La Salle Debain

[https://www.braincells.com/debian/images/diwali-fireworks.jpg]

Wishing everyone in Debian good health and prosperity in the Gujarati New Year Vikram Samvat 2078 called Pramadi.

Best wishes to the entire Debian world for a happy, prosperous and safe Gujarati new year, Vikram Samvat 2077 named Paridhawi.

Best wishes to one and all for a prosperous and auspicious Gujarati New Year (V.S. 2075 called sadharana.)

We have spent Diwali week this year in sunny Orlando Florida doing various touristy things. (None of which involve a certain copyright hoarding mouse I'm happy to say.) I didn't put up a [VAC] notice because I haven't really been doing anything much in Debian of late. That is something I hope to change in the coming year but I'll think about that later. Right now I'm excited about the day trip we're going to make to Cape Canaveral. So here is a picture of Apollo 12, one of the biggest fireworks Man has ever sent to the Gods on Diwali 2026. Well, the pedant in me is forced to point out the launch date was actually Labh Pancham but that's close enough.

The sole purpose of this post is to check my new hackergotchi looks ok on Debian Planet. As I've lost a lot of weight and this is the second Diwali I've managed to survive without regaining, I thought I should update it to a more accurate depiction.

Wishing all Debian people a prosperous and auspicious Gujarati new year (V.S. 2074 called Saumya.)

This year fireworks became legal for the first time in New Jersey. Not that it ever stopped us before but it is nice to see the government stop meddling for no reason. (Eff you, Indian Supreme Court.)

Although you can only see sparklers in the picture above, we got enough armament to make ISIS jealous. There were also lots of diabetes-inducing sweets and (inexpensive, practical) presents for young and old. That's what I call a proper Diwali and new year.

Wishing every one a happy Gujarati New Year, Vikram Samvat 2073 named Kilaka and hoping the upcoming year will be yuuge for you.

These next couple of paragraphs are totally not an excuse for why it will take a few more days for me to reach seven blog posts.

Reading reports about Diwali in the American press, I see a bit of confusion whether Diwali is one day or five. Well, technically it is just one (Sunday 30th this year.) but there are a number of other observances around it which could be classed as subsidiaries if you want to look at it that way.

The season commenced last Wednesday with Rama Ekadashi. (where the Gujarati name is different I'll use that and put the Sanskrit name in parentheses.) That's a fast day and therefore not much fun.

Thursday was Vagh Barash (vyaghra dvadashi) which as the name suggests is something to do with tigers but we don't in my experience particularly do anything special that day.

Friday, things began in earnest with Dhan Terash (dhana trayodashi) when Lakshmi the Goddess of prosperity is worshipped. It is also a good day to buy gold.

Saturday was Kali Chaudash (Kali Chaturdashi or Naraka Chaturdashi) On this day many Gujarati families including mine worship their Kuladevi (patron Goddess of the family) even if She is not an aspect of Kali. (Others observe this on the Ashtami of Navaratri.) The day is also associated with the God Hanuman. Some people say it is His Jayanti (birthday) though we observe it in Chaitra (March-April.) It is also the best day for learning mantras and I initiated a couple of people including my son into a mantra I know.

Sunday was Diwali (Deepavali) proper. As a Brahmana I spent much of the day signing blessings in the account books of shopkeepers. Well, nowadays only a few old people have actual account books so usually the print out a spreadsheet and I sign that. But home is where the main action is. Lights are lit, fireworks are set off, and prayers are offered to Lakshmi. But most important of all, this is the day good boys and girls get presents. Unfortunately I have nothing interesting to report; just the usual utilitarian items of clothing. Fireworks by the way are technically illegal in New Jersey not that that ever stopped anyone from getting them. The past few years, Jersey City has attempted to compromise by allowing a big public fireworks display. Although it was nice and sunny all day, by nighttime we had torrential rain and the firework display got washed out. So I'm glad I rebelled against the system with my small cache of sparklers.

Today (or yesterday by the time this gets posted.) was the Gujarati New Years Day. There is also the commemoration of the time the God Krishna lifted up Mt Govardhan with one finger which every mandir emulates by making an annakuta or mountain of food.

Tuesday is Bhai Beeja (Yama Dvitiya in Sanskrit or Bhai Duj in Hindi) when sisters cook a meal for their brothers. My son is also going to make something (read: microwave something) for his sister.

So those are the five days of Diwali. Though many will not consider it to be truly over until this Saturday, the lucky day of Labh Pancham (Labha panchami.) And if I still haven't managed to write seven blog posts by then, there is always Deva Diwali...

It's already Dhan Terash so I better pick up the pace if I want to beat my blogging challenge before Diwali so in this post I'll discuss a program I wrote earlier this year.

