Rocky Balboa - a review!!!

Did I like it? Hell, YES!!
Would I recommend it? Of course!!

If you're big Rocky Fan (if you've seen all 5 Rocky movies or even just Rocky IV -then the answer is yes) , then there's no way that you cannot see this.

If you wanna read about the movie plot line, I suggest you visit http://imdb.com/title/tt0479143/

In Rocky Balboa, you can feel Rocky's pain and anguish at losing Adrian, his wife. Losing his money in Rocky V still hurts him a lot (though this fight and the movie is not about the money), because Rocky feels that he couldn't provide the best things to Adrian after he/they lost all the money, but she stood by him all throughout.
[Rocky Balboa: [visiting his old house as he thinks about Adrian] ... I remember when she was standing there all nervous and shy with that small smile... And all I wanted her to do was trust me... And she did... She did... ]

It's also about his relationship with his son, which sours because of his son's insecurities and problems living under his dad's shadow. This bit could have been handled a little more in depth - just one pep talk to his son solves the problem here, but instead of having more footage given to Marie, played by Geraldine Hughes, I feel that had Sly explored this aspect of his family, it would have been better.

Sly looks old in this movie, but MAN he still works out. Check out his body in the fight (last part of the movie). For someone who is 61 (yup he's 61), he looks really fit. Half his face is paralyzed and this makes him look and sound older.

I'm really waiting for Rambo IV. That's going to be another kick ass movie. I doubt if Sly is gonna do anymore action movies after this, but his legacy will live on, 'cos after all "It ain't over, till it's over"!! (I feel like saying Sameer Mehta, BBC news, Tokyo)

Coffee - the performance enhancing beverage

Coffee or kohii as it is known in Japan, is one good beverage. I'm used to having 4 to 5 cups of strong tea a day when I'm at home in Hyderabad and work in our SumT office in Hyderabad.
I stopped drinking coffee for the first few days I was in Tokyo, because I didn't get the kind of coffee I like (strong but with lots of milk).
As a result, I noticed that my energy levels at work were quite low. I didn't have the same enthusiasm that I usually have. Then for the past few days, I started drinking instant coffee at work, with cream. There's a marked increase in my energy levels, at least ( did you know at least are two words and not one - thanks to the dictionary tool in blogger) for a couple of hours post drinking coffee.

Now I don't know if I should be happy that I finally can have the kind of energy and enthusiasm levels at work that I'm used to OR should i be concerned that I've gotten used to the caffeine and my dependence on tea/coffee is slightly alarming?

For now, I'm happy. I don't about others - how do their bodies react to a decrease in caffeine levels?

Anyways, drink on for now!!!!!!! :)

(songs I was listening to while writing this post - Tere bin - Rabbi Shergill and Funky Town- Blondie)

Fav quote: Rocky Balboa

"It ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blogger in Japanese?

I finally wanted to post something on my blog on this fine Sunday morning and when I go to blogger.com on my Firefox browser (cliched phrase coming up), lo and behold, it was in Japanese. Now, my Japanese skills are basic and rudimentary, so typing in Japanese was outta the question.
Workaround : log in to Gmail first, and then open blogger.com . It should work.

Edit [ 6th May ] - This doesn't work, it worked in my case since I logged in to my VPN which assigns my system an IP from India and then the blogger website automatically changes to English (Right now, I'm using the Japanese Version) :D
No known workaround as of now.

Tokyo!!

Well, I'm in Tokyo! Will be here for another month or so! My first trip outside India and MAN!! what a trip!
The Japanese people are just amazing - they give each other a lot of respect, they talk very politely and they work very hard.
I wanna write some more stuff here - places to see, what to eat (if you're a veggie and non veggie), etc.

Virgnia Tech - "most horrific shootout till now"?

This is how TV reporters are describing what happened at VT. Other facts - there have 19 cases of shootouts in places of learning in the last 10 years (source: BBC). I'm sorry, but what will it take for the American Public to wake up and smell the gunpowder?
It is really only the public that can take a stand for gun control, because the American politician's sure ain't gonna do anything - the gun lobby is too damn powerful.
If you need guns for your protection, then what is your Police really doing? If the world's (only) superpower's citizens feel the need for owning guns because they need them for their protection, then one really needs to think if this is a sane line of thinking. Just because you have a history of owning guns (and doing so proudly) is not justification enough for continuing to sell firearms to the public.

This incident was not because that it was that guy at that place - it was just a guy who was nuts and had EASY access to guns. The most troubling thought is that this combination is frighteningly common in a country like the US (in other countries, it would just be "a guy who was nuts and threatened to jump of a building").
So all it takes is a simple sequence of events - "weird" or mad guy has enough of his employer or teacher, decides to take some revenge for the wrongdoings he is suffering.

Sad to say but unless there is a drastic change in gun control laws in the US, incidents like this will continue to take place (I wish I'm wrong).