Why so serious?

I seem to be slipping into trends quite early. I've got college today and here I am lazying about at home. I'll start chronologically then.

01. Mahabaleshwar - I thought it would be quite boring. I would have preferred any beach and a cold, windy and rainy condition isn't really vacation material, imo. We left at 6:30 and reched there by 11:30. We then asked around and walked to the hotel. There was fog everywhere and we could barely see a thing. The room was smaller than expected but adequate. The first thing I did was to make sure that the TV was working. I didn't want to miss Spain - Russia that night. ;)
We had lunch and after some rest went to market. Did a lot of shopping and bargaining. After all the personal shopping came the turn to by things for mum's, siblings, cousins etc.
That night I had a pleasant surprise; our college reopening had been postponed by a week. Although, I didn't care much for it at the time, I was quite happy. The next day we roamed around Old Mahabaleshwar and visited Mapro for lunch. Later that night we played snooker, carrom, table tennis until the hotel staff finally told us to go away and sleep. ;p


02. I'm so excited about The Dark Knight!!! I can't wait to see it. Hopefully, everything will fall into place and I might fo today. I have special appreciation for the posters. I love the coloring in it. Yes, I admit it. I've turned into a Photoshop geek.
03. The big debate , the 16-hour debate is today starting at 11am. I'll be watching it. Afterall, it's my excuse for not attending college - a genuine interest in politics and the governance of my nation (for once).

04. GRE - I'm also learning about 20-30 words every 2-3 days. I don't have a daily routine but I do know that I have to do atleast 100 words every week.

05. I might be getting a MacBook this week. *double crosses fingers*

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain

I've had a lot on my mind for the past few days but when it comes down to writing an actual entry, it all seems to vanish from my mind. This post is brought to you by randomness and numbered bullets. :)

01. So finally, after a lot of discussion, more discussion and speeches in rage, we are going to Mahabaleshwar. The next time my friends and I plan a trip I'm going to look after all the details and blindfold everyone until we reach the hotel. No issues. I hope there are no last minute complexities, as it is always prone to happen to me. Actually, I don't even care, as long as we're all together, we will have a blast.

02. Sarkar Raj IS an amazing movie. You truly realize the rarity of a movie with a good script.

03. I read 3 Mistakes by Chetan Bhagat. And it turned out to be exactly the kind of light reading that I needed. Now I'm onto Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I've always wanted to read it but never made the time. I've read the first few pages and I'm hooked. Her writing style is very imposing and strong. All the characters are so believable and have so much conviction in their acts, even the smallest of them.

04. SPAIN!!!!!! France is out which makes me sad but finally Spain are playing to their full potential!




05. I took the Myers-Briggs personality test and turns out that I am an INTJ. Well, most of it does apply to me. I also found this amusing site. The quote below tells you how to "deal with INTJ's". And it's absolutely true!

1. Be willing to back up your statements with facts - or at least some pretty sound reasoning.
   
   
2. Don't expect them to respect you or your viewpoints just because you say so. INTJ respect must be earned.
   
   
3. Be willing to concede when you are wrong. The average INTJ respects the truth over being "right". Withdraw your erroneous comment and admit your mistake and they will see you as a very reasonable person. Stick to erroneous comments and they will think you are an irrational idiot and treat everything you say as being questionable.
   
   
4. Try not to be repetitive. It annoys them.
   
   
5. Do not feed them a line of bull.
   
   
6. Expect debate. INTJs like to tear ideas apart and prove their worthiness. They will even argue a point they don't actually support for the sake of argument.
   
   
7. Do not mistake the strength of your conviction with the strength of your argument. INTJs do not need to believe in a position to argue it or argue it well. Therefore, it will take more than fervor to sway them.
   
   
8. Do not be surprised at sarcasm.
   
   
9. Remember that INTJs believe in workable solutions. They are extremely open-minded to possibilities, but they will quickly discard any idea that is unfeasible. INTJ open-mindedness means that they are willing to have a go at an idea by trying to pull it apart. This horrifies people who expect oohs and ahhs and reverence. The ultimate INTJ insult to an idea is to ignore it, because that means it's not even interesting enough to deconstruct.
   
