Number Stations

It began with me getting curious about those funny random word sites that mess up google searches so often. These sites usually chinese in origin have nothing in them but random words. Even the htm file names are random words.

eg
vintage american family baby scale 30 lbs pounds limit vintage...
45x74 winchester model 1890 62a slide action .22 extractor
primitive ...... height 10 x width 7 speedo fs2pro men's
completed cross stitch mallard duck audi ...

Jumping from one page to another led me to this page which talks about "Number Stations" . If you have listened to shortwave radio, you must have come across these stations which have some person just reciting and repeating a sequence of words or numbers. I had never paid attention to it, but its amazing how deep the rabbit hole goes. At the very basic level these are supposedly government sponsored stations which communicate with spies.
Found this amazing BBC radio documentary on that topic. Download it from this page. Just 6 mb, its worth it. Do a search in Wikipedia for Number Stations for further info.

WiFi @ Home

The glamour of lounging on the sofa or bed or anywhere in the house and browsing the net on the laptop seemed so inviting. I also needed a semipermanent connection between the desktop and the laptop as my USB drive network (copy to USB drive - take USB drive to the laptop - paste into laptop) was getting a little tiresome. Then there is internet sharing. And most important of all, multiplayer games :). All this is now possible. I got a wireless router installed at home (Thanks again to Sachin) and the fun has started. Now I can also chat with my wife through yahoo messenger. Ahh!! reminds me of those pre marriage days. Anybody for a LAN party?

Some pics taken by me

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14283247@N02/

Neat Image

Troubled by noise in your digital camera pictures... no worries, help is at hand. Consider buying Neat Image, a nice little program to get rid of noise. It relies on device noise profiles which combined with an algorithm specifically geared towards digital photography, give very good results. Another must have for digital photography enthusiasts.

Google Flight Simulator

My HDD crash disconnected me from the online world for a couple of weeks and look what they found. Google has been upto its tricks as always putting in some nice easter eggs. This one is a Flight Simulator in Google Earth. Not the clumsy one you saw in Excel some year ago, but a good one using GE imagery, with a couple of planes and some Airports thrown in. Go here to read about it and how to activate it.
Talking of flights, a sad bit of news this Sunday with ColinMcRae dying in a helicopter crash. Rally fans and gamers need no introduction of ColinMcRae. Its just so sad that he died so suddenly.RIP.

Caller Ring Tune

For those who have been wondering, what is that song on my caller back tune... here is the video. Yeah..a really old song.

Kothligad Trek

It can be very frustrating to drive a bike in its run in period and I wanted to shorten that time as quickly as possible. So I though up of this idea of going to treks on Bike. Sachin supported the idea and Sachin, Sanket, Chaitanya and I took off for a trek to Kothligad on August 18.
As usual, Google earth was referred to and I decided on the Kalyan- Ulhasnagar-Ambernath-Badlapur-Neral-Kashele-Ambivli-Peth-Kothligad (61 km) route. The bikes go only upto Ambivli. However... the road was all potholed and dirty. Would have suited a dirt bike rally. From Neral to Kashele is awesome with the Wakas bridge in between and some lovely green field and all the farmhouses.

The climb from Ambivli was a bit tiring with all of us now hitting thirties and hardly exercising. In Peth we met Sawant who provides lunch and accommodation for trekkers.

We met a group of young boys who introduced us to their delicacy, the core of the stem of a Banana plant. did not look appetizing to eat, but was refreshingly tasty. Now we know what to eat if lost in the woods.

Nothing had prepared me for Kothligad. I had expected it to be a run of the mill fort. But the carved steps in the rock were breathtaking. They are also so well preserved that you can imagine yourself going a thousand years back into history and imagining how life must have been than.

We met some BARC guys who told us of a route from Peth to Bhimashankar. I can't understand why Bhimashankar has to figure in the list of "faadu treks" Ahupe Bhimashankar brings back terrible memories of fatigue and bruised groins. This one seemed equally bad. It has been put on the agenda, but I doubt we will do it before Ajit comes back into trekking, ( he has been recently married and hence he has been missing a lot of action... experience tells us that he will return in six to eight months)

On the top we met some Crest guys. Funny... earlier we used to meet a lot of IT guys.. now guys from animation also seem to have a lot of free time. Lots of funny events.. we saw a huge snake and it dissappeared before anybody could flip out a camera. Sachin's D40 had a drop of water drop on it in the cave, much to Sachins' chagrin. We found a Nikon D40 lens cover on our way back only to find out later that it did not belong to Sachin. Perhaps it was those BARC guys.

