Contradicting myself(what I said in the last post) I am again going to try and be optimistic about sticking to the motto of 'trying to capture life'
Today again, I was feeling like making some nice breakfast. I have been noticing a pattern.. The morning after a good dinner, I crave breakfast, however, on the mornings after an unappetizing dinner, I couldn't care less for food. Like the following incident:
Doni had made 'Hamburger Helper' for dinner and I didn't like it at all! I didn't finish my portion and went to bed.. That night, I dreamt I was having some delicious fried Indian snack. Samosa? Kachori? something else? I don't know. But my mind was set. The next morning, after I woke up, I didn't even feel like breakfast. I was dead sure I was going to go to Gerard street and have some Indian food.
A little around lunch time, me and Doni went to 'Little India'. Not really sure what we were going to find, we surveyed the entire street without going into a store. There was a south Indian restaurant that I found very interesting. I told Doni we might go have dinner there. But first, we had kulfi, which tasted pretty much like any other vanilla ice cream. It was missing that texture of kulfi. But for 1 dollar, I didn't mind at all. It was the $5 glass of sugarcane Juice that pissed me off! We're never going back there again!
We shopped at an Indian grocery store that had a really nice uncle at the counter who talked to me in hindi. I picked up pilsbury rotis (which were too small and were only 5 in a pack that should have had 6) and peppered cashews. Didn't see any bhindi there, but I also got 4 packs of maggi vegetable atta noodles. How I wish they had the 'family pack' in stores!
After, we went to the South Indian restaurant and had idli-wada and masala Dosa. Very satisfying. The guy at the counter here as well talked to me, asked me if I was a resident or a student and what I am doing etc.
Now I know what I need to do, where I need to go next time I am down there. Also made a mental note of what I want to try out next time.
Monday, May 18, 2009
It's all Business
Title of my blog is "Trying to capture life". But I am not even trying. Last blog post I wrote was written on Monday and only got published several days later. I really don't know what's up with me. I don't even feel like talking to people about me. But I can converse and express/exchange opinion on any general topic of interest.
The other day, I chatted with Huzaifa on gtalk for about 20 minutes about need for career counselling in India where almost every other kid coming out of 12th grade is heading to an engineering college. Then the topic moved to education/studies in the 'multimedia' or entertainment business. And then to art and commissions.
That felt so much more productive than 'how was your day, what did you do?' and therefore, so much more satisfying than talking to mom or someone else who I don't know what to say to.. I don't expect a phone call from anybody, I am not excited about hearing anyone's voice. And I think my lack of enthusiasm shows in my voice when I talk. I feel like Jim Carey in the beginning of Yes Man...
The other day, I chatted with Huzaifa on gtalk for about 20 minutes about need for career counselling in India where almost every other kid coming out of 12th grade is heading to an engineering college. Then the topic moved to education/studies in the 'multimedia' or entertainment business. And then to art and commissions.
That felt so much more productive than 'how was your day, what did you do?' and therefore, so much more satisfying than talking to mom or someone else who I don't know what to say to.. I don't expect a phone call from anybody, I am not excited about hearing anyone's voice. And I think my lack of enthusiasm shows in my voice when I talk. I feel like Jim Carey in the beginning of Yes Man...
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Explosion
I can't not think about dreams that I have. And tonight's dream is one of the more convoluted ones.
I was being told about the 911 attacks, was taking a look at the ruins of the world trade center from an aerial point of view. But then there were oddities in the pattern of destruction. The officer or whoever it was with me teling me about it, showed me the spot where the highest damage was done. and there was a straight line of destruction till a lot further away from it.
I know this is confusing. It is for me too. Maybe I was just associating it with 9-11 it probably wasnt that in the first place. It wasn't just one building.. it wasn't a round circle of destruction from a bomb or explosion. It was as if there was an missile launched from one end, and it destroyed everything in it's path and left this 'line of destruction'. Other reasons I can think of to explain what I saw are: it was an explosion in a train.. and everything along that line was destroyed. Now to explain the fact that this train was in a fairly urban setting, it could be that it was a underground subway line. And as the underground tunnel collapsed, so did everything on top.
Also, as I was surveying from the helicopter, I thought to myself, wow! I was watching a movie yesterday in a theater... with family or friends.. and I thought if we hadn't decided to go to inox instead of e square, we would have been dead. So I suppose I was in Pune now..
Next, I was on the ground, I was actually right next to the site of this event. I don't know what or who gave me the authority to be there.. Surveying the operations, I was surprised to find a bunch of poor people living in the destroyed ruins of the buildings. They could have been family and or the workers helping in the excavation/rescue operations.. It was like a photograph. Everyone or everything was stopped in time as I was walking across them all... Suddenly I noticed Golu bhaiya and Monu didi around that area.
