13th December, 2013

If this blog were a bookshelf, I would be buried in its dust.
I wonder if it counts as intentional oversight or if my laziness has just transcended to a whole new level.

I spent the whole day revisiting my old PS2 games and Scrabble game with the mother.

I wish I could put into words how lost all this makes me feel. In my never-ending search for meaning in everything, I have only been shown further confusion.

I cannot even think of a title for this post.
100% rant, is all this is.
Perhaps some unease thrown into it.

My reading list on blogger had more than 20 blogs frequently updated. Bursting with stories.
Apart from a couple, the others are defunct.
I blame Twitter, really.
Words have more meaning and power than is felt and expressed by 140 characters.


I have no words left for tonight. Like I said, the bookshelf had to be tidied.





-
V

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Now Reading  :  http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/6/5126856/whats-in-your-bag-katie-drummond
Now Listening : Dreams Money Can Buy - Drake , Feel Good - Emil Berliner
Now Feeling : The onset of a sneeze.

Have Some KitKat

Another update on the phone front. 

I have highly anticipated the release of Android 4.4 KitKat but to my slight frustration, phones like the Moto X got their OTA before my Nexus 4, which I think was a little unfair. 

But all that aside, its here, and it is beautiful. The changes appear to be subtle but are pretty immense once you're trying to settle into the ecosystem. That calm blue colour highlighting associated with Android since ICS all the way to JellyBean 4.3 is replaced with this super cool, straight out of sci-fi white.

The dialler app is one trippy motherfucker right now and its also got its own TrueCaller like implementation, so it searches for business' numbers if you're calling any.

That being said, my favourite feature, by far of the 4.4 update, is how the lockscreen shows full size album art of whatever is playing..

But the main feature of 4.4 that I have been drooling over since the pre-release photo of the Nexus 5 were the transparent navigation an notification bars.

Although, as I learned today, the swipe left on the homescreen to launch Google Now and the transparent bars are exclusive to the Nexus 5. 

I have a feeling this feature will probably roll out on future iterations and even if thats not true its only going to take Nova Prime a little while to get it. (In case you didn't know, you can sign up for a Nova Launcher Beta, install the .apk file over your existing Nova Launcher to take advantage of the transparent bars feature )

Now you may notice that my screen shot shows transparent notification and navigation bars. What is this sorcery, you might ask.


Well, take your lazy fingers to Google and search for an article that Android Police wrote about how they too were disappointed that the transparency is a Nexus 5 exclusive.
So they did something pretty impressive. They took out the Google Experience Laucher (thats what the stock launcher is called on the N5) and basically installed that apk on any other device running KitKat.

So far, the only compatibility issues are a non-centered Google search bar and I think that happens only on Nexus 7s

Feel free to leave a line, if you need some help

-

V

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Now Listening : Retrograde - James Blake
Now Reading : The Design of the UNIX Operating System - Maurice J Bach

Now Feeling : A little annoyed

Android Homescreen Update (29/8/13)

I've lost track of what I've written, what I've meant to write and what, I shall probably, never write.
I think mere sentiment is what keeps me from abandoning the blog. And this.


In my opinion, I think I've gone more minimal than the last time.

Lockscreen :

Swipe to the left for Google Keep and what you see by default is a widget called Dash Clock. Brilliant stuff.


Homescreens:

I've never really liked the wallpaper to scroll along with my homescreen and that is why you will find that I have not used the whole image for the wallpaper.

I fell in love with these icons which come as a pack along with some minimalist wallpapers in an app Stark Icon Pack.
Just so beautiful.
Almost all the apps I have seem to have a replacement icon in this app, and if that's not saying something then I don't know what is.

Also, I seem to have found the perfect dock icons so I haven't really changed anything there. You'll find that an icon for opening the app drawer is missing. But these icons seem to look better as a line of 4, so I decided to do away with it and use a Nova Launcher Prime gesture for it. Swiping up anywhere on the screen opens the app drawer. And this is something I first saw implemented in Adnan's phone.

