Recent Grad, Fresh Job... Buy Car?

There are so many draft posts for this blog, this kinda breaks the flow of things, but oh well, just writing whatever I feel like and then posting it in whichever order I am able to finish writing them. I recently graduated from the University at Buffalo, with a Masters in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) and after months of job hunting, finally landed my first job at SemaConnect Inc. in Maryland. There are many things to cover, but in this post, I will be covering the next biggest thing to happen after one graduates and finds a job; car purchase.

This entry will more or less achieve the goal of a "Buying a Car 101" post. Not everyone will find this post very useful; its just for the small subset of people who, like me, are in the US on a Visa, are recent graduates, and want to buy their first car. I will follow a freestyle writing pattern; I will alternate between what thoughts I went through when I was researching for a car, and list out what I feel are importing things you should keep in mind. Hopefully, you will find this useful in some way or the other. So let's being!

The various variables of a car purchase decision.

 

Tell me what's your Budget.

You, of course, should have a budget in mind before even thinking about buying a car. Any kind of big purchase starts with the budget. It can either be with the "Maximum I want to spend on a car" or "Monthly payment that I can manage for the car" basis. These contain various variables. You can either buy something completely by cash, or you can put a little bit down and then loan the rest of the amount from a bank. Be it loan or complete payment, its good to have a maximum expenditure limit fixed in your head. This would be the amount that you will spend on the car over all years that you pay for buying it. In most cases, you might end up taking a loan, so at this point, instead of calculating what APR you should get etc., have a monthly payment and total period of loan embedded in your brain. 

More details on costs and payments as it comes in other topics.

There is no specific order in which you can single out the car you want to buy. Once you have some kind of budget in mind, think of the whole car buying process as a sum of n-variables whose sum is the total budget. If you get a bigger size car, the features might have to be reduced. If you buy a smaller car, maybe you can buy a new one. I will try to list out categories that will constitute the majority of these "n-variables" and then you can go about adjusting the coefficients of those variables to your liking.

The Car (linear) Equation:
a(Condition)+b(Make)+c(Type)+d(Specs)+e(Features)  = Budget

What's your type?

So, by now you have at least put a little bit of thought into how much you want to spend. Not until you actually have your new car's keys in your hand will you know exactly how much you are going to spend on it. However, with a starting point in your mind, now you need to know what type of car you can get with that budget.

It can be a mid-size 4 door Sedan ( Corolla, Civic, Cobalt, etc ), full-size 4 door Sedan (Camry, Accord, Impala etc.), 2dr Coupe, full size SUV, etc etc. It can be many things. Start off by going to a site like carmax.com and see what all options you can select as a type of car. Only you know what type of car you want.

Lingo: Trim defines which version of a certain car it is. "LE","SE" etc. are various Trims that a Toyota Camry is available in.

 Used or New? The Conditional variable

Well, my choices were either something new that is "in budget", or something used but maximum 3 years old and with 10k - 15k miles per year. One can be very satisfied with a 7yr old car with 70k miles on it too. It depends on what you feel best suits your needs. If you know you need a car just for an year or two, something within the 7yr/90k range might end up being the right one for your needs!

However, make sure that if you buy used, look a nice ratio of 12k to 15k miles per year on the mileage. Also, remember to check the carfax!

Lingo: Mileage is the total miles that a car has traveled till date and Economy is the Miles per gallon that the car gives (on city or highway). 

Which make to choose!?

No matter how much idea you have about cars, you might initially end up thinking a Camry or an Accord is the best make to go with. Well, that happens because they're what most people around you would recommend. The main reason for this to happen is that the general perception is that Japanese cars are very reliable, hence will not require intense amounts of maintenance. My word of advice would be to not stick with those beliefs if you are looking into buying something new. 


Try to first fix a "type" first and then research on what every Make has to offer for that type of car. If you are looking for a used car, as is often recommended, I too would recommend trying to go with a more reliable make (Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc).

The Resale conundrum.

A very common argument you will come across when buying a new car is about the "Resale Value". This argument makes more sense if you are familiar with "earnings" and "loss" when you invest in the Share Market.

The basic argument is that if you buy a reliable car like a Camry, it's resale value will be pretty high compared to that of a... say Ford Mustang and hence Camry is a better car to buy as you will get back "more money" when you eventually sell it down the line.

If you go deeper into these arguments you will hear statements like "The resale value of a Challenger will go down by 20% in the first year itself". It means that you will "loose money" more quickly if you buy such a car and in an unfortunate turn of events decide to sell the car off just after a year of using it.

I personally would not recommend thinking in such ways when planning on buying a car. Make a decision based on the many other factors out there, not by how much you might be getting back when you eventually sell it.

CarFax and what to look for in it.

If you decide you are going to buy a used car, there are many things you must observe before even approaching the seller for a deal. Many used car dealers will give you a free CarFax report right on their website for you to check. CarFax is basically a history report of the car. By looking at the report you can find out if the car was in a serious accident (a negative sign); find out how well maintained it was (if car is serviced at a proper place, all details of the service are reported to CarFax). CarFax by itself alerts you on things to observe when it shows a car's history. Here is feedback on some of points that have conflicting opinions.


A car that has been reported to be a rental usually means that it was used like crazy by one different kind of driver every week for the one or two years it was used as a rental. That translates to very rough usage which generally doesn't mean good for the engine and it's life. These cars will usually have a lower price than similar cars, and for a reason. However, the counter argument for that, which you will often hear from the salesman, is that the car was "well maintained" because a rental company gets their car serviced and fixed very frequently; it is rather, maintained even better than a single owner would. I put this out there so that you are better prepared when the salesman tries to clean bowl you with such statements. You decide which side you of this argument you want to be. If a car is leased, it may not be a bad thing, it is just a single owner who leased it for 2 years, it shouldn't be looked at in the same light as a rental car.

The more number of owners a car has, the lesser the price it will go for.
Lingo: VIN is the Vehicle Identification number that is like the fingerprint of a car. All information about a car, its history, is tracked by that number.

Buying from Craigslist

This is risky business but you never know how your luck will turn out until you try. Just be sure to make your sale contingent on car's inspection. It should be such that you are able to show it in the Bill of Sale that you paid for the car under the condition that it will pass the inspection. (or else, have it inspected by the seller, before buying the car).


Things that would get the cost down are:

• Dents and Rust.
• Bad A/C.
• Bad sound system.
• Quality of brakes.
• Check Engine Light? (Don't buy it if you don't want head-aches)
• Cleanliness of seats etc.
• Battery's age. 
• Tyre's age.
• Major repairs pending?

Make sure to check for those things and see that you get the right price for the car depending on much time and effort you will need to spend on it after you buy it.

Lingo: Title This is the legal document that you must receive from the seller (signed) when you buy a used car. You cannot transfer registration to yourself without it.

Features for an augmented experience.

There are many features to look for when it comes to buying cars. These are things that can make or break a deal for you. Some items on this list were my top priority when buying a car. I will be using my car daily for my 15 mile commute, so convenience was higher priority. Following is a list of things, in no priority, that are worth checking out.

