Travelling, Thrills and Good Living

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2008-09-09T20:44:00.003-04:00

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dorky harstyles and brazilian restaurants

2006-12-22T15:32:00.000-05:00

Its 4 pm on the friday prior to the christmas weekend. I took the whole next week off because I seriously need some time for self. We are planning to go skiing and visit charlotte and raleigh. Im sure its going to be fun. :)

This week I had to attend an important meeting in Mexico and I desperately needed a haircut. So I go to 'Great Clips'. Great clips maintains a log of the the hairstyle that one prefers and everytime I go there I get the usual. This time I am asked "Are you busy with work?" I have been really busy with work which explains why I didn't get time to get a haircut. I said yes. She smiles and uses a number 2 attachment which gets me a cropcut on the sides. I tell her that she cut it too small. She says "But you said you were busy so this way you wouldn't have to get a haircut for quite sometime". Now I really am pissed. There are few things in life that I hate and a bad haircut certainly ranks high in that list. The damage has been done and its irrevesible. I fly to mexico and try to convince some really smart people with good haircuts that what I speak really makes sense.

Jonathan and me go to a Brazilian restaurant in Mexicali. Jonathan is a new kid on the block. Just graduated from school, spikey hair, torn jeans and the swagger. Its a buffet and the food looked very good. We invariably overate so much that our stomach ached really bad. Jonathan told me that the only way to help digest the food is to drink some whiskey. I seldom drink but these were dire circumstances. My stomach hurt really bad. So we order some whiskey (I absolutely hate it) and after drinking it we wait for a while. It dosent help the pain but now we are drunk too.

Thats the last time I take medical advise from a 22 year old.

Jinxed

2006-12-13T08:40:00.000-05:00

Sometime in past 2 weeks I was promoted. It meant a lot of more responsibilities but as usual not too much more money. This week I spent more time on meetings deciding what to do and delegating work rather that working. This is something I never wanted to do...

Sometimes one wonders if pseodobeliefs are really true...

This week I was supposed to be in Atlanta. On Tuesday I came back from work. While I was walking back to my apartment a black cat crossed my path. It stared at me as it walked across. I swear it gave me a wicked smile ;) I usually am not superstitious but I hoped that my this doesn't bode trouble. I went to the gym and while I was working out I get a call... I shouldn't have picked it up in the first place... One project falling apart in Mexico - can I be there on Wednesday morning to set things right... Damnnnn

I flew to Mexico and everythings fine now..

Tonight we are going to a shooting range and tomorrow I am going hiking in Dahloonega.
Hopefully will go skiing on Christmas weekend with bulli.

I still believe that stupid cat had something to do with me going to Mexico..

Takamine tunes

2006-10-21T00:44:00.000-04:00

Strummed the guitar from 7:30 to 12:30... took just 3 breaks to attend calls. Learnt another Dylan and a Travis... Both sound beautiful :) Tried acoustic slow version of Brown eyed girl... have to work on that..

Feels great to strum again... after such a long long time

Here are the chords

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/b/bob_dylan/blowing_in_the_wind_ver2_crd.htm
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/t/travis/sing_crd.htm
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/v/van_morrison/brown_eyed_girl_ver2_crd.htm

Hola

2006-09-29T18:46:00.000-04:00

Was in Juarez for a weeks training. Have been to many mexican cities now. heres the list -> Mexico City, Cuautla, Guadalajara, Mexicali, Tijuana, Juarez.

At work things have been very busy with Jesper leaving. Been travelling nearly 100% with important projects coming up. Have realised that if one works harder, one gets more responsibility. If you do that sucessfully, you get still more responsibility and more work. It never ends. The dream to making enough money to retire by 35 is still on.

My spanish has improved quite a lot. I have even been complimented by mexicans that my accent is perfect. :) I think I will settle down in Mexico after I retire. :)

Have been following up on football recently. Clemson is on a roll after the heartbreaking loss to BC. With the next 2 easy games the top 25 ranking is assured. Yesterday they beat LTech 51-0. Wake Forest is next. Falcons had a good game today and they beat the Cardinals 32-10. Vick still is the most dangerous QB due to his rushing game.

We had a cookout yesterday with Korade and Niara. BBQ'd tofu for the vegans and chicken and sausages for the rest. Was a lot fun :)

Have been reading the 'The code book' by Simon Singh which explains the evolution of cryptology over the years. I am very impressed by Singh's ability to explain even the most difficult ciphering principles so simply. It is amazing to read stories of how the cracking of the 'Enigma' was instrumental in Allies winning WWII. Have always liked solving codes since I was a kid. I loved Sherlock Holmes' 'The mystery of the dancing men'

I have been neglecting blogging for quite a while. Will write in more often.

lenses, theatre and wine

2006-08-19T15:02:00.000-04:00

Experimenting with contact lenses right now. Am tired of glasses so last week I went to the optometrist. He gave me a pair and asked me to try it out for a week which I did. They were pretty comfortable but I still could see far off objects a bit blurry so had a follow up yesterday. We decided that the right eye lens was perfect and were trying out different lenses for the left eye. I did make him get me 4 brands. Some of them made me see letters on the screen better than the rest but it still was blurry. When I told him so he was like damn you are picky. Now If it seems blurry to me, I will say so. Why would I lie and say otherwise. The whole point of this excercise is to get me the right lenses.

Even my boss says I pay a lot of attention to detail which is good but sometimes I can be quite a pain in the a$#. Me thinks there is always a right way to do things and one should do it right. I know that I won't be going to this optometrist next year.

We watched an experimental impov at Decatur theatre yesterday. It was called "The gorgeous ladies of comedy". They were pretty good. Need to watch more plays. Ate at Zyka and went to Sampada's friends birthday party.

Tried quite a few wines last week. In Atlantic city I decided to use my GPS to locate a vineyard in the area for some winetasting. They has some good wines and I picked up a bottle of Bordeaux for my cousin. I also had some Chanti while I was in Philli last week and I decided to pick up a bottle at the local winery (The Grape) in Atlanta. They didn't have that so I decided to get myself a bottle of Beaujolais.

I am cooking right now for Avin's send off party tonight.

check 1 2 3

2006-08-18T17:50:00.000-04:00

Just checking if blogger has classified my blog as a spam blog.

UNited

2006-08-03T19:07:00.000-04:00

I have never seen anything like this before.

Waiting at MSP for my flight to Denver. It is delayed by 45 minutes. There are about 100 people anxiously waiting to board and hoping to make their connections and the flight attendant tells us that the flight crew decided to get something to eat and the flight will be delayed further.

Will never fly United again

SF

2006-07-13T03:30:00.000-04:00

Have been in San Francisco for Semicon for a week now. Land of the free and homeless... I have been put up in Holiday Inn on Market Street and I hate this street. Its San Francisco downtown and because of leniency shown by this city to the homeless who harass pedestrians who walk on this street, things are really bad. The county encourages homeless from all over US to stay in SF. I think this is so wrong... Many of them need to be institutionalized or should be encouraged to earn a honest living rather than being fed for free. Things are so bad that peeing on the streets is legal and the city hall spent 1 whole week considering if they should prosecute ppl for defecating in public. This city is eternally smogged and seldom can one get a clear view of the golden gate. Besides this we had a lot of fun.

Jeff and Ed are here with their wives. We dined on the top floor restaurant of Hilton on Sunday and that was great. 46th floor dining has a charm of its own. On Monday we decided to get a quick drink at Mark Hopkins' 18th floor bar (This bar had a really good ambiance and is the most famous bar in SF) and headed off to Les Joulin for dinner. It serves french cuisine and live Jazz. On wednesday we decided to try Kan Zaman which is a highly rated Hookah bar and restaurant serving mediterranean food. Ed and I were really excited about smoking the hookah. :) We were in for a surprise when suddenly out of the blue a belly dancer started gyrating to the tunes of some arabic music. Shish Kebabs, Mojitos, Hookahs and belly dancers... now thats a great combination :) . Kan Zaman(means "in older times" in arabic) is located in the Ashbury-Haight section of the town where the hippie(free love) movement first started in the 60's which made SF the city we see today. Tommorrow is my last day in SF and we might do something nice.

I spent the weekend with Ankur and Sumera. They did really treat me well. We went to a sports bar to catch the WC semifinals and Ankur treated me to an authentic Bengali fish dinner which I really liked. Things have finally worked well for them personally after a long struggle and I wish them all the luck for their future.

Adios

close ups

2006-06-25T22:16:00.000-04:00

just realised this while surfing through orkut... ppl make it a point to put close up pics on their profile... thats basically because when one is surfing through a friends list then they only see the thumbnails and to attract ppl to check one's profile a close up of one's face is necessary...

A lazy weekend

2006-06-25T10:47:00.000-04:00

Hmmm finally got some time to blog.

I have been very busy with work past 2 weeks... putting in 10-13 hours everyday. I just git one evening off in Germany where I could watch the Italy-Ghana game just outside the stadium drinking Heffeweizen in a Bier Garten. Last minute tickets for these games are costly - 1000 euros... also its a pain changing names on the tickets because the guard at the gate verifies it against ones passport...

I spent yesterday at Pradeeps house eating junk food and watching the WC. That was fun... :) We went to Galaxy cinema to watch Krishh (I am sure I have misspelt it) at 8. I think Bollywood films are fanastic (unrealistic whld be a better term) and avoid it and this was about a superhero. So I resort to wisecracks and dissect the movie with logic... I was like "Hrithik shld have done this... Naa that was not a smart thing to do".. Feel sorry for the person sitting next to me ;)

I think I will swim and run a bit today...

World Cup

2006-06-10T10:13:00.000-04:00

Watching the England- Paraguay match right now on ABC and the comentator is such an idiot. He calls Gary Neville Beckham.. Says Germany gets a corner when he means England... where did they get this guy from..

I am flying to Germany today and will be there for a week. There is a Mexico-Angola match in Hannover when I am there. I am pressed for time on the project I will be working next week so don't know if I can enjoy the world cup while I am there. I will take my camera though for this trip.

Rockies

2006-06-06T00:40:00.000-04:00

Been in Denver for nearly a week now. Stayed over the weekend because didnt want to fly twice. First thing that I liked abt Colorado was the mountains... It was 95 degrees in Denver and one can see the snow capped mountain on the horizon and so I decided to drive up there during the weekend. I met Parulkar on friday and we went to Wynkoop (www.wynkoop.com) a local brewery and shot some pool with his friends. Denver is nearly 6000 ft above sealevel. I remember going for 3500 ft treks in the smokies. Denver is a very nice city. Its 80 degrees for 9 months in a yr with very less humidity. Its pretty clean with low real estate prices. I for one was impressed.

I was told to visit the Estes park in the rockies and so at 11 on a sunday morning I started driving towards the mountains. I did observe that Colorado was a very biker friendly state and many professional bikers come here to practice. I reached Rocky Mtns National Park at 12:15. The rockies are the part of the Tundra region. Tundra is a russian word for "land with no trees" and the rocky mountain peaks have such cold temperatures that trees cant survive. I particularly like snow capped bald peaks and this was a real treat to the eyes. I had always dreamed of driving through these such alpine peaks, sampling air at 12000 feet. CHECK THESE PICS (http://morninglight.us/reports/trailridge/index.htm)

The tundra region has a very sensitive ecology and shrubs trampled under ones feet take many decades to grow back so stayed on the trail path all the time. I was driving through the Trail Ridge road which is closed during the winter and is open only from memorial day to mid October. Its was a 5 hour drive though these amazing mountains and I will cherish this experience for ever.

I have made up my mind that the next time I am in Rockies in May, I will climb these peaks.

Nothing too important

2006-05-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

Things have been pretty slow in the office. I am not working on any projects right now... I get a occasional call by someone and help him fix his problem. So this means I spend a considerable time surfing the internet. I came across Richard Stallmans website after a long time and it was quite a lot of fun reading his political views on just about everything under the sun. I never knew Citgo oil comes from Venezuela exclusively. I read a theory which provides an alternative explanation to gravity. Its called Intelligent Falling theory which attributes falling object to a divine intervention - They suggest god pushes things down :). These guys are nuts...

Chatted with my fav niece Nishka after a long time. She graduated with a BE today and will be joining Oracle, Banglore on July 27th. She plans to enjoy her last 2 month of freedom by reading books and watching 28 movies that she has downloaded illegally. :) If I was her, I would travel ..

Hmm its 4:50 now.. think would leave for home.

Lobsters, displacements and the Mavs

2006-05-23T14:27:00.000-04:00

Haven't been blogging a lot recently.

Have done some travelling on business. Had been to Germany and Maine. Hate that long flight to Germany and unfortunately I might have to be there again in 3 weeks. Maine was much better. Had gone there for a demo and think did a pretty good job at it. Have been to maine twice in 3 months and personally I think its a very boring state. Only good thing about maine is the lobster. I go on a exclusive lobster diet when I am here. :) Dimillo's by the waterfront serves the best lazy lobster I have ever had.

Have you guys ever wondered what a cool job these guys with those floroscent stick who guide planes on the tarmac have. Its such an easy job... just poiniting those sticks... I think I would very much like doing that.

