Biphasic sleep log - Day 3 - 23rd Jan

I just realized something about this log - the two parts of my sleep actually fall on different days. My evening nap is before midnight, so in the first date, then the core sleep falls after midnight into the next day/date. Without realizing it I started reporting the times in a cross-date manner, that is combining the nap and the core sleep that follows it into one day. That, I think, is sensible and that's how I am going to continue keeping this log.
So this day will talk about the nap on Sunday evening, plus the core sleep after that which technically falls on Monday.

Continued with biphasic today. Had a Salsa class all afternoon that ended at 17.15 in London. Got back about 19.00 and decided to take the nap from 19.30. Set the alarm for 21.15 with 15 minutes falling-asleep time. Woke up about 21.00 however and decided to just wake up. Maybe it was my housemate's TV in the next room that woke me up but it felt natural to stay up.

Did feel a bit tired especially in the legs but that might have been more to do with the 4-5 hour Salsa class then the sleeping.


Core sleep: Left everything at 0100 and went to bed by 0110. Set the alarm for 0545, including you know, the falling asleep time though cutting it down a bit.
Took a while to get to sleep, as I saw 0115 on the clock, maybe as much as 0130 which I didn't see.
Woke up at least twice in the night, both times roughly falling on the 90-minute sleep cycle boundaries. First one was about 0247, second somewhere after 0400. I did have a drink of water both times, though I am not sure if I woke up from the thirst or just being in-between sleep cycles the thirst prevailed over sleep. Both times fell back into sleep easily and quickly.
Woke up at 0547 with the alarm ringing. I use an app called Gentle Alarm on my Android phone. It gives me the option to fade in any sound when the alarm rings. I have set it to an MP3 playlist with shuffle option and a fade-in time of 2 minutes. So, I think I would have woken up exactly at 0545 if I had set a loud alarm.
I was not feeling as much in the grips of sleep as I usually do so I could get up with only a mild dose of willpower. The fact that it was a working day might have added motivation though I doubt it was much. I had the option to leave by 0740 today, so I could have slept till 0700 if I wanted to.

Decided to leave at 0640 instead of 0740 now that I was up. At the station I decided to try Chai Latte instead of my usual Latte, so less caffeine. That might be the reason why I am yawning a bit now but we'll observe the rest of day and I'll edit this entry to add the day's observations.

Though, the funny thing is other than the yawning I feel great in the body, fully refreshed, no tiredness, aches or pains. I did use my favourite muscle relaxant Moov last night even though I didn't really need it, simply not to mix the Salsa tiredness with the sleep adjustment tiredness.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 2 - 22nd Jan

Couldn't do it today as I decided to attend a class in the evening. Since that was in London at 6.30 I could not take a nap. So, decided to go monophasic just for tonight and following the advice from the forums added 1.5 to my intended biphasic sleep (i.e. 6.0 + 1.5 ), total 7.5 hours sleep. Got up at 8.30 am this morning, therefore, and it worked very well as I felt fresh all day. Will resume the biphasic efforts from today. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 1

Friday evening:
Went down for the nap at 18.30 instead of the planned 19.00 because I was feeling very tired and sleepy this being Friday. Set the alarm for 20.15 with 15 minutes to fall asleep.

Did fall asleep in about 15 minutes or less. Quality of sleep was okay, not uninterrupted deep sleep. One problem was thirst, maybe because of the burger I had on the train. So that interrupted my sleep at least once.

Finally woke up at 20.22 by the ringing alarm. Feeling not tired and groggy but not very refreshed either. Felt more refreshed after a few minutes.

The core sleep didn't really work. I went to bed at 0100 as planned, with the alarm set for 5.45. Did fall asleep in about 15 minutes or so. Woke up at 0545 by the alarm, but then didn't feel like getting up, felt tired and sleepy. So hit snooze and went back to sleep. Finally, woke up about 07.45 and got up. I think I will need to exercise more will-power if I want this to work. It's gonna be hard because my will-power is at its weakest when I am half-asleep.

