Every Dog has his day & NTULC INtl. Pvt. Ltd.

Tuesday, 24th February 2009

0215hrs, Home.

Firstly. Sorry for the long break I took off my blog. Mid term break at uni now, so I am back!

Secondly. Sorry for not having done the shuffle quiz which I was tagged by Ranajay to do. I will do it soon, promise.

Thirdly. Lets move on from the apologies.

Lastly. Today’ s headlines. Crorepati JhopadPatti ka Kutta ( A.k.A SlumDog Millionaire) wins 8 Oscars. I woke up to Rahman winning the Oscar. I was happy for him like many other Indians around the world.  I thought about it. Slumdog is not even among his best 5 albums in my opinion. If a mediocre album by Rahman’s standards (btw Jaye Ho was rejected by Subash Ghai for his film Yuvraaj) can win 2 Academy Awards, imagine how many he would have won say hypothetically if he was either born in England or the US! Also a not so great ‘ Indian’ album  winnimg an Oscar, says something about the standard of Indian Music. 🙂 In my personal opinion it didnt deserve to win 8 Oscars, but thats my personal opinion. I guess it was a favorite among critics and masses equally and so it won. So yeah, every dog has its day, happens to be a slumdog this time.

Enough of dog talk, some updates on what happened over the last month or so, during which i took a break from blogging.

In one of my posts- The week gone by -an update , I had listed out the books I had been reading. Now a progress report on those books. The locations of all those books has changed from my books shelf to my cupboard where they have been untouched since that day. More updates in future posts. 🙂

Was away at Outward Bound Singapore on 7th-8th February.( All PHOTOS here)

Notable activities there :

1. Failed attempt at being messenger boy .(relevant parties know about this,limited disclosure here)

2. Looked like a fool wearing long kurtas and shorts. (you can see in the photos and have a laugh)

3. Led the GSS team in building a raft and paddling it into the ocean!

4.  And this…..

5. Singing on the bus back from OBS like mad ‘dogs’. Agastya was dignified as usual, chose not to sing. Hisham barked as loud as me. Naveed doesnt do singing. Others all contributed in a way or other. Notable song performed by Michael urf Michelle : I am a Barbie Girl ( on someone’s demand :p)

Apart from OBS, at GSS we have been pretty occupied. Launched New Website. Have few new events coming up over next few weeks- Free Weekend Movie Screening Marathons,  SALSA classes, Trip to Malaysia and a Sports Week.

Talking of Salsa, another update. A russian girl asked me to be her partner for Salsa 🙂 . She said she would attend our classes if and only if I dance with her. Exciting??  Dont get excited, turns out she is already married ! Par kuch tho progress hai! I guess that event makes me lose a couple of NTULC credits! Damn! Oh and yeah- NTULC is back – bigger and better– we have gone International – NTULC Intl. Pvt. Ltld (NTULC IPL). And I have been asked to be International Liason.

International just reminded me something else, I am going to tour Australia (northern Territory) this summer (winter there). I have been selected on a cricket tour as part of the NUS cricket team! Best part is almost 60-70% of the cost is sponsored by NUS :))) . Once back from Australia I will be off for the GSS Summer Trip ( place still undecided – Volcano Diving trip to Krakatoa, Diving in Phillipines?, Angkor Wat / diving?) You might notice that diving is there in all the options, thanks to Agastya. He really wants to dive I guess,but then he is try to overcome his fear (deep water), so its justified! He and Naveed are taking swimming classes also in NUS btw!

Talking of Agastya and Naveed, just reminded me to do an update on my friends. Most of them are pretty busy and are rarely in touch. But of whatever I know they have been upto, here is a brief update.

Agastya has been comfortably drunk/high/numb/asleep and learning chinese (kyun?)/swimming/MTbing/bodybuilding etc.

Suchit has been  racist, giving excuses for his rapidly increasing weight, learning German (kiske liye?) /Guitar/ GRE words (3 G’s)

Vanga has been Vanga. Only difference, now  in India.

