I read the book “Life of Pi” a few years back, due to the suggestion of one of my profs. I enjoyed reading the book quite immensely, and felt quite moved by it. Somehow I felt a lot of connections between the life of Pi and the life of myself. The book is definitely one of the best I’ve ever read.

When I heard that “Life of Pi” was made into a movie, and especially after reading up on the crew and the cast, I figured this is probably not yet another case of a really good book being mutilated into a movie. The book, as deep and wonderful as it is, it also tells a very simple story which I didn’t imagine would be too hard to make into motion picture. And then I saw the trailer, and I knew that I absolutely had to see the movie.

As it turns out, the movie is indeed a very good adaptation of the book. Aside from remaining completely faithful to the book, the visual aspects of the movie are quite marvellous, and the music is breathtaking. And I’m also very happy to see that they didn’t try to somehow hollywoodize the whole thing. =)

So for anyone who is a fan of the book, as well as anyone who’s never heard of it before, “Life of Pi” is totally recommended. Best if you actually go to a movie theatre and see the 3D version, as there are some truly spectacular scenes in there. I enjoyed it very very much. =)

I could totally use one of these in the kitchen. Although it appears that the robot’s ability to properly cut stuff in equal sizes still requires some improvements, I’m pretty convinced that he still has better developed culinary skills than me. Related article here.

It’s a pretty long list of reasons why I’ve always been a huge fan of Tolkien’s books, one of the main ones being the way there is a million and one story lines happening parallel to each other. There’s a lot of important information, as well as major and minor characters in each of these streams, contributing to the depth and the complexity of the story as a whole, and making the whole Tolkien universe a lot more of an intriguing place.

That is why, when the 3 Lord of the Rings movies officially took over the world, I was one of the very few people not to be that big of a fan of them. I did of course enjoy watching the spectacular visuals of the movies and many other great aspects of them. But my problem was with the amount of information, story pieces and even some very significant characters [Tom Bombadil being the best example] that were removed, in order to fit books of that magnitude into 3.5 hour movies. In my opinion, these modifications have altered the story line, and have caused irreparable damage to much of what Tolkien was trying to communicate through his stories.

When last year I read that for the single “The Hobbit” book, three movies were in production, I had to smile. I’ve been very much looking forward to seeing the movies, and last week I finally got to watch the first part, “An Unexpected Journey“. As I suspected, having considerably more time means that the movie is a lot closer to the book than the LOTR movies. The important parts are all there, and the story hasn’t really been altered in any way. And then there’s of course all the visual gorgeousness and the lovely scenery, and the truly awesome collection of actors and actresses. On that note I must say I’m really happy with the choice of Martin Freeman as Bilbo, him being one of my favourite actors and completely perfect for the role too. Oh, and was anyone else excited to see “Being Human”s Aiden Turner as Kili? =D

So all in all finally there’s a Tolkien book made into movie that I’m happy with. Now waiting impatiently for the 2 remaining parts….

Today I had a scary experience.

Living with a cat since my arrival in Switzerland, has been quite a learning experience since I never had any sort of a pet before. But of course I’m still very much clueless and inexperienced about many things.

This evening as I was taking a bath, I suddenly heard the cat wailing loudly and in a sharp tone that I had never heard before. I don’t know exactly how I jumped out of the bath, got into a towel and got myself to the cat who was laying on the ground in front of the balcony door, screaming in pain and salivating. He was shaking, his breathing was laboured and he seemed pretty scared also. The following 10 minutes consisted of Oliv somehow finding a vet who was still in the office on the evening of December 26th, me somehow keeping the cat calm, getting dressed, putting the cat in his basket and running out of the door all in full panic.

By the time we got to the vet’s office the cat was much calmer. The doctor had a good long look at everything and told us that basically there was nothing wrong, other than a mild sore throat. He explained to us a number of possibilities none of which were anything serious, gave us some tips, and suggested that we should have the cat’s blood tested [tomorrow] just to be sure. 

So now we’re back home and all is well, and the cat is back at eating up to his eyes and demanding petting every 10 seconds. But the time between when I heard the cat’s screams and when the doctor told us that all is fine, I experienced a scare and panic that I’ve perhaps experienced only 2-3 times in my entire life. It was an absolute nightmare. =(  

Just a quick rant.

At the moment I use my Sony Android tablet more than any other gadget, and probably even more than my notebooks at times [because there is really quite a lot that the tablet is capable of]. Obviously, among the million and one things that I use the tablet for, I do a good deal of web surfing on it also.

Given that the tablet has a 9.4″ screen, very often I prefer to view the full/normal version of websites rather than the mobile versions. In fact sometimes the mobile versions look rather ridiculous on a screen of that size. However since the device is essentially a mobile device and it runs mobile versions of web browsers, I’m often forced into viewing the reduced versions. Usually there is the option to switch back to normal version, but somehow it doesn’t quite stick, and I’m forced back to mobile every time I go back to the homepage, change a language option or do just about anything. A good example of this are social networks like Facebook and Google+, which are currently annoying the heck out of me. And then of course there are websites that don’t even have the option of switching back…. *sigh*

So is it just me, or is anyone else currently bothered by this? Does anyone else think that this is pretty much a bug that needs to be fixed rather than a feature?   

Very often I end up watching a movie long after the rest of the world has seen it, simply due to not finding the time. Also the more I want to see a movie, the more I avoid reading other people’s reviews and spoilers and sometimes I don’t even watch the trailer, regardless of how much noise it may have made. So a few days ago I sat down to watch “The Fourth Kind”, knowing absolutely nothing about it. And by the time the movie ended, I was sticking to the couch, hugging the cushions, my jaw was laying on the ground and I had plums for eyes.

And then I started Googling….. and you can imagine the rest. =P

This image, with which I’m madly in love, has been going around the web for a while now, unfortunately without any kind of proper citation or artist credits. Does anyone know anything about the origins of this picture? Who took this? Where? When? [And for that matter, is this even really a dolphin or some kind of whale?] If anyone has any information about this, please drop me a line and let me know!

Here’s something I’m currently enjoying being a part of: “Zürich’s Language Exchange“. As the name suggests, it’s a group/activity all about learning and practicing languages. So far we’ve been focused on German, seeing that it’s obviously the biggest interest around here, but hopefully in time other languages will be added to the menu also.

So if you’re living anywhere in the Zürich vicinity and are interested in practicing German or languages in General, check us out. =)

So a friend of mine just sent me this, and for the past few minutes I’ve been laughing my lungs out…. =D Oh how deliciously evil….. >=D