My Short (And Not So Sweet) Experience With Android

I remember the moment I used my Lumia 710 for the first time – all the bright and vibrant tiles and the user friendly user interface made the switch from Symbian a dream experience. After six years with Windows Phone, I was expecting the same idyllic transition to Android. Alas, it was not meant to be. After a few days of fiddling with my Android and learning the ins and outs of the system, I found myself viewing it as a hub of different applications rather than a closed and integrated operating system. In other words, I thought it was a hotch-potch of an OS lazily thrown together at the last moment. I was very disappointed to say the least.

I was puzzled at first by the enormous market share that Android has, but then I realised that people don’t really have much else to turn to – Windows Phone is starting to seem like an old memory and not everybody can afford an iPhone. It makes sense then that there is such a profligacy of Android users.

Switching from Windows Phone to Android

I’ve been using Windows Phone ever since the release of WP 7.5. My first Windows Phone was a Nokia Lumia 710. It was very small, looked very mundane and had middling specs. However, I didn’t buy the phone for its looks or its technical brawn, I bought it for its OS. I’m a very big Microsoft fanboy and so is my father. So, when we heard of the release of a Windows Phone in India, we jumped at it. Before that I was using an old, yet sturdy Nokia 5233 which didn’t really pass for a “smartphone” any more. Thus, when I had the phone in my hands, its drawbacks (of which there were plenty) went unnoticed by me because of how novel, not just the phone, but the concept of a smartphone was to me.

Wasn’t the prettiest phone out there, but I didn’t care

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Review

Ever since Batman v Superman was announced, I was a little sceptical about it because Man of Steel wasn’t all that great and I just couldn’t see Ben Affleck as Batman. I thought the casting was wrong, the director was wrong, but more importantly, the direction the DC Cinematic Universe was headed in was wrong. I watched this movie with two buddies of mine today and all of us went in with low expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie because of how true to the comic books it is in certain aspects which I’ll touch upon later.

First of all, let me just say that I am glad I was proven wrong about Ben Affleck – the guy is a great Batman. No, he’s the best live-action Batman yet. It’s not an overstatement; I’ve put a lot of thought into this. He’s the closest any Batman has come to resembling his comic book version or for that matter, his animated series version. Those will always be my favourites, but Batfleck does a commendable job. I think the first step to being the Batman was to look like him. Michael Keaton and Christian Bale had great takes on the character (the abominations that were Val Kilmer and George Clooney’s takes don’t even count), but when I saw Batman in this movie, I thought to myself, “Yup, that’s Batman alright!” He looks the part and thankfully, he can play the part too. He’s a good actor, who was a little limited by the script. He doesn’t really show an abundance of emotions; he’s mostly just angry or grumpy or sad. But hey, comic book Batman is chronically depressed so I don’t mind.

You can’t deny that he looks EXACTLY like Batman should

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Spoiler Talk Part 2

I always had a sneaking suspicion that Kylo Ren was Han and Leia’s son, most probably Jacen Solo as in the original Expanded Universe. He has so much in common with Jacen that the connection was obvious – he’s taught by Luke to be a Jedi, then gets seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, becomes a Sith and tries to take over the galaxy. However, when Han calls him “Ben”, I was a little taken aback at first, but then it started to make sense to me. The Original Expanded Universe was made non-canon so that the people working on the new movies could be afforded more creative freedom instead of being forced to follow a set storyline. Things would get a little too predictable in the movies otherwise and the surprise element would just be non-existent for people who have dabbled in the Expanded Universe. However, the crew clearly didn’t discard the EU storylines because Ben Solo is essentially Jacen, albeit with a different name and naming him “Ben” is a nice nod to Luke and Mara Jade’s son’s name in the EU – Ben Skywalker.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Spoiler Talk Part 1

Disclaimer: This post is going to be filled with spoilers about The Force Awakens, so that’s a fair warning for you if you haven’t watched the movie. If you want a spoiler-free take on the movie, read my spoiler-free review that I posted just yesterday – https://beingnickyb.wordpress.com/2016/01/03/star-wars-episode-vii-the-force-awakens-review-spoiler-free/

 

While watching the iconic opening crawl, I was stumped to read that Luke Skywalker had literally gone missing and that no one knew where he was or why he’d disappeared. My mind was buzzing with different theories about his disappearance and also about the plot of the movie. I initially assumed that this would be a “find Luke Skywalker” adventure where our heroes and villains would scour the galaxy for him and I was disappointed by that prospect, but thankfully, I was relieved to find later on that it was not so.

Talk to the hand

In my review of The Force Awakens, I said that there was a point very early on in the movie when I just knew that this was going to be a really good ride. I can finally divulge the details of that here. It was when Kylo Ren kills Lars von Tekka (Max von Sydow’s character) and Poe shoots at Kylo Ren in anger and then, Kylo Ren suddenly turns around as the camera zooms in and holds his right hand up and stops the blaster bolt mid-air. I’ve seen people using the Force in many ways in the movies, but I have never seen that. This is one of the things that I liked about the movie – they use the Force in many similar ways, but also add some new things into the mix to keep everything fresh. Another example of the Force being used differently is when Kylo Ren just stopped Rey dead in her tracks – it was like she was frozen by a tractor beam. The film treads familiar paths, but innovates enough to make me feel as amazed as when I watched Star Wars for the first time.

