Ziki - Dawn Thomas's last published content http://www.ziki.com/en/dawnthomas+21414 tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:36:07 +0200 120 My aggregated content at ziki.com Fading http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/fading.html Once upon a time a boy found the idea of blogging quite interesting - the fact that people would devote so much time or not so much time just to write something which would then forever be forgotten sooner or later by everyone who sees it and even by the one who writes it.

thousands of memories , thought, lives ...only to be forgotten .. somewhow it had quite a charm to it.. or so the boy felt...


somehow it feels lacklustre now - the sadomasochistic pleasure of watching memories fade..

maybe fading away is better .. ]]> tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:36:07 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3639114 Week 6 - The Misadventures http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/week-6-misadventures.html Ok

I know i am pretty clumsy and assholic but nevertheless this week i guess i have overdone myself a bit. So basically as i have flashed it around quite a bit on the blog ( Louis Vuitton .. luxury office blah blah. ) I spent most of the week shuttling between the two offices having various misadventures..

I have already mentioned my first encounter with Louvre. On Thursday I was planning to stick with the Champs-Elysées Office. But i got called into the Louis Vuitton Office around mid day. So like an earnest intern i went and before i realised it i was in the middle of a luxury lunch.. listening to Louis Vuitton's vice chairman or something.. ( ;) Chairman ofcourse is Bernar Arnault 7th richest man in the world and richest man in paris etc. ) So yep thats pretty much the richest man and me being in the same room till now (and other 50 people but still :P ).. And yep.. there i was wearing slippers .. unshaven..( Ofcourse i do wear shoes and shave normally.. was in a bit of a hurry this particular day :( ) Hmm.. yeah.. felt awkward.. ]]> thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:57:25 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579434 Week 7 Thinking http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/week-7-thinking.html Instead of the shuttling last week mostly i was at the Louvre office. Life has been good , the work really exciting .. but is till do miss kgp.
Sometimes the realisation does set in that kgp would be so different when i get back.. and how my life would change when i get back. For a guy who hasn't planned much in life i have survived OK. I am sure everybody has gone through "So-what-do-you-want-to-do-after-college?" questions. Many people have dreams about what they want to do. Many people don't know what to do.. Many people adjust to the situation.. etc.. etc. I was always of the idea.." aah there is so much time left" .. which i guess most people just find evasive or a polite "i don't want to tell YOU" .. Anyways.. so here i am around 11 months from graduation.

Hmm so this is where i stand

I am 23 years old , majoring in architecture from iit kharagpur.

Options

A: Further studies
From liberal arts to law to technology to design .. the options to study are huge.. The glitch .. people have to put in the sincere student approach so that they can get good research assistantships and TAs and blah ..Milking out money from the american or european taxpayers into promoting my advancement in the anticipation that i would add value to their system... All this for an education which would cost you almost nothing provided you have a good public library nearby..( or with the information age and blah blah.. even that requirement is going down).. Orcourse everything isn't in the books .. So why not get out into the world and do it rather than in an academic laboratory ?

I hardly have it in me to act like a sincere graduate student nor to write beautifully crafted statement of purposes to show how my entire life has been directed towards this particular aim of working in this particular field and how i have planned my years to do this .. blah blah

B. Job Scenario

Hmm.. I come back around November 10th and boy wouldn't it be fun in Kharagpur.. T&P.. the basic problem of course is that i don't want to do a job right now.. or for that matter any time soon..Consider this my laziness or some inbuilt genetic predisposition ( awkward since both my parents work so much )

Ok.. so lets consider the options in B

B.1 IT Jobs
Well these include the highest percentage of jobs offered at IIT Kharagpur and i think i can safely say that one in every 3 students get employed in some way a a coder. By my definition this would include many companies dealing in other sectors but hiring kgpians to basically work on a computer writing code one way or the other. Ok.. contrary to what many people believe i am not such a great coder. I don't code much.. when i code i do ok ok. But the basic point why i like coding is precisely due to the way in which i like math. Coding is a way of doing something. What you do is obviously in the end more important. I really don't want to code some application software ( which i haven't done till now :) ) nor do i want to write some arbit commercial software blah blah.. So in short i am not at all interested in coding for a livelihood. So off goes one out of every 3 jobs

B.2 Management/ Consultancy/ Drilling
Oh the high paying companies .. Of course they wouldn't even look at an architect to be able to do their involved and intricately complex decision making process. And I don't want to be a bloodsucking CEO or consultant for some multinational.. Drilling seems the most ludicrous of course.. Why in the whole world .. But i guess people have their own reasons and likings and blah blah.. But anyways this B.2 sector i don't have to worry at all since the chances that i would apply to any of them is zilch and the chance that any of them would even call me for an interview is zilcher ( :P ) That takes away most of the other companies i guess

B.3 Finance
Let's face it.. I am not good with money :) Nor do i want to be. Finance is for people who respect money or at least appreciate it or its place in the world-system.

B.4 Architecture/ Construction / Planning etc.
As most of my professors and batchmates and seniors and juniors can profess.. I am pretty terrible when it comes to my major :)

B.5 Other
I don't know what other options are there .. didn't pay much attention to T&P last year.. Department tour and stuff .. So please do tell me .. :) So that i can come up with a plan


C. CAT aka Common Aptitude Test

Well the comment i said about B.2 still applies .. i would be so out of place in the corporate honcho world of grown ups .. Moreover i would perform so terribly even if i write CAT which would be probably a few days after i return from Paris. ( To be honest :) Mantri gave me some material before coming here which are still in my suitcase unopened :) )


So there it is .. Other options of course include staying at home being a family burden etc.. :) which of course as you can imagine are very unlikely events..

What i truly want to do is take a sabbatical for a year travel a bit.. maybe central and western africa and central asia.. Of course it won't cost much.. but still it'd cost a bit.. So u rich employed people out there .. please do help me :D.. Any rich / high earning gals looking for a prospective husband.. I am a completely available "virgin" :P bachelor..

And of course there is the eternal question of what would happen after the sabbatical.. But i guess i would have a better idea after seeing the world a bit..


Hmmm.. coming back to the present..

Mid term evaluation going on in the Google Summer of Code.. Mine is already done :D
Talked with Andrey Filippov regarding FPGA implementation of Theora features.. plans to start it after GSoC finishes.. ( finally some hardware )
In Paris.. well we are building a life scale mock up of one of the galleries of the museum , in the suburbs, so as to check the thermal acoustic, and lighting conditions and the feel etc.. yep .. ok.. half of a gallery but still ( 250 m long.. 10 m high.. pretty decent right .. and it's a mock up )

:) ]]> thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:53:51 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579435 Louvre - A first encounter or the lack of it thereof http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/louvre-first-encounter-or-lack-of-it.html Date: Wednesday 4th July 2007
Time ( 8.45 am )

Mr. Dawn Thomas gets out of the metro train at Louvre Rivoli station . He notices that the station
is unusually dark for the normal metro stations and pretty much uncrowded .. unusual for the line 1 stations in general.

