Blogging in the free world

2007-07-22T20:33:00.000-06:00

well finally a post after a while..just some rambling thoughts. my weekend was fun . spent most of the saturday sleeping and saw Sakhi movie, one of my fav ones. later on sunday, i saw Life In a Metro. hmm what to say abt that movie...it was ok but its becoming a trend with many stories on extra-marital stuff in bollywood i guess or is it bcos these stories are rampant in real life in indian metros...no clue....anyways saw this wonderful Lamborghini pic over china cups in daily images....

listening to
song: tu sanam hai tu khuda hai mahiya
movie: dus

Favicon

2007-04-29T14:51:00.000-06:00

finally put a new fav icon for my blog in the address bar...will change it when i think of something more kewl...

trillion dollar economy

2007-04-29T13:33:00.000-06:00

Congrats India is now a trillion dollar economy. The dollar value dropped down close to Rs 41. India is now among the top 10 nations which have a trillion dollar economy. more can be read here

2007-04-29T13:18:00.000-06:00

Its sad when a good deed gets unnoticed. I am referring here to Richard Gere and his wonderful contribution for HIV AIDS awareness. He comes to India and does all this work but at the end of the day, it all went unnoticed when he kissed Shilpa Shetty on her cheeks. I think we all should grow up. People should appreciate the cause he is fighting for. If Shilpa shetty didn't have a problem, then why is the media and people creating such a fuss. Its ok when we watch Indian stars kissing during awards ceremonies or in movies but when a foreigner does this, we say we are going against our culture. poor guy was just helping Indians. we have atleast 5 million people suffering with this deadly disease in India right now. thats something to think about....however Gere did apologize but he was equally surprised with the outcome of a kiss...

World Cup surprises

2007-03-18T22:10:00.000-06:00

well well, India lost to Bangladesh. But worst happened to Pak who are out of the world cup . Sad to hear about Bob Woolmer who passed away today. India should have been more careful when they played Bangladesh as they had beaten the New Zealand team during warm-up match. what else, Gibbs hitting 6 sixes in an over. well so much for the first week of world cup. If India doesnt make it to super eight, the worst people to get hit are the sponsorers as they are riding with a huge amount of money on our team. its become a wait and watch game now...

To my Mom

2007-02-18T20:04:00.001-07:00

....love u always Mom

India wins

2006-12-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

Atlast India won after the disastrous one-dayers. Well may be the return of Ganguly and the expulsion of Jagmohan Dalmiya was the reason [:)]....just kidding...India did play really well and i hope they win the series.

Snowboarding

2006-12-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

Fig:Snowboard with boot bindings and Shoes

Well today i went for snowboarding. this was my first time and it was real fun. there was a trainer for the beginners and he taught me with the basics and some gliding. i liked it very much....may be should try to do it more often. we went to Snowbird Ski and Snowboard Resort in SLC. it is considered as one of the highly rated snowboard resorts. well u can read more about the resort here.

Fig:Snowbird Ski and Snowboard Resort, Utah

Time of ur life

2006-12-03T01:41:00.000-07:00

well today i was watching few episodes of That 70s Show on Youtube. There was an episode with just some of the moments of the show with the background song "Time of your life". That song goes with everything. one of my fav songs i must say. i heard that song after quite some time and i felt really nice listening it once again. you can never forget the time spent with ur friends. well i had the best time of my life during my masters with my close friends....

First day at job

2006-11-07T00:18:00.000-07:00

Well today was my first day at Motorola....was really great...people r nice and i hope to learn a lot....saw DON the other day and i liked it. the end was great...

Google buys YouTube

2006-10-12T13:12:00.000-06:00

well google bought youtube for whopping $1.65 billion in stock. everyone knows it. Its huge money for something like a small company like Youtube which started in Feb 2005. The main reason that they could negotiate with this amount is that Youtube controls 48% of the world's market with its online videos stuff. thats huge. And i think it makes sense for google buying youtube 'cos i dont think they can rely on revenues getting from their AdSense stuff. now atleast they will try to generate more revenues using this online video site. way to go google as i am an ardent fan of google :)...

FYI: YouTube was founded by three people, Chad Hurly, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim. they were all employees of PayPal and the company is staffed by 67 employees who will now work on the same for Google.

New technologies....

2006-09-13T18:21:00.000-06:00

I had to write a post about all the latest technology developments in various fields.

First is Windows which is competing with Google's search engine with its new "Windows Live" search engine. The search engine looks good so far but its Image feature is awesome. U can keep scrolling the pictures and u can always save the pictures in the scratchpad at the side and also u can save pictures by directly clicking the image URL rather than going to that website and search for that image. some serious competition to google but lets c how far it goes with this. Windows live link

Another news is from Apple. they have released the new version, ver 7, of iTunes and new iPod nano. Have some good features in the new iTunes. Also i am hearing news about Apple lauching cell phones. i am not sure how true this is but i got this photo from my friend.

well another news is from BMW. This awesome car company is all set to reveal their new BMW Hydrogen driven cars. these cars will be in various countries in 2007. u can read more about this here

so much for the human mind....awesome...

2006-09-10T03:10:00.000-06:00

today i went to the movie Invincible....well another movie based on American football and yet another true story...it was a well made movie...one thing is that all the true stories that are made have some message and are inspirational...thats why they r made :). well another thing was that in one scene in the bar, there was a board hanging out on a wall saying "Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder"...sounded real funny to me but true i guess :)

Also happened to c the US open women's final between Sharapova and Henin-Hardene. it was really gud and i must say, sharapova played some gud tennis...i was surprised to know the prize money for the winner. it was freaking 1.2 million dollars and a bonus of 0.5 million..oh man $1.7M, one heck of a prize i guess...well today is Men's final between Federer and Roddick...have to c that one...hope federer wins. also Schumacher came second in the qualifiers of the Monza circuit of Italian grand prix...almost 2.5 hrs for the start of the race from now....4 more races including italian and Alonso is 12 points ahead of Schumi....hopefully schumacher wins the drivers championship...

Porcupine Dam

2006-09-04T02:53:00.000-06:00

well finally a post after a long time..

well today i went to Porcupine Dam....its almost an hour drive from logan....this was my third visit to the place since i came to US...u cant get tired of that place as u can get really close to the nature if u visit that place....took some funny snaps there...this trip was kinda relief for me as i was getting bored alot...hope to go for few more trips like this but first i need to get a job :)...cya

Dell battery recall

2006-08-16T09:31:00.000-06:00

DELL is recalling some of the batteries of their laptops as they are said to be fire hazards.

please follow this link

Just type in ur Battery Pack ID Number which is present at the back of the battery to find out whether its affected or not. if its affected, then just order a new one. u need not send the laptop back. also use the power adapter till u get a new one and remove the battery.

Wikimapia...

2006-08-16T00:44:00.000-06:00

www.wikimapia.org

its a new site where in u can search ur place, house or anything for that matter. its a joint project of Google and Wikipedia. if u happen to find ur home, u can just tag it with a name. I found my home in Hyderabad and tagged it with Bemgal's mansion (well for me its a mansion cos ghar swarg hotha hai)... well just check this site out and u will be amazed at what rate google is advancing... hmmm there is a privacy, security breach i guess as u can find all the major places, monuments (charminar, mecca masjid etc in hyd) and areas....wonder what google is upto next...may be locate where exacly each person is...

Time of ur life...

2006-08-09T09:35:00.000-06:00

"Time of your life" this song is by Green Day. I like this song very much...thought i could just put the lyrics here...try to listen to this song, its awesome..

Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don't ask why.

It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.

Tattoos of memories
and dead skin on trial.

For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Presently listening to it :)

Graduated.....

2006-08-07T10:53:00.000-06:00

Yup finally done with my Master's.

Google talk new version beta

2006-07-28T13:13:00.000-06:00

Hey guyz, downlaod the new beta version 1.0.0.95 of Google talk. Its awesome. some extra features in it are

1. u can send files (the most important one)
2. have an option by which u can set ur status message as the current song u play

u can downlaod from here
well there are some problems with this one...but its in beta still ..so cant complain either

courtesy: sampath :)

Read-only access of linux from windows

2006-07-22T15:09:00.000-06:00

In order to view ur linux partion from windows, there is a software called "Explore2fs" that u can download. This software only gives u a read only access to ur linux drive. these links were given to me by my friend ratnesh.

U can download the "Explore2fs" software
here.

