The Story of Rexy

Rexy is a T. Rex from Jurassic Park, actually the one and only T. Rex from Jurassic Park. Rexy is a female, who was to be the main attraction in Isla Nublar. In the demo ride, they try to bait Rexy with a goat, but Rexy likes to hunt, not be fed. We see her appear first when things start going to shit. She dispatches impact tremors as her hair-raising herald. Then she chases Ellie, Malcolm and Muldoon in an epic car chase sequence. 

At the climax, Ellie, Grant and the kids are cornered by the three raptors who really are on the verge of building a spaceship and going to the Moon. This is when Rexy steps in, and literally becomes the hero of JP. 

Now Rexy does not show up in the two JP sequels, although both movies do feature T. rexes. The family of T. rexes in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (JP2) is from Isla Sorna. The lone adult male T. rex in JP3 is unrelated to the family from JP2. Rexy then appears in Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom, and Dominion. Rexy appears during the climax of Jurassic World. She battles and takes down the Indominus Rex, and pushes it into the jaws of the Mosasaurus. 

Then Rexy shows up right at the start of Fallen Kingdom. Here again, something similar happens. She attacks one of the mercs, they escape, but then the Mosasaurus gets him. Rexy is moving fast with strobe lighting, so had to play back at 50 per cent speed to capture this. 

Then in the climax, Rexy ends up killing and eating Eli Mills, the villain of the movie, then escapes into the wild. 

Rexy also shows up in Dominion, in the climax. This means that Biosyn tracked her down, caught her, and then moved her to BioSyn Valley in Italy. This part is not shown in the movies, but is shown in Jurassic World: Chaos Theory.... right in the fourth season, which is actually season 8 if you consider Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous as well. There are Big Eatie and Small Eatie in Camp Cretaceous, which are different from the T. rex fam shown in JP2. If anyone is keeping count, that makes a total of seven T. rexes in the franchise, Rexy from JP Buck, Doe and Junior from JP2, the 'Bull' T. rex from JP3, and Big Eatie and Small Eatie from Camp Cretaceous. Here is Rexy in S4e1 of Chaos Theory.

 

The season takes place at the same time as Dominion actually, and this scene takes place after Soyona is apprehended by French Intelligence, and before Kayla reaches Biosyn Valley on her plane with Owen and Claire. Even the Therizinosaurus shows up in Chaos Theory, if it did not, that would be as wasted as the Mososaur in Camp Cretaceous. Here is Rexy in Dominion, recreating the iconic logo from JP, that kickstarted the whole franchise. 

Then there was this epic scene where the Therizinosaurus, Giganotosaurus and Rexy. Rexy and the Therizinosaurus tag team and take out the apex predator, Giganotosaurus. No Mosasaurus comes to the rescue this time. 

At the end of Dominion, Rexy is presumably the apex predator of Biosyn Valley. But actually, a little more of this story is revealed by Chaos Theory. Biosyn captured the Buck and Doe as well (where is Junior?), and we get to see Rexy, Buck and Doe all together at once chasing away raptors troubling the Nublar Six. This mirrors the ending of the first movie, demonstrating that the T. rexes are the real heroes of the franchise. 

Scientists are starting to write on their own substacks

The Conversation is one of my favourite sites of all time, and invites scientists to explain their discoveries for themselves. The content can be syndicated for free by anyone. Such direct communication by scientists is great for reducing the growing mistrust that the general public has on the scientific community. Now, I am happy to see that many of my favorite scientists are getting on substack too. 

Janna Levin, the global expert on black holes, has a substack called Higher Dimensions. 

If you follow solar activity, then you should subscribe to the brand new Sunny Sci'd Up by Ryan French. I really like the name too. 

Ethan Siegel's Starts With a Bang is a fun way to keep up with the latest advancements in astrophysics. 

Corey S Powell's Invisible Universe does a lot of myth debunking and questioning. 

