It had been almost 6 months since I spent a whole Saturday in the office. I am surely not fretting and fuming about it, just musing on it. One of my friends pinged me and said, "Oh! looks like your honeymoon period in the new company is over and now you have started working on a weekend". Well, it is over for a sure fact and if I don't get my acts together and start delivering, I can surely see my a** on the line of fire soon.
The scary thoughts of bearing the brunt of work pressure still did not impact my schedule for the day(in a big way). Before, I left home in the morning this was my plan:
Complete the bug fixing by 11.00 am
Work on some other enhancements till 1.00 pm
Have lunch
Read docs and familiarize myself with the products - a solid 2 hours in the afternoon.
Write my first draft on a functional spec - finish by 5.00 pm
Go home at 6.00 pm and enjoy the evening.
And this is what I did:
Reached office at 11.00 am and start working on the bug.
Went for lunch at 12 noon
On the bug.. 1.00 pm
Played TT (played after almost an year and it was so much fun) - 1.20 pm
Came back to work on the bug...1.45 pm
Played TT - till 4.00 pm
Relaxed with some music and light reading
Played TT
Finally fixed bug by 8.00 pm
Played TT
Blog at 9.15 pm
Pretty much matched with my initial schedule.:) Glad atleast I was able to fix the bug! So much for a work filled Saturday, I am looking towards having a fun filled Sunday.
Happy rest of the weekend ! :)
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Brain (less) fallacy
It has been a while since I stumbled upon something interesting. So I decided to put my "Stumble Upon" tool to use. Since I had around 20 minutes to wait for my build to get over (successfully), I thought it will be good to surf the net.
I found just the "interesting" site on my third hit. The page runs into a decent length expatiating on the myth or lack of it about the percentage of brain usage on an average human being. It is quite interesting to read about the facts and to realize that I wasn't even aware of the fact that such a myth(or fact) exists about the average percentage of brain usage (my ignorance is probably attributed to the fact that I was using my brain even less than 10%-sigh!).
I am still not sure if I have to believe what the site claims, but nevertheless it is real cool to read it. Get a brain dump of it here. While reading about brains, take a sip of Google Gulp. If anyone needs a Gulp cap, lemme know ;)
I found just the "interesting" site on my third hit. The page runs into a decent length expatiating on the myth or lack of it about the percentage of brain usage on an average human being. It is quite interesting to read about the facts and to realize that I wasn't even aware of the fact that such a myth(or fact) exists about the average percentage of brain usage (my ignorance is probably attributed to the fact that I was using my brain even less than 10%-sigh!).
I am still not sure if I have to believe what the site claims, but nevertheless it is real cool to read it. Get a brain dump of it here. While reading about brains, take a sip of Google Gulp. If anyone needs a Gulp cap, lemme know ;)
Monday, April 25, 2005
On the water front
If some one would ask me about the idea of taking off on a Thursday and Friday to spend two days in a resort that over looks the lovely Cauvery, I would answer definitely in affirmative unless I was already in such a place and spending two lovely weekdays. Thankfully, I did not have to yearn for such a break because my company decided it was time for everyone to have this break and spend some real quality time outside work.
The place called Jaladhama on the Mysore road (about 120 kms from Bangalore) was where around 70 of us from the company spend a royal two days. The resort is located in a secluded place surrounded by water on its three sides and secretly connected to land on one side. (You will know why the land connection is a secret only when you see the place).
We reached the place on Thursday afternoon and from then on till Friday afternoon, the time we had was simply amazing. Right from, taking a so called water therapy to beating the heat in the swimming pool, every single activity was simply spelled only in one way-"FUN". In the night we had a bonfire (though this might make many twitch their eyes-bonfire on a hot summer night?). There was amazing music and a great dance floor. Many danced to the tunes of the favorite numbers and drinks was being served liberally. I just let myself loose and treated myself to all the goodies. The party went well into the night and it was a wonderful night to spend. I broke a few of my own records, the details of course will remain outside the pages of this blog ;).
