Glow - Part II

When I lugged the huge box from Amazon.com yesterday afternoon from the downstairs mailbox to the apartment on the second floor, I was apparently confused. I was at the first floor (someone had gotten in at the first floor and I'd assumed the elevator was where I wanted it to be) and was fervently jamming my duplicated key into the wrong apartment. Thankfully before being pepper-sprayed or anything equivalent, I fled the place and wormed up to our own apartment. I opened the door - or to phrase it precisely, I turned the lock and yet the door wouldn't budge. Flustered with the heavy package, the useless key and unrelenting door, I whipped out my cell phone to ask S to open the door. Once in, the package really confused me. With the San Diegan fires, I thought I forgot about something I must've ordered a while ago. I ripped it open in anticipation... and my mouth dropped open. There they were... 4 brand new books, each from a different genre, right out of my amazon wishlist, something I don't remember creating now. An early birthday present I guessed. But from which blessed soul? Then I found the receipt and the note. It made my day as nothing else could have. Thanks V. For the books and the choice of the books.

A city on fire

What is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the United States to live in - San Diego, has been burning these past couple of days. A series of no less than 10-15 major wildfires ignited the path all the way from LA to San Diego wreaking destruction in its path. If you don't know about this at all, click here - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=DVXA%2CDVXA%3A2005-22%2CDVXA%3Aen&q=san+diego+fires. It's surreal being part of a national emergency. Where the roads to the north, east and south are blocked because of all the fires and whats on the west is the ocean. Where you're asked to sit tight at home to await a reverse 911 call to make you evacuate. Where so many of your friends have evacuated and come to your houses in the hopes of avoiding another evacuation and where 10-15 of you are bundled up in a single home with all the important documents to leave at a moment's notice. Where the TV is tuned to CNN as you watch homes burn and yet the 15 of you play Pictionary, watch Mouna Raagam or do something to keep yourselves occupied with no work to report to. It may seem funny.. But everyone has their possessions to guard - be it new clothes (my new winter wardrobe in my case), the exclusive salwar kameez wardrobe, the ghagras or a few precious pictures. But when you see multimillion dollar homes burn down to the ground on TV (though insurance will cover a lot of it) and a parked Benz burn away, you can't help but feel sorry for every single person whose material losses exceed anything you've imagined. What I need to appreciate here is the precautious efficiency with which the evacuations were conducted so as to restrict the casualties to a bare minimum.. and that the animals were given shelter as well. The air's acrid but the spirits are up. In this case, the city, quite literally will rise from the ashes.

Glow girl

Yes... I have been glowing since morning... I can feel the warmth in me, I can't stop smiling and people can see it on my face. In the world of academics, we all know of recommendations. Who's ever heard of a personally delivered recommendation? And across continents? Never mind the conference... It was a very very touching gesture. And its left me feeling content and very happy. Thanks, Dr. P. :)

A matter of perspective..

You know its just not your day when...

1. The coffee machine takes you for a ride once again (if you're wondering what I'm talking about, read this post)
2. The SEM needs nitrogen just when you have to use it
3. When you have hunger pangs at 11:00 though you had breakfast
4. When you buy a snack mix at the vending machine and it stops millimeters from the edge and doesn't fall..
5. When you kick the vending machine in frustration to make it fall and then you realize your legs are aching from KettleBells... but hey, the snack mix did drop
6. When you're soo hungry that you tear it open haphazardly.. and everything but 3 pieces spill on the floor
7. When the kind cleaning lady tsk-tsks at your clumsiness..
8. When you decide to quench your thirst rather than hunger and settle down with the water bottle at your desk and forget that you haven't "clicked" the spout.. and when it decides to gush down when you knock it over momentarily in a flurry of activity...
and..... big pause...
9. When your superboss asks for your blog address as he catches sight of this post.
10. And its only 12:00 pm.. The day's only just begun

-10 minutes later -

And then just like that.. when I walked out, I saw the poor bug I'd seen crawling an hour ago, lying squashed and lifeless in a corner. That put things in perspective.

Celebrity driving test

This one was funny: http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4025103

Especially the actual test itself. Lol.

Above the influence?

Not quite. Unrelatedly, I started thinking about how as we meld with different people, we all tend to pick up certain phrases, expressions from their vocabulary... It's happened so much through college that everyone including our families thought we Kadalais all sounded the same. Even though me n S sound soo different, more often than not if someone who hasn't known us long picks up the phone, they're confused as to who's talking (especially if I take S's call or vice versa). Some famous words have stood the test of time - "Duh", "Aumaaaans", "Galeej", - to name a few. I even picked up P's hai hai which I tend to use with a Hindi-friendly population.. Back in UC, we roomies pretty much had the same expressions for similar situations.. I think that kind of thing just tends to happen. And I can't recall if I have been the trend-setter more than a couple of times. Apparently, I am easily influenced! With the move to San Diego, came some newbies... particularly what we picked from S' - "Orshthuuuu" (a huge play on the word, "Worst"). Now with more new friends, I've identified their three mostly used words - "Bugger", "Sala" (hindi) and "Rascal". Personally, I think I am unlikely to pick up any of these... But time will tell..

Television Overload

With the decline of constructive things I do back home, I have a TV line-up for Wednesday that beats anything that mid-week has seen in the past. Thank goodness for S's DVR and I can record all these shows.. So whats in for the night?
1. America's Next Top Model
2. Gossip Girl
3. Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares... and adding a final one to the sequence
4. Pushing Daisies and oh maybe even Private Practice

And all of these are hour-long shows. Gulp.

K-prize..

With all my K headers, I feel like I am some sort of K-Fed propoganza (sic).. Hmph.. But this is good news.. There was an essay contest at K a week after I joined and in the sheer boredom of having nothing to do, I penned in a few pages and submitted it. And guess what? I actually won a prize! No.. not the first couple of prizes .. Just some honorary mention but nevertheless I get some goodies! When I got the 'congratulatory' email yesterday it took me a few minutes to realize what they were talking about... But who cares.. Yoo Hoo!

Simple Thathuvams

Courtesy: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/funspirations/

More on Tea...

As a tea maniac and specially one who likes to experiment, I have zeroed in on Celestial Seasonings as my favorite brand. And I tried their Tension Tamer tea just yesterday and boy.. was it good or what. Recently, I have started believing that I may have RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome). It maybe that I do have RLS or it maybe that seeing so many ads about it make me wanna wriggle my legs even more. The temptation to jig-wig them is maximum when trying to fall asleep. But believe me, this tea helped distinctly. I felt this soothing calm around me and this blanket of peace surround me. I can't vouch for its "tension taming" capabilities because I wasn't really tensed. But with ingredients like peppermint, cinnamon and lemon, ginger and chamomile, the worst that can happen is to have good herbs in your system! Mostly I believe that these teas work more on philosophy than anything else. In that, when you read the blurb that claims these fabulous things, you will for them to happen and end up realizing that they do.

Amongst others, I tried CS's Lemon Zinger, and this tea oozes red because it has hibiscus... It was supposed to startle you into freshness.. But maybe because of the tangy flavour, or maybe it was 3:00 pm on Saturday afternoon, I was little more sleepy than awake.

But as I already proclaimed... whats the worst thing that could happen? Extra antioxidants in the system? Nice herbs and a refreshing sugar-free drink? More heart-friendly and cancer-fighting capabilities? I'm game.

Sweat-er

Now I know why they call it a "sweater". Not because you sweat in it, but because you sweat over it! With San Diego mornings and evenings getting chill and with my winter wear stuck in transit, I had no choice but to buy a sweatshirt at least. And so I went shopping.. After checking out everything sweater-y at Charlotte Russe and for a change not finding anything I liked (I was very particular that it should'nt be an overhead variety but more the zip-up style), I ended up in F-21. I was pleasantly surprised at first to see a large variety there. On closer inspection however, they were all mostly thin, and rough and crazily patterned like 21-year-olds liked I assumed. Displeased, I looked at every sweater the shop housed and finally found the perfect one. It was black, sheer and zip-up. I tried it on.. It fit well and was very very comfortable and soft. $22.50 - Not bad at all.. I took it immediately (and a trench coat which looked very flattering).

