Sleepy Update

It’s been a while since I jotted down anything here… 68 days, in fact, and while that’s not a record, it is quite substantial. And my last post didn’t actually have anything to do with me (ahem.) So that brings the time differential to… a very excellent sounding 123 days since my last post with any real content (which might be a record… Hmm)! Let’s see… what has happened in all that time?

Long while ago

I had another motorcycle accident! Eeeentiiirely my fault this time around. Well, almost entirely my fault (is that correct?). You see, I was going through this nice round-about at Poojappura Jn. when the bike toppled over. Just ‘la ‘dat. Sure, I might have been going just a little too fast, and I might have been juuust a little too aggressive with the cornering angle, but in my defence, I’ve taken that corner at much scarier speeds and angles before – n’ more than a few times at that. Guess I stretched my luck a little too thin this time around – and of course, there’s the reason for the almost in the entirely – my bike ain’t what it used to be, it’s been in quite a lot of crashes and they’ve taken a toll on its handling.

There was another guy with me this time – first for an ‘accident’. Nothing happened to him, except for a tiny scratch on the palm. I, on the other hand, got my knee torn – which consequently had to be stitched up. I was stuck at home with a near useless leg for almost 2 weeks, during which period, the thought “have-to-go-to-the-bathroom” was exceedingly mortifying. As an aftermath, I’ve partially lost sensation on the skin around my knee, and the nerve endings seem to have been juggled around by the incompetent (?) doctor who closed the thing up. If I touch the part where the skin got torn, I get a not-so-nice tingling sensation in my numb areas. Intriguing and slightly disturbing at the same time…

Right after my leg healed (somewhat), Dishaa happened.

Let’s put it this way: I wasn’t looking forward to it. Having had an insider’s view of how things were coming along, I didn’t have much hope. I wasn’t in charge of anything, having had my fill of… umm… being in charge of things in the last iteration of the same. However, being the geek that I am, I helped out the guys with the gaming event.  After a very shaky start, it actually went pretty well. I didn’t see any of the other off-stage events, partly, because I was stuck guarding my computer at the gaming location, but mainly, because I couldn’t give less of a damn. <shrug> I was, however, there for the Cultural ‘Nite. I wanted to see (and scorn) the performance of some northie practically unheard-of guy (and his band) for whom the organizing committee had dedicated around one n’ a half lakh rupees. To my utter surprise, it turned out that the guy was actually really good! I video-d the whole thing, and its up at my YouTube page! Here’s a link to a playlist!

Sometime in-between

Holi happened. At college. Video evidence to the carnage that occurred can been viewed, once again, at my YouTube page. Here’s a convenient playlist for the lazy people.

Recently

I’ve discovered that gaming online is actually possible these days – and I don’t mean simple not-so-delay-dependant ones, I mean the real hardcore stuff! I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead and Counter-Strike: Source regularly for the past month – the latter almost exclusively for the past 2 weeks, mainly because L4D has started becoming stale. L4D is a ton of fun, possibly the best online co-operative game ever created, but with only four (official) maps, you get tired of running through the same places over and over again (even with the AI Director, which mixes things up for a different experience each time). When everybodys’ networks are fine, lag is almost non-existent. ^_^

There was another get-together at school. Was kinda fun. Pics up at my picasaweb. Header image is a shot of the Indoor Stadium that is fiiinally finished (or so it seems).

Oh, and College Days are over. My S8 university exams begin in 3 days, and as usual, I’m not looking forward to it. Wish me luck.

It’s 4.50 AM right now. I think I’ll head to bed. Yes. I’ll do that.

Disposable Post

Life has not been ideal this past month.

• People have been confusing me more than usual, and as a result, I’ve reason to believe that I’ve been more than a bit-of-an-ass about more than a few things with more than a few people.
• I’d had this vision in my head of Dishaa ‘09 shaping out like one of those domino-stacks that fall out perfectly. Unfortunately, the reality is that people are flawed (including me) and nothing turns out perfectly. I just hope it won’t end up too far off the intended mark.
• And the Exams are here. Again. Sigh.

So many things to do and no(t enough) will to do it.

And on top of all that, I feel dead (Tired – but in a different way) all the time!

Hmm… come to think of it, that’s not too bad. Hmm…

Trip – Senti-trip

Or so it was called, since it was supposed to be the last trip that s7 ppl’d be going for….

As far as I was concerned, the start was boring. I have not been blessed with an ability to dance, and in light of that knowledge, I find it extremely embarassing when situations arise where one is expected to participate. Thankfully, no one bothered me much and I was able to while away the time in music land… while all around me, the world went mad with guys and girls jumping around to the beat as best they could.

