Information Age!

I live in Texas, and there's about half an inch of snow/sleet/ice on the ground, so naturally the entire city (and a good part of the state) shuts down.

This includes my company, which follows whatever the University of Texas at Dallas does.

How does this information get conveyed to me personally? Well, I've gotten into the bad habit of checking my personal email before getting ready to go to work. And one of my emails alerted me that a co-worker had updated his MySpace blog, which noted that UTD was closed today. So I check the UTD website just to double-check, and sure enough, it's closed.

About 5 minutes later, I get a text message from another co-worker saying that the voicemail message at work says it's closed.

About 10 minutes after that, I get a Google Talk message from the secretary saying the same thing. And about 5 minutes after the brief chat, I get an "official" email from her.

I just talked to my mom and told her how work was closed today. She asked if I had called in to make sure. I didn't even have time to do that, because everyone told me it was closed within 15 minutes of me waking up.

Word definitely travels fast in this information age.

Books

For Christmas, my sister's boyfriend got me Next by Michael Crichton. Seeing as how the weather was pretty shitty all weekend, I stayed in and finished the book.

It delves into various issues regarding genetic engineering and the moral/legal issues that come with it. I'm normally not a big fan of sci-fi, but the parallel stories were interesting and fast-paced enough that it kept me reading. It'll be fascinating to see how many of his predictions materialize in the coming years. It was pretty hard to tell at some points whether what he described were his own creative musings or had some basis in science and could actually happen in the near future.

I think this is the first novel I've finished since the last Harry Potter came out. I tried reading Atlas Shrugged, but that book is massive, and the plot failed to hold my attention for very long. I'll probably try again some day, since it's supposed to be this great novel...

But for now, my reading list is: The Book of Lost Things and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

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Oh, and a shout out goes to Nusrat for linking to me!

Tip Calculator

I tend to tip more for waitresses than for waiters, and more for attractive waitresses versus unattractive waitresses.

If I had a waiter who had really great service versus a waitress that was attractive but her service was a tad subpar, I'd probably tip the waitress more. Same goes for an unattractive waitress who has great service versus an attractive waitress. The latter would get a higher tip from me (regardless of her service).

I went to dinner with some friends and I ended up giving about a 30% tip. Her service wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but she was friendly and pretty attractive. That's all it takes.

Does that make me a sexist pig? Perhaps, but the restaurant really shouldn't be hiring waiters or ugly waitresses.

2007, what?

The last week or so has been a total blur. I recapped the Christmas festivities already, but after I got back on Wednesday, I went to a pre-wedding event in the evening. Then on Friday, it was off to Houston for the actual ceremony on Saturday.

I won't go into all the wedding details, but let's just say that it involved a helicopter, four horses, an elephant, and the bride getting arrested at the airport. Oh, and an ice sculpture with photos of the bride and groom frozen inside. It was awesome. The families spared no expense for their guests (including booking an entire hotel for the groom's side and a chartered bus from Dallas to Houston and back). As one person put it at the reception, "you treated your guests like royalty."

After getting back into town, I napped until my co-worker's NYE bash. The party was fucking awesome as well. Great party snacks, jello shots, beer, hard liquor, decorations everywhere. Hard to top the extravagant wedding, but it was definitely a fun party. A bunch of people arrived about ten minutes before the new year. Champagne shots all around at midnight. Good times.

Here's to 2007!

shameless plug

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


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

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

Read more here.

Christmas in NYC!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Really?

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


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

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

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

Another waste of money...

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

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

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

Rurple

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

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

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

Greatest hour of TV this year?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One more (added to the last post)

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

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

11-hour Happy Hour (Dec 2006 edition)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Definitely the most fun I've had in awhile.

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

Um, yeah

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

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

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

Best Song Ever?

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

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

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

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

Creepy

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

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

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

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

Karaoke and Moving (on the same day!)

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

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

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

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

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

Unmemorable

I'm always surprised when strangers remember me. I try to keep a low profile when I first meet people.
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"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.
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"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.
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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.