A Retarded Prodigy speaks out

2007-01-10T23:20:00.000-05:00

The Original Cuppycake Video

sweetie!! this one's for you ...

testing google videos

2007-01-05T12:34:00.000-05:00


Just a funny incident off the cricket field. I just can't get the right adjective to describe this ...

12 Indians days of christmas ...

2006-12-13T22:03:00.000-05:00

Ok I know, it may get boring to the weak-minded towards the end. But kudos for the effort yo!

Seasons Greetings and don't forget ... Jesus Christ came for a reason! And the reason is you.

(& thanks to my cousin for showing me the video)

David Crowder's Undignified is now an action song!!

2006-09-23T17:33:00.000-04:00

Undignified

David danced a fool (2 Sam 6:14) and so does this guy.

At least he tried ...

2006-07-23T23:04:00.000-04:00


hmm ... reminds me of me ...

Now do you get it?

2006-06-27T17:15:00.000-04:00

People often ask me why is it that I act way lesser than my age ... but still maintain a professional job ... here is why!!

Ad gone mad

2006-06-09T21:52:00.000-04:00

Have you seen the Rentway ad recently?
So there are a bunch of these Rentway dudes who are helping these crazy smiling people in a neighborhood move in to their homes. So these guys are movers and packers okay ... so the music playing is "We are family" ... now agreed the music is a little catchy ... but c'mon does everyone have to smile and dance or shake their butts like that ... they looked so dorky ... now forget that ... here's the main part ... these 2 Rentway dudes are hauling a biggggg plasma screen TV into the house ... problem is they are dancing and shaking their butts too while carrying the TV ... you can see the whole TV shaking with their movements ... now who in their right mind would call the Rentway guys to move their costly stuff?!?

Here's another crazy one ... Seen the ads for Tom Tom GPS guide?
This driver is lost or is getting lost ... and he keeps referring to the passenger as "Scott Scott" or "Doug Doug" to guide him through a better way ... how is it funny? I don't get it ... sometimes ads are supposed to be funny or even silly-funny or even goofy ... all that I get ... but this "Doug-Doug, where's the next exit?" "Doug-Doug, which turn do I take?" ... Seriously it makes me conclude in my mind never to ever buy this TomTom GPS Navigation thingy

Seriously yo! ... what is happening to these Advertising executives out there ... are they drunk even during the weekdays at work?!?

Sad to note the stupid beer ads are getting better or funnier ...

My 26th birthday

2006-05-23T15:37:00.000-04:00

Wow! May 20th, 2006 ... one of the few days I'd never forget!

So let's see ... started at midnight with a few calls from friends. Then I got a call at 3 in the morning ... it was a friend of mine from NJ! Anyways then at 5, the *eena's call ... I don't pick up ... they call again at 6 ... I don't take it either ... then they tried again at 7 ... now 7 AM is a good time ... so I answered!! Then at 9 I get a call from India too ... from my favorite cousin ... then Mom & Dad call later ... and then some more through the day ...

Krissy & Shaimon drove down from DC to buy a big truck ... if only they had allowed me to drive that big truck I would have been so happy ... it was my b'day, shouldn't it be understood that birthday boys can drive anything!?! Anyways ... they took me to Olive Garden for lunch ... where I feasted on Shrimp Primavera ... good stuff! I need to learn to cook Shrimp dishes now

Then went to the Foster's ... this is where the fun began ...
- Filled water balloons for a long time ... got all drenched doing it
- Played some kind of dodge-ball except with a tennis ball ... realised in less than a minute of running that I'm not fit ... in a life-and-death situation I'd be running for only 2-3 minutes MAX!
- Then played SPUD (I think that's how it's spelt) ... Maddie has an aiming problem
- Had a water balloon fight ... except at the end (I don't know how but) it became a water-bucket fight ... Maddie tried to dunk me with a bucket of water ... I pushed the bucket back at her ... it hit her hand ... she says ouch! ... big brother that I am, I go to say sorry ... SPLASH! I get dunked ... then someone else came from the side and poured another bucket even before the first one emptied completely ... then came even another later!! ... thankfully that was the end of it all
- Everyone seemed to enjoy the trampoline so much ... not me ... I never even got on it
- There was chicken grilling on the side ... so that smell kept my spirits up too
- Had dinner ... just one chicken-breast piece for me
- Then the gifts ... I have never got so many gifts in my life ... really useful gifts too ... I got
* a toy NERF gun (they know I hate my boss at work ... so this is payback time)
* got an RC car ... cool looking Mercedes one (need to get batteries today!)
* got a chain-puzzle thing ... no idea what I'm supposed to do with it though (have to read the instructions)
* GI Joe card with sticker
* a card I had to lick
* more funny cards ... out of all 7 cards, only 1 of them was a serious one!
* Aaron Shust's "Anything Worth Saying" CD (my Richtown homies think they are going to get copies of this CD ... YOU WISH!!)
* Pack of pens from Beth ... Why? I always ask her for a pen when I need to write checks at church ... looks like she doesn't like to share her things ... I'm still going to ask her for her pens!
* Hair removal cream ... they think I have too much hair!
* Raspberry anti-perspirant and deodarant ... they think my masculine perfumes stink
* Pack of pink disposable Ladies Gillette Razors ... in case the hair removal cream does not work well
* Barbie toothbrush ... they thought I had a Ken toothbrush already and so assumed this one would sit well next to it
* A nice t-shirt
* A box of brownies
* A bottle of Sparkling Cider
* Da Vinci code breaker book ... have to see the movie first!
- After the gifts, we did some dancing ... i think it's called the Civil War dance ... used to look funny on Pride & Prejudice ... but pretty simple now that I learnt a bit of it ... but a lot of round-and-round could make me go dizzy!
- Then we lit a huge bonfire ... sat in front of that ... others sang some songs ... I remember it had the word "pickles" in it .. don't remember anything else!
- And finally the best part ... made S'MORES ... actually made just one ... but wow! that was good ... the fire was just too hot (DUH!) to make any more
- Laid on the grass ... saw the stars ... talked about movies mostly animated movies ... ranked them ... gossiped about the neighbors ...
... then we left!

Next day in church ... I said the following stupid things publicly in church:
- used the word ... "Santa-Clausey"
- "Men and women have similar lives, but women complain more" ... they didn't believe me
- proved to everyone that I'm still single ... 'cos the Bible says marriages have problems too!
- Called the McKinney family the "McKenzie"s in front of everyone
... in spite of all this I hope they at least got the geist of the matter that I was trying to tell them during the sermon.

(copied from my xanga ...)

Funny videos

2006-05-02T15:48:00.000-04:00

Did you know that the state of Manipur in India has a baseball team?!? Yeah baseball!! How and when did this sport reach there ... I cannot even guess
Watch them ... and assuming that you didn't watch that whole thing, I leave you with the funniest photo booth ever!
I think sometimes we wish technology was this smart ... sorry about the last part, I didn't know how to cut it out!!
I'm looking for more ...

brain drain

2006-05-01T15:52:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a while since I updated ...
But I just haven't thought of anything intuitive or collective enough to put in a blog ... give me some more time ...

Don't just assume your manager is SMARTER than you

2006-03-31T20:39:00.000-05:00

Tuesday at work ... I was told that some stuff that I was supposed to get done by the 15th now has to be done by the 4th!! Talk about planning ... To think that the management people are the ones making so much money when the basic glue of an enterprise called "communication" is so bad. And how do I exact my revenge? Simple I bill more hours to the project , they pay for my overtime ... I get more $$$ ... I put more of that money into my summer plans

So my manager has been going through a tough couple of weeks with his mom back in Canada getting a heart-attack ... he's been out for 2 weeks now. So my manager's manager has been observing my workload & my issues. And when I tell him that I have only 5 days to complete something that initially we thought had 20 days he does the inevitable ... He assigns me 4 (not one or two or three but four!) off-shore designers and developers from WIPRO sitting in Bangalore, India. Was I supposed to say "Thank You" or #%$!*&^%$#

Since Wednesday I've been talking to these guys at 8 in the morning, 'cos that seems to be the only sane time to set up conference calls with our "team-mates" on the other side of the world. I've been sending e-mails every now & then clearing their questions and doubts. I am more or less repeating my whole problem in little bits & pieces to these folks, who are actually supposed to be reducing my workload by helping me. I have got so less of my own work done, that I have to go tomorrow and do some work on my own alone.

Seriously ... I don't mind companies acting cheap and outsourcing or off-shoring all this work. But do it properly!! Have them come out here first and see how it is expected to be done and then let them go back & do it. They make stupid decisions to save money, then they have communication problems with deadlines, then they think they are helping me out by assigning more ignorant team members ... and to still think these managers are getting paid more! Where is the justice?!?

Having said all this, me like a good boy will keep quiet and still get the work done for them by 4th as promised.

Missing quote

2006-03-13T18:08:00.000-05:00

Sometimes even little things can seem funny ... like for example >>

What did I learn?

2006-03-05T20:52:00.000-05:00

Few days ago I had to go to a Driver Improvement Program 'cos of a speeding ticket I got in November. The class was on a Saturday and it went from 8:30 to 4:30!!

The interesting thins I learnt ...