• Bluetooth - WITH A2DP (for streaming music from phone).
• USB Port / iPod Sync. (  Best if it has Microsoft Sync! )
• Large display screen for all controls ( additional: Back-Up Camera)
• Side-mirror defogging.
• Fog Lights.
• Sun/Moon Roof & Sunglasses compartment ( if in sunny areas).
• Motorized seats (additional - Lumbar Support, Memory).
• Alloy Wheels (mostly cosmetic).
• Cruise Control.
• Proximity Warning.
• In-built GPS.
• A/C fans for rear seats too. (Bigger sedans)

Well, those are basic and maybe mid-luxury level features that a car can have. There's way more stuff like ambient lights, running flat tire, touch screen display etc etc. What you feel is necessary or vain is all up to you.

The innards.

If you are really into cars, well, you may have found this post not very useful till now. Anyways, here is a very quick way to understand things.

V6 Engine - More VROOM and Less Economy.
4Cylinder - Silent, better Economy.

Higher the "liters" in the engine (2.2Liters etc) the better/smoother the driving experience will feel.
A good blind decision would be to go with a 4Cylinder with >2.2L engine. There are many other things like torque and other stuff which you might look into if you are really into the feel of the drive.

Enter Car Dealer: Intense car purchasing experience.

The Process

The actual process of going into a car dealership and buying a car is going to be the most difficult task you will do.

The first and foremost point to remember. Do not go into a car dealership until you are familiar with all these things I've talked about and you can handle yourself easily out of a forced situation.

Do not sit down with the salesman and have them see what your monthly payment will be if you buy a car. Only do this once you feel that you really want to buy the car.

To find out what your monthly payment would be (for the car loan) they will have to run a credit check on you via a bank. For every bank they try for a loan, it will be a HARD credit check on your credit score (Which is processed with your SSN number).

If there are large number of HARD checks on your credit history, it is usually implied with a "Tried to get a loan, but was denied", which in turn lowers your credit score and reduces the chances of getting a better interest percentage (APR) on your loan when you try again.

Always do your re-search online by looking at the inventory at the car dealer's website, single out what you might actually be interested in. I would say, after looking at maybe 10 different sites, its best to pick 1 or 2 that you may want to actually go to the place and see.

 

Internet Price:

Car dealers use bogus terminology like "Internet Price". It is a very low price tag for the car which include all kinds of rebates and concessions, all of which which you most probably will not be eligible for. Always add at least a 1000$ to the online price when you estimate costs. 

Remember that you will also have TAX and other dubious costs like "processing fees (not required by law)", "Used car checking fees" along with charges like "Freight", "Title & Tags", "Inspection".

Always try to bargain on the On-the-Road price. This is the price you will be paying finally, Also include the tax in this for easier calculations. Once you know the estimate for an On-the-Road price. Which would be "Car + Tax + Tags + ..." you will have to decide how much you are willing to put down and how much you want to loan.

Car Final Price at a dealer:
Advertised Price + Tax + Registration + Inspection + Freight + Processing Fee + dubious charges + additional services.

Depending on your credit history (which will not be much if you are in a similar position as me) you will get better rates if you take lesser loans and try to repay them quicker. Try for various incentives that you will be eligible for. Things like "Recent Graduate" specials, which will allow you to get good APR (interest rates) on your loans even with unimpressive credit report. Or the "First Time Buyer" which will make loan approval easier for you. If you buy new cars, often if you take the loan from the financing firm of the same company as your car's make. You will get good rates.

And one more thing.

So you've found the car you want, got a nice loan approved and are ready to buy the car. The drama isn't over yet. From when you OK the deal to actually signing the papers, you will once again be bombarded with various ways to pay the dealer more money. If its a newer used car or new car, some of these things might actually be required for your car.

There will be things like "Alarm System", "No-rust under-coating", "Lifetime waxing", "Extended Warranty" etc etc. All these may or not be as useful as they make it seem. You will be wasting an hour or more dealing with all these things. Now that you know they are going to ask for such things, just be prepared to give a quick and firm decision. Do not wait for them to push a decision on to you. 

The most import part: Actual Payment

A very important thing to understand is how you will actually be paying for your car. The terms in which all Car dealers talk is "Monthly Payment". In most cases you are going to take a loan, and in most of those cases you will try to get a loan approved right at the dealership (unless you have got a loan approved from some place else on your own).

You need to have a good understanding of what monthly payment and for what period will your budget be. But the way car dealers work is, once you mention a monthly payment to them. They will say "Oh ok, we can do that" and try to get to such a monthly payment but for a higher period of loan payment.

If you have $400 a month for 36 months fixed, they might come up with $420 for 36 months and then pull a "Let me see what I can do" and get tell you "Yes we can do it" and propose a $400 for 42 months payment plan or the like. 36*420 is 15k and 400*48 is 17k. At the sacrifice of paying lesser every month, you will be paying an additional $2000 over the period of a year.

The smaller period of loan, the lesser interest you pay for your loan. But if you choose a longer period for repayment of loan, you will get a higher interest for the privilege of paying lesser amount every month.

The basic thing to understand here is that, you need to have good estimates of what monthly payments you would want to pay for 36, 42, 48, 60 months and then be prepared to understand what total amount you will be spending over time. Decide what kind of spending you want. If it doesn't matter to you that you pay more over time you can choose a longer period, and if you know that you will keep the car for longer than the loan repayment period, you might want to pay lesser interest.

A good understanding of all these dynamics will get you prepared for buying the right car. So make you get it all figured out before jumping into the wild and getting bombarded with car dealers ways.


Lingo: APR is the Annual percentage rate that you will be paying for the money you loan. Your credit history and score decide how much APR you get for your loan. Being a new grad or first time car buyer might incentivize your APR to lower values. It is best to have a monthly payment in your mind rather than figuring out what APR you want. However, try to not go for an APR higher than 4.5%

In Conclusion.

Well, like I said multiple times already, buying car is not easy. There are many things to consider and there is so much research to do. So if you know you are going to buy a car and want to feel like you are satisfied with the decision you made, make sure you have spent some time at least thinking of all these things I've mentioned.

There is so much more that goes into make such a decision, on an average one spends almost a month doing all the research. So get ready for intense decision making.

Well, I started with a $8000 budget thinking that I would be needing a car just for a year or two which changed to a completely different estimate by the time I bought a car.

Ended up with this.

2010 Accord Coupe EX-L

Where to from here now.

Wow, didn't realize that its been more than a year since my last entry! Last year was abuzz with activities, there was not much idle time. Well, last year is over now, even the last year at GRIET. B.Tech in CSE is complete and now, theres time to do other things :P

Well, first of all, the main thing that comes into mind now, is "What about the future". I've been planning my future carefully, thinking of all that will happen and that might happen. Took insights, help from many people in the industry I want to be in and also from people who are presently working and happy doing what they're doing. What exactly is my plan? Well, that all will be known as and when it unfolds.

Options

After I finished my tenth, the only thing I had to think of was "Biology or Maths" and chose the one I like, i.e. maths. Afterwards it was all a strange 2 year journey. I basically knew that I want to do something with computers, hence always only thought that I should be doing CSE after I complete Inter. Well, inter finished and thanks to my parents, I got to do what I wanted to do. 4 years later, that part is also done.

As years go by, the options become more specific. In one of our long chats, Kunal told me "do what ever u want... if u love it then ur life is set" There were many things discussed before and after that; but that is one thing that I will remember forever. That along with many other chats and discussions has helped me in coming up with the most probable choices for the path to take from now.

