Dream On

I hate change. I'm a type of person who likes solitude, peace, knowing whats happening next, a set pattern. I like following the schedule. All because I am a control freak. But I do occasionally enjoy doing something impulsive! But even then its controlled chaos.

Past few months have been like a tornado; unpredictable where I'll head next.

I got into Bournemouth University. I only applied to because I had to apply somewhere. Even when I did I never thought I'd actually get in! Success is something I achieve very few times. I still can't fucking believe it!
Then there's also Tech Mahindra, the safe option. Getting into the drone like pattern of working in a MNC that treats engineers like machines. In my mind I know I won't be satisfied with it. I tolerate a lot but it comes at the cost of depression.

Getting into BU and furthering my career in animation seems like an unsafe or dangerous path to take. I don't where I'll be headed. I'm excited and scared at the same time, but mostly scared. I'll be leaving my friends, family and everything I love. I'm scared of losing it and being out of my comfort zone. But I'm also happy for a chance to live independently in a different country.

I have all these gazillion contradicting thoughts and I just can't be decisive. So I've decided to be patient. I'll just think about it in July. Till then I'm going to enjoy my life to the fullest. :D

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.

Minutes slipping by

I'm watching The Hours. Time and again I've been repeating, I hate that movie. It's depressing. Anyone who's watching it is left with thoughts of how his/her life is meaningless and how to kill oneself or just get away from everything. The music is eerie and doesn't help to lift the mood.
This isn't one of my most well formed opinions but it's one of the strongest.
So why the hell was I watching it?? My mom was and I was just keeping her company. I ended up watching it for an hour (no pun intended). She loves this movie. I have no idea why. She even bought the DVD but watches it on Zee Studio. Note the irony here. Depression is a very touchy topic for me and anything that goes near it just drives me up the wall.

Usually, exams are the time when I am most creative. Escapism, yes, it has it's perks.
I really hope I come up with some good ideas for a thing. I haven't had much luck coming up with a good one yet. Sorry, but I can't mention what this is about.

I had my PL practical exam yesterday. I got an easy program and my oral was mediocre. I'll pass.
Then all of us went to see Harmony, an inter college singing and dance competition. We cheered and howled for our college and boo-ed the others (some of them were just pathetic). We were a noisy bunch. I'm sure the crowd around us was perturbed and apprehensive.

England v. Israel Euro Qualifier match is coming up in a few hours and I'm excited!!! Please, please, please let them win!!!!

If I were to buy a new cell phone, presently, my choice would be k850i.

There is nothing left to prove

Aditi's birthday was a blast. There was a bit of tension among as we continue our rare meetings with bickerings and all. Even an occasion as a birthday wasn't spared from our sour moods.
Anyway, we hung out at her place in the morning and later ordered food. Then we took third helpings of a very creamy blackforest cake.
Later on we went to LUSH. The name is a bit of an irony I guess. Compared to the other clubs, it isn't so great. But we enjoyed there too. You see, the place doesn't matter, we just need to be together. ;)

After that, we went back to Aditi's house and took a stroll around her house. Had SPDP which was very very spicy.
That was my Sunday. From 9 to 9 I was out. Now that my midsems are approaching my dad is scolding and nagging me at every opportunity he gets. I'm amazed how he never gets tired of it.

We're also keeping a intra-college talent hunt. It'll help us to pick out people for Firodiya and Purshottam.

Now I have 3 write-ups to complete and there's no good movie on. I'll have to find something else to amuse me.

SPACIOUS

For once, by computer isn't on the verge of giving me low memory space notifications.
I'm loading all the Gilmore Girls, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy and The Daily Show episodes that uptil now resided on my iPod.
I have an entire 25Gb dedicated just to songs. SQUEEEEE!!!!

College was fun as usual. The seminar on hacking is postponed to Saturday, so I HAD TO attend college the full day. I completed all the DEL write ups though.

Tomorrow, I might go to see Hey Baby.

A busy week

Yesterday's match: Chelsea 1 - Liverpool 1
I'll admit this painfully, but that penalty should not have been awarded. Liverpool deserved to win. They pwned in the first half. Malouda jumped so that Drogba could run with the ball and just collided. Definitely not a penalty.

9 players booked?? Fuck Rob Styles.