Sachin suggested we go back by the Ambivli-Kashele-Mhasa-Murbad-Kalyan route which is slightly longer. The route is amazing but it was night and we hardly got to see anything other than what was visible in the headlight. Chaitanya had me switch off the headlight a few times because he wanted to see the fireflies. The road is a billion times better than the route we took in the morning. Total kilometrage was 138 km.

Sachin showed us the route that goes to Siddhagad and I think our next bike trek will be there. My bike is past its run in kilometrage and now I can ride it no hold barred.

Old Friends

As you move through life, you meet so many people. Some leave a lasting impression on your mind. I was fortunate to work with some really talented people while I was working in Waterford. I had lost contact with many of them. However thanks to help from Sachin, I now have links to all their blogs. Such awesome work. Keeps me on the ground and reminds me that I have a lot to learn.
Take some time to go through their blogs listed on the right. Jeff Davis, Juliann Law, Seth Hippen and Nate Baertsch. Thanks guys for the inspiration.

Hero Honda CBZ Xtreme

Bought a new bike. The Hero Honda CBZ Xtreme. All I can say is... its awesome. Here it is standing in front of Kalyan Caves.

MS Paint : The latest in Computer Graphics

After a long time, stumbled upon a genuinely funny clip on Youtube. Enjoy the latest in Computer Graphics MS Paint.

Chubbchubbs Save Xmas released

Finally the ChubbChubbs Saves Xmas project is done. 4 weeks of days and nights in the studio. It was released on 8th August in US in 500 theaters with the Cuba Gooding Jr. comedy Daddy Day Camp.(Press Release) However, The main movie has not received rave reviews Funnily there was more expectations from the short. Thankfully, it seems that the short was liked more than the movie. We are not sure if our team will be credited. The comment at the end of this page isn't very encouraging. But overall it was a great experience handling lighting for the entire project with such a short deadline. Thankfully it will be released with the Surf's Up DVD this October. Do try to catch it. Its reasonably funny. If it gets released online I will post the clip here.

Photography friends

Abhijit Avalaskar has been taking some amazing photos of birds around Kalyan Thakurli area recently. Catch them here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhijitavalaskar/527326084/
Abhinav Sah is getting married soon and that is very evident on his flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhi_pics/517214962/

Happydent ad

Rarely does one come across a very innovative ad that you want to watch again and again. So when one does come along it a moment to be treasured.
This ad for Happydent by Perfetti van Melle is one such ad. It is amusing, has a high recall value and it highlights the product characteristics. The vfx is impeccable. The ad was shot by Ram Madhvani in just eight days at Panvel, with Prasoon Joshi taking care of the creative.
Another feather in the ad agency McCann Erickson's cap.
Watch it here



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7TSlg3Jljk
or
http://www.perfettivanmelle.in/happydent/index.php3

Another ad that has caught my attention has been the Blackberry Pearl ad. Clean and classy. Unfortunately cannot find an online link to it. The music is very hummable and surely will be my ringtone for some days.

Google blogs now in Hindi

वाह क्या बात हैं ! अब हम हिंदी में लिख सकते हैं। लेकिन आप कहोगे कि भाई यह क्या नयी बात हुई? नयी है जनाब। इस लिंक पे जाइये https://www2.blogger.com/hindi और टाईप करना शुरू कीजिये। हिंदी में टाईप करना इतना आसान कभी नही था। याहू का इन्दिस्क्रिप्त लोगिन से तो यह हज़ार गुना बेहतर है। इतना बेहतर कि अगर यह मराठी में आजाये तो मैं शायद मराठी में ही ब्लोग्गिंग शुरू करु।
आप भी देखना और पूरे वेब को हिंदिमय करना चालू करना।
अच्छा फिर मिलेंगे।

