Just

not the song…not the song…not the song…not the song…not the song…not the song…not the song…

I’m going to try something. “Holy Shit! Another One Of His Thought Experiments! Run! Run While You Can!” Umm… why are you using caps on the first letter of every word? “Terry Pratchett Is Over-Rated! Mel Blanc Is A Proto-Pseudo-Quasi God! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Woo-hoo“

I’d like to do it on a computer, but I’m the Sol-certified, “Worst. Programmer. Ever”. So I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.

Write down whatever the fuck I think. Length, content, aesthetics etc do not matter. Put these notes in a bag or box or something. When it’s full. Pick some up and write them down. See what comes out.

Do you expect me to make sense?

No, Mr. THF. I expect you to die.

He’s got the look

Yaaaaaaaah! I named a post after a Roxette song! Jesus Fucking Scandinavian Grammatically Wrong Bad Fucking Songs That Are Fucking Popular Amongst Limited Users Christ!!!

New theme. If only it were two-column!

I intend to keep it for some time. At least until I feel I need to show people my blog stats and blogroll again. (For the record, it’s around 18,300 hits. <sarcasm> Wow! </sarcasm>

I wrote 2 drafts. Started off well, but lost the plot somewhere in the middle. Thought up of a short story while walking from Atta Market to sector-50. Now that I’m here, I can’t type crud. I need a voice to text recorder in my mp3 player that will convert everything I say into an OpenOffice document. Nimish! Get working!

Btw, CP late at night with the lights on and no-one around is an enchanting sight.

cout<<”insert title here”<<;

I can’t think up of an appropriate name for this post. It consists of a lot things I want to say which are there for all to see and some stuff that’s all subtle and “meant for YOUR eyes only” etc. Go figure.

Happy Budday!

An unusual birthday. Unusual because, well, it was a big deal. People took my birthday seriously. Shock! The world is a better place.

Happy Budday!

An ugly beginning. College boys do weird things on their friends’ birthdays. I was pelted with eggs, butter, detergent, cake, chocolate, deodorant, ketchup, shampoo and probably more crap at the stroke of midnight.

Happy Budday!

A surprising beginning. Approximately 8 people called me at midnight to wish me. As usual, however, Harita was the first to do so. But very narrowly. As soon as I picked up her call, I saw another phone call. Thank you and Thanks, everyone.

Happy Budday!

My spoils of budday include:

• A copy of ‘Brave New World‘ by Aldous Huxley. – Ashwin
• A new wallet and a box of motichoor laddoos – Swati, Priya and Ankur
• A T-shirt. – Viji
• Cash – Harita, Mom and Dad
• A game controller – Monisha

Happy Budday!

“College” decided to celebrate my birthday by having 3 vivas on the same day. Spent all morning finishing files and looking stupid in front of “professors”. Then I learn that I’ve been debarred in 5 out of 8 theory papers. Reason: No attendance compensation for winning anything anywhere, but you get almost 2 months worth of attendance for losing in the 2nd round of the Intra-My “University” Cricket Championship (they only played 2 matches, but needed 2 months of training).

Happy Budday!

There’s a page that gives the people’s perspective on the author. Here’s the author’s perspective on some people, in recognition of the unexpected outpouring of friendship I have received.

• Swati Srinivasan a.k.a. The Pink Panther: I may call you the “human radio” amongst other things, but college without you feels oddly empty. You’re my witty sidekick who’s as practical as I am a dreamer and as optimistic as I am a cynic. (If you can call me your 2nd most ideal pet, after a rock, I can call you my sidekick. Clear?).
• Priyadarshini Murthy: My first impression of anyone is almost always something that gets lost in the garbage dump of my temporal lobes. However, I do remeber the first thing I ever said about her. “Who? That quiet, intelligent one?”. Never fails to surprise, right from scoring unbelievable grades to going with Ankur and me on a week-long backpack and bus trip in Himachal Pradesh. A KFC buddy.
• Ankur Prabhat Sati: He hates it when people introduce him thus: The guy with a 9.4 GPA! He may be somewhat of an Ayn Rand fan (but not one who believes in “spreading the good word”, thankfully) but his craze for South Park (inflicted upon him by yours’ truly) makes up for it. Priya’s biggest rival and… (dot dot dot) at the same time. A fellow KFC buddy.
• Ashwin Murali: The Shakespearen fool. The goof. The comic relief character in my life. (What did you expect from me? praise? Hah! That happens a lot dunnit?) Yet another KFC buddy.
• Dinesh Kapur: A spirit brother of sorts and someone who I think is the next Shashi Tharoor. Even if he wants to be the next this guy. Brimming with talent, his time in the sun is a question of when rather than if.

