Fine man?

Ever had recurring dreams? Yeah I know they are usually about falling off a cliff or following a long winding corridor or something of that sort. Off late though, I have been having dreams that Richard Feynman and I are in conversation about Physics. And that at the end of it, he gives me his set of books which are totally famous for lucidly explaining hard concepts in Physics. Going by the fact that his lecture, "There's plenty of room at the bottom" was one of the key inspirations to drive me into Nanotechnology, I didn't want to ignore the dream when it came for the third time last night. Maybe there's something in those books. For starters, I purchased his anecdotes and short essays sketching experiences from his own life, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? Can't wait for them to get to me so I can read between thelines for messages from the beyond! :)

iDay

Nope.. not an Apple Product. Happy Independence Day!!! (couldnt get the white visible.. hmph) Its been 60 glorious years and we are poised to be the next biggest world economy (well, next to China maybe.. but as long as we beat them at keeping a lower population :D).

GO INDIA!

The Bourne Ultimatum

Spoilers/Plot Details Ahead

Ever since I saw the "Bourne is back" trailers back in May, I have wanted to see this movie. It is what appears to be the last of the 3 books by Ludlum on his amnesiac CIA assassin, Jason Bourne, played to a hilt by Matt Damon and the rest... The movie picks up right where Supremacy left off, the car chase in which Bourne evades the Moscow police.

Succintly,

The greats...

1. The Photography/Cinematography/Blah Blah - The camera is literally on Matt Damon's shoulder and they've made no attempts to smooth over the bumps, the jitters as the character melds his way around throngs of people. The effect? Brilliant. Worth everything that they had to suffer through to bring it in.

2. Matt Damon - He looks tired and old (thats because he has a new born baby girl with whom he spent sleepless nights) but it blends beautifully to form the core of his character and he's done a brilliant job throughout the movie. With his versaltality, he is definitely one of Hollywood's major male actors to reckon with.

3. The series - It was a well-knit tapestry with few holes and none gaping. The whole trilogy made a lot of sense and came together extremely well. Flashbacks from previous movies have been used very effectively to jog the audiences' memory.

4. The stunts - Some seriously brilliant stuff in the movie, many of which were performed by Damon himself. There's this one sequence in Tangier where Bourne jumps from the terrace of one building into a very narrow window through a glass pane which is sure to draw gasps. This is one of those stunts Damon has done himself. Quite brilliant.

The not-so-greats

1. In and out a sequel - Like many other Hollywood sequels, this movie is definitely not a stand-alone movie. Anyone watching without a background in Bourne, let alone not having watche dthe preceding two will surely find himself lost in the maze of facts, old and new.

Thats all the bad I could think of. The movie was swift, very very fast paced, fluid and gelled excellently with its past. At the end of it, though I saw it a week after its release, it invoked feeble applause from a very appreciative audience. Far more than just a 'time-pass', this movie's a must see for anyone who has seen any of the Bourne movies.

Rating: 8.9/10.0

Opulence?

Opulence? Extravagance? Stinking rich? Call it what you may... But these properties cost more to rent than I make (in a year!!)

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/07/0725_expensive_rentals/source/1.htm

Crazy?

Has it ever happened to you? You try calling someone.. there's nothing major to talk... You reach their voicemail. You don't leave a message. Yet you keep trying them every few minutes even though somewhere in your head you are certain you'll reach the message. It happens to me enough for me to question it. What's that urge? Why do we do it? Is it just the curiosity or is it something more? After sometime, if I can't reach the person my frustration with them increases for no real fault of theirs. I guess somethings are just what you're born with.

Stolen!

Can you believe that my bro's Blogger account was hacked into and the URL stolen??!? What's with people? Its a blog site for God's sake!!