But I am gonna try anyway. 

Wtf is this crap called iPad?

Okay, I agree maybe I should not be that violent about it, but Apple fanboys masquerading as independent reviewers piss me off no end. Recently, I read Engadget's review of Samsung Galaxy Tab vs. the iPad and I was appalled at the senseless way they take sides with the Apple's shitty foray into the tablet market!

I knew about both the products and bought the Galaxy Tab after comparing the features and advantages in my lifestyle. (Add that to the fact that I wouldn't be caught dead in a ditch with an iPad and it doesn't sound very objective, but I did a lot of research and tried hard to find a better alternative to the Galaxy, but I didn't.)

One thing they keep harping on is the size, yes the SamTab is almost half the size of the iPad but I don't like the way they portray it to be a bad thing. Size, in both devices, is both a pro and a con depending on your persepective. A 7" screen SamTab can be put in the pocket, yes, in a normal size, trouser front pocket or jeans backpocket. I have done and I can walk without feeling it digging into my thigh. The jacket pocket is even easier, I can even put it in the jacket pocket with the thick protective case on.

But then, a 9.7" screen display would be better than a smaller 7" screen display. Although in that case, not by much. The SamTab has a resolution of 1024x600 whereas the iPad sports only a resolution of 1024x768 for a screen that's about double in size. So it's not just about size, it's about quality as well.

The big issues with the iPad like it's a dumb device that can't make phone calls even though it uses a 3G sim card they gloss over it or actually try to be funny saying who would want to use a huge 7" phonep pressed to their ear. What these idiots don't know or don't tell is that you can't make a call like that, you use either the speakphone or a bluetooth handsfree. I have used both with the SamTab and the experience is fantastic!

I keep 2 lines, one of them is my primary while the other one I use sparingly. If I wanted to I could put my primary SIM card in the SamTab and take it out, leaving my phone home. iPad owners can't do that.

Let's talk about the cameras, oh, sorry, what cameras? iPad doesn't have any! The reviewing idiots try to make you think that it's stupid to have a camera on device this big. Maybe so, but think about this, you are in the train, reading an ebook on the SamTab, you suddenly look out the window and see a beautiful building that just takes your breath away! What do you do? You lift up the SamTab, press two keys, point and click!, you have a shot!

If you were reading on the iPad however...you would still be fumbling for your iPhone while the train moves on...

And what about video calling? I am sure the iCrap owners would say, “We don’t need it!” Yes, you need only the things Apple says you need, like Flash, you don’t need Flash!

Don't even get me started about the apps. Apple keeps boasting about its huge AppStore. The fact of the matter is that Android market is touching about 100,000 now and any app that you could get on the iCrap platform, you could get on the Android. What's more Android owners can install apps from anywhere be it Android Market, Samsung Market or the world wide internet. If you were so inclined you could program your own Android App. Apple crap owners can only walk into the Apple AppStore like sheep and pay good money for the same kind of apps available for free on the Android.

But there are two apps that make me throw out a challenge to any iLovers out there to get them on Apple any time in 2011 or the near future. One of them is Locale, the other one is Tasker. They both do the same kind of thing with Tasker being cheaper (about £3) and more configurable. What do they do? Let me give you an example.

If the day is Monday to Friday and the time between 8 am and 5 PM, when your trains reaches within 1000 yards of the Charing Cross station, the phone (or your Android device) speaks, in clear words, in your ear (through headphones if you are listening to music on your way to work), "Your station is approaching. Get ready to disembark!"

You can create that level of detailed, fully configurable condition-based actions in Tasker. I know this fascinates you so, a couple more examples that I use personally.

If I am at home (it knows by time), and I plug in the charger, when the battery gets full, the phone says, "The battery is full."

When I get home, (it knows by seeing that my home wifi is in range), it reminds me of things I needed to do after I got home. It reads out a note, so I can continue to change while listening to it.