Past 1 month I have been creating an application which measures the x/y displacements of a receptor. The customer wanted it to have an accuracy of less than 25 microns. I have tried a lot of stuff and gave him elaborate application reports in word and excel... number crunching.. and all this was pretty frustrating. Using an imaging system as a measuring tool is so damn difficult... finally could give him data which deviates +/- 75 microns.. so when I flew to maine for that demo the customer sensed my frustration and explained why he needs such accurate placement of the receptor. The device they manufacture is called the 'absolute position controller' which gives feedback about the direction, speed and absolote position of a cars steering wheel. It contains a metallic plate with different sized holes and a led (transmitter) and a receptor. The light emitted by the led travels through the holes and are recieved by the receptor. The steering wheel is directly coupled to the metallic plate and depending on the speed and rotation of the metallic plate the receptor recieves a sine wave signal with different frequencies. And any x/y displacement of the receptor renders the device unusable. Very cool concept that...

Have always been a big NBA fan and spend most of my evenings watching the playoffs. I was extremely impressed by the Mavs this year. They have everything going for them. Some amazing shooters, great penetration and cool nerves. Yesterdays game 7 against the Spurs was quite a thriller. I hope the Mavs win the finals this time.

sushi

2006-04-06T19:55:00.000-04:00

I have not been travellling much this month. Spent 4 week in Atlanta which has never happened for more than a year.

2 days back we went to a Sushi place for lunch. I hate eating raw fish and whenever I am here I always order chicken teriyaki which has been cooked. I can't eat uncooked meat. But since everyone at the table made such a big deal abt trying different sushi's and that eating uncooked fresh fish dosen't get you sick I decide to try. I ordered shasimi (slice of raw fish with no rice), tempura(fried shrimp) and smoked salmon sushi. Then the oriental waitress got us a salad with chopstick and green tea. The funny thing is that green tea had no flavor. It tasted like boiled water. Kris, who worked in Japan for 3 years said that it is supposed to taste like that. If I ever run a sushi place then I will offer everyone green colored boiled water and call it green tea. No one will know the difference. :) Also have you ever tried picking up a sliced onion or a lettuce with 2 slippery pieces of stick.... maan it is such a pain... I have never had so much trouble getting food from the plate to my mouth.

Then the sushi arrives... It comes with 2 sauces, grounded wasabi root, sliced garlic and grated onions. I picked up ths shasimi using my chopsticks dipped it generously in grounded wasabi (atleast it would get the raw fish flavor out), closed my eyes ang gulped it. I haven't regretted anything more than this.... that wasabi was a killer... i was huffing and puffing... my nose started flowing ... my eyes got moist.. for a moment I thought I was dying... Everybody at the table found this funny and told me that wasabi always needs to be eaten in very very small quantity..

I gulped the rest of the stuff as soon as I could...

Then the conversation changed to wierd food one gets in other countries. Alejandro said he likes eating fried crickets and catepillars. I have seen people selling live catepillars on the streets of Mexico City. Chris said he likes to eat live octopus. Juan said that one has to be careful about eating live octopus because they crawl out from your mouth and try to strangle you... now why would I eat something that could strangle me...

I think we are 1 step away from cannabilism...

2006-03-31T09:59:00.000-05:00

I have just made my quaterly resolution

I won't log into orkut unless I get a scrap or a message.

I have spent countless hours just browsing through orkut. Such a waste.

Whats up old fella

2006-03-26T14:59:00.000-05:00

Hmm didnt write in for a long time.. but will make up for it..

I turned 26 about a month back and this is one milestone I never wanted to cross... I have never given birthdays too much importance but somehow crossing 25 suddenly makes me feel old. I didnt feel bad when I turned 18 nor when I turned 21 but this... a bit unbearable

I don't think i'll live too long because I take my risks... I love adventure sport (whitewater rafting, skydiving and in the years to come I might try many more) so I have always thought that somewhere around 50 I might go phfftt... and crossing 25 makes me feel that I am halfway there...

A good friend of mine was approached by some dude who wanted to open a startup with him.. I was talking to him the other day and he was very excited about the whole deal... It was as if he was already rolling in millions... I have come across these dreamsellers a lot... I have met people at grocery stores who ask me where they can find potatoes and in the very same breath they ask me if I want to be a part of his amazing startup. The amazing thing is that if you are polite and say you are not interested then that guy will ask some other guy shopping next to you where he can find tomatoes and if he wants to be a partner. If I plan to open a startup I wont be picking up random strangers at grocery stores to be my partners. Believe me such things have happened to me...

I was searching for roomates like 4 months back when I spoke briefly with someone. Things didnt workout and like a month later that guy calls me up and asks me who I was since he found my number in his phonebook and he does not recollect who I was. I remembered his voice and told him maybe we talke abt being roomates. He say ok and hangs up. The very next minute he calls me again and asks me if I want to be a partner in his startup... moreover he tells me that he thinks I am a smart guy (he found that out after talking to me for abt 6 minutes). I was shocked... Can anyone be this crazy... moreover can anyone assume others to be this crazy to fall for this...

Now I really keep my distance from these guys... I hear the word 'startup' and off I go

Redneck country

2006-03-03T01:09:00.000-05:00

Been in Alabama for 4 days now. More time spent on meetings to decide what needs to be done than actually doing those things.... Bureaucracy in HUGE companies.... Lots of procedures to do small things.... Angry pushy talk during meetings... politics... quirky bosses... finger pointing... Methinks there is a better way to handle things... live a little

I never have breakfast but Ernie wanted to grab something to eat before starting the day so we decided to meet up in Waffle house.. I reached 10 minutes earlier and spent a considerable amount of time looking over the menu. Waffle house is not a place I would rather go nowadays to get some manna early in the morning. But as a poor grad student I would have dinner there sometimes... And back then I thought that was a treat... :) I would spend a lot of time pondering over the menu and finally order 2 eggs, sunny side up, grits and toast. Not only did I like them but also it was one of the cheapest things on the menu. Besides I would drink lots of coffee which would make me stay up till 4 am.

Things sure do change.

I did use the treadmill yesterday. Wanted to swim desperatly but the water was unbearably cold. Meeting up with Avin and Mrudula this weekend. They got married last december and it would be great meeting both of them after such a long time.

Chords

2006-02-26T21:41:00.000-05:00

I started strumming Jaan e Jaan on my acoustic guitar recently. Sounds just beautiful

Have given the chords below for anyone who is interested

Am
Jaane Jaan
D
Dhoondhta phir raha
C D
Hun tumhe raat din
Am
Main yahaan se wahaan
F G
Mujhko awaaz do
C G
Chhup gaye ho san am
Am G
Tum kahaan, Main yahaan
Am G
Tum kahaan, Main yahaan
Am G
Ho mere humsafar
Am G
Pyar ki raah par
Am
Saath chalen
F
Hum magar
G Am
Kya khabar
F G
Raaste mein kahin
C G
Reh gayen hum nashi
Am G
Tum kahaan, Main yahaan
Am G
Tum kahaan, Main yahaan

Mind your own business mister

2005-12-22T09:35:00.000-05:00

Damn.... free internet in Portland airport!!!! Its a shitty airport... no TV screens... not enough coffee shops...old carpets... tickets costly too... $1000 to fly across the country!!!!... I fly international cheaper. But all that is excused since they have free internet :)

I have been to many airports and I am always like "I wish wireless internet was free here" and finally my prayers are answered. I am always atleast an hour early at the airport... I hate to be late for anything. I take all factors into consideration while planning my trips... traffic, weather, directions. I even add some buffer time for "unfortunate events" and with all these time buffers I am always early for everything. At the airports I need something to keep me preoccupied.. I usually try reading books.., watch sports on TV but nothing beats surfing the net :)

Portland seems like a nice city. I always research cities I visit so that I know where I would want to settle down. I love Austin and southern california. Portland is beautiful with huge coniferous trees. Its 1 hr drive from the beach on one side and the mountain on the other. Its close to northern california with its huge sequoia trees. The temperature is around 40- 50 degrees. But there are 2 things that suck here. It rains throughout winter and the traffic here is extremely bad. The interstates are like I 85 with 3 lanes so office hr rides are always bumper to bumper.

People here do a lot of small talk.. a couple of sentences are ok but they go on and on.. its worse than south carolina here... I hate doing small talk.. I hate to smile at strangers... my face hurts with so much smiling.

Here's my ideal city: close to the sea and the mountains. many adventure sports opportunities. temperature between 75- 45 throughout the year. Has its own NFL, NBA, MLB teams. Easy traffic. Many engineering companies there so I can always shift. Many restaurants... Absolutely no snow. Moderate rains. People don't smile or talk too much... I haven't found such city yet ...

Will be in the office tomorrow and then its bye bye to work till Jan 19th. :)

its always only abt money

2005-12-21T01:12:00.000-05:00

Damon for Yankees (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2266983)

Portland, Oregon

2005-12-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

This week was fun... No much work... and spent most of my time playing online games on miniclips.com :)

But as we all know.... everything cant go right... there has to be something that has to go wrong. At 4:50 on Friday this dude calls Carsten and told him that there is an emergency and they need someone to be in Oregon ASAP. Everybody else is travelling and me and Aaron were supposed to be chilling in ATL next week. Carsten asked me if I can fly to Oregon right now... I told him that I am moving into a new apartment and I can't postpone that and would be able to fly on Sunday. I had to do this because Aaron had done 2 tough demos last week.

I attended Suku's farewell party in Clemson yesterday and drove back to ATL today. Anup was there too and found the love of his life in Pinky's roomate Nilanjana. We got some pictures of it as evidence if he denies our claims. The temperature is as good as it gets in ATL. Sunny... and damn I am flying to snow chilled Oregon.

I got a studio apt for myself 1 mile from my office. Nice place but everything is miniaturized. Also won't have to drive 50 minutes every morning to work. :)

Have grown a bit plump recently and planning to shed some of it.

Vegas and GC

2005-12-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

Wanted to write this for a long time... finally did get some time.

We (Ankur, Vipul, Korade, Patil, Bonda, Pritam and myself) went to Vegas and Grand Canyon for thanksgiving. We were planning on this trip for 2 months. We wrote atleast 700-800 mails trying to pester others to accept responsibility of hotels, camping sites, rental cars etc but it all came down to the wire and nearly everything was left unplanned. Everyone except myself and Korade arrived in Vegas on Thursday morning and got time to go around different casinos. I arrived there at 7 pm and Korade reached at 12 pm. We did visit all the main casinos - Bellagio, Ceaser's Palace, Stratosphere etc. My personal opinion was that they all looked the same... they were jazzy with each of them having something unique but I did think of them as a cheap christmas present wrapped with a gaudy cover. Keeping the casinos on 24/7 had taken its toll. One extremely unique thing abt Vegas is the diversity of people visiting it. It was hard to find a white caucasian american family there. In these casinos there were loads of people of all nationalities/ethnicity/caste and creed trying their luck on the slot machines and the jingle of these slot machines could be heard all day long. Food and hotels are cheap here(so is the quality) and are used by casinos to attract people who might gamble on their machines. These casinos are enclosed (no direct sunlight) with no time pieces so that gamblers are kept oblivious of the time they have spent gambling.

The next morning we started our drive to GC.. It was a pretty long drive. We stopped at the Hoover Dam since it was on our way. We decided to stay in a town called Williamson which is 40 miles south of the GC south rim primarily because we did not reserve a lodge in GC (1 yr lead period for thanksgiving). We stayed at a cheap Indian motel (32$ for a 2 bed room). Ofcourse we told him we were 5 guys so that he would not charge us extra. We took special care to go to our room individually so he wouldn't know. The owner was a bit eccentric.. he got wild when an american told him that his rooms smell bad... he shouted back at him... "Don't act smart, USA is my country too, I am a Hindustani" Which to me seemed funny... He was contradicting himself :)

The next morning we drove upto GC... I didnt like GC either...This is where you might say.. this SOB complains a lot... I seriously think it was good but not awesome... I have seen better...Himalayas are way better than GC.... ya ya you are able to see different colors during sunrise/sunset but again it was OK. If I ever go to GC again.. I would go white water rafting on the Colorado river(level 4, 5, 6 rapids). The next morning we took a helicopter ride through GC... which was good and started our drive back to Vegas. We reached there at around 6... took the 3 joyrides on stratosphere... and then these guys dropped me, korade and pritam at the airport..

summing it up... the trip was good... We all met after a long time... had fun... and I did see 25-26 yr olds jumping on the bed and getting into pillow fights... some kids never grow :)

xmas party

2005-12-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

Attending Viscom Incs Xmas party today. All of us are here in office today and everyone is pretty jolly. Think its the Christmas bug :)

Place www.kurtsrestaurant.com
Time : 6:30 pm till we get drunk

To camels rides and dudes waking on burning coal

2005-11-23T16:42:00.000-05:00

My sister did book our Rajasthan trip and I have attached the itinerary below.

Day 1 Departure
Departure to Bikaner.

Day 2 Bikaner
On arrival at Bikaner, free time for relaxation. (D)

Day 3 Bikaner - City Tour
Visit Lalgarh Palace, Sadual Museum, Junagarh Fort, Anup Mahal, Gaj
Mandir, Sheesh Mahal and Dashnok - Rat Temple of Karni Mata. (B.L.D)

Day 4 Bikaner - Jaisalmer
Departure to Jaisalmer. Enroute pass by Gadhisar Lake. Visit Patwon Ki
Haweli and Nathmalji Ki Haweli. Arrive at Jaisalmer in the evening
(B.L.D)

Day 5 Jaisalmer - City Tour
Visit Golden Fort, Cannons on fort's ramparts and Jain Mandir. Enjoy
the magnificent Sunset at Sam Sand Dunes and Camel Ride in the evening. (B.L.D)

Day 6 Jaisalmer - Jodhpur
On arrival at Jodhpur, free time for relaxation. (B.L.D)

Day 7 Jodhpur - City Tour
Visit Ummaid Bhavan Palace, Meharangarh Fort, Moti Mahal, Phool Mahal,
Sheesh Mahal, Silah Khana, Daulat Khana, Rang Mahal and Jaswant Thada.
Enjoy Get-together with your travel companions in the evening. (B.L.D)

andaley andaley ariba !!!!!!!!!

