Vagaries

08:20 pm - lazy 2007 post

Things I wanted to write about for new year :
- amazing all-night party we had with String Cheese Incident at Sea of Dreams
- meeting old and new friends on the 31st
- NYE fireworks in SF
- LJ 06 roundup (met 2 great LJers this year, narrowly missed a few others, half-wrote a post on meblog's zeitgeist data)
- 06 ups and downs (mostly ups - a good year oh-six)
- 07 resolutions (a rather long post)

Too exhausted to do all that now. If you want details on any of the above, let me know.

07:09 pm - jetlagged

Yesterday, I spent considerable amount of time talking to a friend about home and all the Indian cities I have lived in. It was such a trip down memory lane that I actually woke up totally jet-lagged. I have spent the whole day in a state of blah and drowsiness - very similar to the week after return from my last India trip.

Its 8:30 am IST and I am starting to feel a little energetic now.

Current Mood: blah

07:08 pm - $ echo "Quack!"

Just couldn't stop thinking about it. Found the answer I was looking for :)

Current Mood: cold

09:47 pm - 103 < 79 ?

I was filling up this online form for a bank application and it had the most amazing column for filling dates. In the year column, it gave me a range from 26 to 180. For birthdate, I could select 79 and all was ok. Then I had to fill 2003 for a date on my passport. Extrapolating their year-logic, I filled-in 103 for 2003. (It kind of made sense to me at that time. Don't ask.)
On submitting the form, it says my passport date is smaller than my birthdate!

I finally gave up and called the bank. And the guy on the other side said that its not a problem - because even if I managed to submit the form, they are not going to look at it. I would have to download the printable version, and post it to their bombay office anyways!

Finally decided not to keep my money with these guys ...

08:35 pm - Rescue operation completed

Among the screwees were such diverse items as pcmcia, /dev/pts, and apic.
Moved things back to bochs.

That was fun, should try it again someday

Current Mood: accomplished

04:52 pm

taken from kasche via math_jokes

( stolen image )

Current Mood: cranky

04:06 pm - New Icons !

Used my mobile's camera to take some abstract pics(?) around my desk while waiting for a build to complete.
Followed it up with another session while driving back home.

Updated some of them as my new icons here.

( Abstract Pics )

09:19 am - Mr Infredible and the Salvation Harmy

just two runs ? two ?

"Such sweet agony"

Just saw the highlights again and its still as unbelievable.

10:06 am - Amused ...

From 'A Way With Words' feature on Trojan War Terms:

Milli-Helen, n., unit of beauty capable of launching one ship. In jocular use.

11:28 am - Did you get your free Downloads of all nine Beethoven's Symphonies ?

I did. From BBC folks who were trying to promote Classical Music. Mr. Insufferable showed me the site. The symphonies were available only for a few days and we got there in time. There were explanations and commentaries by experts on whys and hows of the compositions. Pretty neat of BBC, I would say.

Apparently the record labels disagree. Infact they completely went off their knockers about how BBC is being totally irresponsible.

<The Independent>
 Managing director of the Naxos label, Anthony Anderson, said: "I think there is a question of whether a publicly funded broadcaster should be doing this and there is the obvious issue that it is devaluing the perceived value of music. You are also leading the public to think that it is fine to download and own these files for nothing."
</The Independent>

Duh!

11:06 am - Surprise !

Featured word today on Double-Tounged Word Wrester : "thulp".

Quoting from the usage examples:

<snip>

*2004 Saras 97—IIT Madras (Apr. 4) “IIT M Slang” (in IIT Madras, India): Thulp—Comes from “THUmp into puLP.” To beat the shiit out of something.

*2004 [lakesidey] Coffee time (India) (Oct. 11) “Strenuous Sunday”: I went for a quiz (and was thulped in embarrassing fashion after making the finals with inordinate ease).

*2004 Ganga Hostel IIT Madras (Dec. 20) “Lingo......and all that ‘fart’” (in Madras, India): Thulp: extremely widely connotative word—from physically beat to mentally exhaust with everything in between.

</snip>

Very rare of Lakesidey to get thulped in quizzes and now its on the front page :-)

[ed: IIT juntaes, there are more surprises in the archives of Indian English Words.]

09:43 am - Hanging Around

Bad Day @ office ! 

05:15 pm - This happens only in Delhi ...

Seen on one of the flyovers in Delhi:

" Flyover open for trial run "

I tried it and it stayed quite upright.

