It's Diablo II time again!

I had bought the game CD's in 9th std, that's about 5 years ago. The game totally consumed me, but I never got time to finish it. Years later, I've got the game back with me, and this time I'm determined to complete the game with all 5 role-players. Also got the expansion set with new levels, so let's see.
But one thing's for sure, it's gonna be awesome!

Goodbye RC and DC

The semis of the IPL are going to start soon. And sadly my friends the Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers are going to lose out. Nope, they wont make it to the next round.


No longer will we be able to see the absolute brilliance of these two teams.



What a huge loss for the IPL and its standards which had been really "pushed up" [pun intended] by these two teams. ;)

Oh, we'll also miss Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Adam Gilchrist etc.
Next year i hope DC and RC go on till the finals. Imagine a bowl-out b/w the 2 teams. I wonder if cheerleaders are also allowed to bowl the wickets over. I think Mr. Lalit Modi should alter the rules of the IPL [yet again] to allow one cheerleader from each team carrying a red badge :D to get one attempt at a bowl out.
What say?

Thank You VH1 and may all hail Led Zeppelin

VH1, is quite frankly everything an engineer can ask for in his holidays. They care so much about us. I finish my exams and then get a decent result. They reward me by starting "Gods Of Guitar"; featuring all my favorites; Pink Floyd, Mark Knopfler, Jimi Hendrix and above all Led Zeppelin.

When one gets to see all these Legends every night, it's heaven for a rock fan and especially a guitar lover. Today they were playing Led Zeppelin. I've seen the videos of Stairway to Heaven at least a zillion times and yet its not enough, ditto for Kashmir [the song that introduced me to Led Zeppelin]. Hendrix is yet to start, i missed the Jimi Hendrix special last year; but will definitely catch up with it this time.

VH1, thank you so much! In the days of Aaj Tak and Balaji Telefilms, VH1 is the TV God!


P.S. In case you haven't seen any video of Led Zeppelin, these links will help:


Stairway to Heaven
Kashmir

Mark Knopfler's following performance is one of the best live guitar solos ever:
Sultans Of Swing

Radio Stations in Pune

Any city that claims to be a true Metro has a few things in common with other Metros. One of these are 24 hour Radio Stations. Thus far Pune had just one, Radio Mirchi [93.9 which then became 98.3], the Mirchi monopoly on Pune in the last year became a torture and soon enough i stopped hearing it.
The low point was hearing a promo ad of Mirch which went like this
Kase kay Mirchi in the tune of The Real Slim Shady!!! Fuck, that was the most shitty thing I've heard. The intellectual emptiness that Mirchi fell into was something I couldn't stand.
In its first year it had some great RJ's like Sangram and Karma. Once they had gone, we had crappy people replacing them. The later changes just worsened the degree to which RJ-ing could crap down to!

Then a couple of months back we had Radio City coming to town. The very first day i heard it i realised it's just as good [bad] as Mirchi.

Today, i finally got to hear Radio One. The latest Radio Station on the block, and it's started off well. RJ's who know how much to talk, and who realise that we aren't wasting our stereo batteries to hear them; it's the music that interests us. It was good to hear some Avril Lavigne on the station. English music somehow seems to have been forgotten by the other stations. I hope someday we get higher quality music on Radio.

The day a station plays Led Zeppelin will be the day Radio in India would have finally arrived for me. I pray that day comes soon. Meanwhile I pray to other Radio Stations not to demean path-breaking international artists by fucking up their best songs.

The Dark Knight

Come 18th July and movie lovers are in for a treat. The Dark Knight - the much awaited sequel of Barman Begins will finally release. Many reasons exist as to why people are so excited about the movie.
One, it is being directed by Christopher Nolan, the man who revived and resurrected the Batman franchise with his brilliant interpretation of Batman in Batman Begins.


