Moving My Blog

Alright,

So I've been juggling around three blogs for the last few months or so and I've decided to switch over to one combined blog. I also decided that wordpress worked more robustly than blogger and so I'm moving my 3 blogs (photos, opinions, life) over to

adithya88.wordpress.com

MediaMonkey : A Lifesaver

I'm sure a lot of people listen to digital music and there are even a certain few that still love a good old LP record. I'm more of an mp3 type of person and I realized to my dismay that over the years I had accumulated a great number of songs (some 4000 odd) and I really did not have it very organized or accessible. Add to this the fact that my whole collection had copies in my backup hard drive and even more copies in random places and I had a huge mess on my hands.

My preference for the music i listen to keeps changing depending on my mood (and in some cases if a song gets saturated after listening to it too much). So the only organization of music I had was a few folders like English, Hindi, Tamil, Soundtracks and then that last and definitely the least favorite, Others. This Others folder was like a bottomless pit of music that i wasn't currently in the mood to listen to. So I was scouring the web looking for a software that will help me manage my mdeia library with some support for tagging and the works. Windows Media Player and Winamp are ok for various reasons but they're not very condusive to managing large media libraries. So enter Media Monkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com/) and my life was saved in the matter of a couple of hours.

I installed the software and set up an auto-organize filter to store all the music in one folder (sorted like Music/artist/album/song). Then I got the player to scour my hard drives and find all the music files that it could and add them to the library all while sorting them out into the folder structure I mentioned before. There is a library tab on the side thru which can reach a section called files to edit and here very neatly is a section for duplicate files. Turns out, I had upto 7 copies of some of my songs so a LOT of hard drive space was being wasted. And the best part was that during the import all the copies were marked with a (1),(2),(3) etc suffix. So it was the simplest thing to find all of these and delete them. So in less than two hours i've got my music organize and the duplicates are all gone. I added an advanced duplicate finder (you can add custom scripts) and I also spent another hour or so tagging files. It can lookup CD information from Amazon and even download Album Art. It even has a Party Mode and an Auto DJ feature which ensures that there is always a song playing.

So all i can say is, if you have a big music collection and you want to organize it with minimum hassle, all while having a very convenient music player, then look no further, MediaMonkey is perfect.

EDIT -- It can automatically sync with Ipods and even my Nokia music phone.

Friday, The Day of torture

Friday is here and I can only say one thing. It is TORTURE.

Let me explain why. It can be done in just a phrase, it is the day before the weekend. The joys of relaxation and 12 hours (or more) of sleep are so near and yet so far today, especially for those at work. I've been at work all of 45 minutes and I already want to just go home and start the weekend.

Come on TIME, you'd better speed up a little at least, come on, pretty please.

Incredible

For a lot of people, this is old news, but while I knew what this was about, today was the first time I watched the below videos. So to the uninformed, an introduction.

Randolph Frederick Pausch(October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a best-selling author who achieved worldwide fame for his "The Last Lecture" speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch)

So I just got his book titled The Last Lecture but I thought I'd first watch the videos. All I can say is, don't miss it. I could rave as much about this as I did for Dark Knight but I would be doing it no justice. Truly and awesomely inspiring and its a whole lot of fun as well. The stuff that he says makes so much sense and I could really relate the things he said (especially towards the end) and I feel that everyone could do with incorporating a little of what he said in their lives. Towards the end, the things he says are simple but at the same time I feel they're so important that I absolutely have to mention them.

-- loyalty is a two way street
-- help others
-- NEVER GIVE UP
-- decide if you want to be an "Eeyore" or a "Tigger" (Read as depressed or Fun loving)
-- believe in Karma
-- Brickwalls let us show our dedication

The first video below is the actual Last Lecture. The 2nd One is a second "last" lecture done after this at University of Virginia. A little long (a bit over an hour each) but trust me when I say it is worth every second of your time. If you can't see the videos below then you can also see them and other videos here http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/ .

A Question for Trivia Buffs

As the picture says. Connect the images you see. You might want to click on the picture to see everything more clearly. Answers will be out tomorrow.

Random Post -- Monday Again

Another week and another Monday. I'm starting to realize why Garfield always goes "I HATE MONDAYs". You are still stuck in weekend mode and nothing happens the way it should. Here I am, still revelling in the awesomeness that was the Dark Knight that I watched again yesterday. Sitting in the third row in the IMAX was incredible and I appreciated the visuals even MORE than I did the first time. Add to that the fact that I got up a little before noon and you have a normal college student's weekend day. Unfortunately, the weekend ended as of yesterday and the growing threat of the upcoming Monday was felt when I had to iron formals to wear for today (all while grumbling about how I hated formals).

