Balpeck's Stuff

Netflix night out

2011-11-21T21:53:00.001-08:00

Today I did nothing. Fixed dinner and lunch for tomorrow and rest of the evening was all tv shows on Netflix. Found many a show from way back when - Ally McBeal, 3rd rock from the sun, Malcolm in the middle, Mr. Bean, Scrubs to name a few. It seems like getting rid of cable was a good call. Feels great to not waste the limited minutes on the myriad ads. Totally worthwhile. Having the shows by season helps with the goal-setting also - like I need motivation to be entertained.

Wild target

2011-11-20T20:58:00.001-08:00

Funny. Entertaining.

Life in day

2011-11-20T05:59:00.001-08:00

Creative. You get a peek into the lives of several others. Time flies by watching this one.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT_UmBHMYzg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Free full movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT_UmBHMYzg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Imdb:
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1687247/

Crows

2011-11-19T20:30:00.000-08:00

Today, after having relinquished my cable and forced to look into alternate sources of entertainment, I wandered onto the nature section of the PBS website. I learned a little bit about crows and was fascinated by it.
Here are a few tidbits to help me recall:

Crows live up to 20 years and care for their young ones for as many as five.
They like to be close to each other. They are social. They have one kind of calling for the community and the family communicates in a different, much softer dialect.
They can recognize faces and associate them as good or bad and remember a face for up to 2 years. They are great at communicating and learn from the misfortunes of fellow crows.
They are great at using tools. They are one of the handful of creatures that make tools. Their intelligence in this respect is comparable to apes. They demonstrate capability to chain together multiple steps to accomplish a goal. In an experiment, the crow used a small stick to draw the longer stick out and used the longer stick to get the food out.
Parrots have the biggest brain among birds; but crows prove to be more intelligent. They are able to communicate things like whom to be cautious of to their young ones, in addition to other adults.
The nest is designed to accommodate the female. In Japan, they often use clothing hangers for building their nests. They shape it with their bodies forcing it outward to get the correct shape.
Here is a link to the video: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/a-murder-of-crows/introduction/5838/

Of Martians and Venusians

2011-02-04T09:18:00.001-08:00

The book has been around for quite a bit but I never really looked at it one way or another. I picked it up recently and is proving to be an interesting read. We may love ourselves so much that we often would want people close to us, people whom we love and care about to be more like us. This is a pitfall and can very quickly sour relationships with those that often matter the most. It is important to realize and accept that two people are different. It is even more important to realize that two people of the opposite sex have very different wants from life and that they look at the same things quite differently. It is important to be aware of this and understand where the generic differences lie. This will not only eliminate some of the needless stress, but you will start to enjoy your interactions even more. This book seems to shed light on the how men and women are different, and how they have different expectations, different philosophies, different everything(well, not everything, but certainly many things).

BikeSource Duathlon 2010 @ Heritage Park

2010-05-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

37  1:26:27

Run      Bike

2 mile run       37 16:50

11.3 mile bike   41 43:43

3 mile run       33 25:02

Transition       11  0:54

Trolley Run 2010

2010-04-25T09:07:00.001-07:00

Explore Kansas and Missouri

2010-03-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

KANSAS
Kaw point riverfront park
Baker Wetlands, Lawrence KS.

Monument Rocks (Chalk Pyramids) and Castle Rock

Garden of Eden, Lucas,KS

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Near the Flint hills scenic byways.

Flint hills scenic byways 40+ mi drive.

Missouri
Kansas City Renaissance Festival - Sept - October
Powell Gardens
Kansas City Zoo

Resolutions for 2010

2010-01-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

Resolutions for the new year.

Transition from the 3.5+ level to the 4.0 level at tennis, playing more 4.0 guys.
Take a lot of pictures

Explore city parks and state parks and lakes
Explore downtowns of cities in the Kansas City Metro
Capture winter, spring, summer and fall
Do some street photography and include people in pictures.
Explore Kansas

Pick up ice skating - be able to do the hockey stop, gliding on one foot with ease
Get better at swimming - be able to do 3 laps without halting
Do two half marathons and attempt a full if knees can take it.
Use the road bike to work in good weather. Do Tour De Shawnee or similar.
Do some dirt trails on MTB
Do more sketching
Explore the Rockies

Test the mail-in your post feature

2010-01-04T10:48:00.001-08:00

This seems to be a nice little feature, though I don't think its something I'll end up using much. If I have access to email, I will have blogspot around too. Some of the use case I can conceive are -

1. I'm on the go with an urge to blog some irretrievable thoughts, and with my iPod, I might use email than go to blogpsot on it. I'd imagine that Blogger should have an app for it though.

2. Posting an email I received

3. Post and email it to others in one shot.

4. You like your email client more than you like Blogspot.

5. Be at work, composing an email in Outlook, when you are really blogging!!

A brief history of art

2010-01-03T13:50:00.000-08:00

My visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, spurred an interest in understanding the way art has evolved over time.

