Memory Curios

1. Life Without Memory: The Case of Clive Wearing; Part 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d 
2. Forgot password: 1, 2, 3
3. Test PHP mail on localhost: 1, 2 (generate app specific password for gmail and use it in sendmail.ini)
4. PHP mail on the server: ssmtp, php dot ini
5. PHP debugging: 1
6. Internet media types: 1; PHP File Upload: 1, Deny Access to Server Directory: put "Options -Indexes" in a .htaccess file inside the directory; Download file from server: 1; 
7. For downloading with correct mime extension, use finfo_file(); on windows you need to uncomment "extension=php_fileinfo.dll" in php.ini and then restart Apache
8. Typing speed: 1; hidden field: 1, 2; key codes: see page source of 1
9. LAMP on server
10. Restrict access to a folder on Ubuntu Apache: put .htaccess with "deny from all" inside the target folder and follow instructions in this link.
11. To dump database: from the system shell use "mysqldump -u username -p dbname > dbname.sql"

Note

A week. No significant urge. Psychologically it is becoming a non-news.

Note

Has been four days, one hour, and 52 minutes. Feeling good about getting rid of the smell. Taste improved.

Note

Three days and four hours. I did not sleep well last night, so a general feeling of lethargy; other than that feeling fine and enjoying being non-smoker.

Note

Two days and forty nine minutes without smoking. A feeling of loss came to me when I saw a woman standing by the doorway of Mayfair Mall with a cigarette in her hand, other than that pretty uneventful in terms of urges. This fitness age calculator says, I am 38 years old; very bad! I need to exercise to sweating, daily, and for at least 30 minutes.

Note

It has been 1 day and half an hour since I smoked my last cigarette. No great urge for relapse came so far and I think QuitNow! on my Android phone is a good thing as it shows the healing process as a set of dynamically changing information - good persuading.

Note

Smoked last cigarette at 4:45 PM on 31 October, 2013. I am 30 years, 10 months, and 30 days old now and I have been smoking for about 12 years.

Tasks for tomorrow

• clean gait data, compute scores without fancy windowing, plot ROC curve (1 - 4)
• return the damaged phone (by 10)
• talk to Steve and explain the state of affairs (try around 11 at his office)

Principles of work at campus

1. Things to take: keys, moneybag, laptop, charger, smartphone (fully charged), the phone to experiment with in box, the biometrics book, the little notebook, the space pen, an empty flask, and a book of puzzles.
2. Buy the coffee on your way to campus in the morning.
3. Pick an open space on 4th floor; surely not the PhD room with its problematic door and high population density. You do not need to chat, you need the comforting, humming noise. If no space on 4th floor, go to the library.
4. A flask of water, one Starbucks coffee (between 9:30 and 10), and lunch (between 12 and 12:30): no more foods or drinks.
5. At lunch (12), shutdown laptop. After lunch you can relax without using smartphone or laptop: may be do some puzzles; but stop at 1:30. Reboot laptop no later than 1:45. 
6. One task a day, plan it the night before.
7. 4 solid hours is enough. [may be 10-12, 2-4]
8. No FB. If something need be shared, take note; share it later -  from home.
9. No smoking, you can do it on returning home.
10. No ordering-of-books from library; if some books are needed, take notes of which one and why do you think it is needed; when at home think hard, if still think needed order them from home and pick them up when you walk back home.
11. No printing; unless a manuscript is complete and you need proof-reading.