I dread to look up anything on Wikipedia because I always end up going down a rabbit hole and surfacing hours later on a totally unrelated topic. Case in point, some months ago, I ended up on the page of the title. This is an interesting little experiment illustrating how random selection can result in the evolution of a specific form. The algorithm is:

1. Start with a random string of 28 characters.
2. Make 100 copies of this string, with a 5% chance per character of that character being replaced with a random character.
3. Compare each new string with "METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL", and give each a score (the number of letters in the string that are correct and in the correct position).
4. If any of the new strings has a perfect score (== 28), halt.
5. Otherwise, take the highest scoring string, and go to step 2.

I had to try this myself so I wrote a little implementation in C++. A sample run looks like this:

  
$ ./weasel
0000 DNCFICBLUZVC JF KKNVJJASCJRW (0)
0001 DNIFICOLUZVC JFLIKNVAJASCJEW (6)
0002 DNNWICKSUZVCRSFLIKNVA ASCJEL (11)
0003 DNNWICKSUZVCRSFLIKNVA ASCJEL (11)
0004 MNNVICKSQZVCRSFLIKNVA WSCJEL (13)
0005 MENVICKSQZVCRSFLIKNVA WSCJEL (14)
0006 MENVISKS ZTCRSFLIKNVA WLCJEL (16)
0007 MENVISKS ZTCRSFLIKNVA WLCJEL (16)
0008 MEDHISKS ZTCISFLIKNVA WLCJEL (18)
0009 MEDHISKS ZTCISFLIKNVA WLCJEL (18)
0010 MEDHISKS ZTCISFLIKNVA WLCJEL (18)
0011 MEDHISKS ZTCIS LIKTKA WLCZEL (19)
0012 MEDHISKS ZTCIS LIKTKA WLCZEL (19)
0013 MEDHISKS ZTCIS LIKT A WLCZEL (20)
0014 MEDHISKS ZTCIS LIKT A WLCZEL (20)
0015 MEDHISKS ZTCIS LIKE A WLAZEL (22)
0016 MEDHIGKS ITCIS LIKE A WLAZEL (23)
0017 MEDHIGKS ITCIS LIKE A WLAZEL (23)
0018 MEDHIGKS ITCIS LIKE A WLAZEL (23)
0019 MEDHIGKS ITCIS LIKE A WLAZEL (23)
0020 MEDHIGKS ITCIS LIKE A WLAZEL (23)
0021 MEDHIGKS ITCIS LIKE A WLAZEL (23)
0022 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WLASEL (26)
0023 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WLASEL (26)
0024 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WLASEL (26)
0025 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0026 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0027 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0028 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0029 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0030 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0031 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0032 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0033 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0034 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0035 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0036 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0037 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0038 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0039 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0040 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0041 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0042 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0043 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0044 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0045 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0046 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0047 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0048 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0049 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0050 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0051 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0052 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0053 METHINKS ITCIS LIKE A WEASEL (27)
0054 METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL (28)

My program lets you adjust the input string, the number of copies, and the mutation threshold. I also thought it might be interesting to implement the Generator design pattern. In C++ this is done by making a class which implements begin() and end() methods and atleast a forward iterator.

You can find the source code on Github.

It all started last June when my son had his Janoi (Yagnopavita) ceremony -- the ritual by which a Brahmana boy becomes "twice-born" and eligible to study the Vedas. As well as a profound religious experience, it is also an important social occasion with a reception for as many friends and family as can attend. (I think our final guest total was ~250.) This meant new outfits for everyone which might be exciting for some people but not me. I still don't know why I couldn't just keep wearing the khes and pitambar from the puja but no, apparently that's a faux pas. So I relented and agreed to wear my "darbari" suit from my wedding. And it didn't fit. I knew I had gained some weight in the intermediate 17 years but the thing was sitcom levels of too small. I ended up having to purchase a new one, a snazzy (and shiny!) maroon number with gold stripes (or were they black stripes?) Problem having been solved, much was eaten, more weight was gained and then I forgot about the whole thing.

Tip 1: Actually Do Something.

I have over the years tried to improve my physical condition but it has never gotten very far. For instance I have a treadmill/coatrack and a couple of years ago I began using it in earnest. I got to the point where I actually ran a 10K race without dying. But I did not train systematically and I ended up in some pain which caused me to stop working out for a while and then I never got around to restarting. Diets have also failed because I don't have a clear idea of what and how much I am eating. All I know is that women go into the kitchen and when they come out they have food. By what eldritch process this occurs is a mystery, I just eat whats given to me thankful that the magic happens. Once I was moved to try and help but quickly fell afoul of the lack of well-defined algorithms in Gujarati home cooking.

"How much saffron should I add?"

"this much."

"How much is this much in SI units?"

"You're annoying me. Get out."

