Game of the year

Uncharted  2: Among Thieves is awesome (Spoilers ahead). It does everything right. Perfect gameplay, gorgeous graphics, amazing sound. This is an experience that should be had by anyone even remotely interested in gaming. It only thus makes sense to make this the killer title for the PS3.

I did play Uncharted: Drake's Fortune but for some reason I wasn't quite immersed into the story aspect of it. Also maybe the reason I quit halfway thru, was looking at greenery thru low end resolution. But once I picked up Uncharted 2, I sat thru it for a nonstop 13 hours until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and had to get some sleep. Now that I have finished the game am thinking of going back and doing a playthrough of it again, just to experience the awesomeness one more time.

Graphically this game is so gorgeous that you won't realise when a cinematic cutscene gets over and you get back control. Also this game has some of the best water and snow effects I have seen. Yes, AC2 (Assassins Creed 2)  did have a lot of water effects (Venice) but this game tops it.
In the Audio dept, amazing large over the top orchestra pieces are arranged to pull you right in (For those who have played Crimson Skies you will get my drift here). Also the voice acting is just superb. Excellent lip sync.
Gameplay wise this game does everything right, you get to do parkour like AC2, ass-kicking like Batman:AA, puzzle solving like PoP and also cover based third person shooting.

The overall experience is just extremely detailed and photo realistic. Like there are some sequences which are set in Nepal and Tibet. These are just perfect, you will even be able to make out the Indian influence over here by looking at signboards and hoardings along the streets. This is what you would expect if you actually went to Kathmandu and Daramshala. ( I have personally traveled as far as Gangtok, Sikkim and the Indo-China border and can see the similarities.)

Hitting all the right notes is a very difficult task to do in video games because more often than not particular sections start to get boring and tedious. Like goto point A, press button/ move crank B, goto point C and repeat previous steps again. Also it helps that Uncharted 2 doesn't have levels but rather chapters (like Halflife) and thus the story seems all the more seamless.

I generally don't do game reviews but this is breakthrough stuff. If you do not have a PS3 yet, Uncharted 2 would be the reason to get one. For those who have a PS3 but haven't played this game yet, sell it :P

Btw I haven't played the multiplayer aspect of this yet.

Holiday

Everywhere at work there is something known as the 'Holiday Mood', ppl seem happier even on Monday mornings than usual. Shopping is everyone's priority now. So stores are packed with shoppers going berserk especially around the female shoes sections.

After getting the TV I decided to make some hardcore use of it since from next month I mostly will be back to my uber work schedule. So have decided to stay in my apt from 24-27th. Gaming n watching BluRays/DVD's is my plan.

AFA movies are concerned am doing a zombie movie marathon now; Dawn of the dead, hail George Romero; also the Resident Evil Series.
Gaming also has a zombie influence with Resident Evil 5 but also Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 are in line as well.

Also am thinking about looking next at ebook readers, maybe the Kindle or the Nook. But thats sometime away probably more like when I start using more public transit and stop driving so much.

Dark Ages

I personally don't care much for the raves, rants of the MNS, Sainiks et al. There are much more practical things to occupy my life currently than these. The entire marathi speaking thing, mumbai for marathi natives etc. however is an extremely hopeless cause for ppl who have nothing better to do than occupy their minds with this nonsense.

Am a Bong, born n brought up in Mumbai. Yes, I do know marathi (I studied this till the 10th grade) and quite comfortable with conversing in that medium and also when the occasion demands letting choice expletives fly in it. I care more about things that am concerned about like the economy improvement, my car insurance/gas rates, the prices I pay for eating out, trying to select my new crossover/suv from the vast lineup available, getting the best deals from best buy etc. you get the drift.

But if even educated ppl fall for this kind of nonsense then its just sad that even after coming this far in terms of evolution it doesn't take a lot for the human mind to go back to the dark ages.

I wrote this up after going thru this.

Tv Purchase contd.

Today I noticed that Samsung was doing a combo deal which included a free Blu Ray(BR) player alongwith the TV that I had purchased on Saturday. Now I do not need a Blu Ray player since the PS3 does BluRay for me. This free player from Samsung originally retails from BB at 200$, and was marked down to 150$ for Holiday sales.

So my intentions were to get the free player and then post an ad on craigslist/other classifieds and make some $ from this. When I got to BB this evening I went and picked up the BR player and went straight to customer service to check it out. In front of me was a dude who had bought a Panasonic plasma tv but since Panasonic was not offering any combo deals so he was looking to get a BR player. As soon as the customer service rep got me thru I went ahead and sold my BR player to the dude for 100$ cash.

Win-Win situation for all. The dude wins as he got a brand new BR player for 100$ instead of 150$, BB wins because they managed to ship another combo out, I win as I recovered some costs. Only Samsung has lost out over here since they didn't make any money on the guy who bought my BR player.

Moving on, thus in this calender year I ended up making 2500$+ purchases from BB (Nikon D90+Samsung TV). This entitles me to Silver Elite status on the rewards card. One of the perks of this being a 45 day return policy instead of the usual 30 day. Thus the way I look at this is since the Super Bowl will probably end up falling within this 45 day window if the price of the TV falls further after the Bowl I will be going back to BB to get my price-match guarantee.

I Love Best Buy.

TV purchase

I recently bought a new 46" Samsung LCD HDTV. Here's my experience.

