I'm finally here...

Here we go again

2005-06-29T17:57:00.000+01:00

So it’s been a while (8 months in-fact) since I posted. To be honest I almost expected this to happen. I would read about some new craze, get real excited and then loose interest after a few months. But that’s not the only thing that’s kept me from my blog. Architecture came knocking on my door around November ’04 and pretty much took over my life. This wasn’t unexpected; actually they (my tutors) said it would happen. I didn’t believe them at the time, I just sat there thinking this year was going to be easy and that I would have plenty of time to pursue other thing, blogging included. Turns out, I underestimated things slightly. Since November, I have done nothing but eat, drink and sleep architecture. To be honest, I loved almost every moment of it. This year couldn’t have gone much better for me. But now I’m back in London for the summer, and I figured why not start posting again. Hopefully this time I can keep it going.

My buddy Dreamweaver and I are working on a new look for the site. That should be up and running in the next few months. In the mean time, check back here for more new posts.

Raj.

Cheating bastards!!!

2004-10-24T21:49:00.000+01:00

I fuckin hate Man Utd. Being a Arsenal fan I’m supposed to hate Spurs more, but frankly I couldn’t give a shit about them. Right now my anger is completely directed towards Old Trafford, and those fuckin goons that call it home. If anyone saw the game today (not Man U fans coz they’re all wankers) they would know exactly what I am talking about. It was as if they were playing by their own rules (copy’s of this rule book can be purchased exclusively at the Man Utd store and the Yankee Stadium store), and then there’s the referee. They say that this ref is the best in the business (here in the UK), frankly after his performance today he should put against a wall and shot.

Its not as if Arsenal played badly and even they did have an off day they would always grind out a result. Today this was not the case and I put it solely down the blatant cheating on the Man Utd’s part. You talk about foreign players coming into the Premiership and using diving tactics to win free kicks and penalties (Pires comes to mind), what about Shrek fuckin Rooney? If you look at the replays there was no contact at all. Then there’s Rio “I forgot” Ferdinand (reckon you’re a n’u’gger with them corn-rows). As the last defender he should have been sent off.

I'm not so bothered that the unbeaten run came to an end today. However I am extremely pissed off that Man Utd beat us and at the way they did it. My hatred for this team has moved to a level beyond my comprehension.

And don’t get me started on the Neville brothers, ill leave that to you Tim. I’m gone.

Lectures? yeah right...

2004-10-06T01:14:00.000+01:00

I need to rant. This is my first rant but it’s been a long time coming.

Now I’m in my second year and everything I do from now on will count towards my final degree classification. So for me, lectures are vital. But I’ve noticed over the last couple of years that some tutors don’t make enough of an effort to prepare the lectures they give. Everyone knows how most students don’t bother turning up to lectures and those who do, end up face flat on the desk, asleep. Now some lectures are just plain boring, but others could be quite interesting if the tutors did that little extra to prepare.

One of the most annoying things (for me anyways) is turning up to a lecture and having to sit there a listen to a tutor read right off the lecture slide. Seriously what is the point in that? I could sit in my room and read the same thing, probably faster too. Surely offering an alternative explanation to the topic in the lecture would be more helpful to students. This way you get a better turn out at the lecture and you get more students who know what’s going on.

The other thing I cannot understand is why there is such a hurry to cover the subject material. There has been one history lecture so far this year, and already I’m thinking of skipping the rest. The problem with does not lie with the content, but with the way it’s delivered. With this lecture you have a combination of lecture slides and an oral lecture by the tutor. Normally this is not a bad thing, but when you have to listen and record what the tutor is saying as well as take down what’s on the projector, it becomes very frustrating. You end up with only half of what was displayed on the projector screen and the other half of what the tutor had to say; basically it’s a complete waste of time and effort.

On the bright side though, I’m quite lucky that my department provides a full set of lecture notes/slides on the information-super-turnpike (the internet). This means I can read through the notes prior to the lecture (if I’m really keen) and hope that the tutor throws in a bijou (a jewel of a note) during the lecture to make it worthwhile turning up.

