Cannibalistic pigeon?

So, I was in New York.. walking around, seeing sights, taking pictures. To be true to New York, I got some road-side food. It was sort of a pita, wrapped around chicken, tomatoes, onion, lettuce, among other things, and some sauces.

I was walking around, eating the thing, and getting to where I was going to. Then I reached a square, and thought I'd rest my weary feet, and enjoy the rest of my lunch. So I did.

As I was eating, a couple of pigeons swooped down around me. They probably registered that I was having food, and as opportunistic as they are, came to cash in for some free food.

As I was chomping away at my pita, an unattended piece of chicken started making its way down the paper napkin. I was feeling rather full, and hence generous, so I thought I'd give a bit to the birds eyeing my pita so longingly. And before I could think what I was doing, my finger flicked, and the piece of chicken landed right in front of one of the eager pigeon's beak.

And then I realized - it was a piece of chicken - a piece of bird, with a bird staring down at it, ready to gulp it down.

I stopped swallowing mid-way, and looked at the pigeon in shock and suspense. He looked back at me, in that twitchy way that birds do, with his red eyes thanking me (?) for the morsel that could serve as his lunch.

There was a battle raging in my mind - would the pigeon eat the chicken? Would he realize that the morsel was not what he regularly eats, but is, or rather was, a part of the same species (or phyllum, or whatever) that he belongs to?

He hopped, hopped in the direction of the morsel. My jaw dropped, eyes widened. It didnt seem to make a difference to him. The tension in the air was tremendously electric. In a moment he was right over the morsel. Now, I thought, he'd realize the obvious (hmm.. mabbe not so obvious to him).. and back off.

The world tuned out for me. Time slowed down. Everything was in slow motion. Complete silence. There we were, me, with a half eaten pita, sitting on a bench, with a piece of discarded chicken lying on the ground before me, and the pigeon, eyeing that same piece with a concrete intention in his head of what he was going to do to it.

And then finally, the moment was over, as quick as it had begun. The pigeon pecked at the piece of chicken, and in one quick motion.... it was gone.

NFS Update

So ya, I defeated Razor, and became the number 1 on the "BlackList". And all was done with the Lamborghini Gallardo. It wasnt the fastest, and it definitely was slightly slower than No. 2 and No. 1's cars. However, the perfect combination of top speed, high accelration, and good handling was at my advantage.

However, I must admit, the last couple of racers really had their metal. Even the cops werent wimpy any more. In fact, the pursuits just got tougher and tougher.

I'm done with the Career mode for the game, and got my car back. And ya, the ending sequence was just awesome! I would have written about how it ends, but I dont want to spoil it for you (ya, as if anyone else, apart from my brother ofcourse, is going play it!)

I'm doing the Challenge mode now. I'm halfway through the challenge races. And these are getting tougher too now. In earlier challenges, they gave me highly tuned cars. Now, they give me very nice cars, but which are not tuned at all. And ya, they are not the easiest to complete races with.

Technology

Has anyone ever noticed that technology almost always ceases to work when you want it to work the most??

Be it phones, or the computer, or the printer, or the scanner, or the modem, or the internet browser, or the Internet itself - they all work fine and dandy in peace time. Everyone is perky, doing what they do the best, taking calls, printing, scanning, processing, allowing you to surf the web, etc. However, the moment that you are in trouble, and you NEED the phone, or the printer, or scanner, or the browser to search for that exact thing on the Net, or the website that you want to search it on, or the computer itself - they just give up. Thats it, they just freeze, stop working, hang, reboot, go down, become unavailable, whatever. At the slightest hint of real work they leave you high and dry, stranded without that vital piece of information.. A long wait ensues, often filled with impatience, restarting, rebooting, reloading, resetting, and ofcourse, swearing and frustration.

Why?? Why does it happen that way? Does technology sense that you are in need of something important, and just to play with your soul it behaves the way it does? Why does it not work when we really really need it? Do we use technology for our work, or does technology use us for its entertainment?

Coffee - relaxing??

It was that time of the day - post-lunch time, not quittin' time yet, done quite a bit of debugging, almost brain-dead with the amount of changes to already incomprehensible code. I was getting really restless, fidgeting with stuff, pestering others walking by my office, being pretty vocal. I couldnt concentrate on my tasks, and was ready to go home, but couldnt since the chains on my legs dont open up till 5 (not really true, I can leave any time after 4, but I had to get that bit of work done.)

So, one thing I did among the other restless things was to give in to temptation, and make myself a hot cuppa coffee. The caffeine in me would definitely be a problem for the others. Anyways, I brought the cup back and started sipping the hot sweet nectar while resuming the process of staring at code. And lo. In a minute or two, I was completely relaxed. The restlessness went away, I could regain my concentration, and resume the remaining bit of work. I was surprised and amazed at how I was relaxed after having coffee, when it should have been the other way around.

P.S. OMG. I just realized, just right now, while writing this post - this is not good, not good at all. The coffee by itself wasnt relaxing. The cells in my brain needed the caffeine to relax. OMG. This is so very like a coffee/caffeine addiction. It is, isnt it? Oh no.

Ok, ya, it is. A simple search on the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are what I experienced, and the relaxation after the intake.

Well, at least I know now that I should definitely avoid the cuppa. Mabbe a cuppa green tea instead. I'm definitely going to keep a conscious watch on my intake now. I'm glad I realized it before it got really serious. Thank god for blogging!

NFS Update

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 all beaten to a good pulp. Now I'm breathing down "Razor's" back for the number 1 position, to get back the BMW M3 that he stole from me, for which I worked so hard at beating up 14 other punks on the BlackList.

My Lamborghini Gallardo has been the best. Not the fastest of the pack, but just awesome over-all. It helped me beat up people in Aston Martins, Dodge Viper SRT 10s, and even the bloke in the Mercedes McLaren SLR whom I took on last night. The police-chases have become really really tough now. They tear at you like a pack of wolves, just throwing themselves at your car from every direction, trying to box you in. The chopper has gone wild too now; not only does it blow dust everywhere so that its hard to see whats coming at you, but it swoops down and hits your car from the side. Insane! But awesome! Its not a game anymore, its become really personal. LOL.

Resolutions Update

So far so good. Most of my resolutions are coming along well. I've reduced coffee intake by a bit. I'm eating more of fresh fruits, tomatoes, celery, nuts, and as always, spinach. Had a round of racket-ball yesterday after ages. It was fun, but my stamina needs to be built up. But I'm glad with however much I played last night. Did a thing with the bank that I was procrastinating for a long time now. Did some stuff around the apartment that was being procrastinated. And ya, didnt drive to Dallas yet. But its only been about 10 days since my last trip there =). So, my resolutions are coming along okay (touch wood). Hope I can keep them up.

New Years Resolutions

- Eat healthy, exercise (haha).

- Don't procrastinate. If its got to be done, do it right now.. Not later, not tomorrow.

- Curb excitement and enthusiasm by a degree - DON'T get excited about driving to Dallas alone - its really really really far away.

- Lessen coffee intake - Starbucks is really good coffee.. but resist.