100 days..

..to a Kindle? or something ?

So I've decided to go 100 days by cooking and carrying along my own lunch. This should save me around $400, make me eat healthier and perhaps get that Kindle DX :D


It is currently Day 3 !




12-19-2009 Big snowstorm today, so had to stay in. Day 5 successfully completed.

Bad writing days..

In the last two days, I've composed two bad emails. Bad just because they didn't have the desired effect and that they were both taken in the wrong sense. 


This comes back to my earlier post but unfortunately that's how it is. I wish my intended message was delivered but unfortunately it wasn't. Now I feel like a jerk when I probably shouldn't. 


Candidness, upfrontness (not a word!) and ambition doesn't help sometimes. 

The scariest thing I saw this Halloween.

Forget ghouls, goblins, grim reapers, evil clowns. Most of those are imaginary (all clowns are evil!) What this post is about is very much real and scarier than any costume anyone can think of. It is probably one of the most disturbing things I've watched the last few years. 



It is very very disturbing for a number of reasons: 

1. From the trailer : A FIVE year old talks about being saved and that he found Jesus. 
2. Children are being made to pray to a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush
3. Mother home-schooling her son - " Did you get to the part yet where it says that science doesn't prove anything? And it's really interesting when you look at it that way..." 
4. Children are playing with torchlights in the night, making ghosts stories up, scaring each other, having a jolly good time being children. In walks the camp leader and says "I don't like ghost stories; some of them are fun - but they don't honor God". I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled the kids got with that sort of comment. 
5. Kids are convulsing and crying like they've done murder. Guilt and fear are strong motivators for brain washing. Forget government conspiracy theories for mind control. Indoctrinate a child with religion and he's yours forever. 
6. "Warlocks are enemies of God. And I don't care what kind of hero they were, had it been in the old testament, Harry Potter would've been put to death!!". Cut to a kid with a sad face. (This is old news - you could read more about it here)
7. Little girl goes up to a group of African Americans sitting by the road and says "If you die right at this moment, where would you go". Guy says "Heaven". Girl says "Are you sure?", "yes". Girl walks aways looking very unbelieving "I think they were muslims". 
8. basically the next 1.5 hours is more on the same lines...

If you've got netflix, blockbuster or can get the movie from somewhere, do have a watch.

Children at that age should be hogging on candy, playing with a ball, doing child-like things. Not wanting to be saved, or in training to become "religious soldiers". One of the little boys in the documentary is a born-leader. He would talk and people would listen. He is now being groomed to 'spread the word of God' and 'lead a revolution'. That's just what we need..training our children to become revolutionaries. 

I was very upset watching this. I tried to think back to my childhood. My parents are religious and I'm not. Not in the slightest. I was maybe as a child. But I have made my choices since then. However, I cannot recall even a SINGLE incident when I was told that all other religious beliefs are bogus, and there is only one truth. 

Like in this video above, it's bullshit that there are some religions of the sword and some are not. 

Old friends, new people

I've been lucky this year to meet up with some old friends after a long time. 


Its always so much fun to hang out with people who've shared some fun times with you; unfortunately over the course of time, these aren't really the 'old friends' but 'new people' who you have to discover all over again.


People become guarded, old inside jokes don't mean the same, and its no longer effortless! On the other hand, some people like that - to rediscover and perhaps find someone more mature and complete than the person you knew back in college. 


I don't like the effort, I still yearn for the same old, same old. People shouldn't change but then again I'm hoping for the impossible :)

Forget the past, live in the present, think about the near future

Over Diwali my cousin Nipa asked me "If you think about your past relationships and missed chances, what's the one you regret and what's the one you could have a do-over with". Most of the people in the room had their answers ready. I had to think for a while..but I think my answer is the truth for me. 


My answer was I don't have a single regret and I don't want a do-over. She was surprised and so were my other cousins. Well, my reasoning is that I don't have a regret over anyone because the decision to end a relationship would be one that I've thought about and wouldn't have taken it lightly. Do-overs - well if I didn't try hard enough or didn't get to know the person that well, that just means that over the first, second, third or even fourth impressions there was either nothing there to pursue or it was a one-way street. Either way, it doesn't make any difference. About the present, I'm with someone who is best for me as I am right now. Life rushes on ahead and there'll be road bumps and sometimes dead ends. What are you going to do anyway?


The only time to live in is the present and perhaps just a tiny bit into the future - the past is the past, the only way you're going to change things about the past are through solace, forgiveness and in your mind and imagination. 

