Thankful for

 ... Family
 ... Friends
 ... Faith
 ... Employment
 ... Literary Works
 ... Music
 ... Movies
 ... TV Shows
 ... Games like scrabble, Jigsaw puzzles!
 ... Idyllic moments on the train
 ... The ability to sprint and not miss the train by a second
 ... Amazon (no, not the rain-forest but the one that ends with .com)
 ... USPS, UPS, Fedex, Ontrac for making it possible to list the one above)
 ... Ginger wine

If I could ever

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Hemophobic madness

She walked in bearing about five test tubes, who in their right mind would be happy to see test tubes? Okay, maybe my 15 year old self would raise her hand, the one who could balance chemical equations like it was nobody's business and who was always excited during chem lab and could titrate the heck out of sodium bromide! Well, my not-so 15 year old self was apprehensive, although in reality all things considered, I was pretty calm, how could that be?

Warned the lab tech about my not so colorful history with drawing blood, no not the kind of method used by blood sucking vampires, this was actual blood-work! It is strange, I mean being a past blood donor and all, that I could be averse to the idea of letting them take a tiny sample of my blood. It may have started a few years ago, after a few faintish incidents incidents involving above scenario and this was in India where they are pretty conservative with the amount of blood they draw almost like Dexter and his slides, it probably has something to do with all the malnourished patients they get!

In any case, here they almost take enough to call it a minor donation, I mean really? Biology wasn't my major, but from what I have learnt owing to my great commitment to all the three CSI's for a very long time, is that a tiny sample can reveal everything about you, including where you are born and which year, God forbid that they do such a kind of analysis on me, so I reckon a routine lab test should not need so much. The lab tech was pretty cool, trying possibly to distract me, asking what I was doing for the weekend, in a tone that suggested she wished she could join me! while I went on about the pumpkin festival at half moon bay, one that I wasn't even going to.

While we discussed on the intricacies on growing pumpkins and if they would be carved or not, it was all done in a matter of minutes, in all this I may just have conquered one of my fears (fingers crossed) and not to diminish the fact that this came with a 12 hour fast.

A journey of 1500 pieces

Labor of love

Power, Appreciation, Reward, Pressure, Nada

The question is almost cliched, every interviewer has this question listed somewhere in their black book, the clever ones will ask you this multiple times camouflaged with thorns once and roses the next time. It is not them I am concerned about, I remember this rather curt one-on-one discussion (just makes me laugh writing 'one-on-one' but the subtle hilarity of that term somehow seems lost while used in conversation!) I had with one senior manager, that was in the relatively early days of my career, he asked me where I saw myself career wise in the next five years, I was tongue-tied for a second and then blabbered on about new technology, learning and promotion while he seemed to be taking copious notes (for all I know he was composing an email to the class mate he bullied in high school). My point is I had no ready answer, I'm not sure I still do and that concerns me at times (clearly not enough to get off the cozy chair I'm sitting on), it is my amazement at the answers I come up with each time this question pops up in my head and it has ever so frequently in the past few weeks.

I am not going to attempt to answer this here but continue to come up with answers, maybe the question will matter no more, maybe the answers will be just enough.

Serenity with a smile

Why do most, some people who go to church seem so sad or make long faces or seem disinterested? Why isn't the choir more lively? Why does the priest sound as if he's being forced to deliver the sermon?


Of course I am not implying that they seem disinterested in other walks of life, I would have no clue about that, just commenting on what I see and this is very specific to just two parishes I've noticed around here, I don't know if it is an Asian thing, not wanting to sound racist, I think it just might be. Of course, another line of thought would be to be grateful that there are other people who make the effort to come at all to share the fellowship. 

Why was the only person who seemed joyous at yesterday's saturday's service a boy who was slightly challenged and was being cajoled by his mom (or someone who seemed to be his mom) not to shriek and jump up and down every time the music started playing?

Where has joy disappeared to? I know I can't generalize, but this is the state of catholic masses here of course, there are some parishes in the surrounding areas which are more lively, which is why I keep going to different churches  whenever possible, my church-going habits notwithstanding. You may ask why do you want the service to be lively? While I enjoy the peace and serenity in the presence of the blessed sacrament or on certain sections of the mass, since the mass is a community offering, it would be nice to acknowledge the same. 