- Accidents are the 2nd biggest cause of deaths among the 15-25 folks
- Kids below the age of 11-12 have not developed peripheral vision ... that is why they cannot observe cars moving around in the neighborhood ... that is why we should drive slow (I don't believe the medical fact though ... I'll do some tests and let you know if it's true)
- The headrest on your car seat is not a headrest but a head-restraint!! It's designed to protect you from a whiplash .... and so the head-restraint is supposed to be in contact with the middle portion of the back of your head (Any other location could get you hurt)
- Rubbernecking is the 3rd biggest cause of accidents ... Yeah! it was surprising to me too ... (I don't slow down ... but if you're one of those jerks take pictures of accidents on your camera phone ... next time I see you I will tail-gate you with my high-beam on for atleast 10 miles!! ... you sick jerk!)
- If you rear-end someone, it's not true that you will always be at fault no matter what ... if you have a strong case to convince to the cop/judge, you can have the matter resolved as "no party is at fault" or if you're lucky "the other part is at fault". So unless you were following too closely, you have a chance!
- Watch where you place your thumb when you grip the steering wheel. In case of a hard collision, when the air-bags on the steering wheel inflate immediately, if your thumb is in the way ... it will simply break. Yeah! it seems many a times medical personnel have had to attend to broken or bruised thumbs in accidents. So keep your thumb on the outside or along the circumference of the steering wheel

- ...

(I have a short memory ... so I will update this post as time goes by ... if I feel like it)

self-googled

2006-02-15T13:58:00.000-05:00

I was in one of those crazy moods as usual and I googled my own name and what did I find ...
- Found a bunch of no-gooders (university folks) who've copied my presentations on certain technical papers onto their own sites
- I share the same name with some Scottish singer
- My name was also the name of one the songs in an album called Over the Border, released in 1997
- Scariest thing I found is that there is someone with the exact name as mine who is in the Tsunami missing list of Thailand!! I'm not kidding ... go see it for yourself. Now that is scary, huh?

Outsourcing work ... Insourcing thendism

2006-02-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

The other day, I asked this South-Indian guy on our project-team if he wanted to join me in the cafeteria for lunch. He declined with a smile and said he brought "tiffin" with him. So I told him, not to bring lunch the next day, that way we could eat at the cafeteria. The reason I'm being persistent is the Capital One cafeteria is really good. They have italian, indian, chinese, american and so many different types of food. I've noticed the guy is pretty laid back and doesn't communicate much (or well) with the others in the team. I noticed he always goes and has his "tiffin" with his bunch of friends in other projects. He had declined many attempts by the project manager itself when the team was going out to lunch.

Yesterday I coughed up some courage and asked him why he wouldn't come to the cafeteria. That's when reality hit me hard. These guys are being brought by IBM-India or WIPRO-India over here on these L1-visas. They are doing all the work for cheap for the clients like Capital One. But they get paid $30 a day for their expenses. They are given an apartment & are provided transportation with some taxi-bus to & from work. These guys are all working here, but they have no money to go out & enjoy the American culture. They do not have a car as they do not need or have the money to buy one, neither do they know how long they will be working here. They sometimes work overtime, but do not get paid for it, as their team leads dont report the extra hours worked to the project management.

All these Indian companies send their IT management & marketing gurus here to show their high-class standards & products. They come here flaunting their international portfolio of success stories and varied expertise and descibe how they can help us with their low-cost high-value solutions. But once they leave, the resources (human workers) they send here are not all of the same class or atleast allowed to live in the same class.

If for example I do some work for $80/hour, Wipro/IBM probably tells the client that they would do the same work for $40/hour. But here's the sick part, the actual worker who flew in, is paid back home in India his normal (or slightly raised) salary in Rs. itself. He does not get the equivalent of the $40/hr in Rs. Why? Well these companies may claim that the rest is for expenses. But average cost of a human if you include rent, medical insurance, food, transportation is no way more than $2000 a month. That means deduct $13/hr for expenses and give the rest $27/hr to the worker in Rs. That implies that my shy South-Indian project partner should be making Rs.1,94,400 PER MONTH!! That's close to 2 lakhs!! Even if I were to be the devil's advocate & say that the company needs it's share of the profit, I cannot think of a big enough reason to justify paying the poor chap just Rs.50,000 PER MONTH back home.

That my dear friends is thendism!! We have outsourced our work but insourced THENDISM into this country.

Solution to bird-poop

2006-01-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

Bird droppings, and similar chemicals from the atmosphere all leach acids that can strip away wax and eventually eat into your car's paint. If left too long, they can cause damage that requires sanding and repainting the area to correct ... so please wash off bird droppings as soon as possible or ...

Solution to terrorism

2006-01-18T12:29:00.000-05:00

I always had faith in German engineering ...

Update

2006-01-13T09:53:00.000-05:00

I'm back

On vacation ...

2005-11-22T11:13:00.000-05:00

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
... and a Merry Christmas!!
... and a Happy New Year!!

Patience is a virtue!!

2005-11-14T12:58:00.000-05:00

Funny video

Result of a thendi complaint to my pizza store ...

2005-10-27T22:24:00.000-04:00

Dear Valued Papa John's Online Customer,

We have been trying to contact you via phone regarding your recent Online Order, however, we have been unable to reach you.

Unfortunately, we will be unable to process your order at this time. Please feel free to contact your local restaurant or call our Customer Service hotline at 1-877-547-7272 for further information.

Amount refunded to Credit Card: $19.79
Card: 4422
Reference #: 30

Sincerely,

Papa John's Online

... best part, I still got the pizza!

Is obesity a sin?

2005-10-24T00:30:00.000-04:00

Gluttony is a sin ... but what about obesity? Is it a mental problem or a physical problem ... I don't know ... but I leave you with a sign I saw before riding one of the nasty roller-coaster rides in an amusement park nearby

What kind of a teacher are you?

2005-10-19T22:27:00.000-04:00

If you were well-versed in something and had to explain this concept you so clearly know to some beginner or novice or let's say a really cute summer-intern ... how would you go about getting this task done?

Now I have noticed that some people proceed to sit down, take out a pen & paper and start to explain the whole thing, but at the end of the knowledge-transfer session all you can see is some meaningless half-drawn/incomplete diagrams drawn on the notepad and you have to rely on whatever your mentor blabbered in the last 200 seconds.

But then there are these other group of people who don't even bother taking this extra bit of trouble, and point you in the direction of other resources (books/documents/other persons) who could provide you all the information you need regarding the concept.

Then there is this other type of people who I feel are very rare to find. They would actually sit down & explain the concept very very slowly & clearly, but with the use of words and analogies more, they help drive the concept right into our brain with their patient & slow & relentless reptition of the basic steps in the concept.

So what type of a teacher am I? Well just today I realised I am a different kind ...
I would rather get a room with a whiteboard and atleast 3 different colours. I would proceed to explain the whole concept with a good diagram with the clear flows. I would use different examples on the same diagram, to show how the same concept would work under different scenarios. If I do it this way, I can have the person walk out of the room in less than 30 minutes, with a confident smile on his face and having helped him avoid reading the 50pg. document explaining the same thing.

Today when this guy walked out of my knowledge-transfer session ... he wouldn't stop thanking me for making it all so clear to him. I just felt a little bit proud of myself ... Hopefully at the end of this post ... you'll improve your teaching styles too!

Colored people?

2005-10-07T23:25:00.000-04:00

I've been busy ... and I still am! But here is a short & funny poem which made me laugh ... it is indeed funny. If my source is right, it was written by a black man.

Colored

When I born, I black.
When I grow up, I black.
When I go in sun, I black
When I cold, I black.
When I scared, I black.
When I sick, I black.
And when I die, I still black.

You white folks......
When you born, you pink.
When you grow up, you white.
When you go in sun, you red.
When you cold, you blue.
When you scared, you yellow.
When you sick, you green.
When you bruised, you purple.
And when you die, you gray.

So who you calling colored?

And no! I did not roll 10 feet away or something ... but atleast it was funny. Or can I call this one insightful?

A picture is mightier than the sword

2005-09-26T15:31:00.000-04:00

So we know that the pen is mightier than the sword, right? I say the camera (or rather a picture) is mightier than the pen itself! Now people would rather debate that expressing a train of thought in words is a more tougher yet beautiful thing to do than just takin a picture of the same. But I feel that a picture taken the right way and at the right moment is the most beautiful & precise way to describe the moment, the surrounding, the mood, so on ...

Here is why I say I stated such a meaningless bunch of words.
This blog has given me like 5 seconds of fun everyday. Don't spread it around too much, else it may become commercialized and then I would have to pay to see these same pictures that I now see for free (Yeah! yet another T's request).

Fountain of gold in wrong places

2005-09-17T09:49:00.000-04:00

Okay I have noticed that guys are the ones who usually have trouble controlling their bladder and end up having to pee in public spots, as they just couldn't hold it any longer. Why is it that girls have such great bladder control or retention power???

Given that fact, why then would a poor guy, who couldn't control his problem any longer have to pay a huge fine if caught? Have mercy on the poor soul, didn't he say he couldn't control it any longer?!? What would you do in that situation? Pee in your pants to avoid getting a ticket or just go behind a tree or a bush and bless that green thing with a nitrous shower?

I say if u just can't hold it any longer, firstly shake your legs vigorously (this tip you already know), secondly if the men's restroom is full & the ladies is not, go into the ladies ... but make sure you keep murmuring loudly "Excuse me ... very urgent ... no can hold ... no speak good English" ... don't stop murmuring (this way you'll drown out the screams and yells and complaints from the other ladies from inside your head), thirdly (if ladies restroom doesnt work) look for a huge bottle
and excuse yourself (dont make the mistake of taking a small one, if you had an urge for this long, your bladder isn't holding just 10 tablespoons of liquid gold!!), if you couldn't find a bottle then you do the inevitable of peeing outside under the open sky. Look for a tree (wide enough to conceal your crime) or a bush (high enough to conceal the little criminal).