Cave painting is where it began some 32,00 years ago. We do not know the purpose of these paintings. Looks like human kind has an innate desire of expression. We started off crude and got smarter over thousands of years. Primitive techniques include spitting or blowing pigments onto the rocks.

There is Eastern painting and Western painting. Eastern seems to have been around longer than western but later as travel increased each influenced the other.

Eastern Painting - Chinese, Japanese, Korean

Water-based
Less realism
Elegant & Stylized objects
Preference for landscape over human subjects
Importance of white space/negative space
Ink & Color on silk or paper, gold on lacquer were common.

Art is very much inspired by and a reflection of the ideology.

Chinese Painting

Indian Painting

Western Painting

-Egypt, Greece & Rome

Painting in Americas

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_painting

Arthur Ashe on Tennis

2009-08-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

Notes from the book:

Point your shoulder to the target for the double handed back hand. Fight th tendency to turn them paralel to the net before comppleting the stroke.

Timing on the serve - The strings should meet the ball, when the racquet head has maximum speed. Slow the swing at the start and let it accelerate naturally.

The not-so-fast serve does not have to be big disadvantge. Get control right. Get the opponent out of the court on your serve. Have him go for hard winners off your serve nad make mistakes.

Volleys -

Open racket face from start to finsh

Forward and down

Always hit with underspin

Sync breathing with hitting - Inhaling when getting ready, exhale audibly when hitting.

Squeeze racket to transfer opponent's power back into the shot

Half volley -

You are in trouble if you are having to play a half-volley.

Objective is to hit the ball deep and get into a better volleying position.

Bend the knees and have firm hands, and cover the ball and keep going forward. Use the racket as a wall not as a scoop.

The overhead

Get the racket behind you head early

Use the other hand to gauge the ball

Take skipping steps far enough so ball doesnt come behind you

Again get into hitting it at 1 o clock.

Keep your head high through the shot and follow through

The lob

If the opponent misses a lob, it is a good idea to lob again.

One tends to think too much about it and timing will be off.

This comes in streaks like the double fault.

The return of serve -

Most errors are made on the return of serve. Receivers try to do too much or are intimidated.

The first volley -

Good to put it cross court and deep - move forward into the side of the court that you hit it into and ou have a good open court to put it away on the second.

Hitting the ball on the rise

Refers to hitting the ball as it is rising, before it reaches its maximum bounce.

Short backswing.

Grip the racket tight.

Hood the racket over the ball (cover)

Follow through

St. Louis-Olathe-Kansas City-Manhattan

2009-05-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

Movies, wine and dessert - a quiety weekend

2009-05-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

This was a quiety weekend.

With spring cleaning, one generally thinks of a house. For me though, it was my car - my car saw its first car wash in 5 months, relying on snow and rain since the dry deserts of the southwest.

With my own washer dryer, I was able to get two loads done. But this also meant, I am getting clothes out of the dryer only to wear them! Laziness finds a new high, or low however it makes more sense.

Getting a bottle of wine was quiet something though. Researching them took all morning, but priceless was the realisation on holding a 2007 wine that it wasn't the current year it was bottled in, and that the year now was 2009.

Most of it was the movies and I'm glad I love movies.

The Freedom Writers - An interesting movie with Hilary Swank in it. It about how an English teacher inspires a bunch of 'special' kids to get into literature/shool. What makes it interesting is that, its based on a true story.

The Lucky Ones - Seeing Tim Robbins in the cast of a movie sets the expectations from the movie rather high and this one did live up. A mixed up and messed up story about 3 soldiers coming home for a month before returning to active duty. Isn't one of the spectacular ones, but is fairly grounded and makes for a decent watch.

The Cadillac Man - Robin Williams and Tim Robbins star in this comedy which of course is silly, but does have its moments.

Angels & Demons - I wasn't too sure about this one - I never did see the Da Vinci code. I read the book and thought it was pretty interesting, but that is where it sat for me. The concept/theme just didn't do much for me. I dragged my knee out to watch this one for lack of doing anything better. I remained disinterested for the most part and thought it got a little predictable, too predictable perhaps. I would not have missed this movie.

Sore knee, a sore thought

2009-05-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have now been nursing a sore knee for a little over a week. A slight pain crops up when putting my weight on my right knee while bent, and that has kept me from doing the things I indulge myself with on a daily basis - tennis, cycling, running, rock climbing, swimming, racket ball and squash. Pain in not more than a square inch of my body has altered my lifestyle this week. All this is just a discomfort - I can walk about perfectly well and still do those things if I ignore the pain. This is still hard!