It was not only a wonderful break for me, but I had this golden opportunity to know a lot of folks in the company. Some of the folks have already become good friends and today this is really helping me create my comfort zone in my new work place.
As I muse over the past week, my head turns to the left to watch the status of the build on the laptop and I see this message
"[javamake] Compiling 6181 source files...."
The place called Jaladhama on the Mysore road (about 120 kms from Bangalore) was where around 70 of us from the company spend a royal two days. The resort is located in a secluded place surrounded by water on its three sides and secretly connected to land on one side. (You will know why the land connection is a secret only when you see the place).
We reached the place on Thursday afternoon and from then on till Friday afternoon, the time we had was simply amazing. Right from, taking a so called water therapy to beating the heat in the swimming pool, every single activity was simply spelled only in one way-"FUN". In the night we had a bonfire (though this might make many twitch their eyes-bonfire on a hot summer night?). There was amazing music and a great dance floor. Many danced to the tunes of the favorite numbers and drinks was being served liberally. I just let myself loose and treated myself to all the goodies. The party went well into the night and it was a wonderful night to spend. I broke a few of my own records, the details of course will remain outside the pages of this blog ;).
It was not only a wonderful break for me, but I had this golden opportunity to know a lot of folks in the company. Some of the folks have already become good friends and today this is really helping me create my comfort zone in my new work place.
As I muse over the past week, my head turns to the left to watch the status of the build on the laptop and I see this message
"[javamake] Compiling 6181 source files...."
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
As high as the 13th
On sunday night, I met with a bunch of my school friends on the 13th floor restuarant -Ebony. The last time we met at a place called "Shiok" which was also the first time, we went berserk, thanks to all the flammers and slammers that went down our food pipe. This time, we decided to play a softer tune but at the same time keep the enthusiasm high and running (PJ: thatz why we choose the 13th floor!:) ). The pleasant surpise for me was meeting two of my school mates literally after 8 years. Kept me wondering about how time moves real fast. It is only during such occasions that we really come to know how much time has passed by in our lives. Reminds me of Pink Floy's ultra famous song "Time". Just a small snippet of the lyrics for the readers to muse about...
"...You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find that ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...."
We talked and talked about things we did and did not, in school, about the school teachers, the stupid ones, the ugly ones and rarely about the good ones (coz, they were rarities in themselves). Spent a good 3 hours with all the folks and chatted on a wide variety of subjects. We decided to do more of this in the coming days and also try and pull in as many folks as possible. As the phrase goes, its always "More, the merrier". Until next time, it is the snap that will be the daffodils of good time!
"...You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find that ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...."
We talked and talked about things we did and did not, in school, about the school teachers, the stupid ones, the ugly ones and rarely about the good ones (coz, they were rarities in themselves). Spent a good 3 hours with all the folks and chatted on a wide variety of subjects. We decided to do more of this in the coming days and also try and pull in as many folks as possible. As the phrase goes, its always "More, the merrier". Until next time, it is the snap that will be the daffodils of good time!
Religious retreat -II
My dad had decided that it was time again to do a round of circumabulations in a bunch of temples. The last time we did something similar was almost 8 months back. This time it was decided that we will visit a bunch of temples in and around Trichy. My folks left from Coimbatore on Friday and reached Trichy that evening. I left for Trichy on Friday night from Bangalore and reached there on the wee hours of Saturday morning (4.40 am). My uncle and dad were waiting at the railway station to pick me up and we headed to my uncle's place. From there we took a Quallis and started from Trichy at 5.45 am.
