BugsBlog

See (the circular) saw

2010-08-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHZTdzl-2tk

Yupp, my heart skipped a beat..

The Bar Scene

2010-08-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

Went to the store the other day.. Saw some coupons for cereal bars.. Thought they would be a good buy for breakfast for the week.. So, randomly selected a few from 3 brands.

Next morning I reviewed my cereal bar options available for consumption.. Turns out I bought a combination of only 2 flavors somehow..

- Maple nut
- Pecan pie
- Maple pecan

Its turning out to be a rather maply-pecanny week indeed.

Epiphany of the day

2010-03-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

Absolutely all the things we ever do in our entire lives fall into one of the following two categories:

- Things we do that we want to do.
- Things we do that we are forced to do - either by another person, situation, or Momma Nature.

Will there be any more categories?

Ab Aeterno

2010-03-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

Lost.. getting sillier and sillier with every next episode.. But, I saw this week's episode the other day.. And I think its my favorite episode of Lost so far..

It showed the back-story of Richard, and explains how he got to the island and is immortal.. It answered the question of why there is a ship stranded in the jungle in the middle of the island.. I felt the story of Richard was very compelling, and the overall episode was intense and satisfying.. For the first time in a long time I felt like Lost has held up to its hype..

The actor playing Richard has acted very well, and you can really feel for him.. The way that he has portrayed his character's repentance of accidentally killing the doctor is very, for a lack of a good word, authentic.. He confesses to the Padre, and asks for forgiveness.. And the Padre bluntly refuses and reciprocates with a very cold "No." Its really shocking to hear that.. Richard breaks down when he hears that, and you actually feel really bad for him then.. Also his torturous time clad in chains on the ship, and then trying to free himself from them is very human.

His love for his wife is so very genuine and doesnt feel cliche for even a single moment. And it is not surprising when questioned what is one thing he really wants, to which his response, without losing a heart-beat, is that he would like his wife back from the dead.

The start and end of the episode is very cleanly joined. You see him heading over to the "Black Monster's" team at the start of the episode. And his back-story then very artfully explains his decision... He has been alive for about 150 years now.. and all this time he was working for "Jacob". But now that Jacob is dead, Richard's life so far seems very pointless to himself, which is but natural and sort of makes sense.

Overall, I felt this episode was very good quality viewing material. It was very dramatic, and within the parameters of the show - very realistic and uncontrived. The characterization of Richard, who was so-far someone who had some idea about whats going on, was shown in a very vulnerable shade, and the depiction was very classy. His story-line felt very real as opposed to some of the others which felt somewhat haywire and not pertaining to the story..

Even if you dont have an idea about Lost, or have lost your Lost (I dont blame you) I would definitely recommend this episode for the classy depiction of a simple, god-fearing man, and the tribulations he has to go through. If nothing else, then just really good acting.

Overall a thumbs-up from me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab_Aeterno

Sad, really.

2010-03-05T07:17:00.001-08:00

I was heating up a store-bought frozen meal for lunch the other day.. It was simple pesto pasta with chicken and some zucchini.. apparently..

I read out the ingredients in this seemingly "healthy" meal.. It took me a minute and 10 seconds to read the list non-stop at regular reading speed. Omg.

It sounded more like a chemical factory showcasing its products than an ingredient list of a meal.

And I wasnt even full after eating it..

I was having a cereal bar for breakfast the other day.. It said "Oats and Strawberry" on the package.. I happened to (unfortunately) read the ingredient list again.. I shouldnt have.. There was not even a single piece of said strawberry in the thing.. The "strawberry" pieces were really strawberry flavored cranberries.

Sad, really.

Co-incidence?

2010-03-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

I was lying on my sofa, watching Friends after a somewhat busy day.. Ross was in an interview for a grant.. The moderator asked him to spell "Boscodictiosaur" - a made-up dinosaur.

Ross starts spelling - "B.. O.."

The moderator says that its wrong.. and the word starts with an "M" - the M is silent..

The episode then went in for a break.. And the next thing that comes up was an ad for the new Alice in Wonderland movie.. The already creepy looking Johnny Depp came on the screen.. and the first thing he says is -- "I'm looking for words starting with M.."

OMG.. In my quasi-sleep state it felt so weird.. felt like Johnny was somewhere in the corner, stalking my tv.. Creepy..

I wonder if they programmed the ad in that way, or it was just a co-incidence..

Not a single place to sleep

2009-05-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

Dang. What a week it has been! I just got a moment to sit and think. And I realized that I am sleeping in a different place almost all this week!

Friday night - at home in Thane
Change city to Pune
Saturday night - at a resort in Pune
Change city to Thane
Sunday night and Monday night - at home in Thane
Change city to Hyderabad
Tuesday night - at a hotel in Hyderabad
Change hotel to a different hotel
Wednesday night - at a different hotel in Hyderabad
Change room to a different room
Thursday night - at a different room in the hotel
Change location to a flight
Friday night - on a seat in a Delta flight
Change country to the States
Saturday night - at home in Austin

I feel like a snail carrying its shell from one place to another - carrying my bags whereever I go..

Who knew..

2009-04-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

that if you apply shaving foam to the mirror, and then wipe it clean, then the mirror wont steam up after the shower!

Perhaps later..

2009-04-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Procrastination - we all do it.. at different times, points, walks of life.. Why do we procrastinate? Whats the reason for doing it? Technically, I should research it, read around about it.. but.. perhaps later..

I think God has given us the ability to procrastinate for a reason - a reason that plays an important part in the whole fabric of life and humanity.. Perhaps things are not supposed to be done at a person's own will and whim.. The Universe has a master-plan, and a particular action has to be done only at a particular point in time - not before it. Perhaps thats the reason that we are forced to believe that we are procrastinating; when, in reality, the Universe is not ready for us to do what we think we shouldve been doing, and thus it manipulates our mind into not doing it, making us "think" that we are procrastinating.

But then, why do we feel good if we really go ahead and do something right now that we thought we'd procrastinate about? Eg. "I need to fill out my tax forms.. Ahh perhaps I'll do it later.. Well, I am sitting free right now, so I might as well just go ahead and finish it up." Then, why does it feel good when I do get my taxes done? Is this an anomaly in the way that the Universe works? If we were "supposed" to fill out taxes "perhaps later" then why do we feel good when we go ahead and do it? Did the Universe adjust itself dynamically, reminding itself that yes, doing taxes now will fit into the plan?

The next time you think about procrastination, think about the immense superpower above and beyond our control.. well, or just go ahead and get your thing done now, and you can think about the superpower perhaps later..

L O S T

2009-03-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've been on a sabbatical from my blog for probably more than a year now. Lots of things have changed in the last year.. No time to key everything right now.

Catching up on Lost - I'm completely lost now.. (not that I wasnt lost before, but the more I watch Lost, the more I'm getting lost myself.)

Eat my dust, Darius..

2008-05-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm done with Need For Speed - Carbon! I just finished the Career mode of the game - I have a couple of Challenge series races I need to finish up..

Honestly speaking, NFS-Carbon wasnt as exciting as NFS-MW. I didnt really care for the main character, and all the others seemed really insignificant. NFS-MW was successful in getting me really involved in the game, NFS-Carbon wasnt. The cops and chases in NFS-Carbon were something of a let-down.. Most of the chases were over very quickly, and there werent any mandatory requirements for chases like in NFS-MW..

I guess I'm bigger NFS-MW fan than NFS-Carbon, so whatever I write here will always be in favor of NFS-MW!

Sunday extravaganza!

2008-05-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

What a surprising Sunday afternoon, when so many relatively good movies playing on the TV at the same time, for a change!!

Air Force One
Austin Powers
Alien
Serial Mom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Devil Wears Prada
The Pelican Brief

Remember this

2008-05-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Note to self:
To listen to your ipod when charging: Eject the ipod from itunes. Thats it!

The stress free Rubik's Cube

2008-04-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hahahaha. This is the best!

2008-02-29T12:48:00.000-08:00

Desserts = stressed backwards!

- Thanks to Ziggy.

Car crazy

2007-12-19T16:41:00.000-08:00

Rental cars - you gotta have 'em if you are a student and need to go on a vacation, or have a mission and don't want to put miles on your baby.

And wow, I've had the pleasure/displeasure of driving quite a few cars. Heres all those that I can recall:

Buick	LeSabre
Chevrolet	Impala
Chevrolet	Aveo
Chevrolet	Malibu
Chrysler	PT Cruiser
Dodge	Neon
Dodge	Stratus
Ford	Focus
Ford	Explorer
Hyundai	Accent
Jeep	Cherokee
Kia	Optima
Kia	Spectra
Kia	Sedona
Mazda	6
Mazda	3
Mistubishi	Mirage
Mistubishi	Lancer
Mistubishi	Galant
Pontiac	Sunfire
Saturn	SL
Toyota	Corolla
Toyota	Camry

Here and there..

2007-11-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

This is when I am here, at home:
And this is when I was actually there:
Google tours anyone?!

Why o why??

2007-11-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

Why doesn't technology work when you really really really need it?? Does it like to see you sweat and fret? Does it somehow enjoy our misery? Why doesn't it work when you really want it to? All other times its as bouncy as a vulcanized rubber ball. However, when you really, REALLY need it, it just leaves your stranded... Aarrgghhh.

... and then the swan bit me!