Home vs Campus

Home - Pros:

1. No need to walk with load in my backpack in cold to the campus. [Take only what is necessary for the day's work, need to do twice a day, at most 40 minutes, a bit of walking is good for health]
2. No need to take lunch with me. [Could buy lunch]
3. I can smoke as much as I wish. [Reduction in smoking is very good]
4. I can take tea as many times as I wish. [Could have a refreshing cup of Starbucks coffee instead]
5. I can wear very comfortable clothes and do not need to wear shoes. [Could take sandals in the backpack and wear comfortable dress]
6. Going toilet is very easy. [Not frequent]
7. Apart from Facebook and Zafar, almost perfect solitude. [Better to reduce context switching]

Home - Cons:

1. Light is not abundant. [Plenty of light in Cudahy or in Raynor]
2. Deterioration of professionalism. [Nearby the office, so can meet instantly]
3. Too much smoking. 
4. Too much tea.
5. Nobody else around who is studying. [People are studying all around, a comfortable humming noise]
6. Neglected official duties. 
7. No printers around. [Both B/W and color printers around]

Homunculus talks October 16

• morning thoughts book
• meena
• kawsar ouzo
• dtw: warping image, low cost path image
• inter-class and intra-class matching
• EER, cost
• glucose, ego depletion
• big bro has a big car
• christopher boon's mental tasks for calmness
• draw floor plan
• mental arithmetic
• draw map
• observe quantitative details
• mental quadratic equations
• cubes of cardinals
• book of characters: rizwana concerned about injustice to females
• how do we know what is not so, arrives tomorrow
• sleep on the floor
• rooms of suriya villa
• tiny sounds from apt 204, may be moving on the bed
• about a watch: boon's keeping of exact times
• thinking of telling zafar how many thoughts in short time

R

• Simple plots using R
• Graphical parameters at Quick R
• Multiple qplots side by side
• ROC curve and EER: 1
• Polynomial fit in R: 1, 2
• k-means
• reverse geocoding on android

Nonsmoking Day 1

I have decided to quit smoking, and this is not the first time I am deciding this. I shall note my mental and physical state of each day and at the end of 6 months, if I succeed; I shall summarize my experience for other smokers who wish to quit it. The reasons for quitting are:

1. Weak breathing and fatigue
2. Increasing self-control by winning over a big temptation
3. Cleanliness

Recently I had been consuming 4 to 7 cigarettes a day. I prepared crab-avocado salad for tomorrow's lunch and after that I felt an urge to go to the nearby store and buy cigarettes. It was past 9 so the store was close, I knew; if I want to smoke I need to go further. I resisted. This is the first of many urges I need to tackle. 

peek

I went to sleep late at around half past two, but slept well. I woke up at Angshu's banter with his mom around half past ten in the morning. It was sunny for a short while. Rizwana insisted on going to the zoo, but I told her we would go next Saturday; because it would be sunny. When Rizwana went on a stroll with Angshu, I cleaned the stoves and set the baby seat in front facing position. I need to go to put the clothes in the dryer now. I shall prepare lunch for tomorrow. I am supposed to start on the journal paper where I left it, need to hurry.

recipes

1. tom yum soup
2. shrimp recipies
3. bengali payesh 
4. chotpoti
5. hyderabadi mutton biriyani
6. rohi kalia
7. bitter gourd
8. recipes to try
9. mutton rezala
10. pui shak chocchori with shrimps and potatoes
11. thanksgiving 2013: pumpkin soup, cranberry-relish, turkey, bourbon gravy
12. murgh malaiwala
13. cockonut chicken curry
14. mutton rogan josh

peek

• failed quitting smoking. will try after dissertation.
• 
  

peek

• quitting smoking
• for driver license: passport, form i-94, form i-20, and ssn

peek

• angshu went to ebenezer
• runny nose
• chicken - marinated over 24 hrs - then, around this
• driving practice with kawsar 1 hr
• memory and attention low, sleep deprivation

peek

• angshu may need to stay at home for diarrhoea, let's see.
• finished reading refactoring wetware.
• added 5 training hours for driving.
• sore throat

windows command line tips

1. type a few letters of a command and press F8, it will auto-complete

qmail-ldap

1. Big picture
2. Life with qmail
3. Understanding LDAP
4. How LDAP works 
5. Life with qmail-ldap 
6. LDAP applied
7. Understanding DNS, DNS tutorial  
8. DHCP and DNS

cars

After searching a bit, I have settled down on a scion xb; edmunds and kbb rated it high.

