Prepare for Glory! - 300 - A Spot Review

    

I watched the movie "300" two weeks before not as a historian or a Frank Miller fan.  At first I was skeptical; I never expected it would be worthy for the time spent, as I was busy with a lot of other things, but now I think I have been mistaken. The Movie is taken from FRANK MILLERS COMIC which is based around the event itself. It is a romanticized take on history; therefore, like everyone, I also expected to see Xerxes depicted as an evil tyrant and king Leonidas portrayed as some sort of superhero. In my view, it is a movie of amazing cinematography and unmatched action sequences. It combines the newest aspects of technology with old school warfare and it works. Like I said before, I watched this movie not as a historian or a comic book fan; I never have such a cross of ideals worked so well, putting prejudice aside and try to appreciate what; it as a very good movie. From the way I see it,  the film set out primarily to entertain, and in that it succeeded with me. I liked the use of the grotesque monsters and such, just because those characters made the film fun.

The summary of plot is like this.

During the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, an alliance of Greek City States fought the invading Persian Army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. The Greeks held back the then Persian Army which was vastly outnumbered in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes led an Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war had about 170,000 army). Men to Greece was confronted by 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and other Slave soldiers.  The battle lasted for about 3 days, and after which all 300 Spartans were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected as a local shepherd named Ephialtes, defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks. 

Since I watched the movie at home and my neighbor was preparing for exams, I couldn't enjoy the  acoustic effects of the DVD to its full extent, and I couldn't anywhere compare it with the theater. Because of the excellent soundstripe editing, the mixing as well as considering the DVD print, I got the real experience of a #1 movie. I could experiece its sound mixing perfection from the very beginning.

The movie begins with the birth of the Spartan King Leonidas, his childhood, and combat training. Furthermore, I can say countless events up to the last moment of the movie; like the growling of the wolf, the first shot of Persian messenger’s arrival and the impressive scene of Persian messenger with conquered King Heads, King Leonidas's reaction towards the messenger, etc.  Therefore, I think it's one of the best movies I have seen in the recent times. Below listed are the names of some of the actors and their names in the movie.

Gerard Butler - King Leonidas
Lena Headey - Queen Gorgo
Dominic West - Theron
David Wenham - Dilios
Vincent Regan - Captain
Michael Fassbender - Stelios
Tom Wisdom - Astinos
Andrew Pleavin - Daxos
Andrew Tiernan - Ephialtes

Rodrigo Santoro - Xerxes
Giovani Cimmino - Pleistarchos
Stephen McHattie - Loyalist
Kelly Craig - Oracle Girl

Some scenes from the Movie:

Proving to be a Sparton.


Persian Army a small portion


The Queen


Revenge of the King


Rain of Arrows

    Courtesy – imdb.com

My customized Table

Part 1: The Investigation
   
    When I came to Bangalore looking for a new job I also took my Computer with me. The reason is simple. I cannot live without my computer even for one day. It will be so much boring, so that I fear even to think about such a situation. So that’s the case. In the first rented house that we got, we kept my Computer in Floor as we thought it may be okay. But because of my habit of using computer for long times, it become very difficult to sit in floor for extended times. So after about two-three weeks I decided to purchase one Computer Table.

    I enquired for a table which is reasonable of cost and provides enough features. I went to KR Market near SP Road one day. This place is very well known for availability of these types of shops. I looked almost all the shops but was unable to find a model which is satisfactory to my need within my price range. Only few models I found have had a draw with lock, leg space and can be detached. But all of them where much highly priced than what I expected. So that day I went home without fixing anything.

Part 2: New Plan and rollback.

    Next day I went to my Cousin George’s home. There I saw a computer table which is very simple in construction but contains almost all the basic features I wanted. I started thinking of building one like that. So the next day I went to one shop which does woodcraft works. I gave the plan and wire frame of the table to him and asked for the cost of building one like that. But that was the worst thing. It came to almost double the rate of the best table I saw in the market. So what you can assume, that plan also went to a big flop!

