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. 

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. 

James Webb Space Telescope captures butt-clenchingly beautiful image of Uranus

 

A rare thunderstorm on Uranus, raining down methane and other organics onto lower levels of the atmosphere. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI)

• Scientists do not yet know why Uranus is sideways. 
• At the core of Uranus, is a diamond the size of the Earth. 
• Even at the magnification offered by Webb, Uranus is still mostly featureless. 

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has been an enigmatic ice giant with scientists having little understanding of the remote world. No probe has visited Uranus since the Voyager missions in the mid eighties. However, scientists have now used the largest, most expensive, and most powerful space observatory to investigate Uranus from a safe distance, without the hazard of falling into its massive gravity well. Lead researcher of the new paper, Catass Trophy says, "We now know more about Uranus than we did yesterday."

Images captured by Webb has allowed researchers to better characterise the atmosphere of Uranus, which has long been a mystery for science. The atmosphere of Uranus is thick and dense with methane, but the conditions are too warm for the formation of thick clouds. However, astronomers now have a better understanding of why Uranus is so blue. There is a thin layer of haze that gives its characteristic cyan colouring. 

JWST spectrum of Uranus (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI)

The researchers found varying sizes and densities of aerosols at different altitudes. The particles became larger with an increase in altitude, where there was an unexpected rise in temperature with an increase in altitude. A similar effect takes place on the ozone layer on Earth. The researchers also found charged particles such as electrons and protons in orbit around Uranus. 

This is the first time that Webb has turned its gaze to an object within the Solar System, after the commissioning phase during which it used the main belt asteroid 6481 Tenzing to validate its ability to track a Solar System body. For capturing the high resolution images of Uranus, Webb had to track the planet as it moved through the Solar System. 

Animated GIF of the magnetic field of Uranus. 

There are a number of questions that remain unanswered however. Without a core of molten iron, researchers do not know how exactly Uranus produces its immense magnetic field. Scientists are also struggling to explain why Uranus is sideways. Researchers hope to answer these questions with future investigations using the Webb. 

A paper describing the findings has been published in The Annals of the Royal Astronomical Society, Number II. 

LOTR again

Anyway, also watched the whole Lord of the Rings again. Peter Jackson's kids show up in the public in both Edoras and Minas Tirith lol. It's a pity that the extended editions are not available on streaming platforms. Was questioning some things about the trilogy too, like maybe I liked it too much so far. There is another post about the fidelity argument that I have to do later... after thinking it through. This time around, I clocked a few things though. 

They skipped out Ghan Bhuri Ghan entirely. There is one scene about the romance between Faramir and Eowyn. Sharky and the burning shire are also skipped entirely, would be so awesome to see Lobelia and Frodo coming home to all his possessions being auctioned. I am not sure if Cirdan the Shipwright was standing in the background in the last scene, but I think it was him. 

So far, have liked LOTR because of the approach of reconstruction by Tolkien, of crafting a lost mythology for Britain, building a world around the evolution of fictional languages, then writing stories within that setting. Seems like a lot of work that no one else has done, or actually can do unless they are a professor of linguistics. 

Then again, it might just be the interpretation by Peter Jackson. Would love to see an art film approach to LOTR, which is true to the books, and does not have any cinematic trappings such as comic relief or efforts to build tension for the audience. Would also like a very artistic cinematic rendering of The Silmarillion, that does not go much into exposition, and just shows the visuals of what is happening, without too much dialogues. 

The po-ta-toes scene really comes out of nowhere, in the middle of this really tense sequence where things do not look too good for the inhabitants of middle Earth. Boromir's scenes, including "One does not simply walk into Mordor" and "It is a gift" are such common memes, that they break the fourth wall during a watch, ruining the immersion. 

Think this is the last time, at least for a while. Time to go watch some new things. In the mood for some dark and gritty true crime. 

Possibilities

Just finished covering the first light images from JWST. It was a bit underwhelming. The Biden reveal yesterday began more than an hour late, and I was watching BGT videos on YouTube while the reveal was happening lol. Then today, they messed up the proceedings, with CSA not even participating in their segment, switched out with an expert at hand at NASA. 

The central white dwarf periodically throws temper tantrums and ejects massive clouds of gas that it has cannibalised from its unseen stellar companion. In deep space, every day is Diwali. 

A dying star, some very distant galaxies, a star forming region, the spectrum of a hot Jupiter exoplanet and a quintet of interacting galaxies were what were showcased in the images. Considering 30 years of work and billions of dollars sent up in the air, it was all a bit... underwhelming. We can do a lot of science with the images we have already really, are we learning that much more. 

Gravitational lensing creates virtual telescopes bigger than the distances between galaxies. The rays are because of light bending on the edges of the telescopes, or shattered mirror segments from too many micrometeoroid impacts on the mirror segments because you are stupid enough to deploy an unservicable telescope in a region known to collect gas and dust. 

The problem with the JWST is that it can only see in infrared light. We need full spectrum imaging instruments to peer at the really interesting targets, such as the Trappist-1 system. The big pending questions are things like measuring the expansion rate of the universe, finding intermediate mass black holes, understanding how massive galaxies and quasars were formed so early in the universe, and investigating the formation of the first supermassive black holes. The first light images do not really address these pressing questions. 

A stellar nursery with a newborn bubble of gas pushed away from energetic hot young stars. So grammable. 

The biggest disappointment was perhaps that there was not a single solar system target. Would be so great to have an image of Europa or Enceladus in the first light images. I was so looking forward to writing a story with the headline James Webb Space Telescope captures butt-clenchingingly beautiful images of Uranus. In fact, I am going to do it. 

A never-before-seen galactic collision.

