Demystifying humidity

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

"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

"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

"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

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

STANCE


TOSS AND BACK-SWING


Knee Bend


Racket drop

Pronation

Kick Serve and Flat serve

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

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



Now the pictures...

Wimbledon + Rolex ad theme music

Family Guy - Motivational Posters

Source

iRock!!

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

"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

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

"Efficiency is intelligent laziness."
~Anonymous

Cheeni Kum

(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

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

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

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

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

Recommended.

Trailer..


Mathew Perry speaks about the movie..


Depersonalization.. wow!

Play and Grab

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

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

Jim Carrey, Live at the Roxbury

Tera husn muhje badda bhata hai

Funny Quote of the Day

"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

Quote

"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

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

~Henny Youngman

Cactus in Bloom

Posting a PPT to your blog

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

1. Use OpenOffice to export the PPT as a MacroMedia Flash (.swf) file
2. Upload the swf file to Google Pages. Any place accessible is just as good.
   
3. Use the URL to the *.swf file in the snippet below. Note the URL is used in two places.
   
4. 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

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

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

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

Trip down under - Tucson!

Pessimism

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

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

"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!

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!!

Watch the video here

The Office!!!

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

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

So true

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

Morning blues

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

Spring 2008 Graduation Ceremony at ASU

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

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.

Funny seats

This was just too good, and this being in China, brings a little surprise with it.. I admire the artist behind it and also the town or whatever for installing it - and I would think these women didn't know what they were getting into :)


Courtesy: Reuters, Yahoo News.

Under Barack Obama!!

Well, you know what's exciting - when you stumble upon a hilarious video when you weren't even looking for it. Now a friend pushed a link to "Pehli Nazar Mein - Atif Aslam" and when I loook to the videos in the related section - there it was!

I have been following Barack and Hilary's race for the democratic nomination quite closely and it made it all the more funny. It has been a while since I have found something that made me laugh my ass off. The content may or may not be office-safe.

A baby rabbit

It is so much fun watching them.

Beating the sun

I saw this pigeon take shelter in the shade for quite a few minutes. That got me wondering - How does it figure its better in the shade? Does it know why? Did it just happen to experience that it was better in the shade or did it know already and went looking for it? Does it make a note for next time to go directly to the shade?

Have you ever thought what it would be like to be an pigeon, a cat , some other animal for just a bit? To experience what goes thorough its head, to see the world through its eyes? I do that all the time.

Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97... wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be IT.

The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are NOT as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance.

Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me, I am the sunscreen.

Lyrics from:http://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/sunscreen.html

Life is good, The possibilites are limitless

Ever wondered how many movies there are out there? Well, scavenging through the used DVDs section at F.Y.E, I was struck by the countless movies that have been made. Likewise, countless books get written, songs get made, paintings and sketches are made - each in some way unique, each in some way special. It is simply amazing that there are no limits to the creativity within the collective us.

post it art :P

Its fun to use post its. Along with that post-it two other things on my table.

From my window

Tagged by Parag.

This is not a typical me. But I was tagged by Parag and I guess playing along wont hurt... much.
So, dude, this one is because its you :P

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?
Street kings - I was hoping this would be a rather Speed like action movie; but instead found it to be quite an intense action movie. It was good though, Just not the fun filled mindless action.

2. What book are you reading?
The catcher in the rye. Had 'The world is flat' going on for sometime on the side. But its been put down for sometime now.

3. Favorite board game?
As a kid, I agree with the guy who has kind of had me into writing this post. Business was a fun board game. I remember how thin the notes were. So me and my sis had cut out chart paper as backing for those notes. Had it a for long time.

4. Favorite magazine?
Duh. No brainer - Playboy of course.

5. Favorite smells?
Smell of a rose. Smell of water hitting the dry soil.

6. Favorite sounds?
The sound of the breeze in the leaves of the trees... hey, that rhymes!!

7. Worst feeling in the world?
To feel useless.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
Damn, its 8:30!

9. Favorite fast food place?
Now its Subway. Used to be Quiznos until last semester.

10. Future child’s name?
I live in the moment.

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d….?”
call it quits and go on a road trip in each continent.

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
I used to sleep with live cats back home.

13. Storms - cool or scary?
Depends where I am at - me witnessing the storm should be cool; me in it, I can't be too sure. Well, check with me in 6 months.