So I didn't win..

but it was definitely worth entering. I think that one of the ways to improve your sport/hobby (mine is photography) is to actually compete for it. You get to see what other people's skills are, compare them to yours and hopefully improve. 


In any case, I'll continue to take pictures and improve over time. Maybe someday I'll manage to win at it! 


To see the ones I had entered for the contest themed "Asia without borders" refer to my earlier post - http://mehulvora.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-finalists.html

Credit now, pay later..The new Nobel Peace prize

This year's Nobel Peace prize is awarded to USA President Barack Obama. Here is the official press release from the prize committee. He has (as of this day) been in office for just more than 9 months.

The peace prize was awarded 'for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples'. The prize, according to me and many others (including previous peace prize winners) has been awarded in 'hope' of doing everything he has pledged to do. He has inspired 'hope' in an uninspired world. Come on !! Anyone coming in after the Bush fiasco would've got the same sort of hope-inspiring effect on the US or other countries. 


Nobel prizes, peace or otherwise, were until today based on the impact of the laureate's work on the relevant field. e.g. This year's Nobel prize in Medicine and Physiology went towards the discovery of the telomerase enzyme and telomeres that have since then been implicated in very important aspects of aging and cancer. They have become widely studied and have impacted the field significantly. This discovery was first made in the early 1980s. It has taken more than 20 years for this discovery to be given its due. Now granted that peace prizes have been given for their immediate and far reaching impacts. Note the immediate and far reaching impact - NOT impending impact. This is exactly what the prize to Obama signifies. I earnestly hope that in him receiving this he is much more in the spotlight and under pressure, as a politician and world leader has never been before, to actually deliver some of the campaign promises they have made. Obama, in his defense, has been on the right path so far. 


Where have we heard 'I want world peace and no wars and bloodshed' a thousand-and-one times before. On every beauty pageant that you've watched (ok. This is a cliche but there's a reason it's a cliche!). 

My many role models

My grandfather - I loved this man very much. Except one time (my fault totally, carefree teenager that I was) he never used to get angry. For anything. He had the one quality that I adore the most - patience. I yearn to attain that level of patience. I think my life in research is slowly and steadily teaching me that. 

My sister - I've followed in her footsteps since the very beginning. Junior college, Bachelors and even the same university. I think I look up to you because of your amazing analytical and critical skills. I want to write as well as you do, I want to be as introspective as you are, I want to be able to understand and interpret like you do. You would think that life as a scientist makes you this way. I think I'm not there yet..as much as I'd like to be there yesterday! To see her writing go here - http://purvsoutlet.blogspot.com/

Dewey Royal - Dewey, I'm going to miss you. I look up to Dewey for his formidable intellect and even more powerful courage and resilience. Dewey was a research professor in our lab who after being diagnosed with MS and being crippled by it at a very early age, overcame his fear, handicap and showed me that nothing is impossible or too hard. I didn't have too many chances to interact with him, but every time I did I was always challenged, inspired. I want to have the strength and perseverance and above all the passion that he had for his science, life, the universe and everything. Dewey passed away earlier this summer and he is sorely missed !!


My cousin Nirav - For his never-say-die attitude. And for being the one to call me from time to time :D

Patience

A wise someone once said "Patience is a virtue" 


I think its meant to be "Patience is THE virtue"

Muse and U2

Wow..what a super fantastic concert last night. Muse was great and energetic as usual. U2 I wasn't that much interested in until they actually started performing.

Firstly I have to say that I have to commend Bono on the energy that he shows on stage. Next he introduces his band - I've not actually even seen Muse do this (Waters did this at the end of the concert). Then he commends Muse - that was a GOOD moment. I feel Muse isn't anyone's opening band anymore, but then again, they're not that big in the US as of now and why not piggy back on the U2 phenomenon.



I now have a hoarse throat singing all my favorite U2 songs and screaming all the Muse songs. Cannot wait for the Muse tour next year here in the US!

Something for Nothing !!!!

What more can I say? Anyone want to contribute to my brilliant mind?

Physics vs Biology

Hah ! No this is not some controversial post as to my opinions on which is the better science (if there is such a thing as the "better science").

I recently showed my support for Jeff getting his Ph.D (well, it was a given that he'd get it, but it's just plain wrong to not be there for your friends on an important day like this!), and I had the best time ever in a defense.

Mind you, I understood maybe 3 words total in his defense but it was a great learning experience for me. Why?

