The Lonesome Road

A friend of mine passed me this link. It’s a nation development sim on the web. You simply choose a few details about your nation and bingo! - it’s online. The policy decisions that you make on issues presented daily decide how your nation changes. You can find my little fiefdom here [nationstates.net].

In other news, the Aussies trashed Bangladesh by ten wickets. Somehow, I was expecting that

That’s all from me. Later!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Moon in the clouds, originally uploaded by shadowfall.

You really have to thank MSEB for this photo. Last night due to a power line trip, MSEB had to pull off “distress” load shedding. So all us Pune dudes had to go beyond the call of duty and take on 1-1.5 hours of power cut over the scheduled four hours.

However, these days, with the advent of the monsoon, the weather is great. You can go almost the whole day without seeing the sun. The day is lit in a half light which seems to have no source. Couple this with cool winds blowing around and it’s almost perfect weather.

Coming back to the photo, last night it was pitch black. No lights other than a few small emergency lamps in some flats. I was really bugged when I entered the balcony - till I looked at the sky. The first thing that came into my mind was the first line of “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes. To quote : The moon was a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas. End quote.

Somehow, I don’t feel justice has been done to the scene by my photo. I could not capture the subtle shades of light that illuminated the clouds. Well, I guess that’s what happens when you can zoom in only 3X optical. I don’t like to use digital zoom. It usually ends up making the pic lose detail.

Anyway, that’s all from me. Looks like it’s going to rain now

Later all!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

may19 011, originally uploaded by shadowfall.

Now that the exams and practical demo are done, a closure (depending, of course on the results ) has come to my undergrad studies.

This is the group that I’ve spent the last few years of my life with. Now that all of us are finished with engineering, I thought it appropriate to put up a group photo.

Later!

Is this Australia’s new trick? Lose to all the teams they play against so that England gets complacent before the Ashes matches?

Well, if it is - it’s succeeding admirably. Australia managed to lose Twenty20 matches to England and county cricket sides.

But I think they took it a little too far when they lost to Bangladesh (these dudes are fighting with their back to the wall to stay in First class cricket) after making 249 in 50 overs and then having Bangladesh on the mat with a required run rateof over 7.5 an over.

Seems to be a fun season for international cricket and England must be really fancying their chances of getting the Ashes back from Australia.

Let the fireworks begin!

Whew! It’s been a long time since my last post (way back on May 19th) and this place looks real dusty. Gimme a few moments to clear up.

Life’s been pretty hectic this last month. Exams from 01-08th June and then the project demo. Can finally say that my side of undergrad engineering is done. All that is left is to wait for the results (they’re due in end August).

Between my exams and project demo, I took time out to visit Bombay(Mumbai) and as usual Anshul and I planned to go hunting for books. Unfortunately, the BMC (greater Bombay Municipal Corporation) considers the road side book vendors as a threat to the youth of India. It seems that all these little corner shops have been declared illegal and the books have been collected. It seems that the BMC plans to auction off these books in the next few days. To make things worse, they are not selling off the books by title or author. The books are being sold by the kilo. Oh yeah - books are treated like vegetables in the great city of Bombay. I really do not understand the working behind this ordinance. It’s not like these guys were selling books illegaly. Most of the books that they sold were second hand. Also, they had a system wherein you paid for a book, took it with you and whenever you returned it, a certain amount was paid back. Made it a sort of library system. Of course I never used it. When I buy a book it stays bought . So, as I was saying, we went hunting at all our usual corners - but drew a blank. There was not a single road side book vendor in the area between Andheri and Bandra.

You know what I feel worse about. There’s a lot of debate going on whether the dance bars that dot Bombay should be closed or not. But no one protests when books and book sellers are treated so shabbily.

In other Bombay realted news, the traffic there seems to be getting worse by the day. It’s bad! Fortunately, the locals still work without a hitch. Some things, I guess, never change.

Well, back in Pune now. Waiting for replies from Universities that I have applied to. Thinking of taking up a language course and learning to play the guitar. That and lean LateX and XML.

Well, that’s all from me for now. Should be posting more regularly (if my ISP manages to keep me online)

Later all!