Wednesday, May 31, 2006
I passed! :D
Misha
at Wednesday, May 31, 2006
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Sunday, May 28, 2006
for the birds
It's been a few months since this little guy came into the house and his most notable contribution here has been in the form of repeated squawks in the mornings and crap on my bed. Why my bed? I have no idea, since I'm the only one who takes pity on him and actually lets him out of his cage for a bit to stretch his legs in my room. One would think, that since 97% of the surfaces in my room are either tiled floor, smooth wooden desks and stony shelves, the parrot would, just by way of a thank you, choose to defecate on either of them, so that upon cleaing up, I could do away with the mess easily. However, as luck would have it, he appears to have taken a bit of a liking to my bed with its clean bedsheets and has indicated by his actions that it is his first choice of all the places in my room to drop a load off in.
I can't really blame him, though. He has the most incompetent of masters ever, my little brother, who gives him five minutes of attention every few days then plonks him back in his cage. I feel sorry for the poor little thing. In fact, I decided to examine him today, just to see how he's doing. Turns out he's much bigger and covered with moisture from the seaview air. This, of course, prompted me to take him for a bath. Luckily, recalling the last time I gave a bath to an animal without consulting anyone (Happy the kitten, may she rest in peace), I decided to consult the Internet, a medium that, I discovered, has a lot of information about many subjects, but almost none on whether bathing a parrot is good for him or not. Due to a lack of conclusive evidence (and the feathers on the poor thing turning black everywhere a drop of water touched them), I decided against the bath idea.
In my online wanderings, however, I did come across an article regarding teaching a parrot to talk. In a nutshell, repeat a simple phrase to the bird for 10-15 minutes at a stretch. Enunciate clearly and reassuringly feed him when he tries to make odd noises in return to encourage speech. The first word is the hardest, apparently. However, if ever you have been in a situation where you feel immensely stupid and hope to god nobody walks in on you, it's nothing compared to my feeling upon having to reassuringly enunciate "hello" to a parrot that is cocking its head at me for fifteen minutes. Thankfully, nobody did walk in and next time, I'm going to use a recording. I will, however, teach this damn parrot to talk before the summer is over. That and not to leave surprises on my bed.
Misha
at Sunday, May 28, 2006
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the gamer's manifesto
I present to you,
The Gamer's Manifesto, a great read for anyone interested in gaming.
Misha
at Sunday, May 28, 2006
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Saturday, May 27, 2006
I do so very much love
StumbleUpon, and even more so for leading me to this strip. Reminds me of the good old days of head-in-the-sand-ism with old friends from the ponytail days.
Misha
at Saturday, May 27, 2006
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people don't change
So the semester is finally over and my exam is done. Now it's time to return to the very serious business of planning a summer full of idle musings and indulgences.
After a good long while, I finally got the chance to take a trip down memory lane and watch a show I watched with my family growing up, The Wonder Years. I'm not sure how many other people around here used to watch it as regularly as I did, but at the time, it used to be one of my favorites. As with so many nostalgic trips, however, anytime you decide to check out something you enjoyed as a child and find it's no longer capable of capturing your interest the way it did back in the day, another slice of your childhood fades away. I figure it's the same logic with things as it is with people. They don't change, you do. Somewhere along the line, you lost that part of your that could suspend disbelief long enough to want to fly with Peter Pan and dance with your Prince Charming. People, too, I realized today, don't change, not really. It's just you that has wisened up. They're still the same they were years ago when you first met them but something in you had changed so drastically that what you were willing to overlook without even realizing it before, is now so glaringly obvious and irritating that you can't stand it anymore. And then you wonder what changed in the relationship.
People don't change, not really. It's just my perspective that's shifted and distorted and amplified everything that was vague before.
