Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Makalu (or the Big Shiva) takes new forms

In the functional part of today, all that popped from this head were these 4 of the same thing.

Alpine Dreams (Chrome Theme)
Old Friends Old Wood Old Whisky
The Makalu-Barun region, as I have come to find, is the most amazing experience. There is Gulmarg, and there's the Chadar, and there's Makalu-Barun. It leaves you short of no temptation. Sadly, being lost in a beauty also means being forgetful with a camera.. so over the past coupla years, I have captured very little of the place. And I was lost in two, so obviously I did worse.

Makalu, which has been a mountain signifying victories for the French (its called Montaigne la heureuse - or the happy mountain), is one signifying well, endless wait for victory for the same when it comes to India. Victory is not the exact word when you summit a mountain, and defeat not the exact word either when you don't - the mountain always waits for another challenge, if you are around. It signifies a longer wait, which is an almost human nature coming from considerations about mountains.

In the meantime, I started two campaigns to revisit the region in zest. They are nearly-dead. Well, dead in ambitions before reality, I should mention. Should be having my feet in other random directions through June.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

sunday blues

Stupid things men do
Well, I did it too

Feel like getting stoned (stoning in the 'courtyard stoning' sense) because of that one slip. Damn me for tripping out on game theory, porn ideas, pulp fiction (plus a sprinkle of human falling) to bring it there. Weirdly i had gone through it before it played in real, and saw a safe stop point.
That might sound very ugly in a libidinous sense, but, safe distances I know better off, since sex hasn't been the consequence of 7 of the 12 bare days Tammy and I have spent in each other's company.

Yes, 12 times that I distinctly remember physically seeing her, 4 of them being through-nighters where on two nothing happened. This was the phase of our "relationship" days - 12 days of facetime, totalling about 6+5+1+12+2+2+6+12+12 = 58 hrs or barely 3 days. Clocked 58 hours with K, I believe in the first week since I told her I had a crazy fondness about her, and amidst as much natural beauty about us as that craziness - Gulmarg, Srinagar, Delhi. Well, we did our 58 hours together in Gulmarg itself if you consider that post-admission there were still 4 days still followed in Gulmarg where we picked up Skiing together, 4 days stealing glances there in the snows, creatively conversating through eyes and smiles, and topping it off with a celebratory night in a cottage. Very infantile, but totally deserving.
After such calculation I wonder what insecurities are on a comparable level here.

Well, we're in the mood for love, finally. Me and my blog.

morning duties

Oddly sane morning. Broke out of the spell of work and code. Went out for a ride, it was a fast one, where I averaged over 26, and surely hit 30 many in those cadence-peak moments. It is hard to do so with a bike with slipping gear-shifts (thanks to a worn out rear cassette that has been calling for replacement since the last year), and a phone the dimensions of a brick in your backpocket that felt gone on any bumps (and Delhi roads have many). Here's to a bit more tuning to the days. I've been on tuning for the past month, but in the past week the force seems strong.

Well, I keep breaking my routines, and then having these resurgent phases where the first few outings induce striking reflections, a commoner's beginnings - idealistic, sometimes-lofty, over-indulgent, over-promising. I guess that doesn't just apply to cycling. Indulgence should keep to action, only then will it be tolerated. Indulgent traits in me continue well into home, like right now. I might not be projecting lofty futures, but surely appealing for some.

So what do I do on a morning where things have started with a fix to a nagging code issue and a full hour of cycling? Sleep.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Code forlorn love-torn

This blog is like an old friend. Come back anytime, no questions asked. Or, old friends should be like technology, full UX guaranteed regardless of how rusted the friendship conversations have become.
Being reminded of UX from meself doesn't feel so great, though. I have messed my head with a holistic responsibility of a website, which has driven me into a machine-bound creature.

It was a sloppy weekend that which just finished 3 hours and 18 minutes back. The hangover of Friday continued into Caturday, and Caturday's despondency continued into Sunday. That's what having a troubled profession, travel itinerary and relationship brings. One moment, you are on, and off the next, or onto some divergent path while seeking to attain focus (and hence progress). Now do I get iapain's state, about 8 years late from when he expressed it, after a client meet one day, on a project back in college days. That project went great, regardless and led to our own "Long Way Round" from Manali-Leh - I commend him 8 years late on how well he managed things from his messy PoV [well, just tweeted about it too]. 8 years older, and I've only come to realize that..

Speaking to S I had a general feeling of doom come over, realizing the pace of technology. Here I am barely able to stand straight, and he's feeding me on Clojure and the future of realtime apps. For one, I didn't know that Whatsapp was built on Clojure, for the inherent features that make such heavily-decentralised management possible. In the meantime, I thought Go was the future. Seems like the only thing allowed is to not stick to one platform.. or stick to a philosophy instead of a framework. Well, me and my amateur notions from a PoV further than ever before.