The days, before my nuptial.

            For Indians, marriage is as much a celebration for the couple, it's also an event to bring the extended family together, to mingle, muddle, fight and make promises to observe a more conducive relationship in future. Amongst all this chaos... my parents house, lights up like a christmas tree, every evening, broadcasting the event to all the neighbors. 

              The past few days have been hectic, with all the "stuff" that needs to bought, packaged and used appropriately for a wedding, following certain local/foreign customs. BTW, I really don't understand any of them or the need for all the fanfare. I assume, customs were made available previously, since there were no governing bodies like the judicial system to preside over the wedding and elders & certain order of events were the only witness to the marriage. Their council would be requested, in case of trouble with the marriage or anything related to that matter.

                I am called the "mapplai" in my local dialect, a phrase denoting the groom. So everyone goes "congrats mapplai". If it were any other sane person, I assume they would be extremely ecstatic, but I am more like "Hmm.... thanks. But I am already married to her". Well... I skipped the part of us getting our first marriage, civil marriage a few days earlier.

            Even though it's an arranged marriage, we have been in touch for sometime after the initial introduction by our parents. Our communication was sporadic at first, periodic later with alternate days, then daily and at present, a never ending banter. It seems that we have always been friends and this event culminates our friendship to the next strata. "Mine" changed to "ours", way before the official engagement took place and so, No jitters, no butterflies in the stomach, no second thoughts, but just stage fright. And I hope, even that will dissipate, once I get onto the stage, cause I am doing this for the first time and I am planning on doing it, for the only time(It's not if, but when she is reading this, for her: "Do you understand that?"). So this marriage, at least in our perspective, is for the family, to observe customs and we get to have a free ride in the ordered chaos, called the "The Indian Wedding".

             Today is the big day, when I take my wife, to be my lawfully wedded wife again. But this time, in front of all my relatives, inline with local customs.

On a funny note....

Source: Grabbed this online. I do not hold copyright of this image.

TL;DR - I am getting married on September 8th, 2013.

-Alphonse

   

Attitude towards women, needs to change.

If you have not been living under a rock, you would have heard about the recent events; that highlight men's ignorance, sordid attitude and materialistic mentality towards women. On the aftermath, I keep hearing about the influence of alcohol, westernization, sleazy dress & erotic movie scenes, to be the root cause that contaminate young men's mind and digress them towards this behavior. Is it really? It's easy to force the blame on others, rather than to introspect the real reason, cause then it hits too close to home.

Did society's attitude towards women ever cross their mind?  Forget society. How does a boy grow up to be this indiscriminate person, to commit this atrocity, not just towards a women, but to a person, a fellow human? Should we not think about their family/parents? Shouldn't they also be held responsible for this? Aren't they also part of his life, his childhood, that carved him for this behavior, to exhibit bad judgement and disregard basic human decency.

Irrespective of the scenes seen in movies and posters, it's the incidents at home that leave a lasting impression on a child's thought and drives his future behavior. It happens every time, the husbands hit's his wife in front of his kids; mother treating daughters like a maid, meanwhile treating sons like a prince. Looking down upon them, as a weaker sex needs to change.

This made sense in archaic days, since only men thrived as providers. Parents invested in their sons, so that they would take care of them in their old age. Well at least, that was the thought, but I don't think it ever comes to fruition for all. Now, women also are earning the bread for their family, because they get a chance to be educated and thrive in this society. So shouldn't we see a change in our attitude at home first, before we expect the same from our society.

Leering at women is not a sin, just don't make it so obvious, else you just come out as a creep. Lust is natural, but whom we are is defined by our actions, not just by our thoughts and that depends on our upbringing. Religion plays a role, since we are influenced by them and we are forced into that from birth. But every thought in religion, that condemns violence is based on fear(my understanding) and fear acts only has a temporary hurdle, until you face it. Looking at the women; not only as objects of beauty or a materialistic achievement but also as a person, would make a huge difference in our attitude towards them. A small step towards an end of this type of violence.

My .2 cents.

