Thanksgiving is done !!

On the 7th day after my last post i have managed to squeeze some time to blog. I've been busy for the thanksgiving holidays, looking out for deals on electronic stuff and buying them. I can't believe the four holidays have passed by like a bullet train. Whatever i wanted to buy, deal or no deal, i bought them. I haven't had time to open some of them yet. Of course, the stores and the online shops are were brimming with deals, for Thanksgiving day, then the day after i.e, Black friday.

Then yesterday it was a holiday blow out sale for one day and it kinda continued today. Tomorrow has been rechristened as cyber monday - what the heck is that !! These greedy merchants just need another reason to sell their products. 

Quite a handful weekend this was. Watched Transporter 3 on wednesday and found it to be entertaining. Absolutely aimless but entertaining. 

Now my next count down is gonna be my vacation travel to india which is exactly 30 days from now. Also my next worry is on getting all these electronic stuff into suitcases and get them past the immigration in chennai. And talking of immigration and travel, this week also completes a year of my (first ever) stay in the US.

The holiday season starts here with the thanksgiving, you'd mostly have people going on vacations and in terms of work, should see less of it is my guess. Yes, we do live in perpetual hope of evading work and this season will make us less evil.

Ta

About the new cupboard from IKEA and Madagascar 2 at IMAX

Ok, another weekend's done without much to write about. But it felt better than the previ0us ones in some ways. It felt so nice to have done some clean up work that i have been putting off for aeons now. I got a new small cupboard from IKEA, for storing some of my items that didn't have a place to go into and moved them all into it. Now my place is lot less like a mess. The cupboard was a DIY[Do-It-Yourself] item that you have to assemble with the wooden planks, out of the box, with all the screws and instructions. Building that cupboard was immensely satisfying and i thought it was time and effort well spent.

                                                      The other half of the day went in watching Madagascar : Escape 2 Africa, in IMAX. This is my first ever movie at an IMAX theater and i wasn't too excited about it at the end. Anyways, the movie was ok, had me laughing for a couple of scenes. Somehow i can't just help compare it to Ice age or Monsters Inc or some other animation movies that i have loved and thought this movie didn't shine well in comparison.

                                                       And today, i had nothing else better to do than eat and sleep all day. Wish i had better things to do. On the brighter side, for keeping it peaceful, i thank the gods above [gods above, huh ?..... makes me think of the two single women living above my apartment ;> ] . 

Ta

QoS and Dostana

Last saturday i saw Quantum of Solace, the new bond movie at the local theater. Another of the initial stories of Bond, another dark one just like Casino Royale. It takes off where Casino royale left. A nice action movie but doesn't excel Bourne ultimatum yet. Think bourne was the last movie that i enjoyed for its amazing action sequences.
And in the middle of the week, one night i went to Dostana just for the sake of passing some time. Based on my previous hindi-movie-watching i was expecting this to be nothing short of a disaster. Considering i don't speak hindi, it was not bad. Thanks to the subtitles, i could understand what was going on. Had good fun watching the movie nonetheless. Priyanka was awesome in the movie. Had me thinking....
Don't bollywood movies have any place in india to shoot ? Why are most of the movies based in some place in the US ? And where do they get all the money from ?

Couple of days to thanksgiving !! Can't wait !!

And the weekend is already here !! No hooray for that...Never been able to do anything quite enjoyable over the last few weekends. I may not Thank God Its Friday, After all.

Ta

Vaaranam aayiram

If you came looking here for a review of this movie, stop reading and look elsewhere. This is a first hand account of my movie watching experience and i've not held back anything to myself.
Vaaranam aayiram is the recent Surya starrer directed by Gautam vasudev menon (that's how his latest movies carry his name), that saw the light of the day at last, when it released last weekend, after a long wait.The movie has three gorgeous-looking women in Simran, Sameera reddy & Divya, playing surya's opposites and surya has donned a father-son dual role in the movie. The movie, in short, talks of the bond between every father and his son. It is no guess that, before the end credits, Gautam lays this movie as a tribute to his father.
This movie had a lot of hype associated with it and i was no less excited about watching it. In addition to that, the music album of the movie had gone on to become a great hit, leaving no room for second thoughts about going for the movie on the first day.
Movie is a slow staright forward narration and it slowly unfolds with no cinematic knot or twist to it. Movies of this kind will have a tough time appealing to the masses and the front benchers.
For instance, this movie had more english dialogues than Quantum of Solace itself !! How about that ! I will be least surprised if this movie is dubbed in tamil and released again !!

I didn't know before watching this movie, that you'd be granted a US visa if you told the visa officer that you want to look for the girl that you love. Since when did the US embassy relax their visa rules ? As if that wasn't enough, the visa officer (an american) breaks down emotionally and wishes surya luck. Welcome to Indian cinema !!

