Big bite of elephant.

For some time now, I have been planning and learning (slowly) and trying different approaches to get better with this flying this but one doubt always remained - what if I can't stomach it? I can learn it, it's just technical stuff, the mechanical stuff also I can master with practice but let's face it, I am scared in roller-coasters and the reason I decided to be a pilot (one of the reasons) was to face the fear of flying. What if it's too much for me to handle?

So I decided to spend some moolah on a real flying lesson. And guess what it's all going to be alright! It was a small Cessna 172 SP (I mean it was a small plane called a Cessna not that this one was small for its breed), but it is a small plane hardly any elbow room with two people in it. My instructor flew it most of the time, but I did get a feel of the control for a little while. It's not bad. It's quite a nice, thrilling feeling to be up there looking down at the world like a map or (let's face it) an aerial photograph. :)

I enjoyed it enough that I would want to go back up again if I could afford it.

I took a couple of bad photographs and two small, useless videos while I was up there 2000 feet above the ground. But hey, these are not from youtube, they are mine, a record of my very own adventure in the air, so I like'em!

This one is what I saw outside the plane:

Will you marry...

Just cos it's a comedy show, doesn't mean it doesn't apply to real life.

Cheers - The Shoe Fairy

I found this one side-splitting funny.

Cheers-The Kiss of War

I watch this American TV show "Cheers". I started watching it about 7 years ago when I was in US and it's done the usual journey of "Why the hell are they promoting it so much" to "Boy, I love this show!". So, now that I finally have all the seasons I am watching it from the beginning. And some scenes are so funny that I just can't help thinking "I should share it.". But you know me, I am too lazy for this. Finally, I came across this scene which was incredibly romantic and really funny at the same time. Plus it reminded me of myself. After all what is Ted Danson, just a slightly more handsome version of me? LOL.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the scene so much that it compels you to comment.

Thought of the day - 17th July 2008

Nothing is impossible to achieve but not everything is required to be happy!

In Zurich

Okay, so I am in Zurich today, but while I would like to impress you with my jet-setting lifestyle this post is not about me but about Zurich. I don't really have time to write a long post about my first (actually second) impressions about Switzerland or Zurich but I do want to share two observations with you.

One is about the immigration or passport control officers. They are weird. They actually smile! Not the forced or official smile but a geninue welcoming smile that I received from this passport control person. Not even Indian immigration officers smile at people, even if the passengers are Indian. And American immigration officers let you feel that they are giving you the key to the paradise by just letting you enter their fair country. But this man wished me a "nice stay" without the grumpiness that I seem to remember from my immigration check at the Philadelphia airport. Don't ask me why or how but he transacted the business in a businesslike manner and still made me feel welcome. Enough said.

Second, this place is so very beautiful. All of it! Without going anywhere, I just took a few pictures from my hotel room. Look at them and tell me if you don't agree!

Short Circuit 2 - Clips

3 video clips from Short Circuit part 2. I like this Indian guy also, even though I think he's not really Indian but born in US. They have gone very heavy on the Indian accent, too heavy, but funny, very funny.

Johny5 arrives in the city to help Ben build toy robots.

Johny5 goes for input in a big way.

Ben and Johny5 have a heart to heart talk about life.

Movie Review - Short Circuit

Recently watched, or re-watched, these 2 classic movies "Short Circuit" part 1 and 2. I was planning to post some clip from it, but both the movies are so hilarious and full of jokes and funny situations that it was hard to pick. So, I actually posted 5 clips, just random selection.

Here we go. The robot "no. 5" escapes the authorities and gets back to the girl who is her only friend till that time.

She lets him stay there and next morning he makes her breakfast. Hilarious.

The third one is slightly later in the morning when the girl's bf comes over to capture No. 5 with a rifle.

Thought of the day - 27th June 2008

“The finest gift you can give anyone is
encouragement. If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the
genius in most everyone would blossom and the world would produce abundance
beyond the wildest dreams”

Thought of the day - 23rd June 2008

"Courage to start and willingness to
keep everlasting at it are the requisites for success."

I love Firefox!

I love Firefox!

The first reason of course is that it's not shoved at me by Microsucks, and then there are many others. One strong reason is add-on's, they are developed by normal people and they are so useful. In this shot you can see how many of them I have installed and active but this is kind of trying out phase, usually I have 2 or 3 that I consider quite essential like a download statusbar, fast video download - to download youtube videos, and google toolbar, of course.

This post is from one add-on called Scribe Fire I have used it before, but now it's new and improved and can handle images easier.

That's my reason to love firefox. What's yours?

Book Review - Matt Helm - The Threateners

Just finished reading this great Matt Helm book "The Threateners". Instead of doing a review I added my comments to its Wikipedia page.

Take a look if you feel curious about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Threateners

Thought of the day - 20th June 2008

"Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power, a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment."

Thought of the day - 18th June 2008

“Our future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.”

IF...

Ah, the joys of having like-minded friends! Melody did a post on this very inspiring poem of Rudyard Kipling called "IF...". You can read the full poem on Mel's post

I am just going to talk about my favorite words from it:

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

Look at the way he uses each word for maximum effect. The "unforgiving minute", how true! Every minute that passes never comes back! It's very unforgiving in its nature, doesn't matter what you do with it, or you do nothing, it's gone. In the next line he uses "sixty seconds" instead of "minute", if you are determined, every minute you have sixty chances to accomplish something.

I don't know who he's talking to but he is not promising anything less than "Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it", talk about big dreams! I love the way he thinks!

