And gone.

So we need the temp back. Again. It broke. Again.
A couple of us took it apart but it didn't help. Tried doing what I did last time. Didn't help either. I guess I might have to put it back together but I am guanning on about it.

And we had dinner at our old hunting grounds last night. It was a pretty large crowd too. Telluride joined in, most of the apartment and even the new kids on the block. Wang's got pictures. Its been a while since the last time I ate at Frymania. The place was full of other kids too - from all over the world. Some sort of conference going on. Some modern model version of the League of Nations. Always wondered what happened with that.

They were screening Dil Chahta Hai - an old classic favorite of mine, but I realized that I had finally got past the phase were I enjoyed those movies. Quite sad really.

Good to hear Sammy is enjoying Hungary. Especially that meat market has me quite envious. And we played Contact after a very long time. Wang was there - so it was pretty entertaining as usual.

Time to start watching the FA Cup game now.

Tomatoes and Bell Peppers

March 2^nd marks the completion of exactly 30 days since my arrival here in Budapest. As the weeks go by, things have been getting progressively more exciting to say the least. I’ve pretty much settled into my apartment now, which is located in a very nice neighborhood. In fact, from what I’ve seen of the city so far, District V is hands down the BEST area of Pest at least. And if you happen to stroll around to the WestEnd City Center (15 minutes walk or 1 metro stop away from my place), you can verify a certain fact from my previous post ;)

This week also marks the fourth week of classes, which means no more add/drop of courses allowed. Having dropped two math classes already, I’m finally settled now with four math courses and Beginner’s Hungarian! Among my math classes, Analysis is thought-provoking and the most challenging, whereas Combinatorics is by far the most fun! The combinatorics lectures are the highlight of my week: the professor is extremely witty and amusing, and his t-shirts often have hilarious references to math, science and pop culture. He has also taught us a new way of solving math problems, something he calls “proof by thinking”. I bet Watson can't do that!

Ok, to tell you the truth, the real reason I’m writing this post today is because I am really excited and happy. Today, after countless many years, I have finally legitimately cooked my own food. It just so happened that early last week, a friend of mine took me to this big halal butchery in District VIII called Bab al-Hadeed. Apparently the place is a major meat supplier to many restaurants in the city, thus explaining their claims of compliance to Muslim dietary laws. Well, I made the best of the opportunity and purchased over a kilo of chicken. And after acquiring the appropriate ingredients and spices, I finally got down to making some good ol’ spicy boneless chicken in my kitchen tonight. The preparation and subsequent clean-up was backbreaking, but the tender, juicy and mouth-watering pieces of home-cooked chicken were more than enough compensation for all the hard-work. This is the end product on my plate!

(Yes I absolutely LOVE raw tomatoes and bell peppers!)

Unfortunately, I totally forgot about bringing some traditional naan from the nearby Pakistani restaurant, and there wasn’t any bread at home to eat the food with. I had to make the difficult decision of temporarily parting with my food in order to secure some delicious naan fitting for the occasion. One metro stop and 15 minutes later, I find myself at Kohinoor Étterem, only to find out that the restaurant had already closed for the day :(

There was still hope though. If I couldn’t obtain Pakistani naan, I could always get my hands on the American naan next door. And that’s exactly what ended up on my dining table!

Needless to say I was really happy at the end of the meal :D

And so ended a very successful day in Budapest. Let’s hope that there is a lot more of such good food in store for me in the next few weeks.

Intro to Budapest

It has been almost three weeks. I apologize for having guanned for so long. Since it is already past midnight, I think I'm only gonna write about my first few days here in Budapest. To tell you the truth, nothing noteworthy actually happened. You can skip this post if you want. It only contains one significant statement anyway.

Hungary is a nice place. You should Wiki it. They just got the EU presidency this year. I don't think many Hungarians are actually aware of it. At least the person who picked me up from the airport wasn't aware of it. He was more concerned about wars and oppression in Pakistan. Specifically he asked why some women in Pakistan were forcibly veiled. I had to evade the question. The issue is so complex, it reminds me of A Few Good Men. "You want answers..."

Before reaching my apartment, I was informed about three essential facts about Hungary and Budapest. Here they are, in the words of my escort:

1. "The drinking age in Hungary is 18. Hungarians love to drink. You should try some good wine here."
   
2. "You will soon find out that Hungarian girls are very beautiful/good-looking."
3. "Your apartment is located in Pest, in District V. It is one of the best areas of the city. Everything is only a few minutes walk away."

Well, as you might've guessed, I was only interested in one of these three facts...

(Quick note: I read somewhere that streets in Budapest look a lot like streets in Amsterdam. I find myself very interested in verifying this claim. Somewhere down the road, I will hopefully find out.)

The guy was right, almost everything in Budapest is quite within walking distance. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes. Since I didn't know any Hungarian, I was too scared to buy a metro pass for the first week. I also happen to love wandering aimlessly, so it was no surprise that the very first thing I did after unpacking was familiarizing myself with the streets of Pest. By the fourth day, I think I had easily covered 20 miles or so, without getting lost. Not bad in comparison to Cornell, where I got lost on the very first day of orientation!

