Sunday, September 30, 2007

30th September 2007

Hi blog,

Today i had a blast, no writing, no studying, no lazying, no bullshit. Woke up early in the morning, had to go for "Discrete Signal Processing" lecture. After leaving the house i went half way till mulund and came back home. The reason for me to do this was I had decided that today i will do nothing but have lots of fun. Came back home, made some bahana for not going (wont tell u coz they are very bhaari ones and i dont wanna ruin anyone's life). Then i watched a movie called Butterfly on a Wheel.

The basic plot of the movie was, Neil and Abby Warner have the perfect life and a perfect marriage. With their beautiful young daughter, Sophie, they are living the American dream... until today. When Sophie is suddenly kidnapped, they have no choice but to comply with the abductors demands. The kidnapper - Ryan (PIERCE BROSNAN), a cold and calculating sociopath takes over their lives with the brutal efficiency of someone who has nothing to lose. In the blink of an eye Neil and Abby's safe and secure existence is turned upside down. Over the next twenty four hours they are at the mercy of a man who wants only one thing. That they do his bidding. It soon becomes clear that Ryan's demands are all the more terrifying... because he doesn't want their money. What he wants is for Neil and Abbyís life, the life that they have built over 10 years, to be systematically dismantled and destroyed. Piece by piece. With time running out on their little girl, Neil and Abby realize their nightmare is about to take its most deadly turn: They will have to face Ryan's final, horrifying challenge - would they kill an innocent man to save their own child? In the far distance a solitary light burns in the window of a lodge as the car glides to a halt - and Neil knows it is a question only he can answer - when Ryan hands him the gun...

Pretty neatly executed plot and good acting by Pierce Brosnan and Gerard Butler (hero of the movie 300). After watching the movie I chatted with some of my friends and had some fun fulled conversations. Later i had my lunch which was pretty delicious. It consisted of Sambhar, Rice, Potato bhaji, Appalam, dahi chaval. Had such a traditional south indian whole meal after a long time. Later i watched The great Indian Laughter Challenge. It had all the shows done by my fav comedian Raju Srivastav. It felt nice to watch him and listen to his jokes pretty much for the 10th time. Later I felt like writing something, so i took my pen and wrote for 2 mins and fell asleep(He he he). I slept till evening, my friends called me on my cell and yet i was asleep, later in a dream that i had i heard my cell phone ringing and the next thing i knew it was for real. I picked up the phone and it was my friend on the other end. We had planned to meet at Nirmal Lifestyles today and I had overslept. So i dressed up quickly and left to have a blast. Had loads of fun, along with a Pizza and a Pasta. You know, friends, words, emotions and food everything just goes along like the Ying-Yang. After some funfilled time i came back home had my dinner and did what I do the best.

30 September 2007

Dear Blog,

Yesterday i woke up had my coffee and left for college (yeah i went to college for a change). As you know i had "Advanced Microprocessor" checking and i had completed only 8 write-ups and 1 assignment, was left with 2 more write-ups and 2 more assignments. So as soon as i reached i started writing the remaining journal write-ups and finished it later i also completed one of the assignments also.

Half of my class was grunting abuses at me saying "Saala college aata hi nahin hai kabhi aur iska sab assignments and journals merse bhi jyada complete hai aur upar se iske pass sab printouts bhi reheta hai, sabse bada harami hai yeh". Well thats called having friends, without my friends i am nothing but a body with lots of flesh and bones and other vital organs which function under the direct command of the brain. My friends bring out the best and the worst in me, they complete the above mentioned body by adding life & soul & heart to it. I was feeling so lucky to find out i had so many friends who would help me with everything I do, without any expectations back from me.

Later after getting the stuff checked I decided not to write for a change and did some timepass. Everyone was busy taking printouts and stuff so we had a round table timepass session in the LAB,(yeah our lab had no lab assistant, I think she was busy on her cell phone with her boyfriend) the session was awesome. We had lots of fun, also for a change I recorded the session live with both video and audio from a friend's phone (and hope she doesnt delete it). Later that evening we ate at our regular joint called "Jaishree", and by far its the best hotel i have discovered in Dombivli. Its very close to the station but its not that easy to spot. After that i came back home and guess what? ..... I slept at 8:00 yesterday. Yeah!! i know, I was tired very much of doing nothing but having fun. Woke up at 6:00 today morning to go for "Discrete Signal Processing" lecture. Adios !!

Some of the best moments of yesterday (that i can recall)

1) The faces of my friends when they saw me in college yesterday after a week.

2) The accidental meet with my "Advanced Microprocessor" prof on the corridor in which she asked me "Kaise ho". (Did i forgot to mention I havent sat for a single lecture of hers and neither does she know that i was in her batch).

3) The Round Table Timepass Session (I will upload the video if i can, have to ask others coz it has lots of confidential material).

Friday, September 28, 2007

28th September 2007

Hello Blog,

You must be wondering "Saala pehele jab start kiya tha blogging tab din mai 2-3 baar blog karta tha aur ab 2 din mai ek baar blog karta hai .... kaisa aadmi hai yeh". I know this because it has always been my trend with stuff that intrest me. At the very beginning when i take interest i devote my entire time to it, later slowly as and as time goes my interest diminishes and it tends to zero (talking in engineering terms). But actually thats not the case here, I havent been blogging lately because of the speed at which certain stuff are moving in my life I am finding it difficult to cope up with life. Its almost like a race against time. Till now in all my blogs u found me idling away and lazying away my time but now its an entire opposite phase of life. Its that time of the Semester when we have to lick out teacher's/professor's asses so as to score well in term work (some people do it the entire semester but this is an ideal time). Tommorow i have submission of a subject called "Advanced Micro Processors", you will ask me wat seems to be the problem in that, well as Iron maiden puts it "Lemme tell you a story to chill your bones" this maam of ours is doing her Mtech along with teaching us so half of the time she doesnt come to college at all. Now she expects us to submit 10 experiment writeups and 3 Assignments ( which is equal to writing the oxford dictionary), now you would ask me "What were u doing all this time, instead of lazying around you could have sat and write it", the answer for that is, I am not the only one who has so much to write, 60% of the class ppl have to write the same thing. This has happened because the write ups that she gave have been passed on to a closed group of students (the ones that lick asses from the start of the semester) so until we people got the copy its too late. After all Engineering is nothing but a life of a Zerox Machine. The biggest Irony is that some people are so selfish and so cruel that they wont even lend you their write-ups, best excuse they make is "Arey mera voh leke jaa raha hai". I hate such disgusting suckers.

Apart from all that flaming and stuff, I went to Terna College of Engineering to take part in LAN gaming competition for the game Counter Strike. Our team made it till the 3rd round but got out of the tournament after a Pro team kicked our butt. So half of the day went in travelling to that college which is in Nerul (Harbour line) thus leaving me very little time to write. Also I would like to share the biggest bullshit i have seen today. A company called "Sapeint Technologies" conducted a joint campus Aptitute test, question asked was nothing but to write a code and draw a class diagram for a FE level program. I easily cracked the code and was happy to do so too, but this company (I dunno what they think of themselves) havent selected even a single student out of the entire 900 students that gave the exam. I was really confident that i cracked it but not getting selected really demotivates the hell out of you. Such companies should be burnt down to their ashes. Thats it for now as i have loads to write I would not waste much of my fucked up time here.

Oh! by the way some of the lighter moments i had today
1)I along with 4-5 of my friends were discriminating and fighting for several castes in our religion .... i mean like bhaiyas are jackasses, mallus are kanjoos etc all that below a sign that said something like "Religion is like a tree, there are many branches but only one tree".

2)I played the most "Hagrya" game of my life in CS (for those who didnt understand that I just sucked big time in CS today).

3)A team of four people who worked their asses off for 3 days to make an F1 Simulator got the shock of their life when they found out their cars and circuits have become wet due to the rain that poured down today morning (I actually felt sorry for them).

4)Girls of Terna College watched me (a cute little kid) roaming around in their college and I even heard two of them saying (they didnt know i head them say) "Arey kitna cute sa ladka hai dekh, zaroor first year ka hogaa dusre college ka, chal uski taang khichte hai". Later when they found out i was in BE they just scrammed out of that place and I was laughing my ass off over them.

Buh bye bloggie.... l8r!!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

27th september 2007

Hi Blog,

Its 2:30am in the morning (night for me) and i have never been so busy in my entire life. For the past 2 days i have been focusing all my attention and energy towards one thing. This thing is called "IpodLinux". It might sound crazy but its true, there is a linux os for Ipod which is as hard as it gets. This OS makes the other mobile phones useless pieces of junk and i literally mean it. Ipod Nano which cannot play videos using the traditional default OS (that is of apple)whereas using Linux we can play flawless video with audio. I just couldnt believe my eyes when i saw Yuvraj hitting Sixes on my Ipod Nano. Thats what technology and a little motivation could do. I just fell so much in love with it that for the past 2 days i have been researching a whole lot of things. The code, the method, the implementation, guides, products everything and since its Linux its free to use. Btw, i couldnt install it onto my Ipod in 1 day, took me almost 4 complete formats to get to know wats it all about.