The freshers party was amazing!! All went as planned and was a huge success.
But the I'll miss all the frenzy and planning (and waking up at 4am to iron the sashes) that went into it. I enjoyed every minute of it.

I might just upgrade my harddrive to 120 GB.

And we also bought Tata Sky. The cable connection we had was atrocious compared to Sky. The picture quality is amazing. Vh1, Animax, BBC Entertainment!!! I can finally watch 'Dr. Who'. Man, I just saw Powerpuff Girls in english.It was good to hear it in their original voices again. ;)

After traveling through a lot of friends, I finally have possession of my Deathly Hallows copy. I'm re-reading it now.

And yes, the unit tests were fine. I passed all papers. I didn't study much for them anyway, so I didn't expect a lot.

I can't think of a title today. So I'm just going to spam this space to make it look long. There. My longest title yet.

I'm so incredibly bored today. I thought I'd complete some of my drawings today. But I don't feel like doing that. What I want to do... is nothing.
So I've bunked college today and I can think of nothing better to do, so I'll just spill all that's happened this week.

We're all organising a freshers' party of the century. Since we received a very poorly managed and non entertaining one, we've put all our energy in pampering and spoiling our FE's. Those midgets are lucky to have us!! This is probably on the 18th of August.

On 11th August our class is having a trip to Guhaghar. I've never been there before. Even though I'm showing that I'm optimistic, I'm almost certain that it's going to rain there. But I presume it'll be a lot of fun.

I'm also having my unit tests from Monday. Shouldn't I be studying? Honestly, I think last minute study works best for me. I don't remember things I study 2 weeks before anyway.

We had a blast on Ashwini's birthday. We planned to go to Khadakwasla but after lunch we were all drowsy. So instead we watched MP3 and Premonition.
MP3 - OMG. Are you telling me that Indian airport security is so mismanaged that even an annoying stud an get through with a fake passport? This was mental torture. I was literally pulling my hair out. Have these idiots never heard of mobile phones? Telephones? Email? Messenger? I'd rate it in negative out of 5.

Premonition - A very confusing movie. We all got it in the end until the scene came where she's pregnant. Is her husband dead or not? Surely, I've missed something.

Scary and Damaged

I've finished watching Grey's Anatomy Season 3 and Gilmore Girls Season 7. I'm watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, the entire fucking series!!! Right from season one, back when the visual effects were obsolete compared to today's standards. Picard looks a bit peeky but Riker is awesome as always.
OOTP Review: *SPOILER ALERT*
I actually enjoyed this movie. I think I'm past the point where I compare it endlessly to the book and find faults. I've learned to accept the movies as a bonus visual aid. I think they did a brilliant job of showing how Umbridge rises and conquers. Umbridge was excellent; annoying to her last pink tea cup. Luna was just amazing, loony to every last detail. I was looking forward to seeing Mrs. Black's portrait and her insults. I wish they had included that. The grand Fred and George exit was really good to see. Missed McGonagall's reaction's though.
As usual, I don't think people who haven't read the book have any clue what is going on in the film. Bellatrix is perfect but looked more like a heavily drugged hooker.
The duelling scenes were amazing. I mean, I could hardly make out what was going on, but that's the point, right? Dumbledore vs. Voldemort: The most stunning piece of visual effects in the entire movie. Loved it.
Voldemort in a suit???? WTF? I can think of all the icons I can make with that screencap and quotes like "Suit Up" or "Ready to Mingle" or "Ready to Muggle" or "Dark Lord needs a date" or "Taking YOU to the Ball" or "Your fashion nightmare". Yes, I'm on crack.
Ron was gorgeous, wished he had more lines.
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2 days more to go!!! I'm uber excited!! I hope Crossword opens at 6 am like they did for the Half Blood Prince release.

I had to make a presentation for my Soft Skills lab. I did it on "Indian Rock Scene". And I also discovered Split Magazine Radio. Damn, how did I not notice this before?! I think mine went okay. I didn't really have much material to present. Well, I made the presentation from 8 to 12 on Sunday night and it was due on Monday. That hardly gave me time to even "reherse" for it.

OMGCAPSLOCK EXCITEMENT!!!!!

I'M GOING, I'M GOING.... TO SEE OOTP!!!!

