The youngishly cute Brittany Murphy's energy is contagious as she single handedly sets this chick flick through its paces. Director Nick Hurran has done a tremendous job sealing the story plot and letting it unfold as smoothly as it does. Set in the backdrop of a reality show, it provides short glimpses into the milder deviousness of regular human interaction when faced with challenge and uncertainity. The reliance on Carly Simmon's music to calm herself is a peripheral touch that drifts in and out of the movie. Not a must watch, rather watch it when you are relaxed and don't want to focus heavily on details, just feel like floating through the movie.
This is not about the famous British sitcom. I watch a lot of tv and much of the tv I watch is in-between mainstream and obscure. In essence, the kind of media I watch is enjoyed by more than a few but not by the masses, ensuring there is certain fan following. But then I do also enjoy mainstream programming. In anycase, the point is, as I watch multiple episodes of various recordings on my DVR, I notice actors moving through time. It is curoius to note how actors have changed over time and I often find myself admiring them for sticking to their profession. They have been chipping away at it with dedication. No wonder then, when they finally shoot to fame and get roles they deserve their acting comes out uninhibited, like second nature. Here are a few good actors that I noticed, have grown to take on bigger roles over time.
- Leslie David as sweeper after a concert briefly talks to Eric in "That 70's Show" - Stanley in "The Office"
- Bipasha Basu in tamil movie Sachin with almost no role and one item song - Now a leading lady in Bollywood
- Jenna Fischer, again in "That 70's Show" as Stacy Wannamaker, jackie's nemesis because she is married and well settled - Pam Beesly in "The Office"
- Leah Remini in "Saved by the Bell" as Zach's girlfriend and daughter of beach resort owner - Carrie Heffernan in King of Queens
- Tatyana Ali as extra girl with Rudy Banks in Cosby Show - Ashley Banks in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- Salma Hayek as a nurse for a 1min sequence in Across the universe - No intro needed
- Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Jerry Kellerman in "Raising the bar" - from Zach Morris in "Saved by the Bell"
- They’re changing its name to Breeses Buttercup
- T'was an ill Breese that blew no good (to the Colts)
- MBA students are now reading: Breekonomics
- Beauty and the Breest
- Women all over the country are now going in for Breest implants
- The Saints Breesed through the evening
- The hobbits (Saints) marched from the Shire to the Brees
- Breesame mucho
- The Saints put their Breest foot forward
I am pretty far form following politics but felt like posting a simple string of comments around an article that I just read on CNN. It is about the unjustified arrest of a black professor and Obama's comments around it. IMHO: Sounds like a frivolous, un-thought out comment coming from the president. I don't believe it is in the jurisdiction of the president to be mouthing loosely in such a fashion especially when people are listening hard. Words like this could easily be interpreted as lack of confidence in the justice system. While this may be true, tatistics such as those quoted by Obama should come at a proper forum with adequate substantiation and a definition of how it should be used. Any action should be left to the system to work out, else there is little difference between this and the much touted Honduran coup. Both signal a breakdown of the proper processes and the need for intervention to straighten out affairs. I have never chosen to believe in one person when one can easily fall back on procedure. Do not misjudge me, Obama is only my second favourite president after Bill Clinton, therein lies the reason for critical observation and nitpicking.
On the other end of this spectrum lies the firefighter fiasco where no fire-fighter was promoted due to lack of minorities scaling the passing grade. That is a horrendous example of how providing stepping stones to oppressed minorities and implementation of anti-racial-discriminatory practices can go awry. If the test was indeed skewed to allow certain races to pass, that can be determined and action taken accordingly. One cannot help but wonder how to make a generic test that only certain races will pass. It reminds me of the situation in India right now where most of the open seats in various educational institutions are allotted to backward classes. The goal is honourable, in that, it is a way to make up for the much prevalent suppression of the lower caste in the past. However, there is no sense of whether this is reaching the right people, there is no system in place that is making algorithmic changes as the existing procedures fall askew. It has become vote bank fodder. I am simply afraid that this history might end up repeating itself in another location. If you're going to do it, do it right!
As is my usual scapegoat, when the non-writers block strikes me, I abandon my regular post to wander off into easier pastures under the sun and making lists tops the bill in this case.
