Muranpaadu

My Valentine

2008-02-14T19:01:00.001-08:00

It was on my mind for quite a longtime. After serious thoughts for a week, finally made up my mind to submit a proposal a week before Valentine's day. I wasn't sure if it would turn out positive. No need to say the pressure you undergo waiting for something you longed for. Yep.....i got the positive response exactly on Valentine's day. I am really excited to introduce my sweet heart. Here you go - Click to find her...

A good one...

2007-12-19T20:12:00.000-08:00

This one is very good - அனுப்பப்படாத ஒரு கடிதம்!!

Something Special....

2007-12-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

Read this first - Sandhya turns singer. I saw that particular program. Really, i thought the song is played from the movie. She gave here best that day. I had a wish that she sings a song in a film. You wish for something, hadn't shared that with anyone, neither had put any effort to make it true. When such a wish comes true, for sure you'll be in cloud nine as I am.

Few other posts related to Sandhya - click here

A Jackass named Vengsarkar

2007-10-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Indian cricket squad selection has seldom used right policies to select players. So it's not a great surprise to see them drop Dravid. I am great fan of Dravid. I myself felt that he needs a break. Probably he should have opted out for the last two matches against Australia. Dropping him and giving some stupid reasons is awful. Vengsarkar's interview sucks as badly as him. He should have known how to get the message across to the media. Rested, rotated, dropped, need to prove himself by playing Ranji, all these are the words used by him in different interviews in the last few days. Screw him, i say. Meanwhile, see how Dravid's fan has reacted. No protest, no effigy burning, as gentle as Dravid(Think of what happened when Ganguly was dropped.) Because, everyone knows, Dravid is a class act, even if he doesn't bounce back.

Diffen.com

2007-10-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Diffen is a site developed and launched by couple of my friends. Here is a brief intro about what Diffen is about (from their site) - "What is the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R? What is the difference between a pub and a bar? What is the difference between a Plasma TV and an LCD TV? Cal Tech and UCLA? Yankees and the Red Sox? Diffen can help you find (and write!) all these comparisons and more." Do visit the site for more interesting informations.

Weird, again....

2007-09-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

One among today's headlines in The Hindu - Ensure bandh does not affect normal life. I wonder, how that could happen? I repeat, we live in a weird World.

Weird

2007-09-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Read this first - Divorce through video-conferencing, at least the first paragraph. Did you notice this - "wife living in Australia and the husband in the U.S"? Why the f**k do they need a divorce?!??! What next? Marriage through video-conferencing?!?! Or has that happened already? We are living in a weird World, isn't it? I wish they soon find out a way to live in Mars, please.

Oops...

2007-05-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

No need to say, it's been a lengthy gap from blogging. I am thinking of slowly getting back to blogging soon. But, things I missed blogging will always be missed - books, revisiting friends, relatives, Chennai life, movies, ever growing love with my MacBook. Sandilyan's Yavan Rani is one hell of a novel which makes you go mad if you didn't complete it at one go. It's simply amazing. Scott Adam's books are ultimate fun to read when starting the day. Few good movies are: Mozhi, Paruthiveeran, Unnale Unnale. And more importantly, i am in Portland for the last one month on a short business trip. Went to Seattle for couple of days. Lived the same life that I had enjoyed for around 28 months.

Rants...

2007-01-18T07:56:00.000-08:00

As usual, accommodating to new environment takes time and sacrifices. Things I was completely aware are pollution, traffic, crowd, poor customer service. Only thing that took me by surprise was work environment. I am completely shocked to see such a bad atmosphere to work. First and foremost is the noise level. It is intolerable. I like the work place to be casual but with no noise. Next, lack of clarity on what to do. A developer is given all sorts of trouble, so that he doesn't complete his tasks. He is never said on what they are trying to accomplish as a whole. 200% true. People still see you with cunningness if you leave office by 6:30 P.M. Damn it, I come by 7:30 A.M. Most people start the day by noon. People misuse the term flexible work timings. Tasks are assigned on the fly. Might be there are some mistakes from my part also. But the crux is, the developer is not given enough freedom. Somehow i get the feeling that being process oriented means running a hurdles race than a regular one.

On personal front, you get surprises from all corners. You meet an old friend while waiting for a bus, in a restaurant, railway station etc., You feel elated when the maligai kadai annachi near by your home recognizes you. You feel happy in some corner of your heart, when you see the girl whom you remember for long still stays single ;-) If you don't have a mobile then people decide you are from Uganda. People make you feel uncomfortable by questioning about your age, marriage and all those nonsense. Not enough time and opportunity to spend on blogs and other tools. So far managed things as if swallowing a bitter pill. Don't know whether i am going to burst out or handle things with a smile.

Leaving Seattle

2006-11-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

After exactly 28 months, I am leaving from Seattle, returning to India. If I have to summarize the experience in a word – it is AWESOME. This post is to get my thoughts registered about my stay so far is Edmonds/Seattle/US. Looking back from the day I landed here there are numerous things I learnt, experienced, enjoyed. My ignorance had no bounds when I came here (still the same case though). Few things are – US is slightly bigger than India in terms of geographical area. Mercedes and BMW are same brands. There are only two time zones. I do not know what a blog is. The list goes on. Got the answers for these things now. Things I like about this place are: First is the weather. Man, Mother Nature blesses this place largely. If you think of rain, it starts raining. The breeze when I start to office is bliss. Food is the next thing I love. I tried different cuisines after coming here. Italian, Malay, Vietnamese, Thai, etc., all were good. As expected, work culture was good. All these factors made my stay here most peaceful part of my life. Most people feel that this place is most depressing because of gloomy skies. I also had those times but thank god, that did not last long. Though I struggled to get a driving license, the driving experience after that was pleasant. Visited few great places – Crater Lake, Leavenworth, HWY1 drive, tulip fests. The number of movies I watched here is greater than the total number of movies I saw in 25 years in India. Thanks to torrents, Online DVD rentals, Mayuri, Bharat bazar, live movies sites, free downloads. Most of them were craps, no doubt. Made some great friends, which I never thought would be possible after you come out of college life. I developed guts to do rafting, sand duning. I love the way they treat the customers. “Keep things simple” is the motto. Most people I met are clear communicators. I got opportunity to stay with different roomies during this period. Each one of them was interesting. I hope that they also find the same about me. Things I am going to miss – food places, ever smiling BOA tellers, the shuttle driver who learnt few Tamil words, the old Chinese lady who packs two veggie rolls whenever she sees me in her food stall, weekend trip to Redmond, hang out(?!) at Mayuri, lovely view of moon from my bedroom window, rain, rain and more rain.

I wrote this post couple of weeks back while in Frankfurt airport but somehow took this long to post.

Bulb-4

2006-11-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

Couple of days back, two kids knocked my apartment door around 8:00 PM. From the way they have dressed I guessed it is their Halloween celebration. The little one showed her bag, I looked into it and took a chocolate. I saw her parents giggling right next to my door. I said thanks and the kids left with an amused look. I closed the door, bragged to my friend that I got a treat. He said “Idiot, as per the culture you have to give them something if they visit your home during Halloween.” However hard I try not to be stupid it doesn’t work out.

Previous Bulbs - 1, 2 and 3

Labor Day Trip-2006

2006-10-23T04:33:00.000-07:00

Couple of months old travelogue. A day at Crater lake and a day at Florence was planned to perfection. We started our trip in two cars on Friday night. One of my friends came down from SFO, we picked him up from airport and accelerated the rented Camry. We had doubt in couple of places on which turns to take, followed our instincts and it worked to perfection. At around 3 O'clock we noticed that the fuel level has dropped considerably. We started looking for the next available gas station. To our shock we didn't find one single gas station on OR-58 E. Our worries started creeping as we have to travel quite a lot. The reserve indicator started blinking, we still didn't find any gas station. We had to travel past Crater lake to the lodge where we booked our rooms. My tank got full, i wanted to have a leak immediately. The whole route was isolated and it was darkness at it best. I tried hard to be a socially responsible person but i wasn't the winner against nature's call. ஒரு ஓராம வண்டிய போட்டுட்டு matter-அ ஏறக்குன அப்புறம் தான் நிம்மதி. இதுல இருந்து fuel கண்டுபிடுச்சா என்னனு அப்ப தான் ஒரு super idea தோணுச்சு. Patent-kku apply பண்ணனும். We drove,drove and drove. Finally found the lodge. We thought one other car might have arrived there before us, as they started early. We didn't find the car. We knew that room no.3 and no.5 has been alloted to us and the key will be available near the window. All rooms were individual cottages. We were so happy that for 50 dollars we got such a good place to stay. Went near room no.5 and knocked. Got a response from an American. We suspected that its not the place that we are supposed to stay. No signals, so were not able to get in touch with the other group. After couple of rounds in the same area found that the lodge is in the back of a gift shop. Went to room no.5, no response, no keys. Checked out room no.3, thank god it was open. It was 5:30 in the morning, we badly needed a sleep. Stopped worrying about other car and went for a nap. Around 6:30, the other car came. They started couple of hours early than. We thought they might have took some wrong exit. “If you get couple of tickets on the way, for sure you'll also be late,” is the angry answer we got. 260 USD for one and 90 for one. :-( It was a bad night for them,they don't hv the keys for the room. Few slept in our room and few others in the car. When they checked with the receptionist later in the morning she said the room was booked for Saturday/Sunday night and not for Friday/Saturday night. Few apologises settled that matter. The first task after we got up was to find a gas station. Found one near by. Started around 11 O'clock and reached the lake in one hour. Roamed around, took snaps, went for a trial to the bottom of the lake. Spent the whole day, enjoying the color and silence around the place. Saw smokes from the forest fire happening nearby. One group didn't like the place and left for rafting. This just baffles me, who the hell on earth will not like this place? Even this guy, who said we have a generation gap, loved it. There was small moment of tension as the other group didn't return till late night. They returned safe. Pictures here...

Day two was more exciting than day one. Started early morning from the lodge and left for Florence. Had breakfast at Elkton. Typical American town and a good restaurant. The activity planned at Florence was Sand duning – Riding an ATV, in the dunes. Few of friends had said that it will be excellent. Its the first time for everyone, all were nervous. The vehicle was odd for us - no gears, four big tyres, for accelerating you should use your thumb. From the vehicle rental place, we have to take a turn and reach the dunes. If we didn't make good in the turn, they'll disqualify. Couple of my friends were disqualified, as they went too far to take the turn. I barely made it to the dunes, the instructor was not satisfied. He showed us the path that we should use to drive and the return way. We were asked to stay in group, for every one minute, we delay the return of the vehicles we will charged a dollar. If we caught in trouble, they'll charge us to rescue. All these instructions got me pissed off. விதி வலியதுன்னு சொல்லிகிட்டே start பண்ணினேன். Within first few minutes three of our ATV's got stuck in the sand. Thank god, we had a muscle man in our group who lifted the vehicles. If you look at his stature you'll not believe that he would lift a vehicle which is about 150+ pounds. I got stuck thrice and the other guys started loosing their patience. I was too nervous and said that we'll go to the return path. No one agreed. பழி வாங்கறதுக்குன்னே இருக்காணுங்கய்யா. Somehow found the touch and started climbing small dunes and i felt contended with my accomplishments.(இதுக்கு ஒன்னும் குறைச்சல் இல்லை). One guy in the group, had some weird thoughts. There was a steep dune, from the look you could understand that it needs expertise to climb that. When all others were busy in their own small drives he went up in that dune. When we saw him, he was standing the the middle of the steep dune, holding the ATV. F**k, the vehicle's two wheels is in air and the other two in the dune. He some how jumped down and got hold of it to prevent further damage. I couldn't imagine what would be his status if he had fallen down. Nothing happened of such sort. Luckily one of the rescuer saw this and volunteered to get him out of this mess. The way he went near him suggested that you have to been an expert to climb that. Our idiot did this without even knowing how to ride the vehicle. One of the most stupidest things i have ever witnessed. Everything was fine and we did ride for few more minutes and returned the vehicle on time. Driving in the dunes is the exciting thing i have done in my life so far. It was one excellent hour in my life. Returned back to Seattle around 2 in the night, dropped my friend in airport and thus ended the trip on safe and lovely note. Pictures here...

My Love

2006-09-25T00:23:00.000-07:00

After analyzing and following closely about MacBooks for a long time,i bought one last week ! I was very much excited to post pics and my thoughts the day i got in my hand. But felt that waiting till the end of honeymoon period would let me give a neutral feedback. One week is over with my love and i started blogging in it and this is the first post. Pictures first...

In general i am poor decision maker,I'll take a hell lot of time before deciding on something. Buying a MacBook was not a easy one. I love Apple's design, that's the first reason i chose a Mac. Next is the things i read about Mac OS X. From whatever i read this is the most productive operating system around. Leopard's preview made me to stand firm on my decision to go with a Mac. Its a myth that apple is not cheap. From whatever i analyzed, MacBook (13”) is not costlier than Lenova Thinkpad R series (14”) or Dell (12”). Dell (14”) is cheaper than a MacBook,but for me Dell is more like an assembler than a laptop manufacturer. MacBook Pro's are the costliest ones. The next myth is – Its difficult to learn OS X and softwares are not available. Come on guys,being in IT you should not say this. Every six months we work on different technologies,so learning should not be a issue,its a mental block. What softwares we use in general ? Watch movies,listen to songs,mails,word,excel,powerpoint,surf,chat. That's it right. You can do all this in a Mac, more efficiently. This is what i want and i hope most of us need.

