No-way-ember

1

Reddit for Avengers 4 has a link to TVTropes (Lotus Eater Machine). Spirals, I tell ya! J

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LotusEaterMachine



Keikaku – and it’s futility :D



3

Wil Wheaton was in The Last Starfighter.



5

DhanYoutubus



Football and sleight of hand



Found the ‘inspiration’ for the intro of Rap God (6 minutes [X2], Slim Shady, you’re on) – Slick Rick & Doug E Fresh – The Show





6

Midori Ito lit the Olympic flame at Nagano 1998, where Shiva Keshavan first competed at the Olympic level. Never Give In, Sanawar!



17

An ingenuous ingenious – drawing inspiration from Eminem’s trans-cend-a-lis-tic ten-den-cies [Rolling Stone; https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/eminem-on-the-road-back-from-hell-249093/ ]



Could be disingenuous if required for my rhyme scheme ;)



21

The Aldo Leopold Legacy Trail System has 42 state trails – Douglas Adams’ Universal Answer shows up yet again.



26

The Himalayas figure in Thoreau’s A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.





27

Spirals doth continueth; Gravity’s Rainbow inspired Whip It by Devo, one of the topics of satire in Family Guy (it also reminds me of the ‘Cool Whip’ eccentricity of Stewie).



28

Bailiwick

Acktober

3
Tareme/tsurime in anime


4
Veni vidi vici is a tricolon.

5
TIL: Abstentious and cukoloris


6
Cliometrcis and terpsichorean

11 – Latin day, somehow from lexemes
Sub verbo/voce – (dictionary) under the heading
Sapienti sat – word to the wise is enough
Sapere aude – dare to know
Festina lente – make haste slowly

Running across quite a few Virgil/Aeneid quotes; had naturally progressed to it after the Homeric epics (Iliad/Odyssey)

Sum summarum – all in all

Faustus: Que sera, sera

Sic et non – yes and no
Ad astra – another Virgil-ism, to the stars
Sic vita est – such is life, c’est la vie in French//Pulp Fiction shout out
Silentium est aureum - -silence is golden
Sine – without; not the mathematical function though it fits for me
Sine qua non – with condition, a necessary condition
Sol lucet omnibus - -sun shines on all
specialia generalibus derogant - special departs from general

12
sub Iove frigido - under cold Jupiter
emotions are sub silentio

ablatives

suum cuique – to each their own

Seems appropriate that I know tabula rasa as I begin ‘T’.

Brachistochrone curve – fastest descent

Temet nosce – know thyself; of course, inevitable to shout out to The Matrix’s Oracle scene.
tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis - the times are changing, and we change in them
fugit inreparabile tempus – time flies (irreparably? More Virgil)
terminat hora diem; terminat auctor opus - The hour finishes the day; the author finishes his work; more Faust to the end.

Came across Oliver Gogarty, the inspiration behind Buck Mulligan in Ulysses, from ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis (where you are worth nothing, there you will wish for nothing) in Beckett’s Murphy.

usus est magister optimus – practice makes perfect – or as near as can be, or as near as you get satisfied with
vacate et scire - Be still and know; so apt for these ennui-filled days.
Veni vidi vici was used by Caesar for the Battle of Zela (Turkey)
vera causa - true cause (is it an oversight or is the link for vera causa a Self Demonstrating Article, as TVTropes puts it?

Versus means towards, not against (which is really referring to adversus)

13
vince malum bono - overcome evil with good; BCS Shimla (where I got my scar circa 1995) has this as their motto

syntagma – arrangement (cl. Gr.) > constitution (mod. Gr.) + a public square in Athens

15
Vincit qui se vincit – he conquers who conquers himself

Richard III’s “my kingdom for a horse” is paraphrased in Asterix in Spain; Richard II is in the First Folio of Shakespeare, which is the last tab open in my other Chrome window. Spirals, of varying radii.

16
Tomas Transtromer (Nobel for Lit, 2011) went to Bhopal in the aftermath of the 1984 tragedy.

Mono no aware, Japanese, not to be assumed English despite the phonetic similarity, means ‘the pathos of things’.

Lineament – a distinctive feature; loosely, visage

Samizdat – publishing banned works of creativity

Nudnik – a bore, AKA people I avoid

17
Almost inevitably, a Latin quote I ran across this week appears in Asterix and the Banquet: Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa catoni.

