ThePanda

First apologies abound….. Me am sorry for putting this up a li’l late, there were a few ppl I was supposed to call up, a few blogs I was supposed to visit, MT I was supposed to install, but they all got sidetracked… Actually someone had been invited over to dinner today, someone good, fuddy and important, and well I unfortunately forgot all abt it…. So business got sidetracked, good food and pleasure got into the main lane…... So everyone who was affected by my inconsiderate behavior, here’s an open unqualified apology…...

I have been thinking abt a few things, mostly as I research thru colleges…. Official sites and stats r an awful way to judge an institution, hell the pic is always either 2 stern or 2 rosy eyed which is perhaps y my interviewers have been surprised that I care abt things outside of academics, ‘coz ppl think skools filled with ppl who study and do nuthing else, and well thats not true, we have ppl who do a lot more than study who r actually interesting…. Unfortunately ze skool itself wud never declare this ‘coz its not what the skool wants itself to be known for, which is y me believes we need to build a li’l section of the web to promote all the blogs written by ppl from r skool past & present, ‘coz it ain’t worth having all of us categorized into one studious highly academic category… Hell I read, but only things that I am not forced to, and the skool only taught me what I shudnt read…...

Neways I am kindda hyped at the moment so more later…...

Ze Panda
all that the school had to teach me, it did in Kindergarten: Mr. Hand Grenade protests vehemently when u pull his pin out, so much so that he instantly ceases to be ur friend….....

P.S. I may be shifting to MoveableType soon…...

Classical musicians die rather eccentric deaths, so much so zat whole stories r written on their deaths, almost as if the heavens themselves (note no gender specific references) wanted their deaths to be as much of a lesson as zeir lives were…. Quite a few ppl know abt Mozart’s famous Requiem, ze piece originally intended for a nobelman’s dead wife which eventually ended up serving as ze requiem at Mr. Mozart’s own funeral… Oh and he never got round to finishing it…. Now zis particular is famous and well its ok, goes on abt artists not having ze right to choose who can enjoy their talents and a lot of other such uninteresting thingees….. But ze Mozart story is immensely boring, hell no supernatural forces, loopy self references or ne such thingees come in…. Now if u actually wanna study a musicians death, u shud try reading abt Bach’s death….. For those who don’t know who Bach is (extremely poor GK me says) he was this 17th century German composer, pretty famous for his music which ranges from extremely happy tones to an extremely violent concerto (Brandenburg), but nevertheless Mr. Bach’s name has one interesting thingee abt it… See B,A & C r pretty much there on all musical scales, however in Germany B-Flat is called H, and well hence in Germany all four of his name’s characters r present on the musical scale…. Bach never really signed his musical pieces with this particularly musical signature, becoz he didn’t need 2, however at the end of his days he was working on zis piece of work called ze “Art of Fugue” and well knowing that his time was at hand, he embedded his name into one part of his composition, and the moment this particular part of the composition was played Bach collapsed and died, in what can probably be regarded as a serious case of resonance… Now b4 u call this a coincidence, what u shud know is zat when zis composition was being played Bach wasn’t sick or nething, he hadn’t really been very sick until then (unlike Mozart who was already sick and dying b4 he started work on the Requiem), in fact the only reason Bach felt that his time was near was ‘coz he was pretty old, and he’d outlived most of his peers, in fact he’d lived for something like twice the average lifetime of those days (maybe he was powered by an early edition of Duracell®)..... Fuddy way for a fuddy guy to go, a true musical resonance (interestingly Bach’s son was also a brilliant composer and though his worx r rarer to come across, he was almost as good as his father)............

