Christopher Brookmyre - Quite Ugly one morning

A typical hard bitten detective a la Micky Spillane, a dead ex-husband, a good looking ex-wife - is there too much more you can ask for from a typical potboiler?
But wait, this is not typical. Add a nice dose of dark humor, lesbian detectives, toilet humor and gruesome murders and you have a Jack Parlabane novel. It's dark-funny and it has shitloads of shit, puke, turds and what not. Jack, our hero, is a good looking young journo who can get into houses at the drop of a hat and hang from his fingertips. Ah, but he has a history of people trying to kill him in LA (which self respecting journo doesn't?) and hence makes his way back to jolly old Edinburgh.
A doc massacred (with nose bitten off and two fingers torn off in the nose - thats how gross it gets) in the house below him ends his first night hangover and he gets to work.
Not scintillating from a dectection point of view, but it has its own readability - all in all maybe a 3.5/5

Iain Banks - Consider Phlebas

Interesting - Banks writes interesting stuff spanning a large volume of space. Although going by reviews I would have expected to be much more impressed. Maybe I'll read another one of his culture novels.
Next in the list
Dan Simmons - Ilium

The Twilight Zone

Bah!
People went into raptures at the release of the fourth installment of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Zone. So your truly decided to investigate these paranormal activities and see whats to special about the next so-called fan series after Harry Potter. Findings -

• Vampires, Werewolves and a teenage girl who 'smells' amazing (its a floral refreshing kinda smell)
• Its a love triangle. Between animals and humans :)
• I managed to get through the first and most of the second before finally giving up and wondering what was so popular about it.
  
• It drags. Yawn

Next series please.

And the story continues

Am probably on the way to garnering the fattest man ever title.
I and the kook had gone to Kerala to meet some of her relatives over the weekend. A bus journey (Oh and did you know - there is a sleeper bus, with bunks just like in a train - really comfy stuff) later we were inhaling the morning mists of Palakkad and asking sleepy rickshaw drivers in Mundus to take us places.
By evening (and 9 idlis, 6 cups of coffee, 5 types of payasams, arbit numbers of dosas, sabzis and vast quantities of rice) I had met so many people and heard so much Malayalam, you will be amazed.
I was treated like a king and not just in terms of food! People were so nice, and treated me so well - even though I was meeting them just for the first time. Even if we have no common language, they made a substantial effort to talk to me and make me comfortable.
Early next morning we were off to her kaava (or temple) and at another relative's house for breakfast. Lunch was elsewhere - 6 sabzis, malabar parathas, rice, sambar, rasam, dahi, chicken and 2 payasams. More conversation with really nice people - they do have class!

Do you blame me for eating?

Deja Vu!

My Stomach pains! I am so full!

Wait, hasnt this happened before? Ah, yes, just the last post! Same circumstances, same result. Oh except that they stayed over. Yakity, yak on and on.

In other sensational news, I have no work in office and am stone bored. Yawn

My Stomach!

It pains!
Shiv and Prash had come over and we had a ball chatting away to glory. Food was excellent - Adu outdid herself - there was not even one spec left after we finished. Oh and by the way, all this was after a long starter course of Bhajiyas and Vodka and Orange. Ahhhh, I am so lucky. Sleepy time now. Time to give it a rest.
Plans are on for another dinner party with Thai green (and red) curry for Thursday.

Shopping

6 half shirts, 4 tshirts, 1 pair sandals. 9000 bucks. Oh that includes 2 tops and one pair of shoes for madam. I am amazed at myself.

The Emperor's New Mind

It's a book I have been looking for a long time. Today, I have my hands on it - courtesy Bookworm - the second hand bookstore off Brigade road.
It's about Physics and Maths and AI and computers and stuff that no sane person should be interested in. But I bet it makes you think. Get it, read it. Those who can - do borrow it from me. It insane stuff.

"Penrose presents the argument that human consciousness is non-algorithmic, and thus is not capable of being modeled by a conventional Turing machine-type of digital computer. Penrose hypothesizes that quantum mechanics plays an essential role in the understanding of human consciousness. The collapse of the quantum wavefunction is seen as playing an important role in brain function."

Sir Roger Penrose is a mathematician and a physicist at the University of Oxford.

It covers arbit topics such as "Newtonian physics, special and general relativity, the philosophy and limitations of mathematics, quantum physics, cosmology, and the nature of time. "

I am so going to have a good time.

A House

A house in Bangalore. A peaceful, fun loving locality. In moved two nutcases - bag baggage and shitloads of electronics. Oh yeah and books keep coming in and getting set in the house - damn buggers refuse to move out!

The land of opportunity

Hehe, have a look at this one. Guess we have all gone through this phase at one time or the other :)
PhD Comics

Obey Traffic Rules!

Bangalore - the land of bad traffic? Ah well - lets just call it an alternative approach to vehicle managment