हृषिकेश

Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar

How many of us remember Kesarbai Kerkar? I asked quite a few of my friends whether they knew about Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar and everywhere I drew a blank. Even the Surashri title did not ring a bell. Yet this Padmabhushan decorated icon of Indian Classical music is considered one of the finest singers of the 20th century . Born in the Village of Keri in Goa, she moved in to Bombay and under the guidance of her guru Ustad Alladiya Khan,the founder of Jaipur Atrauli gharana went on to become a renowned performer of Hindustani Classical music.
How did I come to know about her? I was reading about the Voyager Spacecraft. What has the Voyager Spacecraft got to do with a classical singer? Well... Kesarbai's rendition of "Jaat Kahaan ho" is included in the Voyager Golden Record which was sent into space in 1977 aboard both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft.
The recording was recommended to Carl Sagan by Robert E Brown of the Center for World Music in Berkeley. Out of print and unavailable in record stores, it was finally tracked down in an appliance store run by an Indian Family in New York, in a carton under a card table.
Voyager1 is now more than 100 au from the sun far beyond Pluto. (One au = avg distance from earth to sun) or 15 billion km travelling at a speed of 56000 km/h and will soon be in interstellar space. It will take 20000 years for the spacecraft to reach a distance of two light years. The nearest star Alpha Centauri (actually a star system) is 4.39 light years away or 41.5 trillion km or 27760 AU.
With all the nuclear weapons, global warming and stuff I don't know whether humankind will be around at that time. But Kesarbai's voice will remain... floating in the immense void of space for ages to come.

• Her voice (need Windows Media Player)

• Pictures

300

Whew.... what a spectacle. After watching the trailer, after reading the comic, after seeing the production journals, after listening to "Just like you imagined" from Nine Inch Nails again and again....., this .... was the ultimate climax.
Except for a ridiculously uninformed review at rediff. Read the comments for a huge dose of fun.

An Inconvenient Truth

If you haven't yet heard of this, its time to find out about it. This is a documentary by former US vice President Al Gore reveals some startling facts about global warming. Using factual evidence and clear concise data, Al Gore manages to convey the need for immediate and strong action to prevent Global warming. Unfortunately some parts of the documentary end up feeling like his pitch to voters for the US Presidency. ;) Maybe that was done to establish a credibility among people who did not know him well enough. But overall this documentary manages to do what it was made for. It conveys how much threatened we are by global warming and how the world is still stumbling trying to come to grips with the implications of it. It also makes me wonder how an idiot like George Bush became the president when Americans had this worthy leader as an option. Check www.climatecrisis.net for additional details.

BKC Accident Chowk 2

Another accident at BKC chowk opposite SEBI photographed. Rickshaw bangs taxi. Taxi radiator gone. Rickshaw damaged. Rickshaw passenger shaken, not stirred. Two days before this a woman was hit by a car. Luckily she survived with minor injuries.

Small changes for the good.

What started this string of thoughts is this article.

Okay.. so what can "I" do to change things for the better? Surely I cannot allocate gazzillion rupees for some "Middlemen Vikas Yojana" I spend so much time just to eke out a living that I don't see myself investing time and efforts for social service. But just the fact that I cannot do something big does not prevent me from doing something small. Something that could make a huge or even a small difference for somebody.

1. I can let the poor old vegetable woman keep that 5 rupees change she has to give me. Smile and tell her its okay, if there is no change.
2. I can take a couple of story books or small toys to treks and give it to the first group of young children who catch my fancy. If I feel a bit generous I can even buy a tricycle for some poor kid in a remote adivasi village. Who knows he could grow up to become an automobile engineer.
3. Just to amuse myself, I could tell our kaamwaali that I am doing her performance review and she would be eligible for a 10% appraisal every six months if she maintained consistent quality of work and attendance schedule. Then explain to her in plain language that it means more money. But implement a quality check process and let he know that. Upgrade her to using the washing machine and microwave.
4. I can buy things whenever possible during treks in villages. Support the entrepreneurial spirit. (Pic: 350 rupees worth of "bhaji" eaten at roadside dhaba in a village enroute to Ratangad.)
5. I can promote remote fort locations to drive visitors there.
6. If you see somebody doing the work the hard way and you know a cost effective method or a method with better returns, let that person know about it. For example tell that roadside typist smart lesser known features in Word.
7. Try to change the outlook, encourage them to upgrade skills, guide them, inspire them. People usually find a way once they know their destination. The problem is there is no one to tell them what is the proper destination. Give ideas from your own experience. Ask the chinese food guy, why he does not supply cold drinks with the food. "Quadra Schewan Combination Rice Happy Menu". Ask him why does he not have a cell phone to take home delivery orders. Tell the bhelpuriwala to use bottled water as a marketing gimmick.
8. I can donate old computers to village schools. One computer can make a huge difference.
9. Explain and demonstrate all the features of my digital camera and phone to curious children who collect around you while you take photos. One of them might grow up to become a cinematographer.
10. Listen to them and their stories. That gives them a sense of self worth and confidence. Some children are just scared talking to city people or foreigners. Once you strike a communication with them, they feel confident and in future would interact a lot more and hence learn a lot more.