2007-11-04T18:37:00.000-08:00

So, it was Sunday, and the weather was so very nice; the sun was shining, a couple of wisps of clouds in the sky, a cool breeze. The lake water was cold, but we paddled in it in our kayaks, under the expressway bridge with cars whizzing by, and the pedestrian bridge with people walking by, some enthralled by the beauty of the water shimmering like liquid gold in the sunlight, some waving out to people on the lake, while others jogging by with their iPods.

After our hour was over, we returned to the dock. As we climbed out of our kayaks, we saw some swans and ducks paddling by. They seemed as interested in us as we were in them. I had never seen a swan so up close before, but I'm sure it must've seen a lot of people before. They seemed sorta friendly. We whipped out our camera and started taking pictures. They didn't really seem to mind it.

As we crept closer to the edge of the dock, they came pretty close too. Their out-stretched necks seemed like they were investigating if we had anything that they could nibble on. We were excited, and took turns to take pictures with them. One of them seemed bolder than the others, and it came really close to the dock. When it was my turn, I reached my arm out, and looked at the camera.. and then the swan bit me! Hahaha!

2007-11-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

Its Friday tomorrow!!! Yaay!

Allergy season

2007-10-24T06:43:00.000-07:00

I've observed for the past week that I sneeze quite a few times when I'm at my desk at work.. Seems I have developed an allergy - probably to work.

And you thought you were old?

2007-10-07T02:43:00.000-07:00

Really interesting read:

The age of the universe according to the Vedas.

33.. 34.. 35..

2007-10-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

Late night tv on weekends is bad - the lowest forms of life (in case you dont know who they are, they are the home shopping channel people) are all over the tv.. But tonight was the icing on the cake.. I was channel-surfing for something which didnt have anybody trying to sell me something completely useless, that I dont need in the first place..

And as my thumb clicked the channel button, I was on channel 33.. As usual, some busy bee was rambling on about how the spring mattress is harmful for your back, and you should buy their magical mattress, which will change your life.. And as my thumb clicked the channel button, I was on channel 34.. As usual, some busy bee was rambling on about how the spring mattress is harmful for your back, and you should buy their magical mattress, which will change your life.. And as my thumb clicked the channel button, I was on channel 35.. As usual, some busy bee was rambling on about how the spring mattress is harmful for your back, and you should buy their magical mattress, which will change your life..

Yes, thats what I thought - something is wrong here.. But no, 33, 34, and 35 were running the same ad at the same time! God!

Around more than half the world in less than 80 days..

2007-09-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hah... I've eaten up about almost 5000 highway miles starting July 14, ending September 12. The earth is almost 8000 miles in diameter at the equator... So, umm.. ya.. I've driven more than half the way around the world in less than 80 days.. Something to tell my grandkids someday.

Trains, tracks, and derailments..

2007-06-22T23:00:00.000-07:00

Derailed - audio cd - 6 hours.

Derailed - the movie - 2 hours.

The Train - Bollywood version of Derailed - 3 hours.

Could have used all that time to learn a new programming language - shameless.

In the desi version of the movie, the car that is disposed off of into the river bears a license plate which is:

SLK AMG???? Hahahahaha.
Is that a co-incidence, or was that on purpose???
SLK - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_SLK
AMG - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-AMG

Cool is in the eye of the beholder?

2007-06-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

The Civic. Once again, hats off to Honda for doing such a great job at making the Civic so very cool.

Now, the only question I have is why give the U.S. a tamed down (looks-wise only) version of the Civic?

On my trip back home to India, I saw the Civic floating around the streets of Aapli Mumbai. And DANG. The Civic there is SO MUCH MORE COOLER than its sister here in the U.S. The most significant difference I found was the lights, and front and back treatment.

Heres the Civic sold in the U.S. from the front:
Ho-hum.

And heres a Civic sold in India from the front:

Disregard the runway - slightly over-optimistic. But the front here is so much cooler! I'd say the other one is comparatively border-line lame.

Heres the back view:

Any guesses which Civic belongs where?

Ohh forget these minor differences. What about the Civic in Europe?!! That one is the best of the lot! Its awesomely cool! Perhaps its too flashy for mass appeal here in the U.S. so they didn't bring it here. But, man, look at it:

Thanks to cars.com and japanesecarfans.com for pictures.

2007-06-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hahaha. So very true sometimes!

Dad dilemma

2007-06-05T19:58:00.001-07:00

So, I was in India for the month of May, enjoying the summer chillin' at home with yummy alphonso mango mango! It was the post-lunch lull of the day.. And we were idling in front of the TV. Mom was watching some Marathi movie about something. And I was in a constant-crib mode to accelerate channel changing. The movie kept playing, apparently my cribbing effort going completely waste.

Now, as we watched the movie, there was the usual family, with the slightly older parents, working son, and newly wed wife, their problems, etc. Then, a scene came up, in which the father and mother are sitting and discussing something. Apparently, mom, who was in total control of the remote, got bored with it, and she, thankfully, changed the channel. After a couple of minutes of surfing, we came back to the movie. Now, the tv-family apparently were in the rush of meeting the daily morning schedule. Everything seemed as usual, nothing out of the ordinary.. Then.. then we noticed it.. the actor playing the father had changed... We were like.. Hmmm.. thats interesting.. This new guy looked nearly the same as the other guy.. We thought, he is probably the uncle who dropped by or something.. So, we sat back.. But then, they called him "dad". The lady talked to him in a way that a wife talks to her husband. We were like.. Ummm.. What?! Later, the son meets with an accident and is in the hospital. The parents leave for the hospital.. When the scene cuts to the hospital, the first guy has come back, and he is playing the father now! WHAT?!

As we continued to watch this saga of mystery, the father kept switching between the 2 guys!!! OMG! That was so hilarious! We were glued to the TV, not to see what happens in the story, but to see and/or understand why they were switching the father! At the end the credits rolled, and thats it... One mystery thats going to be unsolved forever!

What?!!

2007-04-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

I was shopping for some breath freshening strips for for my long-haul jet travel coming up. And I saw this one thing on the shelf - it was some sort of spray-on "mouth wetter"- it introduces moisture to the inside of the mouth. The thing was a little over 5 bucks.

Take a minute to think about this.

It introduces moisture, essentially - water, to the inside of the mouth. Ummm.. why.. umm.. can you not.. umm.. you know.. umm.. drink water? Drinking water has water in it. And it wets the inside of the mouth. So.. umm.. duhh.

I guess they moved out..

2007-04-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

So, I watched two movies yesterday - A Night at the Museum, and The Devil Wears Prada (I know its a chick-flick. Don't judge me.)

There was this one scene in A Night at the Museum where Ben Stiller is having a dialogue with his family. His kid is sitting near the window of their New York city apartment. You can see the view outside the window. Its the view of a New York street, and its very distinctive since you can see down the length of the entire street.

Now, in the other movie, this one character is hit by a New York city cab, and she is put into a hospital with casts on her legs. This other character drops by to visit with her. The camera pans over to the other character, who has now moved to the window in the room. And lo and behold, its the same view outside! I guess Ben Stiller's family moved out of the apartment, and it got converted to a hospital ;).

Just fyi

2007-04-21T22:44:00.000-07:00

Espresso

Macchiato = Espresso with a tiny dollop of foamed milk

Latte = 1/3 espresso + 2/3 steamed milk

Latte Macchiato = Milk with a tiny bit of espresso

Cappuccino = 1/2 espresso + 1/2 milk

Mocha = latte + shot of chocolate

Americano = espresso + hot water

Café au lait = latte + strong drip brewed or French pressed coffee substituted for espresso

- Thanks to Wikipedia.

Happy Feet, or maybe not so much..

2007-04-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Happy Feet. The only 2 reasons that I watched it are:
1. I couldnt find anything interesting at the video store in the 5 mins that I wanted to spend there.
2. I have to return it tomorrow, so made myself watch it to get my moneys worth.

Ho-hum. I didnt really think they were happy feet at all.. All the singing and dancing was a bit over the top. I loved cars with attitude, and fishes trying to find their way back home.. But singing and dancing penguins was a bit too much for me. At some points in the movie I was hoping theyd shut their singing, and their on-the-verge-of-irritating tap-dancing, and just get on with it. And its beyond my understanding how the humans in the movie can comprehend that a bunch of tap-dancing penguins, probably on weed, are conveying something to them. I hope the kids who watched this movie liked it, coz it doesnt get any votes from me.

"Ramone" and his troupe seemed to be the only almost-funny part of the movie.

Moral of the story - spend more time in the video store selecting a movie, and its ok to not watch every movie you get just coz tomorrow is the due date.

Not my quotes

2007-04-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

"I wonder what the people from Star Trek did out there other than get into trouble every week."

Some ad on the radio for arthritis medicine for the fingers - "Most people dont know how often they use their hands." - WHAT?!

Again, on the radio:
Guy1: Would you like to take care of your eye-sight?
Guy2: Sure, why not.
LOL - Thats like saying - "Would you like some fries with that?", "Sure, why not."

In Will and Grace: "I was voted "Most Confident" in my low self-esteem support group."

On TV - ".... maintaining speed allows the driver to reach his destination." Duhh! The last time I checked, if you dont "maintain speed", you aint goin' no where.

