In my quest to better myself, I often keep trying to compare my skills with leaders and stalwarts in my own field as well as in fields that I am pretty much an amateur, or at best a hack. So while I wonder if my proficiency in computer security will ever get close to Bruce Schneier's or if I'll ever be able to cook Punjabi dishes like my mom, I frequently remind myself that being better at many different things is not the ultimate victory. Somethings you just have to be able to do in life, no matter how good or bad. So here's my list of...

Ten things every person should be ABLE to do:

10. Memorize a poem by heart and recite it eloquently and with proper enunciation.
9. Unclog the sink. Fix the telephone. Replace a flat-tire.
8. Tell an adventurous story that keeps a bunch of kids thrilled for an entire evening.
7. Nurse a kitten or puppy that hasn't weaned yet.
6. Know the difference between there, their, and they're.
5. Not talk to anyone for a week and still stay sane.
4. Find your way around your house blind-folded.
3. Locate your favorite constellation on a starry night.
2. Dance when the moment is right.
1. Stay awake for 72 hours without batting an eyelid when a loved one truly needs you.

Happy New Year everyone! I just got back from an awesome mini-vacation to the Florida Keys with Brian and Linda. We had a great room next to a swimming pool, facing the beach. We drove down to see my friend Bruce (from my old job at Rutgers, NJ). It was great seeing him and both Brian and Linda loved meeting Bruce and his wife. We had a few drinks and left back to our hotel. Later that night we went to Holiday Isle to usher in the new year. Next day we rented a small motor boat and went into the ocean for over four hours. I anchored down the boat next to a small mangrove island and we had lunch. Later that night we drove down to Key West, picking up my friend Tim on the way. Walked downtown, shopped a bit, had a few drinks, and drove back to our hotel. Woke up this morning, got ready, and drove back to St. Petes. That was in short our mini-vacation to the Keys. A lotta fun packed into a short span of three days :) I feel so refreshed and ready to get back to work tomorrow.

Last night, I saw Kill Bill - most definitely the most violent movie that I've EVER seen and yet it felt as clean as Bridges of Madison County. This morning, I woke up from a series of weird dreams centered in exotic locales about leathally skilled assassins. The last dream was pretty interesting - I was in a casino around this special table with an LCD screen. Everyone who sat around the table had their name on the screen. The computer would pick one of the players and assign them a random task. If they complete it, they get money or lose the bet otherwise. Players would join and leave tables nonchalantly. The computer had a profile on every player, so instead of this being a game-for-money, it was a game to show off one's skills. The Japanese lady next to me and the Russian, took some mahjong tiles and played with them like Michael Moschen would. Everyone around the table was wow'ed by her skills. Then the Russian's name came up on the screen and I wondered if the computer would ask me to write an algorithm for shortest-path-between-two-nodes instead of juggling samurai swords. And then my alarm rang and I woke up. From SUCH an awesome dream! THIS is what Kill Bill did to me. I kept thinking about it for the whole night.

Actually not just Kill Bill, after that I saw Pulp Fiction with Jeanette in the bunker. I feel kinda dumb cuz I didn't understand major parts of the movie, like the whole Bruce Willis character. But the movie was still good. Tarantino is my hero. Lately, I've been watching a series of movies by a small number of directors and I realize these are some of the best movies I've ever seen. Coen brothers, Tarantino, Coppola, and hopefully this weekend, Kubrick, for this 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove, starring one of my all time favorites, Peter Sellers. Good times :)

If you concentrate on Bruce Lee's face, his leg seems to be moving. More such motion blurs here.

It's funny how, when you are trying to save money, all the advice you get is about spending more money. I asked Bruce 'n Tamara where I could get a bag of potatoes. I forgot to stress that I wanted to make my own baked-potato in the microwave to save some $$$ every now and then. Bruce said they have a good market down on Route 18. I complained that the problem is, I don't have a car so it'll take me 2 hours to walk there! "Why not buy a car?" said Bruce. Tamara's like "Cuz his insurance would be twice the cost of the car." Bruce suggested, "Go buy a moped. It's really cheap. The insurance will be a coupla hundred bucks at most." I'm getting confused, "But I can't ride a moped. I dunno how!" Getting surprised, Bruce said, "Anyone can ride a moped man! It's so easy..." And Nick (my work buddy) cautioned that "You can't really drive a moped on Route 18" to which Tamara suggested, "Ya but there's alternative routes. Will take ya a bit longer though..."