One of my ex-roomie – BM,ordered for me and shipped. Tax saving dudes,saved around 100 bucks. He took lot of pain for this,ofcourse i sent him few pics of Bhavana as a compliment. So nice of him,thanks da. Now,over to things i love so far. Ofcourse the design comes first,no one can beat Apple in this area. The USB port's,firewire,headphone,mic connections are all on the left side,you don't need to hunt them in the back or search for it on either side whenever you want to connect. They have utilized the function keys to the max. F8 is the only key which has no general use. Control the brightness,sound,extrenal monitor all available in the function keys. Remote and magnetic power cord are the next cool feature. Control media apps using remote. Some third party software is available to even control other applications. I need to check that soon. Quicksilver is also a third party free app which helps you in increasing your efficiency to launch applications. Its awesome,you can do everything you want to do at the max of four steps/keystrokes. Wakes up from sleep mode pretty quick.

As soon as i logged in for the first time,i checked whether i could read tamil blogs or not. Thank god,Safari supports Unicode. Then Vikatan is the site i launched. Oops, pochuda kavuthitaanga da. Vikatan site has its own font to be installed. And they don't have instructions to install the font on a Mac(too bad Vikatan). I figured that out by myself and it did work. But still the first character of each paragraph is screwed up,need to write to Vikatan or i should try Firefox. இன்னொரு முக்கியமான விஷயம்,நிறைய–matter site-ல movies open ஆகாது,Sun-TV தெரியாது,most games will not work. I don't mind about the two of the three things i said,go figure out which one i bother.

Now,disappointments-Speakers. At first i felt the max. volume is not enough. Then i relaised that i am expecting a laptop to deliver sound for the living room than for a single user. So after having a bad impression at first glance i am ok now. It generates a lot of heat. A bit heavy than i expected.

My friends have challenged me that i would revert back to Windows within six months,let's see.

Movies in last month: வேட்டையாடு விளையாடு – Boring.சில்லுனு ஒரு காதல் – bad,it was too bad to an extent that a couple behind me started worrying what if this kind of things happen in their life.Sh!t they even started discussing about their dinner plans. எம் மகன் – ok,good compared to the others. நீ வேணும்டா செல்லம் - A crap. Lage Raho Munna Bhai is very good – a mix of Munna bhai MBBS and ரோஜாவனம். Please don't make a third part in this series,eg: Sooraj R. Barjatya series.

Movies,Songs and Pulchritudinous

2006-08-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing to post,so as usual list of movies i saw:

தமிழ் - யுகா,திமிரு,அரண்,உனக்கும் எனக்கும்.All are bad

Telugu - Lakshmi,Pokiri.Good entertainers.After watching Pokiri, completed a dream song with Ileana on the top of Space needle.Now i understand the meaning of - Pulchritudinous.

"சில்லுனு ஒரு காதல்" songs are addictive.

2006-07-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

This post best explains how lazy I am. The post is about the long weekend trip we went on July 1st. Staying over night was not a preferred choice for us. So decided to visit places which are three/four hours drive.

Day 1 - Ocean Shores:

Nice place if you like to fly kite, play beach volleyball, ride a bike or riding a horse. We didn't have any such plans, so we just made our feet wet and spent less than an hour. Drove to Pacific beach near by. This is the only deserted beach I had seen in my life. No single soul was there, except us. Except me everyone disliked this place.

Day 2 - Multnomah Falls
Googled a lot to get the scenic route to reach this falls.Few links have praised the scenic route but the directions was not available in google maps.Didn't get the exact details but still managed to find some hints. The scenic route starts from the place called Troutdale. Just as you enter the scenic route you find a nice link river bank with water flowing along in a slow speed. Bright sun sign,long weekend,not much of people around...you could imagine how people will be there right ?! We just stopped for coffee and nothing else.You get the drift right ?!?! As the temperature rose I got into my regular problem - headache. After that the trip enthusiasm was lost. There was couple of great views of the Columbian river on the way. We saw couple of waterfalls.இதெல்லாம் falls-nu சொன்னா அப்ப falls-அ என்னன்ணுடா சொல்லுவீங்க?

Day 3 - Snoqualmie Falls:
I have been here n number of times. This qualifies to be called as falls.

I didn't have "Water" as a theme for this longweekend. It just happened like that.

More pictures here...

Movies over the weekend:
இம்சை அரசன் 23-ம் புலிகேசி,ஐயா - Good.Superman Returns,Krrish - Not as bad as i expected.உயிர்- Bad as i expected.

Could you believe this?

2006-07-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

“We ran out of fans”. This was the response we got in all shops over the weekend. Yes, a machine using an electric motor to rotate thin, rigid vanes in order to move air, as for cooling [link].

I was speechless when I got the same answer again and again. 'Standing fans' are sold out in almost every shop here. The Sun was scorching like anything. This is the hottest weekend I have experienced here. And whatever Data Mining the stores used, it had failed to a great extent. Most of the stores didn’t do proper prediction. One guy even said that you’ll not find one in the entire state :-(

Only last week, I was boasting to friends in India about the lovely weather in Seattle. sigh..i have to hide my face….hopefully they didn’t read this ;-)

Mt.Baker (not so) scenic drive

2006-07-18T17:10:00.000-07:00

A month ago we went for Mt.Baker.While googling around, i found a site which suggested to take the scenic route. After the trip i felt that i should have not trusted the link(map-ல பாக்கும்போது எல்லாம் நல்லாத்தான் இருக்கு).It was one of most boring routes i went around in washington.To add to my frustration the Sun was blazing,my headache was the next obvious thing to come.Little did i know that the biggest disappointment is to come by the end of the day.Artist point is the one we intended to reach.It was the highest point you can reach via car.Just few miles before that point the road was closed with snow.They were in the process of clearing it and it'll take another two weeks.Should i say that my headeache doubled after that?

More pics here...

Mega movie list...

2006-07-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

பாரிஜாதம் - A very good one.Refreshing screenplay.Songs are not catchy but really good after few listening.
தலைநகரம் - Average one.
நாளை - Bad.Ananada Vikatan should seriously revise the way they allot marks.They had 41 for this.

Blood movies:

The following is a list of crap movies i saw over last couple of months.I feel guilty even to list them here.Then why the f**k i saw them ? தெரியாம one month Tamilgrounds-ல subscribe பண்ணிட்டேன்.So i had to somehow make use of the money i spent.
நாகரீக கோமாளி,கை வந்த கலை(The song சுட்டி பூவே is good),உணர்சிகள்,வீரன்,சுதேசி,வெற்றிவேல் சக்திவேல்,Mr.பாண்டி, 47 A பெசன்ட் நகர் வரை.

Lucky escape:

சுயெட்சை MLA, குஸ்தி - Room-ல பசங்க இந்த படம் பாக்கும் போது எப்படியோ நான் மட்டும் escape.

Movies

2006-06-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

புதுப்பேட்டை: It didn’t meet my expectations, still was a good one. Few areas were technically done well (Camera work, Art direction, background score). ஆபாசமே இல்லாம எடுக்கபட்ட குளியலறை காட்சி உள்ள ஒரே தமிழ் படம். For sure, Selvaragavan is setting new trend in Tamil films. Selva tries hard to show the true nature of people,environment,language etc.,Somehow Yuvan finds a place to sneak in English lyrics. "Going throurgh emotions" music bit is awesome.

கொக்கி,மது,ஜெர்ரி - தயவு செய்து இந்த படங்களெல்லாம் எல்லாம் பாத்துடாதீங்க.Indiaglitz gives positive review about all movies.sigh...

I was busy at work, that's why no frequent posts. The previous statement is damn lie. Too much of bad movies, less frequent trip to Redmond and literally no work constituted for not blogging recently. For long time I had a guilty feeling that I am the only one who write/see too much of movies over the weekend. But there is this guy – Filbytheboss’s posts proves that I am not alone.ஒரு வேலை Seattle-ல இருக்கவங்க எல்லாருக்கும் இதுதான் வேலையா ?

So after much frustration with recent Tamil movies, I spent lot of time in researching to start again with a real good old movie. Thus found முள்ளும்-மலரும் yesterday.தலைவர் கொஞ்சம் centi-அ போட்டு feel பண்ணவெச்சுட்டார் :-(

Memorial Day weekend

2006-06-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Sanjuan Island

The ferry ride was wonderful. My intuition said not to believe the visitor centre recommendations. Still we decided to follow the instructions. The places they recommended didn’t meet my expectations about the Island. Saw a camel like creature name Alpaca. Whale watching-ன்னு சொல்லி மண்ட காய விட்டுடானுங்க.
I should have explored the Island more.

Pictures here…

Day 2: Leavenworth

Yes,for the third time. This place is simply beautiful. Stevens pass had lot of snow left for playing even during this time of the year. The drive was awesome. First, all green trees then mountains with snow and finally artistic village. Had delicious lunch at Cafe Mozart,a German restaurant.

Pictures here…

Day 3: Had a good lunch at Udupi and roamed around Redmond Town centre.

Understanding the customer

2006-05-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last week I got a mail from Bank of America, informing me about a prize scheme if we deposit cheques via ATM. I think they are encouraging the use of ATM’s, so that they can avoid long queues in the bank. In no way the ATM’s can match the services of good looking female tellers. Even if it is a deposit of $10, I always prefer teller service. I don’t mind waiting in line for even an hour ;-) Can an ATM replace the ever smiling, how was your day at office enquiry, and other such things?! You know what; Bank of America should understand their customers better. Just get rid of those female tellers, people will automatically start using the ATM’s.

Movie of the week: Over the Hedge – It is a real good one if you need an hour and half of just entertainment.

ஜோர் : தமிழ் படம்னு எது கிடைச்சாலும் போதும், பாப்போம்ல :- (

Movies…

2006-05-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

தங்க மகன்: Couple of weeks back the DVD print ditched us, it got stuck after an hour. To compensate for that disappointment, we watched it twice this week. Listening to the songs after a long time and got addicted again. My search for தம்பிக்கு எந்த ஊரு is in vain. Both the rental shops here don’t have it, sigh…

Don’t know why suddenly got into தலைவர் movies.

அழகாய் இருக்கிறாய் பயமாய் இருக்கிறது & திருட்டு பயலே: Good in pieces.
திருப்பதி – One among the great comedy movies I have seen in recent months.

MI III – கொஞ்சம் hi-tech-ஆன Captain படம். அவ்வளவு தான்.

Saw Dishyum again, in DVD ;-)

And on Tamilnadu election results: I somehow feel that this government may not serve its full five year term :-(

Verizon service sucks…

2006-05-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is about Verizon DSL service. Last Friday I received a DSL kit from Verizon. A note on it said, we’ll not charge you until it is activated. When I was out of home, my friend got a call saying that Verizon will charge as soon as the kit is shipped. What the f**k, I haven’t even ordered for a DSL ?!?! I just checked whether the service is available or not through their customer service few weeks back. I need to call the customer service to cancel. After lot of redirection, the whole cancel process took almost an hour. Who invented this IVRS? May that guy’s ***** cease to work when needed. Then I did one more foolish thing. I said I would like to register a complaint. Oh my god, I got redirected again, this time to a manager. He said – “my sincere apologize”. Otha.. Who needs his apology; I already lost an hour of my working hour. I disconnected and got back to work. And I need to send the DSL kit back within a month else they’ll charge for that. What do these people think? My whole day got f**ked up.

Tulip Fest 2006

2006-05-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

In Seattle, Sun comes out once in a blue moon ;-) Apr 22nd was one such day.We decided to check out this year's Tulip fest.Though my jaws didn't drop as last year, it was wonderful again.

More pics here

Tulip fest 2004 post here...

Lake Crescent - Rialto Beach - Hoh rain forest

2006-05-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

It’s been almost a month after I visited few areas of Olympic national park. I was tied up with some work as well as laziness which prevented me from writing a blog post or to post some pictures. Now that I have beaten them to death, I am back. Took the car in ferry from Edmonds to Kingston and drove further. First pit stop was at Port Angeles. There is one disadvantage with the GPS enabled car. When searched for nearest restaurants it gave us results of the restaurants in Canada. It’s true that Canada was near but still Visa illama ulla poona sulukku eduthuda maattanga :-( After having breakfast in Port Angeles, headed to Rialto Beach. On the way we stopped at this beautiful lake called Lake Crescent. There was not much wind that day so the reflections of the mountains in the lake were awesome.

More pics here...

Next place was Rialto Beach. It was a kind of deserted place, with very few people visiting that day. The warning message in the entrance left everyone pissed off. It read – “Tsunami warning – This place is expected to have a Tsunami in the near future” .Needless to say that we left the place much earlier than we planned.

More pics here...