While I will continue with that thought, I wonder out aloud why its called a "scapegoat". As a Capricorn-ian I object to my class of animals being called a scape-anything, leave alone the negative connotation of the word "excuse". After some soul searching, which did not reveal any insight into my soul or into the origin of this word, I searched online and found the chain of events that led to the present usage of "scapegoat". Working backwards, scapegoat -> escape goat -> Azazel (in Hebrew, Bible 1530) -> goat that carried away evil during King's wedding (24 BC, Ebla, now Syria). There is also the comparison that can be made between "scapegoat" and "bali aadu", a sacrificial lamb (in my mother tongue, Tamil) which again is a way to ward of evil by oferrings to god.
Now that that little curiosity has been resolved, lets get back to the tangential topic that was our main one - LISTS. Below are some immediate lists that come to mind. Note that while one could make a list with 100 or 1000 entries, it would take away the simple elegance of being forced to choose a lesser number, 5 it is.
PC Games
- Battlefield 2142
- Unreal Tournament 2000
- Super Mario Bros (2D)
- Dangerous Dave
- Age of Empires
Theme Songs
- Star Wars
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Zelda (2D)
- Indiana Jones
- Coupling
Hero
- Phantom (Ghost who walks)
- James Bond (Sean Connery)
- Aragorn (LOTR)
- Angelina Jolie (TombRaider)
- Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca)
Villain
- Sauron
- Darth Vader
- Joker (Batman)
- Amrish Puri (Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom)
- Mokambo (Mr.India)
Movies
- Star Wars
- Shawshank Redemption
- Casablanca
- Braveheart
- As good as it gets
Having viewed an episode here and an episode there of 30 Rock, had been planning to watch the entire series. Turned out to be quite an experience, as I watched all 21 episodes of Season 1 of 30 Rock in the last 24hrs. It was "unputdownable" as the critics would say about books. The level of creativity, the variety of presentation and a certain charm that is only achievable in the city of NewYork has paved the way for a series that is certainly among the most "fresh" in recent years. Personally, I consider a show to be really good whenever I feel like I would have given up almost anything to have played any part in its existence. In this case, I specifically found myself wishing I had been involved in writing this show but would have been satisfied even if I had been the hotdog man on the street that Tina Fey frequently buys from. Quite similar to the way I felt while reading Stephen Hawkings book on black holes, it was so simple and yet so advanced that I wish I had written that book. When such a huge cast with veteran notables come together, it would really be the whole support crew that needs to be praised. While I will refrain from self-evident praise around the good talent by most of the cast, I would like to point out Rachel Dratch who I began noticing from the second episode. She has done a remarkable job portraying various roles from pet lady with a kitten named runt (which conveniently serves to beep out a curse word ending with "unt" directed at Tina during throughout the episode) to the hooker that hooks up with Jack and goes to party at Tracy's house while he is roleplaying with his wife on Valentine's day. Finally, most noteworthy, is the absence of the omni-present very much annoying "laugh track" that has come to dominate small screen comedy. Finally, I can tell when people around me do not get the joke and quickly turn around to laugh at them.
Some Trivia:
Fey's hubby Richmond composed music, including the awesomely jazzy theme
Emily Mortimer, who appears in a few episodes was also in Pink Panther
Tina was the casting director and most of the cast are her friends from SNL
Rachel Dratch was supposed to play Jenna. Replaced by Jane Karkowski
Ending quote:
Try saying "Rural Juror" with a mid-western American accent.
Some Trivia:
Fey's hubby Richmond composed music, including the awesomely jazzy theme
Emily Mortimer, who appears in a few episodes was also in Pink Panther
Tina was the casting director and most of the cast are her friends from SNL
Rachel Dratch was supposed to play Jenna. Replaced by Jane Karkowski
Ending quote:
Try saying "Rural Juror" with a mid-western American accent.