Echoes of a Forgotten world

 Who does not like a delicious conspiracy theory? The British author and journalist Graham Hancock in his books Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods, as well as the Netflix documentary series Ancient Apocalypse proposes an advanced global civilisation that existed during the last ice age. This society possessed sophisticated knowledge of astronomy, architecture, agriculture, navigation and spiritual practices, and well, they talked to plants lol. Hancock argues that this civilisation was seafaring and capable of long-distance ocean voyages. Now this civilisation has not been identified. The Indian archaeoastronomer Nilesh Nilkanth Oak claims that Sugriva, one of the vanar kings created a detailed world atlas 14,000 years ago. The theory is that Sugriva dispatched search parties that explored the entire world. The geographical descriptions align with Ice-Age landmasses, coastlines, and features such as lower sea levels. Both the Piri Reis map and Sugriva's Atlas feature places such as Antarctica far predating modern cartography. These claims are outlined in the book The Historic Rama: Indian Civilisation at the End of Pleistocene. 

Now these numbers are relatively tame, and not that dramatic. It is just that our recorded history has a short horizon, but our archaeological excavations have revealed that Homo Eructus had the capability for sea faring, a complex language, and demonstrated tool as well as fire use over 1.5 million years ago. So 15,000 years ago is not at all a surprising timeframe for such activities by humans. The problem here is agriculture and domestication, we know for a fact that these occurred 12,000 years ago at best, limiting the possible time frame for a more advanced civilisation. This civilisation may have existed in more harmony and balance with the natural world than humans today, who may one they revert to such a state with sufficient technological progress. 

The Piri Reis map may even explicitly depict a Vanar! 

Graham Hancock's advanced civilisation lasted between 115,000-11,700 years ago, ending due to comet impacts that ushered in the Younger Dryas between 12,900 and 11,700 years ago. These events caused floods and sea-level rise around the world. The survivors of this disaster imparted knowledge to nascent cultures in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Southeast Asia and South America. In the Valmiki Ramayana, the vanars are a race of people that resemble monkeys or apes in appearance. Their king, Sugriva dispatches four search parties to scour the Earth for Rama's abducted wife Sita. His instructions themselves form a comprehensive atlas detailing rivers, mountains and oceans. There are over 600 stellar references in the text, which has been used by Oak to date the Ramayan. 

Oak dates the events of the Ramayan to around 12,209 BCE, right in the middle of the Younger Dryas impact. Sugriva's description align with a world with lower sea levels, exposed land bridges, and ice-free coastlines. He references seven continents as well as Antarctica, which are supported by the world as described in the Brahma Purana. The vanars had the capability for rapid transportation and flight, which can be interpreted as possessing high technologies. In 1513, the Ottoman General Piri Reis compiled a fragmentary world map drawn from over 20 sources, including maps from the Library of Alexandria. These source maps are now lost. It depicts Atlantic coasts with eerie accuracy, including the contours of South America, the Carribean and Queen Maud Land without the ice sheet in Antarctica. Hancock cites this map as proof of Ice Age Explorers, arguing that the advanced tech needed to explore these longitudes were not available in the 16th century, let alone antiquity. In the Valmiki Ramayan, Sugriva describes the Udaya Mountain as the easternmost point where the Sun rises, with a prominent landmark. This is a golden pylon resembling a palm three with three branches, etched on a golden rock peak, with a golden base. This feature is described as an easterly compass, a directional marker established by celestial beings called deva-nirmana. The description matches a feature known as the Candelabra of the Andes. This is a geoglyph found on the Paracas Peninsula at Pisco Bay in Peru. 

Skeptics claim that in the Piri Reis map, Antarctica is likely to be a distorted Patagonia, with inaccuracies stemming from Portuguese voyages. The depictions of the ice-free southern lands align with geological data. Antarctica was last navigable around 4,000 BC, but Hancock pushes the dating back to the last Ice Age, implying lost sources from a drowned civilisation. My question here is that if they were so advanced, why did they drown so easily while the primitive peoples of the world survived? In any case, Sugriva's vanars are dated to around the same time, and were a society capable of seafaring, studying astronomy, and creating world maps. Both Sugriva and the Piri Reis map depict an unglaciated Antarctica, including lost mountains and seas. Sugriva's teams are dispatched eastwards to the Americas, west towards Europe, north to the Arctic regions and south to Antarctica. There are descriptions of land bridges lost to rising seas. The transatlantic details on the Piri Reis map are also difficult to explain, with the longitudes showing spherical projections far ahead of 1513 science.