I have attended service at the non-denominational Lakewood church a few times and within seconds you'd know what drives the crowds. Serenity with a smile, is that a tall order? 


On a completely different note, was considering moving my blog to google+, I hope they come up with an integrated solution for this.

Pocketful of sunshine

Growing up, you must have had some kind of collection, maybe a collection of creepy crawlies or feathers or visiting cards, if nothing else you surely collected stamps? I started off early with the stamps, it was an inheritance of sorts from my Dad (or a forced inheritance if you ask my siblings!) and I do have it to this day. I don't think I indulged in feathers for more than a few days, but remember some girls in school who had an amazing collection, colorful bird feathers on different pages of a book.

Somewhere along the way I started collecting newspaper and magazine clippings on a myriad range of topics from lateral thinking puzzles to song lyrics to bridal gown cutouts to anything that could be used for the somedayinthefuture collage competition and to religious pictures for our catechism albums! Going snip snip on the 'Weekend' was common, whole sections of Richard Coram's page along with the pop quiz and everything else that caught my eye. I've got rid of most of them but there's a few birthday cards and scrap books and some other odd memorabilia that's stored away for that day in the future.

Today it's all bookmarked, favorited, starred, ever-noted, hearted, pinned on the web or stashed on some usb drive somewhere. It isn't the same, there is some peace in holding on, in possessing and more so in what's not tangible.

Last Supper

Have not used this brand of puzzles before and this one seemed a wee bit harder, the lack of distinction between the various hues of color used could be the reason, nevertheless I enjoyed the journey and the end too.

Central park in the fall

So long May

Or more like half of the year, this is not a coincidence and you'd be only just a little smart if you knew why.

The ETA for the 1000 piece puzzle was today, it's called 'Central park in the fall', you may ask fall in summer? but then it's almost inline with the crazy weather we've had, winds capable of blowing me away and a gloomy, rainy first day of june, but every time I find myself complaining about the weather, I stop and want to be grateful considering what other regions have been through weather wise, back to why I've slipped on the eta for the puzzle and I'll blame the runny nose and this slippage has no penalty associated with it unlike my current project.

Are there days when it just seems like the burden of the whole project is on you and everyone around wants a slice of you? The flagged items in my inbox is just an indicator!

Blogged using the blogger app on android.

Auld Lang Syne 2010

It's finally time to sing Auld Lang Syne to 2010, a year of new beginnings, new opportunities and new experiences and truly, all's well that ends well.

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year but most importantly I wish you enough for the New Year 2011.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Goodbye."

Quoted from the internet

This post is for the future

I'm blogging using an app called blogaway. I was surprised to note that despite owning blogger, google does not have an app for this. I think this app works well though and my new android phone is pretty awesome overall, not just for angry birds, or that would make it one expensive game. Reviews in the near future.

Kodak smile

And just like that it is the end of an era. RIP Kodachrome, you have captured some of our best smiles, some goofy and some fake, some tears and then some dramatics that we did only for the camera!

Gone are those days when we carefully loaded the film into the camera and not everyone in the house was allowed to do it or wanted to do it, it's not rocket science, but there is a correct way to do it and stressing over a damaged film roll was not particularly appealing and certainly the rolls themselves were not inexpensive either. The days when we thought twice before clicking a picture, when we made sad long faces as we got to the last of the 36 captures, when we looked forward to the opportunity to head to Foto Flash and have the film developed. The picking up process was even better as we'd cheat and check some of the photographs in the store itself or along the way and chronologically placing them in the album.

I got my first digital camera, a Canon A95 in 2004, it no longer works but served me well. And the cycle continues, point and shoot, a cent a picture or a dollar a picture whichever works and makes you happy :)

The car under the bridge

Part of my everyday commute includes a short walk under a freeway, four contiguous blocks of concrete with tonnes of load on it, what if it came crashing down? But that's not what I've been pondering on! I almost always notice a lone car parked in the dark shadows on the two+ lane road with someone in the passenger seat ... I ponder as to where the driver is, what conspiracy he is hatching that makes him want to park his ford explorer* day after day under the bridge. What about his partner who sits idle, waiting for him? Puffing along the way or waiting for his guardian angel?

