Off to TTC…

I’m off to TTC. 15 days in the Ashram!!! Awesome!!!

I couldn’t write more about my TTC1 experience…but hoping I’ll be able to write about my Phase 2.

Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince

I was eagerly waiting for the release of this movie. I booked tickets 2 days in advance. I went to the movie hall with so many expectations – And the movie lived up to most of my expectations.

A majority of story hasn’t deviated from the book. It has Harry and Dumbledore digging into Voldermort’s past, Harry getting the Half Blood Prince’s portions book, the Unbreakable Vow, felix felicis, Slug Club parties, Horcruxes, Harry and Dumbledore getting the Horcrux, and on the romance side - Harry falling for Ginny, Ron and Lavender together making Hermione jealous. And all this is done pretty well…especially the romance part. The Quiddtich is also fun. The sequence where Harry and Dumbledore get the Horcrux is amazing.

There are some deviations too. The biggest of them is the ending. There is no battle between Dumbledore’s Army and the Death Eaters. Harry (in the movie) just watches Dumbledore die, Dumbledore doesn’t freeze him. There is no burial of Dumbledore’s body. Bellatrix and Greyback attacking The Burrow is another major deviation, an unnecessary deviation. They should have rather had the battle or the burial of Dumbledore. Also it would have been interesting if they had shown the tiara in the Room of Requirement when Harry goes to hide the portions book. (Arvindh immediately pointed this out to me in the movie.)

Out of the cast I would mention Allan Rickman as Snape is perfect. Pretty much what I had imagined Snape to be like when I read the book. The trio – Daniel Radcliff, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have all done very well. Grint and Watson chemistry was there for quite sometime now, but its more enhanced here. Tom Felton too has done well.

On the whole its a great watch. For Pottermaniacs, the end is disappointing, but this is the closest you can get to the book.

Rotten Tomatoes!!!

While registering for Rotten Tomatoes I got this error message

I can’t use my name as my first name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Truly rotten!!

ScribeFire vs Live Writer

A couple of days ago, after reading an article, I took a fancy for blog writers. I have been googling for sometime and finally settled 2 writers - Windows Live Writer and ScribeFire.
The post 'Airtel Gimmick' was published using the Live Writer and the post 'Family Pattern' was posted using ScribeFire.

At first look I liked the Live Writer. (One of the few Microsoft products I liked.) It is truly a WYSIWYG editor. It displays your blog theme which makes writing a little more exciting (for me). But Writer creates a nested folder structure on the system and creates a copy of the posts. For a simple blogger like me, I find this unnecessary. (Rather I basically trust Blogger to maintain the posts.)

I didn't like the first look of ScribeFire. It changed the font of the post after a few sentences and I had to go into the html code to edit it. Also the line spacing is not changeable. Or rather, I couldn't find a way to change it. The biggest advantage of ScribeFire is that it is an addon for Firefox. Unlike Writer there is no need to download and install. Also it doesn't store any data on the system.

There are many more editors which are reviewed and described here. Finally, I would vouch for ScribeFire mainly because its an addon.

And yes, this post was written using the good ol' blogger editor.

A Family Pattern

Looking back at my maternal family tree, I observed a pattern there - which me and my sister have unknowingly broken.My great grandmother was a Maharastrian married to a Kannadiga. She then got her daughter (my grandmother) married back into a Maharastrian family. My grandmother got my mother married back into a Kannadiga family. So, to keep the pattern alive, either Arati or me must have married into a Maharastrian family. Arati married back into a Kannada family (Vikas speaks pretty decent Marathi but that doesn't qualify him to be a Maharastrian) and I am married into a Tamil Nadu settled Kannada family.

The Airtel Sales Gimmick

Tithi and Rahul have been facing problems with their broadband connection for quite sometime. Recently their apartment had intercoms installed. And after that their broadband connection hit rock bottom. Frustrated, Rahul decided to change the service provider from BSNL to Airtel.

When the Airtel person came for installation, he said that the BSNL wires were shorted and hence the problem. Later they released that the intercom technician had come for installation had fiddled around with the connection and might have shorted it. And guess what - that the intercom service provider was Airtel!! Now the shorting was unintentionally or purposefully done – we don’t know!!!!

I got my TTC 2 call letter yesterday.

Just downloaded the Windows Live Writer. This is the first post using Writer.

Jai Gurudev!!

Found this Guruji's picture on Raj Waghray's blog. Simply loved it. The radiant all-knowing smile, the majestic stature, the elegance, the ease,the...WOW!!!! Words fail to descibe HIM!!!

Arati's Surprises!!!!!

A couple of days ago Arati called me. She sounded very excited (she usually is). After the initial how-are-yous, she said she wanted to tell me something (even more excited!). I told her to continue. Then she dropped her standard statement - "Sangu ka noko" (Should I tell or not). I knew she had some stupid surprise up her sleeve. "I have a surprise for you. I have got you a birthday present!!", she continued. I thanked her and asked her what she got. "I wanted it to be a surprise but I got you a watch", she blurted out.

There she goes...again. Every time my sister plans a surprise or buys a gift for me, she has to blurt it (basically goof up) before the occasion. Till date she has never surprised me.

A couple of years ago, she planned a surprise birthday party with Arvindh for me. She took the pains of calling all my friends, ordering a cake, hiding in Aparna's place till 11.30pm, etc...but finally goofed it all up. Most things went according to her plan - Arvindh convinced me to sleep early and ensured that I was in bed by 11pm. Sometime later I heard a mobile ring. I thought it was 12 pm and Arati was calling to wish me (she always does that). As I woke up, I realized it wasn't my mobile, the ring tone was none other than - Arati's!! I came out of my bedroom to see her, Arvindh and Aparna arranging the cake!!!! One of my friends was calling to ask if it was time to come in!! It was 5 minutes to midnight and there went her surprise party!!

I guess my biggest surprise will be when she can actually pull off a surprise on me!!!