Day 3

I didn't make it to the gym today either. I did make it to the hobbit in 3d IMAX however. Going to a movie in India is completely different than back home. You get to queue up for tickets while standing less than 2 inches away from someone. You get your ticket and a bunch of concessions for less than only a ticket in the states. The concessions are interesting as well.  Enough even to warrant it's own paragraph.

You have everything from your normal theater fare like popcorn and drinks to even fancier fare like cooked corn. I actually prefer the cooked corn it's more zingy and flavorful than the normal movie theater popcorn. You could have paneer flavored belgian fries, bhel puri, and more just zany food ideas most of which aren't the snacky type of food you'd expect with a film.

The movie itself was the same hobbit movie that you all probably have watched. It's in English but there are also English subtitles on the screen at all time. Furthermore Indians always need an intermission during a movie as evident in every Bollywood movie ever. So even in Hollywood movies where there isn't an intermission they make an intermission at some random point in the movie. I was lucky enough to have a 10 minute break right in the middle of the final battle when Bard is rolling down the hill on the cart. Just in case it was too much excitement for me to handle in one go.

The movie ended well and I went home afterwards. More time was spent in transit to and from the theater than was spent watching the movie which is impressive because Peter Jackson doesn't know how to make a short film. I reach home guzzle down some limca which is the best drink and turn in early for the night at like 9 o clock.  Gotta wake up early tomorrow because we're leaving to go to my dad's house where I won't have Internet access for about 3 days. So expect no blog posts for those days or break this long one up and read it every now and then. I'm probably just gonna write down posts then upload them all when I get back later. We will see.

Day 2

Today is day 2 in India but day 1 of Nik's Great Food Adventure + Gym. Today's choice food was gobi manchurian which might possibly be my favorite food so that part was good. In regards to the gym, I took a break from the gym today - don't wanna overdo it or anything - I'll probably try again tomorrow.

The India trip on a whole has been going great thus far. It's pretty neat how I can be in such a large city yet have life go at a much more leisurely pace. I think it's because I'm not constantly connected. No random emails or texts. I'm just fully free to appreciate the sights (traffic, garbage, and more) and the smells (also traffic, garbage, and more).

Mobile post from India

It's only been one day and I've already astounded myself with how much I have eaten and slept. Today's food of choice was dosa and some street food sandwiches.

Some of you might be wondering, "hey, I wonder how Nik's gains are going. I'm sure going to India won't help much in regards to the whole gym thing." Well fear not. Despite eating a lot I also plan on going to the gym at the Bangalore Club every morning before the traffic starts up. So we'll see how it goes. It really will be man vs food kinda break.

Thanksgiving Updates

There is really only one update that anybody can possibly be excited about regarding this Thanksgiving. The release of the Star Wars trailer. Not only was it exceptionally exciting it didn't really say too much about the plot. If you haven't watched the trailer yet I don't even see why you're reading this blog because clearly you don't know me. If you do know me here is a link to the trailer because you surely want to watch it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLk59H86ww

Great trailer whether talking about the random square array on the Millennium Falcon or the cross guard lightsaber. Although it was only 88 seconds long it occupied several hours of my life. I spent many an hour just surfing wookieepedia and  brushing up on some of the Star Wars lore that I hadn't thought about for years. The nostalgia alone when that music started was amazing. Feel free to discuss in the comments and I might answer. Don't want to spoil too much though if people haven't seen it yet so be nice.

Token Post

So I haven't posted in a while so here is a token post.

to·ken

ˈtōkən/

adjective

1. 1.

   done for the sake of appearances or as a symbolic gesture.

The Double Post

1. Intramurals

So the flag football team needed another player so naturally I volunteered. Not because I'm good at football but because I like to think that I'm a team player. Needless to say we did not win the game but rather we forfeited by the mercy rule. I did touch the ball a couple of times though. However it was only when throwing the ball back to the line of scrimmage at the end of play. Actually even this didn't go entirely smoothly. After one play I threw the ball back and clocked my own teammate on the head. I have hopes that next week's game will be better however.