Well i cant quite remember what I did yesterday but i do remember eating Pasta which my sister made. If u ask me how it was I would reply it was ummm .... very bad. Actually it was the first time she made it and I think the gravy was very less as compared to the amount of macaroni she had put in. Also i remember writing loads and loads of stuff and also an innovative idea. A friend of mine owns a Nokia N-series phone, and i wanted to complete an assignment which was due today but i didnt have any sources to write from. So this friend of mine just clicked photographs of all the pages and mailed it to and wallah .... i started writing it. Just imagine what technology can do.

Today i woke up late, missed college and did some more research on you know what. Later after sometime i started writing again, and got bored so i did what i do the best and kept on doing it until i got bored again. After that i did a combination of activities which was irritating family members, eating snacks, writing, dancing around listening to "The Crystal Method" and some melodic Trance tracks. It seemed to take boredom away to a far off place. It felt nice to irritate ppl around u, to dance around the house that too break dancing, to not feel bored, to have a sense of satisfaction that i completed something. Later I did some more orkutting and watched a movie called "A Dog's Breakfast".

The movie was classic British Comedy. The plot revolved around a guy who was, well he was a retard of sorts, just those freaks who do freaky stuff. His sister came back home after 2 yrs of training and she got engaged to another guy in the meanwhile and bring home her fiancee. The brother thinks that this guy is a bad guy who doesnt like his sister and is planning to kill his sister. So he plans many ways to kill him (all stupid ways rather), which do not work (obviously coz they were stupid) and one fine afternoon while putting up the christmas lights, what seems like the fiancee falls off from a great height and is dead. The brother is shit scared so he tries to hide the body and what follows is a series of events which makes the brother realise that this fiancee was a good man. It was fun watching the movie and hats off to the acting done by everyone in the movie.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

25th September 2007

Hey Blog,

After the delicious lunch yesterday, I completed 2 more experiments, i mean writing two more experiments. Am just fed up of this writing business and am considering of hiring someone who would write it for me. Especially the journals coz they are of no use neither are the stuff i write in my journal gonna come in exam as questions nor are they of any use for me in interviews and stuff.
After writing it was time for me to witness one of the most anticipated game as ever. The 20-20 finals between India and Pakistan. I couldnt have been a better final with both the teams who have entered it being arch rivals on and off the field. It started off with Yusuf Pathan banging the ball around the park but sadly mistimed a shot and got out. Later Gambhir along with 3 other players started buiding up patnerships giving india the required start but other than gambhir no one else could take the bowling so they got out one by one and finally gambhir got out too. The middle order then wrapped up the game in style taking India to a respectable total of about 158, which i thought was easy for pakistan to get. Well Pakistani top order crumbled once again to a lethal bowling attack by RP Singh, but there was one star who was giving the bowlers a nightmare, his name was Nasir. The shots that he hit were so beautiful that u could watch it 100 times and yet not get bored. Later out of sheer bad luck he got a cramp on his leg which was the prime reason for him to get run out by a brilliant throw (direct hit) by Uthappa. It was a huge wicket for India. Later the middle order got stumped to a top class comeback spell by Irfan Pathan. It seemed at this point of time that india would easily win this match, but this wasnt it. Misbah Ul Haq alongwith another bowler from pakistan hit 4 sixes which completely changed the entire game. Pakistan who once wanted 42 in 20 balls were as close as requiring 6 runs from 4 balls. The last over was bowled by Jogindar and this ball Misbah was determined to put to for a six so he came across the stumps and tried to flick jogindar to a six behind the wicketkeeper but the pace of the ball was deliberately reduced by Joginder and that ball which was destined to go to six landed in Sreesanth's palms, thus ending a heartstopping match. India who were the Underdogs for the entire 20-20 World Cup won the match by 6 runs. The reactions on the faces of all the players were enjoyable. Everyone gave an expression of joy, content, confidence. It was full of Energy.
After the match i had my dinner which was again Pav Bhaji. After my dinner i went down to my lawn to have a stroll. The climate was really pleasant yesterday, a mixture of cool wind along with humidity. After sometime i came back home and did some chatting, orkutting and surfing and went off to sleep.

Check this video out, it by Santana with Chad Kroegar who is the lead singer of the band Nickelback. Just listen to his vocals, the sound that comes out of his sound box is an absolute magic. Its coarse yet smooth, strong yet Romantic (i dont mean to sound gay here). And to top that Santana's awesome guitaring makes it all look awesome. Listen to it and ull know what i am talking about.



and here are the lyrics

Like a gift from the heavens
It was easy to tell
It was love from above
That could save me from hell
She had fire in her soul
It was easy to see
How the devil himself could be pulled out of me
There were drums in the air
As she started to dance
Every soul in the room keeping time with their hands

And we sang a, away, away, away
And the voices rang like the angels sing
And singing a, away, away, away
And we danced on into the night
And we danced on into the night

Like a piece to the puzzle that falls into place
You could tell how we felt from the look on our faces
We were spinning in circles with the moon in our eyes
No room left to move inbetween you and I
And we forgot where we were
And we lost track of time
And we sang to the wind as we danced through the night

And we sang a, away, away, away
And the voices rang like the angels sing
And singing a, away, away, away
And we danced on into the night
And we danced on into the night
And we danced on into the night

Like a gift from the heavens
It was easy to tell
It was love from above
That could save me from hell
She had fire in her soul
It was easy to see
How the devil himself could be pulled out of me
There were drums in the air as she started to dance
Every soul in the room keeping time with their hands

And we sang a, away, away, away
And the voices rang like the angels sing
And singing a, away, away, away
And we danced on into the night
A, away, away, away
And the voices rang like the angels sing
And singing a, away, away, away
And we danced on into the night
A, away, away, away
A, away, away, away
Singing a, away, away, away
And we danced on into the night

Monday, September 24, 2007

A Conference Call Guide For The Jekylls And The Hydes

(NOTE:I found this guide very hilarious so i posted it here read along its quite funny)

By: Nahshon DeMore

You can't be an office worker and not know what a conference call is. After all, a conference call is as inevitable to office life as reports and promotions. In fact, the more geographically dispersed corporate teams are and the costlier the travels, the more important a conference call becomes. Conference calls fall under the bracket of social interaction. As such, there are rules of etiquette that have to be followed.

Tips for Mr. Hyde
If you want to lose credibility and send your career surely and quickly into a downward spiral, do the following during a conference call.

1. Make sure a doorbell rings incessantly in the background. For more impact, try to make your dog bark during the most important part of the discussion. This will ensure that you miss the most vital and yes, boring, information covered in the meeting.

2. Make a point of standing up and leaving your seat several times during the conference call. Get something from the fridge, a glass of water, for example. When you do this, put your call on hold. Everyone participating in the meeting will hear your hold music, so be sure to choose one that's really loud and confusing.

3. Indulge your secret obsession with the mute button. Press it every time you get the chance. The mute button is very useful because when utilized properly, it could keep participants of the meeting from responding to a crucial question put in by your boss.

4. Make faces. You can ape Jim Carey, your boss, or that annoying old lady from the Marketing Department. You could suddenly develop a tic in your left eye. Meetings are boring. Your antics will surely add spice to the lecture. If these do not prove enough, however, you could also try speaking in a falsetto. This will surely keep all the attention focused on you.

Reminders for Dr. Jekyll
If, on the other hand, you want to take the road commonly traveled, do the following while you participate in a conference call.

1. Keep in mind that you will be interacting with a group where you will not receive any visible prompts or feedback. Speak clearly and slowly.

2. Mobile phones, or any device that picks up background noise, are not ideal for conference calls.

3. Familiarize yourself with call-conferencing technology to avoid any blunders on an actual conference call. Use the mute button sparingly and remember to deactivate it when it's your turn to speak.

4. Check on your colleagues' time zones, especially if they are a continent away. Arrange the time of the meeting long before it will be held and gather all necessary information, such as contact data and access numbers. Be sure to distribute these to the rest of the participants.

5. Start the meeting on time. Take notes. Prepare reports. A conference call is, after all, a meeting. There is no excuse for being unprepared.

6. Introduce yourself whenever it is your turn to speak. It is wrong to assume that people will know you from the sound of your voice.

