100th anniversary for the Times Square ball-drop event

Details of the ball are in this video here

It was indeed exciting to check out the ball at the Macy's store in Herald Square before it was up there on Times Square for the New Years' eve. I plan to check out the whole event from my firm's office at Broadway. A noteworthy aspect about the ball is that it is GREEN i.e., it is made with some 9.5k energy efficient bulbs. I bet Philips had an agenda to advertise for free by entering in this feature. This is also a true indication of where NYC wants to project itself as a pioneer and leader in energy efficiency.

Revelers began celebrating New Year's Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, but it was in 1907 that the New Year's Eve Ball made its maiden descent from the flagpole atop One Times Square. This original Ball, constructed of iron and wood and adorned with 100 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. In 1920, a 400 pound ball made entirely of iron replaced the original. The Ball has been lowered every year since 1907.

This year, the temperature is expected to be around 25 to 35 and the fog isn't going to be there. Hence, I am expecting a good visibility from the office - which is about 7 streets away.


Silence before the storm - the silent Broadway before the madhouse... (around 2 pm) !

The celebration was scheduled to include countdowns with entertainment gurus Carson Daly and Ryan Seacrest, who will be joined by New Year's Eve legend Dick Clark, and performances by Kid Rock, Jordin Sparks, Carrie Underwood and The Bravery. In addition, the USO Troupe of Metropolitan New York will perform and a "salute to armed forces" was planned.

About a million revelers are expected to pack the streets of the city for this event. Also new to this year's celebration is that confetti (about a ton of it) dropped when the clock strikes midnight will include wishes for the New Year written by people around the world.

I am all excited to check it out at midnight.... though I wont be a part of the madhouse downstairs on the streets !

To see what I see, you can go to earthcams here.

community service in the city

I felt that I should contribute to the city where I work. Of course, I pay taxes. However, I had this yearning to offer my efforts as well.

Along came an email from one of the volunteering groups in the firm for publicolor volunteering. It was a good opportunity to achieve further honing of my painting skill and also, contributing in some form to the community. Besides, I had never been to that part of the city - a school in Bronx, where every incoming person is asked to pass through metal detectors.

During the effort, I could come across a few teenagers, who appeared eager to learn more about the world. I gave them my contact details if they needed further guidance beyond what we discussed about pursuing dreams despite of difficulties. One of the stories was particularly heart rendering - it was of a sister in a group of three sisters. She was being denied education by her mom as her mom didn't have any money to support her education. Her fees were free but didn't have money for books etc. Fortunately, someone in the group could guide her during the discussion about the resources to tap in order to get that kind of help. She was delighted and I felt happy that I could facilitate that discussion.

Publicolor was started by Ruth Lande Shuman, an industrial designer and is managed by Deven Parekh, a partner in Insight Venture Partners. I found the concept of publicolor unique and creative.

movie review: charlie wilson's war

I had waited for this movie for long, alike American Gangster. Both the movies that I waited for had lived upto my expectations. In fact, they had surpassed my expectations.

Acting:
10/10
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts at their best... .Julia didn't have much of a role - but did perform it well.

The most surprising one for me was Phillip Seymour Hoffman - yea, Gust from CIA !

Story:
N/A - it's a true story - hence, I have another parameter to evaluate....the screenplay !

Screenplay was very well adapted. Just to evaluate this aspect, I ran to the Barnes and Noble on last Friday (between my shopping and going out that night) and read most of the book. The screenplay seemed a bit rushed - but indicative of the way things were progressing in Charlie Wilson's life - quickly ! I would rate screenplay at 8/10.

I hope the writer's strike doesn't lead to a drought period of my newly found hobby of movies.
May be I can continue that hobby with foreign films - that implies more variety and exploration.

art lovers galore !

Check out the presentation of MoMA's online exhibits. I must tell you - they never stop to reach beyond expectations....

For instance, while making decision regarding whether I must visit MoMA for Puryear's exhibit, I checked out the online exhibit and the full-screen version was simply marvellous; and no, I am not talking about the linear exhibit but the clusters which are shown when you want to check out the work based on medium, chronology, etc.

Go MoMA Go !

shopping season!