   This also means that they will not just accept any viewpoint that is presented to them. The bottom line is "Does it work?" - end discussion.
   
   
10. Do not expect INTJs to actually care about how you view them. They already know that they are arrogant bastards with a morbid sense of humor. Telling them the obvious accomplishes nothing.

06. I think it's quite sad that everytime I step out of the house, I hope it will rain and I might actually enjoy it but all I get are tiny specks of rain which I wouldn't even call drizzle. I'm not happy. :(

Pfft

Finally, I can do 'nothing' all day. I have made a list of everything I want to do, places and old friends to visit... so there is quite a lot to do.

I hate how my creative muse disappears the instant I have time on my hands. Damn you!

Movies I have to see -

1. Donnie Darko (again)
2. Mouth to Mouth (Ellen Page! Jim Sturges! )
   
3. Trainspotting
4. Sarkar Raj
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (only because it has Kristen Bell and Russell Brand)
7. The Prestige
8. The Avengers
9. The Blair Witch Project (for old times' sake)
10. Oldboy
    

I finally put my icons for display on livejournal. The icon community is gprotocol. Yes, that's what it's called because at 1 am you really can't come up with something better.
I made the layout similar to this one, for consistency. And I also have to make layouts for two other blogs.

1st July seems to be approaching too soon.

Math woes

I've been through this before. It's just tiresome to go through it again.

I study day and night (with a many long breaks) trying to achieve a good score in Maths 3 but when it comes down to the exam, I fail myself. It wasn't bad but not as good as I hoped it would be. Certainly not, considering the effort I've put in.

I have only a couple days left for the next 4 exams. The coming 13 days are going to be absolute hell.

Also, when I wasn't catching up with Laplace or Fourier, I watched Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name. Amazing movies! I can't quite believe that I overlooked the manga. The anime is just as good. It's the first live-action movie I've seen. L is a character not to be meddled with. I thought the ending didn't really do the series any justice. I hope further movies are made of the story arcs with Near and Mello in them.



Moscow? What happened? I don't know what you're talking about...

Seriously, I am trying to forget it. I remember how gutted I was when Chelsea lost to Liverpool in the semi-finals of CL on penalties. The shock of this defeat was nowhere close to that. Oh well, there's next season to look forward too.

Getting back on track

Inconsistent? Me? You're having a laugh! :)

It's been a while but I had to break my block. And what better time to do than 11 days before my Maths 3 exam?
I spent the day on the Fourier chapter. Now I need a break.

I started icon-ing again. I'm focusing on Skins and Gossip Girl icons. Just a sneak peak below. I'm trying out new colouring themes. The bright red/cyan colouring is so in.


New music -
1. Crystal Castles - Their sound is just so different. Electronica and a distorted female voice. But I like it!
2. Skins soundtrack
3. 1 - The Beatles - I cannot believe I didn' t have this on iTunes!! I had the CD lying around at home and one day I had the urge to listen to Yellow Submarine.
4. Delerium - I can't believe I didn't have their music!

I'm still looking for M.Craft, Gravenhurst and Electrelane.

On the football front, I'm sad that we lost the league but it was out of our hands the day we drew with Portsmouth and Wigan. I had decided to reserve my judgement on Grant until the end. Here it is, I'm not really sure he's the one with the brain. Is it Clarke or Henk Ten Cate? or both? or all three of them? For most of the important games he seemed to be doing everything wrong (Spurs, Carling Cup final) and all of a sudden since we've beaten Arsenal, he's done everything right. I find it strange. We don't even know if he's going to be there next season. But here's the thing, I guess things aren't really that bad. Perhaps he should be allowed to continue. We've had Drogba moaning, dressing room mutiny etc. Inspite of that, there have been some positives. Joe Cole has been on fire, Ballack is fitting in, Kalou has improved and though I don't like it when he plays Essien at right back, he's brilliant there too. I had hoped to see more of SWP though.
All I want is for us to win the Champions League now. It belongs to us.
I hope Shevchenko, Malouda, Ben-Haim, Pizzaro leave the club. And in case Drogba leaves, we get a striker who is consistent, like David Villa or Benzema.
But if Drogba stays, he should play him alongside Anelka.

