Friday, September 30, 2022

Back on Netflix

 So there is good news and bad news. 

The good news is that I am back on Netflix. Had to jump through a couple of hoops to get there. Had to open the Vi app, log in with an OTP, go to the benefits section, activate the Netflix benefit, then get an OTP, then log in to Netflix, then answer some F*all survey that just did not seem to end about my watching habits. Then, when I finally got back on to Netflix, found that some of my viewing history had mysteriously disappeared. Yes, pretty sad for good news. 

The bad news is... I had already finished watching all the episodes of IT crowd! LOL. Have to go find some other shows that have Noel Fielding now. 

Thursday, September 29, 2022

So much content

The excitement is high... ran out of Netflix with my Vodaphone RED account... it is just too much to pay per month. Gonna avoid it till there is a buildup of shows I wanna watch, then will binge everything in a month. The only thing I miss right now is the IT Crowd. It is irritating to make a new account every time you switch out the payment method. Netflix support directs you to Vodafone, and Vodafone support directs you to Netflix. LAME. 

Rings of Power: This one is funny because everyone is trying to figure who Meteor Man is, and who Sauron is. Seems like Halbrand is Sauron, but that would be disappointing. Meteor Man or the Stranger seems to be Gandalf. The maps shown in the series are impossible to reconcile with Tolkien's maps. The migration paths of the Harfoots is a great example. Still, Durin is awesome, Numenoreans are okay. Galadriel is just cringe. 

House of the Dragon: The books are so depressing, expect the world to be split into Greens and Blacks soon. I am a Black. Really liking Viserys so far. They seemed to have taken some kind of pledge to make every sex scene uncomfortable for the audience. Miss Mushroom and Septon Eustace, even though some people think he was the big headed dwarf banging on the drums during the wedding. Cole is just an absolute ass. 

Andor: Initially felt this was going nowhere, but really like the bureaucracy, the set designs, the spaceships, the droids, and the characters. Four episodes are out, seems like it is on the verge of becoming epic after a few set up episodes. Kind of refreshing to have a Star Wars series sans the lightsabres and the stormtroopers, but it is kind of pointless to enjoy a Star Wars series just for their lack. Still, this series really goes deep into how it would be like living in the Star Wars galaxy. 

She-Hulk: This is a bit boring, going nowhere, expected a law procedural, but they are delving too much into random stuff. 


Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Dream Diary attacked by pachyderms edition

Still not adjusting to food in Delhi. Tried making some rice and dal, but even they taste different from back home lol. Think there is some locha in the water only. Plus it is too much trouble to maintain a larder. So still getting a lot of dreams of eating home cooked food. 

Was woken up repeatedly in the night by scary dreams of being chased by animals. First there was a big black rhinoceros with too many horns in all the wrong places (shoulders and hind knees). Then it was a bull that chomped me with vampiric teeth when I woke up. Then... there were two big elephants lol. I was fleeing them by riding a bicycle with a broomstick, but they charged at me. 

Have to start documenting these again, have forgotten a bit in the last few months. 

Dungeons and Dragons sessions have stopped... Biradaari circle sessions I am avoiding for now, though others in it are celebrating a year of virtual meetings. There was also a getaway in Lonavala that I missed. 


Thursday, September 08, 2022

There is a velociraptor in Braavos

Metadiscussion is fun. 

I am back in Westeros. Back on Reddit. Engaging. IDK why. 

I am eating far, far less though. Resorted to ordering one thali a day, that I eat through most of the day. It works out cheaper than two orders. 

Making art on Nightcafe. It is fun. Feeling happy and tired. 



Watching Chicago Med on Netflix. Flummoxed rest of the series are not available. 

I went to a party last saturday, it was pretty epic. My first real party since 2019 I think. There were a lot of people. There was also an afterparty. I had fun, but maybe left behind a cigarette box that was used as an ashtray somewhere. Met a couple of cute cats. Whiskey was the more scared one, Tango was the brave one. 

I met another cat. I live very comfortably. Bit like Radagast. A lizard just caught some strange bug and ran right in front of me. Im not bothered by ants or spiders or lizards anymore. Have somehow come to accept them as part of the urban environment. The cats just walk in and out of the house whenever they please. They know not to poop in the garbage, and surprisingly enough, not to topple anything. My Jenga and stacks of Amazon boxes are all left untouched.

Sometimes I wonder what the cats are doing. 

There is a new one now, a young black one that is less shy but also more scared at the same time. Of the two regular ones, one never comes inside the house, and the other does so only at times. It ran headfirst into a wall while trying to dodge me while I was coming up the stairs. 

Delhi is starting to feel like home. It is a very woke, literate and knowledgeable city, people are always having serious conversations, even when they are joking and playing the Devil's Advocate or pretending to be Chomsky... leads to frequent Poe's Law situations. 

People here are much more genuinely involved in things, I enjoyed talking about regional languages, House of the Dragon, Tolkien Legendarium... you do not have to be scared of using the right words anymore. Mumbai keeps you back, kind of, encourages you to be more dumb. But that is also a pleasant zone. 

I can tell now when people are sad in games. I talk to people with violence in their avatars, or who are trolling, or those who indulge in verbal abuse. I just ask them if they are okay. They become happy. I become happy. 

BTW, in Delhi, verbal abuse is a spectator sport.

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Dream Diary Major Kung Fu vs Tai Chi

I just saw a full-blown action movie. 

