Now I wanna be a photographer!

It seems to me that I have this unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Not just knowledge but skills, things I can actually do and accomplish. Trying to learn Salsa is part of it so was insisting on learning to drive a manual car. And my latest is trying to learn photography. But, it's not really new.

When I was young, very young, less than 7 years old, we used to live in a rented house. Our neighbour family had a son who was ..umm...I am in no position to guess how old he was then, but I'd say in his 20s or so. I used to call him Rajesh Bhaiya and he was friends with my elder brothers. He had a black and white camera (we are talking about the 70s), and a small room under the the top flight of stairs that he used to use as a dark room. I saw him going in there and then coming out with finished prints and stuff like that. To me that was so glamorous! That whole business of working in a special room and developing films, it was like magic. He earned my childish respect for that. I think that's where my fascination with photography first started.

In the later years, I have been quite obsessed with taking photos, something doing a good job at other times, botching it up completely. In the recent years, I have been able to own and use digital cameras and collect a lot of photos in the process. But none of it was to be a photographer, just to take photos, subject or events were more important in my mind than the act of taking photos to get better at it, if you know what I mean.

The latest inspiration was my colleague, Derek, who is an accomplished Amateur Professional. He usually likes cars and takes a lot of photos at car shows and exhibitions. He is very good at it, to the point of having had his shots published in magazines and even used on the covers. He is quite passionate about it and I guess some of that motivated me. (If learning a new skill is involved, I get motivated easily, go figure!)

So, I bought a camera. I already had a 5MP Casio digital camera that I bought in Germany in 2005. It has served me well and still works. But now I wanted something better, something with more zoom and a faster shutter, with more settings.

There is nothing better than to research for an electronic item before purchase. I spent a whole day doing that and finally bought a Fuji Finepix S1800. It's called a Bridge Camera. Not because you can only take photos of bridges with it, but it serves as a bridge when you want to go from a compact digital camera to a full Digital SLR.

Here is a link to its Amazon page in case you are curious to find out more about the camera.

I simply love it! It has 18X optical zoom and 6.3x digital zoom (optical is the one that matters). I can't give you the technical details like sensor size and lens type etc. but I know that the only shortcoming of this model is that it does not have interchangeable lenses. I looked into those cameras and they were way too expensive. This was under £200 and they were closer to £500 and in most cases above it.

Having received the camera in post, I wanted to take it out for a spin. I chose the Aspinall Animal Park at Port Lympne. They had a photography course for £90. A whole day, with an expert photographer and only 8 places.

I did that last Saturday and it was amazing! There was nothing in the way of instructions, but there was a very experienced photographer at hand to ask questions and he gave us some tips from time to time.

Even I got some great photos from that day. We had great VIP access to all the animals so we could take photos easily and up close. No crowds jostling our elbows. In the afternoon we actually went into the cage of the Colubus monkeys.

Here are some samples:

From A day with animals

From A day with animals

From A day with animals

From A day with animals

From A day with animals

Ghost Town - Movie Review

It's just a little spin on the same formula that Hollywood has been using for ages - communication with ghosts. But what I like about Hollywood is that most times even the most formula-driven movies have some kind of a message, a feel-good factor that they leave you with. That's why I like them. That, and the pretty girls, of course!

In this one the pretty girl is Tea Leoni who loses her adulterer husband in a road accident. On the other side of the romantic equation is Dr. Bertram Pincus, D.D.S who genuinely hates people and lives only in his own little world.

Dr. Pincus, played by Ricky Jervais, goes for a routine procedure in the hospital, but something out of the routine happens. He finds that he can see ghosts. On investigation, it turns out that Pincus himself died on the operating table, for 7 minutes. Pincus doesn't even like to communicate with the living, he finds the intrusion of the ghosts much more annoying.

So, when Tea Leoni's dead husband Frank, played by Greg Kinnear, offers to take all those other ghosts with their "unfinished business" requests, off his back, in return for one favour, he is compelled to take it.

