This time I have been so busy, that it was almost impossible, for me to get it done, all in one shot. So instead of going down path and do my traditional, download, wipe, clean and install, I chose to do things a bit different. I decided to do an upgrade installation, live from the Internet. Now I have been using Ubuntu for a long time, since 2005, version 5.04 (Warty) and one of the most painful and disastrous thing I’ve done is Online Upgrades.

I had always blame my failure of bad or lack thereof a proper Internet Connection. The one’s I had would have take, literally, days to complete an upgrade. But now, I have high speed, a whopping 24Mbps download, what could possibly go wrong?

So the weekend came, I went to sleep, and put my laptop to upgrade, the estimated time, about 3 hours. Got up about 7 hours, later and it was done. Ah! a fresh new install of Ubuntu, about to explore the possibilities, when I am greeted with an issue.

The issue: Ubuntu boot up the the Desktop Login Screen, accepts my username and password, but would not log me in. Instead it would just return to the Login Screen, in a constant loop.

The fix: Due to the large pile of awaiting things to be done, I decided that it would have been wasteful to just stick it out. I decided, the alternative, would be to switch back to my Windows 7 installation, and use that for a while. Painfully, but nevertheless I did. Until one day i need to get some serious work done, and couldn’t wait on Windows to stop acting up or sucking up resources, I decided to look into fixing my Ubuntu.

The Solution: Sometimes the biggest problems has very simple solutions. After doing some research online, this is what I came up with as a fix for the issue.

1. Boot up the the Login Manager
2. Switch to Virtual Terminal (Shell) by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F1 key combination
3. Login to your user account. [Ensure user account has root or sudo privledges]
4. Delete or Rename the .Xauthority file in your home directory :- $sudo rm ~/.Xauthority
5. You may be prompted for a sudo password if you are a sudo user. Enter your password.
6. Once, you are done, switch back to your desktop by using Ctrl+Alt+F7 key combination
7. Login, and Happy Tuxing!

[Note:] A common issue may arise, based on your privileges or file permission.

And that is what can be said about his latest masterpiece “Ra.One”, which has proven that he never stops upping the ante for Bollywood films. 

Ra One comes as the much needed change in Indian Cinema, since, well let’s face it, there are not so many hits coming out of that industry. Not so many that will draw people who don’t often watch Indian/Bollywood films, to go out and see one of them.

So what is this Ra One I speak of? Glad you asked. I went to see the movie today and here’s the how it all went down.

Pre – “Ra.One”

I came to know about this movie a while ago. I don’t recall where and how in particular, but hey, I live in a town with the largest concentration of Indian nationals outside of India, you’d think I would hear about it.

I am also friends with a Shahrukh Khan-ophile, Shanie, who, interestingly enough, is the whole reason for me to go see this movie in the first place.

Release

Ra.One was released on Diwali, October 26th, 2011. A visit to the movie theatre last weekend, noted a huge amount of patrons going to see it. Up to this point, I was not interested in seeing it. Shanie, however, was dying to see it. I could understand her anxiety, since I grew up in a house with another Shahrukh Khan-ophile. Enough said.

Poster

Trailer

The Ra.One trailer, that was annoyingly placed as a Youtube ad, for Bollywood & Chutney songs was not too impressive or compulsive enough to me, that I should go see the movie.

Should I see it?

Like I said, my interest in watching this movie was non-existent. This was mainly because I don’t really watch, and haven’t watched a Bollywood movie in a while (A few years). With the ever growing number of things that I need to do, watching movies/tv-series has become less and less important to me. Though I do watch a few whenever I do find the time.

Shanie said she was going to see it, and was indeed very excited to see it. What else could you expect? I commented on her post about her excitement that she should review the movie on her blog, and she said she would. So said, so done, Shanie posted a review. 

I know I may have to edit this paragraph out later, but Shanie’s review of the movie didn’t get me pumped to see it still. It sounded like a breathless blurt of excitement from a die hard fan. She gave her thoughts about it, they were well expressed, though, if you have no seen this movie yet, would not compel you to do so. So at this point, still not interested.

