Got tagged. And that too a day after a looong blog. Anyway, three of my four exams are done now and the fourth one is four days away. So here I am, back to my blog.
What is this tagging business anyway? Tag used to be great out in the grounds. Now that we have computers and internet, we are playing tag with blogs. Guess there is a nerd in everyone. Makes me happy :).
Anyway, here goes....
Seven things I want to do in my life:
- Do anything and everytihng for my parents.
- Fall in love.
- Build a holiday retreat at a secluded place.
- Make a positive difference to a few lives, in any possible way.
- Learn to play any one music instrument well.
- Take a country-wide mobike ride.
- Build myself an awesome gaming rig.
Seven things I can do:
- Assemble Computers.
- Watch an endless stream of movies.
- Read long books and novels in one sitting.
- Listen to all kinda music (including languages I don't understand).
- Sleep - all day long and then all night long.
- Follow hobbies in an obsessively paranoid manner.
- Stay up all night bhaating with friends.
Seven things I say the most:
- Mar gaya!
- Lunch anyone/Dinner anyone.
- Abe kal ki class ke liye utha dena be!!
- Hmmmmmm...
- Abe mote uth jaa (courtesy Sudu whom I have to wake up all too often :P).
- Thanks.
- Chal cya...
Seven things I can't do:
- Stop being a geek.
- Stay away from forums.
- Sleep at an earthly hour.
- Keep my table uncluttered.
- Take a short nap. If I sleep, I'll be down for hours.
- Cheat/copy on tests and exams.
- Break traffic rules. (I wear a helmet while riding in campus).
Seven things that attract me to the opposite sex:
- Looks.
- A sense of understanding.
- Practicality
- A sweet smile.
- A fun attitude.
- Simplicity.
- Respect for others.
Seven celebrity crushes:
- Jeon Ji Hyun (My Sassy Girl)
- Preity Zinta
- Amrita Rao
- Avril Lavigne
- Meg Ryan
- Julia Stiles
- Anna Kournikova
Seven people I tag:
- Nitin Dhawan (Nitzee), get back to blogging man.
- Abhishek Agarwal (Recca Kun)
- Arvin Deep
- Indrava Roy
- Apratim Dhar
- Vivek Malewar (MatterLogic), start a blog yaar :)
- Gaurav Sahni (Ravemz)
Takes too much thought this thing. Good thing it came in between exams, the mind is perfectly devoid of everything and free to think. :).
It has been such a long time since I last wrote something here, that I have to look up font faces and sizes again. This is like the worst thing that could happen. Anyway, should now get back to the point. Been a really long time, almost three months, and in the meanwhile, I have been doing things that range from NULL (simply doing nothing) to actually studying seriously (imagine that!!!). Lets take things one at a time shall we?
So End Sems are upon us KGPians now. I am actually halfway through the penultimate end semester examinations of my undergraduate/graduate (Dual Degree!) life. Two done, two more to go and the toughest one is gone. But, for a change, the toughest one was not so tough. It was actually much better than expected and was in a long long time a technical examination that I attempted completely. I am now actually fearing for the two easier ones, what if they are unexpected!!. BTW, this "tougher" one was the thing that caused me to "study seriously". Worked out well in the end.
That was the serious part of the blog, now lets get to the extreme opposite. Like I was saying, I have also spent time doing ABSOLUTELY nothing. Trust me, it is BLISS. Nothing better than lying down on a lazy couch/bed in moderate weather watching the day(s) go by. Try it sometime, but yeah, don't overdo it. I almost did.
And that is how we reach up to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The next thing to lying around all day is to put up your headphones and watch episode after episode of some sitcom. In my case, it was the ever-popular show F.R.I.E.N.D.S, and this was a second watching. Often, friends would come up behind me in my room and I wouldn't notice because I was too engrossed and also, because with the headphones on, I couldn't hear them come in.