Slyly he climbs the stairs out of the metro station trying to blend in with the lack of traffic.. Once out of the station he thinks he tries to proceed towards the office ( 10, Rue Bailleul ) He Walks a bit observing the Louvre Museum exterior towards his left. Walking on .. he suddenly reaches an open space and realises there stands the glass pyramid straight in front of him at around 20 mts. away... Amazing wind blowing.. No exodus of tourists yet..Clear sky.. Almost absolute silence..

And the first thought which comes to his mind.. " Oops.. wrong route." Well not exactly the first thoughts that strike someone while watching Louvre.. but well our protagonist is a pretty big jerk anyways..

Off to office he went


PS: Honestly though.. louvre was pretty kewt i guess .. of what i saw :P ]]> wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:48:36 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579436 New Ways http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-ways.html New email address: thomas at studiosfr dot com
New Office location: 10, Rue Bailleul, 75001 1er Arrondissement, Paris, France
in Google Maps
New Office phone number: +33144958743

Hmm.. just when i was thinking what could be better than avenue des champs elysees. My weeks would be split half the time in 10, Rue Bailleul ( 100 ms. from Louvre :O ) and the rest in Avenue des Champs Elysees.. Better.. at Bailleul i would be working inside LVMH's office ( :D yep.. the world's largest luxury conglomerate we were talking about ;) ) ]]> tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:28:01 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579437 Week 5 http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/week-5.html Maybe i am too much of a recluse.

Anyways 1 month is Paris over or rather a bit more than one month is over. My approximate summary would be
"Haven't visited a single museum or the Eiffel. I eat mostly roti and chicken curry / tandoori every day"

Well that pretty much talks about my outing and eating and the overall french experience. Anyways i do like the place. Just not so intent on roaming around and besides Paris is the most tourist infested city in the world i guess ( at least the topmost tourist destination )
Went to Notre Dame de Paris today. spent some time ( read significant amount of time ) sitting inside the cathedral wondering about my life and stuff ( read it's a thing i usually don't do ). For anybody who is interested in anything in Paris , i guess it is very well overdocumented. Same goes for the photos . Every nook and corner of Paris which could be shot has been shot and published and blah blah .. And considering the fact that my own face is pretty wretched , i am not even intending to upload a huge amount of pics due to both the reasons.

I walked along the Seine towards the Bibliotheque. I personally haven't had much experience walking along river banks.. But this is surely one thing i would love to do every weekend. Walk along the Seine from one end of Paris to the other.. after that truly enjoyable..

I still love the office as much as i did earlier

So around 12.30 hours of my day is spent "about" the office
7 am till 7.30 pm ofcourse it includes getting ready for office ( oh yeah :) ) travelling working eating coming back etc. etc..
of the rest 11.30 hours i usually sleep for around 6 to 7 hours and the rest 4.30 hmm.. passes by typing such junk.. writing a bit of code for the google funded blah blah..

Damn.. hmm it strikes me.. why would anybody even want to read all this crap.. :)

Hmm.. just one more thing.. Notre Dame was restored by Viollet-le Duc one of the most famous 19th century architects.. sounds like a great guy.. Who but the french would have such weird names.. ]]> mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:35:36 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579438 My Office Desk http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-office-desk.html







Hmm.. Avenue des Champs Elysees outside .. ]]> wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:04:37 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579439 19th to 24th http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/06/19th-to-24th.html Hmm..

Work has been quite interesting.. Especially if you are building a 127 million dollar museum funded by world's largest luxury goods conglomerate ( LVMH 56.6 billion market cap.. not bad at all) designed by Frank Gehry...yep.. Frank Owen Gehry

well that pretty much covers what i could say about what i am working on.. truly.. those of u who think buildings were all about drawing stuff.. these forms are like a chocolate overdose for the grey cells.. i just keep admiring the sections and volumes.. anyways.. evenings are generally fun.. coming back and working on the urban system modeling more often.. weekend gone just like that.

amazing thing though was .. friday was the day when i "went shopping" the first time in my life.. u know with a cart.. groceries.. picking up fruits .. checking them ( " as if i really have the least idea which one would be best by my advanced pressing skills ...refer : mouse story ) But yeah.. it was kind of fun.. the whole .. oh i am a responible guy now thing.. matrimonial urges .. no wonder guys want to get married..

Weekend went just like that.. Some pictures courtesy sovik's cam and uploaded as per his request so that he can apparently send the links to his friends who are nagging him about the stay in paris.. are available at

http://picasaweb.google.com/thedawnthomas/SacreCoeur

Some of the pictures are of where he used to stay etc. .. etc..
Aya suggests that i visit the following places.. so planning to go as soon as i get a chance...

LOUVRE
Musee d'orsey
Musee de quai branly (a must see designed by Jean Nouvel)
Palais Tokyo
Parc de la vilette ( by Bernard Tshumi, its a parc with some expositions..)
Centre Georege Pompidou (modern art expositions)
Fondation cartier(also jean nouvel)
Bibiliotheque francois mitterand(by dominique Perrault)
Versailles


Hmm.. read some stuff during the weekend.. was fun..
1. Chemistry Demystified by Linda Williams ( around 300 pages) .. done.. i mean it was mostly simple chemistry .. so just glanced through it.. don't even know why i did it.. just trying to clean up the collection i guess.
2. Linear Algebra gateway to mathematics by Robert Messer ( 145 / 415 ) ... Hmm this was good.. i mean even though a bit verbose.. it was time i brushed up a bit of my rustic math..
3. High Yield Histology by Ronald Dudek ( 10 / 232 ) hmm.. not much luck here.. very crisp.. and very term specific.. ah.. how i miss biology...
4. Prime Obsession by J. Derbyshire .. ( 98 / 446 ) Pretty decent.. talks about lots of people i admire a lot.. and then again who doesn't like Riemann Zeta function..

Other than i mostly checked upon faceted classification systems .. though useful as such.. from a learners point of view not of much help.. so using library of congress classification.. could have stuck with dewey.. but argh.. what the hell.. time for a change i guess.. ]]> sun, 24 Jun 2007 23:01:49 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579440 Something like a Week 3 http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/06/something-like-week-3.html Coming to paris has given me more surprises than usual... I mean not the place as such .. just some revelations about myself ( hmm.. always the narcissist :P )

June 11th to 19th ( and you thought the title would have a better explanation ? ) has been a typical extension of the rest of my stay here i guess. Hmm..
Reveltation 1.
Office work is not as bad as i thought it would be. I always thought i would hate offices and planned hours and stuff. but interestingly it hasn't been so. Eventhough the office starts at 9 to 9.30 officially i reach around 8.30 every day.. Really love that place .. maybe archi offices are different or something like that..