7. Address people by name when you ask for their opinions or input. This way, you minimize the need to repeat yourself.

8. Bear in mind that pencil tapping, chair scraping, or paper shuffling could be irritating. Avoid these.

Conference calls are important. They could make or break your career, depending, of course, on whether you choose to take the call as Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.

Top 10 Tips for WinXP Users

by: Anna-Marie Stewart

Are you new to WinXp? Just upgraded, or gotten a new computer maybe? Or you might have friends and contacts who use it and you want to "show off" a little by teaching them a few tricks? I`ve collected 10 of my favourite WinXP tricks, each of them easy to use, and very helpful, and if you follow the instructions step-by-step, they work perfectly. So here goes:

Top Tip #1:

Having a problem making your desktop icons stay exactly where you put them?

When you temporarily change your desktop to a lower resolution—for example whilst using Safe mode, Windows can wreak havoc with your careful positioning of desktop icons.

Right click your desktop click arrange icons and uncheck auto arrange. You can now drag & drop them wherever you want them. Note that if you start your computer in SAFE mode you will have to rearange them again.

Top Tip #2:

Accidentally moved your taskbar and want it back where it was?

Point your mouse to a 'blank' area inside the taskbar, THEN hold down your left mouse button, and DRAG it down where you want it to go. It may take a couple of tries to get it over.

Top Tip #3:

Feel like changing your Start Menu?

(1) Right click a blank spot on the Start Menu.
(2) Select Properties
(3) Select Customize
(4) Select the Advanced tab.

Most of those preset items which don't have the option to check or uncheck will be there. For each item listed you'll have the option to Display as link or Display as menu or Don't display this item. Make your selection as you desire. Note that you will have the option to display the Control Panel as a menu, which you might find very useful.

Top Tip #4:

Getting grey popup boxes with ads in? Stop the spam like this:

(1) Select "Start"
(2) Select "Settings"
(3) Choose "Control Panel"
(4) Choose "Administrative Tools"
(5) Choose "Services"
(6) Right-click on "Messenger"
(7) Select "Stop"
To permanently disable Messenger:
(8) Right click "Messenger"
(9) Select "Properties"
(10) Change "Startup Type" to "Disabled" and click "OK"

Top Tip #5:

Having problems viewing sites cos your computer isn`t accepting the cookies?

Open a New Browser window.

(1) Click on Tools (in toolbar).
(2) Click on Internet Options.
(3) Click on Privacy.
(4) Click on Advanced.
(5) Click on Override Cookie Control.
(6) Click on Enable First Party Cookies.
(7) Click on Enable Session Cookies.
(8) Click OK.

Top Tip #6:

Want to change how you see your emails? Try this:

Click on "view" at top. "Layout" will allow you to fix what you see. "Sort by" will let you arrange the order the messages appear in.

Top Tip #7:

Want to disable the Automatic Update reminders in Windows?

Open Internet Explorer/Tools/Internet Options/Advanced tab, under "Browsing" take the checkmark out of "Automatically check for Internet Explorer Updates", click Apply, click OK.

Another thing to try is to:

(1) Click Start
(2) Click Run
(3) Type in: "MSCONFIG" (without the quotes)
(4) Click OK.
(5) Under the Startup tab take the checkmark out of "Critical Updates"
(6) Click Apply
(7) Click OK
(8) Restart your computer.

Top Tip #8:

Got too many icons on your desktop?

Right click on an empty space on your desktop, highlight "Arrange Icons By", the click on Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard

Top Tip #9:

Tired of seeing your pointer as an arrow or an hourglass all the time? Windows XP offers a number of alternative pointer schemes, such as Dinosaur, Ocean and Sports.

Open the Control Panel, double-click Mouse, and select the Pointers tab. (If you start in Category view, select Appearance and Themes, then click Mouse Pointers under "See Also.") Next to Schemes, click the down arrow and select a scheme to preview its pointers. Click OK to apply the scheme to your desktop. Simple as that.

Top Tip #10:

Want to hear your computer talk?
Select Start, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Narrator. Or press the Windows key plus the letter "U" to open the Utility Manager. Microsoft Narrator, an accessibility option designed to assist readers who are blind or have impaired vision, starts automatically.

Once you've read through the intro screen (or let the Narrator do it), click OK and you'll see a dialog box of Narrator options. Assuming you want to leave Narrator running, select the desired options, then minimize its dialog box. And if you've opened the Utility Manager, feel free to close it.

To turn Narrator off, click the Exit button or right-click its taskbar item and select Close.

Hope this has helped you get your WinXP working the way you want it to, and given you a little fun too. For more information like this, I highly recommend that you visit, read through, bookmark and re-visit this site:
http://www.winxpnews.com/issues.cfm

Have Fun Learning!

24th September 2007

Dear Blog,

Yesterday after watching TV I decided to sit and write for sometime so again started writing my ass off completed around 2 experiments after which i got bored, so i decided to finish off Full Metal Alchemist.

I started watching Full Metal Alchemist and watched 10 episodes back to back and finished off the entire series and boy was it entertaining. In the end it seemed like there is sequel to this series so if it is there I would be waiting for it to release.

After finishing the entire series i logged on to my messenger to find out there has been some kind of invasion in the internet by a bunch of viruses. 4-5 Ppl PMed me asking me wats happening, everyone's PC seemed to act strangely for no reason at all, so I decided to include some words of wisdom in my blogs. After around 5 yrs or experience in the Internet world and after destroying 5-6 desktops (by experimenting several stuff on it) i have gained sufficient knowledge that i can pass on to others. Hence i decided to start collecting articles and write some of them on my own.

After helping them out I decided to sleep and dream about that girl who comes everyday in my dreams even after pleading her not to come. After Flirting with her i woke up today at around 12 in the afternoon and watched the movie "The Mask". I know its quite an old movie but it was fun to see it again after a long time. After that i had my lunch which was "PAV BHAJI" and was it tasty or what. Later decided to update u , till we meet again .... have a nice day!!

Btw.... I would like you to check out this song by Sean Kingston, it doesnt have any video just the poster of the fatass singer, but VH1 airs the video and its hot too (i dont mean sexy hot, i mean nice hot) and the lyrics are damn cool. Also the Jamaican touch to the songs spices it up. Ill post the lyrics too sing along with the song.




Sean Kingston Lyrics

The lyrics flash seems to be pretty nice for those who are having problem figuring it out just hover ur mouse to the up arrow to move the scrolling lyrics faster in the upper direction and the same thing goes for the down arrow.Have nice time singing along.

23rd September 2007

Dear blog,

You might have noticed some posts which are not related to my daily life .... actually they are not even close to it ..... but the reason i posted these articles are because i find so many people who are prone to the dangers if internet .

Half of the people think internet is a safe place to be around , its just full of friendly people who help you with your search for knowledge. I agree with you too but there is an addition to it, the internet is also full of evil and corrupt and money minded people who will do more than hacking. So i have decided to educate the people who visit my blogs. I wouldnt stop updating you with my daily activities but along with that ill make it a point to get good articles and tutorials so that it becomes an easy task for you guys.

Take care

Optimize Your Computer For Peak Performance

Is your computer running slower than ever? Does it crash a
lot?

If so it might be because advertisers have loaded it up with
Spy and Adaware without your knowledge.

"Spyware" is a common term for files that are installed on
your system that allow companies to monitor your Internet
activity.

"Adaware" is software that will show you pop up ads over and
over. These files can be extremely dangerous to your PC and
could cause major problems.

They track the websites you visit, items that you buy
online, the emails you send and your Instant Message
dialogues. In a worst case scenario they can even record
your credit card number, personal identification numbers,
and all of your passwords.

I know all of this because I learned the hard way.
Fortunately, I never had any personal data stolen, at least
that I’m aware of. But every now and then, when least
expected, my computer would crash, sometimes resulting in
days of lost activity and income.

It seems like I spent a small fortune fixing one problem
after another. I bought expensive software programs that
actually made my problems worse, then another hard drive
that I really didn't need.

Ultimately I had to take my computer to 2 different techs to
work out all the bugs. If only I knew then what I know now.

After months of frustration and too many hundreds of dollars
I care to admit to I finally learned what it takes to keep
my computer healthy and functioning properly.

Below is what I learned and a recommendation that can help
you avoid what I went through.

1. Get a spyware removal program. You've heard it before,
but have you done it? This helps as your 1st line of defense
against hackers and viruses.

2. Avoid opening email attachments from people you don't
know. When in doubt, don't do it. Granted, this isn't so
easy to do when you're in the people business, but I still
encourage you to manage it as best you can. This alone
eliminated a lot of my problems.

3. Scan for viruses and clean your registry at every
opportunity. I spend a lot of time on the Internet working
on my website marketing products, sending and receiving
email and the like.

