Are You An Internet Addict?

You know, some of us might find this term worth a laugh but honestly, there are many of our fellow human beings who need some therapy.. or so think the Chinese. Although I might have qualified as an internet addict a few years ago, today I find myself looking a tech hiatus every once in a while… I guess it’s a good sign

Well, anyway, so there’s an article on slashdot today stating how Chinese are sending their kids to boot camp therapy for web addicted relating to either… (hold your breath… ) World of Warcraft or Mortal Combat. Of course, I’m sure there are more games on the list but somehow these were the ones mentioned in the article.

“But.. but.. it’s more of a guy thing!”

Well, who said the internet is merely a gaming tool here comes into the picture the story of the many teenage girls who get addicted to chatrooms and chatboxes. I wonder where this technology is going to take us.. even though I chose to contribute to the computer science field. Me thinkz we’ll soon have a Internet Addicts Anonymous

Internet: The place where girls are men and boys are FBI agents!

Link: Click here for the original article

10 More Days of Bliss

So, for reasons I am not going to state here, I did not board my flight back to USA last night. Here I am sitting this morning with a smile on my face and looking forward to the 10 extra days I have left to spend with my family.

The next few days are going to be happening for various reasons, and here are some of them -

1. I get to be around my family (mom, dad, Bagheera) for another 10 days with the weather being pleasant now that monsoon arrived about 2 days ago.

2. I get to see Nishant (my cousin) because he flies back from Singapore on 6th.

3. I get to stay for Anusha didi’s engagement ceremony… Whew, witnessing the beauty and colour of an Indian tradition after so long.

4. I will be able to meet all my family from East India and stay here to pay my respects to my beloved grandmother. We do annual prayers for her ever since she passed away.. it’s been 10 years this year, and I have never missed it.

… I still miss mom’s birthday, but oh well.. these ten days are a miracle and a gift to me.

It’s not hard to point out that all of the above “good things” start with ‘I’, but without the other people mentioned there… this delay would be of no use to me. I just feel lucky to be able to include all of this other stuff in my summer break at home now…

This is for you Wade…

Sometimes people come in your life to teach you something… and then, just leave. If you ask people, they considered one of my cousins like that. He stayed on this earth for only a few months but he has left us all with lessons by smiling and giggling through his pain and suffering, even though he was a baby.

I have no memory of him, but I know he was sent to us as a good spirit.

I recently met another person of the same sort. I have only known him for about a year or so, and we had just begun hanging out a lot at the beginning of this year. He died on 12th June.. that was this previous Friday and I just found out this week because my phone is off since I am in India.

So, this blog is for you Wade Sprow. You have taught me to cherish friendships. Even though we had only become close friends about 5-6 months ago, I must tell you that you will not be forgotten.. you will be dearly missed for who you were. I am sorry that your last few months with us weren’t too pleasant… but what will stay with me are all the good memories of you.

 You’ve taught me that the best can often be the enemy of good. I kept thinking we would hang out once I was back and kept procrastinating on messaging you because to meet in person is better than to message each other online and it was just going to be 2 weeks before I was back… but here I am, with absolutely no way to talk to you or hang out with you ever again… I messaged you, knowing you will never respond…

I’m sorry I was late… know that you will always remain a good friend to me…

H1N1 Gets To People’s Head

Read this article: Passengers Cheat Flu Scan With Fever Reducers

I mean, geezz.. this is the heights. To put at risk your own health by not staying in a hospital/doctor and putting in danger a country’s whole population is not just idiotic, but also completely insane.

There’s obviously no way to protect a world from itself and the people inhabiting it if these people cannot even make the effort to be honest.

Skype Is Such A Blessing

I’m in India and as much as I love being home with my family and friends, there’s a part of me that misses the friends that I have made in USA.

But fortunately, someone(I still need to find out who) thought of creating Skype and made my life easier and less painful. It is such a blessing to be able to see your friends on webcam and hear their voices as if they were in the same room. It has really been much easier on me now that I regularly skype with my friends…

So, honestly, me thinkz Skype deserves a genuine applause.

For those of you who have heard of it but never really used it… give it a try:

Here’s a link to Skype

I’m a MARFANOID *muahaha*

I love snow. Once it really starts snowing, everything is covered and colored in a single shade.

It seems to me that life can be like snow sometimes. Covering one’s world with a thick blanket of contentment or nothingness. And yet, it can stop just as suddenly and make the sun shine on you…

Today started off with the sun shining bright, gently shining through light blue clouds… and then it all changed. I thought everything wasn’t as bad as it seemed and that weak lungs were the only problem in my life.

As if being in hospitals and doctor offices off and on wasn’t enough, I managed to hurt my knee and then found out that I have a case of “marfanoid features”. My flexible joints, slender bone structure and frequent accidents are really just a fraction of Marfan Syndrome. Let’s just hope the heart problems don’t pop up.