Me newly blogging friend has compared me to Miss. Marple (Agatha Christie, old lady, pretty knowledgeable but strangely not as interesting as Poirot), and zat is strange, ‘coz as the bracketed comments wud have more or less shown u, I am not a very big fan of Miss. Marple, OK I kindda like a few of the stories involving her (the Mirror Cracked from Side to Side wud be a good example), but I strangely still find Poirot to be more entertaining and interesting to go thru, but then again at ze end of ze day I’m more of a Sherlock fan than a fan of either of these….. Guess I like ACD’s twisted sense of humor and Holmes’ and Watson’s strange ways of working…......... Still thanx for comparing me with one of the greatest detective characters of all times…..

Go thru any newspaper’s business section, and ppl wud tell u all abt how business’s and companies have to be flexible to survive in this day n time, abt how being rigid doesn’t pay, abt how rigidity is the worst thing u can have, and a whole wad of other such hogwash….. Oh well someone (preferably someone happy to wade thru a tonne of shit) go and teach courier companies abt zis shit…. Umm Ok like TNT, FedEX, UPS and DHL r fine, but ze smaller ones r absolutely inflexible and they refuse to be redirected…. See zere is zis guy who lives near me house who’s given an incorrect address to some organization he’s a member of (umm judging by ze horrendous covers on these packages me guess its either the Global Torturers Association or ze World Chimps Congress, though me parents have assured me otherwise), and well this particular courier company always delivers his packages at me house, refuses to take a redirect and if I still insist on redirecting he leaves it in me post box…... So I decided to change dynamics a little today, I refused to accept delivery, didn’t allow him access to me mailbox, and well generally forced him to carry it bak, I am unhappy abt zis ‘coz its gonna cause some amt of trouble to both parties, but I was generally bored of taking this guys deliveries…..... Hope the package eventually reaches the intended recipient ‘coz I didn’t wanna cause neone ne trouble….....

According to an UN info page there r barely 800 giant pandas left in ze wild today, and zat is a lower estimate than nething I have come across till now, and also a rather sad estimate ‘coz they r after all my namesakes if not direct relatives (umm I still claim to be a mutated mixture of giant and red pandas but then not many ppl agree to that), and well being that this site is mostly a pun on my rather famous namesakes, there demise is saddening, which is y zis site shall from now carry a little painting of pandas and their habitats (right after the archives).... The picture was originally made by a thai kid and while it ain’t be much in terms of pure art its still a very good representation of pandas…...

On a more positive note cables bak, though I haven’t watched much today, since it came bak on barely an hr bak….... Yahooo…....

Ze Panda
saddened by the demise of pandas, happy abt ze return of cable…..........

P.S.: To neone planning to apply to JHU know zat JHU sends out mailers addressed to “The Family of ” containing info abt how good JHU is, and well a rundown of the student’s of JHU complete with photos of a few pool parties…..........

Another good day gone bad/bad day gone good has come to pass, and every nerve ending in my body, specially those on my thighs, and the optic nerves r screaming bloody murder….... Kindda reminds me abt ze months gone by, ze months filled with daily instances of chimp conspiracy and anti-panda sentiments….. Well ze chimps r bak, bak in a biiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggg way and zis time they rnt even pretending to be giving me a fair fight….. Chimps, those suckers, they even sent me a pic of their anti-panda campaign earlier today…....

Well it all starts with ze climate, now it is this strange period of time when it ain’t warm enuf to start ze ceiling fans and ACs but it ain’t cold enuf for a panda not to feel noticeably warm, and zis kindda weather seriously drives me crazy, ‘coz I am feeling warm as hell, but am still afraid of switching on my AC and fans (if me parents see ze fan running in me room they r probably gonna run checks on my mental condition, since me mom still wears a sweater)...... Which is sad specially at night and well is responsible for reducing my already measly four hours of sleep to a mere hour yesterday night…. I simply cudnt go to sleep and strangely enuf haven’t even been able to sleep all thruout ze day, and well I guess that ain’t very good for me…. To make matters worse my thighs still ache, I think me pulled a muscle or something…..

