Social Nightmare

I just saw Verizon’s latest commercial (sorry couldn’t find it on the internet yet) in which they show this family of four: Mom, dad and teenage son and daughter. Mom and dad are abusing the social network Facebook and Twitter. Mom writes ‘I love you’ on daughter’s Facebook wall while the dad keeps twittering each and every detail of his daily life on Twitter.  

That reminded me of the time when I was debating the idea of inviting my mom to Orkut. I think that was just an year back. Orkut (or any social network for that matter) gives a nice platform where you can easily share photos with entire family (if you have your entire family on Orkut), write small messages and in general know about what’s going on in their lives without calling them everyday. But on the other hand they get to know how and what your friends are saying to  you. And after much deliberation of such kind I finally   invited my mom to Orkut. Plus my mom does love socializing (as opposed to my dad) and a few of her friends were already on Orkut. And obviously I didn’t want my mom to lag behind her friends just because of my personal   considerations. And honestly I haven’t regretted it, except may be once: My mom gave me a testimonial on Orkut! It’s actually a sweet testimonial but how many people do you know who “proudly”  show their parent’s testimonial (it’s more like the commercial: mom writing on daughter’s wall)? Seriously. But since I care more about my mom’s feelings than the random acquaintances, I did publish the testimonial. 

The point being: I completely understand the awkwardness of situation described in the commercial. Social networks as Orkut, Facebook are still ok but I simply can’t imagine any of my folks on Twitter! That’s where I draw the line. I think that will cross the border of embarrassing. It’s definitely way beyond awkward. Imagine my mom twittering (And I don’t want to go to the replies she might get for these lines…) :

“Am worried about my daughter. She hasn’t called in weeks!”  

“Daughter has upset stomach.”

“Looking for suitable matches for my daughter.” 

You get the picture. It’s a horrible idea! I am so glad my mom’s internet knowledge depends on me. I can rest easy though my technology-loving mom might be able to figure out on her own too. I must be always on my guard.

Vaijayanti Mala

…well sort of.

Vaijayanti Mala is my Dad’s favorite actress so when I found this picture of her on the net, I had to sketch it. I understand, it’s far from perfect but nearly everyone instinctively refers hers as Madhubala. My mom explained the reasoning behind that. She says  that this particular sketch reminds her of movie Madhumati and she is obviously Vaijayanti Mala. And when you combine the two, the mind automatically comes up with Madhubala instead of Vaijayanti Mala.

So if you also thought she is Madhubala, I forgive you and remind you that I was trying to sketch Vaijayanti Mala. Hmph…

Audrey Hepburn

..or rather her likeness. Or may be my version of her.

Marilyn Monroe

Someday, I will achieve perfection. Till then, you have to do with these. (also I need more patience working on the dark tones..)

BTW, today was Marilyn Monroe’s 47th death anniversary.

Names, Names!

Few days back a friend of mine updated his status on Facebook saying:

Love aaj kal: Yuck! (Love these days: Yuck!)

Now as Bollywood-ignorant as I am, I thought poor guy must have had a heart break. Thankfully I didn’t comment anything to that effect on his status. Two-three days later another friend, from a completely different circle, updated her Orkut status to:

Love aaj kal: Hyped. (Love these days: Hyped.)

Now I knew I was missing something as this was too big a coincidence. Well as it turns out, Love aaj kal is a Bollywood movie starring Saif Ali Khan. I think I need a RSS feed on Bollywood releases.

Anyway, today something very similar happened. I was trying to write an official cover letter for a specific form. And as usual, I googled for the sample cover letter (for that specific form) and found it at some other school’s site. The site also provided a checklist for submitting that particular form. One of the item on the checklist said:

Cover letter signed by Ms. English.

And I thought they want the cover letter to be grammatically sound but as you can imagine things were not as simple. It turns out Ms. English is the person in charge of the whole process in that school. Hence they need the signature from her!

Life is kinda funny, if you ask me !