Firstly he is (was?) a String theory guy and I just know what that theory wishes to accomplish..don't know any of the details at all.

In anycase, the only words I actually understood were :

1. His name.

2. "a"

3. "and"

4. "Rutgers University"

5. you get the drift...

But this isn't a post of the stuff that I didn't understand - see this for example (most of his slides were like this)

So as I was sitting there hearing words which may as well have been Greek (wait..some of them were, I remember a µ_{Ø !!)}

Anyway, here were my main thoughts and the reasons for the title of this post:

1. Physics is technical : Its all terms, letters, abbreviations. Biology presentations are normally technical.

2. Physics is understood in levels of education: A Master's student in the same field as Jeff wouldn't probably understand a word of what he was talking about. According to Haile and Jeff, physics is exceptionally hierarchical in terms of education i.e. depending on how specialized you are, you may or may not understand most of what's going on. As you gain more experience you'll understand more and more things. Now this seems rather obvious - more experience = more understanding. But that's not what I mean. For e.g. in Biology, the basic principles of life, the way a cell works and is organized are essentially conserved. You could be a molecular biologist, a virologist, an epidemiologist, a microbiologist and you would still be working on the same principles, the same base information, the same background. Sure, the details of various subjects would be different and maybe unknown to the other specialist but the crux of the information remains the same. So if I were to attend another biologist's presentation (not from my field) I will still be able to take away a lot from the talk in terms of what was new, what was done, how it mattered. I don't feel it's the same in Physics and this is unfortunate. A handful of people understand and can contribute in a particular field in physics but this doesn't apply to biology. Since the background is the same; many can understand and perhaps be easily made to understand and this allows for advances in the subject by leaps and bounds!!

3. Contribution : Perhaps this is the same as my previous point but one thing I noticed that questions during the talk were basically asked only by Jeff's professors while most others (whether in the same field of study or otherwise) remained silence. Now this could be because they didn't want to later be beat to death by Jeff or because the data were unquestionable or perhaps it could be that no one in the room understood enough to ask questions. If it's the last scenario then it is truly unfortunate.

4. I haven't been to many defenses, but they made Jeff do equations on the blackboard !!

5. "The universe was not overdosed" - yes indeed !

6. This was probably just specific to his defense, but there was no closed session. This is normally after the presentation and after the general audience has asked their questions. Then the committee kicks out everyone and holds the closed session in which they reserve 5 different kinds of hell for the candidate. In this case, they grill him on the spot, in front of everyone.

Finally, Physics is about the details. It is beautiful because it tries to describe the world around us in a universal manner. Biology tries to describe the world as we know it.

I am totally proud to know Jeff and he completely and utterly deserves his Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Fortin !

PhilAdelhia

Today was a good day. As part of international orientation we took the students to Philadelphia. The whole trip was fun especially for me cause I basically hung out with the volunteers and it was a lot of fun getting to know the
and hang out with them during orietation.

But thus is not a post about that and the new people and friends I met and made. This us a post about Philly. I said to MAHA that o never really liked Philly. That may not be completely accurate. I have sone great memories here.

It was my first place away from home which was all mine. No other city will get that title.

It was the place I learnt to be truly independent.

It was the first place I was varied home after a crazy two month delayed birthday party.

My first experience with house mates, good or otherwise, was at 42nd and Pine.

My first and I hope last time sleeping on a pool ornament.

Living close to someone you love very dearly, always having them around.

Standing up for myself

Learning Beer Pong

Horse-racing

My first experience with an American housemate

I did enjoy Philadelphia actually, but I think that I wouldn't really want a repeat of those 2 years!

Craving

For some of those spicy masala fried potato wafers my dad used to get from A1 wafers next to his office.
Sigh.... This one is not going to be fulfilled.

Some other cravings that I habitually get:

manchurian
manchow soup
wonton soup
pav bhaji from Classic
paneer chilli from China Valley
Paneer chilli from Five Spice
Chowmein from hole-in-the-wall restaurant on causeway

My favourite restaurant..

My friend Haile asked Asli and I what our favourite restaurant in the City was (by City I will always mean NYC)

I've been to many different restaurants in the city but to my surprise I've probably never been to the same restaurant twice. This isn't too hard to imagine. Here's something from a forum I came across.

"nyc statistics

that lists 18,616 eating establishments in the city with 222 of them new for that year (2006). If we take 222 as our average annual turnover rate for restaurants (222 restaurants get replaced every year with a different restaurant), and an average of 3 meals for each of the 365.25 days in the year, we get a back-of-the-envelope result of about 20.3 years of eating without going to the same restaurant twice. Of course, this is assuming that we get the same number of establishments for each of the three meals, that you get each restaurant before they close down for good, and other things.

