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.

 

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.