Detroit Trip

Just came back from Detroit.

Man, What a journey! Knowing that it's a 5 hour drive (350 miles) from Chicago to Detroit, we started early morning - 10:00AM. There was another reason for starting early. Michigan is in a different time zone, so we knew that we're gonna lose an hour when we reach there.
You basically get to see three States - Illinois, Indiana and of course Michigan. Getting out of Illinois was not at all a problem. Took around an hour to enter Indiana. And once we entered Indiana, we faced a few hiccups. They were actually constructing a new express highway, so the roads were kind of blocked and half closed. We literaly crawled for 5 miles, and the highway opened up again. Now here's the real thing. We took the I 80 from Indiana to reach Detroit - which is 210 miles straight!!! No turns, No nothings. Just Straight. Of course there are bends and curves, but no turns guys! Straight - 200 miles!
That was a long drive. I slept for some time - probably an hour. The drive was neat - not many things to see but we noticed that the country in Indiana is kinda different. You know, the structure and all. Saw many trucks! Very very long, many many tires(this ain't no spelling mistake btw!), safe safe driving.
An interesting fact - the places I have been to till now, I saw that all the exits were on the right. In Detroit, most of the exits are on the left, and there are many freeways.

We reached Detroit at around 4:30 PM local time. The downtown is really impressive. You know how it is - When you see one of the best and most happening downtowns in the world, you start comparing other downtowns with that. That's what I did. Compared to Chicago's downtown, Detroit's dowtown was...cute. Not very big, a couple of skyliners, and no Sears tower! But I liked it. The most happening place in Downtown Detroit is , I guess, the Renaissance Center - a couple of huge buildings with the tallest being that of GM.
Another interesting fact. You can see Canada from Detroit. Yes, Canada is just a five minutes drive from Detroit. I saw Canada, of course, from a distance. Good fun.
We also went to the Chrysler museum. Saw Dodge Viper!!! Cool car, guys. I will send you some pictures later. You will not believe what all i played with in detroit. Had a ball of a time there.

Went to the Yankee Air Museum in Belville. But it was closed. So took a few pictures from the outside and came back.

Will send you pictures in a couple of days. I think I clicked nearly 250 pics in 2 days!

IRock!

After watching TV and listening to CDs and MP3s during the last so many years, I am slowly becoming a radio guy. FM in India never fascinated me. I always preferred CDs and MP3s. Of course, I have never been much of a TV guy, but I always appreciated good music on channel V or MTV.
In Normal we get this fantastic radio station called IRock( "The only music station that really rocks - 96 7 IRock!") which plays only Rock 'n' Roll music 24/7. I must admit that In the last couple of months I have heard some really good songs that I had never heard before. These days they are airing a lot of AudioSlave (btw, I recently came to know that AudioSlave is 3 members of the erstwhile RATM and Chris Cornell of SoundGarden), Nickelback and Ozzy. Good music. I am lovin' it.

My 3D Card

I have an inbuilt 3D card in my laptop and I always wondered - how good or bad is it? Is it really capable of doing anything?Will I be ever able to play my dream games on my laptop?

So I downloaded the PrinceofPersia - Warrior Within demo 2 days ago...and guess what? It worked!! I saw my sword yielding Hero after roughly 4 months - ripping everyone's asses and raping their souls! It was fantastic. I remembered my good old Xbox days, and became nostalgic.
I immediately downloaded the Need for Speed Underground 2 demo. And ya, it worked too. But to be very honest, these kinda games are no fun on the computer. You can enjoy them to the maximum only on the consoles - with the controller.

Now I am downloading the Need for Speed - Most Wanted demo!

XBOX 360 launch

Hey guys, did you see the XBOX 360 by any chance? Microsoft is launching 360 on November 22 this year. And boy, Am I sad! This time around, they are launching 2 packages - One is called the XBox core system, priced at a decent $299(!), basically to impress losers like me who don't have money on them. This one has just the console (without the hard drive), a WIRED controller ( just like its predecessor) and an AV cable - that's it. To save your games you need to buy extra memory cards. By the way, the core system would not play older Xbox games if you don't have a hard drive. And if you decide to buy one - that's an extra 100 bucks!