Target misses its targets ! Check this article.

What do the soft sales of the retail giants mean for me?
Come Dec 27th and Jan 2nd and I can get goods much cheaper - most of the retail industry has already started their run towards slashing prices. I saw Wal-Mart as the fastest one to do that. Just about 3 weeks ago, I reached to their store for returning a Canon SD 1000 as the prices elsewhere had dipped quite a bit after that and I was still in the 30 days warranty period. They said that the prices had dipped in their stores too - a whooping $80 on a $267 product !

I started researching with curiosity to find out in hours that the health of most of the retail giants is suffering. Consumers are spending less fearing a downturn. The heat is being felt everywhere and especially, in my part of the country - New York !

I would prefer buying when such opportunities arise - its a mindset game. I dont buy based on hype - but based on need and patience ! I learned that from the markets when I was still in my teens. This mindset has helped me in every phase of my life.

noisy city?

Finally, I found someone who shares similar views. NYC is very noisy and irritatingly so.

When I moved here, non-nyc friends and acquaintances used to ask me with envy - "hows nyc treating you? you go to wall st everyday - isn't that something?...bla bla bla"

In reply, when I used to mention that the toughest part of my day was landing at the WTC station and facing the construction, they used to feel that I was being a baby or a spoilsport. However, that's a fact.

Check out Henry Bean's latest movie on noise casting Tim Robbins and this associated article. NYC is super-noisy and so was Mumbai - my hometown. However, in the years at Pune, St Louis, and Pittsburgh, I got used to quieter better quality of life than the metros. I would eagerly wait for the movie's release.

Change of address online

As a non-immigrant resident alien, I have to inform the govt whenever I change my address. Usually, it used to be an effort which involved sending a postal mail with the form filled out.

The feds have developed a good tool which has the self-service dimension. An online change of address eliminates the need of a data-entry personnel and also, saves money for the user as postage cost is saved. That personnel can be retrained for a higher paying job, say a database admin for the new system in place.

Here's the link for the change of address online.

movie reviews

I haven't been able to write for a while as my schedule was hectic. I'd made notes though - in the last 2 months. Today, I could put them together and post it.

Good luck chuck

I went in thinking it would be a good comedy - I guess Dane Cook needs to learn what comedy is. I mentioned that Jessica Alba wasn't a good actor at the movie theatre and folks looked at me as if I am stupid - a gentleman even came near me and mentioned - "who's come here to see her acting, mate? We thought we would see something more than the dolphin-printed undies. We did see a dozen other nude chics - (with a dissenting pause) but we wanted to see Jessica Alba in that form"

ahh - that was it. The movie lost total respect.

Ratings
Acting: 3/10 - Jessica made a great attempt to show her acting. However, Dane Cook was horrible - esp when he smothers her
Script: 4.5/10 - Need to have more creativity than this.

+ No idea
- Lotssa them


The Brave One

The title didn't suit the movie content. I could understand that the lead character becomes brave one after her boyfriend's killed in The Central Park. However, I felt that it wasn't the best fit for the movie.

Movie shows brutal violent act at the beginning. Thereafter, Jodie Foster recovers from her trauma, overcomes her fear and transfoms into a different person, who does not fear anyone. She crosses the line of killing someone accidentally and gets away with it in the noise of the city.

This movie was on a similar line as that of Death Sentence, except for the fact that in Death Sentence there are two rounds of attrocious behavior against the lead actor and in this one, there is just one round.

Ratings
Acting: 7/10 - Jodie Foster has tried to bring in her stoic and done so well. The love-making scenes between her and Naveen Andrews are kindda weird as the age difference appears to be significant (though it is just 7 years in real life). I guess the 40s does that to an individual !

Script: 7/10 - Transitions are fairly smooth. Folks can relate to it easily. NYC is a soft target from violence perspective and an easy-to-buy concept (though reality is different now - the crime has lowered compared to earlier days). The twist at the end with the cop coming in on time wasn't expected. The comments about Jodie's features by the young kid were misplaced (c'mon she's 46 years old for God's sake)!

Storyline was on lines with vengeance and reminded me of recent movie Death Sentence.

