Coconut Cruncher

23rd September 2012 It's been a terrible week of a lot of sleep deprivation, depression, and the feeling of being squeezed of all creative juices. I feel terrible. I've forgotten the feeling when I felt amazing after drawing something. A lot of times I question whether I'm in the right profession. So much struggle, and such little visible progress. I feel homesick, and I really need a huge break without any work or any commitment for a while - but that seems so so farfetched. What a phase. A lot of experiences and thoughts have gone into the making of the mailbox - it never feels like I've gone ahead. Thanks to Alok I feel an extra push once in a while. Tension is creeping up on me and it's hard to articulate everything. Pressure works really well on me. I turn into life-saving-mode and everything becomes super awesome and super fast. It's like adrenaline. When the pressure's gone, I'm left with laziness and the stress of failure. I hope I can get t...

30th August 2012 There is something that runs in my blood as fast as RBCs - stingyness? I wouldn't exactly call it that, because I love gifting people stuff. I guess I'm very money-conscious. I try to save every rupee that I can. I find joy in saving even a paise. So I just can't get over the fact that things have become to expensive in India - and one of the most scary things that have become expensive besides the petrol is - FOOD! The most basic necessity of our lives. Somehow everyone seems to be used to this. They're used to paying 40-50 bucks for a sandwich and 100+ rupees for every meal of the day. Tomatoes have gone from 5 to 10 for quarter kilo. A pack of 10 Good day biscuits have gone from 15 to 22 bucks. The packet is much bigger than its contents and Lays! Don't even ask about lays potato chips. They're such frauds. The contents have around 20 slices of chips, that's visually 1/4th of the packet, and it costs Rs. 10 for that! I feel I can ju...

28th August 2012 It's nearing the end of the month and I am SO unhappy with my performance. I need to stop talking to people, going to the canteen for chai breaks and playing sports. Also one of my biggest enemies is the music industry and the internet. :( The only progress that happened last night is that I've finally found the right person to do Mascarenhas' voice! My buddy Ishan Sadwelkar! Since he's from Film and Video, he did some really good voice acting. I think I make a decent job at being casting director as well. I was getting really worried about the dialogue shots. Will start planning and animating it tomorrow. I really hope these go quick. I need a lot of acting help - all the help I can get, and I also need a voice for Mr. Postman! :( I am way past my deadline of finishing the animation. The whole day today got wasted in the ruddy MIT office, which passes you on from one person to the other like it's the indian government. It's corrupt...

Today is a brand new day. I never usually feel like that, considering my erratic sleep timings these days and a sincere lack of motivation. However after a good night's rest and a little reading and writing, I am ready to put in my 100% today. I started with a fresh cup of sweet chai and filled my water bottles so I don't feel drained. I feel like it's a bright day with possibilities of some good shots. I just hope I can use it well. I'm glad I didn't decide to go out to buy my cycle today, I would've wasted a lot of time. The movie's bringing on a lot of pressure, and sometimes a lot of apathy towards the subject. I have 5 days to go for the end of the month and I promise to this blog that I will really really try my best to finish a trememdous amount of animation. Let's see how this goes. I will keep updating this post. Here's my dedication to this post. 2 lame pictures taken from my lame laptop camera. Something went wrong here. Hmm.

14th July 2012 I have always wanted to learn french, but I never got the time or the opportunity! Luckily I was going through the TED videos and I found this AMAZING site called Duolingo that helps you learn different languages for free!! The only way you pay is with your time and you help translate sites like wikipedia, and you learn by translating! :) Isn't that cool? Here's a video explaining how it works: Here's the video through which I got to know of its existence - a TED talk of Lui von Ahn who invented CAPCHA!

I got to screen 'Wiped' (my short film) in the Film & Video projection room this morning! When Neogi sir asked me to come and talk about it, I was like - "yeaaahhh... about that." but he didn't take no for an answer. The freshers have just joined MIT-ID and they were having a briefing of what all they could take as disciplines. I was honored to be asked to screen my film (made by an Animator and a Product designer) to fresh minds. When I plugged in the pen drive and screened it, I started shaking. During the film's climax my heart was pounding and I felt all wobbly. Some laughed where they were supposed to (although I wished they would laugh more) and some were just going with the build up. I was really happy with how they took it - a bunch of people who didn't know me, or any of the actors and who had no expectation from the film. When it was over there was an unexpected applause and a lot of smiles! I thought they would just stare at my face, but...

www.geekologie.com/2011/12/i-cant-even-rescognize-you-disney-princes.php I love the original characters as well, but this is interesting!! :)