Twilight

This witty analysis of Twilight series has captivated my interest..something that the original series failed to do. Dont get me wrong, I had liked Twilight and Midnight Sun. I had read them word-to-word.
As the author of the blog puts it, the other books are a serious waste of paper.Who is interested to read an entire book about how large the hole in heart after a breakup is, or whatever! I distinctly remember, skip 10 pages and the narrative is exactly where you left it, like watching a Ekta Kapoor serial after a month.

I read the books long past teenage crushes on strictly handsome men. Who cares that Edward is a dream-like hunk, I liked him coz he's a monster who spares humans. Yup..I loved Angela, Jacob too.
 :(
The blog pointed out gaping holes in the whole thing.
1. Edward is manipulative. Which jerk messes up a car so that his girl wont meet her best friend?
2. Edward watches Bella sleep EVERY NIGHT? OMG! That is sooo creepy and intrusive on privacy. 
3. Vampires kill humans. Werewolves atleast according to the Twilight legends were born to protect humans from vampires. Yet Edward thinks Bella isnt safe around Jacob!
4. Bella, or the Cullen clan do nothing to prevent innocent humans from becoming vampire food..in Italy, in Seattle (during the vampire army thing), in Forks (when vampires gathered to protect Renesmee). 
5. The whole thing about humans = 23 pairs of chromosomes, werewolves = 24 and vampires = 25 is the most illogical thing i have ever read. Oh yes, I have heard of mutations. But mutations simply CHANGE some ATCGs. You cant build 25 things from the material of 23 things. Biochemistry doesnt work that way.
You cant make 24 pairs from haploids of 23 and 25. It still gives us 23 nicely matched pairs and 2 extra unmatched chromosomes both present on the same longer strand. 
I dont even want to go into the details of how a super cold frozen-in-time vampire can still father kid, who is not frozen-in-time-at-the-zygote-stage. 
And who tries to give scientific backing to a fantasy anyway?
6. Volturi arent interested in curbing the vampire army..recruiting Cullens is all they care about.
7. Quill and Jacob are PAEDOPHILES. She cant attribute it to imprinting. Its still pervert.
8. Alice's visions are bent whichever way it suits the story.

The author has another blog series about Harry Potter. I am not gonna read that...

Laptop Screen Saving

The Best Buy Geek squad told me that the repair will cost me 180$. Finally, after the term was over, and when I have enough time to fiddle with it, I summed enough courage to open up the bezel myself and look under the wraps. Frankly, if you have the right screwdrivers, it is not a big deal.

The screen was working perfectly..we just needed to give some pressure to the aluminim frame.. on close inspection..we found that the aluminium frame had bent convex instead of being straight.

The screen, it turns out was working correctly. There were no loose cables as I had thought. There was a mechanical issue due to the LCD panel's aluminium frame being bent. (Gosh! when did I drop my laptop so hard?). Have put on paper clips to support the frame now. Cost to repair = cost of 2 paper clips + set of 9 awesome screwdrivers bought from India + bitta super glue + cotton to clean the dirt under the bezel.. 5$ at the most..

So, used two paper clips with the gator night bands (orange and violet) stuffed in it to apply pressure to the LCD and attempt to straighten it over time.

My professor has a netbook; he himself replaced its screen. Infact my professor wondered why I took so long to repair mine myself. My research teammate has repaired one too. What lacks in the Indian mentality is sort of "go to a repair shop and get it repaired" attitude rather than "do it yourself". Or worse is the world's super-consumer attitude: "I have enough money to buy a new one even if just a small thing goes awry. Hence I will chuck the old one and buy a new one". If only we could shed both of these wrong attitudes, world will be a lesser e-wasted place. If this happens, there will be fewer jobs, but a greener earth will be worth it.   

Lessons learnt: Hats off to Dell's wire routing. The mechanical cable connectors are too cool to be true. I wonder if we get such things in India, because the cables that I had used for my projects in India had a huge connector which used to jut out of the PCB. I guess students use it because they were affordable, and easily available locally.

Edcation Under Fire

Saw 2 documentaries..both pertaining to Education.. First Generation and Education Under Fire.
US has a weird law by which a baby born in the US gets an US citizenship.. no questions asked. I personally know 2 "lucky" cases of my friends born in the US. Indian University marks-wise, and GRE score wise we were at par, but they could make it to the top 10 Universities (and I dint) thanks to the free feather in their caps called US citizenship. I also know of two other friends, who "chose" to deliver their "lucky babies" in the US. Naturally, I took the documentary First Generation with a pinch of salt.

Also, I just cant grasp the portrayed American poverty. A girl in the "First Generation" claims that she chose the neighbourhood community college over a University because of the 50$ application fee. Point to be noted: The girl had recently bought a car, and was paying for the car EMI + gas + insurance. I find this "i dint have money to apply" bleating really lame coming from someone who can afford a piece of luxury!

Education Under Fire deals with a much starker reality. Iranian students belonging to the Baha'i religion are denied education in Iran. The Baha'i Institute tried home-schooling the kids. But members of the Institute were arrested and the teaching material confiscated. In the post-documentary panel discussion, my friend Sasa suggested turning to Internet for online tutorials etc. as a virtual tutor.

Education is a human right. Some are not able to achieve it due to ignorance about the financial aid and scholarships available to them (First Generation). The simple solution is a career session maybe, and more career counsellors at the High school. But being denied education altogether is a crime! The concept of having a global pen-pal is long outdated, but in cases like this, could we share our educational resources and our scholastic experience to convey our solidarity and support?   

2nd attempt to proselytize me..failed

    एक दिवशी मी महाविद्यालयाबाहेर बागेत कृष्ण भोजन करत बसले होते. २ अनोळखी मुली येऊन गप्पा मारू लागल्या. मी कसं क्रीस्तीधर्म स्वीकारला तरच माझा उद्धार होईल वगैरे. बिचाऱ्या मुलींनी चुकीचा बकरा निवडला. मला त्यांनी सांगितलेला प्रत्येक मुद्दा मी खोडून दिला, Logically scientifically अनेक planes वर. तरी आश्चर्य वाटल्याशिवाय राहत नाही की हातात Organic Chemistry चा पुस्तक घेऊन फिरणारी मुलगी मला सांगते की Evolution ही फक्त theory च आहे आणि देवानी ६ दिवसात विश्व निर्माण केलं ह्याचे पण म्हणे पुरावे आहेत. ज्याला दिसतं त्याला आपण सूर्य दाखवू शकतो, आंधळेपणाचं सोंग घेतलेल्याला नव्हे ! तरी माझे काही प्रति- मुद्दे त्यांना खोडून काढणं शक्यच नव्हतं, तिने मला त्यांच्या pastor ला भेटायला सांगितलं. जाता जाता विचारलं, आम्ही तुझ्यासाठी काही pay करू का, मनात आलं होतं की म्हणावं की "हो, का नाही! इथे आलेल्या प्रत्येकाचा शिक्षण खर्च तू pay कर! " तर असं आमिष दाखवून भारतात गरिबांना convert करतात तर!

नुकतंच वाचलं की Anne Frank आदि Holocaust मध्ये मारल्या गेलेल्या ज्यूंना एक चर्च मरणोत्तर convert करत असतं. World War II चा इतिहास बदलायचा प्रयत्न! मृत पावलेल्या माणसाच्या इच्छेविरुद्ध! Illogical धर्मांधतेचा कळस आहे हा. धर्मासाठी काय करतील सांगता येत नाही.