Interest started

Last Sunday, when I accompanied two friends to the Flea Market. While browsing, one of them pointed out to me that the movie was available on DVD. Well, what I would call an “unofficial” DVD copy. After they wandered off, I decided to pick up a copy, just to see it. I knew that at some point I wouldn’t hear the end of it from Shanie until I have seen this movie, so I thought, what the heck, just get it, atleast you will watch it at some point.

I told Shanie I got a copy of the movie, and she suggested that bootleg would not do justice to the movie. She also mentioned that I should see it, since “I will be in Programmers Heaven”. Now this changed my thoughts about the movie. Why would she say that? This got me interested to find out more about this movie. What is it in there about programming? I was aware up to this point that the movie was supposed to be a Science Fiction episode, but knowing how unrealistic Bollywood films can get at times, one would just rule out the thought of watching it. So I thought that I would watch it on bootleg over the weekend, and if it was any good, I’d go watch it again on the big screen.

The weekend came, and I put it now on my list of things to do. I wanted to see Ra.One, but as you would think, the bootleg would not read. It read on my computer earlier in the week, when I didn’t want it to, but it wouldn’t now. No matter what I did I couldn’t get it to work.

So now I am left with two options:

• Give up or,
• Go see it on the big screen.

I know I wasn’t going to hear the end of it from Shanie, so I decided to go with the latter as my plan. Find the time on my schedule, fitted it in, and off to the theatres to see Ra.One.

Pre-Movie

Luckily I got the bus as soon as I left home, that goes directly to the movie theatre. It sort screwed up my initial plan, but I am nothing, if not adaptable. Arrived at 2.30pm and found out that the next show was starting at 3.35pm. Stood in line to get tickets, and still debating if I should really get tickets to see this movie. Why not go see the new Harold & Kumar movie? Or something else? Nevertheless, I decided, got tickets, and hoped for better or worse.

Oddly, I thought since it wasn’t opening week, that there wasn’t going to be a large audience to see today’s showing, and not much people were in line to get tickets to that, so I thought ah, it’s going to be an almost empty seating. So I sat outside, since there was about 1hr left before the movie starts, just chilling. Went inside about 15 minutes before the movie started, and boy was I wrong about my crowd anticipation. The theatre was almost packed, with my favourite spot, last row centre, already occupied. As a matter of fact the entire middle section was already filled, so I had to find comfort in the right or left block. I quickly found a spot that was amicable and settled. So here I was, sitting in a theatre, about to watch a Bollywood film. Oh did I mention that it was in 3D, yes, the movie was in 3D. So I was pretty excited to see that.

Of course, the movie doesn’t start right away, there’s always the trailers of what exciting is upcoming to see. I usually take my pick of the next movie I will watch and try to remember the date of it’s release.

Don 2

The first trailer was Don 2, the sequel to Don (2006), which stars Shahrukh Khan also. I guess, by now, it’s conclusive to say that this is a movie I will be seeing, but I will tell you, it’s not for the reason you are thinking, it’s because it looks to be an exciting movie. Now, I have never seen the first part of this movie, but it’s surely something that I will have to do before December 23rd, when the new instalment will be released.

The other, Desi Boys, doesn’t look as exciting. It a movie about two Indian Guys who loses their jobs, and decided to become escorts. Rockstar, seems like an interesting love story about the making of a musician, but again, not worthy enough that would compel me to watch it.

The Main Feature

I know you are thinking, enough jibber jabber about nothing and get to the point already. Ok, so here goes, the main event, Ra.One.

So Ra.One, simply put, is Bollywood’s idea of the Matrix, only better. The movie is a 2011 Science Fiction thriller, that highlights areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It does not bring too much new ideas, in terms of AI movies, to the screen, but it does reuse/borrow from many other ideas and compose them in a interesting way.

