Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Game on

I remember telling some of my friends that ever since I played oblivion and fable back to back(Two of the most highly rated RPGs this generation), I was able to remember maps, routes etc better. Back to the time when I was playing Pro Evolution soccer overtime, I remember thinking of controlling my teammates on the soccer field too. So, even though a satire, I feel what's being said in here.

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"It is weird, I know it's completly irrational, but I'm totally averse to big, industrial settings now. Anything that looks rusted out or rickety, it freaks me out. Whenever I walk into dark rooms, I instinctively reach for my flashlight and my gun, then I realize I don't actually carry either," said McEwen. "I was walking through a supermarket a few days after my HL2 marathon and I saw a bunch of first-aid kits on the floor. Someone had knocked them over by accident I guess. My first reaction though was 'oh shit! A bunch of medikits. Something fucking tough must be coming up soon!'It really scared me."

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The best was saved for the last though

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After reading the public report on FPSS, Thompson spoke out.

"FPSS proves that video games are responsible for all murders ever. In history."

When informed that First Person Shooters have only existed for the last 15-20 years, Thompson screamed that we were lying homosexuals, then sued us for criminal harrasment.
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A Little Game

Once I had a little game
I liked to crawl back into my brain
I think you know the game I mean
I mean the game called 'go insane'
Now you should try this little game
Just close your eyes forget your name
Forget the world, forget the people
And we'll erect a different steeple
This little game is fun to do
Just close your eyes, no way to lose
And I'm right there, I'm going too
Release control, we're breaking through
-The Doors

Monday, August 27, 2007

Trouble with movies

One of the main reasons I haven't been able to watch too many movies is that my mind is just not able to bear the pounding on laws of physics some of these dish out. It seems quite ok to have these aberrations in animations which is why they are much more bearable.
Even ads for example- Most recently a Havell's advertisement for economy light bulbs. To depict its brightness it is shown to form a kind of halo over a child who's studying. Towards the end of the ad though, the way bulb formed a glowing sphere, meant that the intensity of bulb is not enough to even light up the wall that is meters from it. (And they were trying to say "aisi roshini..")

I'm glad to see that Someone else agrees with this and has taken it a few steps further.

Natural Science

[1. Tide Pools]

When the ebbing tide retreats
Along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society

A simple kind mirror
To reflect upon our own
All the busy little creatures
Chasing out their destinies
Living in their pools
They soon forget about the sea...

Wheels within wheels in a spiral array
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time we lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects

[2. Hyperspace]

A quantum leap forward
In time and in space
The universe learned to expand

The mess and the magic
Triumphant and tragic
A mechanized world out of hand

Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band

In their own image
Their world is fashioned
No wonder they don't understand

[3. Permanent Waves]

Science, like nature
Must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely serve us well

Art as expression
Not as market campaigns
Will still capture our imaginations
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely help us along

The most endangered species
The honest man
Will still survive annihilation
Forming a world
State of integrity
Sensitive, open and strong

Wave after wave will flow with the tide
And bury the world as it does
Tide after tide will flow and recede
Leaving life to go on as it was...
-Rush

Sunday, August 26, 2007

why is it so difficult?

This is why we used to say beauty*brains = delta*.
But as further studies revealed, this equation is affected by another variable and after incorporating it into the equation, beauty * brains * existential probability = delta*.


Never Ending Math Equation

I'm the same as I was when I was 6 years old
And oh my God I feel so damn old
I don't really feel anything
On a plane, I can see the tiny lights below
And oh my God, they look so alone
Do they really feel anything?
Oh my God, I've gotta gotta gotta gotta move on
Where do you move when what you're moving from
Is yourself?
The universe works on a math equation
that never even ever really even ends in the end
Infinity spirals out creation
We're on the tip of its tongue, and it is saying
We aint sure where you stand
You aint machines and you aint land
And the plants and the animals, they are linked
And the plants and the animals eat each other
Oh my God and oh my cat
I told my Dad what I need
Well I know what I have and want
But I don't know what I need
Well, he said he said he said he said
"Where we're going I'm dead."


