First snowfall of the season

Ok ..almost first. View from our bedroom window this morning.

Bring it on!

After a mammoth splurge on winter wear (800$$), eliza feels all prepared for the winter and snow. Infact at this moment she is feeling very warm and cosy sitting on her pile of shopping. Went to the mall of america today which happens to be the biggest mall in the US. Spend an entire day hopping shops and picking up jackets, sweaters, warm shirts, gloves, caps, thermals, etc. So all you lords of frost and ice, bring it on!

PS1: Next on list snow boots and a big warm hat.
PS2: The mall is a wonderful place with fun rides, food stalls, and hundreds of shops.
PS3: The gobi aloo subji that I prepared today surprisingly tasted so good.
PS4: Someone please clean up the after mess. Oh how much I miss India and my cook.
PS5: Someone please do the bundle of laundry.
PS6: Someone please do my homework :(
PS7: Someone please do some preparation for my weekly advisor meeting.
PS8: Nishit would say I need twitter :D

Theory of relativity

It has been a month since I first cribbed about cold here. It is 14 degrees again at 2 pm today (and would continue to be so or even lower this month.) However I am finding it ok. My officemate at the RA office was telling me that in March when I see 5 degree C, I will be calling it nice and warm. I nodded my head and thought that's the power of relativity.

On your marks

Get set and go.. I am all set to fly out of India tomorrow and I have in me a lot of mixed feelings. I am apprehensive about the new place, harsh climate, sub zero temperatures, grad studies, staying away from family for longer, interacting with a batch much much younger than me and unsettling myself when I should have long settled down and not to mention with kids. At the same time I am excited about doing full fledged research and more importantly with Adi by my side. I am excited about writing papers and studying and learning all that I thought I missed during my college days. I have decided not to set very high goals for myself or push myself but to just be sincere in my efforts and enjoy the moment.

Brinjal fry

I learned this today (yeah I am in Delhi!). It looked absolutely yummy and I thought I should note it down lest I forget.

Ingredients - (for 2 people)
Small brinjals - 6
Amchur powder - 2 tblsp
Dhaniya powder - 3 tblsp
Souf powder - 3 tblsp
Sarso oil
Turmeric powder
Salt
Jeera - 1 tsp


Recipe 1 - Bharma Baigan
Make 4 vertical cuts in brinjals without removing the lower stem so that the brinjal is still a single piece. Mix dhaniya powder, souf powder (souf grinded), amchur powder, salt, turmeric powder, 1 tblsp sarso oil in a bowl. Fill the masala in brinjals without spilling it over. Put 2 big spoons oil in a frying pan. Put jeera in the oil when heated. Add 1 tsp dhaniya powder to it. Put the brinjals in the oil and cover it until they get cooked. Point to be noted do not put water in the brinjals, the brinjals need to be cooked in oil. If needed put water on a plate with which the brinjals are covered.

Recipe 2 - Aaloo baigan
Take 2 tblsp oil in kadai. When the oil gets heated put 1 tsp jeera, 1 tsp souf powder, 1 tsp dhaniya powder in it. Add the brinjals and potato. Add salt and turmeric. Add already fried and cut onion. Cover the kadai with a plate of water. You can sprinkle water in this one. After the brinjals are done add 1 tsp of amchur powder to it and cook for 2 mins.

Singapore

Here we come :-)

http://www.sigir2008.org/workshops.html

Of Marbles, Jars and Life

You are a prisoner in a foreign land. Your fate will be determined by a little game. There are two jars, one with 50 white marbles, and one with 50 black marbles. At this point, you are allowed to redistribute the marbles however you wish (e.g. swap a black marble with a white marble, etc.): the only requirement is that after you are done with the redistribution, every marble must be in one of the two jars. afterwards, both jars will be shaken up, and you will be blindfolded and presented with one of the jars at random. then you pick one marble out of the jar given to you. If the marble you pull out is white, you live; if black, you die. how should you redistribute the marbles to maximize the probability that you live; what is this maximum probability (roughly)

Ans - Put one white marble in one jar and put all the other white marbles in the other jar.
Probability of white getting selected - 1/2(1) + 1/2(49/99) roughly = 3/4

Height of absent mindedness

Ravi pings me - "Hi jaya"
I ping back - "Hi jaya"

After 2 mins I realize what I wrote :D

One year of togetherness

It still feels like our first night together
Feels like the first kiss and
It's gettin' better baby
No one can better this
I'm still hold on and you're still the one
The first time our eyes met it's the same feelin' I get
Only feels much stronger and I wanna love ya longer
You still turn the fire on

And finally Dilwale dulhaniya le jaayenge

No, nothing else matters....