I was watching this show -think it was "I shouldn't be alive" on the Discovery - a wildlife ennthusiast spotting rhinos in an African desert crashed his plane, shattering his legs and his pelvis. His feet were swollen inside his boots and he struggled for two and half hours just to get them off; he believed that if he didn't his legs would need to be amputated; he said his life would be not be worth living if he survived. That didn't sit well with me though.

I can relate to the feeling of being so passionate about something that losing it makes life feel worthless. This past week comes close; admittedly though I have a good chance of bouncing back in a week or two. But still I asked myself this - if were to be that I could not do any of the things I so love and am accustomed to, would I want myself dead?

From this side of the shore, it sure is hard to tell how that would change the philosophy of things - but I hope there would be more to life - to keep going, with new purpose and new meaning.

Geocaching!

2009-05-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

My newest of things to do is Geocaching. This is a decent intro to geocaching for the uninitiated.

I think its a great way to get people outdoors, giving some purpose for those who need one. The first one was pretty simple, but the feeling of having found the log was special.

I am curious to see how many from this list of 31 places, I can knock down before November!

Also see: Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site

Trolley run

2009-04-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

This was my first run!

California pizza kitchen - The vegetarian

2009-03-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Vegetarianism, which has been practiced since ancient times, is not a one‐faceted practice. Vegetarianism is becoming more common and may be based on a variety of personal principles, including religious, ethical, nutritional, and economic reasons. The three most common types of

vegetarians today are Vegans, Lacto Vegetarians and Lacto‐ovo Vegetarians. There are other vegetarians!! who will eat fish and poultry, but not other animal meats.

2009-03-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

"Even classic movies can have product placements"!

Forrest Gump in a minute - Awesome!!!

2009-03-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

Indoor rock climbing tuts

2009-03-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

Equipment

Warm up

The knot

Belaying I

Belaying II

Belaying III

Falling Slowly - From the movie 'Once'

2009-03-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You've made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along

Clinton State Park, Lawrence, KS

2009-02-07T20:33:00.001-08:00

Seven pounds

2008-12-27T10:38:00.001-08:00

If the Pursuit of Happyness was heavy, simply put, this is heavier.
I trust that every Will Smith movie is usually pretty interesting and almost certain to be good with the exception of Wild Wild West perhaps, which I'm glad I have never seen start to finish. Hancock - I haven't seen but going by the trailer, have a feeling it might make it to the list of exceptions.

Anyhow, good movie, not exactly merry!

Quote

2008-11-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

"To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."

Coldplay on my bday

2008-11-27T09:11:00.001-08:00

Lamp shades

2008-11-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

The first two (technically three) were mimicked from the first pages of The Complete Sketching Book by John Hamilton. The last one is from real life - still life but real nevertheless :P

The Constant Gardener

2008-11-22T23:37:00.000-08:00

A very well-made movie of a pretty interesting plot. It shows just how far profits drive exploitation of the expendable. It won a bunch of awards, the reason why it ended up in my Netflix queue. Makes for serious viewing. Recommended.

Quote

2008-11-16T07:19:00.000-08:00

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.”

~Peter F. Drucker

Does Gravity Travel at the Speed of Light?

2008-11-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

I found the question to be greatly profound..saving the article for easier times..

Ref: here

Quote

2008-10-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

Les Brown - "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

He obviously didnt know jack about cosmic distances.

FIXME

2008-10-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

I am not someone who cares much for conversation, let alone small talk. May be this is not such a good thing...

Here is my own no BS assessment of myself:

My attitude is to engage in a conversation on a strictly need-to-know basis. If I dont need to know, I don't really care. Likewise, if I dont say things if I don't think you need to know. Needless to say, the eliminates almost all there is to be said.
Once I have said a thing to someone, I dont find it appealling to say it again to someone else, unless there is a real need. I'd much rather not say anythinig at all, than repeat myself, even it is distinct in time and space
I don't quite see conversation as a means to entertain yourself - or others.
I prefer having a one-on-one with people than talking in a group. In a group, people usually end up talking crap and I tend to dis-engage. A one-one sort of feels more real and less shallow as I can better control where its going..
May be out of whack but I usually do better with women than with the guys
I lose interest in details, I like the bigger picture better
I often dont find it necessary to defend my views or opinions to anyone where it really doesnt matter and nothing almost :ever does.

I have been reflecting on this for a bit, and I think I need to acknowledge to myself that these are not all exactly the things to brag about.

You can influence others and have an impact only by engaging with people not just when situation demands that you do but at a hint of an oppurtunity. It is nice to know that you come off as friendly and warm to others. That is one way to leave something behind. I admire Gil for the way he engages everyone in what is almost a senseless chatter but nevertheless always entertaining.

The first step to fixing anything is to acknowledge that it needs fixing. And here is me coming out.

Quote

2008-09-26T06:42:00.001-07:00

Those who do not study the past, get an exciting oppurtunity to repeat it!

