Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Brazil Carnival kissers get anti-germ mouthspray.


Serial kissers at Brazil's racy Carnival parades can now swap saliva with even more revelers thanks to a mouth spray designed to fight germs, just one of many weird products companies have launched to profit from traditionally libidinous revelry.
The spray was launched by a local company for Carnival celebrations this weekend in Salvador, the heart of Brazil's African culture, and Sao Paulo, its biggest city. French kissing among strangers is rife during Carnival.

Its slogan was "Kiss a lot, kiss pleasurably, kiss safe." "Beije," or "Kiss," is made with propolis, or bee hive glue. Though propolis has long been used in natural medicine, many health experts disagree about its positive effects. Still, propolis extracts from tropical Bahia state have special qualities that fight microorganisms and boost the immune system, Brazilian researchers say.

A 35-milliliter bottle of mouthspray will sell for 5 reais ($2.35) and the local Naturapi company hopes to sell more than 100,000 bottles during the bash.

Other companies or groups are selling revealing costumes, flavoured condoms, drag costumes and even small patches of glitter to cover genitalia during the celebrations.
The government is distributing 25 million free condoms during Carnival this year to promote safe sex as part of its acclaimed anti-AIDS program, which provides free antiretroviral drugs for all HIV-positive Brazilians.

($1 = 2.11)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com

Monday, February 20, 2006

The Matrix Revisited.

Ended up watching the The Matrix trilogy…….ummm….. eeeerrr……for the fourth time during the weekend (played Doom 3 the rest of the time, so there’s no chance in hell I can even sound as if I have a life:)). Watched The Matrix in New Delhi (the only film in the trilogy I have watched on the big screen) in 99 and had to wait till, I think till last year to watch the sequels. Hence been lucky enough to own (proudly I might add) a 3-in-1 DVD that I picked up at a sale at the conventions center.

You ask somebody about their first Matrix experience and most would have a hard time getting past Monica Bellucci as Presephone (Mouse wouldn’t have been talking about any other woman in red if he lived long enough to meet Presephone). Never got past the back flips in mid air, the flying kicks, the cool shades and….eeerr……Presephone the first time either. Remember coming out of the movie hall blissfully ignorant of what a/the Matrix was. The Wachoski Brothers never had the averaged IQ Sri Lankan in mind when making this flick, thus explaining the requirement to watch it numerous times in order to understand the basic story line. Now yours truly will (try) explain the story for the benefit of the second timers.

The year is around 2099 and there is a conflict between man and the machines that he created. In order to cut off the energy source of the machines, man as messed up the sky (don’t worry this is where Arno ends and Keanu begins). The machines requiring another source of energy started growing humans in “fields” in order to drain the energy from the human body. Hence began the vicious cycle of hatred. Righty ho, now that’s out of the way, lets get down to the interesting stuff. The machines have created a virtual world, where all the humans are plugged in to, called “The Matrix”. In “The Matrix” the human mind is, what the machines wants it to believe. Everything that you eat, smell, touch, hear and see is an illusion created in “The Matrix”. The good thing about “The Matrix” is, as Cypher so articulately puts it “ignorance is bliss”. On the flipside you become a slave of the system and so dispensable that nobody notices that you are gone (eeeerrr……don’t even go there guys :)). In The Matrix all rules regarding gravity, friction and energy remains the same but “some rules can be bent and some rules can be broken”. Obviously depending on how strong your mind is.

This is where the cool dudes come in. They are a set of rebels fighting against the machines. These are the last of the real human beings. Most of them born and bred in the last human heaven of Zion and some recruited from “The Matrix” to serve a specific purpose. These guys travel in and out of “The Matrix” using a head jack plugged in to their heads. Basically like an out-of-body experience. While in The Matrix, you are just another programme. Which means anything you want to know/experience is at the press of a button. You think you want to master the art of kung-fu? Presto and Drunken Master is a load of BS!!

Moving beyond the environment, we come across the some main characters such as Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, Agent Smith and The Oracle.

NEO - Once an employee of Metacortex by day, who sold illegal software by night, Neo scoured the internet for the illusive Morpheus. Morpheus eventually found him and showed him the real world, adding him to the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar. Although Morpheus believed he would be the One to fulfill the prophecy, Neo doesn't realize his own abilities until after getting gunned down by Agent Smith. Trinity's love for him brings him back. Her kiss makes him realize he was only dead within a simulation.

MORPHEUS - Morpheus is the captain of the Nebuchadnezzar. The Oracle prophesized that he would find the One, so Morpheus searches for his entire life until he finds Neo. Morpheus essentially sacrifices himself for Neo by fighting Agent Smith to give the crew time to escape. After being taken prisoner, he resists the efforts of Smith and the agents and refuses to give the codes to Zion's mainframe. Once Morpheus is rescued and he sees Neo begin to display his powers, he believes the war will come to a close soon. When the prophecy is fulfilled and Neo reaches the source but the war doesn't end, Morpheus is crushed. He is now dispirited and shipless, but his faith in Neo prevails.

TRINITY - The first mate on the Nebuchadnezzar, Trinity was told by the Oracle that she would fall in love with the One. Trinity watched Neo for a while before they attempted to free him. Over the course of time when Neo is aboard the Neb, Trinity realizes that she does love Neo. She kisses Neo in the real world after he gets gunned down by Agent Smith, causing Neo to realize he had only died in the Matrix.

