Lists !

This is a checklist that I made way back in 2007 for the month of May. I was quite a Technology enthusiast back then. But I could hardly learn up as much as I would've wanted during that period.

Here's the same list again, grouped under the ones I could do, and those that are still untouched

Could do :

• Blender (a hell lot more to learn and achieve)
  
• GIMP (quite a lot learn and practise)
  
• Blogging (erratic )
  
• Digital Music (Not much variety)
  
• Tech Forums (Early periods only)
  
• Linux (Basic usage)
  
• Open Source Programming (If C is OS)
  
• Javascript/HTML (Developed a web-site)

Haven't touched :

• Network Hacking
  
• Digital Matte painting
• JAVA

My List of things to do in the vacations has changed significantly. I will make a list as soon as my 4th Semester exams get over.

Resolutions.

Most of us make them. And majority of us fail to keep up. And then we make them again, trying twice as hard to abide by.

I've observed that most resolutions are aimed at 'self improvement'. Some resolute to quit smoking, while some promise themselves that they'll shed weight and inches within 6 months. Whatever one's resolution be, failing at keeping up is something that's easy to do. Not all fail though.

What lacks in the ones who fail is, a suitable 'plan' and its efficient 'execution'. Furthermore, the golden aid seems to be a strong 'willpower'. While it is easy to spell out and say aloud, its a difficult quality to develop, if you lack it in the first place.

I'm not trying to preach anything here. I'm essentially just trying to remind myself of the reasons why I fail at keeping up with my resolutions. But no one wants to fail, right ?
So what does one do ?

As an aftereffect of this thought, what I've been trying to do is, to think actively about every action of mine and prevent myself from performing anything, that negates the purpose of my resolution. Off late, I've been trying to plan out almost everything, in small logical chunks and execute them phase-wise. Also, actively having a clear picture of the end result provides a positive impetus.
It works for me.

At 3 AM, with a broken Rubik's Cube in my hand...

...I fell asleep.
I had a Rubik's Cube which I bought 3 years back. I guess it wasn't meant for serious solvers. So I didn't ever bother solving it then. It was neatly residing atop my bookshelf's upper rack - Until recently.

I had a chat with an online friend yesterday and he said to me, he has a Rubik's cube solving contest coming up this weekend and so, he was practising. It got me interested. On being asked how he learned? He said, it was self-learned, with some help from his friends. He also said, solving it was easy, just that it was difficult to build up speed. THAT very instant, I thought of reaching out to my
cube and dig up the net for some info on its solution. Its not that hard after all. It was 2:37am.

My cube was jammed, meaning the faces wouldn't rotate smooothly. I was doing good progress, but suddenly the cube got stuck. It just wouldn't rotate. I applied pressure and 4 small blocks came off the cube. The cube broke apart. Although, I reassembled it, I had no clue whether I put the pieces in the right positions. Meaning, the cube is useless now.

And then... I slept. It was 3 am.

Aah! 3rd Semester is

Seemingly different and sure it is. A lot has changed in my 2nd year in college. The best change to have taken place is 'the shifting to the on-campus hostel'. The life here is simply great, as is the case with hostels in general .
Then, you have the juniors, the lateral entries, the convergence of branches, the LAN and the CLAN( All hail the todlrz!) :P

P.S: This post was just an attempt to resurrect a dying blog :) For any info on 'todlrz', ask me :)

Yeah, one more thing. Fossils came to our college on the 27th of Sept for the management fest- Prarambh. The show was cool, loud and musical.

Look at those eyes.

This... is a picture I clicked when a lazy cat was lazying outside the house. Her initial pose goes like this - She was lying upside down, with her paws high up in the air. She was lying in a dark corner of the boundary wall.

The moment I went ahead to click the pose, she gave me the pose as shown in the picture.

Her eyes. Stunning.

Nineteen

I had my birthday recently. Yes, on the 7th of March. I turned Nineteen. Subsequently, I realised that I would be Twenty, the next year, signaling the end of my teenage.
Not a bad thing. Or maybe it is ? Most would miss their teenage. I certainly would. But, why so ? I found a nice little link when I was searching for online opinion of people regarding this end of teenage era. Its a small article written by a women, titled 'Son’s birthday marks the end of teenage era'. An interesting read.

Teenage years for me have been in one word - Fun. Back in school we had friends, their crushes, silly fights and kiddish conspiracies. And had inter-school rivalries. We had silly definitions of love, had more liking for anime(I still do) and WWE. We had ample time to play in the fields.

As we entered in high-school, we entered the rat-race. But still, we had friends, their crushes, silly fights and kiddish conspiracies.However now, we had lesser time to play. Exams came, we appeared, we passed. Entrance exams came, we appeared, we qualified.