+ Jodie's acting
- Could've been better. Appeared to be a hurried production

The Kingdom

I walked in thinking Jamie Foxx would be horrible at acting. However, he was above my lowered expectations. I guess action roles suit him. Good package overall with appropriate musical score in the background. The message about revenge at the end was a mystery. Was it intended to be a satire? Was it an opening for sequel?

Ratings
Acting: 7.5/10 - The Saudi officer who dies at the end had a good acting. I dont know the actor's name though.
Script: 8.5/10 - Intelligent script though needed some more credibility towards the end. Cross-cultural issues have been brought up well when the US investigators are working with the local police/investigators.

+ Music, Action
- Minor flaws here and there.

The Heartbreak kid
You wouldn't miss anything if you haven't seen it. This remake's promo scenes is all the movie's got to offer. A typical romantic-comedy's bachelor's fascination with greener grass on the other side, fear of committment, etc are depicted in the movie. Grossness has been played with teenage fascination.

Ratings
Acting: N/A
Script: 3/10. Lack of reflection on soul and psychology of Eddie (as compared to the original movie)


Shoot 'em up
Total bang bang movie. Monica Belucci has delivered a terrible performance besides appearsing old.

Ratings
Acting: N/A - doesn't matter.
Script: N/A - doesn't matter.

+ Shooting moments. Creative scenes.
- N/A


The Seeker
I wouldn't comment much on this. I saw this movie as a time-killer while spending time with a friend at a mall. It is a children movie and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on it. Script is poorly written as the element of suspense is not well-maintained.

agree to disagree....

I was surprised to know that there were peaceful protests against Sonia Gandhi at NY. This time, they gave it a different pitch rather than her origin. Clearly, it was motivated by the extremist groups. This time they took the Mahatma issue - that Sonia is not a Gandhi...lol ! If you ask Why - the answers were those of a silly teenager, who wants to fight with you for the heck of it.

An interesting article about the issue if Sonia Gandhi must lead the nation's ruling party despite of foreign origin is discussed here: Sonia Gandhi is Indian by choice. This came out in 1999, long before she would become the next leader.

I agree on the point of the view of the extremists that this may send out wrong signals in the world - such as we need a non-Indian to rule India.

The fallacy of the argument is that Sonia is an Indian. In 1983, when Rajiv was to become Prime Minister (against his natural wish), she had to get an Indian passport and become Indian. Later, she started wearing saree, speaking Hindi, and took various steps to get accepted. What else do you want in an Indian bahu? She is trying to learn about culture of her sasural and embrace it by adopting it fully. Similar to her, I have met a lady here at my workplace - she is a non-Indian who married an Indian. They are an extremely progressive couple, I must say. She is making every effort to be as Indian as possible - such as learning Hindi despite of challenging work schedule, get married in India as per Indian ritual, etc.

So, someone twisted the argument that Sonia was not born in India and hence, not supposed to represent India. That's an interesting twist - just to make a point. Even though she was not born in India, she spent 20 years (1983 to 2003) to reach where she reached. She is legally Indian, she has Indian kids, and she is Indian by behavior as well !

Narrow minded folks dont seem to get that. Manuism still persists. Caste system still persists. East v/s West and North v/s South still persists in India. Those who oppose her existence on grounds of place of birth are as discriminatory as the folks who gave 1/3rd voting rights to the Americans of African American descent. Extending this logic further, quite a few north Indians are not Indians as quite a few have their origins amongst the Aryans, who were clearly not Indians.

The whole issue is politically motivated. Those who support this issue against Sonia are either loyal folks to extremist parties or folks who envy that a waitress can have such a position just due to her getting married to the right person.

However, I agree with the fact that she was inexperienced to politics when she gave her first speech in 1999. However, that is rarely used as a pitching point. I am amused why that is not the single most important point held as a propaganda against her by opponents. I guess they will alienate some of the young voters - lol ! Also, her Hindi has become far better.

I guess, being educated - most of Indians agree to disagree - except for a few - who end up misrepresenting India on foreign soil. Such a display of intolerance is counter-productive. As India, we have to display diversity and inclusion. Mahatma never fought for such causes such as religion (Sonia is a Roman Catholic and it was held against her by the protesters).