The 2nd homescreen is also merely the same. I have found the perfect 4 folders to classify my most used apps in. And to not flip out on the symmetry I had to remove an icon in the 2nd dock.
So I decided to let go of the People shortcut seeing as how Android 4.3 allows T9 access via the dialler to contacts.

I'm still of 2 minds on the wallpaper. Because I think the icons steal the show and I don't really know if the wallpaper lives up to that.

No major app additions except maybe Mighty Text which is an inaccessible app on the phone and pairs with a Chrome extension on your browser so I can type and view texts on the computer. It also happens to flash useful information like when someone is calling or the battery percentage as of the last refresh.
Very handy.


As ever, questions and any queries are welcome.



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Now Reading :  The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Now Listening : Third Eye - Tool
Now Feeling : Distant

Les choses simples

More often than not, I'm unable to put across an idea and it jumps onto my pile of unsaid things simply because I don't know how to start. Maybe its because I don't usually think of the most normal things. If you're thinking about Idli, then you think of Sambhar and Chutney and hence you already know where to begin. If you're thinking love, then you think of your prized possessions and your parents\friends\lovers and things have actual conceptualized beginnings and endings.
Fortunately or I daresay unfortunately, things in my mind don't work so simply. Maybe because our definitions of simple differ. During the context of my writing, simple means I can refer to all my readers, to none of them or maybe even refer to myself in the middle of the post using the word 'you'. But maybe that word doesn't process in your head with the same amount of Serotonin I wish for it to send. Maybe that's my fault. Maybe not. But I will die with the belief that by making your eyes move past these letters, you're almost  here. Somewhere close by, somewhere far. But here, nevertheless. That by using mere words I can make you feel like its just the speaker and the listener in a dim-lit room with our conversation blooming\flowing.
I'm happy that I'll never be ashamed of this belief.
That's a good thing, for any of you nihilists or sadists out there.
Maybe I lost myself here in the last paragraph but you're just beginning to find yourself in here. Where everything is new, and nothing is too far from reach.

A lot of times, when I re-read my old stuff, I feel like I'm looking at a checkpoint-mirror-image of myself. Because of what has changed since that has been written, that guy and I need not be one and the same. Its a delightful experience, truthfully.

With reference to the title, I was watching the 2nd episode of the MTV show called Bring On The Night and seeing them design the place just made me add 3 things to my bucket list. 3 things that I'm okay with being put up in cyberspace.
1. Paint an entire wall\room on my own. Use some spray paint and chalk and what not and kill that shit. Maybe draw a honeycomb pattern, drill some holes, shove some lights inside 'em. And make that shit trippy.
2. Write an actual message and send it through a bottle. Write without inhibition, without worry and more importantly, without sanity and just let it go. Hope and pray that the person who finds it knows English.
3. Make a sign on just trash cardboard, write "Free Hugs" on it and stand in Times Square in NYC or at Trafalgar Square in London or someplace in India where it won't look completely out of place for atleast an hour. Might even add something wacky below the sign like "Ask the Chef for daily specials" ! I'd like to do it with company, but I'm open to negotiation on that bit.

 Try reading this again while listening to a song called Farewell Spaceman by Buckethead. If you'd really do it, go to a room where there's only one small source of light, a candle perhaps, play this song and try to lose yourself inside yourself. It really is that brilliant a song.

Math exam in 2 days. Haha

-
V

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Now Reading - City of God - Collection of short stories
Now Listening - Farewell Spaceman - Blockhead and Verstrahlt - Marteria
Now Feeling - Uh, alright.

Of All Things Lively

Hello.

Maybe its been too long since I wrote here. Maybe it hasn't.
But somehow, no matter how much I try, I can't write unless there's that sudden spark of inspiration.
I always imagine an artist can doodle something anytime. And a musician can always make a tune in progress.
Maybe writers pen short fiction and poems in these mid-spaces where inspiration is absent.
But somehow I can't.

Although I do have a pretty radical explanation to it.

