Bob's Ark

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 22:27:00 +0530

This is a few seconds after you declared that your finger smells of soy sauce. You are gross.

Love,
Dada

Converts

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Tue, 2 Apr 2013 14:11:00 +0530

Had a bunch of new relatives converted to astrophiles. Hemant and family were down from Bangalore. Spent a quick 45 minutes viewing Jupiter (not very clear, most probably due to localised heat-caused turbulence) and Saturn (beautiful and sharp - one of the best times to view this planet).

The Orion Nebula looked all pretty too, but I wish it had the colours it showed in this recent NASA pictures

Of course, no amount of wishing will make my telescope produce anything close to this. This is because of the Telescope Monetary Principle, which says that the amount of detail you see is directly proportional to the fourth root of the cost of your telescope. My Orion XT8 Classic Dobsonian cost about $500. The Hubble cost about $2500000000.

Happy birthday to me

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 02:38:00 +0530

I pulled the telescope out as a birthday thing to do. Since Vega was the only star visible from the window,I focused on, and later, around it. Stumbled upon a 2 -star system called Double Double that looked interesting. But I didn't jump to conclusions... Just because they look close, they shouldn't necessarily be a binary. Well, in this case, they were.

And not just binary. A quadruple star system. 2 twins revolving around each other, separated by a tenth of a light year apart. Too bad the nearby Ring Nebula was not visible...

Mr Ajay, Mr Ajay and Vaidehi

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:27:00 +0530

Had some astro-visitors today. Quite thankful. Almost felt like my telescope infatuation was on the way down. Ajay Bhatia (friend made at last Vangani trip) landed up to try his hands at the XT8 and Ajay Varma and Vaidehi showed up to reclaim a borrowed pair of binocs and then some.

Viewing was mostly decent because it was a New Moon night. Light pollution wasn't it's usual ugly self, but it was bad enough to reduce the entire Eastern sky to a faint orange, featureless scape.

High points - Jupiter, Orion's Nebula and a very early Saturn. Was quite shocked to find Saturn had naked-eye-visibility at 11 pm. Far cry from 3 and 4 am from about 3 months ago.

There's some talk of a Kelva trip next week. Hope that works out.

And now, it's 6 in the morning. Time to crash. Just downloaded a motherload of Physics books from Motionmountain. Tomorrow will be reading time.

Full moon

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:03:00 +0530

Taken with ipad, without adapter on 25.2.13. Also saw Orion Nebula again. Looked for more Messier FFTs but the full moon made sure that wouldn't happen. Also had Ajays binocs for a wide angle view.

2013

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:12:00 +0530

One trip to Vangani on Feb 12th, a trip to the terrace for an invisible DA14, and a killer trip to Bhivpuri, with some great learning a from Vikram from Earth and Beyond. Saw the Hubble telescope, learnt to find the Orion Nebula and also saw Saturn again.

Saturn and more

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 01:20:00 +0530

This last week has been exciting. Saw Saturn from Dehu Road at 4 morning, 10th Jan and then saw Andromeda and Orion Nebula and Pleides from Vangani on the 12th of Jan.

Supersonic

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:37:00 +0530

Ek Haat se taali baj sakti hai

Community astro watch

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 23:49:00 +0530

Got a whole gang scoping from the terrace tonight. Pinakin, sim, Sonia, Kabir, brownie and me. Spotted a clear three stripe Jupiter and the usual suspects. Rigel, betelguese, Orion's Belt, Sirius, Procyon..

Moon was waning off full. Viewing mostly on Barlow 2x.

Astrophotography

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 01:00:00 +0530

First experience with photographing Jupiter tonight. After an hour of blurred shots, Shawn finally nailed it with his Canon set to Iso 6400, about 5 secs exposure and some focussing. Photos soon.

First successful pic of J and his moons taken at 2326 hours yesterday.

Jupiter

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:35:00 +0530

Saw 3 stripes across Jupiter tonight.

