Half Time! Well, almost..

My promise was that I'll be back by May 09. Well I'm keeping to it. Almost half the time is gone. Just dropped by to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking :)
I've got TONS of stuff to blog about, especially about how the MNS plans to hold Mumbai to ransom. But all that later. Right now, gotta go.

Seeya!

Happy Christmas/New Year/Holi/Easter/Eid/Anything-else-that-comes-between now-and-May.

I've cracked my ISP!

There are few times that I actually get the feel that I have a 256kpbs connection, one of them is right now. The pages load quickly, downloads are at the speed of sound and videos don't have loading time (save for some high quality ones).

As per what my Mom told me, my internet was supposed to have been only for a 15hr period. Because thats what she paid, for the 15hour pack. Well guess what? It's not! How is that possible? I have no idea.. maybe I did it on accident. My internet has been on for the last 76 hours, downloading Assassin's Creed (which was eventually corrupted), movies and some albums. I've disconnected and reconnected numerous times, but I always got through. How do I do this? Well, all I know is that I created a separate connection with the same values as the dialer they provided. I don't use the ISP software to connect to the internet, and hence, they probably think I've not used any internet hours at all yet. Cool no?

Let Me Go!

'Bohemian Rhapsody' (Queen) is a wonderful song, I first listened to it after hearing Micheal John's wonderful rendition of it on an earlier American Idol episode.
Thats what the title refers to.

This right here will probably one of my last posts for a long long time to come, say till May of next year. It'll be a wonder if I even remember my password then. I'll be leaving for a whole year, in preparation for the career-deciding HSC and CET (Have no idea what that is? Google..)

I've been thinking of what to blog about for the last couple of weeks, and sometimes some great subjects pop into my head, unfortunately they leave my head soon after.

Its vacations, and excluding studies, theres nothing much to do here. You see, I only have classes for about 2 hours per day (with the exception of Sunday and Wednesday, its double on those days). I'm having it much better than some of my peers, who have to sit 7 hours every day. WOW.

So what I'm I doing in these days? Well, lets see.. Movies and Games!

Watch out for the reviews in some days..

La Holiday

Oh my, look at the time.. its well over midnight, and here I am, just out from a movie watching phase and on the internet.. well thats what we do when we have holidays entrusted upon us..

I've got a post in mind.. but since its so late, and I'm sleepy... and its dark everywhere, and I can hear strange noises from the living room.. I'm gonna go sleep..


[EDIT]

The strangest thing happened.. that line about noises from the living room was supposed to be a joke.. and when I was just about to type it.. I actually heard a noise from there.. like something getting crunched.. you know.. sound of dry grass or hay getting crunched.. that kind of sound.. weird. And it doesn't help that I've been watching that 'Ghost Hunter' series on Star World for some time now. It deals with investigators visiting haunted places and finding out if its really haunted or not at night.. I wonder if its real.. if its proved real, then all physics laws in this world go for a toss resulting in science mayhem..

Ghosts are unarguably the most arguable topic in the world (!)

More on this later.. or on something else..

LaLa

Its been a mighty long time I've posted here. Of course exams came in the way.. that and a laziness.. and not knowing what to post. I still don't know what to post.

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Ahh, dots. Fun ain't it?

Legend Lara

Never has a game made me write a review. This is a first. It all started with me going to Crossword, because I had

nothing better to do. They do sell video games at Crossword. Oddly recent games like Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman:

Bloodmoney were priced at just Rs. 300. I had to get the game. After about 2 hours of deliberating I decided to get



Tomb Raider: Legend.


What made me get the game? Gamer TV gave it a 5/5 rating. I make a mental note of every 5/5 Gamer TV game. Lets see,

Star Wars Lego.. Ghost Recon 360.. Legend Of Zelda Wii.. there are more which I don't have time to remember..