- Modest Mouse

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*Delta was used in our calculus to denote an arbitrarily small number, or delta->0.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Sensationalism

Shows like Indian idol / Big Boss ( first time I watched all of ten minutes of idol this sunday, I swear :|) , need I say more?

Act Naturally
They're gonna put me in the movie,
They're gonna make a big star out of me.
We'll make a film about a man that's sad and lonely,
And all I gotta do is act naturally

Well, I'll bet you I'm gonna be a big star,
Might win an Oscar you can never tell.
The movies gonna make me a big star,
'Cause I can play the part so well

Well I hope you'll come and see me in the movies,
Then I know that you will plainly see.
The biggest fool that ever hit the big time,
And all I gotta do is act naturally.

We'll make the scene about a man that's sad and lonely,
And begging down upon his bended knee.
I'll play the part and I won't need rehearsing,
All I gotta do is act naturally.

Well, I'll bet you I'm gonna be a big star,
Might win an Oscar you can never tell.
The movies gonna make me a big star,
'Cause I can play the part so well.

Well I hope you'll come and see me in the movies,
Then I know that you will plainly see.
The biggest fool that ever hit the big time,
And all I gotta do is act naturally.
-The Beatles

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Now playing: The Beatles - [Help!] Act Naturally [foobar2000 v0.9.4.2]
via FoxyTunes

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Surveys and its ilk

One thing that gets my goat each time is the number of so called "surveys" that keep cropping up. Forget the sample space and other considerations,(survey? line up those people hanging out at the mall) etc, but even the conclusions arrived at can be so irritatingly irrational that I just can't believe people still have any faith left in them.

Take as an example "this. I would take any conclusion reached by talking to 347 people (not randomly chosen again) and throw it in the salt bed. But, to come to such an awesome conclusion, especially when its quite obvious to anyone with a hint of braincells that most of the people who can become managers are old enough to have started their own families, it must take quite a lot of talent.

Then we have some genuinely misled conclusions arrived at .. for example this. I wouldn't be too harsh on this guy, because it was done for fun, not to sell copies or publish journals but still since he claims its research, here goes my rebuttal:

"the fact that people haven't noticed you've been changing your birthday can means they don't care about you enough to know that or that they have become too dependent on orkut.

If second were true, that they cared enough about you but become too dependant on orkut, they might not remember your actual birthday, but would've found out your game when you changed the birthday a second time.

Imagine if things like orkut didn't exist, you'd probably have got maybe one or two calls from your closest friends who remember the occasion or from your colleagues/classmates etc whom you interact with daily. But thats that. On the other hand an old acquaintance's face popping up on birthday list is just like running into him downtown which is out of your routine, so for old time's sake you do a courtesy call, wish him and find out what he's been upto etc etc. It's about keeping in touch, remembering that a guy called XYZ existed and I knew him once"

Twisted Logic

Sunlight opened up my eyes
To see for the first time it opened them up
And tonight rivers will run dry
Not for the first time rivers will run

Hundreds of years in the future
There could be computers looking for life on Earth
Don't fight for the wrong side
Say what you feel like
Say how you feel

You go backwards but then you go forwards again
You go backwards but then you go
Created then drilled and invaded
If somebody made it someone will mess it up
And you are not wrong to
Ask who does this belong to
It belongs to all of us

You go backwards but then you go forwards again
You go backwards but then you go forwards
You go backwards but then you go forwards again
You go backwards but then you go forwards

-Coldplay

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Irony is....

When you get mails in the office saying " Just a friendly reminder" and you feel its anything but.


Ironic

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic ... don't you think
Chorus

It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
'Well isn't this nice...'
And isn't it ironic ... don't you think

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face

It's a traffic jam when you're already late
It's a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic... don't you think
A little too ironic... and yeah I really do think...


Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out


-Alanis Morisette