statistics ahoy!!!

google reader's trends page threw up some interesting statistics last night :)

new blog template!!!

for the first time since i started this blog in march 2007, i've completely replaced my blogger template. if you're looking at this post in facebook or a feed reader, feel free to stop by and take a look...i appreciate suggestions and feedback...and a lil praise never hurts :P

thanks to made by madeline for the *free* smoke template - it took a lot of editing and xml nitty gritties to ensure that i didn't lose any of my valuable goodies (the template used by itself would have thrown away my google analytics, hit counters, feedburner and all the widgets), but it's much better than i could have done by myself in 2 hours :)

Economic irrationalities

There are some things that people do that simply don't make economic sense. As an ex-economics student and an employee of an investment bank, these things jump out at me...yet i wonder, could it be that hard for someone else to understand?

For example, just 5 minutes ago, about 5 people at borivli station declined my offer to liquid a partly illiquid asset for absolutely free!!!

Finally i had to buy my own coupon booklet....but i did manage to convert a good part of it back to cash by offering it to people standing at the end of the (long) ticket line.

Lesson to be learned: good ecnomics benefits everyone.

Baffled by technology (part 2)

There must be something wrong with the restrooms in inorbit or the guys who use them....today, i had to teach a boy that the correct way to activate the automatic flush is to step away from the urinal, as opposed to banging on the sensor and outlet with his fists till they give up and let flow :D

death wish in sheep's clothing

long ago, i remember having a discussion with a friend about how nice it would be if we could read people's minds: she claimed it was nice and i claimed it was the worst thing that could possibly happen to a person or humanity or both.

the past couple of days almost made me change my point of view. oh, how i wish i could get into a certain someone's head...all i want is just the answers to a couple of questions!!!

it's surprising how easy it is to throw away everything rational for a childish desire thinly disguised as unrequited love.

i wonder if that's why i'm not going to get what i want.

daydream

I just "woke" up from the strangest dream. I wasn't entirely asleep to begin with, just drifting somewhere in between, conscious of the world around me, and yet doing strange things that i can't explain, like stuffing ping-pong balls in my mouth while chewing gum, playing with two little kids who somehow happened to be around (their mom was busy doing something that i didn't bother seeing), and i was flying (and flying around with) gas-filled balloons inside my home. Each time a balloon would hit the fan it would burst and i would stop rising for a bit, but then continue upwards...till the final balloon burst and i expected to land with a thud, but instead i just started floating around. I floated around my building. Met some long lost school friends, watched two unfamiliar looking girls playing squash (but with a shuttle cock) in what now started looking like an unfamiliar building, played with the cats there, tried getting rid of the gum...which was stuck to a shuttle cock that was in my mouth too. when it refused, i was suddenly back in bed...but strangely enough, i'm still feeling weightless.

I think i shall stop typing and go back to my dream now :)

Hands-on

Today morning, i was trying to get coupons punched at bandra station for a train ride to borivli. There were two machines, one with a smaller crowd around it than the other. Predictably, i headed for that one...only to be greeted by people turning away, saying that it isn't working. A few persistent people stayed on and kept trying though.

When my turn came, i managed to punch all 3 coupons on the first try, much to everyone's surprise.

People tried their luck after me, thinking that it the machine has started working...but to no avail.

I ended up teaching them how to punch coupons. There are a few tricks like flipping the coupon if one end doesn't work, straightening the coupon, giving it a very slight bend if it's too soft, removing the coupon from the slot at various speeds (yeah, it actually works!) etc.

Either my taught techniques were wrong or i was skipping some vital, subconciously-employed trick. The punch refused to do it's job.

Finally, they pleaded me to punch their coupons for them...and i did, pretty much flawlessly.

Freaky.