I've moved

Wordpress is my new home !

Please update your book marks to http://whathappenedwas.wordpress.com/

You will be redirected to my new blog in 15 seconds. If you can't wait that long, please click here

Why the move............

Cuckoo asked me why the move? The major advantage? To be frank I could 've said loads and loads of them for the primitive blogger but with the new blogger life's been easy. Then why? Blogger is not as stable as wordpress is. Okay I said it.

I started off with blogger as do all novices, I didnt know much about blogging and the available softwares. I wanted somethign which get me going and google backing up blogger worked for me. But my blog is growing in size and for now i dont have any plans to stop blogging in the future (Iam allowed to take short breaks though). So in the longrun wordpress seems more promising. With the strong online community and a great development team, wordpress works like magic. And there may be a point when I would like to blog on my own domain - Wordpress would seem to be a much cleverer choice then.

But oh yeah, the shifting has some cons too - the major one for me is not being able to use Javascript at wordpress. This would mean I would have to sacrifice all the cool little gadgets here. And I wouldnt be able to edit my template too, other than adding a custom header or customizing some colors. But i dont care much about this, Iam the person who like change and keep changing my templates every now and then. So i usually go with the default colors and dont customize it much. So all in all in wordpress I wont have much control over my blog's look and feel. The only saving grace here is that the pre-available templates in wordpress (they call'em themes) are quite crisp and slick.

Other than look and feel, Wordpress seem to be better in whatever way. And did you know you can add additional pages at wordpress? That means if you want another page (like a about me or ur favourite post) in addition to the front page which would always be there and doesnt wither away with the new posts, you can do it all. The categories system is native to wordpress, which the Blogger calls labels. Okay I dont wanna go more on comparing wordpress and blogger, but if you're interested, there's a very good one here.

And icing on the cake is that Wordpress allows me to import all my posts and comments from the Blogger. That way I dont have to loose any of my posts or comments. So the effort of migration is almost zero.

I have set my new blog at wordpress here, so please update your bookmarks. I will be redirecting this domain to my new domain in the coming week. Till then bye bye blogger.

Time to move?

What the heck, I guess its time to move on. After being in the blogger for more than a year, Im strongly considering moving to wordpress. And this is not the first time iam considering it. The last time I was on a verge of it , when suddenly this new beta blogger came in. It had widgets, it had labels and it had cool archiving functions, so I decided to stick to it. But this wordpress bug is really itching me hard and i think Iam gonna succumb this time.

Any opinions ?

Back IN Home from Out and Utah

I just kept the last piece of cloth that was wrapped in the polythene into my closet. Yep - we are home back. After being Homeless,we kind of lost touch. So here u go - I joined this new student job of web developer which pretty much takes up my whole day (okay - 8 to 5), five days a week. And then there was mess at home to clear, dust to vacuum and things to keep back to where they belong. And then this weekend we went camping (read the whole thing before u say vow) to Utah. That kept me away from blogging for a while after that foodie post (has anyone of u tried anything yet?).

  

Now that Im back, lemme post a few pics from our trip. No long descriptions here - dont wanna make it a travel post. The pics you are seeing were from Antelope Canyon, a hill divided into half by a flood that came ages ago. The hilarious part of the trip was the camping though, all we novices with our camping gear, arrived at the camp ground to fix up the tents. After fiddling with those rods and clothes for a while, we were able to make it look like a camp, and then guess what happened -  the winds started blowing. So strongly so that our camps were blown off before even we could go in them to see how they look like from inside. It was nearing midnight, middle of nowhere, no electricity and no camps. We roadies hit the road again and settled in for a motel tonight. The other not so hilarious things we did were jet skiing at Lake Powell and trekking at the Zion Canyon. Okay that's it for the travel part.

I have taken the same resolution, another time again - to loose weight. Now that my weight shows up in the pics obviously, i think its time to do some real work on my body.

That phase has come again - end of Masters, nearing graduation, looking for a job. Hhhmmmm i hate this phase.

My neighbour is freaking out, he and his wife are suspecting pregnancy (sorry for not using expecting),  after being married for only more than a month. Will let you know if the bad thing happens - ie if she gets pregnant :)

Foodie nothings

Iam not frequenting the blogosphere because Iam still homeless. One of the important side effects of being homeless is - we have stopped cooking. Going out to eat seems like a ritual we are following these days everyday.

