Chicken chilly and Egg fried rice.

hi

I made my first decent-tasting chinese food today :P

I think I added bit too much of soy sauce, but it was still fine.

Found the recipe on youtube. It was by a chef called Sanjay Thumma

( vahrevah.com ). The guy is really fun to watch, I would definitely

recommend his video recipes..........i think he just makes it look so

easy. Heres one for chicken fried rice :

http://www.vahrehvah.com/popvideo.php?recipe_id=83

I loooooove puppies :) n i want one tooo !!!!!..

Look at his ears, isnt he cute?? I just wanna hold him close...
And look at these fur balls below..how do dey get to be soooo cute?!? <3

Design and Me

I am really happy that to FINALLY step out of full-time professional graphic designing. But looking back, I feel even happier that over the last few years, as a just-out-of-college, clueless youngster, my career was subjected to a bit of experimentation. Including my summer vacation jobs, I have dabbled in sales, reception, journalism and design. But it was my not-so-short stint as a graphic designer that really enriched my life. Some ‘mistakes’, you see, are not to be regretted.

My first real job as a graphic designer was at the Gowandi-based Web Animation Studio, which was, in those days, bustling with full-on 3d, flash, html, photo shop activity. I guess I was lucky to get a break THERE, of all the places. We had cool projects. It was fun to be in a place where interesting work happened.

The first assignment on my plate was a CD-presentation for a leading internet service provider. This was the project that taught me to create a flash presentation, and all that goes into it. It was a team effort with one script-writer, two voice-recording artists, one illustrator, one graphic designer, 3 flash designers , one video-editing guy and one project co-ordinator working on it. I was co-ordinating the project and took over as the flash designer towards the end. I also got a chance to witness a voice-over recording session, with me supervising it. The recording studio, tucked away in an old Chembur bungalow, was the first that I had seen. Well, I also learnt that voice-over artists get paid pretty well and their job looks like so much fun! I also learnt the importance of crystal clear communication. When so many people are working together, a lack of communication alone can disintegrate the project. And, I have seen that happen. All in all, this project was quite a learning experience.

Another memorable part my design career was the Myspace Secret Show concert, that we had organized, just a month or so before we went jobless. I ACTUALLY, got the opportunity, to design the stage-backdrop, apart from T-shirts! It was amazing. Even now, sometimes I see a random guy on the road wearing a Secret shows T-shirt. Feels nice.

Days at WAS and MySpace were spent in scouting for images, templates, fonts, inspirations….This is how I discovered stock images, stock illustrations, Template monster, photoshop tutorials, deviant art, dafont, Smashing magazine etc...It opened up a whole new world of art and beauty to me, which showed me just how much serious talent exists out there. I was totally awed. It inspired me to learn illustration and I went on to draw my very first portrait, which I proudly uploaded on my blog. The collectible posters at MySpace were a revelation. What coolness! I would say the biggest thing that I gained in the design-terrain, is the inspiration to explore my creative side.

As a web designer, I ended up learning and using, many more smaller softwares, apart from Photoshop and Flash. Now I can create my own ringtones etc in a sound editing software. Upload/Download files using FTP, Convert FLV to mp3, create basic html pages... This quickness and comfort with new softwares, is all thanks to the demands of the profession. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to learn anything out of the way. Being a web designer myself, I designed a website for my mother’s matrimonial bureau. Today, I manage it myself, with occasional help from my php-developer friend, Roy. I also print my own wall-posters, and I can design my own Tee-shirts (although I haven’t yet gotten around to doing that YET!)

And last but not the least, I look back at my designing career fondly, because of all the wonderful people that I met, all the friends that I made….Yogi - my boss at WAS, Abdul - my walking-talking photoshop tutorial kit, Sunny – my reporting manager at MySpace, Dolly – colleague and friend at MySpace….

I am glad that all this happened to me. However, slowly, as I became more serious about a career, I had began to realize that I didn’t really belong. Although, I could have survived long enough, as a mid-level designer, I couldn’t really envision a future bright enough. I did not see myself as a commercially viable graphic designer, and neither was I interested in coding and implementation. But the main problem, was switching careers. How would I do it? But my mind was made up, and here I am.

29 Palms : A comment

I watched this movie last night, and I am still feeling spaced-out :D Actually, I really liked the first half, which is all serene and normal
( I hadnt read many reviews...was watching it without much expectations). Nothing much happens, but its still good. I thought it was all
building up to something very interesting/moving/disturbing . I found
the couple kinduf interesting and sweet at first. But 70 mins into it,
I began to wonder, where exactly the film was going.

The one thing that disappointed and confused me was, how the bloody
climax, makes all the interesting little details of the relationship (
the ice-cream conversation, the late-nite fight, oral sex in pool,
David's stalking of katia etc ) seem irrelevant. The couple itself
doesn't seem normal, but I think the climax would have been the same,
irrespective of how normal/dysfunctional the couple was. An incident as
horrific as that, can make anyone go mad. 90% of the 114 mins , are
focused on their relationship, but the "horror element" which arrived
in the last 5-10 mins of the film, just comes out of elsewhere.

Sure the rape is horrible n humiliating, but it seemed to be there just
for shock value. Maybe, the director wanted to show how one random
horrific incident, can absolutely ruin everything...but if thats the
case then the duration of the film doesn't really make sense.

