America's Sweethearts - Joe Roth

America's Sweethearts - I can't decide whether the title is sarcastic or straightforward! The story is as old as the hills, only this time there are lots of famous names in it. Stuck up beautiful sister Gwen Harrison (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom all the men swoon over, marries a wonderfully spineless creature of a man Eddie Thomas (John Cusack). Both are also famous film stars, which makes them amazingly neurotic. Wife is looking for a man with a stronger back bone, ends up with a man who's... well... got only that. Husband, now on his way to becoming the 'ex', hides himself behind the vague drivel of his psychiatrist about flowers and flames .

The wife's previously 'calorifically challenged' sister Kiki (Julia Roberts in a terrible fat-suit) is now an attractive size 2. She is falling for her ex-bro-in-law, and he is beginning to see her now, when she has lost all the weight that was clogging her smile. Convenient! By the way, what's with the silly nickname 'Kiki'?! Poor Julia Roberts!

Gwen and Eddie have co-starred in a movie that won't get promoted if they are not together anymore (I thought split-ups got all the attention and not happy marriages!). Anyway, this becomes a very contrived situation for all parties concerned to meet, and for all the guts to spill when the psycho director shows personal conversations of the stars at the very-public press junket.

Some jaw-dropping; many threats of suing and libel; and eventually some break-ups and make-ups. Gwen's Spanish boyfriend is furious, Eddie and Kiki get together and I'm not sure what happens to the movie. The stars, though, are definitely America's sweethearts. You know, like Britney Spears - people do not generally approve of her, but boy do they gawk when they spot her in public!

The movie is like an adorable baby that looks the same but grew too big in size, and is not endearing anymore. Too many stars, if you ask me. Julia Roberts is wasted in this role. She is too huge a phenomenon to be playing anyone's chubby sister. Catherine Zeta-Jones is okay, but really there is no room on screen for Two fabulous women! I have never been a fan of Cusack, and I kind of wished that Roberts finally fell for Billy Crystal instead. He is a much better watch than Cusack any day.
Gawd! and no comments on the Spanish guy. And Why, oh Why does Chris Walken go for such silly roles when he clearly has a lot more talent?

This movie is okay if you have absolutely nothing to do on a lazy afternoon, and feel like doing something unhealthy like eat a lot of fat and carbs and laze on the couch, and generally get wasted. I say this because you don't have to be in your senses to take in this movie. Enjoy!

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

-->

The story is about a young shepherd called Santiago, whose greatest aim in life is to marry the local merchant’s daughter. He spends his days in the bliss of a stagnant life that has no adventures. One day, while sleeping inside an old church, he dreams of a treasure that can be found under the pyramids of Egypt. A consultation with a gypsy confirms that the dream is worth following as it was spoken in the language of the world. Not convinced, Santiago goes on with his life. Everything changes when an old man called Melchizedek, who was the King of Salem, offers directions to the treasure in exchange for one-tenth of Santiago’s sheep. He also gives him two black stones to take on the journey as money. Santiago takes the risk, and sets off to Tangiers to find the treasure.

Along the way, he meets many interesting people, including an Englishman who is looking for the great alchemist who has discovered the Philosopher’s Stone and can transform metal into gold. Santiago joins him, and finally meets the alchemist, who then becomes his guide on the journey. The alchemist helps Santiago find his inner self; and the ability to commune with nature, to control the wind, save a desert tribe, and see into the future. Santiago also meets Fatima, the love of his life and his soul mate, whom he promises to marry after he has found the treasure.

A changed man, Santiago leaves the desert and finally reaches the pyramids, where he is sure he will find the treasure. The tale reaches a sort of anti climax here, when two wayside thieves force Santiago to reveal the reason for his being there. Unwillingly, Santiago tells the men about his dream of finding treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. The men surprise him by saying that they dreamt of finding treasure in the church where Santiago had originally had his dream.

Santiago returns to his homeland to find the treasure under the very place where he had lain so long ago. He takes the treasure and leaves behind the two stones that Melchizedek gave him. His last journey is the journey back into the desert to look for Fatima and marry her as he had promised.

