Copper

Gorgeous art at http://www.boltcity.com/copper/index.html

Our Weirdly Wonderful Wedding

 

Visit http://www.owww-vns.com/ and sign our guestbook!!

 

My Life is a Comic- Part Deux

Well, you probably haven’t read my earlier post - My life is a Comic - pt 1. Go check it out, as this is the long delayed continuation.

 

Having seen The Dark Knight (twice!) in the theatres, I have to say, the movie is great and all, but how will people who don't know about Batman; who don't appreciate the subtle play between the Batman and Joker and Gordon and Dent really *get* it? To be quite honest, a lot of the people around me wouldn't know their Poison Ivy from Harley Quinn. In fact, I've oft heard the opinion, from some of my sadder friends, that reading comics is for kids. The people are invariable those who only read books like 'Who Moved My Cheese', and get to hear of stuff like Sin City or Hellboy when a movie is made of it. Quick Tip- If you’re reading self help books, you’re doing it wrong.

When I was in the sixth grade I moved to a new school, St Pauls in Kota, Rajasthan. I stayed there till seventh, before moving to a new school. St Pauls was, in many ways, one of my worst schools. I never performed really badly, but I was a lackadaisical student; daydreaming in a class which seemed, to me at least, to be full of the most detestable collection of little sneaks that I'd ever seen. I can still remember those little rotters - 'Sir! Viren's sleeping in class!' or "Ma'am, Viren's trying to look down your blouse again!". I hope they burn in hell! The teacher's too were quite god-awful, except for our maths teacher who taught us geometry by taking us out to the school field and making us measure and calculate the volume, diameter and radii of various objects like tree trunks, car tyres and so on. And of course, Miss Sehgal, who taught us physics, and on whom I had an aching crush. Of course, by the time I started paying attention in class, answering questions, and finally catching her attention, it was time to move on to a new place and a new school.

So, not surprisingly, surrounded by people whom I would rather not associate with, I became a bit of a loner. Instead of spending my lunch breaks scuffling in the dirt with the rest of the plebes, I used to retire with my tiffin to the library. And what a library it was. To me it was a regular treasure trove of books and comics which I used to devour with lunch. It was here I encountered many a hitherto unknown comic, such as Strawberry Shortcake(okay, okay! I enjoyed it at the time). Try as I might, I cannot remember the names of the other comics I read, but I do recall some were mighty weird. And cool! Okay, having typed that I decided to google around, and found two more comics I loved at the time. The first was Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. Heh, No it’s totally not a joke.

 

 

 

And then there was Planet Terry, this supercool scifi comic. I totally need to search these out!

 

This library was where I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs, and spent many a lunch deep in the jungles of Africa. The librarian was a nice man, and quite handy with arts and crafts. I was especially inspired by his money plant holder made out of a bulb, and resolved to make one for my mum on her birthday. I was quite pleased with the result, but my mother not so much when she discovered I had broken about thirty-six working bulbs before I found one that was suitable.

Moving on, Nainital was when I grew interested in comic strips. I collected the daily Garfield and Hagar from the paper. I continued with my Archies, and the occasional superhero comics. Batman was always my favourite, but Superman and the JLA would do in a pinch.

Coimbatore was where I found a reasonably steady source of comics in the form of a modestly small but well stocked (and probably illegal) lending library called Choose and Read. I managed to get hold of the Batman Knightfall and Knightquest series; however the issues I got were later on in the series after Bane had broken Batman's back. I was quite shocked by all the changes; Batman retired.. Robin murdered.. Batgirl shot and paralysed! And the redesign of the Bat’s costume (see left)! In fact all the DC comics I picked up we strangely confused. Superman was killed, Lex Luthor was batting for the good side now and Batman had a son with Talia Al Ghul? A lot (but not all) of this confusion was due to stories set in alternate earths. and then DC had this major reboot with a series called Crisis on Multiple Earths, which I have not understood till now.

Marvel was a bit better with Spiderman as entertaining as ever, but more and more I began eschewing the fantastic four and Captain America for new comics abut these gang of mutants known as the Xmen. The XMen were a great hit and thousands of mutants (or metahumans as DC called them) started popping up all over comics. They’ve become a bit overused now, and it seems that Marvel’s writer just invent characters on whim. How about Maggot, Jazz or Zeitgeist? And often, I feel Marvel introduced female characters just coz they wanted to see how skimpy a outfit they could fit their heroines into before their comics started getting shrink wrapped and placed in the ‘adult’ shelves. Take a look at this, if you don’t believe me.