As for the second predicament, I’m going to try a new approach. I have recently purchased a Griffin iTalk. This is an attachment for your iPod, which allows you to record voice memos straight to your iPod. So I’m going to turn up to the lecture, set my iPod to record and sleep for the 2 hours. I’ll update you on how I got on.

No internet connection

2004-10-01T18:13:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted in a while and the main reason is beacue we don't have an internet connection setup at the new house. Good news though, we are having a cable line installed tomorrow, so I should be back up and running again soon. Keep checking back for updates.

Raj

The big move

2004-09-16T23:10:00.000+01:00

Well it’s finally here, the summer holidays are over and I’m heading back up to university on Saturday. This will be my third year at Nottingham, but more importantly my second year studying Architecture. From now on everything I do will count towards my final degree. I other words the whole year will be like one big exam – a scary thought. But those things aside, I am moving into a new house this year with two guys I’ve known and lived with for the two years. Last year we had a house of 7 people. This got a bit hectic at times but was a good experience all the same. I think all 7 of us discovered over the year what it was like to live amongst one another, and divisions in the household became apparent very quickly, to me anyways.

The main problem was that I got on with everyone. So when it came time to choose where we going to live this year I had the hardest decision out of all 7 of us. There were two camps; on one side there was Stu, Tim, Alex and Chris. On the side other was Adrian and Pat. And I’m sitting in the middle thinking I like all of these guys; so I deliberated over this but to no avail. I ended up picking out of a hat (no-one else knew) and got Pat and Adrian. The good thing is that the other guys got a house close by so I’ll be seeing them pretty much all the time. I’m quite glad it worked out this way since our house for this year really nice (for student accommodation that is). I’ll put pics up as soon as I move in.

Since I’m going to be back at university, I’ll have more interesting things to share with all you fellow bloggers, so keep checking back for more thoughts, observation and other crap…

Lego for grown-ups.

2004-09-10T19:54:00.000+01:00

I said in a previous post how I haven’t really been able to explain why I made the change from computer science to architecture at the end of my first year at university. I figured it’s about time to put it down on paper, since it might be easier to explain.

Until I actually made the change, I had shown no interest (openly) in the world of architecture. However, I think inside, I have always been curious about building design and construction. As a kid I remember getting my first Lego set; I must have been about 3 years old, and from that age till I turned 10, Lego was my favourite pastime. I could sit there for hours on end coming up with crazy designs for buildings and vehicles. I think this early creative streak kinda embedded itself and has never really gone away.

Then there is the question of my so-called expensive taste. My mom is always quick to point it out to me. According to her, everything I own and everything on my wish list has a hefty price tag (my lovely PowerBook included;-). The way I see it, yes some of my possessions are expensive items, but that’s only because somebody has taken the time to design them well and then make sure they work like they should. The fact that form is more important to me than function makes me wonder why I didn’t choose architecture (or something similar) in the first place. This is not to say that function should be ignored; in-fact the two are complementary, one does not work without the other. But my point is that design and the way things look have always come first.

This became more evident when we moved house about 5 years ago. We had actually bought the house a year earlier and stripped it down to just four walls and started over. Now at the time I was still in high school, so I didn’t really have a say in what went into the new house. I wanted to get stuck in and contribute in a major way. It annoyed me slightly since all I could do was sit back and watch my folks make decisions about the look and layout of the house. It is now apparent that some of these choices made (I won’t go into them) in the early stages of the renovation were bad ones and this infuriated me greatly. So anyway this was just another push towards my chosen area of study.

This doesn’t explain how I ended up choosing computer science ahead of architecture. To understand this I think you have to look at the workings of a typical Indian family. Its quite simple really; there is a level of expectation within the family. Obviously they want you to be successful in life (what family wouldn’t?), but there is a group of about 5-6 careers from which Asian students are expected to choose from. This isn’t an official thing, but choosing something outside this list will result in major disappointment, especially amongst the older family members (although they won’t say it). In my previous post I explained, how at the time, computer science seemed like the perfect choice, and with a hint of persuasion from my family I genuinely believed it was. A year on, I realised that it wasn’t for me and in the back of my mind I was craving for something a bit more creative.

