Hydro-Weekend!

My best weekend yet, this year. Even better than the Honda City passenger one. This time it was the pillion rider– On Raj‘s modified Suzuki Fiero. Seems he spent 4k on the silencer n’ 2k for the paint job. Definitely worth it. The bike just flies at the rider’s command. 30-90kph in a mere five seconds. Well, here’s what transpired at Naidu-land…

Reached Hyd on Fri. morn at 9. Alighted at Paradise n’ met Vittu‘s parents. After they left, Darsan picked me up and took me to Anoop‘s old house opp. the Airport. Met his SRM pal Suresh. Dropped Darsan off at his office and called up Raj n’ Anila. They were both busy, so I went back home and chatted with Suresh over breakfast at Anand Vihar. Siesta. Woke up at 2.30 n’ rang Rohini up. The weather was fantastic, so she said we’d meet over lunch. I rode over to HI-TEC City on the Marvel and she showed me the awesome office Microsoft has there, in Cyber Towers. Then she took me to Panjigutta, where we had flavored slush. Next stop, the famed Husain Sagar Lake, where we sat n’ talked till 6pm over lassi. We enquired about parasailing at Lumbini Park n’ found we were late by an hour. I dropped her off at Panjigutta and went to the GATI office to pick Darsan up. We went to his place at West Marredpally and I met some of his colleagues. Rode to Basheer Bagh next, where we met Raj, Vittu n’ Anila for a lovely dinner at Ohri’s. Saw off Anila and went to Prasad’s for a movie. All the theaters were house full, except for Apollo 13 at IMAX. We ditched it n’ decided to chill out beside Husain Sagar. Had a few chais and returned around 10. Went up to the terrace and enjoyed the wind. Crawled into a sleeping bag and crashed out!

Darsan works till afternoon on Saturdays, so I dropped him off at 8am and got back home. Watched crocodiles, alligators and a tiger named ‘Rocky‘ on Animal Planet, till Rohini called at 11. I swapped the Marvel for Raj‘s Fiero at Indira Park on Lower Tank Bund Road and rocketed to HI TEC City. Picked her up and checked out the Secret Lake. Loved its aquamarine waters with rocks in them. We sat on the rocks and chatted awhile. Then we went to Bottles & Chimney and had vodka on the rocks, before going to Lumbini Park. This time the boat was under repair, so our parasailing plans were screwed again. I dropped her off at Panjigutta and picked up Darsan from GATI. Paradise is just opposite his office, so he took me there for a 70-buck Hyderabadi Chicken Biriyani. I didn’t enjoy it much, nevertheless managed to polish it off. Went to Lifestyle afterward to meet Anila. Darsan and she had appams n’ chicken there at Malgudi, a South-Indian cuisine restaurant. I sipped juice while I waited for them to finish. Went back home, and up to the terrace again to watch the airplanes taking off and landing, lake all lighted up, to feel the wind blowing and to relish the moments of the day. Hit the bed soon afterward.

Woke up n’ chatted with Darsan while we waited for Anila to get back from church. She did at around 12, so we went to meet her. Had lunch at Malgudi again and she took us home. We talked while Darsan grabbed forty winks. I woke him up at 4pm in time for him to leave for a party at his boss’s. Anila and I went to Husain Sagar and walked all around it, from NTR Gardens to Indira Park via Tank Bund! At about 6, I dropped her off at home. Got back in time to catch the latter half of the race, which featured a disappointing McLaren retirement and an even more disappointing Ferrari 1-2. Had a dosa at Anand Vihar and caught an auto to the APSRTC Imliban bus stand near Koti. Vittu was waiting there for me with his dad. We boarded the 9.30 Volvo bus to Bang and reached here at 7.30. Volvo’s really fast! We were greeted by Deepu, Chandra and Bruce with his new wide rear tyre..

Political Compass

Took a test today which revealed myself to be
Left Authoritarian with these stats on a scale of 10:
Economic Left/Right: -4.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 2.92

FRIENDS Test

I never watch/watched FRIENDS. But found this test on another Blog and took it ‘cuz I’ve nothin’ else to do anyway!

I’m Chandler Bing from Friends!

Take the Friends Quiz here.

created by stomps.

Yuva

I took a test today. I hate to admit it, but this is what it revealed.
NO, It doesn’t reflect my philosophical maturity..

My inner child is six years old!

Look what I can do! I can walk, I can run, I can read! I like to do stuff, and there’s a whole big world out there to do it in. Just so long as I can take my blankie and my Mommy and my three best friends with me, of course.

Well.. that’ll do. Hmm.. Tahir came over yday and we went with Vittu n’ Anoop to watch Yuva. Nice movie. But I HATE Kareena n’ Rani. YUCK! Despicable actresses! Esha Deol made up for them tho’. I hear the Tamil version has only her. n’ the music should be much better in Tamil than in Hindi. Will check it out soon ..

Pizza Hut

Yday my juniors from college came home at night to meet me. Raj [Potter], Krishna Jayanth [Giant], Raghuram [Eminem] n’ Kicha [ITTIAM] reached in the evening. For dinner, we ordered Pizza. Usually we take the 4FORALL order and don’t cross 400. But this time we went all out and ordered for Rs.715!!! The guy said it would take 40 min. It was raining heavily outside- n’ the pizzas finally arrived after 80 min! Well, we called ’em up and asked them to give it to us free, n’ after some coaxing and PR, they agreed!!! We couldn’t believe our luck! Tucked into ’em with relish! 🙂

Mallogging (Mallu Blogging)

Added a hit counter today. Got the link from Sidin’s Blog. Its undoubtedly one of the best blogs I’ve ever chanced upon, tho’ this one by another Mallu gives stiff competition. Read a comment on Sidin’s Blog about Mallus being good writers. Guess three blogs support that theory! 😉 Heh heh..