The story follows a more or less predicable to reach a very predictable climax, but in the course of this it manages to make the viewer laugh and sometimes ponder. The good thing about this predictable plot is the speed. It never loses momentum and keeps the wheels turning, without going into long, boring and heavy self-inspection kind of scenes. Pincus' dry, usually sardonic or sarcastic sense of humour did manage to make me smile and of course, I loved Tea Leoni. But I have to admit that Greg Kinnear has done a good job of acting as well, and the other supporting cast didn't give me any cause for complain either.

Conclusion: It's a good movie to watch for entertainment without expecting much in the way or originality or epoch-marking storyline.

Lesson from Chuck - What's next

I do like this TV Show - Chuck. When I started watching it, I didn't think I'd like it, but I know love it. And I know why. The show is full of corny lines, cliches, and formulas. That's why I thought I wouldn't like it. But it's all done with taste and expertise, so I do like it.

Here's an example:

And watch him here, actually doing it:

I agree with him on that. And I would extrapolate that and say that your best days are always ahead of you. As you grow older, you learn more about life, about yourself and about the world. Your skills become more advanced, your decisions less stupid. As a result, the quality of your life will improve, the quality of your friends will improve and you will enjoy your life more. If your life is not going in that direction then it should. If you don't think your best days are in front of you, then you may already be dead. Check your pulse.

Mozart Symphony No. 25

I just don't have words to put a fancy/funny title on this post. I heart this symphony just yesterday, (long story how I stumbled upon it), for the first time in my life. And I think I have fallen in love with it.

You can listen to it here while you watch Leonard Bernstein conduct.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCjE0ol2Z4E

It's just amazing, relaxing and exciting, motivating, inspiring, funny and heartwarming, all in one.

From 2:04 to 2:28 is the part that's like my most favourite. I think I am going to make that my ringtone, my morning alarm and if possible even my doorbell chime. :-)

Ideas Worth Spreading

A dear friend of mine recommended this site to me, and since I respect her opinion and count her in the non-stupid's of this world (RA Heinlein humour from Moon is a Harsh Mistress), I decided to check it out. The site is:

http://www.ted.com

It's a totally weird name and makes no sense to me, but the site is awesome! Their tagline is "Ideas Worth Spreading" and the basic idea they have is, to have one new video every weekday. These videos are talks by really remarkable people in front of a huge audience. Each talk is about 20 minutes. The topics and content as well as the quality of the people is amazing! If you are like me, and you are, because you read my blog, then you should check it out. I am sure you'd like it and thank me later.

For my part, "Thank you, Kate!".

The Saga of Medicine

Medicine - what a wonderful thing! You absolutely hate the taste. You loathe the after-taste. It's so expensive. And yet, you keep some in the house, always, and can't wait to take it, (willingly in most cases), when you fall sick.

Why?

Because of the after-effect. No matter how much you cringe away from that foul-tasting thing, you know in your mind that you won't feel better until you take it.

Some situations in life need an emotional medicine. You may not like to face them, sometimes you don't like what it says about you, sometimes you don't want to believe that this has happened, but somewhere, in the back of you mind, in that little logical nook, you know you have to accept this situation like a bitter pill or you won't get better.

It takes courage, it takes fortitude, it takes self-realization, most of all it takes an acceptance of defeat. You cannot just face the Sun and deny the existence of shadows, you have to accept them both.

Why am I talking about all this nonsense that you already know? Because I am down with flu right now and it so happens that I am taking both pharmaceutical and emotional medicine right now. Because I know well, that without taking this medicine, I would not be able to put this thing behind me and move forward.

Once the medicine does its work and you can move on, what then? Back to work! Oh yuck! Let's not talk about that today, I am already nauseous.

The Story of Desmond Doyle

I have just finished this movie called "Evelyn". It's the story of an Irish man whose wife leaves him and his three children the day after Christmas. Because he's an out-of-job house-painter, with no prospects, the Irish court rules that his children be taken from him and put in orphanages. Needless to say, it's based on real events.

Usually, I don't go for movies with such themes, but this had Pierce Brosnan in the main lead and I'd watch almost anything with Brosnan in it (almost, I couldn't finish Mamma Mia).