2. Breakdancing

Being the diverse person that I am I decided that it was only logical to sign up for breakdancing lessons. Luckily for me Georgia Tech has this great organization that puts on great events for the student body and a semester long breakdancing class was just one of those great events. After liking their Facebook page because I was like "this is a pretty stand-up organization" (https://www.facebook.com/GTSCPC) I prepared myself for what would be my first breakdancing lesson. Right from the beginning when we stretched I knew this would be difficult. I couldn't even do half of the stretches.

After 15 minutes of stretching I was already completely exhausted and we hadn't even started dancing. We got into the first lesson, the toprock, which I picked up with relative ease as it's basically a glorified two-step. After the tutorial we got into a large circle and started going around where each person did the move alone in the center. I was like "I got this" but the instructor stopped right before it was my turn to go so I was like "thank god. I actually didn't have it at all." Unfortunately for me he was saving the second half of the class to demonstrate the floorwork we were about to learn.

Thus the class transitioned into the 6-step which is a fairly basic move yet I still had no idea what I was doing. I was just dreading the moment when the instructor brought us back into the circle. It eventually happened and I was the first person called upon to demonstrate the 6-step in the middle of the circle. Unfortunately in the same way I don't have a six-pack but rather have a solid 3-4 pack, I couldn't do the 6-step but could only do a solid 3-step. Naturally I did the first step and just started rolling around on the floor. I think it's called interpretive dance.

Can't wait for next week though. It was pretty fun.

The one where he turned 21:

I don't remember what happened

USB 2.0

Today was a dark day. I ran out of USB ports on my laptop. Of course it's only a laptop so I didn't really expect much because for most people 4 ports are usually enough. I'm not just most people. I'm not some casual who spends their time playing candy crush or whatever they do. I'm at Tech. I probably use more computer more while I'm asleep then when most people use it while they're awake. Even my keyboard takes up 2 USB ports and comes with its own backup USB port just in case. And yet when push came to shove I didn't have the USB ports to back myself up. If I could I would probably trade a VGA port for another USB but hindsight is 20/20.

Ironically this whole dilemma came about when I was actually trying to do work and was looking for somewhere to plug in a USB drive.

Tl;dr - I ran out of USB ports on my laptop so now I can't have this ->
http://www.amazon.com/brainydeal-Mini-USB-Fridge-RED/dp/B003L4Z57K

It's been a while since I posted

It's back to college and the daily grind. I took a couple weeks off of this blog to settle back into the routine of classes. It looks like it's going to be either an easy or hard semester. It's too early to tell but there is definitely one thing that will definitely happen this semester.

It's time to get swole. Ok. Maybe not 'swole' but a little bit more fit seems like a good goal. As of now it's going pretty well. A few of my acquaintances who I used to go to the gym with really slacked off over the summer so I feel pretty good about where I am right now. We'll see how it goes. By the end of the semester you guys may not even recognize me any more based on how big I'll be. Or I'll be the exact same because I'm pretty lazy and may give up after a while. I'll let you know how it goes though.

Movies I Watched Since the Last Post

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Hercules
A Most Wanted Man

I will preface this post by saying I am pretty open to most types of movies. I won't say no without at least trying to watch it. Unless it's Master of Disguise. That movie was just terrible on all accounts.

I only make a judgement of a movie after I have watched at least half of it. Just like you can't judge a book by it's cover you can't judge a movie by its RT score. But sometimes you can judge a movie by it's book. And sometimes you can judge covers by their bands.

A Ranking of Mosquito Bites

torso < limbs < joints < eyelid

If you were required to get a mosquito bite I would highly recommend somewhere on your torso; perhaps a nice bite on the pecs or stomach area. These areas have easy scratch-ability and also the skin seems a little thicker so as to make the bites less irritable. Compare this to the eyelid mosquito bite, the worst of them all. Due to the location of the bite it is nearly impossible to satisfactorily scratch the bite or even rub the bite because you might accidentally irritate your eye and then you'll have two troubles on your hands (or rather two troubles on your eye).

You must be wondering "Why the post on mosquito bites? Where are the posts on movies and games and the like?" Believe me I would much rather be writing a post about movies I recently watched like Guardians of the Galaxy or Snowpiercer or even the not so great Lucy. Unfortunately, dire circumstances have brought me to this post instead. I do indeed have a mosquito bite on my eyelid but not just anywhere on the eyelid. It is right at that edge of the eyelid where the bite is kinda hiding between some eyelashes so it's even more of an awkward location.

