U2 Lounge

I'm off for a month

2004-08-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Due to greater demand of my skills in the real world, I am taking a sabbatical from blogosphere....Hope to c myself here soon ;)

Good Bye...Master

2004-07-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hey..This is me..U2, the blog...

Tell ya what happened between me and my
master yesterday :( ...

At some unearthly hour:

U2:Hiya...master...howdy??

M:U2 I am leaving Delhi...hope u wont mind and will manage the stuff when I'm not around....

U2:Sure master...but where r u going??

M:I am going to Bombay!!

U2: What!! Master u r going for some Bomb Babe :( i thought u were a lot saner than this..

M:AWWWWW....U2 U2..Shutup!! and mind ur own business...

U2:But master i just asked where r u going??

M: Ohk..Last timee...listen now..I'm going to Mumbai....

U2:Master...u've changed a lot!!

M:(angrily) And, Why is that??

U2:..Now..I know I cant stop u but i tell ya one thing...wasting ur life for bais and babes is not good at all....

M:Ohhhh..u dumb-witted moron...just understand that I'm moving out of Delhi and will make my next post from Bom..er..i mean another place...now get the hell out of here n lemme pack my bags...byeeeeeeeeeeee

U2:ya master...ur order is my command...ciao n Good Luck!!

So this is it guys..I will surely b missing my master n hope he stays on the right path.....but u all keep hanging around till my master is back 2 business...Till then...me signing off!!

--U2

Crisis of '20 somethings'....

2004-07-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

I recently turned 25, marking the silver jubilee of my life.And I could hear this sentence "Hey,you have turned 25...can you believe it?" being echoed all around me...(who was playing this line on and on, I still cant figure out, my inner self may be.. :) Time flows by so quickly...!! I felt It was a moment to reflect upon my past life...a moment of retrospection...there was a string of successful moments, failures, let-downs, happy and sad moments all dotting the 25 year old landscape of my life...Was there anything that I wished to change? Not at all...Infact I was happy with the way Life had turned out be and I still am...may be because I am not someone who broods about the past too much...

But hey, 20 somethings are expected to have something called 'Quarter Life Crisis' that seems to afflict them quite regularly.Do I have the symptoms? Lets check out...

Struck by QLC???

One of the symptoms of Quarter Life Crisis (referred to as QLC hereafter...btw,there is also a rock band in LA by this name!!) is that you start introspecting a lot , and try to know more about yourself, about your strengths and your weaknesses.Rings very true in my case as I do SWOT analysis of myself once in a life...and it really does help in the long run...

Another symptom is the feeling of insecurity about your future like where would I be 5 years down the line? Am I doing the right thing? Is this the best job that I have/deserve? Should I go for higher studies to give a boost to my sagging career? What if I fail? These and a lot more questions confront mostly the people in their 20s...Some go on a job-hopping spree when confronted with this or most often follow the herd instinct and end up with something they never desired...and some go into their shell and experience bouts of depression...and there are others who dont lose control over their life and become successful.....Its never wrong to be concerned about your career but constant worrisome attitude can make you a maniac...Just look at the things more positively and rationally and dont break yourself if you fail a few times...

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds know still don’t.

You also start feeling that this a meany-weeny world and most of your friends are selfish and they are not exactly how you had expected them to be.Infact your friends also seem to harbour those feelings and are as confused as you are...this happened to me sometime back...this happens when your expectations are dashed...so it always helps to be a little realistic about what you have to offer and what you need to expect from others...

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

You also seem to miss your college days and the camaraderie that you shared with your peers.And to your shocking disbelief,its something totally different out there in the corporate world...its the end of all innocence....fortunately i never had to go through this as some of my peers joined the same company and infact some even landed up in the same department...though one would be better off opening himself up to the outside world...communication and networking is the key...when one has to do business with strangers on a regular basis...

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

You also tend to become overly critical of yourself...feel alone,scared and confused and try to cling to your past very dearly...You start comparing yourself with others and tend to move between various extremes...you laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life...You get your heart broken and cannot digest that how can somebody so easily ditch you like that....or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough to get to know better...You love someone but maybe love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you are not a bad person...One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision....yeah..how true? :)

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

So what are those people supposed to do who suffer from QLC? Nothing at all...hang on with ur life and dont worry much about it...its simply a phase in the constant evolution that a human being undergoes...so just Enjoi...

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

The past cannot be changed, the future is still in your power. - Hugh White (1773-1840)

p.s. - The italicised text is taken from the 'Sunscreen' song by Baz Luhrmann.

What others say about me??

2004-07-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

Infact this is what some timepass online quizzes tell about me n myself....
Some r dead accurate,some too harsh and some i'm totally clueless about....
Have a look !!
CAVEAT: Take the quizzes at ur own risk....some qs. r really weird!!
A nice TP,nevertheless!!

You belong somewhere out in the world, exploring
and learning and spreading the knowledge that
you find. When you love, that love will join
you in your quest and believe as you do in a
world of spiritual energy that is stronger than
anything humanity could normally even conceive,
although you may be able to. Council those you
encounter, give them your wisdom, and stay true
to yourself.

Where do you belong?(ANIME IMAGES)
brought to you by Quizilla

You are Proverbs.

Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

You're addicted to.....

Nothing!
Your addicted to nothing at all? Well..... ok I
guess thats a good thing but come on just think
of the possibilities!

What are you addicted to? (pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla

cuddle and a kiss on the forehead - you like to be
close to your special someone and feel warm,
comfortable, and needed

What Sign of Affection Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

What Finding Nemo Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Mermaid:
Mermaids, similar to Centaurs, have a torso of a
human and the body of a fish. You are curious
yet reserved in your actions. You like to have
fun but never at the expense of others and you
never roughouse. You love water and the
creature in it and feel it is your job to make
sure they stay safe.

What Mythological Creature Are You (Many Results and Beautiful Pics)
brought to you by Quizilla

Pirates of the Caribbean!

What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Morpheus

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.

How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

Take the World of Darkness Quiz
by David J Rust

A formidable creature half lion and half eagle, the griffin is said to be one thousand times stronger than any lion and five thousand times as farsighted as an eagle. Humans find themselves unable to lie while in a Griffin's presence. The griffin is also said to be fierce and untamed. It was a protector against evil and people often wore talismans of a griffin's claw to protect them from demons. Griffins were often used as transport for the gods. They were also reputed to swoop down from the mountains on occasion and pick up goats and small horses and bring them back to their nests for their young.

What mythical beast best represents you?Take the quiz!

Take the What High School
Stereotype Are You? quiz.

You are Socialist

What: Socialism

Where: At the distant bottom-left of the politcal spectrum

How: Comparable to communism, socialism is an economically authoritarian political standpoint. Often, people are guaranteed jobs and given them, while workplaces are being closely regulated. Forms of it are currently instituted in many modern countries, and it is know to support the working class, but also implode economies.

What political extremity are you?

I am the number
2
I am friendly
_

what number are you?

this quiz by orsa

You are Trinity, from "The Matrix."
Strong, beautiful- you epitomize the ultimate
heroine.

What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Time Travel - closer to reality or fiction?

2004-07-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

During my first semster in college,I had a special course on Relativistic Mechanics.The professor(we called him MM) who taught me this subject looked straight out of a sci-fi novel.He was short and plump,sported a reddish orange beard, wore heavy rimmed glasses and had a shiny balding head.He had a knack of asking out-of-the-world questions but his questions were never meant to be answered and if you thought you were a smart dude and tried to answer him, you ended up looking like a numb nut.And in one of these lectures he introduced us to the concept of Time Dilation, length contraction and Time Travel.

More than Albert Einstein's relativity equations (the best theory about time and space), the application of these concepts caught my fancy (Plzz..dont end up believing that i finally published some revolutionary time travel theory and got a Noble prize for it).Consider the fact that we humans are always travelling in time but in a linear fashion until we meet our death.But the Time travel phenomenon can possibly allow us to rewind/forward the video of our Life video to any moment anytime.

During those days, Discovery Channel also aired a program a programme showing the theories and experiments revolving around 'Time Travel'.
There is one school of though that believes that 'Time Travel' is not possible and they have many theories including the one called 'GrandFather's Paradox', to boot their claims.

How will it feel like travelling in Time ?

The grandfather paradox is a paradox of time travel, supposedly imagined by the SF writer René Barjavel in his book "Future times three" in 1943. Suppose you travelled back in time and killed your biological grandfather before he met your grandmother. Then you would never have been conceived, so you could not have travelled back in time after all. Now did you travel back or not?

But what if a time travel doesn't change the past, but perfects it. For example: A person travels back to the past, at least 1 year before his birth. He meets his mother, young and very attractive, falls in love, marries her and they get children. Years after that his son disappears, travels back in time to meet his mother,... Here the past perfects the present. At the birth of time traveller's son, we've got 2 identical persons, genetically and identical in mind. They only differ in age.

Contrary to the Granfather paradox,one of the noted physicists Richard Feynman proposed a multiple history idea.This idea implies that there are multiple histories. For each decision that is ever made, (i.e. should I wear a white shirt or a black shirt today) there is another universe in which the decision is made differently. It is possible that in another universe, you wear a white shirt every single day of your life. This idea, however, is very difficult to prove. By definition, it would be impossible for us to go to these other universes and see for ourselves.

Feynman histories concept is built on the idea of really small particles here, not spaceships or even people.As Stephen Hawkings pointed out,"quantum theory allows time travel on a microscopic scale". We cannot talk to hydrogen atoms and ask them if they travel in closed loop histories, but we can observe that there is a shift in the light given off by hydrogen atoms, which indicates that their electrons are moving in closed loops. Maybe, time travel takes place in front of us everyday according to Feynman histories, yet it happens on such a small scale that we don't even notice it. :?
So,you simply go to the past, kill your grandfather.This automatically creates a new history. (in a new universe/worldline).You would still be in existence in the original history, and also in the new one.

Another theory regarding Time Travel is that of 'Parallel Universes' or multiverse.The paradoxes would disappear if we accept this theory. When Time Traveller returns in time an exact copy of the world of his grandfather is created on the moment he arrives. The place where he arrives is not his past and the grandpa he's trying to kill is not his grandfather, but it's the fake world (duplicate world) and the duplicate grandfather. When he kills that man, he doesn't kill his grandfather, so the paradox is gone. The Time Traveller can mess around as much as he likes, nothing will change the 'real' past or present.