14. Favorite drink?
Used to be coffee back home in Pune. Now its orange juice; but I think I just moved on Coors' Light.

15. Finish this statement, “If I had the time I would….”?
Play tennis all day.

16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
Please tell me there is something to this question. No I don't.

17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Black, with streaks of red. Looks great on some gals. How bad can it get on me, I wonder.

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?
Pune, Tempe, Phoenix - noting living is different from visiting :P

19. Favorite sports to watch?
Tennis. Can still watch cricket, football, pool, bowling, basketball..ah pretty much any sport. I don't find watching Golf or poker too horribly exciting though. Otherwise pretty much a sports junkie without the trivia.

20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
I'm still thinking..

21. What’s under your bed?
Nothing interesting.

22. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
You bet. May be with wings though.

23. Morning person, or night owl?
Really up to me and my interest and the need of the hour. I have a history of 14 night outs in a row and also of getting up at 3 during PLs.

24. Over easy, or sunny side up?
Dunno whatchya saying.

25. Favorite place to relax?
Any place out and removed from things man-made.

26. Favorite pie?
I think the only one Ive had is the one with the different berries in it.

27. Favorite ice cream flavor?
I don't like ice-cream ! Would trade one for a can of Coke every time.

28. Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
The stupidity ends here :D

Sketching

I have been thinking of having a go at sketching for a few days now. Reading my cartoons each morning, Garfield was the natural first choice. For starters, one from today's strip on my yahoo, onto the back of a visiting card.

Quote

Just got off watching Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman for the nth time.

"Some dreams come true, and some don't. But keep on dreaming..."
~A random guy in the movie, or the narrator - I couldn't be sure.

quote

Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal.

~Mike Ditka

Competitive tennis

Year 2007, ASU Olympics, Tennis: Number of participants 3, I finished 3rd.
Year 2008, ASU Olympics, Tennis: Number of participants 4 - but this time I finished 2nd, I won a set and it sure felt good. It was nice of the organizing 'Coalition of International Students' to award these medals; Its good to have something to remember things by.

Its not often that I play a regular game of tennis. I always prefer to just hit - it has always just been about improving strokeplay and pretty much going on without a goal, with getting better being the only motivation. I have come to believe it is important to play competitive tennis; it can still be fun. This is one of those things I find different in the way Americans approach the game and the way I have seen others play - no matter what the skill level, playing a game with rules and scores is something they just have to do.

Playing with scores, and more so in what was a tournament, showed me just how different the same thing could get. I wasn't half as good. Most of the game was getting played just in my head than on the court. With every swing I know, it needs to go in. The fear of losing a point, makes me not want to go for those winners, I would go for when I'm just hitting. I would be content at pushing the ball into play and keep alive in the point. I felt elated, when I knew I was going to win my first set. I was able to put that aside and just play through the final game. In my second match, I could feel the dismay, when I knew the set was out of my reach; I got myself to forget that and get back in the game until it was really over.

This was not the US Open; it was just four guys, who decided to show up. I cannot even begin to imagine how guys like Federer feel when playing for so much more and with so many eyes on them. While the scale of that I may never know, I surely tasted the spirit in which they play the game.

OMGIF!!

The week comes, and the week goes,
What happens within, I never know,
Time, so lost it seems,
Time, so lost is me.

While I may or nay,
It shall never lay,
As hours turn into many a day,
For never is it for here to stay,
As the sun rises, as the night grows,
A week comes and a week goes.

Tequila - A good laugh

The little joys of life

Hope this list can grow over time.

• Finding a parking spot
• Finding a parking meter with 20 minutes on it
• Seeing a red light turn green when you are 100 feet from it
• Not knowing where you are going, but ending up on the road you were looking for
  
• Changing lanes and going past a dozen cars
• Opening a new can of tennis balls and hearing swish sound followed by the strong scent of the bright green balls.
• Finding the music you are looking for in the public library
• Finding the book you are looking for not checked out
• Finding the muscles shape up after a good workout
• Finding a truckload of mp3s where you least expected it
• Stepping outside a closed building and find the breeze taking the dust and the dried leaves around in circles
• Finding your tax refund credited to your bank account
• Finding the palo verde trees turn yellow in full blossom
• Finding a rabbit on the front lawn
• Seeing two pigeons chase each other
  

Buckcherry - Sorry

Heard it a few times on the radio. I like how it sounds.