2005-11-19T17:54:00.000-05:00

I am currently in ATL waiting for my flight to Raleigh. Will be there for 2 days for programming support for Chris. I just flew in from Cuautla, Mexico like a hour back. I was there with Aaron and Alexis from Spain. Alexis is my good buddy now and also I can stay with him if I am in Barcelona ever. :)

I hate to go to Mexico because things there are so unstructured. Things always go wrong and I am constantly under a lot of pressure to get my act together. This trip was mixed though. I had to work for a couple of days till 1.30 am but the rest of the days we went out drinking till 2 am. :)

It was great to have Alexis around because he could be our translator and we could enjoy things we wanted to. I was put up in Hotel Hacienda in Cocoyoc which was like an expensive resort with 3 huge swimming pools and the works. I wish this was a vacation so that I could really enjoy this place. Cuautla was an ugly city like any other mexican city but the outskirts were great. The huge mountains with tropical trees.. My spanish has improved a bit too :) We were chauffered to and fro from the hotel to the plant by Ramone everyday. He drove a 10 year old beaten up nissan like a madman. Excessive speeding and constantly cutting others and I dont think the damn seat belts worked either so everyday we had 2 death defying experiences. His windshield had a lot of cracks, one right in front of the passenger seat. On Monday I asked him if someone threw a stone which resulted in the crack, he said no it was a passengers head which caused it when he braked abruptly once... Maan that car was a death trap... I noticed on Tuesday that there was a new crack in front of the drivers seat on the windshield and also Ramone was driving below speed limit that day. When I inquired why he explained that yesterday it was his head which hit the shield :)

I will be in Puerto Rico this christmas weekend, just before I leave for India :) Juan has asked me to stay in the beach front 4 star hotel while I am there. That is going to be fun.

Ohhh 'andaley, andaley ariba ' means 'come on, come on hurry up'. The mexicans always hurry you up.... and working in Mexico you hear this often.

Gracias

mexico

2005-11-12T10:28:00.000-05:00

I will be in Mexico next week. The customer there needs some programming help. I will be 1 hour south of Mexico city. I have been put up in Cocoyoc which is a 4 star hotel with its own golf course. I don't have golf clubs so that is of no use to me, also I have only played online golf and mini golf uptil now. Also since it is Mexico a 4 star hotel is equivalent to an american Super 8 motel... but then I maybe wrong. Also the authentic mexican breakfast is such a delight.

My experiences in Mexico have always been bad.. I was nearly pickpocketed twice in Tijauna when I was lost in the city and asking for directions.. Imagine being robbed by the same guy who is helping you reach your destination. The airlines have a big problem with losing luggages too. Aaron was telling me that he was on a plane with 10 people(mini jet) and they lost the luggage of 8 ppl.

Juan told me that I should visit the Teotihuacan (pronounced tay-oh-tee-wah-con) pyramids which is 45 mintes from Mexico city. They were built by the Maya dynasty between 1 AD and 250 AD. They Maya dynasty was one of the most progressive civilizations in the world at that time. There are 2 main pyramids - Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. The Aztecs in 650 AD who ruled this area after the Mayas considered this the most holy site. They believed that men created the sun and the moon on this site and thats why Teotihucan means "where men became gods".

I will be in mexico from sunday to next saturday. I seriously hope I get time to visit these pyramids. But there is one slight problem.. I am planning not to take my camera with me to Mexico. If they see my $1300 SLR, I will be mugged by the sweet talking taxi driver on my way back to the hotel.

sports

2005-11-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

Just was wondering why the sports team that I root for fail miserably always...

Indian cricket team - I got used to losing more than winning right from the time I was a kid. Watching India's matches is so depressing. India is pathetic in other games like hockey, soccer... I can't understand how can such a big country can't even play one game right.

Clemson Football - Charlie Whitehurst is an idiot. The tiger brigade is in the dumps... The fortunes of this teams pains me the most because its my alma mater. I still spend 3 hrs everyweekend watching them make a fool of themselves.

Atlanta Braves - Chipper Jones and Co can win 15 straight division title and with the same consistency lose in the playoffs... I dont think I will ever see them in the world series.

Atlanta Hawks - Now this team is a joke. I am better off not watching them at all.

Atlanta Falcons - Right now they are doing pretty decent but have a long way to go before they are considered serious candidates for the superbowl.

Thinking abt this I was wondering if it makes sense to watch sports at all because more teams lose than win. Only 1 team can win the championship and at the end of the season more ppl are sad abt their team not winning the championship than those happy abt their team winning it.

Postcards from Hannover

2005-10-28T08:37:00.000-04:00

Its 8.13 am and I am at the Hannover airport waiting for the security check post to open at 8.30. Yes today I am flying back to the US. It has really been 2 long weeks in Germany. There is this funny looking (may I help you – information provider) guy loitering around me bugging the hell out of travelers. He approaches everyone and asks them “Can I help you?” Then he notes it down if he was able to help them or not in a sheet of paper. Many just ignore him but he just smiles back and notes down in that sheet that they did not need any help. I am so sure that sheet of paper is not going to fetch him a raise at the end of the year…. Moreover all he has to do is be available (his shirt say “May I help you?”).. Lol its sooo funny. I would hate to have his job though.

I was sent to Hannover to accomplish two things. Develop good customer relations with an important customer while helping her with the preacceptance and push Germany to complete some projects US requested which have been delayed for so long now. The first week Ed and Frank were around and every night we would be treated by the German salesmen. Monday it was Thai, Tuesday Greek. Wednesday Brazilian. Thursday I had Turkish. During this trip I drank a lot of beer and also learnt a lot about different kinds of German beers. They have very good beer here. It’s fresh with no preservatives unlike US. It’s the preservatives that give you a hangover the next day. Frank has this habit of asking the German waitress to give him a Pils(hops beer) in a Weizen(wheat beer) glass. He loves the bitter/strong taste of Pils and but doesn’t like the shape of the glass they are served in. Many times they just refuse to serve it thus because Germans are so rule based and as kids they learnt that Pils has to be only served in a Pils glass. Testing Germans to see if they go against the norm is very funny. I have been hanging out with lots of salesmen lately and I swear to god they have all the fun in the world. They eat at the best restaurants, travel all around the world, make a lot of money, are always optimistic and jolly and have no morals whatsoever. I have realized that 2 things can make you sad.. Less money and strong morals..

I tried the Brazilian drink Caipirinha and the Ouzo shot and they both made me want to puke. There is a great Pancake house here where they serve meat on a pancake… I was very apprehensive about this but was surprised that it tasted so good. I think I did write a lot about food, so will stop now.

I spent the weekend in Hannover as I didn’t want to travel to Brussels and also I hadn’t explored Hannover fully. I think next year I will take some time out and go backpacking across Europe for 15-17 days. I will be spending my thanksgiving weekend with Clemson friends in Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. There were a lot of emails flying back and forth regarding the arrangements and I missed all of it because of the limited access to internet in Viscom AG. This group of friends is mischievous to say the least (I happen to be the most decent of the lot, now you can imagine) and putting them together in Sin city for 4 days is gonna make things quite interesting. Last time we went to New Orleans together and that was a lot of fun J. I have met all of them individually during my business trips this year except Bonda.

I bought my India tickets and am planning to visit Rajasthan with my family for 5-6 days in January. I hope to spend the New Year with SPCE pals.

I am scheduled to be in Atlanta next week, Anderson, SC the week after next and Mexico the week after that.

Ahhh the security post is open.

Danke!

germany again

2005-10-15T15:07:00.000-04:00

I am flying to Germany for 2 weeks in 3 hrs. Packing for Germany is so different. I need to take my translator, power adapter... take temp difference into consideration. Also have a long list of things to be done while I am there. This time I plan to visit Belgium and Luxembourg.

Was driving all day yesterday. got up at 5.30 and drove Pinky to Echostar for her interview. Reached office at8:30. Drove 7 miles for lunch because my collegues wanted to eat something good. Then again in the evening picked Pinky from Minerva and dropped her to the airport. Now next 2 weeks I will be travelling by train which is good. I did finally buy my India tickets. got it for 1470. know its steep but I am going back after 2 years so screw it. Flying 27th dec to 17th jan. I was planning to tour kerala with my parents... lets see how that works out.

My roommate- Vijay who is a SAP consultant got a jon in Detroit and I would have to hunt for a new place starting Dec. Plan to live alone and cook a lot on non vegetarian food (I didnt for past 6 months since my roommate was a veggie) . Vijay earns 100k and has been trying to convince me to work in SAP. He himself was an application engineer, so worked quite a bit in sales and marketing which helped him grasp SAP better. SAP is pretty simple too. I am still considering shifting to SAP. Earn a lot of money, be more managerial than technical... what else does one want in life. I just might take the gamble after I return from Germany.

The Windy city

2005-10-02T00:24:00.000-04:00

This has been a long long week. Have been working since last sunday. First it was the tradeshow, now have to make sure that Bosch is taken care of this weekend. This is the first time I am working on a weekend and it sucks. :( I have the monday off which is good. Neway Chicago was fun. Carsten took us to Mike Ditka's restaurant (legendary NFL player/coach) which was really good. Then we went upto the 96th floor pub on the John Hancock bldg. The view from the top was amazing. The Red Sox went through a wringer this week and with Frank around it was MLB all day long. I will be in Germany again for a couple of weeks with the Bosch guys for a preacceptance. I would like to visit Italy and Spain this time round.

Still have to buy tickets for India. Will do it this week.

Naked again

2005-09-26T09:51:00.000-04:00

I am in Chicago right now for the ATE show. I arrived here last night and guess what, Delta lost my luggage. I usually dont pack my cell charger in my suitcase - it goes in my laptop bag but this time I did. So I lost that too. Aaron took me to the Tmobile store so that I could buy a charger and they told us that Tmobile no longer sells that handset and has discontinued selling its assesories but Cingular might have it. So we go to the Cingular store and find it closed. We then so to Sams club and they have only a car charger for that hanset so I bought that hoping that Aaron gets lost on the way back and I get more time to charge my handset. With a little bit of charge I had to get back to my collegues back in Atlanta to get me more Viscom Tshirts, track my bags with Delta and ofcourse call Pinky :).

I also didnt have anything to wear the next day so I bought a couple of Khakhis and one cheap black tshirt from Walmart. Believe me I am wearing that tshirt right now and it really looks cheap. I look a lot like a pimp from Kamathipura. But then beggars can't be choosers.

This is the 2nd time I have lost my clothes in past 14 months. Whats the deal with me and my clothes?? Hope Delta tracks my luggage and gives it back to me soon.

Happy fishing

2005-09-18T19:36:00.000-04:00

I could not sit at home doing nothing worthwhile so I went fishing on Lake Lanier. Caught a tiny fish(7 cms) . Since eating such a small fish would not quench my hunger I just unhooked it and threw it back into the lake alive. Many fishermen follow this practice. Chris who had bought me a bait while I was in NC had told me that fishes are attracted by movement. My bait had six tentacles and when I tug the line slightly (Chris' trick) it seems like a live insect. It was amazing how this movement attracted fishes like crazy. I also made sure that the weight of my line dosent submerge my bait because fishes investigate submerged baits and rarely bite whereas if the bait rests on the surface it swoops down on it in one swift motion and bite.

Found my fishing hole and am planning to fish often after work. I also downloaded a software which tells me when is the best time to fish at certain spots depending on the mooncycle and the time of the day.

SLOTH

2005-09-18T10:54:00.000-04:00

When I joined Viscom 10 months back I was very excited about everything. I thought this is the start of a new life for me where I will have all the fun, not worry about money. I used to find ways to pack my schedule with as many things I could fit in. I asked Pat who was my manager then as to what does he do on weekends and he told me that he sits at home, watches an Auburb football game and drinks beer. Past 10 months I have tried not to do just that. I have spent all my weekends freaking out and doing all crazy things. But all of us need change and I decided that this weekend all I am gonna do is sit at home, watch a Clemson game and drink beer.

And let me tell you this - It was great.

To do nothing for 2 complete days is a lot of fun.

Tonight I might swim a bit though :)
and read a book maybe....
practice some country songs on my guitar but thats it... nothing else

comparison email

2005-09-05T19:57:00.000-04:00

This mail is doing rounds currently. My views have an *

HERE ARE SOME INTERESTING COMPARISONS:-

I couldn't' stop making this comparison..

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1

* Its not only abt inches of rain. USA experienced a hurricane not a downpour like Bombay. What screwed New Orleans was the levees breaking down which kept the seawater out since most of NO is below sea level.

population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500

* Yes more ppl were affected by Mumbai rain. argument accepted.

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

* deaths in NO would be in thousands after all the water receeds. Again one can't compare a storm to a hurricane.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000

* This tells me that the metereology dept in US forebode the disaster and ppl headed to the advice.

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

* Americans have a right to firearms and the hurricane cut off all basic supplies and americans who are used to getting things easily took the easy way out - grabbing whatever they could lay their hands on. When someone stopped them they started shooting them. Indians were not as badly affected and they are used to such situations where the basic necessities are cut off- bandhs, riots.

