⛭⛣⚴⛭∇♆⛭.⚺⚺☿⚺⚴

So just finished watching The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar very randomly in the middle of the night, while pausing the Voyager binge. I just loved how the whole story was narrated, blending sets and reality. The stupid trick of using a box painted with the colours of the floor to indicate levitation was brilliant and funny. I don't know how a movie can be so wholesome and wickedly funny at the same time. 

The presentation was like the best way to read the book. Ayoade was a bit self-conscious though, but it was cool to see him as an Indian. I really liked how they used the same actors for multiple roles. This movie was so fresh, but still so Wes. 

The jank is building up in my bedroom, need to fix it. Also need to fix all the lights in the house. Time for another clean-up operation. Thing is I cannot even call in professional cleaners because the sockets for them are burnt through. However, I did manage to clean up the house to a great extent one weekend, just need to do that again. 

Next week is going to be eventful. 

⛭⛣⚴⛭∇♆⛒.⚺⛣∇⚶⚴

I am sleepy, but I updated my site. IDK why I was a bit too restless today. I intended to go to office but didn't. Still slept a lot and wrote a bunch of stories. For the site as well. Japan's iSpace crashed its second lander today. Elon went nuclear on Trump in the morning, bit of an Axiom 4 scare there, I shared a Boeing meme a few hours before Starliner began trending. I wrote a story about star lifting, its fascinating way to extend the lives of stars. I didn't even get to the main topic I wanted to write about, Lazarus Stars. At the same time in the morning, Senate provided discretionary funds to save Gateway, SLS/Orion, but not the Mars Sample Return Mission, tho it cleared a Mars relay orbiter. 

A bunch of NASA extended missions are at Mars and the Moon. Curiosity might shut down. Davinci and Veritas are also gone. Dragonfly and Roman might survive. Chandra, Fermi, Juno, Osiris-Apex, New Horizons are all under threat. Juno hurts the most because it is the most distant operational planetary orbiter. 

Have to see how things turn out. I had a positive approach, waiting to see final decision, but things are looking dire. I hope the data availability channels are not compromised. NOAA and NHS are seeing cuts too. IDC about NHS in all of this lol. 

⛭⛣⚴⛭∇⚴⛣.⚶⚺⚴⚺☋

Had gone to the Asus office today, got out there quickly, but spoke to all the PR team members for the first time. Left there quickly though, as I got there early. Then took a long nap, and in the evening got on the call for the Axiom 4 press conference. My question was not picked, I was a bit miffed and anxious for a bit wondering why. I guess it is because it was a generic question. This was a minor setback, will see if I can get an opportunity to pose that question again in the future. Making myself feel a bit better thinking at least I got an answer from SpaceX last time. 

There are a lot more people covering second hand info, even when there is an opportunity for people to get the info first hand. The official X handle of Axiom Space itself is not showing too many engagements.. which is a bit sad. 

Also learned that the NASA Juno mission may be one of the culled extended programmes by Trump's skinny budget. I like that one because it has a great outreach component. Still, have to wait and watch. 

DND 49

We speak to the crew and figure that it is going to take two days to go to lemon tollard. Creek tries to take the help of the crew to figure what happened. Creek tries to talk to Mason about snackks stash. Tsui takes a swim underwater to check out the environment. Tsui just sees barnacles, right into sunlight shining into their private parts. She signals creek. 1319 scries on the manacles, sees the body of the cap in the hold. We know a very sharp weapon was used to cut the flesh. 

On the night of the third day, the tree we saw many days ago was very tiny, it grows bigger and bigger till we see the largest tree I've ever seen. It is almost as large as a mountain. To get to the tree, we need to go around an island in the north and the south. We reach Lemon Tollard late in the night. There are lots of ships of different shapes and sizes. Creek remembers a whole bunch of places, where we have taken swimming. We see a lot more races here, including tritons. 

DnD 48

 We found that the captain Grotto had been murdered, and Pyro had been injected and stabbed. The happy time did not go quite as planned. Pyro came under a localised zone of truth, and was forced to divulge everything about why they are where they are. Figwit was on crow's nest. Once Pyro divulged to the assassins that another person connected to the duergar was on board, two of the assassins left the captain and went away somewhere. The assassins talked to Gushti and went away, 1319 and Tsui follow the assassins. Tsui and 1319 hear sex noises from the cabin, but it is actually Pyro being beaten up or something. Everyone rushes upstairs and the assassin in the cabin disappears in a puff of smoke that smells like sulphur. When we go back, we see Gushti is killed as well. Pyro speaks to the dead bodies in the hold, we only get the name of the merchant who had hired the boats to put in the crates Thorin Mur. The assassins had sneaked aboard using these crates. 