Omphalokepsis

I’m not sure if I have previously noted the reference to the Upanishads in Ulysses, so I shall note it again, to be reminded of the spiral-connectedness of all things past, present and future. They say history repeats itself, I agree: only the spirals vary unexpectedly and unpredictably.

18
Agenbite of inwit – inner wit bites again (and again)

Omphalos – spirals, interminable

Nietzsche is invoked.

Paraprosdokian

At long last, off to the Himalayas! 

[To be resumed]



29

Ran across Pearl Jam (Jeremy) on TV Tropes. As good a place as any to resume this blog post. Also, next to-do is the synopsis and chapter outline; will develop them in frenzy mode when aptly minded. Patience…and credit card debt lolz.



30

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, recalling a conversation during the recent trip to The Blue Sheep in Tirthan valley, Himachal.



https://opendurbar.wordpress.com/2018/10/26/tirthan-valley-himachal-pradesh/

Septender

1

Anemic Cinema by Marcel Duchamp.

Ray Bradbury and John Huston wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick (1956).

3

Eric Idle parodied Paul McCartney in The Rutles – fitting for a Monty Python.

George Best was alluded to as El Beatle :D

Mythopoeia by JRR Tolkien – meta

4

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Adam West were in The Outer Limits (Cold Hands, Warm Heart, I, Robot and The Invisible Enemy, respectively) before becoming Cap Kirk, Spock and Batman.

7

TIL that Easter Island is antipodal to India – specifically, Desert National Park near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Giancarlo Esposito b-boyed in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing!

13

Embarking on Against The Day, today. Ennui has reared up again; irritated shrugs have become de-facto responses.

15

Myst the video game was influenced by Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island…I recall playing it very long ago, the surroundings do not spring clearly to mind. The infinitive has been split.

19

Lucid dreaming nights

25

I have finally encountered the Myth of Sisyphus in Homer: Odyssey, Book 11. Odysseus talks to the inhabitants of Hades.

27

Dear Mum’s budday.

Reading The New Yorker article on Guillermo del Toro, and he calls out his Sisyphean project. Spirals, incessant, variable, but always intersecting.

28

I knew I had run across Anthony LaPaglia before: Frasier’s Simon Moon, Daphne’s obnoxious brother, no less! Australian Film Industry, I yearn for thee! :D

29

Arete was the first Greek word I explored, courtesy Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Adding kleos and xenia to that one-item list, courtesy the Homeric epics.

Schism by Tool is literally about the chasm between people, mainly due to impaired communication.

Awesomax August

1

Moebius (an influential artist) named his daughter Nausicaa, influenced by the friendship of Hayao Miyazaki

Stan Lee cameod in Big Hero 6!

3

High Hopes was featured in Beavis & Butt-Head (PTA).

4

Spike Milligan was India-born.

Dani California (RHCP) was used in 2 live-action Death Note movies…I must’ve missed it when I saw them so many years ago.

7

Wiki-walking through TV Tropes; might as well collect targeted emails for the next act on the stage of life.

letters@outlooktraveller.com

ngsline@cutomersvc.com

Don McGill’s postcards

Hah (victorious)! I expected nothing less from Douglas Adams creations than to be Trope Namers.

13

Ennui overwhelms. Anyway, Zeerust, the South African town, is also a Trope Namer. Essentially, retro-futuristic.

Gonna go to IRCTC tomorrow; let’s see what’s up at IRCTC!

20

One week later, as movies are wont to use as intertitles. :D

David Lynch>Uher>Assmann

Mondegreens are common – I remember having to pause-rewind-play Eminem to discern the syncopation. Eddie Vedder’s singing lends itself readily to mondegreens too.

Godel, Escher, Bach was in vogue at our flat in Gurgaon (now Gurugram); the Droste effect (mise en abyme) led me to it whilst wiki-walking.

Trivia! Kerry Condon (FRIDAY) is Mike’s daughter-in-law on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul! Also, youngest to play Ophelia for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

21

Laura Harring ‘scared up’ (a la a glass of sherry) an appearance in Frasier (Dial M For Martin).

Burn Notice ended with eleventy-one episodes, or a Nelson.