Parallel parking vdo. 

To Do's

1. Try to insert const both in parameters and return values
2. Make the ToString()'s in the specific events final
3. Use DENY_COPY whenever possible
4. Add a virtual dtor to the GlobalEvent class
5. Use explicit for every constructor with at least one argument
6. return reference to *this from assignment operators
7. In the assignment operators, check for self assignment
8. Create shared_ptr's in standalone statements and then pass
9. Pass by reference-to-const for everything that is not built-in type, or STL iterator, or function object
10. DO NOT return reference to a locally defined objects or reference to a heap-allocated one; if a new object needs to be returned return an object
11. Make all data members private, never public or protected
12. Postpone variable definition as long as possible
13. Try avoiding dynamic_casts using virtual functions with a better design
14. Try using declaration when you do not need definition through includes
15. Avoid differentiating names by a single capital/small letter; avoid differentiating by 0, o, O, 1, l
16. Understand the protocol well, ask why's as many as you can come up with.
17. Each part of the code is implementing something of the protocol; so, find the connections between the code and the protocol.
18. Only if a part of the protocol does not make sense, consult books on ds.
19. Only if the code syntax or design does not make sense, consult c++ books.

quotes

• Pressure makes diamonds.
• When things are going well, something will go wrong. When things can't get any worse, they will. Anytime things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.
• ...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth
• Perfection is achieved only on the point of collapse. 
• Begin at the beginning, and go on til you come to the end: and then stop.
• A man's brain originally is like a little empty attic; you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.
• The truth is in the code.
• Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.
• The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

machine learning

• From Stanford
• From Berkley 
• From Columbia
• From Cornell
• From Madison
• From Caltech
• From Harvard
• From MIT
• A list of MOOCS

Distributed Systems - 1

• Why distributed systems are hard to program.
• cpp reads; and this one
• Some resources on visual c++
• UC Berkley Lectures on Data Structures
• The C++ Programming Language (4th), C++ Primer (5th), The C++ Standard Library (2nd), C++ Concurrency in Action, Secure Coding in C and C++, Real-Time C++
• 1 2
• read
• a brief introduction to rvalue referece; this one along with a discussion has some good links
• debugging in visual c++
• compiler web-book
• a book on c
• a course on distributed algorithms 
• distributed design patterns: 1, POSA books, 2  
• metaprogramming
• c++ templates  
• c++ what-nots
• a short course
• distributed systems an algorithmic approach
• distributed systems principles and paradigms
• distributed algorithms by nancy lynch
• uwm course

MS SDE Intern: Day 1

MSR and MBA interns were checked in before Uni interns: as the latter is the greatest in number. I was tensed more than usual all the time. On my table in the auditorium (?) was two MIT's: a boy and a girl; the boy was a math major, he expressed his interest in ml and computer vision. There was a apparently very confident guy doing internship at MS the second time. It was a huge arrangement - the orientation. There are connector taxis for going between buildings, the campus is big. My manager and mentor are Chinese, the mentor is working at MS for 12 years and before that he used to work in MSR in Beijing; to him development is more real and thus more interesting than MSR's "ideas." I had to set up my PC. I did not get the email account because of some delayed submission of some required info. My mentor tried to help me get my table higher up as it was a bit too low, but I said it was OK, because I could lower my chair; it might not have been a good idea to resist his help. My manager tried to give a over all idea of what the team works: it is too vague so far for me to come up with good questions and I did not even realize what is the source of complexity that he emphasized. All I understood is, there are a lot of components in the reliable and available distributed system and there is no good way to monitor or reason about all the components of the state-full machine; I need to come up with some plan in unison with my mentor. My mentor is probably the main guy for load balancing, hence he lacks enough time to delve deep into this issue of complexity. My manager said, I need to set up goals within first weeks; I think they call it "commitments." Overall, I had the feeling that I am going to be a (albeit tiny) part of something big. I met Aran (?) from Harvard; he is very young, not yet determined if his major would be in math, cs, or biology. He is going to be on our team. My mentor seems a helpful guy. I do not remember his or my manager's names!