Our first destination was a place called Tirunageshwaram. The place is a 2 hours and 30 minutes drive from Trichy going via Thanjavur and Kumbakkonam. This place is predominantly for the Rahu (planet) God. After doing a set of "religious procedures" to please the God (I am going to eschew the nitty gritty details here), we left the place at 10.30 am. Our next temple was called the "Uppaliyappan" temple. This is a 5 kms ride and it was a really nice temple to visit. The residing deity is one of the many incarnations of Lord Vishnu. From there, we got back to Kumbakonam where we visited two more temples. The first one was called "Naachiyar Kovil" with the residing deity of Goddess Lakshmi (referred to as Komala valli thaayaar). From there, we headed to the next temple, "Ramaswamy Temple". We headed back from there to Trichy and reached the place at 3 pm. We took rest for the rest of the afternoon and then around 6 pm, headed to Srirangam. The temple diety Lord Ranganatha, in his majestic "Annantha Sayanam(sleeping posture)" is always a sight of awe. We headed back to Trichy at 7.45 pm. I had to catch my train back to Bangalore that night. Reached Bangalore on Sunday morning while my family went back to Coimbatore on Sunday afternoon.
The interesting part about this trip was that I learnt some very interesting facts and legends about each of these temples and also got some wonderful insight about the greatness of Hinduism. It was quite a refreshing experience and what could be more enriching than spending time with family on such trips. Hope I do this more often than not!
Our first destination was a place called Tirunageshwaram. The place is a 2 hours and 30 minutes drive from Trichy going via Thanjavur and Kumbakkonam. This place is predominantly for the Rahu (planet) God. After doing a set of "religious procedures" to please the God (I am going to eschew the nitty gritty details here), we left the place at 10.30 am. Our next temple was called the "Uppaliyappan" temple. This is a 5 kms ride and it was a really nice temple to visit. The residing deity is one of the many incarnations of Lord Vishnu. From there, we got back to Kumbakonam where we visited two more temples. The first one was called "Naachiyar Kovil" with the residing deity of Goddess Lakshmi (referred to as Komala valli thaayaar). From there, we headed to the next temple, "Ramaswamy Temple". We headed back from there to Trichy and reached the place at 3 pm. We took rest for the rest of the afternoon and then around 6 pm, headed to Srirangam. The temple diety Lord Ranganatha, in his majestic "Annantha Sayanam(sleeping posture)" is always a sight of awe. We headed back to Trichy at 7.45 pm. I had to catch my train back to Bangalore that night. Reached Bangalore on Sunday morning while my family went back to Coimbatore on Sunday afternoon.
The interesting part about this trip was that I learnt some very interesting facts and legends about each of these temples and also got some wonderful insight about the greatness of Hinduism. It was quite a refreshing experience and what could be more enriching than spending time with family on such trips. Hope I do this more often than not!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
It is 4/13 again
This might sound funny. 4/13 occurs every year. It is more of an ecumenical fact. So what is the big deal about it? Well, it is for sure a big deal for me as it marks a milestone in my blogging era . And the milestone is that, it was exactly last year on the 13th of April, I did my first posting in this area. All I had in my mind that time, was that the concept of blogging was catching up a lot and I had to somehow be in this bandwagon. I went ahead and created a nice space for myself here (more of an impulsive act and some coaxing from a few friends!). I wasn't regular at all after my first few posts and almost till the end of 2004, blogging used to be quite a rarity. It was only in the recent past that I had started taking some "real" interest to blogging and I am glad to have stood the sands of time. I now do it quite enthusiastically, the "enthu" fuelling my interest towards this wonderful activity of reflecting a lot of musings to myself as well as to a larger community.