Part 3: Transactions

    After two or three days I came to a final decision….anyway I need one table so go and purchase one table that I can get under my current budget. Don’t look into additional features of table like detachability and leg space. Later I can throw it out and take a good one when I get one good job. In that decision again I went to market next day with my friend. We started looking for Computer Tables in shops from one side of market. After one round of wandering for about 2 hours we met one old shopper with whom we bargained and fixed up a table with fairly good price.

Part 4: Transportation Problems

    My friend went to get one Transporter Auto for taking the table to our room. He came back and asked me to come with him as he was not able to get any Auto’s with a decent fair every one is asking almost double or triple of normal charges. At this time itself my friend invented a new thing (to me the worst invention at that time). He told this could be a problem if we are shifting the house in near future because of its bulky size. Even if I manage to take the table home now later we could face problem if it cannot be disassembled. And this finding became the turning point of the story. After I started looking at the structure and quality of tables I found that it is not suitable for disassembling by default but if I replace all the screws of the table with nuts, bolts and washers then the table can be made completely detachable. After ensuring the overall quality of the table plates and wooden parts I selected one from a set of similar tables.

    And here is another joke that happened. After giving the amount to shopkeeper I told my friend I was planning to disassemble the complete table and replace all screws with nuts and bolts. Then he came up a new brilliant suggestion that we can take the complete Table just by hand in Bus and save the transportation charge if we can disassemble the table there itself. So we asked shop keeper for one screw driver and spanner set. When they asked I told them our plans. Hearing this they got shocked and called me crazy as they were 100% sure that if the table is detached it cannot be reassembled any more. I think the shop owner actually become so much worried and that is why he called his son to make me understand the problem. But I was not ready to call for an auto as I thought it is not worthy at all. So at last owner’s son called a head loader and asked him to carry the table to bus stand nearby. We started walking towards to bus stand with the head loader and upon reaching Bus Stand he placed the table inside a bus that is going to Ramamoorthy Nagar. On the way to Ramamoorthy Nagar we called our other two friends to carry the table to home. When the bus reached our stop they got into the bus and helped us to get the table out of the bus. We carried the table to our home as it was only around 50 meters from main road.

Part 5: Plans Postponed

    I was planning to do the conversion of table that week itself but later I postponed the disassembling plans of table for some time because of the problems with job search. So it went on and on so that I used the table as such until, we stayed in that house. One of our roommates got Job at native and we three started planning to shift to other friends. At this point my cousin George asked me to come to his house and actually this turned out to be a turning point in my carrier life. Because of space problems I was not able to move all my materials to his house. So I decided to take what ever essential to his home and split the rest into two and keep it with my other two cousin’s homes. For this purpose I disassembled my table for the first time after purchase. Along with other materials I kept the table pieces at Robin’s home and kitchen items at Cijo’s home. All these items where in these houses only, until I got my job and later on moving to my current room where I am writing this Blog.

Part 6: The Conversion Phase - Planning

    After moving to our new room, I decided to take the table as I didn’t had a place to keep my PC. After getting all the pieces of table in the room when I started reassembling I found, that will be the right time to customize my table. First I thought only about the replacement of screws with nuts and bolts for making table fully detachable. But while taking the estimate for that, I found that if some of the pieces are removed I could makeup the leg space for a better sitting comfort. So I started thinking about new design that I could make use of all the available pieces. It took around one week for me to create a new good design for the table. I calculated the materials that will be required additionally and cost for that. The additional items required where nuts and blots of different lengths and sizes, 4 roller wheels, and some block joints and a Haxo Blade and holder as don’t have any cutting tool with me, other than essential tools like player, spanner set, screw drivers etc which I already had at that time.

Part 7: The Conversion Phase – Design and purchase

    By next week purchased almost all the items for the table. After getting all the required components one Sunday after coming back from mass I started the work. The overall idea of the work was to cut the lower section of table into two pieces (Section 4*) and detach the left holder area (Section 1*, 2*) and place it in the right side of the table. Screw-in the removed block (Section 3*) to the back side between the left panel and second left panel of the proposed leg space area so that the table support can be increased. Then find the screws which should be unscrewed for detaching the table and replace them with nuts and bolts. So this design can make the table completely detachable and I can get enough leg space and also get an additional space for keeping my PC Cabinet.