When my cousin calls, it brings up a dialog box containing items I needed to discuss with him. Of course, I created the note in advance and kept adding to it as I remembered more topics, but it's triggered only when he calls.

The possibilities are endless. Apple crap owners can never have that because Apple would never open its iOS platform to developers to that level.

On Android, both the developers and users get a free, open, uncensored environment to experiment and play around in. Google encourages people to experient, they don’t even mind that people root their phone. Apple's Walled Garden is just that, a restricted area for the iSheep to gather in.

The one thing Apple does best is to create a design, (no it doesn't have to be a good design) and spend unthinkable amounts of money to make it popular by marketing until it starts to look "Oh so sexy!" to its victims!

The one thing SamTab cannot do is have a 10" screen. The things iPad can't do can fill a whole blog not just a blog post.

Oh, another thing is battery life, iPad is supposed to have 10 hours of battery life whereas SamTab has only 7 hours. I don’t know if iPad lives up to its claim but SamTab does. Objectively speaking, 10 hours battery life would be good to have, but even 7 is quite good for me. In everyday use I use it for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening on the train. I can think of some other situations where I would use it for about 3 hours or so, but 7 is quite nice and reassuring to have.

Even when I fly to India, my flight is about 8.5 hours long, with settling in process and the other general stuff, I don’t even get to use a device (in the past my Android phones or PSP) for 7 hours in the whole flight. But judging from the performance so far, it should be able to do more than 7 hours on one charge. I take it off charger in the morning when I leave for work, and use it continuously on the train for slightly over an hour. By the time I get to office, it uses about 12-14% or charge with the screen being always on.

I have been writing the dirty i-words a lot in this post, excuse me while I go wash my hands!

I am going biphasic!

Before I am accused of trying to confuse my public, let me give you some basic information. Here is the link where I started:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/1638-switching-biphasic-sleeping-start-here-3.html

In simple words, it’s a way of taking your daily sleep in 2 instalments instead of one big chunk. First part is a small nap of about 1.5 hours and then a core sleep of about 4.5 hours a few hours later. I had read about Polyphasic sleep before, the kind of Leonardo da Vinci is supposed to have used, where you take a 30 minute nap every 6 hours, sleeping only 2 hours in a 24 hour day. For obvious reasons that’s not possible for me to try when I am working, but I just found this biphasic stuff from this blog:
http://caloyelboy.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-biphasic-sleeping.html

and decided to try it.

So, I am going to try it tonight.

Now, I know the big question in your mind is “why”?

There are many reasons, one of them being just to try something new and unorthodox, but there are 3 main, important reasons.

1. Get extra time. Recently, I started working full-time again, and going from having all 24 hours at my disposal to having only 3-4 hours to do everything I want to do is very hard. All my projects I started in Second Life during my Idle period are suffering, and as I tried to catch up with them, my guitar was left forgotten. I can’t allow that to happen.This is one of the straegies to get some extra time and use it to work on all my crap.

2. Quality of sleep. I have been noticing it for a long time now that I don’t sleep that soundly as I used to. In my “youth” I have literally slept through earthquakes and hurricanes. But these days I don't sleep so well even if I am extremely tired.

One time I thought this was because of my over-involvement in my digital life and my brain is focused there. Maybe so. So, I turned off both my laptops, including the media laptop that's connected to the TV, turned off the TV instead of on screen-saver as I usually do, put the primary laptop in a corner instead of on my bed and went to bed. It was eerily silent in the room and dark, without the HDD LEDs and the laptop fans, but the sleep was no better.

Recently, it's been becoming a pattern to sleep about 6 PM on the Friday afternoon and sleep till 7 am on Saturday to catch up with the lack of sleep during the week, even though I get up about 6-7 hours a night. I love sleep, I really do, but 13 hours out of my 24 hours is a bit much. I do have things I want to accomplish.

So, this might help with that.