U can download other linux related software here

Back to US of A

2006-07-15T13:35:00.000-06:00

Well i am back to US. The entire journey was great except for the port of entry, Minneapolis, immigration check delay. I was on the verge of missing my connecting flight (yup..just boarded the plane 10min before take off). I had just 2 hrs after i landed at Minneapolis to board my next connecting flight. I want to suggest the people who r coming to US that they must keep atleast 3hrs before they board the next flight after landing at the port of entry. It takes a lot of time at the immigration check and the customs. well if ur lucky enough, this entire process might just take a few min but its always safe to have some spare time. thats my opinion though.

India trip was really great. I was really happy to c all my dear ones at my brother's wedding. The wedding went off really well. Also visited some of the holy places, and relatives (ufff...) and some old friends. well those were some memorable days i cant forget but now again back to the rat race.

Relatives.....

2006-07-06T22:00:00.000-06:00

last few days in hyd and trying to njoy to the max....coming to relatives point, this is one nightmare for a guy like me whoz not so close to relatives and these days, everyone of them call my home and ask us to visit them....my parents on the other hand force us to visit them...i always try to convince my parents that i am least interested but someway or the other, they convince me in visiting them...sometimes i argue but its of no use at all...someone plz gimme some tips to come out of these situations..

2006-06-16T21:41:00.000-06:00

well some quite surprising things are happening in sports all over the world. first, India's second draw with WI. I must say bad luck is haunting India. In FIFA world cup also, Trinidad & Tobago could stop England from scoring till the 83rd minute, thats surprising and Argentina won with 6-0 against Serbia & Montenegro, ya ya Argentina's winning is not a surprise but with 6-0 was something. they scored 3 and 3 in the first and second halves of the game. And finally Federer lost the French open title to Rafael Nadal of Spain. lets c what happens next...

story of Fanaa...

2006-05-29T12:51:00.000-06:00

PS: I am posting the story of Fanaa for some of my US friends.....people who dont want the story to be revealed can skip this post..

Kajol is a blind girl who comes to delhi to give some stage performance. there she meets a guide Rehan(Aamir khan). In the process of giving her the tour of delhi, he falls in love with her and gets intimate with her...later, he then takes her to an eye specialist and she gets her eyes back ( for the people who think that Aamir gives his eyes to her, thats incorrect)...before she could even c aamir with her eyes, a bomb blast occurs in delhi and she finds out that aamir is dead...BTW the bomb blast is done by aamir only, who is a terrorist..

after 7 yrs, in one mission, aamir imposters himself as an indian army officer and steals a trigger for a nuclear bomb....but in the process of delivering it to his co-terrorists, he gets injured and lands up in front of a house which accidently is of kajol's who lives with her dad(Rishi kapoor) and son....she doesnt recognize aamir though...she helps him in getting better and in that process he tells her that he is Rehan, the man she met in delhi....finding their lost love, they live happily for sometime before she gets to know that Aamir is a terrorist, and the same old story comes here again...(country or family)..and she shoots him when he is abt to deliver the trigger to his men and he dies...

well so much for the much awaited movie....movie is more than 3:30hrs long and gets boring in the second half....only 2 songs r gud i guess....but aamir and kajol gives great performances...the first half is good with all the Aamir's humorous shaayari's that he cracks while acting as a tour guide....

Visit to Bemgal

2006-05-19T21:35:00.000-06:00

yesterday, we all went to visit a temple in Bemgal. its about 4hrs drive from hyderabad. i visited bemgal when i was a kid and yesterday i was really excited to visit the place of my ancestors after such a long time. we went there to visit Lord Narasimha. its a small temple located at height on some rocky mountain. also, the abode of God is in a cave there. Going into the cave to pray was adventurous too. anyways today we r leaving to tirupati. hope to have fun there.

In India finally...

2006-05-17T03:44:00.000-06:00

yup thats true. i am in hyderabad. i came here for my brothers wedding and also for a vacation. i was busy for a while but now i am free. mom, dad and my brother came to receive me at the airport. mom cried a little bit seeing me. well woh tho khushi ke aasu hain considering the fact that it was almost 2 yrs since i left hyd...anyways the marriage went off exceptionally well and also the reception. i was fortunate to meet some of my btech friends at the reception. it was fun. felt a bit nostalgic. anyways check out this space as i will write more about my happenings here at hyd.

Busy Busy Busy.....

2006-04-30T12:17:00.000-06:00

as it is the final week of the sem and so no blogging for a while...but summer is here hurray

Google's search algorithm

2006-04-09T10:54:00.000-06:00

Everyone knows about the history of google, that it was started as a small project in the campus of Stanford University. well this was the actual paper written by Sergey Brin and Larry Page titled, "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine" where in they describe about their search engine Google which then lead to a billion dollar company. this paper talks about the original concepts of page rank calculation, scale, link structure, indexing, etc. click here to read.

Also the latest news is that Google bought an advanced search algorithm invented by an Israeli student, Ori Alon, who is doing his PhD from Univ of New South Wales in Australia. The search algorithm was named as Orion.

Three great virtues of a programmer

2006-03-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

The three great virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience and Hubris. Dont get confused and jump into conclusions. please read the definitions about them. here it goes.

Laziness : The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer.

Impatience : The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer.

Hubris : Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer.

try to develop these three virtues. i read them somewhere in an article and thought it as worth mentioning in my post. kewl right.

Google on a buying spree

2006-03-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Well thats the motto of every big company nowadays. its like the law of nature. Google bought two new companies along with their products ranging from 50-100 million dollars each i guess.

The first software is called "Writely", developed by a company called "Upstartle". This software allows u to write on the web browser and save directly to the servers. its just like MS Word but more kewl. Google bought this software so that they could apply this in their GMail Drive feature. This news is not confirmed by Google yet but its true since Writely stopped accepting new registrations unless agreed by Google.

The second software is called "SketchUp", developed by a company called "Last Software". SketchUp is a 3D-Software tool used for designing. SketchUp is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, viewing, and modifying 3D ideas quickly and easily.

I am also reading articles about Google buying SUN Microsystems. well i dont know how much truth lies in it but that would be real fun if Google manages to do it.

2006-03-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how silly the mistakes u make are academically. its really silly, u know the concepts but still its easy to get tricked...there is a lot of material out there and most of the time one description doesn't match with the other...yup it happened to me sometimes and everytime i think about it i laugh at it. i hope not to repeat them again...:)) =))

2006-03-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

"I tried so hard and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter"...this song by Linkin Park is the one i am listening quite often...goes with my efforts this sem i guess in everything....well on friday i saw 16 Blocks starring Bruce Willis. It was a good movie but not Die Hard type movie of bruce willis. can watch once but was not the best..oscar awards ceremony was fun to watch. brokeback mountain was quite favourite but it could not win the best picture. Also today i stumbled upon these questions asked in a Google Interview..gives u an idea what big companies ask in an interview.. follow here

Google Page Creator

2006-02-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

Finally the google guyz made its Page creator public and it looks gud so far. I happened to just create my webpage using it.. check out here

Life without net....

2006-02-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

well what should i tell....it sucks big time without net. No net and cable for almost 4days and it was hell at home. Also the process of getting a new connection was pain in the ass. I first called up Broadband National as they had some comcast offer. I asked them to place my order with the comcast people and they said, its done, u will get a call from comcast people within 1-2 business days and then ur gud to go. after 1 day i called up comcast people and asked whats going on. They said there is no order on ur name at all. what the f***. I then called up the Broadband National people and told them that i already placed an order and that u people have not told comcast people. A guy later asked me to replace my order. i could do nothing but to replace. and today finally my net and cable is up running. ufff so much for the customer care.

anyways weekend is not screwed i hope bcos the net & cable is up finally :))

Happy Valentine's Day...

2006-02-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

.....to all the girls obviously :))

And then there was Tendulkar...

2006-02-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Before ODI series started, everyone was screaming in the newspapers saying its the end of sachin. well they were all proved wrong. i still dont get these reporters who just write stuff without thinking. these people, the so called cricket judges, never played the game as such and they were all judging the all time great sachin. how pathetic..he played brilliantly in the 3rd ODI for his 95. well he's certainly back and with a bang i must say. could anyone please tell these newspaper guys to shut their mouths. after all u cannot keep the Master blaster quiet for a long time bcos its just not possible :))

Rang De Basanti

2006-02-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday i went to watch Rang De Basanti. I must say its one awesome movie made in recent times. The story showcases the transformation of a bunch of college graduates enjoying, clueless about their future, to fighting against the corrupt, careless political system. Everyone acted really well and suited the roles. The music by AR Rahamn is terrific and goes well with the story. i would suggest everyone to watch the movie atleast once. well i liked it very much. :))

Only for F1 fans...a look into Ferrari

2006-02-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here is the new car of Ferrari team for 2006 season, the Ferrari 248, to be driven by Michael Schumacher and his new team mate Felipe Massa. Hope he and Ferrari wins this year championship. This year the car's aerodynamics have been completely reworked to accommodate V8 engine to last season's V10 as per regulations.

