Me,a Chameleon ?

This is my aura...
Crystals have clear auras and are known as the "aura chameleons." Like chameleons, their auras will change colors to match those of the people they are connecting with at the time. They then take on the characteristics, behavior patterns, emotions and thoughts of that color.

What Is Your True Aura Colour?

String Theory

Its been quite some time now,since I last blogged.Thanks to the hectic schedule at work and also for the fact, that nothing interesting happened after the rest room mania.Well,I have something to write now.

I really wish I could write something about the actual string theory.But,I am not qualified enough to talk about that.The strings I am referring to are those of a GUItar.If you are wondering why I have written guitar in that particular fashion,its on the lines of a tool in linux.That is also called guitar, meaning, its a GUI for the "tar" command.An intelligent way of naming software.And,I am not far behind either when it comes to naming them,as 022 affirms.

Life was getting too monotonous and I thought something must be done about it.After contemplating on the different avenues that I had (actually,I could think of none), I zeroed in on,what else, but music.I decided that I must learn some instrument.Given my singing prowess, I would have a started a new genre of music had I opted for vocal.But then,whats the point if the audience is not erudite enough to understand what I am singing.So, decided against it.

Then came the question of selecting an instrument.Actually,I was not particular about anything.In fact,I have liked all the instruments that I have heard till date.But yes,I did have some special inclination towards violin and other stringed instruments in general(Veena,Mandolin and Sarod being the other favourites).I have never been a follower of english music, which is where the guitar is used heavily and so never gave any importance to actually hearing it.Although, our Indian movies also have adopted it in a big way in recent times.

When I went with josh to the guitar class where he was getting himself admitted,I heard for the first time,the instrument being played there,live.The tutor was playing a hindi song and I was bowled over.Guitar,then became my obvious choice and I joined classes last week.As of now,I am just playing the open strings and already, it feels good.Can't wait for the day when I can play all those hindi songs that I have just been humming all these years.Till then,I shall keep strumming.

Rest room mania

The place where I am working right now has a stunning building.Extremely aesthetic and "happening".I like everything about that place,but for one thing.I feel it has one major flaw in its design. On every floor, the women's rest room is right next to the door that leads to the stairs.Ever since I observed this, I had been wondering,what if some male inadvertently opens the wrong door !!! I used to amuse myself imagining the situation and the plight of that poor guy.

Slightly digressing from the topic, any guesses why "Rest room" is termed so ? If I were asked, it should aptly be christened as "Relieving room".

Coming back,my imagination actually,well, almost turned into a reality a couple of days back. And as luck would have it,the poor guy turned out to be your's truly.Yes, it happened to me (Maybe I can send this to Tinkle to publish it in their "It happened to me" section). After lunch,I was getting back to my cube. I was in the ground floor and since my cube is only in the second floor,I thought of using the stairs to get there.

As I was about to open the door which I thought was, to get to the stairs,a woman was coming from the other side of it. For reasons that I could not fathom(at that time),she was staring at me as she passed by.Then it was sheer providence, that just before I pushed the door open,I callously raised my head,and to my horror found "WOMEN" written on it in bold red. Lost in some thoughts, I had moved past the door that led to the steps. My immediate reaction was, "Oh-my-god,is somebody watching me ?".I was too scared even to look around.I almost ran towards the stairs and would still like to believe that nobody was present there.

As for the woman who was staring at me,I don't remember her face.I wish I did.Atleast,then I could evade her because I am sure she will exactly remember my face,and that too with the resolution of a picture taken from a 5M pixel digital camera.Or, I will know when a woman again stares at me.But,I must be careful from now on..

So far,so good

Pehla Nasha,Pehla Khumar... No,no, I have not fallen in love (I am generally scared of falling and the same holds even in case of 'falling in love').That was the alarm tone on my mobile that went off at 5.45 early(very very early for me)today morning.After much trepidation & self-cursing, managed to pull myself out of the bed.The reason why I was behaving like a masochist was because of an impulsive decision that I took yesterday.This decision was, courtesy my increasing waistline.You can compare its growth with the rate at which petrol prices are going up in Bangalore.And that is quite high for comfort(Literally in this case,as I found out my pants were getting tighter around my waist).So,I finally decided to do something about it.

The best and the cost-effective way,I thought,to acheive this would be - jogging.
I called up one of my friends in the night yesterday and told him about my decision.He seemed quite inspired and promised that he too would join me today.I found out,he was not all that inspired, for he did not turn up today morning.But not to be deterred by this,I upheld my decision and started out alone.Being the first day,I thought a brisk walk would be advisable rather starting jogging right away.At that, I clocked a good speed too.Then I made a mistake of over-estimating myself.Thought why not jog from day one - after all,that was my decision in the first place.
Its about time to sleep now and I am having quite a pain in my legs and knees.
But I am not going to give up so easily.In Swami Vivekananda's words, "Arise,awake and stop not till the goal is reached".So,I will arise and awake very very early(you know what time) every morning and jog till my goal is reached.

Its been "So far,so good".Only that "So far" here refers to only one day.But I really plan to go far tomorrow morning.The alarm is again set at 5.45 and the clock is ticking.Pehla Nasha,Pehla Khumar...

One simple question

The question is rather simple, but I am not sure if the answer is all that obvious.
" Why do we think the way we think ? "

I recently read an article that talked about the "cosmic law" as proposed by the Buddha. According to this law, all that is happening was just meant to happen that way.It could not have happened otherwise.It goes on to conclude that one should not have any hatred towards someone for something bad that he did to you, because whatever happened to you simply had to happen and that person was merely following the cosmic law to generate that event.

Now, as a fall out of that argument can it be implied that the effect was already decided ? Then, the cause was so generated as to produce the required effect. In summary, the effect was the cause for the cause to produce the effect.The "principle of causality" is violated in this case and there remains little distinction between cause and effect.

