Fri, 31st Jan '03, 9:00 pm::
Woooohooooo! Physics webassign completed :) I've never felt so proud of myself. Hehe... now let's see what I'm gonna do tonight... hmmm...
Fri, 31st Jan '03, 5:55 pm::
By popular demand, here is a zoomed-in pic of my trophy shelf :) I call it my trophy shelf, even though there's no 'trophy' per se on it, because it's the love from everyone that I've 'won' :)
Fri, 31st Jan '03, 5:40 pm::
Weekend's here! So anyways, I was just reading how Ted Turner has stepped down as the vice chairman of AOL, and realized that now I somehow don't hate AOL that much anymore. At least, not since I realized that AOL is one of world's largest non-profit organization. What? You say, it's not a non-profit organization? Well then it's certainly not a for-profit company, after all, it bloody hell lost $99 BILLION last year!
And Lewis Black is my new fav. standup comedian.
Fri, 31st Jan '03, 1:20 pm::
This is pretty funny. And so is this, especially because that's what I'm gonna survive on now! Hehe... just kidding :)
Tue, 28th Jan '03, 9:10 pm::
Thus ends another fine winter day :) Had Physics in the morning and then Computers. I found my buddy Mihir's also in my computer class, so it's gonna be great studying with him. Shhhhh don't tell this to anyone, but I am sooooo jealous of Mihir. Not because he's 6 foot tall, looks like a Bollywood male-model, or because he's a preceptor (= free living on campus) and a TA (= teaches CS 112 course), but simply because he has a GPA of perfect 4.0 after 95 credits! I've about 81 credits and have a GPA of 3.963 :( Urghh! I'm sooo jealous (and shallow!) Hehe...
Anyways, after computer class, I hopped along to my work and nothing great happened there. But after work, I decided to go to this special seminar on Nuclear Physics and before you jump to conclusions, nuclear physicists don't make 'weapons of mass-destruction.' Nuclear Physics simply deals with the study of small lil particles like atoms, protons, electrons, mesons, muons, photons, gluons, bosons, positrons, and a hell lot of other 'ons. Of course there's also neutrinos, positrinos, higginos, and a lot of 'nos too :) Part of the reason why I attended the lecture was well, the pamphlet for the seminar: "Don't go to those Greek Frats & Sororities like Alpha Delta Gamma Phi Kappa Zeta! Come to the Physics seminar and actualy learn what these particles do. Free Pizza + Soda." Yeah, so first, the pamphlet was kinda catchy, and second, FREE FOOD! Hehehehe. I had 3 slices :) yummmmm and lots of coke. Hehe.
The lecture was indeed very interesting. Lately, I've been reading a lot of theoritical Physics material (stuff on space/time/dimensions/universe) and the Prof. answered a lot of my questions. It was interesting to see how much he personally believed in Supersymmetry theory and despised the String theory. Also he talked in quite depth about the future projects at CERN, like LHC and CMS. Ah real interesting stuff if well, you like all this stuff. My interest in all this, is of course, still from the computerization point-of-view.
Here's why I am interested in particle Physics - it needs The Grid to succeed. What's the grid? Well you know how the Internet has connected millions of computers to exchange information; now just imagine if instead of download html files and images, you could literally download processor time and speed - that is, if you could use the whole Internet (consisting of millions and millions of computers), as if it was your own personal mega-super computer! That is what the grid is intended to do: make a giant supercomputer by using the raw processing power of smaller, cheaper computers, in such a way that anyone (ok not EVERYONE, but the scientists) can tap into the sheer speed and perform trillions of calculations per second. Ok so why does CERN need the Grid? Simply because every time there is a particle-collision inside the particle accelerators at CERN (that could be anywhere from 1 to 40 million times a second), gigabytes & gigabytes of data is generated, and it needs to be stored, processed, and analyzed before the physicists can make any new scientific theories. Physics, from the good old days of Archimedes running naked in the streets in Greece for discovering bouyancy and Newton observing falling apples, has progressed to a highly industrial science, where each experiment can literally take months and months of preparations and cost billions of dollars. However, research as such is crucial, not just because we're humans and humans love to explore, but more so, to understand how the Universe works from the largest scales (galaxies, stars, planets) to the tiniest scale (atoms, elementary particles, quarks). And with this understanding, we will someday be able to find a cure for every form of cancer, make tiny (of molecular size) robots that can go inside the arteries and unclog clots in the heart, and may be device means to fly off into the space at the speed of light. Ah who knows!
