Labels: daily life, Time Pass

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I love this concoction. Its green apple soda and it is my favorite for months now. I love green apples as such and I went through a phase when many of my cosmetics was of green apple flavor: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face mask, face wash, toner, lip balm, moisturizer et al. One of my friends had teased me saying that I smelled like fruit section at COSTCO. 
Now, apart from shower gel (which is mango with yogurt - its a tribute to gallons of mango+apple yogurt that I consumed in Swiss last summer) I have no fruit flavored cosmetics with me. I don't know but wearing fruit flavored stuff makes me teenage-ish. 

Picture: That me (with nicely manicured nails :D) holding the drink.  

By the way, this was just ten minutes before my most severe migraine attack till date. More on this later.

Labels: Fun, Time Pass

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I had an epiphany. I was thinking about certain piece of code that I had worked on couple of years back. It was strange that when I was reading through the code, the first think I remembered was the music I was listening when I was working on that program. As I browsed through the code base, for every version of the file, I could associate a particular music obsession of mine. I can trace back this trend as far as 2003. Today I heard someone talking about "Vertical Horizon" and their track "Un chosen one" in a blog. The first thing that came to my mind was a Saturday afternoon that I had to spend in office back in 2003 to review the code. I even remember a guy outside of my current location requesting me to access my computer to check his email. 
Mind is a funny thing. The capacity to remember and to forget is like a teasing game. I can remember countless of worthless information and fail to remember something that is expected out of me. I don't forget a face but I associate incorrect data to it. I don't forget anything related to any of the projects I worked till date but I forget the location of the documents in my laptop or delete them completely without realizing its importance.
I was speaking with a neurologist last week regarding my migraine and I was telling him about this. He said, "Sweetheart, thats life."
Oh well, I think I should be glad to remember useless information to amuse myself.
An average corn has about approximately 800 kernels arranged in 16 rows. 
How odd is that?
Coolio!!!

Labels: memories, music, Time Pass

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You find good stuff in oddest of the places; like finding 1920's blue song in Justice League Unlimited cartoon where Batman sings this song to get a witch lift magic on wonder woman who has turned into a pig. By far this has been my favorite episode and that could be because the chemistry between Batman and Wonder Woman is fantastic. 
Batman has always been my favorite character and I am liking this JLU Wonder Woman a lot. She has spunk, sarcasm and has awesome comebacks.
There is this one dialogue said by Green Lantern to Superman: (nodding his head towards Batman and Wonder Woman) Dude, for a superhero with fifty differnt kind of visions, you sure are blind. Superman still fails to recognize attraction between those two.
Anywhoo, I actually wanted to write about jazz music which I find it very soothing. Batman sings "Am I blue?" which is actually quite nice. I just searched for American Film Institutes greatest song collection and listened to few of pre-1950's music.
Just one word. Amazing.
Now I see why Edward in Twilight prefers 50's music over anything. "That was music", he says.
And I completely agree.

Labels: classic, Fun, Muisc, Time Pass

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"In us there are always two natures at war; one good and the other not." 
I believed in this line very much and even went ahead and wrote a philosophical essay-ish length of post a year or so ago as to how this kind of duality exists and is very obvious when one has to make a choice. It was very romantic way of writing things and at one point of time I really liked it. Now, well, its a different theory altogether. 
I think there are at least four people living in my head. Here is my classification:


a) MB: (my initials) A professional, workaholic, caffeine addict, little rude, cynic and err...a total bitch when it comes to getting work done. The other three that reside the  head are kind of weary of her attitude. She comes off as snob (she is a little actually), arrogant (that's a definite yes) and very cold and clinical. She is vindictive and the other three dislike that trait. At office she gets along with people who are either sadistic or sarcastic or both. She likes horror cinemas, industrial rock music and plays sudoku in spare time. Her favorite past time is solving cryptograms. She reads psychological thriller and Dean Koontz is her favorite author. She also likes work by Mary Higgins Clark and Stephen King



b) Sookie: She is this nice person who writes decent stuff, prone to being preachy when it comes to off the tangent subjects and cannot handle hard core drama very well. Her response to comments for her writing is always positive and is very accommodating when it comes to critiquing. MB thinks that Sookie is too soft and little idiotic to expect comments for the stuff that she writes. Sookie has always managed to scoff off the cynicism sported by MB as a choice of expression by people who read her work. She likes 60s music, jazz and loves watching action cinema. She spends most of her time reading poetry. Frost and Poe are her favorite. She also reads fantasy novels and science fiction.


