movei review - 'avatar'

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after a month of evading the movie, i finally watch 'avatar'... all that hype created had forewarned me i'd be disappointed once i'd seen it... like the Taj Mahal... i remember looking for the 'amazing', 'seventh wonder' thing once inside...taj mahal, not avatar...i mean you see it... it's big, white, marbled... it's got some serious sculptures and stuff... i particularly remember some butterflies done beautifully...  but really nothing moves inside me, so it's kinda a let down...

anyway, this 'avatar' movie... i go to watch it with another kindred soul who'd also managed to not see the movie... peer pressure gets all eventually!!! so he wanted to see the movie one time, however good or bad before it was taken out of all theaters and we were left to lament for eternity about the one big, great movie we'd missed... i gave in to the drama and obliged... so we got the tickets, the 3D glasses...

"mastervision", my partner mumbled, impressed already with the 3D equipment... guys have a set of genes we sane folks don't share... it's probably on the Y-chromosome...  for anything mechanical, moving, breakable... cars, bikes, machinery, motors, goggles... i have a friend who bought ray-ban Aviators to look cool in... mission accomplished, but problem's his eyesight... whenever he "looks cool", he can hardly look at the mirror and recognize himself... thanks to some +4.5 or something eyesight... so bad, i had to hold his hand all the way to the local neighbourhood shop...and he mistook a "woman walking a dog" for a "man with a fluffy cat"... at all of five feet!!!

anyway, movie was already ten minutes past when we found our seats in the dim light of our sony ericsson phones... how i miss nokia truck cell with its torches!! and there's the recognizable hero, in a wheelchair and all... all cocky and smug... totally american... on his first day in Pandora, he manages to survive all the beasties, conquer the heart of the local Pandora Chief's girl, and formulate a strategy to get them to relinquish some 'unobtanium' for his military... i did not really get why 'unobtainium' was so expensive... i mean, what'd the earthling's do with it that could make it so precious??? a kilo for twenty million!! it hardly seemed like something you could smoke or sniff!!

special effects are fine... there was one time, when a grenade exploded and debris hurtled right towards me and i panicked and nearly jumped into the seat beside me, in an attmept to evade the flying shrapnel... that was a bit embarrassing...
"hehe!! good effects, huh?? ", i smiled sheepishly at the person already occupying it...

anyway, after some hours of the movie going wherever it was easily predicted to go, we get up and reclaim the 400 bucks for our 'mastervision' goggles... and walk back through every store in the mall on our way back down...

well, that's it!! another weekend well spent!!

book review - Lord of the Flies(William Golding)

another of those blatantly 'truthful' books... a bunch of british kids stranded on an uninhabited island... things go smooth at first until they slowly forget the civilization and the 'rules'... things take a turn for worse with the rivalry for the position of the "Chief", the competition for accumulating a "tribe"... there's accidental murder and then a wilful, conscious one... when things seem to be at their blackest, when the whole bunch of boys are chasing one of their own to kill, when they've set fire to the whole forest, including the fruit trees, they are spotted and rescued... maybe the writer's trying to draw a parallel to the crap we indulge in in our own daily lives... like how everybody has a group to like and an anti-group to hate... religion, race, nation, gender... and how we'll burn our own island in an attempt to get to the members of the 'other' group...
good read... lovely if you have too much faith in humanity and need a little toning down...

a birthday...

