Krishnakanth's WeBlog

Wear helmet | Save rain water

2011-07-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

Predated 01-30-2011 | 30-01-2011

Jetlag may really be a modern way of attaining enlightenment. It shows how stupid human body is and how dependent we are on a notion of 3 dimensions and time (screw the rest of the curled up 6 dimensions). It keeps you awake at a time when everyone is busy sleeping and opens your eyes (pun intended) to all the time we could have better spent. Maybe finish chores, listen to trancy music or write long and whiny blogs, like this one.

Everything starts with a journey. Wait, maybe not. At least, its a very profound thing to say, better than 'This blog is about me visiting Chennai after 4 years'.

On landing at the airport, I called up ever-dawg friend of mine, and we agreed to meet around 6PM after his office. He told me that auto ride should cost me Rs.125. This figure must have been from a year ago, because none were willing to come for anything less than 250. Everything in India now costs 2 times what it used to cost when I left.

The auto driver was a brilliant chap. We discussed a lot of things. About how TN government is performing badly, things it needs to do to improve conditions on road. About life in general, and how he had come up in his life from a porter to owner of 4 autos. He was remarkably honest, when he said "better enforcement of rules by police is the only way things will change". He talked about his childhood Chennai, and how things have changed. About snatching and drunken driving is on the rise and about how political systems are polarizing India further, rather trying to embrace differences. Whole bunch of wisdom.

Meanwhile, I was feeling stranger about the route and also feeling pollution in the air. Most of the streets had new buildings, heck I could not make where I was going. Although I used to know these roads well.

After an arduous 1 hour of zigzagging across traffic. Met Gans ..

At first I could not believe it was the same place, again ! Throughout the first few hours, I must have said this couple of hundred times. We both took his new bike and like some ritual, went to all the places which we used to frequent before. Beaches, coffee shops. That brings me to Mocha. I felt very old sitting there watching all the kids hang out. I swear most of them were still in high school.

Time flies when you are friend's company, after talking about "stuff" from past, present and future. We decided to give Darshan a call. He works at unbelievable hours and gets off work at 4AM. Our plan to spend time was to go to every 24 hour coffee shop in every 5 start hotel until 4AM. We started off with a midnight buffet. Boy it was packed ! I have never seen any restaurant being so full, let alone at 12AM. This used to be a very exclusive hotel last time I was there with hardly more than couple of people.

Then like a pilgrimage we had coffee, over and over again at various (how many I lost track of) hotels. Nature was in funny mood too. There was an occasional shower or too, which completely drenched us.

We met Darshan at Marina beach, walked for a little bit, and saw the sunrise. It was pretty ! Thing about being in california is that you get to see only sunsets over the coast.

The one thing which everyone recommended I do, and which I did not was visit the new Express Mall. One thing which not many recommeded but I still did was going to saravana bhavan for a quick breakfast. Smell of, wait for it .. filter coffee, burnt sugar(that was in that coffee) and rice batter !

Sleepy, wet, tired and full of caffeine .. we decided to call it a night or day. We weren't sure what to call it. On my way back, I saw this written in bright white reflective letters on green sign.

If I ever come to believe in an omnipresent entity that tweaks universe's variables to make such things possible, this would have been such a time. This sign almost seemed like it was made to mock our stupidity and made an apt recap of the night. Bike, Rain water and Corporation of Chennai :)

In any other country, they would have used such a space for directions or distances or landmarks or maybe even road signs. Being India, they thought it was wise to use people's money to educate people themselves and give inspiration for whacky blog titles.

Now

Looking back, I miss Chennai from 4 years ago, when I could connect to it. But friends make any city awesome.

that perspective ..

2010-08-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

It feels great to have circled the sun so many times and shared sensory inputs and intellectual stimulation with you some of you at some point in the vast time-space continuum .. How wonderful can we stardust clumps get ! :D

A midsummer night's dream

2010-08-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

Just saw "A midsummer night's dream" play. I thought this line was particularly amazing could not get it out of my head.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:-
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,
As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd
The heavy gait of night.--Sweet friends, to bed,--
A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels and new jolity.

as the beast slept ..

2010-08-05T11:50:00.001-07:00

I am sure you heard of Firefox's easter egg. In firefox URL field enter about:mozilla and you get this message.

Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the sacred words, and spoke of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was naught but a follower.

from The Book of Mozilla, 11:9
(10th Edition)

originally Mammon was supposed to be Microsoft and Beast was supposed to be Firefox.

Now I think chrome should have a message:

Beast slept, and Mammon was tired. And a new rainbow spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the time and showered rain over the fire, with speed of a lightning. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the sacred words, and spoke of the rainbow with their children. Beast awoke, Mammon too awoke, and lo! they were naught but followers.

from The Book of Google, 8:4
(BETA)

iPhone4

2010-07-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

in 2012 Aliens are going to eliminate Human race. Apple is covering its ground :)

We Believe in Excellent Execution

2010-06-05T19:01:00.001-07:00

Weekend Doodle :)

Google Wave, a year later.

2010-05-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

I remember last year's google IO demo of wave and being amazed at what was possible. A year since, wave .. well.. never caught on ! These are my 2 cents on why this did not happen !

1. Lack of integration with gmail: granted that gmail was based on IMAP and not on XMPP. Google could have easily enabled XMPP in Gmail. Thus treating Wave like an modern version of email. Gmail - Gmail could have been a wave, thus also forcing users to switch to gmail.

2. What about email in a wave ?: Neither did that happen. There was no way easy way to integrate email into Waves.. Nor could you switch divert gmail emails to Google wave. Thus requiring users to go to 2 places( websites) to keep track of communication, that (un) fortunately never caught on.

3. Open source it fully: When google wave announced it was going to be OPEN. It was partially true, they never opened their Web UI. Seriously, if you want a new protocol be adopted, what's the point of giving a command line interface as free version. They should have made it easy for someone to start a wave server and provide usable UI with it.

Lessons ?

1. Habits are hard to form. Changes should be gradual.. habitual changes should be force fed. If given a choice, a user will chose easiest and safest path that they are used to. That's not necessarily the best.
2. Integrating into existing products is far better( like buzz). Than starting from scratch.

Update: Wave just died :'(

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

Whispering wind

2010-04-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

Once in a while some of these songs just get stuck. Moby is a genius..

Like the whispering wind you sent to me
like the hopeless time you gave to me
I watched your dreams all slip away
I watched your dreams all slip away
there's a hopeless place inside my heart
when I look inside I see where we are
like the whispering wind in the top of my trees
i will watch the sky come following me
like the rain on my windows late every night
like the hope I have for us every time
it's like the whispering wind in the top of the trees
I see it sway as you come for me

there's a whispering wind I feel it inside
like a place I can feel but never will see
let a whisper come touch you come touch every thing
I stand in the way of the things I can be
let the whispering wind come lift us away
let it push us apart if we wish to stay
you're my sweetness my baby my love for all time
like the whispering wind it makes you all mine
like the whispering wind you stand here with me
like the whispering wind you stand here with me
I see your dreams all slip away
slip away
slip away
slip away

Dear tablet !

2010-04-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up to find out that, I lost my only remaining Windows computer, my tablet. Analysis suggests its probably due to multiple component failure, cause by overdose of hardcore programming and over-exertion. Also, partly due to its lineage AMD + Broadcom + Vista (that's some bad genes).

For almost 3 years this laptop worked tirelessly, day or night never mattered. Helped me finish countless assignments, pet projects, 1000s of hours of entertainment. Even during nights, your AMD processor used to crank out heat to keep me warm, now I come to think of it, why didn't you ever go to sleep or hibernate ?

6months ago it retired to become secondary laptop, tirelessly powering my TV and taking commands from VNC. Ever ready to serve.

In all the data I backed up from you and all the components you donated to technology's higher cause, your spirit shall remain with me in one form or other.

I will miss you.. all the 10 inch resistive-touchscreen-ness.. leafblower like loudness from the AMD's CPU fan ..

after roughly 3 years..

2010-03-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

It feels like yesterday scrambling for notes before exam and writing records in a running bus, me coming late to college, miss the first lecture. Sitting through classes, countless questions to lecturers and write countless exams. Fears of uncertain future and growing up by challenging those fears head on.

