freewheelin

here we go again...

2008-07-12T17:48:00.002-06:00

i was reading someone's else's blog and just out of curiosity i typed up my blog url and saw my last post was more than a year back! i kinda slacked off during last year and kinda stopped posting.

am kinda hoping i'll be posting a bit more - maybe not regularly...but will keep trying to come up with stuff that is happening around me.

Sample this

2007-06-01T10:05:00.000-06:00

One of the reasons I have watched One Tree Hill since the beginning is because of the soundtrack. A few are indie while most are promotion of new bands whom I wouldn't have heard otherwise. And they throw in some popular ones from time to time viz. Gym Class Heroes, The Wreckers, Feeder, Audioslave, Travis, Jimmy Eat World, Keane etc. So when I found out that the third volume is out, I was more than happy to give it a listen. Its a great mix-tape as usual...whoever chooses the tracks does a fantastic job everytime. The ones that stand out are 'Non-believer - La Rocca', 'Lay me down - The Wreckers' and 'The Funeral - Band of Horses'. If you would like to sample to some of the new tracks on the last few episodes - then check couple of these out - 'In my dreams - Scanner' and 'Something to believe in - Aqualung'. Go ahead and have a listen!

Have a good weekend!

MessiDona - Messi Vs Maradona

2007-04-22T12:09:00.000-06:00

People have been raving how the new Messi goal was similar to the one Maradona scored against England. Yes, he was playing against Getafe, but you can't doubt for a second the skill he has to take it past so many players and then shoot from a narrow angle. Awesome! The video compares both goals - have a look.

Comparativa gol de Messi y Maradona
Uploaded by cariacolov

When you are really really tired at work...call the HOFF

2007-03-14T16:18:00.000-06:00

I had heard about this but it was nothing I was prepared for. Last week in Miami when we were really tired at work and needed a breather a colleague of mine brought up the HOFF in Youtube. For the ignorant, that's David Hasselhoff. And he's supposedly huge in Germany not for Baywatch but for his songs. And the videos really take the cake - they are so funny and funnier if you have people around trying to mimic him. So go and watch for yourselves:

This one is just weird - so weird but has a catchy beat - he is wearing a parka, eating a fish, flying in the air etc etc.

This one reminds me of Baba Sehgal's 'Aa ja mere gaadi mein' song. Aptly titled too - jump in my car!!

World Cup Cricket - Live streaming

2007-03-14T12:22:00.000-06:00

I knew that it was going to be difficult for me to see the world cup this year and my cable network (Time Warner) doesn't carry it here in USA. And DIRECTV and DISHTV are charging close to $200 for the whole package.

So as usual I did some R&D and this is what you need to do if you don't want to cough up $200 or you network doesn't carry it and you can live with live streaming on your laptop/PC:

1. Download Sopcast first. This is a P2P streaming software like the TVU Player but has more channels.
2. Then go to Live-from-India website and look for streaming links for CBN.

I have set that up and its working absolutely fine for me.

Let me know if this works. The only small downside to this is that you might need some buffering from time to time. And please note, you would need a high speed connection for this.

Update:
The above doesn't work all the time - right now I'm watching it on Muftavideos.

Test

2007-03-10T23:17:00.001-06:00

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

MIA

2007-03-10T20:45:00.000-06:00

Have been missing in action for quite some time - quite a long time actually. things have happened while i have been away. last time i posted was when i was getting back to india. have come back since, in Houston now. music is being listened to, movies seen, books read, cities traveled, new people met. so i think its time to get back to writing some too...

Chicago

2006-10-29T21:03:00.000-06:00

Iron Maiden @Toronto

2006-10-16T21:46:00.000-06:00

Iron Maiden @Air Canada Centre - 16th Oct 2006.

Muhammad Yunus gets the Nobel Peace Prize - rewind to 1998

2006-10-13T21:41:00.000-06:00

I was glad when I heard the news of Prof. Yunus getting awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. If anyone has followed the rise of Grameen Bank (Wiki) which he established, he/she would be aware of the concept of Microcredit that he has revolutionised in Bangladesh. I was fortunate enough to meet him back in 1998 in AIESEC's 50th anniversary conference in Helsinki and Stockholm. I didn't know who he was till then and was looking forward to catch his lecture on Microcredit and entrepreneurship. In walked a gentleman who could might as well as have passed off as my uncle who was dropping in to say hello. Very humble appearances and when Yog and I met him after the seminar to say hello, introduce ourselves as delegates from India he was very warm and friendly. You wouldn't have been able to make out that he was the CEO of Grameen Bank. Later in 1999 I visited AIESEC Bangladesh for some of their training needs and was made aware how big and successful Grameen Bank was all over the country. And very professional, great offices. All this with the bottomline of helping poor people. They have really come a long way. All the best to them for their future endevours!

Friday Night Lights - Off!

2006-10-04T09:55:00.000-06:00

New York Times columnist Virginia Heffernan wrote about the Premiere of 'Friday Night Lights' on NBC. The following is an excerpt:

“Friday Night Lights” is a wonder. It’s a big drama, and even seasoned pilot skeptics — and their bookies, who rank shows based on the odds they’ll be canceled — will have a hard time not getting choked up at tonight’s episode. At this rate, “Friday Night Lights” might just bring old NBC the state championship. It’s been a long time.

There's no chance a self-respecting audience will eat up trash like this unless he's a sucker for cliche-d plots. As soon as the pilot started with a back-up quarterback who is more like a waterboy and the first choice quarterback being interviewed and how is going to be better than Manning types, you know he is going to be in an accident and the back-up guy is going to steal his limelight. Plus you also have the angle of angry young black and white men and immediately my thoughts turned to 'Remember the Titans'. I mean give me a break. The pilot was like the compressed version of a full length movie. The plot seriously lacks imagination. I can tell you what will happen next for sure. The black and white men will fight and they will lose a few matches but they will eventually bond and win the state championship!!! C'mon!

As the pilot kept hammering about high expectations from the school team, its now only way to go for this sitcom - Down! I was really disappointed. But again I had high expectations!

You got this one wrong Ms. Heffernan.

Infernal Affairs - The Departed

2006-09-30T22:03:00.000-06:00

I have heared about Infernal Affairs since quite sometime but have never been able to get my hands on it. Fortunately with the hype of The Departed - the Martin Sorcese version of this 2002 Hong Kong movie, I was determined to get my hands on the dvd and earlier this week I picked it up from Borders.

The plot: Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung) is an undercover cop who has infiltrated the Triad crime ring. While he hopes to carry out his mission and get Sam (the Triad's boss) arrested, he discovers that Sam too has a mole in the police department - Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau), who is determined to expose Yan.

The movie is quite brilliant - a great cat and mouse chase. Its not your usual HK action movie. It's a taut and intense thriller, where both Yan and Lau play shades of grey. At first you are forgiven if you hate Lau as the mole in the police dept., but then due to the death of the Superintendent he has a change of heart. Lau's character is ironically reflected in the lead character of his fiancee's book. She has conjured up the lead as a man who has 28 different personalities and she struggles to figure out if she wants to paint the lead as a good or a bad guy. And that's exactly what the audience is left with at the end of the movie - deciding whether Lau is a good or a bad guy. And does one right pardon a thousand wrongs?

All in all a great movie to watch. I do intend to watch parts 2 & 3 when I can get my hands on them. And before that I would look forward to watch Sorcese's version of Infernal Affairs - The Departed. Scorcese has the original team of Felix Wong and Siu Fai Mak (who is also one of the directors of the original) helping him with the screenplay. No Scorcese movie is a never-see, but I wonder if Leo (Billy Costigan) and Matt Damon (Colin Sullivan) can do justice to the roles of Yan and Lau respectively. But I'm quite sure that Jack Nicholson's potrayal of Frank Costello aka Sam (the gang boss) would be something of a treat! The Departed opens across North America on October 6. Watch this space!

Dancing Barefoot

2006-09-29T15:15:00.000-06:00

U2 - Dancing Barefoot

Chelsea FC ties up with Yash Raj Films for Bollywood Film

2006-09-26T08:39:00.000-06:00

This was interesting to say the least. Yesterday I found myself looking at news of Chelsea FC teaming up with India's Yash Raj Films for the production of a Hindi (Bollywood) movie.

Chelsea was approached by Yash Raj earlier with the story line of the film. The release of the film could coincide with a possible Premiership "triple" if Chelsea successfully defends the title this season, a Chelsea release said.

Abhishek, Priety Zinta, and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai and former Miss Universe Lara Dutta all visited Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea headquarters, recently to attend matches against Charlton and Liverpool.

Abhishek, who plays a character called Ricky in the film said: "The character I play in the film is of a very loyal Chelsea fan. I have now had the chance to see Chelsea live after following them over the last few years and the club have given me a jersey with my character's name Ricky on it, so that was fun.

"A friend of mine introduced me to Chelsea. I enjoy their football and the way they play. The Premier League is very popular in India and Chelsea has a huge support over there and it is growing all the time," he said.

Now, why on earth would they do that? Diversifying your portfolio you said? Roman might have a pretty weird advisor for him to invest in Hindi movies. The only logical sense would be to increase the fanbase in India (where they aren't as many fans compared to Liverpool, ManUtd). So what next? Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian movies to reach out to the fanbase there too? Oh, I did miss out on the Chinese and HK market. One for that too. And definitely one in Portugese, to make our man Jose happy! :)

Btw the bit in the last paragraph in the insert was quite funny - Chelsea has a huge support over there (India) . Please!!!

Crossposted at BlogFC

DoNotCall

2006-09-22T10:52:00.000-06:00

Haven't there been days where you have been hounded by tele-sales calls? And you always wondered if you should screen calls or not pick up the phone if you didn't recognize the number? I don't know how many of you know about the Do Not Call registry here in the USA. Its quite simple. Just register your number and most sales-calls would not come through.

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free. Your registration will be effective for five years.

Freewheeling

2006-09-21T15:11:00.000-06:00

Second snowfall of the season and the mountains look beautiful from a distance. Leaves are strewn everywhere, some blowing in the wind. Taking leave for the moment.

The day's been wet, somewhat like in London when you have to walk in the constant drizzle and cold and but you are grateful that you got your jacket along. Hot cups of coffee and tea drunk outside while the wind plays around us, not threateningly yet, just teasing. That nice kind of cold that brings a smile to your face. Winter's begun. Fall was hardly here and its left with the brown leaves as its only trace.