3. More energy, better well-being. People who have tried this have reported much better energy levels throughout the day starting from the morning. I feel tired and sleepy in the afternoons regardless of the number of hours slept.

My plan is to have the nap somewhere between 7.00 and 9.00 PM and the core sleep from 1.00 am to 5.30 am. If I get up that early in the morning, I will consider walking to the station to catch the train for work. One reason I take a taxi now is that the 1.5 miles, uphill walk in the cold costs about 25 minutes of my day and I don't have that much to spare right now. If the sleep works and I have the time and the energy I will try walking to the station at least on the days when it's not raining.

One side-effect of that will be I'd save some money on the taxi fare.

With the extra time on my hands, esp. in the late night hours, I will be able to do some nice work. I have been meaning to write more lately. And of course, blog more. There are also some new areas of hobby/self-improvement that I want to get into. This might give me time for that
So, the plan is to start tonight since it's Friday and the next 2 days are more or less my own. I plan to take the nap from 7Pm to 8.30 PM tonight, then core sleep from 1.00 am to 5.30 am.

I will try to keep a log, maybe on here. Watch this space..

The first couple of weeks are supposed to be hard on the body while it adapts, so wish me luck!

My new love - Sugandha Mishra

Yes, you read that right, I am in love with this girl!

Who is she?

She's an extremely talented radio jockey and trained singer whom I found in the 4th season of my favourite Indian comedy show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. I had been searching for another one of my favourite comedian Kuldeep Dubey when I came across a clip that featured Sugandha. And she blew my mind!

Let me count the reasons why I love her.

She is extremely talented in mimic'ing the voices of female filmstars and playback singers, not only of India but from the western world as well. The quality of her mimicry is awesome. She can not only talk like the filmstars and singers but when she sings in their voices...wow! I had never heard any comedian try to imitate Celine Dion before, but she did and she did justice to it. Second time she blew everyone away was when she said "Namaskar" in the voice of the singing goddess of India - Lata Mangeshkar. Absolutely fantastic!

Then her comedy. She creates this fantasy situations with the singers and celebrities and then goes through their dialogues and songs. Her material is amazing. She selects well-known songs to parody, they are well-known but not easy to sing, and then she sings them extremely well, with changed words for comedy.

Both her dialogue delivery and her singing are awesome! And her comic timing impeccable.

She has great screen presence. Never seems nervous or ill at ease.

Within her own format, she creates ample variety to entertain everybody every time. I can see Siddhu jumping out of his chair every few seconds when she's on stage.

And to top it all she's cute like a doll! I love her smile!

Okay, after that kind of introduction, I have to give an example. Here are two of her clips. Sorry, they are in Hindi and refer to a lot of Hindi songs, so you can enjoy it well only if you know your Bollywood well.

The Perfect Gift

I know everybody is looking for gift ideas right about now. Here is a gift idea from Barney. Enjoy :-)

Movie Review - Definitely Maybe

I realize this is my third movie review in a row but while writing the words about narration in "I hate love stories" I was reminded of this movie that I recently re-watched. And I can watch it again in a few days.

I won't do a full review of the movie as it's a simple love story but the most interesting thing about this movie is the organization of the material, the continuity. Or in this case, the narration device.

Story starts with this young girl about 10 years old, being picked up from school by her father. And guess what she learnt in school today...yes, you guessed it, about sex. She steers the conversation towards how her father and mother met. So, after a couple more scenes, he starts to tell her the story of his life. Only he changes the names of the girls in the story.

Mainly it's a story of the 3 girls who came in his life and one of them is his daughter's mother, which she has to guess. While he's telling the story, movie keeps moving in and out of flashback for the daughter to make a comment or raise a question. I like that because this little girl is just so cute...she's adorable! She's the oversmart, a 10 year-old-granny type girl and I just love those. I like how she wants her father to be happy. The father-daughter relationship has been portrayed beautifully. He's a single dad and his daughter wants his mother and father to be together.

The plot is quite good, it goes through some twists, some of which are predictable, but still treated well by the director.

