A Prisoner Of Birth - A Must Read!

It took me just around 20 hours to complete this amazing 530 page book and i must say being a slow reader (I usually take 2 weeks to finish off a 600 page book) I'm totally impressed. The last time i read a book this fast was "Angels & Demons" by the adroit Dan Brown. I'm someone who seldom reads books that don't involve an element of fantasy, ironically i have not yet finished the third book of the Inheritance trilogy (Eragon Series - which i had pre-ordered :| ) and I'm done with this totally realistic pacy page turner.

************** Spoiler Alert! ****************

The books starts off with a marriage proposal going horribly wrong as the main protagonist Danny Cartwright is accused of murder of his closest buddy who is also his fiancee's brother in a bar brawl gone bad. When the four prosecution witnesses are a barrister, an actor, an aristocrat and the youngest partner in an established firm's history, who is going to believe your side of the story?

A life sentence (22 years) is what Danny got even after the valiant efforts of his Lawyer. And while the life in prison seemed to move slower than the outside world it also changed his life very quickly. With the help of his two allys inside the cage, Danny breaks out and seeks retribution.

The lengthy court trials, multiple sides to the same story and the rich characters is what glues your hand to this masterpiece. Finally the ending which made me go exactly like this :O :O !!!!
  
 

EURO-12 in a Nutshell (The Knockouts!)

The Quarters :

The first of the quarters was between the Portuguese and the Czechs. A tremendous display by the Real Madrid powerhouse once again (A fine contender for this years Ballon d'Or) as he headed the only goal of the night. A glorious piece of individual skill was not rewarded with a goal in the first half, while a typically long-range free-kick clipped the post too.( the curse of the woodwork!).

 
Germany then routed the Greece 4-2 to ominously ease into the semi-final. Ozil took the match ball home as he glided around the pitch laying on chances and producing openings at will. The next day, Xabi Alonso celebrated his 100th international cap with both goals in a 2-0 win as Spain saw off France who seemed to be off sorts to set up an Iberian derby against Portugal in the semi-finals.(Probably the biggest rivalry in Europe!).

Sadly England had to see the door as a heart-breaking penalty - shootout loss sent them home. A cool spot kick by the Italian Talisman put England under a lot of pressure to which the two 'Ashleys' succumbed to as England lost 4-2.

The Semis : 

The Euro Semis was a real treat as it was Portugal vs Spain on one hand and Germany vs Italy on another. First up was the Iberian derby. A pacy and 'don't touch your remote' kind of match which sadly ended in a nil-nill scoreline. Both teams had fair amount of chances yet could not settle it even in extra-time. It was down to penalties once again! João Moutinho missed the first one and so did Alonso (yes! he actually missed a spot-kick) Pepe, Nani, Iniesta and Pique found the net making the score 2 each. Next up was Ramos (we all remember the space-rocket jokes :| ) who surprisingly did a Pirlo by chipping the ball over the Portugese keeper. (Sweet!). By this time I was waiting for Ronaldo to take his kick, when suddenly (surprise surprise!!) Bruno Alves steps up and misses!!! So a poor judgement by the coach  made sure that the men in red got a chance to retain their title ( Frankly, in my opinion Portugal deserved it, but hey I am a CR7 fan so i might be biased.).

The match between Germany and Italy totally lived upto its expectations. The 'bad boy' of Prandelli's side and also the youngest player on the pitch made the biggest impact as two first-half goals (My word!! they were truly amazing!!) fired Italy through to a Euro 2012 final against Spain. Germany's defense were nowhere to be seen as the "Mario" of Italy stole the show. (A weird celebration to follow - nothing unexpected though)   

The FINAL!! :

So on Sunday the first of July, was the time to crown the "Champions of Europe" A tasty match between the tournament underdogs Italy against the World cup winners Spain and Oh God! it was a disaster for the blues. Spain totally owned them on the night. It was too much to handle as Spain went on to win it by trashing their rather unlucky opponents in a historic win! Spain started the match with no striker as they had done so for the most part of the tournament. Goals from David Silva and Jordi Alba had knocked the stuffing out of the Italians in the first half. Fernando Torres coming on in the second half finished them off with a goal and an assist to his Chelsea team-mate Mata. ( He stole the golden boot !!! with the least game-time Yay!! ). Match ending in a 4-0 defeat to Pirlo and his team.

And so it was Spain stealing the show and painting Europe in red with chants of "Viva La Espana" heard all around the world! 

EURO-12 in a Nutshell (The Groups!)

The Anticipation for Euro had never been at a higher scale.(yeah! I know, this is said every single time but hey, its true!!)  Poland & Ukraine were on the verge of hosting probably the most massive sporting events of the year! All eyes were on Spain, being the holding champions and also having won the World Cup with their frustrating yet effective tika-taka game-play, made them the tournament favorites long before the draws. None doubted their supremacy having seen all the El Clásico's! and me being a hardcore fan of The Three Lions, was hoping for nothing less than a miracle to take England to European Glory. 

Well the action kicked off way before the first whistle of the tournament. I'm talking about the draws, pointing towards the so called "Group of Death" which totally blew my mind! Group-B had three tournament favorites(Netherlands, Germany & Portugal) which meant a certain knockout to one of the big guns early in the tournament.

Day-1 of tournament kicked off with a 17th min header by Borussia Dortmund Striker Robert Lewandowski against Greece and the match ending in a shared point, meanwhile Russia thrashed the Czech's 4-1.
The first upset of the tournament was not too far away as Denmark's Krohn-Dehli scored the only goal to send the dutch in reverse gear. They just couldn't find the net having 28 shots and the top scorers of two of the highly rated football leagues in the world!!