Now, Oak's dates of the Ramayana based on the 600 astronomical references align with Hancock's proposed timeline for the destruction of an advanced Ice Age civilisation around 12,800 years ago. One way to reconcile the question of survival is that there was a widespread global cataclysm, but the civilisation survived! Ramayana's narratives do include cosmic events and widespread destruction, associated with the serpent Ananta, that can easily be interpreted as a comet that caused the cataclysm. The potential influence of Ramyana on ancient sites such as Angkor Wat, also align with Oak's timeline. Oak's dating of Sugriva's Atlas at the end of the Pleistocene is consistent with Hancock's hypothesis of a seafaring society that mapped a world with lower sea levels. Oak relies on bathymetric and sea-level reconstructions by the geologist Glenn Milne to validate Sugriva's descriptions matching Ice Age configurations such as exposed land bridges and unglaciated coastlines. These maps were published in Hancock's book Underworld. Long story short, Oak's Vanars may be the lost ancient civilisation of Hancock. 

I got a lock from Mr DIY and really liked it

The best lock ever! 

I needed to get a lock, and the lame locks available at the local hardware store, or through Instamart were just not cutting it. The thing is I live in a barsatiya, this is a hacky, jugadoo added-on house on top of a building, that is exposed to the elements and often features leaky roofs. I have a skylight, and my door is exposed to the elements after the hacky jugadoo trapdoor blew off in a storm. That thing could have taken out someone's head, or killed a child or a senior citizen, so it was extremely unsafe to think that a fibreglass cover could be held down by a metal frame, the whole thing became a kite during the storm, leaving my front door exposed. 

Now, if it rains, the lock rusts. The keys rust. I wanted something rust-proof, and I found just the right lock at Mr DIY. The first time I encountered this great store that has most of the things that you require in the house at the Mall of Delhi in Noida. It is close enough to drop in during my lunch break during work. I went there once just to pick up a keychain that I liked to add as bling to my bag, it is a spaceman that says 'I love you' when you press a button. It was here that I saw the nice locks with proper rating. I picked up another one at Pacific Mall, which is on the way back home from work. The internet does not work there so you need to take cash, and it is in the basement. 

All the previous rusty ruined locks

Anyway, so I got two great solid locks. What I like about these locks is that the keyhole is on the bottom of the lock, which is away from the direction of the rain! There is no way that water accumulates in the keyhole and rusts the insides. The rest of the locks are made up of rust-resistant metal as well, with the packaging containing clear grading on the properties and strengths, so you know what you are getting. In terms of pricing, the locks are at least three times the cost of regular locks, but totally worth it. The rusty locks were getting difficult to operate, getting stuck, challenging to open and close. I kept buying and getting rid of old rusty locks, and the cost was building up. 

The problems with the regular locks are many. The auto locking mechanism means that you can lock the door and leave the key behind, locking yourself out. The bar of the locks are also too big to fit in the door. The new locks solve both problems, because they can never be in an unlocked state unless the key is inside. To remove the key, you necessarily have to lock the lock. This is a great feature that gives you peace of mind because if you are outdoors and have the house keys, you can be very sure that the house is locked! Anyway, I am really happy with this lock by Dr DIY. 

I am now a criminal

 

Plots

 "Killer Karaoke": This film is about a group of friends who get stranded in a haunted house and must survive a series of deadly karaoke challenges to escape.

"Zombie Brides": A group of brides-to-be are transformed into flesh-eating zombies by a vengeful witch, and must be stopped before they wreak havoc on the wedding industry.