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

I woke up while we were still on the way up to Wayanad. Some of the sights were truly breathtaking – light filtering through the clouds, expansive vista-s… sights, the sort of which you only see in Discovery Channel or the National Geographic.

After refreshments, we headed straight to Edakkal caves, which turned out to be an unexpectedly strenuous trek / climb / clamber / death-defying-feat-of-utter-stupidity. I backed out at about the middle of the climb right when the rains started. Visit Krish’s picasaweb album for views from the top and a bunch of photos of the people who actually did it.

Those who survived (not everyone did. Nimmi busted her head. ) headed on to Ooty. I spent four hours listening to music, sitting at the front of the bus, at the end of which an exasperated Rakhi waved me over to sit with her wondering (correctly) why I’d bother with the awful front seat when I could sit comfily next to her.  We reached Ooty late at night with the effects of the trek plainly visible, and after a spot of partying, everyone was dead asleep.

The morning was beautiful, to say the least – just the right temperature and the light was brilliant. I took a whole bunch of photos that I’m quite proud of!

We then headed to Lake Ooty, where, with the little time we had, we went boating! I’ve been to Ooty two or three times, and have been to this same place every time, but for whatever reason, I’d never gone out onto the lake. It was fun! I’d also gotten myself a cowboy hat - something I’ve always wanted to buy, and the inevitable photo session ensued.

After a quick stop-over at a tea factory, which I skipped because it was raining, we were on our way back to Trivandrum.

All things considered… an average trip… nothing particularly exciting or memorable, and nothing to complain about…

How forgettable is that.

All the pics can be found over at my picasaweb album. Clicky!

Trip – Eranakulam ‘08

We went to veega land during the onam holidays. Me, Sabir, and Petti, that is. At veega land, we jumped around like idiots in the wave pool for hours on end, and Sabir almost sicked up after being spun around for too long in a blender-like apparatus. The same one left me feeling very sleepy for some reason.

Oh, and they have a NEW roller-coaster over there! Looks quite tame and you don’t hear anyone scream while they’re on it, but when you get on, you realize that that’s because they’re too busy hanging on for dear life… well, girls anyway. Guys also have to make sure that some rather fragile components don’t get damaged in transit… to speak in geek-lingo. The ride is fun though.

We also walked around the Marine Drive (Bay Pride Mall, Pentamenaka, etc.) for a bit, before getting on the train back to TVM, and most of the photos I’ve put up at my picasaweb gallery are taken there. I bought the little one a rather cute arm-band thingy that read (appropriately) “the little one”. A little too many letters to fit her wrist properly, but as Sabir pointed out almost immediately, it should fit some other body parts quite well.

She won’t like that. <wicked grin>

I’m leaving for my class trip (Wayanad – 2-day) tomorrow noon / evening. So I’d thought I’d update this place before I left! See ya!

Update:

5 minutes after posting this, I get a call from Unni saying that the trip’s been cancelled. Apparantly, some girls are concerned that their parents won’t let them come when they see that the total number of girls is low. We only had about 25 people coming anyway, and the budget was tight as it was.

Useless bunch of (spineless) gits. And it’s not just those girls, it’s for all those who backed out after commiting to the trip.

Sigh.

Delayed

Listening to music on earphones when there’s people all around is an odd experience. You can see everyone talking, their lips moving to silent words, and I’m outside it all. It’s like hiding in plain sight, when everything you can see makes no difference one way or another. See, anyway. The phone ringing, someone trying to speak to me, or even just someone throwing stones at me – that’s about all it takes to break the moment.

Read this:

“ALL THE REPRESENTATIVES WHO ARE NOT APPEARING FOR RECRUITMENT PROCESS SHOULD COME ASSIST THE CGPU ON 26TH AND 27TH. IF THE STUDENTS SELECTED TO INFOSYS ARE NOT APPEARING FOR THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS,THEIR OFFER LETTERS WILL NOT BE ISSUED. ALL ARE HEREBY INFORMED TO TAKE THIS WARNING SERIOUSLY. AND ATTEND

TOMMORROW. ATTENDANCE OF REPS WILL BE TAKEN SEPERATELY.”

Rude people anger me; especially when their rudeness is uncalled for. The fellow with the threatening tone (and seemingly, a fetish for capitals) above didn’t bother asking nicely first before going out all gung-ho about it.

The Onam Celebration thingy was fun! Our atthappookkalam was the usual clubbing of designs picked up from here and there (this time Jaimy came up with ‘em all) and even though I didn’t stick around till the end, I’m pretty sure we didn’t win anything. I took a whole bunch of photos, and have put up the best at my picasaweb account.

