shameless plug

My cousin, with his company daylife, has been working on a news "relevancy engine" for a couple of years now, and there's now a product demo available:


You can enter any search terms in the text box to see how they compare in terms of "news mentions." You can also click on any of the bars to read more articles about the given topic.

Right now, the product is linked directly to the Huffington Post (and clicking on any of the bars will take you to that site), but I'm guessing it will become more general once the product becomes more widely available.

Read more here.

Christmas in NYC!

Let's kick it day-by-day style, k?

Friday: Arrived in NYC in the evening. The flight appeared to be on time, until on the runway, the pilot announced that we had to be delayed an hour. Instead of circling in the air, he decided it'd be better to just sit on the runway for an hour. That was fun. Finally made it to my sister's boyfriend's apartment around 9ish. His place is NICE. I don't have many points of reference since all I've really seen are my sister's two apartments, but it was a great place. Seemed like a place you can call home. They decorated everything for Christmas (real tree, real wreath on the front door, Christmas lights everywhere). It was beautiful.
My sister had invited over a friend and her brother for dinner. Everyone was enjoying wine and cheese and watching 40-year-old Virgin when I came in. Went to dinner at a nice cozy Italian restaurant.

Saturday (aka Christmas Eve Eve): Met up with my cousin for lunch at this all-vegetarian Asian place in Union Square. Did some last-minute Christmas shopping. Went to Avenue Q (a satire of Sesame Street involving a guy who moves to New York City) in the evening. After the show, met one of my sister's boyfriend's frat brothers at this cool bar where you can play board games. I kicked ass at Connect Four (but not so much at Boggle).

Sunday (aka Christmas Eve): Hung out at the apartment watching Christmas movies (in HD!). Helped the sis' bf assemble an entertainment center for his new TV. In the evening, they had invited a British friend over and we had a nice formal home-cooked lasagna for dinner.

Monday (aka Christmas Day): Opened presents. I've been thinking of having a party at my place at some point, and now I have the perfect dishes! Got some really nice martini glasses, scotch glasses, and shot glasses, a book, as well as a gift certificate for a Wii! My sister received a camera, an ipod, and some books. Her boyfriend got a laptop bag and some books. Everyone seemed pretty content with their gifts. I'm definitely a fan of the stocking stuffer idea. It's a nice little appetizer before you open the other gifts. ;)

Tuesday (aka yesterday): Left NY to go to DC to visit my parents who had just returned from India on Monday. I was dreading it since the Thanksgiving trip was horrible. But they were in a much better mood and I actually had a pretty good time. They showed me pics and all the stuff they got in India and Switzerland. I think more of my trips to see them should be less than 24 hours ;)

Wednesday (aka today): Just got home. Had a fun little trip to the airport in DC where my parents warned me about the dangers of alcohol (apparently if you get a couple of nice glasses for Christmas, that means you're an alcoholic): "Never get to the point where you NEED to have a drink; it's a very difficult habit to break.." Uh, I'll keep that in mind, but I think the 2-3 drinks I have once a week is nowhere near that point. Maybe showing them my Christmas gifts wasn't such a great idea...

All in all, it was an awesome Christmas. Very memorable and enjoyable.

Really?

I thought it'd be pretty hard to top the last happy hour (in terms of number of people), but we had about 20 people show up last night to the Flying Saucer. Most of them didn't come to the last one either, so it was a nice mix of people.


Earlier in the day, we had a cube-decorating contest at work. Our row won Best Row, and one of the cubes in our row won best individual cube too. No one was really in the mood to be productive after the announcement of the winners, so we ended up leaving for happy hour ridiculously early.

There were only like 4 or 5 of us at the beginning, but just like the last happy hour, people kept on coming! And again, I didn't know a lot of them. I hope someone did.

I still prefer the Velvet Hookah though. It was cheaper and had a better atmosphere. This place was packed and loud. My voice was completely hoarse by the end of the night.

Another waste of money...

Here goes yet another study proving what was already known (at least to me):

"A study of thousands of men and women revealed that those who stick to a vegetarian diet have IQs that are around five points higher than those who regularly eat meat."

Yup, all I have to do is look at my meat-eating friends and realize that this is most definitely true ;)

Rurple

"Next summer Jay will unveil an entirely new way of marketing himself: a color called Jay-Z Blue."  -Rolling Stone, Dec 2005

If I had a color, I think it would be a mix of red and purple, and I'd call it Sumeet Rurple.  Hard to say? Maybe, but at least you'd remember it, and I wouldn't steal the name of a primary color like Jay-Z.  If you're going to trademark a color, it might as well be a brand new color with a brand new name.

As for phrase, I don't know what my trademark would be.  I liked "that's hot," but Paris Hilton's already taken that one.

Greatest hour of TV this year?

No, no, not Veronica Mars (it was a repeat last night).

I'm talking, of course, about the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

I've never been a fan of Justin Timberlake, but I have to say he got himself a nice gig last night starting the show by singing his horrid song Sexyback while the models strutted their stuff down the runway.  I suppose the song fit the event, but it still sucks. 

Later in the show, he sang his halfway decent song My Love, but managed to ruin it with some awkward dance moves and backup dancers.  Also, why is there a performance in the middle of a fashion show? Why did he get more screen time than the models?   This isn't the Justin Timberlake hour.  We see enough of him on every other award show.

Besides the JT overload,  the show rocked.  Very stylishly done, great music (besides the obvious), and nice eye candy.  They should really do these more often.  I'd definitely watch.

I wonder if it's in her contract or something, but it seemed like Gisele always started off the procession of models.  She's not even the hottest model.  I can see why people might think she is, but she isn't.

Some people might call the show softcore pornography; I call it a great hour of television.

One more (added to the last post)

Another phrase from Friday night (I promised myself that I'd never edit a post that already has a comment, so it's a new post):
"This is your fault. If you hadn't called, I'd be at home reading."

Just for reference, the first phrase was said at lunch, the second was at the hookah bar, the one above was after the bars closed at Greenville, and the last phrase was walking back to the car on Greenville.

11-hour Happy Hour (Dec 2006 edition)

Yeah, amazingly enough, we had another "11-hour" one back in April.

I'm surprised so many people came out (I counted about 23 total), considering the time and day had changed twice within a week (the time because I didn't realize it opened so late, and the day because of the crazy Dallas weather).

We started out the night with a pre-Happy Hour at the Fox & Hound across the street from work. Our ultimate destination was the Velvet Hookah, but it doesn't open until 7, so we had to kill some time. Pretty good crowd, had some people actually request to come, and had some other people come who almost never do.

Then, it was off to the Velvet Hookah. I told some people who were already there to get a table for 10-12, and somehow we got an entire room to ourselves. We turned out needing it though, as more and more people kept coming!

This is, by far, my favorite Happy Hour venue so far. You sit on the floor while smoking the hookah, and there's some great Middle Eastern music playing in the background. It's got an awesome ambience. Somehow, we ended up having more girls than guys. I believe that's the first time that's ever happened. Who knew girls loved the hookah? I sure didn't.

Oh, and I mentioned in a previous post that I always end up with way more pictures than I remember taking. Same thing happened last night. I figured I had maybe 50 on my camera, but it was more like 140. Good pics though.

As the happy hour died down, we went down to Greenville for a couple of hours and then finished off the night with some Taco Cabana.

The best part of the night was at TC when a friend thought he could jump through the open car window back into the car, missed completely and landed flat on his back outside. I think the rest of us in the car were just stunned that he would even attempt such a feat. Gotta love alcohol and the crazy stuff it'll make you do (and think you can do).

Definitely the most fun I've had in awhile.

My favorite phrases from the day:
"You're an asshole, Sumeet." (Agreed.)
"I love you." (Weird to hear the previous comment and this on the same day..)
"Sumeet hasn't said a word. He's being very un-Sumeet." (There was some drama on Greenville, and I didn't want to get involved. I still like to think I'm quiet in general though.)

Um, yeah

"...men chat less than females and struggle to express their emotions to the same extent...the area responsible for sexual thoughts is twice as big in male brains."

Why is this news? I can't believe people have jobs telling other people what they already know, and that money is spent researching topics and facts that are pretty much universally accepted.

You'd think that money could be better spent on finding out new facts and discoveries rather than continuing to prove and re-prove stuff that no one argues.

Best Song Ever?

As you probably know by now, Britney has finally dumped her trailer-trash husband and is seeking a return to her rightful place atop the pop scene.

And what better person to turn to than the current pop star turning heads with her fabulous skills as a musician and artist? I'm talking, of course, about Paris Hilton.

Yes, it's true! Paris and Britney have become fast friends and have been spotted everywhere together since the divorce announcement. Can you just imagine the incredible songs that these two could record together? I'm not sure if the world is ready for it. I, for one, eagerly await the duet.

In other pop news, Veronica Mars (the best show on television) has been extended to a full season (although for some reason, "full" this year means 20 episodes instead of 22). If you haven't seen it yet, you're really missing out. Tuesdays on the CW at 8pm.

