I’m a modern man.

I'm a modern man,
A man for the millennium,
Digital and smoke free.
A diversified multicultural postmodern deconstructionist,
Politically anatomically and ecologically incorrect.
I've been uplinked and downloaded.
I've been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing.
I know the downside of upgrading.
I'm a high tech lowlife.
A cutting edge state-of-the-art bicoastal multitasker,
And I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.
I'm new wave but I'm old school,
And my inner child is outward bound.
I'm a hot wired heat seeking warm hearted cool customer,
Voice activated and biodegradable.
I interface from a database,
And my database is in cyberspace,
So I'm interactive,
I'm hyperactive,
And from time-to-time,
I'm radioactive.
Behind the eight ball,
Ahead of the curve,
Riding the wave,
Dodging a bullet,
Pushing the envelope.
I'm on point,
On task,
On message,
And off drugs.
I got no need for coke and speed,
I got no urge to binge and purge.
I'm in the moment,
On the edge,
Over the top,
But under the radar.
A high concept,
Low profile,
Medium range ballistic missionary.
A street-wise smart bomb.
A top gun bottom feeder.
I wear power ties,
I tell power lies,
I take power naps,
I run victory laps.
I'm a totally ongoing bigfoot slam dunk rainmaker with a proactive outreach.
A raging workaholic.
A working ragaholic.
Out of rehab,
And in denial.
I got a personal trainer,
A personal shopper,
A personal assistant,
And a personal agenda.
You can't shut me up,
You can't dumb me down.
'Cause I'm tireless,
And I'm wireless.
I'm an alpha male on beta blockers.
I'm a non-believer and an over-achiever.
Laid back but fashion forward.
Up front,
Down home,
Low rent,
High maintenance.
Super size,
Long lasting,
High definition,
Fast acting,
Oven ready,
And built to last.
I'm a hands on,
Foot loose,
Knee jerk,
Head case.
Prematurely post traumatic,
And I have a love child who sends me hate mail.
But I'm feeling,
I'm caring,
I'm healing,
I'm sharing.
A supportive bonding nurturing primary care giver.
My output is down,
But my income is up.
I take a short position on the long bond,
And my revenue stream has its own cash flow.
I read junk mail,
I eat junk food,
I buy junk bonds,
I watch trash sports.
I'm gender specific,
Capital intensive,
User friendly,
And lactose intolerant.
I like rough sex.
I like rough sex.
I like tough love.
I use the f word in my email,
And the software on my hard drive is hard core, no soft porn.
I bought a microwave at a mini mall.
I bought a mini van in a mega store.
I eat fast food in the slow lane.
I'm toll free,
Bite sized,
Ready to wear,
And I come in all sizes.
A fully equipped,
Factory authorized,
Hospital tested,
Clinically proven,
Scientifically formulated medical miracle.
I've been pre-washed,
Pre-cooked,
Pre-heated,
Pre-screened,
Pre-approved,
Pre-packaged,
Post-dated,
Freeze-dried,
Double-wrapped,
Vacuum-packed,
And I have an unlimited broadband capacity.
I'm a rude dude,
But I'm the real deal.
Lean and mean.
Cocked, locked and ready to rock.
Rough tough and hard to bluff.
I take it slow.
I go with the flow.
I ride with the tide.
I got glide in my stride.
Drivin' and movin',
Sailin' and spinnin',
Jivin' and groovin',
Wailin' and winnin'.
I don't snooze,
So I don't lose.
I keep the pedal to the metal,
And the rubber on the road.
I party hearty,
And lunch time is crunch time.
I'm hanging in,
There ain't no doubt.
And I'm hanging tough,
Over and out.
-  George Carlin

Last day syndrome

A quick question from one of my colleagues, “How does it feel?? it’s your last day ??”

I said, “it feels different, weird, i have mixed emotions, well actually its bitter sweet !!!”

It was my last day at work. It’s was time to say goodbye. But I really don’t want to do that. I know I should say “see you again” but I hate making promises I may not be able to keep. a lot of people said “keep in touch” but im really bad at keeping in touch with people !!

Goodbyes will always hurt, it hurts more when you love the people and the place .. I made some good friends here, but the good things never last long! I love my Co-workers, they’re Awesome .. absolutely sweet. I’ll be able to talk to them on IM and through email, but it’s just not the same as hitting the mute button during a frustrating call and making fun of the clients with my friends. (Lol .. done that a zillion times!!!) The fun I have had with my friends at work are definitely what I will miss the most. But, it’s time to move on, and that’s just how this whole thing goes. Like I said, it’s a bittersweet feeling.

