Couple of shots taken at my mom's garden. This place looks so beautiful in the morning. There are like 10 different kinds of flowers and the whole place will be full of flowers every morning. Sunshine reflecting on their dewdrops makes it dream like view.
October 26, 2005
October 05, 2005
New life, new post!
Blogging after, ummm, eternity! Literally swamped at work, and had to wind up lot of things before I move out of US. Ofcourse not to forget all shopping spree and packing at last moment. Packing this time was an ordeal, took a solid 8 hours. Journey was pleasant, compared to my previous trip. Made it safe to India and here I am, at home, home sweet home. Feeling so damn lazy, but my sis is forcing me to put a message on the blogosphere. I guess I need someone to force me.
Anyway, here I am, safe and sound. I need to start calling lots of people and tell them that I am back in action, and also got all the goodies that they asked for. I am taking two days off from work, which will give me a four day weekend. I don't think I will come out of home for these four days. Just have good home cooked 'oota', play, watch movies and lots of sleep!
Catch ya all soon. I am here. Here for good :) And it feels so great (except for BLR Traffic :(.
Anyway, here I am, safe and sound. I need to start calling lots of people and tell them that I am back in action, and also got all the goodies that they asked for. I am taking two days off from work, which will give me a four day weekend. I don't think I will come out of home for these four days. Just have good home cooked 'oota', play, watch movies and lots of sleep!
Catch ya all soon. I am here. Here for good :) And it feels so great (except for BLR Traffic :(.
July 05, 2005
July 04, 2005
June 02, 2005
Few moments stolen from New York Trip
Misty Divide
Thick mist from Niyagara Falls divides US and Canada.
Rebuilding WTC
WTC Memorial Building relfects remains of downtown Manhattan, clearly missing WTC in the skyline.
SOL
Majestic SOL.
Thick mist from Niyagara Falls divides US and Canada.
Rebuilding WTC
WTC Memorial Building relfects remains of downtown Manhattan, clearly missing WTC in the skyline.
SOL
Majestic SOL.
May 18, 2005
This could happen to you too..
Someone stole my wallet, at office! I had left it in my backpack sometime in the afternoon, and was away from my desk till late evening. When I came back to my desk to pickup my backpack, wallet was gone.
It is interesting how technology changes your lifestyle and perspective over the years. Had I lost my wallet ten years ago, I would still be feeling sad because of monitory loss. But today I am feeling so damn frustrated not because I lost money, but because I have to go through the pains of canceling and reacquiring plastic money, I mean cards.
I had fairly good list of my card numbers, and it took me close to 30 mins to call up companies to get all my cards cancelled. It will take atleast two~three weeks before my life gets restored (get new credit cards, duplicate drivers license, new insurance card are the important ones, and then there are not so important ones like frequent flyer cards, AAA card, library card etc).
Here is a quick checklist:
1. Keep a list of all your cards you usually carry (including Card Number, Customer Service etc) at two or three different places: Online & Offline.
2. Never ever keep PINs or Password or any such information in your wallet, and also don't keep those number online/offline. The only place to have this info is your memory cells!
3. In case you loose your wallet, immediately report credit card company without fail. Identity theft is much more serious in US than in India.
4. Lodge a complaint at local police office.
It is interesting how technology changes your lifestyle and perspective over the years. Had I lost my wallet ten years ago, I would still be feeling sad because of monitory loss. But today I am feeling so damn frustrated not because I lost money, but because I have to go through the pains of canceling and reacquiring plastic money, I mean cards.
I had fairly good list of my card numbers, and it took me close to 30 mins to call up companies to get all my cards cancelled. It will take atleast two~three weeks before my life gets restored (get new credit cards, duplicate drivers license, new insurance card are the important ones, and then there are not so important ones like frequent flyer cards, AAA card, library card etc).
Here is a quick checklist:
1. Keep a list of all your cards you usually carry (including Card Number, Customer Service etc) at two or three different places: Online & Offline.
2. Never ever keep PINs or Password or any such information in your wallet, and also don't keep those number online/offline. The only place to have this info is your memory cells!
3. In case you loose your wallet, immediately report credit card company without fail. Identity theft is much more serious in US than in India.
4. Lodge a complaint at local police office.
May 04, 2005
Private Screening of Kung Fu Hustle, just for me
Got fried at office, and decided to take a break. I was planning to watch Kung Fu Hustle for some time, and thought this was the apt time. I got a big surprise when I got into the theatre after buying the ticket. I was the only one in the theatre. It was a weekday and this was a Chinese movie! On the other hand, this movie had got some really good review, so I wasn't expecting this. But then, what the heck...I get to seat wherever I please, and the whole theatre is for me! So, I just laid back, put my leg on the front chair, and enjoyed the movie.
