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I have upgraded now to WP2.3 but this time it wasn’t smooth as last time.
First of all, the one-shot automatic upgrade provided by this plugin stopped before completing the job (when it had to upgrade database). After which I used its step-by-step and started from beginning and hence had to activate plugins myself

Second, due to some enhanced security stuff, I could not log in to wordpress. But I initially thought it was a forgotten password issue - due to my recent nightmarish lost-pwd cases that I would highlight sometime - I reset the password after lot of breaking my head. (But it was very easy actually)

But I was still unable to log in, because it was not the case of wrong password in first place ! So after breaking my head again, I commented out the security code. ( I feel it was not working as it intended to)

There are many changes in 2.3 of which, the tag thing has broken my existing wonderfully working UTW tagging system, & that is frustrating. I even imported the old tags but the “modifying theme to make it work with tags” and breaking the earlier working system is highly irritating.

So not very happy with this upgrade.
**

The other day, had a very satisfying “outing” in Innovative Multiplex. The theatre which I had avoided almost for its first two years, for the sole reason that it is too far and the time so much spent for a movie is not worth it. I always felt it was so awfully out of the city !
The distance is still the same, but now it has become very near ! I mean, I daily travel 7kms further to it, so it has sort of become interior now !!
Another practical reason to head out there is that, it is so empty even on weekends and we can get tickets even 1 minute before the show ! Now even the normal theaters inside city have priced their tickets too high to their worth !
Coming back to the outing, it was Dhamaal, a convenient but hurried lunch break, followed by Manorama Six Feet Under.
***
Talking of multiplexes, there is a new multiplex inside the city not many would be aware of ! It is called Vision Cinemas and it is listed in ToI. BK and I went in search of it the other day. ( hint: It is near Lalbagh. ) Since it is not publicized and as it is new, there is hardly any crowd coming to it ( we wish it remains like that for as long as possible ). The autowallahs too are not aware - when we asked directions for new multiplexes - they showed the way for PVR and INOX ! When we mentioned in this area, all mentioned Urvashi. For regular movie-goers like us, it was a huge laughing stock, because we specifically mentioned “new” and they were going from Inox to Pvr to Urvashi ! Finally a rik-driver had a late realization and ran behind us to inform of the location. (another hint: lot of eating joints are seen to the road and the actual building is far behind). And the building does not even carry the name plate, so I wish it remains anonymous for more time !

The following is what I wrote on Flixter to my flixter account through FB

I wish I could give it 5 star rating! The progress is good, the first half builds the entire premise and second half goes around tieing the lose ends, but it is not until last few frames that the entire picture becomes clear. Classic novel-like script makes it a tight watch. All the actors pitch in with terrifc perfomances and leave a lasting impression.
A thoroughly impressive debut direction, impressively shot in Rajastan and the slow and steady flow not once bores.
Full paisa vasool but if you are looking for jolly entertaining no-braner stuff for a lazy sunday afternoon, then turn to some other crappy stuff which is being passed off as comedy these days.

It is sometimes excruciatingly difficult to blog, esp to write a post (not the linking stuff). Writer’s block is one thing and having too much to write but finding no time to write is another.
And then, like it has happened today, the whole time is spent in browsing, chatting, installing and stuff. I haven’t been able to draft a single paragraph!

Part 3:

# Saw these movies: Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare, Green Mile, No man’s land, Saving Private Ryan, Silence of the Lambs.

Silence of Lambs was very gripping and good story telling. Though I did not clearly understand the climax - was the person she searching happened to be main criminal - was it a just co-incidence ?

What an acting. Just less than 15 minutes of acting got Anthony Hopkins an Oscar.

# Went to Ooty, Coonor. Travelled in the Chayya Chayya train. Had great fun. Clicked lot of pics.

# Had been to Wide Angle Photography exhibition.

# Sholay details on flixter was mixed up and screwed up. I mailed and they corrected

# Enjoying facebook. Nice to see orkut changes too, but trying not to use orkut. FB is like all you want to know about me - twitter is there, flixter is there, songs i like is there, goodreads is linked there, pics uploaded would be notified there plus for playing games.

