Try These....

Movie: American Gangster
I watched a few of the new movies this month but they aren't very good, except for this one. Denzel Washington is brilliant in it. When he says "My man" you feel like smiling, and at the same time chilled to the bone.

Television: Chuck (NBC)
This is a must-watch serial for geeks. Chuck is a lovable, innocent, geeky bloke who fixes computers at Nerd Herd for a living. One day he receives an email from his old college pal and when he opens it, there is a short puzzle in the form of a scene from one of those old text-based computer games (which is very good protection, if you think about it :) ). And when Chuck solves it, he is sent into trance by a flood of images... hours later, the images stop, he faints, the computer crashes... and when he wakes up, he has all the secrets of the CIA and the NSA in his head. The two agencies want to kill him... except, the facility from which those secrets were stolen was one of a kind, and was destroyed. So they have no choice but to use him, and Chuck is forced to do spy-type stuff. Cool idea na? There are some really hilarious parts, like when Chuck is forced to prove his identity by speaking in Klingon. Five stars from me any day.

Books: Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson
I've read so many fantasy series that I can't keep count, but the only really good author that I feel like recommending (other than my perennial favourite Raymond Feist) is this guy. The series is not for the faint of heart, though. You get pulled into a rich, complex fantasy realm and an epic struggle, and Erikson doesn't try to explain things, you understand more about the land as you read more. Which is just the way I like it.


Cheers,
Prashanth.

Atra du evarinya ono varda

(Means, "May the stars watch over you")

I just finished reading Christopher Paolini's books Eragon and Eldest, and I was pleasantly surprised by their quality. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, Eragon is a fantasy fiction book that Paolini started writing when he was 15 and got published when he was 19, and became a bestseller. It was made into a movie earlier this year, which unfortunately was not very good. I watched the movie the week it was released, and combined with that and the fact that Eragon was in the Children's section at the public library here, I was not very enthusiastic about reading it.

But I was wrong. The series is quite interesting thus far, with few of the flaws you would expect from a young writer. The characters are well fleshed out, the hero is very human and makes mistakes, and Paolini has created a whole new language complete with grammar and syntax. This language is spoken by the race of the elves, and one cannot lie when speaking it; it is also the language used for structuring and casting magical spells. However, the story is a little predictable and there are a few logical inconsistencies; still, they do not detract much from the enjoyment of the tale. I highly recommend the book for fantasy fans in the teen and young adult age group, if you are older of course I have better fantasy writers to suggest :)

Paolini is a few months younger than me and the third book of the series is scheduled to be released in Sep 2008.

Eka fricai un Shur'tugal (I am a friend and a Dragonrider)
Prashanth.

Only two things in life are certain...

Death and Taxes.

I just watched the movie Meet Joe Black on TV. I've seen it before, but by some weird coincidence I've only managed to catch it at or after the scene where "Joe" is introduced to the family. This time, though, I watched the movie from the beginning... and was quite amused by some subtle statements that I didn't quite get the significance of earlier.

For example, there is a scene where Joe tells Susan Parish, "Be sorry for nothing."

In general, good advice... but when Death tells you to be sorry for nothing, it takes on a whole new meaning. Which one of us can truly say, "I have done nothing in my life to be sorry for"? It takes a lot of wisdom gleaned from experience before one can claim to be sure that one is doing the right thing... and sometimes even that is not enough. Good intentions are seldom enough for you to be able to say later, "I have no regrets." Life is just too full of uncertainties.

After all, the only two things that are certain are Death and Taxes.

I have noticed that of late, I have been contradicting myself on my blog, with my mixed emotions, hopes and moods being transparent to all. I don't mind it. I meant to share those thoughts. Things have been tough, and I have only recently come to understand that there are no quick fixes in life. Everything takes time. And effort. But with those experiences come maturity, and stability. Wisdom, it appears, is forged like steel on hot coals.

Be sorry for nothing, he said. A worthy thing to aspire to. I will do my best, as always, to behave in such a way that at the end of the day I can say I have nothing to be sorry for. Who knows, one day I might achieve it.

Cheers,
Prashanth.