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.

 

Office Christmas Party

Had my work Christmas party on Saturday.  The company has changed a lot since last year (3 out of the 5 employees at my table were new). There were lots of new faces, especially since the people from the startup came too.

Last year's party was held at Dave & Buster's, so it was a pretty chill affair, with pool and shuffleboard. 

This year, the party resembled more of a typical office Christmas party, with a country club as the venue.  At first, I thought it might be kinda ghetto, since it was in a suburb 20 minutes north of work.  It turned out to be a really nice place though.   This year's agenda was more organized too, with speeches, a photo slideshow, and even a company sing-along!

I wonder how next year's Christmas party will be handled; I hope that even after the split, the two companies will still have social events together.

 

Year-end Musings

I love this time of year, with all the parties and the chilly weather and the holiday movies on TV and the two weeks off.  It's great.

It's been an interesting year overall, and next year (and the next few years for that matter) should hold even more surprises and unexpected turns.

I'm going to start working at a new company in January with many of the same people that I've been working with for the past 1.5 years.  This was something that was brought to my attention only a month ago, but I think it's for the better.  The new company will focus primarily on commercial customers, and I'm looking forward to learning how a successful startup is run.

I also hope to start flying lessons in February or March, when the weather gets a little nicer, and I have more money ;)

Delays

I hate flying.  It's way more stressful than it needs to be.  Between the checkin' in, the security lines, and then rushing to the gate, there's far too many uncertain factors.  Sometimes you get there hours before you need to, and other times, you're hearing your name over the intercom cause you're late (even though they're the ones that put you on an earlier flight!)

My flight into DFW was two and a half hours late.  First, there was the announcement of a 45-minute "company-controlled" delay for all flights in and out of Dallas with no explanation.  Some passengers were speculating that it might be because there were too many planes on the tarmac, so they needed to slow things down.  Another guy was chattin' on his cell, saying there was probably some security issue.  So we're sittin' in the waiting area, and then finally the pilot comes out and announces that it's because of "high winds"! 

That's right, wind is causing all planes in and out of American's hub to be grounded.  Unbelievable.  I can understand snow and heavy rain, but wind?  It's not like Dallas is getting hit by hurricanes or tornadoes.  Suck it up and fly through it.  Seriously.

So we finally board the plane at like 7 (when we were supposed to leave at 6:08), and then sit on the tarmac until 8, with various updates from the pilot (basically saying that the flight has been further delayed and that we're taking a new route that'll take 4 hours instead of the usual 3.5).

After we're in the air, I'm thinking everything should be fine now.  The "heavy winds" should be calm by now, if some guy at American Airlines decided that planes can come in again.  Oh, but I'd be wrong.  We're like 20 minutes away from DFW, when the pilot announces that we're supposed to "hold" in the air.  Do what?  I thought only helicopters could hover.  But we end up "holding" for like 10 minutes or so. 

And then another announcement -- the worst I've heard from a pilot -- "We'll be going through high winds, but don't worry.  The plane has been stressed for these conditions, and the crew and the plane are prepared for these conditions.  We'll try and get through this as quickly as possible."  Sounds similar to the kind of stuff that the dentist says right before they drill into your teeth!

I hate flying!

Lessons Learned

They say you learn something new every day.

Today's lesson: progress = kidnapping.

Put in other words, in order to have any progress, kidnappings must be present. 

Think about it.

Gwen! BEP!

Went to the Black Eyed Peas/Gwen Stefani concert last night.  It was freakin' awesome.

This is the first "stage-show" concert I've ever been to... I've been to a couple of rap concerts (a free Ludacris one at college, and another TI/Ludacris/Ciara one that was paired with a car show), but this one had an entirely different feel.  I'm easily awed by flashy lights, bright costumes, and special effects, so this was my kinda event.

I had no idea Fergie, the sole female on the Black Eyed Peas, was such a strong vocalist and had such a strong stage presence.  She pretty much commanded the stage the entire time, and should take a hint from Gwen and go solo.  The entire group is crazy talented though, both vocally and physically.  Those guys know how to bust a move.  They also added some breakdancers as a nice little touch between songs.

After a hour-long intermission (is that normal?), Gwen rose up, seated on a luxurious throne (similar to the LAMB CD cover). While the BEP's stage set was more subdued, allowing people to focus more on their strong performances, Gwen's was all about the lights and multiple screens displaying music videos and crazy visuals.  I've never been to a Britney Spears concert (unfortunately), but I'm imagining it's all along the lines of what her stage set would be like.  Not that Gwen's performance wasn''t strong, but I'm guessing people expect a lot more in terms of production value when you're the headliner.

She seemed to be genuinely grateful for her fans, and took time out to say that she had no plans to tour, but felt she had to after her albums were so successful.

Overall, a great concert and tons of energy.  Oh, and there were lots of hot girls :)

Halloween at the office

Halloween turned out to be the event of the year at work!

For some reason, it was decided at the regular office lunch on Friday that everyone should wear suits and "professional" clothing today for Halloween. Everyone, that is, except for the project managers. I'm not sure how exactly how this idea came about, but then again, I've been to office lunches and any idea that comes out of it ceases to surprise me any more.