As night fell over our (Me, S and V) boisterous dinner @ Bandar and dessert @ Extraordinary desserts, I wore the new sweater. Warm and well comforted, I was very at home in it and we were playing Dumb-C while waiting to be seated and I snuggled my hands into the pockets.. or where they were a few moments ago! I glanced down and to my horror, the right pocket hung straight down. The fabulous sweater had ripped.. in 2 short hours! And past then, I couldn't think straight. I considered it a major misfortune. Yes, I had the receipt. But did I have the tag? While V and S were talking about something, my brain retraced my actions and I decided I'd ripped the tag and put it into the cover.. which meant it might still be there. And the conversation had veered to the poor-little-kid-and-the-vulture-waiting-to-eat-him photograph. As I snapped on to it, insanely unrelated as it was, I felt sorry for myself having picked the devious loser in a storeful of probables.

This afternoon, I was over at F-21, armed with the receipt and the tag (which was in the bag as I'd surmised). To my chagrin and indignation, they actually created a minor fuss about the exchange because the tag was not still attached to the garment! What was I to do? Wear every damn thing for days on the end with the tag on just to see if it tore? I explained my infallible logic to them and with a few other curious customers watching, they didn't want to risk bad publicity and quickly approved my exchange. I picked a more normal-looking replacement (only after tugging it here and there.. but of course) ;)

Conspirational Coffee

Yesterday was one of those bleary-eyed days at work where I'd not slept a wink the previous night due to a variety of factors - one of which was YEAAY - India are the World T20 Champions!! But cutting to the chase, I wanted to sleep a couple of hours before getting to work. But I was too pumped up after the Indian victory and I knew fatigue was a while away. I cajoled myself into leaving for work. And I tried out a different bus combination and so I didn't have my usual coffee at the transit center.

So I arrive at work around 10 and the canteen has shut down for the usual breakfast-lunch interim. It won't be open for another hour at least. With my eyelids growing heavy every second, I ambled to the the coffee machine.. one that looks like the picture above (its not that same brand so don't sue me).. dug out my 60 cents.. fed it the money and punched in 1-H-3 which was the combination for my usual non-sweet French vanilla. I shut my eyes while I heard the perfunctory cup-dispensing sound. But it was a wee bit different from usual. I half opened one lid and imagine my horror when there was no cup! The machine however happily displayed "Dispensing" and spat out the 5 cents of change as it poured the coffee literally into the drain with no cup in between. I actually yelled "WAIT!" at the machine when I frantically looked around for an empty cup. None. I donno if the coffee would've woken me up as well as my temper against the coffee machine did. Either way - mission accomplished. I was awake. For the next 2 hours at any rate.

Space and Time

How I wish this post was on Physics as you may have expected of me.. But it's not. Its about the world we are in, the time differences and how relationships strive to thrive amongst everything. I read this post a long time back: http://topgunw.blogspot.com/2007/06/conversation.html and it almost precisely summarizes a part of my weekends. Just make that time difference 9 hours and you have more variables in the story... How its lunch for you when its dinner for them.. how they rise as you crash... How you work as they relax.. How you're bursting with energy (coz the day's just begun) when they're ready to crash for that Monday morning... and how everything is soo different..

On a positive note.. its not for long.. :)

And on an entirely different note, JD turns 2 tomorrow.. Happy Birthday JD (or Kittadri as I called him)

Bloody Murphy

Murphy's Law: What can go wrong will go wrong

Its my 200th post and I take the opportune moment to discuss Murphy's Law with you folks. I bet almost every person who knows of Murphy's Law has experienced it and knows that it does hold good in the best of situations..

Today was one of those days I cursed it... I got up 30 minutes past what I wanted to, having given myself the luxury to sleep more after a late night... I decided I would take the 7:30 am bus. On an average I require about 16 minutes to briskly walk the distance from home to the bus stop. Today I had 12. I ran at full-speed, jogged and power-walked till I reached the bus stop all huffing and puffing.

7:29am - Yoo hoo.. I'd beaten the clock; the bus hadn't come early -> hence I beat Murphy's Law. Or so I thought.

Now lemme explain the situation. At the transfer point where I take the next bus, I have two options - Route 120 - once every 30 minutes- a bus that leaves right after the first one reaches, and takes a half hour to get to work or Route 20A - once every 30 minutes- a bus that leaves 15 minutes after the first one reaches and reaches in 10 minutes to work - which reaches me faster and gives me time for a morning coffee. I usually skip the former bus in preference to the latter.

7:56am - The bus reaches my transfer point. Its 4 minutes ahead of time. 120 (the slower one) hasn't even come yet.. I head for coffee. 120 arrives. As I pay for coffee, it leaves. So what? I still have 12 minutes before 20A.

8:15am - I gulp down the last of the coffee - No sign of 20A - no frustration just yet.
8:20am - Usually 20A has come by now and we're halfway to work. Not today.
8:25am - What's going on?
8:30am - 120 (the next 120) arrives. What the helllllll..... I climb in.

Bloody Murphy.

Fall in Love

I love Fall - Autumn, whatever you call it. Its my favorite season of the year in the US. The temperature is perfect, the weather great.. the colors vibrant and the scenary brilliant. At times like I this, I miss being on the East Coast. Back in Cincinatti, I was able to observe the 4 seasons with clear distinctions and loved them for what they were worth (okay - you did tire of winter in 3 months) I am not so sure about that in Southern California. Will wait n watch. Meanwhile for a true riot of color, check this presentation out -

http://travel.msn.com/Guides/MSNTravelSlideShow.aspx?destinationid=&cp-documentid=380088

Spot-o-meter

I had this crazy dream last night.. and its right up J.K. Rowling's alley. I dreamt that there was a way to tell if people were good or bad... merely by looking at them. I am sure it was inspired by the character of Marietta in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. But my dream extended it a few feet further. So people who had these ugly pustules on their faces were the bad ones. But the degree, intensity and number of pustules varied according to the deed itself. For example, a murderer might break out all over while a kid who stole a pencil might barely entail a blemish. Once I got up, I sat day-dreaming if such a system could exist in hypothetical world. Wouldn't life have been so much simpler? That way people might've been afraid to commit these crimes.. at least at the very beginning when they were risking their pure faces and characters.. And everyone could see. It wasn't hidden. Maybe then the good people wouldn't sit and waste their time with the incorrigible ones. Maybe the people with the pustules didn't care and as long as that was all that happened, they would commit more and more errors. I also went on to wonder if there had to be a reverse effect as well. For example if the kid realized his mistake and returned the pencil either anonymously (so as to not take the blame) or with an apology - an indication of a true lesson learnt, the blemish would heal. That would be nice. It would encourage people to definitely change. For the better. But all of this has a simple, very realistic problem (apart from the fact that sprouting pustules on the billions of people according to each deed is Mission Impossible) was that there would have to be an upper governing body that certified an action/deed right or wrong. And this is entirely subject to variation of people's perspectives, the situation, yada yada.. And that's where the plot caves. People's morals differ from person to person... While there are some who look at the big picture - what affects a nation, there are others who look at the narrowest slice of reference - themselves. And thats when I realized that the system would be a monumental failure (apart from the gazillion loop holes in between)

SoP story

Yeah.. another whole sob story.. Almost four years after writing my first and up until now last SoP, I am back at it again. And for the writer that I want to become, I am drawing a large and a complete blank. After looking through a bunch of samples sent by illustrious colleagues, I have started finally. Three paragraphs down, I am critiquing already. I just hope I am done in a couple of days. For someone who can write a trillion blogs a day, its taking so many whole days to pull my own achievments together.. Gosh!