Secondly, Christian Bale is at the helm of affairs as The Batman. His restrained effort has been applauded by one and all. The Batman movies prior to Batman Begins were really shoddy and stupid. Even Spiderman seemed better than Batman ;)
But Christian Bale gave the role the kind of stature that Toby Maguire's Spiderman can never reach. [I like Spiderman too but Spidey 3 was a pathetic sequel]


Thirdly, Aaron Eckhart enters the Batman franchise as Harvey Dent. Who later on becomes the supervillain Two Face. This one is a superb casting move. Those of you who aren't aware of Aaron Eckhart should watch Thank You For Smoking.

Lastly, the late Heath Ledger, in his last complete role; as The Joker. One look at the trailer and you know he's done a better job than what all the hype says. Heath Ledger's look is completely insane, just what the role required. The Joker will in all probability go down in history as one of the best villains ever.

I am really looking forward to this movie, which releases on July 18th.

The Embarrassing Story Theorem a.k.a. The My Cousing/Neighbour/Friend Story Theorem

Embarrassing moments occur in everyone's life, later on in life we tend to laugh at them. But somehow, even years after the incident took place, we still are a little petrified of our weak moments coming out in the open. But the stories are funny; they make people laugh, increase our humour ratings. So how does one narrate a funny realistic story without jeapordizing our carefully constructed reputation....

Simple, start your story with following words, "You know, once this cousin of mine...". And then keep replacing the words, 'me,mine,my' with 'my cousin or my cousin's'. For example, 'I was once watching AXN in the middle of the night and my mom walked in and the show was Hot Babes of Brazil...' will now become, 'My cousin was once watching AXN in the middle of the night and my cousin's mom walked in and the show was Hot Babes of Brazil...'.

You must be careful that you don't repeat 'my cousin' for every story; use other substitutes like your 'friend', in which case you may have to give out a name, which complicates matters, since you do not want the following scenario -
You are narrating a story - "Once Michael was studying in his room and suddenly he saw this hot chic..." and then you suddenly realize that Jimmy is sitting around right now and Jimmy is Michael's best friend and he will obviously report this to Michael and then you're screwed.

In which case, the best option is your next door neighbour. When else will the irritating punk come of use to you?

So now we come to The Embarrassing Story Theorem:

Any embarrassing story can be narrated easily in public without the fear of future embarrassment provided each instance of the word 'me, my, mine, myself' and all other such self-referencing terms are replaced with a worthy and safe substitute like 'friend, cousin, neighbour' etc.

-------------X-------------X-----------X--------X----------X--------X----------------X-----

Interesting Story:

Once my cousin was surfing the net and he suddenly chanced upon some photos of a super hot model, he suddenly felt the need to download them, when suddenly.... the lights went off!

[I had you going there for a while didn't I] :D

The Birth Of PI

After going through at least a hundred possible names, Amit and I have finally christened our project group PI. For copyright concerns i cant divulge the full form of PI, until a few formalities are completed. But i am pleased as hell that at around 1:15 am we were able to come up with the names!

The Girl Next Door

It's weird how a guy like me who knows stuff about "stuff" hadn't yet seen The Girl Next Door - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265208/

A welcome start to this year's vacation movie festival [held on my comp]. I liked the movie, Elisha Cuthbert should get more movies, seriously. She looked great throughout the movie, acted well for her part and besides; it was just an easy watch [she made it a lot easier ;) ]

The story revolves around Matthew who is a nice guy who hasn't done anything 'crazy' in his life ever and wants to, but somehow he just can't. Enter Danielle [Elisha Cuthbert] who instantly arouses his interest. A series of interesting incidents occur and the catch in the movie enters when he realizes that Danielle is a former porn star.
The scenes thereafter in which Matthew begins imagining 'porn star' behavior from Danielle are pretty funny. One thing leads to another and the real plot of the movie begins in which Matthew tries to stop Danielle from re-entering the 'porn business'.