My beloved JBL has said bye-bye… for the time being anyway. Some kinda loose connection inside the sub means it just makes odd buzzing noises most of the time. I tried opening it up and peering at the innumerable PCB-s with their forests of capacitors, but couldn’t find anything obviously out of place. So much for my being able to repair anything and everything. Therefore I’m in the market for a discrete powered subwoofer! If any of my innumerable (ahem) readers can point out someplace to shop for them, or have advice pertaining to the same, please contact me!

Spring

The water green or dappled blue,
flows and plays around my toes.
The stones that lend its mystic tune,
weathered to be both round and smooth.

Green blades soft, unlike their namesake,
from brown earth do they spring.
They reach up, joyous to the extreme,
an affirmation of new life, it seems.

Trees sway in the warm white wind
and feel the onset of a new day.
They rustle and fall, do the leaves.
The path they trace, like children playing.

The mountains, tall and strong and true.
Old and ageless men unmoving,
like watchers from the olden days,
like caretakers of the milky way.

The birds doth sing, their voices ring,
a joyful peal, of mirth and feel.
Their wings are wide, they own the sky,
they swoop the spring right into their being.

***

Remember, I wrote this in one hour, as a submission to the this year’s poetry (in english, duh) competition for the college’s cultural and arts festival. So it was never meant to be all that good. So spare me the rod. ^_^

Illogicality

Question: Design a two pass assembler for an SIC machine in C language.

Time: 3 hrs.

I spent around 5 hours today working on the above mentioned program. A program that I had been working on, at college, for the past few weeks, totalling perhaps 7 hrs out of 9 in three lab periods. That’s 12 hours.

And I haven’t finished.

Now, I really don’t think I’m stupid or anything (or even lacking in the field of coding)… but this reminds me heavily of something Sriram chetan told me about my mini-project a few weeks ago when I told him what it was:

“Hmm… Graphical Representation of Non-Recursive Sorting Methods… hmm… kozhappamilla…

Pakshe… ithu moonu manikkoorinte karyam-e ollu.”

What is interesting is that nobody ever really questions the logic behind our examinations.

Exam (Definition): Tests designed to measure progress against the objectives of a lesson, course or field of study.

It’s a difficult concept, at best, so I’m gonna leave it at that definition. Let’s talk about our 3hr assembler for starts.

The algorithm for the 2 pass assembler is two pages long. One page each for each of the passes. It describes in a very general manner how the first pass scans the whole assembler code, finds of the locations of symbols and stores it. The seconds pass is similarly described as how the results of the first pass are used to put together the final object code.

The whole  thing really isn’t that hard to understand. A layman can understand the nitty-gritties of the whole damned thing in maybe 1 or 2 hours of reading. I began much the same way because I didn’t really pay all that much attention to the algorithm last semester. It was way too big for me to have finished studying the the last few hours before the exam, you see.

Constructing the actual program is, as always, an entirely different matter. The assembler is expected to read the contents of a file, and do a hellu-va lot of things (to say the least) before anything resembling an object code comes out of it. After my 12 hrs on this thing, I’ve completed the first pass, and maybe one-third of the 2nd pass.

As far as I know, no one in my class has completed this program yet. And I know that 90% of the girls and at least 70% of the boys (well rounded figures, don’t pay too much attention) are incapable of completing a program of  this scale. And this isn’t even that big. I’ve gotten to around 300 lines and think there’s another 100 to go. Not much, no.

But 3 hrs?? I mean, seriously?! I think I’ll barely be able to finish typing 400 lines of code in that time period, let alone make a program that size from scratch.

I also remember that my bro had suggested something like an assembler (macro processor, maybe) as an ‘easy’ candidate for a mini-project. True, it would have been an easy option.

For a mini-project! Not an effin 3 hr exam!

Gotta ask the teach about this one… just to see how she’ll squirm out of it. ^_^

P.S. I’ve updated the blogroll to include Sriram chetan’s new blog.

Edit: I’ve completed those programs and talked about them here.

Resurrection

First of many. Exams draw near so expect a lot more of these. I tend to grab on to any excuse to escape the books. Before this, I was attempting (and failing) to read something from my Operating Systems text – Virtual Memory Management, if I remember correctly.

I had an accident a few days ago. It wasn’t pretty, I suppose, but I got out of it without any real damage. I was wearing the helmet (like always) and that saved me from looking like a complete idiot as I flew through the air (only for a little while). The absence of skin on the back of my wrist is particularly irritating. The black thingy that acts as a stand in stretches painfully, and that is… uh… irritating. Haven’t I already said that?