Well, seeing as how the official dress code is pretty much "wear whatever you want, since it's a long day and we want you to be comfortable," this was an occasion to be commemorated!  Break out the cameras!  We need pictures to mark this oh-so-rare event.  The only time I've seen anyone wear a suit at work is when we have candidates come in to interview. (I believe that's the last time my suit was worn.)

So, after the company-wide picture at noon, we did another oh-so-rare thing: company lunch on a Monday!

Ah, and you thought it would stop there. Nope, pictures and company lunches aren't enough; not for Halloween 2005.  We need one more thing to make it a true holiday.  Cake! We need cake!

Oh the irony!  The company's employees have never looked so professional, and yet we probably got less work done than a normal Monday.

...

My grandfather passed away this week.

I wasn't that close to him, so I'm doing ok.  I think it'll be pretty hard for my mom though (she took a year to get over her uncle's death a few years ago).

It's kinda scary though, cause he was in the States visiting my uncles for the past four months and only went back to India in late September...

Life's far too short and unexpected to take tomorrow for granted. 

On that note, I'm thinking about taking flying lessons.  It's a tad expensive, but it seems like a lot of fun and would be a very unique skill to have (I read that only one out of 10,000 people have a pilot's certificate).

Tis a pity

Man, and I was gonna bid too...

Britney Takes Bra Off (Of Ebay)

Garba-Raas!

Weekend recap..

Saw the Texas-OU game at a friend's apartment on Saturday afternoon.. we finally won!  Broke a six-year losing streak.. definitely worth the wait though.. final score 45-12.

Later that night, went to Garba-Raas for the first time in years. For those non-Indians, basically there's two types of dances: one is garba, which is a four-step dance, two steps facing forward, and two steps facing backwards (but still dancing forwards).  The second is called raas (or dandiya-raas translated as "stick dance"), where you have two sticks and a partner standing directly in front you; there's 5-steps: 1-2)  tap one of your sticks with your partner's stick, 3) tap your own sticks together, 4) tap one of your sticks with your partner's stick, 5) tap your own sticks together.

The raas is more fun in my opinion, since you can modify what you do on step 3 to mix it up.  There's also other variations that include 12-steps instead of 5.  It's quite a workout though, since you're constantly moving and the beat is pretty fast.  You're also in a line, so if you miss a beat or want to rest, the entire line gets messed up and people get pissed.

Best Shows on TV

In no particular order:

Veronica Mars - Kristen Bell, the new hotness, is a part-time student, part-time detective who helps her dad solve cases in their upper-class neighborhood.  I've only caught bits and pieces, but she seems to be a bit of an outcast and people are always accusing her of committing crimes like murder.

Arrested Development - By far, the funniest show on today.  It takes multiple viewings to catch all the jokes.  Unfortunately, the ratings are pretty low, and Fox might cancel it if more people don't start watching (Mondays at 7 pm).

Desperate Housewives - Eva Longoria, plus some deep dark secret (in the form of a human) locked in a basement. Enough said.

Making the Band 3 - Diddy wasn't impressed with the girls his minions found last season, so he sent them all over the country to try and find better (i.e. hotter) ones.  Apparantly he wants girls who can dance, but "not dance like Britney."   Oh ok, so ignore the secrets of success of the youngest female artist ever to have four #1 albums?  That's a great idea, Diddy.  Good luck with that.

Only 4 days left..

Got an extra 5 grand laying around?

Well, get your bid on!

Best deal on eBay

Inventions

Around the turn of the 20th century, inventors were focused on creating devices that would allow people to travel great distances in a shorter amount of time (i.e. planes, cars).

The inventions and innovations today, in contrast, are greatly focused on allowing people to do more while never having to travel any distance at all.  With the expansion of the accessiblity of the Internet, you can buy anything you need to buy, and see all the sights the world has to offer without ever leaving your computer.

I wonder what sorts of inventions people will be thinking about 100 years from now.

Guitar Notes

When I'm really good at guitar, I want to learn the intro to Mr. Brightside by The Killers.  There's also this really cool guitar part in a song by Modest Mouse.

Oh, and another thing.. I found out that guitar has its own way of writing notes, called guitar tabs.

That's helpful, since in my guitar class, they're teaching how to read treble clef.

Good to know this entire semester will be a waste and I'll have to teach myself how to read real guitar music.

Poker

Woohoo.. made $17 (on a $10 buy-in) last night.

Good one!

[guitar class]

Instructor: And then, if we have time, we'll touch on the G-string...

News?

Why is this news?

Supermodel admits to drug use

Um.. I thought all supermodels used drugs. It's the equivalent of these headlines: "Cars have wheels", "Summer brings heat," "Britney Spears is hot."

It would be more newsworthy if it said something like "Supermodel admits she's never taken drugs." Now that's a story!

No food - Hour 14

Saw "Dancing in the Twilight" yesterday.  A friend of a friend of a friend (a fellow Indian) wrote the screenplay, and the entire movie was shot in Houston.  It started out kinda slow, but once the tone was established, it was a bit easier to follow what was going on.  I kinda predicted the ending about 20 minutes before it happened, but it was still very depressing.  Very well done though: the acting, the directing, the writing.