c) M: (my name) The person to who people go to for advice or just talk. She is a good listener and give a crying shoulder when they are unhappy. She is the person whom people get to meet for the first time so she is constantly guarded about the way she speaks and the way she acts. She keeps MB and Spookie at an arm's length since they keep playing devil's advocate with her all the time. She relies on Sookie's wisdom to come up with right answers and occasionally take help from Spookie to keep a conversation light and flowing. She and MB seem to have some kind of understanding which is beyond knowledge of Sookie and Spookie; they think its the bias against their names. She likes instrumental music, piano especially, anime, suspense thriller, classic cinema and loves origami. She reads classics - be it drama, fiction, historical, she is game. 

 
d) Spookie: Author of this blog, sarcastic, cynic and think that the above three people are simply wasting space in the brain. She knows the host of the brain where she resides mostly takes M's decision most of the time and she is not happy with that. She is the reason for migraine that the host is currently experiencing (even when writing this post!). She loves alternate rock, punk rock, carnatic classical, indie movies, cartoons, graphic novels, sci-fi movies, B-Movies with cult status and a huge fan of learning new languages. She reads anything as far as it makes her forget her perpetual migraine.



Here is what Spookie thinks of the other three:
 

MB: If you look closer, you can actually see horns on her head. There are momemts when Spookie is heard mumbling - "Retract your claws lady, he/she is simply asking an innocent question."


Sookie: She is a sap. Period. And its high time to drop the "serene girl" act. Spookie had to withheld herself from punching Sookie when Sookie is being really sweet and understanding.


M: Though most rational of all, she is the main reason for Spookie's migraine. M can be the main reason why the host's brain doesn't prefer Spookie's advice. Though they make wonderful conversation, Spookie somehow always remains in the sidelines. M has often said that Spookie is like a shadow queen. (As in Spookie is actually running the show and making everyone including M believe that its actually M who is running the show. Shrewed and cunning, that Spookie.)


Thats it people, for now. Once the three of them review and argue with one another relentlessly, maybe this post can be updated for accuracy (read: nice things only). 

Until then...

Labels: Fun, Time Pass

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I was chatting with an old colleague of mine who was cribbing endlessly that he spends more time in replying/checking/follow-up emails rather than getting some work done. Today I decided to see how much time I spend in office doing same activity. Unfortunately today I was not able to perform this experiment as the number of emails that I received was marginally less. (The day is not over yet, but I am not checking my emails anymore.) But nonetheless, I found few catch phrases which annoy me endless and certain conversations which bring some sanity back into my job.

Annoyance:
"Please correct me if I am wrong" : I hate this phrase with a vengeance. The guy who wrote this email, was explaining a feature which he is supposed to know. Technically. But here is the kicker. If there is one tiny mistake in the explanatory email, then the concerned audience in the "To" list will rip him apart and the repercussions of the actions are slightly disturbing. So people write this statement and mark a copy to people (read:morons) who are aware of what they are talking. So the whole statement is now translated to: "There is a high probability that whatever I am writing is incorrect. If you don't get an addendum email from the person in "cc", then most probably I am right. If I am wrong and you still don't get corrected email, then blame the person who is copied in the email."
I called up the guy and asked him - "What am I? Your mommy?"
The idiot simply laughed. I doubt he understood my sarcasm.

Happy:
I got this call in the afternoon. "M, there is a drop in finance projection for next quarter by approximately 9K. Tell me why."
See this statement? There is no dilly-dallying and the question is right on target. Of course background is lacking but when it comes to questions on finance, there is always something or the other lacking. In next two minutes I was in Net Meeting and sharing screen and checking for any mistakes. The guy who called me gave me few minutes to think over. And then the answer clicked and I gave him my response. The entire conversation took about five minutes and he had got the answer that he needed and my migraine didn't complain.