Last Tuesday I went and bought my TV (Model 1) for x$(lets say) from Best Buy (BB). This was a deal that I had seen online and so went ahead. On Wednesday I was playing Assasins' Creed 2 when I noticed a solid black line right across the center. Now obviously since I was in the 30 day return policy period so on Thursday evening I went back to BB and asked them if they could hold one of those TV's for me since I didn't want them to get sold out. BB costumer service rep said "Sure, we'll hold it for you which you can come and pick up on Saturday morning when you bring your existing TV in".

On Saturday morning I went back to BB with the TV now to exchange it and get the one which they said they would hold for me. Now I go upto the Geek Squad desk and they verify that there indeed is a solid black line thru the center of the screen. So I get the go ahead from Geek Squad to pick up the one which I wanted. Now when I get to the TV section the sales rep tells me that those particular TV's (Model 1) are sold out. So I try to see if they are there in the other BB in the area and it seems this TV is sold out over there as well.
So now am quite pissed since a TV was promised to me and TV I shall have.

So I go ahead and take the next higher end TV (Model 2) for (x+80)$ thinking that "abhi, 80$ ke liye kaun kitkit karega". So I go home with Model 2 now. I set it up and it looks gorgeous and no black line. The next morning when am browsing thru the BB online store I notice that the price on Model 2 has fallen by 80$ and the price on Model 1 has been hiked up by 120$. So now in the evening I go back to BB and ask them to refund me back the 80$ that they had charged me the previous day since I am well within my rights to return that and buy it again for a cheaper price. And BB goes ahead and refunds me the money. (Totally the refund was 116$, tv+protection plan+sales tax refund)

Now it seems to me the software BB is using to determine these markups has a very weird loophole in it which allowed me to get the Model 2 at the same price as Model 1.

Special Mention: Alok and the Cougar for helping me cart this beast around.

Shutterbug

I recently got a new dslr and will be starting a photoblog soon. Flickr is awesome.

Politik

Politics. Some reminences from being a student body leader at Rolla. Vamshi, Sanjeev and myself did campaign for this and went from house to house with promises etc. etc. However once we got into the top posts of the President, VP and Secretary respectively we formed our cabinet (Cultural, Sports, Web etc.) and tried to have meetings regularly and the final decisions were usually a consensus among the three of us.

The UMR India Association's work for a particular term was scheduled as Spring Sem (Fresher's Party, Holi, International Student Day, sports), Summer (More sports), Fall (New student pickups, Fresher's Party, Food Festival, dandiya and finally Diwali Night). Mind you this is a non-profit org am talking about over here. These were NOT paid positions.

Of course we bickered a lot n all but still all the events above did get done. This was possible mainly because decisions were made. The UMR India Association was a democratic body no doubt but when it came to making some hard decisions it was mainly on the VP and the Secretary (Our President was on a co-op but still was there when it mattered the most, Diwali Night)

I have long since graduated from Rolla and now am working in Lansing, home of MSU, Michigan State University. There is quite a sizeable Indian student population over here as well so obviously there is an Indian student 'organization' as well.

There is something that is however very weird with the structuring of this. First of all it is a non-profit org, the student cabinet (E-board) is democratic in nature with every member of the cabinet having an equal say. However this leads me to question that tomorrow if there is a misallocation of funds or some university property goes missing during an ISO (Indian Student Org.) event then obviously the president is the one to get pulled up over here to explain this.

However the president is just another member of this cabinet now and does not have any special powers which distinguish that post from the others. So basically, the web-coordinator has just as equal a say in matters as the president. This effectively makes a a mockery of the president's post. Since the president can neither justify commanding authority over the cabinet(democratic) nor can the president standup to a panel to explain misappropriations.

The president should have some powers which distinguish that post from the others. This ensures greater responsibility and accountability from the president as well. This also ensures that come election time the people will want to put someone in charge who they think will do it properly irrespective of the cabinet formation later on.

P.S. The word organization has been specially highlited to ensure that ppl who read this post understand the context behind it. :)

Another Day

Am about a week away from the 23rd now. 23rd is my bday, but dunno if there is anything special over here. Its been a while since I left Rolla so the crazy parties are no longer in the picture.
Also 23rd being a Wednesday doesn't help, falls smack in the middle of the work week. Maybe I'll end up having a good time with friends over the weekend though. Also am quite sure that colleagues at work will bring a cake over too.Also time to go over some questions from the Gipsi.

1. Kept Fit - Ummmm...Tried to for a while

2. Attended any friend's wedding- No . I even couldn't attend a friend's wedding in the US since memorial day weekend i was away from town to Colorado. The last I attended was an engagement in 07.

3. Lived Well- For now, yes, quite well

4. Got My Car - Yup, its been a while to that now. Hopefully get another newer one by the time I get around repeating these questions next year.