Lots of things hit me the last day, i just realized that I had sent my last business email and will no longer have to read business/pricing mails. i just realized that I can never chat on company’s IM (Sametime) which is awesome by the way !! My last Movie download had sizzling speed — everything felt strange .. somewhere down the corner i wanted to stay back !!!

The office sent me off with a cake and well wishes. They even sang “A Happy LAST-DAY to you ” song and packed me away. I am now officially a part of the world on the unemployed !!

There are many things I’m going to miss about the office, it was truly a colorful place .. check the pics, you’ll def agree.

Lots of wonderful memories  & these pics are some of my favorites :

1) My first day @ office - there was independence day celebration, I went there to sign some papers and the floor was soo colorful.

Ballons on independence day

2) Mini Indian Flags everywhere !!

Mini Indian Flags everywhere

3) Had serial blinking lights too

Blinky light too

4) WE had a dandia night .. we were asked to come in traditional dress with sticks and stuff but we just walked in with jeans and tees .. and danced — well i dandia’ed !!!

We Dandia'ed in Jeans on Dandia Nights !!

5)  Red and white – Christmas celebration !!

"Along came Santa"

6)Decorating the Christmas tree

Thats de lil christmas tree .. Cute

7) Christmas was fun. we worked less and decorated more !!!!

8) we were little elf’s working

we were little elfs working

9)Christmas Song

Party time, we sang the christmas song ** jingle bells **

10)Perfect morning’s like this is rare to find -  That’s Microsoft building opp to ours,  covered in Fog !

This was 7.00 AM !!

11) blissfull day

blissfull day

12) I played pranks too

Protecting my PC

13)Ethnic day

Ethnic Day !!

14) my team mates- bunch of friends

15) Self click – timer

Friends

15)My whole Team @ IBM

My whole Team @ IBM

I remember someone tell me that the world sleeps @ night and there’s no fun after 12 .. but for me party used to start after 12 !!

It was truly, A wonderful journey !!!!!!!!!!

–

Prashanth.p@in.ibm.com

MY ex-official email address:- Prashanth.p@in.ibm.com ( not any more .. DAMN I miss that too !! )

Reality check !!

i am amazed at the number of vehicles that do not have headlights or taillights. i estimate that less than 25 % of the vehicles have all their lights in functional order.. nobody seems too insterested in enforcing the laws that require vehicles to have lights .. you can happily drive around the city for any length of time during the night with ABSOLUTELY no lights .. i have seen public buses,taxis and rickshaws that do not have a single light plying in the dark .. not a SOUL will complain .. nobody even seems to notice these vehicles.. but i invite you to drive your vehicles with your lights ON during the day .. every second person on the street will remind you that your lights are ON … ” excuse me sir, your lights are ON.” *that includes “the famous hand-signal” *

let us stop and think for a DAMN second .. which is the bigger OFFENCE here ???

– prash

My Bucket List !

I’m pretty sure everyone has seen the movie ” BUCKET LIST “ ( the one with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson .. remember .. awesome movie right ??)

Bucket List means “A list of things to do before you die.” 

Hmmm – Anyone can make a Bucket List anytime– you don’t have to be at the end of your life to create one, well this is my list of things to do before i kick the bucket.

Create your list here and share it with me.

Deepika is cheering RCB

Nighty Night !

im gonna quit my job soon .. I’ve had enough of working in night , I want to live a standard life of working all day and sleeping through the night. well to be honest its pretty annoying to sleep in the day, it is difficult to adjust and my parents are supportive from the very start. but after losing 3 kilo’s in two months they are beginning to worry about me, my mom started blaming the night shift. i told her its got nothing to do with working in the night.

she has already told everyone in our area about working in the night., and every uncle and aunty keep asking me to take care of my health. i reach home by 7 am and its the perfect time for all the oldish and greyish people of my area to come back from their morning walk. everyday i pray that i don’t bump into them.( i have asked a billion times to my cab driver to drop me right in front of my gate, but he doesn’t do that .. i have to walk my way home, may be i shud bribe him a little for the drop til my place!!!?) it’s doesn’t stop there .. i just came down after my 6 hr peaceful nap and suddenly i heard a voice which said, “okay so ur the one who works in night ?? take care of ur health kano, working in night is really difficult ??”