Oh I had alot to say
Was thinking on my time away
I miss you and things weren't the same
'Cause everything inside it never comes out right
And when I see you cry it makes me wanna die.

I'm sorry i'm bad, i'm sorry i'm blue
I'm sorry about all the things I said to you
And I know I can't take it back
I love how you kiss, I love all your sounds
And baby the way you make my world go 'round
And I just wanted to say i'm sorry.

This time I think i'm to blame
It's harder to get through the days
We get older and blame turns to shame
'Cause everything inside it never comes out right
And when I see you cry it makes me wanna die.

I'm sorry i'm bad, i'm sorry i'm blue
I'm sorry about all the things I said to you
And I know I can't take it back
I love how you kiss, I love all your sounds
And baby the way you make my world go 'round
And I just wanted to say i'm sorry.

Every single day I think about how we came all this way
The sleepless nights and the tears you cried
It's never too late to make it right
Oh yeah Sorry!

I'm sorry i'm bad, i'm sorry i'm blue
I'm sorry about all the things I said to you
And I know I can't take it back
I love how you kiss, I love all your sounds
And baby the way you make my world go 'round
And I just wanted to say i'm sorry.
I'm sorry baby.
I'm sorry baby.
I'm sorry.

Somewhere over the rainbow

The original song was from the movie The wizard of Oz and sung by Judy Garland. This however is the one I like better.



Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And the dreams that you dreamed of
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly
And the dreams that you dreamed of
Dreams really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney tops thats where you'll find me oh
Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly
And the dream that you dare to,why, oh why can't I?

Well I see trees of green and
Red roses too,
I'll watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Well I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white
And the brightness of day
I like the dark and I think to myself
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people passing by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, I...I love you
I hear babies cry and I watch them grow,
They'll learn much more
Than we'll know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Someday I'll wish upon a star,
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney top that's where you'll find me
Oh, Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
And the dream that you dare to, why, oh why can't I?

Quote

Sometimes all it takes is the first step.
~Anonymous

Logging them fixes

Spending hours on end troubleshooting a new problem can be frustrating, but its alright - When treading where you haven't before, all kinds of things happen. However, spending nearly the same amount of time on a problem you had already seen through in the past is criminal.

Once a roadblock gets cleared, I tend to the just move on to the next one. The fix is in my head; if I'm lucky for a few months. Not often do I take time to log the things needed. I found that doing this in sufficient detail is just as important as doing it at all. If it took about 2 hours to get the thorn out, its OK to spend 15 minutes to blog the problem & the fix in detail enough for it to be repeatable.

Drifting in stagnation...

I see an ocean,
An ocean of blue.
Think I'm in it,
Yes I'm in it,
Not swimming, not sinking.

My eyes open,
My heart flutters,
My stomach sinks.
This is not home,
This is not me.

I splash, and I lash.
The blue prevails,
The sand eludes,
I find myself as I was,
Not swimming, not sinking,
Just drifting in stagnation.

Would you go to bed with me?

Would you think having the following as the only lyrics would make a good song??

Um
I've noticed you're around
I find you very attractive
Would you go to bed with me?

Well, Think again!!




Other sensual numbers include:
Straight to number one
Tango In Harlem- She kills you the way she says Fuck you!
Life is a beach

Forces of Nature

A pure tp movie - having Sandra in it made it very watchable. A line of hers from it -

"Do you want to be on your deathbed saying, 'I played by all the rules, or I lived?'"

Armor & Sword - Rush

This is one hell of a song - amazing lyrics, amazing music..
It was great to have watched them in Phoenix!
They had the coolest and weirdest of animations while they performed, no good videos on YouTube though!



Here is a link to the song on Last.FM.