Like a review by R. Fiore goes -

Being physically invulnerable and endowed with gnarly powers, their clothing need have no practical value aside from the practice of exhibitionism.  They are attired in one of three ways:  Scantily clad, partially nude, and almost completely nude.  If they were going to church, they would wear tight trousers and leather jackets.  The simpleminded viewer might conclude they are dressing simply to please men.  This would be wrong-headed.  Their dedication to self-exposure is as pure, selfless and inner-directed as the vocation of the most devout monk.

Okay, so I totally get where they are coming from. That’s why I put all those pics above. Hey, I DO want more people in here!

 

Anyways, next time anyone asks you Marvel or DC, you know the right answer. It’s DC all the way baby.

Okay, so this post has stretched a bit longer than expected. I will be back with more…

The Duckworth Lewis Method rocks!

 

 

Princes and lawyers played with the English elite
Years of repression started a noise from the streets

CHORUS:
The age of revolution, the age of revolution
from Bangalore to Kingston, the age of revolution
Go and get your pads on, take your place in the sun
from Bangalore to Kingston, the age of revolution
It's the age of revolution... It's the age of revolution

Mankad in Madras, but suddenly Sunil is king.
Kids in the valleys, bats bound together with string, oh yeah!

"Time to take the new ball, the dollars and the rubles.
Stormont to the Oval, we're all going global."

CHORUS
It's the age of revolution... It's the age of revolution
It's the age of revolution... It's the age of revolution

Here's to the future, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
Always remember the passion of '32, oh yeah, yeah!

"Always denied entry by the English gentry.
Now we're driving Bentley's playing 20/20"

CHORUS 2x

The Duckworth Lewis Method

The man in the moon.

The moon was the closest to the earth in 15 years last weekend. It was 15% bigger and 35% brighter than normal. (http://lifehacker.com/5109010/photograph-the-biggest-full-moon-in-15-years-tonight). Well, so I photographed it.

Banned!

You might wan to check this out. A list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007.

Banned!

You might wan to check this out. A list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007.

Have sex NOW. The world ends at 1pm.(or maybe not)

Well, the large Hardon.. er Hadron collider will be switched on around 12:30 pm Indian time. And of course, we don't believe in CERN's safety nonsense. Heres how it'll go..

In about 3 minutes it'll have produced Strangelets and Vaccum Bubbles and Magnetic Monopoles.

At 7 minutes , scientists will discover the God Particle (even more fantastic than the Jesus phone) and will almost instantly come up with the Grand Unified Theory which will be so magnificent, so stupendous, that scientists, at a flash will understand how to achieve faster than light travel, solve global warming, and even make Sarah Palin VP.

Just past 9 minutes, a stable black hole will be created which absorbs enough matter to be self sustaining.

Ten seconds past this the event horizon will overtake Earth.

In twenty minutes, the black hole will crash into the sun, extinguishing it. Jupiter has already been swallowed and Neptune will be spiralling into the hole.

One hour later, the solar system does not exist.


So, my advice is; grab your towel and hitch a quick ride from a passing Volgon ship. The end of the solar system should be quite a spectacular sight seen from a couple of light days away.

Update - apparently today was just a test run. We have till Oct 21.

Dunno

I just ran into one of my favourite books as a child. It's Nikolai Nosov's The Adventures of Dunno and his Friends. It's funny and whimsical and has the most amazing illustrations. Its available for free online here. Definitely

worth a read.

Freaky..

Check this out... funny stuff.

The 27 Most Hilarious Album Covers Of All Time

XKCD.COM

Witty and poignant. Check out xkcd. A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

 

  

  

The Gate

I know; my blog posts have become few and far between. Instead of the words and ideas flowing out smoothly, like slick jellied eels, they emerge grudgingly reluctant onto the espace like an alligator from its mud pit. And from those rotten analogies, you know it must be true.

The reason for this is a pervasive ennui which seems to envelop me and everything I do nowadays. The only thing which I do nowdays is read tech blogs and salivate at the new and shiny bits of metal and plastic that they so love to talk about. Gizmodo is my favourite right now, with Crave, Engadget and Slashdot following close behind. I occasionally tune into Scott Adam's blog, though his output is nowhere as good as before. And when I want to get in touch with my feminine side I head on over to Dooce.