Okay, I am deliberately skipping a lot of interesting stuff because I want to talk about it in my next post. For now, these soporific statements will have to suffice. And no, it's not 1.

Its fixed

Apparently we didn't even need the temp. So as I mentioned in my last post, we were thinking of getting the problem fixed. But tinkering is always good, and I thought I might try my hand before we try to find a solution professionally. End result being that I fixed it by myself quite easily after a couple of hours. Even though customer support told me it was to fix it/replace it without a large payment. The big evil corporation? Redmond I say.

On the plus side, we are back to guanning again. Last night. I guess I should tell the other guanners who have yet to hear about it.

Also on the world and (maybe local?) scale, dictators/autocrats/presidents are stepping down. Rebellions all around.

And a guanner project team is apparently getting persecuted for reasons beyond their understanding. Sounds like a conspiracy. But there is proof too. Hypothetically. Saucy little scandal. Hypothetically of course.

And then Facebook. Randomly stumbled on an aspect of its coding. Apparently it keeps track of a lot of information.

Theoretically, a couple of friends were searching and adding a person on Facebook. So there was a Facebook search for the person at about the same time. So you know that Facebook design change which puts a lot of album/pictures on the top right hand corner. One of them noticed it was suggesting the other's albums. Apparently it was doing the same for the other person too. So a quick test with random names repeated a couple of times showed that this logic held. For non-friends ofcourse. Not really important. Potentially what a social network is supposed to do. Still something to think about.

Its been a while.

So its been a while. Things have changed. Someone might even be in Europe, I mean you never know. And our main avenue of guanning might have also broken down over the past year.

As usual we did what everyone else does - we hired a temp. But they have a habit of running away with something else, sometimes literally more trouble than they are worth. Ironically thats what allowed me to come up with an update. So things might be a bit more regular here.

I mean we are going to go public soon, another couple of months and most of us will sell out and go our own guanning ways. Until then a few pictures, a couple of updates from us and maybe one from Europe. Oh and we are seriously looking into a potential solution to our guanning problem and before you misunderstand - the problem isn't the guanning, its more the lack thereof.

Don't you hate red rings? Oh and it was warm today. Was. Frigid now though. Can't wait till April.

What is "Guan?"

Hello, and Welcome to Guanner.com!

I'll be one of the contributing bloggers, and as you can see, this is my first post and the first legitimate post on this website.

Now, the casual reader may ask... "What is Guan?" When my friends and I began this blog, we questioned this ourselves. We had used it so casually, that it seemed that the definition of it had been lost. I felt that this post was important enough to warrant some serious soul-searching before I let it wander off onto the internet for the world to see.

Now, a simple search on the internet would have you believe that Guan is a Chinese surname, one that was even held by a famous general. The other part of the internet (Urban Dictionary) would tell you that it was an Irish contraction of "Go on" or even a British slang for Marijuana. The immortal words of Sean Kingston would seem to agree with the contraction when he claims "What the Guan!" in the intro of his song "Take you There". However, as I analyzed these definitions, I quickly realized that these simple labels were not enough to encompass all that is "Guan"

Perhaps the simplest way to explain is through our history with the word... It began with the Kingston's song, when someone who dropped by while listening only to the intro questioned that statement: "What the Guan!" Admittedly, the statement is a strange one at first hearing. After all, the contraction is not one often used, and our friend confused "Guan" as though it were its own word.

It stuck. "Guan" sprang up into our everyday vernacular and we defined it in our own manner.

Now we return to the important question: "What is Guan?"

"Guan" is contextual and multi-faceted. We may say "What the Guan?" as a replacement for the more vulgar phrase, "What the F***?" When someone does something obnoxious or troubling to others, we may refer to them as a "Guanner," in a sense similar to the phrase F***er." Does this mean we limit "Guan" to be the same as the word "F***?"

No, "Guan" is not so crude and vulgar to be confined to this single definition. While the context could imply that "Guan" is the same, it does not carry the latter's harsh connotations. It is simply not a vulgar word.

So we have established that "Guan" does not equal "F***." Perhaps we must look at it situationally. "What the Guan" is most often employed in a position where one sees something odd. Perhaps it's the sight of something absurd, such as a sunny day turning to storms while you've been in a windowless room. Perhaps it is the realization that you've completed the wrong assignment for your class. Perhaps is a multiple choice question with no right answers. Perhaps these definitions can give us an understanding of it...

"What is Guan?" Simply stated, "Guan" is confusion. "Guan" is failure. "Guan" is an oddity. "Guan" is chaos. "Guan" is the statement that things just don't make sense. "Guan" is, in a cheesy sense... life. We all experience things in life that cause us to shake our heads and question our sanity, or at least the sanity of others. The reason I joined this blog is because it's so interesting to think about such "Guan-age" and reflect on life's little quirks. While I don't promise that every one of my posts will wax on so philosophically, I can assure you, I can try.

I think that's enough of an introduction, and I hope you enjoy reading about the random ramblings of guanning guanners.

Let the Guan begin,

-Thyferra2680

Hello

Test. 123.