ಹುಚ್ಚು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಹತ್ತು ಮುಖಗಳು.

Prius

2011-10-29T22:00:00.001-04:00

Disclaimer: Prius is one the best cars out there :D
Idea by @purnateja

I have started a band..

2011-10-10T02:17:00.000-04:00

I call it "Dra Bay".

I designed posters already.

Here is slightly more confusing one.

and I even have "celebrity" endorsements

The only thing left to do is hire a vocalist, guitarist, drummer, keyboard player, bassist and a manager.

Everything else is done.

Edit: Other band names that we considered and did not choose are listed here.

You can pick one and start a band.

"Hall Cut"

"Padpo Sea"

"All All Topy"

"Gob All"

Pirate band - "Duck Aar!"

and so on..

Allah Ke Bande Hasde..

2011-07-30T23:46:00.000-04:00

"♫♪ Oh mere mortal, keep smiling... keep smiling I say.. Keep smiling! ♫♪♪"

"♫ ♪ Whatever happens tomorrow will come I say.. Tomorrow will come... ♫♪"

Flawed Lyrics. Flawed Logic. Q.E.D.

Bloody In-Jokes!

2011-06-11T18:42:00.002-04:00

Morning Glory

2011-03-17T15:23:00.012-04:00

Things I do after waking up.

P.S: The error you see in the legend is intentional.

If you do this in Desi Bazaars, I HATE YOU.

2011-01-31T04:02:00.017-05:00

Dear Desi Junta,

If you do any of the following in Desi Bazaars (Indian Grocery Stores. Especially in the SF Bay Area), I HATE YOU.

1. Breaking every single Okra and throwing the ones you did not like back into the basket.

Please to understand that people behind you are human and do not necessarily share the love you have for your contagious disease.

2. Blocking the already clogged and crowded lanes to discuss random things and going on with it like there is no tomorrow without any concern for people behind you.

Please to note that unlike you, people have more important things to do in life than to wait for you to move

3. Sneaking underneath my arm to reach something that is in front of me instead of waiting for 10 seconds for me to move.

Please to note that doing this is outright creepy and twisted.

We can be friends when you stop doing these.

Yours faithfully,
Devadutta

This is how North Indians see South India..

2010-09-24T04:27:00.010-04:00

..and they think the only language we speak in south India is Tamil.

Which, needless to say, makes us (Bangaloreans) furious.

So, to not to be left behind on the stereotyping bandwagon, We Bangaloreans have our own way of looking at North India.

Even though we have learned Hindi till 10th Standard and know more pure Hindi words than an average Hindi speaker;

Even though we have mugged lessons from Indian geography until we started seeing nightmares with monsters named after Indian states;

Even though we listen to more Hindi music than Kannada music,

This is how we view "North India"

How a Bangalorean sees North India..

P.S: Take this with a grain of salt. A lot more of it, actually. :)

Before you send hate mails and comments, please realize this is just a JOKE. That's what it means when someone tells you to take something "with a grain of salt".

Disclaimer: This post is intended to be a joke, DO NOT take it seriously. KTHXBAI

Happens to every single "social network" I join...

2010-09-17T04:36:00.006-04:00

First it was Orkut, then del.icio.us, then Digg, now Facebook. All networks followed the same pattern to content rot. I hope Twitter , Buzz and Tumblr are immune from this syndrome!

Fruits of technology

2010-09-06T20:52:00.019-04:00

People always know the most awesome time to call me.

And, the most awesome time to cut the call

Some people have a lot to tell me irrespective of where I am, what I am doing.

Some people call me multiple times to check on something absolutely futile and insist that the world will end if I stop carrying my phone.

But, in reality,

Has absolutely no difference with

Which gives me a great idea to solve this problem

But, there are people who I love to talk to on the phone, which makes all this pain worth enduring. So,

All drawings except 1,6 and 8 are completely drawn by Devadutta.

Thanks to xkcd for the boy and girl in the first strip.

If you watch the movie 'Mungaru Male' backwards...

2010-06-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

Some Kannada movies, when played backwards are very entertaining. Here are a few I tried

If you watch 'Mungaru Male' backwards, its a movie about a guy who digs up rabbits from their graves and puts them in front of trains and breaks up a girl's marriage and pisses her off so much that in the end she throws him into a drain.
If you watch 'Shanti Kranti' backwards, its a movie about a guy who builds a school out of junk for another guy who puts kidneys into kids studying there.
If you watch 'A' backwards, its about a love-struck philanthropic guy who saves a girl from a burning building, brings back some sheep to life by jumping to the top of a building and changes the girl from a cut-throat b***h to a sweet innocent girl. He also rescues a Ganesha idol from a tank and saves a guy by taking a bullet out of him and says "90 crores plus 1" and ends the movie by realizing he is god.
If you watch 'Tanikhe' backwards, it still does not make any sense.
Finally, if you watch 'Dweepa' backwards, its about a dam that looses water rapidly and brings an old guy to life which attracts a lot of people to come and stay at the island and worship him and eventually the authorities bring the dam down. There is also a girl in the movie who summons tigers into the house because she is pissed that her husband refers to her as 'just an artist' in god's theater. In the end, she eventually accepts the fact that she indeed is 'just an artist'

Movies, when they go backwards become very philosophically deep :)

P.S: Love the new default designs from Blogger!

When Kannada Koota website saw a Tamil article on the front-page..

2010-04-06T17:04:00.006-04:00

I did this to kknc.org, Kannada Koota Of Northen California's website (I control the site) on April 1st 2010.

I got around 10 emails and phone calls within 15 minutes of posting it, demanding me to pull it down.

*evil laugh*

Pong clock for my living room

2010-03-14T01:03:00.005-05:00

Advantages of hacking together a digital picture frame on your own?

Get a cool pong clock like this to cycle along with pictures!

Another look

*Inspired by the original Pong clock http://mocoloco.com/archives/001766.php

Sparkling white new shirt

2010-03-05T23:32:00.001-05:00

Wednesday Morning

2010-02-24T17:55:00.002-05:00

4 stars

2010-02-11T05:50:00.000-05:00

Yes, 4 years. Yes, its still awesome.

24 Hour Flights

2010-01-23T00:23:00.002-05:00

Group Song

2009-12-14T23:12:00.003-05:00

Lots of practice went into this just to get the tone and timing right (for the guys. Not the girls). But the end product was awesome! Take a look

Remember how guys made lot of noise in class during school whilst girls sat quietly and took down notes? Well, the same thing repeated here during practice, making it awesome fun!

Special thanks to our Teacher, Madam Sandhya Gayatri.

A few years after marriage

2009-11-22T15:08:00.001-05:00

ಅಲ್ವೇ! ಗಂಡಂಗೆ ಪ್ರಾಣ ಬೇಕಾದರು ಕೊಡ್ತಿನಿ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿ, ಈಗ remote ಕೊಡು ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಕೊಡಲ್ಲ ಅಂತ್ಯಲ್ಲ!!??

Translates to: When we got married, you told me that you will die for me.. but now, you are refusing to give me the remote! what is this I say?!

TN Seetharam meets the Mandelbrot Set

2009-11-08T20:47:00.001-05:00

Rage

2009-11-08T07:09:00.003-05:00

I can sing!

2009-09-21T04:44:00.008-04:00

With lot of help from Audacity, of course :)

Sometimes when I listen to a song, I keep thinking how awesome it would have been if I was able to sing that well, or compose that song or write lyrics like that. "Beladingalante minuminuguta.." from the Kannada movie Psyco is one of such songs.

Today, on a caffeine high run, I took that song, ripped off the male vocals(will explain how I did it.. another day) and dubbed my voice on it using Audacity and a little bit of php.

Listen to it here!

(Warning: I cant sing well.. not even close to well. Please use external speakers, it mitigates some artifacts introduced by software DSP :) )

Beladingalante Minu Minuguta by devadutta

Audacity is one awesome piece of software. All hail Audacity!

You know you are growing old when..

2009-08-26T19:13:00.006-04:00

You start using Word over LaTeX to typeset your documents
You start taking the stairs at work saying "its good excercise", which actually is the only excercise you get all day
You start looking straight at the street while driving your car, instead of looking at the birds and colors on the sidewalk. ( You are afraid of increasing insurance premium.. )
You start maintaining spreadsheets for all sorts of arbitrary things like "What do I cook this week" and have columns like "Estimated effort time"
You start analyzing the utility of a hack before doing it.

The picture you see above is that of the "remote birthday bumps" my friends Hema, Srikanth and Abhijit sent me. I had heard of remote girlfriends, remote pets, remote assistants and even remote wife(s), but this is quite ingenious and awesome.

Thanks guys!

For the record, I don't look at the road while driving ;)

p.s: This post should have come up on July 15th, but I did not get this "gift" until recently.

Intense love

2009-07-22T01:55:00.004-04:00

Guess which SSID you will pick when you are in my house..

Chitranna (n) (ಕನ್ನಡ: ಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ)

Combination of boiled rice, an assortment of vegetables, lemons, groundnuts and turmeric.
e.g: ಮಗಾ.. ಇವತ್ತು ಮನೇಲಿ ಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ..
Chaos, utter disorder, destroyed, cataclysmic change
e.g: ಮಗಾ.. ಮನೇಲಿ ಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ ಮಾಡಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಅಡಿಗೆ ಮನೆ ಬೆಂಕಿ ಬಿದ್ದು full ಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ ಆಗೋಯ್ತು ಮಗಾ...
Awesoemness
e.g: ಮಗಾ.. ಇವತ್ತು exam full ಚಿಂದಿ ಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ!

ನೀನು ಹತ್ತೀರ ಇದ್ದಿದ್ದರೆ...

