Notes from recent times

A quick glance on some of my recent postings reveals that I spend too much time once again only on films and TV and at strange attempts at being funny. I decided to take a leaf out of some of the other blogs on the sidebar by recounting some of the things I've been doing of late. ******** I've had some post-worthy new ideas for this blog but I've decided to take my time writing them up as I notice my tendencies towards overlooking typos and grammatical gaffes shows an upward trend as before. I am in too much of a hurry to get things out. Plus, I haven't really had that much spare time of late. ******** Books and movies occupy much of my recent available time these last few months. I'm pleased to report that I've got through (at good speed) volumes II and III of the Potter series (thanks S.W.) and yes, I found them quite enjoyable. As commented before, Ms. Rowling does have a fertile imagination and uses it to good effect. I didn't think I'd like it at first, but R.K.Narayan's The Financial Expert is vintage Narayan - the simplicity and nonchalance with which he describes the lives of his characters is worth learning from. Yet another book exhibition (keep them coming) led me to modify my already fragile resolution to avoid them until I'd done with the existing stack. This time I got an old but sought after copy of William Feller's book on Probability (thanks to A.G. for both the recommendation and as it turned out, the eventual find) and a book on the LTTE supremo Prabhakaran. The former is to help me revisit that branch of maths (I felt I had missed out on learning it properly) and the latter is to help understand why the Lankan crisis is the way it is. Plus the small fact that I actually share my birthday with him. ******** Movies this time. I have been giving the vcd player a bit of the run with my meagre collection consisting of Iruvar, Kannathil Mutthamittaal and Citizen Kane. Also a film that I hadn't heard of before called The Ghost and the Darkness. Am planning to watch Lagaan again tonight; it's been a while since I've seen it. Also witnessed some parts from a couple of typical Mohanlal films on Asianet (I never find the name of these films 'coz when the titles appear, no one is at hand to read them out: the only way to identify them then is knowing which Hindi/Tamil remake/original that is). One of them was the one that has the same story as Sai Paranjype's Katha. ******** I'm really happy to see the BC quiz flourish again, thanks to all the enthusiastic quizzers from outside COEP. Glad to note that the BC quiz is now wholly all-inclusive: it's always been that way, but now it can be perceived thus as well. An interesting quiz on Biz/Eco (usually one of my most feared topics) by Sohel was our theme yesterday. Additionally, have been slotting in some IT questions for a couple of upcoming quizzes I have to do. Fortunately, I've managed to streamline somewhat the presentation part so the painful portions were quickly done. ******** So many people I know are blogging these days! A glut, especially in the last couple of months. Which means a lot more to read about people I know, which is really what makes it compelling. Have decided to try and resist the urge to comment profusely. ******** I wonder if GMail's using the Orkut method for new accounts as a deliberate strategy, (wherein you have to get invited to use it) ? It might help them control the amount of space etc, but I really wonder if it's preying on people's instincts to be attracted to elitism. Speaking of orkut, I have 24 connections in quick time. I still remain somewhat ambivalent about it as I'm usually rather slack about building my social empire. However, it did help me find a schoolfriend (actually the other way around) that may have otherwise never happened. ******** Interesting how NZ and England's Test & ODI fortunes are so contrary. I know NZ's recent form has been excellent (IIRC, they've won about 11 games on the trot), but I must confess sharing Ganguly's surprise at why India are in 5th place and are not any higher. Well, they have a good chance at a leg up in the Asia Cup. Speaking of which, I wonder how many games will be lost to rain. They always seem to have tournaments in July in Sri Lanka and they are inevitably rain-affected. Was trying to find a count of such matches over the last couple of years, but the cricinfo search isn't geared for that kind of search or so I found. ******** Was reading about when it would be that emails have RSS feeds too - something that struck me some time back too. Of course, the feeds would require good authentication etc., but for a mainly Read view of emails, it would help tremendously. Should be very easy. Of course, don't expect that from sites like Rediff, but perhaps Google is already thinking of it. ******** One thing I really like about the place I work is that the excellent auditorium is put to good use and we have colloquia featuring good speakers on various topics. Not just on tech topics, but on environment and health to name a few. It's a super place to host a quiz as I was fortunate enough to find out, as it has got just about the right kind of facilities for such events. ******** Saw a poll on TOI asking whether Amitabh Bachchan was diluting his brand equity with his frequent appearance in TV ads being overwhelmingly voted for. I don't agree, for personally, I find every star's persuasive power over me quite the same. In fact, I do like some of the Big B's ads, primarily the Parker pen ones and the new Cadbury's (IIRC) one. ******** The climate remains typically Puneri. Great weather. I don't know how long this kind of climate will last in this city, given how some things are disintegrating and also don't know if how long I will remain here, but hope to make the most of it. This is home.