The movie is great. It's not too long, and moves along quite rapidly. Brosnan has done a great job of acting as usual, but other characters are quite rich and the actors have done them justice.

If you like deep, emotional, human-drama type movies, I'd recommend it.

Btw, Evelyn is his daughter, the oldest child, and she deserves to have the movie named after her.

Marriages are made in heaven?

Warning: If you have a reason to believe in the sanctity of the institution of marriage, do not read this post. If you still read this post after this warning and take offence, you cannot sue me!

So, with that said let’s get into it. But first a couple of sentences to explain why I said that. In the past, other than jokes and videos, I have always tried to post things that boggle my mind or that I think would make you think. And while doing this I have always tried to be nice and considerate. Now I have run out of all those topics. Now, I am going to start pissing people off by saying what I want to say and to hell with the world. Yes, I said “hell”.

“Marriages are made in heaven!”, you must have heard that about a million times already. But in reality, the only people who believe in that fall in two categories – one, whose livelihood depends on marriages, a ready example is the religious contractors – the priests of all religions. In the other category falls the poor sap who doesn’t want to say “…because the condom broke!” so he chants, “Marriages are made in heaven.”

What happens to this heavenly marriage when he’s working extra hours at the office, just so he doesn’t have to go home and she’s stocking up on vodka to keep herself sane? No, if marriages were made in heaven, the happiest people would be married couples. But we all know the reality.

I say, God doesn’t want people to get married. And I have evidence to prove that. People are born single. And they die alone. If God wanted people to be married he’d arrange things so that it would be clear who’s going to marry whom. People would be born with numbers or birth marks or something. He’s omnipotent, he can do it! But he doesn’t. If he wanted people to stay married he’d pick up both husband and wife at the same time and not leave their bereaved partner behind.

My question is – if marriages are made in heaven, then divorces, extra-marital affairs and unhappy marriages, where are these made? In some place between heaven and hell?

If marriages were made in heaven, divorce lawyers would starve.

USA Vs. France

No this is not a political battle - this a clip from Cheers. I am currently watching the 11th and last season and I am surprised and impressed that they have kept the same high-quality going in the story and the humour has become better as the show progressed.

This is one of the most hilarious episode, so much so that I watched it twice within 24 hours. Henri, the French loverboy/con artist, has been trying to egg Sam into accepting a bet - whoever gets the most numbers from beautiful women by midnight wins. Sam is above this kind of thing, but...well, watch what happens.

Barnie's home!

Now, that's my kind of entrance!

Too Relaxed - From Newsradio

I am into last season of this one, second viewing and good as gold. Here's a scene where everybody thinks that the news director Dave (splendid guy), is too stressed. So Joe, makes a sound machine for him. And then they think he's too relaxed. Station owner Mr. Jimmy James goes in to fix that, here's the result.

Free Software For Writers or Authors

As you know I have been trying to write a book and as you might not know I have a few other writing projects in the oven. More than once I have felt the need to have a software tool that could help me organize the huge amount of text that goes in a book. For example, my current book, the one mentioned on it's own blog has several places where I have put in brackets and written "How many times do I say this?", it's easy to forget something like that when you have 200 pages of text that you travel through back and forth, back and forth. Hence, the need for a tool to assist.

With a google search I found a tool called the Storyboard. It seems nice and best of all it's free and open source. So, I am going to try that. If you have a need for this go to - http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/index.php/features-basic.

Oh, remember my ranting post about MS-Word being a piece of crap because it crashed and I lost data? Well, Storybook saves each input as it goes along, so no losing data even if it crashes. Neat huh?

Hindi Movie - Woh 7 Din

I like this movie, an old classic, though I don't like the climax but well, no director usually goes again the public sentiment, any other climax would cause the movie to flop at the boxoffice.

So, here are 2 clips from it, one a comedy scene that I absolutely love.

The other, a powerful, emotional scene that refers back to the comedy scene.

