And today I completed my second mini-marathon of my life. It was fun. Was really a micro-mini - just 5kms (compared to the 23 miles full!) But thats enough for me right now. I don't practice too much for it anyways.
Well, the good thing about it was that I could make it in shorter time than my last one. Made it in 25 mins (compared to the 27.42 last year). But the better part is that, my legs aint hurting or anything :). So my day is a regular day after the 2 hours of running in the morning.

Hmm... that makes me wonder..... running... mornings... regular day.... hmm hmmm...

The mini-run was for the 'Cure for Prostate Cancer'. Find more information here

BTW guys - what makes you leave comments?

Pinball Mania

Have you ever played pinball? It comes free with Windows, since its Win98. You have? Whats your high score?
Beat these - and comment here - and post me the pics.

You don't want to know how much time I played to get thse scores! :P
Enjoy!

Billy Blanks: Billy's Bootcamp: Basic Training Bootcamp

In my ongoing quest for a better physique, I tried the above mentioned workout. Its awesome. Sure its just the beginners level and the later levels might be even better, but right now, at whatever stage I am at, I could not do all the exercises for as many repetitions as he encourages you to do.
The best part of the workout is that he keeps talking and pumping you up, pushing you to the limit. The workout is, as I said earlier, really neat and works almost all your major body parts.
Though he does recommend using the 'Billy Blanks Restraint Cord' during the workout, you can do without it. There is one girl in the background who does not have the cord and you can watch her move if you don't have one either.
You don't realize you spent 55 minutes working your body out at the end of it. (Unless your sweat speaks.) I still do not feel the complete post-workout effects as its just been about 4 hours and I am sure about those coming in tomorrow.

Thinking about getting the next dvds in the series once I can get all the exercises on this disc under my belt.

Warning : Its Billy B'L'anks not Banks! Googling the words 'Billy Banks' is not what you want to do in public.

Helium - pays you to write your stuff

I just heard of this site called Helium that pays you for writing and publishing your articles on that site.
They have quite a few topics or 'channels' as they call it on which you can write. Or you can start your own. Your posted article is then ranked by peers and the editors(?). I don't really know if this rank affects what you earn. But hey, I just stumbled across it like 2 days back and I certainly don't know a lot about it.

If you are interested, let me know and I can send you an invite to join the community.

Happy posting.

Adding Google Sitemap to your blog

This is for all those who want to increase the chances of their blog being shown in relevant Google Search results. Adding Google Sitemap to your blog (or any of your websites for that matter) is a good way to increase chances of getting more traffic. What it means is that, Google's search robot gets a map to navigate around your website and keep track of your sites contents, where it links to, what links to it etc. If the robot remembers this (which it is supposed to), the next time anyone uses a search query relevant to your blog's content, the search results will have your blog in it.
So, essentially, you inform the search engine of all your current pages and updates to help it search.
Here are the instructions to add a sitemap to your Blogspot blog - (Though there are 15+ steps they are real easy and will take you 5 mins max).

1. Go to Google Sitemap. [https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview?hl=en]
2. Login using your Google account. (Blogspot account you dummy!)
3. In the Add Website box, add your blog's address http://{yourblog}.blogspot.com
4. Click OK. This will bring you to the Verification step.
5. In the combo-box select 'Add a meta-tag'. {The other is only useful if you have hosting rights. So if you have your own website that you host with some web-hosting agency or web-server that you have access to upload files on, you might want to take that path. More on that in a later blog.}
6. You should now see a box with some crappy 'meta-tag' looking something like -
"< 'meta' - name =" blah" content =" blah">"
7. Copy this message. Do not close this window or tab.
8. In a new browser window, open Blogspot.
9. Login to blogspot.
10. Go to the Blog Settings.
11. Go to the Template.
12. In the html type code that is shown, scroll to the "<>" section. Generally around the 10-12th line in your template code.
13. Paste that meta-tag dude right after the term "<'head'>" and definitely before "< / head >".
14. Save your template (button below).
15. Republish, just in case.
16. Go to the window/tab with Google Sitemap.
17. Click on the button that reads 'Verify'.
18. You will get nice check marks saying 'Webpage added' etc.
19. Click on the Sitemaps section.
20. In the text-box provided type in http://{your-blog}.blogspot.com/atom.xml
21. Done!