 

Next up Germany took on Portugal - a clash to cherish which ended in despair for Portugal's Christiano Ronaldo (who was booed with chants of Leo Messi by the crowd) and delight for Mario Gomez who scored the only goal of the night.

The next big astonishment was when Del Bosque had selected a playing 11 without a striker (shocking!) in their opener against Italy in which Fernando Torres fluffed two late chances as Spain's hopes of making a winning start ended in a 1-1 draw with goals from De Natale and Cesc Fabregas. A decent result for both!

England's first against France was a real drag ( I dozed off at halftime!) ending in a draw. Portugal's next against Denmark was a must win and it did not disappoint. Late goal from Varela saw them take all three points in an entertaining 3-2 win. Robin Van Persie's goal could not even out Mario Gomez's brace as it was another setback for Netherlands which almost sent them packing.

Italy ended their 2nd group game as a draw with a neat free-kick by Pirlo which was canceled out by Mario Mandzukic who looked to be in stunning form. Meanwhile in Arena Gdansk Torres dumped Ireland with two cleverly placed goals taking Spain to a 4-0 win.

England and France went on to win their next 3-2 and 2-0 respectively which almost saw them through to the knockouts. Group A witnessed a dramatic turnaround on the final match-day of the Group stages as Greece beat Russia 1-0 to qualify into the knockouts on the basis of head-to-head being level on points with them! Czech Republic was the other from the group to qualify.

An awe inspiring show by the charismatic captain of Portugal had shown the dutch to their third and final defeat and saw the world cup finalists leave without a single point in hand.Germany who beat Denmark qualified with maximum points and were posing a real threat to Spain's chances of lifting the cup.

Spain with their high possession and rather boring play could not find the net until the 88th min - Jesus Navas with the solo goal. Italy's "bad boy" Mario Balotellti finally scored and it took
Bonucci to shut his outburst (When asked why he doesn't celebrate his goals he replied "Its my job to score goals. Do you see a postman celebrate after delivering the letters?" wise words i say! :D)    after his stunner of a goal against Ireland.

Wayne Rooney's comeback after suspension was a boon for England as he scored the only goal which took them to the knockouts.(Whoohoo!). An Uplifted effort by Ibrahimovic and Larsson was just a consolation as Sweden were already knocked out which meant France had qualified despite their 2-0 defeat!

So now was the time for true character, born leaders and legends in the making. Did Spain have what it takes to retain the title, or was there an upset on the cards with Greece doing what they did in 2004, or could England do a Chelsea to finally lift a trophy? Next up "THE KNOCKOUTS"

A Tablet Thats Not To Be Swallowed

Iberry Auxus AX02

I recently got my hands on a new tablet-pc called the Auxus AX02 by iberry (yes, i was skeptical when buying from a relatively unknown company). Being a huge android nut I did not mind shelling out around 10k for it and I must say, for what I paid it is not a dime a dozen. Here is a brief review on it.

That was the add i had seen on some blog and it really caught my eye. "India's first tablet pc with ICS! - This one i gotta see!!"

Specs:

- CPU: 1.0 Ghz ARM Cortex A8

- Android 4.0

- 1gb DDR-3 RAM

- 4gb Internal

- Mali 400 GPU

- 7.0" LCD

- 800x400 WVGA

- Wifi, External USB

- Mini HDMI

- Camera: Front- 0.3MP; Back: 2MP

- Battery, Speakers, 3.5mm earphone jack,...blah blah... a bunch of other stuff.

I am going to walk-through the Highs and Lows of this budget tablet

Highs :

- Cost : A budget tablet that can come in handy.

- OS : ICS is amazingly well designed and is a real eye-candy

- CPU & RAM : Smooth as butter!

- Mali 400 GPU : Amazing game performance and video rendering capabilities.

- Mini HDMi :Useful to say the least.

Lows : 

- Screen size : The 7.0" LCD is just not big enough to read text in the portrait mode but does a decent  job when in landscape

- Screen Resolution : A better resolution may be too much asking for a tablet with an alluring price tag as this one

- Battery : The battery life is abominable, On constant usage it gives around 3-4hrs.

- Camera : Calling the photos "not clear" would be an under-statement!

- Internal Memory : I had hoped that this would have more internal memory than an average smartphone but alas!

Final Verdict

I would say it does an awesome job overall and maybe I am being a hint too critical about where the tablet fails as that can be compensated with the low price-tag.

I'll give it a final rating of  3.5/5 and endorse buying it if your pocket value is around the 10k mark.

Cheers! 

 

And So It Begins!

Total Geek Out??

Firstly let me tell you one thing - "This blog is a result of total boredom!!"

I mean this is one of those bizarre ideas we get when all other options of killing time are exhausted.

So here I am sitting at home having nothing to do all day but watching people do an online blabber of their lives on facebook and then moving on to 9gag and doing a "Read all the posts!"(9gagers will get that ;) ) there, then it hits me "Hey! Why don't I start a Blog!" and that brings me here!

"Total Geek Out, What kind of a name is that?!" If that's what you're thinking, then let me throw some light on it. I am going to use the most popular search result on Urban Dictionary to justify the name i have given :

Geek out:  The act of becoming emotionally and physically aroused by the sight or the thought of a technicality of a certain topic of major interest.

That is exactly what i have in mind for this blog! I want this to have a lot of totally random but really interesting posts. Oh! me being a tech-freak and a sports maniac, you may find that most of my posts will be inclined towards my nerdyness and craze for ball-kicking!

I am also going to take the help of a few of my close buds to totally "Geek You Out!"