Pictures are some of my friends (names withheld) who couldn't succeed with the first 3 ideas ... in fact they failed in their crime too ... they pick the skinniest tree or the sparsest bunch of trees

funny pics (part 2)

2005-09-15T13:24:00.000-04:00

Now you believe me when I say we were pretty crazy before entering six flags?

If it smells good, I thought it tastes good too!?!

My glasses look better on me!

I'm confused ... Is she flaunting the beauty of the saree or indicating that it is piece of trash? (Removed 'cos the magic word "PLEASE" was used)

TALK TO THE CHAPPAL!

funny pics (part 1)

2005-09-13T13:46:00.000-04:00

The excitement about Six Flags was so much, that we were going crazy in the parking lot itself! The white pieces of paper were the tickets ... surprisingly all 8 of them reached the front gate.

Even after Jerry finishes his food, he behaves like a thendi and oggles at other's food! A photo like this should put him at #1 spot.

This was supposed to be a normal pose. But just before the photo was clicked we thought of ...

would you like that in a tall, grande or venti?

2005-09-08T13:07:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from a Washington Post article

We begin today with a disturbing escalation in the trend of coffee retailers giving stupid names to cup sizes. As you know, this trend began several years ago when Starbucks (motto: "There's one opening right now in your basement") decided to call its cup sizes "Tall" (meaning "not tall," or "small"), "Grande" (meaning "medium") and "Venti" (meaning, for all we know, "weasel snot"). Unfortunately, we consumers, like moron sheep, started actually using these names. Why? If Starbucks decided to call its toilets "AquaSwooshies," would we go along with that? Yes! Baaa!

But it's getting worse. Recently, at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Death March, Mister Language Person noticed that a Starbucks competitor, Seattle's Best Coffee (which also uses "Tall" for small and "Grande" for medium) is calling its large cup size -- get ready -- "Grande Supremo." Yes. And, as Mister Language Person watched in horror, many customers -- seemingly intelligent, briefcase-toting adults -- actually used this term, as in, "I'll take a Grande Supremo."

Listen, people: You should never, ever have to utter the words "Grande Supremo" unless you are addressing a tribal warlord who is holding you captive and deciding whether to chop off your feet. Just say you want a large coffee, people. Because if we let the coffee people get away with this, they're not going to stop, and some day, just to get a lousy cup of coffee, you'll hear yourself saying, "I'll have a Mega Grandissimaximo Giganto de Humongo-Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong decaf." And then you will ask for the key to the AquaSwooshie.

U know James ... which James??

2005-09-07T10:33:00.000-04:00

Did u know that the book of James was one of the earliest of all the NT books?? wierd huh? earliest but positioned at the end of other books in the NT

I didnt know that James was written by the half-brother of Jesus, James and NOT the apostle James. Of course it couldn't have been the apostle James as he was martyred (Acts.12) earlier on. But all this time I thought it was the apostle that wrote the book as not much emphasis is given on the half-brother James.

So while I was clarifying these points to myself, I also found out that there were 4 James in the NT!! Yeah 4! (Hint: Acts 1:13)

This book just continues to amaze me ...

my last weekend of august was ...

2005-09-01T19:51:00.000-04:00

"bomb-diggity"!!!!!!!!

Ofcourse the main event was the wedding. And that was a beautiful one. It had a very soothing effect on us, and a little too soothing effect on some even before it got over ...

Life in the motels of the East coast weren't so bad either ... sharing the same bed, was not that easy when everyone snores!!

Our main source of entertainment was the West Coast hippie and his "moves" ...

Ofcourse the road trip was awesome too. We had energetic back-seat drivers at all times. As you can see ...

some of them had wierd sleeping positions too!?!

We even had time to go shopping!

Anyways I didn't take much pictures on my phone-camera ... but all in all it was an absolutely truly immensely awesome time we had and now I miss Portland even more.

Hand of a dog ...

2005-08-24T09:10:00.000-04:00

If you're a soccer fan, you surely must have heard of the '86 World Cup when the great Argentinian player Maradona knocked out England in the quarter-finals with a controversial goal called the "hand of god" goal.

"Maradona said that the disparity in size between himself and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton meant he was never going to head the ball as it was played into the area. The Argentinian maestro scored the goal by punching the ball into the net during a jump as Shilton leapt into the air towards the ball."

The referee didn't see it, many did. There was a lot of confusion. But the goal was ofcourse granted as the ref's didn't see him use his hand. So some dumb jerk decided to call it the "hand of god" ... which I rather prefer to call the "hand of a dog"

Why? 'Cos Maradona basked in the spotlight generated from all this "hand of god" hype & never admitted to actually punching the ball in.

But finally ... a few days back he admitted!! Yeah, the dog admitted that he punched the ball in. Here's what he said "I don't for a second regret scoring that goal with my hand"

Thendi alert!!

2005-08-23T15:54:00.000-04:00

Offer valid in Canada too for all you fat bacon-loving Canadians!! (jk)

... if you're worried about your weight, then make the drink a Diet Coke :p & mail me the chips :P

In just 20 minutes ...

2005-08-18T15:46:00.000-04:00

P.S. Ashish, don't worry this isn't the one we discussed about making earlier. We'll do that later on.

Indian thendis were there too ...

2005-08-17T11:55:00.000-04:00

"... thousands showed up at the Richmond International Raceway to purchase $50 used laptops (i-Books). The Henrico County school system was selling 1,000 of the 4-year-old Apple iBooks to county residents."

Wow!! Now isn't tat a great deal? But how far would you go to get yourself one??

Okay ... so people found out about it and there were more than 5000 people at the grounds. Some of them camping from 3 AM.

But some dumb official sees the crowd and decides to prepone the 9AM opening time to 7AM. What happens next??

"Mothers clutched their children for protection, people screamed as they were knocked to the ground, a stroller was demolished, cars inched through the crowd."

"In the crush, people were trampled on, a chair was thrown, an elderly man was pushed to the ground, a baby's buggy was crushed and one desperate buyer tried to drive his car through the crowd."

It was shocking to read some of the accounts from people. Here at work, I even heard one of the Indian guy give his first-hand experience. He backed out on seeing the crazy mob.

Anyways, now since I am in the Henrico county ... I am sure that atleast 30% of this county is filled with Indians. Now an Indian by his genetic nature is a THENDI! Yeah, I don't care if an elderly parent reads this or not ... but we are all THENDI's in nature. We look for the cheapest way to live our lives. I don't know if any other word summarizes this trait of ours ... if there is ... let me know & I'll use that word ...

Coming back to the point ... so after this happened I was poking around online for photos of this incident, just to see if there were Indians. And YES!! I found a picture ... and there were Indians in it.

Now this picture was clicked as soon as the gates opened. So the people you see are the first ones to get through out of the crowd of 5500 or so. So in other words this is where it all started! I circled the Indians in red. The people already on the ground, I circled in green.

How far do we go to get something that we so badly need?

Now that is one smart call-center operator!

2005-08-15T15:26:00.000-04:00

User: If you don't turn my cell phone back on today, I'll tell the families of my patients and their lawyers that you are responsible for the patient's death, because I couldn't be reached!

Call center operator: Sir, if you are expecting your patients to die, perhaps they should switch to a different physician...

(c)

Trivia time

2005-08-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

Did you know there is an airport which has a runway with a street/road running right across it?

Look closer ... there's something like a hockey ground & a stadium right next to the runway too!!

I wonder if the Pakistani terrorists know about this one?!?

Why Lord? Why?

2005-08-05T17:51:00.000-04:00

So I come to work on a beautiful Friday morning, looking forward to doing some good for my client and getting out of there for another great weekend. But right after I take like 10 steps away from my car towards the exit ... I see ...

I mean seriously!! If you drive a Lotus that can touch 60mph in nearly 4 secs why the hell do you bring it to work or even come to work in the first place!?!?! ... all of a sudden I lost the urge to work ...

God's view of the Portland team

2005-07-26T14:47:00.000-04:00

I don't remember the name which these guys gave to their b'ball team for the conference ... pretty sure it was a goofy dumb one ...

Anyways ... I was checking out maps.google.com & I saw this new "hybrid" feature they have. Check this out ...

Dang!! now you'll believe that it's true when people say Indians prefer staying closer to fellow Indians. The red crosses (except one) are homes of the portland team players. The blue one is a home which I miss a lot. The green one is the court where (the useless ptown team and) big bj learnt b'ball. Big bj is a "specialist 2-handed 3-pointer shooter" with a record 4-in-a-row 3-ptr shooting spree!

If I moved the map a bit more to the left, I would have got Aksa's & Shannon's homes too!! That would have made it 7 red crosses in one map :D

Still bored at work ... what do I do next? ...

My workplace is on the news!

2005-07-22T14:24:00.000-04:00

As you can see I'm so bored at work, I'm blogging within hours of putting up my last blog.

Anyways, I just saw that we came in the news. Here is the article in Information Week. We, as in all the people I work with in my building. We were some "pilot" project for some concept commonly known as "Future of Work (FoW)". The building I'm working in, has no traditional cubes/desks. So your next question would be, am I working at the hospital, airport, station etc. Nope! We are all a normal financial company. But the cool thing about FoW here is that, we are totally mobile. We have been given laptops (really good ones in fact) which already have WiFi in them. Our phones are VoIP, which means we can make any phone in the building, ours. How? We just key in our login, and automatically all calls/messages come to that phone. There are laptop ports all over the building in open desk environments (on a normal day), smaller enclosed environments (for quieter working times), enclosed rooms (in case you're going to be on the phone a lot), leather massage chairs (these massage chairs are from Sharper Image ... so yeah they are the in-thing), conference rooms, coffee lounges (for casual chats/meets), cafeterias, etc. Here's the best part, since the whole campus is enabled with WiFi, we can sit out on the grass/lawn and still continue working. They have this treehouse kinda porch outside too ... there's wireless even there!

