Happy New Year

Yesterday was good fun. I was with Dwipin almost the whole day. I took him for lunch to Surya Mess, nearby. I left office soon afterward, and went to Ulsoor to meet a friend of his. Afterwards, we visited Ravi at his place near Fraser Town. We had dinner with him at Taste of Arabia, a cute eat out nearby. Next, we went to Vineesh’s place and slept there. We returned early today morning.

I copied some lovely Mallu semi-classical songs from Ashik‘s (my colleague and room mate) computer. They’re from the movies Bharatham, His Highness Abdullah and Sargam. I really miss Giri now. Few people appreciate my kind of music. By the way, I’ve not introduced the guys I’ve mentioned on these last two pages. They’re most of them IBMKerala members.

Today is the last day of this year. I’ve been waiting a long while for this day, to start on my New Year resolutions. 🙂
OK, so here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year !!!

Calicut

Back in my cubicle… 🙂 Reached Bangy at 6 am with my friend Dwipin.
I had good fun in Calicut, where I reached at dawn on 28th. Spent the whole day with Premlal. Met Subhash n Hari at the Taj Residency there, where we spent a coupla hours. Its so much better than the ones in Ekm – beautiful place to sit and talk, especially the lounge overlooking the swimming pool.
Premlal and I got a Matiz and I drove him up to to NITC yesterday. I met an old friend there after a very long time – chatted with her for a coupla hours. Also met Darsan and Anil yesterday. Had dinner with them and boarded the bus at 9 pm.

I got my Philips dome-type headphones from home this time – kick-ass stuff – Chechi presented it to me when I wuz in college – Listening to some OSTs on it now… that of Patriot is lovely.
I’ll leave for lunch soon – gotta pick up Dwipin on the way. Looks like I’ll get my project only after another week – most of the people here are still away on vacation…

Xmas Day

Ah! Comfortably ensconced in the seat after a hard day … I set out again on my blogging mission. Met Arun (who was my junior at college) today in Trichur; I had lunch with him at Indian Coffee House after visiting his place. Checked out the City Center too. Got back home and went out for a spin with Tahir in his new Tata Indigo. Lovely car. Really cute. Helped Amma slice beans for tomorrow; My uncle, aunt and their kids are coming on a visit. I’m looking forward to that. Oh well… I’m tired and sleepy. I do notice that my blogs are getting progressively shorter and that I’m depriving you of your daily reading. Methinks I will make amends another time. So for now, its sayonara. ZZZzzz…

I’m Mobile

Wow, thats a whole two days away from my blog! This reads: Sankar is finally busy. 🙂 Hey! Now that I come to think of it, this blog has no mention of my name anywhere, does it?! OK, I’m frightfully sorry for having kept you in a quandary – my name is Sankar Narayanankutty. I hail from … Hey! Wait a mo… I’ve included my Homepage link somewhere right? Well, so what are you waiting for? Take a look.

OK, so let me recollect what I’ve been doing the past few days. My friend Anoop finally landed – I went and saw him yesterday. We went a-hunting for a mobile phone for my mother and hit upon the new Nokia 1100. I went with Amma (which incidentally is Mallu for mother)and bought it today. It cost Rs.5650. Also sold my dad’s relic of a 5110 for 1 grand! Frankly, I didn’t know it was worth so much!

Well… I’m going to sleep now. Gotta wake up early tomorrow and go to Trichur which is a coupla hours’ journey by train from where I stay. Sweet dreams!

Cars n’ Bikes

Ah. I just grated some coconut for Amma. It sure feels good doing something constructive and useful. I just realised that its not easy to fill blogs, but once the Formula1 season starts; y’all can look forward to plain flowing silver car-biased race reviews every Monday after a race. For a taste of things to come:

This season’s not gonna be easy. Reliability’s gonna play a major role; even more than before. Good news for the Scuderia. Bad news for me. 😦 Engines can’t get complacent. BMW‘s doing a great job with the new engine on the FW26 The MP4-19 is still having problems. DC is getting senile. I’ve good reason to be scared stiff…
Dennis and Newey better have some trumps up their sleeves.

Rahul and I were checking out some bikes on the Net. Kawasaki has some real beauties lined up. Talk about hidden potential! We should soon get to see some of milder versions populating Indian roads in a coupla years… High hopes.