Really funny

2007-04-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not really fond of really hyper-active comedians. But I was watching a show on tv tonight, and Lewis Black was doing a stand-up routine. And he is really really hyper-active. A lot of movements with his arms, a lot of screaming and shouting, and a whole lot of swearing. But I really liked his act!! I thought he was really funny. He talked about really simple things like bottled water, soy-milk, and showed how corporations make us buy whatever stuff they churn out. And he talked about it with what felt like real conviction. It was really hilarious with the way he was bugged by all thats happening, and the way that he presented his aggravation. Its been a really good while that I havent "LOL"ed. But I was almost "ROFL" for the whole hour-long duration of the show!

2007-04-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

There may be bugs..
On some o' you mugs..
But there ain't no bugs on me.

Gosh. This jingle is stuck in my head.

Superhero-mixup

2007-02-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

So, the other day, I was talking to this friend.. and he was telling me that someone gave someone else a Rolls Royce.

And he was like "blah blah.. and they gave them a Rolls Royce Batman."

And I was like "A what?"

And he was like "A Rolls Royce Batman."

And I was like "A Rolls Royce "Batman"?"

And he was like "Ya."

And I was like "Do you mean a Rolls Royce "Phantom"?"

And he was like "Ohh ya ya.. Phantom, not Batman."

LOL!

http://autos.yahoo.com/rolls_royce_phantom_sedan/

Cannibalistic pigeon?

2007-01-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-20T09:58:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

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??

2007-01-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

- 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.

Trips in 2006

2006-12-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

2006 is almost at a close now. It did whisk by pretty quick, didnt it? What they say - time flies - is true indeed.

This year I'm glad (touch wood) I got to travel a lot. Airplanes, trains, trams, shuttles, cars, buses, boats, kayaks, ferries, roller-coasters (not travel per se =)), and the good ol' two feet.

++++++++++++
January

The year started off with being in India - Abhi and Deepa's wedding. A month full of excitement, fun, food, family and friends!

Atlanta - Returned to good ol' Atlanta.
Recovered from jet-lag at P kaka's home for a couple of days. Surprisingly, that was the only time I was in Atlanta all this year. Last year, I was a regular visiter there.

++++++++++++
February
The job hunt begins. The tension starts rising. The interviews begin. A trip to Washington D.C. for the sake of an interview, with an evening to spend in D.C.

++++++++++++
March
Huntsville - Another interview.

Dallas - A break from it all to meet with friends and family.

++++++++++++

April
Memphis - twice this month in fact. Once with friends, just a casual trip, and once for Easter.

Austin - again, for an interview.

Dallas - onto Dallas again. This time drove up from Austin.

++++++++++++
May
This was probably the month with the most trips! Just graduated, job not begun yet. So, took full advantage of the free time. Had no money though :) Was spending money that I hadnt earned yet!
Little Rock - with a friend, for his interview.

Dallas - Packed up from Starkville, and drove drove drove the little Corolla all the way to Dallas.

San Jose, San Francisco - had to visit before work began, so I did.

Los Angeles - drove drove drove though the night from San Jose to Los Angeles. I couldnt drive though - wasnt 25 yet (had 2 more days to go). Got a chance to sit back, relax, enjoy the ride, and take loads of pictures.
++++++++++++
June
Austin - job starts. And with that, trips of Austin downtown, San Marcos shopping, etc. begin.

Dallas - A 2 week-into-work break.

++++++++++++
July
New Braunfels - Abhijit visits for the July 4th weekend. We go to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels. Had a blast!

San Antonio - Rohit and Bijay come over for an interview. Off we go to San Antonio after work hours!

++++++++++++
August
Dallas - Returning back to S'ville. Packed up from Austin, and drove back to Dallas. Met up with a friend there, went sight-seeing for a while.

++++++++++++
September
Little Rock - Enroute to Dallas, stayed over at a friend's place, and then drove to Dallas.

Dallas - Had a sorta reunion, with some good food, new cars and stuff. And ofcourse, the customary trip to Six Flags over Texas.

++++++++++++
October - was quiet with no major trips. Spent lots of time meeting deadlines, and getting bugs fixed.

++++++++++++
November
Memphis - Thanksgiving feast, as always!

Austin - Company Christmas party. It was fun!

++++++++++++
December
New York - The cherry on the top of it all. 5 days in the Big Apple! Was soo much fun! Saw almost everything that I had "planned" to see. Practically lived in Times Square!

++++++++++++

That was all of 2006. Now, lets see what 2007 has in store!

Correction - Add one last trip to Dallas to this list. Felt bored in good ol' S'ville on the 29th, so decided to hop into a car and drive to Dallas to spend new years with Abhi and Dee. And thats what I did. Spent a day in Dallas, and spent 2 days getting to and getting back from Dallas. Was fun though. So, thats the end of 2006 finally!

Update - The Blacklist

2006-12-18T07:10:00.000-08:00

2 more punks eat dirt.

Eyeing number 8 now.

Got rid of the Eclipse. Had a Lancer VIII for a while. Got rid of it too. Got a Porsche from opponent number 10. Pretty cool. Have a Monaro GTS now.. Seems it can read my mind; gets into those turns exactly the way I want it to.

The Blacklist

2006-12-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

5 down, 10 to go.

Seems the Cobalt is performing better than the Eclipse. I wonder how.

Most wanted - Need For Speed - Most Wanted

2006-12-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

FRIGGIN' AWESOME!

I just got it this evening. A long battle between the angel and the devil ended. After many times of putting the thing back onto the shelf, I gave in to temptation today, and bought the game.

And its AWESOME mann!! I just played a little bit of it about half an hour ago. And its part game, part movie - complete with stylistic introduction of characters, back story, dialogue, action, etc, and part music video.

I'll wait for the weekend before embarking deeper into the sinister race world, raking up wins and points, and being the "most wanted"!

Wednesday morning blues

2006-11-29T16:40:00.000-08:00

Work-day - rise and shine probably around 7. Weekend-day - rise and shine maybe at 10, or 11 or even 12.

This morning, my work-day got mixed up with a weekend-day. Yup, I slept through my alarm, just right through it. I wonder how, even with the much-detested snooze thing on it. Mabbe it didnt ring in the first place. I blame it anyways.

In the time that I should have been pulling up my socks (literally, not metaphorically), I was busy dreaming away - as far as I remember, I was trying to solve some big issue, and I got caught up in that. The issue was part programming, part logic, and part family. I really couldnt place my finger on some missing link that I dreamt I felt all the way. The missing link was that I forgot to get up. Dang.

Finally, my friend called at 10 to see why I didnt come into work. And lo, I got the missing link to the problem - I woke up!

Telemarketers - Lowest forms of life on Earth?

2006-10-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

In recent times, there seems to have been evolved a new species of humans, they look just exactly like us, breathe like us, walk, talk, commute, and all their activities are just like us. They roam freely among all of us - they are the tele-marketers.

Commerical breaks in favorite shows have led me to channel skipping, leading me to observe these species in their own habitat, where they are the most at ease, and show their true characteristics:

Most of them are very talkative; read - words coming out of the mouth, but may not necessarily make sense.

Each of these individuals has EVERY item that they sell on their show at home. They and their entire family loves those items. They cannot live without those items. And they urge our species to realize that we cannot live without those items either. Interesting characteristic, isnt it?!

They have tremendous confidence in the items which they are selling - every item that they lay their hands on becomes "better than the competition." Indeed, they do indulge in supposedly comparitive tests, which most of the time may be near non-sensical, or even failures, but ahh the confidence.

The next day, they may sell items from the competitor, and now, these are better than its competitors (yesterdays items!)

Their belief in every item having a limited quantity for sale during a show is very strong. The next 10 minutes may make or break your life. The whole show is then repeated the next day, with the same item, quantity, and the make or break 10 minutes. History repeats iteself?

The items that these species propogate are almost always over-priced, near atrocious, and almost un-necessary.

I got a chance to see a member of this species interacting with one of us - the individual was selling a hideous orange broach of some sort. A nice-looking model was wearing it. And the individual says - "Look at her (points to the model)... She does not even have a good personality, but the broach looks so good inspite of that." LOL.

This week

2006-09-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Ohh what a week! And 2 more days in it to go!

Monday started off as normal - a power struggle with the alarm clock, trouble getting up, quick shave and shower, breakfast in the office, and then the daily rituals of checking emails, replying to the more favorable ones, checking schedule for the day, etc. etc. Most of Monday went by as does every Monday, uneventful, and loaded with code.

Tuesday morning started off just exactly like Monday. But then, it was a roller coaster ride! My boss, the VP of the company and a couple of directors came over from Austin for the career fair in the university on Tuesday. We spent half the morning deciding plans of action, or plan of actions, whichever is appropriate. At about 11, we set off for the fair, set up the booth, laid out leaflets, pamphlets, and other paraphernalia. The university gave us coupons for lunch - which we ran to redeem coz lunch time was almost over. After a good chk bbq sw from the local eatery, we were all set for the onslaught of students. Ohh it was fun! Till now, I had been the one running around in the career fair talking to potential employers.. And lo, here, I was standing at a booth, talking to potential employees! I enjoyed my time there! Signed up a couple of people for interviews. It was a really different and enjoyable experience, and I'm glad I got to do it.

