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The GSB contest: Win a 7900GT graphics card!

The first and probably the only contest you will see on GSB. I'm giving away a 7900GT graphics card. Before you go 'wow' and 'OMG WTF is this idiot doing!', hear me out. There is a fine print. 

• It's not new, it's old. A 7900GT eVGA 256MB card worth almost nothing. 
• It's a crap card really, so you won't be able to play modern games. 
• I'm not sure if it works. I haven't checked it since I removed it back in October. It was working well back then. No guarantees.
• It comes with no drivers, cables or any other jingle-bangle. Just a vanilla card. 
• Gaming sucks. Grow up will you!
• I won't pay shipping.
• India only. International is fine if you want to pay the shipping (who would!)
• If no one wants this piece of crap, please suggest someone who would as I don't know what to do with it. 

The winner of the contest will be the one who recommends me the best new domain for my blog. I'm planning on moving from blogger to a self hosted domain, so this is like a goodbye gift. Of course, I know most of you won't be wanting this horrible piece of junk, but please suggest domain names anyway (check with register.com to see if they are available). 

600 kilometres of plastic

Every time I travel by train I'm reassured of the fact that Indian people are generally fucked up in their mindset when it comes to spaces that don't belong to them. I say spaces, because it is not just about things, but about the general environment that they pass through. Why do I say 'Indian'? Because that's the way it is.

First let me give you the big picture: The 600km railtrack from Mumbai to Goa is lined with plastic and junk flung out of the train. No I didn't snap any pics of it, but most of you know the scene anyway. 

To say that this is about uneducated Indians would be wrong, for I've not seen an educated one refrain from dumping coffee cups out the window. In fact, it's mainly the educated ones who can afford to buy tonnes of potato wafers that comes wrapped in shiny plastic. 

To say that it is human nature, that if one sees a dirty place one is bound to dirty it further would be wrong, for every foreigner I have seen on the train collects whatever waste under their seats. I know there's something wrong with the grammar in the previous sentence, but I'm not going to correct it.

To say that an Indian would dirty 'any' place would also be terribly wrong, for they like to keep their own surroundigs clean. After all, none of the railway staff would ever throw out even a coffee cup. Yes, I'm not just saying this, they don't.

So what then is the problem? Are Indians bad? Although I've said 'they' a couple of times now out of embarrassment for my kind, 'we' are generally a very peaceful people. Our cultural habits show that we are (or were) more adept to reuse, have wholesom foods, and have had no problems of littering until the age of plastic. We don't know how to deal with it!

India has so much of land, that flinging biodegradeable stuff out the window was a pefectly normal thing to do. In fact, even at home, I hardly ever throw a banana peel in the wastebin. Now I'm not sure what the psych behind this while litterring practice is, but it is either out of habit, or a general lack of education (not the academic kind) about what plastic means for us.

So this time, I set out to see how people reacted to a little experiment of mine. I noticed that the Indian Railways now keep a wastebin between passenger cars (finally!). So I went around in my train car, telling people about these wastebins, and that if they find it too far away to walk, just to collect it and I'd take care of it. It didn't take much in terms of time, but I needed to find them balls first, for I'm not very very comfortable at approaching folks. After the first compartment however the balls steadily followed.

I do not have statistics for how many people did litter anyway, but I do have stats for those who didn't. First if all, no one left their trash for me to collect. Secondly, I found more trash collected at the ends of my boogie than any other. Like at least 4x more!

This can only mean that 'they' litter because they are unaware of the repercussins of their actions. I wonder what would happen if every ticket collector while doing his rounds explained - no, pleaded - people how to dispose of their waste. This way we could positively create a clean environment rather than fining people like they do in the police states of abroad (probably why the foreigners don't litter). 

Oh, and we can deal with avoiding the use of plastic a little later. Something tells me 'they' aren't ready to let go of the convenience.

* typed and edited on my iPhone cause my train was delayed a bit.

* making laws against littering would be useless. We don't have a strong enough system to make that happen.
* making laws is fucked up. We should be clean regardless.
* now would be a good time to bring in that God fellow. Afterall, cleanliness is next to godliness.

* Am glad I made the Mumbai trip. Was nice meeting up with @Preshit, @Manan, @Asfaq and others. 

