The Lonesome Road

I am not a big fan of alternate modern earth fantasies (see my earlier post on this subject if you have the time to waste). However, the other day while I was at the library picking up a Steven Brust and a Michael Stackpole, I came across another series by Mark Chadbourn - the Age of Misrule Trilogy.

The basic premise of the series is that the Celtic gods have returned to Earth and the Age of Reason (read science and technology) is turning and giving way to the Age of Wonder (read magic and witchcraft). Now, the book follows the classic doomsday scenario - gloomy atmosphere, broken heroes (and heroines), and an evil too large to face. I managed to get through Book 1, but could not get past (or through) the second book.

To be honest, there’s nothing wrong with the books per se, but on a personal level the unremitting gloominess of the books just got me down. Give the protagonists a break - a little humor never killed anyone! One of the reasons that I picked up the books is that I’m a fan of myth and mythology from different cultures. Celtic mythology is one of the areas I hadn’t read much about. I did know about the Great Hunt (thanks to some D&D books) , but that’s where what I know stops. I was disappointed on that score as well. While the author does talk about Gods and the various names they take, he describes them more as “creatures” that are so much more advanced than us that they seem like Gods - with shapes and thoughts that are very different from our (as in human) own. And of course, there are two of them - to represent the “Angels” and the “Devils”. Of course, we all find out at the end of Book 1 that the Angels are not all that they are supposed to be.

Technically, the book is well written, but the author tends to use certain phrases repeatedly while describing the mood of the group. The story manages to move along at a decent pace - not too slow, but definitely not a page turner.

I would have rated the book higher if I had managed to finish the series, but as of it does not rank too high in my reading list.

Score: 2/5

One of the things that I wanted to do after I came to the US was to see a Broadway play. Due to a very fortunate series of circumstances, that wish was granted today - I managed to get tickets to see “The Drowsy Chaperone” on Broadway today (in fact, I just got back home). I wish this could have been done earlier, but at a $100, tickets are not exactly cheap.
Now, do understand that I have never really seen a musical performed at this level before. The only plays that I have seen before this one have been ones put up by my fellow students in school. So I hope you forgive me if I go a little ga-ga.

I went in to see the musical with no preconceived notions. Even so, the opening surprised me. Just before the play starts, all the lights go off and from the darkness comes the opening line - “I hate theater…”. A small monologue (no, I will not start spouting dialogs here - go see the play!) later, the light comes on and we see the narrator play the record (yes, the LP) of the smash 1928 hit musical “The Drowsy Chaperone”.

The play unfolds with beautiful musical numbers, great dance sequences (I loved the tap dancing sequence with the dancing duo of George and Robert), and some amazingly funny scenes. Well, I promised not to spout dialog, but I shall do so just this once - indulge me.

Mrs. Tottendale: When someone asks for ice water, give them vodka.
Underling: Yes ma’am
Mrs. Tottendale: Remember ice water means vodka.
Underling: Yes ma’am. Ice water means vodka

It goes on in this vein for a while. Then Mrs. Tottenham’s throat feels dry from all the talking and she asks for a glass of ice water.

Underling: Your ice water ma’am
Mrs. Tottenham (spraying the contents of the glass all over the Underling): This is pure vodka!

Well, this scene also repeats a few times.

At this stage the narrator comes in and explains that this sort of device was employed so that the stage could be set for the next scene. The narrator (Bob Martin) for me was the star of the show. Effortlessly weaving introductions, trivia about the cast and information about the actors with witty insights on life in general, he was the thread that held the play together. What was even more enchanting was his childlike glee when talking about the play. His love for this 1928 screwball comedy soon becomes a shared one as the audience is drawn into his little world. It was fun to see him walk into scenes and even join in with the actors (who ignored him because, technically, he wasn’t there!). One of the best monologues is one in which he compares the a musical production and the pornographic industry

In technical terms, the play was flawless (at least to my untrained eyes). Set changes, scene changes, the lighting and music were flawless. It was great to see the narrator walk onto the set during dance numbers and scenes and having the actors adroitly avoiding him while going about the scene.

No, I am not going to talk too much about the “plot” or the characters. This is something that has to be seen - no, it is something that has to be experienced and I am very, very glad that I had a chance to do so. I guess one more expensive hobby has been added to the list (which already has golf in it). The next musical I want to see is Mamma-Mia based on ABBA numbers.

Well, this isn’t really a review. It’s just a small post about the fun I had watching my first Broadway musical - wouldn’t even know where to start a review .

Until next time, I leave you with the one word that stays on the mind even after the play ends - Aldolpho!

I write about this festival every year - and as you can see, this year is no exception.