First of April, a fool's day.

 My brain is buzzing with activity and I am working hard on solving a critical bug. Well... that bug was not doing well and so was I; trying hard to decode the issue. It was about half past three in the evening and work was taking a toll on my concentration. As I was mucking through the code, my mobile goes off, indicating an incoming call. I looked it up and it was a local number. Thought it might be telemarketers or maybe from my apartment office. Maybe my apartment is on fire.. or some thing worse!! So I took the call and a lady answers on the other end.

lady: Am I talking to Alphonse.
Me: Yeah.
lady: Did you put up an advert on Craigslist, regarding fresh meat.
Note: I heard it as fresh meat, but I think the lady said free meat. you will get the difference by the end of this post.
Me: NO!
lady: I think... somebody posted an advert with your name and number on Craigslist, regarding fresh meat.
Me: Hmmmm.... Thanks for letting me know, I guess.

and I disconnect the call. Before I let go off my phone, another call comes in and again a local number. Now I realize, that something is wrong and switch off my phone to avoid getting calls.

Now the thoughts, that were going through my mind were; somebody hacked my account, or my laptop and posted this advert, just for fun or something else crazy is happening. How the hell, did they know my name and mobile number?  First thing that I wanted to do,  search for personal advert's in Craigslist, since "fresh meat" triggered a prison lingo and "men want men, men want women" sections were the one's that were highlighted in my thoughts. Well I was going for the worst thoughts... of mine and expecting them to be false.

But I was in office and I really did not want to use my office network to access Craigslist personal section; to search for this advert. Now I can't use my smart phone also, cos I had switch it off, to avoid getting the numerous calls.

So I decided to head home to use my home network to do my detecting stuff. I drive back home, deep in contemplation about, what could have happened. Then it dawns on me, that somebody could be playing a prank on me, since this was 1st of April. Anyways... I had to find the advert and get it removed, just to avoid getting the calls at least. So after I reach home, I search the online personal section for my name and number, cos the lady had mentioned that. I come across a lot of advert which I wish I had not seen, but truth requires sacrifice and so I trudge along and no hits. I tried to search based on timestamp and again no hits. I tried few more times and then decided to ping my friends about this. And voila, one of my friend replies back with the advert link and mocked me, that "I must be dumbest person", cos he was able to find it in 30 seconds.

The advert was in the sales section, which I decided to avoid, based on the "fresh meat" and its -ve connotation. This is an example of tunnel vision or thinking inside the box.

Here it goes... Didn't take a snapshot, but trying to recollect word for word.

--SNIP--
Hi,
    I have over 75lbs of lamb meat left over from a party. I am ready to give it for free.
    Call up this number XXX-XXX-XXXX and ask for YYY. I will not respond
   back to emails.

-YYY
--SNIP--

Now you can see, how I could have mistaken free & fresh meat. So boom, I log a case with Craigslist and mark this advert as prohibited. Within an hour, the advert vanishes of the site. I switch on my mobile and see 30 missed calls, more than 30 texts and voice mails. Phew... I was just happy, that the phone just stopped ringing and nuked all of 'em.

Now, I was thinking... who the hell, did I piss off so much; for them to play a prank on me like this.
And I did find out the next day. When you have friends like these, why would you need enemies!!

It was a memorable, fools days for me; with me being the butt of the joke. But hey, it made me test Craigslist's support service and response time. :D

The End.

What's your identity?

What is your identity? I am not talking about your online identity? It's more physical. For some I know, online identity seems to be the only thread by which they hang on to their clout. Let's not discuss about that.

Is it related to your work? or is it related to your hobby? or the things that you do, to piss others off. Many work to earn a living, some work in their field of interest, others to escape their life at home and which one are you? Does the line blur between work and daily life? Is it really worth it, if we put in that extra hours to get that one promotion? Does it just stop there or is it an ordeal to continue for the rest of our career?  These are all the troubles that afflict today's work force.