Consequently, my computer is vulnerable to attack from a lot
of different ways. So, I scan it for viruses and clean my
registry daily; sometimes several times a day depending on
how long I've been on it.

If you don't have a good spyware program you should get one.
It'll help you optimize your computer's performance, and get
it in tip top condition in no time.

Here are the benefits.

They'll let you:

know if you have any files that are infecting your PC

help protect your computer and eliminate trojans, worms,
dialers, browser hijackers, etc., and

help you avoid serious problems before they happen

You'll be amazed at how much speed and problem free use you
can regain from the use of your computer after you install a
good spyware program.

If you don't have one I strongly recommend Spyware Nuker.
It's relatively inexpensive and is money well spent to
safeguard your computer and personal and professional
information stored on it.

You even get to try if for free before you buy it and I
believe it comes with a 90 day satisfaction or money back
guarantee

Why use Firefox instead of IE

The Firefox browser has exploded on the scene. At the time of this writing there have been 23 million downloads of this innovative competitor to Internet Explorer. Minor drawbacks aside, most who use it love it – myself included.

One stand out feature is the customizable search bar that’s built into the Firefox menu bar. As a long time AOL user I had 10 hot keys set up for sites I visited all the time. With Firefox all I did was set the search bar up with those very same links. Suddenly what seemed like a reason to mourn the loss of AOL vanished.

Then there’s tabbed browsing. This is a new way to use a browser as you can access more than one page in a single browser window. Which makes it easy to switch back and forth among multiple web pages. Makes for a great time saver.

But a big benefit is the ability to install little applications that perform specific tasks. In the FireFox world these are called “extensions”. If you’re like me you’ll find extension are sorta like potato chips – you just can’t have just one.

So let me share my 7 favorites. I believe they will save you time or effort while enhancing your FireFox experience.

Favorite Extension #1: Auto copy
Auto copy is a killer keystroke saver. You’ll never Ctrl-C again. Simply highlight the desired text on the web page with your mouse and it’s instantly copied to the clipboard. Jump over to whatever application you want to paste that text into, paste it and you’re done.

Favorite Extension #2: ScrapBook
How many times have you book marked a site only to return and find it changed? Or worse it’s vanished? That makes the ScrapBook extension the web researcher’s indispensable friend. It lets you take a snapshot of any page. Or you can grab just a chunk it. ScrapeBook keeps such snapshots organized and even lets you add comments if you like.

Favorite Extension #3: TinyURL Creator
How often do you want to sent a friend a URL only to discover it’s a mile long? Like this one for instance?

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=50&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=%22john+gergye%22&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

Wouldn’t it be easier to send something like this: http://tinyurl.com/427gg?

Good news. There’s a handy extension that will cut any unwieldy URL it down to size using TinyURL. Even better it will also inventory those you’ve created in case you want to use any of them again.

Favorite Extension #4: Popup Blocking
Okay so this technically isn’t an extension. It’s more of a killer built in feature that will stop pop ups dead in their tracks. I mean there’s nothing like seeing this message “Firefox prevented this site from opening a pop up window” to give you a warm glow inside

Favorite Extension #5: Google Pagerank
Want to know the Google PageRank of a page? Sadly the Google Toolbar only runs in Internet Explorer. But never fear. If you like to eyeball PR, say to check out potential link partners, the Google Pagerank Status extension displays pagerank. Even better it’s also in numeric form so you don’t have to mouse over to see the PR. .

Favorite Extension #6 LoremIpsum Content Generator
Whenever you need some quick content to check a web page layout this is your tool. You can tell it to create so many characters, words or paragraphs. Giving you a variety of “Latin-like” content like this in the blink of an eye:

Favorite Extension #7: Copy URL
Instead of copying a snippet from a page and then going back and grabbing the URL you can do it all with one tool. Copy URL. Another addictive research tool.

All of these tiny apps can be downloaded from here:
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions

Or if these 7 have whet you appetite for more, you can nose around there for other extensions to enhance your FireFox experience.

One other tip
To check your extensions go to Tools>Extensions

There you’ll see all extensions you’ve installed. Newly downloaded ones will typically display this message:

“This item will be installed after you RESTART Firefox “

Do so and you’re set.

Anyway, these extensions alone are seven reasons to love FireFox. At the risk of sounding like a shill, I can’t urge you strongly enough to try it. I’m sure you’ll like it.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

23rd September 2007

Hi blog,

After the last update .... i decided to use the time remaining constructively so i wrote some more and at last could complete another experiment ... after which it was time for me to leave for college .... so i left home for college ... where i came to know no lectures were gonna happen so i sat and wrote some more ..... till about afternoon after which i had "Image Processing" Practicals .... it was quite interesting ... the teacher showed how to do various "keeda giri" with photos ... i mean it was quite fun ... actually that "keeda giri" was nothing but various ways to apply several concepts of "Image Processing" to an image and understand its outcome ..... later after that pracs i did some timepass in college .... taang khiching and stuff .... later left for home .... had a nice sleep in the train ..... after reaching home slept again dreaming about her .... later woke up and had my dinner which was dosa and chutney .... later i sat and watch the match between India and Australia .... loved the way Sehwag played his innings .... and later Yuvi came and kicked some Kangaroo Ass .... and he also hit the biggest six in the entire 20twenty series ... it was 119m long and 100% sexy shot!! .... watching him bat was quite fun ..... and in the second innings our bowling was awesome .... Sreesanth's bowling was fantastic .... but the way he stared at the Australian batsmen scared me a lot ... it wasnt scary as "Sreesanth is dangerous" instead I was scared for sreesanth .... "Kidhar voh hatte katte Australian batsmen apne bacche jaise sreesanth ko pakad ke bat se na maare" .... seriously ... he is just like some small kid who's given a chance to play and the way he stares at batsmen just cracks me up .....Reliance guys should make him his mascot for that "Apun ka Sapna" wala advertisement .... the whole night i was laughing at him ..... later after seeing India win ... i just went to sleep ... was really tired of the entire day .... wrote soo much of stuff .... later woke up today at around 2 in the afternoon .... had my lunch which was "Punjabi Kadi" and "Banana ka bhaaji" .... the kadi was quite tasty ... especially the kaanda pakodas that were inside it .... after lunch i sat and watched TV .... saw Munnabhai M.B.B.S. then later saw a programme called "Lagegi" in a new channel called "Bindass" .... it was quite hilarious ... the jokes were all fresh and both the hosts were young making the entire show quite funny and energetic .... though there was a little overacting in the host's part ..... after that i saw another one called "Sunn Yaar Chill Maar" again in that channel called "Bindass" .... a daily life serial of 5 friends ..... completely hilarious and completely Obscene ..... one of the character abuses (which of course are beeped) whereas another character always makes comments which are double meaning ones ...... so its better u dont watch it in front of ur parents .... after 4-5 hours of stomach aching laughter ... i remembered that i hadnt updated u ... till later ... cya

Here are the highlights of that match ...



and here is how the wickets fell for Aus ..... the first wicket was awesome ... u can see the ball just curving in and hitting the middle stumps .... and how can u forget sreesanth's reaction .....

Saturday, September 22, 2007

22nd September 2007

Dear Blog,

After the last update yesterday i sat on and did some chatting and orkutting for sometime .... after which i resumed my writing .... felt like forever .... kept on writing for such a long time yet it didnt seem to end .... finally i finished with 1 journal only to find i have another waiting rit behind it .... kept on writing till i felt hungry ... so had my lunch .... it was more like tea time becoz i had my lunch at 5 in the evening ... after the lunch i played Counter-Strike for a bit ..... later i sat and watched serials that my grandmother was watching .... these were tamil serials and they are funny as shit .... there is this bald guy (who is the bad guy) say Mr A. who does all the bad things to people .... the police knows it yet cant do anything becoz Mr. A is a powerful person in the society .... so the police have an idea ... they ask a lady officer say Ms. B to act as Mr. A's long lost daughter ..... Mr A is also very happy to have found his daughter so to enjoy they both go to a saree shop where they find a friend who recognizes Ms. B and talks about past stuff in front of Mr A. and there the serial ends .... i dunno what ppl get out of watching such stuff ... it just bores the hell out of me ... after that bored out session i went down to have a stroll and run some errands for my grandmother .... which included buying 2kg kaanda and 2kg batata!! ..... came back home with that heavy load which by the way was quite an exercise i took out my guitar and tried some new tunes that i had been learning from this DVD which i had got .... it was quite tough but i learnt how to play a song called "Ode to Joy" which was in Beethoven's ninth symphony thats what the DVD told me .... the tune was pretty easy to play but since i had no professional help it took some time for me to play the entire tune ..... after a little while of trying to play ... my mom got headaches and she started scolding me so i had to put back my guitar so i decided to have my dinner .... and guess what .... i slept early yesterday and that too deliberately .... i dunno why but .... and also woke up early at 5 in the morning .... yeah i know ... its kind of a miracle but thats life ..... Have a Good day ...