Someone wants to curb my freedom of speech

Many of you must have heard about this blogger being silence by a TV channel for his post on unethical journalism carried our during the Mumbai terror attacks. He basically called Baharka Dut a *cough* S *cough* and the news channel showed their power and might by making him publicly apologise for his accusations. 

Now I've read this post of his, and it does bring back memories of hatred towards those TV channels. The idiots basically broadcasted every stinking detail of the entire situation, and have definitely helped the terrorists make our soldiers fight a tougher battle. Who knows (I know!) they might have even helped kill a few more people in the bargain. In fact, they even helped kill a few of our soldiers back in the kargil war. 

This brings me to how these media people are fucking with my freedoms. If I remember correctly, and oh I was reminded by the fact that we celebrated our constitution just a week ago, I'm granted a bunch of rights. Among the 6 very juicy ones lies the most important one, freedom. I never really understood what Republic Day meant until a few years ago, when I realised our right to freedom. It's freakin awesome! Hands down, most important right. 

Now I understand that freedom isn't absolute,  so you can't go screwing around with someone else's rights, which is probably why the choothyas got a right to be bit pissed off.  So how then do you challenge these unethical pigs? My mom always says (she's an awesome lawyer) that if there's an easier way to accomplish something, go for it. No point in struggling with the law, because it's just going to waste your time.

As you can see, I haven't named anyone (you know who you are bitch!), or any company, so to fuck with whoever comes to take me down. What I am going to do, is give out a little token. I'm going to use my freedom of speech and expression. Just a little expression for the nutjobs+bitch who is trying to show us that they can fuck with us. You know what…

*a little more of such reactions from you people would go a long way in teaching that bitch a lesson.

I'm no sissy girl, but isn't this the cutest!

[via Fraser Speirs' Flickr feed - I'm guessing this is his daughter]

Okay okay, I know this is an unorthodox post for GSB, more suited for Tumbler or that crap they call Facebook, but isn't this the cutest little kid you've ever seen?!

PS: I don't usually like kids.

A review of my new fridge…

There are a few defining moments in your life. The day you rid yourself of the yoke of 'education'. The day you get your first real paycheck. And the day you buy your own fridge. 

The idea of having my own fridge has been with me ever since I, well, rid myself of the process of brainwashing (aka, college education). To be able to wake up, and pull out a fresh fruit juice from your own little stash, or share a beer with a buddy who popped in at 3 in the morning. The joys of having one's own fridge had already been realised in my mind, long before this day.

But this day has arrived, and what an awesome day it is! This is, without a doubt, the most effusive review of a fridge you have ever read. 

Installation

If you've ever installed an application on a Mac, you know what this is about. Just pull the little fucker out of the box, and plug him into the wall. That's it! On flicking the switch, the sound of the low hum was like music to my ears. It's like an undisturbing tone, that gently reminds you that beers are chilled and ready to pop, whenever you need them. 

Oh, before I proceed, one should know that this is a 55ltr mini-fridge. Like in the hotel rooms. The fact that it costs the same as a 125ltr fridge is saying a lot about my passion for this form factor. I'd like to note that it doesn't have the light inside, but I can deal with it. 

Performance

I think I'm writing too many posts at Smoking Apples. The only performance test I see in this case, is how fast the thing chills up. Now I have no past fridge review experience, so I don't know how long it takes from room temperature to chilling up, but it wasn't quick. Of course, a few hours later when I checked, the beers were ice cold as promised on the box. Now the insides are always chilled up, and that's all that matters to me. 

Storage

The purpose of the fridge is only to store refreshments. My mom tried to stuff in some chicken dish, but out she went along with the rest of it. The three main ingredients to this smoking recipe are beers (Kings, nothing else will do), energy drinks, and juices. Of course, during the fridge inauguration I've stuffed it with a couple of frugurt cups, and a few chocolates. But that's secondary. Any suggestions for stocking up are welcome. 

Storage space? It's a mini fridge for god's sake! What did you expect! Get a bigger fridge if you want more storage space. 

Conclusionary remarks

I've had this beauty for only a day, but when I came back home from a hard day's work (roaming around town having some tea and chatting up with no-good folks), and popped a cold one with Bling and my brother, I knew that this fridge is going to be a part of many a memories.