Tales of the Mobile Inverted Pendulum and more...

Hi guys, its been a long time huh? Of late i ve thought more than once about about scribbling something and posting it here but everytime something comes up (more commonly known as laziness). Finally having found the mental strength (albeit temporarily) to overcome that slayer of creative and non creative output, i thought i d share with my friends my views on "World Peace and its current state". Ya rite, dream on... I thought i d write somethin about whatever i ve been doin lately, so the people who were looking forward to an unbiased discussion on international matters pls wait till my next post, which according to my usual pattern should be anytime in 2011-12. Well as some of u guys know and many of you don’t i was home for the whole month of May and have been back here in IIT M since June first week. Mr. Vishnu Suresh, FYI: yes i study in IITM and oh yes its in Chennai aka Madras.

First week it was all movies, FRIENDS and NUMBERS, movies and even more Friends but from the second week on iv e been workin on my project from morning 10 to evening 7 everyday except for weekends of course. Find that hard to believe? Even i do, but that doesn’t mean it aint true... For those of you whom i haven’t bored yet with details of my main proj, its got something to do with stabilization of an inverted pendulum. For the common folk, remember Segway? Else look it up in wiki. So that has been taking up a lot of my time lately but being the fighter that i am, i hit back watchin movies at night and during the weekends i’ll be on a spree but the work has effectively stopped me from takin up a new book since im not the sort of guy that enjoys reading a book 20 pages at a time. In the morning, at the crack of dawn (if that is around 6:30, pardon me guys for another aside Johnny, FYI: Yes the sun rises around that time and people do wake up at that unearthly hour...) i wake up and hit the gym. Oh how i wish i could see those raised eyebrows and smirks right now. Anyways anyone who has known me long enough would know that getting me started on something is the real difficult part. Once i get going i’m a tour de force, unstoppable.... (except of course by the slayer mentioned earlier and sleep). Yes i’m pumping iron and do i have the results to show for it? Guys its been just 2 weeks it takes longer than that to see results (fingers crossed).

Now lets run thorugh some of the movies i’ve seen recently,

· Iron man 2 - 7.5, definitely worth a watch but not up to the mark set by the first.

· Percy Jackson - 6.5, a mix of Harry Potter, Greek mythology and what not.

· Pappy Appachaa – 7, usual dileep fare worth a few laughs.

· Lives of others - 8.5, definitely recommended, strong movie.

· Deja Vu – 8, good.

· Collateral - 7.5, again good.

· GI Joe - 7.5, i actually enjoyed this one, some nice action and loads of eye candy esp in HD.

· Batman Begins – 9, gr8 movie. Love it everytime.

· Green Zone – 8, definitely worth a watch. Good one.

· Man from Earth – 9, Gemo, thanks for the recommend given 1 yr back. Gr8 movie definitely recommended. Two thumbs up.

· Echelon Conspiracy – 7, instead watch Eagle Eye.

· 500 days of Summer – 8, warning: this is not a love story but definitely a good movie.

· Shakespeare MA Malayalam – 7, overall good even though somewhat over the top at times.

· Prince of Persia - 7.5, saw it in Sathyam theatre in Chennai. Defintely worth a watch. Entertainment value + Eye candy.

· The green mile - 8.5, Beatiful Movie... but 3 hrs long. else it wud have got a 9.

· Kill Bill – 9,VENGEANCE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD. And with style. How often do you hear the words beautiful and violence used in the same sentence and how often as beautiful violence? Those who have seen the movie will understand, those who have not, pls watch it ASAP. Tarantino is a genius. Direction is slick and stylish, the background score is brilliant and the action bloody good. WARNING: Not fot he weak hearted.

· Die Hard 2 – 8, get some popcorn, lay back and enjoy.

· Die Hard 3- 8.5, same here, but even better. Die hard = gr8 action.

· Kill Bill 2 – 9, Finally the bride gets a name and its time to kill bill. Its an eye for an eye world out there. BTW for those of you who could nt get enough of this, Kill Bill 3 slated for 2014. J

· I.G - 6.5, craving to see a Malayalam movie takes me to places i’d rather not be. Suresh Gopi starrer. Enough said.

· Law abiding citizen - 7.5, A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. Thats Gerard Butler. Good movie promises to be very good but felt it kinda lost direction a bit in the second half.

· Man on fire – 8, Pretty good. Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, the chemistry between them is real good.

Now over to the food front. Apart from the continuing KFC addiction, occasional pizza and a return to Kumarakom in the esteemed presence of Mr. Ajithnath aka Ulakan, we found time to check out two new restaurants.

The Rock, velachery. Gr8 sizzlers and nice desserts.

Tasty Jones : I m goin to stick my neck out here. This place served the best burgers i ve ever had. Yes better than McD. Maybe i am biased cos i prefer beef burgers to chicken ones and McD doesn’t cater beef burgers in India, but anyway these burgers were real juicy and simply the best i ve had. Yet. And i ve my eyes set on their steak offerings. So those of you guys in Chennai for whatever reason have some time to spare, visit Elliot’s beach, Besant Nagar, the very place where Dasan and Vijayan arrive in gulf in an Uru headed for California, only to realise its just Madras. The landmark near which they carry out their “transaction” is still there and readily identifiable. Then drop in at Tasty Jones for the best burger in town.

And guys, missing you all... I really miss the hangings outs we used to have at panchaara kaadu, museum, our club house, anywhere we had enough space to sit together and chat away to say nothing of the night outs. Hope you’re all having a gr8 time. Stay in touch. (Some guys think sending tennis scores and commentary is stayin in touch. Dude, i don’t think so...).