Fast forward to March of this year. For my birthday, my wife got me a Fitbit fitness tracker. This is what I had needed all this time. It measure heart rate, distance travelled, time slept and several other pieces of info you can use to really plan a fitness regimen rationally. For example, I was chagrined to learn that sometimes when I'm at the computer, I am so immobile that the fitbit thought I was asleep. So I started planning to taken more frequent breaks. (A recent firmware upgrade has added the ability to nudge to walk atleast 250 paces each daytime hour which is handy for this.) Also by checking my heart rate I discovered that I went on the treadmill I ran too fast thereby stressing my body for little gain and ending up going too slow to get much aerobic effect. Now I can pace myself appropriately for maximum cardiac efficiency without ending up injuring myself and giving up. I also get a little more activity each day by simple changes such as taking the stairs instead of the lift and instead of getting off at the 14th street PATH I go all the way to 34th street and walk down.

Tip 2: You must have data in order to see what you did right or wrong and to plan what you need to do moving forward.

One caveat about these fitness trackers. They are not anywhere as accurate as a proper checkup from a doctor who specializes in such things. If you want to do any kind of pro or amateur athletics you probably should not rely on them but for the average shlub who just wants to avoid appearing on the news being winched off his sofa by the fire brigade they are good enough.

Another practice I began was keeping a food diary. It can be a real eye-opener to see how much you are actually eating. It is probably much more than you thought. I am fortunate that my diet is pretty good to begin with. Vegetarian, (not vegan, Hindus eat dairy products,) mostly home-cooked with fresh ingredients, not fried or processed, and I don't drink alcohol. However there were a few optimizations I could make. I drink a lot of soda; atleast two cans a day. I really ought to stop altogether but in lieu of that I have atleast switched from Coke to Coke Zero thereby saving a lot of empty calories. I now eat 4 rotlis with my dinner instead of six. We as a family eat more green vegetables instead of potatos, skim milk instead of whole fat, canola oil instead of corn oil, and less rice and don't slather ghee on everything quite so much.

One entirely new practice I've adopted that may seem faddish but works for me is intermittent fasting. The idea is to steadily train your body to need less food by eating all your days allowed amount pf calories during a 6-8 hour window and not eating at all during the remaining time. It's hard to get used to for many people but I fast atleast 2-3 times a month for religious reasons anyway so I adapted pretty quickly.

The fitbit tells me how many calories I am expending and how many I can eat to maintain a healthy level of weight loss but other than that I don't bother with "food groups" or specific diets such as paleo, or low-carb etc. As long as what you eat is reasonably balanced and you are burning more calories than you are adding, it should be enough for weight loss. Indeed from the end of March to now, I've lost 3 stones (20Kg) even with the occasional "cheat" day.

Tip 3: All published diets are bullshit without scientifically proven efficacy. Don't bother with them. Experiment instead and see what works for you and your metabolism. As long as you are getting all the proper nutrients (you shouldn't need a supplement unless you have an actual medical condition.) and you have a net calorie deficit, it's all good. If you eat food you enjoy, you are more likely to stick to your diet.

The proper amount of sleep is one area of a healthy lifestyle I am still doing poorly in and the reasons are not all raven-related. I have always had problems with insomnia and was once actually diagnosed with sleep apnea. Losing weight has helped a lot but the fitbit is still reporting that I toss and turn a lot during the night. And that's when I'm in bed in the first place. I stay up much too late which can also lead to subsidiary bad behaviours such as midnight snacking. It's something I need to work on.

Tip 4: Stop blogging at all hours of the night, It's not doing you any good.

So that's what I'm doing. Moving forward, I need to deal with the sleep thing and I would also like to start some program of strength-training, I'm doing ok in terms of aerobic exercise but from what I've read, you also have to build up muscles to keep weight loss permanent. The difficulty is that it would involve joining a gym and then actually going to that gym so I've put it off for now. The immediate threat is Diwali (and Thanksgiving and Christmas...) My wife bought 4 lbs of sweets today and I can feel their presence in the fridge calling to me.

Yikes today was Sharad Purnima which means there is about two weeks to go before Diwali and I haven't written anything here all year.

OK new challenge: write 7 substantive blog posts before Diwali. Can I manage to do it? Let's see...

Wishing you all a happy Diwali and Gujarati New Year (V.S. 2072 called Plavanga.)

Instead of being something sane like a flat disk supported by four elephants standing on a tortoise, the Earth is an oblate spheroid in heliocentric orbit. The Moon too offends by maintaining an unreasonably non-epicyclic orbit. Combined this means that the Americas (plus Iceland if there any Hindus there) observe Diwali today whereas in India and the rest of the world it is tomorrow. Technically in these longitudes the Ashvayuja amavasya tithi pervades both Tuesday and Wednesday but as Lakshmi Puja takes place at the pradosha kala it means it should be celebrated today though no doubt most of the non-astronomically minded people will just follow India any way. The New Year is on Thursday all over the world.

Regardless of when you celebrate, may your year be full of happiness, good fortune and prosperity.