Been very busy lately... Lots of things happening!

It has been quite a long time since I last blogged - actually so many things are happening that I do not have time to blog at all! Last week was quite hectic at work as well as I had to do some work on my thesis. Other than that, the flight to Bangalore was canceled - NorthWest Airlines canceled the flight to Bangalore even before it was opened!Actually, all seats were booked and they are now providing for tickets through Mumbai - that is not good news for us - I heard that Mumbai is not a good place to enter India - high rate of corruption, you see.... Anyway, since I have no other choice now and the other flights are charging about $2200 if I book it now, I am going with the NW flight to Mumbai itself- I got this ticket for $1300 in June!

Then, one more pleasant surprise was that one of my friends back home is getting married in December... I may not be able to attend the wedding since it is a day after I arrive in Bangalore, and the wedding is not in Bangalore - I do not think I can travel the very next day I arrive home.

Then the weekend itself was great - did a lot of shopping - perfumes and clothes. The next time I will go for shopping will be in Thanksgiving time. My aunt and uncle wanted me to go and visit them during Thanksgiving, but I will be busy with my schoolwork and shopping - I will not be able to go; most probably they will come over! It would be great to see them after a long time.
I had been to the movie "AmritaDhaare" this weekend - the movie was ok - nothing special about the movie, but we got to talk with the movie director. The hero and heroine were cute. I met an old friend of mine at the movie. Overall, it was good.



That's it I guess... yeah I forgot to mention that I registered for the course for the next semester... hope to blog again soon...

Daylight Saving Time

I have really not understood the concept of "Daylight Saving Time". People in most of the states in US have to turn their clocks one hour ahead on the last Sunday in April and one hour back on the last Sunday in November. Daylight Saving Time (DST) was first introduced in 1942 in order to conserve energy. Later on, after the Second World War, states were given autonomy to decide whether or not to observe DST. Since then, all the states except for Arizona and Hawaii follow DST.

I really do not get it why people need to change their clocks in order to conserve energy. I personally feel that putting on lights or changing the working hours can be done based on the amount of light; based on your instinct and intuition rather than on clocks. Life needs to run based on instinct, not solely depending on time. What I have observed is that almost everything here in US depends on time or on direction. There is very little space for anything else. Of course, time is important - you need to meet deadlines, you cannot afford to waste time! But that does not mean you have to let time dictate your life. You should be in control of your life and how you spend the time! I really feel that turning the clock is not the way to go for conserving energy! The only thing that changed for me is that I got an extra hour to sleep on Sunday ;). And of course, instead of getting dark at 7, now it gets dark at 6.

The other concept is that of direction - if you need to go to any place, it is explained in terms of directions - go North on road X for 1.2 miles, turn East at the intersection with road Y, go for 4.8 miles ... and so on - that is a good concept; there are very few chances that you will lose your way.

Some things you like, some things you don't - got to live with it!

The International gems and jewelry show

I had been to the International gems and jewelry show at the Dallas Market Hall here in Dallas. This show for the Fall season started off at Washington on August 19, has been through many cities and reached Dallas from October 21-23. I went to the show on the last day, with the hope of finding something good to shop for my trip to India in December.

I heard about the show through one of my friends, who was very enthusiastic about the event - I could understand that - she being a girl (I do believe that girls like jewelry - whatever the form they are in!) and she is visiting India this December too. So, I thought I would give a visit to the show too - but I went there only after confirming that there was good stuff there - my friend went there on Saturday; after getting here feedback and looking at the stuff she had bought there, I decided to go for the show on Sunday.

It was a very chilly Sunday - the temperatures being in the early 50's I guess, dropping suddenly from the usual 80's and 90's. We went to the show at around 3 in the afternoon - well we took our time to get up in the morning, sorry, afternoon ;) - had lunch and then left for the show. As expected I found that there were a large number of Indians at the show. Of course, there were Americans too, but they were going for the large, gaudy gems! Well, I do not like them!

I went to the section where they were selling semi-precious stones (I cannot afford to buy the precious stones like ruby or diamond yet - I am still a student!). I loved some of them which I thought would look good (I think I am quite good at choosing stuff) - so I ended up buying garnet, amethyst, mystic topaz, corals shaped as roses and jade shaped as leaves. I also bought a pair of ear-rings that looked cool.

Garnet has a variable color averaging a dark red.



Amethyst is a transparent variety of crystallized quartz that typically is purple or violet in color.



Mystic Topaz has a mysteriously shimmering sparkling beauty - I bought the ones that have a darkish shade.



Coral roses are pinkish white stones, carved from the corals. Jade leaves are greenish stones carved out in the shape of leaves. These two together would form a great necklace!



