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,

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!

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....

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.

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...

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...

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.....

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!