The change is that instead of ranting on and on about the pollution and the noise, I will talk about the celebrations in my house. While celebrating with friends is never quite the same as celebrating with family, there are days and times when the difference is very, very small.

This is how Divali went today: Our normal group of six was doubled today with the guests we had. So, today’s first fun (dinner) challenge was to cook food for ten people. After a lot of group effort (and swearing), we finally had a tasty shahi paneer, rotis (albeit a few got burnt), and sheera (over which there was a lot of debate regarding the sugar level).

Once all that was done, it was time to light the lamps - and take one of the first of a set of group photos. I’ll upload some pics later, but my annual “Spirit of Divali” picture can be seen here [Lens View]. The outdoor photoshoot did not last too long (and this photographer learnt some new words) as the temperature outside was pretty chilly - and the wind had picked up speed. Somehow all was managed without any loss of feeling in anyone’s limbs and we trooped back in for dinner.

This was another problem is logistics - the table we have comfortably seats six. This meant that we would have to eat in two rounds - or implement the age old indian tradition of sitting on the floor. So, we all sat on the floor and ate dinner together. Dinner finished, it was time for some fun. Well, everyone was so wrung out that we ended up sitting around the table (less three guests who headed back home) and played some cards.

It’s hard to believe that this is my second divali away from home. Time just seems to fly these days. To be honest though, this is what a divali celebration is like at my house (though with zero cursing, more food and no cards) - a gathering of friends and relatives, good food, and pleasant company - and a lot of light. This, after all, is the festival of lights.

To all my (few) readers - a very, very happy divali.

All readers can assign blame to Anshul for this post!

Book that changed my life - Can’t blame a single book. It’s been a progression of books that have changed with my philosophy.

Book you’ve read more than once - Just about every book I own. Of course, the reason I bought them is because they are worth a re-read . To name a few names - The Day of the Jackal (Forsythe), Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (Archer) among others.

Book you’d take to a desert island - This is a toughie. Does it have to be just one? If you twist my arm, I’ll say any of the Black Widower Series by Isaac Asimov.

Book that made you laugh - Any book by Gerald Durrell. I’ve been a fan of (and laughing while reading) his books for a long time now. Recommended books: My Family and Other Animals, Fillets of Plaice - basically just about every book he’s written.

Book that made you cry - Never really cried while reading a book. To answer this question - The Eyes of the Dragon (Stephen King) was one that just about managed to come close. It’s one of his few non-horror stories - and a damn good book at that.

Book you wish you had written - No book really comes to mind. I’m generally more envious of the way people write as compared to what they write.

Book you wish had never been written - I’m afraid I have to agree with Anshul on this. I hated Old Man and the Sea. Even today the lines “…the fish is my friend, but I must kill it” evokes the same feeling of dread it did a decade back.

Book you’re currently reading - Not one, but two! The Cell (Stephen King) and The Dragonbone Chair (Tad Williams).

Book you’ve been meaning to read - All my textbooks . Seriously - Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Scott McCloud).

Well, there you have it. The tag is complete.

Over the last week, I have been making it a general policy to use my linux (Ubuntu) over my windows (XP) install.

Thanks to some dedicated people out there, most of the stuff that I like to use in my windows system have an equivalent in linux - or have been linux apps in the first place which were then ported to windows. One of the apps that I like to use is mIRC. Unfortunately, I don’t like any of the linux equivalents. Hence, (with help from Anshul) I went on to Wine and dine irc to welcome it to a linux environment.

Here’s how:

Well, here is my first article (don’t know if there will be any more) on migrating from Windows to Linux. Still new to this, so if anything is confusing, or you have any questions, just drop me a line in the comments and I’ll reply when I get the chance. Enjoy

Today’s spur-of-the-moment dish was Dal wada (lentil puffs for those who do not follow hindi).

Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm, my roomie added a little too much water to the batter turning it from a thick paste to a watery mess. Ordinarily, we would have dumped this mess down the drain - but my roomie was adamant that he wanted to eat this today. So we put two brains - one engineering and one medical to work.

This is the solution we worked out - and it allowed us to eat some really well cooked (internally) and crunchy (externally) puffs. I do not claim that this is the best method to do it - nor that I am the first person with this idea. But if you do end up with runny frying batter, try this.

(1) Pour oil into a large wok-type vessel and let it heat up

(2) Take a serving spoon with wide base. Something like a soup ladle is perfect.

(3) Put a little oil in the cup and put in 1 - 1.5 spoons of batter.

(4) This is where it’s a little tricky. Dip the ladle in the oil and use a spatula to gently push oil into the cup.

