October 23, 2005

A apwptga pmpt

Thp gp jtpt tm andtpd wmt? Dmdpmt pdakw mdam amwthmg. Wmt bm pgq gm wmtp pamtp dmp ak g bpd

'Kant' explain[ed]

Cause: Sunday morning. 8: 30. And u can’t go to sleep. There’s nothing u could be possibly doing.

Effect: Blogging.

A priori synthetic: When u have nothing to do, u HAVE to do something.

A posteriori analytic: Sunday mornings are meant to be spent in the bed.

The Transcendental Unity of Apperception: The blogger is unknowable. “I” is aware that there is an “I” subject, or self that accompanies all of my experience and consciousness. But since I only experience it in time, which is a "subjective" form of perception, I can never know directly that "I" that is appearing in time as it might be "in itself", outside of time.

Noumenon: A mess-worker bringing ur breakfast to ur room.

You have two cows


Unimaginative/Pragmatic people: You have two cows.

Light bulb Jokes: How many cows does it take to change a light bulb? Two

Absolute Monarchy: The king has two cows. At the end he gets hanged, and so do the cows.

Cambodian Communism: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

Enron Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank. He then executes a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by your CFO who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on six more. The public buys your bull.

Fatalism: You have two cows. You die.

Pure Communism: Your cow is my cow too. My cow is none of your business.

Representative Democracy: You have two cows. Your neighbours pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

Totalitarianism: You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

The 3 Dot Language: ...

Two Cows: You have us.

Catcher in the Rye: This one time, you had two cows, but then you got to thinking about all the phonies getting their milk and that made you kind of sad so you let them go.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: You have 42 cows.

The Fountainhead: I have two cows.

Terry Pratchett: You thought you had two cows, but in reality one was the Death of Cows and went 'MOO' all the time, whereas the other was actually someone who had severely annoyed a witch. This sort of thing happens an awful lot.

Nietzsche: Two cows are dead.

Rastafarianism: Let's smoke these cows!

Nihilism:

Pragmatism: There are cows.

Minimalism: Cow. Cow.

Yoda: Two cows, you have.

R2D2: beep beep blip beep

Michael Jackson: Hey, are those two calves?

Oscar Wilde: "You have two cows." —Oscar Wilde

The Oracle: "Having two cows is like being in love, Neo."

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: We are the Two Cows Who Say Ni!

Descartian Analysis: You think, therefore you have two cows.

Cowell Analysis: Those are quite possibly the worst two cows I have ever heard.

Unknown Analysis: To err is to be human. To have two cows is bovine.

Tamil: Ungalidam irandu Pasukkal ullana. Pasu paal kodukkum.

Manipuri: Nangi san ani lei.

Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett): I've got two cows. You can milk them if you like.

Pink Floyd (early 70s): You have [17 minute instrumental] Two cows

October 16, 2005

Q&A

Q: Imagine u are a kid studying in say, 9th or 10th standard. What is more satisfying than going to a reputed institute, playing against their team, and getting to drink lots of cold drinks for free?
A: Going to a reputed institute, playing against their team, raping them and getting to drink lots of cold drinks for free.

Q: Which one is better, a dreamless sleep or one with a dream?
A: Dreaming 4 or more dreams at a stretch.

Q: What is better than chatting, playing football, watching endless episodes of 'That 70's show' and 'The Scene' and reading Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen?
A: Chatting, playing football, watching endless episodes of 'That 70's show' and 'The Scene' and reading Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen, when everyone else is slogging his ass off for quizzes.

October 10, 2005

Visi, vidi, vici


Four hectic days of Shaastra (arguably the best technical festival in India; those who disagree may google for ‘directions to hell’) just got over. And its end has brought in a terrible lethargy in me. Basically, things are back to normal.

Shaastra, to a lot of people in the institute, is a time for an extended siesta. In fact, a lot of people just ‘crash’ through it. For some, it’s a time to DC++ all the movies and series they have been craving to see for long . Yet, for some, it’s a time for a trip to a nearby hill-station or to go home.

But then, there are the participants, which I have taken in a wider perspective to include those who come here for bird-hunting (or watching) and not for the events. I’m sure they had lesser to complain this time. The birds were indeed a soothing balm to the sore eyes of tired participants . They would not participate in any event but just stand like mannequins the entire day. It would make good economic sense to use them rather than posters for ads. Most people look at them, not at posters.

