This, That, and the Other...

Crimes and Misdemeanors

2006-04-12T00:41:00.000-04:00

The epilogue of the movie Crimes and Misdemeanors seemed pretty interesting:

"We're all faced throughout our lives with agonizing decisions, moral choices. Some are on a grand scale, most of these choices are on lesser points. But we define ourselves by the choices we have made. We are, in fact, the sum total of our choices. Events unfold so unpredictably, so unfairly, Human happiness does not seem to be included in the design of creation. it is only we, with our capacity to love that give meaning to the indifferent universe. And yet, most human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying and even try to find joy from simple things, like their family, their work, and from the hope that future generations might understand more."

Down the Memory Lane

2006-01-28T22:51:00.000-05:00

Although I'd convinced myself about my extremely horrible memory, this article came about and gave a new perspective to my memory loss: I am just forgetting all the irrelevant events in my life :)

PhD

2006-01-23T20:29:00.000-05:00

Luckily, I dropped out before the second drop.

Google PC

2006-01-03T12:14:00.000-05:00

Interesting News: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-predict1jan01,0,3503327.story

I'll be one of the first persons to buy it.

Am I tooooo tech savvy?

2005-11-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

The Masters of the Universe....

2005-10-24T10:36:00.000-04:00

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" ought to be taken a bit more seriously:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/10/21/smart.rat.reut/index.html

Mission to Mars

2005-10-23T00:12:00.001-04:00

Only priests may apply: http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8195

I should be applying to NASA for conducting further research :P

A little something about Civil Engineering

2005-07-21T11:43:00.000-04:00

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent.

- Sophia Loren

Not being a genius helps :)

That bloody Murphy....

2005-04-22T03:25:00.000-04:00

One of my short term goals is to get an idea - an idea so ingenious that it's implementation would make me rich... and famous - an idea like that of Murphy's laws. I don't know how the hell did he think of making these laws, but I bet it made him wat he wanted to be. (borrowed from http://dmawww.epfl.ch/roso.mosaic/dm/murphy.html)

MURPHY'S LAWS
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Everything takes longer than you think.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
Mother nature is a bitch.
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
Every solution breeds new problems.
Murphy's Law of Research
Enough research will tend to support your theory.
Murphy's Law of Copiers
The legibility of a copy is inversely proportional to its importance.
Murphy's Law of the Open Road:
When there is a very long road upon which there is a one-way bridge placed at random, and there are only two cars on that road, it follows that: (1) the two cars are going in opposite directions, and (2) they will always meet at the bridge.
Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics
Things get worse under pressure.
The Murphy Philosophy
Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.
Quantization Revision of Murphy's Laws
Everything goes wrong all at once.
Murphy's Constant
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value

Why didn't I come across this song before....

2005-03-01T01:25:00.000-05:00

Rain is falling down my cheek
Searching for the sea
Tomorrow, like the rain
I'll be back home again

I watch the bus
As it pulls out of view
Someday like that bus
I will be leavin', too

But you know it breaks my heart to leave you
IITM, my grad school

And now, alone
Cryin in my beer
Cause old friends said goodbye
I guess I'll be leavin', too

But you know it breaks my heart to leave you
Guys, I'll miss you

Yes, I will
Yes, I will
You know I will

Well, so long everybody
I hope that I would see you again
Goodbye everybody
I finally grew up
They finally let me out of school

Hey, goodbye guys
Maybe I'll see, maybe I'll see you around some time, uh?
'Ay, don't make a stranger of yourself, uh?
Remember the baby, uh?
May, I ho, I hope you don't forget me or nothin'
Goodbye

- Alma Matter by Alice Cooper (edited)

Suffering from Procrastination?

2005-01-31T16:50:00.000-05:00

Try this: http://www.dexterity.com/articles/overcoming-procrastination.htm

Chundu dawg

2005-01-30T19:47:00.001-05:00

Virus bomb

2005-01-30T19:47:00.000-05:00

Meself and virus

2005-01-30T19:46:00.000-05:00

Photobucket

2005-01-30T19:42:00.000-05:00

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

The worst thing EVER!

2004-12-20T14:23:00.000-05:00

The worrrrrrsssshhhhhhhht thing I've ever seen or heard of is the Golgothan. Check out his picture from dogma at www.dogma-movie.com/ pics/strip/strip5a.html

btw, golgothan is the God of Shit!!!! :)))

Watch dogma... except for this part, it's a nice movie overall...

What file extension are you?

2004-12-15T02:38:00.000-05:00

Check out at: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2004/10/extension_quiz.php

About me...

Which File Extension are You?

Which OS are You?

Puke Party

2004-11-19T01:21:00.000-05:00

I'd always wondered how junta was able to drink night after night after night, though they puked each night after night after night. I was horrified when my friends had boozed for the first time, especially Q, a guy for whom the motion of falling down from the top of a building would be similar to that of a feather falling. He had half bottle of neat vodka when he boozed for the first time. And then he lost half of his weight in puking on the same night. It was hard to believe that a guy of this uni-dimensionality was able to survive that night, and many other nights that followed. This incident had scared all of us sixth half-wingers. We'd almost sworn amongst ourselves that we wouldn't booze again. Luckily, I was able to restrain it until I was with them.

Booze has almost become a casual, although not a causal, activity here. The worst happened when I went to a club last week.

I was ready to mug my ass off last friday, until a friend announced that he was gonna turn up here from Tampa for some clubbing. I went out with him after all, and with a couple of other friends. It was my first visit to the Orlando clubs. Downtown was buzzing, but it wasn't as inviting as Tampa where gals were standing outside the bars and roping guys in. It was just a cold invite here, just pay and go.

The interior was huge with a lot of ppl inside. We had vodka on the rocks, and went off to check out the dancing ladies. The first sip of vodka reminded me of... well, nothing! If I were like a peg of vodka, I would be the fiance of Kate Winslet in the movie Titanic: a bitter, rude and timid guy who people (save Kate) would like afterall! But thank Goodness I am not... :)

Coming back to the bitterness, vodka sucked big time, which makes me wonder why I had a second peg (with orange juice: screw driver). I guess it started screwing me up, coz I went for the ugliest, the worst, the nightmarish of all drinks: bourbon!!!! The first sip of this drink made me cough and almost puke out. How could anyone even invent such a drink and expect ppl to relish it? It was just the wierdest drink of all. If all of humanity could be considered as a mix of liquids, this was bloody Hitler! Yuk!

While drinking in this 'VIP Section' (which we had stumbled upon unknowingly), I noticed that a couple of girls were dancing in front of us, prolly trying to attract us (heheh... u know I was slisha drunk by now). I finally decided to go for one of them: I boosted up all my confidence, puffed up my chest, put on a big smile and took a step ahead... to realise that I was walking as if in a hurricane! I was swaying like the mast of a ship. I then lowered my confidence, normalized my chest, faded my smile, and took a step backwards.... to realise that I was bumping into others. The screwing drink had started showing its effects. It had given me a huge kick, and didn't stop me at all from having another screw driver.

We then decided to move outta the club. I was swaying through the crowd, when I realised that I needed to peee. I went over to the urinal, started peeing and gazed at the poster in front of me (It reminded me of Jet's video "Cold Hard Bitch"). I tried to read the writing above the pisspot, I did read all of it, but barely understood wat it meant, coz by the time I had read the last word, I had forgotten the first half of it. I came out, shouted out in a gals ear how great she looked, and walked off the club.

Out in the open I realized in wat a shit state I was. I was trying to find my friend who had walked out before me, and was as drunk as I was. But everything seemed to be shaking, just as seen in one of the movies. I found him afterall, sitting on the pavement waving at me. He asked me to sit down with him, and in 2 mins asked me to get on my feet again. We walked on the streets like totally drunken bastards. Thankfully we did know the spot of our car, and went for it.

We sat down outside the car, and this friend started telling me how he liked the sensation of puking. He thought it was the best part of boozing, and he boozed just to puke. I knew wat he was trying to do: make ME PUKE! I did it after all... in seconds. Puked twice.... and then it was my buddy's turn. We went and lied on top of the car. I tried looking at the stars, and realized that I wud not be able to count even ten stars correctly. I tried locating great bear, but in vain. Finally decided on couting the floors of a builing. I had to put hajaar fight, coz sometimes the floors seemed to be moving up and down randomly. I turned to see that my friend had gone off to puke again, and in seconds I followed.

My friends returned and laughed at our aweful state. I might have too, but was too drunk and tired to do so. We got into the car, gargled our mouths and freshened ourselves. We finally were off to home, sleepy home.

