Like the Rosicrucians are covertly controlling the world, the Illuminati are blackmailing the world governments, Bush has (not so!) secret plans to destroy the planet, the RSS got Gandhi killed, google is a pawn of the CIA to spy on the entire world, and even the Aliens are out to impregnate random human beings to ensure the propagation of their race.
If so many people with too much time on their hands are coming up with their own ridiculous conspiracy theories, can I be far behind? Especially given the fact that I too, have loads of time on my hands? I have an impossible conspiracy theory too: J.K. Rowling is in fact, a high ranking freemason who has devised a brilliant way of brainwashing kids (and even some “adults”) and that the Harry Potter books are purposefully aimed to propagate the occult ideologies of the freemasons. No really!
Quote from the Da Vinci Code
Faukman was still shaking his head “but with all those books written about it (the holy grail), why isn’t this theory more widely known?”
“these books can’t possibly compete with the centuries of established history, especially when that history is endorsed by the ultimate bestseller of all time.”
Faukman’s eyes went wide. “don’t tell me Harry Potter is actually about the Holy Grail.”
“I was referring to the Bible.”
Faukman cringed. “I knew that.”
When it first struck me, I wanted to see if anyone had also guessed it, I googled “Harry potter” + ”holy grail”. I got a list of sites that seems to have made one flimsy connection. The compared the Goblet of fire with the Holy Grail of the Arthurian Legends, not the biblical/historical grail. So I do not think this angle has been covered before, (unless Brown saw the connection too (makes the theory even more complex, and by definition, even more true)). What if, Harry Potter is really about the grail?
Rowling talks about the Grail in the very first Harry Potter book, right in the title itself. Yeah, I know it needs more explanation. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, is hardly any different from Harry Potter and the Holy Grail. Hare is why – Nicolas Flamel, the philosopher who has the stone, was a real medieval guy, a head honcho, or the grandmaster of the Priory of Sion, the mother body of the Templar Knights. He was said to hold the Holy Grail, and was an alchemist of great power who could turn metals to gold using the grail. The properties of the Holy Grail: gives the elixir of life, turns stuff into gold. The properties of the philosopher’s stone: ditto. Moreover, this connection is reinforced very clearly in the Harry Potter books, alluding even to the “true nature” of the grail (that the grail, is in fact, Jesus’s surviving bloodline). Both the grail and the philosopher’s stone are traditionally golden in color, even in the Arthurian legends. In the Harry Potter books, the stone is red in color. If you are a fan, you will know why this is so significant. Rowling actually states that the stone is (hold your breath) blood red in color! If Harry Potter was not really about the grail, then why change the color of the stone (to this particular color) unless it was a direct allusion? I think this is a very clear reference to the bloodline. Now why was the grail golden in color traditionally, and not red if the pagan hid their traditions within Christianity? This is very simple, the bloodline was royal, and hence golden. Here Rowling has to show that the connection runs the other way too, and hence had made the color blood red…
When the knights of the round table set out to get the Holy Grail, most fail on the quest because they become involved in brawls and affairs. The grail can be found by only the pure of heart, and not by worldly men. In the Harry Potter books, when Dumbledore hides the stone to prevent Voldemort from coming back, he fixes it so that only the pure of heart can get the stone, and not those who are interested in its worldly uses like the elixir or gold! The grail is traditionally said to be buried in a place called Glastonbury, which is very close to Devon, the place where Flamel lives according to the Harry Potter books.
Then comes the entire Wizarding community of the books. The descendants of Christ are first of all, completely denied to exist, but a very suspicious sect of heretics and witches were hunted down in the Middle Ages, because of the teachings of the church. See the parallels with the entire secret (muggle denied) magical community in which the stories run?
I think I should read all the books (this is just for book one) with the explicit purpose of drawing such ludicrous connections and making more conspiracy theories. I think I will make a full length article out of it…
Experiments in close-up photography
So I was studying this close up photography book, while coming back in the train, and it is a really cool book. I started seeing mundane things in a new light, and learnt how simple things can be converted into pretty attractive subjects just because of close-up. I tried my hand at this and that, and took a load of photos with my stupid mobile camera, but as usual Photoshop came to my rescue, and these are some that are not exactly less than acceptable. The things is, when you go really close up, everything suddenly changes. The details become the subject, and in a mobile camera, it is nearly impossible to capture the details. One thing I noticed in the book was that computer coloring and effects were frequently used to make the photographs look entirely different from what they were actually showing. So I decided to do the same thing…
Some things were pretty easy, like I just took the handle of this umbrella against the wall and tweaked the colors.
Other subjects were somewhat of a problem... I kept taking my cameras in circles around a phone trying to figure out a perfect angle for a good photograph. Finally, I settled on capturing the keypad through the gap between the machine and the thing you hold to your face.
After taking the pic, I gave the highlights a bluish tinge, and the shadows a greenish one for contrast, instead of the drab dirty blue on black combination.
The most challenging subject was this box of matches. No idea how to take it... I just had a mobile camera, so if I zoomed in too much, the detail was lost, if i included anything else in the pic, the focus was shifted from the matchbox.
So I used lines on the floor aesthetically, the only thing I could find that could be included in the pic without losing focus from the matches.
