Congrats Sachin, on your 100th 100!!

Tendulkar hits his 100th hundred

Sachin finally did it.. AWESOME!! The best cricket player in whole world has finally done it. We all have been waiting for this moment, like forever. Creating so much pressure on him. Almost forgetting all the wonderful cricket he has played in past 22 years, the 99 centuries, the 33K+ runs. ANyways, he has finally did it & we are all very HAPPY. He deserved this & made this happen. I think its possible that he'll retire after this series? I think so.. Anyways, CONGRATULATIONS SACHIN!! (lets hope India also wins this match)

Don't work after 8pm, Gurgaon tells women... REALLY? WTF??

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/12254740.cms

Seriously? That's what they are telling?? After numerous incidents of rape & molestation in past days, that's the solution they have come up with. And we live in a the biggest democracy of the world. WTF???? You gotta be not kidding me but REAL STUPID. Or should I use a more horrible word!! Just go &  find the culprits and hang them.. publicly. So others can get a lesson that what kind of punishment they'll get if there sick minds ever even imagine of any such crimes. Do your job right and stop playing a stupid dictator. Or none of these idiots should be even paid..... Sorry, my blog is read by families &minors maybe and I am just being very-very polite, but I am REALLY MAD. We all should be MAD and have to get this MADNESS fixed. or God Help Us!!!!

Chronicle (7/10) & Red Tails (5/10)

Chronicle is a fun movie about bunch of young high school boys gaining super power & dealing with it by not becoming super heroes but being stupid. Nice concept & good execution too. Performances were good by all the boys & emotions have been well played too (ppl cried). The movie does has you asking for lil more maybe, in terms of action & happening at few places but overall its a fun to watch movie. Use of many cameras is mart giving exposure to better camera angles than usual found footage movies.

Red Tails is a 58 million disaster. Its based on Tuskegee Airmen, the bunch of African American soldiers who fought in WWII. Its extremely corny, filled with cliches & bad performances too. Cuba Gooding Jr whatever happened to you man? You were such a nice actor!! He's just standing & smoking pipe through out the movie, looking extremely bored & un-interested. Anyways, the action sequences with planes are nice & the concept is wonderful &true. Only if the movie would've been made well...

A very-very special post..

It's the leap day today afterall, wont be Feb 29th for another 4 years... And my first time writing a blog on LEAP DAY.... For whatever day you maybe celebrating today.. Congratulations & Happy "*" day!!

Oscars, Academy Awards 2012

Academy Awards 2012 were held today & the results were:

1. Best Film: The Artist - I was surprised a little, cuz I thought it could/should be Hugo. Similar concept but grander execution & stunningly beautiful.
2. Best Director: Michel Hazanivicius - Could've been Marty but thsi was well deserved. Making a silent likable movie is quite a task.
3. Best Actor: Jean Dujardin (The Artist) - Very surprising actually. I thought it would be George Clooney or Brad Pitt or someone. A french guy with no dialogues to say except 2 words. But he was definitely very good in the movie & deserved it I guess..
4. Best Actress: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) - She's so damn beautiful even now. I haven't seen the movie but with 17 nominations and 3rd win, I am not sure that she deserved it for thi smovie or not, but good she got it.
5. Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners) - I remember him from Girl with Dragon Tattoo & haven't sene this but dunno.. must be good or just got it cuz he's 82?
6. Best Supporting Actress: Ocatvia Spencer (The Help) - I haven't seen this movie or her. Did she get it cuz she's black woman? Just kidding.. I think she probably is very good and didn't have Meryl for competition
7. Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) - I have not been able to see this movie inspite of my multiple attempts through Netflix. I got the disc but it didn't play, got 2 more but they didn't play sound, getting a dvd now. Anyways, I like Woody Allen a lot and waiting to watch this awesome movie.
8. Best Animation feature: Rango - That's the only animation I had seen out of all nominees & it won.. not fair, but it happens.

You can see the other results which were mostly swept by Hugo I think, nobody seems to care much about the other technical categories but they are important and contribute heavily in making a good movie (although we find it boring & that's why I am skipping talking about them). AR Rahman was orchestrating the music I think, i did see him playing which was cool. I didn't like Billy Crystal's hosting, but much better than last year. But Jon Stewart was much better, or even NPH at Tonys (NPH should get to host Oscars!!).