2009-06-01T16:47:00.002-04:00

Needs to be sung in "ನೀನು ಹತ್ತೀರ ಇದ್ದಿದ್ದರೆ" tune from the movie "Anjada GanDu"

ನೀನು ಹತ್ತೀರ ಇದ್ದಿದ್ದರೆ ನನ್ pant ಉದುರುತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ..

ನನ್ನ ಸೊಂಟಕ್ಕೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದರೆ, ನನ್ ಮಾನ ಹೊಗ್ತಿರ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ

ಓಹೋ beltಏ, ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಕಳ್ಧೋಗಿದ್ದಿಯಾ...?

Awesome things!

2009-05-06T01:43:00.006-04:00

Today, I was reading 1000awesomethings.com and was inspired to make my own awesome things list! Here it is

Bengaluru's evening rain and the smell of wet soil
AmboDe and bonda on that rainy evening
Mom's coffee ( if it comes after 2(above (wow.. nested braces. Awesome!) ), it is even more awesome! )
Eating a heavy lunch and sleeping near the window on a bright sunny day (with sunlight falling on the face )
Getting that kite to finally fly after multiple attempts to fix the balangochi (tail)
The first bite of an awesome sambar you prepared all by yourself inspite of being terminally hungry
Getting a buguri(top) to rotate on your hand
When that new beautiful girl in class smiles at you for the first time
Waking up to realize you have a pair of ironed clothes
Sniffing expo markers while writing on the whiteboard
Sniffing new electronics. I love it!
Coming home to see that the UPS package you were expecting has arrived a day before.
Making a list of awesome things which reminds you of multiple awesome things! Recursively awesome!

this list is huge! I will sure try to list out 1000 awesome things in my life too!

AWESOME!

I can dance

2009-04-24T16:51:00.003-04:00

..or so it seems. Take a look at my almost impromptu dance performance at KKNC ugadi celebrations and decide for yourself :)

My dance comes after the first dance. All the salsa-ish steps you see in the dance after mine(Tik.. Tik.. Tik.. Tik..) was choreographed by me.

p.s: If you are wondering, you cannot see the invisible shield which was installed around the audience. It kept off all the projectiles hurled at me :)

The REAL "hitting send too soon" problem

2009-03-31T16:51:00.004-04:00

and oh.. thanks to xkcd for the typing dude..

Turning the table: Science Fairs

2009-03-20T04:49:00.004-04:00

Science Fairs(exhibitions as we called it) were always awesome. I remember taking part in a science exhibition for the first time in 5th standard with a working model demonstrating TV line scanners(the refresh patterns on TV screens. Thanks to my grandfather and mother for helping me make it!) and since then, I have participated in multiple science fairs every year.

Continuing the trend, yesterday I was at a science fair and for the first time, I was not participating. I was judging the event!

We were given out some cool white lab aprons which made us look like scientists!

It was funny to look at kids getting tense when we approached them. Just a few years ago, I was on that side of the table. Funny feeling.

I met some really interesting people in the judging committee and they gave me a deep and thorough insight into judging science fairs.

Many projects were good. The kids had some funny projects too, like one kid proved that plants don't need sunlight to grow. There was another kid who had done a research on which bubblegum flavor lasts longest by making his poor brother chew a variety of gums in close succession (bleh!).

P.S: On the way back, my car broke down and a 23 chapter melodrama unfolded and I had to blow 17 Benjamins on it. So much for euphoria.

Equations

2009-02-25T17:57:00.003-05:00

Better safe than..

2009-02-20T14:40:00.002-05:00

* Father-in-law

i-opener-phone

2009-02-17T18:51:00.008-05:00

You are really going to hate the day when A.I. becomes actually intelligent.

thanks to xkcd for the typing dude.

+3 Surprising!

2009-02-11T14:20:00.004-05:00

Its been 3 years already!

Gopaal Hallupudi

2009-02-11T02:09:00.003-05:00

Sankranthi celebrations in the SF Bay area saw us perform a mad-ad for "Gopal Hallupudi". I was a part of writing the script and directing the play. Since we were performaing in front of a mature audience, we had to mellow down from good old college days to keep all vulgarity and double meaning jokes out. The script came out to be quite good and lots of people appreciated our performance. I actually freaked out when one person pulled out her car right next to me when I was walking in the parking lot, but felt very happy when she told me "tumba chennagittu ri.. nim programmu..". Apparently a famous performing artist from the Bay Area also had some good things to say about us!

Take a look!

Pico de gallo

2009-02-07T01:32:00.002-05:00

Today, I had my first Salsa lesson. When the instructor made me oscillate my hips like a pendulum, I went hysterical. To add to the awkwardness, every last person in the ballroom stared at me at least once with a "what the heck are you wearing a Led-Zep t-shirt in a salsa class for?" clearly written on their face in {weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10000pt}.

Anyway, I did not want to be rude by leaving the hall when the lesson was in progress and just kept shaking my hips and felt totally freaking gay until.. UNTIL we were assigned partners :) The instructor told us that the men are called the "leaders" and women the "followers". He told the ladies that they need to follow the man, even if he is screwing up. He told us that we were responsible to take care of the ladies not only on the dance floor, but also in real life. Suddenly, there was a boost in testosterone levels and the Latino music started to make my hips shake on its own. I started feeling happy and not gay :)

So, there you go ladies... the next time we meet, you know that I know salsa. Do not hesitate to ask for a dance!

p.s: Cant wait for the next dance session!

My new memory unit

2009-01-13T22:23:00.005-05:00

..can see pretty well in the dark too!

its a 12.2 Mega Pixel Canon Digital Rebel XSi. If you were wondering.

True Love

2009-01-08T04:52:00.007-05:00

Here is an iPhone wallpaper I made out of true love.

Enough of Benglur Bashing already

2008-12-29T23:18:00.001-05:00

"Benglur! What traffic yaar.."

"Abee.. ek kilometer jane se mar jata hoon yaar!"

Yeah.. I have heard enough of it already, so stop!

Anybody who I talk to, irrespective of whether they have been to Benglur recently or not, crib relentlessly about the traffic there.

What surprises me the most is that people who live in cities with denser traffic crib about Benglur. Take LA for instance. Anyone who has driven there in peak hour will know how hard it gets to reach your destination on time. People who live in the Bay area, who get stuck on freeways for hours together crib about traffic stops in Benglur being too long.

"Traffic is horrible"

"The vehicle density is too high... No one follows traffic rules.."

Thank you captain Obvious!

Everybody knows this already, so please stop cribbing about it.

If you are doing something to change it, please let us know. Otherwise, you have no right to rant, as you are a part of the problem too.

The problem with my music listening habit

2008-12-08T22:29:00.004-05:00

No wonder my favorites don't last for more than a few hours. I would have heard it a hundred times by then.

Guddada Bhoota

2008-11-15T19:49:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am one of the performers.

It beats coffee

2008-11-13T03:32:00.004-05:00

The brain apparently has a gating mechanism for most signals. It overrides an already registered signal when you experience a more intense version of the same signal. What it means is that if you are in pain, say your leg hurts like crazy, if you register another more intense pain, like hurting your hand, the leg wont hurt anymore because the brain gates all other signals but the strongest one.

This evenly applies to addictions, obsessions or any registrable brain signal. Lets say you are obsessed with some female, until you are obsessed with something else more than her, it apparently is impossible for the brain to snap out of it.

I _was_ addicted to coffee, until I bought a PLAYSTATION 3(Words cannot describe its awesomeness). Ever since I started playing "The Orange Box", I can hear Aperture Lab's background music in my room when I am sleeping. When I walk, I hear sentry guns beep. I get paranoid at intersections and look out for guns. I have dreams where I own a Portal gun. I no longer feel the need of human interaction. Ok, the last one was a streach, but I am not lying about the others.

I hope coffee comes back as my addiction because I am staying up till 4am playing TF2 with unknown cyber characters.

Anyways, here are a few more shots of my new obsession:

Carpentry Skillz.. I has dem

2008-11-08T07:04:00.006-05:00

I just swung my magic hammer and this

magically turned into this (note: I have managed to capture the magical transition on camera)

Here is another view after the glow faded

Posted at 4:11am. Reasons in the post below.
p.s: Blogger does not work properly on Chrome. Talk about irony.

Update:

Hema: whats the plate doing there?

devadutta: that's installed to ward off rouge wireless transmissions which unlawfully take over my cellphone when placed in the middle drawer

Hema: ?

i regret asking :P

The worst jetlag ever!

2008-11-04T20:18:00.005-05:00

I have hopped timezones many times in my life and never have I ever felt more jet lagged than I currently am. Jet lag generally means that someone gets sleepy at wrong times, but for me, it is a step ahead and I feel sleepy all day long! All I can think of is sleep, more sleep and some more sleep.

I come home and sleep. I sleep when I am supposed to cook, which leaves me with no food at dinner time, which makes me sleep during dinner time and wake up early in the morning at around 1. Believe it or not, I have been cooking dinner from 1-1:30am, eating it up by 2 and finishing household chores by 3 and sleeping again by 3:30. And this has been my daily routine since 1 and half weeks! I think my internal clock is stuck with IST and the dials need some oiling before it can move back to PDT :)

But, feeling sleepy all day long is a totally funky feeling which I like. So, I am not complaining one bit :)

And of course, jet lag has its other advantages, the compassion it generates among people for me in unparalleled.

I watch too many random movies

2008-09-22T04:13:00.003-04:00

Long long ago, so long ago that TV had only Doordarshan and film songs played only once a week on "Chitrahaar" from 7-7:30pm and families were so big that around 20 people gathered around one TV to watch it, a Kannada movie called "Tanikhe(ತನಿಖೆ)" had come out. The movie was so bad that it was good. The hero's dance for the song "Daam Daam Diga Diga(ಡಾಂ ಡಾಂ ಡಿಗಾ ಡಿಗಾ)" was an unforgettable masterpiece of a performance. We literally used to wait for his song to play on "Chitrahaar" and laugh our heads off.