I think the makers have done a great job in building up the
suspense....but the wait is too long and wen the bad stuff happens its
weird. For me, the climax was neither shocking nor thought-provoking
(Everyone knows, man is capable of both savagery as well as
saintliness) , but just very very saddening. So this movie has left me
in a sad and confused state of mind.

Also, I dunno, why are movies like these, marketed as something they
are not. If you promise the viewers "a deliverance meets psycho", and
give them this movie, there are bound to be negative reviews. Even, the
original trailer tries to make the film look so eventful and
thrilling...lolz...I can understand why horror fans are pissed off.

Its NOT a bad movie, but I would'nt call it a horror film either... I
agree that the desert looks quite menacing, so OK that qualifies as a
"thriller" element. But there is a disjointedness to this movie, which
is why I wouldn't recommend it.

But if you like to watch slow, ambiguous movies and then dissect them
for symbols, hidden meanings etc..then go ahead. You just might like
it.

Buffet froid - french bizarre dark comedy

Hey,

Last night, I watched a french movie called "Buffet froid", which roughly translates into "A cold meal". I had the read the story behind the dvd, and expected it to be a goofy fun action-comedy.

But to my surprise, and I dint mind it, the movie was amusingly absurd n consistently funny. Every character is either a killer or gets killed. Its a quiet movie, most of it being shot in the night, in empty subways, deserted streets, and an almost-empty highrise. Gives it an urban-gothic touch. 20 mins into the movie, you realize that the movie is trying to say something abt the loneliness of city life, and how it seems to suck the meaning out of life. So much so that people are driven to do weird things.

For me the high point of the movie was the Gerard Depardieu. He was so cute when young, i found myself waiting for the camera to rest on his face, again n again :)

A good one.

Murder by Death

Lolz..Picked up this movie, thinking it to be french. Turned out to be a rather silly-cartoonish murder mystery, in English. The characters spoof well-known fictional detectives like Hercule Poirot,and Miss Marple. I could'nt recognize the others, ( guess I am really not that well-read..! )

Actually I quite liked the first-half of the movie, after which it began to get slightly tedious n unfunny. Most of the gags are quite good. A good whodunit timepass .

My 5 favourite cartoons!

I love cartoons! More than movies or music, and thats saying a lot . I think I appreciate cartoons more now that I have grown up, than when I was a kid. Cartoons, my friends, are a simple pleasure...no tears, only joy :)
Heres the countdown of my favourite cartoons, starting from the number 5!

5) Doraemon
This one is always predictable but enjoyable. Based in Japan, the main characters are a group of school-going kids - Nobita, Gian, Tombari, and Shizuka. Nearly every episode starts the boorish
Gian, alongwith his accomplice Tombari, bullying Nobita for some reason or the other. Nobita, the loser, comes crying home everytime, and asks Doraemon for a gadget to teach Gian a lesson.
After protesting for sometime and preaching the virtues of self-reliance, the cat gives in ( Doraemon is a cat-robot) and produces a miraculous gadget from his pocket and hands it to Nobita warning him againts its mis-use. Nobita then goes on to kick Gian's ass but then goes too far, and gets his own ass kicked.
Despite this fixed agenda, I find the show entertaining. The characters are funny, each in their own different way. I love the japanese setting and all that jappiness. I really wish I could have watched and understood it in the original language. Hmm. With every new gadget come new adventures and new jokes. I love those imaginative gadgets, lol..... they are just the kind of things I used to dream of when I was a kid.

4) Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries

Hehe...I havent seen this in a long while. I dont think it even airs anymore. But I remember the
black and white cat being so funny in his tireless efforts to catch hold of Tweety. And all this in the middle of solving mysteries with Granny, a lady detective somewhat like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple! I love mysteries, I love humour and thats what puts this show on my favourites list.


3) Kiteretsu
This ones similar to Doraemon, but in my opinion, simply better. First of all I prefer Kiteretsu's look and feel to that of Doraemon. While 'Doraemon' is colourful and glossy, Kiteretsu's scenes looks like a drawing, which gives it a charming worn-out feel like that of an old paper. I also prefer the characters. While Nobita of Doraemon is a cry-baby, Kiteretsu is a clever, sensible and cute little genius. The other characters are also very similar, making me think that both the shows must have originated from the same script. In fact I just now googled it and found this .

2) Scooby Doo
I absolutely adore this one. One of the funniest things I have ever seen. I love dogs, I love mysteries, I love stories with ghosts and graveyards and detectives, and this one has it all. Plus its so damn silly and funny. And scooby doo is so cute, with his strange shaky voice. I remember returning from school and getting glued to TV, when this used to air. The first time I saw Shaggy, I swear I thought the character was a beggar. Lol..So unkempt he looks. Some episodes, even has Scooby Doo's nephew, Scrappy Doo, a lively and brave puppy, trying to walk in the footsteps on his uncle, whom he believes to be, well, a hero.
The best part of every episode is the chase with the ghost chasing Scooby and Shaggy, and the other kids chasing the 'ghost', and all the slapstick comedy that ensues.
In the end, it always turns out that, the ghost/vampire/witch/whatever is a villain with a mask.
If I had to create an animated series, this is the kind of thing I would make. I dont know why Cartoon network discontinued it, but I hope I can get my hands on all the episodes on the net. Torrents, Torrents.



1) Shin-Chan

What do I say about Shin-Chan. Love him, hate him, you cant ignore him. Rather he wont let you
ignore him, with his..err..extraordinary antics. I enjoy watching this so much. I especially love the episodes where Shin-Chan is with his other little buddies.