On the positive side, at least I know that I get hurt not because I don’t know how to walk but because of a disorder (which could make me a great gymnast). Basically, I am always going to be hurting my ligaments and having injuries, and even the smallest of these injuries can turn into serious, severe problems… because my body moves the way it shouldn’y… how fun…

Whatever… Life, be nice to me now…

Are You Happy?

I stand on a bridge on a frozen river near which runs a path into the forest and at the end of that path I see a light… or maybe darkness. One might say that the two are completely in contradiction and my vision seems senseless. But, here it becomes hard not to notice that shadows cannot exist without light and light must always be accompanied by shadows. In truth, they form definitions of each other explaining light and darkness in a rather distinct manner.

Happiness, to me, is like light. It seems that to fully enjoy happiness one must also be familiar with pain, anguish and sorrow. To put it in form of an idea suggested in Orhan Pamuk’s book called Snow, the same streets where a child makes his first friends, plays his first games and enjoys the incomparable joys of the innocent life are also infested by his greatest fears… like the stray dog that barks at him when he takes his first step in the streets where his happiness resides.

So, even though I am happy, I cannot claim that I have not known sorrow or that I don’t currently feel it in my everyday life. But, to give this sadness a voice and importance means that I would be denouncing the pure happiness that comes with it.

I am happy and my happiness is laced with gentle shades of darkness which only enhance it and add colour and taste to life.

So, tell me… are you happy?

Random Shuffle

So, I’m sure that if you are familiar with C++, you are probably also familiar with the random_shuffle that can be used with vectors and stuff.

So, where is random_shuffle used anyway? Here are some examples of its possible use:

1) It can be used when you need one particular element of a vector (etc). One can random_shuffle the vector and then pick the first element of this shuffled array.

2) In Card games! It is one of the easiest ways to actually shuffle a deck of cards or anything else for that matter. Even to change the order of the enemies a player will come across at a certain game level.

It basically allows the randomization and change, making the program more interesting specially if its a game… it adds a certain level of uncertainty and thus, surprise.

~Chinese Dragons~

I’m posting this for a very specific reason. I happen to be a dragon (an Earth Dragon to be specific) and a very close friend of mine found this online and messaged me claiming that this described me to the tee. After having some other good friends take a look at it, I realized that it really was true – this is me defined flawlessly… So here it is -

Click to access the website I got it from: Chinese Horoscope For Dragons

Dragon people are balls of fire! They are full of vitality and love of life. Always on the run, they drag their faithful band of admirers behind them. Dragons are egotistical, eccentric, demanding, and giving.

They are proud, direct, and loaded with high ideals which they always try to live up to. Having a zeal for life, they want to live it on a grand scale. They have the potential for accomplishing many great things as long as they don’t get too far ahead of themselves. When dragons do something, good or bad, you can be certain their deeds do not go unnoticed! Dragons are always making the news.

It is next to impossible to win an argument with Dragon people.They intimidate anyone who challenges them. Once you arouse their anger, they keep after you for a very long time. Dragons are extremely loyal to friends and family. When really needed they always come to the rescue. They are the first ones to say “I told you so”. In spite of being overly emotional, a Dragon is not sentimental or even romantic. They will just take it for granted that everyone loves them. Although they are stubborn and irrational, they are not petty or begrudging with their favors. It is hard for them to hide their feelings. They don’t even try.

Not being secretive themselves, they can’t be expected to keep a confidence for long; but Dragons speak from the heart and are always sincere. Their manners may seem brusque and too direct, but they merely want to get things moving. Being creatures of action, they motivate others, too. They often get into rushes and fail to see the flaws in a situation.Instead of diving in, Dragons need to learn to check things out better. Dragons need purpose in their lives, causes to fight for, and goals to reach. An uninvolved Dragon is a sad sight indeed.

Dragons consider themselves very strong. They will often bite off more than they can chew. When this happens, they are too proud to ask for help and exhaust themselves. Dragons can do many things well. They may be artists, politicians, doctors, or ministers. When Dragons choose the right profession, they will be successful and devoted. They just can’t help winning!

In romance, Dragons are seldom the losers and are usually the ones breaking hearts. Dragons don’t marry too young, and many are content and happier living alone. Dragons will always have more than their share of friends and admirers to keep them company. Dragons are really softies and fall apart if they lose their supporters. They dazzle as long as there is someone who believes in them.

Rural Hand-Pump

A Drive In Rural India

We drove for a while yesterday all the way to Vrindavan and Mathura, and then the vicinity. It proved to be a rather long but fun drive. Here’s a picture of me taking water from a water pump that we found near a rural railway crossing where we had to halt for a while.

I realized that I would never have stepped out of the car and done this if I had not moved to USA. So, this just added yet another simple but cool experience to my life. It’s a shock we never look at the minor things in life and ignore them so much that they end up being an experience in themselves if and when we get to them…