Turn, Turn, Turn

Seasons change so quickly! Which one do you most look forward to? Which is your least favorite?

I used to always love the rainy seasons. As long as I have a nice big umbrella, I don’t catch bad colds or fevers and the power doesn’t go out as often as it can, then I am all for rainy season. It’s so nice when it rains a lot over here. But lately, as in the last couple of years or so I have begun to prefer the months that immediately follow the rains. That being November, December & January.

The weather has been great during these months the last couple of years. November too although we have occasional showers during that month. It’s cool during these months, I don’t sweat when I am walking on the streets and it’s very very pleasant. I have loved those three months since 2015 onwards and long may it continue because we could use more of them.

What I hate the most is February, March, April, May & beginning of June until the rains start because boy is it hot and muggy and you need to be inside and with the ac cranked up. It is terribly hot and humid and we sweat buckets.

Prompt from The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Ring Of Fire

Do you love hot and spicy foods or do you avoid them for fear of what tomorrow might bring?

Well I like spicy foods but not overly spicy and crazy heat that burns you as it goes in and burns on the way it goes out through your anus. Milder heat is good and adds some flavour and pizzazz to your food. And it tastes good. LIke some people don’t like the pickles you get get with shawarma. I love those and don’t think they are really hot but it’s a delight. Beside I can always lick some hummus or mayo that comes along with the shawarmas to drown the heat.

Some people think jalapenos are spicy! Geeze Louise, peppa cheese!  And some think the pickled cucumbers or carrots are spicy! Aww babies! Suck on some candy. I do like some spiciness but when they blow it out of proportion and make it seem like they added gunpowder to the dish, then it’s crazy. One time I was in a bar and along with my beers I was eating some pepper pork and they added way too much pepper to suit my taste. It was like they added some pork to a bowl full of pepper and not the other way round.

And some Kerala dishes like chicken or beef they added chillies by the dozen or even fish curries. Green and red and all kinds of chillies. I do think that having some of them will cure your cold and blow out your sinuses but not at the cost of sitting in the toilet with a red anus as you blow out some of that heat. Moderation is key!

Prompt from The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Take That, Rosetta!

If you could wake up tomorrow and be fluent in any language you don’t currently speak, which would it be? Why? What’s the first thing you do with your new linguistic skills?

Easy! French. It is the poshest and most coolest language around. Also the most sexual and romantic sounding language around. If I woke up tomorrow with the ability to speak impeccable French, I would flaunt it. Flaunt it at the opposite sex. Ma cherie, voulez-vous coucher avec moi? In a French accent, I imagine if I said that and with my charm, I would get the little ladies to rip off their panties in a jiffy! I am terrible, I know!

Seriously I love the way that the words flow & sound in French. If not French then it would be Spanish because nothing sounds more exciting the way it is spoken in Spanish. You could be describing a mundane evening of making a sandwich, watching tv alone at home and watching Youtube before going to bed at 11pm and it would still sound like the exciting build up on a football pitch before a magnificent goal! The Spanish speaking population is that excitable.

A third language would be Klingon. So I can quote Klingon proverbs at you before I kill you with my Bat’leth, you p’takh with no honour!

Prompt from The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Still Tired

Well day 1 of this night shift went ok. Not much stuff to do other than organizing things. A few laughs as well. Dinner sucked because not only did we go in late but the food ran out as we had new caterers at our office. I dunno why the previous vendor was changed but I saw in the office email flyers that we had a new caterer with a rather more limited menu for the next few day and the second counter, which was usually all vegetarian, would be closed till the 15th of July. They usually run two main vendors, one for meat – usually chicken and beef and perhaps fish – with choices like rice, plain or white, fried rice, porotta, chappathy, dosa or poori and biryani – and the other that serves mostly only vegetarian food.

Well this new vendor had run out of food but they had someone bring in more only we had to wait. Instead I went to tea/coffee and snacks counter as they can make some Maggi instant noodles with eggs and a masala mix. So I ate that and then went back to work. At 3:30 am I went down for some coffee and a snack and by 5:30 am I booked my Uber and came home by 6 am. No time for breakfast but I did have a couple of cookies and drink of water before I went straight to bed to sleep for 7 solid hours. But I am still sleepy. And tired. I had lunch as soon as I woke u and then lay back down to watch some Battlestar Galactica and the final episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 1. Then I came online.