All in all, I was sad that NYC had to see this difference in opinion in India. The protesters could've done this in India. However, they wanted to wash the dirty linen in public. Such a shame !

movie mania !

This summer, I am witnessing most of the movies without a significant theme ! At times, I miss friends to watch movie with.

The Bourne Ultimatum

High Octane movie ! The best part of the movie that I liked was: "Do you know why are you doing this?" I guess most of the folks who are employed by their employers for passionate and potentially dangerous work must ask this question to themselves.

The legacy continues well. The action scene in Morocco is well-thought-of. While watching the movie, I could imagine that the script-writer must've trotted the globe quite a bit.

script: 8/10
acting: 9/10 - can do better.



HotRod 1/10. (1 is for ability to get funds for the movie)
I dont know why this movie was even made. Whoever funded it !


Ratatouille, Underdog
A concept for kids. I could not sit in the movie for more than 30 mins.
script: n/a
acting: n/a


No Reservations
Catherine Zeta Jones plays the role of a pragmatist-on-the-verge-of-paranoia role. She's perfectionist and hates it when things dont go her way. Her master (or the owner of the restaurant) pays for her therapy ! That's the degree of insanity shown in this movie. In many ways, I could relate her to Bee. Alike Bee, she was stiff with her neighbor - something oblique and a bit weird. How can you chuck out a potential partner from the pool of your neighbours?


script: 5/10
acting: 7/10

Next up:
American gangster !

movie-marathon!

Simpsons the movie

Absolutely entertaining.
Creative script-writing : by popular standards. I would give it 8.5/10.
There's no acting involved....thus, n/a for that rating

Hairspray

Total entertainment (musical) package with a social message.
Acting: 9.5/10
Script: 9/10

Good recreation of the 70s!

I know who killed me
Sex and Violence are the primary props used by the producer.

Script: 7/10. Lacked flow - storyline is not well-executed. I guess that in a bid to shorten the reel-time, the movie-makers made an abrupt transition from the FBI tracked victim to an independent person who is trying to take the bad-guy down. Lilo needs to improve a lot w.r.t. acting.
Acting: 6/10

I pronounce you Chuck and Larry
One might perceive from the trailer that this movie has an interesting topic. However, the end was meaningless. I guess the script-writer got tired and had a lazy ending.

script: 4/10
acting: 5.5/10 - there wasn't much required to perform, anyways.
Sense of humor was fairly primitive.

License to Wed
dont watch - unless you have issues in your relation and want to correlate to this story.
It aint worth watching...
script: 4/10
acting: 6/10 (I didn't want to be mean) - Robin Williams has lost his charm.

Next in queue:
Bourne Ultimatum
Death Sentence
Harry Potter (whichever part has come out) (waiting to watch it in a iMAX 3D movie hall)

spooky linkedin

Linkedin gave me a pointer to an old acquaintance who barely had anything in common except for undergrad. It came as a surprise to me because I never provided my undergrad to linkedin.

Search has evolved to a degree that algorithms are able to relate to you contextually. The biggest conquest comes from the fact that algorithms ensure that it is

Now, that's what I call spooky !

smoking ban inside

Club-crawling in NYC clubs could be a clean experience with smoking ban inside the clubs. This alongwith the outrageous prices of tobacco products discourages smokers heavily.

In a way, that's a right way to go. Hurray !

movie-marathon

Last weekend, I was on a movie-marathon:

Live Free or Die hard, Knocked Up, and Evan Almighty.

Live Free or Die Hard: 6.5/10

Bruce Willis must retire now... He is made for this role - however, he is getting old and the effects are not as good.

Knocked Up: 7/10

It was a neat movie from the perspective of a new generation of US. Californians can relate more to the movie as the movie is shown based out of California. Some people found it funny. However, I found the movie weird. May be I wasn't in a mood to watch it at that time.

Story line was unique: 8.5/10
Acting was natural: 8/10
Appeal to audience in general: 5/10
Last one is due to specific instances of unnecessary nudity and verbiage which was fairly unnecessary.

