The art of writing a testimonial or the lack of it

Most of us have at least read if not written a testimonial (as orkut calls it or "describe me" or "lines about me" or "words about me" ... you get the picture right?) on at least one person. It is usually eulogic which is understandable, no one likes to be criticized in public. It is witty at times or about good moments you had with the person blah blah. So far so good, but wait, what I fail to understand is how most of them sounds exactly the same. Here is how a typical testimonial would go,

"He/She is a very sweet (sweeeeet , if a girl is writing it) person. Very understanding, smart, independent, has a good sense of humor, kind hearted. You would always see a smile on his/her face, makes the people around him feel comfortable" and other such cliched adjectives/adjective phrases. These adjectives seem to find their way in to the testimonials specially if one is writing about someone of the opposite sex, with the adjectives chosen depending on the sex. So you will have "She is a very sweet girl" changed to "He is a very simple guy" or something to that effect. Its like a prof. writing a recommendation where he has to say that such and such has excellent communication skills, out of the world analytical abilities (like all of Einstein's brain was transferred to him) etc etc.

I don't know about when you write it, but when some one reads it, the whole thing sounds so bloody made up. So cloyingly sweet that its repulsive. I hate it, I am sure you could write something better that does not sound made up. But then its just my opinion, may be others like it that way.

General Updates

This will not be an update to most of the people who read this blog. They already know what has been happening; none the less I will write it here for the sake of writing.

- now I am certified to run experiments that involve human subjects and now that my stimuli is almost ready I shall be conducting my first experiment soon

- I was just offered a TA by my department. phew!!! that takes off a lot of tension. Actually on second thoughts, it should be a good experience. Some day (when I am rich enough), I would like to teach in a school.

- I might be going to California for Rakhi (Aug, 19) to meet all my cousins, looking forward to that.

- I am being tried for a football team that is gonna play in a semi-professional league. If I make it in to this team, it will be like a dream come true.

The rise, the fall and the twist and turns

Yesterday, I was at the six flags, an amusement park known for its amazing roller-coasters. It was an out of the world experience, if you are a roller-coaster freak than this is the place to be. The feeling when you are going down is just amazing. The first ride (nitro is the name) had an amazing fall and a speed of 80 miles an hour. Ain't that amazing, I won't go into the details of each one, but let me just say that I was here, here, here, here, here and here.

Another ride that I really liked was the free fall. It was only a 2.5-3 second free fall, but its worth it. I want to try sky diving sometime, hopefully my chance will come soon.

Ingenious swear phrases and words

Swear phrases and words are part of everyone's vocabulary. Some use mild ones (specially girls) and other's use really offensive ones. Based on the world survey conducted by the ACB magazine on swearing (no ACB is not the Australian Cricket Board, they would be surveying sledging) in 1999, the swearing rate (measured in Beeps, SI unit, defined as number of beep sounds you would hear in a minute in case the sentence were played to your folks) is highest among student community typically high school or upwards students. It is a whopping 5 words compared to the world average of .5 words. Interestingly on an average a student knows atleast one swear phrase or word in atleast 3 more languages other than the ones he understands. Even more surprising is the fact that he (or she in some cases) will get the exact pronounciation.

I have been part of this so called all swearing student community for the last 6 years (with a one year break of course) and needless to say that the naive me has been exposed to a lot of swear words and phrases during this time. Below is a rather incomplete list of amusing swear words, please feel free to add ingenious not so offensive swears.

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f$%^tard = f#$%ing retard

bitch born bastard = poetic way of calling some one son of a bitch, note the alliteration

mother bitch - doesn't make sense but sounds pretty cool

constipated asshole (my current fav)

you gonna die of constipation

you unwashed unwiped asshole since dark ages

pansy gay ass m$%^er f^&*er or pansy gay ass or pansy ass or gay ass or any other combination you can think of

P.S. - I just realized that Beeps is a very subjective unit since some parents would mind even the word "shit" in their children's dictionary while others would be fine even with a lot more offensive words.

Camping at White Mountains, New Hampshire

Last weekend I went for camping at the White Mountains in New Hampshire. It was an amazing experience. Something I would like to do more often. Here are the highlights of the trip.

Highs:
1. The drive from Boston to White Mountains once we entered the White Mountains Forest Area. It was really pretty.

2. The first day hike to the Arethusa Falls. The hike till there wasn't great, but the trek up to the top of the falls was really cool. The feeling when we sat on the edge of the rock was really amazing. Staring down the cliff, with a 200ft straight fall was out of world.

3. The campfire and the smirnoff with everyone generally talking. Learned some cool fundaes on a spider like creature from Stephan.

4. This was best part of the whole camping trip. A 4.2 mile hike to the top of the Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the north eastern part of US. It is arnd 6,400 ft high. Took us 4.5 hrs to get up and the whole day for the complete trip. It was the first time I had hiked so much and it was out of world. As dalal would put it "Its the most amazing thing, man".

5. Relatively not so great, but the fireworks on the eve of 4th July in the little town called Littleton. There was a kid (4 yrs old) who was diving around every time a fire cracker burst as if it was a bomb next to him was really cute. He would actually do a half-squat and wait in anticipation for the fire cracker to burst.

Lows:
1. Some people getting senti over nothing

2. The cold with only a bedsheet on me. It made me sleep in the car on the second night; to make matters worse dandekar also decided to sleep in the car.

3. Reaching the top of Mt. Washington only to see a railway line and a road leading till there and thousands of people all over the place. The commercialization of the place really put me off.

Over all, I had a great time, one of the trips I have enjoyed the most. Last time I enjoyed a trip like this was when I went to Kodai with my wingmates. Those were the days!!! I shall be uploading the pictures of this trip soon.