whoosh!

my super power is to 'cut through crap' :)

Studio audience on BBT

I have moved on from the theory that there is a recorded laughter track on bbt.. I was watching some videos of bloopers and i saw the actors interacting with the audience real time..

I have now formed the theory that the studio audience is really stoned... the picture of a stoned Mr. Garrison watching teletubbies comes to mind.. :D

TIL - Amy & Leonard

Today I learned that Amy and Leonard have been out on a date before! Mayim Bialik and Johnny Galecki have acted together in an episode of Blossom where Johnny was her date!

howard sez..

[when watching star wars on blue ray] "if we don't start soon, george lucas is going to change it again" !! LOL!

does magneto know that..

not all metals are magnetic?

a quote..

That's one career all females have in common - whether we like it or not - being a woman. 

Sooner or later we've all got to work at it, no matter what other careers we've had or wanted... 

- from All About Eve 

Hottt!

I've always preferred a place that is cool and nice. I can even stand snow and rain and cloudy days, but I cannot stand heat! It's surprising that I come from Chennai where there are only 4 seasons - summer, summer, summer and summer! I just kinda learned to deal with it most of my life - stepping out only when i need to and always going out shopping or something during evenings.

May be there is a reason people of the early ages defined hell as a very hot place, hahn?

procreation

do people have children just because, at some point of time in their life, they need a real reason to live?? :D kidding.. but some people might agree.. and after they become old in retrospect a lot of people think children were a main cause of happiness in their life..

i've done this exercise with a bunch of other people where we have to narrate our life in a short period of ten minutes.. boy! was it enlightening! we don't realize, until we talk about it, what the defining moments of our life really were!!

crossover

The guy who plays Rajesh Koothrapalli's dad in BBT was the same guy who played Babu Bhatt the Pakistani restaurateur in Seinfeld.. the owner of the Chinese restaurant to whom Sheldon asks to show the Citrus peels in Mandarin is the same guy who acts in the Chinese restaurant episode of Seinfeld.. interesting how actors get picked for a job.. i wonder if there was even an auditioning for these positions in BBT..

after a reallllllly loooong time

enjoyed the previous episode of the BBT about the spreading of gossip.. <3333333333 the opening scene where Sheldon and Amy talk about the work of the author who writes books about science for the average masses.. when he stands up and insults the author - that was brilliant!

Jim Parsons has gotten fat! been celebrating a lot after the award he won? :D

Ripped Divinity

Was Ganesh always fat or did he have to bulk up to support his head? :D
I get the weirdest ideas!

Rihanna Ripoff

Kadhalil Vizhunthaen song 'Unakkena Naan' is an absolute and total ripoff of Unfaithful  by Rihanna. Who's gonna tell Rihanna?

jobs

for a hippie he sure does want strict control of the products and technologies that Apple is associated with.. interesting..

beleive

Expect people to be better than they are; it helps them to become better. But don`t be disappointed when they are not; it helps them to keep trying.

- Merry Browne

video chat

what's the deal with the video chats in the big bang theory? why do people turn sideways while talking to characters as if they were actually sitting before them instead of from a laptop screen.. for example while Amy's mom was video chatting with Amy and Sheldon, Amy's mom had to turn to her extreme right to talk to Sheldon.. i mean unless Amy's mom had a larger than life laptop/computer monitor she wouldn't have to do that.. right?

And Thereby Hangs a Tale

***********************Spolier Alert************************
The following paragraph contains detailed discussion of the book 'And Thereby Hangs a Tale by Jeffrey Archer. Viewers of this post planning to read this book are hereby advised to stop reading at this point if interested in reading the book later with the element of surprise.
***********************************************************

Had to include a spoiler alert. It's only fair since I would expect one if it were me. :)

I read a Jeffrey Archer book after a long time. When I started reading the first short story 'Stuck on You' I was quickly surprised. I didn't expect Lord Archer to be this unoriginal! The main idea of this story exactly like the one which I had read in my English book in school! I didn't recall the name of the story or its author but after some googling I found that it was a story called 'The case of the Sharp-eyed Jeweller' by Nicolas Bentley. He had marked this short story as one he heard in real life. So may be he heard the story from someone.

