A festival of light

Haven't been blogging for a while, been pretty busy lately, so last Thursday's national holiday break for the Deepavali celebration was a welcomed moment. However, a shortened working week meant more late nights to complete reports and such, otherwise, would have had to bring work back.

Saw this "kolam" at the mall next to my office. Imagine the attention to detail, and the painstaking effort to ensure the various coloured rice grains were arranged to depict a particular scene or picture. This was actually one of the nicer ones I have seen so far.

With the rest time available, instead of staying at home and recuperate from the various running around I have been doing lately, I met up with some friends and hit the lanes for a game or two (or three!) of tenpin bowling. Didn't bowl too well though, below my average, and lost a couple cups of coffee as a side bet. Incidentally, the best hot chocolate (rather than going for coffee) I have tried so far is at Starbucks! Yumm!

Also managed to catch "Stardust", a movie along the Fantasy Genre. Quite good actually, light and humurous to boot. Somehow, got into a discussion with a friend about "stars", especially when Yvaine towards the end, said that stars shine:

Alex: What do stars do?
Friend: They glitter or twinkle.
Alex: No'lah, they shine!
Friend: They don't shine, they reflect the sun!

So? What do you reckon? Stars shine brightly or they twinkle in the night? Hmmm...

Student vs Working Life

Got this through the email, and I think it has been circulating for a while already. However, it still holds true. Working life is so much different from being a student. What is worse? Try working and studying at the same time, which many still have to do...!

**************************************************

Bill Gates once gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Dinosaur no more

My PC at home has been likened to a dinosaur. Was still running on a Pentium II, with very limited harddisk space. However, all that has finally changed, and thanks to some friends who persistently nudged me to get some technological upgrades. :P

And would you believe it? In this day and age, some still use dial-up connections? Cheaper muh, especially for people who do not use the internet much, except to check emails and do a few basic things. Again, yeah, FINALLY got myself converted to using broadband!!! and yes, it's faster! Wireless to boot! Yippeee, less wires running around .... :P

So, what shall I do with my current dinosaur? Not quite extinct yet...