The dialogues are smart and witty, not clichéd. My favourite dialogue from this movie would be a line spoken by (surprise!) the little girl, "Tell her story, like you told me, then she'll know!" Even if this weren't a plot-turning dialogue, I'd still love it. The eagerness in the little girl's face, her deep desire to set things right for her father...man, that's something to watch. I love it! Another one of my favourite is also by the same character, yeah, the little girl asks her father, looking right into his eyes, "What's the boy word for 'slut'?". Makes me laugh, every time.

Oh, did I mention is has Isla Fisher as one of the 3 main girls?! That was the whole reason I watched it the first time. I adore Isla Fisher, not just for her beauty but her personality. I have watched a couple of her TV interviews, damn, she's sexy and fun!

The hero is Ryan Reynolds, from "Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place" but who cares. No, seriously, he's done a good job.

So, my point is, that the narration device is so wrapped up in the story that it's not just a narration device but a part of the story and when the flashback finishes, this part of the movie continues and reaches the climax.

Since it's Hollywood, it's a happy ending, but it goes through some nice twists that make sense and are logical based on human psychology.

Conclusion: Definitely watch it, no maybe.

What do you know, I did write a full review.

P.S.:
1. The little girl is played by Abigail Breslin. She's an amazing actress.

2. Here's the trailer for this movie -

I hate "I hate love stories" (Movie Review)

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you'd know that only two types of movies inspire me to write a review the ones I love and want people to see, and the ones I absolutely hate and want to save everybody else's time.

Let me say that this one was a struggle to watch it to the finish. I finished it only so I could write a fair review otherwise I was sick of it in about 20 minutes from the starting point.

I am going to tear it apart piece by piece.

Story: With a title like that you'd expect the movie to be a love story and it is. This predictability continues right through the movie to the end. It's a formula film without nothing new to offer in the way of story or creativity. It's chock-full of cliche'd situations that are right out of a movie-making text book. 

Plot twists: There are lots of twists in the story, but none that a 5-year old bollywood fan cannot write all out in advance. You give this kid the basic layout of the film and he or she would be able to write down the whole plot in detail. Here's the basic setup - the hero is an assistant director who hates making love stories and works for a director who makes only love stories. The heroine makes sets for these love stories, has a steady, parents-approved boyfriend. I am sure you can predict the climax. 

The Cast: In lead roles are Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor. Both absolute failures. Hindi film heroes used to be selected for their macho personality, then came the chocolatey heroes who had good looks, this guy has nothing. His dialogue delivery makes me want to jump off a skyscraper (as long as I can land on his head). Sonam Kapoor looks pretty in revealing, western type clothes, in normal clothes she looks absolutely ordinary, very lacklustre and not worth being a heroine. Actually I have seen sexier extras in Bollywood movies. Her dialogue delivery is better than the hero but still nothing to clap and dance about.

Hero's friend, Kunal, I don't know his real name, a bearded fat guy whose only job is to give the hero bad advice, is a better actor than Imran Khan but has been cursed with bad dialogue.

The character I liked best was the director that the hero works for. He's an actor who does character roles like husband, son, businessman etc..this is a different role for him and he's done justice to it.

Dialogues: I strongly suspect that all the dialogues have been stolen and translated from Hollywood movies,
maybe all from a single movie or from several different ones. It's easy to see when you see the kind of humour that is used in American sitcoms. You can predict the punchline of most jokes.

Narration: There is an ongoing narration throughout the film in the voices of the hero and heroine, God knows why, because it doesn't add anything to the movie, isn't necessary at all and is most of the time very annoying.

Music: Music is normal, no soul-searing melodies here. And the lyrics are the same psuedo-poetic type that are common in new movies in Bollywood and for which I look down on the English pop music. The songs always slow down the story without exception and the lyrics make me want to puke.

Climax: No big surprises there, after an airport scene, they get together.

Conclusion: If you respect yourself, stay away from it.