Then went to Hoh rain forest. There were lots of stats informing that it receives highest rainfall compared to most other places. The guide there compelled us to go a trail called hall of mosses. It wasn’t that good as it was drizzling. They rightly named the place ;-)

More pics here...

This is what happens...

2006-04-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

I just showed my access card near the door and waited for the beep sound. So what’s wrong with it? Nothing as long as it is in your office. I just did it in front of my apartment door and was wondering why there was no beep sound. My friend got furious: F$*k you idiot, open the door with the key, this is your apartment. Sh!t, this is what happens when you do some real work after a looooooooog time ;-)

Tamarind tree

2006-04-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

Until couple of weeks back I didn't know that there is something called Vietnamese cuisine. But now I am in love with it. It all started when one of my friends decided to treat us at a different place. After rejecting Indian, Thai and Chinese, one guy came up with a Vietnamese restaurant - Tamarind Tree. I like trying different cuisines ,so I was very much eager to try out. The restaurant was in the congested downtown corner. No matter how good your interpretation skills are, the first time you see a menu, it's all greek and latin. Left the menu choice to the person who already been here. Wow…he did order some scrumptious food. The first one to come was a coconut drink and tofu rolls. Tofu and green leaves were rolled in a transparent white paper kind of thing. I wasn't sure what that is, to eat with it or without it. It was nothing but rice paper. {Rice can be made like paper ?! Man, I call that innovation ;-)}. No worry as long as it tastes good. Main course is also rice paper with fried tofu. Though the quantity looked small but it filled the stomach. Dessert was (mouth watering) roasted coconut ice cream. After we felt everything is done, one guy came up with the idea of trying Vietnamese coffee. Coffee after an ice cream might be odd one to have but no one wanted to reject it. The coffee was very thick but provided great refreshment. With that the luscious lunch came to an end.

After getting bowled over by the cuisine I took few other friends last week. When I asked them how the food was, I placed them in a kind of bother. Seeing my love for the cuisine they didn't want to disappoint me with their answer. They had a fear that, if they say it was good, I'll ask them for frequent visits to the same restaurant :- ( Still waiting for the answer :- (

Movies over the week : தாவணிக் கனவுகள்: There is one particular scene which shows the class of Bhagiyaraj. The hero takes his sisters to a movie. During few smooching scenes, the hero drops a coin under the seat and asks them to look for the coin. He gets lured in one such scene,forgets to drop a coin and his younger sister reminds him to drop a coin again. That is a masterpiece. Also saw ராசுக்குட்டி ;-). பட்டியல் was good.
கண்ணெதிரே தோன்றினால்: என்னோட கண்ணெதிரே monitor தான் தினம் தினம் தோன்றுது..வேற எதுவும் தோன்றதக் காணோம்..sigh...life-அ இது...

This is too much…

2006-03-27T13:40:00.000-08:00

I think someone cursed me that whatever movies I see let them be bad. After watching one movie I feel that this is the worst I have ever seen. Within couple of days I see another one worst than the previous one.

Kovai brothers - I walked out of this movie an hour before its completion. I have walked out of a movie just once in my life (excluding this). Previously I walked out of a movie called – பாய்மரக்கப்பல். I am sure no one even heard of this movie. A total crap one by Janagaraj, S.S Chandran, Senthil and few others. Holy shit. Google cache has information about the movie [link]. So after 18 years I walked out again {Isn’t this some sort of record ?!?! }.

ABCD – What the f**k is wrong with everyone in this movie? Everyone delivers their dialogue as if they are dead.

Mercury Pookkal – I am sure this movie is out of the theatres in less than week. A DD drama is thousand times better. Meera Jasmine is beautiful, attractive, awesome, pleasing and what not…

You might ask, Why the f**k did u see all the movies when it is easy to judge how the movie would be by seeing the cast & crew ? Let me explain. Few people watch a movie for the hero or the director or the music director (Songs) or camera or screenplay or the heroines or they had nothing else to do. Now you know why I saw those movies ;-)

Room mate has left…

2006-03-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Yes it happened again. When my room mates leave, it just pisses me off. Am I parking my a$$ too long in the same place? It’s my noble gesture to dedicate a post to my ex-roomies. Regular readers of my blog might know this [Is there anyone out there?! Yea… I see one person raising his hand. Thanks Cipher ;-)] Oops I am deviating from my goal.

Of all the roommates I stayed with, this guy is the one who had a meaningful target in his life. That just amazed me and his commitment towards it made my jaws drop to floor. His Target – A movie a day keeps your work pressure away!!! Now you know how I managed to watch all the movies I have listed in few previous posts. There are days - he’ll come by midnight from office, drained to death and still watch a movie. I have never seen a movie buff like him. Language and quality of movie never matters. You won’t believe – we even watched a Korean chick sigh… flick. He introduced me the comedy hits of Mohanlal - Srinivasan combo and few more good Malayalam movies (Not the Saturday night Surya TV movies, you pervert). One thing I miss badly since he left is his snoring. Man…what a decibel he generates during the snore and the rhyme will put even an African elephant to sleep. His shopping spree is just amazing. He shops till his bank balance reduces to a single digit. தமிழ்-ல அவனுக்கு பிடிக்காத ஒரே வார்த்தை - சமைக்கறது…… Even by mistake he never entered the kitchen to cook. Whenever I ask him for help in cooking, he helps me in dialing to Pizza hut or Dominoes. Even after my repeated pleading he made me watch Paramasivan before he left. Definitely need to settle this score at some point. You are going to feel for this dude.

Weekend Movie: தசாவதாரம். Yes, the one that got released in 1976!!. I am damn sure that the DVD rental shop here survives because of me….
யப்பா Redmond–Bellevue புண்ணியவான்களா அந்த Run DVD-a return பண்ணுங்கபா…

Posts on ex-roomies 1,2 & 3

What a week I had…

2006-03-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

Last week might easily be the worst weeks I have had so far in terms of movies I saw. தம்பி – scary. Director Seeman’s dialogues are sharp and odd at places. Eg: Sharp: ஆயுதம் வாங்கற காசுக்கு அரிசி வாங்கிக் இருக்கலாம் இல்லை. Odd: Villain to his kid: அம்மாவுக்கு இனிப்பு குடுத்தீங்களா? Seeman, I like you patriotism towards Tamil but this sounds a bit odd. கள்வனின் காதலி – bad, especially SJ Surya {Stop acting idiot}. கலாபக் காதலன் – What is Arya doing with his hang over looks and dull dialogue deliveries? And June.R - F$@#.Gosh, I need to either stop watching movies or get back to old movies.

I had never sold any of my belongings so far. Tried out selling few books via Amazon , as i found no use in having them as pillows.Sold couple of books so far. Good job Raj ;-)

UI study

2006-03-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

I got an opportunity to perform an UI study for a new version of a tool that we are using. The vendor gave me eight tasks to perform and explain the rational behind each and every move. One guy was monitoring the proceedings. Almost for all tasks I did a right click and looked for any options in the menu. Couple of things I gave up. When I said I am working with this tool for one year he might have laughed his a$$ off. Whenever he asked what I am trying to do - I placed my finger over the monitor and explained. He kept on asking me to use mouse. After he said this couple of times I got furious. I didn’t realize that there is another application running which captures all my mouse movements. Sigh.. At the end he said – I think you got addicted to Microsoft’s products; you expect everything to be in then right-click menu ;-)

Back with Movies list

2006-02-23T17:33:00.000-08:00

I didn’t update the movies list for quite some. The reason being my poor memory and the movies list got accumulated like hell. Moreover most of the movies are the ones that I saw for the nth time. Here I go again:

இதயத் திருடன்: Nothing to see except Kamna’s navel. Worst are the lyrics, Unable to believe that it is Vairamuthu.

சித்திரம் பேசுதடி: An average flick. It’s refreshing to see a villain coming in Ambassador instead of Sumo/Qualis. Evident that it’s a medium budget movie – No guns, no firing etc., and even no வீச்சருவாள்!!!! The biggest equipment used is a pen-knife. 44 marks in in Ananda Vikatan is too much. Hero is imitating Surya and didn’t impress me. But the heroine impressed though. Now BM is seriously considering switching over from Trisha to Bhavana as his dreamgirl. {என்ன கொடுமை இது சரவணன்}.

Saw காதல் கவிதை for songs & Isha ;-) And here comes the most interesting movie of the week – மலைக்கள்ளன். Actually we were looking for the movie – ரன். Both the DVD rental stores here said it has been rented out. What this implies is - there are more than two Meera Jasmine fans here in Redmond-Bellevue area ;-) Failed attempt in both the places led us to choose whatever we see first. Thus came மலைக்கள்ளன்.

Reverse order....

2006-02-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

I was having a chat with one of my American colleague this morning. After finishing the normal what's up thing, the brief chat headed towards personal life.

Col: So you have been around this place for quite some time, do you like it?
Me: Ya, I like it very much.
Col: Planning to settle here?
Me: No, I want to go back. What about you?
Col: I got a kid recently and got confirmed in job and I want to stay here. Also planning to get married…

No need to say that I got bowled over though it is common thing here. He noticed that I got a bit staggered with his answer; he just said "My life is in a kind of reverse order, you know”. We smiled and departed. So, for those people who think you'll get kids only after marriage, please change that thought ;-)

Aathi

2006-02-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

சாகனும் அவனுங்க எல்லாம் சாகனும்...

To understand this, you have to see The movie.If you miss this movie then you are really missing some fun in your life.I am planning to watch couple more times.Missed lot of puch dialogues,need to count how many members are there in Vijay & Trisha's family and what relationship they all have with each other.The first run didn't give me enough time to grasp all these things,kind of lost in the thrilling screenplay ;-)

Dishyum thoughts

2006-02-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

Found a scuzzy vcd print of the movie Dishyum in the net. I thought of waiting for the original DVD but director Sasi in title card lured me {சரி சரி Sandhya தான் reason போதுமா ?} The story is about two people who are diametric, falling in love for each other. Yes n-th time in Tamil cinema. Most part of the screenplay portrays the characters of the two protagonists. Scenes were carved out very naturally. Still you get bored at some places. Dialogues for the hero suits well where as for the heroines, it is lacking reality. I feel that she speaks director’s tone rather than the characters. Comedy was silly at certain parts. In the last few years I have seen lot of movies where the dad of the heroine is a real good chap, who always shows green signal to the girls love. Shouldn’t he be the pain in the a**? This will make life/movie more interesting, right?! The last half-an hour was bad and the climax is same as Alaipayuthey. Both Jeeva and Sandhya had done well, Songs are good. Overall it was an average flick, expected a bit more from Sasi who already gave couple of hits. (என்ன தான் Sandhya படம்னாலும் நடு நிலமயோட review எழுதரியே Cipher..நீ நின்னுட்டடா ….) Should see the DVD print couple more times to get the most out of the movie…ஹி..ஹி…

Everything goes wrong all at once

2006-02-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

The title is from Murphy’s Laws. To get the most out of those words you should know the sequence of events happened to me on Saturday.

I agreed to show my face via webcam to the people back home this Saturday morning. They haven’t seen me for a year and half now (used to send photos). Got up early and found that internet connection is not there. My room mate said that we had heavy wind and rain the previous night. Called the Comcast customer service and he said there is a network outage in our area, it’ll take time to solve. Uh… Soon chat was out of my to-do list. What to do next? No idea of sleeping again. Day dreaming was the first option I took. Spent half-an hour in it. Ok let me have something for breakfast. Gosh…no power now. Meaning - I can’t heat or cook anything. The bread loaf usually stays till I trash, but today was definitely not my day. I had finished it couple of days back. Hunger started to take control of my brain. I get mad when I am hungry. I came out to look for something to eat. Bad omen was following me. No Starbucks, No Mc Donald’s, no Top food store. Everything was closed temporarily as there was no power. I’ll get f***ing one sided head-ache if I don’t take food regularly. As frustration started to creep in,i forgot that i had a T-mart store right next to my apartment where you have coffee and some eatables. Ok let me order something for delivery. F**k my cordless will not work. Luckily my room mate’s cell had enough charge in it. Sh!t Romio’s was also out of service. Finally Domino’s came to the rescue. After having the last slice of pizza my brain came to real world. Out of joy I started to sing Unnai naan unnai naan from Jay Jay and we got the power. My room mate – "Idiot, you should have yelled earlier in the day". Grr….. ;-)

They did it again…

2006-02-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

How many times this happened? All my hopes on Dravid shattered in few mins. I expected a lot from you dude. I don’t expect India to win every time but I expect them to fight every time. Looks like we gave up too early. Sorry Dravid, I can’t read those regular one liners like – Our batsman let us down, we didn’t bowl well in the right areas,blah,blah...anymore. Stop those sh!t statements. Do some good prep work before the match and execute it to perfection. A kind request to the media – Don’t ever say that Indian batting line up is one among the best. It sucks.

I guess this is the conversation Viru and Dravid had when they went to bat during the second innings.

Dravid: Did you get see places around Karachi?
Viru: No.
Dravid: I see an opportunity today ;-)
Viru: ?!?!?!

After getting out Dravid winks while passing Viru
Viru: I’ll be there when u reach the dressing room…

Ok, I don’t want to end the post with these useless rants. Here is a useful site that aggregates news for Indian audience – justsamachar.com. Really a great work.

