The good old days of DOS

I am waiting on my tool to finish populating the database before I can go any further. Have nothing to do meanwhile, spit wad willy popped into my head. It was one of those early computer games I used to play a lot. A google search just made way for a trip down memory lane.

Prince Of Persia


Paratrooper


Dangerous Dave


Spit wad wily


Doom

Xatax

I soooo need to go home and download these and relive it all.

Yeh safar..

Dil na-ummed toh nahi, nakkam hi toh hai,
Lambi hai gum ki shaam, magar shaam hi toh hai!!

Finding North with just the sun

This method does not require you to know the time of day or have an analog watch. All you need is a shadow being cast by the sun.

Called the Shadow tip method, here it goes:
Find a meter long stick-like object.
Hold it vertical on the ground.
Mark the tip of the shadow of the stick. This point is West.
Wait for about 10-15 mins for the shadow to change a bit.
Now mark the new location of the tip of the shadow. This is East.
You now have the W-E line, so figuring out North is easy. If you stand if the first point to your left, and second to the right, you are facing North.

This makes sense. The sun appears to move from East to West. So, the shadow of an object that remains put, will move in the opposite direction, i.e. West to East. Hence our first point was west and the second, east.

So, the next time anyone asks you which way is North, ask them to come back after 15 minutes!

I checked if using the analog watch and this method, gave the same north and they were pretty damn close!!

Ref: http://www.survivaliq.com/survival/field-expedient-direction-finding_s1.htm

Can my watch tell me which way is north?

I lost my way the last time I went hiking. May be a compass would have helped. Now I am curious in finding out how I could plot my trail using just a compass. This is something I hope to do soon. So, to get started on it, I started looking for a digital compass online. A watch with a digital compass is way too expensive - 150 bucks! So, as I was poking around the search results, I found this article on how one could use essentially just the current time of the day and the sun, to figure out your orientation.



You need to have the watch set to the true time without adjustments for daylight savings.

"In the northern hemisphere, hold the watch horizontal and point the hour hand in the direction of the sun. Bisect the angle between the hour hand and the twelve o'clock mark to get the north-south line. North will be the direction further from the sun."

Obviously enough this will work only when the sun is shining. In case you cannot see the sun for any reason, but if the sun is still casting shadows, this method will still work. Hold a thin object straight and the sun is in the direction away from the shadow. Duh.

And if you happen to have a digital watch, you could draw/imagine where the hour hand would be, and still use this technique.

Ref:http://www.onebag.com/popups/wcompass.html

The lonely cloud?

This picture reminded a friend of mine of 'Daffodils', which led me to look it up and here it is:

Daffodils
William Wordsworth. 1770–1850

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay, 15
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Quote again

Don't get into the habit of resting before you are tired.

Slipped Away - Avril Lavigne

Na na
Na na na na na

I miss you
Miss you so bad
I don't forget you
Oh it's so sad

I hope you can hear me
I remember it clearly

[Chorus]
The day you slipped away
Was the day i found
It won't be the same
Oh

Na na
Na na na na na

I didn't get around to kiss you
Goodbye on the hand
I wish that I could see you again
I know that I can't ooooooooooooh
I hope you can hear me
Cause I remember it clearly

[Chorus]
The day you slipped away
Was the day i found
It won't be the same
Oh


I've had my wake up
Won't you wake up
I keep asking why
And I can't take it
It wasn't fake it
It happened you passed by

Now you're gone
Now you're gone
There you go
There you go
Somewhere I can't bring you back
Now you're gone
Now you're gone
There you go
There you go
Somewhere you're not coming back

[Chorus]X2

Na na
Na na na na na

I miss you

A new toy

Today I got to play with a new toy - The iPod touch and boy was it fun!
It was very fascinating to see that using the new device naturally/intuitively made me want for different ways to access things on the screen, and it was even more refreshing to see that Apple had taken care of most of those needs.

The only thing that did not seem entirely intuitive and that had to be shown to me was to zoom in on a section of the screen. I was expecting to tap a section and have it zoomed rather than having to stretch the portion to be zoomed as two opposite corners of a rectangle with my fingers on the screen.

Accessing my ASU mail, gmail was a rich experience indeed. Of course these sites are tailored for mobile access, but all the same. Accessing other regular pages wasn't too shabby either. The time it took to load pages wasn't too bad. I did not play long enough to have a first hand idea of how much it hurt the battery, but it did not die on me in the one hour I was playing with it.

But for the $300 hit to my savings that it would make, it would have been mine by now. But on second thoughts, I'm almost always around my inseparable laptop, I'm happy with the iPod Shuffle I have and the phone too and I really don't mind using three different toys!

