batnandu

batnandu @ 2005-11-10T12:40:00

2005-11-10T17:49:13Z

What time did you get up this morning? don't know
Diamonds or pearls? don't care
What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Serenity
What is your favorite TV show? Mythbusters, perhaps
What did you have for breakfast? blueberry Pop Tarts
What is your middle name? Shailendu
What is your favorite cuisine? uh... we have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry
What foods do you dislike? tindora
What is your favorite chip? Poker
What is your favorite CD at the moment? Jud Jud / No Tolerance for Instruments
What kind of car do you drive? Audi A4
What is your favorite sandwich? a Cuban from Kool Korner Grocery
What characteristics do you despise? stupidity,
Favorite item of clothing? my suede jacket
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? India, China, Australia
What color is your bathroom? yellow
Favorite brand of clothing: I don't particularly care.
Favorite time of day? dawn
Where were you born? Ahmedabad, India
Favorite sport to watch? college football
Who do you least expect to do this meme? me
Person you expect to do it first? thepeopleseason
What type of detergent do you use? Tide
Coke or Pepsi? Coke. Pepsi or Choke, motherfucker?!
Are you a morning person or night owl? yes
What size shoe do you wear? 10.5-11
Do you have pets? yes
Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with everyone? no
What did you want to be when you were little? a "scientist"
Favorite Candy Bar? Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
What is your best childhood memory? when my sister was born
What are 3 different jobs you have had in your life? veterinary assistant, T.A., programmer
What color underwear are you wearing? black
Nicknames: Nunni
Piercing? both ears
Eye color? brown
Ever been to Africa? no
Ever been toilet papered? no
Love someone so much it made you cry? yes
Been in a car accident? yes
Croutons or bacon bits? yes
Favorite day of the week? Saturday
Favorite restaurant? Bone's
Favorite flower? gerber daisy
Favorite ice cream? my dad's rose ice cream
Disney or Warner Brothers? Warner Brothers
Favorite fast food restaurant? Wendy's
What color is your bedroom carpet? off-white
How many times did you fail your driver's test? zero
From whom did you get your last e-mail? hard to say
Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Fry's
What do you do most often when you are bored? whine about being bored
Who are you most curious about their responses to this questionnaire? me
Last person you ate out with? a bunch of friends
Ford or Chevy? Audi
What are you listening to right now? ambient office noise
How many tattoos do you have? zero
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? the egg
Time you finished this? 12:46

Who wants a Gmail address?

2004-06-23T16:27:45Z

I have a spare Gmail account invitation. At the risk of sounding like a Cap'n Ken wannabe, I'm offering it to my friends. Anybody want it? And if more than one of you asks, how will you differentiate yourselves from one another?

batnandu @ 2004-06-16T13:55:00

2004-06-16T18:01:28Z

batnandu: i just got paid $30 to eat a chicken sandwich
batnandu: a sundried tomato garlic grilled chicken sandwich
thepeopleseason: dude, how did that come about?
batnandu: i was hungry and broke and the gods noticed?
batnandu: or
tmhsiao: oh.
batnandu: we share a building with a market research company
tmhsiao: whoa
batnandu: they're always doing focus groups
batnandu: they needed a few more people, so they asked us
tmhsiao: that's pretty cool
batnandu: and we did it
batnandu: yeah
tmhsiao: and got paid 30 bucks.
batnandu: we were just discussing what to do for lunch and the lady dropped by
batnandu: so we got a filling, tasty sandwich and $30
[...]

batnandu: as we were going in
batnandu: i said to garry, "if the sandwich sucks, we still get $30 to go get lunch"
[...]

tmhsiao: well, I guess there's some perks to working in duluth.

