After 10 days of unbearable pain of not being able to witness the end of the Saga as almost everyone else I knew already had, I finally saw Revenge of the Sith. I can now die without regret.

At the end of it all, it somehow felt "good". Even though the entire galaxy plummets towards total darkness, with every being fearing the shadow of the white armor, it still felt GOOD!

Here's a list of my fave things from RotS:

I just loved the intense 'Vapaad' style fight between Windu and Palpatine. You can see Windu edging into his natural anger caused of Vapaad.

The nostalgic command from the Wing Leader, "Lock S-Foils in attack position", and the wookie howl.

The drop Yoda makes near the end after his failure - so reminiscent of Luke's exit on the Cloud City on Bespin.

Palpatine's Force Lightning.

Both Jedi Heroes did good acting this time. I just LOVED Obi-Wan's more natural personality. Ewan McGregor did a heck of a job. Even Hayden Christensen's Vader-mode was cool. The anger in his voice was scary. Natalie Portman's acting abilities were also nicely explored. But the best acting had to be a tie with Yoda (animators/Frank Oz) and Palpy (Ian McDiarmid).

The whole film was like a full mirror of Return of the Jedi. The Apprentice vs Jedi fight with the Emperor watching in a grand seat. The immense space battle. The appendage chopping. Vader's creation as opposed to Vader's redemption.

Some things that were in the novelization were not included in the film, but SHOULD'VE BEEN:

Commander Cody (the clone commander who goes with Obi-Wan on the Greivous mission on Utupal) gives Obi-Wan his lightsaber back, and as Obi-Wan goes away he gets Order 66 from Palpy, and then after Palpy's holo vanishes, he says "you could've given the order BEFORE I gave him his lightsaber back!". And when Obi-Wan loses his lightsaber when chasing the droid general, he says "Anakin will never let live in peace if he finds out" - or something to that effect.

But the thing they REALLY should've added was Yoda talking with the ghostly image of Qui-Gon Jinn before Bail Organa interrupts his meditiation near the end. And this is the REAL conversation Yoda and Obi-Wan have in the end:

Yoda: In your solitude on Tatooine, training I have for you. I and my new Master."

Obi-Wan: Your new Master?

Yoda: Yes. (Smiles) And your old one...

The Swamp troops (the clones in green/silver on Kash'yyk) had the best armor.

Sigh ... I gotta go now ... I will keep writing my comments about RotS and its comparison to RotJ later (like you can stop me!).

My Insignificant Life | Star Wars

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Following the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (which I haven't seen yet, thank you, and shut up) the Mondays gang whupped ass with a super funny Star Wars themed episode of Mondays. Your's truly had the honor of being part of it behind-the-scenes with a bunch of photoshopped (or rather PhotoPaint'd) images of ... well ... something of what Star Wars is like after the weekend. Go check out the show and find out more. Here's a sample: http://shrinkster.com/5ev

I was so busy with making these images and juggling projects (as well fencing comments about my not seeing Sith yet) that I even forgot to mention it here!!!! Check out the show here: http://mondays.pwop.com/default.aspx?showID=22 - and NO, I didn't make the Chewie & Leia image. Even *I* have some dignity. Although, I did find it on the net. :-P

Art | Geek Stuff | Graphics | Toys

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I've always been fascinated and frightened of death - any form of "end". Personal death - my own death - would be a fascinating thing - hell, it would be an adventure (uhm, that "hell" was an exclamation, because I don't believe in hell [or heaven]- mostly because if I did that is where I'd be going).

For the past couple of years everything started ending. The sitcoms I always watched started ending one by one, the eternal sagas come to an end. I left the house where I spent the majority of my life until 2003. Frodo had to leave the Shire and go into the West. Will Riker went onto his own command, Data died. Anakin became Vader, Padme died. In the EU, Chewbacca, Anakin Solo, Admiral Ackbar, Ganner Rhysode, Wurth Skidder, Elogos A'kla, even Nom Anor died. Tahiri, Danni and other went away into the Unknown Regions with Zonama Sekot. And good TV (whatever was left of it) is dying with the so-called reality shows.

