addictive downloads: threat to memory

My hard drive is almost full with loads of downloads that begin once my night-surfing internet goes online. Downloading is like addiction, the more you download, the more you want to. The worst thing about any download is you don't want to erase them - though you won't know whether you are going to use it or it. I am a follower of "When in doubt, throw it out" philosophy, but still i find it hard to apply to the virtual stuffs; it's ok with tangible stuffs, though. Primarily it's because I am in Nepal, bandwidth is a valued resource. It takes time, a lot, to download and even more patience. A lot of time mean lots of - sometimes it can take days or even month.



I bought an external hard drive case for my 20GB disk, to keep backups of my precious downloaded files. Now 3GB left. Download addiction is indeed threat to beloved memory.

Alcohol: you haven't tried, well you don't need to now!

You have not tasted alcohol once? You have never been drunk? You feel that you should experience it once. Thanks to Brad Paisley, you don't need to anymore. This great country singer knows alcohol much better. It's got both good and bad consequences. It seems that bad (13) outruns good (9). And it's upto you whether you taste it or just listen to it.

Alcohol

- Brad Paisley



I can make anybody pretty.

I can make you believe any lie.

I can make you pick a fight with somebody twice your size.

Well, I've been known to cause a few break-ups,

An' I've been known to cause a few births.

Well, I can make you new friends, or get you fired from work.



And since the day I left Milwaukee,

Lynchburg an' Bordeaux, France,

Been making the bars lots of big money,

An' helpin' white people dance.

I got you in trouble in High School,

But College, now that was a ball.

You had some of the best times you'll never remember with me:

Alcohol; Alcohol.



I got blamed at your wedding reception,

For your best man's embarrassing speech.

And also for those naked pictures of you at the beach.

I've influenced Kings and world leaders,

I helped Hemingway write like he did.

And I'll bet you a drink or two, that I can make you put that lampshade on your head.



'Cause since the day I left Milwaukee,

Lynchburg and Bordeaux, France,

I been making a fool out of folks just like you,

An' helping white people dance.

I am medicine and I am poison,

I can help you up or make you fall.

You had some of the best times you'll never remember with me:

Alcohol.



Yeah, since the day I left Milwaukee,

Lynchburg an' Bordeaux, France,

Been making the bars lots of big money,

(Helpin' white people dance.)

Yeah, I got you in trouble in High School,

But College, now that was a ball.

You had some of the best times you'll never remember with me:

Alcohol; Alcohol.

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Unpredictable life

I was startled to see a group of people with red bands on their heads, blocking the road at Lazimpat. I turned my bike - I had no choice. Upon reaching Kamaladi, there was another blockade and similarly at Durbar Marg. If you ask any pedestrian, "Don't know" is the first response you would hear the most. We are so much used to this life, we don't care anymore. "Used to" doesn't mean we look forward to but we adapt ourselves when such situation arises and curse them and then ignore. Then I reached Samakhusi and saw people burning tires. One guy, a frail looking, approached and asked me to give him a lift to Lazimpat. He explained that he walked all the way from Soyambhu ( a long way from Samakhusi) and he works in a hotel and that he's getting very late. At first I thought I should give him a lift, but I was waiting for a friend. "Sorry bro!". Also I feel that people are not to be trusted especially in such situations. That guy may not have any bad intention as such but I didn't feel secure; and I didn't have any good reason to give him a ride too. There may be hundreds or even thousands of people,who are directly or indirectly affected by such unpredictable situations. May god give consciousness to those who lack.

An attempt to organize life

It's been few weeks that I find myself cluttered. I have several things in my mind that I would like to do, write in papers or spiral copy, sometimes I would write in a text file in my computer. Often I would lose the paper or I would forget to turn the pages. Result is I would do nothing that I would consider productive, just surf the internet, listen to music, watch movies, send SMS, and time to sleep.



In an attempt to make my life a little organized, I bought a white board today. I have already written my todos, and I wait for the day to get them crossed one-by-one.



Can you read my todos?

Coincidently there's also a post "Why paper to-do lists work better?" at lifehacker, which says paper-todos lists are better than e-todos lists. I would say white boards even outrun the paper-todos, atleast for my case. There are pros-cons in each of those cases though.

Friendship: a new defintion

I never knew friendship may also be defined like this. A witty and offensive one. But please don't be offended. You will always be my friend - oh! not that one.





Courtesy: ComedyPlus

The Nagarkot suns

I reached Nagarkot just in time get a glimpse of the setting sun. The morning rising sun was almost blocked by dark clouds but finally managed to escape the evil.





Wavering Buddhist flags at the Nagarkot Tower







The setting sun







Waiting for the sun rise







Finally the beautiful rising sun

Dhulikhel vs Kathmandu

The differences between Dhulikhel and Kathmandu were based on my 3 days stay only, with the entire day being spent at the training hall. So you may expect some misjudgements. We went out only in the evening. But I have a habit of running in the morning so I happened to know a little more than other trainees.

Dhulikhel	Kathmandu
Clean city. You can feel the clean, fresh air.	Your nose gets irritated instantly.
Small, beautiful city.	Beautiful is myth now.
Less vehicles.	You won't see anything but vehicles and lots of them. You curse them everytime you are in the street.

If you think I am against Kathmandu, then you are wrong. I also found some positives in living in Kathmandu.

