Monthly Archives: May 2007

Geek anguish: dPain over dt

dPain over dt Continue reading

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Cannot sleep

Have you ever had the experience of feeling tired and sleepy but not being able to sleep? I have slept for around 8 hours in all over the past 2 days. I left work a bit early to catch up on my sleep because I was feeling very sleepy.

But bang! The moment I reach home sleep is history and I am wide awake. I try reading, no use. I try listening to music, no use. I chat with friends for a while, no use. Now I am blogging, let’s see if I am able to get some sleep after this. If not I will be walking around like a zombie in office tomorrow. Yawn. Good night. Continue reading

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Practical advice

Let me not say anything… go ahead and listen to this and I am sure it will come across the most sane advice you have ever received. Of course this is what your parents, siblings, friends, colleagues and your conscience has been asking you to do all along but somehow it sounds so much better and doable this way.

Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).mp3

If you prefer to read the song then here are the lyrics…

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’97
Wear Sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future,
sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists,
whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience
I will dispense this advice now. Continue reading

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Friends who blog

I read a hell lot of blogs. This is a list of bloggers whom I know personally. Some of them were friends before they became bloggers and some became friends because they are bloggers. I love reading their blogs. All of them have profound thoughts, experiences I can relate to and dilemmas that I too face in life.

  • Amit Ken – He is one of the first bloggers who became a friend of mine. I cannot even understand the slogan of his blog but I like reading his posts. Frank, genuine, soft-spoken that’s how I would describe him.
  • Dhaval – A buddy from school. Pursuing a career in medicine in the US of A. He is one of the few people who sings worse than I do. I still remember us singing Choli ke peeche kya hai way back in 9th standard. He seems to have abandoned his blog. Maybe I can persuade him to resume blogging.
  • Diya – Aha… a blogger lazier than me. Actually she is very very energetic (read the “Me, Myself” block on the right of her blog) just that she blogs on an average 4 times in a year. Yes you read it right. Around 4 times in a year. Diya, if you are reading this please blog more frequently!
  • Gunjan – Ladies and Gentleman… this person also takes away the lazier-than-Varun blogger’s award. A close buddy, companion in ups and downs in life, likes vodka, loves books, fellow geek, somewhat confused, strong-minded… now you know why he is my friend. We usually disagree on everything, but lately we have been agreeing on some things. So there is still hope for us. We have decided that next time we meet we will get drunk and sing into the wee hours of the morning.
  • Krakoosh – Krakoosh is an old friend of mine. He blogs anonymously because he does not want people around him to know that he blogs. Am proud to say that I am the one who gave him this idea ;-) Am I not the best unofficial blog evangelist?!? He blogs well, blogs lucidly and sometimes blogs about things that totally go over my head. That’s good. That’s why I like his blog.
  • Jasmine – Hmmm… how do I explain Jasmine? Again a close friend. But it’s more like our wavelengths match. For me usually a close friend means who argues like hell with me. In the case of Jasmine we don’t agree or disagree, it’s more like we keep wandering in the gray areas. And we enjoy it. I really value her advice. Often she does not realize it but something she says strikes a chord within me and helps me out in some way. She writes really well and some day I hope to get a personally autographed book of the best-selling book she is going to write.
  • Paavani – A bubbly character. Her blog is usually a riot of colour. Met her during the first DBM I attended. We have been in touch (on and off) ever since. She is (was) a student of design and her posts are usually questions and opinions about the world around her. She also has a very interesting collection of pics.
  • Sudy – Aha! He is in many ways like me (likes coffee). But in many ways he is totally unlike me (likes beer). A recent friend of mine but something tells me that is this is going be a long friendship. Dude I have only one thing to say to you – Follow the white rabbit! And as promised I am giving you your first incoming link (people people… your first incoming link is a very emotional moment for most bloggers…)

I am sure I must have missed out somebody or the other. I will definitely add them as soon as it strikes me…

[EDITED TO ADD MAY 17 2007]: Didn’t I tell you I would forget somebody… Just added Dhaval to the list.
Continue reading

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09:F9:11:02:9D: 74:E3:5B:D8: 41:56:C5: 63:56:88:C0

09:F9:11:02:9D: 74:E3:5B:D8: 41:56:C5: 63:56:88:C0

If you know what this is you are a fellow geek. If you don’t can you take a guess in the comments?