Nostalgic

It all started today morning, when I received an email from Google Adsense (you know the advertizing links you see on the blog). Apparently I have crossed $10 threshold and hence I need to enter my payment options and all that. I earned my first $10! After 2 years of blogging… Yes that’s how long I have been writing this blog. I checked. I know I have like 10 regular readers who read this blog, who accidentally click on those advertisements but who keep checking this url even if I haven’t updated it in weeks. A big ‘thank you’ to you all! You know who you are…

If it was possible I would have taken you guys out for coffee today and spent $20 out of that $10. Honestly. I never thought, I will ever cross this threshold! When I first set up my blog, I put up the advertisements because almost every blog I visited had them. And since I was new to blogging, I thought that was the trend. I didn’t check my Adsense account after that. But today is like a historic day for me.

I never celebrated this blog’s b’day as I thought it was silly but today I feel very nostalgic. It’s been slightly over than two years since I started this blog. I complained and I groaned, I procrastinated and I pulled all-nighters, I shared my projects and my home-works, I shared my dreams and my nightmares…

Oh well, in one word, I feel very nostalgic today. I just wanted to say thank you guys for listening to my non-stop rambling and complaints! You guys are the best!



P.S.: Just to lighten the mood, I quote the Google adsense mail (the mail that started all this drama):

“Keep in mind that you have 6 months to enter the verification code. If you have not entered your verification code within 4 months, we'll start displaying Public Service Ads (PSAs) on your web pages.”

Aishwarya…

…well sort of.

Aishwarya Rai

P.S.: Sketching bug has bitten me and you have to endure the results. Silver lining: I am posting daily.

Just imagine

Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary is an interesting character. I just read a New York Times article on the guy and came across his plans to charge the passenger for using the airplane bathroom. Now that opens so many possibilities for my wicked, over-active imagination.

For those who are not familiar with Ryanair, it’s a budget airline that primarily operates in Europe. And when they say budget, they mean it. It costs $60-$70 to fly between most of it’s destinations. Obviously there are hassles attached to flying Ryanair as strict baggage specifications. Paying for food/drinks. etc. etc. The New York Times did a good job of describing a budget airline:

Miss your flight because you had to wait too long at a Ryanair help desk? Too bad! Your luggage is slightly overweight? Throw away the excess, or wear it on the flight! Try to tote your duty-free purchases onto the plane in a shopping bag, when you already have a carry-on bag? Prepare to fork over $40 at the gate.

And as Michael O’Leary puts it aptly:

“Our customer service is unlike every other airline, which has this image of, ‘We want to fall down at your feet and you can walk all over us and the customer is always right,’ and all that nonsense.”

So you get an idea about the budget airlines and specifically, Ryanair. Anyway, so the latest in the series of things they charge, are the Bathroom visits which opens a whole new world of possibilities where things can go wrong.

Now just imagine, for some unknown/stupid reason, you got a full bladder while on the flight and you don’t have any money on you. It’s cold in the cabin and you are crammed in your seat (the budget airline seat). And as it so often happens in the flight, the airplane passes through atmospheric turbulence and starts shaking...

Well you get the picture. This story opened door to so many possibilities. Someone else also had one such scenario for Michael O’Leary:

What if the plane were stricken by some nasty, effluent illness, like food poisoning?

A snorting noise wafted over from the chair where Mr. O’Leary was sitting. “We don’t serve enough food for everybody to get food poisoning,” he said.

P.S.: 1. The news about charging the bathroom visits is an old one but since I live in the United States of America, I don’t subscribe to the news from the rest of the world. I came to know about this today as the New York Times decided to do the Saturday Profile on Mr. O’Leary.

2. To quote Mr. O’Leary once more, this time on the topic of America:

“People will say” — here Mr. O’Leary adopted a whiny voice — “ ‘As the Founding Fathers wrote down in the American Constitution, we have the inalienable right to bear arms and send in our complaints by e-mail.’

“No, you bloody don’t! So go away.”

3. I think I admire his bluntness and his eccentricity. He is hilarious.

Gandhi

And today’s sketch is Mahatma Gandhi…

Reality shows

The other day my room-mate and I were discussing the reality shows. We wondered how the participants of reality shows get so many days off from their work in order to participate in these absurd shows (neither of us had any idea!).

