Vroooooooom on Friday the 13th

This is the latest update on the Go-karting races, I talked about in my previous post. Lot of happenings on this eventful Friday the 13th.

• The record was broken again as I vrooomed at a surprising 33.173 seconds beating my previous best of 33.548s.
• And once again I maintained in the Top 10 of the day list (actually 10th).
• Placed an average of 34.3s beating Sachin, the master of karts by more than a second.
• Yet lost 10 bucks in bet against Sachin on finding who gets the faster time in each lap. Damn! I should have placed bet on average time.

Go! INJEY! Go!

Okay, here we go.
Focus.
Speed. I am speed.
One winner.
Fourty-two losers.
I eat losers for breakfast.
No, no. Stay focused.
Speed.
I'm faster than fast,
Quicker than quick.
I am Lightning!
-- Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars"

You think that I am flaunting about myself. Don’t you? But I don’t care. I won the race! Didn’t I?
It’s been just 2 months and I already won not just one race but two. What’s more? I beat my own personal best on the track and got into the Top 10 of that day. When I play Need for Speed, people always ask the same question, "What good do you get by racing in the computer?” And my answer would be "It lets me do what I could not do in the real world". But now, I got my chance in the form of Go-karting on the Victory Lane Indoor center just 10 miles from my home to put all the efforts and tricks into reality. Now don’t judge that this is some 5 mph kids track in theme parks like MGM and Kishkintha in India that even a child in his/her stroller can overtake. We are talking about professionally maintained track with fully geared 40 mph karts driven by experienced racers.

When Sachin (not the cricketer) introduced me to the world of karting, it was like entering a new world. But the only difference was that I sometimes get the feeling that I know the world very well. When I first started learning to drive the car, I understood one important lesson. You have to feel the car's movements within you. Your mind has to get together with the car's. Once that is done, you can control and drive the car in anyway you want. And this is what I did in the karting race as it is more important to know how to control the kart here. Too many sharp turns; you need to understand when to brake, slow down, overtake and zap. Believe me when I say, it is not easy as it seems while watching from the sides. With the small and flat body of the kart, you always tend to skid when you turn while speeding fast. And it is built as a safety measure inside the kart to slow down when you skid or turn rough. Add to this that picking up the speed again is not fast enough. So you have to very careful on what you do in turns. A lot of patience and experiments can tell you how to get around. Though few tips from the pros might help you, but it is always your experience that will count inside the track.

When I started my first race on 28th March 2008, I recorded my best time with 38.831 seconds which was 6.832 seconds behind the first place. I also realized that things so different when you compete with real people instead of AI in the computer game. 1. People don’t slow down for you to keep the race interesting. 2. They don’t try to hit you to get you off the track and so you can’t hit them too. 3. To make it worse, if you are shown a blue flag, you have to MOVE OVER for the guy who is coming faster behind you and that for a beginner like me is MOVING OVER for everyone else in the race. So I started counting on how many times I MOVED OVER instead of how many cars I over took and that had been the winning factor for most of the races. I always wanted to finish at least one lap with no one overtaking me. And I think I have achieved it once or twice in the 6 races in the last month. But June was different. I have started to count the number of times I overtake and it has reached 20 or more. And here I am winning my first race and entered the Daily hall of fame.

Does this mean there is something more ahead? It sure is. Watch over racers. A new rookie on the rise!

PS: I am compelled by the pure heart to mention that the races in June were mostly against new players that include Satman who appears to be a promising driver to challenge me soon, his roommate Seetharam, Vinayak who forgot that he is in a racing track and was searching for turn indicators in the kart, Nimesh who I crashed hard on the track for not MOVING OVER and his wife Bhakti who did not kill me for crashing her husband. More drivers welcome as long as they have zero experience in races (betting on horse races excluded). Go karting Go.

Reviews in a nutshell - First pack

So where do I start? I watched hell lot of movies more than the number of times I had dropped my mobile. For people who don’t know me, I have butter fingers and drop my mobile at least once a day. And trust me, all these movies are watched either on the large silver screen or Original rental paid Blockbuster DVDs on my employer sponsored newly repaired DVD drive in my Toshiba laptop. I am thus holding on to my resolution as I mentioned here. And after every movie, I always wanted to write a review about it, but as it happens every other time, it slips my mind until now. It is Sunday and I thought I have wasted enough time for today. So here it goes. As the list is pretty huge, the reviews are shortened, but I will try to give everyone a generic idea about the flicks. And more will continue shortly.

[+/-]Speed Racer

I can bet on the Wachowski brothers any time and this is one movie that lived up to its huge hype in 2008. It’s got its own style like The Matrix. Flashy colors, awesome graphics, adrenaline packed races, still with a cartoon finish and of course the best fantasy sporty movie you can ever imagine. If you like to watch something different and unbelievable, you are in for a treat. Its Rajini's movie for the Hollywood.

Verdict: Please race to the theatres NOW!