Curiouser and curiouser!

1. "I" am an idea among many, though somewhat special, inside of my brain. How is this idea of "I" different from other ideas in the brain - physiologically?
2. From inorganic chemicals life began; but is there a single point of time, after which there is life and before which there was none? 
3. Is aging inevitable?
4. If math is coming from human brain like other ideas, why is it so effective in real world?
5. Where did everything begin, or is this question even valid?
6. How and why religions originated and evolved?

Learn the ABC's

1. Typing
2. Try testing how alert you are

HF JSP Srvlt

On pae 85:
C:\Users\Seeker\Desktop\others\RA_SPRING_2013\practice\jsp_servlets\headfirst\mv
c\MyProjects\beerV1>javac -Xlint -cp "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundatio
n\Tomcat 7.0\lib\servlet-api.jar";"classes";"." -d classes src\com\example\web\B
eerSelect.java

Films to watch

1. 1000 great films from TSPDT
2. 1000 great films from NYTimes
3. 1000 films from Guardian

Language of Hollywood

1. Street Angel (1928)
2. The Docks of New York (1928)
3. Applause (1929)
4. Monkey Business (1931)

Death of paper books

• Barnes & Noble
• Phantom bookstores

The Bicycle Thief (1948)

• A. O. Scott's review
• Roger Ebert's review 
• Movie Diva

Frankenweenie (2012)

It's Tim Burton's animation. A boy interested in science but who has his dog as the only friend, tries to revive the dog after it has been run over by a car and dead; and he kind of succeeds. Retelling of Frankenstein, dry but not dull.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

The account of the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden and how things led to it. A tense drama; somewhat poignant, too.

My Left Foot (1989)

Christy's - whose only woking limb is his left foot, even he cannot speak clearly - struggle to do something respectable in his life and he becomes a writer. A true and touching story. A struggle of a whole not so well-to-do family, actually. Daniel Day-Lewis acted great as Christy. I liked the woman who acted Sheila; she looked so soft, gentle, thoughtful, and kind.

Harry and Tonto (1974)

On losing his home an elderly man goes to his son's to stay. But after a while he did not like his lack of privacy and starts for Chicago to meet someone. But the journey becomes more interesting than the destination. A sweet one.

The Long Walk Home (1990)

About a bus boycott lead by Martin Luther King in 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, when black people had to sit at the back of the bus. The major characters are two women: one is a white woman and the other is her black maid.

My selections from Rolling Stone's 500 greatest

• Hey Jude by Beatles
• A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
• Yesterday by Beatles
• I Want to Hold Your Hand by Beatles
• Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding

About memory

• First case of hyperthymestic syndrome or superior autobiographical memory. A woman of thirty four years of age can recall any day of her life since she was fourteen. In her own words: "... give me the day and I see it. I go back to the day and I just see the day and what I was doing." Although to everybody else this seems to be a marvellous gift, to her it appears as a burden as she describes herself as both the warden and prisoner of her memories. Parker, Cahill, and McGaugh published a captivating report on this woman in Neurocase, 2006.
• Funes, the Memorious. A fantasy short story by Jorge Luis Borges, first published in 1942. It tells about Ireneo Funes, who was thrown from horseback and was hit on the head and became unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he found that he was paralyzed but his memory had become infallible. He saw and remembered things in all their minutiae. For example, to him "dog" is a word, too general; he wished there were specific words for dog in the morning, dog in the afternoon, or even for a dog seen from the side or from above; because, all these differed greatly from each other in his extraordinarily complete perception and memory.  

Cloud Atlas (2012)

I think an epic has titanic characters and pristine emotions; I cannot say it was devoid of those. I liked it. And I liked Ben Whishaw's voice in his narration.

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Had a hearty laugh.

Jean de Florette (1986), Manon of the Spring (1986)

The first part is fast and eventful, made me wish to be a peasant, to live near Nature. The second part is a bit tiresome.