Hmm....

Are we responsible for what we do ? responsible for what happens ? When is it that things slip out of our hands and reach a point of no return ? Or are they always in our hands ? I fail to answer this right now.

New additions to our house...

Market mayhem

Got this forward regarding the market mayhem and couldnt stop laughing

Latest Blockbuster "SAARE ZAMEEN PAR" ..
Premiered Yesterday at BSE and NSE..
Directed and Produced by Ambani Bros,
POWER ON.. MARKET GONE

Talking about status messages...

Our relationship started on yahoo messenger. For about six months, we used to chat incessantly for about 4 hours during the night on average. Adi had a unique way of expressing his thoughts as status messages on Yahoo messenger but never telling them directly to me. The messages were mainly lyrics of songs but I liked their usage.... So much that I still remember some of them and their context.

1. When we started chatting "Smells like teen spirit"

2. When one day I said I'll be back to chat but dint return for long "Oh oo she has taken the stairway to heaven"

3. In a flirtatious mood "We'll stand for love united come together undivided". I asked him whom is the status message for and pat came the reply "for my sister who just came online".. needless to say I dint trust him :P

4. When we had our first fight - "Crash tests dummies"

5. When we had a long long chat from 9 pm to 5 am and I got angry over something "Naraz savera hai"

6. Someday "Heal me I am heartsick"

7. Another fight "Careless whisper"

8. When the chats were getting addictive "You're like my fav damn disease"

9. And our first coffee date the one which floored me the most "And I hope those eyes dont steal my freedom"

10. When we first shook hands "Sleight of hand"

11. And when we started going around "I was stone her light made me star"

12. Later on "I'll be there for you These five words I swear to you"

And status message these days - blank :|

Regex tips

1. ?: => To not to capture the text matched within the parenthesis.
2. /i => Case insensitive
3. perl -p -i -e 'some command' file => -e program is in command line -p substition to be done for every line in the file -i changes to be written back to the file when done
4. $line =~ s/^/|> /; => Make every line start with |>
5. ?=\d => Positive lookahead, check if next char is \d without moving cursor
6. ?<=\d => Positive lookbehind
7. ?! => Negative lookahead, check if next char does not match
8. ? Negative lookbehind
9. e.g. s/(?<=ABC)(?=EFG)/D/g => inserts D
10. /x => Free format regex, turns whitespace into ignore me and # into comment. Really helpful for writing complex regexes spanning multiple lines.

No country for old men

The movie kicked off reminding me of legendary 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly'. I thought if it were a western classic kind of a movie. As it proceeded, it sprang up many surprises and kept me at the edge of my seat(err.. bed). It made me label it as a thriller. And then finally when it ended, I was like what, when, how, why ?? I failed to fathom it, nevertheless people say it is a brilliant movie so may be.

Some 2007 movies to watch

Into the Wild
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Scaphandre et le papillon, Le
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood
The Great Debators
Eastern Promises

The Atonement

'The Atonement' (ref: http://imdb.com/title/tt0783233/) won the golden globe award for the best movie of the year. I saw it yesterday and knew exactly why. Although I havent seen the other movies competing with it, this one for sure is beautifully made. The movie revolves around the lives of Brioney, her elder sister and the sister's lover and deftly moves back and forward in time. The vivid colors and the lush green gardens in the first half provide an absolute contrast to the sombre war frames in the second half. I liked the way the movie (and yes the novel) did not deviate from its original theme and not try to go too deep in the war. The romance, the pain, the hopelessness and the atonement are so real that you can feel it. Full marks to the director and my two cents on it for the Oscar.

Madhuri Dixit's comeback vehicle 'Aaja Nachle' has been declared a flop. But I have grown up admiring her and cant forget her countless movies which I watched many times over. Some of her movies which I still love are - Tezaab, Ram Lakhan, Dil, Beta, Parinda, Saajan, and of course HAHK.

My foosball champ!

Shady boy won the yahoo wide foosball tournament! The excitement, tension, competition made it a mini t-20 tournament for me. And the final match drew parallels from the India-Pak draw match . With both team having won two sets each and equally poised at the decider with 4 points each, Shady's match winning goal from the defender's end came like a sixer. Also worth mentioning is Suhas's (Shady's parter) incredulous accuracy and speed with the ball from the attacker's end.
Way to go my gaming gizmo!