Part 8: Conversion Climax – The Construction

    So on next Sunday after coming back from Mass I started my work. First thing I did was enlarging the screw holes into full sized holes which I could use it for nuts and bolts to screw it from two sides.

    After this I started with my next phase of customization i.e. cutting the bottom main panel. After that I thought about fitting the roller for middle section (4*) and for the Cabinet section (2*). Alas!! At this time only found a critical bug in my design. During the design time actually I missed out a difference in height between left and right sides of the leg space area. Because of this difference the right leg space roller wheel will not touch floor if I fit it as per my current plan.

    It actually requires an additional piece for fixing this problem. So I stopped my construction and I revisited my design. I have to purchase an additional piece, but getting an additional piece that looks like my current table panels could be a problem. I looked in the table pieces which I can take one piece out. Is the finding of bug was earlier I don’t know because it didn’t caused any problem to me, even the conversion was about 80% of its way. I found if I could reduce the height of the Cabinet holder I can get a piece from its lower area which could be sufficient for solving this problem. I just told it was earlier because if I had first fitted this panel I could have already created screw holes in the right side of the table. So as per my changed plan I sawed the piece into two and attached one piece into right leg space section (4*). Then I went on with fitting the support board

After completing the Support Board I screwed in the right side Cabinet Holder Panel.



    The overall construction took around three days. I wonder how I got such a beautiful design which utilized almost all the available good pieces and without any additional one. Actually this one is one of the best I have made until today. I don’t know will I get a chance to have a creation better than this!


(A Complete View of My Table with its functional Units)

    And now it remains in my room as one of my precious works.

Rednex Open Stage Show Program

    Once more I got a chance to go for an open stage rock program on last Saturday. My cousin got a ticket from Forum and he was looking for someone to share that….So what…. I gladly accepted his offer. The program was conducted by Rednex, a Swedish band (www.rednex.ca) which had an instant dance-floor novelty hit with the opening track of their debut album(Rednex - Sex & Violins).

(A snap from the program. Because of low light and it is taken using a mobile obviously we cannot expect a better quality than this)

   We started from home around 7 PM with three other friends. Because of Road blocks it took around one hour to reach there. Usually Saturday evening will be time which we can find top traffic blocks in the city. So I think we reached much fast compared to rush in roads at that time. When we reached there the program had started with some DJ presentations. The Speaker System installed there was not that much bad and we could feel its 30000 RMS speakers pulling in our chests. Not bad at all. Around 9 o’clock the Rednex Band started their program. Their play style was like a square-dance music with a techno beat, and I like their dressing style; a cowboy type looks and dressings, may be a native Swedish dressing and the beat which reminds me the background music of the English Film Brave Heart. The program was much better and I think it was worthy for the time spent. This is the third time I am in palace grounds for such a program and this one I think the best among them. We started back around 10 after the program and, we reached home around 11.30 after an enjoyable Kerala style supper.

One bad Day......

Coming Soon..........

Back to Work....

  Because of Bandth here in Bangalore I went to my native place for last three days. Coming back first thing
I noticed was the completeness of bandth this time. Almost everyone stayed in homes
and all roads where clear. I heard friends telling about children playing cricket in main roads, which will be always full of traffic all the day.

I would like to appreciate this kind of bandth which is fully supported
by all classes of people and the fact that here bandth or harthal will not
occur unless strong reason is there for it.

But still I cannot forget the fact that it is not bringing any attention
of authorities or any action is taken upon the case...which in effect the
loss is only to the general public.

SPF - A Trip to Nandhi Hills....

        I am an active member of Professional Forum in the church which I usually go for the mass. It consists mostly of working professionals. Every month we used to fix some activity for that month which most cases will be, some social activity to find and help persons or communities who is in need for help. This month we decided to be different and, we finalized to go for an outing to some location near Bangalore which we must be able to go and comeback in one day.