Bhool Ja - Shaan

In ansoonon se kisko kya hua hansil,
Mana kehna hai asan nibhana hai mushkil
Phir bhi ae yaar mere
Sunle meri intezaaa

Bhool ja, Jo hua use bhool ja, hai kasam tujhe muskura
khud ko na de yun saza, un yadon ko bhool ja

Wo to nahin tha teri wafon ke kabhil
Jane kya soch kar tune de diya apna dil
Is baar dil ka sauda karna na yun bewajhah

Bhool ja, Jo hua use bhool ja, hai kasam tujhe muskura
khud ko na de yun saza, un yadon ko bhool ja

Teri zindagi teri hai, kisi ki amant nahin
Jab chahe tod de aese ek imart nahin

Is baar dil ka suda karna na yun bewahja
Bhool ja, Jo hua use bhool ja, hai kasam tujhe muskura
khud ko na de yun saza, un yadon ko bhool ja
Jo hua use bhool ja, hai kasam tujhe muskura, khud ko yiun na de tu saza
un yadon ko tu bhool ja...

na nana bhool ja....

Khud ko yun na de tu saza
Un yadon ko tu bhool ja...

quote again

Good things happen, when all you are trying to do is have a good time.

Quote

You can manage, what you can measure;
You can measure, what you can define;
You can define, what you understand.

~Stumbled upon this when reading up on Six Sigma.

a quote before

Fun is a state of mind!

The clock is ticking!

Imagine that you don't need to work. Its been taken care of! What you make in a month, magically appears in your account the first of each month.

What would you do with yourself? How would you spend your days???? List down roughly what your week would look like...(PS: You have the same financial capability, not infinite:P, so be real!)
.
.
.
.
.
.
Having done that, pick some of these and forcibly squeeze them into your life, if you don't already. I wouldn't want life to pass you by, while you are busy working. The thing is that, the more work you do, the more there will remain to be done. It never gets done and neither is it meant to be. It is meant to sustain your living, not BE your life.

I, by no means, am implying that one should not weigh their work much. Quite the contrary; if you aren't true to it, don't have the aspiration to do more and grow, there will be little satisfaction in anything you do. My point is that, work is only part of your life, it is important, but its only a part of your life. Just that ain't enough.

Choose to live a full life. That is what it really is - a choice you make.
The clock is ticking...

A quote again

"An open mind will do you wonders",

which later became,

"An open mind will set you free." :P

I find practicing this very fulfilling; it opens up the horizons and makes the possibilities, makes the experience limitless - it does set you free!

A quote - my own!

"Prepare like your life depends on it, Act like it doesn't matter!"


This was special - it was my first quote which did not match in a google search, two people I care about sported it as their status message which was very fulfilling.

PS: 'Act' does have more meanings than one

Taare zameen par

There have been only a few movies from Bollywood that I have seen which have had an intent of making people take a moment to reflect on the current state of being. When something is done long enough, it comes to be accepted as the norm. Not a thought given, no questions asked, even if it might be the ass-backwards way of doing things; 'this is the way it has always been!'.

This movie had quite a few eye openers thrown in and I can tell that it did reach the people - for how long and when they are in the hot seat, I cant tell and I cant be too hopeful, but even if for only a fleeting moment, the message did get across.

I'm not sure if he will get the appreciation he deserves, but the Dad in the movie did a very kewl job.. In retrospect, I love the name of the movie and more so this line from one of the songs in the movie- 'Kho naa jaye, Tare zamin par'!! Awesome imagination!

BFone again!

After about a year and half it was exciting to see if the BSNL thingy would work, given that my broadband went dead on me for a few hours. And it did; slow as hell but it did.

I couldn't figure what number to dial to get the internet service; couldn't tell from the directory and gave up without much sweat knowing my broadband would be up soon. I guess being in a situation with not as much hope as mine, Parag went all the way figuring out stuff, gawd knows how.

Number to dial: 172222
User Id:20-Your-BSNL NUMBER-here (e.g. 2024351234)
If its the first time or (as in our case after a long time) a new password should work just fine. If it doesn't, cry for help here: 12678, 26361111

Note: These numbers are all for the city of Pune.

Good job, Parag!

Birds of prey

Today, I saw an eagle with a pigeon in its claws. The pigeon, being held against the ground, with nowhere to go, fluttering in despair, knowing the inevitable was imminent. In that moment, everything just turned into one big pile of nothingness, everything just lost meaning. The question - Am I going to have anything to eat? Worse still, am I going to be eaten???

http://radioblogclub.com/

My RadioBlogClub player

This is one the the best things that has been brought to my notice. Thanks to a geeky friend.