Plan A

The thing that is most probably going to happen now is that I will study Masters in CS at SUNY Buffalo. Its a really good university and I'm really glad I got into it. The university offers 4 specializations and the one that I know I will love the most is AI.

Lot of thought went into that decision. The main thing being that I didn't have AI in my BTech (I did have Neural Networks though, liked it comparatively more) and it is generally considered a "hard subject". But after checking all the subjects and the way everything is laid out, I will be learning everything about AI from the ground up, hence the path being smoother for me to take.

Rather than taking subjects that I already know, or which will be "Easier to pass" I will try to take the risk and do something that I really feel like doing. My goal is not to go there and get an MS degree. Its for me to learn what I wish to do, and what I think I will love doing.

Everyone who knows me, knows that I want to live a life doing something with games. It would be like cheating myself if I didn't do what my heart tells me but do what will easily get me a job and settled life. I will only get satisfaction after I have tried my best to do what I always wanted to do.

Its better to try and fail than not try at all.

Thanks to the input from the internet and many people currently in the games industry, I got a realistic picture of what lies ahead; and thanks to my own pessimistic views, I already am prepared for failures. I wouldn't at all be prepared for my failures if it weren't for my parents and brother. They will always be by my side, knowing that, I set forth and once again, make my own decision of what I want to do.

Dreams come true only in stories.

Lot of thought has been put into it, anyone who has had a serious discussion with me knows how much I think. Its hard for me to be optimistic about my future; even as I type, I feel how wrong I am to think that anything I am typing here will go as planned. I tell my self how foolish it is to think so. But the fact that I have written it tells that there is something in me that tells me I can do it.

I always used to imagine myself sitting and doing experiments and getting lost in my own world like the Robin Williams from Flubber (or like in Nutty Professor, or like in A beautiful Mind). My brother will testify about my problem solving self. That thought would immediately lead me to think that a PhD. is best option for me.( There's the absent mindedness thing too :P ) If I have something to do, I'm more than happy to dedicate myself to it, as many years as it takes. That would be the best way to sharpen my skills and get a high entry point into the games industry after completing my PhD.

Thanks to my pessimistic side, very low chances of me doing that exist. So many stories of the perils of doing a PhD.; other thoughts of me telling myself that its just an over optimistic dream, etc made me just stop thinking about it.

Right now what I believe I'll be doing is choose my MS projects wisely, make myself a nice portfolio of tech demos, try my best to get an entry level job and progress from there according to the other huge plan in my head. This will a test of patience and especially a huge fight against the inner self. My exact dream has been available only in a certain Slam Book till now and even thinking of realizing that dream is a huge no-no as my pessimistic side will be all over it like a rabid wolverine.

Well, lets not get into the finer details now... as far as Plan A is considered, it will be most probably what I will be trying to do. There are so many forks in this road, many choices to make.

Plan B

Plan B... well, it is basically something that will only happen if Plan A doesn't happen. Why will Plan A not happen? well, there is still the Visa processing thing left, and the other side of me tells me not to be happy already.

Well, this would mean that I take the TCS Job that I have right now thanks to Campus Placements. What will happen? I will basically be transformed into liking what I will be doing after years of doing it.

If I take this job, the chances of getting to see more places will be higher, and I can always come back home and play games. I can even have a side job of sitting and writing articles for various websites and magazines (of which some, I am doing even now). I'm more into the philosophy of gaming anyways.

This would mean that I will continue to change myself and enjoy what I get, leaving the ever lasting question of "What if" for my Plan A.

Or I can try to break free from it "After a few years of experience" and take inspiration from the words of everyone who has always said that I deserve to be doing something involved with games. Yes, Plan B has its own sub-plans, which I don't want to go into details as I dont even want that to happen.

In conclusion

I will mark today as the day that I promise myself to try what I always wanted to try and find out for myself instead of thinking a lot about it and not doing it. I used to be shy of saying this because my inner self always told me how unrealistic it is to think that I will achieve what I want the most; most of all "Enjoy" when I am in the games industry (I do know how crazy and bad the work environment is in the industry). With no further debate, I'll try and suppress the oppressor.

Expect to see me in a GDC/E3/SomethinRelevant talk sometime soon.

The eye of the Ti...Beholdaaa

"Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder"

No matter who you are, there is good chance that you've heard that somewhere or the other. Usually being used to point to the fact that different people see things differently. Especially when looking at those "Abstract Art" stuff in painting exhibitions.

So, why mention such a well known thing? Recently, I've had many experiences which relate to that saying. In different ways, learned a few new things. Just thought I would write them down here.

*Its not you, its THEM

Well, one thing I realized was that, no matter with what intentions you say it, people will see what you say, how they want to. Recently, someone on a "social site" made a status update saying that he'll have to shave the beard that he has in his profile pic.

I knew him for almost a year (with same pic mapping the id) but never realized that he had a beard, until then. So I told

"I never knew you had a beard, maybe it was the black BG"

Now.. I was actually referring to the actual black BG of the image and how his face was turned sideways and the beard camouflaged in the BG. But.. that person took it as some kind of schismatic remark with me referring to his face as the "black bg"

Yeah, thats how it works.. it doesnt matter with what intentions you say it, if the other person sees you differently there is good chance of everything going bad. Ofcourse, there are two other basic quotes that you remember at this point, the first being "Think twice before saying anything" but at that point.. even if I had thought thrice I would not have seen that coming!

The other one being "Stop f'ing wasting time on the internet with useless discussions" Yeeeaah.. very famous saying that be... I guess I should keep that in mind very much. These things dont help much but build relations that will mostly not substantiate to anything. Thats what I say now.. lets just hope the condition improves.

*Sometimes.. it IS you.



This is something my mom said recently when we were watching "Are we there yet?". I've seen many bratty kid movies, but the kids in this movie were reaaaaaly crazy.. I had no idea why they were doing those and thought that they were just plain spoiled brats. A common case of "लाड्ला बच्चा being जिद्दी " You know.. గారం బిడ్డా. The part where children are over loved by the parents and they start thinking they own the world or something.

The tricks they were doing had no justification for me and then I couldn't handle it and gave a remark about how crazy those kids were.. then mom said

"They are so nice, they're doing all this to keep their mom safe"

:O

I was totally shocked by this, I didnt even see that angle till my mom said that. I was blank for a moment, then saw the movie with mom's eyes and it all made somewhat sense.. that made me realize how people actually think so differently.

(The movie, however, was a reaaaaal struggle for me to watch.. they even had a part with the little girl singing. I pitied ICE CUBE like anything after watching movie)

*The Beauty of Opinion

So, yeah, because of these and many other events like these, I really started seeing things in a few more angles before saying stuff. The "beauty" is pretty subject, its not actual beauty that the QQ is talking about, its "everything", its basically opinion that it is talking about.

I've always kept the difference of opinion in mind, thats why whenever at a forum or blog (where people know I am not some troll).. I usually oppose others opinion (regardless of what I think) just so that I can get a deeper look into why they think like that how they see things.