I also watched two movies: 2001 a Space Odyssey (8/10) was pretty cool but I wasn't blown away by it. Although, I enjoyed the extras much more. Tells you how it was so awesome for that time. The visual effects, the imagination, the execution etc and the music is all just AWESOME. I didn't get the plot a lot initially & didn't make lot of sense but I kinda get it now. Stanley is definitely a filmmaker's filmmaker, a great guy. I also watched Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (7/10), which I thought was a rip-off of What Happens in Vegas; but it was not. It's a good movie with ok performance by Imran Khan (he sometimes seems dead-ish, cinema should be more cinematic I think), decent performance by Kareena (she suits these kind of crazy roles) and good plot, interesting ending and great name of the lead guy.. RAHUL!!

Happy Birthday Sister!!

Om Namah Shivay.. MahaShivRatri!!

Happy MahaShivRatri to all Shivabhaktas... Har-Har-Har Mahadev, Jai Shiva Shankar!!

Trip to Providence RI = AWESOME

What an awesome weekend, with a totally awesome trip to Providence, RI. Its around 200 miles from Jersey City, driving on I-95 N. We started Saturday morning & the drive was nice with two Cracker Barrels & lots of Mcdonalds on both sides. The stay in Marriott Courtyard Providence Downtown was great, its right in center of the city, walking distance to everything. So walk around downtown Providence in the evening was fun - visit/walk in Brown University (another Ivy League conquered!!) to Prospect Terrace Park (surprisingly nice view of the city & all that) & walk on Benefit Street (maybe it was just time of the day, but BORING).. Most of the time was spent in the hotel having FUN. I got a free upgrade to a room with whirlpool/jacuzzi (those can get real dirty after use, glad I am not the one who had to clean it) and nice view. Thoroughly enjoyed the gym (worked out twice), swimming pool (tried to swim once) & spa at the hotel. Also ordered "stuffed" pizza in room for dinner, while watching Russel Peters.. REALLY NICE!! 

Next day after more hotel fun (same stuff, but still fun) we decided to go to Warwick, RI. First stop the Warwick Light House which was not easy to locate (drive straight on Warwick Neck Av. till dead end) was closed doors, 4 cars had to turn back. Then 5 mins drive to Oakland Beach, which is nice small rocky beach. Then to Apponaug Village (where was it? is it real??), right next to famous City Hall, Public Library & Art Museum etc. Surprisingly enough, everything but a Walgreens store & a Chinese Restaurant was closed, everything... So drove straight back, stopping in Stamford, CT for dinner at a nice Italian Place called ZaZa (best Italian food I have ever had!!). Then back home in time to watch Scarface (8/10), quite a movie... Quite an awesome weekend!!

P.S. Quite a great foodie weekend too - Not just the best Italian food with various tapas', pasta & crushed cannoli; great "stuffed" pizza; nice Korean lunch (in Providence); delicious burritos & quesadillas (in NYC).. I also enjoyed some "delicious" home made Lava Cake this weekend, really memorble with long lasting effects :)

12 02/2012

What's that? Today's date in Indian/European style, 12 February 2012. Or in US, 02/12/2012. Nice date huh? It's not bad for sure.. Anyways, this weekend's been mostly a cleanup weekend for bedroom floor, kitchen counter-top & living room area. Which was nice & quite an accomplishment. Also watched 2 movies, again.. The Artist (8/10) which is a great film (here in US, we make movies, american movies.. leave the films to french) with nice performances, good story line, great visuals & great dialogues.. oops, almost no dialogues but I could feel them & felt nice. It's almost a silent movie with mostly soundtrack only. & it's black & white. Still lot of fun to watch, great job for sure!! Also watched Woman in Black  (6/10) starring our good old Dan the Harry Potter. Well, he's older now, playing a widower dad.. and he does quite well. But I do not really appreciate horor movies who just try to scare you with shock value & loud sounds but nothing really scary to arouse your fear from inside. That's what this does mostly so not super-impressed. But if you are a fan of horror genre or dan, you can go & watch it for once. Also went to this decent diner next to water in Edgewater, NJ (apparently, Whitney's mom lives here) and had this nice Banana Split.. YUM!!!!

Sad news for many, Whiteny Houston died yesterday... RestInPeace Whitney!!