Ok I sounded a bit too much like a Physicist there! Hehe. Well what can I say... I love science :) Esp. the ending where computers come in, solve all the problems, fight with the villians, and take home the princess :) Oh wait... wrong 'blog! Haha...
Anyways, it's late and I got an early class (in my dictionary, 10 am is EARLY). G'nite!
Mon, 27th Jan '03, 9:00 pm::
And I have now clean clothes again!!! Laundry done, me happy. It took me almost two hours, but since I had a lot of reading to do, the time wasn't wasted. Ok lots of website work to do. Enuf for now.
Mon, 27th Jan '03, 3:25 pm::
Had physics all morning. At least Michele's in my lab with me, so it's all good. Hadn't seen her for a while now. I have a 4:10-5:50 pm class, so I got like half an hour to chill. It's pretty pretty cold out, so I'm avoiding any form of physical activity. Hehe. But I gotta do my laundry tonight and maybe go to gym later. I'm quite sleepy right now... I don't know why though, I had enuf sleep. Hmm...
Sun, 26th Jan '03, 11:05 pm::
What a sweet day. I woke up, did a little website work, created some Excel files for keeping accounts for Chime, and then took a shower. Went back home, watched Superbowl with the family :) Glad the Buccaneers won. Also took some pics of the new paintings around the house (will put them up soon). Now I'm back, watching one of the greatest movies ever: My Fair Lady. Pretty soon I'll go to bed, and the week will start all over again :) Can you believe I have three Physics classes and one Math class! Urgh...
Lyrics for the night:
- "Wouldn't it be Loverly" - My Fair Lady
All I want is a room somewhere;
Far away from the cold night air.
With one enormous chair;
oh wouldn't it be loverly?
Lots of choc'late for me to eat;
Lots of coal makin' lots of heat;
Warm face, warm hands, farm feet,
oh wouldn't it be loverly?
Oh, so loverly sittin' abso-bloomin'lutely still!
I would never budge 'till Spring crep over me winder sill.
Someone's head restin' on my knee;
warm and tender as he can be,
Who takes good care of me;
oh wouldn't it be loverly?
Now that I think about it, I already have the room... It's already loverly :) Oh! And it snowed today!
Sat, 25th Jan '03, 2:20 am::
Happy Republic Day all my Indian folks! I am having sooooo much fun working and listening to the best Indian songs :) Ya, I know it's past 2am and I'm still awake. Actually last few days I've been really really busy. I'm working on two sites @ the moment: Golden Tan and Derm Renew. I've got the main page done and need material from the clients to fill in the site. I think finally my sites are looking as hi-q as one of those NYC media/web-design firms. Hehe.
Anyways, it's been a loooong time since I 'blogged. So what have I been doing? Well all sorts of things, from doing laundry, cooking Indian food (or in other words, microwaving pre-cooked food in a bowl), reading some really good books, like Original Bliss by A. L. Kennedy, making websites, doing homework, cleaning my room, and just chillin' and sleeping too much. Life's good. The semester's starting up and by next week, I'll be knee-deep in puddles of studies. I'm taking a Computer class, a Math class, one Economics class, Physics II, and an honors class: Trauma in Literature. For my Trauma class, I'll have to read TEN books in this semester. Sure, this seems like no biggie (since they're mostly 200-300 page novels), but most of these books deal with, well obviously, trauma, depression, tragedies etc. I didn't really want to take this course, however, since I want to graduate by May 2004, I had to finish my honors requirements this semester, and this is the only class I can take (other than Health studies, which deals with Biology, and I'm not interested in that either). Well, I attended the first Trauma Lit. class on Wednesday and from what it seems, it's not that bad. However there'll be a lot of papers to write and a lot of work to do. Urgh.
Rest, life's good. I like the feeling of waking up @ 9:15 am, showering, and being in class by 9:50 am :) Ah the joys of being on campus.
Song for the night: "Aasaman Ke Paar" - Shankar Mahadevan - Rockford
Tue, 21st Jan '03, 9:25 pm::
What a day... it was soooo relaxing. I woke up @ 8:30, attended Physics & Computer class, went to work, but since the back-end server was down, came back home, slept for 2-3 hours, went to the gym, had the world's WORST chinese food (veg. lo mein @ Schezwan Express), and swore I'll NEVER EVER eat there again. Hehe. And here I am, watching American Idol 2 on TV.
American Idol is like a star-search for pop singers, and guess what, my buddy Danny from Computer Architecture made it to Hollywood! He's one of the best old-school assembly programmers I know and I felt soooo very proud to see him on TV :) Let's see what happens next week...