Easy eh? I wish I had the time to actually take screen-shots of each step and paste them along (atleast those where I refer to text boxes etc.) Well, I believe you are smart enough to not need them :)

random thoughts

What makes you, you
differentiating you from every other chimp
is not how you look
but what and how you think.

no, not when some1 says
'add 2 + 2'
but when you think
when theres just you.

most world says 4
(you would too!)
but its when you say 5
not just with plain eye
but also convincing yourself why
thats when you are you
the guy who can't add 2 and 2 !

- Tanmay
6th-7th June, 07

My first 'Tai Chi ' attempt

I decided to try my hand at the acclaimed Tai Chi way to physical and mental health. To check it out, I got the 'Tai Chi for beginners' DVD and went through the 24 forms that Dr.Lam showed and explained via the videos.
I really liked it. The smooth fluid movements did not seem difficult to watch or perform individually. But once I started doing the various forms in a rythmic motion, I literally felt my muscles being worked out and the 'Chi' as it is called. The best part of it was the control on the breath.
The DVD introduces the Qigong (pronounce ' Chi - jong ' ) style of Tai Chi.

I have watched a few other excercise routine videos and discs before and this one is totally different. There are no glamorous bikini clad models here (helping you concentrate on the excercise hehe.. ). But the development team certainly has thought about what they are doing. While explaining every excercise, they have atleast one person facing the camera and one facing the other way. This prevents you from forgetting whether you were doing the right or the left side. It also , kind of takes you into the group making it easier to follow the steps.

I certainly would suggest taking at least a peek at the disc before ignoring it totally. Hey, if its not your style, you can always switch it off :D !

I am not sure if Tai Chi can improve your muscle mass, but I am certain that if done correctly and consistently, it will improve the form of both the body and mind. Its breathing techniques are quite similar to those in yoga and the overall philosophy idea behind the excercises also feels the same.

Shape your abs

A recent DVD I viewed. Its quite good. The instructor, Tracy York, has done a great job of putting together some great excercise routines and more over, explaining them nicely.

Its not advertised as one of those 'lose 90 punds a day' workouts. But after about a month since I started following Tracy's tips, I certainly feel (and see) the difference.

I would recommend this to all of you who seriously and consistently are trying to improve your mid-section. Happy work-outs!

Unreal II : The Awakening

Just completed Unreal II : The Awakening. I played it on the XBox. One of the few Atari games I played I have played recently.
Considering the game was released quite a while ago (4th Feb, 2003), the game has decent graphics and physics. The characters are well modelled, but their movements are not. There are various points in the game where I have appreciated the thoughts the developers have put into so that I could not cheat (:D). (One of these is in the level Avalon II where if in co-op mode the game actually waits for both players to move up onto the tower not allowing one to stay down to kill the Skaarj too easily.)
It took me about 30 hrs of game play to get done. There were times when one of my room-mates, Pranav played in the co-op mode.
The story-line is fine but predictable. The voice-artists seem to be completely disinterested to put emotions in what they are reading and that kind of makes you skip quite a few of the animated scenes between stages. These animations are not great pieces of art themselves but coming from a graphics stint I certainly appreciate every little movement on the screen.

But overall I would give the game a 6.5/10. Though I did point out the bad points that hit me most, there were various others. But the game-play is quite good and the weapons are pretty cool too. I especially liked the Shotgun and the alternate fire on the Rocket -Launcher. Neat thinking.
I also liked playing the defensice levels where we go around setting a perimeter and ordering the marines on their guards and placing gun-turrets and plasma walls.

Will be starting a new game soon. Any suggestions?

Avatar : The last airbender - Book 2 (Earth) Disc 3

A sequel to my last post about Avatar : The last airbender, this post is to express my joy and satisfaction after watching the 3rd disc of Book 2 - Earth. Got my disc on 29th May and just closed the DVD player window that was running this disc.

