Four Year Mile

It was 4 years ago, blogs had just captured the attention of newspapers and the offline world. I had joined Engineering. I had started writing about 2 years ago when i decided to test if i had inherited it from my genes. What started off with autobiographical writings and dark poems eventually culminated in this blog Aninosaintlife, which after second opinions resulted in the wp.com version you now see before you. Eventually i broached out to this, largely kept hidden until recently, where i blogged as Insomniac. ‘An Inosaint Life’ gave way to ‘An Innocent Life’ and in somewhere in 3rd year of engineering ‘Life is not all Ha-ha hee-hee’ was replaced by the newer namesake’s name. ‘Mad Hunter Skozaken‘.

The Blog and the online world taught me a lot i should say. In addition to finding some awesome people online, it made me develop my writing style. This has changed from an ‘everyday blog’ to a more My Article Blog.The Old Gang of bloggers is almost all gone. I myself disappeared for long stretches in the past two years when offline life kept me pretty preoccupied. When i did eventually come back, the blogosphere was changed. I really didnt feel the need to ‘publicize’ my blog. I still maintain contact with some of the ‘Old Gang’ but thats pretty much it. Nowadays i just follow some of my friends blogs (who arent very regular when it comes to updating).

In these 4 years, I have started and blogged at more than 7 blogs writing around 350+ posts in all. The Mind Clutter Blogger blog, A Quiz Blog survived Ignitte.in and is now on WP.com, a Posterous and finally, in July Absolutely Filmy! came into being. I also re-wrote my ‘About‘ Page and created a ‘Downloads‘ page. Thats been my journey so far.
I really feel Blogging/Writing is my Chicken Soup for the Soul. I dont care if people dont read what i write. I know this gives me a way to archive my thoughts. Some day when i am old and worn, counting that the interweb survives, i would look back to the decades of history i intend to chronicle here. I write happy thoughts here. There s a lot left unsaid ; why should i reveal my emotions to all and sundry? Humans are fickle minded creatures. But thats another blog post in itself.

For People who visit/read, Thank You.
For Friends who support, Thank You.

An Introduction to Comic Books and Manga: Part 1

My introduction to comic books like most people were the Archie’s, Asterix and Obelix and Tintin. My eventual enrollment in the local Central Library was where i was introduced to DC and other american comics. Being in India, Comic books are not easy to come by and definitely not light on your wallet. In 2007-08, i decided to have a look into the world of comics again. I had started off reading Manga in 2007 with Naruto and Bleach and wanted to get back to DC comics. The Final Crisis was the main event that started in the DC universe about the time i started reading comics. It gave me a place to start reading. Although confusing in itself, the DC universe was what i prefered over Marvel. Why? thats because there are some aspects of Marvel i simply dislike. I decided to give Marvel a chance this year. There are storylines there i would read but story arcs are really tough to follow compared to DC. Take for example the various Avengers titles available. After the recent reboot, Avengers Prime looks promising. Hopefully it stays that way.

Now am not saying that DC is easy to follow. What i did after Final Crisis was follow the story into the War of Light. I was hooked easily onto the 7 light spectrum power struggle and then came the Blackest Night which although reminded me of something called Marvel Zombies was still well written. The Brightest Day is the currently ongoing event but apart from the Green Lantern storylines am just reading the tie-ins for fun. I really believe that Green Lantern is a Comic book to follow due to the War of Light. I am also keen on the Return of Bruce Wayne(6 issues). I would also recommend Batman Beyond(6 issues) and Marvel Universe vs The Punisher(4 issues). Former dealing with Batman of the Future and the latter with a ‘I am Legend’ storyline with The Punisher instead of Will Smith.

Resticting yourselves to the two biggies is not a smart thing to do. There are many great titles out there in the smaller companies. Listed below are some worth reading in my opinion(My favourites). I dont know if its wise to start of with them but you can try these and then find your comfort zone. Please note that i have read them. There maybe many more good series out there. If you know about one than do suggest them to me.

