The Gate

I know; my blog posts have become few and far between. Instead of the words and ideas flowing out smoothly, like slick jellied eels, they emerge grudgingly reluctant onto the espace like an alligator from its mud pit. And from those rotten analogies, you know it must be true.

The reason for this is a pervasive ennui which seems to envelop me and everything I do nowadays. The only thing which I do nowdays is read tech blogs and salivate at the new and shiny bits of metal and plastic that they so love to talk about. Gizmodo is my favourite right now, with Crave, Engadget and Slashdot following close behind. I occasionally tune into Scott Adam's blog, though his output is nowhere as good as before. And when I want to get in touch with my feminine side I head on over to Dooce.

Not that I need to get further in touch with my feminine size. I'm just one Avril Lavigne song away from putting on a dress. Coloured pink. Okay, so I apologise; apparently girls don't just like pink. They like red and white stripes/prints too. Which is not the same as pink. Definitely. Not.

Ever since I've returned to India, I've been doing my very best to visit as many pubs/lounges as possible, and get as comprehensively drunk in them as possible. And no, I will absolutely not let the shame of ordering strawberry daquiris while the girls with me down whiskeys with soda and then adjust their crotch and spit stop me.

Hey, I did tell you about my feminine side, didn't I? According to these girls (they pretend to be my friends), I give off this gay vibe, which is why they take me with them to restaurants and force me to ask the maître d' for a table. Apparently they are quick to comply either from desire or terror.

This weekend involved a drunken semi orgy at home with triple distilled vodka, white rum and Drambuie and Burnout matches on the PS2. We were supposed to catch a play at the Indian Habitat Centre on Sunday evening, but on arriving there learnt that it was sold out. Apparently more people were interested in imbibing culture than we thought. So after hanging around and ineffectually trying to bribe the guards into letting us in, we decided to make our way to Khan Market for dinner.

After strolling around a bit, we decided to have dinner at Big Chillz, which, as usual, made us wait for a half hour for a table, while we stood outside the window and pulled hungry orphan faces. I have to say, patience and girls go together just like apples and Godzilla. First, Miz Kuruvilla accosted the maître d' for letting this couple get in ahead of us. The waited replied politely, 'We would seat you first, Madam, we really would, but we would lose our jobs. The couple we just seated were the owners.'


Big Chillz is a pretty good restaurant serving continental and Italian, but what you should really go there for are the delicious and indulgent desserts with mud pies and cheesecakes crowding the menu.


This time however, we decided to go to India Gate for ice cream. Quite surprisingly, there was a huge crowd at India gate. People were lounging on the grass with picnic baskets and vendors weaved their way through the crowd selling everything from bhel-puri to bubble guns. It sorta reminded me of another famous place - people on the lawns before the Eiffel Tower. Such different places, yet so similar.


The girls of course wanted a bubble gun and a fluorescent helicopter, which miz Dutt promptly proceeded to launch in a wild and erratic manner, causing everyone to take seven steps away for safety.


Of course, the battery of my D60 chose that very moment to quit on me so you'll have to be satisfies with (inferior?) shots from Shazzer's D40.

[Update - I've managed to get just two photos outta Shazzer. Rest will follow shortly]

The Jesus Phone crucified.

Okay, so for those of you who follow my blog, you will recall me posting abt the latest list of gadgets on my have to have list ie http://lifeofviren.blogspot.com/2008/03/gadget-crazy.html. Anyway, two of them have been delivered into my grubby, clutching lil' mitts, namely the MyBook and the Nikon D60. The Nokia N96 however has eluded me by being, most frustratingly, still unreleased.

So what do I go out and do? Well, buy the Jesus Phone obviously. Yes yes, I know the 3G iPhone is imminent, but the CarPhone Warehouse were practically giving them away at £169. Of course, you were supposed to get a 2 year contract with O2, but hey, I'm willing to forego my warranty and get it unlocked.

I've got to hand it to Apple; they really DO do things in style. The phone comes in a sexy little box within with is the phone, a tiny manual, a usb cable, headphones and a jigsawesque power plug, all wrapped in yards of plastic. I was in the last stages of packing (this was the day before I was to leave for India), and my luggage was already approaching critical mass, but I just had to take the box back home. So, out went all my underwear, and in nestled the box between a James Herriot and a fleshlight. Of course, I haven't got around to buying any undies yet, but I'm quite enjoying the freedom.

err.. Anyway, back to the iPhone. After charging it a bit, I installed iTunes on my PC and upgraded the phone's firmware to 1.1.4.

Rant #1- What's it with Apple and their propriatry software? Whatever happened to good ol' drag n' drop? This always pissed me off no end, which is why I bought my self an iRiver d40 all those years ago and not an iPod.

Unlocking the iPhone next was a snap. ZiPhone does a pretty good job, both unlocking and jailbreaking it in a snap; and its ready to use. After playing around with the interface, I was genuinely impressed. Till I tried to make a call.

Rant #2 - WTF, the iPhone does not pick up your contacts off the SIM. Which is just horrible!

So, I had to first sync all my contacts from my Razr onto Outlook, and then sync them back to the iphone. And I saw it. And I used it. And it was good. Especially browsing the net, for which the iPhone is really built. So it's all joy and dreams... as long as you have wifi. Switch off the net however...

Rant #3 - My iPhone does not recognise the ad hoc wifi conn I set up from my laptop. Though this may be more a defect in me than in the iphone.

Rant #4 - Why does the SMS keyboard not appear in widescreen mode? I mean they've done it for the internet entry. How hard is it to put it in for the sms mode?

Rant #5 - Apparently, the bluetooth on the iPhone pairs only with the Apple bluetooth Headset... and NOTHING ELSE. Fun, innit?

Rant #6 - A 2 megapixel camera? Really?

Sigh, and lets not talk about the lack of 3G shall we? And neither of the fact that it will almost surely be outdated in a few weeks when the 3G iPhone arrives.

But for all this, it is a slick piece of gadgetry; an iconic crowd puller. And it's mine. And that's all that counts really. So now all I haveta do is sit back, whip it out (the phone, not anything else you pervert!) and wait for the ladies to come flocking. As I'm sure they will. Won't they?

A New Hope

Those of you who know me know that I'm always in search of the next big thing. From gadgets to galoti kebobs, I scour cyberspace for titbits to titillate both geek and gourmet. My first discovery is for the man of refined taste who's looking for something to tickle his taste bud. http://www.freshkitten.com/ will open up a new world for taste sensations for the purist and hedonist alike.

And having stimulated you physically, I now attempt to jog those grey cells by introducing you to the latest kid on the blogosphere - http://meinbetweenbooks.blogspot.com/. Now I know this blogger personally; we even pretend to be friends on occasion. And I do have to say, she's intelligent, knowledgeable and quite humourous too, especially when she tries to enter stores through their plate glass display windows (no I WON'T forget that). So give it a go.

And to end up, let me say I've changed continents again, and I'm now typing this blog from a place where the thermometer shows 43 degree celcius.