We stopped in between at a gas station... for some puke, and puked four times, twice each. Went back on the road and puked in every five minutes. I might have puked 3-4 times when in the car. Everytime I puked I turned to my driver friend and said I wud clean up his car the next day. He was laughing at this, coz he used to be in our spot sometime back when he didn't own a car. Damn! I was supposed to do the same sometime in the future!!! Argh!

The puke party finally ended when we got home, where I releived myself in the toilet. I went to sleep and felt as if there was an earthquake. The earth was moving alright, but only in my mind.

Some of those questions lurking in my mind got cleared, and so did the question, "Why did Hitler's followers like him?"

Summary of yesterday

2004-11-12T15:11:00.000-05:00

realise i am alive... check email... work... bcome aware of the foul smell from my mouth... brush... work... get pained of results... eat... tv... work... work... work... nap... work... welcome home swapnil... tv... dinner... work... talk on phone... no enthu to work... but work... sleep...

huh... typical day again

Metallica: A Star

2004-11-09T23:57:00.001-05:00

The long expected, hugely awaited and the biggest rock show of my life was here. I was getting so eager for the day to come. And it when it finally did, it was oh so grrrrrreat!

The stadium where the show was held looked like the amphitheatre. It was big, rectangular and very very steep. We (myself and five of my friends) were at the top of the stadium, so far that the bandmembers of Godsmack looked like puppets. The seats were pretty small, and the rows were very close to each other. Headbanging seemed an impossibility. And the crowd around us seemed really depressing. Their expressions were similar to those of a bunch of desis listening to a really boring spanish opera. In 5 mintues I had the same expression on my face (whoops), coz I hardly knew a single song of the band. The band was playing well, but it got really boring to listen to some songs I didn't know at all.

But finally they played something really well: the singer got onto a second set of drums and started playing amazingly with the main drummer. Both the drummers synchronized their music, and then played drums in style. Both guys played, one paused and the other continued the beat, and then he paused and the other continued. They were just incredible!!! It was the best part of the Godsmack show, and you had to be there to realize how great they were.

The end of Godsmack did not mean the start of Metallica: it only meant the end of selling beer. So we all went to get as much beer as possible and we were sitting with 2 beers under each seat.

Metallica entered after testing our patience. They entered in a BIG way. There were fireworks all around the stage and the music of Good Bad Ugly was giving me the goosebumps. It was the same exact peice I used to see again and again and again... and again in Chundu's room with the rest of the sixth wingers (they even showed the exact video that we used to repeatedly see).

Metallica kicked off the show with "Fuel" and we kicked off the headbanging. They were playing just awesome, and we were banging (our heads, obviously) so very hard. The james and robert were kickass. Lars was amazing! (need I say all this?) We couldn't hear much of kirk as the acoustics were very bad, but he seemed to play just great! They followed up with sad but true, sanitarium, memory remains, the god that failed and one. Then robert went ahead and played solo. He was pretty good, although I couldn't get the tune he was playing. Metallica came back to play nothing else matters, and beleive me, I was so crazy that I banged even on this one! The way they played Unforgiven was amazing: james was playing the starting slow tune with an acoustic guitar attached to the mike, and then switched to the electric guitar (kept a feet away from the mike) to play the main tune. The guitar playing went more interesting when kirk started playing solo, and put the guitar at the back of his neck and played an almost unbeleivably fast lead! The whole phenomenon became aweome!

Metallica then played some St. Anger songs, when we gave our heads and necks some rest, and then they continued with master of puppets, seek n destroy, holier than thou, etc etc. We were dead tired when they announced that they were gonna end the show. They started playing a song from St. Anger, but I continued my head banging, just convincing myself that I should enjoy the show to the very end. And then the Metallicans started throwing the guitar picks and drum sticks to the crowd. We waited for metallica to leave, but they came back and started playing another song: motorbreath. They were playing great: they were fast and furious. I couldn't help myself from head banging. My last ounce of energy was used up by the time I finished. It was very hard leaving the stadium and reaching home. We just hoped the show would go on and on, but alll things must come to an end!

On the whole, the hugeness and awesomeness of the Metallica show brings out the limitations in the adjectives of the English vocabulary. There are so few words in the language to describe the event, but I'll use just one: AWEfuckingSOME!

Metallica: A Star

2004-11-09T23:57:00.000-05:00

The long expected, hugely awaited and the biggest rock show of my life was here. I was getting so eager for the day to come. And it when it finally did, it was oh so grrrrrreat!

The stadium where the match was held looked like the amphitheatre. It was big, rectangular and very very steep. We (myself and five of my friends) were at the top of the stadium, so far that the bandmembers of Godsmack looked like puppets. The seats were pretty small, and the rows were very close to each other. Headbanging seemed an impossibility. And the crowd around us seemed really depressing. Their expressions were similar to those of a bunch of desis listening to a really boring spanish opera. In 5 mintues I had the same expression on my face (whoops), coz I hardly knew a single song of the band. The band was playing well, but it got really boring to listen to some songs I didn't know at all.

But finally they played something really well: the singer got onto a second set of drums and started playing amazingly with the main drummer. Both the drummers synchronized their music, and then played drums in style. Both guys played, one paused and the other continued the beat, and then he paused and the other continued. They were just incredible!!! It was the best part of the Godsmack show, and you had to be there to realize how great they were.

The end of Godsmack did not mean the start of Metallica: it only meant the end of selling beer. So we all went to get as much beer as possible and we were sitting with 2 beers under each seat.

Metallica entered after testing our patience. They entered in a BIG way. There were fireworks all around the stage and the music of Good Bad Ugly was giving me the goosebumps. It was the same exact peice I used to see again and again and again... and again in Chundu's room with the rest of the sixth wingers (they even showed the exact video that we used to repeatedly see).

Metallica kicked off the show with "Fuel" and we kicked off the headbanging. They were playing just awesome, and we were banging (our heads, obviously) so very hard. The james and robert were kickass. Lars was amazing! (need I say all this?) We couldn't hear much of kirk as the acoustics were very bad, but he seemed to play just great! They followed up with sad but true, sanitarium, memory remains, the god that failed and one. Then robert went ahead and played solo. He was pretty good, although I couldn't get the tune he was playing. Metallica came back to play nothing else matters, and beleive me, I was so crazy that I banged even on this one! The way they played Unforgiven was amazing: james was playing the starting slow tune with an acoustic guitar attached to the mike, and then switched to the electric guitar (kept a feet away from the mike) to play the main tune. The guitar playing went more interesting when kirk started playing solo, and put the guitar at the back of his neck and played an almost unbeleivably fast lead! The whole phenomenon became aweome!

Metallica then played some St. Anger songs, when we gave our heads and necks some rest, and then they continued with master of puppets, seek n destroy, holier than thou, etc etc. We were dead tired when they announced that they were gonna end the show. They started playing a song from St. Anger, but I continued my head banging, just convincing myself that I should enjoy the show to the very end. And then the Metallicans started throwing the guitar picks and drum sticks to the crowd. We waited for metallica to leave, but they came back and started playing another song: motorbreath. They were playing great: they were fast and furious. I couldn't help myself from head banging. My last ounce of energy was used up by the time I finished. It was very hard leaving the stadium and reaching home. We just hoped the show would go on and on, but alll things must come to an end!

On the whole, the hugeness and awesomeness of the Metallica show brings out the limitations in the adjectives of the English vocabulary. There are so few words in the language to describe the event, but I'll use just one: AWEfuckingSOME!

Rock This Way

2004-11-04T11:52:00.000-05:00

Raise the sights, the city lights are calling
We’re hot tonight, the time is right, there’s nitro in the air
In the street is where we’ll meet, we’re warning
On the beat, we won’t retreat, beware

Thousand of cars and a million guitars
Screaming with power in the air
We’ve found the place where the decibels race
This army of rock will be there...

(Ram it Down -Judas Priest)

Metallica: Live in Concert!

Finally!!!

2004-10-31T16:31:00.000-05:00

After attending the garba-dandia event thrice, I discovered the following: 1. Always start with garba, however lame it might look. 2. Join garba/dandia in the initial stages because the tempo keeps increasing and u won't be able to join and cope up with the dance in the latter stages. 3. If u can do the dancing garba, u can work on the advanced dandia pretty easily. 4. I can never approach and patao a girl, EVER!

Art of dancing ?

2004-10-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

The garba-dandia event this year wasn't as enjoyable as last year. We were a group of around 10 ppl who had gone for the event last year and who shared a common bond of not knowing the dance at all. Thankfully, there were a lot of uncles, aunties, grandmas and grandpas who were playing basic dandia and were happy to give us some beginner lessons. We had played dandia in just 2-3 styles, all 5-step dandia (as I learnt yesterday). But the fun part of it was learning the dance and enjoying ourselves learning dandia by making complete fool out of ourselves.