I think this could be a really great play.  The whole setup seems better suited for a stage than for a movie set.   Nothing in the movie really takes advantage of the fact that it's being filmed.  I wonder if it was originally intended to be a play, but then somehow they got money from a studio to make it into a full feature film and decided to go for it.

Still, I hope this movie does well.  It has a great story, and more people should see it.  Unfortunately, there hasn't been much publicity (I haven't seen any trailers, and the theater was practically empty even though it was opening night).

Afterwards, we went bowling.  I've now been to that bowling alley every week for the past three weeks (2 weeks ago with some co-workers, a week ago for an official company party, and then yesterday).  I started out kinda slow, but ended up with a personal all-time best 136 on my last game. 

Oh, and get this: they have this bizarre "curfew" at the alley, where everyone under the age of 18 has to leave the place at midnight!  I've never heard of such craziness.  Especially since everyone gets incredibly wild and outrageous as soon as the teenagers leave (what with the bar shutting down at midnight as well).

No food

So, when was the last time you fasted? What's that? Never? Ever? Never ever? Never ever ever?

Well, that's a shame. Me? I'm actually fasting tomorrow!  Why?  Well, it's only the most auspicious day on the Jain calendar, silly!

Yeah, I've been doin' the fasting thing every year for about 12 years or so now... Quite the experience. You should try it sometime.

I mean, if David Blaine can do it, so can you.

It's About Time..

http://tinyurl.com/arxan

"To the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush told a White House news conference at which he openly questioned U.S. preparedness for another storm or a "severe attack."

That's interesting, since I vaguely recall his entire re-election campaign theme was about protecting the country and how he would do a much better job of keeping people safe. That, coupled with the fact that he's spent billions of dollars supposedly beefing up security everywhere and his newly concocted claim about the war in Iraq: "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here." Well, I guess you can't "fight" hurricanes or other natural occurences wherever you want. Sounds to me like the whole country was duped into voting for him under false pretenses.

The president's approval ratings have hit new lows

Wow, less than a year after he was re-elected. I guess it's pretty easy to keep approval ratings high when people have no idea what's going on in a war if you make sure that all media is filtered through the government. All the people hear about are the numbers of deaths, and the politicians proclaiming that we're still winning. But it's a lot harder to censor the media if they get there days before any government presence, and are able to show the horrid and inhumane conditions that these people went through. It's tough to convince the public that "help is on the way" and that the victims are being taken care of when they can see people dying on their screens.

Pretty ironic that the president who proclaimed that he was the strong leader who would keep us safe is now apologizing and questioning whether we are prepared....

Vegas Baby!

Went to Las Vegas for Labor Day weekend.  It was a pretty fun trip.. overall, made approximately $40 at roulette/slots (all of which was spent again on food/drinks/misc.)

The Strip is much more elegant/extravagant than the last time I went (which was probably like 10 years ago, pre-Bellagio, pre-New York, pre-Venetian).  It's such a bizarre feeling to be able to travel through time/space as you go from hotel to hotel.

I literally felt like I was going from medieval Europe to modern-day New York City to ancient Egypt.  The Roman/Italian theme is a little overdone though.. with the Bellagio, Venetian and Caesar's Palace all within a block of each other.  I suppose the theme is fitting though, since the Romans did represent excess and overindulgence.

It's such a great idea for a city.. create a place where people flock hoping to make lots of money, and then offer enough goods/services that even if somehow people do manage to win big at the casinos, they end up spending all their winnings back in the city. I saw ads for at least 5 new condominum complexes (one owned by Ivana Trump) that will be located on or near the Strip, plus they have a Ferrari/Maserati showroom at the new Wynn hotel. 

Of course, if you win less than 100K, there's always a myriad of stores/restaurants catering to your every whim and desire.

If I was really rich, I'd definitely have a place there.

It's OK!

I was very concerned for awhile there.. I heard about the horrible hurricane that struck Louisiana this week and thought about all the destruction and lives lost.

I kept thinking, this is very very bad.   But then, to my great relief, I read an article on cnn.com, and all my worries disappeared!

Britney Spears, who was raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, posted a message on her Web site saying her family was safe and that her "thoughts and prayers go out to everyone" on the Gulf Coast.

Everything will be alright, folks!  She will continue to entertain millions of people around the world.  Not even a hurricane can stop this woman from doing what she does best.

To add to the joyousness, Juvenile has also survived, and will continue to whisper in women's ears, and instruct women what to back up.

As long as these people have survived, I believe the country can move on from this so-called tragedy and continue to live their lives.

Lunch Conversations

I work with a bunch of crazies.

We go out to lunch as a group (normally between 6-10 people) on Fridays, and this is the stuff we talked about on our last outing to a Mexican restaurant:

1) chips "mating" - Yes, the tortilla chips that they hand out as an appetizer.  Two chips were stuck together, and we had a good 10-minute discussion on how chips came about, and why they didn't mate in front of us.