Here & There...

2006-01-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

* If you would have to choose between watching Bambhara kannaley, Vanakkam thalaiva (They have a separate website for this film,sh!t)and a date with a witch, don’t hesitate to choose the last one. It was a nightmare,I mean watching those films ;-) The Pongal releases are no better. I already got few scary mails about Aathi. I warn you all to stay away from them.

* Paul Graham writes impressive columns. His latest one – “How to do what you love”, is very good. It’s a lengthy one, but the time spent will be worth.

* For the last few days things around me look brighter, clean, and elegant and the city looks more beautiful in lights. Any idea?! What, come again? I am in love?!?! No idiot, it’s because of the new specs which ate my hard earned 375 USD.

* Most people have written off the second test match between India and Pak as draw. If Younis Khan thinks in Stephen Fleming's way then Pakistan could really make a match out of it. Come on Younis, go ahead and declare after lunch. Don’t think of the blunder that Smith did few days back.

How not to interview

2006-01-17T17:12:00.000-08:00

As a part of Pongal special pgms, Sun T.V had a half-an hour interview with Sandhya. It was a double joy for me as I haven’t seen Sun T.V for almost 2 yrs and it is the first time watching Sandhya’s interview ;-) But it didn’t last long as the interviewer screwed up the whole session. He is a senseless idiot who didn’t know what to ask. Most of the questions were about schools, homework’s (yes homework’s!!!!), marriage etc., Poor kid she didn’t know what to answer, her answers were something like I love beaches, chocolates etc., If anyone happened to see that guy in Chennai slap him on my behalf. A**hole, used this opportunity to ogle at her up close. GOD is not fair. One real good thing he did was asking her to sing. I thought she is going to sound horrible but I was proved wrong. She did sing well, very well indeed.

Ferry ride

2006-01-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

What would happen if few bachelors have nothing to do and plan to kill a day? Definitely something crazy. That’s what happened on Jan 02. Went for a half-an hour ferry ride from Edmonds to Kingston. The ferry port is just 10 mins drive from my place. The road to the ferry place is just awesome. So what did we do in Kingston? Nothing, just had an espresso and came back. Konjam too much thaaan….Here are few pics:

On the way to Ferry

A Ferry from ferry

Cafeteria inside the ferry

Cars Unloading from ferry

Port of Kingston

Way back to home

Got Wed...

2006-01-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

That’s what it means when you carry something close to your heart all day and to all places you go – Right?! That’s what I do for the last five days. Yes, I bought the coolest thing on earth – iPodnano. Ordered during the third week of Dec. My roomie got a 30GB video iPod within a week, he ordered after I did. Read information that 4GB Black iPodnano has to come from China and they make it only after getting the orders. That slowed down my pulses. This is the path it took before I got in my hands (SHENZHEN, China to ANCHORAGE, Alaska to MEMPHIS, Tennessee to SEATTLE, Washington):

Though the price difference between 4 GB and 30 GB is just 50$, I chose nano for its look. That’s my weakness. I fall for all things that look slim, sleek, uncommon, gorgeous and cool. [I hope u got what all things mean]

Ok got it on my hands, now came the toughest part. What song to play first? Through out the day lot of songs came to mind. One of Illayaraja’s classics or A.R.R’s breathtaking songs or T.R hits, or Kannadasan hits or SPB’s solo. After some 12 hrs finally decided to listen Thiruvaasagam. Pity on me, I had it in .cda format and I was not able to copy to iPodnano. Didn’t have the patience to download a tool from net and convert the .cda to .mp3. Finally made up my mind to listen “How To Name It”. Begged my room mate to lend his Bose headphones for few hours. He is a man of good heart you know, gave me that. Slept even before I listened two tracks :- ( Now, all hours in office is spent with headphones ON. I am afraid, at some point of time I am going to yell for some A.R.R song. I am selective in uploading songs(so far just 100) and when I do, I collect the info on the songs (Singers,Film name,Composer etc.,) I want a six sigma(?!) in it and I need your help for that. There is little information that I don’t know if you guys know please mail me or leave a comment.

Film name of the song – Atho Vaanile nila oorvalm… (coolgoose says it is from Thandanai.I haven’t heard of that movie.)
Music Director for the film – Poo Mazhai Pozhiyuthu.Do you remember the song Nathiya Nathiya Nile nathiya ? I had a company audio cassette of this movie. I can ask my dad to check whether we still have this somewhere.But he’ll ask why do you want it now? I have to say the whole story and I’ll be the prey for his anger. உனக்கு வேற வேலையே இல்லையா ?

p.s: I am lagging a lot in the regular schedule. This post should have been out last Friday, couple of weeks Ananda Vikatan is pending. Should shoot the people who decided to change my cube thereby revoking all my rights to carefree browsing. Much important iPod songs update work is going on but people around me are very much worried about a missing record in one of our process. sigh…

சண்டக்கோழி கண்ட நாள் முதல்

2006-01-02T02:44:00.000-08:00

சண்டக்கோழி - Starting the fresh year with a fresh movie. After getting few good recommendations from trusted sources decided to watch the movie. It has shades of Run at places still it was interesting. Sudden surprises in screenplays and Meera Jasmine were the plus. Hero, Songs and the dragging climax fight are the minus. The movie has all the ingredients for a super hit if the hero was Vijay. Somehow I feel Vishal doesn’t fit this role. I bet you’ll watch the first half-again for Meera Jasmine’s performance ;-) A great applause to the director Lingusamy for making a action movie without showing blood.

கண்ட நாள் முதல் – The movie was ok. It didn’t make me involved while watching, as most things went as expected. Also blame it on the video quality I saw (ஓசில பாத்துட்டு இதுவும் சொல்லுவ இன்னுமும் சொல்லுவ). It missed something.

What exactly was I doing when the clock struck 12 on Jan 01 2006? I was watching the climax of கண்ட நாள் முதல்.

After some six months of meticulous(?!) planning, finally met Lazy Geek. Oops getting too late for sleep. People say that the dreams that come in the early morning turns true, hopefully Jasmine comes today ;-)

Bulb–3

2005-12-28T15:26:00.000-08:00

"நேரரியான் வந்து 80-ல வெளிவந்த CBI டைரி குறிப்பு படத்தின் தொடர்ச்சி. ஜாக்கிரதா,சேதுராமய்யர் CBI-க்கு அப்புறம் இப்போ நான்காம் பாகமாக நேரரியான் CBI.இதற்கு முன்னால் நடிச்ச முன்று படங்களிலும் மம்மூட்டி சாரு-க்கு ஜோடி கிடையாது.முதன்முதலாக நேரரியான்-ல தான் ஹீரோயினா நான் நடிச்சேன் இப்போ அதுவும் ஹிட்!"

Above is an excerpt from Gopika’s interview on Ananda vikatan on 06 Nov ‘05. Based on her words I said to my room mate that the new release of the C.B.I series - Nerariyan is going to have a heroine. He didn’t agree with me and we had a heated argument on this more than once. Last weekend we decided to put an end to this. We saw the movie and my room mate won the argument. I have read lot of interviews of actress, claiming that they are busy in other languages and such like but this is the first time came across this kind of blunt lie. I hate people who lie. My anger is also on Vikatan,they should have verified her claims. Damn it…

Previous Bulbs 1 & 2

New kid on the blog…

2005-12-22T17:44:00.000-08:00

Arun – a friend of mine has started blogging. The lengthiest procrastination I have ever witnessed has come to an end. From the day I started blogging he used to say that he’ll start one soon. I got frustrated every time he said this and asked him to get lost. After a year, he has come with a blog now. If he turns out to be an active blogger then I’ll have lot of works in his comments section. Because we both agree on only one thing, that is – We don’t agree on anything with each other. No matter what topic we take – cricket,movies,music,sex or anything else on this damn world, we never had a same opinion(few people say that I don’t agree with anyone. Let us ignore them). Despite all these differences he has few good words to say about me :- ) He gave a nice little intro about him but forgot to say that he is a die-hard fan of dada and the superstar. Expecting loads of fun and War of words. Welcome dude.

Dishoom songs - a quick look

2005-12-15T15:58:00.000-08:00

[pic courtesy: vikatan]

After a long gap, director Sasi has come up with the movie Dishoom. Songs in his earlier flicks were good so I had a hope on this movie. He didn’t let me down. Listening the songs for the last two days. Felt like writing a word or two about the songs would help a lot (?!) more people to enjoy (யாருப்பா அது Sandhya-வுக்காக review எழுதினதுன்னு சொல்றது?). Songs that are good – பூ மீது, பூமிக்கு வெளிச்சம்,நெஞ்சான் கூட்டில். நெஞ்சான் கூட்டில் has a good amount of inspiration by மொட்டுகலே (have I used the correct ல?) from ரோஜாக் கூட்டம். Still it’s my pick of the album,the male singer Jeyadev has done a great job(Who is this guy,any idea? Looks promising). Dailamo is ok, but I am still unable to understand what is the need for tongue twisting Tamil [டேமில்] pronunciation by the singers. If the song situation demand the hero & heroine to be drunkard then it is acceptable. The next song – கிட்ட நெருங்கி, made me feel that Dailamo song was pronounced a lot better. Tamil words from Sukhwinder Singh’s mouth in the song - கிட்ட நெருங்கி, is horrible. Man, go listen yourself. Overall, the songs and lyrics are good even though nothing new/great in them. Music is by Vijay Antony. The more I listen, the more I fall in love with the lyrics.Here is a sample:

உன்னை நினைப்பதை நிறுத்திவிட்டால் நெஞ்சு ஏன்னடி துடிக்கவில்லை ?

எண்ணம் யாவையும் அழித்துவிட்டேன் இன்னும் பூ முகம் மறக்கவில்லை...

p.s:I have been waiting for almost a year to post a picture of Sandhya,today I fulfilled that wish.Doesn’t it give this whole post a great look? தமிழக மகா ஜனங்களே படத்த கண்டிப்பா HIT ஆக்கிடுங்கபா…

Why is this so?

2005-12-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

Why the female bloggers don’t blog about their crushes? I have come across lot of blogs on crushes. Few male bloggers (including me) have a separate post on their crushes or at some point in their post reveal about their crushes. But I have never come across a female bloggers post about their crushes (celebrity crushes excluded). Does this mean that they don’t have any or they don’t want to post? Anyway it’s their wish but I am curious to read a post on it just to know what/how they feel. If anyone has come across such post please let me know.

It’s sad that my blogroll is going to have one blog link less. Kalai, who became a prominent figure (in blog world, I mean) after the famous e-mail fwd "En per padum paadu" is bringing the curtain down.

Back to form

2005-12-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

Watching movies during the weekend got reduced dramatically. Just two and 3/4 movies during the Thanksgiving weekend. முகமது பின் துக்ளக் and CID சங்கர். Travelling to B&W period is always enjoyable. One big misfortune was the DVD of "Dressed to kill". The movie was based on one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock holmes series. As we were getting deeply involved in the nicely made movie, the DVD got stuck and is still adamant - not to play few final chapters. I am now worried what happened to Sherlock homes and his mission to find the third musical box :-(
Came back to form with bunch of movies this weekend. தாஸ், அ ஆ, வெற்றி விழா,திருடா திருடா and ஒரு தலை ராகம் . Less said about தாஸ் and அ ஆ the better. ஒரு தலை ராகம் was on my pending list for long time and finally I convinced(some might use the word "forced") my friend to rent it. Somehow I like that movie very much even though it had a tragic end. The songs are too good to miss. I always listen to the song வாசமில்லா மலரிது in the repeat mode. I am sure; I am not the only one in this category. T.R had given few breath taking songs during the 80’s. It’s been a long time since we got a good musical hit in Tamil. When/What was the last musical hit come? Nothing this year, I am sure.

Awesome....

2005-12-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

We are having snow right now. Here are few pics…its just awesome.Its a lot earlier this year.

While it’s snowing you just need to come out, look up the sky and enjoy the snow falling in your face. It’s bliss, I say.

Thanksgiving Weekend - '05

2005-11-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

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".

Foggy, all through day

2005-11-21T15:15:00.000-08:00

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.

Movies..movies..movies…movies…..

2005-11-16T23:33:00.000-08:00

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 ;-)

It's THE 100 !!!!!

2005-11-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

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.

Deepavali 2005 Celebration

2005-11-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

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...

Wow...

2005-10-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

I turned on the radio in net- WorldTamilarWeb (24hrs live radio link in the top corner of the site)half-an hour before and started cooking Pasta.The list of the songs they are playing is damn good.Here is the list as I am posting

Poove unnai nesithen...
Pesakoodathu...
Sangeetha megam...
Vanitha mani vana mogini...
Paattu thalaivan....
Valaioosai kalakala vena....
Kaadhal kavithaigal padithidum....

If you are online just listen to these kind of musical magics now......ooo my god my pasta.......

