War on Terrorism & what it did to us?

So, I was watching this documentary about 9/11 on History, and all of the following occurred to me....

So, some *crack* beast coordinates these attacks, kills approximately 3000 humans and attributes to loss of property in addition. It is a blow to the economy - resources deployed to help out lower Manhattan, commercial airlines grounded, economy coming to a screeching halt.

The then US President does this war on terrorism without an exit strategy, inducing a recession tantamount to the great depression.

Now, couple of weeks ago, a major shoots down people in Fort Hood, only to be discovered by FBI & his colleagues that the major was not at the best of his mind.

Why? As I read this somewhere, 9/11 & the subsequent "war on terrorism" does not save us from terrorism; it only made us aware that a terrorist strike can happen. Case in point - Fort Hood massacre. So what good does it do to continue this war on terrorism? Instead, resources can be diverted to enhance intelligence at the grass-root level, and then connect the dots to prevent such terrorist acts from happening. Eventually, isn't that the object, safeguard people from terrorism? Intelligence agencies need not scratch their heads to state that data is overwhelming, and extracting information out of it is impossible to be performed in time. Then, why and what exactly are we doing if we are reactive, and not proactive??

Resources can also be diverted into alternate, renewable energy exploration & research so that eventually we are not dependent on oil & the oil producing nations.

You safeguard you people with state-of-the-art intelligence, with alternate energy sources your demand for oil goes down,  cutting down the petro-dollars going into terrorist activities, and eventually, the terrorism would take its own course to meet its fate. What else do you want when a passive fight actually solves your problem that an active fight cannot?

G7 & greener world

With the world so polluted, and not many places left unpolluted, unexplored, and unknown, why would delegates of G7 or for that matter any international summit fly over to a host nation to discuss green world, economics & anti-terrorism?

People must watch more CNN or visit Business Week website. Why? That's where Cisco does most of its "Human Network" commercial & what exactly does it convey? Moral of the story is that one doesn't have to fly around to talk business. Technology has developed very much that travel is not necessary & tele-commuting works for most business. Take  CapitalOne (I think so) for example that does telecommuting - there are no marked cubes & employees are not mandated to show up everyday (as long as they work). IBM does it, and as the cliché goes one is not fired for hiring IBM, which means, what they're doing is not wrong.

End of day, charity begins at home, and do not travel (unless it's a public commute) if not required.

I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC

What has negative marketing done to Apple?? Back in my college days, I was told that negative marketing only means one doesn't have anything good to tell about him/herself. Juxtaposing that to Apple's commercial...well, you know it...

Going back to my college days, I remember reading that Linux, Unix & Windows are all PC. So, why does Mac just attack Windows. Just like most other countries hate the US these days (BTW, looks like it was the UK pre-WWII) due to its power & whatever other reasons, Macs hates PC - just because of its monopolized market. Mac couldn't do squat to capture market & hence the name smearing.

Though Macs are picking up in sales, they are still expensive. Add that to other "could be" compatibility issues. End of the day, your requirements & budget dictates what you buy.

12 St N exit on I-394

Unsure why the local governments had to close this exit for a couple of weeks, and then, opened only to make a back-log on the freeway.

So this was the initial problem - similar to a clover, the HOV lane merges onto the vanilla lanes immediately exits onto 12 St N on I-394. Upon exit, the lanes bifurcate, and both take a right turn on a light. If there is a red light, the traffic would back up at least up to the point where HOV lane merges.

During construction - the exit was closed, and hence, there wasn't as much traffic trying to make a X on the clover. Actually, traffic was a lot smooth compared to what it was earlier.

After construction - now the exit has 2 lanes, of which there is only 1 right turn, and the misery of it - most vehicles take a right turn, and hence on a red, the traffic backup on the freeway is even more than what it was earlier. And given the "great" courtesy of Twin Cities drivers, the merge in-merge out of HOV lane & vanilla lanes, and the exit, all in concert are a pain in the derriere for the driver.

I am definitely "for" stimulus & development projects, but not for those unplanned & unnecessary ones. Why is the local government trying to keep up appearances while it can actually dig a well & to bury the dirt from it dig another, and so on and so forth.

Recession & Education

So, earlier today, I heard on NPR that education during this recession helps people to be better prepared while the economy bounces back. This post by no means disparages the fact; however, challenges the practical application of it. In essence, there should be a disclaimer that a cost benefit analysis is necessary before this "education."

Let's set the ground rules for the business: Hypothetically, there are only so many "better" jobs that the economy can afford, and this is usually located on top of the pyramid. With the way the recession is driving businesses, they are running lean-and-mean, and only the cream is retained. There is no denying that recession is changing the outlook of businesses. Even if the economy bounces back, why should businesses grow fat if they sustained the worst (of course, with explosion of business, there would be a growth in work-force; but again, that would be to serve the customer and not kill time)?

Moving to the worker, who was laid off recently owing to the economy: Assume there is this person who is at the bottom of the pyramid, eventually sent home on account of work force optimization... The business has retained its cream, and it does not require anymore fat. Now, this worker neither fits in at his/her level, nor, on account of his/her education can fit in at this "better" level as the business already has the "cream" at it. So what is the value that the education is adding to this worker bee? Additionally, if there was a loan involved, it is only adding to the misery of the laid-off worker.

Moral of the story - education definitely helps, but time it and assess appropriate trade-offs.

Dying courtesy...

Lately, while driving I face this problem of fellow drivers being rude. This is what happens usually...

1. There are speed traps on the highway to entrap speeders - the freeways can easily mark higher speeds, but no idea why there are marked at highway speeds.
2. All highway & freeway interchanges in the metro are clover - this means the one leaving the freeway has to rely on the courtesy of the other driver who is joining that freeway & vice versa. This is plain frustrating when other drivers lack the courtesy despite you showing it.
3. If you want to change lanes & turn your indicator on, you have to make sure there is no car behind you that other lane - or else, the one behind would love to ram you. As a policy, there is no room for those who indicate their lane changes. OTOH, you can change lane without indicating, and everyone gives you way while you are at it.
4. If you are on foot, make sure you are clear of any vehicle even if you have the right of way - I mean even if you have the "walking man" - drivers do not stop for pedestrians.

From my observations, you will get better courtesy at a graveyard; and this city is supposedly known for its courtesy (in a nice way, I mean).

AIG and stimulating AIG

What is the point in this "stimulus package"? Is it really worth surviving sick institutions?

Stepping back a little, AIG was given $170 billion to get rid of its toxic assets and survive the "huge" losses. Then we were talking about accountability, transparency, etc. A little while ago, when Liddy of AIG announced bonus, and subsequently disbursed it, the outrage was about $165 million in bonuses and we just forgot the big picture - what is happening to the $170B, and how is AIG planning to pay back? We were arguing over an expense that is less than 0.1% of the total stimulus provided.

Come to think of it, why should credit be extended to banks, and subsequently planned to be extended to the common public, while the government can directly give it back to them in the form of tax cuts? Perhaps, we are getting ahead of ourselves - what is the worst that could happen when banks fail? FDIC would have to pay back depositors of the bank. Of course, FDIC would tank when every depositor in every bank has to be paid. But in retrospect, can't the government support FDIC during such an instance? Though the banks are on life-support, there is no guarantee that they will survive, and payback.

Recession & the President

People elected the new President; and regardless of the reason he was elected for, let us assume he is trying to perform his duties with due diligence. Of course, he will have more time for the Oval Office if not for TV. And for starters, its his new gig - so it is unfair of people to expect overnight changes a.k.a. miracles. We did not get into this mess overnight - it took its own time. So, we have to learn to be patient for the President to get into full swing action. Obama is no FDR, but we have to only "hope" that he has well qualified folks who can "execute" on his cabinet.

Prejudice

List a country that has no problems... Well, I believe the answer is none. For example, when there are issues such as hunger, poverty, etc with India hindering it from becoming a super-power; there are issues such as unemployment, illegal immigration, racism, etc with the author's country. BTW, the author could have moderated his comments by mentioning that though economy is doing good, there are issues. But then, this person did not. So what say when people's tax money goes into wars in Afghan & Iraq and now invasion of Iran. I feel that the author is afraid of accepting the defeat from Indian souls, and hence the article. At least, patriotic Indians will acknowledge it.

I am not ignoring the issues in India, but at the same time cannot ignore its economic growth as well.

Big Brother and his racism

Well, the Brits were not colonized, at least to my knowledge. But, that does not mean that they can pass racist comments over others. Recent controversy over Shilpa Shetty's racist ordeal by English celebs have stirred people on both sides of the world - Brits and Indians. I saw this on NDTV - some British based Indian stating that Indians are treated with disrespect and this Shilpa incident throws light on such racism. Well, at the first place, you are a secondary grade person with the English irrespective of your (recent) lineage. Secondly, it's his fucking country; so (s)he can talk anything and be left off the hook. Thirdly, if you are so badly treated, then why should you prolong your stay there? At this point, I would like to assert that these people who claim that Britain is their home need not come back to India. Also, if you are treated disrespectfully, it's none of India's headache as you are no more an Indian citizen. I ain't soliciting BBCD and ABCD coming back to India. Die there ass-a-hole.

Also, why the hell do Indians get irate with such behaviour? It's Shilpa who got enough millions to be cast on the show. And people should know, its reality TV and not based on some dumb script, which, you may never know. It may also be that, Shilpa was notified of racism. All this for TV ratings and money to both the channel and celebs. Well, added to it, Shilpa gets sympathy and more patronage.

Silly World!!!

Videos

Why was Croc Hunter's death video not made public, however, Saddam's execution video was?? Is that because UN [lip service courtesy: US] executed Saddam, but Steve died from a freak accident. By the way, why would Steve's video qualify for an auction? Come what may, what intrigues human species to this inhuman trait? Well, I would blame those perverts present in developed countries who buy such videos for sake of pleasure.

By the way, who gave the fucking rights to UN to execute Saddam if they are eunuch enough to stop issues at Lebanon, Palestine and Indo-Pak? Also, why does US not stop Israel when they do the same for North Korea? I feel North Korea is the best to kick some ass though that would mean World War III.

On similar lines, why do Australian cricketers pass racial comments when their lineage consists of only convicts??

My Christmas Weekend...

On 25th Dec, 2006, I complete one year since I moved out from apartment 201 in Casa Grande. Last Christmas was moving time; this year, its movie time. I watched a total of 11 [10 complete ones] movies in 3 days. Well, I stepped out of the apartment twice. Once to go to the library on Saturday and once more on Monday for the laundry. Other than that I was hibernating inside watching anger management, syriana, munich, schindler's list, scent of a woman, vettaiyadu vilaiyadu, jillunnu oru kaadhal [wasn't able to stand for more than 20 minutes], the green mile, antwone fisher, ghosts of mississippi and khakee. What a waste of time?? But such things happen to me occasionally. Ask me to watch TV now, I am disgusted.

I also found that FX was doing ICE AGE marathon. I thought it would be ICE AGE and ICE AGE - THE MELTDOWN would be telecast back to back. But the case was to telecast ICE AGE for 24 hours. World [local FX viewers in this context]! this is not marathon, but a repeat telecast.

Now I am at office brooding over what happened during the weekend :)

Pursuit of Happyness

This is a phenomenal flick that I saw yesterday with "0" dollars spent on it. I used the difference pass that I got while watching DaVinci Code at the same movie hall sometime in May 2006. Since I went around with a colleague of mine, I did not spend on commuting as well.

Based on real life incidents, the movie is about a man named Chris Gardener, who is rendered homeless, and then makes it to the highest offices from humble beginnings.

Finally, within a decade's time, he establishes(/d) a stock broker firm of his own and makes it successful. I understood two things from this flick: If you want something so badly, one should work to get it. And, there is no point is bragging that you can achieve something, you dream something big, etc, until you work to get there.

The climax, where Will Smith expresses his happiness narrating that it was the moment in his life called "happiness", it was moving. There is also a mention of Thomas Jeffersen, stating "pursuing happiness" instead of being "happy". It is correlated that happiness has to be pursued and is difficult to achieve - this is truth.

It is made a point in the movie [and in the real life of Chris Gardener] to show that if you dream of something, don't let anything to stop you from going there.

Lady in the Water

Queued this flick on Netflix and watched the same couple of days back. I think this movie is okay kind of movie, but then the only part that is ridiculous, or even sneering at, is the way in which the people in the apartment start paying heed to the apartment manager who, for no reason believes this lady from the swimming pool.

Well, if this was a bedtime story, why not ask the old east asian lady, who narrates it to the manager, how to save the lady [narf] from scrunts [wolf like creatures], instead of partying around with people??

I feel Manoj Shyamalan's quest for suspense and thrill is taking a tail-spin. I would say, The Sixth Sense was the best. His later thrills decrease in the order of Signs, Village, Unbreakable, and now Lady in the Water. I do not give full credits to Shyamalan's work in this movie [btw, who am I to do so???].

>:D

Role reversal Brits head to India

This reminds me of Matrix scene where the agent [Hugo Weaving] says that humans are like viruses, moving to places that suits him and not evolving to suit the existing ambience.

People who moved generation(s) back from India coming back to India... these people are just parasites that feed on anything that hosts it. So people who end up surviving at the same place irrespective of their opportunity to relocate are jackasses. And these people who migrate are those geniuses who displace natives wherever they go. F*$! you asses...

About me: I am going back to India once I've done enough. I am not settling in any country other than India...