This multiverse concept was also put to use by a famous SF writer Michael Crichton(of Sphere,Jurassic Park and Lost World Fame) in his novel Timeline (now being made into a movie).Its a beautifully written book where he explores the possible ramifications of Time travel and the interaction of various characters with the people and technology in the medieval France during 100 years war.

It was ,however,H.G. Wells was the first author to write about Time Travel(even before Einstein!!) and Time machines in his novel 'The Time Machine'(also made into 2 movies with the same name) in 1895!

The protagonist of his novel builds a time machine capable of moving back and forth in the 'fourth dimension' called Time. He travels far into the future where he experiences that the world has changed a lot but the class distinctions still persist.After this he ventures into a more distant place in the future to find that Earth is almost about to perish.Another attempt to time travel causes him to disappear into the portals of time forever.!!

You can find the complete novel here : 'The Time Machine'

Another well known movie that explores the time travel concept was 'Terminator'.

In the future a great war has devastated the earth. Robots, controlled by a central computer, Skynet, have taken over; But human insurgents are about to overthrow the tyrannical machine. In a desperate attempt to save itself, Skynet sends one of its robots, a Terminator, into the past to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the rebel leader before he can be born. One lone rebel soldier, Kyle Reese, follows the Terminator into the past to try to stop it. By sending the Terminator into the past, Skynet has sealed its own fate, as Kyle Reese meets up with Sarah Connor and together they conceive their child John Connor, who will grow up to be the rebel leader who destroys Skynet.This satisfies the theory,that 'Anything that can happen,will happen.'

An application of the Time Travel concept in computational science is Time loop logic.
It is a system of computation that requires the computer to be able to send data backwards through time, and relies upon the Novikov self-consistency principle to force the result of a computation sent backwards through time to be correct. This approach can overcome many limitations on traditional algorithmic complexity.

A program exploiting time loop logic can be quite simple in outline. For example, to find a factor for a large number:

1.wait for the result to be transmitted from the future. (This statement amuses me like hell...If put into practice,this will be a boon for students like me!!)
2.upon receiving the result, test whether it is a factor by dividing the input number by it.
if the received result is indeed a correct factor of the number, send the result back in time.
else if the received result is not a correct factor of the number (or no result is received at all within the desired timeframe), generate a number different from the received result and send it back in time. Note that this results in a paradox, since the result sent back is not the same as the one that was received.
Since the Novikov principle states that it is impossible for any sequence of events to result in a paradox, the second clause of the conditional statement can never happen and the result sent from the future is guaranteed to be the correct one!!

Of course, time loop logic is a purely theoretical exercise at this point. It is not known whether time travel is possible, or if it is whether Novikov's principle really applies to it.

Another aspect of Time Travel is concerned with anachronism (something that appears out of place because it is thought to be inappropriate or impossible for that time period).For example,
-The Great Pyramid and the Great Sphinx of Giza demonstrate impressive engineering capability, even by modern standards. Some have speculated that they may have been built by aliens, or that their construction required technology from a future civilisation. It may simply be that the masonry skills of the Ancient Egyptians were more advanced than historically thought.

-Leonardo da Vinci was certainly a man ahead of his time; his sketches and writings include a precursor to the modern helicopter, centuries before the invention of comparable flying machines. Leonardo's helicopter could not fly, however.

-The Baghdad Battery is an artifact from between 250 BC and 250 AD, discovered near Baghdad, with a structure similar to that of a modern battery. It also appears that similar batteries can be located around ancient Egypt, where objects with traces of precious metal electroplating have been discovered at different locations.

A recent pointer to one such anachronism is Tom Clancy's novel 'Debt of Honor' in which he almost predicted 9/11 disaster...

"... it had never occurred to anyone to have fighter aircraft aloft over the capital ...... Sato brought his aircraft around ... the 747 banked left, clearly under precise control ... Sato had been to Washington often ... including the Capitol Building ... he adjusted his flight path so that he was now roaring right up Pennsylvania Avenue ... His last voluntary act was to select the point of impact, two thirds of the way up the stone steps ... Nearly three hundred tons of aircraft and fuel struck the east face of the building at a speed of three hundred knots. The aircraft disintegrated on impact. ... Next came the building itself. ... one hundred tons of jet fuel erupted from the shredded fuel tanks, vaporizing ... A Second later it ignited from some spark or other, and an immense fireball engulfed everything inside and outside of the building. ...".

A promotional quote for Debt of Honor from Entertainment Weekly:
"A shocker climax so plausible you'll wonder why it hasn't yet happened." :-O

Some people argue that these examples and others show that there have been careless time travellers and show that "temporal secret agents" have been here on containment and damage limitation missions. These are said to be the smoking guns of the ultimate conspiracy theory.
To top it all, 'The ancient astronaut' theory or paleocontact says that human beings are either the descendants of aliens who landed on Earth millennia ago, or that much of our culture was given to us by extraterrestrial visitors in the time of pre-history.
Mindboggling..huh!!

Stephen Hawking once said: "If time travelling will be possible, why haven't we seen a lot of tourists from the future yet?"
Infact Earth was visited by a Time Traveller in the year 2000:
Read on...