I went on to read the rest. The other stories were a little predictable - typical Jeffrey Archer style. But it was still good. Then I came on to this story 'Blind Date'. To say that I could guess the rest of the story from the 1st paragraph would be an understatement! It was too predictable. After a little more of google's help I found that it was based on a Ruskin Bond story. Hmm.. guess Lord Archer's getting a little rusty.

The story based on the Indian characters made me laugh a little. Though some of the details were true I wondered if they all could be. The story looked more like some anglicized version of an Indian love story. He tried to be as close to the real story I'm sure. It's really based on the fashion designer Nisha Chowdhry and her husband whom Archer met on one of his trips to India (he used the real names). I read that that this story is going to be made into a Bollywood movie! I don't see why they have to do this - because love stories based on caste differences and related masala have been told and retold a thousand times.. Just because Archer made a mention of it makes no change to the situation.

Jeffrey Archer books are mostly feel-good books like Rajni movies. The protagonist in the story is single-minded, knows his/her dreams, is really industrious and after going through various obstacles finally manages to get what he/she is most after. Very insightful observations are also included. Very rarely some of the short stories do end in irony though. That pretty much summarizes his writing style but still I never tire (haven't yet at least) of reading his books. :)

a nice quote

was watching 'Sisterhood of traveling pants' (part 1) when i heard this and it felt nice and thought i'd share it.. Bailey - the girl with the terminal illness - says:

"Ya know, I don't know, Tibby, maybe the truth is there's a little bit of loser in all of us, ya know? Being happy isn't having everything in your life be perfect. Maybe it's about stringing together all the little things like wearing these pants or getting to a new level of Dragon's Lair - making those count for more than the bad stuff. Maybe we just get through it... and that's all we can ask for. "

:)

blind faith

sometimes i feel this.. how can people pledge allegiance to an organization, person or even country? i'm not sure i can even stand up for myself sometimes.. and i don't mean that dumb self-confidence thing that people do.. u know the one - where people say they were right no matter what they did.. they don't even accept their own mistakes.. i'm not really like that.. sometimes i think its because i don't have enough self-confidence, but that's not true.. over the past few years i've learned enough about myself to know all my good qualities and i'm really confident of myself on a few things.. but i think i make mistakes, do some harm without really thinking.. i cannot say later that i meant to do those things - no i didn't.. i swear i didn't.. there's no reasons for those mistakes.. i'm a good person, but i make mistakes too.. i'm human after all..

so at this stage i cannot even stand for myself other than to say i'm a good person and i try to do the right thing most of the time... how can people support say a leader (political, spiritual, religious) blindly? how can they stand for everything he/she says.. adore everything that comes out of his/her mouth and everything he/she does??

i beleive

that most people are a small step away from insanity.. i think there's a thin line that divides the socially acceptable from the insane..

chim chimney

"chim chimney chim chimney chim chim cheroo
i do what i like and i like what i do..."

the song that's been going on in my head since i got up today.. from the movie 'Mary Poppins'.. :)

i admire

actresses who can carry off a bright red lipstick.. i really do.. :)

Hope is a dangerous thing

There have been many things said about hope. But mostly they have been positive, saying hope is a good feeling. It makes you feel more positive. But I disagree. I've always disagreed with that.

When watching 'Shawshank Redemption' Andy says "Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.". I totally didn't agree. What's the use of having hope? You feel optimistic for like a millisecond? And then what? What if what you hope for doesn't happen?

I think it makes a lot more sense not to hope but just do what you can right now. Whether what you're rooting for happens or not you'll probably be happy you took some step towards your goal - whatever you can do. Then face whatever happens - whether it's what you hoped for or not. Things we hope for don't always happen and at the end we feel severely disappointed. It's always better to have the mindset to face whatever happens.

I read that according to Zen also hope is not such a good thing. It is better to act in the 'present moment'.

