Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Yum.
krisharmas posterousChocolate Chip Pancakes
Yum.
Lunar EclipseI stepped outside tonight and looked straight up and saw darkness creeping across the moon. I took a bunch of pictures but most of them came out blurry because of the lack of light. Here are the two decent ones: Just Another Day -- Part 3Day Care
Warmth and noise burst from the portable room that is used as the day care center as the young boy and his father step inside. The boy quickly sheds his backpack and his jacket and carelessly tosses them into the corner of the room with all the other backpacks. As his father finishes filling out the sign-in sheet the boy makes sure his friends aren't looking and hurriedly hugs and kisses his father goodbye.
The boy rushes off to join his friends in constructing a racetrack for a Hot Wheels car. He and his friends take pleasure in designing impossible racetracks - filled with jumps, loops and corkscrews - and exclaiming with delight as the toy cars fly off the tracks. As the boy walks across the room to retrieve a car that was launched exceptionally far, he glances out of the window in the direction of his classroom.
A friend of his was standing expectantly in front of the classroom door. A rush of guilt flooded the young boy as he stared at his friend stand outside in the cold from the warm portable building. He had forgotten that he had promised his friend to meet before class to work on a poster they had been asked to make about pencils. The boy looks at the large clock on the wall and sees that there are still thirty minutes until class is to begin.
Someone behind him calls to the boy to bring back the toy car. He turns around and walks back toward the racetrack. He he doesn't know what to do. He knows his friend is waiting for him to show up but he isn't sure if he is allowed to leave the day care center. The young boy considers asking one of the women who run the day care center if he can go. He decides he is too nervous to ask.
The young boy starts building a new racetrack with his friends, but now with much less enthusiasm. Every few minutes, the boy looks out of the window to check on his waiting friend. A knot forms in his throat as he thinks about how he is inside playing with Hot Wheels and his friend is outside in the cold.
There are only fifteen minutes left before class. The boy thinks about sneaking out of the day care to let his friend know what happened. Realizing that sneaking out would take more daring than seeking permission from an adult, he glances out of the window then goes back to launching cars off the racetrack.
With only five minutes left until class the boy nervously looks out of the window to see his friend sitting against the building, dejected. Ashamed of his own cowardice, the young boy slowly walks over to the pile of backpacks in the corner of the room, thinking about what his friend will say to him.
The moment the woman in charge of the day care center announces that it is time to go to class, the young boy hides himself in the middle of the horde flowing out of the portable building and nervously approaches his classroom. When the boy's friend sees him he wrinkles his eyebrows and frowns.
Before his friend can say a word, the young boy weakly explains his absentmindedness and begs for forgiveness. Annoyed, yet appeased, his friend accepts the young boy's apology and they both walk into class.
ConanTonight was the premiere of Conan O'Brien's new talk show on TBS. I have been reminded that Conan was coming back on November 8th multiple times a day for over a month. Conan's team had tons of amazing marketing schemes that kept Conan in touch with his fans and allowed them to miss him and be crazy about him at the same time. I guess NBC told Conan that he couldn't appear on television until September. That's where the internet came in and brought about "I'm With Coco." Soon after his last show on NBC, Conan opened up a Twitter account and immediately started to gain masses of followers. Every day Conan and his staff of writers would tweet something clever. This genius way of keeping Conan in the minds of his fans without violating his word to NBC was just the start of the advertising.
Soon Conan announced that he was taking a comedy tour around the US. Another way of connecting with fans without appearing on television. Around the same time Conan announced that he was going to do a talk show on TBS. Things seemed to be falling into place quickly for him.
After September hit, Conan started doing a lot of TV commercials for his TBS show. As the weeks went by, more and more ads started coming up until there was a Conan ad in just about every commercial break. Then through October an orange blimp with a huge Conan ad was flying around all over the place and the TeamCoco twitter account would regularly update its followers on the blimp's current location.
Throughout all this, Conan would take questions from his fans on Facebook and answer one a week in a video post. They started doing a lot more video posts online, culminating in the 24-hour live stream of an area of the Team Coco building and an extremely quick version of an episode of Conan called Show Zero that featured Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory.