These things, might feel kinda useless.. buts thats how I roll :P I like studying people and what they think. Such things make it easy for you communicate with people differently, especially when you are part of a team. You don't want to isolate someone, its not an argument there, so it helps in communicating differently and pleasing them (as always.. regardless of your opinion). I believe, throwing away what you think and flowing with conversations just so things happen is the best thing one can do. Only a bit of experience is what is required for one to just leave away his opinion for a small amount of time, without showing with the face, actions ofcourse!

Ofcourse, this is something you might already know. This is just me, stating the obvious facts on The path to Reeteshification

The Yahoo! and Twitter connection!

*The Mystery begins

Not too long ago, Shrikey was asking me what I had done to show my twitter status in Yahoo messenger, that time, I was using Digsby, and I was updating both my Gtalk and Yahoo statuses using that, I thought that he mistook my Gtalk updates to be twitter updates and told him the same.

Few days passed by and then one day when me and Phani were experimenting on Apache server I tweeted about it. Later, Venu came online and was asking Phani, what he was doing on Apache.. we were thinking that he was observing my twitter feed and hence got to know of it. But he said that he saw it in his Yahoo messenger. This time I was not using Digsby neither had I updated the my Gtalk status. He even stressed the fact that it was in Y! Messenger and told the location where it was visible.

*What could it be??

So it had to be some service that I used and forgot about. I then started scanning my memory to see what it could have been, but all tries returned no results. Finally I visited everything.yahoo.com its the exact thing I needed, an exhaustive list of all the web services that Yahoo! provides.

I found some really crazy things via this.. a site called omg.yahoo.com which has a totally "different" layout, something called myweb.yahoo.com that's going to be shutdown soon (redundancy and Recession :P ) then there was as developers.yahoo.com where I got to know that there is a thing called "Yahoo Query language"(No wikipedia entry for it even!) These yahoo people sure are doing a lot of stuff. They have services starting with every letter of the alphabets but Q and X, I wonder what they're waiting for.. just 2 more and your collection is complete!

*The Root Cause!

After looking into those things, I finally found out which place made my yahoo status automatically change to the latest twitter status.

It was MyBlogLog.com. I recently went to that place after finally clicking on a link to it, in one of the blogs I frequent. I found out that it was a service (now) under Yahoo. As soon as I saw I already have an ID for it, I activated it and started adding services.

I added all services I could remember and then left it to that. Little did I know,it has a thing called "NewWithMe" which is a feed combined from the feeds of other services that were entered by me in the profile.

MyBlogLog being a Yahoo service, was updating my yahoo status message to the latest entry in "New With Me" feed every hour, even when I'm offline (i.e the state in which I am 95% of the time)



Finally, the mystery of the Twitter updates and "How is everyone who is not on twitter also talking about my tweets" is finally solved!

In retrospect.. it could have been very easy if someone clicked the blue line and saw that it redirected to MyBloglog :| Oh well, atleast I got to find out "everything" at Yahoo this way :P
Hope it answers all your questions!

Breaking the habit...

Ok.. sorry for that superbly cheesy LP reference, but yeah.. today was special.. I finally did something that I never liked doing.. and liked doing it!

What am I talking about?? "Coaching Classes" ofcourse...finally, on my own.. decided to go to one of those factories that I didn't like so much since... ever.

*School

Well.. till 9th class I never even felt that "it is a competitive world" I would always do what I wanted, read and write exams and top with ease.. then there was this thing in tenth where all teachers would always stress on the importance of getting really high marks. I never actually understood it.. however.. with more attention to "marks" than ever before I wrote the exams. I saw many of my friends go to tuition and other things after school, which I never could understand why they went to.

I am you know, that guy who reads and doesn't battify/byheart every friggin thing.. basically most of you reading this are also of type, so I guess you get me when I say this about tuitions and other things.

Other than that one time when we stayed in karnataka and "kannada" was compulsory (my 3rd class) we (me and bro) didnt go to tution for anything, not that I am against tuition.. I can understand that it helps many people because of the "better" teachers they have.

*Interim-Idiot (Intermediate)

You know.. that time after 10th, the 2yrs where practically ANY place can be called a "coaching center" where the main aim of a "college" is to hold one test after the other, making students feel like they're cattle not humans..I was ok with it for the first year, but then.. some kind of stupid thing happened to me.

Seeing all these people around me read like CRAZY, I started wondering if I really deserved getting good marks because I did far less hard work than others, yet was able to perform satisfactorily... its just that the environment was like that.

I know how stupid it sounds but that's how I used to think of it back then.. I thought that, if I would get better marks, there is someone else loosing an opportunity, and almost everyone around me was like this super hard working lifeless machine who have dedicated their life for this thing hence I felt that they deserved better rank than me ( :| )

So after this, I finally started realizing how everyone is competing for everything everywhere and that this is a competitive world.

*Coaching Classes

Rather than being a participant in the competition, I just slid away, the fire to "be the best" never burnt within me. You can say that was basically the most stupid part of my life. I just started hating all these factories with a passion because it was removing all kinds of fun from everyone, going to one was like shaking hands with satan. I always viewed school in my childhood as that lovely place where you learnt things.. but everything changed because of the poor "Teacher-child" relations, and lifeless lectures.

The best thing in intermediate were those classes when the really awesome lecturers taught, it was only about being there and learning things. Only two were really good, almost everyother class felt so dead that my brain learnt only because it was the min. required thing.

All these dead lectures and other things, confirmed my belief that "learning things on your own" is the best way to do it. I've learnt oh so many things since I was young and those are the things I remember even now.. down to the most trivial details. One is his own best tutor I must say.

*Engg Coll.

Well after coming to engg, I must say I've been having the time of life, because I've been doing what I wanted, learning what I wanted, and doing it the way I wanted! The detached attachment with the lecturers and subjects is such a good thing, I can keep having the best of both worlds. The fact that almost all the subjects are computer things, adds to the learning experience..

However, there is another thing , sometimes the thing you really wanted to learn turns out to be one of the subjects of your engg. course.. so because of this, I found myself NOT learning it on my own.. also because of the sub-par to poor lecturers teaching those subjects to me.. those thing totally died :( That's one of the saddest things I felt.

*Why go to them now?

Well, what happened later is specific to me, don't know if all others can relate to this, but the thing is that, the place that use as my "learning tool" had turned into one of my biggest vices.. yeah.. you know..

Using my computer paired with teh internetz as the source for total timewaste by reading each and every article in 10 blogs everyday, commuting in forums, stalking on twitter, among other things, really effected my life.. infact, it CHANGED it totally..

All I did was now look here and there, and waste time, I would plan on doing something but only rarely did I get anything done, because the system idle process was just one click away (browser)

So basically, there HAS to be a way to limit this.. ofcourse, there is "self control" which I have been rigorously applying since the past few weeks, which btw have been my recent BEST, but no matter what, the best way seemed to be the one where I would stay away from the computer..

The thing is that, I am planning on writing GRE soon, and there is no way I'll be able to dedicate myself COMPLETELY, if I plan on reading it on my own on the computer .. I've been controlling myself while reading oracle, but even then.. I feel that there must be a better way.

There is another fact..these 3years in college, have completely changed my perception of the world. I still understand that its a "competitive place" but after going through all what I have gone due to my ... *ahem* confusions of an immature mind then being the awesome environment that is college life..I.. you know, grew a brain and stopped caring about such things..