Revelation 2.
I can be hygienic :O.. Bath once or twice a day .. brush your teeth twice a day.. clip ur nails.. wash your clothes oh my god.. hmm.. am living it..

Pretty huge ones as far as i am concerned. So mostly i spend around 12 hours of my day out of my room .. approximately 6 hours sleeping that leaves 8 hours in my home.. hmm.. add to that eating time.. hygienic time etc.. google project has been going nice [:)] for those who are into agent based systems or behaviour based artificial intelligence and of course urban design and planning in general do check urbance ( my very own :P )

http://code.google.com/p/urbance

Didn't go anywhere during this weekend except for a short walk from concorde towards the eiffel around 10.30 with sovik... ate his ear talking about Cartesian epistemology and how idiotic a series "John Doe" is ( Source code of DOS in binary ???... how dumb can people's idea of a genius get .. ) Thanks to unbelievable download speeds.. no lack of information bottleneck..


French learning going at good rates.. yet to play the violin regularly.. What else.. oh yes .. learning the nitsy gritsy details of autocad everyday.. I still don't know how much i like paris.. but i sure am having a hell of a great time doing approximately nothing :) ]]> wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:26:28 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579441 The City of Love a.k.a Paris Week 2 http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/06/city-of-love-aka-paris-week-2.html Hmm...
so how do i put it.. second week in paris.. well even with the same amount of lethargy paris is definitely more interesting than the first one. I have started noticing the wonderful photographs in my room ( from morroco) by my landlady Niki.. ( you can visit her site at http://niki.picalitos.free.fr/ ) So when did i stop in my last blog.. hmm.. yep.. 4th of june..
So yeah from 5th of June work really started so to speak..
Worked on Benchmarking various offices .. disney, reuters, ebay etc.. in europe which have been done by studios.. realised i needed to buy a mouse for my laptop since i had two options in front of me

1. work on french autocad ( :) which i have got the hang of by now ) on the office comp ( 19 " monitor etc. etc.. )
2. work on my laptop drafting using touchpad, which i still don't know whether humanly possible or not..

So yep as any sensible guy would do i tried to get a mouse .. hmmm .. found out from my french friend through GSoC ( Google Summer of Code :P ) that Rue Montgallet is where u can get cheap stuff.. went there after office only to realise all the shops close at 7 ..
hmm.. now what to do.. ok.. so come wednesday and i went there again.. and ...
well i went into a shop .. had a pretty looking gal at the counter.. me with my tooti footi french and the lack of it asked
" er...uhmm .. USB mouse "
she said with the sweetest of smiles .. "Ok.. 12 euros or 20 euros " ..
Me: " Lets have a look"
She brings the two mice ..and me as a complete innocent man would do tried to get a feel of how the mouse would be .. considering the fact that the 12 euro mouse was a bit smaller .. so yeah .. i put my hand over the mouse.. grabbing it to see how it feels.. and yikes.. she started laughing and i started laughing .. etc.. etc.. hmm.. it was fun..

so yeah after i got my mouse well work went well.. and i have started liking the office too much.. spent most of my time there ( 8.15 to 19.30 )..hmm from monday onwards i have been asked to work on a bigger project ( :p bigger than reuters or ebay or disney.. ? yepp :P ) dunno what is discloseable and what is not.. so.. :) hmmm.

anyways.. weekend was fun again.. just went to Bibliotheque national which to date is the best place i have ever been to in Paris and one of the best places i have been to in my life.. yeah other than cheddis and stuff i mean .. Also visited sacre coeur .. decent views ..
Photo: ron.winslow@get2net.dk

Hmm.. yeah.. so starting to be less sulky about paris i guess.. ]]> sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:44:42 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579442 Paris : Week 1 http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/06/paris-week-1.html Warning: the passages below are painstakingly boring as opposed to my standard boring mostly owing to the fact that they are intended as a self rememberer sort of thing :P

29th May to 4th June

Hmmm..I arrived in Paris around 8.20 pm.. Charles De Gaulle airport that is .. First thing that i noticed was that it was still well lit.. i mean sun hasn't set and stuff.. and i really wondered whether my flight timings were wrong etc.. etc.. but yeah.. that's that... sun sets here around 10 pm.. and rises by around 4 or 5.. Talk about long days to enjoy..

I always thought entering another country was a big fuss and stuff.. but apparently it was very peaceful.. not even a baggage check by any security people.. The guy at the airport put a seal on my passport while talking to the lady on the other cabin.. ( :P don't think he even had a look at my face )...Sovik had come to the airport..next thing was to figure out where to stay since me the sucker hadn't planned out where to stay in paris.. So we wondered where to find a hotel.. Sovik did not have much of an idea since he was staying in Gagny around 15 or 20 kms from Paris. Anyways we caught a shuttle to Gare du Nord ( :P one of those stations you must have surely seen in the movies.. )


Hmm this pic is better ..


Well .. we kept all the luggage.. just a big bag and the violin in the cloak room at gare du nord ( 7 euros per 48 hours :(( ) and then roamed around a bit.. I found a free wifi spot at a bus stop checked my mail ( :P went back there a few times in the week ) and then checked into a hotel for the night.. ( :( 48 euros )

30th
Woke up around 8 or 9 am.. walked till Champs Elysees.. where my office is located..hmmm.. anyways.. so my office is located on this pretty decent street :P Avenue des Champs Elysees
Some even call it world's best street etc.. etc.. Basically the royal street of Paris...
Roamed around the champs elysees area a bit.. In the evening I went to see an apartment i liked.. That was near telegraphe.. Now coming to the best part of Paris.. It has got unbelievably large number of metro stations.. i mean you can travel from any part of the city to the other.. all you need is a metro pass ( 52.5 eur per month :(( ) Anyways i reached the place.. amazing apartment .. i mean everything was there.. and the room was unbelievably superb.. I was shown around by the landlady's ex-husband.. Hmm.. the only problem was that landlady was not ther and more importantly she didn't understand anything well except french ..
So I was asked to come the next day morning and meet her..
So still left with no place of permanent stay i ended up in another hotel near strasbourg-st. denis
31st

Again woke up early.. went to office around 9 am.. met everybody in the office..it was nice .. around 11.30 I had to go to the apartment to see the landlady.. so did that and planned to meet sovik near republique station around 1.. We met up and decided to go to Maedeline where his bank of India was located for him to cash out..At the bank we also got the contact of some indian chap who was having an apartment and searching for someone to share it with.. Valha... called him up.. he said lets meet up at around 12 midnight :P .. I said..ok.. And sovik and me went to gare du nord so that we could renew the luggage counter which would expire at around 10 pm...
We roamed around gare du nord a bit called up a few people.. asking about acco.. checked mail .. at the free wifi spot .. and around 10 started walking back towards Madeleine.

