Calvin and Hobbes

This Calvin and hobbes comic strip, brings fond memories about my school days. The summer holidays, called as the "Annual Exam Leave" was the most sought after one by every kid.

The Umbrella

The Umbrella is defined in the Wikipedia as "An umbrella or parasol (sometimes colloquially, gamp, brolly, or bumbershoot) is a canopy designed to protect against Precipitation or sunlight"

Once I was listing out a couple of objects around us, used by us, which haven't undergone major design changes over remembered time and the Umbrella was the first to pop up in my mind. Before I could even write about this "Evolution Stagnation" of the Umbrella I wanted to confirm if I am correct, so I googled for two kinds of Umbrellas, one, for the most modern ones available in the market and two, for the ancient ones documented.

The most modern umbrellas available can be found here and the oldest documented can be found here and I was correct, Umbrellas haven't evolved at all for over centuries together. There can be two explanations for this

1) The design of the Umbrella has been almost perfect for the need it was developed for, from the time of its invention, that it required no design development.
2) The need for its existence and further development has been overridden by many other inventions.

This second explanation is intriguing, because if its true it makes us go back and look at the need for the invention of the Umbrella.According to me, the evolution stagnation of the Umbrella can be because of both the above mentioned explanations.

1) The Umbrella is a perfect cover from Sun and Rain when used over a short period of time and distance.
2) Humans donot have the need to use it for over a long period of time or distance as cars and other covered vehicles have taken over the job of the Umbrella.

The Umbrella therfore is a classic case of a product where, "Need is limited but essential, so the product lives on but product development is unnecessary but is agreeable so there is design evolution stagnation"

Quantum of Solace

Appaloosa(2008)

I'm writing this after a while I guess, yeah more than a week since I wrote a new blog. Not that I was any busy but just that it didn't happen. I'm writing this on this monday night with a slight headache. Gaurav has a headache as well and he blamed it on the high winds blowing here. anyways, just wanted to write about the trailer of the new movie Appaloosa
Never have I been so impressed by a cowboy movie trailer, till Appaloosa came by today. I googled and found out that Appaloosa was a horse breed with leopardish spots on it, the name sounds red indianish though. There were 2 or 3 1970 hollywood movies as well in the same name. Appaloosa (2008) is what I am talking about.The impressive thing about the trailer is that it has been very well edited to showcase the crisp and superb dialogues in the movie. check this out for a sample

Man to Virgil Cole: You shot three of my men
Virgil Cole: As a matter of fact I only shot 2, Mr Hitch here shot the other one.( To which, hitch raises his peg of whisky in acknowledgement)

If you watch the trailer, every dialogue in it is thoroughly enjoyable, as I did.The Dialogues in the trailer gives a certain cowboy cool about this film. As a finishing touch to the trailer there is a dialogue which I am pasting here, I was so impressed by it that I have added it as my signature in my mail.

Virgil Cole : You afraid to die?
Man : I ain't afraid
Virgil Cole : Good, cos you go first!

I reckon this movie should be a good one that would show that good dialogues are as good enough as expensive graphic simulations that mostly adron movies these days, I feel the trailer is a proof. I am waiting to watch the movie.
The Trailer

Capitalistic Yoga

Capitalistic Yoga, does this sound like an oxymoron? Yeah it should, that was the intention. Yoga and Capitalism are from two different worlds. Yoga comes from Ancient India, passed on through generations of yogic practice, should I say its like opensource? Yeah, fits perfectly! Yoga is ancient India's Opensource whereas capitalism is America's Microsoft. So as we know Yoga and Capitalism aren't two words that we expect to be together but there is one guy who has combined both and is minting millions. He is Bikram Choudhry, the founder of Bikram Yoga.

What's Cookin? Its me!

