Photo time

Since I can't write, I am posting photos for next few days...

Somewhere in Southern California, most probably Tejon Ranch

Technical Writing

Ok, the reason I can't write these days: I am taking Technical Writing class this quarter. It means, I find 202 mistakes in every sentence I write (ok that's an exaggeration. It's actually the course number ENGR 202W). It means I forget what I was writing about. Like now, I rearranged all the previous sentences (I know it still have mistakes) and now I have no clue why I started this post.

Oh well, at least you know the reason behind my less frequent postings (No I am not going to rearrange this sentence. I am not. I am not. I am not.). As if I didn't have enough complexes in my life that I have to expand on my inferiority complex of poor language skills (Yeah I know, there is no connection between the previous sentence and this one and that's the point. I AM NOT REARRANGING.).

Guess I should go and start writing something technical. (No, I am not putting a subject in starting of this sentence either. Deal with it.). You guys have a good day...

Disaster Zone...

I declared my room disaster zone two days back. I have to unpack, rearrange and organize everything in my room. How bad is it, you ask? Today morning when I woke up: I opened my eyes, saw my room and went inside my sheets trying to hide from it. It was like waking up to find a nightmare in front of you. You would need a GPS to navigate through my room.

And to add to it, my back and shoulder hurts as I started my Kenpo Karate again this week. Actually we got started on Staff now (my first weapon). It was very exciting and very tiring. My wrists are in a pretty bad shape. Anyway, I should go back to my room now..

P.S.: 1. Ok this isn't necessary but I was excited about it too so have to write it down. I start to teach in Kenpo Karate now as I am a blue belt. It means I should know my stuff well and should be able to explain it to the beginners. Its a different type of challenge but I am excited about it.

2. An antidote that, again, I need to write. Yesterday I was demonstrating a technique to a beginner (white belt) and I actually sent the poor guy flying. It wasn't intentional, honestly. I didn't know I could do that. But I need to confess, it was very empowering to realize that I have that kind of power!

From Cheeky Quotes

Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost 5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollar, we wouldn't have any innocent bystanders. - Chris Rock

...why didn't administration think of this. It's so easy to control violence.

Voooohooooooo....

...I am back in Stanford. Away from that pesticide tasting air; murky, dirty, polluted skies; scorching sun and unbearable heat; waking up at 4 and working till 10; running around for some stupid HR team building exercises. I AM BACK IN STANFORD. Back to Kenpo Karate, beautiful weather with forget-me-not blue skies, green trees, sleeping late, getting fresh vegetables, good Indian restaurants. I am back HOME.

Joined two classes this quarter along with Kenpo Karate and my research. Seems to be an extremely busy quarter. But then there always be procrastination. So keep checking!!

Battery Down..

..finally. I have reached a stage when all my creative juices have dried up. I just don't have anything to write about. Guess that's what they call writers block or may be it's just I need a break from all the work. I have finally manage to over-exhaust myself, I guess.

Whatever the reason, all I know that I am not able to write anymore. Not that I didn't start any post in past few days. I have approximately 4-5 drafts. Somehow every time in the middle of the post I am overcome by the feeling that that's not what I want to write about and BAM! I can't write anymore. And that's so weird because all I do on this blog is ramble, whine, complain and rant. And if I can't do that anymore, I am not sure what can I do? That's my life people. I complain, I rant and I whine. That's who I am! I am an expert in that. You know that song from movie Bemisaal:

Khafa hoon, Khafa hoon, Khafa hoon,
Kisi baat par main kisi se khafa hoon
Main jinda hoon par jindagee se khafa hoon,
Khafa hoon, Khafa hoon, Khafa hoon

(I am indignant, I am indignant, I am indignant,
For some reason I am indignant with someone
I am alive but I am indignant with (with or on? Pardon my English) life,
I am indignant, I am indignant, I am indignant)

That song was written for me. That's why I have this blog and now I can't complain! Aw man. No. Wait a minute. Does that mean that I am actually happy and I can't find any thing to compalin about? Weird. Ok. I know the solution now. I need to get unhappy and that too very soon. Any ideas?

P.S.: 1. On second thoughts, doesn't every one who blogs does that because they like to complain or rant? Ok not the tech bloggers or photobloggers but rest of us. You know either we complain about the current political scenarios or the economic situations or social problems or personal problems. We all are here for one reason and one reason only: WHINE. Actually scratch that. It should be: WHINE PUBLICLY. Oh ok. I like to write too. But that's a different story but guess that's the only reason readers actually read us whine about anything and everything. Whoever came up with the idea of blogging must be a good psychologist (or psychiatrist: I will never know the difference). They must have figured out that every human needs to whine so let's give them a space on web to do so. And see how successful it has become. Simply brilliant.

2. Ok. That was a long Post Script. Should have written that in the post.

3. PARDON MY ENGLISH. I am too tired to make much sense right now. Hopefully you can make sense out of this post. All the best!

4. Yay! I finally published this one. No more saved drafts. Does that mean that my writer's block is gone? Or does that mean I am unhappy again?

Greetings...

Seen in Disney land:

Seen on Ph.D. Comics:

Wanna waste time?