AMD-Ferrari Collaboration
Well AMD-Ferrari joined hands and u can expect a great deal of changes for sure. Ferrari has deployed AMD processors and technology throughout its enterprise. Now the staff uses Turion laptops to check their mails, and uses them to model the fluid dynamics in the wind tunnel. way to go.

U can read a complete article here

And here is the calendar and the team with their team members for 2006 season

Finally Michael Schumacher rocks :))

2006-02-07T02:51:00.000-07:00

waiting for the time to pass i guess. well two of my roomies would be graduating this semester. all the best for them. i hope to graduate in summer this year.

well what else...india lost to pakistan even after putting up a good score thanx to duckworth/lewis system. this match certainly did put an end to critics calling sachin as Endulkar. he played absolutely well for his 39th hundred. what else...ya monday is always a busy, hectic day for me. after wrapping everything for the day in school, at night, me and my roomies had a pizza for dinner in the engineering building. then came home, listened to some songs on full blast, played chess and then went on a drive. i felt really gud driving. rides are the best way to pass away time or when u get bored. after that, here i am blogging. Also i stumbled upon this blogger whom i added to my list, he goes by name Gaurav Sabnis.

anyways, i read this joke in one of the blogs. its funny

.. If Emraan hashmi is a serial kisser, then who is a parallel kisser...
Answer:) Ravana :))

chal cya.

Federer wins

2006-01-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

some people r born with innate talent i guess. well after seeing federer play, it must be true. he was dominating Marcos Baghdatis in the Aus-open final on sunday. The unseeded Marcos could not match federer's backhand and his composed play. there was not even a bit of nervousness on federer's face when he lost the first set. he came pretty well infact really well later from the second set. this guy for sure is going to break Pete Sampras, another great player, record of 14 grandslam titles. this was federer's 7 grandslam title and he is just 24. he is being considered as one of the great's already. well i enjoyed the match staying awake till 5 in the morning.

there r other people too who make the sport they r into look much simpler. Michael Schumacher, Ricky Ponting, Steffi graf, Sampras, sachin (though not in his best form) for example r all terrific in their game.

Strings

2006-01-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

As usual today is saturday and i woke up late. when i woke up, i was listening to Strings - Zinda hoon which my roomies were playing on speakers at full volume. It was just amazing. i later joined them in playing some videos of them. I must say they r the kewlest band ever and the way the lead singer, Faisal Kapadia, sings is just awesome. The Zinda hoon track is mind blowing. I am an ardent fan of strings and so r my roomies. i am just waiting for their next release. simply superb. The other song "Kahani Mohabbat ki" is amazing. Its lyrics r too good. A short verse of it goes like this...

" Kahani mohabbat ki hai mokhtasar
Gaya dil se phir voh naa aya idhar
Kabhi koi tha meri raahon ka ek humsafar
Kar gaya dil ka voh soona nagar -
Na koi rasta na koi dagar
Usse dhoondhun kahan, usse paaon kahan
Aaj main hoon yahan woh kahan "

Translation though everyone understands..

A short love story
she has left my heart, never to return here
there used to be a companion for the roads of my life-journey
she turned my heart into an empty village
There is no road or path
where do I look for her, where do I find her?
Today I'm here but where is she?

2006-01-27T01:56:00.000-07:00

......SILENCE IS GOLDEN

Happy Republic Day

2006-01-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Happy republic day to all the indians. On 15 Aug 1947, the actual power from British tranferred to India but today it officially broke all its last ties with Britain. India became republic after nearly 100 years of British rule today. cheers to all our freedom fighters. I give my full respects to all those who fought for our freedom. Dr.Rajendra Prasad took the oath as President of India this day. U can hear his speech by visiting this link

Anyways once again, Happy Republic Day.

Another draw

2006-01-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

I quite dont get the pakistani pitches. The second test also ended in a draw. It was a batting wicket and even on the 4th and 5th day, the pitch behaved the same. Zaheer khan did do a great job taking 4 wickets in the second innings though. The players are just getting some net practice for ODI's i guess. lets c what happens to the last test match. i hope we get to c a result there and hope india wins.

It just got interesting

2006-01-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

The semester just got interesting. In one of my courses which is Advanced Distributed System Design, we have to design a distributed system game called "Battlebits" where in we have to write a code to create our own robot which will be competing with the robots of other students in the class. Also we need to talk to the server for registering our robots and which monitors the course of the game we designed. Oh by the way, the server is of our prof's. hmmm sounds alot interesting. The coding part will be done in J2EE and C#.NET for various homeworks thru out the course. Well that will surely keep me busy this semester.

bored bored and more bored....

2006-01-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

i am quite bored today and have no damn interest to do anything. to pass away time, i have been reading blogs, read some news, slashdot, digg and finally ended up with google videos. its such a relief to have google videos. just type whatever u want and something or the other shows up. i have been doing that to pass my time today. hmmm i saw Kajra re, rang de basanti trailor, etc etc. the best thing to do i guess when u r in no mood of doing anything...i mean absolutely anything. hope to go home pretty soon.

First day

2006-01-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

today was the first day of the spring semester. the first class looked quite interesting and challenging though i have no idea as to how i'm gonna end up in that course but i had to take that course at any cost. after that class, i had an hour break and another class which was a bit relaxing. then returned home, ate something, saw friends and came back to college. well its been a hectic day so far and still continuing to be so. what else...i did listen to the songs of Rang De Basanti. i thought the songs were good particularly Roobaroo. hmmm quite a sem to look forward to. hope it turns out well.

some tips for students to follow in US

2006-01-08T16:37:00.000-07:00

i was reading Digg and stumbled upon this article there. its written by a MIT student and he gives us some tips to follow while doing our MS or BS walking us thru his experiences there. hope it helps people in US i guess. so here is the link

Happy new year

2006-01-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

Last few days were quite great for me. i went to lincoln to visit my elder brother. i met my elder brother after 4 yrs on christmas. sampath also came to lincoln. infact they both came to receive me at the airport. it was a reunion of us three in US. i was quite happy. i had some great time with them, visited temple, saw movies and for new year's, we went to chicago. we spent the 31st night at Navy Pier, visited the downtown, took some good snaps, it was kewl. i finally saw a telugu movie in theatre in chicago. after spending the weekend in chicago, we then came back to lincoln. And today i am back in logan. i barely caught my flight to salt lake today. i made it like 5 min before the final take off. thats bcos they told me a different gate for boarding the plane. stupid people. i was lucky to finally make it but could not say a proper goodbye to my brothers though. anyways i spoke to him after i reached logan. these holidays were the best for me. i enjoyed a lot. anyways getting ready for the semester to start :(. ok bye.

Guido goes Google

2005-12-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

hmmm Google is literally becoming the competitor for Microsoft or should i say, its the other way round :)). It is obviously the best search engine and probably now the best organization compared to Microsoft and Sun. And now Guido is joining google. GUIDO VAN ROSSUM is the guy who created Python. He got an offer from google to join them and he accepted it. Read the story on Slashdot here.

Microsoft has C#, Sun has Java and its time for Google, it has Python now hmmm. may be we can expect a new version of python like G-Python :)).

Anyways way to go Google.

A Christmas Carol

2005-12-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

The other day i went to c a play, "A Christmas Carol". It was wonderful. This was written by Charles Dickens. The actors did enact the roles with ease and were really good. well about the play's plot, i guess everyone knows, its about a guy named Scrooge. Here it goes...

"Ebenezer Scrooge is a penny-pinching miser in the first degree. He cares nothing for the people around him and mankind exists only for the money that can be made through exploitation and intimidation. He particularly detests Christmas which he views as 'a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer'. Scrooge is visited, on Christmas Eve, by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley who died seven Christmas Eves ago.

Marley, a miser from the same mold as Scrooge, is suffering the consequences in the afterlife and hopes to help Scrooge avoid his fate. He tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits. These three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, succeed in showing Scrooge the error of his ways. His glorious reformation complete, Christmas morning finds Scrooge sending a Christmas turkey to his long-suffering clerk, Bob Cratchit, and spending Christmas day in the company of his nephew, Fred, whom he had earlier spurned.