The 5 episodes on the disc were great to watch. Certainly 2 and half ours of my life well spent. I am certainly not going to describe the episodes and give away the plots. But if you are an animation fan, be sure to watch this disc. It has some great animation sequences (especially in a few fight routines) and totally worth searching for.

Have fun! Go Aang! (and Soka and Tof and ofcourse the beautiful Katara)

Keeping the devil away

Heres what I did the other day,
to keep the devil away
since idle mind can be his workshop,
I decided to sketch, scan and photoshop!

The above is not 1 complete drawing or sketch, but a composition I made using all the small pictures I drew. (The reason I tell you this is tomorrow if you ask me to show this picture in my sketch book, don't be surprised to see individual parts of it)
And photoshop has been only used for creating the composition, nothing else. As in no retouching or anything (because I don't know how to :P )

Sunset

a glorious sunset
through my lens
atleast in reality
made a beautiful sense
the vivid colors
the watery shimmers
the sky changing
from blue to red - blackening
the fiery sphere
changing hemisphere
ending the day
a lovely way...


[for original 2112x2816 6MP pic, email me. (Or wait till I upload it somewhere :D)
Its really beautiful. ]

A Blank Page

A blank page
waiting to be written on -
scribbled with any gibberish
is what I hope on, as,
My stupid rhymes,
or the amateur art forms
are the best lines
that I can give it,
(other than my bills and accounts)

I wonder what this

page was hoping for
and whether it got
whatever it waited for.
Or did I just play
the same game that He plays
with us when unexpected things happen
just like this work by my pen.

cc Tanmay Dharmadhikari

The Green Revolution

So this is something that I just thought about while in the shower. You will find it to be either really funny or awfully stupid.. .but here goes -

We all hear all this talk about 'going Green'. Technically it means all that hybrid power use etc.

But considering the recent cricket world-cups, you can make another conclusion
Have you noted that in most cases when an under-dog has beat a big-gun-on-paper team, the under-dog team's color has been green?! Oh yeah! Think think....
96 world cup - Kenya beats West Indies.. Kenya color? Green...
99 world cup - no real shocks there
03 world cup - Kenya shocked Sri-Lanka, makes it to the next stage... Kenya again was.. Green
07 world cup - Ireland beat Pakistan... Ireland color ? Yes ... Green
- Bangladesh beat India... and South Africa.... Bangladesh color? :) Guess? Green!

What color are you? :) Still blue ;)

Well.. lets hope we see something like this picture below soon enough

waiting for May 22nd

.. thats when the 3rd disc will be released. Oh sorry you are totally out of context. So, I am talking about Avatar : The Last Airbender. What do you mean you don't know it? Anyways, this wiki page should give you all the information. And heres the official page from Nickelodeon (thats the channel it is aired on)
Yeah yeah its animated and meant for kids. But I like it.
Why did I get so hooked up? Well, last year I accidentally watched one of its episodes while channel browsing after a futile attempt at my research project. That was an episode from Book 3 (season 3 in tv jargon) and I liked it so much that I decided to watch it all right from the beginning. It always was at the back of my mind, but for some reasons I would rather not elaborate on, I kept delaying the pleasure of watching it. Finally I had the time (and a Netflix account) from March 2007 and thats what I have been watching since then. But I was quite disappointed that the 3rd disc in a season is not yet released. Let this be a warning to all those tv-series producers etc. Release the WHOLE season at once. Do not - I repeat - DO NOT release individual discs in a season.
So... thats why I am waiting for 22nd May when the disc will be realeased. Yes, I have it in my saved section in Netflix. If too many people have it too and if that makes me wait for more than 2 days, ..............I will be getting it from Blockbuster/Hollywood :D. Heres the official dvd site. And heres the episode guide link.
I know you must be all hooked up too... so come and join the Avatar Spirit (fansite).
I wish there was an official trailer I could embed here, but this stuff created by some fan is not bad at all.... Enjoy!

