The Year in Review

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

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

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

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

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

oops

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

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

Death

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

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

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

Musing

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

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

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

VM recap - Season 3, Episode 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 nights and 2 effigies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yup, that pretty much says it all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Death Tool

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

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

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

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

Paris' New Video!

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

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

Richest Americans

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

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

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

The full list.

VM

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

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

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

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

Online Quizzes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No drama!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free food! You in?

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

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

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

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

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

Self-promotion

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

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

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

Who do you look like?

A friend showed me this really cool site.

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

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

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

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

Pick-me-up #2

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

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

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

Movies

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

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

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

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

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