Have you ever wondered, as to what you are supposed to be doing in life? Apart from waking up in the (not specifically) morning and doing your daily chores like a zombie, hell bent on achieving what? making money for the Corporations?  I am not into the spiritual bullshit of predestined purpose in life. I am more into, what are you doing with your life? does it have a value? other than the few useful organs that we seem to carry, if we had not destroyed that already with our past times. Saving humanity seems to be a huge cliche.

Do we really need super powers to make a difference. All the power, that one needs is motivation, motivation to make a difference. Difference not in someone's life... but in yours. But the problem is... humans are so greedy... so anything that we do to please ourselves always tends to crave for more and that ain't good in the long run or is it?

 So what should we be really doing? Make a difference to your friends and relatives, your enemies because they are the closest to you. Quality and Quantity, both count. And I think that would speak volumes about your legacy, cause it would be the only abstract entity standing... if it had any gall of its own, when your mortal body perishes.

So make a difference, or better yet; be the difference in this monochromatic society and that I think, would be your identity.

I make mine, by writing this and motivating others. :D
Just a rant based on daily news, survived only by my thoughts.

An incident by the traffic light.

The steering wheel slightly vibrates a bit, to let me know that I am driving a bit faster than usual. Realizing that, I put a little pressure on the brakes, to offset that realization. It is a busy night, the sky bleary with just enough brightness to highlight the outlines of the landscape; street lights bouncing off moving cars, throwing ominous dancing shadows. A good amount of car traffic, all lanes occupied by weary people driving back from work with an urgency, to their slice of heaven called home or a bar. The traffic keeps on moving at its pace, with a occasional stop at the traffic lights.

As I passed one of the traffic lights, I witness an incident from the corner of my eye, that unfolds into an accident within my field of vision. I was crossing an intersection with a static picture of few cars before me. But one car breaks that boring picture, to plough forward with sudden acceleration. It crosses the intersection before others and hits a bump in the middle of the intersection, way too fast.... The car loses traction and skids sideways to the next lane. But I assume, the human in that car, did not have a chance to react to that change, resulting in the following events. His foot still on the accelerator, the car veers  barreling towards the central median.

 If you had a chicken race between a concrete and an expensive car, the concrete is not going to budge and the car would lose. The car hits the median, with enough force to jump it and that propels it towards oncoming traffic with its boot first. The roof of the car hits the asphalt first, breaking the silence with its windscreen and keeps rolling with the momentum. It lands back on its four wheels, facing the median nose first, with its driver side looking at oncoming traffic. It feels like a screen grabbed, right out of an action flick.

The aftermath looks like a scorn, on a picturesque landscape. Broken glasses litterred everywhere, sparkled with the street lights. Smoke billowed from the hood of the car, had an eerie feeling to the scene. You could hear screeches, as traffic tries to stop from hitting the wrecked car.

I slowdown my car, just enough to avoid the car in front of me and the traffic moves on, unabated in my lane. My only thought at that time was, " I hope, that driver wore his seat belt!!". As I moved away from the scene with an etched reminder that I could see from my rear view mirror, I swore to never speed up, at that intersection.

-Alphonse 

I dream of an apocalyptic future.

I find myself on a lonely stretch of road, filled with rubble as high as 10 storey buildings. The buildings themselves are riddled with holes as big as a person. It seemed like a giant, a really big giant had punched the building with rage. The desolate stretch completely wrought of  any living soul, coupled with the eerie silence started the creep the soul out of me. Then out of nowhere I hear a humming sound. It sounded like a hover craft engine cranking about its job to float a vehicle above the asphalt in a thin cushion of air. I could squint through the dust and see the outline of few people on a open roofed hovercraft type car.

I wanted to yell help, but my survival instincts kicks in and I drop to my knees hiding behind the rubble. Checking the visitors from my new vantage point, an unreal sense of fear sets into me and realize those were not humans, but look alike machines. They were scanning for life among the desolate landscape and their bright red eyes and expressionless calmness gave away their intentions... predators searching for their kill.