As long as we are putting full stops between capitalised letters of a word, lets talk about F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault and Recon). This is supposed to be one of the really good games to have come out in recent times, and perhaps is the best since Half Life 2 stole our hearts. The sad part is that the game is so demanding on graphics hardware, that I don't have the heart to even install it on my computer. (Neither do I have that HDD space).
Talking of HDD's, I gotta get two of 'em soon. And that's where the banks come in. I have to have a savings account at the State Bank of India, IIT Kharagpur branch to receive my stipend, and because I didn't, I haven't received a single dime of it yet. Hopefully tomorrow (or today as it is past midnight), I will give my SBI account number in the Accounts department and get the accumulated amount of the stipend in December. Ahoy HDD's, here I come (soon).
December did I say. That's a winter month. So yeah, winter is here, and this time it descended upon us suddenly. One day all was fine and dandy and the next day it was pretty cold outside. Forced us to wear jackets and what-not. Anyway, what's another winter after 21 already, and that too a KGP winter when I have seen Himalayan ones.
OK, leave the winter aside and lets get back to games, and more importantly, something indispensable while gaming. A good Graphics card. A lot of activity has been going on in the graphics card market for the last six months. First nVidia pulls off an amazing launch day in stores for the 7800 series graphics cards, and ATi pulls off another woefully late paper launch four months later. And then again nVidia pulls of the King Killer move, launch of the 512MB 7800GTX video card, the fastest ever to hit the consumer market. Too bad it costs US$700 minimum and is out of stock at most stores. While the top end of the market has been as hot as a rocket's exhaust, the mainstream has also had reasons to cheer. Cuts in 6xxx series cards' prices, launch on ATi's X800GTO that could be easily made into a x800XT/x850XT, and then the 6800GS that redefined value for money, and now the impending launch of the 7800GS that should make the market more crowded then ever. Too bad that the prices the cards are available at in India are way way more than their market prices in the US. Do you know someone who could get me a good card from the US???
Enough of the Graphics cards and stuff. Lets talk something more geeky. Here comes the NerdCore. It is one of the newer genre of music, and is becoming really popular among nerds and geeks. Combine Gangsta Rap and Geek terms and you get the Holy Grail. Monzy's got a good Drama in the PhD going on. Check it out.
Well, this is about time that I start running out of things to write in this blog (and remember the countless things I missed about an hour later). So here are the last two things that come to mind.
Petrol : Prices have been shooting up like bamboo grows, and looks like I should get back to my bicycle instead of riding my bike.
FUBAR : While I was writing this blog, I noticed the yahoo messenger status message of a wingoo. Upon asking him what it meant, I was enlightened with some World War II lingo, F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition. I'll leave the rest to you all.
Oh! By the way, the new Harry Potter movie "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is out and it is off to the talkies as soon as eaxms end.
Linux. This word alone may give some people reason enough to never visit this page ever again. On the other hand, some may visit this page again and again to see when the word is repeated here.
Linux has existed with us for fourteen years now. I have known about it for the last seven perhaps, and tinkered with it on an irregular basis for the last four. It has not become something of a "cannot live without it", but yeah, given the option, I would always like to have the Tux around.
Linux is not for everyone, however much they would like you to believe. It is still tougher to configure compared to the other, more prevalent operating system that I need not name. For the average user, who browses the internet for an hour a day, checks his e-mail and writes a few documents, an introduction to Linux might even seem like a boat ride in stormy seas if the system is not preconfigured, which is really unlikely. Linux does come with a lot of preinstalled applications if one chooses a default workstation installation, but these overwhelming numbers and names sometimes might even scare away the new user.
But for those who know what they are doing, Linux can be a very efficient tool to test and boost skills. Configuration to get everything working takes some time, but not all. It is the endless customization that gives the real joy of using Linux. And if you are not able to customise something to your liking, why not recode the system into submission. This is the absolute power of Open Source Softwares. If you don't like it, recode it.
I do not have the time or the knowledge required to recode the whole operating system, or even any small part of it, but i'll happily live with the fact that some people can and do this. And i'll enjoy the freedom.