My Movie Rating: 4/5
Strength:
- Awesome fights
- Decent Storyline
- Good background score, pretty good cinematography and special effects
- Humor of a kid, its like watching a cartoon (there are plenty of scenes which will make you say, 'what the heck?'
Weakness:
- Subtitles, as far as I can remember this is the first movie I saw with subtitles, in a theatre. That too, alone (gosh, too many records broken with this movie)
- I can't think of any other reason!
To summarize this movie in one line, its all about suppressed talent, waiting to burst out. Highly recommended for cartoon fans/Jackie Chan fans or for anyone who endorse the idea that movies don't have to be thought-provoking ALL THE TIME!
My Movie Rating: 4/5
Strength:
- Awesome fights
- Decent Storyline
- Good background score, pretty good cinematography and special effects
- Humor of a kid, its like watching a cartoon (there are plenty of scenes which will make you say, 'what the heck?'
Weakness:
- Subtitles, as far as I can remember this is the first movie I saw with subtitles, in a theatre. That too, alone (gosh, too many records broken with this movie)
- I can't think of any other reason!
To summarize this movie in one line, its all about suppressed talent, waiting to burst out. Highly recommended for cartoon fans/Jackie Chan fans or for anyone who endorse the idea that movies don't have to be thought-provoking ALL THE TIME!
May 03, 2005
Fire Rain and Thunder
Lot of things going on for past few weeks, and it also happens to be one of the reason for me being such an incommunicado.
First it was trip to Louisville for 'Thunder Over Louisville' Kentucky Derby Opening Festival. I am not a fan of horse race, but what attracted me to this event is this massive fireworks and airshow. Drive was fun, and the weather was awful. It was extremely cold, and we were sitting right next to the riverfront in Louisville from 2pm till the end of fireworks around 10 in the night. Airshow was sort of OK, but B2 Stealth Bomber was superb. This thing made such a silent entry, they had to make an announcement that B2 is in the sky! Otherwise, we were freezing in the cold and thinking it was all waste of time, and not worth all the trouble until the fireworks started. Man, what a show it was....literally rain of fire. I had taken my new Panasonic GS-250 DV Cam to shoot the firework, but when the show started, I realized that no camera can capture those moments. It was spectacular! I just kept my handycam pointing at sky, and watched the fireworks spellbound. Best fireworks I have seen till date.
Image Source: www.kdf.org
After that it was back to work with some tough deadlines to meet. Then it was my birthday. This time again, few close friends celebrated it in Pizza Hut. Looks like Pizza Hut is becoming a de facto for me as this was third year I was celebrating my b'day. Now all of you who are reading this, send my presents soon, if you haven't done so already!
I burnt whole of last weekend searching for a Video Editing Software. First I tried Adobe Premier Pro, most sophisticated of all editing tools, but it was way too expensive. So out of my list. After that I tried Pinnacle Studio & Power Director trial version. First one expired within 2 hours instead of 30 days. Later was not too impressive. Finally I tried Ulead Video Studio, and looks like I will stick with this. It has got all the basic features and is priced right. I will experiment for few more weeks, and may be post a detailed review.
First it was trip to Louisville for 'Thunder Over Louisville' Kentucky Derby Opening Festival. I am not a fan of horse race, but what attracted me to this event is this massive fireworks and airshow. Drive was fun, and the weather was awful. It was extremely cold, and we were sitting right next to the riverfront in Louisville from 2pm till the end of fireworks around 10 in the night. Airshow was sort of OK, but B2 Stealth Bomber was superb. This thing made such a silent entry, they had to make an announcement that B2 is in the sky! Otherwise, we were freezing in the cold and thinking it was all waste of time, and not worth all the trouble until the fireworks started. Man, what a show it was....literally rain of fire. I had taken my new Panasonic GS-250 DV Cam to shoot the firework, but when the show started, I realized that no camera can capture those moments. It was spectacular! I just kept my handycam pointing at sky, and watched the fireworks spellbound. Best fireworks I have seen till date.
Image Source: www.kdf.org
After that it was back to work with some tough deadlines to meet. Then it was my birthday. This time again, few close friends celebrated it in Pizza Hut. Looks like Pizza Hut is becoming a de facto for me as this was third year I was celebrating my b'day. Now all of you who are reading this, send my presents soon, if you haven't done so already!
I burnt whole of last weekend searching for a Video Editing Software. First I tried Adobe Premier Pro, most sophisticated of all editing tools, but it was way too expensive. So out of my list. After that I tried Pinnacle Studio & Power Director trial version. First one expired within 2 hours instead of 30 days. Later was not too impressive. Finally I tried Ulead Video Studio, and looks like I will stick with this. It has got all the basic features and is priced right. I will experiment for few more weeks, and may be post a detailed review.