The other package is simply called Xbox 360 - for "the ultimate gaming experience" . This one comes with the console , 20 GB detachable and expandable hard drive, a WIRELESS controller,AV cable, Headset and ethernet cable. This one is priced at a whopping 399!

You may intially decide to buy the core system, but it will just not help in the long run because any and every gamer knows that gaming is no fun without the hard drive. Saving games on memory cards is pretty sickening. Plus, if you have a hard drive, you may store songs and movies on to it too.

No news on the PS3. Anyway, Sony has already anounced that PS3 is going to be an expensive gadget, so no point cosidering it.

But I really like the PSP. Big screen, amazing graphics. But the price really lets you down.


Nintendo is also planning to launch its new console called revolution. It seems that it will be pretty cheap and "full of surprises". i don't know, never felt like buying the Gamecube - Nintendo doesn't impress me anymore.

Me in Chicago 

Ahem..!

Okay..this is very embarassing. Or may be it's cool. I don't know.
I got my stats exam back. Well, all of you know how good I am at stats, right? Ahem Ahem...I got a f*ckin'.........................95 on 100.
okay...now you can start breathing again. I know it sounds crazy. You gotta see it to believe it. This is something I never expected. Shit happens.

My prof wrote " good job" on the top of my paper. Highest was 97 it seems.

Hey, what did you just ask? Is stats my favorite subject? Oh no it's not.
*sheepish*
*grin*

I hope this continues.

Small post.Big shit.

Love you all.

Exams and weather

Hi All,

Last week was crazy. Played tennis two days. Had a real good time. I think my service is getting better everyday!

Went to Steak 'n' Shake last thursday and had a banana shake there! Man, it was huge! I told the waitress," I'll start with a banana shake" and guess what, I ended with the same banana shake! It was damn huge and damn trippy.

Friday was my friend Abhishek's birthday. He is from Nagpur, doing his masters in IT. Very nice guy. He is the guy( and Puneet) who fed us during our initial few days in Normal. Anyway, had a real good time partying.

My sister came here on Saturday, and we did some grocery shopping. Figured out there is another store called Aldee's which is cheaper than Walmart! Guess where I am heading next time to buy grocery shit.

Sunday was kinda ok. Had to study for my stats exam. Went to the library and boy, was it peaceful there! Also went to the Bone Students Center and had a chicken burger and large fries with coke at Burger King.

Stats exam was ok. I think I did well. But I think I should wait to see how much I score considering the fact that I know how good my bad luck is.

Got my econ exam back. Got 84 on 100. It's ok - I am not complaining.

Today is thursday, and you know what? I gotta study for my accounts exam( which is on monday!). Man, these exams really kill you. They should happen once in 2 months or some shit like that - not every week..you know what I mean?

It rained last night, and after that it became really really cold. The temperature was around 45. It was no good today either. Well, actually it's not really cold, but the wind chill factor makes it really bad. I hope I don't get killed in the winters.

More coming up...

Love you all.

Changing Weather

Mr Forrest Gump said,"And one day it rained. And it kept on raining." That is what happened in Normal yesterday. It started raining in the morning and kep on raining till midnight.
The official date of start of Fall is 22nd. The temperature has gone down drastically. These days it must be around 12-16 degrees celcius. Mornings are pretty cold but very scenic. Foggy and all. In fact, there is a 25 storey building called Watterson Towers near my house(an ISU dorm). In the mornings the top half of that building is literally invisible.
Somebody has organised a telegu movie called ....okay. I forgot. They expect "everyone" to be there.
I have an exam next week .And another the week after. I am not used to this system. Let's see what I do.
Anyway, gotta go now.