~Jon Stewart

Blue October

2008-09-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

Hate Me

Into the ocean

Iced tea

2008-09-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is now proving to be one of those things, which I am not especially good at but I enjoy doing nevertheless. This one was sitting through one of Dan's several talks in Flagstaff that day, with the ever funny Gil sitting alongside!

So gaya yeh Jahan - Tehzaab

2008-09-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

This song used be my absolute favorite when I was a little kid.. just stumbled upon that in my mp3 collection.. I still like it!

Sweet redemption!

2008-09-08T16:46:00.001-07:00

Source: US Open.org

Tagged, yet again

2008-09-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Its mid-night - that time of the day when I will do whatever it takes to get away from breaking my head on the stupid cluster scheduler code that has become my pithy life - even if it means stooping to This!

I don't know if being punctual really qualifies as a quirk ( You obviously didn't look the word up :D), but I do think that 6 is demanding too much and I'll use it if I cant concoct anything more exciting than that..

Mid-night is also that time of the night, when I am pretty much done rambling. So, I wil get right to it:

I come to life when playing squash or tennis, and at other times, as someone who has seen both sides put it, I come off as a walking corpse.
In my absolutely-nothing-good-to-do-day-dreaming time, I am make up bizarre, dire situations in which I emerge as the savior - not exactly with super powers, but you get the picture?
At traffic stops, watching pedestrians walk across, there is an impulse sharply honk when they get right in front of me and a more evil impulse of ramming them down:)
Had having been around too many cats for too long, I routinely let out a loud shrill meow - It is also something I routinely use on chat to ping some.
I guess I do need that filler quirk after all.. I like being punctual and absolutely hate it when my time is not respected. I don't care too much if I'm given good notice and reason of someone running late, but hate to be kept waiting without knowing how much time I have to do something better.
I say I hate this, but I end up responding to such requests, because they acknowledge that I will hate it. I however make sure that I don't follow or post the rules and that it ends with me, so I don't end up looking, and more importantly feeling like a giant dork.

In retrospect, this has come out with me seeming a lot more serious than is the typical me. But I was giving this crap a thought and the everly profound what-the-hell had me!

Oak Creek Canyon - Sedona

2008-09-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

Rishtey

2008-08-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

Rishtey toh nahi, rishton ki parchaayiyaan mile
yeh kaisi bheed hai, bass yahaan tanhaayiyaan mile

Rishtey toh nahi, rishton ki parchaayiyaan mile
Yeh kaisi bheed hai, bass yahaan tanhaayiyaan mile

Ek chhat ke tale ajnabi ho jaate hai rishtey
bistar pe chaadaro se chhup so jaate hai rishtey
dhunde se bhi iname nahi darmaayiyaan mile
yeh kaisi bheed hai bass yahaan tanahaayiyaan mile

jisko bhi dekhiye woh adhura sa hai yahaan
jaise kahin ho aur woh aadha rakha huwa
ho jab jahaan jude wahi judaayiyaan mile
yeh kaisi bheed bass yahaan tanhaayiyaan mile

ristey toh nahi rishton ki parchaayiyaan mile
yeh kaisi bheed bass yahaan tanhaayiyaan mile

Why does my heart feel so sad?

2008-08-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

I feel like something inside of me just went off. This usually does happen when I see Roger Federer go down in a match. I didn't see this one, but to see the 6-4, 7-6 score for James Blake against Federer was enough to bring a lull of sadness. Federer, he who has never lost to this opponent in the 8 times that they had played before Beijing, was ousted. Nadal at the french, Nadal at Wimbledon, the rising Brit - Andy Murray, Karlovic, and now James Blake have all been able to get the better of him.

Why does it hurt a little? Is it the thought they have him figured out or the realization that like all good things, this too must come to an end. What perhaps intensifies the feeling is that when you admire someone in sports, its usually because you see yourself in them or at least you want to. And when you see pretty much anyone can knock him out now, you know that someday you too wont be as good as you once were.

Swimming Strokes

2008-08-11T12:59:00.001-07:00

Sunset Crater, Flagstaff

2008-08-10T09:29:00.001-07:00

Bleeding Love

2008-08-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Closed off from love
I didn’t need the pain
Once or twice was enough
And it was all in vain
Time starts to pass
Before you know it you’re frozen

But something happened
For the very first time with you
My heart melts into the ground
Found something true
And everyone’s looking round
Thinking I’m going crazy

But I don’t care what they say
I’m in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don’t know the truth
My heart’s crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open

Trying hard not to hear
But they talk so loud
Their piercing sounds fill my ears
Try to fill me with doubt
Yet I know that the goal
Is to keep me from falling

But nothing’s greater
Than the rush that comes with your embrace
And in this world of loneliness
I see your face
Yet everyone around me
Thinks that I’m going crazy, maybe, maybe

But I don’t care what they say

[Keep Bleeding lyrics on http://www.elyricsworld.com]

I’m in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don’t know the truth
My heart’s crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I....