Gushti was told to help these people because of the Barabedroar, the CIA of the dwarves. The shadow dwarves who operate in the dark. We scry the dwarf sleeping at home. We cannot figure out the nature of the Runic stone blasting out sex noises. We see a massive tree faraway in the distance on the horizon. 

⛭⛣⚴⛭∇⛣♆.⚴☋☿☿☿ 31 May CME

 There was a big M8 flare earlier in the day, a long duration one that resulted in a fast moving CME, that is forecasted to cannibalise two previous CMEs on the way to the Earth tomorrow, striking around 5:30 UTC. It will only be a glancing blow though. Detailed forecasts are awaited, UK Weather Services are saying G4. 

⛭⛣⚴⛭∇⛣⚴.∇⚺⛒♆⛒

 Wow quite a bit of things happened yesterday. We had a grand farewell for one of the more senior management. There was a ton of office gossip and a lot of booze also. I like the fact that people in Delhi drink. Mumbai people in office parties don't go full enjoy like that. People also know how to have fun and enjoy while drinking. We all reached home by 12:30 though. 

Someone had gotten a kid to the party. The dB levels were unsafe, going up to 105!

Mediatek people were also there! 

It was a nice club, we keep going there for farewells, Illusions next to Galleria. 

I didnt drink much and they took away my rum lol because time got over :D 

⛭⛣⚴⛭∇⛣⛒.⛣⚺⚶⛭☋

I kind of like this new dating system I invented for myself lol. There are no days! Time just keeps going by. There are no years also, but it is precise as a timestamp. 5125410.09326. The benefit of this is that you do not feel like you have lost days, just a period of time. It also means that I can write multiple entries in a day. Changes the whole idea of a daily journal lol, guess Ill just type stuff out as frequently or infrequently as I can or want, and not worry about having to do it. :D 

A single second corresponds to +3. Its pretty cool but I wanna now make it even more obscure, and use arcane symbols lol. So now I am using ⛒⚴♆∇⛣⚺☿☋⚶⛭. So it is now ⛭⛣⚴⛭∇⛣⛒.⛣⚺⚶⛭☋. Great lol. I feel like Arthur Conan Doyle. 

⛭⛣⚴⛭∇⛣⛒.⛣⚺⚶⛭☋

I guess I lost a few days. Nothing happened also. I had a lot of sugercane juice on monday, and a proper meal after the weekend eating idlis and curd rice. I got some kind of shock response, felt faint and like puking, I had fainted while feeling like this last year when I was visiting home. I also started sweating despite the AC. I took a cab home and crashed, but did not even sleep. 

Then the next day, I had a strange dream, some kind of water panther and displacer beast combination. It was a combination of Alexandra Quick fan fiction series and a Dungeons and Dragon session from years ago. I wonder how brains mush up experiences into dreams. 

Then I spent nearly a whole day writing a laptop review. Had to send back a lot of cool hardware today, a Qualcomm Snapdragon Vivobook 16 with an OLED display that I regret not using more, it was light, sleek and powerful, a great device to use, definitely better than a MacBook. I also had to send back the ROG Strix G16 with a 5070 Ti graphics card. It was a bit janky but a great piece of hardware, and I appreciated the fact that Asus trusted its buyers enough to have a removable lid. It can be used for upgrades, but I just like how easy it is to open up the laptop and look at the aggressive cooling solution and the large battery. I will have to see if Surviving Mars works as well on my existing laptop. The i7 is a pretty powerful chip. 

Oh yeah, the Snapdragon machine I discovered that Space Engine does not work. That was a bit of a shock because I needed to take some images of the moon. Had to change laptops. First world problems. 

Then Im planning to go to Carnatic Cafe for a late lunch today, eat a heavy meal, before going to the party. I guess I have to leave by 6:30ish. 

It is going to be a fun evening, but I want to go easy. Not stress my body too much. Eat more than drink. I hope they have juices at the bar. 

dnd 47

 We go to kerr elai and dasvidanya, we look for the boat, the Gillyflower, we see the half orc captain arguing with some people, called Brotho? Grotto, she was complaining about how delayed she was, and someobody asked for last minute shipments to lemon tolard. We go have some food at Laughlin and Sons, we pack some food and come back to the ship. 