I'm on a Mexican radio

2004-04-30T07:00:47Z

After two days of wrestling with Mandrake, PCMCIA, and a Belkin F5D6020, I'm finally wireless. Of course, the whole endeavor was like crawling around in a dark room with a round peg that you're not sure is actually in your hand, looking for a hole that may or may not be square. Matters improved considerably once I realized that some things really do work better as root. Meanwhile the realization that we'd more or less accidentally chosen one of the best supported cards simultaneously elated me (because it's one of the best supported cards) and embarassed me (because we seemed to be the only people unable to make this combination work). Oh, and let's not forget the interminable mockery of the Windows users who frequently find themselves downwind of my derision.

On a project of this length, this far from home, it's unacceptable for us to have no internet access after hours. So we were quite concerned when we checked into the hotel and they told us the only access they offer is wireless. None of us knew the first thing about wifi, so we were prepared to switch to a hotel with copper. But the guys at the company we're working for lent us some Nortel wifi cards. For Windows XP, this wasn't a problem--the card had a CD with drivers on it. For Mandrake, not so much. Now, prior to the Belkin, my only NIC on this laptop was a Xircom 10/100 ethernet adapter that occupies one PCMCIA slot and obscures the other. I always thought it looked kind of cool. But when you have to search the web and download drivers for a NIC, it really helps to have two, so you can surf with one while you test the other. On the other hand, it was convenient to have a wired net as well as a wireless net at the office so I could do both. It was pretty slow going for a while, swapping cards so I could alternately test and search. In the end, we gave up on those cards.

Somehow we settled on the Belkin, but the results were mostly the same at the office. Everything seemed to be fine, but I had no IP address. Eventually, on the verge of giving up not only on a second card, but on Linux wifi in general as well as this hotel, I tried it at the hotel. Out of thin air appeared an IP address for me! It turns out that I did have a round peg, and the hole (at the office) was actually square. But the network at the hotel is wide open.

So tonight, after we savored scotches and the novelty of surfing at the hotel bar, I decided to explore a bit. I think ethereal and nmap are going to waste more of my time than Homestar. I checked the version of Cisco IOS running on the access point downstairs. I saw Windows machines whose users probably never considered I might be watching or what I might see coming from their computers. I found networked MP3 players! And that was all at 1am. I can't wait to do this tomorrow or back home.

What kind of sick joke is this?

2004-01-22T18:07:42Z

Gemini Horoscope
Thu Jan. 22, 2004 by Astrocenter.com
Today is a great day for you, and you should enjoy a great deal of playful conversation, dear Gemini. Fantasy is likely to play a big role in the events of the day, and you may find yourself daydreaming as you walk down the street. Don't bother with reality if you don't have to. You are much better off keeping the tone of things light and playful. Enjoy your fantasy world and feel free to invite others into it.

If my dream last night was any indication, my fantasy world is HELL. And by that, I don't mean simply that I had a bad dream. I mean that my fantasy world is apparently a place that would make Darth Vader shit his pants. Do yourself a favor and stay where you are.

And, oh, yeah--happy New Year, everyone.

Oh, here I come, back from the dead!

2003-11-07T18:20:23Z

I got paid today. Holy crap!

Yourhighness

2003-10-16T16:15:11Z

Jay: i taught jessica the planets.
Me: that's pretty cool
Jay: while she was learning them, she occasionally added a 10th planet called "your highness"
Me: that
Me: is the fucking funniest thing i have EVER heard IN MY LIFE
Me: i can't stop laughing now
Me: and i'm alone
Jay: i'd like to say it was just a mispronounciation of uranus, but she would say both when enumerating them.
Me: uranus, neptune, pluto, yourhighness
Jay: it was more like, mercury, venus, earth, your higness, mars, jupiter saturn, uranus, neptune pluto.

batnandu @ 2003-10-16T11:58:00

2003-10-16T16:04:02Z

Me: [mumbling something about having to drive to Duluth]
Her: [imitating Sloth from the Goonies] Duluth! Baby, Duluth!