5. Fell In Love- Lol, Of course, several times n then some more

6. Got promoted - Well I have been training someone so I guess am ahead of someone now.

7. Gave up my shopping obsession - Never had one to begin with

8. Stopped Being Bitchy - Never was an issue

9. Doubled my bank balance - Hell yeah (Ref. to 7)

10. Acted sensibly on a number of occasions - Yes, several actually, which is very very unlike me.

Mp3sort

Ever since I got the iPhone I have OCD'ed on having a perfectly sorted music library with even the Album Art for each and everything. This is fine when it comes to rock/pop/hiphop etc. , however having album art for a bollywood album is an entirely different matter.
iTunes is a very nice s/w (which I run under Win Xp which is running under Vbox under Ubuntu) and it works well with Album Art. But Bollywood unfortunately doesn't have a very comprehensive section within the iTunes library. Also most of the tracks from Bollywood on my HDD are downloaded from a multitude of sources which also implies screwed up id3 tags. So when am getting the playlists updated on iTunes they often get screwed up from the album's view. And since the iPhone is capable of displaying some gorgeous album art it makes even more worthwhile to get it on there.
So far I have successfully kept everything working all good and clean with all album art working properly too. OCD is turning out fine so far. :)

Car views

Before I say anything else let me state for the record I love my car. Its a 2000 model year Mercury Cougar V6, Automatic.

Ford stopped the production of these cars in 2002 just like GM stopped doing the pontiac firebird the same year. So there are very very few cars that you will see today on an daily basis that are Cougars (car). However since the population of these is less and also because of its very very distinctive styling I have often got hi5's, hand waves, head nods from other drivers at an intersection who have been driving a cougar. (I can assure you that Honda/Toyota owners do not share such an association/camaraderie)

Obv since its an old car though does mean that it has its set of problems though. Thankfully in my case those issues have been mainly electrical and common problems with the car from the day Ford started production on them rather than something new. (I had a blown AC motor, Auto door lock, and the worst being a new alternator in the past 1.2 years.) Mainly my commute is to work and back, around 13 miles in all and some trips to Detroit around the weekends.

I am a big guy so when I drive, the driver's seat has to be all the way back and all the way low. This essentially renders the immediate rear seat behind effectively useless unless the person sitting in that position has no legs. However the car has one of the largest trunk spaces I have ever seen. I mean it can easily hold an entire cycle in the trunk area(with the back seats flipped down) without needing the front cycle tire to be dismantled. I love the trunk space that can be afforded over here.

I do plan to ship the car if I end up moving out of the mid west area though and maybe sometime next year get a brand new car. (more like crossover/suv now) :)

Let us rock

I am back from Los Angeles with the axe now and with the Vox Pathfinder 10 too. So now will get back to shredding after a long hiatus.

P.S. For the past several weekends I have been out of town to Boston,Colorado,Sandusky and Los Angeles and with trips to Mackinaw and Chicago within the next couple of months it will probably be a while before I get back to blogging.

Traditions

A very interesting conversation with colleagues over lunch ensued sometime back over the whole concept of traditions.

Lets consider a sociological experiment first.
Put five monkeys in a cage with a ladder at one end which leads upto a banana. Now sooner or later at least one of those monkeys will go ahead to the ladder to scale it and grab the banana. As soon as one of the monkeys touches the ladder spray the other bunch with water. (At this point it is immaterial if the first monkey gets the banana.) Now place another banana and whenever any monkey reaches the ladder, spray the rest with water. After sometime there will be a scenario where if any of the monkeys goes towards the ladder then the rest will gang up on him and hold him back with the fear of getting sprayed.

Once this condition is manifested then remove one of the monkeys and replace him with another. Now obviously this new dude will go towards the ladder to grab the banana. But this time (no water spray) what would happen is all the other monkeys would hold him back (with the fear of getting sprayed if someone went to the ladder). Replace all the original monkeys now one by one with others and soon a pattern emerges that noone will be allowed to get to the banana. Even though there is no water being sprayed at this point.

None of them know exactly why they aren't supposed to get to the banana but the argument over here is "Since this is the way things have always been done, we continue to follow suit".

This is the whole point about tradition, most of us do follow several customs etc. but as to what reasons are behind this we hardly ever know.

Driver Rants

I like driving.A lot. So it drives me nuts when I often see some very very moronic drivers on the roads. When someone is in the left lane going at 90-100 then invariably some moron will be on the left lane going at 65 as well which ends up leading to a bottleneck and all the cars behind this moron are doing 65 as well (especially when theres a massive semi on the right lane.)

Also I hate people who cut and do not signal. First of all its dangerous to other cars behind and also its just stupid. The whole point of having indicators is that you use them to flash other cars. Same thing goes for the idiots(on the right lane) who decide to speed up as soon as you are trying to get past them on the left lane.

I am all for weaving in and through traffic but provided the proper lane change indicators are given. The whole point about having a powerful car is that you can do all this.

Another observation is that somehow invariably if there is a traffic issue/bottleneck somewhere on an otherwise long stretch(without construction) then it more often than not is due to an asian chick behind the wheel. I mean c'mon asians should be among the best drivers ever since they mainly come from countries which have some of the worst traffic systems in place. But I suppose then that this only leads to one observation and that is of over cautiousness.

Everyone has encountered someone who has pissed them off on the road sometime or the other. It is also a good outlet for all the rage though sometimes. ;)

Chevy and Mitsubishi

Had a very interesting discussion with my PM yesterday regarding the whole India outsourcing thing. Lets digress for a while, he owns two cars, a Chevy and a Mitsubishi. Now essentially the Chevy is the flagship American car and the Mitsubishi is the 'foreign' model. However as far as manufacturing is concerned more of his Mitsubishi is made in the US as compared to his Chevy, which is made in Korea.