It started off when my alarm went off at the unearthly hour of 6am. I wanted to put it on snooze a million times because as anyone would tell you, you just want to keep sleeping like you did over the weekend. Then I forced myself to wake up because I realized that I just had 10 minutes left to leave for work and so, as anyone does when they're supremely and positively late, u end up rushing through all your daily morning rituals and even before you are fully awake you are in your car heading off to work.

I don't drive so I'm carpooling with someone who works at the same place as I do and quite frankly, especially on a Monday morning, I'd prefer to be driving. There I am, sitting in the passenger seat, with nothing to do but listen to the radio and slowly, I feel my eyes go out of focus. I'll be looking into the distance when things start to blur and then i start going cross eyed as i start seeing double just before I end up unintentionally and blissfully asleep again. Only to wake up in 5 minutes because the part of my mind that is awake (I never thought any part of me would be awake) makes me feel guilty that I'm getting this guy to drive and I'm sitting next to him and sleeping (almost like he's a chauffeur). So I shake my head and wake up, try to strike up conversation. But, when the conversation slows down again, my eyes start going out of focus again and before I know it, I've repeated this whole process over and over for the entire hour or so that it takes me to get to work. And as an after thought, thank god I'm not driving because in a state like this I'd probably be a threat to everyone on the road.

So after an hour and ten minutes of sleep laced with guilt, I reached work and once I got to my desk I sat there almost in a daze. My boss just came in and asked me how I was doing and I swear to you I replied with "Wha....um...er .....doing......oh....nothing.....oh wait.....how i'm doing.....i'm ok". And I'm pretty sure he realized the kind of state I was in because he just gave me some light stuff to do before lunch that should let me get out of this extended period of feeling groggy.

So it continues, Monday morning blues. Thankfully I'm not dozing off anymore, just hungry because I didn't have breakfast (where was the time considering I had just 10 minutes to get ready and get out of home). So now you realize why I was writing this entry, basically I was looking to do something that would keep me awake....haha.... Enjoy the rest of your week.

The Dark Knight -- Rating -- 6 out of 5

"WHY SO SERIOUS??"

"LET'S PUT A SMILE ON THAT FACE"



Well, when I walked out of the movie theater, I certainly didn't have a smile on my face (the reasons for which u'll read ahead). It was only when I got in the car and headed home that I began to smile. Why shouldn't I? I had just watched one of the greatest movies of all time. I'd be hard pressed to find something better because, in a phrase, the Dark Knight can only be described as a work of art.

People have gotten all too accustomed to seeing superhero movies which either feature a teenage/post teenage superhero and his problems in life (8 legged creature is a hint) or a super hero who is quite simply perfect and nearly indestructable (except for kryptonite of course). And then you even have the complete waste of time type superhero movies with wannabe youngster Nicholas Cage on a bike and more ludicrous acts in the same vein. Thankfully, Christopher Nolan agrees with me on these views and he has brought to life the super hero that is unlike the above things.

With Batman Begins he reinstated Batman as a popular hero and revealed to us his origins and his human side. I for one thought that was an exceptional effort by itself. I just assumed that like most series of movies, this one could not have its Empire Strikes Back, possibly the only second movie in a series ever to be the best of the series. But that last statement was Valid only until July 17 2008.

For the Dark Knight came out on July 18th. I'd been following all the pre-release hype, with people posting their reviews of the movie based on preview screenings and based on how much people were raving about the movie, I kept hoping that it lived up to the hype at least a little bit. Well, for the first time ever, I watched a movie that FAR exceeded the hype. If anything, people weren't raving enough in my opinion, because quite simply, The Dark Knight is _________ (insert superlative here, whatever it is, it is an understatement).

I'm going to try and write the rest of this review without revealing anything that will spoil the surprise for people who have yet to watch the movie. So here goes.

This movie is almost completely and entirely dominated by one man. The late Heath Ledger will forever be remembered as the man who portrayed quite possibly the greatest, the eeriest and the most twisted villian of all time. In every scene he appears in, he has the effect that great actors have, he dwarfs everyone else. While every single performance in this movie is of the highest quality, they all pale in comparison to the Joker. From his introductory sequence to his incredible make up and his audacious purple suit, you are completely mesmerized by this twisted genius in the garb of a nutjob, to the point where you have to remind yourself that the movie is about Batman. From his lip smacking to his lingering laughter to his repeated question of "Why so serious", he is utterly terrifying. Add to this quite possibly the most ingenious musical theme of all time for a villian (kudos to Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard) and you keep getting chills up your spine throughout the movie (sometimes accompanied by the involuntary shudder). All I can say about Heath Ledger is this. It is sad that he had to pass away at such a young age and he will be missed for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he will not be seen again in a role which is a shoe in for an Oscar.