This is where architecture comes into the equation. Here I get to use the other side of my brain (the side that has been lying dormant since the end of my Lego playing days), and it gives me the chance not only to be creative and expressive, but also allows me to have fun. I am a strong believer in enjoying your work, as you are more likely to be successful at it. In a way, studying architecture has allowed me to go back and play with my Lego set. It’s just like being a kid again ☺.

Gmail invites...

2004-09-10T02:03:00.000+01:00

This is interesting; I’ve just noticed I now have 6 more Gmail invites in my inbox. I was under the impression that once you used up your initial 5 invites that was it. Doesn't seem that way though, which means I control the play. So I need to figure out a way of exploiting this newfound power.

Raj

Comments

2004-09-09T01:55:00.000+01:00

Ok i've added a hit counter so that i can monitor activity, but i'm not really sure what people are thinking when they read my posts so please feel free to leave comments. I dont care if its critisism (got to be constructive though) or praise, just some feedback is always nice.

Raj

Sinclair ZX-81

2004-09-09T01:51:00.000+01:00

For all those who dont know what a Sinclair ZX-81 is, follow the link

Thanks for that Ken

Raj

One simple email should do it...

2004-09-09T01:07:00.000+01:00

I've been making my way through some newbie posts on the blogger forum and found a lot of people asking why their blog was not found on a search, and how they could get their blog recognized. Now I'm no expert on these things but surely you can start with the basics and work up. If like me you want to publicize your blog then tell people about it. Send a group email to everyone you know and tell them to do the same. If this works, you're bound to get hits on your site. Once you do, request for comments, and leave it open, so that people can comment on whatever they want. At least this way you know that people are hitting your site and the feedback you get could be useful for future posting.

Now that i've said this, i've just realized that someone (probably many people in-fact) have already suggested this and I'm about 10 years too late. Oh well, its my blog, and i'll put what I want right?

Raj.

Me!!!

2004-09-09T00:42:00.000+01:00

Me!!!,
originally uploaded by raj.patel04.

I wanted to upload my pic to my profile section. Not sure if this i gonna do it.

Apple means a fresh start.

2004-09-08T21:59:00.000+01:00

Its strange don't you think, how a computer can rule your life? 20 years ago I didn't even know what a computer was, and then bam! We got a PC. Ever since then, I haven't looked back. At every stage of my life since I was about 3, I have had a computer of some sort. First we had the Sinclair ZX-81, by the time I discovered it was dead so I didn't really get a chance to use it. Then we had a BBC; again it was broken when I found it in the attic, so no luck there. But then my dad bought home an Atari ST one day and I was immediately hooked. It came with about 50 floppies each with a program or a video game. I still remember playing Star-ray and Outrun for hours on end, and the best bit was that you didn't need a small monitor, you could just hook it right up to the TV and luckily we had a pretty big one at the time. This Atari lasted for years until one day I was carrying it and I dropped it. That was the last I saw of the machine; my dad said he had sent it of to be repaired, but I get the feeling it was chucked out with the garbage. With the departure of the Atari my dad bought our first PC. It was a powerful beast at the time, churning out all of 33Mhz with the turbo button on; 8Mhz without it. So this was my first experience with Windoze. I noticed something back then which I couldn't quite figure out - Windows 3.11 had what Microsoft called a desktop, which you could find if you minimized all the windows. You could change the picture on the desktop but nothing else. I tried to drag icons onto this so-called desktop but it wouldn't let me. And now I wonder why they ever bothered to call it a desktop. Since then I have been through four different computers all with different versions of Windoze, including ME - the worst one of them all. The truly sad thing is however, that I actually went and bought a copy of Windows ME thinking it would be better. In reality, I had been sold by minor revisions to the GUI (I am pretty big on the look of things).

