It all started with sabiokap, a coffe mug and a matchbox. But it started going over the top once everyone realized that it was in fact possible to enjoy doing the silliest things around. And thus the Saga of Matchpot starts. The game has literally taken over due to the absolute silliness and of course the skill required to actually play the game.

For those who think we are crazy, here is one masterly stroke. If you can't take pleasure in such simple achievements of mankind, pity the future of such a race that includes a hard head such as you. Cherish your curiousity and innocence lest you end up with no romance or soul.

huge image

It was created from a MJPEG capture from my camera, which was split into multiple frames using avidemux2 and recombined into one XCF using a gimp script - frame2anim.py. The active portion of code looks as below.

  filename = (basedir + "/" + format) % i
  frame_img = pdb.gimp_file_load(filename, filename) 
  drawable = pdb.gimp_image_get_active_drawable(frame_img)
  layer = pdb.gimp_layer_new_from_drawable(drawable, newimg)
  pdb.gimp_image_add_layer(newimg, layer, -1)

After it became a gimp XCF file, it was easy to trim out the surroundings and remove intermediate frames to reduce the size of the image from 4.1 MB to 600kb.

posted at: 16:10 | path: /yblr | permalink | Tags: public, madness, fun

Those who meet me, mistake me for a nice guy. Of course, I am a good guy by nature - but I can be evil by choice. I don't believe in religion, but I believe in the essential justice. In spite of what you might think, justice is still a human concept. But for a universe that came out of nothing, it has to all add up to zero sometime (though the discussion about the end of days as such is discouraged). So in a moment of emotion, I decided to be fair to this world. More particularly I decided to be fair to this world induvidually. The decision sprang from the first moment in this century when I lost my temper. The decision to never again sleep in the home of my ancestors was one of the riders of the same moment. The resolutions stand as made.

There are instances when I'm not fair to someone. Distinction must be made between the moments of rage from the cold decisions. Anger has no rationale and I haven't lost my temper since 2001. But still I've been unfair to a lot of people - from the cold comfort of sanity. There have been times and places where my job was to snub and pour cold water.

It is my right. If somebody is headed towards a difficult situation by mistake, I often consider it my right to hurt the person before the world acquires a right. It is as much of my right as it was the right of my elders who snatched knives from my hand when I was a kid. I can't claim to have made the same mistakes - I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't stay out with friends till midnight without a ride back, I didn't end up in strange cities without a hotel booking. I haven't done any of that, which to some people removes all right I have to advise them. I am sure they'd have said But, you had your fun when you were my age. Why don't you let us ? if I had taken a sip or a puff.

In a fair world, intentions do not matter. What I do out of perfectly good intentions is still hurting someone. It is only perfectly fair that I get hurt in the process. For example, my sister has probably forgiven me for not letting her go to Delhi last year. She has probably forgotten all that she said to me on the phone. I haven't. I got what I deserved for crushing her first few attempts at breaking out of parental control. Hearing "you are only saying that because I'm a girl. " or "why are you taking their side on this ?" isn't pleasant with a girl who can pronounce words in italics. She will probably admit that I was right if I ask her today but kaye vitta ayudhavum, vaay vitta vaakum ... (translation won't do).

They say that we hurt those whom we love, but little do they know that we can only be hurt by those ...

posted at: 12:12 | path: /philosophy | permalink | Tags: personal, philsophy