Evan Almighty: 4.5/10
Jim Carrey - we missed you? The new Evan in form of Almighty is not good enough in his acting. Story line was incoherent. Special effects were satisfactory.

basement bhangra

Yday evening, I was skeptical on my decision to go for Basement Bhangra because my roommate's move-in procedure exhausted me before the bhangra event. However, the environ at the club ensured that I kept going without feeling any physical exhaustion.

SOBs holds the basement bhangra every first Thursday of the month. The place is just one stop away and a few blocks from Christopher St Path Stn. Initially, I met a couple of old acquaintances and later, met someone at the bar (btw, the bartender made some nice mojito). She posed an entry point for me into a pretty enthusiastic group of ladies, who were all colleagues at Amnesty. Devin, one of them, had been to India and was telling me her stories from Rajasthan and Delhi. Others had interest in grad school education and joining UN or private, for-profit work. With her, a funny event occured - that of an Indian young guy trying to show her his mojo and in the event, turning out to be a misfit in the crowd.

DJ Rekha didn't start the floor. It started off with some hip-hop music for a while - in order to warm ppl up. Later, the patrons started crowding the place. At around 9pm, the lessons for Bhangra started. Ppl stepped over each other trying to do the steps because the place was getting crowded. At around midnight, the peak crowd was present as barely anyone left and the crowd kept on pouring in. The temperatures soared and so did the suffocation.

DJ Rekha played a fresh new song of "Basement Bhangra" couple of times yday. She seemed fairly tomboyish - but she plays good music! Her protege, DJ Sweety was playing good numbers as well. The crowd kept on going constantly. The stage got invaded in a matter of minutes after the lessons were over. Non-Indians had some really nice freestyle moves when it came to having freestyle Bhangra. Of course, there were the hardcores Sardarjis who knew this folk dance since their childhood and showed off on the stage. They were followed by all types of ppl on the stage - after a while, it was an outrage !

The place was crowded with Indians - however, the proportion of non-Indians was sizeable. It reminded me of Carnegie Mellon somehow.

Overall, I would give the following ratings:
DJ's music: 8.5/10
Place's ambience: 7/10
Capacity planning: 6/10
Bar: 7/10

transformers

Yesterday, I received an unexpected and sudden phone call from my high school buddy who works for MTV. This was for the special private screening of Transformers that will be released next week. He asked if I could reach Zeigfeld by 6.30pm and I was near the Charging Bull at that time. I wrapped up my work stuff in order to make it there in time. Rushing around while changing 3 metros, I could make it to the theater. Surprisingly, the theatre didn't perish in the multiplex culture. Right in the heart of Manhattan, there's an old-style theatre - owned by Viacom - Ziegfeld!

The movie started off with some background (a la Spielberg way). Transformers will certainly have sequels. It is a nice summer animations' based entertainment! One of the best cartoon adaptations I must've seen. The story line and some of the scenes were really amateur - however, in a spielberg movie (esp an animated one), there's more emphasis on graphics than the other characteristics of the movie. LaBeouf probably and Megan Fox would probably thank the casting folks - as they are now, able to launch themselves just like the other actors/actresses who launched via a spielberg movie.

Transformers suffered due to blatant product-placement. GM, Chevy, eBay, Apple, and what not ! However, my view may be jaundiced as I was sitting next to a technical (media industry-wise) guy who kept on pointing to subtle aspects. I guess the product placements may not be as bad because common ppl in US can easily relate to it. I guess they've received the mindshare and want to increase it.

Somewhere, deep down inside, I felt that the movie was partially "inspired" from Japanese animation movies. "You gotta respect the Japanese" was an unnecessary sattirical phrase in the movie somewhere.

Overall, the movie left me with an impression that the production was hurried and Spielberg didn't use discretion in storyline, dialogues, etc. I would give it a 10 out of 10 for creativity in graphics. However, for the dialogues/scripts, may be 5.5 out of 10 - as it was dry on the creativity front. It is definitely a family entertainment (US: PG13) and an iMAX one - no doubt about that !

imdb:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/
movie: http://www.transformersthemovie.com/

settled....