One big fear of mine has been the underdog I've been supporting and fighting for is now nearing it's end. In the last few years, Corel Corporation (www.corel.com) has been taken over more times than the middle eastern governments. Since v1.0, I've been a die hard CorelDRAW fan. Later on when Corel PhotoPaint was brought on, it became the most used software on my computer(s). For over 14 years, this is one software I've been using.

Now, I hear that there WON'T be a version 13. PhotoPaint has (finally) fallen behind Photoshop. In it's youth, Corel PhotoPaint (CPT) was what Photoshop copied features from! Now, PhotoShop CS2 is coming up with amazing features. For the past 3 years, this fear has been hanging over me like a sword. But I kept on pushing, knowing Corel will bring in one more version with some rocking features that will crush PS. And for the past 3 years, Corel has been disappointing me. Sure, they've added some cool features, but not ENOUGH.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a fiercly loyal to my friends and allies. And now like Anakin Skywalker, I'm being seduced by the Palpatine analog called Corel Painter IX. I've started shifting my painting creation from CPT to PIX. And I'm beginning to become loyal to it. It's no biggie - it's a COREL product (tho not originally). And it does have cool functionality. It still doesn't support ALL the cool things PhotoPaint can do, but... oh well. I'm still going to use both mediums.

But the deeper fear is that if there is no new version Corel PhotoPaint, I will need to switch to Photoshop. Photoshop with its undocked windows, and missing tools (hey, CPT STILL has tools PS doesn't!). I still pray to the Force that Corel has enough sense to create a new version with killer features. But what if it doesn't. Despair! I despair. Even though I know that despair leads to fear, and fear leads to hatred, and hatred leads to anger, and anger leads to the Dark Side! Oh Force, are you with me still? Does the Light Side still hold sway?

I fear the day when I cannot get a new version of PhotoPaint, and I'll have to leave it's beautiful customizable VBA architecture and embrace the Yuuzhan Vong software called Photoshop. Padme will die, hundreds of Padawans will die, and I will be using Photoshop!

Art | Geek Stuff | Graphics | My Insignificant Life

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Jedi Master C'arl Fran'klin has written an AMAZING blog post. You just HAVE to read it.

http://weblogs.asp.net/cfranklin/archive/2005/05/19.aspx 

Amazing. Simply amazing.

Geek Stuff | My Insignificant Life

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I was archiving some old files and found this picture of Dr. J. J. Rawal, a renowned astrophysicist, and the former Director of the Nehru Space Institute, current director of the Indian Planetary Society. He's also an advisor at the Indian analog of NASA.

This picture was taken sometime in 2004 at my father's office. Dr. Rawal is a friend of Dad's. I really enjoyed the brief chat I had with him. He was kind enough to invite me to participate in the new meteorological research center they are soon going to establish in my town.

My Insignificant Life

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I recently got hooked on to using Shrinkster.com a lot thanks to listening to .NET Rocks and Mondays

If you don't know what Shrinkster is, it's a website where you enter a large url (for example, a blog link, or a long search URL) and it shrinks it to something like http://shrinkster.com/4x9 - it's small, it's permanent, and it's free. No strings attached.

The thing is, sometimes I want to give a link to someone about something quickly and it is just a pain in the ass to open the browser, go to the site, and make the URL. So, I shrinksterized the process...

Behold... shrinksterNuke! This handy app creates a shrinkster URL from the shrinkster website automatically! You just enter the URL and boom - it's done. It even keeps history and has easy tracking built in.

You can download it at: http://shrinkster.com/5bl

It is a beta release. It has some bugs and tracking is not fully implemented. You can send feedback via the comments link here, or mail me directly. I'd love to hear what you think, and if you find it useful, share it with your friends.

A thanks to Karl Moore and his wonderful component WebZinc.net which handles the core functions for this app. Go buy his app! Now!

NOTE: ShrinksterNuke is built on Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.50215. You will need the .NET Runtime (same version) installed. It is available at: http://shrinkster.com/5bn

.NET | Geek Stuff | Toys

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I desperately needed a vacation. I was on the verge of nervous breakdown. But there was just too much work that needed my attention. So, I decided to fill in the gaps in my Star Wars reading and read the entire New Jedi Order series from Book 1. Now, this is a series of 21 books, and my total count of Star Wars novels read has been about 75+.

So, I read 10 books in the last week. I intend to finish the rest this week or the next. I even read EPISODE III: Revenge of the Sith - the official novelization. Damn, I can't wait to see the movie. Go see it!