Reading RSS

Google Reader - this new tool from Google [new at least for me...] was the tool I found today... cool thing that I can use it without any kind of installation and maintenance. Best thing is that I can categorize feeds into folders/tags and then let the RSS feed thingy to take care of itself... I love this non-installation part of it, since it has always been my issue, and I was never comfortable with the mirror on Yahoo!, no idea why??

One more thing: I integrated this reader to Google custom home page, so that I open my firefox and look into my feeds without mouse clicks..

Also I found today that Google custom home page has tabbing options, now one can add and name tabs on Google home page and enjoy categorizing things :D

Ode to the Godfather

Saw this Big B flick directed by Ramu which is almost the replica of Godfather except for its Indian sentiments mixed to spice up and serve the Indian palate. However, it was good enough when the movie started with the tribute to Godfather. Ramu had the balls to acknowledge his copy process. Basically, the movie was good enough if one had not seen the Godfather. For that matter, even if one had watched the original masterpiece, this is good. Just that in the original Godfather, its interesting to see how the Godfather gets his work done. It was more appealing and there was no traitor elder son who wanted to kill his dad, instead its the younger son who is shot dead by the middle one to avenge his brother's death. Well, the original climax is bewildering, when his nephew is being baptized, his enemies are killed.

Well, tonight I just might watch the original masterpiece, GODFATHER!!!

Deja Vu

Saw this flick last Saturday and was pretty irate after a while into the movie. People did not know how to end it though the core was good enough, at least to create ripples. However, I will not say that the core of this movie is as deep as MATRIX.

Well, involved a lot of physics and fantasies added together. Half way through the movie, the director has lost touch of the movie and starts planning the climax which was unnecessarily driven fast to shorten the flick.

Will rate it 2.5 on 5. If there is an alternative, do not watch this flick.

Black Friday...

2nd Black Friday for me in the US.... Last year I visited Target & Walmart and saw the enactment of American "SARAVANAA STORES"... This year, it was Circuit City & JC Penney.

First Stop: Circuit City - 0350 hours - waiting to open @ 0500
I should say that the crowd was pretty decent, but the deals were really wicked. Price reductions of over 60% on most products, particularly in Circuit City & this included good branded electronic stuff.... for example, the link listed above shows that the Sandisk 1 gig thumb drive is still in stock though not availble online. I was there inside Circuit City at 0515 and was told by the store rep who distributed hardly 20 drives and mentioned that the product was out of stock. But check the website & it says "IN STOCK" in the outlet I was at. This is what is called HOARDING [as in stashing]. The company is making "jackass" out of people. Well, I had my own doubts.. though using Black Friday to clear inventory, branded articles are not for sale so soon at such a down-to-earth price. Try getting a beefy HP laptop under $500 today... NO CHANCE... but you can get an inferior TOSHIBA at this price or less... Curses....

Next stop: JC Penney - 6 am: humongous check out lines, but still stocked.... Got branded shirts for a great price. Back home by 0750 hours and now at office dozing after lunch....

Not Suave

Saw this new 007 flick on someone else's free pass... but nevertheless the movie was unimpressive...

First: this movie does not depict 007 as a suave, sophisticated, gizmo driven, womanizing f***er but a hero whose action choreography is full of physical action & no guns, etc etc....

Second: For a good reason, 007 is castrated & becomes a eunuch - NO MORE SEX, not even with "M"... They show pain expressed by 007 & the live operation performed.

Third: C'mon, if I wanted to see gambling, there is this channel broadcasting BlackJack & Poker 24*7.. I do not need a movie to show the same thing.

Fourth: He drives a FORD... what happened to the days of luxury cars???

Fifth: Unnecessarily lengthy enough, you can get pissed off...

Sixth: Why the heck doesn't the CIA & MI6 nab the terrorist, instead of gambling with him...


MORAL OF THE STORY: Bullshit... absolute waste of time... Go & sleep...

Nine to Five

This is the movie that I was watching few days back on TV [released in 1980]...

The story line is like this:

1. 3 women who are bread-winners for their respective families are being annoyed by amorous acts of their male superior...
2. few scenes later... These women imagine chasing this guy with sniffer dogs, shooting him down, etc etc etc
3. after few more scenes... This male superior is served coffee that is actually mixed with rat poison instead of sugar accidentally & though this ass does not drink it, after coming to know about such a thing happening to him, he blackmails these ladies to submit to his promiscuous requests. What do the ladies do??
   
4. They abduct him and start handling the office matters on their own, make improvements & hence throughput
   
5. After which the company's owner applauds the women and transfers this amorous asshole to Brazil...

Sounds familiar??? This is what most Tamil junta would have watched by the name MAGALIR MATTUM [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264820/]. For that matter, hyperlink mentioned does state the fact that this movie is a remake of the former. Now, comes the question, how come "Padmashree" Kamalhassan gets to pen stories that were actually flicked from some other movie.. Mrs. Doubtfire is another instance. No idea, if his other stories are his own or inspired [plagiarised rather...]...

Shame on you!!!

who is to be blamed???

This is for the Nth time that news papers report that civic agencies have failed to make plans for the rain water to flow & avoid flooding... How many times will the same fucking excuse be told. Better abolish the civic agency which sits there for nothing... or better do something useful.

Think its high-time for our people to take matter into their own hands. However, when there are the likes of Mr. X who would sit at home, making money in numerous ways possible, does not vote during elections, does not pay taxes, dumps garbage at neighbour's place, etc, how can those sensible citizens ever have the motivation to do things on their own through cooperation. Well, first of all, this sensible citizen need not have impediments hurling from the government [local, state, central, whatever..], its Mr. X who is their major hurdle to get things across - non-cooperation. Okay, when Mr. X tries to act smart, sensible & responsible by taking matters to his own hands, he makes sure this venture of his makes one of his numerous ways to make money. Fuck you Mr. X :@

Communities need not depend on the government to satiate all their needs. They can take some on their own, and when such things start happening, then it can set an example to others to follow. Also, the government can look into those major issues that people face frequently and try to alleviate them if they cannot help themselves.

The Maestro calls it a DAY!!!

This post has been on my drafts for a long time now & I found the apt time to publish it... The Maestro has retired from F1 racing & I wont get my dosage of him anymore... :(

But that's fine... He is old enough & not to be humiliated by Alonso & his likes... Nevertheless, I see that Ferrari was not keeping him at top speed; I could see the straight line speed of Renault was lot better than Ferrari during the Brazilian GP 2006.

Hail Schumi!!! He earned it & he deserves it PERIOD

Pasadena, CA

Today, 21st of October, 2006, is Diwali. And on that account, Cognizant account manager for Union Bank hosted a dinner at Saladang Song, a Thai restaurant at Pasadena, CA. After screwing the appetizer and dessert [entree was good however], we went for a walk on the roads of Pasadena. We reached Colarado Blvd, which was filled with life I should say. Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, GAP, Abercrombie, Cheesecake Factory, and many more in just one block. Oooooooooooooohhhhh

It was really tempting to enter those stores. And at 10 pm too most of the shops were filled with activity. Well, now I consider moving to Pasadena ASAP :P

The Open Door

This is the new album from Evanescence, one of my favourite bands. Their first album, Fallen, was really good & worth hearing, but this one is not that good, or bad rather. I don't know. That was the TOP OF THE MIND feeling I got. May be, like ARR tracks I might like them once I hear them few more times and end up writing another post that might say "their first and second albums were really great.." >:D

gourmand & gourmet...

After being more than an year in the US, I am tasting more flavours [this is deliberately not "flavor"] than ever before in my life... Well for most of it, credits go to Divi, my roomie... I should say that she has a good palate, which makes her a good cook; though it applies only partly to me [trying to sound postive]...

Of late, I have tasted more flavours - South-Indian, Mexican, Italian, Thai, Chaat - all at home - not outside. Period.

I've boosted my weight from 171 lb to 181 lb as of now [well I say its due to my work-out for the past 7+ months & not the fact what a "big-fat" eater that I am ;)]...

N.B.: Divide lb by 2.2 to get weight in kg [77 kg to 82 kg]

Dropouts

When I see the list of America's billionaires from Forbes, all I find in TOP 10 that except for Warren Buffet, the rest are predominantly dropouts from colleges & universities... What does this mean?? Doesn't America require education to survive [which is true] and also to succeed?? Or did I waste my time in studying Engineering for 4 years to be a mere software engineer?? I am wandering over this thought after finding this pattern in the list...

The irony is dropouts created Microsoft & Oracle which employs studs who did not dropout. I think I should not study anymore... >:)

But I believe they had the vision to create unlike most of the other dropouts & non-dropouts which make them stand-out & excel for that matter.

LAX <-> YYZ

I've been to some of the downtowns in US as of now... & most look scary at night... LA downtown looks scary during day too :P

However, when I landed in Toronto, Canada, though I had ugly feelings about this downtown, everything ended up cool, at least while at downtown. Like the Market Street of SFO, which is Wall Street of the West or Dalal Street of India, almost all major financial institutions are located on this street. For that matter, streets of Toronto downtown are marked as distinct districts like entertainment district, finance district, fashion district, etc... Landing on 13th of Sep 2006, I took the shuttle to the hostel at Pembroke Street, whose reviews read that the street was filled with druggists & hookers. Well, nothing did I see when I went there for the first time, neither at any time of the day. I'm saved. Only while I was about to check-in, I learnt that my check-in time was 3 pm & I cannot check in at 8 am, which I was assuming TRAVELOCITY should have taken care. Fortuantely, the hostel guy accepted the request from travelocity to accomodate me immediately.

Next stop: American Consulate. "We are approving your Visa, but we are holding it since you are employed only for a day" was the answer from the lady behind the counter. CRAP!!! How can that be?? It was a typo that read date of employment is from 6-Sep-2006 to 6-Sep-2006... New Jersey guys cut the crap... Attorney replied to me stating that I can get the visa stamped the next day [Thursday] & if not possible to get it done on same day itself, get my passport back on Friday...This means I'll have to cancel my return ticket & get a new one for Friday sametime... Not just that book a hotel too for Thurday night. SCREWED!!!

Travelocity was of no use, they disowned my trip since I had started with it... And I learnt from the airlines that I will have to incur $250 extra for cancelling & rebooking the ticket. Shit...

Fortunately, I was able to get my visa on Thursday.. And a little relieved I went around downtown, and to CN Tower "Canada's wonder of the world"... I do not understand completely what that means... I checked-in my baggage with food I had foolishly, which I was supposed to consume as dinner before departing Toronto... Finally, while about to leave the airport on Thursday night, I find that the flight is delayed by 50 minutes, which means I will miss the connection flight from Vegas to LA, and ultimately miss the next day work... Oops!!! Well, fortunately I went to Vegas on time & took boarded the connecting flight to LA... Now the next thing, this flight took off 30 minutes later than the stipulated time & arrived at LA at 2:30 on Friday. I was waiting for the shuttle I reserved to reach my apartment, which did not turn up.... Finally, I had to take a cab at 3 in the morning & reached home at 3:30... Shit...It costed me 85 bucks.... Fuck the shuttle...

SFO, Part II

went to San Francisco this labor day weekend for the second time... Golden Gate impressed me again... & I was really glad I has enough time to walk the bridge.... Well, more glad I'm since I made it to those places which I did not visit last time - Pebble Beach [17 mile drive] & Mystery Spot esp.

Well, other than that I did not do much at SFO, just that I had more time to walk the Golden Gate. Well, a trivia is that I ate at Saravana Bhavan @ Sunnyvale, CA for the 2nd & 3rd time in my life... I think I've been to this place in Annanagar, Chennai long back that its oblivious... BTW I do not even know if I 've ever been to it before this.... Whatever, it tasted good & it was the hunting the items on the menu... One more thing is that it wasn't all that vegan... Okay I am not getting into the argument of whether egg is vegan or dairy products are not, plants have lives and hence vegans do kill living thingys etc etc yada yada....

I found this item on the menu that read "EGG" I do not know for what reason it was included... I believe it is not on the list back in India.... Whatever, so much for a trivia.... looks like it has been most of the writing on this post....

One more trivia: THIS IS THE 201st POST ON THIS BLOG OF MINE

I've been to Disney too!!! So??? What's the big deal???

Went to this "coveted" place of most American kids.... Well, as such I thought it was a waste of time, energy, & money... but it wasn't all that waste.... I did enjoy the most with the park hopper ticket for $74 bucks to visit the actual Disneyland & its sibling Disney California Adventure park. It was a deal not to be denied since the individual park tickets are $59 each. 10 rides & 1 show - all visited between 0900 hrs & 2000 hrs.... Well, I should say I covered most of those rides considered great, and having went early I was able to cover most without any hassles due to crowds... And as such I had to drive 20 miles each way, which is not much anyways.. so much lesser mileage on the rental car....

Mistakes do happen....

Mistakes do happen with people, but not all people are fools to continue commiting their goof-ups... Of late, the US advertising agencies are trying to make fools; I do not know whether they are targeted at fools; if people are in the right frame of mind, they will not fall for it.

Hummer: Just that your son does not get his justified turn on the sliding board or just that the man behind you checks out large beef slices while you are checking out tofu does not mean you have a buy a hummer. Now, if one does that, (s)he is a fool. Well, at the current gasoline price trend, buying a hummer is going to prove fatal & Uncle Bush has to invade many other oil producing nations to satiate his country's gasoline needs.