And to the day, blogspot has been the quintessential launch pad for not only me, but for millions of bloggers all around the globe (no offence meant to the other blog sites!). Blogging, blog sites and the millions of bloggers deserve huge appreciations for starting and continuing this really wonderful revolution. And as for me, I deserve a special round of appreciation for walking this revolutionary path for a year now!;)
And to the day, blogspot has been the quintessential launch pad for not only me, but for millions of bloggers all around the globe (no offence meant to the other blog sites!). Blogging, blog sites and the millions of bloggers deserve huge appreciations for starting and continuing this really wonderful revolution. And as for me, I deserve a special round of appreciation for walking this revolutionary path for a year now!;)
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
A to-do list that is never empty
No, I am not in a complaining mode here, but just thinking aloud as to how life has changed over these years. I never used to maintain a "to-do" list during the early days of my professional life and always used to think that folks who maintain it were either trying to be smart or funny. Over time,I've got myself into the habit of maintaining my to-do list. Initially, it used to be another additional (and painful) task to update the to-do list in itself, but then I forced myself to do it and now it has become a daily wont. The interesting aspect to this is that, somehow my list never seems to get empty. I've made some decent attempts to clean it up (not by deleting them) and have a blank list stare at me so that I smile back at it with satiation, but my list always has had the whip hand till date. I wrap up my existing tasks, but the end of the day sees new ones being added making it more like a vicious cycle (if I may call it one).
Yeah and I was saying I wasn't complaining! True, there is nothing to fret and fume here. Imaging life where there is nothing to do and no tasks on your to-do list. The initial pleasure could be immense but surely ephemeral. So it is after all good to have a to-do list that is never empty! :)
Yeah and I was saying I wasn't complaining! True, there is nothing to fret and fume here. Imaging life where there is nothing to do and no tasks on your to-do list. The initial pleasure could be immense but surely ephemeral. So it is after all good to have a to-do list that is never empty! :)
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Saturday Movie Marathon
One of those rare weekends I ended up staying in Bangalore. I had decided to do some "office" work on Saturday and read a lot of documents. But all my plans for the work was washed out, thanks to the intermittent rain over the afternoon and of course my laziness. I ended up in my friend's place for lunch and what ensued after that was watching a string of movies (the India-Pak match wasn't worth watching anyways).
So the first movie I watched was "Shawshank Redemption". This happened at my friend's place. An amazing story, excellent cast of characters and quite a thrilling movie. I know this one is quite old and had hit the charts big time, but somehow I never got to watch it till yesterday.
I went home in the evening and after dinner, went to my channel surfing and in one of the local cables, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones was being shown. Lucky for me, the movie was just starting and I ended up watching it fully.
It was close to 1 am when the movie got over, but I wasn't feeling anywhere close to sleepy. So I took out the VCD I had rented from "Cheers Club" and that was my third movie. It was a Tom Hanks movie called "That Thing You Do". I liked this movie a lot because it was lot about music and stuff and the best part is the band called "Wonders" whose claim to fame was the song "That Thing You Do"(the one that comes as a title song in "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" episode). The movie got over at 3 am. After that, I decided sleeping was a good idea after all and hit the bed.
It was quite a marathon watching movies like this. Never done this before, and it was real cool and I hope to do this more often than not.
So the first movie I watched was "Shawshank Redemption". This happened at my friend's place. An amazing story, excellent cast of characters and quite a thrilling movie. I know this one is quite old and had hit the charts big time, but somehow I never got to watch it till yesterday.
I went home in the evening and after dinner, went to my channel surfing and in one of the local cables, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones was being shown. Lucky for me, the movie was just starting and I ended up watching it fully.
It was close to 1 am when the movie got over, but I wasn't feeling anywhere close to sleepy. So I took out the VCD I had rented from "Cheers Club" and that was my third movie. It was a Tom Hanks movie called "That Thing You Do". I liked this movie a lot because it was lot about music and stuff and the best part is the band called "Wonders" whose claim to fame was the song "That Thing You Do"(the one that comes as a title song in "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" episode). The movie got over at 3 am. After that, I decided sleeping was a good idea after all and hit the bed.
It was quite a marathon watching movies like this. Never done this before, and it was real cool and I hope to do this more often than not.
A Snapshot of my Bulk Mail folder
Getting a score of bulk mail everyday has become more of a regular phenomena for years now and I really don't bother looking at them. Click on the "Empty" link and they are all thrashed. If an important mail gets there and I delete it, I will surely get another one. People who are important to me, will surely write again.