This is a picture of a box of chaklis I took. The blue in the top right corner is the plastic in which the chaklis were kept. I thought it formed a nice pattern.
I used a few blending options that I have forgotten, and twiddled around with the channels.
This is a row of umbrella handles that I just had to take. The umbrella repair guy was busy repairing (understandably) an (guess what?) umbrella, and I took my chance.
I just multiplied the color and increased the saturation in this one.
This is the light from the emergency lamp shining on some part in the washing machine that I never really understood. In fact, as surprising as it may seem, I have absolutely no inclination to learn what various parts of a washing machine are upto, but I do not mind photographing them.
The coloring is mostly artificial.
And finally, something totally whacko, an onion on my mother's saree!!
The French revolution
There was this really experienced guest lecturer who taught us the French revolution today. She explained it so well, that all the concepts are clear in my mind, probably helped by the fact that I had read The tale of the two cities. Some stupid disrespectful girl actually told the prof “Mam, I cannot hear you.” The lecturer feigned genuine concern and asked “Why? Do you have a hearing problem?” Served her right. The lecture was so funny, coming from someone close to retirement. She explained the constitutional Monarchy of England and quipped that their only purpose was to show up in the Tabloids every other day! I also found out certain cool things, like the French Monarchy at that point of time belonged to the Bourbon dynasty. Some fellow called Necker was hired and fired no less than three times by the dysfunctional Luis the XVI, the revolution could have been prevented if Mary Antoinette wouldn’t have been so extravagant. Also, the estate general of France, which was a governing body had not met for 100 years! That’s like Lok sabha not coming into session for a century. The three estates in the body were the Nobility, the clergy and the commons. That’s how the press got associated with the term “fourth estate.” Never knew that. Stupid frenchies, killed their own leader, Dante. The revolt in France threatened the rest of Europe, because there is this old saying that goes “if France sneezes, the rest of Europe gets cold.”
Was one of the most amazing lectures. It was so good, that even the coordinator of our course sat down for it, as a student of history.
Some people can be so disrespectful though. They were openly telling the next teacher who came along that the history lecture was boring! During the lecture, the teacher explained how the renaissance made people ask fundamental questions, and then she made this small mistake “they found out that the sun is the centre of the universe, not the earth.” Some clever and a half people caught hold of this and began joking that she hadn’t got her facts right, and that no one knew where the centre of the universe was. I managed to silence them all by going into a discussion on quantum mechanics and the latest theories of physics proposing a curved nature for space, which technically makes any point the centre of the universe.
The fourth estate.
Today, as I entered thane station, and I was welcomed by a red t-shirt guy who was waiting for someone to flash Mumbai Mirror at him, two purple and yellow t-shirt guys marketing DNA, and a blue t-shirt guy giving out free copies of Hindustan times, all within a radius of five meters. I purchased my customary mid-day from the actual newspaper wallah who sits there usually and is losing part of his business. I have been purchasing mid-day only because I have this “sex and the media” project, otherwise I do not buy it.
Hindustan Times guy pleaded with me – it’s free. DNA people said something like “try DNA” and one of them had already lunched into the rehearsed whatever they were supposed to say. Mumbai Mirror fellow did not even notice me.
Unfortunately, I did not manage to take a picture of all of them. I did pull out my mobile cam, but two fat men blocked out everyone but the Hindustan Times fellow, so I am going to try again tomorrow. It is a very funny sight, to see such competition, trust me.
To-do
The to-do list in my mobile reads
Make MOM (minutes of meeting for AIDS project)
Research (again, for the AIDS project)
Render unicorns (The herd thingy)
Swapnil’s writeup (for Sex and Media project)
My writeup (for Sex and Media project)
MPS for JAM (Mobile phone software article for JAM)
Blog (blog)
Finish movie (Lotr music video)
Photo (Study close up photography)
HP (gather material for and write the Harry Potter theory)
SW LOTR (Give lightsabres to all LOTR chars)
So basically I have a load of things to do, and I desperately need two more hands, two more brains, and around ten more comps. Bloody the processing takes so long, I just need to get more RAM. In the twenty first century, and 192 MB RAM (64+128) is a very bad state to be in. And to top it all, I have XP, which is for sure, the worst OS ever.
Video update:
Finished making the LOTR video for the System of a Down song “Chop Suey.” The end product is pretty good, but I have no idea how to blog it, so I guess I will just upload it somewhere, and then blog a link. I am happy the way it came out, but found out that the WMV format compromises a lot on quality. Once the quality is compromised on, there is absolutely no use converting it back to any other format, so I guess I have to use Adobe Premiere. But that software is not cracked, and I don’t know where to get the serial from. The new softwares are now having registration codes, authorization codes as well as activation codes. I don’t know where to get the activation code from… Although I managed to unlock 3dstudio max 7 using some serial from crackspider.com, although I got a bunch of Trojans on my comp…
The unicorn herd
Not too happy about this, but I haven’t processed in it photoshop yet. Guess I have to figure out different lighting and positions… will do that sometime. And I guess I will also have to reduce the umber of different colors of unicorns. i think a silver herd, with a red leader, and two golden children should be ample...
Will blog tommorrow... same time same place.
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