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours

* Argument accepted

status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

* water receeded back in Mumbai after 48 hrs but not on New Orleans since the water has to be pumped out and the levees need to be rebuilt. As I mentioned before, its like comparing apples with oranges.

USA...world's most developed nation
India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..

oopss...did i get the last fact wrong??? Or am I just being proud
of being an INDIAN?

* I am not belittling the efforts of mumbaikars here but just wanted to tell you that the email author is an idiot.

pics

2005-09-05T19:53:00.000-04:00

Have uploaded my vogel SP camping pics here --> Click

Go Tigers

2005-09-02T20:42:00.000-04:00

Finally have my new cellphone with me and life is a lot better now.

Am at Clemson right now. We r planning to drive back to Atl in abt 30 minutes and would be camping in northwest georgia on saturday. Tomorrow Clemson plays TAMU. Its the first game of the season and when I was driving into Clemson I could sense the excitement in the air. As a student I used to follow the NCAA very closely. I have been to a lot of games and I think american football is a very exciting game. I would miss being a part of the orange brigade in Death Valley tomorrow :(

My travel to puerto rico has been postponed as the system got held up in Miami due to the hurricane.

I'll try to keep my head off work this labor day weekend. BBQ by the lake would be fun. :)

disconnected

2005-08-29T14:57:00.000-04:00

Was in Clemson over the weekend. Vipul, patil, viraj and korade were there too. We went boating on lake keowee which is always fun. But I realised that there are not many things to be explored in Clemson anymore.

My cellphone stopped working since thursday and I have been kinda disconnected from all my friends. I dropped it in a soda glass :) Will get a new one this thursday hopefully. I watched a woody allen movie yesterday. Was pretty good. Plan to watch more this week. I have no plans yet for this labor day weekend. When one travels this often, a long weekend at home is more of a vacation than trip. Some quite time by the lake or in the woods would be great. :)

and one more thing

2005-08-24T22:35:00.000-04:00

I would be in Puerto Rico for a week on business :)

Got some tips from Ernie on which beaches to visit.

unmarked police cars

2005-08-24T22:01:00.000-04:00

Its been a long time since I wrote in, which is good because I was busy working. Have been travelling a lot lately. Was in Minneapolis for 3 days, Mankato for a day. Huntsville, Alabama for 4 days and am in Huntsville again this week.

One very funny incident - I was driving from Minneapolis to Mankato. Its a 90 minutes drive and most of it is flat grasslands. The sky was slightly cloudy and it was a bit chilly. I was enjoying this evening drive a lot and I was not speeding because I didn't want this to end soon. It was a lonely road with just a couple of cars. I was about 20 miles from Mankato when a maroon colored car got just ahead of me. I decided to have some fun and started accelerating to get in front of it and then decelerated to let it go past me. Kind of teasing it. Suddenly that car started making sounds very similar to a police siren and the camouflaged blue and red bulbs which seemed hidden in the metal lining of the car suddenly started going on and off. I thought it might be some stupid punk who had redesigned his car. I slowed down a bit and let it go past me. I started driving 3-4 miles below the speed limit and followed the car for like 5 more miles. Then I lost my patience and zoomed past it. Suddenly that car again started following me and tried the police car trick on me again. I was slighly pissed now and ignored it for couple of miles. Then I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the driver of that car asking me to pullover. I then realised that this might be an unmarked police car.

It was a lady cop and she was mighty pissed at me. I was playing games with her and then zommed past her. I also didnt pull over twice. She came up to me and said 'Did you not see my lights on???'. I explained to her that I am from Georgia and we don't have unmarked cars so I thought it was just a car that was redesigned by someone who wanted to have some fun. She then pointed to her batch and said "Does this not look like a cops batch to you???, Don't I look like a cop to you??" I said I was sorry and would drive below the speed limit from now on. She did calm down and let me go.

This episode made me drive below the speed limit all the time I was in minnesota. This sucked bigtime because I love to speed. Once I landed in Atlanta, I felt like a free man. I knew that I could speed at will and I just have to be on a lookout for the good ol 'blue and white' .

talk to you later

2005-08-03T14:24:00.000-04:00

I buzzed all my friends right now on yahoo messenger and all of them are busy at work :(

I am teaching a class this week and these guys (who were acting a bit smart) were asking me a lot of questions so I simply gave them a very difficult task and haven't heard even a whimper from them since then. :) They were very jolly like an hour back and now they they asked me if I could give them a pill for headache relief. hahhaha

As Baboo from the Seinfeld series would put it "You are a bad man, You are a very very bad man"

Sunnyvale, Buckhead and New Hampshire

2005-07-27T18:06:00.000-04:00

I am writing this blog since many ppl have begged that I start writing in more often... lol this is ssooo untrue

Neway... did a lot of travelling recently. Was at Ankur's place in Sunnyvale 2 weeks back. He took me to all indian restaurants in the area :). We trekked the San Pedro Valley trail, went wine tasting and biking in the Napa Valley. Wine tasting was fun(I still have to compile the wine list on my website). Ankur cribbed royally about biking in the heat. He was like "Abe kitna dhoop hai" every 5 minutes. Neway was a lot of fun meeting an old buddy after such a long time.

Am in Salem, New Hampshire today on business. Flew first class for the first time in my life(was a free upgrade). Maan the extra legroom is worth the money. I got a decent hot breakfast too istead of pretzels that one gets in coach. In 1 hour I am planning to drive down to Woburn and meet Kris and eat a bowl of my favorite Boston clam chowder. :)

Adios

The first taste of San Francisco

2005-07-11T02:55:00.000-04:00

Arrived in SFO last night. Myself, Ed and Carol were at the booth today to make sure that everything works and made some cosmetic changes. Met up with the cool dude :Ankur Pal in the evening. I had given him specific directions on how to come to Ramada(my hotel) but he really messed it up so I had to walk up to where he had parked his car. We then went to the Golden Gate bridge which was ok. The smog spoiled the view. But thats fine...After all its just a red bridge.

Then we went to the Fisherman's Wharf which according to Pal is the world's most visited tourist spot... Now whom is he trying to bullshit...(I have listed below the crap he has given me since past 3 years) We dined at a seafood place which was goood. He insisted that we do a multiple course dinner. Started with coconut fried prawns, then some clam chowder and the main course was garlic dungeon crablegs. Spent some more time by the wharf before going back to my hotel. Both of us will drive on highway 1 on saturday which I have heard is an amazing drive where you go 17 miles into the ocean. Will see if I can meet up Nirup and Manu while I am there. I am always amazed by California's climate everytime I visit.. I really should be hunting for jobs in this space.

Felt great to meet a very close friend after nearly 7 months :)

Ankur's Fundas:

1) The Olympics is going to be held in Athens, Georgia
2) Swedish is not a language, its a German dialect
3) Georgia is to the east of South Carolina.
4) Key West, Florida is a shitty place to visit
5) VLSI guys in Clemson know a lot because he didnt understand what they were speaking when they were discussing their VLSI assignment (Ankur is in Computer Science and he dosen't know anything about VLSI)

visa

2005-07-11T02:46:00.000-04:00

I am presently on my flight back to the US. I am flying to San Francisco to attend the Semicon tradeshow. I was in Hannover since last Saturday being trained on bond wire inspection, xray imaging and designing custom image processing systems using VMC. It was quite a week. I also got my H1B visa stamped in Berlin on Tuesday.

I took a train to Berlin on Monday evening stayed up at the hotel right next to the consulate. The next morning I decided to wear a Viscom tshirt so that any apprehensions the visa officer has of me being employed by Viscom will be wiped out. It worked exactly as I had planned. The officer asked me about my work and about my studies in the US and then he saw the Viscom logo on my Tshirt and he told me that my visa would be stamped. Now that I think about it, I realize that I am quite manipulative. I did take a risk though of getting it stamped in Germany though. My correspondence with the consulate was not exactly cordial before the appointment. They had very twisted rules and they seemed kinda rude too. I was told that it would take at least 3-4 days for a background check (and may take several months) and then they would mail me my passport to my hotel in Germany which was a bit unnerving since I would have to fly back on Saturday for the show. I did manage to sweet talk the officer to bypass the background check and get it stamped on Tuesday itself so that I could hand carry my passport to Hannover. Things worked exactly as planned. This visa red tape is sometimes frustrating and one needs a bit of luck so that things fall in place.

Guess what.. They now interview passengers for 3-4 minutes before they board a plane to US.. right at the gate… every passenger was grilled before they were allowed to board the plane. This is talking things too far.. And they call students and H1B workers “aliens”. Ya right… I am from planet called India and I flew in from outer space to work in this great country.

Germany trip

2005-06-30T20:23:00.000-04:00

Would be in Germany again next week. I dread that country... Nobody speaks english and I have to spend 15 minutes even to explain to the waitress what I would like to eat. I would be in Hannover for 5 days and in Berlin for a day. I would be in Berlin for my H1B visa stamp. I would be trained in Bond image processing inspection and also would meet up with the heads of the software group since I have been chosen to develop software from US. Viscom germany would like Viscom US to have a guy who would develop softwares and modify the source code whenever needed.

Past 2 months I have conducted presentations at tradeshows, taught programming classes, developed application programs, quoted/invoiced customers, wrote modules for data conversion and now I will be also doing software development...The whole spectrum of a business. I can now open up a small image processing startup in India and mint money by exploiting cheap Indian labor :)

Boating

2005-06-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

Went boating on Lake Keowee last weekend. Was lotta fun with swimming and tubing. :)

Met up with Vikram and whenever we meet up we come up with the stupidest ideas...

try this:

What is a good argument to come to a conclusion that fishes sleep??
Answer: If they don't sleep why is the bottom of the sea called the seabed. lol

Best Quote I have heard recently: Everything that is fun is either fattening or immoral :)

shopping

2005-06-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

Never ever go shopping with a female. EVER

It all started while I offered to buy her flowers. She decided that buying her a room freshner made more sense. I picked up a car freshner and she started her hunt for a room freshner. She wanted to buy the electric freshner. Now there were many brands...airwick....renazit...to name a few. She started picking up different refills and smelling them. She liked one which was non electric... rain garden something...She was doing all the complex price calculations in her head... She was looking for good deals... she liked the refills of brand 1 and wanted to know if the refill would fit into the main set of brand 2. Suddenly she noticed the scented candles.... one more variable .... it made this decision process very very complex... we were opening packs and smelling the tiny glass freshners.... also making sure that no one saw us opening these packs... I added to the confusion and told her I might need one for my house.... Now she started looking for deals on twin packs... she would go back again and again to her non electric rain garden freshner which she liked immensly... her heart craved for the non electric but her mind wanted the electric....finally i got bored and picked up one randomly.... she followed suit and picked up the same one...

This whole excercise took about 45 minutes. I knew then that I should have bought her the flowers.

A near perfect day

2005-05-22T21:27:00.000-04:00

This weekend was fun. Was up in Clemson. Pinky and I were tired of watching seinfeld and we decided to go for a drive. Drove up to Walhalla... Been on this road many times ... when I had nothing better to do after I was done with my thesis in Clemson I used to go on these long drives at night. This was the first time I was driving here during the day... As I was driving I saw signs for isaqueena falls... It was 4:05 and the gates close at 5 so we decided to have a quick look. The falls was beautiful :) It was in midst of dense forest which was better. We might go trekking here next month... On our way back to clemson we stopped at a nursery(I thought it was a florist and stopped here so that I could buy her some flowers). They had quite a collection of flowers. We both liked the yellow dahlias a lot.. There were also ornate pots and fountains there. Then we grabbed some coffee and stopped at Lake Keowee Marina. I absolutely love this place.. Spent like an hour by the lake. We found out that one can rent boats here... cheap too $145 whole day rental which holds 12 ppl. We will go boating one weekend. Headed back home and she made some great biryani... Archie dragged me to Keith Street for some pool (I am quite out of touch and lost miserably :( ) and was back by 12. An end to a near perfect day..

work and plans for some fun

2005-05-17T00:57:00.000-04:00

will do the thing tom which made me change apartments... swimming... I am in atlanta for 2 weeks and need to catch up on a lot of things.... plans on to visit smokies with clemson buddies during memorial day weekend. now i am working on 3 projects.. writing a cad convertor, programming for sanmina and working with Aegis to see if their networking database can work with Viscom systems... lots lined up for this week. Finally got myself a mattress and a bed.

Nepcon, Boston - day1

2005-05-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

We had a pretty good day today. 40 leads... My transformation to a salesman is complete and I can bullshit just about any customer without feeling guilty about it. :) Carsten- President, Ed- Xray manager were also in town so that was good. Frank took us around the city and showed us all the hotspots. Cheers bar- the bar which has a tv serial based on it, Boston commons, beautiful brick houses on beacon street, his fraternity house, universities and hospitals - there are too many of them here. Then we decided to have seafood by the sea so we went to Anthony's pier 4 which is one of the high class seafood joins in boston. Now I had a beer(becks) for starters. We ordered a chardonnay (expensive one). Carsten hates white wine but Frank insisted that we have white wine with fish(white meat). I then had 2 bread rolls. I had the boston clam chowder- its creamier with potatoes compared to chowder from other cities. I ordered the fried fishermans platter which had six fishes breaded and fried, ceasers salad and colesaw. By the time I was done with the main course my stomach was aching... too much good food. Then since everyone was ordering desert, I ordered a cappachino with whipped cream and caramel topping which was good. Everyone had like a 4 course meal with multiple spirits and Carsten picked up the check which I am sure crossed $350... which means thats like $85/head... This was my costiliest dinner ever. Good thing is its my favorite food by the sea in my favorite city and I didn't pay for it. :)

Devils Advocate - Transition from an engineer to a salesman

2005-05-03T16:22:00.000-04:00

So am put up at Sheraton in Revere. Frank and myself went to the convention center and set up the booth. Frank is teaching me how to be a salesman... As he puts it "You know all the technical aspects of the system but as long as you don't manage to sell it the business dosen't grow". We dined at a great seafood place called Legal Seafood. I had the fishermans platter which is a combination of 3 fishes - Tuna, Bluefish and Salmon with fried shrimps and scallops. We tasted 3 different white wines. A Savignon Blanc, Poilly Fume and Moose Cadet. This is the first time ever I tried wine tasting like the experts do - smelling it, looking at the color and taking small sips and rolling my toungue while im doing it. Quite an experience. I loved the Savignon Blanc. Frank suggested I try the unoaked wines. Wines are aged in oak barrels and manytimes the wine gets the flavor of the aok which is not pleasant. So now vintners in France age thier wines in steel barrels and so the taste of the grape is retained which is great. Will talk to Kenny about doing a bit of wine tasting while we are in California. Had the most famous seafood of Boston - clam chowder.