Although there is debate over the exact date it started, on November 02, 2000, a person calling themselves Timetravel_0, and later John Titor, started posting on a public forum that he was a time traveler from the year 2036.

One of the first things Titor did was post pictures of his time machine and its operations manual. As the weeks went by, more and more people began questioning him about why he was here, the physics of time travel and his thoughts about our time.He posted on many forums including the old Art Bell site. In his posts John Titor entertained, angered, frightened and even belittled those who engaged him in conversation.

On March 24, 2001, John Titor told the people that he would be leaving our time and returning to 2036. After that, he was never heard from again.Even today, the speculations and investigations surrounding John Titor's claim abound.So till date,nobody knows who John Titor was,why he was online all this time and whether all his claims were a part of a big hoax

Read the complete story on John Titor's Website.Fascinating read indeed!!

Apparently Amazon is now selling a book called John Titor: A Time Traveler's Tale which is reportedly being sold by John Titor's mother.

By George...isn't he simply amazing!!

2004-07-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

There was a news story in TOI yesterday about George Fernandes being strip searched in US during his visit to the country as a Defence Minister.This was one minister in NDA govt. with a high profile ministry of defence, who had no clue about his work and now this incident amazes me till no end.First this so called terror act gets reported through former deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott's book (Engaging India) and whats even more surprising that George didnt raise his voice when such an incident actually happened.He could have vehemently opposed such an atrocious act.But no he had to act saintly,i wonder Y? (a diplomatic stance some might say but no its just being obsequious to US and its ways).Another example of meekness shown by Indian representatives towards the mighty UasS.And to top it all,when he was questioned by journalists today about this incident,he vowed that he will never ever visit US in his lifetime.Are people supposed to sing paens for his renunciation act? People in US govt. wont care a damn to whatever he says now and his antics didnt carry weight even when NDA was in power.This is the same man who almost broke down to tears on Karan Thapar's show bcoz the man in the opposite seat seemed much too well informed than him about the country's defence scenario.Is it too difficult to voice your concerns or uphold your dignity when you hold such high profile offices,i wonder? WHy cant such people just leave Indian politics and sit in their homes and watch TV?
From the US point of view, they have every right to frisk anybody on their shores but hell he was an Indian Defence Minister,what was the need to do so? India isnt a rogue nation like Pakistan or Korea...is it?? May be bcoz US has never been a victim of terrorists all these years and 9/11 made them go bonkers over everything and anthing...but India should now stop taking any more bushit from the US....

A lovely weekend!!

2004-07-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday,I was lazing on my bed reading Sunday TOI when my nephews called me up.They were feeling bored (i guess this is the first reality that strikes you as you grow up :) as my jiju was away.The simplest thing I could do was to take them to some movie and McD but atleast me and my nephews agree on one point - we wont watch any bullshit hindi flick.And with theatres brimming with such horrible stuff,we finally settled to go for a drive and plan our outing on the way.Finally after dumping all my suggestions to the waste basket,they asked me to take them to a water park.
I reluctantly agreed (c'mon they r just 4 & 9 :) to their demands...but I really had a swell time swimming,sliding and splashing around and helping them swim (though i personally like to swim in my personal pool at home...no, i dont have one but intend to have it in the near future :).Actually the idea of so many people taking a bath together doesnt appeal to me much ;) thats why.Infact,I realised, that the phrase that 'people come in all shapes and sizes' doesn't ring more true anywhere else than a water park!

So while most of the people were butt-shaking to the beats of some raunchy remix number and were getting themselved drenched in one pool(as if this is the first and the last time in the year they were taking a bath),we went to a more peaceful place that had some privacy of its own (no i didnt take my gf along).And that place fortunately had some water slides (my idea of fun in a water park).A funny incident happened over there.There was this guy with his family at the top of the slide and I was standing beside him.He dispatched every member of his family down the slide one by one and when his turn came,he gave me a wry smile.I was raring to go down the adjacent slide and i gave him a thumbs up.But as soon as the supervisor there tried to push him below,he stood up and said ,let this guy go first:?
And later i came to know that the people who went down before him were not his family members...hehe...

So,after having done everything thats possible in a water park (only the things u r supposed to do there :) and spending close to 3 hours, I literally had to pull my nephews out of the water park (Y r kids so adamant?).But all their complaints died down when I treated them to a sumptuous lunch.
Somehow swimming seems to create an extra space in my tummy and I ate more than i usually do and felt like dropping myself to the floor to take a well deserved nap.

Finally we returned home and the evening was spent with choclate fudge and 'Munna BHai MBBS' (I have copied this one in my HDD coz my nephews r addicted to this flick..particulary the songs).
So this Sunday also came to an end just like others but was definitely a bit more eventful...

U2 Lounge gets a facelift...

2004-07-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

So finally my dog..err,i mean blog had its day.It was the time for it to dress up and give up an all too undesirable look.
Though I am still not satisfied with some of the stuff (c the sidebar can still accomodate a lot :).First up, I need to dynamically update the 'Currently Playing' and 'Cool Quote of the Day' without me having to republish the entire blog everytime i change the content under these two heads.And this is possible by taking them out of the template code.Need to figure that out.Some of the forthcoming attractions on U2 Lounge would include a 'Shoutbox' (btw..my earlier experience with this has been scary,ended up spoiling the whole template.The box also seems to slow down the loading of the blog.So need to wait).
The packaging has almost been done,time to focus on the content..

