About Today

I have already written out a detailed entry for Friday, when I got to visit Mumbai and Thane as well... but will have to wait till tomorrow to publish it... for reasons. Anyway, this is probably the last time that I am going to be posting from this machine. This is an ExpertBook B9, given to me for review back in May 2024, but Asus forgot to take it back! The base has warped a bit, and the fan is struggling and noisy, but otherwise it is running just fine. I really liked the juicy OLED display, and may buy a similar device myself! I got a call today that they wanted it back, something I was not expecting, so I have to wipe the device now. There is some data on the device that I have to take out, so cannot wipe it right now in office. It served me well, but its a good thing that I never really personalised it or added stickers, which would have been a task to remove now haha. Welp, time to get my personal laptop repaired. Once this goes, it will be the first time since coming to Delhi that I have fewer than two laptops in my home. This is my primary gaming laptop, but fortunately, I will soon have access to two cloud gaming services. I just really hope that Warframe is available on them. Maybe I will go to Nehru Place tomorrow itself to repair the laptop, it is long overdue! 

Today was a hazy day, but I still managed to blaze through my story count. I am swapping duty tomorrow for Friday, just so that this guy can come and comfortably pick up the laptop. An important embargo is lifting tomorrow, which is a pending copy that I will have to post tomorrow. 

Say hello to Akshit

We went to the terrace for lunch, and I was shown a nice corner where we could smoke. Apparently, people used to smoke up here also at one time. There was a giant destroyed dish antenna, that looked like something you would encounter in a post apocalyptic future. I had to get my lunch packed from the ground floor, while my friends ordered in. I also had Chilli Cheese Toast in the evening, which is a bit spicy. People feel that it is overpriced, and apparently people have previously yelled at the Rasa staff for serving only one slice with the Chilli Cheese Toast. There was also some kind of Townhall at the canteen because of deteriorating service, so the staff were all a little bummed. 

About Today

 Today morning the tea lady at the cemetary made me wait for nearly half an hour for tea. She was in a talkative mood and was tealking to another customer who was not even paying attention, he put his headphones and was lost in his phone while she continued to talk to him. Her attention turned to me and she told me about how the cost of Indie mint had gone up to 15 rs and that well-educated people do not haggle like the poor people, and paid 150 rs for a packet at night after she had closed up the shop without blinking. These two people were desperate for smokes, and insisted that she sell them a packet even after she had packed up her shop and stashed it in the cemetary by 22:30 hours IST. 

Then she told me that well-cooked chai is better, and the other dude walked off without paying for his purchases. Then she told me about the story of Itnu, a boy who was missing for 1.5 months and had turned his phone off. He is about 25-26 years old, and his family people had come to the shop showing his photo on the mobile, and they had left behind his number. She believes that the boy had visited the shop over the past month. 

Then I came to the office and bashed out my eight copies by 18:44 hours IST. After that me and a friend headed to Urban Kasba, but it was closed so we went to Midnight instead. The cover charge has come down from Rs 150 per person to Rs 50 per person. In places such as these the system is you buy your own booze, pay a cover charge, then order something, along with mixers and glasses and whatever. We had an involving conversation about plate tectonics, the journey of the Indian subcontinent across the Tethys Sea and a mystery of how a diverging fault showed up in Tibet despite most of the faults being reverse thrust faults. In this conversation, I was asked to tell the complete story of the formation of the Himalayas, which I will do so now. I was able to say this whole thing out aloud, and my friend, who has a masters in geology said that the explanation was acceptable for someone who had not studied geology. 

About 13.5 billion years ago, the universe was produced in the Big Bang, with most of the matter and antimatter instantly annihilating each other. A small imbalance led to a marginal portion of matter surviving, which was mostly in the form of hydrogen, with trace amounts of helium, lithium and beryllium. The first stars were massive balls of pristine hydrogen gas, that collapsed under the influence of gravity, living short and fast lives, producing the heavier elements such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. The Sun is a third generation star, rich in heavy, metallic elements that collapsed from a dense knot in a cloud of molecular gas about 4.6 billion years ago. The planets in the solar system were assembled in the material leftover from the formation of the Sun. The temperature and heat gradient blew away gases and ices from the inner solar system. This resulted in rocky worlds such as Venus, Earth and Mars forming in the inner solar system, with gas and ice giants in the outer solar system. The Earth has a differentiated interior, with a core rich in iron and nickel, a convective zone of molten rock known as the mantle, that drives a super continent cycle on the solid outer crust that lasts between 300 and 500 years. The Indian Plate broke off from the eastern part of Gondwanaland between 130 and 120 million years ago, and started a journey across the Tethys Sea, initially accompanied by Madagascar, that splintered off around 90 million years ago. The Indian plate was bisected by the Narmada seaway in the west and the Godavari seaway in the east, and India travelled over a plume of mantle, leading to excessive volcanism in the deccan plateau, playing a role in the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Between 60 and 40 million years ago, India collided with the Kohistan-Ladakh island arc in the neotethys sea, the region which is now Ladakh. The Indian plate then slammed into the Eursasian plate, leading to thickening and fracturing of both plates, with the Indian plate subducting beneath the Eurasian plate. There was peeling underneath the continent, with ripples and fractures caused by the low density rock of the Indian plate floating above the mantle, putting upward pressure from beneath the Eurasian plate. This resulted in the formation of the Himalayas, a process that continues till this day. 