The ship sets off, we go to our partners. Pyro and Creek are together, Tsui is by herself, 1319 and Figwit are together. Creek is drinking a lot at this point. Tsui was also having food and talking to us. Figwit gone to crows nest. Gustie the dwarf makes great connection. Captain gets upset at 1319. Creek goes for some naughty fun time with the Captain. Someone garrotes Creek and captain's head rolls to the ground. 

5125382.47945

 I wrote a whole bunch of space situational awareness stories in the evening. My 'exclusive' SpaceX Dragon Config story reached the top of Google News, which made me very happy. We had lunch at Jask today, the food was waaay too spicy and I did not enjoy. I needed too much water and the waiters were not attentive. But hey, boss paid, so free lunch. 

It rained suddenly in the evening on the way back and the Metro rakes were stopping for extended durations at each station. There were fallen trees on the way from the metro station to my home. Some of the fallen trees were pretty big. Had a cool breeze blowing through the house at night, felt like I had AC. If it were not for rats, I would have kept the door open in the evenings. Need some kind of barrier, which I have, but Im scared rats will get around it. 

Played a bit of World of Goo in the evening. LEGO PR called for an event at Ambience Mall on Friday. Looking forward to that. 

DnD Figwit

 u44

We go to a library, look up different things, and kill a tentacle spawn head beast, Pyro removes curse and discovers we never went to the tower in gunlad, and we were used as batteries. 

u45

Figwit hunts fish with bow and arrow. One of the fish is stolen by a cat. 

The villagers gather around and drag out the body of the old librarian from the monster. We bury the bodies int he forest, after taking some samples. Pyro makes us remember what happens to us. We see a white light, gnomes and goblins capture us, we are all made to cast all our spells in a flesh room. If a creature is necessary to cast the spell at we see a fleshy humanoid mannikin that we cast the spells at. 

An orc empties a gold purse to keep up the illusion. 

we settle for the night.

We go back to the Wascally Wabbit. No one has prepared dinner. People are concerned. 

We speak to Marina. We have forgotten about Jimbo Genevieve is my fiance. Marina tells us she does not know more than we do already. I just came to see my family. Beorn is my neighbour who lives very far, I gave him some money and told him to take care of my farm. Nothing like oh you never had grandchildren, I never had kids. Two of them don't exist for you anymore, this is all witchcraft. 

Tsui says there is a connection between the creature and the memories. Nobody could remember who the bodies were. Either the creature landed from heavens or transported from hell, who knows where it came from, there must be a connection. If you go away and you come back and I am not there or Selena is not there, maybe it is not the creature then, it is something else, maybe it is this stupid town. 

If we meet somebody named Clara and Leonard. Some people say there is a ghost in the school who appears at night. Jimbo had feeling, went to look, found monster. we dig up the librarian who asks us to make sure her cat is fed. 

Kolgard. We go to the wizards tower, he has paid for a year, and has gone to learn a new spell. 

Vickram. is the landlord. Its a bachelor's space. 

The last message on the book reads: I saw something reflected off of wiccan's bald head, it did not look human. I need to investigate it tonight. 

We get two horses and a cart, leave the town and reach Kolgard on afternoon of the third day. Ppl r not racist. Beorn, rolf David. We sell the horses, ensuring they live till old age. Then we head to the mission. There are all sorts of creatures in this town. We find the mission, it has the symbol of lemon tolard. 

5125382.21842

Today was a big day, I attended the Axiom 4 presscon. I could have written all the cool stories that I know major publications are going to write. The reporters from India all started with "can you hear me?" :D. I knew I could have fumbled, so I typed in my question. 

I had to think a lot to ask my question, but it didnt matter because in the end it was misunderstood anyway. I think I always tried to ask questions to which the answers I didnt know, but now I think it is better to ask questions you already know the answers to. 

Indian reporters are ruthless..  and embarrassing, but the international media is also similar, just in a different way. Everyone wants to be juicy and confrontational. The questions are outrageous.. 

Still was fun. I started using stardates, which is a bit more elegant I think. 

I came home by uber shuttle today. One ride got cancelled. I think the driver thought I was drugged because I was sleep deprived and groggy. Anyway, free ride is a free ride. I was the only guy at the pickup spot in front of Amity university.. 

