Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Lone Trivia Question

So I was wasting my time browsing when I came across some interesting stuff which I quickly put into a trivia question. Just take a look at the 3 pics and guess the theme. Obly proper fundaes are needed. This is not some dayaa question and I feel is quite nice too. So good luck!








Will post answer/fundaes when people stop responding!
And try and avoid googling. In case u need a hint then google the first pic...this shud hopefully lead somewhere, and if it does then fundaes for 2 and 3 are mandatory!

And to ensure that ur answers dont spoil someone elses fun, use this translatorto translate ur answers to chinese and post them. Ill cut paste them and re translate them back to english and see if they are right or wrong!

ALERT: Thanx to shrini you dont have to indulge in the aforementioned absurdity. Use rot13.com

Monday, July 25, 2005

Pottermania (Updated)

Update being:
This link to a video of a guy who goes to a bunch of people waiting outside a bookstore and shouts out the Harry Potter ending! The reaction of the last lady is hilarious!
Warning: If u choose to see this video obviously itll ruin the ending for you too!

I couldnt resist posting atleast something about Book 6: "The Half Blood Prince". I stole a pirated e-version of the book from someone else's comp (which I guess makes me twice removed from the act buying an authentic copy of the book) and finished it in just about 2 days. Just like most of the previous 5 books, this one too is unputdownable. Still, from an overall point of view I thought it was a little absurd at some places. Those of you who intend to read it...need not worry because Im not sadistic enough to reveal anything (unlike my sister)!
Since this is the penultimate book, I can be sure that they are a million people out there trying to guess how its going to end. Of course, I have my own theories. So if anyone is enthu enough to discuss this mail me!
Another thing abt the Harry Potter books is that they are being released with too much gap in between them (Book 5 had come out in 2003). Whether this is intentional or unavoidable I do not know but it makes it very difficult to fully appreciate the new books. I hardly remembered what 5 was about until I was well into book 6. And they say that the final one is going to come out in 2007. I can imagine how tough itll be if the final book includes subtle fundaes from all the previous ones.

On a different note, have u ever had that wonderful feeling of ecstacy when as a kid you would go through the pain of waking up early in the morning, getting ready and making your way to school only to joyfully find out school's been shut for the day. I got that feeling today when I found out that my weekly research meeting has been cancelled. So I used the time to do something Ive been wanting to for a long time, Upload some new pics onto my yahoo a/c. Enthu people go here and see the ALL NEW albums.
Adios dawgs!

Friday, July 22, 2005

Vacation 3…

...lasted 15 days (from 3rd July 2005 to 18th July 2005). It was more a mixture of a conference and vacation. From the 3rd to the 8th I was in DC attending my first international conference. I had a great time there getting a nice perspective about the work in my field. I got to listen to some brilliant presentations and most interestingly got to see all the big names up close and personal. I also got a very disheartening truth-laid-bare perspective on the kind of work I had done.

Once I was done with the conference I went to Baltimore to meet up with golu and subbu (who had come down for the weekend from Texas) Me and subbu then went to NYC to meet up with prade and zubin and amongst the usual NYC sight seeing we managed to go to a Bryan Adams and Def Leppard concert with Kakkad and some friends. I had never listened to too much Def Leppard except for the usual popular songs but still have to admit they rocked harder than Bryan Adams. Nevertheless Bryan Adams is what he is and he was one of my favorite artists at one point of time. He put up an excellent show and it was gawd! Coming back to Leppard, in case you are unaware, DL’s drummer lost his left arm in an accident a few years back. He wanted to leave the band but the band didn’t let him encouraging him to keep playing with some additional help. The result is that he now uses a acoustic/electric drum kit. He has a standard bass pedal for the acoustic bass drum and the kit are three left pedals, one for the acoustic high-hat and two other for a bass and a snare sound both of which are electrically generated. All the cymbals were acoustic which he played with his right arm.
Why am I telling you all this? Cuz he drummed gawd! The man’s talent and the way he adapted himself are exceptional. Check this out for some pics of his kit.