The Brave One

Ok.. I am not going to waste too many words on the movie.. The movie's tag line reads 'How many wrongs make it right'. Instead they should have said 'How being near death makes you a serial killer'. That would've been more precise and to-the-point. The only credit to the movie was Jodie Foster herself who's delivered another flabbergastingly realistic performance. You can smell and feel her fear and she has conveyed every emotion to perfection. But that's all that there is on the movie. It drags on for over 2 hours with the audience dying for the movie to get over.

The bottom line: See it if you are big Foster fan... Otherwise, you ain't missing much.

Finger cots?

I'd never heard of or seen finger cots till I joined K. Here they don't use hand gloves. Instead they use finger cots. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_cot. It seemed a ludicrous substitute to the conventional latex-free, purple nitrile gloves which I considered academic/industry standard. And its likeness to a male condom is uncanny. No wonder when I wiki-ed it, it confirmed my own comparisons and I felt good that I wasn't a pervert- yeay! Obviously you have to wear one on each finger (atleast I do - most people wear them only on the thumb, index and middle fingers of each hand - lo behold - you've saved 4 finger cots!!) At first I found it unsettling, icky and creepy even. Now I am used to it. Yet I wonder.. its more time-consuming, icky and tends to come off easily.. and it isn't even that much inexpensive than the traditional gloves. And people tend to unroll them off of their fingers and reuse them.. That's the limit, if you ask me. Eew.

A sliver of hope.. and then no scope!

Like I'd mentioned K had banned most websites at work. So when they upgraded my comp to XP and handed it back to me, I recklessly decided to try out some site, mostly GMail. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they'd either omitted the Firewall or its tough fabric had torn! For 6 long hours, I was the proud browser of all my email clients, Orkut, etc. But I didn't misuse my rights. I promptly checked email/scraps etc and logged off.. more out of gratitude than ethic I think. And I say 6 hours because, right after coffee break when I exercise my right.. it was gone! They'd sewn the stupid Firewall back. Hmph.

Walking Wounded

Ouch... In today's aerobics class, I managed to sulikify ("catch") my back! :( Its uncomfortable, painful and hurts everytime I twist. Moreover, my food's feeling heavy in my tummy and I have the feeling that the back has something to do with this. All this upon the non-ergonomic chair that K has isn't any good. I have to slouch a bit.. the chair doesn't let me sit straight up.. I have to bend down a bit.. the chair doesn't let me lower it.. And every sip of my beloved water shoots sparks of pain down my back! What does one do for backpain relief? And quick? Any suggestions? Boo Hoo.

Rated 'i'

Ever noticed how no matter what you do, there's at least one person who is not happy with what you did? It maybe work you did, a report you wrote or something as simple as what you told a friend. Everything comes under the high-powered microscope of society you didn't know existed till it smacks you on the face. Do things really have to be this complicated? Especially when you thought the world was simple. Leaves you feeling i-rate, doesn't it?

Kidney Bazaar

Read this:http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/09/05/345490.aspx

And Pakistan is just one of those countries where there are no laws governing organ sales. Here are the policies in some other key countries: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0609/p12s02-wogi.html. And in spite of everything, the laws, the sentences, everything, who's to say that there's not a flourishing black market for this kind of stuff? Like someone had commented to one of the articles, it is better having a hospital hygienically remove it rather than having a butcher shop cutting you out and damaging God-knows-what. These days with laproscopy, I wonder why minimally invasive surgery is not an option. Its the rich guys who buy the kidneys anyways and there should be a provision where they'd have to pay for the best kind of surgery and care for the donors. I am not sure any of this is the right thing to do at all. I think Robin Cook's Coma was just one of the books inthe 70s to explore the ever-increasing and appalling organ black market. Whats the solution to this whole thing? Introducing a legal documentation system the way US has and matching willing donors blah blah or trying to rescue 2 sides of the coin - the healthy man with no wealth and a family to support AND the rich dying man?

Unshruggables

Unshruggables (N): People you can't seem to get rid off

I met one today.. I was getting back from the airport by bus and he chanced to sit next to me. He seemed plain friendly at first and then went on to trying being pally. He rambled on for the 25 minutes that the first connection from the airport took. Believe me when I tell, you I was answering in monosyllables and said no more than 10 words. I was in no mood to fraternize with overly friendly strangers. He got off at the same stop as I did and waited for the same connection bus I did. I have never had a longer 45 minutes in my life. And it wasn't like he was talking about the weather. He was probing about me.. what I did.. where was I from.. how long was I here... I even went so far as to tell him, "I don't think I need to answer any of these questions." And finally I managed to shrug him off by getting off a stop later than I wanted to. The things one has to do... Whats the politest way of being rude? Any suggestions to deal with such situations?

Five too many..

This is the fifth post since morning (and the 25th for the month)! Just shows what work goes on at office when you are hours away from the Long weekend. I amaze myself.. I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Labor Day... with fireworks or not.. with family or not.. with friends or not.. With tonnes of fun and relaxation. I myself am looking forward to hell of a weekend with The Tarun Talkies. :D

Have fun.. Ciao!

Mommy's naivette

Yesterday on the nightly phone conversation..

Amma: Enga poyirunde? (Where were you?)
Me: I had gone for a musical
Amma: Oh.. Sandhya nanna padinala? (Oh.. did Sandhya sing well?)

Lol.

My glorious India

Forbes listed 25 top destinations in India which are criminally underrated. I couldn't agree more. And no, it doesn't list the Taj Mahal. Being a staunch Indian myself, I have barely visited 8 of those 25. Check them out here: http://www.forbestraveler.com/2007/08/07082901_slide_1.html?partner=msnbc

State Quarter Collections

Like me, I am sure many of you must've noticed that many quarters we have as change here in the US, bear state names on the "heads" side. I was mildly interested when back in Iowa most quarters I had with state names bore Iowa's name. I don't know if the distribution of quarters is made partially to the respective state. And suddenly I had this motivation to collect all 50 state quarters. Its pretty worthless if you think about it.. just $12.50.. And also, maybe there's a place where you can buy everything all at once. But that would be boring. Collecting is fun. And so I began. But in time, I would always run out of cash for buses and I had to use my precious State quarters. Hmph. So today when I tricked a vending machine into accepting my $5 bill and giving me quarters in change without any purchases, imagine my surprise when 14/20 quarters it spewed were State Quarters and all different! And so my collection's begun again... And this time, I will save those quarters coz from tomorrow I am using a bus pass! :D

Note: All 50 states have not been "minted" yet. Read this for more information: http://www.usmint.gov/kids/coinNews/50sq/

Mamma Mia!

It was my first ever Broadway musical and I thought it was tooo expensive at $80 each. That is, till I saw the show. I was a little reluctant to go in the beginning but am I glad I went or what.. It was incredible to say the least. And anyone who has any preconceived notions that one had to know all the songs before they went for the show, I have to strongly emphasize that as far as this one was concerned, that isn't true! It was extremely engaging, the performances absolutely stupendous and mannn, they can sing!!

The show with the intermission was just over 2 hours and 30 minutes comprising 22 hits from ABBA's collection. The songs were so tastefully placed with relevance to the story and everything gelled dramatically well. What amazed me most among many things were the performers themselves. Not only was their singing out of this world, they all look nice and danced great and acted brilliantly.. Bundles of talent! The lead performer, actress-singer-dancer Mary Jayne Raleigh was nothing short of brilliant. The story was simple and choreography seamlessly wove over 30 performers at the same time into a fantabulous fusion of music, color, costumes and performances... What I loved most was how these people were saying these dialogues and all of a sudden broke into songs and it wasn't the least bit odd. It wasn't odd when the other unrelated 20 people popped onto stage to dance and melted away towards the end of the song leaving the stage intact as before they'd entered. It was sort of analogous to a flashback in movies.. only that here its all happening in front of your eyes. The last part was my favorite. The encores, the curtain calls, the applauses... It felt entirely exhilarating at the end of the show and I was sure I could watch it all over again immediately if I could.