While this blog is an irregular collection of posts, another, a more regular one can be made. A simple chronology of events. The Psychronology. A psycho's chrolology. No details, no elaborate stories. Just a simple chronology full of comments on the day's happennings.
./announcing with a heavy heart the demise of the Psychronology, because of shortage of time on my part/.
To most, the title won't make any sense, but to whom it does, they would be really interested in knowing much more. But my purpose is to bore everyone, so this post will explain the title in detail.
It is related to the game Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Expansion, patch version 1.10. More specifically, to the "Frost Zealot" build of the Paladin. Now before the uninformed ask, I will explain. The Frost Zealot uses the Holy Freeze aura as his primary aura, and Zeal as his main attack. However, I threw in some more interesting things to make the game more enjoyable. To some(who understood the title in the first place), the word "Beast" will suffice. For others, lemee explain. "Beast" is a Runeword that provides an active Fanaticism aura, and this really helps attain the four frame zeal. What, u still didn't understand what a four frame zeal is? Too Bad, looks like I'm cursed to bore you some more. Each attack in the game has multiple speeds, and increased attack speed items help attack faster, i.e. take more weapon swings at enemies in a given time. But, the game being restricted to 25 frames per second, the real benefit comes when an attack speed is increased to such an extent that the number of frames needed to render a particular attack swing is reduced. And a four frame zeal swing is the best that can be achieved.
Other things like Holy Freeze boosted to collosal skill levels and synergised to insane cold damage per attack hit are insignificant details.
For those who are frustated by now, please hit the reset button on your computer. For those, who are interested to know more, I'd suggest you spend some time on The Arreat Summit and the Diablo II Strategy Compendium.
"Music. A magic beyond all what we do here" - Prof. Albus Dumbledore
From heavy metal, industrial, alternative, rock, nu-metal, punk, fusion, pop, hip-hop to rhythm, ballads, reggae, soft, classical and certain things that we cannot even classify. Music is a part of everyone's life, however small the part may be. And to some it is everything.
For me, music is not an obsession, but life would not be the same without the music. I do not have any particular preference of a genre, but listen to whatever I like, and it can be anything. Sometimes, the way my playlist goes from heavy rock to boy-band pop is enough to throw others off their tracks. I really wish they never listen to my playlist switch from "Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics" hip-hop to Simon and Garfunkel.
I do not play any musical instrument, but sometimes I do try. Have tinkered around with mouth organs, keyboards (not of the computer variety), and even spent a few moments with acoustic guitars. But never could devote enough time to really learn to play one of these even half decently. Maybe someday...
However, till then, let the music play...
KGP gets into a kind of suspended sleep state in the summer months. The summer vacations to be more precise. However, now the time has come when KGP wakes up from its slumber to its usual hustle and bustle. The Autumn semester is approaching.
Come 19th July and the all the senior KGPians will get back to their usual lives. And on 20th we will welcome the new members of the KGP family. And its back to the classrooms immediately. For most of us atleast. Some of us can wait a few more days before the classes actually begin.
The signs of activity are already trickling. Familiar names are reappearing on muTTer and DC mainchat. The omnipresent demands for CS and AOE servers are ever more persistent. And yeah, people are also returning to their hostel rooms.
Now, lets see what this new year (and my last) at KGP holds for me...
So when you stay the summer in KGP, the first and foremost thing you do is to plan for the restaurants you are going to visit for meals. The "Mess" in the hall of residence is shut down for the summer, the official "Mess" supposed to run for the summer closes before opening. The unofficial "Mess" closes down a fortnight before the end of the summer vacations, and you are at the mercy of the hopeless restaurants.
There are four (and a half) restaurants on-campus, perhaps tolerable for a meal a fortnight. However, when you have to plan for two a day, you seriously run out of options.
Two of them are pretty far away to be a feasible option for daily visits, once a week might be fine. The other two and a half are more accessible, but the "Under Construction" signs on the road force you to take a path to the "half" one about three times longer than usual. And then there are the restaurants themselves.