You could say.. the thing about "equivalent exchange" from FMA really REALLY helped me understand everything better..( another proof that, there is someone out there in the world who has experienced something similar and written/created something to show you the consequences, also, anime/manga has the answer for everything in life :P )

All I see now is 1)set a goal and 2)achieve it. Try your best and SCREW others and how they perform! Its like you know , back to being the mindset that I was in school, I never actually thought that someone would be "sad because he didnt get better rank because I got one better than him" and nonsense like that :P and neither did I keep a lot of burden on my shoulders.

So basically, now my goal is to just write that GRE exam, and do what I can do.. and the best thing is that the exam is also my kind.. THERE is no frigging RANK,seats and all that nonsense.

*The first experience

So yeah.. after Phani talking me into it (in a common sense way :P ) today I went to the class.. and I must say, it felt good, the thing that I have a "schedule" and I need to do things at a given time, really gives the complete feeling.. and the lack of time after returning, makes me want to keep work first and news later, making things more effecient, its not like I am wasting time, and its not like I am totally shileding off one part of life :D

So yes... thats what happens, you can basically see my tansition from a person with different views, its not called being "hypocrite" its called "growing up" and understanding things :P I have not written anything in a way that it'd give you, the reader, any direct info on what to do, but showed you what I've gone through, which might inderectly help you.

Its how I tread on the...

Path to Reeteshification.

BLatNee, A recurring....occurance

You know.. how you always think.. "OMG this day/trip was so awesome, I hafta write about it!" and end up not writing it at all.. because of how elaborate you want it to be but get busy always and think time is not enough to write it? You know... "procrastination" the never ending cycle that gets you nowhere.

Well.. there is also another thing that I do..I think... a lot.. I usually create the comments that I would get and create total conversations with different personalities even before I actually sit and write the thing. I think of writing it, but once I sit on the computer, something happens, I get distracted and do crazy stuff often "System idle process" stuff.

But soon.. when I get holidays or some "real" free time.. I realize that.. I need to archive my thoughts and start writing whatever was the last thing I thought a lot about.

I totally omit many things just because I think they wont make sense when late..

but well.. times a changing.. from now on , I will sit and write.. whenever I get some time.. just because I love recording things and saying things ;)

I will be tagging those posts with "Blatnee" (pronounced like Matinee, indian way :P ) Its the "Better late than Never" edition of posts..

So yeah.. this has been a public service announcement for both of you who read this place..

Lake House

I saw the movie yesterday.. it was one of those movies that my bro gave me and I have no Idea of.

At first I thought it was a horror movie because the title sounds very apt for one, then from the IMDB page for the thing I saw that it was a drama movie.

I saw that page long back, when I first saw the movie's name after bro me gave the disc.. only thing I remembered was that it was a movie about a former tenant and a new tenant exchanging letters and falling in love.. like some classic hindi movie.

Recently, I started doing things in an ordered fashion and hence was seeing one movie everyday.. finishing up all those backlogs , you know :P So I decided to see "lake house" and put it in.

The beginning

Not until I saw the opening credits did I know that Keanu reeves was the main hero.. I saw that and went "ooh, keanu reeves in a lovey dovey movie?" and wondered how it would be to see him after only seeing in movies like the matrix.

The movie started a bit slow.. the dialogues were over cheesy, it felt kinda boring.. until

THE TWIST

It happens that by some strange magic, the heroine (sandra Bullock :D ) is from the future, and the hero is from the past. The heroin lives in the lakehouse from 2005-2006, and right now the hero has come into the house in 2004.

So by some magic both of em, communicate by putting letters in the mailbox of the same house and using it like IMs where they sometimes, just stand and keep exchanging letters.. the mailbox goes into "unread" position.... automagically!

The explanation

The movie gives no kind of explanation to how it is happening, but I think its not needed.. its just happening! Its fantasy.. enjoy it and see how things play out. The main story is about how they both get to meet each other,eventhough they are talking in a very confusing time lag.

The experience

Just when I saw the "OMG TIME BEND" part.. I started thinking that this would be "my kind of movie" you know like Toki wo kakeru Shoujo and all those.. time travel movies with "love" themes.

Basically, the movie had a great chance of being one of my favourite movies of all time.. it was so confusing (in a good way) that it kept my brain thinking of what all things they could possibly do and how they would meet each other.

But, for some reason.. there were many scenes that were just unnecessary, the characters at time expressed emotions which made no sense, the dialogues... could definitely have been better. There are some other things, but I just cant seem to put my finger on it...it was missing a certain factor that almost every other "great" love-fantasy had. Maybe its the BGM and scenry.. or the direction..

However

Do watch it.. its a nice movie with great twist, It will keep you excited in many parts. There is a lot more to the movie than I mentioned.. don't want to spoil everything :P

I however, wish that this movie is remade after a few years or so.. in a better way. It was good, but could get definitely better in many areas! Or maybe is there already some movie from which this was inspired? something that was done better? hmm... will have to look around on the net first..

[UPDATE] Thanks to my friend I found out that, there IS infact another movie just the same as this one.. and it came before this movie (lake House was inspired from that) and just as you guessed it.. it is infact better than this. Gotta get my hands on that movie soon :D

It's a Korean Movie named Siworae/ II Mare . Check it out :)

ReeTweet : My First PHP/AIR/Twitter ...thing

Well, I am in 3-2 now (thats, IIIyr IIsem ) and its high time that I decided I go "deep", following one of the many paths open to me in the computer field. I can say I am marginally good in many things. Although its "many" its still marginally, I can make a simple webpage for myself, make a poster or two, edit some photos, write some codes, edit videos, mix audio, animate stuff in flash, do some DB management etc.. but nothing did I go too deep where I could actually say I am VERY good at.

My interesting in web-developing started back when I was a 12yr old making websites with flash navigation bars, but it stopped there, afterwards 10th class etc started and it was only curricular learning, extra-curricular things only involved "fun" :P

And seeing that I am very much interested in internet related developments, I thought that it would be better if I did something to expand my knowledge in this field.. So one fine day I asked @aalaap for some suggestions and after hearing what exactly I wanted to do, he suggested I learn PHP, and directed me to a nice learning place for beginners.

And I don't know why, just 5 Days ago it hit me that I should try out Adobe Air too (knew nothing about it till today) and just downloaded the SDK and stuff.

Lets fast forward to today, which after THIS happened, and also when I really started feeling that I should just have one small dabba with me using which I can just keep posting to twitter, not using a browser, so that I dont waste time stalking the timeline :P

So, I set my goal this morning (first "my" day of the holidays) to finally sit and see this Air thing and learn some PHP.

HelloWorld

So, I started off the day by reading how I could make my first "HelloWorld" app in Air. As I read on, I realized that the Air is really awesome! I dont know if there are already things like this, but its basically like having a browser window of your own! You just write HTML things like you would usually do for it to appear in a browser, and then you point that HTML file as the source for your app, and then Air creates a window showing that HTML page, making it look like its a standalone App.(FYI uses Webkit engine)

Pretty good it is! This technique of doing things compliments my forte very much!

So, I kept doing things from that HelloWord tutorial and within no time I had it successfully working.. no hitches or anything :D After doing that, I immediately shifted my attention to PHP

Monkeys are your best friend.

