Wasted Weekend

It wasn't so... not in the literal sense. I was actually quite busy hanging out with buddies, driving around & watching movies.

I meant I was drinking. I actually only "really" drank once during the weekend but what a time that was... so yeah it was a wasted weekend since I spent the next day trying to get over the buzz.

Sat night fever

That was fun.

Had a blast with some old pals and some new ones at my lair. Chilled to some nice house music, punjabi beats and some sexy mixes by Dj Praveen.

Played cards and some silly word games. I wanted to play Kings and I Never but damitt, people just don't drink.

Anyway, tonight proved that some fun can be had with minimal consumption of alcohol.

Can't wait to do it all over again soon... This is gonna be one hell of a weekend.

Quotes of the Day - Light

Blinded by the light. Today's quotes courtesy of qoTd:-

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- Siddhartha Gautama, 563 - 483 BC

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.
- Og Mandino

What is to give light must endure burning.
- Viktor Emil Frankl, 1905 - 1997

When in the dark is it better to move or stand still? If still, you won't bump into anything - but you won't find the light either.
- Norm Howe

Back from the Ashes

As the Aussies celebrated re-claiming the urn, Indian cricket got a boost in the arm and us fans got one straight in the heart as India won their first cricket test ever in South Africa.

The faith has been re-kindled.

Update Complete

Finally, the long overdue move to Blogger Beta is complete.

I love the new look blogger. Better flexibility with template editing and awesome archive structuring on the tab on the right. I would have preferred some sort of twin tab thingie but I'll look into it during the week.

Changed the hell out of all the colors and fonts.

Only thing I will miss is my dear old web stats hit counter.

Edit: I got my counter running again so hurrah!!!!

Good stuff

Ah, the workplace is really getting a facelift.



Monday, I got rocking new 17" TFT Flatron monitor for usage. It is awesome



Today, I got a fresh 512 meg ram chip installed. My machine is now a screamer.





Is it Christmas already?

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Time Flys

A good collection of 10 tips on time management which has become a hot-topic among life-hackers online.



Good read.



10 tips for time management in a multitasking world » Brazen Careerist







I already follow around 6-7 of these tips. I might start with the rest soon.

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Quotes of the Day - Stare

Hi peeps.. Time for another round of quotes of the day.


Today's Theme is 'Stare' since right now I'm staring at the screen hoping for some divine intervention in the form of a couple of emails which will be my password to go home.




The great courage is to stare as squarely at the light as at death.

Albert Camus



Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing, that we see too late the one that is open.

- Alexander Graham Bell



Many people hear voices when no-one is
there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up on rooms where they
stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do
pretty much the same thing.

- Meg Chittenden



The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs.

Vance Havner

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Gadjets Galore

CrunchGear » Blog Archive » CrunchGear’s Best of 2006





Wow.. I wish Santa left stuff like this under my Christmas tree..





Makes the hardware junkie in me shiver....

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A Good OD

Whoa. A definitely good read.



22 Ways To Overclock Your Brain at Ririan Project







I need to start following these stat....

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Re-juvenation

Happy Turkeys.. uh I mean Thanksgiving people.

And have a great Black Friday you lucky SOB's

Quotes of the Day - Tired

Today's theme is what I'm feeling right now - TIRED

Laziness is nothing more than resting before you get tired.
- Jules Renard

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.
- Dr Samuel Johnson

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.
- Newt Gingrich

Of all possible debauches, traveling is the greatest that I know; that's the one they invented when they got tired of all the others.
- Gustave Flaubert

Still Here

And yet another Monday night/Tuesday morning in office.

I gotta change my name to 'The Undertaker' cause I always seem to be pulling the graveyard shifts.

In bright news, I got a shiny new toy to play with today... umm I mean work with.

A sexy U3 Sandisk 1 gig USB Drive. See link for details.. yay.

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Quotes of the Day - Friends

This weekend and the last few have all been about re-discovering old friends and in some cases even discovering new ones hence the topic of choice.

Friends are God's apology for relations.
- Hugh Kingsmill

Even the best of friends cannot attend each other's funeral.
- Kehlog Albran

I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell you see, I have friends in both places.
- Mark Twain

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
- Martin Luther King Jr

Quotes of the Day

Seeing as how busy I've been this week, today's theme is "Work"


The harder I work, the luckier I get.
 - Samuel Goldwyn

If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.
- Albert Einstein

My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.
- Abraham Lincoln

Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.
- Edmund Burke

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Just war... no peace

A pretty good find over at Damn Interesting.

Damn Interesting » The Man Who Started the War

History will eventually tell the truth.

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Quotes for the Day

Today's quotes (Theme is rain)

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.
- Frank A. Clark

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.
- Jerry Chin

It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
- Howard Ruff

Quotes for the day

Today's quotes on no apparent topic:

A diamond is just a piece of coal that did well under pressure!
- Unknown

The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.
- H. Ross Perot

The Stone Age did not end because the cavemen ran out of stone.
- Sheikh Yamani

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.
- Unknown

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War and Peace

An awesome link which goes all the way back to 1776. Basically, this site has scanned and tagged speeches by presidents of the US and you can check out the main issues throughout American history.

US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud - Chirag Mehta


Good stuff.

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The Buzz

A new section where I write stuff buzzed; well, whenever I'm actually sober enough to type and remember to write this stuff down anyway.

Had a blast today. Went out with my local crew. We haven't hung out for years it seems like. Gonna play some cricket tomorrow and then I'm getting my buzz on with a completely different set of people.

Hopefully...... Till monday's weekend update.

Baah

Baah is right.

I lied about the future being bright. It wasn't. I'm still stuck at work (1:51 am on a Sat morning) and no idea when I can get home.


I'm hungry, tired and not to mention a bit sleepy. And life goes on.

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TGIF

You know, I wasn't really looking forward to today - hectic schedule and all. But so far the day has gone by pretty smoothly and it can't be that bad going ahead either.

Still, looking forward to the weekend. Gonna chill tomorrow with some friends, have dinner and take a few snaps.

Sunday will be spent having lunch with some people and helping my parents play catch-up on 24 season 2.

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Quotes of the day

Today's quotes:-

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.
- May Sarton, 1912 - 1995

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
- Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788 - 1860

If you can't stand solitude, perhaps others find you boring as well.
- Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910

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Firefox Ominous?

Wow, what a freaky thing. I was just about to download and test drive the new Firefox 2.0 browser but then got some crazy news.

The warehouse I interned and then worked at for a while in New Jersey caught fire last night. Not too much damage but still being a warehouse of garments, I'm sure inventory re-conciliation is gonna be a bitch.

Good thing no one got hurt.

Weekend Update

Another relaxing weekend went by. Stayed indoors getting my parents caught up on 24 Season 2 and getting my buzz on both saturday and sunday nights.

Good times. Of course there was the heartbreak of India losing in a cricket match but getting used to that.

Got over that pain by writing two chapters of a sci-fi story I've been trying to write for over two years. Not gonna be published or anything, it's just something I like to do whenever I get bored. But hey, who know? Maybe someday.

Up and around

And I'm back doin my nocturnal thing. Took abt 4 1/2 weeks but it's back.

I feel productive... but this is a one night show only. 

Lights & Action

The festival of lights is finally here.

I'm still at work but abt to head out.


Booya to my fellow indians...

net down?

Awesome.... Things to do when your net connection snaps.