Annie Hall (10/10)

La-dee-da, la-dee-daa... I just watched Annie Hall, one of the most wonderful, entertaining & fun movies I have seen. Yeah.. I am giving it 10/10, cuz I loved it so much. It's funny, it's neurotic, it's crazy, it's silly, its smart & it's AWESOME!! It's my kinda movie, like my style... Woody Allen is so smart with his dialogues, his ideas, his actors, & everything... His frequent breaking of fourth wall is so nice (same as I talk to U guys.. U think he copied me?). Watching of past events live, very well used. Great concept & thinking behind the movie too. It's story of a neurotic jew comedian, born & brought up in Brooklyn & living in Manhattan. He meets Annie (beautiful & wonderful Diane Keaton, really great), he dates annie, they break up, they get together, they breakup & all that. Lot of stuff happens in between.. in New York and some in "LA, the city where only cultural advantage is being able to make right turn on red light", LOL. Just watch the movie & you'll love it.... Congratulations & Kudos Woody Allen (I know it means a lot to you & you've been waiting for this)!!

NY Giants WON Superbowl

That's the biggest news of the weekend of course. Second news is I went to Metropolitan Museum of Art which is not just an Art Museum as I thought or people may expect but has lots of awesome artistic & historic & cultural artifacts including, sculptures, paintings, crafts, designs and lot of awesome stuff from all over the world. I saw some Egyptian & Indian stuff only with little Japanese & American/European paintings etc. It's really huge too, I probably saw just 10% of it. Third news is, I saw Tree of Life (5/10). One of most boring movies I have seen in a while. Good performances & great imagery but BS movie. Overall, it was a nice weekend!!

Agneepath (8/10) & Underworld 4 (5/10)

After last "Quite a Weekend", I watched 2 movies today.. Agneepath is definitely a great movie.. very well acted, very well presented & very well done. As most of you may know that it's remake of 1990 movie of same name with Amitabh Bachchan in lead role & directed by Mukul S Anand. I honestly do not remember a lot from the movie except Amitabh's introduction as Vijay Deenanath Cahuhan, his white suits, some fights & the climax scene (spoiler) where he dies in his mother's arms. I do remember Mithun da as Krishna Iyer MA, which role has been completely eliminated from this movie. But Karan Malhotra has added Rauf Lala played by Rishi Kapoor in negative role, which is most definitely one of his greatest performance & highlight of the movie. Rishi is menacing, mean, crooked, fierce & BAD.. & most definitely REAL. Unlike Kancha Cheena played by Sanjay Dutt, which is definitely a great performance by him, but seems quite unrealistic & out of place for the movie. He has this semi-devil kinda role which would be great in a mythology or fantasy or some crazy movie, but does not seesms to fit in well in this movie.. which in turn make the Scene with Sanjay Dutt not as fantastic.. which in turn makes the whole climax scene in Mandwa, not as awesome as you would expect. Because movie has got you in high wits and emotional state by 2/3rd of the movie with all the things going on, some great scenes between Hrithik (who's at his usual best, nothing exceptional but very good) & Priyanka (who's really good in the movie), mother-son scenes & ofcourse Scenes with Rishi. Regardless, it's a fantastic movie with great visuals, background score, music, dialogues & performances. Definitely a must watch great movie!!

Underworld Awakening on the other side was quite a bore.. or maybe not. Wasn't horrible, it was just what you expect. But definitely not as good as first two movies. It's very low on content & high on action. 3D is again a misuse and just seems the money making scam. It was a an okay/kinda-fun watch.. If you are an Underworld or Vampire franchise  fan.. then go ahead!!

Quite a Weekend.. Really!!

Why? Well.. it all started on Friday when I was supposed to take Bolt Bus to DC from Newark and I ended up on bus to Boston.. yeah!! The driver checked the ticket and didn't say anything and I thought it was bus to DC as it was on same spot & boarded it. No announcements made either.. Half way through I realized I am on wrong bus and asked the driver, he tells me I need to go to Boston & take another Bus back. WTF? I call customer care & they get me to dispatch, which tells me to get off at rest stop Burger King & they'll have bus to NY from Boston pick me &take to NYC where I can take bus to DC. They talk to driver about location & the idiot again screws up by giving them wrong location. I end up waiting 4.5 hrs at that stop when after making five calls, finally a bus shows up. I get in NYC at 10 where I finally board Megabus (which I don't like, but they came to my rescue) to DC reaching DC at 2 in night after 15 hrs of journey.. Could have made to India in that time!!