I am a big fan of Pandora - what I like about it is, based on the artists/songs added to your profile, it will figure out other pieces of work you would be likely to be interested in. Thats adds an element of surprise, to discover new music. However, due to legal issues they cannot let you jump to a specific song. How it goes is, you say - 'Hey I like this song'; they say, 'Ok, you cant have that right now, but say we try this other one!'

Radioblogclub overcomes that - looks some what unsophisticated and shady, but Hey!- it works! Type in any artist and you will not be disappointed. Make up a play list and have your music collection accessible whenever you are on the wire. To me that is better than good enough.

What I think would be awesome is to combine the two and keep them songs playing.
Good find!!

Ref:
http://pandora.com/
http://radioblogclub.com/

My Pandora Playlist
My RadioBlogClub Playlist

Fortune cookie quote

Paradoxically, things will improve when you move beyond judging what's happening as good or bad

Midnight run

The duke: "You have two forms of expression, Jack: silence and rage."

Ref:Quotes from Midnight Run

Whats a movie thatss worth watching?

One that makes you think in a way you have never before..

Stupidity

Do you sometimes feel that you have a great impatience towards stupidity?? Does seeing a crappy meaningless status/personal message make u rip your hair off in disgust? A stupid forward telling how mass forwarding of spam can yield a fortune? Does it irritate you, annoy you, or fill you with anger?

What does what you feel make you? Are you too freaking good? Should you not overlook people's stupidity and not let it bother you? When you are in an okish mood, you tend to be understanding and do no more than turn a blind eye, when you're in one of your crappy moods, you are simply infuriated. What does that make you? Where does that leave you?

Bowling 101

Its been a few times bowling now and I was annoyed by the fact that I didn't really know the rules, didn't know what I was doing. So this was an attempt to at least look up the terminology and the scoring for the game.

Source: Wikipedia

Rules and terminology

Strike: an X symbol, first throw knocks down all 10 pins.FNO!
Names of sets of strikes thrown in a row: strike, double, turkey; four-bagger (all other strikes are followed by bagger), thanksgiving turkey (perfect game)
Spare: a / symbol, first throw knocks down 0–9 pins, second throw knocks down the remaining pins.
Open: The player fails to knock down all 10 pins with both throws.
Foul: The approach to the physical lane contains a foul line. When you step on or over the foul line on any throw, you get a 0 pin count for that throw.
Gutter Ball: When the ball goes in the gutter. If a ball bounces out of the gutter, any pins it hits do not count and must be reset.
Split: A difficult combination of pins that involves pins separated by at least one space and does not involve the head (number 1) pin. A well known split is the 7-10, involving both outside corners. Another example would be the baby split: 3-10 and 2-7. However, a washout (1-2-4-10 for righties, 1-3-6-7 for lefties) does not count as a split because the head pin is still standing.

If a player throws a strike (all ten pins down on the first attempt), they are awarded 10 pins plus the total of the next two balls.

If a player throws a spare (all ten pins down in two attempts), they are awarded 10 pins plus the score of the next ball thrown.

The maximum score for a single game is 300, and has been achieved many times

Ref:
http://www.wikihow.com/Bowl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling

First time Kayaking

I like doing something new all the time. Have been playing tennis for about 2 years now. Picked up pool and squash, play racket ball, started taking swimming lessons last fall(still can't swim, is irrelevant), do a bit of skateboarding to get from the bus stop to home, office and college. Kinda of pleased with myself for it!

Latest addition to the above list is Kayaking. Thanks to my tennis buddy for getting me out there.






I loved it instantly. It was only in the Tempe Town Lake - So no real wildlife or the wilderness - but its a neat place to get started. I am big on techinque - I need to know I am doing things as prescribed as the way to go by all the people out there. So, I did research a bit on it before venturing out there. If nothing, its always good to get yourself familiar with the terminology. You tend to think more about the things you do, when you are reading about them and not actually doing them. We are far too involved when actually doing it to reason while at it - anything that gets it done then, goes.

So, to summarize:

Types of Kayaks
There are two of them:
Sit-on-tops - These are real easy. And this is what I have been in. Obviously enough, there is no getting into a cockpit like area. Its between a board and a boat - theres a depression on top and you sit into it. Getting in and out of these is quite easy and there is not too much of a worry of it toppling; no special water exit technique needs to be learned.

Sit-ins - I haven't seen one of these in person. But these seem more of a challenge to ride in. You would need to slide your feet into the kayak and your upper body would peep out of the cockpit. Seems like these could topple rather easily, and hence you need to know your ways with making a water exit.

