Coral Blue

Impersonating Time Travellers Since 2005

Dresden Codak is the coolest, most surreal webcomic I've read! Seriously cool stuff.. It's like someone just picked up on the same style of A Lesson Is Learnt..., and continued drawing!

Actually I think it's even better that A Lesson Is Learnt..., with such dream-like artwork and crisp words intertwined with pickings from modern science, it's like reading an adrenaline injected version of Alice in Wonderland!

Here's a half-page excerpt:


Some really good ones from both webcomics:

From A Lesson is Learnt But The Damage Is Irreversible:
Tiny, Almost Manageable
I Came About The Job
Fat Dale And The Mouse In The Apple Juice

From Dresden Codak:
Take Me To The Future Of Your World
Nuclear Wessels
Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Consider the above as Mandatory Reading ;-)

*grumble grumble*

Complainers are people who bitch, denounce, are fussy and moany. I dislike them. I think everybody should dislike them. They're so dislike-able.

Oh crap! Wait-a-sec. Crap. By writing about how complainers suck, I am now a complainer since I have committed the act, nay: the Grave Sin, of Complaining.

Now since I'm one of them, I might as well make full use of this "oppurtunity" and bitch about something. And that something is: Mobile Phone Operators. Those smug bastards. Think no end of themselves.

But before I start off, I would like to share a quote. Some wise words from a very wise man:

“A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first with their backs against the wall when the revolution comes.”
~ Douglass Adams (Taken completely out of context) on Mobile Phone Operators

So essentially, Airtel (MPO) refuses to accept my payment of my phone bill for this month. Freakin' retards! You'll go out of business if you don't *take* the money!!! I'm serious here: All my attempts to pay my bill have been met by "We're sorry but we cannot process your payment at this moment as we are facing technical difficulties".

Oh yeah. "Technical difficulties". Very smart. But but... When it comes to cutting off my phone connection - they do it in a jiffy. I wonder why they don't have "Technical difficulties" whilst disconnecting my number. Hmph.

Anywhoo - A short and angry phonecall later (with CustomerCare (Note the irony)), I atleast have my phone still working. Still haven't managed to pay my bill.

I'd switch to another operator in a jiffy if I didn't know that they were all this bad.

Enough complaining for now. Stop smirking. Get back to work. Yes, YOU TOO! :-P

Eye In The Sky

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind

The Last Act of '2001'

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering."

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

"I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here."

Wikipedia says, "Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 1917 - 19 March 2008) was a British author, inventor and futurist." Yes we all know that. Oh crap wait: 19th March 2008. That's today!

Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision of the future, and its technology, have often been prophetic. He predicted the orbits and indeed more importantly the coming of geostationary satellites.

I grew up reading many of his sci-fi novels and stories. Some of them I've read and re-read a zillion times.

But now we must say goodbye to this great author and visionary.

Goodbye.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka.

Look At Us, We Have No Fear

Look at us, we have no fear
Said the Ancient Master:
Travelling for so many a-year
We lack our olden lustre.

On a noble mission to find
Another race;
Maybe human-kind
Or a face
That without arrows unwind.


On the edge of a sleepy blue morning
Just before dawn's blade:
Golden, glittering, a town is sprawling
Within an ashen green glade!

Oh! Perhaps our home we've found!
Cried the Admiral in glee;
But alas! Replete with fears unfound,
It was not to be.

We neard hopefully, without ire
But, the Devil's Sorcery:
With a quick jab and a slow fire,
They put us out of misery.

Discrimination

(Thanks to my bro)

Have you ever realized that there are never any waitresses in restaurants in India?

Why?

Music and Life

Alan Watts got it right:
(turn up volume, it's a bit soft)



(watch it again!)

Life is a musical. Not a Start -> Finish goal. I wish *some* people would try and understand that.

Ecosystem

There's this place in Ahmedabad. It's an eating joint. Toran. "Cafe Toran" as I incorrectly keep calling it. I came across this place...

Aside: incidentally what do you call it when you discover a place, but only because you were led to it by someone who already knew it? "I discovered the place"? Too full of yourself. "The place was discovered unto me"? Too Ancient english-ey ... :-/

Anyways - Toran. Chaos in '06 thanks to Bolli, et al. It is a veg place. But it is a brilliant place. As Giddu put it "If you're eating veg, eat this stuff. Or else just go kill an animal". It's infinite food for some 80 bucks. And I mean *infinite*.

The service is awesome. And at the end of your meal, you hear stuff like "Sir kyaa sir.. Aap toh kuchh nahi khaye.. Ek aur roti sar.. Ek aur." And when fat people ask for "Normal rotis" (without ghee), the server gheefully (forgive the bad pun) replies: "Ghee ke bina kya maja aayega?" And proceeds to pour an inordinate amount of fat onto the puny roti.

Fast forward 2008: The place has become freakishly popular. And why shouldn't it? But here's the thing: There's a whole set of shops that thrive off this place.

Whilst waiting to be seated (there is *always* a waiting line), one shop guy sells chai and sutta. Another shopkeeper next to it serves little edibles like chips and sandwiches. Basically, their only reason for selling stuff is Toran.

And you also find autorickshaw drivers parked just outside, waiting for passengers. And what about the big hoardings around the place? What choice do you have but to look at them?

So, the essential point is: There is this whole ecosystem of stuff built around this one successful joint. Seems so cool na?

Or perhaps I'm too much into the "economics" mood these days.. Either way, Toran rocks :)

Counter-Strike

I've just come across the perfrect CS map: It is (wait for it... wait for it...) IIMA Campus! Seriously no kidding - the layout of the place, the brickey red feel, short buildings. Archways, big round holes, seedy spots to snipe from.

Windows overlooking courtyards, quick confusing exits to dart in and out of, curving stairwells. Brilliant I say.

And to top it off is the dusty, grimy atmosphere. It feels like de_dust with a slight tinge of de_aztec.