Django Unchained (2012)

Kind of a western Kill Bill, entertaining though. For sure, if Schulz, the German, were not there, I would not have liked it.

The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)

 I do not know if this was intensional, but the making felt amateurish. In the beginning, I did not like it at all, then Maria Braun's character had someting attractive; like someone who is in mourning yet has the presence of mind; who is suffering yet doing everything that needs to be done.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

A theatre entertained many, but freed one.

My Week With Marilyn (2011)

Her little bit was his greatest.

L'Atalante (1934)

It is not a silent-film, but it is old; it has jerky motions due to low frame-rate, I guess. It is not exactly sappy but melodramatic. 

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

A ridiculous idea pursued with resolve, makes it comical. I liked Ghost Dog's conversations with his friend; he speaks in English, the friend speaks in French; neither knows what the other is saying, yet understanding takes place.

Jules et Jim (1962)

Capricious, amoral.

In America (2002)

I am sure it had something to say.

The King of Comedy (1983)

You feel sympathetic for his incredible lunacy; then you say, "Hey, wait..."

Les Misérables (2012)

I could not help comparing this one to the 1998 one. In the '98 version, many a things were amiss, yet I loved Inspector Javert played by Geoffrey Rush - Javert did not feel like a man with flesh and blood, rather he felt like the insatiable spirit of Law itself. Les Misérables has been honed to near perfection as an on-stage musical, and this (2012) film being so stunning a musical, makes you wonder how greater an experience it would be if one watches the staged version. This time (2012) Jean Valjean looks rougher as he should, but Hugh Jackman's singing sometimes makes you think he is short of breath. Russel Crowe's voice, as he sings, becomes so thin at times that it contradicts his natural full voice, and he appears a bit too polished for the character. The 1998 version did not have Javert's soliloques, it did not need them; the character conveyed its inner thoughts without a spoken word.  A welcome addition is Éponine, who is totally absent in the '98 version; her unrequited love never feels innoble; infact She appears more radiant than Cosette. Another little gem is Gavroche. In the end, this was the greatest theatre experience for me in 2012.

A Prophet (2009)

About the ruthless and violent life in a prison; a life full of fangs and claws; a life unfamiliar to us, yet lived just behind that high wall. 

Lincoln (2012)

The movie alternates between Lincoln's home and the court room. The 13th amendment, which ended slavery, is the central drama. A lover of American history might have found it more interesting. Daniel Day Lewis eerily resembles real Lincoln.

Rounders (1998)

It is about playing Poker. Matt Damon acts another Good Will Hunting; quick and sharp, only this time his passion is for Poker. Edward Norton acts someone who always gets into mess and relies on his only friend, Matt, for the rescue. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

According to the Urban Dictionary, a wallflower is a loner; a shy kind of person, who chooses to observe instead of experiencing life; who, often proves to be uncommonly interesting and even cute, if one cares to know him. The movie tells the story of a wallflower, who is a freshman and how he finds true friendship. Something terrible happened to him when he was a little child and that has something to do with him becoming a loner in the first place; but you get to know the truth only at the end. I am not a fan of films that revolve around school campuses, because usually they are too chaotic or they have a "message" to convey; this one belongs to the latter type. I liked Ezra Miller in We Need to Talk About Kevin and here too, he is impressive. Emma Watson has grown into an attractive young woman. The wallflower and his English teacher, develop a formal yet sweet relationship between them, which involves reading of books.