Anyways, I'm gonna munch on some Cinnamon Toast Crunch right now till I'm tired and then go to bed. Got LOTS of classes tomorrow!
Tue, 21st Jan '03, 9:05 am::
First day of college!!! Yay!!! Off to Physics II lecture. Ya ya, I know I didn't sound so happy during my Physics I lectures last semester, but it's just cuz it's the first day of classes today :) I got Physics and Computers (Design & Analysis somethin')...
Sun, 19th Jan '03, 11:55 pm::
I'm feeling extremely creative right now. I feel like I wanna do something neat, like write a poem, story, or just plain express myself through my 'blog. Ok maybe not write a long 'blog, but I don't feel like going to bed, I am tired of laughing and crying in front of TV, and it's midnight, so I can't just go out on the road (at least not till college starts). So what can I do right now. I dunno. I'm gonna go figure out that right now. G'nite!
Sun, 19th Jan '03, 11:50 pm::
Song for the night: "That's Amore" - Dean Martin
Sun, 19th Jan '03, 11:15 pm::
So I surfed into this site randomly and saw some really cool 3d-stereogram like images. It's not too difficult to take 3d pictures it turns out. Check out the following pictures with crossed/squinted eyes. Hehe. It's my cell phone in awezzzome 3d :)
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| Picture 1 | Picture 2 |
Sun, 19th Jan '03, 4:35 pm::
After a long time, I finally added a simplified captioning feature to my Photo Gallery. And last night, I took pictures of my new room and also put up pictures from my vacation to Utah :) So go ahead and check it out. I still have to write the captions for most of the pics, but oh well, everytime I'm bored, I'll write a few.
Sun, 19th Jan '03, 1:40 pm::
Just imagine if such Icon Wars happened on your desktop while you were away!
Sat, 18th Jan '03, 8:55 pm::
I'm soooooo full. Had wonderful dinner tonight - Chilly paneer, Chinese spring rolls, Manchurian, Pizza, and lots of sweets. I went home and we all cooked (Aunt, Uncle, Sneh, & Sagar) and then set up my Uncle's computer. Then Sneh & Sagar came back to check out my room. It looked like they both liked it :) May be in a few weeks, I'll take them for a fun night out in New Brunswick. Hehe.
Anyways, today I bought a lot of stuff from WalMart with my friend Syed. Finally my room is all set and ready. I got shelves, drawers, desk, chair, side-tables all set :) Prolly gonna take a few pics soon.
Sat, 18th Jan '03, 2:55 pm::
Haven't 'blogged well lately. Been busy with some stuff. College starts on Tuesday and so things will get interesting after that :) Monday's a holiday. And right now I'm gonna take a shower and go home for some good Chinese food that my aunt's preparing :)
Wed, 15th Jan '03, 1:20 am::
Before I head off to bed, I just saw something really funny about Rutgers on Fark. Check out this picture from the Rutgers Timeline website. Simply hilarious. And best of all, check out what the people of Fark are doing to the picture. Hehe...
Wed, 15th Jan '03, 12:15 am::
It's my sister's birthday!!!! Happy Birthday Bena!!!!!!!!! I miss you sooooooo much.
Tue, 14th Jan '03, 9:15 pm::
Real busy with work today. Did find some time to watch Law & Order. Back to work now.
Sun, 12th Jan '03, 7:15 pm::
Guess where I'm writing this 'blog from??? Yup! 41 Mine Street! My new home... I just hooked up my computer but still have a lot of other organizing to do. Also gotta go back home and do a few other things before I finally settle here. Ok, I'm off now...
Sun, 12th Jan '03, 1:25 am::
My new room is ready for me now. The bed's made, the desk & chair are all set, the closet's empty - now all I have to do is move my PC, clothes, and personal stuff tomorrow. I'm really tired right now, so I'm off to bed. G'nite world.
Fri, 10th Jan '03, 1:55 pm::
Good news: I got the keys to my new house + room :) I feel all happy right now. I'm @ work @ the moment. Anyways, I was just talking to my friend Megan on AIM, and we just started exchanging cute URLs. I sent her the complete list of cast of Simpsons and she sent me some awesome Homer: Quotes. Come on, what's better than reading this wonderful quote by Homer: "I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman!" Hehe. It's my and Meg's fav. quote :) Oh yeah did I mention, she's a real cutie? Don't be fooled by that spaced-out look, she's a cartographer for an environment research firm!