I had a moment at the vending machine. It loves me. After I selected my item, it started pushing forward and there was second when it thought better and stopped. My heart skipped a beat. But it decided to be nice and in another second I had my M&Ms in my hands. Tease!

Xabi Alonso goal vs Newcastle

2006-09-21T14:43:00.000-06:00


Ridiclous long range shot by Alonso

Snow on the mountains - this morning

2006-09-21T10:16:00.000-06:00

Not the greatest pic. Will try to take a better one and replace this. But just to let you know. Been wet and windy and cold since early morning.

Update: Better one now.

Dilbert

2006-09-20T14:52:00.000-06:00

Who is Jonathan Ive?

2006-09-20T14:51:00.000-06:00

Businessweek has a nice article about the man behind Apple's designs.

To understand how to make a plastic shell look exciting rather than cheap, Ive and others visited a candy factory to study the finer points of jelly bean making. They spent months with Asian partners, devising the sophisticated process capable of cranking out millions of iMacs a year. The team even pushed for the internal electronics to be redesigned, to make sure they looked good through the thick shell. It was a big risk for Jobs, Ive, and Apple. Says one rival: "I would have had to prove that transparency would increase our sales, and there's no way to prove that." He figures Apple spends as much as $65 per PC casing, vs. an industry average of maybe $20.

Studio 60 on the sunset strip

2006-09-19T15:45:00.000-06:00

Studio 60 premiered on NBC last night and I like it already. More here on Wiki. I mean I have had enough of hospitals, cops, housewives. And I like Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet. I wouldn't like to go on and tell you what's it all about especially since the pilot is available online. Click on Studio 60 and go to 'Miss an episode'.

A handful of movies

2006-09-18T15:53:00.000-06:00

I have been looking to blog for sometime but kept shying away due to laziness though I would put work and weekend trips as my official excuses! :)

So anyways, in between my trips work, I have been able to watch a lot of movies thanks to the public library which is closeby.

The ones I watched and loved are East of Eden, The grapes of wrath, How to steal a million, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, It's a wonderful life, Enron - The smartest guys in the room. These are the ones I remember. A watched a few more but they aren't worth it as I don't remember them. :)

I have a few lying around - The 400 blows, Adam's rib, The Station Agent.

As time permits me, I shall blog on the ones I like.

Royal Gorge (Canon City, Colorado) Photoblog

2006-09-11T14:46:00.000-06:00

Yellowstone & Grand Tetons Photo Blog

2006-09-05T10:41:00.000-06:00

Best Laid Plans

2006-09-01T11:12:00.000-06:00

I know i know...I have disappeared lately...lots to write - about trips, movies, incidents etc etc...am off to Yellowstone tomorrow. Hopefully once I'm back next week I can do some justice to this blog again. Have a great weekend you all!

ManUtd - Did you write them off too?

2006-08-24T10:40:00.000-06:00

I was reading a post in Soccerlens sometime back about how Everyone want to kick ManUtd.
I couldn't agree with it more and I posted my 2 cents on Blogfc.

My point was, in the last few years ManUtd hasn't started well and had lost points to the lower placed teams. As such inspite of a spirited comeback at the end of the season, they seldom manage to overtake the leader. While the season is only 2 games old, the current team is playing some good football - better than the likes of Liverpool and Chelski. Liverpool are supposed to the prime title contender to Chelski this season - the bets have been revised in their favour. Their matches in the premiership and the champions league qualifiers haven't quite convinced everyone yet. And a lot us are happy that Chelski lost inspite of their star-studded team so early in the season. I'm sure Mour-the-Bore would have an excellent reason...erm 'excuse' actually. Maybe its all due to Ashley Cole not coming in and Bridge playing at left back. Whatever!

So while its way too early to predict a winner, the start looks promising and I guess all football fans would love to have a close finish at the end of the season. And we ManUtd fans have been waiting for the cup to come back to Old Trafford.

Go with the flow

2006-08-22T22:48:00.000-06:00

My brother passed this on to me and I think you guys should watch this too. Nice video!

Happy Independence Day

2006-08-15T16:01:00.000-06:00

Dilbert

2006-08-15T10:44:00.000-06:00

The call

2006-08-14T14:07:00.000-06:00

I had posted earlier about my experiences with outsourcing while I was home in Toronto. Here's a new one to the list.

A couple of friends and I were planning a Vegas trip a few weeks back. Somehow the web thingy wasn't going through and we also had a few questions. So we decided to call the websites. The first one we called was Travelocity.

Agent: Hi, thank you for calling Travelocity. My name is XXXXX. How may I help you?
Me: Actually we were looking at the Sahara and there's this room we are getting for $$$. Unfortunately we are not able to book it online.
Agent: Do you want me to book it sir?
Me: Why else, do you think I'm calling you?
Agent: Let me have a look at it.
Agent: You can't book it.
Me: I can't? Why?
Agent: It's sold out.
Me: It's sold out? How can that be? Your website still has it listed.
Agent: No sir, it's sold out.
Me: Ok, in that case, could you suggest an alternate hotel for the same price? And one more thing, we want it on the Vegas Strip.
Agent: We have the Wild Wild West and...
Me: That's not on the strip
Agent: Yes it is sir.
Me: Do you know what the Vegas strip is?
Agent: We have a room in the Wild Wild West...
Me: Go on. We said no to that already.
Agent: We have a room at the Vene-ti-cian (it's actually the Venetian) but it's going to cost you $$$ more.
Me: We don't want it then. (The call's on loudspeaker and everyone's in splits by now)
Agent: ......

This call goes on for a few more minutes and all of us in the room are frustrated by the end of it. We tell him a curt goodbye and hangup.

We decide to call Hotels.com and give it a last try.

Agent: Hi, thank you for calling Hotels.com. My name is XXXXX. How may I help you?
Me: Actually we were looking to book a room in Vegas. We were looking for one on the Strip. Our budget is $$$.
Agent: We have rooms in Circus Circus and Sahara. You would have the mono-rail from Sahara as well. It's going to cost you $$$ ($10 higher than the Travelocity quote). Do you want me to book you there?
Me: Yes please. At the Sahara.
Agent: Could you give your credit card number?....

This call took exactly 5 minutes and we had our room booked.

Now, lets get to the difference in these 2 calls. The first was an Indian guy who had picked up the phone. And it was quite evident that he had no clue about hotels in Vegas. All he got was his machine telling him the costs. And while I don't have anything against the process, his tone just frustrated us. He just didn't know what to do. His pronunciation was pathetic. He might be an one-off case and it was our unlucky day but to a customer thats the only 'moment of truth'. I'm never going to Travelocity again. And the same goes for anyone who was in the room with me. I remember when I was a part of Tele-Sales, just out of college, I was told one basic thing. Your job is tougher since the person at the other end doesn't see you. So it's just your voice which has to do the trick. So even if you have accent neutralization, your tone still needs to tell the customer that you are getting the best deal for him. Doesn't matter which part of the world you are picking up the phone from. Do I care? No. All I need is my booking to go through and that I spend the least time explaining what I needed to get done.

In the second call, the person was American and his tone put us into ease - that he was going to get it done for us. Moreover, it's also got to do with relevance and experience. If I call an American here and ask him to book me in Coorg, he might have the same problem identifying with it as would an Indian, who has never been to Vegas, identifying with the Vegas Strip.

Bottomline is, irrespective of where you opt to run your business operations from, customer service is something you cannot ever run away from. And that has nothing to do with where you want to run it from. It has everything to do with the attitude and calibre of the person you speak to.

And yes, I did send a mail to Bell following my phone-calls with them in Canada (Blog link is in the beginning of this post). They sent me an email in 2 days telling me that our house phone number would not be called for promotions without our consent. So yes, companies do take it seriously. Maybe our Indian Banks can take a leaf out from Bell and not pain people with repeated phonecalls.

You live only once

2006-08-12T01:49:00.000-06:00

As requested by Mr.D

The song in my head is...

2006-08-08T20:40:00.000-06:00

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. I love this one.

Here's the video of the same:

This is the UK version. The US Version is here.

ManUtd: The Season Ahead

2006-08-03T15:50:00.000-06:00

I have been a ManUtd fan for quite a few years now and as any other fan I hate it when the team goes through its downs. I was reading a few articles lately and quite a lot has been made about players going out and some coming in. And SAF is usually the scapegoat.

Lets look a few things:

1. The squad and injuries: This season barring some last minute injuries the whole team is fit and ready to go. No one could predict that the Rio Ferdinand would be playing in the mid-field last year could they? When did Van de Sar, Nev, Rio, Vidic and Heinze play all together? So if you look at it, you got a solid back 4 before a good goalie. Everyone knows that midfield is a problem and what we lack is a holding mid-fielder. Other than that if you have Ronaldo, Scholes/Carrick and Giggs forming 3 of the 4 in the midfield, its not that bad at all. In fact its still good. Up in front Saha and Rooney with help from Rossi, Smith and Ole are good enough to pile up a few goals.

2. Transfers: However much we cry, other than Wenger very few managers have been able to get a bargain for a good player. Chelski has bloated the market prices and unfortunately not everyone has deep pockets like Roman. So we have to depend on the fact that coming to ManUtd would help a player get more first team appearances than playing in Chelski. But what we need more than ever is a player in the Keano mould who can take control of the midfield. Striker is a good to have, not the biggest priority. Senna's been in the news lately but I would prefer if SAF got a younger player who would form a part of the core team in the coming years. Else, next season the hunt will start again.
3. The usual problems: If you followed ManUtd over the last few seasons they did two things consistently which didn't help their cause:

a>Poor start to the season, too many draws or near losses

b>Losing points against teams in the bottom five while beating the top five.

If this goes on this season too, they can kiss their chances goodbye.

4. SAF is human: Here's a guy who had got us the treble. He might not be enjoying his last few years I would personally give him this year to bounce back. The team he had in 1999 is difficult to replace and atleast he's laying the foundation for a team as good for the future. We need to understand that since the club became private his hands have got tied. Rooney was our biggest signing before we became private. The fact that Chelski can pick up players at will and at any cost hasn't helped us.

To summarise, ManUtd might not have the depth in reserves as Chelski but we still have it in us to give a bloody good fight to any top team in the world. If injuries are not a problem and we still lose at the end of the season, then a few heads should roll. Till then lets give the team a chance to prove that they have got it in them to be title contenders. Don't write them off even before the season begins! :)

Crossposted at BlogFC

Photoblog

2006-08-03T09:22:00.000-06:00

I need to post on the Vegas trip. But I'm waiting for a few pics before I do that. Till then here's a few pics from the road - we passed Utah on the way.

