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PeAcE WiTh GuNs

Friday, May 26, 2006

Murphy's Law Examples

"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool"

- Silvermoon's law

Now, we go on to the really nice examples. Mind you, all these are plagiarized DIRECTLY from here

  • A slice of buttered bread, when dropped, will always land butter-side down.
  • When you need an item that is in a heap, it will always be the one at the bottom.
  • Buses take ages to arrive, but when they do they always arrive in sets of three (in Britain "you wait ages for a bus, then two come along at once!"). There actually is a logical explanation for this: the first bus is slowed down because of the time needed to let passengers get on and off. The subsequent busses are (typically) not allowed to pass the first bus, so you tend to end up with a full bus followed by a line of empty ones.
  • The day you forget your umbrella, it pours with rain.
  • When graphing, the graph paper is always one square too small for the perfect scale.
  • When caught in a traffic jam, the lane that you are in will always be the slowest to move. (This joke was played out in the opening sequence of the film Office Space, where one of the main characters changed lanes multiple times, all in vain as the traffic around him moved - to really drive home the concept, an elderly man with a walker was shown dramatically outpacing our protagonist.)
  • Nothing is as easy as it looks.
  • Everything takes longer than you think. Or, everything takes twice as long as it should; excepting that which appears easy, taking three times as long.
  • Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.
  • If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
  • If something simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
  • If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
  • Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
  • Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
  • Every solution breeds new problems.
  • All small objects of value will disappear when set down.
  • Magellan's Allegory: If you stop and ask someone for directions, and they tell you "You can't miss it"... then be assured that you will.
  • If you make it idiot-proof, someone will make a better idiot.
  • When you put your pants on without looking — they will always be on backwards.
  • A series of events will go wrong in the most negative sequence.
  • Airline Travel Variation: The time you have to catch a flight is inversely proportional to the distance to the gate.
  • 50/50/90-If there is a 50/50 chance to get it right, there is a 90% chance that you will get it wrong.
  • The day you forget to bring your calculator to Math or Science class, there will be a quiz or test that requires one.
  • A train/bus/plane will be late, unless you are late and need the delay to make it on board.

-PeAcE
--WiTh
---GuNs

Monday, May 22, 2006

Ajax To Ajax, Dust To Dust

"enn doelpunt van een andrer planeet"
(It's a goal from another planet)
Louis Van Gaal, former Ajax coach,
describing one of Bergkamp's lobs.

It'll feel bad to see Dennis Bergkamp play his final match.
Cant believe Arsenal dont start with him these days.
I bet hes still better than tons of strikers everywhere.
Bergkamp, you rule !!
He started his career with Ajax (December 14, 1986) and he will finish it against Ajax (July 22, 2006).

We will always remember you !! I hope I get to see the last match of the great man !!

-PeAcE

--WiTh

---GuNs

Thursday, May 18, 2006

8403

Thats how old I am - in days.
Here is what I meant to type in under the post named 23 but after receiving so many nice comments on that post, I stopped myself from spoiling the mood and typing this into that post. So, I'll put it up as a new post altogether.

Its actually a mail I sent out to a friend. I did post an email earlier as well. That was written to that friend too. Anyhow, read on !!




Hey [snip]

Thanks a ton for the wishes. Thanks for staying up late and calling me at midnight. No one's ever done that before. Sorry I slept early and couldnt answer your call. Surprisingly though, my friend from Chandigarh did exactly the same and in the morning, I read 2 similar SMSs that said something like "Your phone is useless coz you never answer it". LOL, one was yours and the other was hers.

You are right. It was a good year, an eventful year. I did a lot of things which were new. I did a lot of things which were pleasant. But somehow, every birthday, I cant seem to help myself from feeling down The main reason is my thought process suddenly points out and says I am a year older, a year more of being a nobody. I don’t like being a nobody, I don’t want to live my life being a nobody. I wanted to establish myself in SOME field before I was out of my teens but it was like getting rudely shaken out of a dream.

Another thing that bugs me all the time is this inherent feeling of being single. Not so much as not having a girlfriend but more like ….being "lonesome" would be a better way to put it. I want to have friends whom I can call up every day. Friends whom I can meet up every evening and have fun. Why cant I have someone who always has the time when I do? Why don't I have friends who call me up everyday and ask how was my day. I want to go out in the evening and play something. Maybe not football. Maybe cricket in the lawn, like we used to play at Sam's place when we were in school. Maybe kabaddi, maybe pakda-pakdi, maybe eye-spy…maybe just a walk down the old road, down to the skating rink. Anything !! I just hate being a working professional who has no time after coming back from office.

People say growing older is growing wiser. I don’t want to grow wiser. The more you know, the more you have to worry about. I want to be as naïve as I was when I was younger. I don’t want to live a stressful life. If its too much I am asking for, why can't I have friends whom I can share my stress with. Talk about it, crib about it, laugh about it and let it go.

I'm 23 today and I cant help it. I’ll live my life as I have been living. With cheer and a optimistic approach. I will go see more places, meet new people. I wont stop trying to get back with old friends and I wont back off from challenges. But all the while, I will be waiting for that special day when I am face to face with my dreams…face to face with an opportunity.

Thanks for being my friend.
[snip] !!

