Why I didnt get chance to blog?

I had guests from India and California! I took my uncle, aunt, brother-in-law and cousin sister to a bunch of places:

No. Cities - Highlights

1. NY City - Empire State Bldg., Staten Island Ferry, Central Park, Bull,
2. West Hartford - submarine museum, casino (lost $18 on Spanish 21)
3. Providence, RI - historic downtown
4. Boston - Quincy Market
5. Niagara Falls - Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, Casino (won $50 on 3-card poker!)
6. Hersheys Park
7. DC - Museums-galore

I will have select pics up soon!

Serenity

Visiting Oregon (when its not raining) is like going to heaven on earth. The air is SO pure; the landscapes are so amazing; the rivers so beautiful that you just want to move there!



And then there is rain. :-#



Visiting Portland:



Rose Garden



Multnohma Falls



Mountains, mountains and rivers...

Waterfront Festival!!!

When: June 20-21, 2009

Where: Alexandria, VA

Why: Enjoy Beer, Wine, Amusement Rides, Arts n Crafts, Music Bands, Food and lots more...
...all that while benefiting Red Cross!!

How to get there: Metro. The park is located on the Old Town Alexandria waterfront at the north end of Union Street. Street parking is extremely limited. There will be limited parking available at the George Washington Masonic Temple located near the King Street Metro Station.

More Info: http://www.waterfrontfestival.org/

Volunteers needed as well! So sign up!!

Oomph!

Take a look at the video on YouTube showing the route of the marathon which is going to be held in LA in a few days.
I will confess that I started sweating at around 2 minutes 45 seconds into the video.
It requires great dedication and discipline to just watch the entire video of 6 minutes! The participants are going to run for hours to cover 26.2 miles!!!

Suckers

I believe it was Adv. of Huck. Finn where where the cast of characters went from village to village and staged shows. They did the show exactly 3 times in any village and usually had to run to save their lives because the audience grew the first two times and the third time it was the first two groups. The concept was that they did such a terrible show but charged like $5 dollars for it so the first night's audience was so shocked and ashamed that they sent others to watch it the second night so that they felt better that others wasted money as well and then they all got together the third night to get their money back.

I thought this was hilarious and genius! I think it is human nature at times to react in that way to make others go through the same bad experience that they have been through to basically make themselves feel better..

I wonder if we silently keep doing that by going to shows like Opera to listen to the "fat lady sing" in an incomprehensible, high pitch tone and lanugage. We pay so much to go to these shows that we recommend it to others and so on and so forth!

I just think it is hilarious... dont get me wrong I might someday go to watch that "fat lady sing" as well and will recommend it to you too! :~)

Green-ish

Going green with a style! Google "google goats". :)

Fan

I am officially a huge fan of Alton John of Food Network and his show Good Eats.
For those who dont know him; he breaks down recipes to science - temperature, ingredients, vessels, utensils - you name it. It's a tv show for the food-nerds! For example, last night he proved why a regular Martini is better stirred than shaken!! How about that Mr. Bond?

Can someone explain...

...America's obsession with using Mother's maiden name as a security question?
Its on governemt forms, credit card applications, online password retrieval...

I am not a big fan to say the least and I never got the concept and I always forget which "word" I gave when I filled out 'that' application... sigh.

bad novelties

You get to select from a huge variety of noodles, veggies, meats, sauces, condiments and even the spices to put in your dish. You hold that bowl full of your own selected ingredients of the dish and wait in line with others. When its your turn, you give your bowl to the "chef's" and they will cook your ingredients on a giant 'communal' grill.
And you cant even complain if it doesnt taste right cuz you put that buffalo chilli sauce with cumin and rosemary! To top off everything, you pay $15-$20 bucks for the dish that you just made..... I guess we pay for novelty. This novelty is named Mongolian Barbeque.
The other one where I had similar sentiments was Au Bon Pain. Atleast it had 'pain' in the name...

Parody?!

This article made some memorable conversations with my friends and coworkers. The best one comes from Christine Charboneau, one of my coworkers:

chrischarboneau: in the U.S., "people have to even clean their own toilets," !!!! haha

me: yep :)

chrischarboneau: Ms. Seth says she likes nice clothes and would like to have a flat-screen TV. "Is he really prepared to provide the kind of lifestyle that I have right now?"

hahaha

1:33 PM me: see people are spoilt even in 3rd world countries

lol

chrischarboneau: hilarious

1:34 PM this is my perseonal fave: "some overseas Indians want a bride who is smart, fluent in English, and "simultaneously, docile in the house."

me: hahahhahahahha

chrischarboneau: docile in the house. omg.