Those 4 years taught me some of the best lessons in life ever, formed foundation for character and showed me principles of life.

Its been around 3 years since we left the place, almost as long as we had known each other ! Wish I had known all of you more .. Now I look back at those years with lot of nostalgia, gratitude, amusement, wonder. Somehow all I remember were the happy, fun times. But I guess, this is how it all pans out.. Life I mean. Cheers all.

pi

2010-03-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Pi Day makes no sense to me !!! I tried to reason last night before I posted 'Happy pi day' on facebook by my mind got stuck.

This is what I was running !


if ( reader == NONGEEK){ 
    alert(irrational numbers have no repeating sequences)
}

Thread thread = new brainThread() 
thread.start()

class brainThread implements Runnable { 
     public void run() {
           do {
 
               But, its highly irrational to celebrate pi day on the same day every year, give irrational nature of the number pi.

             Wait, so does that make it rational to celebrate it on same day every year, since both these statements are irrational.

              But then pi is an irrational number, so then its irrational to celebrate pi day on the same day every year.

             }while(argument is irrational)
     } 
}

On living in future - part 1

2010-02-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Ever since I can remember, I have always been obsessed with the thought of how future will look. Energy, Matter, Life all seem so wonderful, so is technology. In its purest sense technology is a product of human intelligence. There are series of TED talks by Kevin Kelly on how technology is a form of being in universe. This article is about ultimate perfection/peak/pinnacle of these different kinds of existence of universe.

If you try to understand universe and why these different forms exist in universe, you start to see a pattern. Energy's pinnacle is matter, when lots of energy arranges itself in different patterns to form matters basic building blocks, bosons, or gluons or whatever CERN finds. These particles are basis for neutrons, protons which figured out how to form atoms along with electrons, that's a pinnacle. Different atoms' pinnacle is molecule formation. Pinnacle of molecule's interacting together is Life. Life's pinnacle is human's consciousness and intelligence. Pinnacle of Intelligence is technology. Technology's pinnacle is to be able to take human intelligence and consciousness out of human body and put it in a everlasting machine. The day a computer can recreate a brain, every neuron and every synapse and we Live in it. Is this the soul ?

The Living

If everyone starts to do that, then what will living become. Certainly talking and feeling emotions aren't necessary for soul to exist ? After all these were invented by life to communicate and display current state of being. If neurons are a way to store information we can store all of it now on magnetic disks. If every being has same information, i.e all information in universe, will all of them be the same. Are breathing, walking, running, moving needed for soul to exist. Is it banal existence to not have a human body and human experience ? We have to understand that this 'being' will be cognizant of every permutation of atom and energy's interaction with each other and hence there is no experience that is not experienced by the being. That's the quest of universe isn't it, to reach there, or is it ?

God person

I also don't believe that our future will be in black boxes full of wires, or you being hooked up to wires. Neither will it be like Jetson's, or 5th Element they are just artistic renderings. Black box or a capable robot maybe, the first step to achieve this ? But silicon, plastic are current technologies, there will be better ones in future. What if with a mere thought you can transfer your consciousness to any other thing anywhere in universe, with 0 cost of energy.

Perfect being has always been regarded as God (not religious nomenclature sense). In that light, ancient religious texts are full beings who do miracles. Did they figure out how to do this already and never told anyone how to do it ?

That's the ultimate living through technology, quest of universe through life, humans to enable everything to reach there.

PS: good to be back.

latest creations

2009-04-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

Trojan maps

aPics

Thanks to team-6.

Guru, Midhun and Me.

I'm working on a dream

2009-03-27T03:49:00.000-07:00

Out here the nights are long, the days are lonely
I think of you and i'm working on a dream
I'm working on a dream

Now the cards i've drawn's a rough hand, darling
I straighten the back and i'm working on a dream
I'm working on a dream

Come on!

I'm working on a dream
Though sometimes it feels so far away
I'm working on a dream
And i know it will be mine someday

Rain pourin' down, i swing my hammer
My hands are rough from working on a dream
I'm working on a dream

Let's go!

I'm working on a dream
Though trouble can feel like it's here to stay
I'm working on a dream
Well our love will chase trouble away

Alright!

[whistling interlude]
That's professional whistling right there!

I'm working on a dream
Though it can feel so far away
I'm working on a dream
Our love will make it real someday

The sun rise up, i climb the ladder
The new day breaks and i'm working on a dream
I'm working on a dream
I'm working on a dream
I'm working on a dream

Hey!

I'm working on a dream
Though it can feel so far away
I'm working on a dream
Our love will make it real someday
I'm working on a dream
Though it can feel so far away
I'm working on a dream
And our love will make it real someday

--Bruce Springsteen
for the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtS78vUUzJo

Cataloging promises

2009-03-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

Often politicians in India promise many things. Everybody either has general mistrust about politics or doesn't care. Do you know if they ever did what they said they will do ?

How do we evaluate a politician's performance ? My friend's have started a website called neverforget where we aim to do that ! To identify good politicians from bad ones. The good part about this is web and how easily we can find information :)

As my contribution, I started and finished cataloging DMK's (CM: Karunanidhi) TN pre-poll promises. You can access and modify the list here. I also added a snapshot of the work so far to this blog.

Now we need to research each of these promises. If you have lived in TN, please take few minutes to research one promise they made. whether the government ignored it or fulfilled it ! Its amazing how much you can do in 15mins a day.

Adopt a State/district/city(town)/ward today ! I encourage you to join the mailing list neverforget's mailing list.

So are you game ?

Neverforget Blog , 2 cents

2009-02-25T22:52:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

Its been couple of weeks since you all expressed interest in making a new template for the neverforget blog. Today, its been 1 month since the website was launched. After few versions we finally settled with the version which is public now. Please see http://blog.neverforget.in/

What you need to Get Started:

1. Creating a mock blog. to test.
2. Installing Firefox 3 ,Firebug and an editor Notepad++ .

How I updated the template:

There were two CSS:
1. style.css was used for styling everything in the website.
2. blog-style.css used to style the blog.

First step is to link your style sheets to the mock blog you create:

in the b:skin tags in header. delete everything in the CDATA and just paste this.

    @import url(http://neverforget.in/blog-style.css);
    @import url(http://neverforget.in/style.css);
]]>

Since style.css styles everything else in the website I could not change this. Style.css provides us the basic framework of a Header, Content(Post body), Sidebar and a footer. My plan was to use both the stylesheets so blog-style will have blogger specific definitions, like post ( etc tags) . So if you just take the homepage of neverforget and paste blogger content tags into content class. of style.css.

this part:

Since the blog-style.css was updated you may not see the changes i made. But I deleted all the redundant definitions in blog-style keeping just the classes which style.css did not have. This again is pretty easy. If there are 2 parallel styles then you will see lots of crosses in firebug css part.

Once you get this working, then you need to see spacing issues and general layout issues. firebug-> inspect and point to the element which you want to observe, this helps a lot. Most of the spacing issues were due to padding in the css.

Also for the sidebar, you can see that it also is defined in the b:section with several widgets embedded. These widgets are a way for the blogger site to know which part to replace with so you a get proper HTML. you can click on the expanded template in editHTML of the blogger layout to take a closer look at these widgets. check http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46870 and http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=46888&ctx=sibling for more info.

You can always email me if you get somewhere, just comment on this post. I will reply to it.

Happy coding,
Krishnakanth

Python Poem

2009-02-25T21:15:00.001-08:00

######## The Poem #########
###############################
# by #
# Marcello Bontempo Salgueiro #

# 08/08/08 - 04:16 AM #
###############################

def ining(the_poem):

the_poem='is love'
the_poem is True
but , have, some = 'sadness', 'passion', 'love'

the_poem and 'love' is True
class Ify:

is_=('the', 'only', 'way','to')

try:
felling='real love'
except:
you={'are':'a frozen'}

the_poem; return '%s'%'ome explanation'

everything=['is like','a poem']
for felling_it_go in the_poem:

writing, your= 'felling','your thoughts'; your_love and fly

return str('ing of happiness')
belive, this = 'is', 'True'

nothing='is';w=ining('!')

just='love.'

obsession with social presence

2009-01-31T21:39:00.000-08:00

I would like to share some of my experiences with social websites. For the record, I have updated/created my profiles on following websites over past 2 months and have used them extensively to log my activities.