19 May 2025

 Today had a lot of fun on X. Some European guy went to a lot of effort in making a video about ISRO but messed up the map. SolidBoosters had come out with some RTI info on NAVIC satellites and the failing rubidium clocks. Some intern at Indian Express had messed up the headline for a story on Vesta, getting too surprised by the fact that it was once thought to be a differentiated planetesimal. Meta was caught snooping using its Ray Ban smartglasses. CNN News 18 had passed off 2024 YR4 as some other asteroid. Basically the mundane problems of living in the information age. 

Almost didnt get enough time to write this post. Ill be playing more warframe now. There is an Axiom press con tomorrow. Might not get enough time for my daily dose of Star Trek. 

18 May 2025

Played a lot of warfame and world of goo today. Had an interesting problem with AI. I could not figure the best way to write the headline 'Scientists spot bugs catching bees with tools', or Scientists spot bugs using tools to catch bees' or 'Scientists spot bugs catching bees using tools' so I just settled on 'Assassin Bugs use tools to catch bees' 

Warframe is getting to difficult for me. Even World of Goo 2 is too difficult for me. I think I like cozy games. I think AI will replace videogames, or at least videogames will have to incorporate AI. Like no point building without AI. The best interfaces for AR experiences are hybrid, like large tactile consoles, even something cartoonish such as Star Trek bridges or the Batcave from the 60 TV series, that are the same in cyber and meatspace. 

Ordered Instamart in the evening. Poor guy was confused, I tracked him down in the darkness of the night, and gave him directions to the next address as well. I tried putting in a long address, one guy told me wow you have written in so much detail, another person praised me for writing so well, which I found a bit strange, one helpful guy finally said we have not read so much in school also. I understood how much people dont know english here and are proud of it. So I shortened it. Now they dont read the short version also, and read only half. I think I should add another line, so that I know people wont read but at least they will read a bit more than they do now. 

Anyway, finetuning the Swiggy address. Telling these people follow the GPS does not work. They are genuinely going to be lost, and have weird superstitions like if you call them the GPS signal goes away. I just go downstairs to get it, and most are happy they dont have to climb four floors. 

Tomorrow, I will write about Uber drivers. 

About Today 17 May 2025

 Yesterday did not end when I left work. We went to Mall of India in Noida. I did bowling and came in the middle. Had fun playing Asphalt on VR. Was a bit disappointed that there were no authentic arcade titles at the arcade. Took a few nice photos of the gaming laptop that has come in for review, the ROG STRIX G16. We skipped dinner, and had ice cream. I came home and picked up more beer, and slept through most of the day. Ordered some curd rice, idli, fresh juice and shikanji to rejeuvenate now. 

Will prolly spend the evening gaming. It is getting really hot. I need to fix the power supplies in my house. The fan regulator is not working, the bedroom switchboard is fried, the bathroom switchboard is also fried. I barely use any lights at home. I dont have an air conditioner. I miss the comfort of home. 

Maybe living in impoverished conditions does have an effect on my psyche. But sometimes I think I might actually be pretty comfortable. IDK. Will go to the balcony and think a bit. Hopefully there is some cool air. 

It rained a bit in the evening, and I took a nap... right around the time I would not be allowed to sleep when I was younger. I just enjoy sleeping whenever I want to, and that is one of the benefits of living on your own. Even five years ago, I could easily have a half of bacardi every day and still go to work and be fine... but now, I think my capacity has come down drastically, I cannot even handle two beers without feeling too hungover the next day, despite drinking plenty of water. I guess I should be happy, but Id rather smoke... 

Ive been getting drunk and hanging out on clubhouse. I don't want to do that too much, but it is still fun. For some reason I recognise that it is an unhealthy thing. But the thing is it is unhealthy also that I have no friends in Delhi, no one to chill with. I have to deal with social isolation in a graceful manner as I get older. :(

I had a dream that there was someone intruding in my house. Swapnil snuck up next to my bed, and the landlord's son walked in with a phone. I may have tried to hold on to them, to keep them from running away. I felt that they had come to steal something, or broken in in some way. I recognised it as a mild episode of sleep paralysis. 

I went and got a nice head and back massage at the local saloon. The guy was playing old-timey songs, and I paid close attention to the whole routine, so that I can give a head massage to someone also. Dyutish gives good head massages, and I really need to go meet him. 