Ah, this particular resurrection seems to be short lived.

i. v.

This is going to be a big one. So fetch that pack of Lays / Popcorn / Favorite munchies before reading any further. ^_^

B.t.w, I’m going to make use of the word fun a lot in the following format – fun! (italicized with an exclamation point) in this blog entry. It’s just that I’m classifying those things as being under my category of having fun. Capish?

The whole thing was… enjoyable, to say the very least. Quite possibly unique too, which is kinda sad (like Jaimy mentioned towards the end) since a lot of it was entirely new to me, and that doesn’t happen often enough. I’m gonna go through the whole thing in as orderly a manner as possible, but that’s going to be hard since a lot of the stuff that’s happened is mixed up in my head, not to mention the fact that the itinerary got modified a helluva lot of times. I’m gonna avoid mentioning the train journeys since they were slightly boring, at best.

Hyderabad didn’t really turn out the way I’d thought it would… actually nothing did, and that’s to be expected, I guess. The greatest surprise during the whole trip was, undoubtedly, Sharika. Not that I really understand her more than I did before, or anything, but it definitely is nice to know that she doesn’t think of me as a completely hopeless conversationalist anymore. In fact, my high point during the whole trip was an argument I had with her, Shreya and Rajani during a trip back to the hotel – I disagreed with their opinion that women don’t pay any attention to a guy’s looks when it comes to a relationship. I hope I made at least one of them think differently. I thought the best part of shopping at Hyd was the Imax mall. It reminded me of Dubai what with all the expensive shops and the arcade (that was fun!). I even had a go at the rock-climbing wall – I climbed about halfway until I reached the negative gradient section which proved too much. (once again, fun!)

Snow World was also fun! Making a snow ball is difficult! But I pride myself in the knowledge that I was probably the only one who figured out how to make a proper snow ball. Towards the end of the one hour, my snow balls could travel as far as I could throw them (which isn’t all that far) without disintegrating. ^_^ My aim isn’t all that good though and that, coupled with being a pacifist, meant that I didn’t really hurt anyone with my super-duper snow balls. I got hit plenty of times though. It stings, lemme tell ya. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pics here since I didn’t want a wet SLR on my hands.

Ramoji Film City was, as far as I’m concerned, a day wasted. At least everybody had the good sense (perhaps beat upon them by the unyielding sun) to leave early. Ramoji is more of a plain park than anything else. It’s got its fair share of interesting buildings, sights and curios, but the sad fact is that there is nothing more. Its all just something to see, and all that seeing gets pretty boring when you’re walking under a sun hot enough to make lead liquify.

On to Bangalore! The first day was entirely devoted to shopping. We (Me, Sabir, Sreekanth, Sreejith, Divya, Deepti, Roshini) went around the local shopping places looking for stuff. Actually I wasn’t exactly looking for anything but I ended up buying a USB cable for the iPod (which turned out to be useless), and another air-gun (I just can’t resist those ^_^), and a funky t-shirt.

Wonder-la turned out to be a photocopy of Veega Land. All that talk about it being 4 times the size and 10 times the fun is a load of hog-wash. It’s, at best, just as much fun as Veega Land. I tried out all but the most adventurous rides, and had fun (fun!) making a fool of myself in the Wave Pool. That’s about it for that Wonder-la, really. It was just your everyday water-park in a nice clean (heavily chlorinated) package. ^_^

The third day was a joke. We went to some temple in the morning – It seemed to me to be more of a commercial center than a place of worship so I bailed out early. I heard that the food stalls inside were very good though. The I.V. (that oh-so important ingredient) was an even bigger joke. We walked around the Infy campus and were finally lead to an impressive conference room, only to be shown a worthless promo vid, followed by an even more worthless question-answer session which proved that our guide didn’t know what to do with us and didn’t really care whether we left the campus impressed or not. Sigh…

Tour organization began to break down that evening. We got informed by the organizers that the train tickets to Goa hadn’t really been booked yet so we were going to have to look for an alternative means of transport. That really sent a lot of the guys into hysterics. Guys, mind you, not girls. All the girls remained calm (I thought that was mightily impressive) but a lot of arguments broke out among the guys with a few complaining about the lack of organization and what-not. Here’s an excerpt from a mail I sent Asif around that time:

“… It turned out that the tickets to our train to Goa hadn’t been ‘booked’ as had been assumed. This was two hours before the train was supposed to leave, approx 2 hrs before ‘now’.