1. Blogger
2. Google Reader
3. orkut
4. Facebook
5. Friendfeed
6. twitter
7. identi.ca
8. de.licio.us
9. pandora
10. last.fm
11. ping.fm
12. google talk
13. stumble upon
14. disqus
15. Google book library
16. youtube

All encompassing public profile page from which you can navigate to all the mentioned websites. This pretty much sums up most of the activity you can do online.

Categories:

- Music/Videos: Pandora, Last.fm, youtube.
- Status updates: twitter, indenti.ca, facebook, ( I used ping.fm to update all of them in one go)
- Friends: facebook, orkut( birthday wishes keeping track of other people's activites.
- Friendfeed is a unique services which combines all the feeds to make it easier to get a wholistic view of a persons activities.
- bookmarking: delicious, stumble upon. both geared towards slightly different purposes.
- news and blogs: google reader( allows you to share interesting articles too !), twitter. (identi.ca acts the same way too, but I am yet to use it fully)
- pictures: picasa ( not yet a flikr fan but thats awesome too)
- blogging: blogger
- books: google books
- I am yet to see something for movies ! I tried netflix integration somehow I wasn't able to make it work yet.

There several other options for each of the things I mentioned. like windows live spaces.

Chrome 2.0 revisited

2009-01-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

Its been few months since I talked about chrome. Since then there have been some changes. I am testing the chorme 2.0 (pre-beta)

Features:
1. whole webpage Zoom. ( use 'ctrl' + '+' & 'ctrl' + '-')
2. acid test 3 100/100 (yes no kidding) but it still fails the link test.still prebeta.
3. New Profile, to launch different configurations of tabs for work, for home etc ..
4. feels zippier.
5. no major bugs. also, if any they can be fixed since its in pre beta.

I am ready to switch once they have addons support. I hate seeing advertisements.

on Self Development Blogs

2009-01-15T00:36:00.000-08:00

I don't think anybody should take self-development blogs seriously. I think the popularity of these blogs reflects the low self-esteem of our society and their perception that there are faults in them to begin with.

Firstly, nobody's perfect. Nobody. Hence everybody should change and everybody does change all the time. Its ok to be lazy. Its ok to get up late. Its ok to eat what you want. As long as these things make you happy :) (and doesn't hurt anybody, in anysense)

These blogs are just like religion, take something very natural, instinctive, common. Oppose it. Claim you are the expert in doing things your way( ofcourse you will be)

Secondly, if you ever decide to learn from a guy, that person should atleast be a psychologist who has observed and studied other people and atleast s/he can tell you some generalized problems and their solutions, but they are in no way related what you face. Because everybody is unique.

Third, most of the bloggers claim they got rich after doing what they preach. Most of them owe their success to reader's clicks(read adsense). Its one thing to write an entertaining blog and a totally different thing to claim you can help others. You should remember that bloggers are just one perspective on this earth.

Fourth, if you are really passionate about a certain field, you will gain a lot more by following a blog by an industry leader( not that s/he is right), to get insights into the fields.

this is all my personal opinion :)

Hotness: Volcanic

2009-01-08T18:26:00.001-08:00

How would you describe trends for earthquake,words "Hotness: Volcanic" are misleading :)

Specialization is for insects !

2009-01-07T20:12:00.001-08:00

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects.

- Robert A. Heinlein from The Notebook of Lazarus Long

I happen to read this awesome quote from onemansblog. By the way it's his blog's tagline. It made sense to experiment with life.

web - drag and drop ?

2009-01-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

The ability to click, drag, drop has been one the key features of GUI since 20 or so years. These are some of the most intuitive controls which are somehow missing since then.

I know why there is little incentive for MS to do this, that would smudge the difference between what earns them money and something that doesn't. Google is am sure trying to smudge that exact difference between a web-experience and a desktop experience. So there you go another disruptive idea I have thrown to the wind. I am not saying nobody never thought about this before(see below for a disclaimer).

Assuming you have these features what would you do with them ?

1. drop my unwanted email into trash.
2. have boxes for each of my friends. would drop things into that directly, that thing could be a local PC file or a web-element or file. You see now, this idea is a biggie ?
3. Dropping things into checkout carts while shopping.

I know you can do some of it using AJAX. e.g Google reader, iGoogle home page. But the drag and drop ease is still in its infancy.

Speaking of UI, one of the best examples of a intuitive UI design was Andrew Zuckerman's Website kudos to the designer, I want my blog also to be like that, not an exact replica but with same ease and probably bit more color.

The so called disclaimer. They say every time you think of a new idea, its said that there are 5 people working on it, 5 people who did it and 5 people going to think of it at that very moment. sort of like the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon

Happy New Year and Oxymorons !

2009-01-04T10:52:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year Everybody !

Some Oxymorons from Google Search !

Oh Yeah and the new Foxy tunes blog music- signature !
----------------
Now playing: Balligomingo - Heat
via FoxyTunes

Web Rants - Ideas

2008-12-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

The structure of web really bothers me, just felt like ranting. Why cant I see information the way I want to?

How I want to configure the way I see Information:
1. I dont want to click on hyperlinks to go to next page. Infact why should there be another page ? when I reach the bottom of a page( lets say email) why cant google just show me the rest emails. Entire email content need not be downloaded because i only view part of it.

2. did you ever use cool-iris previews ? try it. Thats exactly what I want when I read news, just the content. I think all the websites should stop being content displayers and just be content storage providers( with a defualt way to see the content) some users like me like to view things in different ways.

3. Context and behavior based display. Lets say I am watching youtube video by coldplay and want to read about them. Why should I navigate to someother page and get familiarized with their that style. why cant I just see it in the page I already am in.

4. "Content Redundancy" thats a problem for every website. Youtube, Flickr, google. wikipedia tries to address this to some extent by acting as a repository for knowledge.

Whats awesome about web ?

the pace at which you can change things and the impact you can have! These are some of the problems. I guess we should all try to address in next 3-5 years.

Rest of us angle, its not just the goverment

2008-11-30T10:21:00.001-08:00

To terrorists,

Its not fair that you got to die. Personally, I would have loved to see you suffer. Hope there is something worse than hell.

To the rest of us,

Its not just the government, stop blaming the government. Its everyone one of us, who have been in India. Whenever we bend rules, whenever we don't wear a seatbelt or throw trash on road. Its these small things that add up. We think these things don't matter, but unfortunately they do. These things take India an inch closer to lawlessness, where terrorists can get what they want. India needs no new rules, No new Terrorism acts can stop this. The is a hardwired tendency of us Indians to not follow rules, should go.

LA Auto Show

2008-11-28T21:14:00.000-08:00

Me and Ferrari. Checkout my albums for more pics

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/krishnakanthc

My first autoshow.

Let Thanksgiving Inspire Your Job Search by Joe Turner

2008-11-25T16:11:00.000-08:00

Nice Article :) I din know a web source of this but found it very inspiring

Let Thanksgiving Inspire Your Job Search
by Joe Turner

Who doesn't love Thanksgiving? Lots of good food and no need to shop for presents. It's a day of turkey dinners, family gatherings and reflection; a holiday with deep roots dating back to 1621. Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday, our time to focus on everything for which we're grateful.

Especially while job hunting, Thanksgiving is about seeing the good in our lives and feeling appreciation despite outer circumstances or conditions. Our happiness isn't about how much stuff we've accumulated. Rather, it's about feeling grateful for who, what and where we are right now. It's about gratitude for how far we’ve come, what we do and for the challenges we've worked through.

Gratitude and the "law of attraction"

Gratitude is critical to the success of our job search. According to Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, we attract what we think about and concentrate on through the universal law of attraction. When we focus on our cup being half full, we attract more abundance and prosperity. This includes job opportunities.

Conversely, when we think that job hunting is hard, and focus on the jobs we didn't get offered, we attract more rejection and disappointment. It's been said that, "Attitude is everything." That's especially true in job search. Although we may not control anything outside of ourselves, we are in control of what we think, feel and do.

This Thanksgiving, why not try these four simple gratitude steps to improve your job search?

