There! Comes dissapointment...

As i was writing this article posted below, i get a mail from the HR saying, Performance Management Begins January 19^th.

There, the perfect start to the new year...!! BTW, how about copying my last post on the online performance management system? ;)

Introspection and Retrospection!

An year has gone by and when i look back in time there are things that i think i could have done better. Even though not by a large extent, a bit better here and bit there would've made good differences. But we all know we never have second chances and this is what makes life most interesting as we move ahead trying the uncertainities at our own best as much as we could. Over all i think this has been a year filled with personal highs and also lows. I've made good grounds on the career front and would like to keep the momentum up and going this way for the years to come too. On the personal note, this was more than a bad year for me. I lost one of my closest friend and companion. The less i talk the better here as i don't want to get into something that was foolish of me in the first place and very painful back then in the first half of the year and I've since then decided not to think of it at any stage.

I've successfully lost some weight (close to 7 Kilos) this year. Not with a lot of effort though ;) This is what is quite surprising! It jus happened with my shift to Bangalore (The larger part of it). Initially some Cycling/Jogging did help me focus on loosing weight. But then as usual I did not stick to it for long. Surprisingly, after moving to Bangalore i did no exercise and i lost weight! Might have to do with the food habits. But then it helps. ;) I miss my bicycle here as i have left it behind when i shifted jobs in June. Now i need to bring it here or atleast think of buying a new one soon.

I've shifted jobs after working with my previous employer for a good three and a half years. A mixed bag of  experience. I miss my friends from that place and i love my job profile here. I would not say that what i got from my previous employer was bad, but something was amiss. That is what i feel. Or maybe i did not grab the opportunity that was coming my way there. No use contemplating on it now as I've moved on and it is better.

Another notable high is the point that I've started playing again. With the corporate cricket matches organized every now and then in the weekends with the other companies, every weekend becomes somthing that i look forward to on a otherwise boring and low monday. It's something that I always craved for last 4 years since i graduated. The leather ball hitting the meat of the willow sounds music.. :)

More than anything, i loved my decision this summer to start with this blog. I'm happy I did this. I wanted to write on something and i did hold on to a decision of mine (which i rarely do!). And the best thing is, i'm still writing pieces into it. I'm not sure why i started this in the first place. Initially started off anonymously and then i thought i would give away my identity as this was not a very secret stuff that i did here. Anonymous initially was probably because i might loose interest or maybe stop having topics to blog on. So i waited to realize that i would continue doing this for good/worse. ;) One constant piece of criticism that i got from my friends for this page is that it contained articles only on cricket/bikes/movies. He he he. Let me see what i could so about this in the next year. For this year this is the one before another final one.

Now let me look forward to the next year and also deciede what would be my priorities for the year ahead......

ScribeFire!

I'm now using ScribeFire. After a short stint of using Blogo on my Mac machine. I've now switched loyalties. ;) ScribeFire is a free Ad-on that is available for Firefox browser and is very effective when it is lightweight and very user friendly. I baically need a tool to blog which is very comfortable compared to logging in to the Blogger dashboard everytime i want to make a post. It somehow is "cool" to have a tool to blog. :)

Watched this...

Had fun watching this movie. It's a kind of movie that i could watch when i am having a terrible mood. It just gives me a high. I liked each character in the movie because all were so individually different and yet gelled together for this story. And what else can i say to a movie which is based on intelligence goof-up. He he he... My country's agency too I'm sure would be saying "so we have company after all as we are not the only ones who don't have a clue what is intelligence!" after watching this movie now. :)

Watermelon prices set to soar!

I'm sure lemon and watermelon vendors will be out for a surprise when they see the amount of sales they would do!

Reason: Well, see this...

Are any investors reading this? ;)

Our brain has inbuilt noice cancellation Mechanism?

Most of us would've closed our ears with our fingers or hands at least once till date. And in doing so as a kid would have wondered on what the sound was that we could hear from the depth of our own ear! And as we grew some text book or general book that we read said that it was the sound of the blood traveling through the arteries/veins that made the sound. And yes if we were more enthusiastic, we would at times run hard to increase the heart beat and then check the sound from the ears growing louder when we closed ears after this exercise. And listen to the new sounds that got added such as the air passing through the nose to lungs and yes our heartbeat too was audible which was beating recklessly!

Now the best part is, Why don't we hear these sounds when our ears are open? A perfect noise cancellation mechanism was put into place in our audio processing unit in our brain when we were designed to walk the earth. So beautiful!