Just as my knees were about to give up on this scary realization, I feel myself shouting out in helpless yelps, but a hand grabs me by my shoulder and another hand cups my mouth...transforming my yelps into a muttered gasp for breath. I taste dust on my tongue and feel myself being pulled into a hole dug deep into the building.

After the dust clears, I get my bearings straight and I realize the presence of humans around me, which provided a pleasant settling feeling. I hear me say, "where am I?", "What is happening?", "what is going on?". I hear a dull thud and a bang behind me. It felt like, someone was trying to blow a hole in the building.

The humans around me start running and yelled, "Come on... let's go. It's not safe here!!". And one guy says "It's the androids... they are exterminating all humans!!". I just run after them, trying to save my life.

-Alphonse

Dusty, Sweaty, Itchy & Exhilarating....

You could feel the cool breeze flowing in from the ocean, cooling the heavy & tired streets of chennai in the evenings. The sun is just about to set and the faint glow of twilight bathes my helmet visor. I could feel engines roaring around me, with an effect of a 3D-surround system. The soft sputter of a 50cc next to me, to the growl of a 150cc in front me and then there is a coughing sound of our MTC behind me. The display counter on the pole changes rapidly decrementing its value every second, with its LED blaring the inevitable.

When the counter hits 3... stopped engines started purring.... 2....bikes surge forward and stop cos there ain't no space at the stop line. 1... bikes inch forward with full acceleration, only to be stopped by the front disc's cos of the cops, with their walkie talkies, looked high and mighty, ready to pounce on traffic violators.

Green...*&%&$&*% is all I hear. Either you are with the crowd... or eating dust from the asphalt. I along with all wannabe racers, push my bike to do its duty. No lane discipline, no driving ethics, only chaos!! If you are born in chennai, you can find subtle hints that reveals the order amongst this unassuming chaos. They help you clear a path and then you get to drive your bike at speeds, only curtailed by the road quality or your backbone quality.

Honks blaring... headlights glaring & side lights swearing... it is utter confusion... but still traffic moves, with total defiance towards the laws of traffic, with various clutters at different pace. Sweat down your brow, even with the cool breeze, it gives you the an itch and irritation required to reach your destination ASAP. I try to overtake a bus on the right and he does not budge. I honk... and still no respite, so I drop my gears like a pro, slow down, go behind the bus and push my accelerator and zoom, I overtake on the left only to be slowed down by further traffic ahead. Now there are two cars driving very close by, but one after the other in two different lanes with little space in between the first car's right rear bumper and the second car's left front bumper. I judge the distance between the vehicles in a blink of an eye and with a swift push of my bike along with my body I swerve between those cars and clear them like a pro.

As I gun down the bike on the asphalt many trickery like there occur and I see a big green dot in the distance change to orange and then to red. My visor starts to fill up with red swathes from all the vehicles back lights. I stop my bike in time before a growler waiting for the entire episode continue again until I reach my destination.

In short my bike drive in chennai has been dusty, sweaty, itchy & Exhilarating.

The situation.

Recently, the stuff that I hear on the news are all about the cases that have been registered on politicians and their family. Most of them related to corruption and a few related to murders. Don't know which is more ghastly in nature; red blooded punks with an axe to grind, plotting murders with sordid revenge or greedy A** punks killing innocent people of their livelihood and denying their constitutional rights.

I am just pondering on the amount of time and resources that would been saved and used effectively , if we just did not spend them on these imbeciles.Let me clarify; I am not up for letting them all go free. Just the thought of these resources being diverted to something like building roads, schools make everything seem possible.

Why did we get to this situation? Did we all just fall asleep while these politicians plotted to rob us blind? Did we just decide to remain mute spectators, while they pillage and rob us of our freedom to live a life as we see fit.

I say "We", cause we put them into power. Don't we think that, we have the power or at least the right to remove them from power. There are few who act on behalf of others on these matters. At present dealing with these lies and malice seems to take all 24hours of all days of this biggest democracy.

I am at loss to find a path, that could help to get out of this filthy mess. Opposition seems like a good choice, until you find that they "are" in bed with the ruling party.