Thats all I can think at the moment. If you have more ideas they are welcome.

Soople

Those who are dedicated Googlers, and who have spent time reading the help files know that under the simplistic interface, Google has a very powerful set of tools and methods of narrowing down searches to definite categories of sites, file types and even definitions, stock info, books etc. The difficult part could be remembering the syntax to launch the searches.
Well there is a great site out there which simplifies it all. http://www.soople.com/ You might be tempted to set it as your home page.

Korlai Trip

Yes, this was a trip. A google earth flyby revealed this was a small little hill fort, with a beach thrown in. Because of it Portuguese history, we expected quite a few intact remains. So it was decided to bring the wives and girlfriends and kids too. This for has a good location, situated on a peninsula, just off Revdanda beach, on the way to Murud. There was also a lighthouse as an added attraction. You could stand on the top and watch the sea on all three sides. Once you pass through the village of Korlai which has the smell of fish all around, you can walk along a path with a rocky beach on one side and high hill with a fort on other till you reach the light house. A small fee of Rs. 5 and you can watch the inside of the light house. The powerful light powered by an array of Solar cells and a complex lens system. There was also a radio beacon, to assist during low visibility. The way to the top was very narrow and constricted. My kid had a whale of a time, running around in circles around the lamp. Funnily enough the lighthouse does not attempt to depend on the MSEB supplied electricity, which is hardly present. They need to have their own generator and solar cells.

The fort is well preserved with a lot of cannons still lying around. Some of them were pretty massive. I haven't seen so many cannons in any other fort till now. The water tank on the top still functioned and the villagers as well as the light house staff used it. The church on the top and the engravings were well preserved too. Somebody had been cleaning up the fort, cutting off all the banyan trees and grass which had been threatening to take over the fort. We descended along the opposite side facing Revdanda through a artificial forest full of trees that I hate. Those trees which the forest dept plant all over,which have no personality or richness of foliage.The
species subabhool, eucalyptus and glyceridia are killing all the biodiversity of the traditional forest.We descended to the beach where finally the girls, who were frustrated by the climb and all were happy to spend some time frolicking in the water. We finally made back or way to home, via Alibag.
How to reach: Catch any ST to Alibag and then catch any ST to Murud. (these are numerous during morning and evenings) Get down ant Korlai and walk to the fort. If you have time you can visit the Birla mandir about 4 kms away as well as the Revdanda fort and Beach about 5 kms away.

Looking through a child's eye (Disney Pixar Cars)

Being a father is a great opportunity to relive childhood. It enables us to look at everyday objects with a new sense of wonder and excitement. My two year old son has been a fan of he "Cars" movie by Disney Pixar. He brings up the Cars DVD, gestures towards the DVD player and fetches the TV and DVD remote, whenever he wants to watch it. He will start tugging at my shirt if I am not paying attention. Once the DVD is put on he watches with rapt attention. As if on cue he laughs loudly when Chick Hicks gives his TV interview and when the birds cameo appears
with a tweeting sound. Generally I am only paying passing attention to him as he watches the movie. One day I began him getting increasingly nervous and tugging my sleeve. The movie was on, so I could not understand what he was wanting. Suddenly he ran inside the house crying and did not come back for a long time. When this happened for the second time, I began to understand what was going on. He was getting scared of Bessie, the road paving machine. While all the other cars have eyes, mouth and in general facial cues, Bessie had none. Must be quite scary for a child.I had to fast forward. But turns out he is scared of Frank as well, so I had to fast forward to the happy parts and then he watched the movie in contentment.
As I play my duties as a father I try to draw from my childhood experiences, about what excited me, what scared me, how I outgrew my fears, how the elders reacted and all. When I was a child, the only place where you could watch something scary was in a movie theater and whenever scary scenes like, hero getting beaten up came, I used to crouch down in the chair and close my eyes and ears, till the hero had gained enough strength and confidence to fight back. But at least the scary experiences were limited to the theater. Home was safe turf. Now the kids are having a hard time with scary things invading home, due to irresponsible parents like me who have brought movies into homes.
I have discovered a lot of scary things, which I had never noticed before. The sound effect at the beginning of Microsoft Train Simulator, The fact that beach sand starts washing away under your feet when a sea wave recedes, any blinking red LED, any scene with monochromatic or desaturated color scheme.
Bringing up a child is sure scary.