T-Mobile: Family plan is combined 1000 minutes for 10 bucks lesser than 2 individual plans for 600 minutes each. That means each phone gets 500 minutes each for 5 bucks less. This is not such a good deal as I would say. Piss off!! I would go for 2 individual plans instead of 2 or more phones in 1 family plan. Fine I do understand that in a family-plan calls are free among the constituent phones, but how much time are you going to talk with your mom or dad or sibling???

Pizza Hut: Just because this man is a fool & his friends are fool enough to buy 3 medium pizzas for 5 bucks each without knowing its the MRP does not mean that Pizza-Hut delivery guy made a mistake... C'mon jackass, GROW UP!!!

Some more to go: There is this beer commercial where these couple try to find out where the mobil phone picks up no service, & then sit back to enjoy their beer responsibly.... switch off the mobile phones dumbo....

Pay Hike...

I was watching some programme named 30 DAYS on FX a week back... the programming is all about a person who lives in a totally different ambience that he/she is totally not used to, usually a degarded one for 30 days & comes back with a completely different outlook... this particular episode I was watching was related to minimum wage living at the state of ohio, which was around $5.15 an hour....

In this episode the series producer along with his fiancee lives in such conditions for 30 days & in the interim there is a message that says over the past 20 years or so, the minimum wage as stipulated by the federal govt has gone down but wages of senate members has gone up, also that senate members claim that their cost of living goes up $23 grands an year [for each member]....

When I see this news from India, I feel that these mother-fucking politicians have unanimity when it comes to OBC reservation quota increase, pay hike, office of profit, etc etc ... but they never get a chance to reach consensus when bills like property declaration prior to elections, no seat if charged, office of profit, and the likes.... These assholes are real mother fucking faggots [oxymoron, isn't it] and bitches...

Tatsu sux...

I thought the most hyped TATSU should be a great spine chilling experience.. but it was all flushed when the ride lasted for not even a minute & finally by the end of the ride I found myself perfectly normal... not a butterfly flying...

maybe the 2 hours exhilarating queue [satire intended] & high expectations due to those commercials made it this way...

This proves one point: EXPECTATION IS THE CAUSE OF DISAPPOINTMENT

Kilikku Rakka Molachuduthu... Koota Vittu Parandhu Poradhu...

Oh boy Oh boy.... at last I've secured myself a CALIFORNIA driving permit... supposed to be one of the toughest permits to get and most strict driving rules and regulations in USA [psst I've heard people say that holders of California DP, or DL [driving licence] as we call in India, need to pay a little lesser car insurance than other state permits....

So this is how the quest started:

I was bugged with the way I depended on others for transport to long distances, or else I've to depend on the not so reliable METRO transport of LA County... Starting with the DMV booklet and the right hints from Divija [PS: Divi instigated me into this], I was able to clear the written test on 30 Jun 2006 with 2 days prep... Then comes the tricky part, I had to learn not to drive [I knew it back in India itself :P], but to obey the "SoCal" driving rules and regulations... I had to take 4 classes, 2 hours each to get acquainted... Also that I was told not to take the behind-the-wheel test [actually the driving test, dumbos cannot understand with different name] on 5th July 2006 itself... After that advancing the initial appointment from 24th July to 11th July, today, I cleared the driving test and Whoa!!!! Finally I have a SoCal driving licence... Hmmm... the final expenses incurred on this is: $311 FUCK!!!

My errors:
3 on a 6 max in written... [I knew the answers, I screwed 'em up though...]
15 on a max of 15 in driven... [man that inspector was snake eyes..]

Why don't we smile???

Gana: Why is that Indians [meaning Asian-Indians] don't smile when they look at us?? Rather, they turn their face away at the sight of another desi...

Divi: Hmmmm, may be its in the blood for people not to smile....

Divi: Do we smile at other unknown desis when we come see them???

Gana: I don't think so... But we do smile at those natives when we see them face-to-face...

Divi: It's the culture of this place to smile at even those people who you may never know, but back home we don't have such culture... So when we see a desi our culture kicks in; but we ape the culture of the natives and smile at them when we see them face-to-face...

Gana: may be that's true...

Santa Barbara, CA

Starting at 9 am on a Sunday [25th June 2006] after a late night sleep on Saturday, we had to drive for around 2 hours on US highway 101 dodging the traffic for around 100 miles. Finally reaching Santa Barbara beach at 11 am, the next mission was to find a spot for parking at no cost on that busy summer beach. Filled with people on the arcade, it was a tougher job than driving for 2 hours. After finding a spot for fee, getting the car made us realize the worst mistake one can ever make. It was fucking cold with the sea breeze which we have not realized living near downtown since the summer began. The desert had misguided us into the chill. It tool li'l time to get used to the chillness, and trotting on the waters made it worser. So finally we went to the wharf and had a look at the surroundings: beach, arcade, mountains, sea gulls, people [gurlz] :P, etc etc etc....

After having lunch we decided to goto Santa Monica, CA, making it a BEACH DAY... but added to it was sleep deprived sore eyes and hence headache - so back home to sleep for sometime...

Moving towards OUTLOOK 2003

Worst thing that there was this email from Yahoo! [of course to my Yahoo! email account] that they are giving a free immediate upgrade to Yahoo! Mail BETA... which means no waiting in the line for this offer to kick-off.... Curses!!!!

Reaping at farms...

Knotts Berry Farm self-claimed as America's 1st Theme Park was better than worse [as I thought about it from overhearing people at UBOC].. I heard that it was more for kids than adults... Hmmmm, okay so I go there just because I got a free pass...


So I start looking at the theme park's website & I find some pretty interesting rides such as XCelerator, Montezooma's Revenge and SilverBullet, which I wanted to try out for sure...

Well, after trying out, I found that they were not pretty bad. However, Silver Bullet being an amazing long roller-coaster and XCelerator being an 0-80 mph in 2 seconds are absolute false claims... XCelerator was nothing but dumb. SilverBullet for that fact was better... So after a day out in the hot sun I returned home with headache :P

Moving toward Outlook 2003

This is about the recent move to BETA versions of leading & pioneer email providers - YAHOO & HOTMAIL....

With the inception of Windows Live Mail, Hotmail moved towards the making the interface look and feel much like MS Outlook 2K3. With facilities like reading pane, select & delete emails with DEL key, yada yada yada.

This the same thing aped by Yahoo Mail BETA [which I just tried]... Looks like they are facing stiff competition from GMAIL, and competing with GMAIL, the only forte for HOTMAIL & YAHOO will be look & feel. Well, I will not state GMAIL is not user friendly, but with its simplicity it is more than necessary for the average, crazy and frequent email checkers like me....

However, at times I wanted this overwhelming look & feel of Windows Live Mail BETA [which I used to get from Cognizant Web Mail thingy], just to break the cycle. One thing that both Windows Live Mail &amp; Yahoo Mail have in common other than "Outlook 2K3 look & feel" is that, if you choose to opt out of their BETA email thingys, you gotta wait in the queue to get back to try their BETA email thingys... Also that u need the latest firefox if you wanna use 'em from Firefox....

those 2 quarters...

This is the public phone that bullied me for 50 cents @ LAX as soon as I landed there for the first time in my life [23/Aug/2006]... Just opposite to this phone is the change machine which is still not working :P

My bro is gonna IIT

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

My bro has cleared IIT JEE 2006 with an AIR # 134, haha...

Having started his quest to crack JEE while at his 8th grade [if I remember correct], the quest finally ends now, only to start a new one... ;)

Having scored 486 of 500 in the recent CBSE 12th exams, along with AIEEE AIR # 270 [TN State Rank #2] makes him totally secure as for his UG is concerned, I believe... I ain't sure about his plans for BITS, Pilani though...

All the Best DUDE... ;)

Decision on OBC quota

Mother fucking politicians [their respective moms or even Sonia will do], for the sake of frugal votes from some part of the population who anyways barter their vote in cash or kind have reached this preposterous consensus.

This obviously gonna make improving India potentially incompetent. At the wake of China & Japan starting to learn English, this move will obviate India from the list of contenders in the global. Fine, even if these OBCs are given their prerogative for seats in IITs, IIMs, etc etc etc.... is there any assurance that these "mother-fucking" politicians can give about ZERO DROP-OUTS from these OBCs who got their admissions??? I don't think so....

Well, I don't think anyone is preventing these OBC candidates from getting admissions after clearing a fairly conducted competetive exam. Having said that, if these OBCs and etc etc etc people are socially backward: aren't they now socially forward after all these reservations & stuffs ending up with those supposedly socially forward will be backward by then... If they are socially backward but economically forward what fuck is this reservation good for???

So it does mean that a mediocre socially forward but economically backward candidate has lost his/her right to education?? But at the same time a socially backward and economically forward mediocre student gets quality education....

This is injustice, preposterous, gibberish, prejudiced, whatever FUCK..... can't accept this.

One-Stop utility discovery

Internet has always been a plethora of info... in the same tone I found this site LifeHacker which unearths many utilities and tweaks for the various gizmos and software out in the open... I had to find some tweaks for my video iPod and when googled I landed here... Since then life has been a little different [or may be I'm exaggerating a lil']... let me see how many utilities I downloaded from this site??? :P

GmailSkin

This little thingy called GMAIL SKINS was introduced to me by Aravind, and to my surprise I started tweaking with various configurations I can do with it to customize my GMAIL experience.... On second thoughts I discovered various other utilities that couple up with GOOGLE making it THE MEGA-MONSTER of open source development. Here is the deal: You get the GOOGLE API with which you can access various Google stuffs [or just Google it as the jargon goes...] making it THE MEGA-MONSTER....

Exceptions...

This is the story abt an exceptional american... Jus saw this story in abc7 news channel. Well, at these times it makes me feel that there are some americans still left with heart and courage to do what they feel like... live their hearts out, which most americans do; but help those who really need it.

At times when I visit that place Udavum Karangal - I feel I should dedicate my life toward sth that's useful to others... Well, at this moment Divi comments That's the difference between a good person and a great person - great in putting their benign in action. At this point it reminded me of Bhavs - I do not know what she does for those NGOs [of course there is some monetary benefit involved in it], but at least she does something to those needed.

Yeah... I'm getting philosophical...

Indian attitude

I was at the Indian visa camp at Los Angeles to get some documents attested by the Consul here @ SFO. I did know that I cannot expect dedication at work here, since its the Indians who work at the Consul, but I didn't expect:

1. Visa applications were not scrutinized - even terrorists who hold American passport can apply for Indian visa and hit Indian soil legally - FUCK
2. American passport holders were given more courtesy since Consul makes more money in printing visas than attesting documents for valid Indian passport holders :(
3. Presently American citizens' were served much ahead of valid Indian citizens - "HolyFuck"

I do not know when these people will straighten without this "ATTITUDE", so that India improves.

Jason is GOD...

I am not talking about the Jason who threatened Manhattan island, this is about the person in my client location, whose stats will be say...

Filipino [I suppose...]
aged mid 30s to early 40s
5 foot or less
JAVA GURU and a hardcore techie guy
etc etc etc

I did not feel comfortable in asking him his years of IT experience, so no comments about that. Today we had this meeting with the network security guy, who insisted in doing something that was not at all necessary. Well, he was just consulted on particular issues and BOOM: he took entire control of the situation and made the network security guy to understand that what he desired was not actually necessary to have sufficient security of the web app. The network guy did not know how to substantiate his part. This is just one instance I'm talking about here and he always makes his point such that no one can ever negate him. Well, he is an agressive GURU.

Instance 2: One of his team members [may be one of his admirers] was consulted about the same issue the previous day... and his comments were: ask Jason, he is right person to address your queries and never gets arttled about any issues...he plays DB guy, architect, whatever the project wants....

Well, whatever for his stuff he is allowed to have enough arrogance....

Let PEACE embrace ya...

Went to Hsi Lai temple on Saturday on 15th April 2006... Well its a Buddhist shrine some 13 miles from my place.

Good architecture, great fragrance in and around & overlooking the town was awesome I should say. Well more than that, one can really feel THE PEACE in mind with this place. How good are the other Buddha shrines usually, I do not know. I'm a first timer there. But, then it was real good, instigating me to visit other such Buddhist shrines and get the feel of what it takes to be in such peaceful places.

On the contrary I also feel that life is nothing without its intricacies, so becoming a monk isn't going to help. Well, there can be counter-argument that monkhood can be attained only after doing away with worldly desires. I do not know, I ain't a monk and will not be one [at least in the near future]...

I'm Appled

Just that I got my new video iPod for the very reason that my company Cognizant made a billion last year... Hmmmm

What does that suggest?? Am I being taken care well by Cognizant... Don't know!!!
Forget it!!! I'm trying to experiment the new iPod instead of bothering why I was given one... But having answered WHY, WHAT and WHEN, that leaves the question HOW??? Fuck!!! This is freaking out... I'm typing whatever comes to my mind, probably feeling sleepy.. Good night.

Dil Se...

Been to this movie INSIDE MAN today, and the astonishment that happened there was "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from Dil Se.. played as soon as the UNIVERSAL logo appears... The first tone made me feel Hollywood copied Bollywood, but this feeling was short-lived. I heard the complete track played... Oh boy!!! Hollywood flick with a Hindi title track... That's crazy... Well, the movie did not turn out to be a complete disaster [it was, to a certain extent though]... Best thing I liked in it was the climax...

BTW why is that Hollywood mentions Al's DOG DAY AFTERNOON whenever it makes a bank heist flick???

Office of Profit

Cheap!! This game can end in only one direction if the trend continues... No more MPs in Assembly's either house. Except for a handful of them, I suppose, the rest hold an office of profit to supplement their MP seats, goverment pays from taxes, and other perks...