Armor & Sword - RUSH
The snakes and arrows a child is heir to
Are enough to leave a thousand cuts
We build our defenses, a place of safety
And leave the darker places unexplored

Sometimes the fortress is too strong
Or the love is too weak
What should have been our armor
Becomes a sharp and angry sword

Our better natures seek elevation
A refuge for the coming night
No one gets to their heaven without a fight

We hold beliefs as a consolation
A way to take us out of ourselves
Meditation or medication
A comfort ,or a promised reward

Sometimes the spirit is too strong
Or the flesh is too weak
Sometimes the need is just too great
For the solace we seek
The suit of shining armor
Becomes a keen and bloody sword

A refuge for the coming night
A future of eternal light
No one gets to their heaven without a fight

Confused alarms of struggle and flight
Blood is drained of color
By the flashes of artillery light
No one gets to their heaven without a fight
The battle flags are flown
At the feet of a god unknown
No one gets to their heaven without a fight

Sometimes the damage is too great
Or the will is too weak
What should have been our armor
Becomes a sharp and burning sword

I hope you dance

It was just about after sunset. Walking after class, down the sidewalk towards Mill Avenue. A gentle breeze started flowing, and I was so amazed how I took it in so fully - I had absolutely nothing on my mind other than how good the breeze felt just after dusk. That one fleeting moment left me so refreshed, so alive.

Its really easy to get yourself immersed in all the worries in the world. It is just as easy to forget it all for while and appreciate the smaller things which ultimately make everything seem smaller!

I love this line from the song 'I hope you dance' - "I hope you never lose your sense of wonder!"

Every rose has its thorn - Poison

Took a looong loong time to get this song since I heard it first. Phoenix Public library reall rocks!



We both lie silently still
In the dead of the night
Although we both lie close together
We feel miles apart inside

Was it something I said or something I did
Did my words not come out right
Though I tried not to hurt you
Though I tried
But I guess thats why they say

Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn

Yeah it does

I listen to our favorite song
Playing on the radio
Hear the dj say loves a game of easy come and
Easy go
But I wonder does he know
Has he ever felt like this
And I know that youd be here right now
If I could have let you know somehow
I guess

Though its been a while now
I can still feel so much pain
Like a knife that cuts you the wound heals
But the scar, that scar remains

I know I could have saved a love that night
If Id known what to say
Instead of makin love
We both made our separate ways

But now I hear you found somebody new
And that I never meant that much to you
To hear that tears me up inside
And to see you cuts me like a knife
I guess

Google plays along

I was looking for a funny looking Google logo this morning. But I was disappointed. I knew Google could not let April Fools day just pass by. A few moments earlier I saw this New feature link on my Gmail.


One read through it and I said No way! and wasnt long before I realised this was their prank. A pretty lame one. But I like their line.. Be on time. Every time!

The Twelve Networking Truths

RFC 1925 — The Twelve Networking Truths. R. Callon. 1 April 1996.

I read this when I was looking up April fools' day. But I thought this deserved a separate post in its own right. While being humorous, it isn't nonsensical.

Here goes:
(1) It Has To Work.

(2) No matter how hard you push and no matter what the priority, you can't increase the speed of light.

(2a) (corollary). No matter how hard you try, you can't make a baby in much less than 9 months. Trying to speed this up *might* make it slower, but it won't make it happen any quicker.

(3) With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead.

(4) Some things in life can never be fully appreciated nor understood unless experienced firsthand. Some things in networking can never be fully understood by someone who neither builds commercial networking equipment nor runs an operational network.

(5) It is always possible to aglutenate multiple separate problems into a single complex interdependent solution. In most cases this is a bad idea.

(6) It is easier to move a problem around (for example, by moving the problem to a different part of the overall network architecture) than it is to solve it.

(6a) (corollary). It is always possible to add another level of indirection.

(7) It is always something

(7a) (corollary). Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two (you can't have all three).

(8) It is more complicated than you think.

(9) For all resources, whatever it is, you need more.

(9a) (corollary) Every networking problem always takes longer to solve than it seems like it should.

(10) One size never fits all.

(11) Every old idea will be proposed again with a different name and a different presentation, regardless of whether it works.

(11a) (corollary). See rule 6a.

(12) In protocol design, perfection has been reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

April Fools' Day

Well, reading my cartoon strips on my yahoo, as I have been doing for a long time now, I was reminded that today was April Fools' day. I was curious about the origins of this, so a trip to wikipedia it had to be.

While there is no clear origins of this or any particular significance, it seems to have started off in Europe and caught up the rest of the world. Surprise surprise!

Some of the cool pranks that wikipedia documents:
Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article written by physicist Mark Boslough claiming that the Alabama Legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the "Biblical value" of 3.0. This claim originally appeared as a news story in the 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

Left Handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side. Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger.

