What a waste of 2 weeks...

(Another one from the Drafts - Originally typed up exactly 3 years back - 12/31/2009)

I was home for the last two weeks. Today is day 8 of my 10 day vacation. When I look back, it seems such a huge waste of days spent doing nothing. I did not do much at all. I should've/could've/must've spent these days a lot more, a whole lot more productively than I did. It has been a lousy lazy set of days.

What if I feel the same way about life when I'm 55?

Quick walk around the block

(Resurrecting from Drafts...Originally typed up in Sept 2010 but never posted. Posted as-is - Was probably left incomplete then. The camera mentioned swam with me in my swim trunks at Cozumel earlier this year and drowned to death. RIP SD780 :()
>>>>>

Had to kill time while waiting on the kiddo at some place today. Had taken my pocket camera with me - a Canon SD780 IS. I really love this camera. The more I use it, the more I like it. Of course, you cannot get super sharp images that a DSLR gets you but these cameras have come a long way in the last few years.

Pressing Matter

I had a pressing matter to deal with. In fact, I had this pressing issue for quite a few weeks now. The pile of matter to be pressed was growing every week until all I was left with were no-iron shirts and polos.

Today finally I decided to face my nemesis - this huge big pile of crumpled weaves of cotton, nylon, polyester and all combinations thereof. After around 3 hours of ironing, I am finally sitting in front of an empty basket.

The final count? 18 shirts, 4 polos, 3 trousers for a grand total of 25 pressing matters, pressed, hung and ready to be sweated in and crinkled!

I think I started to get better at it towards the end of the pile. My hatred towards ironing also seems to have toned down quite a lot. Well, at least until I have to deal with this towering pile in another few months, when I get bored of wearing my non-iron shirts and polos again!

Am feeling old....

The kiddo has started riding an adult bike. Am I getting old or am I getting old? I need to go biking with him more often, before he doesn't find me cool enough to go biking with!

I enjoy biking in general. I have this affinity with two-wheelers. The wind blowing against your face and eyes and ears, the occasional fly entering your nose and the sheer sense of freedom from a seat belts  doors, windows and the shell is incomparable. You also don't have the sideseat or backseat driver to worry about!



Biking is one thing I wanted to do more of and have been sorta kinda lazy about doing. Need to make more time for it, find more opportunities for biking, with and without the kiddo. New year resolution eh??

Sweet tooth

Have always had a sweet tooth, an affinity for most things sweet - from cakes to cones, jilebis to jamuns, pies to pethas...you get the drift. As I've matured....umm I mean....as I've grown older, my likes and dislikes have changed quite a lot but my liking for all things sweet still remains.

Here's me filling up a plate full of sweetness after hogging up on a super heavy buffet for lunch this weekend.

Couscous

Made some couscous for lunch today. It turned out quite yummy!

Posting from my phone. Let's see how this looks on the blog...

Padmini....O Padmini

Speaking about iPadmini, for those who bump into this blog and don't get the reference, it used to be one of TWO Car models sold in India for many decades. We used to own a Padmini back in the day, when I was young; back in the day when I did not have grays; back in the day when I did not have a pot belly; back in the day when I...umm I digress.

Disclaimer: (wifey, please read)Don't know the chick in the pick. It's just the first pic I found when googling for it

So, I have some memories of this Premier Padmini.....
- It was probably one of the first cars I drove after getting my Driver's License.
- The hood once popped open and splat back onto the windshield once when driving on a highway.
- The steering wheel once came out in my hand while driving down the road.
- Its gas tank almost fell off when driving on a interstate highway.
- We changed its paint from black to white.
- And finally.....Me and my best bud spent a night in the car in the company of mosquitoes once when it broke down in the middle of the night.

Even to this day, when a mosquito bites me, I first get mad at him, get ready to swat him and then I forgive him because he was not nearly as bad as those mosquitoes that night.

Dear Padmini,

I loved you but I won't say I have missed you.

Sincerely,
Me.

Stop the Press!! This just in!!!!

I just found out that India's top automobile company - Premier Automobiles Limited, and the dominant force in tablets, phones and iEverything are teaming up to come up with the next hottest tablet bonanza - iPadmini!!!

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

I love you.

I can come here whenever I want. I can post whatever crap I want. I can even choose to not post anything at all!

But you are here, whenever I choose to come

No pressure, nothing to catch up on, no pageviews targets to aim for, no one to impress.

I really do love you.

I have been cheating on you.

I have been trying my hand at being "Social"

GOOGLE PLUS.............
I tried Google Plus. Was pretty refreshing at first...but my enthusiasm and interest soon faded away. Did not like it. It almost felt like a marketplace where people are trying to sell their wares. Also did not help that none of the folks I knew and had in my circles had anything to do with Google Plus. So it was either DRY (of any personal connections) or FLOODED (with self promos).