However, if we start getting a lot more inclusive with eating establishments (taco carts, halal carts, hotels, events with food, etc.), then the numbers probably get even better."

If I were asked what's my favourite hangout in the city , I'm going to shout out "The Frying Pan". Confused? Yes..check this image. It's basically a large boat convereted to a bar with some food. Chairs are scattered everywhere, grab a drink and sit there all day. One of the best times I've ever had were with my pal Mihir sitting there all day...literally !

My favourite beer place in the city is The Ginger Man introduced to me by my cousin Nirav. If you're lucky and you get there early, move to the back of the bar where there is a room with couches and enjoy the many many delicious beers they have on offer.

I shall have to try out many different places before I can choose a favourite. It's going to be a tough job but I'm looking forward to it !

Get a new agent

Nicolas Cage..PLEASE get a new agent.

I just wasted two hours of my life watching "Bangkok Dangerous". OK...Just from the title I should've stayed away - but it's Cage, I gave him a chance and he let me down again.

This is after I gave him several previous chances with Knowing (YUCK!!), Con Air and Face-off (Ok..that was pretty good actually but just because he is evil sometimes).

Have you watched 8mm, Snake Eyes? Those are classic Cage..

Please get a new agent.

The great divide

Recently I've been asked several times by different people whether monetary compensation is enough for Ph.D students and/or assistant/associate professors. No...it is not. Some folk are shocked by the annual stipends we receive as Ph.D students (note stipend - not a real salary in any way). It's definitely in the lowest bracket you can think off..I mean come on, we actually get money back during taxes.

Aashima asked me the other day whether I'm happy with it? Her words were basically "I know how you were, atleast back in Bombay - you liked to go out, have fun. Doesn't this lifestyle of saving up and scrounging bother you a bit?". YES it does - but it's something that I have to go through to do what I like to do. I love doing my work and I work my butt off doing it. I'm in the lab 7 days a week for atleast 6-7 hours. While I'm not in the lab, I'm thinking about my science. Why don't we get paid more? I don't know - I should find out. Perhaps because we're not responsible for billions of dollars (ok maybe millions) and our returns to the general public take a while longer. It definitely is not our skill set because in our fields, we're the most skilled. What about diversity in the skill sets - I'm going to say scientists and grad students in the biological sciences tend to be one of the most diverse people ; we know our field amazingly well, we can crunch numbers, we can learn computer programs if we have to without much difficulty. What I'm trying to say is that we should get paid more than we currently do - but that situation is unlikely to change.

I would love to know from my finance and banker friends why they get paid more? One reason that I can think of is that as "non-students" they are liable for everything they do and the bigger the responsibility the higher the pay. Fair enough. Anything else? Help me out here?

Finally - I hate it when people (and my friends included) treat the students almost like annoying flies. "Oh you're only a student - you can wake up late!" WTF? If I wake up late, I'm in lab until later. And when I have barbeques in the evenings, chilling I've heard from the "non-students" - WOW you are living the life. The hell I am - I can't afford to go out so I'm chilling here grilling.

This is not a rant - it's just something that I want to try and understand myself. What dictates salary and stipends. Are advanced degrees worth it ? Why doesn't everyone just get paid by the hour..

Awkward and weird questions?

1. "How are you?" - My doctors always asks me this...why?! Yes..I'm there to say hi and pay a co-pay. This one is extremely awkward - it's used with a stranger (noone really cares about how the stranger is doing), at a funeral (someone died! They are NOT doing good), at the hospital (ok..this one can get a different non-weird answer).

2. "Do you have any change to spare?" - Well actually I do, but I don't care enough to give any.

Hah ! I thought I had many more - obviously I don't find too many questions weird or awkward, or I just have ridiculously bad memory.

But I'm sure this post will get a few comments..

A little honesty (Part 1)

I've decided from now on that everytime I've discovered AND accepted something significant about myself, I'm going to put it out there.

• I'm a lazy lazy person. Most of the times I really don't want to do anything. This upsets some people and others don't care. I'm lazy for small little things, and lazy for intermediate things. I'll get things done on my own time. Not for the important stuff though. I'm never lazy in the lab, never lazy about my health and never lazy for friends and family (ok..sometimes for friends and family).