I will go take a shower now (it’s 6pm) and slowly get ready. I just know that I will be really exhausted by the end of this work week.

Late Evening Shifts

Well back to late evening shifts again. Only it’s probably only for one week. Let’s hope!

For the next one week I will be working from 9:30 pm to 6:30 am or atleast that is what was scheduled. Due to some logistical issues with a new set of employees and getting cabs to get them to the office, they might be able to be scheduled for the 8:30 pm shift and if so I too will do the same shift.

I hate late evening shifts. Coming in after 4am, the problem is I do not sleep well during the day. The sunlight, no matter how tightly I wrap the curtains across, is an issue. Some construction still work going on nearby (I can hear them during some hours of the day). A doorbell and people talking can wake me. I usually end up feeling very tired and drink way too many cups of coffee. Also this shift means that Saturdays is going to be mostly a waste. Cause I will be tired and unable to go out on Saturday.

Atleast I hope this is only for one week. I hope! I don’t mind 6:30 am to 3:30 am shifts and I am used to it. 7:30 pm is harder and 8:30 pm or 9:30 pm is going to be even harder.

Going Out & Dodging The Rains

So yesterday was’t as fun a day as I wanted as things didn’t go as expected. I had initially planned on going to Edapally and try out this restaurant and grill that I had been dying to try for several months. They have some amazing looking burgers and steaks and I thought of going there first as people have raved about it. I had wanted to leave by 11:30 am to reach there by 12 but I left it late in the day. The plan was to go there, get a burger or something then come back to Marine Drive and check out the phones. But it was already noon when I left home, having been lazy due to the rains.

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So instead I waited for the rains to quite down and then took a hot shower and went to Marine Drive. I got a new battery for mum’s phone and then went to a bigger store to find me a deal on the Moto G 4 plus or alternatively the Moto M. They didn’t have the Moto M but I was leaning towards the G 4 plus anyways. And sadly they didn’t have one in black but only in white and there was no way that I was going to get gold. It looks ugly. So anyway, I bought the phone with an exchange for my Samsung though in retrospect I should have just waited and gotten a black one off of Amazon and then gone back to them and sold my Samsung. It would have been cheaper too I guess.

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Once that was done, I came out into the street and realized that I now had to download the app for Uber and since it was taking some time and I started to feel very hungry, what with not having had any breakfast, and since it was starting to drizzle again, I stepped into Tea O’Clock for some coffee. I did not have coffee but instead had a shake and some fries. I waited there for the rains to get stop and then went to Center Mall for some shopping for groceries and stuff. That took me a while and by the time I had paid for my things I was tired and hungry again. I got me a small pizza, personal sized with chicken tikka and chicken sausages in it, and a vanilla berry shake then went on home by which time it had really started to pour. I just about managed to avoid getting myself drenched as the Uber parked at my gate and I ran in.

The Void

The Void is a 2016 Canadian horror film written and directed by Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie, and produced by Jonathan Bronfman and Casey Walker. It stars Aaron Poole as deputy Daniel Carter, Kenneth Welsh as Dr. Powell, Daniel Fathers as Vincent, Kathleen Munroe as Allison, and Ellen Wong as Kim. The film was originally crowdfunded on Indiegogo and had raised $82,510. The film was originally shown at the 2016 Fantastic Fest and later at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. It was given a limited theatrical release in April 2017, initially opening in 31 theaters and later expanding to 50. It grossed an estimated $55,000 on its opening weekend.

You get an 80s horror vibe with this flick, with parts of the plot reminding me of The Beyond. As the movie starts we see junkie James running from a farm house in the middle of nowhere, with a woman also running just behind him. The duo are behind chased by Vincent & his son Simon who catch up with the woman and shoot her before burning her. James stumbles onto the road and is found by Deputy Daniel Carter who puts him into his car on seeing his bruises and wounds. He calls it in and reluctantly takes James to the nearest hospital, Marsh County, which is where his estranged wife Allison works as a nurse. The hospital is about to shut down after a fire destroyed much of the basement and other parts of the building. Dr. Richard Powell, nurses Allison and Beverly, intern Kim, pregnant girl Maggie, her grandfather Ben, and patient Cliff are the only ones remaining as the equipment and files are being packed to ship to a new hospital.