But the situation yesterday was pretty different. We had gone to a place where 80% of the ppl were teens and almost all of them were expert in dandia. And our group too was variegated. 2-3 of us were experts (they had either lived here for long to know dandia pretty good or were gujjus), and the other 3 were totally dhakkans in the dance. Though there was a friend who taught us the advanced 12 step dandia, it was pretty tough to actually go and dance it out. We learnt the steps pretty well, eventually. So we thought until we realised that all the groups that we were joining were dissipating within 5 mins. It was pretty embarrassing. All my friends lost enthu because of the embarrassment. I had a lot of enthu, but no style. I finally joined a group of kids who were playing the 5-step dandia. It was embarrassing too, but was at least better than playing worse dandia!

But there were fun parts of the night too. We went out for a coffee (at a gas station, which I thought was a really bad idea), and the conversation went on pretty well. Got to know the unknowns pretty well.

Overall, it was an okie-dokie night that didn't meet my expectations.

Nice Cartoons

2004-10-07T19:37:00.000-04:00

These cartoons are really funny and remind me of some of the good times. Check out more of em at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/comics/

Hostel Mess of Godav:

My Condition in Godav (hostel):

My condition in the first semester in UCF:

Condition of American rock:

Statistics

2004-10-01T01:31:00.000-04:00

Have been doing a lot of statistics lately. I was going to use Neural Networks for my analysis, hoping that the title might sound pseude if not have a breakthrough analysis method. But damn! I am using statistics at the end of it all :((((

Balaji used to always say that stats was just a mathematical way of lying. I never understood exactly wat he meant coz I was using neat data given by my profs to get smooth results. But once I started working on my project, his idea became very understandable. I use the same data in different ways to get my results. It's not that I am getting nice results. It's just that I keep varying data and analysis method until something "clicks" and I declare "Eureka!". That's complete bullshit.

Anyways, here are some nice quotes on statistics (source: http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/statistics/):

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)
USA Today has come out with a new survey - apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population.

David Letterman (1947 - )
Statistician: A man who believes figures don't lie, but admits that under analysis some of them won't stand up either.

Evan Esar (1899 - 1995), Esar's Comic Dictionary
Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.

Evan Esar (1899 - 1995), Esar's Comic Dictionary
Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

Fletcher Knebel
I could prove God statistically.

George Gallup (1901 - 1984)
A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.

Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953)

I Just Wanna Be God - Alice Cooper

2004-09-19T17:20:00.000-04:00

I'm in control

I got a bulletproof soul

And I'm full of self-esteem

I invented myself with no one's help

I'm a prototype supreme

I sit on my private throne

And run my lifestyle all alone

Me, myself and I agree

We don't need nobobdy else



I never learned to bow, bend or crawl

To any known authority

I really want to build my statue tall

That's all



I'm just trying to be God

I only wanna be God

I just wanna be God

Why can't I be God?



I got no time to take advice

I want to gamble with my eternity

With loaded dice

I don't need a preacher in my face

When I'm the omnipresent ruler of the human race

Ain't gonna

Spend my life being no one's fool

I was born to rock and I was born to rule

But if I'm wrong on judgement day

I'm royally screwed with hell to pay



I never learned to bow, bend or crawl

To any known authority

I really want to build my statue tall

That's all



I'm just trying to be God

I only wanna be God

I just wanna be God

Why can't I be God?

2004-09-13T23:19:00.000-04:00

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn-out, shouting, 'Holy shit! What a ride!'

2004-09-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

Life has become so mundane, so predictable, so redundant. Only two things exist: lots of work at school and sleeping or watching movies at home. There's nothing different going on. When I get some free time, the only possible thing I do is watch movies, most of them are shitty ones coz I feel I've already seen all the good ones. And if there are any good ones that I haven't seen, I better preserve them for future: there might be a time when I might be bored to death and probably one such movie wud revive my dying soul.

I guess this is also an age of feeling lonely: when u feel u need a girlfriend. People (desis) all around me are dying to get a girlfriend: a friend with whom we can share our thoughts, go out and pass our time - that's all we want. Whether be it India or US, all of my friends share the same feeling. And most of my friends have good friends with whom they can communicate. The situation here is so bad that I can't even trust my neighbours. So I feel a greater need for a true friend.

All the more, I want to do something different in my life right now. Just getting too bored with the same old shit. Any ideas?

Here are some from some radom blog: "Take chances. Tell the truth. Date someone totally wrong for you. Say NO. Spend ALL your cash. Fall in Love. Get to know someone random. Be random. Say i love you. Sing out loud. Laugh at a stupid joke. Cry. Get revenge. Apologize. Tell someone how much they mean to you. Tell an asshole what you feel. Let someone know what they are missing. laugh til your stomach hurts. Live life to the fullest. Live in the moment."

Any more ideas?

Am I not The Worst Blogger??

2004-08-22T23:07:00.000-04:00

After installing the new navigation toolbar in my blog (am so much in a "am not gonna work tonite" mood), the first thing i searched was "theworstblogger"... my name came up coz the engine was searching within my webpage... now i googled for "the worst blogger"... there were about a thousand results there... but none showed up my blog... most of the results (as others can check em) are people like myself who have proclaimed themselves as the worst bloggers ever.... how dare they compete with me...

I feel I've been losing the "competition" coz my blog doesn't even show up in the google search... so this is my way of making my site the top google result for the worst blogger ever:

I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!!!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!!!!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!!!!!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM THE WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

How worse can this blog get? :))

Charlie the Hurricane

2004-08-18T16:13:00.000-04:00

I guess I haven't heard some name other than mine repeated all through the day. I heard my name all through the day only when I was young and my mom used to shout at me all the time: clean ur room, tidy up ur table, make some tea, so on and so on. But this time I've heard "Charlie" almost every 5-minutes in the previous 24 hrs. Every time I switch on my TV I hear abt Charlie, every time I talk with my friends the talk on Charlie comes up, and every time we seem to be waiting for someone its definitely Charlie!

Charlie is the name of the hurricane that's going to hit Orlando. Whoever has named it Charlie (I hope its the name of the guy who predicted its path or something) is really a genius. The whole state knows his name, but sadly, not him (if such a person exists).

Anyways, me and my friends were waiting for Charlie all day yesterday. The only news on TV was on Charlie. I was kinda tired of its name, but was still looking forward to it. People seemed to be scared of it. People were stocking up groceries, water, candles and movies just to be safe. My feeling was that hurricane wud b a big deal: just thunderstorms and rains. But reality seems different. I can really feel why people r so scared!

After I had written the first param Charlie arrived with a bang, I mean a thunderstorm. I had to save my writing and check "it" out. The storms started slowly: first with winds and then with slight showers. But the intensity increased exponentially with time. The winds were perpendicular to the house and were banging on the glass window pane. The window was vibrating so severely Swapnil and I were kinda afraid that the wind might break off the glass pane. We were considering various options if the window broke.

It suddenly stuck me that lights might go out any time now that the hurricane was in full swing. We lit up some candles by buring papers on the electric stove. The lights were out just a few minutes after the candles were glowing.

We shifted our attention back to the window pane. We thought it wud be best if we were sitting in the bedrooms as it wud b much safer there. We entered the bedroom and saw our parking garage's roof torn apart by the winds. We were afraid that the winds wud knock out the roof cover and it wud hit our window. But we sat over there just waiting for the wind to blow away the parking lot's roof.

The storm had abated by 10:30 (after 2 hrs) and the living room window had stopped giving us the creeps. The roof of the parking lot wasn't being ripped apart anymore. So we decided to step out and check out the winds. Boy, were they strong! We came out and went around the neighbourhood. We checked out the parking lot where the roof had fallen. The roof was really light, and it felt ridiculous to imagine that it wud hit the window and break it. A lot of trees had fallen down outrooted. We discovered some missing signboards lying quite a distance away from where they were supposed to be. The whole place was gruesome.

Now that the winds were blowing at a normal pace, Kamal and I felt like having beer in the open. We went out like jerks to a gas station which was obviously closed. Climate was normal now. And we all felt sleepy.

It was a great experience being in the hurricane. But the worst experience was the aftermath of Charlie. I'll write abt it sometime later, if at all I do.