Underground?

2006-07-25T12:52:00.000-06:00

People have started asking where I've been hiding. Nowhere actually. Its just a case of too much work for the week and weekends travelling around. And add lazy to that list of excuses too. :)

Need to get into a meeting in 10 minutes. So lemme put up some pics.

And yes, this weekend is most probably Vegas. Keep watching this space.

Playlist

2006-07-13T15:00:00.000-06:00

1. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
2. Rascal Flatts - What hurts the most
3. The Kooks - She moves in her own way
4. U2 - Pride
5. The Dandy Warhols - We used to be friends

Deer at Work

2006-07-13T14:55:00.000-06:00

Most people would think these were taken at a national park. Actually, the deer was right outside our office window! They come over to graze and say hi. :)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Man's Chest

2006-07-10T13:24:00.000-06:00

I thought Superman Returns would be this summer's biggest blockbuster. But the second instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean is breaking all records in its first weekend. Its made money in a weekend which has taken 2 weeks for Superman. Why? Because its a fun movie. Johnny Depp is in it, Orlando Bloom and Keira also co-star. So I would believe if you take a random sample of a group going for a movie, they would like one of these actors. So mission accomplished as far going to the theatre. But a lot depends on word of mouth for the coming weeks. Thats where Superman has failed. Its a decent movie but boring compared to this one. This one's an adventure story all ages would enjoy.

The plot:

Davy Jones, captain of the Flying Dutchman, lives beneath the sea. His heart was broken once and the still-beating broken heart is locked away in a chest (Dead Man's Chest). Unfortunately Captain Jack Sparrow had made a deal with Davy Jones, who is now expecting him to make good on his promise by handing himself over to Jones's servitude. This chest has a key that Sparrow and the East India Company wants because whoever owns the chest owns the seas. Jack will not give in without a fight, which is especially bad news for Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who always seem to get caught up in Jack's mishaps.

The movie is 2 and half hours long and except a few times when you might find the going a bit slow, its non-stop adventure. Go and see it.

The case of the fishing rod and nowhere to fish

2006-07-08T11:35:00.000-06:00

My friend, Sunil, decided that he wants to go fishing in Cincinnati. So he does the obvious thing - goes and buys the fishing rod, the worms, the works for $50. Then he decides to go fishing. But he can't. ??? How's that? According to rules, no one can go fishing in public ponds without a license. And if you are caught fishing without a license, even the car you drove to the pond gets confiscated by the state. Hmmm. Food...erm...fish for thought!!!

Parking anyone?

2006-07-07T17:18:00.000-06:00

This is what happened last evening. One of our colleagues here wanted to learn driving so he took the car for a spin in the hotel compound. Another colleague was sitting next to him to teach him. Then our friend decides to park the car and instead of applying the brakes he decided to push the gas pedal. Then??? The car just went over the ledge. We were at Starbucks when we got a call which said that their car has gone over the ledge and two of the tires were hanging outside. So we rushed back hoping to push it back in or something.

As we approached the hotel we saw the car vertical in front of us resting against the wall. We were like 'What the f*&%!!!' When we reached the spot we fouund that thanks to the rain the earth was soft and the front of the car had dug into it. The only part of the car that was on the ledge was it left rear tire. The guys called the tow truck and while we waited for one, the police arrived. He asked a few questions, saw the license and said that since it was a private property he wouldn't give a ticket.

Then the tow truck came and he helped raise the car. One of our colleagues got into the car and gave it some gas (with his foot on the brake) so that the car moves forward. Slowly the car came down on the ground and we heaved a sigh of relief.

It was absolutely crazy and as the truck driver said before he left - 'Welcome to America'!

I have a video of this (not the one of going over, but one where the tow truck gets it back onto the ground) and I need to edit it (cut it to less than 100mb) to put it up on Youtube. Will post that as soon as possible. The picture is that of the culprit. Someone at work printed that out to like 48"X24" and stuck it to his cubicle!!! :)

Take me out to the Ball Game!

2006-07-05T10:14:00.000-06:00

As most (if not all) Indians, I have been following cricket since I could hold a bat. And we also pride in ourselves about knowing the minute details of the game. But explaining the same to a stranger who has never been exposed to the game, takes some time. You get the jist - hit the ball and run. But then you have the various ways you could get out. Gets a few people confused.

That being said, I went to my first baseball game last night. The Colorado Rockies were playing the San Fransisco Giants at the Coors Field in Denver. The objective was three-pronged. First was to watch a live baseball game, second was to watch the 4th of July fireworks at the end of the game. Lastly I wanted to figure out why Baseball is so popular here.

Getting tickets are quite easy. Book them online and print them out. Compare this to haggling and begging for a ticket for a cricket match. And most of the tickets at the cricket match are 'given' away to 'friends' and 'officials'.

Queue moves fast except for a slight delay when they check your bags. No pushing and shoving as everyone has an alloted seat. Get all the food you can, buy more at the stadium. Beer? Yes and lots of it.

While I knew the basic rules of the game, by the end of the second inning I had a decent grasp of what happens in the game and then on, following the game was easy. I clapped as home runs were hit, 'oooooh'-ed for strikes and 'boooo'-ed for a bad call. It was easy. 9 innings and 9 batters each. 3 bases to run. 3 strikes you are out, 4th ball and you walk to the next base. Bases loaded. Quite easy to follow. Its quite evident why its such a popular sport here. Rules are simple and its just a party at the game for the spectators. Even the pouring rain doesn't drive too many away. Umbrellas, jackets, windcheaters come out.

We had a 2 hour rain delay. But the crowd stayed back for the game to finish. And then the fireworks started. Awesome is the one word to describe it. A continuous display for 15-20 minutes. Never seen one quite like last night.

The game is really fast and quite entertaining. The music gets the crowd going. They love it. Families. Kids. With gloves on to catch a ball if it comes their way. Soda. Candy. Beer. Nachos. etc etc. No wonder they love singing 'Take me out to the ball game'.

And yes, Rockies won. 6-1.

Who's your Daddy? - Superman Returns Review

2006-06-30T12:07:00.000-06:00

I went and watched Superman Returns last night in IMAX and that's exactly where you should be watching this summer blockbuster.

The Plot:
Quite simple. Superman had 'disappeared' for 5 years as he tried to find any remaining surviors from Krypton. When he realised he was the 'lonely' one, he decides to come back. While he walks into his old job at the Daily Planet, everything else around him has changed. Lois Lane has moved on and is in a 'long engagement' with the Assistant Director, Richard White, who is the nephew of Perry White. She also has a son, Jason. Lex Luthor who was captured earlier by Superman, gets a get-out-jail card as our Man of Steel couldn't make it to the witness stand! Hmmm. So anyways, with renewed viguor Lex enters Superman's Fortress of Solitude and steals the crystals which has scientific data from across the galaxy. His aim? To generate real estate - as in, make himself a new continent as land is expensive. Quite an insight. Oh and if you do generate this land, new mass has to replace new mass. Physics. And no points for guessing that North America will go under water! So the battle begins and good prevails over evil - not a spoiler is it? The biggest spoiler, and I'm sorry that I can't keep it under wraps, is that Jason is Superman's son. Basically when Lois Lane wrote 'Spending the night with Superman', she did just that literally.

What's in it for you? What's new?
As far as the story is concerned, it's quite lame. But Singer does few things right. Superman is supposed to fly and he gives him enough opportunities to ring up the miles. He keeps it simple. The Clark Kent-Lois Lane-Superman triangle is played out well. Routh doesn't come close to the goofiness of Reeve but there is on-screen chemistry. But they both look quite young. Spacey as Luthor fits into Gene Hackman's shoes perfectly. IMAX gives you 10-15 minutes of 3D film runtime which is quite good. Special effects are quite good. So if you grew up with Superman and walked into this expecting some of the same fare, you won't be disappointed.

Singer has a huge problem. When the last Superman came onto the screens, hardly character flew. Now you find almost every character flying around. So Superman's got competition. But there's a nice style which has been blended into this film. The platform's the old Superman movies and mannerisms but with a fair share of good special-effects. It's as if Singer's testing his audience. Want some more of the same? Or something new next time? And there is defintely a next time - Superman and son. Watch out for that one.

Feeling Friday

2006-06-23T15:42:00.000-06:00

Its 3:40pm and i'm feeling the friday. Week's been long. So now that its very close to being over, I was wondering what I'd do this weekend. I think I'll chill in town for a change. Nature's not gonna run away and since i'm here till around sep/oct, I'd have enough time to do the travelling. Few things on my mind are Vegas, Phoenix (Grand Canyon) and NYC. Chicago would be done on the way back.

Its a small small world. A friend of mine who I haven't seen or talked to for almost 3 years bumped into me on yahoo. He hardly comes online and I'm seldom on yahoo myself. So it was quite a pleasant coincidence. The last time we spoke was when I was in Singapore. He's in Phoenix and that easily becomes an excuse to go visit.

Sunil and Shwetha are thinking of coming to this side of the country so we could do Vegas. And a friend out here has promised me to teach me the secret 0f getting the lowest priced tiks. So lets see.

And yes, before I forget I made some chicken last night. Made a few colleagues eat it too as I don't eat non-veg on Thursdays. At 12am, I decided to get a bite too. Yummy. Proud of myself! :)

The recipe if anyone cares is as follows:

Ingredients:
Chicken - 3 lbs (around 6 drumsticks and 4 thighs)
Curd/Plain Yogurt (depends on amount of chicken - 1 container is enough ~ around 1 lb)
Onions - 4 large ones
Garlic Paste ~ 1-2 tb (depends on taste)
Ginger Paste ~ 1-2 tb (depends on taste)
Tomato Puree/Sauce (if you can't get hold of Puree) - 2-3 tb
Salt - 2-3 tb
Sugar - 1/2 tb
Green Chillies - 8 (finely cut)

Marinate your chicken in the curd/yogurt for a few hours preferably. Atleast for a couple of hours if your chicken is not de-frosted properly.
Add oil and stir your onions on high flame till they get a reddish tinge. Add ginger and garlic and stir some more on medium flame. When they have mixed properly add tomato puree/sauce and stir on low flame. This should take you around 10 min.
Then add your marinated chicken and set to high flame. Add half of your chillies, and salt and sugar to taste. Bring to boil, then cover and let it simmer. Stir frequently. Give it 15-20 min. Taste the curry/gravy and add the rest of the chillies. Salt to be added again if needed. Put it on low flame for another 10-15 min till you get a thick gravy and the chicken is properly done. If you reached till here you should have some really yummy chicken! :)

This is a pretty easy recipe that anyone can experiment with. No fancy stuff. But you would be surprised at your cooking. So go ahead and try! :) Since I'm not a regular cook, this same recipe tastes a bit different sometimes, but no less yummy. I remember I tried it first in Switzerland when we had to feed some friends at Univ. of St.Gallen. It was quite funny- Resh and I cooked, Somak cried as he cut the onions etc. Marco kept asking when it would be done! When we took it for the party, it got over before we could even get a taste of the gravy. :)

Anyways, thats about it from my side. Pics and stuff about weekend to follow.