Alert: If you haven’t seen the movie yet, and don’t want it to be spoiled for you, then you should probably stop reading from here onwards.

The movie is about Shekhar Subramanium, [Shahrukh Khan] (yes, the great King Khan himself), a south Indian Tamil speaker, who live in London with his wife, Sonia [Kareena Kapoor] and their son, Prateek [Armaan Verma].

Shekhar is a Game Developer working for Barron Industries. The company has just been at the brink of discovering systems that bridges the Virtual World and the Real World, by using the “rays and signals” that are ever present in the virtual world, and create a presence within the real world, one in which the person experiencing it, can feel as if it were tangible.

The movie opens with Jenny Nayar [Shahana Goswami], an employee of Barron, and a programmer alike, displays the results of their work, by bringing their boss into the presence of a crowd that he could not have attended. The audience was able to touch and feel the presence of her boss.

My first thought here, was, oh cool, it’s kind of like Cisco Telepresence. What’s even more cool was that Telepresence was used to create a holographic presence of humans in G.I.Joe, but this application has taken it to a whole new level. AI thoughts, hmm, I think I have already found my $14 for ticket/popcorn well spent.

The introductory scene, was epic and comical. The movie started by an episode of SRK, a villain by the name of “Lucifer” who fights “Khalnayak” [Sanjay Dutt] in order to save “Desi Girl” [Priyanka Chopra]. Now if you are a fan of Indian cinema, you would see or could tell already why this is a comic relief scene.

Priyanka Chopra, ahhhh!!, money worth spent.

This scene, was a dream by Prateek, who has a fascination for villians and evil. Shekhar, on the other hand, is a ordinary person, much like a regular geek, drive a Volkswagen, similar to the ones that Best Buy Geek Squad has. More importantly, he sucks at driving.

Shekhar and his son are worlds apart. Prateek is very disappointed in his dad, due to his goofiness. Shekhar tries desperately to be a “hero” to his son, by even attempting to dress up like Michael Jackson, a favorite of his son. Sonia, an aspiring writer, loves her husband and son to bits. She is the more calm personality, that portrays being the perfect wife.

Barron Industries got contracted to build a game, of which Shekhar is being put in charge of building. He gets an idea from his Prateek, that he should build a game in which the villain doesn’t lose and is hard to defeat. Shekhar’s own belief is in the triumph of good over evil,

Shekhar and his team builds a game, with two characters. Random Access Version One, codename, Ra. One and synonymous to Ravan, which represents a character of Evil from the Bhavagad Gita, and a counteract protagonist, the Good One, code name G.One, and synonymous to Jeevan, which means life in Hindi.

The game turns out to be a delight, and promised to bring a huge profit to Barron Industries. They were very excited to launch it, and as usual, with every launching comes a celebration or an After Party. So there was an after party that went down like this;

[Song is only available in preview/promo as the movie is still new]

At this point, I was analysing the need for a song, if any at all in a movie like this.  But then I concededed with myself, that I will let Bollywood be Bollywood, and do what they do best, song and dance.

I must also note that I am a music fanactic, so I know quite a bit about it, and I can tell u within 20 seconds of listening to a song, whether it’s worth it or not, and believe me, this song got me. I was like, oh, wait a minute, this was the song that Shanie was going nuts over, I like it. So much, that i comtemplated jumping up and start dancing at one point.

The song was done by Akon, American R&B Superstar, sounded like a blast. The dance was particularly exciting, and it was amazing to see the fusion of “American” culture in Indian cinema. Even the music has techno beats which is impressive. Later, I found out that the dance moves were actually adapted from Dancehall/Reggae Genre or Jamaican Dance Styles.

I thought one of the things I would have done for the month of Ramadan, in 2011, was to blog each day about Ramadan. You may wonder why I would want to do this, but I’ll explain later. Shanie also took up the same challenge, to do a daily blog post. In the end, the results:

Michael – 0

Shanie – 6

Regardless, I am going to present to you now, a 36000 feet view of Ramadan, in my perspective. Note I am not an Islamic Scholar, but I am a Muslim, not a terrorist, but a follower of the religion of Islam.