AGENT SMITH - Smith has a hatred for human life and sees the human race as a virus. Smith makes a deal with Cypher in order to get to Morpheus. After Morpheus is in his custody, he attempts to get codes to the Zion Mainframe, hoping that the destruction of Zion would mean that he would no longer have to be a part of the Matrix. Smith kills Neo after his rescue of Morpheus, but Neo rises again as the One and destroys Smith. He is then supposed to return to the source to be deleted, but in a phenomenon resulting from Neo's jump into Smith's body having something to do with their code getting mixed, Smith no longer felt the need to obey orders. He multiplies as a virus, taking over more and more hosts inside the Matrix, with one purpose in mind: To destroy Neo.

THE ORECLE - A program who is seen as a guide to the rebels, the Oracle was the one to speak of a prophecy and an anomaly who would end the war by reaching the source. She has the sight; the ability to see the world without time. The Oracle is the mother of the matrix and is the one who discovered the need for choice in order for the illusion to work. She realizes that the best way for both worlds to progress is together.

The story, in short, revolves around the above five characters. The programme “Agent Smith” whose sole purpose is to get the codes to hack in to the Zion mainframe, realizes the fact that he will be deleted once Zion is annihilated. Smith spreads like a virus on The Matrix. Neo, being the chosen one, realizes that peace between man and machine cannot be achieved through war and makes an agreement with the machines to destroy Agent Smith. In an epic battle at the end Neo kicks Smiths ass to infinity and back. All in all peace is achieved. This is very basically how I understood the whole thing but there are whole heap of twists and turns and characters that make up almost the nine-hour journey through the matrix. Characters like The Keymaker, The Merovingian, The Architect, The Trainman, Niobe, The Twins and …….ummmm…..did I mention my personal favorite, Presephone?

All the criticism the director brothers and Revolutions received, in my opinion is not justified. Don’t think there could have been a better ending, cinematically speaking. It had all the action, drama, romance and twists required for a cracker movie. So who cares how and where Smith learnt to fly or why Morpheus is degraded to first mate (though I personally had an issue with Persephone just having one sentence to say in Revolutions but then if it was my film there wouldn’t be anybody else talking to start with :)).

That’s all on my account of The Matrix. Now must settle down to watch the Vijaya Kumaranathunga tribute on Sirasa. Tonight it’s “Nommara da-hatha”. Yippppeeeee.


Character details from http://matrix.thescarymonkeyshow.com

Thursday, February 16, 2006

The only one who wins consistently is the house.

15/02/06 - The latest season of CSI is premiering on AXN tonight. I ended up watching a preview yesterday night and one thing which was told by a director captured my attention. “People tune in to see the characters and not the episodes week in- week out.” Thought that was so true. Of course you want to know who did it but you also try to find out something new about the characters. Like for example the relationship between Gil and Sara.

16/02/06 – Watched the first episode and thought that I was as good as I expected it to be. Told you about the characters yesterday. Never did I know that Catherine had a thing for Warrick! That blew me away. What she said to him after she found out that he was married blew me away even more!!!! “The good thing about fantasies is that they can come true but when you take away the chances of them happening, it really sucks” I couldn’t agree more with her.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

I Can't Believe That I Published This!


The only reason why I would get a valentines day gift would be to see her eyes widen to the extent where they shine like they are made out of kryptonite and her mouth gaping with the lower lip pulled on to the left. Going “ Oh my god P……I can’t believe this…….you know that you’re crazy, right?”

I do agree that Valentines Day is bad trip but I tell you……man! Some things are worth a fuck-all trip!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

You learn something new everyday.

Well it’s been 23 days since that fateful drive down Nawala road. I’ve been a lot more drunk and a lot more reckless but guess I had to learn sometime that all the poster and bumper stickers meant something. Don’t drink and drive. Period. In my opinion alcohol doesn’t make you a bad driver, it just makes you a lot more daring. Which is not a good combination. Anyway, for the record, crashed the car and got away with only leg broken in two places. Somebody upstairs simply adores me. Consequences in the long run we are yet to find out.

If ever there was an experience I can name as life changing, then this is it. Not only because of the broken leg and the excruciating pain, mind you I emphasize the word excruciating, but also because of the people I met and shared a hospital for 10 days.

Nothing cracks me up more than life itself. After all that without a doubt December 2005 has to be the best month I’ve had so far. This is coming from a guy whose three-year-old marriage came to a halt on that particular month. This is the kind of shit you always imagine happening to other people. Nothing surprises me than how your attitudes change after you have personally experienced something. Always had a stereotype for people who got drunk and banged cars, always had a stereotype for people whose marriage didn’t work the first time. Guess you learn something new everyday.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Rolling Stone

It’s riveting how life can change. What amazes me more is how, what you want to change actually changes from bad to worse and what you don’t want to change doesn’t change at all. If there is a supreme force that controls these events, he, she or who or what ever the fuck it is, is not funny. All my life I always wanted to settle down. Trust me it’s not as cool as Superman saying he wants to be ordinary. I wanted to grow up, I wanted to get married, I wanted to have kids, and I wanted to go to STC for parents’ days. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt is that your plan doesn’t really work half the time. So I decided draw my plan on the beach from here on.

Right now I feel like Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu. Don’t really know where I’m coming from and don’t know where I’m going either. All I have around me are shadows from my past. Some which keep me going even in their shadow form. Some which I have a hard time realizing that they are shadows now. (If this sounds like Jim Morrsion, trust me it’s not by choice). This questions my value system too. Which is a road I’m scared to even look in the direction of. On the other hand you take a stake knife and cut through the BS you realize that life really doesn’t stop for anyone or anything.