"And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!", Again, the words are quite moving, he talks about being "a Man" as if it's something to be proud of, and it is! Man is God's partner in the creation!

'nuff said!

Thought of the day - 17th June 2008

"Anything can be achieved in small, deliberate steps. But there are times you need the courage to take a great leap; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."


I have used it before in another form, but this is one of my very favorite thoughts.

Ask and ye shall receive!

I recently watched this movie called Evan Almighty which is the sequel to Bruce Almighty.
I had already read the review on another blog (the one in my favorite blog list - Electronic Cerebrectomy) and it was very accurate.

My own review in short:

For one thing, the title is not accurate, in Bruce Almighty Jim Carey becomes God, well deputy God so the title fits, in this sequel, Evan gets an assignment from God with no special powers, so he's not really almighty.

The movie is quite predictable. Once you find out that God wants Evan to build an ark, there are no further twists or surprises. However, the speed of the movie keeps you from getting bored. The climax is also kind of predictable.

The cast is ok, Jim Carey has more silly faces for weird situations than this guy (I hate Jim's silly faces but I have to admit he's one of the most expressive actors in the business and has a fabulous screen presence, kind of like Hollywood's Govinda :) ), this guy is just ok. Lauren Graham as his wife has been more effective and showed him up kinda. I don't think anybody would debate it but Morgan Freeman as God is the best. He has that coolth, that charisma to pull off a superlative role like God Almighty. His sense of humour aided by the special effects is fantastic.

The video clip below is from the movie when Lauren Graham leaves her husband because he's being such an ass and is enroute to her mother's house, I think. This is the best scene from the movie, in my humble opinion. Believe in God or not, (I don't) but the lesson in the scene is very useful and equally applicable irrespective of your beliefs.

Just to give you an additional context tip: in the beginning of the movie, Lauren Graham had prayed for her family to be closer.





[P.S. Can't help but mention an example of Seek and ye shall find...my free video editor Avidemux which is a simple and effective video editing tool was not able to handle this movie for some reason, it played the movie without sound. So, I looked for another one and the new one, called Virtual Dub, another free tool, is even more powerful and useful. It makes smaller movies. So, you'll keep seeing my video posts, from FSX and otherwise. :) ]

Virtual Good Work

You know my time-wasting, just-for-kicks pastime Second Life, right? Well, unlike me some people do a lot of good work there. One of them is my friend Jaxi. She does profile pictures for people and devotes almost all her time to it. Today she won a contest with a picture of hers so I thought I should share that with my readers.

Here is the link to that, just a take a look at that picture, isn't that amazing,?

http://blog.koinup.com/2008/06/sl-portrait-contest-announcement.html

Thought of the day - 16th June 2008

“Dreaming is wonderful, goal setting is crucial, but action is supreme. To make something great happen you must get busy and make it happen. Take that action step today that will put you on your path to achievement."

I hate Dean Martin!

Pipe down! It's not about Dean Martin, it's about my favorite novel series - Matt Helm!

For an introduction you can go here - http://www.matthelmbooks.com/intro.html
but I am going to do it here anyway.

Matthew Helm, code name Eric, is an agent, a secret agent, something of the kind that James Bond is but more hardened, more down to earth quite practical. His task more often than not is to kill people. Yes, you heard me right, he kills people - people like enemy agents, or U.S. agents who have joined hands with the enemy or any conspirators, bad guys...anyone that his boss says to "remove". His is not to ask.

Funny thing is even though Donald Hamilton, the author, emphasizes the point of portraying Matt Helm as a mindless or rather opinion-less killer, in the books he is not just a callous murderer. He is also a philosopher the way we analyzes and theorizes about things without seeming to, he's also a detective as he tries to figure things out during his missions, he is quite human in the way he feels about people and things, yet quite professional in his work. It is not often that he goes against the orders even if they go against his feelings or opinion.

The narration of the books is always in the first person which makes it easier to identify with this superhero. Speed of the story is always such that it keeps you turning pages.

Matt's boss, a man known only as Mac, is shown to be an older gent, quite ruthless in his approach towards his work, and a human calculating machine in Matt's words, but that makes the little rare, human things that he does, stand out more and lend a unique touch to the situation.

The agency Matt works for remains anonymous, throughout the 27 books of the series (no, I haven't read all of them, some of them are hard to find, but I am on my way to do that), but the agency has been named variously as titles of several of the novels e.g. "The Silencers", "The Removers", "Murderer's Row", "The Wrecking Crew" etc.

More than once I have wished while reading a Matt Helm novel, that they had made it into a movie. 4 of the books were made into movies, but not properly. They just borrowed the names, the plots were completely out of line from the originals and just taken a point or two here and there. Actually, there was no plot at all. I saw that after I bought the DVD set and watched them. It was a few years later though, that I learnt that the movies were made as a spoof on James Bond movies. As such they disgrace both James Bond and Matt Helm. The movies are good for nothing more than cheesecake, they are full of beautiful girls but otherwise completely useless.
I hate Irvin Allen for producing these stupid bunch of movies and I hate Dean Martin for mocking my favorite secret agent Matt Helm.

If I had money and knowledge of the field, I would make these books into movies myself, so much I love them. The plots are quite good and the story laid out in enough detail that you won't have to work too hard to produce a screenplay. Well, according to Wikipedia DreamWorks has a project underway to make the Matt Helm books into movies but no release information is available for that. Well, hopefully they'll do it properly this time and hopefully very soon.