You have your code monkeys, greasemonkeys, lab monkeys, and lots more, @aalaap directed me to this "webmonkey.com" which has good resources and tuts for beginners and experts alike.

So I made my way to that place and then started reading the PHP for beginners tutorial. Everything is basically like just any other programming language you've learnt in the past, so learning that part was not that hard. The main thing was knowing exactly how things work, the way communication between HTML and PHP things happen and all that.

And once again, the way PHP and HTML work together seems like MAGIC, i.e compliments my interests :D

After reading the whole article, ( which I say should be THE way anyone should write tuts! ) I did a bit of experiments with Air and PHP.

Now comes Twitter!

So, after making myself comfortable with how all things work. I started looking at how the twitter API works.. its basically just updating a RSS feed. So I started looking up on how I access and update feeds using PHP, and webmonkey lead me to THIS place.

It has links to things that people have already done to use Twitter API, using different platforms. The main aim here is "Dont re-invent the wheel"

I.E. Rather than sitting and writing those codes of lines again just take them from others who are sharing it.. but this, if you're a beginner, stunts your knowledge..so what I did was just sit lookup all the methods and variables that the person used in his small code by going to PHP.net and tried to figure out what how it was working.

After spending a good amount of time I was comfortable with what all of it meant and what was exactly happening. I also realized that there is a looooooot more to learn.. its the just the beginning.

Here comes ReeTweet!

After observing everything, I finally started making the application. I just used the code provided there in the TwitterAPI Wiki, and then added forms in my HelloWorld HTML.

The first build I made had only Username and Password dabbas, along with the tweet area. Basically not much work was needed to be put into it. Just make your text areas, give them ids, POST the values to the PHP script and then update the twitter.com/statuses/update.xml using cURL commands.

So here is the Box you've all been waiting for!

So simple, is it not?

So, after a few hours of reading and trying out various things, I was finally able to get the thing done in the same day!

First I thought only email id can be sent for the authentication so tweeted that.. then I tried using my Userid instead. It works both ways! :D



It echo()s these lines of text after submitting, I guess I can use the information and then render a nice page after submit :D

Afterwards, I realized that there was no point in using the userid and password, as this was something I created for myself.. so made the simple dabba I was talking about :D

So, yeah thats how I am leaving it for today.. will see more next time.

My app Link is where?

One of the main things that I wanted was that I will get "from ReeTweet" whenever I make the post.. I used to think that it was a parameter in the XML file that I should be updating in order to give the name and link.. but after looking around a bit.. it turns out that .. inorder to get "from app" and make it link to someplace, you must "File a request" and it has many constraints set.

It was very discouraging :( I dont see why they should do that, I mean, make it possible via some xml parameters and people who make things can show it.. I dont see how it can be "abused" linking to something there is similar to linking something in your tweet. Well, I guess its them being on the safe side, or maybe doing that to have an "exhaustive" list of all the apps that people are making.

I just hope that after I finish working on the thing I can get permission to mention my app :P

So what's next?

Well there's LOT of stuff to be done! I didnt take any security measures, and neither did I make more "personalized" here is a small list of things I want to do.

• Look around about what security measure should be taken
• Go back to main page after successfully posting!! (right now have to restart the app :P )
• Add script to show remaining characters.
• AJAXify IT!!
• Make my own icon
• Make a nice BG
• Show @replies in another tab
• Count number of tweets in current session and show

Well thats only a start, I just hope I learn a lot of things doing that :D

Final Thoughts

There is no guarantee that I will be doing web development in my future, as in, job.. but for the moment, I am loving and will keep doing it till..well.. circumstances force me to do something else... I wouldn't be sad if it had something to game programming :P (comfortable with designing algorithms there too :D )

And as for AIR, I have to say! Its far far FAR better than me having to make those swings/jFrames applets in java, this feels so natural to me, and very comfortable with it! Swings and all feel so scary when you look at them, and doing this in Air is... just so ME.

So.. yeah, thats it about what I did today, Now I will look into where I should go next to learn more about PHP, the exhaustive lists and everything at PHP.net are a bit scary :S

Reetesh's Scheduling Algorithm

Note: Well, no matter how silly/incoherent/unnecesary this felt when I typed, I finally gatehred the strength to post it..

Everyone has stacks of work queued up with them.. and you do them in some order or the other. But it is very important to note that the environment you do your work in, should be such that it compliments your work and method.

Not too long ago, I was happy sitting doing my things and flowing along with the time. I always had notes and a small notice board filled with things that I had to do (on the computer), With not much problem I used to achieve those tasks. But recently, those notes have been piling up and that board hasn't been erased since ages.

The problem here is that, there have been only two processes running when I come home and sit on the computer..

• Process A : AKA System Idle process, wander aimlessly in social sites and Reading RSS feeds
• Process B :Help someone with some problem.
  

Process A

These things have various threads which keep happening in a round robin fashion.. I look at the RSS feeds and read for sometime, then go to twitter and stalk a little, then go to forums and help some one, check my scraps and reply to the doubts, the cycle repeats.

The Blog news sites keep putting news for hits, I get suckered into reading everything because of my thirst for.. well, anything that happens in my areas of interest (One big goal of having a huge encyclopaedia in me head). So that keeps giving new things to read once the cycle is over, then people on twitter keep tweeting and there are so many people with common interests that keeps me watching, to see if they found something interesting that I could probably make use of.. that is another never ending process.

Then there is the forum thing where you periodically go and keep checking if the person asking the question to which you replied has answered back or not..

In this way, time gets wasted, so obviously this way of round robin-ing all these process is a very bad thing to do. Socializing and having connections with people is good, but one should never go overboard.

Process B

Basically, there is nothing wrong in helping others, I actually love seeing that what I know is helping in making others' life easier. But the thing here is that, since the past few months it has gone to such lengths that I get daily 1hr+ phone calls, chatting for an hour (altleast) and then roaming in the forums for another few hours .

The main culprit here is me ofcourse, I can choose to say "I am short on time" or "have to do something else", but I just can't say that, and then again there is thing that, I have my chat clients ALWAYS on, so anyone looking for help instead of googling will ask me first, because.. well, there is a good chance I would know how to help.

The main reason I go online (not invisible) on these things is because, I've been getting calls from people/relatives saying they haven't seen me since so long, etc etc..(all that mushy stuff) giving me a feeling of "loosing your friends". So that the social tie is tied tightly once I go and stay online.

But thats basically "asking for it" Once you go online you are sure to be bombarded with even more people and waste a few cycles there.

What Happened?

Simply put, I got the proverbial "kick in the nuts" all that information junkie-ness finally proved fatal and it went to such an extent that I lost the sense of responsibility, never thinking about things I should actually be getting done. It was, always, the same cycle, repeating. Even sometimes when I decided firmly that

"I will play this game today"
"I will complete this task today"

I would get pings from friends or maybe a call from someone to do/help with something and then keep doing that and then after doing it, go into the system idle process and waste the remaining time.

How bad was it? Simply put, I completed only 13 games last year, compared to 23 from 2007, and most of the 2008 games were rather, short.