So then for a moment I began to consider how I'll buy a moped, where I'll park it, how I'll pay the insurance, how I'll figure out the alternative ways to get to Route 18... and then it strikes me - I JUST WANT A BAG OF POTATOES! I don't want a car or a moped! So I said, "Guys... I'm trying to save some small money by making my own baked-potatoes rather than paying $1 everyday to Wendy's and you're suggesting I spend even more for a moped!" Bruce said, "Well you should've said that before!" *sigh* My bad. I should've. Finally Tamara said that there's a good market down on Hamilton Street and would be a 10-15 minute walk once a week. I think I can handle that.

What worries me though, is that for a moment there, I was actually contemplating buying a moped and wondering how I'll talk my landlord into letting me park for free. If I was actually 'intelligent', I would've made sure to tell them beforehand about the main reason I want the potatoes - saving moolah. Just goes to show you that I'm not really as smart as I always pretend to be :) If you see me in my Econ class, you'll prolly assume that I'm some smartass who knows everything and will get highest grades in every exam. Prolly far from truth. I'm just a 22 yr old big dumb kid who wants his bag of potatoes. That's it...

Just got back from Bruce Almighty :) Finally got to see that movie, with my buddy Mason from work. I'm backing up my all of my hard drives right now cuz well, there was a thunderstorm today and my computer went off! I'm really scared of what might happen if my hard drives ever crash. So I'm backing up as much stuff as I can on 9 CDRW's - most prolly all my work + important stuff. I don't really care about my collection of songs, movies, software - as there is nothing I can't find online - except of course, the software + websites + graphics that I made myself. Though even that stuff is gigs and gigs! Wish me luck backing everything up!

In the new movie Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey stars as a mortal who receives the powers of God. The character of God tries to reach Carrey's character by repeatedly leaving a phone number on his pager - 776-2323. In real life, a LOT of people who have the same phone number are getting tons of prank calls every hour. Hehe. Oh I still have to see the movie.

Hard to believe it, but one of the best days in my life turned out to be a Monday! Well today was a pretty awesome day by all standards. Most of it was spent with Manzinder (morning/noon) and Cher (evening). Here's a bit of interesting conversation between Cher & yours truly, with reference to my so-called "popularity" - something that I vehemently refuse to acknowledge:

• Cher: How do you know so many people on campus?
• Chirag: It's really easy actually. You remember that guy you prolly met in the Intro-to-something class two years ago? And that girl from your Calc class?
• Cher: Yeah, but I haven't kept in touch with them.
• Chirag: I did.

I guess what my point was, the easiest thing you can do to be loved, is to just keep in touch with as many people as you can. Of course, it's NOT easy. It's not easy to call up old friends when you have 2 papers due and 4 homeworks to submit, but if you do call, it'll be worth it. It's not too important to remember and call-up/write-to everyone on their birthday, but it's remarkable. As always, I'm not saying that I'm the greatest nicest guy on the planet, but what I mean is, if I can say today that I love and am loved by a lot of nice people out there, it's only because I make pro-active efforts to keep the relationship going. Quite possibly, I'll gain nothing (monetarily, career-wise, politically) from almost any of these relations, but I know the emotional gains more than make up for all the efforts I put into it.

So for a change, why don't you go and email your friend from high-school and just randomly call up that friend who used to be your best-friend for number of years, but things slowly faded away. I'm sure they'll appreciate your email/call. I know I would. Here's just a few people I love keeping in touch with, if not actively/regularly, then once a month or two - Nitesh, Ketan, Vaishali, Pooja, Jessica, Kiran Uncle, Megan, Sonu, Leah, Tamara & Bruce, John Allan, Jackie, Aashika, Steve, Vicky Z, Arpit, and god knows 100 others. I didn't even mention the people I *have* to keep in touch with regularly - parents, best-friends, immediate family members; I just meant people I keep in touch with (or at least try to), simply because of who they are and what they mean to me though they may not realize it. I highly doubt if most of them even read my 'blog and I think that's actually the biggest reason why I have to actively keep in touch with them. Hehe... Oh and don't think if you stop reading this 'blog I'll start personally emailing you or anything. Nope! Doesn't work that way...

