With no plans in mind for the long weekend rented a Dodge Neon on Wednesday. The color of the car was awesome – Ferrari RED. My room mate and couple more colleagues are new to Seattle so I took the job of a guide to show paces nearby. Thursday went to Snoqualmie Falls and Bellevue. Friday was spent in Best buy and Circuit city. Unlike last year it was a boring shopping experience. The camera that I bought last year was not even present on the display this year. It has become outdated :- ( Hunted for a laptop for my colleague. Checking prices and configuration alone took more than couple of hours. Finally bought one and got disappointed as it was a damaged one. Saturday was spent on replacing that. We were asked to go to another Circuit city branch to collect that. Some bad omen was following us, couple of laptops they showed us were also damaged. Luckily we checked the pieces in the store itself. In the end settled for a HP notebook. Since the problem was with Circuit city,we got 100 USD off, plus a Sony car stereo and an optical mouse free!!! That was a great customer care. Driving experience was not as thrilling as the previous one expect couple of blushes while changing lanes. If someone has seen a red Dodge Neon in I-5 or 405, not sure of which lane it is going - That's ME.

Sunday - What a day it was

Went for Wal*Mart in the evening. We were killing time like anything in shoes, laptop accessories, crafts and other sections without realizing the blunder I made. By around 7:00 we decide to go out somewhere for dinner and reached the parking lot. I found that I forgot to switch off the head-lights. Tried to start the engine,but in vain. My room mate's mobile was running out of battery and we had to call the AAA services and hold in line for a long time. Luckily Wal*Mart had a phone booth and it helped a lot. It took one hour for the service guy to reach the place and tow the vehicle. Later i came to know that jump-start(never knew what it is) would have worked fine. Then called up a cab service for a pick up. Felt damn hungry and decided to finish the dinner in the McD inside Wal*Mart. We were waiting in the freezing cold for the Taxi. After an hour called up the cab service again to get the info – "We came sir, you were not there in the front". It was too much for the day. Pleaded the cab service to send another cab. At last around 9:00, one taxi driver came and reached the home by 9:30 after dropping couple of colleagues in the hotel. When we thought - ok that's all for the day, came a call from one of my colleague – "Machan, hotel room door is broken, my laptop is missing".

The weather here is getting better and better every day (at times feeling it is worse). Its fog, fog and fog in all places and all through the day. Couple of pics that I took over the weekend.

This is what that greets me as I come out of my apartment in the morning.

On my way to my home in the afternoon.

P.S. If you are wondering why this post? Sorry, it’s Monday. I am not in a mood to work. So thought, I would blog something and the result is this post… This is what Seattle weather does to everyone here.

Didn’t update the list of movies that ate my precious time in the last couple of weeks. Kind of busy(?!) in work. It’s a big list, I warn you.
Movies three weeks before:
இன்று போய் நாளை வா,கரகாட்டக்காரன்: Excellent comedy movies for all generations. You can watch for n number of times.
Promised my roomie that we'll have a week full of romantic movies – காக்க காக்க,அழகிய தீயே,ரோஜாகூட்டம்,பார்த்திபன் கனவு. I know காக்க காக்க doesn't exactly fit but that's ok.I saw அழகிய தீயே for the first time, it was ok kind of movie only. Expected a bit more after reading few good reviews long time back.
The Great Escape (English): This was a great movie. A must see for all, I would say. The story is about few prisoners of war trying to escape from a German jail during the world war. I guess this film might have been a source of inspiration for சிறைச்சாலை.
Double cross – Ek Dhoka: Before you jump into some weird conclusions let me explain. This is a HINDI movie. I can’t write anything about it. sh!t It was almost like a porn movie and imdb has classified it under comedy. Still wondering how the director came up with such an innovative thought. May be for people like me who watch any damn movie that gets released. I tried to give a link to the review of the movie from other sites but all are dangerous for office viewing.
Junior Mandrake & Meleparambil Aan Veedu(mallu movies): The former was good, the later was a crap.My roomie cheated me saying it was a comedy movie.

Couple of weeks before:
மஜா and சிவகாசி: Both were a big disappointment. I felt மஜா was a bit better than சிவகாசி. But most people feel the other way around. I think which ever you see first you feel it is better than the other. In மஜா, Asin’s name in the title stays longer than her actual screen presence. Luckily that wasn’t the case in சிவகாசி.If you fast forward songs, fight and the dialogues facing the audience then சிவகாசி will last just 10 mins and that is the title. Vijay hits each and every guy he sees – I recommend this to the Guinness book of records. I feel Vijay is trying to come up with movies worst than his previous ones.One good thing in the movie is Vijay’s intro. That was awesome.

Last weekend:
First time watching திருடா திருடி. It was a good time pass. Just to recollect the screenplay, saw ரோஜா,ரட்சகன்,கில்லி. Saturday went to the video store just few mins before the close and picked up ஜோடி,பிஸ்தா.Picking பிஸ்தா was a grave mistake,didn’t realize what movie was it as the guy in the store reminded about the closing time. Made lot of fun whenever Trisha appeared in ஜோடி.I wish my ex-roomie Mr BM’s was here.Simran-க்கு 'கொடுக்'கா இருந்ததுக்கு எல்லாம் வாழ்வு ம்..