Scrooge's new-found benevolence continues as he raises Cratchit's salary and vows to assist his family, which includes Bob's crippled son, Tiny Tim. In the end Dickens reports that Scrooge became ' as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew'."

bye

Medal of Honor - Allied Assault

2005-12-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

yesterday i went to play Medal of Honor in lab. it was really awesome. we were 6 people playing on LAN, with 3 people on each team. this was my first time playing MOHAA. its basically a shooting game set in the backdrop of WWII. u get to choose ur weapons, teams and thats it, go on a roll until u destroy other team or achieve an objective. it was damn good. also u can set ur own levels, such as Stalingrad, Destroyed Village etc. its more like a strategy game where in u move slowly to find ur enemies unlike the QUAKE which is also superb. i liked the game very much. u can read the review here

2005-12-17T02:31:00.000-07:00

Perfect place to hang out during snow..

Semester is done

2005-12-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

its been quite a while since my last post. i was busy with the finals. this sem was the busiest for me and finally its over. yesterday was my last exam and while writing the exam, in the end when the prof said, its last 5 min to finish up, u feel really happy bcos after that its ur freedom. cant say about the exam though :)) had fun after writing exam, played badminton and went to a potluck dinner, saw a movie later that night with santosh and udai till 3:30 AM. what else..going to visit my elder bro in lincoln, nebraska. its been more than 3 yrs since i saw him and also sampath would be coming there. a reunion in US. feeling really happy and waiting for that moment. i will be leaving on 25th. ratnesh left to india on 9th. yash and myself went to drop him at the airport. hez enjoying a lot and why not, hez in india. well i might be going in summer i guess. missing parents a lot. what else....recently saw Aeon Flux and Chronicles of Narnia. Both were ok to watch. adios

song: Livin on a prayer by Bon Jovi

Some news...

2005-11-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

well this one came as a surprise to me. Sourav Ganguly has been given a slot in the Test Squad. He is playing as an all-rounder but was given a fast-bowler's position. he was competing with Zaheer khan for the slot just imagine. Its really funny, please read on The Telegraph here

The other news was quite sad, that of Manjunath Shanmugham, an IIM-lucknow graduate who was killed brutally for doing his job with integrity and honesty. he was working for IOC. may his soul rest in peace. This is really pathetic situation in India where corruption is increasing by leaps and bounds.

Gmail is ranked as the second best product of 2005 by PC world, first being Mozilla Firefox.

And India gearing up for the fourth ODI with South Africa.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Aloha and happy thanxgiving to all the readers. njoy ur holidays with all the deals'n'stuff. well i have holidays starting from today. today is my roommate Anand's birthday. happy birthday to him. we poured 3 bottles of beer and ketchup all over him. after that there was the regular ceremony of "putting the cake all over face" and "birthday bombs". it was really fun. we had a blast all thru the night. well one best friend's birthday is gone and the other best friend's birthday is on the cards i.e. of Ratnesh's on 25 Nov. Hope to perform the same ceremony for him too :)).

An end to SA's winning streak

2005-11-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

The second ODI win by India has certainly ended the winning streak of the Proteas. Though Sachin was out early, some good knocks particularly by Gambhir,Pathan and Sehwag sailed india to victory. Before this match, the south africans were unbeaten in their last 19 ODI's (16 win, 2 no result, 1 tie). they r currently second in the world rankings. Irfan pathan was awarded with the man of the match. he is turning out to be a good all-rounder for india. I hope that india continues to play well and clinch the series. a great performance by indians after they lost in the first ODI.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2005-11-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the much awaited movie Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire released. I was fortunate to get tickets on the first day, thanx to my friend susie. we went for the midnight screening of the movie. we reached there like half hour before but there was a huge line of people waiting to get in to c the movie. they were screening the movie in two theatres and both of them were houseful. hmmm a good experience though. coming to the movie, it is made brilliantly and the movie was shot in some good locales of Scotland and England. this movie tells about harry potter in the Triwizard tournament hosted by Hogwarts and his encounter with Lord Voldemort. it is a good movie and worth a watch.

Watching all six star wars movies simultaneously

2005-11-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

what an experience that would be, watching all the movies simultaneously. but u might think who on the earth would do that and if at all someone did do that, he has the most free time in the world. well actually someone did do that. if u guyz dont believe me, visit this article on slashdot, click here. dont forget to read the comments of people, its really funny. wonder slashdot actually posted this :)). also if u want to know who did this, visit here. what he did was he got all the six DVD's, ripped them and stuck them together into one video file using Avisynth and VirtualDub. u can watch a clip of the movie here. so if at all any of u actually got this idea, dont think ur a fool as there r many star wars geeks out in the world :)). well i am also an ardent fan of star wars but this thought never ever crept into my mind.

Jayasuriya dropped....

2005-11-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

.....from the test squad of Sri Lanka. the reason for his removal is the poor form coupled with his slow recovery from the shoulder injury. i think dropping because of poor form is not a wise decision. he is a fine cricketer and can get back to form very soon. he is having poor run of scores in the last 6 ODI's (27,0,15,16,8,19) but that happened to many players. i think this would turn out to be lucky for indians in the test matches. lets c. anyways the last ODI is gonna start in a little while from now. cya

Google

2005-11-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered whats life without google. everyone today practically lives on google atleast most of them. many people say that "Google is the closest thing the Web has to an ultimate answer machine". u want anything to know and the next thing that u use is google. who would have thought that a small project started by the founders,Larry Page and Sergey Brin,in Stanford university would become the best search engine that world could depend on and its free. u can find how google was started and history and much more here

101 different ways of saying 'I love you'

2005-11-03T00:27:00.000-07:00

this one was forwarded by one of my friends. its really kewl

Afrikaans - Ek is lief vir jou
Albanian - te dua
Arabic - Ana Ahebak / Ana Bahibak
Arabic (to the female) - Bahebbek
Arabic (to the male) - Bahebbak
Armenian - yes kez shat em siroom
Assyr - Az tha hijthmekem
Bahasa Malayu (Malaysia) - Saya cinta mu
Bangla - Ami tomakay bala basi
Bavarian - tuI mog di
Bosnian - Ja te volim (formally) or volim-te Turkish seni seviyorum
Bulgarian - Obicham te
Cambodian (to the male) - oun saleng bon
Cambodian (to the female) - bon saleng oun
Cantonese - Ngo oi ney
Croatia - Volim te
Czech - Miluji Te
Danish - Jeg elsker dig
Dutch - Ik hou van jou
English - I love you
Esperanto - Mi amas vim
Estonian - Ma armastan sind / Mina armastan sind (formal)
Ethiopia - afekereshe alhu
Finnish - Minä rakastan sinua
Flemish (Ghent) - 'k'ou van ui
French - Je t'aime
Gaelic - Tá mé i ngrá leat
Georgian - Miquar shen
German - Ich liebe Dich
Greek - agapo se
Greek - S'agapo
Gujarati - oo tane prem karu chu
Hawaiian - Aloha au ia'oe
Hebrew - Ani ohevet ota
Hebrew fem. Plural - Ani ohav etkhen
Hebrew fem. sing. - Ani ohav otakh
Hebrew masc. or mixed plural - Ani ohav etkhem
Hebrew masc. sing. - Ani ohaw otkha
Hindi - Main tumsey pyaar karta hoon / Maine Pyar Kiya
Hungarian - Szeretlek
Icelandic - Eg elska thig
Indonesian - Aku Cinta Kamu
Indonesian - Saya cinta padamu
Italian - Ti amo/Ti voglio bene
Japanese - Anata wa, dai suki desu
Japanese - Sukiyo Javanese (formal) - Kulo tresno marang panjenengan
Javanese (informal) - aku terno kowe
Kenya (Kalenjin) - Achamin
Kenya (Kiswahili) - Ninakupenda
Korean - SA LANG HAE / Na No Sa Lan Hei
Kurdish - Khoshtm Auyt
Laos - Chanrackkun
Latin - Te amo
Latvian - Es mîlu Tevi
Lebanese - Bahibak
Lithuanian - As Myliu Tave
Macedonian - Jas Te Sakam
Malay - Saya cintakan mu / Saya cinta mu
Maltese - Inhobbok hafna
Mandarin - Wo ai ni
Nigeria (Hausa) - Ina sonki
Nigeria (Yoruba langauge) - Mo fe ran re
Norwegian - Jeg elsker deg
Pakistan (Urdu) - May tum say pyar karta hun
Persian - Tora Doost Darem
Pig Latin - I-yea Ove-lea Ou-yea
Polish - Kocham Cie
Portuguese (Brazilian) - Eu te amo
Portuguese (Continental) - Eu amo-te
Punjabi - me tumse pyar ker ta hu'
Romanian - Te iubesc
Russian - Ya tyebya lyublyu
Scottish Gaelic - 'S tough leam ort
Serbian (accent 'O') - Volim te
Serbo-Croatian - Volim te
Slovak - Lubim ta
Slovenian - ljubim te
South Sotho - Ke o Rata
Spanish - Te quiero / te amo / yo amor
Sri Lanka - mame adhare
Swahili - Naku penda
Swedish - Jag älskar dig
Swiss German - Ch-ha di gärn
Tagalong - Mahal Kita / Iniibig kita
Tamil - Naan Unnai Khadalikkeren
Telugu - Nenu Ninnu Premisthunnanu
Thai - Khao Raak Thoe / chun raak ter
Thai (affectionate, sweet, loving) - Khao raak thoe
Thailand - chun luk ter
Turkish - Seni Seviyorum
Ukrainian - Yalleh blutebeh / ya tebe kohayu
Urdu (to a girl) - Mea tum se pyaar karta hu
Urdu (to a boy) - Mea tum se pyar karti hu
Vietnamese - Toi yeu em
Vietnamese (Females) - Em yeu Anh
Vietnamese (Males) - Anh yeu Em
Welsh - Rwy'n dy garu di
Zambia (Chibemba) - Nali ku temwa
Zimbabwe - Ndinokuda
Zulu - Mina funani wena

and finally in
Sign language - Spread hand out so no fingers are touching. Bring in middle & ring fingers and touch then to the palm of your hand.

