My mother is over for a visit and the three of us (wife, mom and myself) usually spend our evenings chatting about stuff. My father and sister are also coming over in a week or so. Basically, my whole family is getting together for a very special occassion. More on that some other day.

 

We recently started watching season 3 of the hit TV show 'Lost' (is it a hit anymore?). The thing with me is that I'm the kind of guy who likes to reach the end with whatever I start. That's all very well until I get myself involved in something that I want nothing to do with anymore. I have no clue why we watch Lost anymore. Maliha will sometimes say it is interesting but we both know that we are just obliged to watch it. There's probably one noteworthy scene every few episodes and the flashbacks are really killing me now. It seems the writers themselves have no clue where this all is going and all this hopping around from character to character is getting pretty sickening. A lot of things shown earlier seem to have been left unattended to and instead of resolving them, the viewer is lead into more and more complex questions with no answers in sight. Its not even that it is a challenge to anyone's intelligence. Viewers are literally left clueless most of the time.

 

On the other hand, we both enjoy watching the blunders and misfortunes of the dysfunctional Bluth family in Arrested Development. We've got the 3rd and final season left to watch and are looking forward to it.

 

I also started watching the 2nd season of Prison Break. The only time I can find to watch it now is while I'm on the treadmill in the evenings. This also seems like a show that's on the downhill but I'd still take it over Lost any day.

 

These days we're religiously watching 24 (TV show). We've just finished Season 2 and while watching the last few episodes I noticed something interesting. They've got these cordless telephone sets in the CTU office (these are usually not used, but you can see them sitting on different desks) and they look exactly like the Wansa ones I've got at home! The 'non-cordless' ones that they are generally using seem to be some CISCO model.

 

Hehe, that's pretty cool... unless Wansa has ripped off the design of some other more popular brand. I froze certain scenes and zoomed in, it is the same phone!

 

By the way, it is a very awesome show!

Someone forwarded this funny one to me today.

 

It was bound to happen; they've made a song about the now infamous head-butt that Zidane meted out to Matarazzi in the World Cup 2006 final. You can read about it here, and listen to the song here. Apparently its also made No.1 on the French charts!

 

Warning: Its not good.

Guess who is Buzz Patrol's candidate for the stupidest person on the planet. Pretty hilarious and I do concur. [Link]

I'm not sure when this Keanu Reeves flick is coming out here in Kuwait. However, it is one movie I am not going to miss. It seems to have received excellent reviews and more importantly; I love the animated rendering effect it has. Apparently its a novel adaptation and seems to be about the ill-effects of a Big Brother style surveillance-based society.

[Official Site]

I can't wait for the Transformers movie to come out- its slated for 7/4/7. A friend sent me a link that contains some excellent snippets of what we may actually see. This one is pretty cool. You may also check out the Official Website here.

11:14 is a treat to watch. Its a smart movie and the basic plot consists of five characters and how seemingly random yet connected set of events lead to an accident at 11:14 PM. I found the concept to be pretty cool where each character's story (accident) is told from their perspective and you realize how this character fits in with another. I don't want to give anything away and ruin the experience but I'd rate this one as a must-see.

A friend sent me this funny one:

 

Father: I want you to marry a girl of my choice
Son: "I will choose my own bride!"
Father: "But the girl is Bill Gates's daughter."
Son: "Well, in that case...ok"

Next Father approaches Bill Gates.

Father: "I have a husband for your daughter."
Bill Gates: "But my daughter is too young to marry!"
Father: "But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank."
Bill Gates: "Ah, in that case...ok"

Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.

Father: "I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president."
President: "But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!"
Father: "But this young man is Bill Gates's son-in-law."
President: "Ah, in that case...ok"

This is how business is done!!
Moral: Even If you have nothing, You can get anything. But your attitude should be positive.

Finally started watching the first season of Grey's Anatomy last week. It seems to be pretty interesting and I hope it doesn't doze off to boredom land too soon. I had actually intended to start off with 24, however, I forgot to take that home and Grey's was the only new TV show I had on my home PC.

The hiatus on Prison Break and Lost has forced me to consider my options. In case you're wondering why Lost; I'm just stuck with it as I've watched it till now and with each episode I hope the show finds its way. Of course, the finale was pretty good but it still doesn't account for the whole messed up season 2.