I think the most time I have wasted involving Conan was during the last ten days when Team Coco decided they would give away 1000 shirts a day until the premiere of Conan. Each day Team Coco would update their twitter page at some random time with a code to enter on their website to claim that day's t-shirt. So each day I waited until the code came up on TeamCoco's twitter page and attempted to claim a shirt. I never succeeded.
That last stunt was a great way to inform Conan's fans about the new show. If there were people who weren't counting down the days to the premiere, this 1000 shirts a day until Conan's back got me thinking I only have x more number of days to try to get a Conan shirt.
Anyways, the first show of Conan was on tonight and it was pretty much the same as his old talk shows with the exceptions of a different band, a different set, and many many more references to NBC. I'm sure it will have a long run.
Just Another Day -- Part 2Driving It is a chilly morning. Everything is slightly bluer than it usually looks in the middle of the day. The young boy crosses his arms in an attempt to warm himself up. As he walks to his father's green sedan he breathes deeply so he can watch puffs white smoke form as he exhales. He jumps in the back seat of the car and is disappointed by the lack of heat in the enclosed space.
Immediately after his father starts the engine, the young boy sticks his face next to the air vent hoping for a blast of hot air. He jumps with fright as cold air spills over his face. The boy's father tells him to be patient because the warm air will only come through the vents after the engine has heated up. The boy sits back in his seat and hugs himself with his arms, desperate for heat.
As they drive into the street, the boy's father turns on the radio and soft, melodic sounds drift out of the speakers. The young boy associates this type of calming music with a relaxing morning. Frustrated, the boy pulls his jacket tighter around his body for warmth.
Eventually they turn onto the street of the school. This street has many large trees with colorful leaves. Between these trees are old looking apartment buildings. The young boy watches as parents lead their children to the school at the end of the street. He feels sorry for them on cold days like this. Surely, it must be colder outside than in a car. Cool air still bursts through the vents but the boy is less annoyed.
As they progress down the street the traffic comes to a stop. Too many children are being dropped off to school. The boy looks out in front of his fathers car and sees a sea of shining red lights on the ends of every car. Grey smoke continuously spills out of the exhaust pipe at the bottom of each car. The young boy sits back in his seat and listens to the calm music as the air from the vents begins to warm up.
Five minutes later their car approaches the stop sign that has been causing the traffic. The boy watches parents walk their children across the street to the entrance of the school. As the pedestrians cross the street an elderly woman wearing an orange vest walks out into the middle of the street holding up a stop sign so the children can make safe passage to school. The boy wonders why this elderly woman feels the need to block the intersection with her hand held stop sign when there are permanent stop signs at every corner.
The boy's father parks the car near the day care center at the edge of the school. When the young boy opens his door a wave of freezing air hits him and he again resorts to hugging himself for warmth. His father joins him outside of the car and leads him to the day care center.
The Book of Eli
Tonight I watched The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington. The movie is set not too far in the future. The audience is only told that there was a war a long time ago and all the copies of the Bible were burned. At the time of the story the world is lacking resources and people live in fear of barbarians who kill you for food and water.DW is travelling west with the last copy of the Bible to preserve it and he passes through a town where a man sends savages to loot wanderers of books, looking for the Bible. He wants to use the words of the Bible to influence the uneducated people in the town. As the movie goes on the man chases after DW to try to get the Bible from him.The Book of Eli was a very slow movie. That may have been the only bad part about it for me. It wasn't a great movie, but I liked I liked it because of the ideas in the story. A fearless man uses his faith in God for strength to try to save the wisdom the Bible has to offer. Meanwhile, a power hungry man wants to use religion to control people. I liked this movie because it shows both sides of religion. People need it for the faith and comfort that God is watching over them and will guide them safely through obstacles in their paths. Others try to use the faith that people have against them as a means of control.While I was watching this movie I was thinking about how these ideas about religion are the exact same as when I think about it on my own. These are the same topics people always bring up when debating over religion. I always think about how people need religion to calm themselves and point them in the right direction when faced with a problem. At the same time I'm thinking, who teaches people about religion, and who taught those people, and so on, until we get to a source, and I ask how did that person get this information?I don't like talking about religion, I just like thinking about it. I think people's morals and values should be their own and they shouldn't be pushed on others. That's why I liked The Book of Eli. It just told a story about religion in a world without it and how even then it was a source of violence.