Phone-y

Ever noticed how when you like something a whole lot, its likely to let you down? Like when you parade about the greatness/goodness of something you've got, it most certainly will backfire within days if not hours of your quoting it.. Its almost taboo to offer praise to somethings. Its like some vague form of Murphy's Law. Thats what happened with my gorgeous slider phone from Samsung. I consider myself someone very careful with electronics and gadgets... Needless to say, I have immense luck with them too. My phones in the past have been subject to washing machines, toilet bowls and even dishwashers and they've come clean (not just clean-looking) but fully functional out of each of these ordeals. Thats why it was heartbreaking when my Samsung decided to attempt suicide. I was at the gym (maybe the rarity of the event scared my phone) and very intelligently I placed it atop a pretty high equipment next to the one I was using. I don't know how it happened or why, within moments it jumped off the top........ and shattered into 2 huge pieces.. the slider and the base. You would think that 2 such pieces must be easy to put back together. Thats what I told myself... that the phone fell on the carpet.. that the impact couldn't have been that bad.... that if I sat down with it, I might be able to put two and two together. I was wrong. I started by delicately trying to nudge the 2 pieces together. While one side glided so easily in the slot, the other refused to go in. The nudge became a push became a sizable amount of force became all the strength I had. And yet it lay innocently in 2 distinct pieces. I tried calling my service provider and they shrugged off responsibility. I called Samsung and claimed that one fine morning as I slid the slider up to punch some numbers, it came off the base. I know it didn't sound believable but it was worth a shot. And off it went in an envelope to the repair center. Boo Hoo. Now I am back to the pink Nokia that I love.. But its hard to adjust to this basic phone after having the jazzy, fully loaded one. Life is such. Things change.

Nano-Net

Alright... I am going to give everyone exactly 2 guesses on what this post is about. You have 5 seconds. Your time starts NOW... 5..4...3...2..1.. And you're wrong! All you over-imaginative folks, this isn't about any National Geographic's discovery of a spider spinning nanoscale nets.. nor is it about any pathbreaking research that I am conducting to evolve internet into some bizarre nano dimension.

Its about the internet options at K, the company I work for. They have disabled every conceivable website you might want to visit. I am amazed Blogger works. No GMail or any other email client except K-Mail (Not even email.uc.edu), no enterntainment news.. no Craigslist, of course no Orkut. Having had all the liberty in the world at BN, its but natural that I crib now. When I didn't have a computer assigned the first day of work, I complained to my boss a bit. When I got the opportunity to use his computer for a little while, I realized that it finally was down to a machine with immense potential, but something that could'nt be tapped, I lost interest and was even a wee bit disappointed that I got a system on the 3rd day. Talk about an anti-climax! That leaves us with a nano-sized niche of sites that can be browsed purely for business purposes. Hmph. Incidentally, the name of this post bears similarity to how our previous generations of relatives are called, (eg. Patti - Kollu Patti - Yellu Patti - Kadugu Patti - notice how the prefixes become consistently smaller! :D) So, the internet that we have here at K is like the ancestor of what most other firms have I suppose and hence, Nano-net! Anyone who needs to reach me at work, rely on K-Mail!

No Reservations

Finally.. another movie review.. Ofcourse it wasn't like I away from the movies or anything but its refreshing nevertheless. In short, this movie was sweet. There was nothing phenomenal.. nothing boring either. The movie was paced briskly and didn't feel like close ot 2 hours at all. Its a low budget movie with no major plot lines, no major sets, nothing too impressive at all. And as anyone who's seen the trailer must've, the plotline is barely anything to figure out. Catherine Zeta-Jones looks old but is as classy as ever. She's an ace-chef in NYC and is the queen of her kitchen. When she's away to tend to a personal tragedy. the owner hires a charming new sous chef, Aaron Eckhart. He's a roguishly charming, opera-loving, easy going cool dude, the exact opposite of Kate and this does'nt go unnoticed. While he is very talented, she notices him only when he succeeds in what she has not - opening up her grieving niece, Abigail Breslin who has just lost her mom to an accident. While Kate hasn't succeeded in making the kid eat anything over the week, Nick (Aaron) succeeds in no time. Abigail's cute and very lovable through the movie. And as it moves along, the three find their places to coexist and create the perfect recipe for life.