So if you are looking at sending people back then due to reasons of recession then there is a lot more to lose rather than gain. As this practice would then have far greater consequences. Like just because people are not buying a Chrysler over a Honda does not mean that to support the economy you send back Honda to Japan and make sure that people only buy Chrysler. Thus this finally hurts the economy even more if Honda also employs American workers, then you are looking at an even bigger blackhole.

Same thing goes for foreign workers,(like yours truly) they still pay taxes and buy products over here so if everyone of them is sent back just because there is a recession going on then there would be a greater backlash.

Taste-Bud

In India one of the most popular foods is Chinese food. And by that I mean Chinese food from 'Biswas Dragon Corner'. I will have a whole other post just
dedicated to this but for now lets move onto another Asian choice, Japanese Cuisine.

Now in India I have never seen Japanese Cuisine take off like the Chinese did. This always puzzled me no end until I had a chance to frequent and sample some amazing fare Japanese style. (Yes, I know how to use chopsticks)

I have gone to Teppanyaki and Sushi places several times now. And enjoyed them both a lot. Some things to be observed from both these places from a desi perspective.

Teppanyaki cuisine will never ever make it in India. The whole premise of the Japanese grill just cannot. First of all it isn't cheap. My dinner alone cost me about 35$ now. Theatrics is a large part of the whole experience. The chef will often perform juggling acts with sharp knives, toss egg shells into his hat, happy face, onion volcanoes etc.
Desis can watch juggling acts like these by the dozen if they just attend any mela type exhibitions. Also all the food is cooked on the 'teppan' (grill) in front of you. Thus this means that it is far from kosher for a vegetarian(Even if he does order vegetarian food explicitly). Thus this ultimately ensures that I have been to Teppanyaki places only with colleagues and the muse.

Now sushi is a whole different ball game. I have a vegan colleague who liked the food over here. (Vegan is the baap of vegetarians.) I have loved the chicken curry over here. A very different style of making curry than the Indian/Thai way. But yes if there was a place where vegetarians could go and eat some great food if they just explored then this would be the way to go instead of the same old choices between a cheese pizza, BK veggie burger, Subway sandwhich/pizza.

Coming to the point the muse hates sushi, which isn't a good thing and loves teppanyaki which is.

Jesus baba ki jai ho

A long weekend after a while now. The last one was on Jan 19th, MLK day. This earlier part of the year is usually devoid of any breaks unless you are a student and then you get springbreak.
I am mostly staying at home this weekend, maybe headout to detroit, again with the muse. So far it doesn't look it though. Which is good because the last weekend was very tiring with the taxes, car servicing(oil change) n detroit.

Hectic

I have hardly visited this place since the past couple of weeks due to a 60 hr work week thing going on currently. A lot of that work is to do with Document Generation again and making changes to hundreds of these word/pdf templates or so. In short very tedious and need to be very very meticulous and tenacious with this.

My review came in sometime in the past couple of weeks as well. It was positive overall. The comments were "His greatest strengths being flexibility of assignment and willingness to step up to the plate to complete any task". Feels great to know that work is appreciated as well and its not just about the green.

Am looking forward to weekends now more than ever not just to relax but to get my other stuff done including paying rent, utility bills, groceries, cooking etc. Also need to arrange and sort/tag my massive music collection sometime as browsing through coverflow in the iPhone gets a lot more easier.

Another post soon on the iPhone on my efforts in getting iTunes and the iPhone to play well with my Ubuntu box.

Venus Earth Mars Part 1

There are some things that most guys (including me) will never get. Let me demonstrate.

Case 1:We cannot distinguish colors between purple,mulberry, orchid, lilac, lavender and so on. Purple is just one color for us and beyond that it can either be light or dark. Same goes for colors like beige, mauve, etc etc.

Case 2: I fail to understand how accessories are so important to an outfit. For any guy it will be one watch and maybe a set of shades. But most females will pay just as much attention to the extras like handbag, earrings, necklace, shoes, etc etc. as the pay for the outfit.

Case 3: Women will always have problems buying shoes. If there is an online store eg. finishline.com then the female will first search by color/design etc. before coming to the size aspect. The guy will first filter it out by size and then depending on brand/design/color and so on. Thus this will invariably lead to females buying up shoes which definitely will look great and may not be the most comfortable to wear (since they filtered out the size aspect at the end)

Case 4: If a guy gets a giftcard as his birthday gift he will be happy that someone did think about him enough to get him something. But if that same giftcard is given to a female then rest assured you will never hear from her again for the rest of your life.

Case 5: Hairstyle for a guy is either long,short and same goes for hair color, black or not and quantity too, you either have hair or you don't. But now for a female this becomes the litmus test whether you think about her enough or not. If you do not notice even a slight tweak in the hair settings then you will never hear from her again.

Enough for now but expect more cases in the future.

Modern day OST

Loved Amit Trivedi's Dev D and now after listening to a few from Gulaal hats off to Piyush Mishra as well. While Dev D was more about the all these different types and tastes of music i.e. Folksy / Rock / Wedding/ Psychedelic, Gulaal is more about the lyrics and poetry. (Of course I had to shamelessly download both these albums.)