রকমারি হাসি

অট্টহাসি, অপরাধী হাসি, আনন্দের হাসি, উচ্চহাস্য, এড়িয়ে-যাওয়া হাসি;

কপট হাসি, কলহাস্য, কষ্ট করে হাসা, কষ্টের হাসি, কামনার হাসি, কাষ্ঠহাসি, কুটিল হাসি, কোমল হাসি, ক্রূর হাসি;

খিকখিক করে হাসা, খিলখিল করে হাসা, খ্যাকখ্যাক করে হাসা;

গড়াগড়ি খেয়ে হাসা, গদগদ হাসি, গমকে-গমকে হাসা, গর্বিত হাসি, গা দুলিয়ে হাসা, গা জ্বালানো হাসি, গালভরা হাসি, গোলামের হাসি;

ঘুম জড়ানো হাসি, ঘৃণা মেশান হাসি;

চতুর হাসি, চিকন হাসি, চোখে হাসির ঝিলিক, চোখের কোণে হাসি;

ছলনার হাসি, ছ্যাবলামো হাসি;

জল্লাদের হাসি;

ঠাট্টার হাসি, ঠাঠা করে হাসা, ঠোঁটের কোণে হাসি;

তাচ্ছিল্যের হাসি, তোষামোদি হাসি, তৈলাক্ত হাসি, তৃপ্তির হাসি;

দম ফাটানো হাসি, দন্তবিকশিত হাসি, দাঁত বের করে হাসা, দুষ্টুমি হাসি, দেখন হাসি, দেঁতো হাসি;

ধরাপড়া হাসি;

নির্মল হাসি, নিঃশব্দ হাসি, নিষ্পাপ হাসি, নুরানি হাসি;

পরাজিতের হাসি, পেট ফাটান হাসি, পেট চেপে ধরে হাসা, প্রাণ খুলে হাসা;

বজ্রহাসি, বাঁকা হাসি, বিদায়ের হাসি, বিষাদমাখা হাসি, বোকার হাসি;

মাতালের হাসি, মিষ্টি হাসি, মুক্তির হাসি, মুচকি হাসি, মোসাহেবি হাসি, মৃদু হাসি;

রক্ত জল করা হাসি;

লোভাতুর হাসি;

শয়তানি হাসি, শুকনো হাসি;

স্নিগ্ধ হাসি, স্মিতহাস্য;

হায়েনার হাসি, হাহা করে হাসা, হেরে যাওয়া হাসি। 

Sojourns into pleasure

It began with The Monkey's Paw. The name reminded me of a drama from BTV's Bisshaw-Natok (বিশ্ব-নাটক) and having finished reading the story, I was sure this was that; yet the drama was no match for the writing. Then there was Split Cherry Tree, very distant in theme, sprinkled with patois; moving nonetheless. I read those two stories in a row without a moment's gap between them.

     Next day I read An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge. Reading it, was like a free-fall; I started with ambivalence: will it live upto the other two - but in no time I was rushing headlong; my heartbeat rose; I was gasping almost; and the end left me with wondrous delight; I wanted to relish its afterglow and decided not to have another for some time.    

     To Build a Fire is a story about a man and his wolf-dog in the wilderness during a cold, gray day; it tells how nature can get lethal just being plain cold. It would have been a drab little piece of short-film had one cared to make it, because you would not have seen the eventful drama going on in the man's mind; yet as a narrative it was tense and gripping. 

     The Lottery reads uneventful; it's only after you have finished reading it, you start wondering; and revelation and amazement set in. The Death of Ivan Ilych is after all, a maxim, told in magnificient details. 

Movies of note

[The following list is based on my present memory of how I enjoyed and felt about the movies. Memory is deceptive, so the list might have been different, had I considered each movie at the very moment I watched it. When I started watching movies in my teens, I watched them at random and they were from Hollywood, Bollywood, or Dhallywood. Then I started watching movies that had familiar and favorite actors in them, still from Hollywood mostly. Eventually I became adventurous; I watched movies based on directors, from different countries, from different times.

     I have grown some intuition about IMDB's rating, e.g., I can feel the difference between ratings like: 7.2, 7.6, 8.0, 8.4, etc.; because I know a few movies of each of those ratings and I think a quick comparison takes place in my subconscious whenever a need arises. Although for me, IMDB (its rating and user reviews) has been a useful filter to sieve out bad movies, occasionally I have enjoyed a movie with a rating of 7.3 as much as I have enjoyed one with a rating of 8 or even higher. Finally I always watched a movie solely for my own enjoyment; so if you care to watch from my list, I am sorry if it fails to entertain you as much.]

