zimog huh? sounds exotic...but what is it

Have nothing interesting to write besides saying work as usual and looking forward to friends coming back from India with sweets (hopefully!) that I can gorge on. So I though I might address this question been asked by my friends a couple of times in the past and today after I shared my blog with some other friends and got the same question all over again so here it is.

Why Zimog? and not something else.

It all started with the movie Matrix (I can almost her you saying cliche cliche!) when Morpheus says the famous words

It is the mental projection of your digital self

something inside me stirred and thought of creating an identity for myself a virtual one, somethig that I use on the Internet. So all along I was looking for something cool to call myself Neo would be a stupid mistake as there would be dozens...nay thousands of them on the internet because of the movie. I was hooked on to Quake 3 Arena at that point in time and one of the characters in the game was called Xaero and I always found it interesting how would you pronounce it, since our culture does not have (generally) names with X and Z we find them kind of unique and hence interesting, at least I do. So I took pity on the alphabet Z which was pretty lonely in my telephone book with no entries listed against it and decided hey why not use that and then after some iterations I landed up with ZImog and have stuck with it since then. So there you have it :-)

Serious self indulgement ahead
comments I have received for my nick

what is it like an alien species?

am I supposed to bow...

sounds like a very exotic name what does it mean

my personal favorite

sounds like a derivative of smog!

I know I am geek but I am a sensitive geek :)

getting chilly

We have suddenly got some cold front out here and the mercury has dropped quite a bit in the last couple of days, but the weatherman says its a passing phase and it wont last much...until the big onslaught begins

Over the last few days I have met many interesting people from different countries thanks to some volunteer work and my constant urge to meet new people. The buzz is increasing as activities are about to get started. Today I ran into an old friend of mine at the library, havent seen her for almost three months and we were in the same city block the entire summer it was nice catching up with her.

Picked up a book Plowing The Dark by Richard Powers on the recommendation of a friend have just gone through the first 25 pages looks interesting but has a lot of poetry in the language which can be good but at times irritating...to me anyway, I am glad I dint take up literature as my career!

idle musings...on a rainy day

The day is not even half over and I am on my blog again, its the time of the year when new students are around and you generally help them (sometimes make them go the wrong way!) but today was a first I was on my bike on my way to campus when a girl from a passing SUV waves at me and stops me to ask for directions, luckily I did know them and felt good about being of some help. One of the things about today is the weather reminds me of a typical August day in Bombay where I am originally from, mild rains comfortable temperature moisture in the air and greenery everywhere. Being a Saturday its a rather lazy day out here and I ran into hardly any people walking or even biking on the sidewalks, there were a couple of joggers out there though.

Came across a tree that was laden with mini apples, lightly pinkish and a little green, falling from the tree and forming a bed of apples.

While surfing the net came across this video on Googles video page I found it really hilarious

In 'August' company

I am helping out with the orientation of the new incoming international students, I enjoy meeting people from different cultures and love to make friends and this gives a good opportunity to meet and share space with people from different parts of the globe. The fun begins tomorrow.

Today we had a session to prepare for the fun and in the small group that I was part of we had some interesting personalities, there was an electrical engineer from Korea, an American student who was teaching English in Japan for the last two years, A girl from Korea who has lived half her life in New Zealand but the one who took the cake was an American girl who lived in China for almost 11 years was fluent in Chinese and was planning to learn Japanese and Korean. Compare that with me my knowledge is limited to India and now a little bit about the US, can speak four language three of which wont be recognized outside India and I can greet people in around 20 different languages :) Now that was truly the kind of group that I liked to be part of. I cant wait for the fun to begin

those in between times

Its that time of the year when I have moved out of my summer apartment and thanks to some weird management policies I dont have my fall apartment so I am forced to stay with a friend of mine, not a big deal for a day or two but two full weeks throws you off your entire schedule especially since you dont have keys to the apartment :-(

Ever felt that you are sleeping, you are awake and you are dreaming at the same time? I have last entire week I have been having this hazy phase of sleep between 7 am to 11 am. Yes I slept that late last week, but I used to get up and go back to sleep but surprisingly my dream just took a break and continued from there I dunno how I remember this coz I rememeber my dream vaguely but after I got up for the final time there was a sense of completion which wasn't there the previous tuimes I got up, the brain is crazy and so is the mind it mixes up everything and presents a completely muddled picture for you to see and try making sense out of. I have given up trying to make sense out of my dreams! But its those in between times are what I cherish :-)

Finally moved out!

Thanks to help from friends I have moved out of my place another place I stayed just another memory that will remai in the subconcious which will surface at an unsuspecting time to give me that feeling of nostalgia...ah the summer of 2005! You can see pictures for these if you are interested!

the ritual begins

There is a human tendency to collect things as we live life and then we preserve them and forget about them, most of these we dont even use them but we just have them as we are worried about losing them. But moving out of a house acts like a cleansing process about our worldly goods while we clean the cobwebs we also mentally make note of things to keep and things to trash. I wish we could do the same with our lives and our minds have a fixed ritual where by you clean it of all negative thoughts and bad memories and keep only the good ones. I guess thats what breaks are for? Somehow my mind wants a break every alternate day is something wrong with it?

to clean or not to clean again!

I never though a title I used for another post could be applied again but I came across an article that showed me the dangers of cleaning ones self, dont believe me than hop on to that page and you will believe me. Maybe that explains why I have the most brilliant thoughts in the showers maybe not!

fire in the belly!

I am fan of Cricket and having grown up on a healthy diet of cricket all my life wherever I am like most Indians I try and keep up with cricketing news, like the current matches between India, Sri Lanka and West Indies and ofcourse the Ashes. I just came across this article and I re read these lines again and again

When asked about his pain, Lee pointed to his heart and said: "I'm hurting more here. We knew we had to take a few on the body. I'd do it plus tax again to make sure we give everything we can to make Australia win."

I can only imagine how badly a sportsman psyches himself up just to play well. I just love the spirit with which Australia play the game.

to clean...or not to clean

Its that time of the year where you look for new apartments to move in to and I am going to be in a soup. Have a place to stay till the 20th and the new place is only available after the 27th so in effect I am going to be homeless for those seven days...unless and thats the tricky part I choose to take a cleaning waiver and move into the apartment hoping the previous tenants have left it in a livable condition! Ah decisions! decisions!

feeling alive

Today was another brilliant day of tennis I must admit I thoroughly enjoy the game and look forward to play it every evening, which thanks to my (un)reliable tennis partners does not happen. I just love the feel when you are done with the game and sitting on the sidelines sipping water the feeling of the entire body being alive you dont need to put a finger on your pulse to observe the heart beat, your entire body is pulsating with the beat and gives you the feeling of being alive in that moment. If that isnt enough the first blast of cold water from the shower can put you on cloud nine!