mahade1

2011-07-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

Too often we live under the shadow of grief and regret,
We ignore what's already with us, happiness a constant threat
Travel new paths to quench the thirst for a love so true,
Look again, maybe the loved ones are right in front of you.

An about me....

2011-05-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

This was an "about me" that I read on a friend's page. As I read through it, I felt it was describing me to a certain extent. I also loved the way it was written and wish I could write something so beautiful and yet so articulate:

"If I did things right, you'll forget all about me by the time you finish reading this...

If I were to condense myself into one word, it would have to be conflict. I thrive off it, I yearn for it, and I dread it with every ounce of my being. I feel most alive when my soul is in turmoil, but I spend the majority of my time fighting for peace.

I'm not the least bit artistic, but I like to consider myself creative. I'm a child at heart, but an adult at mind, and my daily life falls somewhere in between.

I strive to make others happy, at all costs. If I could, I would devote my entire life to doing just that, and nothing more.

I pride myself on my view of others, in that I make a strong effort to see the good in people. While this does tend to make me seem naive, that I hold people up too high, that notion is only superficial. The reality of it is that I'm not naive, I'm fully aware of the faults and flaws of others, I just don't care about them. In my eyes, those things have no right influencing judgment. Do I think people are perfect? No, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's what one does with their imperfection that shapes my opinion of them, and there is very little one can do to make me think any less of them.

I hold the rest of the world to a standard much different from my own, a standard to which I constantly and consistently fall short, but for which I never stop aiming.

I worry every day that I'm veering away from the person I so long to become, but I feel that this worry only helps me to stay on track.

Someday, I hope to let go of the past that has shaped me so strongly, but I fear that in losing it, I will lose myself, and all the good my past has catalyzed.

In the end, I cannot truly say who I am, because I haven't met me, but if I should, I'd like to say that I was fond of him."

I'd like to hear what according to you in this text is applicable or inapplicable to me.

The Top 10 Internet Rules and Laws!!

2011-04-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

Here's my pick of all the insane rules/laws out there:

10. F0ul's Law
It doesn't matter how simplistic you make your point there will be someone who misunderstands you.

9. Ziggy's Law:
On any website selling either a vacuum or a fan the comments will always include one that indicating that the product either sucks or blows.

8. Poe's Law:
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humour, it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing.

7. Danth's Law (Also known as Parker's Law):
If you have to insist that you've won an internet argument, you've probably lost badly.

7. Cohen's Law:
Whoever resorts to the argument that ‘whoever resorts to the argument that... …has automatically lost the debate’ has automatically lost the debate.
(It's actually a tie with Danth's law)

5. Cunningham's Law:
The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask the question, but rather to post the wrong answer.

4. Pommer's Law:
A person's mind can be changed by reading information on the internet. The nature of this change will be from having no opinion to having a wrong opinion.

3. Skitt's law:
Any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself

2. Rule 35:
If no such porn exists, it will be made.

1. Rule#1:
UTFSE!!!

Original Source for most of these rules/laws:
Top 10 Internet Rules

blog-mobile

2011-04-19T16:04:00.001-07:00

I have now installed blogger-droid on my phone, so hopefully this will be more useful in getting my thought bubbles out into the blogosphere. More blogs? Probably! Just dont bet your life on it. :p

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Happy St.Patrick's

2011-03-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, in an effort to thoroughly embarrass myself further, I have decided to start striking random conversation with random women in the various bars that I have been ending up of late. Actually, I will take that one step further, not just conversation, I am going to go ahead and take pics of them with me!

Last night, I was at the Wild Wing Cafe in Alpharetta, for St.Patrick's. yeah, yeah, not an Irish pub or anything but so what? They always have decent bands playing and I can never complain about their wings n beer selection!!
People sure came out in their greens. I wore a green hoodie, just for the camouflage. The band playing that night was "Electric Boogaloo". Did a decent job with some 70s n 80s covers. Not really my type of music though.

Anyway, just as I was about to head home, I decided to ask this woman if she'd like to take a pic with me. She was somewhat surprised (although I could see a glint of personal gloat) and said okay. The awkward conversation that ensued is part of the Mahadevan folklore now:

me: I love your costume!
Her: Oh, it is Chanel
me: Oh, I am Maddy
Her: oh haha, I am Journey
me: Then what's Chanel?
Her: Oh, it's my perfume
me: Oh, I was talking about your costume. I love your costume
Her: thanks but it is an outfit, not a costume.
me: @#%#%#@#$@#

In my defense, it was fairly loud out there. Okay, screw you, it was my full on Indian accent :p

Here's a pic, just for your viewing pleasure:

Despite incriminating looks from the people around, I am going to start doing this more regularly and take more pics with random women. What the heck, we aren't going to remain bachelors forever, right?

Happy St.Patrick's!!

P.S: Not really sure who the sidekick is or how she managed to sneak into this pic. But, I am not complaining! :p

....

2011-03-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

There once was a young man,
lived his life, honest but bland
He met this lady by chance,
kind, generous, funny and smart
Couldn't help it this simple son,
he lost to her his only heart,

He knelt before her
and told her how he felt,
He sang his heart out,
he told her all,
He had fallen in love,
this foolish young lad

"Let us make memories of us, memories to save
The joys we shall share and the sorrows we divide
Anything you want, with everything I have,
Please say yes, please be the one by my side"

Wanted to be his, but she couldn't say yes
Moved though she was, she caused him despair
and mumbled out words with a melancholic air .

"You are nice but you are just a cub,
Younger than me by ten years you are,
Can't be together, you and me,
can't be together, can't be a social scar"

Dejected and depressed,
broken dreams made of mud,
lone and tired,
poems of tears n' blood

Watching over the mortal's world
was the guardian angel above
She felt pity for this sad tale of love
She flew down to the boy's rescue
Wanting to fix the things gone askew

"Pious and kind, a humble soul
All alone you are, crying all this while
Son, your heart break makes my heart ache
I grant you a wish so I can see you smile"

He said "All I want is just my love
Please angel, if you would make me older,
I will have at least a chance to win her heart.
Just ten years older, old enough to hold her"

Poof! The angel vanished into thin air,
The young man rubbed his eyes,
Was this a dream or was this the reality?
He ran around to see himself in a mirror,

He did really grow older, but just by a day,
Nothing changed, his fate now doomed.
Not the angel, not her magic,
Seemed to aide his future, oh so tragic!

He had given up now if he had not back then,
his shoulders drooped; no reason, no rhyme
he decided to drift away into far away lands
he longed to see his love one last time

He stepped on her porch and knocked on her door,
only wishing to wish her his final farewell,
his eyes met hers, filled with sorrowful tears,
But surprised he was at the sight that his eyes met,
It was not on him that the angel's charm had worked,
it was on her, for she was now younger by ten years!

She kissed him good and they lived happily ever after.
The heavens echoed with the angel's laughter,

The Pina Colada Song

2011-02-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

Consider this situation:

Two lovers once fell in love and got together. After a while, the guy gets bored and yearns for a different life with a different woman just to enjoy the little pleasures in life. He comes upon a letter in the newspaper from a woman wishing for the same. He responds to the ad, and they plan to meet up at a nearby bar. When he goes there, he finds out that it was his lover who posted the ad. They smile and start their love afresh.

Doesn't that sound like the recipe for the next Bollywood movie? Well, this is actually a song, a pretty popular one and I was mocked for not knowing it. The name of the song is "Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes.

Video here for your viewing pleasure. Very catchy, very smooth. Don't forget to read the lyrics.

2011-02-03T07:25:00.001-08:00

Alright, I bought myself a match.com package for 6 months, let's see how that goes! wooohooo!

Fun

2011-01-28T13:08:00.001-08:00

Friday evening.
Office.
No one's working.
Carl's been surprisingly quiet all day.
Mike: Hey Carl, what are you so busy with today?
Carl: Just got done with a phone interview.
Mike: Did you ask him to fuck off?
Carl: It was a her
Mike: Did you make her cry?
Everyone breaks down into spontaneous laughter!

Fun! Oh boy..these colleagues!!

Firkin Night!!

2011-01-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

Yay!!

Another blog post!!!
Kinda reminds me of a good friend of mine who remarked - "It is easy to say a relationship status of a person by taking a look at their blog. If their blog is continuously filled with updates, they are most probably single but if their blog goes void for a while, they are most probably in a relationship"
Well, I just proved her wrong. There has been no change in this single relationship status of mine for well over a year and a half now and still going strong lol.

Anyway, I spent about 2 hours earlier this week trying to write this little poem and I finally finished it. Here it goes:

"Framed in a frantic opera, a fiery feria,
A fairy, face so frail, poured me forth a famous ale,
A frothy fluid fermented fervently, fervidly in a freezin' firkin
This refreshing brewski with fabulous friends April, Alex n Punkin
Frees from the furious frays, fills me with glorious praise!!!"

I am actually quite proud of this, always liked verses with interesting word plays (Watch the Cat piano animation or that dialog in V for Vendetta)

What is this about? Well, I was at Taco-mac for the firkin night. of course, I had no idea what it meant. Turns out it is a cask ale where an air hole is introduced at the top of the barrel and the beer is pulled by gravity from a tap on the side. It is very perishable. Unlike with a keg and a beer tap, no carbon dioxide is introduced to pull the beer. This is the way beer was served back in the old days (hundreds and hundreds of years ago) - so it is beer in it's purest form.
I just got to taste a sip of it because I got there too late, but had a fun night out. Beer yummmmm!!!

Bottoms up!

2010-06-17T13:41:00.001-07:00

So we have this thing going on at work (nothing new) where everyone tries to come up with cool status messages for our internal messenger.

One of my colleagues came up with "I started at the bottom and kinda like it down here."
I chuckled out aloud and immediately IM-ed him and asked "whose bottom?"

A dinner partner!

2010-06-13T07:45:00.001-07:00

How difficult could it be to find a person who is up for experimenting with new cuisines and new restaurants? Apparently, a little too difficult. The folks I know here in Atlanta are way too picky or are a little too money conscious. Either they don't meat because of religious reasons or hate trying out new cuisines because they are not too adventurous. (I am not criticizing them, it's a personal choice, I am just saying it as it is)

This area I live in - Alpharetta has some amazing restaurants from what I can read in yelp and other online reviews and I am very eager to try out these restaurants. The only folks I know who are probably as adventurous as me when it comes to eating out live in cities far far away! Oh well...

One day in Sam's life

2010-06-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Sam was stuck. No, this is not in reference to the time when he was stuck in the elevator or the time when he was stuck in the freezing rain after he got locked out of his car or during that time when he couldn't move because his butt was accidentally super-glued to his chair. Nope this is not in reference to any of those instances. This time Sam was stuck, stuck in his boring, mundane life, literally, figuratively and metaphorically. (although, I admit I don't know what's the difference between those three words and think it is cool to use all three of them in the same sentence.)

Who is Sam? Now, that's a good question to ask. He could be you, me or any of the millions out there who work in a 9 am to 6 pm job. His life was so predictable that even predictability got bored of him. He would wake up at 7:06 am every morning, hitting the snooze button on his alarm clock exactly 5 times and waking up when the alarm wouldn't give up the sixth time. He would then sit in front of the TV for a few minutes watching the News with a dazed look in his eyes. After spending a few minutes in the bathroom and getting dressed up, he would grab his bowl of corn flakes and sit and watch the TV again. He had quite a long commute to work, during which he would sit and listen to the same old talk show on radio that offered little chuckles...but no, he wouldn't laugh at them, nope, not even smile because he would be too busy frustrated at the slow paced traffic. He would reach work a few minutes late and that would piss him off. No one else cared what time they came to work but nope, not Sam. He always wanted to be on time but just could never make it.