I guess I will play some videogames for an hour now, then take another bath before hitting the sack. It will be the first time in many years maybe that Im having two baths in a day.. 

I am living without a geyser, a fan, an ac, lights... and many comforts. I should think about fixing it. There is an ISRO launch tomorrow and I need to wake up at 5:30. I plan to sleep wake, cover the launch, then go back to sleep. 

About Today 16 May 2025

 I am writing this before the end of the day, one of the team members is leaving today, and everyone is headed to a mall for some bowling and dinner. Had a restless night, with some strange persistent dream where I was on a starship and repeatedly conducting wide-band 'hyperspectral' scans to reveal temporal anomalies. After four seasons, looks like Star Trek: Voyager has finally started seeping into my mind. 

I was always a Star Wars guy, and despite several attempts to really understand Star Trek, I never managed to stick to watching the original series. I never understood what the fuss was about, even though many people, including Raaabo, my editor at Digit had told me that Star Trek was preferable for science fiction fans. It looks like I have ended up becoming one of the few people on the planet who are both Star Wars and Star Trek, or it might just be an artificial divide created by fans, IDK.. 

In any case, I really like Star Trek now, but that is something I will have to write about another time. 

About Today 15 May 2025

 Today was a great day at work because I had already published five copies before I came in, but there were still lots of demands from PR people to do various stories. I had written a trash National Technology Day copy putting in quotes from various industry leaders, essentially CEOs of no-name firms, and then that copy proved to be popular with PR calling in to pile on more garbage quotes into the story :D. I just appeased them. 

The new laptop was not the ROG G16, but the ROG Strix G16 which is essentially a top of the line laptop. Spent the whole day running benchmarks and installing games. Having trouble with EA, it linked to the wrong account, then would not uninstall, and I deleted it now it does not install :( IDK what to do, maybe in the night I will just wipe the machine and start from scratch again. Fucking EA, trust it to make garbage apps. The laptop is really cool though and has LED strip lighting all around the base, which will go very well with that cooling pad I had at home. 

ISRO is doing something weird with the launch on Sunday. It first put out a post on X saying that the launch will be the 100th for the PSLV, which is hilarious and wrong. They then deleted the post and put out a corrected version. It is pretty funny. No drugs and alcohol for me this evening, Im gonna put in some quality videogame time with the new machine over the weekend. Unfortunately, I will have to come in to work on Sunday, and will only get Saturday off. 

Also, Im a bit happy that I am consistently ending my days with a blog post. I know that I will enjoy reading these in ten years. Hello older Aditya!  

About today 14 May 2025

 Today was a hectic day, I woke up a bit drunk and decided to put in a little more sleep, bunk office. Still, there was a lot of work to do, the Sun fired off two X-class flares after more than a month. I have not been going to the Space Weather Live forums, which I intend to do. There were also some stories demanded by editors. I finished up all the extra stories even though I was not working, and then went for lunch at Carnatic Cafe. The staff did not know the items on their own menu, and if I take the original kannada names, they do not understand only. There are some older, more experienced staff who know. They had run out of coconut water again, but I discovered that the thali includes bisibele bhath on Wednesdays. They cycle out the side rice dish and the type of kosambri every day, and there is no lunch available on Mondays. The kosambri alone is worth it, which you do not get anywhere else in Delhi. There is a place called Kosambri but that restaurant bulks up the delicate salad with corn, and you have to order a whole tub which often goes to waste as I cannot possibly eat so much. 

I came back home and drank more beer, this was strong beer called Crossbones! Was fun, had tried Beera Rise before that, which is rice based. Spent some time on Clubhouse. The alternatives to Clubhouse are a bizarre mix of betting, dating and generative AI apps. There is an Asus ROG G16 waiting for me in the office tomorrow. 

About Today 13 May 2025

 When I started this blog over 20 years ago, I used to write a daily wrap, and I want to start doing it again. Of late, I have been focusing increasingly on a website that I started, Starbullet.in, and focusing less on this blog. I do not want the days to fade away without recording them and what I felt. 

So today morning started off great because I had company for breakfast. Normally I prefer to eat on my own, because I am a slow eater and do not want anyone to wait for me. For that reason I rushed through my plain dosa. Akshit and Neha from office joined me, and we talked about some movements of talent between organisations without any of us actually revealing things that should not be discussed about... which was a fun conversational dance. 