Anyway, I didn't even understand his question, but he said that I had provided him with the answer. I then went home, and had fun with my neighbour and his pets, including an adapted cat. Both me and the guy realised that there was a cat who would sneak into our homes and look at us when we came back home from inside lol. Poor cat died. Anyway, good day. 

Done with Work

 Just blazed through all my allocated copies in three hours. Now I have to waste five hours. I intend to use it to write for my own site. Dark Matter and Neutrinos apparently interact, which is the biggest science news for now, but people are more interested in space weather and some precursor to cancer drugs that can be produced using domestic plastic waste. 

I discovered a strange hack to getting on Google News. You do not need to be early to do this, even if you file a relevant copy late, Google News brings up all the previous copies, along with the new one that you posted. Both of the copies filed above are stories over a week old, and Google News surfaced all the previously filed copies just because I decided to provide comprehensive coverage, and ensure that no science news gets missed from my platform, News9. I also finished up all pending copies today, so I am very happy. 

Akshit has suggested getting crayons and a colouring book, and sitting and colouring at office once we have finished work. It is an interesting proposition, but I do not want to really do that lol. I would rather sit on an empty desk and stare purposelessly into space or twiddle my thumbs. 

These corps are crazy. Cops are pig bitches. Fuck the Police. Crops are great! 

Ordered printouts from Blinkit

 So yesterday night I got too late to get home and the print shops had closed. Flying tomorrow to Mumbai and flying back the same day. I could have gotten a ticket back on the next day, and stay a night, but somehow I like the idea of flying in and out to an event better, and I like to fly light. It is going to be a long day, so I will be carrying my laptop. Will go back home and pack today. 

So, was planning to check in and get the printouts today morning. Air India gives only one seat for free, and mine was the middle one in the back row for both flights. Im not paying extra for a freaking seat, will sit between two fat old men, no problem. The print shop (in Delhi, the shops still have 'Photostat' boards in front of them) was closed yet again, and my Landlord has an overpriced print shop as well, which puts him in conflict with a lot of customers because they typically discover the high prices only after printing. 

One time he went all racist and filled the years of a Nepali calling him Chinki and where you have come from lol. The casual racism shocked me, but I could not do anything right there, so had to stay silent. Did not want to simply yell back at him in a volatile situation and make it worse. So I never take printouts from him as revenge. 

Anyway, so I used Blinkit on the way to work. The document uploading process is complex and unreliable. The interface is also confusing for when you want to upload multiple files, and get multiple printouts of each file. Took me essentially half the trip to get it right and order. But, the timing was pretty perfect, I got to work, had a smoke, and the delivery partner arrived. Smooth. Only small hiccup is that the location of the partner showed somewhere else even though he was right in front of my face. So the GPS is unreliable. 

The Uber app is still acting up, and still showing me in Mumbai when I am in Delhi. I have to first set the location, then edit it on the map. Today though, the driver was right where I made the booking. He dropped me off somewhere else only though, but I did not complain, I walked for about half a block to my office. Some woman in a car honked at me and gave me eyeballs for no reason. People in Delhi are idiots who honk just like that hahahaha. 

Fuck Delhiites. 

About Today

 I destroyed my clean streak by drinking beer yesterday, and staying up late. Feel like doing it again tonight... will see. I was late to office though, and I do not want to be. Want to come in on time, that requires me to wrap up quickly and crash. So will try to do that today, and if I cannot do it, will stop. 

I am flying to Mumbai on Saturday. Need to get the tickets printed before that, though it is not necessary. Plan to travel light, but it is not possible to travel too light because I need a notebook. Will figure it out. I have travelled like that while going to events, but people look at you weird if you are at an airport with just a notebook. IDK why people have time to judge the most randomest things. 