More coming up...

Love you all.

Labor Day Weekend

Hi guys!
Had lots of fun last weekend. Went to Chicago to meet my sister. On Saturday, we went to Devon Street, which apparently is the Karol Bagh+Purani Dilli of Chicago. Had dinner buffet in a restaurant called Sher-e-Punjab. The food sucked big time. Anyway, bought lots of stuff like achar and all from Patel Brothers, "The" Indian store on Devon.
Sunday - We took the architectural boat ride on the Chicago river. It's a one hour ride, and the guide tells you about most of the buildings in Downtown Chicago - when, why and how they were built. I have clicked lots of pictures. Let me just upload them real quick.
Apparently, hundreds of years back, some tribals came and settled in Chicago. Obviously there were no buildings at that time. Chicagoland was a huge marshy area. So they named that place Chi-Ca-Goo, meaning stinky onion place! That is how Chicago got its name.
Well, It's thursday today, and I am back in Normal. I have got loads of assignments. And yeah, a quiz on tuesday.
Initially the profs also took it lightly - very few questions for assignments in the first two weeks. Now they probably think that the kids are getting used to the system, so they have started giving huge assignments.
awright, time for me to sign out..gotta work.

Love you all.

Got my laptop

Awright....

My first post from my first laptop. This machine is naked. It ain't got nothin' but win XP. Well, I just switched on the wireless card and it showed me all the networks around. Most of them were encrypted. But the one with the strongest signals was unsecure. I said what the heck, and got connected!
This machine is a little heavy. But I like it. I also got 6 SD cards free with this machine. And yeah, I am gonna get an Epson inkjet printer free after a mail in rebate.

Tennis

Ya, forgot to tell you guys...I played tennis yesterday. Now, I am planning to buy a tennis racket. Guys, you won't believe it - A Wilson racket costs like 15 bucks! Prince is slightly expensive - 30!
I think I will play tennis Thursday - Sunday. That is when I don't have classes.
I saw some new and used guitars on eBay. I will buy something when I get my first pay check.

I applied for my SSN yesterday. Should get it by the end of september.

U2 is performing in Chicago on 21st. 2 of my friends are going there. And it seems that Green Day would be performing in Peoria, which is 45 mins away from Normal.

More coming up....

Love you all.

My First Post!

Finally...Some Action!

It's funny how you want to keep things to yourselves, but suddenly decide to share just because some nerd introduces the concept of blogging!
Anyway, I am all alone here, and I gotta do something in life other than assignments. Through this blog, I wish to keep updating my friends on the lots of crazy and not so crazy things I plan to do in America.

The weather has become much more bearable here. Nights are kinda cold, though.
I've got to finish my econ, accounts and stats assignments*sigh*! Monday is no class, so I can ignore the accounts assignment for some time.
For those of you who hate stats - I am supposed to study a statistical software called JMP 5.1. It does lots of crazy things! Oh, I have to finish my stats computer assignment too.
Apparently, I have attended two stats classes, and I can proudly say that I could understand most of what was taught.
Econ is interesting. I like it. But I don't like doing the assignments. The problems are a pain in the butt. We were given 11 questions in our first assignment,I got 3 wrong. My approach was correct, but the answers were wrong. I hope Dr. Payne considers that.
I have started cooking - and it seems that my roommate likes what I cook! I made choley the other day.
Oh yeah, We need to go get some chips and other shit and crap. But I have kinda started hating grocery shopping. The kind of variety you get here - you'll be stumped. I always make a list of stuff that we need before going to Wal-Mart. That list has like 4-5 items. We sit in the bus, reach Walmart, and come back with atleast 30 items! It's wierd. Btw, bus services for ISU students is free here. You just need to show your ISU ID. Otherwise it's 75c per ride.
Btw, I bought a laptop. It's a P4 3.2 Ghz. I have still not seen it. It's with my sister. She says it's beeeuuutiful.

More coming up...

Love you all.