Next day i.e. Saturday, paid a visit to National Zoo in DC with Tani. Small zoo, but okay. Orangutans & Gorrillas there are nice & active & smart seeming. Orangutans take the high rope & fly across one cage to another, was fun to watch. One was pissing & pooping while hanging in air, weirdo.. The other specialty is Giant Panda. They were being leased fro $1 Million until recently and now US is paying $500,000 to China. All they do, is sit & eat Bamboo. For that kinda money, they should do a dance show or something... Regardless, it was fun but the evening was not. Went to Amy's birthday party at PF Chang in Arlington where I was served with completely wrong dish, extreme opposite of what I ordered. The manager came & apologized & all that, but still.. very-very bad.. We did get free appetizer coupons  and $45 gift card for me & Amy each. So anyways, all in all, it was REALLY.. QUITE a WEEKEND!!

Happy India Republic Day 2012!!

Jay Leno's insult to Sikh

US defends comedian Jay Leno jibe

Really? Why so?? With republic day coming tomorrow.. I mean, maybe be more open to humor... I do not personally approve of what Leno did, I don't even like him actually. But this is right of free speech and what he showed what just sarcastic skit. Didn't say anything in particular about Sikhs or the religion at al in this skit. So maybe  loosen up & take it easy. We see even more in India itself, direct insults & dis-respect. This is an American guy just doing his job the way he does it.. & it didn't show any direct dis-respect to sikhs or even Golden Temple.. Maybe we as a country and as Indian people need to losen up a little & take things easy??

General Motors Diet Plan & SNOW

Should I call it Part 2? Returns? Back? Again? Or what?? I was on the GM Diet Plan again, today being the last day. How was it? Good!! (I did cheat once on Day 3 by eating 2 rusks and 2 kachoris, real bad of me huh). I started last tuesday and finished today. I have not been back to Gym since last August due to various reasons and just wanted to lose some weight, detox & feel good. I do feel good. Crash diets are not easy, probably not good either, but this one is good I think.... The weekend was pretty slow with SNOW & cold & all that, with mostly sleeping -> waking up at 10-11 -> preparing & eating diet food -> watching movie/tv/show -> quick nap of an hour -> waking up & watching movie/tv/show -> preparing eating food -> watching movie/tv/show -> sleeping. Sounds boring?? It really wasn't that bad.. Here's what I watched:

• Good Will Hunting (9/10) Amazing performances, excellent storyline.. Ben & Matt are great in not just writing this story but acting too, Ben's scene with Matt where he tells him he'll kill him is awesome.. just a great movie!!
• Following (8/10) One point extra for being made with so low budget. This first feature film of Chris Nolan, could show you what's in future of this great director (FYI: he has achieved it!!).
• Cashback (5/10) Interesting idea but not that well executed, it's alright.
• Donnie Brasco (8/10) Quite a nice not-so-mob movie with great performances and interesting storyline based on real story. Forget-about-it!!
• GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra (6/10) Great Action & FUN.. but that's it.

So.. thanks for reading (so generous of me!!) & feel free to comment (like you are dependent on my instructions) & keep coming back and.. that's it!!

Wikipedia Blackout - How to bypass?

As usual, I was searching for something yesterday after midnight on Google & then clicked on Wikipedia link to it.. lo'behold (does that mean anything? is it appropriate??) Wikipedia is on blackout for 24 hrs & this is what they say:

Imagine a World
Without Free Knowledge

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.

I do not know much about SOPA & PIPA, but I would like to support something Wikipedia is supporting cuz I like them & they seem to be non-profit kinds. I don't know right now, but I like them for sure cuz they are source of lot of my knowledge. But anyways, its the same for many of you & I am giving a way here to be able to bypass this blackout & read the information you need:

Method 1

Step one: Search for the Wikipedia page you want to view

Step two: Wait for the page and the blackout to load fully.

Step three: Add '?banner=none' to the end of the existing URL and press enter.

Method 2

Step one: Use a search engine to find the Wikipedia page you want to read.

Step two: Once you have have clicked on the page you want to see, you need to click the 'Stop loading this page' button in the address bar of your web browser before the Wikipedia flash page loads. You may need to hit refresh a few times to get used to the timing. (See right)

 Note: You will have a one or two second window to stop the page loading before the black out flash page takes over the site. So it's just a matter of timing when you stop the page loading.