When you go for meals in a group, there are personal preferences and hate factors. It's pretty hard to come up with a unanimous choice, but you gotta do what you gotta do. So everytime, we do reach somewhere. And this is exactly when the reality hits us. There is simply no choice of what to eat (when attempting to keep the summer budget under check), so you fall back to the same thing you ate last time you visited this particular restaurant. And life goes on...
And yeah, if a waiter tries to slip u an unclean wet plate, and glares at you when u ask him to clean it, glare back. Works for me.
Over the last few weeks, I have watched a lot of movies. Some OK, some real good and some beyond comparison. Here is a list of as many as I can remember, with a small description.
Charlie's Angles 2: Full Throttle - Three tough babes battling against someone trying to steal details of the "witness protection program", while the past catches up with one of them.
Garden State - The Directorial debut of the multitalented Zach Braff, more famous as Dr. Jack "JD" Dorian on the TV sitcom Scrubs. Movie inspired by real events of his life. A wonderful Drama.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines - Arnold's back. Decent movie with well explained reason of the actual takeover by the machines.
Seven Years in Tibet - An Austrian mountaineer ends up in Lhasa, Tibet after a series of events at the peak of the second world war. There he befriends His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is a young person at that time, and rediscovers himself.
What Dreams May Come - You gotta see this movie to even begin to comprehend it. Really great movie about how love can even overcome death.
Wild Things 3: Diamonds in the Rough - A typical wild things sequel, with inherited diamonds and all the usual twists and turns. But I seriously didn't see the last one coming.
Pulp Fiction - A Tarantino masterpiece, about two hitmen, their boss, a boxer and some more people. Non-chronological presentation and extreme violence make it a must watch.
Reservoir Dogs - Another Tarantino Masterpiece. A Diamond store robbery gone wrong, an undercover cop, an empty warehouse and tempers running high.
From Dusk to Dawn - Tarantino Screenplay, Rodriguez Direction. George Clooney and Tarantino himself as performers. There is nothing more to say.
Sleepless in Seattle
You've Got Mail
Two romantic comedies, both featuring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Both deal with finding true love and are really watchable. The internet "connections" make the second one more enjoyable for us geeks.
xXx
xXx2: State of the Nation
Two non-stop action movies, the first one featuring Vin Diesel, the second one Ice Cube, as a part of the xXx Extreme Special Agent program.
Elektra - A spinoff from Daredevil, and based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, the movie shows her fighting a group of supernatural ninjas to save a father and her daughter, whom she was initially ordered to kill.
Strange Days - A futuristic movie set at the turn of the century, with a police ruled LA (or was it NY), where "Playback" is an illegal black market hot commodity and one particular playback can make things go really wrong for others.
K-Pax - A man in a psychiatric institution claims to be an alien for the planet K-Pax. When his psychiatrist tries to counsel him, he shows certain traits which really make the doctor wonder.
Osmosis Jones - A white blood cell and a cold pill take on a deadly virus that has entered Frank's body. Light hearted comedy with a good mix of live action and animation.
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Need I say anything about these??
Some of these movies deserve much more than the two lines I have written here, and that's what's up next.
As usual, I have to do something or the other to be different. Standard things just don't appeal to me. So i go ahead and try modifying the predefined template of the blog. However, I am only partially successful. The lower part of the page does not render properly. In firefox atleast. So here I am, still trying to figure out a way to clean it up. Perhaps i will change the whole code of the blog, writing it my way and making it easier to modify - but that'll take time. So as of now, trying to tweak it is what i do.
EDIT: Looks like fixed for the time being. As long as the content part is longer than the sidebar, the page is rendered fine. Otherwise, well try to find a page where the content is shorter and u'll know.
EDIT2: Well, seems like in all pages, the content is longer than the sidebar, so I am done for the time being. As for writing my own code, i'll do that if this minor edit doesn't hold well due to some reason or the other.
