Fri, 28th Feb '03, 11:55 pm::
So is this clock analog or digital?
Fri, 28th Feb '03, 1:20 pm::
It's already the last day of February... I'm quite sleepy right now since I spent all last night doing my Econ lab. No plans for tonight... let's see what happens :)
Thu, 27th Feb '03, 5:20 pm::
Quote for the day: "If you had seen us talking... We were like two grade-schoolers in front of a chimpanzee cage..."
Anyways, this just scared the hell outta me. I just got a call on my cell phone from 'Unknown' and someone played the song: "I just called to say I love you..." by Stevie Wonder! I don't know who it was, or whether it was a prank by someone I know, or just a random call, but it did make me smile a bit. Hehe... And so...
Song for the day: "I just called to say..." - Steview Wonder
Wed, 26th Feb '03, 1:15 pm::
Song for the day: "Bring me to Life" - Evanescence
Wed, 26th Feb '03, 12:20 pm::
I'm very happy @ the moment. I can't tell you why, but just know that I'm really really happy right now... I dunno for how long I'm gonna stay this happy, but well it's good while it lasts :)
Wed, 26th Feb '03, 12:50 am::
Today (actually yesterday, since I'm already 50 mins past midnight), was a good day :) I had a decent Physics exam, great time @ work (as usual), dinner with Kathleen, chilled with Michele at SERC, and went to see Lewis Black's standup comedy show on campus with my buddy Arthur. Just got home, did a little work, and about to head to bed. I still have to write a paper for a class, but I guess I'll make some time tomorrow. Otherwise I'm screwed.
Lewis Black... he said some real interesting things. Of course, the whole two hours were tummy-turning hilarious, but there was some stuff he said which was serious. Like he said, these college years, are the best in our lives. That's it, after college, we're all pretty much screwed, so we better make the best of our years here! Hmmm, so is this it huh? This is the best part of my life and things are just gonna get worse from here onwards? Well, I'm not saying things are bad right now, but I'm sure as hell hoping better things happen later. At least a car, decent place to live, some love in life? Hmmm... makes you wonder if being a single broke college kid with freedom but no wheels is better than being a rich entrepreneur with a flashy car and lovely wife... Makes you think... Hehe... I talk too much. Time to head to bed.
Tue, 25th Feb '03, 3:20 pm::
Oh where am I? I dunno. Been real busy this week with studies. Had Physics exam this morning. It went ok, nothing great. Math quiz yesterday was seriously bad. Tomorrow I have homework + process log due. Gotta start working on Econ lab soon. Ahh sooooo much to do. Anyways, taking a nice break tonight - Kath taking me to dinner and then going to a standup comedy show: Lewis Black Live in Rutgers! Yup! He's the new angry-old man, after George Carlin kinda mellowed down. No matter how much I curse Rutgers all the time, sometimes they do bring in great people :)
Take my Professor for 'Trauma and Literature' class, Dr. Martin J. Gliserman. He used to be the Editor-in-Chief of the American Imago Journal that publishes articles on psychoanalysis in contemporary cultural, literary, & social hisory. His class is probably the most intereting class I've ever taken (although I kinda get bogged down by the 10 novels I have to read during this semester). It's just amazing how much experience he has, from writings of Freud to history of literature, he pretty knows everything :) Yes, I know I sound like a teacher's pet right now, but I'm just being honest. He's indeed one of the best teachers I've ever had :)
Ok back to work!
Sun, 23rd Feb '03, 11:30 pm::
Just saw the Grammys on CBS. Norah Jones - step-daughter of Pt. Ravi Shankar, won EVERY top Grammy - Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal, Best Pop Vocal! Wow! Solid proof that musical talent is genetic :)
Sun, 23rd Feb '03, 4:25 pm::
I don't even know what day it is! Been studyin' and workin' hard. Got exams, quizzes, labs, process logs, research papers, and Eviews labs due all this week! Gonna go study math tonight w/ a new friend at the Student Center :)
Fri, 21st Feb '03, 3:40 am::
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I feel creative. Most of the times I control it and keep sleeping. Sometime, it controls me, and I write a poem. I just wrote: Wanted, I...
Thu, 20th Feb '03, 3:30 pm::
Tamara (the lady who works in same dept. as me) totally amazed me today by creating this awesome flash animation. It's called Square Dance. What really made me feel special was that she email it out to everyone and said: "Ok, thanks to Chirag, the Flash Professor, I have made my first movie." If you've forgotten who Tamara is, well then she's the sweetie who made me the best b'day card ever - Strong Bad greeting! We got some talent here girl!