Bev is caught in a trance and murdering Cliff with her skin removed from her face. Beverly moves toward Daniel who shoots her dead. Daniel collapses due to a seizure and experiences a strange vision. State trooper Mitchell comes in to the hospital to collect James after discovering a bloody scene at the farmhouse. Daniel goes outside to call in Beverly’s death from his patrol car, but is confronted by robed cultists, one of who wound him. He kills the man and runs back in. Daniel and Mitchell rush into James’ room when they hear him screaming. They find Beverly’s corpse has transformed into a tentacled creature as Daniel and Mitchell rescue James and lock Beverly in the room. In the lobby, Vincent and Simon enter and hold the group at gunpoint, demanding to get to James. James takes Maggie as hostage and stabs and kills Dr. Powell when he tries to calm him down. The creature emerges from Beverly’s room and devours Mitchell. Vincent and Simon kill the creature and regroup with the others in the lobby. Vincent and Simon accompany Daniel to retrieve a shotgun from a patrol car, while Alison ventures into the basement to collect medical supplies for delivering Maggie’s baby.

Powell rises from the ground seemingly still alive and follows Alison and captures her. On discovering that Alison is missing, Daniel and Vincent search for her and find photographs and files indicating Powell was the cult’s leader. Powell phones Daniel, taunting him and mentions the vision he experienced while unconscious. Leaving Maggie & Ben in Kim’s hands, Daniel, Vincent & Simon force James to go down to the basement with them in search for Alison. James explains that Powell has the power to transform people and he was reluctantly drawn into the cult by a woman on the promise of sex and meth. Alison regains consciousness on an operating table where Powell explains he has found a way to defy death after the loss of his daughter Sarah. Having cut off his face, Powell shows Alison that something now grows inside her. Daniel, Vincent, Simon, and James find a hidden area in the basement and end up surrounded by deformed corpses brought back to life. One of the creatures kills James as the other three men get separated.

As Maggie enters labor, Kim hesitates to perform a C-section. As Ben pleads with Kim, Maggie stands and slits his throat, revealing she is carrying Dr. Powell’s child. Kim hides as cultists enter the building and Maggie leaves. Daniel finds a pregnant Alison on a hospital bed but as he looks again sees a creature with tentacles. The vision of a pregnant Alison is one of her when she was in labour with their child and a traumatized Daniel inally attacks his wife’s mutated remains with an axe. Daniel is transported to a morgue room with a glowing triangle on the wall. Powell’s voice tells Daniel that he found the ability to conquer life and death. Powell promises that Daniel can have his child back if he is willing to die first. Maggie arrives and stabs Daniel as Powell appears without any skin in front of the triangle as Maggie kneels before him. Powell recites an incantation before the triangle as a now frightened Maggie’s torso explodes, as she births the reborn Sarah. Vincent and Simon arrive and battle the beast.

The creature attacks Vincent who pours isopropyl alcohol over it and himself, allowing Simon to kill them both with a flare. As Powell begins transforming, he tells Daniel he can be with Alison if he gives himself to the abyss. Daniel refuses and tackles him, leading both men to tumble into the void. Meanwhile, the creature pursues Simon who escapes, and is teleported back to the hospital to reunite safely with Kim. Daniel and Alison are shown in the netherworld beneath a black pyramid as they hold hands.

A slow mover that builds up in intensity and visual scares as it goes alone, the film is sure to appeal to horror fans. The ending leaves us wanting more and hoping that answers will be provided in a possible sequel or two. What is this void, what happens to Powell and Daniel & Alison in this void. What is that humongous black pyramid? I give the film a 7.5 outta 10.

Bought The Moto G4 Plus

I have bought a new phone. My Samsung Galaxy J7 was only 1.5 years old but I decided to sell it and get a new one. So I bought the Motorola Moto G4 Plus smartphone was launched in May 2016. Here are some specs:

Dimension 153 x 76.6 x 9.8 mm (6.02 x 3.02 x 0.39 in) Weight 155 g (5.47 oz)
SIM Single SIM (Micro-SIM) or Dual SIM (Micro-SIM, dual stand-by)
Screen 5.5 inches (~71.2% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
PLATFORM OS Android 7.0 (Nougat)
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617
CPU Octa-core (4×1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.2 GHz Cortex-A53)
Card slot microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot) – single & dual SIM models
Internal 16 GB, 2 GB RAM or 32 GB, 3 GB RAM or 64 GB, 4 GB RAM
CAMERA Primary 16 MP, f/2.0, phase detection & laser autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, check quality
Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama, auto-HDR
Video 1080p@30fps, HDR, check quality
Secondary 5 MP, f/2.2, auto-HDR
BATTERY Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery

I wanted the black one but the store didn’t have any and only have a few ones in gold and several in white. I went for the white one. I have installed a few apps for the moment and will take tomorrow to do the rest. As I sold my Samsung in exchange for reducing the price for this phone, I can’t shoot an unboxing for my Moto G4 plus. So instead here is a video of someone else doing a professional unboxing of the same phone.