Love option 1

Good read.

Busy

Been so busy lately. Don't have enough time to post.

I've seen so many things on the net that I wanted to post abt the past week but really, work and RL have me by the balls. 

Ok quitter..

Sometimes it's ok to be a quitter. 

Do it today.

Rise and Fall

The recovery phase has set in. Unfortunately it was due to me gulping down anti-biotics which means supreme weakness and nausea.

Somehow managed to get to work today. Don't know if I can stay for long. Typed two emails today alongwith cleaning out my mailbox and my fingers are so tired.

 

Down wid it again

Yup. The sickness is here again. And this time it shows up on my birthday.

Happy Birthday me... anyway, not gonna let this get me down. Got a rockin new cell phone after 12:00 am last night.. loving it.

Many good wishes keeping the spirits high. I doubt I can go in to work today or work out.


Now looking forward to dinner tonight with the family.

Countdown

Final 2 hrs of 22 time.

I've had a feeling all day something is gonna happen.

Maybe good, maybe bad. 

Some things have already happened. I hope the best is yet to come. 

Third Rock...

Awesome.

Pale Blue Dot. 

Long-weekend update

Finally, got that peace and calmness I was craving.

Saturday was mess around, do some work and play some counter strike day.... oh and let's not forget getting tipsy with old friends.

Sunday we went to my dad's factory for some pre-dussera pooja and got back and well, got tipsy with some some more close friends. My buddy VJ who is into event management brought over a ton of new music for me to rip to my pc. That's what I've been listening to for the whole day now.

Today was pooja at my mom's office, advancing to the PGA Tour in Tiger Woods 2007 on my pc and then watching the funniest movie of the year (desi) in a theatre. Listening to some more of that awesome music....

Turn 23 in 24.5 hrs.... YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regeneration

The best advice is always free.

A good read I want to follow since I've been getting serious abt working out. 

And now here....

 No TGIF post this week cause well, there is no reason to say that phrase. Absolute craziness today.

Trying to get home reminded me of the Godfather in that every  time I tried to leave somebody pulled me back in.

'Nuff Said.

From the 'What the heck is going on over there department'

Are you kidding me?

Every day I open bloglines to check out my rss feeds and all I read abt is web 2.0 and of course, Bush 43.

I prefer reading abt web 2.0 and not Bush 2.0.

Today's news coming over is most disturbing. I don't have the inclination to even try and wrap my head around the madness so go over here where someone already did that.

Comments?

Oasis

A great find.

History of the middle east in 30 sec.


See for yourself.

Discover RSS

A great read to get educated on the fascinating world of RSS.

This is for my parents, some friends and anyone who likes technology in general.

Countdown..

Less than 10 days now till I turn 23...

Time flies by.

Blinded by the Light

Yes, finally I'm off to log some daytime hrs at work and my nocturnal experience is in hibernation.

Time to start living again.

TGIF

Phew...a busy week, especially as I've been working out with a personal trainer this week.. My bones are bruised.

Recap from past few cryptic cricket posts:-

India win a thriller, rains, India lose a close one where they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Quotes below and also, Happy birthday Chins who turns 23 today on the 23rd.

I see knowledge increasing and human power increasing. I see ever-increasing possibilities before life, And I see no limits set to it at all, Existence impresses me as a perpetual dawn. Our lives, as I apprehend, are great in expectations.

- H.G Wells

 

The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate.
- Bern Williams

 

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
- Kahlil Gibran, 1883 - 1931

Coke buzz

These guy's are my heroes.

Gimme a crate.

Oh Yeah

Yes..

 

India by 16 runs. I slept for 4 hrs last night to see this game.

And it was worth it.

Weekend Update

And so week 20 of the nocturnal shift begins. I hope this is where the buck stops so as to speak.

Had an awesome weekend. Got drunk as promised with my family on saturday.

Thanks to Orkut, met a class-mate of mine from high school for coffee on Sunday. We met after 7 yrs so it was nice to catch up.

 

Today's quotes

People who take time to be alone usually have depth, originality, and quiet reserve.
- John Miller

 

The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.
- Alan Ashley-Pitt

Finally..

Thank you rain gods.

 

Finally.

 

Indian cricket fans know what I mean.

TGIF

Today for a change I'm posting early Friday morning as opposed to late in the evening complaining abt all the work. I want to be optimistic abt things and that means looking ahead to the weekend.

I'm booked on Saturday cause that's when I'm planning to get drunk with my mama (mom's brother). Gonna be fun.

Planning a small re-union with buddies from high school. That should be fun as well. This is all due to orkut which has become the rage in Bombay.

I wish my buddies from facebook could be merged with peeps on orkut for a truly global friend circle thingie. Anyway I guess I'll have to be content for the time being with scraps from my desi buds.

From the Geocide department.

Its official. People have way too much free time on their hands.

These guys have a site dedicated to figure out ways to destroy the earth.

Someone, get these guys Civ IV or Counter Strike...

Quotes for the Day

Don't think I forgot those quotes.

Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana....The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two, but can't remember what they are.
--Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show, August 22

 

The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history... this century's history....We all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.
-- Dan Quayle, then Indiana senator and Republican vice-presidential candidate during a news conference in which he was asked his opinion of the Holocaust

 

"....failure is not an option..."
-- Apollo 13

 

"The President has kept all of the promises he intended to keep."
-Clinton aide George Stephanopolous speaking on Larry King Live

Weekend Update

Took it easy during the weekend. My sister and my brother-in-law dropped in with some cake.. that was fun.

Watched couple of Indian movies, played a lot of Star Wars: Empire at War and also a few games of Civ-IV.

All in all, a relaxing weekend.

TGIF & Quotes of the Day

Usually I love Fridays.. scratch that train of thought. I still love em. But days like today make you reflect on all the reasons they are good.. cause today has been an insane ride filled with me fighting fires the whole day (figurative fires) and scheduling tons of work among the very few people at work who actually showed up today.

Baah.. it seems like people are always around when its fun and games. But when the going gets tough, the lazy and weak get going.

And on that note.. time for the quotes of the day. No theme today.

 

The hypothalamus is one of the most important parts of the brain, involved in many kinds of motivation, among other functions. The hypothalamus controls the "Four F's": 1. fighting; 2. fleeing; 3. feeding; and 4. mating.

-- Psychology professor in neuropsychology intro course

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.

-- Richard Harkness, The New York Times, 1960

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

-- William James

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

-- Unknown

24 Theory

This just in. One of my fav tv shows 24 is actually Republican propaganda.

Personally, I think its just an action-packing over the top thrill ride. I'll let you guys draw your own conclusions.

Quotes of the Day

It's been a while. But the quotes have returned.

 

Too bad that all the people who know how to run this country are busy driving taxis and cutting hair.
-- George Burns

I once wanted to become an atheist but I gave up. They have no holidays.
-- Henny Youngman

It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it.
-- Sam Levenson

I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in fourteen days I had lost exactly two weeks.
-- Joe E. Lewis

Go Figure them fins

A really fascinating read. About Dolphins.. yeah not a typo.

Go ahead and be amazed.

I want a dolphin as a pet.

Old is Gold

Being a month away from my 23rd Birthday I was thinking abt old age and the like.

That's when I came across this link.

10 tips to grow old slowly and gracefully. A good read.

Stuff that frags are made of.

Wow.. frankly speaking I'm jealous.