Sam was a Software Developer. Now that's a cool job, right? Again, you are wrong. Not all Software Developers enjoy their jobs, especially Sam. Sam worked in a legacy module where he had no scope for any creativity. All he had to do was copy, paste, repeat. As boring as it could get. Life for him was as stale as life could get for anyone. Now Sam is not the type to take the "initiative". If Sam were to find himself in front of a charging bull, he wouldn't step out and try to avoid the bull, instead he would lie down and wait for the bull to mow him down. He might get up for an instant but that would only be to get a glass of water for the bull, wait for it to recharge its energy cells and lie on his back once again to face the stomping. Alright quite a bit of exaggeration there but I hope I made my point clear about what sort of an individual this Sam really is.

It seemed just like another routine day. Sam was staring at his bowl of chicken noodles and mom-made chocolate cookies when he overheard two women talking in the break room - "Hey, have you checked out this site meetup.com?" "No, what's that?" "well, it is a cool website where you can meet people around your neighborhood who share the same interests as you, you know, you can make more friends." Friends, now that's what Sam needed in life. He threw away his lunch, took three stairs at a time, reached his desk and created his meetup profile! For once, he was not afraid to seize the initiative. All he had to do was join a few meetup groups, attend those meetings and Sam could well be out of boredomhood.

The big question for him though was what meetup group should he join? His life had been so bland that he could barely remember where his passion lay. Board games! Now that's something that Sam used to be excited about when he was a kid like a good little nerd. All those years spent playing Chess, Ludo, Snake and ladder, Monopoly and the likes...ah, it would be fun to return to those wonderful days again. Lo and behold, Sam actually found a meetup group for board games. There were other adult nerds who still played board games. Wonder of Wonders!
The group's next meeting scheduled was scheduled for the coming weekend. Sam could barely get any work done that week as he kept thinking about meeting possible new friends. His life was going to change forever!

Saturday. Here it was. The meeting was scheduled for 6 pm at a restaurant in midtown. Sam lived quite a distance away from the midtown. He shaved, put on his best dress only to realize that he was out of cologne. It was already 5pm. Either he could be early to the meeting smelling ordinary or even bad or he could reach there a bit late but still looking and smelling good. After carefully weighing both options with the help of a carefully convoluted mathematical formula and a bar diagram, Sam decided to not take the decision suggested by the formula - that is to get him some cologne first and then head to the meeting. Needless to say, Sam forgot to put it on before he left home.

Traffic had its way of interfering with Sam's plans as innocuously as a death metal band could interfere with your sleep. As much as Sam hated being late, Sam just couldn't help being late. He was late by well over an hour, only to realize that he was inside a gay sports bar, not the restaurant where he was supposed to be. Sure, there were lots of board games (of sorts, there were boards and there were games) being played there, but Sam sure did not want to get himself involved in any of those. Sam rushed out and after a bit of a wild goose chase, finally reached his destination. There he was, outside the door to a magical new land filled with new friends. He was nervous, confidence level zero, sweaty and smelling bad. He opened the door and there they were, a bunch of geeks crowded around a large table. There was one empty seat in a far away corner. Sam sat down and nervously introduced himself to the group. The group didn't seem to care much. They were a mixture of old, new, men, women, boys, girls etc etc. All sorts of people, the only thing unifying them was their love for board games. They seemed pretty engrossed in a card game. Sam wanted to join in but decided to just sit this game out and just watch and observe people around him.

Sam started observing the folks one by one until his eyes landed on beautiful Patricia. Now there was an object of pure symmetry. To call her an angel would have been an understatement. Sam was starting to drool. This was his woman! He was staring at her, imagining playing board games with her in the bedroom. Not since he threw down a pencil in second grade to see up Anna's skirt, did Sam feel such excitement rush through his body. Sam felt like a man again. Now he was in a league of his own. He walked up to Patricia, pulled her towards him and kissed her on her full lips right in front of everyone. Oh wait, that was me getting too excited, Sam would never do something brave like that. Nope silly little Sam just sat there staring at her. He was almost invisible to her. She was sitting there happily with a cute little smile on her face, enjoying the card game, paying no attention whatsoever to Sam. Finally, after what seemed to an eternity, the card game ended.

Some folks including the dude next to Patricia were leaving. There it was, an empty seat right next to the woman of his dreams. Should he take it or shouldn't he? How he wished he had his notebook and pen with him so he could chalk out a bar diagram, or preferably, a Venn diagram and use his mathematical formula on what decision he was not supposed to take. Oh well, Sam had to use his instincts. The last time he used them was in the sixth grade when he was found in the school campus running naked shouting "I am Superman". That didn't go so well. Anyhow, Sam decided to follow his instincts this time. He walked up with a total loss of charisma, stumbled twice in the five steps he had to take and finally sat down in the seat next to her. She glanced a casual sideways glance at him and smiled. A lady actually smiled at Sam. Full grown women never smile at Sam, he could already sense this was going to go real well.

So, the big group split out into multiple smaller groups with each smaller group playing a different game.
Patricia recommended that they play this game called "Guillotine". Sam nodded profusely even though he absolutely hated that game. He would never win in it when he was a kid (which was actually true for most of the other board games that he played) so he swore to himself that he would never play it again. What better time to break an oath than to please a woman, right?
Now there was this Jewish dude sitting to the other side of Patricia who said he didn't know anything about that game. So Patricia was spending all her time facing the other way explaining to him what the game was. Grrr... Sam was getting angry. Anger, love, pleasure, Sam was feeling these after such a long time. He feigned ignorance and told Patricia he didn't know the game too. There she was, beautiful Patricia explaining with her expressive face how to play the game. Sam's head bobbed around like a Yo-Yo. She was talking to him. He heard her speak but not one word was being processed by his brain, it was too busy processing her image.
They started playing the game. Sam was a child once again, playful, naughty, loud and all other attributes that you would never associate with the grown up Sam. He was becoming the fun part of the group and everyone started to like him, yes, including Patricia. She would laugh crazily no matter what he said. When you can make a woman laugh like that, you know you can make her make you pancakes at 5 in the morning.

"Brr..brr" the phone vibrated. It was Patricia's phone. She picked it up swiftly but not before Sam caught the first letter of the caller - "M". She was chatting in a low voice. Sam desperately tried to eavesdrop on the conversation but to no avail. Every now and then he caught a few words from her conversation - "dinner tomorrow", "baby", "health", "diet" etc. hmm...who was she talking to? who could it be? The mystery was soon resolved when Patricia ended the conversation with an "I love you". uh..oh! She had a lover. Crash!!! Crash crash crash! His heart fell down several feet with a thud and a crash or a whimper and a wail (you decide). All his dreams were now shattered because his love had a lover. It was just too much of an emotional ride for poor little Sam. He was going through enough drama for a lifetime in one single day. Oh..this whole meetup thing was such a bad idea. He should have just stayed home watching Family Guy on TV while the popcorn popped in the microwave. Why did he have to take all this trouble of attending a meetup only to have his heart broken into a million little pieces. Mom always said playing board games was going to get him nowhere. Mom was always right.. mom...wait a minute, thought Sam, maybe it was her mom on the phone. "Silly me, why didn't I think of it before!! Now it all makes sense.", thought Sam. And with that, he felt charged up again. Optimism can work wonders for you.

It was another fresh beginning. Sam now was trying to be at his funniest best. He already learned a good bit about her. She lived not too far away, liked a particular type of red wine, was neither a cat person nor a dog person, she liked birds, had two parrots at home, studied in Europe and hated guys who get all loud and boisterous over a silly football match. That was perfect, for Sam was not into football. He was as far away from any kind of sports as a board game loving freak should be. She was made for him, he knew that. Patricia smiled at him for no particular reason now. Game, set and match, Sam had scored like he had never scored before.

They moved from one game to the other. Sam cared not what game they were playing. He was happy as long as she was sitting beside him. He made sure he acted dumb and made her explain to him about every single game they played. After a while, she smiled and said "Alright folks, you have to excuse me for a minute, I need to use the bathroom". She got up. Sam was now seeing what he never saw coming. The lady was pregnant! Not just pregnant but so pregnant that she could pop out a child faster than you could imagine. Crash..crash went Sam's heart down the now familiar downward spiral. Dreams were made and dreams were broken on that fateful day to remember. Another day, another time? Maybe or perhaps never. On the way back, Sam's brain started to function again as a thought stuck him "Maybe she was not pregnant, maybe she was just fat..aha!!"

(This really happened to me recently but it has been greatly exaggerated for the sheer purpose of amusement and absurdity)

It's official!!

2010-05-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is official...my blog is officially Number 1!!!!
Just go to google and type the exact search phrase - "My dog by Emily Lewis". What comes up first in the search results?? My blog of course! hehehe... First out of 223,000 odd sites. No wonder it feels like some sort of achievement.

How did I find out?
Scroll to the very bottom of my blog. Do you see a little image called "sitemeter"? That's the key. It keeps track of every visitor to my blog, what was the referring link, their IP address, how long they were at this blog and through what link they exited. It's amazingly simple to configure it and I found it very useful. It gives you a good indication of what's the most popular blog on your blogspot and helps you tune your posts to your audience (if you care). Also, if you couple this with google's adsense, you might even make some money (at the cost of commercializing your blog).

Here's the link to the award winning blog of mine - My dog. (Oh wait, no awards yet!)

On a related note, I have started a new blog - The Android Experience. I am planning to use this blog to post notes about the progress I am making on the Android development platform and other relevant things. If you are a programmer or just curious to see how it's all panning out, please do check it out.

One fine morning...

2010-05-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

It was cold. Not freezing cold but cold enough for you to snuggle up and sleep tight in your bed. I had no idea what time it was but I usually open my eyes for a split second at about 4:45 am and then fall asleep again, so I guess it was about the same time again. I was just about to close my eyes and go back to never land but then I saw a hideously disturbing mental image! It shook me to my very last bone..I could not sleep any more. I knew I had to do something before it was too late...

Frantically, I groped around in the dark for my specs. Then, I looked at my watch. It was 5:10 am, maybe a little too early but then, I just had to do it. I got dressed in a flash. Anxiety and fear were taking control of my body. I sneaked out of my home as silently as possible in order to not wake up my roomies. There was no point in disturbing them no matter how important the issue was. Out in the open, I thought I would feel a little less scared but boy, was I wrong. It was worse outside. The whole scene had an eerie twist to it. The chill of the early morning added more to the atmosphere. However, I knew I had to do what I set out to do, no matter what happens!!!

I started running towards the objective. I started out with slow, steady steps and then gradually increased the pace. I was like a missile on its way to hit the target, I was like a bullet from a gun, steady and unwavering, I was like a TCP/IP packet on its way to the destination IP address...let us just say I was a man on a mission.

