No longer The U.S.

Right. So I haven't updated in like...two months, cause I've been busy with engineering college admission procedures.

But that's done now! I've got into Don Bosco Institute Of Technology for B.E. IT, and I'm happy as a lark. (Even though my marks weren't good)

So, I guess this means I'm not the Unwilling Somaiyaite anymore, (except on a metaphorical level, if you assume the word 'Somaiyaite' to be a euphemism for an attitude of Disinterested Conformism of the worst kind), even though for the last few months I've barely posted anything Somaiya-related at all. I guess I'm tired of whining about college life. That means the blog title has to change...

I'd want to keep the 'Life and Times...' bit, but I'm not sure what the rest of it should be.

I'd switch URLs too, but then the people who have linked to me will have to change their blogrolls, and I want to spare both of them the inconvenience.

So now I open the comments to this post for discussion. What do I call my blog now, or should I make a new blog entirely? I welcome suggestions from my readers (all four of them)...

Shout Out...

Well,haven't made a post since a long time. Or at least I haven't made a coherent post which actually has something to do with college or life in general since last year.

Lots of stuff has gone down since then. 12th over, IIT-JEE over, lined up for AIEEE and hoping to score in CET.

But the key thing to note here is that with the exception of going back to pick up my CET hall ticket, I probably never have to set foot in Somaiya anymore.

I'm no longer an Unwilling Somaiyaite. Which is of course suh-weet. But at the same time somewhat bitter. Bittersweet, if you will.

Make no mistake, that's not because I've suddenly fallen in love with that ol' dump. On the contrary, after running about for 3 days to finally submit my CET form, I'm hatin' it more than ever.

What I do miss though, are some of the people. Stuck in the same situation as me. Making it easier to deal with through humor. At least, sometimes.

I've switched many schools in my day, making me an educational nomad of sorts,
But it never gets any easier, leaving behind all the peeps that stuck with you. They always end up left behind. It's something you need to accept. No matter how many social networking sites you're on, no matter how many times you call them in a day, it's going to fade out eventually. Leaving them as one friend out of the thousand that you have on Facebook.

Which brings me back to the topic of the post. It's a Shout Out to all my buddies out there, who put up with me for the last two years.

At College, in no particular order- O.K. (a.k.a Dev D), Creative Influence, Who didn't flinch no matter how many F-bombs I ended up dropping. Akshay, who discovered that the most bearable part of college was the Ice Tea. Gautam- Fellow Anime Fan, Abhay, Ninad, The twins- Anta-Banta, Akhil and everyone in K.N.V.B. Shyam, who will probably be a Virgin. Bastard. fo' life. Nikhil J, stoned out bathroom singer and Lab Partner.

Appreciate you guys, hope we keep in touch...

Updata

I'm living alone for this week, and I've taken control of my dad's laptop for the time being.

Somaiya has improved, greatly so, with the inclusion of a new place for students to while away their lectures, a basketball court!

Also, We have cut offs for a shitty college like mine going up to 95% on the first list. For perspective, I'd like you to note that last years 1st list was 85%. If this isn't an Indicator that the 'Normalisation' of marks is a crappy idea, I dunno what is...

LOTS of new movies out, and several hotly anticipated.

Hancock, Jaane Tu, The Incredible Hulk, and coming soon, The Dark Knight...

Can't wait...

'KNVB'

The rains have started, and so has college...a more perfect time for football has yet to be envisioned.

This is largely due to the fact that days on which I go to college are comparitively less hectic than my days off, owing to the fact that my classes tend to ease up on the homework.

The title of this post is the name of a football team that my college mates have knocked together, on a whim, quite spontaneously, on a spur-of-the moment decision about how to spend our free lectures more constructively. This sudden flight of fancy has ended up being taken quite seriously, and I've found myself ending up as part of it, and enjoying it too, even though I don't play that much, or that well, for that matter...

Those of you that follow footy might recognize KNVB as some mildly famous club from the Netherlands. The reason for adopting this name is partly due to the fact that we aim to piggy-back off the real teams success, and also partly because the jerseys came at a bargain price, and we don't have the cash, or the inclination, to print out personalized ones...

So all we needed, was a creative spin on the Acronym, to provide a snappy answer to all those people who asked us what it stands for...

And so the team was gloriously christened- 'The Knight Naughty Virgin Bastards'

A little on the profane side, maybe, and grammatically incorrect, to boot, but with an alternative spelling of Knights & Naughty Virgin Bastards, it might just pass muster. Grammatical accuracy never figures in the grand scheme of things anyway, and you must admit, it sounds less corny (not to mention, less Gay) when compared to 'Kingly Nasty Victory Boys', which was the first suggested idea, which was quickly shot down.

EDIT: Oh wait, it's actually called (much to my annoyance) The KNine VagaBonds, which kinda sounds to me like a stray dogs association...oh well, what the hell...I'm still calling it the 'Virgin Bastards'...

Chemistry Practicals using Acidic Bases...

'Right, so when you put acid in with base, you get salt and water, and because of the indicator, it changes colour to pink, and thats a sign to stop adding base and measure the liquid levels...'

Titration/Volumetric Analysis, call it what you want, it's easy money...

Except if your Lab Assistant is a complete and utter Screw-up...

I had my practical exams on Friday, Chemistry is just plain simple, because board rules allow the use of the manual during the exam...sort of an Open-book test...

So I got a Titration experiment, find the normality, HCl, NaOH, Yada-Yada-Yada...The usual...

But what was just friggin unusual was when I emptied a burette-full of base into the acid and still couldn't see a color change...
I checked it, double checked it, then decided that it must be a problem with the indicator...I look at my Phenolptalein bottle, and see a piece of chalk floating around...

So I nicked myself another bottle, only to have the same result...

Then I realize that the dude had given me Acid in both beakers, some idiot had filled it into a beaker marked 'base' and then handed it to me, both are colourless, low concentration solutions, and look exactly the same...I go up to the teacher with this, and he doesn't believe me...

His test to see if I'm right? He puts it on his hand...

Yeah...no joke...apparently acid burns differently than base...I can't tell, myself, seeing that I never tried it...He seemingly has a lotta experience with such retarded behaviour...