An action packed chase sequence through various program windows. Reminds me of the clever animations in Flash that involved stick figures and total destruction of the UI. This is, of course, much more polished and sophisticated. But then, that was 1999 and definitely not Intel i5 powered!

I played it I did, many days and nights
Merry went the hours and merrier were the fights

Few games since then got it all quite so right
I think of OMF now and a few words I write…

What is One Must Fall: 2097?

‘OMF 2097 (or simply 2097) is the best fighting game ever made for the PC, made in 1994 by Diversions Entertainment. It features an innovative pilot/robot combination similar to the Bushido Blade system, a completely unique RPG-like tournament mode, and oodles of secrets. (Not to mention a catchy soundtrack and 90-foot giant robots!)’

- Robyrt(robyrt@marney.org, http://robyrt.coolserver.net)

Back during the days when I was putting myself through a formal multimedia course, I’d happened to come across a few of my fellow students playing the demo version of OMF.

At first I was drawn to it due to my interest in animation and game programming, not to mention the terrific game title.  Later on though as I started playing the game I began to like it for the gameplay and music as well.

The storyline for the game went something like this: In the far future (2097), the world has changed as we know it. Governments are puppets of multinationals conglomerates. World Aeronautics and Robotics (WAR) is one such conglomerate that has decided to use Human Assisted Robots (HARs) to colonize Ganymede (Jupiter’s moon). WAR has decided to conduct a tournament of HARs to find out which of the executives will get the chance to lead the colonization.

The game has a series of competitions that progressively unlock powerful HARs to choose from. Each HAR has it’s own unique strengths and special moves, which are revealed through a combination of key strokes during combat. The best part of the combo moves is that, unlike other combat games, the key strokes are rather simple to remember and use.  This however doesn’t bode any good for the keyboard and my friends and I are guilty of ruining many a good keyboard in pursuit of this mad game. : P

A few of my favourite HARs included the Jaguar, the Thorn, Katana and the Shadow. I particularly liked the Jaguar and created a 3D model with a few animations of my own as tribute to the HAR. ; )

Though we initially played on the demo version a lot, we later got to play the full version thanks to it’s creators – Rob Elam and Ryan Elam of Diversions Entertainment, who released the full game as a freeware in 1999.

Being a die-hard fan of the game I have collected a few links and videos for you, dear reader, to enjoy and perhaps induce you into downloading the game and playing it as well! :D

OMF official site

Robyrt’s OMF Site

X-BoT’s OMF Universe

Quick Gun Murugun (Dr. Rajendra Prasad),  what do I say about this daring South Indian Cowbhai movie?

It has everything.. action.. camedy.. sangs..and lats and lats of balls.. sorry bullets I say!

Our hero is yeverything that yany decent south indian school-dropout would dream of becoming. His bullets speak when his words fail him. His words of wisdom and love for the locket lady brings tears of joy and fills the heart with warmth of passion.

Rice plate Reddy (Nazar) is the arch villain wanting to dominate the world with non-veg dosas from his evil McDosa corporateion. Helping him in this evil endeavour are such stalwart cohorts like Gunpowder, MBA Rowdy and Dr. DJango.  He’s unstoppable.. that is until Quick Gun Murugun steps into the scene.

Our heroes quest to stop RPR brings him across the scintilating and wannabe Miss India.. Miss Mango Dolly. What may her hobbies be one wonder’s?
I will tell you what they are. They are Cooking and Secretly loving QGM!

The movie has a love triangle and a mother (anni) angle and a trip to heaven on a modified motocart to boot!  I will keep my silents on our heroes re-entry on earth.

All in All..I can canfidently say that ..Yany Yindian who has drunk tha cow’s milk will go watch this movie I say!

PS: It’s worth watching once , but leave your thinking/critical cap outside the theatre. Mind it. ;-)

Procrastination is a learned behavior. Here is a very interesting metaphor of procrastination that I ran into recently in the book The Now Habit by Neil Fiore.  I am not much of a self help book reader, however, this section on procrastination was highly recommended to me. This helps us to understand how we procrastinate. What goes on in our minds that leads us to develop habits of procrastination. I found the part very interesting and would like to share it with you here.

Imagine for a few minutes that the test or task in your life is to walk a board.

Situation A. The task before you is to walk a solid board that is thirty feet long, four inches thick, and one foot wide. You have all the physical, mental, and emotional abilities necessary to perform this task. You can carefully place one foot in front of the other, or you can dance, skip, or leap across the board. You can do it. No problem.

Take a minute to close your eyes, relax, and imagine yourself in that situation. Notice how you feel about this task.Are you scared or blocked in any way? Do you feel any need to procrastinate? Fear of failing or making a mistake cannot be an issue here, but you might find that you delay starting out of a need to assert your independence and to resist being asked to do even a simple task such as walking a board.

Situation B. Now imagine that the task is just the same, to walk a board thirty feet long and one foot wide, and you have the same abilities; only now the board is suspended between two buildings 100 feet above the pavement. Look across to the other end of the board and contemplate beginning your assignment.