I know most of you know this. But jus thought to put it here as what is note worthy is that i never happen to notice this till date that this mechanism was actually there until i thought about a noise cancellation head phone. ;) Man, if god could foresee this detail a long back and had implemented a more complex audio processing unit for us! well, no need to mention BOSE would be out of business.... ;) Hehehehe...
Perfect example for "working out of the box".. the apple istyle... ;)

In-Ear from Apple.

Check out this from Apple. I admit that the thing looks good on picture, especially that remote which apple calls "control capsule"! Also there is an added advantage of Mic on it! This is cool.
The Spec sheet says it's Frequency response is 5Hz to 21kHz. Sensitivity at 109 db at 100 Ohms.
Sells at "just" 79$ according to the website... ;)
If you're interested on comparing, here is something from one of the best in sound... And it sells at $10 more than the Apple in-ear.

Using this App... "Blogo"

A publishing tool for Mac platform... This is the first post made using Blogo. Let me see how it goes before my 21 day trial expires... :)

So here it is the first one..

Snap- Devarayanadurga.

From my friend Abhilash who clicked this beautiful snap.

What is a Merc?

Click on this and get to know the world of Merc.

Nijagal betta and Devarayana Durga...

Travelled to Nijagal betta and Devarayana durga this sunday. These places are off the Tumkur-Bangalore NH-4 highway. About 80 KM away from Bangalore south. Easiest access to this NH is through NICE roads and it's a treat to bike through this stretch of about 25KMs. 6 of us made it through with less amount of planning. ;)

We started off as early as we could and that was jus as the sun was rising with his bright orange shade...



It was too cold even with 2 t-shirts under my thick jacket! It took us almost 2 hours to reach the Nijagal foothills.



As you can see it is visible from the NH4 jus opposite a Reliance petrol bunk. We parked our bikes here as there was ample space due to the closed down bunk. Started our trek which is nothing difficult. The path is cleanly distinguishable once you cross the railway track running parallel to the NH.



Most of the monuments here are broken down and not maintained. There's nothing left on the peak other than a darga/temple. Locals flock this place with beliefs. I've seen a lot of chicken offered to deity here by the locals. Further climbing the stone give these amazing views from the top. The rock formations as so beautiful and there is a lot of gap inbetween these round huge rocks which act as caves. And it's a lot cooler with good breeze blowing on you.






We descended this hill as quickly as possible to visit another place called Devarayanadurga. This needed us to go back futher towards bangalore on NH 4 and take a left turn from dabaspete. The access is good as the roads are quite good accept for a kilometer's stretch. Curvy roads on the way up to the hillock. Half or more than half of the hill is motorable so this is not taxing on the legs ;) The view atop this hill is not as good as the Nijagal betta. But worth a visit once.



BTW, i need to mention the beeutiful sky that we had that day... as blue as it can get with white clouds scattered all over... :)

Watched....

Over the weekend i managed to watch:





Pineapple express was a no pain no gain movie. he he he he. Laughed a lot at the funny moments the movie provided and they do have many such moments. Seth is terrific and also his drug dealer partner and friend. Watch this for good break from serious movies.

Righteous Kill was a bit of a serious movie. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are as good as they always were. Though this movie did not seem to be popular as it was supposed to be, i liked this movie over all.

Couple of books...

Managed to finish reading a couple of books over the weekend. One being 'The white tiger' by Aravina Adiga and another being 'The reluctant Fundamentalist' from Mohsin Hamid (his home page).

After reading a lot of negative critics i started out reading 'The white tiger'. Basically the critics were against his highlighting India only in bad light. But then i would say the plot required him to do so. I'm not sure to contemplate on the fact whether the book should have won the Booker's this year. It's ultimately the jury's decision. The white tiger is a good read though.

The Reluctant fundamentalist is a superb novel that surprised me all the way. The plot is very gripping and the narration so superb. I jus loved the book. Would want to read it again someday. :) Do read this book which was shortlisted for the Booker's last year.

Drifting...

This sport is like a fantasy to me that is so true but still far from reach to most of the people around the world. Definitely this is a sport that requires a lot of precision and concentration. I am amazed at how a driver can control the amount of drift at a high exit speed! A drift when out of control can be hazardous! No doubt. No need to wonder at the amount of tires that are burnt in preparation to running a race. I don't think I'll ever try this on my machine(when i own one)for real. I've tried this to some amount of success on some of the games that offered drift in their racing machine ;) He he he.... It was fun when it lasted.... This morning when i found this beautiful wallpaper from the Interfacelift site, all the memories of NFS tournaments we had in our engineering days came back to live those glorious days again for some moments again...

Here is the culprit Image: ;)



courtesy of this amazing pic: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/details/1741/the_art_of_drifting.html.