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open

And it’s draining all of me
Oh they find it hard to believe
I’ll be wearing these scars
For everyone to see

I don’t care what they say
I’m in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don’t know the truth
My heart’s crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I....

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love

Quote of the day

2008-08-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much."
~Donald H. Rumsfeld

Quote of the day

2008-08-03T10:55:00.001-07:00

Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
~Paul Tournier

Frustration

2008-08-02T15:18:00.001-07:00

Source

Humor enhancing ppt

2008-07-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

This guy is cool in that he talks so darn calm while cracking up the audience.

Evolution of Dance

2008-07-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

Evolution of Dance for the rest of us

How not to use Powerpoint

2008-07-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

Ref: http://www.davidairey.com/how-not-to-use-powerpoint/

Spooky - Dusty Springfield

2008-07-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Spooky

I only want to be with you

Funny ads

2008-07-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

Demystifying humidity

2008-07-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. In daily language the term "humidity" is normally taken to mean relative humidity. Relative humidity is defined as the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor in a parcel of air to the saturated vapor pressure of water vapor at a prescribed temperature.

High humidity makes people feel hotter outside in the summer because it reduces the effectiveness of sweating to cool the body by preventing the evaporation of perspiration from the skin.

The human body sheds heat by a combination of evaporation of perspiration, heat convection in the surrounding air, and thermal radiation. Under conditions of high humidity, the evaporation of sweat from the skin is decreased and the body's efforts to maintain an acceptable body temperature may be significantly impaired. Also, if the atmosphere is as warm as or warmer than the skin during times of high humidity, blood brought to the body surface cannot shed heat by conduction to the air, and a condition called hyperpyrexia results. With so much blood going to the external surface of the body, relatively less goes to the active muscles, the brain, and other internal organs. Physical strength declines and fatigue occurs sooner than it would otherwise. Alertness and mental capacity also may be affected. This resulting condition is called heat stroke or hyperthermia.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humidity

Quote of the day

2008-07-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority."

~Ralph W Sockman.

The Air I breathe

2008-07-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

"I always wondered, when a butterfly leaves the safety of its cocoon, does it realize how beautiful it has become? Or does it still just see itself as a caterpillar?"

Recommended.

Quote

2008-07-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tujh se naraaz nahi zindagi

2008-07-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

Tujh se naraaz nahi zindagi
Hairaan hoon main
Teray masoom sawaalo say
Paraishaan hoon main

Jeenay kay liyeh, Socha hi nahi
Dard sambhaalnay hongay
Muskuraai to,
Muskuraan kay
Qarz utaarnay hongay

Muskuraaon kabhi
To lagta haiy
Jaisay honto par
Qarz rakha haiy

Tujh se naraaz nahi zindagi
Hairaan hoon main

Zindagi teray
Gham nay humay
Rishtay naiy samjhaaiy

Milay jo humain
Dhoop may milay
Chaaoon kay thanday saaiye

Aaj agar
Bhar aaie haiy
Boondein baras jaaiy gee

Kal kya pata
Kin kay liyeh
Aankhein taras jaaingee

Jaanay kab gum hoya
Kahaan khoya
Ek aansoo chupa kay rakha tha

Tujh se naraaz nahi zindagi
Hairaan hoon main
Teray masoom sawaalo say
Paraishaan hoon main

Motions of the serve

2008-07-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

STANCE

TOSS AND BACK-SWING

Knee Bend

Racket drop

Pronation

2008-07-06T15:04:00.001-07:00

Kick Serve and Flat serve

2008-07-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

Kick server and the flat - side by side

TOSS

Shoulder Turn

Swing and pronation

Follow Through

4th of July Fireworks at the Tempe Town Lake

2008-07-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

The fireworks lasted for about a 45 minutes, this is toward the finish..

Now the pictures...

Wimbledon + Rolex ad theme music

2008-07-04T14:19:00.001-07:00

Family Guy - Motivational Posters

2008-07-02T23:55:00.000-07:00

Source

iRock!!

2008-06-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

It was about 3 months back that I kicked myself for tossing my denim into the washing machine only to discover, after 3 wash cycles, that it had my iPod shuffle in it with the switch in the ON position. I have hated myself for doing that.

I had tried reviving it right after, after about a week and then again after about a month. The poor thing was gone for good. Just yesterday I discovered a crappy portable radio that was complimentary along with my purchase of an 8-pack can of tennis balls and it REALLY sucked which made me miss my iPod a little more.

So today, after 3 months since my blunder, I plug the thing again, and my heart skipped a beat when the freaking orange light came alive. It took a good 3 minutes for my comp to detect it though, but then Voila!!! - it came back to life.

