Movie review: The Mechanic.

After not-so-long a wait here's my take on the movie, 'The Mechanic', as promised.

The entire movie revolves around a single quote, "Victory loves preparation", which is conveniently engraved on an exotic looking gun in two languages. Ben Foster delivers a very believable performance and Jason Statham is in his usual badass-for-hire avatar. Unfortunately, the story is not very engaging and neither is the action. It's not that the action is bad, it's really good. In fact, many of the action scenes are gory enough to make an obese man freeze with his popcorn-filled hand in mid air and his jaw very close to the floor. It's just that there are not enough of them. 

Simply put, the gaps between action sequences are so large that the lack-lustre story shows through. It's a good movie to watch if you have nothing else to do, but don't expect much, just sit back, relax, and switch off your brain.

Yesterday's post today.

It has finally happened. The end of the world is near! We are all Doomed! Why else would I have missed posting yesterday? Maybe because I was too damn busy, doing busy-stuff you gullible dim-witted descendants of apes!

Actually I was too busy enjoying myself. Yesterday I was offered to chance to be a productive member of society by delivering high performance. This has multiple effects on me. All of them are good. Being told, in writing, that you are good enough to work for a top company, feels really good. I mean it feels 'I-just-did-weed-while-driving-a-race-car-so-fast-the-world-was-a-blur' kind of good. The concept of a secure future finally sank home to me. The approval from my near and dear ones gave a huge boost to my self-worth. In short, I got this warm fuzzy feeling inside me that made me wonder if I was undergoing a change in sexual inclination. 

What did I do about it? I went and watched what I thought was a bad-ass dude-flick. Yes, I caught 'The Mechanic' last night. I'll write about it in the next post. :P

Smoke signals

Today I learnt how the success in one task can carry over into others. Taking control of a crisis situation and resolving it in a calm and systematic manner was just the shot in the arm that my self-confidence needed. Once I had done that, the rest seemed pretty easy. 

I had a whirlwind of a day today. I am being intentionally vague here. Perhaps I shall talk about this in more detail tomorrow. Perhaps it will just remain a vague reference to an undisclosed incident, fondly remembered by me and me alone. Only time will tell. 

Another thing I noticed today is how hunger, beyond a certain point stops bothering me. I did not have breakfast today so by lunch time I was pretty hungry. Now just for the kicks, I went ahead and skipped lunch as well. Finally my grumbling tummy gave in and stopped complaining. The energy required to keep me awake was taken from my abundant reserves and I functioned normally. I wonder how long it takes for the hunger to come back as starvation. I personally have no desire to experience it, but perhaps it would be a very educational adventure.

Ah, it looks like my thoughts are incoherent now. I should get some sleep. 

The joy of shoe-shining

Today I polished my shoes. Now this is a simple, iterative activity which requires almost zero mental effort. Perhaps this is the reason why I found it so enjoyable. We fail to realize that even when we are sitting idle our brain is constantly working. We are thinking, day-dreaming, plotting to take over the world ...etc and in such manner keeping our brain furiously active. But for some reason, when our body is engaged in a simple task, the brain takes a breather and the result is that we feel relaxed and happy. I am definitely going to do this more often. Being of a naturally lethargic disposition, I have been constantly ignoring the benefits of physical work. This clearly has to change. I now realize that my brain needs some rest once in a while and a very elegant way of achieving this is to polish shoes. In fact, I am now seriously considering a career as a professional shoe-shine. An added bonus is my love for the smell of shoe-polish. It smells sweet and leathery, a very pleasant aroma overall. 

So here's to squeaky clean shoes and rich black polish!

Mind tricks

The human brain and its formidable resident, the human mind, are incredible entities. Their complexity is so immense and their capabilities so extreme that one often doubts whether everything that one experiences might not be a figment of one's imagination. 

I experienced first hand today what the term 'mental gymnastics' means. I had a concious desire to go to class today, but unfortunately, I was unable to coax my body out of bed in the morning. To minimize the guilt from this situation my mind manufactured a dream, a dream in which I was sitting in class just like I wanted to. It's only when the lecturer started teaching English that I realized it was a dream (we don't have English in our syllabus.)

I believe that all living organisms operate on one basic goal, to maximize pleasure and to minimize pain. Guilt is a painful emotion, and naturally, the mind wants to minimize it. This it proceeds to do with whatever resources it has at its disposal. If the body is not willing to take action, the mind creates a virtual scenario to achieve its purpose. Extrapolating this concept can lead to the situation that is painted vividly in the movie "The Matrix." If you haven't seen it, do so now. The concept is very believable and the action is delicious.

So now that I know how proficient my mind is in cheating me, I am going to gain control over it. Meditation seems to be the right way of going about it and this is what I am going to try.

Terrible Tuesday

It's 8 in the evening as I post this. I cannot believe that most of today is already over. Whoever said time travel is impossible should try attending class in my college. They'll never know where all the time went. This is mostly due to the fact that one tends to lapse into a coma within the first few minutes of a lecture. In fact. my memory of the day is shrouded in a thick haze, so much so that I am not even sure if I actually experienced it at all. 

On a completely unrelated note, I noticed yet again today how in Kerala, women are systematically suppressed. The worst part is that it is the women who do most of the suppressing. It is, apparently, culture. Women are supposed to be docile and always step aside for a man, regardless of how much more capable or dedicated they might actually be. I am not a feminist, not by a far shot, but I really do believe that one should be judged, if ever, on one's merits rather than one's sex.

As for my plans for the rest of the day, I have some notes to complete and some algorithms to study. Oh joy!

Chicken Soup

Unfortunately, the hangover from yesterday managed to bleed into today. Needless to say, I did not go to class and spent most of my morning in bed. In spite of this, I was feeling slightly woozy and had aches all over. Finally, I decided that it was time for the ultimate remedy. Chicken soup. Now chicken soup is a miraculous concoction. It is thick and served warm with finely diced pieces of delicious chicken and has never failed to lift my spirits. Fortunately, it still works. Once the brew hit the bottom of my stomach, I was born anew. My throat ceased its incessant complaining and my brain came out of its comatose state. 

I now look forward to a good night's sleep and am confident that I will be able to attend class tomorrow.