"Alien Disco Inferno": A disco-loving alien lands on Earth and starts a dance craze that becomes a worldwide sensation, but when his spaceship is stolen, he must team up with a group of human dancers to retrieve it.

"Vampire Lovers of Bollywood": A seductive vampire queen seeks revenge on a group of Bollywood stars who rejected her advances, turning them into her vampire slaves.

"Ninja Nuns": A group of nuns, trained in the art of ninjutsu, use their skills to fight crime in the city, but when they are targeted by a powerful criminal organization, they must use all their skills to survive.

"Curse of the Dancing Chicken": A cursed chicken brings bad luck to a small village, until a group of dancers put on a performance that lifts the curse and saves the day.

"Werewolf in Mumbai": A young woman is bitten by a werewolf and must learn to control her new powers, while also fighting against a group of werewolf hunters who want to destroy her.

"The Ghostly Bride": A man falls in love with a ghostly bride who haunts an old mansion, but when he discovers the truth about her tragic past, he must help her find peace.

"Attack of the Killer Tomatoes": A mad scientist creates a breed of giant, man-eating tomatoes, and it's up to a group of plucky farmers to stop them before they take over the world.

"Kung-Fu Santa": Santa Claus is a martial arts master who must use his skills to stop a group of evil elves who have taken over the North Pole and threaten to ruin Christmas.

FADE IN:

EXT. MUMBAI CITY - NIGHT

The streets of Mumbai are lit up with colorful lights and people are dancing to the sound of Bollywood music. Suddenly, a spaceship crashes into a nearby building, causing a huge explosion.

INT. SPACESHIP - NIGHT

Inside the spaceship, we see a groovy-looking ALIEN, wearing a shiny kurta and jazzy sunglasses. He looks around, confused.

ALIEN: (to himself) Where am I? This doesn't look like the Bollywood planet.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and a group of MUMBAI POLICE OFFICERS enter, pointing their guns at him.

OFFICER: Freeze! You're under arrest!

ALIEN: What? Why?

OFFICER: You crashed your spaceship into a building! You could have killed people!

ALIEN: Oh, sorry about that. I was just trying to land in the middle of the Bollywood beats.

OFFICER: Bollywood? What are you talking about?

ALIEN: I'm an alien from the planet of dance and music. I came to Mumbai to spread the joy of Bollywood!

OFFICER: (laughs) Joy of Bollywood? You're insane!

ALIEN: (starts dancing) Insane in the membrane! Insane in the brain!

The officers look at each other, puzzled.

OFFICER: (to his partner) I think this guy's nuts.

ALIEN: (still dancing) You guys should try it! It's easy! Just follow my lead!

The officers look at each other, unsure of what to do. Finally, they join in, and soon the whole room is filled with Bollywood music and dancing.

CUT TO:

EXT. MUMBAI CITY - DAY

The streets of Mumbai are now filled with people dancing and singing to the Bollywood beats. The police officers and the alien are leading the way, followed by a crowd of Bollywood enthusiasts.

ALIEN: (to the camera) People of Mumbai, you have been infected with the Bollywood fever! You can thank me later!

The group continues to dance down the street as the camera pulls back, revealing the Mumbai city skyline.

FADE OUT.

Feel 10 years younger

I just did something pretty crazy. Met this guy on a clubhouse room, we traded numbers, he came and picked me up, we headed to this shady place open late in the night and played a few frames of snooker! I wasn't great at it, but got a sweet J there that I really miss, and then played a few frames of 8 ball pool. Got a bit better by morning, then we went and had tea on his scooter, then went and sat in the park next to his old doggo's grave, came home, split a pint of Bro Code spirited wine, and then I crashed. We talked about rap, psytrance, played a few games of of 5 Alive, which was not that much fun. Awesome Saturday evening lol. 

Guy wanted to continue partying from Sunday afternoon lol, but I was too tired and had to prep for the next day. Anyhoo, have a brand new friend. 

Then a cab came and picked me up on Monday for an Intel event. Met some old colleagues from Digit and FP there. One of them had jumped into Intel. That was fun too. 