# It took few seconds before I realized it was DURGAMBA which I read as DURGA MBA !

# too many spam is coming into inbox these days in gmail contrary to good old days of gmail which combated spam well..what changed ?!

# Migrated my pics to flickr from yahoo photos. Flickr looks so vast..took time to learn the terminologies. They are offering 3 months pro - unlimited upload..thought of taking backup of all my pics. They said only 3 albums will be visible if I dont upgrade. But they also said my photos submitted to group pool will remain - I created pools, will submit photos to that and they will be seen after not upgrading ! Rangoli kelage nusulodu antaralla…

# Enjoyed the trashing reviews of Aag

# What I want: “Note this” in Google reader.Other way round-sharing the notebook items in reader has 1 drawback-doesn’t readily show source.

# Attended a very interesting and thought provoking talk by Prof Sadagopan who had come to our office. He mixed humour, real life examples, facts, knowledge and it was a refreshing experience. I still remember some of his points in good detail, feel bad that I didn’t put down most of the talk on the same day.

# Wrote lot of private post-like mails. ( But feel bad for not managing to write about Coonor trip & team outing in detail )

# No more long posts. Might even convert my twitter updates into posts.

Sometimes a Good Morning quote ignites a conversation. A recent one ignited two :

ONE::
Rk:

I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war. Marcus T Cicero

Adiga:

should it be the otherway round? prefer righteous war to unfair peace? I heard it that way.

Rk:

Many replied like that … this is what Marcus said..may be righteous war was what Lord Krishna said.

Adiga:

No, I heard some foreign author said it.

Rk:

If internet is the right source, I find the quotes I sent only ..and not the other way round quote….

Adiga:

Ya,,,,,file a review to that site and question its correctness.

P.S. Marcus Cicero made a failed attempt to establish peace in Rome. So if he is frustrated because of this, then what internet told is wrong. If he still believed his fundamentals despite his failure then its right.

Rk:

It is there in ALL the sites…and if you need to prove them wrong, you should have source & proof to the correct quote … burden of proof lies on you

oh thanks for the info…

Adiga:

 Burden lies with Marcus himself because the world doesn’t know whether he is frustrated or not…Lets close the debate.

Rk:

Ok., lets close the debate
It is unfair to close debate..but it is peaceful

TWO (More food for thought) ::

Rk:
I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war. Marcus T Cicero

SY:
I tend to disagree with Marcus’s statement!!

I would prefer to have a “just WAR”, instead of anything unfair.

Rk:
Well, I was just thinking under which category does “marriage” fall.

Joke apart, there are very few quotes I send which I personally do not agree with but just want to display the thought a great person might have had. I can say, this was NOT one of them.
For me, life & peace is more important than war - because war is inherently unfair in more ways than one.

May be ek discussion hojaye

SY:
My views
Regarding Good Morning quote:

Assume, I have unfairly gained advantage (escaped from being hit) just because some body chose to keep quiet rather than hit me. I would feel so uncomfortable, that I will not be able to continue my daily activities peacefully. I will lose my peace of mind for the unfair peace that I gained.

Assume, I have unfairly lost advantage just because I chose to keep quiet rather than hit some one else, OR some body forced me to keep quiet. I might repent later on and start developing hatred against that someone. Again I will lose my peace of mind for the unfair peace that I gained*.

*All words used should be taken at face value.

Rk:

First of all, being hit is no way equivalent to a war. War is when those who are not involved are also hit, killed. Possibly you are trivialising war.