Playlist

2006-06-23T14:35:00.000-06:00

1. Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland - Promiscuous
2. Goo Goo Dolls - Stay with you
3. Kasabian - Club foot
4. The Fray - How to save a life/Over my head
5. Keane - Is it any wonder

Online streaming of FIFA World Cup

2006-06-21T08:20:00.000-06:00

This is something most of us have been looking for (Hat Tip: Patrix). Especially the ones who are stuck at work with no TV or radio anywhere in sight.

You can go to TVUNetworks and download their player. It will stream ESPN/ESPN2/ABC etc.

Crossposted at BlogFC

Where football is soccer

2006-06-20T12:54:00.000-06:00

Because of work I’m currently in the USA and have been forced to follow ‘Soccer World Cup’ (Football World Cup to the less ignorant) on the USA network of ESPN and ABC. For someone who is used to a Martin Tyler or an Andy Gray on Sky, the difference is huge and pathetic. While some of them are ex-players (USA), that isn’t an excuse of poor analysis and thoughts on the game. Lalas still tries hard but Wynalda sucks and so do the other ones. They really believe all of USA (most who are ignorant of football played with the feet for a change) have woken up and now is the time to teach them the nuances of the game during a live world cup match. Some don’t even understand the ‘offside’ rule. And yes, every night there is a build up or TV spots of the next USA game - as if they are Brazil and are surely winning the cup - who told you otherwise? And the icing on the cake was when one of the commentators cried out ‘Who would have thought Ghana could beat the Czechs? My money wasn’t on them!’ - well what can I say. Here’s info on Ghana’s qualifying road to the world cup. Why would someone treat them as pushovers? if someone does, maybe he doesn’t know how the game works! Essien was brilliant in the game, something I have never seen in all his games at Chelsea. Anyways, back to the commentary. All I can say is that its hightime the networks realised that people who tune in for the world cup (99.99%) know how the game is played and we do not need to know the rules of the game. Talk about the match which is on!!!

Lastly, the FIFA rankings are a complete joke! I’m sure you knew about that one!

Crossposted & Comments at BlogFC

The Heat is On!

2006-06-19T12:16:00.000-06:00

The Heat is definitely ON with Miami getting the better of the Mavericks 101-100 in OT (Game 5). Nowitzki was in a foul mood after the game. Why shouldn't he be? They still have not recovered from 4th quarter of Game 3! Might be a case of too close but no cigar now!

Wade is the reason why the Heat's got back into this series.
Clip of game 5.

PhotoBlog

2006-06-19T12:03:00.000-06:00

@ Garden of the Gods

Ever seen a double rainbow?

@ HRC Denver

@ The Balancing Rock

Storm ahead - on the way to Denver

Bill Gates retiring in 2008

2006-06-15T17:20:00.000-06:00

CIO reports that Gates would be retiring in 2008. Interestingly, it states he would be giving up some of his responsibilities. So what's retiring again?

More on it in the Microsoft official announcement.

How to save a life - The Fray

2006-06-15T16:51:00.000-06:00

This song's (How to save a life by The Fray)going around my head since last night. I couldn't find out a streaming one so I've embedded the video of Kate/Jack of Lost. If you haven't seen Season 2, there could be some spoilers. But hear the song though. Look the other way. :)

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

An ear(phone) for music...

2006-06-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

Those who travel across the world using public transport - buses, trains etc., usually carry their own music. And with the advent of the iPod, you will see the white wire almost everywhere. Now coming to the reason for this post, Pepsi has decided to target this market - the mobile one who listen to their music on the go and use public transport. With BBDO they have started Pepsi Ads in trains in Toronto and Vancouver, where you can plug in your earphone to the ad and listen to a 30 second promo of the tracks on offer. Its a quick sampling of stuff you might want to buy or download. More here. And here for PepsiAccess.

Every Pepsi comes with a PIN number, which can be redeemed for access to ultra-exclusive music, concerts, events, and much more at pepsiaccess.ca. This poster plays a 30 second track sample of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. After an announcer says: “That was a taste of an exclusive track from Gnarls Barkley. Check out pepsiaccess.ca for more.”

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

2006-06-11T22:41:00.000-06:00

Just a few pics before I post about the trip. Just got back, so don't have the energy. Sometime tomorrow. :)

And thats Native American if you had a doubt! ;)

Sunset in Pueblo, Colorado

2006-06-10T23:58:00.000-06:00

Missed a match?

2006-06-09T19:50:00.000-06:00

In this country where NBA and Stanley Cup Finals hold more interest than football (soccer if you insist), its difficult to get repeats unless you are on ESPN HD. So when I got back home after work, I did my searching and here's a spanish site which gets all the match highlights up pretty soon. Funny enough, the official site of FIFA World Cup has a highlights section which says 'Coming Soon'...hmmm. Guess they forgot that the World Cup already started!!!

Germany v Costa Rica

Playlist

2006-06-07T20:02:00.000-06:00

1. Rihanna - Unfaithful
2. Orson - Bright idea
3. Keane - Is it any wonder?
4. Angels & Airwaves - The adventure final
5. T Pain - I'm in love with a stripper

The most discussed part of the anatomy...

2006-06-07T15:48:00.000-06:00

...for all you perverts its not the **** or the ****. Its the metatarsal. The piece of the human body made famous by David Beckham and now tons of footballers, the most recent being Rooney. Check this site for Metatarsal Tshirts! I should have thought about that one!

Man Laws

2006-06-01T20:43:00.000-06:00

Have any of you checked Man Laws out? If you haven't, I say go and have a look in.

A few Laws :

The bartender is always right!
A man-to-man phone conversation shall not last over 5 min. No exceptions!
If somebody accidently drinks your beer, it is their beer and they must get you a new one!
No man may ever abandon their favourite team regardless how bad they are!

Horn OK Please

2006-05-30T19:46:00.000-06:00

We were talking about the current engagement and how sometimes bureaucracy is at its stupidest best. People sometimes go overboard following directives and processes which have ceased to make sense or they really don't know why the process is as it is. To elaborate the same, a colleague of mine shared an interesting anecdote which atleast I wasn't aware of. The inception of "Horn Ok Please" at the back of all Indian trucks.

The story goes like this. During the British era, vehicles used to run on petrol or kerosene. And most of the trucks during that time used to run on kerosene. All trucks were painted with OK where 'OK' stood for 'On kerosene'. As time went by and India became independent the processes were handed over to the RTO. In their process checklist to make sure the truck was allowed to ply on the road, the concept to paint 'OK' was continued but why it was 'OK' and not something else was never questioned and over time, one forgot what 'OK' stood for in the first place! Another check was to have 'Horn Please' painted as trucks didn't have good enough rear view mirrors and vehicles were to blow the horn to announce their existence behind the trucks! You add these two up and you get 'Horn Ok Please'. It was an eye-opener for me (not so much the Horn Please than the 'OK' bit of it, cause honestly I didn't know it had any significance.

And then you have the 'Bure Nazar wale tera mooh kala' etc. In USA, there are a few funny variations of that. On the left would be 'El Paso' and on the right would be 'El Cruncho'. Or the left would have 'Pass way' and the right would be 'Pass away'. Funny eh?

Purpose of life

2006-05-30T07:39:00.000-06:00

Psychkick has an interesting article.

Long long weekend

2006-05-28T18:06:00.000-06:00

Thanks to work and my colleagues who want to work on a presentation which is done from my side, I haven't been able to slip away for the weekend. Friday night was fun. Going to Rock Bottom again. Love that pub. Brews beer inhouse and I order the brewmaster's special which is like an Irish stout and another pale which is a slightly lighter pale with a bit more kick. And top that with a NY steak...I get tired stuffing all of that. So the plan is always to sit out in the patio...enjoy the cool breeze as the evening sets in. The music is quite to my taste too...mostly 70s and 80s with a bit of western thrown in (comes with the territory). My plan to Denver this weekend got dashed but I have Denver and Aspen on my list. Would go before I leave. Maybe next weekend for Denver. Anyone been there? If yes, suggest things to do other than 16th street. :)

Yesterday was spent working on the slide deck and doing groceries. Today was spent lazing, watching TV and my x-files dvd. Can't stay indoors tomorrow.

Sunset

2006-05-28T18:03:00.000-06:00

X-Men 3: The Last Stand

2006-05-27T00:45:00.000-06:00

Ok. I just got back from watching this movie. This is where the summer starts. The story is quite simple - a cure for mutants is out and Magneto raises an army to fight that, while our X-Men try and fight him. I could go on a lil' bit more but then I would give out the spoilers. Bryan Singer left to take up Superman Returns and Brett Ratner tried his hand at this part of the X-men trilogy. Well to be fair, the special effects are quite good and makes for great viewing at the theatre. But I would have liked to see him develop the characters a bit more. Some are wasted like Rogue. Storm and Wolverine while playing the major roles, look like they are doing cameos. This one is all about the Phoenix (the split side to Jean Grey) and that is something that Ratner could have used to really give us a great movie. He disappoints there. But overall, this is quite a good summer movie - with the popcorn and the soda and your friends. Advice is go to a theatre with a big screen with DTS, Dolby Surround. Imax would be perfect for this. It isn't out here on that, else that would have been my first preference. just for your information, we had to go another theatre as most shows are sold out. And I went for the same show for which I went for Da Vinci. Look out for the box office results after 1 week. This is going to be on top. Go watch it.

In case you were wondering...

2006-05-24T20:33:00.000-06:00

...why I haven't been posting often enough, the answer is it's been quite a hectic week at work. Getting up at 6am, in office by 7:30am...meetings and meetings...off by 5pm. The last couple of evenings have been good...margaritas and glenfiddich's been giving me company. So have been a couple of colleagues. Come back home (hotel...sigh!) and catch the conference finals. Off to bed by 11pm. So thats the life in a nutshell. The long weekend's close and I haven't a clue of what I'm going to do. The best bet is to go to Denver for a day or night depending upon company. Else will suffocate with 3 days in the hotel. Don't think that is going to happen! Watch this space for more pics.