The verdict: Its a chick-flick. If you're expecting any major twists or turns, there are none. At one point a half hour before the movie actually ended, everything seemed so smooth that I thought that the movie was over. And then came the barely acceptable twist. Its a very likeable movie but certainly not a must-watch.

The intrigue factor

Betty or Veronica?

Betty - The girl next door, always there for you, low-maintenance, very sweet and caring, craves some.. any attention from you, makes you all your favorite food, ordinary wardrobe

Veronica - Rich dad = Spoiled brat, Long legs, Totally hot, bumps you off more quite a bit, very high maintenance, has the 'intrigue factor', fashion diva

Who's your type?

More on Harry Potter..

Rowling explains.....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/#storyContinued

JC Penney | Heart

Such a cute commercial.. Very adorable.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - **** SPOILER ALERT ***

There's been all hue and cry about the final HP book that came out yesterday. And I have been dying to read it! Having read it, I am going to summarize my review into concise goods and bads without giving away too much..

I loved................

1) The book itself - It almost tied most loose ends though somethings were obviously let to imagination. And finally, this is a children's book which probably may not do justice to adult expectations. Read it in that view and you'll probably love t too.. It is clearly the best book among those from Goblet... up until now
2) Hermione - She is sparkling and it truly shows what it is to have a brilliant mind by your side. Some of her ideas and presence of mind are glorious..
3) Kreacher - His transformation is very enjoyable
4) The Deathly Hallows - Cool concept, well-explained and also proves that Dumbledore isn't as good as he sounds
5) Neville - Though he plays a very small part in the end, it is absolutely crucial to the story line and I love him for that
6) Polyjuice potion - Its been tactfully used at every conceivable place and you have to hand it to Rowling for thinking it up at most places. The plots surrounding its use are delightful
7) Lack of the Pensieve - The fact that Rowling didn't lapse back to the Pensieve as many times as she did in the Half Blood Prince. This was refreshingly better
8) Potterwatch - It was brilliant inclusion and refreshingly nice
9) The chapter name and illustrations - I mean Ghoul in Pajamas was sheer brilliance!

I didn't love...........

1) The epilogue - Such a wasteful ending. Why did she have to make it so feel-good and sappy? And why wasn't any son of either couple named Fred? And what do all these people do for a living?? And the epilogue seemed incomplete, almost a feeble effort to ensure that if she decided to, Rowling could pick up the strands of Harry Potter and get on with it and as if no one else could. If the book had ended just before the epilogue, it would have attained Masterpiece status in my head
2) Snape as headmaster - Why? At the end of Half Blood Prince, McGonagall was rightful deputy headmistress. What happened to that? I guess Voldemort took over the ministry but it still sounded bizarre
3) Utterly insignificant roles for Snape and McGonagall - There should have been more action for these two spearheads.
4) Why Dobby, Hedwig and Fred? Why not someone a little more major?
5) Harry being too good to be true - He's utterly flawless
6) No Hogwarts - Because our trio don't attend school, there's no Hogwarts, nothing on the teachers and no feel-good stories about the kids interactions.. makes you feel you are in unfamiliar territory
7) The Patronus messages - I loved the concept, But if it were possible, why wasn't Sirius able to send one to confirm he was alive and well in the Order of the Phoenix; why couldn't anyone have done this before to pass on secure messages? Seems futile in the past if you had such a fool-proof method of passing important messages...

All in all, a great conclusion to the series....drags a bit here and there but which big book doesn't? But I can't help but feeling lost now. No more Harry Potter books to look forward to.. in the near future atleast. All Harry Potter fans are sure to find closure with this book. A huge blood bath was imminent and the readers who expected it won't be disappointed. But you would think someone utterly significant like the main cast would die... Well, Rowling doesn't think so. A certain bestseller and a totally worthwhile read. A feel good end to the entertaining series.

Innovative business ideas

My roommate told me of this page yesterday and I checked it out today. Its called the million dollar home page and you can visit it here. Each pixel costs a dollar and because of sheer publicity, this page has actually made a million bucks! A company buys a few hundred pixels just enough for them to put their logos and link it. Talk about innovative business ideas. Here's a snapshot of the page!

The Ames Diary...