It starts off with 'Ranaji' a regular mujra/item number (this song has been picturised on Paro (Mahie Gill btw)). Pay close attention here to the lyrics with references to 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan Invasions, and Coke/Pepsi. This witty number is followed by 'Yaara Maula' sung by Rahul Ram and Aushim (members of Indian Ocean.) For some reason this reminds me of Linkin Park's Session with thought provoking lyrics though. "Tum hi kal ke ho Shivaji, tum hi kal ke ho Sikandar".

Then theres 'Aarambh' an out an out war song with the drums and tutari giving us a nice effect. This is the perfect example of heroic poetry and one of the showpieces in the trailers. Shudh Hindi is the norm over here. Next is 'Aisi Sazaa' a very melancholy number sung by Shilpa Rao. Heavy lyrics again over here.

Next up is 'Sheher'. This one has a nu-age feel to it with 'Shudh' Hindi again. There are subtle references to this being the title track with references to Gulaal as 'Jis raat sheher mein khoon ki baarish aayi re' . Rekha Bharadwaj again makes another vocal apperance with 'Beedo'. However the previous item number was much better though. This one appears similar to Omkara's 'Namak Ishq Kaa'.

'Duniya' is next and another very dark track inspired from the Pyaasa song by Gurudutt 'Yeh duniya agar mill bhi jaaye toh kyaa hai'. In the words of Dhake, genius over here. The album finally closes down with 'Raat ke Musafir' which is almost devoid of an instrument alltogether. This track has to be listened in perfect silence its almost like meditation of sorts. The echoing lyrics give it a different touch alltogether almost surreal.

My friends often complain that ARR is not that great because more often than not the lyrics are sacrificed for some good music. Piyush Mishra gives us just that, lyrics in some good music. It would be interesting to see how Amit Trivedi, Piyush Mishra shape up. Remember that Vishal Bharadwaj had scored the music for Maachis and Satya and later gave us the superb Maqbool and Omkara.

Go and listen to Gulaal now and you won't regret it. Good lyrics are genius.
FYI Piyush Mishra is the same guy who gave us Dil Dance Maare - Tashan

Opinions

Most of my friends have this thing about individualism. "I have my opinions and everyone else can go to hell." This is fine except when a heated debate/discussion is going on about certain sexist topics.

I usually try and stay out of discussions like these as I really am not that smart to think about 'hard issues' and also because I have better things to do/eat when something like this is in the air. Like last night there was this whole thing about women not being good in the field of computing/engineering etc. etc. so on and so forth. (Ok. There were two issues over here 1. the topic mentioned previously and 2.some delicious paav bhaaji n kanda.) As most people will guess I would anytime have gone with the latter choice.(As I did)

Getting back though I will say that today it would boil down to the monetary concerns in the end. Whoever can do their job faster/cheaper will win. (Take note that faster/cheaper does NOT imply that the outcome of the job was mediocre) Irrespective of any other conditions etc. etc. This is America, a hardcore capitalist state, the American business principle is ' We pay for brains.' So if a male can do a particular task in x number of days with y number of resources and the same days/resources are taken by a (similar) female then all other assumptions/outcomes are irrelevant.

Coming down to basics lets say we need 10 boxes each weighing 10 lbs to be moved from Point A to Point B in 10 mins. Now a male will/may be able to do this effortlessly. However the chances of a female ending up with a torn ligament/minor ache/cramps at the end of it are much higher than that of the male's. This is often confused with the notion of inferiority. Consider another scenario where child rearing etc. are concerned. It goes without saying that the female is by far the superior over here. (PLZ do not consider exceptions in the above cases like the world's best female weightlifter and the best male nurse.)

IMHO discussions like these are just a waste of time and energy as far as am concerned there are more worthwhile things to think about especially with the state of the economy as is. I would rather just laze and eat some good food rather than get involved in crap like this.

Grammy Rewind

The Grammy's have been the pinnacle to judge music from but does it really matter. Since music is basically subjective so who is to decide whether one song is 'better' than the next. If the judging was upto me then Slipknot/Metallica would have walked with a major bulk of the awards.

Psychosocial and The Day that Never Comes would have been the picks for me from last year. For Metallica, 2008 was the year when they silenced their critics with a return to old school trash metal. Slipknot also had big expectations to live up to with a followup to their mindblowing 'Subliminal Verses'. I was not a big fan or their debut 'Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.' but when 'Iowa' came out I was blown away and then after a listen to the Subliminal Verses I was another one of 'the maggots'.

Moving on, the grammy's have become a farce now. Very few people outside the music industry this year knew anything about the nominees. There were the same usual performers, U2 n co. Also most people just care about genre's now. AFA am concerned Country + Rap = CRAP music. So I do not really care about who gets in, in those categories. Give me some good old school metal and am happiest.

A very very relaxed weekend

Now this weekend was just exactly what I needed and most people should try this too. Slept for longer hours than usual at several stretches. Never left the apt except on Sat night for dinner and just lazed more and more.

Now I am really rearing to get back to work tomorrow as more of this lazing stuff means trouble. The only thing pepping me up on a Monday morning is the fact that two days later is Wednesday (my fav. day btw) as half the work week is over come Wed evening.

This lazing around is because of the fact that on a working day I come home, eat food and just crash ASAP. I need to crash ASAP as I have started running 3mi in the mornings on the treadmill. (Will post on the running bug sometime)

The PS3 is there. But I am not that big a gaming addict to keep through it and online too for hours on end. Sure its fun sometimes but never so much that I forget that the weekend is meant for relaxation.

