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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