Imagine going to school to one of these places. Read em and weep gamers.

Ruman Returns

Well, it was 2001 when I was last in India for one of my fav annual festivals called Ganesh Chaturthi which celebrates probably India's favorite deity - Ganesh

I used to get really involved in all the activities during this fest and really missed it when I was in the US for 3 and something years...

But now that I am back, I can't wait to get my groove back... Thankfully I remembered to charge my digicam over night so I can take some pics and post em on the pics blog. On the other hand though, being sick the last few days I was unable to sleep at all last night so hopefully I can stay awake throughout the day.

I have kept an emergency can of Red Bull in case there is a chance I might pass out.

Sick Day Again?

Yup, another sick day. What the hell is wrong here?

I think the night shifts are catching up. No, really I do.

This week marks 4 freakin long months since I became 100% nocturnal. I think its time for a change. Anyway, wanted to feel good on this gloomy evening so created a 'Blast from the Past' playlist on my comp.

First song - Float On by Modest Mouse. Anyone who has heard it knows just how damn good it really is.

Sick Day & Delicious

Called in sick yesterday cause I was down with a sickness.

Took it easy.. got in touch with MVP 2005 all over again. Damn, that game was fine.

Back at work today.. putting out fires and getting in touch with del.icio.us this time around.

I miss that service.

Weekend Update

Chilled this weekend. No drunken debauchery.. well mostly.

Worked out, did some shopping (nice soft towels) and got a haircut.

Drank a bit and I gotta say, I endorse Zingaro Beer.

 

Its gonna be a busy and hopefully short week.

Go Yanks.

Blogger goes to Beta

Well, how abt that. The day I think to make a template change and move some things around, soon after Blogger follows with a bunch of changes themselves.

They went ahead and updated their service and true to the google way, they went to beta.

They'll allow people to migrate their existing blogs over to the new service soon but in the meantime I went ahead and created a fresh account with them. Result was the test blog - The Ra View

Love the new options - new customizable templates, slicker archives, further security options, tagging - called labels here and much much more.

I needed something like this to keep me hooked to Blogger and they delivered.

Happy Birthday

As of 50 min's ago, India once again celebrates its independence day.

Next year will be the 60 yr anniversary.

Woo-hoo Jai Hind.

Template Change

And finally after a long break in-between changes, a template change has occured.

Maybe I was inspired by the red-pill a la The Matrix.

Live Writer

Microsoft came out with a quick blogging tool named Live Writer. Are they gonna use Live for all their new products?

Anyway, making this post using the same tool. WYSIWYG tool with a nice interface.

Similar to word hence easier to use.

Seems nice. Gotta use it some more to get used to it.

Time for the one

Ever since I've been playing the amazing Matrix Reloaded map in Counter-Strike the past couple of weeks, I've been wanting to see the Trilogy back to back to back and have a blast.

Well, today being Saturday I went out and rented the collector's edition 3 in 1 Disc and plan to stay up the night and make my wish come true.

Time to immerse my self in the Matrix.

My precious

Oh no.

Forgot my watch and I'm already at work.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I feel naked.

Weekend update and fate

And weekend number 14 passed by in my dark age.... uh me working nights that is.

Drank and feasted on Sat and had a few serious discussions as well. Been a while since I did that.

Sunday it rained like Woah and I had to go to the airport to pick up my grandfather who came
back from The US. He got the set of speakers I had left back and I connected them last night and it was awesome.

Today I started going to the gym after a two month hiatus and on the way back I got a punctured tire. I was grumbling while walking to get a mechanic when I bumped into an old school teacher of mine after 7 years. She recognised me and I remembered her as well. Made me think that the tire breached for a reason. I would't ever have met her otherwise.

Cool.

TGIF

Everyone's heard of 'Highway to Hell ' but not a lot of people have had 'Friday's from hell' as many time as I have.

Why then is this post titled TGIF. Well, fridays for me are like a hugh chasm that I just have to jump over. I know its gonna be difficult but the sooner I jump, the sooner the week-end gets here.

Week-end update

A lot happened since I last posted. The week was busy as usual. Lots of work taken care of. I started logging my daily activities at work.. thanks to a nice hack from lifehacker

Had a couple of marathon Counter-Strike sessions at work.. kicked some major butt. Friday was freaky as I kept running into things.. alternatively a lot of things ran into me. Saturday was lazy until I was called to work to play some more.. haha I love my job. Today was the first quiet Sunday I’ve had in quite a while.

In other news around my world, the US House of Representatives approved the Indo-US Nuke deal, records were broken in tons on the Cricketing field and the Yanks accquires a big bat for almost nothing right at the trade deadline in baseball. Until next Monday morning.. signing off from the update crew.

The Spice of Life

A great read if you like this kind of stuff.

Origins of Star Wars - Frank Herbert's Dune



 

Weekend Update

Friday was well.. a shootout.

A huge 20 man well 19 men and 1 woman session of Counter Strike. We played from 9:00 till the better part of the morning. I think I left around 5:30. I had a flat but people from work helped me change the tire.

Saturday was a rainy dreary day. I slummed and watched tv shows and played Madden.

Sunday evening was interesting. I took a hr and 15 min bus ride to my boss's house. Chilled for a bit and then off we were to see PoTC with Johnny Depp. It was timepass so as to say but an insert:

One question : What were the smoking when they made this move?
And to follow-up on that : Can I get some of that?

Later we went to Alfredo's for some good snacks and a few pitchers of beer.

Crashed after some more beer and toast and there was even some cake. A good time all around.

Quotes for the Day

Today's quotes. 
Topic : My fav literary character 'Sherlock Holmes'

"What one man can invent another can discover."
The Adventure of the Dancing Men (1903)

"It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If you were asked to prove that two and two made four, you might find some difficulty, and yet you are quite sure of the fact."
A Study in Scarlet

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius."
The Valley of Fear (1914-1915)

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last."
The Red Circle (1917)



 

The last dance

I love the new last.fm 

Weekend Update

 Had another great weekend.. woo-hoo thats like 10 in a row or something.

Cousins were down in town so entertained them. Took them to smoke some Hookahs and eat some delicious chocolate confections. Pigged out on food and really need to catch up on some sleep.

They'll be leaving at 5:30 in the am so I'm up till then anyway so I'll just wake them up and crash before starting what should be one of the last long-tiring weeks.

Money Walks

Well.. not money exactly. But the people in this video do walk very fast.

And to imagine its for a bank. A Turkish bank actually. 

Bombs, Panic and well... Hope

Well, strange thing to be posting on.

Yesterday was a day when 8 bombs exploded across Mumbai's so called Central Nervous System that is the Western Railway Line.

Panic, Chaos and Commotion ensured shutting down of the Cellular networks to diffuse word-of-mouth rumors which were flying all over the place.

This obviously led to more rumors and the fact that people could not get in touch with their loved ones.

One can only hope that people affected get well soon and that normalcy returns to the city that never sleeps and will never give up.

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "King Richard III", Act 5 scene 2

The head and the butt of it

 This just in from Paris.

If someone calls you a terrorist, its ok to Headbutt them in front of a worldwide audience of over a billion people. It gets you accolades as well.

Strange...

Icy Hands

My prev post had a very ominous title.

Saturday was my maternal grandmother's 74 birthday which we celebrated with a lot of joy but Sunday was the day when a close friend's mom left this realm rather suddenly.