P.S. : I know its stupid but I was about to write a b'day post on my blog and I just realize your mail made me pour out all that I had in mind. Would you mind if I post this mail? I will of course, remove your name from it.


-PeAcE
--WiTh
---GuNs

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

23

Just wanted to type in something on my birthday. Its 12:30 now and seems I've missed the chance [:-(]. WIll put up some actual text in a day or two.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

TTT (Trek To Triund)

My second post on trekking !!

I did mention about my North India trip in a previous post but I am writing this one to describe what was probably the most exciting part of my trip - a trek up the Himalayas.

Triund is a 4-5 hour trek up from the Bhagshunath temple near McLeodgunj. McLeodgunj itself is 12 KM from Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. We were staying at Dharamsala and just out of curiosity, I asked the Hotel Manager if thre was any place close to Dharamsala where we could trek. He mentioned Triund and he said that we were lucky because normally, that place is covered with snow even in April and only because of weird weather conditions (which are seen all over the world this year) the snow wasnt there. So he said that we could trek, though we needed to get back before dark. Theres a threat of snow leopards and the Himalayan bears as it gets dark. Brrrrrrrrrrr

Started out early in the morning, had decided to get up at 5:00 and leave. Told the cook to prepare breakfast by 5:00. Poor guy woke up at God-knows-what time and had the breakfast ready. We all got up at 7:30 and were down by 8:30. I apologized to the cook for freaking him up and he said "Kya karen, saab, apni toh naukri hain naa". Awesome guy, he made everything we asked for, even if it wasnt on the menu....and he made it well !!

So we started out, my friend, I and another fellow we had met on the bus to Dharamsala. Turned out that this guy was a IIT-C graduate and he hadnt done any trekking in his life. He tapped out in the first 30 minutes or so of the trek. That after many agonizingly painful stops every 10 metres of climbing. Poor guy, he just needed some practice, thats all. And climbing a steep mountain where the base itself is 7500 M a.s.l. isnt exactly a walk in the park. He went back to the hotel and we continued.

Here is a photo from the place where he turned back


On our way, we met 4 guys from Delhi. Obviously, freak ruffians, they joined us in our mission upwards.


We met a lot of foreigners on the way and surprisingly, there were very few Indians making that trek. I guess most of the Indian public had come to Dharamsala for a 'relazing' vacation. The fact that we met a German couple in their fifties makes me wonder whether that is the reason why they are such a prosperous country...they have more energy, or maybe just more enthusiasm. Well, it was tiring....maybe just as or a little more tiring that my last trek to 'Harishchandragad' in the Sahyadris. The view on this trek was AMAZING. We could see the snow clad peaks right in front of us most of the time.


We saw snow on the way. Though there wasnt really a lot of snow on the trek route, there were patches of snow lying around like this one:


We also crossed a chai-shop which is a shack built by this guy right into the mountain halfway to the top.
As this stone here claims, its been here since 1984.


We reached the top (Campsite Triund)at 2:30 in the noon and if we had to get back before dark, we had to start back within an hour. Met a bunch of other trekkers. Had a chat with a pair of guys, one fro England, the other from USA. They both agreed about the weird weather around the world and especially in England where they were having a really bad time this year. Got some snacks at a shack right up there at the top and started onwards to our return.
View at the top.


Unfortunately, the twist in the tale comes here. Only 2 of us had the energy to do a descent non-stop. I was one of the two, but mostly because of my recent practice of trekking. The other guy was very well built and obviously a roughneck. The rest were too tired to make a hurried chase. The problem wasnt bad until we realized that it gets dark quicker in the mountains. If that wasn't bad enough, it started RAINING.

Crudd, what could be worse, we were having freakin' HAILSTONES. Being the fatalist that I tend to be, I told these other 4 guys to buck up otherwise the ground would get wet and since it was mostly stones, slippery. At these heights, in this terrain, I said....slippery stones could be ...FATAL.

Oh, and as the cruel day would have it, we lost our way. Now, we were tired, it was raining, my friend could barely walk, we had lost the way, we seemed to have dead ends on all sides of where we stopped and whats more...I had a 26,000 bucks worth camera in my bag !!

Terrifying as it was, we saw this shepherd lady and we asked her to help. She showed us a way and we went on that route for barely a few metres and hit a dead end again. We had obviously strayed onto a different route altogether. She then showed us the way a few more times and we somehow managed to reach the village. Would you believe the coincidence (!!), the rain stopped as soon as we entered the village. It didnt rain for the rest of the entire week that we were there. In fact, we never saw rain in Himachal Pradesh throughout that week. WEIRD, eh?

After coming back to the hotel, our companion was already in bed, worried why we were late. Surprisingly, he TOO had lost the way and the same shepherd lady had showed him the way too. Of course, he was so terrified (and alone) that he actually paid her 50 bucks to show him the way to the village.

Had a hot water shower, got into bed at 8:30, skipped dinner and slept like a log. That must be the longest I've slept in my life.

Aaaahhhh... I read so many other blogs and read about people enjoying boozing, smoking, hanging around with their other halves etc. I wonder if they are living a more exciting life than I am. Well, for the time being, I am doing what I can to make my life more interesting. If I didnt do this, I would be the most boring guy in the world...to myself !!

-PeAcE

--WiTh

---GuNs