April 11, 2005
Satellite view of my apartment!
Google recently integrated Satellite pictures to their Maps sites, which means you can view traditional maps or satellite pic of the same area (US only). You can also view many US landmarks, monuments, etc from sky! Real cool stuff.
Here is satellite pic of my apartment.
Here is satellite pic of my apartment.
March 15, 2005
Religion, tolerance & freedom of expression!
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."
- Robert Frost
I was watching short movies on iFilm and came across Submission directed by Theo Van Gogh. Three minute clip from full length movie was certainly graphic and controversial. The movie criticizes the treatment of women under Islam. Only after some more reading on this movie did I find out that Theo was killed in Nov'04 by an Islam extremist. All this happened in Holland, supposed to be the most liberal and tolerant country in the world. What makes it more ironic is that the Screenwriter Ayaan Hirsi Ali herself was a Muslim woman. Aftermath of this incident is really shocking and disturbing. Yet another country losing its innocence.
So, where do you draw the line? Is there anything called freedom of expression, because you can never be sure of not offending someone while exercising that very basic right!
And more than that, is there any religion which calls for killing its non-beliervers?
- Robert Frost
I was watching short movies on iFilm and came across Submission directed by Theo Van Gogh. Three minute clip from full length movie was certainly graphic and controversial. The movie criticizes the treatment of women under Islam. Only after some more reading on this movie did I find out that Theo was killed in Nov'04 by an Islam extremist. All this happened in Holland, supposed to be the most liberal and tolerant country in the world. What makes it more ironic is that the Screenwriter Ayaan Hirsi Ali herself was a Muslim woman. Aftermath of this incident is really shocking and disturbing. Yet another country losing its innocence.
So, where do you draw the line? Is there anything called freedom of expression, because you can never be sure of not offending someone while exercising that very basic right!
And more than that, is there any religion which calls for killing its non-beliervers?
March 04, 2005
Lesson learnt.
During a converation, there comes a point when you are the only person talking. Thats cue for you to stop! - TSR
March 03, 2005
What am I listening to?
My favs from latest Hindi OST releases:
1. Maine Dil Se Kaha - From Rog
Sung by KK with soothing music by Kreem (aka Keeravani). Awesome lyrics...listen to this:
Maine Dil Se Kaha Dhoondh Lana Khushi
Na Samajh Laaya Gum, To Yeh Gum Hi Sahi
2. Shayad Yahi Pyar Hai - From Lucky
Lata and Adnan paired for the first time to redefine romantic numbers! I play this song over and over, and still not bored of it.
3. Hum Hain Is Pal Yahan - From Kisna
Udit, Madhusree and Rahman. Magic! I wish Ghai could carry that on screen. sigh!
4. Koi Aisa Alam - From Karam
Sonu Nigam and Mahalaxmi Iyer croon to glory. Nice romantic number again.
5. Maahiya - Teri Kasam
Adnan again! Its those funky beats which grab your attention, I guess.
1. Maine Dil Se Kaha - From Rog
Sung by KK with soothing music by Kreem (aka Keeravani). Awesome lyrics...listen to this:
Maine Dil Se Kaha Dhoondh Lana Khushi
Na Samajh Laaya Gum, To Yeh Gum Hi Sahi
2. Shayad Yahi Pyar Hai - From Lucky
Lata and Adnan paired for the first time to redefine romantic numbers! I play this song over and over, and still not bored of it.
3. Hum Hain Is Pal Yahan - From Kisna
Udit, Madhusree and Rahman. Magic! I wish Ghai could carry that on screen. sigh!
4. Koi Aisa Alam - From Karam
Sonu Nigam and Mahalaxmi Iyer croon to glory. Nice romantic number again.
5. Maahiya - Teri Kasam
Adnan again! Its those funky beats which grab your attention, I guess.
February 26, 2005
February 23, 2005
Of Pop-ups, spywares and adwares!
I have a love-hate relationship with Windows. I have been using Windows from 3.1 era, and more than anything, I am so used to it and may be that's why I love it. If you know this OS, you can survive almost anywhere in the cyberworld. OS of the common man!
I hate it because of all the nuisance it comes with. First there were pop-up (lets not talk about virus, shall we? ...they have league of their own), and then adwares, and then worst breed of them all.... spywares. I always make conscious effort not to click on those pop-ups seeking permission to sit on your PC, watch every move, catch every password, and promptly report them to an online server. If not for the Google Toolbar's Popup-Blocker, we would have had 10 pop-ups per window by now.