We had great seats for the price that we paid (Thanks Sandy for booking the tickets) and I enjoyed it enormously. Here's the official site for the musical: http://www.mamma-mia.com/default.asp and I must urge each one of you to definitely go and see for yourself what I am talking about. No wonder this one's a global smash hit...

Link In

How many of you are a part of LinkedIn? Never heard of it? How many of you are a part of Orkut/Myspace, etc? Hmm... LinkedIn is a professional networking site where orkut is a social site. LinkedIn can be used for connecting with former colleagues, finding new jobs or helping others find jobs. Its very useful and if you're not a member already, I think it's high time you became one. Professional contacts count in future. Trust me.

Spiderman - a faroff reality

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6967474.stm

Thanks, Ganesh

The R rip-offs

No prizes for guessing what "R" is when I am talking about a very popular phone service mainly to call India from the United States. Sometime R introduced a new toll-free number for calling countries other than India. And I use this service a helluva lot for obvious reasons. Except that the service is sooo darned horrible that I plan to find new plans that would not just rip me off rate-wise but will most certainly not rip off minutes even though the call's not connected. What's been happening is that the automated voice says "Please stay on the line...." and it fades away into oblivion before getting cut, even. And then when you call back, the minutes have reduced. When its a cell phone number that you are calling, you get a measly 27 minutes or something per 5 bucks. And each time you call and it does'nt connect you lose a minute. And I have lost at least a 100 such minutes. And then what? I email Customer Service saying that they are cheating me. And they respond asking me to take it up with my credit card company. Not only do they not charge my friend taxes, which they charge me religiously each time I make a purchase, once I replied to their lousy email saying it was their fault all the way, they responded with a "good-will gesture" by crediting my account by................. $0.328. What the &%$&^)!(*$^ is that? Thats even lesser than the taxes I pay per 5 dollars! I have never felt more insulted. R's just losing my ~$50 a month service. Not that they care.

The other kind..

Disclaimer: I have nothing against gay people. This is just my first real encounter with one such person.

Remember how when you see someone in a pink T-shirt, its become common to remark.. "Thats so g*y." But you know what? It doesn't hit you or atleast doesn't hit you hard enough when you finally meet someone like that. I have interacted with this guy for over 20 days without a clue till one day he happened to mention it in a off-handish conversation. And thats when I sat and put the pieces together. The colorful t-shirts (I had attributed it to te sunny weather) and the lime green cell phone (hey that could just be funky). No, its not weird or wrong or strange. Just having never met someone like that and heard all these remarks all along the way in the US, when I finally did meet someone, I didn't realize it. Just goes to show how we have been influenced to think so by society.

Cable TV + Rural Women in India = Woman Empowerment

Read this: http://www.slate.com/id/2172474/?GT1=10346

Mon Chat

If I have a cat, it'll be male and I'll call him Kittadhri. Miss you JD.

The Feynman Experiments

Ok.. pretty soon everyone's going to be overdosed about Richard Feynman. I am currently reading what is largely considered his biography, "Surely you are joking mr Feynman". In one of the anecdotes, he conducts an experiment of how the brain remains connected in his dreams. How it tries to make everything that happens in the dream seem logical, giving you the illusion of the dream being real. How the idle mind exists on a separate plan from that part of your brain desparately trying to stay awake. Having slept a measly 4 hours last night, I was in great position to verify whatever he was saying, especially at a status meeting at the opportune hour of 3:00 PM. As I sat dazed with coffee in front of me, I slowly felt my eyes slide out of focus. My brain knew this was wrong and was doing its best to get back to earth. Meanwhile on the secondary plane, my imagination had started working overtime. As I remained cross-eyed perhaps, I imagined that I was in the Sistine Chapel observing the brilliant ceiling painted by Michelangelo. It wasn't hard to understand why. Because I had wiki-ed it a few hours of course. The detail was magnificent in the dream and I have always dreamt in color and remembered very minute details from my dreams. I can in fact be so pompous as to claim that for certain my dreams held more details and I remembered all of them more than Feynman himself. My eyes slid back to focus and the room zoned in on me. I sloppily picked up my coffee. Its also amazing when your half-asleep brain responds to someone looking at you or calling your name - Its almost like they splashed cold water on you. You are wide awake and all responsive.... for exactly one minute after which no one's paying you any attention and you return no favors. So this was on n off and on n off and like Feynman, I couldn;t draw any fantabulous conclusions. Except one that is. I should sleep earlier at nights.

~Office Dares~

Got this in a forwarded e-mail back when I was with CTS, and thought it was funny enough to share (though I can only assume about everyone has seen it already) - In fact though I've read everything, each time I read it I am foolishly cracking up sitting in a cube surrounded by people. Lol. I have highlighted my favorite ones in blue.

ONE-POINT OFFICE DARES
1) Run one lap around the office at top speed.
2) Ignore the first five people who say 'good morning' to you.
3) Phone someone in the office you barely know, leave your name and say, "Just called to say I can't talk right now. Bye."
4) To signal the end of a conversation, clamp your hands over your ears and grimace.
5) Leave your zipper open for one hour. If anyone points it out, say, "Sorry, I really prefer it this way."
6) Walk sideways to the photocopier.
7) While riding in an elevator, gasp dramatically every time the doors open.

THREE-POINT DARES
1) Say to your boss, "I like your style" and shoot him with double-barreled fingers.
2) Babble incoherently at a fellow employee, and then ask, "Did you get all that, I don't want to have to repeat it."
3) Page yourself over the intercom (do not disguise your voice).
4) Kneel in front of the water cooler and drink directly from the nozzle (there must be a 'non-player' within sight).
5) Shout random numbers while someone is counting.

FIVE POINT DARES
1) At the end of a meeting, suggest that, for once, it would be nice to conclude with the singing of the national anthem (5 extra points if you actually launch into it yourself).
2) Walk into a very busy person's office and while they watch you with growing irritation, turn the light switch on/off 10 times.
3) For an hour, refer to everyone you speak to as "Bob."
4) Announce to everyone in a meeting that you "really have to go do a number two."
5) After every sentence, say 'Mon' in a really bad Jamaican accent. As in "The report's on your desk, Mon." Keep this up for 1 hour.
6) While an office mate is out, move their chair into the elevator.
7) In a meeting or crowded situation, slap your forehead repeatedly and mutter, "Shut up, all of you just shut up!"
8) At lunchtime, get down on your knees and announce, "As God as my witness, I'll never go hungry again."
9) In a colleague's DAY PLANNER, write in the 10am slot: "See how I look in tights."(5 Extra points if it is a male, 5 more if he is your boss)
10) Carry your keyboard over to your colleague and ask, "You wanna trade?"
11) Repeat the following conversation 10 times to the same person: "Do you hear that?" "What?" "Never mind, it's gone now."
12) Come to work in army fatigues and when asked why, say, "I can't talk about it."
13) Posing as a maitre d', call a colleague and tell him he's won a lunch for four at a local restaurant. Let him go.
14) Speak with an accent (French, German, Porky Pig, etc) during a very important conference call.
15) Find the vacuum and start vacuuming around your desk.
16) Hang a 2' long piece of toilet roll from the back of your pants and act genuinely surprised when someone points it out.
17) Present meeting attendees with a cup of coffee and biscuits, smashing each biscuit with your fist.
18) During the course of a meeting, slowly edge your chair towards the door.
19) Arrange toy figures on the table to represent each meeting attendee, move them according to the movements of their real-life counterparts.

And if that wasn't enough for you... How to keep a healthy level of insanity:
1) At lunchtime, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2) Tell your children over dinner. "Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
3) Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4) Put your wastebasket on your desk and label it "IN".
5) Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over his or her caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
6) Finish all your sentences with "In accordance with the prophecy."
7) Dont use any punctuation
8) Use, too...much; punctuation!
9) As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
10) Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.
11) Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."
12) Sing along at the opera.
13) Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme.
14) Put mosquito netting around your work area. Play a tape of jungle sounds all day.
15) Five days in advance tell your friends you can't attend their party because you're not in the mood.
16) Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name, "Rock Hard."
17) When the money comes out of the ATM, scream "I Won! I Won! 3rd time this week!!!"
18) When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot yelling, "Run for your lives, they're loose!"
And the final way to keep a healthy level of insanity....
19) Send this to everyone in your address book, even if they sent it to you or have asked you not to send them stuff like this.