2004-08-14T15:16:00.000-04:00

Heaven's doors r open
Posted by Hello

2004-08-14T15:15:00.003-04:00

Charlie's wrath!
Posted by Hello

2004-08-14T15:15:00.002-04:00

The Hulk
Posted by Hello

2004-08-14T15:15:00.001-04:00

Treebuster outside blockbuster
Posted by Hello

2004-08-14T15:15:00.000-04:00

Clearing the mess
Posted by Hello

2004-08-14T15:14:00.000-04:00

Our parking lot

2004-08-14T15:13:00.003-04:00

Stop sign outside our house

2004-08-14T15:13:00.002-04:00

Swapnil gets messy sometimes

2004-08-14T15:13:00.001-04:00

What a mess

2004-08-14T15:13:00.000-04:00

What a mess

2004-08-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

Our previous apartment

2004-08-14T15:11:00.000-04:00

What a mess

2004-08-14T15:10:00.002-04:00

Chevron's roof was torn off

2004-08-14T15:10:00.001-04:00

Treebuster

2004-08-14T15:10:00.000-04:00

Kamal showing his machoness

Random Jobless thoughts

2004-07-26T22:01:00.000-04:00

I get very random thoughts when I'm not supposed to. I haveto study for the test that I'm going to test in 2 days, and here I am thinking about how I used to spend this time back in India. hmmm... brings a big smile on my face, similar to Joey's smile when he starts dreaming about a really dumb thing. heheh... now I'm laughing the same way as Joey does after the dream's over :)

neways, back to the point!

I felt like listening to some Indian songs and bounced upon Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's marathi songs. The very first song reminded me so much of home. I used to HATE his songs so much. I don't know how I developed a liking to them suddenly. Probably am missing home? Or probably I want to be in my dad's position, listen to the songs and feel just like he feels. Watever the reason be, I'm homesick now!

I am thinking of the nights that I used to spend at Hyderabad, my first home. I used to be at the Officer's mess library or with a friend in the DRDO colony at 7pm. I used to leave for home around 9. I remember the lonely streets outside the quarters. They were so peaceful. My driving was so fast on these streets that my nose would be numb by the time I was home. I can still feel the long lonely drive back home, the wind that blew my hair and the autos that used to pom-pom as I drove by rashly. Home was so relaxing. I knew that there was nothing being expected from me at this point of time, and there was in fact nothing to do at all. My mind would be totally blank while driving, and oh boy, how awesome an empty mind is! The same routine would follow on returning home: eat, read some novel and sleep off.

Nothing to care about and nothing to look forward to.

My second home, IITM, gives me mixed memories. Sometimes I recollect the lonely wing with noone around and I looking out for some soul to come in so that I could end my boredom. I remember either going back to my room and forcing myself to read a novel or going to the common room just for the heck of it. But these thoughts only come to me when I feel lonely, as I do now. But when I'm just thinking about the IIT times, I think about myself standing topless in the wing enjoying the awesome wind across the whole of my body, sitting beside the window and the raindrops falling on my body giving me a tingling feeling, sitting in Narsi's room or on wing cot and farting very joblessly. As I keep thinking, I get more and more of them. So I stop and get back to my books to study for test, remember? And here I am again thinking how I used to study, either alone or with Narsi and stud or with Pondy in his hostel very very late at night.

Huh! wish I could get those days back. Life here is not so jobless at all. There's always tension on my mind. ALWAYS! Even on weekends when I'm enjoying I have the feeling that I gotta do so and so. That's what makes me feel I should be getting the good old days back.

This reminds me of a talk with Meling, a Chinese lady here. She was showing me some new born cats. I said I wish I was just a child like them. She looked surprised and said,"You must have had a really good childhood." That's the only time in my life when I felt I really had a GREAT childhood.

A Horrible Experience

2004-07-11T00:22:00.000-04:00

I was going to include some wonderful experiences from my journey in this post. Unfortunately, this post is going to be abt an incident that I'm not gonna forget for a long time to come....

I've learning to park using Swapnil's car for some days. I goto the Research Parkway building at a corner of the UCF campus and practise parking there. My friends had told me that it's a peaceful area without any traffic and nobody coming up to check that place. They were so wrong!

I was driving without any worries in the parking lot. Swapnil and Panchi were with me. They got out of the car and stood at the parking space edge to give a feel of parking cones (used in the road test) to me. I parked the car twice, took a turn to park the car again only to see that 2 cops had approached the place and were talking to my friends. They asked me to pull over and asked me for my UCF ID and my learner's license. I was already shit-psyched then, and imagine my horror when I realised that I hadn't brought my license with me!!! I felt as if all liquids were starting to come out of all holes in my body. You can't imagine how bad the feeling gets unless u get into my position.

I told the officer that I didn't have the license. He asked me to step out and started explaining that I should be having my license with me when I was driving and a guy having a permanent license (Swapnil) should be sitting beside me when I was driving. He explained that both of us could get tickets and I could be refrained from taking a drivers license test. We were driving in a research area and in front of a defense area (we didn't know that there was a defence area behind the building). The cops told us that they were cops from the defence area and were reporting our case to the UCF PD on the charge of traffic violations. So the UCF cops would be here in a couple of minutes.

Since I was already feeling the worst emotion possible, it couldn't get any worse. I was thinking wtf was happening with me: cupping in my road test for the silliest reason possible (that's another story) and such a thing happening to me now! Why is the license bcoming such a headache for me? Was this all happening because I was cotemplating on the existance of God and thought that even if he puts me in a difficult situation I would not plead for help to God! I was so WRONG!!! I was praying all the time now. I felt so sorry that I had sweared on God almighty and questioned His/Her eternal existance (Well, such thoughts really come up out of the blues when I'm in such a fucked up position).

Then came 2 plain white cars and parked beside our car. And in seconds came a third cop-car with bleeping lights. I was crossing my fingers and watching what was happening. The cop who had caught us told the other cops about the whole situation. Now two of the other cops came to us and said,"Your night is over as of now." I was like what the....

He continued,"I can charge u guys for traffic violation. But these things keep happening here and you should practise parking elsewhere, not in this place. So get in the cars and take off."

THAT'S IT!!! It was such a FUCKING RELEIF!!!!!!!!!!

A thought crossed my mind that I shall not forget for a long time to come: God almighty almost always has the last laugh.

A Long trip

2004-07-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

I used to enjoy asking pondy (in India) why he wanted to goto US for an MS. He almost always wanted to reply "for the babes", but somehow used to fart something else that was never consistent. He used to ask me the same thing, and I almost always replied that I wanted to know more of US, see how the country is, see it's culture, people etc. And pondy used to almost always laugh at me.

Now that I'm in US and my prof had decided to take a vacation, I decided to go for a long trip anywhere in US. I wanted to see a lot of places, which is possible either in California or New York. Since my relatives had called me earlier to visit them, I decided to go for a trip to the Northeast. I had such an awesome trip that I want to document almost all of it. What better place to do it than in a blog?

I knew that my relatives stay close to Boston, but never exactly knew where. So I decided to visit Boston when I wud meet my relatives. As I asked my friends, I got to know that New York was 4 hrs from Boston and that's how it got included in my visiting list. What better time to visit New York than on July 4? I checked the map and saw that Philly was close to NYC. So I decided on these 3 cities + my relatives place for a 10 day visit.

I was thinking of staying with Bawa in Boston. But I found out one week before leaving that Bawa was in India. So I contacted Bhanu who was in MIT. But he seemed busy with his thesis defence. Then I went to Ashish for help, and got lots of it. He said I cud peacefully stay with him on my visit to Boston.

Shravan was free in Philly, so I cud stay with him. Only problem was New York, and I was depending on Pondy for visiting NYC with me. But that ass ditched me, twice. He could have come to New York for the long weekend, but somehow didn't show much enthu. He had got a nice reason to pack the trip in the end: the plane tickets were just too high. Anyways, I had decided on visiting NYC by myself, and stay in a hotel.

I'll describe my experiences in the next 10 or so posts...

Good Times Bad Times

2004-06-23T03:09:00.000-04:00

This has been one of those days. I was waiting for it to get over and am glad it did!

It all started when pondy called me up to let me know that he was not gonna make it to the Boston-New York trip. I got so seriously shit pained!! Why the hell was I depending on him anyways? He's being treated as a slave by his prof and he doesn't even realise it. He just get orders and keeps working. I dunno why he made me wait all this time and finally didn't even ask his prof for a holiday.

Pondy pained me so much that I knew my day was gonna be bad. I remembered Potha telling me that he was going to come to NYC for 4th July. So I emailed him if I cud join him. I mailed Hardy to know if I cud stay with him as I was alone. I cudn't sleep well because I didn't know wat I was gonna do all alone in the trip. Anyways, I had to go to the license office the next day and so I had to wake up early. And that's where I got another surprise: I failed in the driving test!!!! Failed in freaking test in Orlando!!! It's the most peaceful driving test ever.. it's liking me taking a hi school maths test: I know I'll do well.. but somehow I failed.

I felt reeeeely shitty now... I came back home and knew that all I had to do was sleep. I woke up and checked my email to know that Potha wasn't coming to NYC and Hardy was going out during the long weekend: more problems. I convinced Ravi to come along. Hope he does. He seems to be the only ray of hope right now. I refrained from booking my ticket till the day was over. Hopefully the days ahead will be better!