Last few weeks, I have been fairly busy and life's been fairly eventful!

The trip to DC was insightful as I learnt more on American history and got more educated on modern art. Corcoran was the most impactful place and the high point which influenced my thought process !

I arrived to Newport at my friend's place on a Sat evening two weeks ago from DC. As soon as I arrived Om had a plan in place already. We went out for a movie to watch "Shootout at Lokhandwala" and thereafter to the city (New York is referred to as "the city" hereafter for this blog). In the city, the idea was clubbing.

The journey wasn't rough but wasn't pleasant either. What I mean by that is it wasn't rough because the roads aren't bad from DC to NY and it wasn't pleasant because I experienced typical city driving (cutting lanes, burning tyres, speeding, etc).

I feel my car's perfect for the TriState area (NJ, NYC, CT). I say this because with this car, I can't get caught in speeding and also, the roads are in horrible shape in NJ. Besides, I go to work using the Path and hence, I dont need the car at all. I might think of selling it as the insurance in Jersey City is 2.5 times what I paid in Pgh. Also, I dont have utility of the car as much.

I spent two weeks at my buddy's place before I moved to my new place nearby. I didn't want to leave the locality as it was pleasant living there. Everything is so accessible. If I crave for Indian food then I can hop on to Path train and reach Journal Square for India square in 2 stops (I didn't want to live there as the locality is unpleasant). I must admit that searching a place in nyc/nj area is a challenging task. In NYC, the prices are steep and there is no value for money and in Jersey City heights, they are cheap but the area may not be livable. However, at Newport, you find a good balance of price and locality. Also, the access to the city is close and convenient. Finally, I get assessed per NJ state tax and hence, it pays off.

My current place is a penthouse and it has 2 rooms for me of which I plan to utilize as a movie theater and the other one as a summer bedroom. In winter, the movie room becomes the bedroom. Thanks to my high-school buddy for suggesting about the deal and letting me at his place till the time I could find a good apt! The community is cool with good amenities. As a pleasant surprise, I met someone at my work who is my neighbour! Such are the modern times - you meet your neighbors at work and not your housing community !

With this, I would conclude that I have settled at my new place now and hopefully, I would have a pleasant journey with my current employer.

sopranos finale

In a HBO productions style, The Sopranos ended with the six and the final season!

The Sopranos lived happily ever after. :) The best part that I liked in the last episode was the number which Tony was asked for Bobby - they silenced the dialogue with some music and they shake hands for a truce. The one who orders to take Bobby out is not only shot but also the car runs over his face as his wife leaves the car w/o putting it on parking.

The funniest dialogue for the last episode was "that's a snake with a fur" when one of the goodfellas refers to the cat at the office.

There was so much resounding assurance on Wall St and some other places about what would happen in The Sopranos - the popular verdict was that Tony would be put down. However, that was popular perspective and not a logical one. Logically, he has been able to carry out everything pretty well. His dad went crazy - but he is able to control his mind well. Ergo, he will be wise to take good decisions.

btw, I watched the History channel's Godfathers documentary tonight. It was a 2 hr documentary on the "Mafia". What surprised me was Mafia's involvement in WW2 and how Luciano is rewarded for his favors to the United States. Another most surprising fact was how the Mafia is turned in to the FBI by Lucky Luciano himself. His sacrificial (scape) goat in that bit is Carlo Gambini. The world gets to know about "The Mafia" for the first time in the mainstream media.

Sopranos and Godfather and all other movies pretty much reflect bits and pieces of this documentary. This documentary was one of a kind because it was comprehensive and well-presented.

roadtrip to D.C.

graduation

Next week is the commencement week. We have a MISM commencement ceremony and then an entire school graduation commencement. Bill Cosby is coming over and the event is already hyped up in the regional and national media.

This event also marks a significant milestone for me - an end of a wonderful journey. A journey where I met quite a few new people (from various backgrounds), and made new friends as well. There were the highs and the lows. I slogged for the studies and I partied hard as well.

My parents aren't coming down but you can't always have the cake and eat it too. I know that their blessings would always be with me. Also, Val's mom is coming over who has promised me that she shall cheer up for me.

