×××Holic

I just noticed that this manga has ended (it ended in Feb’11) with the most open-ended end of any story I’ve had ever read, watched or heard including some of the Pakistani shows broadcast on Nepal’s only TV channel in the early 90s and that is saying something about the open-ended-ness of this manga!

So should you read it (or watch it as anime adaptations are also available)? Definitely, it is a nice story (obviously, I’d say that otherwise I’ve to admit I ‘wasted’ years reading this manga!) even with the open-ended end. Actually, now that I think about it, Stephen Fry’s Kingdom comes very close to such open-ended-ness but you can get over, “Who is Peter Kingdom?”, after a minute of the end of the last episode. However, you cannot get over, “What is Watanuki going to do now?” or “When is the right time for Doumeki to use the egg?” or “What the hell is that egg in the first place?”, even after months of reading the last chapter!

Nothing is a coincidence. It’s Hitsuzen! –Yuuko Ichihara

Sunset

Two of the Sunset photos I shot at West Meadow Beach were published.

There’s also a small poem about sunset on that page:

SUNSET
I wonder why when you say goodbye
beautiful colours paint the sky.
Shades of orange, yellow and pink too
all come out because of you.
And although I hate to see you go,
I really do enjoy the show.
I've seen you leave so many times
and still it's a favourite sight of mine.
There'll be no sadness, be no sorrow
because my sun, you'll come out tomorrow.
I won't feel hurt, I'll feel no pain
because on your way down, your colours will reign.
– Adoni Marcano

BTW, Who is Adoni Marcano?

Dreams

I thought I was the only one having weird dreams, like the one I had yesterday in which Prof. Siegel (finally?) bought an iPhone! Here’s a proof that others also have equally weird dreams:

Call Me…

So Sketchbook Vol7 Ch98 is dedicated to Minamo’s visit to the Art Club! Conspicuously missing characters are Natsumi, Hazuki (these two appeared in the last chapter, though), Kate, Asaka & President (what’s his name again? just kidding!) Ujou; considering that Tsukiyo makes an appearance:

The usual theme of her forget-ability is being exploited here but the beginning of this chapter has that theme applied to Minamo too! That sheds some new light on Juju’s character, which apparently even Nagisa was unaware of. As in the anime, Daichi questions his sister’s presence here too. RyouFuu combo take hold of ‘easily-scared-by-ghosts’ Kokage’s favourite place and even succeed in sneaking their own signature strip.

As you might have noticed by now, I’ve written the names of all the Art Club members except one. Yes, you guessed it… it’s the most important name but instead of me writing her name down, I’ll let her speak for herself:

Timing is Everything…

…or so they say! And most probably, they are right. It is also fair to say that my timing is pathetic (my mother is too ‘happy’ to confirm that) as seen in some of the events last year. I bring this subject up today because of the release of Sketchbook Vol7 Ch97 in which there are two jokes so deep that it took me considerable amount of time to understand them completely.

One of them is about “Timing” itself on P98 involving Minamo Negishi. Yes, you read that right! She ‘finally’ appears in the Manga after two years (as the author points out in Notes at the end of this chapter!) of her appearance in the Anime (Wiki, as of this post’s posting time, says she is original to the anime):

Another one is a (very deep) pun on P104 involving Kokage Kuga. Oh boy! She can be quite abstract, while using the same theme, in full contrast to Kate! Read the left one (Glasses) first:

 

Speaking of timing, I was photographing Sunset, day before yesterday and yesterday I went to

West Meadow Beach

Change(s)

It seems Sora is spending a lot of time with Kuga-Senpai!

Flashing Flash

Before we start ‘learning’ about ‘flash photography’, let me say that my blog now supports $\LaTeX$, which is even better than that at wordpress! Here’s an example: “I‘ve bought the Panasonic $μ\frac{4}{3}$ Lens mentioned in my earlier post.” You may ask how is this better than WP? Well, apart from the obvious background issue, I just typed ‘μ\frac{4}{3}’ between two dollar signs here whereas at WP, I’d have to type ‘latex \mu\frac{4}{3}’ between the dollars!

Now, lets get back to flash photography. So when should you use it? …How the hell would I know that? It’s your flash and they’re your photos… you choose when to use it! But I’m in a good mood today so here are some general guidelines, if you like theoretical knowledge as much as I do.

So how does flash alter photographs? Obviously, it increases the light input to the sensor (in right conditions) and accentuates certain ‘reflective’ elements of the scene. (For those technologically-challenged souls who don’t know about ‘Alt Texts’: Hover the cursor on the photos to uncover hidden truths!)

OR, it can also hide ‘background’ elements of the scenery!

More example shots taken with the new lens follow after a small Panasonic sponsored rant: This lens is virtually distortion free and the focusing is almost silent & too damn fast – It feels like the lens focuses even before the shutter button gets to the half-way point! During my first few shots, I kept ending up pressing the shutter button fully thinking that the lens was mal-functioning but was actually taking properly focused shots. However, switching from the Olympus kit lens to the new Panasonic lens is literally a burden as (it feels like) it alone weighs (380g) almost as much as the combined weight (473g) of the camera body (340g) + the kit lens (133g)!

As you can see, the images have negligible (if any) distortion. At this point, in-Camera IS not able to keep up so zoomed out a bit and turned off the flash to see the background:

This photo is again a proof of the lens being virtually distortion free as straight lines appear straight without any ‘post-straightening’. Finally, I end this post with what it means to zoom from 45mm to 200mm:

Latex on Blogger

Teasing…

Even Sora does it, Yooooo!!! Disclaimer: Teasing is strictly discouraged on this blog.

Incomplete…

The usual Disclaimers about my translations of shers apply here also.

The following sher is part of the first ghazal in this post!

मैं उसका हो नहीं सकता बता न देना उसे
सुनेगा तो लकीरें हाथ की अपनी जला लेगा

Main uska ho nahin sakta bata na dena use
Sunega to lakirein haath ki apni jala lega

Don’t tell him of my inability to be with him
He may burn his palm-lines in its aftermath!

– वसीम बरेलवी (Waseem Barelvi)

I translated the following sher because it feels grand as it has an instance of यमक अलंकार (Yamak Alankaar) in it. It is a figure of speech in (at least, Hindi) poetry where a phonetically same word [पर (par)] is used with different meanings [‘on’ & ‘wings’] in the same line or so. I have tried to retain this effect by using the idiom ‘to take wing’ for ‘flight’ in my translation below. Irrespective of my ‘grand’ knowledge of Alankaars, I don’t know the exact meaning of the (most likely, Urdu) word ‘ताइर (Taair)’ as of yet!

हौसला मुझ को भी थोड़ा उस ताइर जैसा दे दाता
उड़ने से पहले धरती पर जो अपने पर छोड़ गया

Hausala mujh ko bhi thoda us taair jaisa de daata
Udne se pahle dharti par jo apne par chhod gaya

Grant me a bit of that arrow’s courage, O Lord,
Who left its wings on Earth before it took wings!

– दिनेश ठाकुर (Dinesh Thakur)

As expected, the translation does not feel that grand. Anyway, there you have it, me crossing the h’s and dotting the ι’s: Here are…

More Ghazals of DT