Frank also taught me how to read peoples mind when I am talking to them and tell them what they want to hear. He also gave me a demo for the Viscom systems. How to get customers excited and juice them up. How to make them believe what you want to make them believe. This is the grooming of a saleman... and things that will help me a lot someday.

lets meet up

2005-05-01T17:26:00.000-04:00

Met up with Hardik for lunch. I had got up late and was surfing when he called me up saying that he would be at my place in 5 min. I had not taken a bath and decided to drive to gainesville with him. We went to Chillis and I had a ribeye. I was always impressed with my undergrad friends - they have this drive to succeed. He is a process engineer in KF. Felt great meeting him after 3 yrs and would go pubbing with him if i'm in town. Am meeting Avin for dinner and am waiting for his call right now. I still have to get my damn laundry done before I fly for Boston. :(

I hope they have Becks in Boston. Becks is my fav beer and I always have trouble getting it. Americans don't dig German beer unfortunately.

Please refer to me as Professor Dsouza :)

2005-04-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

Taught a week long class this week. Yep 8 hr class everyday on SI programming. Had 3 students. Cody from Siemens, Yueli - PhD from Auburn and Ed from Viscom. Alex flew in from Germany to help me if I get stuck. But things went about smoothly. This was professionally a great week. I sold a 450k machine to a customer because he was extremely impressed by the what I got the 6055 to do when I was at Raleigh. Which pleased me immensly :). Took Alex out for dinner yesterday. Jesper joined us with Britta and his Danish niece, Lina. Went to Ted's. Alex won't be in US again since I would take over the training responsibilities. I am now called the Teach Master (the name of our teach server) lol.

Flying to Boston for Nepcon east the coming Monday and will be there till Saturday. Meeting up with Kris. Boston is my fav city in US. Boston is extremely beautiful in spring/summer. Dining with Frank - Vice President, Viscom Inc in his mansion on Monday. There better be lobster on the menu - he owes me one because of the machine sale. Would be great to be back in Harvard square and Quincy market and relish the Boston seafood.

Cheerio

Raleigh and Mushy Mian

2005-04-16T11:24:00.000-04:00

Am at Ashwins house after partying yest night. Didn't know many there... juniors et al.

Was in Smithfield, NC last week and was programming a 6055 at TT electronics. Met Vipul and Patil in Raleigh. Sad city. We went to a bar and had some beer. I didn't pick up a shot glass from raleigh. Chris Murphy was the engineer at TT electronics. I trained him on programming the Viscom systems. Real clever guy. Picked up things quickly. He is an angler too and took me to Walmart to buy me flys which he said would work great in Georgia. He is coming down to Atlanta for training next month and has promised me that he will get his fishing rod and he will teach me some tricks. :)

Was catching up on the news. Musharraf is in Delhi and Manmohan Singh has invited him to a dinner. Being treated in a 5 star hotel with 200 chefs preparing food for him. This is what they say "We are planning to start with a cold soup and end with a cold dissert. There will be Goan Vindaloo, Hyderabadi Biriyani, Kebabs from Lucknow, cuisine from the North West Frontier Province, Tandoor and Bengali style prawns are some of them that will be laid out for the main course". They went great lengths to find out what are his likes and dislikes. Now my question is all this for a tyrant dictator. Someone who toppled a democratically elected government and was the mastermind behind the Kargil offense. I for one live a fairly honest and a simple life and and am a law abiding citizen all I get dal chaval....

This ain't a fair world.

The morning drive

2005-04-06T09:07:00.000-04:00

I leave for office at around 8.15 normally and reach there by 8.45.. a 15 mile drive but the traffic is bad ...but since I am back from Alabama I see very few cars on the road... it takes me just 10 minutes driving at 80miles/hr on I-85... I don't know what has changed since then... maybe a lot of employees driving down this road got fired or something... I usually listen to 96.1... bob and tom show where they invite comedians and just chit chat... very funny show... cracks me up...Heres a good one

Guy: Honey I hate it when you do that.
Chic: Do what?
Guy: Breath.

funny seinfeld conversation

2005-04-05T22:50:00.000-04:00

JERRY All right. How 'bout this one: let's say you're abducted by aliens.

GEORGE Fine.

JERRYThey haul you aboard the mother ship, take you back to their planet as a curiosity. Now: would you rather be in their zoo, or their circus?

GEORGE I gotta go zoo. I feel like I could set more of my own schedule.

JERRY But in the circus you get to ride around in the train, see the whole planet!

GEORGEI'm wearin' a little hat, I'm jumpin' through fire.. They're puttin' their little alien heads in my mouth..

JERRY[resigned] At least it's show business..

GEORGEBut in the zoo, you know, they might, put a woman in there with me to uh.. you know, get me to mate.

JERRYWhat if she's got no interest in you?

GEORGEW--then I'm pretty much where I am now. At least I got to take a ride on a spaceship.

Things to see in Atlanta

2005-04-04T23:24:00.000-04:00

Mood : Lonely

Tired from all the driving I did yesterday to ferry pinky to and fro from clemson. Visited "Atlanta". CocalCola, Underground Atlanta, and watched "Moving Out "- Billy Joel musical at Fox theatre. Saw Billy Joel play live for the first time. Was pretty good... the ballet dancers were amazing.... The most fun part was watching it while drinking champange :)

Smokies again????????????

2005-03-25T09:03:00.000-05:00

Working on a Good Friday :( The only good thing abt this... no traffic today morning so reached office in 10 minutes instead of 40 min. Vivek and others from Clemson planning to go white water rafting and camping tomorrow so plan to join them. Will be in Siemens, Alabama next whole week to cover for Ernie. I have never been to a good friday mass here in the US. Let's see if I get time I just might.

Aaron's encounter with a Romanian

2005-03-22T21:58:00.000-05:00

Aaron has returned from Germany and was in Atlanta past 2 days. Maan I can't stop laughing when hes around. Big 6.5 footer guy with an amazing sense of humor. Julian an engineer from Romania is here for 3 weeks and was teaching Aaron how to conduct the operator training. With Julian's romanian accent and Aaron's afro-american accent I don't think there was much transfer of knowledge. Romanians like Germans are very cautious in their approach to solving problems and Aaron has a laidback overconfident attitude and that didn't help matters. I could have got things working between them but I was having too much fun just observing how they went about it. I took a seat next to them laughed my guts out.

Planning to change apartments by this month end. Hunting on.....

Habla Espanol?

2005-03-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Back from Mexico. Tijuana is the one sad city. Bad roads, crazy drivers, the heat... I was working since 8.30 in the morning to abt 8 at night so didn't visit many places. Was put up at Grand Hotel, which is supposed to be the best hotel there. I used to have breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Huge breakfast... so much meat and beans and taco.... I liked their food. For lunch I used to go to a restaurant close to the client factory. I especially like the chicken enchiladas there. Again I had a problem with communicating since everyone here speaks spanish... picked up a few words... gracias(thank you), Coka(coke) and cafe(coffee). Juan had told me that once I be in mexico, i'll never feel like coming back. Soooo true. At the border I had big problems. A brown guy who already graduated and working on OPT leaving the country seems shady to these guards. Was kept waiting for 2 hours while they did a background check. One of the security guards was jewish and was very friendly and we got talking in no time.... He knew more abt India than I know. Has a cousin in Bombay.

So now that I am Atlanta I feel good. Hans is flying from Germany today and will be with him in Huntsville, Alabama one whole week.

San Diego and Mexico

2005-03-07T01:30:00.000-05:00

Am presently in San Diego on business and will drive into mexico to install a program and get the system working. Met up with Snash today. Snash was my senior in SPCE and continues to be a very good friend. He was hired by Qualcomm last October and has been in San Diego since then. This is my second trip to San Diego. We ate at a great mexican place called El Torito and the drove to the Conorado Island. The view of San Diego from the island was pretty good. During my flight here I started talking to an Indian sitting next to me. He(Deepak) has been in the US for 15 years now and works as an IT specialist/Project manager for IBM in Raleigh. Nice person to talk to. He is here to give a presentation on his work in IBM. We exchanged cards and promised to meet up if I fly to Raleigh or he ends up in Atlanta.

I shld be in sales. I can go blah blah blah even with strangers...

Back and loving it

2005-02-26T18:20:00.000-05:00

Am at home today doing not much. Took care of financials and tax returns. Plan to watch Black today and maybe go clubbing later. Feels good to be back home after such a long time. Whenever I am on these business trips I look fwd to one thing - driving my car from the airport to my place. After having driven crappy rental cars during the trip the pleasure I get driving my smooth as butter car is unmatched. Body clock still on california time - could sleep only at 3 and got up at 12.30 today.

have to plan something exciting for tomorrow

Joe's Crab Shack and Santa Barbara

2005-02-20T02:50:00.000-05:00

Frank (Vice President) treated us today at Joes Crab Shack. Craziest restaurant I have been to. Loud music, crazy waitresses who dance in formations by the table, a balloon guy who made balloon hats for kids and great seafood. I had barbecue crabs and fried shrimps with beer. Really enjoyed my time there. Frank being a stereotypical sales guy keeps everyone peppy. He made a big deal abt remembering the waitress's name. Sania - now how difficult is that a name to remember??? Juan being columbian by birth told us how south americans name their kids... They dont refer the christian namebook or take pains to find out the origins/meaning of a name while naming their kids. Many just prefer names which sound good. So while he was in brazil he had friends with names like emailme, usarmy, elvis presley.... though they pronounce it differently. They get these names when they hear american tourists talking to each other. They have no clue what it means but use it just because it sounds good. Though you will find a lot of eduardos, ronaldos, marias there .... its very likely that you come across ppl with such wierd names.

Would drive to Santa Barbara tomorrow to meet Manu. I better chk out the Goleta beach that he speaks so highly of when I'm there.

City of Angels (Anaheim)

2005-02-18T02:20:00.000-05:00

Was a tough day. Had to wake up at 4.30. Fly to Anaheim, California. Worked for 8 hours after that and then Frank treated us to a 14 ounce steak and beer at Outback Steakhouse.

I miss pinky a lot nowadays. Today especially. Won't be able to meet her this weekend.

Have flown a lot recently and nowadays I don't make a big deal about air turbulence. I have become used to sitting in a metallic tube several thousand feet above the ground wobbling like jelly. I was seated between people with such a stark difference in personality. The Old Man on My Right(henceforth OMMR) was extremely fidgity and restless and the Lady on My Left (henceforth LML) wanted to nothing more than sleep. The OMMR would open his ibook, play a movie for five minutes, then shut it down, watch the movie being played on the flight TV screen, laugh loudly... then ask the waitress to get him some coke and then this whole cycle would repeat. On the other hand the LML fell asleep as soon as she sat down. Even before the flight took off. It was only the turbulence during the last stages of our flight that managed to keep her awake. She was extremely frightened. I wanted to play on her nerves and tell her "I think I deserve to die today cause I have sinned like no other man, but I seriously hope you survive the crash". Decided against it :)

Yep today was one of the few times I was spared the SSSS security. Getting my shoes off, the security guard (usually not the most brilliant guy) going through each and every item in my baggage and telling me the most obvious things like "that is a new camera" ofcourse I know its a new camera, I bought it for christ sake.

Neway looking fwd to enjoying my 10 day stay here.

run sunil run

2005-02-14T23:40:00.000-05:00

Finally admitted to friends abt going around since past 2 months. For many it was a complete surprise. I myself was surprised that I kept it under wraps for so long. But then I didnt know where this thing was headed. A valid argument I believe.

I did buy track pants couple of days back since kenny had convinced me that I should run everyday to keep myself fit. I came back from work, put on my running clothes and shoes.... then I thought I should play my guitar for a while before I run.... strummed for about 45 minutes. Realised that I had not checked my email since 2 hours and got online. 1 more hr .. now I was 2 hours behind schedule. I went outside, and started to run on the sidewalk... then the damn sidewalk ended abruptly so I took another route and again the sidewalk ended. I don't see the point in building sidewalks which take you nowhere. Its like driving on an interstate and reaching a deadend. Turned back home a bit frustrated. Will research running routes before I venture out tomorrow.

My fender rocks

2005-02-13T23:48:00.000-05:00

Strummed my electric after nearly 2 months. Was playing the acoustic for a couple of days since I started playing again recently. A well tuned electric sounds much better any damn acoustic in the world. Tried a few songs and got hooked on to it.... will play it regularly from now on.