2) "double dog dare" - another 10-minute discussion on the expression, what it means, and where it came from.  In the end, it was pretty hard to convince the others of the dire consequences if you backed down from one of these.. the others consisting of one Canadian, one guy who grew up "all over the United States" (and considers Arizona part of the South) and a couple of Romanians.

3) how the smoke from fajitas is similar to war - this "discussion" took about 10-minutes too, but mostly because we couldn't understand what our co-worker was saying (he has a thick Romanian accent).  First, we thought he said "work", which didn't make any sense.  Then, we thought he said "world," but that was too vague and also didn't make sense.  Finally, he made the universal machine-gun motion to signal "war."  Ohh! War!  Wait, that still doesn't make sense.  How are fajitas like war?

Just your typical lunch conversations..
"So what are you doing over the weekend?"
"The smoke from the fajitas are like war!"
"Uh.. that's cool. I'm probably going to do some shopping.."

Memories

I'm always amazed by the things that people remember.  You can completely lose contact with someone for over an year, and then the next time you see them, they'll still remember mundane details about your last meeting. People who you think could care less about what you're talking about will come around the next day and say that they've been thinking about what you've said.

Even more interesting, and perhaps even a little frightening, is when people remember things that you've said or done that you don't remember.  And no, i'm not talking about when you're passed out or wasted and aren't supposed to remember anything.  I'm referring to situations where you may have casually commented about something, not realizing the impact that it would have later.

Random events/conversations for one person may hold an entirely different significance for someone else.  The crazy thing is that neither person really gets to decide what they remember. 

My friend, who's a psych major, said that we remember things that are either really important to us or that are highly unusual.

Yeah, I'm guessing most of the memories people have of me are because of the latter ;)

Happy Rakhi!

What? You've never heard of the age-old, tradition-riddled, most sexist holiday on the Indian calendar?

The idea is to strengthen the bond between a brother and sister.  The sister ties a cheap-ass string around her brother's wrist, and promises to "pray" for him.  In return, the brother is expected to bestow lavish gifts and money on his sister on the spot and promise to protect her.  The string, called the 'rakhi', is supposed to be a reminder of that promise.

Most holidays either honor one person (Mother's Day, a birthday, Father's Day) or at least have the illusion of equality, where everyone celebrates and reaps the rewards in the same way.  Rakhi seems to destroy that notion of a holiday, and unabashedly skews the day in favor of the sister.  She is able to enjoy material wealth as well as a promise of protection, whereas the brother just gets a string and maybe a couple of sweets.

Don't get me wrong, I think the holiday itself is a great idea, and helps bring siblings closer.  I just think the way it's celebrated is outdated and has contributed to the inferior status of women in Indian society.

Surf's Up!

I went grocery shopping today at Wal-Mart in Garland.

So, I'm gettin' my food, and as I pass by the beverage section, I notice something I've never seen in that Wal-Mart before: beer! A little further down, there's an entire aisle of wine (not the good stuff though, cause this is Wal-Mart).

Huh? I thought that Garland was dry...

I'm quite confused, so I look it up online, and what do you know:

Garland Gets Wet

"Since Garland voters passed two ballot measures May 7, businesses have filed 114 applications for alcohol sales permits, according to the Dallas office of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Some are to sell beer and wine in stores; others are to sell alcohol at restaurants without requiring club memberships.

Voters overwhelmingly approved measures allowing both."

Woohoo, no need to drive to Plano to get the goods anymore...

Another Great Job

I'm shocked.

If you'll look back at my Guilty Pleasures post, you'll notice my mention of "the hot blonde FBI agent" on the show "The Inside." Well, lo and behold, apparantly Rachel Nichols is trading in her badge for a CIA post in "Alias" (replacing Jennifer Garner).

I should be a TV producer. The meeting probably went something like this:

"Hey, we should get that hot chick on that FOX show that nobody watches. She's really hot, and she already plays a detective. And did you see that one episode where she broke down talking about how she was kidnapped? ... Yeah, not many people did. But, I'm telling ya, she has great emotional range! Plus, did I mention the fact that she was hot? Possibly even hotter than JG."

Greatest Job

Supreme Court Justice has got to be the sweetest job you can get.

You only work a few months out of the year, it's a lifetime appointment so you can't get fired, and by the time you're nominated you pretty much already know everything about the law, so there isn't much outside work.

You just come to court when it's in session, hear the lawyers argue their side, ask a couple of questions, and then get together with the other justices and write a paper explaining the decision of the court.

The great thing is that the court doesn't even hear every case. If you think it's not important enough for your attention, you can vote to not hear it at all.

Why can't more jobs be like this?

Austin

I went to Austin this past weekend to visit a friend who had spent the last year in Japan, teaching English to grade-school Japanese students.

It was a pretty fun trip.  I think it's good to get out of the city every once in awhile, to clear your head and get a change of scenery.

Unfortunately, I don't get enough vacation time to go much further than Austin or Shreveport.  He saw a good part of Asia (Kuala Lampur, Singapore, Bali, Indonesia, Thailand), and a good part of Europe (Spain, Denmark, Italy, Amsterdam, Russia, Turkey) when he studied abroad in Europe in college.  I'm so jealous; compared to the adventures he had this past year, I haven't done anything.