I have always been a poor runner all my life. As usual, I couldn't hold my breath for long. Slowly, I was dragging my body all over the pavement. I just couldn't afford to let go now. I had to keep on going, after all, it was a matter of life. I was now able to see my target. There it was, all I had to do was keep on for 4-5 minutes at the same pace. Just as I was egging myself to go on, my legs couldn't carry the onerous task anymore. I stumbled and fell flat on the ground. To my surprise, I did not even have the energy to make an effort to stand up. After what seemed an eternity, I slowly got up and turned back. With an almost slow-motionesque style, I stretched out the thumb of my right hand....and everything blanked out.

When I came back to senses later, I found myself in a car. Obviously, someone was kind enough to give me a ride back home. My T-shirt was drenched with sweat. I am sure I looked as if I just walked out of a wrestling match with a wild buffalo. Inspite of all this, a weary but smug smile appeared on my face. The driver was puzzled and asked me why I was smiling? The words that blurted out of my mouth automatically were "I finally started jogging..."

P.S: If you really need to know, the "hideously disturbing mental image" that I saw was a picture of myself bloated up about ten times my size with a humongous beer belly trying to tie my shoe laces.

(Ported over from my old blog...originally written back in 2007)

Heartfelt Apologies

2010-05-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Looking back at the moments that were,
the moments that were, that will never be again.
Lucky I feel, as my life I softly rewind,
to have met an angel, so beautiful and kind.

The fool within me broke what was so pure,
Tried to fix it but only broke it even more.
Lost in a fickle thought, I lost my mind,
lost the angel, so beautiful and kind.

No matter how hard I try, I can't undo
the things I said, the things I did.
Hurts me now 'cause I hurt her then,
Hurt an angel so beautiful and kind.

Perhaps, a little too late,
Perhaps, a little too little,
Here is my heartfelt apology.
Won't blame you if you can't forgive me.
For no matter what,
You will always remain an angel to me
The angel, most beautiful, most kind.

(Jan 2010)

Android Programming

2010-04-16T06:11:00.001-07:00

Thanks to a couple of friends, I kick-started Android (Google's OS for smartphones) programming this week.
So far it has been a slow start. Open Source programming seems to have its pitfalls. There are so many versions of everything out there that the book that you are trying to follow and the actual version of the SDK you are in are completely different so even a simple Hello World program requires tweaks before you can successfully run it.The Eclipse IDE adds to the frustration as I don't find it very intuitive at all.
Hoping to wade into deeper waters this weekend. Will see how it goes...

Miscommunication?

2010-04-13T07:08:00.001-07:00

Of late, people seem to have a hard time understanding my emails. Friends, colleagues, customers..pretty much everyone. I try to write my emails as clearly as possible and I always read my emails before I send them. I just don't get it. If so many people aren't able to understand what I am writing in my emails, the problem has definitely got to be with me!

All over again

2010-04-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

In another time, In another place
Locked in her gaze, Admiring her grace.
I would bring her flowers,
We would talk for hours.
She would get tipsy,
breaking all the rules,
I didn't care,
for we were together as fools.

All the good times blurred over and past,
Much too short, much too fast.
Did it really happen? Was she really there?
Couldn't call it a dream, it wouldn't be fair.

If I only knew how it would end,
Still wouldn't matter - my heart will mend.
Just holding her made me feel like a king
This sting in my wing didn't matter a thing

This love of ours,
glad to have gone through
For how ever much it hurts now,
Still can't undo.
Even though many times I would weep,
The memory of our joys is mine to keep.

Judge not too harshly,
As you look at my weary face.
If only you kissed her sweet lips
and felt her warm embrace.
I am sure, You too would have
Gladly done it all over again
And felt the same
As this love torn man's pain.

Originally written by rsurfn2, Source: Poemofquotes.com
I just rewrote it because I wanted to. Sorry rsurfn2 if you did not want this to be published. Let me know and I can remove it.

It's about you again!

2010-04-07T14:00:00.001-07:00

I saw you today, saw you again,
You looked away, expressions plain.

You won't talk to me no more
You think I am a total bore
You don't want to settle the score
You don't care if I am left so sore

I heard you today, heard you again,
Speaking of our love's ill-fated bane

You choose to ignore me now
You chose to ignore my love.
You won't listen, my dove
listen to the voices above.

I felt you today, felt your grace
As I was lost in our last embrace.

In this game you're playing,
I feel like a simple pawn,
You aren't through with me,
but you are moving on.

I need you today, need you even more
No response for the knocks on your door.

You have left me crying in the rain,
writhing in pain, limping again.
But what hurts me the most,
As my heart slowly mends,
As your friends stay friends,
How swiftly our love, it ends.

You saw me today, saw me again,
Love's so vain, hard to explain! (x2)

Note: Please do not ask me who this was written for and even whether it is based on a real situation or not. You are welcome to comment, just not welcome to discuss it. Thanks :)

Master of the Game

2010-01-14T02:18:00.000-08:00

After a really long time, I got back to the habit of reading books. I finished 3 books in the past 1 month or so, which is nothing sort of an achievement, considering how badly I have fared in the past 4 years or so...

The 3 books that I have read are:
1. Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
2. James Hadley Chase - Miss Shumway Waves A Wand
3. Sidney Sheldon - Master of the Game.

Unfortunately, I have not quite been satisfied with any of these books. Douglas Adams' book had all the wit that you would generally associate with his works, but somehow the story let me down. For starters, I could really not understand it. Had to read and re-read the final chapters again to finally get it. That sort of frustrates you because you had like to get it in the first instance. Anyway, it was still an alright book and quite the value for money (not that I bought it, I got it as a gift :P)

The second book let me down immensely. I hate it when books have magical or super-natural elements in it. Who would have expected that from a Chase book? This book totally put me off so I moved onto the Sidney Sheldon book with better expectations.

Alright, "Master of the Game". This book is about 500 pages...quite intimidating for a not-so-regular reader like me. I took up the challenge. The story was quite gripping with characters flowing in and out of it like how you would expect from a Sidney novel. I got through this book the fastest among the three...in just about 3-4 days. Sidney's story telling abilities are quite impressive..he knows how to keep his audience hooked throughout.

However, loop holes in this book were gaping so big that I found it almost impossible to ignore them. If you haven't read this book and are planning to read it, I warn you ahead of time that there are spoilers..so don't read any further. If you have already read this book, I would be really glad if you can reply to this post so we can discuss the loopholes (of course, only if you are interested or care a bit)

1. Banda - I cannot exactly understand what was his role in the storyline at all...I mean, yeah he plays an important part in getting diamonds from the beach and all, but then after that, his character just seemed to be page-fillers. Ends up dying without much of a point. Not exactly a loop hole, but just a complaint.

2. Jamie McGregor - How can anyone change so drastically in one year that you can barely recognize him? What's up with the white hair? How does anyone's hair suddenly turn white overnight...without even a dye. I found it pretty difficult to digest the fact that van der Merwe couldn't recognize him when he got back. It is quite possible that van der Merwe meets so many such people that there is a chance Jamie could have slipped his mind easily. A loop hole that I can overlook.

3. van der Merwe - Ok, so this bloke owns a million diamonds and yet runs a store for a "front". Really? Why would anyone want to be a store owner after striking over a million dollars in diamonds and risk their reputation and get involved in pretty crimes with young, inexperienced diamond-diggers like Jamie really beats me. I mean, yeah, that's how he got rich, but once he gets rich, shouldn't he be just focusing on being rich or expanding his horizons through less riskier means? Again, I know it is a character glitch and not exactly a loop hole in the story...but somehow doesn't go with the flow.

4. Margaret - ok, little Maggie is shown as a sweet character who just does not know how to hate. She puts up with Jamie despite him killing her father and treating her like a whore. Suddenly, everything changes overnight. When Jamie offers her a place in the mansion as a governess so that she can be near to the baby, all of a sudden, she starts thinking about her reputation. This is quite contrary to her character, isn't it? Sweet Maggie suddenly turns sour Maggie...another character glitch. (by now I was getting used to characters not staying within their character sketches)

5. Kate - can't really think of anything wrong with the Kate character. She manipulated people really well even though I knew all along how she was manipulating people. None of the things she did seemed suspenseful enough. Only complaint (there had to be one :D ) is why didnt she tell Alex about Eve? I would have assumed she would tell Alex everything so that Alex would be wary of Eve and wouldn't talk to her. Alex sort of talked to Eve behind Kate's back and Kate knew nothing about it or did nothing about it. This seems out of character for the master-manipulator. Also, the way she believed Mellis was very rich seemed totally out of place. I was surprised that she fell for it.

6. Tony - I won't even go there. I was terribly disappointed that he remained a vegetable throughout. I was expecting / secretly hoping he'd somehow be involved in the plot towards the end. Adds to the mystery element, I suppose.

7. Webster - Eve was badly disfigured by Mellis and super-doc here managed to transform her face exactly how it was before, without any scars? That too somewhere in the 80s? Yeah right...unimaginable!

8. Eve - Alright, do identical twins have identical voices? Was it ever mentioned in the novel anywhere? When twins are kids, it is quite understandable when people get confused as to who is who. But once you are 24-25 years old, I find it difficult to believe that it is almost impossible to tell the twins apart. I mean, people close to them should really be able to tell them apart easily. George Mellis couldn't tell Alex from Eve, really?
What's up with the scar anyway? Eve knows she doesnt have a scar. She knows that doc Webster knows that she doesnt have a scar. She knows that Webster and John Harley are friends. She knows that Harley can't tell Alex apart from Eve. Despite all this, why on earth, did she have to take the risk of putting a scar on? Seemed absolutely meaningless. She could have easily got away without it even without a scar. Plus, she didn't really have to go meet Harley. A telephone call would have sufficed.
While we are on Eve, I had no idea why she stayed married to the doc. There wasn't anything the doc could prove against her except tell people that there was no scar left after the operation.

I could ramble on and on..but what's the point. The story has already been written and the story has already been read. I just expected a tighter storyline from the book and not just silly people making silly mistakes for such a huge amount of money. Ah well..nothing is perfect!

Hopefully, the next book I pick will be a tad better!

The Twins

2009-12-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

Two flowers we bloomed,
Equal chances of being groomed.

Locked in a dark silent cage
We tossed and turned in this stage.

Hidden from the world so rude
We lived, sharing our mother's food.

Slowly he grew stronger,
Couldn't fight him any longer.

My brother turned into the thief
But I couldn't feel any grief.

We both knew he would win,
So on went on his sin,
So on went on his grin,
Life took a topsy-turvy spin,
And I remained the unborn twin.

( Ok..ok..no more sad poems for a while after this)

A Thousand Deaths!

2009-12-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you have nowhere to go?
What do you do when you have no one to talk to?
You sit, you fret, you choke, you brood
and think of times that were good.

Love is blind, love is true.
Come back and drive away my blue.
Do you love me still - Give me a clue!
In memory I live, in memory of you!!

I have been mistreated, treated as an outcast
In vain, I tried like a fool to resurrect the past.
Run to me baby, run to me fast...
Don't want this loneliness to last

The sun was shining but then came the rain,
I was at peace then but now I lie in pain.
You were with me yesterday but now you are gone
and gone with you is the picture of life I had drawn.

I hear the wind howling in my ears,
reducing me to a victim of my fears,
singing me the songs of a death so cold.
No longer can I afford to be bold.

Talk to me my lonesome shadows,
Heal me from these never-ending sorrows.
Silence and darkness remain my only friends
No stopping now, for here my life ends.