It was all very shocking. So it seemed like the right time to have some quotes on that which lays its icy hands on kings.

I'll try to be philosophical and not funny nor morbid.

For certain is death for the born
And certain is birth for the dead;
Therefore over the inevitable
Thou shouldst not grieve.

- Bhagavad Gita (250 BC - 250 AD), Chapter 2


Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come,
we are not.

- Epicurus (341 BC - 270 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

End of days

Finally.. the week comes to an end.


Lots of water courtesy of rains. Lots of work courtesy of..well work.

Time to party...

Shutting down - Poweruser style

We all have faced the problem of windows not shutting down when we want it to. Of course it does
sometimes crash when we don't want it to. 

I can't help you there but here is a link to shut down windows quick. 


Really nice find.. thanks del.icio.us

Indie Day

 Keeping the tradition...


Happy Birthday America.

Finito

Thats it.. Its over. India just beat the West Indies by 49 runs to record their first series win there in 35 years.

Man, that took a while but it was worth staying up for.

Insanity

 A crazy day for sure.

First off while visiting my grandma, on the way I saw a car in front with a nazi sticker on the back. I was shocked, not to see a swastika (we were the ones who came up with it in the first place) but to see the nazi version of it in India. I had never seen one before here... weird.

Then England lose on Penalties. Crushing defeat even though I thought they were the better team for 120 mins... damn rooney

Then India somehow dismiss the West Indies for 103.. their lowest ever against India.

And then to top things off, France demonize the Brazillians again with a 1-0 scoreline.

Viva la France all over again.....

A shocking sight

A really bizzare thing happened today.

My mom was complaining of a burning smell in my room and I assured her
that nothing was wrong.

She left for work and then someone rang the doorbell.

Some time later the telephone rang and as I stepped outside my room I saw that a rug kept there was on fire. 

Yes FIRE. It was absolutely weird. About 15% of the rug had totally disintgrated into nothing.
The wall along the rug was black with soot and as I looked up I saw that the extension for the bell we have on the above floor of the house was black as well. Our maid said the bell for the house was ringing for quite a while. I put two and two together and the fact was that there was sparking in the connector box due to water seeping in (heavy mumbai monsoons) leading to sparks falling onto the rug and voila - A full blown fire erupted.

Freaky Friday indeed.

Now just what did my mom smell earlier.... precog?

Amazing adverts

A really great find. Top advertisments from around the world. 

Def check it out to get those creative juices flowing. 


Comments?

Woah

wow..

check out this link abt a very simcity 3000 like building.

Quotes of the day

Posting quotes after quite a while. I don't think this will be a regular feature either. Anyway, today's theme is Enemies - thanks to qotd.


It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief: enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best.
- Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1831 - 1891

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
- Winston Churchill, 1874 - 1965

Weekend Update

Yet another week-end ticked off with activities.

That sleepless cycle lasted all of 32 hrs before I passed out watching the Germania-Swedes game.
I did catch the two goals though. Slept 11 hrs straight. Saturday was filled with X-Files & trying to fix Munnax's laptop which went AWOL.

Sunday was also filled with the X-Files, cricket and futbol action.. oh and I ran into some buddies from high school so that was cool.

Oh and got that haircut. A satisfying week-end.

Haha.. found a great quote I just had to post:

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Sleep Cycle

 Doing it all now...

No sleep since 2:00 Pm last night. Going for 36+ hrs... Should be fun with X-Files, Food, Futbol WC action and oh yes.. a haircut.

Details later... perhaps.


Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.

Fran Lebowitz (1950 - )

The Fact of things

 I will not be going back to the day shift anytime soon... as it turns out.

And here I must insert a quote regarding the facts:

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

John Adams (1735 - 1826), 'Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,' December 1770

Week-end to remember

A great weekend it certainly was.

Needed that break after all the craziness the past seven weeks. Yes, the coming Friday will be 2 whole months since I've been working nights and sleeping through the days.

Ate, drank aplenty and saw every FIFA world cup game I could.

In short, I finally lived.

p.s Happy Birthday Garfield.

The other side of things

Well, I was certainly enamored with the movie Fanaa. 

Movies with Aamir Khan always seem to move me more than the norm. Sarfarosh, DCH, RDB and now Fanaa. His performances are always top notch and you can really feel the character.

I remember, after watching him play a supercop in Sarfarosh I too wanted to quit college and join a police course but then that plan fizzed. Now since I've seen the latest movie, I've been obsessed with a form of poetry called Shayari. Its lovely stuff.. really it is. I've even gone so far as to have come up with a few original compositions of my own.. anyway I was scouting the net for reviews and mostly bloggers seem to give this movie a negative review.. which I never understood.

But here is a review I can attest to partly. Do read it and let me know if you agree with any of it.

No gut no glory

Wow.. what an amazing story.

I have always wondered if there were some people held captive or in hiding somewhere in Russia or Germany still believing that the war was still not over and then I read this link over at Damn Interesting.


A worthwhile read. And as someone asked in the comments section over there, "It is a complete wonder how Japan lost the war with guys like this in its armed forces."

Fetch Boy

 Finally a link worth fetching other links...

Well, actually tags.

An amazing selection of websites to get info from. Now only if they added wikipedia in there it would be great.

Regardless of that, I will be using it a lot to find some new and useful links.

Leading the way

A great read regarding leadership in a technical environment.

Cup of Joy

Wow. What an awesome weekend.

Unlike last couple of Sat/Sundays I spent my time at home lounging around in front of the Television and was treated to some wonderful sporting action.

There was some great football action from Germany, some great test cricket action from the West Indies, a good race from England and also the French Open from well.. Paris.



Good times all around.

And we are underway

Germany v Costa Rica. Phillip Lahm scored a torcher. Good stuff.

The Zen of things....

Certainly a link my parents would appreciate.

The word Zen is dropped around a lot but this website is pretty cool.


Good tips for pc users.

The Day of Omen

Today's Date:

6/6/6

'Nuff Said.

Saturday Night.

Good times last night.

Went out with a new crew to smoke Hookahs and eat good sizzlers in a part of Bombay.

Then came home and spent some Quality Time with the old crew from the block.. Gambled, ate, drank and then some.


Got home at 6:00 in the am and now abt to join my grandmother who stayed over last night and is an early riser for some delicious tea.

Bridge over and below troubled water.

A truly great feat of engineering.


Wow.

It's all in the fonts

A very interesting look into the role a font plays in what is being written or rather how it is read.

I wish I could go back and convert all my papers to Georgia just to see what grades I would get. I usually did my best work in the papers so dunno how much it would actually help but one can always research.

The Code, 24 & A Social Life

A good weekend.

Got my parents to involve themselves in a 24 Season 1 Marathon. I had already seen the eps abt 18 months back but was happy to watch them again, explaining things as and when needed.

Got together with some of my old friends for dinner and then watched the Da Vinci Code last night. Mixed feelings on that one. Some scenes done very well, some things not as good as the book.

Watched India lose two games against the West Indies so that was tough.

On a bright note though, my friend Rusalka dropped in from New Zealand so that was a very pleasant surprise. We are definitely going to try and hang the next few weeks as and when I get the chance. She did promise to cook for a me a bit and more importantly mix a few drinks as well. Cool

Oh and I cannot say anything more at this point abt Shantaram which has turned out to be the finest book I have read in ages. I will try and do a more comprehensive review once I am done but it being over 900 pages, 944 to be exact and me able to spare time with the frequency of Indian wins in the Windies, don't count on it happening any time soon.