My laptop

2005-11-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

DELL INSPIRON 6000
Intel Pentium M
1.73GHz processor
512MB RAM
80GB Hard Drive
CD / DVD Writer
Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2

trips so far

2005-10-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

these r my trips so far within 1yr of my stay in US of A :))

Zion Natioanl Park, Utah
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Yosemite National Park, California
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Yellow Stone National Park, Wyoming
Las Vegas, Nevada
Hoover Dam, Nevada
Porcupine Dam, Utah
Ganesh Temple, South Jordan, Utah
Bear Lake, Logan, Utah
Windcave mountains, Logan, Utah
First dam, Logan, Utah

cya.

Happy Diwali

2005-10-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Diwali to all the readers.

coming to the post, i donno what to write but will write what comes to my mind. i opened the blog to write something but kept staring at the screen. then i opened raaga to listen to Neal N Nikki songs. the songs r good atleast for me. hmmm what else...ya i got my laptop on saturday. my elder brother bought it for me. i am really thankful to him. the hectic last week passed by and it was really great. the programming contest was real fun and it was the best experience for me competing with some of the best programmers from the region. we did pretty well but they select only top two teams. my university missed out by margin i guess. it was a good trip for me. i had good italian food in provo and also good morning breakfast at village inn. what else...ya didn't do too well on my midterm. Dad mom called me today at 7:45 AM to wish me happy diwali. feels really great when u talk to parents. i was following cricket, the 3rd ODI and i slept thinking that it would be tough for india to chase. speaking to dad in the morning, i asked what happened with the match and he said we won. i was surprised a bit that we won. dad told that Dhoni hit big and hit big time making 183 not out. india is on a roll. presently reading some good blogs of my friends to pass time. ya also we r performing puja tomorrow in my apt on the occassion of diwali. invited friends also.

sad mood...

2005-10-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

hmmm i was not in good mood at all today....i listened to only one song non-stop for like more than 10 times. the song is, "Tu Jahan Main Wahan", a sad song from salaam namaste, which is really gud. bye :((

The toughest week of semester

2005-10-21T18:54:00.000-06:00

Hmmm next week is the most toughest week of this semester for me. My schedule goes as follows

Tuesday morning - A paper presentation in class
Tuesday night - Homework due
Wednesday night - Homework due
Thursday morning - Midterm
Thursday night - Homework due
Friday morning - Midterm
Friday evening - Leave USU for ACM programming contest to UVSC, Provo
Saturday morning - ACM programming contest for 5 hours
Saturday night - Will reach home around 11pm.

too much to ask for. but thats MS in US..anyways wish me guys best of luck. if u want to know more about the contest click here

1=2 ???

2005-10-17T19:47:00.000-06:00

hmmm tell me guyz whats wrong with this...

x = y

x.x = x.y

x.x - y.y = x.y - y.y

(x+y)(x-y) = y(x-y)

(x+y)(x-y)/(x-y) = y(x-y)/(x-y)

x+y = y

y+y = y

2y = y

2=1

??????????

song: yeh hai jalwa

Swimming

2005-10-14T19:31:00.000-06:00

today is the first time i ever jumped into a swimming pool. i started learning swimming from today. it sounds odd that i dont know swimming till now but anyways better late than never as they say. it was fun. my roomies taught me with the basics. i was in the pool for quite a while, then had a quick shower and rushed to the job. swimming is the best exercise that u could do. i am trying to keep my body fit by going to gym, swimming, playing tennis. but swimming was real fun and i am looking forward to learn it perfectly. also the babes who come for swimming r kewl and obviously sexy. just kidding but swimming is best exercise. cya bye

Irony of life......

2005-10-08T13:04:00.000-06:00

I was watching Spiderman-2 last night. last night was a nightmare for me. i could not sleep and on top of it i had mild headache. i slept at 6 in the morning and got up at 11 in the morning. so not much sleep. ok coming back to the irony, when i was watching spiderman i felt like sad for the guy. though its a movie, i wondered whether somewhere or the other, many people's life has an irony. peter parker, aka spiderman, though he was a superhero so to be called, but still he doesn't have money to sustain his living. how worst could a guy's life be. u r saving the entire world and bcos of u everyone else is sleeping peacefully and u r risking ur life, happiness for them, but what u get in return is nothing. i pondered upon these thoughts and felt a lot. he is a superhero for others but not for himself. well while i was wacthing the movie, i related spiderman to the soldiers of every country ( army, navy, airforce etc). i have seen some of their lives and believe me its no good atleast in india. they r risking their valuable lives so that we could sleep well and the government is least bothered about them. they r our superheroes but some of their lives is still like peter parker's. may be thats why they r superheroes atleast for me. and why do people wage wars in the first place. whats all this abt jealousy. well nobody is perfect neither am i. but atleast we could try. njoy ur life and do something gud. ok thats it got to go. cya folks

Hilarious PJ's

2005-10-01T17:01:00.000-06:00

I have been getting these PJ's from my friends. they r like hilarious and at the same time the worst u could hear. i cant stop laughing listening them. so here it goes..

1)
An elephant is sitting on top of a tree. A donkey comes there and starts climbing up the tree. elephant asks the donkey "why r u climbing the tree". the donkey says that it wants to eat a mango. elephant then says that this is an apple tree. for that, the donkey says, "i know that its an apple tree, thats why i am getting a mango with me".

2)
Teacher: 'A' for?
Student: Apple !!!
Teacher: Jor se bolo
Student: JAI MATA DI

3) What's the opposite of "Dominoes"???
A) Well the answer is "Domi doesn't know"

4) Whats the opposite of "Pizza Hut"
A) ok don't kill me, its "Pizza Hutna math"

5)
A guy phones up his Boss, but gets the bosses' wife instead.
"I'm afraid he died last week." she explains.
The next day the man calls again and asks for the boss.
"I told you" the wife replies, "he died last week."
The next day he calls again and once more asks to Speak to his boss.
By this time the wife is getting upset and shouts, "I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU TWICE, MY HUSBAND, YOUR BOSS, DIED LAST WEEK! WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING?"
"Coz," he replied laughing, "I just love hearing it..."

6)
A guy is traveling in a deluxe car in the desert. He wants to take a bath, but he hasn’t got a soap and there is no water anywhere around… what can he do?
A) He will integrate his d-lux car to get Lux + c (constant of integration) Using the lux soap he will take bath in the ‘c’.

7)
A sardar goes to movie with 17 sardars.why???
A) bcoz it was an adult movie and below 18 were not allowed

8)

how do u place a camel in a fridge in three steps??
...
1.open the fridge
2.keep the camel inside it
3.close the fridge
-----------------------------------------------------------------

how do u place an elephant in the fridge in 4 steps??
.....
1.open fridge
2.take the camel out
3.place the elephant inside
4.close the door
-----------------------------------------------------------------
there was a jungle meeting. all the animals were required to report. all of them turned out, except one. who was it and why??
.........
Ans) the elephant... u put it in the refridgerator, remember ???
-----------------------------------------------------------------
now u have to cross a river which ios inhabited by deadly crocodiles...but any way u have to cross that river ...how will u cross that ?
............
Ans) it simple ...as all animals are attending the meeting ...so no crocodiles are there..so u can cross easily...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Okay in the jungle meeting where all the animals reported, they were welcomed with gutkha.....only one animal requested for a particular brand. which animal and which brand?
...........
Ans) the animal is giraffe and he opted for "Manikchand" (Unche log unchi pasand !!!)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
king lion goes on a search to find elephant and has absolutely no problem in locating the elephant.....why??
............
Ans) bcoz our elephant kept his footwear outside the fridge.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
suppose u need 2 transport all the things in ur house 4 relocating..suppose u go by aircraft ... it is losing height and pilot asks u throw something away to reduce load...what is the thing u will throw away to reduce the load??
............
Ans)the elephant in the fridge!!!!!!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
two persons r talkin by the swimming pool...one says he wont swim bcoz he is afraid of dying bcoz of drowning.....the other one says ....hey dont be afraid..i'll show u how 2 swim and he dives in the pool n starts swimming....suddenly, the man outside the pool dies...guess why????
..........
Ans) the elephant falls on him.......

well these r some of the PJ's.

