Tintin - When my dream came true

This is not a proper review of the movie. Just a few words about how the Tintin fan boy in me felt after watching it :)

I heard that famous comic series from Hergé was being adapted into a movie a couple of years back and was all excited since then. With Spielberg and Peter Jackson being involved, the wait just made me more impatient. The day was finally here and I got to watch my childhood hero in live action in the big screen! I was all excited like a little kid.

I loved the movie. It was engaging, funny, interesting and satisfied the fan in me. I was a touch disappointed because the story had been changed from what it was in the books. They had taken multiple events and plots from the three books [The Crab with the Golden claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure] and sort of created a parallel story. That's where a major part of story from 'Red Rackham's Treasure' goes missing along with Calculus. But in the hindsight i guess it was all necessary as recreating a such an old panel based comic book into a story for the present day viewers would need some changes. And whatever they had adapted and stuck to, was really good. The action sequences were amazing. The BG score was intriguing. The motion capture was top class. It was a dream come true to watch all the characters live and kicking. In many instances I forgot that it was motion capture and it was like watching live people in action.
I bet every fan would have missed Professor Calculus. I guess the creators didn't want to introduce too many characters in a single movie. I believe that sequels are planned, and we will get to see more of the remaining characters too.

Thank you Spielberg for making this fan happy :)

P.S. Eagerly waiting for one of my most favorite stories from the Tintin series, Destination/Explorers on the moon to be adapted into a movie very soon

News about the sequels:
Depending on the film's success, two more Tintin movies could be produced. The first of these already has a writer in Anthony Horowitz and should be based on both The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun. Peter Jackson also confirmed he will direct it once he has finished The Hobbit. The second would be co-directed by Jackson and Spielberg. However, regarding those rumours Spielberg stated they had not talked about that.

iGames

Apple products have always eluded me for a long time, till recently. The most I had used would be a tap-tap-tap when a friend would show me his new iPod or iPhone. And a few weeks back, one of my friends got a new iPod touch (or iTouch) and had used it for a while for configuring and loading media, games and apps.
So, was asking around people for games and apps suggestions. And got quite a few from couple of people. Also found a few good ones browing through the Appstore. I just thought I would post them here, so that it could come in handy for new users or even for me when am atlast going to get an apple device home. (Pls re-read that sentence if you are planning a bday gift for me anytime :D )
I have tried to categorize them. But they are mostly random.

Card games:

• UNO Free
• Solitaire by Backflip

Angry Birds and variants:

• Angry Birds - Awesome and addictive!
• AB Rio
• Various AB Seasons
• Siege Hero

Aim at 'em:

• Paper toss
• Office gamebox
• Can Knockdown - Amazing graphics. The slow-mos kicked arse!
• 10 pin Shuffle (Bowling) Lite - Learnt a thing or two about Poker after playing this one
• Pocket Tanks - One of my favorite PC games. Managed to dug it up in Appstore too ;)

Kids: (None of them needs an intro)

• Tic-Tac-Touch
• Minesweeper
• Dots free
• Bubble Shooter

Sports:

• Stick cricket
• Hit Tennis 2

Slash:

• Fruit Ninja lite
• iShlash Lite - Neat and pretty good

Stupid tests:
I love these. One big reason is that they rated me as 'above average' and 'smart' *wink*

• Stupidness 2
• The idiot test 3

Board games:

• Checkers
• Chess
• Sudoku - Play a game of Sudoku daily. Very helpful in keeping those cob-webs away. More so, if you are a S/W Engineer

Puzzle:

• Rail Maze - Simple, yet good
• Crack the Code
• Unblock Me
• Cut the rope Lite - ZOMG! Isn't that little creature you are supposed to feed cute! (Refer pic)

Arcade/Adventure:

• Turbo grannies
• Line birds
• Cordy

Word games:

• Hangman

Race:

• Need for Speed Shift - NFS. 'nuff said!

I have just listed them without any detailed review. That shall be done when I find time or when am really really bored. Also shall update the list when I find something interesting

P.S. The biggest #FAIL of AppStore has to be the absence of a MARIO game! How the heck could anyone not develop a proper version of it!

P.S. If you happen to be an Apple gaming expert, pliss to add suggestions below. Danke!

The Cup of Joy!! Reloaded

[Edit: This write-up of mine won the Super Blog contest at chennaisuperkings.com. Never knew my words will be worth 5k bucks one day. One more reason to love CSK!]