22

Ashish’s budday

23

Gonna wiki-walk through the day, like yesterday

Yesterday, came across Seadoos while watching The Amazing Race season finale. I’d stumbled on to Seadoos somehow, on an offshoot of wiki-walking. Little spirals intertwine all the time.

Kenny Baker (R2D2) was in Time Bandits, the first in the Trilogy of Imagination by Terry Gilliam. Ian Holm (Bilbo in the LotR movies) is in there too!

24

Niles of Frasier is the trope namer for the Replacement Flat Character :D

28

The Bradbury Building appears in Gravity’s Rainbow, too. And Ian McKellen was in Last Action Hero!

29

It just hit me why the Iron Man Bleeding Edge armor used to sound so familiar – Thomas Pynchon wrote a book by that name which I had come across way before reading about the comic namesake.

Blade Runner parodied in Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law; specifically, the ‘tears in rain’ Roy Batty death scene.

Leonard Nimoy appeared in The Outer Limits, Production and Decay of Strange Particles – 4/20/1964.

30

They’ll get only what they pay for. If I’m feeling particularly benevolent.

July Fly-by

2

Clouds have rolled in over the past few days. Great time to enjoy now-rare solitude at home.

Encountered G Arcimboldo’s art, completely by chance.

3

Annie Besant connection in Gravity’s Rainbow – and a mention of Krishna!

Reading about Patton pommelling Rommel and listening to Us & Them with its “…forward he cried from the rear and the front rank died…”

A good sign (or bad? I prefer good) that I thought for a moment that it was the 4^th of July.

Facepalm levels of inadequacy in communication, but I rise above it and give them more words. I got a multitude of words in my head. Carpal tunnel is acting up, though. And this mouse has gathered quite a thick underbelly of grime. Tomorrow morning, Mission Wipeout.

4

Just a glance at Dream Theater’s Falling Into Infinity cover, and I knew there was something that rang a bell: Google affirmed that it is Storm Thorgerson’s work – hence its Pink Floyd-ness.

New keyboard, btw. Took the Mission Wipeout quite seriously, I did.

This is what I read for: Sherlock Holmes was adapted as Sherlock Hound by Hayao Miyazaki!

5

Started today swimmingly. Might work on A Life Afloat to make use of the mental buoyancy.

Interesting (to me, at least): J Gray-Stanford, who played Lt. Disher in Monk, voiced the titular character in the animated Sherlock Holmes in the 22^nd Century.

“Communicating Cynicism: Diogenes' Gangsta Rap”: what a title for an article. Kudos, Ms. Ineke Sluiter!

Antimony has no letters in common with its symbol Sb (from Latin, Stibium).

Conan Doyle made Sherlock Holmes meet the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. Speaks volumes of the enchanting allure of Tibet.

6

Langur traits in Prof Presbury! I wish I could insert the ‘laughing-with-tears’ emoji.

7

Jude Law worked with Jeremy Brett in The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place.

The bridge of Ponte de Lima in Portugal is now on my travel list.

Into the future with Futurama!

9

Bill Murray has portrayed Hunter S Thompson (Where The Buffalo Roam).

I believe pareidolia is pretty common, having experienced it myself since childhood.

Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (Nellie Bly) went around the world in 72 days, and George Francis Train made 3 such trips. If that is not a person’s name driving their destiny, I don’t know what is. :D

10

Started at 10 today, gonna hammer out this Privacy Policy with a vengeance.

11

Got thanked profusely yesterday! :D Lemme see how today’s 6hourisms go.

Our senses are so important.

12

Profuse corporate creativity today; but a lot of ‘ifs’ hovering around in my mind…more than usual.

Michael Palin appeared on The Chaser’s War on Everything!

13

So from Futurama (Lethal Inspection), I have come upon Might makes right, which is an aphorism, which is open 5 tabs down the row in Chrome. Spirals is how I see this phenomenon.

The Green Hershey Bar, in Gravity’s Rainbow (Pynchon).

16

Circled round to Last Chance To See (from examples of the Ship of Theseus thought experiment mentioning the Gold Pavilion Temple in Kyoto, Japan) and hence enamored with Douglas Adams again. A comic conservationist, of all things. :D

17

No addition to captain’s log, even though I’m reading Community plots, which are full of tropes and trivia.