        Two weeks before we finalized the location of our trip as Nandhi Hills. Geetha booked a 30 seat Swaraj Mazda for 21st January 2007. Because our usual quorum in our meets are less than 10-14 and regular members where only around 10, I never expected a good participation from members. So when I heard one week before that 30 seated Mini Bus was booked, I was thinking it may be an additional burden for our team as many of seats could be free. But the most amazing thing happened during last week. So many people came to join to trip and all the seats were full. At the time of journey only one seat was left free.

        On Sunday 21st January 2007 morning around by 8 am all the members of the Santhome Professional Forum gathered at the Dharmaram Chapel and attended the holy mass. After the mass a small gang went for purchasing essential stationary. The main Items purchased were things like water can & disposable plates. By the time food required for the trip arranged by Brother James Tharakan was ready. Our dearest president Melvin & Jincy had come to shower their blessings on our journey. Melvin is my team mate in company and one of my best friends in Bangalore. He only introduced me to the Forum which now I love to participate very much. By 9am the booked Swaraj Mazda came to the DVK premises. Soon the members loaded the vehicle with food, water & other commodities.



        By 9.30 am the wheels of Swaraj Mazda started rolling. As soon as the vehicle entered the main road the driver was asked to switch off the tape, which has been playing. Brother started singing a Marian devotional song. The members also started singing with him. Soon after the devotional song is finished, for some seconds silence spread around allover the Van. Everyone where in a starting trouble where to start how to start. Our great leader Genson ignited the fire to the group by singing the song “enthe khalbile”. I recollect what he said later about his song. ”Since my singing was of high standards the members couldn’t hang on to it & I was blocked in the middle.”. Actually I think it was not that much bad… No sooner the vehicle was set on fire by the performances of the members.



        The entire cab was divided into 2 & songs started flowing (in Malayalam what u call as “anargalam nirgalikuvan thudangi”). Everybody was really exited so that all the songs were sung at a peak voice . It was with great pleasure & energy that the members enjoyed singing.

        By 10 the members started crying for food. Somebody was telling “Fire in Cab”, ”look is that fire that is coming from his stomach???”. They were on the verge of even beating the coordinator (“vishannu kannnu kanaathaayi ennu paranjal mathiyallo”). By 10.30 the vehicle was parked on the road side & kappa & Meat were served to everyone. Look down the enjoyment of team members….Actualy it was like we have been starving without food for 10 days….(enthoru akrandamayirunnu).






        We stayed there for about 15 minutes and when everyone’s stomachs was full we resumed our journey. But by the time everyone was silent. There is not surprise in that condition as I remember how much tasty was that Kappa and Meat curry. No songs; no violence; no noise at all.

        During this gap Brother shot his goal. He declared that he is going to conduct a beauty contest in which each member will have to present their bio-data, which will be followed by 3 questions from Brother. Among all, the best three will be selected for the final round and will be questioned by members with a minimum of 10 questions. The next 90 minutes it was the contest with interesting questions & answers. It was full of fun & even some serious ones. I was out in the first round itself despite of my best tries. By 12 we reached Nandhi hills & by the time the first round was also over. We took ticket for the vehicle & landed in the cradle of nature by 12.10. Cool, away from the city rush, with beautiful view of Bangalore city from the top of hill. We all rushed into a tea shop & had a tea each. It was there only then we SPF members discovered that creatures like Minu & Soumya will drink neither tea nor coffee. What else they were screaming for ice creams. Poor creatures, nobody got them one. The tea recharged everyone up. Then we all started walking towards the view. On the way we got a rotating bow for children. At this instance we have another invention. We found that we have more than one child with us. So many of the members like Mathews, Vipin (2), Benoy, Bipin, Jejy, Rojee tried it & its rotation kicked everyone. It was nice to see most of their faces after the rotation. After everyone’s showoff we sat in a circle .It was then the games committee came into action.



        The committee consisted of Geetha chechy & Raji well supported by Brother & Beena. First Raji distributed & divided the entire group into 4 teams named Cherry, Mangoe, Apple & Orange. Everyone was asked to pin the cards on their dresses. Then the games started. The first item was blowing & bursting of balloons. You can see some of the snaps of this game down here.