As a trekkie, I felt completely let down by this movie being called a Star Trek movie. It should have just been made as the fifth sequence of Die Hard :)
Ofcourse, all this did'nt stop me from enjoying the movie. All I had to do was repeat 3 times:
"This is not Stark Trek, it is Die Hard: Space Walk"
"This is not Stark Trek, it is Die Hard: Space Walk"
"This is not Stark Trek, it is Die Hard: Space Walk"
Spolier Alert: Very Minor spoilers ahead but nothing that should change your movie experience
Not that I did not see this coming. I guess I need to brace for and face the fact that teenage humour sells mroe than middle aged honour. Take Stargate Atlantis for exmaple, a series that was doing so well and building up to be an eternal saga. The powers that be decided they could make more money getting kids to watch it, so they axed the show in the 5th season and are working on bringing up StarGate 90210, with the theme being a college in space with teenagers and their stargate adventures. Not that I mind this, infact I'll probably even watch it, I am simply furious that my show got axed to make way for this. The Star Trek that I grew up to had honour first, then adventure and as brief respites, peppered humour. This movie on the other hand was like a National Lampoon's Star Trek. Between Kal Pen joining Obama and John Cho manning the thrusters, I wonder if our world will soon be run by pot smoking, glue sniffing teenage hormones. It is unthinkable that an officer on the bridge will not be trained enough to not be able to take off because he forgot the inertial dampeners. Then there was that irritating Russian accent which was milked for eternity, seemingly because JJ thought it was humourous. I could go on and on, about obvious and tantalising deviances from set customs of Star Trek such as the kissing scene with Spock. I have'nt seen a more un-natural chemistry between two humans (well one half-human). And who promotes a suspended cadet to first officer in 5 minutes? The cast might as well have had Charlie Sheen as Kirk, Steve Martin as Capt. Pike and Vince Vaugh as Spock junior. At least I would'nt have had to assume it was a trekkie movie. My rants, I realize are a lost cause. The movie has one good aspect, it brought all non-trekkies together and made them watch it. They love it and are now walking around claiming themselves as trekkies. Market analysis and profit milking have taken over which is only natural for those investing in it, I can hardly blame them. All I can hope for now is that there are enough fuddy duddies like me that prefer old school enough to keep this slapstick movie seperate from the saga that we have always enjoyed.
Ofcourse, all this did'nt stop me from enjoying the movie. All I had to do was repeat 3 times:
"This is not Stark Trek, it is Die Hard: Space Walk"
"This is not Stark Trek, it is Die Hard: Space Walk"
"This is not Stark Trek, it is Die Hard: Space Walk"
Spolier Alert: Very Minor spoilers ahead but nothing that should change your movie experience
Not that I did not see this coming. I guess I need to brace for and face the fact that teenage humour sells mroe than middle aged honour. Take Stargate Atlantis for exmaple, a series that was doing so well and building up to be an eternal saga. The powers that be decided they could make more money getting kids to watch it, so they axed the show in the 5th season and are working on bringing up StarGate 90210, with the theme being a college in space with teenagers and their stargate adventures. Not that I mind this, infact I'll probably even watch it, I am simply furious that my show got axed to make way for this. The Star Trek that I grew up to had honour first, then adventure and as brief respites, peppered humour. This movie on the other hand was like a National Lampoon's Star Trek. Between Kal Pen joining Obama and John Cho manning the thrusters, I wonder if our world will soon be run by pot smoking, glue sniffing teenage hormones. It is unthinkable that an officer on the bridge will not be trained enough to not be able to take off because he forgot the inertial dampeners. Then there was that irritating Russian accent which was milked for eternity, seemingly because JJ thought it was humourous. I could go on and on, about obvious and tantalising deviances from set customs of Star Trek such as the kissing scene with Spock. I have'nt seen a more un-natural chemistry between two humans (well one half-human). And who promotes a suspended cadet to first officer in 5 minutes? The cast might as well have had Charlie Sheen as Kirk, Steve Martin as Capt. Pike and Vince Vaugh as Spock junior. At least I would'nt have had to assume it was a trekkie movie. My rants, I realize are a lost cause. The movie has one good aspect, it brought all non-trekkies together and made them watch it. They love it and are now walking around claiming themselves as trekkies. Market analysis and profit milking have taken over which is only natural for those investing in it, I can hardly blame them. All I can hope for now is that there are enough fuddy duddies like me that prefer old school enough to keep this slapstick movie seperate from the saga that we have always enjoyed.