18

The Truman show was set in a Potemkin village.

19

Drawing on my vast lyrical knowledge, I am transcending creative boundaries for describing technological services. Plus, people trying to be a pain due to their personal quirks irritates me so I transcend them, too. :D

20

Watching Mike Cahill’s Another Earth a few years ago resulted in two realizations: Brit Marling is awesome, and sci-fi can be done in an understated yet effective way, without in-your-face CGI.

Heard Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Op. 125, Choral) in its entirety to identify the music used so often as muzak. Next, 2001: A Space Odyssey OST.

21

They tryina’ gemme down but I rise like Hayabusa

23

“All Your Base Are Belong To Us” came up during wiki-walking, and apparently it was graffiti-ed into Wreck-It Ralph, through the ending of which I lazed yesterday. Spirals, man, they’re just convergent and tangent all the time, unpredictably yet assuredly.

Alicia Lemke’s voice hit me hard, and finding out she’s permanently away deepens the wound. Oh, the frailty of humanity…it’s a theme I dwell on recurrently, but keep out of A Life Afloat because it would be too easy to slip under, and quite hard to resurface.

I’ve had an epiphany about the book I will write on music and its influences – The Floydist’s (“playing on” ‘Flautist’s’) Guide to the Harmony

24

Apple Music is finally curating a great For You list for me…machine-learning, IRL.

Aleatoricism is an intriguing concept, mainly because of my proclivity towards chance/serendipity.

25

Pynchon is one of the (many, many) inspirations behind Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta.

Considering creating a mnemonic (origin: Mnemosyne) for the Muses: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Euterpe (flutes and lyric poetry), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance), Erato (love poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), Urania (astronomy).

31

Last day of the month…it’s been a weird week, to say the least…still, the ebbs and flows of time carry on barely perturbed. Got to make a break for the mountains – a clean, short break. Two weeks to 33^rd birthday!

Wiki-walking, I come across “By The Power Of Grayskull!”

Budday month begins! :) Things are always looking up if you don't let yourself get dragged down into the mire of people. To quote Sartre, "L'enfer, c'est les autres", or "hell is other people". Well, most of them, anyway.

Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus _Pt. 1

Quotes and remarks while reading from the translation by James Wood (Penguin)

[Intro]

"...religion is all hypocrisy and nonsense."

Grand Inquisitor section of The Brothers Karamazov

"Camus cannot know that God does not exist;...Camus proposes awareness itself."

"...oppose the world's meaninglessness with our revolt, our freedom, and our passion."

One of the most poignant observations by Mr Wood: "Aware that life is futile, Camus feels himself a stranger to it." A certain callback to The Stranger, methinks.

He reproduces the part about the banality of routine (pg. 19), and notes that both Henri Bergson and Camus jeered modern industrial society. He ends the para with "...life is a comic dumb-show."

The titular myth is of course the drudgery of futile labor that Sisyphus is cursed with, rolling a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down, for eternity. Eternity, of course is the life span of humans - there is no other experience to look forward to once we die.

"...and what is Sisypheanism but a furious metaphor?"

June Tune, In Hindsight, Gone Too Soon

1

Australia has a rich history, and indigenous Australians fascinate me no end.

Time immemorial: example of postpositive adjective.

Liturgical litanies of the laity. Addendum to previous

OZ has got monotremes.

2

Biding My Time – Pink Floyd: “…When we was workin' from nine to five…”

I mostly use diegesis while writing.

Obiter dicta, By The Way – RHCP.

I didn’t eat Tim Tams at Sanawar, but we did call biscuits ‘bikkies’.

To Surveil With Love is the only episode of the Simpsons, where the title "The Simpsons" is not shown [wiki].

4

Bovril ties together (pun intended) Douglas Adams and Frasier (specifically Daphne & Niles).

Jeremy Irons is from the Isle of Wight, which I reached from Antarctic exploration < Rock of Gibraltar < Pillars of Hercules < Atlantis < Bill & Peter’s Bogus Journey [Family Guy]. Aside: BEAR GRYLLS ON HAUNTED ISLAND  :D

And I’ve reached the Cheese Shop sketch of Monty Python from Antarctic exploration. Excellante!

Dr. Gonzo’s real-life inspiration, Oscar Zeta Acosta, disappeared in Mazatlan.

