28th of November was Priom’s birthday, one of the few birthdays I remember because it falls on the day after mine. So there. Happy Birthday, Priom.

29th november happens to be the anniversary of something unforgettable in my life. It’s been two years, and yes, I unabashedly say that I remember the date only because it falls on the day after Priom’s Birthday, and two days after mine yadda yadda yadda. So what the heck is the big deal about the date anyways? It’s the occasion that matters, and the memories of that occasion.

Happy Anniversary, WRECstasy.

Friday:

I have just finished reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2, and the first thing I can think of saying is – ****!! ****!! ****!!

Truth be told, this is the second time I finished reading it. The first time was today afternoon, when I was suffering from major pre-weekend Blues and longed for something to do other than compiling servlets and JSPs. Oh the horror! I had downloaded five of the six CBZ files, and now they are gone. A hasty mail to vrikodhara, and things started getting done in right earnest. He, smart fellow, had downloaded all of them the moment I had posted the links, or thereabouts.

I remain awed by Alan Moore’s storytelling. Though this volume does not come close to the greatness of the First compendium, it’s still – to use the cliche – awesome. Kevin O’Neill’s artwork is in a class of its own. I think of how much time it will take me to actually figure out all the Victorian characters and places and events Moore acknowledges in every panel, and – it’s humbling. My salutations, Mr Moore and Mr O’Neill.

Isn’t Victoriana fascinating? The kind of pulp fiction these people churned out in that time and age would put today’s hacks to shame. And these are books that are now regarded as classics. There is a lesson to be learned somewhere from all this, you know.

A strong recommendation to people interested in Victoriana and pulp fiction from that era and alternate storylines would be Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula trilogy. The three books in that series, Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Judgement of Tears all deal with three timelines – the first being set in the late Victorian era, Book 2 in the First World War and Book 3 in the Cold-war afflicted 1950’s. The first book begins with an alternate setting – the premise being, what if van Helsing and his cohorts had failed to contain Count Dracula? What if the Count had gone on a rampage and infected not just Lucy and Renfield and a child or two, but the upper crust of Victorian society – including the Queen herself? it does not come as a surprise when human society becomes divided into “bloodsuckers”, the new-born Undead, and the “warm”, those who choose to disregard immortality in the favour of a normal life. With characters ranging from GB Shaw to Lord Ruthven to Professor Moriarty to Fu Manchu to Jack The Ripper ( ah, you can’t imagine the twist Jack brings into the picture. Think silver. ), Anno Dracula becomes a dazzling white-heat read of a book.

The rest of them are equally good, but like I said, Victoriana has a charm of its own.

Saturday:

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game was terrific. A story to be proud of, and I am sure he will ruin the experience for me with the sequels. So I promise myself that I’ll skip them. Also saw That Thing You Do, and now there is this urge to go buy the soundtrack album just for the hokey songs by the Chantrellines and Diane Dane.

Went to a concert by Pt Vishwamohan Bhatt at ICFAI. The recital, though short, was quite a virtuoso performance, I tried watching his hands as they played the mohan-veena, it was just too good.

I am gushing again.

There’s a bug in the PC version of Halo:Combat Evolved. The flashlight does not light up when I press the F-key. No, I mapped the key correctly.

I have discovered something interesting. There are very good books available on the Amazon used bookstores, with extremely low prices. Some books on Hollywood that I was looking for, like Gloria Swanson’s memoir Swanson on Swanson is available for one cent, and Frank Capra’s The Name Above the Title for 90 cents. Something like Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, a classic that has incredible black-and-white photographs of the pre-censored Hollywood movies and sells for 40$ on the market, is on sale for 8$. In hardcover, to boot.

Considering that shipping prices to India is almost 6-10 dollars per shipment, there is a fair chance that I can order some of these stuff without feeling too much of a pinch. Yum yum yum. Good thing that I am getting a credit card made, eh?

Watched this teen-movie called 100 Girls yesterday, which turned out to be pretty good. Hilarious lines!

This is the love-speech at the end of the movie:

Without you, I’m as lonely as an abandoned dog on the side of a highway.
I have gift anxiety, even through I don’t know when your birthday is.
We can spend perfect days shopping and cleaning together.
I swear, I’ll never make wisecracks when you scrape your tires against the curb while parallel parking.
If you consent to live with me, I’ll clean the toilet every week. I’ll do it with my tongue if you ask.
I will strike the words “hooters” and “love rockets” from my vocabulary.
I’ll love you. Even if your name is Mimi and you want me to pronounce it “May May”.
I will only pass gas underneath the covers and under the direst of circumstances. Hell, I’ll go on a low cholesterol diet.
And I won’t buy one of those red sports cars when I hit my mid-life crisis.
Your parents can come visit us every week, even if your mom is a bitch with a capital B.
And your folks don’t have to go to a retirement home because they can come live with us.
I declare, I’ll separate the whites from the colors and learn the mysteries of hot and cold water washes.
I’ll never huff and puff while waiting for you to put on your makeup.
If you’re a cat person, I’ll never point out the fact that a dog can save your life from drowning, but a cat can’t.
I will happily go see chick flicks with you, like “Pride and Prejudice”.
I’ll make a point to trying new food like okra gumbo. I won’t curl my nose at vegetables whose awful taste is disguised by having cheese on it.
I pledge to always say “yes” when you ask, “Is my hair looking okay tonight?”
I’m gonna bring a whole new meaning to the word “cuddle”.
I’ll be thoughtful enough to read your horoscope every day. I’m gonna save every birthday card you send me!
And I’ll actually write you real letters when we’re apart.
I’m never gonna expect you to know where I left my car keys, and I’ll never leave my socks on the floor.
With me, you’ll find the cap is always on the toothpaste.
I’ll start wearing those bikini style underwear if you like.
My belly button will always be lint free.
I want to full-on kiss your clitoris. It will be the most passionate, intimate experience you’ve ever had.
I declare now, I will give my life for you. And if you fail to come to me, I know some part of me will surely die.