And i almost forgot about the female leads in the movie. Sameera reddy dazzles in her tamil debut. Hopefully should see her around more. Simran and Divya too have shared the screenspace with Surya quite gracefully. Of course, they are saved of the attrocious dance sequences with 30+ insignificant mortals, a rarity in a Gautam movie. That's a Solace !! The scenes that had Sameera were quite clearly the rosier part of the movie, and the sole reason if one should see the movie again. And about Simran & Divya, think its 'Nuff said.

It is definitely laudable that Surya has worked on his physique and cut a great six pack to awe-inspire the audience. His acting too has achieved significant levels of greatness compared to his previous outings. May be its Gautam that brings the magic out of Surya !!
I personally expected much more from Gautam as a Director and to say the least i'm mighty disappointed. This movie didn't touch my heart or kindle my senses [at times made me sleep].
I came out of the hall exhausted and disappointed.

Ta

Jus two more weeks to Thanksgiving, the fever is in the air already. I can't wait to grab a couple of things that i've waited for so far (And that's a big list) and i'm really excited about that. Last year i missed thanksgiving by a whisker - i landed here just after thanksgiving for my first ever time in the US. Have been waiting for thanksgiving since then..... a year long is a wait enough.

                         What are the things that i wish for ? Hmmm...lets say a Tera byte external hard disk under $100...... And Oh, i need a handycam, a projector, a digital piture frame, portable DVD player, a Digital SLR camera and some more stuff....... Not just these, i'm gonna acquire anything that's a steal., doesn't matter if i need it or not...he hee hee....   i'm gonna change myself to need it.... ;)  I really can't seem to find enough words in the language to describe how excited i am.

Burn the days down !! Bring thanksgiving closer !! May there be greed !! May there be abundance of gadgets and deals !! May there be enough cash in the bank !! 

Ta

Another weekend has arrived and i welcome it with the same plans that i had for the last one. None. I have spent most of my recent weekends at home. How pathetic is that ? The weather's been good, i have no problems with the transportation and yet i have not found the ideal company to hang out. That's where the problem is. So many people around, yet i feel lonely. This is not the first time this is happening. There have been innumerable times in the last two and half decades where i've had to go through these rough patches. Not once have i liked it. May be i should stop whining, i don't feel better doing that. Looking at what best i can take from every second in my present and the future seems like the perfect thing to do now. Easier said.

                                                          Of course, i'm trying to keep myself occupied and shoo away the devil from working on my mind. But i don't seem to be enjoying the moments that i live through. I feel like i'm so under-living every moment that i want a second chance to do it right. I deserve better. I really think so. I'm going to seize every moment from now on and make sure it ends right and makes me feel good about it. I give a damn to any one or any thing that might stand between me and my happiness. For all the people who might drive me crazy, Screw You !!

Up Yours !!.  I could, sooooooo, go on and on...... But i think its 'Nuff said !!

                        

Ta

Of Daylight saving time, Friends and a birthday party

Today daylight saving time ends in the US and Canada, which means we get an additional hour today to sleep. Woo hoo !! I woke up today looking at my watch showing 8:30 and realized it was 7:30 instead due to the end of DST. Did that felt nice.... you feel like you go back in time, by an hour and it seems you lived an hour that didn't officially exist anymore. That is cool !! Had some postive energy flowing all day. Apart from personal benefits, on the nature perspective, it turns out that the DST was being adopted to save energy during the summer. Cool again. 

BTW, Friends is amazing. This sitcom was a favourite of mine, but never had the opportunity or the luxury of getting my hands on all the ten seasons. Now i do ! Through Netflix, i've rented all the 10 seasons of the Friends and i'm through with 4 seasons already, sequentially, in ascending order, should i say. It is amazing, can't wait to watch the rest of it. 

                           Yesterday night we went to a colleague's birthday treat, at the Main event - to enjoy the night, bowling. Actually, i and a room mate of mine didn't know it was a birthday party. We just thought we were going for a bowling game like we usually do on the weekends. Once we were there, we were waiting to start the game and order a pizza as we were hungry. But earllier we'd been told by some colleagues of ours that they were planning to go to Main event for bowling and asked us we'd like to join. We thought it was gonna be the five of us. Little did we know that these guys were bringing more people and eventually the total was 12. It wasn't a problem to us. What was a problem is that we were now made to wait for the birthday boy to arrive and then its gonna be his treat. Since everyone else knew it was gonna be late before everyone reaches there, they all had something to eat before they came there. We guys having come to know of all this only after we reached there, were now left with no choice but to wait for the birthday boy, with all the hunger (which was adding fuel to the raging anger). If only we had been communicated in advance we would have been less frustrated. Boy, are these poor communicators of all..... What on earth was it gonna cost them, if they jus told us about this whole thing when they first asked us to come. I and my room mate just mumbled to ourselves and let the celebration get to us and we enjoyed the game. We didn't want to make a scene there, so just kept it to ourselves but swore to ask every single detail the next time we hang out (esp with these guys). Being single can drive you nuts too !!

Ta