Misha
at Saturday, May 27, 2006
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Thursday, May 25, 2006
Comprehensive Exam
So the day after tomorrow is the big day, the comprehensive exam which spans the coursework of almost my entire degree (four years of journals and notes to wade through, phew). In theory, it sounds really easy to clear. Multiple Choice, 50% passing grade and only the essential concepts from each subject, but preparing for it practically is a bit of a large order. Anyhow, fingers crossed, here we go.
Misha
at Thursday, May 25, 2006
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Wednesday, May 24, 2006
my100!
A quick word about one of the best things to happen to me since I started subscribing to WorldCall's broadband services. Forget the fact that their FTP is dying a slow and painful death, crushed beneath the feet of a thousand users fighting to download every last byte avalable on it. Forget the fact that WorldCall's Customer Service is single handedly the most unabashed bs-generating machine in the history of customer support. What I want you to focus on is the fact that all 64 kbps connections (shared by ten users, by the way so in an ideal scenario, you should get approxmately 6.4 kbps speed on average) have been upgraded, absolutely free of charge, to 100 kpbs connections. The above screenshot is on an average weekday downloading from three international public torrents and at nights, I get upto 80 kbps downloading speeds per international torrent, which is amazing considering how long I have had to sit through crawling 2-5 kpbs speeds on international torrents previously on the same connection. Take
that, DSL! =D
By the way, even with the new package, browsing speeds aren't anything special however, as I advise everyone who asks (which is a surprisingly small number of people), if you want brilliant downloading speeds, for example for downloading gigabyte upon gigabyte of excellent quality anime files, tv shows, movies, software and so on, you can't go wrong with Worldcall's new my100 package. If, however, your primary concern if with superfast browsing, you should stick to DSL.
Edit: New screenie uploaded in the top right corner.
Misha
at Wednesday, May 24, 2006
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Monday, May 22, 2006
Update!
So the semester of evil overwork comes to an end at last. Now I plan to relax for one entire summer before returning once again for my final semester, i.e. fall 2006. Bloody college, just won't let me leave.
Worst case scenario for this week: I fail my comprehensive exam on the last try. A serious obstacle to graduation that would be. On the other hand, if I pass, nothing can stop me from graduating in december, huzzah!
Today was the last day for my new class, the BS conversion kids' final semester. Out of habit, I assume I will miss them but if I'm honest, I have to admit that's not really true. Once we're all graduates, we probably won't spare a thought to most of the other people we shared a year with for the rest of our lives.
Anyhow, am exhausted and worried and feeling the onset of a migraine coming on, so adieu for now, to anyone who still reads this crap I write anymore, and hopefully I shall start updating a bit more from now on that I am free and have a life again. :)
Misha
at Monday, May 22, 2006
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Saturday, May 13, 2006
that strange feline
Misha
at Saturday, May 13, 2006
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
the pensive mask
Haha, I love this mask. Had I not given it to little brother for his birthday, I would have taken it for myself and hung it in my room, only to be taken out and worn for special occasions like family dinners when everyone is over fifty and susceptible to enthusiastic "Oooga booga!"s. :)
Misha
at Tuesday, May 09, 2006
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been a while...
Okay, so I have given up on the LUMS thing, after a friend who's applying a second time told me he got rejected last year because of not having one year's full time work experience. I keep wondering now why I wanted to go to LUMS at all, and not much comes to mind, save for the whimsical zidd of a spoilt child. Ah well, that news fades in comparision to the fact that mum's treatment is working! Huzzah!
As for my academic plans, I'm half tempted to just apply to good ol' SZABIST for an MBA and be done with it. Things fade from importance when you get your priorities realigned. This I realized when I was watching some of my relatives at a dinner recently talking about how numerous their domestic staff was. "One driver, one chowkidaar, one maid, one cook and one gardener." "Haan, itnay toh zaroori hotay hein", followed by an irony bathed (or so it seemed to me) chuckle all around. Yes, this is your life, these are your relatives and these are your friends. You cannot run away from any of this.
Misha
at Tuesday, May 09, 2006
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