I then spent most of the day writing up a long copy on how international partners responded to NASA's Skinny Budget. Because of that, I could not really finish my allocated number of copies for the day, but my manager was cool with it, so its all good. It rained a bit in the evening, and I got to sit on the nice window overlooking Amity University. There were a bunch of dudes playing volleyball in the afternoon, and I really hoped that they had used copious amounts of sunscreen. I think I will sit here again tomorrow. 

I now have to rush to catch the shuttle to the metro station. People in Delhi do not know how to use the Metro, they spread themselves out over as much area as possible, like they need to assert their dominance, similar to dogs marking their territory. They go inside and stop, with no consideration for others. Mumbai local and metro peeps are far more considerate. These heathens still move around with rucksacks on their shoulders. I am becoming increasingly racist while living in North India, and need to control that tendency, but it is difficult when you have to navigate a sea of dumbfucks every day. 

Machines seem to have a mind of their own, Google asks me to verify through different means, passcode or smartphone alert every time I login. Windows throws prompts at me for random things like backing up data and reminding me that I have subscriptions. Just let me use my machine and get to work please. That's it for today, let me see for how long I can keep this up. 

Holi Weekend

I am writing this sitting at a random juice bar called Martini Mocktail in Noida. I came here to visit a friend, but the friend is late, giving me some additional time to bash out this blog post. The last few days have been a bit wild, went to this fancy place in Noida called Illuzion. The proprieters seem to be major Harry Potter fans, because they had just used the font without officially licensing it. The venue is actually split across two locations, one within the mall, and one a bit away, outside, across a parking lot. It's a fancy place where the cover charge is 2.5 K per person (we got a discount of 1.7), after which you can essentially drink unlimited drinks for three hours. They serve some whiskies, a wine, a vodka and Bacardi White, which is the one I got. In the middle, we left to score cocaine, and instantly pulled a few lines in the back of the car. Was still properly mushed when I woke up in the morning. 

Last night was great, but we also had beer and Bro Code, a spitzer on Friday. The night faded out. It was holika night, and the Delhi peeps be serious about their biomass burning. There were literal mountains of wood, about the size of a house, and it was still smouldering in the morning. The night kinds of fades out and I don't know exactly what happened, but I ended up sleeping at a friend's house, that I totally did not intend to do. So all in all, a great holi weekend even though I did not travel to Manali as planned, to visit D. 

Bharat Space Conclave 2025

 I am right now typing during the coffee break of Bharat Space Conclave to appear smart. Im in a squished up corner seat. Pallava Bagla actually came in and grabbed a seat next to mine, but I lost it when I stepped outside to blow my nose. The pollution in Delhi is really bad. 

The seats here at the FCCI conference room are very low in comparison to the tables. Typing at such a height is pretty uncomfortable and I have actually never done that before. The air conditioning is also particularly cold, and the lights are frizzling with some krr krr noise continuously, which is very irritating if you pay attention to it. 

Coming here was a pain. I picked a priority booking. One Uber driver picked the ride, waited a long time, then started driving off elsewhere only. The second guy made me wait and cancelled just as he was crossing the signal to reach me. The third driver finally picked me up, and got me to the venue late, but I did not miss much. 

They served bonda and samosa with chutney, as well as cucumber and tomato sandwiches with cheese for breakfast. The bondas were in tremendous demand and got over before I even got to them, leaving me with only the samosas. Considering how racist North Indians are, they sure do love South Indian food. The mint chutney was really delicious. If there is one thing that these industries and government type facilities really figure out, it is how to make good, healthy food. Eating is definitely a priority for these guys, you can tell from their tummies. I am sure lunch is going to be awesome. 

The krr krr noise is fading in sputters. 

I really wanna have a smoke, but there is no smoking zone nearby, the next talk is already ten minutes late and I do not wanna go all the way outside the building. 

The Townscapes of Dreams

After documenting dreams for over 10 years, I am now convinced that dreams have a semi-persistent geography that can be mapped. This geography overlaps with some locations that I know in the real world. And as I am writing this stuff out, I can vividly remember at least some of the locations. 

[1] Is the home of my childhood. In my dreams, this location still resembles the way it was over 20 years ago. There is no clubhouse, and no buildings around, all are surrounded by greenery. The rooms are larger in the dreams, but these dreams are fading. My house is actually on the other side from the house where most of my dreams take place in, which is actually a mirrored version of my house, and belongs to my neighbour. [2] Is my school, and again it is larger in my dreams, with a bigger main building. The fixtures on top resemble the Louvre Pyramids in my dreams. 