Today, things have changed, but a lot has remained the same. I still watch so many random movies that I had to write a widget to keep track of it!

Thus, ladies and gents, I present the yet to be named widget to your right...
*at this point, i expect you to be shedding tears of joy and applauding profusely*

Some of you might have noticed the thing coming up and going off which was largely because of my lazy self trying to code and test php, JavaScript and ajax live on the web server.

and of course, the image on top is of it running on my phone..

My dance with C Ashwat!

2008-09-17T23:56:00.007-04:00

Those of you who know me for a while will remember how I went on bragging about singing a song with C Ashwat.

Well last Saturday, I went a step ahead and danced with the one and only C Ashwat at Kannadotsava, Palo Alto, CA!

This guy is a master entertainer. Rock Star of kannada music. He is 69 years old and yet sings with so much energy and enthusiasm that you will start wondering if he really is that old.

I hope to get my hands on videos of this dance and post it here to show you how much energy we had and how well he could connect with the audience.

And oh.. here is the photo of me singing with him

Dear Teacher, Thank you

2008-09-05T22:52:00.006-04:00

GURUR-BRAHMA, GURUR-VISHNU, GURUR-DEVO MAHESHWARAH
GURUR-SAAKSHAAT PARA-BRAHMA,TASMAI-SHRI GURUVE NAMAH*

Translates to: I bow in front of the great guru(teacher) who is Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara and the absolute truth.

I have been really lucky in life to have met some of the best teachers on this planet. I really hope to meet even better teachers through out my life.

Life without a teacher is like walking on thin ice.. No traction!

*Collapse the hyphens to form correct sandhis. Dont worry if you dont know what a sandhi is.

Malleshwaram Dreaming

2008-09-01T03:36:00.006-04:00

Has to be sung in California Dreamin' tune. Check for video link below.

Malleshwaram Dreaming

All the food is gone
and my belly's astray
I've been for a drive
On a hungry day..

I'd be full and burping
If I was in CTR, hey!
Malleshwaram Dreaming
on such a hungry day!

Drove into McDonalds
Which I saw on the way
I had a cheeseburger
with the beef removed away!

The cashier brought the burger
Smirking all the way
I knew it would be tasteless
But I ate it anyway.

Surya, Janata had food
for which I could actually pay,
Malleshwaram Dreaming
on such a hungry day!

-- (A hungry and bored) Devadutta Ghat

Parking lot art

2008-08-03T11:42:00.004-04:00

I learn all lessons in life the hard way - by experience.
Recently, I had been to SFO airport to drop off a friend. On the way back, I had to run around a 7 story parking lot trying to find where I had put my car.

Lesson learned: I dont have a photographic memory.

So, this time when I went on my first long and proper vacation, I hacked together a "photographic memory": My phone camera. I took pictures of places where I parked my car using my phone.

"What if you loose the phone?", did you ask?
Well, I have learned it the hard way to not loose phones :)

Here are some of the points in those infinite grids of space called parking lots captured using my camera.

24

2008-07-15T18:29:00.003-04:00

Today is my Birthday! yay!
The good thing about having friends in opposite hemispheres of the world is that you get birthday wishes for 48hrs! Some of these do come when you are sleeping, but it is anyways fun.

What you see above is a Birthday Card I received from a good friend of mine ~~(come back later for links to her blog or something)~~. It is truly awesome and I just love it! It is one of the best greeting cards I have ever received!

Thank you!

The $250 sticker

2008-07-13T16:13:00.003-04:00

You know how we used to buy stickers in school for 50paisa?
I bought this one for $250. I also had to practice motorbiking skills for 15 hours in grueling heat with an empty stomach.

It was like the ninja training you see in Jackie Chan movies. They made me wake up at 5 am in the morning, take a cold shower, run for 30 kms and do a Chinese-Chezk clone of the Haka before I could touch the bike.

Ok I made up the last part, but I was not lying about the heat and empty stomach.

I also got to meet some interesting people. Like this guy who had built a truck from scratch.

This truck was making so much noise that we could hear it from two blocks away! The engine was fitted with nitro boosters and anti-explosion clutches. The truck was pretty much racing ready.

Zoom Out

2008-07-01T01:28:00.002-04:00

Kid to work day

2008-06-28T20:14:00.003-04:00

Last Friday was annual "Bring your kid to work day". Since I did not have any kids to take, I just volunteered to offer my services as quiz-master.

The quiz was in "Jeopardy!" format. I had never seen this show before, but got a grip of it after I read a small article about it (while I was walking to the venue. I almost crashed into a girl. I am no RMS to dance and work on a lappie at the same time!)

They apparently had done this for years, so they had this nice piece of software which could simulate the "Jeopardy!" environment.

These kids were extremely good and cracked every single question we came up with. Some cracks were extremely creative and we gave points even if the answers were off the expected one. We also got some very funny answers for a few random questions we had set.

Take this for instance:

1: What is an example for a number?
us: Be more specific
What is an example for a really big number?
us: No, even more specific
What is an example for a really big even number?
us: we are looking for an answer on different lines
Give an example for a number which comes after 1023.

My car sticker

2008-06-26T20:28:00.001-04:00

Mystery Doodle

2008-06-07T20:13:00.002-04:00

Found this thing I drew around a year ago. So many encrypted messages.. awesome!

Workshop Skills

2008-06-01T04:39:00.004-04:00

I had enormous faith in VTU 2nd sem workshop training. I knew that one day or the other, all the sawing, filing, welding and hammering will come in handy. I always knew that learning how to saw a "dove tail" joint into place was more important than running behind doves.
Today, I turned slabs of wood and foam which looked like this

into this

hey.. but dint we skip carpentry in workshop? ;)

Movie Review: Aramane

2008-05-18T03:28:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I was in a general happy mood, so I thought I will see a kannada movie and become happier. Started watching Aramane. First half was really good. I loved the way the story built up coupled with nice acting by Ganesh. But, as soon as I started enjoying the movie, it took a U turn and became ultimately depressing. I wonder what sadistic pleasure movie makes derive out of making happy people sad. I had to go and watch Iron Man again today to get back to my happy state with all the "good will win" pumped back into my brains.

Maybe if the movie was badly directed, I would not have cared about the depressing second half. But, it has good direction, acting, screenplay and casting, which will force you to connect to the characters and finally it ends up as heap of depressing non-sense(~~Gurukiran's music has hit new lows. It sucks big time~~).
update on June 13: Starting to like it :)

To undo a little bit of the depression.. Here is what the scene after credits roll should be..

Rating: 2/5
Walk out after the first half...

Update on June 13: This comment from Purnateja is worth making the main post :)

you forgot these lines:
after watching the movie the viewers sing this song--
"ಕೊಲ್ಲೇ ನನ್ನನ್ನೇ.... ಕಡು ಕಪ್ಪು ಕಣ್ಣಲ್ಲೆ ಕೊಲ್ಲು, ಬಿಗಿದಪ್ಪಿ ______(fill it up thy self)______ ಕೊಲ್ಲು,
ಹೇಗಾದರು ನನ್ನ ಕೊಲ್ಲು, ಆದರೆ ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಈ ರೀತಿ ಕೆಟ್ಟ ಸಿನೆಮಾ ತೋರ್ಸಿ ಕೊಲ್ಲದಿರು!

ನಿನ್ನ ಹೊಸತನ

2008-05-17T02:31:00.001-04:00

ನಿನ್ನ ಒಂದು ನೋಟದಿ ನನ್ನ ಚೇತನ,
ಪಡೆಯಿತು ಹುರುಪು ವಿನೂತನ,
ಹೇಗೆ ಮರೆಯಲಿ ನಾ ನಿನ್ನ ಹೊಸತನ,
ಹೊಸತನಕ್ಕೇ ಹೊಸತನವ ತೋರುವ ನೀನೇ ಚಿರಂತನ
-- ದೇವದತ್ತ ದ್ವಾರಕಾನಾಥ್ ಘಟ್

Notes from a basket ball game

2008-05-16T00:12:00.002-04:00

1. The ball does not come to you. You need to go get it
2. You don't shoot to miss. You shoot to score.
3. When you are tired and cant go on, you don't make your team loose so that the game ends. You play harder and win the game quicker, so that you get rest along with glory..
4. In a game, you don't do what is good for you. You do what is good for you AND for the team.
5. Play for fun but don't play to loose.

Beautifully extends to life..

Sona Masuri: motivation behind the name

2008-05-11T04:49:00.002-04:00

Today, I bought a 9.0718474 kilogram(I refuse to use imperial units) bag of Sona Masuri rice for USD 25, which used to cost USD 8.99 just a month ago. This, as I understand, is caused by the export ban in India, which will be reverted sooner or later, so I was clam until I saw some "notices" shabbily written on A4 paper stuck all around the Indian store.

It read:

"Only one bag of Sona Masuri rice per family"

"You need to buy minimum $20 groceries if you want to buy a bag of Sona Masuri"

"If you want a bag of Sona Masuri rice, you need to get a HD video encoded in h264 showing a 1920 Austin Twenty Touring car driven by your pet Blue Paul Terrier dog with your wife sitting in the back seat beside a Unicorn."

Ok, I made up the last one, but still.. what on earth!
I am sure there are laws which prohibit them from setting up pre-requisites for buying food!

Does anyone know about such a law?