 

Anyhow, I've narrowed my selection down to 24 (yes I haven't seen it yet, AT ALL) and Grey's Anatomy and am in the process of getting these shows. The only show that I'm really enjoying currently is Family Guy and I think it kicks Simpson ass.

Its been a while since I last saw a good 'chiller' - that's my definition of a chilling thriller (which is what a thriller should be in the first place and hence that renders my definition useless). The Amityville Horror is one I've seen recently and I thought it wasn't bad. Specially when a movie makes claims to be 'inspired' by real life it makes it even better. Though I have my own ideas about this whole inspiration business.

 

Anyhow, I stumbled upon An American Haunting which claims to be an inspiration of a real life happening in Tennessee in 1800, about the "only documented case in U.S. history (validated by the State of Tennessee) in which a spirit caused a person's death". That sounds pretty cool and once I go over the reviews I might give it a watch. [Official website]

If you put Tetris and Bingo together, you get Tringo! (though I would propose Betris). Tringo started off as a game within a game. If you're familiar with the online game called Second Life, you might know about Tringo. In Second Life players can create objects and define their functionality and have an online persona while interacting with other players. Tringo is a game that players within Second Life can play and now it has been made into a real game and is being distributed by Crave Entertainment for the Gameboy Advance as GBA Tringo.  

[Play it]

In most of the civilized world, it is a newspaper's weekend edition that is the thickest one of the week. Till recently, we didn't have any newspapers on Fridays. Thank God for small blessings, now we do have a few decent ones (even though they are pretty slim editions) and as I was reading the Friday edition of Arab Times yesterday I read about David Blaine's latest attention-grabbing effort.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think this guy is pretty good and at least conveys his tricks pretty well through TV. One of the most interesting ones for me was when I was sitting in my dorm living room in UK watching one of his shows, he turned to the audience on TV and flipped a pack of cards facing the screen and asked you to pick a card. Later on he showed you the card you picked and it was correct. It was kinda creepy and unbelievable at the time but after some thought I figured it out- the queen of spades (the card I chose, and probably what everyone else chose as well) was the one which lasted longer on the screen (multiples of the same card flipping through quickly perhaps) and the others went by so fast that you couldn't even distinguish between them. That's my take on it anyway. His levitation and card through-the-wall tricks are also pretty neat.

 

Anyhow, back to his latest 'Drowned Alive' stunt. Starting from the 1st of May the guy is going to spend 7 days in a human aquarium immersed somewhere in New York. He will be fed liquid food through some tubes and I'm not sure as to how he's going to handle toilet issues. At the conclusion of this stunt, he will try to break the current world record for holding your breath. This guy really seems to get off these weird stunts, remember the 44 day fast in a plastic box hanging over the Thames and him encased in a block of ice for 61 hours?

 

Best of luck to him!

We had some guests over last night and everyone was in the mood for some KFC. I tried to order over the phone but they had some screw up in their system and I was given two options; either wait an hour for the food, or go pick it up myself. I opted for the latter and headed out to the branch next to Salmiya Co-op.

 

Once I was there I chose the 'Party Meal', which I got along with a voucher. Apparently its some offer where I can take a total of five people to Al-Sha'ab Garden and enjoy 50 rides! My Arabic is pretty poor and the Egytian guy at the counter definitely needed a lesson or two in English; the result being that I couldn't quite clarify the details with him. I was/am just surprised that I can get 50 rides at the theme park for K.D. 7.000 of food. I brought the card over to work today and a colleague more or less confirmed that this is indeed what it says.

 

Anyhow, I'll post an update once I go to the park as I feel there's got to be some catch - "Yes sir, blease go ahead and take the 50 rides in 10 minutes, go go go!". On the other hand, you're more than welcome to clarify this issue if you know what the deal is.

Russell Peters is a stand-up comedian from Canada. This guy has some hilarious stuff and if you're from the sub-continent, you're in for a special treat because its so easy to relate to the jokes he dishes out. A colleague at work got me started on him through some downloads of his shows and some of us at work have had laughter fits over his jokes ever since. He does the whole 'Indian accent' thing and its pretty funny and I have to admit you're shocked at some of the stuff because even though its hilarious, its also somewhat true and hits close to home! [Official website]

 

Lately I've been listening to stand-ups in my car while on my way home from work as it helps me relax and chill-out (assuming they're good). Perhaps later I'll put up a post on the comics I've been listening to.