• I'm a "why?" person. If someone asks me to do something, the first and unconscious thing I say is "why?". WHY? Refer to point no. 1

I'm going to of course try and change some of the things that I've put down. With acceptance comes change....sometimes.

In love with the Bay City.

Was in San Francisco for a short vacation. I must say it has stepped up to number 2 position in the favourite cities list..just after home. New York..you've gone down one notch, though you'll still be dear because you're closer and a big respite from the beauty that is New Brunswick.

Some pictures can be viewed here

Thank you facebook.com !

Just yesterday I was having a discussion with friends of mine of how I like facebook and don't mind that some people will reveal all the minute details of their lives as status messages, share pictures, basically become a little less private.

Today I got to hang out with an old friend of mine back from Xavier's, Rucha. What a great time I had...and the only reason I could meet her was because she was a friend on facebook, she posted she was coming to US and I happened to see that on the homepage of my profile ! YAY !

Thank you facebook !

Please convert text to speech

We don't need to be face-to-face for communication anymore. Email, SMS, Google chat, etc have made friends, family and businesses more accesible and communication very rapid. But in this connectivity we've lost important aspects of communication; emotion, tone, body language, response. I miss all of these..I'm a phone, meet-up person but I know that it's not really possible all of the time.

When chatting with someone, I say something, there's a weird sorta response or a cold response but it's basically just "text". I have no real idea what it means. All sorts of things go on in my head - have I offended? What do they mean? Was I misunderstood? Did she understand? Why would he say that? This isn't the situation when I'm actually talking to someone on the phone or meeting them in person. I can gauge what response my words have and I can ask outright if I'm confused.

Another 'downside' (or 'upside' to some) is the luxury of able to ignore or 'I didn't get it..' When the communication is electronic, we have the luxury to either ignore or just say that we never got the message. This happens more often than most of us would like.

I usually just pick up the phone and call. I can see how SMS, email is useful. We don't all have the time to talk when the phone rings, or meetup. Email gives us freedom, and sometimes it's just easier to write something out (after having thought about it) and express your feeling that way. I know that I'll frequently write up something long, either just because I don't want to say it out loud or I can articulate it better and with the right frame of mind or I just don't want the other person to be on spot.

But at the end...I love the phone. I will call my friends back home in India so I can talk to them. It's annoying and upsetting at times when they don't pick up or are too busy or whatever. But I'm a people's person, whatever the advantages of email, I will first pick up the phone.

Let's talk...

Today I went for a random systems biology symposium at Rutgers. When I got to the breakfast, all the tables were full save one with a few chinese folk. I sat down and wished everyone a good morning and was hoping to start a conversation. I like to talk to new people, I like to meet people at conferences or in general. "Good morning" came the reply and then promptly they started talking to each other in their language. WTF !!

I just don't get it...conferences, symposia, meetings, group discussions, journal clubs are meant to exchange ideas; keyword - EXCHANGE. There was no exchange between me and anyone else during the course of the conference. God knows I tried.

I don't understand this isolationist stand. I've seen it amongst Indians as well. They tend to flock together and really start gabbing in their hindi or gujarati or whatnot. Even when there is a foreign presence who probably can't even pick out words and snippets. It annoys the life out of me. Personal experiences aplenty since in a group of turkish people, I'll sometimes just be staring and the same for Asli in a group of Indian people. Noticed the same when there is a group of chinese people, russians, spanish..doesn't matter.

I get it..don't get me wrong. I do get it. You want to speak your own tongue, there's comfort in the flock...but not when you want to exchange ideas, have a conversation, not want to alienate someone. But if we want to improve, understand and respond, we need to be able to communicate.

Excerpt..

