The "Unuusual" Blog

Its tough!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 02:06:00 +0000

Engineering is tough, I mean really tough in the second year level, if you consider yourself to be in the hardest branch possible and to be in a Jewish college ruled by Nazis. The latter was a little exaggerated but I guess it fits my college. When you can have classes and exams on Sunday, quizzes any moment and your constant job is to write the records of not one, not two, but three labs, then you know how much is the cost of poison and at what height your hostel building stands.

Anyway the point I am hating my college is not because of all the burden its giving me but because it doesn't provide me with a net connection, neither a slow one in which I cna write blogs nor a fast one in which I can watch IPL on youtube. So I find myself sitting in the morning in some Cyber Cafe instead of a coffee cafe typing away.

Will try to be more regular.

Second thoughts: whats up with all the spam comments??? Anyone knows how to stop them...

The ugly truth

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:34:00 +0000

Exams are over…just kind of waiting for the labs to finish off so that we can run to our homes and forget about how we spent the last 5 months in agony and pain and all such synonyms that one experiences in a semester of his/her engineering life. But as you wait and realize you are missing home badly, you experience exactly the opposite when you get to home; you miss college.

this dilemma has been experienced by I guess all of us in at least one stage. In school, in college or in profession. But it spans over a wider range than that. When you get to college you miss school, when you get a job you miss college and the journey continues. Has any of you ever sat down and thought why this happens. I decided and I came up this answer.

The whole problem lies with the fact that we don't know the future, yet being certain of the past we tend to visualize the good moments that we have gone by and forget all the good moments that we can come up with in the future. (I can’t believe I formed the previous sentence on my own. Wow Baby!!!) What I basically mean to say is, let go of the past. We do what we have to do so that we can do what we want to do.

Second thoughts: Can’t believe I wrote the ~~shit~~ stuff above.

Windows Writer

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:05:00 +0000

I was trying out the new windows 7 live add ins among which is the windows writer. A good thing to use to write your blog is all I can say about it. But windows would have to come up with more features than that if it wants to take a fight on Google. Bing is hardly ever used by anyone I can say and so it was a good strategy to support Blogger in Writer.

I wont go bragging about its features mainly because of two reasons

1. It is basically Outlook new mail window with little touch ups.( That is what I felt)

2. There’s already a lot of other people shouting out about it.

I think I have better things to do than shout about some Microsoft app. Like writing this blog using Writer….

New year's resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Its high time for the new year resolutions to be decided and put to action. My first new year resolution would be make to this thing where I write not so regularly to be decent enough to be called a blog. Its been months since my last post and perhaps even longer since someone read any of my posts. (Although I don't know how my post on Mr. Obama got so many comments and that too in Chinese. Obviously I can't read Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin), so any of you if can decipher the mystery please tell me. I think it's spam. Whatever!)

My next step would be t give time to my family. It's been a year since I met them. I have been out of business trips while my wife stays alone at home doing the house chores. Don't worry I was just wondering how my posts will be once I get married.

My second new year resolutions would be to stop making new year resolutions from next year onwards. Enough of this craziness. Make a rule and live by it. Having said that, I wait eagerly to find how the year turns out for me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Raksha Bandhan

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:02:00 +0000

Indians have a lot of things to do with threads. Perhaps the thread entirely originated from India. Its application is immense. Go to any temple. They sell threads of your favourite colour, the most common being red. Don't know why, but people feel happy in showing of their threads. Then there's another application of thread which brahmins wear around their bodies. Legend says its sacred. But that's a legend. It mostly acts like a batch to show off you are a higher caste.

So what is so different about Raksha Bandhan??? There are many. First, it's not only thread it is something fixed above the thread which makes up the "rakhee". Next you don't tie it up yourself, you have got your sisters to finally do some work and tie it up on your hands. Later you find out that you are protected for your entire life cause they tied this up. Too much eh??? But that's not all. Cause they warded off the evils causing any threat on you, you have to give them gifts(read money, yes, it's all about money). Heard of extortion? The thread protects you, and you pay them. And you wonder where the mafia concept came from...

Looking in the pages of history, I found this queer incident related to raksha bandhan. Alexander was saved from Indian king Puru because of a Rakhee which Alexander's wife had sent to Puru. There are numerous other events like that of Krishna and Draupadi but I guess we all know that. So what lessons do you learn from the history class on rakhee??? If you have a girlfriend or better yet a wife, you tell her to tie the rakhee on the hands of the person who hates you most. You can have a sound sleep after that. Come on, make use of the traditions for your benefit. That's why they are there.