BKC Accident Chowk

A black Ford Fiesta has it face mangled by the white Esteem

Every now and then in the office, we hear a brake screeching. 10% of these noises end up with a thud and noise of crunching metal. That means another accident has occured on the crossroad in front of SEBI in BKC. Boy its getting so routine. It is a very saddening to watch expensive cars getting destroyed. All I can do is take pictures from my window. I now have a nice collection. Guess all those CCTV operators from the security of buildings around must be having some interesting footage. Ahhh... a signal is desperately needed there. Ohh!! those beautiful cars.

Desensitisation of the masses

Picture shows a family staying on a railway platform. See that small infant on the newspaper?

This is just a thought process that was triggered off yesterday by a small incident. A guy was trying to cross the road by taking his bike over the road divider without bothering to check traffic on both sides. He was almost in my path, had I not been alert. So I started blaring my scooter horn as I approached him. By the time I reached him I was clear on my left so could quickly pass him. However my horn blaring probably irritated him and he thrust his bike into my path, to teach me a lesson. If I hadn't anticipated him as a complete jerk and my reflexes had been a bit slower, I would have fallen down, surely be creamed by the bus behind me. I however passed him safely and held up my finger to show him who was the daddy.
However I thought, why would anyone want to endanger somebody's life for such a small thing as a warning horn? Was that guy a jerk? Did he not value human life? But then so many examples came to mind. In the urban jungle, the value of human life has become nil. Everyday people risk their's and other's life to get into a train, to overtake, to get to the other side of the track. How many times had I passed a dying beggar at a railway station, knowing he would be dead in a month or so? How many times have I witnessed somebody getting pulled under a train and not even bothering to see if he is dead or alive?
On treks, I have witnessed, people welcoming us into their homes and offering water or something to eat. I have drunk a cup of tea, or eaten at a family who can hardly afford a 100 rupees blanket for their infants. I have patiently listened and helped with problems in small adivasi padas. What happens to me when I come back to the city? What happens to "everybody" when they come to the city? Why do I just helplessly watch that hungry infant wallowing on a dirty newspaper on a cold December morning?
The bus driver does not care, that you might fall down and injure yourself. He is in a hurry to get to the next stop, whether you have alighted properly or not is not his concern. Recently the railways closed an one of the two overbridges at Dombivli railway station. Imagine a station catering to 5 lakh people everyday having just one overbridge. The fact that one guy (Vinay Patil) lost his life due to this bad decision did not concern whoever took that decision. That was just one person, what about the kids in Nithari? What about all those riots for petty political gains? That injecting poison of religious and casteist hatred into an innocent population.
How desensitised can we get? What is causing this desensitisation? Is it the alienation? The "alone in the crowd" thing? Is this due to the failure of the undivided family, a non existent value model, children growing up alone? Is it the over exposure to violence or sheer overload of human interaction, ? There are just too many people around.
So as the population increases, does this desensitisation also increase? Will the future be all war?
Meanwhile, good thing I showed him the finger. He must be having his thoughts too.

Avi Industries

If you need a perfect trek bag and don't want to cut a hole in your pocket, Avi Industries is the place to go. Veteran trekkers swear by their name. Located in Matunga East, these guys make very nice bags. Also available are camera pouches, sleeping bags and some great shoes. The shoes are expensive though. Lots of trek equipment necessary for Himalayan treks, moutaineering and rock climbing equipment and a whole lot of advice too. These guys are trekkers themselves. Extremely comfortable bags with all that compartments you wanted. A big size bag, a small size bag (for small treks), a camera pouch, and a cotton sleeping bag should set you back by about 2000 rupees. But it worth every paisa. Get down at Matunga Station and exit from Kurla side to east. Find a circular face building called Shriji Sadan and look for a small yellow board saying Avi industries. I think they have a website too. No, I do not get commission from them, but rumour is that Ajit gets some. :)) In the picture I am carrying a big size bag, while Ajit is carrying a small size bag.

