Sunday, 12 October 2008

  • stupid stupid japanese writers

    it makes me so mad. today evening i finished watching an anime series with a total of 12 episodes. the reason i started watching this series was that, the plot was light and just featured stuff about routine life in a magic school and each character's approach to learning magic.

    everything is going nicely, the students are improving in their skills and then in episode 10 the audience is suddenly informed that the main character has had a terminal illness, but she kept it a secret from everyone. only mages get this rare illness that affects the heart. [basically it was heart disease]

    the only good thing was that the depiction of her death was handled in a manner that would have made the author of 'the tibetan book of living and dying' proud. there was no sign of deep grief by the other characters, they went about their lives thinking very fondly of the person [cute main character] as if she was still with them.

    the thing that bugs me most is that, this was supposed to be one of those light , slice of life animes. [atleast thats how things were going uptil episode 10] just when that girl falls in love and is going steady with her boyfriend. somewhere either in the writer's mind or in the board of writers for this anime, they decide the girl must die. so annoying. so so annoying.
    Currently Listening
    Astral Lamp
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008

  • the way countless factors come together

    everyone has experienced this in their lives.

    it's when you notice all the odd string of seemingly random events that had to come together and fall in place for that one single defining moment [whatever that may be, happy/sad] to occur.

    some of these string of events occur in the very long term, long term, short term, very short term

    very long term: time period involved in this is several lifetimes, and through the work of karma, choices made in one life affect the next, but doesnt have to be the immediate next life. karma has its own way of working things out.
    case example: a promise made by lovers to meet in the next life. [i like this one :) ]


    long term: the time period here is limited to your current lifetime. the future is full of infinite possibilities.
    case example: true story: a person has finished giving a series of lectures at an event and is now on his way home stops to fill gas, feels compelled to buy the lottery ticket and wins $300 million.
    so many things had to fall in place...
    - his choice of profession in life
    - the lecture series to be held that day
    - his ride home
    - choosing to stop at that particular gas station
    - decicding to buy the ticket.


    short term: the time period could be anything from months to weeks to days.
    case example: true story: some weeks back a lad passed away in my apartment block. her unwanted books were left in the basement... i chose several titles that i liked for myself and for donating to the school library club. today i was supposed to go drop them at the library, but in the end i was too lazy and stayed home. ending up watching two episodes of "monk" on tv then just as i was about to put the TV off, i stopped and decided to watch BBC news. i learnt that a noble prize winning writer has passed away in russia, they mention his name "alexander solzhenitsyn".

    i find this name oddly familiar and go to check on the books and sure enough i have one book by him, which i had initially left behind but on my second visit to the basement picked it up to drop off by the literary department on campus.

    things that fell into place...
    - the lady's passing away [atleast her physical body, her soul continues its glorious journey to the source]
    - me deciding to do laundry after her books were put away in the basement
    - going back the next day to see through more books and picking up the book
    - waiting until 2 weeks have passed to go to campus
    - putting off the trip today, cos i felt lazy
    - watching BBC News until the last news story

    ofcourse i then read the first 7 pages from the book and decided to keep it. the book was first published in 1970.


    very short term: the time period is almost immediate, things are generally set in motion from the moment you get out of bed. hence the buddhist thought. "if you only knew how terrifying karma is, you wouldn't step outside your home and avoid meeting people"
    case example: trivial: you leave home at the right time and the bus is waiting for you at the bus stop :P


    i saw sigur ros for the first time today on tv, performing at the musuem of modern art in new york and loved them instantly




Sunday, 27 July 2008

  • weekend trip: july 18 - july 20, 2008


    the first day we arrived in the evening at our friend anne's place. so nothing was done.
    on the second day anne showed us around the harbor area of baltimore, here are  the pictures taken.

     

    first stop: dunkin donuts, one medium iced latte, should have gone with small as i regretted this later...

      Photobucket
    i liked the reflection of the clouds in the windows and also the name of the building :P

     
    do not block intersection...


      Photobucket
    i believe its  for show, but its seems as if books in barns and nobles are being used for fuel O_o


     
    i was very surprised to suddenly see a small ship while walking on the street

     
    center of marine biotechnology

     
    i wonder if this thing is real ? i mean its closed in now with road in front and the bridge in the back...

     

    and thats not one of those folding bridges either...

     

    unique dolphin shaped fountains and one exit of the aquarium building

        

    the baltimore world trade center building, u can go on the top to see the harbor area, but we decided not to :P

      

    paddle boat rentals, we went on one of those not the dragon one though. we felt it was a bit too showy

     

    yes... that is me. notice, i am pretty  close to the edge, but dont know how to swim, bwahahaha. am not afraid of the water though.

     

    an old sailing ship?

     

    notice the hard rock cafe on the left of barnes + nobles?  so why is the guitar atop the barnes  + noble building. anyways hard rock cafe were blasting  rock music real loud. u had to talk real loud  to be heard... not a nice thing when your trying to relax and have your lunch outside.

    we were supposed to go to the aquarium but the lines were too long so we went on the paddle boat.  my friend and fellow co-paddler insisted we paddle fast around the place. this is where the iced latte decided to re-affirm its presence. after 15 mins or so i started feeling  sick. i wanted to throw up but nothing would come up which, is nice. imagine puking in the water where families were in paddle boats. definitely not good.
     
    this was a pirate ship of sorts for the kiddies, you get to fire water cannons, but as you can make out the range of the cannon was real lousy :P [picture taken by anne from boat]

     
    this here be the  baltimore world trade center,  picture taken by  anne  my co-paddler from the boat.

        Photobucket

    see the little monument on the top, well this was a little mound on the other side of the bay. this picture was taken by anne from the boat at maximum zoom. she said the monument looked like a figure of either mother mary or jesus i forget. so i suggested well just zoom and take a picture. we were both surprised when it turned out to be neither :P

    later we went to a chinese buffet for dinner and the next morning we were back on the road to new york.

    THE END

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Sunday, 09 March 2008

  • from anime news network a review of the anime "the dog of flanders"

    "Of the myriad forms of human expression that comprise art and popular culture, anime seems to truly excel over all the others at the depiction of one subject in general: nice, well-meaning kids getting completely crapped on by life.

    I'm at a loss as to why the subject seems to come up so much; perhaps the older folks that make anime grew up during the years following WWII and wish to remind today's young whipper-snappers of just how good they have it. Maybe the Japanese just love pathos. Whatever the motivation, anime manages to use the artform's inherent abstraction to make for a much more intense experience than a live action depiction would allow."

    read the complete review here


    from anime news network a review of the anime "my beautiful girl mari"

    "As the summer draws to a close, young student Nam-Woo must contend with a local man who seems intent on becoming his stepfather and the impending loss of his best friend Jun-Ho, who will soon be leaving to attend school in Seoul. With his cat Yo as his companion, Nam-Woo seeks a way to cope with his feelings of abandonment and finds it in a fantasy world within a marble, through which the lovely feather-clad girl Mari flies. With her help, Nam-Woo learns to deal with his loneliness."

    read the complete review here


    i saw an ad on an anime webpage for a free massively multiplayer online role playing game or just MMORPG in short. the ad featured 5 free online games from one company. so i decided to try one of them out, CORUM ONLINE, for an online game that is free, i thought it was quite decent. they are still updating the game features on a monthly basis.

    have met people from ohio, phillipines, greece and other parts of the world. for more information on CORUM and the other games visit their page here


    another MMORPG company's DOMO dream of mirror online. just found this link today


    Currently Listening
    Niea 7: Niea's Blues
    By Japanimation
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