The entire story is a metaphor for the journey of life. A dull, unmotivated life may be comfortable but it is also a life that is easily forgotten and fades away in to Time, having achieved nothing of importance. The life with a purpose may be hard to live, but it will be a life well lived and the end will be a true loss to the world. Santiago represents the modern man who steers clear of almost all adventure, giving himself reachable goals that only cover his selfish needs. The modern man does not look beyond the most basic human needs like money, a job, a house, a person who will love them, and the comfort of a bed and sleep every night. His quest for the treasure transforms him into a hero, a warrior, a seer, an adventurer, a lover, and man whose soul is one with God and nature. He forgets his initial frivolous desires and gives importance to the more important things in life.

The fact that the treasure was hidden right under where he slept, while he had to travel half way around the world for it, may seem unfair. On the other hand, who knows! If Santiago had found treasure under the ground where he lay, he probably would never have moved from the spot, spending his entire lazy life in one place, never going forward. He would be no better as a person. The journey is what makes the difference, and the treasure is more valuable for all the troubles he had to go through to find it.

The story also drives home the point that the most important things in life lie closer to us than we think. It does not lie in a bog house on a faraway island, or in plush jobs in high-rise buildings, or in making more money or friends than is humanly possible. It lies in being one with your Maker, in keeping promises and loving your family, in burning and molding your inner self to be a better person, and in respecting nature.

Wolfram Alpha - Alpha? Really?

The Wolfram Alpha, launched on May 15, 2009, claims to be a computational engine that has all the answers to your queries.  It has initiated much discussion on whether it will kill Google, taking over as the ultimate search engine, or will simply be a ‘nerdy’ assistant on someone’s science project.

The Atlantic carries an article on the useful features of Wolfram Alpha, and how it really provides answers while search engines like Google and Kosmix only claim to do so.  The writer says that Google only shows us the direction to pages that it thinks are relevant.

ZDNet wonders if Wolfram Alpha is a Wikipedia Killer, while SearchEngineLand.com says that WA is what they would call “Un-Google”. Pretty high praise, also seconded by ITProPortal.com and DailySEOblog.com.

Others are not so sure.  Epicenter says WA simply fails the cool test.  Ryan Singel describes it as “the nerdy kid the other kids only talk to when they need help with a physics exam…”!  I have to agree on that.  WA brings up only facts and figures, no matter what the search term is.  Google, on the other hand, brings up results from all spectrums, from facts and trivia to entertainment and Twitter updates.  If facts are all you want, we do have Wikipedia, which is the input of many people, whereas WA is one entity’s research.  Blogs.com says that Wolfram Alpha is a huge nerd, in spite of its winning computation moments.

Mashable’s post on Wolfram Alpha lists out 5 things that WA does better than Google: complex queries, localization, precision, calculation, and comparison.  I can only imagine a silver-haired science professor working on his post-doctoral, staring with admiration at Wolfram Alpha, lapping up the facts and figures it doles out.  I simply cannot picture me or any other Internet surfer looking for some normal useful info on Wolfram Alpha.

So, who is WA for? CNet News carries the comments of some users who say that WA is for ‘the tech crowd – the kind of people who want to dig into the data’.  Another user says he would not recommend it to normal users as WA is very picky about search terms and accuracy of words and spellings, which difficulty you would never face on Google (italics is mine).

In a lighter vein, one user says how he entered his own name into Wolfram Alpha, and the engine responded with a very curt “Wolfram Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input”!  I received the same response when I searched for this 'Ad Libitum', whereas on Google I would have found my Twitter account, a post from this blog, and at least one other human being who has a blog with the same name.

In conclusion, go to Wolfram Alpha by all means, but only when you have some serious facts and figures to crunch, or when your science paper is due tomorrow.  For a more thorough search of the entire online world use Google, or if you want them arranged according to your interests, use Kosmix.  If you want a scholarly look at the topic, look up Wikipedia.

Wolfram Alpha has a long way to go if it wants to nudge out these big fellas…!

_______________________

Other sites I referred to:

Technology Review

Geeks are Sexy

LockerGnome.com

National Novel Writing Month- November 2009 Contest

I have enrolled myself into the National Novel Writing Month Contest. This is a great contest, where you only get to start writing your novel on November 1st and have to end by November 30th.  You do get all year to prepare, though!  Your novel should have 50,000 words.  Check out the web site for more information on this.

Believe it or Not! I have also started writing my own novel.  It is about a writer (duh!). That's all I'm saying right now, because that's all I know!

I am treading virgin waters here.  Never tried my hand at fiction before, but fiction it will be.  Surprisingly, I have already written 2 and a half pages.  The working title of my novel is "In Good Faith".  Well, there's someone in there called Faith, so I reckoned... Well, you know.  Ok, whatever.