Friday, September 21, 2007

21st September 2007

Dear blog,

After the last update ... I had my lunch which was "Sambhar chawal" ,"Koote" , "Dahi chawal" and Appalams ..... i know evething might sound french and greek ... its actually traditional mallu (just in case) and equally delicious ... after a hour or so with that delicious grub .... i started on a journey ... which was full of finger crunching writing .... its every engineer's "Karthavya" ... every engineer's tryst with destiny (Engineering destiny that is) .... writing assignments ... i sometimes wonder how foolish it is to mindlessly write those assignments .... i mean copy paste them ... i kept on traveling through this course ... on the way i met many fabulous things like the "Spiral Model" , the "Waterfall Model"(which by the way reminded me of that Huggies advertisement) , then came the Registers and the Flags, the ALUs, the Architectures and many more ..... in short i got to see and fill my head with lots of different new concepts which were so interesting at the time of writing but were lost from my brain as soon as i would finish that sentence .... later i got bored and decided to kill some Counter Terrorists who were unnecessarily shouting Go Go Go!! and Storm The Front!! ..... gave some of those Counter Terrorist a bullet in their backsides .... later i became the good guy and killed some Terrorists who as usual were using powerful bombs to destroy places of god-knows-what interest .... later in the evening i had my dinner (yeah i had it quite early today i dunno why) which was as usual the leftovers from the lunch except for and addition which was some delicious "Bakar Vadis" .... came back and did some chatting and orkutting .... later i witnessed something which i would term as "The Victory of the Underdog" ..... India vs R.S.A. ..... an excellent display of what Indian cricket is all about ... I didnt quite get to see the batting done by India ... yet from the hundred and fifty match reviews,analysis and highlights i could make out that a young lad of around my age ... named Rohit Sharma scored a half century along with the most talented player and captain of India M.S. Dhoni .... which came at a very good time taking the Indian total to 153 .... which I though South Africa could achieve without a problem .... when i watched the match it was india's bowling and Mr. Sreesanth was bowling the first ball ... which was a huge wide and went down the keeper's leftside to a boundary .... at that point of time i felt like taking the bat from smith and hitting the shit out of sreesanth ... but later the next over .. R.P. Singh bowled and excellent over taking a wicket thereby realigning my hopes .... the next 10 overs were like forever for south africa .... the bowling was superb ... line to line .... stump to stump ... except for some stupid wide balls which were out of tension ofcourse which was clearly visible on all the bowlers .... followed by an excellent fielding by all of them ... even without Mr. Yuvraj .... not to forget the catch by Karthik ... which was just like a frog catches a fly using its tongue .... no words to describe the attitude of the entire team ... and for the first time i felt as if india was genuinely winning this match out of pure hardwork (all other matches made me felt as if ... "Marr Marr ke jeet raha ho" .... put that in hindi coz it makes the rit impact on what i was trying to mean) .... not only did India win the match and went in to the Semi-Finals but also kicked out South Africa from the 20twenty series .... next match is between India and Australia .... and lets hope India makes it to the final without any fuss .... Chak De!!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

20th September 2007

Dear Blog,

Yesterday after the update i was again busy writing some journal and assignment works ..... yeah i know my poor hand!! .... cant complain its a part and parcel of engineering curriculum how else do u expect us to gain knowledge about the subject ... writing ur ass of is the best way or should i say copy pasting is the way to go ... thats what they teach us from first year .... people make several jokes out of us engineers .... one for example is ... "Saala yeh logo ko program bannane ko bolo toh duur bhagte hai .... parr phekne ko bolo kuch bhi cheez ke baare mai .... half hour mai 5 page ka matter milegaaa" .... and its really true ..... later i had my dinner which was again subah ka leftover khicdi and curd rice .... later i sat and watched the 20Twenty match between India and England ..... and after a long time i witnessed some excellent massacre of the bowlers of both sides for that matter .... and this blog would be incomplete without mentioning the Six 6s by the man of the match Yuvraj Singh .... and those shots werent just "Aandas Paanchi" .... i wuld call them "Hot Shots" especially the 3rd six that he hit ... it was phenomenal ... here is a video of all the 6 sixes .... and look at Mr Flintoff's face after yuvi hits the 4th six .... and after the 5th six it seems as if Mr Broad is saying to his captain "Wtf?? what type of ball should i bowl to him ... hez hitting all around" .... other players reaction are also really funny .... its a good laugh ....




... after the match i retired to my bed and had a dream about this gurl who makes it her prime responsibility to come in my dreams everynite .... what she does isnt important

After that i woke up at around 1:00pm in the afternoon had my coffee and read the newspaper(yeah i do read it sometimes) to find out our stock markets just hit the 16k mark .... which means good for us youngsters who havent got a job as yet .... after that i sat and updated u .... Have a good day!!

Review of Full Metal Alchemist (Japnese title is Hagaren)

Dear Blog,

I have been watching this anime series from the past 4 months now ... and let me tell u its one of the best anime i have seen .... rit now i am at the 33rd episode and there are in all 52 episodes .... The storyline is absolutely brilliant .... its seems very complex but yet its very simple if u keep a track of whats happening ..... the animation is god awesome .... next to perfect (2-d animation) ... everything in the world seems normal unlike in other anime's where u get to see people having 4 fingers and stuff .... the characters that are developed as the story goes on are mindblowing ... though the episode i have reached rit now ,there are many of them yet each have their own characteristic and personality traits .... the story is actually about two brothers named Edward Elric and Alphonso Elric (yeah i know ... but not the mango)who commit a sin of performing Human Transmutation which is an act using alchemy where u can bring back a person from death .... but maintaing a law called the law of equivalence .... during the process Edward loses his brother's body to get back his mother's deformed body and then loses his limbs to get back his brother's soul ..... this soul he bounds it to a metal armour using alchemy again and tries to make his brother come alive again .... later both the brothers go in pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone (not Harry Potter's Sorcerer's stone) using which they can perform alchemy without binding the law of equivalent exchange in the process of which they get into all sorts of trouble and make all sorts of friends and foes who are also pursuing the stones for their own personal reasons .... i know everything might sound crazy rit now reading this ... but as u watch the anime ull know how exciting it gets .... last i heard it was being aired on Animax weekdays at 8:30pm ... i dunno about it now ... yet if u get a chance to see it ... dont miss and yeah ... their official website Full Metal Alchemist and yeah ... one of the characters named winry is very very cute .... i just love her.... here is a fan made video ..



and also a gif image (its 5mb in size so will take sometime to load)




<-------------WIKIPEDIA REVIEW-------------->
Plot

Fullmetal Alchemist is a fantasy manga set in the early 20th century in a country called Amestris in an alternate-historical Earth with technology dating from early 20th century Europe. In this alternate world, the exaggerated science of alchemy is heavily used in conjunction with acretian soul wanderers, but takes on a further fantastic element not seen in real-life alchemy. Real-world alchemists attempted to transmute gold and diamonds from lesser metals. In the fictional world of the series, alchemy becomes the science of transmuting matter into different matter (following the rule of equivalent exchange) through the use of transmutation circles—based on real-world science, yet also magical, with seemingly infinite uses. Talented alchemists may apply to take a State Alchemist test to join the Amestris military's State Alchemists.

Edward and Alphonse Elric were children living in the rural village of Resembool in the country of Amestris. Their father Hohenheim (Hohenheim of Light in the anime and Van Hohenheim in the manga), a talented alchemist, had left home when Edward was very young and Alphonse was still an infant. Years later, their mother, Trisha Elric, died of a terminal illness. After their mother's death, they lived with Winry and her grandmother until finding a teacher to teach them alchemy. After completing training, they came home with the intent of reviving their mother with the transmutation circle they found in their father's notes and made the attempt soon after acquiring the circle. However, this attempt failed, resulting in a twisted mass of flesh and bone at the cost of Edward's left leg and Alphonse's entire body. In a desperate effort to save his brother, Edward sacrificed his right arm to affix his brother's soul to a suit of armor. After that, Edward's left leg and right arm are fitted with two sets of Automail, a type of advanced prosthetic limb. In the original Japanese, the term "Fullmetal" is used to describe a person who is stubborn. In the series it is often attributed by minor characters to Ed's automail arm and leg, or Al's armor body. In the sixth manga volume, as well as episode 8 of the anime, it is revealed that when an alchemist becomes a State Alchemist, he or she is given a special title. Edward's title was Fullmetal, making him Fullmetal Alchemist.