So what else have we got? Just live and hope nothing catastrophe happens in your lifetime or to you atleast? Seems like the only option that we got ,cause each of us have our own problems to deal with rather than that of the nation. I think it's the right time for the machines to start ruling over us.

- F#%@#D Up

LokPal Bill?

Unless you have decided to shut yourself from the realm called "daily life", you would have heard about the term "LokPal Bill". Information regarding this is being force fed into every Indian, even via Social Networking. So lazy as that I am ,finally decided to catch up on this bill and referred to Wiki; my true source of correct information[1] :D .

My immediate reaction is, "An enforcing authority is truly incorruptible, only if it is not human!!". The only way to minimize corruption, is to address the roots of the issue. I say minimize, cause it is not possible to eradicate corruption. It is in human nature to subvert laws of the land and improvise on a shortcut to achieve their goal. Else we would not have invented machines or anything for that matter and sat on our lazy asses all day.

Corruption stems from the existence of a rich & poor divide. A Government official asks for a bribe, not cause he is addicted to it, at least not the majority. He wants to lead a life that he only can fantasizes with his income. Pay back the loans he had taken to bribe his predecessor, to obtain this position? Take care of the illness that strikes his mom, which the insurance company does not cover.

Instead of finding fault and improvising ways to enforce new laws on the present system; try to ensure only apt personnel are selected for the various Civil services.

Why can't we just ensure that the selection process for Ministers is scrutinized to avoid corrupt landlords, contractors, village elders, humans and so... to be elected as MLA or MP's. Why can't we enforce systems that reduces unemployment? Why can't we teach the poor to feed themselves? Why don't we make all existing government processes to be transparent and make them publish their

Why do we need another department to take care of this corruption? Who will fund this? Tax-payers? Will it scale to the populace of India? So who then watches over these members? Another commission? Well, enough with my questions.

My take on this; Just another system that will look good and shiny, until it starts to rust. Don't talk about this system working in other countries, cos this is not another country, this is India... a monster on its own.

LokPal can help to remove corruption that is prevalent now, but not an effective system to minimize corruption for the long haul.

References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill

Old thoughts...

I got a chance to read my old blog posts. It was an enlightening experience; and the stuff that I had written about; sorrows... problems... joy... it all seems so trivial now(I only refer to the past!!). This helps me to reinforce the fact that, problems faced today is just a blimp and that is all it should be. It has the ability to change your future... but that again depends on your interpretation.

You must have heard people say "Time will heal all wounds...". Well actually they can't be more wrong!! Time can only make you numb to that event due its persistence and only your actions regarding that event can heal those wounds... But time has a potent weapon and it is called loss of memory( I meant the gradual loss of memory and not amnesia). As time progresses... time has the ability to make your forget stuff.

So take action... do not remain a mute spectator, cos you are the lead actor in your play called life. :)

my two cents!!

First Drive in Adverse weather condition

So... I had to drop my friend at the airport early morning at 5:30AM. I took my friends car and headed out. It was snowing heavily with at least 1 inch snow on the road. First the car refused to start because of the cold weather. After 5 minutes, it started and we inched slowly on the road. The sight in front of us, was like a scene taken directly out of Call of Duty:MW2. It was eerie with the road laid out like a white blanket and the rare ominous headlights of oncoming traffic. Trees covered in snow and I could only hear the heater in the car murmuring to itself. The only thing we missed out were guns and Russians to shoot against.

Out in the interstate, all four/five lanes were all blurred into one big lane and all cars were inching slowly. It is not the drive on snow that is dangerous. But the snow turns into a thin slate of ice; when you try to brake, you just skid like a player in ice hockey. At least on loose snow your car would just drift to the sides a bit and easy to regain control only if there aren't any cars near by.

So that is how I bumped into another car today. I had enough distance between him and me. I saw him stop and I braked!! but no traction on the tires. I skid and hit him on his rear bumper and broke my friend's front number plate. Anyways only a dent on the other guys car. So we stopped our cars on the middle of the road, switched on the hazard lights and got out. We exchanged pleasantries and checked both our cars. Nothing major seems to have happened. So I gave him my mobile number and we parted. The kicker is that, there was a cop car right on the side of the road when this happened, but he was busy towing an already out of commission car from the side of the road.