[+/-]Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

The Archeologist with a whip is back to explore tombs and supernatural powers in this new installment of Spielberg and Lucas's money making Franchise. Though it’s been 19 years since we seen him before, Indie hasn't changed much and so is the story. But hell with that. It’s still fun and crazy. Harrison Ford hasn’t lost his best and does some pretty action that will make you jump. LaBeouf is a nice touch to the movie. But bringing in the family again? We have seen Sean Connery to do the same stuff in the last movie isn’t it? There you go. You have it all. Lots of action, Evil Russians. Devil Queen, deadly traps, and an alien civilization that has magnetic skull with psychic powers.

Verdict: Forget the logic. Go and have fun.

[+/-]Charlie Wilson's War

I had bit of ear-to-ear knowledge on America's involvement in getting rid of Russians from Afghanistan in the eighties. And this movie is enlightenment or should I say blunder on America's greatest covert operations. The best part of the movie is its crackling dialogue and the way the actors present them. Even brutal talks like "Let’s kill some Russians" were said so casually that makes you rethink if you heard the words right. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and of course Philip Seymour Hoffman have done well in what they always do. A good entertainer with some insights for sure.

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world...
...and then we f****d up the end game." - Charlie Wilson
Verdict: Politics? America? Afghans? You got it!

[+/-]Following

Christopher Nolan's debut film for the big screen is no different from the rest of his films. Mystery, non-linear screenplay, spooky characters, multiple twists revealing itself towards the end and what not? a troubled hero as always. If you had watched Memento, you are going to love this movie too. Though the actual story is never understood till we go close to the movie, the hero character or should I say the victim's role is intriguing. It tickles the curious part of oneself and the character itself is an achievement of the writer/director who is promising on the dark knight in the next month.

Verdict: Good choice to rent on DVD.

[+/-]Shaun of the Dead

I was interested in this film mainly because of Simon Pegg from "Hot Fuzz". If you haven’t seen the film, I meant "Hot Fuzz", watch it without fail. It will bring your down with laughter all the way. I do not know how to categorize this comedy. But closest experience would be Vadivelu on a sci-fi thriller. It has a combination of good story, funny characters and witty dialogues with a mystery till the end.

As for "Shaun of the Dead", hmmmmm.... please avoid it if you can.
Verdict: Watch [+/-]"Hot Fuzz" not the dead one.

[+/-]Equilibrium

Two reasons I took this movie. One is Christian Bale and the other for its crazy story line. Christian Bale made it worth a mention. The second reason actually made it stupid. May be the actors were unable to make an unemotional performance. This was needed as the movie is about turning people into organisms without "feelings". A difficult task I would say. But wait. Something else came out of the movie. I found the source of inspiration for the emotional less face and black Tuxedo suits of the Matrix. And sometimes it makes me think... could Christian Bale have outperformed Keanu Reaves?

Verdict: One time. Just one time!

[+/-]Big Nothing

It is seriously "Big" but definitely not "nothing". David Schwimmer (Friends) and Simon Pegg ("Hot Fuzz" and not "Shaun of the Dead") bring a dark comedy that makes you laugh and smile with few nothing but accidental murders. The movie starts with the daily nothing big life in call centers and takes you to the something big of blackmailing and axe on a woman's head and finally ends up with smiling face on the dead Ross Geller. I liked it.

Verdict: Watch it for Ross. You will like him.

[+/-]Identity

This is the not the first movie I had seen on that topic. There was quite a few and each one equally good. One happens to be in my all-time favorites list and I added this into it.
So whats the story? Strangers stranded on a motel with no where to go and each one starts dying. Before you judge it as some Texas chainsaw movie, please watch it. You are in for a surprise. I bet you didn’t think it. At least not the second surprise.

Verdict: A must see. Identity is mandatory.

The black-out - Office or the mind?

Thanks for your prayers. I am safe and back in home alive. I do not remember much of what happened in office. I think the Men in Black must have erased our memory with the Neuralizer. Probably they invented a memory manipulator now and my memory is transformed. Because all I can remember was having lunch in an Indian restaurant and playing Tennis against Ferraro and Dent in my Sony PSP. There is also a two hour black out inside my mind. But my memory was again manipulated to make me believe that I slept in the afternoon. So with no evidence of an alien invasion or break out of a scientific experiment on a four eyed and two headed monster, the world just goes on with not even an incident being reported by CNN. An impressive work by the secret agents, isn't it? I think so.
Anyway, though I am bit upset that no one tried to help us with lead coated refrigerators for saving us from Nuke detonations, it is forgiven for there doesn't seem to be any plan for that as we are all asked to report back at our cubicles tomorrow morning as usual. Damn it you lame aliens or monsters or whatever they were.

S.O.S - The Black out

There may not be much time.