After about 3.5 hours, my shift was over, and I headed back to the office to resume my coding. A couple of hours later, we had a presentation and pizza party in my department building. So, off we went! That was an event in itself! We ordered 14 pizzas, 10 servings of salad and pasta! I got to talk to students in the presentation, and talk about my experience of working for my company so far, followed by answering sincere questions of eager students.. That went on till about 8 in the evening. Finally, after all of this we all headed home, each with a box of their favorite pizza left over from the party, the day was finally over!

Wednesday - today - started as usual, no changes there. The usual staring-at-code went on till about 11:45, after which I headed to the career center - which I usually head to only at the time of an interview. This time too, I was headed there for an interview, but I was calm, and not dressed in a suit - predominantly because I wasnt the one who was being interviewed; I was one of those who sit at an interview table, and TAKE an interview! Yep, I did 3 interviews today! It was soo different! I really enjoyed the experience. I'm starting to understand how it is so very important to be cool at an interview - and most of all - stand by what you think - its not as important to have all the answers as is having a cool and confident disposition while answering what you think, or what you dont think. Then it was back to the office for some more code, followed by a sumptous dinner. Over dinner, our boss told us that a professor from the CSE department wants to meet and talk about research opportunities with the company.. So, tomorrow, there are 4 interviews at the career center, followed by an additional interview with a highly potential candidate, followed by a meeting with the professor over lunch to discuss what he has on his mind. And ofcourse, coding will be omnipresent through all of this.

Ahh what a week!

Labor Day Weekend

2006-09-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

Long weekend.. a wonderful time for a trip! So, I did decide to do a trip of my own, as opposed to peacefully resting at home, watching TV, sipping some juice, and taking some well needed rest.. Anyways, here I was, scrambling to finish the module before "COB" (Close of Business). I had multitasked to the max extent on Friday. Office issues, programming issues, rental car issues, cable-internet issues, etc. But I bravely trudged through, fortunately remembering all the little errands that I needed to get done before I left town for the weekend (though I did forget to do one little task, however, I requested a friend to do it for me, and he graciously did it.)

I left office at 5, rushed home to fill a bag with a couple of clothes. And post-errand-completion, I was on the highway headed towards Little Rock, AR. A "quick" 4.5 hour drive got me into AR, where I stopped over at a friend's place. This morning, which now feels like it was the morning of the day before yesterday, we left for Dallas. 5 more hours of gruelling highway, and we were into Dallas.. Then an hour spent picking up other friends, and driving to the rendezvous point where all of us met, finally! Then we had a blast! Had a snack, watched "Snakes on a Plane".. Pretty entertaining, I should say - a little comedy, lotsa horror and thrills, some total non-sensical moments.. Dont watch it if you are scared of snakes, or have just eaten a full stomach of food.. After the fangs, and bites, and poison, we were ready for some dinner. So, off we raced across town to a desi restaurant. We were in 3 cars, and one of the newbie-in-Dallas cars got lost.. So, we spent a good half hour phone-navigating them to the restaurant. We were concerned that we were getting so late that the restaurant would close. Then we'd probably have eaten up the newbie-in-Dallas car people; wouldnt have been good for them. A very sumptuous dinner, followed by plans for the next day, scrapped plans for the next day, and re-plans for the next day. This was followed by more driving.

Finally, at about 12ish we were at my friend's place. But the day didnt end there; we went out to satisfy an icecream/doughnut craving. Unfortunately, Krispie Kremes had decided to shut down for the night.. McDonalds welcomed us with open arms, and I must say, the 69c soft-serve was surprisingly good. The day at last wound to an end.

The next day begun with pictures of University of Texas at Arlingtonpuram. Took my friend who just came there around for some snaps of the university. The day was nice, not very sunny, somewhat overcast, the temperature was just right for a trip to Six Flags! (which was our original plan, but was ditched coz of exhaustion.) So, thats exactly what we did.. About an hour and a half more of driving, picking up people, and we were in Six Flags! An afternoon was well spent enjoying the rides (for the third time now!) We left at about 8:30.. The day didnt end though.. This was followed by dinner, and then a game of Monopoly which went on for about 3 hours.. I lost miserably. One wrong purchase, and my game went downhill all the way! It was easier to stay in "jail" and not land on other people's property and end up paying them! Abhijit had a good run, but that didnt last long either! Deepa emerged the winner by a huge margin. Finally, it was time to sleep.

The next morning, we went to Ikea, and got some furniture for my apartment.. Its still in boxes though; I have to find time to hack it all up still. After a goodbye coffee and some well-needed food, I headed back to Little Rock.. 5 hours later, and at the end of a very long day, we were in Little Rock. Some sleep, and then back to driving back to Starkville. 5 more hours in the wee hours of the morning. I was in office at 12, not that I was very productive the remaining part of the day. Came home, slept slept slept slept.

These past two weeks were indeed a roller-coaster. I havent had time to sit and relax at all, which I am doing right now, and I'm really enjoying it! Its soo much nicer to just sit at home and do nothing! I think I have had enough of vacationing and driving that should last me for the next couplea of months. I did a total of 1650 miles in 4 days over this trip to Dallas. Whew! Ahhh.. home sweet home.

Nothing in particular

2006-08-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

Its been a while that I havent posted to my blog. I thought I'd take this time to create a post as I wait for a friend of mine to be free from work.

Its going to be a Wal-Mart week all this week. Hmm let me see.. I've been there on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. And I know that I'll be going tonight too.. A couple more days, and they should pay me for coming to them every day of the week! I've moved into my new apartment now, and I've got nothing with me! (That, after I unloaded a car-full of stuff.. Somehow, you just never have enough stuff!) I started off by getting some dishwashing liquid, sponges, spoons, forks, etc. Well, what to do? Hafta get stuff! Its all lying in the center of my living room.. I've yet to arrange everything, put stuff in its place and all! Right now, its just a big mess in the room, but I guess it'll remain that way till the weekend when I have some time to spend on the apartment.

Work is going on well.. We've shifted into our new office now.. So, we have deliveries coming in everyday for stuff.. Today we got huge boxes of white-boards.. Yesterday we got a printer, office supplies, stuff just keeps coming! Its fun though! I'm enjoying it! A couple of days we had problems with the VPN, so nothing productive came outta the office on Monday and part of Tuesday.. We've worked around the problem for right now, but it should be fixed by the end of this week.

Last week was almost insane.. There was SOO much stuff on my plate! There were things happening, things not happening! I bought an external hard drive from this website, and they shipped it to my brother's place.. When I checked its status, it said "Customer refused to accept order" LOL. And they shipped it back to CA. Gaah.. I called up the courier service, they said there were 2 labels on it, and the driver went to the wrong address. What?? Thats crazy. So, I call up the website, and they say that the order is cancelled, and I've to re-order. Dang. So, I do re-order, and ask them to now ship it to my new apartment.. And now, they call me back saying that my billing and shipping address dont match.. So they cant ship it. What?? By this time, I am almost driven to madness. And I have a 10.5 hour drive, alone, in front of me with no idea of where I'm going to stay that night! Life isnt always a bed of roses, is it?! But theres no fun without the thorns now, is it?!

Digital Fortress

2006-07-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

I finished reading Digital Fortress. Unlike Dan Brown's two other creations which I ate up in less than a week, it took me almost a month to get through this.. No, not that it wasnt interesting.. and no not that it was a huge monolith.. It was just that I didnt have long periods of contiguous time intervals when I could get the reading done.

I've started seeing a pattern in Dan Brown's stories.. In all the three books, the perpetrator turns out to be the person that you least expect, the person who is in a high, influential position and seems to be the good guy all along.. Thats good for the story's sake, and good for the aspect of surprise's sake.. However, when you are on your third book of Mr. Brown, you get to a point where you start seeing a pattern, and unfortunately, before the actual surprise at the end, you already know who is responsible for it all.

In this particular book, I did figure out some critical elements much before the characters in the story did.. However, I was sitting at peace in my chair, or 35,000 feet above sea-level sipping juice, while the characters in the story were on the verge on a nervous and mental breakdown in the early hours of the day, some trying to save their lives. So I give them the benefit of doubt..

I liked the story, its been laid out very well.. Pretty well tied up with the technical world. Lots of running around. You feel like reading ahead to see whats going to happen.. Its difficult to keep the book down since the tension is very well created. Descriptions of the NSA's building, and TRANSLTR are more than enough for you to imagine how it actually might be if it actually was or is.

Ahh what a weekend!

2006-07-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

One of my friends came over to Austin last weekend. He brought with him a couple of his friends.. And we had the most fun time ever in Austin!

The weekend began at 3:30pm on Friday! People from our office took us to play Glow-in-the-dark-putt-putt-golf. About 2 hours into it, and I ended up at 5th place out of 7 people. I'll try again, I'll get better :).

Later in the evening, we went out to a lake, saw some dogs play around in the water, followed by a visit to a mall, and the omnipresent Starbucks. Caught the late evening show of Cars and by then it was too late, and I was too tired to do anything else.

Saturday morning my friends came over, we met at the Capital of Texas building. I hadnt been inside it before that.. so thats exactly what we did. And it was a good relief to get out of the humid afternoon heat.

After lots of picture taking in the Capital building, we shuttled over to an upscale grocery store where we had lunch. Theres like a dozen stations to pick from - bbq, sushi, chinese, pizza, bakery, southern, etc. Post-lunch, we decided to go to a mall, where I incorrectly gathered that theres a lazer-tag arcade. So, after a couple of quick calls to the bus people to get routes to the mall, we raced a bus to the bus-stop to catch it before it left and ended up at the mall. Alas, there wasnt a lazer-tag arcade, and we ended up just walking around it.