Happy Budday to James! Hope you had a good one!

The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-21T18:58:00.000-06:00

I was reading how its created a major controversy in India and how it might not make it to the screens. Well let me put it this way, even if it did, not many people would be around to watch it (But I hear the opening weekend's been good so far which is not surprising). I am a sucker for reviews but even when I knew this one hadn't got the best, I decided to make an exception because its a Ron Howard movie and there's Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in it.

Most reviews have compared the book and then the movie. My take on this was related but slightly different. I had read this one first and then Demons and Angels. And while I remembered the outline of this plot I remember more of the fantastic (bollywood kinda) plot of the latter. So when I went to the movies this Friday, I was expecting to told the tale again where I would start remembering the whole plot.

Here's what I think, everyone keeps blasting the plots but take a snap poll and you will find most of these people had read one if not two of Brown's books and read them cover to cover. Why did they read it? Because I believe Brown's were the first of the religious thrillers and controversial ones at that to come out recently. So pot-shots are fine. Just don't be hypocritical. A movie is a movie is a movie. You like it or hate it. Its quite the latter for me this time around. Why? Because the story telling of Brown was much better which made you turn those pages and you painted a different picture of Robert Langdon. And this is exactly where the movie fails. Its not gripping enough (I even managed to doze off for a few seconds cpl of times) and Tom Hanks with his oh-not-so-cool hair ruins it. It needed a Harrison Ford-Indy Jones kinda person to pull it off.

But my friend who surprisingly hasn't read the book, was quite intrigued. This was exactly what happened to a few of us when we had read the book. You wanted to find out more - is this fact or fiction? Which parts? So it helps to build intrigue for people who haven't read the book. But for most like me, who have, it came as a cropper. I would label this a dvd-movie. Not one to go to the cinemas for. The one most affected is Sony Pictures which hasn't had a hit for quite sometime and was banking on this one!

You might wanna go for one of these releasing over the next few weeks:
1. X-Men 3 - I would be watching this on an Imax
2. The breakup - Vince Vaughn usually gets me in splits
3. Superman returns - promos look real good so far.

Other than these, no major ones till end June.

Life as you like (or maybe dislike) it!

2006-05-21T18:10:00.000-06:00

I haven't got down to any proper blogging since I got here in Co springs. Work's been very hectic and when I get off, don't have too much energy to blog other than write a cpl of sentences. So here's an attempt to captue the last week and see life here through my eyes.

This city as I might have said earlier is small and pretty. Around 450,000 population. Most of the people here are or have been attached to the US Air Force which has a base here. And so are the people at work. Atleast 95% of them are connected to the Air Force, some having served in it for as long as 16 years. And quite a few have served abroad which makes them more culturally tolerant in these parts. Quite friendly rather.

Taxi drivers have been nice. Well most except a 70 year old woman (is that legal?) who got irritated when she didn't know the way and we told her directions. But others who are new or not sure of the way will turn the meter off if they or you think are lost. I haven't seen this anywhere. They'll always keep the meter running even if they do go in circles. So that was a pleasant surprise. A korean lady was telling me how she got here more than 15 years back because South Korea was getting over-populated and people were living 'on top of eachother'. So when I told her what the population was in Bangalore, she just grinned and suggested I relocate too. That was funny.

Another thing that I had noticed too. Americans usually don't like surprises. In things in daily life for sure. So the motels/hotels would look the same. The breakfast is similar. Cereal, bread, eggs, bacon, waffles. If they ever tried an Indian breakfast (considering we have different things to eat in the north, east, west and south) they could have one kind every day for a month. At lunch too, I'm already bored with office food - burgers, sandwiches - spread's the same everyday. I think I'll make my own sandwiches and get them to work. Atleast I'll have a choice. And yes, I can sympathise with everyone who is a veggie in this country because I am one, couple of days in a week. Its basically wraps - stuffed with things I don't want to find out (i just want it to go down my throat) -and thank God for dressing. Most of them are bland, so you would rather lean the Mexican way. Better choices. The cook (at the office cafeteria) actually thinks what to make for lunch for my colleagues as they are both veg. So there you go. His biggest challenge in life so far!

Another interesting thing I found out in restaurants and bars here. After you are done they ask you if you would like seperate bills or a combined one. I wish that happened in India when I had people on the table doing 'hisaab' of every rupee that he/she did or did not eat (which gets me quite irritated and also tempts me to hide under the table). I actually don't care for either but quite a few people do I guess.

But other than natural history, everything in this city/country (or whatever little I have seen so far) is like a printing block you use when you print clothes. Every block has the same things. Which is convenient in one sense but monotonous in the other. I'd rather tavel to a Johnson's market to get a fanoos roll if you know what I mean. I wouldn't want it everywhere.

Thats about it for now. Oh and yes, someone asked me if people in India ate meat (as in beef). When I said yes, he almost crashed his car! Go figure.

Flickr - Colorado Springs

2006-05-21T11:45:00.000-06:00

Flickr - Colorado Springs

here you go, pics from the part of the world i am in. which is quite pretty.

Colorado Springs - PhotoBlog

2006-05-20T16:41:00.000-06:00

This is the more scenic photoblog. Some more at Traveblogs. Will write more soon. Right now I'm very very tired. And btw, don't watch Da Vinci Code, unless you wanted to see Audrey Tautou. Will post on that too soon.

Weekend's here

2006-05-19T18:10:00.000-06:00

Phew! Quite a week. New place. New country. New people. New processes to fix. Been quite good actually. Jumping from meeting to meeting. Making new friends. Most are quite friendly. Hectic. Weekend's here. Would be going to Pike's Peak tomorrow morning in the train (Cog Railway). Rest of the weekend still needs to be figured out. Don't want to plan it all out. Denver or Aspen over a weekend would be an option. So keep watching this space for photos. I need to post on the Travel Blog too. Hmmm.

Skype offers free calls across US and Canada

2006-05-16T19:21:00.000-06:00

In case you didn't hear about this, now you can use Skype-Out and dial out to any phone across USA and Canada and not pay a single dime. I have been doing that since yesterday, and there's no catch. Quality is great as usual and for free!

This is where I'm working...

2006-05-16T17:16:00.000-06:00

This is what I see when I come out of the office. Pretty ain't it?

Mornin'

2006-05-14T07:59:00.000-06:00

This is the first pic I took as I got out of the hotel to take in some fresh crisp morning air. Its the nice-kinda cool. Need to head to the mountains soon. :)

Colorado Springs - Part 1

2006-05-13T19:14:00.000-06:00

I’m was waiting in Chicago airport for my connecting flight to Colorado Springs when I wrote this. Left Bangalore at 1:30am Fri night for Frankfurt and then from Frankfurt at 10:20am local time for Chicago. All in all I’ve done 18.5 hours of flying time. Add 3 hours at Frankfurt and another 3 here in Chicago, plus the 2.5 hours of flying time to Colorado Springs and I’ve been on the road non-stop for more than 24 hours. Surprisingly I’m quite fresh. After traveling Air India business and first class, flying economy for long-haul was a pain, especially due to lack of leg space. I think for further company traveling I’ll switch to Singapore Airlines (everyone says its better for economy travel). This was my first experience with Lufthansa and I’m not quite thrilled. Compared to them Air India is far better, even in economy. On route from Bangalore, I never got offered a drink. I thought I’d have a couple so I could sleep well. Wasn’t the case. I couldn’t help but notice a clear difference in behavior towards those who spoke German and those who didn’t. Or was it the colour? Couldn’t tell for sure. Onwards from Frankfurt, when I asked for a German beer (which they were promoting), after finishing the first drink, I was politely told that I was to wait till lunch was served. Like the headmistress rebuking the errant schoolboy. And to think this whole trip isn't free and I get this kind of shoddy service. I have had discussions, arguments with people regards to Air India service. Trust me, I think its way better. It’s a different story that most of us love to think that cribbing about our national carrier is our birth right and the same become mice when it comes to non-national carriers. I’m not saying that Air India is the best, but I think at the same time, it needs to be cut some slack.

In other news, I had to message Arne from Frankfurt that I wouldn’t be able to come back on 10^th June for the England-Paraguay match! I left a World Cup ticket! Still cannot believe it. Alas, money needs to be earned so that future world cups tickets happen!

Update:

Reached my hotel. The cab driver was quite interesting. He gave me a quick history and geography of the place. He also reminded me that I shouldn't fall for the 'wrong' American woman! When I asked how does he define 'wrong', he said the ones that are after your money etc. Then he added that the men have turned them into 'wrong' women...young men lie to the young women to woo them and then leave them. Now the same women have gotten wiser and are paying it back. He nodded when I asked if it was a case of what goes around comes around. Found the whole discussion quite interesting and funny. People seem to be very friendly and so it seemed. I need to take some pics. The city (450,000 in population - so he said) is 40 miles X 40 miles. Very pretty with mountains around and the clouds hovering over them. He asked me to watch out for the sunshine when it breaks through the mountains. Would be waiting for that for sure!

Watch Bangalore Traffic Live

2006-05-11T01:29:00.000-06:00

I received this link sometime back today. You can see live traffic at Brigade Road, Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Basaveshwara Circle and Mekhri Circle.

MIA

2006-05-10T03:45:00.000-06:00

I have been missing in action for quite sometime. The time was spent in getting the project work finalised for which I fly out this weekend. Colorado Springs. 2 months. Going crazy in getting all admin work done for travelling. Just absolutely hate it. Plus a friend's wedding to attend to before that. Dry Cleaning. Packing. Figuring out 3 different itineraries due one colleague's tussle with 'do I travel on H1 or B1' due to some complications. Looks like I'll be travelling on road from Denver to Springs. Which should be nice. But after a long long flight, I might not be actually looking forward to it. My world cup also goes for a toss, especially after I landed the tickets to the 10th June game between England and Paraguay. I really wanted to go for that. Need to pass it up now. Sigh! :(

Walk On

2006-05-05T07:02:00.000-06:00

I love this song and the lyrics of this one...

Walk On - U2

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme...

Opoorbo Bong Links

2006-05-04T02:16:00.000-06:00

Baudolino writes:

In lieph, thear are only too theengs…
Bhaan is deescussing politeekaal philosophy bheeth phrends at Oly Paab; the second is eating daabul-egg, daabul-chiken roll at Kooshoom. Beyond that, all eej maayaa.