Creepy

My sister said her relationship with her boyfriend is very similar to my parents' relationship.

She also said her boyfriend is very similar to our dad (in terms of personality, interests, etc).

If I ever get into a serious relationship (and that's a pretty big if), I really hope it's not with someone like my mom.
But as Eminem so eloquently put it: "They say that every man grows up to marry his own mother/Which would explain why you're such a motherfucking bitch." Well, I wouldn't go that far in describing my own mother, but I definitely don't need another one of her in my life. One is more than enough.

The rest of the Thanksgiving break was pretty much as I expected: mostly uneventful and demoralizing with the exception of a carpet-ripping afternoon at my uncle's townhouse (half of his basement flooded due to a leaky toilet).

Karaoke and Moving (on the same day!)

Helped a friend move into a new apartment yesterday. I realized how much of a snotty, pretentious person I've become when we pulled up to the place and the first thing I thought was, I can't believe he'll be associating with these types of people.

Seriously, though, he'll be living in the middle of the ghetto. If someone were to say, "Hey, meet me in the ghetto," people would go to his apartment complex first. The important thing is that he seemed to be happy with it, and it met the conditions he was looking for (cheap rent, close to everything he needs, free yoga and meditation classes).

Moving took far longer than anyone anticipated. We started around noon and didn't finish until like 5pm. Crazy. Part of it was because we had to make multiple trips, since we only had an SUV and not a full-size UHaul.

In the evening (2 hours after we finished the move), we had karaoke at another friend's place. If there was ever any doubt of how bad a singer I am, there's now a video game (Karaoke Revolution on the PS2) which quantifies it. Yes, you're lousy. But not just kinda lousy. 75% lousy, 22% poor, and 3% ok.

It was still a really fun night. I think if I practiced a little more, I could be alright at the game. It was great to see some people who haven't come to hang out in awhile too (yeah, they're co-workers who I see everyday, but it's different seeing them outside of work).

Unmemorable

I'm always surprised when strangers remember me. I try to keep a low profile when I first meet people.
--
"Hey, do you remember <some name> from that dinner several months ago? Cause she remembers you."
Really? She remembers me? It was only a couple of hours and I hardly said a word.
--
"One of them remembered you. She asked me, 'weren't you with that really drunk Indian guy who was belting Britney Spears?'"
Well, that's embarrassing. I'll probably never see that person again, and that's the only memory she'll have of me. That was a fun night though. Karaoke in NYC to ring in 2006.
--
Women seem to remember everyone they meet, no matter how brief the conversation is or how long it's been since they've seen the person. Men have a much more selective memory. Personally, I tend to remember the hot girls (by "hot", I mean personality-wise since I'm not shallow) or people that I have conversations with.

The World's Greatest Dessert

Any happy hour that ends with gelato is a success in my book.

The group was a little smaller this time, but as I like to say, it's quality, not quantity that matters. (I also like to say the more the merrier, depending on the occasion.)

The six degrees principle was proven yet again, as new people already knew some of the regulars.

Good times.

woohoo for alcohol!

I'm living in Prohibition-era America, aka Richardson, TX where selling alcohol is the work of the devil and is thus illegal.

I got this flyer in the mail today urging me to vote NO on the sale of "the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption only." I was contemplating whether or not I should vote because I didn't think there were any major issues/offices on the ballot. Now I'm definitely going to vote YES!

It's about time this city emerged from the Stone Age and joined the rest of America. Maybe next the city will decide that it's ok to use fire, or better yet, the wheel! Just think of the craziness!

So long, R & R

After seven years of (mostly rocky) marriage, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe have decided to part ways.

It's about time Reese got rid of that loser.  She could do a lot better.  Like me, for example.

Think about it.  We're both ridiculously talented, unimaginably attractive, and wise beyond our years.

I also don't mind being whipped (since it comes with the perks of living in a mansion and going to the hottest Hollywood parties).  And, if in seven years, she decides it's just not working out, that's cool.  I'll just take a Bentley or two on my way out.

The Year in Review

Yeah, I know there's a good two months left before 2007, but I've been reflecting lately on how the year's been going so far.

And the verdict is... it sucks.  This might have been the worst year ever for me.  Sure, the year has had its moments, but, overall, not so great.  Not that anything exceptionally bad happened, but nothing great or remarkable happened either.  And that makes it worse.  Each year should see some amount of change or growth or development of some sort, and I didn't grow or develop or learn anything this year.  I'm in the same place I was a year ago, and have essentially the same group of people surrounding me.

What makes the year even worse is seeing everyone around me growing and changing. Some of them have gotten new cars, others new jobs, others still new relationships (or further strengthened existing relationships).  The ones who are still at their same jobs (from a year ago) are getting massive raises/promotions, while I'm still making basically the same amount of money and have the same responsibilities.

It's your own fault, Sumeet, you're thinking.  You need to get out there and change things yourself, and stop waiting for the world to accommodate you and for everything to fall into your lap.  Well, that's really easy to say but much harder to do.  And I have tried.  The first half of the year looked promising, and I honestly believed I'd be somewhere else right now: if not physically, at least emotionally.

But you know what they say.  There's nothing more American than false hope.

oops

My boss (well, actually my boss' boss) asked me to stop yelling at her today.

I know, right? Shy little Sumeet, raising his voice? Yeah, that'll never happen. I always do exactly what I'm told, without questioning authority. She was probably just being sarcastic.

Death

Just some passing thoughts on the oh-so-popular blog topic of death:

* I'm surprised I'm still around. I never imagined that I'd be alive at 24. Not that I've had a crazy lifestyle of drugs and alcohol or anything (quite the contrary). It's just that as I went through school, they never prepared me for life after college, so I never knew what to expect. And since I couldn't imagine it, I just assumed my life would somehow be over.

* There won't be more than 10-15 people at my funeral. A few co-workers, a couple of friends, and some family. Most of the people I know only pretend to like me, and since I'll be dead, they won't feel any obligation to continue faking it. Oh, and whenever I do die, it'll probably take about a week before anyone notices. And then when people are notified, it'll take a day or two for co-workers/friends to get over it and about a month for my family. After that, I'll be completely forgotten. Sumeet who?

Musing

As you may have gleaned from previous posts, I know/care more about pop culture than I do about computers.

I'm fairly confident that if we had a pop culture-off at work, I would demolish everyone (which I realize isn't saying a whole lot, considering I work at a software company).

If you asked me how much RAM my computer at home had, I'd have to look at the sticker on the front, but if you asked me Britney's birthday (Dec 2, 1981) or the theme of the next installment of the Simple Life (Paris and Nicole are camp counselors), well I'd know that off the top of my head.

VM recap - Season 3, Episode 2

Last night's episode was pretty good. Much better than the season premiere. I was worried that the show may have lost its edge, but last night proved me wrong.

I was a little disappointed that there wasn't much character development in this episode though, one of the reasons I like the show so much. It was one of the few episodes in the entire series that could "stand-alone." Someone could watch this episode without ever seeing any VM beforehand and understand everything. Good for newcomers, but not so good for longtime fans who like the interactions between characters.

I guess it makes sense though, since they're starting college, and trying to break out of their old relationships to some extent.

My favorite part of the episode was the prisoner-guard experiment that Logan and Wallace take part in (based on the Stanford Prison Experiment). Interesting tactics on both sides, and I like how the show integrates real-world sociological experiments into the plots. The college setting works perfectly for this.

Veronica goes undercover to figure out if a sorority house is behind the season's first mystery. Hearst must be an ugly school or something (or maybe it's just the ugly sorority), because Kristen Bell is by far the hottest girl in the entire house. They'd be fools not to accept her.

Supposedly, the first mystery is supposed to be solved in the next episode, which is a little strange since there have been very few clues to work with through the first two episodes.

2 nights and 2 effigies

Friday - Went down to the West End to check out the pre-game day revelry and team spirit of Texas and Oklahoma. I never came up to Dallas while at UT, so it was pretty fun to see everyone getting pumped up for their teams. Who knew that OU had such hot girls? I sure didn't. UT still has the hottest girls (as evidenced by the latest Playboy list), but damn. I felt like I was at college again, with all the frat boys and sorority girls running around.

On the way back to the car, I saw a disturbing sight: they were burning Bevo! That's going a bit too far. I realize that OU sucks, and doesn't have its own (recognizable) mascot, but come on. There's a line that you just don't cross. Come up with your own mascot. And while you're at it, come up with your own hand signal (seriously, the horns but just flipping your wrist downward? real creative OU).

Saturday - Watched the UT game with some former co-workers (in HD, no less; makes you feel like you're there in the action). The team is obviously not as good without Vince Young, and we ended up winning due to some mistakes on OU's part, but we still won 28-10 and it's about time we won two in a row (especially since OU took 5 straight before that).

Then, it was off to Texas Stadium. No, no, not for another football game. For the Diwali Mela, of course! The what, you ask? Oh, for those of you not in the know, Diwali is the Indian new year, and mela is the Hindi word for fair.