Outfit
Life Jacket:You would usually be required to wear a life jacket. It might be a good idea to wear one thats quite bright so that in an unfortunate event you can be easily spotted. Blue/Green would make you hard to spot. Something like a bright orange is the way to go.

Shirt: A comfortable shirt/tee should do. I like dry fits.

Shorts: Your shorts are bound to get very wet. As you paddle, one end of the paddle rises directly above you in the kayak and water will drip onto you and collect inside the kayak also. So your shorts will get wet all around. Getting board shorts is a good idea. These tend to be long and dry quickly. Long in that they usually cover up to your knees. If its very sunny, that might be good.

Footwear: Slippers should be ok. Typicaly bare-foot is good enough. But you would need them to get from your car to the kayak and typically you wont find a place to stove your footwear, so carrying light, water resisting slippers is good.

Watch - If you would be renting kayaks, its a lot easier to check with your watch, than with your cell phone tucked inside a ziplock

Things to carry/do
Weather - Check the local weather for winds/rain etc
Always good to carry on a sunny day: Sunglasses
Cap/Hat
Sunscreen (might be best to apply before you get to the kayak. Travel as light as you possibly can.
A water bottle/energy drink would be greatly refreshing
Zip lock bags - for your cell phone/wallet etc. Shorts will get drenched. These will help keep your stuff dry.
Towel/Change of clothing for after you are done. If you don't want to get your car seats al wet, carrying a towel like thingy for the seats is a good alternative to a change of clothes.
Camera with ziplocks
A bag - for the water bottle/camera and other stuff you need to carry on the kayak. Small is sweet. Not much space there.


Technique
How to sit: I found gettin in and out from the deck onto the kayak kidda awkward. Once you are on it, find a relaxing position to be in - Keep your back straight. the knees need to be bent slightly. You dont want them too bent - if you do you'll keep knocking against them as you paddle. Typically, stretch you feet all the way. And see which (rung like thingy) it comes against. Bend your knees so that your feet are now one rung nearer than before.

How to paddle:
I loved the tutorial where Lloyd reeves tells you how to paddle and not go swimming.

1. Start at your feet and paddle until the paddle has come in line with your hips. No more. Take it out and paddle on the opposite side.
2. Your upper hand should never cross an imaginary vertical line right in front of you. This keeps your weight balanced on the kayak
3. Make sure as the paddle enters the water and goes through it, the surface is perpendicular to the surface of water. If is its an angle, depending on the angle, you either likely to just brush the surface or at the opposite angle, knife under it(I guess for sit-ins).
4. Use you torso, shoulders and let your hand transfer the power. Be sure to relax your muscles every time you get a chance. You should really need to exert force only when the paddle has completely gone into the water and while it is still in it. Between dips, relax all the muscles.
5. To check if you are holding the paddle right, hold it horizontally slightly over you head. You elbows should make acute angles with the shaft.
   

How to turn: Steering is very simple. Paddle either harder or just on the side opposite to the direction in which you intend to turn. If you want to turn right, keep paddling on the left(for complete turns) and paddle harder on the left than on the right, for smaller corrections to the directions. If you already have some forward momentum going, there is a cooler way to turn, just immerse the paddle IN the direction in which you want to turn, NOT the opposite. I would think that the angle of the paddle with the surface will determine how sharp your turn will be.

Ref:
Lloyd Reeves - Kayaking Basic for Beginners

Thunder and lightning

Lightning over Oradea in Romania (Wikipedia)

I guess its common knowledge that we see the lighting first and hear the thunder later cos, duh, light travels faster than sound. But do thunder and lightning always occur together? Well, surprisingly enough I had never given it much thought. And since I have often heard thunder and not seen the lightning and vice-versa, there was never a reason to think there was a relation.

Turns out thunder is the sound CAUSED BY lightning. When a bolt of lightning hits, it results in a shock wave caused by the very rapidly thermal expansion of air - creating the sound that we know as thunder. Nice!

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

The two handed back-hand

If theres anything in the game more than the serve to be dreaded, its developing a good double handed backhand. I will invariably slice anything on my backhand; while its effective, it will only help me stay alive - not kick ass. So having taken my serve a notch up, I think its about time I give my back hand the due attention.

One thing, greatly wrong, that I have been doing is getting my right foot across. Since the time I have realized that was not a great thing to do, I do get some good ones on and off.

Right shoulder points toward the ball.

Racket head pints to the back fence, about waist high. For more power, at the expense of loss in control, take the racket head even further back.

Stay relaxed - The arms should really be transferring the power in the legs, shoulders and torso onto the racket.