Weekend Movies...again

2005-10-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ghajini: It was a good one but the opportunity to make a great one was lost. I guess Murugadoss was in a hurry to complete the movie and roll out. He might have thought "before someone else remakes Memento, I'll do it". Songs hampered the flow. In few scenes the whole theatre burst into laughter where we are supposed to be serious. (Eg. Hundreds of people chasing Nayanthara and she escapes in an auto!!!!Hilarious...). We had a tough time in convincing one of my friends that "Durga" in Chandramukhi and "Chitra" in Ghajini were done by the same female - Nayantara.Asin is mind-blogging err.. mind-blowing ;-)

Gorgeous: One of the lackluster Jackie Chan movies I have ever seen.

Godfather (Malayalam): Too much of complexity in the screenplay, I found it difficult to understand the happenings. I asked explanation for each and every scene,no need to say that my room mate got annoyed. I could recollect lot of similar screenplays in Tamil movies. I don't who copied from whom.

Have you noticed this ?

2005-10-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

As usual we were killing our weekend with movies. Thanks to the broadband connection. My roommate noted an odd pattern in the movies. Whenever there is a scene near the swimming pool, the scene starts with a female (in no way related to the current situation) jumping into the pool. No matter whatever the situation is. And this pattern was in all language movies – Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and English. Why is this so? Are the audiences so dumb that they could not recognize it as a swim pool until and unless some female jumps into it?! Weird…If you haven’t noticed till date, be watchful from now on. Don’t miss the opportunity ;-) I mean - don't miss to notice the pattern not those females ;-)

Weekend Movies: Sethurama Iyer CBI, Akkare Akkare Akkare, Pattana pravesham, Manichitrathazhu(all GOOD mallu moives) and TROY.

WTF ?!

2005-10-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

IIPM's reputation is growing exponentially.
Read this post - A question of principles

Bulb-2

2005-10-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

The following incident dates back to early 2004.
After having a tough day in bug fixing, I was happy to leave for the day. Two people shared the elevator, a women and me. I was about to deliver a smile, she snubbed by flipping the identity card to cover up her information (like Name, DOB, etc.) I felt deeply insulted. Did I look like a raving lunatic? அதுவும் பொண்ண பாத்தா மண்ண பாத்து நடக்கற என்னப் பாத்து? I thought of asking her why she did that. But didn’t have enough guts :- ( Poor lady... she didn’t know that it would take less than two minutes for me to get her information. We worked on the same floor but in different ends ;-) Still a bulb is a bulb.

Weekend movies: The Transporter and Enemy of the state.

Bulb-1

2005-09-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Three years back, one night I was on my way to the nearby grocery shop. I saw a group of girls standing in the corner. I kept saying, don’t look at them...don’t look at them…sss...aaa…stumbled upon the stones in corner. Giggles didn’t stop for few minutes. Limped and crossed the street. Luckily the street lights weren’t functioning - God saved my face, not my toe :-( Do I need to say that I chose the other way to return back home?

Lessons learnt: If you don’t know what to blog, just look back at your life, these kinds of bulbs will be there.

Oh no not again…..

2005-09-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

The same old story. Yet another roommate left :- ( This was the shortest and happiest ending of all. This guy got an admission for higher studies in London School of Economics!!! If I have to wake him up in the morning by calling out his full name then I have to sacrifice my breakfast. This guy’s full name went for twenty-eight letters; luckily he managed to cut short it to ten when he was in high school (Thank God). My cognition is confined around Tamil cinema (actors/actress of course), s*x and cricket. But this guy somehow got some of my standpoint on Economics, Nehru’s polices and Indian History. I could understand his thought after listening to my views. Certainly he must have felt - “sigh…he is an absolute nerd”. Sorry mate, those things are always Greek and Latin to me.I’ll remember the day we mastered Rava dosa ;-) I’ll never forget the day when he opened a wine bottle. Just few minutes before opening the bottle he was praising the cheap price of the wine opener. After trying to open with that he got frustrated and threw it away. It completely messed up the cork and delayed his wine pleasure by another hour. ROTFL. This occasion reminded me of மணிவண்ணன்’s dialogue in துள்ளாத மனமும் துள்ளும்.."டேய் பாட்டில் மூடிய தொறக்க தெரியாதவனெல்லாம் எதுக்குடா குடிக்கரிங்க?"

After his departure I had a notorious roommate. To drag him out, I had to plan meticulously for days. I tried all techniques that Rajini used in தர்மத்தின் தலைவன் and வேலைக்காரன். Nothing worked out. Finally, only cunning fox brain helped me. Foxed him with a cup of orange juice and got hold of him and let him fly out of the door….yes, it was a FLY. I tell you all, it not that easy to catch a fly. I am relieved now.

Last weekend movies: உள்ளம் கேட்குமே and இரு வல்லவர்கள். உள்ளம் கேட்குமே was ok. "தென்னகத்து" James bond disappointed me in இரு வல்லவர்கள்.

Two to Tango

2005-09-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

Any help on this is appreciated...(via Ideamani)

Ladies and Gentlemen, give it up for "Two to Tango"- A ProjectWhy Fundraiser!!! I know I know..... All of us get paranoid when we hear the name "Charity", however, rest assured that your money will be in safe hands. Learn more about the organization where the charity money will go.We will assign all of you a ticket for every $2 (Rs.90) you pay and you enter into a raffle.
The winner will win a prize of a 100 (or Rs.4,500) dollar gift certificate.
SO come join us in this wonderful event! Win for a good cause!!!Register and with as little as $2 from your pocket, you make a difference in someone's life! Your registration in this raffle will buy a complete meal for a child for a week in India! I urge you all to help me in this conquest of ours and donate generously to this cause, this IS the time when you can make a difference!
All the registration fees can be sent here: http://projectwhy.org/justonerupee.htm. Kindly mention your full names and email ids in the additional notes section when you complete transaction in paypal. You will then receive your random lucky draw number via email. Additional donations can also be directed to the same paypal account.Please help us help those less fortunate.

My first experience

2005-09-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

Hope you guys didn’t run your thoughts wild after reading the title ;-) This post is about my first driving experience in U.S. I know driving here is not a big deal still after struggling a lot for my driving license I feel this was an important occasion for me. I drove few hundred miles on all three days during my labor day trip. Day one to Yosemite was ultimate fun. After the first pit(ss) stop, I got the keys to weave my magic. I learnt my driving in a medium sized car which had gears near the legs but this one was a full size car with gears near the steering. After doing all formality checks I was ready for taking reverse. I took my leg of the brake and looked back. Everyone looked at me, the car wasn’t moving. I pressed accelerator, brake, brake, accelerator….mm nothing worked. What the heck is this? My friend checked and yelled “idiot, switch on the engine”. “Sorry, a small logical mistake”. Thankfully the next one and half-an hour went fine. Then we had the curves and hilly region. I was too slow in turnings. There were no guardrails which left me pissed on. I promptly pulled over and didn’t even think of driving for the rest of day. Day two was cool – free way merging, U turn all went fine till I got the opportunity to park in Santa Cruz. I pulled to the parking spot and felt comfortable with the sidelines and forgot to look in front. Result - a small dent in the car that was parked in front. Immediately vacated that parking spot and settled for a less complex place. Thank god no one was around. Day three had more thrills and blushes. I was going well passed the speed limit and didn’t realize a red in the signal. My friends saw it. One guy said “deiiii nirthuda…” other guy said “its ok gooooo…”.I got confused, stunned and jammed on the brake. Luckily I managed to stop just in front of the line. My friends started cooling me and asked me to get on. But still I was not able to come out of that. With this incident running in my mind I took a left lane change without looking back. Both my friends got pissed off and the guy coming behind us honked and was upset with the way I drove. I realized, ok this is enough for the day and handed over the keys to my friend. While starting to drive on day one, my friend said – “Please be aware of the lane you should drive, never drive in the wrong side of the lane”. I am happy that I didn’t do that still there are lot more things that needs to be attended, especially the turning skills.

Last Weekend movies: விடுதலை and வி.ஐ.பி.Drooled over Madhavi,Simran,Rambha and ofcourse Shalini ;-)

Labor Day trip 2005

2005-09-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Labor Day and my relationship with California seem to be a good one. For last year’s Labor Day, I went to Redwood forest. This year, in and around of SFO. It was a fabulous trip. First time flying within US for a trip. Trip from Seattle to SFO was accompanied by two ladies on either side of me (i mean in the flight). One reading 'South India tourist guide' and the other reading 'Harry Potter'. SFO is known as a part of Bay area, more preferably Gay area. My friend lives in the heart/hot of the city – Just opposite to a $trip bar which has been rated as No.1 by Playboy. First time took a rental car (more on this in the next post).We were three in number and four in size ;-)

Day one – Sep3:
Started the day by 8:15 AM. The plan was to visit Yosemite national park. It was 1:30 when we reached the information centre. The place we planned to visit was Glacier point, which is open only during summer. Everyone felt damn hungry. And there was no restaurant on the way to Glacier point. So we have to travel on the opposite direction and then to Glacier point

It was 5:00 PM when we reached Glacier point. The view from the point was amazing. (pics here…) Spent less than an hour and returned to Fremont where one kind hearted soul had our dinner ready. Enjoyed the dinner and slept after watching America Pie-2.

Day Two – Sep4:
Yesterday’s long travel left everyone tired. Watched first set of Sania-Sharapova’s match and then started the day’s trip. Day’s plan was to take Hwy1 scenic drive to Santa Cruz beach. The drive and the coast view was breath taking. Stopped at various view points. Reached Santa Cruz beach by 5:00.Finding a parking alone took half-an hour. Santa Cruz beach is famous for the Boardwalk. Roamed around for couple of hours. (pics here…). SFO trip is not complete until you go for Sunnyvale Saravana Bhavan. Reached Saravana Bhavan by 8:30 and as usual it took one hour to get a table for three. Had some scrumptious Onion Rava dosa, Pongal, Adai and Vegetable dosa. Lip smacking.

Day Three – Sep5:
Went to Golden Gate. Next place in the list was Stinson beach. Took a wrong exit and landed in Sausalito city. Somehow found out the correct way. This was also a coastal drive. The beach was crowded. (pics here…). Spent just few mins and returned back to catch the night flight. I got empty last row to enjoy.

The weather was too good on all three days.Shinning Sun as well as chill breeze.One more miracle is that we got free parking space on all three days.You should be damn lucky to get a free parking lot in SFO downtown for three consecutive days.

Note: Most of the pictures were shot by my friends, so rotten eggs and tomatoes are always encouraged ;-)

Nostalgia

2005-09-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Venkat. Since this was a good recap of my schooldays I did this immediately.

Do You Remember the Name of Your Very First School?
I studied for an year or so in a school named Vivekanada ……(unable to recollect).But I remember the next one - Bala Guru Kulam, Salem, TN, India.

How about the name of your first friend at school...
Suresh Raja

Who was your favourite teacher?
Geetha,Selvi,Revathi,TamilSelvi, Senthilmani and I forgot one more name, she used to take GK/Geography….. நிஜமா எல்லாரும் என்னோட teacher’s தான் ;-)

What subject did you dread the most?
Mathematics.

Did you participate in co-curricular activities?
No way, curriculum-e ஒழுங்கா படிக்கலை....

Which was your favorite sport?
No prizes for guessing. Its cricket always…

Which places did you visit on a school trip?
Yercaud,Jaipur,Delhi,Agra,Haridwar and Rishikesh

Now, there must a boy/girl whom you hated the most and never wanted to see again in your life, who was it?
A boy - Suresh

You must have had a close friend, without whom you thought you could never live and then you both moved on, lost touch and now only wonder in which part of the word he/she must be in…who is it?

Nothing like that.

Weekend movies

2005-08-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

திருவருட்செல்வர்,ஊரை தெரிஞ்சுகிட்டேன்,ரசிகன் and சதிலீலாவதி. I don’t know why/how I chose this combination. I am normally choosy and defined but it seems somehow I lost those qualities. திருவருட்செல்வர் is the odd one out in the list. Decoding (?!) Tamil dialogues was fascinating. You need to have immense patience to watch the full movie. Introduction of Sivaji takes more than 10 mins (curtains go one after the other followed by lyrics). I guess this is the longest time taken for an introduction. I know you all think that something is definitely wrong with me. Even I feel the same. During Saturday’s like everyone, Surya T.V-la Shakeela-va பாத்துகிட்டு இருந்தவன் இப்படி ஆயிட்டேன் :- (

Coming weekend (Sep 2nd -5th) will be spent in SFO. After lot of booking and cancellation steps the trip is almost confirmed.