1) Start a "gratitude journal"

Oprah Winfrey has credited her success in part to keeping a gratitude journal, logging in at least five items each night for which she's grateful. This shifts your energy. "What we think about and thank about, we bring about," according to Dr. John Demartini in The Secret. Adopt an "attitude of gratitude" and start writing down five items each day for which you are grateful. This gets easier after a few days and soon it starts to shift your mindset from lack to prosperity.

2) Focus on prosperity

Jack Canfield, co-author of the series of books entitled Chicken Soup for the Soul, suggests focusing on prosperity and abundance. Concentrate on inner joy, peace and vision, and the outer things appear naturally. "Your voice and vision on the inside," he adds, "must be louder than the noise outside."

3) Visualize without limits

Joe Vitale, also featured in The Secret, suggests closing your eyes in the morning and visualizing what you want without limits. Then focus on what you're grateful for. He mentally reviews a gratitude list in the shower. He then releases all of this to the universe, while breathing deeply. Canfield adds that, "Energy flows where attention goes."

4) Be grateful when a job falls through

This may sound strange at first. However, when you pursue job opportunities, always leave the universe the option to deliver the "right" job to you. It's important to acknowledge that you don't know which exact job is best for you. Be grateful when a certain job opportunity falls through, and always detach from a specific outcome. When job opportunities fall apart, the job wasn't right for you. Who knows why? No matter. Surrender to the universe, knowing that the best job for you, will come to you at the right time.

Summary

The wise give thanks for what most of us take for granted. Spend a few quiet moments during this Thanksgiving holiday to try some of these simple, yet powerful steps. These steps, based on gratitude and the law of attraction, will not only help move you toward the right job for you at the right time, they'll also enrich your Thanksgiving weekend and last well beyond the turkey leftovers.

Petaflop

2008-11-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Cray XT5 Jaguar supercomputer and Roadrunner - BladeCenter QS22/LS21 Cluster get spots 2 and 1 in the latest List of World’s TOP500 Supercomputers. Both competitors broke petaflop speeds, performing 1.105 and 1.059 quadrillion floating-point calculations per second, the first two computers to do so.

Here is a video of how Cray XT5 was built.

Roadrunner:
Architecture 12,960 IBM PowerXCell 8i CPUs, 6,480 AMD Opteron dual-core processors, Infiniband, Linux
Power 2.35 MW
Space 296 racks, 6,000 sq ft (560 m2)
Memory 103.6 TiB
Speed 1.7 petaflops (peak)
Cost US$133M

ENIAC

Architecture contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints.

Speed 5,000 simple addition or subtraction operations between any of them and a source (e.g., another accumulator, or a constant transmitter) every second.

Cost $500,000(1946)(Inflation adjusted current $5,500,000)
Power 174 K.W.
Space 1800 sq ft

Eniac on a chip
"ENIAC" on a 7.44 by 5.29 sq. mm chip " link

Everything we have today was also there in 1940s,yet they could not have come up with a 7x5mm solution. Nature has so much to offer, if only we look. Imagine a petaflop in your mobile device. Wondering what technologies will lead to that.

2 Steps to Make Firefox 3 like Chrome

2008-09-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

Almost everybody on internet overlooked this. The easiest way to achieve chrome like "ZEN" simplicity is to Press f11 while using firefox.

That's it, if you are getting annoyed by the hiding tabs bar, right click on the toolbar in full screen mode and then uncheck hide toolbar.

All the movies I ever saw

2008-09-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

Here's an unfinished list of all the movies I ever saw: This will be updated regularly.

Do you have a list of all the movies you ever saw ? This took me quite some time to make .. I started this to catalog and monitor various aspects of my life. Mostly done in December 2007 .. consists only the english movies I saw..Gult Hindi and Tam will be done in next iteration ..

Pre-PS: I am thinking of starting a new tab .. because general blog doesn't seem to satisfy all the needs.. will do it as soon as i get time.. I ave few ideas in mind .. look out for a complete change ..

THE LIST :

28 days later
28 weeks later
300
3:10 to yuma
ace ventura
american pie 1,2,3,5 (4 din see)
anaconda
anger management
anne frank the whole story
antz
august rush
back to the future 1,2,3
basket ball diaries
batman begins
borat
born free
bourne identity
bourne supremacy
bourne ultimatum
bridge to terabithia
broken arrow
bucket list
cast away
catch me if you can
charlie wilson's war
click
crash
da vinci code
dan in real life
dark knight
december boys
dejavu
die hard 1,2,3
enemy at the gates
eternal sunshine of spotless mind
fantastic 4 1,2
final destination 1,2,3
forrest gump
gandhi
ghost rider
gladiator
god father 1,2
grind house (planet terror, death proof )
groundhog day
happy feat
harold and kumar 1,2
hitch hiker's guide
hollowman 1,2
hot fuzz
i am legend
i want candy
if only
independence day
indian jones
italian job
james bond
jurassic park 1,2,3
kill bill 1,2
kite runner
knocked up
la confidential
live free
lord of the rings 1,2,3
matrix 1,2,3
mr.bean's vacation
music and lyrics
national treasure 1,2
next
notting hill
ocean's 12, 13
paycheck
pelican brief
phone booth
pirates of carrebean 1,2,3
pirates of silicon valley
planet of apes
premonition
pretty woman
pulp fiction
pursuit of happyness
rambo (all)
requim for a dream
ring 1,2
robinson crusoe
robocop
run away bride
saints and soldiers
saving private ryan
school of rock
shooter
shrek 1
sister act
speed 1,2
spiderman 1,2,3
star wars 1,2,3,4,5,6
sweet november
taken
terminator 2
the aviator
the departed
the goal 2
the great debaters
the happening
the incredibles
the lion king
the long weekend
the man who never was
the mummy 1,2
the notebook
the pianist
the shawshank redemption
the simpsons movie
the sixth sense
the waitress
transformers
troy
v for vendetta
van wilder 1,2
wall e

Chrome, My take, a FF user

2008-09-04T22:05:00.001-07:00

I love Firefox 3. Its fast,safe and has billions of ways to configure with addons. After the recent launch Chrome (the Google browser) I decided to test it.

Results are:

No addons , I use ad-blocker and script blocker with Firefox. I never knew web had so many advertisements, until I used Chrome. Not to mention the beloved Mouse gestures. I hardly use back and forward buttons when I use a mouse. I have been using this for so long its part of my instinct for me write over pages. But then again this is a maturity issue. Probably in an year we will get addons.

Its Buggy, I cant scroll up using my touch pad on my laptop. Yes its still BETA, but that’s a huge bug for me. Yes, there is up arrow, Page up. But hey, Larry and Sergey were trying to get HCI Phds.. they should know more about user discomfort. But this can be fixed in future iterations. I agree.

The Chrome part of Chrome, way before google realized it , people like me realized that Chrome on windows is unnecessary, especially since I have a 12” monitor. Hence I use addons, Hide Chrome, and Menu hide in firefox. Effectively they equate the UI improvements of Google’s Chrome browser.

Shortcuts, since I spend most of the time on web. I use short cuts like ctrl+ enter, ctrl+shift+enter when typing address. Google doesn’t support few of them. Did you ever try zooming on Firefox 'Ctrl' + '+' and 'Ctrl' + '-' ? That’s amazing. Google’s chrome doesn’t support all that yet. And also I like the status bar.Again it will take google couple of years to develop all this.

Awesome bar in firefox gave me exactly what I want every single time. Google’s , well, it did not, it covered the general websites but it did not give some specific pages I was looking for. Firefox saves me navigation time to those highly used but specific pages, which you have to navigate to from the general website.

Speed and Memory: multi process slows the system down, yes it may consume less memor, but vista already has 88 processes and for my usage I add another 12 processes. I guess that’s what made Chrome slower than firefox.

Youtube videos and feature rich websites have smoother UI in chrome, this I think was the purpose of chrome.

Also the new tab examples, it wouldn’t be hard to make Firefox do that, I guess its just one addon away. I will look for it.

I guess when Google decides to launch a web based OS or something like that, it would make more sense to run it on Chrome than Firefox. But then, I will shift to chrome when that happens. As of now I like Foxy ;)

More ? ..

It failed the acid 3 test.

Now everyone stop calling it revolutionary just becoz Google made it. Its an awesome company( no doubt) but chrome has to mature a lot. It would be interesting to see what the scene will be after a year or so. Google is known for its slow updates.

Arigatos Gozhaimus !