Not that I need to get further in touch with my feminine size. I'm just one Avril Lavigne song away from putting on a dress. Coloured pink. Okay, so I apologise; apparently girls don't just like pink. They like red and white stripes/prints too. Which is not the same as pink. Definitely. Not.

Ever since I've returned to India, I've been doing my very best to visit as many pubs/lounges as possible, and get as comprehensively drunk in them as possible. And no, I will absolutely not let the shame of ordering strawberry daquiris while the girls with me down whiskeys with soda and then adjust their crotch and spit stop me.

Hey, I did tell you about my feminine side, didn't I? According to these girls (they pretend to be my friends), I give off this gay vibe, which is why they take me with them to restaurants and force me to ask the maître d' for a table. Apparently they are quick to comply either from desire or terror.

This weekend involved a drunken semi orgy at home with triple distilled vodka, white rum and Drambuie and Burnout matches on the PS2. We were supposed to catch a play at the Indian Habitat Centre on Sunday evening, but on arriving there learnt that it was sold out. Apparently more people were interested in imbibing culture than we thought. So after hanging around and ineffectually trying to bribe the guards into letting us in, we decided to make our way to Khan Market for dinner.

After strolling around a bit, we decided to have dinner at Big Chillz, which, as usual, made us wait for a half hour for a table, while we stood outside the window and pulled hungry orphan faces. I have to say, patience and girls go together just like apples and Godzilla. First, Miz Kuruvilla accosted the maître d' for letting this couple get in ahead of us. The waited replied politely, 'We would seat you first, Madam, we really would, but we would lose our jobs. The couple we just seated were the owners.'


Big Chillz is a pretty good restaurant serving continental and Italian, but what you should really go there for are the delicious and indulgent desserts with mud pies and cheesecakes crowding the menu.


This time however, we decided to go to India Gate for ice cream. Quite surprisingly, there was a huge crowd at India gate. People were lounging on the grass with picnic baskets and vendors weaved their way through the crowd selling everything from bhel-puri to bubble guns. It sorta reminded me of another famous place - people on the lawns before the Eiffel Tower. Such different places, yet so similar.


The girls of course wanted a bubble gun and a fluorescent helicopter, which miz Dutt promptly proceeded to launch in a wild and erratic manner, causing everyone to take seven steps away for safety.


Of course, the battery of my D60 chose that very moment to quit on me so you'll have to be satisfies with (inferior?) shots from Shazzer's D40.

[Update - I've managed to get just two photos outta Shazzer. Rest will follow shortly]

A New Hope

Those of you who know me know that I'm always in search of the next big thing. From gadgets to galoti kebobs, I scour cyberspace for titbits to titillate both geek and gourmet. My first discovery is for the man of refined taste who's looking for something to tickle his taste bud. http://www.freshkitten.com/ will open up a new world for taste sensations for the purist and hedonist alike.

And having stimulated you physically, I now attempt to jog those grey cells by introducing you to the latest kid on the blogosphere - http://meinbetweenbooks.blogspot.com/. Now I know this blogger personally; we even pretend to be friends on occasion. And I do have to say, she's intelligent, knowledgeable and quite humourous too, especially when she tries to enter stores through their plate glass display windows (no I WON'T forget that). So give it a go.

And to end up, let me say I've changed continents again, and I'm now typing this blog from a place where the thermometer shows 43 degree celcius.

Gadget Crazy!!

Have you ever experienced this? You're walking along the month, saving your money, investing prudently in stocks and IPOs, when suddenly you decide you need this gadget. The purchase is usually small, but suddenly it opens the floodgates and you find yourself buying more and more gadgets, till suddenly you find yourself friendless and left sitting in the bathtub in the dark and crooning to your gadgets while rocking softly.

It all started when my Seagate external 500 GB HDD began behaving weirdly. Rather than find the problem I decided this was the ideal time to buy that Western Digital MyBook I'd been yearning for. After some deliberation I settled on the 750 GB Home Edition which I deemed worthy to store my extensive and important data collection. The Home edition is similar to the basic Essential edition with the addition of a capacity gauge and a FireWire 400/ eSATA connection, which would help me when I connect it to my PC.