Anyway, today I found this gem:

[In response to the question: "Have you ever seen 'American Idol'?"]
“No, I have never watched it. But I’m thankful we’re living in a world where we can actually afford to waste your time. What a great thing that is.”

— Arlo Guthrie, “Questions for Arlo Guthrie,” The New York Times Magazine

Bing

The new search engine, oops I mean the decision engine by Microsoft has been in market for 2 months now. I haven’t tried it yet. The simplest reason being, my Mozilla Firefox doesn’t have it as an option in the tiny search window at the top. Though I have doubts that I will use it even if I had the option. I am a loyal Google user.

My loyalty to Google is multifold. On the superficial level, Google is a Mountain View company (again I use the phrase: it’s in my backyard.). It provides free wi-fi to the entire Mountain View town. Then the founders of Google are Stanford Alumni. And Google treats it’s employees really well. It’s a dream company even though it’s not from my field.

On the deeper level, lies my abhorrence towards Microsoft. We all know how Microsoft treats us when it’s the major holder of the market: remember the way they forced Windows Vista on us? Google, on the other hand, started as a small company that came up with an amazing search engine and provided it for free and still earned money. Almost all the products from Google are available free of cost: Google Earth, Blogger, Gmail, Google Search engine, Picasa, Google reader, Google Videos (except the premium version of Google Earth, everything else is available free). Even the products like Google Earth and Picasa are free!

But in all fairness, I haven’t tried Bing yet. And Microsoft did have a few policy changes in recent time, like providing Windows Live Writer for free. So may be I should give Bing a try and then reject it. Oh Yes, I am pre-disposed to reject the product. I am heavily biased when it comes to Google. Can’t help it!

Princess Diana

At least now I can tell you who I was trying to sketch. She is not perfect but she does come close, don’t you think?

 

 

Dreams

Have I ever mentioned that I have an over-active imagination? Especially when it come to dreams. I have had dreams like a movie and movies like dream. At times my dreams have sequels. No kidding. I have had dreams that were continuation of a previous dream. And at times they are so real that they feel like a forgotten memory in my waking hours.

Anyway, the point of the post (or the point of my current pointless rambling): for past few days I have been dreaming about snakes. Now I don't have any special affinity or animosity with snakes unlike cockroaches or mosquitoes (I have inexplicable urge to kill them whenever I spot one). So I have no idea about reason behind my subconscious’ sudden fascination about snakes.

Anyhow, I am dreaming about snakes these days and I remember, from my superstitious days, that dreaming about snakes means I will get some money. And since I have got any so far, I called up my mom to confirm the superstition. As it turns out dreaming about snake isn’t enough, you need to be bitten by them in order to get that money. Now this goes against all my instincts. My subconscious won’t allow it (thankfully). In all my dreams so far I have been trying very hard not to get bitten by a snake. I duck, I run, I scream, I hide and once I even exorcised in order to avoid getting bitten by one of those snakes. Yes that’s right, exorcism. It was actually a rather interesting dream which involved my whole family and Sridevi’s character from the movie Nagina. Basically, in my dream, she possessed my mom (like exorcist possession). My family and I were trying to get rid of her (no laughing. It was a very serious thing when I was dreaming it.). And finally I (the heroine of my own movie, er, I mean dream) was able to exorcise her out of my mom. Though before she went she said that she will be back and take her revenge on me. I am still waiting for the sequel.  

In any case, no snake-biting again so no money. Poor me! Guess I should get back to work and earn it instead of dreaming it. :)

Ta da…

… and all that. I am finally done and here is the new look. Oh wait! I never mentioned I was working on new template. Well I had been working on this for past week.

I was tempted to use the freely available templates but somehow they weren’t personal enough so I tried my hand on making my own. So here it is. Will appreciate your comments…

Weekend doodling

After a long long long time, I picked up my pencils again. Wasted a lot of papers before I got back some of my rhythm. I know its far from perfect and may be should be allowed on the net but nevertheless here is one of the product of my weekend endeavors. Don’t ask me who I was trying to sketch. You won’t believe me if I told you!

Indians…

Cute, isn’t it? May be you have already seen it but I just discovered it so I had to post it!

