I like watching Indian love story movies — they are a great way to brighten up a crappy day, or to lift you up if you’re feeling down. But of course, this depends to an extent on the overall story …

I didn’t have much expectations for “Boyfriend for Hire” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14779470). I thought it would be, at best, run-of-the-mill but probably more cringeworthy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong 🙂

At first, the movie had shades of “What Women Want” and I was beginning to wonder where the story would go. Usually, Indian love stories have a predictable arc that follows one of several patterns. But halfway through the movie, they threw a curve-ball that I hadn’t expected. So that was a pleasant surprise.

From then onwards, I wasn’t sure what to expect — was this going to go the usual route from then on? Or was there going to be another twist? (I won’t say more so as to avoid spoilers, but if curious, do watch the movie …)

For me, “‘I love you’ is not a question — but everybody waits for a reply”, is a favourite quote from the movie. I find it thought provoking.

But then, unfortunately, the movie gets a litlte stupid and the melodrama goes into high-gear 😛 This is generally what ruins Indian movies for me. Sure, people do get hurt, they get angry, and they lash out. But when they start doing stupid things because they are angry? OK, that does sound true-to-life too … but still, these are the bits that I find a bit harder to appreciate …

And the dark shaming. The girl they selected to be the “ugly one” is not ugly (not that we should be judging anyone by their looks — who are we to judge if anybody else is pretty or ugly? Doesn’t that act of judging just make us ugly?). She is a beautiful girl, but she isn’t “fair” like the “pretty” ones (according to some standards). I found that particular portion annoying and the movie dropped a bit in my estimation due to it, even though I understand the intent behind it.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, and thought it had some thought-provoking bits (either intentionally or unintentionally) but in the end, this one’s not one of my all time-favourite love stories …

#MiniReview #Movies #Telugu

#GetFediHired

idk if this is gonna catch any fish, but i'll throw a line out

i may need to leave oklahoma. and if i do, i will - annoyingly - need a job

i have a PhD in philosophy and i've been teaching for fifteen years. i was in IT hardware before that, but that was twenty yrs ago. i am good at writing and explaining complex ideas. idk what other skills i have.

Didn’t have a lot of time before work so I only got one chance at the Anna’s this morning. Lucky he showed up.

Deck View

2023 03 19-21 day 269-271 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).  

I loosely followed another Tatyworks video. I, of course, went a bit rogue. In particular, including a couple of Ogopogo.

For more info, including seeing the time lapse, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/deck-view/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A view from a deck. Potted plan…

Rose-Ringed Parakeet

2023 03 10-11, 18 day 266-268 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).  Seven day gap in there – I was sick. Again. Because this is apparently how I roll now.

Today, I’m painting a rose-ringed parakeet. This species of parakeet is common in Sri Lanka. In fact, in one house we lived in, we had a neighborhood pack of these parakeets numbering at least 50. They loved the orchid tree we had in front of our house. They loved hanging around on the banana plants and the dead tree in the next door lot, too. I loved watching them and hearing them chatter.

For more info, including seeing the time lapse, follow this link:
https://lmashton.com/rose-ringed-parakeet/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A bright green parrot with a pi…

I will be hiring a postdoc (up to 2 years) for a project on transfer learning and dataset similarity, to work with us in Copenhagen 🇩🇰.

The official call will be online soon, but please reach out via email if you might be interested!

#AcademicChat #PhdChat #MachineLearning #AcademicJobs

Otter

King Fisher

2023-03-09 day 265 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off). 

I decided that today, I would do my own thing while applying the lessons from yesterday’s tutorial. Today’s subject is a king fisher. This bird was a frequent visitor to our house in Sri Lanka, so I feel a bit of affinity for the bird.

I didn’t do things exactly the same as yesterday’s digital painting, of course. Nevertheless, it is done and I’m quite happy with the results.

For more info, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/king-fisher/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A digital watercolour painting …

Parrot

2023-03-07/08 day 263/264 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).

This is a watercolor tutorial by Joel Create. I like learning different techniques and styles, and I want to learn better watercolor techniques, so this was perfect.