My friends and I are planning a trip to Goa after the exam. But the first thing on the agenda is to convince my parents. It's going to be tough. But I hope they'll agree.

My journey in fandom so far

I haven't read a book in ages. Currently, these are on my mind.

1. Monster Love - Carol Topolski
2. Serious Things - Gregory Norminton
3. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams. I've read only the first book. I've listened to some of the radio series a long time ago and of course the movie. You can't call yourself a sci-fi fan unless you've read this. The same for #4.
4. 2001: Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke. Oh, HAL.

It's been a while since I've reconnected with fandom, namely HP fandom.
Here's a timeline of my affiliation with the sweet but dangerous world of HP fandom.

• I started hanging out on Dark mark forums when I was 14. Inspired, I wrote my first fan fiction which upon reading still embarrasses me to bits. It was a Marauder-era James/Lily fic. I got some good reviews, some constructive criticism which lifted me but I soon identified my weakness for running into cliques and gave up on fan fiction. Here's my problem, I can't write a nice concise fic. I like detailing which would take up a lot of time and energy to write and unfortunately, I can't devote that much time. Also, my writing was quite bad compared to most of the other authors. I was fourteen!!
• I quite enjoyed my time there, exploring new theories. It opened up a new world for me on the internet. I found interesting blogs. Harry Potter fansites were dominating.
• When I was 15 I managed to do content writing for some HP fansites. I regularly contributed to a HP newsletter.
• At 16 I started updating my Live Journal regularly. By this time my fascination with DM forums had faded. I had moved on. Sorting Communities were the new thing. Hogwarts Elite (sadly, I'm not a member anymore) was my new fixation along with some others. My graphics making skill improved quite a lot too. For almost 3 years, I was heavily involved in this community.
  
• Now, especially after DH released, I think my relation with HP has come to an end.
  

But it's been a very fulfilling experience. :)

Right. Enough sentiment; now for all the nasty stuff. I was bored out of my mind today and I stumbled across The Msscribe Story again. I was so used to the internet wars stories round about. I suddenly feel out of loop. My only source now is Fandom_Wank.

It is also quite possible that my 3rd sem result might come out this week.
*bites finger nails*

DEL and EDC. Please. Don't fail me.

I also watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail today.

I'll also include the funniest bit from Monty Python: Life of Brian.

Music Profiling

When I woke up this morning, I thought 'Here I go again. Another dull day. An MIL practical where hopefully I will be able to crack it. Maybe something from Sinhgad Karandak will amuse me. And maybe, just maybe... it might happen again.'

It turned out to be very different. We all bunked. Pleaded our teachers to leave us and successfully convinced them! They're a good lot! Then we headed to Mocha where they didn't have place. I think they have a vendetta against me. There's either no place or they're too damn lazy to open up the "closed sections". They must be the pickiest management ever! What happened to customer comes first?! (or other such phrase) It's a disgrace!
So instead we went to TC's Lounge and then to Vaishali.
Packed day.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a change. :)

I just saw this astonishingly bad remake of 'Outrageous' by Britney Spears. It's by some Rakhi Sawant look-a-like called Sherlyn Chopra. Are people that daft nowadays?

Over the past few years we've been subjected to bad remixes of classic old songs (which are FAR better than these cheap mixes). We've seen their cheezy videos.
We've bared Himesh R's awful voice. And now this.
Remake of 'awesomely bad' pop songs which are worse!

What is this world coming to...

I think the 'the world is fucked up' label is appropriate for this post. I am slightly hesitant about using the 'music' label.

Jodhaa Akbar: getting dragged in the hype

I can usually predict a movie well. The story, the acting, whether it's a hit or not etc.

For me, Jodhaa Akbar is all about the costumes and well captured sequences. The acting? Not so much. Yet, I'm shamelessly excited about it. I can't wait till it's released!!
I don't particularly like Aishwarya Rai. (Who does?) Hrithik looks amazing but doesn't quite look Akbar material except for the occasional brood.
The music seems okay. Something that will give a feeling of grandeur while watching the movie but it's not evergreen.