Girls Girls Girls!!!

2004-06-21T18:44:00.000-04:00

I have no idea why my whole life has been devoid of girls. I was very innocent in my school times, so much so that I was made to sit beside a naughty girl in one class because the teacher used to get irritated by the girl and he thought I was the most calm boy (sidha-sadha ladka) who would subside the girl's attitude. I used to sit with a friend during all classes save this one class when I would change my seat to sit beside the girl.

From the very moment I came to senses about boys are boys and girls are girls, the girls started moving away from my life and vice versa. I was good friends with my schoolmates until we were classmates. Once I moved to intermediate, all was gone: there were no girls in the class and no contacts. By this time I had even given up thinking abt girls, so much that I started running away from them. There was this girl in my class that used to ask me to wait for her so that we could go home together. I went home with her a couple of times, always embarassed to see people staring at us, or so I thought. (I was too innocent to realise that the people were looking at the girl (who was gorgeous btw)!! I never realised it till I was in college.) I started feeling uneasy and starting running off after the class. I did this almost for a week. The girl used to ask me to wait after the class, but I remember running away like a dog.

The next axe fell when I entered college and mailed my friend telling some private stories. That bastard showed it to the whole gang of girls and I was quite embarassed to talk to any of them. The next axe fell when I sent a *guyish* email to a group which had included my girl-classmates just a day back. I was completely screwed. I've never ever faced my school mates after this. I was the innocent guy in school, but now I was just another jerk!

I thought that being in US would bring a change in my fortune. But nice try! This place makes me desperate because there are so many beautiful women around, but none I could go and talk to because they'r all Americans. I am interested in Indian girls, but there are none at all!!!! If they are good-looking (which are just a handful), they already have a bf. Basically no girl to go out with et al!

Hope there comes a major change in the near future....

Forgetting things

2004-06-13T18:08:00.000-04:00

Has it ever happened to u that u wanna put something important at a special place where u can find it easily, and when u want it urgently u forget the distinct place? It always does happen with me.

While hiding the object, I find a place that is just ingenious. I feel that the thing will be safe from others and I will get it when I want. But when the time comes to take out the object, I just forget the place and keep searching and searching for it at the most arbitest places possible.Then I feel how stupid I was to keep it at such a place and how difficult would it be to find the thing at that place.Or, I wud have kept the thing at the most obvious place and keep searching for it at all other places possible. In any case, I am pissed off when I realise where it was.

This happened last week with my Best Buy $100 card. I was even going to search the trash bags to look into it, but found it at the most obvious place possible: in my drawer.

GMail

2004-06-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

Kind of lost touch with blogging completely in the past 2 months. Isn't that why I call myself the-worst-blogger?

Why do I wanna continue? Coz I wanna get the gmail account (Gmail is giving away email accounts to ppl using orkut or blogspot frequently). And why a GMail account? Coz of 1GB mail space and, of course, google-mania. I don't know how is it that the Google runners come up with such innovative ideas? It seems like they are going to conquer almost everything on the internet. And why not? At least the ulterior motive doesn't seem to be making money like the other companies yahoo and msn.

I had subscibed to the free launchcast for a week with an intention of continuing it for a year or so. But I found that it wasn't playing the songs that I wanted and wasn't any better than the free version. So I cancelled my membership within a week. I was expecting to give a feed-back so that they cud improve their service. But nope, they didn't ask any such thing. Made me feel that it was a plastic buisness that I dealt with. They wanted my money, but didn't care abt wat I wanted....

The attitude here can be described as Bill Gates has said in one of his speeches, "My main aim is to sell software: a software that makes profit. We are not here to work on rocket science software because it doesn't make such profit. I will sell oranges if they start making more profit than my software." (This is wat a friend had heard in a lecture given by Bill Gates to his Microsoft employees.)

Rest later...

2004-04-16T03:53:00.000-04:00

I was so pissed off with the courses and the work load that I began wondering how cool it would be if I were in a different age, to be precise, in an ancient age. It would be cool to be an early man, I thought. No work to do, no tensions in life, the only thing u look forward to is having something to eat whenever u r hungry. So much peaceful: pluck a fruit or kill an animal and eat it off. But the picture got all shady when I realised that I cud be a prey to other animals too. I wudn't live peacefully coz I wud have to be beware of animals eating me off in the dark. I wud have to take care of my sleeping place, away from insects, mosquitoes, etc. So it wudnt have so much of mental peace as I had thought. Hmmph… the only thing that wud be interesting in the early life wud be seeing women naked any time u want (hmmm… I feel so much better now).

Then I thought of the medival ages… prolly bcome a king or a person having the most peaceful life in that era. After eliminating the king, minister, etc etc as the choices I thought a pandits life wud b kewl: go to houses, do some pooja, eat good food at all places, have good respect from everyone, sleep peacefully after heavy meals. Wow! Tensions wud b taking care of the family n stuff. But that’s okie… not as much tension for the age I’m in… but then I wondered the childhood wud be sooooooo PAINFUL. Learn all those shlokas n stuff in Sanskrit and recite it perfectly whenever any pooja’s to be done. I had taken part in some Sanskrit shloka recital competitions, and these were the toughest competitions ever. I was hardly ever able to learn those shlokas. Once, I was able to recite only 6/50 shlokas. Nope, even the medival age wudn’t be good for me. Childhood, the best part of one’s life, wud b a great waste….

Then it dawned to me: why do I want to choose the most peaceful personality possible? Why don’t I want to be the King who manages everything from his family to the entire kingdom? Why I am looking for the easiest path?

2004-04-13T00:02:00.000-04:00

Overheard my roommate saying: "Why do newspapers all over say Lara has beaten Hayden? Why's there so much rivalry between Lara Dutta and Diana Hayden?"

He understood wat the statement meant when he checked the detailed cricket report on rediff.

OMG!

2004-04-11T22:46:00.000-04:00

Life's been a bitch lately: screwing me in all ways possible. I've been so darn busy with my courses and research work that I have forgotten how my room here looked like. Now my room's all messed up with my new poster lying on the carpet and a bunch of reports and bills lying on it. My jeans and a couple of t-shirts have found some space on the floor (on the carpet of course) and my laptop sleeps whereever it finds space. Had it not been for the carpet, my room would have been worse than the IIT-room.

Lots of things have happened in the past 20 days (other than studying, of course): Narsi had come during a busy week (which I hadn't expected to be soooooo damn busy)and we had gone to Tampa for to meet some civil friends. Had gone to the Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure on a free ticket. Had Ron's B'day party at Olive Garden and later went for bowling. Wasted the last 3 days lying on my bed and watching TV all the time. Saw matchstick men (awesome!), freaky friday (good fun), notting hill (okie-dokie) and missamma (good one for being a gult movie).

Am back to the regular schedule again. Had missed some classes while finishing up assignments and am listening to them online. Will update with some other stuff soon... abt Narsi mostly....

2004-03-25T01:28:00.000-05:00

Dont ask!

I've bin so damn busy in the past week that I'm bored, pained and weak. I was working all of Sunday night, and by Monday afti I was losing my sight. I dared to attend Al-Deek's class and started feeling as if I was on grass. I tried my best to stay awake but cudnt keep my eyelids seperate. The ending of class was so refreshing that I felt like tooth-brushing.

Narsi was gonna come by seven, so I

Desi Jokes

2004-03-21T02:28:00.000-05:00

Nice Joke that I saw in the Conan O'Brien show:

Three guys, an American, a British and an Indian are travelling in a boat when a shark comes and eats off the American and British guys, but not the Indian. When the Indian asks the shark why it didn't wanna eat him, it says, "I ate an Indian last year and my ass is still burning."

:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Did u see the Desi guy in the Pringles commercial?

Quote of the day:

"Have you found the right girl?" "Nope. But am having a BLAST with the wrong ones right now."

Rock on!

2004-03-17T20:42:00.000-05:00

Got a BIGGIE scholarship today Dr. Aty had sent me an email last week giving me a hint abt this. He met me in the morning and asked me in his own wierd way (he smiles, rolls his eyes and asks), "why r u here?" I said, "I have a class at 1:30, and so I thought I shud attend the ashe meeting." "Did u get my email?" "Yes" "Did u guess wat I meant?" "Partly" He smiled and departed.

And then I was sitting in the room when the president, Kent Black, comes, gives me a pamphlet and asks, "How are you, Piyush?" I was TOTALLY bewildered. How the f does he know my name . I stuttered,"thank you. errr... I'm good, how abt u?" "Good thankq" By then I knew that I was going to get the scholarship. And well, I got it And from then on people have been coming and congradulating me... feels so good

ABCD

2004-03-16T23:55:00.000-05:00

I am (or was) pretty interested in knowing how abcd's have grown up, wat their liefstyle is, and how confused they really are.