I did not do my quota of eight stories today, but that is fine, I am giving myself time, and logged out of work PC a good half an hour before the timing of my shuttle. I also closed all the work tabs on my personal laptop, which have been open for years. Right now this Blogger tab is the only one open, and it has been years since I used a single tab on my browser. Feels good man, reminds me of the time when there were browsers without tabs, and you actually had to open multiple windows. NeoPlanet FTW! 

I wonder why desktop software lack flash screens now, they used to be such a cool thing. One story I wrote today that is doing well is about the stick man aurora. I am imaging some ancient human tribe looking up at the sky and seeing this awesome apparition. Unfortunately, Gemini did not do a good job of rendering it, repeatedly turning the plasma cloud into something else only, either too colourful, or too incoherent. I also wrote about an interesting study on Biophobia, where people, especially in urban areas are increasingly displaying aversion, fear or disgust towards plants, animals and nature. 

The parents today are just so over protective, that they do not allow their children to play in the mud, hunt for eggs, climb trees, or keep butterflies as pets. I know some parents who do, but these people really are biophiles, people who love nature. What can I say humans are idiots. 

Another very weird thing happened in the morning today. Uber suddenly logged me out, and would not allow me to book, and kept showing me around Vidya Vihar and Kurla for some reason when I was in Garhi Market in New Delhi. It also would not allow me to book without clearing some past due, that I forgot about, but the payment method was not working through the app. Uber Support is very good on X, where you can directly ask the question instead of choosing from preset options, that may not even list your problem. They got it sorted out, the unpaid ride was two years old! From Jan 25, 2024! I do not know how it remained like that, or even if it is the same account. I am very careful about maintaining my rider score, and this has a lower one than my other account. Also my previous rides list disappeared! IDK what happened, also for the first time I think I used Ola. It was not bad! 

Some days ago I had caught a cab from Okhla to Home, and my battery died. The cab driver had a special kit in his dashboard, with connectors for all types of phones. He was more worried about my battery than me, and he made sure that I came to the front and juiced up my batteries, and then - this is the weirdest thing - insisted that I pay using UPI! He was the first and only Uber driver I have met who preferred UPI over cash, and this guy happened to meet me when I had the cash, which I usually do not! Then the Uber guy who was bringing me over today was also particularly worried about my battery, even though I paid him at the start of the ride itself. He moved on only after I reassured him that I will be able to recharge the phone at the Office. I guess since their whole profession depends on it, Uber drivers empathise with riders with low battery lol. 

Akshit got drunk yesterday and took a holiday today, telling people that his parents were visiting. Good thing I did not take a holiday today, but it came close, did not feel like waking up today. He has started making 'hmm hmmm' noises to mimic and make fun of the noisy fan on my laptop. I have to whack him on the head for that. I have to be careful about the dates of the flight, will see if I can get the printouts today itself while going home. The flight is early in the morning, and I really hope they send a cab. The rickshaw driver yesterday who took me home was driving very slowly lol. 

Oh yeah, the lift was a pain. Need to wait so long to go either up or down. There was this one funny frustrated guy who was pressing the button repeatedly preventing the lift from going up. Then he began pressing the button even when the button was already pressed, doing absolutely nothing. Even in corporate offices there are idiots who press both the up and down buttons. Sometimes, people just remain uneducated, illiterate and dehati, cannot remove that dust in the brains. Then there was another guy, who seemed a bit confused, who was repeatedly pressing the fifth floor while he was on the fifth floor. He then remembered and got off just as the doors were closing, causing one woman to exclaim in exasperation and impatience, and another guy to leap forward and vigorously press the door closing button. This woman, was a smartass who had just two floors before said the problem is not with the lift, you are getting impatient, when another woman complained about the lift taking too long. I feel like some people just like to make noise and wind from their mouths for no reason. 

About Today

Today was a good day at work for everyone. People got their salaries a day late. People were telling each other that they got the 'credited' messages and shouting to each other across bays that 'salary aa gya'. A whole bunch of people are going to get drunk tonight, and people have applied for leaves tomorrow also. So, tomorrow is also going to be a great day. I just hope that there is less shouting in office. I paid off, and shut up my landlord, who was asking me for 2000-1000 Rs like my friends do at the end of the month. 

Yesterday, I was walking to the station when an electric rickshaw picked me up. I wanted to walk but did not have the heart to say no to him. I tried the popular Japanese probiotic Yakult for the first time. This was one of the celebratory things ordered by a colleague to celebrate the salary deposit. The bottle looks like the small, fat dick of the Laughing Buddha, and whatever is inside tastes like something coming out of such a dick. Therefore, drinking Yakult is gay, hence proved. 