I don't know how, but some spyware got installed on my PC this week. First I started getting a new toolbar on my IE, and then every time I searched for something using Google, I started getting 5 more additional search results popping up simultaneously. I spent more time closing those windows than browsing. I scanned the Installed Programs, and weeded out few of them(I was surprised to find them there in first place), and things became bad to worst. My IE started crashing with an exception the moment I started it. I went thru Registry and cleaned up few entries in \Run and \RunOnce, but in vain.
I decided to ditch IE and give FireFox a try, considering the fact that it holds 10% of the market share. I installed and used it for few hours, and I must admit that it had pretty good first impression on me. But there was a problem. Two of my intranet applications just refused to run on FireFox, and I had to run them every day. I was in no mood to live with two browsers.
I decided to fix the root cause by empowering myself with an anti-spyware. I was just searching for one, and came across Microsoft's own offering. It was still in BETA, but then who other than Microsoft know about their product's loopholes better? On second thought, I take that statement back. They don't! Nevertheless, I installed it, and took me half an hour to get to scan the whole PC. It works just like an anti-virus software, scans memory, hard-disk (deep down the folder structure), registry and compares every element with its signature database to come out with list of spywares on your system, with degree of their severity. It found close to 50 entries on mine, and after a bit of tinkering, I killed them all. Finally my dear IE is back on track. I am happy!
PS: I can't stop thinking about you, Firefox!
I hate it because of all the nuisance it comes with. First there were pop-up (lets not talk about virus, shall we? ...they have league of their own), and then adwares, and then worst breed of them all.... spywares. I always make conscious effort not to click on those pop-ups seeking permission to sit on your PC, watch every move, catch every password, and promptly report them to an online server. If not for the Google Toolbar's Popup-Blocker, we would have had 10 pop-ups per window by now.
I don't know how, but some spyware got installed on my PC this week. First I started getting a new toolbar on my IE, and then every time I searched for something using Google, I started getting 5 more additional search results popping up simultaneously. I spent more time closing those windows than browsing. I scanned the Installed Programs, and weeded out few of them(I was surprised to find them there in first place), and things became bad to worst. My IE started crashing with an exception the moment I started it. I went thru Registry and cleaned up few entries in \Run and \RunOnce, but in vain.
I decided to ditch IE and give FireFox a try, considering the fact that it holds 10% of the market share. I installed and used it for few hours, and I must admit that it had pretty good first impression on me. But there was a problem. Two of my intranet applications just refused to run on FireFox, and I had to run them every day. I was in no mood to live with two browsers.
I decided to fix the root cause by empowering myself with an anti-spyware. I was just searching for one, and came across Microsoft's own offering. It was still in BETA, but then who other than Microsoft know about their product's loopholes better? On second thought, I take that statement back. They don't! Nevertheless, I installed it, and took me half an hour to get to scan the whole PC. It works just like an anti-virus software, scans memory, hard-disk (deep down the folder structure), registry and compares every element with its signature database to come out with list of spywares on your system, with degree of their severity. It found close to 50 entries on mine, and after a bit of tinkering, I killed them all. Finally my dear IE is back on track. I am happy!
PS: I can't stop thinking about you, Firefox!
February 15, 2005
A Googler gets fired for blogging!
I guess Time Magazine wasn't kidding when they wrote that blogging could get you fired! Mark Gen, a Google Employee got fired this month just because company thought he was putting sensitive information over his blog 99zeros. Incidentally, Blogger is owned by Google! What an irony!
On the flip side, Mark has become a celeb overnight in the blogging community, and he is making effective use of Google's own AdSense program to make dough out of the traffic to his site. Interesting read.
On the flip side, Mark has become a celeb overnight in the blogging community, and he is making effective use of Google's own AdSense program to make dough out of the traffic to his site. Interesting read.
February 04, 2005
What can blogging do to you?
Of all other things, blogging can get you fired! Even worse, you could irritate Pentagon! And hey, listen to this.... majority of the bloggers are women. Read this very interesting article published in TIME: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs.
Paddy fields of Coimbatore
Never coy with Coimbatore
On our way to Siruvani Falls near Coimbatore. Beautiful paddy fields stretching as far as you could see. Another pan snap with four stitches!
February 02, 2005
Share The Shore
Share The Shore
Lake Superior, as the name suggests is the worlds largest fresh water lake in the world. Minesota North Shore is considered most scenic routes on the edge of this great lake. We drove close to 80 miles on Route 61 from Duluth to catch fall colors during Fall 2004. Hit this place on our way back in the morning at about 9am.
February 01, 2005
I am getting addicted!
BigDipper at Snowstar Ski
What else can it be? Snowstar Ski is more than 100 miles away from my place, and I religiously drive there every weekend. I ski from morning till night (they close at 9pm). I ski so much that I can barely move my legs or arms. I look forward for every weekend like never before! If it isn't addiction, what else can it be :)
January 18, 2005
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