So ideally if you look at it a five day work week isn't that bad now.(or is it ;)

Star Scream Awards

Just caught the argument between Ashutosh Gowarikar and Sajid Khan. Now if even this kind of entertainment cannot generate higher TRP's then I don't know what will.

Publischer

Since the past several months I have been working on some publishing tasks through Apache FOP (Formatting Objects Processor). The basic goal was pdf generation through FOP. Since there is a ton of paperwork in the insurance business and taking care of it is a manual cumbersome process so I come under the document production/letter generation aspects of it.

Working on FOP from scratch since the past 3 months now have made me realise a couple of things about the printing/publishing/typesetting business.
1. Production Printers differ greatly from Regular Printers. (The same pdf that you see may not come out the same way from both the printers)
2. Absolutely no one actually knows the innards of a publishing system. (Even my tech lead/dev lead weren't aware.)
3. Everything is in the details. It isn't enough to just make a document by eyeballing it but you will need to go and zoom in several hundreds of times to make sure that absolutely everything is just that perfect.
4. Fonts are BIG BUSINESS. The weird font you see on the bottom of a check for the account number/routing number is a font approved by the ABA.(American Banker's Association) That specific font can cost anywhere from 2k -3k $.
5. Barcode changes made by the USPS to replace legacy barcodes which have been around for ages can be very hard to implement especially if the USPS does not communicate those barcodes in a widespread fashion.
6.There are some things which are just dumb in the way they were designed/coded. But since 'kaam chal rhaa hai' noone would bother to find out why this was so.
7. Paper quality is very very important. It won't matter if the typesetting is perfect but the paper quality isn't.
8. There is vast difference in 300dpi and 600dpi prints. (Unseen to the naked eye)

Maybe someday I get my hands on an intaglio press and then would start some real fun ;)

The Infomercial

Anyone who has seen TV atleast once in the US has definitely run across Billy Mays. I mean c'mon there isn't a product on tv that this dude has hawked. He is 'the face' of the teems of hawkers all across the world who will exhort you on every opportunity to go and buy a product, any product.

I have often felt sorry for the salesguy who would move from house to house in India to sell the bathroom phenyl cleaner etc. etc. but this guy takes it to the limit. You feel like a kid again when he starts the screaming at you to go and buy the product. I seriously believe that people who do buy those products have some major issues. I mean the guy literally screams at you to pick up the phone and buy the item. Just by looking at the wiki page of his you come to realize the sheer extent of idiots who are keeping ads like these in business.

It is true there is no such thing as bad publicity but still there is such a thing as a pathetic ad atleast. The standard ad for any product goes as "HI, BILLY MAYS HERE. THIS (insert Product Name) IS GREAT !!!.(If you are wondering why the previous text was in caps its because caps = 'shout' to the netizen.) The premise pretty much stays the same for all the other products too.

And as long as there are crappy infomercials like these there will always be the motivation to press the MUTE button or just to switch channels randomly. Anything to get past an infomercial by Billy Mays.

FPS World

Just got done with COD Modern Warfare(MW) and World at War(WW) and about 30-40% done with Resistance 2(R2). I started out on WW which took getting used to but since it didn't have a training tutorial mission of sorts and so was just slam bang go. Learning the controls the hard way was probably the best way too but sure it required a good amount of patience at first.

Will start on other difficulty levels now since I played all the above on the recruit mode(most basic). Soon (hopefully) I get good enough to go online and then kick some serious ass.

Carfest

Yesterday had been to the Detroit Auto Show. The Detroit Auto Show has primarily been one of the world's most looked forward to of all, thanks to the presence of GM, Ford, Chrysler. Due to the gas price wars and the economy not doing great either there were many skeptics present. Then again if driving is a passion for some then an auto show is a treat to attend.

I knew what to expect since I had been to the one in St.Louis sometime back. The cars to attract the most spectators this time around were the Camaro, Prius, 10' Buick Lacrosse, Ford Taurus and the Audi R8 (wow). The Viper SRT10, Shelby GT500, AM DB9 , Gallardo Spyder's are always present to attract crowds but they are like the white elephants of the show as there will be very few from the general crowd who will buy them ultimately. And the people who will buy those cars don't need to mess around in admission tickets and the food court. So they are basically just there to remind people that there is something called as the 'driving experience' too.(without bothering about gas prices,traffic jams,bad roads etc.)

There were quite a few desis scattered throughout the show as well but no surprise that they were mainly milling around the new civics and camrys. I saw very few around the R8 and even fewer around the Lacrosse. (Expect a post on this trend sometime.) There was a 'test-drive' session of the latest hybrid cars too for which there was a long queue,(I skipped that and went onto the Sprint nascar racing sim instead and ended up winning that :).

Also since this is Detroit there was a special 'Tuner' section too which had the cars and bikes from the Midnight Club games. The tuner series had a very rare Saleen Mustang. But since not a lot of people were aware of the tuner possibilities there were mainly car nuts like me around it. My only disappointment was the Bugatti stall as there wasn't one for the general audience but only for the press release. Also since Nissan skipped out too so couldn't get the Skyline GTR or the new 370z. The other usual suspects were present too including BMW,Lexus,Merc etc. The Jaguar stall brought back some desi pride but which was later squashed when Alok told me about the bailout package Tata Motors had asked for the marque.

