# Naveen Piedy's Blog > Documenting things I find interesting. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About this site URL: https://www.npiedy.com/about/ Last updated: 2022-04-29T14:38:41.000Z I started this website as a way to chronicle my thoughts and as an attempt to put myself out there. At any given time, I am probably thinking about a problem I am trying to solve programmatically, about a piece of entertainment I enjoyed or what to cook. Sometimes, all of the above at the same time, though it is not just limited to that. If you do enjoy reading about my experience, please subscribe. That does go a long way. --- ### Start your own thing Enjoying the experience? Get started for free and set up your very own subscription business using [Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=npiedy.com), the same platform that powers this website. ## Posts ### Building AMY — a persistent memory layer for LLMs URL: https://www.npiedy.com/building-amy-a-persistent-memory-layer-for-llms/ Last updated: 2026-05-30T08:36:23.000Z I got married recently, changed teams at the office, and ever since I have been busy. Busy enough that my journaling got affected. I was not writing or capturing my thoughts effectively. But I did notice that I was using LLMs to brainstorm a lot. After a session, those conversations are practically expired. Claude and other systems can revisit old chats, but the context is lost by then. Like Claude still thinking I am learning frontend when that task ended long back. Also I have no control over what these LLMs remember. I can't go in and make changes. So I built AMY, a MCP server that gives Claude, or any LLM, a persistent memory. Or in simpler terms, I gave LLMs a notebook. This way, I can not only capture my ideas, but build on them at a future date. ## Why not RAG? My issue with RAG is simple — similarity is not the same as relevance. A vector search finds what is semantically close, but close is not always useful. And RAG retrieves one note. What about the notes connected to that note? The context around an idea is often more valuable than the idea itself. That's when I came across Karpathy's LLM + Obsidian idea and wanted to extend it. The concept is straightforward — maintain local markdown files and a single index.md that acts as a table of contents. Load the index into the LLM and let it decide which notes to read. The LLM becomes the retriever, not a similarity function. In my implementation, Gemma 4 handles the indexing and retrieval decisions. Neo4j sits underneath as a knowledge graph, so when Amy recalls a note, it can also traverse the relationships around it, finding not just the note you asked for, but the ones connected to it. ## Remembering and Recalling ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2026/05/project-Amy-2025-12-31-0849-1-.png) Project Amy Architecture Diagram The stack is simple. I used LM Studio to expose Gemma 4 E4B over REST apis. Amy is exposed to Claude as a MCP server. Neo4J is the data layer, along with MD files. Obsidian for human in the loop interaction. ## How it works - Remember and Recall When I had my initial prototype for Amy done, I began using it. Every time I brainstorm or have a conversation that I feel needs to be captured or referenced in the future, I ask Claude to remember it. Claude summarizes the conversation and sends it over to Gemma. This is the Remember tool call. Gemma then runs three passes on it. The first pass summarizes the note in one line for index.md. The second pass checks the tag registry to assign existing tags — or create new ones if needed. The third pass checks index.md to find which existing notes this new note can form relationships with. At the end of the three passes, three things happen: index.md gets a new entry, a new markdown note is written to disk, and the Neo4j graph is updated with the new node and its relationships. The final step is mine. I open Obsidian, quickly review the note, and adjust the tags if needed. That's the human-in-the-loop moment, I can see exactly what Amy stored and correct it in plain text. I have a sync script that applies my changes and keeps the index and neo4j graph updated. Today, when I wanted to write this blog post, I asked Claude to do a search for the Amy memory system. Claude can use search, which internally calls Gemma. Gemma ranks the notes based on relevance and returns the results. Claude can then read the note in full or search connected nodes. This is the Recall tool call. If Claude decides to do a search itself, it can load the index or the tag list and search based on tags. In this instance, I asked Claude to go over the notes and help me create a diagram. ## Conclusion There are improvements needed, for sure. One thing I plan on doing is putting this on a home server. The eventual plan is also to ditch a closed-weight LLM and use an open-weight LLM on local hardware. I also think ditching Neo4j for something like NetworkX might be worthwhile. But for now, I am happy with the current state. The more I use it, the more bugs or ideas might surface. When they do, you can be sure I will be using remember and recall. If you'd like to follow my journey, please subscribe. If you have thoughts or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me. ### Gamifying My Life: How I Built an AI Game Master URL: https://www.npiedy.com/gamifying-my-life-how-i-built-an-ai-game-master/ Last updated: 2026-01-30T06:41:48.000Z In my previous blog posts, I detailed how I architected a system using RAG, Neo4j, and MCP servers to gain insights from my Obsidian notes. I keep track of my daily activities, along with relevant metadata, as much as possible. The issue with this is that extracting meaningful actions just through logic and regex could only work to an extent. For example, whenever I mentioned a movie wiki link in a daily note, I was marking it as watched for that day. This limited my writing. I couldn't reflect on a movie I watched, let's say, 3 weeks ago. And for some actions like exercising, there is no metadata. I needed something that could parse natural language into tangible actions. And of course AI is the solution, like for everything nowadays. Of course, I had to tackle my other problem: the lack of motivation to write down stuff. One thing led to another and I decided to gamify the whole process—my life. ![Movies bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749385/Obsidian_FaZwl094vO_c8mh1l.jpg) ![Tv Show bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749385/Obsidian_pQ0mRg2dba_h9g91r.png) ![Books Bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749385/Obsidian_tzsyI3e3nA_qxgzg9.png) ![Games Bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749386/Obsidian_WOz6gNlsy3_odegeq.jpg) ![Podcasts Bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749386/Obsidian_cztIoMVSZY_gekpt7.png) ![Comics Bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749385/Obsidian_YGH3LJPBXb_sch2jx.png) ![Comic Characters Bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749384/Obsidian_oq9NeisSzI_cshmnw.jpg) ![Restaturants Bases](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1769749384/Obsidian_Ir1ggeVt5p_tehnb6.png) ## Context is the Key "Let's say I write in my Obsidian daily note - "I watched A Team today." It's a simple sentence, but AI wouldn't know if I'm referring to the movie or the TV show. Or when I write down "I worked on Project Morgana today," the AI wouldn't have enough information to categorize it as work or a personal project. Which means I need to provide context whenever possible. Good thing is, I have context whenever possible as wiki links. The tricky part is each wiki link is its own markdown file with its own properties. And I need to give the AI a way to discover these files. So I built a NoteGraph module. Given an entry point (a file), the NoteGraph will parse each wiki link, do a breadth-first traversal, and present the file locations of the notes linked. This way I could control the depth of the traversal as well. For our use case, a depth of 1 is more than sufficient. I had to enhance this to work with links which point to very specific parts of a file instead of the whole file. > Listened to \[\[Good Areas Podcast#\[ 8\]Every Team’s BEST & WORST Case at the 2026 T20 World Cup| Jarrod and Deepak's thoughts on the upcoming T20WC\]\]. In that case, I don't need to get the entire `Good Areas Podcast` file for context. Rather the contents under the heading `[ 8]Every Team’s BEST & WORST Case at the 2026 T20 World Cup`. That's the only relevant information needed for processing. ## The Summarizer, The Extractor, The Allocator With the preprocessing done, I just had two things to do. I needed an AI agent to extract actions (this is later to be used for achievement tracking, yet to be implemented) and another agent for point allocation. For both cases, I couldn't just let the agents allocate points or categorize actions willy-nilly. I had to come up with categories for both. I came up with 7 stats and 21 action categories. The issue then was the AI agents' output. I needed the output in a particular structure so I could put it in a SQLite database. Pydantic AI ensured this. I had the architecture mostly done and I was hell-bent on using an SLM for these tasks instead of an LLM. So I used LM Studio and picked the latest Qwen model that my laptop could support. I fired up everything, and then hit run. I was expecting everything to work without a hitch. If all my years in software engineering have taught me anything, it's that things rarely work as expected the first time. And so was the case here. The issue? Memory. My VRAM wasn't big enough. After pondering, I decided that I would use an SLM to summarize the linked notes into smaller bite-sized pieces. The context and relationship to the daily notes were more important than the contents. This worked much better. The flow was complete and working. But the quality of the outputs was not up to standard. Some models—Google's Gemma models were particularly notorious for this—would hallucinate tool calls that weren't even present in the system. Others would allocate points inconsistently or miscategorize actions entirely. After hours of tweaking prompts and trying out different models of different sizes, I had my aha moment: I needed to clearly define what each stat represented and provide explicit guidelines for point allocation. It was about min-maxing the prompt itself—being precise about the rules of the game so the AI couldn't misinterpret them. Once I did that, things finally clicked. Of course, it still isn't perfect. But it's there 80% of the way. The agent would still extract the same action twice, miscategorize an action, or award too many points. After all, SLMs are very limited. But I wanted something that works locally. The solution? I gave myself veto power. I added a final review step where I can see what the agent extracted and the points it allocated. Accept or reject—that's my only choice. No tweaking individual stats, no gaming the numbers. Either the AI's judgment is reasonable, or it's not. I didn't want to give myself an easy way to award myself points. If I did, why use an AI agent in the first place? ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2026/01/morgana_archi.excalidraw.png) Project Morgana Architecture ## Serving the Data and Future work The bones were done. Now I just needed to dress it up. I served the points and actions from the SQLite database using REST endpoints (FastAPI). I consumed these endpoints in the frontend (Svelte) to present them in a radar chart showing my stat distribution and a heat map tracking daily activity patterns. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2026/01/firefox_OdaHhawJML.png) This was v1—functional, but bare-bones. There's still more I want to build. I've planned an achievements module where an LLM finds patterns in the actions and awards achievements dynamically. Imagine: 'Movie Marathon: Watched 5 films in a week'. The idea is to let the AI discover interesting patterns in my behavior rather than hard-coding every possible achievement. ## Conclusion Why do this? I want a system that works for me, and this is something that works for me. Ever since I got this project working, I have been writing more and understanding how I spend my time better. It's a funny thing how my brain works. Once I put in a tracker, a streak counter, I have been reading more. Seeing the points as well, seeing where I'm lacking—I feel motivated to work on those areas. Wanting to socialize more to get points on Charisma, or wanting to hunker down and finish my unfinished personal projects for those Focus points. I have been seeing an improvement. Is this sustainable long-term? I don't know yet. But for now, watching my stats grow is more motivating than any productivity framework I've tried. And that's enough. If you'd like to follow my journey, please subscribe. If you have thoughts or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me. ### Building a Cricket Scraper for My Obsidian Vault feat. Google Antigravity URL: https://www.npiedy.com/cricket-scraper-obsidian-antigravity/ Last updated: 2025-11-20T05:50:10.000Z With my CLI tools, I was able to create MD files with proper frontmatter for movies, video games, books, and TV shows. All of these media had proper APIs that presented me with the data I required. But sports, especially cricket? Finding an API that presented me with relevant information was hard. Either the APIs were paywalled or nothing robust existed. This issue was on my back burner but kept eating at me. So when Gemini 3 and [Google Antigravity](https://antigravity.google/?ref=npiedy.com) were released, I wanted to test them out. You can view the final code [on GitHub](https://github.com/naveenpiedy/CricketCLI?ref=npiedy.com) before reading how I built it. 💡 For context, Antigravity is Google's new agentic development platform. Unlike Copilot or other assistants that sit in your editor, Antigravity's agents have direct access to your editor, terminal, and browser. They can plan, execute, and validate entire features autonomously. So I downloaded Antigravity, and opened it up to find it very much to be built on top of VS code. But the hook was that, you have agents also controlling it. I used Gemini 3 low under the hood but you can choose your LLM of choice. I told the agent what I wanted to do, it created a Implementation Plan markdown, as well as Tasks markdown. Then step by step, from analyzing the Cricbuzz HTML structure to testing by creating a dummy file, it built the tool. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/11/Antigravity_yXxwE4ov8w.png) Antigravity Tasks I was not happy with the CLI UX, so I asked the agent to add a Fuzzy search and it complied. The whole affair took less than an hour. Writing a web scraper was something I don't have a lot of experience with, nor does it particularly interest me. So that was the most impressive part for me, watching the agent handle the exact thing I would've dragged my feet on. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/11/Antigravity_sjF2LZ7ffV.png) CLI in action But as impressive as it sounds, there was a feeling of emptiness. I like getting my hands dirty, to be in the zone or flow. That feeling when I'm coding, creating, developing—it seemed to have been lost. It's not like I haven't used coding agents before. But there was a sense of being an architect, where I was still assembling things, figuring out the flow, and revising the code. That joy seems to have been lost here. The world is quickly moving in this direction, and for me to dwell on these grievances means I'll be left behind. The smarter thing to do is to adapt and move on to solving a different set of problems. Even for fun, there will always be problems to solve—like figuring out how to create agents that can help me with my productivity or note-keeping. If not that, maybe something else that will scratch the itch. And honestly, I never would have written a web scraper any other way. [Link to Repo](https://github.com/naveenpiedy/CricketCLI?ref=npiedy.com) If you'd like to follow my journey, please subscribe. If you have thoughts or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me. ### The Missing Link: How LUNE Solved My Consistency Problem URL: https://www.npiedy.com/building-lune/ Last updated: 2025-07-30T04:27:14.000Z If you're familiar with my previous posts, you'll know I've created two tools to help with my note-taking. There's Emma, a CLI metadata enricher, and Clara, an MCP server that parses my notes and provides context to LLMs. These are good tools, but they're obsolete if there's no data to work with. Cue Taylor Swift's Anti-Hero: "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me". I haven't been consistent with my note-taking, and the guilt has been eating at me. To set context: even though I try to take notes throughout the day, I don't. I end up trying to journal, review, and reflect at the end of the day, but often I don't have the energy or drive to do so. To combat this, I created Lune—Logging Utility for Notes and Events. ## Meet Lune Lune is a terminal-based tool that prompts me with questions throughout the day to capture my thoughts, tasks, mood, and experiences while also reminding me of upcoming events and tasks. I usually invoke Lune after meals because that's when I relax and rejuvenate. After eating, my mind is fresh. Naturally, I added food tracking as part of my rituals. Let me walk you through one of them. ```bash $ python main.py morning 🌞 Good Morning, Naveen! ? 🍽️ What did you have for breakfast today? 2 and half slices of Garlic butter grilled cheese sandwich ? How are you feeling this morning? 🙂 Content ? 🗣️ In a few words, describe how you're feeling: Good, Started working on my blog 📅 Today's Events: ✅ All Pending Tasks: - GAP-1229 Script execution framework (high) 📅 2025-07-31 23:59 ? 📓 What's your intention or focus for today? Finish my blog post 🔮 Today's Dad Joke What's black and white and read all over? The newspaper. Summary 🍽️ Breakfast: 2 and half slices of Garlic butter grilled cheese sandwich 🧘 Mood: 🙂 Content 📓 Goal: Finish my blog post Added to mood Database ``` Morning Ritual example As you can see, I keep track of how I'm feeling, my breakfast, what I want to focus on for the day, my pending tasks, upcoming events, and a joke to lighten up my day. The joke gets replaced with a hydration reminder in the afternoon and a journaling prompt at night. After each ritual, the CLI writes everything to my Obsidian daily note. In the backend, I use a SQLite database to keep things organised. ## Under the Hood I built Lune using Typer for the CLI interface and SQLite for data storage. The database tracks my tasks and upcoming events, but more importantly, it creates structured data that I can query with LLMs for insights. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/07/PFWSDQH4yd.png) Asking Claude for Lunch recommendations I can analyse mood patterns, correlate what I eat with how I feel, get personalised productivity recommendations, and explore other behavioural connections in my data. ## Conclusion Lune, I hope, is the final piece to the puzzle. So far, it's been helping me stay focused and consistent. My productivity has improved, and I'm more conscious about what I eat. There are always improvements to make and features to add—automated scheduling through cron jobs instead of manual invocation, or perhaps an agentic AI that learns my patterns and takes over entirely. The possibilities are endless. But for now, I'm happy with how it turned out. If you'd like to follow my journey, please subscribe. If you have thoughts or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out. ### A Lazy Saturday Upgrade: Adding RAG to CLARA URL: https://www.npiedy.com/adding-rag-to-clara/ Last updated: 2025-06-29T02:39:53.000Z In my previous post, I detailed how I connected my Obsidian notes to AI using MCP. While I managed to succeed, the approach had an obvious flaw: I was trying to give structure to unstructured data. Giving structure, especially by representing my notes as a graph, meant I could find relationships and query for links. CLARA could tell you "What movies did I watch in March?" perfectly. But ask "How do I feel about work lately?" and it struggled. CLARA could still answer that, but **the** LLM needed to process the entirety of my vault. For queries that required understanding context rather than following connections, this solution was inefficient. That's why I added RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) **to** CLARA. 🤖 ****What is RAG?** RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) is like having a smart librarian for your notes. Instead of reading every single book to answer your question, the librarian first finds the 3-5 books most likely to have your answer, then reads only those. RAG does the same thing: it searches through all your notes to find the most relevant ones, then uses just those few notes to answer your question. Much faster than reading everything! ## Understanding Vectors Now, let's try to understand vectors. My notes obviously contain words, and words have meaning. For example, the word 'Blue' means color to us humans. But a computer doesn't exactly know what 'Blue' means. But what it can do is assign the word 'Blue' a unique list of numbers, like \[0.2, -0.5, 0.8, 0.1, ...\]. This list might have hundreds of numbers. Now this unique *list* represents 'Blue'. It does the same with other colors, giving them all unique lists of numbers. These lists are called vectors; hence, the database is called a vector database. This way it creates a mapping where words with similar meanings are clustered together in number space. So 'Blue' and 'Red' (both colors) end up with lists that are mathematically close, while 'Blue' and 'Elephant' end up with very different lists. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/06/vector_clustering_illustration.svg) Vector example, using Claude ## More on RAG RAG follows a very similar process. Instead of words, it deals with entire sentences or notes. We chunk long-form notes into bite-sized pieces and give them their own unique list of numbers. And when I ask a question, this question also gets translated into its own list of numbers. Then RAG tries to calculate the closest chunks to my question. This means finding chunks with similar themes and meaning. Before, CLARA had to load my entire vault for the LLM to parse through. Now, CLARA can load only the relevant chunks of text, making this more efficient. ## Technical Implementation I initially tried FAISS for the vector database, but quickly ran into a limitation. Sometimes I need to search within specific folders—like finding thoughts about work from my "Daily" folder, or looking for media notes in my "Movies" folder. FAISS couldn't handle this folder-based filtering elegantly, so I switched to Chroma, which lets me store metadata alongside vectors. For the rest of the stack, I used `RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter` from LangChain for chunking and BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 for embeddings. The process is straightforward: I recursively parse all my Obsidian notes, chunk them into bite-sized pieces, embed them, and add them to the database. To avoid reprocessing everything each time, I maintain a JSON file tracking which notes I've processed and their last modified timestamps. This way, I only process new notes or ones that have changed recently. I used AI to help implement this, but it wasn't without issues. The LLM I used made a significant mistake that only processed the first file in each folder, which I had to debug and fix myself. Not only that, the implementation had a few other bugs. AI is a powerful tool that helped get my foot in the door. But I still had to know what was happening to get everything to work. Finally, I exposed this database as a tool to LLMs using MCP—the same protocol I used for the graph database. ## Real World Example I asked Claude about my feelings on Tamil movies, and here it is, planning out its strategy. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/06/claude_Px7Ye3NtxK.png) Claude in action The actual response was insightful but too verbose, so I had Claude make it shorter to fit in a screenshot. And yeah, it was pretty much dead-on accurate. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/06/claude_tLzp6Lu9Tn.png) Claude results for my feelings on Tamil movies ## Conclusion I cobbled this entire RAG module for CLARA on a lazy Saturday based on a suggestion from a friend. It was fun, but at the same time, I believe it adds a meaningful step up to my PKM system. Now, CLARA can handle searches for contextual meaning and structured relationships between my notes. I am working on yet another new personal project to further enhance this system. There is still work left to do here—more experimentation, more ways to make the current system efficient. If you'd like to follow my journey, please feel free to subscribe, or if you have thoughts or suggestions, please leave a comment or reach out to me. ### One Note at a Time: Turning Notes Into a Personal Jarvis URL: https://www.npiedy.com/building-second-brain-with-ai/ Last updated: 2025-06-22T04:15:15.000Z Last August, I had a bike accident. After surgery, I was stuck in bed for weeks with nothing but my thoughts and the internet for company. Those thoughts were fleeting, random, unstructured, and constantly slipping away. I hated that. The fix? Write everything down. No filters, no expectations. Just capture it all. That simple act pulled me into the world of PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) and eventually to Obsidian. I was already logging the media I consumed using tools like Letterboxd and Goodreads. Obsidian gave me a way to centralise all of that. To link ideas, build connections, and turn scattered notes into something richer. That’s how I started journaling, and how I started building on the things I think about. But I didn’t stop there. I wanted structure, context, and insight, not just notes. So I built two systems: **EMMA**, a CLI that enriches notes with metadata, and **CLARA**, a parser that loads those notes into a **Neo4j graph database**. Using **MCP (Model Context Protocol)**, I exposed that graph to **LLMs**, giving them the ability to query my notes, understand relationships, and generate meaningful answers. This post is a deep dive into how I built it all—one note at a time. ## Why EMMA and CLARA Exist As soon as I started writing, I knew I was missing one crucial thing: metadata on the media I consumed. Previously, I had built a Letterboxd-to-Postgres pipeline and created my own quirky little querying protocol. I wanted something similar, so I could find patterns, themes, and relationships across the media I consumed. I was also diving into LLMs and looking for ways to make them interact meaningfully with my notes. LangChain and similar libraries gave me a sense of what's possible, but I needed something more structured. And coincidentally, MCP burst onto the scene. That’s how I came around to building EMMA—my CLI assistant that enriches media notes with metadata. And CLARA—the system that ingests these notes into a graph database and exposes them to AI through an MCP server. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/06/architecture.png) ## EMMA - The MetaData Enricher EMMA is an interactive CLI program that fetches data from TMDB, RAWG, or Open Library and creates a markdown file in the correct location with a fully populated frontmatter block. Think of it as a boilerplate generator for media notes. You give EMMA a title, she fetches the metadata, shows you options if there are multiple matches, lets you confirm the right one, and then builds the note. It saves me from manually filling out metadata like release dates, genres, or creators, and helps keep everything consistent. What used to be a repetitive task is now a guided interaction that takes seconds. ![EMMA in Action](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbivdlxu8/image/upload/v1750559985/pycharm64_oAu44XPyWE_ctdcee.gif) Emma then creates the following file in my Obsidian vault. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/06/Obsidian_8YqX8v6X8e.png) Sinners File in Obsidian Vault ## CLARA - The Parser CLARA is a set of scripts that parses my Obsidian notes and loads them into a Neo4j graph database with proper relationships. It does this in two steps. First, it scans the notes and creates the appropriate nodes, like movies, books, people, and builds relationships between them based on the metadata and links. I also perform sentiment analysis on my notes and store those scores as well. For example: `Michael B. Jordan → acted in → Sinners` If a note links to another note that hasn’t been processed yet, CLARA creates a placeholder node for it. Example: `2025-06-22 → placeholder → Sinners` (where "Sinners" hasn’t been parsed yet) In the second step, CLARA checks if those placeholder nodes now have corresponding full notes. If they do, it rewires the placeholder relationship to point to the actual node, promoting the relationship to its real type. The relationships are determined based on a lookup dictionary. So the previous example becomes: `2025-06-22 → watched → Sinners` ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/06/Neo4j_Desktop_AJB9m8qHLN.png) Sinners movie in my GraphDB ## CLARA - The Bridge Using MCP, I can expose my graph database to any LLM that understands how to use tools. I used FastMCP 2 to expose the graph as a **resource**, and I also provided a **tool** to help the LLM understand the database schema. By exposing the database as a resource, I’ve essentially given the LLM the ability to run queries directly against my Neo4j instance. To prevent it from doing anything destructive, I vet every query it tries to run and ensure it's strictly read-only. Now, I have a powerful LLM that can acquire context when needed and is connected to the internet. This way, I can ask for insights like, *"What genres do I gravitate towards?"* or *"Give me recommendations based on my viewing habits."* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2025/06/SzS7l0H2uK.png) Claude using Clara for queries In the example above, you can see Claude chaining multiple queries, picking up context along the way, and delivering insights—powered entirely by my own notes, not some canned demo data. And this is just for movies. I’ve also structured notes for ideas, thoughts, moods, and more. It doesn’t take much imagination to see where this is going: a personal Jarvis, built from my second brain. ## Risks and Future Work In this day and age where data is everything, I'm not entirely comfortable exposing my notes to a third-party LLM. The next logical step in this project is to run a local model and connect it to the MCP server. But right now, I’m limited by hardware constraints and the early stage of MCP tooling. As things improve and models become more efficient, I plan to switch to a fully local setup to keep everything private and offline. Another challenge I’ve run into is sentiment analysis. It’s hit or miss at the moment. I want to explore better approaches—maybe training a small local classifier or using a vector database to cluster similar journal entries by tone or emotion. ## Conclusion I never expected this project to evolve into something so substantial. All I really wanted was a way to reflect, discover, and improve myself. The natural starting point was simply writing everything down. By capturing every idea—without judging whether it was nonsense or not—I unintentionally created a feedback loop. That loop eventually led me to build this entire pipeline. There’s still a lot of work ahead, and even more notes to write. But I’m taking it one note at a time. If you’re interested in what I’m building or have thoughts to share, feel free to reach out or subscribe to the blog. ### Percy Jackson - The Chalice of Gods URL: https://www.npiedy.com/percy-jackson-the-chalice-of-the-gods/ Last updated: 2023-10-26T03:13:41.000Z Earlier this year, I speed ran the original Percy Jackson series on a whim. Wanting to see if it was nostalgia and a yearning for a simpler time that tethered me to the series. Maybe I grew out of it? It was an interesting, albeit superfluous conundrum. I did get my answer. I still loved the world, was able to appreciate the characters, and the humor. Nostalgia played a part, sure. But there was something about this series that was comforting. I am not going to pretend that I am well-read and have extensive knowledge of classics or books that would make me seem smarter—like Ulysses or Pride and Prejudice. I read for amusement, but even I can see these books were not written for adults. (thank you Discworld) They were aimed at kids and pre-teens, but there is a certain style whimsy and charm to it, that even I could appreciate. # Stakes - Quite low Our beloved Percy is in his final year of High School and is preparing for college. He wants to get into the same college as his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase. Quite reasonable, but that requires three letters of recommendations from… you guessed it, the Greek Gods. This is the over arching hook for this book and the books to come(?). So three favors, three quests and three letters. And this book is all about the first quest. Someone has stolen the chalice of the gods belonging to Ganymede (cup bearer of the gods) and it is up to Percy to retrieve it. What surprised me was how low the stakes were, compared to the previous books. Percy has saved the world multiple times, held the literal sky on his shoulders, and followed his girlfriend through Tartarus without a second thought. So I was quite surprised that all he has to do here is retrieve a cup just to go to college. And failing to do so didn't mean the end of the world. Sure, Zeus might get a bit pissy and take it out on Ganymede. And Percy might have to find another quest. But it was not the end of the world. But that is also what makes this book quite refreshing. The stakes, being low, led to quite a lot of wholesome moments. It was a cozy read that has a lot of feel good elements. His friendship with Grover, the love Annabeth and Percy share, his relationship with his Mom, all of it is quite fleshed out and is a delight to read. It did warm my cold heart and as a jaded as I am, I found myself smiling at certain parts. 🗒️ My boy has gone through hell, and I am happy that he has a moment for himself. The trademark humor is still here and is enjoyable. Maybe it was a bit overdone, a little cheesy here and there. The high school me would have loved it more. But I was still able to appreciate it. The pacing was quite brisk and overall, it was well written. # Conclusion I liked it. I am not going to say I loved it, that is only because I have read a lot of Discworld this year. But I certainly had a good time, and I probably needed it. It didn't feel like my typical Percy Jackson book that I love. That in hindsight was a good thing. It was a refreshing new take with familiar characters and I love the setting. It was cozy. If that is something you would like, I would suggest giving this book a try. Also, this is not a good starting point for the series. Definitely recommend reading the previous books first. That's all I have for now. If you have any suggestions on what to read or have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. ### Thud - Racial Tension, Primordial Horrors of the dark and a Watchman URL: https://www.npiedy.com/thud/ Last updated: 2023-08-17T02:06:16.000Z First and foremost, I need you to understand that I barely got any sleep, and I'm groggy as hell right now. Why do you need to know? Because it is this book's fault, partly at least. And I blame the rest on the rat that's evading all forms of capture. In my childhood days, I was deathly afraid of the dark. And I was never fond of rats. A part of the story in Thud takes place deep underground, in the mines, and there is an element of cosmic horror surrounding the dark. It was so well written that it induced a little bit of claustrophobia. As a result, throughout the night, I was teetering on the edge of unease and suffering from lucid nightmares. So when I got a text at 4:30 AM from a friend (bless their soul), I shot up, broom in hand, ready to fight the unseen horrors of the dark. Or the rat! The point I am trying to make; the writing here is exceptional enough to have an effect on me. ## Let me heap praises! The story starts off with the sound of a dwarf being bludgeoned to death in a mine - [**Thud!**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62530.Thud%5F?from%5Fsearch=true&from%5Fsrp=true&qid=YOH3FwCgaW&rank=1&ref=npiedy.com)Everyone suspects a Troll did it. Now, the watch (police) and Commander Samuel Vimes need to solve this complex murder mystery with care. Why is it complex? Because of the looming anniversary of the Battle of Koom Valley. The battle that has fueled centuries worth of tension between the long-feuding races. That's how this book starts, very political and on the knife's edge. Tensions flaring, with the city on the cusp of a war, with the Watch as the last bastion of peace. As the story goes on, it escalates from being a political murder mystery to larger than life adventure peppered with ancient cosmic horror. This could easily have been jarring if it was not for Pratchett's biting satire and his use of Samuel Vimes a lightning rod to ground the story. Samuel Vimes, in my opinion, one of the most finely crafted literary characters. He is nowhere near flawless, especially when juxtaposed against Carrot (who is supposed to be). But that's what makes Vimes, so interesting. He knows what's ethical, what's never to be attempted and the gray area in between. He knows all the unspeakable things he is capable of, yet he never picks the easy way out. That's not to imply he is compelled to make the right choice, but rather, he avoids actions that could lead him down a path he is feels is morally corrupt. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2023/08/IMG_0027.jpeg) The most satisfying part of City Watch books, is that Pratchett somehow manages to transcend the character of Samuel Vimes to near cult status without actually meaning to. Pratchett adds another dimension to him, Samuel Vimes the father. His duty and sincerity to Young Sam is heartwarming. The anger of Pratchett at display and the astute use of humor whenever needed is a trademark of these books. And Pratchett is at his best here. The other characters are well written, and I like the newcomer - Sally the Vampire, the first Vampire in the watch. Her budding friendship with Angua (the werewolf) against all odds and differences, is the subplot that allows the narrative to breathe. The book, in my opinion, flows much better than [Night Watch](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47989.Night%5FWatch?ac=1&from%5Fsearch=true&qid=LHladfXyCY&rank=1&ref=npiedy.com), a favorite of mine. In fact, Thud is one of my all-time favorites, too. The way the story and mystery escalates is so engrossing that I couldn't put down the damn book. ## ## Closing Thoughts I loved reading this book. I have ordered the [Snuff](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44032710-snuff?ref=npiedy.com), the next book in the series, along with more bookmarks. The official hardcover is being flown in from Britain, so I might pick up Bladurs Gate 3 to play or something else meanwhile. If you have any suggestions on what to read, watch or play, feel free to contact me. If you liked what you read, feel free to comment or subscribe. And I off to sleep. ### Oppenheimer - An Engaging Biopic URL: https://www.npiedy.com/oppenheimer/ Last updated: 2023-07-30T22:27:32.000Z Before I start fawning about this movie, I should explain my indifference towards Christopher Nolan movies. The last Nolan movie I watched was [The Dark Knight Rises](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-dark-knight-rises/?ref=npiedy.com), and I watched it in theaters. Having just finished my high school, I was young, naive and lacked the cynicism that comes with age. As such, I was sobbing when the movie ended, and that was one of the best cinematic experiences I've had. But what turned me off was his fans. The ad nauseam idolization, pretentious dissection of each and every scene and the unwavering defense that all of his movies were nothing short of being a masterpiece, were enough reasons. I mean, "The Dark Knight Rises" wasn't great. And the fact that people are debating the ending of [Inception](https://letterboxd.com/film/inception/?ref=npiedy.com) to this day, grinds my gears. And couple that with his movies needing my entire attention span and thus being exhausting, I never looked forward to a Nolan movie. I skipped Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet. And Oppenheimer wasn't on the top of my list. But a series of unexpected events, which started with me bricking my phone, culminated in me watching Oppenheimer on a 70 mm screen at an Almos Draft House, 40 miles away from my home. And it was one of the best cinematic experiences I've ever witnessed. ## Not what I was expecting Since I wasn't excited for [Oppenheimer](https://letterboxd.com/film/oppenheimer-2023/?ref=npiedy.com), I went into the movie completely blind. I knew who he was and about the Manhattan Project, but my knowledge was bare bones. I didn't have a scientific or a historical interest as well. If anything, I was dreading it, and expecting the movie to make me squeamish. And I could not have been more wrong. Nolan has masterfully written and directed this movie, which revolves around [J. Robert Oppenheimer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.%5FRobert%5FOppenheimer?ref=npiedy.com)'s life, his role in inventing the atomic bomb and the effects it had on him. The A-Bomb is not the primal focus, as I was expecting, and that was a pleasant surprise. I don't know enough about movie making, and I certainly have not watched enough biopics. But Oppenheimer has this rare quality of making three hours feel much shorter than it actually it is. And most of it is just people talking. There are no crazy action sequences or dance numbers, it is just people talking for three hours, at least for the most part. The screenplay flows effortlessly while never losing my interest. That is nothing short of magic. The cinematography and lighting was quite good. But when you consider very little CG was used, it was top-notch. One of the reviewers mentioned how the framing of shots, here, let A-List actors be in the background. This is something I would not have noticed unless pointed out, but it is these little things that set the atmosphere where I am suckered in. The background score certainly elevated the movie and does do the heavy lifting in trying to keep the audiences engaged. I remember the score building up tension, adding that dramatic flair and taking things down a notch whenever a scene needed. I haven't seen a movie in a while, where the score complimented the experience so well. It works so well that it can be a tad distracting. Cillian Murphy is getting nominated for an Oscar. There is no doubt in my mind about it. He plays this role understated, and there is never a scene where he drops the ball. From the start to the end, he gives one of the best performances of his life. Another stand out is Robert Downey Jr. And I am sure he is a shoe in for an Oscar as well. His screen time is around 30 mins or so but leaves a bigger impact when walking out of the theater. Emily Blunt had her moments to shine in the limited screen time she had. Matt Daemon was also excellent in the role given to him. ## Closing Thoughts The movie is not what I thought it would be. On paper, it is a boring one if you are not into biopics or history. But Nolan has somehow managed to make a three-hour movie which is captivating from the start to the end. He set out to tell the story of one, J Robert Oppenheimer, and has managed to successfully to do so. It is a movie I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone and everyone. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you like the post, feel free to subscribe. ### Mission: Impossible 7 and Barbie - Summer Blockbusters '23 URL: https://www.npiedy.com/mission-impossible-7-and-barbie/ Last updated: 2023-07-23T23:49:51.000Z Let me address the elephant in the room first, I was not able to get good seats for [Oppenheimer,](https://letterboxd.com/film/oppenheimer-2023/?ref=npiedy.com) and that is the reason it is missing in this post. My preconceived notion about it, is that it is going to be a mentally draining and or taxing experience. And I would rather dedicate a complete weekend and give it space to breathe. ## Misson Impossible - Expecatations Met I liked both the movies, but in my opinion, [Barbie](https://letterboxd.com/film/barbie/?ref=npiedy.com) was clearly the better one. Before I go into reasons as to why, I want to talk about [Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One](https://letterboxd.com/film/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-one/?ref=npiedy.com). A quick summary of the premise - Ethan Hunt and his team take it upon themselves to a stop a rogue world ending AI before anyone can get their hands on it. The cast and crew knew what I wanted from a Mission Impossible movie - stellar, intense action set pieces, Tom Cruise doing death defying stunts, cool gadgets. These things were the absolute highlight of the movie, and everything else just gets in the way of things. The plots of MI movies were never the selling point. They never harm the experience, or at least going by the recent ones. Here, that was not the case. It was harder for me to suspend my disbelief, given my professional background. I felt the villain from Ethan's past or him having a personal connection was a needless plot point. Other than that, I had two major gripes. The characters weren't written properly. The writing walks into a few bad tropes and tries hard to present it tastefully. But it is a bad trope is still a bad trope and detracts from the experience. The other gripe I had is, why is this a part one. Not everything needs to be a two parter. While the set pieces were cool, at the end of the day, nothing here gets resolved. The story feels stretched thin, and I am more frustrated with this movie than I am excited about the next one. Other than that, I enjoyed everything. The cinematography was quite good. I was able to tell what was happening on the screen for the most part, and that's what I look for in an action movie. Tom Cruise gives an excellent performance as always, and Haley Atwell was the other stand out. ## Barbie - Expectations Exceeded I went into Barbie expecting a comedy in the vein of [Space Jam](https://letterboxd.com/film/space-jam/?ref=npiedy.com) or [Looney Tunes: Back in Action](https://letterboxd.com/film/looney-tunes-back-in-action/?ref=npiedy.com). Barbie crossing into the real world followed by a fish out of water situation, but done better the ones I mentioned. Because I trust Greta Grewig and loved her previous movies, [Lady Bird](https://letterboxd.com/film/lady-bird/?ref=npiedy.com) and [Little Women](https://letterboxd.com/film/little-women-2019/?ref=npiedy.com). And that was what I got, *or* well kinda. Barbie (Margot Robbie) has an existential crisis of sorts and has to cross over to the real world. Ken (Ryan Gosling) tags along, and the rest of the movie examines the role of Barbie in society and patriarchy and what women go through. Firstly, this is a well shot movie. The sets for Barbieland were great. The performances by Margot as Barbie were also good, but Ryan Gosling as Ken steals the show. America Ferrera also some great moments. I didn't like Will Ferrell's scenes that match, but it wasn't his fault. With that out of the way, the messaging does feel a bit heavy-handed, but given the gravity of the message, I think it was the right approach. This wouldn't have worked had it gone the subtle route. There is a monologue in here by America Ferrera about the womanhood that garnered a rousing applause in my cinema hall. It seems to have resonated with the women present. And that is also my takeaway, this movie is not aimed at me. It didn't resonate with me because I haven't gone through what women have had to go through. Having said that, I still enjoyed the movie. It was funny, though some jokes flew over my head. It was entertaining. Not only that, it also was refreshing. There were a few nitpicks here and there, but it was an enjoyable time. And I also suspect it would hit much deeper emotionally and be even more satisfying for the opposite gender, or maybe to a father of a girl. Nonetheless, it was a great movie, and I am excited for Greta Grewig's next project - Chronicles of Narnia. ### Post Script I will try to catch Oppenheimer and meanwhile try to get back to reading. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to leave one below or reach out to me. If you like reading this, feel free to subscribe. Thank you and have a good rest of the day. ### Night Watch - Time Travel, Revolutions and Hard boiled eggs! URL: https://www.npiedy.com/night-watch-terry-pratchett-discworld/ Last updated: 2023-07-14T23:26:57.000Z I finished reading [The Fifth Elephant](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18505805-the-fifth-elephant?ref=npiedy.com) on June 16th and soon after, I started reading this book. Even though I enjoyed 'The Fifth Elephant', it didn't warrant a post of its own. It was one of the weaker entries of the [](https://www.goodreads.com/series/106221-discworld---ankh-morpork-city-watch?ref=npiedy.com)[City Watch Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/106221-discworld---ankh-morpork-city-watch?ref=npiedy.com), in my opinion. A lot has transpired since then, and at every step of the way, I had The '[Night Watch](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18782562-night-watch?ref=npiedy.com)' to fall back on. I read this during a freak thunderstorm, an 8-hour black-out, on the bus to and from Chicago and when I was sick. Which by post pandemic standards is just another week. I am not merely mentioning this whirlwind of events for the sake of attention, but rather I want to highlight how the story resonates with it. 🤖 Accidentally transported to a tumultuous period, Vimes must protect the city's future while facing his own moral dilemmas. This humorous and thought-provoking Discworld novel explores themes of justice and personal responsibility. ## Love me some Time Travel! If there is something that I gravitate towards naturally other than the color Blue, then it is stories involving Time Travel. I write this with a Tardis cup holding my assortment of pens in the background. `About Time`, `Time Machine` and `Back to the Future` are some of my favorite movies. In fact, I wanted to write a trilogy of short stories about a time travelling/telekinetic detective Nicolas Parker and did finish the first story when I was young (and foolish). And there are different types of time travel stories. I am particularly fond of cyclic paradoxes seen in `Blink` or `Heaven Sent` Doctor Who episodes. But there is also a tendency of using Time Travel as a tool to tell a story. And Night watch falls into this category. The author subtly made me feel like I knew where the story was heading and pulled the rug within the first 50 pages. He also makes it absolutely clear that Time Travel is just a plot device, a necessary background to dive into the depths of one of my favorite characters, Samuel Vimes. ## The Burden of being a decent human Samuel Vimes, the commander of Ankh-Morpork police force, gets transported 30 years into the past while chasing a cop killer named Carcer. With a name like Carcer, you know he is up to no good. This happens while Sam's wife goes into labor. This is how the book sets the tone. The objective for Mr Vimes is simple, don't change the past too much, get Carcer and return to his wife and hopefully newborn baby. It is a simple as that, except it is not. His arrival has already changed things. He assumes the identity of Keel, his mentor and because of time travel, he replaces Keel. Now, he is tasked with mentoring and protecting his younger self, a rookie who just joined the police force. Let's add another wrinkle into this already complicated setup - The Revolution. Ankh-Morpork of the past is on the cusp of a revolution, events the older Vimes has been through and knows the outcomes of. He knows the events leading up to and of the revolution, knows who lives and dies. And the city here contrasts drastically with the one in the previous books. In the previous books, the city kept getting better, so did Vimes. The first time I was introduced to Sam in "[Guards! Guards!](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64216.Guards%5FGuards%5F?ref=npiedy.com)", he was drunk and passed out in the gutters. The reason, he was "brung low by the woman", and the woman being Ankh-Morpork. But over the subsequent books, I have seen this man become the duke of Ankh, the police force grow and the city getting better. So when city of the past can be only described as bleak and nothing else, it had a compounding effect. Curfews, unchecked police force similar to the Gestapo (called the Unmentionables) and a paranoid dictator at the helm. The tension and distrust the people harbor towards the police force is palpable. All Vimes wants to do is get back to his present, and his wife. And the Vimes I know is a realist, a survivor but with the anger of a good man. He is a good guy who is capable of bad things. And also, the Vimes I know is one who hates the comfort of a soft bed and good shoes. The entire story explores his struggles with his conflicting interests of surviving, feeling liberated and doing the job in front of him, and how he overcomes it. And I got to say, it is fascinating how much invested I became of a fictional character. The story is not as free flowing as the other books but my good the dramatic set pieces keep coming one after the other. And each piece takes my breath way thanks to the sheer brilliance of Vimes and in turn of Terry. I couldn't get enough of Vimes's anger, arrogance fighting with his need to survive and doing the right thing. The characters here, including the city, have never felt more human. And this story also explores Vimes, the policeman. It is one of the best cop stories I have ever come across. Also, this is a Discworld novel. Even with against a bleak backdrop, Terry is humorous. The trademark footnotes, puns and humor are all in here. And I still can't wrap my head around how it all blends together so flawlessly. I am just in awe, 4 days after finishing the book. ## Closing Thoughts Yes, I was miserable in the past month and half or so. So, seeing the miserable state of the Ankh-Morpork and Vimes going ahead and doing the job in front of him really helped me pull through it. And hearing about the Chicago fire during my boat tour over there, resonated with Ankh-Morpork from this book. In a way, the fortuitous bizarre circumstances and last minute trip only served to enhance my experience reading this book. I loved each and every minute of it. I wholeheartedly would chew any ear I can find with the praises of this particular book. And I wish more people from my circle would read Discworld novels. It may not be for everyone, but when it clicks, there is nothing like it. With that, I will be signing off. If you have any thoughts, or suggestions on what to read next or simply want to talk, feel free to hit me up. ### Spider-Verse and Asteroid City - Two Spectacular Movies URL: https://www.npiedy.com/spider-verse-and-asteriod-city/ Last updated: 2023-06-26T17:14:41.000Z After nearly an 8-month hiatus, I went back to the cinemas, not once, but twice. In fact, I haven't watched a movie in months before last week. The reason for the hiatus is that I was burnt out watching movies every day. After a point, they devolved into background noise, to keep out the silence. I wasn't paying attention, going through the motions, a routine for the sake of routine. To break out of the rut, I cultivated the habit of reading and have since been enjoying Discworld novels to my heart's content. If I had to give an explanation for me returning, I could find various reasons, ranging from the weather being just right to me being frustrated and angry at people. But the biggest two are - Spider-Man and Wes Anderson. I am going to write down my thoughts about [Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse](https://letterboxd.com/naveenpiedy/film/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse/?ref=npiedy.com) and [Asteroid City](https://letterboxd.com/naveenpiedy/film/asteroid-city/?ref=npiedy.com). This is not a review. I have not studied film making academically nor have worked on making a movie. The following is just my appreciation and thoughts on both these movies. ## Different kinda Spectacles These are two excellent, visually stunning movies which are quite different from each other. In fact, they are opposites in many regards. One is an animated spectacle with break neck pacing, while the other is a live action painting in motion that slows down at every chance, to let you take all in. I would also argue Spider-Verse was made for the masses, while Asteroid City was just Wes Anderson making a movie which pleases him. Spider-Verse is focused and asks, "What makes Spider-Man, Spider-Man?" (or Spider-Woman... Spider-living beings). Without going into spoilers, it also asks the viewers why we love Spider-Man. At the heart of it, this is what makes the movie work. In that regard, Spider-Verse is easy to digest, assimilate and appreciate, while Asteroid City is not. Asteroid City is a deconstruction of how a story comes together. It also deals with how people deal with grief and how that makes us human. I could be, and probably I am grasping at straws here. I say that because I am not sure what Asteroid City was about. 🤖 Asteroid City is a metatextual plot simultaneously depicts the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, staged as a play, and the creation of the play Asteroid City, is layered by design, asking its viewers to ponder on the message being conveyed long after the movie is done. How layered is it? I was watching a movie about a television show about the making of a play called Asteroid City. Of course, I was a little lost. And if you watch the movie, you would understand it is by design. Many will find it hard to love Asteroid City, some even will go as far as to argue it as being pretentious. But it is certainly not for everyone. Asteroid City is not even the best of what Wes has given us. I have more love for some of his other movies, simply because they had an emotional gravitas that this movie lacks. Even with all these flaws, Asteroid City is still an excellent movie. And I am sure I would love it more once I get my hands on the Blu-ray. ## Conclusion Having said all that, AC is still a wonderful time. Everything I love about Wes's movies are here. It is a technical marvel with the heart and sincerity only Anderson can provide. And Spider-Verse too is a technical marvel in animation. It is outstanding in all other aspects as well. And like Asteroid City, it doesn't just aim to razzle-dazzle its audiences, but also makes an effort to tell an engaging story along with it. Whether it lands or not, I will have to wait for the sequel. ### Post Script Hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to leave them below or reach out to me. If you like this, feel free to subscribe, it is free. Right now, I am reading [Night Watch](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47989.Night%5FWatch?from%5Fsearch=true&from%5Fsrp=true&qid=bgpfuysZ0f&rank=1&ref=npiedy.com) and playing [Final Fantasy XVI](https://opencritic.com/game/14516/final-fantasy-xvi?ref=npiedy.com), and loving both. My next post will probably have to do with one of those. ### Jingo - Politics is dumb, also maybe not URL: https://www.npiedy.com/jingo/ Last updated: 2023-06-07T00:58:28.000Z I haven't fallen off the wagon, just a little distracted. With the IPL having a stranglehold over my attention span, a Zelda and Star Wars game, there have been too many distractions. On top of that, my books weren't delivered on time and I started working on side projects as well. Maybe I had fallen off the wagon. And reading is not one of those hobbies where I can mindlessly fall into a rhythm. I can pick up gaming after a decade of not playing and still while away countless hours. I can go back to obsessing over movies as easily as turning on a light switch. But reading is something I struggle to pick up if I hit a lull. Terry's name on a book never fails to fuel my desire to get back into reading. But to follow through, I needed the material to be light, and Jingo was just that book. 🤖 "Jingo" by Terry Pratchett is a satirical fantasy novel set in the Discworld series. The story takes place in the city of Ankh-Morpork, where an ancient and long-lost island suddenly resurfaces between Ankh and Klatch, a neighboring country. This sparks a territorial dispute, leading to tension and the threat of war between the two nations. As the situation escalates, the main characters, including the city's inept police force, Commander Samuel Vimes, and a Klatchian prince named Cadram, find themselves caught in the middle of the conflict. Pratchett uses humor and witty social commentary to explore themes of nationalism, diplomacy, and the absurdity of war, while delivering an entertaining and thought-provoking tale. ## About previous books first Discworld novels are designed to function as stand-alone stories. While each book in the City Watch series can be enjoyed on their own, I do believe they need to be experienced in order. There is a sense of vertical shifts in themes, scope and character arcs presented as the series progressed to this point. In [Guards! Guards!](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64216.Guards%5FGuards%5F?ref=npiedy.com), Sir Terry examined the themes of monarchy and the watch then consisted of 4 members. It was high fantasy, and it felt very vertical. In the next book, [Men at Arms](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400354.Men%5Fat%5FArms?ref=npiedy.com), he examines Goone (Gun), in turn how power corrupts a man. Compared to the previous book, it is more grounded, more characters are introduced, their relationships are allowed to grow and more importantly, he gives characters enough space to breathe and come into their own. In the next book, [Feet of Clay](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34527.Feet%5Fof%5FClay?ref=npiedy.com), he examines more themes than ever - the free will, bigotry, prejudice, feminism, identity. Here is when I started to realize how the writing itself has changed and is more free flowing than at the start of the series. Maybe I've gotten more used to the characters. It could be I have gotten used to writing. Or it could be both, better understanding on both reader's and author's part. And with the latest book, the pattern holds. The plot, the characters are all more horizontal. The satire is more biting and in your face compared to the previous books and given the subject, it lands beautifully. ## Politics and Patriotism There is no subtlety here, Terry does take a hammer on the head approach with this book. When the tensions are high between neighboring countries, people in power use it to fuel their own interests. That's basically the through line of the story. And it does hit a little close to home. There are conspiracies, plots and politics at play. The Ankh-Morpork police force gets wrapped in the middle of this, and it plays out like a spy movie. Klatch (the other country) is a stand in for the Middle East. There are submarines, naval chase, chase on a camel and more. It's all about the chase. Samuel Vimes gets his moments. Man, he is one of the most well written characters ever. And there is a dirty trick to how Pratchett manages to do this. By simply contrasting him with one of the other well written characters ever - Carrot Ironfoundersson. Both of them have their moments, maybe less compared to the previous books, but they do shine. Vetinari Havelock gets more screen time (page time?) here than in the previous books. This is the biggest test of the Patrician ever faced, and it is fascinating how manages to deal with the issues that present itself. The whole cast get their share of moments, but here, the plot takes center stage. It is the setting, the public, the background characters, their ignorance and lack of compassion towards other cultures in the name of patriotism, the mindlessness of the mob. It is these things that elevate the book. I was never once let down, the story kept me amused but at the same time, it makes me wince at how real the satire gets. Patriotism and even unparalleled jingoism is always portrayed as the right thing to do. In recent times, people in power conflate questioning them as an unpatriotic act. Yes, politics makes people seem dumb, but the ones who play the game rarely are ever are. Maybe in relation to one and other. Terry examines all these themes, and he does with passion and anger. ## Conclusion The book is good. Please read it. There is good humor, the themes will always be relatable and relevant, and what more can I say. I enjoyed reading it. It was not as good as, ⁣ [Men At Arms](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400354.Men%5Fat%5FArms?ref=npiedy.com), but I don't think anything is. I will be picking up [The Fifth Elephant](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63720.The%5FFifth%5FElephant?ref=npiedy.com) as my next book to read. If you have any suggestions, feel free to reach out to me, or please comment down here. If it's your first time, feel free to subscribe. ### Project Ook: My Library Management tool URL: https://www.npiedy.com/project-ook-my-library-management-tool/ Last updated: 2023-05-15T12:42:09.000Z In this post, I want to show off my latest side project - [Project Ook](https://github.com/naveenpiedy/project%5Fook?ref=npiedy.com). A tool to manage my collection of books with some help from GoodReads. It is not feature complete, but it is functional. Also, heads up, I am going to refrain from using the word "Library" often because it means something else when talking in context about code. ## What I am trying to solve? Three weeks ago, I was talking to a friend, and they said they wanted to start reading Agatha Christie novels. They never asked for suggestions but having read several, I wanted to chime in. I wanted to provide a list of books I enjoyed. Given that, I log everything I read on Goodreads, the simplest thing for me to do is filter, sort and make a shareable list. But they don't use Goodreads, and creating a list is not an intuitive process on there. The next reasonable thing to do is just type it out. That was easy enough, since I wanted to suggest only 4 books. What if it was an extensive list of maybe 10–15 books? And text messages tend to get lost in the shuffle. Another issue is that what if Goodreads decides to shut down a year from now? What's the point of just backing up my data if I can't make use of it? These are the questions I try to answer. ## Features (As of writing) At present, my tool is capable of doing the following - Importing Data from Goodreads into a Postgres DB - Querying the Data - Creating Shareable Lists The first step I wanted to do was ensure I could import my data into a Postgres db. Goodreads has shut its API service down. And the only option given is to export my data to a CSV file. I could feed the CSV to my tool, and it will assimilate the data to a local Postgres DB. Once in the DB, I could query by writing SQL queries. That is not my preferred way. So I implemented a way to query the database by feeding in json query. Below is an input example. ```json { "date_added": { "lower": "2022/12/01", "higher": "2023/04/24" }, "author": "Agatha" } ``` Input Query The result is a bit long to share here, but a truncated one should give you an idea. This query tool helps me create lists at ease. I could create lists based on author, or title, or tags I have used, my ratings or a combination of these parameters. ```json { "A Deadly Affair": { "author": "Agatha Christie", "author_adds": "", "author_lf": "Christie, Agatha", "avg_rating": 3.91, "binding": "Kindle Edition", "book_id": 60028686, "date_added": "2023-02-05", "date_read": null, "id": 150, "isbn": "=''", "isbn_13": "=''", "my_rating": null, "my_review": "", "number_of_pages": 271, "og_year_pub": 2022, "owned_copies": null, "private_notes": "", "publisher": "William Morrow Paperbacks", "read_count": null, "sha": "8681814e0127170945df756f3414f9bb3aaf9ed0", "spoiler": false, "status": "to-read", "tags": [ "to-read" ], "tags_with_ranks": [ "to-read (#19)" ], "title": "A Deadly Affair", "year_pub": 2022 } } ``` Output Json Now, this output JSON is good for manipulating, but this is not shareable. There is too much information which is not needed. Keeping only the important information, I used Rich to create a shareable SVG. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2023/05/example.png) Example screenshot Now, the above is shareable. I could create various lists, but there are limitations which I want to iron out in the future. For example, I am doing a substring search on the author's name. That way, I could key in Agatha and not the full name. But this means, I can't currently do a multi author search. There is room for such improvements. ## Conclusion Did I spend several hours on something trivial? Yes. Was it worthwhile? No one is going to ask me for my book suggestions. Even the circumstance that led me to this idea, my friend didn't ask for my suggestion. But yes, it was worthwhile. I like to back up my data and make use of my data. Though I may not have a proper use case, I might in the future. Who knows, this tool might help me in blog. Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions or would like to take a look at the source code, the [github link](https://github.com/naveenpiedy/project%5Fook?ref=npiedy.com) once again. ### Feet of Clay - Murders, Golems and Political Commentary! URL: https://www.npiedy.com/feet-of-clay/ Last updated: 2023-04-14T02:29:12.000Z I received my copy of "[Feet of Clay](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6567840-feet-of-clay?ref=npiedy.com)" on Tuesday of this week. Fast-forward to Thursday, I am closing it with the utmost satisfaction and unbridled joy that only a good, nay a great book can provide. On a sidenote, I would like to point out these posts are not in depth reviews. They are merely my thoughts on what I liked or disliked about the book. It is more about capturing my emotions, state of mind when I read the book. Mostly in service of a future me. 🤖 "Feet of Clay" is a novel set in the Discworld universe by Terry Pratchett. The story follows the City Watch in the city of Ankh-Morpork as they investigate a plot to overthrow the ruler, Lord Vetinari. As they delve deeper into the conspiracy, they also confront their own prejudices towards golems, artificial beings used as laborers in the city. The book explores themes of power, corruption, prejudice, and identity, all while maintaining Pratchett's trademark humor and wit. ## Previous books and Prevailing Themes Just like any other Discworld novel, Feet of Clay mostly works as a standalone book. But you will be better off having read the previous two ones - "[Guards! Guards!](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64216.Guards%5FGuards%5F?ref=npiedy.com)" and "[Men at Arms](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400354.Men%5Fat%5FArms?ref=npiedy.com)". The latter is one of my all-time favorite books. The progression here is akin to that of seasons in a TV show. By that, I mean the characters are allowed to grow into their own with each book. The status quo expands and changes, subtle threads from previous books are touched upon, and so forth. As expected of City Watch books, Pratchett again writes about heavy topics such as the free will, bigotry, prejudice, feminism, identity and so on. All of this wrapped up in an engaging political who-dun-it. Pratchett has strong opinions and it shows. He never tries to play it safe, and the books are better for it. He confronts the readers and tries to provoke into thinking about their biases or existing stances. ## A Web of Plot lines One thing I like here is that this is essentially a sci-fi novel about robots but set in Discworld. We have Golems who are "programmed" to follow Asimov's first two laws - a robot shall not harm a human and a robot shall obey any instruction given to it by its master. But we have a rogue Golem killing seemingly random people. The rest of the story is about how, why and what. That is the main through line, but we have other separate main threads that seemingly weave together at the end. There is the main mystery surrounding the Patrician, who is subjected to slow poison. We have a dwarf who isn't like other dwarves and is discovering her identity. Another one about royalty and political coup. And to have each one moving at a reasonable pace, would require some tight writing. Pratchett achieves exactly that without sacrificing humor. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2023/04/EHRYjU9X0AAr897.jpg) Take a look for yourself Action is seemingly improved from the previous book. Much more engaging set pieces and riveting action. ## Characters that I really am fond of The characters are excellently written as always. I have come to admire the dynamic of Samuel Vimes and Carrot Ironfounderson. While it is not as prevalent as it was in the previous book, there are subtle nods that again deepens each other. Havelock Vetnari, shines in the limited space he is given. The new characters, especially Cheery Littlebottom, are well written. Angua returns and is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. Her relationship with Cherry is one of the better female friendships portrayed. And I have to mention Angua and Carrot are just great to together. I haven't seen a more realistic depiction of insecurities and doubts prevailing in a great relationship. We have Golems, mysterious dead bodies, a dictator who is being poisoned very slowly, running livestock and a dwarf who is discovering her identity. I mean, what more can one ask for. The whole series is a must-read in my eyes. ## Post Scriptum Though I still think Men at Arms is the best book in the series so far, Feet of Clay comes damn near close. It is well written, humorous and amusing. Not to mention engaging with its political commentary. I am deeply saddened that the next book won't arrive till Tuesday. Don't know what I am going to do till then. Maybe re-read [Hogfather](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6567835-hogfather?ref=npiedy.com). I don't know. If you have suggestions or comments, please leave them below. Or reach out to me. Also, please give Discworld Novels a try! Thank you and appreciate taking the time to read. ### The Mysterious Affair At Styles - One for the Intervals URL: https://www.npiedy.com/the-mysterious-affair-at-styles/ Last updated: 2023-04-10T23:02:06.000Z When one of your closest friend is getting married thousands of miles away and chooses to do so at the auspicious time of half past midnight of your local time, what do you do? A few years ago, I would have been sound asleep. The past me would have argued that bearing witness when I couldn't be physically present, is a misguided exercise in freeing oneself of guilt. Now, I couldn't want to miss it for anything. On a sidenote, congrats to the happy couple in question. So I wanted to stay awake to witness my friend tying the knot. I needed something to help with that, and no, I don't drink coffee. This something needed to be exciting, grab and hold my attention from falling asleep. But at the same time not too engrossing that it supersedes the reason for me staying up late. [The Mysterious Affair At Styles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52843028-the-mysterious-affair-at-styles?ref=npiedy.com) by Agatha Christie was this something. 🤖 "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" is a detective novel by Agatha Christie and the first to feature her famous detective, Hercule Poirot. The story is set in a wealthy English country estate, Styles Court, where the wealthy heiress, Emily Inglethorp, is poisoned. The suspects include her second husband, her stepsons, her new husband's mistress, and various other guests and household members. Hercule Poirot, who is staying at the estate as a guest, takes on the case and uses his unique abilities to solve the mystery. ## Akin to Fast Food - The Burger and Fries While I did like the mystery at the core, I have to deem this ultimately a forgettable affair. It is certainly not as groundbreaking as "[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16328.The%5FMurder%5Fof%5FRoger%5FAckroyd?ref=nav%5Fsb%5Fss%5F1%5F14)" or, engrossing as "[And there were None](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16299.And%5FThen%5FThere%5FWere%5FNone?from%5Fsearch=true&from%5Fsrp=true&qid=3MOkAVBg7G&rank=1&ref=npiedy.com)". This I believe is by design. It aims to be a satisfying murder mystery and largely achieves it. And that is fine. It is not a delicious Michelin level meal, but closer to that of a burger and some fries. And sometimes I do prefer to have burgers and fries. Because a great book requires time, attention and effort on my part to properly appreciate it. But this, it helps me pass the time while not being bad. The characters here, except Poirot, are all not that memorable. They are present to serve the plot. Once I was done with the book, I could remember the names, but not the characters. The book is well paced, I was able to quickly assimilate the details without spending too much time. The plot keeps moving and rarely stagnates. Which I do come to expect of Agatha Chirste. The mystery was engaging, but it was hardly anything else. I felt the Agatha tried too hard to hood wink the readers into who didn't do it that there is a whip lash when the murder is finally revealed. And not in a good way. It is still fine, it makes sense within the context, but still, it didn't sit right with me. Ultimately, it is a fine book that deserves to be read while on commute or when waiting for something better to come by. ## Post Scriptum These are my thoughts, you may agree or disagree. If you have any suggestions on what I should read or watch, please leave a comment below. Or you could reach out to me. I do plan on reading either the "[Crooked House](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9875107-crooked-house?ref=npiedy.com)" by Agatha or "[Feet of Clay](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6567840-feet-of-clay?ref=npiedy.com)" by Terry Pratchett. Thank you for reading, appreciate it. ### Men At Arms - Books I love URL: https://www.npiedy.com/men-at-arms/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T23:57:38.000Z At this point, it is no secret that I love Discworld novels. They are humorous, witty and more importantly worthwhile. The humor doesn't detract, but only adds to the central theme that the book satirizes. 🤖 "Men at Arms is a murder mystery novel set in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. The story follows Captain Vimes and the City Watch as they investigate a series of murders and try to prevent an assassination plot. Along the way, they grapple with issues such as racial tension, the role of the police, and the power of guns." [Men at Arms](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29859331-men-at-arms?ref=npiedy.com) is another fine example of this. It goes over heavy topics such the power of Gonnes (Guns), racial tension, inclusion of minorities, sexism, democracy vs monarchy, the role of police. All of these complex themes are woven seamlessly into a high-stakes murder mystery, populated with unforgettable characters. I am astonished at the balance between humor and tension, without ever undermining the weighty issues at the heart of the story. The characters when they are introduced to us are pretty one dimensional. We are told what to expect of these characters. But as the story progresses, they don't necessarily morph into someone else or sprout several dimensions. But they were richer, deeper, and more importantly I cared about them by the end of it. ## The Beautiful Dichotomy at Play Captain Vimes is a cynic, and he is bitter and jaded. That all comes with experience, and rightly so. He is seen it all, and he is survived it all. He is old and he retiring from the force at the start. Then there is Corporal Carrot who is new, an optimist, simple-minded and ... everyone likes Carrot. Their characters arcs are for the better part devoid of the other. But as the story ramps into the third act, they are thrown together and thrown into an explosive action packed finale, and this is where the magic happens. The contrast between, especially under the pressure of life and death, is what helped me understand and ultimately appreciate these two. Like I said earlier, most of the characters have single dimensions. And Pratchett setups these pairings where they play off each other, only to emerge out of it deeper and richer. It happens with Detritus the troll and Cuddy the Dwarf (new recruits), with Gaspode and Angua (dog and werewolf/new recruit) and so forth. And all of it was utterly fascinating, and I am here for it. And this is what elevates this book from good to great. ## Post Script I have not dived deep into the finer points or even the larger points of the plot or the subtext. I merely touched upon the highlights. This is in due part not wanting to spoil and also wanting to keep this short. Having said that, this book has it all. Well crafted characters, a compelling murder mystery, passages with loaded subtext, racism, sexism, Werewolves, Clowns, Assassins, Mad Dogs, romance, bromance, and also Goones. What more can I ask for! It is a wonderful book, that is deserved to be read by everyone. And I hope I get at least one person to pick up a Discworld novel. ### More Demigods, Dragons and Guards - Books I've Read - March '23 URL: https://www.npiedy.com/more-demigods-dragons-and-guards/ Last updated: 2023-03-25T23:06:11.000Z March was a challenging month for me. I felt frustrated and anxious, with doubts creeping in at every turn. But reading helped me stay afloat. By diving into the pages of five different books, as well as revisiting some of my favorite anime shows and indie games, I found a way to escape from the stresses of everyday life. In this post, I want to share my thoughts on the books that helped me through this difficult time. ## Percy Jackson And The Olympians ### By Rick Riordan (Books 2 - 5) Before starting the first book in February, I intended to space this series out. I never wanted to pick up [The Sea of Monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22456248-the-sea-of-monsters?ref=npiedy.com) as my next book. Instead, I was so involved in the world, that I felt the need to continue the series. This is a testament to how immersive the world building was in the first book. Or at least how immersive I found it to be. Before I knew it, I finished the entire series over a weekend. What can I say, I am a fan of mythology, well written characters and swash buckling adventures. [The Sea of Monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28186.The%5FSea%5Fof%5FMonsters?ref=npiedy.com) was definitely my favorite book of the series. It is here, Percy and Annabeth develop as characters. Their relationship is given time to develop. In fact, I believe there wasn't any romantic subtext at all. It was just two kids developing camaraderie while going against the perilous world. Probably reminded me of school. The quest felt like a classic Greek myth, there was just enough charm and danger. [The Titan's Curse](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/561456.The%5FTitan%5Fs%5FCurse?ref=npiedy.com) and [The Battle of Labyrinth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2120932.The%5FBattle%5Fof%5Fthe%5FLabyrinth?ref=npiedy.com) were not my favorite books in the series. Percy here was dumb and reckless, more akin to a Shonen protagonist. The stories could have been shorter, the adventures were not as satisfying as the earlier ones. However, these two books set the stage for the explosive finale in [The Last Olympian](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4556058-the-last-olympian?ref=npiedy.com). Speaking of which, [The Last Olympian](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4556058-the-last-olympian?ref=npiedy.com) is easily the best book in the series. The pacing is fast, and the stakes are high, and the story doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of the world. The resolution is satisfying and the book as a whole is a thrilling conclusion to the series. Overall, I had a great time revisiting the series and would recommend it to anyone who loves mythology, well-written characters, and swashbuckling adventures. ## Guards! Guards! ### By Terry Pratchett After [Lords and Ladies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34529.Lords%5Fand%5FLadies?from%5Fsearch=true&from%5Fsrp=true&qid=LKbwAUz13G&rank=1&ref=npiedy.com), I needed a break from Discworld. I liked the [Witches series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/109517-discworld---witches-series?ref=npiedy.com), but it was getting stale. I wanted to mix it up, and I ended up reading six non Discworld books. Percy Jackson certainly had its witty moments, but it couldn't compare to any Discworld novel I had read. And given how frustrating this month was, and it was very frustrating, I needed my fix. And people usually do assume that I like cheery, that could get a teenage girl giggling. On the contrary, I just don't want to consume anything deary and depressing. I need something that is clever, witty, biting and honestly deep. And "[Guards! Guards!](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64216.Guards%5FGuards%5F?ref=npiedy.com)" was all that and even more. It is a story about the police force in a city where they are not needed. And when I say not needed, the City Watch is closer to a vestigial organ thanks to crime being organized. I know I have explained it in the worst way possible, but the guild system designed by the Patrician consists of guilds like assassins and thieves guild, having them self regulate. It is a fascinating read, and that part alone makes the book worth reading. The City Watch is led by Captain Vimes, the ever pessimistic, always drunk, brung low by a woman. And I know a thing or two about being brung low by a woman. He's followed by Sergeant Colon, whose wife works during the day, and he works during the night. They communicate only through notes. The next in line is Corporal Nobby Nobbs, who people aren't sure is entirely human. Finally, we have the new recruit Carrot, a steadfast, unflinching believer in the law. These oddball misfits have to go up against a dragon, secret societies, a million to one chance, and more. Although the story is slow-paced, which is typical for Discworld novels, it keeps escalating into something bigger, keeping the whole affair fresh. The beauty of the book is that even though the story is linear and focused, the characters and the world around them keep expanding. When it comes to Discworld novels, there's usually a character who steals the show and takes the spotlight. Granny Weatherwax in the Witches series and Death in the Death series are prime examples. However, in "Guards! Guards!", Captain Vimes is the star of the show. But what's remarkable about this book is how much space is given to the supporting cast. From Lady Ramkin to the Patrician to the Librarian, each character is fleshed out, and their presence is justified. Even the members of the City Watch, including Sergeant Colon, Corporal Nobby Nobbs, and new recruit Carrot, have their moments to shine. Having said that, Captain Vimes is still