Anyways waiting to hear from the other guy now and I drove back home safely to type this episode. :)

-Alphy

ps: I just got my auto-insurance yesterday!!

So... this goes down in history

It was a grueling 1:30 minute session; my thesis defense. Throat was parched dry with a dry weird feeling down the esophagus. Not due to various long explanations for the committee members, but a vague feeling that persisted in my mind; have I done something incorrect in my research? But once I completed the presentation, I knew that graduation was imminent. All that preparation...phew... it is complete.

It took an entire day for the message to sink in. I am finally an MS graduate. This goes down in the annals of NCSU CS dept, as well as in my history!!

Wow!! I made a fatal decision to pursue thesis exactly 11/2 years back and I live to tell the tale now. It has had its moments, nerve wracking situations, feelings of deja vu, light bulb effect and finally it boiled down to a successful defense.

Came to US with a goal and even though it has been a long journey, that has been pitted with moments memorable and other wise. Busted my laptop; almost took down a public server due to my experiments; gulped down design issues with beer; countless nights of just watching a *ix terminal and various series; procrastination of everything from laundry to taking bath; the goal has been finally achieved.

"Mission Accomplished!!"

The story of my Laptop...

After I reached U.S, I realized that a Laptop was an absolute necessity. I found that I had a lot of free time and I liked to watch movies/series online to kill time. An Internet connection with unlimited download was the motivation I needed to buy myself a new laptop, with a minority of its time being spent for my studies (Grinning...).So Finally I got a new HP 14'' laptop with 12 cell battery and a 128MB Nvidia graphics card. It was an awesome piece of technology that I used daily to play games like Crysis I & II, CoD: MWI & MWII, AOE & CS to name a few. Man... I used to spend more time playing games and watching movies... than studying with that laptop. The minuscule amount that I spent for my studies were also productive [Big grin again...] . It has withstood my continues barrage of buggy code and never had it given up on me. The laptop trusted me. But after 2 years... four semesters down and I am trying to finish my Thesis...my laptop just shutdown's down one fine evening.

The screen flickers for a few seconds and then it goes blank. I am thinking either the OS crashed or my program crashed, so I do the most efficient way to restart a windows machine.Give is a hard reboot!!. And so it starts to boot up and then the screen freezes again. I am like keeping my fingers crossed to hard reboot again. This time even the BIOS does not execute. F***, I am screwed. All of my data regarding my Thesis is on this laptop. I am cursing my self for not taking the backup.

Like any self-respecting Computer Engineer, I try to fix it by myself by removing battery, HD and even the RAM and I stop myself there, cos I couldn't go further than that. Since the warranty had expired , I can't ship it to HP for fixing it. So I paid an expert to check on my laptop and the diagnosis: "MOTHERBOARD, kicked the bucket!!".

It looks like, it can take only so much abuse...As I am writing this, my laptop is in the corner of the room stripped of its stomach( Hard Drive) waiting to be scrapped.

I am so attached to that laptop that I am refusing to give it up, even for scraps now. It has been there with me through a lot of tough times...(:D).

And that is the short & tragic story of my Laptop.

Two years in US!!

Hmmm.... It has been two years since I have been in US to pursue my goal of finishing my Masters.Though not complete yet, but surely closer than I was two years ago :)( True that is a step forward, HURRAY for me!!). It has been a choppy ride so far... which has made my stay really interesting in retrospect. Made a lot of new friends... learnt some stuff...did some stuff...regret doing some stuff...continued the cherished tradition of boozing with fnds...watched a lot of movies...played a lot of FPS & strategy games...tried going to gym & failed... and did minuscule amount of Thesis work. Pretty much sums up my last two years.