I spent about $150 for all the stuff! Hope it is worth it!

Massive shopping for Groceries!

We had been short of groceries for two days and we had to go to Walmart for shopping - everything from milk and curds to vegetables were out of stock at home! Finally we went to Walmart and did a massive shopping! Can you imagine how much we spent on our groceries? It was $211 - the highest we have spent after moving to this house I guess. If I convert this to rupees, it will be a bit too much - we usually do not use conversions - if we do that, we can never afford to buy anything I guess!

Yeah - we did buy quite a lot of stuff - more in quantity as well as variety - but I guess this was a bit too much! We bought fruits - bananas, apples, red and green grapes, pomegranates, oranges and what else! And a variety of other stuff too - cookies, biscuits, cakes , chocolates and such fun stuff to washing liquid to deodorants to cough syrup! Well, I am not going to write out the whole list of things we bought - that would be really boring! Anyway, we had fun buying all the stuff! Thanks to my friend for taking us shopping!

Delicious Weekend

The weekend was great fun - we were involved in cooking great stuff on Saturday. We prepared "Aloo Sabji Bonda" (Potato curry stuffed in flour and fried in oil). It was really tasty and reminded us how easily we could have got it done if we were at home. Anyway, it was worth the effort - we spent about two hours preparing the stuff! In addition to that we also prepared the ambrosial "Carrot Halwa" (Sweet dish prepared using carrots) - it was heavenly! And to give the final touches, we had these dishes watching "The Pirates of the Caribbean" - the movie was great, especially with the great food we had! I really forgot to get the snaps of these dishes - will make it a point to take snaps whenever we prepare something good.

Anyway, we were quite bored to cook anything on Sunday - so went out to have food. We went to "Masala Wok" - an Indian restaurant... I had "Fried Rice" there - that was good too. It had been quite some time since we had been out for dinner - the short outing was fun. Here are some snaps we took there:



This snap we took outside the restaurant - just to show the "name" of the restaurant! ;)


We are inside, waiting for the food...


Hmmm.. our food has arrived and I have already savoured half of the fried rice!


We are done and ready to return home! Other than this, I had to read up on some papers, since we have to submit a report this week! Overall, we had fun this weekend!

Hail Netflix! Hail Blockbuster!

I became one among the many of us who subscribe DVD's from the movie rental stores such a Netflix/Blockbuster. I had known about this earlier, but the idea appealed to me now because of the acute shortage of movies to watch! It is difficult to imagine this - Bollywood is not able to produce movies at the rate we are consuming them. And we are not "supposed" to download new Hollywood movies - sometimes we do that as well - but few are available. And the small set of Kannada movies we got has expired recently (meaning we have watched all the 20 odd VCD's we had). A deadlock situation in the producer-consumer problem --> and the solution I found for this is to get another source of movies - namely, a rental store such as Netflix.

I got the idea from a friend that you can subscribe for a free trial of 15 days. That's what I am doing now - we are trying to optimise this - get 3 movies, immediately rip them and send them back the very next day, if not the same day; so that we can get the next set of movies! And watch the movies slowly, as and when we have time! We have already got about 18 movies in the queue - most of them Hindi.

The hard disk of my laptop is filled with movies - so I am now writing them out into DVD's so that I can leisurely watch the same movie again some other time. Movies have become the main source of entertainment and pastime for us. Well, if we are not busy with studies or if we are not out playing, it is almost a hundred percent sure we are watching some movies, with popcorn/icecream/chips/some other food in our hand! And as a contingency plan, I think I will subscribe for Blockbuster after this 15 day trial! Hail Netflix! Hail Blockbuster!

Down with Fever

After a long time, I was down with fever. It's been quite some time - I guess I've not fallen sick for about a year and a half now. Well, finally I did fall sick - but just for a day. A slight bout of fever invaded my body - fever, accompanied with cold and cough. As they say, an adaptive mechanism, fever is the body's reaction to pathogens; it attempts to raise core body temperature to levels which will denature, debilitate or kill the pathogens. I guess my body was so full of pathogens that they had to be killed - and for that I had to get "FEVER".

It has been three days now and I feel better - the fever was there just for three days or so - the second day was real bad. I was sleeping the whole day - the sleep was so intense that I could not even manage to differentiate between dream and reality - my mind was full of dreams - I just answered a phone call and within two minutes, I was having a dream! I guess I was continuously in a state of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) which is a period late in the sleep cycle in which the brain and body become active, increasing heart rate and blood pressure and it is most often associated with dreaming, for most dreams occur during this period. Well, I had a lot of dreams - I can just remember that the dreams were all good - many of them being fantasies!