Whiteboard graffiti

2008-05-03T01:41:00.004-04:00

When I get really bored at work, I sit and draw stuff on the white board.. It kind of removes the stress. Here are some of my favorite works of "art" which came out in a stressful situation

When there were a hazaar things to be done listed on the board, instead of finishing them, I drew this dude pointing to the list

When I was diving into code with no proper parachute(documentation)..

When I was being chased by multiple people to close multiple bugs.. I was 100% sure that no one will understand this cartoon, but everybody who came to my cube threw a smirk..

Movie review: GaaLipata

2008-04-20T00:07:00.004-04:00

Name: GaaLipata
Director: Yograj Bhat
Cast: Anant Nag, Ganesh, Daisy Bopanna and a whole bunch of other actors
Rating: 4/5

There are some people who believe that a "good movie" _needs_ to have a "complicated story".
Armed with this foolish assumption, they typically sit and draw a directed graph around some 20 characters forming deep dependencies involving multiple terminal illnesses, emotional blackmails, status clashes, chemistry, biology, geography, political science and even zoology.

But, fortunately, there are other people like Yograj Bhat, who take very simple stories, build strong characters into it, get a cast which matches the characterization and finally get the actors to act properly . He started this with trend with Mungaru Male and has repeated it in GaaLipata with absolute brilliance. If he had made GaLipata before Mungaru Male, I am sure it would have been a bigger hit.

The movie has a very simple story with smooth narration and classy camera work. Each actor has added life to the character he/she plays. Ganesh has overacted a little, but we can harmlessly ignore that. Females in lead roles have performed quite well. Music is just about average and sounds very similar to Mungaru Male which is my only rant about the movie.

I enjoyed watching the movie. If you like plain entertainment, you will like the movie too.

Entire SP Road under one roof

2008-04-12T05:25:00.004-04:00

Dusty is the air and you cant find parking space,
Crowded roads have people in a running race.

But, wanted when I an electronic device,
May it be a 200kW transformer or just a vice,
Within minutes I used to be,
on SP Road of Bangalore in full glory!

Parting with SP road,
had always spoiled my mood...

because...
Wanted when I, an npn transistor or just a humble 10% tolerance resistor,
I had to pay 5 dollar shipping on a 10 cent capacitor.

Convinced I was, that all my hacking ideas will die in pain..
The clouds were dark, but there was no rain.

Think I did, that my blue prints will be used to wrap fries,
Until god made me stumble upon Fry's!

This place is has entire SP road indoors,
With AC halls and clean floors!
Motherboards to breadboards one can find what he seeks,
which is the reason I have been spending every Saturday there since 4 weeks!!!!

ps: I have always thought of taking a girl to SP Road for a first date.

pps: If the poem sounds totally, completely, absolutely horrible, blame iton 3:06AM. Not me

Good Captcha*

2008-04-02T23:59:00.005-04:00

Beat that you script kiddie!
PS: The equations, alpha, beta and summation range are all randomized.

*Captcha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha

Yakshagana

2008-03-23T04:07:00.005-04:00

Kannada Sangha of Sacramento had invited professional Yakshagana artists from SF Bay area.
I had been to that show yesterday. The act was titled "Kamsa Vadhe", which translates to "The destruction of Kamsa".

"Kamsa" was so authentically scary that as soon as he appeared on stage, small kids in the hall started crying and the parents rushed them out of the hall. It was really funny to see that.

And as usual, I did my bit cheering the performers by whistling profusely throughout the show.

Kamsa

They are wearing wigs. I am not :)

Bad Impression index

2008-03-05T20:03:00.004-05:00

This chart maps how bad my impression is within one particular circle of close knit friends. The breaking news is that it has hit lol-extremes in 2008 and I dont think any amount of damage control will help reduce it.

Awesome example of what happens when communication channels are not clear and you are not patient when handling things.

Oh, btw, Bad Impression = 1/Good Impression

Movie Review: Jodhaa Akbar

2008-02-17T01:22:00.002-05:00

Jodha Akbar is the first hindi movie I have ever watched on the day of its release, so I thought I will write a review on it.

This movie has Hritik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in lead roles. I hate them both big time and I cant stand to see either of them for more than 30s continuously. If that was not enough, it is a movie on Akbar of all people. But still, I went and watched it because it had Ashutosh Gowarikar and AR Rahman, both of whom I admire(Only one thing I hate about Ashutosh is that he flicked the story of Swades from Kannada author Da.Ra.Bendre and did not acknowledge it properly).
So, we went. To a packed theater and sat in almost the first row(Gandhi class seats, but first calss fares :| ) and watched the movie.

Enough of Background info. Now for the review.

Movie: Jodhaa Akbar
Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar
Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai and many thousand extras
Rating: 0.5/5
(Which translates to: Watch it if you have absolutely nothing else to do)

Jodhaa Akbar is not only historically inaccurate, but it is also badly directed, edited and choreographed. The music is just about bearable and casting is a disaster. Acting is something which the lead roles were never known to be capable of, so, as expected, they were horrible. Some costumes are really good, but most of them are jokes. Aushutosh Gowarikar has frozen(hopefully cryogenically) the creative parts of his brain whilst directing this movie.
Romance(eternal love and all that) of Akbar and Jodhaa which was hyped with unbearable fanfare as the central theme of the movie is also badly portrayed. These scenes are hardly close to being romantic and don't seem to have any flow or appeal.The battle scenes resemble Brownian motion and the climax of the movie is literal torture.

People reading this review may think that I just hate Hindi movies, so my opinions are biased. But if you watch Lagaan or Swades and then watch this movie, you will know what I am talking about. The director has simply tried in vain to apply his Lagaan success formula into this movie with absolutely no regard to creativity.

It starts off with an arbitrarily fast paced history lesson from Amitab Bachhan, followed by a "ferocious" battle between some random parties. Even if you somehow tolerate the history lesson, as soon as you see this "battle", you will loose all interest in watching the rest of the movie. It involves thousands of people clad in expensive looking costume, armed with card-board swords and a giga-ton of confusion.

Later, you get to witness Jodhaa's(Aishwarya Rai) fighting skills, which will at best make you laugh. These scenes which are supposed to portray Jodhaa's bravery have taken a U-turn and made her look like a puny amateur warrior with cursory fighting skills.

The movie lacks any comedy scenes or artists, but the songs and their choreography is enough to keep you laughing throughout the movie. In a song called "Kwaji" or something, the artists look totally dazed and confused, as if they have smoked some illegally grown ganja bought from a cheap vendor in some shady markets of Mumbai. I cant believe that the director has not taken care of simple things like artists looking directly into the camera every now and then.

If at all Ashutosh Gowarikar had spent some time thinking how to make the movie instead of arbitrarily dumping thousands of extras on to the screen, he could have made Jodhaa Akbar 1000 times better with 1/1000th of the money.

The funniest dialog of the movie was

Akbar:Hum Hindustan ko galat haath mein jaane nahi denge!
(I wont let Hindustan fall into wrong hands)

My impulsive reaction to this was "Its already in your hands! How can it get any worse? Huh punk?"

lol

Two years!?

2008-02-11T02:44:00.000-05:00

Wow! That was quick!

Two years ago, I went to Savandurga for the first time and after that, I went there multiple times with multiple people for multiple reasons. I love the place so very much that I have put together a bunch of shots from my many visits to that place.

Dekho! Magar pyaar se..

"ಆಸೆ ಬಳ್ಳಿ ಬೆಂಡಾಗಿ ಬಾಡಬಾರದು, ಬೀಳಬಾರದು, ಕೀಳಬಾರದು.
ಬಂದುದೆಲ್ಲ ಮೇಲೆಂದು ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡರೆ, ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಂಡರೆ, ಏನು ತೊಂದರೆ?

ಅಂದಗಾರ ನೀನೆಂದು ಜಂಬಮಾಡಬೇಡ, ಹಿಂದೆ ನಿಂತು ಕೈ ಕೈ ಹಿಂಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಡ,
ಹೊಮ್ಮಿಬಂದ ಪ್ರೇಮವಲ್ಲೆ ಇಂಗಿಹೋದಮೇಲೆ, ನಾಕಾಣೆ! ನಾಕಾಣೆ! ನನ್ನ ದೇವರಾಣೆ!

Phonetastic -- The history edition

2008-02-09T15:54:00.000-05:00

I started with a Nokia 1100. I loved it. The Flashlight on it is the one of the most innovative things I have ever seen. I used it for a lot of out-going calls, which is thoroughly atypical for an Indian mobile user. The reason was that BSNL had out-going call charges lesser than an SMS.
Went on to get a Moto C155. Used it more as an alarm clock than a phone.

Got a Blackjack. Loved this phone too. But, changed it for the better.
Enters iPhone 1
Something happened, and I switched to MOTO RAZR V3. Was feeling very okward using this phone after using the iPhone. But the RAZR is too cool for a phone. Its really light and has a very ergonomic grip.

Switched again. Back to iPhone.
Thus, ladies and gentlemen, we present iPhone 1.1 along with BoiledBeans on the homepage!

DIY Car Pooje

2008-01-31T19:55:00.000-05:00

Car Pooje in simple steps

1. Buy a car. Like this 98 Honda Accord which I bought from a private owner. I looked for good deals on Craigslist for 3-weeks and ironically, I came to know about this car by word of mouth. Looking for deals on Craigslist is as painful as it can get. Believe me.

2. Pooje

First, Take 1 coconut, Fruits and flowers and place it in front of the god
Chant an ashtotra
Write OM and Shree on the bonnet with kumkuma
Place flowers inside the car
Place a lemon under each tire
And put kumkuma and arishina on the steering wheel
Place camphor on the coconut, do arathi for the car
Go on a pradakshiNa around the car
Break the coconut in front of the car
Run over the lemons
go around a temple in the car

The above steps adds some major + points to the car's Karma, making it safer :)

You can either DIY the pooje or just take the car to a temple and ask a poojari to do it.
Like I did :)

ಕರುಳಿನ ಕಂಗಾಲು - Bowelisis Panicmaximus

2008-01-02T00:42:00.000-05:00

This Christmas break, I was at Chicago. My cousins there were very attached to me and when I was about to leave, there was intense drama trying to convince me not to leave. We caught that on camera and made a movie. Take a look...