In other news, the Defenders and associated series, including Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Daredevil and Jessica Jones are now all on Hotstar! I can continue watching where I left off, which is great as I had stopped after exactly one season of Iron Fist and Luke Cage (finished watching the rest) anticipating this change. 

Just read this opinion piece earlier. There is a point in that you are not likely to know who Buff Cap Am or Black Bolt are without watching fairly obscure Marvel series, but that's okay I feel, another way for people to head to explore the shady corners of MCU. As someone who prides themselves in staying up to date, I really do not remember it all, I still just enjoy it... and it's not for the spectacle, it's really for the outrageous stories. Look, it's better time spent than GoT at least, or Supercops vs Supervillains: Shapath. IDK, do not agree, least of all having cheese and caramel popcorn. Come on, your fingers are going to be sticky and cheesy! 

Just putting it out there, I absolutely hate the popcorn "flavours" that involve adding powders to the popped corn. 

Also, two days of good meals from Carnatic Cafe. They keep having a different 'Rice of the Day' in rotation, but usually whenever I check it is something obnoxious like mensu anna (capsicum rice), but last two days it was chitranna and puliyogare. Such a pity they do not parcel in their thaalis or the kosambri. I have tried Naivedyam and Chidambaram, and the Karnataka Bhavan food (which is a hack, they serve poppadam instead of sandige, too downstream kaveri for my tastes), but only Juggernaut has good South Indian food if you can get a table, but they do not deliver. So Carnatic Cafe is my go to place, apart from Mayura Restaurant.    

There was a weird dream I had about the park though, one in which I was attacked by crocodiles for some reason. Donno what that was about. I tried to use craiyon to paint a picture, but no amount of prompt engineering can get dalle to draw a crocodile, so all you get is this majestic abomination:

Trolling on clubhouse

This is just too epic

Early in the morning, woke up and jumped into clubhouse. Bunch of people had played codenames and smashkart through the night and were tired and bored. 

So they came up with a scheme. 

A would go into a room and start chatting up a girl. B would wait for some time, then jump into the same room and start yelling at A. "Is this why you dumped me? Bitches on Clubhouse?"

Insanity ensues. 

It worked well in one room... perfect. 

Second room was even more hilarious. When A and B reached there, there was already some pandemonium going on. 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

First room audio

Perfect Science Bucket

Every so often, the stars align. 

Picking up a pair of eyeballs

So Im in Mumbai, and a friend who is an opthal asked me if I wanted to come to the airport with him to pick up some eyeballs. It was to be a late night drive, leave at around 11:30, go pick up the eyeballs by 12:30, come back by around 1:30 and call it a night. 

Sounded like a good plan, so I went along for the ride, not knowing that it would turn out to be an adventure. This is because when we went to the airport we found that the flight wasn't going to come in till 4:30 am! Now, I suggested the idea that we head to a hotel nearby and stay the night. The first place we went to was priced at 3,900 for the night, we said F that, and went down the road and found another place with a more reasonable 1,200 for the few hours. We checked in and slept on this bed. 

A few hours later, when he woke me up, I was startled to wake up in an unfamiliar environment, and pulled a punch at my friend. It took me a few seconds to realise who he was and I calmed down. He later said that that kind of stress is not good for me. 

Anyway, staying at the hotel was a good move, because my friend would have had to go home and come back early morning, making him groggy the whole day. 

We went to the airport a bit late at 5:30, to the Air India cargo hold, and got the two eyeballs. Im not sure if they were from the same person though. I got to carry the eyeballs from the cargo hold to the car! There was an army person on a desk who made us sign for it, apart from the office where we collected it from. We actually collected it special from the back office from a kind old lady, instead of the deserted front office, which had a big sign that said "Photography not allowed here". 

Yes, I have cool friends. 

We got the eyeballs and came back. 

The next day, on 19th, the eyeballs were used to restore the sight for two people, who got one eyeball each. Well, technically, the cornea, not the eyeball, but it is cooler to imagine disembodied eyeballs. 