Zen zeirs ze cable network….. Oh well most of today was good, I caught me first episode of Karen Sisco and well me recommends it to neone in search of a comically fuddy (almost as much as Monk) detective story, but zat was abt it…. Somewhere, someplace, some chimp cut a fiber optic cable, and thus disconnected me from ze cable network…. Being zat fibre optic cables can’t be repaired as easily as copper wires can, it seems unlikely zat I’d be getting cable bak on netime soon, and me so wanted to watch Gangs of New York on Sunday…..... Stoooooooooooooooopid chimps…....

Zen someone on a usenet grup mentioned something abt a Quinzo’s ad and while I had no idea what Quinzo’s sells (subs) and what the ads were abt, ppl said zey were fuddy so I had to watch, well if someone can call zese ads funny, then for heaven sakes I am funny, hell everyone including the most non-humorous guy is funny….... While I have no idea abt what kindda subs these guys make, ze ad is absolutely revolting and umm if someone tried to get me to eat at one of these places solely on the basis of advertising I’d end up puking rather than eating….......

And now I have McGill to worry abt, which for some strange reason hasn’t yet processed ne of the additional documentation I sent in a month bak, and Duke which hasn’t yet mentioned ze fact zat I have sent in an optional art supplement on their site…... Chimps at work, chimps always at work, chimps who r gonna try and ruin all of zis month, all ‘coz I am hoping to get word on my college applications and whether I have been accepted or not….............. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…............

Zen zeres my ASL lrning thingee, well no developments on that front, not much at least, though I have been practicing finger spelling and have now associated most of ze letters with their ASL counterparts (umm ok not P and Q but other than that everything else is done, P & Q r strangely non-intuitive).....

Final analysis, COLLEGES STILL RULE MY ROOST OF WORRIES, followed by ze damn chimps who for some strange reason decided to regain lost ground right around now…..........

Ze Panda
worried abt colleges first and chimps second…........

P.S. Me friend just started a Blog, and well unless ur chimps, u better visit his blogs, plz plz plz pretty plz…...............

Fuddy day today was…..... Fuddy enuf for me not to be able to guess whether it was a good day gone bad or a bad one gone good….... It all started with this insane desire to watch Alias today, instead of having to wait until Saturday (mostly ‘coz I ain’t sure abt being sane until Friday, anxiety of college admissions and a lack of good conversation), read all of QED again, learn a li’l bit of ASL and well do a myriad of other things….. So being as it is, I started out with the QED project, and well for those of u who haven’t read or heard abt Feynman’s book QED all I can say is that ur missing out on a rather interesting and simplified view of how ze world around us worx, zis is the 5th time I am rereading it so u can understand me love for ze book…. But nevertheless 2 chapters down the line I felt a little bored went down and got a sneak at what was on TV, got bored and came up…...

Which is when the Earth shattered, see a little electron collided with a little photon and a chain of things happened and I started reminiscing abt my days doing Taekwondo (I am a black belt even though if uv seen me ud think otherwise) and well strangely I felt the urge to exercise and stretch, which I did, only to end up with joints on my thighs which feel as if they’ve been over lubricated (a result of stretches as done in Taekwondo), and an overly bad feeling abt the state of my body….. Hence I shalth try and either a) never exercise again or b) exercise regularly for sometime until I feel a li’l better abt my body….. So either way in the midst of all of this earth shaking and exercising I managed to miss Monk and turn up in front of ze TV just as Alias started up, watched all of it and came up to log on and check mails and do other stuff….....

While checking my mail I found something from UToronto abt choosing which college I wanted to attend, and while I am not gonna end up going to UToronto I don’t really mind playing around with my choices so I tried doing that only to find that I didn’t have my “U of T Student ID” ‘coz well I never received ne mailers from U of T, so I shot off a mail to them and got a little depressed abt not being able to do much until much later in the day when ppl at Toronto wake up….. Then I remembered abt ASL…...