Nida Faazli - The Common Man's Shaayar

Well, I am only going to re-quote. While looking at some Hindi blogs I across this blog called shreesuvach, I am posting the direct link to the post.

http://shreeshuvach.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-post_12.html

After giving due credit, here are the lines that compelled me to post:

" निकल आते हैं आंसू हंसते-हंसते,
ये किस गम की कसक है हर खुशी में
गुजर जाती है यूं ही उम्र सारी;
किसी को ढूँढते है हम किसी में.
बहुत मुश्किल है बंजारा मिजाजी;
सलीका चाहिए आवारगी में."

और इन पंक्तियों को पढ़कर अगर मुँह से "वाह" ना निकले तो अपनी नब्ज़ ज़रूर एक बार चैक करवा लें.

" फासला नज़रों का धोखा भी हो सकता है,
चाँद जब चमकें तो जरा हाथ बढाकर देखो.."

For my English-reading readers, the poet says,

"The distance may very well be an illusion of the eyes,

When the Moon is shining, just try to reach out.."

No, I won't dissect it for you. :)

एक पोस्ट मातृभाषा में

एक ज़माना था कि मुझे लगता था कि हिन्दी में कंप्यूटर्स पर काम करना यानी जैसे हम लोग वापिस जाने कि कोशिश कर रहे हैं और वक़्त कि रफ़्तार को रोकने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं, लेकिन वक़्त के साथ साथ मेरे विचार भी बदलने लगे और मैने महसूस किया कि इतने बड़े देश की इतनी पॉपुलर भाषा को अगर कंप्यूटर्स सपोर्ट नहीं करेंगे तो बात अधूरी रह जाएगी.

खुशी की बात ये है कि मेरी तरह और लोगों ने इस बात को समझने में इतनी देर नहीं की और इस दिशा में बहुत सी तरक़्क़ी इस बीच में हो चुकी है.

ये पोस्ट मैं एक वेबसाइट पर टाइप कर रहा हूँ और ये देख कर हैरान हूँ कि कितना आसान है हिन्दी में टाइप करना इस phonetic editor में. ग़लतियाँ तो हैं ही नहीं और रफ़्तार बहुत अच्छी है. इसका नाम है Quillpad और URL है www.quillpad.in. अगर आपको हिन्दी आती है तो टाइप करके देखिए बहुत मज़ा आएगा! और अगर आपको हिन्दी नहीं आती....तो मैंने कुछ कहा ही नहीं :D

Get Smart - Laser Smart

Another sexy and funny scene from the same movie - Get Smart. I like this movie.

Bruce - Reading News With a Difference

I recently re-watched Bruce Almighty, a very funny film with lots of good, hilarious scenes. I selected this one because this is the silliest, in my opinion.

Get Smart - Dance Scene

This is a very funny movie, but don't think it's very famous. I liked this dance sequence that's both funny and sexy at the same time. Watch to the end.

Fifty Fifty

I have always loved this simple scene from the movie terminal. It's a very small scene, basically just one dialogue but worth watching.

It's a great way of looking at things, especially something to remember when you are thinking how hard it is to do that particular thing and want to give up. Oh, but not if you live in America, remember what she said, "America doesn't work that way." :)

The Switch

Please read this in the order it is written watching the video clips as you come to each one. You'll enjoy it the most that way.

So, the story, ladies and gentlemen, is of a man who wanted to perform the legendary maneuvre called "The Switch". Nobody in the history of the human race had ever performed this switch before but this young man was ambitious. Maybe too ambitious for his own good!

It all started like this. Jerry Seinfeld was dating this woman named Sandy. Now Sandy, while a very personable young lady had but one flaw.

Her words stayed in his mind and he decided to test this theory.

And then, to make matters worse, he met...the roommate!

And so, Jerry is thrown into the middle of an emotional turmoil.

They all but accept defeat.

But where, there is a will there is a way. And so...

Jerry puts the devious plan into action, not sure of his footing but urged on not only by his desire for the roommate but also for the unparallelled achievement of...The Switch! Will he succeed where better men than him failed?

Jerry is in over his head. Can he cope with this new development? This unforeseen complication in his plan! Let's watch.

And here folks, you have the whole story!