So long Google Plus but I may have to break up with you one of these days.

TWITTER..............
A few days back I thought about trying out Twitter. Had an account (hailshapes) for a while now that I was using to sign up for junk. I cleaned it up the other day and tried posting.

Posting on Twitter, I was able to. I kinda like posting there. Short, pointed tweets that I can post and refer to in the future. What I don't get is....if someone starts following me, will it make any sense to them at all.

Following folks on Twitter was a nightmare. Either I don't know the right folks/feeds to follow. Or I just don't belong to this Twitter generation. I login to twitter when I have something to tweet. Again the same thing....it is either DRY or FLOODED.

Just can't keep up.

FACEBOOK................
Aha! Folks either like it or hate it. I had a facebook account too.

I had a Facebook account for a long time. The one I used to sign up for spam, sweepstakes and stuff in between.

What I did not have was a Facebook account for Shailesh Pai. Not until I a few of months back when I finally decided to create an account, my account.

I got a bunch of "Friend" request over the next few weeks and whenever I logged in, I started accepting them. I still don't get idea of Be-friending on facebook, Liking something, Poking someone, etc. Well, I get it but I still don't get the idea behind it.

Will it be rude if I did not like a Friend's kid's pic but I liked some other Friend's wife's birthday party pic? Will my Father Friend be offended that I Liked the Husband Friend but not him?

What if I did not accept a Friend request from a guy in office but I BeFriended my boss? Does it make me a brown-noser?

I just can't handle the pressure.

Not trying to be a smartass either. Of all three of my mistresses, I like Facebook the best...I just don't think I like it enough.

However, I rather spend my time on Slickdeals and Reddit than any of the three above.

And then of course, I have you, my blog.

I love you,
Me.

Do you think someone carefully planned this one?

Found this while surfing Reddit earlier today. Did not check the post to see the background but wonder whether someone actually planned this event...

Oh Deer....

Had a clash with a deer a few months back. It was early morning, around 7:00 AM. I was on my way to my weekend-break-from-everything-routine-that-I-really-look-forward-to thingy. Was going around 45mph and this deer comes and hits me from the side.

It was a full size adult deer with huge antelopes, that crushed through the passenger side windows and cracked the whole windshield up. The passenger side door and front panels were all damaged.

The deer limped over to the side of the road...and died half an hour  later. The van was in the shop for around 3 weeks. They had to replace the whole door, mirror, panels, etc..etc..

Fast forward to this day. I'm probably the best deer spotter in town. I can spot a deer. And his mommy and daddy and brother and sister. Grazing. From half a mile away. At night. On a new moon day. With my left eye! Talk about PTSD!!!

Bridddjh

Had a lot of Mallu folks in college...especially the first two years and many of them had a very thick accent, emphasizing certain syllables and ignoring some of the silent letters.

Some of them were also some of the smartest and hardest working folks in the crowd.

So here's to my long lost mallu friends....

Hammballl
Simmpall
Peepall
Wend to
The Tempalll
With their
Annnkalll....

And they had to cross
this Briddddjh
on the way there

(English alphabet doesn't do justice to the lllll......and I remember being told by one of my mallu friends that even I couldn't pronounce the llllll however hard I tried. You gotta have the Mallu gene to say the perfect lllll. Unfortunately I was born with a lllll-less gene.)

Spent some quality time with my pine cone buddies today...

Been taking my camera for a ride a lot less frequently these days. Today I decided to take him out with me. I had 30 mins to kill and was looking for subjects to shoot when I noticed these pine cones scattered all around me. Spent around 15 minutes with them, up, close and personal; so much so that when it was time to part ways, we were like long lost buddies.

I promised them that I would post their pics and make them famous (They thought I was some famous photographer or something and I did not have the heart to correct them!).

So, here goes...for my pine cone buddies...

Why I love my ultra wide lens....

Read It?

I'm slowly getting addicted to Reddit. I just started browsing it a few weeks back and now it's gradually becoming my go-to place for a quick chuckle (/r/images is my favorite) or getting a glance at the current happenings (front page does this for me).

IMA section seems really interesting. That's place where folks start a new thread about 'Who' they are and offer to answer questions. Folks ranging from astronauts to prostitutes; mainstream celebrities to porn film stars have posted there and answered questions from fellow redditors.

Just a few minutes back I was reading about this guy who lived in the apartment building that was recently destroyed by the F18 jet crash. He and his neighbors who were in the apartment at the time of crash had helped save the pilot.

The average age of the folks there seem to be around 18-20 though. Although it tends to make the place trendy and current, it also makes it immature'ish at times.

They must  have some comprehensive algorithm to determine which posts bubble up to the top within the sub-reddit and eventually up to their main-page. It probably has a lot to do with the "Up Votes" or "Down Votes" that one can give a post or a comment within a post.

Some links for n00b redditors (like me) to check out...