What do you feel? What are you thinking about? What are you saying to yourself? Take a moment to notice the differences in your reactions from situation A. Notice how rapidly your feelings about the task change when the height of the board changes and the consequences of falling are greater. You may find yourself responding, “I’m thinking about the height. What If I fall? The consequences of falling or making a mistake would probably be death.”

Of course, while you are focusing only on the danger of falling you are losing sight of the simplicity of the task and forgetting that just a moment ago you had all the ability to do it with no problems. The danger of a mistake is now so great that you must stop to consider this threat to your life. It’s no longer just a job, a test, a project; it’s your life, your future that’s at stake. There’s no way you can be calm now; you’re already feeling the adrenaline rush of the stress response as you look over the edge, presenting to your mind and body the image of falling 100 feet. There’s real reason to fear: “If I made a mistake I would die.” Regardless of how simple the task, and regardless of how capable you are, the fear that a mistake could mean the end of your life makes it impossible to take that first step.

Ironically, on a psychological level you are often the one who raises the board off the ground by changing a straightforward task into a test of your worth, proof that you are acceptable, a prediction that you will be successful and happy or a failure and miserable. In most cases you are the one who confuses just doing the job with testing your worth, where one possible mistake would feel like the end of the world. When your early training leads you to believe that your self-worth is determined by your performance, you focus on psychological self-protection from fear of failing (and falling), rather than on just doing the job.

Situation C. In this scene you are still on the board suspended between two buildings, 100 feet above the ground. The task remains simple and you still have all the ability necessary to do it, yet you remain frozen on your end of the board. While thinking about what to do, you suddenly notice that the building supporting your end of the board is on fire.

What thoughts and feelings occur? How have you changed your focus from the previous situation? Remember, just a moment ago you were frozen in fright about the possibility of falling 100 feet. Do you find yourself thinking, “I’ve got to get across now. No time to worry about falling or doing it perfectly, I’ll do it any old way I can. Dignity and embarrassment are no longer relevant.”

A moment ago, the mere image of a life-threatening situation may have caused you stress. But notice how quickly your mind and body redirect your energy away from worry, ambivalence, and procrastination toward productive action once you’ve made a decision. (If the image of the fire was not a great motivator for you, see how your worries about the task and the dangers of falling change when you imagine that a small child is on the other side crying for your help.)

Now that you have an immediate time pressure, a real deadline, you jump into the task with both feet, doing it any old way you can. You’re no longer just facing a possibility or fear of pain and death, now you’re confronting real pain and certain death. Now you find yourself unstuck and motivated. And that’s how we use procrastination to get ourselves unstuck from a situation we created in the first place!

When you procrastinate, it’s as if you are the one raising the board off the ground, getting yourself frozen, and then lighting that fire to create the pressure of a real deadline.

First you give a task or a goal the ability to determine your worth and happiness. Through perfectionism you raise the task 100 feet above the ground, whereby any mistakes would be tantamount to death, so that any failure or rejection would be intolerable. You find yourself frozen with anxiety.You then use procrastination to escape  your dilemma, which brings the deadline closer, creating time pressure, a higher level of anxiety, and a more immediate and frightening threat than even your fear of failure or of criticism for imperfect work.

Situation D. You’re back on the board again, 100 feet above the ground. There’s no fire this time, but there is a net a strong, supportive net, just beneath the board.

What are your feelings now? Can you imagine yourself walking that board, contemplating the completion of this task? “No problem,” most people say. “I can do it now. It might even be fun. Even if I fell, I could bounce in the net.”

You now know that if you fall the worst that could happen is that you might feel a little embarrassed. Falling no longer means death. A mistake does not mean the end of the world. You can recover from any fall. No single mistake would mean the end for you. You can always give yourself another shot at the task.

It’s interesting to note how many times successful people suffer through catastrophes and bankruptcies. The successful person fails many times and bounces back; but the failure fails only once, letting that one failure become a judgment of his worth, and thus his label. Following the example of most successful people, you could fall many times, repeatedly using your net to bounce back in order to work for another success. Failure and mistakes then cannot stop you because they can’t take away your inner worth and drive.

However no book can teach you self-worth.

The Spectacular Sport of Parkour

The French have pioneered this martial art and sport combination which is built on the premise that any obstacle can be surmounted, physical or mental. This inspirational attitude, philosophy and lifestyle has had an impact on their films.

Parkour is a heady combination of athletics, gymnastics, sports and stunts. It is simply, the art of moving smoothly, quickly and efficiently from one point to another using the abilities of the human body.

I first saw this style of movement and action in the movie Yamakasi. There is no direct mention of Parkour in it, but the action sequences were brilliant.

Following up on it, I found out that David Belle is one of the chief practitioners of Parkour.

Though David Belle does not feature in the movie Yamakasi he appears as Leito in the fast paced, action packed movie Banlieue 13 and its sequel Banlieue 13 Ultimatum.