Lost Segal

Back in India, Erich Segal used to be one of my favorite authors to read. Our Murugan lending library in Adyar had stocked all his books. Since then, I have never seen a comparable Erich Segal collection anywhere else. The US libraries and bookstores, place to place for some reason don't seem to stock up on his books. I wonder why. I have read most of his famous novels. I am perhaps missing one or two in the whole set. But even Amazon doesn't have them. There's no real good reason, really. I just wanna buy all these books to fulfill another one of my visions, the book shelf vision. I have always envisioned that in my home one room will have a whole wall dedicated to a mammoth bookshelf (if not the whole room) stocked with my favorites so that when I have kids, they will by default share my taste in books ;) Wicked moi. I also have a wishlist on Amazon which I will popularize close to my birthday. That way people can feel free to add books to my shelf.

Update: Oooooh, Look what I found on Alibris - Almost the entire collection! :)

Too late to rejoice?

Have you ever felt that? You wait for something to happen soooo long. It begins with nervous excitement, that headrush and had it happened right then, it would have resulted in exhilaration. But it didn't... Th excitement paves way for impatience (why isn't it happening?) to doubt (am I doing something wrong?) to worry (I am doing something wrong!).. As more time passes, you start losing hope but still try to keep your spirits high - hey it could still happen. And finally when it does, there's no joy, no excitement. Just pure unbridled relief that floods every pore of your existence. Ever felt that? That's how I feel today.

Turning a new leaf...

No no.. I didn't change anything in my lifestyle to merit this post. I merely have relapsed to an old habit - one that I loved and had no time to do while in grad school - reading! Yes, inspired by my dreams and other blogs, I have chosen 7 books to finish before the end of a month starting from today. 2 are chick books as I have termed them, 2 are 2 parts of Feynman's famed autobiographies, 1 - a Diana focus and 2 excellent novels recommended by fellow readers. I am looking forward to my solitary time with these books. I received a big package of my books yesterday and I haven't felt that new book thrill since Harry Potter 7. The sheer smell of the pages, the feel of the paperback one some and the crisp jackets on the others all makes for a very enjoyable experience. I look forward to completing all these books and succinctly summarizing the ones I will recommend. BTW, the picture above is that of a 4 leaf clover and it signifies immense luck. The sheer fact that I have relapsed to reading is lucky, don't you think? I do :)

Hurricane Names

Did you ever wonder who gave the Hurricanes their names? Like Katrina, Joyce or even Rose? I read a news item about a recent Hurricane Dean which had been moved to category II or something. So I googled this and found this site:http://www.fema.gov/kids/hunames3.htm which lists the Hurricane names for the past many years. So when I saw the listings, I thought every year they began with a name from 'A' and hoped there weren't in excess of 26 hurricanes per year as they juggled past the alphabet. And I naturally assumed that Dean was the 4th of the year and hence the name. But browse to the last column, they already have names upto W. So does that mean that Hurricane Wendy has already blown past? If so, why is Dean still lingering? Am I asking too many questions? But admit it.. its a point to ponder.

On further reading, I came across this site: http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/hurricane/names.html which explains that hurricane names have an expiry date too! And they put it across surreally and call them retired.

Fine man?

Ever had recurring dreams? Yeah I know they are usually about falling off a cliff or following a long winding corridor or something of that sort. Off late though, I have been having dreams that Richard Feynman and I are in conversation about Physics. And that at the end of it, he gives me his set of books which are totally famous for lucidly explaining hard concepts in Physics. Going by the fact that his lecture, "There's plenty of room at the bottom" was one of the key inspirations to drive me into Nanotechnology, I didn't want to ignore the dream when it came for the third time last night. Maybe there's something in those books. For starters, I purchased his anecdotes and short essays sketching experiences from his own life, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? Can't wait for them to get to me so I can read between thelines for messages from the beyond! :)

iDay

Nope.. not an Apple Product. Happy Independence Day!!! (couldnt get the white visible.. hmph) Its been 60 glorious years and we are poised to be the next biggest world economy (well, next to China maybe.. but as long as we beat them at keeping a lower population :D).

GO INDIA!

The Bourne Ultimatum

Spoilers/Plot Details Ahead

Ever since I saw the "Bourne is back" trailers back in May, I have wanted to see this movie. It is what appears to be the last of the 3 books by Ludlum on his amnesiac CIA assassin, Jason Bourne, played to a hilt by Matt Damon and the rest... The movie picks up right where Supremacy left off, the car chase in which Bourne evades the Moscow police.

Succintly,

The greats...

1. The Photography/Cinematography/Blah Blah - The camera is literally on Matt Damon's shoulder and they've made no attempts to smooth over the bumps, the jitters as the character melds his way around throngs of people. The effect? Brilliant. Worth everything that they had to suffer through to bring it in.

2. Matt Damon - He looks tired and old (thats because he has a new born baby girl with whom he spent sleepless nights) but it blends beautifully to form the core of his character and he's done a brilliant job throughout the movie. With his versaltality, he is definitely one of Hollywood's major male actors to reckon with.

3. The series - It was a well-knit tapestry with few holes and none gaping. The whole trilogy made a lot of sense and came together extremely well. Flashbacks from previous movies have been used very effectively to jog the audiences' memory.

4. The stunts - Some seriously brilliant stuff in the movie, many of which were performed by Damon himself. There's this one sequence in Tangier where Bourne jumps from the terrace of one building into a very narrow window through a glass pane which is sure to draw gasps. This is one of those stunts Damon has done himself. Quite brilliant.

The not-so-greats

1. In and out a sequel - Like many other Hollywood sequels, this movie is definitely not a stand-alone movie. Anyone watching without a background in Bourne, let alone not having watche dthe preceding two will surely find himself lost in the maze of facts, old and new.

Thats all the bad I could think of. The movie was swift, very very fast paced, fluid and gelled excellently with its past. At the end of it, though I saw it a week after its release, it invoked feeble applause from a very appreciative audience. Far more than just a 'time-pass', this movie's a must see for anyone who has seen any of the Bourne movies.

Rating: 8.9/10.0

Opulence?

Opulence? Extravagance? Stinking rich? Call it what you may... But these properties cost more to rent than I make (in a year!!)

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/07/0725_expensive_rentals/source/1.htm

Crazy?

Has it ever happened to you? You try calling someone.. there's nothing major to talk... You reach their voicemail. You don't leave a message. Yet you keep trying them every few minutes even though somewhere in your head you are certain you'll reach the message. It happens to me enough for me to question it. What's that urge? Why do we do it? Is it just the curiosity or is it something more? After sometime, if I can't reach the person my frustration with them increases for no real fault of theirs. I guess somethings are just what you're born with.

Stolen!

Can you believe that my bro's Blogger account was hacked into and the URL stolen??!? What's with people? Its a blog site for God's sake!!

