Monday, January 21, 2008

WTH is happening?

8 Days...8 freaking days since I installed Visual Studio 2008 trial version and I have programmed not a thing.
Ain't written no mail to Laddoo

Haven't completed the Quinn's Quest to Laptop series..

--ditto-- with " Elsevier Week "


Why do I feel extreme laziness in doing what I like the most? And adding more salt to the injury I might have been robbed of this blog too had it not been for Citrix. I would have loved to put all the blame on Hari for asking me to bed early (oy..no pun intended). Were it not for his no-so-subtle-hints about his loathing for me having the lights on till 3 to 4, maybe I could have done at least some of the things listed above..

Frankly excepting surfing I wasn't doing anything significant anyway during those times , so I saw no point in eihter protesting or satisfying myself thinking if-only-hari-didn't-ask-me-to switch the lights off. Partly maybe the initial euphoria of savoring "my precious". Loading all the movies, updating the anti-virus, some softwares and oh, yes, how the heck can I forget downloading movies.

I said to myself last Friday at the same time as I am typing this : Next week I am going to completely focus on the job. Complete the new requirements one by one , constanlty imagining the shock on the face of Sunil (our onsite lead) when he reads out estimate for coding as : 2 days . In the process having a photo of the same..Tadaaan...

Ok back to reality. The situation is as good as it was a week back. No damn progress. On top of which I am again doing the same things I have been doing the last week and the week prior to that which is :
  1. Log on to Citrix.
  2. Open Outlook and check mails
  3. Then go to IMDB.com , read through some posts, reply if I can (which I don't)
  4. Go to Top 250 and start goign through the ones I wish I had
  5. yada yada...

Sometime in the middle just go through the requirement doc. And also keep checking if Mahider is watching over me or if Shrikanth is going around. It sounds silly trying to act like a school kid hiding himself when the teacher starts coming to the back rows..

Ok, now for some action: I solemnly pledge/swear that from now onwards I am going to get up early in the morning, do at least "some " development work if not the whole website.

!!!AMEN!!!!

Jeez, did I really write all that??

Friday, January 18, 2008

Elsevier Week

When was the last time you took part in something for the first time? There were many such occasions for me but the result was not always satisfying and most notable of them was the New Year Bash that was held here( seriously our college fest was 100 times better). I am glad to say Elsevier week wasn't such.

The first on the menu was "Caps and T-Shirt Day" (Day 1 in the mundane language). Until and unless someone told you that this day meant meant a cap and a T-Shirt had to be worn you would never know that it is. You see, there were only 5 to 6 with a cap on. Anyways around 4:30, an hour late than planned (as is the Indian norm :D ) we were all assembled near the basketball ground. Teams were divided by numbering out all the odds and even ones with whole team standing in a circle and for a while I thought Leonard (from Memento) possessed me because no sooner did I recite my number and the round ended I forgot what it was I chose. Once agreable but THREE times? My fears were short-lived though thanks to Kunal who seems to suffer from the same. Phew!! It was with a great reluctance and sense of absolute dread I went with my 2 team to be part of the circle as we were about to play Elimination game. My mind was busy churning out images of the events that might follow like Musical Chairs, Antakshari which among many others are the two most favorited(Heaven Knows why? ) and frequent chores that happens when all the aunts and uncles with the unfortunate children (for someone above the class 10 that's much more worse...man I have been to those quite many times...) and this was the cause of dread within in me. No offense intended. The scene here was eerily reminiscent of the same excepting that this time around it is all the tweenies here..

But boy o boy what a game it actually turned out to be. There was constant adrenaline rush within to get the team out and the sense of urgency was quite palpable on all the faces. Shoot the legs, that's the rule and shoot we did alright with ball going from one corner(not exactly a circle it was) to another and the whole bunch within trying to dodge the attacks was as exciting as seeing last few overs of the T-20 World Cup finale. The excitement just got better in the second half as I found myself jumping, running and finally falling (which saw me out of the game) to avert the oncoming onslaughts. I might have appealed for third umpire as it was not 100% sure if the ball had touched me and ultimately save the game for our team who unfortunately lost. Not all was proper though there were some rumours floating around of how Rishvi had manipulated her watch and that the 1 team broke the rules and were huddled much closer than expected (which still haven't been confirmed by the sources...).

Moving on (and thankfully my fears were unfounded) it was the Tug-Of-War and mind you it did turn out to be one with some heavy casualities. Kunal, Uvarajan and me were the most affected of all. It was again between team 1 and 2 in a space of 3 rounds. Being in the first round and taking the bait was me. Tying hankie first on the hand and making one round go through my fist I held the defense ready for the call. Whistle blew and aaaaaahhhhh... oh..god what a pain it was! Not mental pain not because we lost three times (that of course was part of it) but the physical. What in the world was a nylon thread doing here. It should have been jute all the way. I was actually expecting some resistance with cheers and encouragement but man this turned out to be a 5 to 10 seconds affair. Even now it stumps me how the other team did manage. Surely something fishy out there...again a Rishvi conspiracy? Did she know which end was more secure beforehand?(unconfirmed yet.. :D)

The best of the day was yet to come. Everybody there burst out laughing seeing Imtiaz and his buddy running hand in hand totally mindless of the embarressment they are causing or the absurdity of doing such thing and set out trying to outrun the teams of two's who were tied leg-in-leg to reach the mark. What a site it was! Strange it may seem but the micheveous duo couldn't cross the mark. All in all a wholesome entertainment.

What truly hit me was the energy and sportiveness with which everbody participated and made the day most memorable. For the first time I felt a sense of belonging and oneness. Well there ended the day one but not the fun....You ain't seen nothing yet

!!!!Watch out for Day 3.!!!!


(Oh..hello,, I do know numbers , Day 2 ain't worth the line I am typing out here. So don't bother...)

Friday, January 11, 2008

Te zee Pe On I yum dee be - yippie yippie

Did I miss something? Blimey, how could it happen. The moment I saw it I knew I had to take a print screen and save it somewhere. There was no way it was going to stay for long on the chart. And boy o boy was I not true. One Week there it was and flash out of the chart and kicked into oblivion. I guess there ain't many regular fellas liking Indian movies for sure to be so kind to allow a mainstream entry into the elite team.

Haven't followed anything yet, pathetic, well click here and that my friends is a achievement in itself. Personally though I thought it was average fare.