Thu, 20th Feb '03, 1:25 pm::
Hmm. So the free lunch thing didn't really work out! Manzinder was stuck in classes and said she'll take me for a nice dinner on Monday or Tuesday. Oh no probs :)
Anyways, so I was just working and talking to Stacy online and she decided to drop by the coffee shop next to my office. So I had a nice long coffee break/lunch with her instead, and just talked about things... It's all good :) And she challenged me to a vodka-shot contest! Well I'm gonna show her what Indians are made of soon! Not tonight (cuz I gotta go home) but def. sometime soon... Hehe.
PS: Ya, living on campus is actually fun. You get to hang out w/ people and have fun!
Thu, 20th Feb '03, 10:50 am::
At work right now. Just waitin' for a friend to come pick me up for free lunch :) Ya ya! I know you think all I care about is free food... Well... you're not entirely wrong. I needed a new hobby and I think that's a good enough hobby - get free food somehow! Sure, I can go and pay by myself all the time, but what's the fun in that! It's more fun when girls take you out to lunch/dinner and pay for you! LOL. Ok ok just kiddin'. I'm not such a moocher all the time. Hehe... Only on days that begin with T, S, W, M, and F.
Wed, 19th Feb '03, 9:10 am::
I was wondering yesterday if the "Just 'bout a year ago" feature would make me smile ever. Well today it did :) Ahhhhh good times.
Wed, 19th Feb '03, 9:05 am::
Beautiful snow-filled day outside :) Busy day today. Back by 10pm prolly.
Song for the day: "Ab Ke Saawan" - Shubha Mudgal
Tue, 18th Feb '03, 2:50 am::
I just read last year's blog (Feb 17, 2002) below and my my I have changed so much! I sleep more than enough these days :) Last night I went to bed at 5am and I woke up at 3pm! I eat a lot too. Hehe. I think it is probably just stress that turns me into a robot at certain times of the year (esp. during exam weeks). Glad to say I'm living large at the moment and totally enjoying life.
Tue, 18th Feb '03, 2:40 am::
Guess what I just added to my 'blog? Yup, just look down below - "Just 'bout a year ago..." entry. That means, everyday it'll show what I wrote last year. For the first time I think, I will actually wanna read my 'blog too! Just to see what the hell I was doing last year this time. Hehe.
Since there's no school tomorrow again, I'll prolly do some work and read a lot. Let's see how it goes.
Tue, 18th Feb '03, 1:35 am::
I just saw Chicago - The movie. What a movie! It's like Moulin Rouge in the prisons and courtrooms! While I'm no paid movie critic, I thoroughly loved this movie and give it a 9 outta 10, especially for the lyrics and superb acting by Rene Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones Douglas (!) and Richard Gere. Make sure you see this movie if you can :)
Song for the night: "Mr. Cellophane" - Chicago
Mon, 17th Feb '03, 11:00 pm::
I'm still here! It's been snowing soooo hard here that classes have been cancelled for two days - Monday and Tuesday. It's a 4 days weekend! I've been settling in with my new roomie Mike and things are pretty cool. He's VERY VERY different from me and so it's kinda weird adjusting, but he's cool with everything I say, so it's all good :) I'm hoping to go to bed soon... Tomorrow I might go and play in the snow outside :)
Sat, 15th Feb '03, 1:00 pm::
Opera Software, the developer of one of the smallest and fastest web browsers in the world, just told Microsoft to shove it, via their latest press release, because Microsoft's MSN portal purposely alienates the Opera browser and messes up the browsing. And here's a technical explanation of what exactly Microsoft's doing (hint: something very unethical).
Thu, 13th Feb '03, 2:50 pm::
So the big news is I just got a roommate. His name's Mike and he's gonna move in this weekend. That means I save $100+ a month! Phew... If he hadn't moved in, my rent would have gone up so much that I don't think I could afford it. Anyways, gotta get back to work now.