P.S.Suggestions for the improvement of the blog are most welcome...

A day in the life of a bore!!

2004-07-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

Although the time is ripe to write a budget review but I wont do so bcoz who the heck cares to read it anyway ( although i do :). To make matters worse all the dailies,mags n TV channels r puking out overwhelming doses of budgetary crap.Between all this chaos and hoopla surrounding the budget,I set out to tweak and tune my blog yesterday night (you might ask what in hell inspired me to do so?).Simple. I had already exhausted all tried and tested methods of timepass.

For the uninitiated,some of these are :

1.Watching repeats of Tom n Jerry/Friends/House Full on TV and sometimes saas-bahu soaps too on Ma's insistence.
2.Switching TV channels furiously over and over displaying your button pressing prowess.
3.Looking out of the window waiting for the rain gods to appear and cussing the Met. dept.
4.Jogging at 7 in the evening and grinning/winking at each passerby.
5.Burning Cds of your Mp3 collection based on Artists and Genres.
6.Watching the latest flicks first day first show and after the show feel like you have been looted in broad daylight.
7.Chatting with friends on Y! and MSN where everybody pretends to be busy like hell or is boasting of his 'I'm on SMS' status.
8.Leaving offline messages for those who are not online at the moment warning them of dire consequences in case they dont reply.
9.Visiting relatives who have their own life too other than entertaining a nut like you.
10.Making STD calls to friends and realise that your bill has already cross the 'Line of Control'.
11.Crawling into each n every store in the shopping malls when you have already shopped so much thats gonna be enough for next 2 years.
12.Advising people who seem not at all interested in your wisdom and feel great and accomplished.
13.Watching live cricket and soccer and then eagerly wait for the highlights and analysis.
14.Reading two novels simultaneously and worry 'what would I do after I am finished with these?'.
15.Watching Discovery to understand how lions mate or why do ducks quack or why do tachyons behave the way they do.
16.Looking for '101 ways to kill your time' kinda book on the bookstalls.
17.Going on a long drive on a cool breezy evening only to be disturbed in your dreams by mindless drivers honking their horny horns.
18.Tinkering with your mobile and trying to discover every hidden feature.
19.Playing Cricket and badminton with your cousins who are less than half your age.
20.Showing unnecessary enthusiasm to show your culinary skills to mom and dad and end up looking like a stupid.
21.Watching 'Ripley's Believe it or not' and 'Who Dares Wins' on AXN and fantasise about performing better feats than the people on air.
22.Taking hour long baths twice daily,most of the time trying to see which shampoo suits your hair and which soap would be gentle on your skin.
23.Joining a Gym only to realise that you are the leanest and meanest guy around among the bunch of hunks and babes and leave before you become their eyesore.

People who are still not bored to death bcoz of all this gibberish above are truly fantastic people who uphold my faith in 'The Bored Community'.Mail me your idea of boredom and you stand to win a chance to fly to Timbaktoo islands for 7 days and 7 nights all alone.You can also participate in 'Who bores Wins' contest and win exquisite T-shirts and caps with 'I am a BIG Bore' slogan .And yes,do subscribe for the 'The Bored Community' daily newsletter for a peek-a-boo into the lives of thousands of others like you.

Me signing off for now to take a big bore break.....

Here's the kid who tore my mail...

2004-07-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

Now its my turn to hit this creepy crying creature...defnly need to deliver one strong beating to get the matter settled once n for all..

But i wud be damned if i commit such an atrocious act....how can i ever hit such a beautiful creation of God...C'mon Kid..Go ahead..n do whatever u wanna do...
i'm at ur mercy... :)

P.S. For people who seem to be lost on this,just check my previous post.

An e-mail from Paulo Coehlo himself

2004-07-08T03:19:00.000-07:00

I had mailed Paulo Coehlo from his website (i stumbled upon it somehow)because I was really impressed by his work 'Alchemist'.He has got a nice website.What surprised me even more was that i got a reply mail from the great man himself the next day.
Here it goes:-
But..Wait...Some raucous kid seems to have torn it into pieces... :(
(Yeah..beware of these new kids on the block..they can tear away ur e-mails too).Newayz..She is due fr a beating!!In the meantime, do try to read it by joining the 2 pieces..

Sometimes you have to sacrifice some parts for the greater good of the whole!! ;)

Wear Sunscreen n listen to this beautiful speech ...err song!!

2004-07-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

I am listening to 'The Sunscreen Song' by Baz Luhrmann these days.Its peppered with pep talk all around but very effectively though.It has some controversial history behind it too...
And here is how it happened....

Anton Monsted, Josh Abrahams and Baz Luhrmann were working on a remix of Everybody's Free when Ant showed me something he had received from a friend by e-mail; apparently Kurt Vonnegut's graduation speech to students at MIT. On reading it, Vonnegut's simple observations and ideas seemed to provide a profoundly useful guide for getting through life, and we instantly decided to record it. The problem was we only had a day or two to go on the deadline and contacting Vonnegut's agent in time was impossible. The idea seemed unlikely. It was two o'clock in the morning, and this somewhat depressed us, so Anton plugged his computer into the wall and surfed the net to find more information on contacting Vonnegut.