I want a Wiiiiii

The war of the video-games is on Xbox360, PS3 and Wii are trying really hard to win the marketplace and seriously I don't care who wins among them.
I know that I love to play all .. yeah ALL the games and think its completely unfair that I would not be able to play some game just because I don't have its corresponding hardware (which costs atleast 500$s)
I have a regular Xbox (that my friends gifted me on my 2005 birthday) and keep playing Halo2 and other games that can be played on it. With Halo3 on the horizon, Xbox360 is going to be something to have. PS3 though boasts of a much superior hardware than the 360 (and a higher price). And then there is Wii with its awesome WiiMote.
I think, that if I have to enjoy my games with my friends (who are not hardcore gamers) Wii is the best. I know that the self-reflection on the captain's helmet is great graphics programming and hardware capacity from the 360, and the 8 processor Cell is a great hardware that PS3 can boast about, but not all the people I play games with care about this stuff as long as they have fun. (We can have fun playing a simple game of cards too right? )
Ofcourse, we can all have our own opinions (and gaming consoles), but all I am saying is "IF I HAVE TO HAVE ONLY 1 FROM AMONGST THESE 3, I WOULD CHOOSE THE WII UNDER CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES"

I think this video here will prove my point -


By the way in the picture above the order is (L->R) Xbox360, PS3 and Wiiiiiiii!

Speed Limiting

I surely won't be the first person complaining(?) about speeding on the expressways. The most funny thing to notice is a group of cars in front of you slowing down suddenly because they see a cop car coming onto the express-way.
Sometimes you see that slowing group in your rear mirror.
But this slow-down is quite temporary. The cop-car whizzes past at about 10MPH above the speed limit imposed and as soon as it is out of sight, everyone is back to their speeding habits.
Ok..ok.. so you all know about it and I need not talk about it unless I have a solution. So I do :D
So instead of whizzing past, if the cop car actually got into the middle lane and drove at the imposed speed-limit, we have everyone in the middle lane stuck at that speed (cursing). The people in the third (and fast) lane would then as usual start moving fast past the middle lane people. But as they see the cop-car, their victorious smirk would be down to a understanding grin.
What say you?

Carambola a.k.a 'Starfruit '

You knew this was coming (if you had read my earlier post about the Kiwano fruit)
But this one is really tasty. Oh yeah! Its like a dream come true for those who like grapes, apples, pineapples & sugracane(raw) and have dreamt about having them all merged.
Thats the best description of the taste I can provide... as of now :D

Well, even if you don't like all these fruits, you still might like the Carambola or Starfruit as most superstores like to call it. This picture explains why they call it the 'StarFruit' -


But be wary that the fruit has high content of sugar and oxalic acid and those with diabetes and kidney problems should stay away from this. (And also those who think oxalic acid is something dangerous)

The biology fanatics might be interested in checking the wiki page with scientific information about StarFruit.

P.S.: BTW, that picture is my original work of camera (Canon S3). The macros work great on this cam! :D

Abs...

Most of the guys (and possibly gals too) dream of having wonderful 6-packs.. no not talking of those Friday-night beer-fest 6-packs .. I am talking of the abs - a flat toned sexy tummy. I sure am one of those who wants to have that.
I have been working on having them more-so from the last 2 months. Since there are 2 well equipped gyms at my disposal - one in the apartments where I stay and one where I work, there is no room for complaint or excuse. But truth be told there are all those ab-machines and pilates equipment and those fitness balls ... I was (am a bit less now) confused about what exactly is better and why. And oh yeah.. the diet thing too...

My company has a dietician and nutritionist whom I can talk with. That took care of the diet part. Sweet eh?

Then came deciding the excercises. I generally did the crunches and some variations of it.. 3 sets at the end of the workout. "That is good enough to keep you 'tummying' up, but not if you want to get those 6-pks."

Complete resources to get those 6-packs from BestAbs.com
Another neat workout
A wiki page about abs
AOL fitness page with videos

There are tons of others out there. Take your pick! Keep working out people!!