As I near the end of 3 glorious months spent in what I thought was the farmland of USA, I realize that Ames wasn't half bad. I mean really. Maybe it was b'coz of Iowa State being here that there is so much life around the tiny town. But I am told that the hustle and bustle when school is in session unlike summer is unbeatable and adds a whole lot of charisma to the place.

So, here's my Top 10 @ Ames (not in order)

1. My room. Its my sanctuary. And I couldn't have hoped for a better arrangement. Fully equipped and furnished at a really low cost, with cool house mates, its the best temporary live-in situation I could've hoped for.
2. My cube. Its not a tiny cubicle. Its one half of a whole room with a whole lot of privacy which allows me to blog like this (at work!)
3. My friend. Its really cool to have a Tamil-speaking friend here, whether its to see Sivaji together or randomly talk nonsense. And having Akil here, accomplished just that. It really made life much easier. At least there was one person whom I knew here for all those movies and all that time-pass. Thanks Akil.
4. The cats. Yeah, I was scared or I hated cats before I got here. But living in close proximity with two of them, I can vouch for the fact that cats have mild human traits. The girl cat gets bugged easily, she irritates easily and she has this cute "hitting with the paw" action that she uses to chide you. And she threatens to bite when she's pissed with you. The boy cat is typical of men.. as long as there is food, he isn't going to bother you much. Once he's hungry or needs to be cuddled, he finds you and purrs away to glory. Cuties..
5. The movies. Yeah... without the movies umpteen hours of my life here would've been uncharted for and there would be so many less blogs! I am so glad that a place like Ames has an up-to-date theatre. With students scattered all around, I wouldn't expect lesser. But its nice to have a reassurance anyways!
6. The restaurants. Of course there are eateries everywhere you go. But Ames has the highest density of them. Maybe because of the student settlement, Ames is scattered with a variety of eating joints and bars. Notably, I have really developed a taste for
a. Bali Satay House - Indonesian cuisine - Maybe because its Akil's favorite, we seem to go here a whole lot. Its pretty much like Chinese/Thai with a little more flavour to it. Low prices, large portions makes for a good restaurant with a bad decor and yesterday in particular, an awful waiter!
b. Thai Spice - Thai cuisine - This is one of the upscale Ames restaurants that you can find with a fantastic decor and even better tasting food. I've been here just once. But I can vouch for the taste which was on par with Lemon Grass, Cincinnati, if not better. Tastefully presented. high-priced, medium-sized portions of food, Thai Spice would make a good "date place".
c. Old Chicago - Italian - As the name indicates, it is a sort of pizza place. Great food and decent drinks.
d. Carlos'O'Kellys - Mexican- Though they weirdly use chicken broth to make their rice (which I avoid), they have some of the tastiest Mexican food I have had (I think they're on par with Don Pablos). Good food and very filling.
e. Pancheros - Mexican - A lot like Chipotle. They have this awesome cheese sauce called Queso or something and its the best I've had!
7. The Trails. Yes, Ames is very green and any deviation that you make from the road takes you to these interesting biking/walking trails which almost always ends around a stream, a bridge or something else scenic. It makes for a fun activity.
8. Cyride. Thats the bus here. Its probably called that because the IA State team is called Cyclones. Yes its slow and badly connected. But that means you get to kill more time day dreaming as you ride past familiar sights.
9. North Grand Mall. The only semblence of shopping apart from Hyvee (like Kroger Vons, etc_ based complexes. The mall houses a dollar theatre, is near a Walmart and has most of your famous stores. A full day of timepass I say!
10. Iowa State University. A vast campus with many many buildings. Very rustic and fantastic looking. It has a pond, a gazillion trails, 3-4 gyms, 3-4 greenhouses and everything else a good, solid University is made of. Good fun to walk around.

