Simon + Kayar – Page 2 – The world through my eyes..

Atomic Habits

On March 10, 2023 By simonkayar In Books

Self help books are usually not my cup of tea. I have tried a few and absolutely not liked them (sorry fans of ‘The Alchemist’). But there are some on the right side of rationality while also being helpful with some day to day stuff and ‘Atomic Habits’ is one such book. It feels well researched and actually gives practical suggestions that could work. Moreover the tone of the book is more of opening up the knowledge instead of taking the “I know everything, now listen to me” attitude. I also like that it touches upon difficult topics like “genetics” …

PS5 – The Gaming Monster

On March 6, 2023 By simonkayar In Gaming

I have had my eyes on the Playstation roughly for 10 years, every time with the “Last of Us” game as the backdrop – starting from PS3, and then with the remastered version in PS4 and when PS5 came out was surprised that they reworked on the Part 1 again, but never thought of buying it. Once I got my gaming Laptop and managed to play few PS3 games on them (Uncharted 1-3) I was again interested in the playstation. I then managed to run the first few minutes of “Last of Us” and was convinced that I would be …

Empirical Parenting

On February 22, 2023 By simonkayar In Life

There are some amazing parents in the animal kingdom. Several birds try to deflect the predator’s attention to their young ones by making themselves a possible prey. The Giant octopus who lays the eggs, tends to them without eating and dies off. Orangutans, Polar bears and elephants who invest time and energy running into years to ensure that their offspring stands a good chance. Parenting is a required genetic trait, but there is one animal that outshines all when it comes to worrying and strategising about their progeny’s future – Humans. Depending on who you ask, today’s parents spend several …

[Switch] Resident Evil 4

On January 26, 2023 By simonkayar In Gaming

This was the first game I bought when I got Wii but never gotten around to playing it. Now that the HD remake on the switch was there I thought I will try it out and just got hooked on to it. Everything about this game is great – be it the story, the controls, the length and the difficulty. I was happy to see that they did not have any ‘easy’ level and started off with the default ‘normal’ level. With the first few minutes of the game you realize that this is not for the faint hearted. The …

The Joy of Knowing

On January 18, 2023 By simonkayar In General

From our early times, we have been very curious about the world around us. We tried to make sense of stuff, know and understand it and pass on the knowledge to the next generation. Probably that is how we were able to survive and evolve. Even today, children ask so many questions and are filled with curiosity about everything. But as we grow up, this curiosity is slowly extinguished by the society’s obsession with success measured in units of marks scored. By the time we are adults, we hardly bother to learn or wonder anymore and will laugh at the …

The Rugged Smartwatch – AmazFit T Rex 2

On December 19, 2022 By simonkayar In Tech

So, my 3 year old Huawei GT 2 stopped sending phone notifications (was working otherwise with the same amazing battery life) and I started to look out for some options. I never quite liked the default option for iPhone users – Apple watch (high price, low battery life, prefer circular dials). The Huawei/Honor is not in a great state (especially in India) and so did not want to commit to them. Finally ended up at Amazfit’s website and was happy with their iOS support. Their GTR, GTS models were good but the T Rex was what I always wanted like …

The Cost of Happiness

On November 4, 2022 By simonkayar In Life

Just as a fun pass time activity, I have always wondered how to measure the cost associated with our happiness. My theory is that we first need to have “Happiness Points” ranging from 0 to 100 for each of our experience / feeling / product etc. The points can range between 0, which brings you no happiness at all to a maximum of 100 meaning a great ecstasy of happiness that you can revisit again and again. This point system should consider every form of happiness that you derive out of the thing under condideration. Let’s take an example to …

Mani’s Ponniyin Selvan – the Movie

On October 31, 2022 By simonkayar In Movies

As a huge fan of the books, I was anticipating that it would be made into a movie someday, right after I finished reading it in the early 1990s. Even back then Maniratnam was trying to do it with Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth (what a treat that would have been). After that whenever the rumour resurfaced, I was always ready for the ensuing disappointment. In 2020, when I heard the news that Mani had started shooting it rekindled the fire only to be put off by Corona news few months later. But Mani was a patient sculptor I guess and …

Ponniyin Selvan – Books

On October 29, 2022 By simonkayar In Books

During one of my annual school holidays (probably 8th or 9th) my father got me the full set of 5 books of Ponniyin Selvan. I have heard him talk about it earlier but I never thought I would read them. I started with the first book, first chapter and Kalki’s writing took hold of me till I finished the full set within the holidays. I ended up skipping cricket some days to finish an interesting part of the book. Even my parents were amused that I was sitting with the books all day long. There is a kind of simplicity …

My First Gaming Laptop – Dell G15 5520

On October 23, 2022 By simonkayar In Tech

I was using the Macbook Air M1 for the past 2 years and loved it for its build, battery, speed and ease of use being almost like an iPad with keyboard. It was amazing value for money but I encountered couple of issues – I was not able to play my favorite game “Age of Empires” which got a definitive edition upgrade and had to borrow my wife’s windows laptop to try it. Also whenever we worked together and shared MS Word files, the alignment would be off. Thankfully my good friends Joe and Sushma showed interest in the Macbook …