Creepin up Slowly

2008-09-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Let's kick on back to the places we know
The path isn't set
Yet you life is on show

Saw you running in circles
Got a bug in your head
Feeling needles and pins
Get them outta my head
Take a chance on a rumour
Heard from a friend
That something is gonna change

It's creepin' up slowly
She's taken me over
It's turning me on
With every breath that I take
I roll up my dreams
And blow them away

Cruising on Blue Street
My worries are freed
Stressed out and in doubt
I know exactly what you need

Got your life wrapped up
In the palm of your hand
Try to feel what I feel
But you can't understand
No you won't be satisfied 'til you see
That something is gonna change

CHORUS

Rip it up and turn the page
Slip through the cracks in the stage
And you will find me there
Look past the nose upon your...
Face it, it's gonna change

Saw you movin' in slowly
Caught a glint in your eye
A moment's hesitation
Keeps you wondering why
And you won't be satisfied 'til you see
This meeting of the minds inside of me

CHORUS

Taxiride

2008-09-02T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is an Australian band not well known, but makes cool music with good mix of vocals and goa trance like transitional sounds. http://www.taxiride.com.au/releases/index.html

The lead singer is an Indian btw ..

I heard them 3 years ago, but since then lost all their songs due to several crashes. I remember them releasing three albums.

Axiomatic
Garage Mahal
Imaginate

Please do support if you like their music.. meanwhile incase I come across a not so popular-amazing band .. will keep you posted :)

Another Vid - Violet hill

2008-08-03T06:13:00.001-07:00

Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops I remember
There was snow
White snow

Clearly I remember
From the windows they were watching
While we froze
Down below

When the future's architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show
You'd better lie low

If you love me
Won't you let me know?

Was a long and dark December
When the banks became cathedrals
And the fog
Became God

Priests clutched onto bibles
Hollowed out to fit their rifles
And the cross was held aloft

Bury me in honor
When I'm dead and hit the ground
A love back home unfolds

If you love me
Won't you let me know?

I don't want to be a soldier
Who the captain of some sinking ship
Would stow, far below

So if you love me
Why'd you let me go?

I took my love down to Violet Hill
There we sat in snow
All that time she was silent still

So if you love me
Won't you let me know?

If you love me,
Won't you let me know?

Spoof

2008-08-01T18:11:00.001-07:00

This is awesome!

RESPECT

2008-07-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

Randy Pausch is no more with us. His last lecture was the most inspiring thing I ever heard. This is just my way of paying him respect, and reminding people to live the way he asks us to.

His Lectures..

Thank You Randy.

Joker Mania

2008-07-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Undoubtedly best movie ever made. IMDB stands proof to this statement. One of the best villains characters, with a sense of logic to the joker madness. I dont want to write a review, but I did not find a good collection of all his quotes. So I Collected them..

1. Gotham National Bank Manager: The criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor. Respect. Look at you! What do you believe in? What do you believe in!

The Joker: I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you.. stranger.

2. The Joker: [to Batman] Come on, I want you do it, I want you to do it. Come on, hit me.

3. Grumpy: I'm bettin' The Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash.
The Joker: No, no. I killed the bus driver.
Grumpy: Bus driver? What bus driver?

4. Gamble: [to The Joker] Give me one reason why I shouldn't have my boy here rip your head off.
The Joker: How about a magic trick?
[pulls out a pencil and sticks it upright into the table]
The Joker: I'm gonna make this pencil... disappear.
[Gamble's thug walks over to kill The Joker, who pushes his face into the pencil and kills him]
The Joker: Ta-daa! It's... gone!

5. The Joker: [speaking to Two-Face] Do I really look like a man with a plan, Harvey? I don't have a plan. The mob has plans, the cops have plans. You know what I am, Harvey? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. I just *do* things. I'm a wrench in the gears. I *hate* plans. Yours, theirs, everyone's. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I am not a schemer. I show schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are. So when I say that what happened to you and your girlfriend wasn't personal, you know I'm telling the truth.
[hands Two-Face a gun]
The Joker: It's a schemer who put you where you are. You were a schemer. You had plans. Look where it got you. I just did what I do best-I took your plan and turned it on itself. Look what I have done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple bullets. Nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plans are horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds! Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? It's fair.
[with the gun in Two-Face's hand, he places the gun to his forehead; Two-Face pauses and takes out his coin]
Two-Face: [showing the unscarred side] You live.
The Joker: Mm-hm.
Two-Face: [flipping, showing the scarred side] You die.
The Joker: Now you're talking!

6. The Joker: [holding a knife inside Gamble's mouth] Wanna know how I got these scars? My father was....a drinker. And a fiend. And one night he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that. Not. One. Bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. Turns to me and he says "Why so serious?" Comes at me with the knife,"Why so serious?" He sticks the blade in my mouth. "Lets put a smile on that face!" And..... Why so serious?

7. Batman: Why do you want to kill me?
The Joker: [laughs] Kill you? I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, you... you complete me.

8. The Joker: Now, let's not blow things out of proportion here... You know what? You let me know when you start taking things a bit more seriously.
[takes out Joker card and sets it on the table]
The Joker: Here's my card.

9. The Joker: Let's turn the clocks back. A year ago, these cops and lawyers wouldn't dare cross any of you. I mean, what happened? Did your - did your balls drop off? Hmm?

10. The Joker: I'm a man of my word.

11. The Joker: If you're good at something, never do it for free.
[ends up burning money]

12. The Joker: You see, nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If I told people that a gangbanger was going to get shot, or a busload of soldiers was going to get blown up, nobody would panic. Because it's all part of the plan. But tell people that one tiny little mayor is going to die and everyone loses their minds!

13. The Joker: I like this job - I like it!

14. The Joker: You just couldn't let me go could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness, and I won't kill you, because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.
Batman: You'll be in a padded cell forever.
The Joker: Maybe we can share one. Then we'll be doubling up the rate this city's inhabitants are losing their minds

15. The Joker: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're tonight's entertainment. I only have one question. Where is Harvey Dent?
[nobody responds; The Joker walks around the room pointing his shotgun at everyone.]
The Joker: You know where Harvey is? You know who he is?
[grabs a man's face]
The Joker: You know where I can find Harvey? I need to talk to him about something. Just something little.
[Turns the man's face away]
The Joker: No...

16. The Joker: [to the mob] I know what you're afraid of. I know why you choose to have your little "group therapy sessions" in broad daylight.
[pause]
The Joker: The Batman.

Stuck Song Syndrome(SSS)

2008-07-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

This post is the place for any song which gets stuck in my head at least for a day !

Here is a nice article on SSS

Stickiness of any song depend on its :

1. Repetitive tunes / patterns.
2. Simplicity of music /reproducibility of the tune.
3. Surprise element in the tune.

I could not find much information on effects of SSS on productivity and anxiety. Also, will playing "sticky" songs improve sales in retail stores ? Does anyone know ?

Here are some, listen ! Do tell me if they stuck to your head.

Song #1: ( on 07/15/08 )

Song #2: ( on 07/14/08 )

Avial - karukara

2008-07-12T15:22:00.001-07:00

One of the best fusions

Mallu Rock !

My BLOG 2.0 ! Refreshing look !

2008-07-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Changed the image, fonts, positioning, color theme, added more color !

Image courtesy some person in flikr !! Credit goes to that person.

I wrote decent code this time. being matured in coding and all .. also fixed couple of bugs.

Meherban

2008-07-12T05:41:00.001-07:00

Was moved.

ARR is a music genius. Simplicity of the tune makes this pretty unique. Do Listen!

Tu Hai Zabaan, Main Hoon Bayaan
Tu Hai Neha, Main Hoon Haya

Tere Bina Main Hoon Be Zameen,
Tere Bina Main Be Aasma

Tu Hai Nadiyaan, Main Hoon Sangam
Tu Naya Saal, Main Pehla Mausam

Tere Bina Main Hoon Be Zameen,

Tere Bina Main Be Aasma,
Tere Bina Main Hoon Be Zameen,
Tere Bina…..

Meherbaan …..