So basically, there were a bunch of booths set up all around the perimeter of the stadium selling all sorts of goods (like clothes, jewelry, food, etc.). And then, inside the stadium, on the 50-yard line, they had a stage set up and performances all night from "renowned" Indian singers (apparantly the contestants from Indian Idol).

I haven't been in touch with Indian pop culture in a long time, so I didn't recognize any of the performers, and honestly got kinda bored. I'm also not a fan of Indians in large groups, because they're never organized -- the printed program was way off time-wise, and at one point an announcement was made that the Irving Police Department was shutting the place down at 11:15 even though it was supposed to go until midnight -- and don't follow basic social etiquette.

There's never really a line to any of the food booths; it's more of a push-and-shove-your-way-to-the-front idea. This may work if there's fewer people, but when there's 20,000 people in attendance, it's just chaotic.

The only redeeming point of the night was the effigy-burning. It's cool though, since it was the Devil and DESERVED to be burn (unlike Bevo). Much more interesting than I thought it'd be, since they had fireworks in addition to just fire, so there were loud explosions every once in a while. Good stuff.

Well, that's my weekend in a nutshell. Oh yeah, and OU sucks.

?

So I went to this murder mystery dinner last night for a friend's birthday party.

Apparently, these come in two variations: you can either get a mystery-in-a-box and act it out with a group of friends or go to a restaurant and have them essentially put on a show for the guests. Well, this one was of the latter variety.

Most of the people in our group were Indian, so we ended up arriving a little late to the dinner (as a general rule, Indians will arrive about half an hour to an hour later than the scheduled time).

It was cool though. We got to the restaurant just in time for the first murder. It caught me completely off-guard. I was standing there, enjoying my carrots and ranch dressing and all of a sudden a girl bursts out of the door with blood streaming down her mouth.

They tried to set it up so that the actors were intermingled with the guests, but it became pretty obvious like 10 minutes into the dinner who the main actors were, since they were far more polished and suspicious than everyone else.

Overall, it was definitely a different experience, but I think it would have been more fun to do the mystery-in-a-box since everyone could get more involved in the plot. I was lost for most of the night, and my "theory" was based on what everyone else at the table thought. It felt like school again.

And you know what they say. After the party, it's the after-party. And so it was. We went back to the birthday girl's house and chilled at her place, drinking, smoking (the hookah), and (salsa) dancing.

Yeah, so there's two more things that I've decided should go on my list of things-to-do (before I die): learn how to shoot a gun, and learn how to salsa dance. The latter looks easy to learn, and seems pretty free-form.

Yup, that pretty much says it all

Here's an excerpt from an article about the best show ever:

This show stars Kristen Bell as a sort-of modern-day Nancy Drew. Sounds corny, but it's not. "Mars" is whip-smart, funny and cynical enough to make me believe its writers actually went to high school. It found a small but loyal audience during its first two seasons on UPN (yup, that UPN. Who knew?).

But it's on the bubble unless "Gilmore" fans stay tuned. I happen to be one of those fiercely devoted fans who discovered the fabulously addictive charms of "Mars" during its first season.

So here's where I get shameless: I am begging you to watch this show. Begging. On my knees. I will even give you a dollar if you e-mail me with your favorite line to prove you watched. (Well, actually not, but I will give you a blow-by-blow account of what I love about the show if you're not convinced.)

It's engaging, believable, entertaining and has some of the best one-liner delivery on television.

And it's not just me. "Mars" got renewed because the network president and critics across the country are as in love as I am.

Season 3 starts Tuesday, Oct 3rd at 8pm on the CW. Be there.

Death Tool

You know how when you go to recruiting fairs, companies hand out all sorts of goodies like pens, frisbees, yo-yos with their name on it?

So our company decided it'd be a good idea to hand out blades to candidates.  That's right, a blade sharp enough to draw blood if you happen to brisk your finger across it (or so I've heard).

Well, ok, it's not "just" a blade.  It's one of those all-in-one gadgets that includes a fork (why would you need this??), a ruler, a bottle opener and a cap opener.

But, seriously, sharp enough to draw blood? You can't even take this thing on the plane.  Real useful if the plane were to go down and you really need that fork to eat the delicious appetizer awaiting you on the deserted island.

Paris' New Video!

So apparantly, Screwed isn't the next single on Ms. Hilton's CD.

Instead, it's Nothing in this World. I didn't really like it that much the first time, but after a few listens, it's grown on me. It's bubblegum pop at its finest. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that the video rocks (it's basically the plot of The Girl Next Door and features a cameo by Elisha Cuthbert).

Richest Americans

Forbes released their list of the 400 richest Americans today. I know what you're thinking, but I'm sorry to let you know that I didn't make the list this year (and have yet to make it). I was off by about $1 billion this time. Oh well, there's always next year (or like 20 years from now).

#1: Bill Gates from Microsoft ($53 billion) - college dropout
#2: Warren Buffett from Berkshire Hathaway ($46 billion) - MS in Economics from Columbia
#3: Sheldon Adelson from Las Vegas Sands [owns casinos in Macau and the Venetian in Las Vegas]($20.5 billion) - college dropout
Forbes estimates Adelson earned about $1 million an hour over the past two years.

So here's some interesting trivia. Of the top ten richest people, you have the spoiled Walton heirs and the rest are all college dropouts (with the exception of Warren Buffett).

The full list.

VM

Woohoo.. found another Veronica Mars fan this weekend! Not sure if she started watching it because I mentioned it, or if she discovered it on her own (I didn't ask because I was surprised that someone else was bringing up the show -- normally it's me going on and on about how it's the best show on television). Either way, I'm glad someone else is watching too. I hope the ratings this year are good enough to get the show a full season (the network only ordered 13 episodes).

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

"I believe, at the end of the day, personally, my life is not about a banana."
~ Maria Sharapova, after suggestions that her father may have "coached" her by pointing to a banana during the US Open Women's Final

Is it just me or is she the hottest woman to ever win the US Open -- nay, ever play professional tennis (and, yes, that includes Anna K)?

Online Quizzes

One of the questions I hate on online quizzes starts out "My friends would describe me as..."

Um, I have no idea. Shouldn't they be taking this test for me?

That's one of the main problems with online quizzes. They're self-assessed, and people rarely see themselves the way that others do, nor would they act in the way they claim in certain situations ("Yeah, I would definitely stop whatever it is that I was doing in order to save that dying bird on the sidewalk! And I always stop and give all of my money to the homeless guy on the street! ")

In the pre-blog/pre-myspace era, people couldn't easily report the results to all their friends so it was more of an introspective personality assessment. But now that it's so easy to post them on a blog or social networking site, it seems that people could easily answer in a way that would cast them in the most positive light possible.

I, of course, would never lie on a test.

Here are some of my completely accuate and honest results: Perfect Human ("easy-going, friendly and know when to stand up for yourself"), Aegir ("you throw good parties, and are generally well-liked"), Robot ("more rational than intuitive"), Oracle ("typically easy-going and non-confrontational until someone violates one of the very few principles that you deem sacred, at which point you can fly into a rage"; "despite being outwardly humble, you probably think of yourself as being smarter than most other people"), Plato ("you believe in the virtue of humanity, the purity of music, the essence of morality").

Oh, and my nerdiness score means "you could be a nerd, but you're probably just a geek" and my celebrity date should be Paris Hilton. Go figure.

No drama!

You don't want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama
~ My Humps, Black Eyed Peas

You're right, Fergie! I don't want no drama.

Unfortunately, you can't always get what you want in life, now can you?

Tonight, the company hosted a party to celebrate the long hours and hard work that we've done over the past month. Kinda ironic that the people who worked the longest and hardest hours over that time period weren't able to make it, but I've gotten used to -- nay, come to expect - such situations.

Anyways, most of the company parties in the past have been pretty drama-free. Not much gossip, mostly because everyone in the company is there and since my co-workers didn't talk about such things so much. Ah, but tis a different year, and a different crowd. People have started talking, and the gossip mill is running at full-speed!

As is the nature with gossip, the two things I learned tonight were not things I expected to learn, nor are they things that will be discussed here ;) Suffice it to say, they were some interesting, albeit disappointing, news items. I thought I had heard enough crazy gossip on Friday night, but, wow, that was child's play compared to tonight.

The party itself was surprisingly enjoyable (despite the notable lack of alcohol). We went to Speedzone, which is an all-in-one racetrack/mini-golf/arcade. The racetrack was pretty awesome; it was called Slick Track, which meant that you had to navigate the curves just right in order to avoid the walls. I'm pretty sure I made a complete fool of myself because I really didn't get the hang of it until the 3rd or 4th lap, and ended up running into the walls on pretty much every curve. At one point, I ran head-first into the wall, and they had to stop all the drivers behind me so they could straigten out my car. Ah, good times.

Mini-golf was pretty interesting too. We had about 8 or 9 people in our group though, so it was kinda slow. Also, I've realized it's a bad idea to have a 6-year-old play with you, because the tendency to curse out loud when you hit a bad shot is incredibly high (especially when you've been drinking). Her father might have some explaining to do about what some of those words mean...