African Horned Melon a.k.a "Kiwano"

So you like fruits eh? Try this one -



Well, you might actually like the looks of it (?!?) since the African Horned Melon (a.k.a Kiwano) as it is called is used as an ornamental fruit(!) when not eaten. Frankly, I don't see both those uses from my side.
But, that being said, since goofing around is one of my specialities, my good friend Pranav and I decided to buy this ornamental delicious looking fruit (note the sarcasm). The excitement about it while buying the fruit was certainly not around when it was time to cut it. But cut it I did. Boy and does it look uglier! Check this -


It looks like a cucumber grown in a wrong place - a mutated cucumber. The horned melon is not very big, though the pictures make it look like it. Its just about the size of the big apples, a shade bigger perhaps
It tastes really yucky. The green gooey stuff you see is as slimy it looks and its a hard time biting into it. The seeds are not the softest and its even harder biting them through.

Well, overall, I just wanted you all to know about this thing lurking around in the super-markets and those of you who love to try out new fruits, might not want to try this one. I repeat - not want to try this one.

I was dumb enough to overlook so many others who tried to warn people with blogs like this (example) and hope that YOU won't be that dumb. Someone has to save the world you see .. hehe ..

BTW - have bought a Starfruit....

Biking can be good excercise for your arms...

...well at least the first day you decide to bike after a 3 month winter break.
Most of you must have guessed that it must be something to do with getting the bike back in shape. Partially right - just partially.

But if everything goes smooth (everything = cleaning and filling air) its not that hard. I am also sure (like every1 else) that 99% times everything WILL be smooth and I am a major part of that 1% that makes the 100. So heres my interesting 'first bike-ride after winter' tale -

I started by cleaning the bike - no problems there. Then checked the brakes and got them tightened - just to satisfy the 'you will fall' part of my brain. Then came the workout - filling air. I have this medium sized hand-pump to get air into the tires. Its not bad. The last time I had them inflated in about 20 pumps each tire. But today was not that day.
I struggled for about 5 minutes with the rear tire and that thing just was not ready to bulge a bit. This made me consider that the tire might have a problem. So I decided to check the front tire, but got the same response. That made me think, the pump is bad. Till now I had tried to pump air into both tires at various angles. It made me feel the muscles in my arm tense. Even more than the arm I used to pump the piston, the left hand that I used to hold the pump in place was excercised more.
Anyways, yes it was the pump. I disassembled the darned thing up and assembled it again. Its quite an easy mechanical tool. Took me some time, but was fun and interesting. That got it working and the bike tires inflated and me off on my merry way. :)

Run

With the spring season getting beautiful days with warm sunshine, its time to step out of the house. One activity I like in this season is running. The lovely canal just past a corner from my house entices me even more. (Check the pictures on the right)
Along with that, Indianapolis (where I am currently) has a mini-marathon to support the cure of Breast Cancer in the month of April. Its on the 21st April this year and am planning to participate. I participated in a Race for Cure against Prostate Cancer last year. Clocked about 28 mins for 5k. Hoping to better that - lets see.

I was therefore trying to get some tips about running properly and not injuring myself in the process. I got this nice article written by Jenny Hadfield. Along with helpful hints about how to run, she also explains how to train for half-marathons; in fact the article is about running half-marathons.

Hope this helps the running enthusiast in you...

Completely off-topic : I will be starting to get my earlier posts in too.

First page...again

'He who learns from his mistakes, learns the best' , 'Man learns from experience'

Both these proverbs apply to me, at least in the case of blogging. When new to this, now widespread self-publishing phenomenon, I had created various blogs related to different topics and situations as I encountered them. Each of these blogs had, on an average about 10 posts. I just did not have any other post to make to each blog since I did not have an experience in that blog's category; and if I kept adding new blogs for each category, I would have to keep a track of all the classification I make. MESSY...
I have been planning to get all the mess out and to organize the blogs in a single ... well... lets call it BLOB.
So in the coming days, weeks and months, will be getting all my earlier blogs in one place - THIS blog. Yes, will be adding new posts too as and when required.