Tagged: daily

Wasted weekend


Another wasted weekend. Well, not *really* wasted in the sense that I did exactly whats supposed to be done on a typical weekend — nothing! Nothing academically productive, that is. I hung out with friends, caught up a bunch of movies, and just chilled out. Not too bad, I’d say, but I just feel that kind of dissatisfaction if at the end of the day I haven’t done something which I think is not just “timepass”. I guess this blog entry is a part of that effort, since it *does* take some amount of “thinking” for writing the blog :)

It was Manish’s birthday today. We bashed him up good last night. Some of his american friends had come over and they were playing poker, and when the clock struck 12 as is customary we picked up Manish for his GPL (*not* the GNU GPL please). Himanshu planted few, but really really solid kicks, while Suchit just went crazy .. I guess he has something for spanking and asses!! I vent my share of wrath as well, as Manish’s friends watched shocked and dazed.. they were so totally out of words, it was actually funny!

I called the weekend wasted because we had a nightout last night and I absolutely hate nightouts. Why? well because the next day gets completely screwed up — you get up like 2 in the afternoon and you spend rest of the day figuring out who the hell you are and what the hell is happening with your life.. I find it depressing and disorienting. Nevertheless, last night was fun and infact the day didn’t turn out to be that bad either.

We saw the classic comedy “Gol Maal” first, and then at around 5 in the morning we started watching “The Day After Tomorrow”, but that was just about okay… the story was ordinary, the acting was below average and the plot was hardly gripping. The only nice thing was probably the affects and nature sequences. In the afternoon I got hold of Himanshu and made a trip to the Indian store to refill our supplies of Indian stuff. The Indian stores here suck so bad, they don’t have any other hair oil except Parachute and Dabar Anwla!

After that we drove out to Cardiff by the sea and Solana beach.. the weather was fantastic and the drive was really fun. That reminds me… I was to have done reading the DMV driver’s handbook over the weekend. So much for plans… wonder when I’ll finally take that damned test!

Fun filled weekend


My first 4th of July weekend in the US, and it was great! Asim and Priyendra drove down from San Fransisco on friday night. We had made rajma, chicken, and aloo gobhi to welcome them. 4 IITKians in a room, so you could expect a late night gulla session. But since they got late in reaching, and it was already around 3:30 am, we decided to call it a day.

The next morning we all lazied around in getting up. The main agenda of the day was to go Kayaking. Since it was the first time for all of us, we were all quite excited. We had made reservations with Aqua Adventures at Mission Bay. After a hasty breakfast, we left at around noon and actually reached quite before time. Since we had about half an hour in hand, we thought we might as well drive around Mission Beach. So we did that, and we would have taken a walk on the beach if only we had been able to find a parking spot. It was soooooooo crowded, so we just went around in circles a bunch of times before heading back to Aqua Adventures.

The kayaking tour itself was a lot of fun. I was a bit scared initially since the kayak wobbles a lot if you shift your body weight even slightly; but after a while you get used to it and infact, after it was over I thought that the kayak is actually quite stable given the amount of turbulence it can handle. Initially we also faced some problems steering the boats. Basically you can either steer it around manually or use a rudder (with controls at the legs); the rudder was definitely very convinient and quite a saving grace especially for PSD :D

We rowed almost non-stop for 2 hours — our guide Mike took us across the bay, under two bridges over to the SeaWorld backstage from where we could get a sneak peek at some shows; we headed up as far as the penguin enclosure, but it wasn’t as great as it sounds. The journey back was much more easier than the onward journey, probably because of the wind and the receding tide. It was a great workout, but it took its toll on everyone; it came down really hard on Ragesh, who had to resort to hot water massage to relieve his pain and swelling in the arms.

After kayaking we were all tired and hungry; an Indian lunch was unanimously decided and we headed to the Indian complex at Miramar. The lunch was pretty good (except for the slight mishap with Ragesh’s order!). Having filled ourselves up, we headed out to the beach. Though it was evening by then (almost 6), we were still able to catch a bit of the sun. Ragesh dropped down dead after walking for a few minutes; Asim and PSD walked into the ocean and Asim took a swim while I tinkered around with my camera.