In fact while I was typing this blog, my friend pointed to the window behind me. I turned around and see an ice-cream truck with people already waiting in line to get some ... so I'm going to go get myself some as soon as I finish the last point ...
UPDATE
(actually the line got really really long later ... should hav taken the pic then)

Yeah ... so we're the cool guys ... but just for a short period of time, though :( Microsoft is coming out with an even bigger wireless internet working campus than ours ... and they will once again own the world ... blah blah blah!!

BRAIN-FREEZE timeeeeeeeee

Golden words indeed!

2005-07-22T11:56:00.000-04:00

Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

P.S. To the anonymous person below, who called me stupid for trying to choke myself ... tell me ur name ... and im quite sure if i know u, i'll b able to say some of the stupid things u've done!

Is the periodic table next??

2005-07-20T14:01:00.000-04:00

So I never actually enjoyed the periodic table in Chem. class ... I was reading this article about some Stewart guy somewhere who has revised and put out a more modern periodic table which "American schools are placing orders daily for".

Then I realised ... isn't it true that ...
"after seeing the periodic table—it seemed to me an incredible achievement to have brought the whole, vast, and seemingly chaotic universe of chemistry to an all-embracing order" It's also said about Mendeleev ... "To have perceived an overall organization, a superarching principle uniting and relating all the elements, had a quality of the miraculous, of genius." (Mendeleev is the guy who made the periodic table, if you didn't know yet, DUH!!)
Oliver Sacks' following statement that hit me HARD was ... "And this gave me, for the first time, a sense of the transcendent power of the human mind, and the fact that it might be equipped to discover or decipher the deepest secrets of nature, to read the mind of God."

YIKES!! It's one thing to be in awe for the Creator our God who has once again proved to be the greatest Designer & Architect there is. But it's a totally shameful notion to think that if you dig deeper, research harder & fuse things together again & again ... you will finally have the whole list of elements that can be ever created in the world & then state that you have successfull "read the mind of God".

I titled this blog so, 'cos I hope no retard would think that the periodic table is another sign that there is a Great Designer behind the existence of everything around us and ask for it to be removed from the school curriculum!! This is the US, anything can happen :P ... JK

The choking game

2005-07-13T14:51:00.000-04:00

Many months ago ... I had gone for this Men's retreat with my church guys. I had the inevitable pleasure of having the company of the tall, not-so-dark & handsome Stanley a.k.a Jason & his redhead friend Jonathan. In fact not just their company, but the privilege to share the same room with them too! In fact Jonathan actually attended the India Full Gospel church Sunday meeting for like 30 minutes (with Jason & myself ofcourse):p

Anyways so Jason tells about this great choking game that Jon knows to do, that leaves a person in a state of trance for a few seconds. Jon (after some urging) decided to show us how it is done. He did this wierd stronghold on his own neck till he kinda passed out. He didn't actually pass out. He was more like brain-dead!! Yeah brain-dead ... he was just standing there smiling ... he was smiling when he was trying to "choke" himself ... so he just continued standing there with the same smile pasted on his face like a statue ... then he tipped over backwards and fell on the bed. He woke-up from him suspended state a few seconds after hitting the bed and was asking us what happened. He himself didn't know what happened after he tried to "choke" himself and how he ended up on the bed. Cool huh?!?

Then the two of us decide to join in on the trace ride ... So Jon does the game on Jason. Jason ended up just giving a dumb look on his face for the entire time he was in a trance. I frankly forgot how Jason's trance went exactly. Then came my turn. I remember looking at Jon's face as he was trying to do that wierd stronghold on my neck ... next thing I know I'm sitting with almost completely folded legs at the foot of the bed!! What happened?!? According to the high-schoolers, I stood only for a second or two ... then sat on the bed which was right behind me ... then I slid my butt from the bed down to the ground below & that's why I was in that position when I woke up. Wierd huh?!?

And just today, I read this article in CNN!! They try to explain it by saying ... the choking game involves "trying to cut off the oxygen supply to the brain to achieve a type of "high" ... "

So, it's a good thing I don't explain how it is done ...

My July 4th weekend ...

2005-07-05T19:45:00.000-04:00

Work has been so boring ... everyday I wish there is more to do. But then, finally July 4th weekend came up & I was all excited as I was going to see Niagara Falls!! Yipeee yeahhhh ... Actually I had seen the Canadian side like 15yrs ago, but I don't remember it that well. I'm an ADD victim too.

Anyways, as always I whip out my trusty little Sony Ericsson phone and take photos of things I find wierd or funny or sometime normal too.

So following are some of my observations this weekend.

#1: The No-good Truck (TNT) - Hummer
So here I am filling gas just before this big road trip. (Dang, gas is getting costlier nowadays, I shouldn't have bought a V6 sucker) So this lady drives out of the gas station in a H2 with the music blaring and with no regard to on-coming traffic and just barges into the traffic lanes. She made a Corolla almost veer off and hit another car. In my mind I'm like, I wish she learns a lesson somehow somewhere. And after what seemed like eternity, the $$ in the pump stopped counting, I bought a couple of pop cans, picked up already packed up bags from home and I took my gassed-up car down the same road. And VOILA!! what do I see in front of me ... a big traffic jam in the road leading to I-95. By the time I reach the accident site ... what do I see?

The stupid lady crashed into a Cement Mixing truck and her hummer was loaded on top a towing truck!! Check out her number plate ... TNT G&J ... ha ha ha!! Now everyone knows which of the two trucks was the TNT

#2 Uniform mix-up
So my friends and myself are driving north on our way to Niagara. Somewhere in the middle of upstate NY, we stop at a big rest area for our own little golden fountains :) and the usual grub too. As I was waiting near the McDonald's counter, lo & behold I see a kid working there wearing the Ben & Jerry's ice cream uniform.

Now if you're an ice cream fanatic like me, you cannot forget the frooty n bright uniform that Ben & Jerry's has. I wonder what would the McDonald's management do, if they came to know that their own employees were advertising for other companies?!?

#3 Niagara

Wow the falls are big! The view is better from the boat down below which takes you to the foot of the falls. But once your there, there is so much water spraying on you!! there was no way I was going to risk taking out my camera and taking a photo of the better view. So this is the best I could manage before going down onto the boats.

#4 Human assembly line
While waiting on the top to take the elevators for going down, I saw this down below.

What you see is a line of humans entering a tent, on the othe side of the tent when they come out they are all blue in color! DUH!! Yeah they get rain coats in the tent you see. And that's why they are all blue. But the way it looks from up there is so cool!

#5 Backseat company
Now we're on our way back to NJ and my 3 great friends who promised they would give company all the while to the end are ...

... sleeping. Yes, agreed it was kinda peace & quiet in the car when they were sleeping. Once they were up, it was like a bunch of 3 kids that just got some huge shot of sugar/glucose and wanted to let it out every few minutes.
P.S. The new 2005/6 Nissan Altima rocks!! The new headlights look better than the 2004 ones. By the way, didn't do any landscaping with this Altima ... There weren't any rosebushes around :P

#6 Indian groceries ... SUBZI MANDI
Ofcourse we've been to Indian grocery stores in NJ tons of times. But there is this one drink that I used to love back in India and that is LIMCAAAAAAAAAAA ... I am crazy about Limca. I just love that lemony taste it has. I miss those ads too "Limeny Lemony LImcaaaaaa".

If you look you can see the Mango juice in the cart too.

#7 Returning empty plates
Now, when I was growing up, I used to see my Mom & all our neighbors exchange dishes to & fro, not just for a few weeks but for all the years I've lived there!! Whenever someone would bring a dish full of something nice, it was considered mean or taboo to return the vessel/patram/dish/plate (call it whatever!!) empty back to them. Honestly, I don't understand what's wrong with doing that?!? Give it back empty and say the dish or curry was amazing and you liked it a lot. Tell them you will get them something next time you make something nice. Is it necessary to give something right away.

Anyways here are my 2 friends returning their neighbour's plate back, but with most of the awesome laddu's that we bought from SABZI MANDI just an hour earlier :( If only they could have just returned the plate alone :(

#8 Chicken fry

No better way to end the weekend but with spicy spicy chicken fry. YUMM!!

And that was my July 4th weekend.

Thendi Alert!!

2005-06-28T11:40:00.000-04:00

Okay ... so summer is in ... everyone's watching their diet ... so Quiznos Subs is a good place to eat ... honestly I like Baby Bob's TV ads too
Now it gets even better for all you thendi weight-watchers ... free chips n drink =)!!!

I took a life away ...

2005-06-27T16:00:00.000-04:00

So, on Sunday I was driving alone down this winding road. This place is got lots of trees, it's like driving through Germantown Rd back in Portland.

Anyways, so I see these bunch of pigeons, flying around and most of them strolling along a section of the road ahead of me. So I reduce speed and I'm like expecting all of them to start flying away. Just as expected, all of these bird-brains (pun intended!) now start hearing the noise of my V6 and start flying off to the sides and some lazy bums just start walking over to the side as fast as they can, as if their wings were only to be used for more threatening life-and-death situations!! Now I'm less than 5 yards away and I still see one pigeon walking. And I'm like "Start flying!" (Seriously I said that aloud) And before you know it, I was too close.

Next thing I know, it's disappeared somewhere under the right front of my car. But, I didn't hear a thud or a little bump from the front tire. So the lazy thing did escape!! Before I could finish my thought .... THUMP!! my rear tire completed the honors :(

I look in my rearview. And there it is, with some part of the wing broken upwards & pointing to the sky and the rest of it flat on the ground.