If you don't have anything to do or if you have a lot to do and you are procrastinating instead of working: checkout the new tabs on the Grad Life. I spent last few hours trying to make it work. Most probably I got rid of most of the bugs but there might be few around so kindly let me know if you find problem in any of them.

Happy Surfing..

Smart move

Ok. I have been refraining from writing anything about election anymore but McCain's latest move has compelled me to do just the same (though I have resisted it for a week). If you don't know already, he nominated Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska as his running mate. She will be vice president if McCain is elected.

Let me start by making the statement that it took me four years to start understanding the US politics and demographics. In simplest terms, as it stands now: Republicans (Presidnet Bush party, McCain is the candidate) represent the conservative section of US society and believe me, they are CONSERVATIVE. To the extent they want Creation science to be part of high school curriculum. Everything written in Biible is true to its last word, which incidentally includes the belief that the Earth is flat.

The liberal section of US society is represented by Democratic party. Obama is its candidate. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton belong to that party.

Now coming to current issue. McCain has been often described as rich and out of touch with real people. So there comes his running mate: Sarah Palin. She is supposed to be closer to masses. You know why? Because she accepts of smoking marijuana in her youth. She eloped with her high school boy friend. She comes from a big family (third child of four kids), and have a big family: Five kids. And above all, her teenage daughter is preganent. How much closer can you can go to real people of US? In her latest speech, she told Obama to keep away from "us". You know what "us" stands for? It's a reference to conservative people of US. The people who 'clings to their gun and Bible' as the phrase goes.

I am so looking forward how the world will look like if McCain is elected. It was a smart move on his part and strengthens his chance to win but he lost his crediblity in my eyes.

Sometimes I think that as US always wants to interfere in other people's affair and wants to run the world, the international population should have say in it's presidential election. Afterall, they are the one who suffer the consequences.

Google Chrome

Did you hear about the latest browser from Google? They call it Chrome. Unfortunately, my office network doesn't let me access it. I am waiting to go home today and try it out. As they explain in this comic book, it's going to be a multi-processor browser instead of a multi-thread browser. The result: it will be faster than the usual browsers and shouldn't eat up as much memory. I am however conerned if having a multi-processor browser will slow down other processes on my laptop? We will see.

Update: I downloaded Chrome on my laptop. On an average it's not much different from Mozilla Firefox. Javascripts run slower than Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft IE (I have to use IE at work :( ) or Safari. Hopefully they will fix the problem soon. It does have some nice features too. Guess I can grow to like it someday. For now, Mozilla Firefox will do.

Caste System

I am a movie buff. I have always been. I like watching movies. In theaters. In nice theaters actually. Not the ones we have in our town (I have watched movies even there). I also admit that I have stop following Bollywood for past four years but I haven't stop going to theaters to watch movies. I watch Hollywood instead. But I digress.

For past few years, I have had opportunity to interact with people from different states and culture which included Bongs (a lot of them actually), Assamese, Tamils, Mallus, Gults and Oriya. Most of them had the same story. They weren't allowed to watch the Hindi movies, listen to Hindi songs as kids. Somehow, they were bad influence. (Forget about Hindi literature, even hindi speaking populace of India avoid that for some reason.).

Another general trend in all the non-hindi speaking (= Hindi not first language) is that if you talk about Bollywood with them, they have a tendency to point out the actor/actresses/singers/music directors that belong to their particular region. They do acknowledge other actors/singers but the best one is always from their region. That celebrity will be their favorite too.

Few years back, I never thought about an actor as a south Indian or Bengali or anything. I simply liked them or disliked them. I liked Kajol as she is a great actress. I liked Rekha for her grace. I liked Sushmita for her personality. I don't understand why they are defined as a bong or southie? Does it even matter? All these people who feel so proud of these celebrities being associated with their region, do they think that if they went to these celebrities and told them that they belong to same region as them, these celebrities will treat them differently? If not, then whats the point of showing off?

I know people who actually followed Saurav Ganguly in Ranji trophy matches just because he is a bong or told me that Kishore Kumar is better than Mohammad Rafi because Kishore Kumar is a Bengali (though I am not sure that Kishore Kumar ever wanted to be known as one). It didn't have anything to do with his ability as a singer but the family he was born in. How is that fair? And then obviously, they have so much superior knowledge of music and such fine arts than poor us (Hindi-speaking population) that we should take their word for it, even though they have been listening to Bollywood music for only 4-5 years while we virtualy grew up on it. I am not sure what offends me more: the arrogance or the unfairness.

Unfortunately, these are the people who had chance to receive highest form of education but some how the education part of their studies skipped them. They are supposed to be more cultured than us (and thus their arrogance) but they forgot to learn about manners, decorum, honor and justice. They boast their unfairness instead of being ashamed of that. I simply can't comprehend which culture accepts that and how is that superior?

P.S.: I didn't mean to judge any community in this post. I am just rambling. I have some very good friends in each of these communities and I still don't like judging people based on the community they belong to. I strongly believe that every individual is different and whether I will get along with him/her depends on our compatibility rather than their place or family of birth.