Apple you do freaking rock - either that or I just don't understand the effects of water and detergent on electronics well enough to see it otherwise!

Agoraphobia

2008-06-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

"The word "agoraphobia" is an English adaptation of the Greek words agora (αγορά) and phobos (φόβος), and literally translates to "a fear of the marketplace."

Agoraphobia is a condition where the sufferer becomes anxious in environments that are unfamiliar or where he or she perceives that they have little control. Triggers for this anxiety may include crowds, wide open spaces or traveling, even short distances. This anxiety is often compounded by a fear of social embarrassment, as the agoraphobic fears the onset of a panic attack and appearing distraught in public.^[1]

Agoraphobics may experience panic attacks in situations where they feel trapped, insecure, out of control or too far from their personal comfort zone. In severe cases, an agoraphobic may be confined to his or her home. ^[2] Many people with agoraphobia are comfortable seeing visitors in a defined space they feel they can control. Such people may live for years without leaving their homes, while happily seeing visitors in and working from their personal safety zones. If the agoraphobic leaves his or her safety zone, they may experience a panic attack.

Causes and contributing factors

There are a number of factors that contribute to the development of agoraphobia. These factors include:^[7]

Family factors:
- Having an anxious parent role model.
- Being abused as a child.
- Having an overly critical parent.

Personality factors:
- High need for approval.
- High need for control.
- Oversensitivity to emotional stimuli.

Biological factors:
- Oversensitivity to hormone changes.
- Oversensitivity to physical stimuli.
- High amounts of sodium lactate in the bloodstream."

Source: Wikipedia

Countdown clocks

2008-06-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have about 4 months before I graduate and currently I ain't taking things as seriously as I should be. So to see if this psychological warfare works for me, began my quest for a way to put countdown clocks on my website and my desktop, which is where I Spend a lot of my time.

For my website I found a fairly simple looking and simple to use Java script code here.

<script language='JavaScript'>
TargetDate = "10/27/2008";
BackColor = "white";
ForeColor = "grey";
CountActive = true;
CountStepper = -1;
LeadingZero = true;
DisplayFormat = "****%%D%% Days, %%H%% Hours****";
FinishMessage = "It is finally here!";
</script>
<script language='JavaScript' src='http://balpeck.googlepages.com/countdown.js'/>

Well, it wasnt enough for me to put it on the blog; I wanted it on my desktop also, staring at me, when I am doing crazy stuff - like this. So, another quick search led me to this - PhanTim3

Here is what it looks like, sitting on the upper-right corner:

It is pretty cool, with changeable skins, opacity control, always on top option.. only the Stick to desktop is not what I thought it was.. if I switch windows, it goes away from the desktop - i guess it gets minimised, but is hiddden; something for their forums I guess. Anyway, it is cool enough to use than make my own.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING....

Funny Quote of the Day

2008-06-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

"Efficiency is intelligent laziness."
~Anonymous

Cheeni Kum

2008-06-28T03:25:00.000-07:00

(Source: Wikipedia)

I am usually very willing to give any movie of Amitabh's a shot and this one also had Tabu in it - all the more reason to watch it. I like movies that do something to change the stupid society people live in (...yeah, 'people'; I doubt if I do :P - it exists if you think it exists!) and to change the whole thought process people exhibit. This movie did draw laughs pretty much all the way. There is a point though where it gets a little filmy, but hey if you are willing to accept its just gonna be there in every movie you see, it doesn't have to spoil the rest of it. Biggest plus - they don't sing or dance in the movie!

Recommended.

South Mountain - Brush Fire

2008-06-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

A lighting sparked off a wild brush fire at the Gila river Indian Reservation - this place is a little west of my home and I went up South Mountain (which is pretty much my backyard) to see the smoke rising from that wild fire. The fire has now been burning for about 3 days and is likely to continue for a few days more - as there are no settlements around it, it is a low priority here! 1200 acres burnt so far!!

View the complete story with the video of the fire here

Mix 96.9

2008-06-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Mix 96.9 the radio station that rocks in Phoenix. I finally went onto their website and was pleasantly surprised. You can see their radio playlist online, see what song is currently playing on the radio, listen to that song on your comp (if you are willing to tolerate the ads).. talked about a tightly integrated world!

Serving through time

2008-06-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

JUNE 2008

Knees could bend a little more
Use the leading hip tip - by the time you get into the trophy pose, and the use your core muscles to pull the upper body.
Looks like you are already, but check if, from the point the racket drops down behind your back, you are bringing the racket up on edge(hammer like) and pronating before contact
At contact, the hand is angled to the side; try to keep it straight up.
Leaning too far forward into the court. Try to use your hieght and hit at the highest reach. The toss is still a little out in front, toss closer or position yourself to be closer to the ball

AUGUST 2007

Rotating a Video Clip through right angles

2008-06-25T19:59:00.001-07:00

I was out on the tennis courts to get my serves on video once again to see how i was doing. And it so happened that I took most of them as portrait as opposed the the default landscape.