(5) Do this until you see the edges turn light brown. Pull the ladle just above the surface of the oil. Insert a spoon into the cup and gently try to life the puff. Do not use force. If it resists, bathe it in oil a little longer.

(6) Once the base is cooked, it will yield to gentle pressure and a (almost) perfect puff will come off from the cup. Simply drop it into the oil, cook till golden brown.

(7) Drop the cooked puff on a cooling rack lined with absorbent paper. Voila!

There you go. One way to rescue watery batter.

Until next time - keep frying!

You know writing has been neglected when your browser (which caches 10 days of links) does not “remember” your blog. This mini-post attempts to redress that neglect.

I have shaken off some of my sloth and uploaded more California photos. They can be found here [flickr.com]. Also, for those of you who use Picasa, the new version is out - and it is good! Though I have one small complaint. They have included the Ken Burns (Pan and Zoom) effect as part of the visual options for the Screensaver setting. Why, o why did they not include that effect in the Slide Show as well? Hopefully, we will see that in the next version.

What else.. oh yes. I have been book tagged. That post should be coming up soon. The only problem is - whom do I tag? I know only one more person (other than the person who tagged me) who blogs - and he’s disappeared from the blogosphere (Kapil - I’m looking at you!). Let’s see…

Anyway, that’s all from me. Later all!

I just got back from a two week end of summer vacation from California. Now even though I am an east coast person, California simply blew me away with it’s great weather and amazing scenery. To put it in figures, I took 756 pictures in the two weeks that I was there. Now since I am a nice person, I will not bore you will all these photos. Instead, I’ll just pick a few of the photos that I like or think are interesting and write a few lines about them. I hope you enjoy it
[PS: This is quite a long post. Feel free to skip and head directly to see the photoset!]

I thought we’d start the trip with a picture of the mountain. I caught this piece of art(?) on the trip between San Jose and San Francisco. The slight amount of blurriness is becasue I took the snap through the windshield of the car.

One of the major road trips that I made was the drive to UC Berkeley. I found it to be an absolutely fascinating place with students and prof’s walking and cycling around all over the place. Rumour has it that the UCB dorms are outside the college so that the students can get mugged at least once while they walk to college. The photo below is a snapshot of the clock tower in UCB from a side angle.

Still in UCB, this was a totally random encounter. I was trying to capture a small stone structure when this dog runs past. So, I start trying to photograph the dog. While I was doing that the owner of the dog came up behind me - and perched on his shoulder was this very, very colorful parrot - appropriately named “Mango”. Long story short, the bird was quite tame and all of us got snaps with Mango perched on a shoulder.

And just in case you thing that shoes on a wire are an east coast phenomenon, here are *three* shoes hanging from a wire

All right, let us move from UCB to San Francisco! While the original plan was to walk around the city, time constraints forced us to take the car around for the most part. Even so, we still tried to do the walking bit by finding parking far from the madding crowd and then try to take in the local color.

Let’s start this part of the tour with a quick snapshot of the Palace of Fine Arts. We took a detour here as there was much too foggy on the bridge for photography.

Of course, it’s impossible to go to ‘frisco and *not* take a photo of the Golden Gate bridge. So, I join the teeming masses and present my photo of a very famous bridge.

What I found more interesting than the bridge was the flora and fauna of the area. I managed to capture some new birds and flowers in the vicinity of the bridge. Here’s the one I liked the most, but as usual, I don’t have a name to give .

Here’s a horizon snap from the center of the bridge. There were boats of all types in the water - sailboats, powerboats, and even cruise vessels. Made for a fun snap.

From the bridge to Fisherman’s Wharf. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to ride the trams in the city, but we had a great time walking around the area.

From there we drove a little to Crooked Street. I don’t think I need to decribe why the name came around - the picture says it all. What I found really odd was the fact that people drive down this street! There’s no way to see the “crookedness” when you drive down! Oh well, it takes all types..

From there, we moved onto Coit Tower. Though we didn’t manage to go all the way up the tower, the elevation was high enough for me to get a city shot of the area.

The trip to ‘frisco ended with dinner at Union Square, but before that, we just managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Pier 39. This is one fun place - part pier, part fun fair, part mall and (definitely) part zoo. Sea birds (gulls and their ilk), pelicans and sea lions abound! Here are some pelicans busily flying in the evening light.

I managed to take the time out to see Stanford. For some odd reason, I didn’t like Stanford (which is this sprawling campus/city) as much as UCB. I felt that there was a lot more energy and atmosphere in and around UCB. In fact, the photo I liked the most at Stanford was a snap of the base of their fountain!

If you have made it this far - thank you. Just a little more to go. One of the things I definitely wanted to do was a trip to Big Sur. I managed to get this done just a day before I left. For those of you visiting California - this drive is worth taking the time out for.