That, my friends, is a rare woman.

batnandu @ 2003-09-18T16:53:00

2003-09-18T20:58:34Z

Earlier this week I saw a praying mantis outside my house for the first time in the nearly two years I've lived there. Jubilation ensued.

a brief gastronomic summary of the past week

2003-08-13T15:13:19Z

I'm sure I missed some stuff, but I think I've accurately depicted the spirit of the past 7 days:

5 Aug:

"a delightful snacking assortment"
beef "hit by a car" & cabrito
irish whiskey, beer, tequila
ribs, wings, corn, beer
scotch

6 Aug:

corn pops with milk, coffee
ham & cheese on baguette, beer
carrot cake, espresso
coffee
beer
"a delightful snacking assortment"

7 Aug:

sausage, egg, cheese on an english muffin
pretzels
steamers, mussels, shrimp, white wine
salad, lobster, asparagus, pasta with portugese chorizo

8 Aug:

corn pops with milk, coffee
ice cream
steamers, mussels, lobster
white wine
salad, london broil, icelandic schnapps
ice cream
scotch

9 Aug:

strawberry-walnut pancakes, coffee
onion rings, ice cream
fudge samples
lobster bisque, martini
irish whiskey

10 Aug:

frosted flakes with milk
bagel with cream cheese, hash browns
cheese and crackers, white wine
steak, corn, salad, red wine

11 Aug:

fried egg on english muffin
potato chips, beer
ham & cheese sandwich
pretzels, fudge
irish whiskey

Coincidence... or FATE???

2003-07-29T15:12:02Z

Consider going on a trip with a close loved one of yours, dear Gemini. A long-term break from your current reality may be just the thing that is needed to infuse a new blast of romance into your life. For you unattached twins, you might find that going off on an adventure to a foreign country might result in your meeting the love of your life. Broaden your horizons and look toward new ways of thinking and believing.

You know what sucks?

2003-07-24T14:47:55Z

Let's say you own a beard trimmer. Let's also say that you have a beard, which you keep trimmed to 5mm, courtesy of the trimmer's handy setting. Imagine trimming your beard with your trimmer, but noticing more than the usual amount of hair falling into the sink. Can you now imagine looking up into the mirror to see half your beard gone? Exactly what fraction of a second do you think elapses between seing half your beard gone and checking the trimmer setting? And when you notice that it's somehow set to 1mm, exactly how much would you feel like Charlie Brown as you scream, "AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH"?

Once I had done all of the above, there was nothing left to do but shave my face. I'm talking about the WHOLE THING. Which one of you punks snuck into my house and reconfigured my beard trimmer?

PocketLJ

2003-07-14T21:24:33Z

I just installed PocketLJ on my visor, so I thought I should take it for a spin.

Cookie fortunes

2003-06-24T21:18:01Z

Since khubli brought it up, I thought I'd share mine as well. At lunch with him, I got a really lame one: No one is happy who does not think himself so. Blech.

But the night before, there was a nice pair (in separate cookies): (1) Your current plans will succeed, and (2) You will have to modify your plans. I thought that was kinda weird. One dinner, two cookies, related fortunes. Strange, yes, and odd.

batnandu @ 2003-06-24T16:33:00

2003-06-24T20:34:58Z

batnandu
Magic Number	17
Job	Computer Nerd
Personality	Focussed And Driven
Temperament	Angry - At Everthing
Sexual	If I Have To
Likely To Win	Nothing
Me - In A Word	Divine
Colour
Brought to you by MemeJack

I like this horoscope

2003-06-13T17:44:06Z

I mean, who wouldn't?

You're a force of nature barely contained in your clothes, Gemini. You're elemental and irresistible; primordial yet playful. You're laughing like a river, dreaming like a volcano, and as surprising as a snowstorm on a summer day. You can talk the way the animals think. You remind me of a waterfall exuding fireworks. How could anyone not be drawn to you? How could anyone not feel a bit nervous while drinking in your unpredictable charisma? You're way over the top, and I like it very much.

From Rob Brezsny.