So my last adventure with a PC started in September 2002 when I decided that I would build my own PC before going of to university. It was fun; I love tinkering with things so this was right up my street. This was also what eventually convinced me that there was another way. Having built my PC using all the (then) latest hardware (and software), I dragged it off to university without any second thoughts. So my first year at Nottingham went well, to be honest I had so much fun I didn't really have time to stop and think about my PC (although I was studying Computer Science so I had to think about it a little). My second year at university bought the first major change in my life. I decided to change my course. Now here in the UK it’s not uncommon to do this, but its still a big thing since it may affect what you do for the rest of your life. Until that point I thought Computer Science was the way forward for me. It was almost the perfect course for me since the one thing that I understood well was the ins and outs of a computer and everything that went with it. My family was thinking pretty much the same thing. So when I decided to make a switch to Architecture people were a bit shocked and confused. I still find it hard to explain why I did it, but I did. So anyways I spent my second year studying Architecture and continued using my one-year-old custom built PC. And in this last year I began to notice a few things about my computer. The noise coming out of it was horrendous; I'm really not sure how it had taken me so long to notice this. With this noise came the heat from the back. Windows XP was slowly starting to reveal its true self; you know the usual thing of fatal errors, unresponsive programs and bad interface design. At the same time someone had told me about Apple's new range of notebooks. Now most people would probably turn around and say yeah but it's a Mac, but having recently purchased a new iPod I realized that Apple had clearly put some thought into its design and usability (since its was going to be for the masses it had to be simple to use). So this is when I got the idea of switching over to Mac. Being a student however meant that money was pretty tight (at least when it came to big purchases). So I had a look around on eBay and found a PowerBook with a price low enough to beat any other seller or store at the time. It looked too good to be true and guess what, it was. Some fucker from Bulgaria was pulling a scam by hacking into people’s eBay accounts and advertising expensive items. People would pay for these items using Western Union and never receive items. Since Western Union was not recognized by eBay, there was nothing they could do when you didn't receive your item. So I went for this deal not knowing about this scam, and I had the biggest stroke of luck. When I rang up to do the money transfer, the guy on the phone said my account was short of money by like £10. So I had to wait a few days till I could put more money in. Within that time I stumbled across this scam issue in the eBay forum. Man I flipped, I was so mad at this guy for trying pull this scam on me, and pretty mad at myself for falling for it. So I emailed the seller back with some harsh words, and I'm still waiting for a reply, lol. I kinda gave up on the whole Mac idea after this, and decided not to pursue it till the summer, when hopefully I had a job and some money coming in.

Its now coming to the end of my summer break, and I sit hear writing my first blog entry on my 7 day old 15" PowerBook. This computer is an absolute joy to use. Never has it been so simple to do almost anything on a computer. Physically the PowerBook is stunning, like a Ferrari. It’s loaded with features big and small, like our BMW and its runs as smooth as a Lexus LS400 (the car comparisons had to be made). Finally I have a computer that will just work, without: giving me error messages every hour, crashing and most importantly (for me anyway) sounding like a jet engine! There are still plenty of other issues I have to deal with. Having been a wintel user for the last 15 years there were some teething problems on my part, but nothing I couldn't handle. Thanks to a lot of help from my cousin Sach, I am pretty confident I know what I'm doing.

I would like to think I'm going to leave Windoze behind and go with Apple for good. I've just read about the Mac Expo in London in November. I think I might go.

I am hoping this will be the start of something good.
Raj.

Whats the deal with Blogger...?

2004-09-08T21:05:00.000+01:00

So I finally got round to starting my new blog yesterday. I spent about an hour typing up my first post and Blogger decides to stop working. I had everything setup nicely - my new PowerBook working perfectly (space bar makes a funny noise though!) and I had downloaded MacJournal (http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/) for typing up my new blog entries. Its a simple but good program that uploads the new posts to Blogger when your done. So I set it all up and typed out my first post, and sent it off to Blogger. Only Blogger wasn't realy working. It kept giving me a URL not found message when I tried to view my blogspot. So I've decided to start over with a new account and new blog. Let's see if this one uploads...

Raj