Start with all the weight on the back leg(left) and transfer it onto the front foot just before hitting the ball. Do not plant the right foot across.

The left side of the body should follow through. Combine with a low to high swing of the arms.

If you tend to spin after having hit it, you've done good!

Now, the entire thing:

Ref:Master the two handed backhand(BBC Sports)

The summer of '07

Believe it or not; I had to move my cursor over to the lower right corner of the screen to complete that title!!

Staring at the Fall semester tomorrow on, still about half an hour to go before I take the bus to the tennis courts one last time this summer, I thought I'd recap. This summer has been long.

It started off with me swearing to improve my serve. Something I have been working of for what seems like forever. Its really a pain to have about six to ten balls stuffed in your shorts, trying to serve. Focus gets shifted to keeping the pants on rather than get the ball in.. So I looked up ball hoopers - had always seen serious players get them to Deccan Gymkhana and I always wanted my own, since. It wasn't to pricy after all and so began my serving nights out.

I have been playing almost every night, over the past three months and it makes me feel good about myself for just that. That my serve isn't too different from what it was, is really beside the point.

I guess it was early summer, when we just drove up to Apache Lake, Canyon Lake. We have been here before, but we drove upto Roosevelt Dam this time. I saw a jukebox for the first time at Superstation Saloon - a crazy place where the walls have dollars bills for wallpaper. People coming here have it nailed onto the wall, writing something that identifies them on the bill. A pic that catches them both-

Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington

Since few of my friends from Persistent Systems, were onsite at Redmond, I thought I'd meet 'em and see a bit of Washington. I got my driver's license about a week or two before I was to be in Washington. It was a 3 day thingy.

Day one - we went to Mt. Rainier National Park - awesome place, very scenic. Getting back was fun too, we lost our way, and without the maps that give an overview of different highways, which I always forget to carry, it took a great deal of time and gas to get back onto a highway into Seattle.

San Juan Islands, Washington

Day Two - After much indecision, we decided to go through with it. San Juan Islands. The reason for the indecision was - there were too many things we thought were beyond our control to get the most out of the day - there was a waiting time for the ferry onto the islands, the cost of the the ferry seemed a bit too much, mistakenly so, and of course doubts on seeing any whales - which was the key attraction for Sandeep.

All but the last one of the fears turned out to be just a scare. But the whales did desert us. But we did enjoy the nice cold 3-4hrs on the ferry. Learnt a bit about the islands, saw the Bald Eagle, sea gulls too I think and the highlight of the ride was of course the lone sea-lion trying to protect its hunt, desparately trying to fight off the birds..

By the end of it, it had gotten pretty cold and we did crave for those onion pakoras. Here however french fries are a more common substitute and I settled for a hot chocolate, others had a round of beers!

San Juan Islands is a very relaxing place. I would not recommend it for a one-day stop though. Going there over the weekend should be nice. Get yourself some bikes for rent, cycle around to the sculpture park, the wineries, the whale museum is recommended but whale watching? I think not:P

Space Needle, Seattle

Day three of the trip was spent, not too far from Bellevue as I had to make it out of the place that night. So, Snoqualmie waterfalls it was. Before the trip, going to the Space Needle was on my agenda, but it kept getting pushed for later and we decided if nothing, we'd at least drive past by it. But when we did, I had to go up there. It was nice to see the city from up there - nice, nothing spectacular though.

Snoqualmie Waterfalls

This was very awesome. I would put this before Mt. Rainier too. Very good view of the top of the fall, the fall itself and the river/stream that it becomes later on. There are wooden boards that get you fairly close to the fall, but if you are willing to take a chance and violate the rules there, as most do, you can get really close to the fall. Be just a few feet from it.

Indianapolis, Formula 1, US Grand Prix

Raceday was sensational - It one thing to hear the cars go past you one after the other during qualifying, but when they all roar and scream together, its surreal. And to top that, at the start, right as the US national Anthem concluded, two monstrous fighter jet, flew overhead real close, real fast. Seeing the two Ferrari's battle it out -battle each other; they lost to Hamilton, even before the race started perhaps.

Didn't expect to run into Madhu out there - a chance encounter!

Sedona, 4th of July

This was my first time here for the American Independence Day. The fireworks have always been hyped a lot and was keen to seeing them light up the sky. It was long - 45 minutes is really an overkill. But it was great and ended in style. Such things are done quite well here.

Acura Classic, Carlsbad, California

822 Miles - That is what it took to get to this match and back. It was fun. I have a history of getting lost since I have been driving myself in new cities. Thankfully it did not happen on the way to the match. Our timing could not have been any better. We got the last parking spot - its wasn't really meant to be a parking spot; it was behind this huge truck. The lot had just been all taken and we were asked to put it there. We get to the seating area and find out the national anthem had just ended and players were warming up. Not a point missed. Kewl!