Goin' to California

2003-05-05T21:31:30Z

T-22 days and the itinerary is set:

Tuesday, 27 May: depart Atlanta at 8:35 am, arrive in San Jose at 10:48 am
Thursday, 29 May: depart San Jose at ?? am, drive down the coast, arrive in Los Angeles at ?? pm
Friday, 30 May: depart LA at ?? pm, arrive in San Diego at ?? pm
Sunday, 1 June: depart San Diego at 10:20 pm
Monday, 2 June: arrive in Atlanta at 5:29 am

Plans for activities along the way are slowly taking shape. In San Jose I'll be staying with Jay & Sheri, and I know they're more than capable of entertaining me. And if they're not, I can count on their two-year-old daughter Jessica and her two-month-old brother Noah. But I need to get into San Francisco for a little while to deposit a geocache for Keely and visit the Bow Bow Cocktail Lounge.

The drive to LA is little more than an excuse to take photos. Well, that, and to drive down the California coast.

I'll only get to stay with Galen one night in LA, but he may take Friday off from work. And he's also going to San Diego to run a marathon on Sunday, so I'll get to hang out with him in two cities. It'd be nice if Velvet Chain were playing that weekend, but right now it doesn't look like it.

Two nights and two days in San Diego with Angela. If things work out, I'll get to photograph her band band on Saturday or Sunday. And maybe I can get some shots of Galen in the race.

So, six days doesn't seem like a long time any more, but I still don't have enough activities planned to fill all my time. I'll work on that.

Um, yeah. Exactly.

2003-04-30T16:21:38Z

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

Fotolog

2003-04-23T19:10:42Z

Like livejournal for photos.

Really good water. Mmmm, tasty, tasty!

2003-04-23T14:15:06Z

When my life freaks me out, my life REALLY freaks me out. But I guess that's appropriate--I'm an all-or-nothing kind of guy.

Someone once said about my friend Jay (and you have to know Jay to fully appreciate this, but suffice it to say that he's extremely intelligent, highly critical, and, uh, opinionated): Some people say the glass is half full, other people say it's half empty. Jay would say, "This water sucks!"

Drink vinegar.

The water in my glass tastes really good. And sometimes, when I'm having a particularly lucky moment, a fish or a turtle or--ooh!--a tadpole finds its way into the glass. I have no idea how they get there. And I don't eat them or anything. They're just cool.

Sometimes I amaze even myself

2003-04-10T20:35:42Z

This came as a bit of a surprise:

</td><td valign="top">You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

</tr>

You are 41% geek

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

Words fail me

2003-04-10T15:46:54Z

They do that a lot these days.

which scooby are you?

Caw! Caw!

2003-02-04T16:51:34Z

Crow

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

It can't be just me, can it?

2003-01-24T17:24:11Z

Is it some kind of weird, mind altering air- or water pollution? Cosmic rays? Are my friends insane? Am I??

So, first on the list of freaks is tiiguy. He asked me to
take some photos for him, and I told him I'd do it on Saturday...

---- New Conversation @ Tue Jan 21 15:01:16 2003 ----
tiiguy: we still on for Sat.
batnandu: oh. uh. maybe.
batnandu: i forgot that i have a friend flying in saturday night
tiiguy: not a big deal if you have other stuff
batnandu: and my apartment is a total fucking wreck
batnandu: but
batnandu: he probably won't mind hanging out for a few minutes while we shoot on sunday, possibly right after brunch...
tiiguy: cool

---- New Conversation @ Wed Jan 22 15:56:05 2003 ----
tiiguy: beotch
tiiguy: we still on for this weekend?
batnandu: didn't you ask me that yesterday?
tiiguy: I don't know
tiiguy: the days are all melting into one
batnandu: sigh
batnandu: let me refresh your memory
tiiguy: i remember the conversation now, sunday

---- New Conversation @ Thu Jan 23 16:38:33 2003 ----
tiiguy: you in town this weekend?
batnandu: no. i'll be shooting photos for you from alaska.
tiiguy: you smoke pot focker?
batnandu: huh?
tiiguy: nevermind

Next, we have thepeopleseason.

