Friday, July 30, 2010

Inception

... It's weird how I can tell if a movie is good just by looking at the trailer.

Inception was absolutely brilliant. Watched it the first day it was released, along with Despicable me and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Reviews on those movies perhaps at a later time, or not at all.

From the director of the The Dark Knight, Nolan has crafted a movie that's truly beyond genius, and layered both narratively and thematically. Believe me, you have never seen anything like Inception, though many say it is similar to Matrix, it is not. You'll want to see it again and again.

"You’re waiting for a train; a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can’t be sure. But it doesn’t matter – because we’ll be together."

DiCaprio was in my opinion the perfect lead for this movie, as he captured the role flawlessly. “If you’re going to perform inception, you need imagination.” Inception requires so much exposition that a lesser director would have forced theaters to distribute pamphlets to audience members in order to explain the complicated world he’s developed. No wonder it took him over a decade to write the script. Even I can't explain the plot in depth, as the movie required total concentration on what is happening (perhaps I shouldn't have gone out for snacks during the movie). Why is it so difficult to explain the plot in depth? First, I don’t want to spoil you. Secondly, the film layers dreams on top of dreams to the point where a unique keepsake called a “totem” is required in order to inform a character as to whether or not he or she is still dreaming. Then you have people in particular roles like “The Architect”, “The Forger”, and “The Chemist” in order to pull off the job. Furthermore, dreams have rules: dying in a dream forces the dreamer to wake up, delving too deeply into a mind can cause an eternal slumber called “Limbo”, using memories to construct dreams is dangerous because it can blur the line between dreams and reality. In addition, intruding in the dreams of another will cause the dreamer’s “projections” (human representations created by the dreamer) to attack the intruders like white blood cells going after an infection. And these explanations only represent a fraction of the terminology, rules, exceptions, or details that are necessary for creating the world of Inception. With set pieces so intricate, so jaw-dropping, and so breathtaking, you’ll already be swept up in the whirlwind.

There’s a lot to take in, but the imaginative and thoughtful delivery of exposition keeps the viewer riveted despite the amount of information required in order to understand the premise, setting, and plot. It’s not a confusing movie if you provide it with your full attention.

“Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.”

I'm more active in my dreams than in real life. It's a wonderful place to be. The idea here is - what if you can control your dreams? Other people's dreams? A concept so powerful, it'll be a shame if it doesn't get an Oscar.

Rating: 9/10




As a physics student, I am astonished by the set of laws inception breaks, but remains logical at the same time. I'm going to research more on the physics behind dreams. Should be an interesting topic.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

World Cup 2010

IN PAUL WE TRUST

Well, it's over - Spain deserved it.
South Africa was a great host, but it was a horrid world cup. Which proves my point why nothing compares to Champions League glory.
Let's just hope Brazil 2014 will do futbol justice.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

SPOJ - JEDNAKOST

Getting back to more programming after an inspirational summer camping trip. Saw one of my friends attempting this problem, thought I should give it a shot.

Recently solved problem #3752 - JEDNAKOS.

If you want to solve the problem yourself - stop reading now.

Solution - Recursion + Memoization

Easy problem really

1) Treat numbers starting with zero as special cases.

2) Let minplus[sum][pos] be an array that is the minimum number of pluses required to obtain the value 'sum' using the postfix starting at 'pos', then it's just simple recursion.

3) To avoid initialization, the array stores the number of pluses plus one.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

On the G20 protests

Quick post on something that should be expressed by a Torontonian.

For all these years that I have lived in Toronto, I have never been more disappointed in our people than I am now. I applaud the police for using force with tear gas and rubber bullets against those who have caused tax payers millions of dollars in damages.

It's quite a disgrace to think vandals such as the Black Bloc
would deface such a city for no particular reason at all.

Freedom of speech is something that should be treasured in this nation, peaceful protesters however got little media coverage while numerous news casts broadcasted the events surrounding these vandalisms, and therefore did not get their message's across the nation on issues that actually mattered.

People can be very stupid.

~Happy Canada Day

... Sigh