From Vista to Ubuntu

SO.. after struggling a bit I finally was able to install ubuntu on my machine. Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, I like that project name.I was toying with this idea of using linux for some time, and for some wierd reason decided to do it now. The problem though was that I had Vista installed already and I wanted to have a dual boot system, which made things a bit complicated.

It took me some time to figure out a way to clear up space for linux, and I think the shrink option in Vista totally sucks, compared to the earlier partitioning tools. In between, I had the scare of hard disk corruption, and the time when Vista refused to boot. Ubuntu LiveCD came to my rescue then, and I backed my data up immediately, before anything else went wrong.Ironically, when I had my data backed up, everything went smoothly. So, here I am, with both Vista and Ubuntu sitting hands inhand on my machine, but since I am a complete n00b with linux, I have to learn a lot. The only prior experience I have with linux is with the Knoppix CD which I used a couple of times, before I lost the CD. The transition has started though, and I expect to learn someting from this new venture.

The 25th one

So.. I celebrated the silver jubilee of me last week.... for people with a high propagation delay of brain ... last week I celebrated my 25th birthday... and if I go by the person who told me I have a short life .. you will have to bear with me for only 15-20 years more. Did I hear .."NO... not that long" :D .
Unfortunately it was one of those days, I feel kinda depressed, get existential.. and most important start to use my rusted brain and think... and I better not talk about the horrible hair cut I had ... Well, it became terrible, until my roommates ..made it up a bit ... with the birthday cake and the "Happy Birthday to You" jingle.. hardly if ever it had felt so good. Thanks a lot buddies.
The only other good thing to happen was that I heard the voice I was dying to hear from ages….. not really, that was just to make it more dramatic, but yes from a very long time which looks like ages. I hope it’s a harbinger of things to come .

Spring 2009

Vacation's over, and classes have started again. A mixed kind of vacation has come to an end, the first half of which was utterly boring, and the second half quite exciting. I finished some of the stuff I wanted to, and left some of it incomplete, so its been sort of good and bad.Spring'09 is here and people are back in Rolla. Quite a change, from the time when even the birds had deserted rolla, and it wore a haunted look.
Meanwhile, we went to the mattress depot couple of days back, where rubal's hope of finding a cheap mattress crashed, when he got to know that the cheapest one available was more than double the cost he was willing to spend.... which means he'll buy another of those air mattresses. Praveen is back from Florida too, and the environment once again as become comic and spritual (both at the same time) again. And Karan,... Karan has been busy ..and as usual I dont know where. ... I sound like a news reporter ..don't I. I know I suck at blogging, but I'll get better with time. .For, a long time I have been contemplating a haircut, but the cost, specially when u look at it in INR is putting me off .. ;), but I wont be able to do it for too long, coz its too messy now, and yesterday I even saw some birds circling over me ... I guess they mistook my hair as their nest.
Hope to see you next time with a brand new hair cut .... heres vimal signing off for today ..... oops that news reporter thing again.

Starting the new year....

2009 has come, and it has crept in so silently this time, or maybe its just me who thinks so.Anyways HAPPY NEW YEAR folks.I sat down, the last day of last year and started retrospection, of how I started and ended the year, the result of which is a list, of what i want to do and how I want to do things this year.Lets see how far I stick to them.

It has been a little less than a week since the new year started, and to say the least, it has been great for me. Its now become a routine that I wake up after the noon, and then head straight for the basketball court at the schuman park, where we guys play cricket till the sun sets, the weather has been kind enough to us to let us play even in peak winter. Then chit chatting till 10 or 11, and then dinner...ahh as somebody said .."a guy's ideal life". Talking about dinner... it has been delicious indian food whole of this week... from chicken curry ...to aloo poori ...."majjaa ni life". I hope the year continues like this.

Back ........ yet again

I always get the feeling of "coming back" whenever i sit down to write something on my blog, which in the first place should not be there, since this is my blog and I am supposed to be here. ..But this is the way I have been... and now after putting a lot of thought into it have decided to change my ways.For the first time in my life I have prepared a list of to-do things, lovingly called resolutions. One of them being "not" coming back to the blog, but staying here.
I had decided to start writing from the first day of the new year, but "shubh kam mein der kaisi". First semester is over and I am quite happy with how it went and what i learnt, and of course happy with the gpa too. The break is proving to be a little too much, and I want it to be over soon, to get going again. The lethargy which had crept in during the break, has to be wore off and I promise it will be done.... as for now I am not coming back, I'll stay here.

Of ice cream, rain and birthday parties which pop out of nowhere

We four had our dinner and since praveen as usual was busy with his assignments, me, karan and rubal decided to have some ice cream from Mobil. So, what’s unusual about it? Nothing, unless it is 12 o clock of a November night, its 2 degree Celsius outside, it’s raining and its windy.

But if we want to have it, we just want to have it, so we packed ourselves up to brace for wind and rain, got our umbrellas and proceeded to Mobil which is about 10 minutes walk from 1300. It was allright till we reached there, but started pouring heavily while we were on our way back. We took shelter under the EE department building, when one wise man among us suggested that we run and beat the rain to 1300, lest it starts coming down even more heavily. And we started running into the wind with our umbrellas on our heads in the heavy rain. This soon proved out to be the worst we could do, as one of us had his umbrella turned inside out and all of us got drenched by the time we got home. But... mission accomplished and we had our icecream.

I and Rubal were in Havener's centre playing Table tennis, when we got a call that we have a birthday party in Jigar's home and we have to carry a bowl of rice, at around 8 in the night. Now which b'day party starts at 8? Anyways we got home, cooked rice and went to Jigar's home, sure there were a lot of people. It was a party allright, but the question was whose birthday it was, and nobody had an answer. Finally, it became known that it was Jigar's idea of having a get together, a good one at that. Although there was no birthday but whose complaining till we get Indian food.

Back!

I am in the middle of a programming homework, a project and an assignment, I am stuck and I don’t feel like working anymore and that's one reason why I am back to my blog. I have been contemplating writing this for a long time. Each time I am free, I have two choices, either write a blog entry or cook something to eat to satiate the otherworldly noises coming from my stomach, needless to say I always choose the latter.

The last few weeks have been awesome, and I have been doing work like I have never done before. More so, because after a couple of years at CSC I had almost forgotten how it is like, to work. Each week I think, maybe I'll get some time off next week, to do the pending stuff, only to find that the next week is more packed than the last one. Working nights and sleeping at 4 or 5 in the mornings have become a norm, and this is coming from a person whose eyelids used to get heavy after 10 in the night.

BUT, this also has been a time of learning, ...learning and growing(not referring to my vertical growth), getting accustomed to the way of life here, and learning about the culture, the behaviour of people, there have been so many new things, things which make an individual grow, apart from the academic stuff.
Talking about academics, for once, I am learning by doing things and not by preparing for exams.

What have I learnt? I'll try to go over it one by one in my next columns.
I hope to return here more often.