And now, I need to remind myself that this movie is the Dark Knight, not "the Joker Movie". Christian Bale proves yet again that he is the best actor to ever play Batman and his performance is excellent. Be it as Bruce Wayne, with the cars (don't miss the Lamborghini) and the women, or as the Dark Knight in all his power, Bale is perfect for the role and I certainly hope he returns for at least another movie. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, both nearly legendary actors in their own right have relatively small roles as Lucius Fox and Alfred respectively, but that is not to say that they don't carry out these roles with the same class that we normally associate with them. Maggie Gyllenhall, who replaces Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes (Thank you Tom Cruise), brings a lot more character into the role which is certainly more than just a pretty face, even if she does seem a little old at times in the movie. Gary Oldman is the perfect Lieutenant Gordon and the rest of the cast has done an exceptional job as well.

As for the movie, what can more can I say. For the first time ever, a super hero movie has looked at humanity. It has analyzed not just the hero, but it actually looks at mankind as a whole. It poses a lot of questions that I feel are both necessary and missing in other superhero movies. Is there anything you can't achieve as a person that you can as a vigilante? Who decides about who deserves to die and who doesn't? Who decides what is right and wrong? Like my discussion on Yin and Yang it poses another question, is all evil necesarily entirely evil and is all good necessarily entirely good? This movie tackles questions like this, makes you ask yourself the same questions and to an extent makes you believe in the concept of duality even more.

One more thing that really struck me about the movie is how immersive it really is. You get completely into the emotions and the tensions that are happening in the movie and you get a first hand glimpse of the dark dark world of Batman. Actually, its more than just a glimpse, especially with the IMAX experience, since, for the duration of the movie you become a part of the extremely dark and sometimes depressing world and you can't help but stare in awe at the magnificent panoramas and the incredible visuals of the movie which will linger with you for a long long time.

At the same time, the action sequences are incredible and they even out do Batman Begins by huge margins. You'll be wowed and dazzled by the gadgets (the BATPOD rocks) and the stunts and the music and the explosions and the thrills. From the opening scene to the very end, you WILL NOT notice the time just fly by. There is so much happening, be it action or drama, and it moves so very very fast that you don't realize that you have been sitting in Gotham City for a solid 150 minutes (2.5 hours) and when you walk out the theater, it takes you a while to get yourself mentally out of the world of the Dark Knight and you want to ask yourself "WHY SO SERIOUS?".

Overall, this is an incredibly near-perfect movie with just one HUGE flaw.

IT ENDS.....







P.S. I want to go watch it again, is there anyone in Ann Arbor who is up for going sometime this coming weekend?

P.P.S. I intentionally rated this movie as 6 out of 5.

Little Things

sometimes life really surprises you
you experience things right out of the blue
u find it hard to believe that this is true
you think your dreaming thru and thru

These little surprises keep me going
Keep me happy and always glowing
I love these little things in life
They bring cheer even in the worst strife

It could be a present or a gift
or just a word of praise to give u a lift
it could be a big great rainbow
or just a few meteors shooting across in a row

It could be a favorite song
or a friend not seen in long
It could be a stranger's random smile
or the sun that u haven't seen for a while

these were just a few little things
that are smaller than the joy they bring
we take them for granted you see
but if we didn't, think how happy we'd be



There is a lot more that I can add to this........might do it later.

Two speeds only : Lightning or Sloth

 

The Ancient Egyptians were obsessed with duality in everything. The difference between Night and Day, Male and Female, Fertility and the Desert....they saw everything in pairs. The well known Asian symbol of Taijitu (or more commonly known as Yin and Yang) below is a defining image of duality. (I've put in two pictures because the second one in fractal art is just cool)

 

It depicts the duality between good and evil. While at the same time, it also shows that nothing is entirely good and at the same time nothing is entirely evil either. The two spots are not their for aesthetic purposes, they define the belief that in every evil there is a bit of good and vice versa. It also shows that they are both part of the same united whole. This similarity in beliefs even though these two ideas existed thousands of miles apart and in different ages in time is quite astonishing. There are many theories that claim to prove the reasons for a lot of similarities between civilizations across the world and their beliefs and although, I am personally inclined to believe in one of them and can write pages and pages about it, it is not what I want to write about.

I never really saw duality as that much of a part of everyday life, like yes, we do have night and day and the obvious dualities like that. But, it still seemed like something that wasn't that important. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about a lot of random things and I realized that there is one more thing that exhibits extreme duality. You don't even realize it until you think about it but it has just two speeds, lightning and sloth. I'm talking about time. It can seem to be both flying and crawling all at once, depending on how you look at it.

Right now, as I'm waiting for spring break, it seems to crawl, my plane is in a few hours and I just can't wait. At the same time, I think of my friends, especially those back in India. Some of you are graduating from college in a couple of months and it seems like just yesterday that we were standing outside Springdales School waiting to give our Class 12 Board exams. How time seems to have flown.