Officespace and Identity crisis

2005-02-12T20:50:00.000-05:00

Viscom hired a new application engineer recently. Aaron Stanford. Very light hearted and fun to talk to. Was a professional football player (so is huge) before he got a engineering degree from Cal state. Is very experienced- 8 years. I pull his leg sometimes. But do that in moderation, don't wanna be beaten up mercilessly :) Usually crack him up at his expense and he calls me a "funny little indian guy".

I have always wondered what is the right answer to the question "where are you from?" There are 3 options. India, Bombay and Clemson. If my answer does not match the domain they were expecting it to be they give me the duhhhh look. If someone is really dumb then they expect the answer to be India. If they are smart and are aware of the world beyond USA then the right answer is Bombay. Nowadays I go with Clemson... has a better strike rate...

Birthdays

2005-02-08T19:32:00.000-05:00

Yep would turn 25 on Feb 24th. Years really do fly by. I usually don't make a big deal about my birthday. Usually spend it like any other day. Even this year I would be in California working for APEX 2005. I don't see a point in celebrating birthdays. So you were born like 365*age days ago.... so what? around with 6 billion/365 people were born on this day. What makes yours so special?

I have had some friends who celebrate their birthdays grandly. Throw parties, get drunk, spend a lot of money... There was this classmate during my undergrad years in Bombay who would spend a lot of time, money and effort on planning her birthday. She would invite her (priviledged) friends, book a hotel and treat us with really good food. Getting invited to her party was a big thing for us. lol... Free food is always welcome. Most of us would be extremely kind to her, flatter her like a week before her birthday to get invited (no would would accept that but I could clearly see this, especially shripad). Neway after her birthday everything would be normal until next year.

Was browsing through Orkut profiles of my friends recently and happened to visit her profile. Checked her photo album and she had posted 3 pictures of her birthday party in the US(including one on her main profile). People don't really change do they? :)

Weekend in Atlanta and the SUPERBOWL

2005-02-05T10:12:00.000-05:00

It has been 2 months since I have spent a weekend in my home in Atlanta. I have been travelling all this while. I got up at 9.30 today... maan thats a lot better than 7.15. I plan to do absolutely nothing today. Mebbe laundry but thats all. I plan to sit at home, watch TV and laze around.

Tomorrow we (deep, sur, ashwin, datey and thripathi) were planning on watching the superbowl at deeps place. He has rented a projector and watching the game on big screen wld be fun. I joined the Atlanta outdoor club recently and they usually go for treks and camping during weekends. Have their social coming up on Tuesday. Hope to attend.

coming back to the superbowl.... I am rooting for New England. I have always admired the Pats. They are like a well oiled machine. They know what is to be done and they do it. Yes they lost to the Steelers this year but everyone has one off day. I think the Pats are gonna steamroll the Eagles. The Eagles without T.O (Terrell Owens) are no match for Tom Brady and co. Moreover the Eagles defeated the Falcons 2 weeks back. There is no way I am gonna support the Eagles.

Secret behind success of Chinese restaurant business

2005-01-31T22:07:00.000-05:00

Yep I think I finally realised why so many americans prefer oriental food. I was at an oriental restaurant today and I was alone so had time to observe ppl around me.... The most exciting part of a chinese dinner is when the waitress gets you the check with your fortune cookies. Been to a lot of these places and I realised that the idea of breaking a cookie to read your fortune gets everyone excited.... very few actually eat the cookie. Moreover everyone gets just one cookie so you better make sure that you get one. Many just stare at the piece of paper trying to recollect a part of their day which justifies their fortune as mentioned on that tiny piece of paper. I have always wondered how they get that paper into the cookie...

here's a tip.. add "in the bed" to whatever is written in ur fortune chit.

I personally don't like Chinese food... the food is very bland... they have wierd names too 'Moo Goo Gai Pan' hahhaha. Thai food is a lot better... One should try the Red Chilly Curry with coconut milk... At Hannover we tried a Thai place... I always order the Red Chicken Curry whenever I go to a Thai place... The waitress was a short middle aged Thai lady. She asked me if I want my curry mild, medium or hot. In US mild = totally bland, medium= somewhat bland and hot = edible. So I told her I'd prefer hot. She asked me again if I need it hot? I replied in affirmative. We ordered some german beer and were sipping it when she served us. She said "hope you enjoy your dinner" with a twinkle in her eyes. I then realised that the Thai mean it when they say hot. This is no US brother.... I was huffing and puffing in no time. Kenny who was born in Laos told me that I made a mistake when I ordered it hot. Yeah maan I would have appreciated if you would have told me that a bit earlier. The waitress found this whole thing funny. She would inquire again and again if I was doing alright, get me water and giggle. Maan she totally screwed me that day. I suspect she must have told the cook to make it extra spicy since some stupid indian guy had confidently ordered it hot.

I still dig Thai food but will never again make the mistake of ordering it hot.

Eurotrip

2005-01-29T21:29:00.000-05:00

I am presently on my way back to Atlanta after my 3 week stay in Germany. This Euro trip has been great. I landed in Hanover on 10th Jan. at around 3 pm. Kenny and I had no clue how we are going to go about finding the hotel we were put up at. Kirshers Landhaus in Denkmal. Juan had told us that taxis in Germany accept credit cars. Unfortunately ours didn’t and we had to pay him in dollars since we didn’t have euros. The hotel seemed nice and we managed to communicate to the managers with phrases that we translated using a $20 electronic translator we bought back in states that we had reserved rooms. Lol. We visited Hanover downtown that night and bought our eurail passes. It cost me $240 for Eurail selectpass for 3 countries in 5 days. We had decided to visit Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris during weekends. Hanover is a nice city. Pretty big place with nice malls and good eating places (Turkish, German and Thai). I particularly liked the Turkish doners which has thin barbecued lamb or chicken slices with lettuce and tomatoes stuffed in these huge buns. On Monday we started our basic programming course at Viscom, which I should admit was pretty boring. Alex Gauld an application engineer was our mentor for the first week and he tried his best to make the course interesting. Alex is quite a character. He is Scottish by birth, spent 20 years as a professional opera singer and then one day got bored of it and joined Viscom, Germany and has been a part of it ever since. His opera singing explains his low baritone voice which always puts me to sleep during class.

On Friday at 4pm we left for Amsterdam. We reached Amsterdam at 8pm. We got ourselves a room for 60 euros a night which is a steal in Europe. The room was “absolutely filthy” as Kenny puts it but one should understand that the quality of hotels in Europe are not comparable to the US. Television is a luxury in European hotels and they are so tiny, even my toilet in Atlanta is bigger than some of the rooms they offer. We then started exploring the city. The Dam Square, the numerous canals that flow through Amsterdam… (Amsterdam is known for its canals) .. the coffee shops where people legally smoke weed….. Amsterdam unlike Germany has many English speakers and communicating with them is simpler… Telling a waiter in Germany and France what you want is quite an experience if English is the only language you speak. Trying to find a common ground using just gestures is really difficult…. Anyway we enjoyed the Amsterdam’s night life… The next morning we took a canal cruise. I was fascinated with dutch architecture. Those red and black brick buildings with ornate full length white windows have a charm of its own. We then visited the coffee shops and the Van Gogh museum before leaving this beautiful city for Hanover.

We spent the night at Hanover (3 hours of sleep) and caught the early morning train to Berlin. We reached Berlin at 9am. We took a 3 hour walking tour of Berlin. Our guide (Kenny) was Scottish with masters in creative writing from University of Berlin. Berlin has a great history. This city was the epicenter of change in Europe and the rest of the world since the 12th century. 3 years back I was inspired by western philosophy and writings of Karl Marx and could visit the university in which he studied here. The cathedrals here are an absolute treat for the eyes. The huge Gothic arches and domes…. I learnt a lot about Berlin’s history from Kenny. Stories about how Hitler manipulated the German minds. The Cold war era where Berlin wall practically divided the world into two factions….the heroic stories of east Germans who tried to flee (Charlie Checkpoint)…. And of course how the Berlin wall fell due to the wrong choice of words at a press conference by the East German politburo spokesman. I usually buy just a shot glass from every city I visit, but for Berlin I wanted to have a piece of its history so I bought a piece of the Berlin wall which was cut in the shape of Germany. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through Berlin’s streets. I like walking the streets of cities I visit instead of just visiting the main attractions mentioned on travel websites. To me its like enjoying vintage wine by taking tiny sips. We ate at a Vietnamese place which was recommended by the city tour guide and their rave reviews were totally justified. We reached Hannover at 11pm. We were amazed by what we experienced felt really lucky that we could visit these 2 cities…

The following week Dr Uwe (pronounced as Ooov) was assigned as my mentor for the remaining 2 weeks and I did learn a lot about programming the Viscom systems from him. After 2 weeks we ended up being good buddies and I am looking forward to meeting him in Atlanta in the coming months. That Friday we took an overnight train to Paris (Gare du Nord- North Terminal). We reached there at around 9am. We decided to visit the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower is a very imposing structure. We climbed the stairs instead of taking the elevator since the queue for elevator tickets was very long. The view of Paris from the top is amazing. We then took a bus tour so that we get a brief introduction to the city before exploring it ourselves. Paris is the most beautiful city I have ever been to. Paris has a very rich history and has been been influenced by so many cultures. It has extremely beautiful Greek, Romanesque and Gothic structures. I went absolutely berserk clicking frantically to capture this beauty on my camera. The Cathedral of Notre Dame is absolutely fabulous. The architect introduced minor differences to get rid of monotony so it is not perfectly symmetrical. The Arc de Triumph, Louvre, St Michel’s, Napoleon’s obelisk and the Grand Palace besides being extremely attractive to look at, are buildings have very interesting stories associated with them. I found Lovre and Musee’ d Orsay very inspiring. Yes saw La Jacound (commonly known as Mona Lisa) from close quarters. I liked the renaissance period Italian painting in the Louvre and the Monet, Van Gogh, Rosseau, Manet and Renoir (Impressionism) paintings in Musee’ d Orsay.

There is just one thing I didn’t like about Paris. The food here is very expensive. We ate at a fairly decent restaurant and it cost me 25 euros, that’s like 33 dollars. The costliest dinner I had till date and all I had was a salad with 3 pieces of ham, wine (Bordeaux) and a cup of cappuccino. Moreover it was advertised as “generous serving”. When the waiter placed the dishes at our table we were like what the f*%$. I also observed that we hadn’t seen one fat Frenchmen during our 2 day stay there. If I ever decide to stay and work in Paris then there could be just two possibilities – either I starve myself to death or I go broke. Considering how much I like to indulge in good food, I think I’d go broke. We also has coffee in the open coffee shops on Champs Elysees (very Parisian J )

I should say this trip was fun and I like visiting new places and experiencing new cultures. I have decided that before I am 29 I would travel to the following places.

- Asia trip with Kenny (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Japan, China and Mongolia)
- Africa(Kenya(big game hunting, Savannah and bungee jumping)
- Australia(hunting, spending 2 weeks with a forest ranger)
- South America(Amazon – spend 2 weeks in here, Peru and Chile)
- India(Himalayas- been here before but want to do this again)
- Hitchhiking East coast to West coast (Kenny’s dream too)

I know somehow I am going to get this done….whatever it takes.

New Orleans baby

2004-12-27T03:04:00.000-05:00

Just back from my New Orleans road trip. Was a fun trip. We (Vipul, Ankur, Jithu, Vivek, Korade, Viraj, Bonda and myself) left on 23rd night from Atlanta and reached New Orleans by 10 am the following morning. We checked into Sleep Inn. At around 2 we ate at an Indian restaurant called Tandoor. We just missed the lunch buffet and we were discussing over the table that we need to go somewhere else cause we were really hungry and we wld have spent atleast 25-30/person since the dishes were pretty expensive. The owner did sense that she was gonna lose business and so she gave us a a fat discount. Shld say the food was very good. :) We then went to Harrahs - New Orleans most famous casino. I did gamble a bit on the slot machines- lost all my money. Ankur did lose $20 on the roulette table. Korade and Bonda $20 each on the Blackjack table. Place seemed decent but think Las Vegas wld be much better.