Mobile Computing

I’m sorry I didn’t blog yesterday, but I was sleeping all day and evening, so I just didn’t get the time. I didn’t even meet Rahul. My uncle Gopi left today in the wee hours of 0015. I was on the Net till he left. The sound in XP is working fine now after the driver update provided by Windows Update. I also updated MSN Explorer. Neat stuff. They‘re getting the computer to look and feel less like technology and more like a toy! I don’t know what to think. Zen says people shouldn’t shy away from technology like this. Hmm…

By the way, I didn’t know Reliance had this cool phone gear to connect to the Net et al. They’re too much. I discovered it on the Net when I was browsing to find out details for my uncle. I’d been to their java green once in Bangalore. Nice coffee and nice prices. Try it out some time. Sure is a nice change from the hole Barista burns in your wallet. What else? Sunday IS boring! 😦

Computers + Bikes = Life

Oh well. I’m at Home, Sweet Home now! 🙂
There were some unpleasant experiences today. But I’m not gonna preserve any bad memories on this page. Got the computer to myself only now. Some bugger has screwed up my Linux and installed Windows XP. The sound card wasn’t working and the bugger was here again trying to get it to. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of Windows Update or what?! Phew! I’m downloading a whole load of updates for XP now…

Today was good. I met my best friend Rahul, who’s been with me from when we were toddlers. Went for a spin on his TVS Victor. Nice bike. We talked a lot about RSS, conversions et al. I also drove my Maruti Alto VX around after a long time. Well… I’m feeling sleepy now, so more later. Nighty Night!

Philosophy + Tech = Life

OK I skipped breakfast again today. This is getting to be a habit. I will start daily discipline in 2004. I’ve already bought a bullworker. Working that daily morning will work up appetite for breakfast. This requires waking up early though, which in turn needs sleeping early.
Hmm… time management is very important. I need to join some club to play tennis too. Exercising regularly and keeping a fit physique is essential, especially when you’re a software professional. Work elicits absolutely no locomotion. Bad.

OK. I just mirrored my homepage onto my hard drive. I’d started that project when I was in my sophomore year at college. The last time I did any updating was a year ago. I have revamped it by incorporating some minor updates. Its rudimentary but you can take a look at Sankar’s Homepage.

By the way, I quit reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yesterday night. It just gets too boring after Chapter 20. So after dinner and a Foster’s bottle, I was on my guitar practising the plectrum pick technique I’d found on the web. Pretty cool stuff, specially the arpeggios. Ah, I’m waiting to buy a Stranger amplifier to use the built-in pick I have on my Signature Jumbo.

Timepass

Hmm… I haven’t mentioned where I work, yet. I’m in my company’s R&D Services business line (sounds cool eh? the name was just changed today! 🙂 Hey I was at T.G.I.Friday on Airport Road yesterday. Nice place. Nice bike ride to and from there too. Touched my highest – 90kph – was scared to go any faster. Incidentally I own a black Bajaj Pulsar 150cc. Today at office I’m occupying myself with tweaking the new computer to my liking. Also brought all my MP3 and Video CDs and copied them into the hard drive. Nowadays I’m browsing the Net all the time.

Yesterday I was on tennis.com. Lovely site. Gives you some really useful tips to improve your tennis. Its been a long time since I played. Want to badly, but this job profile cannot accomodate such a schedule, more’s the pity. :((
One day I was on NBA.com – catching up… but the days of the Mailman are over. Jazz has none of the old players I love. Can’t play either, cuz the friggin’ court our company has, doubles as a car park! Puh-leease!!! OK. Another day I got onto desertusa.com to read up about some nice animals – the bobcat [inspired by the Charlotte Bobcats. Its no longer Hornets; now its New Orleans Hornets], the coyote, etc. OK, I’m off for lunch now, to the usual Mallu Mess nearby. To the same meal with omlette which I have daily.

First Blog

Well… so here goes… I guess I’m supposed to write about today, but hey, today is Tuesday: I’m at work, without a project allocation, so basically I’ve nothing to write about, except that I’m still excited about the new black Dell OptiPlex GX270 PC I got yesterday, after dumping the relic I was using, which didn’t even have a sound card, dammit! Oh boy! I just wrote a sentence thats four lines long. OK, I’ll be in Ernakulam on 19th hopefully. So anyone out there can call me at 04842357723 to speak to me. Will be there till 27th, after which I’ll be at Calicut for a coupla dayz before shooting back to Bangalore for the New Year. Incidentally, here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas (pooh! humbug!) and a Happy New Year. For the record, My New Year resolution for 2004 is to quit eating flesh and live a healthy and pure life! 🙂