I'm an animal lover and I would never harm an animal or a bird or a fish. But this one was inevitable. Besides, I still wonder why it couldn't just FLY!! That's what birds do ... BIRDS FLY!! See what happens when they don't ?!?

Bye Bye Birdie ... hope you were single & didn't have a family or something.

Fine .... so the Pistons lost!!

2005-06-24T10:02:00.000-04:00

I couldn't sleep last night ... Manu's 3-pointer broke my heart ... but what the heck ... the best team won in the end ... but the Pistons are still the kings of basketball :p ...

"To say Detroit lost the title would be as foolish as it is misleading. The Pistons had it taken from them by the only team in the league worthy enough to wear their crown."

"Brown is the definition of what a coach should be, a teacher first, an example always. ... As the final buzzer sounded Thursday night, the first person Bowen sought out was Brown, a testament to what Brown has meant to the game for the last 33 years."

"Brown tried to console Billups when he got into the locker room. He walked into the training room, hugged the point guard he's pushed for two years, then walked back through the locker room toward his office with watery eyes."

Do you see what I'm talking about?!? This is still going to be my favorite team in the NBA.

Go Pistons!!

2005-06-21T23:57:00.000-04:00

For the third time, I repeat that the Pistons are the best NBA team ...

Now it doesn't matter even if they lose the last game. Like coach Larry said during one of TO's today "I love you guys" I guess being a fan of a "consistently inconsistent" team like the Indian cricket team, I have just grown to admire the Detroit Pistons.

Here they are coming from a heart-breaking loss at home, when everything was so close in the last game. Now they are far from home, with the crowds booing them as loudly as possible. Here they are under pressure to win or else go home. Here is a team that had "The parade is scheduled for Thursday" already written on the whiteboard in their locker room. Any normal human would crumble under so much expectation & pressure. It wasn't like one of the Pakistani cricket captains once said on live TV, it wasn't a "Do and Die" situation for them. (Yeah! Waqar Younis said this)

Anyways back to the point at hand, Pistons are a great team. And I hope they win the finals.

New solution to curb outsourcing!!

2005-06-15T10:20:00.000-04:00

Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

”When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, ‘think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.’ And now I tell my
children: ‘Finish your math homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don’t.’”

My dad

2005-06-11T18:25:00.000-04:00

My dad's picture came in the local newspaper, ofcourse it's not a big country, and so it's paper may not be a big deal to many .... but to me it's a BIG THING!!

He's in a group of other people, and the paper article aint for my Daddy alone ... but who cares he's being recognized for his 30yrs of loyalty and service for the same company!!

Seriously, my Dad is a lean-mean working machine. I got to admit seeing his arms I sometimes think he has more strength than me. Anyways that aint the point here, I don't see myself working for the same company for 30 yrs, even with the company not being the best behavior to my Dad.

I've never told my Dad about this blog site of mine (and I don't intend to) but I got to say, I'm inspired by his diligence at everything he does. He is so organized and cool about everything.

I know Father's Day is not yet come, but I got to admit in advance, he's my best buddy!!

Now I got to think of something good to buy for my Dad before 19th ....

Musical resume?!? ... What's that!!

2005-06-08T15:28:00.000-04:00

Okay ... believe it or not ... this guy posted his resume as a musical on the net and guess what ...
he really got hired by Microsoft graphics team!!

I heard he got offers from more than 180 other companies too.

Hats off to him ...

Go Pistons!!

2005-06-06T22:56:00.000-04:00

I said this before and I say this again ... Pistons will win the championship. They are just too good. It doesn't matter if the win was close or that they drawn few minutes before the end of the game. It was never 50-50!! Pistons always were in control.

I even said this when they played and won their very first playoff this year. You need a team like the Pistons which can improvise and change according to the situation.

All loose talk aside, Wayde!! he is amazingggg! I never even knew he existed till the playoffs started (ofcourse, I just got introduced to NBA 2 yrs ago). But Dwayne, I like that cool head on his shoulders. A few more dependent and/or improved players in his team (unlike the Jones kundis) and those guys could easily win the championships. But not this time!! HA HA HA HA HA ....

Ginobliiii .... his turn on the guillotine now. Duncan, I'm not even going to waste words for him. Parker, he better wipe tat smirk off ... no its not a smile.

Thought for the weekend

2005-06-04T16:24:00.000-04:00

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

Fellow brethren in trouble ...

2005-06-02T12:48:00.000-04:00

Eight Protestant Christians, including two Indians, have been arrested in Saudi Arabia, the Rome-based religious news agency Asianews has reported.

The Saudi religious police, the Muttawa, arrested an evangelical Christian from India who was in Saudi Arabia on a tourist visa and seized a Bible and addresses, which led to the arrest of seven other members of an evangelical Protestant group, the institute said on Wednesday.

Also arrested were Vijay Kumar, 45, from India, an immigrant worker in Saudi Arabia since 1994 whose apartment was used for Christian meetings, said the Asianews web site, which is run by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.

On April 23, the Muttawa arrested 40 Pakistani nationals for celebrating a Catholic mass in a private house.

All forms of non-Muslim worship are banned in Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam's holiest shrines.

At moments like this, I worry about all those families in Saudi Arabia that meet on Sunday evenings at different homes. They have to quietly sing from the hymnals and pray softly. The person speaking from the scriptures would have to also speak softly. All this to avoid the neighbors (if they were hardcore orthodox muslims) from calling the cops and thus getting caught.

Sometimes we get up on Sunday mornings and grumble about having to get ready for church. Sometimes we are enthusiastic about church but we take for granted the place of worship & the ease with which we spend our time around the altar. We also take for granted those trips from home to the church & back, while others take risks to reach the church on their way to & fro.

My sister and her family are settled in Dammam too, but even I forget the risks that they take to gather in homes & worship the Lord sometimes more than twice a week!!

Today I got reminded of the same and if you are reading this, I ask that you pray for all our brethren who have been caught in Saudi and all the others who have difficulties in going to church on Sundays.

Thendi Alert!!!

2005-06-02T00:23:00.000-04:00

The new look!

2005-06-01T00:06:00.000-04:00

Comments from others:
- Man, you are bold!
- Dude, are you nuts?
- Bobby, whyyyyyyyyyyy????
- Yo, someone in your family passed away?
- He he he he ... I can see your bump
- Hmmm ... your hair feels like a rug now
- You have a big head!
- Are you going to do this every few months?
- You're not going out with me anywhere!!
- This is a shock man ... I'm not sure how to react ... This is like a huge moment for me ... (Guess who reacted like this?)

Huh?!?

2005-05-26T12:23:00.000-04:00

This is how we recycle Pepsi bottles back home ...

2005-05-23T13:21:00.000-04:00

checking for air-bubbles after filling 'em up
filling gas into the bottles
Quality check time!!
Alarmed? Surprised? Disgusted?

On this day ...

2005-05-20T16:48:00.000-04:00

These 2 artists were born ...
CHER
BUSTA RHYMES

I'm not a fan of their music anyways!

Things which happened in history on this day ...
1498 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
1506 Christopher Columbus dies in poverty in Spain (ironic to the earlier one!!)
1948 1st use of Israeli Air Force & 1st war victory, defeating Syrian army (if you've read about this war story ... u'll agrre it's an awesome one)
1992 India launches its 1st satellite independently (this is my desi blood making me put this up!)

Regretfully these events are of no importance to me ...
May 20, 1980 710 families in Love Canal area (Niagara Falls NY) are evacuated
May 20, 1980 Drummer Peter Criss quits Kiss
May 20, 1980 Fire in nursing home in Kingston Jamaica, kills 157
May 20, 1980 In a referendum, 59.5% of Québec voters reject separatism
May 20, 1980 Peter Criss quits as drummer for the rock band Kiss

Wierd fact I found ...
Henry Seely White - Mathematician
Born: 20 May 1861 in Cazenovia, New York, USA
Died: 20 May 1943 in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA
White was an excellent research mathematician. He worked on invariant theory, the geometry of curves and surfaces, algebraic curves and twisted curves ... blah blah .. (i put this up 'cos I'm interested in curves too!!)

This is my testimony today ...

2005-05-20T04:10:00.000-04:00

Amazing love, how can it be
That You my king would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true
And It's my joy to honor You
In all I do ... I honor You

(No other words mean exactly what I wanted to say)

Ecclesiastes 3:11

2005-05-18T08:54:00.000-04:00

God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end

the next indian model from the west coast

2005-05-17T11:29:00.000-04:00

yeah ... critics say he can rock the show ... talented, witty, stand-up comedian, geek and nerd by profession ... and yet wit the pose & demeanour of an angel ...

i present to u ...

myself!!!

p.s. thnx for the photo lainie!
p.p.s. nymore of my fans out there wit such secretly taken pics ... plz return them to their rightful glory (me)

oregon schools dont allow hugging

2005-05-16T12:16:00.000-04:00

so if this FoxNews article is true, i cannot hug any of my oregon friends when playin football at the middle school grounds on the weekends even if we score a touchdown or catch an interception or watvr ... this is sad ... very sad :(

Kingdom of Heaven review ...

2005-05-16T08:37:00.000-04:00

This movie is boringggggggggggggggggg ... it's one of those typical Troy/LOTR kind of movies. Trust me if you do not really really like these kind of movies ... save yourself some $$ (yeah!! be a thendi)
Enjoy it on a DVD later on, you're not missing much. Oh yeah & Orlando Bloom isn't so great either, so girls you may shut your mouths & cut the drooling.