I can't scratch it because when I first did I lost several eyelashes so I stopped that. I shouldn't rub the eyes either; I already have an astigmatism. There really aren't that many options here other than to sit in misery while one of my eyelids has swollen to twice its original size and vigorously blinking in order to safely rub the bite site.

It must be the curse of the brown man. After several trips to India my skin has thickened. Now normal American weakling mosquitoes can't effectively target large surface areas on my body like the torso or the limbs. They have to attack where the skin is weaker: the joints and now the eyelid. I don't know is it worth the tradeoff? A reduced overall number of mosquito bites but when they do happen they are in the worst and most annoying spots? 

The summer semester of school is over. For the next couple of weeks I'm off to my home in Missouri where I will spend time recuperating, watching TV and movies, and sleeping. Right now I am packing my belongings up and vacating my room at Delta Sig but not without taking a break after my last final to write this post and watch some TV.

I only just recently started watching the BBC show Luther. Initially I came across it while searching for replacement shows for Sherlock but I only just now came around to actually watching it. While Sherlock is a fairly light-hearted show (especially series 3), Luther isn't. There aren't as many jokes or comic interactions such as the one between Sherlock and Watson. Luther is just a gritty crime drama show, think along the lines of True Detective except everybody has a British accent. And I'll have to say it's definitely worth the watch.

So I guess it's time to get through my first real post. We'll see how this goes.

Seeing as finals are next week and mine are 8 am's, it seemed imperative to me that this weekend was not only dedicated to trying to study but also to trying to correct my sleep schedule. Ever since I bought the Wolfthorn Old Spice body wash for nocturnal creatures, (http://www.oldspice.com/en-US/product.aspx?id=2365) I have found myself waking up around 7 or 8 pm and going to sleep whenever my class ends in the morning. Other than the fact that my melatonin levels are so erratic and I barely see the sun, I prefer the darkness. In the scorching heat of the Atlanta summer it is much easier to get work done in the middle of the night without sweating profusely.

Of course by doing work I mean watching movies. The most recent movie I watched is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Trying to reset my sleep schedule I woke up quite early on a Saturday morning and decided the best way to stay awake would be to take a 2-mile trek to the nearest movie theater and watch the film. After about 20 minutes of trailers of which the only ones that were interesting were for the new Sin City and Guardians of the Galaxy,  the movie began.

Out of all the new summer releases I have seen this year this was by far one of the best up there with the likes of X-Men: DOFP, and How to Train Your Dragon 2. Not only were the CGI of the apes astounding but the plot was a good mix of all the things that are required for a well rounded movie. Drama, bits of comedy thrown in, and of course full on intense fight/battle scenes. Despite the fact that one of the factions of the movie was computer generated, I felt that this movie was very well acted. The apes elicited more emotion and response from the audience than the humans did and if a CGI actor could get nominated for an award this would be the film for that to happen. The apes were really the only thing holding the movie together. The human acting wasn't necessarily bad but at times they were fairly one dimensional. The apes were easily 3D. The interactions between Koba and Caesar really made the movie for me. And despite what is normally seen as a lengthy movie time of ~2:10 I was never bored and was always anticipating what comes next.

Always looking for the next movie to watch I made my way home thinking about what was next on my to watch list. Or perhaps it was time to catch up a bit on TV shows?

After a brief tour of this website it looks as if I have a gist of things and will start blogging in earnest from thus forward. You will probably see a reasonable amount of activity for a while until either I get bored of writing, forget to update, or don't have time. Expect a lot of posts regarding movies I have recently seen, things I have recently heard about or am doing etc. This should be a good way for people who know me already to see what I have been up to lately.

Keep in mind I have never ever been a decent writer or even liked writing. This is more of just a record of what's going on in my life and an avenue through which people can get to know what I'm doing. I also feel like I need a new hobby and hopefully this will turn into one that is both informative to others as well as beneficial to myself through the self reflection and writing practice it promotes.

I wrote this.