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens Review (Spoiler Free)

There was a point very early on in The Force Awakens when I just knew that this was going to be one of the most pure Star Wars experiences ever. George Lucas said in an interview and I’m paraphrasing of course, “Disney wants to give the fans what they want and love with The Force Awakens.” And what better way to do that than to let a mega-fan direct it – J.J. Abrams’ love for Star Wars shines through in every scene and the love and effort poured into the movie is evident right from the first shot, which by the way is so reminiscent of that of A New Hope. Actually, the plot of The Force Awakens is very similar to that of that of Episode IV, but for the sake of keeping this review spoiler-free, I won’t delve into further details. Nostalgia plays a huge factor in this movie, not just with its beloved returning characters but also with so many easter eggs. I loved how they acknowledged the events of the previous movies to make the galaxy feel old and like it has many, many stories to tell. Nostalgia notwithstanding, the movie is excellent and can stand on its own two feet without resting on its laurels.

The Day I Watched The Force Awakens

Today was one of the best days of my life. I’m not exaggerating, it’s not just a phase that’s going to pass over soon – today was the day I watched a Star Wars movie in a theatre and what made it sweeter was that it was The Force Awakens. The movie actually released a week late in India, i.e., the 25^th, not the 18^th because of some stupid Hindi movies that didn’t even do that well at the box-office. Even then, I watched it 6 days after its release in India – seems strange for a Star Wars fanatic like me, but luck wasn’t on my side and I had scheduling problems. I’d made plans to watch it on the 26^th with a friend, but the guy was as unreliable as a Stormtrooper’s aim and the plan went blew up like a thermal detonator. For a brief moment, I thought that I may actually miss the movie and I’d never forgive myself for that. So, I was dogmatic in my approach when I asked my father, no, demanded that we (my family) watch it as soon as possible. I was probably this aggressive because we were scheduled to go on a short holiday with my aunt, uncle and two cousins to Bhubaneshwar and Puri and fitting in things such as movies in a holiday is as difficult as quipping better than Han Solo. Thankfully, my father said that all of us would watch the movie on the 1^st of January. At the time it seemed like a long way away, but if I could wait over a year for the movie, I could surely wait a few more days.

My First Concert: Michael Learns To Rock – Part 2

There were only twenty-five minutes left, but that seemingly short amount of time was excruciating – my back ache had worsened, probably because a particularly garrulous couple was pushing up against me from behind and I was squeezed between them and this lady in front of me. There was also this woman in front of my mother who kept passing things to someone behind me by passing them over my head and I had to duck constantly to avoid getting hit. However, the silver lining was this girl diagonally in front of me who was a super fan of MLTR – she was the most ebullient person there and her energy was infectious. She was there with her boyfriend who didn’t seem to know who MLTR were and she was most probably introducing him to the band. He was the polar opposite of his girlfriend – phlegmatic and composed. Yet, he looked slightly embarrassed by her antics which included shouting at the bouncer standing in front of her for blocking her view. Nonetheless, they were fun people to have around me and I enjoyed their company.

My First Concert: Michael Learns To Rock – Part 1

Yesterday I attended my first music concert (non-orchestral). At 16, I guess it’s pretty late for such a thing, but when you consider the place I live in, it should come as no surprise. Calcutta, otherwise known as the cultural capital of India, is inhabited by people with the musical taste of a two-year old. Whenever international bands or solo artists tour India, they always bypass this city of mine and that’s left me sore on many an occasion. However, last month, my mother read an article in the newspaper announcing that Michael Learns To Rock would be performing here in Cal on the 17^th of December. This was a band I’d grown up listening to, mostly due to my parents who adored it. The “Assorted” folder in my parents’ music collection contains songs by MLTR like 25 Minutes, Sleeping Child and Out of the Blue. The prospect of hearing these guys live made my mother and me ecstatic.

The event was scheduled to be held on the field of The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club from 5 onwards. The tickets were surprisingly expensive and were categorized into General, Gold and Premium, the differences being the first is the standing area some distance from the stage and the latter two providing you with a seat closer to the stage. We decided that my mother and I would attend the concert and so we bought two General tickets which set us back four thousand rupees. (Each Gold ticket was five thousand rupees and each Premium was ten thousand.)

Looking back at Knights of the Old Republic

As an ardent Star Wars fan, I must shamefully admit that I played the critically acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic game only a couple of years ago. Though, it wasn’t really my fault as I have been trying and failing to make the game run on my computer for almost 6 years. I originally got the game when I was 10 only to discover that, for some reason, it refused to work on my PC. It didn’t launch and if it did, it crashed as soon as I reached the main menu. I tried to fix it, but at that age I really wasn’t very knowledgeable about these matters and soon gave up. My second brush with it was around two years later when a friend told me that he had gotten the game to work on his computer. He said that some of the files on my CD must have been corrupt and so, he gave me his CD to install the game from. I remember sitting excitedly in front of my monitor waiting for the installation to finish so that I could get on to playing the game, but once again, I was disappointed. This time, an error popped up on my screen every time I double-clicked on the launcher. I scoured the net for solutions, but none of them seemed to work for me. This attempt to run the game ended the same way as the last – in my surrender. Finally, I got my hands on it again two years ago and this time I was determined about fixing it. I spent hours digging through forums and watching YouTube videos on the subject. Eventually, I think the game sensed my frustration and acquiesced. I literally leapt up in joy when the game worked. However, there were still a few kinks to solve – the game refused to save, cut-scenes refused to play and the aspect ratio was stuck at 800×600. These required an hour more of work, but when it was done, I felt so relieved. I reclined in my chair and prepared myself for a great Star Wars experience. However, I never anticipated it to be that good.