The city has definitely changed a lot.  The Drag is completely different -- no Barnes & Noble, no Tower Records -- and most of the people who used to live there seem to have moved out.  I don't know when/if I'll be going back.  It's weird, cause when people ask me which one I like better, I always say Austin.  But after this last visit, the Austin that I liked better isn't really there any more.

It's a Small World

I know you're a member.

So, where's my invite?

up, up and away

I have two online accounts that have consistently been going up since I signed up with them.

My Gmail account keeps giving me more megs (it's currently at 2426, after doubling to 2000 mb in april), and my ING Direct savings account just went up to 3.15% (I signed up in the fall when it was at like 2.6% or so).

Crazy Insane

Ahh, it's been quite a week. Let's see what I remember.

Tuesday: So I started the Harry Potter book on Saturday, and read for maybe 8 hours total over the weekend. And then for probably another 2 or 3 hours on Monday after work. Well, I wasn't planning on finishing the book on Tuesday, but it's such a gripping plot that it's hard to just stop in the middle. Very different from the first five, but still staying true to the characters and the overarching plot, and a beautiful set-up for the final novel. I stayed up until 2 am to finish the book. Yeah, I never stay up that late: even in college, when I had assignments due, I would go to bed and then wake up early the next morning to finish them. 600+ pages in 4 days. A lot of the people I know that have read it, finished it over the weekend. So I'm the slow one. Crazy.

Wednesday: Q. Where can you find an ambulance, police cars, a fire truck, a limo, and a purple taxi cab? A. The Indian movie theater of course! Why go to an Indian movie on Wednesday, you ask. Because it's 2-for-1 silly! Yeah, so we didn't realize it at the time, but the movie we were planning to see is apparantly really popular, and got sold out last week. So by the time we could buy our tickets, it was sold out once again. Ah well, next week I guess. As for the bizarre arrangement of cars, apparantly there was a bit of a tussle with a couple saving seats for their whole family, and another family wanting those seats, proceeding to attack the other family! Obviously, that doesn't explaing the limo or purple taxi cab. But then again, nothing can explain a purple taxi cab, or why someone needs to arrive at a movie theater in a limo. We ended up going to the dollar theater and seeing "Kicking and Screaming" with Will Ferrell. That guy can carry pretty much any film by himself, and this was no exception. The trailers sucked, so I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was really funny.

Friday: Well, since we couldn't go to the Indian movie on Wednesday, we still needed our Indian fill for the week! What better place to fill that empty hole than the National Indian Asian Dance Convention? I can't think of one. Pretty good dance performances overall, but I could have done without the slow parts, even though that's supposedly what typefies some Indian classical dance. Parts of it actually reminded me of Riverdance, since the dancers were so synchronized and they had bells on their ankles that made sounds similar to the taps. In the spirit of diversity, they also had performances by a hip-hop group and a flamenco group (that had performed on Broadway, Carnegie Hall, and the Lincoln Center) .

Saturday: It's off to Ft. Worth for An Evening of Jazz! And by "evening," I mean we arrived at around 5:30 pm. Yeah, so imagine sitting on a paper-thin blanket in a parking lot with the sun beating down on you, and there's no shade. It seems almost cruel to say that jazz is supposed to be "cool" music when you're trying to endure the 100+ degrees weather. I'm used to being in the heat for a total of 5-10 minutes every day: from my apartment to my car, from my car to the office, from the office to the car, and from the car to my apartment. This was like an hour and a half straight! My body was confused, and really wanted me to go into an air-conditioned environment as soon as possible. There was a huge break between performers, so we thought it'd be a good time to go get dinner. When we came back around 10, the concert was much more enjoyable, since it was much cooler and the performers were much more skilled (featuring former NBA star Wayman Tisdale!). They even got the entire crowd (several hundred people) doing the Hustle! Quite a scene.

What's in a Name?

Although the name Sumeet creates the urge to be both logical and technical, we emphasize that it causes procrastination, lack of confidence, and the inability to realize your goals and ambitions. This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the elimination and fluid systems.

Your first name of Sumeet has given you a pleasant, easy-going, friendly nature. Personal contacts are important to you. In situations where you are serving others, demonstrating or instructing, you have the patience to go into details that someone else may not think to be important. In your association with others, you are often limited to the more mundane happenings and little personal problems that can be so frustrating to those of an active, dynamic nature. You desire to create system and order in your environment but are inclined to become side-tracked and socialize when you should be working. Your ambitions are not large, as you lack confidence in your own abilities and would sooner not take a chance.

Wow

From http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050717/D8BDC2BG0.html

Even allowing for deep discounts on the $29.99 release, "Half-Blood Prince" still easily generated more than $100 million in revenue. It's not only the richest opening in publishing history, but tops the combined estimated take for the weekend's top two movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Wedding Crashers."

"When a book beats out movies, we're in great shape," Holton [ president of Scholastic Children's Books] said.

$100 million in one day?  For a book?  Unbelievable.  That's probably more than the revenue of most book publishers for an entire year.