Happy Budday!

And thank you for the best birthday gift ever. (Yes, yes. I’ve started doing the whole “You” thing as well! There’s a actually a very good reason behind it. A highly logical explanation that makes all of these actions seem perfectly rational and quite intelligent. Unfortunately,  can’t remember what it was.)

Happy Budday!

Anyway, I am being stretched to the limit of my emotional endurance. On one hand, I have reasons to be so happy I ought to be breaking into spontaneous fits of dancing all the time, as opposed to only when I listen to Idioteque. And on the other hand, my “college” is assisting in fucking me over. (I say assisting because I am partly to blame as well. But only partly!)

Happy Budday!

An interesting time in my life, this is.

Happy Budday!

Note: I hate living in Noida. And I hate living in sector unnanchaas even more.

V for…

Hindi in English. So, it has come to this…

Bolo bacchon, Bhi ijh phaar…

Vendetta: One of my favorite graphic novels (and a good movie too!). But more importantly, a vendetta against a whole lotta miserably pointless things. *hrunnkkk* No! Not now! *gaarhhh* Must… Control… SNAP! *yaaarrrggghhhh!!!* MUST! DESTROY! “COLLEGE”! ABOUT! BURN! SLAY! REVENGE! BURN! (Oi! We heard you the first time!) DESTROY “COLLEGE”! DESTROY IT NOW! Sorry about that. But apart from that, I’m also on a Vendetta against Ayn Rand followers. I already have been against A. Rand for quite some time, but it’s now time that her loyal fans get what they deserve. (Does not include everyone who reads or is even stupid enough to like her books. I mean her followers. Her legions of loyal subjects, the filth of the earth!)

Vaark: Have too much work to complete. And there seems to be no point as I’m probably going to get debarred from giving ANY exam this semester. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck!

Visdom: Something I need and am probably in the process of acquiring. The hard way.

Ventilation: The heat! The unbearable, miserable, annoying, energy-sapping, soul-crushing, sweat-inducing, requires-repeated-bathing-to-overcome heat! And the mosquitoes, they feast on me. (Yes, yes… I’m from Bangalore. Koramangala to boot. But we can take precautions there. None here! There is no escape)

Vending Machines: Will make life a whole lot easier at college. Or make it far worse than it is currently.

Verse: This post is far worse than I ever expected it would be. Trust me, it hurt me more to write it than it does to you while reading.

Th-th-th-th-That’s all, Folks!

Do Good Things Happen? Really?

I’ve been asking myself this question over and over again. For the last time, I’m not freaked out, I just find good things happening to me to be… unreal.

So, when good things do happen, my immediate reaction tends to be: Really? I mean, are you serious?

But I’m trying to change. I may be paranoid, but I am no… (stop quoting this line)

But things seem to be returning to normal. I’m typing this in a subterranean reliance webworld outlet without an A/C in 40C heat and songs from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom playing loudly and over and over and over again!

For a minute there, I thought my life was imitating OK Computer. But now I think that if it is, it’s a quasi-static process.

Will post more if and when I get a net connection or at least after I fix up my computer.

My Last Few Days As A Teenager

Before I get to the title… some updates:

• My C drive needs formatting. I got Kaspersky internet security in the morning and that very night… FUCK! And I’ve had it with pirated software and cracks and keygens, I’ll probably spend six hundred bucks and buy an original Kaspersky from Die Batra Wird.
• I was sick for a week. According to my doctor, it was a normal viral fever only with ‘nads of steel! The resilient sonofabitch gave me a steady fever of a 103.5F for almost four days continuously.
• I’m forcing myself to get back to reading. Sorta working. I’ve been loo-reading Niall Murtagh’s “The Blue-Eyed Salaryman “, a pretty nice insight into Japanese corporate life although I feel the laddie (I see Irish names and I say ‘laddie’) tries too hard to portray himself as this wanderer / explorer / adventurer.
• In lieu of the above point, I’m re-reading “Not Even Wrong” by Peter Woit and am planning to redo “Three Roads To Quantum Gravity” by Lee Smolin as preparation to tackle “Gravity: An Introduction To Einstein’s General Relativity” by James B. Hartle (It took me an hour to finish the second chapter of this book. I knew I was in a reading rut after that!) and Roger Penrose’s 1,136-page “The Road To Reality“.
• I also went through an article that highlighted the books people claim they read and the books they actually read. Oddly enough, I’ve read most of the authors in the “show-off” list: Ramachandra Guha - Brilliant! Outstanding! Amazing!, Salman Rushdie – Eh. Ok., Arundhati Roy – BITCH!, Stephen Hawking – Life changing, but have since found better, et cetera. I’ve only read two books in the “what people actually read” list: Bran Down! Bran Down! Alert! Alert! Bran Down! (for people who aren’t in on the inane joke: Dan Brown –> Bran Down –> Brain Down) and JK Rowling. I’ve written an entire piece on this topic which is stuck on my Hard Drive.
• I also bought myself a book. It’s only my 2nd book purchased this year! Gasp! “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Hope this goes better than my attempt at “War and Peace” when I was 12. An endeavor (endepo) which ended with my frustration at the fact that soiree the goddam book opens with seemed never-ending.