A State Alchemist by the name of Roy Mustang arrives during the failed human transmutation. After seeing their skill at alchemy, Mustang suggested that the way for the two boys to achieve their goals would be to become State Alchemists and work for him. Spurred on by the man's proposal, Edward set out to become a State Alchemist, enabling him to use the resources available to State Alchemists to discover a way to restore what he and Alphonse had lost. The brothers eventually learn of the Philosopher's Stone and set off in search of it as a means to restore their bodies. Along the way they discover secrets about the Philosopher's Stone they never wanted to know, and find others who seek it as well, doing almost whatever they can to get their hands on it.

The brother's motivations, especially having to do with their use of alchemy, change throughout the anime. This indicates, among other things, the two brothers' maturing attitudes and outlooks on life. In the prologue scenes when Ed and Al's mother is alive, their primary goal for the use of alchemy is to make their mom and friends proud and happy. After their mom dies, they delve into more complicated alchemy to bring her back to life. After this fails horribly, they strive to regain their bodies by way of the alchemical Philosopher's Stone. Later in the series, their primary focus begins to shift subtly from regaining their normal bodies to remaining together as brothers. The latter reason is particularly prominent in the movie adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, The Conqueror of Shamballa.

One unique characteristic of Fullmetal Alchemist is that the stories of the manga and anime separate soon after the encounter with Greed, and weave vastly different tales. The most prominent of the differences is the primary antagonist. In the anime, this is a woman known as Dante. A previous lover of Hohenheim, Dante and he were masterful alchemists and perfected methods for making the Philosopher's Stone and a form of immortality in which their souls jump to a new host body every time their current vessel began to age. However, Hohenheim soon fell in love with another and left Dante, taking with him the perfected Philosopher's Stone formula. Although Dante is still able to jump from body to body to preserve her youth, she is able to spend less and less time in each body as it decays faster with each jump, so she seeks the stone's formula to sustain her power when the small amount she had when Hohenheim left begins to run out. Dante is the leader of the homunculi, and though she did not create all of them, she sustains them by feeding them imperfect shards of the Philosopher's Stone. She uses them to spur Edward and Alphonse into finding the complete Philosopher's Stone formula for her.

The main antagonist of the manga series is a man known simply as "Father". Evidence suggests that he, like Dante and Hohenheim in the anime, has perfected an immortality formula, and is possibly a citizen from the ancient desert civilization of Xerxes. Found in the manga series as ruins, this civilization is believed to have had great alchemical and technological prowess, but suspiciously, all of its inhabitants disappeared in one night. Unlike Dante, Father is the creator of all the homunculi in the manga series, and commands them from behind the curtains of the High Command of the country Amestris, which, King Bradley (the homunculus Wrath in the manga) later reveals to Roy Mustang, was created by Father. It is suspected that Father plans to use Amestris as a gigantic transmutation circle to create a Philosopher's Stone, but the homunculus Envy hints that, although close, it is not the whole truth. Regardless, Edward and Alphonse become mixed up in Father's plans, and end up becoming prime "human sacrifices" for whatever Father has in store.

Major characters


* Edward Elric: The main protagonist, Edward ("Ed") Elric is the famous Fullmetal Alchemist, though Al is occasionally mistaken for him because of his armored body. He has a prosthetic automail right arm and left leg, is of short stature, and typically reacts in an exaggerated manner to any remarks about his height. He is known for being the youngest State Alchemist, gaining this title at the age of 12.
* Alphonse Elric: Alphonse, often nicknamed "Al," is Fullmetal Alchemist's secondary protagonist; he is Edward's younger brother and the narrator of the series. For most of the series his soul is trapped in a large suit of armor, causing other characters throughout the series to confuse Al with the "Fullmetal" Alchemist. Alphonse is the calmer of the two, and can be seen as a foil to Edward's character.
* Colonel Roy Mustang: Roy Mustang is known as the Flame Alchemist. His gloves are made of a special material called "ignition cloth," which allows him to create a spark by snapping his fingers. He then uses alchemy to change the oxygen density in the air with the help of transmutation circles on his gloves, causing a controlled explosion. He is Edward's direct superior officer in the military, but has his own goal, mainly to become the Führer, leader of the military.
* Winry Rockbell: Winry is a mechanical expert who is a childhood friend of the Elrics. She, along with her grandmother Pinako, built Edward's automail, and she also helps maintain the automail when it gets broken. Her parents were called into service as doctors for the Ishbalan Civil War and were killed.
* Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye: A hard-working member of the state military, and a loyal, capable aide to her superior officer, Roy Mustang. She is especially proficient in the use of firearms and a good marksman. While she may be level-headed, she sometimes uses her shooting skills in situations where they may not be entirely necessary.
* Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes: A member of the Investigations Division and a good friend of Colonel Mustang and the Elric brothers. He wishes to push Mustang up to the position of Führer by working closely under him. Hughes loves his wife, Gracia, and is overly enthusiastic regarding his love for his daughter Elysia, and talks about her to everyone he meets.
* Scar: One of the few surviving Ishbalans (Ishvarlans in the manga). His real name is never revealed, but he is referred to as "Scar" because of the X-shaped scar on his face. Scar's right arm, which is tattooed with a rare transmutation circle, was given to him by his brother shortly before he died. Scar believes himself to be an instrument of God, and kills State Alchemists using his alchemical skills, despite the fact that he believes alchemy is an abomination against the natural world.
* King Bradley: Known as the Führer, he is the military dictator of Amestris, holding the official political title of president (King is his first name). Although he seems to be quite easy-going and perhaps a little eccentric, he has a mind like a steel trap, and maintaining Amestris is his chief priority at all times. He hungers for war and is constantly sending troops to locations all over Amestris, "purifying the land." He is also renowned as an exceptional swordsman and is referred to as the "Ultimate Eye".
* Hohenheim: Ed and Al's mysterious father, who disappears a few years after they are born.
* Lust: Sultry and cool-hearted, she is the first of the Homunculi encountered in the series. She has the power to extend her fingers into a spear to use as a weapon, and is thus known in some translations as the "Ultimate Spear" or "Ultimate Lance".
* Gluttony: A large figure who eats anything he can get his hands on, including humans and inanimate objects. He latches on to Lust like a child to a parent.
* Envy: Sarcastic, sadistic, and cold-hearted, Envy has the ability to change appearance. He hates mankind, viewing them as pitiful and weak. Envy is a male, but his appearance is androgynous.