*Vivid imagination could have led to distortion of facts

Bart and Caltrain

I already know all the stations on the Bart and Caltrain between here and to where I need to go. Although I was surprised to note that the Bart is slower than the Caltrain or at least the one I take. The oh-so-infrequent times when the B train emerges from the tunnels, it's speed is slower than the cars on the parallel road whereas the C seems to zoom by the cars and it is out in the open most of the time. Have to experiment with the cable cars and the regular buses, add public transport to what I love about the move!

The numbers game

Started off well and continued the momentum right until three quarters of the year. And then there was a hiatus and now I don't think I can make up for the lost time especially with only so few days left in the year. Well, I reckon, there's no need to!

No mystery here: It's only the post count for the year, my hyper sensitive numbers part of the brain has been working overtime, that's all!

My angel on the tree

I think I need to start blogging tweet style or this blog could turn into a relic! That aside, I've put up a few Christmas decorations around the house, it is early but since everyone here has their houses decorated so beautifully, I decided to give in. Of course, mine's not as elaborate as theirs, but it makes me happy!

Back in the days, I don't think we ever put up the tree, lights, other decorations and the star any day before the 22^nd or 23^rd, the day when the Christmas holidays began in school. The Star was important, there were multiple ones but one central one outside with lights, these are the big colorful stars made of cardboard paper you see in houses in Mangalore, naturally the top of the tree had to have a star too or an angel, the youngest member of the family always got the chance to put that up. The nativity crib was something we didn't put up in the beginning, but later on it was the most awaited (NOT! since it takes so much patience) activity right on Christmas eve.

Around the same time we also made kuswar at home because it was impossible for the mother to do it all alone without help. No more home-made rice ladoos, chaklis, banana chips, kokkisa, neu-reo, keedyo, gulleo, thukdi or sharing tray fulls of kuswar with the neighbors and relatives. I don't know if anyone in Mangalore makes all this at home anymore, I hope some do.

Bringing down the tree and other decorations and carefully packing them was something no one wanted to do, but usually right on Jan 6^th someone would half-heartedly kick start that initiative.

The move happened

A number of strings were pulled and a number of tantrums were thrown and to clarify none by me. I just sat back and let it all come to fruition. Now it's back to the awesomeness that is San Francisco and the Bay Area, most importantly the people, the place and the beach!

XNA-NYC-BOS-NYC-BOS-NYC-XNA

A phone call and before I could even think about it, let alone over-think, I had flight tickets, bus tickets and a weekend pass for a seemingly long has always been in the works but never materializes trip to Boston which also included NYC for the Comic Con.

My future self will probably remember this trip for running on pure adrenaline, no sleep for almost 36 straight hours and probably her first ever experience riding the greyhound. I've heard awful stories about the greyhound and the trip into NYC did fit the category but the return trip evened it out and made up for it too, this despite having tickets for 18 hours later and being allowed to board at the time we wanted. I don't want to chronicle too much in here, the 200+ pictures each tell a story of how wonderful a time I had. 

Boston is lovely. To my host, thank you.

The olive theory

Say you meet someone who shares the same birthday (date and month) as you, has a particular last name that seems to conform to the round-robin list of last names your school friends and now their spouses have, whose sister's name is the same as your sister's, who drinks coffee with exactly three quarters of a teaspoon of sugar, who loves olives (since you hate them) and who is a fan of Lost. That must be too much of a coincidence right? I mean, certainly this is God himself intervening, so he's got to be the one for whatever reason?

So you've heard, 'Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous', but do you truly believe that? Sure, I believe in angels and miracles, the power of prayer and faith moving mountains and as much as the two concepts may seem intertwined they are not.

Predictable human logic picks out clusters of coincidence from a myriad of ocurrences without investigating the layer below the too good to be true coincidences, the layer of the skeptics. That's where the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy comes in, I have been guilty of attributing greater significance to something that was perfectly probably only a natural order of events at various stages of my existence and I might still do it.

'You can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, that's all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence. There's no such thing as fate, nothing is meant to be'. This is a quote from 500 days of Summer, it's not verbatim but it struck a chord.

Back to the fallacy, this is what it says 'The fallacy gets its name from imagining a cowboy shooting at a barn. Over time, the side of the barn becomes riddled with holes. In some places there are lots of them, in others there are few. If the cowboy later paints a bullseye over a spot where his bullet holes clustered together it looks like he is pretty good with a gun.By painting a bullseye over a bullet hole the cowboy places artificial order over natural random chance.' Go read it all here and on wiki too.