1st

Hmm.. Met the guy aroun 12.15 am .. he explained his situation.. Said we could see the apartment the next day.. We were on a train to Lourmel while he explained all this ..We got down around Commerce station.. and there .. another day at Hotel... Anyways.. luckily enough.. 1st June was the day when my acco got fixed up finally.. Not with the indian chap.. But nevertheless pretty nice.. Sharing it with two artists.. has almost everythin you can ever ask for in a home.. Washer dryer bathtub fridge microwave.. etc. etc..there is a nice pussycat too.. So at around 8 pm moved all my stuff from Gare du Nord to the Apartment .. aaah... finally an acco in paris ( :( 430 eur per month )

See.. Paris has been pretty boring ... my portrayal is honest

2nd, 3rd...

Aah.. first weekend in paris... didn't roam around at all.. was in the room most of the time.. Figuring out what to do during summer etc... started google summer coding.. went throught a tonne of unchecked mail.. hmm.. 2 days gone...Only travel on both days was to sovik's place near bastille to eat food ( :) he is not the greatest cook you could find in paris.. but :P )

4th..

Wake up at 7 am.. have a bath.. brush your teeth.. put ur contact lenses on :P and straight to office.. Hmm.. well doesn't it sound like Dawn Thomas. Well at least that is what happened..
Sat around in office the whole day till around 7.30.. would be doing some perfomance analysis in the days to follow. After office went to Sovik's place to have some food :D


Well so there goes.. One month into the city of love.. blah blah.. world's favourite toursit locaction etc.. office on world's most beatiful street etc.. and all i have done till now is bullcrap...
Hmm.. need to sleep a lot to fix up life i guess...

K.. other than that.. oh yes

just in case someone feels like spending a lot of money .. my phone no. here is

+33668973784

and if someone has to send packaged bombs or anything please redirect them to

76, Rue Philippe de Girard
75018 Paris


Hoping to keep this map updated...

Parisian Trails ]]> mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:34:20 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579443 Tale of Two Cities http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/05/tale-of-two-cities.html Life has been fun for some time now.. But then again when i think back.. when hasn't it been. ( Or as i read somewhere " An Egotist counts only his blessings". Fourth year at Kgp has been nothing less than a quick disappearing act.
Lots of stuff happened .. blah blah. Well for the uninformed as a part of the undergraduation in Architecture, every student is expected to undergo six months of professional practice ( Rigorous field observation, site supervision, drafting of drawings, details :P ) I was thinking of doing something exotic :P considering the fact that six months was a long time...
So around december january here are my plans..
i would do training in some peaceful place like north-east have a peaceful summer and post-summer period.. come back and wonder what to do in life during november 2007 etc..
Being the sucker i am i hardly did anything on the above plan and months passed by.. around march beginning i realised i had no idea how to get going to north east and it turns out that finding an internship in India is much more difficult than abroad.. ( not that i tried.. ) So around the first week of March I ask dear Gullu who says he has some acquaintance in North east .. to fix up something for me in meghalaya or some place like that.. while he was trying to contact the person and when the initial replies sounded like there wasn't much work going on there except for Border road organisation.. i was wondering what to do :D
In the meantime sovik ( the guy of the ran-away-to-jungle fame, my classmate who is with me right now .. he cooks .. i wash :P ) also asked me to mail his firm suggesting that he might not be able to go there if they don't provide acco etc. Hmm.. so finally on March 16th 2007 :) for the first time in my undergraduate education duration i mailed someone for an internship :D It was weird and took a lot of tempo... Anyways.. so i wrote around 4 mails..

1 to sovik's firm.. ( Architecture Studios )
2 to a firm in Ghana..( http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/03/just-another-sem.html)
3 to a firm in Berlin
4 to Studios architecture ( which interestingly i came across while searching for architecture studios on google maps :P )

Hmm... anyways.. so the firm in Ghana ( well actually an MNC with two offices in US ) replied back in like 4 hours.. And considering the fact that ghana was quite exotic and also that this would help my usual hesitation regarding going abroad.. I thought .. ok.. lets do this :D
The Berlin firm mails back the next day asking for more details. I didn't send any thinking that anyways ghana guy has accepted so what is the big deal... And i also mail sovik's firm the info that i would be going to another firm. I completely forgot about the 4th one ofcourse.

So.. another month passes by ....Professors wondering why would anybody want to go to Ghana etc.. etc.. friends thinking it is just a publicity stunt blah blah..Parents thinking.. hmmmm..
Anyways... after 1 month suddnely i receive a mail from Studios Architecture saying they would like to talk about my application. My first response was .. why would i want to do it .. that too it was around April 16th.. late for any procedures as such .. anyways i check their website and was shocked by the level of projects they did..Hmmm.. so i thought ok.. lets see.. on monday i thought i was sitting in my room along with 3 or four other guys and received a call appearing from 0144...Thinking that it was a call from somewhere in North India i pick up and was about to ask hello.. kaun hai.. and was greeted by the "May i speak to Dawn Thomas" with a slight french accent.. Hmmm.. k.. anyways.. so we talked for around 15 minutes.. he talked about the office.. the projects.. the work.. asked me regarding what i like etc.. said the office was very intercultural ..28 people from 14 different countries etc..

So towards the end of may there i was with two offers to go abroad and none inside India. In the end of course i ended up the sucker who chose Paris instead of Ghana...But i honestly wish I was in Accra.. hmmm... maybe another time.. and hopefully i can go there in november anyways..

Hmm.. till around 16th May i was in Kgp.. figuring out what to do etc..went to bangy on 16th to work on a startup ( big secret :D ) then left bangy on 28th to reach cal.. left cal on 29th to reach Paris.

Would write a more detailed out blog on Paris and keep updating hopefully..

But anyways.. so thats my professional practice attempts in brief..

2 wasted semesters
4 mails
2 acceptances
1 sucker :(

Hmm... and hey i am again being funded ( 4500 USD :P ) by google for another academic research project.. Urbance: An agent based approach to Urban Design
I would be Mentored by Dr. Rick Riolo of Centre for Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

http://code.google.com/soc/cscs/about.html
http://code.google.com/p/urbance/

( Wasn't planning on this one since i thought i would be busy during professional practice etc.. hmm.. sometimes i still do.. ) ]]> mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:49:10 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579444 Interesting Turns http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/04/interesting-turns.html Life has been taking some interesting turns of late and me trying out the reticent formula for the first time...

