Goodbye

Sorry, all you faithful followers, but I've decided to shut this blog down. It's sad but true, that my first love in the blogging world was Wordpress, and I've decided to move back there. So feel free to check out that blog! It won't be very different from this one but I'm just more inspired to write there - don't ask why, i cannot tell!

So, i say goodbye! :)

new blog : http://starryeyedn.wordpress.com

How To Train Your Dragon proves Animated movies are the best genre!

I'll say it again! I'll never get tired of Animated movies! Yes, there are those which aren't great, but of late every single animated movie I've seen is just AWESOME! And How To Train Your Dragon is no exception to that rule! I'll admit when I saw posters of the movie it looked slightly lame. But it had gotten RAVE reviews on Rotten Tomatoes so I gave it a chance and watched the trailer, which really did it!

What is the movie about? It revolves around a village - Berk, which, like all human communities, has its share of problems. However, Berk, unlike other human communities, is plagued by what we in the real world would consider "mythical creatures" a.k.a - Dragons! As protagonist and narrator Hiccup says - "most other people would leave, but not us, we're vikings, we have "stubborness" issues!". Like everyone in the village, Hiccup wants to slay dragons. But from the beginning we all know that he's not going to follow the band-wagon and he is going to do something outrageous!

Hiccup is your quintessential loser who becomes the hero and saves the day. He unwittingly wreaks havoc and there are many amusing jibes at his character in the first part. What is so appealing about his character is that he wants to be a tough guy but the audience knows from the very beginning that's not really what he is! In addition, the script is full of good jokes and the voice cast is pretty great!

The animation is great, I'm sure the movie is a BILLION times better in 3-D. Now, I'd like to take the opportunity to say that How To Train Your Dragon is going to win next years Oscar for Best Animated. I know it's too early to make such lofty claims, but I was dead sure Up would win same time last year and I was right!

The best thing about this movie is that its theme is - don't judge a book by its cover, which is sort of what I did initially with this movie. The posters didn't look great but I gave it a chance and I loved it! So I hope that you will do the same! :)

Sherlock Holmes: Dangerously Alluring... indeed it is!

I was at a total loss as to what I should write today, until a phone call at 11:48 am!

Allow me to explain...

On friday evening, on my way home from my internship, like every time I'm on a bus, I was listening to the radio. Now, the entire week the radio station - Radio Indigo had been giving out tickets for the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I had been trying throughout the week, in vain, to get those tickets. Poetically enough, the friday evening show was the last time they were giving them out and, in brief - I won! I was told I'd get a call regarding the details of the tickets and that's your explanation in brief and now to the movie.

First let me tell you, I had been put off this movie because I'd read a review which didn't paint a very pretty picture. I have decided to trust those reviewers no more! However, my cousin and two friends loved it and Robert Downey Jr. is my new Johnny Depp so I was back to wanting to watch the movie. Conclusion - GO WATCH IT!!!

If you are a big Sherlock Holmes fan, in that you've read all the novels and short stories, then MAYBE, you shouldn't watch this. This is nothing like the books. Holmes as created by Arthur Conan Doyle is, in a way, a latent version of the Holmes Robert Downey plays. This Holmes is an unmistakable junkie and quite virile! So, if you're looking for Conan Doyle's work in this, you may not like it. Therefore, I suggest you watch it with just a vague idea of literature's best known detective.

Next, applause to Guy Ritchie. The man is a brilliant director, if you've watched any of his stuff, and loved it, you'll probably love this movie too! I love his camera work in Sherlock Holmes. I think he was the right guy for the job. All hail Guy Ritchie. Which reminds me, watch Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels if you haven't.

Now the actors. Of course Robert Downey (Sherlock Holmes) was just awesome. Now here's the fun part, I've never liked Jude Law (Dr. Watson), but I loved him in this movie. The two of them are so good together, it looks so effortless, there are no words to explain the rapport the two had on screen, you'd have to watch it to get it! The rest of cast was just brilliant to, they facilitated the movie so well! Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan and all the others (don't know their names). Reg Poerscout-Edgerton (the casting director) I salute you, you sort of made all this happen.

This is not mind-blowingly brilliant or Oscar worthy movie, it's just a very well made, witty, adventure movie, which you can watch again and again. It's appealing to me, if you find that sort of stuff appealing then you should watch Sherlock Holmes. So what are you waiting for? Go get tickets for the earliest show!