Ramadan, is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar is one which started around 610 A.D with the migration of the Muslims from the City of Mecca to the City of Madina, in the Country of Saudi Arabia, because of persecutions at that time. The details of that story is beyond the scope of this post, but if you’d like to know more, you can comment or leave me an email, and i’d be happy to post it. For now, we would just accept the fact as it relates to the muslim calendar. This calendar has 12 months that comprises a year and is based on lunar(moon) sighting to determine the start and end of each month. It is a known fact that the moon revolves around the earth in  a period of 28.5 days. On the 29th day of the each Islamic month, jurist, scholars, leaders and followers all look to the sky to see the new crescent. If this is sighted, then the month is considered to end on the 29th day, and the new month begins. If it is not sighted, then the month is computed to be 30 days.  There is much more details as it regards, moon sighting and islamic calendaring, please refer to other sources for more information, or keep checking for an upcoming post.

]]> http://michaeld1.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/eid-ramadan-in-review/feed/ 0 michaeld1 http://michaeld1.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/a-tout-le-monde/ http://michaeld1.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/a-tout-le-monde/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:45:54 +0000 michaeld1 http://michaeld1.wordpress.com/?p=303 ]]> I still recall reading the book of proverbs as a kid. I remember the one particular one:

Laugh and the world will laugh with you, cry and you stand alone

Walking along the footpath, Henry plugs in his earphones. The chills from the coldness in the air get to him. If I can get my attention off this, he thinks, then maybe, I won’t feel as cold. Warmth, he was told by an elder professor, is a feeling of the mind, think warm thoughts, and you will remain warm, even in the coldest weathers.

The headphones began to blare, his favourite track play in his ear, loud enough for his hearing, yet quiet enough to lock him out of the external noise of his surroundings. Henry begins to get lost in his music, it’s his only source of joy, yet he was condemned terribly for it. He didn’t care, he knew in the eyes of many he was deemed wrong, yet for his passion of the music, he continued to listen.

“a tout le monde, a tout mes amis, je vous aime, je dois partir “, the famous track by the band Megadeth keeps playing, as he gets lost in the lyrics,

” Don’t remember where I was,
I realized life was a game,
The more seriously I took things,
The harder the rules became,
I had no idea what it’d cost,
My life passed before my eyes,
I found out how little I accomplished,
All my plans denied, “

So as you read this know my friends
I’d love to stay with you all
smile when you think of me
My body’s gone that’s all

A tout le monde (To all the world!)
A tout mes amis (To all my friends)
Je vous aime (I love you)
Je dois partir (I must leave)
These are the last words
I’ll ever speak
And they’ll set me free”

(to be continued)

Lyrics: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/a-tout-le-monde-lyrics-megadeth/bd963ec213ab09c5482568bf0023a61d

It’s baffling, since we live inside of this small time frame called the “Present”, it’s here and now, and this is where we live. A minute or 10 minutes ago, 10 hours, 10 months or years ago is history. We can’t change history, even though many wished they could, and we can only tell the future by analysing the past. Think about it, you only know that you are better or worse now that you were 3 or 5 years ago, because you can measure the present against history. The future is told by comparison of one date in history to the next.

My reasoning, therefore, is that the future is really now. Everything we do contributes to the future, whether it determines success or failure, it’s happening now. Many of us think that the future hasn’t happened yet, and we wait in anticipation for it, mostly hoping that it would be better.Then we are hit with the reality of time, that it has past and we have somewhat gone past the future that we were then looking forward to. So then.

I therefore derive, that the future, is really now. And well, if we are expecting a better future, then we’d have to modify our little time frame called the present, as a result, creating the future.

Then again, I may be wrong!

