Sliced finger

Deepu n’ I went to FabMall n’ bought a slicing board, knife, spoons n’ plates, peeler n’ plastic containers. Armed with these n’ all the ingredients, we got back home n’ prepared veg. rice. I sliced a minute part of my thumb in the process, but the culinary result was worth the pain. We also bought tomatoes, onions n’ curd, with which Anoop made yummy salad. Shabin, Kevin, Anoop, Deepu n’ I sat down to attack the dinner fit for kings with a vengeance n’ Deepu’s home-made garlic pickle! Pankaj gate-crashed later. Everyone lauded my effort. I’m happy..

Spa-Francorchamps 2004

Räikkönen WINS!

YEAH! Spa-Franchorchamps has been my favorite grand prix since the 2000 Belgian GP .. when Mikä Häkkinen carried out the greatest overtaking maneuver in F-1 history on Michael.

Today Kimi Räikkönen revitalised that spirit in me. Chechi’s fears of his post-wedding slack in performance were unfounded as he scored a resounding victory, just the way I like it.. ahead of the Ferraris, which finished 2-3. Michael made it look like he was backing off the pace, but as Chris Goodwin commented, the McLaren won by sheer pace, n’ no discounts, thank you!

Setting the lap record when just a couple of laps are left, is no mean achievement.. but The Iceman did that too! David continued the race despite many hurdles, to finish with 2 points.

Qualifying

Well, you can’t say that he didn’t try. After all, he’s not God to change the weather! But Kimi did give it his laudable best. Fastest after the Ferraris in pre-qualifying, the weather turned on him n’ the red cars when only they remained to complete the second session. Yet, Trulli looked feeble on P1 as Der Rain-meister negotiated the curves well inside his time.. It was only at the bus stop chicane that I heaved a sigh of relief as he eased off the gas pedal, obviously having benefitted from the knowledge of his teammate’s blunder.

I think its time I published a list of my favorite current drivers (in order of decreasing liking) for common knowledge. Only talent n’ attitude have influenced my opinion.
1) K. Räikkönen
2) M. Webber
3) J. Trulli
4) J. P. Montoya
5) N. Heidfeld
6) D. Coulthard
7) J. Button

GP

Its almost qualifying time. Kimi failed miserably at Hungary even though he was fastest in practice. He’s fastest this time around too.. but lets hope he keeps it up this time.

Happy Onam !!!

Well.. its Uthradam. Today wuz “sooper!” or “adipoli!” as those Mallu youths accentuated on TV after “Rain Rain Come Again”, a new Mallu movie which was released.. Directors here seem to be running woefully short of movie names, just like their Hindi counterparts did ages ago.

I made dosas for breakfast. After noon, I taught Amma how to use Windows Media Player to play Audio CDs (n’ retrieve album info from CDDB) n’ copy them onto the hard drive (encoded in WMA). In the evening, I bathed n’ went to the Pavakulam temple in the evening with her, after which we dropped in at her colleague Dr.Jayalakshmi‘s new house at Palarivattom. She has the DVD626K at home. We got back a bit late n’ I exercised on the new Hero Allegro we bought yesterday. Ordered Pizza for dinner n’ right now, I’m updating MSN Explorer..

Vegetable Rice (Serves 4-5)

I made veg. rice today, all by myself, under the able guidance of Amma.
Easy, wholesome n’ satisfying! Here’s how YOU can do it. (Vinu, besto!)

Apparatus:
National Rice Cooker 1 no.
Knife      1 no.
Plates, spoons n’ vessels

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice   4 cups
Carrots     1/4 kg.
Beans       1/4 kg.
Potato       1 no.
Cabbage   1/4 kg.
Ginger       1 no.
Capsicum         2 nos.
Green chillies   4 nos.
Haldi powder   1/2 tsp.
Ghee/Butter     2 tsp.