This was the first apperance of the Chinese brands Brilliance and Denso, both of which were quite brave and innovative. (Denso even had a snowmobile...probably the most apt vehicle for Michigan). Overall the Auto Show could have been bigger (The St.Louis one was bigger than this 2 years back.) and more extravagant. (I remember seeing pics of the Dodge Tomahawk when it was unveiled in detroit some years back.)

Falling Wickets

This post comes after going through GK's. In the past year a lot of friends have got hitched and this year has just started and already I have a long list of ppl who will get hitched. Being in the Sam land is a real downer at times like these cos you are missing out on these 'special' occasions more often.

The funny part is that seeing all the shaadi pics of my friends drives me away more n more from the very thought about marriage. I mean love n all that is fine but c'mon you can't be serious. Especially for those whom I know quite well.(Shweta(Houston)/Mayukh/Gala/Ugands/) Marriage definitely is an institution and requires a tremendous amount of patience above all else. I am very very happy for now being single. (For those who doubt this, let me state for the record that I HAVE BEEN THERE AND DONE 'THAT').

On an India trip this year is a plan for a good outing to Goa. But being hitched deters some of my buddies from joining the others as would not have been the case in the good ol days.(I can say this as being the only reason and not the lack of holidays because the trip is during a rare, Good Friday long weekend when most offices are off). There are a huge amount of responsibilities after getting hitched and I totally understand if some folks abstain from reliving the bachelor days.

The freedom that one gets is unparalleled when one is not married. Basically it means one only has to think of doing something and can do it without effecting anyone else in the process. Like now that am a working stiff I prefer my weekends being just lazing around the house and catching up on just general housekeeping and stuff. The whole point of a weekend is that you get to unwind at home and during those rare long weekends make plans well in advance for that Miami/Vegas vacation.

But this is hardly ever the case with ppl getting hitched as ppl work through the entire week they want to spend more and more 'quality' time together which leads to them going out to movies, shopping etc. etc. This is one the main issues I have with marriage. I prefer doing general housekeeping,cooking,laundry,groceries on the weekend so that I won't have to deal with them during the middle of the work week. If someone does want to spend quality time then plz do help me in all the previous housekeeping activities too. But unfortunately the term 'romance' is never associated with practical stuff (Washing dishes, car cleaning etc.) and more so with the most impractical ideas.(Watching sunsets, Long Walks etc. you get the drift)

I have no doubt that plans are already being well laid(pun intended) for my upcoming vacation in India. (I feel like Israel now surrounded on all sides by Arabs but still existing). There will be a few survivors left by the end of this year from my old friends list who will still be unattached and I hope to be among those few.

Controller issues

Coming straight to the point, I just can't seem to play an FPS on the PS3 as fluidly as I could on my PC. The controller is just way too jacked up for me. I fail to understand why developers can't integrate the keyboard mouse setup to the PS3. There are exceptions of course like UT can be played with a keyboard,mouse setup, but for the most part this rule does not apply.

There is a device available 'FragFX' which supposed to map the Keybd,mouse combo well but since the damage is a 100$ I haven't had that much inclination to go and get one especially since V.2 of it is supposed to be even better but hasn't arrived yet.

For now I guess like most gamers I will have to keep getting used to the controller for FPS.:(

Finger Workout.

This post comes after going thru SEV's post


105 Questions

1. EVER BEEN GIVEN AN ENGAGEMENT RING?

No.(And am in no hurry to get one either)

2. LONGEST RELATIONSHIP?

Almost a year

3. LAST GIFT YOU RECEIVED?

PS3

4. EVER DROPPED A CELL PHONE?

Yes, lots of times

5. WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU WORKED OUT?

Thursday(01/08)

6. THING(S) YOU SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON?

Ps3 game titles

7. LAST FOOD YOU ATE?

Turkey Keema n Roti

8. FIRST THINGS YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX?

Hair.

9. ONE FAVORITE SONG?

Fade to Black - Metallica

10. WHERE DO YOU LIVE?

421, Saxon Rd, Apt 401, Lansing,MI, 48917

11. HIGH SCHOOL YOU ATTENDED:

AEJC (Atomic Energy JC)

12. CELL PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER:

ATnT

13. FAVORITE MALL STORE:

GAP, Panda Express(If you count that as a store)

14. LONGEST JOB YOU HAD:

1.5 Years (Chartwells Catering in Rolla)

15. DO YOU OWN A PAIR OF DICE?

No

16. DO YOU PRANK CALL PEOPLE?

No. Have better things to do.

17. LAST WEDDING YOU ATTENDED:

Loong time ago. Way too long ago.( I did attend an engagement ceremony tho the last time I was in India. July 07)

18. FIRST FRIEND YOU’D CALL IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY:

Hmm...maybe Gerard/Dhake/Mihir

19. LAST TIME YOU SAW YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Quite a while since I saw any of the three above. Met Dhake before I left Rolla in Jan(skiing), met Gerard in March (NYC), Mihir in July(Chicago). All in 2007.

20. FAVORITE FAST FOOD RESTAURANT:

BK....yeaaaaaah.....

21. BIGGEST LIE YOU HAVE EVER HEARD:

"My eyes are paining"....LMAO....