Movie Review - The Expendables

Just finished it watching it. It's a pure adrenaline movie, action from beginning to end, with a little romance to provide the motivation sometimes.

The name and cast were so intriguing that even though I converted it to portable MP4 format, I didn't watch it on my 4.3" big screen Android phone. It was really worth watching properly. I have always liked Stallone as an action hero, and then combine him with Jason Statham and it's a double treat. Jet Li I could take or leave, the other characters are quite good in their roles, even if not superstars like Stallone and Statham.

As you could probably guess from the title it's about a team of tough-guys, mercenaries, who do all kinds of rough stuff for money. In typical Hollywood style, the movie starts with one of their missions where they make a dramatic entry. Then the second mission becomes life and death and ends with the movie.

The action is pretty much non-stop throughout, with some gaps for the story to connect the dots. I like Jason Statham's confident, badass style, even when he's talking to his girlfriend, but without being a jerk.

Soundtrack is very good for action scenes. The touch of comedy is present in a few scenes, but they haven't tried to overdo it. The plot twists are not very complex and fairly predictable but still enjoyable.

I like Charisma Carpenter as Jason's girlfriend but the lead girl, Stallone's romantic interest, Giselle Itie, is not really pretty, well not in my eyes anyway. Still, she's a good actress and does her part well.

Oh, there's Bruce Willis in a small role. He fills it well, but it's too small to be anything comment-worthy.

I like the climax, it is long, sustained  action as expected and even though it's a happy ending, it's not a shrink-wrapped type end.

It's the kind of movie that you want to watch again right after you finish it. Maybe I will watch it again soon.

Conclusion: If you are a guy, definitely go for it. If you are a girl, give it a wide berth.

Android Vs. iPhone

I don't know if this is making fun of iPhone or Android but it's a hilarious video.

Three's Company - Party Game from season 5

I just love this TV show. Can you imagine it's almost 40 years old and still so funny. A lot of credit goes to John Ritter but his co-stars are also great. I loved this scene for its mimicry-based humour but also, Priss and Jenilee look so sexy in this scene. And the dumb blonde girl whose name I didn't google yet. Enjoy.

Spinning Dancer - Left Brain vs. Right brain

You can see  a lady spinning in this picture.
If you see her spinning clockwise, apparently it means that your right brain is active and vice versa. And I can assure you that it is possible to see both directions.
You can even change her direction wilfully if you try and focus. I can do it. Can you? :-)

If you don't see her spinning click on the picture.
If you don't see the picture at all, see an optician.

Two and a half men - Charlie Waffles concert

Oh, this is just too funny for words, you have just watch it! I love the kids in this scene, and I kept wondering how on Earth would they have managed a shooting day with so many kids on the set. LOL!

Everything you didn't want to know about - sex!

Just watch it, it's funny!

Guitar Post - Ek haseena thi

I wanted to play this tune from the movie Karz for a long time, finally found the right (easy) tabs.

How chicks make a fool out of an otherwise intelligent man!

Self-explanatory

[Clip from season 3 episode 13 of Two And a Half Men. ]

Who's crazy?

Salman Khan recently sang (lip-synch'ed on screen) "Loveme, loveme, loooveme, your mama says you love, your papa says you love...oh, love me baby, loveme!" And tonight I am standing in a club in Second Life and the song is playing, "your mama says you are crazy..." and so on and so forth, the exact same tune. I asked the DJ, it's called Pitbull-Crazy.

Bollywood is great, what?

Run, Buddy, Run!

Today I finally restarted my running regime. One thing that helps me and motivates me in my running is an application called BuddyRunner that's installed on my Android phone, my Nexus One. It's a free app but it has great features that you'd need in a fitness app. One, tracking your time and distance, two, mapping your running route on the map using GPS tracking, three, storing your results in a way that you can see them (it uploads to a web-based dashboard), four, creating charts and graphs from this run data. It's very simple to use as well - click Start when you leave home, click End when you finish workout. On the route it vibrates and speaks the distance in my ear at every half-mile mark. Since I already have the headphones in for music, that works very well.