Whoa where did that come from? i scan for people ..g8 my mom’s colleagues are home !! nice !! hello aunty !! (smiles or trying to smile)“u work in which company?” I work for IBM, near kormangala ! “thats a good company, whats ur job like ?” well i’m a remote support specialist aunty,“sounds cool” (ya remote support specialist does sound complicated and cool .)

i’m a VTU engineering student. if there is anything i learn’t under VTU, it’s 100 ways to twist the words around so that it sounds complicated, confusing and cool )

“night shift are difficult pa? take care?” and she went back to discuss it with my mom.

hmm mayyyyy be … i am working real hard !! may be !! when i think about it, i don’t remember working hard though. all i remember doing in office is watch movies, play games, tweeeeet, poke a few on facebook. LOL – I even take a nap for 3 hrs everyday in office, well these are some of the added advantage when ur manager is not around. he leaves @ 3 in the morning. and rite after that the whole office is mine(*evil grin*). i do have a personal semi sleeper class chair, which i can push back entirely and take nap, i sleep more peacefully in office compared to my home. even watching movies is much better in office than at home, u can watch movies with ur colleagues and its a lot better than watching it alone at home. so i’ve made my own list of best/worst movies @ office, here it goes.

the best horror movie in office goes to :- Paranormal activity
the best action movie in office goes to :-The Hurt locker
the best Hindi movie in office goes to :- Wake up sid
the best Tamil movie in office:- Goa

the worst movie in office :- Pyaar Impossible
the worst action movie in office:-Armored

WTF thing about working in my company:- NO holidays for Indian festivals.

I was so very proud of the cultural diversity in India only because i used to get holidays for all festival. now no holiday for Diwali, not even for Republic day, what’s happening to india ?? when i quit this place, which i will very soon. Im gonna join an Indian company which gives holiday for all the festivals, my first question to HR is “ do we have to work on govt holidays too ???”

Or im gonna start a brand new company .. if i start a company what am i gonna name it. here are a few names. i hope im not in trouble for using popular companies name.

Prashtree, Praspro, Prashosys, Prata consultancy services and my personal favourite since i love apple .. i can very well name my company as Prapple !! Prapple sounds cool !! isn’t it ??

Kubuntu – Ubuntu with a K !!

I  made a transition from Ubuntu to Kubuntu and trust me the extra “K” made a huge difference. its was everything i expected it to be .. 6hrs of download and I’m ready to enter the world of Kubuntu.

Why am I trying out Kubuntu ?? well, I have never been in a KDE environment b4. Enuf of Gnome I wanted to try out KDE.

Kubuntu is different, Kubuntu is all flashy .. Kubuntu has simple effects and smooth transition. The look and feel is way different from Ubuntu. And 9.04 have a lot of improvements.

I’ve always been huge fan of Ubuntu, I was using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS(Long-term-support) nick named Hardy Heron, but I call it kokare.

I also have a win XP OS and “windows XP +SP2” is pretty good OS. If you have a good anti virus running .. Then the world is a better place for you. If u have a poor Anti Virus then ur doomed. Win XP+SP2 is the most stable OS from Microsoft guys, but I’ll always love windows 98. i have windows for back up !!!

I loaded my CD, rebooted and said, “bring on the effects baby”, hmmm the installations similar to Ubuntu popped up. No trouble here .. Installation steps were same !!

Alright, here it comes, the loading menu was really cool, the icons were slowly loaded and it glowed one after the other .. My desktop was absolutely blue, I checked the theme .. it was oxygen !

“ I was walking into a dark zone .. all alone .. I could barely see .. I went door to door knocking (clicking from one application to another) .. everything had a new name .. new icons .. Firefox was konqueror now, pidgin was kopete, Kontact, kalander, ktorrent… every app’s name started with K”

And I still had 66 software updates, 55 bug fixes .. The net was automatically detected .. no surprises there !!!

Media player was weird here and I didn’t like konqueror or kopete as well so I went to snaptic manager (wait its Kpackage kit here) and installed VLC, Pidgin and Opera. Opera and me are like soul-mates, we met in the year 2005 and rest is history !! I quickly dismissed konqueror and downloaded opera. I love opera more than any other browser in this whole wide world. I like her mouse gestures a lot. She understands my every move, she is just perfect !! And since every app’s name starts with K .. from now on its Kopera, Kidgin and KLC !!!!!!

Damn there was no GIMP here and no games guys, not even mahjong . That’s a disappointment coz every Linux flavor has games, the old version of RED HAT has cooler games !!!!!!!!