Getting fever has its own bag of gifts - you get to miss school or office - I did get to do that! And you get looked after as if you are a king - well, I missed out on that - I am not at "home", you see. Anyway, it was a pleasant change from the routine - I can say this only because the fever did not affect me much and did not last longer!

After a long time!

I've not blogged for quite some time now. I've been very busy these days. Work here at my internship is quite hectic and the research work at school also kept me busy. I submitted a paper for a conference last weekend - haven't worked in my lab much since then. But, I had to read up some papers for the other course I have taken! Overall, a very busy month! So I thought if it is going to be this way, I better start blogging again... else I may never blog as it will remain this way for a few more months.

Well, what have I done this month other than the stuff I said above... I have called up most of my friends back home - just spoke to them after a long time. It felt really good. I have gone and watched some Kannada movies in the theater - yeah, Dallas has shown some Kannada movies recently. Also, I got my cell phone - so I am supposed to be "mobile" now! I attended a career fair at school. That was good. Hopefully, my resume will get noticed and will land me a good offer.

My professor wants me to continue at school for my doctoral degree. Well, I do not want to pursue PhD as yet... I would like to work for a year and maybe then get back to school. I have told him that, but I think the conversation on that has not yet ended... I will have to convince him that I do not want to go in for more school work as yet. Hopefully he gets it. Well, I guess that's it for now. I will try to blog more regularly starting today.

Feeling homesick

It has been a long time since I blogged. Actually, I was kind of busy these last few days. Classes started at school. And there was the independence day celebrations last weekend. Things were kind of hectic at my internship as well.

These last few days, I have been missing home a lot. I really miss the good old days when I could just sit at home, talk to Mummy for hours together, chat with my friends on the phone for hours, go on a ride on my kinetic honda with my brother, just have a walk around, go and spend some time in a friend's place... those were such great days. I miss them so much now... These days I call up home almost every day. I want to go home soon and I really am worried how I will be able to come back after the visit (well, I do need to come back here, at least to complete my studies!!!)

I never knew that I would miss home so much... of course, I did miss home earlier... but I do not know what is wrong with me these days. I am even having second thoughts about my decision to come over here to study; maybe, I should have stayed back there and tried to get into IIM or IISc... well, such thoughts never came to me earlier - I was always happy and contented with myself. I am not even enjoying the way I should be enjoying things. The nostalgic feeling is so overpowering that I have no interest in anything these days. Of course, I do get on with the job and my research work. Hopefully that should keep me occupied till I go back home.

Nothing like "HOME SWEET HOME"........ I can say a hundred, no, a thousand times over.

New students arrive - and I miss home!

The last weekend, I have completely been involved in cooking (I dunno why... but I feel like cooking something good every weekend - and I have my cooking turn on Sunday.. to fit in perfectly!) or in showing the new students who have arrived around the campus . Two of my friends arrived this weekend to my university for their Master's. So, I need to go around the campus with them, showing around the places and all that.

Of course, it is fun... but too tiresome in the hot sun. I have not been able to work much on my research this week. Hopefully, my professor does not question me about this. I have some results to show him, of course, in the worst case ;)

I do miss home a lot - I realise it more when I see these guys come in now... I am waiting for the time when I will be making a trip to Bangalore! I really miss everything back home!

Multiple Personality Disorder

"Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)" or "Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)" is a psychological disorder wherein a person who is not able to cope with stress and pain he/she is undergoing, creates an alter/personality within himself/herself in order to be able to cope with the situation.

I saw the movie "Anniyan"...though I do not understand Tamil, I could get most of the movie. It is a well-directed movie and the portrayal of MPD in the movie is excellent. Of course, there are some action sequences which may seem specious, but think about it - this is not an art movie, it is a commercial movie for the masses - so such things are bound to be there.... ;)

"Tell me your dreams" by Sidney Sheldon is one other novel where MPD is explained in detail and the novel is gripping. Here the protagonist Ashley Patterson has three alters, one being hereself, the other a violent protector (Antoniette Prescott), and lastly a meek painter (Alette Peters) - the novel is really worth a read. The movie does take something from this novel, the protagonist in the movie, Ambi(aka Ramanujam), also has three alters - one is himself, the other a violent killer (Anniyan), and the last one a lover boy (Remo). The court sequences also closely folow those in the novel. This is one of the good movies in Tamil that I have watched. Really worth a watch!

A week begins again!

The week begins again! Weekend was tiring - we shifted into a new apartment..... we had rented a truck... really tiring work. Think twice before you change apartments. We had the "haalu ukkiso" (milk) ceremony and photo session at our new apartment!

I had a meeting with my prof on Saturday, it went well, then I did some work in my lab. Yesteraday afternoon, we had almost finished the settling down process. So, we saw "Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya..." ! The movie is an average comedy.... sometimes you get irritated by the crappy jokes. But Susmita is good in the movie, Katrina is cute.