Good job, UP State Bridges Corporation.

02:20 pm - Ninjae on Uncyclopedia

< from Uncyclopedia>

Ninja is the common Latin term for a group of reclusive latin priests who have sworn off all interaction with the physical realm, except for pizza delivery, which they do 24/7, and have also been known to mysteriously show up several hours before the pizza was even ordered.

Ninjas are also known for their stealth, their knowledge of quilting history, their total disrespect for authority, their ability to fly, their ability to totally FLIP OUT and cut peoples' heads off, and the ability to ascend their testicles for defensive purposes. Ninja's are not animals however in that they do provide receipts for assassanations.

Often considered an annoyance, they nevertheless are growing in population, despite their habit of dropping dead after three days of no water.

The plural form of ninja is ninjae, or more commonly, ninjin.

Ninjas are also known for kicking people THROUGH THE FACE and not even think twice about it, as well as being able to wail the guitar even better than Eddie Van Halen

It is wise not to mess with a ninja, as it will result in your head getting cut off.

A special sub-set of Ninjas, known as Jedi, lived long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

11:20 am - Hilarious ...

Meet the Singhsons ...

07:07 pm - code browsing ...

What are the chances that you read 'ass_hole' in the code and
think number of holes in the address space?

02:40 pm - And it reminds you of ... ?

( PacMan snaps )
One of the collegues was telling me about this toads he saw on  'The Most Extreme' on Animal Planet. And everyone
we discussed this with seems to recollect atleast one person with similar characterstics.
 

Horned frogs seem to have been designed for the sole purpose of eating as much as possible. They appear to consist of two main parts: a mouth and a stomache. The creature has eyes and legs also, of course, but they pale in significance except as aids in the capture of the next meal, when compared to the unbelievably huge mouths these guys have! This is probably where this frog got the nickname "PacMan Toad" and also from the fact that they normally devour their prey in one swallow.

Argentinian Horned Frogs are relatively inactive. They are not a recommended pet for those who like to watch animals stir around and perform for them, as they rarely move. They can be quite aggressive if kept in pairs, especially if one is significantly larger than the other, in which case the larger frog may eat the smaller.

Whoever offered the advice ‘never eat anything bigger than your head’ had obviously not met an Argentinean wide mouthed frog. Some of these guys actually die trying to eat something bigger than their head.



What say ?

03:30 pm - Trip Down Memory Tube ...

Coming home late in the evening, we find ourseleves welcomed with the
same old junk soap operas on tele.

While we struggle to find logic and entertainment in whatever is on offer,
my mind wanders back in time to some of the favourite shows of yesteryears.

Here is a partial list of our favourites, not in any order:

. Vyomkesh Bakshi
    A detective serial set in Bengal.

. Didi's Comedy Show
    I think this was German. But there were not many
    dialogues in there any way. Superb nonsense.

. Flop Show
    One Show Wonder Jaspal Bhatti's wonder show.

. Vikram Aur Betaal
    Guess its here that I got hooked to Fantasy stuff.

. Spiderman (Animation)
    It used to be aired on Saturday Afternoon I think.

. Giant Robot
    Japanese 'sci-fi'; a.k.a. "Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot"

. Oshin
    Another Japanese Series.

. Malgudi Days
    with the unforgettable ta-na-na-tana-nana-na

. Old Fox
    Another German show dubbed in English

. Turning Point
    Science Show

. Mr Yogi
    short and sweet horoscopic comedy series

. Kakka Jee Kahin
    Om Puri and all that politics

. Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapne
    There are dreams and there are dreams

. Karamchand
    The first(?) Doordarshan detective series

. Singhaasan Batteesi
    Another mythica fantasy

. Ek-Anek and thousand other NFDC clips.
     There was one on environment with an Anderoid/Humanoid dying
     of hunger.

There were some other bad ones that I never used to miss at that time,
like one 'Space City Sigma' and 'He-Man ...' !

Good OL Idiot Box(sigh) ...

Ah well, back to Jassies and Saas Bahus.

02:59 pm - Makes Sense ...

< snip >

Did you know you can now order Pizza with your computer game? Yup, the game that Garrett and I used to be addicted to, Everquest, now has teamed up with pizza hut to bring those hooked on 'evercrack' munchies when they're hungry! The command is /pizza

< /snip >

Here's the game link

02:07 pm - Groupware Bad

Culled from JoelOnSoftware ...

Jamie Zawinski On Groupware

-.-

And on Free Groupware ...