Bump!

Long time no post! Whaddup, my starved, raving fans? If y'all have been as busy as I have since my last post, I'm pretty sure I haven't been missed all that much X-)

In a nutshell.... with bullets:

- What kind of nut has a shell like that, I wonder? -

- Me, probably. Oh well, continuing... -

* I scored a 7.54 last sem! New personal record, woot!

* We've moved to Bombay! Yay Bombay! Real chicks, at last! Not to mention, food!

* Met up with old friends, made new ones, had a ball...

* Industrial Training -> After a lot of running around last sem, I finally managed to land one! MazDock was great, and the big bad General Electric LM2500 gas turbines were every engineer's dream. Too bad they didn't fire the thing while I was there.

* Returned to college a month early, in hungry anticipation of a job. IOCL and SJVNL shortlisted candidates, not that I'd have sat in either, my anti-PSU thing is still on. Ashok Leyland ditched us, as did Telconn, with the latter popping up a month later only to drop a bomb on our headds and call just four students. And AshLey's still playing truant.

* Passion, Passion, what is life without Passion? Specifically, football. Something went fzzt in my head over the summer, and when I came back to horrorpur all I could think about was football. All those memories of countless evenings spent chasing leather in rain-blessed wellington came flooding back, and it was like a dam had burst inside me - Armed (or rather, footed) with a new pair of VectorX "Terrors", I made my return to The Beautiful Game after nearly nine years. Inter-Branch was a revelation, my feet found their song, and even that one horrific moment - an own goal in the final match - couldn't extinguish the flames. I feel like I've been born again, and woken up to the world with a song in my heart and studs on my feet. When I'm on the field, I feel faster, stronger and more alive than I've ever been, and its like a world's been opened to me, something that I was ignoring for all these years. I'm free, and I'm flying. Even if its on grass.

* Oh, The Big News -> The Man got placed! Now who'd have thought that an overfed, long-haired, leaping gnome, would get placed in Tata Motors, hmmm?


*Gymmed hard for two months, before placement season started. Put on six kilos, after scaling down my routine to 3 sets of four exercises (Military Press, Deadlift, Squat, Bench)

* Again, took part in Inter-Branch football, in September. Fullback/Halfback. Played a mean game, with hard tackles and long clearances. Reached the finals, and then I went and scored an own goal. No, dont want to talk about it. Match went to penalties, we lost 4-3, life's a bitch.

* Been allotted singlets this year. Fancy hostel, big rooms, etc etc. And BORING! Singlets for undergrads should be banned, especially for the gregarious like me! More doors than friends, it feels like.

* Eric's internal speaker went kpft, after five years of stellar service. Keypad's started jamming as well, and the display's gone pretty hazy, so I decided it was time for a replacement. Picked up a Nokia 5130 XpressMusic. 1GB card included. Great sound, feature-packed for a budget phone, vibrant display, responsive keypad. ATROCIOUS BATTERY! The darn thing needs charging every frikkin day! 5 year old Eric still lasts for three! What a let down!

* After last sem's fabulous project, the VAWT, was shot down (yes, by my own comrades!) in august, we started work on a funnel-shaped solar cooker, as described by the people over at Bringham Young University.

http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/funnel.htm

Simple enough. We've made ours out of GI and aluminium foil, with a black-painted tin formerly containing twenty-five (25) delicious rasgullas, courtesy Pranay. Took us around four hours in the workshop, and trials are underway this week. Water's reached finger-blistering-ow-ow-ow temperature within half an hour, and we're gonna try cooking some rice tomorrow. Pics to follow.

All for now. Oh, and Hill 'Ffair starts on friday, and although I'm not participating (bball tourney a week after), I *am* thrilled, 'coz Ivan's coming here for the fest. Pics over the weekend.

The Man