We then left for Bourbon Street - the hippiest street down south. Bourbon lived upto our expectations. The place was crazy. a string of clubs and party joints on both sides of the street. Variety too - live blues, jazz, rock, pop... We drank the "handgrenade", which was advertised as the most powereful drink on bourbon street. Yes now I know why... Ankur and Vipul got drunk lol. We then decided to eat some New Orleans authentic food- cajun(pronounced k zun) specialities. The food was just ok. I ordered the dish which was the combination of Jambalaya(sausage and rice with cajun seasoning) and Crawfish etouffee (a soup) and fried beans. We then started pub hopping. Of all pubs we visited we really liked the one which had a live rock band. The band was really good. They also played our favorites- sweet home alabama, american girl,...
A bit of Led Zepplin too. We were a bit dizzy, thanks to the handgrenade. Beer on Bourbon street is very costly, $6 for a glass of beer. Drank beer for a while. We then started fooling around with the shot waitresses and tricked each other into buying /drinking shots. Now we were in the what I call the "Happy" state. Danced for a while. Left the bar without Bonda and Korade. Bonda was trying his luck with the bartendar. Bonda has this never die spirit that I am pretty impressed with :)

Woke up at 12 the following afternoon. Ordered Chinese food which was pathetic. We then thought we shld visit the Honey Island Swamp. We reached there at around 5.30 and it was pretty dark then so we drove back to the city. Went to Bourbon St again. Ate at Royal Rizou(not sure if it was Rizou but name was french) . Oysters is a New Orleans speciality so decided to order fried oysters(we dont dig raw oysters and sauce). I ordered steak sandwitch which was good. It was a long time before the food was served to us. Our behavior in that place got worse over time- Ankur made some Indian tea for himself and drank it from the saucer like we used to do in India. Bonda ordered some brownies and eveyone swooped down on it like vultures. Everyone in the restaurant was looking at all this... kinda pretty surprised - these guys had immaculate manners 10 minutes back and now... In all that commotion Vivek dropped a hot sauce bottle on the floor and now the floor was red lol. We left the place and started pub hopping again. Viraj and myself decided to listen to some live jazz, so we went to a Fritzels - an european jazz bar. The rest were enjoying in the bar we were last night. Dunno much abt jazz but it sounded great. The others now wanted to listen to jazz too. They came in, ordered the costly beer ($8 for a beer) , since it was a minimum 1 drink bar and had just taken their first sip when the band stopped playing hahhahaha. The band was done for the day. Hard luck... They were pretty pissed off and whenever a bunch of drunk guys get pissed off it isn't a grt site. Ankur then went on stage and started fiddling with the band equipment. Bonda wanted to kiss the waitress and was asking ppl to pay him $10 if he does go up to the waitress, ask for a kiss and gets it. We started fooling around on the street. Walking backwards in the middle of the street, moonwalking, shouting and a lot of things which I can't mention. We left for home at round 3 am.

We had decided to leave for Clemson as soon as we are back We started our drive back at 4.15am. Reached Atlanta at 1pm the following day. Ate at Minerva. Rested at my place in Atlanta for a couple of hours and then these guys left for Clemson. I have taken many trips and should say that this ranks one among the best.

Euro Trip plans

2004-12-21T14:53:00.000-05:00

My euro trip dates were confirmed last week. I would be in Germany from Jan 9th to Jan 29th. 3 weeks of training for me and Kenny. We were planning to go visit Netherlands(Amsterdam), Italy(Milan) and France(Paris) while we are there. We will have free time only during the weekends and wld have 2 weekends to freak out. The 1st weekend we were planning to visit Amsterdam and cover Paris and Milan over the next weekend. Pat and Juan are insisting that we spend more time in Amsterdam(u know why :)) ). Germany, Italy, France and netherlands being Schengen countries, I would not need to apply for an Italian, French or a Dutch visa since my German visa wld be good enough. We r planning to buy the Eurail Select pass which allows us to visit 4 adjoining countries for any 5 days for 2 months. It wld cost me $269(Youth pass) and Kenny $340(he is over 25). But since Viscom wld pay us $820 for food, we have decided to spend 400 of that money on food and spend the rest of it on travel :). So basically our whole trip wld be funded by Viscom(think I wld have to spend around 100 more if we eat lavishly).

Went to the German consulate today for a business visa. It was very hard for me to understand what the german security guard at the door was telling me. (He spoke so much like arnold scwazanegger). He asked me if I had the "egzactly 34 dolla fo viisa feis". The funny thing was he also had a hard time understanding what I told him. Carsten was right, germans find the asian accent very confusing. Then I went to the counter where an old german lady behind a 3' glass window checked all my papers. I had kept all my papers exactly as the consulate had mentioned on the website but I had forgotten my photos in my car. When I told her that she said "So you think you are very organised don't you" with a sarcastic smirk on her face. Had to run down cause the consulate wld close in 10 minutes. Gave her the photos and she asked me to return on thursday to pick up my visa.

So have 2 visas on my passport - US and German(Schengen). In a yrs time will have a Canadian, Mexican and a Brazilian visa too. Lot of travel..lots of fun .. I LOVE THIS JOB

Lifes Goooood

2004-12-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

Never has life been so good. Joined Viscom and the 1st week has been really good. I am learning a lot of new stuff.. mostly hardware. The office is very casual. Can come in anytime, leave anytime. Patrick my Boss is a cool dude. Carsten (President) was in yesterday. Had lunch with him and Pat. Kenny Ly joined with me as a Service Engineer and is now in Mexico with Juan. I was supposed to be in Mexico with them but since Indians need a Mexican visa they wanted to leave the very next day so I could not hop in. Neway Pat showed me how to play around with the 6500 Xray system and detect crack in nuts and bolts. The systems are very advanced. I need to read some documentation on these systems before I work on them.

There is this great Argentinian- Columbian Cafe Bakery off Buford Hwy. They open at 9 but they do make an exception and let me in at 8.30 :) The coffee there is great... It tastes so much better than the coffee that I buy at Walmart. I have tried 2 sandwitches till now. Palat and Palekas. Palat has cheese and ham with a bread thats crispy while Palekas has a crust similar to pot pie and is stuffed with spinach, egg and cheese. América del sur de largo viva

Fantasy NBA

2004-12-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

I have been playing Fantasy NBA for 2 years now. Matt got me hooked into it. I used to play ESPN's version but since they now expect ppl to pay for it I now play Yahoo. Past 2 years I was competing in a public league of abt 12 of which atleast 6 were not interested so I used to be among the top 4 if I would spend atleast 30 min on it everyday. This year myself and Vipul made a private league and are competing 1 on 1. The biggest mistake I made is that I opted for autodraft where yahoo randomly selects initial set of players.. unfortunately vipul has got all the best players so now I have to be extra careful while picking the team everyday.. He is 6 points ahead of me till now... but its a long way to go before the season ends. Think will lead the league comfortably till then.

Chillin

2004-12-01T21:50:00.000-05:00

Life is pretty good nowadays.. bought a camry... rented an apartment in Medlock woods. Whiling away my time watching movies... I need to buy a laptop, furnish my apartment, settle down. I still have to throw a party... I have a company party on friday and I plan to invite friends over on saturday for a party. Don't know if I should attend fridays party.. Its a long drive to Atlanta and back...

I have been on a spending spree .. I have spent close to 700 in past 5 days + 11300 for the car... Have to curb it.

decision time

2004-11-16T13:55:00.000-05:00

Now I have 2 interviews with Qualcomm for 2 jobs. One on 22nd, second one on Dec 1st.... I know that Qualcomm is a great company to work for but both the jobs that I am being interviewed is nowhere related to image processing... I did talk to Snash who works in Qualcomm abt this and I he told me to give it a shot... Now I decided to compare the 2 jobs

Qualcomm

- Not related to IP
- SanDiego(30% higher living cost- Monster)
- Big company (less responsibility)
- Great Salary (68-70)
- Desk job

Viscom

- IP systems
- Atlanta (a lot cheaper)
- Big company but small US presence(more growth)
- 52400
- lots of travel

Now that I broke this down.. the only positive abt Qualcomm is salary i.e. 15,600 more than Viscom. Now the cost of living in San Diego is 31.5% higher (Monster Salary report) = 16k more than Atlanta....

So all this tells me that Viscom is a better option interms of job satisfaction and monetary benefits....

Think will sign and fax Viscom my offer letter soon and cancel my interviews with Qualcomm.

Viscom

2004-11-15T20:09:00.000-05:00

I had an onsite interview at Viscom, Atlanta last friday and did manage to get the job. :) My job title is 'Application Engineer'. Viscom is a big german imaging company. Next only to Agilent systems for AOI(Automated Optical Inspection). I would mainly develop inspection procedures, customize imaging systems that arrive from Germany, travel to debug the installed system within US, hold lectures to teach the end user about Viscom systems. So pretty much a great job.... Carsten who is the president of US operations interviewed me with Patrick (US engineering manager). Both seemed like great people to work with. Patrick would be my mentor. Viscom's US presence is small (11 employees). It is the best of both worlds - working for a big multinational imaging company but working in a small group in US so my contribution will be appreciated.

I need to buy a car and rent an apartment in Atlanta. Still have not started searching seriously...

When I didnt hav a job, I thought getting a job would be the best thing that could happen to me... but now that I have the job... it feels like no big deal.... (I am so indifferent to it)... I think if I would have been jobless on my OPT for a couple more months, I would appreciate it better.

Thesis and movies

2004-10-19T04:09:00.000-04:00

Yes it has been quite a long time since I wrote in. I was very busy past 3 days working on my thesis. Finally got the 4 th draft out after working on it non stop for 16 hrs today :). SWP is such a pain and figuring out lot of things in it is just based on trial and error. Figures floating around the document even if one specifies the location. It has to be kept floating if the generation of the list of figures is to be automated. But finally have got things rolling. Will proof read my thesis tomorrow before I mail it to Adam.

2 weeks back I saw Flavors (Hindi movie) at Ankur's place. Kinda liked it. I very seldom do like hindi movies... stupid storyline... lewd jokes.... I do my best to avoid mainstream hindi movies. Flavors was surely an exception. The storyline is based on life of SW engineers in US. It was very well paced, had the right kind of humor, Great soundtracks(I am listening to it now). It ran in bits and pieces.. and in the final 15 minutes of the movie all pieces fit in perfectly. I like movies like that.. e.g. Pulp fiction. I would surely recommend this movie to anyone. One more extremely funny movie that I really liked was "Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle"... It was a laugh riot. If you have 4 free hours on your hand next weekend go to Blockbuster and grab these two movies.

Lee

2004-10-07T17:05:00.000-04:00

Am in Lee computer lab now. Martha and myself had to setup a stall for the Women's Comission function at Lee Auditorium. When I arrived at Madren at 1.30 she told me that everything was ready and I need not do anything till 3.30. I got so bored that I decided to help Sue with her silverware. Did that while sitting and then we drove to Lee. martha again did all the setting up and she told me I could do whatever I need till 5.30. So I am here, sitting on my ass and already clocked in 4 hours and did practically nothing. Its good working with Martha, she does everything :) This function is probably the lightest I have ever done. This probably would get done by 6 so I could watch the Clemson-Virginia game on TV.

Seriously hope that Clemson wins today.. It has lost the previous 3 games... This is turning out to be a very bad season... With VTech in ACC next year it would be worse. ACC is probably the toughest conference in college football right now.

Go Tigers.

Ban Al Jazeera

2004-09-29T13:53:00.000-04:00

Al Jazeera, an Arab television station which is extremely popular in Arab states is a epitome of bad journalism. It has recently aired a video of a kidnapped British engineer begging Tony Blair to heed to the kidnappers demands http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3699998.stm. Such kidnappings are sensitive issues and considering the recent beheadings it was morally wrong to show such videos. Al Jazeera also repeatedly aired videos of Osama Bin Laden threatning US which I feel is in such bad taste. It spreads the message of hate... Considering its popularity it is seriously a road block in improving the western-muslim relations. With power comes responsibility.... I believe in free media, but here I think i'll make an exception. Every large media has messed up has messed up atleast once.... But this consistent deliberate jaundiced reporting has to stop.

Identity Theft

2004-09-16T15:13:00.001-04:00

Today I was again a victim of Identity Theft. I got this mail from Citi cards asking me to veryfy all my card details. This mail seemed so authentic. It was like a normal Citi mail. I filled all the details and clicked send. That very second I remembered a Discover mail that I recieved a few days back regarding identity thefts so I called Citi and asked them if the mail was authentic. IT WAS NOT. So I had to cancel all my 3 citi cards. I also had to change username and password of my other accts, MBNA, Chase and Discover. I spent like 2 hours on all this. :(

I had lost two of my card like 5 months back and some guy had spent $250 in 2 days. I did get all the money credited back to my acct but this identity fraud really had me tensed for a couple of days... loads of paperwork... The funny part was that someone had used my cards at eateries and gas stations just by my house.

I hope everyone is careful abt this. Dont want anyone to go through this mess.

TechScribes

2004-08-26T13:09:00.000-04:00

We (manu and me) came up with an idea of setting up a blog for people to discuss upcoming technologies. This blog would actually be a platform where people discuss their research and get feedback. Feedback in research is very important. A lot of times seeing the other side of the coin really changes ones approach to a problem. So we formed TechScribes. Past 3 days I have been on a publicity drive, getting people to join and contribute. I have posted invitations on yahoogroups as well as mailed many friends trying to sell the idea. Around 20 ppl have joined.. and growing. TechScribes presently needs some help to get it going... If we have 3 - 4 posts /day initially and then get a bunch of regular contributors then it would be great.

Am still waiting to hear from the company regarding my interview. Hopefully they would let me know by next Tuesday.

California

2004-08-22T17:35:00.000-04:00

Was in San Diego for an interview. Was there just 2 days. My friend in UCSB always used to tell me that California is a nice beautiful place. The moment my plane landed I thought otherwise. San Diego was built on a desert. Greenery is not one of its plus points. The trees look parched. Seeing all this my motivation towards working in Cali was at an all time low. The interview was just ok. Manu had come from Santa Barbara to meet me. The first time I saw him in Marriott's lobby I was shocked. He had not cut his hair for the past 8 months. I don't know this thing about PhD students. I think they put in a lot of effort to actually look like a PhD student. They grow their hair, dress shabbily and moreover have this confused look on their face as if they just read Einsteins theory of relativity and could not figure some parts of it.

Neway we took a cab to this place called the "Cove". Its a beach. It was a bit chilly(my fav). The setting there was perfect. Tall Palm trees, seals on the beach, the salty sea breeze and a close childhood friend to discuss the fun we had in our engineering days. I have always cherished my conversations with Manu. They are intellectually simulating. We discuss just about anything from philosophy to economics to technology.... I should admit that he has been someone who has always motivated me to succeed.