There is a lot of humor in this flick, supporting actors are good. And i must again mention Elisha Cuthbert; she really looks amazing. I remember this friend of mine at IIT-Kanpur who woke me up at 3 am to tell me that he had just seen The Girl Next Door, and how hot Elisha Cuthbert really was etc, etc. And i looked at the posters and a few Youtube videos and said, 'yeah good, another hot chic'. But no, my friends, this is one rare movie in which the best parts aren't over in the trailer itself. Do watch this movie, it's worth one watch for sure. The juice was totally worth the squeeze! [to get the meaning of the line, watch the flick]

Hopefully, i'll check out many more interesting movies during these vacations!

Fat to Fit and Vice Versa

I've noticed how so many people who were fat in their childhood end up becoming slim and fit by the time they become adults. Many times the reverse occurs, some thin kids grow up to be fat slobs.

Lesson learnt, hog while your a kid and slog when you grow up.

Harsh Pande's Theorem of Periodic rise in Marks a.k.a. The 5 minute Theorem

Statement :

All normal students [by normal I mean, those who aren't the geeks or the absolute dumb-asses of this world], secure maximum marks in the last 5 minutes, in comparison to any period of 5 minutes during a 3 hour Exam.

Alternate statement:

The rate of increase of marks increases exponentially during the last 5 minute period of an exam given by a normal student [as defined above], as compared to any segment of 5 minutes, during the course of the entire 3 hour paper.

Corollary:

1. Writing Speed is the highest during the last 5 minutes of exams

2. Invigilators are most distracted during the last 5 minutes

3. Student info exchange is least detected and at it's highest frequency in the last 5 minutes.

Explanation:

All students strive the hardest to secure marks during the last 5 minutes of their exam. They throw caution to the winds and start looking everywhere for the nearest student who knows the answer they don't. Invigilators also, all of a sudden start panicking and moving all over the hall, giving students a better chance at increasing each others knowledge.

Occasionally, our brain also miraculously remembers answers under the "last 5 minutes" pressure. I repeat, this happens occasionally. Even a hint at what the answer could be, maybe a word or two are enough to allow the student to write an entire paragraph on those two new words. These few lines somehow end up getting marks as well.

The last 5 minutes are the most important 5 minutes of the exam.

Proof:

Visit any COEP exam hall during the last 5 minutes, you won't need any more evidence.

Exams@coep.org.in

“A student who changes the course of history is probably taking an exam”
- George Carlin


For everyone an Exam is something to loathe, hate, be afraid of etc, etc. But in COEP especially with my batch [COEP Computers 2009], exams have gone past all feelings of fear, anxiety, hate et all. If an exam was Saddam Hussein, then we are George Bush [maybe vice versa, depending on whether we do well in the exam or not]

When any normal University student comes for an exam, he [I'm writing "he" for convenience instead of "he/she", no offense to women] knows about them at least a week or more in advance, we don't. He gives a fixed number of exams every semester, we don't have that liberty. He knows the syllabus on which the paper will be based on, we don't. He knows what the format of the paper will be, we don't. And yet we survive!

Our Mid-sem exams were based on syllabus for which a text book is yet to be published [or maybe if they assemble all our answer booklets they can make a new textbook for it]. It exercised our brains, as we faced each question, we wondered first which Unit it could possibly belong to and then we eliminated the options one by one. The best suited option was chosen and then what started was not an engineering answer, but more of a composition ;)

Since relative grading started in COEP, we have given so many exams that I've stopped counting. There are class tests, surprise tests, seminars, case studies, dumb internal Orals; each of them are taken randomly, at times innocent students just walk into the lab and to their horror they realize a "Viva" is on.