Time never goes backwards; that’s a relief for ennui.

5

John McEnroe called in on Frasier’s fifth season (as Patrick, but I don’t know the episode).

The 16-ton weight made its Monty Python debut in Self Defense Against Fresh Fruit :D

The [FATAL ERROR] Google Translate is a nice touch of whimsy, always associated with Google.

6

Caught the last tie break of the Djoker-Cecchinato French Open game while channel surfing last night, astounding play from both.

RHCP’s Dani California and Snow (Hey Oh) were used for the 2^nd live action Death Note movie! I can’t see how they relate to the occult manga/movie, though.

So Hideo Nakata of Ring fame got tempted enough to do a Death Note spinoff too

I read about people like Roopak Saluja (Sooperfly) and am convinced to continue life positively – especially since his age is, purely coincidentally, 42. Chanced upon this from Every Second Counts (Zondag met Lubach).

7

1 o’clock, and I’ve powered through 10 How To technical questions, which has somewhat depleted brain functions.

Half past five, and I’ve added ‘Editing privacy policies to be in accordance with GDPR’ to my repertoire. That word brings back excellent memories of DCE.

I want to be alive and healthy when Halley’s Comet appears again in 2061.

8

I hope the practical upshot of me writing the Project Report and Letter Of Intent for the prospective Gabon dealios gets me a return trip to Africa, for starters :D What’s the harm in wishing, and wishing well?

11

A (farcical) crisis about crasis: Microsoft Word rejects the word with its concomitant red squiggles. Not that I need to use it in A Life Afloat, but reading about Greek texts and Oxyrhynchus Papyri led on to phonetics and hence, into crasis.

Nadal’s dominant left hand was cramping up yesterday in the final at Roland Garros; mine is following suit on the keyboard today. Did a few pull-ups today, but more needs to be done to stay clear of CTS and all those sedentary job ailments. Just need to ride this out till I get to Oz…or even Canada, for that matter.

This Gary the Rat animation had a heavy cast! Will look it up on YouTube.

That settles it: I’ll play He-Man: Tappers of Grayskull at least once, as something new to do in the evenings.

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish (A Perfect Circle) is my current earworm.

Kafka is an Apache open-source stream-processing software platform!

12

Eminem voiced himself in Peter’s Progress, complimenting Stewie! :D

Again, the Rafa-esque pain in my left ring finger. Massaging seems to help.

13

Banal bank boring beat today. For a kinda worthy cause though, so…

2:45 pm and Citi is done, at least. Tomorrow for the other 2.

14

I am completely aware that I lack an entrepreneurial streak – completely and utterly. Biding my time here till A Life Afloat floats into publishing houses (or becomes the auspicious start of another one of Ganesh sir’s business ventures) seems like the existentialist thing to do.

Litchi/lychee is a monotypic taxon.

Uma Thurman was in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, as was Robin Williams! :D

15

Stardate 15.6.18: Nothing worth noting in my captain’s log

16

Orson Welles was in Treasure Island! Tremendous auteur-istic scope he had, by all accounts.

Coventry City FC handed Alex Ferguson his first Man U FA Cup defeat on their way to winning the 1987 title: a fact I learnt today courtesy of looking into Monty Python’s Flying Circus, specifically the World Forum/Communist Quiz sketch. As I tweeted a little while ago, Monty Python are (almost) always on the money.

Apparently, The Chaser’s War on Everything also parodied Monty Python.

New team member joining on Monday, so that should help in passing time. Bidding adieu to my ‘corner’, as Mattafix put it in Big City Life – my ongoing earworm along with APC’s So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, RHCP’s By The Way and PJ’s Black.

18

Some people are just…well I try not to be hypocritical but I can’t get over their utterly sleazy or shivers-down-the-spine way of communicating. Ugh (shudders). I’m dealing with it by concentrating on being my good self with good people.

Arose – Eminem

Mars Pt.1 – One Ring Zero

Mellotron Scratch – Porcupine Tree

Pendulum – Pearl Jam

Take A Picture – Filter

Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm (MJ cover)

Lazarus – Porcupine Tree

River – Eminem (ft. Ed Sheeran)

Frankenstein Monster Song – One Ring Zero

Walk On Water – Eminem (ft. Beyoncé)

Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell

My

Under The Influence – D-12

Creep – Radiohead

Deeper Underground – Jamiroquai

Nowhere Fast – Eminem (ft. Kehlani)

Chop Suey – System Of  A Down

A great song to end a Monday!

