java, ulysses and anil kumar.

25th august
This entry is after a gap of four days. Things are finally making sense in the java classes. I was not getting the hang of file handling so I sat one day with rejah and went through file handling from a book. I also learnt rmi and abstract window toolkit. I wish I had more time to probably try some programs in a computer .College classes resumed after what seemed ages .
We have a new teacher fow ADA who is a fascinating character. He started the class by picking his nose . Out of nervousness i guess. But that's a very grotesque thing to do in public.However he has a teaching style which could evoke the interest of some students who have perhaps forgotten how to pay attention in class. Also he seems to have comprehensive knowledge and experience on the subject.
I read Ulysses in this interval .Great book but reading hundred pages is taking me five to six hours. I need a dictionary nearby. Joyce has written many phrases using archaic irish and british words.

Ways of cusat

21st august
kochi
I was in triponithura for the weekend and this morning headed back to the cusat campus. I had breakfast in abhirami- a tamil restaurant . The chutney they serve is just smashing. When I reached home I found to my immense pleasure that we have no classes for the day yet again. I just love the way our university goes about its business.
I had to collect a certificate signed by the principal for the cat application form. The principal had resigned from his post last friday so knowing the ways of cusat I was very apprehensive about ever getting it . But thanks to my lucky stars I got it "signed and sealed '. I heard rumours that the principal is back in business.I'm not bothered. I don't even know what his name is.
In the afternoon I went to the cobbler to get my sandals stitched. Well i'm going to delhi next week so I thoght why waste money on new sandals till then. The cobbler carefully diagnosed it and very emphatically announced that he can't help me as its condition is beyond any remedy. Then java classes where we learnt more about networking using java .Some client side and server side programs which I didn't quite understand .
Afterwards I went with rejah to the very famous IT house and got to watch the English premier league highlights. I'm glad chelsea has begun with a comprehensive win. Drogba's header was terrific .Shevchenko is gelling very well with his teammates. I hope with their big stars they don't turn out to be disoriented as real madrid has turned out to be.I bet Jose Mourinho won't let that happen.

Temple of the dog

16th august
kochi

Today was download mayhem day.Saif had downloaded a software called ares which I would rate as the best to download rock videos. Cause you get so many good quality ones. He had already downloaded some interesting stuff.
Like november rain live(Axl rocks on the keyboards), Slash playing Hendrix(I think All along the watchtower, not sure), guitar lessons from Adrian Smith(dunno what prompted him to do this) and an animated wrestling match between Slash and Axl showing the latter chopping Slash's brains with a chainsaw(Viewer's discretion advised). So i decided to join the bandwagon. I downloaded "Show Me how to live" by audioslave,"Black" by pearl jam, "Paranoid Android " by Radiohead and "Fell on black days","Spooman","Jesus Christ pose" and "Black hole sun"(Btw Weird Al came up with "Asshole Son" ) by Soundgarden . I consider "Jesus Christ pose" as the best rock song if you consider only the vocals. Cornell's vocal range and power is just incredible in this song.
My major accomplishment of the day was the download of "Hunger Strike " by Temple of the dog. This band was created by Chris cornell as a tribute to a former bandmate of his who had died in a freak accident. The band has cornell singing along with some soundgarden members, some other members who would go on to form the band pearl jam and a novice providing back up vocals to cornell called Eddie Vedder. In the Song"Hunger Strike" Vedder and Cornell sing a duet of sorts. The song is wonderfull. Cornell's vocal abilities , Vedder's awesome voice , the great guitar synchronization and the lyrics make this a fantastic song by a fantastic ensemble .

Rain please go to spain

I got up early in the morning and decided to do some excercise . So i went with the intention of jogging in the university ground. While on the way it started raining.The ground was wet so I had to abandon the enterprise. . The rain god has always hated my guts. We didn't have classes in college to my utmost delight and I came home and slept for a long time . Then Java classes at six where I learnt command line arguments and vectors. Then I went with rejah to the house of some friends of his and met a very interesting character who is the cook in that house and has a community in orkut named after him because of his proficiency in cooking.
He made us popcorn with salt and chilly powder . He has ambitions to start a popcorn selling business in cusat.
Then rejah asked me if i'm interested in going to watch Kabhi alvida....... and I agreed. The movie was nothing great but it didn't bore me as i thought it would.
The performances of rani mukherjee and amitabh bachchan were commendable . Amitji in his role as as sixty year old philanderer was very entertaining. The sets and costumes were fantastic. SRK overacted more than ever. The other performances were mediocre. I gotta give credit to johar for taking adultery as the theme and finally deviating from his normal hackneyed stories. After the movie i came back on a bike and then it rained to make me wet all over agian .

Of cats and crazy men

I'm making this a habbit. Three entries in three days. Well today is dias' birthday . He has been a very good companion over the last three years . More like a brother than a friend. Dias has been very helpful to me. If ever i'm in trouble with my computer he bails me out with a lot of patience(I can be very irritating with my ignorance)
Yesterday in an effort to prepare for CAT I took a test in geometry. I told myself " Dude , there are fifty questions and you can have fifty minutes with negative marking and all, try and score thirty" . There was nobody in my house as everybody had gone to watch arts so it was very quiet and the ambience was great for concentration. I ended up scoring thirteen out of fifty which is abyssmal. I actually forgot a lot of formulas. So a lesson learnt "work hard".
Last evening myself , joe and savio -the two people I'm most comfortable with here in cochin ,went to Salaam ikka's shop for drinking tea. So ,what's the big deal? The deal was that we weren't exactly dressed for the occasion. I was wearing an exceedingly warm raincoat cum jacket , savio a shirt which is best suited to be worn in a beach and joe ,ironed shirt and trousers. Then after coming back me and joe had a very good chat . We discussed about our best and worst moments in cusat, the idiocies we've commited ourselves into and the girls in our lives among other issues.

Sociophobia

Hey it's me again. There is B-tech arts function going on. Yesterday I was wondering whether to go or not. My indecision was because of this social phobia i've developed of late(To be honest it has always been there). I did decide to go in the end only to find none of my classmates there. I found a junior to talk to and then found Varkey. He told me that he is playing lead guitar for a band and they mostly play covers of bands like metallica, pantera and a death metal band called "The testament" . Then to my delight I met anna who was my companion for the rest of the evening .The events were mighty boring. I couldn't stand it any longer and at ten thirty walked back home.
While walking back I did a little introspection on my diffident nature.I was thinking that out of most people who are reserved very few are actully indifferent to other people. Most demure people actually are low on confidence as far as social demeanours are concerned.Thus some decide to act aloof . While some others behave like sidekicks to the more confident people.
Other events , well Rose and Rejah got placed in Accenture. Rose is very articulate when she talks so must've breezed through the GD and the PI . On the other hand Rejah is one of the most confident people i've met and it is comes as no surprise that he's placed too. Both will be missed when i join TCS.

Orkut and Ulysses

well.. this whole enterprise of blogging struck me when I saw monty's and mush's blogs yesterday. So what i'm going to do is write whatever indiscreet or sensible activities and sentiments i manage within the course of a day. Savio says diary writing helps him retrospect. I could do with some retrospection.
Yesterday started with orkut for fifteen minutes . Nothing fascinating happening there.I think i'm getting bored of it. I'm always expecting loads of scraps . Two or three scraps disappoint me. I think I draw my sense of importance through the number of scraps i receive. That is childish and very foolish of me.
I spent majority of the day reading "Ulysses" . When I started reading the book I found it very difficult to comprehend and thus horribly overrated as a modern classic. But now having read a hundred odd pages i'm beginning to understand why it is rated so highly . The book consists of whole chapters written in the form of the thought patterns of the characters. Our thoughts are not well-structured or sequential. They are random and haphazard. While thinking we can switch from one thought to something completely connectionless. The myriad of emotions the characters go through within their heads makes the book interesting to read. Also Joyce's adroitness with the language , his vivid descriptions and the metaphors he uses are praiseworthy.
That's all for today.