What he found was to surprise us all: newspaper articles on what had become the "Sunscreen Controversy" and what was to prove an amazing moment in the early life of the internet. Anton was immediately printing out news of how the work of a brilliant columnist for the Chicago Tribune had been lifted from her column, and a student as a hoax had connected Vonnegut's name and chain e-mailed it to students all over the world. The words struck a chord with those who read them, and so Vonnegut's "sunscreen speech" was born. It was now four o'clock in the morning and we sat stunned as we read pieces of information.

It seemed to us, whether Vonnegut wrote it or not, the ideas in the piece make such great sense. Back onto the internet again, and we were e-mailing Mary Schmich, the young journalist who wrote it for the Chicago Tribune. Fortunately, Mary had quite a connection to both Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet, so a day later we were in Sydney recording with a local actor the spoken element of what is now "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)." What I think is extraordinary, apart from the inherent values in the ideas, is that we were experiencing ourselves a historical moment in the life of the internet, an example of how massive publishing power is in the hands of anyone with access to a PC.

Excerpts from hollywoodandvine.com

Listen to this beautiful number here
n yes 'Wear Sunscreen' ;-)

Lyrics by Mary Schmich

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99...

Wear Sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time it’s 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...

To the One

2004-07-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

Message from Paulo Coelho(author,Alchemist) to honour Shirin Ebadi at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Oslo, December 11th 2003.This was read out by Michael Douglas during the ceremony.

TO THE ONE

To the one who understood her task and her purpose.
To the one who looked at the road ahead, and understood that it was a difficult journey.

To the one who did not make light of those difficulties,
but, on the contrary, made them manifest and visible.

To the one who makes the lonely feel they are not alone,
who satisfies those who hunger and thirst for justice, who makes the oppressor feel as bad as the oppressed.

To the one who always keeps her door open,
her ears listening, her hands working, her feet walking.

To the one who embodies the verses of another Persian poet,
Hafez, when he says: Not even seven thousand years of joy are worth seven days of sadness.

To the one who is here tonight, may she be one with all of us,
may her example multiply, may she still have difficult days ahead,
so that she can do whatever she needs to do,
so that the next generations will not have to strive
for what has already been accomplished.

And may she walk slowly,
because her peace is the peace of change,
and change, real change, always takes time.

Liar's Poker

2004-07-07T00:42:00.000-07:00

I have read this book a lil while ago and found it amazing.Since I had borrowed this one from my friend,so I though about writing a review sprinkled with excerpts from the book itself,so that I can refer to it anytime.

Since it will take some time before I am able to cover the entire book,I will keep posting about it in installments.
Here goes the first one (the remarks in italics are mine) :-

Liar's Poker describes an era almost two decades old but it still exudes the charm and doesn't lose its relevance in the present day scenario.Michael Lewis,the author, worked in an Wall Street I-bank firm called Salomon Brothers and he describes his rise through the ranks in the company as well as the tumultuous times that Wall Street witnessed in the 80's.
As he himself puts up in the preface "That was somewhere near the center of a modern gold rush.Never before have so many unskilled twenty-four-year-olds made so much money in so little time as we did in this decade in New York and London."

Never Mention Money,p18 - Here Lewis describes the miserable job of an I-bank analyst.There is a parallel between the nature of the job of an Analyst of the 80's and a software engineer in service industry in the 90's and beyond.I cannot validate,however, if the analysts job still reeks of the same smelly and disgusting things.
p23,"Analysts didn't analyze anything.They were slaves to a team of Corporate financiers,the men who did the negotiations and the paper work of new issues of stocks and bonds for America's Corporations.At Salomon Brothers they were lowest of the low.Analysts photocopied,proofread and assembled breathtakingly dull securities documents for 90 and more hrs. a week.If they did this particulary well,analysts were thought well of their bosses."
"This was a dubious honor.Bosses attached beepers to their favorite analysts,making it possible to call them in at all hours.A few of the very best analysts,months into their new jobs,lost their will to live normal lives.They rarely slept and often looked ill;better they became at the jobs,the nearer they appeared to death.One extremely successful analyst(a friend I envied for exalted station in life ) working for Dean Witter in '83 was so strung out that he regularly nipped into a bathroom Stall during midday lulls and slept on the toilet.He worked straight through most nights and on weekends,yet felt guilty for not doing more.By definition an analyst's job lasted only two years.Then he was expected to go to a business school (so they analysts without an MBA degree at that time).Many analysts later admit that their two years between college and business school were the worst of their lives!!
The Analyst was a prisoner of his own narrowly focused ambition.He wanted money.He wanted to be thought successful by others like him."

During his college days,there was a surge in the people going for Economics and Statistics courses as that was their best bet if they wanted to make it to an I-bank (Strangely enough Michael Lewis had majored in Art History.Whew!!)
p24,"Studying Economics was more a ritual sacrifice.I often asked otherwise intelligent members of the prebanking set why they studied economics, and they explained that it was the most practical course of study, even while they spent their time drawing funny little graphs.Economics was practical.It got people jobs.And it did this because it it demonstrated that they were among the most fervent believers in the primacy of economic life."