Six weeks ago, I wasn't ready to graduate - I didn't feel like going back to the corporate world. Over the period of the last six weeks, I have made myself mentally prepared to get out of school :). I am glad that I have successfully convinced myself to go back to the corporate world.

The entire next week is going to be spent having lunches and dinners with friends I made when I came here. I hope I get to catch up with everyone before I leave Pittsburgh (it has grown on me to the extent that I've started liking it).

bank of america rant !

Bank of America is getting obscenely non-chalant. They've kept their customer call center only up to 11pm these days - that too just 5 days - so it ain't even 24 by 5 - it is 16 by 5.

Earlier, I could call them 24 by 7 and then 24 by 5 and now just 16 by 5.
This service level is mostly unacceptable.

There is no way to get to them - I tried finding an email on their webpage and it was so difficult to traverse the website that it was almost impossible to find - hence, I had to rely on Google for the same.

I suspect where BoFA stands in the ACSI ratings. Definitely, not in the top league - for sure.

A bank which is trying to compete with Citibank - if they keep on providing this level of service - I think customers may migrate. It seems that they are heavily inclined towards cost-cutting. I have nothing against them undertaking cost-cutting - but at the expense of a customer? As soon as my tax money comes back, I am paying back their cards and getting rid of the accounts !

spring is in the air...

Check it out - the weather is absolutely fantastic.
I see myself a bit pepped up....I feel like jogging again....!

My car got hit while someone was backing up - but that's an accident. I got interviewed by a planet headed sadistic person - but that was an accident. Some things are out of my control - but I still feel pepped up - it's spring in the air.

I started my spring break with night outs to Shadygrove, Tequilla Willies, etc.

Later, I spent my time with Bhaiya and Bhabhiji over the weekend. We went to Jim's place to watch Babel and boy, does he have a state-of-the-art home theatre or what ? 92-inch screen with special home theatre speakers n stuff - wow ! Watching a movie will never be the same again! Besides, we checked out his light sabers (Star wars fame). I will be missing them once I move from Pittsburgh - infact, I dont feel like moving from Pittsburgh !




Saw 2 movies last night - Austin Powers 3 and Snatch!

Spring break work on some side-projects starts today: ITIL test date draws closer - Thursday ! Have to finish CAPM - meanwhile, my brain runs speedily towards some academic projects as well. Letsee - will have to manage my time well in this mini - last one - gotta get the most out of CMU campus :)

Holi hai....!

To all my blog readers !
Happy Holi
http://www.123greetings.com/eventsnew/emar_holi_happy/8755-002-22-1047.swf

nJoY!

nascar...

0.02 seconds -

Thats the margin by which Kevin Harvick won against Mark Martyn. Kevin was remarkable at the finish in the last half lap !

Overall, the race was remarkable. Race was fairly smooth up until 168 laps. There were 6 cautions thereafter - infact, race ended in a caution ! Last lap, there were so many whamos ! There was one car on fire and on the roofs too - Bowyer's car ! It was a wild finish - something similar to 1976/1979 finals - something for the record books :)

skiing

Location: Seven Springs

Nightlife places I got to visit: Foggy Goggle

Woke up at 7.20 am - brushed my teeth and ran to the bus stop. Alas, there's a bus on Sat morning and I reached the departure venue at 7.28am. The buses had not yet departed (or I would've cursed the movie "The Departed" which I watched the previous night till 2.30 am and slept at 3.45 am).

The buses reached Seven Springs at 9 am. Getting ready for skiing took me an hour as I had to buy the shell pants to make sure I am water-proof from head to the toe. Those skiing shoes are soooooooo non-ergonomic w.r.t. walking for non-skiing purposes. Anyways, I get ready to take my lessons at the ski-school. The first lessons went on fine except for once when I fell down due to the lack of skills to slow down my speed. As the lesson progressed, I started getting better grip of my stance and skiied better. I kept on practicing in the magic carpet 1 area.

Around lunch time, Chris (friend from MISM) came on near me and it was a pleasant surprise to see him right there. We decided to head for lunch. He was trying to locate his girlfriend Michelle so that we could all have lunch together. However, post-lunch he could locate her and it was so nice having a small chat with them together.

