"Examinations"

As the first leg of the course comes to an end, a comment I've often heard is, "What? You guys don't have examinations?! That must be so much better than Engineering!"

Well, it's not. Not really.

True, there is no need for "last minute cramming" and one bad day cannot ruin your grades for the entire semester*. 

However, you cannot loiter about for the whole semester and study "just enough" a couple days  before the finals. This strategy may have worked for you during your undergrad, but it is not going to work now*.

(*Note: In theory. In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is. That's a whole new topic for a whole different blog post, but probably one that will never see the electrons of the Internet.)

The best analogy I can make is probably this: It's like asking whether Chinese water torture is better than waterboarding.

The point being: It doesn't matter! One is fast and painful; the other is slow and maddening.  But at the end of the day, both are torture!

"Apostroph'abuse"

janedoe: At 50 Rupees, I think the dollars reached it's peak...

hexium: ^^ Ha Ha! Jane misuse's [sic] apostrophe's [sic]!

And you probably do too. Misused apostrophes are far too common to just sit around and ignore. In some cases it's accidental, but in most cases it's due to pure ignorance.

In fact, apostrophabuse is so common that the first rule in Strunk & White's (should that be "Strunk's & White's?" Here's a hint.) Elements of Style is on the correct use of an apostrophe.

Instead of repeating what's already been said probably hundreds of times on the internet (Internet Rule #184), I'll just leave you guys with many, many links.

Hopefully; you guy's wo'nt misuse apostrophe's anymore after reading these link's!!1one!

• Site "The Dreaded Apostrophe" has one simple rule for when to use apostrophes -- Use an apostrophe when letters are missing.

• Read what Bob the Angry Flower has to say about apostrophabuse: [Quick Guide to Correct Apostrophe Usage] [With pretty colours!] [Why not destroy the apostrophe altogether?]

• The Apostrophe Protection Society is dedicated to preserving the correct use of the much abused apostrophe.

• At least one person thinks apostrophe abuse is due to an Alien Conspiracy (if you look hard enough you might actually be able to find the article among the ads).

Once you've gone through all the links above and you're confident you know the right way to use the apostrophe, make your way over here, here, here or here and laugh at the others who still misuse it.

Oh and I leave you with a typical Apostrophabuse example I captured on my own phone:

"Shut Up and Drive"

"Dues Ex Bovina"

Ever since I posted "Bovine Intervention", I have noticed that a lot more cows seem to be getting in my way. It can't just be coincidence...

I have the following theories to explain this phenomenon:

1) I am just paying more attention to the cows because of the post.

Basically, I'm being more observant towards them since I made the post, and remembering more 'hits'.

But then, the post was made based on my observations in the first place!

2) The cows read my blog and are getting in my way just to spite me.

Yeah! That must be it!

"Bovine Intervention"

Who let all the cows loose on the street? X(

They're always getting in my way when I'm riding. And they move so very slowly, without a care in the world, showing no concern for the massive traffic jams they're causing.

You still ask me what's my beef with cows? :/

"Differential Tariffs"

Mobile telephone service providers in India usually have differential tariffs for calls terminating in a different provider's network or a different kind of network, e.g. calls from XYZ provider to ABC provider are more expensive than calls from XYZ to XYZ, and calls from a GSM network to a CDMA network are charged higher than calls to another GSM network. In addition, inter-circle ("STD") calls are more expensive than intra-circle (local) calls.

Now here's the thing. How the heck am I supposed to know whether a number I'm calling is a Reliance, Indicom, Airtel, Hutch/Vodafone, Spice, Idea, BSNL, MTNL or whateverthehellelse? Not only that, how am I supposed to know whether it's a local number or an outstation number? All I see on my caller ID is +91-9xxxxxxxxx.

At least landline numbers are recognizable since they have an STD code. There's no such fixed scheme with mobiles. Well, there is, sort of. But consider this, I get a call from an unknown number, say +919742xxxxxx which I'm unable to attend. To call back, I have no idea what circle and what provider a 9742xxxxxx number would belong to, and no way of finding out (I mean other than calling back and asking). So would it be a local call or an STD calls? Would it be free since I have XYZ-XYZ calls free? How should I know? How am I supposed to find out? 

Soon, the concept of change-providers-but-keep-your-number is going to be introduced in India. What happens to the differential tariffs then? Someone who had an XYZ connection and who you could call for free, might have changed providers without your knowledge and you would end up with a hefty phone bill when you call them up thinking "hey, it's free". A conversation might go like this -- "hey, what connection you have? Oh, ABC? I thought you were with XYZ... Oh I see, you've changed providers! Sorry, Imma haveta hang up, it's expensive for me to call you. Kthxbai!"

My solution: Get rid of this differential tariff system altogether. All calls/messages from anywhere in India to ANY phone anywhere in India (a +91 number) should be charged uniformly. If I may dare to suggest some numbers -- calls at 30ps-1Re/min, messages at 10ps-50ps/sms.

And what's with the high sms charges on "special occasions" like Christmas? Don't get me started on tariffs while on roaming -- that's a rant for another day.

Customer is king? More like "Customer is (for fuc)king (over)".  

"I Object!"

Is there any single act in the known universe that can absolutely, positively not be offensive to anyone, anywhere, ever?

I seriously doubt it.

People seem to go out of their way to get offended by things. It seems like it is not only things that you do that offend people, but sometimes even things that you don't do. There are even situations where if you do something you offend a group of people (say, "A") and if you don't, you end up offending another group of people "B."

Maybe one does have the right to be offended, but then doesn't the person doing the "offensive" deed have a right to do it too? Who gets to decide what is "offensive" and what is not? Should someone even have the right to decide? One should have the right to do whatever one pleases (as long as it is not illegal -- but then again, just because something is 'legal' doesn't make it 'right' and just because something is 'illegal' doesn't make it 'wrong' -- but I digress.)

Even if one does get offended, one's right is restricted to making the objection known. One cannot expect the "offender" to do things differently just because someone gets offended by it.

I get offended when people do such things. So who do I sue first?

I guess Stan (Southpark) summed it up perfectly when he said, "I get it: I don't get it!"