Who's Screwing Up America?

There's this new book out called "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America."  I'd include the list here, but it's 100 people, and I've noticed my posts get really long, so here's a link: http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/7/6/16128/65032

Yeah, so it's pretty obvious that the author is a Republican, with Michael Moore, Jimmy Carter (founder of Habitat for Humanity),  Al Sharpton, Al Gore,  DNC chair Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, and John Edwards all in the top 20.  Also making the list are Paris Hilton's parents, Barbra Streisand, Dan Rather, Eminem, Ludacris, and Latrell Sprewell.

I haven't read the book, so I don't know his arguments for each person, but here's the amazon.com blurb:
     

"Bernard Goldberg takes dead aim at the America Bashers (the cultural elites who look down their snobby noses at "ordinary" Americans) ... the Hollywood Blowhards (incredibly ditzy celebrities who think they're smart just because they're famous) ... the TV Schlockmeisters (including the one whose show has been compared to a churning mass of maggots devouring rotten meat) ... the Intellectual Thugs (bigwigs at some of our best colleges, whose views run the gamut from left wing to far left wing) ... and many more."

From watching the interview, it seems that his main point is that people in Hollywood (and the entertainment industry in general) have a far greater influence than politicians in Washington.

I caught the author on the Daily Show, and I agree with Jon Stewart, that we be more concerned with the politicians, who have the power to directly change our lives (through foreign policy, taxes, social security, the environment, etc.).  Stewart made a good point that there was no correlation between the people the author named and the basic standard-of-living measurements (drug rates, crime rates, etc.), and noted that they have actually been decreasing.

What's with all the entertainers on the list?  If you have a couple of platinum-selling CDs (Eminem won an Oscar!), or a hit TV show, you're "screwing up" America??  Latrell Sprewell may deserve to be on the list, though, due to his choking incident back in the day to more recently complaining about not making enough to "feed his family."  Then again, I don't buy the argument that entertainers should display impeccable behavior all the time, since some entertainers are just good at what they're paid to do.  Sprewell is a perfect example of this.  He's pretty good at basketball, but he isn't a model citizen.  Does that mean he's screwing up America? I don't think so, as long as people realize (as most do) that he gets paid to play basketball, not to be a role model.

Dentists Suck

It's true.  They do.

Nurse 1: Is this the cavitron?
Nurse 2: I've never used one before.
Me: (thinking) This is good.

Nurse 1: And now your chair will go up. <pushes a button and the chair goes down>
Me: (thinking) Um.. is it that hard to get a nurse who knows how to operate the cavitron and the chair?

Nurse 1: And now we'll be using this tooth polisher.
<pushes a button and the instrument next to the polisher starts vibrating>
Nurse 1: What's going on?
Me: (thinking) Yeah, good question.  Does anyone in the room know what's going on?

Ugh.. well luckily, I'm still alive and still have all my teeth (I think).

But I am really puffy all around my mouth area (they decided it would be a good idea to apply an anesthetic).  They said it would wear off after 2-3 hours and not to have any solid foods, cause then I might bite my cheeks and it would hurt like a bitch (my words, not theirs) after it wore off.  I guess this is what Botox feels like, except all the time.

Oh, and they charged me $80, even though last time it was free, and they did the exact same thing as last time!  Whatever, I don't get it.  The sad part is, it isn't over.  They want me to get my wisdom teeth removed too... which probably means more anesthetic, more puffiness. 

I know they had places in Austin that would put you under "experimental" drugs and actually pay you to extract your wisdom teeth.  Does anyone know if there's anything like that here?  I was telling the receptionist at the dentist's office about it, and he seemed highly skeptical of the whole idea.

Dentists suck.

Guilty Pleasures

Check it.

1) R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" (a 5-part "urban operatta") - I caught this on VH1 (yeah, the last place you would expect to see R. Kelly) a few days ago.  Each part ends with a cliffhanger at the end of the video, so it's hard not to watch the entire thing.  Luckily, VH1 didn't let me down, and showed all 5 videos back-to-back!  It's quite a story, with every character involved in some sort of affair and hiding some sort of secret.  I think I've heard some of it on the radio, but you really need a visual to tell the story in a convincing fashion.

2) "The Inside" on FOX Wednesdays  - I was just flipping through when this show piqued my interest.  I ended up watching both episodes (I don't know if that's a regular thing, or just a July-6-let's-have-two-episodes thing).  The premise of the show centers on an FBI field office with agents who get deeply involved with the crimes that they solve.  For example, in the first episode, the hot blonde agent appears to have an emotional breakdown when she calls the suicide prevention hotline (the case involves people who had called it just before they were murdered).  At first, the other agents figure that she's just a really good actress, but then later realize that she had been kidnapped when she was 10 and used the call as her own personal outlet.  I couldn't really figure out why the agent in the second epsiode was so riled up about the criminal (besides the fact he ripped out his victim's hearts after he killed them), but I'm sure the agent had some kind of personal connection with one of the victims.  Anyways, I don't watch any of the other law/criminal shows, so this show might be just like the rest of them.  Except, of course, for the hot blonde FBI agent.