People should get a chance to piss these politicians off. Better off, hang those who do not abide by the Indian Constitution nude in the middle of the streets... And feed them to the dogs...

Cheap Stunt

Sonia Gandhi is good at manipulation...

Reason: She let Dr.Manmohan Singh be the Prime Minister of India pretending to be not interested in politics or whatsoever; stepping aside she did not just give away her ticket to PM, but made herself a permanent ticket to PMO on the contrary. Of course, she will be praised by many illogical politicians in India that she is the GODMOTHER who just let go away of her seat to PM.... Whatever fuck, she isn't an Indian by birth.

Nevertheless, this act of resigning her MP post is to create the image that she is not interested in power but interested in welfare of people and upholds the constitution. Cheap act....

The Canyons....

Been to Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon & Zion National Park durin the weekend of 18-Feb-2006. Well, the trip seemed so short, though we wandered thru' the canyons on all 3 days... :P

The thing is, its amazing to know how these canyons were formed by the natural process... Grand Canyon formed by Colorado river cutting the rocks for 6,000,000 years....

Bryce & Zion were formed by repeated ice formation and melting on them at short intervals... Its marvellous to see mom nature at work... I took 900 odd photographs, but I still do not feel content, I haven't captured the entire beauty of them.

At Bryce Canyon, I had my first tryst with SNOW.... That was a nice experience for me.

On the way back, stop-over at Las Vegas for watching the Bellagio fountain dance from Paris, Las Vegas, NV - Eiffel tower - one more feather for the weekend.

When I reached home at 2:30 on Tuesday morning, I did not feel sleepy, but fully charged and curious to visit these National Parks again.

Utopia

This topic always instills in me the feeling of best of all worlds. Okay, for now best of 2 worlds, which I've seen in my life until this moment - USA and INDIA.

India has more common sense, or atleast people know how to handle things even in utter commotion; it lacks infrastructure, though. Here in US, people have a good infrastructure, but lack the other.... ;)

So, what if we add best of both worlds?? Won't India make it the BEST OF ALL PLACES when we add infrastructure to it? Let's us it happens soon enough we live it through... :D

Every penny counts....

Last night I was talking with my friend, Arvind back in INDIA, and he was stating that somethign about spending in USD. It then struck me how I felt spending in USD at the initial period I landed in LAX. I used to crib spending in USD. I felt that spending 2 bucks (USD) for laundry was fucking costly. I will not spend 100 bucks in INR to wash my undies....

The best thing: I felt pretty broke when the public phone took my 50 cents (not Curtis Jackson) and did not allow me to call my account manager whose mobile from Irvine, CA is not considered a local number from LAX.
Well, more than half an year since I landed here, I feel 2 bucks is nothing. Man, I earn more than that and the best lavish I can be, I can still save (hopefully) :P

All this thought process in a moment Arvind mentioned sth abt spendin in USD, and it reminded me of Benny from PA mentioning it will take time to get accustomed to spendin in USD.... ;) Well Benny, now I'm...

Sincity

Not the movie starring Bruce Willis, but Las Vegas... where people can get filthy rich gambling and lose the wealth in ho's... Casinos are filled with cigar smoke forming a screen making your visibility nil & lungs unhealthy.

One thing I liked about this place is that it's always alive, though its normal sight here to openly conduct erotic shows and trade flesh.

One thing I hated at worse, its the passive smoking one is subjected to.

After this I went to Hoover dam, whooooooooo.... I loved the serenity of that place, one of the human marvels... however it sucked to have that 1 hour time difference between the 2 ends of the arch, one for Nevada and one more for Arizona.... sounds crazy

Walking on water....

and developing software are easiest when the requirements are frozen...

Well, working for 2 managers now, I feel the pinch of time. One manager, wants me to do analysis for the approach on automating a complex manual process, but wants that to be completed in an unrealistic time, with all possible ways of automating, since all dependent variables are yet to be fixed. Other manager makes lesser chaos saying, develop the app, but we will decide on the server environment later, thats gibberish.

They are the GODFATHERs now, so can't help it.

Catch Me if You Can...

Having seen this movie, which claims that Abegnale paperhanged $4M.... the site says in his biography, that he made it for only $2.5M, within 5 years time. Not even punished as a juve, he was sent to federal correction facility.

i've moved

Finally, roomies become ex-roomies. Chandra is moving to Delaware and I'm moving to another apartment in the same complex. Well, I wonder how much trash I stashed on a single day, and had nothing much to be moved, except my luggage I got here :P

Transformation...

My photos as captured using the webcam during the months of December, November & October 2005.

Dec 2005
Nov 2005
Oct 2005
It reminds me of the moths & butterflies from The Silence of the Lambs... :P

The Godfather

Kewl, that's my exclamation after watching this movie... The way the plot moves and the way family business is settled annihilating oppnents is just Cooooooooooool..... Al Pacino at his best I have ever seen. The final scene, Al Pacino taking over as the real Don Corleone was the best...

Also, the movie scenes and plot surfaces in many other later movies. This makes me imagine what an impact this movie could have made at the time it was released....

Extension Again....

My stay in Los Angeles has been extended till the 31st of January, 2006. Well, more time in LAX means more problems finding a shack to do MY things :D

Experiment with truth, eh... cooking

Well, the first innovative thing I did ever after starting the art of cooking... GOBI (CAULIFLOWER) SAMBAR, merging things that do not... This was similied to mixing oil and water by my fellows around, LoL.

Finally things were good, and VOILA, encore.... hahaha... GANA, the creative cook ;)

ThanksGiving Sale

Reminisces of SARAVANA STORES, T.Ngr., Chennai - when I saw the crowd to buy stuffs on the black Friday, my first one I should say.
Reason: the prices are down by almost 70% of marked price
Catch: goods sold at solid discounts are not the best/new products around
Inference: there are SARAVANA STORES all throughout US on the black FRIDAY, & they exhibit the same quality as SARAVANA STORES. People too quarrel while buying things, the more sturdy you are, you get the last stocks.

ThanksGiving

This isn't my first thanksgiving anyways, though I'm at USA for the first time & its only 3 months now. Then how it isn't the first?? Well, I would say the Pongal/Sankranthi is the desi version of Thanksgiving. Isn't it? Look at this concept, people want to thank something for their success at this time of the year & tradition says it mainly comes after harvest, meaning its the same concept in both US & INDIA. Hmmm, thing that amused me on this day was the homepage of GMAIL. Look at it, they have written what happened in their families, "4 engagements, 7 weddings, 11 new babies, 1 reunion, and 1 cross-country move by a fiancée so they "don't have to do the long-distance thing anymore" so far this year." That's quite impressive too... ;)

salaam namaste

If only you wanna feel sick by doing something, then watch this movie baptized "SALAAM NAMASTE", wherein the name bears no relation to the plot. Well I should say there is no plot as such in this flick, the first part was sorta dragging & the next was kinda okay. So bear it in mind while watching & watch it only if you have a good reason to.

extennnnnnnnnnded stay

Lets see whats in store for me, my stay with UBOC @ LAX has been extended by a month making me stay till mid-Dec with the client... So wassup now, look out for tickets from LAX to DFW for Christmas. Hopefully I'm at LAX till then. Well ON THE HATRICK spree is over now... :P

no more torrents

Well, having downloaded couple movies using torrents now I have the WINFIXER trojan infesting my computer. I dont know whether it was due to the torrent stuff I downloaded, or was it something else that made it happen in my laptop. It should be torrents because I didnt go anything else other than downloading torrents, only later to find that torrent is P2P since it makes parallel upload & download, and some skunk from whom I was downloading should have passed me on this trojan. Whatever, downloading movies or not, hereafter no more torrents. I'm starting the process of malware hunting which I didnt do for a long time since leaving INDIA :P

solitary ass

As a part of my daily work & life looks like I'm doing things in solitude. Reason: I'm the only in UBOC to work as single person project ;) - fortune in disguise I should say... :P

Next, my trip to SFO & MKE were all alone. No one to share opinions, not even anyone to exclaim the beauty of things I see. Hence the photos I upload to my YAHOO photos seldom pose me, unless I "self-portrait". Never mind, I will better do things lot better in solitude than in groups, perhaps results vary when I get into decent groups, like my previous CRA project with Chase (maybe the Kolkata stay made it do). We had good understandings, I supported alone when my project-mate had his sem & he supporting alone when I had mine ;)

However, I like living in solitude, if not for the expenses incurred for the apartment in LAX, I will live in solitude, with my own world, however not losing touch with reality and perfectly sane.

I do have my own circle which isnt too much in proximity. I have handful of school mates (Benny, Bhavani (of late), etc) sporadically calling or chatting with me. I have 3 college mates (Arvind, Aravindhan & Dharma) with whom I still maintain contact. I have 2 old project mates (Suri & Mouli) still in contact, & with whom I got in better in position with the stay at Kolkata. I have just one from my CTS ELT batch (Suresh) who I contact occasionally. And the best I have my intimate family back in INDIA who I call almost daily.

When having such an adorable, lovable, admirable and what not family .... who needs anything else while outside the family to substitute it. These aren't scribblings when drowsy. I'm perfectly not under influence either. However, I don't mean I can't socialize, the thing is that I hate socializing in a group that is for the sake of socializing. It should be more commiting, thats what I feel.

on a hatrick

Last week it was travel to SFO by flight, this week its MKE. So that makes 2 continuous weekends flight travel, making it ON A HATRICK. It can be a flight travel next weekend, either travel to INDIA, for which I've got the tickets, or else travelling out from LAX by flight :P

torrents

At last, I had my first torrent file downloaded. After a long quest & successive failures in using torrents to download movies, I succeeded in downloading MAJAA, for the sake of torrent download. However, this was in MP4 format & I had to go in search in some software or perhaps plugin that decodes MP4 files. Ending up in VIDEOLAN, I was finally able to watch the crap I downloaded ;)

SFO

Been to SFO this weekend & I was simply amazed as well as impressed by the attractions in that city. Well, most of the places looked familiar, having watched the movie ROCK & other videos. The place thrives on tourism, I should say since it had ample spaces to escape. The Golden Gate bridge, Twin Peaks & Muir Woods amazed. More amazing was the visibility of Alcatraz from many locations. It was just heavenly, like Chennai, cramped roads & people crowded streets, violating traffic rules ;)

palm springs & indian canyons

As a part of Diwali bash the CTS crowd in UBOC, CA 91755 went to the INDIAN CANYONS & PALM SPRINGS. The coldest place I've ever been to in my life till now is the palm springs I should say. The day was filled with approx 6mi of trekking. I think this is the first time after a long span I've done long trekking. Had a nice lunch at the DELHI INDIAN CUISINE located at palm springs. Check out the photos.

laptopped atlast

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Atlast DELL has delivered my laptop.... Frustrated I am, since I ordered it somewhere in the last week of September & UPS lost it... Atlast now I got the new one at UPS's cost ;)

Ensoiiiiiiiii...

LOTR

With mid-sem exams just a week I managed to watch the trilogy this weekend, since it was recommended by BENNY, I tried the LOTR marathon spanning 9.5 hours. Man there was no story neither there was a twisty thrilling storyline. The movie was sagging like HELL & at one point I got frustrated. Digressions are little too much in the trilogy.Everything was predictable. Curiosity kills the cat, this adage holds good in my life, since this is the sequel to my odyssey with WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE.

e-bay-ing

For no reasons of late I'm visiting ebay, I just got one book & a webcam from ebay & the "bidding" bug bit me. I almost daily, whenever finding time, visit ebay to find out if something that interests me is available. If not, I visit ebay motors, I dont even have my IDP nor CA driver license (not licence ;)) to purchase. Just forgetting the bank balance & that I should return to INDIA convcerting the USD left to INR until I use e-bay.

WINDOW SHOPPING HURT NO ONE

Gogi

Well, due to UBOC team lunch I was at this place for Friday's lunch, & you know what for 13 bucks buffet with table top BBQ meat eaters had a nice time enjoying rare types of flesh, both land & water. I thought to myself should I resort to meat now since nothing much was available stating NO MEAT. On second thoughts I did get some fruits & veggies with unlimited coca-cola (specifically NOT mentioning COKE) that made me refrain from meat. Though the veggie stuff wasnt worth 13 bucks it was a nice team outing pulling each others' legs & stuffs enjoying lunch. Yes, I should admit that I was tempted to have MEAT, but my KADAVUL PAADHI made me not to entertain the thought :P NO REMORSE.

based on a true story

This is the story of sambar transforming into puli kootu...

I started searching recipes on the internet & bumped on cabbage sambar, having no proper provisions nor groceries at teh apartment I thought of making cabbage sambar which required nothing but oil, tamaind, cabbage, dal, etc. Hoping to follow the basic template I boiled cabbage & dal in the same cooker vessel owing to lack of utensils, it was also due the bare fact that they both gotta mix somewhere, so why not now ;)

Only during boiling it I found that the cabbage was too much that cooker couldnt take it. So plan B, enough boiling without spices, lets add the rest of the ingredients & continue boiling. All went well until I foudn that the tamarid extract had almost dried out & there was not much liquid left to call the yield SAMBAR, it was a puli (tamamrind) kootu, but without much of the major constituents :P So what it did taste edible & palatable... So man what's cooking????