Umm well c I have wanted to lrn ASL for a long time, mostly ‘coz there was this movie abt a deaf chemist which I liked, but also ‘coz its something that I haven’t ever tried learning (I have tried french, sanskrit, hindi, oriya, physics, chem, math, a dozen comp languages, tennis, badminton, table tennis, and quite a few other stuff but never sign language)... So I searched for sites teaching ASL, found one which taught me how to finger spell, and a few basic terms, and well two huge dictionaries so I have now been consigned to learning the gestures from dictionaries, not fair, and pretty depressing…...

I got pretty tired (not bored) learning ASL so I shifted bak to QED which I did finish, and then continued moping around abt UToronto, a lack of good food (it wasn’t all that bad) and no decisions from the US…... Evening was when things started getting better, I finally got the network settings right for being able to connect to Queen’s library catalog, telnet and a myriad of other things, for which I have to connect thru a proxy (not good believe me) but nevertheless it worx….. Then I called up UToronto, got my student ID and gave them my preferences, and well OK my joints still feel over lubricated, I am still unhappy abt not knowing my american decisions, I am still searching for a better site to learn ASL from for free, but ya the day was surprisingly good….. Oh and well my friend has his exams coming up and is pretty concerned abt them so best of luck to him for those…...

Ze Panda
still wondering what was wrong (or right) with today…....

Spim seems to be ze new irritating kid on ze block, though strangely enuf I haven’t run into ne spim while using MSN Messenger (I have experienced some on Yahoo messenger) and well maybe microsoft is doing something right…... However as most of ze world moves towards avoiding spam, spim, and other such irritating methods of sale, closer to home ppl and companies seem to be absolutely unconcerned abt privacy issues, causing major concerns for me…... Take me celphone company for instance, these fools have been distributing my phone number as if there’s no end in sight…. I have been after zese ppl all thruout today and well on last count they still don’t know whether they can correct this mistake or not…......... SUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm neways li’l else to write abt today, so more later…

Ze Panda
wondering abt writer’s block and colleges in the US again…......

A long long time ago (time and distance r interrelated hence two options depending on ur physical belief, I fer one wud go with zis one since it sounds so much better) in a place not so far away (assuming ze multi-verse theory to be incorrect) or a long long time ago in a place far far away (if ze multi-verse theory is correct and assuming a closed universe at least (age of universe)*(speed of light) kilometers away) where TVs and radios were inexistent, some smart aleck came up with ze idea of writing a days events on something (I ain’t sure its paper) and putting it up on wall, and thus in one fell sweep creating both graffiti (not the PalmOS kind) and newspapers…... Well more than 2000 years or a few after a few million multi-verses the world is a changed place, there r troops inside of the Rubicon now, Romans can no longer walk all of Europe feeling safe, Italians r considered to be great designers, builders of sports cars and womanizers rather than being great warriors, graffiti is a major problem for some cities (not Singapore where u get canned and Delhi where graffiti paint is impossible to come by), and well newspapers hire gorillas and rhesus monkeys as reporters… Ok the newspaper part is something zat most ppl probably wudnt agree with, and well that’s their loss, ‘coz today no less than 2 papers have said the Osama bin Laden (of the Wanted Dead or Alive fame) is the director of Al-Qaeda….. Ya right and Ze Panda is a modified form of the Giant Panda whose genetic sequence was created in a lab, and zis Earth is flat…. Hell the Al Quaeda doesn’t issue official looking letterheads like the CIA proclaiming that Mr. bin Laden is the director of Al-Qaeda… While he’s an enormously rich, extremely spoiled, stupid looking, idiot who is probably more responsible for reducing my chances of getting thru a college in the United States than neone else on the face of the earth, and the leader of Al Qaeda, the guy who gives the organization moolah and direction, he is not its director, or CEO or COO or CFO or ne such shitty official sounding thingee, he’s simply their leader, the kind aliens ask u to take zem to, so while Mr. Osama can be the director of the Saudi Bin Laden grup, own Mecca and Medina, and be a billionaire, he cannnnnnnnnnnnnot be ze director of Al Qaeda…. Get it into ur heads u damn rehsuses and gorillas, ‘coz there r ppl out their who take u publish to be the actual truth and ask questions like who is the director of al qaeda in official sounding quizzes, GK tests and olympiads, so well research what u say b4 u say it…..

