Sleep....

For the past few days, I've not been sleeping as much as I should. I think I am sleeping for less than 5 hours on average for the past 3 days. It hasn't yet hit my productivity, but then I don't have anything to do at work anyway.

Finally went to sleep at 4, and got woken up at 7. Call from India. Work issues...

I've realized that my brain works despite being sleep deprived (might help when I move to college, and move to a good gaming co.). Still, updating perl & shell scripts like a pro.... heh.. helps that I *am* a pro, by definition.  ¶ 5:30 AM 0 comments

  Currently reading.

1. Portuguese Irregular Verbs - Alexander McCall Smith.
   Meh... he's trying too hard to be funny. The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series rocks. On the bright side, the book is really short. :)
   
   
2. Autobiography of a spiritually incorrect mystic - Osho
   He's good... and funny. It's a treat to read about someone with such an interesting outlook towards life.
   
   
3. Daredevil Visionaries.
   Graphic novel. Written in the 80s. Reading this, I'm not sure if I will be able to read the older comics. The new stuff has simply spoiled me. The old stuff seems too simplistic compared to the Ultimate X-men, for example.

Currently playing.

1. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
   After all these years, playing Wc3 on battle.net still rocks!. I'm CraniumRat on the US East (Azeroth) server. Love playing clinkz, dwarven sniper, queen of pain, and recently lycanthrope (the ultimate hero killer I love him). For all the guys who made DotA... we're not worthy.. we're not worthy.
   
   
2. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
   For all you guys playing this on a Dell Latitude D600 laptop, don't! Unfortunately due to shortage of the green stuff, have to play it on my company laptop. Kill all services, turn off the net, kill explorer, and ignore the complaint that the graphics card is sub-par. I know, I know .
   This game is beautiful. Unfortunately, my resolution of 800*600 makes it look crappier compared to the Sands of Time. I played that on my rig back in India. It has a Radeon 9600 XT card, and some of the backgrounds simply blew my mind.
   
   
3. Dungeon Seige.
   I play this on Thursdays with a group from work. They've chosen classes that need to do work... heh... I play the ranger, and double-click the tank. The ranger will keep on firing at anything that threatens the tank. Also gives me a lot of time to sleep. I don't think I've ever managed to stay awake during a session even once. But still fun!

Currently watching.

1. Cowboy Bepop.
   Fansubbed. Love the music, ambience... and far superior than One Piece. I actually loved One Piece until all the screeching started irritating me. . I guess even Naruto will go the same route. Fun, yet irritating.

Want to watch.

1. Southpark.
2. Drawn together.
3. The new season of the Chapelle Show.
4. Fullmetal Alchemist. (Why oh why does it have to air at midnight??!!!)

Looking forward to.

1. The new season of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
   

  ¶ 1:29 PM 0 comments

  Been ages since I've blogged... but wanted to put something... esp., considering my brand new hobbies... cooking!!!

So here goes:

Mridul's world-famous Peas Alu Nutrela curry.

For 2 persons:

1. A cup full of nutrela.
2. 2 medium sized potatoes.
3. A 1/2 cu pf peas.
4. 1 medium sized onion.
5. 1 medium sized tomato.
6. 3 - 4 green chilis.
7. Ginger.
8. Garlic.
9. Turmeric powder.
10. Chili powder.
11. Garam masala.
12. Cumin seeds
13. Mustard seeds.
14. Udad dal.
15. Salt to taste.

And here we go...

Put nutrela chucks in a bowl. Add water & a wee bit of salt. Microwave for 3 minutes. Ensure that the chunks are soft. Keep aside. Mmmm... nutrela!
Boil 1/2 glass of water. Add frozen peas. Wait till water boils again.
Peel potatoes. Cut into nice manageable size.
Cut onion, tomato and green chilis.

Heat oil in a vessel. Add cumin, and mustard seeds. Add udad dal. Wait till they all start popping. Add onions. Heat till onions become golden brown. Add turmeric powder, ginger, garlic, chili powder, tomatoes. Add a little water, and make a nice paste. This is the base for most Mridul's world famous curries.

Add peas and nutrela (including the water that you used to boil them in) and potatoes. Heat until things start smelling good. This should take about 5 mins on high heat. Add garam masala and salt. Stir occasionally. Cover and heat until things are soft and the masala has seeped into the nutrela (mmmm....).

Eat hot with chapatis or rice.  ¶ 12:18 PM 0 comments