Reminds me of this song:

Hum logon ko samajh sako to samjho dilbar jaani
Jitna bhi tum samjhoge utni hogi hairaani

Apni chhatri tumko dedein kabhi jo barse paani
Kabhi naye packet mein bechein tumko cheez puraani
Phir bhi dil hai hindusatni, Phir bhi dil hai hindustani

(Understand us if you can
More you will try, more surprised you will be

We will give you our umbrella when it rains
And at times we will try to sell old stuff in new package
But still our heart is Indian)… Or something to that effect

Joke from 1930s

And it is pretty good one:

Teacher - “Johnny, what's the difference between a battle and a massacre?”

Johnny - “A battle is where whole lot of whites kill a few Indians, and a massacre is where a lot of Indians kill a few whites.”

Laughter Quota

Few people have amazing sense of humor. The person I am talking about today is the best when it comes to it. He has always been able to crack me up. So when I found his profile on Orkut, I had to go through the profile. It ws a pretty succinct and straightforward profile. So I clicked to the professional tab. You know where you need to write about which High School or college (the name of school or university as St. Ann’s or IIT) you attended, your occupation etc.

It contained one line:

High School: Passed

I donated blood…

...on last Friday. I know this is a belated post but I had been very busy this week. Add to it, the post-blood donation weakness... well long story short, I didn’t have much time this past week.

But honestly donating blood is an exhilarating experience. I have been jumping up and down since then. And then my hemoglobin level is 14.1, way above then it has ever been in my life. So I am happy. :) (That’s for the biggest smile ever..)

P.S.: 1. I lost my original stickers (another reason why this post is so late) so I took some artistic liberties to make these ones up.

2. Filling up their questionnaire, I realized I am so glad I am not a gay guy. It’s virtually impossible for them to donate blood.

Weekend Discovery

Although I have often said, I hate driving but it does come with it’s own perks. Like exploring the town one lives in. Last time when I took out my car on a whim, I discovered Japanese Tea garden in San Francisco. Today, I discovered something  much closer to home. In fact, one can say this beautiful place is literally in my back yard and I didn’t know about it. I have been living in this place for past 5 years. I have passed the gate to the Shoreline Lake quiet a few times but always thought it is a private property.

 

Last week while browsing through the internet (I think I was searching for Bird sanctuaries in Bay area) I discovered about Shoreline Lake. So today I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised. Luckily we had a beautiful weather today. Not too hot, not too cold. Just perfect. There were clouds in the sky (it rained for 45 seconds, I think) which made for few interesting shots...

And these were just the places I could cover by walking (I still have restriction when it comes to walking). I couldn’t go to kite flying area. And since it was cloudy, I didn’t stay for sunset. I think I have found a new haunt and I will be returning there frequently.

 

 

P.S.: Okay, I admit it. I love Windows Live Writer. More specifically, I like the way I can change the layout and borders (Photopaper for the photographs here) for the photographs. Result: this post. I suck at writing travel post or any kind of formal post. Hope you at least like the photographs...

FB

A friend of mine on Facebook “wonders why developers insist on naming things using acronyms. Is there an advantage to calling a file FFFPSICQP.cpp?”  :)

I cried

watching this…

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/07/07/sot.paris.jackson.aeglive

A daughter saying goodbye to his father. Initially I heard it on radio and it touched me and then I saw the video...

Block

Yet another writer's block, I guess. I had three unfinished draft in my list at the moment including the one of Michael Jackson's death and the one on Delhi HC decision on section 377 of Indian Penal code. The third draft was on nonsensical scale called BMI for measuring body fat. But they didn't make it to the light of the day on time and so now I have bidden them a final farewell.

Hopefully this post will break the curse and I will be back in the game. Keep your fingers crossed...

Weekend

I am desperate to go photographing: I went to Pride parade on Sunday. Complete waste of time though. Couldn’t get many shots as the stupid TV camera guy kept jumping in my shots. Not that there was much to shoot. Simply put, not my kind of event.

One of the few shot that I took and liked is on the left. A photographer trying to take picture though she was luckier than me. She was in the parade route unlike me who was shoved in the sidelines. I need to find good spots in bay area to take pictures where I haven’t been. I am bored...

They brought their own gavel!

