Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Ultimate Irony

I want you all to read this. It resembles my opinion on blogging very closely. Sad that i had to post it on my blog though!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Quarter-Life Crisis

This is an article that I first got as an email forward, and then found the full version of, on the internet. And since I cannot find the author or any copyright information, I'll just tell you where I stole it from, so my conscience is clear. Anyway, a very nice read.

Quote

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may or may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you do not realize is that they are realizing that too and are not really cold or catty or mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared.

You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socializing with the same people on a constant basis. But then you realize that maybe they weren't so great after all.

You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough to get to know better. You love someone but maybe love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you are not a bad person.

One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life for yourself and while wining the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

Unquote

Amen! What else can i say?

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Big Picture

I was reading Joel Spolsky's latest article from Joel on Software and i found it, yet again, amazingly insightful.
...your mind gets into a bad habit of overestimating how clearly it understands things. It always thinks it has The Big Picture even when it doesn’t.
and
What kills me is the teams who get into the bad habit of holding meetings every time they need to figure out how something is going to work. Did you ever try to write poetry in a committee meeting? It’s like a bunch of fat construction guys trying to write an opera while sitting on the couch watching Baywatch. The more fat construction guys you add to the couch, the less likely you are to get opera out of it.

Absolute gems. Please also read my other posts on meetings.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I can’t code “revolutionary.” I need more details to write code.
Typically Joel.

Monday, January 22, 2007

True Story* from Michigan, USA.

This guy buys a brand new Grand Cherokee for some 30 thousand dollars and has 400+ dollar monthly payments. He immediately gets a hold of his friend and they go do some male bonding. They go duck hunting and of course all the lakes are frozen. These 2 Atomic Brains go to the lake with the guns, the dog, the beer and of course the new vehicle. They drive out onto the lake ice and get ready.

Now, they want to make some kind of a natural landing area for the ducks, something for the decoys to float on. Remember, it's all ice and in order to make a hole large enough to look like something a wandering duck wants to fly down and land on, it is going to take a little more effort than a ice hole drill. Out of the back of the new Grand Cherokee comes a stick of dynamite with a short, 40 second fuse. Now these 2 Rocket Scientists do take into consideration that if they place the stick of dynamite on the ice at a location far from where they are standing (and the new Grand Cherokee), they take the risk of slipping on the ice when they run from the burning fuse and possibly going up in smoke with the resulting blast. So, they decide to light this 40 second fuse and throw the dynamite which is what they end up doing.

Remember a couple of paragraphs back when I mentioned the vehicle, the beer, the guns AND THE DOG? Yes, the dog. A highly trained Black Lab used for retrieving, especially things thrown by the owner. You guessed it, the dog takes off at a high rate of doggy speed on the ice and gets the stick of dynamite with the burning 40 second fuse about the time it hits the ice all to the woes of the 2 idiots yelling, stomping, waving arms and wondering what the hell to do now.

The dog, well it is happy and heads back from where it came from moments before, with the stick of dynamite, only to the mounting woes of the 2 bozo's now really waving their arms, yelling even louder and jumping to new heights than ever before. Now one of the guys decides to think, something that he has never done before this moment, grabs a shotgun and shoots the dog. The shotgun is loaded with #8 duck shot, hardly big enough to stop a Black Lab on its appointed rounds. Dog stops for a moment, slightly confused and continues on. Another shot and this time the dog, still standing, becomes really confused & of course scared, thinking these 2 Nobel Prize winners have gone insane and takes off to find cover, with the now really short short fuse burning on this stick of dynamite. The cover the dogs finds? Underneath the brand new Grand Cherokee 30 some thousand dollar 400+ monthly payment vehicle sitting on the lake ice.

BOOM !

Dog dies, and it and the brand new Grand Cherokee 30 some thousand dollar 400+ monthly payment vehicle sink to the bottom of the lake leaving the 2 candidates for Co-leaders of the Known Universe standing there with this "I can't believe this happened" look on their faces. Later, the owner of the vehicle calls his insurance company which tells him that sinking a vehicle in a lake by illegal use of explosives is not covered. He had yet to make the first of those 400+ a month payments.

Can somebody verify if this actually happened?

Friday, January 19, 2007

Sh?tty Sh?tty Bang Bang

The whole Shilpa Shetty incident is hilarious, to put it mildly. Of course, it's a disgrace to the nation, and my sympathies to her and all of that, but still, the way the media and two governments are treating this topic is just amazing! My, what patriotic fervour! I sincerely believed our government had slightly higher priority issues to discuss and comment on.