I think I am the most honest and straight-forward when I write in this little box right here. Here, in this tiny 'textarea' tag, spews forth the story that is my life. By the way, I've been reading a lot of books today, so ya, I'm getting all poetic/author-like now. What can I say... I get inspired really easily. Of course, not as easily motivated as this.

OH MY #$%$% GOD! What a rockin' day already! I just came home and my monitor's in! This is the last 'blog (hopefully) that I write using my old 17" CRT. And then I checked my emails and my instant messangers and ohoooooooo!!! There's just soooooo many ppl who just wished me. I feel all special right now. Let's add to the listing:

Manzinder (the girl with the cute car) was the first, right in my Discrete II class and later she emailed me this really funny greeting card. She's sooooo fun to hang out with. Seriously. We skipped half our Discrete class and went to the Busch Student Center just to chill (and do some icky homework). Then it was Steph, and then Kathleen called. We talked for over 30 minutes! It's really been a longgggg time since I talked to her. We never see each other anymore :( Oh well, good thing is she's giving me a lil treat on Monday, so it's all good. Anyways, more to the list: Vicky (Kath's old roommate), Resha, Ritesh, Ashish, Elaine, Bruce & Tamara! Elaine sent me this really neat greeting. Thanks a lot :) And Bruce and Tamara just knocked me out of my senses with the BEST GREETING CARD EVER! No seriously! They sent me the single most best greatest greeting card ever in the world. It's a short powerpoint presentation, starring, *hold your breath*, my favorite awesome dude: StrongBad! Guys, I've already said this 10 times on this 'blog that you are the two COOLEST people in the wolrd, and today you just proved it yet again. Download their StrongBad birthday card here (140kb).

Funny coincidence that I'm writing my 'blog exactly 12 hours after my last entry. Hehe.

Anyways, I keep saying all the time that I love my job and the ppl I work with, but never provide good enuf reasons. Here's one solid reason. This morning when I went to our College Avenue Business Office, the Dean of Business & IT - Ed, Business Admins - Tine and Elaine, and the coolest RC IT folks: Bruce and Tamara all got together and celebrated my and Elaine's birthday! Elaine's was last Saturday and mine is coming up on Friday, so they decided to throw a little breakfast party for both of us! Isn't that sooooooooo sweet and thoughtful? I had some tomato-cheese bagels and a nice big slice of chocolate cake! God I felt sooooooooooooooo happy and appreciated. Thanks a lot RC IT folks! You made my day (and prolly my whole week).

It's sooooooo beautiful out today! @ 10, I dropped off Sagar @ the regular haircut place (not the mexican one) and went on a loooong driving spree :) I drove to all of the 3 Rutgers campuses on this side of the Raritan (College Av., Douglas 'n Cook) and to inside hidden streets I'd never been to. What a lovely day! Then had a sneak pizza slice @ Margarita and got back home. Oh and I worked out a bit too. In all, the perfect little Saturday morning. Now I go do some laundry. Ahhhhhh.

Oh and yesterday I had a fun day @ work. Thanks to Bruce 'n Tamara (the coolest ppl in RC IT) I got to see my new office. It's actually in the Busch Student Center, inside the Graduate Student Lounge. Call my cell before you decide to drop by, cuz my hours are not fixed yet. I'll prolly be in my office in between classes :) Damn I feel special. Oh and I also had a nice cup of ice-cream with Bruce 'n Tamara for lunch yesterday. God I love that little home-made ice-cream place. I actually drove down to the place this morning while driving randomly, but I couldn't find it!!!! Ahhhh the drawbacks of having a bad directional-memory! Well, next Friday I'll make sure I remember.

Quote for the day: "The sole purpose of school is to provide students a place where they can meet with their friends in order to plan where they will meet after school." - Bruce Cameron