I was really surprised and excited. I said hi, they said "hi!", (time was not frozen anymore) They were perfectly fine, I guess they were just here to check it out, or be in the news coverage etc. haha. They started with their usual teasing me, pulling my leg and all... I woke up just then.. and I wish I didn't think about the 'attack' anymore. But I can't do that. I always think about my dreams too much...
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Commuting sucks part 1
The events in this blog post take place over the period of sunday through monday.
I was in Toronto Reference Library when I got a call from Doni. (What I was doing there is another blog post in itself) He said he was planning to go grocery shopping today. I told him I'd leave here and be in etobicoke by the time. As I was leaving from bloor station, I got a call from Rajat saying that he is on his way to toronto now and that he'll see me at my place. I guided him on how to get there and was on my way to kipling.
Transit disaster #1:
There was a little incident around our locality.. some violence or maybe some bullets were fired as the worst case scenario. And the police had blocked the route not allowing the bus to pass through there. So the 112 bus was running off scheduled route and time. And it seemed as if there was only one such bus running. So I waited at the kipling station for about 20 minutes for the bus to take me to the cloverdale mall.
Rajat had arrived at kipling station by then, and he got the 112 bus so he was on his way to my place, while I was still finishing my shopping at Metro. After we were finished, we were waiting at the bus stop and Rajat called to say he was already there. GREAT! The damned 112 bus finally came and I met up with Rajat, showed him my place, and had something to eat.
Next we left for Rajat's friend Ankita's place around coxwell. She had just had a baby girl and Rajat had bought some kids clothes for the baby. She made tea and bhel for us. I don't generally drink tea.. well.. I didn't at all drink hot tea but she had made awesome tea! (And I was rather thirsty and too polite to say "no I don't drink tea!") Ankita was very nice. She was communicating very well, even with the canadian neighbour. She even invited us to stay for dinner, (I wouldn't have objected at all. Judging by the bhel, it would have been an awesome treat!) but Rajat said we should leave. And leave we did. At 8 pm, we waited to catch the streetcar that would take us to queen subway station.
Transit disaster#2
As we were approaching the queen station, I suggested we stay on the ttc and go with the streetcar all the way to long branch and catch the go train from there! We were sure we missed the 8:30 train from union, so we should be able to catch the 9:30 train at long branch if we reach there by 10. Rajat agreed and we thought now we just enjoy the ride.
But there was so much traffic on queen street that we were moving at snail's pace. As the clock sped closer to 10 and we inched ever so slowly towards long branch, we realized that we won't make the next train. And sure enough, I got to long branch only after the train had just passed. To make matters worse, the station had closed down, and both of us needed to take a leak! So we found a spot where the security cameras couldn't see us, and relieved ourselves.
Finally, after waiting for an hour in the surprisingly cold weather(for early may) we got on the bus and were in oakville in no time. And since the oakville transit buses had stopped running, we had to walk all the way to Rajat's house. Luckily, there was a 24 hour tim hortons about halfway there and we stopped to take a break, and get a drink and some snack to refuel ourselves.
I was in Toronto Reference Library when I got a call from Doni. (What I was doing there is another blog post in itself) He said he was planning to go grocery shopping today. I told him I'd leave here and be in etobicoke by the time. As I was leaving from bloor station, I got a call from Rajat saying that he is on his way to toronto now and that he'll see me at my place. I guided him on how to get there and was on my way to kipling.
Transit disaster #1:
There was a little incident around our locality.. some violence or maybe some bullets were fired as the worst case scenario. And the police had blocked the route not allowing the bus to pass through there. So the 112 bus was running off scheduled route and time. And it seemed as if there was only one such bus running. So I waited at the kipling station for about 20 minutes for the bus to take me to the cloverdale mall.
Rajat had arrived at kipling station by then, and he got the 112 bus so he was on his way to my place, while I was still finishing my shopping at Metro. After we were finished, we were waiting at the bus stop and Rajat called to say he was already there. GREAT! The damned 112 bus finally came and I met up with Rajat, showed him my place, and had something to eat.
Next we left for Rajat's friend Ankita's place around coxwell. She had just had a baby girl and Rajat had bought some kids clothes for the baby. She made tea and bhel for us. I don't generally drink tea.. well.. I didn't at all drink hot tea but she had made awesome tea! (And I was rather thirsty and too polite to say "no I don't drink tea!") Ankita was very nice. She was communicating very well, even with the canadian neighbour. She even invited us to stay for dinner, (I wouldn't have objected at all. Judging by the bhel, it would have been an awesome treat!) but Rajat said we should leave. And leave we did. At 8 pm, we waited to catch the streetcar that would take us to queen subway station.