Some of the interesting articles that I found were: "I LOVE BEING INDIAN! I know... I wouldnt have it any other way! I love walking into my house & smelling pungent spices wafting through the air as my mother bustles around busily preparing spicy dishes & warm naan bread. I love spending two hours before a wedding trying to successfully tie a sari.... decorate my sisters hands in mehndi and find the perfect bindhi. I love indian boys... and the way their hair is so dark & skin so brown. I love hearing my dad's voice rise as he yells at the television screen while watching his favorite cricket team play. I love watching three hour long hindi movies... and crying every fifteen minutes. I love raas and the excitement of garba.... I love dancing for Diwali shows & singing random hindi songs while walking to class. I love everything about being Indian..... and i know for sure... i wouldnt have it any other way!!!"

Another interesting para: "lately i've been feeling like i'm trapped in a f*cking episode of Sex and the City! i mean it seems like everyone around me is having sex - cherries be popping like crazy (yeah, u know what i mean) .. and not only that, they seem to LOVE talking bout it - not in the 'oh it was soo good or he's so big' (well that does come up too..) way, but more like the sharing of different postions, tips and such. i feel left out. i mean, don't get me wrong, i'm proud of the decisions i've made but sumtimez, its like "hmm, maybe i AM being too much of a prude ..". everyone around me is doing a great job of making sex (.. and everything else that comes in between the innocent first kiss and sex - yeah use ur imagination~) look like its not a big deal. maybe i don't get what the fuss is all about cuz i'm not out there screwing guyz, and sure, my hormones kick in sumtimez (which resulted in me and rey hooking up, if u didn't already figure it out from the July 17th and July 20th entries), but honestly, i don't see why every1's in such a rush to lose their virginity. got ne insight??"

That told me a whole lot abt the abcd's. More of these blogs can be found at: http://www.xanga.com/blogrings/blogring.asp?id=9165

Overall, I think I'm still confused whether they are Indian or Amru....

Victim of Changes

2004-03-16T00:38:00.000-05:00

Why am I watching so many Hindi movies these days? (I see almost 2 hindi movies every weekend and no english movies at all!)

Why do I visit Hindi movie websites every week, although I know that all movies that are being released suck big time?

Why am I searching for websites that show free Hindi movies?

Why do I tune in to Hindi radio sites almost everyday, though I know that they play some songs that suck real bad?

Why do I want to visit the Temple every Saturday evening? (I used to be an aethist long time back, turned to a slight beleiver couple of years back, but am now going to Temple everyweek!)

Why do we travel 20 miles to reach Indian restaunts for having parties, though there are many cheaper Mexican, Italian and multi-cuisine restraunts nearby?

Me, Victim of Changes?

Victim of Changes by Judas Priest

Whiskey woman don't you know that you are drivin' me insane
The liquor you give stems your will to live and gets right to my brain
Don't you know you're driving me insane
You're tryin' to find your way through life
You're tryin' to get some new direction
Another woman got her man
She won't find no new connection

Takes another drink or two, things look better when she's through

Takes another look around, you're not goin' anywhere
You've realized you're gettin' old and no one seems to care
You're tryin' to find your way again
You're tryin' to find some new...
Another woman's got her man
But she won't find a new...

Takes another drink or two, things look better when she's through

You 'bin foolin' with some hot guy
I want to know why is it why
Get up get out you know you really blew it
I've had enough, I've had enough, good God pluck me

Once she was wonderful
Once she was fine
Once she was beautiful
Once she was mine...she was mine

Now change has come over her body, she doesn't see me anymore
Now change has come over her body, she doesn't see me anymore

Changes, changes, changes, changes
Victim of changes

In da Club

2004-03-15T02:13:00.000-05:00

Jay and an IITan buddy, Bharat, stopped by my house on Friday afternoon and we decided on heading to Daytona Beach for having some fun on the last day of the Spring Break. I was happy at last that I was going to see some real spring break stuff. We started around 4pm and touched Daytona's border by 5. Bharat wanted to meet his amru friend, Megan, who was studying in Daytona. She asked us to drop by her dorm when we called up. It was for the first time that I was entering a dorm in US, and I was pretty excited.

Megan was waiting outside the dorm. She welcomed us pretty warmly and took us to her room. On nearing her room , I noticed that (unlike other people in the dorm) she had papers pasted all over her door with some useless messages like "Megan lives here" written all over. The interior was more ghastly. The room was just a bit bigger than the hostel room in IITM, but half of it was the kitchen and the other half was the living room (kitchen as soon as u enter? that sucks!). The living room had 2 couch-chairs, a tv and a table with a comp. There were two more wooden chairs and we had to adjust on these chairs. Megan had to crouch and sit down. I took a look at the room: the floor was messy with papers and stuff, walls covered with useless messages and posters and a collage of LOTR movies. It was absolutely horrundous to look at. I was expecting an American girl's room to be a no-mess place, but alas! I might not be a keep-it-all-clean-guy, but I CANNOT live in such a place!

We were talking about her dorm life, her school and her internship. Our conversation was going smoothly until she asked our purpose of visiting Daytona. Bharat frankly replied that we were for the babes and asked her to come out with us (at the same time! how absurd!!!). She (obviously) answered "not for that reason". Bharat tried to ask her out, but she made a lame reason of her sister visiting the place. We left within 5 mins of this conversation, and she didn't even come outside the door to say goodbye. We walked all the way to the car and Bharat was feeling pretty bad that he'd been ditched so badly.

The useless visit also delayed us for the beach activities. By the time we reached the beach the car's engine heated up. So we had to let the car cool down in a parking garage. It was there that we saw the first glimpse of spring break: a car full of BABES in BIKINIS filling gas and bending inside their car. Some of them were damn HOT and were being booed by other guys. Sadly none of us had any beads and cudn't get any flashes :(( But I was pretty happy that we had a good beginning.

After we had parked and left the car it was 6:30pm, and all the beach activities were over. There was no crowd on the beach: everyone had gone out for dinner. So we decided to have some beer by the beach and pass time. Bharat and Jay were putting fundaes to me on grinding in the club. They finally concluded that I shud follow their lead if I wanted to grind and freak out.

We got hold of some beads from Om and reached the club at 10. What happened next will have to remain for the next post.... :)

2004-03-12T00:27:00.000-05:00

Sabbath bloody sabbath, Nothing much to do.
Living just for dying, dying just for you.
Yeah!

I am too bored now. Want to write something here, but nothing comes to mind. Am too bored writing abt IIT and stuff. So thought of writing these lines from "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" by Black Sabbath (Awesome song!). And guess wat, it came on the radio at the same time :)

Okay, lemme write abt the music here. The best thing abt music here is the radio! There r sooooooooooo many FM stations here playing all sorts of songs. Most people listen to radio when they are driving (which almost everyone over 18 does). And radio stations make lotsa $$$. They organize lotsa events (live shows and stuff) and stuff. People are big fans of their radio stations.

My favorite stations are 96.5 WHTQ and 101.1 Real Rock. I dunno why most stations have these wierd names like WHTQ and all. The former station plays classic rock tunes. Surpisingly, Led Zepplin is one of the most famous rock bands here. I had heard very little of them back in India. But they made some really cool tunes. I dunno why noone hears much of them in India. Not many British bands r played on the radio, and that's one thing that I dont like! British music is kewl... and I think people here shud b exposed to it. 101.1 plays heavy rock, but they play the modern alternative rock that sucks most of the time. Noone plays the classy Iron Mainden, Metallica or Judas, probably because they r mostly British bands.

Alternative music is in a sad state here: trashy music, not much lead guitaring and harsh vocals. I have liked very few of these songs. Songs shud b like the Maiden tunes: lots of cooooooooool guitaring (the most perfect band in terms of combination of guitars, drums and vocals), sexy lyrics and cool rythm. I guess those days r gone :((

I also listen to radio online, mostly Launch. Check it out: I have a link on this page :) It's not completely heavy rock, but a lot of it is.

Anyways, I signoff with the Sabbath song (I just wanna put it here):

You've seen life through distorted eyes
You know you had to learn
The execution of your mind
You really had to turn
The race is run the book is read
The end begins to show
The truth is out, the lies are old
But you don't want to know

Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies

The people who have crippled you
You want to see them burn
The gates of life have closed on you
And now there's just no return
You're wishing that the hands of doom
Could take your mind away
And you don't care if you don't see again
The light of day

Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies

Where can you run to
What more can you do
No more tomorrow
Life is killing you
Dreams turn to nightmares
Heaven turns to hell
Burned out confusion
Nothing more to tell

Everything around you
What's it coming to
God knows as your dog knows
Bog blast all of you
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you

Anime...