So neway, concert was great. We went back to Baltimore and subbu left on Monday. I did nothing for a couple of days and took the bus back to NYC on Tuesday night to go hang with kakkad. Tuesday evening in NYC was fun ;).
Met rabbi and his gang from Cornell on wednesday. Had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant which was very good.
Met up with 2 school friends(Vivek and Karthik) I had not seen since 5 and 7 years respectively. It was good fun to catch up!
Princeton was next on the itinerary. Did nothing but relax at Zubin’s house on Thursday and Friday. Received Golu and Prade on Saturday and we all went kayaking which was freaking awesome to say the least. We also played some very nice music at Princeton which from my point of view rocked more than kayaking. 
Nothing significant elapsed after this and by the time I got back home via Baltimore, DC and Memphis!


BTW I opened up a restaurant in NYC. Its on 8th avenue between 53rd and 54th. Drop in if u r in the city and say you are a friend with this picture as proof. They’ll treat you nicely. In true IIT-spirit Ive decided to keep it open 24hrs!



PS: Panda made some very nice chicken curry for me when I was in Baltimore. This means that panda makes chicken not just for girls but for guys too. Hence panda is not CKD. ;)

Vacation 2...

...is what this is about. I must have piqued everyone’s curiosity about my vacation 1. Most of you should be knowing. For those who dont click here and be enlightened or whatever.

Q: So where did I go for vacation 2?
Ans: Higher ground ;)

Actually it was to a music festival called ‘Wakarusa’ at Lawrence, Kansas. (BTW, did you know that Kansas city is actually in Missouri) It was a 4 day music and camping festival with about 80+ bands playing 18hrs of music each day at 5 simultaneous stages(June 15th 2005 to June 19th 2005). A guy I met here had told me about this and invited me to go along with him and his friends. The whole experience was quite awesome. It involved a 10 hour drive from Denver to Lawrence in an RV (a recreational vehicle) which was a first time for me. RV’s are a very nice concept. The downsides being that they are a tad expensive to even rent and they drink up gasoline like a ravenous monster. Still, having the RV’s helped us escape the heat of the day leaving us to stay awake most of the night enjoying the music.
One significant thing about this concert was that I got to realize something about the music scene in the United States. For a long time I was under the impression that the music which is quite popular in India (rock, pop, hip-hop etc) is the same stuff that people here listen to. I assumed I would know almost all the bands that might have a huge following here. I was wrong by a big margin.
There exists a second, very local tier of music in the States, a tier dominated by bands which (I am told) choose to not go international but maintain an extremely large and loyal fan-following in the United States itself. I’m not sure if this applies to all the genres of music but most of the bands that I listened to at this concert had a very funk-rockish sound to them. And they were good. To name a few bands which were the supposed crowd pullers, I can think of “String Cheese Incident”, “Wilco”, “Government Mule” and “North Mississippi All Stars”. All the music I was exposed to here was previously alien to me, except when “String Cheese Incident” did a cover of “All along the watchtower” which was quite an exhilarating experience. These bands release CD’s too which apparently are bought up very eagerly. They have hardcore fans that follow them everywhere in the US. And these people hardly give a damn about the more famous international bands. Another notion of mine that was shattered was my assumption that almost everyone in my age group here in the US listens to Hip-Hop and there is no other form of music alive. This experience told me that there is some non-hiphop type of music out there…it might not be pure rock and roll but its definitely something that doesn’t suck as much as rap/hip-hop (what’s the difference anyway?)!

Interestingly, the name ‘Wakarusa’ is derived from an old Indian word which means ‘Ass deep in the river”. I got a cool tee as a souvenir which says ‘Ass deep in music’!

I simply wanted to share the musical viewpoint of this trip. Please don’t mention about anything else as I wish to keep this entry only about the music. And as Ozzy once said “Thank You Goodnight we love you all”