Um, yeah

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

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

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

Best Song Ever?

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

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

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

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

Creepy

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

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

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

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

Karaoke and Moving (on the same day!)

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

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

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

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

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

Unmemorable

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

The World's Greatest Dessert

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

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

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

Good times.

woohoo for alcohol!

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

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

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

So long, R & R

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

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

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

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

The Year in Review

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

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

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

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

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

oops

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

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

Death

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

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

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

Musing

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

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

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

VM recap - Season 3, Episode 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 nights and 2 effigies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yup, that pretty much says it all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Death Tool

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

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

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

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

Paris' New Video!

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

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

Richest Americans

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

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

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

The full list.

VM

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