My favourite author growing up has been R.K. Narayan, mostly due to his simplistic writing style. Although, I am no stranger to word play or plot complexity, these must be used with care and in as sufficient amount as they are required. With this in mind, I highly recommend Orson Scott Card's Sci-Fi accomplishment, Ender's Game to anyone with a heart for science fiction novels. As a huge fan of Dr.Isaac Asimov, I have never felt the same connection with any other work as I did with the Foundation Series, until now. While Dr.Asimov's protagnosit is a scientist at heart, Orson's is a human prone to logic, confusion and compassion. Much contrast there. And a lasting impression.
Tech Specs: This book was primarily read under the following ambience, apart from a few hours at coffee shops and briefly in the waiting room of Dr.Wong. Alone at home, on a comfortable leather couch in the evening, having shirked of the social calling's of a Friday evening, by the yellow rays of the light bulb, listening to Pearl Jam's Ten in its entirety in the background.
Warning: Do not (at any cost) read any portion of the books summary, cover review, prologue, or any other supporting documents or talk to friends or foe about it prior to reading the book.
Tech Specs: This book was primarily read under the following ambience, apart from a few hours at coffee shops and briefly in the waiting room of Dr.Wong. Alone at home, on a comfortable leather couch in the evening, having shirked of the social calling's of a Friday evening, by the yellow rays of the light bulb, listening to Pearl Jam's Ten in its entirety in the background.
Warning: Do not (at any cost) read any portion of the books summary, cover review, prologue, or any other supporting documents or talk to friends or foe about it prior to reading the book.
A crush a day keeps the doctor away. Not literally everyday, but I do frequently get what I can bestly describe as a "crush" on some woman or the other, either through immediate line of sight or on the telly. Its the way we losers of this world get a reason to go on living. I have found that this keeps my spirits quite up and gives me a lot of positive energy. My newest sweetheart, this week is "Christa Miller" and boy, am I ever in love with her. I saw her in Scrubs and what was typically a monotonous run-through of all my DVR captured episodes, became magical and romantic.
As I went through the process of becoming "whipped" and "lost in love", I realized that I had in fact seen her somewhere. After much deliberation, the neuron patch in my grey matter fused some old connections and I saw images flashing before my eyes. The images belonged to a few scenes from the movie "Kill Bill", which by the way falls in my top 25 movies of all time, a list I plan to finalize and post soon enough. Picture Uma Thurman, dressed in a tight yellow one-piece bikers latex jacket peeing in the restroom and while doing so, she hears the incessant whistling that disturbs us viewers more than once during the movie. The owner of that sound, I was sure was Christa Miller.
Thanks to the age of information, I quickly went over to my favourite database, IMDB and poured over Kill Bill listings and much to my dissapointment, realized that I had been confusing "Julie Dreyfus" for "Christa Miller". In my defense, there is some similarity in their look, especially of Julie in Kill Bill with Christa in Scrubs sans the Japanese robe. While that mystery was indeed solved, I now had a new mystery at hand that was starting to irritate the hell outta me. I could not maintain a crush on someone without knowing their name and having enough information to potentially stalk them, something I don't do though.
Much pondering later, once again, random fusing's of neurons in my cabeza gave rise to a well rounded man of good humour. Drew Carey stood out, laughing at me, cracking "you're so stupid" jokes about me which made me laugh too. And out of the blue, Drew Carey got run over by 17 wheels of an 18-wheeler and I found myself outside Drew's house by the weather beaten pool table in the backyard looking at my sweetheart, Christa Miller who by the way has also appeared in "Seinfeld", "Fresh Prince" and "CSI:Miami".
I do remember her in Seinfeld in the episode, "The Doodle" which is a classic. Its the one where "Jerry lands his girlfriends toothbrush in the toilet bowl", "Christa Miller likes George for who he is even when he drapes himself in Velvet" and "George gets revolted and breaks up with her for sucking a peach pitt discarded earlier by George himself". Also remember her in Fresh Prince, where "Will Smith hits on her" and "Carlton who is the manager of Peacock, a restaurant and book store in ULA campus keeps requesting her to buy something if she wants to sit at the table". I do not regularly watch CSI though and do not recall her in it. Without downplaying her acting talent, allow me to make the connection that her husband "Bill Lawrence", a scriptwriter and producer, got her into Scrubs where she met me.
And we lived happily everafter.