Okay so that was a mildly justifiable purchase. Not so the phone I'm now obsessed with buying. Am leaning v v heavily towards the N95 8GB. Now I know it looks like crap compared with it's older, sexier sibling, but the larger screen and improved battery life have sold me. But then the iPhone tries to steal me with its seductiveness. Or so my n00b friends would have me believe. But I have yet to consider other smart phones on the market. Or else hold out for that totally droolworthy N96. Yum. Of course it will probably cost me an arm and a leg and BOTH kidneys.

So the N95 8gig is the way to go. http://multimedia-cell-phone-review.toptenreviews.com/ bears me out. And if any of you think the iPhone is better plz to see the comparision here. And the comparision between the two models of the N95 is here.

But all this is just dross in front of my next planned purchase, as I just heard the Nikon D60 has finally come out which nearly caused me a technologically induced orgasm. And all of a sudden, the dSLR which I had always been planning to buy popped up bright and clear in my mind.

Now I am a total camera n00b, not knowing my f stops from my ISO setting. The only thing I DO know is that you haveta crouch down and take pics, so you LOOK professional, no matter that you dont know what you're doing ^_^. Anyways, this photographer friend of mine swears by Nikon, and shes pretty hot-shot, and this seems to bear her out. And of course the D60 adds a lot of stuff to its arsenal, not the least of which is the dust reduction system, white balance bracketing, and best of all it ships with a vibration reduction lens as standard, which will help a lot with those night shots. See what you get with the extra 50 quid over the D40x here.

Well, if you guys have some suggestions regarding the phone, or especially regarding the camera, please do comment. Is the D80 worth the exta money. Anything I haven't considered?

Mmm tastes like bacon..

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Death and Secks

I believe in sex and death; two things that come but once in my lifetime. But at least after death, you're not nauseous

- Woody Allen

I love that quote from Sleepers, this off the wall Woody Allen scifi comedy (and NOT because I identify with the sex part). Give it a dekko; it's full of Allen's trademark quips and zingers.

Next, for your perusal, I have this hilarious link:

A selection of some of my favourites -

That One's Boring -- Tell the Donkey-Punch Story Again!
Small child, trying a Sprite: I don't like it.

Dad: If you don't like the taste, just spit it out.

Mom: I've heard that one before.

--33rd & 7th Overheard by: Brian Flanagan

... Mom
Lady: You're making me wet... I SAID you're making me wet.

Man: Yes, I tend to have that effect on the ladies.

Lady: With your umbrella.

Man: I'm flattered, but it's not that big.

--1 train Overheard by: Sloane

You're Welcome, Grasshopper
Yuppie woman, bumping into a man: Sorry.

Man: Don't say sorry. This is New York. Nobody says sorry.

Woman: What do you want me to say? Fuck you??

Man: That's better. This is New York. Who says sorry?

Woman: Fuck you.

--Bryant Park Overheard by: Young professional's friend

Next is a bitter-sweet link. . This is an online community where people mail in their secrets on homemade cards. Some are funny, some sad; all interesting.

A selection -

Sweet Potatoes!

All you dog lovers have a gander at this. This is teh funny!

I Has a Sweet Potato

Moving off the topic I just found out what a lolcat is -



Maybe one day one of my wacky IRC friends will help me write an entire post in lolcatzspeak.

Miscellany

Well, for all you entertainment starved misfits out there, I thought todays post could be about some of the wacky stuff I run into online.

First lets find out if your left brain is dominant or your right brain.

Apparently, if you see the dancer turning clockwise, you are right brain dominant and if anticlockwise then you are left brain dominant. And if you can see both then yer a bloomin' genius. I was able, with some concentration, to get her to reverse directions at will. See if you have any luck.

Link to the complete article - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

Next consider, if you will, ViewAt , which has a map of panoramic photographs from around the world; easily navigatible via google maps. Quite impressive

A funny story - I walked into a bar in Brazil the other day with my friend Georgie, and I ran into this lady who was a fan of this blog and me. Apparently a picture is worth a thousand words, so for all you skeptics have a look at the photo below.

George, who is quite famous in his own right, found an admirer too, but, brr... he can have his fan. Here's the video.

I ran into this amazing post the other day: What if WW II was a MMORPG ?

