Time for those lists which just HAVE to be made at the end of each year. I promise myself, this post’s gonna be the last for quite some, because I really need to study for the pre-Boards. However, I just HAVE to put this up, as I said…

• The School Vid: Year 2007 started with that for me, missing loads of classes to work on a not-so-great video (because we were forced to work in a short time on not-so-great equipment on a not-so-great Windows Movie Maker, as Adobe Premiere had gone kaput). It also lead to the great tome The Shakespeareans by Rach (1 2 3 4), with inputs from me and Vivek.
• Cheesy Titles: Last year’s CW prez and a good pal of mine, Anshul had asked for a nice title during farewell. Since it was around the time we were working on Ze Vid, but mostly because thinking up a good title is tough work, me and Rach came up with a nice PJ in the form of ‘Agent CoDI Banks’. I know, most won’t get it, don’t bother. He ended up getting ‘Congenial Code Cracker‘ or something along those lines. What an insult! Calling him a cracker! It makes me shudder about the title I’m going to get this year. Lord of not, Vader’s gonna go down if I get something stupid. ‘Happy Feet’ will do nicely, but then, I don’t want a title I suggested myself either, no fun.
• Pony’s Retirement: Pony left for the greener pastures of As(s)ton University, Birmingham; and got a knew nickname too. Boy was a he fun quiz partner.
• Missed Classes, And More Pressure: Among all the quizzes saw me missing from action in class sometimes (it’s an exaggeration, and which way it tilts, you know that). Why don’t they do something like this for schools too? I thought of putting up a notice on my usual (empty) seat in class with my photo and the words ‘Missing, presumed fed’ written below it. Which reminds me of…
• …Ratan Noora: Man, that guy’s a psycho psychic. Mr Noora told me the other day that I seem to’ve something going on in my mind all the time, ‘cuz I always have a smirk on my face when looking at him. Bulls-eye, dude. Hats off to you. They weren’t kidding after all when they called you a baba.
• The Almighty Benevolent Notes Giving Goddess and Xerox Corporation: Not much woulda been accomplished by me this year, without these two. Apart from the blessings of the Holy Pasta, that is. No seriously. I’d have been DEAD.
• The New Domain: A classic April Fools’ joke, executed to perfection. I shifted to my new domain www.ankurb.info right on 1st April this year; and had a blast spamming people via text messages / emails telling them to check it out. Naturally, everyone very sensibly thought I was joking, and I got their goat when they saw that I’d *actually* shifted! Boy, that was fun. I even conned many people into subscribing to my feed on that day that they’ll get Pizza Hut vouchers / Airtel recharge coupons, which well I WAS joking about, but people fell for it, since many thought that I HAD been speaking the truth about my domain.
• Microsucks Windoze Vista: Six years in the coming, and then, we get this. ‘Nuff Vista-bashing has been done already, but the disappoint runs deep. Why shouldn’t it? A file which takes 30 seconds to copy from my pen drive on my Linux box takes 2 minutes on Vista, because it needs to fucking *calculate* the estimated time, then transfer data at a rate which gives me ’nuff time to get a stubble.
• 300 / Die Hard 4.0: Absolutely r0xxing movies. 300 showed that you can earn money, lots of money, by showing muscled hunks slash flesh in ballet-like sequences; and show why it rocks to be a human with a dick. Die Hard 4.0 on the other hand, showed that you COULD make a nice movie based on a real threat, and that bald is IN. Plus, how can I ever dislike Lindsay-lookalike Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I’ve heard they auditioned Britney Spears too, thank the Holy Pasta that she wasn’t cast. And of course, Mr Bean retired; we got a new sucky Potter movie to watch, and an amazing Potter book to read.
• RAmendan: Then came the Real Revelation (no, it’s not a new juice flavour) midway through the year - that the world was actually created by a drunk spaghetti. A Flying Spaghetti Monster, in fact. Pastafarianism rules, RAmen!
• SAT For It: Gave the SAT, and learnt that using Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy humour in a writing section isn’t a froody thing to do. It hurts. Oh well, nothing more to do than forgetting it by getting bit by a NowWhattian boghog and moving on.
• Quizzing: Sigh. Gets me sad again, that I’m gonna be leaving the school quizzing scene now, after so many years. And the tech events’ scene. It’s been a wacky ride - loads of sweet stuff like Exun, Access, Warp, Matrix, ATF, Don Bosco, InQuizItive, RoboKnights; some not-so-sweet like MINET, Heritage India, Columban Open…oh man, list is too long to speak of. It’s meant SO much to me for these many years, quizzing, and I feel sad about that fact that school quizzing is over for me now.
• Code Wars - soBIG.F***: The biggest and best Code Wars ever probably, with the largest turnout ever, and some of the best prizes we’ve given away. Not to mention some really crazy events, and one of the best quiz / crossword events ever. iPhone-laden video (courtesy Waris) that had everyone drooling, with an equally good soundtrack. All that, because of the untiring efforts of all Code Warriors, especially…
• …Lord Vader: Dorth Vader joined our school, I dunno if I had influence on him about this one. I did try to lure him to the Dark Side of the Force, and we got a good, nah, bloody brilliant Code Warrior who actually studies. There’ve been rumours he’s turning from the Dark to the Dork Side of the Force, but I’ve faith in my young apprentice. The Chancellor wishes you the best, may the Force be with you.
• Blown Out Of Proportion: No, I’m not talking of Pamela Anderson’s ‘Silicon Valley’. I’m talking about my new cellphone, LG KG300 Dynamite. At times, I wonder whether it really holds up a candle to my beloved old Nokia 3220; which I *swear* I saw in the hands of a vegetable vendor in the RKP Sector 12 market one day. The Dynamite sucks, big time. Loads of fun things, like allowing you to browse other phones’ memory without their consent built-in, but a seriously sucky Java machine spoils the party. Everything else is OK, but sucky T9 and Java - I can’t forgive.
• Inspirational Stuff: Got quite a few people to take up blogging. It’s the year end, so I’ll be modest and not mention them. Yay, I made people give up the Jedi way of life!
• ‘42!!!’: The latest IN joke at Exun. It seems IC is so busy studying these days that Exunites need to turn to ME for their staple of PJs. So here’s one, dedicated to you guys. It’s a question, but what the heck, it’s a big PJ, WHEN you figure it out, that is. It goes like this…
  

  Why are there so many Sardarji jokes on a jolly old fellow from the North Pole?

• Ubuntu Gets Even Better: Freespire’s release cycle of constantly delaying their release date got me irritated, and I shifted to Ubuntu. When I’d used it earlier, it was hardly fun to use, but it’s getting better. All it needs to do now is to get rid of the annoying green spots. Try Linux Mint for a fresher AND functional experience which releases ON TIME. 2008 will be THE year when Linux *arrives* in the consumer segment, that’s my tech prediction for the year.
• Boy, He’s Getting Boring Now: Long posts. Really long ones. Which just go on and on. Even when I’ve run out of content. No really. Nothing more comes to my memory, although if anything escaped my attention, I’ll have a look at that after my pre-Boards get over on 14th January. But I would like to say goodbye to dear old Netscape. And then, the beast fell…

Statue of Liberty image courtesy David Reeves.