So let me say it before the laptop goes down too. There has been a black-out in our office block. All the computers are down and the elevators have stopped working. The only light that is lit in our floor is the bulb in the photocopy room. And I am not sure how long we can survive without the Air-conditioner in this hot temperature of 86F. It might be luck that it happened in the morning when the sun is still out. But clock is ticking and if the power doesn't come back, it might get darker inside. For what it's worth, I might get a chance to slap the ones I would like in the dark. There are already talks about possible Alien invasion or US military's secret project running beneath our office building. And who knows what hell could have been let loose. The last time I checked the head count; there were 10 in our team with the head still attached to their torso and life still flowing through them. We do not even have a shot gun or an axe to defeat the zombies. I even checked inside the long row of drawers that no one has ever opened in the past one year. There were only papers, rotten food and a dead rat though. But the good thing that came out of all these is that the never-ending project might get shutdown forever for the administrators never knew and will never know how to recover the backups. Time is running out and I think I cannot continue more. If you happened to read this, I want to let you know that I always tried my best to be good to "Everyone^*" all my life.
Also please ask the Fed-ex to send us some lead coated refrigerators immediately just in case that the US army decides to nuke our place. (Yeah yeah.. I saw the new Indie movie.)

*-"Everyone" may not include everyone and depends on your position to me.

It feels Good to be Evil

Muhaahhahaahaaaa! It feels so good to be evil. I know it is wrong to laugh at others' suffering. But I could not resist smiling at Mr. Ribbon breathing hard and getting heated up during the discussion with Mr. Biscuit. As I explained already about Mr. Biscuit in my pervious post, he has been acting as the showstopper for everyone in the development team. This time, the victim happened to be Mr. Ribbon who was constructing the new Kennel for the client's pet. Something to say about Mr. Ribbon is that he had once tested my temper on a different situation when I was making the boat house. His suggestion to build the house in the shape of a boat tested my third eye but I rubbed it away saying "I know what I am doing". We finally settled down to keep the roof in the shape of an inverted boat. Coming back to the current situation, I happened to the spectator for the meeting between Mr. Biscuit and Mr. Ribbon and I enjoyed and cherish every moment of the meeting would be an understatement. Though my pure heart tried hard not to laugh at one's suffering, like a dark comedy movie, there I was devilishly snickering all the way. Questions on the capacity planning for the kennel and whether the kennel should have a ring bell were interesting as hell. But there were genuine and valid discussions like fixing a door and window and Mr. Ribbon was stepping into the world of hell slowly. If the meeting had lasted for another 10 mins, I am sure we would have seen a showdown between the two and could have been a perfect start of the day. But they decided to continue the fun on a different day and I went back to my desk starting to write this post, Mr. Ribbon probably to bang his head on the wall and Mr. Biscuit to wait for the next unprepared victim.

Finally it happened to me too

I once read a forward. It was nice with the picture of a small kid praying with closed eyes.

God give me Courage.

God give me Health.

God give me Wealth.

But God, please

don’t give me Strength.

For I will break my manager's skull.

Funny it was and was not different from what most people in IT industry speak about. Surprising though, I have not felt that I had such nerve breaking managers yet. And there were not many difficulties with the client too to make me pray that hard. Of course, there were and are few, I would prefer be stuck inside a worm hole (Not the one in the space). But never had a chance that would push me to drop my pen to avoid it hurting the other person. And that was until last week for I had the opportunity to pray like that kid in the email forwards.

Well-known for creating issues out of no where and prone to claim superiority over others; Mr. Biscuit was one I always tried hard not to judge. Marked as shrewd, cunning and in general a huge show-off trying to get attention all the time, he was also a best person for everyone to mock for fun. Lucky enough to see things from far side all these time, but this month brought us closer for building a small tree house, he being the customer and myself the engineer designing the house. The early weeks went on as expected with him asking for 40" widescreen TV to a swimming pool inside it. I was as usual calm with myself and decided to keep a iPhone instead of TV and a mug of water for the pool. Requirements were finalized and the team worked on the tree house building on the impractical necessities. After weeks of hard work with little hocus pocus and a drop of Felix Felicis potion, we were ready for the review last week.

On first look, he was even pleased with the ladder we had put to climb the tree. But then he complained that the number of steps is even. We decided to break one spoke on the top. Slowly we climbed up. Once we reached the entrance, he was worried that the door is opening inside. It was hard to convince him that if he tries to pull it outside, he would fall from the tree house. As we went inside, more and more comments poured in ranging from need for fireplace, ping-pong table inside this small 50 sq feet cabin and concrete lining inside the house so that the construction will be strong. Though I was able to control my anger to all these comments or requirements on the "Day of sale", my anger temperature shot out of the thermometer when he suggested building the house on the ground instead of the tree. But sill he wanted it to be called a "tree house". I wished that I could really build a tree house; make him stay inside and finally lit up the tree. The hell broke loose after that as I gave him one among the five. Heated arguments and exchange of spells and curses went on and on before he walked off saying that the house looked smaller than the tree. I was just glad he got jinxed at last.

What was so significant on this was this was the very first time, I have lost control of myself in a meeting and I don’t regret anything in it. All that mattered was that being right in what I do, I deserve the right to say what I feel is right. Customer or your manager is just a person on the service you provide. You can do your best to listen and understand them. But never must you loose your self-esteem for any reason. I hope that I can maintain the same as I travel through my career and meet more challenging persons in the future.