Now, is that good or what?

Saturday I went to the Hyderabad zoo. The last time I had been there was five years ago, just before I had joined my Hallowed College, and I had visited the gate and come away. This time, it was because it was Chandru’s son’s birthday, and he had this idea of organising the party at the zoo. I was, as Chandru put it, “one of the volunteering non-parent males”. Which sounds like a very appropriately zoological description of yours truly.

I enjoyed it as much as I could with this splitting headache. Waking up before eight on Saturday morning, especially after very late-Castle Wolfenstein excursions ( or early-morning, depending on how you look at it) is unhealthy. The kids were full of energy and in the early part of it, the enthu was contagious. After an hour, I just fagged out. “Trailed along” would be a better description. Just watching the kids run around made my bones ache. Gosh! It has been so long since I ran around just for the heck of it. It’s true, isn’t it? After a certain age, we just stop running.( physically, that is) Well, sometimes I do run up the stairs but that’s just not what I mean, so we can ignore that.

Funniest part: There was a toy train, and there was us sitting on the toy train. Normally people have this tendency of making a lot of noise when the train passes through a tunnel. We decided to use this noise-making very constructively, and decided that instead of screaming, we would just say “Mine Mine Mine”, like those seagulls in Finding Nemo very loud. It was an absolute RIOT!! Everybody in the train took it up, voices of various tones and hues and frequency levels. I bet we scared the fishies! *grin*

Slept the evening. Woke up sometime at night, and by reflex, clicked on the Return to Castle Wolfenstein shortcut. Switched off the light. Lemme tell you, the game looks abso-freakin-lutely wonderful with the light switched off. Played and played and played and all of a sudden, the game was over. Yippeee!!! Then I had eight oranges to celebrate, and passed out.

I hurt my butt bad on Sunday. Slipped on a puddle of water in the kitchen. Aforementioned puddle came from this wacky idea of mine to leave the drinking-water tap on in the night. Woke up early, heard water splashing real loud and bounded to turn off the tap. Ker-whammo! Ditched plans for breakfast out of sympathy.

AR Rahman double bill in the afternoon – Bombay and Roja back-to-back, to a packed audience. And then my eighth viewing of Kill BIll. Then when everybody left, I played some Syberia, and started reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card ( which was a reco from contentedbloke, you were right, dude, it’s magnifique ) and wrote cds for serioussam.

Some random stuff:

• Reading the first couple of pages of a sci-fi book is like being put in a zero-gravity room.
• Reading William Buck’s Ramayana makes me want to learn Sanskrit, just to savour the descriptive passages.
• Links accidentally stumbled upon over the weekend:

  An interview with Neil Gaiman about his book on H2G2.

  Way back in the 80’s, Eclipse comics published a comic-book featuring a character called Miracleman, with stories by Alan Moore and later, Neil Gaiman. The history of the Miracleman character here, and the archives of the comic-book here.

• I have read three and one-sixth of these. Not good at all!

Ok, the haiku sucked. So did the experience.

I went and bought Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne two days ago, along with Mafia. It was Payne I had gone to find and it was Payne that I tried installing first.

Dung! It didn’t even detect the first disc. Tried all possible methods including a dos-copy of the files to the HD first, and then a linux-copy. Didn’t work. Mafia installed properly, but even when I tried out the initial heist-getaway episode of Mafia, my mind was screaming Payne-ful obscenities at pirates who didn’t bother to be diligent enough to check whether the stuff they are selling work or not. Whatever happened to honour among thieves?

Yesterday at lunchtime, I popped over to Koti again and exchanged the it. There were no other copies of Payne2 left. ( Oooh, it burns me up to think that at this moment, there are other snotty brats in my city who are actually playing Max Payne 2 and I. COULDN’T. GET. THE. CD. Double dung! )

Well, anyways, I got Halo: Combat Evolved and Star Wars:Jedi Academy. Three cds for the price of two, because, as I explained to the shop-owner, I actually had had to spend a lot of money on the auto-fare ( thankfully, he didn’t say anything smart-alecky about taking the bus ). Came back and checked to see that both of them were working. Hmm. Didn’t install them, will finish Return To Castle Wolfenstein first, and then look for alternatives.

Yum, yum, yum, I am getting a joystick for the first time in my life!!! Yippeee-de-do-dah!!

Good Experience of the Week: Whee! I got Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells II as a gift from Chandru! The original TB is not to be found anywhere ( in CD format, tapes being available. Somewhat. ) This one’s not too bad, got some rehashes of the familiar Tubular Bells theme. Unluckily, with all the game-frenzy, I have been unable to give it a proper listen. Well, the weekend should take care of that.

Embarassing Experience of the Week: The fly of my Jeans refusing to close after a quick trip to the loo…

The calendar on my desk, the one with the oddball words of advice for every day of the year. says: Evil multiplies when good men don’t champion what’s right. For some odd reason, I see Dr. Evil in his hideout, saying “4 times 20 is 90, no, 80″…..