P.S. :- Wondering why one day late post??? Hands were full of rakhees yesterday. Obviously can't type with your hands tied.

The Movie-aholic

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:39:00 +0000

The last one year I have seen myself turned into a moive-aholic. What??? There's no such word like that. Come on! There oughta be something like that. I hate to call myself a movie addict. Anyways I was watching movies like all the time. So much that I didn't even get time to log on and update my blog. Now as I see it lies in ruins. Its glory lies in the dusts now waiting to be consumed by the army of the fresh bloggers joining everyday. But that is now not going to happen. Because the time has come for me to return, rise from the ashes, as they say in those mythological action flicks. It's going to be the return of the Jedi and the empire strikes back if you see from the dark side. Hehehehehehe....So much of the movies jargon in the post I guess. Ok. Hope you guys help me out.

P.S. : Thanks to all those people who still visited thw website in the dark days and kept earning me some loose change.

Back to work

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:18:00 +0000

About 3 weeks have passed. You made big plans to spend your holidays. "Not a minute to waste" was the motto before you started. A lot of books to read. So you carry them back home. The days have passed, very quickly it seems. The books remain as they were not being turned by a page, having found a layer of dust as its only companion. Time was well spent but, every minute of it "wasted" in relation to the original plans. A time well wasted we must say. But the nearer comes the end the more you realize "the entire time you have being wasting time". That's a common behavior you find among all the adolescents.

But we always forget the law of the time, which goes on something like, "The amount of work done is irrespective of the time left". This is found to be true in most cases (All ideal cases, but since we live in a practical world, this theory doesn't apply entirely to any job. It ceases to exist as the time left decreases thus forcing a person to work thus proving the theory. I guess this is one of those paradoxes which the scientists say you can never solve).

Switching back to the topic this "Holiday Wasted" feeling is quite common. The moment you start getting that feeling consider it your rebirth. In today's world most of the induhviduals have this feeling. But the dudes aren't infected by these induhvidulas and are proud to boast how they wasted their time. probably that is why they are called dudes. But a induhvidual sometimes tries to acta a dude and he/she too starts boasting. But inside they are full of disgust. There is no easy way of identifying name. So be careful and watch out from these people if you are a dude.

But then everyone considers him/her to be a dude today.

Beginning of the odyssey

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:13:00 +0000

As Mr. President begins his work in office today I couldn't resist to make comeback. Its been days and it was high time I wrote something. Never in history I guess such an event was given so much hype by the news channels, especially the hindi ones (not talking of INDIA TV). So, I guess it is a new theorem, the more the coverage the more the pressure to perform. Not that the pressure to perform is any less on this guy. But as he said, the power to deliver is with him. Change is here, and all he needs is he support. Hope he goes all the way. Obama has been always compared to Lincoln and even took the oath to office on the same bible which Lincoln had used. So all the best guy. Hope you have a good time out there.

P.S.:- It's good to be back.

The Indain media

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:06:00 +0000

Which is the greatest competitor to the documentary channels like NatGeo, Discovery and Animal Planet? The Indian media. I didn't have much of a chance to watch all the foreign news channels, but I can assume safely that they will be better than our hindi ones. The prime time special on news channels, has to do something of documentary type, like the world ending, a murderer being revealed exclusively and sometimes about the mummies of Egypt.

Every time India wins, be it about cricket or recently at the Olympics, the news is like all over the screen and the commentator screams in that irritating voice. And nowadays the subtitle feature. The words being printed in bold while it is being shouted. Great directorial ideas actually. All the channels, have applied the same concept these days.

I have no personal vendetta against IndiaTV but it really pisses me off. Criss Angel is one of the common guys appearing, the video perhaps being stolen from youtube or something. And what really adds to the disgust is there shouting to disclose the mystery, when its already all over youtube. I had sent them a mail to stop displaying such things when its allready on youtube, but they neither replied nor stopped in their act.

So, now its up to some media regulatory board to stop such channels.

P.S.:- Is it just me or are the news channels really increasing exponentially?

Wanted : Some real physics laws

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:53:00 +0000

So another movie of Miss Jolie and raving reviews later, it time for me to watch it on my small screen. For intro purposes, IMDB has rated Wanted at 7.3. I think it is a little bit higher than mine.