From the beach we went to Point Loma to view the sunset. The view there is amazing; everytime I go there I’m fascinated by the majestic Pacific’s immensity and tranquility. It was getting a bit chilly and we were all still in our shorts, so we left right after the sun set and headed straight for home. We ordered Pizza for dinner; Asim dozed off early. PSD, RJ and I started watching Hera Pheri but I too dozed off in the middle, so we pushed off Hera Pheri for some other time and went to bed. The next day was Camping Day, and all of us were even more excited for that. But I’m tired now, so I’ll put that in another post.

Much needed break


After the paper deadline monday night, I took a much needed break yesterday. Not that I completely wiled away my time, but I relaxed a hell lot. Woke up late in the morning, then went for a haircut in the lazy summer afteroon. Came back and caught up with my reading (The hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy).

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Then had a wonderful afternoon nap. And to top it off, we saw Lakshya last night. The movie was pretty good actually. I loved the background score and all the cinematography, but I wished I had a larger screen and a better print. Although the movie lost and gained momentum at several places in the movie, so it lost much of the effect that it could potentially have haved. The screenplay was flawed at several places, but I think overall the movie was done nicely.

Of course, DCH’s reputation and Hrithik/Preity paired up have provided enough push to soar this movie through the box office. Asim and PSD are planning to come over for the 4th July weekend, so we’re planning to go to Sea World and even camp out for one night somewhere. So I’m also trying to chalk out those plans.

First monday of summers


Today was the first monday of the summers. Its a weird feeling. Its summer. You’re supposed to be doing things that you “like” doing during summers, right? Now you like your research stuff. But thats “work” right? So how does research go during summers? Kinda weird I guess

Anyways, it wasn’t so bad. The campus was awefully empty today since all the undergrads have just vanished.

I’ve been watching a movie a day since friday, lets see for how long I can keep that up. I saw “Hum Tum” on Friday night and really liked it. The movie started of awkwardly with the direction a bit jerky. But it picked up really well as it went along, and by the end it came out really nice. It was fresh and both Rani and Saif have done a good job.

Then on Saturday night we saw “The Shining”. A Stanley Kubrick classic, the acting by all cast, Jack Nickolson in particular was amazing. But I didn’t understand the complete plot. Especially that painting in the last shot was supposed to tie some loose ends I guess. But it just created more confusion for me :-D

Last night was “Reserver Dogs”, the original of Kaante by director Quarantin Tarantino. Interestingly, Tarantino himself starrs in the movie, albeit only a cameo appearence. Some scenes are really gory (remember Kill Bill Vol. 1?) but horribly realistic. If you really want to know what happens to a man when he gets shot, you should watch this movie. Again, superb acting by all of the cast.

Finally, tonight I saw “Chronicles of Riddick”. Just one word — “pathetic”. The weird thing is, I still enjoyed the movie. It doesn’t have a gripping story, nor hair raising action. But I think Vin Diesel and the Necromonger babe were really cool, and the effects were awesome. Apart from that, there’s really no USP for the movie. I don’t know why its grossing so much in its first week. And tomorrow, we plan to watch Yuva. What a spree!

Its been a long time


… since I last wrote.

The past week has been really crazy. Sometime mid last-week life suddenly became very hectic. Last week of the quarter, lots of deadlines, lots of piled work. But in the end I think I pulled out okay.

Well, its not really the end yet, since I still have a final this Wednesday and then there’s the report due for Bio. But I’m hoping that atleast these two are going to be downhill. The DS project actually turned out to be quite okay. And we managed to get a few really funky visualizations for our Planetlab topology!! I’ll be putting up a proper webpage on that soon.

I wanted to go watch Harry Potter tonight, but missed out on the last show for lack of company :( But tomorrow I’m going anyways, can’t wait to watch it :) !! There are so so many things I want to do over the summers that its becoming hard to keep track of them. I guess I’ll have to build up a separate summer’s TODO list. Learning driving is definitely high up, especially now that Di has also joined a driving school.

Vibhore IMed today from the airport…, poor fella is sad coz he’s coming back from India. I can understand. After spending 2 weeks with your family, its hard. I have to be more regular now with this blog, or else I’ll miss out on the most important days of my life if I keep skipping busy weeks like this!!! :-D