But in the past two weeks, I've noticed my mails in the bulk folder running into hundreds of mails. In fact on Friday evening, I saw around 200 mails, when I had actually cleaned up my Bulk mail on Thursday evening. A little annoyed, I just checked my spam filters and then checked my folder to see if mail box was under attack.
I couldn't figure out if it was under attack, but made some interesting and funny observations. I realized that my spammers apparently are good Samaritan in this world always trying to help me out in many ways, be it giving me free credit cards, high interests on mortgages, loans, help me find singles in MY area and best of all, they are the doctors who know my libido inside out.
I took a snapshot of my spam mails and did a small analysis on how well my spammers know me. And this is what I found...
I am living in abject poverty and therefore "eDealsDaily" have send me a mail that says "Finally, Health Care You Can Afford".
I am a game freak and can't live life without games. "Special Promotions" are offering me a Free XBox.
I am lonely SINGLE soul lost in the battle of finding my better half and that is when "Find Love" comes to my rescue. They can help me find my soul mate in 7 days!
The "CYC Diet Patch" has no clue about how emaciated I am. They have programs to accelerate the results of my weight loss. And part of the offer, they give you FREE endoscopy to make sure acids don't eat my health!
There are folks who can enlarge the minute one's, give the energy of an horse and teach you the five fist heart pounding technique so that all the "HOT" women can be at one's feet.
And finally not to forget, some one always buys new webcams and yearns the world to look at them.
Sometimes, these mails can be contradicting too. Like, I got this mail which says that my desperate financial situation can be resurfaced my mortgaging my home in a bank in Wisconsin (while I live in Bangalore!). The other one says that I can add another $100,000,000 dollars to my existing account, if I fill up a form that says "FREE Smilie T-shirt" and send it to at least five people.
This is surely not exhaustive, but I'll stop here coz I am really tired of these bulk mails. The only way I can stop this, is to camouflage my mail address. Off late, I see lot of folks writing " at yahoo dot com". Now, this is surely going to escape the eyes of the bots. Any better ideas?
But in the past two weeks, I've noticed my mails in the bulk folder running into hundreds of mails. In fact on Friday evening, I saw around 200 mails, when I had actually cleaned up my Bulk mail on Thursday evening. A little annoyed, I just checked my spam filters and then checked my folder to see if mail box was under attack.
I couldn't figure out if it was under attack, but made some interesting and funny observations. I realized that my spammers apparently are good Samaritan in this world always trying to help me out in many ways, be it giving me free credit cards, high interests on mortgages, loans, help me find singles in MY area and best of all, they are the doctors who know my libido inside out.
I took a snapshot of my spam mails and did a small analysis on how well my spammers know me. And this is what I found...
I am living in abject poverty and therefore "eDealsDaily" have send me a mail that says "Finally, Health Care You Can Afford".
I am a game freak and can't live life without games. "Special Promotions" are offering me a Free XBox.
I am lonely SINGLE soul lost in the battle of finding my better half and that is when "Find Love" comes to my rescue. They can help me find my soul mate in 7 days!
The "CYC Diet Patch" has no clue about how emaciated I am. They have programs to accelerate the results of my weight loss. And part of the offer, they give you FREE endoscopy to make sure acids don't eat my health!
There are folks who can enlarge the minute one's, give the energy of an horse and teach you the five fist heart pounding technique so that all the "HOT" women can be at one's feet.
And finally not to forget, some one always buys new webcams and yearns the world to look at them.
Sometimes, these mails can be contradicting too. Like, I got this mail which says that my desperate financial situation can be resurfaced my mortgaging my home in a bank in Wisconsin (while I live in Bangalore!). The other one says that I can add another $100,000,000 dollars to my existing account, if I fill up a form that says "FREE Smilie T-shirt" and send it to at least five people.
This is surely not exhaustive, but I'll stop here coz I am really tired of these bulk mails. The only way I can stop this, is to camouflage my mail address. Off late, I see lot of folks writing "
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