I learned one thing in watching such movies. Never think. Watch and forget. Better leave your brain at home while you go to such movies. One scene which really appealed to me was the scene where FOX(Angelina Jolie) shoots the bullet in a circle, killing everyone and herself as well. It defies all the rules of physics. Talking about physics, I never knew you can bend bullets like that. But then you never know a lot of things they show in movies.

Getting back to the scene I was talking about, thanks to my brother for pointing this out, it defies all Newtonian mechanics. According to inertia of motion, the bullet should have continued in a curved path endlessly. But it stopped right after it hit Fox's head. Anyone knows the reason? Simple. The other heads were empty. only Jolie has got a brain.

That makes her a deadly combination, don't you think? Beauty with brains.

The end of the beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:12:00 +0000

It has been about four months since I logged in into the blog to write something. As you probably guessed I was suffering from the "deadly" disease known as writer's block. People have been known to suffer writer's block for decades, most notable amongst them the case of Henry Roth, whose writer's block lasted for 60 years. Seems a small time interval in my case if we compare.

Coming back to the matter at hand, writer's block can sometimes really piss you off. You may write about how pissed off you really are, thus ending the block, but believe me it ain't worth writing. Oh, I just realized I am doing exactly the same thing. Sorry.

August 1 seems a nice day to me. i don't know why. Do you? But I felt a great urge to just type something. So I am here just typing off, whatever I can. (Note yo myself:-Buy an ergonomic keyboard next asap).

I haven't done bad till now, I guess. I mean there is always worse. I think I made my point.

Great technology!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Simply hilarious!

Faster than me???

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:43:00 +0000

79 words

Speed test

Just went through a typing test. it really hard to type in a laptop keyboard, at least for me.

Try your speed by clicking the link.

Chain Messages

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Some people come up with really great chain messages. Fortunately, I can only enjoy being one of the victims. Here is the latest one being passed around.

PLZ...PLZ..PLZ...pass it on ...it costs u nothing ..an indian student in USA met with an accident last week.... the car was driven by an american boy.... he has no one in US ... his parents cant afford to go to US and help him out ..... however the university he studied has decided to pay the half amount but the other half has to b paid b someone .....THE INDIAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION has decided to pay10 cents everytime this message is passed on... YAHOO has agreed to this and this is the time to show tht u r a true indian ....plz b generous and send this to all people

So now we have got the origin of this message. It is the Indian Students Association. But there are some many ISA's it is hardly the point in finding which one. But did it ever occur to the people who keep it passing on that, how are they going to track the number of times it was forwarded.

Besides I like the point of paying half the amount and let the parents figure out the other. It is a great story for a Bollywood movie if you can get SRK to act in it.

Provided it all occured, try to imagine the plight of the parents. They will be forwarding it to everyone they know. And who knows maybe spamming the chat rooms too.

Till now I have got this message about 10 times. Not that I have got a really large friends list, but some people just love using the send all feature some time.

Second thoughts:-
Wheres the logic???

Best way to propose

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:14:00 +0000

Came by some interesting ad at youtube. Suits the Valentine day just passing by.

Vday problems??? Simple solution...

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:41:00 +0000

Feb 14 in India saw a lot of protests from "activists" such as Bajrang Dal. Cards were burnt, flowers were thrown out, lovers were humiliated and some were smeared with black paint. Did I miss something??? Oh, I guess lot. But I am not writing it here to protest about it.

Bajrang Dal has nothing against loving each other. It is all about the day that makes it so special for them. You can go around the whole year publicly displaying your affection, even in front of these "active" people with little or no consequences. Yet on exactly Feb 14 even if you dare to walk out with your sister, you better be prepared (along with your sister) for the worst. So we can sum up that like a lady has periods, this Bajrang Dal people have also got periods, except it comes once a year and that is on feb 14.

Since all they want is not celebrate Valentine's day cause it is not in our culture, why don't we just shift it??? Shift it to a day like October 2, Gandhi Jayanti. Gandhi was a patron of peace and love (even though he was a failure in his own love life). By saying shift it, all I mean is withhold the celebrations till the other date. Or finding a still better date, let's celebrate it on Children's day. I think Bajrang Dal will be too busy in other activities on these days, to look into other matters.

So, it was just a suggestion. Bajrang Dal, you simply suck! I hope you guys never marry and die your entire life protesting against love. And by the way, guys do let me know on what date you settle on.

Second thoughts :- What does the VHP stand for? "Valentine Hindu Party".

30 Days of Night

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:13:00 +0000

After having a long vacation, and as many of my friends thought, retirement from blogging, I finally decided to come back. This time around I thought I would write about movies.