Anyways one of the real reasons I found this movie boring was, both my friend & I had a very heavy lunch just before the movie and we were too sleepy to concentrate on the slow & serious conversations in the beginning of the movie.

Now I gotta see Star Wars next! Thendi that I am, I have 2 free tickets, who wants to join?

One big happy family

2005-05-13T19:00:00.000-04:00

P.S. Check out the chicks!!

wierd 4-wheels

2005-05-10T22:53:00.000-04:00

wow!! i like this new camera thing in my phone ... pretty clear pictures
oh & by the way ... nyone know wat tis yellow-orange wierd thingy is?????
lol ... i didnt hav time to look at it clearly ...

Can you feel the movement?

2005-05-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

This video is about a preacher who has trouble controlling his farting on TV!! ...
I'm serious ... check it out
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/fp4.wmv
... it's so funny, I was rolling over more than 10 feet away from where I started seeing the video!

Tell me what u think ...

For my future wife ...

2005-05-04T23:29:00.000-04:00

(sing along ...)

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away

The other nite, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried.

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine....

If you're really enjoying this oldie then the rest of it is here

P.S. For some stupid reason tis song won't get out of my head since Monday!! So I figured I'll just share my burdens wit u all ...

2005-05-02T20:24:00.000-04:00

My future number plate ...

Divine intervention

2005-05-01T16:28:00.000-04:00

Honestly, I've used the word "conincidence" so many times!! I mean c'mon when you see something happen that was so identical in form or timing or purpose to another ... u tend to say "Wow!! What a conincidence!?!"

Today the same thing happened to me but I'd rather call it "divine intervention" or "divine occurence" ... (I like the first one better though)

Anyways I've been going around looking for a nice church here in Richmond, VA that suits me & my beliefs and the form of worship that I am more comfortable with. Finally today I found my church! And the best part is it's like 2 miles away from where I'm staying right now.

Oh! coming back to the reason I call this post ... divine intervention ... Anyways today I step into this church for their Sunday worship service for the first time and the only thought bouncing around my head a thousand times in a thousand different similar meanings is "Will this church be the one for me?" So after meeting people and telling them my name & ofcourse hearing like 30 names (none of which I remember now!!) I settle down and the service starts. Right then the worship leader started singing "Joyful, Joyful, We adore there"!!! If you're not surprised then you haven't read my past posts.

If you've been reading my posts earlier, I bought the passion CD and I did write about this song "Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee" I love that song and I keep singing it and even repeat playing it on the car stereo.

Just when I heard the first few words of the hymn, this great warmth settled down on me and I was like stuck to the place where I was. I never felt so calm and comfortable before. It really felt like this great & awesome being was working in such amazing ways and making sure things were working out for me. It felt great that some big powerful & dangerous being was actually sweetly & softly taking care of me!! It was wierd, but I felt like I have been taken care of.

Anyways I would not call the starting hymn today at church a coincidence. I'd rather call it divine intervention. I don't think the worship leader was aware of the hymn from Passion. He was not a young guy and he just picked up the songs that morning from the church hymnal!!

Today ... my Lord spoke to me ... "Stop looking around and settle down in My house and help make the aroma from this altar you're at right now sweeter than it's been before".

Guess the place ...

2005-04-28T21:40:00.000-04:00

Guess what place this is ...

2005-04-28T21:39:00.000-04:00

it isn't some space or defence thing ...

2005-04-28T21:38:00.000-04:00

according to the mail sent to me from a friend it's ...

2005-04-28T21:37:00.000-04:00

Reliance Industries Ltd. (ya! ... an Indian company)

Mail from a frustrated chain-mail victim ...

2005-04-25T11:31:00.000-04:00

I wanted to thank all my friends and family who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003, 2004 & even 2005.

Because of your kindness:

* I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it's good for removing toilet stains.
* I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.
* I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.
* I don't leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and try to rob me.
* I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda, Singapore and
Tokyo.
* I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get sick from the rat faeces and urine.
* When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.
* I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Poor girl! she's been 7 since 1993...)
* I went bankrupt from bounced checks that I made expecting the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL were supposed to send me when I participated in their special e-mail program would arrive soon.
* My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.
* Still open to help some from Bulgaria who wants to use my account to transfer his uncle property of some hundred millions$.
* Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Dalai Lama Ganesh Vandana, Tirupathi Balaji pics etc.. now most of those "Wishes" are already married (to someone else)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you do not send this e-mail to at least 1760 people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will sh** on your head today at 6:30 p.m. Give me a break!!

modified logo ...

2005-04-23T20:43:00.000-04:00

so in the recent past i've been providing material for this new idea that my friends on the other side of the continent have come up with called www.dippu.com ... firstly it goes against my place of current stay and secondly i feel the logo should have been more like this ... but who cares! ... i'm IN!!

Go Rasheed ... Go Pistons!!

2005-04-23T17:19:00.000-04:00

Did you see Rasheed right from the start of the 3rd quarter ... like 7 pts in less than 2 pts ... then to make it even better 2 3-ptrs in a row ... more 3 ptrs later on down the game!!

Why didn't he play like this when he was with us?!?

Anyways, wonder if anyone saw the part where Iverson had an ice-pack pressed on to the left side of his head. I wish I could freeze the picture right there and post it here ... 'cos that's exactly what the Pistons are!! ... A Headache!!

From 16pts behind in the first quarter ... they come back with such form!! awesome talent!

The game's not over yet ... but I thought of posting it up anyways ...

2005-04-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

my sis shaved my niece's (nysa) head!! i don't know for wat!!

Passion CD!!

2005-04-22T15:46:00.000-04:00

So I went and bought the "Hymns Ancient & Modern" CD ... oh & I love it ... I love listening (and singing along when no one's around) to these old hymns with a modern musical base.

Here's one of my favorites ...

JOYFUL, JOYFUL, WE ADORE THEE

We sing in jubilation, adoration to a joyful King
You are spinning and You are singing
Zealous love over all Your children

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee
Opening to the sun above
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness
Drive the dark of doubt away
Giver of immortal gladness
Fill us with the light of day

All Thy works with joy surround Thee
Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays
Stars and angels sing around Thee
Center of unbroken praise
Field and forest, vale and mountain
Flowery meadow, flashing sea
Chanting bird and flowing fountain
Call us to rejoice in Thee

Mortals, join the mighty chorus
Which the morning stars began
Father love is reigning o’er us
Brother love binds man to man
Ever singing, march we onward
Victors in the midst of strife
Joyful music lifts us sunward
In the triumph song of life

I boldened the phrases I liked ...
Best part is that these CDs have complete digital files of lyrics & chords for avid musicians who want to play it themselves too!

The Notebook - sweet movie indeed

2005-04-20T21:28:00.000-04:00

So finally after having it for more than a week, I sat down n watched the movie ...

I was taken back ... this was a really nice movie!! It showed simple but true & undying & unfailing love. It was a sweet story. (girl's use this word a lot ... but this time sweet's a perfect fit)

I hope I fall in love like tat soon ...

Update:
Actually the movie was kinda like 50 First Dates ...

google telephony!!

2005-04-20T16:11:00.000-04:00

"First of all, Google has been noted to be purchasing large quantities of 'dark' fibre-optic capacity, on the cheap (much excess capacity was laid during those heady days of irrational exuberance) to increase its proprietary network bandwidth. To what end? Some of the most far-out rumours say that Google is developing a Skype-esque software that will allow high-quality voice communications over the Internet, costing virtually nothing to the consumer. If Google is making a play into the telecom arena, it would be a relatively late-comer in an arena that is widely populated.

Granted, having its own network capacity would allow the company to offer quality-of-service guarantees that some of its competitors could not, but there may be more here than meets the eye. Imagine for a moment what it might do with all those flashing bits lighting up its optical cables. What if the company recorded, and kept on its servers, a record of every telephone conversation ever made? (Ignore, for the nonce, the plethora of privacy concerns that jump out of the page). Now imagine it had technology that made those digitally-recorded voice calls completely searchable, as you would today search a past MSN Messenger conversation. What we're talking about here is the eventual creation of a perfect digital record of your entire memory, at your fingertips and searchable, all emblazoned with the Google logo and, certainly, some pertinent and unobtrusive advertisement. Scary? Maybe a little."

... more at http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050322.gtflgooglemar22/BNStory/Technology/

How indian am i?

2005-04-20T15:27:00.000-04:00

So i thought I could easily beat everyone at the How Indian Am I Quiz ... I answered everything honestly ... n i got a 60%!! I thought I was like 90% ... now I'm confused?!? ... i'm juz 60% desi!!

new old car!!

2005-04-18T10:48:00.000-04:00

finally ... i got myself 4 wheels!!

u won't believe the pain iv gone thru for years relying on public transport, rides & rental cars. Ofcourse the rental cars were fun (some of my PDX homies would amen that).

nyways tat aint the point right now, now me is happy cos me is got myself an old car tat runs!!

so the car is ...
a '98 Mazda 626 ... V6 engine (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....)
(some of u are already like bobby's driving style and a V6 ... tis aint gud! ... it's ok i drive more carefully nowadays)

it has a very clean interior ... a factory fitted CD player (didn't know they put them in cars in 98!!) ...
AC & heat wit this cool "SWING" feature in the vents ... if u turn SWING on the flaps in the vent start swinging from left to right & back ... kinda like spreading the air all throughout the car ... to me it's like a hidden camera scanning my car every 3 secs :D
CRUISE!! ... i drive almost 11 hours every weekend to New Jersey/New York & back ... you do not want to drive up & down I-95 without cruise
cost me less than $5000 ... so it makes my car the official THENDI SHUTTLE of the east coast (representin the West Coast Thendis)
came with a 3 month/3600 mile warranty ... so i can offroad this car ... break every breakable part in it & drive into the dealer & tell 'em "FIX IT!!"
GREEN color!! I hate green ... green is yuck! Green does not mean anything ... Green is ugly ... Green should not have been a color in the spectrum of light!! But I didn't have a choice anyways.

