicken' we get here.

Sanity, Books, Movies and Games.

2007-06-12T23:01:00.000+03:00

Today, once again, I was pushed to the edge on sanity, prodded by the twin sceptres of Inflexibility and Impatience. My mind is wandering always, and there's almost no realization of my surroundings.

In other news, I read James Patterson's Jack and Jill yesterday. After reading 2 of his books, I have to say that I don't really like Patterson's style of writing, so I think I won't read any of his books anymore.

I borrowed Eldest, by Christopher Paolini today, as well as Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby.

Eldest is the sequel to Eragon, which is a book about this teen who finds a dragon egg while hunting in the forest. It's a bit like your regular teen-wizard kinda story, but it's a lot more 'serious' and there's a lot of dragons. Paolini also describes a lot of the politics between the various factions (Elves, Dwarves, Humans).

On the movie front, I saw Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. It's definitely a good movie, but it still falls short of matching the fun level of the first one. The new characters and numerous plot twists convolute the story a bit, and as a result one may get confused while watching the movie, but I guess if you really want to enjoy the movie, you should just not care what happens and just enjoy the ride. Disappointingly, Jack Sparrow is not as prominent as he is in the other movies, and this time it's up to Elizabeth Swann (played by Keira Knightley) and Captain Barbossa(played by Geoffrey Rush) to carry the movie and they do a pretty good job about it. Flowerman, uh, Orlando Bloom is back as Will Turner, and seriously, his character is like an irritating prick! You know, like a small kid who's too smart for his/her own good!

But overall, I'll give this movie an 8/10.

Hopefully there'll be more Pirates of the Carribean movies, and I'm hoping they'll all be Jack Sparrow shows.

I also started playing Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened on PC, but with all adventure games, I'm pretty clueless. I guess it's back to FAQ-scrubbing for me.

Btw, in the next few days or week, I'll be posting(hopefully), more about the games, books and movies I've experienced recently, along with random snippets of thoughts here and there!

P.S. I'm an Arsenal and A.C Milan fan.