Tu Hai Sana, Main Hoon Ana
Tu Hahteli, Main Hoon Hena

Aaj Elaan Yeh Kar Denge, Hum Ek Hai Ek Rahenge
Jo Aajaye Koi Toofan , Kabhi Raah Se Hum Nah Hathenge
Is Berangi Duniya Ko, Pyar Se Hum Rang Denge
Wafa Ka Diya Jalayenge, Har Ghar Mein Noor Bahenge

Tu Hai Nazar, Main Nazara
Tu Hai Sagar, Main Kinara
Tu Hai Zabaan, Main Hoon Bayaan
Tu Hai Neha, Main Hoon Haya

Meherbaan

Bharbu leaves, us running

2007-05-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

One more fun filled evening. Bharbu left couple of hours ago for Bang, he wont be returning to Chennai again. So we guys( me,gans,gv to be specific) decided to go see him off. His bus was supposed to be at 9.30 from T-nagar. Gv found out that his bus starts from 'KPN Travels'. (we assumed that it was on VN road ..as usual our master planner shows his talent)

All is fine till here, Gv reached that place at 8.40, I know thats kind of over punctual, but given the extent of our joblessness, he coming 50 min early din seem too far stretched from ordinary. As usual me and gans ( this time starting from ajaay's place) reach KPN by 9.20 .. that still 10 min before time ..

After the usual hellos and well .. what else , useless talk. We remember that we actually went for a send off !! Gv immediately calls up bharbu .. he said he would make it by 9.40.

We go on yapping to while time away, and after all we met after couple of weeks.. at 9.40 we give him a call again, he says he reached! Now funny isn't it ? why dont we see him ?

Then couple of calls later we found that he was travelling by sangeetha travels which was " WALKABLE " from KPN. GV says we need to go to panagal park !! Then gans took the phone found out that we needed to walk towards panagal park from where we were!

walking down the road for couple of hundred meters, we realize that there is absolutely no bus standing on the entire stretch of the road !

Oh yeah ! back in form i thought .. but we keep running in some direction and it was already 9.50.. we din wanna miss seeing him after coming so far. Mean while we contemplated taking our vehicles. But as usual master of screw ups GANS says .. its hardly few meters da .. he says joggin ought to do ! So we jog !

After joggin for a certain distance, I suggested asking some one ! Everyone felt that guessing would get us no where.. so we ask couple of auto drivers. They said that there are few travels down the BURKIT road.. it was a road just adjoining VN road where the actual KPN boarding point was located.

(Conversations from here will be quite funny .. better than narration) ( all of them translated into english for convenience of readers)

GANS: So i guess 6.30 should be fine da !
GV : ok da ..
GANS: Better tell everyone 6 only, so that they will make to the ground by 6.30.
GV: so who all are coming?

ME: (thinking) what a brilliant time to discuss you next morning gully cricket.. and we have a friend leaving in few mins..

GANS: ( immediately starts counting people) ok ! we will discuss later .. try calling up bharbu da ..

GV: so where are u mama ..

(bharbu said he was waiting near the bus stop)

GV: ok we are coming there only !!

-- phone cut --

GANS: where the heck is it.. (in his usual OH-MY-GOD-SKY-IS-FALLING tone)

GV: I think straight down the road .. lets jog.

(Me mean while looking at all the buses that have stopped and looking at people to see if bharbu is standing somewhere)

GANS: give me the phone now .. I will find the place out correctly .. ( gv handed his phone to him ..

GANS:(over the phone) We are near KPN( the one on burkit roadd). We thought it was otehr KPN where are you .. now we are near indica .. (as if that was the only indica standing)

(bharbu promptly replies .. I am there only)

(at this point I saw bharbu ) and I kept moving towards him .. I assumed these fellows also must have seen him ..

As soon as i reach the bus stop, I look up to find both of them faithfully still jogging. I tried calling their names but by now, they were jogging almost running as if they knew exactly where he was.I mean while greet bharbu .. and we just could not stop laughing at the way they ran off without seeing. Then I call gans up and tell him to turn back.

Well what will you expect after couple of seconds, another person who was listening to our conversation pointed at two people "Still running" but in the opposite direction, with the same undying spirit.

At that exact moment Me, Bharbu and the stranger start laughing. The stranger adds that he has seen them running in the other direction also

It took another call to tell them exact location..

But amidst all the fun, bharbu boarded the bus to bangalore .. Dont really know when We will see him again .. A unique person who knows everybody there is to know .. His impeccable jokes and his habit of torturing a person .. dont think i'll ever meet anyone like bharbu again .. I guess feeling of nosalgia is donning on me ..

Signing off for the day !

Missing Answer

2007-05-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

"Why this happened ?" is a question i asked too many times, answer seems illogic, unjust, irrational, immoral. Its a doing that cant be undone.

I can only analyze myself, and try not think in duality. For once in a long time, my thinking has turned inward without an external factor interfering with the search.

My search for an answer to "what am i missing now?"

Is it the constant attention , or is it those caring words every night?

Is it message that wakes you up to remind you someone cares if you are awake ?

Is it the freedom to talk about random things, or is it to think as if you are dual ?

Is it those long hours of blabber or a vivid description of the most banal things in life ?

Is it the wait to glimpse a smiling face or is it the fight that has no reason ?

Is it the happiness that you cant wait to share or is it consoling words in sadness ?

Is it the constant expectation on you or the freedom to rename everything ?

Is it the curiosity to know every detail or the patience to explain smallest of things ?

Is it the ride, just for the heck of it or a quest to see a place no one saw before ?

Is it those nights with head on the shoulder or those days with arm in yours ?

Is it the feeling of having an accomplice or is it feeling of having a partner ?

Is it about the silly things that bring joy or those big things that are to be taken LIGHTly ?

When i find the answer, i may still not be able to let go ..

TAMRAP

2006-10-30T02:01:00.000-08:00

New and Fresh ! Amazing what people can do with Music ! Presenting to you TAMRAP

Laziness Genres

2006-07-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

I was really exited to see all the comments, finally. Thank you all Faithful readers, Gans especially. Sorry for not posting all these days , was kinda tied up in other things.

I was trying to classify Laziness recently. I came up with few different types of it, they are

1.No Gain Laziness

2.Don't Care Laziness

3.Don't like Laziness

4. Make it yours Laziness

"No Gain" Laziness would include people who are Lazy when it comes to things that don't concern them. Its simple one of your friend asks you for a help, say a very tiny one. E.g "Please hold my bag while I go and Piss" he requests. You snub back," PLEASE I have better jobs". A cunning you would have said "Oh SOOO sorry I have to meet XYZ immediately".

"Don't care" laziness means to be lazy in doin things that you feel wouldn't help you in anyways. This would differ from 'No Gain' type in a suttle way, although you would gain by doing that task, unless your ass is on fire, people with this type just dont do things.

"Don't like" laziness is a kinda complex one, these people just dont like trying new things. They would prefer a tried and tested or more bromide approach towards everything they do. You say,"Hey you wanna try this dish". You will get a reply like. "YUK" or "No way" or "I Don't like it". Easy to see right..

"Make it yours" kind are plain old people diffident to do anything on their own. Maybe coz they are unsure about it or may be they think they will inevitably goof up. These people are the ones who try to force their obligations and compulsions to us. Sick huh ..

Skewed Secrets of Life

2006-06-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

I was wondering why people act the way they act.

Danger lurks everywhere, everyone is a threat, there is no point in whining about the whole issue. But I just realised that behind every smiling face, cheerful talk, there is lot of unexplained hatred towards others, may be even fear.

Fear of being left behind, of being over taken. Everyone has it, I am not an exception. But the way people tackle this is quite amuzing and sometimes fuckin irritating.

Explaining how everyone handles this is going to be useless. If you are treading this path and banking on it for success, let me tell you its going nasty, bad and unpredictable. You'll only find people ,who think dragging others down will allow them to climb over them and get out into the open. Its like a wellfor them, every wants to get out, no one wants to be left behind though noone wants to help others.

I am not asking you to sacrifice and let others win neither am I asking you to go out of your way to help others, just don pull others down. If you don't like this game, just stay back, watch it carefully, you'll find a path.

When I was a kid I always use to wonder why people lie, cheat and not trust others. Its completely different now, may be thats maturity.

Nevertheless Lesson has been learnt, it will never be fogotten. Wonder how much more will life harden me..

L.I.F.E

Lovers Idols Friends Enemies .. they are all part of the game.