I hit back to skiing - this time in the magic carpet 2 area. Thereafter, I tried several slopes once I mastered the skill of turning and controlling my speed. I took another break and changed my shoes to upgrade from 11.5 to 12 size - what a relief for my left foot !

Final round of skiing was disastrous as I lost my phone at that time. I took off the skis and returned in order to search for the same. I had heard from colleagues that the place is good and ppl return the cell phones. After visiting all the 3 information desks, I returned to the second one. Rob and Rich were there. Rob had assured me that I would get my phone back if someone returned my phone back. Rich was present at the counter the second time I returned and he asked me a few questions to confirm if the phone was mine. My stylus was lost and the screen more damaged - however, I was so relieved due to the return of the phone. Many thanks to Rich !

At 6pm, I tried to connect to few MISM colleagues from fall batch (man, except Chris noone from the summer batch was present - what's wrong with the summers?). However, as none of the connections were coming through, I decided to hit the bar - it was fairly populated and the DJ had started going on -alongwith the crowd being energetic. Somewhere Sera (a fall MISMer) saw me but never joined to dance with me citing the reason that I was surrounded by gorgeous chics and that she didn't want to disturb me - silly Sera! Rest of the MISMs were too tired to even visit the bar ! Foggy Goggle was a nice little place - I wouldn't say it was the best - but say 4 .5 on a scale of 10 (with 10 being the best). The crowd was 7 on 10 for their enthusiasm. Moreover, I was there only for 45 mins as I had to come back to get into the bus by 7.20pm.

All in all - a fun outing for the winter and perfect timing as the fresh snow had made skiing environment conducive on the slopes and the day was relatively less chiller!

india calling...

nice video commentary on Udaipur over here....Venice of the East :)
Similar one on Agra - over here.

They remind me of the time when I visited these places over a decade ago or so :)
I like this commentary bySeven Network - he starts saying - 6 months ago, when I came I couldn't wait to leave this place and 6 months later, I want to come back to this place. Indians like to tell that they invented numbers, chess, and they have the Taj Mahal... :)

Besides check out this hilarious video on a north-Indian marriage by Raju Srivastav on Star One's show.

illegal drug trade

History channel had an insightful program on Illegal drug trade in US. It presented a historic perspective of events that happened and why today the drug trade is humongous(yes, $420b)

From 1900-1914, there was no law against use of any drugs. Cocaine was the most common one. Artifacts shown in the program indicated that quacks sold cocaine in different packaging indicating that it was cure for cold, pain, heart, anxiety, etc. Even well-qualified physicians prescribed morphine and cocaine unrestricted.

Circa 1914: Finally, when constitutional amendment was made with Harrison Act possession of cocaine and several other drugs was made illegal. Trade was illegal ...but not stopped. As much as 5% of the population was addicted and withdrawal symptoms were horrible.

During the Great Depression demand was not present for the drugs. However, Vietnam war started use of the same in large quantities back again. 70s, 80s, 90s, saw the Columbian drug cartels making huge money off this illegal trade. No wonder.....Pablo Escobar was the seventh richest man in the world with his Medellin cartel - de la untouchables. Raegan era asked to reduce demand by generating awareness and educating masses about the harmful side-effects of the same. Opium was gotten rid of in China in a similar way. I can attribute the increasing use of cocaine in the US and the rest of the developed world to rising discretionary income due to the huge boom they had for all these decades coupled with the culture (lesser faith in religion and more attraction to materialism).

As of today, popular rappers are into drug dealing - say the 50 cents guy and Nassir Jones (aka Nas Escobar) and if not, then drug-consumers: popular folks such as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and who can forget the Rolling Stones (they called cocaine as the champagne of drugs). There is a huge influence of all this on young minds - especially given the fact that at one time, Escobar controlled 80% of world's cocaine trade. World domination is every teenager's dream - more so of alpha males.

All in all, this was a nice documentary shown by History - I look forward to get the programming recorded in some ways and watch it - History channel rocks !

Bhangra-meter

Wow - Colbert is creative - never heard of that term before :)
Check out this post on sepia mutiny