At long last…

At long last I did something that makes me feel worthy of the title “engineer”. I might even be so arrogant as to say “hacker”. Never mind that my current job title doesn’t have the word “engineer” (or “hacker”) in it.

My el cheapo pea-shooter 50mm refractor suffered from a bad case of the shakes. My having to take the scope on to the rooftop didn’t help much; Aeolus likes to make his presence felt these days. Focusing it at say, Jupiter, was no small task – the flush of pleasure at having focused the scope would quickly evaporate as Jupiter described a fast moving ellipse and Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto transformed from bright little pin-pricks into nothing. Thinking back to the times when Jupiter rose at 6 in the evening and could be caught with the scope positioned by the TV (opening the door to the balcony helped), still as a cat about to pounce, only added to the bitterness.

Thus I passed many days cursing myself for not having blown a little more money on that (comparatively) big 4.5″ equatorially mounted reflector. And then, it happened. The paisa dropped. A bulb magically appeared above my head in a text balloon, and shed some of its light in the cobweb ridden interiors of my brain. Struck by inspiration, I ran to the spare room which holds all our junk, including the computer on which I’m typing this, and threw open the cardboard box which was to go to the guy who bought newspapers the next day. My hands scrabbled around in the box like the tentacles of an octopus deep beneath the sea. They then came up for air, triumphant with their discovery – an old scratched CD.

Off came the nut that held the screw on the tripod which pivoted the telescope in the horizontal plane. Off came the telescope itself, and in went the CD between the telescope and the tripod. The scope, screw and nut were returned to their former positions, and lo behold! The action was smoother than before, and the scope settled down from the shakes much, much faster than I had known.

Of the precious few things I’ve done in the recent past that are worth menion, nothing has given me as much happiness as this did. Except perhaps learning to drive a four wheeled beast – and that comes a close second.

Tagged.

As usual, I begin with an apology – to everybody who’d commented on my blog and hadn’t gotten replies (or even seen their comments here) in well over two lunar cycles.

My absence from the blog can be explained away by two reasons – no, three. The first is an ugly four letter word called “work”. Isn’t it interesting how most interesting (for want of a better word), words are four letters long? Life, Love, Work, and so on. Right now, I can’t think of more examples of four-letter words that can justify my conjecture. Anyway, this business of four letter words is no different and no more (or no less) important than what you will find here.

The second reason is a two-word phrase. Reliance Broadband. I have the misfortune of living in an area where (until recently) there were only two ISPs. The first (again) is a four-letter ISP, BSNL. I didn’t have the patience to wait for a couple of months before I was bestowed the honour of being connected to the world wide web via BSNL, so I talked to the other ISP, Reliance (Wireless) Broadband. It was really cool to have a WiMax antenna on the rooftop, but the chill factor faded away fast – as long as it works, it’s beautiful. The moment it goes kaput, things go horribly wrong. I was off the net for about three weeks without the morons at Reliance doing anything about it, and I couldn’t lift my lazy behind off the chair to go kick them in the pants. I’m just waiting for Airtel to set up shop here, and then I switch my allegiance.

Here’s the third – you guessed it, I’m A Lazy Bum.

Asuph did me the honour of tagging me.

Apparently this is what one is supposed to do when tagged:

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1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
4. If you fail to do this within eight hours, you will not reach Third Series or attain your most precious goals for at least two more lifetimes. (what does it mean? really, what *does* it mean?)
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I will happily continue to write drivel that includes 8 random things about me, but I’m not sure I even *know* 8 bloggers to tag! So here goes:

Ein: I love Top Ramen curry with Olives (both green and black), Tomato Ketchup, jalapenos, gherkins and scrambled eggs. I also like scrambled eggs with all of the above except the noodles. S, my better half, thinks that this is revolting and is probably right – but I’m all for it!

Zwei: S, my better half, thinks that of all the things that matter to me most in my life, food and drink top the list. I’m not sure, but she’s probably right.

Drei: I’m fluent in three and a half languages, and can get by with broken speech in another three.

Vier: There are four scratches and a dent on the Swift already. It’s not even a month old :( This *is* a random fact about me – if you go by Marshall McLuhan, the car is an extension of my feet. I am yet to get a driver’s license. OK, I have a learner’s license and am taking up my driving test by the end of the month. I’m not all that great with parallel parking yet :)

Funf: I’m trying to read Terry Tao’s analysis book – and happily, I *am* making progress!

Sechs: I haven’t hit the gym in two months. I’ve ballooned again :(

Sieben: Recently, at a meeting in my workplace, I was told something that I found extremely surprising. I broke out with Holy $%^#, but stopped just in time with “Holy”, my voice trailing. My manager, and my manager’s manager, greeted me with all knowing smiles. (And an injunction to mind my language ;) ).

Acht: I get *very* nervous when I’m riding the Kinetic and I see an Innova in my rear-view mirror.

Let’s see, I still have eight hours to think of eight victims to tag. I’ll Be Back .