Thu, 9th Jan '03, 10:55 pm::
Shooooopiiiiiiingggggggggg!!!! Well I just returned from WalMart and I bought a ton of stuff! First of all, this cool folding Futon bed + this awesome fierce animal bed in a bag (comforter, bedsheet, pillow cases etc.). And then I bought lots of small random stuff like a big pillow, bottle of new Xtreme hair gel, air freshner, paper plates, 14 pairs of socks (reminds me of my hostel days), pair of toothbrush, Apricot face scrub, waste basket, two pairs of boxers, and a bottle of Fantastic cleaner. So yeah, I practically bought everything I'd probably need during the first few days of living alone. Of course, this list's gonna get longer and longer and longer as time goes by. Ahhhh the joys of living by yourself. Hehe.
What I didn't buy yet, was food stuff and laundry stuff. Basically because I don't know much about either and will have to take my aunt's advice on it. Tomorrow, if there's time, I'll go and start moving all this stuff to my new room. I gotta assemble my new bed and set up the sheets etc. Also I gotta vacuum my old and new rooms both (since both are pretty pretty dirty right now, esp. my new room... after all college students live there!) Anyways, it's time for me to hit the sack, since I got work early tomorrow. G'nite world :)
Thu, 9th Jan '03, 1:00 am::
Guess who is 'Someone'? I'll post the answer tomorrow after everybody sends me their guesses! Hehe...
- Chime 1998: what do you want me to do?
- 'Someone': just give me my grand kids and you can go to hell.
And it's time to go to bed when Spin City ends and M*A*S*H starts. G'nite world!
Wed, 8th Jan '03, 11:15 am::
Still sick with cold. My head hurts a lot too. Back to work.
Tue, 7th Jan '03, 4:00 pm::
Only in my life do wierd unexpected things happen so often. This morning started out real bad with me sulking in pain, and right now I'm soooooo excited because well, I JUST GOT A HOUSE!!!!!!!! Actually more like a room in a house, but still, I finally found a great place! It's just sooooo damn close to everything, it's awesome. Check out the extremely arduous and lengthy path I have to take to go from my room to my office (psssssst! hint for the dim: it's really not that long). Hehe. It's about a minute walk and totally in the center of College Av. The rent is bearable and the people in the house seem interesting.
One catch though, it's a double room, and so I'll have to share it with someone. But the good thing is, I get to chose my roommate. Also I get the bigger closet, better bed, and all the gooder stuff. Teehee...
In short, I'm definitely moving out! I might start bringing my stuff over this weekend, or even on Friday, who knows...
Now back to work :)
Tue, 7th Jan '03, 10:00 am::
I have a bad cold and my head hurts. I want to go to bed. Instead, I will be working all day/night. Argh.
Mon, 6th Jan '03, 2:10 pm::
Back in the good old Joisey! Had a pretty tough flight. However I met a lot of interesting people, three to be precise. First, from Salt Lake City to Cincinnati, this 26yr old cutey, Amy, who does some HR management stuff, sat next to me. I had waaay too much fun flirting w/ her ;) Hehe. And we saw the movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding on the plane together and talked 'bout stuff a lot. For some weird reason, I often get seated next to interesting people, be it plane, train, or just college buses. Then Joe, a Princeton University frosh was on the flight from Cincinnati to Newark next to me. We got started talking and I found out that he's a good old hard working student from Kentucky who got 1520 in SATs!
However, due to bad weather conditions in Newark, that flight got cancelled and I had to take the next flight to Newark. My new neighbor was 60+ yr old Daun, an experienced pilot with the coolest gizmos ever. He had a air-navigation GPS system (cost $1000+), Bose noise-cancellation headphones, awesome Mp3 players everything! We talked all the way non-stop and trust me, I learnt a great deal about planes, flight-patterns, and the whole air-traffic control system.
Then I came home, had some leftover pizza, went to bed, woke up, and here I am :) Life's back to normal. I'm glad.
Sun, 5th Jan '03, 2:00 am::
I had another great day today. Woke up late, went to see Gangs of New York. Pretty good movie; too much blood 'n gore though, so it's not for the easily offended. Then went with my new good friend Peter for dinner @ Macaroni Grill and then off to Sky Bar with Purvi 'n her friends. In short, a fun-filled day. Too bad it's my last day in Utah. Going back to Jersey tomorrow. Actually I can't wait to get back to Jersey too. I miss it too much already...
