The sky outside, yesterday. A very pretty sight indeed! Even at midnight, it glowed with an evening glory. A very captivating dark hue of pink and blue and gray.
The snow outside, right now. With very very strange footmarks. The foot marks are eerie. They can’t be of a human. But they have to belong to a 2 legged creature, and judging by the step wise (at least 1.5 times bigger than my step size, this creature does seem frightening. Strangely the step size is smaller where they seem to start and gets bigger towards where the snow meets the cold unmarkable gravel of road.
Vending machine in Indy Airport, around mid of December.
I was left totally surprised when I saw it and I thought it was only Amer-I-gnorant me who was gasping, but it took the Americans by surprise too. Everyone was crowding around the machine and checking it out. Apple does know how to package stuff
Not only the idea of putting iPod and related accessories in a vending machine is thinking out of the box but putting this machine at the airport tops it. To facilitate the last minute Christmas gift shopping for parents/spouse when you flying to meet them!
I BOUGHT A PAIR OF SANDALS FOR MYSELF! On the scale of high-points-in-my-life, this event ranks high. Because it has been so rare in my life. Hardly ever, a sandal would fit my feet. I will dismally settle down for sport shoes, or some other footwear which I would hate from the bottom of my heart. Because there is nothing, noTHING that would fit these giant feet.
Was I thrilled to see pretty sandals for women with big feet? Oh boy! that is not even a question. I was, I was, I was is the answer if you have not guessed.
{One caveat though : Sandals might be available for larger feet, but they still come with heels. Heels is something I don’t prefer in my footwear. But oh well! This is a beginning, and I will embrace it with open arms. (read Beggars can’t be choosers, has become too deeply ingrained), I guess a bit of heal has done no one a harm except the those who have been stepped on, I can live with them}
Tomorrow starts the new day of my second semester of graduate education.
Right now, I am 18 years and 1 semester deep into my formal education. That’s not a small time. But yet, as I move from one class to other the quandary of organizing books, notes, articles, loose sheets of the previous class dogs me.
What am I to do? How should I organize them, that they take minimum space, don’t make room look cramped, are easily accessible, remain complete, easy to refer to, don’t depend upon memory to be useful, require least work.
My mom, whenever I go home, threatens to give/throw/dispose/get rid of my undergraduate books. “Or at least the notebooks”, she pleads. True, I haven’t looked at them since I got my degree, but that they are there is so comforting. What if, I ever need to know the Taylor Series, I can always pick up my Real Analysis notebook, the one whose cover is 2/3 torn, half of the remaining is toast dry (the sort where the paper dries after getting wet accidentally) and carries marks of water or the one where I hand drew the language tree in my linguistics class or the one where I designed that counter (I don’t even remember what it did, but oh! it was the exercise in Digital Electronics, the last assignment which tested it all, it was a toughie, but if you could design it, it was a cutie, does anyone remember that??). See, I can point my finger at a book and know which one I am talking about but sadly I have forgotten the contents of it.
True, nowadays mostly articles and notes are online, and you can write down lectures directly on your laptop, but that sudden inspired rush when the lecture makes total complete sense, or that design you think of, or something equally inspiring which rounds up the education usually ends up penciled in a notebook or a textbook. For me, at least.
Needed : a good idea for archiving the old class stuff.
Hoping everyone a good year ahead (not the tire, but to them as well)
This winter break went exceptionally well, something which I had not been anticipating at all. Well, leaving Pune and the friends was the hardest thing this year. And having them missing and lacking those times had made me all blue-sy . But I got to meet my very own people this break. Not all of them, I would absolutely love that but at the same time it is very tough to manage that kind of feat, given we must be 15-20 of us.
So, a week in Raleigh, NC where I met 5 of my dear friends was absolutely thrilling, not to mention I skied for the very first time. I wasn’t good at it but I was not exceptionally bad at it either. I was not afraid of it but at the same time I was also not very comfortable with the speed a ski gathers. But, it was big big fun.
This was how it was
The fun did not stop here. I returned from Raleigh feeling ultra bad to leave the friends and good time back. It was the day of Christmas and I mocked myself to be alone on that day. Only to find a gift for me. It filled me with glee. I opened up the parcel like a hungry wolf and almost cried in disbelief. It was a leather overcoat from a friend – my ex roommate of the wonderful times in Pune. This was the same leather coat I borrowed from her several times in Pune, just because I liked it on me. 3 weeks before Christmas, I mentioned to her that as the temperature went sub zero for the first time in my life it reminded me of her coat. Little did I imagine, she would do this. I had not known that she would do a Santa to me.
@Dox ppl : now, the powers of Magica have been official transferred to me.
Well, I strutted around in her coat which now is mine.
And, if you think magic of this winter break stopped here for me, you are very wrong, because another Pune friend of mine paid me a visit.For one, I cooked a delicious dinner of which I am very proud of myself (since it was once in 100 years kind of thing) and then I had a whale of time looking around my state and not to forget some good meals I got to tuck. There are more photos and more stories (mostly scary ones) but later.. phew
I don’t quite like the fact that BLOGSPOT hides its permanent links behind the time [of the post].
Other thing I don’t like is the Windows Automatic Updates. They give a lil’ pop-up asking if you want to Restart your computer now or later. And they very helpfully, also inform that updates would not be applied till the machine is restarted.
The problem begins when you choose to restart your machine LATER. The pop-up keeps popping up with an alarming frequency of once in 10 minutes with the focus on…”Restart now” (Bingo!). Its would be just so unfortunate that you be left clicking or hitting the Return key right at the opportune moment when the pop-up pops. The remains are unsaved work or a friend at the other end who begins wondering what did he say to go offline so suddenly.
I am posting links to the “thoughts on/about design” my classmates acquired this semester and very meticulously collected by fellow classmate Mingxian. I am shamelessly just putting the links. For my defense, why re-invent the wheel (it has the perfect design, you see )
I go by the name of sbhandar in the university database. Something which well, u can imagine I am not quite fond of, shrutib or sbhandari would have been just so much better. Well now, no jokes about my name. Meet me in Bloomington… sometime, otherwise.
Ok, so I haven’t really spoken in last 5 hours and not that it is something unusual or is killing me. But, I realize that I might not speak any word for next 4 coming days. Life is so happening!! :) Yay!
Sounds stupid, but am laughing by myself, for myself, of myself.