Here I stand in a land long forgotten
Here I lie stripped bare naked, chilled to the bone
Can't stand this cold no more, Can't breathe no more
so I die...I die a thousand deaths all alone.

Poems!!!

2009-12-26T23:22:00.001-08:00

That's right....Poems. Not Poem...poems!

I stumbled upon an old diary as I was cleaning my room. In this diary were some poems that I had written back in my school days. Thought I might as well write them down over here...

1. Cat:

I have a little cat
Sleeping on the mat
Playing with the hat
and eating the rat.

2. My Magic Spectacles

I have a pair of magic spectacles
And what I see through them is magic

I saw a river burning with fire
I saw a bus with only one tyre
I saw a woman 10-feet high
and even saw an elephant fly

Oh! I have a pair of wonderful magic spectacles.

3. The Evenings

When evenings come
With happiness I hum
For the whole family is home
After a tiring day's roam
The wind is blowing
the traffic flowing
And all will go to bed
with pillows under their head

4. My Grandma

My grandma is a lovely good person
with lots of superstition

Even though she is seventy
she is a lot more hefty

Bad sign she considers when she sights a black cat
which has nothing to do but catch a rat

She always tells me an old story
which coincides with a king having glory

She devours me with many sweet (err...I guess I didn't know what devour meant back then :P)
On days of mouth watering treats

She also taught me many morales
which helped me to get laurels

After all, she is my Grandma, my dear old Grandma

5. My school friends

There are many friends of mine at school
whom I think are just wonderful
Some of them are Vamsi, Viswanath and Laxman
All of us love a lot of fun
There is of course the studious Surender
The "I rank's" hatrick maker.

To school, Vikas is very regular
while Sampath is our class's mini-computer
There is Mallikarjun the cricket lover
A die-hard fan of Sachin Tendulkar
Together we enjoy many things
like birds with wings
but time has come for "Bye-bye" to say
and alas, I have to go away.

Really sad, that I am not in touch with any of these folks now! :(

6. On a Very Dark Night

On a very dark night,
When I was full of fright;
All alone I was
eating pakodas with sauce
Unluckily the power was off
Then I heard someone cough
so I sank into my bed
sure to be soon dead
someone shook me much to my bother
but it was only my mother
she asked me why did I scream
unable to answer, I was glad it was only a dream

7. Why should we marry?? (Written on 23-9-2000)

Why should we marry?
Why should we marry???
Some Lily, Daisy or Mary
and make them carry
a notorious, little baby
just to build a family
and in the process eat away earth's
precious greenary

Should we marry just because we should marry?
This is sure gonna remain an unsolved mystery

How I wish my query
could be answered by a fairy
As I still am
where I had started from
O God!! Why should we marry???

The End.

Bollywood in the 70s!

2009-12-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

So the other day, I was at a supermarket buying groceries with my parents. My father wanted to buy some movie/music DVDs so we went over to that section. This particular supermarket didn't have an exhaustive collection or anything of that sort. After about 10-15 minutes of browsing through the DVDs, all 3 of us agreed to buy a Rajesh Khanna box set of 5 movies - Namak Haraam, Aaradhana, Amar Prem, Dard and Kati Patang.

Rajesh Khanna was forever the ignored man of bollywood...ok, let me rephrase that, I've always ignored his movies. As I was growing up, I used to prefer Amitabh, Dharmendar, Shatrughan and even Vinod Khanna movies. Rajesh Khanna movies were not so high on the priority list simply because it involved a lot of drama, too many tears for an action craving boy like me to handle.

I have heard a lot about his movies since. The only movie of his that I had seen in recent times was Anand (about 2 years ago) and was absolutely awestruck by the songs, story, acting... Somehow, for no explicable reason I didn't see any of his other movies after that. So here I was at home, with this little treasure. I was excited...couldn't wait to get started.

I picked the most obvious of the lot to watch first - Namak Haraam. Why obvious? Simply, because it starred Amitabh too. It had everything you'd expect from two of the stalwarts of the 70s. A very strong story line, some really memorable songs - "Nadiya se Dariya", "Main shaayar badnaam", "Diye Jalte Hain" and great performances by both Rajesh and Amitabh! I will probably remember this movie 10 years from now, for that one scene where Amitabh steps out and shouts "Hai kisi mai ke laal mein himmat, jo mere saamne aaye?". Damn, that was probably the most explosive dialog delivered on a bollywood screen...Powerful indeed!

Next, I watched Kati Patang. A very different kind of movie...but all the same, entertaining and romantic, makes for a perfect sunday afternoon flick! Rajesh Khanna as usual drinks more than a fair share of alcoholic concoctions in the movie. The soundtrack caters well to the heart-broken with tracks such as "Na Koi Umang Hai", "Pyaar deewana hota hai", "Yeh Jo Mohabbat hai" and the absolutely mesmerizing "Yeh Shaam mastaani". Another movie worth watching for the sheer brilliance of Rajesh Khanna.

I just finished watching "Amar Prem". By now, I was sort of expecting another movie backed strongly with wonderful songs and a strong Rajesh Khanna-centric storyline. I was right about only the first part. This movie has my favorite 70's song (of the ones I've listed so far) - "Chingari koi bhadke" apart from the other noteworthy songs such as "Yeh Kya Hua" and "Raina beeti jaaye". Pretty classical soundtrack actually. But yeah, what surprised me most about the movie i that though Rajesh Khanna forms an integral part of the storyline, the primary character in this movie is played by Sharmila Tagore as Pushpa, a woman shunned by the society who eventually takes up prostitution.
Women like Sharmila Tagore are a rare species in Bollywood. I can't remember seeing any of her other movies, but the role she played in this movie was phenomenal. The last time I was completely spellbound by an actress was when I fell in love with Vidya Balan (Parineeta). What poise, what charm! She has these big beautiful eyes, a sharp nose and a face that speaks the language of innocence. An incredible beauty that you would not find hard to fall in love with, over and over, time and again.
I strongly recommend "Amar Prem" to anyone who wants to watch a soulful, touching movie . As the title suggests, it is really about eternal love...but not between two lovers. Well, not just between two lovers, it also focuses on a mother-son relationship which I found to be incredibly genuine and I'd be lying if I say I wasn't in tears by the time the movie ended. The main characters in the movie often portray unrequited love as can only be portrayed in movies. Overall a fantastic movie!

So I am done with 3 of the 5 movies and I am so glad I bought this box set. Dard and Aaradhana are left out and will be much cause of my motivation to stay awake late nights this week. I am also excited that I have discovered a whole new route into the 70s era of the Bollywood. Got a lot of homework to do on Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore and the musical brilliance of R.D. Burman over the next few weeks!

All recommendations welcome....

The Wrath of the Killer babies!!!

2009-11-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

November 14th.

All over India, we know this day as Children's day. Well, children sure had their way today. I was on a flight getting back to India. Well two flights..one from Atlanta to London and then from London to Hyd. The flight from ATL to London was not really very eventful...two old ladies were sitting next to me and I was just reading a Douglas Adams book listening to some Johnny Cash...

I had to wait about 4.5 hours at the London airport. Just killed time walking around, observing people and more reading and more Johnny Cash...And then finally I boarded the flight to Hyderabad...boy, was it a long flight or was it a long flight.

As soon as I stepped in, I heard a baby wailing at the highest pitch that a little baby could wail in. I got a sinking "this is not good" feeling. After the compulsory baggage struggle in a flight full of baggage happy Indians, I managed to sit down in my seat, flipped through the pages of a magazine...

The baby that was wailing loudly (loud is an understatement here) stopped abruptly. For a full minute. It made me realize how much I appreciate silence. Well, my happiness was quite short lived because that's when the babies on board decided to go completely bonkers. About 4 or 5 babies, I lost count, decided to put me through a Nazi torture syndrome by deciding to cry together at the same time. The worst part was that the babies were all in random directions...It was like listening to babies crying on a 5.1 DTS Digital Dolby Surround sound speaker set...

I seriously doubt if the mothers of those babies were making any attempts at all to calm their babies down. The staff of British Airlines tried a few tricks, like talking softly to the babies, etc etc..but there were just too many babies. I kept squirming and squiggling in my seat...much to my chagrin, everyone else seemed perfectly happy.
In case you haven't noticed one odd thing about baby wails, it has this unique feature of being able to completely pierce through your ear plugs, through the heaviest death metal that you can think of, right into your ear drums...all the way to that tiny corner in your brain which eventually triggers off a tremor of irritation throughout your whole body.

The flight lasted 12 hours...12 hours that made me realize how much I cannot stand babies!!! Aaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... :D
Here's a piece of advice for you airline carriers. Some bright face came up with the idea of "No Smoking" on board and you all seem to have accepted it nice and dandy. When the hell are you going to come up with a "No babies on board" flight? I will be the first to get on it.

Alright, alright, you ladies and young mothers out there who happen to stumble upon this post, try not to hate me too much. It's just my frustration speaking out aloud. I don't hate your babies..I am just allergic to them especially when they are crying their guts out, which on hindsight, happens all the time.

Multiple Tabs in Windows Explorer?

2009-11-11T03:35:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, you like to leave a lot of explorer windows open. For example, I know that during a typical day at work, I will need to open up some documents in a folder, or play music from another folder, open up my projects which is in another folder etc etc. So, being the lazy person that I am, I just keep all these folders open in their own separate explorer windows so that I don't have to keep opening them again and again...

Well, we are all used to the multi-tab interface that all these browsers today seem to have. It is only natural to expect the same kind of behavior in the ubiquitous Windows Explorer. So what options do you have? Plenty is the answer. In fact, you will be surprised with the number of options that you have for supporting multiple tabs in Explorer.

The plugin that I have tried is called "QTTabBar". It is a pretty simple yet powerful plugin. It provides a Mozilla-like tabbing interface for your Explorer. The best thing about it is that it is absolutely free. Just download it from their website - http://qttabbar.wikidot.com/download run the install and you're ready to go....

Here's a screenshot of an explorer window with multiple tabs:

It also has several useful features like Startup groups - where you can create a group with a list of folders and assign it to be the startup group. This will force explorer to have those multiple folders open as soon as Explorer starts. This plugin is very customizable and has an exhausting Options menu. I haven't tinkered around with it too much yet.

One drawback that is pretty glaring is that this plugin does not let you create a tab by selecting a single button like how firefox does. Instead, it seems as if you have to clone the existing tab and then type in the path of the folder you want to go to. Not very intuitive but definitely not too much of an inconvenience. Just takes a little while to get used to. Also, I wish they had support for adding Favorite folders to a drop down list or something so that you can just select your favorite from the list and you're good to go. Right now, there is only a drop down list for "Groups" not individual folders.

Also keep in mind that there are several more plugins that accomplish the same task and a lot more. I have read that the Total Commander is very powerful and highly customizable. I am not sure if it is free or not and so haven't used it yet. I am hoping to experiment with such power tooks more over the next months to make working with Explorer more efficient.

Just a thought...Notepad and Explorer haven't undergone much transformation in Windows at all over the years. Explorer has been changing little but notepad has always remained the same. Isn't it time that Microsoft makes notepad a slightly better text editor so that people don't have to install some other application like Editplus or Notepad++?