This was at its peak in the past three months, with even movie/anime/game activity being close to 0 so you can forget about "learning/studies" etc. And day before yesterday I got my "kick in the nuts" by failing to pass an exam by 2 Qs (which I openly accept, could have prepared more for, even though I did the minimum required preparation)

As they say.. "Its all fun and games until someone looses an eye"

Well, I guess you require something BIG to happen so that you get back intoright track and start doing things the right way...

So... What now?

Well, I guess its time for a CHANGE, and what kind of change?

Everytime I remember this saying from a good friend of mine "Life is all about getting your priorities straight" I always loved that sentence, wanted to follow it, never felt it was that necessary, but I guess it IS now.

So , shifting from my Round Robin ways with no priorities at all.. now on I will be having a very highly prioritized method of scheduling my tasks.

I have plans to learn and do a lot by the time this semester ends, so I guess its time to get my other kind of knowledge's fill and do it in a right manner. Everyday will have its own fresh board/page and will do those first, and only then go to my feeds/twitter etc..

• WONT start my day with "Lets see whats the latest news at kotaku"
• Will not keep stalking my timeline on twitter.
• Apply appropriate Stealth settings on Chat clients
  
• Remove all Social Apps from Startup
• Do atleast one thing that you WANT to do.. not what you HAVE to.
• Learn to say "NO"
  

They might sound cheesy and all, but yeah, thats what I am aiming for.. ofcourse at first I will try to completely be away from everything so that I can later manage having limited exposure to them.

Will it work?

You have no idea how many edits, cuts, and modifications this post has gone.. I was going to NOT post this thing at all.. just like 100s of other things that go through my head, but I finally decided that I will make this post and let all my friends know, so that, atleast they will keep me kicking back on the right track.. i.e not just @sadaarjun and @PhaniPS :P

Just writing this is like overcoming a huge hurdle...

----
Comment on twitter

Basically, most of the people in there are people either working or.. well, not in college like me.. I mean the people with as much activity as mine. All those @SathyaBhat s and @b50 s spamming timelines are happily tweeting along from their office computers when they have nothing else to do...its bad, to try and replicate that part of them :P Its better me, as a student, utilise that time for something better :P

I guess I finally understand the on again, off again, moods of @preshit and also why @xubz has disappeared.@QuizMaster seems to be doing fine.. but has been less active recently because of the exams.. well, just hope @Rockstar_sid and @pcsbox dont get too carried away. @karthiksn seems to be in a similar System Idle process situation though..

Tracking..

In the end, will be tracking my own progress via twitter and blog activity.. let us just see if something happens after I post this thing... I dont want it turn out like all those other times when you get serious and think of doing something but endup being overwhelmed by the wretched System Idle Process.

Pickup Mission 2: Package Smackage!

Today was another pickup mission! Another one of the students doing their MS in SIUE (where my bro studies) had come to Hyderabad just the other day, and guess what? My brother sent things via her! Yeah, that's pretty common anyways, people send things for their parents/relatives back in India via friends leaving to India! So what were those things? Where was the pickup point? Read on!

Oh yeah, that's "Reeft Punk" btw.. my avatar when I ride on the bike :P The helmet with no Visor gives the cool, winged helmet feel to it, and the shades block the dust completely (there is a LOT of dust in HYD, eyes get destroyed). Oh and always have my iPod on whenever riding :D

*The Destination!

The destination was also quite far away this time! (it's like a mandatory condition that the friend's house should be really far away) Luckily it was not as far away as the previous one, and this time it was on the opposite side of the city. The complete path is on the Highway!! That's the best part of it, finally got a chance to ride on the Highway (for a long distance) Enjoyed the ride a lot I must say.. but don't get too joyful! Things can get really dangerous. Good thing it was not very deep into the highway, else ultra super fast trucks would have started zooming by.

The house I had to go to was in Chanda Nagar and there were many other nagars inside ChandaNagar, it was a confusing mess! I was going on a straight path and then it split into three. Let's just say that I roamed 3Kms ("gullies" and all), for 15 minutes of every path. AND the last one was the right place :| Ofcourse, it always has to be the last place! (stupid Murphy and his law)

*The Package!

So I finally reached the house, (ofcourse with a lot of assist over the phone from Pratibha didi :P ) and there I was greeted to THIS chunk of awesomeness! Just look at towering package! I put everything into my bag, and also gave the things that I prepared for my brother.. made a complete DVD (along with labels and Covers) Took me around 3 months to edit the 3hr + Video (along with handpicked BGM etc :D ) And another DVD with all the pictures taken when he was not here. I also gave the 1 GB DDr ram that I had lying around here, with no use at all.

Then Sat there for a while talked a bit with Pratibha didi, got to know a few things about how they all saw my bro :P After talking for about an hour or so (and after eating 2 Ferrero Rochers! ) I started the return journey. It's getting dark very soon now a days, was pretty dark by 6PM itself! Reached home in under an hour and was ready to...

*Layeth the SmakethDown!

I guess I already told you all about how my brother is a deal finder and always tries to get things for... not the standard price :P Lemme write down the things with their price and how he got them for that much! Ok, without further ado, here are the things!

As you can see.. There are 4 PS3 games

• LittleBigPlanet - $39 (Amazon Coupons)
• Resistance 2 Collector's Edition - $59 (Offer in Amazon)
• Heavenly Sword - $19 (Amazon again :P )
• UT III - $19 ( $21 with tax, Walmart )

And then there are two BD Movies too!

• Hulk Limited Edition - $16
• TDK 2-Disc Special Edition - $10

Both from Columbia house, don't ask me HOW though :P

What? You thought that was all ? Now have a look here!

The first 3 games are from the buy 2 get 1 free GameStop offer that was up not too long ago. And remaining are form Amazon :D

• Pikmin 1 - $24.99
• Pikmin 2 - $39.99
• LoZ: TP - $44.99
• No More Heroes - $14.99
• Wario Land : Shake it - $29.95
• Mercury Meltdown : Revolutions - $9.95

Yeah! That's 5 Wii/GC games in there! Can't wait to start playing them all, hehe.. just need Luigi's Mansion, SMS, and Eternal Darkness now :P

Here is a panoramic shot of everything in one pic! (two pics stitched together)

Huh? It seems Mr.Ephelant seems to have found something.. what's that? AppleSeed : DuesEx Machina DVD and PURE for PC! (for JUST $5! )

So that's it for this pickup mission! Sure was exhausting! Came home, took pics and then posted the blogs, that's all what I did this day.. now off to sleep!

As a Special gift here is another nice shot of the whole of the whole package!

Check out the Full Album for more pics!

Package Smackage

Wii Music Impressions and Video!

So, I've finally got my hands on the Wii today, but I was not the first one to get their "hands on" it. I made my mom have the honour of being the first to play the game, with me and dad watching as she played.