---- New Conversation @ Fri Jan 24 10:53:38 2003 ----
(11:10:27) tmhsiao: http://webpages.charter.net/harshec/lego/images/koh/suicide_king_0.jpg
(11:12:56) batnandu: um
(11:13:06) batnandu: is that how you spell "colossal waste of time"?
(11:13:14) tmhsiao: dude, he gets paid for that.
[...]

tmhsiao: Dude, this guy is nutz. Check out the description of the mosaic: http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/calista.html
batnandu: you mean this part?
And finally, since I was creating a mosaic with little letters and numbers, I had to be sure that each brick was positioned with the correct orientation (no upside down P's for me, buddy).
batnandu: the rest of it seems rather matter-of-course
tmhsiao: I'm just thinking a guy who would program Java programs in the process of creating physical ascii art is nutz (a cool kind of nutz, of course, but nutz nonetheless)
batnandu: i disagree
batnandu: he's just doing sound engineering
batnandu: there's always a construction aspect to any art
tmhsiao: sigh
batnandu: ?
batnandu: i think he did a great job
tmhsiao: http://www.ericharshbarger.org/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?san_28.jpg+lego/images/mononoke
tmhsiao: indeed, just about everything he's done looks pretty awesome. did you see the Mona Lego?
batnandu: not yet
batnandu: but what's with the sigh?
tmhsiao: whether it's sound engineering or not, it's still nutz.
tmhsiao: I'm basically echoing the same sentiment you expressed with your "colossal waste of time" comment...
batnandu: well, i guess you and i simply disagree in our degrees of perfectionism then
tmhsiao: sigh.
tmhsiao: I'm not disagreeing with you that it's good and perfect.
batnandu: i think the callista one is less of a waste of time than the king of hearts
tmhsiao: I just think it's eccentric.
batnandu: and i don't. that's what i'm talking about, right there. i think if one were to undertake a project like that, there's not much more of an efficient way to do it than the way he did.
tmhsiao: forget it.
batnandu: apparently it's me
tmhsiao: my assertion that it's "nutz" is not a value judgement.
batnandu: i know
batnandu: i understand
tmhsiao: forget it.
batnandu: apparently it's me
tmhsiao: yes, it's you.
batnandu: that's what i said
batnandu: apparently it wasn't selbie who was odd for getting pissed at me for all the time. apparently i'm the one having this effect on others. apparently i *am* the most annoying person on the planet.
tmhsiao: "you are shit"

Finally, there's Rob. Last night I told him the all about tiiguy's
weirdness, but today...

---- New Conversation @ Fri Jan 24 11:43:33 2003 ----
Rob: you're out of town this weekend right?
batnandu: yeah, my flight out is at 3pm today
Rob: oh, damn... you're gonna be leaving soon... so when do you get back?
batnandu: next thursday
Rob: you're gone for a week?
batnandu: yes.
batnandu: but don't worry, i'll still be working from home on monday.
batnandu: so you can still drop off the washer.
Rob: oh, wait
Rob: you're leaving town
Rob: when are you getting back
Rob: I don't care when/where you're working
batnandu: mr. potato head
batnandu: MR. POTATO HEAD!
batnandu: i'm NOT leaving town
Rob: oh
batnandu: will is visiting this weekend
batnandu: we talked about this last night, remember?
Rob: fuckme
Rob: never mind
Rob: I'm lost
batnandu: i thought you were kidding about leaving town because i told you about jason being weird
Rob: yeah, I know

More stupid quizzes.

2003-01-22T18:57:33Z

What swear word are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

tiiguy tells me pretty much every time he sees me that I'm the most annoying person on the planet, so I won't question this one. And I'm brown.

What type of vampire are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

All I have to say is, "Uhhhhhhh."