FLICK DEALS

After 2 months the movie bug has been captured & now its online thru' NETFLIX, I got LOTR trilogy for the forthcoming weekend. I have queued almost 50 movies ranging from HITCHCOCK to SHYAMALAN & beyond. Let me see if I find the time to watch the movies. Just 20 bucks per month, so not much of a crunch on my finance :P

tangra bistro

what kind of place is that, a supposedly restaurant that provides asian food, but where the hell is the food???
no veggie food available in there, I heard nevertheless the NV too was bad. Then why for god's sake was that resaturant booked? there were other spicy options from South INDIA...
anyways I managed to get some decent veggie delicacies to gourmandize. well the most -ve factor I missed my tryst with kitchen & hence the next I will run out of decent good. Ill have to survive on yogurt :P Well i have been surviving on yogurt & noodles for 2 weeks since I stepped into HILTON ;)

giant leap to stardom

with such ease I did this stuff called channa masala, except that the yield wasn't that gravy as it should have been, its okay. thats good MISSION ACCOMPLISHED for a newbie. Of late I'm really interested in cooking, that I don't allow my roommate to cook, but only clean. ;)
As for the channa masala, it turned out to be so good that it became an instant hit among the cogi's community at UBOC, Monterey Park. That's sure a giant leap to stardom :P
Well I found many other decent good short & sweet recipes at this site. I even signed the guestbook.

spill milk, no cry

with so much impromptu I took the EC1 for Software maintenance management, I was unprepared to such an extent that I took the help from one SQA guy who landed me in drain. I scored a paltry cat on the wall, asshole. He could have accepted his ignorance & declared, "I'M DUMMY". Okay no crying over spilled milk :'(

thats nice

When I had my meeting with the client manager yeasterday, I just got out of the impression that she was one with an attitude. Reason: Well, when I enquired about my time sheet details we digressed with the manager talking about her food habits & mine, & one of her friends who never gets to hang out since she took only organic veg stuff. She was telling about lunching with the team so that myself & one more INDIAN guy can get closer to the team.She did mention about the way lunches usually ends up, ultimately as a team meeting & not a get-togther. Ending up she said, you have any concerns/suggestions or whatever it is dont hesitate to come to me. Thats nice.

Instance 2: I had work late today & my people dumped me since I didnt start when they did, of course Icant ask them to hold on for hours together for my sake. When I was about to start my immediate supervisor asked me (he was reason for mylate sitting), how I was supposed to commute? When I mentioned I need to call the taxi & wait for it to arrive, without second thoughts he hung up his work, got my address & hit mapquest. Finally he offered me a hike in his brand new BMW (man it was heaven) to my door step. Wasnt he nice??

online quiz

I aint talking about online quizzing that tests your intelligence in whatever & awards cash prizes, but my MS EC1 component, fortunately I scored a paltry 68% with just 3 hours of preparation on Friday night for the Saturday morning tryst. Unfortunately i receive a mail stating another online quiz for another course having its EC1 component in the same manner. Now, the notion struck me, if I take online quizzes I take time only to prepare & its gonna be MCQs, if I have to prepare my assignments its gonna take more time, compiling it, reviewing it & so forth, neither with a laptop nor an internet connection. Am I suppsosed to do the stuff at office hours, NAY, I'm just a consultant here & I'm billed for my working hours. Unlike INDIA, I cant while away my time without showing progress, that too at a client location. Oh GOD!!! What have I got into???

what am I??

Staying in a shared apartment has its own advantages & disadvantages. well, I think it is advantage & not advantages. Reason: I get to share the rent. Why disadvantage? Well I started cook short while ago & I feel inspite of busy schedule I can manage to cook so that I master the trick. Well the main thing now is who is gonna do the necessary shopping, chopping, & the cleaning after cooking. I can do that when its my turn, but not always. Then why the hell should I pay the rent, let the other(s) pay & let me just do the job. I cant let this happen to me. Reason: Come on, I aint a servant. Well, perhaps I can direct the rest to do something for the decent living, but shouldn't they follow that. I can't nag them to do the chores always. Every person has a breaking point. So do I. I shall quit this hell when things get out of control. Why are people so immature? Hope atleast GOD knows!!

oh my GOD!!!

i lost my free 2nd shot on microsoft mcsd.net final paper, reason: i travelled to LA from INDIA & hence the prometric RRC is different & I cant take the free exam. The fee here is USD 125 while in INDIA I paid 50 USD. Damn it, I wasted INR 2500 on this crap for no gain :(. Again.

I dunno when I'll take this paper & clear it too... okay took enough time off the hook, lemme get back to MIS, gotta help myself from screwing this tomorrow :P

JEE screws you

Oh yes, at last those private coaching classes will take back seat in the budget of every JEE aspirant's home. This proves a setback for people in Kota & similar places who just can't study only for JEE during the time they should study 11 & 12 portions. Thats just great, HATS OFF to the Indian MHRD.

Well re-attempt in case of joining IIT & course change have also been barred, which makes the case so simple, either you make it or you dont. KISS - Kept It Short 'n' Sweet aint it??

However, the chances of entering IIT have dimnished with the NO-NO on the screening tests :( This gave a chance for studs to brighten their prospects at the main test.

Hmmmm, lemme c if my bro can make it in 2006...

i, cook

Now its 4 days since I moved from HILTON to the apartment, the sphere of INDIAN living at AMERICA has started for me.... So is my career in cooking ;)

I have now accomplished the starter course of GREEN PEAS MASALA, POTATO FRY & PULSES+TOMATO sambar... hehehe

I guess its much less than what I can learn in 4 days, however I've promoted myself from microwave cooking of just rice & noodles to LPG cooking. So far so good... The teaching classes are from heterogenous sources & hence I think by the time I complete my course in cooking, I might be a master of INDIAN recipes... HIGH HOPES :P

The Terminal

Since landing at LAX on Aug 22, 2005, I've seen this movie just 5 times on HBO. Now, I somehow feel that I'm pretty impressed by the movie, which I didnt feel while watching at India, neither the first time here. Tom Hanks as Victor caught at the NY airport, exhibiting his innocence as usual has won my applause ;)

His arbitration between the field officer & the Russian who brings in medicine for his ill father is one which makes him GOD. The way he answers the pager is one more. Well, saying that he isnt afraid of Krokozhia & hence denied of seeking asylum at NY is one more feather. However, if he had said yes, maybe he wouldnt have been able to get back to his native. Whatever, now its kind of I like the movie. :P

v.williams v/s clijsters

its bad to see that venus came so close to winning her way to the semi-finals at the US-Open, but Clijsters just stole the opportunity from Venus, right under her nose. the battle was so good to watch. At the end, the game won. Taking from a winning last game of second set till the end of 3rd set, Clijsters made an amazing performance in ousting Venus. Yes, the game was interesting following Venus lose with not much fight during the last minutes of the game. Maybe VENUS WILLIAMS lost her MODJO ;)

outsourcing - bust you...

I've always dreamt of making a technology making career instead of a technology using one, but fears are to be allayed in both sectors. I've always felt proud in willing to say Im working for the company that made this tech. But things are soon sueing me. I felt really nice in meeting & working with the IT people who are the client as such, but the instance of ABN AMRO cutting 1500 IT jobs & outsourcing the same sounds brutal to me. However service providing firms have to survive like that, no way out. Okay was what makes the tech creating company better, well nothing I should say. 2 sides of the coin - being in a tech firm jeopardizes career by means of merger & competetive other technologies, whereas in service firm thats not the case, although a merger can incur the same wrath. But you have got ways out of this, you are a hybrid product now & marketing oneself in the open market isnt a big deal. Okay we are talking abt careers & not jobs. blah blah blah... I feel sleepy.

things at a different place

The most noticeable things I found in LA was that many people, irrespective of I know or not, irrespective of nationality smile & greet you. This doesnt happen in India by any means. But on the downside, I have heard there are people around bullying others. Well, I havent seen one, & dont want to see one.

I can find people still using pagers when that was an evanescent thing in India, the proliferation of cell phones was much greater than that of pagers in India, unlike here.

Also the TV channels are so, that they miss a common point - NO INTERNATIONAL NEWS. C'mon they are kidding. This also covers the sports, no cricket, no EPL, no bowling, no nothing. All you have is MLB, NFL, NBA & the likes. Please! give me a break.

Having received my first pay check here, I was really astonished by the way my account was processed & opened with no extra efforts. That's one great news for me, since I'm living on travellers cheques (not checks) till now. I havent known sth like this in India, since I know my bank account-opening form was submitted on 13 Oct 2003 & account finally opened on 22 Oct 2003. I can see a variety of people around, as though all striving for a common cause, maybe thats why its called the United States,though the states dont seem as united as they should be. hmmm, lemme see what I can learn from here.... :) Keeping fingers crossed.

PM's son trial

I love this to be heard, son of a PM to be put on trial in that country. This was one news I have ever wanted to hear from the political arena. Okay it can be prejudice, just again a way set to soar up popularity charts. Anyways this is the kind of JUSTICE that I can think of, leaving alone the acquittal of the person from the charges unless the person is really innocent. If thats implemented in India I really love the way how the sucking kith n kin of political assholes will be screwed n sued, FUCKERS.

six flags

Had been to six flags for the first weekend at LA, this place was real nice to have spine chilling rides, that too operating till 2000 hours unlike India, where the time is usually aroung 1800 hours. This was the best place I've ever seen as far as theme parks are concerned. Well, I was there on my company's account, & the best part was yet to come. The dinner sucked however.

There was one person named ERIC who was the event organizer while at the dinner & he was really blasting. Well I guess people in LA as far as I've met are really helpful, smiling & wishing as you see one, maybe I'm yet to date with the bullies to change that opinion. I would prefer not to. Shall soon upload photos to my YAHOO.

1st week at work

The first week at work at LA, UBOC is a good thing that I can think of, people at work are really helpful, friendly & polite. This I didnt expect from the client. Starting from the account manager of my company, one jovial, friendly man who is always at his high spirits doing things, to the project manager of UBOC who told situation is under control & is in your hands, all were really nice to me, or do I feel so due to the change in environment.

The workplace should be easily a 100 sqft cube dedicated exclusively for me, a 2000 running terminal (okay thats the basic), admin access to my machine, 24X7 internet, floppy, CD & USB accesses were things that I didnt experience at offshore. So I'm just loving it.

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD.

virgin flight

Started to LAX on sunday night, 21 August 2005, by Singapore Airlines. Being my virgin flight I was quite concerned about the jet lag, however I was able to beat it without concerns & much efforts by simply watching movies while on the flight all day long & all night long :)

The worst part of the travel was 16 hours travel between SIN & LAX & even more worse was the transit of 10 hours at SIN. This sucked since I didnt know that there was a free city ride for transit passengers :(

At least while returning I should go for that & watch out the city for its mixed culture & passion for BUSINESS, obsession indeed should I say.

Well landing at LAX was the best thing as personnel cleared the customs & I-94 set to the maximum possible date. Coming out the taxi guy didnt want a tip from me since this was first time US for me. What to say, way to go to the Hilton at Montebello. Reaching this place was really easier for me to do since the freeways were really free to check in the hotel at the least possible time. Happy night to get to work on Tuesday, without jetlag, of course.

kaanamal ponavar patriya arivippu

The person featured in this photo is missing from Chennai, India, from the night of August 21, 2005. If found anywhere please email nganapathysubramaniam@gmail.com immediately.
Just Kidding, this is the first snap on my webcam before leaving home :'(

brakes

Heck I didnt get my tickets for 2oth night to LA & got through only for 21st, which is Sunday. I shall reach LA only on 22nd, Monday evening 5. Thats one business day lost. Also I've got a break journey at Singapore for about 10 hours. I dont know what kind of impact will this make. But it seems my luck is such that I will make it to work on the very next day of travel, like it happened with Kolkata.

SUCCESS IS COUNTED SWEETEST...

First time in my history & geography, I'm leaving my home land as a whole & going to LA, at least for the next 3 months, that too with someone else's money :) However, the moment I heard the client has confirmed my trip to his place, it was a dream come true, for all those 22 months I've been waiting for something like this, challenging work, new ambience & total irresponsibility at residence (mind it, its not HOME). Few of the expected did happen last year when I was in Kolkata for the transition of my previous project to Chennai, but now I believe the time has come to prove who I am with my acumen & talents. Having promotions set to come round the corner this is one GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY I shouldn't miss.

Now its ENDRENDRUM PUNNAGAI time, except for the fact that I shall not be seeing my folks :(

phone bills

I have an airtel mobile phone connection for which I was paying a decent monthly amount that I thought was reasonable. But for the past 2 months the tax rates are so high that it forms almost 20% of the total bill or 25% of the charge on usage. SHIT.

This month there was yet another bomb in the bill, the corporate plan I'm currently subscribed to, has risen to 125 bucks instead of 100 bucks, that too with no prior notice. This not only increases the uasge charges but also the fucking taxes I pay along with that. I just cant imagine paying a fifth of the bill as tax. C'mon this is totally unjustified :@

commercial bloopers

Of late the commercials have no real sense & relation to what they are promoting. Ad agencies & their hirers dont think about this I suppose. For example the stayfree secure ad sucks, a lady asking for more of things since she gets the nappies at a cheaper cost, can I ask her why she doesnt bleed a year's quota in just 3 continuous days? ;)

Airtel BLUEBERRY is yet another blooper where the stupid people try to figure out where the competitor is sitting rather than how he wins the deals.

Without any relation to the newspaper/mag dhinamani campaigned a "SUNDAY-NA RENDU" ad. At first shot I thought it was a condom commercial.

Why the hell are mothers of Arjun's classmates bothered about his mother when they want to know what makes Arjun that competetive? This is the Arokya milk blooper.