Impressed:
I like the way the quality guy writes his emails. "M, I received your project plan. Thank you for submitting on committed date. Please expect a feedback from me (reject/accept) by 15:00 tomorrow. " I love the certainty that oozes out of his email. I was kind of relaxed this afternoon so I buzzed him on IM. "Hey, what do I do if I don't get a response from you? " He didn't respond me for a minute or two. This lag time is expected. "You will not encounter that scenario. " I just replied a hurried "OK. Thanks." I like people who give an absolute answer rather than an ambiguous one. I, for one, would have replied "If everything goes as per my plan tomorrow and for the rest of the day, there is a high probability that your plan might be accepted by end of business unless a higher proiority/critical task gets assigned to me."
Seriously, I should stop being so diplomatic/politically correct and start answering in Boolean.

Confused:
"M, you will like it here. SFO is so beautiful and for a person like you, who dislikes driving car and prefers walking or taking subway, this city is ideal." OK. The statement seemed very innocent. But my hands stilled on the keyboard. What did he mean by "...you will like it here..". Was it something that a person says - "I was in this restaurant today and I think you will like it there"? Like referring something? Or was it along the lines of - "Its a good town and its something you need to visit in future". Its odd as he knows that I am working with a Swiss account so travelling to US is close to nil.
I am kind of avoiding the alternate explanation.
For now.

Labels: daily life, Time Pass

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My productivity is only seven hours a day (out of 9.15 hours which I spend in office. The additional few hours that I spend at home working, is uncredited and unaccounted for). Its a fact that it has been proved. I think there was some sort of fancy report bound in a glossy plastic file was handed out in of the sessions that I attended on productivity. This week, I have been working a lot. By lunch, I find that I have finished most of the stuff that I have planned for the day and by Wednesday, it started freaking me out a little. I found myself taking first break for the day at 3 PM or so, eating lunch at desk while reviewing design document or some code. By Wednesday evening I was fully exhausted.
I called Aki to check if everything was fine with her and mostly because I was feeling kind of bored.
After few minutes of talking she asked me about office and I told her that I was getting more work done since I had no distractions. I ranted for five minutes as to how bored I was in office since I did not get many phone calls or emails. So this made me clear all my backlog of work which had been pending for couple of weeks now. I finished my rant by telling her that even though I have been working my ass off and being extremely productive, something was amiss. I stopped to take a swig of pineapple juice and she was silent for couple of moments. ANd then she asked me.
"M, is this your weird and round about way of telling me that you miss me?" I was surprised. There was no point lying to her.
"Yeah, I guess so." She laughed and then continued conversation without making a bid deal out of it for which I am thankful. We chatted for few more minutes and hung up feeling a little better.
Before I think myself as a character from a lame teen drama, I think I will stop this now.

BTW, am currently watching FF10 walkthrough. The story line is pretty lame. I have seen bloggers talking about FF12 being much better however Advent Children: FF7 being the best of all. Hmm..should give FF12 a try. Soon.

