The No Good Blog

1540

2008-08-26T22:36:00.001+05:30

That's my score on the GRE; I did pretty decently I think :) I'd started studying about 8 months ago, after procrastinating for about the same time! But apart from the preparation, I believe luck plays a major factor. My test was absolutely standard with no surprises and the questions were manageable too. [In case you're not interested in the GRE or my ramblings, this is where you should stop reading!] Surprisingly, it appears that the only center in NCR is at Gurgaon. And it's a tad bit tricky to find! I reached that complex 10 minutes late for my appointment and saw an NIIT center. Foolishly, I assumed that that was the place and went in. If you know anything about these places you'll understand why there wasn't anyone there at 0845...

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Bicycle

2008-07-20T22:04:00.003+05:30

I bought a bicycle today. I figured the benefits are three-fold: Environment friendly Saves me the cost of petrol I can use the exercise (especially since I'll have to stop swimming soon, once winter sets in) I didn't really splurge, just got the cheapest, basic Hero Cycles model; cost me 2800 bucks (about $65 right now). It was weird riding a bicycle after all these years, especially after getting used to a motorcycle; felt incredibly flimsy and unstable. And my legs weren't used to the workout I gave them riding back from the shop to home. But I'm guessing it'll get better soon. I couldn't find any pictures; the Hero Cycles website has apparently exceeded bandwidth limit.

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Sexist Ad

2008-05-25T23:02:00.007+05:30

This ad was in the Times of India, Delhi Times about a week back. Could it be any more chauvinistic? Well, it could, but you get what I mean. It says 'sexist' ad, you perv :D

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Inflation

2008-05-15T21:42:00.004+05:30

A friend of mine pointed this out to me. He'd read this in some magazine. Presented for your perusal are Maggi noodles packets - one from December 2007 and one from March 2008. Just don't ask me why I have a packet from 6 months ago lying around :D

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Natatorium

2008-05-09T22:36:00.003+05:30

I'd been looking for a swimming pool where I could become a member for quite a while now. Except, I'm not really the 'go-out-and-look-for-things' kinda person; I prefer checking out stuff online. That didn't really help. So yesterday and I found out about a pool from a friend and went to see if it was a public pool or not. Turns out it was. Yay! But they needed me to fill out a form and then get it signed and stamped by a doctor to ensure that I was not carrying any contagious diseases and was fit to swim. Sigh. I went home early and then went down to the hospital that's in the same sector where I live. The receptionist wasn't quite sure what to make of the form, he said that any government doctor would sign the form. I didn't really want...

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Just Like You Imagined

2008-04-21T22:01:00.001+05:30

It would be perfect. He had played it over and over in his mind, the past few weeks and it had slowly evolved from the fantasy-dream sequence to something that was going to be almost ridiculously straightforward. He had convinced himself of that. He would tell her. How he felt. He wasn't very eloquent; the words wouldn't be poetry. But they would be from the heart. And they would be true. Her pretty eyes would widen in shock. But then there'd be a slight change, a softening of her features as she would break into a smile of acceptance and a flutter of eyelashes. She'd lean forward slightly, a shy hint, which he would take nervously. Breathing hard, he would caress her cheek, tilt her chin and move in closer. The kiss itself would be...

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Lost

2008-03-30T22:09:00.004+05:30

I've recently started watching Lost and I've got to say, that with all the weird stuff that happens on the island, I find the title screen the most unsettling! It gives me the feeling of just drifting helplessly in an infinite black void, with absolutely nothing around. And then, out of nowhere, there swim into focus, these huge white letters that spell out, disturbingly, 'Lost'. You have no idea what they are, what they mean, who made them, for what purpose, ( how they're managing to drift together ) and you'll never find out. Because you can't control where you float and they've swept by you. And you have no idea if those letters are the last thing you'll ever encounter in this emptiness. Brr! Gives me the shivers!

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Reanimation

2008-03-16T22:22:00.003+05:30

I haven't posted for almost 5 months now and the few readers that read this blog had been stopping by and enquiring after me for some time now. So, well, I'm fine. Still here :) I've finally forced myself to sit down and type out a post ( lame and disconnected as it may be ) so that I will hopefully get back to posting semi-regularly again. So what have I been up to? Nothing much. This and that. Been here and there. Why haven't I been posting? It started off with a little 2-3 weeks break for studying for a certification which was exacerbated because of a switch of jobs. Once I'd changed, I needed to work harder to get myself settled in and since I'd worked had, I needed to take break and give myself treats by watching movies and TV shows...

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So What If Albus Dumbledore Is Gay?