Tagging your music collection

2009-10-30T04:08:00.000-07:00

I have a pretty big music collection (close to 75 GB and growing steadily). In the past, I used to listen to all my music on my computer using Winamp. But a few months ago, I bought the Zune. Yes, a zune and not an Ipod. I really love the big screen and I also like the zune software. It is a touch slow and sluggish at times but I really liked the interface a lot. I consider the zune to be superior to the Ipod in a number of ways but this blog is not about that.

This blog is about tagging your music collection so that the songs appear correctly in your player, whether it be a Zune or Ipod.

1. Organize your music collection into folders. As soon as I open my music collection, I have separate folders for the major genres - Rock, Pop, Metal, Rap (yes, I do have a few rap songs), Soundtrack, Country, Electronic etc. At this highest level, I really prefer to keep as few folders as possible and that's the reason why I clubbed all sorts of heavy metal into a single folder called Metal or Grunge into Rock.

2. After you are done moving all your music into these major folders, it's time to create sub folders. The way I do this is to create one folder for each Artist/Band. Under this folder I create sub folders for every album that I have for this artist.

Here's a snapshot of how my folders look like:

3. Now comes the most important part. Tagging your Mp3s. What are tags? Well, they are just informational content embedded within your mp3 files to indicate the artist, album, song title, track number etc. You will be extremely surprised how much information can be present inside these tags. You can even embed song lyrics or Album art into them. Crazy huh! Most Mp3 players use these tags to display the information about the song that is being played. If tags are not found, most mp3 players default to display just the name of the file. It is highly recommended that you tag all your Mp3s correctly so in an instant you can find out the song that is being played, the artist, which year the song was released and in what album.

In order to easily tag your Mp3s, there are many Tagging softwares available in the market. I have used only one - Tag&Rename, so I can't review others in this post. But Tag&Rename is so cool it pretty much does everything I could imagine when it comes to tagging Mp3s.

So I open up Tag&Rename, select an album, loop through each song and make sure that the tags are exactly what I want them to be. The most important tags to me are Artist, Title, Track #, Genre, Album and Year. It is a pretty easy thing to select multiple songs and update them all at once using this software.

Here's a snapshot of Tag&Rename in action:

4. Alright, so now you're done tagging your gigantic collection and everything seems to be displaying as it should in your Mp3 player. What next? Well, two words - "Album Art". If you own a cool Mp3 player, it will display Album art of the album that you are currently playing along with the song title. So now you have the long arduous task of downloading album arts for every single album that you own! Groan! Oh well, guess what, there are several tools available to do that for you. I can't remember the exact name of one such tool that I used - Album Art Aggregator I think. You just had to specify the naming format of your folder structure and this tool would automatically search amazon/itunes marketplace for the album art and place it inside the album folder. I have not yet experimented a lot with these tools so my knowledge is severely limited. For now, I just wikify the artist, go to their album on wikipedia and download the album art and save it as a "Folder.jpg" inside that album folder. I then have to manually update the Zune software so that the correct album art is displayed for that album. I am still trying to find out a better automated way to do all this and I shall update this blog once I figure out how.

Well..I guess that's it. Happy Tagging!

Woot woot!!

2009-10-23T13:18:00.001-07:00

Finally, here I am, back in the blogosphere!! wooohooooo... :D

So much has happened since the last time I wrote anything here, I don't even know what to start writing. The biggest thing that I can think of right now is that I can now claim that I have seen Metallica performing LIVE!! METALLICAAAAAAAAAAA. The seats that we were in, were utterly crappy. But we had a total blast. Don't know when I will be able to see them performing LIVE again!

As soon as KK and Sunil left Atlanta, I have been bogged down into a state of near-depression. It was a dull period where I could not pick myself and go through the daily motions. I have no idea why or what caused that change in me. But I think I am bouncing back now. I am eagerly looking forward to my India trip which is about to happen in about 20 days! woohoo.... That will be such a welcome change. Meeting family, cousins and all my friends out there. Plans are already on to go to Goa. This will be my third visit to that place and I don't think I can ever get tired of that place!!

Goa!!! Now that's what this blog is going to be about! :D
The first time I went to Goa was in July 2005, just a few days before Sunil was about to leave to US for his Masters. It was the beginning of the monsoon so it was a very different Goa from what we all had in our minds. Everything was still beautiful and lovely, but the waters were very turbulent with giant waves and all. We partied a lot and had an amazing time!!

The second time was in Jan 2006. Now that was peak season. The place that we stayed in was also quite close to Baga beach, which is actually the heart of the party atmosphere in Goa (so I am told). We had a total blast. I honestly don't know which trip did I enjoy myself better, but both were terrific experiences with completely different friends.

So as you can see, I eagerly await my third trip to this beautiful place, hoping to discover yet another reason why I love Goa so much! Only a few more weeks to go.

Be good fellas!

One-sided conversationalists

2009-06-30T13:08:00.001-07:00

From time to time, you bump into these so called master one-sided conversationalists. People who can go on yacking incessantly that your head will burst into a million little pieces. More often than not, you will find these people at your work place.

I have had more than my fair share of experience dealing with these annoying species. Even before you utter a single word, you will hear them blurt out a few dozen sentences. Don't they even want to pause and hear what you got to say? Oh no, for them, you don't exist. They just don't see you, they might as well go and speak to a wall!!
Though I find such conversations increasingly irksome, when I look back at it, I find them all mighty funny. It is very amusing how they can keep talking and talking without any kind of feedback. Well, I guess I do that at times too, but hopefully not often enough to drive my friends crazy!!

The most amusing of all these conversations that I ever encountered was the one that I had with a good friend of mine back in the beginning of this decade. He would go on and on babbling about this dream house of his. I think he spoke for about one hour continuously with me just nodding my head and uttering a mono-syllable sporadically. Years later, I told him how I almost bit my head off because of his loquaciousness and we had a nice hearty laugh over it.

Have you had any such experiences?? I'd love to hear it.

Another poem...

2009-06-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well... I liked the poem so much that I thought I'd venture into the land of poetry again and came up with this:

One day...

One day my dog will become a cool dude,
to the other dogs, he will no longer be rude.
Until then he will bite and bark,
whether it is day or whether it is dark.

One day he will listen to all my words
He won't go chasing after the birds.
Until then he will sit when I ask him to stand
And run away when I ask him to shake my hand.

One day he will understand what I am trying to say
He will then know that irritating me is not a funny little play!!
Until then I must endure the pain
that he gives me by jumping on me again and again

One day he will drive me out of my blues,
He and I will eventually sign a truce.
Until then, his mischief will have no season
Boy! He's definitely cute for a reason.

And Oh my doggy likes to chew, chew on your shoe
Given a chance, he will even chew on you!
Chewing my things sure gives him a thrill
He is not a dog, he is a little devil

One day my dog will want to become good
He will choose not to steal my food.
His actions he won't repeat out of such shame.
that he would want to change his name,

One day his conscience will take a tilt
and he will be overcome with guilt...
Until then he will make me toil and make me sweat...
But yet, I sure love my pet!

My Dog

2009-06-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

So Meghna forwards me this poem that reminded her of An00bDog. Here it goes...

My Dog

Have you seen a little dog anywhere about?
A raggy dog, a shaggy dog,
who's always looking out
For some fresh mischief which
he thinks he really ought to do.
He's very likely at this minute
biting on someone's shoe.

If you see that little dog,
his tail up in the air,
A whirly tail, a curly tail,
a dog who doesn't care
For any other dog he meets,
not even for himself,
Then hides your mats, and put your meat
upon the top-most shelf.

If you see that little dog, barking at the cars,
A raggy dog, a shaggy dog,
with eyes like twinkling stars,
Just let me know, for though he's bad,
as bad as bad can be,
I wouldn't change that dog for all
the treasures of the sea.

--Emily Lewis

Thanks Megs for forwarding me that wonderful poem. I think I will get this laminated and put it up in my room. No matter how naughty your dog is or how expensive his mischief costs you, getting a pet is one of the best things you can do. You will never regret it.

There are so many of you who come to this link searching for this poem. I would really appreciate it if you can write a line or two about what you think of her poem or anything you'd like to share about your pet. Take care Dog lovers! :)

Staying awake at work

2009-06-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hello my Professional friends,

All of you, I am sure, at some juncture of your office going life have had to face the situation where you are hopelessly, endlessly falling into sleep when something important is going on. If you haven't been in such a situation before, chances are that you might run into one sometime soon!

So the question is, how do you manage to stay awake when you are in a meeting?
Drawing doodles has to be the number 1 option. You throw a serious glance at the presenter, look down and scribble something on the notepad. The presenter thinks you are taking down notes but actually you are just doodling away to glory. It does work.
Or you could start playing Tic Tac Toe with yourself! :D Not the traditional 3x3 square, but something bigger...for example go to this link - http://boutler.com/ttt/ and try out a 6x6 square where you win if you get 4 in a row. So just draw it on your notepad and play against yourself!

Well, as my ways of staying awake get geekier and geekier, one of my most trusted methods to stay awake is to write down two substantially large numbers (about 8-9 digits long) and multiply them. If you are fond of Math, this is an awesome technique, it will keep your mind sleep-free!

If you've more suggestions, I'd love to hear them...it can never hurt to learn a few other techniques that you guys out there use! :-)

And, oh by the way, if you are the one presenting, can you please please put up a foot note at the end of each of your PPT slide which says how many pages are remaining? Something like "Page 12 of 125" or similar. This would really help people like me who get drawn into a meeting without any idea how long this ordeal is going to last! sigh!

Oh well..that's it for now, I guess! Dream on ye Sleepy folks!

The problem of plenty!!

2009-06-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ahhh..concerts!!!!

Cometh July, I will be left in a quandary!
July 24th - Slayer, Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse all in the same concert. Also will get to see Trivium, Marilyn Manson and half a dozen other bands...again one place, one day! This promises to be one hell of the gig..probably the most brutal gig that I've ever been to. The only problem is that the concert begins at 1:30 pm on a friday which means I might have to leave early from work or something like that. No big deal..can be managed.

July 27th - Tool's going to be playing in the Gwinnett Arena! I love this band. It's going to be a trip I will definitely enjoy. I don't know which other bands are going to be playing with them...but the gig is worth just for watching them irrespective of who opens!

July 28th - Dream Theater with a couple of other bands. Dream Theater!!! wow..how can I say no to this one?

Dammit...just when I was complaining that there are no gigs here in Atlanta, this had to happen. Three mammoth concerts in a space of 5 days!!!!! Heck..I will go see all of 'em. Someday I will live to tell the tale to my grandkids! ;)

Grand Father!!

2009-06-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

So as everyone knows, you always share a special relationship with your Father. You might not speak to him much but there are always moments shared with your father in your life which are always specially cherished. Like how he got you a plum cake on your birthday or how he carried you on his shoulders when you were too tired to walk or the words of wisdom he uttered when you were low and beaten. Well, maybe not everyone shared a special bond with their creator but most of them definitely do.

But what about our Grandfathers? For starters, you have two instead of one..isn't that likely to increases your chances of bonding with at least one of them? Unfortunately, if you are like me, you might not even have had the chance to meet one of them as they might have passed away even before/just after you were born.

For some strange reason, I do see my grandpa ( the one that remained) in my dreams sporadically. It's even weirder because I don't generally remember all my dreams except the ones that gramps stars in. Sadly, he is no more..he passed more than 8 years back. All the dreams that he has been in are just perfectly normal scenarios, like a family meet or a ceremony and he's sitting in a corner just observing everything.