For more of it, head here.

Kau has stuff on Bongs being normal - "Bengali consumers want value for money as well as quality products."

Go read.

Windows Live Mail Beta vs. Yahoo Mail Beta

2006-05-03T02:24:00.000-06:00

I started using the Windows Live Mail Beta (the new Hotmail that is) since last week when I got an invite. Somehow it just doesn't cut it for me. While I'm not sure how many of you have started using Windows Live Mail, I can assume that most of you would have used Yahoo Mail Beta.

Its a good move to change how hotmail's operated all these years. This is the second revamp since Mr. Bhatia sold his start-up. The idea is quite similar to how Yahoo has gone ahead with its Yahoo Mail Beta. But there's a few things I'm not quite happy with.

The first difference for me is the space. When I use an application, especially an email client, I'd like to see more of the screen free from ads and other promos. With Yahoo, all their adverts are on the right hand side as part of vertical banners and there are some buttons on the left hand side bottom. But with Windows Live there's this huge banner of MSN at the top which accounts for 20% of the space vertically. So if you have the reading pane at the side or the top, there's quite little of your actual message that you can read, being cramped vertically or horizontally. Plus they have the sidebar banner on the right too. So eats away too much screen space.

Next is the heavy GUI. While Microsoft Outlook 2003 is quite heavy, I didn't expect an internet email client to be quite so heavy. While Yahoo just takes about a second to display the main message, Windows Live takes atleast 3-4 seconds for the message to come up (keeps saying 'working on your request'). This could be quite irritating if someone were to use a dialup.

The tabs and options in Windows Live Mail can undergo massive improvement. I just don't like how they are organised, waste space and also don't give as many tab options like Yahoo viz. marking messages or flagging them, something that is inherent to Outlook.

The whole look is quite childish and tacky compared to Yahoo. And the funniest part is that I use hotmail a lot more than Yahoo. Also keep in mind, people who have used the Web Outlook version are quite a happy lot. So why not follow a successful formula and format (since they are part of the same family)? I just hope being a Beta version, there's a lot of improvement till they come out with the final version.

Playlist

2006-05-02T03:31:00.000-06:00

1. Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean - Hips don't lie
2. Chicane feat. Tom Jones - Stoned in love
3. Deep Dish feat. Stevie Nicks - Dreams
4. Fort Minor feat. Holly Brook - Where'd you go?
5. Freemasons feat. Amanda Wilson - Watchin

A weekend of movies

2006-05-01T20:49:00.000-06:00

I had got a few movies to watch over the long weekend. Let me talk about the ones I watched.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

This one's very slick, funny and has Downey Jr. (Harry Lockhart) and Val Kilmer (Perry Van Shrike). Its about being at the wrong place at the wrong time with a few twists and turns. In a nutshell, Downey Jr. is a thief who while escaping from the police ends up at a casting session and gets selected to be an actor. At a party he meets a blonde whom he quite likes and by another few scenes we find out that she's his high school friend who's a struggling actress now. And for the record he's always been her 'friend' while she's gone ahead and shagged everyone including his best friend. Then we meet Kilmer who is a private eye who is supposed to train Downey Jr. During the training they witness a murder and the film takes off. From then till the end its all 'masala' - witty dialogues and sequences which would put Bollywood to shame. But its all good with some popcorn and friends. Quite entertaining.

Few quotes:
Perry Van Shrike: Look up idiot in the dictionary. You know what you'll find?
Harry Lockhart: A picture of me?
Perry Van Shrike: No! The definition of idiot. Which you fucking are!

B-Movie Actress: So what do you do?
Harry Lockhart: I'm retired, I invented dice. What do you do?

MatchPoint

Woody Allen movies are ones which you either love or hate. This one's the former. Jonathon Rhys Meyers (Chris Wilton) and Scarlett Johansson (Nola Rice) are quite superb in this movie. Tennis pro Chris Wilton takes a job as a tennis instructor and hits it off immediately with one of his students, wealthy young Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode). Tom introduces Chris to his family and Chris falls quickly into a romance with Tom's sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer). But despite the growing certainty that Chris and Chloe will marry, and the enormous professional and financial advantages that come Chris's way through his relationship with the delighted Hewitt family, Chris becomes increasingly intrigued and eventually romantically involved with Tom's fiancée, Nola Rice, a struggling American actress. Their passionate trysts leave Chris in danger of losing the wealth and position he has now come to enjoy. The only solution to the dilemma seems unthinkable...the end is quite a see-saw one, with Allen struggling like the audience to figure out which would be the ideal one. What I liked most is how he's threaded the concept of luck in the movie. Specially the first scene and the last one. About how a tennis ball can hit the net and go either way - you might win or you might lose. Everything!

Will post about more soon. And yes, if you haven't watching Coupling, you should do that as soon as possible. Its like the British version of Sex and the City. Just more funny if you like British humour. Had me in splits.

[WC2006] Fan Interview - Germany

2006-05-01T20:41:00.000-06:00

With the World Cup so close, I got in touch with a close friend of mine in Germany and got his thoughts on the German team and the tournament.

Tell us a little about yourself: Name/Age/Profession/Hobbies

Arne Schepker / 25 years / Marketing Manager / Sports (triathlon, outdoor), traveling, movies

Club Supported?

Werder Bremen

Well, we are almost there. How much pressure is the team under to win the cup as the host country? What do you think are the chances? Realistically.

The pressure has been enormous throughout the past 2 years and rising! Especially since the German team did not play any “serious” games without the qualifiers, there is always doubt about where we stand. I believe, the pressure will mount even higher during the world cup but so far – thanks to Klinsmann – it has been very positive pressure which will help the team more than harm it. Our chances are very good – we are playing at home, have the whole country of 82 million supporting the national team, have a young & hungry team, none of the favorites are in incredible form (except Brazil maybe) and in the world cup anything is possible.

We will win it all! (quite realistically)

A lot of people say Germany doesn’t play attractive football. Moreover it isn’t that effective anymore. What do you say about that?

That is the old prejudice… but wrong and outdated. 1.) Looking at 2002, we were highly effective and advanced to the finals and played quite attractive soccer in the final against Brazil. Germany simply does not show it all until the world cup games. 2.) Klinsmann has the team playing more offensively than his predecessors. The ConFed cup games showed where this is leading – fast, direct & offensive soccer mixed with the traditional tactical & physical German strengths.

Germany always had a great team at world cups. They have been lucky in the last couple. Will we see a team like we did back in 1990?

No, the current team is completely different. It is much more “team” than a number of stars (Matthäus, Völler, Brehme, etc.). They are also much younger and thus more “hungry”. I believe, they could be THE surprising team in the world cup.

Germany won in ’74 and then in ’90 after 16 years. Its 16 years from then. Fancy your chances mate?

Any host country has increased odds to win the cup – with the incredible fan support, the comfortable climate, accustomed stadiums/grass/balls, etc. I am looking forward to it already…!

Is Klinsmann the man? How would you compare him to the erstwhile world cup managers for Germany?

Klinsmann is the man! Absolutely. He managed to turn around the atmosphere not only in the team but the whole country with his vision & positive thinking. It has been a while since the Germans where so strongly rooting for their team.

His training methods are state-of-the-art and he brings in experts from outside football frequently. He has a good team of professional assistants in Löw (ass. coach) & Köppke (goalkeeper coach) and works well with Bierhoff (team manager). Slowly but surely, he has kicked all the old “buddies” out of the DFB structures (from the event manager to the cook). It was about time… This will pay large dividends in the long run – we now have capable U21 & U19 coaches and an experienced technical director in Matthias Sammer.

A large number of the German players are from the Bundesliga? Is that good or bad?

Generally, that is good – it shows that the good German players can stay at home in a strong league (unlike the Dutch & French). On the other hand, the German league does not have the same structural financials & ultimately (at the very top) not the same level that the Spanish & English leagues have.

We think of Germany and we think of Ballack. Who is the unsung player in the squad according to you?

Miroslav Klose – one of the best strikers in Europe (see the Golden Shoe standings), when Bremen played Juve Fabio Capello was afraid of only one player… guess who.

Have you got the squad to take on the rest of the world? Are you one of them who wants Scholl to come out of retirement and play in the world cup (your manager doesn’t want him)?

Yes, the team is young, strong & hungry.

Scholl is still a good player but well past his prime. With the small world cup rosters, we cannot afford to bring along players that cannot play 90-120 minutes. I am sorry, but this time the BILD magazine will not be successful in “pressuring” the coaches into bringing a dinosaur on-board for the world cup (see Matthäus in 2000).

What would the perfect starting 11 for the German team?

Lehmann – Janssen, Metzelder, Mertesacker, Owomoyela – Kehl, Frings, Borowski, Ballack – Klose, Podolski

Is Lehmann the better choice than Kahn?

Yes, he is arguably the best goalkeeper in the world right now. Simply look at how many games with 0 goals against Arsenal played this season in the Champions League (with a couple of 20-year old interior defenders). Don’t get me wrong, Kahn is still a world class goalkeeper and would play in any other national team. Germany has always had world class keepers throughout the history. This is a decision for who is in better shape.

I wouldn’t ask you who would win the Cup as chances are you will tell me it would be Germany. So let me ask you who do you think would be the four teams in the semi-finals?

Brazil, Netherlands, Italy, Germany

Would a Japan or a Korea or Serbia do the unthinkable?

Not even close.

Who would be the three players to watch out for?

Germany: Klose, Podolski, Borowski

Young players: Robben, Fabregas, Messi

Overall: Ronaldinho, Henry, Lampard

Which would be your ideal match of the tournament?

Brazil-Germany

(Brazil-Netherlands would be OK as well… seeing the Dutch get their asses kicked.)

Being a German how frustrating is the ticket lottery? If you don’t end up getting a few, where would you be watching the matches?

The lottery is/was unbelievably frustrating – a lot of my friends got tickets, I did not. The tickets on the open market are either crappy games or (see eBay) prices are sky high!

Tell me something I didn’t ask but you wanted to talk about it anyways.

Did I already say that Germany will win the cup!! :)

Cross posted at BlogFC and Welcometotheballgame

lil' bit of this and lil' bit of that

2006-04-29T00:43:00.000-06:00

The week's gone and lots happened over it.