Live(in this moment) Inspire( and be inspired) Fight( till the end) Eliminate(all your obstacles).. to be a winner.

A new self created template

2006-05-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

No words to describe ...

Front Fender .... Thy Back Bender

2006-05-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

What is a fender ?

Oxford says

Any corner part of a car that surrounds the wheel is known as fender

Why does it Bend your back ?

Being a part that is completely made up of sheet metal, it is the weakest. It is very easily prone to denting.

The Incident

One fine early morning, I decided to go out to the busiest part of the city. Being the busiest the probability that one meets with a minor accident is very high.
The probability you will scratch the paint is 1(For all those non- mathematics guys, that means it will definitely happen).

Aaah ... You guessed it right !

Yes, I did dent my front right fender, but there is a twist. For once, I wasn't the funniest part of the incident.

Now imagine, you are in your car driving at say 10kmph and its one-way. Suddenly you hear a thud. It so happens that the two wheeler fella was un-parking his vehicle. I mean , he was in the process of backing his vehicle from the parking slot. The road on which I was driving wasn't particularly wide despite being the busiest, it was roughly 8 feet wide. I can't blame the government for such roads after all its been only 5 days since the CM took oath. Atleast that's the reason he may give.

Anyways, he backing his vehicle is completely logical, but to not see a 10 feet long car and especially at a speed which is slower than my walking speed is definitely, without doubt his error. As soon as the two made contact a particularly loud thud was heard by me. Now I knew exactly what had happened, my car dented...

Two things happened simultaneously after that,

I furiously got out of vehicle and that fella was even more furiously collecting the mangoes that fell off his bike.

This may sound silly but that fella was concentrating on the mangoes rather than being bothered about the huge dent he had made on my car. I ask him " What the hell are doing, was my car not visible to you?".

He said two things, they were reason enough to laugh for the rest of the eternity
"Oh no the dent was there before and I din do anything ".
"Look all my mangoes are on road ".

Now this wasn't very funny, I was about catch that fellows collar when my driver stopped. He took control of the situation. Despite the fact there were around three traffic constables standing right beside the spot, he categorically denied that he had anything to do with the dent and even went to the extent of saying that this was not an accident at all.

Now the police officer who was observing the whole thing was walking towards the spot. Being the peak hour of traffic he just noted down the numbers and called 103. That would be the number of the local police traffic control room. He just asked us to wait for the police to arrive and he went back to resume his signaling.

We stood there for 2 hours waiting for the police to arrive, mean while I was enjoying the nice 40 degree Celsius and the smoke from all the other cars. I was trying to calculate the cost for the whole thing and was sure it would be somewhere around four thousand bucks ....

I decided to take every paise of it from the idiot. Then 'the police from the control room ' arrive , they immediately note down the numbers , house address and other details. I clearly explain them of the incident and they agree that it was the 'mango monkey's' mistake.

Now scared our very own monkey starts to talk about compromising, the police was hell bent on filing a FIR. I wanted a compensation frankly because I didn't want my vehicle to be waitin in the police station for months. I was pretty sure that police was only scaring that fellow, their intent was clearly visible. They just wanted some cash so that they let him off.

I tell the 'mango monkey' that I will not file a complaint if he was willing to pay for the repair work. Guess what ?

He agreed, it did take some scaring and some convincing. I even caught that fella's collar. But ultimately he paid all the money and we paid the police 200 bucks each. There were two of them involved in our case ....

Moral of the story !

Mangoes can dent you wallet !

LAMO , nope the moral would be

Be wary of the mango eater.

Adage of the day

If there is no wine, grow. :D

The point I am tryin to make is similar to the actual quote, if things are not happenin , make them happen

Actually its If there is no wind, row .

The Last Day Blast - The Fun Part (2)

2006-05-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hello "Faithful readers"

The Saga continues, in my last post I promised more Fun, Pun in second part .... Here it goes ..

We boarded the train,at exactly 3:40. This train is the most coveted train, its timing immaculate, just right for bunking the dreaded 8th hour. The train mind you is like a primitive box of metal, with unusually heavy metal wheels. Trains like metro are considered a figment of imagination. Luckily we scrambled to get couple of seats, made with the hardest wood that was availble in our country, and a nanometer thick cushion. We sat there gabbing,wiling away time, also to try to get mind off the sickening heat, before heat gets the better part of our brains.

By the time we reached Guindy, we were couple of 60kg meat masses freshly out of a barbeque. We were Dazed, shocked and were wondering what madness drove us into the wretched Steel Carriage.

I spoke out when we were walking to the parking area, ending the impasse,"Its Damn Hot !". There was no actual need of mentioning! I knew it was hot, I also knew every other person in Chennai knew that it was hot, and Gans even doubly so ...

Tyranny of fate apparently just started. Deep inside we both felt this day was gonnna be dismal, yet we pushed on.

I say," OK now all we got to do is go to their office, get the certificate and rest in peace". " Ya we will finish this by 5:30 and then go have some drink or something", gans suggested. " There is a problem now" he added. 'Problem' is a trite word and doesn't bother anyone ever. But considering the condition we were in after travelling in a train for 2 hrs, all I could do was laugh. Just to cover up the utmost disgust I had developed for my life." I don know the exact place, I have a rough idea where this place is, I'll call up my dad and ask wait ", he elaborated.
"Oh shit! my phone has no battery it got switched off".

" Use my phone",I say in a rather pacifying tone.

After taking directions from his dad after various futile calls to reach him, we got ready to leave. Murphy prevailed despite our efforts, we lost our way. Our destination was apparently called " Gautam Manohar Hotel" as Gans had heard it over the phone. Well Gautam Manohar didn't sound like a place which could be mentioned as a landmark.

Anyways after some brief confusion about the routes we finally find the place only to see that the place is called " Gautam Mannor " and not 'Manohar'. Yup we were couple of wags asking every Autorickshaw driver whereabouts of this place. I am sure they considered us illiterates despite the fact that we had bags.

Right besides the hotel was the office where we had to collect our certificates. Gans asking a watchman," Inga park pannalama ( Can I park my bike here ?". " Elle pa, inga paanade( not here )", that fella replied in the most unfriendly tone you will ever hear.He made up his mind finally left the bike bang in the middle of the road. "I'll just park it here, I want some thing to drink once we get his done, I cant search for a parking now". I nod.

The road we had to cross was just say 50 feet wide, and it took exactly half the number for us to cross it. 25 min to be specific... Yup it was a last ditch effort put up by Mother nature trying to thwart us from getting the certificates.

When we reach the office, a lady, who looked very sane, came to us and asked us what we wanted. " We both participated in the marathon , we came to collect certificates". She brought a pen and some certificates and asked our names. " Ganesh and Krishnakanth " I replied spelling my name Letter by letter. " Which category ?", she asked." 16-21 yrs " , gans answered. " Boys or Girls ? ", she asked in a very friendly tone.

hahahaha now LMAO ppl , now how does one fuckin react to this ... BOYS OR GALS ... WHAT CAN WE POSSIBLY SAY ... we come all the way from coll, a journey which took us some 2 hours, we end up in the fuckin office and she asks "BOYS OR GALS" ...

It apparently struck her after sometime that we were boys , she quietly filled up the certificates and handed them to us...

YESSSS was the only thing we could say, some sweet reward afterall. Although getting certificates is the least important thing in the universe, we still feeling great, may be for the pure joy of doing a thing with so much hardship involved.

We went out, crossed the road, got on the bike and just drove away. In Search of a "Air conditioned, Economical place". Considering the funds we had in hand, that would be around 130 bucks, economical is not a right word. Dead cheap would have been right.

We were at a particular junction some where on Harrington road or something.. and we did not leave any road in its vicinity unroamed. Every road, I bet even the local dog woudn't have roamed as much as we did in search of a COOL, CHEAP place.
We finally ended goin to the Isphani centre Coffee day. Definitely the guys 'with the lowest cash reserves' in the entire horizon. A strange quirk of destiny, we ended in the same place which we could have directly gone to, rather than roaming here and there.

It struck me that I have two or three plastic thingy's in my wallet. I remotely remember that they can be used as currency. "Do you take cards ? " gans asked. "yup", bugger spat back. We both order something now not worried about money at all. We talk for a long time savouring the Air conditioner more than the food. I stylishly place the card when the bill arrives ( check ) .... it was 134 bucks. Card would have been unnecessary normally.