The .mov files that got generated of course were not auto corrected. So I began hunting for a software that might help me rotate each clip by 90 degrees.

I found Kodak EasyShare to do the job for me. It is freely available from the Kodak website for download and it worked for me.

At first it refused to rotate. But shutting it down and trying again did it for me.

Numb

2008-06-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Recommended.

Trailer..

Mathew Perry speaks about the movie..

Depersonalization.. wow!

Play and Grab

2008-06-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well this it what I call my new little player; well that and Mp3Grabber:p. A friend pointed me to the website musicbenz.com It has tons of old and new hindi mp3s and mp3s just sitting some place begging to be downloaded are just too tempting to pass on.

The thing is there isn't an easy way to selectively download these and it is too annoying to click on each link, see a file save dialog open and all that.. Sure, one could use wget, but it will download stuff without much discrimination. I have only so much disk space and sorting out mp3 later is something that never comes around. Its a good idea to filter at the source.

Well, so the only natural thing to do was to go on and create my own. I made it specific to this site, but plan to retro-fit interfaces a little later, to support just about any source.

My utility can be found here.

When it comes to writing quick utilities, I always turn to my Visual Studio 2005 IDE that has been with me through time. So, it runs on Windows and needs the Microsoft .Net v2.0 installed and yeah, Windows Media Player too.

Parag suggested I put a screenshot. So, here goes:

Features in a nutshell are:

Play songs off the musicbenz.com site without downloading them with an option to shuffle
Adding all songs in a given web folder at that site. (See the Readme first)
Simply hit a button to download the song
Up to 3 simultaneous downloads ( 3 is a magic number that just seemed right)
Shows the songs you have already downloaded
Can queue songs for download
Playlist and download queues are saved and restored on application start up. Download will sort of resume.

Well it works as well as I want it to.
I do find the need for a stop/pause button, but now I'm too lazy.

Sleepless in Phoenix

2008-06-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

I cant remember when I had a sleepless night last. A night out IS different from a sleepless night.

Well, this was my own doing. Had several lessons from this.

Greed is bad - Trying to free up some space on your HD, will cause you to free up more space.

I now know the correct way of removing Linux from a dual boot system. I used Partition Magic to wipe out my Linux ext3 and swap space, but forgot that grub was still on and would screw up the booting process. Well, looks like fdisk isn't avaiable with XP. So get/make a Win98 boot disk and run fdisk /mbr from the boot disk. This serves to clear the initial loader and I think boots from the the root partition. This command leaves the partition table intact and this is what I deleted.

More lessons -

Don't monkey with the MBR when its past your bedtime.

Don't monkey with the MBR without patience.

Don't do anything with the MBR without knowing exactly what you are doing. Gong on a hunch can be make you regret things.

Create a backup file containing the MBR. I used MBRWizard that comes on a WINBUCD.

BUT, backing it up on the disk you are messing with will make you hate yourself later..I did too!

Well, after about 12 hours since my screw up, I was able to bring things back to being good. The savior - "TestDisk" - Comes with the knoppix live CD, but finally I used a separate windows download and boot of Win 98 discs with CD support and then used the testdisk utility.

Let it analyze the partitions, you will need to select the right active partition - the utility may not pick the right one by default, write the MBR to disk. This should restore your messed up partition table. To get rid of the boot loader, use the "Write MBR Code" of the utility. Doing this worked for me.

This is a rather shoddy howto - but I don't mean for it to be otherwise. If anything, its only to show that there is hope after all, even after you have just screwed up the MBR.

Thisshould be a good place to get started from.

Jim carrey, live at the Roxbury

2008-06-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Jim Carrey, Live at the Roxbury

Tera husn muhje badda bhata hai

2008-06-21T21:24:00.001-07:00

Funny Quote of the Day

2008-06-16T09:02:00.001-07:00

"The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a little."

~Joe Martin

Sunset at Tempe Butte

2008-06-15T23:46:00.001-07:00

Quote

2008-06-15T10:10:00.001-07:00

"Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

~Steve Jobs

Funny Quote of the Day

2008-06-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

"When I told my doctor I couldn't afford an operation, he offered to touch-up my X-rays."

~Henny Youngman

Cactus in Bloom

2008-06-13T09:37:00.001-07:00

Posting a PPT to your blog

2008-06-11T15:40:00.001-07:00

The way I did this, is by doing the following:

Use OpenOffice to export the PPT as a MacroMedia Flash (.swf) file
Upload the swf file to Google Pages. Any place accessible is just as good.
Use the URL to the *.swf file in the snippet below. Note the URL is used in two places.
Paste this snippet into the HTML where you want your PPT to show

<object width="425" height="350">
<param name="movie" value="http://balpeck.googlepages.com/ColinPowellonleadership.swf"/>
<embed src="http://balpeck.googlepages.com/ColinPowellonleadership.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">
</embed>
</object>

General Colin Powell on Leadership

2008-06-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

This was presented to us as a part of the Software Project, Process and Quality Management course and the topic under discussion was Leadership.