The pure excitement of it all (and my inability to believe that I have actually let myself into writing fiction!) kept me up almost all of last night :0P  The web site suggested that I tell a whole lot of people that I have decided to write a novel that will be done by November of this year.  That way, I will be sure to finish my novel just to avoid embarrassment.

So, this is me putting myself in an embarrassing situation of major proportions...

Wish Me Luck.... on everything.  Write to me if you have enrolled yourself in, and be my writing buddy.

10 Mother’s Day Quotes

While we’re at that Mother’s Day sentiment, I thought I could put down here some of the wonderful quotes I found on Mothers.  Here they are:

“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie”.  ~Tenneva Jordan

“A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after”.  ~Peter De Vries

“Sweater, n.:  garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly”.  ~Ambrose Bierce

“All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.  That's his”.  ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother”.  ~Oprah Winfrey

“You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back”.  ~William D. Tammeus

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”.  ~Elizabeth Stone

“Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love”.  ~Mildred B. Vermont

“Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible”.  ~Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul

“All mothers are working mothers”.  ~Author Unknown

____________________________

Courtesy: http://www.quotegarden.com/index.html

Growing Pains on Mother’s Day

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new". ~ Rajneesh


I doubt my mother would agree with that. Let alone my grandmother. You see, I grew up in a society where every woman is expected to have motherhood, wifeliness (is that a word?), docility, and kitchen and household skills the day she is born. All other skills were taught. Motherhood was always left to good woman sense. My mother showed me how to do the dishes, wash clothes, clean floors, boil rice, do the laundry, make the bed, and vacuum under the sofa. She never once talked about how to bring up a child. She probably thought I should learn that through observation, or that it should come by instinct. Now, my sister and I were brought up just like my brother was – equal opportunities, equal freedom, and equal couch space in front of the TV. All of us were expected to put our own dirty plates into the wash basin; none of us were expected to clean them. Basically, I didn't know motherhood from Adam (or is that Eve?).


Suddenly I was 24, I got married. Within 7 months I had a baby! Mothers often make the joke, "My daughter is herself a baby, and she has another baby now!" That is not funny, and I kid you Not. Motherhood was not born with me, I swear. It was born with my daughter. My motherhood is not yet 2 years old. I have motherhood tantrums that equal my daughter's child hood tantrums. I am still learning the ropes. I die a little when women gasp that I forgot to wipe the chocolate off my 2-year-old's dirty shirt. This is all coming over in a very bad way, but I hope mothers out there understand what I mean – Motherhood is difficult.


The only thing that came long before the motherhood is the love for my child. That love was born when we first found out I was pregnant. That love grew with every new cell added to my daughter's being. That love will continue to grow forever. Everything I do for her, I do out of that love. I cannot be the best mother in the world. I may not turn out the plumpest, cutest, most intelligent, ultra-achieving child in the universe, but I can nurture a friendly, humane, intelligent, hard-working, empowered spirit in my little girl. I can introduce her to the best in the world and in herself. I can grow along with my daughter to be the best mother I can be.


With every growth spurt of my motherhood, I realize that my mother is still growing. I also realize how much my mother has must have grown, and how fast, with the least amount of help, bringing up three little children, in a foreign land. Every growing pains I have makes me grateful to my mother, who had the same pains but never let them show. Mom, I love you. I hope 25 years hence, Debbie feels I am half as good as you. That will be my true reward.


Happy Mother's Day Mom, and all growing Mothers of the world.

Kosmix.com: Searches Everything!

I came across Kosmix.com on a blog post today. This is a search engine that is completely different from Google. It organizes the search page into topics like Reference, Media, News & Blogs etc. When you search a term, the results are arranged again as Twitter feeds (which I totally loved!), online discussions, Q&As, Videos and more. At one glance, I had it all. It is easy to use, and a refreshing change from Google.

Okay, I am not saying that Google is no good. I love Google search, and it is absolutely my browser homepage. Still, I am happy I found Kosmix.

Kosmix.com was founded by Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman. These guys also created Junglee, a shopping search engine (!!) which was later bought by Amazon.com.

So, these guys are all about search engines with a difference. You'll understand that from the article on Wikipedia. Well, I recommend this search engine, so that you can get a different perspective of things. Check it out and tell me all about it.