Phone-y

Ever noticed how when you like something a whole lot, its likely to let you down? Like when you parade about the greatness/goodness of something you've got, it most certainly will backfire within days if not hours of your quoting it.. Its almost taboo to offer praise to somethings. Its like some vague form of Murphy's Law. Thats what happened with my gorgeous slider phone from Samsung. I consider myself someone very careful with electronics and gadgets... Needless to say, I have immense luck with them too. My phones in the past have been subject to washing machines, toilet bowls and even dishwashers and they've come clean (not just clean-looking) but fully functional out of each of these ordeals. Thats why it was heartbreaking when my Samsung decided to attempt suicide. I was at the gym (maybe the rarity of the event scared my phone) and very intelligently I placed it atop a pretty high equipment next to the one I was using. I don't know how it happened or why, within moments it jumped off the top........ and shattered into 2 huge pieces.. the slider and the base. You would think that 2 such pieces must be easy to put back together. Thats what I told myself... that the phone fell on the carpet.. that the impact couldn't have been that bad.... that if I sat down with it, I might be able to put two and two together. I was wrong. I started by delicately trying to nudge the 2 pieces together. While one side glided so easily in the slot, the other refused to go in. The nudge became a push became a sizable amount of force became all the strength I had. And yet it lay innocently in 2 distinct pieces. I tried calling my service provider and they shrugged off responsibility. I called Samsung and claimed that one fine morning as I slid the slider up to punch some numbers, it came off the base. I know it didn't sound believable but it was worth a shot. And off it went in an envelope to the repair center. Boo Hoo. Now I am back to the pink Nokia that I love.. But its hard to adjust to this basic phone after having the jazzy, fully loaded one. Life is such. Things change.

Nano-Net

Alright... I am going to give everyone exactly 2 guesses on what this post is about. You have 5 seconds. Your time starts NOW... 5..4...3...2..1.. And you're wrong! All you over-imaginative folks, this isn't about any National Geographic's discovery of a spider spinning nanoscale nets.. nor is it about any pathbreaking research that I am conducting to evolve internet into some bizarre nano dimension.

Its about the internet options at K, the company I work for. They have disabled every conceivable website you might want to visit. I am amazed Blogger works. No GMail or any other email client except K-Mail (Not even email.uc.edu), no enterntainment news.. no Craigslist, of course no Orkut. Having had all the liberty in the world at BN, its but natural that I crib now. When I didn't have a computer assigned the first day of work, I complained to my boss a bit. When I got the opportunity to use his computer for a little while, I realized that it finally was down to a machine with immense potential, but something that could'nt be tapped, I lost interest and was even a wee bit disappointed that I got a system on the 3rd day. Talk about an anti-climax! That leaves us with a nano-sized niche of sites that can be browsed purely for business purposes. Hmph. Incidentally, the name of this post bears similarity to how our previous generations of relatives are called, (eg. Patti - Kollu Patti - Yellu Patti - Kadugu Patti - notice how the prefixes become consistently smaller! :D) So, the internet that we have here at K is like the ancestor of what most other firms have I suppose and hence, Nano-net! Anyone who needs to reach me at work, rely on K-Mail!

No Reservations

Finally.. another movie review.. Ofcourse it wasn't like I away from the movies or anything but its refreshing nevertheless. In short, this movie was sweet. There was nothing phenomenal.. nothing boring either. The movie was paced briskly and didn't feel like close ot 2 hours at all. Its a low budget movie with no major plot lines, no major sets, nothing too impressive at all. And as anyone who's seen the trailer must've, the plotline is barely anything to figure out. Catherine Zeta-Jones looks old but is as classy as ever. She's an ace-chef in NYC and is the queen of her kitchen. When she's away to tend to a personal tragedy. the owner hires a charming new sous chef, Aaron Eckhart. He's a roguishly charming, opera-loving, easy going cool dude, the exact opposite of Kate and this does'nt go unnoticed. While he is very talented, she notices him only when he succeeds in what she has not - opening up her grieving niece, Abigail Breslin who has just lost her mom to an accident. While Kate hasn't succeeded in making the kid eat anything over the week, Nick (Aaron) succeeds in no time. Abigail's cute and very lovable through the movie. And as it moves along, the three find their places to coexist and create the perfect recipe for life.

The verdict: Its a chick-flick. If you're expecting any major twists or turns, there are none. At one point a half hour before the movie actually ended, everything seemed so smooth that I thought that the movie was over. And then came the barely acceptable twist. Its a very likeable movie but certainly not a must-watch.

The intrigue factor

Betty or Veronica?

Betty - The girl next door, always there for you, low-maintenance, very sweet and caring, craves some.. any attention from you, makes you all your favorite food, ordinary wardrobe

Veronica - Rich dad = Spoiled brat, Long legs, Totally hot, bumps you off more quite a bit, very high maintenance, has the 'intrigue factor', fashion diva

Who's your type?

More on Harry Potter..

Rowling explains.....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/#storyContinued

JC Penney | Heart

Such a cute commercial.. Very adorable.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - **** SPOILER ALERT ***

There's been all hue and cry about the final HP book that came out yesterday. And I have been dying to read it! Having read it, I am going to summarize my review into concise goods and bads without giving away too much..

I loved................

1) The book itself - It almost tied most loose ends though somethings were obviously let to imagination. And finally, this is a children's book which probably may not do justice to adult expectations. Read it in that view and you'll probably love t too.. It is clearly the best book among those from Goblet... up until now
2) Hermione - She is sparkling and it truly shows what it is to have a brilliant mind by your side. Some of her ideas and presence of mind are glorious..
3) Kreacher - His transformation is very enjoyable
4) The Deathly Hallows - Cool concept, well-explained and also proves that Dumbledore isn't as good as he sounds
5) Neville - Though he plays a very small part in the end, it is absolutely crucial to the story line and I love him for that
6) Polyjuice potion - Its been tactfully used at every conceivable place and you have to hand it to Rowling for thinking it up at most places. The plots surrounding its use are delightful
7) Lack of the Pensieve - The fact that Rowling didn't lapse back to the Pensieve as many times as she did in the Half Blood Prince. This was refreshingly better
8) Potterwatch - It was brilliant inclusion and refreshingly nice
9) The chapter name and illustrations - I mean Ghoul in Pajamas was sheer brilliance!

I didn't love...........

1) The epilogue - Such a wasteful ending. Why did she have to make it so feel-good and sappy? And why wasn't any son of either couple named Fred? And what do all these people do for a living?? And the epilogue seemed incomplete, almost a feeble effort to ensure that if she decided to, Rowling could pick up the strands of Harry Potter and get on with it and as if no one else could. If the book had ended just before the epilogue, it would have attained Masterpiece status in my head
2) Snape as headmaster - Why? At the end of Half Blood Prince, McGonagall was rightful deputy headmistress. What happened to that? I guess Voldemort took over the ministry but it still sounded bizarre
3) Utterly insignificant roles for Snape and McGonagall - There should have been more action for these two spearheads.
4) Why Dobby, Hedwig and Fred? Why not someone a little more major?
5) Harry being too good to be true - He's utterly flawless
6) No Hogwarts - Because our trio don't attend school, there's no Hogwarts, nothing on the teachers and no feel-good stories about the kids interactions.. makes you feel you are in unfamiliar territory
7) The Patronus messages - I loved the concept, But if it were possible, why wasn't Sirius able to send one to confirm he was alive and well in the Order of the Phoenix; why couldn't anyone have done this before to pass on secure messages? Seems futile in the past if you had such a fool-proof method of passing important messages...

All in all, a great conclusion to the series....drags a bit here and there but which big book doesn't? But I can't help but feeling lost now. No more Harry Potter books to look forward to.. in the near future atleast. All Harry Potter fans are sure to find closure with this book. A huge blood bath was imminent and the readers who expected it won't be disappointed. But you would think someone utterly significant like the main cast would die... Well, Rowling doesn't think so. A certain bestseller and a totally worthwhile read. A feel good end to the entertaining series.

Innovative business ideas

My roommate told me of this page yesterday and I checked it out today. Its called the million dollar home page and you can visit it here. Each pixel costs a dollar and because of sheer publicity, this page has actually made a million bucks! A company buys a few hundred pixels just enough for them to put their logos and link it. Talk about innovative business ideas. Here's a snapshot of the page!

The Ames Diary...

As I near the end of 3 glorious months spent in what I thought was the farmland of USA, I realize that Ames wasn't half bad. I mean really. Maybe it was b'coz of Iowa State being here that there is so much life around the tiny town. But I am told that the hustle and bustle when school is in session unlike summer is unbeatable and adds a whole lot of charisma to the place.