the show stealer. His transformation from a pessimistic drunkard who was brung low by a woman, to that of an angry man who realizes he is in fact an officer of the law, is one of the more satisfying character arcs I have come across. It is gradual and organic. It is the through line that kept me hooked. I was constantly chuckling and at one specific point, I literally laughed out loud. Which doesn't happen a lot. The book is hilarious, witty and on the whole a good time. But the hilarity doesn't mean it is shallow. The story has a certain depth to it, and it is well fleshed out. Easily one of my favorite Discworld novels. ## Post Script If you have any opinions on the above or have any suggestions, please feel to reach out to me. I would totally appreciate it. I am waiting for [Men at Arms](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400354.Men%5Fat%5FArms?ref=npiedy.com) by Terry Pratchett to be delivered. Furthermore, I did pick up [The Mysterious Affair at Styles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52843028-the-mysterious-affair-at-styles?ref=nav%5Fsb%5Fss%5F1%5F31) by Agatha Christie and [Good Omens](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12067.Good%5FOmens?ref=nav%5Fsb%5Fss%5F1%5F10) by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Though, I might just end up starting [The ](https://www.goodreads.com/series/51379-the-heroes-of-olympus?ref=npiedy.com)[Heroes of Olympus](https://www.goodreads.com/series/51379-the-heroes-of-olympus?ref=npiedy.com) series by Rick Riordan. Thank you for reading. Hope you have a great day. ### Running a Café, More Witches and Familiar Demigods - Books I've Read - Feb 23 URL: https://www.npiedy.com/books-ive-read-feb2023/ Last updated: 2023-02-26T01:24:36.000Z This month has been frustrating for a variety of reasons that I don't want to go into. But those reasons ate up a lot of my time and energy. Also, there were a lot of other distractions - a new game, a podcast suggested and laddering up in a card game. I was pretty sure, I would lose interest and stop reading. Nonetheless, I preserved and managed to stay on track. ## The Lightning Thief ### by Rick Riordan (Feb 20 - Feb 23) This may come as a surprise to many, but I was a "clueless idiot" in my teenage years. This is not a new realization by any means, but I was talking to an old friend recently, and this did come up. Back then I took up reading, not because I liked to read, to be fascinated by the many worlds I could lose myself into or for the gratification found at the end of a well crafted mystery. Those were the after effects and not the driving force. I started reading because the girl I was attracted to, liked reading. In my mind, if we had something in common that we enjoyed, we would end up liking each other. Who needs cupid's arrows or serendipitous circumstances when my perfectly devious logic made me the master of my own fate. Long story short, I learned there is more to relationships than just "things we have in common". Anyhow, one of the things I was introduced during that phase was the [Percy Jackson series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/40736-percy-jackson-and-the-olympians?ref=npiedy.com) by Rick Riordan. Nearly a decade and half later, for some reason, I asked myself did I really enjoy the books? Or was it a just juvenile foolishness in my formative years? Before that, what is this book about? The story revolves around Percy Jackson, a demigod, born to the God of the Sea, Poseidon and a mortal. One thing that prevails across all versions of Greek mythologies is that the gods can't keep it in their pants. As a result, there are a lot of demigods, and they are all trained at the place called Camp Half Blood, a summer camp located in Long Island. Percy is accused of stealing Zeus's master bolt and, along with the daughter of Athena and his best friend/satyr, has to find it, retrieve it and return it before the gods can tear each other apart. I am more confident of my tastes now. I know for sure I enjoy mythologies, and I know better. I loved playing [Hades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades%5F%28video%5Fgame%29?ref=npiedy.com) and beating it multiple times. Not only that, but I rate both new [God of War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%5Fof%5FWar%5F%28franchise%29?ref=npiedy.com) games highly. And more importantly, I watch a ton of [OSP](https://www.youtube.com/@OverlySarcasticProductions?ref=npiedy.com)'s videos. Even yesterday I was watching one about the [constellation - Ursa Major](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJX5VZXjQ5w&ref=npiedy.com). I am familiar with the Iliad, the Odyssey and know a lot more about various gods and heroes now than I knew back then. Turns out I enjoyed reading it now, probably more than I did back in the day. It is still a book aimed at young adults. And is deliberately written to keep it accessible from that point of view. The gods are pretty toned down. But it is still well written, characters are likeable and more importantly they act their age. The mythologies are respected and familiarity of these myths only adds to the experience. I did have some issues with the plot, but most of them were minor. The humor is the kind I enjoy. And the world building, while not extensive as other high fantasies I like, is the still the stand-out. The way the real world is co-opted to explain the Gods, the Greek heroes and their influence on it, is the secret sauce that elevates this over every other Young Adult series. I had a good time, and I will probably pick up the next book - [The Sea of Monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28186.The%5FSea%5Fof%5FMonsters?ref=npiedy.com). Might as well, as I own the box set after all. ## Legends & Lattes ### By Travis Baldree (Feb 14 - Feb 17) When it comes to February, two things come to my mind - that it is the shortest month and also Valentine's Day happens to fall in it. So to keep within that theme, I thought I will pick up something romantic to read. I checked my library and found [Legends & Lattes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61219635-legends-lattes?ref=npiedy.com) by Travis Baldree under Romance. Before I talk about the story or anything, I would like you to imagine a rainy day. It is not heavy but is more than drizzle, and more importantly the rain is persistent. It is cold but not freezing. You have a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket, and have time either to sleep, or play your video game or curl up into a good book or whatever you enjoy. That cozy feeling is what this book manages to evoke. Viv is a battle orc who has retired, putting a life of violence behind, and wants to open a coffee shop in a city where no one knows what coffee is. The people she meets along the way and how she builds her business is what this book is about. While reading, I felt like I was playing a management sim like Star Dew valley. And that in my opinion is good, it makes the progression have weight and not something that is just stated. By that, I mean, the way Viv turns a rundown old livery into a successful coffee shop is satisfying. The relationships Viv manages to cultivate as she sets up her business is the heart of the story. And they work. They are a joy to read and experience. One downside is that this book makes me hungry. I don't even drink coffee, and this almost sold me on the idea that I should give it a try. You have been warned of that. This is my introduction to a sub-genre called cozy-fantasy. The stakes are low and are aimed at making you feel comfortable and warm. You know nothing bad is going to happen and everything works out in the end. From the outside, this can seem boring, but if you understand for what it is, it becomes much more enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, there are antagonists, there are hardships and hurdles the main character has to overcome. There are some lows the main character has to go through, but it is all in service of warm character moments. I enjoyed it for what it is, and this book is very much self-aware of what it wants to be - a cozy fantasy. ## Lords and Ladies ### By Terry Pratchett (Feb 6 - Feb 11) [](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34529.Lords%5Fand%5FLadies?ref=npiedy.com)[Lords and Ladie](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34529.Lords%5Fand%5FLadies?ref=npiedy.com)s is the 4th book in the Witch Series and the 14th Discworld book to be released. This is also one of the rare books that serves as a sequel to an earlier book, [Wyrd Sisters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34504.Wyrd%5FSisters?ref=npiedy.com). Let me get something straight off the bat, I think this is one of the weaker Discworld novels I have read. Before getting into why, need to touch upon what this book is about. The three witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick are returning to their home kingdom, Lancre after spending time Abroad ([Witches Abroad](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2442.Witches%5FAbroad?ref=npiedy.com)), only to find something sinister is afoot. The space between worlds are thinning and the threat of "Lords and Ladies" arriving to Lancre is imminent. The only people who can stop them are of course our beloved witches. Between all this, Magrat is supposed to get married to the King of Lancre and along with it comes her own fears. I liked the story, but I had some issues with some character arcs, especially with that of Magrat. It made sense and I can see what Terry was going for. It just bothered me how unfairly she was treated. But that is keeping in line with the other books. Another issue I had with this book is that, it was building up the "Lord and Ladies" for longer than I wished. About two thirds of the book is just hyping this threat, to the point of losing agency. The pacing issue I've had with Discworld novels, where the middle meanders, is more prominent in this book. Having said that, it is still a Discworld novel. And it won't be a Discoworld novel if it doesn't have some great humor. The book is funny, entertaining and the character have some great moments. Just not as good as the other Discworld novels I enjoyed. I still liked it, but I am taking a break from the Witches series. Going to pick up "[Guards! Guards!](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64216.Guards%5FGuards%5F?ref=npiedy.com)" for my next Discworld novel. ## Post Script If you have any opinions on the above or have any suggestions, please feel to reach out to me. I would totally appreciate it. I plan to pick up [Guards! Guards!](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64216.Guards%5FGuards%5F?ref=npiedy.com) by Terry Pratchett, [The Sea of Monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28186.The%5FSea%5Fof%5FMonsters?ref=nav%5Fsb%5Fss%5F1%5F7) by Rick Riordan next. I haven't decided on the third book. Please leave suggestions if you have any. ### Books I read - Jan 2023 URL: https://www.npiedy.com/books-i-read-jan-2023/ Last updated: 2023-01-30T03:16:23.000Z Last year, the number of books I ended up reading was an unimpressive ten. This year, I have challenged myself to triple it and the gears in my brain turned to settle on the magic number being 3 per month. I am not so confident of attaining my goal, as I fear I will lose the drive to do so, as more days pass on. Never the less, here I am, having finished reading 3 books and wanting to talk about it. 📜 A small disclaimer of sorts. I am still rediscovering the joy of reading, so my opinions here are that of a noob. *And* as such, I am easily swayed and impressed. My ramblings here needs to be taken with a grain of salt. ## Witches Abroad ### By Terry Pratchett If anyone has been keeping with my posts, they would know I have fallen in love with the Discworld novels. I love the world building, the characters, the humor and most importantly, the sincerity and respect the author places on the subject he is satirizing about. The books themselves feel like talking to an old friend who happens to be witty. That's not to say the Discworld novels aren't without issues. Pacing is one, I always find the middle part of the books to be wavering, and slowing down. But this is usually in service of fleshing out the world or the characters. Another issue I have had, is that sometimes I am simply not familiar with the subject of the book. The second book in the Witches Series ([Wyrd Sisters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34504.Wyrd%5FSisters?ref=npiedy.com)) was satirizing Shakespeare, particularly Hamlet. Having not read or seen Hamlet, I wasn't able to fully appreciate it. I could feel the jokes flying over my head and that was frustrating. And I was happy to discover both those issues weren't present here, in [Witches Abroad](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2442.Witches%5FAbroad?ref=npiedy.com). I was familiar with the theme this time around (Fairy Tales) and there was an air of mystery surrounding the antagonist, which the kept pacing taut. > The story is about three witches who have to travel to a far off land to fairy godmother a young maiden called Emberella and prevent her from marrying a prince. Along the way, they come across vampires, werewolves and other things one might find in fairy tales. 💡 Cinder = Ember = 🔥 This is one of the funnier books I have read in the Discworld series. I enjoyed the road trip style (though they are no roads here) more than I expected to, and that covers the two thirds of the book. There are also some heavy, somber passages peppered in, and somehow they don't take away from the lighter passages. They contrast well with the lighter sections, and also add much needed weight to the stakes. The characters are great as usual. I am growing more and more fond of the witches with each book. If you want something funny or something to keep you amused, a good little distraction, I highly recommend picking this one. One of the great things about Discworld novels are that, most of them are standalone. One doesn't have to have read the previous entries, though it does help. ## Lessons in Chemistry ### By Bonnie Garmus I first came across [Lessons in Chemistry](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58537063-lessons-in-chemistry?ref=npiedy.com) when I was in Barnes and Nobles pursuing on what to buy. It was heavily advertised, there were stand-ins everywhere, and the premise honestly sounded fun. And I liked the minimalistic art on the cover. Given that it was sold out, I assumed it would be a good one, and I was not wrong about it being good. > ****A delight for readers of *Where'd You Go, Bernadette*, this blockbuster debut set in 1960s California features the singular voice of Elizabeth Zott, a scientist whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show.** That description gave me a false impression that this was a cross between *Marvelous Mrs Maisel* and *30 Rock*. I was thinking this is going to be a lighthearted and a quirky read when I ordered it off Amazon. But you see, I am not that bright sometimes, and this was one of those times. In hindsight, comedy not being in the list of genres should have realigned my expectations. So imagine the confusion when I was like 50 pages or into this book and the protagonist is sexually abused by her the thesis advisor. And oh, it gets much worse later on. But that's when I started to realize this was more of *[Little Miss Sunshine](https://letterboxd.com/film/little-miss-sunshine/?ref=npiedy.com)* than anything. This is the life story of Elizabeth Zott and the struggles she faces as a woman in the field of science and also being a single mother in the 60s. This book was more of a cathartic read, even though I wasn't the target demographic. I felt there were a lot of issues, yet I don't regret reading this one. In fact, I would go out of my way to recommend it. Just know what you are getting into. The writing style makes it a page turner. I didn't have issues with the pacing, as nothing dragged on. The plot moved on nicely at a brisk pace. It doesn't take an inquisitive or a deep approach to exploring prevalent sexism in the scientific world of that era. Yet, it dives enough into the subject to get the point across. This is mostly historical fiction, but there are too many "this happens only in the movies" moments, which at first did detract from the experience. The characters don't feel like real people in any sense. Then I simply got used to it. There is tonal whiplash too, which again needed some getting use to. But underneath it all, I was invested and sympathized with the main character, and that is what got me through this book. The realization that sexism is one of those things that will only die alongside the heat death of the universe is a depressing thought. We have made progress, but books like these remind us that it is never enough, and there is always more work to be done. That alone justifies the existence of this book. I liked the book despite its flaws and ability to put a damper on my mood. Though, I don't think I will pick it up any time soon for a re-read. ## Crooked House ### By Agatha Christie The recent resurgence in *Whodunit* movies can be attributed to the success of [*Knives Out (2019)*](https://letterboxd.com/film/knives-out-2019/?ref=npiedy.com)*.* We have had two Hercule Poirot movies, a sequel to Knives Out and even a satire/homage to Agatha Christie in the form of [*See How They Run (2022)*](https://letterboxd.com/film/see-how-they-run-2022/?ref=npiedy.com). To say the genre is hot now is an understatement, and as a fan, I couldn't be happier. So when I was reading *[Crooked House](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9875107-crooked-house?ref=npiedy.com),* I was pleasantly surprised about how much it inspired Knives out. The patriarchy of an eccentric, wealthy family is dead because someone switched the vials on purpose. Everyone related is a suspect, and then there is a question of a missing will and inheritance. So it's not hard to see from where Rian Johnson built his premise for Knives out. What makes this book an engrossing read is also what makes (in my opinion) Agatha, one of the greats. The book is *deceiving, inviting and accessible*. Instead of placing importance on the act of murder, she explores the psyche of everyone involved. The act itself is not a paradox that flummoxes even the most brilliant of minds. Instead, it is so simple that anyone could have done it. The only way for the stand in detective to solve the case is to get into the minds of the suspects and the victims. And gradually, she peels back the layers, constantly adding more color to the mystery. It builds up, at a steady pace, but it never dips. Her style of writing is so easy to read that I found it hard to put the book down. She doesn't bog the readers with the minute details, but rather keeps the plot moving along through dialogues and plot developments. It feels considerably effortless to read her books compared to others. Agatha is also one of the those rare creators who refuse to be trapped by the medium they are telling their stories through. We have seen her push literary boundaries and break the unspoken rules in her other novels. This book has some of that inventive edge. The characters are all well fleshed out, and she has you guessing until the very end. The pay-off, the reveal, was a little iffy the first time I read it. But thinking about it more, it made more sense. And I genuinely had a good time with this one. It is not on the level of *[And There Were None](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16299.And%5FThen%5FThere%5FWere%5FNone?ref=npiedy.com)* or *[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16328.The%5FMurder%5Fof%5FRoger%5FAckroyd?ref=npiedy.com)*, but it is still an incrediably good book. ## Post Script If you have any opinions on the above or have any suggestions, please feel to reach out to me. I would totally appreciate it. I plan to pick up [Lords and Ladies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34529.Lords%5Fand%5FLadies?ref=nav%5Fsb%5Fss%5F1%5F16) by Terry Pratchett next. Also, I might look into some romantic novels since it's February next month. ### Wyrd Sisters - Books I enjoyed URL: https://www.npiedy.com/wyrd-sisters/ Last updated: 2022-12-29T16:07:41.000Z *[Wyrd Sisters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34504.Wyrd%5FSisters?ref=npiedy.com)* is the sequel to [Equal Rites](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507.Equal%5FRites?ref=npiedy.com), the second book in the *[Witches subseries](https://www.goodreads.com/series/109517-discworld---witches?ref=npiedy.com), a* book I loved reading. Moreover, this is my 7th Discworld novel, so I knew what to expect going in. But what I didn't know is that I had handicapped myself by not being overly familiar with the material Terry Practchet was satirizing - Macbeth and Shakespeare in general. Had I read Macbeth or watched it before, the title, the puns, the subtle jabs and the homages would have had more weight to it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2022/12/wyrd-sisters-1-1.jpg) This story has a cruel duke and duchess, the ghost of the king they murdered haunting the castle, his newborn son adopted by a travelling theater group, three witches who are drawn into the drama against their will and a fool. While I am led to believe Macbeth was the larger target here, I was still amused by other references to classic fairy tales, nods to Brothers Grimm folklore and other plays. Despite my deficiencies, I was still had a blast for the most part. The three witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick are the protagonists here. Granny Weatherwax is modeled after your classic crone. Her misplaced confidence and steadfastness tests the tolerance levels for the other characters. Nanny Ogg is a matriarch who can be described as kind yet overbearing. And there is Magrat Garlick, the young and the naive, who is often looked down upon by the other two. I already liked Weatherwax in the previous book, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a distinct presence Nanny Ogg had in the scenes they shared. 