Happy New Year!!

LOL Flights

2007-12-25T18:37:00.000-05:00

I understand that flight routing algorithms have to show all feasible routes between a source and destination, but, it does not mean that it has to show all "possible" routes to a destination.

Take this route plan which was generated.

Which is quite awesome considering NY to Chicago is approx a 2.5hr flight which costs $184 at the worst.

We are talking about reaching C from A and A-B-C is the genius route suggested.

Why leave international destinations?! Generate a 2 day flying schedule which costs $30,000. People will feel a lot better :|

Worst cliche ever

2007-12-21T01:02:00.000-05:00

"Life is a roller coaster" has to be the worst cliche ever.
It is totally illogical and some guy high on negative IQ might have cooked it up while smoking some parthenium plant pollen in a gasoline cooled hooka. Agreed that a roller coaster has ups and downs, but it is in no way on par with the ups and downs of life.

Here are my reasons

The best part in a roller coaster is when is zooms down.
Not with life. It hurts like crazy in life to go down. If you loose something, say a phone, it is considered as a "down" part of your life. It is no fun to loose something or someone.
In a roller coaster, you are absolutely certain that the car will go back to where it started and that it will let you get off. It keeps you tied safely in the car until the ride is over ( unless you are in some dilapidated "amusement" park where some drunk guy comes and literally ties your seat belts to the chair because they lack buckles).
Not with life. You don't know where you are going. If you don't know how to pull yourself back up, there is no way you can go back unless there is some help.
When you sit in a roller coaster, you scream at twists and turns and ups and downs in happiness and thrill. How many of us can be happy when you start losing stuff you love?

Although I have many more points to rant about, I will refrain from it for the greater good of the universe.

Note to self: We will get it. Again.

Boiled Brains

2007-12-03T02:24:00.000-05:00

We recently hit 100 questions on boiledbeans.net. I dint know how much bb had influenced me until this happened today.

I was peeling an onion to prepare one of my cooking masterpieces ( I get the color of the final product always right. The taste however always remains at none ). When one of the peeled skins looked like this

My immediate reaction was: "Hey this looks like an Interrupted sinusoidal map (projection of a sphere), which makes an awesome question for bb!!"

:)
Update(After approx 15 mins): I just realized that by posting this entry, I killed the question. Damn!

Sunday evening song

2007-11-11T21:06:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows how sunday evenings are. Gloomy and depressing. Not because of the Monday which is coming up, but because of the Sunday which is ending.
Fortunately for this sunday, things were different as I got to hear an awesome song completely studded with deep philosophy about happiness.

It is called "Dooradinda bandantha sundaranga jaNa" and is sung by one of the best south-Indian female singers - L.R.Eashwari.

This song is actually a cabaret and the female is trying to entice the hero ( video would have been better... could not find it though :) ). But the amout of philosophy she gives to this guy is too good.

The best parts of the song

"ಆಸೆ ಬಳ್ಳಿ ಬೆಂಡಾಗಿ ಬಾಡಬಾರದು, ಬೀಳಬಾರದು, ಕೀಳಬಾರದು.
ಬಂದುದೆಲ್ಲ ಮೇಲೆಂದು ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡರೆ, ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಂಡರೆ, ಏನು ತೊಂದರೆ?

ಅಂದಗಾರ ನೀನೆಂದು ಜಂಬಮಾಡಬೇಡ, ಹಿಂದೆ ನಿಂತು ಕೈ ಕೈ ಹಿಂಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಡ,
ಹೊಮ್ಮಿಬಂದ ಪ್ರೇಮವಲ್ಲೆ ಇಂಗಿಹೋದಮೇಲೆ, ನಾಕಾಣೆ! ನಾಕಾಣೆ! ನನ್ನ ದೇವರಾಣೆ!"

"Never let your desires and ambitions die out.
Whatever comes to you, accept it with no complaints.

Just don't stand somewhere thinking you are the greatest, just do what it takes.
For, if I all the love I have for you simply dies out because of your procrastination, then don't blame me!"

"ಕಾಲ ಕೂಡಿ ಬಂದಾಗ ಕಾರ್ಯ ಸಾಗಲಿ, ಏನೆ ಆಗಲಿ, ಏನೆ ಹೋಗಲಿ.
ಬೀಸೊ ಗಾಳಿ ಬಂದಾಗ ರಾಟೆ ತೂರಿಕೊ, ಬಾಚಿ ಹೇರಿಕೋ, ದೋಚಿ ಜಾರಿಕೋ!"

"When it is the time for an event to happen, let it happen. Don't worry about it
When there is sun, make hay. All of it! Quit worrying about it!"

I can attach a 1000 meanings to these things!

ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ ರಸಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ೨೦೦೭

2007-11-06T19:42:00.000-05:00

Don't panic, scroll down for English translation.
ಮೊನ್ನೆ ಭಾನುವಾರ, ಸಕ್ಕರೆ ಮಿಂಟೋ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಂಘದವರಿಗಾಗಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ರಸಶ್ನೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಏರ್ಪಡಿಸಿದ್ದೆ. ಇದು ನಾನು ನಡೆಸಿದಂತಹ ೪ನೇ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಕನ್ನಡ ರಸಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ . ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳನ್ನು ತಯಾರಿಸುವಾಗ ಈ ಬಾರಿ ನನ್ನ ಮುಂದೆ ಒಂದು ದೊಡ್ಡ ಸವಾಲು ನಿರ್ಮಿತವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಕಾಲೇಜಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ಪರ್ಧೆ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾಗ, ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಳ್ಳುವವರೆಲ್ಲಾ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಕಡಿಮೆ ನನ್ನ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರೇ ಇದ್ದ ಕಾರಣ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳ ಕಠಿಣತೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಾನೇನು ತೇವ್ರವಾಗಿ ಯೋಚಿಸುತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿ, ಜನ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಬಹಳಾ ಗೊತ್ತಿರುವಂಥವರು ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳು ಕಠಿಣವಾಗಿರಬೇಕಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಆದರೆ ಅವರು ದೇಶ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಹಲವಾರು ವರ್ಶಗಳಾದ್ದರಿಂದ, ಹುಚ್ಚಾಪಟ್ಟೆ ಕಶ್ಟವಾದ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳೂ ಕೇಳಕ್ಕಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಇವೆಲ್ಲದರ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ಮನೋರಂಜನೆಗೆ ಪರಮ ಮಹತ್ವ ನೇಡಬೇಕಾಗಿತ್ತು.
ಕೊನೆಗೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕಶ್ಟ ಪಟ್ಟು ಪ್ರ್ನೆಗಳನ್ನು ತಯಾರಿಸಿ, ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ನಡೆಸಿದೆ.
ಅಲ್ಲಿದ್ದವರೆಲ್ಲಾ ಬಹಳ ಬೆರಗಾಗಿ ನನಗೆ "ಭಾರತ ರತ್ನ" ಕೊಡಲೇಬೇಕೆಂದೊ ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ಆದರೆ ನಾನು ಆ ಪುರಸ್ಕಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಬಹಳ ಚಿಕ್ಕವನೆಂದು ಹೇಳಿ ನಾನೇ ತಿರಸ್ಕಾರ ಮಾಡಿಬಿಟ್ಟೆ! :)

ನನ್ನ ಹಳೆಯ ಕೆಲವು ರಸಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳ ಚಯಾಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡೋಣ..
ಹಾಗೂ

Now for the English version..
I got to do my 4th Kannada Quiz in front of an awesome audience last Sunday. Although this was the 4th time, I was a bit tensed before the quiz, mainly because I had no clue about the level of kannada knowledge the audience possessed. It generally is a big problem if you under-estimate or over-estimate your audience's knowledge. The quiz will turn out to be a total waste if that happens. Fortunately, I guessed they were all decently aware of the latest and greatest things in kannada and it turned out to be right.

The quiz was nice fun to conduct with teams cracking many questions that I asked. And the best part was it looked like they enjoyed it.

The quiz ended in a tie. I asked 6 tie break questions, which also ended in a tie. When I was just about wondering how to cook up some questions on spot, one of the teams reminded me that I had starred one of the tie breaker questions. Phew!!

ಸ್ವಯಂ ಸೂಚನೆ: ೨ನೇ ಸಲಿ. ನಾಚಿಕೆ ಹೇಸಿಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ನೆಲಮಂಗಲದ ಆಚೆಗೆ!

Perl Set for a birthday gift

2007-10-17T23:41:00.000-04:00

Pearl sets make an awesome birthday gift. Right?
Right.