This is what has startled me. Time's duality is so subtle and at the same time its so extreme. Sitting in an exam it seems like Time is going by like lightning and you wish you could have more. If you were spending the same two hours in a boring lecture then it seems to drag on forever (like the movement of a sloth). Hence the title of this blog entry. Time only does have two speeds, lightning and sloth. Sometimes these speeds exist at once, and it just depends on how you look at things. Suppose, you really don't want to be someplace right now, say a class, it always seems to stretch on forever. At the same time, suppose you were conversing with good friends, you can go on until the wee hours of the night without batting an eyelid. Judging by this I feel the rate it which time flies is proportional to the amount of enjoyment we get from whatever it is we are doing right now. So the more you enjoy something, the faster time seems to go.

If you look long term, when something really keeps you occupied, you don't notice time go by at all. College has kept me super busy, just like it probably has for whoever is reading this. It scares me to think that I've been so busy that I barely even realize that I'm well into the latter half of my third year of college. Why it seems like yesterday that I even got here, filled with awe at being at a new place. This scares me even more because at this rate, in no time we'll all be out of college and entering the work world. While that would be an adventure by itself, you'll look back at this time in college and feel like you never even noticed the four or so years go by.

So now I come to the main point of this blog entry. We are all so concerned with time (or the lack of it) and we are all so concerned with worrying about the future and facing our pasts. I say, enjoy the time that you have right now, you're never going to have it again. I have a couple of months or less left of being a teenager, and I will never be one again. Do I look back and feel like I've done everything I wanted to do as a teenager, the answer is no sometimes because there are times when I feel or I wish I could have done something when I had the chance. Well I think its better to live life by appreciating and enjoying the present moment. I'm sitting in North Campus on an uncomfortable chair, waiting for a teammate to send a project in. And all this a few hours before I need to leave for my spring break. Despite all this, I'm still feeling happy, I feel like life is going along well. I'm excited about going to London for break, I'm chatting on MSN with a good friend and that makes me feel great.

I feel that when we appreciate what we have in the present moment, instead of getting worried about what has happened in the past or what is yet to happen, I think we'll all lead much happier lives while feeling like we are heeding the advice of a very famous and very old man named Gandalf. That "All we have to do, is to decide what to do, in the time that is given to us", the time that we are in right now.

Getting Hit by a car

That pretty much summarizes how my winter break went.....it was as sudden, short lived and stressful as being hit by a car....which actually happened today by the way.....little old lady comes driving out of a parking lot without seeing a stop sign....and wham.....hits me....luckily she wasn't going fast or anything so I just have a sore knee after all the drama.

My break was horrible.....it was short as hell.....two weeks is barely any time to go back for a break......I spent a good day getting there and another one coming back....then a couple of days getting over jet lag and I was already down to single digits in terms of the number of proper days I had left to spend at home.....but the shortness of the break was the least of my troubles.

My grandmother was in hospital for almost 40 days.....she broke her right shoulder and the right side of her hip and she was 88 years old so that went badly......she was bedridden and in hospital for a while....so a day after I got back to Delhi.....I went down to Chennai to visit her.....that was a positively shocking experience because the last time I saw her mild Alzheimer's was setting in.....but due to the trauma she'd been thru she had pretty much completely lost her senses.....she couldnt recognize people or faces or voices....and she just kept mumbling stuff.....every 20 seconds she'd open her eyes while sleeping and yell out something random....and this went on all day and night.....it was almost like her brain had short circuited....like one half didnt know that it was supposed to be asleep so even in her sleep she kept yelling.....the only positive response was when she reacted to pain when the physiotherapist tried moving her arm......the doctors gave up and said there was nothing more that could be done so she was brought home and kept in 24 hour nursing care.....by now christmas had passed and my parents wanted to head back home for new years so a couple of days before new years I got back to Delhi.....worried about my grandma....but was reassured by the doctor that she'll go on for at least another month or more.

The worst moment of my break was right after the new year began.....the clock struck midnight....I wished all my favorite people for new year (or at least attempted to considering the phone network went down because of the sheer volume of people calling and messaging each other).....I sent out the last of my new years messages and went to bed....was barely asleep 10 minutes.....when we got a call from Chennai.....my grandmother had passed away.....she'd caught pneumonia and it proved fatal.......so what followed was a mad rush to the airport to catch the first plane out and spending three whirlwind days in chennai while all the rituals and formalities were completed.....

I took it upon myself to look after my grandfather who was shattered by the whole thing......he'd known my grandmother since she was 8 and they'd been married 65 years......and it was hard....watching him feel helpless lost and depressed......i can't even fathom the emptiness he must still be feeling.....if it weren't for college I might have stayed with him for a while longer.....but the stupidly short break proved how short it is again.....I had barely any clue what was going on and before i knew it I was on the plane and I had reached Ann Arbor......

So thats what happened over my winter break.....and now a new semester begins and hopefully it goes well....