So he turns around and get off the bed, stand on his feet for a few minutes to walk around the very confined room. Suddenly he feels as if he were in another dimension, as if this room and all that is in it, does not exist. As if it was merely blank.

He furiously, starts to touch things, to make sure that it was still real.

Call Me A Fool, is an rework of Vibrations in a tone much more understood by many.

I know your heart and I feel your pain, it hurts me as much as it hurts you, and even though I have to sit here and do nothing about what has to happen, it makes me a broken man. I will not shed a tear, no sir, for this is not the event of tears, but a painful one I tell you. To sit and watch my beloved, love another, it is just terrifying, I need help too.

Yes, I have moved up the stage and have climbed the ladder, fallen many times, but took my bruises, get back up and start to get right over. I, tell you this, sir, life isn’t as easy as it seems. For today we live and tomorrow we die, yet we live in sorrow and we cry. This is not poetry, my master, for if I try I may end up in disaster. I may sound like I rhyme, but I am out of time, Time you see sire, is for timing, the thing that a man needs when he ‘s rhyming.

Boss, I don’t know why I have to sit here, and feel like my hands are tied behind my back, like a jail man I tell you, sir. To sit here and watch my beloved cry, I feel like to die, yes sir, I feel like to die.

Sir, I never loved she less than a day I seen her, her beautiful eyes left a mark on my chest, that will imprint forever. Yes sir, as the song says, call me a fool, a fool in love sir.

But one thing you see sir, she never love me like she love another sir, and for that I feel like I need no other. My heart in ache, my chest in pain, sweat like it dripping down my brain. The sight of her, makes me intense, and I cherish every word that we expend. But yet Sir, I only depend on God above me, to put she in me arms, sir. God alone can put such a beauty in the arms of a man like me .

But I am telling you this much, sire, even though she’s my heart’s only desire, she is still in love with another, a fellow who can’t tell two hoots from a swallow, yet sir, she love him with all her heart sir. I am telling you, and saying it again sir, some guys got all the luck in the world, Sir. For a man to have a beauty like she, he’s got to be really lucky.

I am telling you this, mister, I love her and only her, Sir.

Vibrations is a new series of writing that I am going to attempt. It is about me, my inner feelings and thoughts, brought out in a very creative matter. Fortunately, Vibrations is written in Creole, which is based on the local dialect spoken in either Guyana, Trinidad or Jamaica”

So hear me now, nah man, listen me what we have to say. You see this day, hey today, I man feeling a brand new vibe, you see. Let me tell you about this vibe right here, boss.

Yuh see today, the I and I gonna start wid some positive vibes. I & I aint got no time for none of the haters them today, I & I gonna be me, you see. And the I man represent me scene, I do things for me. Them say how me bad, how me mad, them call me all kinds of name, but I & I don’t have no time with them, no sah, none at all.

I & I gonna do things my way, sah, my way. I don’t care who you be, or what you say, u nah put rice ah me can, or money in me bag, and me ah do it sir, and me nah do no wrong thing for get it, you sight. I man, work arnest and good, sweat fi me dalla, sit down and the back of the truck or bum a ride, I man sweat fi me dallah. Dats why me seh, No ah dem can’t tell me nothing about anything you see, I got no time with them.

I tell you, from me was a little boy growing up, mommy always tell me seh, is only one God above you, and you haffi put him in front of you. Dat is the man that lead the way you see, him is the light, The lord is the shepherd and I is he sheep, that is what them seh. But them think, since I is sheep, them go make me eat grass, no sah, I & I is not no fool, I been to school yard, nuff a dem never step deh yet. And them want come tell me bout, how me haffi live me life, no sah, I don’t want none of it sah.

The other day, some bare face one come up to me, and tell me how i should go bawl me face cuz I go never mek it inna dis life. Well hear what I gotta say star, If you see how me mek it to this far in life, you woulda say I would never mek it, and from me mek it this far in life, they can’t stop me you see it.

So this is all I gonna say to you hey today, Positive Vibrations, man, that me say.