Out Of Reach

Was there a toy or thing you always wanted as a child, during the holidays or on your birthday, but never received? Tell us about it.

I don’t think there was anything like that. I stopped being interested in toys by the time I was 11 and before that I don’t remember having any one toy that was out of my reach. I got all the toys I ever needed when I was a kid because my parents bought me a bunch and they knew when too much was too much.

I loved my toy cars and they were the ones I always enjoyed playing with. Maybe there were one or two toys that my parents didn’t get for me when I asked them (can’t remember any though) and who cares! I had plenty to play with.

Prompt from The Daily Post at WordPress.com

One Lonely Scifi Loving Geek

Explore the room you’re in as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Pretend you know nothing. What do you see? Who is the person who lives there?

Ok, so wipe my memory clean and I am entering my bedroom for the very first time. And here is what I think. I see a big bed pushed towards one side of the room, next to one set of the two windows. It’s a bed for two but only person sleeps in it. Probably a bachelor. Why? Because there is stuff on one side of the bed!

There’s an office diary, a novel, some mags of Star Trek ships, a small phone stand, a broken umbrella and an office lanyard. Definitely a bachelor. Ok, moving on we have a clothes pole with a man’s shirt and pants. Also hanging in it is an old belt and a USB cable. On a lower peg we find a dusty but still unopened plastic cover bag of a teddy bear – probably a gift. We have an old chair in one corner and on it are stacks of magazines and books, the box of a wallet, the box of an external hard disk and the box of a Samsung Galaxy phone. Clearly this person has problems with throwing away boxes. We also have a box and a model Star Trek starship that he hasn’t completed sticking the decals on.

We also have an inbuilt cupboard that has stacks of dvds, a few cds and empty covers of Star Trek starship models. Next to the chair we have a display case / bookshelf that has several Star Trek starships and a few other knickknacks. On the bottom shelf we have more empty boxes. Next to the bookshelf we have a small dustbin, the box of a Dell laptop and a plastic cover with what looks like old pc mouses and cables. Next to the door we have a small desk with a Dell laptop and speakers and a USB mouse. There are external hard drives, pens, spare batteries for the USB mouse, a modem and some old cds in cases.

Prompt from The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Phone Change?

I am thinking of buying a new phone and selling my current one. I bought my current Samsung Galaxy J7 in February of last year and I am thinking of getting either a Moto G 4 plus or 5 plus or getting the OnePlus 2. Either of these three phones will be fine. There is also the LETV Le 1s X507, Honor 6X Lenovo K6 Note or LG K10.

Any of these phones will be awesome and I am leaning towards the Moto G 4Plus but I dunno, things could change. I won’t spend more than 13-15 thousand on a smartphone. My phone cost should not be equal to more than the cost of my laptop. Since I can do a whole lot more things on my laptop the cost of Rs.20-25k is ok for a laptop but not for a smartphone.

I know some people will disagree but that’s how I see it. I also feel that this way of keeping the cost down enables me to change phones every 1.5 years with less guilt. Let’s see, I will decide in the next few days.

One More Time

If you were able to relive one day from the last 12 months, which day would it be — and why?

I can’t say a particular day in the last 12 months. Maybe one day in June of last year around this time. I have not felt so much love all of a sudden. An instantaneous rush of feeling loved on opening my door and getting the post from the postman. In the post was two large greeting cards and it was filled with lots of love and wishes from three dear people and it brought me to tears that they thought enough of me to buy these ginormous cards and stick stickers and a photo in it for me.

I have not forgotten the way I felt that day. As soon as I recovered, I got into an Uber and went to the big mall in Edapally, Lulu Mall, to watch Star Trek Beyond. Great feelings of being loved and a Star Trek film on the same day? I felt great. I loved the movie and I had a late lunch and bought some supplies for home and came back by 6pm and I was still feeling great.

That could be the day.

Prompt from The Daily Post at WordPress.com