As today is Memorial Day in the US, should be quite light at work. My teams needed a break so today will clearly be some relief from certain burnout.

No more soda for me

Yeah.. if this article is to be believed


Truth and scary or hoax and funny?

Shoot thy neighbor.... not on purpose of course.

A really funny-yet-disturbing link.

Thanks reddit

Quotes for the Day

Today's theme is Heroes. Thanks again to qotd.

Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896 - 1940

Nature abhors a hero. For one thing, he violates the law of conservation of energy. For another, how can it be the survival of the fittest when the fittest keeps putting himself in situations where he is most likely to be creamed?
- Solomon Short

The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not graven only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives.
- Thucydides

The trouble with superheros is what to do between phone booths.
- Ken Kesey

Use your illusion

 

A really cool illusion.

 

Very impressive.

 

 

3 degrees of sadness

There's misery. Then there's heartbreak. And then there is the feeling associated with India losing a cricket match by one run for which I am up till whatever the hell time it is right now.

Oh well.. I guess these things happen every now and then. I just wish I wasn't around to witness it every now and then.

Quotes for the Day

Today's theme happens to be Quotations.

Next to being witty yourself, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit.
     - Christian Nestell Bovee, 1820 - 1904

Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly.
     - Simeon Strunsky, 1879 - 1948

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
     - George Bernard Shaw, 1856 - 1950

Golf in the Valley

Another week-end went by and this one was not spent lounging around the house.. well not entirely.

 

Saturday was spent watching the Apprentice with my cuz sis and my mom and also pigging out on food and drinks.

 

Sunday was spent in Amby Valley with some folks watching The Asian Masters 2006 golf tourney. This was the first time I was watching a round of golf live in action and it was pretty fun. Although it was hot as hell and way too much sun for my enjoyment it was still fun.

 

After that was done, got home and then last night I slept for 12 hrs straight. Have not done that in quite a while. Not since College I think.

 

 

 

One Year Grad

 

This weekend marks one year to the day I graduated from UB...

 

Wow.. one whole year. Time flies by but at the same time so much has happened this past year that it feels like I graduated a while ago at the same time I feel like it was just yesterday that I was shooting hoops with my roomies and getting my buzz on at Molly's.

 

I can't believe how lucky I am that things have worked out so well for me since then.. getting to live and work in the new york/new jersey area and then moving back home and still having a good life.

 

All I can say is that I am really looking forward to the next year and where I'll be then.

 

 

Oh and I miss Buffalo. Not America but Buffalo, NY. Don't ask why.. thats just the way it is.

 

 

 

Quotes for the Day

 

Today's theme happens to be the reason I have not been able to post much the past few days - Dedication.. in my case to my work.

 

 

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

~ Jesse James

 

"Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication."

~ Cecil B. de Mille

 

Quotes for the day

 

Today's theme due to luck happens to be well.... Luck and Odds.

Never let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.
     - Leroy "Satchel" Paige, 1906 - 1982

To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late;
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods?
     - Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, 1800 - 1859

The Merger..... of lives

Lately it seems like my work life and my home life are really becoming one.

Consider whats been taking place the last week and a half:

I leave home between 6-7 in the evening and I come home between 4:30-6:00 in the am.
Sleep does not claim me easily
I woke up at 12:00 then 1 then 2 and finally today at 3 in the afternoon which left me with roughly 3-4 hrs for my "personal" time. Now that just blows. I mean I have not been doing much socially before this but this is just ridiculous.

Is there an end in sight... I do not know but I hope to carry on with this. I have gone through a lot just to give up now...


Sorry if anyone mailed me or called me in the last two weeks. You won't be hearing back from me until a little longer. Hang in there.. I know I am.

Zombie

The entire last week.. felt like a zombie. Well, make that feeling since it never went away.

Working the graveyard shift all of a sudden does that to you.

On another note, read the Sith Code of Honor online today.

Its interesting.

The Sith CodePeace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

Sorry...

 

Sorry blog.. been neglecting you lately. Its just that I've been working crazy hours this week. I work from 6:30 in the evening till sometime like 4:00 in the am. This cycle is making it very difficult for me to really post something coherent on the blog.

 

In all seriousness, I feel like I've been doing tequila shots and smoking pot the entire week.

 

 

Well, there was that one shot on saturday.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Amazing pics of ... well rainbows...

 

Go here

 

 

Great find.... thanks to digg.

At the movies

 

Note that this same post also exists at Yet Another Ruman Blog

 

Things that movies have taught me... Hollywood Edition

 A cigarette case in a shirt pocket always blocks a bullet.

A single match can brighten any room, no matter the size.

All computer disks work in all computers, regardless of operating system.

All single women have cats.

Anyone can land a plane, provided someone in the control tower talks you through it.

Bullets are unable to penetrate water.

Characters shot with guns will fly backward, or upward and backward, through the air, the laws of physics not-withstanding.

Dinosaurs only eat ugly and/or immoral people.

During emotional confrontations, instead of facing the person you are speaking to, stand behind them and talk to their back.

Explosions in space make noise.

Having a job makes fathers forget their sons' birthdays.

 

If a killer is lurking in your house, it's easy to find him. Just run a bath (even in the middle of the day) and then look in the bathroom mirror. There he is.

 

 

I think that should be it for now...

Stayin Home

So I am staying home today. Lot of work going on around the house and I need to be here to keep a watch on things. First day off from work since my sister's wedding back in Jan.

Wordpressed to move

Howdy, folks.. my cheerfulness seems to have come from Wordpress where I migrated all my previous posts from this blog yesterday,

Man, that place looks quite nice and if I really like it more I guess I'll be over there full time.

The link is Yet Another Ruman Blog... of course the name might be changed in the near future.

Love the templates and oh yeah the main reason to consider moving - NO SPAM.

Quotes for the Day

 

Today's topic is absence. Once again thanks to QotD

Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.
     - François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
     - Henry Alfred Kissinger

 

Tis the season

Just ate mangoes after three years.

It was great. Its truly the small things that matter.

Quotes for the day

 

Today's theme is Poker:

 

Poker is a game of people... It's not the hand I hold, it's the people that I play with. — Amarillo Slim

Luck favours the backbone, not the wishbone. — Doyle Brunson

Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life . — Anthony Holden

There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker... Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kindhearted, liberal, sincere, and all that, who did not know the meaning of a 'flush'. It is enough to make one ashamed of one's species. — Mark Twain

The future is here

 

By future I mean that of management. By here I mean India and by saying that I mean it was a statement made by CNN Money.com

 

 

Good stuff.

 

 

Now they tell me...

 

Tips on great note taking.

 

 

Now they tell me.

 

 

Quotes for the day

 

Today's Quotes taken from the Talmud:

 

Be a tail to lions rather than a head to jackals.

If silence be good for the wise, how much better for fools.

A legal decision depends not on the teacher's age, but on the force of his argument.

Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net addicts

 

Section - Humor

 

You may be an internet addict if:-

All your friends have an @ in their names.
At the mall, you see someone of the opposite sex that you'd like to meet and your first thought is to IM her.
At work, the boss constantly reminds you that the word i should be capitalized.
The last girl you picked up was a GIF.
Three words: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
When everyone else goes to bed, you sneak in to your computer.
When looking at a web page full of someone else's links, you notice all of them are already highlighted in purple.
When someone asks, "What did you say?" you reply, "Scroll up!"
You beg your friends to get an account so "we can hang out."
You check your mail. It says "no new messages." So you check it again.
You consider being called a "newbie" a major insult.
You don't have a bookmark list, you have a database.
You experience "withdrawal" after not being online for six hours.
You fall asleep, but instead of dreams, you get IMs.
You go online in the morning before you go for coffee.
You go to personal web sites just to see their links page.
You keep more than four browser windows open at the same time.
You log off and the message begins with, "You were on for 3 days, 15 hours…"
You look at an annoying person off-line and wish that you had an "Ignore" button.

ok.... I think I'll stop there cause I could go on and on...

Oh and most of the above apply to me.

 

 

 

Quotes for the day

 

Today's Quotes:

 

One man believes in existence,

Another says, "There is nothing!"

Rare is the man who believes in neither.

He is free from confusion.

 

from The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita, by Thomas Byrom

 

 

"Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come." -- Rabindranath Tagore

Quotes for the day

Today's Quotes:

 

Theme is 'Talk'

 

No man would listen to you talk if he didn't know it was his turn next.
     - Edgar Watson Howe, 1853 - 1937

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, and thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, philosophy, and religion all in one.
     - Eudora Welty, 1909 - 2001

We talk on principle, but we act on interest.
     - Walter Savage Landor, 1775 - 1864

I worry about people who get born nowadays, because they get born into such tiny families, sometimes into no family at all. When you're the only pea in the pod, your parents are likely to get you confused with the Hope Diamond. And that encourages you to talk too much.
     - Russell Baker

The short end of it

Section Humor:

 

The world's shortest books... quite funny.

 

"America's Most Popular Lawyers"
"Career Opportunities for History Majors"
"Different Ways to Spell 'Bob'"
"Ethiopian Tips on World Dominance"
"Everything Men Know About Women"
"Everything Women Know About Men"
"French Hospitality"
"Human Rights Advances in China"
"Things I Can't Afford" by Bill Gates"
"Things I Love About Bill" by Hillary Clinton"
 

3 years down

Wow.. I never thought I would be here. Writing a post three years after the first one graced this blog. I had only hoped to leave a footprint somewhere on this massive beach called the Internet and well, its certainly left a mark. Not to a lot of people but certainly to my immediate family and close friends.

This was the only way the two groups of people mentioned above could keep up with my activities which were interesting on a daily basis back in Buffalo. Does that mean my life has become boring after graduation and moving back home? Hardly; its just that my target audience has really come close to the eye of the storm so as to speak. They know more or less what I am up to on a regular basis.

And while I do admit my days of really going wild with Sumedh, Justin, Laura, Sameer, Shival & the rest of the crew are long gone, it does not change the fact that I have been updating the blog on a regular basis.

When I told my mom a few days ago that this special anniversary was approaching, she told me to start writing something meaningful apart from all those links and humor I post on a regular basis. Which is why the minute I got home then I started composing this post and most likely I will be posting this soon with the dates modified so that it appears on the blog's birthday with precision.

My mom had asked me to write about my life and my dreams... and I thought no one wants to read that... most of my crew know that I tend to get quite philosophical at times (read that as often).

Which is why I quoted Game when he uttered, "They say sleep is the cousin of death. So my eyes wide open cause a dream is akin to your last breath."

So today is gonna be no philosophies.. well....perhaps no more that what I have already scribed above.


Happy birthday blog.. yay.

The numbers game

 

A great link to a quirky way of looking at mathematics's five most important numbers.

 

 

Cool stuff.

Yeh meri kahani translated

I love music. While I do appreciate a good feet-tapper and a great beat every now and then, my favorite songs of all time all have one thing in common - great lyrics.

Nothing moves me as a song with good lyrics does. And very rarely in the recent past has a song moved me as much as a song from the Indian movie Zinda.

The song is titled 'Yeh Meri Kahani' or This my story when translated literally. The movie can be translated as Alive and it is a story of a man who one day for no reason he can think of is taken from his house and imprisoned in a dark place for a very long time. He has no idea why and then one day all of a sudden he is let loose and he attempts to figure things out. While I haven't seen the movie yet, the soundtrack from the movie is very good.

As I usually do when I like a song, I went online to find the lyrics and they were really good. I tried to understand them... I got the gist but let’s face it... I don't understand Urdu that well. I know my Hindi but words in Urdu are more classical and stylish.

The song in question was written, sung and produced by a great Pakistani band called Strings. I share a special bond with them since 1993 when I got their first album. Their songs keep popping up every 4-5 years and I get hooked all over again. Urdu is the language used for Poetry and some of the words are very hard to get. During such cases I simply ask my dad to translate as he knows the language very well and is well versed in Poetry of this form called Ghazal.

Anyway... he just read the lyrics in the past hour and liked them very much and quickly explained things to me. Things which I will attempt to further translate to English so everyone can enjoy.

So here you go:

Original Lyrics : Translation

Yeh hai meri kahani : This is my story
khamosh zindagani : A silent life
sannata keh raha hai : The silence is saying to me
kyun zulm seh raha hai : Why bear the injustice?

ek dastaan purani : An old story
tanhayi ki zubani : The voice of loneliness
her zakham khil raha hai : Every scar comes out
kuch mujh se keh raha hai : It says something to me

chubtay kantay yadoon ke daaman say chunta hoon : I pick prickly thorns from my past
girti deewaron ke aanchal mai zinda hoon : I live holding onto collapsing walls

bass yeh meri kahani : This is my only story
benishaan nishaani : The mark left by me is unnoticeable
ek darr beh raha hai : A fear flows through me
kuch mujh se keh raha hai : It says something to me

chubtay kaanten yadoon ke daaman se chunta hoon : I pick prickly thorns from my past
girti deewaron ke aanchal mein zinda hoon : I live holding onto collapsing walls

Spoken Poetry

bajay pyaar ki shabnum mere gulistaan mein : Dewdrops of love echo in my garden
baraste rehte hain har simt maut ke saye : Each instant brings a shadow of death
siyahiyon se ulajh padti hain meri aankhein : My eyes meet those of darkness
koi nahi .. koi bhi nahi jo batlaye : There is no one. No one to tell me
kitni der ujalon ki raah dekhe : How much longer must I await light
koi nahi hai koi bhi nahi : There is no one. No one at all
na pass na durr : Neither near nor far
yeh pyaar hai : This is love
dil ki dharkan : The beating of the heart
apni chahat ka jo ellan kiye jaati hai : That keeps declaring its affection
zindagi hai jo jiye jaati hai : That keeps living its life
khoon k ghoont peay jaati hai : That keeps accepting everything
khwaab aankhon se siye jaati hai : It keeps weaving dreams

ab na koi paas hai : Now there is no one near
phir bhi ehsaas hai : Still there is a feeling I have
siyahiyon mai uljhi padi : Entangled in the darkness
jeene ki ek aas hai : Is the will to live
yadoon ka jungle yeh dil : My heart is a forest of memories
kaanton se jal thal yeh dil : My heart is overflowing with thorns

chubtay kaanten yadoon ke daaman se chunta hoon : I pick prickly thorns from my past
girti deewaron ke aanchal mein zinda hoon : I live holding onto collapsing walls


Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

Rules to follow while writing

More humor...