Avinash has got room in NTU finally, applied for tuition fee loan in his last semester (spent money drinking to celebrate approval of his loan, smart boy 🙂 ) , planning to work as Insurance Agent soon.

Ranajay has been BLOGGINGabout cockblocking/DevD/Super CNY/ Legen-motherfucking-dary drinking escapades. and yeah going to Work.

Shantanu has been stuck in a viscious cycle :  Broke ->Hibernating -> Designing -> Money-> Beer + Smoke + Carls Jr ->Broke -> Hibernati……..

Ankur has become NTULC IPL Emperor.

Deepak has been making a fool of himself, 2 of his ex-gfs got married, has been attempting to build muscles (1.618), recovering from gym fatigue and has now been blogging for more than an hour!!!!!!

The End.

0329hrs, 24th Feb 2009

Home.

The week gone by – an update.

17th january 2009, Saturday

0131hrs, Home.

First of all sorry that I havent been posting anything for quite some time now. Today finally I have got some time to just recap the week gone by briefly.

Monday. Classes started at Uni. Also some work for GSS. I designed the new poster for Welcome Party (posted it on tuesday). My classes are in evening from 6 to 9. First class was good, Indian Prof, SK Panda. Didnt go to gym…so decided to workout at home. I am using suitcases,bags etc as weights at home now :p . Not bad actually…they are pretty effective, basically, the tougher it is to grasp a weight, the more your muscle develops. Btw turns out that cute girl I mentioned in my post last friday is one of my friend’s roomie. I was warned by my friend to stay away from her. I saw that girl on that day, but didnt bother to go say hi. I was late for class anyways.

Tuesday. Second class for the week- Power Electronics. Again Panda. Nice chap, turns out he is deputy head of Mechatronics Masters Program. I am thinking of asking him for part-time research assistant job. Need some cash urgently. Stupid NUS -Office of Finance are not returning my 1000 bucks of tuition grant refund! Once poster was done I uploaded it everywhere..the facebook group..my blog…forum…etc.Naweed and me decided to make a robot.

Wednesday. Third class in a row.Damn it. Application of Mechatronics. Horrible Prof. Cant understand what he is talking. The man needs speech therapy and english classes! I ignored him and read some Robotics book and messaging Ankita all the while. I dont think she knew I was in class. :p I left class half way when he gave a break, Naveed the sincere student he is, decided to sit through 2 more hours of  nerve-twisting torture.Left for library and worked on some business plan. Got back home around 11 and did some bullshit for sometime and then went to bed.

Thursday. Yes. Fourth Class. Neural Networks.Awesome Prof. Best Lecture Notes I have seen in my life as a student here. Agastya (minus long hair + ear stud + spikes) arrives. Earlier in the day he had called and said he would be coming for class. I was surprisingly not surprised at his new appearance. Dont know Y? During this lecture prof showed two videos which I would like to share here. Real interesting stuff!

Came back home and did some exercise. Then watched telugu movie ‘ Vaana’ . Good songs and locations. Nothing else positive in the movie.  Havent been able to watch live cricket matches since classes started. 😦 So i watch one hour highlights every night at 1:32am on Star Cricket. Now has become a routine.

Friday: No registered class. Went to gym. Met Agas there. Was reallyyy hungry, so went to BK at arts canteen. Amazing view from top floor of arts canteen!!!! Good food as well. BK, Thai food, Coffee joint and cosy sofas, view of sea in the distance. Then went to library to get some books. Was supposed to print posters, but then decided to attend Agastya and naweed’s class – Sustainable Product development.  Nice module- project based. But I want to take neural nets so not taking this one ( cant take 5 modules..that will be too much!)….Anyways during break went to canteen where we decided to meet up on sunday for discussing some robot plans and the other 2 guys have swimming classes. They went back to class, while I went back home to check whether Home Team NS is open for public or not. the last 2 times we went we had to return due to some ongoing- league over there. Anyways today was open and I informed everyone to come down. 10 people . We waited almost 70 min to get our lanes- Super Rush! Then we played. First game was so so.. Second game we played EEE team vs Rest of Waste. As expected we thrased the Rest badly. Vanga was in form and the EEE spirit brought the best out of most of us. I was average. Bowling finished and we all dispersed. Ankur challenged to beat EEE team next week, same place, same day, same team!! I am looking forward to that. ( Guys any pictures of bowling?? Please pass on..) Got chicken pie and chicken puff from FairPrice Express. At the moment of typing, those were still uneaten, but the aroma tempting me to end my post here.