My grandpa was a pretty calm individual. He was highly spiritual, an amazing artist, very respected and had a very unique sense of humor. He had a way with kids, something about him that made kids behave when they were around him. He was pretty much like the Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings! very revered and pious.
My dad did mention that gramps was quite strict and furious when he wished to be. I've never really seen him get furious but somehow I could feel there was a layer hidden behind all that calmness.

"Thatha" as I used to call him affectionately (in Tamil), used to pick me up from my school bus-stop. He would walk me back to his home where I used to play with some of the kids in the neighborhood until dad/mom got back from office.

Apart from the huge generation gap between him and me, there were a thousand things that were different in our thought process yet I respected him a lot. I never talked to him much but we did exchange a few soft words. I wish I had known more about him than I know now. Well, it's kinda late but Gramps, I'm dedicating this post to you. Hope you rest in peace Thatha!!

LOST

2008-09-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

About an year ago, I started watching Prison Break and I was blown away by the unique concept of this TV series. Prison Break was highly addictive and I just could not wait to watch the next episode as soon as I finished one. The first season was superb. The subsequent seasons started to fade away in quality. However, I still believed strongly that there can never be another series as captivating as Prison Break was!

..and boy was I wrong! Then came LOST :) I have seen the ad for this series soo many times but I kept ignoring it. I thought it was one of those dumb reality shows in which a bunch of people are left on an island and they keep dying one by one. How wrong was I?? :) I started watching this two days ago and I have already finished One whole season. That's right 24 episodes in about 3 days. That tells you how captivating this show is. If you haven't yet had a chance to see it, SEE it NOW!

Fat Animals?

2008-09-26T12:21:00.001-07:00

Why don't you see obese animals?
Have you ever seen a crow that is so overweight that it has trouble lifting off?
Have you ever seen a lion that is so fat that it has trouble standing on four legs because of a huuge belly?
Have you ever seen a monkey that is so obese that it has trouble hanging from branches?

I fail to understand this. Why don't animals get fat like humans? Of course, there are some minor weight variations in intra-species creatures but is the variation in any species as great as it is among humans?? NO!
I just don't know why. We humans are more intelligent (or so we assume) than most other species..we even have knowledge about diet, calories, fats etc etc yet it doesn't help some of us from getting really really fat. Animals on the other hand, care not about the kind of food they are eating. Dogs for example, will eat as much as you feed them. Same is the case with crows and sparrows. All that they do is scavenge for food all day! Yet, they dont seem to grow a grotesque adipose layer...WHY?? Surely, there must have been some article on Discovery or elsewhere about this! :)

Imagine a FAT giraffe:

Nay, I did not make any progress on my stupid design document..don't even ask! :D

My rant on Design documents

2008-09-26T09:32:00.001-07:00

Design documents.....arrghhhhhhh Design Documents!

The side effects of being a developer is that you have to put up with Design Documents. Not just one type but several. Sometimes High Level Design documents, sometimes Low Level Design Documents. There are other flavors too...don't even get me started on that!
I do understand the need for a document. I certainly understand that. Several times in my career, I had to put up with legacy code that didn't have any kind of documentation. How I wished someone had written a document for those applications back then?

Anyway, why am I cribbing about DD (Design docs, of course). Well, DD forces you to think about the code before you start implementing it. For me, I always want to get my hands dirty. Implement it the way I think it should be implemented..the way, I see it unfold in my brain. See if there are any bugs and then, go fix them. Aaah..what fun! Reminds me of my first months as a developer, actually! :)
I do not mind writing up an unofficial cryptic notepad document before I get started. But then, working as a "responsible" developer in a process-oriented company means you HAVE to write up an official DD with neat flowcharts and flow diagrams and all....get it reviewed with a bunch of folks who like saying "do this, do that" knowing very well that they aren't the ones who are going to implement it and then finally, if your luck holds good..get your hands dirty with the code.
For me, that takes the challenge out of programming. If you are going to analyze so much before you even start coding, what fun is it?

Aah well..here I am at a familiar juncture of my career. I have to finish a document by today "EOD" and I am having trouble even getting started! booohooo............

Quote

2008-09-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

If God is your co-pilot, switch seats!
A quote that I read along the way to office...made me smile! :)

UPDATE:
another one that I just heard on radio...
We support gay marriages...as long as both chics are really hot! :)

Sketch artists and movies...

2008-09-25T01:23:00.001-07:00

So..I was watching this movie the other day (Wednesday). A guy walks over to the police sketch artist and makes him draw the face of a criminal. When was the last time you saw a movie in which the sketch artist doesn't come up with an EXACT sketch? Let me guess....NEVER!
I wonder if they really are that good or has it just been filmized. Moreover, lets say you are at a shop buying groceries and you see someone. Will you be able to remember their face well enough to even be in a position to describe the characteristics of their face?? I am pretty sure I will draw a total blank if someone asks me for a description.
Heck, I seem to have trouble recollecting even the faces of good friends...I mean, I can recognize them when I see them but I cannot seem to retain their picture in my brain. Am I an exception or do you feel the same?

Sun Signs

2008-09-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

Since I was a kid, I had taken a stance that Sunsigns are nothing but a gimmick to rake in some moolah! It just seemed unreasonable to me that anyone who is born within a gap of about 30 days roughly share the same personality.

I am a Gemini. In order to kill some time, I have been reading a little bit of information of Geminis. And surprise..surprise...most of my qualities do seem to match with what is generally believed to be associated with Geminis! I have seen so many other Geminis who definitely do not fit the bill. It was just very weird that so many of qualities matched with this sun sign and no other sun sign. I still do not buy the fact all people that have the same sunsign share the same personality.

I am pretty sure I will be doing more research in the next few weeks or so....but for the time being,
I think I do believe in Sun signs a little after all! :)

Getting to know people!

2008-09-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

So...recently, a good friend of mine started reading random blogs of random people and guessed what their relationship status was during that particular time when they wrote the blog. I guess you can sorta make out people's relationship from what they write, after all.

Following a similar train of thought, you can also sort out people based on what other write about them. Take orkut testimonials for example. I know, I know...it is no science at all and does not need to be said explicitly since that what the testimonials are there for. My point is that a person might have tons of testimonials (ok, not everyone...but some people). Each testimonial represents what a friend's perspective is of that person. Now, if you have been reading these testimonials closely, you will find something similar among a majority of the testimonials written for one person. For example, something minor like that person has a good smile or that person is hot-headed...something along the lines.

That is what, I have been doing of late...pouring over testimonials and finding out what the underlying theme of that person is. It may be true, it may be false...all that I care is it does keep me occupied! :)

The Ten Commandments of Men's bathroom etiquette

2008-09-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some useful tips for some of you searching for men's bathroom etiquette or for those of you who have had a recent sex change and are still clueless when inside a men's bathroom (Hopefully you remembered to select the right bathroom!!):

Thou shalt always try to pick a corner spot.
Thou shalt try to pick a spot with only one neighbor when a corner spot is not available. (Consider thee screwed if even that is not available)
Thou shalt not stare at thy neighbor - nay, not even at his face.
Thou shalt remember to put thy cellphone in silent mode prior to commencing the process and thus, save thee from embarrassment.
Thou shalt refrain from answering thy cellphone while in process. Thus, avoid more embarrassment. ( Yes, the caller doest heareth a flush. )
Thou shalt not initiate a conversation with other occupants. (*See corollary)
Thou shalt try to stall a conversation until through with the process.
Thou shalt aim well while in the process. Preferably at insects, chewing gum or any other visible object.
Thou shalt wash thy hands before leaving - especially when someone else is around.
Thou shalt not shake hands in the bathroom. ( Dost not matter if thou did wash thy hands or not! )

* Corollary:

Ahh, looks like you've liked it. Well here is a bonus link for your reading/using pleasure:
MORE BATHROOM ETIQUETTE
Apparently I am not the only one who seems to have thought about this!

Hiking in North Carolina

2008-08-31T09:26:00.000-07:00

My first super-computer!

2008-04-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

Yipeeeeee...so finally my desktop has arrived. The past two weeks were a real torture. It is a real pain to order something and wait for it to arrive in the mail. I used to check Dell's website every 20-30 minutes to see if there's any update regarding my order. And finally, after a looooong, looooooong wait, my Computer arrived.

As soon as I got home, I got busy putting together the various components. After an hour's struggle (I refused to read the instructions that they sent me, of course!) I was successful in connecting everything or so it seemed. Slightly nervous with anticipation and a touch of fear, I pressed the "Power" button. With a big whooosh, the fan at the back end of the cabin came alive and the computer booted up. I wouldn't say it was lightning quick but it was pretty impressive. Of course, I had to go through the ordeal of registering Windows and answering their numerous questions.

The first thing that I copied into my PC was my favorite game - Quake 3! I loaded it up and it ran like a charm. This was easily the best computer that I had ever laid my hands on. I can go on and on as to how much joy I derived in that single quake game but let me hold it up for now.
I spent the next day entirely on installing all the relevant softwares, copying songs, utilities etc etc. I also installed two games - Portal and Crysis.
Most websites use Crysis as a benchmark for testing how good a computer is. If Crysis runs with a decent FPS on your computer with the highest settings, your computer is great...it's as simple as that. Well, of course, Crysis ran perfectly fine on my system but I didn't spend too much time on it.

Ever since I attended the Game Developer's Conference, I have been curious to play Portal. It had won the Game of the Year award and I sure wanted to check out what exactly is this game all about. I started playing Portal Sunday morning and needless to say, I was totally hooked onto it for the rest of the day. It's a great game with a very unique concept. Anyone who is into mind-bending puzzles has to play this game. I managed to finish this game in about 6-7 hours and enjoyed it thoroughly. There were a couple of levels which I thought were long and boring, but all in all an excellent game. I give it a 9/10. In fact, it was a perfect game to start on my new computer.

The end credits featured a song called "Still alive" which really sealed the deal for this phenomenal game! Here's the youtube link for the same...Of course, if you ever intend to play this game, please please do not see this video...

So well, that's it for now...Enjoy!

The new Dell XPS 630

2008-03-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hey folks!!!

Guess what?? It's time for a new PC! yeyeeyeye...
After spending a considerable amount of time online, reviewing the different PCs out there, I finally decided to buy Dell's latest product - XPS 630. The configuration is as follows...

-> Intel Core 2 Quad processor - Q6600 (2.4 GHz, 1066FSB and 8MB Cache)
-> 3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz.
-> 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT video card
-> 16X DVD+R/RW cd/dvd burner
-> 320GB NCQ SATA Hard drive (7200 RPM) w/ 16MB Databurst cache
-> 22 inch Dell monitor - SP2208WFP. Comes with an integrated webcam, mic as well as speakers!
-> Windows XP Professional (hell yeah, baby!)
-> Standard keyboard n mouse (I hate additional keys and mouse buttons and probably would never use them EVER!)

Here are a couple of interesting videos/reviews:

The most important things that were on my head while shopping for a computer were as follows:

1. Dell v/s Gateway v/s HP v/s Custom built:

Obviously, I was out in the market looking for an affordable at the same time high performance machine. I'd probably want to play the best games out there and at the same time work on video editing / developing games and other memory crunching applications. I am a big fan of configuring a PC yourself by selecting and hooking up all the individual components. However, I have never really done this by myself. As I did not have any kind of expert support on this kind of thing, I decided to stick with a more mainstream computer even though I'd be spending a couple of hundred dollars more. I guess it's worth it for the tech help I'd be getting.