The game started with no menu's, it had the tutor appear, and teach the basic 4 styles of operating the instruments in the game. My mom did all the tutorials and then played her first song! The rhythm of "twinkle twinkle" is well known to my mom (she is the one who taught me that afterall :P ) She did pretty good in her first ever try at playing instruments using the wii mote (she used to play real instruments back in her days). How did it go? well here is a Video :D



After that..mom and dad, went on playing for hours and ha real fun making music and seeing their music being played on the BG when they were playing the different instruments. (your previous plays add to the whole arrangement, automatically) soon they had done a whole 2x3 person band music of DoReMe (another one my mom and dad know, thanks to "The Sound of Music" ) well, it was good but not... how do I say this... video worthy :P However the amount of happiness and joy my parents had , was more than worth it to give it a 100 popularity points :P

Later I sat and experimented with a few things, wanted to see if I could do some custom changes to songs I know. I acutally wanted to play the SMB 1-1 song.. so to unlock it went on playing, soon I unlocked 47 songs but SMB song was no where to be found :(

One thing Wii Music really helped me in was, knowing the names of all those songs that I liked but never knew the names of. You know, the songs that came in Tom and jerry cartoons and some other merry melodies or Silly symphonies.

Here is a video of me doing that song which comes in that Tom and Jerry episode, you know, the one where nibbler sings the Ferero Rocher song :P



Here is another video of me playing a song that's OUT of this WORLD, and I think I heard this in another Tom and jerry episode :P I used this instrument I like very much, whose name I never knew till I played the game, and also dont know now, only remember that it starts with a "D" hehe.



You wont know the difference unless you've heard the original, tell me how it was :P I know I am no expert and it was just my first try, wanted to see how the whole thing goes.

Cant wait to sit and record some videos of me playing with some beat boxer or maybe doo wopper, but, I want my SMB 1-1 theme! Played for 5h:47m today and it was awesome, unlocked 47 songs, SMB 1-1 not included, played only 4 songs till now though :P

P.S : Btw, you have to hand it to the guys who do the Wii game musics, I mean, everyone of those Menu Musics are so soothing and relaxing, they are some of the best musics I have heard in recent times, the one that comes when you save a video is just too good, there are many in other Wii branded games too, and ofcource SMG also has some good music.

A Pickup Mission and Feorgotting

Today was Eid, (Happy Eid to all! :D) Hence a holiday. So I decided I make most of this time and went to my brother's friend's house where he sent things that he bought in US. And these are just not normal purchases, everything was a special Deal...

*Point A to B

The journey was 60KM long and as usual I travelled via my lovely bike. Was happy to see that the traffic was no where near to what you see 90% of times here (and trust me, you'd never want to drive with that horrible traffic ) So I reached there and look at what I picked up!

Oooh yeah! Thats a lotta BDs and DVDs :D lemme list em.

BDs

1. Iron Man Limited edition
2. Journey to the Center of the Earth
3. Kung fu Panda
4. Batman Begins

DVDs

1. Predator
2. Independance Day
3. The Day After Tomorrow

And theres a PSN card and also a Fischer Price Cartoon DVD, that DVD was free. will see it... justcoz :P

As for the BDs, My brother bought it in a Buy 1 get 1 free offer from columbia house so Iron Man is the one he bought and BB is the free one, and I discovered that KungFu Panda was accidentall listed for "free" and ordered that ASAP, hehe (got a mail saying it was cancelled and then a "sorry, take it" later :P )

And Journey to the Center of the earth, just now I and my parents watched, it was a great movie.. I mean the BD comes with 4 pairs of 3D glasses and Both 3D and 2D versions on the Same disc .. AND a "digital copy" on a dvd, which I guess is a avi version or something of the whole movie. It has a CD key for it and everything, I dont know why it was give, but oh well. thats awesome, its 3 movie versions in 1!

The 3D effects did infact feel 3D-ish, and luckily it was more and better than Superman Returns (yeah, I saw that in 3D... in IMAX, lol)

As for the DVDs. I and my bro have a plan on buying almost all those old movies that we watched and loved. And with our complete Home theater set-up disaster movies with the extra blasts and eveything are top priority :P Ofcourse, its not like he bought all for direct price, my brother being the deal guy he is, always bought em in such a way that theres profits o matter whats, hehe 8)

He IMed me the other day saying he bought Ace Ventura Double Pack! and he wont send it.. that !@#!# :P

*Point B to C

Since I cae oh so far to take those things, I made sure that I made most of the milage and visited nearby shopping areas, so I went to the computer heaven of Andhra pradesh (CTC ) and first visited the Book depot there, its one of the hugest book selling place here.

First thing I saw was a "Guiness Book 2008" book and I immediately remembered this Story in GS (mine is 10th comment) I asked the guy if he had other versions and he said "I dont know" So I went deep into the shop, searching for new MAD mag issues (nope, still no issues, since 2+ years) and looking at various Amar Chitra Katah Books.

and Lo Behold What do I see?

Oh yeah! I got that thing.. I just couldnt help myself, but I just love General knowledge...as I put it

"I am always on a trivial pursuit for trivia"

As much as I love stories, I mostly love books that are information based, than novels and stuffs, have a ultra huge collection of magazines and stuff (8+ years of 2+ mag subscriptions :P ). Once I took a look at the book I saw so many things that I would just eat away, so many things that you wouldnt necessarily find written in articles all around the place, so it was an instant buy!

Official Price 1300 got it for 1100 :D

As for the other thing its a DK multimedia (remember, I hate I love maths?) CD on Human body which I bought for my uncle who runs a big tutorial. His methods of teaching are very homely and unique. He already had an old version of the thing which he used to show to students and teach but the disc got corrupt so I bought this new version (also compatible with Xp! :P )

*Alternate Path

Now instead of going home (Point A) from this place... I took a detour and encountered a shop which... sells games! I just tried my luck and asked them.. "left 4 dead hai kya?" (Do you have l4d?) and BAM... he said yes and got it! Woot! I was waiting to get my hands on this thing since a long time and I finally have it. So yeah.. if you are an indian and waiting for the game, just go and get it.. its out!

Just saw the opening cinematic, sure did describe what kind of experience Valve was planning for gamers to have. Now... I wonder if my first playthrough itself should be on Co-op or SP...

and Yeah my Steam ID is Reetesh. add me if you want to play along sometime :)

*To Point A, and Feorgotting

What? You never heard of Feorgotting? Well.. it could be because.. I made it up :P The thing is that, when coming back, I was wondering if I "put the CD back in after checking it" at the book shop (DK CD) And then I was thinking if put my Card back into the wallet after paying the bill. (even though at one point I remembered doing it) Soon, I started feeling that I checked for it and then removed it and didnt put it back in :lol:

Such kinds of loops went on happening as I rode back to point A, actually, this happens a LOT to me, I keep forgetting such things, JUST so that I can worry about it..its like there are two brains inside me :P

I coined this phenomenon as "fear+forgetting = feorgotting" always forgetting and getting that "fear" inside you if things were done right or not.

perfect example "Did I lock the doors while leaving or not"

*Mission Complete

So yeah, I came back took these pics, emptied around 70GB of HDD space, reorganized a lot of files, installed L4D, saw journey to the center of the earth and then.. wrote this! Thats all for this entry, oh yeah! did I forget to tell you theres a Wii Music there too!?

I dont know about you, but the game sold itself to me the instant I saw that demo by .. no not ravi, but this guy, J.C.Rodrigo Well, to be honest, I bought the game even before I saw the video, I just love psuedo music making games or what ever you want to call it (Passive Reactive Rhythm game etc etc) and I know that my mom will also like it, so why not buy it, and hey it has SMB 1-1 Music in it!!

See you soon then, lets hope theres more coming.. I heard TDK BD has come out today :twisted: