Chronicles of an Eclectic Life

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Neodymium Magnets fad

Life is a bit less boring with my latest acquisition - Neodymium magnets. These are rare-earth magnets, the strongest permanent magnets made. To the hobbyist, they are marketed as tiny 5mm spheres (much like ball bearings, only super magnetic), which could be used to make a whole lotta things, and improve your general smart.

Neodymiums entered my consciousness through American entrepreneurial efforts like NeoCube and Buckyballs (Buckyballs business went bust on Dec 27, 2012). Their cool was hard to escape; just the YouTube videos were addictive. After brief exploring around, and not having any friends returning from the USA, I turned my head to China, and found a whole lotta Neodymium deals on Alibaba. Finally, this is what I ordered myself, a 6x6x6 Neodymium lattice. There is also an Indian website selling Buckyballs - and not too costly.

As one site says, "Your Buckyballs is a truly amazing thing. It has the power to simultaneously stimulate and "exercise" both hemispheres of your brain, making it more beneficial to you than most other types of puzzles." After playing around with these for about a month now, I'm not disappointed. These are like the best fun that could fit inside a pocket - portable, and stimulating. Of late, I've started expressing a range of emotion through these. Magnets have some very cool properties, which work like hacks for making complex structures. The North-South Pole hacks are just scratching the surface of possibilities with these. Technically, any imagined structure is possible. It also helps sticking a lotta unusual things to the fridge.

Will keep updated on exploits with Neodymiums. And some parallel achievements unlocked.

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Friday, April 05, 2013

Astronomer Porn

Under the Wing of a Dwarf Galaxy (NASA, Chandra, 04/03/13)

Kepler Supernova Remnant: Infrared and Iron (NASA, Chandra, 03/20/13)

Kepler Supernova Remnant (NASA, Chandra, 03/18/13)

Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae (NASA, Chandra, 03/06/13)

Supernova Remnant W49B (NASA, Chandra, 02/13/13)

Superbubble DEM L50 (NASA, Chandra, 01/28/13)

Vela Pulsar (NASA, Chandra, 01/07/13)

Ultramassive Black Holes (NASA, Chandra, 12/18/12)

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3627 (NASA, Chandra, 12/13/12)

Ring Galaxy NGC 922 (NASA, Chandra, 12/05/12)

Quasar GB 1428 (NASA, Chandra, 11/28/12)

A Reborn Planetary Nebula (NASA, Chandra, 11/15/12)

Star Cluster Cygnus OB2 (NASA, Chandra, 11/07/12)

A Mini-Supermassive Black Hole (NASA, Chandra, 10/24/12)

A Planetary Nebula Gallery (NASA, Chandra, 10/10/12)

Nebula NGC 7009 (NASA, Chandra, 10/10/12)

Cat's Eye Nebula (NASA, Chandra, 10/10/12)

Nebula NGC 7662 (NASA, Chandra, 10/10/12)

Nebula NGC (NASA, Chandra, 10/10/12)

A Planetary Nebula Gallery (NASA, Chandra, 10/10/12)

The Milky Way's Hot Gas Halo (NASA, Chandra, 09/24/12)

New Findings on Kepler Supernova (NASA, Chandra, 09/11/12)

A Surprisingly Bright Superbubble (NASA, Chandra, 08/30/12)

The Remarkable Phoenix Cluster (NASA, Chandra, 08/15/12)

Chandra X-ray Observatory (NASA), a set by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on Flickr.

Chandra X-ray Observatory (NASA)

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Wednesday, April 03, 2013

rock the sweeper

A rare challenge that I took up. 500 bucks.
It all started with a "It is impossible to do this inside 50," that bro remarked when toying with Minesweeper on the PC. At that same time I was busy with the same on my Tab, consistently maintaining a sub-60 average, and breaking my day's personal bests on successive tries. So I took it up as a challenge.

Laboring, almost 3 hours into it, but finally got there. Carpal tunnel and 19/20 eyesight could be the side effects. Problem with playing Minesweeper on the PC is
1) Microsoft has, again, as to its reputation, ruined a cool game. It was all good with the simple graphics. Now we get flashing stuff and distracting gradients on everything.
2) There's apparently an option to replay each level. So it was that the first 15 minutes I was basically trying at the same grid, and wondering how it could match all the previous grids, and yet not be so, as the generation rules dictate.
3) Minesweeper on the PC v Minesweeper on an touch interface is multitudes of difference. I love the latter now. It is hard to point-and-click at such speed (anymore). I have a 35 second best on the Tab.