The recent tiger biscuit commercial sucks while the very first one was really great, bearing something like EAT HEALTHY THINK BETTER in the jingle.

I just cant stand the stupidity of not just the agencies that create such bloopers, but also those of the brands that approve such bloopers :(

brains without ....

Its always beauty without brains or brains without beauty, this deadly combo rarely occur in the same person. After all the media hypes & failure on herself to put a decent fight Sania, I thought she was tits without guts. But now I think she has started silencing her critics including myself :P She has found herself a spot in the top 50 tennis divas. She is the second INDIAN after ramesh krishnan to do so, I heard. She is also a probable of acquiring a spot in top 30 :D

Well if things go well for INDIA I'm sure happy, but when people make it to sports for the sake of utter marketing, its mere stupidity. Hopefully she should prove she is worth the media hype & tits with guts ;)

While time passed by :D

Whiling away time when still awaiting the client interview is one endurance test, having submitted my resume to the local managers last week itself I just can't hold when the client will intimate me, whether I'm hit or miss.
This time I eventually dropped by gradschools & mapquest. Decent sites that feature the status of univs at USA & their location respectively. I had a good time with them, locating univs in the maps & trying out their various statuses in various regards. Another related site to the maps & location is google maps, this was pretty nice & this introduced me to Google Earth, but the 200 megs doesnt allow me to download @ home & the office web policy doesnt at the workplace. SO unable to try my hands on that, however I'll do that one day for sure. Another best stuff was finding out the address of a person in USA given his/her phone number, this was one amazing stuff I didnt expect from Google ;)

Thiruvasagam

Selective verses picked from Maanickavaasagar's THIRUVAASAGAM by Ilaiyaraaja & fixed to his tunes with the help of Budapest Symphony Orchestra is really nice to listen, soothing enough, but I just cant accept it as the maestro's masterpiece. The verses have been mixed with English which makes it sound like SUNDAY MASS CHOIR, not to offend anyone. For that matter some tracks sound like movie tracks. I can understand the maestro's love for classical western music but I cant imagine that to be tailored to TAMIL verses which are of course devotional. The use of symphony in movie HEY RAAM was of more utility in bringing the right effect than the usage in this, I suppose. Or is it the hype created during the release ceremony that has brought the feeling of disappointment in me with this.

Bottomline is: Thiruvasagam by Ilayaraaja is good to listen but not a masterpiece, of course not offending any.

Release

At last the day has come for me to cherish after a long time in my career. After having served JPMC for 21 months its now time to move on to another account & I think it should be the one I was thinking of, decent technologies & onsite opportunities :)

My career looked deserted as if going to the ruins since I joined chase account on 12 December 2003. since then i had been working on almost everything except .NET, though i had one PoC in .net & MCAD certification following it.

I shall be meeting other project & account managers for my next assignment I suppose.

use time

making best use of time, that too when there one in ample is difficult & to accomplish I always resort to the internet. first go: HSW. trying to know how disc & drum brakes work was my first concern ;) of the day & then I saw this link in HSW home page for body building. it referred to askmen. second shot: the corporate firewall & web policies restricting the site under the category society & life styles allowed only 60 minutes of viewing during the 0900-1800 time slot. I made the maximum of it - 60 minutes ;)

all i saw was only body building stuff & healthy eating, though many referred to the American living. never mind. I was brooding the site for almost an hour never minding the time flying by. it didnt look like an hour, realised only after the firewall blocked me from further access to the site :(

it was really nice to know facts on how to build & work out better from askmen :) it also included dating tips ;) :P it was only after an hour i looked into the braking issue.

unconnected

Whats software development without the internet???

Its one pointless argument that due to security reasons the developers are not connected to the internet, when everything one can do across the firewall is sniffed & privacy violated to all extents. when this has happened there is no sanctity in saying "DUE TO SECURITY REASONS" as an established reason to be disconnected from the internet. people from onsite pity those at offshore saying "WHAT dont you have your comp connected to the internet & so cant search the online MSDN for that latest fix" or "so you cannot download that latest plug-in, but the client requires that, so get it somehow"

this is crap when you talk of coding without internet, it has become not just a part of life but a necessity. when these great people will understand this? no idea when we will be connected for permanent.

blogging GOOGLE

This one site I've always been obsessed with, since I started using it is GOOGLE, and more gr8 was their blog site. These guys @ google are really amazing, they have found something that even they havent known to exist that there are books that teach on how to google into anything & everything. the blogsite is one that's again plethora of information.

GUYS!! I ENVY U.

Terrorism

when world leaders condemn terrorist attacks on london & WTC why not they do the same to Kashmir. they take stringent efforts in eliminating terror outfits just to prove that they can and preach non-violence to the other developing nations. why doesnt usa & uk ask pakistan to stop terror attacks in kashmir? why doesnt usa & uk care for the arms race by north korea? why doesnt usa & uk ask the israelis to stop killing of palestines? why doesnt usa & uk stop the colombian drug peddling? why doesnt usa & uk stop the poverty & ignorance of the africans? when they have got hell lot to do that what they are doing now & not doing the same why the hell do they promise themselves as saviour of the earth?

shoot u

it has been my long term wish to purchase a camera, i was 12 i guess when the wish first struck me. at a marriage reception a relative of mine was shooting with an imported camera & when i asked him to have my hands on that for sometime, he resisted, causing ignominy. this inculcated the feeling to own a camera, not just a camera but fully loaded one. i mean not the film or the memory but the features.

just on 16th july 2005, my b'day, i purchased a sony handycam with 1 meg resolution & memory device as DVD ;) best i can get for 42 grands at the sony world outlet for that price. im quite happy at my accomplishment since its my wish come true after more than a decade. now i can proudly say to all those kith n kin, PISS OFF BLUE :D

worked out

After having worked out for over a month, i feel my body is toned, better & healthier. YES my weight proves that, I have reduced 3 kilos with not much diet restriction. also does the waist size. but the other stat namely the stomach maximum size has increased :(

also the others like wrists, forearms, etc have reduced creating more concerns :(

ravikrishna

having a filthy rich dad will never be as exciting as it is for ravikrishna, the crazy bugger has done 3 of 4 movies under his father's own production, 2 of which are now in production in parallel. the worst thing: this crap was appearing almost daily in the magazines. the asshole cant act, dance, no nothing, but he has about to complete 4 movies. SHIT

LUCKY ASS

beauties cant emote

its has been my long time complaint that beauties of today cant emote when they enter the movie land, mainly because fashion models & miss. XYZ now in showbiz are rated on their vital stats & appeals, but not their acting capabilities. trisha, katrina, sushmita, koena etc etc & the list goes on never emote, shit but they get filthy money just for their sensuous exposures. madhuri was one best i can ever think of. even rai cant emote as good as madhuri, okay she best of the worst.

Learn@Work

People will learn while at work, but I learnt things while at the sem finals ;)

Cramming for the DAA course of the Ist Sem, I didnt understand much of the algos; if not for the graphs which I was asked to draw at the exam, I would have been ignorant of the algos still. Just a glance at the algos from Cormen, and trying to understand the graph and solving it, solution was arrived in a jiffy, except for the drawing graphs using MS Word. :D

kadavul paadhi mirugam paadhi

mocking @ anniyan, it was total slapstick show by nandu, imitating the 3 personalities of vikram in the movie as nandu, vandu & chendu.

providing solutions to cure MPD of the host the doc (nasser in the movie) suggests marriage will move out chendu and for vandu the whole tamil cinema has to turn logical. the host marks the movie as masala, the first to mention the same in any tv reviews abt the movie. also there was a spl mention of the movies raam & kaadhal stating vandu the devil didnt have much when reviewing those movies since they were a class apart from the other non-sense. this was really gr8 remark by the host.

Release

Atlast discussions are on about my release from the project I'm currently working on, but at the same time I've other great opps ready in other accounts. I reported this to my APM, though the person thoroughly ignores the fact once the opp is lost its gone forever. They want me sitting idle till the end of next week, but do not want me to be mapped to the other account. Assholes

On the other hand they say that another big AD is coming to the same account I'm in now, for which the RFP reached the clients hardly a week back. I'm reserved for that. I guess people forgot the maxim, A BIRD IN HAND IS WORTH TWO IN A BUSH. :(

How to Name It

Composed by the maestro, after listening to the tracks I just cant stand the plight when comparing it to the film tracks, the evergreen ones he has delivered all through these years, rathere decades. How come a single person can make such a difference in music. This is purely innovation, creativity & of course classical western tracks including Mozart & Beethoven. BUt who has the inherent capacity to churn out such evergreens. None in India, and as for my knowledge the WORLD currently existing.

Anyways, He is not just a maestro but a LEGEND.

Choosing a Ford

Ford India portal is one among the best Ive ever seen across as for motor companies, having the necessary details which actually accrue the cost of the car. Add & remove features for the cars available and check out the correct price of the car, with ofcourse the regn, taxes & insurance not covered. TataMotors did give some good details but not as exhaustive as the Ford :)

CopyCats

Long since I started listening to ARR tracks Ii knew they were flicked from some foreign tracks, but didnt knwo where until I saw ITWOFS, more than ARR, there are other artists from India who have copied from various other sources to get to their credits. It was shocking to find that Ilayaraaja copied from some HINDI track the devar magan track inji-ipdupazaghi, but it was so much processed that it didnt resemble the original, this was told by kamalhassan himself in one of the interviews. Anyways when copies exist, why not piracy

CET is to stay this year

at last the the final chord has been struck & there will be CET for this academic year, coming as a relief to parents & studs. there will be some intelligence involved in the studs taking up professional courses this year. but the scene can continue next year since there will be the general elections for the state assembly, & jaya wouldnt dare bear the people's wrath.

Why this nonsense???

Why does Ambi find it hard to stop the moped at such slow speeds? pull the clutch or bruise the legs to stop the moped.

Instead of pleading with motorists Ambi could very well called an ambulance to save the life of the old man.

How come when personlity changes, the hair style & dress too change?

How come REMO is a hit as soon he is introduced?

How come anniyan escape from the indoor stadium even after all exits are closed & gaurded?

why vivek & prakash raj disguise during investigations? its only a sniffer dog that can find the convict whoz around, not policemen.

how come anniyan makes it back & forth Villupuram & thiruvaiyaaru without none noticing him?

how come personalities come & go in a jiffy?

how come 2 personalities co-exist in the climax?

how come anniyan defeats all in the martial arts stadium?

why does anniyan let down the female when suddenly Ambi returns??

Earth Movers or Monster Trucks

Yesterday my urge to get a monster truck or a earth mover perhaps for the usual commuting. this was due to the corrupt police to whom I had to bribe 50 bucks for no error of mine. the fat bastard was standing unnoticed at the center of the road, a bus & a car was encapsulating him, it was a place such that vehicles moving ahead near the median have to stop to allow unlawful U-turns, which I thought was the case. But it wasnt & he stopped me crossing his red. the bastard didnt even have the signal torch, but i had to comply & pleaded myself not guilty, with no hopes left i had to bribe him to start home :(

if only i had a monster truck or earth mover, i ll know where the fat bastards stand & even if not crush them with my new vehicle ;)

Traffic snarls

CCTP is making almost daily traffic regualtions to decongest the city roads, but are they really useful & efficient?

Nope. For example, the Madhya Kailash signal was a supposedly free left while from TIDEL, but its now working with a SIGNAL FOR TURNING LEFT, no right or straight allowed now. So for those turnign right towards Adyar from MK have to go till IIT-M & take the U-Turn, which congests the Sardar Patel Road, till the Kottur signal near the Cancer institute.

Another one is the synchronized signals on Mount Road, these are worst in sync that you have to stop at all the signals. The signals had a timer which now dont work adding to the woes of commuters. When will CCTP look into this??

Anniyan Revisited

The movie is one sick flick one can ever watch. This is spicy masala with the story of Shankar's earlier flick Indian. More than that it resembles much of Matrix stunts & Sheldon's Tell Me Your Dreams. Shankar should have delivered a much better stuff. but alas its nth but a bag of crap with no logic.

Assignment as Exam

Taking the e-business course assignment like an online exam is quite an irony in my life. The reminisces of my college days tell me writing exams like assignments, happily discussing about the answers at the back of the invigilators without bearing the brunt of being caught in the highly risked manoeuvre :P

But then I ponder why the HOLYSHIT the faculty had this kind of an assignment? However, it was kind of a technical comprehension reminding my school days & the best English faculty I have ever met in my life, Mr. John B. Gerald shortly named JBJ, also standing for JonBonJovi ;) teaching us how to interepret & answer comprehensions. Anyways, WHATEVER TO BE DONE IS DONE. never mind the consequences :D

Go Back to the Early Man's

If I remember right, I read in my 9th grade science that when technology leads to hazards for mankind, it is not that we have to go back technologically, instead we have to impove it such that the hazards are reduced or removed.

The situation with the Common Entrance Test (TNPCEE) is similar to the above statement. When rural & economically backward students are unable to attend training sessions & coaching classes for the entrance test owing to the incurred costs, then the government has to make arrangements to provide the same at feasible costs or free. But it has gone to the extent of removing the test itself that atleast has a tinge of aptitude in it, so that the CBSE & ICSE students get a chance to stake their claims in TN engg colleges through the single window system. The ban on CET has given chances to mugger boxes from the state & other boards to move freely to the professional courses & ditch there & hance the country. One instance of the same is the number of candidates who flunk the 1st sem exams when all engg colleges in TN were affiliated to Anna (AU) instead of MU. When TNPCEE was the only hope of getting into professional courses in TN for CSE studs the government has denied their chances of doing so. also unlike gujrat the regulations on considering the marks & reservations for CBSE studs are not in place.