Then, back to Austin downtown, and we fought for a place
under the Congress bridge to watch the 750,000 bats that come out of the bridge everynight at sunset in summer. After a long wait (and a little bat-cursing), we saw the bats stream out endlessly out from under the bridge. Some more pictures of downtown in the fading evening light and we jumped into the "Bugsmobile" and came back home, only to rest for half an hour and then back to watch Cars!

Sunday saw us searching for the canoe rental at Town Lake. We found it finally, and rented a couple of canoes and a kayak. My friend and I were in a kayak... and mann it was fun! We were on the water for almost 2 hours, pretty tired by the end of it - rowing is a good workout indeed. After a quick shower and change, we met up for lunch in a restaurant in downtown, where the 6 of us gulped down enormous quantities of food.

After a short walk to the bus stop, it was time to say good-bye, as they headed off, and I came back to take some much needed rest.. Ahh what a weekend!

Cars

2006-07-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

I had been waiting for a good amount of time for Cars to come out. I watched almost all of the trailers and teasers that came out before the movie. It looked pretty interesting. But I was blown away by the movie. I really really liked it.

Firstly, I got to watch the digital version of the film. It was exquisite. The colors were so very vibrant. The animation quality was excellent. Pixar is really getting better at what they do.

I loved the story line. The characters are portrayed so wonderfully. You really start believing these cars to have their own individual personalities. I loved Mater, Mario, Luigi, and Mack the truck. But, all of them are so good in their own special way. There are tiny jokes all through the movie, and watching it a second time (which I did!) or even a third (which I intend to) is worth the ticket money. The part where Mater and McQueen go "tractor-tipping" made the entire theater burst into laughter!

Some might feel the pace of the movie slow down after about 30 minutes. But I think the slow pace does effectively symbolize the slow and laid back life in a small town. The scenes in the big city are fast and hectic, while those in Radiator Springs are much more relaxed. I liked the fact that they didnt try to make the cars look explicitly similar to the actors voicing them, as in Shark Tale. But most say that the cars do have a tinge of the actor voicing them, especially Paul Newman. The flash-back of when the interstate is built, and Route 66 is by-passed does make you feel a tad sad for the cars in Radiator Springs. I bet the lives of real people along an old road thats been by-passed by a big highway mustn't have been much different. A real example is the Mumbai-Pune highway. The old NH4 is being used lesser and lesser every month, as people prefer the new expressway. Now, small towns, restaurants, and road-side attractions that have been by-passed seem like they've had their time in the lime-light, and now they're languishing in dust, dirt, and empty chairs and tables, which once had families around them, kids playing, cars cooling down. Many of my childhood memories of going to Pune are of the spots on the highways, favorite turns, sandwich stops, the treacherous hilly road, etc. Ahh well..

The more that I think of Cars, the more I like it. Each of the cars, even the ones at the side, eg. Mia and Tia - the Mazda Miatas - McQueen's fans, Fred - the rusty truck, the sponsors of McQueen, Mack the truck, the helicopters, etc. have "acted" so very nicely.

All in all, a very nice story, deep characterizations, plenty of attention to minute details, lots of explicit and sublte humor, and exquisite visuals. Go watch it before it goes off the big screen.

A month into the job

2006-07-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've written a post. I'vent been having a lot of time now, since I've started working now! But mainly because I've been too lazy to write a post on my time off from work!

It'll be exactly a month tomorrow in my job. I like it so far. The functional training so far was pretty interesting; I got to learn a number of business processes, and Oracle Applications. From last week, we've been put onto code. The code was pretty overwhelming at first.. Its always difficult (for me, at least) to look at someone else's code and make sense of it straightaway rather than writing my own code. But, I'm getting the hang of it now, and know which section of code does what.

The people in the office have been pretty friendly so far. They are all very excited about the development center in Mississippi. We'll be getting a few more people there in August, and some more in December. So, it'll be pretty interesting.

Da Vinci

2006-06-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

So, I watched the much famed "The Da Vinci Code" yesterday after all. A free ticket made me more than enthusiastic to go watch it. I had intially planned to watch it first day first show. However, fortunately or unfortunately, I was enjoying myself wild in San Francisco the day of its release, so plans of fdfs down the drain. Anyways, a hot Friday evening yesterday was well-spent indeed.

I must mention at this point that this is the FIRST movie ever EVER that I have watched alone. I have never watched a movie alone.. Normally, I would prefer to sit at home and crib about the world being unfair than going to watch a movie alone. But I really didnt want to miss watching Da Vinci in a theater (its already more than 3 weeks from its release I think), and I really didnt want to waste a free ticket on a Friday evening.

I am one of those who have already read the book before watching the movie.. and after watching the movie, I am now one of those who think that the book was better than the movie. No, dont get me wrong, the movie is very entertaining indeed. But I'm not sure how entertaining it would be if you went and watched it without having an idea about what the
fuss is about.

One thing that I liked tremendously about the movie is that the settings, the mood, the buildings, are exactly as that what you'd imagine while reading the book. E.g. the descriptions of Sauniere running in the gallery, Silas in the church with the Rose Line, Teabing's estate, the bank, the vault mechanisam, etc. felt like I'd seen them before, only that I had imagined something very similar during my journey through the book.

Some of the surprising moments, e.g. who the "Teacher" is, the characters of the butler and Silas, seem to be played down in the movie. But Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou have played their parts very effectively indeed. As are the characters of Bezu Fache (I like saying that :) ), Teabing, and others that come and go.

I really cant think of anything else to write. Perhaps because its almost 3 in the morning, and I need some sleep. Good night!

Fanaaaaahh.. dont do it

2006-06-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from watching Fanaa.. Whew.
I'm not a very pessimistic sort of person; trying to find things wrong in everything... but.. I think I have wasted a good 3 hours and 15 minutes of my precious life watching this.. this atrocity. If I was to torture someone, I would make them sit and watch this movie over and over and over again. I can go on and on and on about things I found unacceptable in the movie, but I wouldnt want to fill up this post with each and every detail that incrementally made the movie worse. I would run out of space availability.
The first hour is spent trying to create romance between the two characters.. which I didnt think came out very effective. An HOUR spent establishing the fact that they love each other.. An HOUR. After that, theres some movement in the plot with this guy turning out to be not what he seemed to be (I wouldnt want to spoil the surprise (however slight it is) to those who havent watched it yet (which I wouldnt recommend anyways.)) Theres some hope of some movement in the plot.. but after an abrupt and quick spike, it relegates itself to being dragged along for another hour.. In the mid of the second hour, theres a kid who is introduced. He seems cute for a while.. but he has this obsessive compulsive disorder of using the third person to refer to himself.. which is extremely irritating after a while, to say the least. There are some characters whose character development is stunted at infancy. Some are completely unnecessary and irrelevant. The others do/say such things that do not befit the character that they portray. This one person wants to "rule the world" (I'm not saying what exactly he wants to do, since I dont want to spoil it for those who havent seen this blunder.) There is a delay of more than a week to get this one thing that can enable him to "rule the world".. But postpones going to pick it up to the next day because of bad weather. Ohh please!! A little rain and snow couldnt stop you if you were that close to ruling the world! Gaaaah. Punctuated with periodic wailing in the background, the entire 3 hours seem dreadful. Theres a lot of shayari, but theres only so much that you can listen to and tolerate. You start praying to these characters to stop their shayari, stop their senseless singing and dancing, stop the crocodile tears, which spring occasionally, stop the irritating kid, blow some sense into their heads, and get on with the story, which in itself, isnt very much either. I've seen a couple of movies with very sensitive topics.. but none were handled this badly.

I'm sorry to all those Fanaa fans out there if I've hurt their sentiments, but I really really disliked this movie, and I'm going to go ahead and add this to one of the worst movies I've seen. In fact, I would place this above Khushi on my worst movie list. (Dont get me started on Khushi.) I would not recommend this movie to anyone. DONT WATCH IT. Please dont. Go learn a new language. Build a mud castle. Do not spend your time and money watching this. Trust me.. You'll regret if you dont. Have a great day!

Laazy Saaturday

2006-05-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

Sunrise today was as it always is, early early in the morning. My morning began at around 12:30pm. Breakfast was skipped altogether. Lunch was 3 french toast sticks and a couple of potato filled perogies. The biggest thing we did today was to build (read - assemble) a tv stand. My friend bought a tv yesterday. We lugged it to his 2nd floor apartment at 1am last night. I guess that explains the "early" morning today. They have made so many advances in technology, I dont understand why they cant design in a couple of hand-grips that you can lift a tv up with. I mean, come on, only the extra extra rich people can afford a fork-lift and a 100 assistants to gently place a tv in a probably enormous living room in a palatial house. But for the rest of us, the 12 steps up to the 2nd floor with a 100 lb tv are really dreadful!

The rest of the day was spent watching movies (on the newly bought, above mentioned tv.) Yep, we went to the video store 4 times today, exchanging, and re-exchanging movies.
We watched:
Flight 93
Dude, Wheres my car?
When a Stranger Calls
Sienfeld (I dont know which season)

Well, tomorrow we've planned to get out and go visit a couple'a places. Lets see if we do accomplish that, or if tomorrow is the same as today! Its already about 2am now, I better retire for the day else it'll be today all over tomorrow again!