30 Days of night is a good movie if you are an an insomniac and haven't slept for 30 days. Frankly, I am not much interested in horror movies, cause the plots don't get to me. But this one was a little different you can say. I liked the idea of having a realistic place of action at Barrow, Alaska, though there was little or no resemblance (as the pictures looked to me). I doubt people out there will live quite that peacefully after watching this movie.

Moving from the plot, the screenplay was ok types. Since it was inspired from the graphic novel which became so famous, it was bound to be good. The vampires are no good if you have watched a lot of other horror movies. They all seem like the rest. You get an idea about what's going to happen as the movie moves along and for me there was little or no suspense. The movie probably drew crowds cause of Josh Hartnett and Charlize Theron. Acting was good by them and the side actors.

So, if you have nothing to do and just got a lot of download limit left, go ahead and watch this movie. It will do you no good though. It is one of those movies which you shouldn't buy but rent if you really watch to watch.

Rating 2.0 out of 5.0

Damn NeoSports!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:51:00 +0000

I am currently watching the cricket match between India and Australia on Neo Sports. And yes I am really pissed. DD National is far far better than Neo Sports. The quality of Neo Sports is better of course in my Tata Sky connection. But the number of ads it is airing is uncountable. I thought SetMax gave the highest during the world cup, but I was completely wrong. Neo Sports is skipping overs to show breaks. It has happened thrice already an in 35 overs and so I am swiched on to DD National now.

The most amusing thing is Neo Sports is airing two channels, Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus. And both are showing the same thing, even the breaks are same. Is this some way of extracting double money??? Or there is nothing else to show??? Who knows??? But really what were they thinking when they gave the broadcasting rights to this channel???

Second thoughts: May India win....

T20-The future???

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:54:00 +0000

All this while 50 overs cricket has been tiring, not for the players as much as for the viewers. Especially when batsmen like Rahul Dravid came out to bat. And just when people were realizing cricket was a time consuming game, out came the twenty 20. ANd thank God that my South Africa trip clashed with the ICC T20 world cup. (Well not exactly, you know everyone loves to brag about things. But yeah I was there in the India matches.)

So it was quite an experience to watch the run feast, especially those sixes by Yuvraj Singh. The bowlers were almost crying, most of them, you can say. But the whole event was a tiring process, not only for the players but also for the spectators. You could not rest you eyes. Well you could, but you wouldn't be there if you did that thing in the first place.

So seven days after the final we finally got some time to enjoy, visiting the countryside and finally I am back to where I belong. And I did hear about the procession of the team in Mumbai. Well the thing to lookout for now is the upcoming series against Australia. I think India had a close save with the rain Gods helping them. But nobody really discussed about that match because everyone was still remembering about the T20 cup. Just keep on thinking about the past, forget about the future. Hasn't that been the Indian policy for long.

Second thoughts:-
BCCI offered 1crore and a Porsche 911 to Yuvraj Singh. Guess what The ICL gave??? All the above, plus a candle light dinner with Kim Sharma.

Independent yet???

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:22:00 +0000

Seven days back we(Indians) celebrated our 60th Indpendence Day. A fortnight back all the news channels were full of all the info they could find in their archives. Talk shows were raining in every channel. Today hardly is there a word about it anywhere except in the Times, which has started a campaign "Lead India". But thats beside the point.

The point is everybody is trying to be independent today. Not of foreign rule, not of the corrupt society, but of their responsibilities. While our great Prime Minister was giving a speech and making promises on the special eve, did he ever look back and reflect upon what he had said and done on the previous I-day. Or did anybody care about that? Oh, how can they be, when it was a national holiday and everyone was spending some extra time with their family. Promises are made every independence day and broken right before the next year's one. The only time when the promises of the countrymen are fulfilled is just before the elections. So should we shift our independence day???

While it is our full responsibility to blame the politicians, it is also our responsibility to blame ourselves. While saying this I remember of the Simpsons Movie when the Greenday Band is just going to preach about the Environment. I find myself in a similar situation. Yet, you all understand what I aim to say. So its our country and our future.

Potter Mania

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:28:00 +0000

Hmmmm.....So where was I in all these days??? My last post was July 7 and then I went to sleep. Well no exactly. To sleep and read will be appropriate, I guess. I was bitten by the potter-mania, but in a entirely different way.