As I went through the process of becoming "whipped" and "lost in love", I realized that I had in fact seen her somewhere. After much deliberation, the neuron patch in my grey matter fused some old connections and I saw images flashing before my eyes. The images belonged to a few scenes from the movie "Kill Bill", which by the way falls in my top 25 movies of all time, a list I plan to finalize and post soon enough. Picture Uma Thurman, dressed in a tight yellow one-piece bikers latex jacket peeing in the restroom and while doing so, she hears the incessant whistling that disturbs us viewers more than once during the movie. The owner of that sound, I was sure was Christa Miller.
Thanks to the age of information, I quickly went over to my favourite database, IMDB and poured over Kill Bill listings and much to my dissapointment, realized that I had been confusing "Julie Dreyfus" for "Christa Miller". In my defense, there is some similarity in their look, especially of Julie in Kill Bill with Christa in Scrubs sans the Japanese robe. While that mystery was indeed solved, I now had a new mystery at hand that was starting to irritate the hell outta me. I could not maintain a crush on someone without knowing their name and having enough information to potentially stalk them, something I don't do though.
Much pondering later, once again, random fusing's of neurons in my cabeza gave rise to a well rounded man of good humour. Drew Carey stood out, laughing at me, cracking "you're so stupid" jokes about me which made me laugh too. And out of the blue, Drew Carey got run over by 17 wheels of an 18-wheeler and I found myself outside Drew's house by the weather beaten pool table in the backyard looking at my sweetheart, Christa Miller who by the way has also appeared in "Seinfeld", "Fresh Prince" and "CSI:Miami".
I do remember her in Seinfeld in the episode, "The Doodle" which is a classic. Its the one where "Jerry lands his girlfriends toothbrush in the toilet bowl", "Christa Miller likes George for who he is even when he drapes himself in Velvet" and "George gets revolted and breaks up with her for sucking a peach pitt discarded earlier by George himself". Also remember her in Fresh Prince, where "Will Smith hits on her" and "Carlton who is the manager of Peacock, a restaurant and book store in ULA campus keeps requesting her to buy something if she wants to sit at the table". I do not regularly watch CSI though and do not recall her in it. Without downplaying her acting talent, allow me to make the connection that her husband "Bill Lawrence", a scriptwriter and producer, got her into Scrubs where she met me.
And we lived happily everafter.
"Turn the pages, Turn to stone", the whole film has been made with astounding adherence to the graphic novel. While the novel did ultimate justice to the comic realm, the movie unfortunately, was not directed, it was not screen played, it was not adapted, it was infact cloned. There is a huge difference between creating a graphic novel and adapting it to a film. The two are as different as night and day, in terms of human quotient, glorifying the characters, plot buildup and providing people impact. Watchmen failed exactly in all these aspects providing viewers a dull lacklustre sensation. Sitting in the jam-packed theater at midnight for the first showing, I found myself blaming myself for feeling detached from the movie and its characters, wondering if I was not the afficionado of this genre, as I had assumed to be. Movie making aspects were up there among the best, several scenes in the movie (prison break, alley fight) and the portrayal of some of the characters (comedian, silk spectre) were incredibly perfect. Thats exactly what this movie seems to have been - perfect. And that is precisely why, the film also turned out to be lonely and unentertaining. Hardcore fans of the novel, needless to say, should be quite satisfied, fans of Sin City, on the other hand would have been left wondering if they would ever get their 2hrs 43mins back while fans of both, such as myself, were left semi-compromised.
Attachment is something you realize when you feel the pain of detachment. Yes, I am talking about "That 70's Show". Having watched every episode numerous times, it has become a part of my life. So much, so that, whenever I watch the "Final Episode", I feel grief. I feel grief that it is ending, I feel a void in my life for a moment, I feel emotionally bonded to the characters and it feels like they backed over a cliff and I don't get to see their fall or what became of them. Unfinished business.
The significance of this feeling lies in knowing the fact that I rarely express grief over reality, not even when alone. I don't really know if I hide it very well or if there is indeed nothing in there, but I have rarely felt sympathy, pity, sadness or remorse as a direct result of witnessing or being a part of any realistic occurence. Over the years I have forced myself to showcase such, but they are never completely genuine. Yet, when it comes to non-fiction, I can easily express a higher level of emotion, one that is supposedly human and quite common among people of earth.