As I was driving back today, I heard this piece of news (click on ‘Listen now’) on National Public Radio (NPR). Simply entertaining. The transcript of the report is below:

Today was supposed to be the day New York state government got back to work. The state senate has been paralyzed for two weeks. There was a failed legislative goo and a dispute over which party was in-charge. Governor David Paterson used his powers to compel state senators to meet today but as NPR’s Robert smith report the senators didn’t exactly corporate:

The political battle over who controls the New York’s state senate became more like a child’s game of calling dibs today. First, Democrats and Republicans plotted to see who can get to the podium first to hold the gavel and then they proceeded to ignore each other. This came after governor David Paterson had basically told both sides to grow up and show up in special session this afternoon.

David Paterson: “Over last couple of weeks, the senators conduct has been laughable but what’s going on around here these days is no joke and I don’t find it funny.”

Perhaps surreal is better term. Let’s recap. On June 8th Republicans tried to take over the state senate from the Democrats. Two Democrats defected to help the Republicans out and then one re-defected back. So long story short, the New York state senate became tied and for weeks no one has been able to figure out who is in-charge. Democratic state senator Eric Schneiderman told reporters this afternoon that negotiations broke down over who would run the special session.

Eric Schneiderman: “We don’t want this to be a circus and we are asking the Republicans to enter in an operating agreement. They have refused to do that. They are still focusing on the issue whether or not June 8th vote was valid and who is the president of senate?”

You see the Republicans had a plan. If the New York state senate’s special session was at 3 o’clock this afternoon, they were going to show up at 2 o’clock and try and hold their own session. That way they will be standing at the podium and at least visually in-charge. But at 12:30, the Democrats launched a sneak attack. They entered into senate chamber through a back hallway and locked the doors. State Democratic senators stood vigilant at podium then the senator Republicans got into the chamber and try to start their session ignoring the Democrats and ostensibly passing bills. They brought their own gavel. The Democrats started another legislative session with their gavel and started talking over the Republicans. Both sides claim to have passed bills even though no one has a majority. Governor David Paterson called it a farce and says he is disgusted.

David Paterson: “ I feel that they should be punished for what they have done, that they should stay here everyday, Saturdays, Sundays, July 4th and every other time until they remember they work for the people of the state of New York and not for themselves.”

The clock is ticking. On July 1st various taxes and labor agreements won’t go into effect if not approved by the state legislator and damage to senate’s reputation is already done. A poll released yesterday show a record number of people saying New York state is headed in a wrong direction: 63%. A majority called the senate a deadlock and an embarrassment, Robert Smith, NPR news, New York.

Simply hilarious! You know, at times radio is so much better than TV. I don’t think video recording of the event would have been as funny as this report. All they needed to do was to close the report by saying: “That ladies and gentlemen was the story called “Gavel struggle”, read for you by Robert Smith”.

Now I know why they say, ‘Reality is funnier than fiction’.

Please don’t…

As usual I am complaining. And today I am complaining about the Orkut users. Well honestly, it’s about the Orkut users I know, which means technically they are my “friends” though I am not sure how can I become friends with so less common sense. And may be I am out of line on few of them but they irritate me immensely so here they are:

- Please don’t comment on your wife’s album containing your baby’s pictures saying how amazing she (the baby) looks. I understand she means the world to you, but to the world you look dumb by doing so. 

- Please don’t change your name to phrases as “Never say never” or to symbols as “..” and expect me to guess who you are when you comment or scrap. Especially when  your profile picture is a rose and you are sending a friendship request asking me “Remember me?”. How on Earth am I suppose to guess who you are, forget about “remembering you”? 

- Please don’t post your baby’s picture as your profile picture. Some of us are trying to find an old friend whose name might be same as yours but we have no idea how his or her baby might look like. It’s really annoying to attempt guessing how your baby’s mom or dad looks like while staring at his or her picture. You can put a picture of your baby with you, if you do want to show off your baby.

- Please don’t use your spouse’s profile as your own. You can create your own profile. You know it’s FREE. It doesn’t cost you anything. It’s weird leaving a scrap for you at your spouse’s profile. I understand that you two are two bodies and one soul and all that but for some unknown reason you still have two separate friend circles. I have not met your spouse. EVER. So please understand the weirdness of the situation from my point of view.