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Sad Bus Travel

Feel stupid, feel naked, feel annoyed. And I'm paying 1200 bucks for this bouquet of negative emotions. Thanks UPSRTC, and thanks Delhi.
So it happens, add I just discovered enroute a bus journey to Delhi (in a Volvo, which is supposed to be the luxury way to bus travel, and costs thrice or more than the normal ticket) that the Delhi rape incident has affected our bus travel. Apparently, that crime inside a moving bus prompted the authorities to reach a decision to remove curtains from all buses - this far I'm only certain of the UPSRTC doing it. So now the passenger who pays a premium travels like a mannequin on display for all the traffic to see. Way to go.
Hope this stops all rape, especially since a curtained-moving-bus makes for the scene of crime for a majority of the rapes in or country... yeah?

So, traveling in luxury feels humiliating now. I guess someone is left happy.

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Love Letter

Though I'm enjoying a basket chaat right now, at Royal Cafe in Lucknow, nothing sweeter could make my day.
So, as one can see I have a superawesome new girlfriend now, who wants to (onto) hold my hand and stay with me!

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Life planning day

In this part of India, there is a strange practice - the day following Holi is a siesta day ie everybody in the household rests, nobody in the household upto anything productive, even the food is the leftovers from the day of Holi so that the women needn't bother even at the mealtime. Well, at my home, and relating to my life in general, it was the opposite case. I greeted my parents a morning, to be handed a sheet in return, an important piece of paper outlining my options for the pursuit of a masters degree. Not even I myself had ever thought this hard into it. Now I need to look it all up. And think harder.

Then got on the phone with a flummoxed Naye, who left me with the realization of the long path of my alternate professional pursuits - things that need to be done and the pace demanded. Even before I could breathe the fresh air of some Himalayan valley, I'd need to saturate myself with several Newtons of indoors.

And then my uncle handed me a newspaper clipping about SKP-isation which would ensure a smart and productive future. Dunno how long he'd kept the clipping with him.

People are trying to see me change into a feasible organism, one who can live off and contribute back to the social setup in some way. Ah damn.

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Holi brief

Holi. I did not play holi. But I did go out with my best friend S to the #8 and further bit more ahead. Various hues on men tripling on bikes, with silver and gold paint smeared across the faces. They looked very friendly and happy.

There were unlit Holi bonfires; the police must be angry because people damage the trees and phone lines in vicinity of these bonfires; or maybe it was due to bad wood that didn't burn properly.

There was a dead body at the square, the one near the temple near the railway line. There was a fat man who, like a ragdoll, was slouched against the electricity pole. His face was all smashed up, such that neither me nor S could call him human, and he wasn't moving. Our eyes were fixed on him as we passed the square. My friend asked me to take a picture; "Take a picture," he said. I didn't have a camera. After I said "good bye" to S who was going to see T and have some alcohol and pepsi cola at T's house, I returned back the same way as the dead fatso. The dead fatso moved, it was a relief to learn that he was alive. It was Bhang, obviously; Bhang is a substance that makes people go crazy. But more than the Bhang, it was what others did to him - the liberal use of paint and sprays - that had us tricked into thinking he was oozing things that make people dead.

My walk back home was more exciting. Families playing Holi had got done with it; now it was the kids who were left to focus on the innocent wayfarers passing their bungalows. I also found my predators, two kids armed with water guns with large ammo (i.e. water tanks) and balloons. This one guy went ahead of me and got splashed. I was smart - I kept myself on the heels of that person, and soon as the first wave of assault ended, I dashed for escape, the kids caught unaware in astonishment. The prey outrunning the predator. I didn't get wet. Thank heavens.

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Another first time

Went there and saw this..

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Friday, March 22, 2013

Guhagar

Bharat ek khoj types days

Day whatever of this trip, and a day by which we find ourselves halfway of where we were supposed to be, to make amends to which we're resigned to bus travel through the entire day. Even the original plan has now been revised - we learnt of coral reefs and scuba diving at Tarkarli, so instead of Goa, that is where we're now heading to. We go from Guhagar-Chiplun-Malavan; this is again a revised route from this morning's as we'd set out to Ratnagiri only to find the bus rolling out while we were busy with the Rasvada, Missile Pav, and tea. 1am being the time for the next bus, this was the best possible move instead of sitting lamenting at the bus station.

The bus ride is gonna take an entire day, with a switch involved at Chiplun. No clue of the kilometres involved. Presently we are moving away from the coastline, to rejoin it at the end of our day's journey, which means hotter climate and no oceanic aromas for the next 8 hours. in consultation with our prized new possession of a detailed region's map, it seems Chiplun would be a better deal for us since we should then be riding the big fast Mumbai-Goa highway until we again get off it some X km (X <=20) from Malvan.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Location update

Sunset at the lonely front of Guhagar beach in the Konkan belt... WIN

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Monday, March 18, 2013

This is how we roll

Its not even been 24h on the road. But Kashid is where time froze in the face of adventure.

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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Bazinga, Kashmir

Do you believe the irony... Just yesterday I publish this video compilation of the magic experienced in Gulmarg, Kashmir. Nothing but paradise would've been the appropriate title, such amazing the experience was. While a Afzal Guru (or the end of his) did tense us upon arrival, and the hyderabad blasts made the return a palpitating climax in the face of a curfew, the paradise was anything but tainted.
And then yesterday, the Kashmir valley saw it's most brutal terrorist incident. Just yesterday, the paradise I had been going gaga about to everyone I know saw blood, in place as innocent as a cricket playground.

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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Outbound for Mumbai

Exit to Mumbai. Presently at NZM. The train is delayed by a couple of hours, so everyone cognizant of that fact is now making twisted faces and bears an existential sideways profile. The wiser - or the more tired and hungry - like me have made it to Comesum and having some calories.

That delay isn't driving me crazy - the afternoon has been sufficiently crazy, me making double the distance on the bike than expected, thanks to last minute fixes needed on the just-serviced Godiva that screwed up with my zen plans for the day. But that she is now ready to leave, albeit as registered luggage in the luggage van, makes me happy. Just hope it'll be secure and undamaged 17 hours in transit for her.

My total wait, once I got done with booking the bike, is going to be 3h 10m. Grunt. No wonder today's date has not one, but two 13s in it. Wish me luck.

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Paradise

While the world deteriorates under forced employment and general casualness towards life, I spend another day caved at my home, loitering about, and delving into the forced motion of Timoshenko beams. It was curiosity that drove me to another untiring day - "what if the 12th of march of 2013 were a cold-blooded day". The warm blooded occupant of my home for the day (i.e. me) piled up hasty and unhealthy calories, of an assortment of foodstuff. Not much fretting about the bike that wasn't sounding the way it should, or the unfulfilled checklists, or the tent conundrum; no, these were relegated - part of an evolutionary-stable strategy - into the "tomorrow", a concept which works very well with the intention being of being a dick.

The only thing I focused on was translating my perception of Gulmarg - where I spent a coupla weeks - as a paradise, through the aid of Vegas, and to the words of Mr. Coldplay.

Paradise - Gulmarg from uhbiv on Vimeo.

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The pushing

The world that drives me mad
Into her arms
The world that drives me back
into her arms
The words that pull her back
into my arms
The worlds that push her back
Into my arms

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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Random thoughts for 10th of March, 2013

Random thoughts...
for 10th of March, 2013.
It appears this is my first entry in 3 weeks.
Sand is overrated - it's just tiny little rocks.
If only I could meet someone new.
I guess my chances of that happening are somewhat diminished, seeing that I'm incapable of eye contact with a woman. I don't know.

I take back my vacant post of an lazy-indoor-bum-cum-scribbler-in-private, and resieze the instrument of narration and engine of truth, the hilt of the pen, and begin away. There's a lot of the past to smear on these pages, so this will take a while. Now that I've started, the start itself deserves another almond from the kitchen, and maybe another glassful of the Kinnow sherbet.

I'm starting on a Sunday, in-between meeting friends and allies, and ignoring the ticket I've to get done to seal my fate and set my sail towards Mumbai. It was an accidental encounter of a research work on the protonic transport in ionic liquid incorporated cellulose acetate, that brings me to this present state of a lingering ambivalence. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was just playing alongside, and I couldn't escape the idea of resuming my diaries with Jim Carrie's.