Now coming to 3 and 4, which are the sites of most of the dreams. 3 is Joggers Park, which is much more denser with vegetation, almost a forest area. There is a big depression in the middle, with multiple walkways and ponds. The park is much, much bigger in my dreams than in real life. As kids, we spent most of our vacations in this park, waking up early in the morning just to go there. There is a convoluted monkey bar, as well as a playground in a sunken area, which may be why I dream of a depression in the middle of the park, a connection I made right now. I enjoyed climbing and standing on the swings, and once got mildly hit by an uncle after I drove away their kid. I was a naughty kid. We used to take our toys and play in the park till breakfast, and then return after lunch for another long session. Looking west from the park are the Yeoor Hills, in the direction of the black arrow. In my dreams sometimes, I see leopards and big cats descending from these hills, which is visible behind the park, and actually behind the school as well. A lot of my dreams take place between [1] and [4].

[4] is the location of my new home, that I moved to in 2000, just before my high school graduation in 2003. The building is taller in my dreams, with another smaller building in front of my house, which really does not exist. There are more buildings in the complex in my dreams, arranged in a circle. The play area behind the building is also expanded with many additional facilities and a playground. My apartment in this building is really interesting, it has a marbled bathroom leading to a terraced balcony, with plenty of pots and even a small fountain and pool within the house. There are iridescent flowers in this indoor garden. Outside, the house has a balcony, with tiers of habitation below. 

The dream additions include enlargements, layering and complex and unlikely fixtures. This dream house is sometimes connected to a massive building that seems like it is under construction, with some poor people living in large pipes as well. This seems to be inspired from an under-construction building next to my office, where people are living by the way. 

Now, my new home in New Delhi is a terrifying place in my dreams. There are locked doors within my house that open up into other people's doors. I feel exposed in an environment that does not provide adequate privacy. There is a secret corridor at the end of my home that opens up into a row of doors. Each of the houses are labyrinthine and occupied by people who do not exist. The ground floor resembles my old-new home in Panchavati [4], with a playground and a complex beneath. There are additionally commercial layers in the lower floors in the Delhi version, which is truly a scary place. So scary that in the first two years, incidents of sleep paralysis was common. 

All this makes me convinced that dreams have a geography, that can be mapped to real world locations. 

Two weddings

 I just finished attending the weddings of two friends. One took place in Thane itself, where I was hoping to meet my old building friends, but only one of them was there. That one had great grammable locations, and lot of great food. It was held in Hiranandani One Park mostly, and the location has a long route that goes around the whole colony to reach the clubhouse, but there is also a short route from the gate to the right that goes directly to the Clubhouse. This one was fun because the food was great, and got to spend some time with old friends. 

Between these weddings, I met some old friends in Matunga, Thane itself and Chandivli. In all, I was just spending a lot of time with very good friends. I also met some old colleagues at the Yacht Club in Bandra, and got properly drunk on that occasion. 

For the other wedding, we drove down to Pune. This was a fun ride with a pit stop at the old Highway MacDonalds. The girl on the counter gave us complimentary cookies with our cold coffees and strawberry shakes. That drive was a lot of fun. We had booked an AirBnB in Baner of all places, which has turned out to be really happening now. I also checked out the new apartment my friend picked up which has a spectacular view of a construction site. I spent a good half an hour watching a pair of JCBs load up a bundle of metal rods onto a long trailer. 

The guy also had a racing wheel setup, as well as flight controller gear for Boeing and Airbus planes. The Airbus console was procured through a startup in China. That was a lot of fun too. We spoke about Indian Games, board games and for some reason, Ancient Apocalypse. 

The venue of the wedding was close to where the Expressway ends. It was on a river bank in the middle of some fields, an ideal location for the Groom and Bride who are both into organic farming and living in harmony with nature. Got to spend a good two days with friends, and it was a lot of fun. I had great, deep conversations with everyone, either about our personal lives, or ecology, or the relationship between humans and the natural world, and it filled me with hope that all my friends are conscious residents of the Earth. 

Now going back to Delhi and feeling like what I am doing with my life, living away from my friends. But I also like the independence, and even the anonymity of living in a city where no one asks you what you are doing, and you can make your own plans without having to listen to other friends. Anyway, speeding across the country right now, watching a far-side sunrise. The roads all over the country are great once you get out of Maharashtra. 