On why he didn't take up Economics-the fad in the 80's
p25,"I had made a conscious decision not to study economics at Princeton,partly because everyone else was doing it for what sounded to me like the wrong reasons.Dont get me wrong.I knew I'd one day need to earn a living.But it seemed a waste not to seize the unique opportunity to stretch your brain on something that genuinely excited you.It also seemed a waste not to use the rest of the University.So I landed up in one of the least used departments in the Campus.Art History was the opposite of economics;nobody wanted it on his resume.Art History, as an economics major once told me,is for preppy girls from connecticut.The idea that art history might be self improving or that self improvement,as distinct from career building,was a legitimate goal of education was widely regarded as naive and reckless.Some of my classmates were visibly sympathetic towards me,as if I were a cripple or had unwittingly taken a vow of poverty."
"Nevertheless,Wall Street seemed very much like the place to be at the time.The World didn't need another lawyer,I hadn't the ability to become a doctor,and my idea for starting a business making little satchels to hang off the rear ends of dogs to prevent them from crapping on the streets of Manhattan(ad jingle :We stop the plop) never found funding.Probably the real truth of the matter was that I was frightened to miss the express bus on which everyone I knew seemed to have a reserve seat,for fear there would be no other."

How much is too much?

2004-07-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

The modern version of Deewar could have had this as one of its dialogues.
Amitabh : Mere Paas mobile hai,laptop hai,mp3 player hai aur 1 software firm ki naukri hai.Tumhare paas kya hai?
Shashi Kapoor : Mere Paas Google mail id hai,Rediffmail Id hai...!!

One cannot imagine the extent and growth of internet and computer media in last decade or so.Some years back during my college days a 2 GB Hard disk was the best and biggest thing you could have for storage and now you would be the laughing stock if you still hang around with such things.80 GBs are the norm these days and apart from that you have loads of GBs in online space from various email providers.

Where are we heading?

With so much online space and companies such as google coming with the novel idea of retaining all your mails from womb to tomb,are we turning cyberspace into a big online junkyard? Who would anyway be interested in the promotional mail selling a Britney spears Audio CD in 2050? So,in my opinion, it always makes sense to delete the unwanted mails with time for the sake of ease of management of your mailbox and saving in time that occurs because of an uncluttered mailbox.And if you follow the delete regime religiously,you would never require more than 10 MB or at the max 100 MB space(unless you are thinking of sending MPEG files of movies as attachments!).And I am just making up a case for individual users and not the corporate ones (who otherwise never use such free email services).But the irony is that if one email provider comes up with a new feature,the other competitors follow suit without reason and logic(though Yahoo still has some sanity left).Google sneezes and every other mail provider catches cold!!

Pure Ecstasy!!

2004-07-06T01:15:00.000-07:00

Oops I did it again!!Charisteas celebrates Greece's winning goal

Greek Gods dont understand Portuguese...Dumbo!!

Greece has pulled out a miraculous win in Euro'04 and going by the stakes they had when the tournament began (it was 80:1), they have left every football fanatic overwhelmed.
All credit goes to them for the way they played like a well organised and displined team.Though they didnt have the star power to boot but they had the right kind of people with right kind of skills to take on any champion team.Some cynics wrote them off when they were winning match after match, saying that this is their last match but this Greece team proved sceptics wrong.And a lot of credit for this victory goes to their coach Otto Rehhagel (pardon me for the spellings :), a 65 yr. old energetic man who pumped up the team withe the right strategies at the right time and made minnows into masters.

Greece defeats France - Upset # 1

Greece defeats Czech Rebublic - Upset # 2

Final Blow - Greece defeats the home team and take on the Euro Cup 2004

One thing that I witnessed during the final match was that both the countries had their prime ministers in the stadium to cheer for their teams like any normal football fan would do.I am angered at the thought of our pot bellied PMs who try to portray themselves as someone out of the world and never make such public appearances.What could one expect from such octogenarian
PMs who find it difficult to walk ,let alone cheer for their teams.I guess India which comprises of 55% young people today need a young leader to repersent them.

Enough of the Gibberish...Let me hail the heroes and the King of Euro 2k4!!

The Heroes - Charisteas and Dellas

The Wall - Nikopolidis

The Guru of All Seasons - Otto Rehhgael

Euro 2k4 Mania

2004-07-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

"Hellas olé"

Euro fever got to his head!!

What a tremendous tournament this has been! I had the privilege of watching almost every match since I have left my job and still havent joined my b school.Though I am not one of the Soccer freaks but really my fascination for this game has gone up a few notches after the last W'Cup and now this Euro 2004 has added to my zeal for the sport.At the outset of the tournament I had Holland,Spain,England and France as my favourites but all gave in meekly to the underdogs.Didnt somebody say "Every dog has its day ;)".Now I am eagerly awaiting the Portugal and Greece final and it will go down to the wire..no doubt.And Portugal might come out as winners as they are the favourites.Although dont trust my predictions since even I have lost trust in them during this 'Shock and Awe' Cup of 2004.More about it later...
Me becoming a red eyed monster after slogging for hours in front of my ill machine...Now the machine seems OK but me kinda ill...