In first scenario, it shows that you are a good human being. In which case there was no way you were to be get hit in the first place which will rebut the first sentence. Secondly, even for a moment we consider the first statement to be right, the result is “you lost your peace of mind”, which is FAR better than war or he killing you/hitting you One more thing, the peace gives you chance again and in case of war, it is over. Hitting will instantly result in you hitting you (because that is according to you  - rightful war). Something on the lines of eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

In the second scenario, if you are developing hatred that is only because you do not believe in the qoute. If you agree with the quote there is no confusion, it is unfair but it is peace. So you will not develop hatred. On the other hand, the effect is only “repent later”, but in war, there is no end until one of them is hurt. So since it is NOT only one hit you will return and he keeps quiet (bcoz he might also believe in war - righteous or not )  , and hence it is not known who is going to give a final blow. So it might happen that there is no “later” for even repenting.

Thats how I see it. I hope I am making at least some sense …

However, unfairness is not to be tolerated. (But since war is also unfair, war is not the solution, I think). Unfairness is not to be tolerated - which is why we had Freedom Struggle, which is why Nelson Mandela fought against racism, which is why feminists are fighting, which is why …etc.

If I made some sense, we can consider the debate closed. If I have not made any sense, probably you are right and hence the debate is closed - in this case, it is unfair to close the debate, but it is peaceful

Finished reading “Kane and Abel” - the first novel I have read of Jeffrey Archer.

Haven’t found a good review of the book, if you know, let me know. The search on Google throws up results about two musicians and their music.

My thoughts/comments :

Again enjoyed the initial story thoroughly. The struggles of Abel (Wladek) were thrilling to read. Even the business like smartness of Kane in his initial school years ( like collecting match box covers )  were detailed and interesting in the early pages. After he grows up that detail is missing.

Abel after became successful must have visited the lady who’d helped him in the train. There is no mention of it afterwards, though he visits embassy and all.

Though it was little distracting for me, liked the links and references to actual facts and history - like war, President elections, stock market crash etc. ( Though am not aware of Polish-German conflicts. ) And kept hoping/guessing this was a real story

The war efforts of both Kane and Abel almost looked like a forced distraction/deviation. It is so detached from the main story, looked like, from a meeting room they went out for a smoke and came back. Their meeting during the war, I thought would have some link/effect in their story later, but was disappointed, more disappointed that it didn’t even get a mention in the final letter.

Few sequences/passages I very much enjoyed are 1. the golf rounds Kane plays with Alan Lyold, 2. Zaphia meeting Abel surprisingly after he becomes successful 3. Kane’s sudden marriage in a foreign land.

As usual as these days, kept imagining how a particular sequence is realized on screen. Should watch this movie sometime.

I was expecting the feud to end earlier but it didn’t, and it seemed at the end as though it was getting elongated for no reason or with no happening. Also was disappointed that Kane got ill-treated though he was good and did right things - and he was a better human too - did not ditch his wife. It was also wrong that he lost the chairmanship - it would have been better if he had died before that.

For all the detailed smart moves of Kane, like hiring a detective who would be all knowing, Abel was too dumb. Was expecting Kane to buy out Abel’s hotels and give a slap back to Abel in his own business.

Why Kane’s friend had to die off abruptly like that - may be it was thought when the character is created itself coz his bank has to go to Kane but, for the reader it is abrupt. The unpredictability like this surfaces at many places right from Abel’s friend’s death to Kane’s losing chairmanship in his own bank to losing it finally in Lester’s to his death.

For me, the novel felt elongated after the affair of their children- which if at least had fueled/patched up their rivalry it would have been meaningful to invoke that plot. I dislike the plots which don’t necessarily add to the main story - which I thought was their rivalry because the cover pages & title suggested that - but for me it would have been perfectly fine to outline two characters and not have any connection - like in the early pages - thorough out the novel highlighting perhaps the similarities or the contrasts in their lives.

Wonder who the two anon people author mentions about/dedicates to in the first page and how they are related to the story.

For a novel, 550+ pages big, and for a novel that occupied my travel time for 15days or more, these comments/thoughts are less