Optional ingredients:
Jeera, Pickle n’ Curd

Procedure:
1) Slice all the vegetables n’ put everything except the spices into a bowl of water.
2) Rinse well n’ drain. Put all of it into the cooker.
3) Wash the rice likewise in the bowl of water, rinse n’ drain. Add this to the cooker contents.
4) Pour into the cooker, 2 cups of water for every cup of rice, i.e. 8 cups here.
5) Add the spices, haldi powder, ghee n’ a sprinkling of jeera.
6) Stir well with the spoon provided with the cooker n’ add salt to taste.
7) Close the lid and switch the cooker on to ‘Cook’.
8) After all the water is absorbed by the rice, the cooker switches into ‘Warm’ mode.

Take the rice out n’ serve with pickle n’ curd.
Voila!

Software

Signed up for Google AdSense today.
Guess its also time I let you fellers in on some of the software I use n’ recommend:

Ad-Aware SE Personal
Ahead Nero
DivX
Feedreader
Winamp
WinMX
Winzip
WordWeb
ZoneAlarm

Hardware

Spent 26K today and completed a killer system at home.

Its a Zenith PC 8MM17, based on an Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology with the Intel® 865GV chipset. Asked for a DVD-ROM instead of the Combo n’ ditched speakers.

The star acquisition of the day however, was the Creative SBS 2.1 370.

Things it has inherited from my old PC are the CD-RW (52x24x52), 40 GB hard disk, LX-800 n’ HP DeskJet 200 (extinct), Scanner n’ Cable Modem.

Wknd

Hm.. We got an assignment, Paras and I. We’re to test an in-house testing tool !! I’ve submitted my Save the World poem to Petals, some literary forum here. It hasn’t been published yet tho’.

Well.. the weekend was good. Venky’d gone on Friday night to a pal’s place with plans to bash the weekend. We slept kinda early. On Sat’day, I woke up early (6 a.m.) n’ went through the CAT Bulletin. I’m taking the test just for a lark this year. With barely three months left, I’m not gonna be able to do justice to it, but Deepu n’ I bought the form all the same..

I quit reading when Venky walked in. His 17k-worth Nokia 6600 had got stolen from beside his head while he was sleeping at Daddy’s place in Indiranagar. The others lost their sleep when they heard the news. We were shocked n’ it took us hours to recuperate. Subbu, Deepu, Shiju, Anoop n’ I finally went to Elight Mess for breakfast, after which we got back n’ I slept. Woke up a few hours later and went with Deepu to the park nearby to run. I managed 800m whilst Deepu did 600. Not bad. We got back n’ I skipped lunch. Rakesh came over after his Tavant interview.

We tarried till evening. We were to go to Indiranagar for Vineeth‘s wedding reception. When it got five-ish, Pankaj, Rakesh n’ I went to Forum, where we met Indranil Chatterji (TOC H pal, who we knew from Math tuition at Paramu‘s- he’s with Oracle now). Harith n’ Binoop came soon afterward n’ we browsed through the shops for a gift. Finally settled on a couple of VCD’s n’ left in IC’s Alto LX. We dined there n’ got back before 9. Pankaj suddenly recollected that Sujith (Chichu) was in town, so we gave him a call n’ got him to come over to spend the night.

Anoop went to Chennai with Ashok. Harith n’ Binoop went back home. The rest of us slept. On Sunday, we woke up in time for breakfast again at Elight Mess. (Screw the spelling!) Got back n’ watched Decoys, a crappy horror movie. Chandra came over for my bike, so Deepu n’ I went back with him to check out his new place. He’s got a lovely 2BHK next to the snooker parlor on one side of the park. They waited while I ran a 400m. Got back home. Deepu went off to work.

Shiju n’ I spent the evening watching Naked Weapon n’ whatever trash the idiot box was showing. Chandra came at night n’ we went to the main Kairali for dinner. We got back n’ whiled away time till we dropped off to sleep. Deepu came a li’l early.. at 2, so we switched off the lights and gave him the fright of his life when he walked in. Shabin, Anoop n’ Ashok got back today. I got my acoustic guitar back from Chennai. Deepu’s bought new strings for it n’ they’ve also given the Spotmatic to the main Kodak shop near Manipal Center for replacement of parts.

FIGHT !!