2004-03-10T11:09:00.000-05:00

... are awesome. These are the Japanese animations with English subtitles. I had seen "Ranma" in IITM and really liked it. Have got a chance to watch other stuff here, and am currently watching "GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka" on winamp. These anime are usually based on martial arts stuff and have a lot of humour in them (though GTO doesn't have lotsa martial arts stuff). Why do I like them? Because they have real nice comedy and the story is pretty interesting. Each anime has more than 30 episodes and they all follow a story. So all episodes are inter-related. The western cartoons are based upon characters rather than the story of the cartoon. That's why each episode starts with a story or theme and ends on the same day. The next episode is completely different. But anime follows a flow, and u CANNOT even imagine wat will happen in the next episode (though it follows a story), which is the awesome thing abt it. The direction of these anime is different too (most anime have similar direction) and is far better than other cartoons.

These anime cud have been made into soaps, but thank God they haven't. It's impossible for the actors to show emotions that u can produce in animations. And oh yeah, the music of anime is good too :)

So much for this. But I'm really sad that I didn't receive any emails in the past 2 days, except from by work-mates asking me to help them out in some areas. No recent blogs by Pills too :( I am wondering if it's my spring break or theirs....

HOLI

2004-03-08T22:46:00.000-05:00

Holi was so HORRIBLE this year. It could have been a lot lot better.

We guys who had gone to Daytona had planned to reach Orlando by 8pm on Saturday night and goto the temple to see the Holi celebrations. But that never happened. We reached here at 9pm because some guys wanted some rest before they reached here. Then everyone had to take bath and get ready, so the idea of going to the temple was completely packed. But we decided to play Holi on Sunday morning in the temple. But all suckers woke up at noon and the celebrations were over by then. I was only able to put some colors on a couple of my friends. I was totally pissed at the end of the day.

Basically, none of the guys here had any enthu to play holi. I cannot understand why people dont like Holi, especially guys like Pande and Kamal who have been in IIT!

I had gone home during the first holi and played an okay-types holi there. But when I came back to the hostel, I cud see all walls covered with colors and I got to know that guys there had the best holi of their lives. I felt I had made a BIG mistake by going home. And the next holi proved it true!

Holi in IIT was all about unrecognizable half-naked poeple running around the campus tearing other guys' T-shirts. We had a custom that every guy has to wear a torn T-shirt around his waist. So the guys have to enter the quadrangle wearing a t-shirt and evryone comes over to tear off the T-shirt. We then swing that guy in a swamp of holi water, and it feels awesome, until u r turned head-down and swung in the water :D We had small ponds in each hostel where we drowned and splashed others. It was really great playing in the ponds.

I had gone to the beach once and it was a really memorable trip. All of us half-naked-colored guys were sitting in the bus, and when we came out of the campus the day seemed a normal one to all outsiders: People were going to offices, children to school and iitans to the beach. There was no holi going on in the city. I cannot forget the looks of people's faces when they saw us going in the bus! They were dumbstuck, scared, furious and everything else that u can think of. We cudn't help but make faces on them. We had already had a lot of fun by the time we reached the beach. Holi went on for an hour on the beach till the police came over and forced us out of the beach (I guess they had never heard of holi in their life!). We reached back home all happy and then had the special grub: same old payasam, banana chips, puri, chole and kheer.

Wow! Those were some great holi days in life. Wish my next holi will at least be slightly better than the present one.

Spring Break

2004-03-07T00:26:00.000-05:00

Spring break is a fun time here, especially in Florida, Lousiana and Texas. We have a one-week complete holiday where all students head-on to the beaches to party. And the parties go WIIIIIIIIIIILDDD! Girls are known to flash when they get beads from guys :) and so all guys carry along heaps of beads. There r number of events like the wet t-shirt contest and girl-on-girl kiss contest, where guys can FREEEEEAAAK OUT! And there other stuff... but need I say more?

I was expecting to see all this when I went to Daytona Beach (ranked 6 for Spring break destinations in US). After boozing for one full nite, we (10 friends+me) went to the beach at noon only to find that it was completely empty :( It was the first day of spring break and there wasn't much crowd. Found out that the party begins usually on the second or third day of the break. Since we were going to stay there just for a day, we enjoyed the maximum extent possible: played volley and frisby on beach and did some gen timepass. The water was sooooooo damn cold that I hardly played on the waves.

Not many babes were presenton the beach, but enjoyed watching the few of them walking around in awesome bikinis ;) Wonder wat it wud b like when there'll b a whole bunch of them running around :D

But the interesting thing in Daytona was the bike-fest that was going on. There was a plethora of bikes there. I havent even seen so many of them back in India. They were mostly Harleys, Yamahas and BMWs, all AWESOME! But the riders were old geezers, and that's why the crowd eveywhere was of old people. Some baaaaaaabes were riding on bikes, and it was a real pleasure to see them ;) And one of the best gals I saw in Daytona was when I was buying a bike-fest t-shirt in a shop. (I guess the gal was also a bike-driver.)

The trip was fun overall, but wasn't the spring-break kinda fun. Hope I goto Daytona again next weekend (when the party will *really* start) with Bharat and Jai and have loads of the spring-break fun!

2004-03-05T16:07:00.000-05:00

Have changed my blog to this site. But I used to like Livejounral. It had cool theme and backgrounds. But Pills cudn't leave comments on my blog without registering, so i had to change my blog. Thanks Pills for visiting my blog. And u too, thanks for looking at my blog :)

2004-03-02T15:41:00.000-05:00

WORKSHOPS

Oh GOD! Do I have to go today? Is it time already? Why the hell are there labs? 3 hrs of each day of my life being wasted! How many lab sessions can I bunk? Torture time already???????????? - These were the questions that went on in my mind, rather neone's mind, before attending any lab or workshop.

I didnt have any workshop in the first semester. I had it in the winterbreak instead, and it was torture! We had 6 hrs of workshop everyday and then nothing to do at all! I was better off than most of the others because I doing a peaceful set of workshops in winter: carpentary, welding, neumatics, and turning. Others did the roddest workshop in winter, and the others did the same set of workshops in summer (urgh!).

I was bad in almost everything. But wasn't too bad, the worst of the worst of the worst of... (the abysmal worst) being blinky. He was with Rachna in the turning workshop. He took the first peice and screwed it up completely (he watched a lot of pondy!). The instructor gave another peice to the pair, and from then on Rachna took over. Blinks used to stand and stare at Rachna working in the workshop. Nothing more laughable than seeing them work!!!

Second sem brought the most horrifying workshop of all: filing. Guptan was the torturous instructor. He wud crib at each and every peice of work. He wanted everything to be perfect. Satyam was the only bugger who was able to satisfy him. I was the worst, and so was pondy-dada (except for blinks, of couse :P). I remember both of us looking at each others peices and thinking who wud Guptan taunt more :)))) We were both filing our peices even after the final test was over, and then Guptan's assistant filed the peices for us.... oh yeah, in the test!!!!!!!!

There were rumours of the workshop being cancelled... the future generations will miss so much of pain, and :Phun ;)

2004-02-29T15:39:00.000-05:00

AFTEEEEEES

Writing lab reports in the last minute while fighting to stay away from sleep characterized a typical weekday afti in IIT. The afti grub always made me somnolent. After climbing up 2 floors, I entered the 6thwing and it was time to fart sitting on the wing cot. I used to open up the paper and keep reading junk news, and waiting for some jobless bugger to stopby to fart for some time. There was always company, and it was fun farting sitting on the cot. Ooooooooooh, I miss it soooooooooo much. Sometimes the wind used to be so good in the wing that I never wanted to get up from the wing cot. I even got so lazy sometimes that I slept there.I had to force myself out of the cot and get back to work :(

My goddamn labmates never wrote lab reports. My team was: 1. Pondy: he was the only guy who used to help me in writing the reports. We formed a great team, and thats why he's my best friend. But he used to pain me saying "saala Nawathe ek credit ke course mein 4 credit ka fight maarta hai." 2. Jack: He was always so busy with gals that he never cared for lab reports. Even during the labs, he always used to speak abt gals and not a thing abt the work. Once I gave him the job of writing the report, but he came to my room in the last minute complaining that he wasn't able to write the report, and I had to write more than half of the report, uggghhh! 3. Prakash: He cared nothing abt the lab. He never knew how to write a report, and he came back to me whenever he had to write the report. 4. Rachna: She used to write the report sometimes, once in 5 weeks, as they were 5 ppl in a grp. But I used to write the report at least 3 in a week. 5. Blinky: Whoever cud ask him to write the report?