And Shilpa Shetty herself is surprisingly quiet in all of this. She has not come out to the media, never let herself be seen talking on this issue. The whole thing looks a bit dubious to me. Firstly, that she was there on that program to show-case 'Indian Culture' sounds incredulous to me. Now, we all know how excellent a forum to show-case your culture, a reality TV show is. A reality show, in reality is a cheap, trashy program that pays money to cheap, trashy has-been-in-the-limelight C-grade celebrities and wannabes of questionable talent and achievement (Note: I am not commenting on the character of the persons) to reveal how truly bitchy, dirty and foul-mouthed they are to a voyeuristic population that apparently laps up any shit that's thrown to them in the name of entertainment. Come on, we've seen this filth ourselves in our reality shows like 'Roadies' and the like. If Shilpa's secret ambition was to gain media attention and re-start her flagging celebrity lifestyle, she got more than her due share of it. There's nothing in India that sells like a plea for sympathy, and if you can make yourself look weak, subjugated and burdened while at it, you instantly become the perfect Bharatiya Naari in the eyes of the people. The blogosphere, the entire newspaper community, debaters, my grandmother's friends, the neighborhood dogs, every living being with a vocal cord suddenly has strong views on this topic.

Of course we cannot and will not tolerate racism or abuse, but somehow the credibility of the whole issue is shaky when the victim of the abuse has

a. chosen to be present in such an 'abusive' environment out of her own choice. (Nobody would have prevented her from walking off the sets at the first instance of abuse. She's not under house arrest for God's sake!)

b. been paid / is being paid / been promised a lot of money for appearing on the show.

c. has chosen to hide from the media and on no occasion, spoken to the press directly on this issue.

These trivial points are however of no significance to our media watchdogs and self appointed placard-weilding, effigy-burning Indian-Dignity-protecting brigade of 16 year old girls and boys who consider it their social responsibility to organize rallies and scream themselves hoarse. But what disappoints me is that, a government too has considered it necessary to react in much the same way.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

American Byutee

The following text is an extract from one of the comments in the blog YesButNoButYes. To save you the trouble of clicking on that link, I copy-paste the funniest portions below.

The post was called Why People Think Americans Are Stupid and had a hilarious video too.

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
  1. You should look up revocation in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix ize will be replaced by the suffix ise. You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up interspersed. There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.
  2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.
  3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney,upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as Taggart will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is Devon. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become shires e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.
  4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as Men behaving Badly or Red Dwarf will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.
  5. You should relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.
  6. You should stop playing American football. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American football is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays American football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders,your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called rounders, which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.
  7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
  8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called Indecisive Day.
  9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time,you will go metric with immediate effect and conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
  10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.
  11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.
  12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer,and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. The substances formerly known as American Beer will henceforth be referred to as Near-Frozen Knat's Urine,with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen,Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.
  13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or Gasoline, as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon- get used to it).
  14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapistthen you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.
  15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.
  16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).
Thank you for your co-operation and have a great day.
John Cleese

I was in splits, reading points 1, 6, 9 and 12. Brilliant writing!

One of the responses to this comment was by Dr.J, who said:
Mr Cleese (if you are truly who you say you are and I believe you are
because few others would be clever enough to make such a statement), I agree. Well, almost. I must take exception to several points. I think that driving on the left side will make most of us Americans dizzy, which, for driving, especially for driving an American car, is a dangerous state to be in, especially if driving a Ford (you call them Jaguars), which sometimes explode by themselves. I don’t think we should have to pay revenues going back to 1776. That’s just too expensive. If we do that we would not be able to invade random countries which is very costly, especially if we are required to put them back together again after destroying them. Actually, I don’t think we should have to put them back together again because it really takes the fun out of destroying them knowing that soon after we will have to put them together again. No fun at all. I don’t know much about lager, beer, bitters, or brew, but the thought of some warm, flat fermented substance being poured down throats in establishments near to my home is about as appealing as the thought of dirty, sweaty people sucking on each others toes. And finally, I have but one request. If we really must have a Minister for America, would you please do us that honour?
DrJ

I liked that very much.

Crapometer warning: Incidentally, this is the 51st post!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Pongal Vazhthukal

Hey, here's wishing all the readers of my blog a Happy Pongal / Sankranthi / Whatever!

In other words: Here's wishing myself a Happy Pongal.

Have a terrific uttarAyaNam ahead!