The pace with which Sharapova plays seemed unreal.. was great to see her in action. Patty Schynder too, but she was kindda over powered all along..

The rest of the summer was all movies. Netflix is real cool... The movies I've induged myself with this summer include, but not limited to ;):

Live free or Die Hard
Mr. Brooks
Oceans 13
About Schmidt
Killing Me Softly
Freejack
Failure to launch
The juror
Sleepers
Blood Diamond
Welcome to Mooseport
Hotel Rwanda
Traffic
The morning after
The sum of all fears
Babel
Human Nature
Lost in translation
The Rainmaker
Thank you for smoking
The Mothman Prophecies
Meet Joe Black
Deep Rising
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Blind Dating
Fantastic Four
Its a boy girl thing
The January Man
The pursuit of happyness
Kohsla ka ghosla
Stranger than Fiction
Run Lola Run
The Full Monty
Casino Royale
Zero effect
Ghost Rider
Schindler's List
Finding North
Bourne Ultimatum
The Legend of Ron Burgandy
The Matrix

All of the movies are good and recommended, except Casino Royale - hated that movie; 3 hours of my life absolutely wasted!!

Pronation, explained!!

My First serves on video

Having spent most of this summer working on my serve and still not being as consistent and accurate as I'd want to be with it, I really wanted to have a look at my own serve. So, last week I went to the courts carrying the tripod and my camera, which fortunately can take a minute of footage.




Playing it back - frame by frame, revealed a bunch of stuff, which I hadn't noticed while actually doing it..
I was leaning way too far forward into the serve - the reason for that being my ball toss. My feet also seemed to move quite out of position, which I again attribute to the toss. I was quite pleased with my arm action and follow through - my racket does seem to go quite a way down my back before it bring to meet the ball. So, yeah I needed to work on my toss.

This week watching Roddick at the Cincinnati ATP Masters', I watched his toss quite closely. Thats when I noticed something - he started his toss, holding the ball to the throat of the racket; I have always been holding it at the sweet spot - the part of the racket with which I want to hit the ball. Soon I realized all the players were doing that.

Yesterday I started doing that, and most of my serves were going where I wanted them to. Very satisfying.

Me, Simpsonized!!

Thats me, upon being Simpsonized. Try it yourself: http://simpsonizeme.com/

Courtesy: Maryann - the kid!

The backhand slice

Grip: Continental
Hit outwards with a high to low knife-like motion.
45 degree angle of the racket face.
Step out with the dominant foot and lean into the shot.
Feel your spare hand extend out behind you for better balance as it counters the forward swing.

Hitting into the path of the ball leads to a clean contact than hitting across the path. Hitting across however, also adds some side spin.

A Slice will cause the ball to float in the air, making it easy to hit it deep.

If you want a sharper downward trajectory, make your string-bed tilt upwards more.
For more power, start the swing the backhand farther back

Ref:
BBC Tennis
Tennis.About.com

Get your feet moving

I believe in warming up before a game - I typically do the sidesteps and maybe run around the courts a few times. Here are a bunch of exercises that I found here.

The author, Jeff Cooper, recommends these be done in the order below, but it isn't critical.

Backwards Skip
Sidestep Slide
Backwards Snake
Carioca
Backwards Slant Slide
Baby Bounds
Heel Kicks
Wedel
Spilt-Sprint

Is my tennis ball any good?

I was reading this FAQ on tennis balls. I have a lot of them now and I'm not sure how good they are. This one helped.

A simple test for the bounce is: Drop it from around your forehead; if it bounces back up to your belly button its good enough.

Rules of the game: Dropped from 100 inches, it must bounce back up to about 53-58 inches.

Hitting top-spin

http://www.tennis4you.com/lesson-lounge/tennis4you/spins/hitting-topspin.htm

Tossing that ball

Its often an annoying part of having crapped out on the service; the only thing more annoying is, right before you hit the serve, you know that your toss wasn't the greatest, but you can't stop yourself and get sucked into hitting it anyway.

Here's a bunch of things to look for, practicing the ball toss. As its said, a match is no place to fix your problems.

• Have a good stance
• Right foot parallel to the baseline
• Left foot points to the right side of the net
• Feet in their normal distance away (shoulder length)
• Hold the ball in your FINGERTIPS
• Start with the weight on the back foot and then bring it forward
  
• Push it up to toss it, slightly forward and to the right. At about 1-o-clock.
• Keep your eyes on the ball as it leaves your hands until you have hit it. Taking your eyes off it, will cause the head to go places and the racket usually follows the head.
  