So, here's my Top 10 @ Ames (not in order)

1. My room. Its my sanctuary. And I couldn't have hoped for a better arrangement. Fully equipped and furnished at a really low cost, with cool house mates, its the best temporary live-in situation I could've hoped for.
2. My cube. Its not a tiny cubicle. Its one half of a whole room with a whole lot of privacy which allows me to blog like this (at work!)
3. My friend. Its really cool to have a Tamil-speaking friend here, whether its to see Sivaji together or randomly talk nonsense. And having Akil here, accomplished just that. It really made life much easier. At least there was one person whom I knew here for all those movies and all that time-pass. Thanks Akil.
4. The cats. Yeah, I was scared or I hated cats before I got here. But living in close proximity with two of them, I can vouch for the fact that cats have mild human traits. The girl cat gets bugged easily, she irritates easily and she has this cute "hitting with the paw" action that she uses to chide you. And she threatens to bite when she's pissed with you. The boy cat is typical of men.. as long as there is food, he isn't going to bother you much. Once he's hungry or needs to be cuddled, he finds you and purrs away to glory. Cuties..
5. The movies. Yeah... without the movies umpteen hours of my life here would've been uncharted for and there would be so many less blogs! I am so glad that a place like Ames has an up-to-date theatre. With students scattered all around, I wouldn't expect lesser. But its nice to have a reassurance anyways!
6. The restaurants. Of course there are eateries everywhere you go. But Ames has the highest density of them. Maybe because of the student settlement, Ames is scattered with a variety of eating joints and bars. Notably, I have really developed a taste for
a. Bali Satay House - Indonesian cuisine - Maybe because its Akil's favorite, we seem to go here a whole lot. Its pretty much like Chinese/Thai with a little more flavour to it. Low prices, large portions makes for a good restaurant with a bad decor and yesterday in particular, an awful waiter!
b. Thai Spice - Thai cuisine - This is one of the upscale Ames restaurants that you can find with a fantastic decor and even better tasting food. I've been here just once. But I can vouch for the taste which was on par with Lemon Grass, Cincinnati, if not better. Tastefully presented. high-priced, medium-sized portions of food, Thai Spice would make a good "date place".
c. Old Chicago - Italian - As the name indicates, it is a sort of pizza place. Great food and decent drinks.
d. Carlos'O'Kellys - Mexican- Though they weirdly use chicken broth to make their rice (which I avoid), they have some of the tastiest Mexican food I have had (I think they're on par with Don Pablos). Good food and very filling.
e. Pancheros - Mexican - A lot like Chipotle. They have this awesome cheese sauce called Queso or something and its the best I've had!
7. The Trails. Yes, Ames is very green and any deviation that you make from the road takes you to these interesting biking/walking trails which almost always ends around a stream, a bridge or something else scenic. It makes for a fun activity.
8. Cyride. Thats the bus here. Its probably called that because the IA State team is called Cyclones. Yes its slow and badly connected. But that means you get to kill more time day dreaming as you ride past familiar sights.
9. North Grand Mall. The only semblence of shopping apart from Hyvee (like Kroger Vons, etc_ based complexes. The mall houses a dollar theatre, is near a Walmart and has most of your famous stores. A full day of timepass I say!
10. Iowa State University. A vast campus with many many buildings. Very rustic and fantastic looking. It has a pond, a gazillion trails, 3-4 gyms, 3-4 greenhouses and everything else a good, solid University is made of. Good fun to walk around.

'Net goes down

So today was one of those days.. when the Internet was down at work. You would think thats really cool - without the internet the office is dysfunctional, blah blah. And you would be right. But you know what the problem is? So are you!!! We have become soo dependent on the internet that there is little we can do without it. Without the internet, the computer is a very large toy which has immense potential but no power to realize anything. I stared at the computer for a good 10 minutes with no clue as to how to kill time.. virtually all my 'time-passing' elements had been vanquished - be it the Frasier episode at lunch or the IMs or the blog or the news or anything! Finally I opened Minesweeper up and returned to it after a long long hiatus. Within minutes my wrist started aching of course and it paved way for my ebook collection which worms its way to any computer or laptop I work with (in fact a secret I must share is that I keep a whole bunch of ebook favorites and the VLC player on my flash drive). Thats for emergencies. And today certainly qualified. With VLC going and one random CD of F-R-I-E-N-D-S lying in my bag, it made for a normal yet entertaining internet blackout at work (Pssst... I heard that some of the others had actually taken to racquetball at the Ames Racquetball center across the street from where I work!!). You would wonder why I would have to think and plan so much for a net outage which probably lasted 10 minutes. But no.. today's lasted 3 hours and being planned helps! But incidents like today just show how we are slave to the internet....

Kabhi Khushi.. Hamesha Gum

No no.. its not as sad as you may think it is. I meant my recently acquired addiction for chewing gum!! After tea, between meals, after meals, in the bus.. you name it.. Every time my motor mouth instead of talking as always is chewing for a change!! After trying a whole variety available in the market, I have been able to pin down my favorite - Stride. It does last very very long! And their winterblue and spearmint are the best. And on the side, totally unrelated experiments with chewing loads of gum verified by me and Vidhya individually has proved to keep cheeks in check! :)

Of drinking water and leaking faucets

When I joined Bioforce, one of the first things I bought for my desk was a tall water bottle. As a habit, I drink very less water through the day and for the past years of my existence, I've barely done any sort if justice to the 8 glasses a day funda. I convinced myself now, that the best way to keep a clean digestive system and hopefully clear skin was to drink bottles of water. And all of it worked. But you knew there had to be a downside, or else why would I be writing about it?

Drinking 12-16 (roughly 3-4 liters) glasses of water in a span of 8 hours at work has its downside. Add to that 2-3 cups of water-brewed tea. The restroom breaks increase of course! Sometimes, I feel the need to pee three times in two hours. And this wouldn't be so much a problem if the restrooms were located in a secluded corner of the office. They are located right off the kitchenette, where you can bet your day's pay that at any given moment, someone or the other is having coffee, or checking out the snack cupboard or the refrigerator or the back office room for supply. So what - You may ask. What it is that its embarrassing to visit the restroom sooo many times per day inviting people to believe you have a congenital defect or a leaky faucet!! And whats worse is that the chatty receptionist's desk is right there too. And she feels the irresistable need to say hi to you each time. Hmph.

So whats the solutions? The excuses, but of course. Timing is crucial. Each tea break is an excuse. Each time you rummage the snack cupboard is an excuse. As is lunch.

Moral of the story? My kidneys are fine.. Yoo hoo!!

Nomad?

A person with no fixed residence who roams about; a wanderer.

Courtesy: Dictionary.com

The weekends..

Its most boring to be by yourself in a relatively new place. What do you do all day? All week I dream of the weekend and inexplicably on Saturday afternoon after I have had a long cherished late nighter on Friday and a well-deserved late morning on Saturday, I long for Monday again. From Saturday afternoon to Sunday night is an unbearable drone and I am sorry to say I am no longer the phone person that I was. I can't stand conversations > 15 min. I find excuses to hang up. I can't keep cooking all weekend. More often than not, I make one meal and the next is inevitably Maggi. I can't watch movies all weekend. Though I do see at least 4 every weekend for the lack of anything better to do. (Going out to the mall like I did last weekend turns out to be an unavoidable expense). I don't have too many books I haven't read. The internet is boring. And I can't seem to watch the endless sitcoms on the net or the TV. And in a place like Ames, if you aren't going to watch a movie or try out a restaurant or shop for the heck of it, you aren't doing anything. At least next weekend sounds promising. The final Harry Potter book is coming out then and I'm going to be sitting out in the hall waiting for my copy to find its way home.

Transformers

I was very reluctant to watch the movie considering it was sure to be a guy-flick, the opposite of a chick-flick with loads of action, tonnes of fights, etc, you know, the typical extra dosage of testosterone. And I also knew it was based on a comic series, which I hadn't really read. So it was going to be a drag.. I thought.