Monday, January 15, 2007

New wheels - an update

Over the weekend I had time to do over a 100 km on the new wheels. And I feel this purchase is the best decision I have ever made. Terrific grip and handling. I am able to take tight corners at 100kph. The same corners i used to feel jittery about at 60 kph. And the grip during a panic braking is phenomenal. I still cannot believe that tires can contribute so much to the ride. Even the cushioning seems good, so all in all a great buy. Incidentally, 2k for my old wheels seems like a good deal now, after speaking with one of my friends in the know. What compounds the joy is that the dee loves the wheels too, so much so, she was inspired to start driving the car.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Zen and the art of blowing all your money

I blew 30,000 bucks on my second love! She got a brand new set of pretty shoes to strut around town in. Details: A set of 5 Bridgestone Potenza GIII 165/60 R13 tires. A set of 5 Aura C9350 13" X 5j hypersilver alloys. They look super-sexy now. It was a long pending purchase anyway. Sadly, I got only 2k for my old steel wheels. Pictures pending. Will post them soon. Right after i get the new bumpers, tacho and high power headlights. Which should be very soon, maybe a couple of weeks. I am excited!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

1 A W S = 1 awesome web site

check out the intelligence tests here. Much fun they are.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Love Actually

How in Love are you?

Millions of teenagers ask the question: "How will I know I'm in love?" As Dr. David R. Mace, executive director of the American Association of Marriage Counselors, put it: "It's always difficult to know for sure - especially when you're young."

This quiz was prepared after extensive consultations with experts who have made wide-scale studies of this wonderful yet mysterious emotion. It should help a young person make that all-important decision: "Is it love- or something else?"

Instructions:
Answer the following questions with Yes or No.
Choose Yes only if you have quite definite feelings about your answer. If there's some doubt in your mind, check No.

1. Did this thing happen all of a sudden?

2. Would you be very jealous and upset if someone else made a serious play for him or her?

3. When you aren't together, do you find yourself mooning around, unable to do much except sigh over your beau or belle?

4. Are you more in love when you are together than when you are by yourself?

5. Do you honestly feel that the boy or girl is just about the Most Perfect Person in the world?

6. Are you, on the whole, pretty unhappy at home with your parents?

7. Do you know how your heart-throb feels about money and children?

8. Do you find that, when it comes to this particular boy or girl, you are always anxious to appear at your best - that you are conscious about what you say and how you look and act?

9. Most people agree that there cannot be real love unless two persons share common interest. But how about common miseries? Do both of you have a substantial number of complaints in common about homes, parents, school and other things in your life?

10. Suppose your beloved has gone on an extended trip and written you beautiful and affectionate letters. Would you show these around in your group?
Scoring


Give yourself ten points for each No answer, zero for each Yes except in Question 7, where it' ten for Yes and zero for No.
A score of:
70 -100 It looks like the real thing
50 - 60 Indicates some uncertainty may exist
0 - 40 The romance may grow into love, but it's not there yet!

Perhaps you thought Yes answers revealed true love. Not so! It's the No reply that counts in each case except for Question 7. Here is why, according to the experts.

1. Real love does not happen all of a sudden. When people say, "We fell in love the moment we met," they actually mean that each corresponded to a certain ideal image held by the other. Most of us create these ideals in our minds whether we realize it or not. Thus, when we find someone who looks, acts and talks the way we imagined this special individual would, we are attracted- but that's all it is. Love can develop, but it takes time.

2. Jealousy is not a sign of true love. One of the greatest mistakes young people can make is to believe that the more violent the jealousy, the stronger the love. Some jealousy is normal between two people who care deeply about each other. But jealousy is really possessiveness, not love. Psychoanalyst Dr. Theodor Reik says that people who suffer acutely from jealousy often have an underlying sense of insecurity which leads to an overwhelming need to be loved. As a result, they can be extremely jealous even though they may not be in love at all.

3. Mooning, sighing and daydreaming are signs of infatuation, not love. Here's why: Real love is centered around the other person, with your whole behavior directed toward his or her welfare and happiness. Thus, a boy or girl in love can study and work comfortably, knowing he or she is thereby contributing to the other's happiness. Infatuation, on the other hand, is self-centered. The smitten one becomes absorbed in his own misery at being separated from the adored one or in daydreaming about her. He is in love with love, not a human being.

4. Love does not diminish when one is away from the loved one. If you love a person more when you are with him, chances are that your judgment is being influenced by the charm and excitement of his presence. When he is not around to dazzle you, some doubts emerge as Dr. David R. Mace, executive director of the American Association of Marriage Counselors, put it: if you feel this way, indications are the love is superficial.

5. Love is not really blind to a beloved's faults. The person in love knows and understands the other's shortcomings but cares deeply nonetheless. The infatuated person has a tendency to regard the adored one as flawless.

6. An unhappy home life can trick you into thinking you're in love. The files of marriage counselors are filled with cases of younger people who "fell in love" and married when all they really wanted was to escape from pressures they considered unbearable. For example, a young girl who is constantly battling with her parents sees her boy friend as the rescuing knight in shining armor who will "take her away from all this." She isn't in love- she just wants out.

7. Love cannot always perch on Cloud: it must be practical, too. Two of the most crucial elements in a marriage, experts point out, are money and children. Young people seriously in love must know each other's views on these topics. If a couple hasn't talked them out, chances are the romance hasn't reached the real love stage.

