the digital age robber

did anybody catch this article in TOI? freaky! apparently, robbers are now tracking you on twitter to find out when you go on a vacation or weekend away, so they can come take your stuff away! this happens because we allow strangers all too easily to track us on social networking websites, especially twitter. the survey sent out a 100 test friend requests on facebook and twitter, and 13% were accepted on facebook and 93% on twitter! and it's especially the younger users who give away such information, such as children or teenagers in your household. my god, it really gives you to think before you tweet away about your dream vacation!

dell sucks

it's been barely three months, and already the right click key on the touchpad doesn't press down properly. and according to dell, that's not a manufacturing defect but rather wear and tear, which is not covered by warranty. so according to dell, their computers are only built to last three months or less, after which if anything goes wrong, it must be you! this sucks! now to get it fixed i either have to pay Rs.8500 for a full warranty or Rs.1500+spare parts charge for a technician visit. all for a spring that probably costs ten rupees! and all this after spending rs.45000 just three months ago to get this laptop in the first place! :( dissatisfaction factor has never been higher!

I’m a stay-at-home non-mom

it’s tough to stay at home in india. all the time that i was in oslo, i knew there was no other option, so i bided my time and had fun too. but now i’m in the waiting mode, waiting for the phone to ring with an interview call, waiting to get back in the game, and that’s tough. recession sucks! and long break sucks! and daytime tv sucks! and i can’t even justify staying at home by saying it’s for the children, because i have none! :)

Mac Vs PC

as is evident, i waited a long time to buy this laptop, and one of the biggest uncertainties was whether to go the Mac or the Windows way. there were so many arguments pro and against each. and frankly, until u’ve tried a mac, how do u even know what u might be missing? i was sorely tempted for a long time to spend the extra bucks. but as time passed, and i got the chance to try my hand at a few mac notebooks, i realized how much easier it is to stick with what u’ve spent ten years getting to know and perfect. windows might be irritating sometimes but it is familiar and i know how to fix stuff and where to find stuff and generally to be able to accomplish all the major tasks i need my laptop to perform. buying a mac would have taken me back to the bottom of the learning curve. i’m not sure if i’m ready for that and whether the gains will indeed be worth it. be that as it may, i decided to shelve the issue till some benevolent employer decides to gift me a mac, and went for a windows laptop myself. and with the latest windows software, i must say there are many pleasant surprises and complete user satisfaction.

home, sweet home

i guess i never really knew how to feel about returning home. a part of me was expecting to find it v different after the experience of living abroad, but frankly, i didn’t. i settled right back in like a fish in water. and i love being back. in fact, even tho i went half-way across the world to one of the coldest countries in the world, it didn’t feel like it was any different from my own country! apart from the weather, of course. superficially of course there were differences, but fundamentally it was almost as easy to settle in there as it was here. but our level of engagement in oslo life was almost nil, and we kept feeling like outsiders just biding our time before we went home. so i guess it’s not surprising that i’m feeling so glad to be back home. now we can continue with our life where we left off instead of living in limbo just waiting to go home.

loving the windows live writer for my blog! i’ve literally never posted this much! so convenient.

more on my laptop

first of all, thanks inkspill for, in a way, facilitating the purchase of this laptop. if it weren’t for u, i’d probably have held out a lot longer before buying this super-cool machine.

it’s a dell studio 14, and i must say, the post-purchase satisfaction is tremendous! not only is it sleek and stylish, it’s fast, intelligent and in many tiny ways just a delight to work with. we didn’t go far out of the box in terms of configuration, which was pretty great to begin with. it does become pricey if you throw in MS office and antivirus subscriptions, but still nowhere as expensive as apple, which was the only other serious contender. i was v keen on apple for a long time, but two factors held me back from taking the plunge: 1. price, and 2. compatibility issues with various services. it might be a super-intelligent machine to work with, but until it can satisfy me on both these issues, i ain’t jumpin’ into the deep end. and that’s all i’m gonna say about that.

My very own laptop!!!

it may seem ridiculous to be so excited about getting a laptop, but i’ve waited so long and saved so hard for it that it really, really means a lot! :) having so much fun customizing it! :)

i'm going back home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

finally the time has come to bid oslo adieu! it has been a fun year and half, oslo, thanks for that, but you cannot believe how ecstatic i am to go back home! it would have been nicer, maybe, if i could have worked here. or if i could have had family close by. but i made some nice friends, had a great time traipsing around europe a bit, and generally got to live somewhere outside india with minimal fuss. oslo is a peaceful, uncrowded town with wonderfully polite people. we've genuinely not come by such good manners and such nice smiles anywhere else in europe. it's clean and beautiful too, especially in summer. but gimme hot sun any day! and to think i always thought of myself as a winter person till i came here! i guess it's difficult for indian people to adjust to the long, cold, dark winter months, and to think it's a hot day if it's 17 degrees C!
and so it's back to the mad rush and struggle of life that is india - yeh jo des hai mera! :)

pink chaddis zindabad!!!

hahahahahahaha i can literally not stop laughing! finally a movement i can relate to! maybe some of you know, maybe you don't, but every year on valentine's day the religious fundamentalist groups (all hindus, mind you) get up to condemn the celebrations in their own peculiar ways. there have been face blackenings, reports to parents, arrests, parading the guilty parties, even violence! this year the sri ram sena in bangalore visited pubs and slapped all the women there for being loose! and they are going to catch valentine's day-celebrating couples and forcibly marry them off. why, you ask? because celebration of teenage love is against indian culture, if you please. wait, you haven't heard the best part yet! so what did the loose, pub-going, forward women do??? they formed a consortium to collect pink underwear and send it the sri ram sena chief as a valentine's day gift!!!!!!!!!! this is the best idea EVER! i've heard protests and complaints before, but i've literally never been more thrilled with retaliation to blind, cow-minded, 12th century fundamentalism.

you can also be a part of this - just visit their website for more information.