 The DebateI watched the third gubernatorial debate tonight between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown. First of all, I think the audience got in the way of the debate. After almost every statement parts of the audience would break into applause. Tom Brokaw, the moderator, addressed this late in the debate, asking the audience not to be so demonstrative. It's nice that people are enthusiastic about their candidates but I think it adds bias to the debate when people cheer. Throughout the program, I was comparing it to the first debate a few weeks ago. In the first debate it seemed to me that Meg Whitman had more of a plan that Jerry Brown. She had a lot more details to offer than he did. Brown just seemed to be making a lot of general comments about how things need to be fixed and repeating statements like he's "got the know-how."
Tonight, on the other hand, Brown answered questions in much more detail than Whitman. I thought Whitman spent most of her time tonight talking about Brown's history and why his plans won't work instead of answering questions. It seemed like she either wanted to focus on bashing Brown or she didn't have answers and she just needed to deflect.
Tom Brokaw brought up some things that, to me, were a waste of time and didn't need acknowledgement. He compared people using the word "whore" and the N-word, in reference to the news that an aide of Jerry Brown's was inadvertently recorded calling Meg Whitman a whore. Jerry Brown said he didn't agree with the comparison, and I agree. I think "whore" is much more accepted in the world than the N-word. People can even say it on TV. The fact that the question was posed using the word "whore" and abstaining from using the actual N-word shows this. Regardless, this issue doesn't matter. How does it matter what someone said in private? It has nothing to do with anything. I'm sure Meg Whitman has said something at least as bad as the word "whore" in her life. It's ridiculous.
Brokaw also brought up Sarah Palin. He asked Meg Whitman if she wanted Palin's support in her campaign. I thought it was funny that right when he mentioned her name, and through the end of his question, the audience was laughing.
I've had a different opinion about who I should vote for after each debate. Only three weeks left to make up my mind. Let's see what happens.
 The Comedy of BaseballThe 2010 MLB playoffs are under way and I have noticed an upswing in the number of baseball references made on television. As these shows are comedies I expect them to make fun of various subjects and baseball has been that subject in recent days. Baseball is known as the great American pass-time. To me, the phrase pass-time is something that is used if there is nothing better to do. If a person is extremely bored he would use a pass-time to reduce that boredom. In other words, a pass-time is something that people use to literally pass the time.
I know people who would say baseball is so boring that they need something to do while watching baseball. This sentiment is shared by many people, including those television shows. This week on the Simpsons, Lisa said that baseball was "an unpredictable, passionate game, beaten in excitement only by every other sport." I recently saw an episode of Tosh.0 where Daniel Tosh compared a no hitter - one of the greatest achievements for a pitcher - to a long game of catch between two guys.
Baseball seems to be regarded by Americans as a long, slow, boring game of catch. I have generally agreed with those statements my whole life. This last month, however, has caused me to rethink my attitude toward the sport. The San Francisco Giants were in an extraordinarily close race for a playoff berth. There were three teams involved in this race: the Giants, the San Diego Padres, and the Atlanta Braves. The Giants and Padres were fighting for the top spot in the NL West, and the Braves was fighting the loser of those two for the NL Wild Card.
I love when the fate of a team rides on the last few games of a regular season. In this case it came right down to the very last game. It was the Padres @ the Giants and the Giants were only one game ahead of their rival. I felt excitement for the most important game of the Giants season, not because it was baseball, but because of the situation. Both teams needed a win that day. Given that situation I would watch any sport.
It was during the last few weeks of this season, this race for a playoff berth, that made me a Giants fan. Now they play the Braves in the first round of the playoffs and each game is exciting. As of today they are up 2-1 in the division series and only need one more win to meet the Phillies in the NL Championship Series.
This is the second time this year I started liking a sport that I thought was the most boring thing in the world. In February, bored, I turned on the Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver. A watched a whole game of curling for the first time and I was interested. It's odd how boring sports can become exciting when tensions are high and there is something to compete for.