Free food! You in?

Last night, I went to the local pub with some co-workers and friends. A co-worker received an email from the bar offering a party (including 2 hours of free pool, and free appetizers like pizza, chips and wings) for 20 people. Well, you'd be damn foolish to pass up a deal like that!

Let me tell ya: nothing brings people out like the promise of free food. In terms of number of people, this was one of the better social events in awhile (close to 20). Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time, eating and drinking away.

Ironically, the co-worker who set the whole thing up decided not to come. Apparently, she hasn't been getting enough sleep lately, so she decided to rest instead. We felt guilty at first, but after a couple of drinks and a few slices of pizza, that feeling quickly dissipated.

Surprisingly, we had a pretty good guy-to-girl ratio. Most of the time, we end up having too many guys, but tonight a lot of the gals came out too. It makes for an interesting dynamic when guys and gals converse; especially when the guys know the gals are in relationships, and it's just chatting (without the unnecessary sexual tension).

There were some awkward moments, some anger, some crying, much office gossip, and many things were said that shouldn't have been said under any circumstances. In other words, it was a great night.

Self-promotion

"I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it's so good."
- Paris Hilton, on her new CD

I feel the same way about my blog. Sometimes, I'll be reading past posts, and all of a sudden, tears will come streaming down my face. And I'll be like, this is really great writing - perhaps even the best I've ever read. Who wrote such eloquent, beautiful passages? Who is this literary genius? Then I'll remember it's me! Thank you, Paris, for putting it so succinctly.

"I, like, cry, when I read it, it's so good."
- Yours truly, on my blog

Who do you look like?

A friend showed me this really cool site.

Ignoring the pictures where it couldn't even recognize my face (yes, I'm just that invisible), apparently I look like Jason Biggs (of American Pie fame) or Chris Tucker (from Rush Hour).

Unfortunately, it seems to place a bigger emphasis on the angle of the face than on the features. So if I had turned a little more to the right or left, it would say that I resemble a completely different celebrity (if it recognized my face at all).

In somewhat related news, Google acquired a company which specializes in automatic feature extraction from photos (including face recognition), so there's no longer a need to tag the photos yourself.

It's interesting that Google is now taking the Microsoft approach of buying out companies that have the technology instead of investing time and resources into creating it themselves.

Pick-me-up #2

The only (ok, maybe not the ONLY) thing better than waking up to Madonna has to be waking up to Paris Hilton's "The Stars are Blind" video on VH1 .

That video is hot. I daresay the girl has a future in the music biz. I also thoroughly enjoyed her single, "Screwed," and expect the video to be just as hot (if not hotter).

I've tried downloading "The Stars are Blind", but apparently it's so popular that it's become a target for "fake" songs. All the versions I've heard have been pure static for like 10 minutes! Quite annoying.

Movies

For no real reason, I went on this crazy shopping spree at Fry's and spent $100 on DVDs today.

I bought Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Made, Memento, V for Vendetta and Sin City.

I've wanted to get these movies for awhile, and finally decided to get them today. (The cashier lady was retarded; it seemed like she was learning how to use the barcode scanner for the first time ever - um, what have you been using ALL DAY to check out customers?)

I also saw the new Will Ferrell movie, Talladega Nights, last night. I had pretty low expectations (since Anchorman sucked so much), but I was pleasantly surprised.  It was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a theater in a long time. I didn't stop laughing during the entire movie.  Will Ferrell movies seem to be hit-or-miss.  They can either be really funny (Elf or Talladega), or miss the mark completely (Kicking and Screaming or Anchorman).

In other DVD news, the second season of Veronica Mars comes out on August 22.  I'll have to get the other DVDs they didn't have when I buy VM (Mulholland Drive and the second season of Entourage).

Just me?

It's weird: the more I get to know someone, the less I like them.

At first, I try to find all the good qualities about someone, and put them on a pedestal. After getting to know them better, I notice their "bad" qualities as well. Really, they have flaws just like everyone else, but it's a little disappointing that they aren't who I imagined them to be in the first place.

The people that I like the most tend to be those that I know the least, because I can fill in the question marks about their personality with my own ideals.

Oh, and this is just a generalization and doesn't apply to you. I like everything about you ;)

Ack..

http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~jenf/writing/rant04.html

Road Trip Pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/teemus/RoadTrip

"You can't see it all in a week"

Just returned from an insanely fast-paced road trip from Las Vegas, NV to Albuquerque, NM (5 states in 6+ days!!)

Most of the trip is a blur, but here's what I remember:

Oh, so there were three of us: myself, my high school friend Fran, and his friend Ben (from the UK) that he met while teaching English in Japan. The cool thing about Ben was that he could modify his accent at will. Most of the trip, he spoke with an American accent, but used his British accent when it seemed to come in handy.

Day 1: arrived in Vegas in the evening; after waiting at the airport for an hour for my friends to pick me up (they apparently were running 4 hours late, but managed to cut it down to 1 thanks to 90mph driving), we cruised down the Strip and then crashed at my friends' college friend's apartment. Ben had arrived from Japan earlier that day and had endured a flight over the Pacific, as well as a drive from Los Angeles, so he was quite delirious.

Day 2: spent most of the day on the Strip, checking out the hotels - made about $30 in roulette at the MGM Grand; my favorite quote was when we visited an oxygen bar, and the lady was espousing the benefits of oxygen: "it's great for hangovers, jet lag, and fatigue." oh yeah? thanks, but i'm getting it for free right now. i think i'll pass.

Day 3: had brunch in downtown Vegas, which is actually a better place to gamble than the Strip - it's cheaper, less crowded, and the people are friendlier. thought i was awesome at roulette and tried to win some more money - ended up losing $20. total winnings from Vegas: $10. after a quick stop at Zion National Park (beautiful scenery), it was off to Bryce Canyon National Park. on the way, Ben got pulled over for speeding (doing 70 in a 45). so what does he do? turns on the British accent and avoids a ticket.

Day 4: saw Bryce in the morning, and then left to hit up the Grand Canyon - almost a full day of driving; it's completely dark, and we're running out of gas; we end up driving through the entire park before finally finding a hotel and a gas station - the first hotel in the past 100 miles! another 40 miles or so and we'd be out of gas.

Day 5: woke up at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise (who knew that it'd be so cold when the sun isn't up?) well worth it though; got some great pictures, probably my first sunrise in over 10 years; next stop: Monument Valley - an iconic symbol of the American Southwest, or so they say (i'm not a fan of the name; what exactly is it a monument to?); as we leave, we decide to make an unscheduled stop at the Navajo National Monument. we miss the turn, so Ben pulls over on the side of the road, parks the car, and applies the hand brake. a stranded motorist runs a mile to our car, taps on the windshield to ask for help, and what does Ben do? immediately pulls away! he claimed that he didn't see the guy, even though both Fran and I were telling him everything. so we turn around to get to the Monument, and he pulls over again - this time right across from the motorist! we think that Ben is going to help him, but again he pulls away! nothing like English hospitality. finally get to Mesa Verde at sunset -- yeah, i think that's the first time i've see the sun rise and set in the same day.

Day 6: visited a pueblo in Taos, where a couple was talking to an Indian shopkeeper. he said his name was Tony, and after they inquired about his Indian name, they proceeded to say "I'm glad you changed your name to Tony." yeah, the whole world should just cater to you, because why should you make any effort to try and understand other cultures? unbelievable, especially since they were in this man's home. in another store within the pueblo, a lady remarked that "You can't see it [New Mexico] all in a week" - ha! we saw the entire Southwest in 6 days!

Day 7: checked out a few galleries and arts shops in Santa Fe; then it was off to Albuquerque to catch our flights.

Wow, that was a long post. Definitely nice to get out of town for a bit, even if it was at a frenzied pace. Got some great pictures, saw some awesome scenery, and was exposed to some cool new music.

Your Turn

I give up.  Happy hours haven't been fun (for me) in about a month.

Someone else can organize them.  I'm done.

Pick-me-up

"You're a superstar, yes, that's what you are, you know it"

Nothing like a little Madonna to get you going in the morning...

Moving (again)!

Moved to yet another office today.

In the two years since I've worked here, I've been in three offices, all of them in the same building.

Not sure exactly why we moved to a new office.  We had plenty of space in the old office, and now we have even more unused space!

Not complaining though: we've got an awesome kitchen (with a stove, oven, and dishwasher), a huge conference room, and a great view (I claimed one of the window cubicles).

It's going to take some getting used to though, just like after the first move.  The location of my cubicle is pretty nice: right next to the kitchen, and close to an entrance through the conference room.  As for everything else, I'll have to hike through the office to get there. 

At first, I had two huge cubicles to myself.  But then reality set in, and, someone else decided to move in and cramp my style.  Still, I've got arguably the best cube in the whole office.