If you find yourself getting cooked, then welcome to Bikram yoga. Bikram yoga is where I've been cooking myself for the past one month or so. Ok, Bikram yoga is a 90 minute session where 26 odd yoga asanas are practised during every session, and how? in a room which is 40 degrees celcius hot! yeah, thats right you do your bikram yoga in a 4o degrees hot room, at the end of it you're thoroughly wet with your sweat and even your underwear is soaked in sweat. Thats how it is but at the end of the yoga you become drained and feel light. Over this period of one month since I started Bikram Yoga I feel I've become more flexible and especially my hamstring flexibilty has improved a lot. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the best part, huh one of the best things of Bikram Yoga class is that there are so many babes around you trying to maintain their figure :) he he, 80 percentage of attendees are girls :0)

165 AUD 30 Days

Now comes the Capitalism part of the Bikram. To attend a 30 days class you need to pay 165 AUD, thats an unheard amount for a yoga class. A Bikram Yoga franchise costs you 500 k US Dollars. Its raining Dollars for Bikram, but then to be honest I feel that anything worthy should have a worthy price tag on it orelse it'll be taken for granted. Thats how Bikram Yoga works, and yes it works like crazy, the Glen waverly center where I go is packed always except for the friday sessions. What Bikram has done to the yoga practice is that he has given it the price tag it deserved.

A Sleepy Afternoon and my blog

It was a sleepy afternoon and I was bug fixing, too bored. I looked out of the window and it was all overcast and a bit windy as well, suddenly I thought of taking a walk outside in the cold. I am always amused by the cold weather, born in a sunny and hot weather belt of southern India, I get a fond feeling towards cold and rainy weather which usually is a relief from the heat of south India.

Gaurav, me and our Pinewood walks
So, I put on my jacket and went out all by myself braving the cold and the wind. Usually when I'm bored in the afternoons I go out with gaurav to the pinewood shopping center near my office. At Pinewood we usually pick up some fruits or our calling cards and go for a stroll around the shopping center before coming back, but today Gaurav was very busy with the bugs he had to fix and was looked a bit worried as well( all in a software programmer's life), so I thought I shouldn't pester him to come along and left him to the mercy of the bugs he had to fix and went out for my walk.

My blog, My outlet
The walk lasted for a short while becuase of the high winds and I had to retreat back to the warmth of my office. Still not in a mood to work and too bugged to read rediff.com, which I usually do when I am bored I realised I could write my blog instead. Writing was not a suddenly found love, it is forgotten love I should say. I am not trying to say that I was a great writer with volumes of posts and articles, just that I have always liked to write and now I'm just trying to rediscover this long lost love, somehow I feel now after writing about nothing in particular in this blog that I feel elated and comforted. I just realised that writing is a great way to just be back to your own self. Anyways this blog has helped me fulfill a unannounced declaration by me that I will see that I keep my blog active by writing more, so thats that.

A Day in Melbourne - The Lord of the fries

I Should say, half a day in Melbourne. Today I spent half a day, to be precise 5 hours in the city of Melbourne. My plan was to check out Victoria market, federation square and bourke street mall along with my amigo gaurav. After cajoling gaurav to leave as early as possible we did leave to Melbourne at 2 in the afternoon(so much for wanting to leave early), except for a few panning shots with my Camera in the train, the trip to Melbourne was an eventless one. After landing at Flinder's station we wanted to have lunch at subway but Gaurav's love for french fries lead us to a fast food joint called "The Lord of the fries", true to their name they sold only French Fries with some 10 different kinds of sauces and burger(yes, not burgers because they've just a veggie burger in their menu). The lord of the fries fast food was an interesting find actually for the following reasons
1) Their main business was french fries(I've never come across such a joint until today)
2) They sold French Fries with 10 kinds of sauces(I've never come across such a joint until today)
3) Unlike McDonalds or other such fast food joints, who sell burgers and also french fries, these guys sell FRENCH FRIES and a veggie burger along, so its the other way around(interesting)
4) LOTF is a 100% veggies joint
5) I found their veggie burgers better than McDonald's burgers.
5) Inspite of all the above mentioned exceptions, they were doing great business and that explains human's love for french fries.

Anyways we picked up 2 burgers and 2 fries and a coke(now this coke has become obligatory with junk food) I took the mexican salsa sauce with my fries for the sole reason that the name sounded good and later found out that the choice was a mistake, it sucked big time. Gaurav picked up african sauce( we had no idea what it was when gaurav asked for it). The burger was good and so were the fries.
Anyways, after our stint at LOTF and after I gobbled up my fries and burger and after gaurav managed to finish just the fries and stored his burger in my bag we left to Victoria Market. We hopped on a tram in swanston street which headed north.