En route to Big Sur, we stopped at pebbled beach near Carmel. What I found really cool was how intensely “blue” the water was along the drive. I mean - look at it! It’s blue blue!

There was quite a bit of animal life there too - here’s a snap with a starfish and some anemone.

Well, we finally moved on to the Big Sur drive. There were a lot of vista points along the way - and I had to stop at each one to take snaps . Here I present the one I like the most. I think the contrast between the water and foam makes this the best vista point snap.

Here’s a lookback at the drive towards Big Sur. It’s a beautiful drive with hills on one side and a cliff on the other.

We ended the drive at a place called Nepenthe. There is a restaurant here that serves the best french fries and (freshy squeezed!) orange juice that I have ever tasted. This is not the end of the drive - there is a lot more road to travel, but we decided to end the trip there. Here, I present the phoenix of Nepenthe.

We rounded off the trip with a visit to Monterey beach. By this time the light was beginning to fade and we just passed the time wandering and cycling around the area. I also managed to get this snap of a gull and a black sea bird (yes,I don’t know the name!) flanked by sea lions.

Let me finish the mini-photoset with a photo of that lovable rascal Dennis - yes the one and only Dennis the Menace. There is a park dedicated to the scamp in Monterey.

Well, those are the highlight of my California trip. All these photos can be seen in the California Photoset on my Flickr page.

This is just a small set of the photos that I took. The flickr account will be updated over the next few days with new photos. I have just one favour ask you patient reader - of all the photos on this post, do tell me which one deserves to be showcased on the photoblog.

Remember - your vote counts!

The new version of Colibri (15a) is out today!

Major changes include changes in the UI, a memory leak fix, and most importantly - Winamp control! All basic winamp operations can now be performed through Colibri now.

Click here [colibri.leetspeak.org] for a direct download link.

I (thankfully) am not a frequent flyer. So, when the time comes to make a  long(ish) air trip, I look forward to it.

I flew to California yesterday, and it’s easy to distinguish the frequent flyers from the newbies and recreational travellers. The FF’s, once they board the plane, simply use it as an extension of their office (well, most of them are business travellers) and get to work immediately. They don’t even bother to look up during the safety instructions - I’m pretty sure they know it all by now.

Newbies on the other hand see everything. It’s fun to watch the kids with their wide eyed wonder. And then there are people like me who sleep through all the boring intro to the flight - and wake up when the food service comes in .  But this time, I had a secret weapon during the flight. My camera.

I wanted to take pics from an airplane for a long time - and I got my chance yesterday. Height really gives perspective - it shows us how small we really are on this planet of ours. By the time you climb to cruising altitude, almost all the man made structures look like dinky toys. The cool thing about the US is that there are vast areas of unused space. As we were nearing California, I took snaps of this huge area where the only things that I could see were mountains and ridges (and a lot of dirt). Another nice effect that can be seen is when the landing approach is over water - from high in the sky, the water looks unmoving, but as the plane comes lower and lower, the illusion is dispelled. However, since it happens so slowly, it almost looks as if the water is going from “pause” to “play”.

Anyway, I will stop now. Need to go out and have some fun!

Until next time - enjoy the last days of summer!

At the Apple Keynote today,
Steve Jobs had a lot to say
Leopard was the topic of choice,
And he spoke in a bold tone of voice!
One by one the features were called,
Which left the audience members enthralled.

64 bit apps were taked of first,
Then the bubble of time was burst.
Time machine Mr.Jobs said,
Brings back all files from the dead.
It seems to be an idea neat,
But what happens to space when you delete?

Three toys were then on us bestowed -
Bootcamp, Photobooth and Front Row.
Virtual desktops came on next,
If you steal from Linux - take the best!
Core animation is so pretty,
Screen saver coding can be so gritty.

Text-to-speech was the next new feature,
It was shown to be a whole new creature.
To-do’s and notes were also touted,
Till his voice was hoarse Mr.Jobs shouted.
Dashboard widgets - a bag of tricks,
From webpage to widget in just a few clicks.

Last but not least comes the new iChat,
I say Adium is more non-fat!
To be honest, as I saw what he said,
I prefered to use my XP instead.
The moral of the story - where do I aim?
Yes! Tout not featues that are totally lame!

Well, Anshul and I were seeing the live transcript of the WWDC presentation together - and we both though that the features on Leopard sucked. While Anshul put down his thoughts in words[anshul.info], lack of sleep caused my thoughts to come out as a bad poem.

Enjoy!

Michael has done it again (and again) - Two new versions of Colibri in one night!