Reddit main page - Hot topics from all sub-reddits bubble up here
Images sub-reddit - place where I go to for a quick laugh
"I Am A" sub-reddit - Pretty unique folks post about themselves here
IAmA about the guy who saved the pilot in the crash mentioned above

Distraction

I'm a bit distracted today.
It has been kinda crazy lately.
Not sure if I'm thinking clearly.
I probably am, I may be not.
Life changing decision right around the corner.
Don't know if I know the right answer.

I'm a bit distracted today
It's been a roller coaster.
The corner is still miles away.
Should I wait for the corner to arrive?
Should I go with the flow?
Should I turnaround and walk away?
I'm not sure anymore.

I'm a bit distracted today
It has been not this way before.
There is the blue pill.
And then there is the red.
What if  I swallow it whole.
I go down the rabbit hole.
To really find what's in store.

It has been kinda crazy lately.
I'm a bit distracted today.

House v/s Home

I used to like House until House came home.
Now I don't care for him anymore...

Two years later...

Over two years since I fat fingered Amazon.com, I did it again just a few minutes back....

Anazib.com.............Took me right back to Amazon.com


Glad to know Amazon has been renewing all their domain registrations!!

Something's fishy

I just watched Gordon Ramsay scale, fillet and slice up a huge Salmon into 14 portions.

It was so very inspiring and I don't even eat fish!

He can be an arrogant, foul mouthed jackass but he sure does know his stuff.

KenRockwell is boring now :(

It used to be a very good, informative site. But now, most of his posts are about some super expensive leica cameras, vintage lenses, "sales" and "exclusive discounts" at his "favorite" Adorama and other stores.

Just a few minutes back, I went to his website - First page in view only talks about 'SALES' and 'PHOTO TOURS'.(I can go to slickdeals.net to browse through all the DEALS and SALES I want)

First pagedown is newsflash about a firmware update for 5D2 and a review on headphones (already starting to get bored)

Next page down is about a new Olympus interchangeable point and shoot camera (wonder how many people come to his site to read his review on a point and shoot camera....I don't)  (Already lost interest)

Subsequent few pagedowns are all boring to the point that I close it and come here to rant about it.

Don't get me wrong. I still really like his site...but there isn't anything new that is worthwhile there anymore. I still go there occasionally to read his past posts on tips for better photography...but just a top header link on his website is enough to take me there.

He may be gaining a lot of new readers with the SLR rage these days (everyone and their mom want to buy an SLR because supposedly it will make them a better photographer) and he is good at reviewing every new SLR and lens that lands on the shelves, especially Canon and Nikon ones - which is a good thing for those who are in the market for one.

Please think of ways to keep your older audience engaged with your photography and tips; and not just be a site for reviews, "sales" and "tours". I get it, your site is your primary source of income and you are good at reminding us of that. In fact, in the past, anytime I needed to buy stuff at Amazon, I used to click through your page so that it sent a few cents your way. But not anymore, simply because I'm rarely visiting your site.

To end this rant (may be I should have started with this...), I want to say - Thank you Mr. Rockwell; you are a supersmart guy and you have helped me a lot in my photography journey. But...

/end rant.

Oh Blackberry

Oh Blackberry, how much suckier can your camera get?
My 3 year old Nokia and 5 year old Ericsson
Took better pictures in the hands of my son!
How bad would it have been for your bottom line,
To spend 10 buckaroos for a half decent camera
On this Blackberry of mine???

Social Science

Facebook? Yes, have an account to sign up for sweepstakes and receive spam
Twitter? Yes, have an account filled with spam tweets from Amazon to ZipZoomFly
FourSquare? Nope
Android Device? Nope
iDevice? Nope
Google Plus? Yes...but already going the spammy way
Actively participating Forums? None...dormant in one
Blog? This one with as many readers as my last name
Am I a social recluse?
Do I mind it?
Should I mind it?

Never gonna give you up

I got RickRolled today.

Was browsing Amazon.com
Cos I had nothing better to do
I scrolled to the bottom but did not stop
Until I hit the rock

There were these sites
That Amazon had bought
There was Diapers, Soap, DPReview
Zappos, Aubile, IMDB and Shopbop

And then there it was. Woot.com
All by itself with a description that read
"Never gonna Give you up"
I wondered why it said, what it said

So I clicked.
Was taken straight to Woot
With a Daily Deal on Zoku
But right next to the set top box
Was dear old Astley
Going...

"Never gonna give you up"

Yes my friends
I got RickRolled
By Amazon
By Woot
By the curious puss
In my Boot

(Just so that you know
You go directly to Woot
You don't get Rick
Nor do you get to hum...

Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you)

My newest toy...

Got one of these last week from Amazon.com. Best 6 minutes of flytime you can have for 18 bucks and  60 minutes of USB charging!

Buy it here. You won't be disappointed!

eBay can be strange sometimes....