But I was in for a surprise. I thought the movie was fun for the most part though it did last a little longer than I would've liked. But there was a real nice plot and the graphics were mouth-dropping. I am not ashamed of accepting that my mouth was open in awe of some of the graphics that I witnessed on screen and the whole thing was carried out very smoothly.

Having not read the comics myself, I can't vouch for its exact credibilty. But it was sure fun though a bit too long. I would definitely recommend it and I completely agree with the 8.0/10 rating that IMDB has.

Avoid the news

Yeah.. seems like weird advice. But true Harry Potter fans should avoid reading news on the web at any cost till next weekend's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release. That way, you avoid tragically reading rumors or worse the truthful ending like -'Harry Dies' or something. I have taken news.google.com off my homepage which is now blank. Its worth it. Trust me.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I was sooooooooo excited about watching this movie and of course you knew that! I read mixed opinions yesterday after the midnight preview show. Some said that it was a let-down and the others that it was classic. A true HP fan who's seen it told me that it was fantastic. And thats the opinion I took with me when I went to see it last night. Being the shortest installment of the Harry Potter movies, at 2hr and 18min, I did expect a whole lot to be cut off as the Order of the Phoenix was the longest book. I figured that the movie would revolve around 4 main sub-plots -

1. Harry vs. Umbridge
2. Fred and George Weasley
3. The DA meetings
4. The concluding fight at the Ministry of Magic

I had almost accurately summed up the movie. For a true fan of the book, like me, there were like 250 deviations, if not more, from the book. This is perhaps the most casually adapted version of the series where details were slipped at ease. Where things and events were changed at random to fit the tapestry of the flowing movie. The movie was all about Harry.. much less about any of the other DA members... And some events were shockingly changed, like Cho being the tattletale instead of Marietta... which made the audience question Harry's choice in romance. And somethings were funny too.. Like Grawp actually harboring affections for Hermoine. (Ooh by the way, Grawp looks much better than you would've visualized.. in fact he's positively cute!) And Fred and George's antics were a little underplayed and their exit from Hogwarts not as dramatic as it needed to be. And it did no justice to the book. But once you brushed these silly comparisons away, the movie is quite brilliant. It was very fast-paced, interesting and kept the main thread of the story alive. The effects, cinematography, and sets were brilliant. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) has blossomed from a boy to a young man (you can't miss his neck muscles)... Sirius Black looks much better... Dudley has grown sooooo much..he looks the total punk but whatever is with his cross-eyed, mubo-jumbo accent!! Bellatrix Lestrange is exactly how you'd have imagined.. The DA meetings were tastefully handled.. The Umbridge rampage was fantastic.. her inspection of classes was funny (but they skipped her inspecting Mc Gonagall which is supposed to be hilarious) And I was disappointed that Umbridge looked as nice as she did, She was suppsed to be a toad! And the hem hem was replaced by an irritating girly giggle. :) Luna Lovegood is fantastic.. just as I imagined.. dreamy and perfect. And they skipped the spicy Quibbler interview. And don't blink.. you may miss Malfoy! And there was no Quidditch which was a wee bit disappointing.. meaning that Ron didn't get to be keeper - there was no 'Weasley is our king', and Harry, Fred and George weren't banned.

The movie is soo much more advanced and fluid than its predecessors. The Ministry fight which is a bit of a drag in the book has been made really well in the movie, capturing the interest of everyone and keeping it going very well.. All in all, its a thorough entertainer for anyone who's heard of the Boy Wizard. But that teensy weensy Harry Maniac in you is likely to get up every 2 scenes and scream in your head - This is not how it was in the book!! But once you put them to rest, the movie's a winner. A must-watch. Definitely, go see it or you are missing something.
Rating: 8.0/10

Eat Healthy.. Think better.

A happy tummy is the secret to great ideas :) Or so the company I am interning with surely believes. We have had an office revolution around here over the past week. We used to have a well-stocked 'honor-paid' snack cupboard with some cereal bars, cookies, candy bars, chips etc. And we had a fridge stocked up with free pop. But now everything's undergone a big change. For the better. The company has introduced a "Eat Healthy" campaign around here. So now we have lunch options too. For a subsidized $3, you can get a whole lunch which is as organic as possible as well. And there's a veggie option too. For instance, today's menu was: Veggie Boca Burger, Black Bean and Corn Salad and Watermelons. Not bad, huh? And the snack cupboard has undergone a face-lift as well. There's now better snack options, more low-calorie organic cereal bars, there's green tea in the fridge, etc etc. Surely, the company believes, happier the stomach, more radical the ideas!

Heights of vettiness

For those mind-numbingly boring moments:
http://www.vetty.co.in/thathuvam.asp

Thanks Harry.

Sugar Craving..

I hate it. And I whole-heartedly blame my friend Vidhya for it. She's the one who habituated me into eating something sweet at the end of dinner back when we were roommates and unfortunately it stuck. Now night after night, after an early 7:30ish dinner, I find myself rummaging the fridge for something sweet. Anything. Yoplait light or some remnants of chocolate. And most nights I end up disappointed. And especially when I am trying desparately to lose weight. So what happens in the end? Half a bowl of cereal with 2% milk an hour after dinner. Weird and bad.

The Taj's In!!

Woo hoo...... The Taj is in the new 7 wonders of the world announced yesterday at Lisbon!! :) It was a proud moment for the whole of Asia and South America which housed a maximum of the 7 wonders. Here's the official page. Check out Sachin's blog which gives a more in-depth analysis of the show, etc. Here are the results:
1. Chichén Itzá, Mexico
2. Christ Redeemer, Brazil
3. The Great Wall, China
4. Machu Picchu, Peru
5. Petra, Jordan
6. The Roman Colloseum, Italy
7. The Taj Mahal, India

Fancy Date

Saturday. Long stemmed roses, sparkling champagne, candlelight dinner, fine dining restaurant. You know.. the works.

Whispering sweet nothings, some dance and much more romance, silly giggles and great dessert.

Long drive, moonlight walk, very little talk, hand in hand.. the perfect end to the perfect evening. Sigh.

I wish thats what it was. But what it is is that its 07/07/07. Fancy, don't you think? :)

iPhone Hands on

This is going to be short and swift. I had the fortune of actually checking out the iPhone yesterday, courtesy a gizmo-savvy colleague. In my sparse I-barely-checked-out-many-features time with it, here's what I think -

1. Its totally awesome. The convenience that it has brought with it is unparalleled. The menu is fantastically easy to navigate, the screen is as lucid as anything you've seen.
2. Its a touch away to access email, a browser, your music, directions or just about anything else.
3. The keypad is a little small for someone with larger than normal fingers but its a question of getting used to it (which you do in no time). I had no problem using it. And its more-helpful-than T-9 dictionary may take some getting used to.
4. The music is all iPod quality and theres no compromise here. The video is fantastic and though I have never seen a video iPod in screen and keys, I suppose the iPhone's got to have the same quality if not better. Would the traditional video iPod owner be sad? Maybe.. maybe not, Its a matter of perspective. The iPhone is for the 'to-go' person with a maximum storage (so far) of 8GB. The video iPod is far beyond that.
5. Its a breeze taking pictures, attaching them, emailing them, stowing them away or doing just about anything else. Its taken tactile technology to a whole new level.

I didn't have the opportunity to hear the voice quality (on a call). But I am certain that they must've spared nothing to make it fantastic where there's good quality AT&T signal. But quizzically yet, the bottom line remains that its a phone. How much better can it get? Like I said in this post, Apple is aiming this product for a particular genre of the entire population. But when there are people who buy Patekphillipes or Omegas for a piece of machinery that shows time about a few seconds more accurately than your regular $2 throw away watches, why wouldn't the iPhone do phenomenally well? With barely any bugs (as far as I could see in the oh-so-restricted-time-frame), and with further generations coming out, the iPhone's a success already.

And last but not least, check out this really cool review of the iPhone on CNET - its a tad more than what the ads show on TC - http://reviews.cnet.com/smart-phones/apple-iphone-4gb/4505-6452_7-32180293.html