Sorry Crimemaster Gogo. 

Guernica tribute in Clone Wars

In Clone Wars S05E16, there is a tribute to Picasso's Guernica, which is a painting about the horrors of war, in the backdrop to the fight between Maul and Darth Sidious on Mandalore.

This plate

So cool this plate is. Perfect for eating Idli. Got it from some relative during Munji, might seem like a basic gift, but it is a gift that keeps on giving. Cant go wrong with awesome plates.

As fresh as it gets

A vegetable vendor in Bangalore, growing his wares out of a plastic container just out of the shop. It really does not get better than this. I've heard tell of a small town off Mysore called Bettadapur where the people are so proud that they do not get anything from outside their own village. Apparently, each household is an independent, self-sustained unit. You drop in for a visit, they will go to the backyard to pluck out some cofee. Then for lunch, they will rummage around the various vegetable beds in the gardens to prepare the food. Look, we were eco-friendly for reasons beyond the industrial backlash and associated realisations. Most of India was eco-friendly because we never really strayed that far from nature. 

Spotify Playlist Tools

Bunch of tools to help with Spotify playlists 


Playlist Randomizer: Permanently shuffles songs in playlist

Spotify Shuffler: Another service to permanently shuffle songs

TuneMyMusic: Import playlists from files or web services to Spotify

Boil The Frog: Goes from one artist to another using similar songs! This is great to bridge from one genre to another (say rock is going on and you want to move to progressive psytrance, use this)

Playlist Miner: Enter a mood, concept, word, year, activity etc miner picks out top tracks from public playlists

Rekl: More controlled way for creating collaborative playlists, you get a room key that is not open to all.

Spotlistr: Does a lot, but main thing is importing YouTube playlists

Magic Playlist: Enter a song and a mood, then let this tool do the rest

Spotibot: Quickly generate playlists around a single artist, prevents having to add all the singles and albums one by one

Setify: Make playlists based on performances at actual concerts

Setlist: Another playlist generator based on live shows

SortYourMusic: Powerful playlist sorting tool with BPM, length and popularity analyses, made by creators of Spotify itself

Smarter Playlists: Granular control over playlist automation, lets you modify and fine tune the algorithms for automatic playlist generation (cool stuff, check it out) [more details here]

Birthhits: Generate playlist based on what songs were popular on a particular day

Acrostify: Create playlists with secret messages

Shazam: Generates playlists from songs around you

Star Chart/ Math Problem

Okay, this is a star chart, started in Excel and ended with Visual Paradigm, which is a tool used for designing software (yeah things went a little overboard). The good features in Visual Paradigm is to automatically layout the elements or components once the relationships between them have been established. Most of these links are based on salicious rumours, and is meant to quickly keep up with bollywood gossip, and a guide to solve the blinds by SpotboyE, Pinkvilla, Stardust, Mumbai Mirror Tailpiece etc. The second one is easier to follow, but the first probably shows some kind of camps by clustering more connected entities together.

Oh, for the maths problem, count the number of triangles 😀

The screenplay is better than the movie

Fandoms are perpetually locked in discussing exactly how the movies were better than the books or vice versa. The question is what happens when a novelisation of the screenplay is released. Take the 1998 Godzilla for example, the screenplay was actually better than the movie, which tracked the screenplay for the most part. Here are some of the main differences.

Philippe Roaché looking at Nick take the sample at the start of the movie - in the screenplay, he is standing in the background mysteriously, and Nick notices him only towards the end. In the movie, this is a casual moment that is not played up at all.

Audrey throwing the bag at Caiman - she just tosses it without the middle finger as the elevator closes. In the book, she flips him off.

The pectoral fins not big enough in Godzilla, in the screenplay, these fins were wings that did not fully grow, and could be flapped.

Dude guy in the bedroom does not show up at all. This is a random guy from the street who flashes the peace sign at Animal, while he is consoling Audrey.

Elvis Presley movies is where Roaché gets his flawless southern accent from, a scene which seems to have been cut from the movie.

