LUCKIEST OF ALL

Hey... We (Grad students in US) can presume to be the luckiest of all, in terms of materialistic pleasures and luxury. Have a read at this scenario. A person from rural India considers the men in cities to be luckier than what they are. The men in the Indian cities consider the people working in USA to be luckier. Finally, the Indian working community in USA consider those who study in USA to be the luckiest. Wow ! Does that mean that I (grad student in US) am the luckiest ? ? ? Logically speaking... the answer is YES (if luck is measured only in terms of materialism) !

But, there is lot more associated with "Not Being Lucky". I miss my dear ones living in India, I miss my lovely little WagonR car, the tasty Indian food made by my mom, the ride on my Kinetic honda, the weekend shopping with my sis, tasting hotel food with my dad, freaking out with friends, wasting time watching television, playing video games, ... (Hmmm!) To get something, we need to lose something... Thats the law of nature !

THEMES FOR MY BLOG MESSAGES

I thought of having a few themes (tags) attached to my blog messages... You may ask me why? Its just to facilitate easy searching, to get my thoughts organized, to make me think in more directions, and importantly - to be a little different (innovative) than I was before. Following are the themes that I have in mind as of now. More will be added to this list in course of time.

1. [Inside My Mind~] - my thoughts, opinions, principles and all other thought-level stuff residing in my mind
2. [Is it Funny?] - jokes, riddles and comics that make us laugh
3. [Hmm...Interesting !] - Forwarded articles that caught my attention
4. [Colors of My Life] - Noteworthy events in my life
5. [My Findings] - Knowledge-rich-articles or any interesting stuff that I come across
6. [Just Blogging] - All others that cannot be assigned a category
   

The list will be extended later !

MORE AMAZING FACTS...

The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch and make it look like it's smiling.

The color blue can have a calming affect on people.

Depending upon the shade, the brain may send up to 11 tranquilizing chemicals to calm the body.

Leonardo da Vinci could write with the one hand and draw with the other simultaneously. Now we know why his pictures were exquisite!!

Names of the three wise monkeys are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru(Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).

The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and parrot.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.

The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start.

Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.

All U.S. Presidents have worn glasses; some of them just didn't like to be seen wearing them in public.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.

Raw cashews are poisonous and must be roasted before you have it.

FREE AS A BIRD

My midterm exams got over yesterday... and I hardly have any work for the next week. Ofcourse ~ my projects are due in 2 weeks from now. Anyways, it was a great relief after the PCN exam got over yesterday. The paper was not easy... but, I managed to remember the required formulas and started off with a right approach. However, I lost my way in getting the numerical values and calculations right. I felt a little better soon after discussing the solutions with my peers on completing the exam. Many of my friends had the same problem in getting the numerical values right. Good that I am not the only one of this kind !

BEING HEADSTRONG !

"HEADSTRONG" - This is one of the words that I like a lot in the english dictionary. This describes a very positive side of being stubborn. This is infact the word, which exactly describes my own personal mindset. Well... here are some of my thoughts worth mentioning... I believe that a wavering mind can never make big decisions... and eventually can never make it BIG in life. A mind which always regrets abt its previous decisions will fail to acknowledge any success passing its way. The solutuion strategy is very simple... Make a decision only once~ but make it very firmly. Make it a point to get opinions from elders or friends, but let them not take the decision on your behalf. But once a decision is being made... be HEAD STRONG about it ! Do you agree with this ? ? ?

CHOOSE YOUR PASSWORD RIGHT

I recently read an article that describes a way to create passwords that are hard to break by an intruder, and easy to remember at the same time... Just follow the steps ~

1. Take 2 or more words that have literally no relation to each other (Preferably, select words from foreign language)
2. Make sure that the combined length of the words is atleast 8 characters long
3. Change the case of your prefered characters to be different from the usual case (lower use).
4. Insert a special character in between the individual words. (eg. $, %, &, ...)

Now, your password is ready and safe from intruders !

SUDDEN DROP IN TEMP

There has been a sudden drop in the temperature last sunday(Oct 3rd, 2004) . I never saw such a drastic change in the seasons before. The Summer season just vanished in a day... and the Fall season started off immediately. Cool days ahead ~ Great !

AMAZING FACTS...

Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop onions!!!!!!!!!!

Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient!

Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.

Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite.

The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.

To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.

Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.

Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979.

Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints.

Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut.. It will pass through
the system and be excreted.

At 40 Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.

There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.

Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left
foot, left foot, rather than right foot,left foot...

Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal.

CRITICAL THINKING

Here are some ideas that I borrowed from a course material for "Oral Communication & Critical Thinking". While I was just scanning through the pages of printed notes/assignments of this courses, I found some interesting stuff to think about, write, and do in my spare time.

An interesting hobby
Prepare a 3-5 minutes oral presentation on something you know very well... say a favorite book, your ideas on philosophy, your home town, behaviour of your favorite birds or animals, your ideas on self... Make sure that you have enough information for short conversations with your peers.

Think a minute about it...
SUCCESS - What is it? Who has it? How will you achieve it?
A book that changed your life

Take a walk in my shoes - Blog your interesting findings so that others can experience the feelings that u had...

Photo Journal
Document your life as it goes in the form of photos, and arranging them into a journal that tells ur story.

Behind the scenes
Write down the background activities in which you participated for a fruitful outcome of an event that appeared very simple to the public.

There are many more... out of which, only the above ones caught my eyes.