Now that Iam so obsessed with food, its time to do a food post. Being in United States, you are game if you want to try out cuisines from different parts of the world.

Indian/Pakistani: The hotels that are in our 'go' list are mostly from the Indian subcontinent. If you are used to that spicy biryani or that mmmmmm palak paneer, you will be upset. The food largely americanised with lesser spices and you'll find little authenticity. Indian would mostly mean north indian and if you are craving for those Idlis and Dosas with peanut chutney, Udipi is the only place you can look for.

Chinese:

I loved chinese and I thought I belonged to China until I tasted authentic chinese. Dont expect the taste of those road side chow-mein in an authentic chinese restaurant. Egg- flower soup will probably be your only go in one of those. However the tangy spicy sweet Orange chicken served in Panda express and the Kungpao's of P.F.Chang's china bistro is a Yes any day.

Mexican:

Close to Indian is Mexican food. If you love those Frankie's where you could stuff your chapathis with your favourite stuff, you should probably try burrito. And if you are bored of those regular salads, you can find urself a taco salad stuffed with rice, chicken or veggies of your choice. And yes dont forget to stuff in avocado for an extra price. Its sour cream added with some mintish flavor which will make u mmmmmm.

Thai:

We dont go much beyond the Padthai noodles and the red curry but I extremely love Thai whenever we visit it. And be careful while ordering ur spice scale in a Thai restaurant. If you thought Indians eat the most spicy dishes, you will find yourself wrong here.

Ethiopian:

Nope, Ethiopian food is not yuk or something which you can look down at because people in Africa are dying out of hunger. If you are desperately looking for Dosas but dont have an Indian restaurant nearby, here's where you can go. Their bread which is their base food is much similar to the south Indian Dosas for texture and taste. Chicken Abbitos along with those bread make a perfect meal. And you dont have to check with your nutrition chart, Its one of the most nutritious food.

Mediterranean:

If you love humus, this is the place from where you wouldn't get up. My most favourite part in a mediterranean restaurant is Hookah. Have it once and im sure you'll be hooked to. It comes in several flavors, mint being my favourite. Kebabs claim their authenticity to the mediterranean region and after eating those perfect chicken breasts marinated in herbs and spices and roasted on heat you'll defnitely go there again.

Vietnamese:

The chicken fried rice and the Lemon Grass chicken are my favourites here. No doubt they are spicy and close to the chinese taste. If you dont know you are in a Vietamese restaurant, Im sure you'll mistake it for chinese.

American:

Me and my american colligue in our quest to find out what authentic american food is tried to zero in some of the American foods. It seemed nothing more than Mc.D's, Subways and Burger Kings. But then he said - Burgers are from Germany, Pizza is from Italy, So? Guess, waht we found at last. The only authentic American foods are pepsi and coke, if you consider them as foods ofcourse.

How It Started

It started like everything else does - with nothing. Just the basic things Air, Water, Dust and Noise, from people that were crowded in that bogie of the train. I knew it wasnt taking me to another part of the world, but I was ignorant that it was going to take me to another part of my life. The life that was new but i wasn't interested. I knew I wasn't playing an angel in a fairy tale and I wasn't a war refugee either. For me, I was someone who was going to a place where I was never before without knowing the date of return. For other souls, I was just another kid in the train. Souls that were getting added and subtracted as if that was what they were meant to do. Souls that were trying to accomodate their bodies in that packed bogie. Souls that were trying to hear themsleves admist the noise of the train.

The train stopped somewhere I didnt know I had to get down, but I did. Along were my parents undocking the luggage before the train would move. And then came the grass, the dung and the smell, the things that welcomed to a place that I much later knew was my home. I was somewhere I didnt want to be with people that i wanted to be. And that's how it all started, not like everything else - the leaking roof and the refrigirator, the english speaking mom and the cow dung, the color and the contrast.

Being Homeless

I wouldn't know the meaning of being homeless except from those documenatries or parallel cinema. But I do know the feeling when there's no where to go. Okay dont start commenting now, this being homeless is something else.