All the expectable results followed – meaning a whole fuck-load of hue and cry. Sreekanth shined by being prominent among those who whined. That’s a whole story in itself so I’m not gonna get into it. …“

to which Asif replied:

“... Ah, something always happens. What’s a tour that goes strictly as planned? A strict tour, maybe.

Sreekanth shined by being prominent among those who whined. shine – whine – shine – whine – shine – whine – shine… …“

Truer words than he realized, I think. I actually had to physically drag Sabir away from Sreekanth at one point when their argument got a little too loud. Sabir later confessed that might have actually hit Sreekanth (or tried to) had I not pulled him away then. That would have been a sight. lol.

Anyway we reached Goa at 6 PM (much delayed, on a sleeper-coach bus), the next day and a few of the guys (including me) had a dip in the pool at the resort. We celebrated Nidhin’s and George’s birthday that night and I later went out with Sabir and Sreekanth to Dominoes and had some really nice pizza. Me and Sabir spent the night improving our aim with the air-gun. The can of deo that we used for target practice was left looking like the moon, its surface scarred by lots and lots of little craters.

The second day at Goa was spent shuttling back and forth between beaches. We went to the resting place of St. Francis Xavier towards the end of the day. The church exterior seemed to be in need of a lot of renovation, but the interiors were magnificent. Once inside, Sharika pointed out that a few of the girls (in our batch) who were actually crying as they prayed in the church. That seemed a little odd to me since I couldn’t spot anything that would make anyone cry. Religious fervor seems quite far-fetched so I assume it has to do with something I know nothing about.

Further breakdown of tour-organization meant that everyone was now fretting over whether we’d have tickets on the train back home that night. A lot of opinions were flying around and I tried my best to stay of the way. Eventually, after a lot of sorting through the chaff, it was finally decided to make do with what seats we had on the train. It actually turned out okay, and I still have no idea how they managed it, since we fit 58 people onto some 40 seats, and technically that’s illegal.

The ride back home was sombre at best. I spent a lot of the time sleeping and kathi-adikkifying since my iPod had lost its charge and I didn’t have any books to read. We reached Thiruvananthapuram at about 10 o’clock at night, and I got back home within 15 minutes. I slept from 2 o’clock that night to 2 the next afternoon. God, was I tired.

I’ve uploaded all the good photos I took during the trip to my PicasaWeb Album. Clicky!

Catcha’ll later!

Idea

I had an idea. A good one. I like!

Enough about that (^_^). Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of everyday life.

Or not, since I wouldn’t know how to make it sound interesting. I say that because I do not believe that my everyday activities are not interesting. Saying so, would not only be stupid, it would most likely be false. Of course, my everyday activities refers to waking up, going to college, falling asleep, and everything in-between.

Let’s see… what interesting stuff have I done (thought about, realized, whatever) lately?

• I’ve installed Windows Vista on my system (64bit Ultimate)! I have to admit that I’m mightily impressed by the work Microsoft has put in. The installation was deceptively easy… I kept wondering when the endless pop-ups full of ‘Allow this to happen’ and ‘Allow that to happen’ would begin their assault. As it turned out my fears were unfounded. Those popups do pop up once in a while, but not too often. It’s difficult to find 64-bit software by the way, but that’s okay since 32bit works fine. The only failed app I’ve encountered till now is Alcohol, which is kinda sad. Vista is extremely zippy by the way. Windows Explorer has had an overhaul and is nigh unrecognizable from its predecessor. If you have a system with >= 2gB RAM and a decent CPU (read C2Ds or X2s), you should be thinking about upgrading. 64-bit is not a must, but it’s nice if you like to stay on top of things.

• I’ve noticed (over a large period of time) that girls like to mention that I talk very little when I’m in their company. Its interesting to note that they offer this piece of insight only when they outnumber the number of guys that are in the chat at that time, and almost invariably never let me answer the question. Perhaps they feel intimidated. By my looks? No one in their right mind would call me cute, but I guess I could be called handsome under certain lighting conditions. That’s me being silly, but then telling me that I’m quiet and I need to talk more is kind of silly too. What makes them think I don’t know that I’m quiet? As for the question… its involuted nature lends me to believe that it can be safely disregarded.

• I saw the teaser trailer of Need for Speed: Pro Street in High Definition, and I’ve grudgingly accepted the possibility of the eventual death of gaming on the PC. The sort of graphics displayed on that Trailer (run on an XBOX360) cannot be run on my PC (C2D E6300 + 2gig RAM + 7900GS) at either that level of detail or at those frame-rates.

• Oh, and lest you forget, I had a good idea. A very good one. I like, like, like!