 

Following are some of the rules you should follow when you are writing:

 

"Avoid overuse of 'quotation "marks."'"
a sentence should begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation
A writer must not shift your point of view.
And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
Avoid commas, that are not necessary, and don't overuse exclamation marks!!!
Avoid the use of dyed-in-the-wool cliches like the plague; they are old hat.
Be more or less specific.
Correct speling is esential.
Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
Don't never use no double negatives.
Don't string too many prepositional phrases together unless you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
Good writers do not use one verb tense in one part of a sentence, and then have switched to a different tense in the next.
Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
Who needs rhetorical questions?

Enjoy...

 

 

 

 

 

Measuring Units

 

Haha nice. Modern units of measurement.. some are pretty funny:

 

2,000 pounds of Chinese soup = won ton

 

Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon

 

1,000 aches = 1 kilohurtz

 

2,000 mockingbirds = Two kilomockingbirds

 

1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche

 

10 rations = 1 decoration

 

8 nickels = 2 paradigms

 

100 Senators = not 1 decision

 

And the last one...

3 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital = 1 IV league

 

From Al Lowe.....

Cubicle Slang and stuff

Haha awesome. Some nice modern Cubicle Slang... Thanks to Al Lowe's Humor Site.

 

Some nice samples:

 

404 - Someone who is clueless. From the Web error message, "404 Not Found," which means the document requested couldn't be located. "Don't bother asking John. He's 404."

 

Blamestorming - A group discussion of why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.

 

Blowing Your Buffer - Losing one's train of thought. Occurs when the person you are speaking with won't let you get a word in edgewise or has just said something so astonishing that your train gets derailed. "Damn, I just blew my buffer!" (Synonym: "Head Crash")

 

Bookmark - To take note of a person for future reference. "After seeing his cool demo at Siggraph, I bookmarked him."

 

Dorito Syndrome - The feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction triggered by addictive substances that lack nutritional content. "I just spent six hours surfing the Web, and now I've got a bad case of Dorito Syndrome."

 

Gray Matter - Older, experienced business people hired by young entrepreneurial firms trying to appear more professional and established.

 

More to follow in the coming days...

 

One a personal note.. We've got lot of 404's at work. We don't have blamestorming sessions. I occasionally do blow my buffer. I tend to bookmark people, places and things way too much. I also sometime suffer from the Dorito Syndrome and there is some grey matter at work.
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Quotes for the day

 

Today's Quotes:-

 

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
     - Georg Christopher Lichtenberg, 1742 - 1799

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
     - Will Rogers, 1879 - 1935

Quotes for the Day

Today's Quotes:-

 

 

Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.

In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.

Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.

Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum. (I doubt, therefore I think; I think therefore I am.)

An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?

 

     - All from René Descartes, 1596 - 1650

 

 

gracias QotD

Our thing

 

Attribute this to my current mafia fascination as I am reading Mario Puzo's The Godfather.

 

 

 

Quotes for the Day

 

Today's quotes are by Voltaire:

 

 

Paradise is where I am.

 

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

 

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous!" And God granted it.

 

A witty saying proves nothing.

Quotes for the day

Today's Quotes. The theme is possessions.. Thanks again to QotD

 

 

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.
     - J. Brotherton

 

 

Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists, when you can ignore them like wise men?
     - Natalie Clifford Barney, 1876 - 1972

Quotes for the day

 

Its amazing how reading something obscure on Wikipedia led me to these quotes and I just had to post them.

 

Today's Quotes:-

 

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have found the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths.

 

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

 

The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says, but rather to what he does not say

 

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

 

 

All these wonderful quotes are by the poet and artist Khalil Gibran (1883 - 1931)

Free your mind...

..... and your time.

 

Not far from the sagely wisdom put forth by Morpheus in The Matrix comes a good and quick read on how to extend your daily quota of hours.

 

I need to start practicing this stat.

 

 

 

I bet Jack Bauer could certainly use this.

Standing tall

Amazing pics here.

 

 

15 of the worlds best skylines. I pine for the day Bombay's skyline makes this list.

 

 

Lights, camera and lots of action

 

Unbelievable link here. This guy has to have loads of money to build a very detailed Paris 1920 themed theatre UNDER his house.

 

 

Amazing.

A fact is forever

 

The Truth and not a diamond lasts forever.

 

 

All women need to read this link.

Quotes for the Day

 

Here are today's quotes. I just realized I haven't posted these in quite a while.

 

 

It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.

 

- Robert E. Lee

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.

- E. B. White

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

- Abba Eban

The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.

- G. K. Chesterton

 

Seven myths about Islamist Terrorism

 

A good read. Thanks to Foreign  Policy

 

 

 

Awesome pictures

Great stuff from this Argentinian family.

 

Check it out.

MBA Relevence

 

A well written article on how relevant a MBA is in today's world.

 

See here

 

 

The Table

Ok.. people officially have way too much time on their hands.

 

This guy built a big, larger than life periodic table with storage space to store actual samples.

 

 

I wonder how the heck will he get uranium and plutonium in there.

The Game

 

Watched history being made last night. Without a doubt the greatest game of cricket I have ever seen or perhaps even the greatest game ever played.

 

Words won't do justice to the game which is why I'll refrain from describing it.

 

What I will do is link to the scorecard so you can read the analysis for yourself and be in awe.

TGIF

Turning out to be an interesting Friday. First off I realized that during a nasty shake two nights ago at 12:30 am in pitch black darkness, as my car went over a sharp stone it somehow damaged my gearbox... dammit.

 

 

Anyway... took my mom's car to work and what a day its been so far. Added couple of people to the design team and then indulged in some cricket for a while.

 

We're all gonna stay here for a while. Make a night of it. Play some cricket. Intake some food and beverages... basically make a party of it.

 

 

This is how all Friday nights should end.

City of Joy

 

Woweeeeeeee....

 

 

I have been drooling at the news that Caeser IV will finally be released later this year and also looking at screens of an until-now-unheard-of game City Life

 

 

Its a good time to be a gamer.

 

Time to be a geek

 

Awesome find. Top ten watches for Geeks. Geeks are usually people obsessed with technology.

 

 

Man, so many great selections. Can I have one of these?

Quotes for the Day

Today's Quotes:-

I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on.   - Beryl Pfizer   Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.   - George Santayana   Fish is the only food that is considered spoiled once it smells like what it is.   - P. J. O'Rourke   Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.   - W. C. Fields

 

 

 

Must see movies

A list of movies I really want to see:-

 

Crash

Syriana

Capote

Munich

Goodbye, Goodnight

 

Quotes for the Day

Today's Quotes

 

 

Albert Camus - Philosopher

 

A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.

 

Abstract Art: A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

 

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures - be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

 

It's a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pirates of pretty much everything

An excellent article on how online piracy works.

 

A must read.

 

 

Max on Max off

Cool.

 

I have to say this certainly is cool. I've been trying out the hot underground browser Maxthon for the past few hours and I can guarantee that this thing works.

 

Think of it as a uber-browser. Its overload on most features but my fav thing about it is the amount of memory it occupies. Very VERY less. About 80,000 K less compared to my usual session of Firefox.

 

 

I am actually considering switching (or at least having Maxthon) with Firefox on my pc at work and at home.

Tired

Just got back from work. Its 2 AM.


Dripping with exhaustion


How will I attempt to relax? A couple of rounds of Tiger Woods Golf 2005 on my pc.