The waiter came back and said," Sir our machine is not working can you pay cash". " WHATTT..........." we both literally shouted . " Yes sir our credit card machine is not working and you can pay cash". Cash , thats exactly what we din have....
We both still not coming to terms with the immediate surroundings, said " What the heck ! You are such a big company can't you put some sign board or somehting . How the heck do you expect us to know ". " Ok we will pay by cash ",we shouted. Waiter was definitely puzzled, he definitely din understand what our problem was.

We finally scrape every last paise from our wallets and pay the bill off. We were now left with only one Sri lankan Rs 5 coin ...... Yes we difinitely reached the ultimate low.

Narrating a story is difficult, narrating a full day in a blog doubly so... anyways our misery don stop there ..

We needed some cash at least to pay for the parking, so we went on a hunt for a HDFC ATM .... ever wondered what ATM meant and you think you know the acronym think again . For us it was 'A TYRANNY with MINDLESSNESS'. We never found a HDFC ATM, we just decided to get some from money from an ATM of some other bank.. charge or no charge we wanted to reach home and thats it.

I punch some numbers to withdraw 500, yes Murphy still prevailed, damn ATM spat out one 500 rupee note .. Now hahaah ..... we gave it up right there and surrendered ourselves to whatever mother nature subjected us to.

We had to walk to a near by Petrol station .. that is around 1 km to and fro .. Interestingly although the petrol bunk is situated exactly opposite to the centre, the road had a divider and there was no zebra crossing anywhere near.

YES every thing over, we went home quitely pondering over a DAY . Filled with thrill, nonsensical joy bordering madness . I went home and SLEPT ... coudn't budge a finger.

The day i can never forget .. the day where MURPHY AND MOTHER NATURE HAD MANY A LAST LAUGHS.

See you in my next post .. have a nice day and a good night ...

The Last Day Blast - Part 1

2006-04-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well there are days and there are DAYS .. Days when every thing happens EXACTLY IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION of your expectations. You gotta actually live through such days to know the exact degree of parallelism between the two seemingly successive events. PLANNING and then IMPLEMENTING ...

Apart from being the Last Day of college for the 3rd year .. it was normal, innocent looking, slightly hotter than usual. My sole motto of going to college was RECORD. The idiotic thing had to have a blue ink mark and red ink mark on it. Ya now the narration part ..

It all started when two fools had to run 10kilometers ( for the US blog readers thats about 6 miles :P), some time in JAN . After running like a dog for about 1hour and finishing, they had hoped that they will be given some kinda certificate, which unfortunately did not happen that day. After few days they came to know that certificates have to be collected from a local office of the organizers. But these two lazy asses never collected it, they kept on procrastinating.

But today they planned to collect the certificates. After going around with the record sheets throughout the morining , they managed to get the red ink on the pages. Ill explain the nuances of this record madness in the next blog .... do keep checking regularly.

Then Gans asusual in his calculated way suggests, " Now we have done this, we will start by 1:30 PM, we should reach Guindy by 2:30 then we will go in bike". I respond ," Yup , Fine we should finish this job . We have been postponing the thing since long time ".

Darsh , " Even ill join you guys ". We both agree in unision. Although this bugger Darsh was never involved in our plans of collecting certificates he wanted to leave early( I guess ) . We finished our lunch and were getting ready to start ..then gans ," Dai it will be too hot and Darshan doesnt wanna come ". " I kinda guessed that he wont come, so shall we will start ? ", I queried with a disgust on my face . Disgust is the only reaction I could muster from all the optimism I had acquired over my life time. I sensed that plan was failing again . I blurt " @#$*& I wanna do it today ^$#)&".
Gans grinning ," Ya we will do it chill , I just said Darsh is not coming anyways we have company GV and Dharani are also coming".

Still worried I say " O.K, I just want this damn thing done".

Then the 'Master Fit for Nothing Planner' Gans says we will leave by 2:40 so that we beat the heat. Well it sounded very logical and even I din wanna go in all the heat so I Okayed again.

Then a Maaadhar fart kutri arrives ( no names ) she said, "I'll come and check for attendance at 2:45, If anyone is not there then I will put Fine ok , ok , I'll come and see". In her time as our class incharge she had fined several people for bunking or cuttning the last day. So I din wanna risk a 500 buck fine. Again our plans spoilt and we replanned for 3:40 train.

We were waiting patiently for the hour to get over , It ends at 2:40 and we were ready to escape ..... Now people picture this a blooody teacher who was on leave for 2 months and never even finished half the portions arrives right on the last day of the college, she is the worst teacher we have. She just can't think, for her teaching equals going against students and saying a big, fat, lousy, lethargic "NO" to whatever we could come up with. She said an expected "NO" to our pleas of leaving us early.

Even though we had enough time to catch the train ( 3:40) we just couldnt satnd her I guess, we just showed some records, lied to her that we wanted HOD's signature. Amazingly she said "OK". wow...

But our bags were still inside the class, and getting our bags out took another five mins, all thanks to Gokul. Then we went out of the building and out into the Titanic point, we were waiting for Dharani to get out , even she did the same and got out. "Aha finally !", I sighed.

Murphy is really a genius as he predicts' If things can go wrong they will ' . I forgot how many times those two went to the class or somewhere else to get wide range of things which they had apparently forgot, from keys to debit card .

Finally we board the train , it was hot, sultry, humid, stinkin , and all other adjectives you could give to a VERY HOT DAY in Chennai.

The fun starts in the second part which i hope ill complete some time soon ......

Lampooning for Lunch, A royal hunt for non-shitty place ! - Part 1

2006-04-09T09:34:00.003-07:00

Food is one of the 5 basic needs of a human being, although a Engineering student is not considered as a human, we still need food. Atleast to pretend that we are listening to the brain frying nonsense we are taught.

So, I have taken up this cause of highlighting various struggles,a daily writhe we undergo to eat food. There different categories of people who visit diferent places.

Lets start with the places in the coll, First there is shitty. Oh you feel bad when we call a place to eat as shitty !! Well just visit once you'll feel that your bathroom is less nauseating. But why do people go there, simple couple of rice dung cakes on your plate costs 10bucks, and rice dung cakes with some extra fluid made of yellowish brown color liquid and some leaf cuttings costs 14bucks. Incase you didn't get what I meant above, its locally called as sambar ( rasam whatev!). Well we also do gymnastics with plate in our hands. I think by 2010 SRM will be the toppers in Plate gymnastics, I think we should write a petition to PRez asking him to make this our national sport .

Then there is Royal outt ( 2 t's intended) . When the sickening place had couple old metal boxes blowing air (or dust, can be used interchangably) into our plates (I mean AC's), it could be called inn. Now all we breathe is the stink of the generator blowing smoke into the place. But we still manage to chew a meal that surprisingly is both insufficient and tasteless. I mean a hotel has to have atleast one of them, taste or quantity, this place has none. And guess what its the most expensive meals in the College. Can you guess why ? No, you cant. Nobody ever knows why its expensive, its just one of those things we need to assume.

The other places are so bad, unclean, unhygenic ok (lets avoid invectives) they are not worth mentioning in my blog ... infact none of the places are.

Well then we go to exterior canteens, well the most popular name that attracts masses is ANDHRA MESS ( or some name with a A.P. place's name) the most famous of all Guntur mess, then comes ramakrisha mess or some other mess. Forgot to mention our very own housefly breeding ground UP dhabha. And supposedly a restuarant called silverline ...

I shall elaborate the traits of each exterior places, and also explain how not to get FOOD POISONED. Imagine, such a sick way to die, a student dies after eating food.... all in the next blog ..... TO BE CONTINUED

Those who understand the deep meaning of the words laugh and write a comment !

For people who are bit more innnocent ... Close you eyes, thnink of one thing you like in this blog and write the damn comment will you !

2006-03-31T07:45:00.000-08:00

Laziness I guess is the biggest cause for all the mishappenings in the world. So guess what I am going to fight it. I am taking up couple of good things i want to do and i am going to see them through.

I finally got my walker back. It feels great to see the miniscule circuit again. I still have to attach it to the legs . I dont know how ?

I will update this time atleast sure ;)