Alternatively you can Google to search for the Wikipedia page you want to read.

Method 3

Step one: Perform a Google search for the Wikipedia page you want to view, allow the page load as normal and wait for the blackout to takeover.

Step two: Copy and paste the URL back into a Google search and hover your mouse over the relevant result, then click on the '>>' symbol.

Step three: You will then see a cached preview image of the Wikipedia page you have searched for. You'll also find the word 'Cached' at the top of the preview image, click on this and it will take you to a non-blacked out Wikipedia page - however, the page will most probably be one day out of date.

Method 4

Step one: Download the official Wikipedia app for your smartphone or tablet. The black out has not effected mobile devices.

Before you bypass the black out, you might like read Wikipedia's statement on why it's "blacking out" its content for 24 hours, to see whether you agree or disagree with its stance.

New Hope PA & Lambertville NJ | Princeton University | Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall.. & Movies!!!!

Yep. that was my long weekend. Full of activities - Really FULL. On Saturday, went to New Hope PA & Lambertville NJ which are right on the banks of Delaware river on either side. It's a beautiful little town with nice restaurants & small non-chain shops (I bought Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh in 3D, without glasses) & all that.. pretty & cute. We had a meal at Marsha's Brown, a protestant church converted into a restaurant - nice food, great vibe, interesting place but bad service (maybe it was just the server guy we got & the girl, both!!). Overall, it was really nice!!

Then, the next stop was Princeton University, I likes it. Nice campus, looks lil like Harvard, but more organised & nicer campus. After a lil hangout there, went to Bent Spoon for a dessert - lovely place & great service (the girl kept asking to try more & more stuff). They have great hot chocolate, loved the habanero flavor. The ginger ice-cream was very good & they have very nice cookies & cupcakes specially I hear. Woudl love to visit Princeton again soon. On the way back stopped at the Durga Temple, a north Indian temple, which was very nice too.

Sunday was the visit to Jersey Garden Outlet Mall, which is huge & nice & indoor (thankfully, for the freezing sub-zero weather). there was 40% store wide discount sale at Old Navy, which made me buy lots of pants & shirts there and at Marshalls. Also watched lots of movies over the week/weekend:

• Sucker Punch (7/10): Nice action & imagination & interesting story
• Take Me Home Tonight (5/10): Kinda funny & okay
• Band Baja Baraat (8/10): Very well made, great performances by Ranveer & Anushka
• Freakonomics (8/10): Very interesting & FUN
• Sherlock (9/10): This is British TV show but I love there adoption of Sherlock, one of the best.. almost better than the movies!!

That was pretty much it, I guess.. how about you??

Got my New Jersey License & Car Regn.

So, today I got my New Jersey Driving License. Also, got the Car Title & Registration, moved to New Jersey. I went to the center in Jersey City and it wasn't bad at all. Took like an hour or so to get all 3 done. I was impressed how easy it was. For license, just make sure you have proper 6 point verification documents. Go to the reception, where they give you 2 small forms. Fill all info, get the documents verified, get picture taken & get license in few mins (this does not include driving test). Title & registration was even easier, just make sure you have original title on you and rest is taken care of by filing 2 small forms with car & your NJ DL info. Getting personalized plate is little pain as you have to get it from Trenton DMV or do it online. Also.. for change/transfer, I also had to call Virginia DMV & County Tax office to tell them of move so they can cancel my registration & not charge me any car tax. (One bad thing is that Virginia does not refund your registration money back unless its more than 6 months :-()

It's been as low as 10 F(-12 C). My room was so cold last night, I almost couldn't sleep. I have steam heating, which I think is very good, makes it more than 80s sometimes & I have to crack the window open, but been cold last 2 days. Maybe it was because of this very cold weather or there is a window open somewhere in the house. Need to check....

Happy New Year 2012!!!!

After 2011.. Happy New Year 2012 to all my followers/readers & everyone!!!!

Had a good new year's day taking stroll in Liberty State Park.. eating at India Street at some new 'Haleem restaurant' with delicious chat & nice haleem.. and then watching Pirates of Caribbean's: On Stranger Tides (5/10: not really good, not funny, not nice action and not understandable either. lemurly lemurable). Looking forward for one of the most wonderful years, till date, this year!!!!