Mon, 10th Feb '03, 9:50 pm::
Today is a very special day. Guess what? Sneh drove me back to my room just now! Yups! The 13 year old girl I met just 2.5 yrs ago is now driving me back to my house! And she drives pretty decent too. That has to be a special occasion. Just like my sister drove me around in Calcutta last summer :) She drove pretty good too (except I teased her a lot more. hehe)
Mon, 10th Feb '03, 7:20 pm::
Damn! Just got an email from Rutgers saying I need my passport tomorrow for some workshop thingy. So I instantly have to go home and get all the stuff! Urghhhhh! I don't have the time! Damn damn damn! I have soooo much work and studies! Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Mon, 10th Feb '03, 3:45 pm::
Here's to another great free lunch @ the Busch dining hall with Michele! Thx girl :) Well you see, me and her have Physics lab together on Monday (we're lab partners) and since we always finish our lab before everyone else in the class, we leave early and she takes me lunchin' @ the dining hall. She's got a 50 meals per semester plan, and since she doesn't eat @ the dining hall everyday, rather than waste 50 unused meals, she feeds me :) I love free food! Hehe. Sure... it's not that expensive and I can probably get my own meal plan (actually, it IS kinda expensive), but the thing is, I don't get hungry during the normal dining hall hours. I am hungriest after 10pm in the night, and they close at 8pm. So it's pretty much useless for me. However, free lunches... aha... I'm ALWAYS hungry for them :) Ya ya, I'll prolly have to make it upto the girl some way or another. I know she loves Taco Bell, so let's see...Hehe...
Anyways, tonight some guy's gonna come to see my room and decide if he wants to move in or not. If he does, then I'll be sharing my room with him till May-end and it'll save me (and the other 9 people in our house) like $65 a month! However, it'll also mean I lose some of my privacy. But oh well... let's see how it goes...
I got a class @ 4:30pm, then going to my room. Will do some computer science homework, setup two websites, and if I have time, work on Chime Away! v2.0 :) Yup, there's a v2.0 coming soon, basically cuz everyone wants to cycle their own away messages. So ya, I'm gonna try my best to finish it asap. You know what I love about my life @ the moment? I'm not bored. There's always some work I can do (and hopefully it's something I like).
And if you're reading this Vishal... you rock dude! And I miss you and Chetan - the two best friends I will ever have. And if you're reading this dear Dad... u da bomb pops! And if you're reading this grandpa 'n ma... I love you... And if you're reading this mom and sis... you are the two loveliest women on the planet and I love you both... And if you're reading this Niki, Keval, Sneh, Sagar, Chris, Megan, Vicky, Mich., Kath, Art, Manzinder, Syed, Steph, Aript, Ritesh, Vu, Steve, Taylor and whomever else I forget, you have made a big difference in my life, even if in small gestures of friendship; you guys have certainly made my life worth living and it is because of you guys that I look forward to waking up everyday (and those stupid 10am classes). And if you're reading this Jackie... yes I know I just mutilated and slaughtered the good ol' English language, but you know what, you inspire me and you better keep writing. And if you're reading this Jenny... you already know how much you mean to me, and just to annoy you even more, I won't write explicitly why you're the coolest chica I know.
There! Now I sound just like a high-school girl on her sweet-sixteen birthday! Hehe... Ok class now - it's already 4:25!
Mon, 10th Feb '03, 12:35 am::
Ya so who said money can't buy happiness? I mean come on... This Lexmark X75 printer/scanner/copier combo, Creative Inspire 4.1 surround sound system with subwoofer and remote, and this cute little keyboard certainly make me happy from deep within! Yup, just went to WalMart with my buddy Arthur and bought these goodies for about $200 total. Ya ya... that's a lotta money, but hey, a geek needs his gadgets!
And before I go, look what I found: Windows 1.0! What a long history... Hehe. Ok time to go sleepy... G'nite world!
Sun, 9th Feb '03, 4:50 pm::
And I have invented clean clothes once again! I wonder after how many days do I do my laundry. Lemme check up my old 'blogs... Ok 'twas Jan 27. That's almost two weeks... not bad :) Only wash my clothes two times a month! But do I wear any clothes 2nd time? Hell no! I just have too many clothes :) Enough to last me for 20-25 days I think. So I wear all of them one after another and that way I cycle all my clothes and don't bother with laundry for weeks. Perfect plan!
Anyways, I think I'm too clean, neat, and organized to call myself a real college student! There's 6-7 rooms in the house and mine is the only room in which you can actually see the carpet. In every other room, there's clothes, papers, books, and god knows what else on the floor, just strewed around. I tried doing that in the first week I was here and hated it! I just can't get dirty anymore. LOL.
So I was supposed to go home tonight but plans changed. So now I have a few hours to do anything I want! Or more realistically, work and study. Cya world!
Sat, 8th Feb '03, 3:35 pm::
There is a certain type of pleasure that comes from writing good software. It's very different from the excitement of a victory. It's unlike the ecstacy of finishing a one-mile run. It's quite different for the delights of everyday life. It is more of a calm, steady flow of satisfaction and confidence, that slowly and slowly makes you happier and happier. That's exactly what's happening to me right now.