Its almost as if, in real life, I attribute all phenomenon to cosmic divinity & incalculable probability leaving little or no room for expectation whereas in a controlled fictional universe, it is possible to exert our laws of realism in full force. Its a strange kind of hypocrisy between real and fiction, as if fiction is more real than real. Without getting into the whole red pill vs blue pill debate, how does one define reality? Given two spheres, if one feels more realistic than the other, is that sufficient to draw a conclusion and call it real? Or do you need to have a realness measure, which can be overshot by a fictional sphere. If a sphere is created by man, would that make the sphere less real than one created by the randomness of nature? Does one need a neutral observation platform i.e. a point of reference? If so, how do we pick a real point of reference outside the real domain?
A new born baby for example, does not face the problem of distinguishing fact from fiction. What I am infering here to is that our reality is a product of our environment and our notions accumulated over time. If we did not have pre-conceived illusions, everything would be real and fictional at once. To mis-conclude this bizzare piece, "Everything is factual including fiction".
In October 2006, I had posted showcasing the greatness in film making of a desi director from New York who had by then, completed "Take the A train", "Call Center" and "Little Man". At that time he was actively seeking funding for his upcoming movie "Kissing Cousins" and we were all eagerly awaiting this. Just so you know, Amyn Kaderali has completed it, a while ago in fact, and the trailer is available and looks great. The DVD is out, if you are a netflixer, I can confirm that it is available to check out. The danger of staying too long in short films is the possibility of losing the ability to create engaging screenplay in longer movies. The aspects of the film that shock and capture the audience in a short film is very different, its akin to a gymnast performing for a few minutes for the gold. A full length movie on the other hand is like a 7-setter Australian Open, it needs to be competitively engaging through variation and consistency. Needless to say, based on the trailer, Amyn has pulled this off and I am eagerly waiting for my Netflix queue to move up.
Stargate Atlantis describes a method of "ascension" followed by the ancients that allows humans to transcend from their physical form to a pure energy state. This is achieved by meditating for a long time on the inner self, becoming pure and facing your worst fears. They also come up with technology that elevates your heart rate, your body's metabolism and modifies various anatomical pieces creating a short cut.
Richard Bach points out through his invaluable wirtings in "Jonathon Livingstone Seagull", that achieving greatness in any chosen task will lead to a higher plane of existence. He also projects that there is no "finish line" and that there are infinite planes to jump to. Perfection, in this case, is the key to salvation and there is no end to it, there is no absolute truth except the will to break self-imposed barriers and to be able to guide others along the same path.
The rishi's on the Himalayan mountain ranges abandon all material life in the quest for eternal truth. According to the great Hindu epics, the "Ramayana" and "Mahabharatha", they stand on one leg for years together chanting god's name and offering theirselves in his service. It appears that realizing how insignificant you are, shedding every ounce of your ego and becoming totally selfless for a higher being lets you transcend.
Richard Bach, gets into the picture again with his "Illusions", where he takes a slightly modified view of releasing oneself from mortal obstacles. With a great short story to begin with, he describes how a fish breaks loose from its group and swims with the stream, allowing the envelope to take him on his journey. This wisdom imparted by this book lies more in realizing that every soul is capable of that release, and chastises looking upto to an ascended individual since this is possible by anyone of us. Taking us to the other side, it also shows the predicament of the higher being in the presence of mortal fools that look upto him as a Messiah, a messenger of god.
Having made it more than halfway through the "Fountainhead", I can compare "Howard Roark" to a mortal that strives to achieve what he feels is perfection in architecture. The complicated analysis that Ayn Rand brings out through verbal jousting between "Dominique" and "Toohey", shows us how perfection is never truly appreciated in a society. A society by my definition is an attempt to collude the strengths and weaknesses of individuals, thereby creating a well rounded entity. There is no place in society for a sheer individualist, who by this token will unfortunately be outcast as is the case with this character.
One needs to answer a greater question before seeking the path to salvation. What is salvation? Is it the quest for ultimate happiness? Is it the quest for greatness? Or is it the search for purpose, for a chance to glimpse the boundary of what scientists term infinity. To me, the whole point is moot since its an inifinite recursion. If you did catch a glimpse on this "boundary of the inifinite", the first question in your mind would be, whats beyond that? So, you see, there is no real answer. Unless, our minds are so puny that we are not able to ask the right questions. That must be it, maybe we are indeed dumb creations that get our hormones all jacked up when we seek the Infinite, when in fact it lies right in front of us. The problem, ofcourse lies in perception.