TONIGHT!!!!

I haven't been this excited about something since... *inserts something important*.
And the fact that I've had a really nice day so far may also have something to do with my rare super happy mood. I spent time with some of my friends who I miss dearly.
I also did a lot of lukkhagiri during practicals because I really had nothing to do. :)

I booked the tickets yesterday and also pre-ordered Deathly Hallows. I know, I taint on my reputation to pre-order it a week before it's release.

I'm also seeing it tomorrow and day after tomorrow. Yes, three times. Technically I should watch it 5 times but I don't have that much money to spend.

You should expect a big Ootp review.

This is where I predict the next one year

I don't even know if I should be writing this. I am BEYOND happy. Something that I've been hoping for, for a very long time has finally happened (just as I predicted). Yay!
On the other hand, I'm very uncomfortable about how things are going to move forward and if I will ever be able to let go of my prejudice and impressions about the matter.
There. I will remain cryptic.

College started again this week with practicals and all. It was okay. The class was very boring but I assume that's about to change very soon.

I was watching the Live Earth concert for the last 24 hours, minus sleep time. Notible performances were of Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, KT Tunstall, The Police, Pink Floyd, LP etc. Loved watching it.

I am currently wallowing in the fact that I'll be losing contact with some of the friends I've made overtime. I need more normalcy in my life. Seriously.

ETA: I'm writing a personal essay for my Soft Skills lab. And I admit, writing about yourself has got to be one of the most unsatisfying things on the planet. But I'd be better at writing a hate letter to myself. Oh, my cynicism, it never ceases to shock me.

Back to College Blues

I came back from Nagpur on 28th. It's cloudy and the perfect welcoming weather that I hoped for. I also had a chat with Ashwini that day and we decided to watch exorcist, so I rushed to her house. We drew the curtains, tried to make the setting a bit spooky although we didn't try to over do it because we do get scared easily (that's what we thought).

The Exorcist - Not as scary as we thought it could be. The print was good but the sound kept fluctuating. I didn have nightmares that ight and was spooked for a while. The scene which I found particularly disturbing was when Reagen is in the initial stages of possession and she's being thrown back and forth on the bed. That's just nasty. I guess the special effects wore off on me. But her possessed voice was positively scary. I can only the imagine the terror this movie inflicted on minds at the time it was released. Yikes. @_@

The Pursuit of Happiness - I loved this movie. I may not watch it again but it's of of those movies which one has to see atleast once and learn something from it. It had a happy ending and a well deserved one too. There was no sex, abuse, drugs etc involved which is what normally comes to my mind for those situations. Will Smith acted superbly and so did that little boy.

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - It's a nice light chick flick. Jui had just read the book and I still had this on my computer. Bridget rocked. That girl can scare the hell out of any boy and we totally enjoyed the movie because of her. All the commenting and laughs we had during the movie really reminded us of the old times. This whole sisterhood thing sounds like so much fun. I've had many attempts at this kind of thing in my school life. Didn't always last for more than a few months. What I mean is, I love scrapbooks.

I did manage to do a bit of reading in Nagpur. Most of the time I was engrossed in the 1001 Sudoko book but I did read.

Princess by Jean Sasson - This is a really depressing book. I don't mean to say that it's bad. It's an eye opener to the situation that woman face in Saudi Arabia. The incidents descibed, I find so tragic and horrifying. It's a very gripping book. You just can't put it down.

I'm also reading Good Omens right now. And more on my list is Ayn Rand and more of Anne Rice.

I installed Safari Beta. That extreme font smoothening is going to take time to get used. It keeps crashing on long use. Also, Firefox for some reason has been possessed by a demon and won't work!!! It keeps crashing too. I've started using IE again. Perhaps the Internet Gods are angry with me or maybe Karma is biting me back for something.

I downloaded the latest 69 Eyes album. Immersing myself in Gothic Metal!!!

To end all the happy and fun thoughts, college starts tomorrow. We'll be seniors (sort off). Is it suposed to give you this feeling of invincibility and pwnge? Because I think that's only for people with egos and low self esteem. I looking forward to meet new people. Not trying to push away the friends I've already made but maybe in the deep recesses of my mind I am.

ETA: I am a walking contradiction. And I hate that.