There are more features and a few bugs have been fixed. What’s most important is that there is now an online community on the site. It’s small now, but I’m pretty sure it’s only going to get larger as time goes on.

Get Colibri here [direct download link] and read about what it can do here.

Go on, what have you got to lose - except all that constant searching and clicking through the Start Menu.

Until next time - the keyboard is your friend

I am a long time user of Gaim now, and I think it’s a really good multi-messenger. This is the second multi-IM client that I used. The first one I tried was Trillian (free). It’s a good client with a lot of features. The problem is that it’s very system heavy. It’s has a large footprint and is a little sluggish on the response.

So I switched to Gaim, and it made my life so much easier. It interfaces perfectly with Gtalk, MSN and Yahoo allowing me to use one program to talk to people instead of using three. Today, I had to install two of the “standard” IM clients cos for all it’s good qualities, Gaim does not support webcam chats. Kind of unfortunate, but I guess that’s the price you pay.

In any case, I started off with MSN messenger [15.3 Mb]. To be honest, I liked the old versions a lot more. The new MSN messenger has a lot more of the vista look, more eye candy and a lot of sluggishness to it’s credit. It took nearly five seconds to come from the taskbar minimization to a restored state. Also, the webcam connection did not take place inspite of repeated tries.

Yahoo messenger [11 - 15 Mb] was what was tried next. This immediately got negative marks as it installed the yahoo toolbar in Firefox - though it did uninstall with a single click. This messenger is definitely lighter than MSN and the webcam and phone call features worked perfectly.

Here’s the thing. Gaim is all of 6.5 Mb and does almost everything that the other two can do. it’s much lighter on system resources and is open source. Here’s another fun thing. My yahoo account was one of the addresses which was affected by the worm attack on the yahoo servers. Thus, I had to create a new address. I was bothered about the fact that my entire contact list was gone. Today, while exploring the Gaim menus, I turned on the “Show offline buddies” option. Here’s where it get good. Every one of my contacts from my old email address were present in the list, albeit with a “Not on server” message. Adding them back into my list was a simple matter of right-clicking on them and saying “Add as buddy”. I could never have done that (and believe me, I tried) with the normal messenger.

So, eschew the eye candy and the memory hogging. Try Gaim - you just might like it

Later!

This is not a public service message to encourage you to vote during local elections - but hey, go vote!

Anyway, this is more about the whole reality tv crap that has been going on forever. I’m pretty sure most of you know this, but for the few who don’t, more people voted during the American Idol season than during the Presidential election. And here’s the best part - they *paid* so that they could vote. Does it get dumber than this?

Anyway, here’s the part that always gets me. I was channel flipping yesterday and I came across “America’s Got Talent” and decided to stay awhile. (Well, it’s like the ghoul factor. You know, like people always stop to look if there is an accident). Don’t judge me! So, here’s the funny thing. The show was being broadcast live (?), the host kept reminding people to vote *after* the program got over. The really funny part was that even though this message was being repeat after every performance, people were still calling in before time. Now I do understand that you want your voice to be heard, but at least hear what the man has to say.

Now came the thing that really cracked me up. I’m currently watching a repeat telecast - and now after every act, there is a big orange bar with a large font message that says - “Previously recorded. Voting now closed” or something in that vein. How much do you want to bet that as of this minute there are people calling to vote for their favourite contestant?

I used to think that with the glut of reality TV shows that the whole voting thing would have become old by now. But it seems that I am wrong - and the phone and television compaines are making a lot of money with the whole game. Well, more power to them.

A wise man once said that Lottery is simply a tax on stupidity. Seems that times have changed…

The last two days have been pure hell. With temperatures in the range of 40 degrees (celcius) and almost no wind, any place feels like a sauna. It’s not that I’m not used to the heat and the humidity. The places I’ve lived in boasted temperatures and humidity that would rival local conditions easily.

There just seems to be something different about the heat here. I mean - I’m home, with the fan (yes, I do not have air conditioning) on and I’m sweating.

Anshul seems to have a theory that I have become used to the cold over the last half year and can no longer take the heat. I’m not so sure of that theory. If I need to have some climate control, the only place I can get that is in college. Imagine going to college during summer holidays - just to beat the heat.

The thing is, the more you know - the hotter it is . Back home, I never looked at the daily weather forecast. Here, with the ever-changing weather, it’s become a bit of a habit to see what the forecasters say. The problem is that Weather.com has these huge warning signs and temperature maps that scream out bad news. Today’s news is that the temperatures are neat record high and that there is an Air Stagnation advisory. With all these warnings, it just feels hotter than it is.

I wish I had air conditioning…..

Until next time, stay cool!