So the alternate models that I looked into were the HP D4999t and the Gateway FX7020. The Uberclock Ion and Alienware were beyond my budget so I wasn't even looking at them. The Gateway's major problem seemed to be its PSU (Power Supply Unit). 400 watts is just not enough if I ever think of upgrading my machine in the future...which I eventually have to. Moreover, the Dell Inspiron was cheaper with the same configuration but had a similar PSU, so I gave it a skip. Coming to the HP machine, it did seem pretty good for the similar configuration but I had to take HP's notorious reputation when it came to customer service. In addition to this, they did not provide Windows XP which I will talk about in some time...
Dell did not have a terrific reputation as well, but then, all the machines in my office (now n previous) have always been Dells and I have rarely had a problem in the past. So why not now?
Their website is pretty cool too as you can choose to configure your XPS 630 with a lot of choices. Worked out really well for me...

2. Quad v/s Dual processors:

You'd rarely see simple and precise naming conventions in the field of computers. However, this is one exception. In simple terms, Quad is a four different execution cores in the same processor whereas a dual processor has only two. Agreed that for the same price, I would get a faster dual processor than a quad processor. But what you call fast now will not remain fast in the next few years. The simple truth is that there are hardly applications/games out there that utilize the quad core technology. But as I learned from the Game Developer's conference, companies are aggressively working towards games which make use of the quad core processors, so within the next 8-10 months, you should be seeing a ton of applications using the Quad core processors...

I chose the 2.4 GHz Q6600 processor. Actually, this was the most basic quad processor listed in the website and I had an option of upgrading to the 2.66 GHz quad but then, it was going beyond my budget so I just let it be...

3. Vista v/s XP:

Ahh...an epic battle and endless arguments in youtube and desktop forums. If you choose Vista, the only real advantage is support for DirectX 10.1 and a lot of future scope whereas XP is by far the most stable Windows OS that I have used, ever! I am not really a person who'd change something especially when it has served me well and XP sure seems to be a great OS. Of course, I haven't used Linux or the MAC but what works for me, works for me.

There wasn't really much of a debate for me over this one. My school provides legal copies of both Vista and XP for free so it did not really matter which one I chose for now. I am planning to go for a triple boot of Windows XP Prof., Vista Business and Linux Ubuntu to explore more features of the other popular OSs to figure out what exactly I might be missing in XP..

4. Monitors:

This was a tough decision, I must admit. A plethora of models with varying resolutions does not help either! :) I decided to stick with a 22 inch monitor as opposed to 20 inches or 24 inches. There's a huuuge price difference between the 22" and 24" models. Most online forums praise 20" monitors a lot and say that 22" actually degrades the image quality by stretching it at the same resolution. However, the 22" reviews were good enough for me to convince myself!
I got the Dell monitor simply because it had the highest ratings. I know that this particular model does not have a height adjustment feature, but heck, how often would you be needing to change your monitor's position. In my five years of PC usage at office, I don't recall even a single day when I had to adjust the height of the monitor. All in all, the Dell monitor seemed to have the best reviews. An integrated mic, speakers and webcam seemed to be pretty useful as well!

5. Video Card:

This was the biggest decision. Should I go for a 512 MB card? Can I afford dual 512 MB cards? Should I just stick with dual 256 MB instead? Should I go with ATI or should I go for NVidia? What are these GTX, GT, GTS, 9600, 8600, 8800 n other models???
So many questions kept popping up in my head and honestly, I haven't managed to answer all of these questions yet but after reading up quite a bit on the 8800 GT, I knew that this was more than enough for my current requirements - which were to run any game that has been released by now at slightly above average settings without any problems. The 8600 GT is perfect for this right now but I can always upgrade to the 8800 anytime in the future. This is where my comp's PSU comes into picture.

Hard disks, mice, keyboards, speakers etc did not really concern me so much, so I did not really give it a lot of thought. So, now you know what made me come to my decision. What's that...how much did I spend on this computer? Ahh..well, 1600 bucks! :) But mind you, this is the effort of chatting with the salesman for more than two hours and managing to get a 200 dollar discount. The sales guy was decently techincal as well as super-patient with all kinds of crazy questions that I had!
I know..this is quite a chunk of money and almost all of my meagre savings thus far but hey, this has always been my passion. If I can't spend money on something that I have always dreamt of, what good is the money, honey?

I have purchased the machine online and am expecting it sometime around the first week of April. Shall post photos and videos (if possible) of my new Dell as soon as possible. Of course, the only intention is to make you feel jealous and probably convince you to start looking out for a gaming PC yourself! Seeya!

Beetlejuice

2008-03-07T01:57:00.000-08:00

Now, here comes a really funny movie...well, it's not outright funny, but I loved some of the scenes. For example, this outrageous song in the middle of the movie, here's the youtube link if you want to check it out...skip the first 30 seconds, if you want to get to the meat of the action (Of course, if you are planning to watch this movie, then by all means DO NOT watch this clip...it's a lot more fun stumbling across it while watching the movie)

...As for the story, well, I wouldn't want to spoil the experience, it's a slightly different kind of movie involving ghosts who are scared of humans...neat concept actually! but yeah, just go watch the movie if you are lucky enough to find it!

Other movies that I watched this week - Vantage point (7/10), Bird People in China (still watching).

GDC - Day 5-6..contd..

2008-03-02T23:01:00.001-08:00

Ujwal came down to meet me later in the night (Friday - Feb 22). After having a loong debate on where we should have our dinner, we came to a conclusion that the safest place had to be an Indian restaurant. We picked "Durbar" as it had decent ratings and reviews in Google. We walked over to the restaurant ( about 15 mins). On the outside, it looked pretty similar to any of the numerous small time tiffin centers / restaurants that you find all over Hyderabad but the quality of the food definitely was as good as the best. The owner and the waiter were both very friendly and we dug into some solid "dinnering".

Later we decided to hit one of the neighboring pubs/clubs. We walked and walked all over SFO's downtown...err, not actually, it was just this one street but we walked around this street about half a dozen times trying to pick a suitable club to hang out in. My friend here, can get pretty choosy and I decided to let him have his way....we finally got into a club and found ourselves having a pretty good time.

The next day saw us sleeping through most of the morning and then eating out at another Indian restaurant - Shalimar. Shalimar is easily THE best dining experience that I have had. Yes, this includes even Indian restaurants back in India. We ate to our stomachs fill and ended up with a bill of 14 bucks....simply amazing! In fact, we were so involved in our lunch that I almost missed my flight. Reached the airport just 30 mins before my flight's scheduled departure. But as luck would have it, the flight got delayed and I made it back home without anymore adventures.

BTW, successfully finished the third part of the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy on the flight back home. Yeah, I have been reading this book for exactly one year 2 months and finished 3 out of this 4 part installment!! hehee...Well, the problem with this book is that I find it totally unsuitable for fast reading. There are so many minute things in the book that I love keep reading over and over again...I just love this book. I love this book so much that I cannot get myself to finish it. hehee...don't I sound like Dominic Francon from the Fountainhead for typing that previous sentence.

So well..that marked the official end of my trip - a trip that was definitely one of my more educational, what the heck, my only educational trip ever! :)

Game Developer's Conference '08 - Days 4-5

2008-03-02T22:16:00.000-08:00

Phew!!
Blogging is tough, isn't it? Once you lose the touch, it is unbelievably tough to put in that extra bit of effort to post a new entry, at least, that's true in my case! Anyway, I might as well finish what I started...

Day 4:
"No more!!" - said my brain. This was a very strange day indeed. The moment I woke up, I felt a very weird feeling...the kinda feeling you get when you watch 4 movies continuously and someone is forcing you to stay back and watch a fifth movie without a "bathroom" break! (not that I have any experience in this regard, of course)..But the point was, I seemed to have had too much. Most of the topics discussed so far were pretty advanced. The enthu that I had to develop games boiled over the saturation point. I just felt like going back home, sleep for a day and start putting theory to practice. However, as I had no other option, I decided to take a different approach. This day, I stuck around the expo booths that were on at the lower levels of the convocation center. There were two main expos - the first was an exhibition by presenters presenting the latest gaming hardwares and softwares. The other was a career expo - with several companies opening up booths to interact with the students. It was a very relaxing experience and I did a good thing by hanging around at these expos instead of attending more technical sessions.

Saw a couple of interesting hardwares which might have potential future - the first was a replacement for our good ole mouse, it was a weird kind of pointing device, providing reflexive actions just like a real gun would. I played the game Quake 4 with this device and it was pretty tough to get the hang of it. Darn it, I don't remember the name of this thing, so never mind, I wouldn't attempt to even described the look and feel of this thing.
The next one was a mind control device. You just hook it up over your head and meditate focusing on what action (jump, lift, turn left, right etc) your on screen character should do and after some time it eventually did it. This was a very cool concept and no doubt this exhibit was very crowded. I just about managed to get a sneak peek at it. Again, pretty cool! Hope to see more of those things in the future.

After hanging around at this expo, for some time, I finally decided to attend a lecture. I don't even remember what lecture I attended, but I believe it had something to do with network programming in games. Quite obviously, nothing registered in my brain and off I went to the career expo. This seemed to be a scene straight out of a typical American teen movie. Food and drinks were being served everywhere. All week, I had been hearing game companies make a hell of a lot of money and today, I could see very clearly that this was indeed a fact! They sure knew how to lure people. Each company had its own unique "freebies" at their stalls...badges, pens, toffees, food, comics, demo game cds, USB drives, T-Shirts what not... This was the time for me to do some networking - talk to a few folks here and there and find my bearing in this industry. I must admit at this point, that I am never comfortable doing this. Speaking with a stranger is something that I have always been pretty apprehensive of....except for a few circumstances. I decided to shed my awkwardness and interacted with some of the developers at the stalls. Some of them were outright condescending while the majority were uber-cool! Managed to sell my resume to a couple of folks and made my way back to the hotel pretty early...of course, with a few Freebies! ;)

Almost forgot to mention, I also spent a huuuge amount of time playing the new Unreal Tournament 3. It was pretty good time pass and I liked the levels. Of course, I still love Quake 3 twice as much as any other game that I have ever played!

Day 5:
Friiiiiday! Don't we love Fridays??? Hell yeah, we do! Shame on you, if you don't feel those brain cells dancing around at the first realization that it is a Friday - the unofficial start of the weekend! I had my own reasons to feel a little down after my usual "Friday morning brain-cell-dance" 'cos it marked the end of a wonderful week.
I think I did a great thing by relaxing through most of the previous day. I felt charged up and ready to slog out at more of the lecture sessions. There were plenty of good ones in the day. There was this session - "Undefined behavior in C++". As a C++ programmer, I am no stranger to the numerous undefined behaviors in this peculiar programming language, but then, such sessions are always bound to surprise you. It was a one hour session and I went for it, after all, even if I learnt a couple of new things, it would definitely be worth it. The presenter (forgot his name) had a very good sense of humor throughout the presentation. He entertained the audience by some very clever quotes on C++ (again, dont remember any of the quotes...blame my stupid memory! :( ). Overall, it was time well spent.