I can go on braggin abt tis old car ... but I better stop here ... or else God will make someone crash into my car while I leave it parked somewhere ... and I go back only to see a crumpled up Green metal box ... and I would have to go car-shopping again!!

So I will not get too attached to the car ... i'll just put in alloy wheels, xenon-headlights, tint the windows ... put in new speakers & subs ... ofcourse the amp, XM satellite radio and last but not the least GPS navigation!!

Anyways ... I'm just thankful that I got myself a car ... I can move around without asking for favors nymore ... (if u don't know me well ... i love helpin ... but i dont like askin for help)

Honest wives ... such a dreadful thing!!

2005-04-04T00:16:00.000-04:00

A man who was driving a car with his wife was stopped by a policeofficer. The following exchange took place.

The man says, "What's the problem, officer?"
Officer: "You were going at least 75 in a 55 zone."
Man: "No sir, I was going 65."
Wife: "Oh, Harry. You were going 80." (The man gave his wife a dirty look.)

Officer: "I'm also going to give you a ticket for your broken taillight. "
Man: "Broken taillight? I didn't know about a broken taillight!"
Wife: "Oh Harry, you've known about that taillight for weeks." (Theman gave his wife another dirty look.)

Officer: "I'm also going to give you a citation for not wearing yourseat belt."
Man: "Oh, I just took it off when you were walking up to the car."
Wife: "Oh Harry, you never wear your seat belt."
The man turned to his wife and yelled, "SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

The officer turned to the woman and asked, "M! a'am, does your husbandtalk to you this way all the time?"
The wife said, "No, only when he's drunk."

Why does it happen!?!

2005-03-27T23:37:00.000-05:00

"All men die, not all men really live." This phrase from Mel Gibson's Braveheart sent ripples of clarity into our culture. It was this theme that blazed the movie to receive such a large following. It strikes a longing of the heart.

I want to pick this up as my theme, though it is never a pleasant one. Sitting in a pool of ideas and allowing thoughts of death swirl in our minds moves us with discomfort and even resistance. It is unnerving. It is scary.

All men and women die. It is true. The death rate on planet earth is still one hundred percent. It may come in the infant's crib or it may come to the aged. It may strike the unsuspecting pedestrian or approach through disease. We all know in the back of our minds that death is inevitable. What we do not know is when and how.

The ancients were more acquainted with death than we are today. It was always around them in the brutalities of war abroad and in the domestic square. They did not cart their sick to the hospital or their old to the convalescent home. No, the sick, the fatally wounded, and the aged were in the home, and in the neighbor's home. When the final breath was taken, many witnessed the passing.

Because of this, they also had a keener awareness of death's approach. Throughout the Bible, death seems to be a lesser deal than many other things. It was far more important to be on the side of the Lord than it was to spare your life. Though death was undesirable, it was part of a bigger picture.Because of this, many knew that one of the goals in this life was to prepare for the next. To be holy, to walk blameless, and to leave a legacy for others to do the same, was not to leave a dazzling obituary. There was something more at stake, something more to be earned, and something more on which to live a life.

This antithesis leans hard against today's culture.

Today we drown out the fear of death with a mocking denial of it. John Bayly, who lost all his sons in his lifetime, says, "The sort of taboo Victorians placed on public discussion of sex has been transferred to death in our culture."(1) Not only do we sideline its ugliness to hospitals but we also simulate an artificial fear of it in our horror movies. After the movie is over, we walk back into our ordinary lives—something death really never permits. We see death so often on the silver screen and in the flashing television box that it has become trivial. If that isn't enough, many of our young people create a subculture of death, complete with skulls, dark clothes, and dark music, making the real point trivial. Some flirt with it in high-risk sports, feeling the thrill of brushing against a closer encounter with death. I wonder, though, how many of us sit in the pool of thoughts that life is frail and that our purposes here are bigger than skate-parks, cinemas, and adrenaline-surging sports.

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," said the Apostle (Phil 1:21 ESV). That sounds weird to our cultural ears. Yet he aligned the formula and set his face in the right direction. In the same passage he actually says that he would rather leave the body but knows it is better for others that he remain and tell the good news.

Without being pessimistic or gloomy, let us take seriously death today and set our purposes toward preparation. For many of us, this may be an excellent motivator. If your death were to happen soon, would you be ready? Would you be satisfied with your legacy? Would you be confident of the maturity of your soul? Would you be secure in the love of Christ, the only one who can take us beyond the grave? May these sober thoughts turn us diligently toward the Cross and refresh our commitments to follow hard after him who conquered death.

... these were the words of Dale Fincher (taken from RZIM)

Let us continue praying for those ones who lost their loved one! They need to see the love around them. Sometimes the painting is all ugly & cracked & torn from our side ... but from the other side, from the side which only the super-natural can understand, it's all right & perfectly according to plan. Wierd huh!?! but it's true ... let us continue to get refined & purer in this maturing oven of life ... peace out ... BJ

i take back my words ...

2005-03-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

many times i see people juz working & working & working ...

i've even said to many others that that ain't right and they need to focus more on their own lives and live their own life and not live for some other company & become their slave ...

BUT ... this last week i realised what the responibilities of work can make you!! if u make something ... u become the sole owner of that "thing" (which in my case is code!!) ... people using that code will call u ... they will call u or email u when they want to ... people who are monitoring the way code is being developed in the company will call you to give you their criticisms ... so now you have to call the people in other depts using your code and tell them "hold on!! 'cos i'm making changes to my "thing" ... use the new one when it's ready" ... then they tell you that they have to deliver their "thing" by some deadline and so since they are dependent on me ... i have to get my new "thing" ready for them well before their deadline ... and the cycle goes on & on ...

So you see ... all I was asked to do was make one thing ... but the chain-effect of the dependncies lying in this company is so loooooooooong ... it increases your work like ten-fold ... i'm almost ready to roll out the 17th!! version of my code in less than 10 working days ...

Now to make things worse ... I have to be done with my work by the 8th of April ... but inspite of me telling them a month ago that I will be going for a wedding in Yukon, OK around that time ... they somehow forgot ... so to cover up my team & i are working on finishing the work by the 5th/6th ... so that I can peacefully go on the 7th evening ...

So you work against time, people, policies ....
Working life ain't easy ... Oh! and one thing I learnt is that company policies are the stupidest policies in the world ... SCROLL DOWN & see the blog about the monkey experiment ... that is ACTUALLY true!!

All you people out there who work till late in the night or for like 15 hrs a day ... as long as you're NOT doin it for the $$$ (thendi by definition) but 'cos your job reposnibility requires it ... HATS OFF!! to u dude ... i totally understand how you feel :(

it's ok ... the people don't need to know

2005-03-08T12:42:00.000-05:00

i am not quite a big fan of tennis ... but i was noticing the fact that ...
cnn or foxnews has not printed out on one of their big links the fact that the American "dream team" lost to the Croatians in the just-finished Davis Cup and that too on home-soil!!
Of course it's a shameful fact that Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick & company lose to Croations to the Americans!! But I like the way the media decided to avoid mentioning it ...
Yeah and before someone says it ... they do have it on their website ... but only when you go look for it
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/tennis/03/06/davis.cup.sunday.ap/index.html

Juz felt like saying this ... that's all for now!!

hav u ever felt like this!?

2005-03-04T12:08:00.000-05:00

ok ... for the past few hours sitting in this boring cube ... iv been having this thought ...

I want to sit in this big pool of LEGO blocks & make something big like a city with all its intricate details right upto the white lines on the streets ... or a nuclear plant or a factory ... juz something big!!

Now is this a wierd feeling? Anyone ever felt like doing something like this before!?

back to the basics

2005-03-04T10:49:00.000-05:00

So we have all the major phone manufacturers out there trying to make their phones more n more cool wit more cool features ...

On the other end of the world, we have LG who decided to make a simple phone which weighs only 2.2 ounces!! How?? 'Cos it just has a 3-line display n the buttons u need to press!!

http://www.slashphone.com/89/761.html

By the way, it's CDMA technology ... so if it does come to the US ... only Verizon customers would be able to use it

Still ... this is truly going back to the basics!

how company policies r made ... tis is true

2005-03-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

A research team decided to study the behavior of primates. 8 monkeys were kept in a closed room which had a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling which could be just reached by climbing atop the chair inthe room.
However the researchers arranged for a setup wherein any attempt by a monkey to dislodge a banana would result in all 8 monkeys getting doused with icy cold water.
The experiment started. As expected a monkey scampered towards the chair and climbing it reached for the bananas.
Immediately all the monkeys in the room were showered with cold water and they screeched loudly.
This happened quite a few times before all the monkeys just sat motionless to avoid the drenching.
Then one of the original 8 monkeys was replaced by a new monkey. Not having been drenched before he confidently strode up to the chair and was about to climb it when the other 7 pounced on him and administered a sound thrashing.
Again the monkeys sat motionless... the newcomer had no clue as to why he was thrashed but figured it must be something he did.. Like reaching for the chair perhaps.
Another monkey was replaced; he too came in, made for the bananas and was beaten up. Soon all the monkeys were replaced, now if any monkey even moved from his place the others would pound him up.
None of the monkeys here knew why they were being beaten up or why they would beat up the others. However since the "precedent" had already been set they dared not question it or bother reasoning. They merely did what the others around them did believing that everyone was doing it so it must be correct to do so...............................