Teenage came, we lived, we passed.
I'm sure, you will have a much better account of teenage. Tell me.

My Life in Kolkata

Seven Months have passed. The Eight is under way.


Its been exactly the mentioned time span since I entered college and have been living in a hostel. I live in a Metro. I live in Kolkata. The life is just so different given that you are your own guardian now. While its been tough at times, time has also strengthened me mentally. Its also slimmed me somewhat. Now that, would be attributed to the routined-junk-food-ing habits that I've developed after coming to college.

I still remember the day before our orientation-programme at college. It was 31st July. I along with couple of my hostel-mates went for some shopping to Gariahat. That was my first outing after having arrived at Kolkata .The market-scene wasn't very different from that in Asansol or Durgapur, but there were some obvious differences. One could see many a Big-Brand showrooms and one could see the trams. One could see busy commuters and traffic jams. We don't have much of the latter, back at my place. Much sooner, I got to know about the various places of interests for teenagers and college-goers in Kolkata. These include some very big Malls, Multiplexes and Shopping Complexes. The Science City however, is one of the good places I still haven't visited yet. I went there last way back in 1999. However, my commuting on most days was self-restricted between hostel and college. I didn't mind it though, given the lively atmosphere we have here in our hostel. One doesn't get bored.

As days progressed, I frequented to Jadavpur University(JU). A cousin and a friend study Arts there.With each visit, I started interacting more with their friends and bonded pretty well with them. So now, I had friends even outside the domain of school, college and hostel.

Then, there was a noble discovery made by one of the hostel-mates. He found out a computer gaming cafe near our hostel which was fairly cheap as compared to the Reliance Web Worlds and Sify Gamedromes. The machines weren't as powerful. However, many very popular games run without a problem on them. Our 1st semester University Exams were postponed and we started gaming in the interlude. Now that, was just the beginning. We folks continue spending cash and time gaming Counter-Strike and DOTA in that cafe.

College. Now it deserves a space of its own but frankly, for me, the life sans college is a lot more fun-filled. It means, I rather have more fun outside it than inside. For obvious reasons.

I mentioned that I've become mentally tougher. How ? It stems from the increased human interaction and exposure to various demanding scenarios. I had to take decisions on my own and had to find my way through situations that seemed difficult at that time. I no longer have the complete shelter of my parents. Its rather a good thing to be exposed to a realistic world which coughs up tricks directly at you.

This account still doesn't even come close to my experience, but I guess, I might be able to keep better track of the events by posting regularly on this blog.

Regards.

No. I'm not Dead.

This is to notify all who are concerned, that my inactivity over the past few months doesn't necessarily mean that I'm dead.
I'm just disconnected.
I'll be back shortly, have few thoughts nurturing already... :)

First day at an Internet Center

I've been thinking of posting this since a very long time. My first entry to my most visited section of the college - The Internet Kiosk.

Having become a net-addict by the end of our competitive exams, I would very often be seen hooked on to Orkutting, Chatting, Forumming and Googling... Then came 22th July and I had to part off with my Internet connection. 10 days passed. *sigh* Really long they were. It was 1 August. My first day at college. I'd already known that it had an Internet center where students could surf the NET. I heaved a very long sigh.

I merrily entered into it on 2nd Aug. For your kind information, all the PCs are powered by either FC or RHEL. The Net admin narrated me a long list of strict no-nos inside the center. Here they are:

• 1 hour/day or 1 sitting /day, whichever is earlier.
  
• No Chatting. ( All GAIMing ports are blocked. Infact most ports are.)
  
• No Orkutting. ( Majority of proxies are blocked)
• No Music, Sports sites.
• No downloading warez. (Even if you did, how would you carry em back home ? No USB ports/CD/Floppy Drives :)
  
• This one's pretty obvious. No P***.

Yeah. I know. Although there are loads of way through these restrictions, once caught, you're screwed. The above things can be bypassed by:

• Use Meebo.(Dunno why its not blocked) Or use Gmail, or use yahoo's chat widget. Simple.
• There are loads of new domains which lead to the famous proxy sites. Hence, no website restrictions anymore. Also, new proxies crop up everyday. Keep an eye on them.
• Download through proxies.
  

For the last two however, there's no solution. Anyway, who's want to really download stuffs at a measly 15KBps :P

Its getting khooooler...

Yeah right, the winter has come. Add to that short bouts of drizzle and you get a cool cool Kolkata. Days are getting shorter, the nights, longer. Also, the duration of my sleep is increasing. I don't quite have proper winter clothing and I can't really go home before 25th Dec. Gah~ I'll have to make do with just one pull-over and a jacket.
Winter also means that bathing frequency decreases. Aah...can't think of more things that Winter relates to... Someone help me ?