Attended a few more sessions throughout the day. When I walked into the career expo, the atmosphere was truly unbelievable. There were huge crowds everywhere. After some time, I realized that most of the stalls were giving away more freeebies...big ones this time. They were just throwing out all sorts of stuff at the audience - game cds, T shirts etc etc. It was fun watching people get all excited about it...in fact, one person standing right next to me got a Nintendo DS!! Dumb me thought it was cheap to go around catching freebies thrown at you but now I sort of regret it hehehe...or else I would've been playing a cool game on my DS rather than sitting out here blogging my story! :)
Anyway, the day went pretty smoothly. I met a bunch of Indians and exchanged contact info...who knows..maybe I'd get back to India some time and start looking out for an opportunity in Game Development..

All said and done, it was a superb experience for me. I only wish I had been more prepared for what lay ahead of me in the conference. I learnt several things that I can do to give myself a better chance if I want to make it big. The trickier part is to implement them. Exactly one week after my return from SFO, I still find myself sorta limping my way through Game Development basics...it's time to pull my socks! :)

Game Developer's Conference '08 - Day 3

2008-02-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

Day 3 - Feb 20, 2008

On the outside, you might think it's a game developers conference and there is really no huge difference between the different developers out there, apart from the platform and the language that they work in. At least, this was the only difference that I could think of, until today.
The biggest classification seems to be Indie game developers v/s the Corporate Game developers. What is Indie you might ask...Indie stands for Independent. People or companies who try to develop and publish games without the need of a corporate publisher and with a very limited budget form this elite group called the Indie game developers. Corporate developers on the other hand have the luxury of a very generous budget and the tools and weaponry that's required to churn out that piece of cutting edge 3D game in the market.

There seems to be a fair bit of contempt in the heart of both groups for the other group. This was so very evident today during the awards ceremony for the best games, which was easily the highlight of the day. Several prizes were awarded based on different categories - innovation, design, best downloadable, student games, handheld games etc etc. Some of them were really cool concepts.

Check these out some of these neat little low budget games (search in google/youtube for the video links, you lazy ass!):

1. World of Goo
2. Fez
3. Gumboy Tournament
4. Iron Dukes
5. Clean Asia
6. Dishwasher
7. Crayon Physics Deluxe

What made the awards ceremony was how the indie and other developers took a dig at each other whenever they got a chance. In fact, they even made haikus to taunt the other group as part of their "prize winning speeches". It was pretty cool, in a geeky sort of way, exactly the sort you'd expect at a Game Developer's conference.

Two folks are worth mentioning about at this point of time: Elan Ruskin and James Silva. The former came out of DigiPen (or was it FullSail??) univ, got into Valve technologies and helped development of "Portal" (which happens to be this year's coveted Game of the Year!!!) I attended one of his lectures today and it truly was a very enriching experience. A very bright chap indeed, cut out for greater glories, of course.
James Silva, on the other hand, is a dishwasher at a restaurant. Recently, Microsoft guys released a toolkit called the XNA to help develop games on the Xbox 360. They also announced a competition for anyone out there to use this toolkit and come up with the best game. As you might have guessed it, James Silva won this competition, but the surprise is the game is called "Dishwasher" :) How about that for a true life inspiration? It really seemed a pretty cool game and tough to believe a single person developed it by himself!

Also, today, Microsoft announced something which I conceive as brilliantly radical. Until today, publishing games for Xbox 360 and other consoles have been a pain. MS guys have now made this easier by making it easier for community developers to publish and certify the games themselves. What does this mean for a gamer? Well, if the stats at the MS presentation are to be believed, about 1000 games are going to be out in the market before the end of this year...games developed by the common developer...nothing fancy! That's an incredible amount and if the prophecy stands, it augurs well for the Game Development community! Let's keep our fingers crossed about this one! :)

Another point worth mentioning was the "noob squad". Met a bunch of folks today, common thing was that it was the first GDC meet for all of us...always feels better to see that there are other awkward folks out there who seem overawed by the sheer enormity of this conference...made a coupla interesting conversations but was soon back running here and there attending the various lectures. There was a career expo, where a huuuuge bunch of companies had put up stalls offering free beer, food, T-shirts, magazines etc etc. Spoke to a couple of recruiters and was successful in giving away a couple of my resumes! Some of them were pretty positive about getting me an internship this summer which might jeopardize my India trip...Let's wait n watch!

Phew...It's been a looooooong day, a really long one, although it has been equally rewarding. Just reached my hotel and made it a point to blog everything I could while it's all fresh in the mind. End of another day...ahh crap Nooooo! I got an assignment to finish..... :(

Game Developer's Conference '08 - Day 2

2008-02-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

Day 2 - Feb 19 '08

Don't know when I fell asleep y'day. I wanted to watch the whole match but I just dozed off somewhere in between as I always do! hehe. Woke up pretty early once again and decided to listen to some nice heavy music. Been listening to Meshuggah's latest album Obzen. A must try for people who like to experiment a bit with heavy metal.

After a nice quick shower, took a look outside and it was raining! Damn! But it wasn't really that bad...Called a cab to get to the conference but saw no sign of the cab after waiting for about 30 mins. Was getting pretty late and decided to take the bus. I was a little apprehensive how this would turn out, being a new city and unfamiliar with the routes and all. Needless to say, I got pretty late to the conference, 45 mins late, to be precise. I missed the first session of the morning..:( Once again, I was attending the Microsoft sponsored lecture. This time, they were discussing games for the Windows platform and the new changes that they have made as part of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and DirectX 10.1 architecture. After researching for quite some time the previous night, I decided that the best strategy would be to shuffle a little between the different lectures. So, today, I attended the "Physics for Game Developers" session whenever there was a break in the Microsoft sessions...this was a really wise thing to do. Though I wasn't able to understand the entire content of all the sessions, I at least know what each speaker was trying to speak about. With the amount of information available on the internet, it is a simple matter to do a google search on the topics and turn up a nice little chunk of data on each topic....it's another matter if I shrug off my laziness to actually go and do this after reaching my hotel! hehe... Overall, it wasn't that great a day, comparing purely on how much I learnt today. I did a much better job yesterday, however, I managed to make more acquaintances today. I really got to improve in this aspect, and am trying hard to make an effort in this aspect. Let's see if I get better. Got into a bus on my way back...some really beautiful women here in this city! :) Yeah, I really need to work on that conversation thingy! hehe.. Bought a sandwich and a beer on my way back...yummmy, easily the best meal that I had in the past six months or so...The whole sandwich just melted in my mouth. Have you watched this movie - Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Well, I just had the food-orgasm that those guys have at the end of the movie! :) (err...Spoiler warning...sorry, too late! hehe) Another super day....only regret one more day off my SFO trip winds up..boohoo! Wish I had more days so that I can catch up with my buddies in the city!)

Game Developer's Conference '08 - Day 0/1

2008-02-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

Okay...a special blog on why I am here in San Francisco....

(Edit: I have decided to write separate blogs for each day that I am out here..)
I am here attending the "Game Developer's Conference". Why exactly am I attending this? Well, I have always had this thought throughout my college days of being a game developer, yes, the very developer who is responsible for making those "ultra cool" games that I have spent so many nights/days playing...

Day 0 - Feb 17 '08 -

I set foot in SFO. Successfully survived the long & boring flight. Checked in to my hotel. Wasn't sure if I'd be meeting my friends or not. Made a couple of phone calls but everyone seemed busy. I had a couple of documents to take care of, so spent a huge chunk of the day working on them. A nice, quiet day..all in all.

Day 1 - Feb 18 '08 - Woke up at 3:30 am. Phew! Why? 'cos I was still accustomed to the Eastern time zone...a whole 3 hrs difference from SFO's local time. I did not finish those stupid documents the previous day, so instead of falling back to sleep, got back to those documents and wrapped them up. Then, got busy planning my schedule for the rest of the day! Before I left to SFO, I was pondering on what sort of attire should I be taking along with me. I knew that it was a conference for game developers. Now, software developers are known to be sporting casual wear occasionally even in most formal events and game developers had to be the most extreme of the lot. However, I am still a student and definitely do not want to risk a job offer at the cost of wearing something that I am more comfortable in. So, I filled my bag with some shirts but had the sense to tuck in a couple of T-shirts as well. After giving it a considerable amount of thought this morning, I decided to wear a shirt and off I went... Took a taxi to the Moscone Convention center where the conference was about to start...I must say, it is a great place. It is divided into three buildings - North, South and West. I was attending the Microsoft sponsored tutorials so rushed off to the West building. I was amazed by the number of people who turned up for the event. I knew that this conference was the biggest "thing" for game developers of all sorts, but hadn't imagined it was THIS big! As I had anticipated, only about a third of the population was dressed in "formals". Most of the crowd was relatively young, which is what you would generally expect from a gaming community. The day went pretty well. I managed to indulge myself in a couple of conversations, which is pretty good for my standards..hehe! I was attending the tutorials that the Microsoft team presented on XNA Game Studio 2.0. Now, I have never used this toolkit, so I had no idea what was being discussed in a major part of the lectures, however, some of it sure made good sense. They sure seemed to have gone out of their way to help third party developers plunge into Xbox 360 games. I am hoping to get started on all this within the next 6 months or so.. The low point of the day had to be the lunch. They had different kinds of sandwhiches and the bread seemed a bit stale. It was an alrightish lunch, but nothing in comparision to the food that I have been having outside in the streets of 'Francisco! There were also stalls almost everywhere in the convention center sporting new PC / Xbox games...I spent quite a bit of time trying out new games and sure enough the day passed pretty fast enough! I decided to walk my way back home. Now the convention center was a good 3 miles away from my hotel but I had a printout of a map with me and decided to give it a shot. It turned out a pretty good experience. I strongly believe that the best view of a city that you can get has to be right there -on the streets, WALKING!! Yeah, it was a pretty long walk, more so for a person like me, who has seem to have lost all traits of being the old-fashioned bi-ped. But in a way, it was pretty refreshing. Got a sandwhich from McD on the way home and ended a pretty good day on my bed watching the India-SriLanka match.

Life in San Francisco...

2008-02-19T19:22:00.000-08:00

In one word...San Francisco Rocks! This is my second visit to the city and I can already say that it is a woderful city to live in. In many ways, it is similar to Hyderabad and yet, different in many other ways.

I am here attending the Game Developer's Conference, which is quite an experience in itself. But, before I delve into the details of that, let me tell what I have to tell about SFO. It is one of those few American cities that have a great public transit system. I wonder why this is such a rarity for a country so well developed.... Anyway, San Francisco is a welcome exception...moving around, especially in the dowtown isn't difficult at all. People seem friendly enough and you can break into a friendly conversation ever so easily!

However, the best thing that I have liked so far is the "food". Now, I am not really a connoisseur of food or anything close like that...in fact I am particularly easy to please when it comes to food, but eating out in SFO has been much more pleasing than anywhere else! One of my buddies mentioned that SFO is the food hub of the world and I must concede that it really is...I am not speaking about the posh restaurants around here...forget them, all that I have been into are the simple street-side restaurants and fast food centers. Even then, there is no fall in the quality of the food. I wish they had better food at the Game Developer's conference though (I will cover this in a separate blog entry)

All in all, SFO is a great city... I know I haven't even mentioned a thing about the beautiful ladies out here but I hope to update this blog later in the week. Yeah, I am here for one whole week before I head off back to the sleepy town of Kennesaw...