Carnival Games

I went to downtown Garland yesterday for 4th of July festivities.  They had the requisite fireworks, along with a concert by "country hitmaker" Tracy Lawerence (their description), and a carnival.   The fireworks were yawn-inducing, and I'm not a big fan of country music, although watching people in cowboy hats get their two-step on was quite entertaining.  Oh, and there was this one girl, about 16 or 17 years old, who kept putting this light-up object in her mouth.  I didn't find out until much later that it was a pacifier.  Why they even had those is still a mystery, and why she was sucking on one a bigger mystery still.

I didn't expect anything at all from the carnival (since it was in Garland), but it was actually quite massive, complete with rides and games that were impossible to win.  I really wonder how they come up with these games.  They have to appear to be easy, so people will be inclined to play, but also have some kind of twist that makes it nearly impossible to win.  Carnival games are a lot like gambling in a casino, except in a casino, you know your chances of winning.  At a carnival game, it isn't the numbers that beat you, it's your own lack of skill that does you in.

Oh, and the highlight of the carnival: a couple of cops chasing down (literally, on foot) some black guys.  Quite the scene, especially since the walkway was packed full of people, and there was hardly enough room to walk, let alone run through it.

Free Things in Dallas

As they say, the best things in life are free.  And Dallas follows this advice quite nicely.

1) Auditorium 10 at the movie theater on Jupiter and 635: This is the strangest theater I've ever been to.  I think there were a total of 50 seats.  When I have my own personal home theater, it will look exactly like this (minus the annoying small children).  It's partitioned off from Auditoriums 1-9 so much that they don't have an usher collecting tickets.

2) DART: It's true.  The metro rail center for the DFW metroplex can be a free ride.  Rumor has it that DART officials ride the trains every once in awhile to check that you have bought a ticket, but only in certain areas and at certain times.  So, if you time it correctly, you can go anywhere in the city for free.

Note: I don't in any way endorse the above.  Stealing is a crime and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

More Reviews

I went to a couple of live shows this week. Here are my thoughts.

Riverdance (Tuesday) - First of all, the venue was in Grand Prairie, so it took about 1.5 hours to get there.  Ugh, I hate Dallas traffic.
Too many cars + clueless drivers driving too fast = accidents. 
Anyway, my mom and I left the apartment at 6 and the show didn't start until 8, so we still had plenty of time.  The theater was really nice: incredibly quiet despite the thousands of people, and plush comfy chairs in the lobby.   It had been awhile since I had seen Riverdance (2 or 3 years ago on PBS, when Michael Flatley was still the lead dancer), so I had almost forgotten what the big hoopla was all about, and doubted whether this group would be able to pull off a good performance without their main dancer.  But, alas, it was a great show.  It was sorta slow at times, when they had groups singing in Irish, but the fancy footwork routines more than made up for it.  It amazes me how many taps they can complete in a minute, and it's an incredible sensation to see it live; at times, it looked like their legs were made of rubber, the way they were moving so quickly.
Grade: A (The females looked like fairies)

Music Temptation 2005 (Friday) - Yes, that was the official name of the event.  Basically, there were about 5 or 6 of the biggest Indian playback singers (most of the music in India comes from movies, so a playback singer is the person who actually performed the song versus the actor/actress lip-synching in the movie), complete with musicians and "Bollywood Dancers."   The event was at the Dallas Convention Center complex, which is in the rundown part of downtown Dallas.  Traffic wasn't as bad as when going to Riverdance, and parking was much cheaper, so no complaints there.  This event was much less professional than Riverdance though.  They didn't start seating people until about 15 minutes before the show started, which meant it was an hour into the program before everyone was seated.  So yeah, there was tons of movement and noise in the audience for at least an hour and a half.  After people settled down, the show was much easier to enjoy.  Admittedly, I'm not hip to all the latest Hindi songs (or to any of the older ones that were performed), but it was definitely fun to hear the ones I did recognize.  The last performer, Kunal G., actually came out into the stands and shook hands and signed autographs while singing.  The whole performance lasted over 4 hours, but it was definitely entertaining.  Quite different from Riverdance in terms of venue, audience, and just overall quality of show, but still entertaining.
Grade: B (Yeah, as fun as it was, I don't think I'll be going to one of these again.. unless of course Aishwariya and Preity Zinta come together or something)

Movie Reviews

I've seen three movies in the past couple of weeks (two Hindi and a small independent American one).  Here are my thoughts.