Weekend aftis were always spent in sleeping or readin the paper joblessly on the wing cot or farting with someone like narsi or virus in their rooms or watching movies in Narsi's room. I guess I used to work on sunday aftis, but i dont remember them.

Aftis r not worth remembering here: not so much of laziness or sleep (if I'm not at home). I'm either working or attending classes on aftis. No lab work, no other shit. Weekend aftis r dull: either watching movies or sleeping.

I dont wanna spend this afti in sleep. So I'm going to school to work on some stuff....

2004-02-28T15:35:00.000-05:00

LUNCH

Lunchtime at IIT reminds me of coming to the hostel in scorching heat and then eating hot rajma with rice: the worst thing possible. I used to be already so pissed off with the heat, and eating hot stuff that tasted so bad made lunch a horrible thing. I used to have chapathis sometimes, and they were so bad! They had a completely different taste: no-one can make chapathis like the mess workers. The sambar too was wierd, but okay at times. I never knew how rasam tasted before IIT. After staying for 5 years in tam-land, I still dont know how rasam tastes. The mess rasam used to be some kinda masala water. And the messers (short for mess workers) used to mix sambar and rasam when the quantities were less: imagine the taste of 2 worst liquids u cud ever taste (okay, Dr. Pepper is the worst liquid I've ever tasted..) mixed together!!!!

Mess also reminds of the curd: only our messers cud give such a taste to it. But I still wonder how Narsi, who never used to have curd at home, developed a taste for it! But the good thing abt curd was that it wud cool me down after such a hot and horrible lunch. Sometimes it wudnt b enuf, and I had to get badam milk (yummy!) or cooldies. Cooldie's were kinda leisure drinks back then, but they r such common here. My day cant pass unless I have some coke or juice. Water? Not much!

Some of the most jobless times in my life were when I stood in long queues in mess on saturday afternoons waiting for pooris. Either my mind was blank, or was thinking "When will the freaking pooris come?" or just farting with some farters. The day was reserved for relaxing, and there was not much to look forward to, except going back to sleep after lunch and the OAT movie at night (ooooooh yeah!). I continue the same habit here: I had a lazy lunch now, there's nothing going on in my mind, except "When am I going to take my nap?". Nothing to look forward to today.... another saturday wasted!

Lunch is okay here. Used to have lunch in the school canteen on weekdays. The food was mostly pizza or burger with coke, and I had to spend 5 bucks daily on the grub! The good thing abt grubbing in the canteen was bird-watching: there were so many babes there, and it was pure pleasure looking at them sitting in a canteen. I used to go with my friends and sit there even after finishing my lunch so that I cud have a good look of the babes there! I soon got tired of the grub, and spending daily (but not the bird watching). Finally decided on packing canteen, and now I eat grub at home daily. Thanks to my laptop, I dont have to rush back to school for work after lunch!

Weekend lunch is painful. I make the saturday lunch, and waste a lot of time prepapring it. Home lunch is totally normal: rice with dal or curry while watching tv (mostly jerry springer), but will be glad if I cud discover a new dish that tastes good and gets ready fast... will make it on all aftis, and will also recommend it to the messers :P

thats enuf for lunch... i'm full.. gotta get a nap....

2004-02-27T15:31:00.000-05:00

CLASSES

The only time when I used to reach classes on time in IIT was in my first year. After that no matter how hard I tried I was never able to reach classes before time. But I was much better than most of the class. Guys like Mousie and Subzero used to reach the class 20mins after the start of the class. The only prof who tried to discard this habit was Dr. Rajaraman. He used to close the class doors 5mins after the start of the class. But this did not help in getting us to his class in time, and he finally packed closing the door within 2 weeks!

The lectures used to be okay types - if profs were good, they were really REALLY good, otherwise worrrsht only! Ksri was one such fart. If he wud write notes on wat he covers in classes, he wud write a book thicker than the Lord of the Rings!!!!! But the same thing wud be covered in 3 pages in the text book :D Imagine the amount of fart he put. I used to take novels in his class and read them sitting on the second bench. I never cared that he wud catch me reading novels, and I guess he never cared that I was reading novels in class. KAN was another memorable prof. Nobody used to understand wat he mumbled. U shud hear how Subby Reddy speaks. Unfortunately, his hischool teacher never taught him punctuation marks, and he misses them even when he's speaking. Imagine wat it wud b like (read this para ignoring the punctuation and u wud understand)!!!

But some studdd profs were in structural engineering. They had full fundaes + cud teach very well.

Its different here. Since I am a grad student now, I have to take up coursework only in my field, and there r only 3 profs in the field: all 3 FART!!! at least my advisor is okay, but others r pathetic! They just read out slides and presentation files from the notes. Its as if they just wanna get over with the class. I think it's true to a large extent that profs r not really interested in taking up classes. They just wanna do research and make money. So they force themselves to take classes. Poor us!

Wat more can I tell abt classes here? they r boring anywhere, as is today's blog :P will try to make the next blog more fun

2004-02-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

MORNINGS

This is the first message abt the contrast of my IIT and US life... and I wanna start off with how my mornings are different from the IITan mornings...

I used to wake up pretty early in my first 3 years at IIT. An old rusty alarm beeped at 6:30, and i used to wake up only to readjust the alarm time to 7. After waking up, used to start brusing and walking over the corridor. The fun part was waking up others. Everyone had these slips on their doors with "7am please" written on them. Some guys used to wake up with one bang. But guys like Viagra needed a lot of banging (on their doors) before they wud wake up. 2-3 guys used to team up to bang his door, and the look on his face was worth remembering: whether to shout on me or to thank me for waking him :P

Then came breakfast: breakfast was decent back then... better than lunch and dinner. The idlis used to be rock hard and dosas were like rubber plates. Best breakfast was Rava dosa on saturdays. I (and many others) used to wake up at 8 on Saturdays just for the dosa!!!!! The chutney was awesome. But the dosa lost its value when the new mess staff came up and made really awful chutney. Sunday dosa used to be good too, used to put me to sleep immedeatly.

It had become a habit to read mags on saturday mornings. Used to read young world and a couple of mags for an hour, and used to feel soooooooo sleeeeeeeeepy that i HAD TO go back to my room!

These were such simple things, but gosh, I just wanna relive them. Forcibly getting up early, and then waiting in the queue for taking bath, rushing for breakfast (and most of the times skipping it) and running for classes: these r some moments that I can NEVER forget.

Situtaion here is pretty different. I wake up between 9 and 11 on weekdays, depending on my classes. I never wanna wake up in the mornings, coz my room doesnt get sunlight, and my bed is very VERY cozy. Noone cud denie sleep in such a place. The alarm clock is electronic, which plays some songs on the radio when I wanna wake up. I am cotinuing the IITan habit of adjusting the waking time when the alarm rings (wat the hell, its better than waking up and shutting off the alarm). There's a rush to get ready, and I have the same old cereal in the mornings. (Those idlis and dosas used to give at least SOME taste in the mouth, but this shit only fills ur stomach.) Then pack bags and goto school, or start mugging at home. No excitement, nothing to look forward to. The morning ends in a jiffy, and also in a few lines.

Never seen mornings on weekends. So cant comment upon them.

But I like my bed very much. Wish I had the same in IIT. I wud never wake up in time.

And now its time to lie down to sleep on the same bed.... :)

2004-02-25T20:46:00.000-05:00

Last week was a blast! I hadnt done much work, but got through very well in the meeting with my prof, because I put asked some fundoo doubts and he was definitely impressed!

I dont goto school anymore for working, only for attending classes. Just remain at home and work on my laptop. Got a cable net connection at home. So life's become so PEACEFUL! This word reminds me of the IIT life where I used it so much. I was thinking of my IIT life while lazing on bed last week, and decided that I wud write abt the contrast between my IIT life and the present life in US. I had thought abt this SOOOOOO many times, but was always lazy to write, and yeah, was *busy* :P

But before I start the blog, here r some comments written by some undergrad students in their transportation course papers:

1. I dont know why my brain is not working right now! I know the answer to this problem.

2. I know the answer to the question, but am not getting it. Please have mercy!!!

Is this why profs keep TA's here?

2004-02-25T15:33:00.000-05:00

Had a great day yesterday: changed my SSN in the bank (which I was supposed to do long time back), sent check to Duddu and Raja got his Suntrust password. Suntrust sucks so BAD! It gave the online account password to Raja only after a month!

I also eliminated the noise generated by my wireless card, and now I'm able to browse coolly. Played cricket at the end of the day, had some home made halwa and dosa :)

But the day was also a disaster in some ways: I met Dr Aty at 1pm when I was supposed to meet him at noon :D!! Wasnt able to play quake with mallu because of some problem with the freaking wireless router :(((((

neways, the day was pretty cool overall.