When a series comes out, like a movie or book series, I don't start off at once. Instead I wait until the final release is out, and then I start from the beginning. So you think I am crazy huh? Hmmmmm. I have been doing that for quite long now. I ahve watched the movies of Potter, but never read a book. So I started with the first one and it was quite an experience.

J.K. Rowling has done well in finishing off the series in seven books. I think it would have dragged too long, had there been another one. I completed the last book reading on my ipod. Yeah, I read the pirated version. So what? But now I have all the seven books in paperback.

There are spoilers all around the internet. J.K. Rowling did quite a publicity stunt in saying that two of the major characters are going to die. I don't know which two she was talking about. Moody, Lupin ,Tonks or did she mean you-know-who as one of the two? Well whatever she meant, you can say it created a lot of suspense. And the most exciting part was the twist of Severus Snape. I guess nobody expected it.

Anyway, coming here after such a long time, I had a surprise waiting for me. I got included in the googlr page rank and now I have a page rank of zero. So if I keep up, I may become famous, who knows??? All I need is your support.

Living Live Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:06:00 +0000

My first pledge to save the earth??? To watch Live earth all 24 hours. I have already made all the other pledges and I am taking time off in the break to write all this.

The kickoff was really great. "Genki Rockets" really gave a rocket start to the concert in Tokyo. It was the song "Heavenly Star". Never heard it before but really liked it. Here is the song I got off youtube.

And I also liked the official song of Live Earth sung by Madonna. Here it is.

I don't know if I can remain awake for more than 24 hours, but let's see. It hasn't bored me till now for a single second. Hope you are watching too. But even if you aren't, don't hesitate to save this planet.

The end of "Swan"

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:47:00 +0000

I always liked watching lawn tennis. Wimbledon is one of the special events, and I guess no fan will miss it. But the real attraction for me was Maria Sharapova in her inspired "Swan Lake" dress. With all the frills in it, the viewers were in thrills. She had already attracted my attention many a times before by her play and her "Russian" looks, but this was something entirely different for me. I have never seen the Swan Lake ballet and neither do I regret it. This girl here gave me more than a ballet on the court.

But its a shame she is out now. I would have liked to catch a little more of that dress. At least till the finals. But she played like a duck (not a swan), more like a duckling against Venus. It was a whitewash and Maria is now gone swimming back. But even if she isn't the winner, I bet nobody can't beat her in sporting a better outfit.

"Wild" Safari For Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 04:05:00 +0000

Firefox must be sweating out hard to develop even a faster version. It was always ahead of internet explorer but with Safari coming out, it looks like, firefox has been left behind. While I have been away on a vacation, Apple came up with its Safari which actually has a statrtup time as well as page loading time, shorter than firefox. Now Apple has been really inventing things since its iPod and it can be said Safari has a long way to go.

But Safari may have some issues on some computers, At first I couldn't see any characters at all. Also sometimes the installation hangs in the end. But Apple seems to have fixed those bugs and the new setup gave no problems to me. it works fine on 256 mb RAM, though its better if you have higher.

The interface is cool. I have been always a fan of apple gadgets, the first being itunes. Safari is way similar to the older itunes in look, witha greyish texture. The fonts are also cool and I am sure anyone will like it. Tabbed browsing like in all other browsers is present. A search toolbar like the one in firefox is also present by default. With all these options it can only be called a really "Wild" Safari.

Vista the WINNER

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Owl) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:05:00 +0000

Everyone has read those "Vista vs Linux" and similar articles. In most of the cases the clear winner is the rival to Vista or I general we can say Windows always looses. Hmmm... Sounds true, doesn't it??? Well its just like the text book. You read something but when you come to the field you find something else.

Vista is clearly the winner in the actual world. Reason? Well there are many. The guys who write against windows aren't many. Most people have to keep windows because of the compatibility issue. So, chances are that, people who write against windows, use windows. Wine can't yet run all the applications of windows and so it is always safer to have Windows for everyone.

So you will say, more and more people are switching from window over to linux??? Agreed. But just consider the number who are just starting to use computers for the first time. They all use windows, right??? A kid always has his first learned operating system as windows. So when anyone sees a windows desktop they see a familiar screen and immediately the term user-friendly comes into play. Even though linux has become considerably user-friendly but who has got the time to see that???

"Vista copied", is a familiar term. It copied from Mac, from Linux and from God-knows-where. So what??? See the brighter side. This is what I got as reply from a professor when I said the exact same thing. "So what, now Vista has got the features of all the operating systems. So why shall I go for others, when i find it in vista." i wont comment anything on it. Just leave you to think about it and give your own comments.