Horror:

1. The Shining (1980): You do not see the mess (bloody innards, green excreta, etc.) so common in horror movies; you see the minimalistic art of Kubrick. I particularly love the scenes at the bar: the easy chitchat that shows Torrace's intimacy with Lloyd, the bartender, as if they know each other for ages; Grady's suggestive tone. The openning music is pregnant with omen. 
2. The Exorcist (1973): Slowly and surely it gets a grip on you, you feel helpless.  
3. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
4. The Omen (1976)
5. The Others (2001)
6. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
7. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
8. Diabolique (1955)
9. Repulsion (1965)

Mystery or Thriller:

1. Rear Window (1954): James Stewart is perfect for the character.
2. Sleuth (1972)
3. The 39 Steps (1935)
4. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
5. Black Swan (2010)
6. The Conversation (1974)
7. Blow-up (1966)
8. Buried (2010)

Crime:

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. Se7en (1995)
3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
4. Fargo (1996)
5. To Kill a Mocking Bird (1962)

Drama:

1. 12 Angry Men (1957)
2. The Apu Trilogy (1955-1959)
3. Barry Lyndon (1975)
4. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
5. All the President's Men (1976)
6. A Separation (2011)
7. The King of Comedy (1983)
8. Scent of a Woman (1992)
9. Knife in the Water (1962)
10. Hud (1963)

Animation:

1. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
2. Spirited Away (2001)
3. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
4. Ratatouille (2007)
5. Up (2009)
6. Mary and Max (2009)
7. Wallace and Gromit (everything)
8. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
9. Finding Nemo (2003)
10. Ice Age (2002)
11. When the Wind Blows (1986)

Sci-Fi:

1. Jurassic Park (1993)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
3. Alien (1979), Aliens (1986)
4. Terminator 2 (1991)
5. Back to the Future Trilogy (1985-1990)
6. The Matrix (1999)
7. Avatar (2009)

Romance:

1. City Lights (1931)
2. The Earrings of Madam de... (1953)
3. Brief Encounter (1945)
4. The Apartment (1960)
5. It Happened One Night (1934)
6. L'eclisse (1962)
7. Midnight in Paris (2011)
8. Sunrise (1927)

Adventure:

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
2. Jaws (1975)
3. Deliverance (1972)

Action:

1. Gladiator (2000)
2. Braveheart (1995)
3. The Bourne Trilogy (2002-2007)

Western:

1. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) 
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
3. High Noon (1952)

Comedy:

1. Carnage (2011)
2. Paper Moon (1973)
3. The Graduate (1967)
4. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
5. The Truman Show (1998)

Musical:

1. Les Misérables (2012)

বচনামৃত - ১

হুমায়ুন আহমেদ প্রথম আলোতে একটি কলামে লিখেছিলেনঃ "একটা ব্যাপার আমাদের মনে রাখতে হবে, আমরা যখন নালন্দা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় বানিয়েছি তখন পশ্চিমারা বাঁদরের চেয়ে সামান্য ওপরে অবস্থান করছিল।" গৌরবোজ্জ্বল অতীত স্মরণ করিয়ে দিয়ে আমাদেরকে আশ্বস্ত করতে চেয়েছিলেন তিনি। 