Transit disaster#2
As we were approaching the queen station, I suggested we stay on the ttc and go with the streetcar all the way to long branch and catch the go train from there! We were sure we missed the 8:30 train from union, so we should be able to catch the 9:30 train at long branch if we reach there by 10. Rajat agreed and we thought now we just enjoy the ride.
But there was so much traffic on queen street that we were moving at snail's pace. As the clock sped closer to 10 and we inched ever so slowly towards long branch, we realized that we won't make the next train. And sure enough, I got to long branch only after the train had just passed. To make matters worse, the station had closed down, and both of us needed to take a leak! So we found a spot where the security cameras couldn't see us, and relieved ourselves.
Finally, after waiting for an hour in the surprisingly cold weather(for early may) we got on the bus and were in oakville in no time. And since the oakville transit buses had stopped running, we had to walk all the way to Rajat's house. Luckily, there was a 24 hour tim hortons about halfway there and we stopped to take a break, and get a drink and some snack to refuel ourselves.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Late night ice cream run
Donnie was in a really bad mood almost all day today. So he decided to go take a walk outside at about 11 pm in the night. In talking to him, trying to cheer him up, I said hey, do you wanna go get an ice cream?
And so we headed out to the store barely 5 minute walk away from the apartment. I saw a bus and suddenly said, "hey, wanna go for a random bus ride to nowhere in particular?" (I watched yes man not too long ago) He said he didn't bring his wallet (That has the TTC card). So I ended up buying him an ice cream. And we went on a walk towards the flyover over highway 427.
He told me he has an option to study for gmat and apply for York U if he doesn't make it into Ryerson. But he is not ready to do it because GMAT is too hard and he won't be able to do it. I stayed quiet for a moment, as I wanted to look back at what I've done before telling him he shouldn't think like that and not give up before he's even tried.
"Do you know how hard GMAT is?" he asked.
"I do", I replied.
Since I didn't want to make it about 'me', I briefly told him how I tried 3 times for getting into the animation program and worked harder than I have ever had for anything else in my life.
I was telling him once you start doing it, you might actually get into it and perform better than you think.
Soon we reached the flyover and I wished I had my camera with me. I did make a mental note to come back here next time with my camera and tripod. Doni and I started talking about timelapses and long exposure photography. (got to get my camera sensor cleaned!)
And even as we were returning, and he said, "shit! I didn't bought the coke" I said to myself, calm down yash, not tonight...
And so we headed out to the store barely 5 minute walk away from the apartment. I saw a bus and suddenly said, "hey, wanna go for a random bus ride to nowhere in particular?" (I watched yes man not too long ago) He said he didn't bring his wallet (That has the TTC card). So I ended up buying him an ice cream. And we went on a walk towards the flyover over highway 427.
He told me he has an option to study for gmat and apply for York U if he doesn't make it into Ryerson. But he is not ready to do it because GMAT is too hard and he won't be able to do it. I stayed quiet for a moment, as I wanted to look back at what I've done before telling him he shouldn't think like that and not give up before he's even tried.
"Do you know how hard GMAT is?" he asked.
"I do", I replied.
Since I didn't want to make it about 'me', I briefly told him how I tried 3 times for getting into the animation program and worked harder than I have ever had for anything else in my life.
I was telling him once you start doing it, you might actually get into it and perform better than you think.
Soon we reached the flyover and I wished I had my camera with me. I did make a mental note to come back here next time with my camera and tripod. Doni and I started talking about timelapses and long exposure photography. (got to get my camera sensor cleaned!)
And even as we were returning, and he said, "shit! I didn't bought the coke" I said to myself, calm down yash, not tonight...
Monday, May 04, 2009
Evening timelapse
So I spent pretty much all of the day today working with my camera and timelapse. Dragon being my software of choice. I had to charge both the batteries, and make sure they had enough juice to hold up to shooting upto 500 shots. Tried out different locations. First out the window of my room. But Dragon crashed and I had wasted a lot of time.
Next, I put the camera in the balcony. Doni and I had discussions about whether we should point the camera towards the highway or the west. The trees though were a bummer as we couldn't see the cars on the highway or much of the lights after the sun went down. We were both debating how long can we make the timelapse before it gets boring. Finally, I kept the framerate at 24 and the timelapse came to about 21 seconds.
Another thing I am disappointed with is dust appearing on the picture because my sensor is dirty. Gotta spend some bucks to get a good sensor cleaning swab.
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