1:35 PM me: yes the secret is out

lol

chrischarboneau: you guys are unbelieveable

me: hahahaha

chrischarboneau: is your wife docile -- or is she in charge?>

me: no comment

chrischarboneau: she must be in charge

hahaha

1:36 PM too americanized!

I'm glad my wife doesn't blog!

April Fools at work

Too funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlPfOBKuahY

Luxury Sedan in tha house!

I could never imagine that I could afford such Luxury at such a small price!

263-hp, 3.8-liter V-6
5-speed automatic w/OD and auto-manual
Heated Leather Seats
Infinity 6+2 Premium Sound System
etc. etc. etc.

Take a guess at my mystery car!

Food Discovery!

I was out browsing home-stuff with my wife and mom at Marshalls and I found a whole aisle full of gourmet kitchen supplies! They carried vintage Balsamic vinegars, exotic pickled peppers and spices from all over the world. Who knew!!
Word of caution for those who have not been in Marshalls, it is far from organized. You will need to have the excavation skills of a Archaelogist to find what you are looking for! Although, you will stumble across other things that might amuse you, like a aisle full of kitchen supplies!

Gaathiya n Jalebi!

Indian snacks are so unhealthy but they are so good!


My father-in-law is an awesome, Indian version of a, "Pastry Chef". He made us hot Gaathiyas and Jalebis for breakfast. The smell of fresh indian snack food brought home so many memories of my childhood.
I found a pic on flickr to share. The yellow pita-looking are Gaathiya, which are salty and the spirals are Jalebi, which are sweet. They are usually served with hot chillis or onions! Yummmm.......

Guests

In-Laws in town! We don't get many guests so I get very excited to have someone over. Although, I cant decide whether I prefer being a guest or having guests over! I think I like having guests over more but I also get offended when my guests do not invite me...

I do need to say that I have the best in-laws one could possibly want! I would keep them in Maryland and they would even stay if the winters were as warm as Atlanta's... :(

I have been called out that I only write one post every year! That is true and it is sad and furthermore it is against the rules of blogging, therefore, I am going to start writing more!


----

If you have not seen the A$$ whopping Jim Cramer received from Jon Stewart then you need to watch it here.
I am not sure it was fair to Jim Cramer but it sure was entertaining!! The commentary defending Jim Cramer is interesting from the readers of the Freakanomics blog. Initially I was all against Jim Cramer and was rooting every minute of the video but I am not sure anymore.

Here is why: I started investing recently! I can not describe the rush of watching the numbers rise and appear in green! It easily becomes addictive and mixed with greed, it can easily transform you and impair your judgement. And addiction is a disease of the mind that destroys others rather than the host.

Investing in stocks is like gambling. It can be a lot of fun (and profitable) if you set limits. And right now is the best time to invest!

Circular Myths?!

Global markets are collapsing and innumerous corruption crimes are being discovered. This has become commonplace in today's society and is not news anymore.

Although, I am not that convinced by Ancient Hindu texts but a lot of discoveries were documented in these texts tens of thousands of years ago by "Rishis" (equivalent of a scientist in those times).

Ancient texts in Hindu literature describe today's era as "Kali_Yug" where truth does not truimph anymore and crime becomes commonplace. The definition or the "translation" is a bit hard to follow because there are weird terms defined and it feels as though someone is preaching = teaching without proof. For example, how does the author know that there are cycles of time (Yugs) where human society changes? He couldn't have possibly lived through a cycle to document it...

I believe that this was an observation of a human society by (an) intellectual(s). Although these crimes are not new; these men who committed those crimes did not have the correct answer to the moral question - is this a right or wrong thing that I am doing? As a society we discover newer crimes and we define new laws and morals to punish these crimes as an aftermath that follows the crime.

With new inventions such as internet, stock market schemes, lending schemes etc. we create new wrongs. And slowly but surely we as society define new morals to correct these wrongs. Therefore, as a sum of all this; it can be observed that once we define a new law/morals we are in the "good era" until someone creates new wrong then we are in "Kali-Yug".