Last night, I wrote Chime Away! - it is a tiny program that automatically downloads and sets new away messages for Aim every minute. You can select messages from tons of categories like Food, School, Shower, Sleep, and Work etc. Eventually there'll be 50-100 categories to choose from, and maybe over 5000 away messages! Took me about 10-12 hours altogether to write the client software, create the server database, write the server scripts etc. But now, I'm done :) It's a pretty sweet software and I'm proud of it.
I realize that my best programming work comes only when I'm programming non-stop and yesterday I had some time to kill. I still have a few larger programs to complete (Ajooba, Glass2k etc.) but I don't care. Those progs are gonna take a while to complete. Prolly 10-12 days of non-stop programming each. And I still have a lot of websites to complete. I woke up @ 11am even though I went to bed @ 4! Dammit, I just can't sleep during the weekends. Actually I woke up because I was really excited about Chime Away! and wanted to complete it. Hopefully it's all done now. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Ahhhhhh life is good. I love programming and web-designing, and finally after 22 years, I can do as much of it as I want. Sure... my family's gonna be all scared now thinking I'll turn into a loner or something. Well don't worry. I work hard when I have to and I'll party hard when I'm tired of work :) Though this week, no parties. Lotsa work and some good reading time. I gotta finish the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison; like 70 pages left. And then I'll start reading another novel: A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee.
Life isn't very exciting at the moment. There are no *hot* chics that I have a crush on. But I feel so calm right now, that I don't really care. My mind's at peace and that's what matters... I think my brain loves programming. Hehe.
Fri, 7th Feb '03, 2:30 pm::
I realize that the snow outside looks so pretty because of two main reasons: (a) I don't have to shovel and (b) I don't have to drive. Otherwise it's just white sh*t. LOL.
Fri, 7th Feb '03, 2:20 pm::
If you have AIM running right now, click here for a surprise :)
Fri, 7th Feb '03, 1:50 pm::
Ok I had just written a LOOOONG 'blog and the browser crashed :( Lemme see how well I remember my 1:20 pm entry...
Fri, 7th Feb '03, 1:20 pm::
What a lovely day! It's snowing outside! I woke up this morning I find almost a foot of snow! (In reality it was more like 6-7 inches, but still...) I look outta my window and all I could see was pretty white stuff all over the houses and road. All the schools in New Jersey have cancelled classes. Of course Rutgers didn't. As usual.
Anyways, I just got my paycheck for January! Yay!!! I'm so happy! Now I'll finally be able to pay back all the money to Rutgers *sarcasm*. Yeah yeah, something's wrong here. I work all of January and I get some money. Then I pay back all that so that I can do more hard studies in the next 4 months. And why exactly does this make me happy? I dunno. Something's wrong with my brain. Hehe.
Okies, so I was checking the away messages of people on my Aim buddy list. Gotta admit, my friends 'n family has some of the funniest away messages ever. Some make sense, most don't, but all have a kind of humor, very typical to their true personality:
- "you are like santa claus on prozac in disneyland getting laid."
Okaaay! I'm already feeling better about myself. - "the ocean is big and its blue, i just wanna sink to the bottom with you"
Those were Jack's famous last words before Rose kicked him off the floating piece of wood. - "i think i should have seriously been born a blonde....the things ive done this week....unbelievable :-P"
Would ya believe she's Indian? - "lalala la la , lalala la la , lalala la la la la la la"
Oooo! Somebody's happy...
God I love my friends... And I miss the ones not here with me today... Dammit! I wanna go back to Calcutta...
Grief & FarkWed, 5th Feb '03, 2:10 pm::
I have a few mins to talk about this now. Wanted to speak about it since I woke up. Yesterday, Cliff Wilson died in a car crash. I wouldn't have felt one bit of sympathy had he not been a farker - member of the Fark virtual community. I woke up this morning and read on the front-page of Fark: [sad] "Farker Kilipo4 dies in car accident" and saw the other farkers had posted over 200 comments. I skimmed the article and went to check out the comments section but after reading just the first few, I gave up.
All I could read were comments like: "This is sad. Sorry to hear it and I hope he's in a better place now. My sympathy to his family." I could have posted my sympathies to his family too. But for some reason, I did not feel like becoming a part of the grief. And I tried to ignore it. But it's kinda impossible to ignore the death of a member of a community about which you care so much. Most people who don't spend more than an hour a day online, will never realize how important these virtual communities are to the people who're online 8 hours a day. For me, a website like Fark is more than a bunch of html links and images. It is a congregation of like-minded people, people who don't live down my road, but still say 'hi' to me when I post an interesting comment.