Posted as a solution to my friend's rant about blowing some x units of currency on an expensive Pearl set :)

Motorbreath

2007-10-13T22:55:00.000-04:00

Assume:

You usually drive a modest 2.4L car.
You rent a 4.7L monster in the pretext of moving a sofa from one place to another
You have nagging friends at the backseat asking you to prove that the 4.7L is indeed a monster by demonstrating its 4wheel drive capabilities
You floor the accelerator to prove its might

What will happen?
Answer: The cushion will fly off real far
You will have to carry it all the way back

ಸಕ್ಕರೆ ಮಿಂಟೋ ಕ್ರೀಡಾಕೂಟ

2007-10-01T23:39:00.001-04:00

ಈ ಪುಟವನ್ನು english ನಲ್ಲಿ ಬರಿಯೋಣಾ ಅಂತಾನೇ ಇದ್ದೆ, ನಂತರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಪ್ರೇಮ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾದ ಕಾರಣ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಆದರೆ, ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೋ ಅರ್ಧ ಜನಕ್ಕೆ ಕನ್ನಡ 'ಓ' ಅಂದ್ರೆ 'ಟೋ' ಅನ್ನೋಕ್ಕೂ ಬರಲ್ಲ. ಅದಿಕ್ಕೆ, ಮೊದಲು ಕನ್ನಡ, ನಂತರ english ನಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದು ನನ್ನ ಧರ್ಮ ಸಂಕಟವನ್ನು ನಿವಾರಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ಸಕ್ಕರೆ ಮಿಂಟೋ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಂಘದವರು ಆಯೋಜಿಸಿದ್ದ ಕ್ರೀಡಾ ಕೂಟಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ. ಚೆನ್ನಗಿತ್ತು. ಕೊಟ್ಟ ದುಡ್ಡಿಗೆ ಏನೂ ಮೋಸ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ಬೇಗ ಯೆದ್ದು, ಧಡಾ ಭಡಾ ಅಂತ ಪೊಂಗಲ್ ತಯಾರಿಸಿ, ಸಿಕ್ಕಾಪಟ್ಟೆ ವೇಗದಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಂದು, ಗಂಟಲಲ್ಲಿ ಇಳಿಯದಿದ್ದರೂ ಬಲವಂತವಾಗಿ ತುರುಕಿಕೊಂಡು ಕೆಮ್ಮಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ಸಾರ್ಥಕ ಆಗೋಹಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಏಕೆಂದರೆ, ನನ್ನ ನೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಆಟಗಳಾದ "ಕಬಡ್ಡಿ" ಮತ್ತು "ಲಗೋರಿ" ಆಡಲು ನನಗೆ ಹಲಾವಾರು ವರ್ಷಗಳಾದಮೇಲೆ ಅವಕಾಶ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿತು! ಎರಡೂ ಆಟಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಾನು ಜಗಮಗಿಸುವಂತಹ ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನವನ್ನು ನೀಡಿ, ಅಲ್ಲಿದ್ದವರೆಲ್ಲಾ ತಮ್ಮ ಮೂಗಿನ ಮೇಲೆ ಒಂದು ಬೆರಳು, ಪಕ್ಕದವರ ಮೂಗಿನಮೇಲೆ ಒಂದು ಬೆರಳು ಇಡುವಂತೆ ನಾನು ಮಾಡಿದೆ.

ಒಟ್ಟ್ನಲ್ಲಿ, ಮಜಾ ಇತ್ತು
English Translation(er.. not exactly, but what the ಹೆಕ್..)
So, I had been to this sports day meet of the Sacramento Kannada Sangha. It was awesome fun, mainly because I got to play my favourite games, "Lagori" and "Kabbaddi" after a long long time. So long that if I take two sticks which corresponds to the length of this time period, hold it in parallel and look at it, they seem to meet at infinity.

I played a good game and people there were fascinated to such great extent that they could not express any feelings. They were so overwhelmed that they just looked normal. But, I know that within, they were all praising my prowess.

ಸಂದರ್ಭಪ್ರಙೆ

2007-09-21T00:26:00.000-04:00

ಮಾನವನು ಸಂದರ್ಭಕ್ಕೆ ತಕ್ಕಂತೆ ತನ್ನ ವರ್ತನೆಯನ್ನೂ, ನಡುವಳಿಕೆಯನ್ನೂ ಬದಲಾಯಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಒಂದು ನಿದರ್ಶನ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ. ಈ ಮಾನವನಾರೆಂದು ಗುರುತು ಹಿಡಿಯಲು ನಿಮಗೇನು ಖಗೋಳ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರದ ಪ್ರಚಂಡ ಪಾಂಡಿತ್ಯವೇನು ಬೇಕಾಗಿಲ್ಲ!
ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಇದು ನಮ್ಮನಿಮಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲಾ ಇರುವ ಹಾಸ್ಯ ಪ್ರಙ್ನೆ ಎಂಬ ಮಾನವ :)

Phonetastic!

2007-09-18T23:15:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the bad pun, but the new Samsung Blackjack I bought is worth every piece of praise.
Yes, it runs Windows and hangs once in a while, the interface is slightly cranky and slow, but the downsides almost end there! (the pains of getting Active Sync to work properly completes the ugly side of the story)

Once you have all the software running and Bluetooth setup properly, things happen awesomely quick. You can control the phone completely via Bluetooth and it can stream songs in full stereo too!

"Any phone can do these things..", you say?
Well, it can do this

Yes! it can run all NES games! ScummVM also works! I remember how I used to obsess over these games when I was a kid and now it works on my phone!

I recently found ports of GCC,vim and a whole bunch of unix tools which can run on this phone!
This is so cool! (so cool that atoms cant move :) )

1d1ea87fa03caf6738893383e2b39333. Really b8797b3406a9b97f68a019b3c5403272e0304237. I mean it.

Rear brakes are on the left...

2007-08-27T02:48:00.000-04:00

Q. What do you get for being nice to a lizard by not running over it?
A. free fall.

Today, I was ripping on my bike and attempted to make a 90degree turn. The turn was executed flawlessly. I had shifted all my weight off the bike to alter the center of gravity and took the turn. I again transferred the weight back and when I was just about stabilizing, I saw a lizard crossing the road. Now, "why the lizard was crossing the road" is a topic of discussion which can get its own theme music and splash screen on some Indian news channel like CNN IBN ( come on, absolutely anything is better that the crap they cover in the name of news..).
Since I am a man of peace and a nature lover, It became my automatic responsibility to not roadkill the lizard. So, I _had_ to break.
Now, what have your elders told you when they thought you how to ride a bike?

Always hold the back break.
_Never_ apply only the front break. _Never_

Since this has been etched into my mind using permanent ink, I applied _only_ the rear brake to save the lizard. In the next pico second, I figured I was in air making my flight towards the concrete floor.

I fell. Got hurt a bit.

Now if you apply basic laws of motion, you can easily see that something went wrong.
Yes, it did. Not the laws of motion, but my common sense.

I forgot that here, the rear breaks are at the right and front at the left. Exact opposite of what happens in India. So, by impulse, my brain decided to apply the "rear brake" which it thought was at the left, effectively applying only the front brakes on a brand new cycle while taking a turn trying to frantically save a lizard.

That lizard better "live happily ever after", for I tore my favorite track pant trying to save it.

Incidentally, my brother too had a fall recently from his bike due to malfunctioning paddles ( They literally fell off) and hurt himself pretty badly.

"I had a fall and was dragged on the road,
I am now running on recovery mode."
--Purnateja ( My Brother, Linux Fan )

A cyclic story

2007-08-17T02:00:00.000-04:00

My first cycle( bi-cycle, we call it cycle ) was called "Tobo Cycle". Whilst other kids rode a tri-cycle, I used to ride this awesome machine(for the other kids) which had only two wheels and a chain drive.
After I grew too big for that bike, I used to go rent cycles for 50 Paisa/Hour and roam all around Malleshwaram, Yvallikaval and Kodandarama pura at mad speeds.

The first adult size cycle I had for myself was not mine. It was my mother's. It was a BSA SLR and it had a slanting bar, making it a "ladies cycle". It was at least thrice my size. By the time I grew to half the cycle's size, my mom decided to give it to my cousin, with the promise of getting me a new cycle. ( She destroyed by it by mishandling :( )

So, for like a year, all I did was to think about cycles, which one would be better, which one to buy, an ATB which had huge tires or a BSA SLR which has small tires. I was fascinated by the "Shock absorbers" on the cycles. "Shimono" gears with grip shift were absolute masterpieces for a cycle. It was a dream of dreams!

But, finally, I bought a "Hero Ranger" which was a more realistic ATB cycle, with no gears/shock absorbers. I was disappointed a bit, but I loved that cycle. I still have it in my home.

The whole funda behind narrating this story is that I finally bought a bike with 21 speed gears, grip shift, front and rear shock absorbers, aluminum frame and killer looks. Check it out.

It has shock absorbers at the front,

At the back

Grip Shift

21 speed gears!!

Another view of the beauty!

Basically, this bike has everything I was drooling over as a kid!!
But it still is not perfect, as it does not have disc breaks. I could not find a cycle with disc breaks, but I will buy them and fit it myself. After that, this cycle will be a "Pushpak Vimaan" :)

Current music: Alex Gaudino, Destination Calabria. This song has an interesting video, which you can watch on youtube. But, be warned, it is not very suitable for family viewing.

vim: Editing Machine!

2007-08-11T16:52:00.000-04:00

In the past month, I got to try the visual studio editor, Komodo, Notepad++ and a myriad of other editors (except emacs. I should try it sometime). No editor even comes close to the enormous power of vim. To use some random editor over vim is like shining a flashlight in front of the bright sun. It is like trying to teach the congress party (of India) how to be sycophants.

Thus came out this song (Has to be sung in the "Videocon Washing Machine.." tune. You know, the ad which used to play some thousand years ago..)

Vim: Editing machine!

It searches, It matches,
It even completes your text,
In just a few minutes,
you will stop using any other editor!
Vim: Editing machine!
(tantan tan tan tan)
Vim: Editing machine!

It has *,
It has #,
And not to forget : and /
and In just a few minutes,
you will shred other editors!
Vim: Editing machine!
(tantan tan tan tan)
Vim: Editing machine!

It can tag,
and lets you brag,
About not touching the mouse!
And in just a few minutes,
you will disown other editors!
Vim: Editing machine!
(tantan tan tan tan)
Vim: Editing machine!