'Net goes down

So today was one of those days.. when the Internet was down at work. You would think thats really cool - without the internet the office is dysfunctional, blah blah. And you would be right. But you know what the problem is? So are you!!! We have become soo dependent on the internet that there is little we can do without it. Without the internet, the computer is a very large toy which has immense potential but no power to realize anything. I stared at the computer for a good 10 minutes with no clue as to how to kill time.. virtually all my 'time-passing' elements had been vanquished - be it the Frasier episode at lunch or the IMs or the blog or the news or anything! Finally I opened Minesweeper up and returned to it after a long long hiatus. Within minutes my wrist started aching of course and it paved way for my ebook collection which worms its way to any computer or laptop I work with (in fact a secret I must share is that I keep a whole bunch of ebook favorites and the VLC player on my flash drive). Thats for emergencies. And today certainly qualified. With VLC going and one random CD of F-R-I-E-N-D-S lying in my bag, it made for a normal yet entertaining internet blackout at work (Pssst... I heard that some of the others had actually taken to racquetball at the Ames Racquetball center across the street from where I work!!). You would wonder why I would have to think and plan so much for a net outage which probably lasted 10 minutes. But no.. today's lasted 3 hours and being planned helps! But incidents like today just show how we are slave to the internet....

Kabhi Khushi.. Hamesha Gum

No no.. its not as sad as you may think it is. I meant my recently acquired addiction for chewing gum!! After tea, between meals, after meals, in the bus.. you name it.. Every time my motor mouth instead of talking as always is chewing for a change!! After trying a whole variety available in the market, I have been able to pin down my favorite - Stride. It does last very very long! And their winterblue and spearmint are the best. And on the side, totally unrelated experiments with chewing loads of gum verified by me and Vidhya individually has proved to keep cheeks in check! :)

Of drinking water and leaking faucets

When I joined Bioforce, one of the first things I bought for my desk was a tall water bottle. As a habit, I drink very less water through the day and for the past years of my existence, I've barely done any sort if justice to the 8 glasses a day funda. I convinced myself now, that the best way to keep a clean digestive system and hopefully clear skin was to drink bottles of water. And all of it worked. But you knew there had to be a downside, or else why would I be writing about it?

Drinking 12-16 (roughly 3-4 liters) glasses of water in a span of 8 hours at work has its downside. Add to that 2-3 cups of water-brewed tea. The restroom breaks increase of course! Sometimes, I feel the need to pee three times in two hours. And this wouldn't be so much a problem if the restrooms were located in a secluded corner of the office. They are located right off the kitchenette, where you can bet your day's pay that at any given moment, someone or the other is having coffee, or checking out the snack cupboard or the refrigerator or the back office room for supply. So what - You may ask. What it is that its embarrassing to visit the restroom sooo many times per day inviting people to believe you have a congenital defect or a leaky faucet!! And whats worse is that the chatty receptionist's desk is right there too. And she feels the irresistable need to say hi to you each time. Hmph.

So whats the solutions? The excuses, but of course. Timing is crucial. Each tea break is an excuse. Each time you rummage the snack cupboard is an excuse. As is lunch.

Moral of the story? My kidneys are fine.. Yoo hoo!!

Nomad?

A person with no fixed residence who roams about; a wanderer.

Courtesy: Dictionary.com

The weekends..

Its most boring to be by yourself in a relatively new place. What do you do all day? All week I dream of the weekend and inexplicably on Saturday afternoon after I have had a long cherished late nighter on Friday and a well-deserved late morning on Saturday, I long for Monday again. From Saturday afternoon to Sunday night is an unbearable drone and I am sorry to say I am no longer the phone person that I was. I can't stand conversations > 15 min. I find excuses to hang up. I can't keep cooking all weekend. More often than not, I make one meal and the next is inevitably Maggi. I can't watch movies all weekend. Though I do see at least 4 every weekend for the lack of anything better to do. (Going out to the mall like I did last weekend turns out to be an unavoidable expense). I don't have too many books I haven't read. The internet is boring. And I can't seem to watch the endless sitcoms on the net or the TV. And in a place like Ames, if you aren't going to watch a movie or try out a restaurant or shop for the heck of it, you aren't doing anything. At least next weekend sounds promising. The final Harry Potter book is coming out then and I'm going to be sitting out in the hall waiting for my copy to find its way home.