Divya and Rineesh were down and we spent time drinking and eating. Checked out 'Ice' in Taj residency. Its a lounge bar. One friendly advice - don't try their signature drink 'Ice' as it has hardly any alcohol in it. Its the same with a lot of places where when you order cocktails, they come and give you a mocktail with a hint of alcohol. Duh! So you would be better off ordering your alcohol and mixers seperately.

Picked up a few dvds: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, History of Violence, New World, Domino, Jarhead, Inside Man (need to change that - not working), Match Point and sitcoms - The Office and Coupling.

Work's picking up and am headed to amreeka most probably mid-may for a couple of months. I hope I don't miss out on the world cup.

Plan to chill this weekend, see the dvds, do some lunches with friends. And yes, the Chelsea V ManUtd match which starts in a few hours. Hope I'll have good things to write about it.

Is Arsenal going to do a Liverpool (at the expense of Spurs)?

2006-04-27T01:16:00.000-06:00

A few of us were talking about how Arsenal is going on a run like Liverpool did last year and I posted Is Arsenal going to do a Liverpool at the expense of Spurs on BlogFC. Looks like people are still not sure about the regulations if Arsenal win CL but don't finish fourth in the EPL.

The post can be found at Welcometotheballgame too.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 release

2006-04-26T14:54:00.000-06:00

Microsoft has released the public version of its Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 version. Click on the link to download the same. Am downloading it now and will post in a couple of days as regards to how it fares up to Firefox (which is my default browser now).

Update 1: Mine keeps crashing when I start adding tabs. Happening to you too? Will hold on to firefox for now.

And the beat goes on...

2006-04-25T23:04:00.000-06:00

Kaps posted about the recent controversy over Kaavya Vishawanathan's 'Opal'. I'm for one surprised how it was discovered so late and that too by the Harvard Crimson? Random House has rejected the author's apology that it was 'unintentional and unconcious'...c'mon give me a break!!! If anyone has seen the comparisons of the paragraphs (40 of them at the last count) no one in his sane mind will agree it was 'unintentional and unconcious'!!! I was quite intrigued by all this and headed to the Crimson webzine and found this article by Elizabeth Green (a staff writer on the Crimson).

A few excerpts follow:

A little-known fact about Harvard students is that we hate each other almost as much as the rest of the world hates us—maybe more. When one of us succeeds, the rest of us go berserk. Public congratulations barely conceal private disgust, which turns out to be an even poorer mask for deep, soul-burning jealousy and crippling self-doubt. The distance from “How could she...” to “Why didn’t I...” to “Undeserving slut” is, unfortunately, short and easily traveled.

The college ultimately fulfills all of Viswanathan’s heaven-on-Earth dreams. Viswanathan’s Harvard is a place where no one has to pretend, where competition dies, passion lives, and “social life” is something richer than binge-drinking on tabletops.

Viswanathan had a chance to debunk the Harvard myth for good. Instead, she perpetuates it. Given the market power with which DreamWorks seems to have endowed her, that is truly unfortunate. The overachieving girls and boys who flock to theaters to watch “Opal Mehta: The Movie” might learn that there is more to life than can be contained in a resume, but they’ll still leave the theaters convinced that an easy pill called Harvard exists. Finally, they’ll face a Catch-22: play into the system in order to get out of it, or reject the system only to remain trapped inside it.

And unfortunately—as the press keeps telling us—just like not everyone can publish a novel before the age of 20, not everyone can get into Harvard.

As for me, I would not go and buy this book for sure - its a movie made for the Amanda Bynes and Hillary Duffs - the Mickey Mouse club. My younger cousin might have read it, will ask her.

Update:
Came up with post at Hennessy's View where he dug up Kaavya's Harvard entrance essay.

From Kaavya Viswanathan:

If you really want to, like, hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born in New Jersey, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my immigrant parents were occupied before they had me, and all that Holden Caulfield kind of crap. But I'm going to go into that, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me. In the second place, my parents would have about two hemorhages apiece if I told anything quite personal about them . . .

Actually, my childhood had its good point. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was a time when I was both wise and foolish. It was a period of belief and of incredulity. Juxtaposed were darkness and light.

Guess she has been 'internalising' stuff since beginning. Hahaha. Good one!

Spring Cleaning

2006-04-25T21:40:00.000-06:00

Frankly, it feels more like summer than spring with the mercury soaring in this city. I've been under the weather a little for the last couple of days. Must be the heat outside and the office air-conditioner inside. So got myself a running nose and a cough as a result. Decided to pop in a pill and stay home and nurse the cold yesterday. Feeling a bit better today at work.

Last evening was nice. A nice breeze brought in some pitter-patter of raindrops which kinda cooled down the city a lil' bit. Heard it rained a lot in other parts of the city. It inspired me to clean up my cd collection which was gathering dust since I got my mp3 players. I do keep buying CDs but rip them off to the laptop and then onto the player immediately. So for a change I cleaned the cases, put in a Sarah McLachlan cd which I had bought in Singapore for a spin. Heard it for sometime, then put in the OC mixes. I still like the first volume - good indie bands who got big due to the show.

Revisited Fifa Manager. In my 8th season there. Torres is giving me joy with 23 goals in 24 matches. Van der Vaart, Messi, Diego are playing well too. Played till the battery said 'lemme-go-now'.

Switched it off and as I waited for the Champions League qualifiers to start, started surfing channels till I got to Discovery Travel and Living. Watched a nice piece of travel around Japan - how the country is crazy abt technology but is also quite keen to retain its spiritual part too. Add to it the natural beauty of the country. I wouldn't mind travelling there but felt language was a huge barrier if you travelled out of the big cities. But quite sure it would be a good adventure. Some day then!

The Gunners somehow managed to sink the Yellow Submarines. This is their first ever final and can they do a Liverpool this year? And if they do win will they like Liverpool appeal to be a part of the teams to play Champions League next season - as they don't look like making the top 4 in the premier league. Liverpool's precedent would be hard to look away from now. What's UEFA going to do now? If I'm correct they made an exception, they didn't make it a rule for winners to qualify (or play the qualifiers) for Champions League directly.

Friends are in town. Would be dinner outside tonight and the scotch at home. Fun!

Schumi's back?

2006-04-24T03:32:00.000-06:00

Well atleast he has given a hint of that by driving superbly at San Marino. And mind you, the car is till not at its best.

After claiming his record 66th Pole Position (eclipsing Senna's), Schumi started well off the blocks on Sunday. It looked like Button would give him some competition but that soon vanished in the air with some poor pit strategy by Honda (Barichello was even worse off). By the first pit stop Alonso was close on Schumi's heels threatening to repeat last year's situation. Schumi had tried really hard with a second best car to overtake him last year but Alonso didn't give him an inch. It was a complete role reversal yesterday. It was stuff which makes for a great race. Almost everyone thought Schumi would budge due to his second-best car again but he proved why he is such a great driver. He knew he had problems with his brakes and the Renault was very good at corners. So slowed down more than necessary at the corners to make sure Alonso also braked early or too late which as a result made him drive wide off the racing line. Schumi was at his wily best - bringing all his experience to beat Alonso who definitely had the better car. All through the last 20 odd laps the difference was roughly 0.2 seconds. Which would have been enough to overtake a lesser driver. But Schumi actually made Alonso commit a couple of mistakes (as he was driving hard himself) during the last few laps and when he saw him going off the chicane, he increased his pace and the difference was then 1.8 seconds which was more than enough in the last 2 laps to see you home. While I've been a Schumi fan since I started following the sport a decade back, I love Alonso and Raikonnen because they are as good as Schumi. Alonso has brought an end to the Ferrari domination but its good for the sport as you need great drivers like him to make races like yesterday's so memorable and so sweet (for a Ferrari fan). Last I heard was Raikonnen was switching to Ferrari next season.

I really hope that the rest of the races are this close - total 'paisa vasool'!

Update: This was written yesterday, but I had a few problems with blogger and was not able to post it.

Rio Ferdinand can sing

2006-04-24T02:00:00.000-06:00

Rio sings in the Six Million Dollar Man drama in his school in London in early 1990s. He's a few more millions now though! :)

Warner Home Video DVDs at $1.50

2006-04-23T03:19:00.000-06:00

When I got my friend to get me the complete 9 seasons of The X-Files from Shanghai, all it cost me was Rs. 50 a dvd (just over $1). Now that's really cheap for dvds which are of excellent quality. And that's because of the huge Chinese piracy market where DVDs sold are of 4 kinds I hear:
1. Original DVDs
2. DVDs sold in original packs from shops at Rs.100 (~ $2.20)
3. DVDs sold in loose packs from shops at Rs. 50 (~ $1.00)
4. DVDs sold on pavements at between Rs. 20-40 (~$0.50 - $0.90) - these you can't trust

So in a move to dent this piracy market Warner Home Video has launched a trial sale of The Aviator DVD at $1.50 in China only. This is in comparison to $20-30 that a US or European customer shells out for the same movie. The disc is sold in a cardboard folder instead of the plastic box - I don't think that is a major differentiator as a DVD plastic box I can buy for Rs. 10 (4-5 cents). If this works, the whole world would be crying out for more of these.

Airline Interior Expo, Hamburg (Germany)

2006-04-23T03:12:00.000-06:00

Photos feature the Airbus a350. For more, click here.

The Scouse win but are also losers!!!

2006-04-23T02:11:00.000-06:00

Chelski got dumped out of the FA Cup and 13thpsycho talks about Mour-the-Bore's stupid rants again. Poor losers - they prove that again.

I found the game last night quite interesting. Till the second Riise had that blip and headed the ball to Drogba for him to head it into the goal, Liverpool was playing amazing compact football. Great shape. Except the part which concerned Crouch, Cisse or Morientes (the last 2 came in as subs and were of harddly any use). All Crouch does is just win headers and lay them up for his mates. Thats all. He's a complete sham of a striker. But coming back to the rest of the team, they played well - short passes, crowding out Chelski, not giving them any space. Actually Mourinho is a complete idiot (I guess you knew that already). Bordering on arrogance he started with Paulo Ferreira as a midfielder (someone commented that he had done that in Porto under Jose) leaving out Robben, Duff and Cole out of the starting 11 - why is my question when all these three love playing wide and give you options from the wings. Going down the middle is not always the best option and Jose realised that after being 2-0 down early in the second half. And what do you know - all three were on the pitch! Idiot! And the scousers shat in their pants - they were tentative, pushed back into their own half. Made for some great football for the last 20 minutes but they held their defense well to see out the match and the victory. I'd say it was a good hard-earned victory and they go from under-dogs in this one to a fave in the final against either the Hammers or Middlesbrough.