Before I go offline…few more things…tomorrow meeting Suchit at NUS…some work..at 330 got University Cricket team trials….evening house party at agastya it seems…Agastya will be at Attica i think…Sunday meet naweed and Agas, discuss about our robot and I would like to see Agastya swim ( have seen him run, play cricket, bowl…can it be worse?? and how? …just kidding agas!)

Other facts.

Reading List presently. Will keep you updated on my progress on each book weekly)

1. Academic Texts. 5 of them. :p

2. Service robots.

3. Leonardo’s Lost Robots.

4. The Dain Curse & The Maltese falcon  ( Both Mystery Novels)

5. Great Sanskrit Plays.

6. Mahabharata : Book 1 : the Book of the Beginning.

7. Bhagavad- Gita  As It is

8. Camel Club

Yeah I read a lot of books simultaneously!

Songs I was addicted to over the week:

1. Jalte hain from Sorry Bhai.

2. Emosanal Attyachar and Nayan Tarse, DevD.

3. Nee ToliSariga from Santosham (telugu)

4. Mad World, Both Gary Jules version and original by Tears for Fears

5. Aakasha Ganga from Vaana (Telugu)

6. Octavarium by Dream Theater.

7. Downloading DELHI 6 SOUNDTRACK, heard its good. Rahman again.

0224 hrs, Next to untouched Chicken Pie and puff!

Saturday, January 17th 2009.

New Year Resolutions && Secret of A Great (Male) Body is 1.618

28th December 2008, Sunday

0600hrs, Home.

Few days back I was discussing with Shankari about our New Year Resolutions.Yes, its that time of the year when people realize that they have wasted the year gone by and plan to change their habits in the New year! ( I guess at this same point last year too they had made resolutions, what happened to those, God only knows).

But anyways the optimistic mammals we are, we list a lot of New year resolutions every year around this time. So yeah,  Shankari’s New Year Resolution was, sms quote – ” Resolution is to keep myself ultra fit and exercise regularly…Never bunk my violin and music classes..thats about it for now…. “. Not bad Shanki!! ..Anyways she asked me what my resolutions were, but for sake of replying I replied something to her…don’t remember what though.

So after that discussion I realized that I have never had any resolutions (maybe because I never actually wasted my past year…lol). But still I did’nt have any resolutions and I felt as if I was missing out on some New year ritual. So I thought and thought as to what I could do in the New Year to work towards a better me. A simple look at the mirror gave me the answer, I needed a better looking body! So I had decided on my resolution, to get a perfect body! (pssst…i told Shanki that I had decided to get a great body like John Abraham, her reply came. ” Oh!  you mean like Agastya‘s Body!” ..I had to reply, ” No the real one”.)

I had decided that I wanted a perfect body, but what is a perfect body?? Everyone has their definition of a perfect body or looking good. Like for example, Shanki said,  being beautiful for her was to lose weight (look thin) and get rid of pimples on her face! Vanga says looking good is crossing the 55 kg mark. For Suchit perfect body is anything above 165 cm height. So yeah, everyone has their own thoughts about it. But still confused I went about searching for the ” Perfect- Body Formula“ . I guess even God wants me to get a great body for the welfare of all gals in this world, so after 3 minutes of searching on the net I found some interesting info about what the perfect body can be or should be!

Building a perfect body is all about getting the right dimensions for your entire structure (some men might argue that only the dimensions of one organ down-under is important). Thankfully, the magic formula for those dimensions has been known for centuries. It’s called the golden ratio- a dividend of two measurements that’s roughly equal to 1.618. Its influence can be seen in the shape of a seashell, the spirals of a pinecone and the Partehnon in Athens. And in blueprints for the archetypal human form: Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man and Michaelangelo’s David.