Here's an excerpt -

Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
T0J0: lol
Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!
benny-tow: haha america sux
Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool?
Hitler[AoE]: sure whatever
Stalin: cool
deGaulle:
**** Hitler rushed some1 help
Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy
Roosevelt: i dont got crap to help, sry
Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me
Roosevelt: get antiair guns
Churchill: i cant afford them
benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is?
paTTon: stfu
Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
deGaulle: Eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army
paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
*deGaulle has left the game.*
Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k?
benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair?
benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head?
Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO
T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullsh1t u fags im gunna kick ur asses
T0J0: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u

And it goes on like that. Hilarious, I tell you.

I brought sexy back!

Yes I’m back. Do control your screams of adulation and joy and terror. Since I last blogged, I’ve changed countries and continents (not to mention houses), and of course, most importantly, internet service providers.

Spending two months without internet at home has been a traumatic experience, which has almost reduced me to a mindless, drooling zombie. Of course my friends will say that the change is an improvement, but they soon stop their mocking, once I run at them a few time screaming and swinging my gore splattered axe. (No officer, I have no idea how those heads got in my freezer)

Moving on, Greenpeace has launched a petition to Ban the Bulb in India. Bulbs are, as you know, pretty inefficient converting 90% of their energy into heat rather than light. Do sign this petition.

I’ve decided to refurbish the blog. Friends tell me it’s too dark and dismal, so I’ve decided to throw in some blood reds and puke yellows. As to when this will be achieved, I make no comments.

Since I’ve moved, I now share my house with shoe crazy people. There are four of us in the house, and if you place all the shoes in a line end to end, it will circumnavigate the globe two times, and have enough leather left to make crotch guards for the Arsenal football team. The other night I found the ghost of a cow in the foyer looking at me accusingly. I knocked it over the head with my axe and made ghost burgers for breakfast.

What’s the deal with girls and shoes anyway? I’ve never met a girl who doesn’t slaver and foam at the mouth while passing the window displays at shoe shops. And don’t get me started on the subject of heels. Pencil heels, platforms, block… all designed to twist the foot into ways it was never meant to be. Girls should really pay more tax than guys, as I’m sure their heels must wear out the pavement about five times faster than ours. And what’s with the sound those heels make; I was walking behind two stilettoed girls the other day, and it sounded like I was back in Victorian England with horse drawn buggies clattering up and down.

That’s my monthly rant out of the way then. For all you cubicle dwellers looking for ways to keep from going insane from boredom, I bring you my link of the week (month.. year?). http://www.basicinstructions.net/ is a webcomic drawn by Scott Meyer, and frankly, it’s hilarious. I got it off Scott Adams blog.

I caught the Simpsons Movie the other night, and it is as promised – a movie which keeps you mildly entertained. The most side-splitting part is the rendition of Spider-Pig in typical Homeresque style-

Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig,
Does whatever a Spider-Pig does,
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a pig.
Lookoouut! He is a Spider-Pig!

I managed to catch another animation recently; and this was much more magical and satisfying; Miyazaki's Spirited Away. This is a beautiful and extremely surreal picture, and is definitely a must see. I did want to catch Ratouille, but it hasn't released in the UK as yet. What's up with that? My friends in India saw it last week!

Update - Apparently I was motivated enough to update the blog's design before posting this. Am still working on the design, but do comment and let me know what you think.

Awww...

Some things are just too sweet to be true. Teddy bears, couples cuddling in theatres and me. Except... I'm true of course. Now, I'm a real nice guy without a single mean bone in his body. Yet people keep calling me sarcastic and cynical. Where are they getting this from? Just because my psychological profile came out as below...

You're Totally Sarcastic

You sarcastic? Never! You're as sweet as a baby bunny. Seriously, though, you have a sharp tongue - and you aren't afraid to use it. And if people are too wimpy to deal with your attitutde, then too bad. So sad.

How Sarcastic Are You?

There are a few thing I will not post on this blog (as yet). Starting off, there will be no comments from me about my work, my company and my boss. This, of course, reduces my output by half, but I see no other option. I have been in trouble before, because of my "attitude" problem. I've also resolved to never post anything too vulgar (lets see how long THAT resolution lasts), too cutesy (I don't want barf on my keyboard), or too serious. I will also never post any nude pics of my friends in here (I want to attract readers, not drive them away). What? Don't YOU keep nudies of your friends? Er.. heh heh .. neither do I, obviously *hunts desperately for the nearest exit*.