I wish I hadn’t fallen sick. I’m now short on the cash I was saving up to buy the ‘In Rainbows‘ CD. Fuck.

Right. Now, this is my last week as a Teenager. Come next week and I shall turn twenty. Will I suddenly become mature? Is this the end of my “teenage angst”? Will I be more serious, less weird and impulsive and settle down and start doing things with my life? Give my existence meaning? Will I stop listening to rock music and start listening to 1950s hindi film music?

Probably not. But I’ll miss being a teenager. And yes, since I’ll be a score, does that count as “Dude, I SCORED!”.

It’s back…

DEPRESSING COMIC WEEK HATH RETURNED! AND ALL WHO LOVE DARK, SADISTIC AND DOWNRIGHT TWISTED HUMOR WERE JOYFUL.

A Collection of Modern-Day Pictograms…

Advice: Expectations are the worst thing you can ever inflict on yourself. Especially expecting yourself to do things that aren’t needed.

Note: Goddam it! I’m writing this and all of a sudden, my mp3 player starts playing Behind Blue Eyes.  Second level-10 freaky coincidence (sign?!) to happen in less than 24 hours.

Right-o, advice: Being a loner, and one of those “Fuck you and what you think” type loners to boot, I’ve never mastered the art of impressing people. So when I try… I end up coming across as “angry, irritated” or what is more likely, “creepy and exceptionally stupid”. So, kids… Don’t expect to do great things. Do what you have to, what comes naturally and most importantly… relax.

I’m really irritated and angry, though. At myself. Maybe I ought to… I don’t know what to do. The system. Laziness. Incompetence. Ability. Thoughts. Emotions. Love. Hatred. Freedom. The illusion. Stupid. Intelligent. Woman. Man. Dream. Reality. Dream. Dream. Dream. Day dream. Consciousness. Lack of. Evolving as a person. Untrue to your word. Hypocrisy. Diplomacy. Grammar. Spelling. Research and Planning. Lack thereof. Excess. Deficient. Over-hyped. Under-rated. GO AWAY! (Please don’t leave me! )

A horrible new day will dawn. Everything will cease. I will finally be…

I CAN HAZ DEKSTOP?

I have a desktop! Sorry…sorry… a dekstop. (up your’s Dilli!)

2GB RAM (Corsair), Asus 7100 Motherboard, AMD Athlon X2 Processor, 17 inch CRT Monitor (Samsung), Microsoft XP Professional (I’m planning to put up a “NO VISTA ALLOWED” sticker on my CPU case). No office suite or internet connection, yet. Doubt if I’ll get the latter. Thinking of downloading OpenOffice for the former (up your’s Microsoft!)

So, what am I doing on my new desktop  dekstop? Nothing useful really. (Up your’s anyone doing useful things on their PCs!)

I don’t have much to say right now. Except that I’m oddly calm. Listening to Honey Singh. Thinking of writing a review of that song. I actually like it! (up your’s… er… anyone who thinks I shouldn’t!)

So… wow… you guys expect me to say something profound or funny or absurd or meaningful… OK… err… Stirling engines are External Continuous Combustion types as opposed to normal (such as Diesel or SI) engines which are Internal Intermittent Combustion types. The fact that it’s a thermodynamic cycle that can provide the theoretically maximum value of efficiency (along with the Carnot cycle), but also practically feasible and cheaper makes it an ideal model for future engines. As of now, the Glenn Space Research Center at NASA is trying to develop a Deep-Space Propulsion System based on the Stirling Cycle. (STG’s they call them – Stirling Thermionic Generators). (Up your’s RTG Technology!)

There. Phew! The burdens of expectation!

Presentation Advice

For once, solicited advice from others as opposed to the solicited version from me!

The header image has come in for some well-deserved criticism. The alternative, I didn’t fancy. So, I’m choosing between a photo of a primordial black hole or a computer reconstruction of particle tracks, originating from the simulated decay of a Higgs-boson from the Max Planck Institute. (No problems, Herrs?)

And here’s a neat little thingie in a field I absolutely despise… organic chemistry.

I’m open to suggestions for any further changes.