I have never taken the interest in figuring out how to post a PPT to a blog and today I did, so here goes. (Click on it to go to the next slide.)

The display size is rather small, and making it any bigger spoils the appearance of the blog for me. So, here is the bigger display.

The process of doing so, deserves a post in its own right.

Steal those idle cycles

2008-06-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was getting all nostalgic and watching several videos of ads, serials that used to air on TV like 20 years back. When talking about it with a friend today, what I have always wondered came back to me. Anything you want is out there. I just happen to view and collect, but for each video out there, there is someone going through a whole lot to get it, convert it into a form you tube will allow and upload it.

If you think about it, thats a lot of person-hours. People really have that much idle time with nothing to do. Yeah, I know, I am a king on that list too :P. SETI@Home is a project that is targeted at stealing the idle cycles of household computers over the internet to help analyze the several terabytes of data collected from all the space exploration being done. Imagine what good can come, if only we did that - treated people no different from computers and took away all the idle time!

Days of DD

2008-06-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Baje sargam, har taraf se!!

Arey, chaddi pehan ke phool kihlla hai!!

Ek titali, anek titaliyan

Vicks ki golli lo, khich-khich door karo

Buland Bharat ki buland tasveeer

Khuch khaas hai, hum sabhi me!!

Doodh hai mast in every season!

Center Shock - hila ke rakh de

2008-06-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

2008-06-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Trip down under - Tucson!

2008-06-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

Pessimism

2008-06-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. "
~George F Will

2008-05-31T10:37:00.001-07:00

Not a post in the past 15 days... I like it when that happens, it means I am probably doing something! As I wait for my cluster's head node to finish its installation of the CentOS (for the second time in 2 days), I had nothing better to do than pay my blog a visit, to tell it that I am alive!

Anand

2008-05-17T00:08:00.000-07:00

"Zindagi baddi honi chahiye, lambi nahi."
"Hairaan hoon ki - wo maut pe has raha tha, ya zindagi pe?"
"Maut ke dar se agar zinda rahna chod diye, to maut kise kahte hain?"
"Humari kamzori jante ho kya hai? - Hum aane wale gum ko kheech taan ke, aaj ki khushi me le aate hain."
"Marte marte chela guru ko sikha gaya - Dukh apne liye rakh, anand sab ke liye."

Its Mid-May!

2008-05-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

This is what is looks like in my backyard now. This is Phoenix, Arizona. Its not often that you get to see anything other than the clear blue sky. So when you see clouds as dark as these, it just seems so unearthly!! Its refreshing nevertheless. Something is royally screwed though. Day before, Flagstaff got 8 inches of snow. And two days after it rains here. This is mid May in Arizona, people!! .. Ah there I can see Al Gore - grinning, saying told you so!

Earthrise!!

2008-05-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Watch the video here

The Office!!!

2008-05-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

Found exactly what I have been looking for. Its pretty interesting that anything you want, its already out there - music, videos, lyrics, *who* does all that!!

Colbie Caillat - Bubbly

2008-05-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

This has been playing on the radio a lot, been meaning to hunt it down for a while now. Here goes..

So true

2008-05-10T09:31:00.001-07:00

Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.
- David T. Wolf

Morning blues

2008-05-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

This guy took an early morning shower when the lawn sprinklers went off.

Spring 2008 Graduation Ceremony at ASU

2008-05-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

This wasn't my graduation, not just yet... damn!

Getting my Bachelor's degree, did not really leave me with any sense of achievement. May be I had it easy, or may be I just didn't care, everyone around you, everyone you know is graduating, so whats the big deal?

Well, getting to the ceremony to see a friend graduate, made it seem like a big deal. The band with the Scottish piper and all, the students and the staff dressed in the traditional gowns and hats, a fairly packed arena, long speeches, big applauses, the several photo sessions afterward, all made it a big occasion. Each fall/spring, about 500 graduate from the engineering college at A.S.U. which isn't, too much really.

I don't know, but I still don't feel too strongly about my own graduation yet. It certainly is a milestone along the road - I know I would be glad at getting out of college, but would it be with the excitement of having graduated? Probably not. I'm on the fence on attending my own ceremony and pray it will be the fall of 2008. May be that ought to change it a little; if it doesn't then I freaking just don't care :P

More birds

2008-05-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

This is a Quail. I mistook the curving crest or plume for its beak the first time I saw this bird from a distance. Its pretty neat.

Two's company.