8. Love does not make lovers ill at ease. Dr. Mace declares that when the way you are impressing the other person is the dominant concern in a relationship, real love is still distant. When you know you are loved for what you are, you feel at ease in the other's presence.

9. Being companions in misery is not the same as being in love. Marriage partners should be able to share miseries, but such sharing is not in itself love. All too frequently, young people mix up the two and enter into marriage simply because each has discovered a fellow sufferer with whom to unite against an unfriendly background.

10. Love is a private bond between two people. Authorities agree it can't be real if one party permits intimate details of a relationship to be made public. It may be a bit of prestige in the group, but hardly love.

Yay! Scored 80 or 90 on that. Honestly!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Those New Year Things-To-Do

I meant to post earlier. I even typed out the post. But the transition from old blogger to new blogger kinda deleted that post. Anyway, I can't be bothered enough to type it again.

So here's the official New Year Wishes from the Introspector himself!

Happy New Year, people. May this year bring you good cheer, peace-of-mind, simplicity, and all the other things that you've been desiring (provided they're legal and ethical! ).

In retrospect, the year 2006 has been one roller coaster ride. Looking back, here are some of the major happenings in my life: (all good events are in green, the not-so-good events are in grey)
1. Handled 2 projects simultaneously and performed moderately well on both (I worked very late on Fridays).
2. Took tremendous pressure on myself over a few things. Looking back, these could have been avoided if I had just learnt to think through things calmly without reacting on instinct.
3. Realized that I love my parents more than I have ever shown them.
4. Realized the importance of personal space in a close relationship. The dee will completely endorse this truth. You can ask her.
5. The dee went abroad!!!! To Europe. Official visit, but during the WorldCup Soccer! Super. And she took some neat pics of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. For meeeee! So super.
6. She got me a Creative 1 GB mp3 player!
7. Got an appraisal rating of 5 at work. Tried to show sustained enthu and professionalism in my work. (Really i tried!)
8. Went to Sabarimalai. Went on a trip with cousins.
9. Put on some more weight. Old pants don't fit.
10. Reached an all-together new degree of closeness witht the dee. This is the highest high of my roller-coaster.
11. Had a couple of things sorted out with folks so things sail pretty smoothly now onwards.
12. Made new alliances with some colleagues and found a couple guys who share my sense of humor.
13. Let a long suffering friendship cool down. This is in preparation for my resolution #3a & #7a.
14. Was diagnosed with hypertension.
15. Almost quit smoking and drinking.
16. Got some property registered in my name.
17. Lost my Grandmother.
18. Had a very low-key new year celebration. No party no nothing.

So you can see, there are more greens than grays. Yays!

What i would like to change in the coming year (order of priority, so numbering may repeat):
1a. Stop taking guilt and pressure on myself unnecessarily. Learn to unwind, let my hair (what remains of it) down and relax. Treat myself to more fun times, socialize a bit more. Sleep lots more. The same applies to the dee too.
1b. Lose weight. A lot.
1c. Reduce pressure and other burdens on the relationship. Take responsibility for my negative reactions and emotional outbursts, but understand that these should neither be encouraged nor deserve any sympathy. Treat them as steam-venting times and keep those in check.
2a. Completely quit smoking and drinking.
2b. Work on general fitness and health in a steady consistent approach, pray a little more.
3a. Reduce tensions, smile more, be less grumpy & bitchy & cribby, try to maintain a calm, composed, peaceful and cheerful disposition at all times. I know this needs immmmmense work.
3b. Be more open and frank about the relationship with people, parents or the dee.
3c. Find humor in everyday situations.
4a. Be more mature and steady. Behave like an adult. Get rid of childish insecurities and complexes. Realize that i am stronger and more resilient than i think.
4b. Give myself more time and space to do the things i love doing.
4c. Sharpen rusting mental abilities and memory. Do more puzzles, learn a new trick or fact every day, meditate a bit, try to remember lists etc. Improve learning and excel in atleast 1 technology.
5a. Resist pressure, only bite off what i can chew, bring home fewer work issues, enjoy work more.
5b. Rekindle some old friendships, just to bring back the good times.
6a. Be more modest, and cut people some slack. Don't take myself or my work or the relationship too seriously. All 3 are sufficiently capable of handling themselves without constant introspection and fine tuning attempts.
6b. Read more. Be better informed and updated with current news and technology.
7a. Try not to be involved in/with negative situations, people who get me down, negative emotions. If this means disassociating with a few people I know, then so be it.

This list is by no means final. It shall be modified suitably depending on some comments i recieve, or my own perception shifts.

So with miles to go before I sleep, here's wishing myslef, the dee, folks and everyone a terrific 2007. Let's see what it brings.