On a different note, the scousers defaced OT last night at the game. See it here and here. Not winners here exactly eh? What a shame!!!

Crossposted on Welcometotheballgame

Self-cooling Beer cans

2006-04-20T21:39:00.000-06:00

Miller is going to introduce self-cooling Beer cans sometime next year using Tempra Technology's Cooling Cans which would lower beverage temperature by a minimum of 30° F (16.7° C) in just three minutes.

Only if this kind of option was available when we were in campus. The ice-cubes wouldn't have been needed and the beer wouldn't have been chucked away after just one sip!

FIFA Rankings: A joke surely!!!

2006-04-20T03:02:00.000-06:00

Please have a look at the FIFA Rankings and tell me you think its a joke with USA ranked as number 4th while Argentina, Portugal, England, Spain don't get that spot!!!
I'm not exactly sure of the ranking mechanism but I'm quite shocked.

Rank	Team	+/-Rank Mar 06	Pts: Apr 06	+/-Pts: Mar 06
1	Brazil	0	830	-5
2	Czech Republic	0	779	-10
3	Netherlands	0	774	-14
4	USA	1	760	-4
5	Spain	1	759	-4
6	Mexico	1	758	-4
7	France	1	754	-6
8	Portugal	2	753	-2
8	Argentina	-4	753	-12
10	England	-1	744	-12
11	Denmark	3	738	2
12	Nigeria	0	737	-1
13	Turkey	-2	733	-10
14	Italy	-2	731	-7
15	Cameroon	0	723	-3
16	Sweden	0	717	-8
17	Japan	1	709	-3
18	Egypt	-1	708	-6
19	Greece	2	699	-5
19	Germany	3	699	-1

And for the record India's at 117. Singapore's at 92.

Crossposted at Welcometotheballgame

Respect beer

2006-04-19T09:58:00.000-06:00

Here's something that you might or might not have known about my fave pint - a tall glass of Guinness. When is it ever going to come to India? Sigh. More on the Guinness Story. The site doesn't let you enter if you select India as your country. Hmmm. Interesting.

And by the way, I hope you don't like Kilkenny - that's too light and if you love a Guinness you'll just hate it. I promise you.

Cheers anyways!

Here's more on Irish breweries.

Doin a Ronaldinho

2006-04-19T09:55:00.000-06:00

I posted this Ronaldinho Nike Ad a while back where he tried a new pair of shoes and kept hitting the crossbar and controlling the ball time and again. And I asked if anyone could do this?

Well, looks like someone tried. In a very funny way!!! Hahaha.

Crossposted at Welcometotheballgame

Mix 046

2006-04-18T22:20:00.000-06:00

The new mix (046) is up at Pop77. Have a listen.

(192 kbps mp3/108.5 mb/79 minutes)

Young Bride - Midlake
Throw It All Away - Zero 7
Ants - Dr. Octagon
When I Come Back Around (Freeform Reform) - Jamie Lidell
Black Sweat - Prince
Rick Rubin (XXXchange Electro Remix) - Spank Rock
Way Out - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Rough Gem - Islands
Don’t Smile, It’s Post-Modern - Ghislain Poirier
Couldn’t Sleep - Milosh
Playhouses - TV On The Radio
Organ Donor - Lefties Soul Connection
Just - Mark Ronson feat. Alex Greenwald
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
So Many Ways - Mates Of State
Ballad of Big Nothing - The Thermals
Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura
Our Swords - Band Of Horses
24 RobbersApostle of Hustle feat. The Husky’s
Trains to Brazil - Guillemots
The Feelings Of Love - Tender Forever

Pregnant Robot - Birth Simulator

2006-04-18T02:42:00.000-06:00

The name's Noelle - the blonde, life-sized mannequin. Costs $20, 000. She's a lifelike, pregnant robot used in increasing numbers of medical schools and hospital maternity wards.

Noelle models range from a $3,200 basic version to a $20,000 computerized Noelle that best approximates a live birth.

She can be programmed for a variety of complications and for cervix dilation. She can labor for hours and produce a breach baby or unexpectedly give birth in a matter of minutes.

She ultimately delivers a plastic doll that can change colors, from a healthy pink glow to the deadly blue of oxygen deficiency. The baby mannequin is wired to flash vital signs when hooked up to monitors.

Gavaskar willing to sweat 365 days in a year for India

2006-04-18T02:10:00.000-06:00

Hmmm. Its good to make these sweeping statements once in a while. But doesn't everyone feel the number of games a season (tests and ODIs) a player like Ponting/Dravid plays has increased compared to the Gavaskar era? I did a small check with Statsguru in Cricinfo.

What it says:

Gavaskar: (considering 86-87 as his benchmark year as this year he played the max ODIs)

season 1986/87 (ODIs)        19   623  78*  36.64   0   7   -   -       -    -   3  0

season 1986/87 (Test)        10   755 176   58.07   2   5   0   -       -    0   8  0

Compare this with Dravid's for this season:

season 2005/06 (ODIs)      28   948 103*  41.21   1   8   -   -       -    -  14  0

season 2005/06 (Test)      11   857 128*  57.13   2   6   -   -       -    -  15  0

In a nutshell, a player like Dravid plays 10 more matches per season now. And I don't understand this part:

"I would be willing to sweat 365 days in a year for India. Those who can't stand the heat should stay out." - Gavaskar

Why would you willingly play in temperatures in soaring 40s??? Does it prove a point - we are Indians, we can play in this temperature, can you? Or is it like the case of getting discounts in hotter places in summer and colder places in the winter??? I don't think that not all players are breaking down because the commitment is not there. The heat takes it toll on everyone, specially if you are playing in Abu Dhabhi in back to back matches to raise money for the BCCI! He should be asking BCCI why the playing schedule is like what its like before he questions players!

A lil' faith

2006-04-18T00:35:00.000-06:00

ManUtd's turned the corner pretty well coming into the last lap of the season.

Bottomline: Still not good enough, considering the history.

Here's my take on the team this season:

Goalkeeping:
Van der Sar has been the best buy of the season - he's made quite a many crucial saves which had kept the team in the hunt. Tim Howard looks like he is leaving to join Wigan (unconfirmed reports) and that could be a good option as he is not going to get a game unless Van der Sar is injured.

Defense:
I'm still worried about the defense - Vidic is still settling in and could be forgiven for a few misunderstandings but Evra hasn't impressed (he needs to play but surely he doesn't think he needs 20 games to show what he's got!), Silvestre is like a lottery everytime - could be made to look quite foolish. Neville's been outstanding at this stage of his career carving out Beckham-esque crosses from the right everytime he goes up. Maybe he needs to show Ronaldo how its supposed to be done. Ferdinand has had a drop in his form and while he loves to play the cool-calm defender he's made more mistakes this season. Maybe he also needs to learn how to clear balls (like Robert Huth) without being cute. How I would love a Terry in this team! Bardseley has done well with his limited chances and so has Pique. I'm looking forward to first team starts of Pique and Spector (on loan to Charlton) and also the return of Heinze (he adds an attacking option to the left wing when he goes up).

Midfield:
What I'm really surprised at is how this make-shift midfield with Giggsy and O'Shea has played so well lately. I didn't have my hopes too high and I personally thought making it to 2nd would be a huge challenge. Ronaldo has had a decent season - brilliant at times but still quite selfish with the ball - he needs to learn to pass the ball more. Park has looked better with games under his belt. But we would definitely need a midfielder if not two during the summer. The likely ones would be from Diarra, Makoun, Mascherano. There's rumours of a Joe Cole raid - I think thats unlikely but Mourinho has said he would offload 3 players (who wouldn't fit into the first team or have a problem) to get 3 more. So we will see. Downing would be a good option as a left winger!

Attack:
The team's scoring goals - only 1 less than Chelski and Saha's done well since he got back from injury. Nistelrooy has scored 1 less than Henry but has looked out-of-sorts for the last few games. A stint with the Dutch side at the world cup should help him out as he feels he plays better under Van Basten (where he has been encouraged to build up plays instead of being a penalty-box poacher). That has been seen in his game in the ManUtd matches too - as Saha does that so well (winning headers, holding the ball up while the rest of the team moves forward). Rooney has been the talisman for the team and though he might be battling on and scoring he looks quite tired. But you can bet on him to come back next season and start off from where he would leave this season. David Bellion is being sold to Nice. Good idea! Quinton Fortune is also heading somewhere else this summer as his contract will not be renewed.

All in all while the season comes to a close, with the midfield strengthened ManUtd should be able to give Chelski a run for its money next season. Rooney, Ronaldo, Pique, Rossi, Spector - we should be seeing them in the ManUtd colours for some years to come.

Team to look out for next season: Liverpool (if they can solve their striker issues!!!)

Crossposted at Welcometotheballgame

A case of walking too slow

2006-04-18T00:01:00.000-06:00

Some of you might have caught this bit of news where an old lady was given a ticket ($114) for walking too slow.

"He treated me like a 6-year-old, like I don't know what I'm doing. I'm in shock that somebody's going to stop me on a green light while crossing the street."

This news immediately caught the attention of readers worldwide who had a lot to say.

In reference to the elderly woman who received a $114 ticket for crossing the street "too slowly", Officer Kelly was not doing his job (in my opinion). He should have helped the woman cross the street rather than acting in a "macho" manner by issuing her a ticket.

The office of City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is reviewing Mayvis Coyle's ticket.

Back

2006-04-17T23:53:00.000-06:00

After close to 36 hours of travelling (pit stops in Birmingham, Amritsar, New Delhi, Mumbai), I finally got home yesterday morning at around 5am. And while I put an alarm for 7:30am to go to work, I slept and didn't wake up before 3pm in the afternoon.

The trip was quite nice. Good to be back home and with family. Especially this time around since I spent most of the time at home. Spring was in the air. The air - nice and crisp and just the right version of cold - where you want to go out in just your sweatshirt and not wearing a jacket, where a walk home from the mall is a nice feeling. The sky was nice and blue most of the time, though there were a few odd showers and some fog. Can't win them all.

Got back to an empty home. Flatmate's in Delhi to attend a common friend's wedding ( I couldn't go as I couldn't afford to be out this week too). So at 5am, had to change sheets and fill water in the bottles. Cleaned up a bit more in the evening.

Got to work at 8am - left home early by 7:30am but there's an irritating jam at that time on BTM. Sigh! Am back to the city I'm loving to hate nowadays. And I used to love this city! C'est la vie!