        In this game Vipin of Cherry team had won. Now you just stop reading think what would be the next immediate thing to happen????? Any assumptions from experience of our Elections and school games? Deepu of Orange who came 2nd started accusing Vipin of cheating since he had taken a handful of balloons at one shot which lead to the scarcity of balloons for him.

        The next item was passing a ring among 4 members of the same team using a straw in the mouth. A snap which I was also included is shown here.






        In this games team orange had won by the timely action of Renju. Actually here also hot arguments regarding who won the game took place as Renju had his team members straws cut by half before game started which reduced the passing time to a great extend. But they escaped saying that no such condition was specified in the rules which prevents such an action…..

        The next item was a bit mathematical one in which each member of each team was assigned a number & the members had to form the numbers in the reading order upon the command of the judges. The team which will take the least time will win. Apple team scored a fantastic victory in this game. Genson told he has got news from reliable sources telling that still arguments are going on in Mango team of what is the answer when 60 is divided by 5. (You can assume now which was my team Ha Ha…..But you have to accept that…that’s the reality……Actually what happened was we calculated 60/5 as 15 instead of 12…..which was one of the hit jokes in the tour program….Still I am not getting how we got that number…)

        It was in this venue our greatest coordinator Mathews himself accepted the name ‘Apple Mathai’ which some of the members translated as ‘Dindi Mathai’. Apple Mathai fought hard for his team & in spite of the setbacks his team suffered in the balloon blowing & ring exchange games his team won in the number game.

        By the time it was 2.30 & members were hungry again. When we reached the vehicle some of our native tourists have already finished some part of the food. You can imagine that heart breaking seen of about 6 monkeys sharing our Chicken kebab. We had fried rise, Chicken, Salad & pickle for our lunch. After the lunch Vipin distributed watermelon for everyone.

        Then came the photo session. Every member participated in it. After that we had the ball passing game in which I was the first one to be out.




        Gesnon was the first person to be out and so he started telling that best brains will exit first…. It was an enjoying one and Minu emerged the winner & was crowned as the “Thirumandy”(Dummenst Fellow) of SPF. I hardly escaped from the crown. I was the second last to out. Then we all walked down for some site seeing & again had along photo session. A news is heard that some of the people was running for photos sessions for taking single photos for posting in various matrimonial sites.

        By 4.30 we started back our journey. We started the finals of our beauty contest. Georgekutty, Minu & Prem were the finalists. All the 3 were showered with questions & all performed really well. Now it was voting time to select the beauty. In the campaign Minu was reported offering money to the voters, but when the results came she got only 3 votes to 10 of Prem & 11 of Georgekutty who emerged as the winner. Soon he was crowned as Mr SPF.


Our Mr SPF!!!! 

        Then soon we had one more tea on the way, we played a game of housey in which Vipin, Sojan & Rojee emerged the winners. Later to break the tie in the team events between Apple & Orange there was a short quiz in which Orange won by 20 points to Apples 10. Both the teams were rewarded. Then again the cab was divided into 2 & we had a hot game of “Anthakshari”. By the time we reached Bangalore. Brother gave a vote of thanks to everybody 4 their participation & making the trip a grant success. In his short message he asked the members to keep the days spirit 4 ever in the future activities of the Forum. We the members decided to have a meeting next Sunday after 9 O’clock mass & the main meeting in the first Sunday of Feb. By 6.30 we reached Bangalore & all the members left home with the sweet memories of the trip.

        And as the finishing point I would like to thank Mr. Gentson for getting me many of the critical part of this travelogue script which otherwise I will not be able to remember.

How beautiful can it be the fusing out of a bulb

One topic which I got my attention today.

The point of thought came into my mind is this. Most of us will become
upset when suddenly a bulb goes out. We never thought that a burning out
of a bulb can be that much beautiful. Isn't it?

This beauty has been hidden from us because of our inability of our eyes
and brain to respond to such a fast movements. But now the technology is
helping us to see such amazing things.


You yourself can check it out.

http://www.leggnet.com/2007/02/spontaneous-combustion.html