Things that Suck

1) Not getting into Mensa (especially when my friend, who I took the test with, got in)

2) Watching the worst fireworks display EVER in Addison (apparantly, they canceled the show in the middle due to rain; but seriously, a fireworks show without a finale?!? It's unheard of); on the flip side, I did see some awesome fireworks while driving on the highway yesterday

There's definitely more "things that suck" but since this is for your personal enjoyment, I'll leave it at that for now.

Hot

"You and I are on the same wavelength.  I think we're the only ones though."

CP

They had a Wheaties box signed by Olympic gold medalist Carly Patterson at the Greek restaurant I went to for lunch today.

I'm jealous.  I went to her homecoming parade in Allen when she returned from Athens, and tried unsuccessfully to get her autograph later at a McDonald's.

Wow, I sound like a teenage girl.

Accomplishments

Today is my two-year work anniversary.

My greatest accomplishment to date is that I've turned a good number of the employees into regular drinkers (if they weren't already).

When I leave, the conversation will probably go something like:

Employee #1: I heard Sumeet's leaving.
Employee #2: Who?
Employee #3: You know, he converted all of the projects to use the new architecture and threw together the demo for Project Y when Mr. Z was sick.
Employee #2: Hmm.. doesn't ring a bell.
Employee #1: He's the alcoholic who plans the happy hours, and is the reason you had a hangover last week.
Employee #2: Oh! Sumeet! Man, I'm gonna miss him.

MTB 3

Who else is pumped for the season premiere of Making the Band 3?

I'm surprised they didn't think of this idea earlier: put a bunch of semi-talented hot girls together in a group and see what happens.  Somehow, Diddy managed to stretch the idea over 3 seasons.  After the first season, he complained that there wasn't enough talent and he would have to go out looking again for more girls. 

Even if they fail miserably and don't sell a single album, they're still easy on the eyes (if not the ears).  Plus, since they're girls, you know there'll be drama.

Can't wait. (Thursday @ 8pm on MTV if you're interested)

Wait... what?

Hmm.. what's happened since the last post? Let's see, two happy hours, two birthday parties (one as a happy hour, one as a pool party), one party at my place, and two dinners. The past two weeks have been busy busy.

More people have started coming out to the happy hours, so it's been interesting to meet the people that my coworkers associate with.

Last weekend, I ended up having an impromptu party at my place. The original plan was to just pre-party at my apartment and then go to a bar/club/lounge, but since we had a large group, and it was already getting pretty late, we decided to hit up the grocery store, get whatever liquid was needed to make mixed drinks, and chilled at my place. I definitely should've drank more, because it was just that kind of party. A friend of a friend was visiting from Lubbock, and she had been drinking since noon, so she was already good and wasted by the time the "party" started. She was definitely a character and pretty wild, but then again that could've been the alcohol.

Oh, so about the title of the post. I've found myself saying that a lot lately, mostly because some of the stuff people say just catches me completely off-guard.

For example:
Female: I would so beat anyone at a dance-off!
Male: You know what? Sumeet knows how to break it down.
Female: I'm so horny right now.
Me: Wait.. what?

:(

Little disappointed that the Apocalypse didn't happen today.

Almost as disappointed as I was when nothing happened on New Year's Day 2000, when the world was supposed to end.


:(

Surreal Weekend: Nights 2 and 3

The rest of the weekend can pretty much be summed up as one of an excess of eating, drinking, dancing, and meeting old friends.

I think this is the first time since I moved to Dallas that I've seen that many Indians in one room together. When the Indian music started, and everyone was dancing, it took me awhile to remember exactly how to dance to it.

The engagement party was pretty similar to many Indian wedding receptions I've been to in the past, but it felt a little weird knowing the bride- and groom-to-be as friends instead of my parents' friends' kids.

Surreal Weekend: Night 1

First of all, an update on the last post.  I mentioned that our cute waitress had given some of us her contact info.  Well, after reflecting on the evening, I realize that she wasn't cute so much as smoking hot.  Also, she got the contact info of a female coworker.

Well, the waitress called the coworker Thursday night and let her know that she had successfully gotten her job back at the venue!  Woohoo! I was worried we would have to find some new venue and some new hot waitress to lust after. But it looks like that won't be necessary.

Yeah, so the "surreal" part of the weekend really started with the happy hour.

Friday night, my sister came into town and we went to dinner at Cosmic Cafe in downtown Dallas (along with a few of my coworkers).  I find it interesting when my friends meet my sister just to see their reactions.  Normally, people say that we're complete opposites.  I was a little surprised that my friends said I wasn't a quiet person.  Also, my sister and I apparantly talk very quickly and have "100 mph conversations."

The post-dinner plans were to "go out" somewhere.  Unfortunately, the place wasn't decided ahead of time, and it was still pretty early so we couldn't go directly to the bar/club/lounge.  So we ended up driving all the way up to Plano where everyone else was staying, since they hadn't eaten and my sister still needed to get ready. 

I went back to my ex-coworker's apartment where my friends went.   There was plenty of alcohol but not enough other liquid to make mixed drinks, so some of them made a run to the grocery store.  Their list: 1) milk, 2) OJ, 3) UNO cards.  Little did the cashier know the great fun that lay ahead.  They couldn't find the UNO cards though, so we ended up playing a mini-game of poker instead.

By the time everyone was ready to go out, it was close to 12:30am.  The bars close at 2am.  After much confusion, we ended up partying at the "hospitality suite" in the hotel.

Oh, so to close out the night, we went to IHOP.  When we were leaving, guess who we see in the parking lot? Our waitress from Wednesday!  No, no, not the cute/smoking hot waitress who hung out with us, the one who actually served us.  Isn't that crazy?  What are the odds? The weird thing is that my coworker placed her perfectly.  I recognized her face but wouldn't have been able to say from where.

Happy Hour Madness!

We returned to our old favorite venue for happy hour yesterday.  Not sure exactly how or why this happened, but this was our most successful happy hour to date, with more than 20 people showing up!  We ended up taking 3 tables before the night was over.  

It might have to do with the fact that there was no happy hour last week, or because a lot more people decided to bring other friends.  It made for good times though.  We had a suprisingly good girl-guy ratio too.

So I keep telling people that we go to this place since they have a free food buffet on Wednesdays (which is true), but the real "secret" reason that I enjoy going there is because of our waitress.  She's by far the best waitress we've ever had, bringing us our drinks quickly, and also hanging out with us when she wasn't busy.  I'm pretty sure I've talked about her in a previous post.  Oh, and she's also pretty cute.

Well, at this happy hour, we learned some interesting things.  First of all, our waitress no longer works there. Apparantly, she had to quit because her parents are Southern Baptist and working at a place that serves alcohol and has dancing is a big no-no.  Also, she's married. 

She ended up hanging out with us for much of the night (just like she did when she was our waitress), and a couple of us managed to get her contact info.  She said that we were her favorite customers, and she wanted to go wherever we went.  How hot is that?

Awkward?

There's nothing more awkward (and somewhat amusing) than watching two people who don't like to dance and don't want to dance trying to dance. It makes for an entertaining evening.

Woohoo for VM!

Looks like Veronica Mars will be back next season on the CW!

Also, the season 2 DVD comes out on August 22 according to Amazon.com.  I saw most episodes from the season, but if you miss even one episode, there's so many references throughout the rest of the season that you feel lost.

A Riddle Wrapped in a Paradox Smothered in Irony

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
A lower raise.
A lower raise who?
A lower raise (percentage-wise) than last year, even though my review was more positive.

That's probably not the funniest joke you'll read today, but it's the news I received today when they made announcements about raises.  And sometimes, the truth, in its own twisted way, is funnier than any joke you can come up with.

Flying!

I flew a plane on Saturday!  Ok, well didn't really fly it, but I did get to do the takeoff and steered it for a bit in the air.

I've been meaning to take lessons for awhile, and this was the introductory lesson where they take you up and show you what it's all about.

It was a really fun trip, and I would still like to do it, but I'm a little hesitant since it's pretty expensive (over $4k) and would take a lot of time (2-3 lessons a week).  Also, what happens if I just completely suck at it and am not able to grasp everything that's needed right away? It means even more time and money.. Yikes.

We tried Sunset Lounge in downtown Dallas on Saturday night.  It was a pretty nice place: good women-to-men ratio, and tons of attractive females.  It turned out to be too middle ground for everyone though.  Some people wanted an actual club where there was a dance floor, others wanted a place where they could play pool.  It also ended up being really expensive ($6 for a mixed drink; $4 for a Bud Light).  Good to know that there's a place like that though.

Starbucks Soiree

Wow... last night was the most fun I've had without any alcohol in a long, long time.

Met some new people, saw some people I haven't seen in awhile, and just chilled/chatted for three hours.

It was great.

Cinco de Mayo weekend

I spent most of yesterday reading On Intelligence, which basically outlines why the current status of the field of AI is headed in the wrong direction, and in order to model computers based on human intelligence, it's necessary to take a closer look at the human brain and see how it works. Obviously, this is a very broad thesis, and is made much harder by the fact that not everything is known about the workings of the brain.

