Story Snippets Part One

This is a snippet of the story that I am trying to write these days. Any suggestions/comments are welcome.

The dead weights stacked on top of each other moved with brisk pace as he pulled on the cable curling handle. Shifting his concentration from the uniform movement of the weights to the mirror put up in front of him, he saw his reflection give him a smug look. It was as though the reflection was secretly laughing at him for the state of his current affairs. He wasn’t the gym type. He knew it and it unsettled him. He let go the handle of his gym equipment and took respite near the water cooler.

His hands were shaking from the heavy gym sessions he had been indulging in, of late. The water moved as the glass quaked in his shaky hands. The pattern of the moving water mesmerized him as he was reminded of the ocean. The memory of the waves calmed him down as his hands stopped shaking. He dunked the water down and saw through the window in front of him which looked out onto the busy street. He hated traffic. Uniformity and predictability weren’t his style, but chaos on the streets wasn’t something he was a fan of either. He heard a faint noise in the background calling “xyz” out to him. Looking toward the source, he saw his gym instructor calling him back. Getting his attention back to the task on hand he went back inside the gym for completing his cable curling workout.

All credits to this go to Mandar for giving me the idea of using zero-distraction editors, which got me over my inertia of writing. jDarkRoom _/\_
PS: this is not based (loosely or otherwise) on me or anyone I know.

My experiments with writing

After blogging irregularly for around 3 years now, I thought writing a short story would be a step further in the same direction. 3 days into my effort of writing a short story->novel, I have realized that it is not only more than a step further, but also a totally new ball game. The whole idea of writing a short story/novel is based on broken up pieces of writing imho. A few preliminary difficulties I have had are mainly of staying absorbed by my own story. Also, getting into the head of my characters is also a daunting task.

I just hope I can stay focussed on this task, so that I can write a lot more posts describing my experiences. All in all it is a challenging and fun task. Any suggestion or advice by anyone with/without experience on the topic at hand is welcome.

PS: I just got a 54gl linksys router and a new reliance broadband connection. writing while lying down in random places at home is totally fun.
PPS: I’m planning to use Writers’ Cafe 2.0 Any suggestions here?

Vacation Slip

As I was thinking of what to write under “Reason for Leave” I wondered whether “Desperate need of free Internet” qualifies as a legit one.
In retrospect, maybe it does.

PS: read free as in free speech not free beer :-)

PPS: This post was made through the “free” Internet.

How important is your computer’s screen?

Answer: Very.

Off the shelf notebooks never have any kind of decent screen configuration. Laptop giants are too busy focusing their buyers’ attention to the unnecessarily huge HDDs or the unnecessarily huge RAMs.
Most laptops these days have gloss finish screens. No matter how bright these screens are, they turn into mirrors with the introduction of even minimal ambient light.
Some things about the screen that most buyers don’t know till they see their laptops, [or maybe even after that :)] are:
LED vs CCFL:
LED: Light Emitting Diode
CCFL: Cold Cathode Fluorescent Tube
These are the two kinds of LCD lighting features. According to me, LED is much better as it gives crisper colours, has lower power consumption (meaning more battery life), higher brightness range, and lower dimming over time.

Gloss vs Matte:
This is the type of the finish of the screen. As I said gloss screens have this problem of turning into mirrors. Matte screens are better in ambient light but need to be kept very clean (from personal experience).

Making these two choices and getting my computer configured for this did cost me a few bucks more, but it has given its sweet rewards as I can now enjoy working on my computer without straining my eyes at any random place.
Note: I also use my computer with a blank white document opened at full brightness as a table lamp sometimes :)

one of those days

I was supposed to write a game in Action Script, which I did successfully in 6 hours yesterday, and I was feeling pretty smug about it. Except for getting the game to work with a php script, I had done the whole thing. I submitted my code to my mentor yesterday night, only to find a completely new GUI based on my code to appear on his website, with everything working just fine. All my smugness disappeared as I looked at the spiced up GUI and tried to digest the fact that my code was read, understood and modified in under 3 hours. With my uncommented code, that is really something. Just one of those days when you realize that there is much to learn in life.

back to linux

I refuse to give up my right of choosing my OS in lieu of a few hours of battery life.

On perception of working internet

Since yesterday evening, internet access was shut off for some stupid reason in campus. Today afternoon, normality was restored, but some people continued to complain that internet is not accessible till like 5 minutes ago. I went on private chat with one such person and after a few lines checked my Firefox window to see 4 tabs not loading, and all of them being on google.