Music: I found my all time favorite tv show theme: Shaktimaan Theme Song! ( no, I did not say the show was my favorite, I said the theme was). Listen to it here

How much is 9.8m/s/s? Skydiving is the answer.

2007-07-29T21:12:00.000-04:00

Skydiving is something which I wanted to do from a long time. I jumped off a plane from over 9000ft and I am alive to talk about it, thanks to the parachute.

Click Here to see skydiving pics

age++;

2007-07-20T00:27:00.000-04:00

Many first times this birthday

Birth"day" lasted for 47.5 hours(Starting from 12:00am IST to 12:00pm PDT) .
Spent most of it alone.
Had to prepare my birthday treat dinner.
Along with many wishes, came in two marriage proposals. Yes, you read it right, marriage proposals. Apparently, some two people who heard my mother say that I had started working, came to her with marriage proposals. Yes, to marry me. My mother who was shocked to hear this, told me that to her eyes, I look like a small boy, but for the world, I have "grown up".

Well, honestly, I dont want to "grow up". I want to be as worry free as a kid. Always.
But, life has its own ways..

while(alive){
age++;
responsibilities++;
}

if(goodKarma > badKarma)
heaven();
else if (goodKarma==badKarma)
// What happens here?
else
hell();

TCP Pilgrimage

2007-07-10T01:55:00.000-04:00

In any religion, people embark on long journeys to reach a place of immense moral significance to wash off all their sins. They become "free" of all their misdeeds, even if they have spent all their life doing bad things with an intention to do it. I had been to Tahoe and Reno, a bit too late for a TCP pilgrimage. I should have been to Tahoe when I was struggling my head off in the WNL trying to get the "anti-social"* mobile agents to work on TCP networks. Maybe all my "sins" of not coding properly would have been washed away and the code would have worked in a magical blib!

duh!! Always late!!

*Term coined by Srikanth NV

Kayaking

2007-07-05T00:12:00.000-04:00

An internet addict is not someone who sits in front of a box 24hours a day and surfs random sites. An internet addict is one who sits on a kayak and panics when it goes out of control and wants to search "How to steer a kayak" on Google.

No, I did not grab a phone and search, but I badly wanted to do it when I ventured into a river which was over 60ft deep and freezing cold and tried to kayak for the first time. I sat on a kayak along with a person who did not have even the slightest idea how to swim, leave alone kayaking.

As soon as we sat on the kayak, it simply drifted with the flow into really deep water. If I was alone, I would have jumped into the water and pushed back the kayak onto the shore, but no! I had another person on my back who could not swim! I panicked a bit and tried frantically stroking the paddle in all directions and orientations and finally figured which stroke takes the boat in which direction. Suddenly, there was a sense of accomplishment running through all my veins. I took the kayak in all directions and steered it to my will.

If saving a rupee is like earning a rupee, not killing someone is as good as saving someone's life. And the best part was, I did not show that I was panicking thus the person did not panic. The person believed that I was in perfect control of the whole situation!

Finally after an hour of kayaking ( half of it alone ), I realised why kayaking is an olympics event. Specially the team kayaking event!

Another random thing, another day I am not dead.. phew!!

1 year of treatment, 100 doses of medecine: a new me?

2007-07-02T00:53:00.000-04:00

Its been a year since I started writing here. What started out as a place to place small notes to myself about turmoils in my thinking patterns in order to avoid them from re-appearing, somehow mutated into monster which could rant continuously without any rest.

This is the 100th post on this blog. Seeing how many hits I get everyday on this blog ( I can count the visitors using just my right hand ), no one in their sane minds would have posted a 100 entries. But still, I write. Why? Simple. These 100 entries have given me an immense sense of satisfaction. It is like screaming your heart out in front of a audience assembled for a Metallica concert or some indian political rally ( only difference is that I did not distribute packets of "saraai" )

And indeed, My mind is different but as mad as it was. Just mad about different things :P

~~And I am thinking of NOT posting any more entries. What say?~~ Update: No stopping even if this blog gets zero hits :)

ps: Someone decided to pay me for writing code from today, full time. Unbelievable!

My new favourite passtime: Yahoo Answers India!

2007-06-29T08:53:00.000-04:00

Its hilarious and addictive. I cannot believe the kind of questions which come up there, specially on Y! Answers India. OMG, yesterday alone, I saw so many brilliant questions!
The best of the worst ( believe me, grammatical errors are the least of your amusements there)

Who are person mobile 9893******?
(I censored the number, he had not.)

A Valid Product Key for Microsoft Office 2003 Pro Edition....................... Please Help........?
(someone even posted an answer with the key!)

How do I send yahoo yahoo email to india?
(Type "yahoo yahoo" and click send, I guess)

I want sexy pics of jayaprdha?
(Are you asking yourself dude?
I was not surprised that someone posted this, but I was awed to see some 5 people reply :|)

What is Himesh Reshammiya Address..?
(best reply I saw was "nak..pur")

These are just a few I noted. Most questions I bookmarked as hilarious were deleted when I went back today morning. Awesome fun! Addictive timepass.

Greasemonkey Script to type in Kannada

2007-06-27T17:32:00.000-04:00

What does it do?
Simple. Lets you type Indian language kannada in any textarea box on a webpage.
You can toggle between English and Kannada keyboards using F12.

Wow! Where do I find it?
here http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/10251

What about tamil, telugu, marathi, bengali?
Coming soon!!

What license?
All code not marked with the (c) Monusoft is released under GPL version 2 or higher.

Does it work?
Of course yes!
Tested on blogger,orkut,gmail,livejournal,facebook and many such sites.

Where can I find the keyboard layout?
Here ( Click to enlarge )

Thanks to http://vishalon.net http://monusoft.com

ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಮಾಯೆ ಹುಶಾರು...

2007-06-26T15:38:00.001-04:00

ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಮಾಯೆ ಹುಶಾರು,
ಕಣ್ಣೀರ್ ಮಾರೊ ಬಜಾರು!
ಒಮ್ಮೆ ಶರಣಾದ್ರೆ ಪ್ರೀತೀಗೇ,
ಕತ್ತು ಕೊಟ್ಟಹಂಗೆ ಕತ್ತೀಗೆ!

No, I am not the author. It is a song from the kannada movie "Duniya" (kannada:ದುನಿಯ). The movie is so good that I decided to write about it here.

Duniya is a movie which has completed 100 days in many theaters, and was the only reason we went to watch it. Duniya is a movie which Jogi* attempted to be and failed miserably.

Duniya successfully captures the emotions of a illiterate laborer "Shivlingu", who attempts to earn enough money to build a memorial around his mother's grave. Along with Shivlingu is Poornima, who is an orphan trying to pass 2nd PUC and settle in life.
I love the movie particularly for the way it is pictureised and the director Suri has successfully portrayed love, innocence, helplessness and other emotions in an almost flawless script. One logical flaw which I could not overlook was the innocence levels of Poornima. She is in 2nd PUC for god sake and cannot differentiate between good and bad. Although she has been showed opposing Shivlingu's friendship with "bad" people, I cannot accept that a girl studying in Bangalore can be as ignorant as she has been shown.
but all in all, a movie definitely worth watching. Dont miss it!

4 starts on 5!
My favourite song:" Preethi maye hushaaru"

For those of you who can understand, I won!! horray!!

*Jogi is a much hyped kannada movie which sucks to unbelievable extents. It is one of the very few kannada movies which I have ever regretted watching. Prem, the director of the movie jogi needs social rehab. His direction is marred by extremely bad usage of kannada, utter disrespect to women and is filled hypocritical content. His dialogs lack class and he is taking lead in destroying the beautiful kannada language. If there is one director whose movies you will want to avoid at any cost, it should be that of Prem. Do not attempt to watch them even if it is hyped out of this galaxy or even if you are given a free ticket and a ride back and forth to the theater.

ಶುದ್ಧ ಬೈಗಳಗಳ ಪುನರಾವರ್ತನೆ

2007-06-21T15:32:00.000-04:00

ಒಮ್ಮೆ ನಾವಿಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರಿಗಾದರು ಶುದ್ಧ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೈಯ್ಯುವುದು ಹೇಗೆಂದು ಕಲಿತೆವು. ಈಗ, ಮತ್ತೆ ಇನ್ನೊಂದಶ್ಟು ಬೈಗುಳಗಳನ್ನು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಬಳಿ ತಂದಿದ್ದೆನೆ.
ಈ ಬೈಗುಳಗಳ್ಳನ್ನು ಯಾರಮೇಲಾದರು ಪ್ರಯೋಗಿಸಬೇಕು ಅಂದರೆ, ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ಪದವನ್ನು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಘಟ್ಟಿಯಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಿ. ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಮುಂದಕ್ಕೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಕಂಠವನ್ನು ಮೇಲೆತ್ತುತ್ತಾ ಇನ್ನು ಘಟ್ಟಿಯಾಗಿ ಕೂಗುತ್ತಾ,

ದುಶ್ಟಾ!
ಬ್ರಷ್ಟಾ!
ಅನಿಶ್ಟಾ!
ನಿಕ್ರುಶ್ಟಾ!
ಪಾಪಿಶ್ಟಾ!
ಗತಿಕೋಷ್ಟಾ!
ಕಮ್ಮೂನಿಷ್ಟಾ! (communistಆ)

ಅಂತ ಘಟ್ಟಿಯಾಗಿ ನಿಮ್ಮ ದ್ವನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೂಗಿ. ಕಮ್ಮೂನಿಷ್ಟಾ! (communistಆ) ಅನ್ನೋದನ್ನ ಇನ್ನೂ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಕೂಗಿ. ಕೇಳಿಸಲ್ಲ ಪಾಪ ಅವರಿಗೆ.
ಶ್ವಾಶ ಬಿಟ್ರೂ, ಪ್ರಾಸ ಬಿಡೋ ಜನ ಅಲ್ಲ ನಾವು :)

No bottled water, please.

