Now my hometown temple, the famous grand Madurai Meenakshi Temple complex, is open to the worldwide web. Not just a website - but they are offering Online Poojas, and even sending prasadam’s to anywhere around the Globe.
Having grown up in Madurai, and the Meenakshi Temple was part of my early childhood. My Grandpa’s house have the greatest vantage view of the temple. From our dining room we can view the temple at its full glory at Sunrise and Sunset, thanks to the old city ordinance specifying that no building in Madurai can tower over the temples height. But my grandpas home was built before the 70s and was already 5 stories tall (almost a skyscraper by Madurai’s standards in 1964). So from our terrace we can enjoy the view uninterrupted.
Can’t wait to try out online pooja’s and tasting the prasadams.
Closely following the heels of Sony, which announced more consumer HDV cameras 2 days back. Canon today announced 2 new HDV cameras. The XH-G1 and XH-A1 are based on the HDV tape format. With this new camera, there is very less reasons to go with the more expensive Canon XL-H1 ($9000), except for the removable lens and a few pro connections.
These 2 cameras are priced from $4000-$6000. Unfortunately, like HVX200, Sony FX1, Sony Z1u they don’t have real manual lenses, but have these fixed ever spinning focus lenses.
This was a great little Indie movie, it was hilariously funny and heart wrenchingly cold sometimes. It has the most wonderful ensemble cast since Crash, with 7 year old Abigail Breslin (who played Little Boo, in M.Night’s Signs) leading the pack. I like simple stories which moves the story forward with smart dialogues, stellar acting and well written scenes, so I was in for a treat. It starts with a cliched, often overused, dysfunctional family… I started to roll my eyes looking for an exit – then the movie introduced Greg Kinner – one of the finest actors I’ve ever seen, talking about what appeared to be a pyramid scheme – mmm, juicy! Then the next 100mins was sheer magic. The adorable fat lil’ cutiepie Olive, who just was chosen as a finalist in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ contest. To participate in the finals, the family, with all its inbuilt conflicts (whats a movie without conflicts?:), agrees to embark on a roadtrip to Los Angeles from Albuquerque (786 miles) on a beaten VW mini bus. The family consist of:
Dad – Professional Motivational Speaker (Greg Kinner)
Mom – Frustrated Nagging Housewife
Bro – Who is on a vow of silence for the last 9 months.
and … the darling of the movie, Olive – a beauty contest wannabee.
A triangular bounce off between conservative Dad, gay Uncle and neurotic Grandpa keeps us engaged without yelling "Are we there yet? are we there yet?". One struggle after another leads to a mildly shocking+amusing finale. Truth be told, the destination wasn’t half as much fun as the journey itself. First time directors Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, have handled the material very un-music-video-ish, given that they come from a Music Video background. Granted, the material did not lend itself to MTV style of editing, but they did show tremendous restraint in letting the actors performance move the story forward. Yesterday was the premier of the movie – so they made a special appearance after the movie, so we were able to shoot off our questions to them. I asked "How did u divide up the responsibilities as a Director" They said in unison "We never contradict each other, we plan ahead and work as one - Thats secret of our marriage" … and the movie, I might add. Must see.
Any techie will encounter these suituations frequently…
While shopping at Circuit City or Barnes & Nobles, I see an item I like to buy, like a book or a fancy USB drive, I have this momentary pause at the shelf or the checkout lane – “I am sure I can find it much cheaper online or even at Costco“. Sometimes I SMS to Froogle and get their pricelist.
“Hey I am driving… If you’re in the Net can u go to wwwDOT” – Most of my friends would have heard this one, I am looking for directions, closest Kinkos store, or to see if Superman is playing anywhere else in Redmond?
Online classifieds like Craigslist, have a facility for masking email ids, but not phone numbers, I don’t want to give out my real phone number for the chronic fear of telemarketers and nigerian bank officers.
So now with these 3 free services, you can freely give out your phone number, call an operator to find if there is a cheaper price online or to get directions to the nearest Thai restaurant.
Free Price Comparison Call: (888) DO FRUCALL Call 1-888-363-7822 with the UPC code, and you will get a list of places which sell it cheaper, including tax and shipping, to your zipcode. Downside: Might encounter a phone bot, but can eventually speak to a real person. [FAQ] [TV Reviews] How does it fare up in real world?
I tried it yesterday at Costco, it works pretty well. Thro the caller ID, a robotic voice gave out the online prices. I was surprised to see the item (Davinci Code Illustrated Screenplay) was $0.49 cheaper at Walmart. Costco had it for $12.49, Walmart is supposed to have it for $12. This worked great for all books, and common items, but when I tried to run it thro some Costco exclusive items (Kirkland Brand), and some speciality items, the search came up to a dead end.
Free 411 Calls: (888) FREE 411
It gets you the directions, movie timings or any other info based on current zip code and you don’t even have to have a pencil handly to write it down, they connect you automatically. Downside: You may have hear a relevent 10second ad. [FAQ] [Reviews]
Free Private Number:
This new service gives you a free Local number, and lets anyone leave a voicemail for you. Not only that, you don’t have to keep checking for Voicemails – they email you the actual voicemail in an email attachment! Downside: You have to use this number once a month or it expires.
[Old News] Skype offers free phonecalls to any landline phone
Participated in the Seattle 48hour Film Festival. We made a short called “Folded”. The genre we picked was “Drama”. We have 3 items which we need to include in the short.
Prop: One Sleeping Bag
Character: Bonnie the Insurance Agent
Dialogue: “Prompt…I expect you to be prompt..prompt and courteous”
It was great fun to shoot – and made a bunch of new filmmaking friends. Our short is showing on Tuesday July 11th at 7pm and Thursday July 13th is at 9pm.
Séance is a age old tradition of communicating with the dead sprits through a medium. New Jersey based filmmaker Arun has taken this as a subject for his short film “Seance“. So when a young man tries to unravel his future by consulting a Seance practitioner, he gets more than he bargained for. The story is simple – but very well told. It was a great overall effort.
Production values by Stan Harris was as good as it gets for an ultra low budget short film. It gave a nice creepy ambience to the whole short.
The lighting being switched on/off during the proceedings was a bit distracting.
A few lines of dialogue could have been rewritten (“Let me GO…NOW“)
Casting – As I said the old actor was spot on – but I only wonder how would a native american or some abroginee actor would have performed in this role of spritual medium. The reason being, black magic, voodoo, seance etc are more culturally interviened with those cultures.
When the medium sees his lost wife(?) spirit inside the young man – a subconsious reach to touch the young man, seeing him as his wife…before checking himself – thus breaking his stance would have injected some backstory into the short 6minutes (longing).
Another cliched suggestion – but one cannot ignore the creepy ambience sound of distant background rain creates (no not thunder).
The story’s main revealing plot was a bit timid – victor? to that we say, so what? we didnt get to see the emotional connection between the young man and his love for his girlfriend. To prop that part up: the story could have asked the actor to at least have her picture in his wallet, and hand it over to the medium while asking the question. For more dramatic effect, a tatooed name on his hands “Patrica” or something…
The July 4th fireworks was sure impressive. Spectacular display of synchoronized pyrotechnics coordinated with computer precision.. computer? Well, you didn’t think that little midgets set off the fireworks with such precision by hand, running around a carefully arranged maze of stacked fireworks waiting to be lit – did you? If so, sorry to burst your bubble – while we are at it…Santa Claus is not real either
How to effectively blow taxpayers money up in the air? It takes 3 things.
– so no pictures except from my phonecam.