"The cough would start in silence; first there was the great inhale, the smoke sucked deep down into the lungs, and held there while the victim waited for what was to be an agonized body spasm. The face would first turn a sweaty lemon, the shoulders hunched, the back humped like Brahmin bull. The legs would bend, the hand grabbed the thighs to support the coming convulsion. The cough would start somewhere down in the shins, the eyes would be screwed tight to prevent being jettisoned from the head, the mouth gripped tight to preserve the teeth. Suddenly! from afar comes a rumbling like a hundred Early Victorian Water Closets. Slowly the body would start to tremple and the bones to rattle. The first things to shake were the ankles, the up the shins travelled the shakes, and next the knees would revolve and turn jelliform; from there up the thighs to the stomach it came, now heading for the blackened lungs. This was the stage when a sound like a three ton garden roller being pulled over corrugated iron was heard approaching the heaving chest. Following this up the convulsed body was a color pattern, from a delicate green at the ankles to layers of pinks, blue, vericose purple, and sweaty red. As the cough rose up the inflated throat, the whole six colours were pushed up into the victim's face. It had now reached the inner mouth; the last line of defence, the cheeks, were blown out the size of football bladders. The climax was nigh!! The whole body was now a purple shuddering mass! After several mammoth aattempts to contain the cough, the mouth would finally explode open! Loose teeth would fly out, bits of breakfast, and a terrible rasping noise filled the room, Aweeioussheiough!! followed by a long silent stream of spume-laden air; on and on it went until the whole body was drained of oxygen, the eyes were popping and the veins like vines standing out on the head, which was now down 'twixt knees. This atrophied pose held for seconds. Finally, with a dying attempt, fresh air was sucked back into the body, just in time to do it all over again. Bear in mind this was usually performed by sixty men all at the same time. Whenever I see those bronzed 'Jet Set Men' whose passport to International smoking is a King Size, I can't help but recall those Bronchial Dawn Coughing Wrecks"

- Spike Milligan from "Adolf Hitler- My part in his downfall".

Actually, with minimal editing this could easily be made a description of something else..

My finalists :)

Thanks everyone for helping out choosing.

I've edited these to the best of my abilities ! Results for the contest will be declared in October. Keep your fingers crossed!

"Do you realize that you will no longer have any TV, sir?!"

"You won't even have anything to watch sir !"

"Not even backup!"

Yup..it's the end of the world for me. No more cable or even *gasp* basic cable. What will I ever do..

Read a freaking book. Watch shows on Hulu.com. Maybe concentrate on getting my PhD done. Brush the cat. Just stumble or like the rep probably thought "My god!!! He has no life!"

Interesting times..

Finally I succumbed..

and joined a library. My first time ever. I guess the recession has come down to grass-root levels now. Just cannot afford to buy $27 (yes!!) hardcovers any more.

But I think that even the library is soon (give or take 5-10 years) will become an antiquity. With gizmos like Amazon's Kindle where you can view .pdfs and word documents just like paper (yup..you would think that there's just a sheet of paper underneath the screen), instant access to Wikipedia (ok..not the best of sources but useful enough), dictionaries, and even a crude web-browser, reading is going to be revolutionized. A short search on the torrent sites gives me almost any book that I would like to read. If you don't want to go the pirate way, then just buy an electronic version of the same book - they come in that format now as well. You can carry your electronic library with you everywhere.

Until I can save up enough (or a few GREAT friends buy it for me - *hint - get the Kindle DX* ) I'm going to be going to the library ! Yay for free public libraries !

Start uppers..

Being stuck in a NYC traffic jam and having a pre-existing road-rage condition, doesn't help the mood while driving. Even the music playing does not help much..but then comes along a song and you just get into it. You start singing loudly along, and then the next song and then you're just in a great mood...

These are few of the songs that really start me up down that path....

Today's big thing ...

I came across this on Stumble (sigh..where else?)

Most of them are pretty funny..thought I'd share some insomnia..

TODAY'S BIG THING

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Enjoy !

Nothing like watching Sachin..

Was just tooo good our last match (Mumbai Indians v/s Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2009).

He's just tooo much of a pleasure to watch when he's in form..

Woohooo !!

I just hope we continue like this...we've got to get 7 wins to be in the top four..

ALSO...

fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com ---> I'm not too sure if this is real..but it's definitely a lot of fun !

Now I remember !

A few things that I remembered how much I miss doing ..

1. Browsing through a bookstore...NOTHING like it. I love it..even for a few mins. I could spend hours in there.

2. Watching cricket. The past 2 months watching the NZ tour of India, the IPL and even the Pak v/s Australia. ZERO productivity in lab and MAXIMUM fun. I miss that atmosphere of people watching and screaming out on the roads though !

3. Pretending to paint..hehe. I have always liked "arty" types. Something that I cannot do myself. I've started a cheater-version of an oilpainting..with the image already drawn out. I just paint. It's fun..I missed it !

4. Having a team to cheer for ! Go Mumbai Indians...

5. Playing tennis...with my bad knees it's been hard not doing something active. Going to start playing tennis all over again. YAY for painkillers and analgesics !

6. Reading cheap, stupid novels. I just finished reading John Grisham's "The Broker". Wow..a horrible book; but just reading it made me feel good. BTW, I recommend "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the nighttime" - by Mark Haddon

OK...fron now on I'm going to start updating more often !