Fri, 3rd Jan '03, 6:00 pm::
Haven't 'blogged in two days now. Yesterday, we went to Alta Ski Area, where only skiers are allowed - no snowboarders! Phew. Snowboarders usually interfere with skiers and go in weird random ways instead of predictable S-curved ski paths. Anyways, going down the slopes of Alta was probably the best 6 hours of my life ever. It was soooooo amazing I can't even explain. There was this one part right before I reached the bottom, where I was skiing down at approximately 30 mph (50km/hour)! My legs were shaking so hard I felt like I needed knee-suspensions just to hold myself steady. Hehe. And best of all, I went on the Black Diamond tracks with Purvi & her friend Alan. I fell a couple of times on the soft powdery snow (and it didn't hurt a bit) but I think I glided through most of the track pretty smoothly. Come on, Blue Squares & Black Diamonds on the third day of skiing? That's almost a World Record! I have a new (and expensive) hobby now and looks like I'm gonna return here every winter :) Let's hope at least.
Anyways, now I gotta wait a whole year till I can ski again :( But hey, it'll be totally worth it. We're not gonna go ski anymore in the next two days (got lotsa other exciting stuff to do). So anyways, after skiing yesterday, we got home, had a nice dinner, and then went to Salt Lake City Cafe and just chilled with Purvi's old high-school friends till 12 midnight. Then we rented a funny movie: Super Troopers from Blockbuster and watched it. The night before we had rented Ali. Ali's an ok movie, nothing remarkable. So that's like 4 movies already! Oh and yesterday I finally met Priya's friend Leah after talking to her online for over 6 months now :)
I woke up this 'morning' @ 12:30 pm and showered. Then we all went to a great Pizza place and I had the Five-cheese Tomato Pizza. Best. Pizza. Ever. After that we went shopping and I bought one nice expensive sweater-type t-shirt from J-Crew which looks kinda like this, but with stripes (I'm actually wearing it right now as we speak, since we're going out soon). And then we went to Barnes & Nobles and I bought myself three science-related books. Two of them are about the future of science and what the world famous scientists expect to happen in the next 100 years. And the third book consists of short anecdotes in the lives of famous scientists. All cool stuff that I love!
And now we're going to some famous Chinese restaurant within a few minutes. While I love Chinese food, the soy sauce messes up with my blood pressure often (because it is extremely high in the salt content). So I think I'll stick to noodles and low-soy items. All in all, this is quite possibly one of the best vacations ever. No tension, no work, no pending websites to finish, no big bills to pay except the expensive stuff I bought today! My shopping budget was exactly $100 and I spent exactly $99 today. So I have one more buck to spend on anything I want :) But then you can't get anything these days with a buck (other than a 20-minute phone call).
Oh and I got two more clients. That makes it a total of six clients waiting in line = 5 to 6 months of continuous business = good stuff :) In a weird sort of way, I can't wait to go back to Jersey and start working on these sites, especially since I haven't designed a new site in over a month now and I'm getting impatient. I want to make some really awesome sites now, kinda like Brighton.
Ok, gotta leave now. Chinese food is calling me. Hehe.
Wed, 1st Jan '03, 7:05 pm::
I LOVE SKIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!! Oh my God! I had sooooooooo much fun today skiing (again @ Brighton). And here's a little secret for you: I AM STUPID! Oh yes oh I am. Guess what! I made the stupid mistake of asking someone (who said he did not speak English) where the Green Circle (easy-level) slopes were. So I followed in the direction he pointed and I ended up on the extremely steep Black Diamond course (hardest-level). Now the interesting thing about skiing is that there is only one way and that is down! It would have been impossible for me to go back to the place I started from. So scared and petrified as I was, I just took a plunge and skied down the slopes. But guess what? I didn't fall or slip or break a leg or anything! I literally skied down the first 1000 feet without stopping or relaxing or falling :)
For a second, it felt like I owned the mountains. Of course, in the next 500 feet down I fell twice and managed to get snow in all my clothing. Hehe. But it was just sooooooo much fun. And of course, being 'intelligentically' stupid as I am, I went on the same Black Diamond course 5 more times and fell 6-7 more times (after all, this was my 2nd day!). Overall, I think I can tackle most ski slopes now. Unless they are Double Blacks or something, I can manage to rhythmically shake my hips and glide my way down ;) Hehe.
To see how far up the mountain I went, see this map of the slopes. I took the Crest Express and the Snake Creek Express (the two highest trails)
Wed, 1st Jan '03, 8:30 am::
Off to the slopes to ski again! And it's gonna snow again today... Yay!
Wed, 1st Jan '03, 2:45 am::
Happy New Year!!! I had a great time tonight roaming around in downtown Salt Lake City. We went to shows, dance performances, improv comedy, and some pretty good fireworks :) I'm extremely tired and about to hit the sack.
So good night and hope your new year is awesome!