• Hit the ball at its peak. DO NOT toss it too high, or too low. The ball should peak at the point where you plan to hit it.
• Keep the left hand(tossing hand) stretched up after you toss, until you begin to uncoil. Tuck it into your belly around the point of contact

Rudsedski's pop made him toss the ball, until it kept landing in the circle drawn on the court.

Additionally, this drill might come in handy:
Place a spare racket such that the tip of the handle is right before the toe of your left foot and the tip of the racket face, points to the right net post. Keep tossing the ball to get it to consistently land on the spare racket face. Also, keep the height to which it must be tossed in mind.

Use the same ball toss for all kinds of serve. This will ensure that the opponent is not in a position to anticipate a particular serve, from the way you toss the ball.

Ref:
Rusedski's tips
Tennis.com
tennis.about.com

Know thy grip

I have been to this page of Jeff Cooper a few times before and never really looked into it much; his lingo here never meant much to me. Tonight though, I got my racket out, the first time when reading about tennis and it all came through. The handle of the racket is hexagonal!! I never noticed that until now :O

So here are the grips.

Continental Forehand Grip
The palm is on the upper, right slant of the hexagonal handle

• The racket face tilts upwards
• Appropriate for hitting a slice
• To hit flat - need to meet the ball in a weaker, slightly farther back than with eastern
  
• Poorly suited to hitting top spins
• Best for handling low bounces
  

Eastern Forehand grip
Palm is along the side(Right vertical) of the handle.

• Wrist is straight and relaxed - Very natural and physically secure position
• Racket face remains vertical
• Very versatile - easy enough to tilt the face to slice the ball, and can hit a top spin with a vertical face.
• more western grips yield better top spin, hence are preferred more.
  

Semi-western forehand grip
Palm is on the lower right slant of the hexagonal handle

• Results in a natural downward tilt of the racket face
  
• To counteract this, meet the ball a bit farther forward than you'd for an eastern grip
• You will generally need to swing upward more sharply, which encourages you to hit topspin
• Good at generating top spin and handling opponents' the high bounces
• Not so great for slices and on low balls
  

Western Forehand Grip
Palm is on the bottom side of the hexagonal handle!

• Racket faces tilts downwards severely
• Must meet the ball even farther forward
• Most natural swing pattern is sharly upwards and very fast - heavy top spin.
• Hitting flat or a slice is awkward
  

Hawaiian forehand grip
Palm is on the lower, left slant of the hexagonal handle!!!

• Requires point of contact to be way in the front or quite high
• Requires whipping upwards severely
• Cant hit flat or slice

Wow, I had never thought there was so much behind each grip. Hopefully, knowing about this will help consciously choose the right one and possibly switch between shots. If I may borrow a pharse from cricket - playing according to the merit of the ball.

My Killer serve

I feel at home on the tennis court. Never felt so passionately about anything before and it doesn't seem to dampen. My back plays nasty games with me sometimes and its a scary thought not to be able to play tennis. At the start of this summer, I had sworn to myself to get a kick-ass serve in my bag. While I have been at it all summer, I cant say I'm happy being where I am with. Was browsing through some serving tips and instruction material this afternoon at work and I guess I could collect all the stuff I find and put it here. Its a good idea to go over things you are doing and see if they still make sense; or if in the course of doing it over and over again, even the ass-backwards way seems the way to go. We should question what we're doing, all the time.

Aww, it's 5:00. I guess I'll be back. Something I surprise myself with is I have to get out at 5, no matter when I've come in or what I've been doing. Quirky!

The Glass Castle

After reading through Ian McEwan's Saturday, this was a very great read. I hate it when the authors painfully describe the details of every scene they are talking about. It much more interesting when they simply guide your main line of thought, allowing you to paint your own pictures, re-create the scenes in your head. I like page turners - and this book was very much that.

To me, reading about the lives of real people arouses far more interest than the work of someone's imagination; it seems have more authority, more meaning, more substance.

I'm not too great at telling stories, so I won't. Even this is to pass the time; have some fun with pictures and words; build a log to read some day.

One thing that comes to mind about the Glass Castle is this - Its a very real instance to which applies, the quote by Oscar Wilde - "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

The pursuit of happiness

Come to think of it, it really is only a pursuit. No wonder Will Smith was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the movie. While watching the movie, one thought kept haunting me - that my life is so damn easy; did I earn it? Do I deserve it? There is no struggle, basic needs are taken for granted. It was perhaps the first time that I have been consciously thankful and grateful to my parents, for raising us kids the way they did, for pursuing our education, enabling us to live the way we do.