The govt has to answer the lives & careers of all those studs affected due to the stupid rule enforced.

A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE

This movie was hyped too much that it inculcated the feeling in me to watch it without leaving a bit, I rented this DVD & to my shock the movie ran for 5 hours approx without any stop, SHIT.

The movie mainly deals with adultery of the protagonist, Emma Harte, but the DVD caption says in the lines of men will find hard to forget & women will love it, fuck.

In my opinion nobody can forget this movie, come on, its 5 hours which makes you remember for a life time. Nothing is too good about this movie to be hyped. Emma Harte is one slag I can think of not as a tycoon built from bitterness of life.

Algorithms again

Havving said that I was Googling for materials on Design & Analysis of Algorithms inspite of companions Aho & Rivest nearby, I dropped by Rashid Bin Muhammad who had everything on the course syllabi, yes its not almost but everything. Having this aside I got hold of more resources provided as links & references by this person. This unknown person has done me tonnes of good unknowingly. Now, I'm ready to face the exam head-on.

Australia kissed soil

Bangladesh had made history having made Australia kiss the soil in recent ODI cricket match. When a cricket team of no great killer instincts & calibre can do this why not India??? Its mainly the attitude that makes it up, also ultimately Narain had circumspected to find that he has to hone his driving skills & cannot look forward for the next race everytime after losing. Failure is not an option & a "NO" cannot be taken as a answer to winning. Unless the requirements are clear the process will always be vague. The requirement to win & satiate one's ego shud never die down making one to be sqaured.

Algorithms

Its time tryst with the exams again, this time its the final exams of the 1st sem & I was as usual surfing for info opening the syllabus for first time after mid-sems. Looking into the design & analysis of algo syllabi I just got sued, I wasn't familiar with a word it read. Googling it I came across TopCoder. I didnt know the coding potential testing portal had algo tutorials too. It was really nice to see almost all of the syllabi (after mid-sem) was available in the tutorials section. After this I had another idea, why not take the challenge of improving my coding skills with what I learn, I didnt hav a nick of this notion. TopCoder blinded my ignorance of having 2 separate paths - learning & working. Now I'm awaiting an opportunity to put my skills into practice.

suicide

Whats the big deal in commiting suicide? as said in punnagai mannan its foolishness lasting for a moment.

successfully commiting suicide is a sign of cowardness, this is just escapism & not the solution, unless people realize this they cannot win the game of life.

euthanasia is not suicide but murder, so that has to be dealt in a different manner, this depends on the circumstances & of course requires courage to let it happen.

GYMMED

After a day of working out at gym (for the first time in my life), day before yesterday, I had no issues but a feel fresh physique, then the next day (yesterday) out of over-enthu I had increased the workouts indiscrimiantely that it lead to ultimate body pain, or agony indeed; I had stretched out too much that almost all parts of the body was oozing with pain. Today, I had to start with less intense stuff to help myself from getting injured & keep out of gym for the rest of my life. 2 days having done for 1.5 hrs, today I could manage only an hour, with the worthless status telecon hanging over my head like a sabre & my OC like fire downunder, waiting for the right time to crush me, I cannot afford more time for the worktime, nor my physique will today. But the pain is kind of less intense after the work out ;)

Soaps & Mega Serials

Day-after-Day the nonsense of soaps & megaserials is accruing, to exacerbate the scenario people at home who return from work tired watch that. To my dimay this happens at my home too, AMMA watches these crap even after repeated coaxing.

How come these programmes are stereotypical & monotonous? I really pity the citizens watching it, however its they who decide whether to watch or not? Its the former they opt 99.95%. I criticize & condemn the makers of the crap for hypnotizing the people to weave their thread of not magic but no logic. No idea when the society will refuse such crap. :(

data transfer

watched this stuff on BBC world & wow, the stuff they showed was what I planned & later ditched as my final sem BE project; the issue was transfer data using the power cables already existing in homes & get atleast 2 mbps speeds, it had the disadv of interfering with radio waves, and standards already exist to regulate the usage. that was 1 fascination since my engineering days. :D

just great

Narain washed out of the recent F1 GP again & Sania crashed out in first rnd, but still their media hype is ON.

Schumi atlast broke the curse that threatened to engulf him in the abyss of his career, Ferrari proves it again & Kimi broke Alonso's nose. Great day.

Self Respect

Whats self respect in the realm of politics?? That's one big Q put up for the great politicians of INDIA.

Some of the great examples from real life are: The current FM Mr. P Chidambaram, quit congress & joined TMC due to some internal conflicts, but when TMC president GK Moopanar expired TMC merged with Congress to gain political significance, of which Mr. PC was the harbinger.

When Advani resigned BJP on grounds of Jinnah, he was not convinced even by Vajpayee to decline the resignation offered, but again the NO SELF RESPECT asshole joined BJP a day later.

When taking polity as a career option YOU HAVE TO KEEP AWAY SELF RESPECT IN YOUR BANK LOCKER or sell it indeed. :(

double take

Of late, YAHOO! never lets to login to the mail at single shot, you always make it twice even though u punch the correct id & pwd, is yahoo in some sorta beta testing???

its almost a month since i noticed this crap creeping in. whatever its irking when you take a double take.

Startegy

Staying awake late nights to complete the assignment was about to happen as a DejaVu again for the second paper's assignment. Started with the analysis of what I should do on Monday, I had to waste away the time on Friday, Saturday & Sunday for personal excuses. On analysis I knew I'm about to flunk on this, since I knew nothing about analysing classes for deciding their responsibilities, which will help one in determining the design pattern best fit to it. This started with surfing the net for materials on deciding on design patterns since I had the gang of four book with me, but to vain.

KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT WISDOM IS UNWORTHY

Failure is not an option, my OC was screwing me for the test logs & testing, had no time at home to do the assignment. But then, light at the end of the tunnel, I managed to make time yesterday to complete the assignment at work place itself, during lunch. Atlast I've done what I can do best. Submitted the assignment before time.

Rain Rain Go Away

Its 2145 hrs & Im still in conversation with my OC regd the test cases & lotus notes API troubleshooting, then I said Im calling it a day & started from the 4th floor, reaching the ground level I found it was raining heavily & I cant ride my obsessive PULSAR tonight, SHIT

2200 hours & the rains were giving no hopes of quitting, so by 2215 took the company cab & started home, hardly 2 kms from TCO I saw the rain had quit, SHIT again. Since then till Mylapore there were no rains. Well atleast it all started again after Luz where the rain gods were more severe. Finally made it home by 2300 hrs without my obsession, SHIT.

The 13th Warrior

The movie is one real good epic, though it didnt fare quite good in the box office. But the movie name is a misnomer, Antonio Banderas is the 13th warrior but doesnt do significant role, its the Northmen head Buliwyf who does it all, the makers could have named it "The 13 Warriors".

But the movie is one good time pass & the battles with cannibals is pretty seen than said. ;)

no more entrance tests

Oh god, cbse students cant claim their stake at TN engineering college from this year onwards since the entrance tests have been abolished, this makes way to the mugger heads to compete for the best engineering courses & turn out dumbasses after the 4/5 year course. this is ultimately the doomsday for the nation & best day for AMMA on her political lineage, gathering support of the mass STATE BOARD wards & their parents.

Where is the country leading to?? Someone out there hearing file a PIL/stay against this at the SUPREME COURT.

the difference

When Spaniard NADAL can win 24 matches in a row, winning on his debut grand slam appearance, our great Sania flunk in the first round. This is what the media hype has created the buzz around the girl, making Indians expect more than what she is & what she does.

Narain always looks forward for the next race in F1 after losing one. He hasnt still managed to appear on the podium. SHIT

The BITCH

This bitch named TRISHA, a jezebel, has no sex appeal to appear in item numbers, no attributes of an actor, emotion-less, unable to dance, no nothing. But she is the queen of hearts of many Chennai youth & worst she is ex-miss CHENNAI, shame on the jury which selected her.

btw wat quality does ravikrishna have, dumb-ass, just coz is father is a filthy producer, he's an actor now. SHIT.

Kill the dogs out there!!!

ALL ACCESS

Watching the program ALL ACCESS on Vh1, I recently saw EMINEM's biography by Vh1. Oh GOD I really wonder why life was all that rude to him. No proper parental care, leading to the smash hit "Cleanin out my closet". Why not?? Life was also rude to Jim Carrey till he became a hit with The Mask, but atleast his parent's weren't rude to him, I guess. Life is always not the same for all. Its nice on 1 side & the other side of the coin has it all. okay i'm not taking philosophy classes.

0115

Its 0115 hours & I'm still awake tryin 2 finish my tech comm business report which has to be submitted today. Its been a real long time since I was awake till such long hours tryin 2 figure out critical things. even the crowd at Satyam cineplex has left, I can watch thru my window. Yeah!! And for the sake of it I just completed it. 2 more such assignments to go in the next 2 weeks. Man, its a dog's life. Even while I code I move around a lot, unlike now where I sat frozen blinking at the screen typing my things. got a stiff neck & back pain.

Recruiting

Whats the sudden spurt in recruiting??

CTS recruits almost everyday to reconcile the attrition (504 in 1 day! SHIT), ACCENTURE to widen the base almost every fortnight, a separate event @ B'lore & 1 at the metros. Oracle now & then conducting walk-ins, verizon being monthly hiring, etc etc...

Seems things are on the move for the young engineers of today, but how bright is their future, they land up in some job or another, but never settle for a CAREER :(

blogged

Oh well its been a month since I started blogging daily, April it was almost daily coz I missed out a day of bloggin. I took this as a policy issue to blog daily & make it habitual to incur my wrath on my ambience. But the worst is that I havent received any comments unlike most other blogs. Never mind I do this job for my own self respect & satiate my ego. Nothing more ;)

MCSD screwed

I screwed up the MCSD paper for the third time in a row. Fuck!

I scored 568 outta 1000, not even able to reach the paltry 1000. Well I am supposed to get 36Qs in 150 minutes, but the test engine contrary to its promises offered only 30 Qs in 120 minutes. Okay I took this risk under the hope that atleast I've got one more shot free of cost from the fucker Gates. I dunno whether I can make it, or is it that MS knows I cant be MCSD till I complete 5 years as an IT pro & hence screweing me on purpose. Whatever I have wasted another 2.5 grands betting on the fucker.

Cram

Just cramming the notes I prepared while taking on the 2710 course & 70-300 dumps to give my third attempt at the exam. Already flunk twice, but this time I'm quite confident coz Ive done the right things at the right time. Hoping to fly out as MCSD.NET certified :)

home loan hecks

Felt cheated by SCB when I received the letter from them stating that my home loan rate has been increased & hence the tenure appended by 3 more months. When asked why, I got a reply stating that during the past 2 years after the disbursal of the loan the market rates dipped but my interest rate was compatible to them, hence it wasnt decreased, but now since the rates have increased the SCB cant suffer losses & it has raised my interest rate too. this means I was fooled by the SCB authorities, I was having a seemingly variable rate which never varied in the past 2 years. When the rates dip, bank wont consider decreasing the rate & hence gourmandize the profits, when the rate rise, the bank will tax that on the customer so that it wont incur the loss. Fuck the banking system. Final thought is that I decided to balance transfer the loan amount to a cheaper rate & better deal.

Le Royal Meridien

Been to the Le Royal Meridien 5* hotel @ chennai, near Kathipara junction for the gr8 team lunch. Well its pretty expensive for a buffet costing 500 bucks. Never mind its the corporate whoz gonna pay for it & its for 10 of us in here ;)

Okay so what was worth 500 bucks is nothing, there was no bloody proper main course & it was only the side-dishes that was in plethora for single main item on the menu. it was again pulao that was the main dish :(

Things were quite controversial to their temperaments. Desserts pissed off, the 5 flavors of ice creams available were hot & fluid. the naans were cold & hard to tear even with 2 hands. :( Yuck, Savera was a much better place for a cheaper cost.

believe in the future

In my opinion the star wars & harry potter craze is a big SHIT. When these movies totally rely on miasma of not so believable fiction, TERMINATOR & MATRIX rule my heart. With the recent developments on even having brain downloads by 2050, the fears of matrix & terminators might become true in due course.

media hypes prove futile

Hyderabadi girl Sania loses to Gisela of Argentina ranked somewhere in 30 is one news that didn't surprise me. Well I was wondering when the media & people stop hyping her of her worthless talent. C'mon enough of cribbing over her entry into 3rd rounnd of grandslam. It's been a long time since she proved worth. The court might be a possible cause of the misery, but one can't blame it for full.

One another piece of media shit is Narain who regularly loses chances, however I will really appreciate his optimism for looking forward to the next GP always. This optimism paves his way to hell, bastard he has done nothing but waste INDIAN F1 enthusiasts time. Nothing more. Budding motorists, Karun & Ibrahim might have their chances to prove, I'm sincerely awaiting them.