What if what I perceive as inspiration isn't it? What if there's more? What if every moment until you realize you're inspired is in some way a small parcel of the overall inspiration?
Reading that sentence makes me shudder at how optimistic I am sometimes. I like being realistic. If you're gonna drown, you're gonna drown. Can't really tell you the water's nice and warm then, can I?
But maybe as humans we're programmed to believe in something? To always hope. To always look up and hope to see something that prolongs this eternal hope.
That line made me a little sad. But sadly enough, it is the truth. 

On unrelated notes, thanks to the unreliability in availability of an Internet connection in India, I've started maintaining a journal. Its probably something I should have done a long while back, but I guess something kept stopping me.

I hope  to find more meaning to life in the emptiness of the pages that will no doubt be filled.

And if you've been reading this all along and somehow within you a voice agrees, that maybe this dude has a point (most of the time), then Im being bold enough to ask you if agreeing with me has indeed affected you?
Its probably the most powerful thing someone can do. Inspire.
Especially unintentionally.
Imagine if someone shaped their lives based on something you once said. Or an action you once did.

But I said I was a realist. And that includes acknowledging the other side of the coin. Its an act of inspiration. Doesnt require that the person continue to be that way all the time. Or even that the particular quality you found interesting about someone is no longer there. That doesn't necessarily make them uninteresting or uninspiring but it sure as hell makes me wonder.

Why stories should have definite endings.
Because more often than not, its enough that we know of one incident and learn to move on from the experience and not let it rule us.
Like how in Asterios Polyp, they choose not to show anything beyond Asterios reuniting with his lover. Somehow its the best ending the book can leave you with. The knowledge that he has gained redemption, meaning and he's reunited with the woman who completes him, however abstract a concept that might be.

Maybe we too should choose the endings for certain moments in our lives. Save on the pain and spread some love, maybe.

Try reading this listening to Dawn at the Deuce and Sail on Soothsayer by Buckethead.

I shall end now, hoping that its adequate to say no more,

V

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Now Reading - Transmetropolitan

Now Listening - Sail on Soothsayer - Buckethead

                              Kaliyuga - Engine Earz Experiment

                              Khoya Khoya Chand - Kala Bazaar

Now Feeling  - Calm?

Of Buses And Autos

To one, To all, and To None,
This blog may have found and encountered a standstill, but life, evidently, hasn't.
In the midst of being subjected into a lotta close calls and some tight situations based on ze ever glorious board exams. The marks however, I wouldn't say were that glorious. My shortcoming or the just the system's inability to test me in subjects I'd want to ace or even have an aspiration to ace, I do not want to know.
But the infiltration operation is complete. I am now no longer bound to this system. Hope that counts for a little something in my life.
I have been asking too many questions. About what matters, how it matters, why it must matter and when it must matter?
Although, thinking along the same lines, I wonder if I'm asking the right questions and to the right people?
You can't ask a random someone how planes stay up in the air now can you?

I'm just putting random thoughts out into cyberspace. Let's see what happens. Take shit as it comes. Or so I say.

I am now in Chennai. Its a great place given the right amount of money and the right crowd, or so I'd say.
College beckons and I actually have no bloody clue what's gonna happen. I'm just sitting here staring at screens and bus displays trying to find a route. But what if I dont know where I'm going? Or even worse, when I am  to be there?
You see what I mean with the questions? Bus rides turn all philosophical and a random girl's face (a good looking one at that, if I may) turn into so much more. Slightly irritating at times.

Buses in Chennai are by far the cheapest way of transport  I have encountered. A 120 Rs Auto ride = Rs 5 Bus ride plus a decent bit of walking.

I've bin doing my own fair bit of exploring. Which need not include travelling. Helps me keep in touch with people in a more frank way.

I apologize if this has been a very boring read. I am bored at the moment and maybe that is reflecting on this. I appreciate it if you've made it all this way.

Drive safe,
V


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Now Listening : Nasha - Shaitan
Down On Me - Jeremih (Playing on loop)

Now Reading : Not much Id say

Now Feeling : Free?