DC:

• Grant Morrison’s psychedelic run of Doom Patrol (45 issues) which has one of my favourite woman superheroes of all time- Crazy Jane.
• The War of Light arc consisting of Green Lantern(ongoing) and Green Lantern Corps(ongoing) and certain select Final Crisis, Blackest Day and Brightest tie-ins.
• Green Lantern: Rebirth Lord Havok and the Extremists from the Countdown to Crisis arc(also a decent storyline).
• The Return of Bruce Wayne and Batman Beyond are ongoing series that have already been mentioned above.
• Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta and Watchmen are acclaimed titles which i havent finished reading yet. And also Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

Marvel:

• Testament:- The origin story of Magneto which utilizes events from the Holocaust of WW2.
• Wolverine:Origin:- The graphic novel which first dealt with the story and not the rubbish which the movie was about.
• Bulls Eye: Greatest Hits:- Reminded me about Joker from The Dark Knight and his origin stories.
• Daredevil: The Man without Fear :- pairs Frank Miller with John Romita Jr.
• Weapon X: Days of the Future Now:- A must read X-men title.
• X-men: Blind Science:- A Brilliantly written One Shot.
• Hulk: Planet Hulk story arc was decent.
• Marvel Universe vs The Punisher and Avengers Prime are ongoing series that have already been mentioned above. The Ultimate Universe is recommended for people who want to begin reading now. I have heard the marvel movies will depend on the Ultimate Universe anymore.

Others:

• Scott Pilgrim (6 volumes) for the graphic novel manga lovers.
• Icon’s Mark Millar and John Romita Jr’s Kick-Ass.
• Icon’s Mark Millar and Steve Mc’Niven’s Nemesis(ongoing).
• Avatar’s Chistos Gage’s Absolution.
• DDP’s Hack/Slash for its unusualness(have read only one book). Cassie Hack makes Lisbeth Salander look cute in comparison
• Wildstorm’s Push prequel to the Movie helps you put things in context.
• Also the Inception prequel The Cobol Job is a must read.
• Dynamite Entertainment’s Sherlock Holmes.
• IDW’s Singularity 7 and the ongoing True Blood(alongside the HBO series now in season 3)
• Frank Miller’s 300 and Sin City.

Will keep adding to this list.
(Article to be continued in part 2)

My Review: Nokia X2

One of the newest phones from the stable of the Finnish Giant. But sadly it doesn’t impress much. The Phone has a sleek design which is very unlike Nokia. With the express music buttons it would be a music addict’s fix. A 5 MP camera with flash should appeal to the photographer in you. And with the price of around Rs 5.9k (Price I bought it at. Box Price: Rs 6,579) wouldn’t it be your ideal choice? Right?
Wrong! Alas even though this phone has most of the must-have features, it still has faults some which I clearly fail to understand being in the finished product. Here’s a list of pro’s and con’s I came across.

Advantages:

• Lovely 2.2” Display and Nice sleek design
• ExpessRadio/ExpressMusic Buttons
• Good Clarity Awesome Stereo Speakers and uses 3.5mm AV.
• Built in Radio Antenna
• Keypad responds wonderfully.
• Free 25 song downloads from OVI.
• Good Pricing.

Disadvantages:

• The biggest downer for me was the flash. Its too bright! And doesn’t give even lighting effect on the picture. Case in point:
Without Flash                                                 With Flash

In the dark the flash worked better at close range. Farther off objects were lost in the flash! Btw if you are wondering why its so bright, well it doubles up as a really good torchlight.
Close range with Flash                          Little further with Flash

Maybe I am at fault here? Or Is there an Apple-ish excuse?
• Talking about Apple, I felt that the in-built radio antenna is a good feature i.e., until you accidentally press the ExpessRadio/ExpressMusic button in the wrong place (happened in a hospital. True Story.) and it starts belting out music at the highest volume. To rectify this I have kept the volume low and keyguard lock at 5 secs. Until I know better.
• The OS. Yes, it runs on S40 but so far it did get hung a couple of times. I haven’t used this OS on other phones but I find it has access friendly menus.
• EDGE in the time of 3G.

What I can hope is that Nokia will come up with a fix soon for the OS problems. The rest are hardware errors which hopefully they learn their lesson from. Not too bad a phone if you avoid the problems.

This review has been my opinion on the Nokia X2 Phone and if I have misunderstood any features or made any errors in the context of this review, please feel free to notify me so that I can correct them at the earliest.

My Travel Diaries: Collages

I hadnt posted any photos into the earlier posts because i simply didnt have the time to organise them into posts. Well here’s 3 collages from the 3 locations: Malaysia, Singapore and Kashmir Wondering if i should upload any videos?