I had fun! I want to become better at digital watercolour anyway, and Joel’s tutorials are always good. I loved painting this bird and I’m happy with the result.

For more info, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/parrot/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A digital watercolour painting …

Desert Sunset

2023 03 05/06 day 261/262 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).

Today is a migraine day along with tonnes of joint pain, especially in my fingers and left arm. Did I sleep wrong? Is it just that kind of day? Yeah, I dunno. It is what it is. At least the migraine isn’t that bad compared to my teenage years migraines.

This piece just did not work for me, though. I can’t get it right. So I’m taking a break and will finish another day. I’ll do another post when it’s finished. Whenever.

For more info, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/desert-sunset/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A screenshot of an unfinished d…

Palm Tree Sunset

2023-03-03/04 day 259/260 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).

Admittedly, I like sunsets and sunrises, and oceans, and palm trees. I even love the idea of life on a tropical island. I can’t handle the heat at all, though, and that is an entirely different story.

I can pretend that this is from a photo I took of the Indian Ocean from where we lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It isn’t, but it’s not far off at all. And it’s fairly likely I’ll do more along this theme in the future.

For more info, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/palm-tree-sunset/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A digital painting in pinks and…

My Tulips are starting to open as well. #Floraspondence

My Phlox is blooming! #Floraspondence

A digital art creation of two blue and gold macaws in-flight through the dense jungle flora. A fun avian creation where a tropical theme is desired.
#macaw #macaws #BlueAndGoldMacaw #bird #birds #parrots #birdwatching #digitalart #art #artists #MastoArt #Fediart #Fediverse #FediGiftShop #BuyIntoArt #SupportTheArts

Colorful Macaws In Flight available here: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/143499662

#arizona #poppies #photography #nature

Quite a few Indian movies are either political/crime thrillers or a slice-of-life/family story. Then, there are the love stories which usually occur in the intersection between the above two categories …

"Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnu Katha” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21338696/) seemed to have all of these elements in some measure and at first, it looked like a movie that I’d really like. But as the plot progressed, it kind of bogged down in way too many plot elements that mixed in confusing ways …

I haven’t finished the movie yet, but I’ve hit the portion of the movie where just too many absurd things happen and so my guess at the moment is that this might not be one of my favourites … but I guess we’ll see once we get to the end 😛

#Movies #MiniReview #Telugu

I haven’t been posting much recently, or doing my daily #MachileLearning paper readings, since the wife and I got sick. I’m mostly recovered (the wife a bit less so) but then the month of Ramadan began, and with it, fasting.

So I’ve been taking things a bit easy and not adding more to the workload. I love reading the new stuff that’s happening in #DeepLearning and machine learning, but going through all the papers each day is time consuming and I get a little obsessive about completing stuff. So I figured it might be time to take a break while fasting 🙂

There’s a bunch of exciting things happening with LLMs and I’d like to try some experiments but that’ll probably have to wait till next month.

For the time being, I’m trying to catch up on my missed out Indian movies and there’s quite a few mini reviews that I’d like to write … and perhaps I will do a few of them as time permits?

Pine on a Ridge

2023-03-02 day 258 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).

This is complete experimentation on my part. I see things I would change if I were to do it again, and yet, I still like it.

For more info, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/pine-on-a-ridge/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A digital painting of a lone pi…

Northern Lights

2023-02-28 to 2023-03-01 day 256/257 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).

I’m not entirely happy with this, but I wasn’t making it any better, so I said enough and I’m calling it done. No doubt I’ll try this again. Later. Sometime.

For more info, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/northern-lights/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
Digital painting. In the foregr…

Mountain Mist

2023-02-26/27 day 254/255 of doing art every day for a year (mostly – I took sick days off).

This is another tutorial by Joel Create.

For more info, follow this link: https://lmashton.com/mountain-mist/

#ArtMatters #AYearForArt #Procreate #DigitalArt #WomensArt #ArtistsOnMastodon
A digital painting of a mountai…