Dhulikhel	Kathmandu
Dogs are stupid. They can't differentiate jogging people from running thieves. I was chased at several places.	Dogs are intelligent. They are indifferent to running people. I am sure they can locate running thieves also.
Cyber cafes are almost nil. We didn't find one, though I was told there are two.	You will find cyber cafes almost evey corner.

First aid can save lives

I have never realized the importance of first aid training. Despite a little busy schedule at office, I gave my name for the training, organized by DPNet (Disaster Preparedness Network). The most exciting part was the training was to be held at Dhulikhel (30+ km from Kathmandu) for 3 days. It was like a vacation (a short one though) or a break from office. That vacation short-lived, when we were told that we had to give exams at the end of the training to get certified as a first-aider, besides we were also given home-works (I would say hotel-works).  We also were evaluated after each session, which made most of us nervous. Evaluations, exams were, are still frightening.

We stayed at the Dhulikhel Resort Hotel. The view from my room was spectacular. Couple of really good friends were made. Three days was not enough for us, passed like 3 seconds - with some exaggeration though.

I learned many things that I would never know, had I not take the training. There are so many basic things that we would normally ignore during wounds, cuts, shocks, burns... At least one person from each family should take this training - DPNet put forth its vision. Really even basic first aid can save lots of lives. The trainer told us a true story of a doctor, who lost his son because he didn't know basic first aid training. In the picnic, chicken bone got stuck in the boy's throat. The parents, both doctors, did their best to save their only son's life but in vain. Just few pats at the back would have helped the boy, there are also few other first aid techniques if that didn't work. That tragic story was presented just to show how important first aid training is. It can and has saved lives.

time 43:09:84 - oops! a time for repair

As I was preparing to go to the office this morning, I was shocked to see the time 43:09:84. It was working fine till last night. I remember pressing small buttons randomly, when the alarm went off. Crazy but good looking watch. And it's still not working :(



I hate to take things - anything - for repair. Once my mobile stopped working, I went for repair and that repair-guy charged 500 bucks for just formatting (i don't know how to then, though i know it now). I tried to bargain but that guy was so annoying that I left the said amount and later I got annoyed with myself - how could I?

my hilarious school project2: I was and am a normal guy

After posting my hilarious school project on 'unicorn', I received lots of comments via blogs, telephone, in person, "What kind of kid was you them?", "A serial killer?", "What were you thinking then?". Well i don't have any answer for any of your queries cause I don't remember what I was thinking then. But I have another humorous project on 'yeti', which was also submitted along with 'unicorn'. This report does show my good and friendly side. By good side I don't mean I also had hostile posture, but to prove that I was just completing my project and nothing to do with my what so ever. Enjoy :)

This villanous guy but a friend of mine, even posted in his blog.

How to get anything i want?

I asked for something

then I imagined

felt the passion

And I left



I knew that

the day would come

the day my wish

would come true



it's just a matter of asking

imagining and feeling it

and leaving the rest

for him to get it for me



finally i got it

the thing that i asked for

the thing i imagined

the thing i felt for



for this universe

never runs out

of my askings

for anything i want



-Anjesh



Note: This poem is inspired from the law of attraction, that law that says you attract anything you wish.

Nagarkot to Sundarijal Trip

7 hours of continuous walk from Nagarkot to Sundarijal, covering a distance of more than 24 km, was indubitably tiresome nonetheless fun. This is the longest hike I have walked so far. Aching back. Exhausted legs. Face covered with dust, touching ones face gives a feeling of sand papers. Cloths and shoes topped with dust. We didn't expect anything else; hike is supposed to be like this. Isn't it?



There were only two of us - Ujol dai and me. Others backed off at the last moment. It was good in some sense cause I don't think the group of more people would be able to cover that distance in time we took. We walked at fair speed, with very very minimal breaks, and that only during ascends. I couldn't imagine reaching home on the same day, had there been ladies. Thank god. The hill was exhaustively steep, I would say almost 60 degree or more. After walking for almost 4 hours, can you imagine climbing that hill? How about with bicycles? Well we met a couple pushing hard in that hill, and with bicycles. Crazy yet passionate people; I respect them.



We passed and walked through lots of villages on the way. I don't remember all of them. Kartike, Manichur, Jhule, Mul khadka... At one point on the way to Jhule, we almost got lost - had to turn back after walking for more than 20 minutes. There were few houses, scary ghostly looking, the environment was also little uncomfortable, with no people at sight. We thought we shouldn't take more chances at unknown places, so finally turned back.



Kartike Village, close to Nagarkot

There are schools built by donors. Kids, we met in village, mentioned about them, though we didn't see. There were two engineers from Netherlands, visiting the village that day, to lay the foundation for the new school - kids said that. Truly amazing and great people.



We saw few rhododendron trees. It seemed that many flowers had been picked by sheepherder, wood collector. We saw one tree filled with red rhododendron. We couldn't resist taking snaps there.



I was shocked to see foreigners walking alone. They must have been walked the distance before. There had been news of missing foreigners, in the past, in the hills of Nepal. It's very risky, without villages and people at a helping distance, should anything happened.



Finally we were pacified to hear the comforting sound of flowing water of Sundarijal - our walk was almost over. Eventually we reached the base at 5:40 PM, having started the walk at 10:30 AM from Nagarkot. A long walk indeed.



A kid carrying a baby goat