Bus journey from Mumbai to Delhi

The travel time between Mumbai and Delhi used to be over 30 hours, it has been reduced to around 22 hours, and a bus can make it around 27 hours now. The route is through Jaipur, Ajmer and Surat, with possibly a transfer or a seater to all of these. 

The problem is that the coordinators cannot give you a location to the exact place. They will say the name of some hotel on the other side of the road, or some dhabha that will be impossible to spot on Google Maps. It is a pain getting to the right pickup point if you don't know it already, and this is made doubly complex by the fact that the Delhi people do not know the local places in Mumbai at all. 

My bus got rerouted, which resulted in a lot of problems for passengers. The Uber fare from where you are to where the bus is can actually bridge the gap between a bus fare and an air ticket. Still, after all that it is totally worth it just to experience half of India rushing by. The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular, but unfortunately you have to wait till mid-day to see the Sun if you are on the wrong side of the Bus. 

Here again, the sleepers are designed in such a way that there are twin seats on the right side, and single seats on the left. This means that solo travellers are always better off on the left, unless you make a strange ass booking and share a bay with a random. 

05 Feb Filament Eruption

 

AR 3981

 

Underdark 43

We look around and find a stream, seeming to be magical hydraulics that goes towards the North. Tsui takes a bath while I cautiously check out the water. We set up camp for the night. Aracockra does flyaround and comes back. Tsui is already asleep. I will take a long rest. We walk west and eventually hit upon a path, and we follow it west for seven days. We come upon a little hut, that is adjoined to a decent-sized farm growing a bunch of winter vegetables with a little pond attached to the hut as well. It is about to be noontime, there is smoke coming out of the chimney, a little glow from the windows.

A very old woman walks up with a big basket of vegetables towards her hut. Old woman invites us to eat. The old woman tries to tidy up, makes us comfortable, heads over to kitchen and starts preparing some teas and hands it to everyone. Her name is Marine and her daughter Selene who married Eric and has an Inn in Manderdeesa. I have two great children. 

Then people talk to each other that I know nothing about. Im dreamwalking and see Tsui and 1319 contemplating the stars, Pyro loses appetite and tells 1319 we need to go to Koham. Jimbo gives Creek some cloak. We come to a town with a solitary guard at madredisa. Wascerly Wabbit. Its a large town, bigger than Kohan, but not so populated. Pyro trips and falls down, but no one knows what caused Pyro to trip.

We go to the Wascally Wabbit, Selene and Mark seems to have forgotten about their kids. We see footsteps headed towards the tavern from the gate, six go one way, one goes towards the tavern. We map out the entire sewer system. We go back to the Wascally Wabbit and do an FBI style investigation of whole place. We find a place to hole up in and go through a series of horrible dreams. We wake up with five people in the room with a drawing of a mysterious figure in a sun-lit land. 

DND Underdark Episode 42

 Back to the campaign after three years. 

We kill a dragon in a tower. Dragons on a hoard of gold. The floor is made of acid. The tower flushes us through. We have a hunger for gold. IT was a well banalnced fight with a staff that had weird effects, casting spells at max level, and killing the ability to cast that spell. We run away from some orcs after escaping the tower. 

22 Jan Filament Eruption

 G2 forecasted for 25 Jan. 

Old nightmare in new setting

When I first came to Delhi, I used to have frequent nightmares and even sleep paralysis because I was sleeping in a new place. I used to feel that the location is insecure, with one of the rooms having a wall or a door connected to another house, without my knowledge. This other house opened up into an apartment complex with a corridor full of flats. The lower floors of the apartment was full of commercial shops, with the buildings arranged in  ring, and a playground in the middle. The basement floors had an entire shopping mall kind of setup. I stopped seeing this place about six months after moving to Delhi. 

After a tox break, I saw this same setting again, but this time, it was not a nightmarish environment. I saw some old friends, as well as unknown people who were entirely imaginary old friends. They were all holed up in an apartment, and it was essentially a friend circle from Thane who formed a support group in Delhi to fend off social isolation. There was even a Nepali there who sort of resembled some dude I met at a party in the hills. I woke up thinking maybe refraining from smoking could improve my sleep further. 

Aditya-L1 vs Proba-3 FOV