2007-10-28T22:08:00.000+05:30

Ever since J K Rowling announced that Albus Dumbledore was gay, there's been a furore. Some people hate the fact and some people love it. I say accept the fact and move on. It is a damned fine set of books and, if you'll pardon the pun, a spellbinding series of tales, read it as that if you want to, re-examine the stories in the light of this new fact if you must. Why the controversy? Did anyone have a problem with Hagrid? Being half-man and half-giant as he is? Did that cause anyone to raise moral and ethical concerns over the issue of half-breeds? People put forth that it's a publicity stunt. Well, duh! She's got to make money off the sales of her books, that's how she makes a living. Now that the series is over, it's going to drop out...

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What Were They Thinking?

2007-09-16T22:42:00.000+05:30

I’m not quite sure whether this can be attributed to a simple lack of fluency with the language; seems to me it would take a fair bit of mangling of thoughts to come up with this gem. I can’t think of any thing that would be close to what ( I think ) they were trying to say that would translate into this.

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Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation Now Officially Accepts Bribes

2007-09-12T22:06:00.000+05:30

Here’s something interesting, albeit in a very pathetic way: The Times Of India, Delhi Edition, dated 11 September 2007, reported that the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation now officially accepts bribes.In case the link breaks, this is what the article said:GHAZIABAD: If you can't check corruption, institutionalise it. This is the bizarre mantra that the Municipal Corporation of Ghaziabad (MCG) has hit upon. Believe it or not, MCG is now officially accepting bribes paid through cheques that would otherwise have gone into the pockets of its officials. Here's an instance of how it works. A contractor who bags a tender for a government project is now required to pay 15 per cent of the quoted amount to MCG. That's the kickback money he would...

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Nuclear Arms

2007-09-08T23:03:00.000+05:30

You can't hug your children with nuclear arms Alright, so this was spoken by Amy, Death's crush, from Family Guy, Season 3, Episode 6. And it's sardonic. But it still sounds cool :D

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Birthdays

2007-09-03T22:53:00.000+05:30

I'm not big on birthdays. For me, it's just another day with the same old things to do. Maybe I'll use it as an excuse to pig out, but otherwise, I kinda even dislike the disruption of my routine. I know, I know, I'll age into a bitter old man. But that's just the way I am. It's not like I don't enjoy life or give thanks for what I've got; I just don't pick my birthday as a special day for it. I take joy in the smaller things...which I shall not list for fear of being labelled a geek! I just don't think birthdays are a big deal. But my friends and family think otherwise and in spite of my reluctance, they do their best to make it special for me ( which I appreciate but only after a while; after I give up my attitude better suited to a...

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...Bienvenue 5300

2007-08-28T22:54:00.000+05:30

A few days before my Nokia 3120 gave up, I'd been looking into phones because my family had been pestering me to get a 'better' phone, considering the condition the 3120 was in. So when it did die, I wasn't completely unprepared to buy. I didn't want to spend too much on a device I'd primarily use to make calls. But if I was going to spend and get a phone, I'd want at least some features. The principal features I was looking for were connectivity via Bluetooth and USB and a music player. Secondary were camera, radio and connectivity via IR and whatever else would come as part of the package. And I didn't need any of these to be top of the line. I was happy with a 1 megapixel camera rather than shell out for a 3 megapixel one that I...

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Adieu 3120...

2007-08-28T22:53:00.000+05:30

I'd got my first mobile phone in 2003; a cousin of mine was getting rid of it. When I got it, it had a cracked screen and a loose cover. But it was reason for me to get a number and those surface imperfections were easily fixed. The phone was the Nokia 3120, apparently no longer in production. A Series 40 phone with CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 1.0 support, it was just what I needed. It had GPRS and support for MIDI files as ringtones and JPEG and GIF image support as well. I later got a DKU-5 data cable and used it a lot, putting wallpapers and ringtones on the phone and more recently, for upgrading my Java skills to include the basics of J2ME. It was one solid piece of engineering; I must've dropped it a hundred times and it never gave. Light and...

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Google Labs India

2007-08-20T22:12:00.000+05:30

On 15th August, India’s Independence Day, Google had hinted it had something up it’s sleeves. Today Google’s announced Google Labs India, developing features and tools to provide a platform to work with Indian and South Asian languages for searching for content. Pretty neat. Also, the Hindi transliteration feature on Blogger has now gone a step further and is now a completely independent tool and iGoogle gadget. Awesome stuff coming from Google and loads more expected!

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Warning!

2007-08-17T22:45:00.000+05:30

So. Who do I have to sue for making me spill the 'extremely hot drink I was about to enjoy', all over my lap in an attempt to read the warning? Seriously, which genius had the flash of inspiration to slap the cautionary statement sideways?

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Centennial

2007-08-04T22:21:00.000+05:30

This is my hundredth post on this blog and coincidentally, it's exactly one year since my first post. And what a year it's been! I've come a long way; from one blog and no readers, to 2 blogs, a domain name, a website and no readers! How things have changed! I've learnt much ( a fair bit of it the hard way ) and I've done much and met some very interesting people through their blogs. And the more blogs I visit, the more I realize that my posts read like a series of essays! I can't help it though. You can blame the board exams for instilling the skill of creating an introduction, body and conclusion for virtually any subject and embedding the habit so deeply that now I'm unable to turn out anything else except for dry,...