Let me corroborate this with some evidence -

1. When any normal University student comes for exams, he knows about them at least a week or more in advance, we don't.

-
The date 8th April 2008
The venue DBMS Lab :

We were waiting to give our CN viva, which was scheduled to start at 2:30 pm but it was 3:30 and our batch was to start after at least 2 hrs more. We suddenly get a mail saying, "You will have your ALL Oral on April 9th at 2:30 pm. All of you should be present [yeah right, as if someone's gonna dare to bunk his own Viva]"
Imagine the mental condition of a student who as it is, in anticipation of the CN Viva [which by the way was taken by one of the most screwing Externals of all time] is about to consider choosing one of the 3, Suicide, Murder or a simple resignation from Engineering; suddenly has to grapple with the thought of another Viva for which he/she is not at all prepared.

2. He gives a fixed number of exams every semester, we don't have that liberty.

We have no idea how many exams we will be giving in a semester, it could be anything from 15 to 25. It's really weird!

3. He knows the syllabus on which the paper will be based on, we don't.

I will narrate the incident of this semester's MMC Mid-sem paper, we had 3 Units for the exams, obviously no one had done all 3 damn well; but the entire paper was totally based on 80386 [a crappy, obsolete Intel Microprocessor, which we have to know everything about, for a reason no one knows]. Imagine the plight of the guy who had left it for options.

4. He knows what the format of the paper will be, we don't.

A day before the CN class test, a girl happened to ask the Prof, what the format will be; subjective or objective. His answer "Kahihi aso, tumhala dyava lagel" which roughly translates to "Whatever it is, you'll just have to give it!"

These my friends are the sort of statements that I assure you can be said only by Profs in COEP, for whom Relative grading has become an excuse to torture the students. For example, a Prof has threatened us all -2 marks in a class test in SE. When told that the situation of many students in SE is very precarious, her prompt reply was "Relative aahey naa, mag kaye farak padnar" which means "It is relative grading, what difference does it make" ;)

And yet students in COEP continue to lead non-violent lives. I, having written this long post about exams in COEP, will now get back to studying; for yet another exam!

Stupid Ads i miss

Remember these ads?

Saree pey saree, Parag Saree

Krack and Jack ads [Boman Irani was Jack]

Maggi Tomato Ketchup - Ajit [Loin] Style

Pepsi ads, that literally worshiped Sachin - Sachin aaya Rey.

Stupid Gtalk Status Messages

Here's a countdown for the stupidest Gtalk Status messages:

5. "Busy" with a Green Sign
4. "Sleeping", again with a Green Sign
3. "Do Not Disturb", somehow whoever puts this ends up getting very disturbed.
2. "I need Testis", a guy once wrote this, in reference to Orkut Testimonials [I hope ;)]
1. "Offline", who the hell was this guy kidding!

Blog Hits - Courtesy StatCounter

I had my MMC Exam today, was quite pathetic. I came home and finally added something i had wanted to add to my Blog since, forever. Its called a Stat Counter courtesy

http://my.statcounter.com/

It just counts the number of visitors to a blog. Even though my blog is about a year and a half old, I've initialized the counter to zero. Now I'll finally learn if all those claiming to have visited my blog and read my latest post have been lying or were they genuine visitors ;)

Weirdest Village Name

Fucking, is an Austrian village in the municipality of Tarsdorf, in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria.




The village is located 33 kilometres north of Salzburg, four kilometres east of the German border and half an hour by car from the town of Petting, in Bavaria.

The village is known to have existed as "Fucking" since at least 1070 and is named after a man from the 6th century called Focko. "-ing" is an old Germanic suffix indicating the people of the root word to which it is attached; thus Fucking means "(place of) Focko’s people." The village has a population of 93.

Fucking's most famous feature is a traffic sign with its name on it, beside which tourists often stop to have their photograph taken. It is a commonly stolen street sign. Significant public funds have been spent on replacing the stolen signs.
In 2004, mainly due to the stolen signs, a vote was held on changing the village's name, but the residents voted against doing so. In August 2005, the road signs were replaced with theft-resistant signs welded to steel and secured in concrete to prevent further chances of the sign being stolen.

In case you don't believe me -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucking,_Austria
http://googlesightseeing.com/2007/01/16/fucking-austria/