Anyway to the game, the plot is pretty well, creative to say the least. Lara, on investigating the death of her mother, realizes that she has to get the sword of Excalibur, the parts of which are scattered in different countries. The game follows Lara to these diverse countries. The scenery is amazing, although I when I switched on the "Next Generation" display setting the game speed reduced to a halt.. almost.

The countries are as diverse as Bolivia, Peru, Japan, Kazhakistan, Ghana, and Nepal. Each country has a different piece of the sword.

Also, Lara is looking her best yet in this game. Check this out
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/ff/LaraCroftTombRaiderEvoWUnderw.jpg

Lara's tricks are dependent on timing. Theres no specific tutorial for the tricks, you have to find that out yourself. Like pressing the F key the right number of times and at the correct intervals will get her to somersault and stuff.

What impressed me was the combat, although I had to change the weapon keys, the combat was extremely fluid.

Also, I didn't get bored at all. Lara has some really funny and witty conversations with Zip (her right hand man), who speaks to her via some satellite thing from her mansion. Its sorta like the Prince Of Persia talking to himself or having conversations with his darker side.

Another new feature is the use of a magnetic grapple, which is used to attach to higher objects and then swing from it or to pull objects towards herself.

The game is fairly easy (in Normal mode) and short too. I finished the whole thing in 2 days. Gamespot had an issue with the length and the camera angles. The camera angles are pretty good actually, save for some instances, and some levels. The camera goes berserk during the last boss battle.
Also, sometimes Lara doesnt respond properly. For example, Lara will sometimes do a back flip even though you've pressed Right and Jump.

Frankly, I couldn't find too many faults with the game, or maybe I'm just overlooking them. Even if there are some, the other aspects more than make for it.

FPS w/o the S

I've not always liked games which focus on combat, although I do play them for lack of choice. But its always great to see a non-combat game come along (I'm not talking of RTS or RPG's). Looks like EA DICE (yet another EA branch) have taken the initiative. A game called "Mirror's Edge" will be out soon. Unfortunately theres no real gameplay footage yet, but what I've heard of the game is awesome. Believe it or not, its an FPS, without guns! So its not a shooter, its just FP.. The game is like Assassins Creed (but not Sandbox). It involves a girl called "Faith" who can scale any surface. The focus is on jumping & running from building to building. Here you outrun enemies instead of fighting them. The full story here

Tech 2 'Mirror's Edge' Preview

Blu-ray emerges champions

For some reason this really important piece of news reached my very late. The papers didn't carry it, or maybe I just missed it. Who knows?

But while just surfing Tech2, I found out Blu-ray had won the next-gen disc battle with the HD-DVD. Something I didn't not expect. I thought HD-DVD might overdo BD (Blu-ray Disc), not that I was rooting for it, I just thought that the HDDVD might win.. but guess not..

Microsoft Pulls Plug on HD DVD Players

All About Blu-ray


25 GB!!!!

The 80th Annual Academy Awards

A bald guy with a sword covered in gold. Thats America's and possible the entire worlds most coveted award.

Jon Stewart was back as host this time, after Ellen Degeneres didn't really click last year. I'm not exactly a fan of Jon's Comedy Central show on CNN.

Arrow will be happy to note that Juno won for Best Original Screenplay :P

I try to make it a point to watch all the Oscar nominated shows the following year.. at least I try to.. I've never actually completed it..

No Country For Old Men took away Best Picture. It got 4 wins out of its 8 nominations..

No real comments on this years Oscars. Just a normal annual thing. Nothing REALLY unique.

Also since the awards just ended 10 mins ago.. amazing gow Wiki is already completed updated..

HI

Hi - I am a virus and am entering your brain right now...wait, hold on, sorry unable to find brain...leaving now...

Milestone

I know the last couple of posts, (and including this one) have been really devoid of any real substance, but heck, I'd like to thank everyone for supporting/encouraging me and stuff.. I'm bad at thank you speeches.

My stat counter has 1,000 hits. ^_^

Well it'll obviously more when YOU see it..