Goal of this lifetime: Conquer Perception!
Richard Bach points out through his invaluable wirtings in "Jonathon Livingstone Seagull", that achieving greatness in any chosen task will lead to a higher plane of existence. He also projects that there is no "finish line" and that there are infinite planes to jump to. Perfection, in this case, is the key to salvation and there is no end to it, there is no absolute truth except the will to break self-imposed barriers and to be able to guide others along the same path.
The rishi's on the Himalayan mountain ranges abandon all material life in the quest for eternal truth. According to the great Hindu epics, the "Ramayana" and "Mahabharatha", they stand on one leg for years together chanting god's name and offering theirselves in his service. It appears that realizing how insignificant you are, shedding every ounce of your ego and becoming totally selfless for a higher being lets you transcend.
Richard Bach, gets into the picture again with his "Illusions", where he takes a slightly modified view of releasing oneself from mortal obstacles. With a great short story to begin with, he describes how a fish breaks loose from its group and swims with the stream, allowing the envelope to take him on his journey. This wisdom imparted by this book lies more in realizing that every soul is capable of that release, and chastises looking upto to an ascended individual since this is possible by anyone of us. Taking us to the other side, it also shows the predicament of the higher being in the presence of mortal fools that look upto him as a Messiah, a messenger of god.
Having made it more than halfway through the "Fountainhead", I can compare "Howard Roark" to a mortal that strives to achieve what he feels is perfection in architecture. The complicated analysis that Ayn Rand brings out through verbal jousting between "Dominique" and "Toohey", shows us how perfection is never truly appreciated in a society. A society by my definition is an attempt to collude the strengths and weaknesses of individuals, thereby creating a well rounded entity. There is no place in society for a sheer individualist, who by this token will unfortunately be outcast as is the case with this character.
One needs to answer a greater question before seeking the path to salvation. What is salvation? Is it the quest for ultimate happiness? Is it the quest for greatness? Or is it the search for purpose, for a chance to glimpse the boundary of what scientists term infinity. To me, the whole point is moot since its an inifinite recursion. If you did catch a glimpse on this "boundary of the inifinite", the first question in your mind would be, whats beyond that? So, you see, there is no real answer. Unless, our minds are so puny that we are not able to ask the right questions. That must be it, maybe we are indeed dumb creations that get our hormones all jacked up when we seek the Infinite, when in fact it lies right in front of us. The problem, ofcourse lies in perception.
Goal of this lifetime: Conquer Perception!
I want to share with you some funny and thought provoking dialogues from one of my favourite movies - Sleepless in Seattle starring Tom hanks and Meg Ryan.
The dialogue: Tom's 10yr old son is missing (he runs away to meet Meg) and he is questioning his son's best friend along with her parents. After a lot fo co-ercing and negotiating, the next few dialogues follow
Daughter: NY
Father: (turns to Tom and says) No Way, she wont say.
Tom: That would be NW, whats NY?
Daughter: New York, I bought him tickets from our computer online
And so Tom flies to New York chasing after his son.
My pearls of wisdom: In this world of acronyms like lol, lmfao, bfn, etc we certainly are having a way with words (more like away with words). But sometimes lets use it right, as one of my friend recently shared in this cartoon with me over gtalk status.
The dialogue (courtesy imdb):
Jonah Baldwin: If you get a new wife, I guess you'll get to have sex with her, huh?
Sam Baldwin: I certainly hope so.
Jonah Baldwin: Will she scratch up your back?
Sam Baldwin: [shocked] What?
Jonah Baldwin: In the movies, women are always scratching up the men's back and screaming and stuff when they're having sex.
Sam Baldwin: How do you know all this?
Jonah Baldwin: Jed's got cable.
Sam Baldwin: Oh.
My thoughtful take: Child proofing cable tv will only get you so far. Information has a way of reaching those that want to know, in this case, Jed's got cable :)
The dialogue (courtesy imdb):
Jonah Baldwin: If you get a new wife, I guess you'll get to have sex with her, huh?