19

Jonathan Banks was in Freejack! :D In the morning, the exclamation of “God damn you, McCandless!” was bouncing hither-thither in my brain…I only remembered Anthony Hopkins, Mick Jagger and the plot point that a racing car driver was somehow transported into the future for a personality backup restoration. Praises be to the Internet!

MJ Nelson of MST3K fame did the campy commentary for Reefer Madness (colorized) in 2004

Maybe I will do a thread of all my travel blogs this weekend.

On reading through the webpages made with my content, if I identify even very minor errors, I get them rectified ASAP.

20

Summer cold

21

Still cold in the summer, with a stuffed nose that brings to mind the Impractical Jokers episode in which they have to take care of babies for a demo class. I shall steer clear of the phlegm-laden details.

25

3-day hiatus was good…now to decide the Lahaul trip days and lock them down.

Perhaps I should be writing Google reviews too.

Ever since I read about her own thought process behind Great Gig In The Sky, I appreciate Clare Torry’s vocals even more.

Woah (not woe) to the stereo effects on Interstellar Overdrive.

26

Day to pay for Kathmandu foray – if only a part of it

Shall the Lahaul trip be preponed? Will have to talk with relevant people.

Mo Money Mo Problems>Infallible>Money>Neptune>Highway Star>Breathe>Wish You Were Here (PF, not Incubus – though that song is in my Apple Music as well)>Megalomaniac (thought of Incubus and here they are)>Papercut>Smooth Criminal (AAF)>Mars, Pt. 1>See Emily Play>Numb>The Nile Song>Interstellar Overdrive>Nothing Else Is Happening>High Hopes>Chloraseptic>Under My Wheels>On The Wall (Neil Gaiman wrote the lyrics)>Wake Up>Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. I-V)>

27

Alea iacta est

Nihil aliud – but this is just ennui rearing its sleepy head again.

28

Ad astra; fiat lux – could Asimov’s Multivac be the inspiration behind Adams’ Deep Thought? The question posited to both computers is essentially similar, with Asimov’s being more scientific while Adams’ is whimsical.

Tim Alexander from Primus (of South Park theme song fame) played drums for the opening song on Mer de Noms.

29

No addition to log, some (not too significant) subtraction from recurring payout.

30

The increasing mass of humanity makes being ‘of historical importance’ a little more distinguished, aided ably by the ease of digital dissemination of information.

Explored some Gorillaz (Damon Albarn, effectively) today. Looking forward to the Round of 16 in FIFA.

FIFA World Cup 2018 Round of 16

Today being the last day of a gloriously fought group stage, I found myself thinking about the Round of 16.

2 spots still remain undecided, which proves how down to the wire the group stage has gone. The biggest ouster is Germany, of course, with the winner's curse dogging them in the form of a steadfast Korean team. The takeaway of the group stage is the defensive improvements and VAR-induced level playing field. I am all for VAR, as it negates the luck factor to a certain degree. More severe punishments for intentional aggression is good for the game, especially in these divisive, turbulent times.

France - Argentina
Albiceleste, for Messi, despite strong leanings towards Les Blues for the Pog

Uruguay - Portugal
Portugal for Ronaldo

Spain - Russia
Unfortunate end for the host nation at the hands of a laboring but still brilliant in flashes La Roja

Croatia - Denmark
The Danes, perhaps in a slight upset

Brazil - Mexico
Neymar and Coutinho are clicking, so Chicarito might have to fly back

Sweden - Switzerland
Switzerland, because Sweden lack the mercurial Zlatan Ibrahimovic

England & Belgium will probably win over their respective Group H opponents.


Next post probably before embarking on the Lahaul trip! :)

Towel Day & End-o-May-Way - On to June Tune

22

Get a volcano bowl at a tiki bar

Curtain rods that wait for weight

TIL: the Matheran line is also in line for UNESCO World Heritage status (while writing/typing for IRCTC)

23

Case study for Google? Maybe I’ll get some author credit for this, if not for the Maharajas’ Express travel blogs and such. My words are mine anyway, what’s a byline gonna do, especially for the nonchalant tech ones I’ve spewed out loquaciously (in a manner of ‘speaking’, of course, considering I’ve often just said things to myself about the droll topic at hand and typed them out along with the responses of my sleep-addled brain).