     কৌতুহল হওয়ায়, উইকিপিডিয়াতে একটু পড়ে দেখলাম - নালন্দা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের আয়ুষ্কাল ছিল পঞ্চম কি ষষ্ঠ খ্রীষ্টশতক থেকে ১১৯৭ খ্রীষ্টাব্দ। এদিকে পীথাগোরাস, ইউক্লিড, আর্কিমিডিস, এরিস্টটলরা সবাই খ্রীষ্টপূর্বাব্দেই ইহলোকের মায়া ছেড়েছেন। জুলিয়াস সিজার এর গুপ্তহত্যাও ঘটে ৪৪ খ্রীষ্টপূর্বাব্দে। এঁরা যদি বাঁদরের চেয়ে সামান্য ওপরে থেকে থাকেন, তাহলে মানতেই হবে, সভ্যতার জন্যে হুমায়ুন আহমেদ অসাধারণ কোন মানদন্ড ব্যবহার করেছিলেন অথবা "পশ্চিমারা" বলতে উনার খুব ব্যক্তিগত কোন ধারণা ছিল, যেটা আমার অজানা। অবশিষ্ট সম্ভাবনাগুলি এরকমঃ আমাদেরকে অনুপ্রাণিত করতে গিয়ে তিনি একটু লাগামছাড়া হয়ে পড়েছিলেন, যে কোন কারণেই হোক আমাদের আবেগে নাড়া দিতে চেয়েছিলেন তিনি, ইত্যাদি।  

হতে পারে 'অগভীর জলে শফরী ফরফরায়তে'

কবিতা যে আমার একেবারেই ভালো লাগে না, তা বলতে পারছি না; কারন দুয়েকটা কবিতা আমার খুবি প্রিয়। যেমনঃ বোঁদলেয়ারের লি ফ্লোহ্র ডু মাল (les Fleurs du mal), বিষয়ঃ প্রিয়তমার চুলের প্রশস্তি। নাহ্, যা ভাবছেন তা নয়; কাব্যসাহিত্যে আমার পড়াশোনা শূন্যপ্রায়। বোঁদলেয়ারের কবিতাটা আমি শুনেছি, পড়িনি কখনো; শুনেছি বুদ্ধদেব বসুর 'চুল' হিসেবে, কামরুল হাসান মঞ্জুর আবৃত্তিতে; শুনেছি এবং শিহরিত হয়েছি, গভীর আনন্দে হারিয়েছি নিজেকে, অসংখ্যবার। অনেক পরে জানতে পারি, কবিতাটি বসু’র স্বরচিত নয়, অনুবাদ। মঞ্জু’র আবৃত্তির সঙ্গে ছিল চমৎকার আবহসঙ্গীত – বাদক কে ছিলেন মনে করতে পারছি না।

     অথবা, এইচএসসি’র বাংলা পাঠ্যবইতে 'ধন্যবাদ' নামের কবিতাটি, কবি সম্ভবত আহসান হাবীব; বিষয়ঃ 'স্যার' এর কুকুরের জন্মদিনে নিমন্ত্রিত হয়ে এবং ভালোমন্দ খেতে পেয়ে বিদায়কালে হতদরিদ্র কেরানীর ধন্যবাদজ্ঞাপন। নিরীহ ভাষায় তীব্র বিদ্রূপ আর বিষয়ের অভিনবত্ব আমাকে স্পর্শ করেছিল দারুণ।

     আরেকটা প্রিয় কবিতা হল, দোতলার ল্যান্ডিঙে দাঁড়িয়ে। এটাও শুনেছি কেবল, পড়া হয়নি; মঞ্জু আর একটি মেয়ে’র দ্বৈত আবৃত্তিতে। বিষয়টা এরকমঃ ছেলেটি এবং মেয়েটি বেশ ক’বছর একি দালানে থাকছে, কিন্তু আলাপচারিতা হয়নি সেভাবে। আজ ছেলেটির পরিবার বাসা বদল করছে, তাই ছেলেটি গিয়েছিল গাড়ি ভাড়া করতে। মেয়েটির এখন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে যাবার সময়। সিড়ি বেঁয়ে ছেলেটি উঠছে, মেয়েটি নামছে; দোতলার ল্যান্ডিঙে তাদের দেখা; সংক্ষিপ্ত কথোপকথন; কণ্ঠে ব্যস্ততার রেশ, কথায় আগ্রহ। 

Facebook 2013

• Wine and Life (Shared by Sujoy Kumar Chowdhury).
• On Illustration (Shared by Iftekhar Anam).

Bangladeshi Recipes

• Red lentils