Terminology

* Alchemy: Alchemy within the Fullmetal Alchemist anime, put simply, refers to a three-step process. The steps are analysis (to understand the structure and properties of the substance that is about to be transmuted), destruction/decomposition (to break the substance down to its rudimentary properties), and reconstruction/recomposition (to rebuild the substance into another form or with different properties). In the manga, the source of alchemical power is believed by most alchemists to be the movement of tectonic plates-however, Mei Chan, an alchemist from the neighboring country of Xing has her doubts as to this; to her, the power behind Amestrian alchemy seems to involve the souls of the dead (while the Xing alchemy involves using the Earth's lifestream). However, in the anime, the energy for alchemical reactions comes from the other side of the Gate, supposedly from the deaths that occur in the world on the other side of the Gate. In both versions, rather than being a method of manipulating forms via their accidents (the basis of historical alchemy, derived from Greek philosophy), it is essentially modern chemistry without a reaction medium.
* Automail: A kind of prosthetics, made from metal and linked directly to the nerves of the body. Well-made automail can allow a range of movement and strength as good as or better than the original limb it replaces. Some forms of automail include ballistic devices or other enhancements. It appears to be a type of cybernetic technology, well ahead of real world cybernetics research. Edward typically has been seen altering his automail arm with Alchemy, refashioning it into a bladed weapon in the manga and anime. Since it is linked directly to the nerves of the body, attaching automail can be excruciatingly painful.
* Equivalent Exchange: The rule that alchemists in the series consider to be the foundation of Alchemy, or even the fundamental law of the world: to obtain, something of equal or greater value must be lost. One of the themes of the series is examining the implications of Equivalent Exchange as a philosophy. It also investigates into whether Equivalent Exchange is a natural law, or rather, a false ideology. As an example, the two brothers frequently quote the chemicals present in the human body, in thinking that this simple chemical exchange would be all that was needed to bring back someone from the dead.
* One is All, All is One: A cryptic way of explaining the essence of alchemy, this phrase is used by Izumi Curtis to test whether the Elric brothers are worth teaching alchemy to. According to this, if a person were to die, as such there would be no material effect on the world. Since a human body is made up of certain basic elements, when a person dies, his or her body is decomposed and these elements are returned back to nature. These elements, in turn, provide nutrients to plants which, in their turn, become food for herbivores, which are then food to carnivores. This is the cycle of life, and the death of one person is insignificant while considering the whole cycle. However, without these individual deaths, the cycle cannot be maintained and hence the individuals as a whole are significant to the continuation of the cycle. Thus, the cycle of life can never be reversed. Understanding this and working with the cycle of life in order to create new things is what alchemy is about. In other words, as the Elrics put it, "the world is the all, and I am the one."
* State Alchemist: An alchemist serving in a special branch of the state military under the direct command of the Führer. State Alchemists are selected by a series of examinations, and are regarded as some of the most powerful and talented alchemists. The position of State Alchemist also holds considerable authority and influence, automatically being promoted to the rank of Major. However, State Alchemists are despised by the general public, often called 'dogs of the military' - meaning that the person sold their soul to the military in exchange for special entitlements.
* Taboo: A forbidden act in alchemy, for example, human transmutation, which usually comes with a punishment. Edward and Alphonse attempt to return their mother back to life, and are punished by losing Al's body and Ed's leg.
* Transmutation Circle: Transmutation circles act as catalysts in alchemic reactions, and are needed for any transmutation; however, some alchemists, like Edward Elric, can transmute without one. The circle represents the constant flow of energy, the patterns decide what effects the transmutation has. A circle may be drawn on the spot, embroidered into an article of clothing, or even tattooed onto the alchemist itself. Transmutation circles can be drawn with any substance that leaves behind a trail, ranging from chalk to blood (see Blood Seal below).
* Philosopher's Stone: A legendary stone said to allow the holder to completely bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange. As with all things, however, to create a Philosopher's Stone requires the expenditure of raw materials: in this case, human lives.
* Blood Seal: A special type of transmutation circle that acts as a seal to bind a person's soul to an object, such as a suit of armor. It must, as the name suggests, be written in blood; the soul is tied to the blood and an element in the blood must be bound with the object itself. This typically only works on armor as the iron in the blood binds with the armor. Thus the blood acts as an intermediary between the soul and the object. If a blood seal is destroyed, the soul will no longer be tied to the object, and the person will enter the Gate. Some translations refer to it as a "Blood Array."
* Chimera: A chimera is the fusion of two or more different species into a single being created using alchemy. These creatures are seen as monsters by the general community, because the alchemist has taken two creatures and fused them to create one. There are also cases where the alchemist has used a human in the creation of a chimera, such cases are: Shou Tucker where he created two chimeras using firstly his wife and then his daughter. These Chimeras died shortly after they where created. However other cases such as the events of that at Lab 5, were done using more experienced alchemists, and the aid of mass amounts of Red Stones. These chimeras were created using humans, however a major difference is that these chimeras took the form of humans and then gained abilities depending on the animal they were fused with.
* Gate of Alchemy (also known as the "Gate of Truth" or just "Gate"): The Gate is said to be the source for all alchemical power. In the manga, an alchemist who sees into the Gate can then perform alchemy without the use of a written or tattooed circle because of the knowledge gained during the experience. In the anime it is said that the Gate swings forward each time the energy for alchemy is summoned, that there is a Gate inside everyone, and that all that is necessary to access the Gate is knowledge of how to do so. It is also said that a weak link between the body, mind, and spirit is what called the Gate - in other words, death. A baby, the anime posits, has a weak link between the body, mind, and spirit, and thus it is easy to summon the Gate using a baby. In the anime the Gate resembles Rodin's sculpture "The Gates of Hell", but in the manga it is more akin to an obelisk, featuring the Kabbalahistic Tree of Life.
* Truth : The ultimate goal of every alchemist. In the anime, it was just Ed's point of view to describe what he found in the Gate. In the manga, though, it was displayed as an omnipotent god-like being that exists in the Gate, enforcing the law of Equivalent Exchange.
* Rentan Jutsu (manga only): A type of Alchemy that is used in the eastern country Xing. Its roots actually lie in medicine and transmutation circles are referred to as "purification circles" by the people of Xing. While similar to Amestris alchemy (called "Renkin Jutsu" by people from Xing), the source of energy is different. Rentan Jutsu uses the power called "Lungmei" which exists everywhere on the earth. The type of alchemy that the character Mei Chan uses is Rentan Jutsu. Scar's tattoo is a mix of Renkin Jutsu and Rentan Jutsu.
* Human Sacrifice: In the manga, it is a term that the Homunculi use to refer to alchemists who have opened the Gate and seen the Truth. Human Sacrifices are a crucial part of the Homunculi and "Father's" plan, but to what end is still unknown.
* Human Transmutation: A forbidden art in which one attempts to create a human who had died. It takes something from the person who performs it (for example, an arm, leg or organ) but, instead of creating a human, it takes the alchemist to the Gate, where he or she gains knowledge proportional to what was given up in the transmutation. In the anime, the end product of a human transmutation attempt is a Homunculus.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

19th September

Dear Blog,

I am really sorry for not updating yesterday .... and i do have reasons for it ... first one is that my internet was playing games with me ... it was getting disconnected every now and then .... and the second one is well i was so tired yesterday that i slept at 9:30 ... which by my standards is really early ... the reason for sleeping early well i dunno ... you could now ask me why didnt u update me in the morning ... for that too i had reasons .... i agree i slept early but i woke up only at 11:00 in the afternoon (or say morning for me) and to top that ... i didnt go to college either ... after waking up and trying to understand whats happening around me .... i called up a friend of mine to consult of todays lectures in college ... and according to him it would be better if i didnt go to college since today there was no electricity in my college so no practicals nor theory lectures where taking place .... i guess the college didnt pay its bill or something like that ... so after receiving that good news i told myself "Now why to waste time waking up lets sleep for some time more" ... and as u guessed it .. i slept some more ... slept till 1pm ... after which my grandmother thought it wasnt good to sleep all day long especially when someone's slept so early .. so she woke me up forcibly using all the possible methods .... atlast i woke up and drank my coffee contemplating stuff that i could do .... after that i checked my mails and did a little orkuttin ... now you would ask now that i have woken up why didnt u update ur blog when u had the time .... and i have a reason again for that ... my grandmother found it hard to swallow the fact that i am always in front of the computer .... she had doubts of me and my computer having and affair or something ... so she started nagging and nagging so i had to shut off my PC and do something else .... so i thought to myself .. "What would make my grandmother think that i dont have an affair with my PC" ... the answer to which was a unanimous reply from all my senses that could think .... "SIT WITH YOUR BOOKS FOR SOMETIME DUMBO!!" ..... so i started writing an assignment from college ... or should i say ... i started copy pasting an assignment which was so huge that ..... well i have really no words for it .... i kept on writing till around 5 in the afternoon .... had my lunch in between though ... which was Khichdi, "Gotse" (its a very spicy bhaji like thing that gives good taste to the bland khicdi) and dahi chaval .... also had many small breaks in between the assignment writing .... after which i atlast got the chance to update u .....


BTW ... i forgot to add what i did yesterday ... well yesterday was not a very funfilled day or a day with lots of variety .... the day started with me waking up as early as 7:45 in the morning (might seem early considering till now i havent woken up that early in the blogs that i have writtern) had my coffee and dressed up to go to college .... reached college which by the way is like a trek to the nearby mountain range ... seriously and literally .... our college brochure even mentions "Located at Lush green environment" and they do mean it quite literally ... ill update u with my college pics when i get some ... at college as usual all bunked the lectures that were gonna happen .. and i sat and wrote some journals for 3hrs or so after which i ate my dabba which had "Tepla" (a gujju chapati) and lemon ka achar .... i also ate other's dabba too ... who's contents i dont remember ..... after that i had a practical on "Software Engineering" which was really boring ... neither the teacher nor us students understood what was going on .... yet the teacher wanted to teach us and us students want to listen to what she wants to teach us .... the biggest irony in it is the fact that the teacher herself knows that she doesnt know anything about the subject yet she tries to act as if she knows everything ... after an enjoying 1hr pracs (enjoyable becoz of her english ... it was the worst in the planet) i came out brain drained and came back home .... changed my clothes and left for classes which was on "Image Processing" ... one of the best subjects in the Engineering curriculum .. after that came home had dinner .. the rest u know as above ;) .... Have a good day