24

Opened the inbox to be told that it’s an only-IRCTC project day today. Time will tell.

Finished the Frasier scripts. Touching and opportune end to the storylines of the alienist analyst and his family. Now on to Seinfeld, and other shows which preferably have references like Frasier did.

Murdoch Mysteries involves a lot of historical figures…

It’s Towel day tomorrow! I shall be traveling by train with my towel to the town of Katra, en route Vaishno Devi via helicopter! Let the fun commence!

I can’t recall where I was thinking (or writing after finding out) about the Tunic of Nessus, but apparently the blood of the centaur Nessus was only obtained by Hercules after killing Nessus with an arrow tipped with Hydra’s vitriolic blood.

25 May – Towel Day!

Samantha Cristoforetti made the most of her ISS trip not just in scientific terms but also in 42 terms.

Tau Ceta is linked to Perseus rescuing Andromeda from a cetus/sea monster. Perseus before Hercules, 4 generations according to Isocrates (I, Socrates? :D).

Stumbled onto Glomar response (neither confirm nor deny) from Project Azorian (CIA) from Nova (TV series) from Family Guy (The Sun Also Draws). Peter Griffin watches Frasier in Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater :D.

Leonardo da Vinci’s world map of octants.

Embarking on the Vaishno Devi trip with slight trepidation, mostly unexplainable but slightly due to the reason I started jobbing again. 

29

Back from Jammu-Katra-Reasi-Akhnoor.

SpaceX Dragon is named for Puff the Magic Dragon.

Warhol filmed Salvador Dali upon his visit to The Factory.

The owner of the company quite understandably appreciates my written word, leading to slightly nauseous euphoria, which is promptly offset by the utter stupidity of the IRCTC liaison, who (along with the luminaries at IRCTC) has hay for brains and zero constructive input.

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Douglas Trumbull of 2001 fame desisted from filmmaking after Natalie Wood’s death.

Dharamshala is a location in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (but those scenes were shot near Bombay (now Mumbai). Curwen hand signs (used in the climax) have ‘doh’ as the strong/firm tone, but I’m reminded of Homer (Simpson, not the ancient Greek). George Hopkins parachuted on to the Devil’s Tower IRL!

Conan the Librarian was used in Monty Python’s Flying Circus :D

It is now almost 6 pm, and I run across a parody of Natalie Wood’s death in Family Guy [Cleveland Loretta Quagmire]. How do these things I read about keep spiraling into each other? It’s just a coincidence, I know, not a quandary, and it elates me somewhat in these surroundings of less-than-erudite people.

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The techie guy seems to have a handle on what he is writing back as inputs. One less dunderhead to deal with, hopefully. Will finish off recapping the fam trip to Vaishno Devi and simultaneously tick one off the IRCTC tourist destinations chart/table/grid.

The litany of laity

I hope to see the Hemis monastery festival in Ladakh when the next Year of the Monkey rolls around in 2028.

Philip K Dick used Aboriginal dreamtime in explaining V.A.L.I.S.

Ideas and thoughts can perennate.

Aaron Paul [Dick’s Big Giant Headache Pt 2], Bryan Cranston [Paranoid Dick] and Bob Odenkirk [The Fifth Solomon; 100^th episode] were in 3^rd Rock From The Sun! :D

Can’t recall writing the synopses/reviews on IMDb for The Twilight Zone, Synecdoche, New York, Frasier [which I ‘read’ in the past month], Breaking Bad and True Detective. Robert Downey Sr. appeared in the episode of Twilight Zone that I have reviewed succinctly – ‘Wordplay’.

Studio Ghibli was founded by Isao and Hayao exactly two months before my birth. I’ll take that. I’ll take less than that, any day, for adding reasons to remain positive, instead of succumbing to ignominy and the drivel of other people who have not much to do except B –ve [my blood type]. The Tale of Princess Kaguya has the Buddha in the story, about whom I have recently read hours’ worth of webpages.

May Way has come to an end for 2018. On to June Tune!