Quotes for the Day

Today's Quotes


People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.
- Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
- Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955

Quotes for the Day

Today's quotes courtesy qotd.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts ... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them and pretty soon you have a dozen.


John Steinbeck, 1902 - 1968

Music

Yet another saturday in the office sweating it out. Well not really cause the cooling here is great.

Another plus today is the fact that one of my co-workers has got some great music playing the past few hours.


He had just finished playing some Radiohead when Stairway to Heaven came up. It ended and I thought, 'You know what would be great right now? Hotel Cali' and surely, the song played next was the old Eagles classic.

Aah, goodness.

Quotes for the Day

Today's quotes have no theme:-

"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"I am become death, shatterer of worlds."
- Robert J. Oppenheimer (1904-1967) (citing from the Bhagavad Gita, after witnessing the world's first nuclear explosion)

The Gang of Eight

8 types of meeting attendees


Awesome. The true 8 types of people who show up for meetings.

Which one are you?

RSS Guide

Guide to RSS


Bravo. A great guide written for the newbie trying to get into the whole RSS thingie.

Go read it and follow it.

Hitting it

Well,

Going for at least one general non topical post every day. Lets see how long I can keep it up.

Hit the gym hard today. Actually just got back from there. I started working out again after quite a long break last week-end. Hope to keep this non-stop for the foreseeable future. Granted that I don't quite know where I'll be in six months let alone a whole year.


I would also like to do sort of a group blog with people around the world soon... so if anyone is interested in trying out blogging or just wants to write a bit, drop me a line.

p.s any cousins out there reading this..  wanna try?

Dear Diary

I really have to apologise to my blog for not updating it often. If you go into the archives and see what the first year's entries looked like, it was basically about my life. The things I did everyday. What I ate, what I studied, what I played.. basically sort of like a personal diary of sorts. Since then my entries have been about things I find interesting. These range from my Quotes of the day series to my frequent tech and sports related news linkings.

I really need to start posting some more stuff of my regular and not so regular activities.

It was so easy back then though. I was in college and we were always doing something exciting, fun and stimulating every single day. I firmly believed in Carpe Diem - Seize the day.

But now that I am in the grind - albeit not the regular 9 - 5 but the 2:00 till whatever-the-hell-time-I-get-off routine, fun activities have gotten scarce.

But I guess that what RL means. I just hope I can Carpe some weekends



More to follow:-

Quotes for the Day

Today's Quotes :-

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created.
- Edward Steichen, 1879 - 1973

Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.
- Tony Benn

Quotes for the Day

Today's quotes

Wit is educated insolence.
   - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.
 - Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

Spam Rant.

What the hell is going on with Blogger lately?

Every day I get at least three spam posts here advertising everything from Viagra to Swiss Watches.



C'mon guys, fix up the system here.

Quotes for the Day - Bonus

I realized a few moments ago that I forgot to post quotes yesterday. Which is why I will be posting six today. 2 for today, 2 for yesterday and 2 as a bonus.


To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance  -  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.  - Jimi Hendrix

A witty saying proves nothing.
    - Voltaire (1694-1778)

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
    - Will Durant

If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
    - Mario Andretti

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
    - Henry Ford (1863-1947)

The Skipping Stones

The mystery of the skipping stone

Cool stuff to know. The Physics behind one of the worlds most popular ways to kill time - skipping stones in water.

A Fuller Life

Great stuff. Found a whole new world today. Comics based on one of my all time fav games : Half-Life 2

And not just silly comics. Real funny and well made comics.

PHWonline.com:

Another case in example is the very well made Concerned

Aah... something to surely keep me busy for the next few days.

Quotes for the Day

I actually have a theme today. What else but love?

While I personally am not a fan of Valentines Day as I see it as nothing more than a corporate shenanigan, I do love the quotes I am about to post.. hence the theme.


There is time for work. And there is time for love. That leaves no other time.
- Coco Chanel, 1883 - 1971

Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.
- David Grayson

Quotes for the Day

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint Exupery

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
- Isaac Asimov

Quotes for the day

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher.
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

The ADDvantage

Adult ADD Strengths » Top 10 Advantages of ADD in a High Tech Career

Cool.

Dunno, I might just have ADD cause everything mentioned seems to fit me.

Email Lifehacks

An awesome series of articles over at 43 folders. How to master something that has become such a big part of our lives namely email.

Recap: Becoming an Email Ninja | 43 Folders: "Becoming an Email Ninja"


A must read for all netizens out there.

Out of time

So busy. Haven't had such a hectic day at work in months.

No chance to post anything useful today.

Quotes for the day

So busy today... no posts other than these quotes which is why I'll be posting 4 for today.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)

Maybe this world is another planet's Hell.
- Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Black holes are where God divided by zero.
- Steven Wright

And my fav out of these

We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time.
- Vince Lombardi

5iver

Good stuff from 5ives.com

Five good things to absorb while you’re still young

1. a lot of hippies are selfish, unpleasant, and not particularly funny
2. people who argue well aren’t necessarily right
3. cars are kind of a weird thing to spend a lot of money on
4. people will do things for you if you ask them as a favor
5. angry waiters totally do things to your food

DYK?

Interesting.

Did you know?

That 'Facetious' is the only word in the Oxford English Dictionary where all the vowels appear in alphabetical order.

That 'Almost' and 'Effort' are the longest words in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

Quotes for the Day

He who has a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.

- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.

- Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)

Saving made simple

A really good read on how to save some money by following some really simple tips.

RealSimple.com

Enjoy the savings

All about Black Holes

A very good compilation of FAQ's concerning Black Holes.

BLACK HOLES by Ted Bunn

Everything you wanted to know but found difficult visualising.

For Starters

Marked with a Toread tag in my del.icio.us bookmark collection was this little gem:-

100 Best First Lines from Novels

You can really tell a lot about a book maybe not by it's cover but by it's very first line. As such, the first line has to be able to draw you in and keep you interested for the rest of the novel.


Click on the link above for a sampling of the best. Its also a good tool for budding writers.

Quotes for the day

Today's quotes:-

Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

The illusion that times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded all ages.

- Both by Horace Greeley, 1811 - 1872

Quotes for the Day

Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.
- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)

The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'.
- Unknown

Space Time

Don't be scared off by the title of the link below

Relativity, Quantum Physics and the Universe

Some things are good to know despite your inhibitions.. and this is one of those things.


Go ahead and learn something intelligent for the day.

The Two Things - Intro

For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.

The Two Things about the Two Things

1. People love to play the Two Things game, but they rarely agree about what the Two Things are.
2. That goes double for anyone who works with computers.

The Two Things about Innovation:
1. Innovation is inversely proportional to organizational strength.
2. Organizational strength increases with time.


If you have the two things for your area of expertise, drop me an email at the following address :-

ruman dot a at gmail dot com

Quotes for the Day

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
- Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
- Thomas Jefferson

Small window after all

A nice little app that converts all open windows and apps into small windows allowing you to hover and open the app you want.

SmallWindows

Cool concept

Ta-da not just a magician's word

Started using a new web 2.0 based slick app called Ta-da lists. Everything is online so you don't have to install or download anything.

To do list, simple, easy, fast, sharable: Ta-da List

A great way to keep track of tasks you might want to complete. Create unlimited to-do lists. A good way to organize your busy and cluttered life.

Quotes for the day

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)