Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I am the ‘Time person of the Year’

And you are too…
There it was sitting in the mailbox with a shiny glistening silver reflective computer monitor on the cover, a not so ingenious concept but compelling nevertheless, glare into it and it’s your own reflection. ‘Time’ has voted us the ‘Person of the Year’. Me for my ramblings and ranting on this blog, you for reading and commenting on my blog and them for posting on you-tube, flickr, mySpace, wikipedia…, didn’t find a mention of orkut yet, but its probably similar to what they had in mind too …

You may not agree with the content, especially since I do believe that what’s on the internet is not the real you or me!, it’s a really really small peek into my life and that’s the way it will stay but nevertheless Congratulations to ourselves, my second shot at fame!!!

And the next time you ask me why I blog, pick up the issue of ‘Time’ and look at your own picture for motivation!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Out of bounds

Ever wonder why your weekends seem to be more hectic than working days? because they are! How much can you pack in 48 hours before you hear the drill or the drone or the drill and the drone of the alarm in your head on Monday morning?

Before I answer that I must answer the question ‘why does the girl blog?’ on personal demand!!
Lets talk about why people blog, I have read random blogs, people with exceptional writing skills, people with exceptional creative skills and then just ordinary folks like her, google doesn’t advertise on her blog so there’s no reason to increase readership, then why? She is a very busy girl, but she basically loves giving vent to her thoughts at times, and what better way than on her blog? It’s her open diary, a cool way of telling the world what she wants it to know, whatever she thinks, at whatever point she pleases and to whosoever may care to listen/read. Take it up with her!, you can give vent using comments.... As for me

And back to the hectic weekends, pennies and some cents on two totally contrasting movies, ‘The nativity story’ and ‘Blood Diamond’ coming up soon. The ‘soon’ is as unpredictable as the ‘rain’ in Antartica!

Hasta luego

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

That hour

What do you do when you have an hour to kill?, an hour of absolute ‘nothing to do’…? No mosquitoes to kill
And no, you can’t watch a movie, you can’t read a novel, you can’t watch a TV show, you can’t clean your house and you can’t sleep!

A few things you could do
-> write a post for your blog
-> don’t have a blog, never mind read posts on other’s blogs and comment
-> write a story, use your imagination
-> write a mail to your friends on last week’s activities
-> read and research on products you plan to buy in the next 1 to 5 years!
-> read and comment on technical forums!.. Welcome to the geek world!
-> make a lot of short phone calls after all, no one else is free when you are and versa vice
-> walk across to your neighbor’s cubicle and bore him to death talking about UFO’s
-> don’t use the elevators, walk up and down six floors to get to the vending machine for a pack of gum
-> pay your bills online
-> Sudoku – eureka! Make sure you have a printed copy and are not doing it online

Disclaimer: Use Extreme caution if your company monitors internet usage! This is not a consolidated list, addition to the above are welcome

Monday, December 04, 2006

la la LA

This is not a tour diary; I don’t think I can write a tour diary after a couple of unsuccessful attempts. Those were the days when I could write 5 page essays on a trip!

Back to the thanksgiving weekend with the two holidays and the fact that Binaisha was traveling to LA. LA is different, as is NY from Houston …. I can hear obviously! All unique and beautiful in their own way

We made it to the airport on time, well in time despite all the traffic snarls on the freeway. Traveling for the first time post the transatlantic air scare, and I had to dump a couple of containers in the thrash can, blame it on the manufacturing co. - travel size packs and exceeding 3 oz….huh!

Somehow Continental airlines always seem to land ahead of schedule and that meant a long wait at LAX for my pickup…. Catching up with Bin for the second time since I got here

The USC campus was our first stop followed by the thanksgiving dinner at Sandeep’s. What’s special about thanksgiving, leaving aside the traditional meaning, for us it meant shopping and what better than the Friday madness shopping, headed to Camarillo and partook in the madness, from midnight to about 10 AM… was truly maddening.

The rest of the Friday was for Hollywood , Rajesh drove all the way down from San Diego to meet us ;-) Hollywood here I come!
Hollywood Street is like any commercial street in the US , predominately of souvenir stores and eat out places with an occasional piece of ‘fame’, like the Kodak theater and the wax museum. Reminded me of the 6th street in Austin that’s full of pubs and tattoo stores! Ripley’s was our first stop and it lived upto expectations while I had to settle with Harrison Ford for a picture on the walk of fame star. We tried unsuccessfully to get below the Hollywood sign after a treacherous drive into the Hollywood hills! And that was the end of the day 2.

Universal Studios deserves a complete post but I’ll try my best here – simply amazing is all I can say. The Universal studio tour is a must-visit, well-organized and informative, we even saw the ‘desperate housewives’ set among others! Not a fan of those thrilling rides as they call it but these were something else. The ‘Mummy returns’ ride looked a lot similar to the setting in the movie ‘Final Destination 3’ but I didn’t let that jitter me. The rest of the rides and shows were all truly worthy of the time we spent waiting for our turn in winding queues. Water World truly deserves a mention here along with those photo ops with Zorro and Shrek :- )

The entertainment capital of LA totally appealed to me, with an excellent on the feedback form

Sunday was reserved for Mass, Promenade, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills and a second unsuccessful attempt at getting to the Hollywood sign as the path leading to it from Griffith park was closed!.

Houston welcomes me back by with a huge downpour! Nice$@