Some time back, I was on a similar Star Wars kick (I'm ALWAYS on a Star Wars kick, this one was a spike in the normal pattern) and I watched all 5 movies back-to-back. After watching the movie I got into a fight with a Penguin-lover (Linux user! This isn't beastiality!) about Microsoft being the Dark Side of the Force. Being a Microsoft-lover, I just couldn't help but kick his ass.

Later, I was inspired to do a vector-sketch. I wonder if Bill Gates' midi-chlorian count is higher than Anakin's. Hmmm.

This is my tribute to Genndy Tartakovsky's genius.

If you Penguin-lovers are thinking that Linux's fate shall be that of Luke Skywalker, yes, you may lose a hand (or wing) or whatever, but defeat the Dark Side, you shall not. Size does matter.

Geek Stuff | Graphics | My Insignificant Life

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Some time back, Carl Franklin and I started an animation project for Microsoft TechEd that would be shown during a keynote or something. The project's initial concept was provided by Rory Blyth - we take Microsofties and put them in a Mortal Kombat like environment, but with a geeky theme. So, we ended up creating KODER KOMBAT. Unfortunately, the project didn't take off as we expected, but we did end up with a cool idea that just might have a future still.

The stars of our animation were none other than Chris Sells and Don Box. Here are the original concept sketches:

Introducing CHRIS SHARP. This hash-powered fighting machine runs on Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and was coded fully in C#. His powers included HyperInheritance (projecting multiple clones of self), and the legendary power called BURNING MAN (below).

This particular super power had a side-power. A strongly addictive polka-remixed song that stuck Chris Sharp's opponent between wanting to dance like an idiot and run away screaming - either would work in Chris Sharp's favor.

Introducing SILENT ANGLE BRACKET. This wild man was trained by Hulk Hogan in his early years, and then by Or'oku Saki (aka Shredder). His super powers include a silent, almost transparent changing of schemas in between fighting. He switches between a Ninjitsu warrior to a yelling wrestler within milliseconds.

Silent Angle Bracket's secret weapon was an inflatable bathtub hidden in his utility belt (not shown in picture). When he would need to overcome his opponent, he would pull it out, and get in it and mesmerize his opponent (either with his nudity or his interesting talk on SOAP). This would lull his opponent into a false sense of serenity and then he would strike with his energy angle brackets and XML transforms.

Hopefully, this project will one day be restarted. (This is an actual project, NOT a joke!)

Geek Stuff | Graphics

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If you've visited my blog before (thank you!) you might notice the look has changed. Astute observation.

If you've known me for more than 48 hours, you would probably know that I'm a cipheractive (a hyperactive person who works in mysterious, cryptic ways) and I often end up revamping something or the other to exhaust the build up of excess creativity in my so-called brain.

And yes, that picture above is a painting I recently made on my tablet. And no, that's not me - I'm the sleepy-eyed idiot on the right.

Graphics | My Insignificant Life

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Ever get the feeling you don't want Monday to begin? Tired of dragging your sorry ass to work? Well, here's an audio show (aka podcast) that might make things a bit easier.

Mondays: What Sunday threw up - http://mondays.pwop.com

(The site was designed by yours truly, thank you )

This show is the brainchild of Carl Franklin and his gang of geeks. Want a sample? Take a look at Carl's recent blog entry. You can't afford to not listen to these clips.

Pass on this message and Carl will pay over $30,000,000 to the person who passes on this message to over 3000 people. What are you waiting for? Go! Spread the word.

Geek Stuff

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I just finished the processing of a cloud video (the first in a series of many) taken during a bright afternoon. This video was 'shrunk' from a whole 3:47 minute shot.

http://www.pixelatedfocus.com/cloud01-1.zip

Hopefully, I'll be shooting some really cool cloud shots and some lightning shots as well.

Photography

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I've decided to let go of AFTER-IMAGES.net. It has been a good ride, but some things must end. I've stopped painting for some time now, and I don't think I want an exclusive art exhibit online anymore. I'll probably fuse the existing collections at Pixelated Focus.

If anyone wants this domain, just mail me and I'll *give* it to you. Well, not free, but at a token price of US$12. That's what I paid for registration a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... :)

Graphics | My Insignificant Life

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