'Bunty aur Babli' (Bunty and Babli) - An Indian version of Bonnie and Clyde.  Two idealists leave their families, realizing that they don't understand their dreams.  The guy, Bunty, believes his ideas are really great and that he could be an excellent businessman if someone gave him an opportunity.  The girl, Babli, wants to be a model and tries to sneak into Miss India pageants all over India.  The two of them meet at a train station, and after lying to each other about how great they are ("Yeah, I'm a really successful businessman", "Yup, I'm about to become Miss India"), they both finally tell the truth about how they both failed, but still don't want to go back to their families.  So, they decide that they'll try to succeed in another city.  But first, they'll need some money.  This is where the movie really begins, because to get the money, they concoct various schemes and plots to con people.  It's great fun.  I won't reveal too much more, because I know you'll be rushing out to see it once you finish this post, but I will say that the "world's most beautiful woman" makes a great cameo!
Grade: A

'Parineeta' (One who is married) -  This movie is based on a classic 1960's Indian novel based in Calcutta.  It's the story of two childhood friends who live next door to each other.  The guy is really rich, and the girl is really poor (yeah, I don't get how live next to each other either).  The movie starts with the wedding of the guy to a rich girl (who can't cook, and at a bizarre moment confides in someone else that she will kill him), and the rest shows how the relationship between the two has grown over the years.  It's a pretty interesting movie, and gives an insight to life in 1960's India.  No Aishwariya though (although the rich girl looks like she could be Ash's sis), so that knocks the grade down a letter.
Grade: B

'Batman Begins' -  Yes,  this is the small independent American movie that started last week.  Since it may slip under your radar, here's a brief synopsis: A boy is afraid of bats, primarily because he gets attacked by thousands of bats when he falls into the cave behind his huge mansion.   His fear forces his parents to leave the opera when grown men dressed as bats appear on stage.  When they're outside, he sees his parents get mugged and murdered, so he decides that crime is bad, and he needs to fight it at every turn possible.  He also realizes that he can't really fight crime as a man, so he decides to take the persona of a "Bat man," hence the title.  Pretty different from the previous Batman movies, but I saw a lot of similarities with the Spiderman movies.  Oh, and Katie Holmes is in it.  I'm waiting for the sequel.
Grade: A

I saw the first two movies with my mom, and the last one with 7 other people.  I'm surprised that many people came, considering an event I previously organized (my birthday dinner) was at a location that was shut down!  Yeah, so I told everyone the movie was at 7:30 pm, but bought tickets for everyone for the 7 pm showing.  Ah well, luckliy the theater wasn't crowded and they let us into the 7:30.

After the movie, some of us went to Cafe Brazil and we had a waitress, Jaime, who looked like the long lost sister of Jessica and Ashlee (who are also from Richardson!) .  She was kinda crazy, but then again, it was Cafe Brazil, and that's probably one of the questions on the application.

Close Call(s)

Wow. I saw two accidents happen in front of me this past weekend. I'm talking a difference of a couple of minutes, and I could easily have been involved in either of one of them.

The first one was on Friday, at the intersection right in front of my apartment. We were about 1000 ft away, and I couldn't tell exactly what transpired, but it looked like one person was trying to turn left and maybe another was going straight. As soon as the two vehicles collided, the driver who was turning left was completely motionless. My mom and I went grocery shopping, and when we came out, there were at least two fire trucks and a couple of police cars right at the scene, and traffic was backed up in all four directions of the intersection. We had to wait in a line to get out of the parking lot. I had no idea my apartment was at such a dangerous intersection.

The second accident happened today, on 635 East (an incredibly busy highway in Dallas), when we were coming back from the temple. My mom heard a screeching noise, so I looked in my rearview mirror, and saw a car moving perpendicular to traffic (i.e. from one concrete barrier to the other). Needless to say, there was lots of contact, and traffic was probably backed up for at least a couple of miles. My mom also pointed out that there would probably be more accidents further down, since traffic was moving so fast. If we had left the temple a couple of minutes later, or had a red light instead of a green one somewhere earlier, we very easily could have been involved. (I could get all religious, and say that since we went to temple, that's the reason we were ok, but I won't).

I've always said I hate Dallas drivers, and maybe a lot of that was because I was used to the Austin way of driving -- slower, and less aggressive. I've seen firsthand this weekend that they really can't drive, and that if you don't watch your back, this is probably one of the most dangerous places to drive in the United States.

DP

There's been a lot of controversy recently over whether it was appropriate for race-car driver Danica Patrick to pose for FHM magazine. 

Some say that she has enough talent (she placed 4th at the Indy 500) and shouldn't have posed, while others say that if she can get money for it, there's no harm in it.

As a heterosexual, American male, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I belong to the latter group.  I think that by posing in the magazine, she has broadened her fan base by reaching out to an audience who otherwise might never have watched race-car driving.  For those who say it cheapens the sport by essentially reducing her to a sexual object instead of the skillful driver that she is, are also grossly misinformed.

Her decision to pose is a great marketing move, and has the same effect as being in a commercial for the race.  It attracts viewers, and potentially brings in a new audience.

As Dan Wheldon (the winner of the Indy 500) put it, "If there were 32 guys and one hot girl, I would put the hot girl on the cover [of Sports Illustrated] too.  You'd be crazy not to."

Danica Patrick is almost the new hotness.  She still has tough competition with Britney and Carrie though.

Boring!

Apparantly there's this new show starting called "The Scholar" or something where a bunch of high school students try to compete for a "full-ride scholarship" to college.

Is it just me or does that sound like the most boring show ever? Who wants to watch a bunch of people studying? Couldn't I just go to the library if I wanted to see that? I'm a fan of most reality television, but this show just has disaster written all over it.