Frustration

Dylan: yeah?
Kanth TheDragonlord: yo
Dylan: yo
Dylan: i came third in pro evo :(
Kanth TheDragonlord: ?
Dylan: gam
Dylan: egame
Dylan: gmae
Dylan: gmae
Dylan: oh god
Dylan: GAME
Dylan: ahh :)
Kanth TheDragonlord: rofl

Valentine's Day

Nope.. I have nothin' to say ^_^

Love & Hate

There are three kinds of people in this world.

1. People who get to sit when in a bus
2. People who don't get to sit when in a bus
3. People who don't travel by bus at all

Now, leaving aside the last category, since that is of no concern to this post, we take the first two.

Of course, the members in these two groups keep changing and/or alternating frequently.

When in a bus, people who sit are in a completely different world to those who stand, and vice-versa. Talking about those who stand.. its like every other passenger in that bus is the enemy. Each and every person standee on that bus has the same thoughts running through his or her head.

"Why did so many people have to come today? It wasn't so full yesterday.."
"Why is he not moving ahead?"
"Why is that guy pushing"
"Why do such FAT women have to travel by bus?"
"Thank god.. a bus stop.. some people will get out now"
"Damn.. there are more people getting in"
"Ouch!!"
"He just stamped my toe!"
"Darn.. that little kid is standing on my shoe lace on purpose"
"Does that bus conductor HAVE to keep moving around?"

As stated before, everyone is everyone else's enemy. They look at each other in a really disgraceful manner, (except if the other person is really hot).

The Battle begins when a sitee opts to become a standee (and eventually leave the bus). Now, as soon as the concerned sitee shows signs of getting up, about six pairs of eyes dart towards him. Now, only 2 people are in the battle. The person standing right beside the sittee , and the person standing either behind or in front of him. Who the person challenges is determined by which direction he moves to let the sittee out. If he moves behind, he challenges the person in front of him, and if he moves in front he challenges the person behind him. The winner is usually determined by the person who manages to jut his leg in first.

So we they all hate each other.. and love too.. since they HAVE to stand each other for those minutes..

There are times when standees are granted the authority to remove a sittee by force. This usually happens when Men sit in Women's seats. Hence Men refrain to do that.
Also OLD people are granted the same authority.

I'm bad at concluding posts. :/


Bye.


Note
The above theory goes into practice only when THE BUS IS PACKED WITH PEOPLE.
There is no word such as sittee.

Transparency

I like the word 'Transparency'. Again, ask me not the reason.

Transparency.
Transparency.
Transparency.

New layout. I like the transparent effect this layout gives, and also the music sheet in the background, and also the black & white color scheme. Only, it makes my GTA4 trailer in the last post look ugly. I can put up with that though.

Brrrain Freeze

Brrr. Brrr. Brrr.


I know thats a stupid way to start a post, but thats how I feel right now. Mumbai is freezing. Its never been so cold in all the years that I've lived here. And I've lived here all my life. At night all the fans are off, and I wear a sweater and socks when I go to sleep. Not only that I put one of those really thick blankets. So I'm pretty much covered with thick stuff from head to toe. But its still so cold. Even during the day, I wear a T-Shirt inside another shirt. Now if only I had gloves and one of those cool woolly hats..
I prefer the cold to the heat anyday. I'd rather freeze to death than burn to death. Its not everyday Mumbai gets so cold.. but its almost everyday Mumbai gets really really hot.. so I'm trying to "enjoy" the cold to the fullest. Don't ask how.

The 4th trailer for GTA4 is here!! Yay!!

I'm comin' home again..

Exams done over with. Hindi was the last one. I wrote my own the stories in the paper.. how much I get depends on how much I amuse the Examiner :P

My friend and I chipped in and bought Gears Of War. He's taken the DVD with him. We decided who would take the CD first by means of a coin toss. My favorite method :) What are the odds of picking heads and still losing.. damn!

Homecoming by Kanye West. Thats my latest addiction.