A few other rehsuses and gorillas have also criticized the Pentagon for suppressing a report which says that by 2020 (a mere 16 years away in case u didn’t notice), most Europeans would be below sea level, UK wud look like Siberia and a global thermonuclear war wud have started….... Umm well why shud neone be sad abt someone suppressing a report such as zis ‘coz if u publish something like zis, ze last part, the one where thermonuclear warfare is mentioned becomes more likely, ‘coz everyones gonna want to be on safer higher ground, and well u don’t want a thermonuclear was starting up netime soon ‘coz u know the likelihood of neone or nething other than cockroaches and duct tape surviving such an event asymptotically approach zero, and well in this particular case there’s no such thing as crying wolf because if countries feel threatened, they r gonna fight irrespective of what the truth is…. Hell either ways the year 2020 for some reason holds great importance for a lot of ppl, u have the Bill & Melinda Gate’s Trust offering money for biological research into solving essential problems including HIV by the year 2020, u have r stupid president (who claims he’s a scientist) proclaiming that by 2020 India wud do n number of things and have n number of weapons, some general claiming that by 2020 India wud have naval and air superiority over the US (oh ya we’ll crash r MiG-29’s into whoever or whatever comes close to us, and we’ll stuff them with explosives b4 doing that, a modern version of Kamakazi fighting) and well a ton of stuff which the UN says wud be done by 2020…... I seriously wonder why 2020 is so damn important for these ppl, it ain’t even as symmetric to look at as 2002, or 2222, or 2332, and well 2020 is a stupid yr to concentrate all ur efforts on…........ Stoooooopid chimps…......

With ze coming of ze-month, ze chimps have also been re-activated, and have again started using zeir infamous chimp conspiracy ray….. Much like ze Viet-Cong, ze Taliban and other such guerilla forces of ze past (and hence of another multi-verse) ze first thing zese fools attack is me comm networx, which is perhaps y I have been disconnected thrice in as many secs…..... Though saddly for me as one of me friends reminded me, college decisions come a lil toward mid-late march, not early march and zats sad, ‘coz it increases ze amt of time I’d have to wait for zem…..

Ze Panda
off to pray for an early (relatively) decision admitting him to one of ze Ivies…......