We then went to this place called Prospect. It was a nice place. It had an unique look (modern and at the same time very pictureque). It had a lot of art galleries with paintings and sculpture being displayed. Posh pubs... I then realised that this would be a great place to live... Manu also told me that the temperature at San Diego never changes . Its always 72 degrees plus or minus 1. The weather actually was perfect. Now I was like .. I really hope I get this job.

I bought a shot glass with San Diego written on it from a nearby shop. I always collect these shot glasses from anyplace I visit. Now I believe I have quite a collection... New York, Miami, Harvard, London, Chicago, Atlanta,South Carolina, Charleston and now San Diego. I forgot to buy a shot glass from Knoxville when I was there :( I am pleased about one thing. I have actually visited both oceans that touch US. Atlantic and Pacific. I lived in Bombay initially so I have been to a Indian Ocean Shore. So 3 Oceans out of 5 is not bad at all. Artic and Antartica(now called Southern Ocean) you guys are next!!!!!!!!

ME = Senior Camera engineer... probably not

2004-08-09T21:56:00.000-04:00

I have a senior camera engineer interview coming up tomorrow and am reading up stuff on it. It is such a surprise that I was chosen for an interview. The requirements are pretty stringent. 10 years of experience in camera technology... Now I am a person who would like an entry level position... Not that I shy away from responsibilty but leading a team of camera engineers and and knowing all thats to know about cameras is a bit too much. Even the job profile is threatning to say the least. Candidates are supposed to know

Characteristics of Low, Medium, and High Tier CMOS Sensors.Processing the image data- adjusting and improving the picture for noise suppression, lens distortion, Fixed Pattern Noise, Dark Current, Smear, etc.Onboard DSP capabilities and tuning versus offboard DSP capabilities.Display of the image data; including transforms from Bayer, YcbCr or other formats to RGBOptimization of the display based on the LCD characteristics (transmissivity, relflectance, TFT, CSTN, etc.)Processing the image for storage (JPEG compression)Industry standards for evaluating cameras (Gretag Macbeth color chart, etc.)

What was the HR thinking when she sheduled me for an interview.

I hope the interviewer dosent hang up 5 minutes into the interview realising that I am probably not the right fit for the post. :(

2004-08-06T22:57:00.000-04:00

We had the AID(Association for India's Development) welcome party tonight. I acted in a small skit. Acting in a skit is always fun. The bloopers... one gets to meet new people and get to know them really well. Viv's acting skill was a revelation. Viv has really improved a lot in the past 2 yrears. He is an active member of AID.. does his research work well... and also is so gung ho abt going for a trek always.

Am planning to sing for the CISA(Clemson Indian Student's Association) welcome party. Lets see

till later

2004-07-30T22:11:00.000-04:00

Nowadays things are a bit different from the past two years. I actually make a serious effort to learn something new about my field. I do get up late in the morning.. 10.30 but I do work till 12.00 at night. I am reading stuff on image captiring so that I can implement my algos on them.

Vipul told me today that I need to learn Linux device driver programming and that it would help. I did download the first 3 chapters of the most used book on the topic. I need to actually sit and read them :)

I am planning to graduate by october cause I have been here for quite sometime now.

I met sabrina (friend from leadershape) after nearly 2 months. She had been to her parents place for summer. Hope to see her around this fall.

Will write in soon

Sunil

2004-06-09T02:55:00.000-04:00

Its 3 am. I am surfing orkut(for the uninitiated - it is a networking site to keep track of friends). One can make and join communities on this site.... I am so amazed to see that there are so many trivial communities within this site... Ppl want to categorise... ...say that they belong somewhere/someplace.... Its so closed an attitude. There are communities like "i like so and so actress community"... or "a particular school of thought community"... We have created borders that divide us... built walls around us...we like to live within this comfort zone... we want to "label" a person based on his/her race/religion... WHY?

Why cant there be a world without walls.... A world of brotherhood.... irrespective of the color of one's skin or of social,economic status.

I have always felt very deeply about this....Past 50 years a lot has been achieved... This dream of Uthopia is not unachievable... I hope in my lifetime ppl change their inner mindset....I hope that someday I act as a catalyst to bring about this change.

2004-06-04T19:56:00.000-04:00

Friday evening is a good time to write my blog

Worked today. Was at the Botanical garden. Was a party of 40 odd. Thing most unusual abt it was the avg age of ppl there were 65+. Just a couple of good looking early 20's chicks got it so low. Without them the avg age would be beyond 70. ha ha.. Observed that there is a pattern in the way ppl drink wine.... Ppl who run to the bar early usually drink chardonnay....(these are usually heavy wine drinkers) ... ppl who take their time drink merlot...ppl who just want to try a bit of wine drink white zinfandel(these kind feel very ashamed of the fact that they want to drink wine).. They always tell me "I hope this wont get me drunk". observed one more thing.. couples(married) usually drink the same kind.

Havent worked on my research this week. Next week would really push it..

Am teaching ankur and vipul how to swim past. They have managed to float till now. Have realised that I am a very bad teacher. I make simple things too complex. I thought them breast stroke, free style and and butterfly stroke all in 15 mins flat and told them to practice. Now they seem a bit confused...lolz... Deep then helped them with the basics....

2004-05-23T14:07:00.000-04:00

My motivation towards my research is at an all time low. Got to get things rolling.

For the first time in my life I could actually remember my dream. Ppl(roomates and parents) have told me that I talk when I'm sleeping(which implies that I dream) but when I wake up I can never remember it. It was a very wierd dream. It was a medley of my undergrad years and my life at clemson. Like it was about me hunting for a job at Clemson but then I always used to go to my dept to check for interview calls that wld be posted on the notice board like at SPCE. In my dream I also made significant strides towards forming a trekking club and a OCW(Org for Childrens Welfare) at Clemson. I wish I could take some time off and do this in real life.

Was down with fever yest. Feel a little better today.

2004-02-09T15:23:00.000-05:00

A very funny article in slashdot.org

I would not purchase meat labeled with:

A) A listing that said "Animals contained within this package: ". For example, ground beef would be labeled as "Animals contained within this package: Cows". Assume a one half inch tall font.

B) A cartoon rendition of all the animals contained within the package.

C) Stock photography of all the animals contained within the package.

D) A specific picture of the exact individual animals contained within the package. Assume a 1 inch black and white photo.

E) A specific picture of the exact individual animals as they are being killed.

F) A specific picture of the exact individual animals as they looked as babies.

Got me laughing my guts out

Sunil

2004-01-25T13:43:00.000-05:00

I get these stupid mails from someone who want me to help him with money laundering....

Im posting one of these.... There is neven a shortage of foolish ppl in this world

Subject: BUSINESS LETTER OF $22.3M U.S.D

Mail:

FROM MR ABUHA ABDUL
THE MANAGER OF AUDIT AND ACCOUNTIN DEPT,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK(ADB)
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO.

Dear Friend,

How are you doing with your family?I presume that all is well with
you.I
wish to inform you that i am the manager of audit and accounting
department
of our bank.I got your contact from international directory search when
i
was looking for a foreigner who will assist me to achieve a great
success
business that will yeild us life success. Before i wrote you,i prayed
that
you will be a honest and reliable person whom i can work with to
achieve
this deal of our life.In my section in the bank, I discovered an
abandoned
sum of TWENTY TWO MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS
($22.3) when i was going through the old files for annual audit in an
account that belongs to one of our customer who died along with his
entire
family on 1999 in a plane crash disaster.Since the bank got information
about his death, the bank have been expecting his next of kin to come
over
and claim his money because the bank cannot release the fund unless
somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately i learnt through
investigations that all his supposed next of kin or relation died
alongside
with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is
therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business
proposal to you so that the bank will release the money to you as the
next
of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent sharing
since
nobody is coming for it and i dont want this money to go into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed fund.

Following our Banking law and guideline,it was obviously indicated that
if
such money remained unclaimed after four years without somebody apply
as the
next of kin , the money will be transfered into our Bank treasury as an
unclaimed fund.The request of a foreigner as next of kin in this
business is
needed in the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe
cannot
stand as next of kin to a foreigner by claiming this fund.

PERCENTAGE RATIO:-- I agree that 35% of this money will be for you as
foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign bank account,
5 %
will be set aside for expenses that may occur during the business and
55%
would be for me as the pioneer or one who disclovered the business
while 5%
will be shared to the helpless peoples around us in the world such as
,motherless babies,charity homes,disable peoples and so on. Thereafter
I
will visit your country for sharing money according to the percentages
ratio
indicated above.So for the immediate transfer of this fund into your
bank
account as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as next of kin
only to
the deceased customer by indicating your bank name, bank account
number,private telephone and fax numbers for easy and effective
communication and location wherein the money will be remitted into.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email an
application form of claim which you will fill and send to the bank as
the
next of kin. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this
transaction
is 100% riskfree and that you should fear for anythingr as all the
needed
arrangements have been made for the transfer .You should contact me
immediately as soon as you receive this letter,only if you are ready to
assist me.Also i want you to understand that this is not a child's
play.As a
mere civil servant, i know that you are matured enough to understand
every
bit of this business because i would want to anything that will bring
stagnation of this business as you know that all my hope is in it.As
soon as
you receive this mail,contact me through my private telephone number
above.I
expect your urgent response.

Yours faithfully,
Mr Abuha Abdul

2003-11-29T13:44:00.000-05:00

today in Yahoo Fantasy Basketball someone offer me Reggie Evans for Rasheed Wallace... I'm like.... Do u think im the dumbest ass in the world to trade wallace fr evans.... hahahhaha

2003-10-25T00:14:00.000-04:00

Am in the linux lab. presently working on the Dislk on chip lab for embedded computing course. We have to install a linux kernel on our harddrive. patch it and the load the kernel on a M Syatem chip and boot the chip. seemed straight forward when Dr Hoover explained it to us and gave us the manual.... Maan this is killing me.very wierd errors that I get. The manual is as Hoover designed it to be - a typical shitty embedded comuting manual that one gets in the market. I just made an error due to the manual and I have to start the whole thing again. The ideal time for this lab is like 20-25 hrs but due to this manual it easily goes upto 75- 90 hours..... A real life embedded computing headache.

2003-10-12T15:58:00.000-04:00

watched japanese gp at a friends place yest. schumi won the championship... was a great race. he started 14th... then he has a small accident which forced him to change the cars' nose... so he was last but he fought back to end the race on 8th position. raikonnen had to win this race to claim the championship but thankfully barrichello held him. feels great to see ferrari win it 5 times in a row.

I came to school at 11 pm yest night with a one point agenga of working on my thesis... met vipul and krishna who convinced me that watching the gp at 1.30 made more sense... and that I can get up early the next morn and work(this never works)... bought their argument. ... we were to watch it in lemans but the ppl there were watching a movie... so we drove to VG. there my friend had not paid his cable fees so his connection was disconnected. at 1.20 we were stranded in VG, desperate to watch the race. so we hurried back to lemans. sandeep had taken the car so we had to walk... we reached there at 1.35 so missed the start... neway every driver was cautious and 1st turn was not that exciting... so didnt feel bad

just visited kharghosh's(jardoshs) site. was very impressed with his resume.. i always felt that going to a good school makes a hell of a difference... u have a lot more opportunities...

2003-10-01T12:19:00.000-04:00

its been such a long time since I have been here that... I even forgot my login to blogger.... tch tch tch... such a shame. I percieve blogging as a means to reflect on ones past. ask yourself " Am I living my life as I want to?... what mistakes have I commited and what measures are to be taken so that I don't commit them again. " Its very important for everyone to have this private moment everyday else we end up as machines.... doing things we are forced to do.... basically like a soulless robot.

past one month I have basically tortured myself by taking on too many responsibilities... Embedded computing course is killing me...(day before yest I sat 26 hours coding non stop without food,water or sleep. I have to do 2 nighouts before every research meeting .... GSG work is still there to be done ... need to sit down with sailesh.... Bee robot .... I need to give that sufficient time. I have a 693 test coming up ... A 668 presentation too....

I think i have to use my palmtop more to get more organised....

I promise that ill write in more often.

2003-09-01T19:39:00.000-04:00

one of the worst coding day ever.

Nothing seems to work.

The fucking segmentation fault. 341 lines of matrix code. totally confusing.

plan to go home now ... then comeback after 2 hours and work on it again..

hopefully eating something more wld remove this 10 hours of frustration

2003-08-27T12:08:00.000-04:00

very tempted to buy a laptop. Love these gizmos.... Presently there are a lotta good deals.

I want something that could withstand a lotta computation since the kind of image processing work I do needs that.

Am a very impulsive buyer. so anyday now I could click 'buy now'.

If you want to donate some money so that I could buy myself a laptop mail me at sunild@clemson.edu.

2003-08-22T13:15:00.000-04:00

My habit of keeping file handling in C programming courses in my undergrad for option is causing a lotta heartburns now. Poor fundas in that and pointers too. I would give anything to go back 5 yrs in time and rectify the mistakes that I commited.

Went to greenville yest for singing practice for Indian Association of Greater Greenville fest on sat. Was put up with a gujju family. Mrs Shah treated us with idlis and vadas....been a long time since I was treated with decent food. I am now a part of "Tiger Chords".... thats the name of the indian music troupe at Clemson... Mr Shah had a couple of atrocious singers from Missouri rolla fly down for the fest. They sing soo horribly that I now feel sorry for Mr Shah since he paid for their air tickets... hahhahah now that I think about it even nirup sings better than them.... atleast I could have met up with him again.

till later

sunil