I will add the answer after a few days… let me see if I get any interesting replies. Continue reading

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Wanna play Scrabble? – Scrabulous.com is THE place to check out

Wanna play Scrabble? – Check out Scrabulous.com.

My friend Jasmine introduced me to this cool site that allows you to play Scrabble online for free, either with yourself, with a friend sitting halfway around the world or with total strangers who share your love of Scrabble.

The software that the site uses is lightweight and really easy to use. It almost feels as if you are sitting in a room with the Scrabble board in front of you ready to go to vocab war. There is almost no learning curve and as long as you know the basic rules you are ready to go as soon as you log in. I am totally addicted. Did I mention that the site also allows you to chat with your opponent during the game?

I have observed a few games (you can just drop in and watch other games in progress… there are some amazing scrabble players in there) and have played a couple of games with Jasmine. I lost both times ( :-( ) but Jazz, in true Arnie style, I WILL BE BACK!

Couple of tips from Scrabble-guru Jasmine:

  1. Use the online dictionary before forming a word you are not sure exists (I do that all the time), it will save you some precious seconds.
  2. Familiarize yourself with the Two Letter Words list… they come in very very handy in crunch situations and earn some very useful points.

My username for the site is varunvnair, so if you join add me as your buddy and drop me an email or an offliner and we will have a game sometime. Continue reading

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Making of a person

Is a person really independent? Or is that just an illusion he creates to satisfy an ego? Is a person solely responsible for what he is today and what has done in the past? Or does some of the credit or blame go to people around him mainly his family, friends and colleagues. How much of of me is made up of other people? I live, how many people live inside me.

What if a person is full of bitterness? What if he is full of love? What if he is full of both? Will people around him also become bitter? Or full of love? Will people around him want to give something of theirs to him? Or will they shoo him away?

I wonder how much of me is other people and how much of the people around me is me. Continue reading

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Contender

Somebody I know and somebody who is very close to my heart wrote this. I could not believe my eyes when I read it. It was as if I had written it myself. It was a much much bigger paragraph and I agree with 90% of it. These are the statements I could relate to most. Isn’t it amazing that 2 different people feel almost exactly the same thing? 2 people in different places, at different phases in life, having different lifestyles…

They call it the “Quarter-Life Crisis.” It is when I stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about me that I didn’t know and may not like. I start feeling insecure and wonder where I will be in a year or two, but then get scared because I barely know where I m now.

I laugh and cry with the greatest force of my life. I feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and I try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where I’m or move forward.

I worry about loans, money, and the future and making a life for myself…and while winning the race would be great, right now i’d just like to be a contender!

What I just realize is that everyone reading this relates to it or related to it once. We are in our best of times and worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

I have asked this person to start blogging on a regular basis. His blog would be very very interesting to read, don’t you agree? Continue reading

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Where the were you?!?

YOU: I have been checking your blog every single day. Where the <beep> were you? You <beep>, don’t you know that if you have a blog you are at least supposed to update it once in a while?

ME: I am SOOOOO sorry! Life has been throwing lots of things at me and I was busy dodging some, catching some and throwing back some. No explanations, no more apologies. Aren’t you just happy that I am back?

YOU: Hmmm… you are right. OK, don’t disappear anywhere without telling, OK?

ME: Agreed. Btw I will have to edit out all those gaalis you said. This is a family blog (my dad reads it!) and I cannot have all those cuss words lying around.

YOU: What the <beep>? You <beep>, you <beep>, I will <beeeeeeep>….

ME: OK guys, I think I will have to end this post here, this guy is going to keep talking for a long long time. Bye for now and see you soon. Continue reading

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