And from Fark's grief, started this thread on another popular discussion site: Meta Filter. What moved me most, and prompted me to write this 'blog entry, was this:
- What defines when we grieve? It's an odd question, but it's kind of relevant. 7 people die on a shuttle, and a nation grieves. 40 people die on a train and very few people notice. A girl dies in the playground and no one cares. A 'farker' who appears to have posted just twice dies, and an entire site seems to go into mourning. What controls our community and our sphere of mourning?
Yes, what defines when we grieve? Sometimes the death of a close relative doesn't make us as sad as a breakup in a relationship. Sometimes, forgetting my wrist-watch for a single day, agonizes me more than losing countless nights worth of sleep while studying for an exam.
Coincidences. They amaze me. Because this is EXACTLY what I wrote just last night in the Process Log - 02 for my Trauma and Literature class. I spent the better part of last night, pondering whether the sufferings of one differ from the sorrows of the other? In short, is your sorrow any worse than mine? If you are sad, are you any sadder than me? Do I have the right to question if your grief is superior or inferior to mine? Or more deserving of sympathy? While I didn't answer it in the log, I think not. Everybody has the same quality of happiness, sorrow, joys, and sadness in the world. Note, I said QUALITY and not QUANTITY. Someone may be unfortunate enough to get into a major car accident, rendering them disabled. And someone else might live up to the ripe age of 90 without even so a scratch. But does that automatically mean that the former victim, who might have a loving family to take care of him, has suffered more in his life, than the unscathed one that lived alone, unmarried, and lonely all his life? My point is: We are no one to judge. I guess this is akin to what I was saying a few weeks ago, in my incoherent babble, aptly titled: Chaos.
Anyways, I went on to read almost all of MetaFilter's comments, not because I was hoping to read a more analytical and sophisticated discussion on the topic (devoid of any sentimental statements that the Fark thread was full of), but mainly because I wanted to look at the incident, from an outsider's point-of-view. I, for some reason, did not want to let the sympathies of other farkers overcome my emotions and make me feel sad for Cliff too. I wanted to look inside, while being 100 miles outside.
Ahhhhhh the stuff this 'Trauma and Literature' class makes me think about. Don't worry though, I'm not gonna get depressed or anything. At the most, I'll become a little more social, humane, and loving :)
Wed, 5th Feb '03, 11:55 am::
I've been having a good week so far. Had lunch with Michele on Monday and dinner with Kath last night. Tonight is hell for me. Classes till 9pm, with no way to have dinner in between (non-stop classes from 3pm - 9pm). After that I have to finish the economics lab work and god knows what else.
Life's back to 'normal' I guess...
Tue, 4th Feb '03, 1:05 pm::
I declared my majors today!!! Computer Science and Economics! Also declared my minor - Mathematics. Ah... Back to work now :)
Sun, 2nd Feb '03, 9:40 pm::
To the crazy ones... a salute and a tribute. Thanks Arthur for the link :) His friend made it... Pretty sweet.
Sun, 2nd Feb '03, 9:35 pm::
Pretty good day today. Video-chatted w/ my family in Bombay, went to Sneh's friend Tika's house the whole day, had lotsa good Indian food, and here I am - tired and sleepy. Hehe.
Sat, 1st Feb '03, 11:20 pm::
'Blog Time!!! Hello February... What a weekend... actually it's mid-weekend. Last night was AWEZZZZZZZOME! I finished my physics webassign early and was just chillin (= working on websites while watching tv and eating chips 'n dip), when my housemates decided to go out. So we five guys just went bar-hoppin all night :) We went to all the major bars on Easton Av. and just chilled and talked and stuff. I met up w/ a few unknown cute chics, danced a bit, and got totally outta balance. Hehe. It's funny that I admit to such antics when I know my family read this 'blog!
Anyways, I was a good boy and didn't drink much (only 20% of my capacity = 10 shots, 3 smirnoffs ice's). In fact my buddies found it impossible to believe that I could drink so much without being affected by it at all. I was like, "unh, whatever dude, get me another shot!" Hehe...
Ok so I woke up early this morning and got all mad, at MYSELF. Why? Because it's damn Saturday, I didn't have any frickin' reason to wake up so early. My biological clock hates me! From Monday-Friday, I feel like I wanna sleep till 12 noon. And on Saturdays and Sundays, I automatically wake up at 7 am!!! What's going on here, after all I normally stay up very late on weekends (last night I went to bed @ 3 am!).
Well, so all today I made pretty websites again. Housemates are downstairs watching movie, but I don't feel like joining in. Also, I gotta read one full novel before Wednesday and I better get started reading it soon - Beloved by Toni Morrison. I've heard a lot of good things about this book. Let's see... G'nite world!
Song for the night: Tauba Tauba - A. R. Rehman, Vande Mataram.