Monday, September 17, 2007

17th September 2007

Dear Blog,

Today was a very lazy morning .... or should i say afternoon .... coz i woke up 4 in the afternoon after a long beauty sleep ..... After that sleep i really felt beautiful .... actually as soon as i woke up and was drinking my coffee (Yeah i wake up and drink coffee even if its 4 in the afternoon, it makes me feel awake) i remember something that a close friend of mine who has to wake up at 6 everyday and go to Godrej for work said one time .... "Saale Harry .. tuu kitna lucky hai terko teen char baje tak soone milta hai .... aur ek saal ruk tu bhi subah jaldi uthna sikh jayegaa ... actually uthna padegaa nahin toh boss teri maarega" ..... man i seriously got scared on remembering those exact words .... after that shocking kickass thought ... i did something even i didnt think i would .... i re-arranged my wardrobe and now it looks as if i was in some shopping mall (not that i have a large number of clothes like in the mall) .... before that i looked as if some cloth seller at Bandra Link Road (yeah i go there sometimes with my sister and you should too coz clothes over there are shit cheap especially if u are gurl) .... apart from that i also discovered many new tees that i havent worn for ages .... later that evening i was busy chatting and orkuttin and a little assignment writing till a friend of mine dropped by with his hard disk .... after which i was busy helping him update his movie database by giving him movies which he had never even heard of ... oh did i forget to mention i watch all the latest movies and old classics too which i havent seen ofcourse ..... ok ill stop bragging ... later i went to my friends house to fix his PC ... actually format his PC ... came back home and had dinner which was Pulao and curd rice .... after that i had a stroll down in my complex's lawn spending some alone time thinking about .... err ... virtually nothin just taking in the cool fresh air and enjoying the cool touch of damp grass onto my bare feet .... its simply wonderful until u hear ur cell ringing and ur mom's voice saying "Beta aaj garden mai hi soone wala hai kya??" .... so as expected i go back home and sit on my PC and do what I do best ... Good Night

16th September 2007

Dear Blog,

As i told u yesterday i wuld try to sleep early ... well i tried but i culdnt suceed at all .... just as usual ... was engrossed in an intresting website on Adsense .. google's new toy ... actually its an old one but its quite new for me ... i slept after 2:30 in the morning ... nite for me .... after a small nap .. woke up early at 7:00 and left for DSP classes .... DSP actually stands for "Discrete Signal Processing" (couldnt have writtern the full form without a help)... but today morning it was more of "Discreet Sleeping Process" coz i was literally discreetly sleeping in that lecture till until the break .... i need 2 cups of tea to wake me up from that state of drowsiness .... after that i could understand some stuff that was going on over there .... this happened till 12:30 after which i came back home only to find India vs New Zeland match going on .... and boy oh boy was it interesting ... Pathan and RP singh were bowling so superbly yet those Kiwis made a good score ... all thanks to sreesanth and agarkar .... i also got to see some batting by india .... especially the destructive game of sehwag ... i particularly remember that four he had hit to the off side ... not a single fielder moved till the ball touched the ropes .... it was an awesome shot ... i had to go to another class which was fun .... later that evening i went to nirmal lifestyle again to hangout but this time only with a friend .. and not a group .... it was quite fun ... we were exploring Shoperite and discovered some new stuff .... like the T-shirts that were being sold here were really awesome though it sounds untrue ... but i found them to be seriously nice .... later we had dinner outside and came back home ..... well if u ask me about what i had in dinner .... it was just some Chinese dishes .... Manchow noodles and Manchurian Rice ... after that i came home and ate some sandwiches that my dear sis made .... it was really delicious ... after that the usual stuff ... sitting in front of the PC and chatting away to glory .... Good Nite for now!!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

15th September 2007

Dear Blog,

Today morning i woke up early enough at 10:30 in the morning .... actually was forcibly woken up by my mom who wanted me to do puja since my father is out of station ..... if u are wondering what pooja then let me remind u ... today was ganesh chaturthi .. so even if we dont keep ganpathi at our house ... we have to perform ganpati pooja on the first day ... so as planned i took bath and did the puja which had real tongue twisting mantras .... i almost fractured my tongue ... after that came the best part ... i got to eat lots of modaks and vadas .... the only 2 savory items that i like in the entire list of those ..... i ate like mad ... then later at around 12:30 i completed yesterday's blog and then sat chatting with friends ... and orkutting till around 4 ... then played CS for sometime ..... after that around 6 in the evening i left home to go to Nirmal Lifestyle .... my favourite hangout with a few of my best friends .... had a lots of fun time over there and came back home around 10pm ..... the intresting tale about this hangout was the variety of food stuff that we had ... i mean it was really a huge varity ... first we had Schezwan White sauce Pasta followed by a slice of fresh italian pizza with lots of olives and other stuff ..... then we topped it with a chocolate bar ... i had Bounty ... the only chocolate that i like .... after that we had Pani Puri .... i know u must be feeling bad about my stomach but thats not all .... we then had a glass of sugarcane Juice then i came home ... drank a glass of mixed fruit squash ate some masala bhaath and finally finished the torture to my stomach with some Curd Rice .... Quite an adventure that was for my sorry stomach ... i am planing to sleep early tonite as i have classes in the morning and have a very busy schedule planned for tommorow .... till the cya .... Good nite ;)

One of the most beautiful movie i have seen

Dear Blog,

Sry for not updating u last nite .... i was really engrossed in watching a movie .... the movie was about a person who was jailed for life time for a crime that he didnt do ... During his time in the prison he brought such a huge change in the entire prison that no one wuld suspect that he was planning an escape out of the prison ... the direction of the movie , the acting by the actors and the dialogues are so heart touching that u are bound to be entertained for 2 hours ..... the name of the movie is "The Shawshank Redemption" u really have to watch this classic ..... have a good day ...

Friday, September 14, 2007

14th Sept 2007

Dear Blog,

Today was a very very busy day for me ..... i was really engrossed and busy doing nothin. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning only to go to bed again the next minute .... then i directly woke up at 4:00 in the afternoon .... i had a very good dream about me becoming the dictator of the world and ruling over stupid suckers .... nevermind that ... after i woke up i sat on my arse in front of the PC and did what i do the best .. chat and surf on the internet ... chatted till about 6:00 in the evening then thought it wuld be good to do something else for a change .... so i killed some Terrorists with Mavericks and Grenades .... not to mention they bombed my base a million time .... oh if u are scared of what i have become then lemme tell u ... i was playing Counter-Strike and those terrorist i killed werent the real ones ... wish i culd kill them in real .. not that i hate them ... but just for fun ... i killed till around 8:00 in the evening then i had a conference chat in yahoo with 3 freaks .. who were there wasting their time ... mind u these freaks are scholars of our godforsaken college ... and 2 of them have jobs already at big companies ... not that i am jealous of them ... but still .. thats what happens ... other than that nothin else happened till now ... will update u with what happens later ... till then take care

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Final Words for the day 13th Sept 2007

Actually i dont have any final words ... i have a video that says everything i want to say!!!

PLZ DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS VIDEO IN UR SPEAKERS ELSE UR PARENTS ARE SURELY GONNA KICK UR ASS!!!!!
THE VIDEO HAS OBSCENE LYRICS SO WATCH IT AT UR OWN RISK!!!




Listen to the crowd man!!!

the band that's playing this is Slipknot and they are playing live in sydney and they rockkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!

13th September 2007

Dear Blog,

Today i had my last paper of the Term Test that is held in our godforsaken college called Shivajirao S. Jondhale College of Engineering. The subject was Advanced Microprocessor and really speaking ... the stuff was really advance ... sooo advanced that my brain stopped advancing. I tried studying it the nite before but succeeded in only understanding what was called "General Purpose Registers" .... then i just closed the books and sat orkuttin till i got bored. After the exams that i finished writing faster than u wuld finish reading my blog .... i sat listening to my IpoD in Khandar ... for those who are wondering where did this come from ... its the most infamous place in our college that got its name becoz of the fact that before we made it famous ... no one used to there ... which in my opinion was becoz they were scared of the ghost of Jhondale ... I was waiting for others who incidentally said that they will come out in 15 mins but came out after what seemed like a whole 1 and half hour ..... slowly everyone got out of the exam hall with a grin which was obvious as they had writtern so much that even the paper checker wuldnt know whats right and wats wrong .... Everyone else decided to go to Bandra to check out the Bandra Fair and to fulfill their sudden faith in Mother Mary (Praise The Lord) while i declined since i wasnt in a mood to travel that far ..... Later i came back home and me and my arse were in front of the internet chatting to various people .... then i mined some Titanium and made some Titanium Bars in Eternal Lands (a MMORPG). Later i had a chat with someone whom i missed for a long time .... After that i went and bored some building/colony friends who as usual bragged about how their father's friend bought a new car and how he got a free ride in it and other stuff ...

That was my day today and as u can see ... it has a variety of entertainment for all diffrent age groups

13th September 2007

Dear Blog,

I knew about Blogging from long time back but just didnt have the motivation to start a blog of my own ... As the title of my blog suggest i will try to keep u updated with whatever i am doing in my life .... It has been my dream to maintain a secret diary of sorts that people can discover and read about my life, which is intriguing and yet so discreet.

Lets start from now ... Better Late Than Never