Harry Potter

Harry Potter - Level III

Why do stories have a happy ending?

Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They get married and live happily ever after. This is a simple example of a story with happy ending.

Why do most of the stories have a happy ending?

I got an optimistic answer on a TV show. The explanation goes like - "A story is not over until it culminates into a happy ending. This means that one should work thru difficult situations until the desired result is achieved."

I strongly feel that the goal should be determined before taking on the task to ensure that one is not settling for something less after beaten up by the hurdles on the way.

The Big Climb

The annual Big Climb presents its participants a seemingly daunting task to climb 69 flights in 1311 steps and 788 feet in vertical elevation. The event takes place at Seattle's Columbia Center. All the proceeds from the event goes to fight leukemia.

My friend enthusiastically enrolled both of us for this fund raising event & gave me tips on how to pace myself and face the giant task. I knew that I had a Buckley's chance of making it to the top and hence I had prepared myself to content with 40-45 flights. Still, last night at dinner table I gave a highly optimistic climb time of 45 mins.

My friend and I started the climb at 8:47 am, resting every 10th floor. I was enthusiastic and hoping to make it to the top floor. My friend slowed down to keep me company and make sure that I was doing okay. The volunteers were boosting morale of the climbers with free water and free water showers :-)

At 9:15 am, we were at Observatory on the 73rd floor of the tallest building in Seattle. Woo Hoo!!! I climbed 69 floors.

The sense of achievement and self discovery along with satisfaction of working for a cause made the day special.

One step at a time

I've a list of things that I want to do. Every day I'd think of making a better use of tomorrow. But after every retrospection, I'd be disappointed to see no progress.

Over the past two days, I tried to reason and realized that...

1) I never worked on any target in an organized way...I had no plans but only wishes.
2) I wanted things to change overnight.

I've figured out that the only solution is to take one step at a time, to be in the moment!

I've decided to follow the below plan to get things done.

1) Arrange/ Prioritize
2) Allocate time
3) Assign measurable targets
4) Accomplish

List of Files

List of files in a folder

On Windows OS, to get a list of names of files in a folder on my local drive, I can do -

Open a command prompt: run -> cmd
Navigate to the folder by giving the path in quotes:
cd "My Documents\myfolder"
Type command: dir > file_name.txt

This saves detailed summary of the files in the folder in text file called file_name. Details include -
Modified Date and Time,
Size,
Name of the file (with extension as .doc, .xls etc)
Total number of files in the folder

This command however, does not work on Network Drives.

EDIT - Thanks to Kirubakaran, I know a shortcut: Using "dir /b > file_name.txt", I can get just the list of file names.


List of files in an archive

A similar report can be generated to obtain list of files in an archive (.zip, .rar).

Open the archive -> ALT+G or (Go To TOOLS -> Generate Report)

I can set the parameters here to print only the File names and the Total Information. I prefer to save the information as .txt instead of HTML (uncheck the option - Use HTML format)

Learning & Confidence

I often feel superior to my peers and then feel guilty of my boastfulness.
Everyone has different skills and they should be appreciated for that. But I realized what sets me apart from them - my urge to try and learn new things.

The embarrassment at the knowledge of ignorance is bliss. I work towards getting rid of my awkwardness, I learn. This knowledge leads to confidence.

With the umpteen resources available on world wide web, I feel there is no limit to learning.

Let's learn.

Summary 2007

2007 has been quite a fulfilling year.

Read -
Atlas Shrugged
Anthem
Da Vinci Code
Deception Point
Angels and Demons

Learnt to -
Snowboard - Looking forward to this year's season
Drive - Licensed to Drive (only)
Use Auto Hot Keys - I use of couple of these at work since AHK can be used only on Windows OS.
Write Excel Macros - Ever so useful and quick.

Could not finish these books -
Four Hour Work Week
Stumbling on Happiness
Blink

Initiated into -
Linux/ Ubuntu - My laptop had a viral death within a month of purchase. I then switched to Ubuntu. My geeky friend installed it on my m/c. It is a fun learning experience.
Blogging - It is just my journal
Roller Skating - It was fun but I was scared of falling :-(
Del.icio.us - It is an easy way to track the useful articles I keep reading as well as a way to find popular information quickly on any subject.
Google Docs - More fun then attaching the docs. Moreover, you can make changes simultaneously and all these changes are updated real time.
Baking - mmm! Apple Spice Cake, Dark Chocolate Cake, Banana Loaf, Humming Bird Cake, Blueberry Scone, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies

Still Learning -
Vim
Linux Terminal Commands

Watched some of the finest movies (marked with *). This is the longest list of the movies I've ever maintained. Advantages of blogging :-)
300
AI
Alcatraz*
Amadeus*
Amelie*
Ant Bully, The
Beautiful Mind*
Bee Movie*
Before Sunrise*
Being John Malcovich
Beowulf
Bottle Rocket
Chicken Run*
Christmas Story, the*
Crash
Da Vinci Code
Dead Poet's Society*
Departed, The
Duplex*
Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind*
Evan Almighty
Fargo*
Flushed Away
Forrest Gump*
Garden State
George of the Jungle
Grind House (Planet Terror, Death Proof)
Happy Feet*
Hot Fuzz*
I am Legend
Ice Age*
Illusionist, The*
Insomnia
Kill Bill 1*
Kill Bill 2*
Lake House
Little Manhattan
Little Miss Sunshine*
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels*
March of the Penguins, The
Minus Man, The
Mona Lisa Smile*
My cousin Vinnie*
Namesake, The
No Reservations
Oceans 13
Over the Hedge*
Pan's Labyrinth
Prestige, The*
Pursuit of Happiness, The*
Ratatouille
Score, The
See Jane Date
Shrek 3
Sixth Sense, The*
Small Soldiers*
Spanglish*
Surfs Up
Sweet Home Alabama
Thank You For Smoking
Toy Story
Vanilla Sky
Wallace and Grommit - The curse of Were Rabbit*
Wild Hogs
Zindagi Rocks