1st a map of some of my collaborations.



Green Tables are the fundings Blue fractals are the unofficial collaborators/mentors Broken Spheres are the official mentors

A list of top 100 architectural practices on the planet according to RIBA.





:) ]]> fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:23:25 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579445 My prayer http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-prayer.html This is the prayer which my mom sent me around 2 years back.. with cute lovely letters using sketchpens in four colours.. even drawing three little flowers at the bottom of the card( well a thick white sheet of paper 5 cm x 20cm ) .. I keep it at my table always.. :( Now the ink has started fading.. i love the words.. and it brings a tingling all over my body whenever i even touch it.. and I DO PRAY... other than my ramblings with big boss this is the only one that classically fits into the prayer structure.. most others are just jokes and manipulative contracts i guess..

--

Dear Big Boss,

Give me strength to stand for the truth,
To do the right thing according to my light
To be just and generous in all my dealings with my fellow-men.

Let not an angry or unkind word or an unsympathetic look pass from me which might hurt the feelings of others in any way.
Keep me free from envy and hatred, and fill my heart with love and good-will.

Make me a vehicle of hope and faith scattering sunshine and happiness before all those whom I come into contact in my passage through life.

--

Changes from the original: Almighty God changed to Big Boss :P
Other notes: for those rare feminists who are reading this, the usage dealings with my fellow-men is completely non-sexist and any sort of gender differentiation there is completely non-intentional. I personally consider it to be interactions with anyone.
Regarding reports of me constantly screwing people.. ( non-literally ofcourse) hopefully they are not in violation to any of the above principles .. I mean all that pulling the leg and stuff it's for fun right..

And ofcourse my current signature in mails thanks to Waterson:

"Know what I pray for? The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference."
]]> wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:47:06 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579446 Just another Sem http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/03/just-another-sem.html Tada...

Finally the tempo to post after 4 months. If it hadn't already become a fad, i would have gone on and explained some made up reason as to why i didn't write a blog entry for the past four months or lamented upon ( or be proud) about my laziness (or busy-ness) or a hundred other things. But frankly, i didn't even remember to write an entry. But i guess this statement itself contradicts the premise of the paragraph. ( Yeah.. i know go get a life sucker. :) )

Coming to more boring/controversial or outright weird topics, I have pretty much decided to go to Ghana for six months as an Architect intern :) doing some interesting studies on the usage of traditional methods and materials of construction in the modern scenario. As mentioned in my acceptance letter :)

To this end, Dawn is expected to put into practice his Architectural knowledge and also to learn under rich experience combining designs of traditions and cultures in very sustainable ways.

We look forward to a beautiful experience working together with Dawn and learning from each other.


The firm is pretty good.. CEO is the founding partner of A+D..(http://www.aplusd.org/)Other than that i plan to work on STAAD/CATIA simulation/modeling of Bamboo Structures, continue my work on architectural morphology, and urban design from an agent-based perspective.


For those who are wondering why GHANA???? let me give easier answers like Where??... Ghana is a nice cute little country ( as much as africa allows niceness and cuteness) enclosed by a thin strip of countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo etc. And outside it lies , as many say, the most messed up places in the whole planet: Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast.. you name it. Accra, where the firm is located is around as close to 0 N latitude and 0 w longitude as you can get on land. Summer there sure has a lot to offer.. :P Regarding How and When ?? I will be flying in Ethiopian Airlines ( :P Sweet) on the 10th of May thereby celebrating my next birthday as the first day in Africa. The travel route is Bombay to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.. and from there to Accra. My return journey would be on 26th of October...again through Addis.. This most probably would also be the first time ever board a plane. What?? well the creature involved is obviously me and the projects involved i have already bored you over in the beginning. Why?? well the only sensible answer as always to the question is why not ?

Other than that spring has been great as usual..
January :) NASA meeting at Manipal, Google office visit ( :) Hopefully satpathy guy was not too offended by my smiley and " maybe my profile is not exactly what you are looking for" .. i accept it was completely idiotic and megalomaniacally stupid.. )
February : Glorious Valentines Day ( Just kidding :) who would be dumb enough to be my valentine) Midsems took place as far as i could remember. Other than that it went away pretty fast...
March: Going on and in fact almost over. Can't figure out what has been going on though.

ECell: Kids doing a great job
ETDS: Nepo planning a trip to the beach.. :)
Alumni Cell: Sajo doing a great job. Finally the site must be up with Mathur's permission in a few days... got the T-shirt yesterday.. Wearing it right now
Department: Too good... :)
Design Simulation Lab: undergoing repair
Theora-encoding chip: Hopefully something should be over by the time i pass out. Portavales and Piga have done some pretty neat stuff in Brazil and they talk pretty well too.. :) keep having fun at mountainview portavales !!!..

To visit some good quality portfolios of my batch-mates and seniors see the following

http://spacebarred.blogspot.com/ Saahil
http://platonist-world.blogspot.com/ Ashish
http://donkeyworks.blogspot.com/ Himadri

To see some glimpses of my portfolio (still under heavy constrcution) , which is precisely the opposite of the above examples of good work you may contact me personally.. :P

And yes.. we won gold in Ad-design ( :) I was a captain or something ) ]]> thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:18:06 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579447 Mareech, the Legend http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2007/01/mareech-legend.html For those who missed it..

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6947901938703991618

Well..:) Nothing much to say actually.. It's all in the act. ]]> sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:39:08 +0100 tag:ziki.com,2007:/article/3579448 Fans http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2006/12/fans.html Ahhh.. such an egotistically satisfying feeling..

Any ways the date is December 31st , 2006...verge of 2007..and i realise today that i have 200 fans..( and me the stingy asshole is just a fan of 21) well not that many people who truly admire me or anything .. just a nice social gesture saying.. " Nay, You are not that bad after all"

Well according to http://help.orkut.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=11766&topic=10316

orkut says I have a "fan." What does that mean?

Congratulations! To discover the identity of your fan, visit your homepage and click on the fan link next to the star icon.

Then, show your friends that you appreciate them by designating yourself as their fan. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the "Friends" link in the blue bar at the top of the page.
2. Find the person you'd like to be a fan of, and click the star to the right of the person's name. The star will change from gray to yellow.


Well so i guess i should do the decent thing to do.. love you all guys..
a miniscule new year gift. Believe me it's a lot of work on my end.. :(
But as Hassan says in The Kite Runner .. "For you.... a thousand times" or some crap like that.