"Into the Blue"

2005-10-01T15:33:00.000-06:00

U can watch the movie once. Its a story about 4 divers who discover a lost treasure and a plane with smuggled goods. its how they escape from the smugglers who r in search of their plane and get the treasure. its kinda boring at times. it stars Paul walker and Jessica Alba. Jessica Alba looks so hot in the movie..

My birthday...

2005-09-18T18:41:00.000-06:00

well today is my birthday. i had lots of fun but also it was a nightmare. at the stroke of midnight, when the world is asleep, my birthday started. well all my friends came. my mom & dad were the first to call me from india. i felt really happy talking to them. at 12, my roomies lit up the candles, i cut the cake, and then my brother calls me and wishes me, then he says "u have fun with all ur bday bombs", i got scared. after all the cake cutting the actual nightmare started. first of all, i was all drenched with cake and stuff. then i went into the restroom to clean myself. i took a lot of time in the restroom cleaning the cake to pass the time as i knew that i would be getting bombs. well after i came out, my friends pounced upon me as if i am some chocolate or something. well i dont know but i got kicked from everybody i guess. i didn't know what was going on. i was almost dead lying on the ground and then people were coming and wishing me. i could not even get up...the party continued upto 3:30 and i slept like at 4 in the morning. i woke up at 12:30 in the afternoon. my butt still aches when i sit down..atleast the nightmare is over.

A new look....

2005-09-16T18:45:00.000-06:00

i had a hair cut on tuesday. i changed my look entirely. i had a #2 hair cut which means i had like a military cut. i used to have a lot of hair on my head and people kinda liked me with that look. but suddenly they were all surprised. i think i never had that short hair before. my roomie was making fun of me saying that when did u go to Tirupati. but afterwards everyone hmmm ok mostly liked my new rough look. i must say no more hair cuts for atleast two months i guess. anyways still working hard this semester. bye

Fall semester....Killing me softly....

2005-09-02T18:40:00.000-06:00

Killing me softly...thats what fall semester is doing for me i guess. The courses i have taken this semester are tough and hectic. there r like tons of assignments every week and top of that u have to give presentations every week on some IEEE papers. common gimme a break. but what to do, anything for the grades. anyways one good thing is that finally i am going to Gym again. i am taking out time from my busy schedule for gym. i used to go when i was in india but stopped after coming here. i have to work real hard this semester. thats why i said its killing me softly...(hey guyz not the Heather Graham movie....)

First day of Fall semester

2005-08-29T23:17:00.000-06:00

finally the day has arrived. fall semester began. it was an interesting day. the first class i had was overflown with students. the class was full with more than the alloted capacity. some students might have sat down also. i donno whether i will be able to take that class or not due to some complexities. but was fun. after that attended a meeting at 4pm, then went to the job, studied for a while, painted a beautiful scenery(i can draw pretty ok), listened to the songs of Aashiq Banaaya Aapne, surfed for a while. thats it this was my first day of the semester. i hope that the rest of the semester goes well academically and job wise also.....

one of my dream cars

2005-08-26T12:24:00.000-06:00

I have a huge fasciantion for cars and i would like to own one in my life...hope very soon.. one of my dream cars would be 2006 Porsche Cayman S. u have a look at the car. its awesome. For those of you who aren't Porsche diehards, the Cayman is essentially a Boxster with a steel coupe roof and a hatchback. It is the 3.4-liter version of Porsche's M96 flat-six engine family from the Boxster.The 911 does duty here and is tweaked to deliver 295 hp and 255 lb-ft of torque, versus the 280 hp and 236 lb-ft in the Boxster S's 3.2-liter engine. for more info, click here.

Have a look at it

this for sure i would love to have. ANY DONORS plzzz...

Semester is about to start

2005-08-26T11:50:00.000-06:00

I think i am all set for the semester to start. ya though it sucks, thats the way it is. yesterday was the happiest day for me i guess. got some great news from my CS dept and to celebrate, i went out to Chillies with friends, ate some good food and had real fun. The waitress who was serving us there, just looked like Julia roberts and one of my friends was so mesmerized by her that he was unable to speak to her. we pulled his leg all the time. On returning, me along with two of my friends were playing cards and watching "Gummy Bears", the cartoons. I used to watch them long time back. remember the good old days when u were a kid...hmmm...had a blast and slept like around 3 in the morning.

"Discovery" Space Shuttle lands

2005-08-21T23:24:00.000-06:00

Finally the space shuttle "Discovery" landed at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. NASA sent the shuttle to deliver more supplies and cargo for International Space Station. It took all the precautions for the launch after the debacle of "Columbia". After the successful mission, the shuttle "Discovery" had to be landed in California for servicing and then it was mounted on Boeing 747 Shuttle aircraft for its return to KSC in florida. Thats really amazing.

"Discovery" on Boeing 747 landed at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida

Home Alone

2005-08-21T19:28:00.000-06:00

Probably this might be the first time after coming to US that i have been alone in my apt. Sounds funny right. Well thats bcos all my roomies went to Salt Lake City to pick up two new guys who r coming from India. Also they r going to visit the Ganesh Temple at South Jordan. It is really a great place and i have been to the temple once. I did not go as i have to study for my exam. that sucks man. i wanted to go but...Hmmm lets c. Today was wonderful. Got up like around noon. Had tea and then me and my roomies made "Jilebi" and "Idly Chutney" for lunch. Now i know how to make Jilebi's and Idly's too. It was really interesting. we all had our lunch and my roomies were getting ready to leave. They all left at around 5pm and i was alone in the apt. I then studied for a while. Then took my time off by playing "Need For Speed: Porshe Unleashed". Gr8 game i must say. After that here i am blogging. Yesterday was fun too.I drove the car to the theatre and i must say that i kinda drove in a non-chalant manner that is i drove fast exceeding the speed limits as we were getting late for the movie. i was lucky that there was no cop around. one of my friends got scared. he said that this is not Need for Speed game dude. that was like adventurous stuff. thats it got to go and study.

Its raining man

2005-08-18T12:50:00.000-06:00

On one summer hot day, suddenly it started raining. strange isn't it. well thats the case in logan. It rained heavily yesterday. today it rained in the morning. hmmm this might be the indication that after all summer is over and get ready for fall semester. i hate that. I was njoying summer. I caught cold as a result of this weather change. anyways summer was fun for me with all the adventures in the trips, the summer courses, the driving, the work ufff sometimes i really wonder did i do all this stuff in summer. tomorrow is rakhi. so HAPPY RAKSHA BANDHAN to everyone. Also today we had like a family reunion on chat. thats right. i had a chat conference with my brothers & dad. we had lots of fun.

Song: Mastana from Super
Mood: Gr8

Trip to Las Vegas & Hoover Dam in Nevada

2005-08-12T11:50:00.000-06:00

long time....no blogging. well i have got one now. Its about my trip to Las Vegas and Hoover Dam in Nevada. As usual we all started on friday afternoon to vegas. its like 7-8 hrs drive from my place. we already booked a hotel room online. so we did not have any problems. we reached late in the night but as u know vegas life starts in the evenings and continues till the morning. while we were entering the city, we could see the vegas from the freeway only as it was all flashing with those dazzling lights. awesome view i must say. after we entered the city and parked our car, we decided to go to Stratosphere, a casino. Its architecture is wonderful. u have this huge tower in front of it and u have roller coaster rides on top of the tower. scary stuff. then we went to our hotel room around 4AM and slept. next morning on saturday, we all went to an indian restaurant, TAMBA, its a branch of GANDHI restaurant in vegas. TAMBA is on the STRIP. after having lunch, we went to c the Hoover Dam in Boulder city which is like 1hr drive from vegas. Hoover Dam located on the borders of Nevada and Arizona, is a principal source of flood control, irrigation and electrical power in the Southwest. Hoover Dam, for many years was the largest dam in the world. It is now also one of the most interesting attractions in the west. Its among the modern wonders of the world. After seeing that, we came to vegas in the evening. by that time, the night life of vegas has started with all those lights, fountains etc. We visisted almost all the casinos that were there on the STRIP. STRIP is the street name where all the replicas of eiffel tower, statue of liberty, brooklyn bridge, pyramids etc are located. The main attractions on the strip are the New York, Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, Sphinx, Excalibur, casinos like Monte Carlo, Caesar Palace, Bellagio where in u have the musical fountains ( a must c casino), and many more. Then we had indian dinner and left. it was like again 5 in the morning when we slept. On sunday we headed back to logan. but a worst thing happened. Our car tyres went flat and there was some problem with the radiator, power steering etc. we had to leave our car to repair at a garage. we left it on sunday evening and we got out car back on tuesday afternoon. Then reached logan on tuesday night. that was a pain. this probably might have been the longest weekend of mine. thats it about the trip. I must say that vegas is one of the liveliest, vibrant, vigorous city. A MUST VISIT PLACE by all means.