Sam Baldwin: I certainly hope so.
Jonah Baldwin: Will she scratch up your back?
Sam Baldwin: [shocked] What?
Jonah Baldwin: In the movies, women are always scratching up the men's back and screaming and stuff when they're having sex.
Sam Baldwin: How do you know all this?
Jonah Baldwin: Jed's got cable.
Sam Baldwin: Oh.
My thoughtful take: Child proofing cable tv will only get you so far. Information has a way of reaching those that want to know, in this case, Jed's got cable :)
If you take a look at the most reliable source of information in all of the green planet, ie.. wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy quotes some interesting figures for how life expectancy has improved in the past many many years. Here's an excerpt for your convenience:
Neanderthal 20
Upper Paleolithic 33
Neolithic 20
Bronze Age 18
Classical Greece 25-45
Classical Rome 25-45
Medieval Britain 20-30
Early 20th Century 50
Current world average 67
Neolithic 20
Bronze Age 18
Classical Greece 25-45
Classical Rome 25-45
Medieval Britain 20-30
Early 20th Century 50
Current world average 67
Now this chart really astounded me. The immediate inference ofcourse is that we have done the following to varying degrees:
1) Increased our natural immunity (exercise, eat and drink healthy)
2) Improved our surroundings to suit our bodies
3) Improved artifical immunity and recovery (medicine)
4) Increased infantile rate of survival (again medicine)
5) Reduced death due to war (not sure if this makes a big diff.)
But the more interesting thought that occurred to me was on wisdom. We always attribute a lot to the wisdom of our forefathers. If the average population lived much lesser years than us, does this stand to reason that the age at which folks started to be called experienced and wise and started doling out advice was lesser? Imagine the bronze age, a 12 year old would have had the worldly wisdom of a 50 year old in out time. Remember that although we are more advanced now, the amount of discoveries and inventions in their time would have been just significant to them as those we have made recently. So "worldly wisdom" wise, I see no problem in making that connection. Also, during the Greek and Roman times, if the life expectancy was 25-45, it stands to reason that 15 year olds were probably fighting in wars. Finally, anyone older than this margin, woudl automatically be an elder meaning Britain probably had 32 year old elders. When I hear the word elder I imagine a person with long white beard, wrinkles in his face and struggling to walk.
I had always wanted to write and recommend my games, but wanted to do a good job so kept putting it off. I finally decided I can live with a mediocre writeup as long as I get my point across. Hence I published all my game review posts that have been pending for the last few months.
http://www.dominategame.com/
For all you risk lovers out there. This is one addicitng, fast paced, online verison of the game you wont regret being married to. The variations offered are absolutely stunning and this is one project that is gaining a whole lot of momentum, there are so many people online playing this at any time of the day/night that you always find players for your map. Personally I love the blind map but urge you begginners to start with New World Map with normal non-blind settings. Whats Blind Map you say? Go read up, this is not a game for the "I will not RTFM" types!!!! And if you ever want to hit me up , let me know and I wil share my dominategame id with y'all.
The chat box is very convenient in letting of steam. Kids beware, this is no place for you as the folks really really let of steam sometimes and I've seen it worse than worst. OTher than that its a ncie place to get to know your folks, find out who is fighting so you can conspire against them.
Candystand is really tops of the charts for our flash based gaming needs. Aside, fo course, from the fact that you need to watch a wrigleys commercial with a perosn stuck neck deep int he sand, this is a one stop site for quick gaming action of everywhich kind. Vector Defense is probably the most sophisticated tower defense game I have played so far. There is a lot of strategising to do and remember even if you finish the game in a couple of tries there still the little thing called score. The more money you earn the better. First time I played, level 40, second time level 41. Third time I completed it, and my trick was to focus on money making, I used up all but 3 bonus points in interest accumulation. Go figur eout your own streategies and let me know whow you felt when you won!!!
Yet another tower defense game (refer earlier post on shock defense). This one is colorful and fun to play. Popping ballons does nto get into your head while you sleep like the rest fo the gaming activities like killing goons, stealing cars and running over prostitutes. Attempt to finish this in 2nd or 3rd try, else you have a serious fear of the noise created when the balloons go "POP!!!!" and you need ot see the balloon doctor..
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