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it's been a while now... since i found anything to write about... i did find stuff, but not much time these days... it's J's b'day today... that makes her a piscean... and i'm totally into the sun signs, linda goodman and all that crap... i've known a few pisceans earlier... so it helps me take it as routine when we disagree with everything- from the mundane to the exquisite...

anyway, it's her b'day and i'm not sure how to handle it... it might not seem much but there's a lot that depends on how, when and where you wish one on their b'day... there's M for example... her bday's exactly 10 days after my own and they are some of the most nervous days of the year... i set the alarm on my phone...a couple of them actually... the calendar, task and timer are set accordingly... i even download special software to buzz me... and finally when the day arrives, and i wish her the bday, i'm so relieved!! like that gasp of breath after you thought you drowned in the deep end of the pool... like taking off those tight, shoe-bity stillettoes at the end of the day... you get the idea...

there are others... for example a friend couple(a couple who are both friends of mine) who mesg me when it's the other's bday and warn me to wish... i think that's adorable!! then there's a few who i've wished so rarely, they are pleasantly surprised the few times i manage... there's one friend i've wished on the days preceding, succeeding but never on his bday... he takes it in his stride...

i really didn't know how J would handle it... like i've confessed before, we had huge gap of communication for a while... my social skills aren't that commendable... so, the last time i wished her was 7years ago or so... that's like a lifetime ago and i wasnt sure... anyway, she's one of those chill things... she came in, extended her hand and said "hey! it's my bday today...".... thank god for such people...!! there are only so many ulcers one can handle a year... i hadn't forgotten!!! i had a little wrapping, ribbon and gift... i liked the wrapping and ribbon... she the gift... we shared accordingly...

and there was the good part abt bdays... the treat! we went to a Barista at a maternity hospital... (only coz it's open 24hrs a day)... and since the only thing to eat there was a (suspiciously)old sandwich, we shifted base to Ching Wua or some similar sounding place... food was decent, ambience good... i ate so much i had to adjust my skirt a couple of times... even that wasn't enough... we had to pack most of the food for 'back home'... so tomorrow's breakfast-lunch-dinner will revolve around it... a healthy break from the lemon-rice...

so, there! that's the end of the bday of a good room-mate... and a better friend...

overload...

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for someone terrified of heights, i've fallen quite a bit... an acrophobic person ought to stay low...
when on ground i long to climb... when i do, i'm afraid of falling... again, i've fallen more than my fair share so it's a perfectly good fear to have... but once fallen, i get up and climb again... whatever my brain's wired for, it certainly doesn't seem like survival...  and since i'm equally good at climbing and falling, i've seen many views, distant, nearby, pretty, pretty ugly... but from that height, it's hard to find something not interesting... everything seems so... new!... i've a child's appetite for newness... and the same capacity for boredom... so many things to grow out of... it must have been all the junk food my folks forgot to feed me...

this month has been full of news'es... mostly good... it's unsettling to have so many good news'es deluge you... it gets you so high you keep looking down to see how far you might fall... i have a morbid way of thinking of all the things that can go wrong... that way, i can brace myself for it when i have to make the jump... do you know that the most common dream is 'being chased'.... hearing that in the healthy environment of a psychology lecture immensely set my troubled mind at rest... i like those little confirmations of my sanity now and then...

so now, i'm on a high cliff... there's still a lot more to go... like that poem
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

red eye effects...

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this past week, people take one look at me and with all the sympathy, go, "what's wrong?"...
"nothing...!", i answer unconvincingly...

it's my red, puffy eyes... i look like i've been bawling my eyes out... it's a rare feat i've managed due to an odd coincidence of circumstances... i've been reading late into the night... nothing more serious than the dilbert book and John Grisham's 'The Firm', but even that is reading! and i have had to now swim without my swimming goggles... reason?? between J & I, we had one pair of them... actually, they belonged to her but since she wasn't going swimming, i had a good time getting used to them... and now that i have to swim bare-eyed, my eyes flare up in various shades and patterns of red...

"buy a pair, no!" she insists every time i rub my eyes until she's afraid i might gouge them right out...
"no... it's ok"... i'm still following the philosophy of "if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger..."....

well, it's not so bad... except the world seems a little blurry on occasions i can keep my eyes open... driving's a little harder... but given my driving, it's hardly noticeable... even if i'm driving blindfolded...

that's about it... i've to now go and sit with my eyes in cold water for an hour.... and see if my visibility improves...