Overall, though, it's a great book -- touching on the subjects of computer science, neuroscience, and even a little bit of philosophy. Like the author, it's a little amazing to me that artificial intelligence didn't take this approach to start out with.

Although the main focus of the book is to outline where AI needs to be headed, I mainly bought the book because I was interested in learning how the brain worked, and it definitely excels in both areas.

Last night, went to a former co-worker's apartment-warming party. Poker + good mix of guys and girls + dancing + lots of alcohol = pretty fun night (ended up staying until 5 am). Got some crazy pictures/videos (125/3). Somehow, every time I take my camera out, I end up with way more pictures than I remember taking.

Fun with T-shirts!

While browsing the good ol' Internet, I came across some pretty funny t-shirts.

My favorite is:
Unfortunately, I don't think it's work-safe, and would probably get me kicked out of most public places. They also had a similar one that said "You say Tomato I say Fuck You."

Some other good ones:

(The one above is great since it works whether you're sarcastic or sincere.)

You can find more here.

Worst Dialogue Ever?

From the trailer for the new movie Stick It:

Girl: Call me.
Guy: Stalk you.

Huh? How is that even remotely natural? Ugh.

Unlike Bring It On (which was written by the same people), this movie doesn't feature the star quality of Eliza Dushku and Kirsten Dunst and can not escape with really bad lines.

I've seen bad movies before, but when the dialogue in the trailer is this bad, it kinda makes you wonder how much worse it can get in the movie itself.

Grade (based purely on the trailer): F

Woohoo for Blingo!

I've been using this search engine called Blingo for the last six months or so, and I must say that I'm a fan.

It uses Google to do searches, but the catch is that you can win prizes with Blingo. You're probably thinking it's a big crock and no one ever wins, but I just won again tonight (the first time was about 2 or 3 months ago).

You don't have to give them any personal information until you win either, so it's perfectly safe.

If you want to join in the fun, click here:

eh

"eh" is a strange word.

If it's used singularly as an expression, it conveys apathy and general nonchalance.

However, if you're in Canada and use it at the end of a sentence, it suddenly makes you very Canadian and sound friendly.

Food for thought.

9/11 Movie

Saw United 93 last night. It's basically a documentary of what happened on the flight that went down in Pennsylvania as pieced together by the cell phone calls from the passengers on the flight, the "only hijacked flight that missed its target" as noted at the end of the film. There's also an insider's look at the various command posts across the country as they realized that multiple flights had been hijacked that morning.

Overall, a very well done film. The documentary style made it feel more authentic and it was interesting to see the chaos that went on inside the control centers (from civilian aviation control to military). Some people wonder if it's too soon to have a movie about 9/11 so soon. I think the film does a great job of keeping to the title and focusing solely on the events that went on within the plane and doesn't steer away from that topic. Yes, it does get a little emotional at times, but I believe the intent is to put the audience in the shoes of the passengers and pose the question, what would you do in the same situation?

Kellie Pickler out on AI!

It's a sad day in entertainment when a hot, semi-talented blonde can't get a break on an American TV show.

There's only one attractive female left on the show.  I don't think it's a stretch to say that ratings will be dropping from now til the end of the show.

24

Yup, that's how old I am as of yesterday.

And what better way to forget that I'm getting older than to jam out to tunes at a piano bar along with my co-workers and friends? I can't think of one (except for maybe visiting the bar/nightclub we went to a couple of weeks ago to celebrate someone else's bday).

I was a little disappointed that they didn't play my Britney Spears requests and even went so far as to mock it. Ah well, it was still a lot of fun, and I think it was a good idea to go on a night when it wasn't so crowded (we were the only group there for the first hour and a half). Apparantly, on Fridays and Saturdays, the place gets packed and it's standing room only.

The performers personalized the songs for the audience too, and my name was inserted into lyrics for a lot of the songs (since it was my birthday). There was another girl (an attractive blonde) who also had the same birthday, but for some reason, they kept picking on me instead of her.

Some random guy also bought me a shot; not sure why or what it was (when I asked, it sounded like he said 'liquid colgate').

It was really fun though; lots of dancing, singing and drinking. Not a bad way to celebrate a birthday.

Oh, and they had me dress up in a wig and boa on stage.

BEST DAY OF THE YEAR

No further explanation needed.

Blackouts

Two blackouts in two weeks: one of the electricity kind, and one of the not-remembering-anything variety.

You can read about the latter here.

As for the former, the electricity randomly went out today at work around 4:30pm.  Some say that it was because today broke 90 degrees (in mid-April, yikes), and the electric companies just couldn't handle all the computers with the weather.  Others say it's a vast conspiracy (similar to Enron) and that there's probably more blackouts to come.

Either way, it was decided that it would take about an hour after the power came back to get everything up and running again, so it probably wasn't worth it to stick around.  Everyone got to go home an hour early.  Woohoo.

On any other day, that would be welcome news.  But if you're me (and you're not), you wake up Monday morning (on the week of your birthday no less) to realize that you have a fucking flat tire. 

How do you know this? You try pulling out of your parking spot and the car feels funny; it brings back memories of an evening about a year ago when you thought you were going to die as the car shook badly along the highway.  Oh, the good ol days when a flat tire was something you just heard about and never had to experience first-hand. 

This time, since the car was already at my apartment, I decided it'd be a good chance to try and change it myself (especially after the first mechanic complained loudly about having to change a flat only a couple days after being shot).  Turns out I didn't have half of the stuff needed to change the tire.  My co-worker was nice enough to drive me to the auto shop to get the necessary materials and help me change the tire.

Should take only half an hour at most if you have all the tools, but it ended up taking much longer with all the driving and half the traffic lights being out around town (due to the blackout).

So off to the auto shop, where they say it'll only be an hour wait.  Yeah, turns out to be like an hour and a half.  They apologize and give me coupons, but can coupons bring back time?

Welcome to The Sumeet Zone.

Easter Musings

Why don't we crucify people? If they're on death row, and they have to be executed, why isn't cruicifixation an option (along with lethal injection and the chair)?

Is it because it's considered "cruel and unusual" and is therefore unconstitutional?

Or is it because Jesus' crucifixon was so symbolic that no one else should go through that event again?

Bad Saturday

I was really excited to go to a club on Saturday night for a friend's birthday celebration. It was at this club downtown Purgatory that has three levels (Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven), and Girls Gone Wild was shooting that night.

We met up at his parent's house beforehand for a little pre-partying where I had a few drinks, and then arrived way early at the club. I have to say though, the bathrooms were really nice. There was no separate door for the bathroom, just individual doors for each toilet and then a communal sink in front of all the toilets. A different idea, since guys and girls basically shared the sinks and the toilets, but they did a really nice job, and it wasn't nasty this way.

Anyway, I had a couple of vodka and sprites and a shot of Patron, and started dancing with my friends well before there was anyone else on the dance floor (probably the first sign that I had too much to drink). That's pretty much all I remember. Next vague memory is being "escorted" out of the club by a big bouncer (ironically I was in Heaven when this happened, so I've already been kicked out Heaven and I'm not even dead yet: an ominous foreshadowing?) and yelling at him asking why we were leaving and if anyone had complained. After that, my shirt was ripped, my arm was twisted behind my back and the bouncer (or cop?) asked if I wanted to go to jail. Even though I was still pretty pissed and confused, I had enough sense to say no. My memory is spotty from here on out, but I do remember being passed out on the sidewalk and then basically waking up the next morning in my bed.

From what my friends told me the next day, it sounds like I was basically being belligerent and resistant to anyone and everyone within sight. I was running into people on the dance floor, and refused to leave when my friends tried to drag me off. I also apparantly mouthed off to the bouncer and the cops when I was outside and came close to being arrested.

After hearing all of this, yeah, I probably should have been kicked out. It's just weird, and a little scary, not being able to remember any of it. I didn't even have that much to drink (comparatively).

Moving!

I moved desks again.. this time in the same office, but closer to the other people in the company.

It's going to take some getting used to.. it's still pretty private, but it feels like it's stuck in the corner, plus the last person who sat here had this weird configuration where the monitor was on a bunch of phone books, plus he has a keyboard tray, and I think the chair is much lower than my previous chair.

Note to Self 2

Try not to get kicked out of a club again.  Once is enough.

Note to Self

Never take recommendations about a bar/club from a person who you don't want to see at that venue.

It's also probably a bad idea if that person is in a different age group and/or has different tastes than you.

However, it may be worth it to visit the venue just to see the person hammered in public; it may be awkward at first (if you don't expect to see them there, and they don't expect to see you), but the look on their face might be priceless.

Work Emails

I got three important work emails today.

Two of them were about upcoming performance evaluations -- for some reason, we have to get evaluated by two different supervisors.

One of them was from our director of technology, proclaiming that she doesn't think she's god. Good to know.

Birthday Bash

We journeyed out to Addison yesterday to celebrate a co-worker's birthday.

The main criteria for the club/venue was basically cheap drinks/food and a good scene (20-somethings, attractive girls, etc.).  Impossible you say?  Think again!