It is the last mile that is always the most painful & rewarding, so here I am trying to finish my Master's Thesis. You must be wondering... as to why am I posting blogs when I should be working. Exactly my point even I am not able to comprehend that!

Back to work, Slaves( ma Neurons)!

_tombstone

Thoughts to be put in Order...

Been dazing the stars for few weeks now. Have a shit load of work to do, especially my Thesis that needs to be completed for my MS Graduation. It is not that I have not been working, but results does not look positive... so trying/thinking hard to come with alternatives for the problem.

Hmmm... Research work seemed so exciting.. but it is not always though. Even if it concerns your area of interest. It involves a lot of patience and structured thought process. I bow my head to all Doctoral students... for their work and their patience.

Need motivation... Can I borrow some? :P Well doodling on my comp does not help.

Come on.... I want to graduate!!!,I think this should be motivation enough? Don't you think...?

-Alphy

Master's course work complete... :)

So finally my Master's course work is complete... It feels good to know that I don't have to study for any exam no more...Though I still have a big task to complete, My Thesis... yet it feels like a big task on my TODO list has been checked.. :P

me and my lists... I still remember the first semester, a continuous nightmare for me.Studying after a four year gap from bachelors... was a nightmare but did get through it, with scars to prove my encounter.

So now full steam to do my Thesis... Till then... ciao

Alphy

Crap... Time is running very fast...

It felt like "just now the sem started", Fuck now... two months already gone and one midterm is already due. WTF? Man, I am supposed to finish my Thesis this semester ,but I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I need to gear up for the work and start plowing, cos one reaps, what one sows. There ain't no karma, which is supposed to help you out for good deeds done. It is all one big shit!!

Spring 2010, A new semester....

Officially semester started for me this week and I have registered for only one class this semester.Cause I need to spend more time on my Thesis, If I want to graduate on time. Even after taking one subject, it feels so hectic. First week is yet to be over, and I am already looking forward towards the spring break, which allows me to sleep without an impending doom to wake up in the morning and goto class.

My class start at 11AM, so I need to pretty much getup at least by 10:20 ,so I can do the daily chore of brushing my teeth. I hope this time I do not miss my classes due to oversleep. Last semester I used to miss classes at 2 PM cause I overslept!! Well that is in the past and I am always thinking about the future!

yeah the future, lets c how it goes? Looks of it, I need to put alot of effort this semester apart from studying for my coursework. Keeping my fingers and Hoping for the best, waiting for God to do the rest! :P

Avatar 3D - The IMAX Experience

"Awesome & Spectacular" were the only words that I could blurt out after watching the movie Avatar in 3D. The story is not that different from a normal Bollywood/Kollywood movie, but it is made really interesting with spectacular special effects and awesome quality of the IMAX screen. The 3D adds a new dimension to view a film of this caliber.

Most movie reviews talk about the actors and their roles, but for me in this movie all of 'em took a back seat compared to the Director's vision in giving this film life that could not have been done by any other than Mr.James Cameron.

It seems that Cameron has enough story to go for a Trilogy... That is damn good and expecting the same breathe taking production quality & details for the two other movies slotted in the trilogy. The question is that ,Do we have to wait for another 13 Years?

let's hope, it is not like that... :)

-Alphy

It's that time of the year...

I recently switched my playlist from Rock/Rap/Heavy Metal to Christmas songs...cos it is that time of the year! Man... My Mom used to start her Christmas Playlist every year just one week after December starts and me 10,000 miles away playing the same playlist now makes me feel at Home. Nice isn't that just your senses could transport miles away on demand.

Well, it's that time when people turn to do good deeds to wipe out their bad debts accumulated over the year. It actually doesn't work that way, but who cares as long as a few needy people get something better than their usual stuff for Christmas. So at the end of the day, everyone is Happy, ain't that the Christmas spirit?

For me this Christmas is all about sleep and rest,cos I have a heavy, really heavy semester scheduled for me. Thesis is the heaviest of all that could sink my boat to the bottom, if I don't take care of it. Anyways...

Merry Christmas!! and Njoi the pleasures while it lasts...

-Alphy