The events occupied my whole day and the nights were spent in planning (which took more time than actually making it) and making a model or two for the next. Squeeze in two hours of football practice and a match (which I unashamedly admit we won; so what if it was against a bunch of school-kids) in the torturous morning sun. And, u know I am grateful that I’m not a vegetable yet.

On the flip side, we did win an event (The Incredible Machine) on the first day and came second in a major event later (The Puzzles Championships), which is more than enough reward for our toil, before and during the fest. And then, there’s a rocket and a glider that we made out of our own sweat, blood, and anabond. Though, we were a bit disappointed when they performed below par. At least we got a lot of oh’s and ah’s for our aesthetic design!! Lesson learnt: Anabond sticks almost anything, and quick.

(An anabond ad would look something like this: A guy is caught in a not so flattering situation with a girl. The culprit, however, is not his intention, but anabond, which has stuck his limbs in all the wrong positions. The girl’s dad comes and gives a stern look at him. The guy manages to slip an anabond tube to him. And everything is cordial again. Then, comes a subtle tagline and a voice-over – “Anabond bonds everything. In seconds.”)

Coming back, Shaastra as a whole has been better and won the ISO 9001:2000 certification again. What with better organized events, less events cupping, bigger budget and most importantly, more prize-money. Most events started on time (which was indeed a surprise for some Shaastra veterans), perhaps thanks to the QMS team, whoever they are. The spirit of engineering models – both the hovercraft and the smart-bridge worked (after two years of disastrous failures). And the main quiz was what it always has been – elitist (though not many are complaining). At least it doesn’t start at midnight to go into the wee hours of dawn like the Saarang MQ. U know what to expect when u are shown 2/3 vague pictures with the quizmaster breathing a constipated, “ Machha, put fundaes da.” Or “ Connect da.” But it sure is an unforgettable experience going through the very well-researched (read vague) questions with equally vague (and quite creative) answers.

Some events were scrapped for varied reasons, most notably Tech Cluedo and Ai-wars. In fact, Ai-wars/ AI- bots was the most searched strings in Shaastra this time!! Seems like the co-ords did too decent a job last year leaving little room for improvement! I would love to see the event bounce back as it has a special place in me, having come second in it in my second year (which I did with less than 500 lines of code compared to the thousands people made). A lot of people called it a fluke. I still call it a stroke of genius.

Anyways, it has been quite an experience indulging in the plethora of activities, as consuming and exhausting it may have been.

Cut to the present-
Alarm. Classes.
Life goes on.

October 03, 2005

8:40 a.m.

Alarm. Class.
Life goes on.

Confessions of a peculiar mind

It is that time of the day (night?) when my mind works at its weirdest. There’s no-one I can bug in the wing, and that sweet slumber is eluding me. There’s nothing that seems to interest me. My mind is in a maze – not a maze exactly, but…. u know what I mean. I’ve tried doing every possible thing in my book – watched T.V., surfed all my favorite sites, chatted, orkutted, smsed, called, tried reading a book, watching a movie, listening to my favorite playlist and what not. I would have ended up watching a movie but for the faggots who wont give me any slot to download from. I’m gonna buy another hard disk to store all the movies I want and I wont give them to anybody, I swear.

I even washed those clothes that have been soaking in the bucket for the past two days. Still, my mind is like a taut string, ready to snap any moment.

I want to bug someone on phone, but the validity on my cell just got over. I want to bang someone’s door and ask the time, just to see that look on his face (it’s not that funny, actually). But then, my conscience suddenly starts screaming at me, and it's not using the most decent of languages. Suddenly, the clock chimes 2:30 and I realize what shit I am stuck in. It’s another matter that I don’t have any clock that chimes, and even if I had, it won’t have chimed at the half-hour. In fact, it was 2:30 quite sometime ago. And presently, my clock is out of batteries. Bacially, the whole thing I said above is just fart.

I have a class at 9 in the morning tomorrow morning (in fact, today), but it still seems all too distant to me. The thing is, this prof has this contorted look on his face that makes him seem to hate giving the lecture more than we hate attending it. U hardly get inspired by that.

Ideally, I should be asleep and dreaming of some sweet and beautiful things. Though the dream part really doesn’t matter cuz I’ve not been dreaming of late. But I should be sleeping, at least. Sleeping without dreams is fine, u always seem to get enough sleep that way, but sometimes u want to have a beautiful dream – some deja-vu-ish ending to a beautiful day. Sometimes, it so happens that even though my mind is a bagful of oozing creativity and restless activity, my body demands a befitting rest to a tiring day.

I am c's weary body. Stop this. It’s 3 o’clock, for chrissake!! I can't type anymore.

ding!