I don't think the movie was depressing. There were moments that made you want to cry. But the movie made me think of the way I live; made me appreciate what I have and motivated me during those two hours to give everything I've got into everything I do. If a movie can evoke all that, its gotta be a damn good one!

The January Man

Watched this movie cos Suzan Sarandon was in it. I remember when - not too many years back - I thought Donald Sutherland and Suzan were a couple. I never paid much attention to her last name and it seemed to be the same as his.

The thing thats great about quotes is they are often witty, very concise - not too much bullshit around it, they are deep; they make you think. Stating the obvious doesn't have much appeal; putting it in a way that makes one think is far more satisfying - admirable.

A hundred years, and we'll all be dead!!

Now thats something - simple but surely something. We come with nothing, we surely wont take nothing off the rock - ashes to ashes, dust to dust is what it is; between them a few years of being - we shouldn't hold back; give it all you've got. Don't make a big deal of things, don't get hung up on things, small time squabbles eat into your time, eat into you; it ain't worth it. Live life to the fullest, I often think to myself. Life is about experiencing everything there is to and somehow making a difference and eventually letting it all go...

Thats the thing about quotes - no freaking rambling!

I am not your autumn moon, I am the night

The web - it truly is; wikipedia makes it even more evident. Its one of the sites I have come to like; admire even - now that doesn't happen too often! How does someone who set out searching the lyrics for a song end up reading the history of Cuba?

Audioslave, it says, was the first American rock band permitted to perform in Cuba. They never made up a video for their very kewl song - I am the highway - they just used the footage from the 'Live in Cuba' concert.


I am the Highway - Audio Slave
Pearls and swine bereft of me
Long and weary my road has been
I was lost in the cities
Alone in the hills
No sorrow or pity for leaving I feel

I am not your rolling wheels
I am the Highway
I am not your carpet ride
I am the sky

Friends and liars don't wait for me
'Cause I'll get on all by myself
I put millions of miles
Under my heels
And still too close to you
I feel

I am not your rolling wheels
I am the highway
I am not your carpet ride
I am the sky
I am not your blowing wind
I am the lightning
I am not your autumn moon
I am the night, the night..

Yeeah
I am not your rolling wheels
I am the Highway
I am not your carpet ride
I am the sky
But I am not your blowing wind
I am the lightning
I am not your autumn moon
I am the night, the night..

Cherish

Shouldn't each day give you something to write about? Shouldn't each day be significant, be meaningful, be memorable? Its great to live each day with the 24 hours solidly packed. At the end of the day to think that we've advanced towards wherever we are headed. I guess it just wont happen everyday; when it does, cherish it.

You're Beautiful

My life is brilliant.

My life is brilliant
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yes, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last 'till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

La la la la la la la la la

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

The Gift of God

Lately, I have been troubled. I get up each morning; have a shower, get dressed, put on the cologne, put the sunglasses that I bought at a local Target store, the cap that I got at the Indianapolis Grandprix. I get to the bus stop. Sometimes, if I'm out of luck, I will have to wait for 15 minutes for the next bus. I sit down on the sidewalk by the shade of the tree. The benches at the bus stop dont get no shade - very horrible. I open up a book to read - borrowed from the local library. The bus pulls in - not missing the scheduled time by even a minute - and what's more - its air conditioned. The 20 minute cool ride is great and I get to my office. Safe and sound, ready to take down another day. I get to my private cubicle and spring my laptop to life. And there it is - on my Google homepage, I can see the headlines:

At least 117 killed in Iraqi village market blast
At least 179 people killed in Iraq's carnage
Suicide bomb kills over 100 in Iraq
Baghdad car bomb kills 17 at wedding

You know for how long the nonsense has been going on down there? About 4 long years. And it troubles me only now. Why do I get to live my life the way I do, and why is it that Iraq is a little hell?

I don't quite remember what prompted me to search for the meaning of 'Baghdad' today. But when it said, one of the meanings to be ' The Gift of God' - it went, as I always do - Ya, right!!

Why is it the way it is? Why are the US and the UK out there? Why do they want to pull out? Why can't the madness come to an end? Why can't it be like any other place? Why is it a hell?
What can I do about it? News about Iraq has become so common that it will often be discarded without a second look. Its only now that I have begun to look, begun to take interest, begun to care. What more can I do than just read about it? How can I end it?

After those 30 minutes that I spend each morning in my cube, just browsing - my ramp up time, I call it - I get on with my day. Not another thought given to it - not until dinner - watching TV, seeing the brief headlines again on TV, I change the channel!!