Got some work after a long time so the schedule that I posted earlier here is no more valid. For a small “If statement” it takes an hour. I have to dust the cobwebs in my brain…

Summer Outing

2005-08-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed an outing to Six flags last Saturday. Six flags here in Seattle is more of a water theme park where as other states have more roller coasters. Sunny day at Seattle always draws crowd out. The atmosphere inside the park was awesome. Water rides + sunny day + U.S dress code. Do I need to say about anything else? காண கண் கோடி வேண்டும்… I know this statement makes most of you fume ;-) Steep slide is the one that fooled me. Just went along with the crowd. As I approached the slide, slowly lost my smile, no conversation interested me, saw few people backing. I felt happy that it’s a tunnel slide kind of stuff. Happily got into the sliding position – lied down holding my arms in chest and folding the legs. When I heard “go” I just skidded fast, within few seconds I saw sunlight, thought phew that’s it… then came the steep board, I felt I am done for the day. Somehow came to real life in few seconds. Then saw how steep was the slide. It was like the letter 7.Damn it. The immediate decision was – “no more water rides, I am changing my clothes”. Lumber jack ride is the one that everyone spotted. Thought it has water slide, nothing dangerous. It was a group ride. Everyone was analyzing which seat would help them to maintain their dry clothes as it is. I didn’t care much about that. I got the last seat and after the ride, it’s me who didn’t get wet whereas all others got their clothes wet. Then checked out Timber Hawk ride. While in queue couple of friends felt it would be a good option to skip this ride. I said – “Looks like there is nothing much in this ride. Don’t afraid”. I am the only one who never opened my eyes in the full ride. It had few sharp turns, huge ups and downs. After the ride I wasn’t sure all my body parts are in their respective places. Everything was fine, God does exist. My face after the ride was as if I was beaten left and right by a ghost. After this what I suggested was an Enchanted Railway (kids train) and a 1906 Antique Carousel (one that is famous in our village festivals – u sit in a hanging horse doll and they take you slowly in circles).No one was ready to take these challenges. I think they got scared ;-) Left the place in the evening with some sweet (?!) memories for the heart and great sights for the eyes!!

Weekend movies : After a long time, I saw some great movies.

கர்ணன்: I am not a fan of sivaji; I like the character - karna and the song உள்ளத்தில் நல்ல உள்ளம்....

ஆண்பாவம்: Very hilarious movie. It should be one among the few movies where both the heroines are dressed in பாவாடை தாவணி through out the movie (baring black & white movies). It was a pleasant feeling to watch such a movie.
Guess who: Yes an English movie. I seldom watch English movies. This was a good one. I recommend all to watch this one.
The Stepford wives: I condemn all who even think of watching this movie. A total crap.

Yea Raj - The Master

2005-08-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

You try out a new thing, in the end screw it up and you prefer calling it an invention. I somehow didn’t feel that way last night. We (a BITS and a IRTT alumni!!) felt really bad about the results we got after couple of attempts in our new endeavor. Scratched our heads on what to do next. Just took a deep breath. “Patience pays” was the words we exchanged often. Yes we have mastered the art of making Rava Dosa!!!! For the people who ROTFL, this is not as easy as you think, that to for the fingers used to keyboards & mouse. Try out; I swear you’ll end up making Rava uppuma kind of stuff. That’s what we got in the first two attempts. We were unable to complete a full circle of flour in the tava and turn them! Luckily after two attempts we got everything right. mm..I have one more thing to add to my resume.Great going Raj.Forgot to capture a picture of it :-( The brown, crispy dosa might have left you longing for it.

Weekend Movies: அன்புக்கு நான் அடிமை and ஆனந்தம். The songs in அன்புக்கு நான் அடிமை were pathetic. I don’t know how come Illayaraja came up with such tunes.

Room mate has left

2005-08-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

No not because of my tortures that I posted here. He got into a different project that is the one and only reason. OK you all believed it right. As you all know that it’s my noble gesture to dedicate a post about him (as I did for my previous room mate here). I’ll address him as BM through out this post (no specific reason will be given here). The fun with him started from the day one he landed here in Seattle. After reaching Seattle airport he gave me a call:

BM: “hey Raj, how to reach your home from airport?”
Me: Do you have the directions map with you?
BM: What directions? I don’t have any map.
Me: I sent you my address right?
BM: Ya I have that in my mail.
Me: ?!
My project mate then guided the taxi driver to our place. I was left speechless when he opened one of his suitcases. It fully had Biscuits, Horlicks, and Boost.Nothing else! I asked him – “You didn’t grow up after school?” Last week only we finished the last Good day packet! “Chivalrous” is the best word that explains BM’s nature. Late night calls from India, getting restless without mobile are all a great indication you see. Oops mobile phones. Man he knows all models, prices, plans what not. Whenever he gets a chance he used to boast of how he was busy with calls, sms, sleepless nights etc., He felt deeply hurt when I said I just know green color button for calls and red color to end, that’s all I know about mobiles. Never again he spoke about mobiles. A good mechanical engineering brain is lured into this s/w industry (blame it on the good looking girls in this field). Our frequencies were completely out of sync – BM likes Trisha. His current favorite music includes Thirupachi! Man I never preferred these two. Whenever I pick an old DVD in Mayuri his blood pressure increases. So to pacify him we would give him the laptop. The effect was awesome – no food, no sleep he can survive with Yahoo messenger and internet his whole life, I guess. He has strong belief that taking good photograph means holding the camera in a stylish way. Despite this belief he used to capture some great pics. His experience with the dentist is a good lesson for me rather for all. After using up all his insurance coverage, his dental owe is not solved yet. Yes they treated him for three days but not for the problem what he suffered from. Only god knows what they treated him for. You can’t use up 1.5k insurance just for ogling the receptionist mate (too much I say). Before boarding for Delaware he weighed his luggage at least 100 times. I said don’t be over cautious mate you might not get them back. Next morning he called me – “You idiot, I lost one of my luggage. The airlines authorities have to trace back now”. What could I say? I am so much relieved to hear that he got them back. I am not the first one to honor him in a post. One of his friends had already done that here… So all these fun got ended. I am sorry BM, I posted all stuffs even after getting a pair of socks as bribe from you ;-)

Priyasakhi

2005-08-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

I am not able to come to a conclusion on how the movie was.
The movie watching experience was very good. Very few people were in theatre (around 50).I heard that the same conditions prevail in Tamilnadu also ;-) Everyone was in a jubilant mood. (Sunday afternoon, no deliverables on Monday etc.,) Though we didn't know anyone personally, we got along very well enjoying every comment from all parts. Each and every scene has something to make fun of. Few female fans were worried that Madhavan has put on more weight! The camera work revolves around Sadha's waist for most of the times. Madhavan gets paid to play around it and I pay to watch it, how unfair.

Interesting pattern!

2005-08-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

This is the bowling figures of Aussies & Eng after the first innings in the second test match.The wickets column sequence is interesting.It would have been much more interesting if Giles had got one more ;-)

Historic win

2005-08-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

We fill dots both horizontally and vertically. One player has to join two dots – vertical or horizontal. The other gets his chance next. The player who completes a square owns that square. Last week, my room mate recollected this school day game and we spent some time on this. It was a close game as the last two moves decided the winner. I didn’t remember when I last played this game. So given the big time gap and tough playing conditions (it was almost midnight) it was really a historic win for Raj (no laughing guys,it happens). It didn’t have the thrill of playing while classes going on and act as if a sincere stud taking notes during the school days ;-) What do we call this game, any idea?

Weekend movies:

Kushi – One of best movies that can be cited as an example of superb screenplay.

Suvarillatha Chittirangal – I just now figured it out that this is the directional debut for Bagyaraj. Good comedies but a tragic second half!

There must be an evil eye(Ram?!) to the post - Last couple of months. I worked extra hours to publish this post :- (

Double Treat….

2005-07-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Once in a blue moon both Ilayaraja and A.R.Rahman’s songs come during the same time period. Now the dazzling moon has appeared. I am talking about the songs of Ah Aah and Oru Naal Oru Kanavu (ONOK). Rahman rocks, is an understatement. All songs are excellent. The song - Ah Aah.. Aararai Kodi... tops the list. For sure, this is going to be played all over Tamilnadu for few more weeks. The moment Rahman utters Ah Aah, I go over the moon. I guess Thigu Thigu and Thazhuvudu songs are going to be great numbers on screen!! (You read as hot numbers, right?) It’s shocking that ONOK music has not been discussed as widely as Ah Aah,in blogs . May be Raja’s Thiruvasagam masked this.Overall three songs are really a gem in ONOK.(Katril Varum, Khajiraho Kanavilo, Konjum Thira).I didn’t recognize that Khajiraho song is similar to Rooja Poonthotam from Kannukkul Nilavu, till Arun pointed out. Still the song is awesome to ears. So, listen to Ah Aah when u want the feeling of flying high and listen ONOK when you want to bring your pulse down slowly. Too much of moon phrase asks for a moon picture and thereby Raj exhibits his photographic skills ;-) Here is it….

Last couple of months….

2005-07-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

Weekdays

6:00 Alarm goes on, I switch it off and take one more hour to get up from bed.
8:00 Reach office, forget having breakfast. Even before the PC boots up I get my coffee cup filled.
8:10 Start visiting Microsoft outlook, NDTV, Gmail, Rediffmail, yahoo.com’s. No work mails and few fwd’s.
8:30 Check for comments in blog. Check all the new feeds in bloglines.com.
10:00 oops…didn’t check mails for more than an hour. So again Gmail, Rediffmail, yahoo. No mails. Log on to msngr. Shit no one is online. Wondering what all guys are doing.
10:30 ok let me check any updates in NDTV. Nothing new. What nothing new happened in the world for more than two hours? Sigh..
10:45 Vikatan.com
11:15 Again bloglines.com
11:45 Lunch time
12:45 Redo the activities from 8:10 to 11:45.Vikatan.com is replaced with hinduonnet. Coffee at 3:00.
4:00 Shall I blog today? What to blog? Almost all topics are discussed by someone with more wit, its better not to spoil the blogosphere.
4:30 Send/Read fwds. Googling.No not ogling...
5:00 visit all Tamil movie sites...
6:00 it’s getting late. There is always tomorrow. We’ll see the rest later
Sleep for an hour or so and then cook, have dinner, listen SPB.Illayaraja hits, sleep by 12:30 or 1:00

Almost the same schedule is repeated everyday. Who said career in IT is challenging? It’s true that life sucks.

For regular readers of my blog (is there anyone?!) you know what I do on weekends. Movies, movies and movies. Saturday evening to temple. சாமி கும்பிட மட்டும்தான்னு சொன்னா நம்புவீங்களா?

Experiences with diverse cuisines

2005-07-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Read my first part on this topic here...
Malay Satay Hut: A Malaysian cuisine. We had a surprise in the entrance itself. The waiter asked us which part of India are we from. We said south & he started chatting in Tamil. He didn’t look like an Indian. Guess he learnt few things in Tamil. Later found that he also knows Hindi. And it’s ordering time, I opted for curry veggie rice with noodles. After ordering I was wondering what does that mean – veggie rice with noodles, will this work out fine? My friends were playing safe by choosing Roti canai. I boasted that we should try different varieties.
Waitress: Do u like to share or have a single bowl.
Me: Single bowl (Didn’t realize the mistake I made till she served the food).
I was served with a BIG bowl and with lot of Tofu’s. I don’t prefer Tofu’s. Cursed myself for the order I made and somehow made up my mind saying “அரசியல்ல இதெல்லாம் சகஜமப்பா”
Kafé Neo: This is a Greek style food place just a stone throw away from my apartment. They specialize in Gyros. So I opted for Vegetarian Gyro. The food was ok until you touch the curry they give along with that. The combination doesn’t work out well. Till date, I stayed away from the curry and from that place as well.
King Ludwig’s: A German restaurant. This restaurant is in Leavenworth. The interiors were awesome. Just opposite to our table they had a superb painting of a European style house. Everything was artistic. The way they served the beer is a good example for their creative work. The waiter just flipped the bottled and rotated it in a amazing way. I didn’t understand even a single word in the menu. I asked the waiter itself - Which one shall I take?! He suggested - Gasthaus Style Lecs. They informed that it is a Hungarian dish. Their Rice pilaf was similar to our பருப்பு அரிசி சாதம். The curry was almost a tomato sauce with peppers. For sure tantalizing,yummy,delicious…

Quick update on weekend movies:
Tango Charlie(அட Hindi படம் தாங்க!!!),Badri,Winner,Chandramukhi and Rojakoottam.

Cru(a)shes

2005-07-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

For the past few months I had few nebulous thoughts on this topic. I am still not sure whether revealing these facts are good or not. Who knows few might chew over this – இது யாரா இருக்கும்? It all started when I was in my fourth std! (1989). Due to lack of class rooms the fourth std and fifth std shared a single room. And I had a crush with a fifth std girl. Her name if described in English might mean “snow/dew drops”. It lasted for just few months. Next one is during my eight std. (1993).I saw her during the usual Morning Prayer session and the fire caught up. Now you understood the importance of having prayer session in schools right? Her name means – “beautiful”. You guessed it right I never missed a single prayer session after that. It went on for three years. Even when most of the school strength went after the new arrivals, I sticked with this lass. After tenth std somehow my thought didn’t fancy gals. Then during my post graduate life (2k – 2003), I started to have multiple crushes at the same time. I think the long gap has done the trick. Two crushes shared the same name, meaning – “moon”. One was a school girl and the other one had just completed her degree. While I used to see them on weekdays, for weekends also I chose one rather it happened to be that way. Her name means - “snow/dew drops”. Huh, there is definitely something to do with the names. And next is the workplace crush. Her name means – “delightful to look at”. Before getting involved too much into this I was packed up to US. May be God thought - Get lost, enough of this non sense. One hard fact is that - I have never uttered a word with these crushes. And this explains why I am an RC (Romantically Challenged).The chances are almost zero that my crushes would read this but in case if you read this then stop bashing me. Others remember, you didn’t read anything here.