The Golden State

2006-05-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

Yep, I finally got to visit California! Got up and left, is more like it.
This trip was completely unplanned - no maps, no directions, no looking up points of interests, no charting out the course for the weekend, no reservations, no bookings, nothing! I bought a flight ticket, and reserved a car online, thats about all the planning for the trip that I did!

I ended up at San Jose airport, enthusiastic, excited, and full of energy. I get keys for the car, dump my stuff in the back, and turn on the ac to counteract the mid-day heat. And then.. blank. I didnt know what to do! I had no maps, no idea of where I should go, no idea of what I should do! So, I went back to the counter and got a basic monochromatic map of the area. Now I knew which interstate looped around, and which one went to San Francisco! I had to pick up a friend who had come a day earlier, so I couldnt go off to San Francisco on my own. So, I made a short term goal of going to San Jose downtown. By the time I finished that, my friend called, and I went to pick him up. The rest of the evening, we spent oogling at the offices of Yahoo!, Sun, McAfee, Adobe, etc.

A cloudy overcast Friday morning saw us negotiating the traffic in San Francisco. I must say, no offence of SFians, but you guys really drive slow! 70% of the people are at the speed limit, the rest are at less than the limit, ofcourse, with the occasional punk at 75 or 80. You should come to Dallas. Everyone drives not less than 5 over the speed limit, unless theres a watchful cop car in view.

San Franciso is a very welcoming city. Seattle, somewhat geographically similar, has a snobbish air to it. We visited the usual tourist spots - the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, the crooked street. We missed ChinaTown and Alcatraz. I loved Fisherman's Wharf. My purely vegetarian friend had a hard time inhaling the air filled with sea food aroma! I had a crab cake at a street vendor. The warm crab cake with hot sauce, standing out on the street, with people milling around, shopping, laughing, dipping large pieces of sour dough bread in their clam chowder, the slighlty chilly weather, with a hint of rain, beside boats tied up at the dock, wonderful!

A late-late-night drive got us into Los Angeles. Inspite of our enthusiasm, we could rise and shine only around 11 the next day! So, we ditched our plan of visiting Universal Studios, and went around instead to Malibu, Santa Monica, and later Hollywood! Gosh, Malibu - if you line up 15 cars, 12 of them would be either a three pointed star, a prancing horse, a beemer, or a 911 and its cousins. Eye-candy indeed! I liked Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Its like a perennial party, with street performers, fashion concscious people, and lotsa good places to binge. We had friends and friends of friends join, making us a group of a dozen chattering primates. We had New York style pizza standing on the street. It was fun!

Later in the evening we went to Hollywood. After paying an atrocious 12 bucks for an hour's parking, we strode along the famous Walk of Fame, juggling to seep in the Saturday night party atmosphere, and the stars of famous people on the pavement.

Retiring back to the hotel rather late at night again took its toll, and we were about 2 hours behind "schedule" on Sunday. Sunday we went to Universal Studios. I loved the studio tour. We had a camera/battery/compact flash card crisis, but managed to click enough pictures. There were a couple of rides, which werent as exhilarating as those of Six Flags, but they were ok.

We finally bid good-bye to LA at 6 in the evening, and relied on the irritating GPS in the car to get us back to San Jose. We got about 2 hours of sunlight before sunset, and the views of the moutains going out of LA were really wonderful. More pictures. Finally, after missing a highway, the GPS made us come through THE only toll road near San Jose! It was like reprimanding us for making the mistake. We payed 3 bucks for a piece of road. But that piece of road was over the bay, and it was pretty scenic at night too; during the day I'm sure it must be beautiful.

We reached around 2:30. An hours rest, and then it was back to the airport to catch a flight back. I really enjoyed this trip. Mainly, I learnt that not evey minute needs to be accounted and planned for beforehand. Things magically happen. People recommend things to do, sights to see, when you are thinking of what to do next! Everything falls into place. Ya, we missed out on some sights, but we really enjoyed the ones that we did see. I would go back for a trip anytime!

Its okay sometimes..

2006-05-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Its okay sometimes to make wrong decisions. All decisions need not be the right ones. Its okay sometimes to not plan anything at all, just go with the flow, and see what happens, how things turn out. Its okay sometimes to not know whats going to happen next. Its okay sometimes to (most of the time you should) do something if its going to help others even if doing it is of absolutely no interest or profit to you. Its okay sometimes to make mistakes.. you wouldnt experience what you did if you didnt make the mistake. Its okay sometimes to do things out of sheer passion, even if they dont make any logical sense. Its okay sometimes to let the heart rule your actions, rather than the mind. If we all did all the right things all the time, life wouldnt be so exciting now, would it?

Bu212

2006-05-12T00:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, well, today for that matter, is my last day as an official student at Mississippi State University. I graduate on Saturday. Done. I have finished my Masters finally. It took a while, but I enjoyed the journey. As I sit here typing this, I sit at a table that I just cleaned up, and boxed up most of the paraphernalia (read - mess) that makes this corner of the room mine. I will finally leave my much-coveted window seat. Its good-bye time to the lab. I had foreseen it coming soon.. but somehow, I feel it has come without my knowing of it. Its been my second home.. well, I must say first home since I must have spent more time here than at home. I have learnt a lot of things in this lab (more technical than philosophical ofcourse.) I hope I have imprinted on it at least a little bit of me as I leave.

Things change, and life moves on. We have to accept change.. I am so ready for it..

Manual or automatic? Why is life complicated?

2006-05-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking.. Manual or automatic? Well, this thinking is for the next car that I'll buy.. but not for a good while though. Its a battle constantly waging in my head when I dont have anything useful to do.

I read some columns that compared manual transmissions with automatic transmissions. The virtual consensus was that manuals are much better (I'll elaborate soon.. patience my good man/woman) than automatics. But experts say that with technology heading the way it is, the gear stick may become as obsolete as wind-down windows are presently.

After having driven a manual (the dear ol' Santro, as an example) and a number of automatics (mainly here in the US), I seem to long for the gear stick. The manual gives you control of the car.. The automatic - just sit and steer.. No fun at all. Manuals have been known for better performance, better mileage (though, the figures of present automatics can easily hold their own in a fair debate), lesser maintenance worries, lower chances of the transmission going bust, better control and feel of the car. Mainly, manuals are FUN to drive, more driver-interactive. Automatics on the other hand are more convenient to use (read - in stop and go traffic), no juggling the clutch, brake, gear, wheel, mirror, indicator, blind-spot while trying to merge onto a freeway.

The main concern regarding manuals is the re-sale value. Since most cars in the US are automatics, and a majority of people prefer automatics, the re-sale that you'd get for a manual may not be as much as an automatic. However, think of all the fun that you'd have driving the manual around all the time that you've had it, which you would've been devoid of if you'd settled on an automatic instead. Hmmm.. interesting trade-off.. Well, most of Europe has manuals.. So, you could potentially go sell your manual there, after, ofcourse, spending vacation money (or for that matter, new car money) on shipping the car across, shipping yourself across, the excise, import, and immigration formalities, and then the only remaining thing - convincing them with a hundred odd reasons to buy from you.

Then, there are these manu-automatic cars.. I'vent driven those as yet to give my 2 cents on them.. But I'd probably feel cheated in them.. They'd give you the illusion of being in control of the car.. but it'll shift up or shift down on its own if required.. Booo. Also, most manu-automatics are +/-. Here again, you dont get the actual pleasure of shifting the gear-stick into a 4th or 5th (or 6th if you're really rich and/or in a Mercedes or Porsche).. Boo again. And not to mention, no clutch. Booo booo.

If you drive to work and drive back home everyday on the same piece of road, you could have some fun revving a manual around.. or the calm convenience of letting the automatic gear box do its thing (mainly, among other things, taking away the sheer joy of driving.) I'm biased towards manuals. So, any ardent automatic fans out there, please let me know why an automatic.

Orkutted

2006-05-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

So, finally, after much resistance, I finally gave in to the orkut craze. I already have my profiles at a couple of other websites, and the thought of reentering all that again was putting me off. Also, I already had enough things to do this semester. So, I did not even give it a second thought.

But, finally, 2 days ago, I signed in, made a basic profile, and took a look at it. And lo, I found so many "long-lost" friends! Most of them are already in the US, and most of those in the US are in places that I have already visited, or I keep visiting occasionally! And most people commented on me getting onto orkut a bit late.. I guess I was out of the loop for quite a while.

But I'm glad I didnt get onto it before. I have just spent the last 2 days there, searching for people I knew, or how some people I knew knew some other people that I knew. If I did this during my thesis submission and presentation periods, I'm sure I would have messed up somewhere.

Anyways, as they now say, keep scrapping!

Red Eye

2006-04-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

We saw Red Eye the other night. Interesting. I wanted to like Red Eye, but it somehow didnt stand up to my expectations. The concept of being terrorized aboard a claustrophobic aeroplane in such a way that no one around you knows that you are being terrorized is interesting indeed. Before I go on to dissecting some aspects of the plot, I'd like to say that both the leads, Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, have done an excellent job in their roles. The perpetrator does not seem physically challenging, but the evil twisted mind behind the seemingly harmless person is pretty chilling, I guess. Rachel, is pretty believable in her potrayal of Lisa - not overacted at all, pretty realistic, especially at the end when shes all ready to whack the villian real good with a bat.