( disclaimer: .. The list includes a great number of "the good, the bad and the ugly"....I know some of these people really well, some not at all, and some in between.. my being a fan of them in no way is an indication of anything more than a social gesture lest this be used against me in a court of law.... Yeah i am very good at making people happy :) )

And guys Please don't scrap me about this if you notice a fan addition.. you know me with my scrap cleanliness streak an all that. ]]> sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:53:35 +0100 tag:ziki.com,2006:/article/3579449 Institute Merit List 2006 http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2006/12/institute-merit-list-2006.html (for the batch of 2003 after semester 7)

Another assholic act.. :)
Lots of updation and corrections are still going on.. :) So don't be shocked by unexpected figures...( nothing much unexpected in my case though :D )

Me at 234 right now.. Crux of the matter is my sgpa is 6.74 :(( which brings my cgpa to 8.01 :D God giveth and god taketh away..

http://freewebs.com/asimpleton/merit06.htm ]]> tue, 26 Dec 2006 05:43:17 +0100 tag:ziki.com,2006:/article/3579450 100 things about Me http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2006/12/100-things-about-me.html A completely narcissitic take on an egotistical megalomaniac

1. My name is Dawn Joseph Thomas. My family name is Mundadan , the origins of which are rather a matter of legend and myth. My grandmom's ancestors were apparently baptised by St. Thomas the apostle of Christ in some 52 AD or something..I'm not joking

2. I was born on the 11th of May, 1984 around 10 am at Little Flower Hospital, Angamaly. My mom had jaundice while i was in there... and apparently in such cases kids are born mentally retarded. I can still find a lot of people who find this very convincing.

3. I had my nursery located around 15 minutes from my home inside morning star college

4. When i reached the gates of my kindegarten school (which also happens to be where i studied till 10th standard, I apparently told my mom " OK Mom, good bye, you can go now" in the middle of crying kids ( apparent disconnected behaviour could be interpreted as the birth of sociopathic characteristics)

5. Anyways, I studied in this school ( VidyadhiRaja VidyaBhavan English Medium High School, Alwaye) located around 13 kms from my home. For the first 2 or 3 years, I used to go to school in an ambulance, since my dad works in a hospital and there were some more kids of doctors who studied in that school and the only available vehicle which the hospital could come up with for providing its employees with for transportation was the good old ambulance.

6. When i was 4, my sweet little sister was born, whom i love a lot.. but somehow i have been unable to show that to her and she has it almost engraved on to her brain that i don't love her. I think i clearly remember being happy when my mom was pregnant and even prayed for a little sis..She loves me a lot as far as i could tell from the way she cries everytime i leave.

7. If 2 or 3 years of travelling in an ambulance did not result in a significant contribution towards my psychological character buildup, I believe my only memories of Lower Primary School gives some indications
a. 2nd Standard: Punished to stand in the middle of school ground for around 3 hours for tearing the jacket of a friend in a fight, 100 % marks in all the subjects in some term
b. 3rd Standard: Only memories are some drawings i had made and more fights with kids and things i broke
c. 4th Standard: Punished to sit in the middle of girls for one whole year, since i broke the spectacles of my friend during a fight, Punsihed to stand during a whole class since when the teacher asked who is feeling sleepy I thought i should be earnest and honest

8. Well 5th standard onwards i had a character modification you could say, completely sincere, class monitor, dramatics, elocution, quiz, debate, essays, poems you name it... the quintessential sincere student your mom wants you to be like.

9. I remember being a part of some science program at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) during 5th and 6th. I think i still have a library membership to their Science in Society Library or something

10. 5th standard was the beginning of a lot of things. Sanskrit, Computers and Scouts. The next five years of my life , I did pretty much lots of crappy stuff in each of these three areas

11. By 10th standard, I had received President's Scout Award, had acted in some sanskrit plays, written some stories, poems and essays in sanskrit and well computers.. naah didn't do anything worth while..

12. When i was in my 9th standard i became the school vice captain which was the beginning of crappy posts the sorts of which people like to write in their resumes. The next year i was unanimously elected as the school captain and the post of vice captain was scrapped.

13. I passed out of 10th standard with 96.67 % marks and 9th position in the state. But honestly i was happier to know that Durga had 2 marks more than me, and sad that Rahul didn't have more marks than me.

14. While everybody was running around wondering which glorious school they wanted to join which would strengthen their foundations for a career, I made the strange decision to join a central school a.k.a Kendriya Vidyalaya that too around 30 kms from home.

15. I forgot to mention that from 5th standard onwards i used to travel to school on train. Considering the distance which also increased, I continued with the train till my +2. So journeys to school in my case has been on ambulances and trains.

16. Kendriya Vidyalaya was an ideal place for a messed up kid like myself. 2 years of complete bliss. Lots of class bunks, percentage of attendance not worth mentioning. I think i completed my 11th with around 76 % marks or something.

17. 2 weeks into the school i was selected as the vice school captain. The same year i remember i took part in a youth parliament acting as the prime minister. 11th standard was loads of fun, too many things happening in too short a timespan.

18. Before 11th standard and after 10th standard, there was one of the most memorable events of my life.. NTSE Camp. This was the place where you get to meet the cream of the state.. blah blah.. anyways i met a lot of wonderful people there.. and am still in touch with many of them.. It was a marvellous experience getting to see so many talented, smart, brilliant people.

19. (I know this is getting boring.. but there isn't much i can do about it) So after 11th I had another similar year filled with Camps, School fests and what not. Twelfth ended relatively better as compared to 11th standard (95.4 vs 76) . But honestly there is a long story behind that.

20. One of the clearest memories of 11th standard which i have is of Manju Sreekumar getting 92 percent or something like that in math when rest of the school including me the loser were back in the 70s or something. Yeah i know freaky.

21. I could go on into more boring details and crappy words about my school life. But i don't think i would ever be able to explain how much i have enjoyed those years and how much i miss them. It is indeed sad to realise that i have already started forgetting most of the faces and names.. and I am just 22 .. damn.. What will happen when i am 50. Anyways the point number 21 is School days were great and have caused no emotional trauma on the subject.

22. Like the weirdo i was i told parents that i won't be writing the Engineering entrance exam or any other entrance exam for that matter. I was going to do B Sc. or something like that when Abid, whom i had met at the NTSE Camp (18) convinced me and my parents that i should go to Kota and get prepared for JEE next year. I forgot to mention that i had gotten selected in screening which was another miracle in itself.

23. So there i was on my way to Rajasthan. The stay at Kota was ..well lets say eventful. Went to a lot of places.. Kolkata.. Lucknow.. Allahabad.. Nagpur.. Bhopal.. Bombay.. Pune for starters.. Anyways the moral of the story is the coaching institute owner had the greatest relief on his face when i told him that maybe I should just go home. He also believed that i was just making a mess of my life up at Rajasthan.

