**I am thinking about**

* How to setup an account for Asim on my web server?
* The conflict in Israel-Lebanon
* What other blog posts can I finish today
* How do I find more time for reading?

**I said**

So many things on Sunday that if I wrote everything down it would be a book. We got into this major bulla/gulla session that spanned the life, universe and everything! Awesome.

**I want to**

* Do a good job with my internship
* Read several books that have been on my to-do list for far too long now
* Get some frikking creative juices flowing
* **GRADUATE** at some point

**I wish …**

* … the world were a calmer place. I’m growing more and more averse to violence everyday. Scared, even.
* … it was quicker to get to India. Its just too much overhead as now. Specially if these “new measures for increasing security” become permanent.
* … I were more creative.

**I hear …**

* TV in the background
* folks in the cube next to me loudly discussing some low level protocol stuff all day long. I heart my headphones.
* people complaining all the time. Why are so few of us //really// happy with the lives we have?

**I wonder**

* If the universe is always expanding, exactly //where// is it expanding //into//?
* Why are we on this earth? What is the purpose of existence?

**I regret**

Understanding too little, too late.

**I am**

who I chose to be.

**I dance**

now and then. Its fun with friends. I even tried salsa dancing a few times. I’m not passionate about dancing, but I think its fun and a good workout. I’m not great at dancing, but I’m a decent imitator :-)

**I sing**

to my hearts content. I love screaming with //Mehfuz//. I sing in my car. I don’t much in the shower though. I learned classical music a long time back. But that was a long time back :) I love music.

**I cry**

very rarely. But still more often than I’d like to admit. I once cried once I was drunk. Embarassing :)

**I am not always**

productive. Efficient. Disciplined.

**I make with my hands…**

pretty decent desi food. All kinds of //daals// and //sabjis//. Even tried kheer and custard.

**I write…**

very poorly.

**I confuse…**

Poonam Dhillon and Anita Raj. Vaijanti Raj and Mala Sinha. Joy Mukherjee and Vishwadeep.

**I need… **

friends, family and faith. Not in the //need// right now sense, but more in the requirement sense.

Now I’m wondering if I should pass on the baton to other unsuspecting folks. eh, what the hell, go ahead if you feel like it:

* [[http://nakulmandan.blogspot.com/|Nakul]]
* [[http://rasiwasia.blogspot.com/|Rassi]]
* [[http://indoria.blogspot.com|Neha]]
* [[http://directions.wordpress.com|Disha]]
* [[http://jayajha.wordpress.com|Jaya]]

* **LUCK**: L + U + C + K = 12 + 21 + 3 + 11 = **47%**
* **LOVE**: L + O + V + E = 12 + 15 + 22 + 5 = **54%**
* **MONEY**: M + O + N + E + Y = 13 + 15 + 14 + 5 + 25 = **72%**
* **KNOWLEDGE**: K + N + O + W + L + E + D + G + E = 11 + 14 + 15 + 23 + 12 + 5 + 4 + 7 + 5 = **96%**
* **LEADERSHIP**: L + E + A + D + E + R + S + H + I + P = 12 + 5 + 1 + 4 + 5 + 18 + 19 + 8 + 9 + 16 = **97%**
* **HARDWORK**: H + A + R + D + W + O + R + K = 8 + 1 + 18 + 4 + 23 + 15 + 18 + 11 = **98%**
* **ATTITUDE**: A + T + T + I + T + U + D + E = 1 + 20 + 20 + 9 + 20 + 21 + 4 + 5 = **100%**

I thought it was pretty neat. And some good food for thought. :-)

BTW, here’s the Python snippet I wrote to generate the above:


import sys

print "%s = %s = %d%%" % (letters[:-3], numbers[:-3], sum)


**Update**: A slightly shorter, but perhaps more elegant way of doing the same thing:

import sys
word = sys.argv[1]
s = reduce(lambda x,y: x + (ord(y) - 64), word, 0)
l = reduce(lambda x, y: x + ' + ' + y, word)
n = reduce(lambda x,y: x + ' + ' + str(ord(y)-64), word, '')
print "%s = %s = %d%%" % (l, n[2:], s)


Strangely, I’m not as excited as I thought I would be. It probably hasn’t sunk in yet. But it should be fun nontheless.

I’m not going to be travelling a whole lot, and will probably spend most of my time in and around Gwalior, chilling out with my family. But I do want to catch up with a whole bunch of people, so we’ll see how it works out. If you’re in India and want to get in touch, do drop me a note!

On a side note, I’ve become bored with this site design. So after I’m back, expect a change. I’ll still be using WordPress, but probably switch to a different design. WP 2.0 should be out by then hopefully. Also (and this is a secret), I’m trying to hack up my own static website generation tool. No no, nothing against Forrest — Forrest is //awesome// — but I just wanted to dabble around some more with Python and this seems like the perfect toy project. Besides, at times I feel I need something even simpler than Forrest for my needs.

In other news, I bought a video iPod for my sister, and have been playing around with it the last 2 days. The iPod seems very nice, but I must say I’m truly, utterly disgusted and frustrated by iTunes. Its the //worst// music management software I’ve seen till date. I’ll post a detailed rant some other time.

One non-technical: [[http://www.bitrot.de/workinusa.html|Working in the USA - Experiences of a European]]

Someday I need to write my own versions of both of the above. Someday.

Meanwhile, it seems the quality of the Adsense ads on floatingsun has been gradually improving. And they even get updated more frequently. Now if only people were clicking on them and I was making some //real// money… dang! I think I’m going to just get rid of them eventually. In the past 3 months, I think I’ve managed to make.. lets see… oh, I almost forgot, I’m not allowed to reveal my earnings according to the Terms of Service.

I guess its better that way. Saves me some embarassment :-)