Math is one subject which inspires strong reactions, u either luv it or u absolutely hate it, not many ppl have a luke warm reaction to math, OK there r ppl who have either of the strong reactions depending on what ze topic in question is, but the topical reaction is strong nevertheless….... Most if not all ppl wud also tell u abt how zey feel mathematicians r either crazy geniuses, or not so crazy crooks…. Me on the other hand don’t really put mathematicians into either of these categories, mostly ‘coz I wanna double in physics and math, and well if neone’s considered crazier than a mathematician its a physicist, or so ppl tell me….. In the early 20th century, around say ze 1920 and 30s mathematicians were trying insanely hard to come up with a perfect system of proofs, one zat cud work out sequentially and not be self-referential, one zat cud be used to logically define all of math, and well a few of these mathematicians were worried…. Umm see much like ze unified field theory in physics, a perfect formal system of proofs in math wud in essence render a timeline in which all of math cud hopefully be discovered and zat wud be sad ‘coz mathematicians wud suddenly be out of demand…. Which is when a brilliant li’l mathematician named Gödel stepped in and in essence proved that no formal system cud ever completely define math, in essence what he meta-mathematically proved was that there’d always be statements which read something like “THIS STATEMENT CAN NOT BE TRUE IN FORMAL SYSTEM PM” (think abt this logically and ud enter an infinite loop) and mathematicians wud hence never be out of a job…. Umm ok the job thingee was something that I put in, but nevertheless the Gödel incompleteness theorem is pretty much akin to an insurance policy for mathematicians…... A few decades later someone went on to explore consciousness in formal systems as was defined by the strange loops formed using Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, and abt how these loops give us humans consciousness and not the excessively fatty substance which sits at the top of r bodies, ok the thingee at the top of r bodies helps us but isn’t what defines consciousness…. Now do one of those cinematic cuts to ze end of last yr, and ull find ze panda working on his UChicago essay (available here), on consciousness (what else did u expect; coke, french fries and bamboos weren’t really offered as alternate essay topics) and well I ended up writing what I consider to be an excellent piece on consciousness of atoms. Sadly my essay uses up Gödel’s strange loops without actually ever calling zem that, and well I hadn’t read Gödel Incompleteness, its proof or GEB otherwise I’d have acknowledged zat ppl b4 me had thought abt similar things (none of this was ever applied to atoms so I am still on okishly original ground), however now I am worried ‘coz I am sure someone on the UChicago admission committee wud definitely have read all of zese pieces of work and wud unfairly be thinking that I used these books as references and never acknowledge my usage…... Not fair me says, me worked so hard on zat essay, and me had genuinely come up with ze entire idea all be meself, and now I don’t want someone to think zat I copied it all…......... Chimps, and ze chimp conspiracy ray is responsible for zis stupid omission but I suddenly am out of ideas abt how to wiggle out of zis mess….............. BOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO…...................................

Ppl shud go and talk to me friend abt teachers who teach 2 fast, miss out on stuff and don’t explain well enuf, and well if u have ze power to make him me skool’s head boy (he’s a worthy choice) he’d give u a better explanation that what ud be provided with otherwise….. However its not just lil bit of explanations teachers seem to be skimping out on, but also a lot of tasty morsels of information…. Take the case of the Fibonacci series, which as ne school comp teacher wud tell u is important, and as most wud put it was discovered by some guy named Fibonacci, however what no one tells u is zat Fibnacci is actually a shortening of Filius Bonacci (Itallian, English:son of Bonaccio, his full name in English actually reads Leonardo of Pisa the son of Bonaccio).... Now Filius Bonacci is so much more interesting to talk of as compared to say Fibonacci or some other such shitty name…....... Wonder y no teacher ever tells u abt Filius Bonacci….......

Hmm march, d-month as another one of my friends puts it is approaching ever closer, and with it me hopes of getting thru a few colleges in ze US…... Hmmm I don’t much believe in fortune telling, and ze billion or so astrologers that me parents have talked to cannot seem to agree on my future, I am kindda like an astrological persona non grata (shud probably be panda non grata, but I ain’t sure the romans called pandas pandas), and well having no exact or inexact ways of judging ze future I am stuck with only hope and fear, ok not as much fear as when zis Blog started out but fear nevertheless…. There r a few places which I do wanna get thru, and well where I am unaware of my chances (which is y I haven’t put Princeton and Yale on this list, ‘coz if either of these places taking me can be considered to be equivalent to lightening striking the same place twice, quantum mechanics turning out to be absolutely 100% incorrect, me being Einstein, and Roswell being a site of actual alien landing).... Places like Swarth, Brown (ya ya I remember in deo speramus), Amherst (as different from UMass at Ameherst) and Duke....... Once upon a time some months bak zis Blog had changed my fortune, got me thru a few colleges, one of which I actually like, helped reassure me zat I wud have a college zis yr, lets hope ze magic worx again….........

I’m gonna be helping organize a photography exhibition with both me (a few) and me dads (a lot) photographs (though I shalth be digitally correcting zem) on a pretty big scale soon, umm hopefully that is since I have yet to actually get a hold of a sponsor (ok slight idea of who its gonna be, but not really confirmed)........ Thats gonna be cool, maybe something I can use in college later, lets c…..

Ze Panda
praying for a little more magic with colleges in the US…..........