What Jim's going on about is the exact opposite of what's going on about me. He's going on and on about his condition of being alone... so one can guess about mine. The crazy thing IS that had this movie torrent download been done by the time I was leaving out for Gulmarg (20 days back), or even ((a week)+1)days back, I would've identified with Jim's prose and appreciated it from a different perspective - such identification [with Jim's character] would've been kinda misrepresentational of myself (not to mention campy and overly dramatic), but hey it was some close interpolation of how I could see myself in some time. But things had to change for the good, I guess. The way my experiences are growing better almost brings out a foolish belief in a divine power.
I met Gulmarg, I met snows, and I met a curious girl in those snows. The rest is history in the making.

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Monday, February 18, 2013

exit

I'm not so good at this. Have been wanting to say my mind since last night, when the realization started to set in that I would be gone from the urban maze for the longest duration in my life this far, but there has been too much to say. Anxieties, preparation, verballing, near-future-gazing, and all that. Did catch sleep, but around 2. Woken up again at 0430, and the next hour and a half has been an anxious one.
Around this time last year, I thought I was at a peak. This year, I saw myself questioningly languishing in a trough. Now I set out again to make amends. Slow Exit. Fade out. Fade in to a world of powdery snow, gas heaters, and adventures.

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Mice4Science

You have to trust these pictures here. They tell a long story.

So it was yesterday that I saw this tiny new member of our household making itself more popular, shuffling about in its curiosity. With no intention to hurt the bugger, but with a desire to get closer, I tried trapping it. It was one of those rare times in my life when I not only succeeded, but did so on the first try, and did so with no fore-planning, and with a tiny steel bowl. After a few hours I let it escape; I wanted to keep it, and in some way fill that void of a pet that has existed since Ben Hur departed in 2007.

A day later, i.e. today, I found the aforementioned thought nonsense. Mice = sleepless nights. Mice = chaos. Mice = paper for food (my precious books!). Mice = more mice. So I trapped it again, this time with a mug in the bathroom; again a first attempt WIN. Before I left it somewhere faraway, I thought of doing something worthy. I gassed it - with research smoke; harmless fun. It got stoned pretty good. All in the name of science.

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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Summarising My Present

If I ever die, or am accidentally lifted by some superior alien race, or am husked away to a mutant facility or a special training cell for super-modified-soldiers, then this is one thing I don't wanna be found open on my desktop. That image perfectly summarises my immediate present - keep guessing on the specifics. That image, in fact, is what I think the government should randomly issue to brackets of the populace to make it clear; esp the Soviets. Gems will never taste the same, since; the memories revisited seeing a packet on display have been tinted forever - by something as innocuous as... this^ image.

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Friday, February 15, 2013

A Toast, to C&D

Ich habe assembled a new gaming system, recently. First game the usuals - Civlization V, Far Cry 2, Portal 2, Mass Effect, NFS Shift 2, and some that didn't work (subtext: piracy!). Somebody could be shouting "Dude, those are, like so 2010". But then I went much further back in time, to the "good 'ol days" as I remember - the arcade days, and downloaded Kawaks, an emulator (it has come a long way) for CPS1/2 and NeoGeo, and my <3 game, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. Now I have a dedicated 2.15 billion transistors pushing out 1.792 teraflops for a game of 25 years in the past. So 1980s, and I know it. Feels like revisiting my life.

Curious to learn that the game spawned from a comic series, Xenozoic Tales, and saw moderate success in its translation into a CBS cartoon series, a Capcom arcade game, action figures, trading cards, and other assorted merchandise. Even the dinos we were fending off had names - Shivat, Mack, Cutter, Krenkel, Wahonchuck, Zake, Sambuck...

Besides the ones we could claim familiarity to (through the game), this scrip summarises other characters: "...various criminals, politicians, scientists, and inventors who populate the dystopian world of tomorrow. There is also a race of reptilian humanoids who cannot speak in a human language but instead communicate by spelling words with Scrabble tiles."

Alongside this trivia, I also had an iota-upgrade on dinosaurs. For example, I had no idea that those ferocious little 'uns in all the movies are Allosaurus, and that the Brontosaurus is not called that anymore, it's Apatosaurus, and that it wasn't the biggest thing out there (note: see Sauropods, and esp see this). Oh, and now Opiliones give me a hard-on.

And I think I'm gonna print and hang this on my wall

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