The place actually turned out to be pretty decent, and I'm fully convinced of their claim that they have the hottest Wednesday night in Dallas.
It was helped by the fact that they had free food until 9pm, and cheaper drinks than most places we've been to on our usual happy hours.

I think everyone really enjoyed it.. definitely worth another trip back.

Oh, and we had a really hot waitress who was also really nice and friendly.  It was her first day on her own, and she seemed to take a liking to us for some reason.  Some of my co-workers thought she was just doing it for the tips, but I like to believe otherwise.  It seemed that whenever she was taking a break, she would come hang out with us, even dancing with us.  Not sure what the appeal was, but I ain't complaining.  It was a nice change from our other waitresses, who have either been incredibly emotional (our last one went from bitchy to crying in a few hours) or really slow (and not even attractive enough to make up for it).

Firefox Extensions

I had no idea it was so easy to create a Firefox extension.

I followed the tutorial here: http://www.gmacker.com/web/content/tutorial/firefox/firefoxtutorial.htm , and then looked at the code for one of the extensions I already had, and that was it.

I didn't know any Javascript before I started, and just figured out enough to finish my extension, but the beauty is you don't have to be an expert to create an extension.

The one I wrote basically brings up a webpage (via a "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google search) of the lyrics to the song that's currently playing.  It finds out the name of the song through the FoxyTunes extension.  So, instead of copying the title from the toolbar, pasting it into another window and searching, it's now just two clicks away.

The 11-Hour Happy Hour

Yeah, that's the only way to do it.

We (ok, I) decided to have our happy hour on Friday instead of Thursday to accomodate some ex-co-workers who will be leaving town soon.  They can't make Thursdays, and I thought it'd be cool to hang out with them outside of work.

It was interesting, because they both came to a company lunch this week, and were like, "Yeah, it's not over yet.  I'll see you guys at happy hour on Friday!"  Little did they know that the people they told this to were never actually informed of the happy hour, and thus did not show up.  I don't think anyone really noticed, or if they did, didn't really seem to care.

We had a slightly different group of people this time, less than previous weeks mainly because it was a Friday and some people went of town for the weekend.  We ended up having the same waitress as the last time we went to the bar, and she seems to think we're a bunch of alcoholics ("Yall are here all the time!") even though it was only the second time we'd been there.  She was pretty pissed the second we walked in the door too.  Maybe because of bad memories from last time, or because we wanted to have 8 separate tabs.  Not sure, but she was really upset.  And I didn't make things any better by making rude, snide comments.  Or, as my friends would have you believe, being myself.

We hung out for a few hours, then moved over to the pool tables.  Our waitress over there was much nicer and cooler.

From this neighorbood bar (with a decidedly older crowd), it was time to hit up Addison.  Things from here on out get kinda fuzzy (ha!), but I do remember a lot of drinking and I believe we visited two bars in the area.  It was my first time having a Jagerbomb; that's some good stuff, kinda sweet, but goes down real easy.  It's always interesting to see the effects that alcohol has on different people.  One of my friends is going through a difficult time right now, and he got completely plastered.  It was great; he becomes real chatty - talking about anything that comes to mind.  Beautiful.

Yeah, so it lasted from about 6 pm (right after work) til about 4 am (when I finally arrived home after driving a friend's car from the bars back to the other parking lot).  Longest happy hour ever.

Keep your ears open

Carly Patterson, the all-around gold medalist in gymnastics at the last Olympics, debuted her new song on the radio yesterday. 

No word yet on when the album will be released.

Oh, and Paris Hilton's album is supposed to drop this summer too.  I downloaded her single "Screwed" awhile back and it randomly played on my ipod the other day.

At first, I thought the song was kinda cheesy and sucked, but after a few listens, it grows on you.

Britney on Will & Grace

She rocked. 

She played this ultra-conservative talk show co-host who was hired to convert Jack's show into basically a mouthpiece of the government.

She really got into character, and nailed every line with perfect timing and precision.

If that performance didn't have Emmy written all over it, those people at the Academy really need to get their head checked.

Grade: A+

You're So Damn Hot

Finally, a song that's nice and honest:

(OK Go - You're So Damn Hot)

You don't love me at all, but don't think that it bothers me at all.
You're a bad-hearted boy-trap, babydoll, but you're...
You're so damn hot.

None of this sugar-coating, you're real beautiful, you're the only one for me, I really love everything about you. Nope, you're so damn hot.

Love it.

Psychic readings and other fun

It's been a pretty cool weekend so far. 

Saw 'V for Vendetta' on Friday night.  One of the better movies I've seen in awhile (I saw 'Thank You for Smoking' last weekend in DC).  The dialogue was great, the story was interesting, and how can you go wrong with Natalie Portman?  You can't.  By putting her in your movie, you're already almost guaranteed a winner.

On Saturday, I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch at this Italian restaurant near my place.  We both ended up at the intersection where the restaurant should be, but neither of us could find it.  I suggested we go to Brick Oven instead, since there's an Italian restaurant of the same name in Austin.  It turns out that this Brick Oven was actually a Mediterrean restaurant and for some reason it wasn't open (even though we were there between their listed hours).  Whatever.  We ended up going to the Mexican restaurant next door.  Surprisingly up-scale for the area, and pretty good food.

After lunch, I had to chill at my apartment for the next two and a half hours, waiting for JCPenney to deliver my recliner.  When I first saw them bring in the pieces, I thought, dude I could easily have fit that stuff in my car.  Why did you have to deliver it?  But then they assembled the recliner too, which is good since it would probably have taken me about 2-3 times longer.  It's weird, I can program a computer but I can't figure out how to put together a chair.

My recliner rocks!  Not literally, it just swivels and reclines, but it's very comfortable.  Now, I can be even lazier than before.

Went to a co-worker's party in the evening.  For most people, this would probably sound really boring and even like a forced 'company party' or something, where you have to be careful of what you say and/or do.  However, since we've worked together for so long and have hung out outside of work quite a bit, that isn't the case at all.  It's actually a pretty close group of people.  It's interesting too, since the party actually had employees from three different companies, but I've worked with all of them and see most of them on a regular basis.  The party itself was great: cheesy games plus alcohol adds up to fun.

Right, so you're probably wondering about the psychic readings (or you've stopped reading at this point).  Yeah, so our HR rep from our company decided that with a deck of Snoopy playing cards, she could tell people's fortunes.  She convinced a few people (including myself) at the beginning that maybe she was legit, but when she easily forgot what she had just said about specific cards, it seemed a little fishier.  Our hunch was that she told people whatever impression she had of their personalities and then made some vague predictions about the future.  She did a pretty good job on my fortune though (her personality assessment was accurate and her vague prediction had some basis), and based on the pics, it appears I was angry and skeptical of what was being told to me.

My goal for the night was to not say anything stupid (I tend to do that with too much alcohol), and I think I succeeded on that front.

Head of Household

The IRS really needs to use better terms on its tax forms.

Specifically, "head of household" is such a vague term that it can ostensibly refer to anyone who leads their household, whether or not they actually have any dependents.  If you live by yourself, you basically are the head of that household, no?

Anyways, that's what I thought, and as such, put head of household as a deduction on my tax form when I first started working.  Well, it turns out that head of household is really only for people who have dependents and claiming head of household status is apparantly illegal.

I was wondering why I had to pay so much in taxes this year.  Maybe this will fix it.

i hate the ipod

FYI: When you're trying to put more songs on your iPod, and it flashes the big red circle with the cross saying "Do Not Disconnect," don't disconnect it from your computer!  It's not just a suggestion; it will erase all the songs from your iPod, and make you copy them all again.  Trust me - it's a bad idea.


 

St. Patrick's Day

Went to the St. Patrick's Day festivities on Greenville this weekend.  It was pretty awesome to see this vast sea of green everywhere you looked up and down the street.  Block parties for like 4 or 5 blocks with alcohol freely flowing, live music, and beads for all.  The parade itself was better/longer than I expected, but I'm a sucker for parades and it doesn't take much for one to impress me.  The best part of the parade was all the free stuff they gave out: beads, ashtrays, frisbees, t-shirts, etc.  It was great.. I scored about 10 strands of beads, and an ashtray.

From there it was on to the "hashing"; not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but it's this event where you follow a trail marked by flour to a point (the "beer check") where you stop, drink some, and then continue on the trail until you get to another spot (the "on-in") where you drink some more.  After it's all over, everyone heads to a bar or restaurant to drink some more.  Their slogan is that they're a "drinking club with a running problem."  Normally, the trail is kinda tricky and can take you across highways, through forests, and even trodding through water.  This one was decidely less complicated (mostly due to the fact that most ppl were already drunk before the hash even started), and we ended up just calling someone and asking the address of the on-in.

So, by the time it was like 3 pm, most of us were already drunk and pretty tired.  Yeah, that's insane.  That's the earliest I've ever been drunk.  Hooting and hollering (at the parade) combined with a lot of walking and a lot of drinking ends up really tiring you out.  I would guess that I walked about 5 or 6 miles yesterday, and we were just on one street!