P.S. This was meant to be published yesterday night but somehow got lost in web chaos.

Sasser's benovelence...

2004-07-04T03:25:00.000-07:00

Seems like the worm has wriggled into its hole though i still cant figure out how.But All's well that ends well.It seems to me that it was some benevolent worm which somehow got to know about my cash crunch and saved me money that would have been required for the format,new OS and other s/w installation.
May its soul rest in peace...err i mean let the worm rest in peace!! :)

Oh Shit...!! The SOB had called for all his cousins for devouring my chubby and chirpy machine.
May all their souls rest in peace... :P

Virus:W32/Forbot.A.worm
Virus:Bck/Dumador.H
Virus:Trj/Qhost.gen
Virus:W32/Plexus.A.worm
Virus:W32/Lovgate.G
Virus:W32/Sdbot.YR.worm
Virus:W32/Donk.A.worm
Virus:W32/Bagle.H.worm
Virus:W32/Plexus.A.worm
Virus:Bck/Dumador.H
Virus:W32/Bagle.AB.worm
Virus:W32/Dumarin.B.worm
Virus:W32/Gaobot.gen.worm
Virus:W32/Bagle.pwdzip
Virus:Trojan Horse

Worm Hole...

2004-07-04T03:17:00.000-07:00

A guy who had a pretty normal life until this incident,was doing his daily chorus on a hot friday afternoon but somehow things started getting weird around him.His machine which had obeyed him since he got it first during his college days and which has since undergone a series of rebirths, remained totally oblivious to his master's voice."Is my machine getting old?" wondered the boy or "Does it need another dose of chips and wires to get back to life?".
While he was trying to demystify the puzzle,a message from cyberspace threw him out of gear.It was written on a small window with a dark red cross - "Your system is infected by Sasser Worm and your machine will be shut down by the Authority".
Almost shattered to death,the boy then realises that had he shielded his machine from cyberspace security threats,this would have never happened.After cussing the OS manufacturer for leaving so many loopholes for cyberattackers in his new Xp system,he embarks on the recovery mission to get his machine out of the wormhole so that he can again go ahead with his daily chorus - blogging.

Bandwidth Blues...

2004-07-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

It is often said that nobody in the Universe can stop a man when he decides to do something from his heart.But it doesn't apply in my case atleast sometimes.I am trying to blog away my blues since last week (not to mention my 2 unsuccesful attempts at blogging last year) but this bandwidth sucks.I switched to a broadband 10 Mbps connection after being totally succked out by painful dial-up speeds but this broadband connection is no good.It seems that as the number of users using the network increases,each user in the network gets a smaller pie of the total constant bandwidth than what he had before.And to add fuel to the fire,my friends in the states keep on telling fairy tales about their internet connection.They download songs in a flash,watch streaming videos and remain online 24 hours.Even my broadband connection used to be good at one time but that is history now and I have to take some drastic measures before my blog is again buried in the portals of history.

Transitions...

2004-06-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Transitions are always painful-though in a sweeter way sometimes.
I still remember the way I felt during the farewell day in my school.It felt as if the Life had come to a standstill(No i had'nt flunked my exams.Infact I was one of the Toppers).The reason for my plight was that all my friends were going their way and the bond which I had shared and cared for in the last significant years of my school life was going to wither away.Each of us was heading to a place that would take care of our destinies for the next part of our life.In a way it felt like a defining moment of my life as well as I had got admission into one of the most coveted engineering colleges of India - DCE.My parents were happy and so were my relatives but I had mixed feelings sadness,fear,anxiety and satisfaction.
I was sad for losing my school buddies (though we did keep in touch for a long time but somehow we lost track of each other afterwards.)Fear and Anxiety had me gripped because I had to venture in unknown territories,make new friends and start everything from scratch,though I had immense satisafaction also because I had reached my goal - to pursue engineering after my schooling.The four years in the college were real fun,most of the growing up took place in the hallowed portals of the college itself.Though as you grow up,you become meaner-thats a time tested principle.However,the next transition was knocking me over.I had to get myself placed in a good organisation and bear the peer pressure and parental pressure all along.Fortunately(or rather unfortunately) I got placed in day 1 company (more about it later) and after a few hiccups most of my friends also made it into one company or the other.We did some partying but still almost one year of my college life was left,so nobody had thought of the separation after placements.But when the time came,it was a rather happy ending to our college life and we were very excited about taking on the corporate circles.And then came the most unpredicatable,dreadful and almost painful part of my life. I was chained for almost 3 yrs. to place and learnt the lessons of life the hard way.Although all this made be bolder and tougher from inside and also made me learn the principles of mortal Kombat and liar's poker.Cut to the current scene -
I am on the verge of making another transition in my life (no i'm not getting married) - i'm getting back to school - a b-school to be precise. And this transition is one of the happiest ever in my life and I hope to make the most out of the two years that lie ahead of me.Am i excited? Yup!!
P.S.Though we keep on advocating people and corporations to embrace change but this is the thing that most people and companies dread doing.Its not easy to get out of your cozy and comfy surrounding and start on an unknown venture but nobody in this world has achieved something substantial without venturing into untested but promising waters.