Buccha

Most of the people here in Mumbai are always in a hurry. And they need to get to their destination as quickly as possible. I'm usually one of them.

And then there are these really huge people on the road/footpath sometimes. And they're like.. just walking so slowly, you get REALLY irritated at them..

I mean don't they know there are people who have a LIFE? They block the whole path!!

Then there are some friends, or families that are so many and they walk in a group. Not even a group. More like a horizontal line. Like a wall. They don't want anyone to pass them.

Eyes Of Zeus

My right eye had a sty. And it hurt. Bad. Like.. real bad. Its this boil that somehow finds the eye, one of the worst places a boil can place itself. The weird thing is that it I got another one about a week ago. Fortunately that burst, after hours of excruciating pain. But that burst in two days and that was all good. No more pain.

A week later its back, on the same eye! But now its more persistent. It probably went to bring back up or something. Probably upgraded its skills after training some place, or maybe learnt some *cough* Hitten Mitsouruki 9 Headed Dragon Technique *cough* or something.

The last time it burst while I was having a bath. This time, it didn't. I was hoping it did. But it didn't.
This one hurt a lot more. My eye shrunk for the initial part of the day. After noon it was a little better. Then at night it shrunk again. Odd.

Now its gone. Almost. Went to the doctor. No Hitten Mitsouruki can oppose the might of the doctor. Had to put some medicine on it.

For The Sake Of It

I'm Bang! in the middle of the exams. We have three holidays though. And then three continuous papers without a single holiday - Chemistry (the big daddy of all our exams, the one that everyones been dreading), E.V.S. (why do we even have this stupid subject? >_<) and Hindi (just mugging up loads and loads of huge answers)
We're getting grilled here. Unlike some other people who seem to be getting up at 4 in the morning and wandering aimlessly about.

I hate the Mumbai traffic. I was late for my 12th Std Physics lecture yesterday because it took me an exasperating 45 minutes to reach a destination at peak hour. It takes me only 9 minutes to reach that place in the morning, with no traffic (I mean really early, like 6.30am). Heh.. I know its exactly 9 minutes because sometimes I put on "Jesus of Suburbia" by Greenday right went I get on to the bus and the songs ends EXACTLY when I get off. Cool ne?

In case you're wondering (which you probably aren't), I have headphones.. connected to my K750i cell phone. They're my third headsets, the other two -one original k750 headset and the other a W-Series Headset, both got spoilt >_<
Lucky for me my dad decided to but a SE phone for himself and I he gave me the headsets :D

We had to attend a talk on sex yesterday (I've lost count of all the 'talks' they make us attend). Of course we weren't told it was going to be about sex, we were just told "some guy is coming for a talk and its compulsory and they're gonna take attendance"
Thats all thats needed for students to make an effort to come. The word "compulsory" and "attendance" is all thats needed.
Oddly that sir was referring to sexual organs as "procreative faculty"
Lol. Thats the weirdest thing I've heard this week.

I'm typing stuff as its coming into my head.. this post has not been predetermined in any way.

Hollywood needs writers. They're facing all sorts of problems. The Oscars and Grammy's are in danger of getting canceled this year. Hope that doesn't happen. It did with the Golden Globes. I think production of HEROES 2 has halted as well.
American Idol Season 8 started some days ago. Pretty good until now I guess.
Fortunately Jay Leno is continuing his show despite the lack of writers. I like The Tonight Show :)

I'm reading Air Gear now. 6 Volumes done.

I got some games from my friend recently. Prince Of Persia Two Thrones, Prince Of Persia Warrior Within, FIFA 2007, and Tomb Raider Legends.
Sad to say only PoPT2T is working. Others aren't even installing. :(

India won the Perth Test. Now they'll lose the next one. Guarantee.

T_T

My life is boring right now.. theres absolutely nothing to post about. Exams going on. *sigh*


I had a "test" in my classes the other day. It couldn't even be called a test. The sir gave us all the questions before the test could start.. I mean when we were still revising.. and then he leaves for the entire time and there was absolutely nobody to supervise :|

I have exams going on in college in the meantime.. thats a bore too..