- Please don’t mix and match the location. Your current location is the location where you currently live and work. You can’t be in Allahabad and Washington, D.C. at the same time. They are practically half the globe away from each other!

- Please don’t put photos of celebrities as your profile picture. No matter how much you adore those celebrities, THEY ARE NOT YOU. Sooner you realize that, better it’s for you.

- Please don’t write your name in a language unknown to some of your friends. Be polite and write in  English. I feel unwelcomed by such gestures.

(from: http://www.know-insurance.co.uk/)

P.S.: Yes they all are real incidents.

My Monday Mornings…

 

Back

   Well hopefully. I took out my camera after a long time (six months!) yesterday. I have been itching to do so for past 2-3 months now. I have decided to shoot in RAW now. This means, I need a large memory card and a lot of post-processing time. However, its worth it. I went to Japanese Tea garden (Golden Gate Park) yesterday. I still can’t walk as much so I was restrained in the area I parked my car. However, Tea garden turned out to be fun. If you visit bay area, do visit Japanese tea garden. Its very calm place as you can see.

I am going to Stanford Commencement today. Few of my friends are graduating and asked me to take their pictures. Hopefully I will be up to the task.  

The Dog Ate My Homework 1.2.0

The newest way for getting out of the HW deadlines:

1. Click on this link and purchase the word file.

2. Rename the file to a more appropriate one.

3. Email the file to your professor as your HW.

Internet gets the blame and you get extra time to finish the HW. :)

Indian Muslims

Indian Muslims strikes back! It’s simply awesome.

The crude transcript of what Maulana Madani said to Musharraf is:

Maulana: “Musharraf Sahab, first of all I would like to congratulate you for starting the politics of Pakistan from India. Congratulations to you. Secondly, I would like to ask a question. The population of Muslims living in India are larger than total population of Pakistan, hopefully you know it.”

Musharraf responds, “Yes I know that.”

Maulana continues: “If you know that then you should also know that Indian muslim knows how to solve his problems. We don’t need your advice.” Musharraf nods. Applause from the audience.

Maulana: “Lastly, I want to say this: You ruled Pakistan for so many years and you are accepting that war/Jihad is being conducted from both sides of border. Whether it’s being conducted from both side or not but now we know that at least it’s being conducted from one side by your confession.” Audience laughs. Musharraf looks grumpy.

Maulana: “You can do whatever you want. In this civil society of India, more than 70% , I am being conservative otherwise more than 90%, of population supports Indian Muslims and are ready to fight for them. So please don’t try to alienate Indian Muslims by making any remark, whether it’s made in India or Pakistan. Please. Thank you.”

Pro-life

BBC reports: Shot abortion doctor buried in US. Apparently an anti-abortionist, or so called pro-life propagator, shot a doctor who used to perform abortions. How can anyone anyone can call him- or her-self pro-life and then go shoot someone? Is the life of an unborn baby more valuable than a living person? How can they call themselves pro-life?

And that’s not it! They had the audacity of staging an anti-abortion demonstration at his funeral! First they murder him and then when his family and friends grieve for him, they turn up with their pickets to demonstrate a political issue! How dare they? Do they even know the meaning of life that they are so determined to protect? How dare they show up at his funeral to protest?

Most of us have lost a loved one at some point in our life. Dealing with that kind of loss is one of the most difficult thing to do. At that time, instead of apologizing for being the cause of their grievance, how can they come over and protest? Am I the only one who finds this appalling?  

P.S.: 1. I know the news about shooting is old but the news of protest at his funeral simply disgusted me.

2. I am not taking sides in the debate of pro-life or pro-choice. Simply reacting to the outrageous news.

Taxes …

… and what all we do to save them? For example, Proctor and Gamble actually claimed that Pringles® are not potato chips. Really! They went to Britain’s Supreme Court of Judicature claiming that Pringles® are not potato chips even though they have 40% potato flour. Forget about it looking and tasting like a potato chip. But thankfully courts in Britain are not as crazy and they ruled against it. Guess,there is still hope for this world. At least it’s not entirely insane..