The names of the submarines are changed for some reason.

There are large, squirming parasites on eggs which have been left out. Godzilla has apparently been infected with a mutation.

Smell like the fish is not in the screenplay, but included in the movie.

Nick presses a bunch of lift buttons by accident, while escaping from the babbyzillas, but this is shown in a slightly different way in the movie.

There is a scene where the Frenchies complain about the butter, but Roaché investigates the wrapper and notices that it is actually from France - this would have been a nice ending to the repeated gag of the French finding the Amurican food disgusting.

The scene of Godzila being trapped in the bridge has been simplified.

There is a really cool sequence in the end where Philipe Roaché is exposed as a French agent, and he writes to Nick, informing him that it is safe to talk now.

Considering the changes and tweaks, looks like even if you enjoyed the movie, the original screenplay is always better.

Horus Heresy

So I started reading the Horus Heresy series, as an entry point into the staggeringly large Warhammer 40K universe. Have been reading the books continuously for most of the year, about a little more than one a month. Have a telegram group with four fans who discuss this all the time.

Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames
What a spectacular introduction. The space battles are more epic than anything else I have read before, and the scale is just enormous. This is a future which is not limited by resources or imagination. The Primarch is revealed late into the book, and then he turns! We also see a bit of Magnus and the other primarchs, which are only explored fully later in the series. The three books sort of flow into each other, and form a trilogy of their own. This is gory, and "grimdark" at its best. The bombardment of the Istvaan system is just too over the top.

Flight of the Eisenstein
One of the most uplifting novels in the series, it is a roller coaster ride of emotions, but ends on a positive note.The good thing is that some of the action takes place close to Earth. This is one of the few novels in the series that actually gives you some hope, and can be considered a bittersweet story.

Fulgrim
They tried to go to the depths of decadence here, but could not do it as well as say 12 days of sodom - but they tried to go there. The problem is that the debauchery is unstructured, and so does not have as much as an impact as other similar works. Can get a bit crass and painful at times, and there are no diamonds in the rough either.

Descent of Angels
This is a fantastic story that takes place in a totally different time, on a deathworld in Caliban. This is a jungle planet where monstrous creatures roam, and there are other mysterious beings. Lion el'Jonson is one of the best primarchs there are, because of how little he reveals about his intentions. Although he has a calculating mind, he keeps his cards close to his chest. Still, mistakes are made. One of the few books where we see the Emperor directly in action. This happens when the Emperor visits Caliban.

Legion
An interesting book that looks at the underhand tactics of the most clandestine Alpha legion. The legion actually has two primarchs - Alpherius and Omegon. They are twins, but the entire legion pretends to be the primarch. Also we see the exploits of John Grammaticus, and introduced to the strange collective of aliens or xenos, known as the Cabal.

Battle for the Abyss
This is a space ship battle that is a bit like the hunt of the Bismark by the Hood. Most of the action takes place on board two ships.

Mechanicum
This tells of the origins of the Emperor, as well as the dragon on Mars. Initially, the book starts off as very dull and boring because it is mostly about machines, but towards the end the book really turns into one of the best ones in the series. It has the most well designed, outrageous, and relatable characters in the series so far, which is a difficult thing to pull off.

Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels continues from Descent of Angels, and shows Luther building up the capacities of the legion in the homeworld of Caliban, and the conflict that follows. This is a really sad story, with unnecessary misunderstandings.

A Thousand Sons
This one is really good as we finally see Magnus destroying the Emperor's secret project on Earth, in an effort to warn him about what Horus is up to. The retribution from the Emperor is strict, but in the last minute, Magnus saves his sons by moving to the Planet of Sorcerers. The book shows the warp ultimately corrupts, and that there is always a bigger fish in the sea. There is also a hint that the chaos gods have taken over the warp, and there may be pure or golden energy in there that can be used by the right people. This is what the elders probably used to make their webway, and what the Emperor was using to make his. It is revealed that the Emperor planned to make Magnus sit on the golden throne instead of himself, which shows that the Emperor has some nefarious schemes of his own as well. Also, another highlight is the council of Nikea, and again, one of the few times that we see the Emperor in action.