Some jokes...

2005-07-26T14:39:00.000-06:00

A look at Bill Gates computer...

I hit upon this website of jokes Ahajokes. it has some funny jokes. some of them i posted for u guyz. i could not stop laughing seeing them. visit the site its hilarious. one more...

Newton's Law of Graduation

2005-07-26T14:03:00.000-06:00

I was reading some of my friends blog and surfing the net when i hit upon Newton's laws of Graduation from a blog. It goes like this...

FIRST LAW: A grad student in procrastination tends to stay in procrastination unless an external force is applied to it.

SECOND LAW: The age of a doctoral process is directly proportional to the flexibility, f, given by the advisor and inversely proportional to the students motivation, m.

THIRD LAW: For every action towards graduation, there is an equal and opposite distraction.

Really really funny. I completely agree with the laws.
Mood : Bored
Song : Pehla Nasha..

cya laterz bye

" boot.ini " & " hal.dll "problem...

2005-07-26T10:39:00.000-06:00

my computer's OS crashed like 10 days ago and i did not have time to fix it. Finally this weekend i had the time. The problem was i had two hard disks, one with 30GB and the other was of 10GB. The 30GB was giving some problems. The hard disk was fine but it was not booting. i tried to format the system but the drive was unable to get formatted. i dont know why. after a while it was giving the errors saying "boot.ini" and "hal.dll" files were missing. then my roommate ratnesh loaded the "boot.ini" file into a floppy and gave it to me. he knows quite a stuff about computers and troubleshooting. i then kept the floppy and winXP cd into the drives as "hal.dll" file can be loaded from the CD only. I then formatted the system and loaded a fresh new OS and it worked successfully. Finally my computer came alive after like 15 days. hmmmmm i think i am too lazy to fix. but anyways finally did it. rest of the weekend was fun too bcos i just took rest reading the "Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince" and watching movies. Good book. thats it bye.

Trip to Grand Teton & Yellow Stone National Parks

2005-07-23T21:41:00.000-06:00

After a long time, finally a post to read for all u guyz. This time about my trip to Grand Teton & Yellow Stone National Parks in Wyoming. We left on friday and its only like 4-5 hrs drive from logan. We reached Grand Teton on friday and began searching for a camp ground. We got a campground called Colter Bay campground site and it was late in the night. We had some pizzas on our way at a place called Jackson. There were all these signs over the campground at Grand Teton saying "Beware of Bears - put all ur stuff such as food, shoes etc, basically any thing that gives a human smell". We put up our tent and we slept with everybody being frightened a little bit about the bears. It was real fun. The next morning on saturday, we woke up early and had a good breakfast and left for touring Grand Teton Park. We first went to Jenny lake and we did some Kayaking and Canoeing. It was my first time experience in a Kayak. It was real thrill with the water in lake being 250ft deep and i did not know swimming. There was a terrible incident that occurred but all gone very well and we were safe. Then we went on for a hike to see the Hidden Falls and Inspiration point. We travelled across the jenny Lake in a steamer and the hike was real high, i dont know may be over a 1000ft above. It was so hot that we were all tired. It was fun though. Took some excellent snaps infact great snaps. Then we headed for Yellow Stone in the evening and the case was same with all these bear signs in the campground. Anyways we camped in the night and cooked Pulao. Wow it was wonderful but we were still afraid of the bears. fun stuff. The next day Sunday we were out exploring Yellow Stone park. We saw all these animals like the Bisons, Elks, Mooses, Wolves etc. Awesome. As Yellow Stone is very famous for all these Geysers, we went and visited all of them with the famous geyser being the "Old Faithful Geyser". Its an amazing geyser. The geyser erupts like at a fixed intervals of 1-1.5 hrs in between. We went there and sat for the geyser to erupt. As predicted it erupted at the right time and we were fortunate to take a video of its eruption. Kewl stuff i must say. After that we headed back to logan. There were some problems with the car's lights.We fixed it and reached late in the night. I must say this trip has been, by far, the most adventurous, fortunate trip for me. I enjoyed a lot. thats it about the trip. bye.

Demolition Derby

2005-07-11T10:26:00.000-06:00

On saturday i went to Demolition Derby. By looking at the pictures above, its quite clear that its a sport where in all the cars collide with each other and the last car remaining wins the game. Awesome sport and u have to c the cars. They collide with each other with maximum speeds with all the tyres busted, some parts tearing apart. Adventurous game with lots of fun. I enjoyed it very much. It happens like once in a year and its worth watching. bye

War of the Worlds

2005-07-11T10:11:00.000-06:00

One more excellent movie by Steven Spielberg. This time he takes on H.G. Wells's seminal classic. The sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it. The ending was perfect and the movie was brilliantly shot. Great perfomance by Tom Cruise.

Fantastic Four

2005-07-11T10:00:00.000-06:00

Marvels superheroes comic comes alive with Fantastic 4. The movie is good with the story revolving around 4 main characters who accidently becomes heroes with super qualities when they get exposed to a cosmic storm. The characters are Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, who can elongate his body; Susan Storm/Invisible Woman, who not only can become invisible at will but can render other objects invisible; Johnny Storm/Human Torch, who can shoot fire from his finger tips and bend flame; and Ben Grimm/The Thing, a hideously misshapen monster with superhuman strength, together battle the evil Doctor Doom. One more thing about the movie is the humorous comedy between the Human Torch and the Thing. Its real funny.

Got my Licence

2005-07-07T11:20:00.000-06:00

Hurray, i got my licence today. so excited. The test was a bit hard to clear but i did it anyways. I am all set to drive in USA now. I have been waiting for this a long time now. thats it bye

Driving in USA

2005-06-29T11:23:00.000-06:00

Our car Ford Contour LX. I started driving for the first time in US and it was really exciting. The rules here are different from India. U find cop everywhere trying to pull u out and give a ticket. U have to be more careful driving here as one ticket is enough to screw u to the maximum. I drove Toyota Camry and Ford Contour LX. I find Toyota more easy than Ford Contour. I love cars and would love to have one in near future. I did practice some driving in my roomies car to get hold of all the driving rules. thats it bye

Batman Begins

2005-06-25T15:00:00.000-06:00

Batman series has started and it took off very well. It showed how Bruce Wayne turns into a masked crusader in detail. In this movie, Batman faces Raas-Al-Gul and Scarecrow as villians. I liked the movie very much and the perfomances by Christian Bale and Katie Holmes were good. A worth watching movie better than all other batman movies.

Schumacher Wins

2005-06-20T10:05:00.000-06:00

Schumacher won the US Grand Prix. It was a farcical grand prix with only six cars taking part due to some problems with Michelin tyres. Anyways being a great fan of schumi, i liked the race. the champion he is, there was no match for him even by his team mate Barichello. well that brings schumi back into the title contenders. Our own Narain Karthikeyan was good and stood fourth. A farcical grand prix but good for Schumi fans as he won the race.