So, back to today, I was not expecting much from myself today having not done anything in the last few months, (except an all-day Salsa class last Saturday, that was brutal!) but I was pleasantly surprised. I have 2 main markers to gauge my performance during the run. First one is the half-mile mark from my house. Crossing the road at a certain traffic signal, after a few more steps is half a mile from my doorstep. Of course, I have BuddyRunner on my phone screen to get the exact mark. I try to hit this mark in one breath. Today I was not expecting that. But not only did I hit the mark, I was not even completely exhausted yet! So I kept on going and touched 0.60 miles. (Yeah, not going to the New York marathon with that stamina, I know.)

Then there is a hill that I have to walk up, it's quite steep, don't think I'll ever be able to run up that slope. But right from the top point there I run down the slope and take a right then cover some more distance on a level road. That's my second mark, to do that whole L-shape piece in one breath. Today, I not only did that but kept going and did 0.70 miles before resorting to walking. My best run is from the start of that L-shape route to my doorstep, which is a full mile.

But today I got 1.3 miles of solid running in my 2.2 mile route, and I am happy with it.

The lesson here is that you need to try, even if you don't think you will be great, you still need to try, you maybe pleasantly surprised. If not, you will still build up to do better and better every time you try it.

X-Men 3 - I hate anti-logic scenes

It's pet peeve of mine to witness scenes where the movie director tries to put one over on the audience, be it something related to technology or just plain logic. And my blog, well this is my forum to bitch about everything that bothers me. :-)

Let me lay the groundwork for it before I point out the flaw in reasoning.

1. The movie is about mutants. These people have special powers due to the mutant gene in their make up.

2. In this third movie of the series, a company invents a cure for this condition (I don't buy that mutation can be reversed by an injection, but it's their story, so whatever.)

3. There is one mutant, Jean Grey, a class 5 mutant, played by Famke Janssen. She is more powerful than any other mutant and can literally wreak havoc when her power is loose. She has two sides of her personality - the sweet, loving side and the ugly, power-mad side. She cannot control her ugly side.

4. There is a teenage boy, who is the source of the cure, and any mutant's powers don't work around him.

5. The villain, Magneto, with his army of rogue mutants decides to capture this kid from the factory where he is being kept.

6. The good guys find out about Magneto's plan and come to the factory to support the soldiers who are already there loaded with plastic guns full of injections of the "cure" that can be fired like bullets. Any mutant that gets hit by it becomes immediately powerless and just like a normal human.

There is a big fighting scene in which a lot of rounds of the "cure-bullets" are fired and the good guys are finally winning. They whisk the boy away out of the factory successfully. They even manage to neutralise the big boss Magneto but then Famke lets loose with her power and suddenly everything is chaos all around now.

And here's the scene I don't like. This one hero, called Wolverine (Hugh Jackmen), goes up to her, he can heal quickly that's one of his powers, so even though he keeps getting damaged as he walks closer to her, he heals and keeps going.

So, Hugh walks up to her, delivers his little speech, says I love you, hugs her and sticks his long blades into her that come out of his knuckles (his main power).

Now, here's my beef with this scene. Right here, on this same property where everything is going on, there is a boy who can "cure" or suppress a mutant's power just by standing next to them. And right here, on this property, are countless injections of the "cure" lying around that can permanently change a mutant into human.

So, why didn't they send the boy to Famke, he could walk right up to her easy as eating pie and the chaos would stop. And then somebody, anybody, could shoot an injection into her and fix her for good.

Since she was a nice person apart from her power-crazy split-twin, she was worth saving. So why didn't they?

I can understand what the director was trying to do there. He wanted to create a tear-jerker scene there by virtue of this lost love and sacrifice for the greater good. He failed in that miserably and pissed me off at the same time by going this illogical route. Don't do that again, Brett.