P.S - If you're wondering about the "dangerously alluring" tagline, apparently that's one of the taglines for the movie and it gave me a good idea for a title, so I used it!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you! I know I haven't written in about 6 or 7 months but I sincerely hope to change that.

I'd like to start the new year and new decade with a list of what I think are the best and worst Books, Movies, Music and News of the decade (2000-2009) that has come to an end. I'll give you my top 3 and bottom 3, feel free to express your opinion if you differ from mine!

BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE:

1. The Kite Runner.

I think this was the best book to come out this decade. It was well written, ethnic and poignant. It was a heart-wrenchingly good book. If you haven't read it, please pick up a copy as soon as you can.

2. Atonement.

In my opinion, this is one of those books that kids will learn Literature as a classic from the early 21st century as we learn Dickens, Tennyson and Jane Austen. It's very well written. To me, it's a novelty in a decade in which the only kind of books that really sell are easy and quick reads.

3. Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince.

You can't deny Harry Potter a position in top books of the decade. Harry Potter wasn't a regular series it was a phenomenon! I chose the sixth book, because out of all the Harry Potters that were published post 2000, this was the best.

WORST BOOKS OF THE DECADE:

1. The White Tiger.

If you like this book, you're an idiot. Seriously. Or you read like you watch T.V - mindlessly! It's incredibly bad and full of factual errors. I fail to understand how it won a Booker Prize.

2. How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, And Got A Life.

Awful. I like my fair share of Chick-Lit but this was mind numbing. And worst of all, those of us who read it contributed to the profit made on this book because of the plagiarism case against it.

3. The Twilight Series.

I couldn't choose which was the worst of all, so I just put the whole series. I'm ashamed to say that I went through a phase of obsession with these books. However on hind-sight, that was certainly a momentary lapse of intellect!

BEST MOVIES OF THE DECADE:

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

They were brilliant. Enough said. May not be as great as the books but the movies were spectacular. Though they are pretty much forgotten nowadays, the trilogy dominated the Oscar scene in the early 2000s

2. The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight is to the Batman series as Godfather 2 is to the Godfather series. I personally feel Dark Knight deserved a Best Film nomination at the Oscars, especially since the movies that were nominated weren't half as good as Dark Knight.

3. The Departed.

Martin Scorcese finally got that Oscar that eluded him - Best Director. Of course, it's not his best movie but it was good, fast and had a great ending. It deserves to be here.

WORST MOVIES OF THE DECADE:

1. 300.

By a mile, this was the worst movie of the decade. I love action movies, as you can see the movies I picked as best of the decade aren't comedies or chick-flicks. I didn't get the point of men with rock-hard abs wearing nothing but capes and underwear. Also, there was no denying the homo-erotic undertone, which was really weird, Note: Xerxes the Persian king. This movie isn't heroic or about bravery by any stretch.

2. Lady In The Water.

After this movie, I swore never to see an M. Night Shyamalan movie ever again. Which is why, this is my pick for worst movie, because I haven't seen The Village or The Happening. It was all too weird and I still don't understand the movie, and I think I'll leave it that way.

3. Twilight

I don't have a vindictive grudge against this franchise. But I put this movie here because nobody acted well. It was extremely amateur! Once again, I fail to understand how anyone could like this movie.

BEST BANDS/ARTISTS OF THE DECADE:

1. U2.

They've dominated the rock charts for over two decades now. You cannot deny that they can be considered the best band of the decade.

2. Coldplay.

They are alot of people's favourite band and they deserve the fame and love they've got. I hope they're as successful in the new decade.

3. The White Stripes/ Radiohead.

I couldn't decide between the two bands. Rolling Stones says Radiohead has the best album of the decade, I don't agree, but they've contributed alot to the rock of the decade. The White Stripes = just great! Their off beat sound is brilliant and so they are one of the best artists of the decade.

WORST BANDS/ARTISTS OF THE DECADE:

1. Akon.

Why does this man have such a big fan following? Why do people like him? His nasal voice, psuedo "hard life" lyrics, crass references to women's bodies. In a word - terrible.

2. James Blunt.

Do we here about this man who was "oh so popular" 2 or 3 years ago? No! He's a bad artist! That is all!