 Just Another Day -- Part 1Morning
A young boy is woken by his father. Shutting his eyes tightly in an effort to block out light from the sun, the boy pleads for five more minutes of rest. His wish is granted. The boy is extremely comfortable in his twin bed. His sheets feel as soft as clouds and as cool as a light breeze on a warm day. He can't imagine how he could be more relaxed than he is now. Ten quick minutes later the boy hears his father calling his name, coming back to get him out of bed. Annoyed, he grips his sheets tightly, knowing that his father will attempt to pull them off of him. The boy feels a sharp tug on the sheets and he grips them harder. He experiences his comfort sliding away every time the sheets are pulled. After a few seconds the tugging stops. The boy knows this isn't the end of the battle. He knows his father will try other tactics to move him.
Seconds later the boy panics as his feet are grabbed by his father. He struggles to get out of his father's clutches with the hope of remaining in bed even though his comfort is only a memory. The boy is dragged so only his torso lays on the bed. He comes to the realization that in order to get back into bed he will have to get up.
The boy lifts himself so he is seated upright on the bed with a plan in his mind. The father, satisfied that his son has agreed to get up, leaves the room to prepare breakfast. Ecstatic at his father's departure, the boy flings himself into bed again and covers himself with his now cold sheets. With a grin on his face, the boy tries to find the position he found so wonderful when he woke up.
Suddenly, the boy's father is yelling at him to get ready or he will be late for school. The boy never liked hearing his parents yell. It wasn't that he thought he would be in trouble, it was just that high volume bothered his ears. The only way to get his father to stop yelling was to comply with his demands. Disappointed, the boy forces himself to get out of bed, picks his clothes for the day, and slowly shuffles to the bathroom to get dressed.
After an extended, warm shower, he proceeds downstairs to the kitchen where a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch awaits him. He savors every delicious bite of his breakfast until there is only a pool of sugary milk left in his bowl. He greedily slurps the milk from the bowl and exhales with delight at the excellent start to his day.
After reading his favorite comic strips in the newspaper the boy puts his dishes in the sink, grabs his backpack, and follows his father out to the car, ready to go to school.
The Real King of Bollywood
Amir Khan has been my favorite actor in Bollywood since I saw Dil Chahta Hai back in 2001. He is an excellent actor, plays different roles, and chooses his films well. The first movie I saw him in was Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992). Since then he has started producing movies and has even directed one. I think since he began producing he has been choosing to make movies with better scripts.
Most people go crazy for Shah Rukh Khan. He himself has admitted he only makes love stories. Personally, I'm tired of Bollywood romance movies.... they've used the love triangle formula too many times. But more on that later. His refusal to make a movie that isn't a romance shows his lack of range. Also, I'm not the first to claim that SRK overacts. It annoys me. I have only enjoyed some of his movies either because of the off chance that the story is good or because the other actors were good. Amitabh Bachchan is also a very famous actor in Bollywood. Sholay (1975) was legend-wait for it-dary (I seriously hope you waited for it). He has transitioned from playing a young stud to grandfather in the last 40 years. The problem I have with him is that in the past few years he has been acting in everything he can get his hands on. Considering that pretty much everything that comes out of Bollywood is garbage, you could safely assume that most of his recent movies have been terrible and you'd be right. I decided to go through each Amir Khan's, SRK's, and Amitabh Bachchan's filmographies and see which movies I have seen and how many of those I have liked. Rottentomatoes.com does a similar thing for actors, writers, and directors. They take a look at how many films an actor has made and how many of those they consider "fresh" based on reviews supplied by many critics. I made my own percentages for these three actors. Amir Khan Made: 38 Seen: 11 Liked: 8 8/11 = 72.73%
Shah Rukh Khan Made: 68 Seen: 29 Liked: 15 15/28 = 51.72%
Amitabh Bachchan Made: 171 Seen: 38 Liked: 19 19/38 = 50%
I will go out of my way to watch a movie associated with Amir Khan. --------------------------------------------------------------- Okay back to Bollywood as a whole. Anyone who has seen a Bollywood movie can attest that they don't have the same quality as those movies made in Hollywood in every aspect of film making. I have this theory that filmmakers in Bollywood don't try at all when making movies. I think they realize that as long as they have a big name associated with the movie - either an actor, director, writer, producer, or music director - people will go and watch the movie. There are probably so many people who go to watch the movie that they make money even if the movie is horrible. They've used the love triangle formula for years. They've even resorted to making lousy remakes of bad Hollywood movies. If the same types of movies are making money Bollywood has no motivation to improve the quality of their films.
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