And yet, I'm damn excited about this movie.


Now I have to complete two assignments and buy text books. It's so hard to get back to the usual routine.

Bright shiny/flashy lights

NEW LAYOUT!! This is the quickest layout I've made yet. Under an hour.

Usually it takes me more time to get an idea for the header. This time I prefer to keep it simple. Sometimes less is more. ;p

And, I also failed to mention this in my last post: I'M NINETEEN.
Yes, 4th of Jan was my birthday. I don't feel nineteen. I wasn't even excited like I usually am. It was a very low-key birthday. I called my closest friends at home in the evening. But most of the day I spent at home lazying about; me and my mom driving each other nuts. :)

Next day I went to see I Am Legend. Frankly, the movie didn't measure up to all the hype around it. It had too much of Resident Evil in it. But Will Smith was superb as always.
Anyway, we went to get tickets at Inox and were asked for proof that we were above 18. Some of us had come without licenses. So we just hanging there, deciding what to do next. I was a bit taken aback by how generous some strangers were, offering to buy us tickets. But we went to separate counters and managed to get tickets anyway. Next task was to avoid getting caught if they checked it before entering the theatre. But we managed to slip by that too. All the confusion and madness was far more memorable than the movie itself. In fact, my friend was so bored with it that despite of being an ardent Will Smith fan she spent most of the movie playing Quadra-Pop on my cellphone. 80 bucks well spent. :)

After that we got lost in the Cantonment area but made it back home safely.

My mother recently had an article published at this site: For Indian Women
I found some of the other stories a good read too.

Don't patronize me, I know the truth

Two weeks of college and my life seems so monotonous. But it's been different in so many ways.

I'm having a bit of music draught. There's just no good music lately!

MTV Roadies is back for the 5th season. I feel like it's so staged. I have some of my worries with it going international. Other than the drama, the good thing about roadies was that you got to see so much of India; places where you wouldn't normally go and events you normally wouldn't see.
I feel there's a lot more to explore in India. Why go abroad?
But the best part of the show are the auditions. Loving them so far.

I bring you my 25 best TV shows. Here is a list of TV shows which are unique, witty, thrilling and I will probably never get tired of watching them. It's harder to put them in terms of preference so I'd rather go alphabetically.

1. Black Adder
2. Coupling
3. Doctor Who
4. Diff'rent Strokes
5. Everybody Loves Raymond
6. Friends
7. Gilmore Girls
8. Grey's Anatomy
9. Heroes
10. Keeping Up Appearances
11. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
12. LOST
13. Monty Python
14. Naruto
15. Sienfield
16. South Park
17. Star Trek: The Next Generation
18. Star Trek: The Voyager
19. That 70's Show
20. The Office (UK)
21. The Office (US)
22. The Simpsons
23. Trinity Blood
24. Veronica Mars (season 1 and 2)
25. Vicar of Dibley

I'm bored with this layout. I'll probably cook up something new this weekend.

And concerning football, I'm glad we signed Anelka. I think Chelsea is more than capable of winning the league now. But much of it depends on how Arsenal and Man U perform. I feel the deciding matches will be the ones when they visit the Bridge.

Hello 2008!

My blogging hasn't been consistent in the past two months. One of my resolutions is to make this blog less personal and more insightful about other issues. This won't be a 'My Resolutions' post. Telling you my resolutions will be like me admitting all my faults and that's not a good way to start a new year post. So there.

In this break, I've completed my '15 movies in 3 days' gig. Unfortunately, not read a single book. I can't make up my mind on which one I want to read, there are just too many of them!

I also took a trip to Bombay. Saw my house probably for the last time before it's brought down. I met all by neighbours and some friends. It was very nostalgic. I do occasionally miss my life in Bombay. That feeling was reinforced in this trip. >_>

31st was way more fun than what I imagined. Met some friends at Kobe for sizzlers and then went to their house. I stayed up till 6! A lot of banter!

I really hope 2008 will bring a lot more joy. 2007 has mixed feelings from me.