I don't know what to post.. I don't know what to post..

LAlalalalalalalalala...

My right eye had a sty. So my eye became all red and painful. I looked like Arnold Schwajkashdzker in Terminator.. ^_^

Forfeit the game
Before somebody else
Takes you out of the frame
Puts your name to shame
Cover up your face
You can't run the race
The pace is too fast
You just won't last

I haven't gone to the movie theater for some time now.. theres a big list of movies I gotta watch. Oceans Thirteen.. Bourne Identity.. Blood Diamond.. Tara Zameen Par.. The Bee Movie..
There are more but I can't recollect..

I'm so bored. Sorry for wasting your time. Babye.

You like to think you're never wrong..

Whats My Name?

Ever since school, or rather Kindergarten (affectionately called Jr. KG and Sr. KG here) theres been mass (yes, mass) confusion over how my name is supposed to be pronounced.

My name is Dylan. Now, as far as I've seen, this name has been pronounced is so many different ways I couldn't keep track of them. My parents, and other relatives call me Di-lun ("Di" as in the one in "dignity")

Thats what my parents want the official version of my name to be. Thats also what the people in my building call me, due to which they often misspell the name.

Outside my building its a different story. My school calls my Die-lun.
When they first starting calling me this in my early school years, I really didn't give a damn. Didn't bother to correct them.

There was a certain special classes I used to attend some years ago. A guy there used to call me "Dinal" Don't ask why. He just did. >_<

There wasn't any real version that I preferred. Until one of my friends in the 8th Standard decided to call me "Dilin"
I really wasn't bothered what he called me then, but then a few months later, I decided I liked the name Dilin. So I kept it. So now if anyone asks me what my name is, "I'm Dilin" ^_^

Its just odd coincidence that one of my close net pals calls me Dilin too, even though I didn't tell her anything of the above.

My school still calls me Die-lun though. And its continued at the college level as well.
I now use the Dielun-Dilin name strategy to categorize my friends. :P

Now the question remains : What did you call me?

As a side note-
I saw this in the morning paper today. (Hindustan Times' Sunday magazine Brunch to be exact)
It made me smile. So I'm sharing it.

The Pen Evades Me

What is with a pen? Its so obscure, something so small.. so timid, so humble.. and yet so deceitful and Machiavellian. It evades us all. It doesn't care whether its cheap or expensive. It doesn't even care whether its urgently needed.

I hate you pen. I hate you.

Ever noticed how we can never find a pen when we need one? I take only pen to school. Why? I dunno. I'm just too lazy.

So this companionless pen decided to suddenly give in one day. Without any warning (I could still see the ink on the sides, but it decided to stay there). So I go around asking people for a pen.. hoping they have an extra one. LIKE HELL THEY DO!!

Turns out in the whole class of 60+ students, not one. NOT ONE of them had a pen!! An EXTRA pen. Either that or they all suddenly decided to hate me.

So I slug out the day with a pencil.

I come home, and voila, no pen at home either. How could we have no pen at home? Dunno..

I had then to go out and buy one. Something I should've done long ago.

I now guard that pen with my life. Its mightier than any sword I've seen. (... and I've not seen any swords, up-close, anyway)

Oddly another crazy thing would be that it strangely disappears. One minute its there, and the other other its not! Its got a mind of its own. It purposely rolls away from you.. drops to the ground and rolls again. Positive to finally sit in a place that is hard to reach.

If this is not possible, then the pen does something even more irritating. It apparently sends messages to all its other body-parts to detach from the main body. One of them always does. Sometimes the pen cap, sometimes the bottom, or sometimes that other shiny cap that goes over the nib.

In extreme cases you'll find the refill missing.

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Theres a really funny Jerry Seinfeld Stand-Up Video I wanted to post. But unfortunately, I can't seem to find it.