24. JEE 2003. AIR 3556 as far as i remember. Architecture at IIT Kharagpur.

25. Counselling was at IIT Chennai. Now somewhere in between i got struck by something while on a fast moving train in which apparently my hand was a little bit outside. No i was not hanging out from the doors as i usually do nowadays.. i was sitting peacefully in my cabin reading Day of the jackal by the window. Apparently somebody had thrown something at the train. The more interesting part of the story is .. after i was struck by the bloody stone or metal or whatever it was on that superfast train which was moving at around 80 to 90 kmph or something.. I didn't utter a sound.. and instead of informing any passengers ( :) .. and imagine my cabin was empty.. and there were hardly any people in the compartment itself thanks to it being a special train) I took my completely fractured joint( which ofcourse i found out later ) I went into the toilet pressing a towel against my arm . Looked in the mirror only to see that blood was coming out bubbling... probably an arterial laceration or something. And the towel was already half red. Since i could literally feel blood oozing down from my brain i sat down for some time .. realised that the towel was completely red now... removed my baniyan.. which also soon turned completely red .. threw both down the toilet. The bleeding now was happening in slow drops as if there was not much blood inside. I walked back to the cabin pressed another towel against the arm and sat in that position for the next 11 hours since i couldn't lie down. Now since this was already my lucky day.. the train did not have a stoppage at my station . So i had to get down at the station where my school was located. (13 kms .. point 5) Carried my bag with the other arm. Got on a bus .. got down at the bus stop.. walked home and then met mom and asked her to have a look at my arm.. she almost fainted.. this was followed by scoldings from the doctor as to how i had almost gotten my arm amputated by 11 hour exposure..Immediately onto the operation theatre.. 3 weeks in the hospital.. Tension wire cables inserted etc.. Pretty nice story..

26. That was pretty much the end of Basketball.. The arm is pretty ok.. now.. Infact better than ok .. but still :)
From Zonasa 06
27. Alloted H-329 at HJB Hall of Residence which has been one of the most influential random allotments in my life. Well what happened there is history and could be found in the annals of Kela Group.

28. Now rather than boring you.. ( which i am sure i have already done so marvellously) i should move on to more non controversial topics... My favourite colour is red.

29. After mom, dad and sis i am most attached to my mausi whom i call chakkara.

30. I have never had a crush in my life and have this weird feeling that the first time i have one i am gonna get my heart broken into a thousand pieces by a big NO.

31. Two things i hate a lot are being at a place where you are not supposed to be and making people wait. Though this has not produced even the least bit of punctuality in me maybe due to my earnest belief that noone is waiting anyways. :D

32. I completely adore and love kids. In a completely non paedophilic way ofcourse ( Kgp.. hmmm.)

33. I think my voracious appetite for knowledge is just a coverup to hide how dumb i really am.

34. In Kgp i am most attached to Mantri, Gurra, Gullu and Daadi.

35. During my childhood i spent extensive amounts of time as an altar boy in and around the church. I might have even ended up a main altar boy or something. Thanks to the so called ageing process

36. I don't feel remotely attached to motor cycles or cars.

37. My annual income ( non parental sources ) could touch 4.0 lakhs this year. Hopefully the income tax people are not reading this.

38. My statistical computer usage time per day is roughly 3 hours. ( thanks to workrave). I am trying to bring it down to 2. I don't play computer games or chat.

39. I find the idea of going abroad strangely unattractive.. Yeah grapes are sour or something ... Not patriotism or anything.. I just like this place..

40. Dude.. writing 100 things is indeed difficult... OK to show how desperate this can get.. I have 199 fans on Orkut among 570 friends. I am inturn a fan of 21 people. That is rather unfair. According to orkut you should at least return the favour when someone becomes your fan. some day soon when i have the tempo to click that many stars.. And imagine how blank someones life has to be to start giving points on orkut.. and virtual spaces in general..

41. I first accessed internet when i was in the 9th standard. My first email addresses were in yahoo and rediff.. I believe therealguy@rediffmail.com ... yeah such chauvinistic crap.

42. I got my first computer during my 11th standard. HCL Busybee 2000.. P III 733 MHz..10 GB HDD and 128 MB RAM still working great. My second computer i bought recently with google money ( around 74k) Pentium D 3.4 Dual Core with 2 GB RAM and 500 GB HDD... Yeah i know crappy geek talk or something like that..

43. I beat a very good friend of mine in 11th standard over something unbelievably trivial... and i was not even angry.. That is one of the few things i regret doing...

44. Recently someone has placed a bet against the odds that i would ever fall in love. What is at stake is all his wealth and 4 wives.



45. I have cried watching certain animation movies.. And no, I haven't cried watching any non animated movies. There is something about the lack of reality and purity of abstraction about them.

46. I can solve the Rubik's cube in about 3 minutes.. yeah pretty dumb...people do it in 20 seconds flat.. and here i am .. :(

47. I have never been on an airplane.

48. My passport no. is E1112111 .. Yeah you might be wondering why the hell is this in 100 things about this asshole.. well i just like the no.

49. I am crazy about the name Irene. and most of its derivatives or homophones.. Irina ( Irina Derefko, Irene Adler etc. for example) not Iris of course.

50. I am a terribly pathetic selective reader. Even now the number of fiction works i have read can PROBABLY be counted using all my toes... As a kid i never used to read any children's classics.. No Enid Blyton.. No nancy drew or hardy boys or wodehouse or whatever standard literature good indian kids read when they grow up. I believe my first book so to speak was Godfather and before that i had made unsuccessful attempts with Dracula (unabridged) in my 7th standard and Jonathan Swift's Gullivers Travels (again unabridged) in my 6th or something. I still like really few authors. For a long period of my life i had the belief that people who write stories are the ones with nothing else to do in their lives. I am not so sure i have completely grown out of it. Ok .. i guess i could write my book history in some other post.

51. I remember the most beautiful gal I have ever seen.. But can't recollect her face now.. :D

52. I earnestly wish if i could do my six months professional practice in the North eastern States of India.

53. I have myopia -3.5 both eyes.

54. To Abid: Dude.. I didn't steal your password

55. To Samantha: Sorry that i lied to you... I was just bored i guess.. but i had no right to fool you..

56. In my entire life ( except for when i was before 2 or something) Jan 1st to March 30th 2006 and October 10th 2006 to January 10th 2007 (ongoing) would be the only periods during which i have had no nonveg.. or as i like to say it.. when i would be a non nonvegetarian.. The latter period is ofcourse tougher considering i am off dew, cold drinks and even pastries and cake since they contain egg.. After about six months of experimentation.. well.. Veg sux..