==Finished reading on this date, will be updating this post as I read through the rest of the series.==

Nemesis: War Within The Shadows (Dec 24, 2018)
Nemesis is easily one of the better books in the series. It tells the story of six crazy assassins out to kill the Warmaster. There is a shape shifter, a kind of anti-psyker, a marksman, a tech guy, a berserker, and a poisoner. In the end they do not succeed, but this still has a lot of humanity and hope in it. For a series that gets so dark, there are some incredibly elevating moments in here. The best story was that of the Kell siblings, Eristede and Jenniker. Things go downhill, as usual. This was an action packed ride through and through, with not one dull moment. Right at the very end, the Emperor shows up and says a few things, which is always great to read about. It is just so insanely rare that the Emperor is shown directly doing or saying anything. So far this has happened only in Descent of Angels, A Thousand Sons, and now Nemesis.

The First Heretic (January 2, 2019)
This one is about Lorgar, and how he was humiliated by the Emperor at the council of Nikea. Lorgar needs to have a faith, and it does not matter which one. When he finds out that the Emperor is not worthy of his worship, nor desires it, he starts worshipping the Chaos gods instead. You cannot help but feel bad for this Primarch, but he goes on to keep his allegiance a secret. In a way, it can be considered that the Emperor of Mankind dug his own grave when he did not see the machinations of Chaos at the council of Nikea. It is also not clearly explained by Leman Russ hates Lorgar sooo much.

Prospero Burns (January 14, 2019)
This one takes you into the most savage legion there is, the Vlka Fenryka, or the Space Wolves. It shows the machinations of chaos working from within the legions over incredibly long periods of time. Leman Russ is not the barbarian that he was made out to be in all the books so far. This is a really fun read as it takes place in a setting that has not really been seen before, on a brutal world that is stuck perpetually in a pre-industrial state - still there are spaceships. The mystery of the wolves of Fenris is finally revealed, they are actually the Astartes who convert into wolves, which explains why they are so loyal, and also why "there are no wolves on Fenris". The disappointing thing is that in the end, the retelling of the events at the Council of Nikea is rushed, and the actual burning of Prospero happens too quickly, and without much details. Like the destruction of so many worlds are written about in such detail, for example the Olamic Quietude, which is post human to such an extent that it can almost be considered a xenos species. Here, the home world of a primarch is destroyed, and that is written about in less detail. The Emperor is seen directly at the council of Nikea, but does not speak.

Age of Darkness (February 4, 2019)
Age of Darkness is a bit disjointed and found myself reading the book, without really getting into the stories. It is a collection of short stories, and easily the most memorable one is the Last Remembrancer. The setting in all the stories is just around the time of the massacre at Istvaan. Liar's due takes place in one of the outskirts of the Empire, where a single agent manages to sow discord in a planet.

The Outcast Dead (Febryary 22, 2019)
This one was a bit like Mechanicum, in the sense that it was a little boring in the beginning, but became really cool the more you got into the book. Most of the action takes place on Earth, which is as alien as any of the other worlds in the series so far. The really cool thing is that there are so many Indian names in this book, along with actual locations such as the Himalayan Mountains and Uttarakhand. The Imperial palace uses the highest mountains on Earth as its foundations, which gives a scale of how insanely epic it is. We also come across precursors to the Astartes, the thunder warriors, who are actually larger than the Astartes. There is a sequence where the Custodians, Thunder Warriors, the Astartes, and a bunch of Blanks are all fighting at once. The ending is epic, especially since it contains two extended sequences where the Emperor plays a game of chess. There is also a prison break, after which the action feels a bit like the kill squad in Nemesis. In this book, you really cannot take sides.

Best Birthday Gift Evar

So my friend i666 gave me a proto-excalibur noggle for my Birthday. This is awesome :D

Match Up Children's Gaem

90s Nostalgia much?

Karwar Mangoes

Donno what these are called, but they huuge