I have read in a number of places that "you are what you think you are" and other such numerous versions of the above statement that basically translate into "You can become what you choose to become".Agreed.

But,at the cost of repitition,my simple question is "Why did we think in a particular way".Why does a winner think that he can win and on the same lines why does a loser think that he will lose.
Building upon the cosmic law, can it be argued that the winner was already chosen and his thought process, was merely in a manner, conducive for him to win ? (Though I don't know what algorithm is used to choose the winner !!)

Is it possible that we already have our destinies decided and we think in a given way in order to fulfill that destiny ? I know that sounds kind of a defeatist attitude where you are accepting that things are not actually under your control.But could it be the truth.I don't know....

022

This is not a post, as to why Mumbai has 022 as its dialing code. 022 is the name of the utility that I concocted during the spare time at work that I am having these days.
It stands for “ 0 to(2) 2 ”,with 0 as in 4:2:0 and 2 as in 4:2:2. Now, 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 are two formats for representing raw video data in digital format. The three numbers represent the luminance (Y), and chrominance (U, V) information respectively. The difference between them is in the amount of chroma information that is stored. In 4:2:0, the resolution of the chroma samples is halved in both the vertical and horizontal directions. For instance if your luma information is represented as 176 x 144 pixels, each of the chroma samples, U and V are 88 x 72 pixels. On the other hand (It feels quite funny to use this expression – “On the other hand”, but nevertheless..), in 4:2:2 the chroma samples are halved in only the horizontal direction. So in 4:2:2 , the chroma samples are 88 x 144 pixels each. Then there is also the 4:4:4 format where the amount of chroma information stored is the same as the amount of luma stored. The chroma information, then, in 4:4:4 is 176 x 144 pixels. Don’t bother too much about why the number “4” is used to represent the various formats. There is some reason, which I cannot recollect right now. Its not too significant in this context,either.

So what is the fuss about having so many different formats to store the YUV. Supposedly, the human eye is more sensitive to the luminance aspect of an image than the chroma information. To take advantage of this weakness, they have resorted to the various formats. An image in 4:2:0 requires half the number of bytes than that required by an image in 4:4:4 without much loss (actually any) in visual perception.

Finally, what does 022 do. Not much actually. It takes a YUV file in 4:2:0 format and converts it into 4:2:2. How does it do it? Well there are a number of ways like interpolation, replication and so forth. 022 being simple, just uses the replication method wherein the pixels are replicated line by line vertically. There, you have the 4:2:2 file as output. This talks about converting from 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 using interpolation.

In all probability, this could be my first and last post on a technical issue. There are sites reserved for technical discussions and I feel this is not the right place. You can interpret that, as a euphemism for saying, “ I am dumb, so please do not expect anything technical from me”.

Mirage

Wrote this article a long time ago.Thought of posting it here and this is how it goes...

Why is it that we find so many people around, whining every moment? They desire to possess the best things under the sun. Why does the human mind always crave for the good? Nothing but only the best can satiate its thirst. Even as I write this piece, a part of my mind is already ‘craving’ for the adulation that I would get, if this chunk of text can impress upon an august audience. Why do we always want to succeed? Oblivious to the fact that failures are a part of life, we cannot accept any failures in our professional or personal lives. It is a rarity to find someone ‘pleased’ at his inability to do something. Status, wealth, and fame…the ‘most wanted’ ingredients in the recipe for a so-called ‘successful life’ go on.

Precisely speaking, there is no formal definition of a successful life. It is all left to your perception as to what you see in a successful person. It is nowhere stated that the person who the makes the greatest of discoveries or the richest man alive can be termed ‘successful’. That makes success a subjective issue. You see a sweeper who relentlessly goes about doing his mundane job, as successful and so he becomes. But that again, is only your perception. The world might not even be aware of his existence.

Then what is it that makes success a common or a disparate perception? Ostensibly, success stems from the ability to do something that others have not been able to attempt or have failed if they have done so. When people fail to understand your work you have good chances of being labeled successful!! For instance, I might be a ‘successful’ writer for someone, not very adept at the English language. At the same instant, the author of a best seller could tag me a ‘miserable failure’ at writing. Consequently, success or failure is only relative. There is no yardstick to measure your success. It is like a mirage you encounter in the blistering heat of the desert. The moment you feel you have reached it, it has eluded you.

That teaches us an important lesson. Do not run after success, just like you should not be running away from failure. That is because, it is just like trying to breathe in vacuum. There is no air and you wish to breathe? You will not find success or failure in your lives no matter how fast and how far you run. They are non-existent entities in reality, which find place only in your minds in the form of an illusion. The only reality is YOU and your duties in life.

If only everybody, myself included on top of the list could realize this, the world would be a much better place to stay in. Ah! There goes the mind again craving for better things. You cannot correct the mind, can you?

I am infected...

Yes,the blogging bug has finally hit me.I never thought that I would get into this thing.But here I am.I am trying to follow the simple-yet-so-complex zen philosophy, "Eat when you are hungry and sleep when you feel sleepy". I am feeling like blogging now,and so this post.But I don't know if I will have the enthusiasm to keep going and it doesn't matter.

I must admit, the very process of creating a blog was extremely irritating.Without exaggeration,I must have typed atleast 30 different names for the username. 'mighty duck', 'memd', 'thisisbad', 'ksrisgod' were some of my unsuccessful attempts at creating a valid username.Much to my consternation, none of them were available. Then, almost pleadingly, I just gave in 'whatnamedoigive' as the input, and lo and behold !!,it was available.So you see, the very process of not getting something, got me that very thing.Much,like in life,I guess. The moment you let go of something, you acquire it.

So much so for my very first post.