2007-06-20T23:31:00.000-04:00

One of my friends once told me that the secret to his good health and strong immune system was that he travels a lot and at every place he reaches, he drinks a glassful of locally available water. Not treated/bottled water, which most of us do when we travel.
I decided to test this system. On my recent trip to costal Karnataka I drank water, as served by the hotel dudes in every random place I went. namely

Bhadravati
Shimoga
Sagar
Ikkeri ( Idli, Udupi Buns, Tea. The best tasting buns)
Varadanadi janmasthala
SwarNavalli ( I also had something called "Kashaya" for the first time. Nice drink, close to coffee in the kicks it generates )
Sondhe
SahasraLinga ( the Shalmali river water )
Jog falls ( the Sharavati river water )
GokarNa
Karwar ( Also made it a point to taste the Kali river water at its delta )
Kumta ( Best hospitality. The waiter dude took us to the best table in their hotel which had a fan etc, and took good care )
Honnavara
Shimoga ( Went to Meenaxi Bhavan. Awesome tasting food. The taste of paddu and masal dose we ate there is still fresh on my tongue. Vidhyarthi Bhavan of sorts of Shimoga. dont forget to go there in case you are in town. )

Now that I have had so many different kinds of water in a span of 3 days, my immune system should as strong as a 10m thick Titanium wall!! ( If the dude who told me about the "secret to health" was kidding, it will be as weak as a wet tissue paper )

Why do lorries in India say "OK" at the back?

2007-06-18T23:23:00.000-04:00

If the words of a former lorry driver have to be trusted, it apparently is put up in the middle along with "Sound" and "Horn" at the left and right ends to convey the following (as told by the driver, translated from colloquial kannada after filtering liberal abuse of slang )

Before you overtake, "Sound" "Horn" and wait for the "OK" signal from the driver.

some lorry driver who quite possibly was a fan of Da Vinci, cooked up this contrived, convoluted and cyphered method of communication with lesser mortals on road, thus forming the "Sound OK Horn" cult. Every lorry owner became a blind follower and demonstrated their undying loyalty for the cult by painting "Sound OK Horn" on their lorries.

Visualizing the most frequent rants about life

2007-06-12T07:15:00.000-04:00

1. Life is complex2. No one can assess the magnitude of life
3. Life in un-interpretable
4. Bad phase in life

Real life Packet Jitter

2007-06-07T08:01:00.001-04:00

The whole world understands it. Everyone I know relates to it and it manages to gather more sympathies than a chronic migraine.

No, it is not insomnia. Neither is it dementia. Nor the love for Karan Johar's movies. Not even the inability to stop listening to pop music. It is: "Jet lag".

"Do you have jet lag?", as I have noticed, is the most frequently asked question to anyone who has taken a transatlantic flight.

The first few times when I was asked this question, I shrugged it off saying I was fine and timezones hardly make any impact on my ability to sleep whenever I want, and for how much ever time I want. But, people refused to buy it. They started insisting that I had jet lag and associated every bit of my usual idiotic behavior to "Jet lag".

For some time, I was annoyed. But when I realized its potential, I gracefully embraced it and started using it.

Keep reminding people about your "sorry" state and things which would have otherwise got you thrown out of the house, fetch you responses like
Drop a glass vase: "Poor guy, he has Jet Lag"
Take your own sweet time to answer questions: "Jet Lag"
Forget something critically important: "The lag.."

But the bad news is, after some time, it will be gone and I will have to look for other reasons to justify my stupid, clumsy behavior :P

Shopping cycle

2007-05-27T01:54:00.000-04:00

In all these many months I have been shopping, I had never realized that my(our) shopping habits were so radically different from other people.

Our shopping generally happens on Saturdays, when our campus bus takes us to a mall. If we miss the buses on Saturday (10 in all), we can take a bus on Sunday to reach another mall, only this time, you will have to pay almost double for everything because these Sunday malls are for local dudes who own 3 cars and a boat and a mansion in three different locations on this planet. Not really meant for students.
If you were wondering who in the right mind will take the Sunday bus, there is no dearth of lazy people who miss all the 10 buses on sat only to wake up on Sunday morning and realise that they have run out of milk( like me ).

Today, I somehow made it to one of the buses, which had a whole bunch of my batch mates. They had a decent list of things to buy. They went around in pairs, mostly boyfriend-girlfriend kinds, one of them had the list, ticking items as and when they picked it. They knew where to find what and how much it costs. I know this because I heard one of them saying ``this cereal( just add milk to make boosa) was cheaper last week!!''
On the contrary, In the 1 hour I had,

Find a cart
Pick up arbit stuff as and when I see them
Reach the electronics aisle
Get stuck there for 45 mins and buy nothing
Realise I have 10mins left for the return bus, panic, run and get milk and few bakery items
Check out frantically, make it to the bus, crib all the way about not buying food
Repeat steps 1 to 6 on Sunday

Coming back to what my batch mates had bought, they had it so well organised and planned. Food was aplenty on their carts and along with that, they had brooms, cleaning fluids, all kinds of cosmetics and even fans!!

Me and my friend ( my friend, so obviously, as chaotic as me ) saw all these things and instead of appreciating their organised and disciplined life, guess what both of us uttered in unison...

"These people take their lives too seriously :P"

lappie2 :)

Movie mania part 2

2007-05-26T02:31:00.000-04:00

Holidays give you so much free time that you start watching movies like eating potato chips.. one after the other, non-stop! For the records,

Mata -- for the 6th time-- more on this later ( in the next post )
Fight Club -- nice movie, mindless end. Leave your logic someplace else for the last few minutes of the movie. Utter nonsense, according to me ( the end only.. rest of the movie rocks )
Harold and Kumar go to white castle -- Timepass movie, can watch once
Not another teen movie -- Nice movie, made me laugh like crazy and also nice end, although you will hate it!
Mungaru Male -- Was good, but I FFed most of the movie as it was very predictable. Nice performance by the entire crew, specially Ganesh has done a good job. Ananth Nag's character is so fake and artificial that even "Fair and Lovely" ad makers will melt like a ice sculpture in molten lava unable to fathom the very fact that someone can create characters which are a bigger fake than their ads.
V for Vendetta -- WOW! again, leave your logic and reasoning in the fridge when you watch this. Amazing movie, makes you sit and watch it. ( Even an impatient freak like me )
Butterfly Effect -- Now this, is what I call a movie. Completely unpredictable and unconventional screenplay. Reminds me of Memento and Peppermint Candy. But the Sci-Fi part sucks. Way too many flaws. If I were the director, I would have ended the movie at the scene where it started( obviously when it re-appears later ).

7 movies in a span of 2 days.. not bad eh?

note to self: yes you do, and no you dont care!

#define friend ``One who is always `there' ''

2007-05-19T13:53:00.000-04:00

I have seen so many people "define" a true friend. They do it everywhere starting from status messages to public testimonials. The most common definition I have seen is "He/She is always 'there' for me". Something I had not understood. But now, I seem to have figured it out... maybe they are all being sarcastic and saying that a friend is "there" when you need help "here" :P

ebg13 Grkg nern rapelcgvba Ternfrzbaxrl Fpevcg -- ( rot13 Text area encryption Greasemonkey Script )

2007-05-14T00:48:00.000-04:00

Unir lbh orra guvaxvat va (rkprff 13)%26?
Unir lbh unq n znwbe urnqnpur gelvat gb pngpu hc jvgu bgure zbegnyf jub qb abg haqrefgnaq lbhe sbejneqrq naq zbq 26'rq guvaxvat?
Unir lbh orra gur htyl qhpxyvat sbe nyy lbhe yvsr?

Jryy, abg sbe ybat!!

Svanyyl, nsgre lrnef bs fhssrevat, crbcyr jub guvax va rkprff13 pna svanyyl oerngur n fvtu bs eryvrs.

Vafgnyy guvf ternfrzbaxrl fpevcg naq glcr va ebg13 naq pyvpx ba gur r13 ohggba gb pbireg vg gb abezny ratyvfu!
Lbh pna rira cnfgr ratyvfu grkg naq cerff gur r13 ohggba ntnva gb trg ebg13 grkg!

Fyvpx? Vaqrrq.

Purpx bhg gur rknzcyr

Cerff gur zntvp r13 ohggba naq

Urer'f ubj lbh trg vg
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/9234 <-- Gur qbjaybnq ybpngvba naq nyy gur qrgnvyf
http://devadutta.net/index.php?node=35 <-- Zl jrocntr gnyxvat nobhg guvf fpevcg

( lrf, V xabj, gur pehry abezny crbcyr unir znqr gur vagrearg va aba (rkprff 13)%26 )

Reproduced here in normal english for the greater good of the non excess 13 mod 16 thinkers.

Have you been thinking in (excess 13)%26?
Have you had a major headache trying to catch up with other mortals who do not understand your forwarded and mod 26'ed thinking?
Have you been the ugly duckling for all your life?

Well, not for long!!
Finally, after years of suffering, people who think in excess13 can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Install this greasemonkey script and type in rot13 and click on the e13 button to covert it to normal english!

You can even paste english text and press the e13 button again to get rot13 text! Slick? Indeed.

Check out the example Press the magic e13 button and

Here's how you get it
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/9234 <-- The download location and all the details
http://devadutta.net/index.php?node=35 <-- My webpage talking about this script

This side up?

2007-05-11T15:26:00.000-04:00