We finished the night off with karaoke (and more drinking) at a hole-in-the-wall bar.  This is only the second time I've done karoake, and the first time was in a private room, so everyone sucked and it was a lot of fun.  This time, it was in out in public, and everyone who performed besides our group was freakin' awesome.  We decided that they were probably part of some professional singing group that goes to karaoke nights in various bars across Dallas just to embarass everyone else.  Oh well. We still went up there and made fools out of ourselves.  I sang The Real Slim Shady with my friends' help.  I'm surprised how much of that song I remember.  Haven't heard it in a long time.

Fun, but exhausting weekend.  Oh, and made about 20 bucks in poker on Friday.  Best I've ever done.

Lunchtime Quotes

"So yall are like foreign exchange students or something?"
~ our hot Albanian waitress at the Italian restaurant where our company went to lunch

Yeah, so there were a few white people, some Romanians, an Asian and me, so I suppose you could confuse us for foreign exchange students?

The waitress was definitely crazy though.. she's almost as crazy as our secretary.

Oscars

Jon Stewart's sarcastic style makes him a great Oscar host.

"I'm surprised Cinderella Man didn't win in the Makeup category. It must take a lot of effort to make Russell Crowe look like he got in a fight."

"I think it just got a little easier to be a pimp." - after "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won for Best Original Song

"For those keeping track, Martin Scorcese: 0 Oscars. 3-6 Mafia: 1 Oscar."

Happy Hour Part Deux

Had our second happy hour yesterday. Most of the same people showed up, with the addition of a few new faces.

We (well, fine, I) decided to try Humperdink's this time instead of Fox & Hound since the service was so slow last time. Pros: non-smoking section, cons: not so much of the bar scene that you'd get elsewhere at a real happy hour place. I think there may be one or two other bars in the area, so we'll have to pick a new place for next time.

After most people had left, the remaining folks headed over to the nearby bowling alley. Yeah, so we're cheap/poor and it would have cost a lot of money to actually bowl, so we ended up just lounging at the bar. That's right, we left the happy hour at Humperdink's to drink some more at the bowling alley bar.

Anyway, the happy hour with the 10+ people was a lot of fun. The part at the bowling alley - not so much. I've been drunk before (bet you didn't know that), but if everything happened as I vaguely remember it, then last night was definitely one of those times when I probably said way more than I should have. It almost felt like an intervention, and I didn't even know that I had a problem. Note to self: drink less at next happy hour/post-happy hour.

Shopping Expedition

I wish I had worked at a clothing store, like in the mall or something, during high school. I would know so much more about fashion and style and probably would have met some cool people as well.

I went shopping for some nice sweatshirts/sweaters, but found out that most stores only carry hoodies and these weird zip-up jackets that don't even appear to be that warm. The "sweaters" at the Gap were paper-thin. Next store!

Finally, I found a store that carried normal sweaters, but it was kinda big, so I asked if they had it in a small. Somehow, the "small" ended up being bigger than the medium. Not sure how that even works out, so I ended up just keeping the medium. It still looks pretty pimp.

When I was paying, the (hot) girl remarked that there was a guy at her high school who has the same last name as me. That's not something I hear every day. So I asked what school she went to. Her response: go fuck yourself, you pedophile. JK! Wylie. Where the hell is Wylie?

happy hour

my company has made some improvements this past week to finally move closer to becoming a real software development firm.

the most significant step: happy hour!

i was honestly surprised at how many people showed up today.  normally, i try and organize events and they either are pretty successful or fall compeletely flat.  luckily, happy hour seemed to be an enjoyable evening for all.  it was an eclectic mix of co-workers, friends, ex-co-workers, and friends of friends.  i told people that we'll try and do it once a month. fox and hound proved to be somewhat of a disappointment with the service though.  maybe we can find some other bar that'll actually get you more than a drink an hour.

we're having an official company party tomorrow as well... so basically, it'll be somewhat a repeat of tonight, except the drinks will free and there will be pool and bowling to boot!

so yes, that's two company parties and a happy hour for 2006 and it's not even valentine's day!  i knew you had something left to prove 2006, and it looks like we're on our way...

 

I am Einstein

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

New Job(?)

Today I officially moved out of the company that has employed me for the past year and a half.

Where am I now? you ask. Across the hall, working with the same people and under the same CEO as before.

Depending on who I ask, the two companies will either be entirely separate entities focusing on different tasks, or basically one company with two divisions.

The great part is that it's essentially agreed that my team will definitely still be working with the old company.

One of the reasons I was so excited about leaving was that I wouldn't have to work with certain people ever again, but the realization that I probably will have to work very closely with those people is slowly sinking in.

Yikes.

Breakfast

One of my new year's resolutions was to start eating breakfast more regularly.

So I've tried that, but it seems that whenever I do have something to eat, I get even more hungry when it gets close to lunchtime.

I dunno if I'm not eating enough in the morning, or maybe just the wrong type of food.

The Good and the Bad

The Good:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/01/people.spears.ap/index.html

The Bad:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/01/people.lindsaylohan.ap/index.html
(not really sure why this is news, but you can relax; it sounds like she'll be fine)

Sucky sucky

wow.. january 2006 really sucked (except for meeting kristen bell in austin).

i guess the year can only get better from here..

it still has a chance to be the best year ever, it's just got to work a lot harder.

come on 2006.  i have faith in you!

Veronica Mars-athon (UPDATE)

I forgot to mention that I got Kristen Bell's autograph at the event.

She signed my poster "For Sumeet, (heart) Kristen Bell."

Hells yeah, how do you like dem apples?

Wow

At work today:

Manager-to-be: "I know things have been really bad lately. I hope you're not looking for another job, but if I was in your situation, I would be."

I was pretty optimistic about 2006. But then I came into work on Jan 3, and realized that the year might not be so great. Every day, it seems that there's just more bad news.

2006 probably won't be the best year ever :(

Veronica Mars-athon and drunkenness

A white guy, an Indian guy, and a black guy walk into a bar.......

No, not the beginning of a bad joke; just the start of a pretty memorable weekend ;)

It was the "white" guy's last day at our company, so we decided to all go out for drinks.  Good times.  We've been working pretty late hours for the past two weeks, so it was a nice way to relieve some stress and just kick back and relax.  We went to the bar around 8 pm, and I think we stayed until closing, around 2 am.

The next day, I had to drive to Austin for the Veronica Mars-athon.  I've driven long distances under bad circumstances before - once with no sleep the night before, once after a horrendous day that included allergies, an interview, and a midterm - but driving with a hangover is probably the worst condition possible.  Paying attention to the road, while trying not to vomit on yourself or fall asleep and also trying to ignore the massive headache is just a recipe for a horrible accident.

Finally, I couldn't take it any more, and decided to get some Tylenol.  Ahhh, much better.  The rest of the drive was actually bearable, and best of all, I made it there alive.

The Mars-athon was awesome!  For those of you who don't know, Veronica Mars is a show about a high-school detective (guess her name) who works for her father who's a private investigator. There's lots of suspense and intrigue (who's Veronica's real father? did she get raped by her brother? who killed her best friend?) and the writing is very witty and well-done. It's definitely one of the best shows on TV. 

I really wish the band had played fewer songs so the cast could answer more questions though.  It also would have been nice if the cast had picked out some of their favorite clips instead of just the producer.  And the highlight: at the end of the event, the cast signed autographs and posed for pictures!

If you had told me last fall that I would be in Austin this weekend, literally 2 feet away from Kristen Bell, I would have laughed at you.  And yet, there I was.

Oh, and yeah, Kristen Bell is definitely the new hotness.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

Woohoo!

Texas Longhorns are the 2005 National Champions with a win over USC!!

Holidays!

It was nice to get out of town for a couple of weeks.

Spent the first week (from the 21st til the 28th) at my parents' house in Virginia.  Pretty relaxing overall.. saw some family friends that I hadn't seen in like 4 or 5 years, and watched at least 3 or 4 Hindi movies.  My dad's laptop has a DVD burner too, so we made copies of every movie too (even the bad ones). 

For Christmas, my sister and I got my parents a home entertainment audio system. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it to work with their big-screen TV, so they ended up returning it (they said they'd rather get a couch instead).  Christmas was pretty good to me too - I only asked for one gift and got it - the oh-so-sacred ipod.

So then, it was off to New York City.  I ended up staying in 3 different places over the next 4 nights (2 nights at my friend's uncle's house; the next night at his aunt's place, and the last night at his friend's brother's apartment).  I also took every possible form of transportation: ferry, bus, train, subway!  It was a pretty fun trip overall.  Got to meet some new people, see some people I hadn't seen in awhile, and ring in the new year NYC-style!

For New Year's, we went to my sister's place for a pre-pre-party, a high school friend's penthouse suite for the pre-party, the No Idea bar for open bar (including champagne toast at midnight), and finally to a karaoke bar to welcome in 2006.