Labels: Fun, personal, Time Pass

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Four years ago, in 2005, I shared a flat with two cartoons in Detroit suburbia. For the next two years, I had a blast there with a huge group of friends and extremely stressful work. I don't know why but I feel that I can perform better when there is stress or pressure from client/management is involved. One of my flatmate, cartoon-1 (C1, for future references) had a boyfriend back home. One night we were watching a show on Zee TV ("Rabba Ishq na Hove" or something like that. The three of us hating watching anything of this sort back home but in US, all we watched was daily soaps.!!) and then I asked her.
"Hey, when you are with Kevin, how do you know that you have butterflies in your stomach and its not nausea?" C1 stared at me.
"You know on any average normal day you are a little weird but there are certain days when your weirdness actually makes me think." She retorted. We could hear C2 grumbling about something about the show. I really don't know why C2 and I watched that show. It was ultimately cliched. It was Friday and as per Friday tradition, we had a thirty minute drive to watch a Hindi movie (any Hindi movie. No preference, did not care for reviews.) and we generally ate a decent dinner before we left for the cinema (around 9 PM). And this show was from 7 to 8. How convenient was that! Anyway, my question had sprung after watching a scene from "Dawson's Creek". C1 looked as if she was still contemplating on answering or she had really screwed up spicy Kerala curry (her specialty).
"MB, you just know", she answered. OK. This kind of an answer really freaks me out. Its hard to know something without actually knowing it, isn't it? What I mean is, if I need to make a coherent reply to a certain question posed, then I should have all the facts with me which I have gained/learned/heard/read/seen over a period of time to give a proper answer. How can anyone just know? Sounds very X-Files-ish. She must have guessed my idiocy in not understanding her answer, so she tried to answer in detail. Keyword here: tried.
"When you are with the person whom you like a lot, its best to give into the intuition and what your gut says rather than over analyzing everything you feel or trying to rationalize whatever you go through." She "rationalize" like a foul word. I had to smile at that.
"Oh no no. I am not like that."
"So you do know a person whom you like a lot." She said this in teenage girlish sing-song voice which made C2 laugh. C2 decided that our conversation was more interesting than the TV show so she settled herself next to microwave, her legs swinging and eating ice-cream. She had two spoons with her just in case C1 and I decided to attack ice-cream. She was (still is!) sweet that way.
"Come on, I simply meant that I don't over analyze everything."
"MB, when X1 (a guy, her friend's friend or whatever. Just 'guy' thing is important in this context and according to lot of people, he had a crush on me apparently. What was he 15?) asked you if you would like to meet him at Stanly's (Its a nice pub that played good alternative rock), you asked him if he was asking you to be his DD - designated driver." She sighed exasperatedly. C1 an C2 exchanged a look that I define as - We know something you don't and we are being smug about it. Its annoying.
"Wasn't he?" I asked them surprised. Well, I am a little dumb when it comes to these kinds of subtlety but I am not that dumb and besides I read people fairly well.
"You are kidding, right MB?" Oh well, being honest is better than weaving a story, any day. Besides, I was really hungry and I was having a new confusion: Was I hungry or was I feeling nausea.
"Yeah, I am. Its better that way you know?"
"In what way?" Seriously why was I getting third degree?
"I just know." I felt like patting my back. C1 and I started at each other for a few minutes and then I did a victory dance. She looked at C2 for support and they were about to begin their interrogation when the bell rang. Saved by the bell. As I walked towards the door to let our friends in, C1 shouted from kitchen.
"This is not over yet." C2 was nodding, standing next to her.
I simply stuck my tongue out.

Labels: Fun, Nostalgia, Time Pass

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This is the reason why I have been busy for the past few days. I bought this filling color by number drawing at local bookstall on a whim. OK, not exactly a whim but kind of a contingency plan to reduce the time I spend on net. The finished picture was quite captivating and I thought this painting should be finished in few hours. I have zero creativity and my naive thinking proved it. It has been two weeks since I have started this and I am not even half through it. It could be because I work on this only during weekends.
Life is something similar to painting colors on a pre-decided numbered drawing of this sort. There are innumerable ways to screw it up; mess up the colors or mix incorrect proportions. If the current status of painting is validated against the standard painting, its easier to fix it. But then again, it requires effort and additional resources do so. I have seen many leaving those mistakes as such in their paintings. For some, it makes them realize about the haste in which they made that mistake or a genuine error in selecting the color.
However if you follow the rules faithfully, then the end result is something that is expected and something definitely worth remembering. It's the kind of predictability that many look for. Even though every human is drawn from different sets of blueprints, people generally refine themselves to mould to a certain standard version thus losing individuality down the drain. Sometimes, I do wonder, isn't a predictable result much better than a risky one?
There is also a possibility that the quality of the painting can be modified choosing colors on our own. In the end, the result may not be as beautiful as it was intended at the start but it would be definitely unique on its own. Even if the kaola bear would look like a monkey (thats what my friend said when she looked at the painting), it still is my own. Its my pride. Its something that I call "Its my creation; my own" (notice the "I-me-myself" syndrome) I feel unnaturally happy when someone tells me that this painting looks nice.
Kinda cool no?

Labels: Hobby, painting, Time Pass

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11 things for which I am thankful for:

1. Mute button on speaker phones. (Listen-get irritated-mute-rant-mood better-mute off-Talk)
2. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Z
3. Hanuman Chaalisa in a tiny book.
4. Concept of blogs.
5. Head phones (for privacy and to drown out noises)
6. Tiny sugar packets that you get in CCD.
7. Espresso.
8. Shia LeBeouf.
9. Criminal Minds (TV show. Watch it people)
10. Nail Polish.
11. Rubik's cube.

I might modify this list in future...

Labels: General, Lists, Time Pass

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Yeah. Sure. Whatever


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