So it’s no surprise to learn that chicks dig a physique that measures up to the golden ratio. Another search revealed that women are most attracted to muscular men whose shoulders measure 1.6 times the size of their waists. Well I guess its always not practical to measure the width of your shoulders yourselves- you need someone to do it for you. But it seems instead we can use the chest circumference value. It seems a ratio of 1.4 for chest: waist is equivalent to the 1.6 for shoulder: waist. For example, practically speaking, having a 45inch chest and 32inch waist is good! The bottom-line : When women look at men’s torsos, the ” V ” shape is victorious!

So I guess I now have my basic guidelines for a perfect body and will be hitting the gym in the New Year! I guess many of you would also like to have a perfect body! But before you launch into the workout ,know that you don’t have to achieve picture-perfect results to get the girl. There’s some research to suggest that women aren’t too keen on the most attractive men- they consider them too far out of their league. But I have even thought about that- by logic, the most attractive women would then go for the most-attractive men and that conclusion isnt bad at all!

As for me, I feel, the Golden ratio is nice to shoot for, but I won’t be disappointed with a silver or bronze either.

Note:  Hey Guys, what are your new year resolutions??? Would be great to hear from you!! Do post your comments!

0702hrs

28th December 2008.

Just another day & truth about the KP “switch-hit”

22nd December 2008, Monday

2359hrs, Home.

I woke up at 3:49pm to Avi’s phone call. He told me he would come by my place later in the evening to get some software from me as he was doing his sister’s Final Year Project! Geek! I suddenly realised that the house didnt look like civilisation, it was really messy. So I decided to clean up the house as I have no hope from either of my two flatmates of any cleaning help. ( Sreejith too busy and mostly locked up in his own room, and Vishnu is supposedly busy, I dont know busy with what though!).

Took me some time to clean up the house after which I took a nice shower and sat down to watch some cricket. Yuvraj played well in the end on a rather boring day of play. It was as if he was replying to the sledging he got from the English players with his bat rather than his mouth. Kevin Pietersen had called him a pie-chucker balling left arm filth!!…HAHAAHA..!!

And yeah there is something I have to share here..before i forget it. Yesterday Vishnu told me that he had invented the ” Switch-Hit” while he used to play cricket as a child to tackle negative bowling!!… Its sad that its Kevin Pietersen who is taking away the credit when Vishnu Prasad should be getting it! (Hope that through my blog people will realise who really invented the shot.) And I wonder what he is doing here in Singapore, he deserves to be in the Indian Team with such hidden cricket talent in him.

Anyhow after the match got over I made myself some coffee and went online to research on places near Singapore where we could go for Chinese New Year holidays for a mini-getaway. After some discussion on Agastya’s Blog we shortlisted 2 places in malaysia- Langkawi Islands and Mulu Caves!! Still havent decided where but I guess it will be between these two, whichever is cheaper! I personally would love to go to Mulu Caves! Did you know there lies the world’s largest underground chamber, the Sarawak Chamber, capable of accommodating Forty Fucking Boeing 747 airplanes!!!! Here is a pic of the chamber, small part of it!!!

Anyways after that I was getting bored so I made some experimental fried rice dish for dinner. It turned out to be awesome.A few minutes later, Vishnu also supposedly got ” an idea” to cook something after seeing my dish. He fumbled around in the kitchen cooking his dish after that, but I didnt really care what he was doing, as I was eatching (eating food+watching show simultaneously, now a habit) Blackadder and Dexter! Blackadder is an awesome show! Highly Recommended! Go eatch it today!

Today I plan to go early to bed since I have to wake up early tomorrow to help Avinash with Saree-shopping at Mustafa!! He promised that if I accompany him to buy sarees he would buy me dinner! I am jobless anyways nowadays, so what the heck, for a free meal I am ok to go with him to buy sarees also!

End.

0032hrs

23rd December 2008.