Now its Ganguly & Sachim taking time off the field while the tri-series @ SriLanka goes on. This can easily keep the doyens off blames of losing in cricket. Then why the hell don't they retire, giving way to juniors.

i PLAY

After almost 8 years I have played carom & chess y’day. The issue is that it’s was not just evanescent, but it was for 3 long hours which flew by like seconds. I played the good ol’ game of CHESS with my bro. He was real brains, but I managed to draw the game. The game lasted for more than 75 minutes. Then next came carom, I teamed with my mom & my bro with pops. We won the game 4-2. Time didn’t permit further. Bro had to prepare for JEE & mom, dinner. I myself was amidst busy schedule between project & studies. So where the time crept in for the play, one never knows. Never bothering to look the clock we continued till it hit us we had spent 3 hours in the process. Well even today morning we managed to play 4 games carom, with the same teams & we won again with 3-0. hehehe. Never knew I had so much abilities. ;)

mid sem Grades

Oh crap!!!

What where when how....

Really dont know what went wrong, where it went wrong when it went wrong & how it went wrong, I scored a paltry grade of B & C in TC & OOAD resp. in my mid sem. that piece of shit called assignment has taken its toll on my life in the first semester.

back2back

Oh BOY, its been a long time since I ve watched 3 movies back to back.

Being sunday, started late in the morning & did my chores, was right on target @ 1100 hrs for Scorpion King on Vijay TV & saw the masala in TAMIL. Next by 1300 hrs it was SNATCH on DVD, though wazsnt a slapstick it was a good entertainer. Just as it was over switched to ASIANET for manichitrathazu, mallu original of Chandramukhi. the cast & their performance was far much better than the tamil counterparts. No idea why the movie was a blunder in tamil.

No read coz its sunday ;) :D

Filthy Money

Fabulous Life programme on MJ, the KING of POP, by Vh1 was a great feast to the eyes & turns one green for the money the simian has got & spends.

Shit he shops like a kid, buying almost everything seen. This also featured in STAR WORLD once, while exploring his NEVERLANDS. This simian I guess for popularity sake bribes people for accusing him of child abuse charges & seemingly settle them out of court.

Owning the royalty for all the BEATLES tracks he makes filthy money. SHIT.

And his BAD, THRILLER & OFF THE WALL fetched him the bucks to buy the royalty & the fame to shoot to the stars.

COMPARE INDIA

Price comparisons of products on sale in INDIA is one big task since the demand & the expectations are contrary to each other.

After googling with the key phrases - india price compare - I just hit the result with compareindia site, which was HEAVEN contrary to what I thought (after visiting a few others while R&D-ing on electronic good prices). This was the site I spent more time after microsoft's.

Searching for reviews, prices & product comparisons for everything from cameras to cars I am now delighted to have made some great research on products accompanied by reviews on products, models & the brands. This really caters my temperament. The filtering of produts while selecting the features too is great, saving time, unike the time it takes to filter after all criteria is provided & the submit is hit. Should obviously revisit this.

India plans IT staff registry

India plans IT staff registry

What the F**K is the govt upto??? Next time you go to the loo the PM will find you panting in there.. there are watching you buying your secret PLAYBOY, the thing you work on, the paycheck you receive & what else not??? CRAP

I AM SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY VOICE FOR MY RIGHTS TO PRIVACY.

Its pirated now.

Inquisitive

I really wonder at times my OC, how come he is able to track 3^rd party tools to get the work done easily. Or is it the enterprise wide practice to stick to certain tools that will be used for common purposes. For example, using the PDF converter from SOURFORGE is one. One more to cite is the file uploader DLL used in ASP. For that my OC discovered, as I would put it, VS Flex grid, Right Fax, Ascent Capture, etc, to make codes simple & use OOP to the radicals ;) At the same time his competency is so much that he handles almost all modules of my project though there are other OCs who look into it in full.

Okay am I flattering or vicarious?

Music on Media

What are the Fm channels upto??

Only shit like tracks played on almost all FM channels in Chennai. People seem to have the taste so. Only freq to play English tracks daily is 107.1, but that happens to be dependent on the RJ, who sucks. The rest play usually crap Tamil music. There is no decent music to be played. I will have to stream them myself to enjoy at home. Also in Chennai, Channel [V] & MTV dont show up due to CAS & on Vh1 usually good tracks play occasionally. Im tired of scorning everything around me. SHIT !!

I have discovered the demon in me.

Deccan Chronicle

The new news daily promises English to the poor, but the news, sorry the crap, that appears on the daily sucks, literally.

The commercials promoting the daily turn up on TV & radio with no justice to the content on the daily. The daily deals only with sex & glamour, nothing else. The rest always appear on the local tamil dailies. Maybe the only reason to buy one will be to learn ENGLISH, that too with the lustful pics put nearby for the real poor :P

ADMK wins bypolls

ADMK won the Gummidipoondi & Kancheepuram elections admist great high tension political drama by DMK. Watching the crap called SUN NEWS @ 2000 hours 1 would normally feel that ADMK can go any far to win the elections, by bribing the voters, MPs & MLAs not related to the constituency staying to canvas people in the constituency & their subsequent arrests, etc etc. The hype created by SUN TV was so much that ADMK was the mother of all WORST POLITY. But I cannot comment on the SUN TV nemesis JAYA TV since I didnt watch that. But again I'm afraid even that will be on similar grounds of political vendetta. Ultimately by HOOK OR CROOK ADMK has won the elections making DMK hit the floor for petty reasons. Okay neither is going to prove good for the state.

Are we yet to react??

The recent militant attacks at Srinagar for 2 consecutive days, very next to the decisions on the bus services from Lahore to Amritsar hasn't evoked proper response from the Indian top brass. They should have retaliated with NO PROGRESS WITHOUT PEACE which the previous BJP government did. No idea if these top brass are upto to sell Indian citizens to Pakistan & USA.

Self replicating robots

Oh shit, finally the dreams of matrix & terminator are turning into nightmares with the guys from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, creating miniature robots that just replicate themselves & nothing else. REUTERS has propagated this. Maybe sometime in the future they do more tghan just replicating themselves. As a matter of fact this evolution cannot be stopped but can be contained, on purpose for the sake of mankind.

PC strikes again

The financial minister has struck again & bearing the brunt is, the salaried middle class, again. Having made online tax payments tangible he substantiates it by making lesser tax evasion. Okay fine, let me pay the taxes, but that deteriorates as security body guards for worthless politicians, their salary & other perks. If not this, then for Musharaff. Why not tax heavily the millionaires, billionaires & trillionaires out there? When Ambanis can buy a Bentley for 5 crores, they can shred some of their filth by paying the country.

Added to the misery is RBI asking for the credit card transaction details. This may look right for those involved in business, what about the salaried class again? I pay my taxes & why should I again show the government what I spend with the paltry remaining? NO WAY. I cant approve this DICTATOR principle by the FM, Mr. PC.

Friendship Ties to Death Trap

Indio-Pak relations are suppose to grow stronger with the decision arrived on having bus services between Lahore & Amritsar & so on. But these Indian delegates do not understand one thing - Pakis can always flush their terrorists against India through this bus service, those who crossed borders at the pitch black night can now conveniently use the bus :(. The delegates forgot one thing - the INDIAN soldiers who died for the sake of Kashmir & the worthless Parliament attck on Dec 13.

May be if the Dec 13 proved successful for the Pakis, INDIA would have been thrown into utter chaos, but some DEMOCRATIC government might have formed, in the right sense of DEMOCRACY. Piss these politicians.

heck named PROMOTION

Why the hell were people hardly an year experienced promoted???

Well I didnt expect one anyways since I knew it was injustice on my part to demand one now.. What the hell do I know about Process & Quality? The same back at those quacks promoted... Shit!!!

"... an ignorant or worse, half educated manager is an extremely dangerous beast. Give me a wounded tiger anyday ..." - by David Platt in his bookUnderstanding COM+

This is what the organization has created right now. When the account has performed well, people behind require benefits, but at the same time promotions cant be given away just for the sake of it. Its prejudice to the process. Whatever we are in the process of creating "EXTREMELY DANGEROUS BEASTS"

Peck on the Cheek

Kannathil Muthamittal is one of the films that I'm always passionate of since its release. The review of this movie by a Hollywood critic, that too comparing the movie with that of his native & setting a decent tone about the movie is quite pretty compromising his hypocrisy.

Its nice to see OUR movies hitting their silver screens & getting good critics from them.

to open source or not to open source??

its been around 20 months since I joined my first job & still sticking to it, & being MCAD.NET certified, my temperament is to work on core .NET projects & churn out the scum in me. but there should be the WORK to hang on. being on the open source platform right now, im equivocating open source & .NET. when will i get the resolution on this, GOD only knows.

hoping a decent future & career - GANA.

CIOL : Recruitment : Sun to double India workforce

CIOL : Recruitment : Sun to double India workforce

Now thats good news for Indians, & for the Indian markets too.

We wont pay much for the value addition since its open source & also this initiative focussing on the Indian markets cant be costly either.

Kudos to the Stanford guys!!!

ebay rules

EBAY rules man.

Cheapest range of MP3, USB drives with FM too available for costs less than 2 grands.

Even iPods are available for prices from 10 grands. This place is really cool & for that fact these goods are promised BRAND NEW. However I'm sceptical abt this... ;)

Only problem I faced is that its all in bidding & not buy immediately :(

Boycott Parliament

NDA has decided to boycott the parliament budget sessions. What's the use of they getting elected then?

What's more important is that the opposition criticize constructively the flaws of the ruling party & encourage the best done. Boycott won't prove a thing, if it were the TN house, then without the opposition the ruling party will pass all the necessary bills, be it good or bad for the people, since they are in majority. When Chidambaram does the same with his tax bills, many suffocating the common monetarily, the opposition shouldn't let something like this to happen. Instead of a boycott they shouldn't allow the bill been passed. When they boycott they need not get their pay checks. Why should they when they didn't turn to work???

Performance Clinic

Attended the Performance Clinic by Microsoft, an eye-opener to the performance tuning the .NET & SQL apps. The guys from Microsoft were really great, Ramkumar & Govind.

There was a decent general intro to the performance tuning & it went purely technical indeed, not worthy enough without trying ourselves....

But atleast they said it will be posted on the website tomorrow & the PPTs will be loaded with tons of info.... Phew its nice to work on .NET...

The Silence of the Lambs

One great movie I saw in the recent times. Though hard to believe things to be true, he movie is one real GOLD worth. The explicitness is simple apt for the movie. The storyline involving a psychopath cannibal helping catch another psychopath who is a transvestite is amazing. Also the conversations between Hannibal & Clarice are simply filled with substance like those between Oracle & Neo. A must watch for all those who love psychos & explicitness. ;)

Anniyan

Listened to the tracks of next BIG venture of SHANKAR & did expect a BLAST. This time he has teamed with HARRIS JAYARAJ instead of ARR, but the tracks have failed to ignite me. They are yet again crap like the movie tracks released recently. Dunno whether they would click.

Has he coped with the other aspects of the movie instead of the soundtracks. Another big blunder I could see is SADHA being the protagonist's X ;)

monster v/s naukri

Its been almost 4 years now since I registered with NAUKRI & MONSTER.

Since then I have received many updates from both, but I always thought MONSTER was better than NAUKRI. But last week my friend told me he got an offer from a leading MNC within 2 days of registering with NAUKRI. This provoked me & I re-registered with NAUKRI. On entering the home page I saw a list of IT & non-IT firms listed & those jobs that I didnt manage to find in MONSTER crept in. Just struck me, was it that NAUKRI is much better than MONSTER???

Judgement: I can't DECIDE!!! ;)

Will take more time depending on the response :D

MSN Hotmail - Inbox

MSN Hotmail - Inbox

The seemingly SELF APPOINTED EMPEROR OF THE WORLD Bush's mail box in hotmail. unfortunately he is using the mail service created by an INDIAN & not AMERICAN, though of course its now owned by one. ;) Just KIDDING

CIOL : News : US should remove visa limits: Gates

CIOL : News : US should remove visa limits: Gates

The article explains why US companies outsource their software processes or require foreign mostly Indian manpower aboard for the same. This has again proved USA is poor not-self-sufficient.

Gates may want foreign citizens to work for USA & Microsoft, & get the crap he did by non-US people for a price. This is where I like piracy working hell for him. This is very much similar to what British did to India & other colonies. They export from their colonies cheap raw materials to Britain & import to the colonies finished products at a much higher cost for the values addition in Britain. This is what Gates does in plain.

This also proves that average American works less for more money compared to a BRIGHT INDIAN. If not for the monetary benefits of software professionals, cant India produce quality software of their own & export to stupid Americans :P

Promotion Blues

Well its end April & after having a nice APPRAISAL, I wasn't expecting a promotion owing to modesty. Just a week back I read in the magazine that those who want to play Mr.NICEGUY need not get what they want to in their career owing to their modesty/decency & silence. Having read this it struck me, did I make a mistake by not negotiating a PROMOTION? ON second thoughts, I didn't estimate myself to have the required attributes of the higher grade since I had much to learn. But now all the dreams turned into nightmares & nightmares to reality. My colleagues who joined with me are promoted, also those who had their appraisal wrecked were promoted. This imbibed the feeling of GUILT in me, on third thoughts I should have asked for a promotion.Now its too late & I cant negotiate for an immediate one :(

Heck now I should wait till the next cycle.

Jo..Jo..Jothika

I heard that Jothika’s acting was more than just living the character in Chandramukhi, but after watching the climax (which was rather anticlimax); she was both paranoid & bearing split-personality. She acted as though she was paranoid, ghost affected & split. Yuck! That was horrible. Wondering how the movie makes move. The director has been childish in showing Jo’s ghostly scenes. At the same time the movie deals with the psychiatrist turned ghost-buster. That’s another shit.