But I see too many holes in the plot. The entire plan can fall down because of a few simple "what-ifs". The first thing is that the plan calls for Lisa to call from the air-phone. Now, what-if that particular plane was a somewhat older model that did not have those air-phones? Thats not a small variable at all. Not every plane has air-phones. Well, thank God for the fact that that plane did have air-phones, else there wouldnt be a movie. What if Lisa decided to stay over in Dallas that night? What if she didnt take that flight? The Homeland security person would be happy in his nice hotel suite, and the people on the boat would be still "fishing" out on the bay. Talking about boats, if the security people really wanted, they could have asked the boat to leave that spot completely to ensure 100% safety. There goes the shooting-the-missile-from-the-boat down the drain. What if there was an emergency the same night, and they had to give out that suite to some other customer before she made the call? Would they have asked the other customer to vacate the room?! When the girl in the hotel pulls the fire alarm, why dont the homeland security people already take the dude off the hotel? Why do they have to wait for her to come and tell them personally?

Over-all, I think Jackson Rippner wasnt a very intelligent whatever that what he was. He could have got his target in a manner which wasnt this complicated, with so many variables in play - airlines, aeroplanes, air-phones, boats, delays, coincidences, etc. And lastly, ok, she took your cell-phone, but dude, its an airport!! There are tons of public phones. You dont have a quarter?! And for God's sake, there are even free phones all over the airport!

Telephone number memory

2006-04-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

An hour and 15 minutes in a presentation. I concentrated for the first 15-20 minutes.. Slowly, but steadily, as the presenter's content matter sailed onto deeper seas, my understanding of it started diminishing till a point where I could hear sentences, but not make any sense out of them. Since I had a good nights sleep last night, I wasnt about to let my ship sail off into the pleasurable vastness of deep slumber. So, I decided to do some activity:

I took a piece of paper and decided to write down all the telephone numbers that I could remember. The telephones nowadays keep a record of all the numbers dialled, quick dialling facilities, voice activation, so on and so forth. So, its very rare that we actually dial a phone number. If you were given a phone, how many people could you call without looking up their phone number? My mini quest was an answer to this question.

As it turned out, I could remember only 21 phone numbers! 21!! Only 21! Of all the people whom I interact and talk and meet and all, only 21! Moreso, about 4 numbers are my home phone numbers. So, dialling them would be essentially dialling my mom and dad.

How many numbers can you remember? Let me know!

Done!

2006-04-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my Masters in Computer Science! I defended my thesis successfully last Thursday. It feels really good to have done with it. It did take a couple of semesters more than what I had thought I'd finish it in. But I enjoyed the journey. I guess I'd stick by "alls well that ends well."

Now lets see where life takes me..

Top 10 list

2006-04-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, last night, when I was driving back home from Jackson, I was thinking about nice warm food.. This was after I spent a good 20 minutes thinking about my new found favorite food, which is in the previous post. This post is an ode to all of those foods that I enjoy the most. Since the exercise of remembering and typing out all might take a while, this is a top 10 list. For the record, this list is a set rather than an ordered list.

The first that comes to mind is definitely paani-puri that you get at Prashant Corner, in Thane. It is the best in the world. You can quote me on this. Its about a 5 minute walk from our home. A close runner-up is GuriKripa in Sion - somewhat similar taste. Every paani-puri I have had is evaluated with reference to Prashant's offerings, and none have come even close to my benchmark. The texture, taste and crispness of the puri, the temperature of the water, the sweetness and heat of the chutneys is what takes Prashant's paani-puris on a different plane altogether. No offence to anyone, but the paani-puris what we get in the US are hopeless. Period.

Chicken/mutton biryani that my grandmother makes. Truly wonderful. Warm, fluffy rice, sometimes with a little color added, very well cooked meat, and delectable masala. Always present at family gatherings, and a source of familial bonding for all of us!

Mutton masala - Hotel Satkar in Thane. Rich, almond gravy. Excellent masala. Good to have once in a fortnight.

Samosas - nothing ever compared to the samosas that we used to get in our school canteen. Samosas were every Tuesday and Thursday only. And they were more triangular than like a pyramid.

Kanda Pohe - that my mom makes. Standard breakfast Sunday morning. Beats having cereal anytime! Also, kanda pohe at "Kshanbhar Vishranti", a hotel on the way from Mumbai to Goa needs to have a special mention.

Masala dosa and sambar - Puja Snacks. A miniscule Udipi restaurant in Thane. The dosas in the deep south of India wouldnt probably be much different.

Flan - that my friend Matt makes (only very rarely though, and that too, only after a tremendous amount of persuasion.) I tried flan at some other places, but non were as good as what Matt makes.

Chicken Marsala - Olive Garden. Yumm!

Shepu chi bhaaji - that my mom makes. I think shepu is what dill is. I remember the first time I had shepu in my lunch box in school. I opened my box, and didnt know what it was. But it looked nice and green, so I tasted it. And, like a cliche, I got hooked onto it from day 1. So is the case with Abhijit. We loved it, and mom was happy that the kids were eating green veggies!

Tomato soup - Hotel SaiKrupa, Thane. Benchmark case again. Used to have it whenever we used to go there for dinner. I still love it, and wouldnt pass up an opportunity to have it again. (Abhijit always used to take my croutons though.)

I think I found my favorite food ever!

2006-04-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Yep! It is like it sounds. So, I was on a lunch interview, and I scan the menu and decide on this one dish that seemed alluring. After some corporate discussions, the food came out. And I try my dish - and Ohh God! It was soo delicious! It was like nothing I had before! It had the perfect blend of tastes. Delicious is what you'd generally describe food as.. However, I dont ever remember saying - the food is delicious. The food is always "awesome", or "excellent", or "pretty good". But this time, the food was "delicious". It was delicious indeed! Perhaps it may be the case that I was hungry after a gruelling day of interviews, with not a good amount of nutrional value intake from the morning. But I think I will place this dish on the top of my favorite food pedestal anyway. Thinking of it is making my mouth water!

So, its the "Carmela Chicken Rigatoni" at Romano's Macaroni Grill. Ohh its delicious. Its got a generous helping of perfectly cooked rigatoni, with an amount of chicken which is just enough - neither very less to crave for more, nor very much to stuff the stomach. There are carmelized onions. Now who wouldnt like that?! If the cooks in Heaven had a secret ingredient, I'm sure it would be carmelized onions! The taste that they impart, their shiny brownish color, they're just delectable. Theres a touch of basil which gives it the Italian flavor. And then theres the creamy Marsala wine sauce with cheese. Write it down - if you are offered a dish with a creamy Marsala wine sauce, DO NOT pass it over; you will regret it later.. mark my words. The aroma that leaves the bowl and stimulates the smell neurons when you are eating it, and entrenches itself in your head for a good 24 hours, that makes you think the world is just a wonderful place to be in, is just ecstatic! The taste - a combination of the pasta and chicken, with the basil and onion Marsala sauce will take you for a trip around Cloud 9. After you finish the bite, you'll be back for another bite.. and then you are off again! I think I'm off right now, even thinking about it...

The Skeleton Key

2006-04-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

Last night, we saw The Skeleton Key. It was a good change from the recent horror movies that we've seen - there wasnt as much blood, and gore, and flesh, and bear traps, and syringes. I guess, we can call this as an old-fashioned horror movie; one with ghosts instead of demented people trying to disfigure other almost demented people. There were parts of it which were creepy, but the whole movie wasnt as scary as the trailers of it were (of which I remember faintly), or perhaps our horror-tolerance level has gone up pretty high (I would like to mention here, thanks to movies such as SAW I/II, and House of Wax, to name a few.)

The most intruiging part of the whole movie that I felt was the house itself. It was the sole piece of man-made construction for miles. No one, nothing around for miles but the swamp. The cold, damp driveway, the dark halls.. All this in itself is creepy, and we havent talked about ghosts in it as yet! Wouldnt all of us like to live in a warm place? Think again. Well, if you have seen Dark Water, the setting in it is completely antithetic. The apartment complex in it is in New York. Its bang in the middle of everything. Theres people, other buildings, a factory of some sort across the river, parks, cars, buses, a couple of very busy, heavily trafficked bridges, even a cable car for that matter. Now, if youve seen that movie, I'm sure you remember what a scary place that was too! The two settings are stark contrasts of each other, but the story-tellers have done a great job to scare us in both of them!

Toolbar test

2006-04-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm trying the new Google toolbar that has the Blogger feature inbuilt in it. Now, I wont have to log into or open the Blogger website to post new posts. I can do it in the browser itself. Hmm, let me see if this works.

Go Genetic List Scheduling!

2006-04-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

So, the staying up late trying to work out margins and line spacings in Word were well-spent after all. After I came back from India in January, I was working on this paper that my professor and I were going to submit to this conference. Late last week, we learnt that the paper has been accepted! It will be published in the proceedings of ACM's Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2006) to be held in July in Seattle, WA. I hope I can get to go to present it, or at least be there for its presentation. If any of you land up there, please do listen to our presentation!

Civic

2006-03-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

Theres this advertisement of the new Honda Civic for the UK market. A quire of 60 people make sounds as what the car would make. Its really worth a look:
http://www.honda.co.uk/civic/
Click on Watch Civic after the intro loads.