The girl with the dragon tattoo

Read the book recently. It took a lot of time for the main story to take off. If the author had been alive may be they'd have polished the book a little. I kept putting the book aside during the initial period. Later it gets interesting - so much so that I got glued to it and couldn't put it down.

The story is not for kids - at one point deals with gruesome murders. The bad guys were a little predictable, not a lot of suspense. The book doesn't have one single climax. It has 2! And then still the life goes on after the 2nd one. May be the author knew he was going to write a sequel.

I've read some series in books before I watched them as movies (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, DaVinci Code). The twilight series - i've only seen the movies and never read the books (I heard they're not that big a deal anyway). But I guess I'll probably just read the Stieg Larsson trilogy and probably not watch the movies and they are in Swedish too.

I guess the Swedish don't know how to make money like the Americans do! All 3 movies based on the trilogy of books have been released in the same year (2009) with a gap of a few months in between! If it were left to American production companies, they would hype the book, remind people that the book was published posthumously and add a little background story about the author to get people buzzing. And then made movies to be released on 3 successive years with the last movie in 2 parts! :))

hallelujah

i heard there was a secret chord
that david played and it pleased the lord
but you don't really care for music d'ya?

on most days when i get up, a song keeps playing over and over in my head.. hallelujah is a recent one that did.. it's the song from Shrek (part 1 - the only movie of that franchise i like).. the choreography for that song in the movie was great with the fade-in and fade-out sequences.. has got to be watched..

BBT

novelty's beginning to wear off... storyline sux.. starting to cater more to the pretentious wannabe nerds..

chemistry

have you ever adored an on-screen couple? and cheered them on if they were also involved in real life?

have you ever wondered why and what it all means to you? its puzzling why people do that... paparazzi getting all crazy for pictures, no privacy... why does this all happen?

nightmare before christmas..

wanted to watch it on christmas eve (i.e) the night b4 christmas :) but couldn't.. so watched the day after.. loved the beginning, hated the rest.. imagination n early soundtracks are good esp. the one about halloween town.. it wasn't at all scary.. a little gross may be.. overall maybe worth one watch esp the beginning

something to think about

don't give in to fear. face it. fear leads to anger. anger leads to hatred. hatred leads to the dark side. - Yoda (i might be paraphrasing it)

i think most people flit between the dark side and back..

someone i know once mentioned that Wolverine's (from X-men) special powers not only included getting wounds healed very fast but also forgetting traumatic incidents of the past.. apparently forgetting trauma was akin to mental healing.. i was surprised that mental healing did not constitute facing the past and accepting it instead of forgetting it! when i voiced this i was told that this was apparently the western philosophy's point of view..

i was just reading the similarities between the jedi force and other existing religions on wiki.. that's what triggered this train of thought..

doppleganger

when watching movies while younger on star movies i used to get confused between actors and mistake one for the other.. slowly as i began to see more movies i got more familiar with faces.. i don't think i'm good at placing faces...

i used to think Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg looked alike.. at one point of time i suppose they were similar.. but later Matt developed muscles and Mark became slim and lanky..

but i swear i'm still confused about Natalie Portman and Kiera Knightley!! i kept 2 windows with pictures of them both side-by-side and i still can't make out the difference! i googled this and this seems to be the opinion of most of the general public.. there's even a facebook group about it.. wouldn't it be weird if they were twins unknown to each other like some hindi movie? :))

P.S: I just found that Kiera did play double for Natalie in Star Wars 1!! How weird is that? I thought there were no camera tricks in the movie.. they would show the queen and her maid together and i was pretty amazed then..

P.P.S: they could be sisters - not twins.. kiera is almost 4 years younger than natalie.

Family Guy & Musicals

I got to know just recently that Seth MacFarlane modeled the way Stewie talks after the misogynistic professor Henry Higgins of 'My Fair Lady' (played by Rex Harrison)! He even made the character sing 'I've grown accustomed to her' song in one episode of season 2.. There are a lot of songs from musicals in Family guy which are a delight to watch..