Terrace

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:35:00 +0530

Finally, an open sky. Saw more celestial bodies tonight than I think I have seen in the last 10 years. Think I saw 4 or 5 planets. Now watching Alex Filippenko. He is awesome.

Saturn. Almost.

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Sun, 9 Dec 2012 05:15:00 +0530

Saw Saturn tonight. About 5 minutes ago. Coming up Virgo's skirt, from the left. However, no real cause for celebration. Saturn looked like a really bright yellow star. No rings, no moon, no disc.

Went to the Cypress secretary today to ask for access to the terrace. Fingers crossed.

Copernicussing

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Mon, 3 Dec 2012 00:03:00 +0530

Cloudy skies last night. Just the moon to be seen. A reddish yellow two thirds of a moon.
Think I located the crater Copernicus. Also, saw clouds wisp by the moon for the first time in such beautiful detail.

Moon ... Mostly

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Sun, 2 Dec 2012 01:25:00 +0530

Yesterday... Saw the craters on our beautiful moon heavily dimensioned, due to the shadows. Too bad the Aitken crater is on the far side. Waiting for Jupiter Opposition tonight. Hope skies are clear.

Pic of Jupiter sighting

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:52:00 +0530

http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/pass/images/MoJu-Jupiter.jpg

Resurrecting this blog

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:45:00 +0530

For astronomy reporting

Log
2000 hours
Saw Jupiter and its 4 satellites Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto lined up perfectly in a line like a string of diamonds.

Backlog
Tuesday - Sighted almost full moon
Wednesday - sighted moon, Jupiter
Thursday - full frosty moon, Jupiter and aldebaran
Friday - that's today. The sky was clear enough to let me see a glimpse of he red stripes, vertically aligned, across Jupiter.

Attaching a pic that came closest to what I saw. The stripes I saw we're clearer and red.

From the centre of my universe.

Didn't think such clear skies were possible in Mumbai.

Podcast testing

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 00:58:00 +0530

http://www.geocities.com/melvai/BUNZ.mp3

Today we will talk about waterfalls

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:04:00 +0530

Kidding. I know nothing about waterfalls that you might not already know - except that there's this tiny waterfall somewhere in the world which goes down to up. We'll talk about mistakes. What is a mistake? And when do you ever know if you have made one? To me, it becomes really blurred - was that a mistake or was that 'change'? Was it a bad thing that ruined the way I could've been or is it one of those things that you look back at and say "and I thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen ...".

Once again I have learnt. There are no mistakes. Maybe tomorrow I'll think there are only mistakes. But today, when my mouth smells of onions, and my shirt is fashionably creased, I think - THERE ARE NO MISTAKES.

With Cess gone...

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:57:00 +0530

Let me count the things I can do, now that Cess is off on her holiday.

I can pick up immoral women at Koshy's (but I don't have any money)
I could not bathe for a week (but i already did that)
Leave my room in disarray (strangely, I like my room clean, these days)
Not worry about forgetting my phone at home (this, I have never done - I'd forget my wallet, but never my phone)

Quit my job? Do I dare, do I dare?
Write a book (but i have too much unfinished business to give something new a good shot)
Watch TV (the one at home was shipped to Patna)
Watch a movie (no money)
I could read some Harry Potter - I love that scarred bastard
A green world of Firebolts and Dumbledore

No point. Might as well study. This - yes - I will study.

the last 15 days

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Sat, 28 May 2005 17:36:00 +0530

a realisation of sorts has dawned on me. while i can't tell you what it is, i can just about tell you that there has been one. so much has happened and so much unfolds ahead - these must be times of great instance. I have just returned from a trip to Bombay - from a wedding and my mom's 50th birthday.

the wedding was nice. the food was really nice. but the bastards serving us conned us into eating too much puri & bisibhele bhat - so when the time came to eat sambar-rice, i was already fidgeting with the belt. i got kappu & amol (the couple) a vcd set of Alfred Hitchcock's movies and I wish them a great life together.

Met loads of old timers too. Best - meeting Piyush, my pet hate from vIndia. It's so strange what time does to one person - it's stranger what it can do to two.