Star Wars III : Revenge of the Sith & Madagascar

2005-06-13T09:40:00.000-06:00

The saga is complete. George Lucas star wars episode 3 was the most important one. It was like a bridge for all the parts. The movie shows how young Anakin Skywalker turn to the dark side. it was shot brilliantly and the director handled the story with ease. the movie ends up with Padme giving birth to Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia and she dies. It is really great and i liked it very much as i am an ardent fan of star wars movies. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH U

Another movie was Madagascar. It was a funny movie with 4 main characters, the lion, the Zebra, the Hippopotamus and the Giraffe. Its a story where the zebra wants to live in the wild whereas others dont and how the 4 of them end up in the wild and the problems they face. Good comedy movie with the voices given by chris rock, ben stiller, david schwimmer and jada pinkett smith. The concluding song is excellent. It goes like this "WE LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT...I LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT". kewl song

Paradise city and Porcupine dam

2005-06-12T15:28:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we all went to visit a beautiful city called "Paradise city". I must say the name is apt for the city. It was really really really beautiful. When u visit that place, u will for sure remember all those Yash chopra movies that he shot in the wonderful locations of switzerland. I felt like i was in those places which i used to c in movies. All thru the city, u can see the barns, stables and all those small huts in the middle of grasslands. It was really great. Felt like staying there all my life. Then after that city, we went to Porcupine Dam. All these places are adjacent and its like 15-20min gap between each city. We then went to c the dam. The interesting part was that it was private property. So we r not supposed to go thru the fields, grass etc. We anyhow went to the lake over which there was the dam. It was really breath taking. All the mountains, greenary and the lake with birds chirping. It was the scenary i used to draw when i was young. It was like heaven there. Then we went near the dam. To go near the dam, there was this huge rocky steep. We climbed down and spent some time there. It was like doing the rocky mountain hiking. Then we climbed up the mountain and left. A beautiful place and i suggest everyone to visit this place. Its like 13 miles from Logan in Utah. cya folks.

Windcaves hike

2005-06-12T15:18:00.000-06:00

long time... this time a post about my Windcaves hike in Logan. Last week, me and my roomies went for a hike. The trail was Windcaves. The mountain was more than 900ft high. It was steep enough and the trail was really adventurous. I was tired that day ( still thinking what went wrong that day). it took us like 1 to 1.5 hrs to climb the mountain. We started in the evening, the weather was fine and it was hot. When we reached the peak, we had some sandwiches and took some excellent pics. After staying there for a while, we decided to come down. it was like 8 pm. the fun part then started. It started raining and we had no jackets as we did not expect rain all of a sudden that time. We started running down the trail and i must say it was dangerous. dont try running down the trail. it took us like 45 min to come down. Then we drove back to our apt all wet. It was really adventurous that day.

looking back.....

2005-06-04T13:33:00.000-06:00

Waiting for the weekend. I had a pretty hectic week. And now i am blogging. my roomies went to SLC and here i am alone in the apt listening to "Naajanay Kyon" by Strings. Perfect song that presently goes with my mood. I dont know why but sometimes i fear of commitments i guess. I always think, am i doing the stuff that i really want to do or is it that i really should do them. I enjoy my field of study. but sometimes i dont get to do what i want. may be fear or something thinking what if i am wrong. what would be the consequences. is it really worth doing that? yesterday my mood was down. well i cant explain why. so i was listening to some depressing songs. also due to my work i could not spend as much time on my project i should have put but thats ok, as i am confident that i could recover the lost time. sometimes i really fear doing stuff. i dont know why. but i should realize the fact that u dont know how tough the work is unless u start it. i sometimes fear of the start i guess. i am trying to overcome and succeeded a little bit. lemme c. yesterday i played "Serious Sam 2" with two of my friends on network. I really love playing games and serious sam is one of my fav's. I played Serious Sam 1 while i was in Hyderabad during my BTech. Those were the days with no responsibilities and just passing away the time. And now i feel responsible and i think twice doing stuff which i had done back home. If something wrong happens to me, i always feel why this happened to me even though i am not worth it. Is someone testing me? I really dont know. Why why why? I think everyone goes thru their tough times. Probably i had such an experience yesterday. This was my mood yesterday. Now i think i feel good.

Hey a great insight into my life i guess. This was a kind of serious, philosophical, depressing post i have ever written...hope u people dont read this as this one is a depressing post. Hye but now i am back. I feel good and now changed the song. This one is by Bryan Adams, perfect song. I like this song very very much. Here it goes.

Here I am
This is me
There's nowhere else on earth I'd rather be
Here I am
It's just me and you
Tonight we make our dreams come true

It's a new world
It's a new start
It's alive with the beating of young hearts
It's a new day
It's a new plan
I've been waiting for you
Here I am

Here we are
We've just begun
And after all this time
Our time has come
Yeah here we are
Still goin' strong
Right here in the place where we belong

Oh it's a new world
It's a new start
It's alive with the beating of young hearts
It's a new day
And a new plan
I've been waiting for you
Here I am

Here I am
Yeah

Here I am
This is me
There's nowhere else on earth I'd rather be
Here I am
It's just me and you
Tonight we make our dreams come true

Oh it's a new world
It's a new start
It's alive with the beating of young hearts
It's a new day
It's a new plan
I've been waiting for you

Oh it's a new world
It's a new start
It's alive with the beating of young hearts
It's a new day
It's a new plan
I've been waiting for you
(Waiting, waiting waiting)
Here I am

Here I am
Right next to you
Suddenly the world is all brand new
Here I am
Here I am
Where I'm gonna stay
Now there's nothin' standing in our way
Here I am
This is me

cya folks.

Trip to Yosemite National Park in California

2005-05-31T21:18:00.000-06:00

Ha back home. This has been due for a long time. Since it was a long weekend, me and my roomies planned a trip to Yosemite National Park in California. Wow that was an excellent trip by far. Its a 15-16hr drive from my place. My roomies bought a car "Ford Contour LX" and then we started on friday evening. We also saw Carson city in Nevada as we went thru it. It was really a good place. Ya i guess far better than Logan, where i live. Then we saw Lake Tahoe which is in South Lake Tahoe in Nevada. We took some awesome pics and the lake was really really breathtaking. Then we went to Mariposa, our camping destination. We reached there, had some pizza's for the night and put up the tent and slept. The next morning we went to the park. It was really good. Took some excellent pics there and then we planned to head to Sacramento. On the way, we stopped at a place called Merced to eat. We then decided to stay there only. We had great Indian dinner and then to pass away time, we saw a movie "The Longest Yard". It was a good movie starring Adam Sandler. After the movie, we booked a hotel and slept. I saw a little bit of Terminator in the hotel room and went to sleep. The next day, we headed back to Logan. On the way, we stopped at a place called Modesto and had some Indian food. It was damn cheap. Then reached logan at 5 in the morning and slept at 6. Great trip to California via Nevada. This was a brief description of the trip. Thats it cya folks. have a great summer.

Games I play

2005-05-26T03:09:00.000-06:00

After coming here I started playing various games that i did not play back home. I play Volley ball, Pool, table-Tennis, Bowling.

Volley ball is real fun these days. My seniors were all graduating and they were about to leave. So it was a kind of mixed feelings as we were playing our last games with them.

Pool is too good to play. Its a reserved game. Whenever i find time, i play pool as it is very kewl.

Bowling...hmmm i guess now i am a big fan of the game.

Table tennis or Ping-pong is the game where i rock i guess. Me and my room mates play but i play very often with anand.

The other games i should start playing are Badminton and Lawn Tennis. I will probably do that in the near future. I dont play Basket ball that much but i played a little bit of it.

And finally our game Cricket. I play cricket quite often these days during summer. Its really good to play the game. All americans living in our apartments sometimes watch and they enjoy the game though they dont understand anything.

As usual the other games I play are the computer games. I had quite an experience in the gaming contests and the Microsofts Xbox games too.

On top of all these, I am working on a project during summer where i have to design a game called "Dungeons & Dragons". Its really kewl. So gaming everywhere.

Italian dinner & Bowling night

2005-05-26T02:45:00.000-06:00

The other day me and my friends planned to eat outside. We went to an italian restaurant "Olive Garden". I never had Italian food before and it was quite amazing. We all first ordered an appetizer. The appetizer had chicken, stuffed mushrooms and Mozzarella. I had Mozzarella and then mushrooms but i did not know that the mushrooms had some kind of fish i guess. I felt really bad when i ate that. I guess i had fish too. Then I ordered a soup called "Minestrone" which basically was a mixture of all veggies. There were no vegetarian dishes to eat for dinner. Then me and my friend called the waiter and asked for any veggie dishes. Finally he came up with one non-veg dish called "Shrimp Primavera" which had all vegetables with Shrimp. The waiter said that it would be a good veggie dish if the Shrimp was removed. We had no choice and so we asked him to get the dish without the shrimp. So our dish became "Shrimp Primavera without Shrimp" hhahahhahahaha. That was really funny. My friends had wine and they all ate non-veg. Finally after the dinner, we ordered the deserts. I ordered a "Chocolate Lasagna" for myself. I must tell u that it was really awesome. I enjoyed it very much. After dinner while on our way back home, we all felt tired and bored. So suddenly we thought of going to a near by Bowling game store.

I really enjoyed playing Bowling. I never played it before but i must tell u that i play really well. We played for quite sometime late in the night. I became a fan of that game. After that we came back and had a general schmooze and went to sleep. Perfect day for me i guess but the most i enjoyed was the Bowling game. Its toooo good.