Today, I ordered lunch at office - they "cater" to the Indian needs - good Indian food for $5, brought to your office at lunch time, around 12 noon. They serve you three chapatis, two curries and a rice item - palav/lemon rice/something in rice! It is good. After having lunch, I am fully awake - was really sad as it was a new week beginning - a MONDAY! Now I feel a lot better.

It is the weekend.

Oh! At last, the weekend has arrived... technically, in 14 hours, but it starts in about 6-7 hours for me. It is such a refreshing break from the monotonous work in the week. Get up early in the morning (7:40 is really early morning for me!), have a bath and get ready (in about 20 minutes), catch a bus, a train and a bus again and reach office by 9. Check mails, do some work, have lunch and finally head back home in the same bus-train-bus route. At home, have something to eat, go to the lab and do some work there, if you have some energy left, come back home, have dinner and go to sleep - by 11 (can you believe it? - sleeping so early!)

The same routine for 5 days and you will be waiting for the weekend - so you can get back to your own lazy life style which you enjoy the most! Weekends - get up late in the morning, cook something good or go out for lunch (great if someone gives a treat!), work in the lab if you feel like... watch some movies, go out and enjoy when you feel like.....! Weekends are real fun. But Sunday evening is so ominous - it brings in the threat of another week of monotonous work!

That too I missed the "Friday coffee - India" today! Friday coffee is a weekly event at the International Student Services in my school, where coffee and food from different countries are made available to students. I really missed the "samosas" and "sweets"...mmmmmmm..... I really had enjoyed the last time we had "Friday coffee - India". You know what, I never used to get up even by 10.30 in the morning to go to the "Friday coffee" events in my earlier semesters at school - it was too early for me! (I went to one of the "Friday coffee - India" events as I had a meeting with my professor that morning!). But now I get up early and am out of the house by 8.10! Look how times change... make the most of the time you have - enjoy to the fullest! You may be waiting for the weekend like me, sooooooooon..... - so enjoy when you can!

How to write unmaintainable code!

I was reading an article on "How to write unmaintainable code!". The article was really well-written and extensive, touching on almost all aspects of making the code as confusing and ambiguous as possible, making use of the simplest as well as the most complex nuances available in the language and programming constructs supported there.

Well, but you know what, I have seen really badly written code, written by someone who has not tried to write "unmaintainable code"; in fact, the person was trying to write good, maintainable code! Some people do have a natural flair for writing unmaintainable code. We could add on several additional points to the article, by going through their code. Though it is worse than a nightmare for the person trying to maintain the code, or for someone trying to debug the code..., writing such code is real fun, especially when we make use of the subtle specialties provided by that specific language.

If some people do this for fun or for showing off their "flair" in programming, some people do this for sheer pleasure of letting out their frustration at having to spend their precious time documenting stuff - there are several ways for such people to have their share of fun - "Document only the details of what a program does, not what it is attempting to accomplish. That way, if there is a bug, the fixer will have no clue what the code should be doing" - this being one of the many ways to help release the frustration of a coder who feels he is wasting his time in documentation.

I believe that writing unmaintainable code is a skill (some have it inborn... ;)) and people should have their share of fun doing this! God save the maintainers, though (hope I do not belong to this category of people) !

In a dilemma.....!

Well, you know what... when you have two very good options... and do not know what to choose... you would feel it would have been better to have a single option! Now I am doing my internship at Cisco Sytems which will continue till Fall, and my professor has offered a TAship for Fall-Spring (he says it is tough to get TAship for Spring alone!) . I do not know which one to choose...! Now that I have just worked for 2 months... I feel I will continue at Cisco... but really, I would have been happier to be working at school. Well, I am in a dilemma - "A situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally unfavorable and mutually exclusive"! As always, I go with the one I feel is right... hoping God will set things right for me...!

The Half Blood Prince.

Hi,

Well, if you feel that Harry Potter is for kids... think again! Check out the new book - you may change your opinion!

I bought the new novel in the Harry Potter series - The half blood prince...! Well, in fact I had read the first 2 chapters on some website... someone had posted it 6 hours before the novel was released. I was intrigued by the first two chapters.

Well, as expected a very important character gets killed. And lots of stuff inside the novel - love blossoms between the people expected (against some beliefs, by other people posted on various Orkut communitites!) Overall, the book was okay - maybe I will like it better when I read it again, of course after some time...

The book ends in a way... where you would feel you are expecting the next book to come outr sometime next week. I don't know how long it will take for JKR to rtelease the next one. That one would be fun, of course, if Harry doesn't get killed - you never know!