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Identity

2007-08-02T22:40:00.000+05:30

Someone really needs to get working on a better, more ubiquitious method of authentication or at least some way of integrating existing online username/password combinations! At last count I had: 1 Hotmail Id 1 Rediffmail Id3 Indiatimes Email Ids 3 GMail Ids 4 Yahoo! Mail Ids 1 Channel [V] India Id1 Contests2Win Id1 GoDaddy Id1 Google Apps Id 2 HDFC Netbanking Ids 1 HDFC NetSafe Id 1 HDFC OneView Id1 hi5 Id1 Hungama Id1 MTV India Id 1 Sun Java Forums Id1 SXC Id1 Twitter Id1 Wikipedia Id 1 Wordpress Id and about 10 or so assorted Ids for site's that I don't visit as frequently. Luckily, Google owns Blogger, YouTube, Picassa, AdSense, Webmaster Tools and Orkut, so that gives me 6 more sites with the same Google accounts that I use for...

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Shameless Self-Promotion

2007-07-30T22:16:00.000+05:30

This is a picture of the top of a carton of Godrej Sofit soy milk. Wonder how effective this strategy has been. Maybe they should've added '...or else!' for more impact!

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Mediocrity

2007-07-27T22:39:00.000+05:30

My mom often says, "Do whatever you want to; just be the best at it". I feel like I'm failing miserably. There's nothing that I've ever done that could possibly pass off for being the best, or even just simply, good. I'm just another one of millions; no claim to fame, nothing to show for my years in the world, nothing to be proud of, nothing to leave behind. Mona and Charles and some others seem to think I'm pretty smart. While that certainly bolsters the 'spirit' ( as Mona prefers to call it ), it still is far from the truth. Maybe I'm a little smarter than a fair number of the population, but my rare 'flashes of brilliance' fade fast and are indistinguishable in the ambient illumination from the masses. Nothing makes me stand out if you...

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Status Messages On Mobiles?

2007-07-24T22:14:00.000+05:30

How about being able to set a status message for your mobile number? Wouldn't that be cool? Not to mention useful! Instead of stupid 'Caller Tunes' you could actually play a useful, informative message for your callers. If you're at a meeting, you could activate the service and record a message for people who try to call you while you're busy, informing them of what you're doing and how long you'd be unavailable! And you could potentially customize your 'Out Of Coverage Area' and 'Phone Switched Off' messages too. If you know you're going to a place where there is no network, you could let your callers know where you're going and how long you expect to stay there. Ditto for when you know you're going to turn off your phone. I'd love to...

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Background Music

2007-07-21T22:44:00.000+05:30

Maybe it's because I've been watching too many movies, but I keep expecting and wising for some sort of background score to accompany my doings throughout the day. Wouldn't it be great though? Imagine striding into a boardroom meeting to the Imperial March! That would certainly make people more accepting of your ideas! Or consider the possibility of being aware of your boss lurking around because you can hear the 'dum-dum dum-dum' from Jaws! The music would also be a great way for people to know how you're feeling at the moment; happy, sad, filled with great expectations. This does have actual possibilities though. Maybe with time, we'd have progressed far enough with AI algorithms for music to have personal devices that can be set to...

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Enveloped

2007-07-17T22:46:00.000+05:30

It poured like crazy on Sunday. The day started off sunny ( ugh! ) and sultry but clouds started collecting by mid-morning and after lunch, there was that wonderful, surreal light that precedes a really satisfying thunderstorm. Wonderful and satisfying if you're safe and protected from the elements that is. I find it very comforting to be safely indoors, watching the rains lashing outside; warm and cosy and out of reach of the storm. It makes me feel invulnerable and all-powerful. It's the same when I'm outside but protected by a water-proof windcheater and I can feel the raindrops whipping at me with the wind but to no effect. With a full-length jacket, I feel absolutely untouchable. In fact, contradictory to appearances, it's rather...

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Tweeter!

2007-07-14T22:37:00.000+05:30

Recently, I discovered Twitter; it's yet another social networking site. But this one is pretty different. For one, it doesn't expect any commitment from you! You don't have to be a part of a community or group. All you do, is post what you're doing at the moment, in 140 characters or less, from your cellphone, IM or on the Web and that becomes your current status. Your friends will see your status along with how long ago you posted it along with others in their friends list. Why do I like it? Well, it has the potential for saving you the trouble of having to explain what you've been doing for the past week/ month/ year when you meet someone who you haven't been in constant touch with. It's easier to follow what your friends are doing in...

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