Circardian Cogitations

Varudu Film Review!

Well, I am back! With the date of my last post, you can tell that blogging on this blog has not been on the top of the list. Has been a busy 2 years.

Anyways, while I have started two more blogs, one for putting my music notations and other for my technical stuff on Project Server, I decided to take this blog up again and post about all the miscellaneous things that I want to talk about.

So this post is about a recent movie that I saw: "Varudu". I know.. I know..there are already a million reviews already out there about this movie.. however, i wanted to exercise my right of speech :)

Well, I did hear/read lot of comments saying that the movie was bad before going to the movie, but I definitely did not expect the colossal disappointment it was. Here are my pet peeves about this movie:

1. The highly publicized 5-day marriage did not actually happen at all in the entir movie. The first time, the villian comes and stops it, and the second time, we are only shown the last event of marriage. So what actually happens during each day of those 5 days??? It would have been so good, if rituals are categorized by day. Also, we do not see the regular 'hadavidi' in marriags. all the people just stand around as if somebody is dead.

2. The dialogues are atrocious. There is no power in them, no meat at all. A lot of times there is no relativity between characters on the screen themselves. And all the dialogues seemed to me as very artificial as if they have been inserted forcfully. I did not like the scene where "sametalu" conversation takes place. Really no reason/rhyme or power in that scene.

3. After the villian kidnaps the bride, Allu arjun will be searching for her. However, we do not see ANY logic in where he is searching and why?? And the scene with the oil tanker is purely unnecessary and unwarranted.

4. After so much publicity, I thought the herione was one of the worst I have ever seen in recent times.. Am I the only one on this???

5. Too much has been written about the last fight. No comments there.

6. When will our guys learn to use graphics wisely? So much money wasted.

I thought the film was good in concept, but failed completely in execution. If Okkadu and Arjun were good movies, it was not just because they had beautiful Charminar set and Meenakshi Templ set. They were backed up by good storis.

There, you have my two cents.

Life is happening!!

Almost after an year, I have decided to start rewriting this blog again. Atleast I have something exciting to write about, and more over I want to develop my writing habits and skills.

I was on a 1.5 months trip to India in March and April, combining personal work and Office work. The biggest outcome of this trip was that I got engaged to a beautiful girl named Deepthi. Initially, I was very skeptical about the whole arranged marriage thing, and how one can select a person within 10 minutes of interaction, but I just went with the flow because I did not have any other option.

However, at the end, it was fairly quick decision to say Yes. At the same time it was hard too. I still had butterflies in my stomach about a lifelong commitment. What is this is not a right decision? What if we are not a good match for each other? You see, it is always easy to "adjust" after marriage, because youdo not have a choice, but I did not want a marriage of "forced adjustments". Adjustments have to be done out of love in a relationship, not because you have to. And that was my biggest fear. I am not sure whether she had the same thoughts, but I sure did.

However, things happened fast, and we got engaged. And I came back to USA, a day after that. And we have been talking to each other pretty regularly over the phone. And I must say that I am very pleased with my decision right now. In fact, we have become so closed in last 2 weeks that I cannot believe it, when I think back. Hopefully, she is feeling the same. :)

Now, the goal is to keep this same intensity of relationship lifelong, so that it never gets boring.

How to Record your own Songs and Create an Audio Blog

Since I am getting manay requests about how to record songs at home, I decided to put together this tutorial. I am by NO MEANS an EXPERT an in this. A lot of it I learnt by trial and Error.. Even if you can get started using this info, I think the purpose is served.

Things you need ( I am assuming you have a Computer):

A good Mic. You can use a normal Headphone+Microphone or an USB mic depending upon how much you can spend, The better the Mic, the better the quality. I use an USB Mic costes around $30-$45. Not the best, but got me started.
Karaoke Tracks - You can get them commercially at http://www.taraana.com/, http://www.meragana.com/, or some of them free on http://www.cooltoad.com/, http://www.esnips.com/
Recording software - I use Audacity, which is free and easy to use. You can download Audacity from http://www.audacity.com/ . Again, a c heap workable solution until you are ready to spend some big bucks on costly software.

How to record:
Check out these videos. They are pretty much comprehensive. Credit goes to whoever put these videso. They are NOT mine.

There are many more videos on You tube, which can explain much better than I ever can.
Hopefully this helps.

What is YOUR Tarot Card??

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Undergrad!!!

In my opinion, for many people undergrad time is a very crucial time in many fronts. This is the exact age where you form a career, identity, and your own self image. This period is so interesting because, it is a time period where you are susecpetible to influences, at the same time you have equally good common sense to not get inclufnced. Your frame of mind is not marred by a pessimistic thinking yet or the monotny of a corporate world. It is a time you make friends who wil have a lasting impact on your life due to various things they do.

The other day I was thinking, if I could relive my years in undergrad again, what would I do different. SO I decided to put together a list.

I would change the way I dressed and looked. When I think of my dressing in Engg. days, I really feel bad. a formal pant with a full sleeves shirt untucked and chappals to college is not a very good picture, if you know what I mean.
I would have developed some good relationships with the professors. At that time, this is conssidered something bad, but if we really think, when we want to go vist the college now, these relationships with professors are the ones that create a sense of belongingness.
May be did something really worthwhile with whatever I was learning. Meaning really put in some efforts to "understand".
Venture out more on public speaking area, more than I did. Considering that I was a consistent Elocution Competiiton winner during my school days, it still surprises me how scared I was during Engineering to talk on a stage.
Learn a performing art. Well, I started this by learning the keyboard, but had to stop after 1 month because we couldn't afford to buy a keyboard at that time. But I feel I should have done something instead of quitting. ( I did learn on my own and now can play much better, but those days won;t come back again, will they)
May be interact more with Girls. No explanation needed. :)

Bottom line is I would do few things that would make me an accomplisher than one of many who came and went and had a nice time. After a while, memories of how well we bunked the classes or how many movies we saw will be plasant, but not gratifying.

Anyways, that is my dominant thought of the day today.

Inspiration!!!!

I have always known that most of our music is "inspired" from other places, but after looking at this website, I just keep wondering if anything is original at all. Do you like songs like Dheere Dheere se ( aashiqui), choo kar mere mann ko ( abhiman), Akele hai to kya gum hai (QSQT), Mujhe Neend na Aaye (Dil) etc etc., Listen to their orginal version on this website. You will find many more "shocks" here.

http://www.itwofs.com/

After looking at this, I have begun to respect Anu Malik for atleast being honest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The very first thing that one notices after starting to blog is that there is not much happening in your life worth writing everyday. Of course there might be exceptions, but I am talking in general. Before starting a blog, I thought I will have lots of things to write about, and even now I do have lots of things from the "PAST". But I do not want to keep dwelling in the past talking about the same old college days again and again.

So what to write about?