Eco Diversity Project

My son’s school is running an eco-diversity project. Yes, he is in kindergarten, and he probably doesn’t understand the term yet. But that’s ok. It is more to teach the kids to treat all lives equally. But the thing is this – as with all school projects, there is an implicit acceptance from the parent’s side. As a parent, I am thrilled to see my son participate and learn this stuff....

<span title='2020-10-12 05:00:08 +0000 UTC'>October 12, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;5 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

Disaster Recovery

I briefly lost the site to a sysadmin disaster. Although I didn’t quite create the disaster on my own, I had to clean up after a failed upgrade script. Anyway, the site is back up and even if I don’t have much to say in it. It took me about 15 minutes to fix it. The exact 15 minutes I didn’t feel like spending for over two weeks when the disaster first occurred....

<span title='2020-09-06 11:27:05 +0000 UTC'>September 6, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;1 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

Poetry

School killed poetry for me. The only poem I grew to appreciate was – “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost – much later in my life than I was originally introduced to the poem. That said, I never appreciated other poetry for a very long time. I blame schooling for this debacle because I have come to realize that poetry is the most beautiful expression there is. For what its worth, words are always lacking when it comes to expression and poetry is, perhaps, an earnest attempt to fill that gap....

<span title='2020-07-01 09:36:50 +0000 UTC'>July 1, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;3 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

Music

I had never been one to appreciate music. I had a few tracks that I listened to all through college. I still remember the CD that Satya gave me – sort of an initiation to rock and metal, so to say. I wasn’t quite a fan of classical music at the time. Neither Indian classical nor western classical. I did like a selected 2-3 songs from each of the prominent boy-bands of the time – Backstreet Boys, Boyzone and the like....

<span title='2020-06-13 09:11:25 +0000 UTC'>June 13, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;4 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

Dirk Gently

I stumbled upon this pure genius on Netflix by serendipity. And I don’t think I have laughed as much on anything else. This is the kind of absurd humour that I enjoy the most – I wonder what that says about me, sometimes. This genre is somewhat hard to find, though. For a long time, it was only the Monty Pythons that worked on this genre. Then I stumbled upon Douglas Adams and haven’t looked back since....

<span title='2020-02-26 11:29:15 +0000 UTC'>February 26, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;2 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

SCI-FI & Humor

We recently completed all 12 seasons of the big bang theory (BBT). I loved the piece so much that I miss having them over during our dinner time. And my 4 years old son (yeah, he definitely shouldn’t be watching this one), dresses up like Sheldon on most days. Now that its over, I am kinda rewatching Friends. My go-to sitcom is Seinfeld, but Netflix seems to have run out of that one....

<span title='2020-02-06 12:12:03 +0000 UTC'>February 6, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;3 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

Modern Algebra

Twelfth standard math was hard. We didn’t have a stable teacher all through eleven and for beginning terms of twelve. Whoever took over math usually left within the year, although for no particular reason. Most of the class went to external tuitions for math. It was all the more critical because we had to clear a separate competitive examination for engineering admissions. Aral Mani’s near my house was the most famous of all....

<span title='2020-01-19 01:29:24 +0000 UTC'>January 19, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;3 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

On Being Paranoid

I am a paranoid guy. But my paranoia borders on a potential disorder. I am paranoid about things that might not even happen. For example, I always worry that I cannot do great work. My fear is not about failing, though. My concern is that someone will dig up something I said on my twitter feed that I can’t entirely agree with today. Is that rational? But when has fear been reasonable?...

<span title='2020-01-14 06:06:33 +0000 UTC'>January 14, 2020</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;3 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

Long Form Writing

<span title='2019-06-29 08:49:36 +0000 UTC'>June 29, 2019</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;0 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek

Long form writing on a phone

Its 2018, almost. And I still find it hard to compose long form content on a handheld phone (iPhone/android). Its just not comfortable to enough to get out of the way and allow the thought flow. iPad was better definitely, but I decided not to upgrade since the last one. Seemed too redundant to our lifestyle and given that my Mac Pro is not all that heavy, I end up composing all long form content on the Mac Pro....

<span title='2017-10-29 03:55:31 +0000 UTC'>October 29, 2017</span>&nbsp;·&nbsp;3 min&nbsp;·&nbsp;abishek