📜 Wyrd Sisters hardly qualifies as a sequel, and it is just the second book that focuses on the Witches. It is a standalone affair. The antagonists, the duke and the duchess, have an air of menace and their actions have a bite to them. The witches don't see themselves as being superior to others. They just know they are, especially Granny. She is used to getting her way. That's why in the part where the duke outsmarts the witches and gains the upper hand, I could feel Granny's raw seething anger, emanating from the pages. Without a doubt, it was one of the most captivating passages to kick off the second act (aka The Confrontation) I have read. The supporting cast, all have their roles to play. They are fleshed out enough without going overboard. But on the whole, I felt the story was on the weaker side. The middle part especially meanders more than I would have liked it to have. But Sir Terry's signature humor, the characters and the chemistry between them make up for it. This book does what made Equal Rites a fun a read, the interplay between the characters. There is more of it here than in Equal Rites, owing to a larger cast. But I liked Equal Rites more because it had more heart to it. The story meanders in the middle, a little more than usual, making it harder on my attention span. Though it has better highs. It was an enjoyable read despite my lack of Shakespearean knowledge, and I have already picked up the next book, Witches Abroad. ### Discworld - Death Sub series URL: https://www.npiedy.com/discworld-death-sub-series/ Last updated: 2022-10-03T16:35:45.000Z When I decided to rediscover the magic of reading, I expected to give up halfway through my first book. While Agatha Christie's "`[And there were None](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9723667-and-then-there-were-none?ref=npiedy.com)`" was an excellent first stepping stone. The Death series is what helped me rediscover the joys of the written word. I am not exaggerating when I say I am better off for reading these five books. ## What is it about? In the first three books ( `[Mort](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386372.Mort?ref=npiedy.com)`, `[Reaper Man](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34517.Reaper%5FMan?ref=npiedy.com)`, `[Soul Music](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34502.Soul%5FMusic?ref=npiedy.com)`), Death finds himself not doing this job, leading to all kinds of shenanigans. Mort is a satire on stories about romance, Reaper Man - a satire on capitalism and Soul Music - that of 80's rock music scene. Among them all, Terry Pratchett explores what it is to be human - especially in Reaper Man. `[Hogfather](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6567835-hogfather?ref=npiedy.com)` is the one that satirizes Christmas and fantasy, which I have talked about earlier. The last one - "`[Thief of Time](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/515619.Thief%5Fof%5FTime?ref=npiedy.com)`" is something I am not sure about. It reads like a parody of action movies and philosophy. It was engaging and more fast-paced than the first four but I liked it the least. Death has the least amount of page presence here (is that a word like screen time?) than in the entire series. The series at heart is not about magic despite it having fantasy elements. It is centered around vague occult concepts. After all, the central character is the anthropomorphic personification of Death. As such these concepts tend to be vague and give the writer a certain imaginative leeway. Yet, Sir Terry Pratchett finds a way to keep it grounded without losing the charm of unexplained mysticism. ![](https://media.tenor.com/BE6_4wn5JoYAAAAC/discworld-pratchett.gif) Death in Soul Music ## What I liked? I want to talk about two things - Why I liked the series and why it is an important one. Rather than committing to the narrative, stories of late try to evoke an emotional response by using cheap plot tropes. I am put off by this as it breaks the immersion. Instead of finding compelling characters, I am left with husks whose sole purpose is to drive the plot forward. This is most egregious in superhero movies where quips undercut the somber moments. On the flip side are the stories that focus on improbable misery or gore for no reason. The ones with the hard edge that make you ponder out loud - Why hasn't the protagonist not killed themselves already?‌ This leads me to conclude crafting a compelling story is a complicated affair. What is harder to do is write a humorous one. Sir Terry Pratchett's Death series is one of the rare ones which also gets the reader to ponder. Not to say it doesn't have its flaws. But its strengths more than make up for it. The world-building is inventive. The characters are compelling and consistent. The narrative style's humor can hardly be described as forced. ## Nitpicks Even though I never laughed out loud, I found myself chucking for the better part. But I didn't get all the pop culture references mentioned. So I would have to say the humor can be spotty but it differs based on the reader's experiences. Another issue I found is that the middle usually meanders a little but this is made up with a strong finish. ## Why is it important to me? The throughline here is that Death is constantly trying to understand humanity. While the books inadvertently touch upon the good side of humanity, they try to be as neutral as possible. They also don't come off as preachy. Stories like these, in my view, are there to remind us of little things we know but have forgotten. In `Hogfather`, there is a beautiful quote by Death. > HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. We need fantasies and stories to help and shape us into something more definite. To grow up is to become blind to the color of the world around us. Or that has been my experience. To rediscover the color, to become less cynical, and to believe in things like courtesy, compassion, and fascination, stories such as these do help. While cynicism is not inherently harmful, it needs to be checked and curtailed. And the tools to do so are stories such as these. Moreover they helped me to appreciate the camaraderie around me and become less apathetic. ## Conclusion I had a blast with these books. They made me chuckle, amused me, and helped me appreciate life as it is. While in the last section I mentioned why we need stories like these, it is more of why I needed them. I hope more of my friends pick up the Discworld Novels, but like Doctor Who, it is not everyone's cup of tea. Nonetheless, I recommend picking up these books. On the series as a whole, I do rate them highly. If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to reach out to me. ### The Murder of Roger Ackroyd URL: https://www.npiedy.com/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/ Last updated: 2022-09-09T01:45:02.000Z Over the past few weeks, I feel I like I have been finding my voice. My thoughts are becoming clearer, I am able to articulate better and find it easier translating them to page (or screen). While there is much room for improvement (You can fit a herd of elephants in there), I feel like I have something of substance to share. In the back of mind, I am constructing a post titled `In defense of Lucifier vs Sandman`, (that is a rabbit hole in and of itself) and a desire to write about `Hades (the video game)` and several other indie games. But here am I writing about a book which is incredibly hard to write about. `The Murder of Roger Ackroyd` by Agatha Christie, it is one of those books which has me wanting to shout about it from the mountain tops. But the ending and twist is so vital to the experience, I find myself shutting up. ![](https://c.tenor.com/AvI5eeomo0EAAAAC/confused-what.gif) If you want my spoiler filled review, you can check out it on [GoodReads](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4970052366?book%5Fshow%5Faction=false&ref=npiedy.com). ## The mistake I made Before I try to attempt the impossible, I want to warn others about the mistake I committed. Skip the introduction if your book comes with one. I didn't skip the introduction and while the twist wasn't ruined, it did lessen the impact of it. In some ways, it enhanced my experience, but for sure, it is not the experience the author intended I have on my first reading. I usually skip such things, but wanting to enjoy the book to the fullest, I did something out of character and I regret it. ## What I enjoyed about the book (No Spoilers) Agatha's strength here lies in how easily she can establish the cast. Every character is well fleshed out and done in such a nonchalant manner. By the end of the book, all of their actions were very much in line. That is as much as I will say about the characters. Couple this with another strength of hers, sustaining or raising tension without the need for a big set piece, and I was hooked for the entirety. She doesn't rely on gory deaths or over the top setups to create tense and somber atmosphere. Instead, she paces the mystery such that it compounds in complexities without ever getting out of hand. Adding, new details, angles and layers steadily but at the same time explaining and resolving some of the previous wrinkles. This kept me guessing as to who the murderer was. My need to know was in overdrive, and every time I tried to take a break, I found myself with the book in hand 5 mins later. Seriously, I finished it in a day, and I am just starting to read again. While my previous Christie book was a straight-up horror story, this one is more of a traditional whodunit. One of the way it differs from stories of this kind, in my opinion, is that there is a primary cast of suspects and a secondary cast whose main purpose is misdirection. And the book doesn't even try to hide the intent of this secondary cast. But as so frequently stated in the book, everyone here has a secret they desperately want hidden. And one of the major driving force is how the secrets of this secondary cast connects to the main mystery. When I reached the ending, I was able to appreciate the narrative and the Doylist reasoning for this secondary cast. ## Conclusion This is a masterful tale of secrets hidden and unraveling of it that works on both Watsonian and Doylist levels. Even goes on to blur the lines between them. This book certainly deserves a re-read, and I am pretty sure you would agree with me if you ever read this book. I also think this is one of the more divisive stories ever told. You will either love it or hate it, but no in between. It has an evolving murder, mystery in spades and one of the wildest twists you will ever come across, seriously what are you waiting for? ### Hogfather - Books I love URL: https://www.npiedy.com/hogfather-books-i-love/ Last updated: 2022-09-06T02:30:32.000Z I was standing in a Barnes and Nobles, trying to kill some time waiting for a text from the neighboring Cheesecake factory saying my table is ready. Browsing through the aisles, I had no idea on how to pick a book. With video games and movies, it is easier. I could look up the gameplay or see if one of the actors I like is on there. So here I am, in the middle of a bookstore, experiencing a wave of embarrassment and shame on not being in the know. I could have asked a friend who read, but that has never ended well. Instead, I reached into the depths of my mind, prodding for vague pop-cultural knowledge acquired through osmosis, and I found a name - Terry Pratchett. He is one of the names that frequently comes up in [r/menwritingwomen](https://www.reddit.com/r/menwritingwomen/?ref=npiedy.com) (for all the good reasons) and that is all I knew. After some quick googling and taking a [quiz](https://www.discworldemporium.com/quiz/?ref=npiedy.com), I walked out with a book titled [Hogfather ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18090123-hogfather?ref=npiedy.com)(after paying for it, of course). ## What is it about? The premise when I try to summarize might sound downright silly. Hogfather (Santa) is ... there is no word for it in the English language, so let's just say he is dead. Death (the anthropomorphic personification) using a fake beard and a pillow is stepping in as a substitute. Death's granddaughter is trying to get to the bottom of it all, which somehow involves the tooth fairy. Trust me when I say I am barely scratching the surface here. Yet, this is one of the most important books I will probably ever read. ## What I liked? Before I get to that, I want to touch on a few other points. One of the things I like is that fact the author doesn't with hold or hide information just for the sake of mystery. I always hate it when the reader is kept in the dark. Instead, half through the book, I got a fair sense of where the book is heading towards. But this never diminished my enjoyment of the story. There is a good flow to the story which makes it easier to read despite the lack of chapters. Did I mention how funny this book is? The humor enhances the quirkiness of the world without undercutting other emotions. Anything that involved the thinking machine called Hex and the wizards was particularly relatable to me as a professional software engineer, and I found myself chuckling through those parts. The humor is dry and satirical, but there is a certain sincerity to it. One of my favorite moments, reading, is when Death pretending to be Santa is in a mall handing out presents. Another thing I appreciate is that, how the author fleshes out even the minor characters and the world. I was astonished on how familiar and how much I ended up liking the cast. The world building never felt out of place and despite the premise on the outside being silly, the internal logic surprisingly is solid. Things don't just happen because the author wants it to happen or has cornered himself to writing it. Everything that happens, feels natural and consistent within the world. At the same time, the world created doesn't alienate the readers. Instead, it juxtaposes and gets philosophical, makes you think. The book does all this without losing the humor. Susan (Death's granddaughter) and Death are the two that stand out. And Susan is a low-key badass without coming off as a Mary Sue. ## Why it is one of my all time favorites? Over the years, as time passed, I could sense how I changed. As I age, my priorities have shifted. I could go on to even say, I have become jaded over the years. I have stopped believing in a lot of things in the name of self-preservation, and this book holds a mirror to it. There is a fascinating conversation between Death and his granddaughter on the importance of belief and how it is tied to humanity towards the end. It resonated with me and made me take a hard look at how nihilistic and apathetic I have become (as one usually does). I am not going to claim that this book helped me change overnight. But it made me laugh, gave me the warm fuzzy feeling and helped me introspect. What more can I ask? ## Conclusion It is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest Christmas story ever put to page. Though, this book is probably not for everyone. I don't see anyone in my circle of friends appreciating this one. But it is a heart-warming, funny and most importantly gets you to ponder. If that seems like something for you, please give it a try. If you have read, or want to discuss the book after reading it, feel free to reach out to me. Or if you have suggestions as to what I should read next, let me know. Oh, I almost forgot, there are 40 other books set in this world (Discworld). ### And Then There Were None - Books I enjoyed URL: https://www.npiedy.com/and-then-there-were-none/ Last updated: 2022-08-29T00:36:50.000Z Before I fawn about the book in the title, I would like to provide some context to put things in perspective. I was never a voracious reader, even back in my high school days. I preferred other forms of media because I found them to be more accessible. Over the years, my ability to slow down, process and appreciate what's on the page have diminished. I blame modern day clickbait articles that use useless info as padding to serve more ads. My profession, also, more often than not has me skimming through large documentations. So at this point, I have quite forgotten what it is to read for the pure joy of it. To rectify this, I decided to set short term goals of reading n number of books within a given period. I started with `And Then There Were None` by Agatha Christie. Why this one? I liked Kenneth Branagh's Hercule Pariot movies. I enjoyed Nancy Drew, Hardy Books, The Secret Seven, etc. when I was young. A quick internet search showed me "And Then There Were None" was one of the best Agathe Christie novels there is. ## What is it about? The premise for this book is simple. Ten people, whose paths have not crossed prior, are invited to a private island. They are accused of having murdered someone in their past. One by one, each of them are murdered as depicted in a nursery rhyme. This story qualifies as a murder mystery by the narrowest of margins. Traditional murder mysteries follow a set pattern. There is a murder which acts as the setup, the inciting incident. After which, the crux of the story is about the central character/detective solving the crime. This involves a cast of suspects, who either have a motive or an opportunity to kill, or both. But here is where this story differs, everyone who is alive is a suspect and is also a target. When I started the book, I had trouble following. The narrative is of a third-person perspective. And it jumps around introducing all the characters. There were too many details to keep up with, and I was getting back into reading after a hiatus. But as I continued, I got used to the style. Or, the writing walks a tight rope of keeping the relevant information on the forefront. This made it much easier to keep track of what's happening. ## Murder Mystery? Or Psychological Horror? With each murder that happens, the remaining survivors seem to spiral into hysteria. This elevates the story from a generic murder mystery to straight-up psychological horror. The impending danger, the setting in of autophobia, and their guilt keep escalating. These qualities had me squirming in my seat, yet I could hardly put the book down. Having said that, at the heart of it is the mystery. It is what keeps the story chugging along. Agatha doesn't flesh out every character. Some are killed right off the bat, which might irk some, but it was a choice that worked. And for that matter, the author for the entirety of the story, keeps it simple. There are no larger than life explanations or contraptions or hidden mechanisms. Yet, at a point, I was considering an arcane explanation as a possibility. Every time I had a theory, the story seemed to squash it. And I was running out of grounded theories fast. This also keeps the reader guessing who the next victim is and who could be the murderer. You know who else did this? The surviving characters! This resonance had me looking over my shoulder more than once. The murderer seems to be reveling in the psychological torture he or she administers, and the tension between the cast of characters only rises. ## The Ending (spoiler free) The characters are not dumbed down like in a horror movie. They try to keep their wits and come with plausible plans to survive. This cat and mouse game, I felt, paid great dividends in the end. While the book kept me hooked, I was able to truly appreciate the book for what it is during the epilogue. Often, writers write impossible setups only for the explanation to fall flat and leave the reader disappointed. This is very much not the case here. While I don't want to spoil anything, I will say the epilogue was satisfying and a natural conclusion, while I was forced to search for an outlandish one. ## Conclusion This is one of the better murder mysteries I have read, and it is barely one. I liked the writing style, which is quite accessible. The story is firmly grounded, simple and free flowing. It is an engrossing read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the genre or dark stories. I am going to pick by *Hogfather* by Terry Pratchett or *The Murder of Roger Ackroyd* by Agatha Christie. If you have any suggestions or want to discuss this book, please feel free to reach out to me. ### TV Shows I love - Frasier URL: https://www.npiedy.com/tv-shows-i-love-frasier/ Last updated: 2022-08-03T19:57:12.000Z Before I talk about [Frasier](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/3452-frasier?language=en-US&ref=npiedy.com), I would like to do two things - provide context and set a baseline. Different people have different tastes, and knowing what shows I like and dislike would let you know where I am coming from. Over the years, I have watched my fair share of shows, among them there is a special place reserved for sitcoms I love. I rarely tend to revisit media. Be it games, movies or shows, sitcoms are the exception. I tend to rewatch them instead of picking a new one. I find the sense of familiarity comforting. [The Office](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/2316-the-office?language=en-US&ref=npiedy.com), [Community](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/18347-community?language=en-US&ref=npiedy.com), and [How I met your mother](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/1100-how-i-met-your-mother?language=en-US&ref=npiedy.com) are shows I could talk about in my sleep. When someone suggested I watch Frasier, I was apprehensive about the whole ordeal. After all, anything which has 11 seasons of it means a huge time investment. Nonetheless, I did, and I want to share my thoughts on it. This is not to be mistaken for a full review. ## What makes it great in my eyes! 