Avchitgad Trek

Avchitgad. Our second Google Earth Trek on 13/01/2007. We also referred to Wikimapia. Wikimapia has lots of details not found in Google Earth, but the only problem is that it eats into my download quota as it does not cache images. So everytime I check a place the whole images get downloaded.This is a very neglected fort (in terms of trekkers visiting), but it is awesome nonetheless. Apart from the well preserved water reservoir and doors, the village at the base (Medhe, Hanuman Ali) is a pleasant surprise. With not piped water yet, this village and its lifestyle is well preserved. Just like it was about 60-70 years ago. Some houses even had windows with wooden bars. The wells were well, well used. A magnificient view of the Konkan Railway line all the way from Roha to Bhise tunnel near Nagothane. You can get a clear cell phone reception on the top. It appears to be an awesome one day trek for monsoon. There is no dry cave or anything on top, so you have to make it one day. Fortunately the timing of the train at the nearest railway staion suits one day treks. The train leaves at 4:05 pm from Nidi. There is one more after that. But this one suits you as it is not so crowded. In the morning catch the 6:15 am Diva Madgaon Passenger.Some well preserved sculptures, doors and a cannon to see. Do not forget to visit the Vitthal Mandir in Medhe. This time it was Ajit, Sushant, Sanket and me. Check Wikimapia for some pictures posted.
How to reach: Catch Diva-Madgaon passenger from Diva on Central line.Get down at Nidi (Next after Nagothane), Ask where Medha is. Find Vitthal Mandir, then find "houd" (a well) and then keep climbing. Lots of pathways here, but the fort is so small it won't matter if you get lost.

Blazing BSNL Broadband

I subscribed to BSNL Broadband (DataOne) after very bad experiences with Sify and GPRS on BPL Mobile. In fact I got a landline just for that. BSNL being a government monolith, I had the least expectations. It took seven visits and three months to just get the connection. (No, I did not have to bribe) It had taken just a phonecall and 24 hrs for the BPL Mobile GPRS. So expectations were low. I did not expect much speeds, I just expected an always on connection.
I setup a system for downloading during the Happy Hours between 2 and 8 am, using FreeByte Task Scheduler (To startup programs when needed) , Down2Home (to keep an eye on the amount of data downloaded and uploaded and the speed) and BitComet (Torrent downloads). Happily BSNL recently upgraded all 256 kbps to 2 Mbps following a government order.
And the speeds... they are amazing. Check out the image which shows the status at 7 am after a 5 hours of download. 469 kbps max speed. Holy mother of byte.

Tauli Trek

We went to Tauli on 31 Dec 2006. It was our first google earth trek. Meaning We pored over google earth to find the way, took print outs and found our way to the top. We had planned for a two day trek thinking we might get lost. But we found our way quickly. Its like 10 rs bus ticket from my house, but its was awesome. People walk up to Haji Malang, but almost nobody goes ahead to Tauli. I remember as a child, being told that there was a dense dark jungle ahead of Malangad. Looks like all those sticks the piligrims carry home were a part of that jungle. Its sparse now, like all the jungles on Sahyadris. Ajit, Masture, Ravi and Me. We met a guy called Chand on the way, who stays near a waterfall and serves jaggery tea and medicine to people going up to Tauli. On the top near Dadi Ma's Kabar lives a group of guys (Rambhau and another one) whose houses are built like they have been in 16th Century. The view of the Chanderi, Badlapur hills range is breath taking. There have been many landslides to remind you of the destructive power of nature, giving you a peek into the kind of processes that have shaped these mountains. The only sad part was the dense air pollution due to the brick kilns. Ya, I took these pics.

Fear and Loathing

Ever fast forward jumped through a movie and found it not worth a watch? Nothing to really grab your attention as you click randomly on the slider below the Media Player. Nothing particularly interesting about it. And then suddenly you find someone who is a real fan of that film. Curiosity strikes and you decide to give it a go. The movie grabs you at the first line and by the end of it, you are a fan of that movie.
Well, just saw a movie like that this week. Its called "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Narrator: We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like:
Raoul Duke: I feel a bit lightheaded. Maybe you should drive.
Narrator: Suddenly, there was a terrible roar all around us, and the sky was full with what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, and a voice was screaming:
Raoul Duke: Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?!
Acosta: Did you say something?
Raoul Duke: Hm? Nevermind. It's your turn to drive.
Narrator: No point in mentioning these bats, I thought. Poor bastard will see them soon enough.

The search for the "American Dream". My respect for Depp is even deeper now. Clearly he is a class of his own. And Benico Del Toro ... "There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die"
Have a great watch.

A New Train is Coming

I have been a great fan of Microsoft train simulator. But Microsoft dropped Trainsimulator for a while and I was very sad. Thankfully BVE Train Simulator kept me going. So yesterday was a great day when I found out that there are two train simulators coming my way. Kuju, the original developers of Microsoft Train Simulator were coming up with Rail Simulator distributed by EA and Microsoft was back with Train Simulator 2 , but developed by another company. So currently although BVE remains my favorite, I can't wait to get my hands on these new babies. Ooooh!