Sure, it is just the commencement of the science program, and we can expect much more spectacular images going forward. Somehow, something feels off. Is there something like deep space fatigue? The problem is that space science dominates science and technology coverage in the media, and the difficult to explain, complex, and even obscure stuff gets overshadowed. Health, public health, environment, and wildlife conservation are some examples of undercovered areas. 

Greedy sun feeding on two gas giants and two rocky worlds in hopeless effort to grow as big as its hypergiant binary companion. The sodium based life forms on the puffball Hot Jupiters are screaming for their lives while taking cover from storms of molten gemstones. Unfortunately, the JWST cannot hear them as sound does not travel through space.  

Anyway, Biden said USA was the greatest country in the world, Nelson said NASA was the greatest space agency in the world, while ESA and Germany tried to point out their contributions in separate press releases. It is so funny to see academic institutions and scientific organizations put out press releases highlighting the contributions of their own members, while downplaying that of researchers from other institutions, even though science is very much a collaborative effort. Even more irritating are press releases that are one sided and make it out as if questions have been settled, even for contentious issues. 

:) I'm having a steaming hot cup of coffee in the middle of the night and laughing at my own jokes. HAHA. 

Dream Diary school time edition

So bunch of friends have a party in traditional dress, and I feel bad for not wearing traditional clothes. This is because it is Eid. There is one guy wearing green that I complement on. He is happy and says "I know" before I can finish the compliment. Then I go to sleep, wake up, and head to school.

I head to school on my motorbike, which is really weird as the school is at walking distance, and never even took my bicycle there. In fact, it was a big deal and we were wondering what was happening when schoolbuses came around around 7th standard. Most of the kids in the school before that were from the same colony, and we all knew each other not just in school, but afterwards as well, as everyone stayed nearby only. 

Anyway, I take the motorbike to the school and I am one of the earliest people there, so I have all the parking space I need. I imagine a row of bokes outside the school, which is how college was, but the whole space is actually a no parking zone. I park it closer to the school wall, between two flower pots, but then realise that I will not be able to take it out easily when more people use up the parking space later. So I move it back a bit. There are some guys hanging out in the car-o-bar, who see me struggling with the parking. 

I fold up a cover for the bike and put it in the saddle bag. I also cover up the bike. I apparently have to covers. 

Anyway, I then head into the school, which has some sort of exhibition going on. One guy next to me buys a ticket and goes in. I am like I don't need a ticket, this is my school. So I just walk in, where this volunteer shepherds me into a room. It is full of kids who are being interviewed one by one. It's seems like a counselling session for those affected by the pandemic. 

One guy is particularly funny. He says he wanted to beat up his friend before the pandemic, but the punch landed five years later. Everyone laughs at that, but he notices me laughing and comes up to me, raps something, and asks if I want to be beat up with a five year punch too. I laugh and shake his hand, but at the same time, some guy standing in the corner shakes my hand instead of the funny guy. Everyone laughs at that again, and that is when I woke up. 

Also, was able to calculate the amount of sleep debt and number of sleep cycles mentally. Could do it so normally, and was happy that I no longer need a sleep tracker. The bad news is I only had one complete cycle. I also realised it is a bad idea to go back to sleep, as I would very likely oversleep and not wake up in time to reach work in time. 

Dall-E is awesome at drawing Gollum

It might not know how to draw crocodiles, but DALL-E sure can paint a pretty picture of Gollum. Try and guess the painters. 

Picked up a Sansui Android Television

So a couple of months ago, a bunch of sardars attacked my Landlord's family, as the entire building is disputed property. They beat him up, threatened his wife by choking her, and gave his son a black eye. They filed a police complaint, which they have been asked to reduce to only the assault on the kid. Now, for his own security, he wanted to install a CCTV setup, and wanted a television for the same. 

I was asked to accompany him to get the TV. For my safety, he insisted I wear a helmet, which had no chin guard, and which was additionally cracked. I was highly doubtful if the helmet would save me from anything, but I did wear it. I was wearing chappals, and he also insisted that I wear shoes, to look smarter, as we were going to a store. I found this funny, but complied. 

We went to a Vijay Sales store, not sure if it was at Saket or Hauz Khas. Anyway, the guy there would not give the right discount, and kept haggling on the price of a Sansui TV that we liked. I was not prepared for the level of bargaining necessary, and it looked like he wanted to pocket a commission on the sale. 

Anyway. we went to another Vijay Sales in Kalkaji, and that branch seemed to be very professional. The attendant gave us the lowest price straight away, which was 1K cheaper than the other one. I just lost trust in Vijay Sales, because I expected the price to be the same in every outlet. This is not the case. The payment took some time, during which time I checked out a bunch of speakers by pairing them on Bluetooth. I really liked a Boat Party Pal speaker that I was tempted to pick up, but did not want to do it in front of my landlord, who is very inquisitive about all my purchases, and I did not want to appear impulsive in front of him. 

The whole thing took about two hours. When I came back, the Landlord made his son thank me, which was very sweet lol. 

Then in the afternoon, I got a panicked call from the landlord, who was scared that they were sending in a smart tv instead of an Android tv. I calmed his nerves, and posted another ad for him of an apartment that had just become empty. It was then that I realised that the wire for the CCTV was a VGA cable, that could easily connect to a monitor that he already had, and buying a new monitor would be cheaper than getting a tv. Anyway, I told him it was good for the kids, after he started feeling very bad that he had not thought about using the monitor himself. 

This evening, I had a good, long smoke enjoying the colours of this little pink cloud that caught the sunlight as the sun was setting. 

Later in the evening, had to shoo away the cat as it patted down the garbage bags, in preperation for peeing on it I think. The kitty seems to think anything smelly is its loo lol. 

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: