Recentposts have triggered dormant memory cells. I've always had this thing about having an eel farm in Nuwara-Eliya. Not your ordinary boring eel, but electric eels. I want to have the eels in glass enclosures. Ideally the farm would be constructed out of glass; as in the walls and substructure would have to be glass tanks. The eels would go in there. Picture that! Eels in your walls, swimming around, giving off the occasional elctric discharge; now doesn't that give you a warm fuzzy feeling?
It's financially viable too; look at the revenue options
1. I could have a Restaurant du Eel on the side
2. The Eel Aquarium - I could have eel shows
3. Electricity - An average eel discharges 1A at 500V, No step-up transformers required.
eel farmer requires partners. Any investors out there? Incidently they are used to make aphrodisiacs, in South America. So you can add Love Potion Export to that list.
Most of us it seems, consider our Avatars(Yahoo Avatars, that is) as a projection of ourselves. When we dress up our avatars, choose accessories, settings, etc. are we compensating for what we cannot do in real life? I am most probably wrong here; just a thought.
But who says that an Avatar need be a projection of oneself? Why cannot it be a companion? A companion on your strolls down the internet. And if I want a companion, why can't I have a companion of the opposite gender? Would that not be preferable? And if it be a companion of the opposite gender, what's so wrong with having a skimpily/provocatively clad, companion of the opposite gender?
feed-forward backpropogation neural networks in matlab require column vectors as input.
Intel's new 65nm process is capable of achieving 30nm gate lengths and 1.2nm oxide layers; that's just 6 Si atoms across.The next step is nanotube based transistors. Nanotechnology rocks.I must do a detailed post on this... some day.
There are a few PHP debuggers in existence including Zend Studio, APD, DBG, Xdebug(Ref: wikipedia) Couldn't be bothered to try em out though.
Oh, and the Hot Big Bang Model kicks Ass! and Condenses.
Couldn't really cap off making this one troublesome wrapper DLL for a MatLab function; almost there, though. And that's how the day was spent. It is kind of peaceful here without the kids, though.
Yesterday, I had the misfortune of being associated with an Exhibition on Higher Education; degrees for sale more like. The Degree Mongers. I detest them. It seems I've been sheltered from this particular depravity, till now, for which I am thankful. My jeremiads against education have so far been limited to
a) the slow encroachment of training onto the hallowed province of education.
b) it's propensity toward glorification and indoctrination of the status quo
The rot while possibly running deeper, is surely a more uglier rot than i have ever imagined. It made me sick to the lowest of my entrails to see the depths to which these... these villains would stoop to get their buck. That which is birthed by tainted means; can it even aspire to the ideal.
Education, properly a drawing forth, implies not so much the communication of knowledge as the discipline of the intellect, the establishment of the principles, and the regulation of the heart. - Websters.
Maybe the cathedrals of academia are beyond this ideal. Maybe we should look elsewhere. Maybe even revert back to the days of apprenticeship, when bureaucracy was unheard of. Maybe we should just look to ourselves.
Too much mundanity. Too many rules; too many do_this_for_no_good_reasons; too much nonsense, that for some reason requires attention; too much precious time wasted. Suffocating...
I need to break a few rules! I need escape velocity dammit. Will someone please push me into doing something about my post grad!
I feel a bit wonked. So you must make allowances for what will follow.
sleep:6,travelling:3.5,ablutions_etcetera:2,feeding:2,so_called_work:7. Now how much free time does one get? 3.5 measly hours. Just 3 point bloody 5. christ! No wonder i haven't watched many movies. Hmm.. ablutions:1,travelling:2 makes a significant difference. Most practical people just make the change. But I need to have numbers, I need to plan. I never follow these plans of mine. But the plan does have muscle_relaxant qualities.
and i believe that is the first image to desecrate mon blog.
and also, something possessed me to use the blogger spellcheck; another first. It don't recognise 'blog'! sheesh.
or blogger, even. double sheesh.
Success, as perceived by the rather myopic world we live in, can easily be achieved by bending and occasionally breaking the rules. Bending is considered more viable since there is less resistance. Either way, in any system, the key to success is knowing the rules. Then, all that is required is some creative bending.
It was a Saturday, a humid Saturday. The high point for the day so far had been a DWA lecture gone horribly wrong. And there was this family party thingy that I had to grace my presence with <sigh>. These social gatherings being not my thing i would have absconded without a second thought, but the mother insisted that i be present. They don't ask much of me and do put up with all my eccentricities so, this time around i did not have the heart to give em the slip. It still beats the bloody hell outta me as to why they wanted me there; it was the sis's b'day and the place would be invaded by a hoard of her friends. Maybe they wanted me to keep an eye on the crockery.
So I walk into what i was told would be a small informal gathering all sweaty from a 2 hour drive smack into the middle of full dressy kinda affair. Christ! The Sis collars me muttering that I'm late.
Sis: Come, I'll introduce you to Meesa...
Moi: What the heck is a Meesa and why do i need an introduction? < what is it with my family and introductions? >
Sis: <glares>
Sisterly glares are potent stuff. But my anti-introduction reflexes kick in.
Moi: Wait, I'll go have a shower and come
Sis: Oh, yes... ok
phew, some respite. I beat a hasty retreat to the sanctuary of my abode. I am not one for dressing up for parties; most of the time i'm underdressed, but experience has taught me that blending in helps. Experience has also taught me that taking my time would simply mean the mom seeking me out and escorting me, thereby reducing my chances of evasion. I needs make haste.
The attempt at finding something appropriate for occasion is abandoned within 5 seconds. I'm horrible at finding stuff; depend on the wife for things like that. Settle for the nearest comfy thing, which happens to be a sweat shirt. oh well...
I try to think happy thoughts. Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall that loki, being acquainted with the sis, might also be among the hoard.
The realization conjures mixed feelings. To explain the mixed feelings, some insight into elder_bro_younger_sis_relationships is required. The stereotypical elder bro is known to ignore friends of stereotypical younger sis. This is genetically induced behavior, that we have no control over, and is often and unjustifiably mistaken for rudeness. The thing is, that for sometime I've been under the impression that I've given loki a ride home, and the fear was that I might have been perceived as, well ... a complete sod. Incurring the wrath of Loki, warrior princess, was a rather daunting thought. But, it also would be nice to meet her in the flesh...
And now back to the main story...
I sneak into party-house. Now parties are not all bad. Where there is a party, there is FOOD. I make a beeline for the kitchen. Stuff mouth full of batter fried prawn - yumz, grab a coupla fish_balls, pour myself a coke and teleport myself upstairs. I congratulate myself on a well executed concealment maneuver. And for a while all is good... well mostly,I still have to keep some company, but they are a tolerant bunch.
It was ofcourse too good to last, the sis seeks me out eventually and drags me off to meet this Meesa person. I try to ditch her by ducking into the kitchen, to no avail< sigh >. The mind switches to drone-mode. Drone-mode logic is quite simple. Simply repeat, for eg;
Meesa:pleased to meet you, how are you?
Moi: likewise and you?(isn't Meesa an Indian actress?)
or, if subject is a foreigner just ask where they've been to in SL. That sets em off, never fails. And I'm on safe ground, since I'm a bit of a roadee. Now I haven't quite mastered the art of breaking off a conversation, so while Meesa happily chatters away, I decide to see if I can spot Loki. That nearly sends me into positronic cascade failure. i suck at checking out, babes. I abandon the hunt for Loki. Break away from Meesa, raid the kitchen yet again and stealthily make my way upstairs.
Hours later...
Yours truly is in quite a satisfied mood after many many forays into the larder, and happily serving himself the main course when, I hear an animated Hi behind me. I warily turn to see this creature. And it seems to be speaking to me.
creature: hi (or something like that)
moi: errr... hi
creature: I'm Loki
Moi: oh... your hair's different (of all the stupid things to say...)
Loki: maybe cause it's combed ...
Moi: So how was india? ( I seem to progress from bad to worse, as if i don't know. I do read her blogs)
Luckily, I don't ask something extremely stupid and Paranoid like, "How do I know, you're Really Loki?"
Loki is truly charming though, and before I know it she's giving me a brief history of SL bloggerdom; I was quite surprised to hear that most of them met through blogging. I was under the impression that they knew each other beforehand. And I think, i end up gossiping about slothy and sagey. Unfortunately, we have oh so brief a conversation.
How, I've rambled on. Confession time.
I've not really been keen on meeting any of the bloggers in person. Somehow, I've always thought it easier to relate to virtual people through their blogs. I was actually reading Loki & Gangs' blogs for quite some time before i decided to comment on 'em. I have people issues. Real people are a bit off putting after all. But having met Loki, i dunno, I feel I can relate to this crowd. Whether that can be reciprocated is another question altogether, but selfish bastard that I am, I am not really concerned about that.
Anywayz, that's how I met Loki, Warrior Princess, in the flesh.
I Will Not Start My Day by Watching a Movie I Will Not Start My Day by Watching a Movie I Will Not Start My Day by Watching a Movie
The following conditions are known to result in activities that prompt outbursts of the aforementioned nature.
one bathroom cave /* a cave equipped with a single bathroom */ &&
one cave woman who takes the morning ablution ritual very (seriously || slowly)&&
one lazy cave man &&
one Rain Man DVD &&
one comfy reclining chair
Got to work at 9:45. uh oh...
This isn't usually a problem, but I'm trying to get to work by 7:30. Early start and all that. I am trying. I really am.