Next I plugged in my Usb and dolphin file manager popped up. No mounting issues here !!!! And there are few of my friends who use Linux only to remove virus from their pen drives .. So guys tryKubuntu you can remove virus here as well ( it’s the only way to force them use Linux !!!)

You were rite hemanth, this OS is built for people like me. My desktop without any customization.

Everything is new in here .. I need more time to adjust N customize .. but so far

“Kubuntu is kool!”

Ethnic day !!

I hate to say it .. But the reality is we are at the end of our college days (Damn !!)

However we still have moments and events like these to enjoy ourselves, it’s been almost 4 years and we have all got to know each other quite well and when that happens “College becomes a special place, where you can have fun and enjoy each other’s company.”

The only thing we did the whole day was click photos, I don’t remember the classes being taken and by some strange effect the teachers were not interested in taking classes. Lucky us !!

Lets the pics roll, Click on the photo below for full screen effect !!

The FLEXPERIENCE !!

ADOBE FLEX BOOT CAMP 2008

I was sick and tired by the regular things happening in my life. I needed a change .. I wished something unexpectedly cool to happen in my life!!

People say, “Be careful what you wish for .. Because sometimes wishes come true!“

I wished for a CHANGE and that’s exactly what I got

I walked into my class on Monday morning (3rd NOV) and hemanth dragged me to the last bench. He told me about some camp being organized by a company where they’ll teach us some software in one day and we’ll have to create a web application in 8 hrs. That info was too much for me .. he didn’t make sense, my mind was not working properly in the morning, I was still sleepy. And I asked him again what was it about. That’s when he said ADOBE is organizing a competition and the grand prize is 30K !!!!!!!!! Okay now that’s a lot of money and ADOBE is a super cool company !! The next question on my mind was When and where ??? he said MSRIT and I didn’t even bother to ask for the date .. I said, “Let’s goO !!”

I went online that day and registered for the event on their website http://msritflexbootcamp.eventbrite.com I liked the whole concept of the “event brite” website, online registration for live events is a brilliant idea. I had to print the receipt (ticket for the event). we asked a couple of people in our class to join us and immediately Syril, Suhas, Monish were ready for the event !! we had the teams ready, Me and Hemanth, Syril and Suhas, Radhika and Monish !!

On November 7th we all met at Banashankri @ 7.00 .. Monish started cursing me .. WHY ?? Hemanth was late and since hemanth is in my team—monish said it was my team’s fault for the delay. I tried my best to stop him.. But the words just flew out of his mouth .. I bet no one can stop him from doing that!!! It’s a natural gift!!!!! Finally after 15-20 mins, hemanth reached and we left at 7.30 from BSK. We reached majestic and took another bus to Mattikere. Everyone were hungry so we decide to have our breakfast in some hotel. We found a good hotel and filled our tummy with some yummy poories !!!!

We still had to walk a little distance from the bus stop .. After a 5minute walk, we made it to MSRIT, The oldness of the college was definitely visible through it conventional pillars. I cud have taken the photo but the watchman was staring at us. What if he confiscates my mobile, I can’t afford to lose another mobile. The last one was the best mobile-set ever .. Anyways, after getting inside the INFORMATION science block — we were really surprised to see the breakfast being served there .. DAMN we just had those hard Pooris on the way. And now they were serving some nice food .. I was full and there was no way I could eat anymore. The others said the same thing but as always monish had to complain about this. He joined the line and had some more food lol !! We then went around the building– checking out the usual, we don’t have this and we don’t have that in our college .. One of the volunteers came to us and told us to have something and they’ll start the registration procedure @ around 9.(I guess her name was Bhavana). We told her that we finished breakfast and thanked her for asking.

Hmmm we continued our stroll, found a Chemical engineering class .. Now THIS we don’t have in our college for sure !!!!! we also found this –>The M.S.Ramaiah idol !!!!!!

We finished our little tour and came back to see a packed crowd registering their names. We found our college counter and got the registered .. they gave us a nice yellow label to stick it on us shirts, ADOBE also gave us a text pad and a pen(lol.)

APOLOGIES for tearing the label — I took this photo yesterday, while removing it from the shirt – I tried to remove it quickly and it got split into two halves Oops!!

We didn’t waste anymore time and went inside the auditorium and occupied the center seats. I had a clear view from the center. The blue window screen and linux penguin at the left .. very clear !!