57. Except for this non nonveg periods, i have had veg dishes only thrice. ( not in the mess ofcourse.. :D) two times garlic paneer and one time chilli paneer.

58. I don't read any newspaper. And i hardly read any magazines.

59. My favourite hall in the Central Library is Hall 3.

60. I have breakfast in the mess around 4 or 5 times, lunch around 10 times and dinner around 20 times .. per semester of course. And mostly i have just rice and curd.. Now they can't mess that up much ... you can take my word for that.

61. I don't smoke.. :)

62. Among all the Senior Halls, I have been to Azad the least.. of course after SN that is... and yes i have never been inside SN... hallday.. illu or whatever.. not a chauvinistic statement...

63. Regarding Restaurants .. Well in the decreasing order of frequency of visit

Cheddis :D > LS, Billoos > Chillies > Sup Dup > Mid Town > Park > Eggies/Veggies > Sahara > Dreamland

I have been to Dreamland twice during the past 3.5 years... Sahara less than 10 times... Eggies and Veggies ... well I have this inhibition that only studs go there.. :D Cheddis and Billoos are great.. LS just came in because after around 2 years of continuously eating there we needed a change of taste. Hardly go to LS nowadays.. Mid Town was a late realisation.. Before 3rd year summer i had been there only once..

64. I don't sing in the bathroom.. not that i am in the bathroom that often..


** Warning: For Adults Only.. To the frail hearted ... Maybe You don't want to know points 65 to 69 about me. (Sexual Content) **

65. I have done some detailed background research on the History of Pornography and its developments especially in the last 3 decades. I almost started writing a book on it. While watching certain pornographic movies i have been moved by the plight of the sad actors and what goes on in their mind. Pretty tough time these people have..

66. I wrote an erotic story when i was in my 5th Standard which my parents found out and was hidden in a cupboard which i stole the next day and destroyed. :D

67. I started masturbating when i was in my 6th Standard and have continued it with pretty good frequency.... Yeah i know you really did not want to read this.

68. Just to make it clear i don't have any sort of paraphilia or fetish. Just a plain old lustful guy.

69. I have seen some active homosexual child molesters.

** OK Safe to go on after this **

70. When i was in 8th and 9th, i used to come back from school and dig a hole in the earth which eventually was more than 6 feet deep about 2 feet by 2 feet in area.. and a person could peacefully stand or sit inside it and be completely enclosed by earth all around.. God knows why i did it.. It was eventually covered up soon enough..

71. The first time i received a love letter i showed it proudly to my mom.

72. My mom beat me up when i was around 4 or 5 .. after i had beaten up a kid in the neighbourhood and his mom.. :) Anyways she felt so sad after that ... she hasn't beaten me at all after that.. :D

73. I have always wanted to learn rock climbing and mountaineering. Last summer when i was determined to go to NMI, I ended up being in Kgp thanks to google.

74. Two of the seniors I respect the most are Maqsood Ali and Krishna Kumar Mehra.

75. Four juniors I admire a lot are Abhas,Kamble, Toshe, and Nepo

76. I generally don't eat bread.. So that pretty much rules out sandwitches and hamburgers and i generally don't like pizza either.. not much of a modern man i guess.. Considering these i am a pretty born loser when it comes to Pizza Hut or Dominos.. or even KFC inspite of my deep and devoted chicken love.

77. I love Mocha more than Barista and Barista way more than CCD. Amaretto rocks. Kapi Nirvana is a pretty decent adjustment in life.

78. Chilli Sauce matters a lot to me as far as impression of a restaurant is concerned.

79. I hate being in a shop if you are not buying anything. So i end up buying something or the other if i enter any shop. But generally that is such a rare event..

80. As of 2006 December 23rd 1140 hours , I have talked onmy cell phone ( Nokia 3120 ) for 111 hours 59 minutes 37 seconds..61 hours 12 minutes 47 seconds received calls duration 50 hours 48 minutes 43 seconds Dialled Called duration..over the past 453 days..
That averages around 15 minutes per day.. Not anywhere near the imptency threats... I once used to have the bad habit of never picking up the phone...A one way communication machine or something..But i have pretty much grown out of it.

81. About many things in life i feel the same way as i felt when i realised Monica Lewinsky has recently graduated from London School of Economics.. who gives a damn.

82. Often the only way i can work on something is by wasting 10 times the required amount of time on some crap and thus shamefully convince my mind that.. Ab to kuch kar le yaar.

83. I dream of doing many anthropological or archaeological expeditions.

84. For all those people whose legs i have pulled pretty hard.. love you all.. just don't take life so seriously... Nobody gives a damn about all the crappy stuff we laugh about..

85. World is a weird place and good things happen to both good and bad people and bad things too.. As they say "Deserve's got nothing to do about it"

86. I presently don't have a cot in my room since the hall did not return it to me after illu. I used to sleep on the floor earlier also. But now it is because of "hall pressure" :D

87. The pant i am wearing right now is not mine.

88. I have been called many things in my life.. manipulative sweettalker to homo melodramaticus to pretentious fraud to what not.. One of the better compliments i have received is " It would have been so much easier if you were a bastard"

89. I have had the good fortune of never having to visit B.C Roy Hospital for myself.. :)

90. Some of you may find this unbelievable. I did not speak for around 48 hours one time.

91. I have slept continuously for around 28 hours.. and i was not drunk.

92. I am largely nocturnal. I have had more nightouts in kgp than i have had day outs.

93. I completely love getting drenched in rain.

94. I don't eat bananas or fish and can't stand coconut cookies :) yeah the mallu stereotype or something...

95. I use the words "asshole" and "crap" a lot.. and in interesting ways to mean a whole lot of things

96. I spent the beginning of my last birthday alone at Cheddis having a fried maggi and a double special chai..

97. I was about to describe some physical characteristics of mine and then double thought about the possibility that some international agency might use that to track me down in the future.. yeah one of the dumbest things i have ever said.

98. ( This one i wrote the last.. took me around half an hour to write the last point) I think I should leave this just like that.


99. I hardly read any blogs and none regularly .. Yeah megalomania.. hypocrisy.. etc etc..

100. I don't have the patience to check if i repeated any point or for that matter even to read this whole thing again.. :D ]]> sun, 24 Dec 2006 03:45:18 +0100 tag:ziki.com,2006:/article/3579451 Change http://dawnthomas.blogspot.com/2006/10/change.html "Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell.... Kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change."


Marquis de Sade ]]> tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:11:54 +0200 tag:ziki.com,2006:/article/3579452