That's how company policies are made!

true love

2005-03-03T21:02:00.000-05:00

Alyssa ... "Why are we stopping?"
Holden ... "'Cause I can't take this."
Alyssa ... "Can't take what?"
Holden ... "I love you."
Alyssa ... "You...love me?"
Holden ... "I love you, and not, not in a friendly way although I think we're great friends, and not in a misplaced affection puppy-dog way, although I'm sure that's what you'll call it. I love you. Very, very simple, very truly.
You are the, the epitome of everything I have ever looked for in another human being. And I know that you think of me as just a friend and crossing that line is, is, is the furthest thing from an option you would ever consider but I had to say it. I just, I can't take this anymore, I can't stand next to you without wanting to hold you. I can't, I can't look into your eyes without feeling that, that longing you only read about in trashy romance novels. I can't talk to you without wanting to express my love for everything you are, .
But I had to say it. Because I've never felt this way before, and I, I don't care, I like who I am because of it. And if bringing this to light means we can't hang out anymore then that hurts me. But God, I just, I couldn't allow another day to go by without just getting it out there, regardless of the outcome. Which, by the look on your face, is to be the inevitable ... shoot-down. And, ya know, , I'll accept that.
But I know, I know that some part of you is hesitating for a moment. And if there's a moment of hesitation then that means you feel something too. And all I ask please is that you just, you just, not dismiss that. And try to dwell on it, for just, ten seconds. God. Alyssa, there isn't another soul on this planet who has ever made me half the person I am when I'm with you. And I would risk this friendship for the chance to take it to the next plateau because it is there between you and me. You can't deny that. Even if, ya know, even if we never talk again after tonight, please know that I am forever changed because of who you are and what you've meant to me. ..."

... was watchin Chasing Amy ... dang!! tat move is got the F word like a zillion times in it ... not a movie to watch ... but tis scene was SWEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTT!!! tis time i mean it to b really sweet sweet

thendi ... almost!!

2005-03-02T23:23:00.000-05:00

ok so after some nice mexican fajitas ... i go wit my friend to Walmart to get some groceries ... i on the other hand wanted a comforter as it's freezin cold in my room!! ...

so i look at all the colors they hav ... all the sizes ... then i see tat yellow walmart face stickin out of one whole type of comforters ... yeah n there was the navy blue color i wanted!! (does tis make me gay ... i pick matchin colors for my bedsheets n pillows?!?)

oh wow ... n its juz $20 ... sure enuf i go ahead n buy it ...

i come home ... zip down the plastic bag n open it ... n after opening the whole thing wat do i see!!! 2 DVDs ... TROY and SkyCaptain & The World of Tomorrow ... I started screamingggg ... I started jumping!! ... my other 2 apt-mates come into my room ... n I'm like ... see wat i get for $20 ... a matchin comforter n 2 orginal DVDs too!!! ... at the height of my excitement ... my room-mate shows me the DVD covers again ... n there i see the dreaded truth ...

both covers had slits on the sides ... the actual DVDs were stolen from inside the cover ... hidden into this comforter ... n the thief (not thendi) ran off wit the actual DVDs!!!

dang! i was fooled ... i thought i was the lucky guy wit the best deal of the day n the true thendi of the month award ... but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooo ... somebody had to deprive me of tat joy too!!

so here i am ... with no DVD to watch tonight ...

besides i juz realized ... at no time during my excitement did i hav any intention of going n returnin the DVDs to Walmart ... now TAT's BADDDDDDDD ... but it's the thendi in me tat always makes me do tis!!

eait or leave it?!?

2005-03-02T10:25:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/02/bubba.lobster.ap/index.html

i'm so confused ... i can't make up my mind ... wud i prefer to eat it or let it go? ... i luv lobster meat ... but i like wonders of nature too!!

(edited again on March 04)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/03/04/leviathan.lobster.ap/index.html

now i guess it's an easy decision to make ... i'll eat it!!

wierd brain indeed

2005-02-28T12:14:00.000-05:00

The Human Mind

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwahtoredr theltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsatltteer be in the rghit pclae.The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, butthe wrod as a wlohe.Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

Psarie the Lord for His awesome certaivtiy (juz tryin it out on my own :D)

almost a quitter

2005-01-07T17:28:00.000-05:00

i dont even know what's going through my mind right now ...

Nowadays all I think of is my future 5yrs from now (forget 10yrs). I'm supposed to be child of God with blind faith keeping me going, but I still worry like crazy. All I think of now is what is happenend in the past, what is going on right now in my life and what could be happening in my near future.

In 97, I was told CS was a good field and I went into it thinking that parents are usually right and they do probably know what they are talking about. So here I am in 2000, sitting with an almost completed degree in CS and a job straight from some company. Then the IT bubble bursts :( ... they dishonor the job-offer and delay it for like ever. I wait and wait and wait ... you know how it is.

By mid 2001, I'm analyzing my options. Again lots of people and friends are suggesting that an MS in US is the way to go. It is the great country and the easiest way to enter that great place. So here I go applying to schools here with my really stupid SOP. Surprisingly I get into 2 schools and pick the one closer to my cousin sis.

Now mid 2002, a few days before I'm set to leave for the US ... the company that had initially hired me gets back to me and says my joining date would be in less than 10 working days!! Yeah ... after spending approx.$1200 on applications to various schools another $600 for a one-way ticket from Bombay to Portland ... I'm supposed to even spend 5 secs to "think about it"!!! I don't think so ... I just threw the letter and concentrated on my shopping for my new student life in the US

I guess I would have to write the rest later ... work hours are over and I better leave ...
If someone was reading this ... sorry, but I'll write the rest later ...

hi there bloggie ...

2004-08-31T17:06:00.000-04:00

so wats new today ...

well same story i get paid for another 24 hours for attending 2 meetings and making one more of those boring VISIO files ... u know ... now tat im making these VISIO files, its kinda interesting as it brings out the artistic side of me

nyways ... yesterday i found jonathan on stanley's list of friends ... from there i found abe & annie ... those 2 r such sweet fellas ... we had fun with them when we (beni & myself) went to chicago ... nyways they were quick enough to add me to friendster too ... and then from abe's list of friends i found a group called "brethren posse" ... yup i like the name too ... nyways i found aby, becky & chippy in there ... i dont even know if they remember me & my sis ... but we used to go to each other's house so often back in bahrain ... i still remember playing with them ... aby used to do stamp collecting (i think ... unless my memory is completely screwed up) ... i decided to do the same too ... dont ask me where my stamps are ... that i dont remember ... back to the point ... chippy used to b the playful guy ... enjoyed playing wit him too ... tho i dont remember playin wit him ... i remember aby used to draw cartoons & pictures of war scenes (helicopters, tanks, planes etc.) ... becky was the typical gal ... i don't know if i played with her tho ... and gosh! look at her now ... she looks cute!! ... uncle & aunty still look the same ... hopefully ill get some feedback from becky ... else ill have to send a message to aby

nuthin else for now ... back to "no work & gud pay" mode

now where does this money come from!!

2004-08-30T15:49:00.000-04:00

ok ... we hav tons of people out there complaining that the jobs r gettin outsourced ... ok im not gonna argue wit that ... what i dont understand is the way jobs are handled here

my first blog ... lemme explain ... here i am in san francisco ... downtown ... financial side of the city ... way up on the 17th floor of some building ... working for wells fargo. I started on the 23rd and today is the 30th. What is my position here? I am supposed to be an ETL Devloper/Consultant. Ya i know .. u dont understand what tat means ... but I'm not gonna explain it ... tat's not the purpose of this blog. What I wanted to say was ... for these 6 (almost 6) days of work, all I have done is made 3 simple excel files and one graphical diagram on Visio (kinda looks like a flowchart) ... and I will be loggin in 48 hours of work by the end of today ... how much do I get paid ... 48 times $65 ... 'cos tat's my hourly rate ... yup!!! $3120 ... of course b4 u get too shocked ... lemme say tat i only get 30% of tat amount ... my consultancy company & other companies who played a role in securing this contract for me in wells fargo ... take their share too

well imagine this ... if i was an independent consultant with no company in between taking my share of the salary ... do u see how much money i wud have made for making 3 excel and 1 visio file ??!?? ... tat is enough money for someone else for a whole month ... or 2 or more persons on a part-time job!!

why is it like this?!? poor planning ... the company has juz lost so much money 'cos of poor planning ... if everybody pull up their socks ... plan things properly ... pay well for the jobs being done ... then this kinda cracks wudnt appear in the first place

now i'm a born-again christian ... i realise the need for money is varied out there ... but i do know how it feels when ur credit cards r maxed out and every $ counts ... wouldnt this $3000 be a heck of a blessing for tat kind of a person ... this is why im writing this blog

outsourcing decisions r made by the bigger guys in the management ... they do it 'cos they cant afford to pay more ... well if they pay these dumb management guys who do hardly anything so much money ... then obviously they r not going to have any money for the main productive sections of the company

there needs to b some monitoring system setup to check if a person is being paid for what he worked for or not ... the people who do hard-labour everyday ... they clock-in & clock-out ... every minute of their work is counted ... they dont get paid a dime more ... why the heck should someone further up in the ladder be? so that's where all the money is going!! remember that ... i may not have worked in 10 companies to make this generalized claim ... but i just know this is how it is

nxt time u complain about outsourcing ... think of the other issues too ... think of the root cause ... and not the people in india/china who r ultimately benfitting out of it

me back to work ... wrote this in half an hour ... got $32.50 for this
now u see what I'm talking about ??!!??

god bless,
BJ