Well, I got my hi-res bike pics today! Will work on making a wallpaper out of one 🙂 Couldn’t bring all my MP3s at home this time either! :`-( But I managed Assorted, Black Sabbath, Dishwalla and The Matrix OST. Got ’em onto the HDD here today..

I recommend Dishwalla‘s Opaline..

Weekend at Home

Had an absolutely topping weekend. Spent little time at home though, much to Amma’s displeasure 😦 Went with Achan at noon on Saturday, for Anju’s wedding reception. She was my Mentor when I underwent training here. She’s without doubt the prettiest bride I’ve ever seen. 😮 Guess who I met there?! Tahir!!! He’d just arrived with me in Cochin a few hours before; His mom n’ hers happen to be childhood friends 😮 Small world, huh?! Well.. he got his camera phone, the X600! Its lovely! A new addition to the ever-increasing Samsung family!

Achan was presented two USB memory sticks, one (256MB) by my BIL and another one (64MB) by my cousin… I asked him for the latter and got it! I’ve sent it with Venky today- he’s transferred hi-res pics of my bike onto it, so I’ll get ‘em here tomo. Can work on making wallpapers from them, n’ even photoblog after that. There are pics on Vithal’s laptop too 🙂

Met Vasanth yday. He’s a guy I’ve known for ages! Well.. de bugger’s actually getting married to his girlfriend next month. They were my school seniors. Anoop n’ I went out with him yday to Yuvarani n’ caught up with old times. ‘twuz great… Trulli great!

Yeah, that brings us to yday’s Monaco GP at Monte-Carlo! Wowie… 🙂 Even tho’ the silver cars DNF, my hopes have come true in one month. I’ve lost hopes of a McLaren victory, so I’ve been rooting lately for a non-c’ship-contender viz. Trulli. He’s really under-rated and when I saw him go to the top of the grid at the last race start I was amazed! Pit strategy however denied him deserved victory, but it didn’t evade him this time! A stunner of a lap (1:13.985 )meant he started on pole, and he drove impeccably to the very finish. His victory, coupled with the realisation of a longtime dream: Schumi‘s retirement (!!!) made my day yday!

Schumi behaved like a jerk and got what he deserved. The fact that it wuz Monty who doled out his destiny made it even more tasty. I’m so happy Monty ‘s coming over to McLaren next year! Well, the seemingly unbeatable stupidity which Schuey exhibited wuz topped by none other than the immaturity of his bro. Ralf managed to oust Alonso and actually had the truculence to accuse HIM! HA HA! Not that I particularly like Alonso ! I belive his talent is hyped. The next Schuey??! HA! Thats what I called grossly over-rated. Even tho’ I hate Schumi, I admit he’s immensely talented. Alonso is NOT! If Ferrari take him, they will come to regret it. Meanwhile, Adrian Newey has disclosed that the B-spec of the MP4-19 is on its way. Its to be ready in 2-4 weeks. I’m praying its ready for Canada!

Got back to Bang at 7 to be greeted by Deepu, who’s back after his battle… He brought with him a bagful of novels! I brought The Sicilian to work today, only to be caught reading it by my PM. He gave me some work, which I finished in a jiffy. Thank God for cut-and-paste! 😉

Power

I was pezzonovante in my College Mallu community, according to Vittu. He told me this at dawn one weekend, when we were in an inebriated state [courtesy FLING]. Well.. even if it was true, I didn’t put it to much use ever. After all, True power is when we have every justification to kill, and don’t.

I’m reading The Sicilian …

Shifted! :-(

I’ve been shifted to the 5th floor- between two corners of the cubicle. Usually a guy gets a corner. I didn’t! :`-( n’ this is the 3rd project I’ve been ditched to the center now. Its not fair. Always happens to me! WAAAAAH! Implications are: I’ve to make like I’m shootin’ a basket, to reach the mouse! n’ my cabinet is on the floor. n my overall position is BAD. I can’t continue much longer this way.. In fact, I think I’ll complain. I don’t have to take this!

Google tests waters with terabyte e-mail limit

By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Google just escalated the e-mail storage arms race by a factor of 1,000.

Several users of the search engine’s Gmail Web-based e-mail service noticed Tuesday that their storage limits had quietly been raised to 1 million megabytes, or 1 terabyte. That’s four times the typical capacity of a new high-end PC’s hard drive.

The Gmail service still is in testing, and it wasn’t immediately clear how widely Google will offer the higher storage limit, under what conditions, or to which users.

Google didn’t respond for requests for comment late Tuesday.

Detroit resident Rajiv Vyas, who has been using Gmail for about a month, was wowed by the change. “It’s great. Although I am not sure what I will do will all this memory,” he said. “In the long run, it would help me store not only photos but every file on my desktop. This is 10 times more (storage space) than what I have on my office or home PC.”

Others who spotted the change posted notices to Web logs and Web sites.

Google triggered a rush to offer more storage space for Web-based e-mail services with the April announcement of 1GB of capacity. The move pressured the dominant Web-based e-mail service providers, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Hotmail, which currently charge subscribers $10 to $50 per year for a much smaller amount of e-mail storage space.

Yahoo responded to Gmail with a plan for 100MB of space. In the United Kingdom, Lycos is moving to offer 1GB for a fee. And the Macintosh-focused competitor Spymac offers 1GB at no cost.

Gmail’s liberal storage limits may be popular, but the service’s terms triggered privacy concerns because of Google’s plan to scan the content of e-mail messages in order to serve up targeted advertisements.

n’ Yeah, I did get my One Terabyte.. tho’ I fail to realise what significant difference its gonna make! I’ve not even used 1 MB yet!!! 😐