That is when I solved his problem and told him, Google, not internet is not working.[i suspect someone played around with our dear dns server]

Is this what internet has come to?

the fog and two cups of coffee

This little incident has the following ‘entertaining’ things:

• Fog from Delhi.
• Food from Lebanon.
• Coffee from Pune.
• Dancing boy from Berkeley.
• ET from Goa.

The story is not really fascinating, but I bet the coffee had a completely different angle on it.

Ok, let me clarify, we coffees have memories across lives, so don’t be confused as to why I know how a tray is a tray and a cup is a cup. This was my 42nd life and I was really kinda looking forward to it. I was quite honestly very surprised as I was being made because my kind does not get made in Lebanese fast food joints. As I came into being, I could feel myself being transferred from one big vessel into a smaller one and back, much to the amusement of the red shirt guy who was doing this act. I, on the other hand was getting a tad bit irritated, my original vessel was nice, but the new one was all cold, and was giving me shivers. After some more daring  transfers by red shirt guy without spilling any part of me, he put me in a cup, which was also very cold. I felt a slight jerk as it seemed the world around me was moving, and then as I went to an edge of the cup I saw a flat brown tray on which I was being transferred someplace. Sometime soon, I felt another chill, but that was from the extremely cold air outside. As I saw up ahead, I could see a slim guy looking at me delightfully. I was then transferred to the  most entertaining table I must have ever been on.(Ok maybe that is an exaggeration by the author)
So as I looked around, I could see the slim guy looking very edgy and shifty as he sat in his seat. We shall refer to him as “ET” for obvious reasons. In front of him was this guy with a weird physique, we shall refer to him as “berkeley boy” from now on, for reasons which shall be explained later. Next to him was this girl with a determined look on her face. Unfortunately I never really found out what she was determined to do, anyway, she will be “cumminz girl” for reasons which are pretty obvious, but which shall be explained later. Opposite her and next to the slim guy was this girl who was looking apprehensive about the world around her. There was something about her, never really could put my finger on it. She shall be referred to as “the fog” for reasons which shall not get clear ever.

Sitting at the table for sometime I gathered some information about these characters. Apparently there was fog in Delhi, which was delaying all trains in and out of the city. As an effect, ET’s train to Goa had been delayed, and he had 5 hours to kill in Pune. Considering that berkeley boy was the only jobless friend he had, he had come to this place with berkeley boy.  On observing the air between cumminz girl and berkeley boy, I was tempted to think that there was something up between them, but no such hints in the conversation made me think otherwise. The fog was cumminz girl’s friend from someplace called woodlands. They did not seem to be like jungle folk, but one can never really tell. The conversation was mainly dominated by the fog and berkeley boy with cumminz girl chipping in at critical junctures and ET sitting quiet, which made me think that ET was the jungle folk there. I still remember some excerpts from the conversation that I heard.(not necessarily in chronological, or any order for that matter)

berkeley boy:
“He likes to mug up random peoples syllabi” after he saw ET asking the fog about Lehninger.

the fog:
“And what is this difference between nerds and geeks that you speak of?” in response to ET.

ET:
“It’s complicated” might be added under artistic allowance.

cumminz girl:
“I told these two that if they wanted to meet in private it was cool” telling the fog about the other two.

the fog:
“Have you two got something going on?” wrt ET and berkeley boy making signals.

ET:
“Rather, I would love to have a wife that lets me be the househusband” wrt to nothing in particular.

berkeley boy:
“Stop saying that there is no us” to ET.

ET:
“He likes to call them his pecks” in defence of berkeley boy.

berkeley boy:
“I actually approve of her liking girls too” in randomness.

cumminz girl:
“During our sleepovers, she is the one who used to preach us” about the fog.

the fog:

“So, tell me what BDSM stands for” testing berkeley boy with his knowledge of the dark arts.

ET:
“The coffee out here is really awesome. You should try it. Boss, one more coffee.” in praise of me, as he gulped me down.

RIP 42nd life.

Note from the author:
There might be a possible 43rd life.

PS:
ET is me, if you geniuses haven’t figured out already.
*Some text missing*
Do find a little free time to read the 43rd life, and a lot of it to understand the it.

[edit 14/1] on account of the fog’s impressive observation skills lehringer, has been changed to lehninger.

the life and times of deep_thought

“And yeah, I need these extra components also installed along with the basic configuration” said the lanky freshman undergraduate to the computer technician. The student was busy clearing his desk from the piles of books and paper on it, while the technician was working his magic. After having a first look at the components, the technician started small talk about how much did the freshman get those components from and from where. A few screws later, the computer technician whose name plate read ‘Viresh’ said that its all done, we need to power up now. With trembling fingers, the undergrad flipped the power switch; and thus deep_thought was born.

Those same fingers trembled while flipping the same switch back, in fond remembrance of the story narrated in the earlier paragraph. The fingers were not a lanky freshman’s fingers; instead they belonged to a (still lanky) junior undergraduate who was trembling as he went through his first serious parting in years. The hum of the cpu fan as it went slow and then stopped brought back lots of memories of deep_thought, as it was powered down for the last time.

Incidentally, it was the first time ever that deep_thought was given the shut down command, on any one of its more than 15 different hosted operating systems. For just over two years, deep_thought performed under the most adverse conditions that computers like him can possibly face. The owner, who we can clearly recognize as the author of this ridiculous story, must have been the worst and possibly the best thing that deep_thought was ever put through. Although for the better part of his life, deep_thought was subject to uber 50% cpu usage, it was one of the few computers of its kind who must have had a myriad of adventures as it did some of the most bizzare things imaginable.

One might feel that deep_thought was the best-in-his-league type computer, but well, a computer is just as good as their owner is. So, well deep_thought was very happy at its standing, performing to his own satisfaction. Only those who knew deep_thought well, could truly appreciate what he could do. Those high end operations of playing the latest game could never be relished by the owner, as deep_thought was a bit handicapped there. But what he lacked for in absolute configuration, he more than made up in the enthusiasm department.

The hope that I had in IBM when I bought my 8776a27 in my freshman year was more than fulfilled by deep_thought, and that is what made me believe in the brand. As deep_thought is officially out of commission, blue_gene shall enter my life  in the next 6 hours.

Notes:

deep_thought: my 8776a27

deep thought: world’s second most brilliant computer, in Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

deep throat: world’s first ever released adult movie.

URSA_minor: the computer from which I am writing this blog post.

blue_gene: my new t400

On the uneventful mornings in hostels

I was giving my closing argument in front of what seemed to be like faculty members sitting in front of me. I think the whole idea of having to defend myself in front of the disco was making me sweat, and then suddenly I heard a noise of something vibrating near me. I turned around to see Denny Crane sitting behind me, and then I actually thought it was the “blood-flow” meter of his that was on vibrate mode. It was then that I reasoned that all this can’t be true, and then I opened my eyes to see the blinking lights of my phone next to my bed.
I lunged for it and a few snooze commands later, I was no longer sprawled on my bed. Sitting up on my bed I looked up to see the fan switched off, which explained my “tension” in the disco scene. While making sense of what was going on, I involuntarily grabbed the handkerchief placed conveniently near my right hand and sneezed in it two times with ghastly force, leaving my chest heaving, and me thinking whether life is worth all this trouble. At that point of time, I remembered that I have a cold currently, and well, whatever grumpy perception I had about the day to come, just became a hundred times worse. Fortunately light was not a problem as I had gotten up almost at noon, which is what typically happens when you sleep at 4 or 5 in the morning.
After sitting on my bed for around 10 min trying to gather my thoughts and making my head stop spinning, I decided its about time I moved my ass of my bed. So, well that is precisely what I did. After checking mail and other yada yada stuff, I headed for the door. Even though it was noon, the sunlight still irritated my eyes, so making them small, I walked across the corridor to the bathroom, swaying laterally as I went. I heard some voices as I went to the urinals. What I find interesting in retrospect is that my mind blocked out all those voices while I was taking a leak. Heading to the wash basins, I noticed water on the floor, but I did not give it much thought.
This is where the reason for this post becomes clear. The basin is very short for a guy like me, and when I looked up from the basin and straightened up, I froze for a second. Right there, behind me were two ecoclean ladies mopping the floor. It was then that blood suddenly rushed to my brain and I realized I was standing in front of a wash basin wearing a t-shirt and boxers in front of two ecoclean ladies. These two ladies who stopped mopping the floor when I turned around and gave me a look that said “what the hell do you think you are doing in a ladies’ bathroom?”.
I was a bit angry at the system for sometime, but then I realized that in all probability, they would have thought I was wearing proper shorts that were just, well short. I have no idea what is up with ecoclean and why they have this sudden shortage of male employees. All I can say is that if these ecoclean ladies can barge into our toilets, students should at least be allowed to come inside the damn hostel.