3. Timbaland

Even I can grunt and say a few words in songs and sell it, if that's all it takes to be a hot selling artist like Timbaland. His popularity is far more than he deserves.

BEST NEWS OF THE DECADE:

1. Barack Obama Elected As President Of USA.

It was the most landmark thing that happened in the decade. The entire world followed the elections. Obama is the first black President and I don't think any of us thought that would happen.

2. Internet To The Forefront.

2000 brought about the increased popularity of the internet. At the end of the decade I can say, that Internet is almost a essential part of alot of people's lives.

3. No Y2K Crash.

One can say this was good news. The anticipated collapse of all that is technology didn't happen and that's good.

WORST NEWS OF THE DECADE:

1. Financial Crash.

By far the worst thing to happen this decade. It effected the entire world. 2008 was by far the bleakest year of the decade because of this.

2. President Bush's election to US Presidency.

The spurious manner in which George Bush was elected in 2000 and then all the disaster that followed such as the Iraq War. Definitely one of the worst times in US History.

3. 9/11 Terrorist Attack.

This brought terrorism to the forefront as the world's primary problem. Ever since, there have been attacks all of the world. The 2000s will be seen as the decade in which terrorism rose drastically.

But let's not leave on a negative note. It's a new year and new decade which always means new or renewed hope. Once again, wish you all a Happy New Year and New Decade.

Working out the wireless.

So my last blog entry, gave me some great inspiration on ideas for this blog, it's going to sound stupid when i say it out loud, or in this case write it out. So the inspiration is - happenings from my life. tah dah! This entry, like the last one, is about something that happened... i'm going to stick to the format i used last time.

Let me first introduce the topic to you, about 10 months ago i convinced my mom that it was absolutely necessary to set up a wireless connection in our house. She caved, and we bought a router. But that wasn't in time, for our terribly ancient PC died... i mean literally died because towards the end you had switch it on, wait for it to heat up a bit, switch it off and switch it on again, and finally, one day, it just stopped switching on! Do not judge me by this, i'm a gadget freak it is my parents who keep dragging me down into the stone age. If we have time i'll tell about how long it took me to get them to buy a DVD player! Back to the point, with the PC gone, we (my dad and i) didn't have a computer till my mom bought a new laptop and gave us her old one and the broadband would need to be configured on that before anything could be done about the wireless. 

Eventually we did get the old laptop but one small hitch, the CD drive didn't work (i seriously don't know what my parents do to abuse technology so much!). CD drive not working meant no installation of wireless software. If you're tech savy, you must be thinking "Well use your mom's new laptop to configure wireless and then everything is ok!". I tried that. But the new laptop needed to have broadband configured on it before i could setup the wireless. I'm sorry if i'm confusing you but try and stay with me. 

So in between all the fights i have with my parents about everything, i kept nagging my mom about the wireless. She finally got the computer guy from her office. Finally was today by the way. He came today, ten months later. Well he configured the wireless. Two thumbs up! Then my dad came in.

Dad: What's happening? (you'd think we were setting up the wireless in absolute secrecy)

Me: *look of frustration*

Computer Guy: Yea, it's working now, see.

Dad: Will it work if we take the computer to another room? (i kid you not. He asked this)

Me: Yea!!!

Computer Guy: Yea, yea... it's a wireless signal which is given out and any computer with wireless capabilities will be able to access it. But we've put this complex password so not just anyone can crack it.

Me: Ok good! Thanks

Dad: (not really getting it) yea! thank you!

Exit Computer Guy.

Dad: (opens a browser) It's not working.

Me: Of course you'd say that. (looks at the screen) Get up let me try.

Dad: This was a bad idea it's not working and the guy has gone.

Me: Ssshhhh!

It took me about 10 minutes to figure out what was wrong. After i figured it out

Me: You're not allowed to use this connection, go somewhere else and surf the net.

Dad: What? You found out what's wrong?

Me: YEA!!! The phone line wasn't connected!!!

Dad: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (he was in splits!)

Me: You better be finding another computer to use, i'm not letting you use this one, all your negative talk about technology and fatalistic attitude about the wireless.

Dad: Ah phoo! Go eat your lunch.

After that, he spent an hour not using the laptop in the study, where we usually keep it, but at the Dining Table.