I am definitely getting mad after heavy dose of movies. Need to look for alternate source of entertainments, after watching few movies this weekend ;-)

No gifts for the guess. I crawled to post number 100.It took me just over a year i.e. almost two posts per week. Not a mean achievement by my standards (?!?!). I am now going to look back how I landed into blogging and matured (in blogging, I mean). So you guys have no option other than to read this rubbish post. It all started on 2004 October. I was googling for geekbrains.info (a site of my friend).Google god had lazygeek.net as its first result. Read this post first and then bookmarked the site to explore later. After few days when I opened the site I was greeted by a different post. I was surprised - Why does a guy change his site often? And then realized that there is something called Web log in the internet world. I got curious and wanted to start a blog.I know nothing other than lazy's site. Found the link called "blogroll me" in the sidebar. Hopped to blogrolling. It said register for free and immediately started the registration process (free registarion-na விட்ருவோமா?). It asked for the blog url. I was clueless. Googled and landed on blogger.Didn't think too much about the title, url and what to write (that is why everything is out of sync now). Just started with one of worst intros I would give. Decided to write something that improves my writing skills and useful for others(?!). I thought I would be a critic on whatever I come across. There were couple of posts that were written with some serious thought. And when I re-read them, found that they are as bad as a rotten egg omelet. Then decided to write my travelogues, pictures and funny thoughts I come across. Though the posts after that are not great but they weren't bad either (agree with me please…please) Lot of things went through my mind during this period. Why the number of comments, visitors are as less as a Ganguly's score? (எப்படி தான் பொண்ணுங்க blog-க்கு மட்டும் comment மழை பொழியுதோ?!) Am I writing too bad, too less, too methodological? Do I have enough writing skills? At times felt i had nothing to write,will stop blogging etc.,There were few encouragements on the way such as this post has been listed in one of the blog mela hosted by Amit, Mukund chose my blog as blog of the day in indibloggers once,blogstreet india listed my blog on freshblogs list and few friends had a word of praise for my writing skills (சொன்னா நம்பனும் proof எல்லாம் கேக்ககுடாது...). You will not believe this - one of my posts had been plagiarized (Even a Xerox machine would have felt proud about the job done by the author). There are few posts I hate and want to delete (e.g., Where did they go wrong?). But dropped that idea so that I am aware of my stupidity. Ok before you guys start yawning I'll finish this post. The bottom line is: Writing this blog has benefited me a lot despite the mistakes I have done. So people who don't have a blog and have plenty of time, do start one. Thanks for all your support.

There was a drama of Y.Gee. Mahendran in Seattle (Kirkland) last Sunday.It was organized by HTCC as a part of Deepavali celebration and as a fund raising event for the temple. As usual it was a rainy Sunday evening with cool breeze. Reached the theatre half-an hour early and looked around the crowd. I thought there was a Ghazal program in the near by area. I was fooled when everyone they spoke in Tamil...You can't make it out from their outlook :-( Found a seat in the centre and did the usual eavesdropping. Just back to my seat couple of females were chatting. Looked like it is there first meet. The conversation went like this:

Lady1: Where do you stay?
Lady2: I am in xyz apt? What about u?
Lady1: I am in zxy apt?
Lady2: Have you ever been to dramas?
Lady1: No this is the first time. Do you know how Y.Gee's performance will be?
Lady2: I don't know. I have been to Crazy Mohan's. His stage drama is not good as his stand-up comedy. (?!?!?!)

Me (to myself): What's wrong with you people? வந்து இருக்கது தமிழ் நாடகத்துக்கு, ரெண்டு பேருக்குமே தமிழ் தெரியும்...எதுக்கு இந்த English Peter....திருந்தவே மாட்டிங்களா? Ok enough of my rant.

The show started on time. First, was a skit named "மௌனம் சங்கடம் " for about 30 mins by Y.Gee group.Nothing great in that, troubles faced by a guy who opts for மௌன விரதம் for a day. Second was - Bhajans by a group of kids. The curtains spread out & lights focused on the kids. One kid said mummy and started walking off the stage. He quickly realized that he has to sing and then joined back with his group. As the bhajans got into a rhythm, the shortest of the kid got into a dancing mood and started shaking her hip. One kid even made fun of the other who was not in sync with the troop. Everyone in the theatre had a great time. I miss the interaction & fun with kids ever since I came out of my town. I regret for that every now and then. I have this bad habit of forgetting my camera when most needed and this was one such day. All cuties were dressed beautifully. Third was the drama "காதலிக்க நேரமுண்டு" by Y.Gee group. It was hilarious and I had nice time laughing aloud. The crowd was very decent. In one scene the dialogue goes like this.....Y.Gee says - உன்னோட உடுக்கும் வேண்டாம், பு...... and he didn't complete the word. I am the only one clapping for the word that he swallowed. I heard a couple next to me whispering to each other - What is that? What is that? Me (to myself): ரொம்ப நல்ல school-a படிச்சவங்க போல இருக்கு ;-) Unlike last year this was a different Deepavali celebration this year and I am really happy about that.

What is the difference between a stage drama and stand-up comedy?Please enlighten me...