Paradise beyond FE: Part 1

It still hasn't fully registered in my head that I'm done with the first year. The big tsunami before the open ocean has been dealt with. This is the last time -

• I will have to deal with top view, front view, penetration of solids and all that crap which was also a big source for dirty jokes. ;p
• Chemistry. I've always hated you.
• Electrical Engg and Electronics. It's interesting, yes but it's just not my cup of tea.

The past few days have been tiring. Ever been tired of fun? Been there, done that. :D

19th -
We saw Cheeni Kum. Wonderful movie. loved it to the core. Sexy gave the best performance amongst all. Then we proceeded to Abhishek for lunch. Had malai kofta there after a long time.
We hung out for a while and went to MIT for a nice walk. It was cloudy and windy, really nice atmosphere. Then we headed over for a sleepover. We were so tired, still I stayed up and watched Sunshine on a really bad CD. It kept getting stuck and basically, I could make no sense of the movie. We didn't watch the whole thing. We got really put off by the bad print. We went straight to bed and slept like babies. :)

20th - Had idli for breakfast and a really nice time and chatted a lot. Then we all met up again in the afternoon and went to Pyramid, Crossword and did quite a lot of window shopping. On our walk back to teh parking it was drizzling... so we got wet too! Aah... it felt so nice. Then we also had butta and then headed back to my house and had CadB.

Everything good in life is overrated.

Yes, it's true.
I feel incredibly uninspired today and hence I bring you a angsty, self-centered post.
I have is incorrigible habit of screwing things up when they seem to be going fine. I won't go into details but this really drives me over the edge.

I'm almost done with my semester exams. Just one more paper to go (graphics).

Engg Maths - I'm a math loving kid. I don't always ace in maths but in general I prefer it to any other subject. But this semester, I shunned maths and it went well into my "Things I despise" list. Curve tracing, double integration. Ugh. I'm not expecting above 60. It will suffice to say that it was bad.

Applied Science - This was supposed to be the saviour. The balancer, equilizer. The peacemaker, if you prefer bad movie puns. The paper I studied the most for and utilised two full days digging deeper into my tattered text book. I had sleepless nights. What a HUGE let down it was. I blanked on so many questions. My incomplete and absurd answers will make any teacher cringe. I'm not even sure if I'll pass this one. I'm on the borderline fence for this paper. *hides in shame*

Mechanics - Wow, truly, surprises come when you least expect them. Statics was a breeze. I just hope I've calculated everything right. Dynamics was so-so. I could solve the things I had prepared well for. I think I might just pass in this one.

Electronics - The best paper yet. I didn't blank out as I thought I would. But I kept getting distracted during the paper. I was just so bored to write! I can safely expect above 50 in this one. I know how disastrous that sounds, but really, I have stooped that low.

Rumour has it that the Graphics paper is going to be difficult this year. Yeh Gods! Help me!

I'm not a person who particularly enjoys celebrity gossip. I despise it sometimes. But this whole Paris going to jail thing is just way too much fun to be had. Indulging in bad celebrity gossip is my guilty pleasure I guess. And I present to you, the picture of 2007. You almost feel bad for her but then you realize how much more fun it is to watch her suffer. I'm human. :)

Crazy times lie ahead of me

I'm lagging behind in my studies. Everyday I promise myself to do better and I end up reading Iraqi blogs or watching La Liga matches.
The last time I studied with full concentration was in college with my friend in a 3 hour span doing dynamics. I can take on any problem on 'impact' now but the rest of the paper is as new to me as it was six months ago.

I cannot wait for this semester to get over!!! I just want to fast forward to the next one. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic about my future years. What if it's not as good as I'm hoping it will be?
And this is the time when I tell myself to stop anticipating the future and worrying about everyone else's problems when clearly I have quite a few of my own to deal with.

I miss hanging out with my friends. The last time we all met was at McD's and that was many days ago.

I had freak out moment with my ipod yesterday. I connected my iPod and iTunes wouldn't come up. It also didn't detect the drive. So obviously the "Do not disconnect" message didn't go away after I pulled out the USB cord and I freaked out. I went to the iPod FAQ and had to reset it. Everything went back to normal and no harm done (yet).
It's the feeling you get when your new computer hangs for the first time and you realize that it's not "new" anymore.