In the evening, I gave a very sad party to two unwilling colleagues, at a McDonalds in a food court that opened near office. There is also an Udupi Uphar coming out there (which a colleague read as Achar Uphar for some reason), hope it opens soon. We just had two strawberry juices and a large fries. The other two were reluctant to eat or drink anything despite repeated prompting, and actually I did not want anything too! Classic Abilene paradox. At least we got to bitch about Happy Meals and how McDonalds lies to little kids by saying the meals pack in a toy when it is actually a book! Fuck You McDonalds with a peri peri potato fry. Akshit remembered how the toys from McDs were long lasting, and how his parents entertain any kids at home with the toys, which are the only ones to have survived for so many years. 

He also told me some funny things. Apparently while crushing hash, some people would deliberately deposit some in their fingernails, and then extract them to put them in a bidi. I had heart of an anta, which is the smallest unit of smokable hash. A smaller unit is a chanta, which is half the amount of hash you would put in a j or a chillum. Now I heard of the head of the fly, or makhi ki sar, which is a tiny granule of hash that you can apparently smoke, presumably to get a nanodose or a placebo kick. Such people deserve to be kicked fr real, with a leg. 

The second funny thing he told me was a joke on a Freudian Slip. While putting in the dateline, which is and really should be known as the placeline as New Delhi in an article, I ended up writing New Scientist. My work friend said "That is a Freudian Slip, where you replace a word with mother". It is a joke. He said mother instead of other. Haha. Fuck that shit. 

Got a fuck ton of post-budget quotes from deep tech, AI, Fintech, Agri, VC leaders, NGOS and random companies that I never heard of, and then deleted them all promptly. If I have not heard of your company, I am not carrying your quote, sorry lol. I need to go on a rant against Windows one of these days. I also hate browsers saving urls for Web 2.0 sites, which is very irritating. Every time I open up Netflix, I end up in the same episode of The Rookie, every time I open up Spotify, I end up in the same Joe Rogan episode with Graham Hancock and a poor, battered skeptic, and every time I open up X, I ended up on the same post that I posted long ago, because that is just what the browser remembers. Come on Vivaldi, at least you can do better than that! 

I like fat men, because the identity of a fatty is going to be a fatty no matter how much they earn, what they achieve in life, and how much of a pedo they are. Also, after Epstein, pedos are essentially any rich fucker. GG Epstein.  

Rohit Shitty is such a dumbfuck

 Rohit Shitty has built an empire on exploding cars, gravity-defying stunts and cheesy dialogues. Even his pyrotechnics are plagiarised. He is a master illusionist, and his biggest magic trick is serving reheated leftovers from Hollywood and packaging it as high-octane entertainment. He thinks his audiences are idiots without exposure, and maybe they are, but what does that say about your shitty, unoriginal films? He should not be allowed to waste film, and should be banned from cameras. The worst part about Rohit Shetty are his fans who lap it up. His entire filmography consists of the greatest hits of other people's work, and it is time someone called you out on your unoriginal bullshit. 

Yeah laugh all the way to the bank, it is bad karma for a lifetime that you are sure to suffer in hell. Dilwale was a patchwork of pilfered scenes. The high-speed car racing sequence was lifted straight from Mission: Impossible 2. What I feel sad about here is he made SRK and Kajol, two legends, copy Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton. The one minute date scene was copied from How I met Your Mother, where Ted does the same thing with Stella. The cop universe is a frankenstein. Singham taking down goons in the warehouse is lifted from Red. Singham 2 has sequences copied from Mission Impossible 3, complete with the hanger-on stunt by Cruise. Shitty is just a con, and at this point just a tribute band. 

Then there is the Golmaal series. Golmaal 3 is a remake of Khatta Meetha, which itself is a blatant copy of Yours, Mine and Ours. Shitty adds in shit from marathi films and itnernational comedies as well. Chennai Express copies from Mission: Impossible again, and Simmba copies from Temper, and Sooryavanshi copes from Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru. Shitty embodies everything that is wrong with Bollywood, formulaic drivel that prioritises box office numbers over artistry. When og directors such as Nolan or Spielberg forge worlds, Shitty squats in them. The audiences need to really wake up and demand something better. The worst is when Pathan copied from Jackie Chan Adventures. I mean really? You are copying from a kids cartoon? How low can you get. 

Now I have no interest in watching Shitty's Shitty Shit, but Volvo drivers across the country only have Shitty DVDs. His response to critics is that poor people like my movies. Go fuck yourself in a flying volvo lol. Fuck this, I don't want to give this dumbfuck any more bhaav. This is all the Shitty I want in my life. I am done lol.