Write Only Memory: Signetics advertised Write Only Memory IC databooks in 1972 through the late 1970s.

Assassination of Bill Gates: In 2003, many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated, resulting in a 1.5% drop in the Korean stock market.

And now the geeks:

April Fools' Day RFC

Internet Engineering Task Force Statements Of Boredom (SOBs).
RFC 2324 — Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0). L. Masinter.

This was the best:
RFC 2322 — Management of IP numbers by peg-dhcp. K. van den Hout et al. 1 April 1998.
Wikipedia sums it up:

Peg DHCP is a method defined in RFC 2322 to assign IP addresses in a context where regular DHCP wouldn't work. The "server" hands out wooden clothes-pegs numbered with the IPs to allocate and an additional leaflet with network information. The "client", typically the user, then configures his device accordingly.

Even though this RFC, "Management of IP numbers by peg-dhcp" was published on the first of April 1998, it describes, unlike most other April Fools' Day RFCs, a regularly used protocol with a serious purpose. During the preparation of Hacking in Progress 1997, the organizers were looking for a robust way to assign IP addresses to the participants. The obvious first choice, DHCP, almost completely defenseless against rogue servers, was not retained considering the traditionally creative use of the network.

Instead, for every IP to allocate, the variable (host) part is written on a wooden peg with waterproof marker. The user would then attach it to the cable connecting that device to the network. The peg is accompanied by a leaflet with further information such as the static (net) part of the IP address, the netmask, the default gateway, DNS-servers, and often also their MAC addresses to prevent ARP spoofing. Different subnets, such as LAN and WLAN are distinguished
by different colors used to write on the pegs.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day_RFC

Quote

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Don't stop dancing - Creed

At times life is wicked and I just can't see the light
A silver lining sometimes isn't enough
To make some wrongs seem right
Whatever life brings
I've been through everything
And now I'm on my knees again

But I know I must go on
Although I hurt I must be strong
Because inside I know that many feel this way

[Chorus:]
Children don't stop dancing
Believe you can fly
Away...away

At times life's unfair and you know it's plain to see
Hey God I know I'm just a dot in this world
Have you forgot about me?
Whatever life brings
I've been through everything
And now I'm on my knees again

But I know I must go on
Although I hurt I must be strong
Because inside I know that many feel this way

[Chorus]

Am I hiding in the shadows?
Forget the pain and forget the sorrows

Am I hiding in the shadows?
Forget the pain and forget the sorrows

But I know I must go on
Although I hurt I must be strong
Because inside I know that many feel this way

[Chorus]

Am I hiding in the shadows?
Are we hiding in the shadows?

Appreciation

What motivates people?
I hope 'appreciation' made its way onto your list of things. Telling someone that they should have done something differently, might come off as hard to many. But telling you like something, when you do like it, shouldn't be that hard. But do we? Each time?

Sometimes, its just hard to say may be because we haven't being saying it enough and are simply not used to it. Sometimes, we would rather let them know without actually saying it.

One word of appreciation might lift spirits, motivate them, might just make their day, give them something to remember.

I play tennis only because I love to. I don't need to please anyone, or to be appreciated. But do I feel good, when someone walking by stops and watches? Hell yeah! I still remember the one time, when an enthu dude screamed out and pointed right at me as he walked on by, seeing a passing shot I just made.

When I get a forward that makes me laugh, or makes me think, I make sure to let the sender know that they did that.

I must admit, with family I don't make the appreciation as explicit as I could. Particularly the good food.. Not that I never, but I should more than I do. As Dr. Randy Pausch mimicked someone - 'I will fix this'.

My mom would usually would have to ask how each dish was and she would.. I think appreciation should come, without it having to be asked for.

This didn't quite hit the spot, but with enough time spent on this, I end with this:
Be sure to appreciate any good you see,
Be sure to give credit for, where it is due - Don't let it pass by.

Make them think

I must confess. Dr. Colofello is great in that he will pose a question and make you think and get answers from the students and collect them on a foil for discussion. Lecturing is a good way for knowledge transfers, but its getting people to think that really should be the goal, KT will follow.

Marasim..

choolhe nahin jalaye, ya basti hi jal gayi
kuch roj ho gaye hain, abh uthta nahin dhuaan

~Gulzar

btw: Marasim means "Relation"/"Relationship"/"Affinity"