For a change

2005-07-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

After lots of Tamil movies last week we decided to try out other language films this weekend. It ended up as Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam combo.
The film started displaying the names of all stars. I waited for ten minutes.
Me: Dudes, different thinking. They didn’t display the name of the movie till now
One guy replied: Idiot, they showed it
Me: What?
Other guy: It’s D
Me: Speechless.
I am completely clueless. Is there such a shortage for film names in Bollywood? So what is the reason behind naming the movie as D? Go watch it and find out. Hey wait, do it if you badly need a headache. The name of the protagonist in the movie is Deshu so they named it as D. I don’t see any other valid reason.
உத்தரவின்றி உள்ளே வா: After searching for 20 mins we finally settled for this movie. The movie was a disappointment. Anyway Kanchana didn’t disappoint us with her…. with her… performance I say ;-)
Harikrishnans: A good movie with couple of good songs and three different climaxes depending upon the location they screened it. The climax we saw was Mira choosing Hari .This is my guess. Because the leaf she throws falls in the first box which had fewer jangiri’s(malayalam language guys!!)

I have been blogging too much about movies off late. I swear I’ll change the topic next time. Sariya? Samje? Mansilario? I said to you earlier right, I am easily manipulated by media.

Tooooo much of movies

2005-07-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

Got a long weekend to kill days. Promptly opted for a safe couch & few old tamil movies. I have never seen these many movies in a weekend. Covered movies from late 1960's to till date!The list is: Netrikkan, M.Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi, Raam, Anbe Vaa, Ghilli, Priya, Vivek comedies and SingaraVelan. The DVD rental shop guy looked at us in a strange way. What the heck these guys are doing? Never mind. Went out rented DVD’s, came in occupied the couch. Repeated the same activity twice a day and ended up with seven DVD’s in three days. Oops almost 10 movies in the last 10 days. If I go at this rate I might consume all the DVD’s in the rental shop. Need to take a break soon from tamil movies.

P.S: Nadiya is still ~~charming~~young ;-)

Those tense moments….

2005-07-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

It was a typical murky Friday. I had fixed my drive test slot for 9:00 AM. Reached the licensing office by 8:50. My pulse was on the rise. I recalled all my earlier faults. My mentor asked me to stay cool & drive as if I have my license already. The instructor arrived at 9:10.Asked me to turn on the engine & switch on the left turn indicator. I switched on the right turn indicator (oh jees). The instructor one again said left turn indicator, realizing my mess I switched on the right one. Luckily got all my hand signals correct. Backed up the car from the parking lot. He marked something immediately (oh no…). Drove to Parallel Parking spot. I realized I was a bit far away to do a parallel park, still went ahead (bull shit). As feared, I hit the curb. Thank god I learnt how to come up after this mess earlier in the day. Even then I struggled for few minutes on which way to turn the wheels. I thought I failed this time too. But unlike last time I didn’t give up. Some how I drove away. The instructor marked something and asked me to continue (thank god). Then drove in few residential areas. Parking around the corner went fine. He asked me to show him “how to park as if you leave the vehicle unattended”. I never knew what that meant?! I just parked my vehicle! [I realized later, that he asked me to park as if in an upper hill] Then we returned to licensing office. He said “You passed the test, congratulations”. Guys you should have seen my smile, the lips got dragged to the ears. I got my evaluation sheet. Few remarks and awarded me: 86/100!!!!!! I thank all guys who prayed for me on this. Stalin - Mundakanni amma yenna kaapithitaangada ;-)

One more news: Amit Varma has included my post - I pity the girl in this week’s blog mela under the section Education.Thanks Amit.

Anniyan, Kana Kanden and Sachein

2005-06-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Three movies in three days. A quick look at them.

Anniyan: A good entertainer. I liked it, though there are notable flaws. All reviews I read earlier had pointed them out. Dialogues are very good (as usual with statistics).Shankar should have concentrated more on the lengthy second half. Still the script was completely balanced.

Plus: Sujatha, Vikram & Vivek
Minus: Sadha, Sadha & Sadha. She is looking horrible in almost all scenes.

I got annoyed with one idiot. Sitting just behind me, he started to question all the logics loud. He just boasted in front of his Girlfriend or wife, I guess. Why don’t these people shut their mouth or at least reduce their decibel?

P.S: Numbers of good looking desi’s is increasing in Seattle!!!!

Kana Kanden: A very good debut for the director K.V.Anand. The character Madan was awesome. Prithwiraj plays that character to perfection. His Tamil with occasional Mallu accent is sweet. It’s already late for Srikanth to get his acting lessons correct. What reaction a husband will give when he hears that his wife is carrying? Definitely not a shocking look. But that is what this guy exactly does. Ridiculous. The great let down is way the songs are picturized. Don’t ever watch the videos just listening is enough.

Sachein: Crap. Absolute nonsense. All my aghast was perfectly brought up in Lazy geek’s post here…

I pity the girl

2005-06-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

[source: Vikatan.com]

A small article (user name/password required) published in Ananda Vikatan this week, afflicted me to a great extent. The blind students who attend their board exams are assisted by a teacher, who writes the answers whatever the student utters. As per the article, the girl (Anusha) feels that the teacher has not done her duty to perfection. Now there is no evidence with her to prove that she is right. So what is the solution for this? I could think of two options that might help us in the future.

First, use some other method to evaluate these kinds of students. Interviewing them is one good option.

Second, record the answers what they say. After the results, if the student is not satisfied with results, they can apply for re-valuation. In this case the audio proof can be used to verify whether what ever they said is reflected in the answer sheet.

I know these things are simply said rather than implemented. But the govt. can have an open discussion on this and come up with a practical solution.

Updated: This article appeared in this week's blog mela under the category education.

Donwloading ?!

2005-06-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

Where did they went wrong?

2005-06-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

Let me warn you all at the earliest, I am mathematically challenged (at times mentally too).So I am not that much bright in formulas. For the last few days I am reading lot about Formula 1 in news papers & my friends too scream like anything. I seriously doubt my math teacher taught me this formula. From what I read & listen, I interpret that there was a problem with tyres. After thinking (?!) a lot, I found where they went wrong. They weren’t taught 3-tier architecture, that’s why they panicked at the last moment and withdrew!!!! What else could be the reason? Remember you read this first here.

Shall I?!

2005-06-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

How to reveal this? Finding difficult to pick words. It’s been a year since I got committed. At first it was stiff. Then as days passed we started developing a good understanding. I used to be in touch all weekdays, at times on weekends too.But for past few days we are not in sync. I don’t feel the same comfort I had in the beginning. I have decided to break up this relationship. No words can express this loss. Yes I am going to trash my pair of socks this weekend, shall I?!

No proper sleep

2005-06-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

For the last few days I am experiencing this. I am wondering what happened to my usual schedule. Nothing has changed off late in my life. As usual no work, just mails, blogs, magazines etc., I had never been in this situation. Even if hell broke loose, I used to doze off. But that’s not the case now - I don’t get proper sleep @ office - after lunch. This drives me crazy. Any thoughts & valid explanation for this will be appreciated ;-)

Book Meme

2005-06-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

Almost all bloggers might have been book-tagged by now. Yes I am late in this. Prabhu Karthik tagged me this book meme. For the last few days I thought he is the one who is going to tag me and it happened. First let me tell you all a fact, my reading habit started late in my life so I don’t have many things to list. Actually this meme helped me to get a good look at my book catalog.

Total Number of Books I Own: Less than 25.

Last Book I Bought: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter

Last Book I Read: Rich Dad Poor Dad. I don’t prefer backlogs. I read books then and there. This book has some very good financial observations. Still I am poor in dealing with money.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: Does this list need to be the book owned by me? If so then it’s hard to answer. This list also has books that are not owned by me.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Excellent fable.

எண்ணங்கள் by M.S உதயமூர்த்தி. Not even a single page is wasted in this book.

The Goal by Eliyahu M Ratt.Jeff cox. Nice blend of work & personal life solution.

கள்ளிக்காட்டு இதிகாசம் by வைரமுத்து. If you would like to know the life style of village folks, a must read.

Who moved my cheese by Spencer Johnson.

My India The India Eternal – This book consist of few good works by Swami Vivekananda. I just like a small piece – Faith in one’s self. Whenever I feel demoralized this recharges me.

Few more are வந்தார்கள் வென்றார்கள், How to win friends and influence people, As a man Thinketh, Manase relax please etc.,

A must read for the future – Complete works of Vivekananda (all volumes), Kamasutra by Vatsyayana, Bhagavat Gita,அர்த்தமுள்ள இந்துமதம். You know one of my friends says – “I am man full of paradoxical thoughts”. And this explains it right?

Tag few people and have them do this on their blogs:
Balakumar
Barani
Kongu Raasaa

imse

Whom shall I tag next? No restrictions all bloggers & non-bloggers are welcome.Bloggers, if you had already done with this leave a link in comment. Non-bloggers post your list in the comments section. This might help my wish list to grow.No,no “Malika Sherawat - Complete reference should not make it to the list.

Fit for nothing

2005-06-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

Failed again in the drive test! This is my third instance. And on all three attempts I did different blunders.
First time: I was in wrong gear to start with. Then I didn’t do my corner parking well. I ended up doing a middle of the street parking.
Evaluator comment: You should practice more.
Practiced couple of weeks…
Second time: Just 2 mins before the test got my right finger injured (a bad omen?!). It started bleeding. ம்...கதாநாயகன் மாதிரி ரத்தம் சிந்தி ஜெயிக்கலாம்னு இருந்தேன். The parking activities went fine. Forgot to stop in a STOP sign.
Evaluator comment: Violation of law. You are too slow in turns.
After this I got too cautious, even while walking I stop at a STOP sign and give it a stare and then carrying on.
Practiced couple of weeks…
Third time: This is the worst drives of the three. While backing up didn’t turn the wheels enough. Hit the pole while getting out of a parallel parking. I lost my brain completely (hey c’mon I might have one). The evaluator guided me to pull out.
Evaluator comment: you don’t have any control over your wheels. Practice for couple more weeks.

All these happened after practicing driving once in a week from February (my guess?!). I could have easily fed an African elephant for a year for the dollars I spent on learning. sigh…

Oops forgot to reveal about the written exam tragedy. I cleared the written exam in the second attempt that to my last guess turned out positive. I failed even after reading the Washington Drivers guide for a week. My roommate cleared the exam in the first attempt without reading the book.

Is this called panic or choke? Gladwell please help.(via Prabhukarthik)

Are you looking for a guy who is fit for nothing? Then you know whom to contact. Right?!

Generation Gap?!

2005-06-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

I am still pondering for an answer – “How come we have such a generation gap?” This question was asked when couple of my friends came here last week. We guys differ by the max of two years (I am elder to them!). They came up with the above question after the following incidents:

I fancied for SPB solo songs during the night (songs from 80’s). [I wonder how many problems are in queue because of this CD, my previous problem here…]

When questioned, Which one is better - songs from Boys or Jeans? I replied Jeans. (Isn’t it true?). Believe me I am die-hard A.R.Rahman fan.

I like Julia Roberts and Demi moore. This I agree that I am bit outdated. Because I don’t remember when I last saw a Hollywood movie. My friend hates Julia to the core. Don’t know why, some personal enmity?! Since he owns a Brown belt in Karate, I am aware that messing up with him is not good for me. Even I own a black belt but that is from T.Nagar.

But I want to know whether the first two statements mean that I have a generation gap with them. We are all 2003 pass outs. I strongly feel the SPB songs are immortal. Evaluate this song – Sangeetha megam from Udhaya Geetham.
These lines – “எந்தன் மூச்சும் இந்தப் பாட்டும் அணையா விளக்கே” sums up 200% truth(Thanks to Learntamil.com for helping me in getting the spelling correct,otherwise i might have got them f***** up). Luckily they didn’t see a Kannadasan cd I have and my love for T.Rajendar hits. They might have decided that I am from Mars.

Rainbow - Click by Raj

2005-06-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

The above pic is shot by me yesterday outside my apartment.Wow it was a great sight to watch.I missed to capture this last time but managed to get this time. Just used the option enhance color in Microsoft office picture manager.