Im homeless though i have the keys for three houses in my keychain. Okay, let me explain. All this started when I found a bug crawling hideously on my sheets and some rashes on my skin the following day. There's been a persistant problem of bed bugs in our appartment and when we complained to the management, they asked us to go homeless for 6 hrs while they treat our appartment with pesticides. Six hours wasn't a big deal when you could spend them in an airconditioned library or the internet equipped computer lab. After sleeping over my books in the library and wetting them with my saliva for six hours, I finally went home to find that crwaling bug again. The bugs were still there ! Another complaint later, the management asked us to move out of the appartment for another day, they provided us with the well decorated model appartment where we could sleep. But the bathrooms there were not functional, so they provided us with another vacant appartment where we could use the bathrooms. So now i hold the keys for three appartments none of which I could call a home. And the maintanance company guys aren't going to come until early next week, so i go homeless for a few more days.

finals week

Its time to get nerdy and geeky again. The finals week is on with exams heading up faster than a ferrari. We had our last lab yesterday, and people were happy that they are done with the sem. Well, people include me too but then the semester wasn't bad afterall. All those labs that seemed like graveyards with dead people working on their graves weren't that bad afterall. So what if we couldn't hangout on saturday night and had to spend it looking why that transistor wasn't going into saturation. We had our best moments, our hang outs in our labs. Cracking jokes on each other, pulling each others leg on a silly mistake, screaming 'Yes!' on that code which worked, going out to eat chinese admist work, comparing each other's projects to find whose's the best, free pizzas with fake credit card applications, sleeping in the class and repenting more because a friend had seen it, late night arguments while riding bikes back to home, turning off the alarm and waiting for a friend's call to wake up. The semester wasn't that bad afterall.

Who said we need a good place to have fun? Fun can be had anywhere, be it a movie hall, be it a park or be it the lab. Fun depends on the people around. And when you are sorrounded with so many young souls bursting out of energies and looking for a chance to make a joke out of nothing, you really can't miss having fun.

PS: Gotta study for my finals, wish me luck n btw i bought i new socks :)

And i realized yesterday that .....

I have probably grown older, should start shaving more frequently than once a week. Its better to say people when they unknowingly hurt you. A moment of awkwardness and then it feels much much better ever after. I began to love mustard sauce after hating it for ages, and strangely so much that im eating sandwiches for the sauce. Gosh i've gained another 2 lbs. Mouth freshners are much better than chewing gums. My professor is not as bad as i thought My socks smell so bad, i cant believe im wearing something i hate so much. Its probably better to buy new socks than washing them in the messy laundry. Why this post ? Thought it would be fun to talk something that didn't matter anything to anyone. Got tired of those 'meaningful' posts.

update:

thx to my roomie who bought a foot spray (i never knew there existed one), it'll work temporary until i do my laundry or go to walmart.

i again said something to someone tht i've wanted to say frm a long time n believe it feels much better.

Forgot to say, Mouth freshners of Mint flavor.

More than Candles

The Virginia Tech massacre affected me much more than I thought it would. Being in another similar school is one and the most prominant reason i guess. This massacre could've happened anywhere and the victims could've been anyone, just randomly anyone. Living ones life is a right that one least expects to be deprived of. And when some stranger jumps in to grab that right, the horror spreads like holocaust. This reminds me once again, how death can be so close to us. No, im not a pessimist and hate to be one, but optimism is the last shelter I could take here.

Im not just horrified by these deaths but rather disturbed. Imagine how'd you feel everytime you bid bye to someone, if you didn't know for sure that this is NOT the last bye you are bidding ever. Insecurity would be a big word, may be we are just a little less secure than we were before. This wouldn't stop us from doing anything we used to, but may be we'll keep some more distance while walking by a mentally ill person than we used to.

We were discussing this massacre among friends and almost everyone brought in the analogy of Iraq. Innocent people dying everywhere for no reason. And then a friend came up "But these victims are educated, their lives are more valuable". My heart said what i replied "They are humans dammid! Educated or uneducated, everyone's life is equally valuable" while my mind was still pondering into what i was saying. But somewhere a cell of my brain agreed with my friend, may be a scientist's life is more valuable than a layman. I know my heart rejects to agree, but may be my mind is too logical to disagree or im not just good enough. What do you think?