I have no idea what my brain is working through. 

Anyway, so there is this retired military general who is the crime boss of a major operation that owns an office complex full of workers that do very shady things, with the first two floors for running a protection racket, the next two for arms trafficking, then piracy, forgery, smuggling artwork, cybercrime, poaching, insurance fraud, identity theft, contract killing and drug smuggling. It is a 24 story building, with the HQ and penthouse on the top floor. The building is known as The Syndicate. 

His name is Major Kung Fu, and he wears a red bandana, defeating the purpose of his camo gear. 

He has a henchman named Dambe, a servant named Body, who is a body double for Major Kung Fu, and a fat son retarded in all sorts of ways known as Wing Chun. He also has two associates, Bokator and Muay Thai. 

Bokator, Muay Thai and Major Kung Fu all express their concerns in a meeting, where they discuss their most profitable customers move to a mysterious new source, who apparently provides hydroponically grown weed of a much better quality. The operation is run by a sniper who drives around on a Kawasaki Ninja bike, and is not above taking down street vendors who are competition. This mysterious guy's name is Tai Chi, and they all decide in the meeting that they have to find this guy. 

Major Kung Fu

Bokator, Muay Thai, Major Kung Fu all live on the ground floor of an apartment complex, one that I had seen in a different dream. Turns out Tai Chi is their neighbour! One day, Major Kung Fu just asks Tai Chi if he has some weed, which Tai Chi gives immediately. Major Kung Fu reports to Bokator and Muay Thai that he has finally found Tai Chi, and that he lives in the same apartment, and throws the weed on the table to prove it. All three of them have a hearty, villainous cackle. 

Major Kung Fu confiscates Tai Chi's beloved sniper weapon, puts it in an electronic trunk, hires Tai Chi himself to manage the weed business. Tai Chi is initially happy, although he resents having to work for someone else, and not getting to keep his weapon. Major Kung Fu attempts to make Tai Chi more disciplined, and requires him to access the weapon only after notifying him of the target at least a day in advance. He can also only kill between eight and nine PM. These rules are meant to make Tai Chi plan his actions instead of impulsively killing people. 

Tai Chi does not like all these new rules, and goes rogue. He procures another, higher calibre weapon from a distant crime syndicate, one that can operate as both a machine gun and a sniper. He then begins to attack The Syndicate. Major Kung Fu gets his workers to abandon the bottom 12 storys, fortify the next 8 storys, asks Dambe to stick with him, and the Body to carry Wing Chun. 

All of them just hear the sounds of violence and struggle while hiding in the penthouse. Major Kung Fu gets impatient, and then begins to head to the lower floors. Dambe does not like him not sticking to the plan, but follows anyway. The Body carries Wing Chun, who is drooling, eating chips, and crying at the same time, not because of the danger but because he cannot play videogames. 

Tai-Chi

The Body take's Tai Chi's old weapon for protection. The Body and Wing Chun flinch and watch as a gunfight between Major Kung Fu, Dambe and Tai Chi takes place. They just see reflected muzzle flashes, and hear two screams, the first one with Dambe dying, and the second one with Major Kung Fu dying. They hear footsteps approaching. The Body gets scared and fires randomly into the staircase. The footsteps stop. 

Wing Chun then goes down the stairs carefully, with The Body following. They find Tai Chi dead on the staircase, in the process of walking up. There are other bodies littered around the nineteenth floor. Wing Chun goes up to the body of Major Kung Fu, and picks up his gun, and removes the bandana. He then puts the bandana around The Body's head, and smiles. The Body smiles back. 

I woke up. 

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Finished watching Kamala Khan

First of all, the ending hit me but it was a lie. The dad says Kamala means miracle, but that is Kamaala not Kamala, which means lotus. I was like why didn't I get that before, this is my language, should have understood, but then realised I did not need to second guess myself, because it was a lie. 

What I really liked was the way chat messages were shown, blending in with the backgrounds. This approach is much more superior to any other type of text messages shown on screen, particularly in comparison to Sherlock that I found sooo irritating that I stopped watching the series! 

There was a little bit of a romance sequence in the second episode that I really did not relate to at all, and almost stopped watching, but the rest of the episode was good. 

IDK why they had to focus so much on the partition. I really didn't like the Noor dimension exposition. I really liked the animated graffiti sequences. One of the pictures of Kamala looks too much like L from Death Note. 

It was an okay series, not as much fun and exciting as the other ones, few links to the MCU, would have been great if one of the other superheroes was in the series, particularly towards the final episodes. Cannot wait to see how Kamala integrates with the wider MCU though. I really liked the level of integration in all the other series, Wandavision, Captain America and the Winter Soldier, and Loki. Compared to those shows, this just did not have the scale or wasn't soo exciting. 

Have caught up with the MCU, only thing left is... Cloak and Dagger, which I started and stopped for the second time... it's just the most boring MCU series so far, and I'm including Inhumans, and Moon Knight, which I haven't started yet. Looking forward to She Hulk, which I am sure will be a blast. Really miss Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D though, think that one was the best. 

For no good reason, I'm going to rank all the series:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

What if...?

Agent Carter

Loki

Captain America and the Winter Soldier

Luke Cage

Daredevil

Hawkeye

Wandavision

Jessica Jones

Iron Fist

The Punishers

Inhumans

The Defenders

Ms Marvel

Eh... so basically Ms Marvel is the worst series lol. Oh well.