Memorial Day memories

2005-06-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

We hosted couple of friends during the Memorial Day weekend.
Day One – May 28:
After having a luscious lunch (?!) prepared by me, four of us headed for Snoqualmie Falls. The weather was good. You don’t get clear skies often in Seattle. Enjoyed the trail .Evening went to Mayuri for refreshments. I am the navigator and properly messed up the exits. After making number of U-turns for half-an hour we decided to catch the freeway and reach home. While on a free way I recollected another exit might lead us to the store. Just gave it a try and it worked fine. But the effort was not that fruitful as the hot chilli bajji burnt my tongue and brought tears. Spent the rest of the evening in Alderwood mall where I came up with a new law. “When sun comes out here the skirt size shrinks”. You can call this law by any name. Thumb rule, first law anything would be fine, just name it. We took the help of Subway for dinner.
Day Two – May 29:
And this is the day we were waiting for. I booked for rafting in Wenatchee River. They classified it as class III & IV. No one had prior experience. Except one fellow no one knows good swimming either. We knew that it is going to be a long drive. Exit 23A is one exit we won’t forget for some more years. We have to take that exit but realized it at the last minute and we almost missed the exit. My friend took that exit in a scary way! One second delay might have made matters worse for all. Thank god. The rafting spot was just after Leavenworth. We reached on time, had a good lunch (Burger – What else?).Dressed up nicely with wet suits and life jacket. Our guide’s first question was – Do you guys want to live? Man I got pissed off. We were eight in number in the raft including couple of kids. The guide – Steve was a nice person. He explained the things to do and not to do. Two other co-passengers had visited India during the late 80’s.One guy was much interested to know about the Ambassador car being still used. He recollected his experience of traveling for 12 hrs in the bus roof top during his visit to Goa. Did some good front and back paddles. Rapids are the spots where water hits the hard rocks. Going near them and getting out of it was great fun. At times splashed water into the other rafts using buckets. We had great fun during four hours of rafting. Luckily it was sunny all the way. While returning back it was raining but not much. We had a delicious dinner at Udipi. Slept like being in hibernation.
Day Three – May 30:
We started the day with Lunch at Downtown Pabla. We went for Lake Seattle cruise(pics here…). We saw Bill Gates house from quite a visible distance(pics here…). The artificial beach in front of his house is too good. Looks like the sand laid there was imported (might be from Marina?!). Spent few hours near Space needle where lot of activities were going on. When everything was going right, while reaching home I screwed up with one more exit. I am not fit for navigation, half-assed idiot!

Adding agony

2005-05-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

The above picture shows Creative speakers, a new addition to Raj’s chattels. No need to say that this is going to increase the agony of my roommate. To understand why, read my previous post. Now we have two volume controls and when he reduces the level by few points after few seconds I reinstate it. For sure I am going to be beaten unto death one day!

We have a long weekend so will be staying away from net till Tuesday. Will be roaming around downtown.

Getting crazy @ nights

2005-05-24T17:56:00.000-07:00

Everything was fine till I had only one mp3 CD. The one I had for few months was late 90’s Tamil hits. We used to listen to them during night time and it’ll go on till my room mate switches it off (after I sleep).Couple of weeks back we wrote few 80’s collections from my friend. And one among them is SPB solo hits of 80’s.Man do I need to utter that the songs are phenomenal? Here starts the problem. I have this bad habit of singing, despite the fact that my voice is terrible (that’s not my problem).Settling on the decibel level is itself a Gordian knot. After playing the SPB solo, I blurt out the same during midnight. I know that I am making it a hell for him. But I could not stop. Even Lazy has ranted about this here. If you look at the songs chain then you’ll believe it is harsh to stop. It starts with ‘Nilave vaa’ and then ‘Mandram vantha’ etc., All mesmerizing songs. Roommate’s situation is like that of S.Ve Sekar’s in ‘Payanangal Mudivathilai’. And when ‘ilaya nila’ song starts this guy’s blood gets boiled. I don’t know who among the two are living dangerously.

It is Greg Chappell

2005-05-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Greg Chappell has been appointed as a coach for Indian cricket team at a cost of 175K USD per annum! Let us wish that he brings more professionalism to the team.

Who could be the next Indian cricket coach?

2005-05-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

Four strong contenders – Greg Chappell, Tom Moody, Mohinder Amarnath and Desmond Haynes. Chappell is known for his cricketing brain. Amarnath is one of the tough people to deal. Remember his famous statement – “Selectors are bunch of jokers”. Haynes a great batsman during his era. Indeed a very tough decision for the selection panel on May 19th. My choice is Moody because:

Young - could serve us well on long-term.

Good fielder - Might insist/train team members more on that.

In touch with the job - currently handling a county side.

Chappell and Amarnath are stronger in technical aspects of the game. This thing might work against Moody. Looks like Chappell and Moody are close in the race. Let’s wait for the results and justification. Do they ever list out the reasons for selection?

Kolkatta to PPM

2005-05-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

Unsure of what is PPM? Wait don’t search for PPM in google. That is Pallipallayam, a village near Erode! My friend is going from Kolkatta to PPM after a loooong time. This post is my visualization of what would be the scene there during this trip. When he is about to enter the stairs of his home he would find few fine breed of goats. In the doorway some well home grown hens. Each one might weigh around 2 to 3 kg. After seeing this he will give a Jack smile J . The goat & hen count will get considerably reduced for his breakfast. By the time he finishes his breakfast his mom would call for lunch. Without vacillation he will continue his lunch! And now it’s the turn for fish & other flying birds. After this he would feel like an African Buffalo suffering flatulence problems. A good sleep will be disturbed by evening masala Tea. Evening will get killed with Cinema or friends. His grandma will say that he has gone thin. She would blame on others evil eye is the reason. Poor grandma, she is not aware that this lad’s eye is the reason for most Indians thin composition. All 15 days the same schedule will be strictly followed! Erode people be cautious, the food-chain is totally kaput. He also promised to treat the friends back home. Any guess what he would treat with? 1 by 2 tea at the bus stands corner shop?!

Oops forgot to update my weekend movie list!

2005-05-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend spent time with movies which had strong messages in them. Of course they claim all movies they make have strong message, which is not true. Ok let me give a one liner about the message. If others who watched those movies earlier also got the same message then I am happy. If you missed the message then watch it again!
Manmathaleelai – Crew: Kamal. Sex is nothing but flesh. This was depicted after two and half hours of sexy scenes!
New – Crew: SJ Surya + Simran. Importance and caring nature of mother/motherhood. Ya true this is the message I got after watching this movie.

Autograph

2005-05-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Sun is at the sky centre and you feel dog-tired. Wait please don’t seal your eyes this post will bring back your lost reminiscences. I am an IT pro (?!) sitting in front of this idiot box and trying to bring my life and Autograph Chenthil’s life in sync. I hope no one opposes. Even if you oppose I never mind. Ok let me go to the tenth std section first. Though the school had girls, they were all in an island. I mean they had separate classes. Even going near by the classes was restricted. I am still looking for the person who came up with this noble idea. You all know why. So what this effectively means is there is no Kamala character in my life. Next section is fascinating college life. I am not sure whether Chenthil did his UG or PG, I did both. Moreover I didn’t go from state to state, just a shift to next nearest town. UG was in a Men’s college. You cannot have Lathika here. In PG we had girls, at least that’s what the names indicated (no offense intended). Though there was no language hurdle still I hardly spoke to them. Read it is a never spoke to them. Might be because no one looked like Lathika (once again no offense intended). Next comes the city part. I didn’t struggle much for job as Chenthil did. Common thing in both people’s life is - in work place - “செவத்த செவத்த குட்டிகளா இருக்காகளே ஏன் பங்காளி பெத்தாங்களா செஞ்சாங்களா?”. And in work, I worked as if the office has only keyboards and monitors (Few females helped me in spite of this). I presume most people thought that I have shifted my room to the cube I worked! So Divya’s part is also missing. Hello readers are you following me? I hear yes, good. So God didn’t smile at me as he did in Chenthil’s life. So my story is sadder than his and I strongly sense this has brought lot of tears from you. Oh marriage part is missing right? I am still young so that might take few more years. ”ஆண்டவா அது நடக்குமா?!” If any Tamil film director wants to direct this story then please go ahead. No no it won’t be that good if I act as a hero, try Cheran again.I understand that this has inspired you to write one such stuff.

Satisfying weekend

2005-05-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

Whenever I get an opportunity to watch movies on weekends here, I prefer comedy movies(my previous experience is here...). Last weekend provided me with an ideal opportunity. Encouraged by one of my friend, we explored for good movies from yesteryears. After scrutinizing we settled with Velaikaran and Galatta Kalyanam. Hope most people remember Galatta Kalyanam! It’s a story about the struggles of a person, who looks for three bridegrooms in order to marry his lady love. All three brides have certain hilarious conditions that need to be met by the bridegroom. The whole plot was screen played via comedy spice. Though there were few flaws it was comprehensively enjoyable. One other friend screamed at us - What u guys are watching a black and white movie on a Saturday night? Lost your nuts are what? Poor guy! Thinks that boozing is the only way to enjoy weekend! Next afternoon we had fun watching Velaikaran. The fun would have doubled if the DVD version edits all the K.R. Vijaya scenes.

And to end the post here is the link about much needed question to be answered (via Chennai online).Why we need girlfriends? It is up to you to make your mind up whether it is a crap or precious. Please tolerate the infuriating pop ups and flashing ads in Chennai online.

Leavenworth – A Bavarian village

2005-04-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

Leavenworth is some 120 miles from Seattle. It is a German style village; they call these kinds of villages as Bavarian Village. So now we are going to take a trip to this village on a Sunny Saturday. You plan to start the drive by 8:15A.M and start at 9:15A.M. We are always on the dot! You swiftly catch up the navigator seat so that you have a control over travel direction and playing songs. Start with Annanoda pattu. The sceneries are ordinary till you merge with route U.S-2.After this, starts the country drive. The full area is sanctified by Mother Nature. One side of the road is filled with greenish trees and the other side you have a rail track (song in the player - Mottu ondru – Kushi)(pics here…). After few miles the trees are replaced by mountains and the rail track scene is replaced by a small river(pics here…). And you start imagining yourself as a hero and switch to romantic songs (ennavale adi ennavale type). After an hour or so you stop for a small tea break and your veins get lot fresher. Few minutes from there you see a good view point of the river and relax for a mini photo session. One more hour of drive and you reach Leavenworth. The entrance greets you with archetypal German buildings. You should be hungry by now. You reach information centre and get the necessary info, obviously restaurant details first. It’ll not be that good if you visit a German style village and didn’t try out German food. King Ludwig’s serves you lip smacking German/Hungarian food. I’ll write up a separate post about the food later. You come out and start exploring the village(pics here…). All buildings are designed in European style. That's what they say, I have never visited Europe. Looks like it is true, there is definite difference in the way the shops and houses are built, than the other places I visited in Seattle. Spend most of time in walking through the streets and posing for photos. Drop-in few shops and look for the any souvenir collections. You find few good T-shirts and you robotically recollect the much important 43rd table. Typical Indian mind set you see. Still swallow the hard-pill and buy it as a commemoration of the trip. Now it starts raining. You should do something passionate at this time. You spot an ice-cream shop. Try out Maple nut cone and it sucks. No other go you have to eat. Enjoy the climate and say goodbye to the place with reminiscences. After two hour drive reached Mayuri for a special hot chai and some good desi faces. This is the first trip in which I saw only one desi couple, wondering where have been the rest.

Lakalakalakalakalakalaka

2005-04-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Mission accomplished! Enjoyed Chandramukhi on Wednesday. As expected the show was sold out and there was a long queue. I was welcomed warmly by a filly (ticket kudutha namba ooru figure).And when we went in, I was shocked. Most of the seats were occupied except few corner seats in the first few rows. We were five in number and got seats separately on the first two rows. Luckily I got a middle seat in the second row. After ‘Udayam’ (Nagarjuna and Amala movie) this is the film I have got a seat in second row! Few people got restless and the management couldn’t help them. They made themselves comfortable in the stairway! No other go, everyone wants to see the movie the same show. When the frame was filled with thalaivar’s shoe whistle sound reached skies. Couple of people in the first row went back immediately after being unable to adjust to the screens width and sound effects. First half of the movie was excellent. Rajini and Vadivel duo kept everyone entertaining. Second half was a bit dragging. This could be because of many reasons. I read many reviews informing Rajini’s importance was not felt. (Yes to an extent I am a media manipulated guy). The guy sitting next to me was also not interested in the way the screenplay went. And my own brain might also have felt the same! Vidyasagar rocks in “Annanoda pattu”. And Jo matches the audience tempo with her dance during that song. But the make-up and dance in the last song “Raa Raa” is a bit scary. Just imagine watching Jo so close in a 70mm screen that too her angry eyes. Guys believe me I didn’t have a proper sleep that night! The director has succeeded in maintaining ebullient feel of the viewers. Even when Prabhu cries, all of us were laughing. One guy promptly reminded that it is supposed to be a serious action. Most other reviews were praising Jo’s acting, I disagree. Many people felt that this is far better than Baba. I still feel lot of Rajini ingredients are missing. Rajini should get out of this pooja, mandhiram, swamiji, ghost etc., Recollect his blockbusters, all those movies were plain and simple with Super star-ism. That’s enough. And Rajini should reduce a layer or two in his lipstick. Still I am tempted to watch it for the second time.

Tulip Fest

2005-04-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed the Tulip fest here couple of weeks ago. This occurs every year from April 1 to April 30.The whole area was overflowing with Tulip flowers of different colors. It was an outstanding view to watch. Click here to see few more pics…

And I am getting ready to see Chandramukhi in few hours from now. I am really thrilled to see the atmosphere and response here in Seattle. Almost all reviews about the movie cited that no Rajinism is present, so setting my expectations accordingly. I didn’t watch Baba (you see I said to you all earlier that I don’t watch crap), so going to see thalaivar’s movie after six long years! Don’t you feel Rajini is a bit harsh on his fans?