Mom gave us all a bit of a scare complaining about chest pains and throwing words like Angioplasty around. Hypochondriac!!! It gives me great relief in announcing that there is nothing wrong with her heart.

So Mom's 50th birthday - the finale to my Bombay trip... it began with some serious gift shopping. It then picked up momentum when I met up with the band. Nigel (Jhaantiya) the drummer from Split had it up all night long and I can't remember when I forgot to hate him, but it's back.

24th May was a blur. High points - Mom taking out all 50 candles in one giant huff-puff and the following speech. My cousin, half of Split and I also got caught sans helmet, license. Fined 300 rupees by the hard working traffic police. Bangalore could do with some of the Bombay Traffic Police. They look so fucking mean, but dep inside they just wanna get paid. The Bangalore cops lack that look which says - "I can make life bad for you if you don't make mine just a little bit better".

DC -suck mine.

Home (followed by th Product Awards)

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Mon, 16 May 2005 15:20:00 +0530

The next 2 weeks pull me back to Bombay - my mom's 50th birthday on the 24th, a friend getting married on the 22nd. Then there's cousins with newly delivered babies and friend's not met in over a year. I wish I wish that someone makes a teleporter and sets the first 2 pods in Bangalore and Mumbai. Like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, I will zip naked across thousands of kilometres.

In Bombay, I will eat good food. My mom's food. Then I'll curse the heat and the traffic (something I've done quite often of late in Bangalore). Then, with nothing else to do, unless forced by circumstance, I will sleep on my bed.

Now - for the Product Awards

1 - Southpark
2 - Google
3 - Yahoo (esp Radio)
4 - Nokia
5 - The Matrix Trilogy
6 - Counter Strike
7 - RATM

These have touched and changed my life and I would be a very different person if it wasn't for them - so they win a PA each. These are the products that make me stop and think "Now how the fuck did they think of that...?" RATM might not exactly be a product, but it is somethingg that I consume... so I suppose...

Thing to do when bored

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Mon, 9 May 2005 19:30:00 +0530

Pretend that you are an actor - the lead role person in a movie. All the people walking on that road ahead and sticking their heads out of windows are actors. Pretend that the wind thats blowing is industrial stength fans camouflaged to perfection. Pretend that your mom is one of the actors too.

You won't be that bored.

PS - You HAVE to stop pretending in under 6 hours - else you are toast.

OnMobile-isms

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Fri, 6 May 2005 19:09:00 +0530

Rex Server - A virtual server (kind of like the server set up when Satish and I play Slime) that handles all recognition-grammar for our voice services.

Chamu - Affectionate nick for one of the bosses.

Morphues - A software that never tells the truth. Quite the opposite of our bald friend from the Matrix.

Nemo - A software that manages content. I like Nemo.

Afternoon Stroll - Jhamu rolls a joint in the toilet (if I'm not sleeping in it), and walks down the nearby dusty road. Occasionally, I join him.

Chloromint - A new trainee who looks uncannily like the guy from the Choloromint ads (the one who gets his head dunked in the paanwaalaa's bucket). He could do with a Chloromint or 2 too.

Today was not one of my best days. I had a lacklustre presentation with the customer and then an hour of uncomfortable sleep in the loo. Too many cigarette breaks and a growing body of unfinished work have caused an uneasy feeling (it's sitting in the front of my head right now) . Let me go do something about that.

DC- if you are reading this - tomorrow we commence Project Livable to Lovable

Taj Mahal On A Piece Of Rice

melvai@yahoo.com (melvai) — Thu, 5 May 2005 17:47:00 +0530

On why I named my blog Bob's Ark

Being a huge Southpark fan, it obviously came to me one day that I should begin work on my own animation. I decided on a 12 episode mini-series set in a post-holocaust Earth. My 4 central characters would be Bob and 3 women (Chinese, American and Indian), besides cockroaches.

Now, it is all up to Bob to procreate and save the human race from a premature death. Sounds good - except that the tremendous pressure he is under makes Bob's dick refuse to respond.

The series will be called Bob's Ark.