The finishing note on the last year's blog plug after CSK won IPL 2010 was "Hoping for more success for the Lions in the forthcoming seasons too. Fingers crossed". Looks like it's happening and the dream is coming true and how!?

Lot has been said and talked about Gayle's super powers but he went fishing when it mattered the most, the Grand Finale. But, it would be rude to put the blame on him. If there is one reason for RCB to be in the finals, it is him. They were trotting at the lower half of the Points Table before he joined the squad and then he blew everyone away by the Gayle Storm

Back to our very own CSK, wow! Just wow! An amazing and consistent performance throughout the tournament has made sure that we retain the cup for the 2nd year in a row. Mahi continues to prove that he can't do anything wrong. Quoting a tweet from a Twitter user yesterday "Dhoni is getting on a flight and flying to Wembly to win the Champions League" only goes on to show this man's tryst with destiny. It's as if he can turn any team into the most formidable one with his leadership qualities and a little bit of lady luck. All glory to you captain. Sincerely hoping that you never ever leave CSK! As noted by LSK, "Dhoni always receives the trophy and then disappears into the background" Could there be a better sign for a True leader?

When the victory lap was on and when I could see the distant glow of the flood lights at the stadium and hear the faint sound of the crackers from my home, I wished I was in the crowd somewhere cheering for the Team Stupendous.

Once again the yellow fellows proved that we are the 'Good boys' by winning the Fair Play award again this year.

Mr. Malinga has the Purple cap. Mr. Gayle has the Orange cap. But, we CSK have the Trophy. What else could we ask for?

And just as @Sidvee mentioned "I am waiting for the day ManU wins the league and someone says 'We want to be the Chennai Super Kings of the EPL'" Hoping that the day isn't far away :)

Like last time, here are a few numbers highlighting the best teams across the IPL seasons and needless to say CSK is on the top!

No.	Teams	IPL '08	IPL '09	IPL '10	IPL '11	Net worth	Avg
1	CSK	7	5	8	10	35	8.75
2	RCB	2	7	6	9	27.75	6.94
3	MI	4	2	7	8	24.25	6.06
4	DC	1	8	5	4	21.5	5.38
5	RR	8	3	2	5	21.25	5.31
6	KXIP	6	4	1	6	19.75	4.94
7	DD	5	6	4	1	19.75	4.94
8	KKR	3	1	3	7	15.75	3.94
9	KTK	-	-	-	3	3	3.00
10	PWI	-	-	-	2	2	2.00

The points are allocated as below:

10 pts for the Tournament Winners (8 for pre-IPL4)

9 pts for the Runners-up (7 for pre-IPL4)

8 for the loser of 2nd Qualifier or winner of 3rd place play-off (6 for pre-IPL4)

6 for the loser in Eliminator

5-1 for the rest of the teams according to their positions in Points table

The Net Worth will be the summation of points across the IPL seasons

Udaithathu yaar

"Nee un nagangalai kadithu kondey
ennai oara kannal parkumbothu,
udaivathu un nagam mattum alla,
en idhaiyamum than"

Oscars 2011 Predictions

Its that part of the year again .. blah blah n all that. Cutting the crap and getting to the point right away. Blogging this in a hurry :D

Here is my list for the year!

Best Actor

• Colin Firth [The King's Speech]
• James Franco [127 Hours]
• Mark Wahlberg [The Fighter]
• Jesse Eisenberg [The Social Network]

Best Actress

• Natalie Portman [Black Swan]
• Annette Bening [The Kids Are All Right]

Best Supporting Actor

• Christian Bale [The Fighter]
• Andrew Garfield [The Social Network]
• Jeremy Renner [The Town]
• Geoffrey Rush [The King's Speech]

Best Director

• Christopher Nolan [Inception]
• David Fincher [The Social Network]
• Darren Aronofsky [Black Swan]
• David O. Russell [The Fighter]
• Tom Hooper [The King's Speech]

Best movie

• Inception
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• The King's speech
• The Fighter
• Black Swan
• The Town

Best Original Score

• Hans Zimmer [Inception]
• A. R. Rahman [127 Hours]
• Trent Reznor [The Social Network]

Best Animation Feature

• Toy Story 3
• How to train your dragon
• Despicable Me
• Tangled

Best Screenplay

• Inception
• The Social Network
• The King's Speech
• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• 127 Hours

Best Original Song

• "If I Rise" 127 Hours - A R Rahman

This was the list from last year's Oscars

Let's have a look at the possible winners once the nominations are announced :)