Thanks to Ketan for this. He saw it and told me about it. He couldnt remember if it was Honda or Hyundai though!

On a related note, I really liked what they did with the Civic for the American market, however, I think the UK Civic is much more cooler! Especially if you compare the UK 3/5 door hatchback with the American coupe, the hatchback is much more appealing to me, with its aggressive lines, and a body shell that seems to be strong and muscular. The body work of the American coupe somehow seems very delicate and brittle to me. Differing view? Lets discuss!

Test

2006-02-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

I'm just testing to see if I can link this blog to my profile on this other website.

Ohh also, today is my mom's birthday. And coincidentally, today is the birthday of Mississippi State University too! MSU is 128 years old today. Surprisingly, I didnt realize that my mom and my University share their birthdays for the past 3 years! I am growing old!

There was a huge cake in celebration of the 128th birthday today. It was 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet in height! On the other hand, mom's birthday celebration was more understated. Mom and dad went to this one tiny restaurant in Thane that serves just excellent south Indian delicacies. Its one of my favorite restaurants for that kind of food.

Mumbai to Mississippi

2006-02-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

I was digging around, and I got this one thing that I had written when I had come to the US the first time. Then, school had yet to begin, we had time to settle in and get ids and stuff. Most of the day was spent in the library, chatting up with friends, writing emails, and playing the few Yahoo! games that we could play online on the library computers. After a day filled with this, I thought I'd do some constructive work, and write about my trip over to the states. Some of my class from Engineering school was already here, and most of the rest were in the last stages of preparation to leave. So, I thought I'd post a first-hand experience of the whole journey, right from when you say good-bye to teary-eyed parents to being picked up by a bunch of seniors at the world-famous GTR airport.

Disclaimer: I worked on this thing for a couple of days. So, its pretty long and exhaustive. Please dont get your hopes up of reading it in a minute and getting done with it. Sit back, relax, grab a bag of chips, or get a cuppa coffee.

I've uploaded it to my website in pdf format. You'll find it on this page:
http://www2.msstate.edu/~acb157/aboutme.htm

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

2006-02-21T21:14:00.000-08:00

So, Valentine's Day ha? A day which most people eagerly look forward to, while some others dread and fret. And then, there are people like me, for whom it is just like any other day, mainly because I am yet to fall into any of the first two categories that I just mentioned. So, what do on-the-border people do on Valentine's Day? Well, we dont want to miss out on the fun of it, so this V Day, three of my categorically similar friends and I decided to go out and have dinner at a nice restaurant, partly to languish at how much fun other people are having, and partly to avoid being those who wasted a good V Day evening!

As we stood outside the door, waiting with the beeper thing in hand which would go off any moment that a "table for 4" was open, we contemplated if we should indeed go in and have dinner, and be the source of subtle entertainment to the other diners on V Day, which on any other day wouldnt have instigated any giggles whatsoever. But before we decided either way, the thing buzzed, and we bravely, but cautiously, entered the restaurant.

But guess what? We werent the only ones in there that didnt have dates. There were many guys-only tables and gals-only tables. So whew! We werent the main attraction in the room at all!

We drove back home after a sumptous dinner, squabbling over the car heater, the tortilla chips, and the to-go boxes. As we entered the campus, we saw a gal jogging along on the pavement. At least we buddies had a nice dinner and a good time, but she was alone, on a cold night, jogging all by herself. So, I guess, not everybodys V Day was a hoot!

Dallas

2006-02-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

I got back from Dallas last night. I left for Dallas on Friday around 12ish. I had made an online reservation with the car rental company. Their website is pretty tricky. While checking out rates, I keyed in a 12pm time. When I made the reservation, I put in 8:30am. Somehow, the 12pm time stuck, far from my awareness. So, I take a printout of it, go home happily, strain and get up at 7:30am (which is like very very early for me), get ready, get in the mood to leave, pack bags and all. And I call them at 8:15 to come get me, and she says that I have 12pm on my reservation. Dang.

Anyways, thanks to the occasional good nature of the car rental people, I got the car at around 9:45am. So, I got to leave at 12pm finally. A 600-mile journey, with no company, in a car that I really dislike, on a day very much less than perfect, lay ahead of me. I relaxed, stepped on the gas and cleared my mind of all of these thoughts. Just be in the moment, I told myself.. And I was "in the moment" all the way to Dallas!

The traffic-gods were on my side; there wasnt any serious traffic anywhere, no block-ups, no detours. I sped happily to Dallas, making good time, crossing the borders of Mississippi into Louisiana, then Louisiana into Texas. On this trip, I had a strange affliction for talk-radio. I thought I'd listen to some political gup-shup, talk on the girl in Florida who discovered that ice was dirtier than toilet water, some discussions on global warming, the advantages of hybrid cars over very good-engined gas cars and vice-versa, rather than senseless music belching out of the speakers. And I should tell you, talk-radio is a very good past-time. It keeps you involved into it, so you chomp away at the miles without realizing it. And when theres a commercial, the 2.5 minute break (as one talk-show host exactly measured) gives you time to assess the discussion and change the channel, or think about some nice warm food at home while you wait for the next installment of talks at 75mph.

It was colder in Dallas than it was here. My car wind shield froze over-night; we had to thaw it out with some warm water since we didnt have enough time to sit and let the car heat up. Saturday morning was spent on helping my friend get some errands that needed attention. Well, let me rephrase, Saturday morning was spent on some well-needed sleep, and Saturday afternoon was spent on the errands. Dallas downtown saw us whizzing through it for a while as I gave my friend an in-car tour of it. I strained to remember which freeway went where, as I had never driven through Dallas downtown myself, and all I could rely on was my memory of Abhijit giving an awe-struck me a tour of Dallas the first time that I had been there. Saturday evening was well spent chit-chatting with Abhijit and Deepa, catching up on stuff, and general irrelevant discussions!

Sunday was another day altogether. As my friend and I waited at a Waffle House, his cell-phone rang.. It was from the car dealership that he intended to buy a car from. The next 7 hours were spent in two cubicles, nodding in disagreement with whatever the dealer, his subordinate, his boss, and a very weird (but overtly smart) finance person were throwing at us. Finally, they got irritated at around 7:15pm (15 mins after their closing time) to such an extent that they put forward a price, and made sort of a take-it-or-leave-it thing. Well, we were ready to leave after about 2 hours of unfavorable prices, but they wouldnt let us go, so I dont accept that their irritation was our concern. Anyways, we did agree to their final price, made them knock down a few dollars off the extra things that they make you buy, and flatly refused this one option that they made such a big deal of. So, at the end of the day, my friend had a car that he wanted, at just a notch over what he was ready to pay for it from the beginning. There, Sunday was accomplished!

Monday morning was spent on more chit chat with Abhi and Dee, while laughing over Ace Ventura's antics, and some very good veggie-patties from Costco, all washed down with a good dose of caffeine. After happily accepting a bag of chocolate covered cookies from Dee (which were really good, and were a focal point later when a truck had over-turned, and I was stuck behind a long line of furious impatient Texans, contemplating either crossing the median and going back, or using it to swing ahead of other furious impatient Texans) finally, it was time to say good-bye to Dallas for a while, and begin the long ardous journey, in my favorite car, back home. I took a breath, relaxed, pressed my foot against the gas pedal, and cleared my mind...

Deception Point

2006-02-21T21:11:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Deception Point, by Dan Brown. Well, it is similar to The Da Vinci Code in the speed with which the story progresses. I thought it was an exciting read, what with vivid descriptions of action scenes that play out in your head just like it would do on the tv if you were watching a movie. I like Dan Brown's style in which he builds up on the same event from the points of view of different people. At the end of every chapter, where theres a context change, he heightens the story so that you have to keep reading on to find out what happens next. That makes it a big "i-gotta-read-some-more" type thing.

I just visited Washington D.C., walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, saw the White House, the Monument, a couple of musuems and all. And the book contains references to the White House, and some buildings and memorials around it. So, it was really fun to just have seen the actual thing, then read about it in a book that weaved it into a dramatic story so effortlessly.

There are a couple of twists and turns in the story; well, one, mainly that might shock you. The other broader twist is revealed slowly but steadily. You can't call it a twist as much as you might call it the premise for the story. The characters of the players are well made out, just enough history about them and their impact is described, so not a moment in the book is dull.

Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would grade this book an 8. It has enough action and adventure in it to spend a couple of nights in a cosy chair reading it, cursing any noisy room mates. It somehow is made out like an equation, in the sense that it is exact in what it portrays. But, there are some very predictable settings that can be easily guessed, which, I guess, can be attributed to exposure to a lot of movies that have somewhat similar situations. Also, when you think the characters just cannot get out of an impending disaster, they tend to use information to save their lives which the reader is yet unaware of. I somehow feel that as cheating me; make me aware of what the possibilities of them saving their skins are, and let me think about how they can use those possibilities and resources to their advantage. That is exercise for my mind, making me interact with the story. If you show a situation, give a certain amount of information, and ask someone to solve it, and after they cannot do it, show a hidden door D, that they should have chosen, its not as appealing to me as explaining the solution from what information you've already provided. But I'm sure this issue is pretty debatable, and from the opposing point of view, showing all the cards before-hand may just over-simplify the plot. So, keep guessing!