23. WHERE’S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT WITH FRIENDS?

No Snooty n Snobbish places for sure....Maybe a food court in a mall...

24. CAN YOU COOK?

Well Enough (Nowadays)

25. WHAT CAR DO YOU DRIVE?

Mercury Cougar 2000

26. BEST KISSER?

Bishop (An Alaskan Malamute)

27. LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Absolutely No Idea...

28. MOST DISLIKED FOODS:

Karela, Brinjal(Eggplant) for sure.

29. THING YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOURSELF:

Will do some very crazy stuff if need be for that at the moment

30. THING YOU DISLIKE MOST ABOUT YOURSELF:

Same as above. Some of the crazy stuff can be deemed stupid as well.

32. LONGEST SHIFT YOU HAVE WORKED AT A JOB?

All night while I was a GRA in UMR.

33. FAVORITE MOVIE?

Aaaaah a tough one...depending on the moment it can be Gunda, Memento, LOTR - ROTK, Deewar(1975), Lord of War....k...nuff said.....

34. CAN YOU SING?

Yes

35. LAST CONCERT ATTENDED?

Trapt/ Shinedown in Rolla

36. LAST KISS?

Great Song by PJ

37. LAST MOVIE RENTED:

Batman Begins.

38. THINGS YOU NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT?

Keys.

39. FAVORITE VACATION SPOT:

Chicago (Of curs)

43. LAPTOP OR DESKTOP COMPUTER?

Laptop.

44. FAVORITE COMEDIAN?

Seinfeld, Rasssaaal Peters, Colbert

45. DO YOU SMOKE?

Occasionally.

46. SLEEP WITH OR WITHOUT CLOTHES?

With.

47. WHO SLEEPS WITH YOU EVERY NIGHT?

No one. I sleep better that way.

48. DO LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS WORK?

Difficult to make em work. But yes they can.

49. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN PULLED OVER BY THE POLICE?

Once.

50. PANCAKES OR FRENCH TOAST?

Neither. A tall glass of orange juice plz.

51. DO YOU LIKE COFFEE?

I like it better than chai, but again I would prefer a tall glass of orange juice over both.

52 HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS?

Boiled.

53. DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY?

No.

54. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?

Watwe

55. LAST PERSON ON YOUR MISSED CALL LIST?

Watwe. (I was just returning the call.)

56. WHAT WAS THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE YOU RECEIVED?

ATnT - Promotional Offer

58. NUMBER OF PILLOWS?

One.

59. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?

Yellow UMR tee.

60. PICK A LYRIC, ANY LYRIC:

Aankhon kaa hai dhoka...aisa tera pyaar...tera emotional atyaachaar....- Dev D

61. WHAT KIND OF JELLY DO YOU LIKE ON YOUR PB & J?:

Doesn't matter. I hate PB.

62. CAN YOU PLAY POOL?

No.

63. CAN YOU SWIM?

Very Well. (I used to be a lifeguard once)

64. FAVORITE ICE CREAM?

Chocolate flavored anything.

65. DO YOU LIKE MAPS?

Yes. If they are useful

66. TELL ME A RANDOM FACT ABOUT YOURSELF:

I hate things with their pointy ends pointed at me.

68. EVER ATTEND A THEME PARTY?

No.

69. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?

Mumbai in Summer or Scorching Heat in Nagpur.

70. LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED AT SOMETHING STUPID?

Yesterday.

71. WHAT TIME DID YOU WAKE UP THIS MORNING?

8.30 - 9 am

72. BEST THING ABOUT WINTER?

Staying Indoors.

73. LAST TIME A COP GAVE YOU A TICKET?

Never.

75. NAME OF YOUR FIRST PET?

Never had one.

76. DO YOU THINK PIRATES ARE COOL OR OVERRATED?

Overrated.

77. WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS WEEKEND?

Lazing around the house.

78. BIRTH DATE?

23rd Sept.

79. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE:

I am human...does the above question mean I have a choice over here...??

85. ARE YOU ON A LAPTOP?

Yes.

87. ARE YOU SMILING?

No. I was smiling till Q79...and now I am NOT.

89. DO YOU MISS SOMEONE RIGHT NOW?

No.

90. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

Chicago....duh...

92. ARE YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL?

No.

93. DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH?

Yes. Most of the time. They keep changing though.

94. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NAME?

Hmm....Maya (cos it has to do with magic n supernatural stuff)

95. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR SWIMMING SUIT?

Navy Blue.

96. DOES YOUR SCHOOL START IN AUGUST?

Most schools in India start in Aug. What a dumb Q.

97. DID YOU GO ON VACATION LAST MONTH?

No. $$ issues.

8. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON A CRUISE?

Yes.

99. DO YOU HAVE A SISTER?

No.

100. ARE YOU UPSTAIRS?

No. (Again stupid Q)

101. ARE YOU IN LOVE?

Of curs.

102. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN THE HOSPITAL?

Yes.(Several times)

103. DO YOU WISH YOU COULD SEE ANYONE PARTICULAR RIGHT NOW?

Lots of ppl.

104. WHO IS IT?

Like I said a whole lot of ppl.

105. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO AFTER THIS?

Watch some TV probably.Drink Water. Laze some more.


Woohooo...i finally got through this list....