Anyways, we waited and waited for more people to walk in and start the event .. we saw a lot of changes on stage, wires being dragged, mikes being verified, lamps being placed . we still had time .. I thought I should go back and have another coffee but just then our host for the day - Meghana came in and announced that the event is gonna start in a couple of minutes.

Ok the moment of truth, everybody settled down .. huge rush .. within a hour the room was filled with people, I turned around to see the crowd, the room was overflowing not able to handle the strength. Meghana asked all the MSRIT’ians to leave the room and sit in the next auditorium. They got up and left, now the situation settled to some extent. Almost everyone got seats. On a few had to sit on the steps, but they were late so it was their fault. Lol!! they were running out of time, they had to start the event 30 mins back, the event was delayed due to some technical glitch, well that’s what meghana said. Around 500 people were present for the event, that makes 250 teams and out of which only 100 will be selected!!!!

To start with we had a session on WEB2.0 — “RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS”—By Anantharaman (IISC), now that’s a perfect start for the event. I completely Loved the way he spoke and to add to that the PowerPoint presentation on the background was rich with colors, perfect blend of photos with text. He gave us some real time internet applications, the instances were very clear and I was familiar with the example that he shared, – “Googlemaps to describe the route and use flickr or Picasa for displaying the photo of the destination.” How simpler can it get ??? he also presented the adobe version of the STOCKS called STOCKFETCHER.

He wanted to show more interact-ability of the ADOBE FLEX 3 applications, so he introduced us to Ms. Nisha who happens to be a student of Christ college. She wanted to buy a mobile fone and hate to go out and buy. She wanted to get one online. So Mr. Anantharaman suggested the flex store to buy her fone – here’s flex store for you guys — check it out – FLEXSTORE. Go to products section to experience the effects and smoothness. She also gave a demo on the insurance application of flex. This was pretty cool I must say. I couldn’t get the link to this app. But I have this that I enjoyed the most !! visit this place and select you fav apps !!

He explained further about ADOBE AIR (integrated runtime), the vector graphics in Flex due to which it has an advantage over the Ajax. He ended his session with a quote which I made a note of he said “USE THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE RIGHT APPLICATIONS !!” with that he wrapped up his session and we were all completely impressed with the start and he was ready for the questions. The first question came from the person sitting right next to me. Guess who it was?? Well no prize for the right guesses, Hemanth shot the first question of the day and with that he started his account and I incremented my count by 1. (HEMANTH = 1 question.) since the apps were all online .. one has to download all the required resources.. and by the look of the rich content .. there must be a lot of files to download for the grand look.. he questioned about its bandwidth consumption. And the delay for each interaction?? And due to this, are there any performance de gradations ?? Valid question!! Mr. Anantharaman answered him by splitting his questions into parts and took one at time – all the files will be downloaded at the beginning so the user have to just get the data while interacting and these values are just small nuggets of data and hence there wont be much delay in the apps. BRAVO sir !! UR flex is reasonably impressive !! a couple of other questions were fired from different parts of the rooms, well I was busy messaging on my mobile so I couldn’t catch the questions .. I continued my messaging and the questions went on for a while but just then Meghana interrupted me, “ we are really sorry for this but we have no time for anymore questions since we started late we have to reduce the time length of this session to fit our schedule, you are free to ask questions during the lunch hour……… Thank you.” That’s when I checked my watch to realize that it was still 11.00 and had loads of time for lunch and didn’t understand why she said that… just then she thanked Mr. Anantharaman and introduced ANIRUDH SASIKUMAR, Technical Evangelist, ADOBE SYSTEMS. Oh another session before lunch, I didn’t have the event list.

Introduction to flex by ANIRUDH SASIKUMAR, Technical Evangelist, ADOBE SYSTEMS. Syril and hemanth told me that they have seen the video tutorial of him on YouTube. Now this guy was so fast that we didn’t know what just hit us and passed by, he was definitely making sense but he was on fast forward mode. He was just like a Ferrari F1 car which just travels 380 kmph. I’m not exaggerating or anything but he was seriously too fast for us. He gave an insight into the frameworks, the MXML that is used in flex and the action script. If I have an option to choose a video or a live session of him. I prefer the video tutorial instead of a live session. Atleast I can go back and replay the video multiple times till I get what he’s saying Lol. And before we knew anything the show was over !!!!! And it was question time again, I heard a voice from my right and without a second thought I increment my count (Hemanth=4, yeah he asked 3 question to him.)

To be contd ..

VERY sleepy,

Prashanth P