📜 The premise of the show - "Dr. Frasier Crane moves back to his hometown of Seattle, where he lives with his father, and works as a radio psychiatrist." When I first started with Frasier, I didn't find the character nor the show to be relatable. The show shows its age and is a product of a bygone era. Half the things on the show, won't fly in 2022\. Frasier Crane, the character is an opera loving, sherry drinking, rich psychiatrist, has little in common with me or my lifestyle. On paper, I would have dismissed this show as something not for me. Despite my gut feeling, I did enjoy the show for what it is. The staples of a sitcom are all present and even for the time it aired, I don't think there was anything groundbreaking. Rather, it takes the sitcom formula and elevates it up a notch through well written characters and outstanding performances. These two things turn what would have been a decent, funny sitcom into a memorable one. [Kelsey Grammer](https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7090-kelsey-grammer?language=en-US&ref=npiedy.com) who plays Frasier, isn't afraid to chew through the scenery when the script calls for it. His commitment to this and [David Hyde Pierce](https://www.themoviedb.org/person/11076-david-hyde-pierce?language=en-US&ref=npiedy.com)'s, who plays Niles (Frasier's sibling), nervous physicality brings an interesting contrast to everyone else's performance. Frasier and Niles are, written to be out of touch, rich, eccentric elites, while others are normal people. Within this context, the contrasting performance compliment each other and is what makes the show. They both own their characters and got me invested for the whole 11 seasons. For example, around season 10, Niles (David's character) has to undergo a surgery. In my head, I knew they were not going to kill a main cast member in a sitcom, still, I had to pause and check the episode list to make sure. ![](https://media.tenor.com/images/977715b5b9b6361e03a1efe235ac1358/tenor.gif) Each character in a vacuum is nothing to write about. Instead, the interplay between them is what makes the show. This is where the contrast I mentioned earlier shines through. In fact, this is a first for me, I liked the relationships between the characters more than the characters themselves. Even the scripts and the longer arcs in the show fall apart when examined seriatim. On a whole, everything weaves together in a beautiful yet organic way, creating one of the most satisfying TV experiences. ## Conistently good! As for the writing, the consistency astonishes me. Sitcoms do not always tend to age well. The Office's last two seasons were awful. HIMYM's last season dipped in quality. While Friends turned Joey into a caricature by the end. For me, the highs of Frasier aren't as high as the other sitcoms I love, at the same time the lows of Frasier are a small dip below the baseline unlike the rock bottoms of the other shows I mentioned earlier. 💡 If I had a dollar for every memorable Seattle radio physiatrist I know from mainstream media, I would have ... two dollars. Around season 5, I was feeling the writing was getting predictable. Maybe it is my one nitpick. It trades taking risks for consistency and to be honest, I don't think it is a bad trade. ## Conclusion All of this doesn't matter if the show isn't funny. And Frasier is funny and a lot more. Yes, it is a product of it's time and parts of it are outdated to the point I felt queasy watching. Thankfully, they can be ignored and are scarce in the latter seasons. The writing is consistent, and the performances are great, that I found myself laughing and enjoying the show. If you are looking for a new sitcom to get into, I highly recommend Frasier. If you think I missed something or don't agree with the points I have made, feel free to reach out to me. ### Mid-Year Report - Movies of 2022 URL: https://www.npiedy.com/movies-mid-year-report-2022/ Last updated: 2026-08-02T13:15:18.000Z In this post, I am going to discuss the movies I have watched and were released in 2022\. If you are interested in the list of the movies I have watched, you can find it right [here](https://letterboxd.com/naveenpiedy/films/diary/for/2022/year/2022/?ref=npiedy.com), along with my ratings. I have also tagged the movies as to where I watched them, if you decide on checking them out. ## The Great - Movies that I like! If you have interacted with me, there is a high chance you heard me mooning over [The Batman](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-batman/?ref=npiedy.com). It captures the comic book feel while not being too hammy. It was near perfect movie if not for the out of place 20 mins or so at the end. [The Northman](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-northman/?ref=npiedy.com) was great in its own way. By that, I mean, it was raw, bizarre, and mystical. Macbeth in a viking setting was probably the elevator pitch and if you are a fan of bloody action, revenge tales or just vikings, this is a must-watch. Add [Everything Everywhere all at once](https://letterboxd.com/film/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/?ref=npiedy.com) to the list, and you have my top three (non-Indian) movies of the year so far. EEAaO reminded me why I love movies. It is one of those rare movies which cannot be boxed in two or even three genres. It touches sci-fi, drama, comedy of all kinds, action, adventure, romance and much more. And rightly so, this movie evoked almost every emotion in the spectrum. I haven't made a movie or have seen one being made, but even I know the effort needed to pull off some shots is just insane. This movie existing feels surreal, like the movie itself. I don't think Michelle-Yeoh will be nominated for an Oscar, but she should be. ## The Good - Movies I enjoyed! Two animated movies that stand out - [Turning Red](https://letterboxd.com/film/turning-red/?ref=npiedy.com) and [The Bad Guys](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-bad-guys-2022/?ref=npiedy.com). I liked the latter for the style, which is influenced by Into the Spider-Verse. The former for the screenplay. [Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers](https://letterboxd.com/film/chip-n-dale-rescue-rangers/?ref=npiedy.com) is another animated one which had no right to be as good as it is. I thought it was a poor attempt to feed off of nostalgia. I was happy to pleasantly surprised. [Death on the Nile](https://letterboxd.com/film/death-on-the-nile-2022/?ref=npiedy.com) is another one I enjoyed which came out this year. Kenneth Branagh was the glue that held the movie together. [The Valet](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-valet-2022/?ref=npiedy.com), [Father of the Bride](https://letterboxd.com/film/father-of-the-bride-2022/?ref=npiedy.com) and [The Adam Project](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-adam-project/?ref=npiedy.com) were some of the other ones which I enjoyed. They are by no means great, but they were good enough for me to have an enjoyable time. ## Regional Report To say I have a soft spot for Tamil movies is underselling it. I love Tamil movies because I grew up with it. Also, because it takes significantly less effort for me to appreciate them.Vikram carried [Mahaan](https://letterboxd.com/film/mahaan-2022/?ref=npiedy.com) with a stellar performance. His performance certainly elevated the movie to the next level. [Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal](https://letterboxd.com/film/kaathuvaakula-rendu-kaadhal/?ref=npiedy.com) was breezy enough to be an enjoyable watch. [Don](https://letterboxd.com/film/don-2022/?ref=npiedy.com) was a movie that should have been released in the 2000s. My movie watching license should be revoked for liking it. I don't know what I was thinking when I rated it as high as I did. [Vikram](https://letterboxd.com/film/vikram-2022/?ref=npiedy.com) is the best Tamil movie of this year of far. It was so good that I went back and watched [Vikram (1986)](https://letterboxd.com/film/vikram/?ref=npiedy.com). It is easy to lose sight when you have an actor like Kamal in a multi starer. Usually Kamal eclipses everyone else because Kamal is Kamal. And I like Lokesh for using him very frugally but at the same time still managing to keep up with the hype. A special shout out to Fahadh Faasil on a stellar performance. Excited to see the next installment in this franchise. Also, I want to take a moment and appreciate that we have a franchise in Tamil Cinema with well-developed characters and well-crafted lore. That brings us to the one Telugu movie I enjoyed immensely - [Ante… Sundaraniki!](https://letterboxd.com/film/ante-sundaraniki/?ref=npiedy.com) It is a quirky rom-com which touches on some uncomfortable social subjects. Which is not something new, but taking a straightforward story and backtracking to gradually reveal more about what was already presented had me hooked. The jokes landed, and what made it funnier was the uncomfortable situation the protagonists seemed to be digging themselves into throughout the movie. ## The Marvel Problem The biggest disappointment of the year was[ Doctor Strange](https://letterboxd.com/film/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness/?ref=npiedy.com) : MoM. Not to say it was a bad movie per se, but I was promised madness and multiverse and the movie under delivered on both. More and more so, Marvel shows and movies seem to be this sanitized, crowd pleasing, risk averse products with multiple stars that serve as setup to more future products. At least before Endgame, I knew everything was building up to the infinity saga. But after endgame, I have no idea what's all of this is leading to. Maybe I am burned out and a need a break from Marvel. Or maybe Marvel needs to finally grow up and change its style. ## Final Word and Looking Forward ... Like every year, there have been some great movies and some good ones. I also missed a lot of them. I haven't watched [RRR](https://letterboxd.com/film/rrr/?ref=npiedy.com), [Top Gun: Maverick](https://letterboxd.com/film/top-gun-maverick/?ref=npiedy.com) or many more. There are also many movies I am looking forward to this year, including [Ponniyin Selvan: Part One](https://letterboxd.com/film/ponniyin-selvan-part-one/?ref=npiedy.com), [Don’t Worry Darling](https://letterboxd.com/film/dont-worry-darling/?ref=npiedy.com), etc. Finally, the movie of the year so far is [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://letterboxd.com/film/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/?ref=npiedy.com). If you have any suggestions or think I have missed anything, feel free to share it. ### Elden Ring - Video Games I love URL: https://www.npiedy.com/elden-ring-video-games-i-love/ Last updated: 2022-07-03T13:57:38.000Z The reason I haven't been writing as often as I should, is because every time I wanted to, I ended up playing more of Elden Ring. At the point of writing, I have clocked in 200 hours, finished the game and working my way through NG+ (new game plus). It is not often that I find a single player game exciting after putting in so many hours. There are two reasons as to why - `Combat Variety` and `Lore`. ## FromSoftware's Reputation I have never played a FromSoftware game before Elden Ring. But their reputation preceded them. I had a vague idea on what to expect thanks to osmosis of just playing video games in general. Their games were famous or infamous, depending on who you ask, for maddeningly punishing bosses and obtuse storytelling through the environment and item descriptions. This popularity, led to the birth of a whole new subgenre - `SoulsLike` or `Soulsborne`. The idea of being stuck on level, trying over and over again only to be dying to the same boss didn't sound appealing to me. After all, video games were my escapist medium, and I fully expect to kick back and relax. But I picked up Elden Ring because of the hype and critical reception it received. ## Lets talk Diffculty in Elden Ring When I picked up the game, I expected to be dying a lot, and I did. But the game outright tries to tell you dying is okay and in death you learn and in turn become stronger. Once, I got used to dying, I found the experience more enjoyable. But what I didn't expect is that how hard even the trash mobs seem to hit. In fact, I died more times to trash mobs in the over world combined than to any one boss. And the late game damage spike that the trash mobs receive is brutal. The frustration is still there, but the satisfaction is equally rewarding. The game then tries to balance this out by giving you a variety of weapons and tools, which are equally overpowered. So the over world navigation, at least for me, was to kill quickly or be killed. This applies to the bosses as well. Aggression is encouraged but the same time, panicking means certain death. 💡 While there is no difficulty slider in the settings, it up to the player on how difficult the game needs to be. If a spell or weapon seems to be overpowered to the point it diminishes the satisfaction of playing the game, the player can always choose not to use it. The game allows you to summon spirits during most boss fights, and this mechanic helps a lot. But if a player likes the challenge of a hard boss, they can always choose not to use them. The mid-game to end-game difficulty spike is still, in opinion, bullshit. But it is manageable. While this is just the combat difficulty, the quest and level design add their own set of frustrations. There is no quest log, so if you are not maintaining notes of what is happening or not using an online guide, it is guaranteed you will get lost. Same with level design, if you are playing offline, it is easy to get lost in any of the dungeons or catacombs. There are secret areas, bosses which are easily missable. On paper, none of this should work. This is where the community comes in. The game lets other players leave messages. I was saved more than once by being warned of an imp in the shadows thanks to these messages. The game also occasionally shows ghosts of other players. And if another player dies in their world, they leave a blood stain in your world. Interacting with it, you can see how they died. They console me by letting me know other people are equally bad. And for the quests, I ended looking up what I need to do because the game doesn't outright tell you. Once I knew what to do, I was curious, as to why is this the next step. This in turn helped me understand more of the lore. Maybe this was the dev's intended outcome or maybe not, but it enhanced my appreciation for the world built by From Software. I was immensely satisfied with the exploration. This is as open as an open world RPGs gets. You are free to go where ever you want, explore for the fun of it, or to level up. The game is huge and every inch of the map is packed with caves, catacombs, gaols, dragons, or the other. What this game does is that it doesn't burden you with exploration, as almost 80% of it is optional to the story. There are no trialing missions, or towers to climb or collectables. It cuts out on the mind-numbing staples of modern open world games, whose sole purpose is just to pad content. ## Builds, builds and more builds! The other reason I cannot stop playing Elden Ring is the variety in combat. There are 31 weapon types and around 309 different weapons. That alone is a staggering. The skills on nearly half of the weapons can be changed. Adding to that, there are 101 incantations and 70 spells. Then, there are different pieces of armor, some with bonuses and different power ups. With such wide variety offered, it is up to the player on how they want to build their character. In my first play through, I played as a sorcerer who can hang back and blast my enemies with the power of the mind. But if you find that boring, you can pick up a Katana and bleed your enemies to death. Or you can pick up two giant hammers and crush demigods. That is not your style, how about throwing lightning or fireballs. The most fun I had in is my NG+ trying out different builds in different dungeons. In most games, the option to respec is found in the end game or NG+. But here, it is found early-mid game, and that was a brilliant move by the devs. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2022/07/BeFunky-collage.jpg) My different builds in NG+ I couldn't get into the finer gritty details of character building in Elden Ring because it is wonderfully complex. One has to play it, to experience it for themselves. ## Conclusion The game isn't without its flaws. Online PVP is an afterthought. There aren't a lot of unique bosses. Late game areas are way too punishing, and seem to be lacking in design compared to the early, mid-game ones. Balancing between weapon classes and spells is also a hard one for a game such as this. Despite these flaws, the world and lore of this game is deeply interesting. The writers seemed to have intentionally left things vague, leaving the player base to theory craft, and I have been enjoying that. Add the vast variety in combat choices, and I am confident in saying this is a game I will be enjoying for years. ### The Royal Tenenbaums - Movies I love URL: https://www.npiedy.com/the-royal-tenenbaums/ Last updated: 2022-05-07T20:14:36.000Z Wes Anderson is not on everyone's favorite director's list. I asked around, and I got Nolan, Tarantino, Mani Rathnam, Anurag Kashyap, Scorsese and a few others, but not Wes Anderson. Not that Wes Anderson is underrated. He is considered one of the greatest auteurs of our time. Yet he is not still unknown to many among my circle. Be it the dollhouse like set designs, symmetrical shot framing, huge ensemble casts or flawed misfit characters, all of these sound like traits of a pretentious art house films. Yet, most of his movies are brimming with charm, subtle humor, all the while dealing with heavy topics. I have no idea how he does that, but no one comes close to what he can do. # Why I love this movie! The Royal Tenenbums is about the Tenenbum family, their lows and if and how they recover from it. At the start of the movie, we are presented with an introduction of each character and what they are struggling with. Royal Tenenbum, the patriarchy, separated (not divorced) from his wife for decades, has run out of money and needs to vacate the hotel he was staying in. Chas Tenenbum, the eldest son, is a recent widower. Richie Tenenbum, the youngest son, hiding away in a ship as an effect of unrequited love. Margot, the adopted daughter, has her own issues with identity. And I could go on about the side characters. This is how the movie starts, with each character flawed in a way and dealing with their own crisis. The rest of the movie is about how they come to terms with their own self and what part Royal plays in it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2022/05/royal_siblings.jpg) The Tennenbums What I love about the movie is that, each character arc is satisfying, and one can tell they have undergone a metamorphosis by the time credits roll. Each of them hit their lows at different points in the movie. And the recovery is not in isolation, but is tied to how the characters help each other out. Moreover, this movie touches on some heavy subjects such as grief, depression, suicide, unrequited love. Yet there is a sense of whimsy, humor without undercutting these heavy subjects. While a lot of other movies can hit the emotional highs hit by this one, this one doesn't manipulate you into feeling low beforehand. In most movies, a character's action among other things is also to move the plot forward. The good ones develop their characters so that their actions feel more like a natural progression than just to serve the plot. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/10/f7101a80-6932-4b03-b4dc-971108e4b353/content/images/2022/05/royal.jpg) Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum Gene Hackman who plays Royal is wonderful, but that is what we have come to expect of him. He slips into the deceptive nature of the character at the start of the movie and brings in the earnest in the latter parts. Angelica Houston was great in her role. This is Gwyneth Paltrow's best role on screen, a blonde goth, and she plays it just right. But the stand-out for me were Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson. Ben Still could have easily been a caricature, given all the characters except his are understated. Does it make his overstated? But he brings enough pain and anxiety to the screen without going overboard. Luke Wilson gets some heavier scenes, and he brings all of his acting chops to the screen. Special mention to Owen Wilson, who was also good in the movie. The colors in this movie are used cleverly, and the pay-off is great. The entire movie has warm bright tones albeit one scene and when it happens, it accentuates that particular scene. This is by far the most powerful scene in the movie. It is cold, damp, disturbing and vile. And this is by design. Even the editing, which so far was smooth, becomes increasingly choppy. Just as the scene ends, and the next one starts, Anderson interjects humor without undercutting the previous one. Pure genius. Slow motion is used sparingly but in the scenes it is used, it elevates that particular scene. One other thing I do appreciate a lot is there are no sudden or fast camera movements for the most part. The pan shots, the symmetrical close-ups, they all add to the story. This is one of Wes Anderson's trademark - all the aspects of film making such a cinematography, editing, color, production design add a lot more context than what you would normally find by in films by other filmmakers. ![](https://media.tenor.com/images/dbcba69e0001dd0fc488f11dc484f9d8/tenor.gif) The songs, little narrator voice-overs, shots of written word, overhead shots of things, profile shots, everything is crafted so meticulously that I have to guess Wes Anderson has OCD of some form. Especially the dialogues. I appreciated how they flowed, sounded snappy, and not forced. I never understood why I loved the dialogues so much. [This video](https://youtu.be/q-XoLPmZZl4?ref=npiedy.com) explains how Anderson style of editing lends a musicality and rhythm to the dialogues, probably the reason. The choice of music is mostly Eurorock and often elevates certain scenes to an iconic status. Be it the instrumental cover of Hey Jude by the Beatles or These Days by Nico, the songs adds an extra layer to the world that is crafted. Just like how Gotham is so vital in what it adds to the Batman stories, the film making and the world in Royal Tenenbaums is woven tightly with the screenplay, it is impossible to think of them separately. # Conclusion This is one of those movies, I would like to watch when it is raining while having a pint of coffee chocolate chip ice cream. It is not fast-paced. It is on the slower side, but it flows smoothly enough that I like the pace. Not only that, but it doesn't insult my intelligence and evokes a wide array of emotions. It is one of the best and unique dramadies to be ever made. ### Avatar: The Last Air Bender and World Building URL: https://www.npiedy.com/avatar_the_last_airbender/ Last updated: 2022-04-30T21:02:31.000Z YouTube's recommendation algorithm auto played [OSP's 'Planet of the hats'](https://youtu.be/isdaYjET9cg?ref=npiedy.com) video while I was going about my day. Ever since then, I have been thinking about world building and how it is essential and inevitable to the narrative experience, as it aims to enrich and also give us some much-needed context. While in some genres, it is explicit (fantasy and sci-fi), an argument can be made that there is some form of world building in any piece of entertainment. What I could consider a well-built world is how rich in detail and 'lived in' it seems, and how everything makes sense as a whole. The Matrix and Blade Runner 2049 are prime examples of sci-fi movies with well-built worlds. Tolkien was so good, he basically created the entire western fantasy genre. Star Wars can be argued to be both a sci-fi and a fantasy franchise. All of these franchisees have an identity or gimmick, or you could call it a through line around which the entire world is imagined. This internal logic or status quo or rules are well-defined. The story could be about upsetting the status quo, in the case of the Matrix or what happens if the status quo is upset, in the case of Blade Runner 2049\. If the gimmick is not well-defined on purpose and left vague enough for the author or creator to throw in a deus ex machina or several whenever they feel like it, that kinda cheapens the whole experience. The Star Wars sequels had this issue and as much as I love Harry Potter, its magic system is not at all defined in the slightest. I still love the Wizarding World, just that I try not to think too much about it. Just to add, video games by nature do it much better. Mass Effect and Elden Ring are two games, where I have spent countless hours reading about the world and lore. ## Avatar: The Last Air Bender Now, what does Avatar: The Last Air Bender (ATLA) have to do with any of this? If you are not familiar with the world of ATLA, the main gimmick is that a few people can control or bend one of the four elements – Fire, Earth, Air, or Water. Each element has its own region. The Avatar is the only one who can bend all four elements, is tasked at keeping peace among the four nations. ![](https://media.tenor.com/images/cea1f3cfeecb45573cd01ab17d863eb8/tenor.gif) Bending > "Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world." The backdrop is set against a war and as such this show deals with its effects including genocide, imperialism, gender discrimination, oppression, fate, destiny, and free will while managing to be a kid's show. Moreover, this show has some of the best character arc's ever written for TV. It's amazing how it respects and trusts its audience enough to not dumb everything down, when it's targeted demographic were kids who watched Nickelodeon. Of course, all of this is enriched by the world it has built. The entire concept of bending is not hand waved. It is well-defined to the point, each elemental bending differs visually and by nature. The limitations as well as abilities are shown enough to give the audience a sense of what is possible and what is not. Everything from the architecture to politics are built around the concept of bending and that concept holds up pretty well. The world here is inspired by Asian cultures of China, parts of East Asia. There are influences from cultures in India, South East Asia as well as the Arctic. The bending movements itself is based on martial arts. I want to conclude this by saying, if you are a fan of well written characters, a beautifully built world to get lost in and a refreshingly great story, give ATLA a try. I tried to keep this post as vague as possible in order not to spoil anything. The world and characters of ATLA are something I have enjoyed immensely and still continue to do so whenever I rewatch the series. ### CSK Bowlers '22 - Mid-Season Analysis URL: https://www.npiedy.com/csk-bowlers-22-mid-season/ Last updated: 2022-04-23T22:59:04.000Z As a CSK fan, this season has been painful for plenty of reasons. The biggest one for a lot of people, including me, are the lack of quality bowlers, specifically Deepak Chahar. While on the outset, this might seem the biggest, I wanted to take a closer look at the numbers to back up this opinion. To do this, I used the ball by ball data available from [Cricsheet](https://cricsheet.org/?ref=npiedy.com) to compile the strike rate and economy for all bowlers this season and for CSK bowlers from last season. This includes matches played till APR 22nd and the first seven CSK matches from last season, as they were the ones held in India. I am looking at strike rate and economy because, in my opinion, stifling runs and taking wickets are most effective in a t20 match. This post is somewhat limited in the sense, I am interpreting the most basic of stats. I don't have access to information such as line and lengths the bowlers have bowled so far, what amount of control they have had, match ups or the match conditions such as the pitch report or dew. This means solutions can't be proposed and is just a way of looking at how good the bowlers have been. Also, the numbers might be slightly off. For those who don't have experience with SR and economy, these are the definitions from wiki. > Bowling strike rate is defined for a bowler as the average number of balls bowled per wicket taken. The lower the strike rate, the more effective a bowler is at taking wickets quickly. > Economy Rate is nothing but an average of runs, a bowler conceded in every over, he bowls. Lower Economy Rate is preferred. ### CSK Bowlers - PowerPlay Performance The above scatter plot includes all bowlers who have bowled more than 3 overs this season. By far, Maheesh Theekshana is the best bowler for CSK, with a SR of 13.57 and an economy of 7.69\. Comparing this to other spinners, Chalal is mighty impressive, with a SR of 9.83 and an eco of 7.29\. Sunil Narine being the most economical bowler (5.04) is also not surprising. The other opening bowler, Mukesh Choudhary has a worse eco of 9.75, but SR is much better at 19\. Around the same SRs are bowlers like Shami, Rabada, Yadav and Ferguson, but they are all more economical. Rabada having the worst eco of 8.54 among the 4\. The opening bowlers are still striking at a fairly decent rate, but need to work on their economy. 💡 The Scatter Plots show extra information when the mouse pointer is hovered over the plot points. Both these bowlers are striking at a much better rate than CSK bowlers from previous seasons. But Deepak Chahar and Sam Curran were more economical than Mukesh. The powerplay bowling looks set as of now isn't too bad from previous seasons but can be more economical. ### CSK Bowlers - Middle Overs Jadeja has bowled the most number of overs for CSK in the middle. The issue here is that Jadeja is nowhere close to his last year's performance. His SR last year was 23.67 and had an eco of 6.65\. He made it way harder to score runs. This year, though, he has a SR of 45 (picking just three wickets) and an eco of 8.18\. Maybe it is the captain's curse, or just a phase. But if Jadeja is able to get back to his best, CSK will have a much smoother passage of play in the middle. This could also be a matter of toss and dew affecting his bowling. Another thing to note is that the only bowlers who have a below 7 eco rate this season is Pretorius and Santner. This could be because they weren't starting all matches, and hence the sample size is too low. Compare this to last year, and we see Moeen and Jadeja had a below 7 eco rate and were striking much better than this year. Middle over is where CSK used to win the matches. And this year, this is the place where they are lacking the most. ### CSK Bowlers - Death Overs Bravo is managing to bowl much better this season than last year, at least strike rate wise (12.86 vs 25). Economy is slightly worse at 9.18 vs 8.5\. But 9.18 at death is still acceptable. Btw, those who haven't taken a wicket would have a SR of 0, that's an outlier. I filtered it out for other plots, but decided to keep it in the death over plot, as economy, in my opinion, is more important in death overs over SR. The biggest difference here from last year is Takur. He bowled the most number of overs for CSK at the death and was going at an eco of 10.24\. This year, there is no one to accompany Bravo. Pretorius has only bowled 6 overs, but he has an eco of 8.67\. Jordan is too expensive with an eco of 13.57, but has bowled only 5.5 overs at the death. Theekshana has bowled 5 overs at an eco of 8.6\. So this isn't much different from last year, expect CSK are still finding their second death bowler. They tried experimenting, which cost them a couple of games, but in the long run, Pretorius and Bravo should settle into that role. ### Conclusion CSK's bowling issues, mainly Jadeja's form with the ball and their search for the 5th bowler. Mukesh, while being expensive, is improving. If he can be more economical at the start, if Pretorius can live up to the promise shown, and Jadeja finding form, CSK should have a functional bowling unit. Okay, that's a lot of ifs, but the pitches should be tiring out in the second half and that will only help CSK's cause. CSK never had the best bowling unit in the tournament. Their strengths lie in squeezing the opponent out in the middle overs, and right now they need to find a way to do that. They need a miracle to qualify to the playoffs this year. But they are one good bowler away from being a competitively competent bowling unit in the coming years. ### Making sense of my YouTube Watch History URL: https://www.npiedy.com/making-sense-of-my-youtube-watch-history/ Last updated: 2022-04-16T21:42:26.000Z For a long time, I have heard the phrase \`You are what you eat\`. A variation of that which I sparingly have heard is 'what you read'. And now even though I haven't heard it, I have at least pondered 'Am I, what I see and read online?' The question mark is present because I wonder about freedom of choice, or at least the illusion of one. Brushing those heavy topics aside, I wanted to at least be conscious of how I spend my time online. I don't use popular social media sites. I do use content aggregator ones likes Reddit and YouTube. Reddit is easy to quantify and make sense because of how it is structured. Also, Reddit does its own version of Spotify wrapped each year. That leaves me with just YouTube. ## *The Hard Part - Getting the Data* YouTube does have a stat's page which lets you know how much time you spend for that particular week. You can also check your watch history, but it is not in machine-readable form. Even wanting to know which channels I watch more often than not, there isn't a straight forward way. After some googling, I decided to use [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com/?ref=npiedy.com). This is a way to download all the data Google has on you. Here, I chose to download just my YouTube watch history, got a link and voilà, I had my entire watch history. Neat! Now all I had to do was to fire up my IDE and analyze the data! Or that's what I thought until I opened the file. ``` "header": "YouTube", "title": "Watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BzGlfm1wFo", "titleUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BzGlfm1wFo", "time": "2022-04-10T18:13:36.349Z", "products": ["YouTube"], "activityControls": ["YouTube watch history"] ``` The above is an example of what data was available. Now, I have the URL for the video watched, but I don't have any data pertaining to the channel or any of the video tags. Googling more, I found [YouTube API](https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3?ref=npiedy.com) exists. While these APIs were useless in getting my data, they had the means to get publically available data such as what channel a video belonged to and tags. After a couple of hours of setting everything up, I was able to get channel details of my last three months of watch history. Just three months, as I didn't want to use up my free API calls. ## *The Easy Part - Inference* Now that data is available, I was able to write small scripts to parse them. I tried inferring what type of videos I spent watching by counting the unique tags. While there were what I consider a lot of unwanted noise, I was still able to infer the data at hand to make meaningful conclusions without much fuss. | Tag | Count | | ------------------------- | ----- | | elden ring | 205 | | Gameplay | 92 | | Classics | 63 | | Literature | 63 | | T20 | 62 | | Literary Analysis | 63 | | Myths | 62 | | Cricbuzz | 61 | | linus | 56 | | rust programming language | 41 | The above is not reflective of my entire data, as I cleaned up the duplicates and noise. But this overall gives a better idea of how I spent my time on YouTube over the past three months. This still not indicative of the complete picture because a video will have multiple tags and creators tend to spam tags for SEO purposes. Next step was to find out which channels I spend a lot of time watching videos of. The list below has my top 24 channels. | Channel Name | Count | | ---------------------------------- | ----- | | PlayStation Access | 100 | | gameranx | 86 | | Linus Tech Tips | 78 | | Overly Sarcastic Productions | 70 | | Cricbuzz | 62 | | IGN | 58 | | LMG Clips | 54 | | WatchMojo.com | 50 | | Let's Get Rusty | 39 | | Jarrod Kimber | 38 | | The Grade Cricketer | 36 | | Fextralife | 35 | | Ethan Chlebowski | 35 | | Saturday Night Live | 32 | | The Graham Norton Show | 32 | | Ashwin | 31 | | The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | 29 | | Dan Murrell | 25 | | Jeremy Jahns | 24 | | videogamedunkey | 24 | | Marques Brownlee | 19 | | Chris Stuckmann | 18 | | MrMobile \[Michael Fisher\] | 16 | | Eurogamer | 15 | This is reflective of how I spent the three months in question. Broadly, these channels fall into one of the categories. - Gaming - Technology - Entertainment & Stories (Include movies) - Cricket - Cooking (There is a lone cooking channel) While I didn't have to go through the entire exercise of getting hard data and parsing it, it was satisfying to back up anecdotal understanding of self with hard data. Or this may have been an exercise in vanity. #### Foot Note of sorts My original intention was to highlight a few channels which I think are great and enjoy immensely. And I wanted to back it up with data. While I can pick a few from this list, the reality is that some smaller ones can't keep pace with the bigger ones. I will probably do a separate post on it. ### Reflecting On Movies Watched (Jan 1 2022 - Apr 8 2022) URL: https://www.npiedy.com/reflecting_movies_jan_1_apr_8/ Last updated: 2022-04-10T02:31:15.000Z At the time of writing, I have watched 98 movies this year, at the pace of one movie per day. I logged each movie on my [letterboxd account](https://letterboxd.com/naveenpiedy/?ref=npiedy.com) and ingested them to a local database to gain some insights. This is a way for me to share some of the movies that I enjoyed while analyzing my tastes in movies. Also, hoping this might help someone when making the ever frustrating decision as to what to watch. Now, let's take a look at what genres I tend to gravitate towards more often. Comedy being on top is not surprising. I tend to watch a lot of lighter movies as a way to wind down after a long day at work. Action, Romance and Adventure all pair well with comedy and hence taking a bigger space. *[My Cousin Vinny](https://letterboxd.com/film/my-cousin-vinny/?ref=npiedy.com)* stands out among the comedy movies I watched. It has a simple but interesting premise. Marisa Tomei is absolutely charming in it. It is also tagged as a `Crime` movie but is more of a courtroom comedy/drama. Looking at the next big category `Action`, a couple stands out - *[Nobody](https://letterboxd.com/film/nobody-2021/?ref=npiedy.com)* and *[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-man-from-uncle/?ref=npiedy.com)*. *[Nobody](https://letterboxd.com/film/nobody-2021/?ref=npiedy.com)* takes inspiration from the John Wick series, and I didn't expect Bob Odenkirk, of all people, to carry an action movie. The latter one is directed by Guy Ritchie. It is a period spy movie and one of the slickest ones I have watched. Taking about `Crime` and Guy Ritchie, I watched *[Snatch](https://letterboxd.com/film/snatch/?ref=npiedy.com)*. It is gritty, bold with an ensemble cast. And other notable `Crime` movies that managed to keep me engaged are *[Reservoir Dogs](https://letterboxd.com/film/reservoir-dogs/?ref=npiedy.com)* by Quentin Tarantino and *[Cruella](https://letterboxd.com/film/cruella/?ref=npiedy.com)*. *[Cruella](https://letterboxd.com/film/cruella/?ref=npiedy.com)* might be an unpopular opinion, but I thought Emma Stone was fantastic in it. But this alone doesn't give us the whole picture because movies rarely fall into just one genre. So I tried creating sub lists of two genres, in order to see which combination I prefer. For example, let's take the movie The Proposal. *\> Raw Data -> 'title': 'The Proposal', 'genres': \['Comedy', 'Drama', 'Romance'\]* *\> Processed data -> 'title': 'The Proposal', 'genres': \[('Comedy', 'Drama'), ('Drama', 'Romance'), ('Romance', 'Comedy')\]* This did result in around 78 unique combinations. I used the top 10 after sorting the list based on the frequency. Again, no surprises here, Rom-Com's topped the list. Some good ones but underrated in my opinion are *[Long Shot](https://letterboxd.com/film/long-shot-2019/?ref=npiedy.com)* and *[Henry's Crime](https://letterboxd.com/film/henrys-crime/?ref=npiedy.com)*. For `Action, Adventure`, the Robert Downey Jr starer *[Sherlock Holmes](https://letterboxd.com/film/sherlock-holmes-2009/?ref=npiedy.com)* with it's amazing soundtrack ([Discombulate!!](https://youtu.be/lb%5Fe3xpkRnw?ref=npiedy.com)) is still quite good. `Drama, Romance` is next, *[West Side Story (2021)](https://letterboxd.com/film/west-side-story-2021/?ref=npiedy.com)* by Steven Spielberg and *[French Dispatch](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-french-dispatch/?ref=npiedy.com)* by Wes Anderson are great. I watched *[West Side Story (2021)](https://letterboxd.com/film/west-side-story-2021/?ref=npiedy.com)* without knowing anything about the original, and it was like a watching a car crash in slo-mo. And I know *[French Dispatch](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-french-dispatch/?ref=npiedy.com)* is in its own genre, Wes Anderson, but IMDB tags it as `Drama, Romance` for some reason. Nonetheless, it is one of the better movies, even though it is not Wes Anderson's best work. I wanted to dig deeper and check how my rating is spread out for these genres. So I whipped up a scatter plot. Comedy has an average of 2.5 over 60 movies. Which makes sense to me because comedy as such is incredibly hard to pull off but at the same time pretty easy to land in mediocrity. Action and Romance fare slightly better in a smaller sample size. It is interesting to see both of them land almost on the same spot. Drama, as expected, is a lot higher. Since, Drama as a category is aimed at evoking a reaction. Other notable mentions are *[The Batman](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-batman/?ref=npiedy.com)* and *[Turning Red](https://letterboxd.com/film/turning-red/?ref=npiedy.com)*. I could talk all day about *[The Batman](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-batman/?ref=npiedy.com)* and why it is the second-best Batman movie to exist. Mask of Phantasm being the obvious choice for the best Batman movie. *[Turning Red](https://letterboxd.com/film/turning-red/?ref=npiedy.com)* may not be the best Pixar movie or even my favorite, but it is still a Pixar movie. I also want to mention a few regional movies. Mostly Tamil or Telugu ones because I am from that part of the world. I did my annual rewatch of *[Alaipayuthey](https://letterboxd.com/film/alaipayuthey/?ref=npiedy.com)*, *[Minnale](https://letterboxd.com/film/minnale/?ref=npiedy.com)* and *[OK Kanmani](https://letterboxd.com/film/ok-kanmani/?ref=npiedy.com)*. I rewatch these movies because they are pleasing, well directed and more importantly for the legendary songs. *[Maanaadu](https://letterboxd.com/film/maanaadu/?ref=npiedy.com)* was a gamble in Kollywood, and I am glad it paid off. *[Mahaan](https://letterboxd.com/film/mahaan-2022/?ref=npiedy.com)* proved Vikram's acting skills haven't declined and he can still carry a movie. As a cricket fan, *[83](https://letterboxd.com/film/83-2021/?ref=npiedy.com)* was special and will always be. [Shyam Singha Roy](https://letterboxd.com/film/shyam-singha-roy/?ref=npiedy.com) was one of the better telugu movies I watched this year, so far. And that's about it. I still have a lot of movies in my [watch list](https://letterboxd.com/naveenpiedy/watchlist/?ref=npiedy.com). Most notable of them are [*Everything Everywhere All at Once*](https://letterboxd.com/film/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/?ref=npiedy.com)and [*Drive my Car*](https://letterboxd.com/film/drive-my-car/?ref=npiedy.com)*.* And there are a lot more movies releasing this year. If you think I ought to add something to my watch list, please feel free to let me know.